Stories from the North: An Interview with Jackson Crawford
Compiled by a-north-wind-rises
Now a faculty member of the University of California, Berkeley in the Department of Scandinavian, Dr. Crawford’s expertise lies in Scandinavian languages and their history. His background includes: three years spent at UCLA teaching undergraduate- and graduate level-courses in Scandinavian Studies; writing the spoken Old Norse and the runes present in Disney’s Frozen; and multiple publications of original research in both Norwegian and English, one of which is a new translation of The Poetic Edda. He also earned his PhD. in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin -Madison, and his M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Georgia.
I had a chance to speak with Dr. Crawford about Norse myth, the figures which populate it, and his own work with it.
Why did you decide to create a new translation of the Poetic Edda?
I translated the Poetic Edda while I taught at UCLA (2011-14) for my students, who, more often than not, were STEM majors not very interested in poetry and were taking a class like Norse Myth or Vikings to satisfy a degree requirement in social science or literature. These students were interested in the Poetic Edda’s stories of the Norse gods and heroes, but they often had a difficult time enjoying existing translations, which all use archaic and/or very florid English to a greater or lesser extent (Friends and family had often made this same complaint to me when I recommended they read the Poetic Edda for themselves). It was very time -consuming to have to explain what the translations meant, so I decided to make a translation of my own, aimed at undergraduates and general readers outside the university who want to know what these stories say without being distracted by unusual English words and phrases. And rather than stick to the poetic style of the original, which would have forced me to use some unnatural English, I translated it into a type of unrhyming but rhythmic verse inspired by my favorite American poets.
When reading stories from the Poetic Edda or other sources of Norse mythology, what should readers clue into to learn more about Norse culture? (An example is the class system discovered in the Rigsthula.)
Some of the cultural traits I encourage my students to keep their eyes out for include the almost obsessive fixation on hospitality and good guest/host relations (including the importance of gifts), the celebration of reckless courage against overwhelming odds, and the ethical system focused around the honor and shame of a family rather than the virtues and sins of an individual.
What purpose did the “info-dump” myths serve? (Grimnismal, etc.)
Originally these poems might have been mnemonic devices for composers of skaldic poetry, designed to help the reciter remember names from the mythology that could be “mined” to create kennings for their elaborate skaldic poems.
As far as eccentric creatures in Norse myth go, Slepinir’s birth and existence seems to be fairly unique. Is there some lesser known information that can shed some light Slepinir’s function in Norse mythology?
Sleipnir is gray, which is a color often associated with magic in Norse literature (and with Odin specifically), and he is the father of the human hero Sigurth’s horse, Grani. Horses were a status symbol in medieval Scandinavia, expensive to own (as they are today) and there is a great deal of evidence of the sacrifice of horses at important festivals and funerals. So it is not surprising that this aristocratic animal is associated with Odin (while the more middle-class Thor rides a chariot pulled by goats). It is possible that the tradition of Sleipnir having eight legs is related to an art motif , seen in medieval Scandinavia, that shows horses with more than the normal number of legs as an indication of their speed. On the other hand, Sleipnir is the son of a giant’s horse, and giants, trolls, and other unnatural creatures are often depicted as having unusual numbers of body parts.
What are the cultural origins of the Vanir? They seem to be of a different pantheon completely, in some regards. Could the Aesir/Vanir relationship be explained by the Indo-European and pre-Indo-European relationship in Bronze Age Scandinavia? Do the Aesir/Vanir differ in looks /ability in any significant fashion?
