NPC Deity

Sköll In Norse mythology, Sköll (Old Norse “Treachery” is a warg that chases the horses Árvakr and Alsviðr, that drag the chariot which contains the sun (Sól) through the sky every day, trying to eat her. Sköll has a sister (sometimes referred also like brother for a wrong English translation made in 15th century ), Hati, who chases Máni, the moon.

At Ragnarök, both Sköll and Hati will succeed in their quests. Sköll, in certain circumstances, is used as a deiti to refer indirectly to the father (Fenrir) and not the son. This ambiguity works in the other direction also, for example in Vafþrúðnismál, where confusion exists in stanza 46 where Fenrir is given the sun-chasing attributes of his son Sköll. This can mostly be accounted for by the use of Hróðvitnir and Hróðvitnisson to refer to both Fenrir and his sons. Until Sköll is successful in his mission, the Fremennik believe him to be responsible for causing the extreme heat of summer. Sköll is said to be stronger and more agile than his sister/brother, drawing strength from the strong northern winds.

MYTHS

It was probably raised in Járnviðr, together with the other wolves, the old witch who lives there.He runs in the sky behind the chariot of Sól. At the end of time, it is destined to devour the sun (but others say it will Fenrir to do so).

ETYMOLOGY Skoll / Skǫll, “[One who] lie”? The term, provided in two alternative forms Skoll and Skǫll, has no a precise etymology. Maybe it comes from the verb skolla “lie.” The word also means “stealth”. Note that Skolli is also the nickname of the fox, “[one who] moves stealthy.” (Cleasby Vigfusson ~ 1874)

LITERATURE

Skoll and Hati, the two wolves running in heaven, respectively, ahead of the chasing and wagon Sól, appear in one verse of Grímnismál, where he wrote: Skǫll heitir úlfr, er fylgir eno skirleita goði til varna viðar; en annarr Hati, hann er Hróðvitnis sonr, sá skal fyr heiða brúði himins. Skoll is called the wolf chasing the gods shining sheltered in the woods; but a second, Hati; (she is the daughter of Hróðvitnir) will precede the bride clear sky. Ljóða Edda > Grímnismál [39] Þá verðr þat er mikil tíðindi þykkja at úlfrinn gleypir sólna, ok þykkir mǫnnum þat mikit mein. Þá tekr annarr úlfrinn tunglit, ok gerir sá ok mikit ógagn. It will happen after something that will seem frightening: the wolf will swallow the sun and that for men is a great calamity. The other wolf will take the moon, causing a great evil. Snorri Sturluson: Prose Edda > Gylfaginning [51] Hard to say by what authority Snorri states that the two wolves – Skoll and Hati – are intended to tear the sun and the moon. A step of Vǫluspá (also mentioned by Snorri in Gylfaginning {13}), is limited to simply say that it’s up to a wolf, from the race bred in Járnviðr, devouring one of the stars in the sky: Which wolf traits, the text does not say, nor do we know for sure if the star in question is the sun or the moon. In Old Norse, the word tungl means “star, luminary” (cfr. Latin Sidus), indicating either the sun or the moon, and several translators proposed gradually one or the other of the interpretations.

The meaning of “moon” is the most attested in the literature, where the term has often replaced the more poetic Mani (Cleasby Vigfusson ~ 1874). In such a case it would, given the information Snorri, Hati. The Norse myth about the wolf-god who hunts, pursues the sun around the earth, mouth open, lantern jaws sprung wide to consume, finally snap down around the glowing orb: how the people of that land once described solar eclipses to one another, believing that, breaking the neck of their only light, the wolf-god had damned them to darkness—the kind that only burial understands.

The figure of the wolf has always been present in the cosmogonic legends and mythology of different peoples across the globe, from Europe to Asia, coming up in North America. Its symbolism has always been a mixture of warrior and beast, a potential destroyer, symbolism led through the centuries in the figure of the werewolf, half man, half wolf, forced to give in to his animal nature, to the detriment of the human, during the full moon nights. In Norse mythology in particular there are three mythological figures resembling a wolf (in addition to Geri and Freki, the two wolves accompanying Odin): Fenrir (or Fenrisulfr) and his two sons Skoll and Hati. Fenrir is a son of Loki, the God of the Warlock, and the giantess Angrboða; hated and feared by the Aesir (Nordic gods) and imprisoned by the power dell’Aesir Tyr, Fenrir is destined to kill Odin during Ragnarök and to be killed at the hands of Víðarr, son of Odin.

