Note to Anon (Vǫlsa) 9I
[8] Grímr: The prose text tells that King Óláfr and his two followers all call themselves Grímr (see Context to st. 3). According to Steinsland, the name refers to Óðinn. She sees in the story a conflict between the younger patriarchal religion of Óðinn and an older matriarchal fertility religion connected with the ritualistic worship of giantesses (Steinsland and Vogt 1981, 91-2, 104; Steinsland 1997, 90). However, Grímr (from gríma ‘face mask’) is a popular assumed name, and the motif occurs several times in the fornaldarsögur (Norna-Gests þáttr, Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar, Helga þáttr Þórissonar), so that this, rather than a name for Óðinn, may be present here. The number three, the number of the guests, is conspicuous; it is paralleled in the number of the males of the household (farmer, son, servant) and of the females (housewife, daughter, maid). Eitrem (1924, 88) suggests a ritualistic meaning behind it.
References
- Bibliography
- Eitrem, Sam. 1924. ‘Lina Laukar’. In Festskrift tilegnet Førstebibliothekar A. Kjær av venner, 26. September 1924. Christiana (Oslo): Cammermeyer, 85-94.
- Steinsland, Gro. 1997. Eros og død i norrøne myter. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
- Steinsland, Gro and Kari Vogt. 1981. ‘“Aukinn ertu Uolse ok vpp vm tekinn”. En religionshistorisk analyse av Vǫlsa þáttr i Flateyjarbók’. ANF 96, 87-106.