There are a lot of words for the gods in Old Norse (Æsir, Vanir, regin, goð, tívar, just to name the first that come to mind), and in Old Norse poems, the choice of which one to use is often conditioned by what the poet needs to the word to alliterat e with. That being said, most of the times when the term ‘Vanir’ is used in the Poetic Edda, it is in alliteration with other words, and in that case it may simply be a synonym for “gods” on the whole, chosen as a convenient alliteration. This may have caused us (and Snorri before us) to overestimat e how big of a difference there is between the Aesir and the Vanir–in fact Rudolf Simek has argued that the Vanir weren’t even considered a separate group of gods till Snorri misinterpreted them as such. If the distinction is valid (and in my translation I have followed the tradition of observing it), the Vanir do seem to be treated as slightly subordinate to the Aesir since both Njorth and Frey marry “down” to giants (to Skathi and Gerth, respectively) and not to goddesses of Asgard. The suggestion that the Vanir represent a continuation of the gods of a conquered or assimilated non-Indo -European people is interesting, but impossible to substantiate (and the names of the Vanir, at least, can be explained with Indo-European etymologi es), and while the roles of Njorth, Frey, and Freyja are associated with the natural world and/or sexuality, this isn’t less true of the Aesir–Thor has aspects of a nature god, and Odin is highly sexually active and rides a stallion, emblematic of virility.
Since the Norse gods are sometimes portrayed in a humorous fashion (i.e. Thor dresses as a woman to trick a Jotunn that has hidden Mjolnir), were the gods seen in a human way?
I think that in a monotheistic (or post -monotheistic) culture we often forget that polytheism leaves a lot of room for acknowledging the gods’ faults without jeopardizing their superior status to human beings. A monotheistic god has, in a sense, a lot of pressure to be perfect, since he has no one he interacts with at the same level, whereas gods in polytheistic pantheons are members of families and societies and can thus express many different shades (good and bad) of their human equivalents. It also allows people to play favorites with their gods and even practice henotheism (preferential worship of one god, while acknowledging the existence of others). Thor, by far the most popular of Norse gods, was fairly approachable and good-natured toward human beings, and it’s not surprising that a popular, macho god could be played for laughs when he’s forced to dress like a bride–I think it’s the same kind of humor as seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger pregnant in Junior (i.e. the very fact that it is so funny to see him in that role plays up his machismo; it would be less funny if it were a less macho actor, or a less macho god like Odin). Beyond just laughing at the gods occasionally, it’s also clear that Odin, for example, was looked at with some distrust (see his portrayal in Eddic poems like Lokasenna, Harbarthsljoth, or Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II ).
What could explain the fact that continental Germanic tribes had the god of war Tiwaz/Tyr as the chief god while the Scandinavian tribes had the god of magic Odin/Wotan instead?
It’s almost impossible to say anything for certain about West Germanic tribes’ pre-Christian religions, beyond the names of some gods. The idea that Tyr was pre-eminent once among some or all Germanic peoples is based on deduction from scant evidence such as the etymology of his name (which is cognate with e.g. Zeus ). But unfortunately we know next to nothing directly about West Germanic religion. And, for that matter, the closest thing we have to direct testimony, the Second Merseburg Charm, mentions Odin (Uuodan) but not Tyr .
Is there anything linking the Greek/Roman pantheon(s) and the Norse one(s)?
Ultimately both the Greeks and the Norse spoke Indo -European languages, which stemmed from a common linguistic ancestor spoken about 4,000 BC. There are some names that are cognate, i.e. from the same ancestral name (the best and most famous example is that the names Zeus and Tyr are both from the reconstructed name *Dyaus), and there are some similarities in the structures of the stories told about the two cultures’ gods and heroes, but overall the two traditions evolved independently for so long that they can’t be considered more than very distant cousins. On the other hand, pre-Christian Russian myth appears to have had many commonalities with Norse, including a figure very similar to Thor named Perun (whose name is even cognate with Fjorgynn, which may be an ancient name of Thor).
Are there any other legends of the forging of famous weapons, other than Mjolnir?
The Prose Edda tells us that the dwarves made Odin’s spear, Gungnir. The Eddic poem Reginsmal and the Saga of the Volsungs tell of the forging of the sword Gram for the hero Sigurth out of the fragments of his father Sigmund’s sword (which had been given to him, and later shattered, by Odin). The mythical-heroic sagas also have numerous famous swords, e.g. the sword Mimung made by the famous smith Volund (who is featured in the Eddic poem Volundarkvitha).
