5. Narratives in texts

Returning to the myth of Thor and the Miðgarðsormr, in order to create links between the story represented in Gylfaginning 48 and other versions, the narrative must be divided into elements that may or may not be present in possible other versions of the narrative. These may include:

1. Thor goes out in a boat
2. Thor and Hymir row out to sea
3. Thor fastens ox-head to line
4. Thor casts line
5. Miðgarðsormr bites bait and pulls
6. Thor puts foot through hull
7. Thor pulls up Miðgarðsormr
8. Thor and Miðgarðsormr glare at each other
9. Miðgarðsormr spits poison at Thor
10. Thor raises hammer
11. Thor strikes Miðgarðsormr with hammer
12. Hymir cuts fishing line
13. Miðgarðsormr sinks into sea

The element (k) does not appear in Snorri’s version but does appear in at least one other version; Gylfaginning therefore contains elements a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, l, m. Elements (a) and (b) are here separated for reasons that will be apparent in the next section.

The division of the story into elements allows us to link other versions which may not have the complete story or the same details. The earliest textual evidence for the story is in a series of stanzas attributed to Bragi Boddason, a 9^th century Norwegian poet. These are traditionally taken to be part of Ragnarsdrápa (Finnur Jónsson 1912-15, BI, 3-4; numbered 14-19) but in the forthcoming new edition of the skaldic corpus have been categorized separately. The stanzas contain many of the elements above: Stanza 1: Thor goes to fight Miðgarðsormr (a, b); Stanza 2: fishing line tightens (implies d, e); Stanza 3: Thor recognises Miðgarðsormr (h), raises hammer (j); Stanza 5: Thor drags up Miðgarðsormr (g); Stanza 6: The giant cuts Thor’s fishing line (l)

A more abbreviated version occurs in the Icelandic poem Húsdrápa by Ulfr Uggason, dated to 938 by Finnur Jónsson (1912-15, BI, 128). Four stanzas deal with this episode, including: Stanza 4: Fierce glares between Thor and serpent (h); Stanza 5: Miðgarðsomr glares (h) and spews venom (i) from the gunwale (implies g); Stanza 6: Thor strikes Miðgarðsomr (k); Miðgarðsormr’s head comes off and sinks into the sea (m). The fact that Laxdœla saga (ch. 29, p. 80) attributes the origin of this poem to a description of wood panels in a house in Iceland gives this a possible further corroboration, but because the original objects are not extant this cannot be incorporated into the structure.

Another version is to be found in the anonymous poem Hymiskviða (before c. 1170, cf. von See et al. 1997, 277): Stanza 20: Hymir doesn’t want to row further out (b); Stanza 21: Thor drops line (d); Stanza 22: Thor uses ox head for bait (c); serpent bites (e); Stanza 23: Thor strikes with hammer (k); Stanza 24: serpent sinks back into the sea (m).

The structure can be represented fairly simply, with links between the narrative elements and the divisions of the text (chapters and stanzas) using a separate table to indicate instances of a narrative element in a particular text division (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Links between texts and narratives

The linking of multiple forms of the narrative by individual elements gives a means of comparing different versions. Because the narratives are linked by these means to the manuscript evidence, narratives can be assessed by the number and complexity of medieval versions of a narrative (both as texts and manuscripts), as well as the temporal and geographical distribution of these narratives.

When this information is displayed for an end-user, there are various ways of bringing together these connections, such as simple lists of narrative elements for each text, or lists of texts with links for each narrative. The geographical and visual data linked to the physical objects can also be used for maps and images. The display of such information will be demonstrated in the next section.

References