Angrboða

In Norse mythology, Angrboða (Old Norse "the one who brings grief"Simek (2007:16). or "she-who-offers-sorrow"Lindow (2001:59).) is a female jötunn (giantess). In the Poetic Edda, Angrboða is mentioned only in Völuspá hin skamma (found in Hyndluljóð) as the mother of Fenrir by Loki. However, she is also (by Loki) mother of Fenrir's siblings, Jörmungandr (the Midgard Serpent) and Hel. In the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Angrboða is referenced as a "giantess in Jötunheimr" and mother by Loki of Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Hel. As indicated following, she may be identical with Iárnvidia, 'She of Iron-wood' mentioned in the list of troll-wives in the Prose Edda list nafnaþulur.
==Attestations==
===Poetic Edda===
The poem Völuspá (stanzas 40–41 in most editions) speaks of a giantess dwelling in Járnvid ('Iron-wood') whom commentators usually identify with Angrboða (and the Iárnvidia of the list of troll-wives):
:The giantess old in Ironwood sat,
:In the east, and bore the brood of Fenrir;
:Among these one in monster's guise
:Was soon to steal the sun from the sky.
:There feeds he full on the flesh of the dead,
:And the home of the gods he reddens with gore;
:Dark grows the sun, and in summer soon
:Come mighty storms: would you know yet more?
===Prose Edda===
Snorri's Gylfaginning gives a prose explanation and a variant form of these stanzas. Brodeur's translation renders:
:Eastward dwells the Old One in Ironwood,
:And there gives birth to Fenrir's brethren;
:There shall spring of them all a certain one,
:The moon's taker in troll's likeness.
:He is filled with flesh of fey men.
:Reddens the gods' seats with ruddy blood-gouts;
:Swart becomes sunshine in summers after,
:The weather all shifty. Wit ye yet, or what?
Perhaps "moon's taker" and "moon hound" or alternately as "the one to steal the sun from the sky" as earlier mentioned was in reference to Hati or Skoll, Fenrir's own children, since similar poems read that Skoll and Hati were birthed by "the witch of the Ironwood".
In stanza 13 of the eddic poem Baldrs draumar Odin says to the prophesying seeress whom he has brought up from the dead:
:No wise-woman art thou, nor wisdom hast;
:Of giants three the mother art thou.
This might refer to Angrboda as mother of the three monsters. The seeress states that she will never be charmed from the dead again until Loki is loosed from his bonds.
==Notes==
==References==
* Lindow, John (2001). Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-515382-0
* Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-513-1
Category:Norse mythology