Bergelmir


Bergelmir is a jötunn in Norse mythology.

Name

The Old Norse name Bergelmir has been variously translated as 'bear-yeller', 'mountain-yeller', or 'bare-yeller'. According to linguist Jan de Vries, the name should be read as ber-gelmir rather than berg-gelmir.

Attestations

In Vafþrúðnismál, Bergelmir is portrayed as the son of Þrúðgelmir and the grand-son of the first giant Aurgelmir. When Odin asks Vafthrúdnir who is the oldest among the æsir and the jötnar, the wise jötunn responds that:
In the same poem, Odin then asks Vafthrúdnir about the monstrous birth of the offspring of Aurgelmir, and Vafthrúdnir responds:
In Gylfaginning, while the blood of Ymir is flooding the earth after the sons of Borr have killed him, Bergelmir is likewise pictured as escaping on a lúðr with his wife to re-found the frost-giant race.
Based upon Snorri's account, the Old Norse word lúðr might have referred to a 'coffin', a 'cradle', a 'chest', or some wooden part of a mill.

Theories

Robert D. Fulk notes that Snorri's Prose Edda account "conflicts with the poetic version, as the presents a Noah-like figure, while the latter has Bergelmir laid in the lúðr, implying he is an infant, as in the Scyld story. But Snorri does add the crucial element not made in the explicit verses, that the lúðr is to serve as a floating vessel."
Fulk continues that "the key word here is lúðr, which ought to refer to a flour-bin. To be precise, the object is a box or wooden trough, perhaps on legs, in which the stones of a hand-mill sit . It is true that most glossators assume some meaning other than 'flour-bin' in Vafþrúðnismál and Snorra edda , suggesting instead something in the range of 'coffin, chest, ark '." Fulk details that "the interpretation of 'ark' derives solely from the passage in Snorra Edda, because of Bergelmir's resemblance to Noah, and the fact that ǫrk can refer to both Noah's ark and a chest or a sarcophagus."