Barns to Kkr

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Barnstokkr 1

Barnstokkr

"Sigmund's Sword" (1889) by Johannes Gehrts.

In Norse mythology, Barnstokkr (Old Norse, literally "child-trunk"[1]

)

is a tree that stands in the center of King Vlsung's hall. Barnstokkr is

attested in chapters 2 and 3 of the Vlsunga saga, written in the 13th

century from earlier tradition, partially based on events from the 5th

century and the 6th century, where, during a banquet, a one-eyed

stranger appears and thrusts a sword into the tree which only Sigmund

is able to pull free. Scholarly theories have been put forth about the

implications of Barnstokkr and its relation to other trees in Germanic

paganism.

Vlsunga saga

"Odin in the Hall of the Vlsungs" (1905) by

Emil Doepler.

Barnstokkr is introduced in chapter 2 of Vlsunga saga where King

Vlsung is described as having "had an excellent palace built in this

fashion: a huge tree stood with its trunk in the hall and its branches,

with fair blossoms, stretched out through the roof. They called the tree

Barnstokk[r]".[2]

In chapter 3, King Vlsung is holding a marriage feast for his daughter

Signy and King Siggeir at King Vlsung's hall. At the hall, large fires

are kindled in long hearths running the length of the hall, while in the

middle of the hall stands the great tree Barnstokkr. That evening, while

those attending the feast are sitting by the flaming hearths, they are

visited by a one-eyed, very tall man whom they do not recognize. The

stranger is wearing a hooded, mottled cape, linen breeches tied around

his legs, and is barefooted. Sword in hand, the man walks towards

Barnstokkr and his hood hangs low over his head, gray with age. The

man brandishes the sword and thrusts it into the trunk of the tree, and

the blade sinks to its hilt. Words of welcome fail the crowd.[3]

The tall stranger says that he who draws the sword from the trunk shall

receive it as a gift, and he who is able to pull free the sword shall never

carry a better sword than it. The old man leaves the hall, and nobody

knows who he was, or where he went. Everyone stands, trying their hand at pulling free the sword from the trunk of

Barnstokkr. The noblest attempt to pull free the sword first followed by those ranked after them. Sigmund, son of

King Vlsung, takes his turn, andas if the sword had lay loose for himhe draws it from the trunk. The saga then

continues.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Odinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Siggeirhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Signyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AOdin_in_der_Halle_Wolsungs_by_Emil_Doepler.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emil_Doeplerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Germanic_paganismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Germanic_paganismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sigmundhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=V%C3%B6lsunga_sagahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=V%C3%B6lsunghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trunk_%28botany%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Old_Norsehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Norse_mythologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ASigmunds_Schwert_%281889%29_by_Johannes_Gehrts.jpg


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Barnstokkr 2

Theories

An apple tree in Germany.

Hilda Ellis Davidson draws links to the sword placed in Barnstokkr to

marriage oaths performed with a sword in pre-Christian Germanic

societies, noting a potential connection between the carrying of the

sword by a young man before the bride at a wedding as a phallic

symbol, indicating an association with fertility. Davidson cites records

of wedding ceremonies and games in rural districts in Sweden

involving trees or "stocks" as late as the 17th century, and cites a

custom in Norway "surviving into recent times" for "the bridegroom to

plunge his sword into the roof beam, to test the 'luck' of the marriage

by the depth of the scar he made".[4]

Davidson points out a potential connection between the descriptor apaldr(Old Norse "apple tree") and the birth of

King Vlsung, which is described earlier in the Vlsunga saga as having occurred after Vlsung's father Rerir sits

atop a burial mound and prays for a son, after which the goddess Frigg has an apple sent to Rerir. Rerir shares the

apple with his wife, resulting in his wife's long pregnancy. Davidson states that this mound is presumably the familyburial mound, and proposes a link between the tree, fruit, mound, and the birth of a child.

[5]

Davidson opines that Siggeir's anger at his inability to gain the sword that Odin has plunged into Barnstokkr at first

sight appears excessive, and states that there may be an underlying reason for Siggeir's passionate desire for the

sword. Davidson notes that the gift of the sword was made at a wedding feast, and states that Barnstokkr likely

represents the 'guardian tree', "such as those that used to stand beside many a house in Sweden and Denmark, and

which was associated with the 'luck' of the family", and that the 'guardian tree' also had a connection with the birth of

children. Davidson cites Jan de Vries in that the name barnstokkr"used in this story was the name given to the trunk

of such a tree because it used to be invoked and even clasped by the women of the family at the time of

childbirth."[6]

Providing examples of historical structures built around trees, or with 'guardian trees' around or in the structure in

Germanic areas, Davidson states that the "'luck' of a family must largely depend on the successful bearing and

rearing of sons, and there is a general belief that when a guardian tree is destroyed, the family will die out." In

connection with this, Davidson theorizes that at the bridal feast, it should have been Siggeir, the bridegroom, who

drew the sword from the tree, "and that its possession would symbolize the 'luck' which would come to him with his

bride, and the successful continuation of his own line in the sons to be born of the marriage". The sword having been

refused to him, Davidson theorizes that this may well have been intended as a deadly insult, and that this lends a

tragic air to the scene in the hall.[7]

An oak tree in Denmark.

