#hugor

Who are the Swan Maidens, and why does George include them in A Song of Ice and Fire?

THE LEGEND

In The World of Ice and Fire, George includes a Pentoshi legend about Hukko, a legendary Andal king who slew the swan maidens. Ancient Andalos being just north of Pentos, in lands now controlled by the Pentoshi, it’s natural that the two groups share some legends, and the maesters of Oldtown believe that Hukko was known as Hugor of the Hill to the Andals.

The Pentoshi legend goes like this: “An old legend told in Pentos claims that the Andals slew the swan maidens who lured travelers to their deaths in the Velvet Hills that lie to the east of the Free City. A hero whom the Pentoshi singers call Hukko led the Andals at that time, and it is said that he slew the seven maids not for their crimes but instead as sacrifice to his gods. There are some maesters who have noted that Hukko may well be a rendering of the name of Hugor.”

MYTHOLOGICAL MAIDENS

Swan maidens, in “real-world” mythology, are mythological beings with ancient provenance. All over the world, from Eurasia to Africa to the Americas, stories of shapeshifting animals are a common mythological motif along with creation myths.

“The swan maiden is a mythical creature who shapeshifts from human form to swan form.The key to the transformation is usually a swan skin, or a garment with swan feathers attached. In folktales of this type, the male character spies the maiden, typically by some body of water (usually bathing), then snatches away the feather garment (or some other article of clothing), which prevents her from flying away (or swimming away, or renders her helpless in some other manner), forcing her to become his wife”

While they are referred to as swan maidens, as many of the stories involve shapeshifting swans that turn into beautiful human women, they can be fish, deer, buffalo, goats, seals, wolves, geese, even bats, among many other forms. Some of these forms have specific names, like selkies for seal maidens or mermaids for fish women. The stories are not always about maidens, either - there are male swan “maidens” in folklore as well.

The swan maiden motif incorporates all mythological beings that are half human and half animal, who live between the human world and the water or the sky. Shapeshifter and skin-slippers, who can take on or off their animal suit to become human, or who live in the natural world beyond the human world. They can be antagonistic or helpful, can save men from drowning or lure them to a death on the rocks. They can be monsters, or lovers, or both.

So the swan maiden as a mythological motif is incredibly widespread, and not necessarily a swan, nor a maiden. It incorporates selkies and mermaids and sirens, those half-women and half-bird beings of Greek mythology. In fact, the Pentoshi legend references the stories of the sirens, who “who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and singing voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island” by mentioning that the Swan Maidens “lured travelers to their deaths in the Velvet Hills”.

HUGOR OF THE HILL

Hukko, from the Pentoshi legend, was probably the same person the Andals called Hugor of the Hill. The first king of the Andals, he was a major figure in the faith of the Seven, having been crowned by the Father himself. If the Pentoshi legend is true, he also sacrificed 7 swan maidens to the Seven in the Velvet Hills. The Andals later fled from the area in the face of the threat from the Valyrians, and invaded Westeros. Faced with extermination and filled with religious fervor, they got a foothold in the Fingers and proceeded to take over the Vale of Arryn, and from there much of Westeros south of the Neck.

THE ANDALS, ANGLES, SAXONS AND VANDALS

A little real world history is important here. The Andals, and the Andal Invasion, are based on the Germanic tribes who invaded Britain in the 5th Century AD (the Angles and Saxons) after the Romans left the island. The name is derived from the Vandals, who were an eastern Germanic tribe that were pushed out of their land by the Huns, and then invaded Italy and Spain before leaving from Andalusia and conquering North Africa.

The Germanic tribes of that time shared many things - a common Scandanvian homeland, an ancestral language, religion, stories, and a warrior culture inspired by centuries of in-fighting and fighting with the southern Romans and the peoples of the eastern steppes.

In the 5th century, power vacuums in the west inspired by the collapse of the western Roman Empire and eastern pressures from the powerful Huns (nomadic horse-riding warriors from the Eurasian steppes) coalesced into a migratory pressure on the various Germanic tribes. They moved into western Europe and Britain, creating new kingdoms where Rome had once ruled for 500 years, including France, Spain and England.

