Forums » Epic Week 2018 » Anvil symbol discussion (SOLVED)

Ok good!

Don't suppose you can tell us if it is an exact answer or not lool. 😏

Lmao CD

Ty for making this one. I am having a lot of fun reading the eddas.

One of the message in a bottles gave me a bit of a clue.

"Anvil: In some versions, the sewn-mouth one has replaced the bone-splitter."

Hopefully this'll be of some help.

LightSide-Lucree showed us the same one!

Thank you though for bringing it

Aye. Good luck with the riddles.

omg, YES - these clues line up perfectly, absolutely spot on find. You're a badass! I'm glad that the 'womb bearing flood makers' were in fact giantesses, that was the only thing that made sense to me. So, 'just before the end of Geirrod' - the pillar or bolt of iron? I'll wake up here and be more useful in a bit, but thanks to Dragonfire we're nearly there!

( Loki is the one with the sewn mouth for those who missed the links to that story, it was the consolation punishment for his challenge to the dwarf brothers Brokkr and Eitri, which was supposed to end up with his beheading - except he said damaging his neck wasn't part of the deal like the sly turd he is LOL )

Yes! Very good

There is some speculation that this story is the telling of how Thor got Mjolnir - the molten iron becomes the hammer. But I'm not sure if that's related here or not, hrrm.

Could it be what Thor said after killing the giantesses?

"On one occasion
I used all my might
in the courts of giants,
when Gjalp and Gneip,
Geirrod's daughters,
tried to raise me towards heaven."

Also really good on finding this, dragonfire

When Thor came to Geirrod's, the companions were given lodging in a goat-shed, where there was only one chair, which Thor sat upon. He then realized that the chair was rising under him up towards the roof. He thrust Grid's pole against the rafters, pushing the chair down. A great crack sounded, and a terrible shriek. Geirrod's daughters, Gjalp and Greip, had been hiding under the chair, and he had broken their backs.

(Then spoke Þórr:

"On one occasion
I used all my might
in the courts of giants,
when Gjalp and Gneip,
Geirrod's daughters,
tried to raise me towards heaven.")
Geirrod summoned Thor into the hall for games. Great fires burned along the length of the hall. When Thor came in and faced Geirrod, the giant grabbed with tongs a glowing lump of molten iron and threw it at Thor, who caught it with the iron gauntlets, and raised it, while Geirrod hid behind an iron pillar in an attempt to escape. Thor flung the molten lump, which penetrated the pillar, Geirrod himself, the wall, and the ground outside.




In the version I am reading

This is driving me mad, I've tried everything I can think of. All I know is right before Thor went into the cave to slay Geirrod and his daughters, he fought a bunch of other giants on the beach with Thjalfi, and wikipedia notes "in Snorri's version of the tale Þjálfi is replaced with Loki". I think whatever we're looking for is in the earlier portion of the Thorsdrapa.

http://www.stavacademy.co.uk/mimir/thorsdrapa.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9E%C3%B3rsdr%C3%A1pa

...!

"6. The warriors pushed their serpent-like spears into the ocean to fight against the oceans current. The slippery, bonny [pebbles] did not sleep and the clanging iron spears trembled against the stones, while the mountainous cascade of water gushed forth, beating with an ice-storm, then Fenja like an anvil-like rock."

https://notendur.hi.is/eybjorn/ugm/thorsd12.html

"hlymþél knátti glymja við möl, en fellihryn fjalla þaut, hreggi höggvin, með Feðju steðja, i.e. "the banging files [spears] jangled against the pebbles, while the mountains' falling-roar [cascade] rushed, beaten by an ice-storm, along Feðja's anvil".

hlymþél ] Literally "clanging file", i.e. "clanging iron" = spear. See skotnaðr in the previous half-stanza.

knátti glymja ] Knátti is an auxillary verb, knátti glymja = glumdi.

fellihryn fjalla ] Literally "falling-noise of the mountains", i.e. a waterfall, cascade.

Feðju steðja ] is problematic. The "anvil of Feðja" is usually interpreted as "stone, rock". This is barely possible, and as Finnur Jónsson noted, Feðja would then have to be the name of a river. In such a case we would have to understand (like Pálsson): áin ruddi fram grjóti "the river carried rocks in its flood".

Egilsson saw Feðja as a variant form of Fenja, a giantess, and interpreted "anvil of the giantess" as "stone, rock" (which is difficult to accept). However, if we accept that Feðja is identical with Fenja, a new possibility arises. Fenja is one of two giantesses, who operate the Grótti-quern in the Gróttasöngur. This quern (mill) was thought to stand on the bottom of the ocean, causing the great whirlpool or maelstrom of medieval fame, mentioned by Adam of Bremen and others. The ocean's tides were believed to be caused by the action of this mill, which alternatively sucks the ocean waters down through the eye of the millstone, and then spouts them out again. This great maelstrom was extremely dangerous to seafarers, whose ships could be sucked down into the gigantic whirlpool (and sometimes spat out again), according to Adam.

The smith labours at his anvil. The two giantesses, Fenja and Menja, labour at the quern. Thus the great quern could indeed be called Fenju (Feðju) steði. It may be suspected that Thor is approaching the great maelstrom of the Northern Ocean, where he is in danger of being sucked into the terrible whirlpool of Grótti. He therefore thrusts his spear into the bottom of the ocean, in order to have something to hold on to."

"It lies just before the end of the tosser of the forge-morsel"

Geirrod meets his end in 17:5-8 of the poem. Just before it, the cave shakes, and Geirrod hides behind a pillar.

Oh look a place for me to lurk

I was about to suggest trying pillar

I've tried everything I can possibly think of that might "lie just before the end", from names and locations, to things focusing on the "anvil of Feðja" or "anvil-like rock" and all possible variations of that including far reaching possibilities like storm, ice-storm, maelstrom, whirlpool, etc. I've tried simple things like cave, rock, stone, chair, sit, throw, travel, shake, earthquake. I've tried things that might literally 'lie before' such as the ocean, waves, beach, the giantesses. I've tried actions, references to the thrown iron, references to the hammer, references to the battle on the beach, to their traveling across the ocean to the cave...

I just have no idea, gonna have to throw in the towel for now - I'm all guessed out!