Hi I’m Old Norse Specialist Dr. Jackson Crawford
I teach at the University of Colorado Boulder, previously at UC Berkeley and UCLA
The Old Norse language has a variety of words that mean "a God"
and this variety is conditioned not so much by different shades of meaning in these words
as it is by the demands of the poetic language.
Old Norse uses an alliterating style of poetry.
And so alternative words for many different things are used in order to fit the alliteration.
So for instance if you are have a poetic line that needs to alliterate on “G”
you have options of words for God that start with G.
If you have a line that needs to alliterate on “R”
you have options, words for God that start with “R”.
So let’s take a look at what some of those are, and the origins of some of them.
The basic general word for God in Old Norse is “Goð” also spelt “Guð”
There seems to be no particular distinction between these two different spellings in the pagan period.
But after Scandinavians converted to Christianity the spelling with “U” becomes the standard spelling for the Christian God.
This word probably comes from a Proto-Indo-European root that means “to pour”
and so ultimately the word for God in Germanic languages such as Norse and English
you could say this is cognate with the English word "God"
is the thing poured out to, right, like libations, offerings are poured to.
there is also the common word “Regin”
which you often see in the possessive or genitive plural “Ragna” meaning “of the Gods”.
“Regin” means "the gods" but etymologically “the rulers”,
“the ones that are in control” which of course makes good sense.
You also see this with various expansions, right, such as in “Ginnregin”, “Mighty Gods”.
There are also “Hǫpt” and “Bǫnd” which both mean something like “bindings”.
There is of course the famous pair of “Æsir” and “Vanir”
the main families of gods, Æsir including Oðin (Odin) and Ðor (Thor)
and Vanir including for instance “Njörðr” and his children “Freyr” and “Freyja”.
Most of the time when these words are used in poetry is because they alliterate with other words in the line.
Which can even mean that a particular god is called both depending upon what needs alliterating with.
So for example in Thrymskvitha (þrymkviða) in the Poetic Edda, Stanza 15 we see:
(Dr Crawford reads aloud the above text)
So then, Heimdallr said
he was the "whitest" probably meaning "handsomest" of the Æsir
he knew well for he could see the future like other Vanir
the word Asir ah, well it’s not actually alliterating anything,
“hvítastr” is but then Vanir´s being used in the fourth line
because it alliterates with “vissi” in the third line so
Assir VIssi Vanir is the dissection actually meaningful
I have another video about that that I’ll link in a card on the top right.
The singular of Æsir if you want to refer to one god for this group is “Áss”.
The singular of “Vanir” is “Vanr”.
Another word that can be used for any god is “Týr”.
That of course is also the name of the one handed god but it can be used of any god to just mean “god”.
This word is cognate with the Greek name Zeus
as well as the "you" in Latin “Iupiter” and “Dyàu” in Sanskrit “Dyàu (pítar).
The plural of this which is actually more common than the singular and the meaning of just a general god
Is “Tívar” and you also see our extensions like you do with "Regin"
so you see Valtívar, slaughter gods, Sigtívar, victory gods etc.
The purpose again as I pointed out of these is to have a different variations of words for gods
that you can use depending on what you need to alliterate with
so for instance I'll give you a few examples of stanzas that show the use based on alliteration from Hákonarmál 10
(Dr. Crawford reads the above text aloud)
So the gods, in this case “Bǫnd” because we´re alliterating with “boðit”
have invited Hákon, home with a great army.
Or in Voluspa 23, 25 and couple of the other stanzas we have a series of different words for gods
(Dr. Crawford reads the above text aloud)
So then all the gods went on to their judgement stools
The very powerful gods and they discussed that,
and we see different words for gods depending on what we´re alliterating with.
We see Regin, Goð, and of course ginnheilǫg.
So, the language is rich in poetic synonyms
not just for god but for many other words
As I've discussed in my video about Kennings and poetry which I’ll link in the endscreen
I hope this has been somewhat interesting and informative for you
And from beautiful Wyoming I’m wishing you, all the best.