Hati and Skoll instead are the two wolves that chase respectively mythology the Moon and the Sun, until the day when they will eat and obscure Heaven and Earth, during the Ragnarök. While Hati is often referred like an evil entity , Skoll is more considered like more like a neutral/chaotic figure.

The names Skoll and Hati have the meaning of “Deception” and “hate”, and symbolize the chaotic nature inherent in every human being. Also according to Norse mythology, in fact, in every man or woman there are two wolves (one good and one bad) who fight to prevail over one another, the theory that resembles the Eastern concept of Yin and Yang. “The Wolves Pursuing Sol and Mani” by J.C. Dollman (1909) Skoll (pronounced roughly “SKOHL”; Old Norse Sköll, “One Who Mocks”) and Hati (pronounced “HAHT-ee”; Old Norse Hati, “One Who Hates”) are two wolves who are only mentioned in passing references that have to do with their pursuing Sol and Mani, the sun and moon, through the sky in hopes of devouring them.

At Ragnarok, the downfall of the cosmos, they catch their prey as the sky and earth darken and collapse. It’s not entirely clear which one of them pursues the sun and which pursues the moon. The medieval Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, whose works are typically taken at face value in low-quality introductory books on Norse mythology, claims that Skoll chases the sun and Hati the moon. However, Snorri’s source in this passage, the Eddic poem Grímnismál, says the following in the relevant stanza: Skoll is the name of the wolf Who follows the shining priest Into the desolate forest, And the other is Hati, Hróðvitnir’s son, Who chases the bright bride of the sky. The noun used for Skoll’s prey, goði (“priest”), is masculine, and the noun used for Hati’s prey, brúðr(“bride”) is feminine. Since Mani (the moon) is male, and Sol (the sun) is female, the wording of this stanza strongly suggests that Skoll hunts the moon and Hati the sun.

This same stanza names the father of Hati (and surely, by extension, Skoll as well) as Hróðvitnir. Since another poem in the Poetic Edda, the Lokasenna, uses the essentially identical word Hróðrsvitnir (“Famous Wolf) as a byname for Fenrir, the arch-wolf, it would seem that Fenrir is their father.

This interpretation finds additional confirmation in another Eddic poem, theVöluspá, which states that the children of Fenrir swallow the sun during Ragnarok. Sol (pronounced like the English word “soul”; Old Norse Sól, “Sun”) and Mani (pronounced “MAH-nee”; Old NorseMáni, “Moon”), are, as their names suggest, the divine animating forces of the sun and the moon, respectively. Sol and Mani form a brother and sister pair. When they first emerged as the cosmos was being created, they didn’t know what their powers were or what their role was in the new world.

Then the gods met together and created the different parts of the day and year and the phases of the moon so that Sol and Mani would know where they fit into the great scheme of things.[1] They ride through the sky on horse-drawn chariots. The horses who pull Mani’s chariot are never named, but Sol’s horses are apparently named Árvakr (“Early Riser”[2]) andAlsviðr (“Swift”[3]). They ride “swiftly” because they’re pursued through the sky by the wolves Skoll (“Mockery”) and Hati (“Hate”),] who overtake them when the cosmos descends back into chaos during Ragnarok.

According to one of the poems in the Poetic Edda, a figure named Svalinn rides in the sun’s chariot and holds a shield between her and the earth below. If he didn’t do this, both the land and the sea would be consumed in flames. Elsewhere, the father of Sol and Mani is named as “Mundilfari,” about whom we know nothing. His name might mean “The One Who Moves According to Particular Times.” The medieval Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson, whoseProse Edda can’t be taken at face value but nevertheless is in most low-quality introductory books on Norse mythology, tries to compile these disparate references into a comprehensive narrative that’s utterly ridiculous and useless as a source of information: Mundilfari had two children who were so beautiful that he called the girl “Sol” after the sun and the boy “Mani” after the moon. Sun married a man called Glenr (“Opening in the Clouds”).

The sun, which had originated as a spark in Muspelheim, was pulled through the sky in a chariot, but the chariot had no driver. The gods were outraged by Mundilfari’s arrogance in the names he chose for his children, so they forced Sol to drive the sun’s chariot. The Trundholm sun chariot from Bronze Age Denmark.

The conception of the sun and the moon riding on chariots through the sky is evidently a very old one among the Norse and other Germanic peoples. It can be found on rock carvings and other Scandinavian artifacts from the Bronze Age, perhaps the most notable of which is the Trundholm sun chariot (pictured). The idea that the sun deity was female, and with a name that means simply “Sun,” is also attested among the continental Germanic peoples.