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Veðrfölnir and eagle

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Mythical creature in Norse mythology

An illustration from a 17th-century Icelandic manuscript shows a hawk, Veðrfölnir, on top of an eagle on top of a tree, Yggdrasil.

InNorse mythology,Veðrfölnir (Old Norse "storm pale",^[1] "wind bleached",^[2] or "wind-witherer"^[3]) is ahawk sitting between the eyes of an unnamedeagle that is perched on top of theworld tree Yggdrasil.Veðrfölnir is sometimes modernlyanglicized asVedrfolnir,Vedurfolnir orVetrfolnir.

The unnamed eagle is attested in both thePoetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and theProse Edda, written in the 13th century bySnorri Sturluson, while Veðrfölnir is solely attested in theProse Edda. In both thePoetic Edda and theProse Edda, the squirrelRatatoskr carries messages between the unnamed eagle andNidhöggr, theworm that resides below the world tree. Scholars have proposed theories about the implications of the birds.

Attestations

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Veðrfölnir sits atop the eagle with Ratatoskr nearby (upper right) while Odin sacrifices himself to himself upon the tree Yggdrasil (central) in an illustration (1895) byLorenz Frølich.

In thePoetic Edda poemGrímnismál, the godOdin (disguised asGrimnir) says that:

Benjamin Thorpe translation:
Ratatösk is the squirrel named, who has run
in Yggdrasil's ash;
he from above the eagle's words must carry,
and beneath the Nidhögg repeat.^[4]
Henry Adams Bellows translation:
Ratatosk is the squirrel who there shall run
On the ash-tree Yggdrasil;
From above the words of the eagle he bears,
And tells them to Nithhogg beneath.^[5]

The eagle is again attested in chapter 16 of theProse Edda bookGylfaginning, yet here with the company of Veðrfölnir. In the chapter,Gangleri (described as kingGylfi in disguise) asks the enthroned figure ofHigh what other notable facts there are to know about Yggdrasil. High responds (Veðrfölnir is here anglicized asVedrfolnir):

There is much to be told. An eagle sits at the top of the ash, and it has knowledge of many things. Between its eyes sits the hawk called Vedrfolnir [...]. The squirrel called Ratatosk runs up and down the ash. He tells slanderous gossip, provoking the eagle andNidhogg.^[2]

Theories

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John Lindow points out that Snorri does not say why a hawk should be sitting between the eyes of an eagle or what role it may play. Lindow theorizes that "presumably the hawk is associated with the wisdom of the eagle" and that "perhaps, likeOdin's ravens, it flies off acquiring and bringing back knowledge".^[1]

Hilda Ellis Davidson says that the notion of an eagle atop a tree and Nídhöggr coiled around the roots of the tree has parallels in other cosmologies^[vague] fromAsia, and that Norse cosmology may have been influenced by these^[which?] Asiatic cosmologies from a northern route. On the other hand, Davidson adds, someGermanic peoples are attested as worshipping their deities in open forest clearings, and that asky god was particularly connected with theoak tree, and therefore "a central tree was a natural symbol for them also".^[6]