GERMANIC INVASION OF ENGLAND

The famous story Beowulf recalls this Germanic shared past: an ancient story of Scandanavian kings and monsters, Beowulf was of the tribe called the Geats, who lived in southern Sweden. He aided the king of the Danes in a fight against the monster Grendel and his more monstrous mother. Late in his life, after Beowulf himself became king of the Geats, he fights and kills a dragon, but dies by the wounds he received in the fight.

This story was carried in the minds of the Germanic invaders of Britain, who came from modern Denmark and Germany. Germanic ancestors of the English told and retold the story until it was written down in Old English in a book of stories hand compiled by English scribes. Escaping fire and purge, the book survived for 1000 years until its importance was finally realized in the 18th century.

BEOWULF AND GRENDEL

The first two monsters in Beowulf, Grendel and his mother, are aquatic monsters who come on land to hunt and eat humans. Beowulf defeats Grendel on land, in the mead-hall of King Hrothgar, by ripping his arm off. Grendel goes back to the marshes to die, and soon after his mother appears at the mead-hall and murders more men. The lair of Grendel’s mother is a mythological geography: described as a deep lake where deep below a waterfall Beowulf dives to find a cave underground; Beowulf slays the water monster with an ancient sword and takes the head of Grendel back to his people. Later he is proclaimed king of the Geats.

THE NICOR

In Beowulf, the Old English word used for water monsters was “nicor”. This was an old Germanic word, generally used for aquatic monsters and water spirits. In the Germanic tradition, the mythological and magical swan maidens and mermaids and other shapeshifting monsters fell under this term “nicor”.

All of the Germanic languages have versions of this word used to describe different types of water monsters. In Norwegian water spirits are called the Nøkk, and this myth was used in the movie Frozen 2 where it was seen as a helpful river horse. In Swedish they are the Näcken.

Näcken lures people down into the lake and takes them, as if drowning; they then come to his magnificent halls on the lake bottom.

The German derivative is Nix or Nixie (the Nix are male and the Nixie are female), a term for water beings who are usually malevolent and like to lure people into deep water, and then drown them. This term has been borrowed into English as well. Another English derivative of this word “nicor” is “knucker” or “nicker”, which is an English water dragon that lives in deep pools or “knuckerholes”.

But in English, these shapeshifting water monsters are best known as the Neck.

Draugr, much like the Kraken, is a legendary Norse creature. As discussed in part one, the name Drogo derives from the Old Norse word draugr. I've surmised that Hugor (of the Hill) is siimilarly derived from hugr, and that the original Hugor, who lead the Andals during the fight against the evil of the Long Night

To frame the discussion about draugrs, Hugor/hugr, barrows, and the boundaries between the living and the dead, we need to better understand Norse draugr myths. In the essays to follow, I'll discuss how they have been interpreted by fantasy writers, including Tolkien.

Definition of draugrs

Draugrs are the Norse undead. The soul (hugr), upon death, refuses to leave the material plane, and instead reoccupies its former body. There are two types of draugrs: land (or barrow) draugrs, and sea draugrs. This section will focus on land draugrs.

The will appears to be strong, strong enough to draw the hugr [animate will] back to one's body. These reanimated individuals were known as draugar (or draugr). However, though the dead might live again, they could also die again. Draugar die a "second death" as Chester Gould calls it, when their bodies decay, are burned, dismembered or otherwise destroyed.

Barrows

Draugrs are inextricably linked with barrows in Norse mythology. Barrows, also known as "howes" or "tumuluses", are artificial low mounds (or hills) where people are buried. They are often assoicated with kings or royal families, and offer both the living and the dead a home. For the living, the descendents of those buried in barrows are able to point at the barrows as proof of their long-term [ownership of the land][dragur2]. For the dead, the barrows are home.

Because of this association, draugrs have often been called barrow-wights. This translation of draugr is from the mid-19th century.

Within these Old Norse myths, Draugrs lived in barrows, guarding their burial treasures. While they are not contained by the barrow (they will leave to raid sheep or humans) the artificial mounds are their homes. Even in more modern times, archeological excavations of Viking barrows caused locals to worry about draugrs attacking their livestock- or their loved ones.

