Norsery Rhymes from A to Z Dvalarr - Branch Eater of Yggdrasill
Happy Thorsday! - Here’s another 20 min sketch of a Norse (and Germanic, Celtic) mythological characters. This week it’s Dvalar / Dvalarr (Dvalin / Dvalinn). One of the four Red Stags / Harts that endlessly walk and graze on the branches of Yggdrasill.
The male deer are, Dvalinn, Dáinn, Duneyrr, Duraþrór. They each look upward to chew on the branches or leaves and small shoots of the World Tree. Considered to be able to nimbly walk among the branches of the tree at it’s highest points.
Their names have been translated as… (*The below notes are just some thoughts on their possible purpose.) Dáinn - dead, dead one, swooning / fainting, the drowsy. *Possibly indicating it as the clearer of the dead growth.
Dvalinn / Dvalar - sleep, one who dallies, dawdler, quiet sleeper, to delay, to slow down. *Possibly indicating it as the cause of the slowing down the trees growth. Duneyrr - murmur, quiet noise, quiet thundering, noisy maker of din. *Possibly indicating the rustling of leaves as they eat and walk the branches. Duraþrór / Durathror - delay, drowsy, door breaking, snoring, or thriving slumber. *Possibly indicating it as causing the noise of breaking branches.
The symbolism may be related to the winds that tear down branches and leaves, much like the dwarves of the four winds. This lines up as two of the four names are also Dwarf names.
There’s also been some discussion that there was originally only one hart, Eikþyrnir, mentioned earlier in Grímnismál, and that these four are later creations.
