Jörð


Jörð is the personification of earth and a goddess in Norse mythology. She is the mother of the thunder god Thor, and a sexual partner of Odin. Her name is often employed in skaldic poetry and kennings as a poetic term for land or earth.

Name

The Old Norse name jǫrð means 'earth, land' in Old Norse, serving as a noun and as a theonymic incarnation of the noun. It stems from Proto-Germanic *erþō-, as evidenced by the Gothic airþa, Old English eorþ, Old Saxon ertha, Old High German erda, or Faroese jørð. The Ancient Greek word éra is also possibly related. The word is most likely cognate with Proto-Germanic *erwa/ōn-.
Fjörgyn is considered by scholars to be another name for Jörð. She is similarly described as Thor's mother and her name is also used as a poetic synonym for 'land' or 'the earth' in skaldic poems. The name Hlóðyn, mentioned in Völuspá , is most likely also used as a synonym for Jörð. The etymology of Hlóðyn remains unclear, although it is often thought to be related to the goddess Hludana, to whom Roman votive tablets have been found on the Lower Rhine.

Attestations

Prose Edda

Jörð is attested in the Prose Edda books Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál. According to section 10 of Gylfaginning:
Additionally, the section describes Jörð's ancestry as follows :
This section, however, varies by manuscript.
Section 25 of Gylfaginning lists Jörð among the ásynjur :
Skáldskaparmál mentions Jörð numerous times, including in several quotes from skaldic poetry. The second section 4 of the book list kennings for the god Thor, including "son of Odin and Iord". Section 17 quotes Þjóðólfr of Hvinir's composition Haustlöng, in which the skald refers to Thor as "the son of Iord" twice. The poem is quoted again in section 23. Section 18 quotes Eilífr Goðrúnarson's composition Þórsdrápa, in which the skald refers to Thor as "Iord's son".
Section 19 contains a list of kennings for the goddess Frigg, including "rival of Iord and Rind and Gunnlod and Gerd". Section 90 contains a list of kennings for Jörð, referencing a variety of skaldic kennings for the goddess:
The section contains quotes from poems by Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld and Þjóðólfr of Hvinir. The Nafnaþulur section of Skáldskaparmál includes Jörð in a list of ásynjur names.
Additionally, as the common noun jörð also simply means 'earth', references to earth occur throughout the Prose Edda.

Poetic Edda

In Lokasenna, Thor is called Jarðar burr.
In Völuspá, he is referred to as mǫgr Hlóðyniar and Fjǫrgyniar burr. Hlóðyn, although etymologically unclear, must therefore have been another name of Jörð.

Scholarly reception

According to philologist Rudolf Simek, Jörð is "n Æsir goddess, even though she is also called a giantess". Simek highlights parallels between Thor and the Vedic deity Indra: "Just as Thor's counterpart in Indian mythology, Indra, is begotten by the god of the heavens Dyaus and the Earth, so Thor is also the sun of the Earth, just like the proto-ancestor Tuisto... ".
According to folklorist John Lindow, "Jörd must have been a giantess in the beginning. If so, Odin’s marriage to Jörd should be regarded as parallel to his other strategically minded relationships with giantesses."
Philologist Haukur Thorgeirsson points out that the four manuscripts of Gylfaginning vary in their descriptions of the family relations between Nótt, Jörð, Dagr, and Dellingr. In other words, depending on the manuscript, either Jörð or Nótt is the mother of Dagr and partner of Dellingr. Haukur details that "the oldest manuscript, U, offers a version where Jǫrð is the wife of Dellingr and the mother of Dagr while the other manuscripts, R, W and T, cast Nótt in the role of Dellingr's wife and Dagr's mother", and argues that "the version in U came about accidentally when the writer of U or its antecedent shortened a text similar to that in RWT. The results of this accident made their way into the Icelandic poetic tradition".
although its disputed amongst researchers jord is also believed to be odin's first wife but their love died out but they swor to remain good friends but it ended well after all she gave him his favorite son thor.
its also said she made the giants who bring the seasons summer spring winter fall and the giant who bring dreams and fair weather and that her son swore to protect them from harm swearing on his hammer and his very life.