The barrows represent a "liminal space", a place of crossover between the worlds of the living and the dead. Draugrs, living when and where they should not, represent beings between the living and the dead. They are the undead, whose hugr would not leave the body, returning by sheer will to continue to live.

A draugr's presence might be shown by a great light that glowed from the mound like foxfire.[15] This fire would form a barrier between the land of the living and the land of the dead.[16] The draugr could also move magically through the earth, swimming through solid stone as does Killer-Hrapp:

Then Olaf tried to rush Hrapp, but Hrapp sank into the ground where he had been standing and that was the end of their encounter.[6]

Hvammr, the Shadow Valley

Another liminal space of crossover between the living and the dead, the "Hvammr" is a geographic feature we might call a dell or valley. These valleys are surrounded by tall mountains, which cast shadows enough to keep the hvammr dark for weeks or months at a time:

Scandinavian draugar are further associated with certain types of landscapes, notably the "hvammr," "a short valley or dell, surrounded by mountains, but open on one side in one direction". Certain traditions record a tradition of the dead "dying into a mountain," equating this sort of mountain with a burial mound. The hvammr represented a boundary area between valley and mountain, between farm and burial mound, between the living and the dead. The hvammr, surrounded by tall mountains, would receive little direct sunlight, and none at all for several weeks in midwinter. Forsaeludale (literally, "Shadow Valley"), the site of Glamr's hauntings in Grettirs saga, was such a place.

Draugrs and Iron

A strange relationship between draugrs and iron is related in the Norse myths. Apparently the dead can be prevented from becoming draugrs if iron scissors (or swords?) were placed on the body after death. This prevented the hugr from returning to the body. Iron was also threatening to the draugr, as it could injure them:

Iron could injure a draugr, as is the case with many supernatural creatures, although it would not be sufficient to stop it. Sometimes the hero is required to dispose of the body in unconventional ways. The preferred method is to cut off the draugr's head, burn the body, and dump the ashes in the sea—the emphasis being on making absolutely sure that the draugr was dead and gone.

Iron was to be placed on the deceased body because draug, like other undead, vættir, and fea folk, hate iron. Iron was often used as a means of keeping the undead away by placing iron somewhere at the threshold.

Powers

The draugr have many magical powers, including incredible strength, shapeshifting, and more:

Draugar are noted for having numerous magical abilities (referred to as trollskap) resembling those of living witches and wizards, such as shape-shifting, controlling the weather, and seeing into the future. A draugr can change into a seal, a great flayed bull, a grey horse with a broken back but no ears or tail, and a cat that would sit upon a sleeper's chest and grow steadily heavier until the victim suffocated. The draugr Þráinn (Thrain) shape-shifted into a cat-like creature (kattakyn) in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar.

Draugar have the ability to enter into the dreams of the living, and they will frequently leave a gift behind so that "the living person may be assured of the tangible nature of the visit".[14] Draugar also have the ability to curse a victim, as shown in the Grettis saga, where Grettir is cursed to be unable to become any stronger. Draugar also brought disease to a village and could create temporary darkness in daylight hours. They preferred to be active during the night, although it did not appear to be vulnerable to sunlight like some other revenants. Draugr can also kill people with bad luck.

Some draugar are immune to weapons, and only a hero has the strength and courage needed to stand up to so formidable an opponent. In legends, the hero would often have to wrestle the draugr back to his grave, thereby defeating him, since weapons would do no good. A good example of this is found in Hrómundar saga Gripssonar.

The Draugr are even ascribed motivations:

The dead budy was a vehicle of plague and illness, such as that ofthe sorceror Mithothyn of Saxo Grammaticus, but in a day and age in which germ theory was unknown, the causative agent was perceived to be the evil intent of the draugr. Thus it followed that the dead might also make physical attacks against the living. The draugr was believed to feel a longing for the things of life, and even envy of those yet alive.

Blue

Famously, the draugr of myth were blue corpses:

The draugar were said to be either hel-blár ("death-blue") or nár-fölr ("corpse-pale").[7] The death-blue color was not actually grey but was a dark blue or maroon hue which covered the entire body. Glámr, the undead shepherd of Grettis saga, was reported to be dark blue,[19] and Laxdæla saga describes how bones were dug up belonging to a dead sorceress who had appeared in dreams, and they were "blue and evil looking."