What, in your opinion, is the most trustworthy source for Norse mythology?
In any cohesive form, the Poetic Edda. Even though the manuscript dates from around AD 1270 (270 years after the conversion of Iceland to Christian ity), it is clearly a copy of an earlier manuscript (from ca. AD 1200), and several of the poems have linguistic features that suggest they were composed orally around 200 or even 300 years earlier than that. On a less cohesive level, skaldic poems–which are very difficult poems composed in the Viking Age or a little later, usually in praise of a king or hero–are even more reliable sources of genuine pre-Christian belief when they happen to mention myths, since skaldic poems can be dated very precisely and anything that can be dated to a pre-Christian date of composition with complete confidence is highly valuable.
Does Loki have an identifying feature like Odin’s spear or Thor’s Mjolnir?
The first thing that comes to mind are the scars on his lips from when they were sewn together and subsequently ripped open, as told in the Prose Edda .
Do you think it’s supposed to be ironic to have Tyr, who was associated with the law, lose his right hand because of his unrightfulness /dishonesty?
I don’t think it’s understood to be ironic–when the other gods have tricked Fenrir into letting them put the unbreakable fetter on him, Tyr is the only god who’s honest enough to agree to Fenrir’s request that one of them put his hand in Fenrir’s mouth as a pledge that this isn’t being done in bad faith. Tyr is involved in the duplicity, but he seems to hate getting away with the deception, and he accepts the price of the lie that the other gods get away with.
If we assume Folkvangr is the alternative to Valhalla, then why do only half of the fallen warriors on a battlefield get to go to Valhalla?
This is a huge mystery. The hint that half the dead warriors go to Freyja in Folkvang is from the Eddic poem Grimnismal (st. 14), but what she does with them there is unknown. Since Grimnismal is the only source for that claim (Snorri quotes it but doesn’t add anything to it), it is possible that this was not as widespread a myth as that of Valhalla, as elsewhere it seems like a given that dead warriors go to Valhalla, without the option of Folkvang mentioned.
In working on your own translation of the Poetic Edda, have there been any elements of the stories that have surprised you? Any words or ideas in particular that were difficult to translate into English?
The hardest individual word to translate was “argr,” usually an insult for a man with strong overtones of cowardice and homosexuality. I didn’t want to use a word that was too inflammatory in English, or one that seemed either too old-fashioned or too effervescently contemporary. I wound up going with “sissy,” but it’s not a perfect fit. As to things that surprised me, I was surprised how much I enjoyed the three Helgi poems. They had always been some of the hardest poems to understand (whether in the original or in translation), but in translating them myself I came to understand them better, and I hope my translation will help other people enjoy them with better understanding, too.
What was the method behind Star Wars as a Viking saga, and do you think it could work with other historical styles and contemporary works of fiction?
I wrote up Star Wars as an Icelandic saga in the period 2010-2012, when I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin and then a faculty member at UCLA. The original idea had been that I’d come to read Old Norse better by writing something in it myself, but the story adapted so naturally to the genre of Icelandic sagas that I felt compelled (off and on) to finish it. A fair amount of it is lifted (lovingly) from actual sagas, especially Egil’s Saga but also Volsunga Saga, Njal’s Saga, Laxd…alright from most of them. Later on it took on a serious and personal edge of its own as I shaped it into a story of a family torn apart by its own promises, a theme not alien to the genre. I have also thought about other genre-bending experiments (in a sense, my Cowboy Havamal is one). I’ve especially thought about converting a saga to a western, and I’ve even started working on one seriously once or twice. As someone pretty familiar with both genres, it’s a pet project I’m likely to get back to one of these days, once I can settle a few sticky plot and style issues, and if I’m persuaded that there might be an audience for it.
Credit: Jackson Crawford (Reprinted with permission from the author)
Dr. Crawford’s new translation of the Poetic Edda is available on Amazon. He can also be found on Twitter @Norsebysw, and there is a Facebook page for his translation for the Poetic Edda which can be found here.