Jesse Byock (1990) states that the name Barnstokkr may not

conceivably be the original name of the tree, and instead that it is

possible that it may have originally been bran(d)stokkr, the first part of

the compound potentially having been brandr, (meaning brand or

firebrand), a word sometimes synonymous with "hearth", and pointing

to a potential connection to the fire burning within the hall. Byock

notes that the tree is called an eik (Old Norse "oak"), which has an

unclear meaning as the Icelanders often employed the word as a

general word for "tree", and the tree is also referred to as apaldr, which

is also a general term used to refer to trees. Byock theorizes that the

latter reference to an apple tree may imply a further symbolic meaning pointing to the apple tree of the goddess

Iunn, and that the Barnstokkr may be further identified with the world tree Yggdrasil.

[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=I%C3%B0unnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yggdrasilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=I%C3%B0unnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yggdrasilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yggdrasilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=I%C3%B0unnhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oakhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ARaunkiaer.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jan_de_Vries_%28linguist%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=V%C3%B6r%C3%B0r%23Warden_treeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frigghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tumulushttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rerirhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Applehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hilda_Ellis_Davidsonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AApfelbaum_Boskop_Hochstamm.jpg


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Barnstokkr 3

Andy Orchard (1997) states that the role and placement of Barnstokkr as a "mighty tree, supporting and sprouting

through the roof of Vlsung's hall" has clear parallels in Norse mythology with the world tree Yggdrasil, particularly

in relation to Yggdrasil's position to the hall of Valhalla. Orchard further points out parallels between Sigurd's ability

to solely remove the sword from the trunk and King Arthur's drawing of the sword Excalibur.[8]

Modern influenceIn Richard Wagner'sDer Ring des Nibelungen opera cycle, the tree appears asBarnstock, when the hero Siegmund,

with a great tug, pulls from it a sword that he names Nothung.[9]

Barnstokkr has been theorized as English author and

philologist J. R. R. Tolkien's immediate source for a scene in his 1954 work The Lord of the Rings depicting the

fictional character of Frodo Baggins and his acceptance of the weapon Sting after it has been thrust "deep into a

wooden beam".[10]

Some of the structures described in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings have been described as

"recalling" the position and placement of Barnstokkr in Vlsunga saga, which Tolkien was well familiar with.[11]

Notes

[1][1] Byock (1990:113).

[2][2] Byock (1990:37).

[3][3] Byock (1990:38).

[4] Davidson (1960:13).

[5][5] Davidson (1960:3).

[6][6] Davidson (1960:4).

[7][7] Davidson (1960:5).

[8][8] Orchard (1997:14).

[9][9] Khler (2004:345).

[10][10] Flieger (2005:42).

[11][11] Clark (2000:155).

References Byock, Jesse L. (Trans.) (1990). The Saga of the Volsungs: The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer.

University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23285-2

Clark, George. Timmons, Daniel (2000).J.R.R. Tolkien and His Literary Resonances. Greenwood Publishing

Group. ISBN 0-313-30845-4

Davidson, H. R. (1960). "The Sword at the Wedding" as collected inFolklore, Vol. 71, No. 1 (March 1960).

Khler, Joachim. Spencer, Stewart (2004).Richard Wagner: The Last of the Titans. Yale University Press. ISBN

0-300-10422-7

Flieger, Verlyn (2005).Interrupted Music: The Making of Tolkien's Mythology. Kent State University Press.

ISBN 0-87338-824-0

Orchard, Andy (1997).Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-34520-2
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Orion_Publishing_Grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kent_State_University_Presshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yale_University_Presshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Folklore_Societyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greenwood_Publishing_Grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greenwood_Publishing_Grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=University_of_California_Presshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sting_%28Middle-earth%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frodo_Bagginshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Lord_of_the_Ringshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=J._R._R._Tolkienhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nothunghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Der_Ring_des_Nibelungenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Wagnerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Excaliburhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=King_Arthurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valhalla


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Article Sources and Contributors 4

Article Sources and ContributorsBarnstokkr Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=481188734 Contributors: AndrewHowse, Berig, Bloodofox, Dana boomer, DocWatson42, Nihiltres, Tassedethe, 5 anonymous

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Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsImage:Sigmunds Schwert (1889) by Johannes Gehrts.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sigmunds_Schwert_(1889)_by_Johannes_Gehrts.jpgLicense: Public Domain

Contributors: Xylograph by after a painting/drawing by

Image:Odin in der Halle Wolsungs by Emil Doepler.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Odin_in_der_Halle_Wolsungs_by_Emil_Doepler.jpgLicense: Public Domain

Contributors: Bloodofox

Image:Apfelbaum Boskop Hochstamm.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Apfelbaum_Boskop_Hochstamm.jpgLicense: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 2.0

Contributors: Maseltov

Image:Raunkiaer.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Raunkiaer.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Cillas, Haabet, MPF, Nillerdk, PatagoniaArgentina, 2

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