Borr - Wikipedia

In Norse mythology, Borr or Burr[a] (Old Norse: 'borer'[1] sometimes anglicized
Bor, Bör or Bur) was the son of Búri. Borr was the husband of Bestla and the
father of Odin, Vili and Vé. Borr receives mention in a poem in the Poetic Edda,
compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, and in the Prose
Edda, composed in the 13th century by Icelander Snorri Sturluson. Scholars have
proposed a variety of theories about the figure. Attestation editBorr is
mentioned in the fourth verse of the Völuspá, a poem contained in the Poetic
Edda, and in the sixth chapter of Gylfaginning, the second section of the Prose
Edda. Völuspá edit | | Gylfaginning edit | Borr is not mentioned again in the
Prose Edda. In skaldic and eddaic poetry, Odin is occasionally referred to as
Borr's son. Scholarly reception and interpretation editThe role of Borr in Norse
mythology is unclear. Nineteenth-century German scholar Jacob Grimm proposed to
equate Borr with Mannus as related in Tacitus' Germania on the basis of the
similarity in their functions in Germanic theogeny.[b] The 19th century
Icelandic scholar and archaeologist Finnur Magnússon hypothesized that Borr was

• "intended to signify [...] the first mountain or mountain-chain, which it was
  deemed by the forefathers of our race had emerged from the waters in the same
  region where the first land made its appearance. This mountain chain is probably
  the Caucasus, called by the Persians Borz (the genitive of the Old Norse Borr).
  Bör's wife, Belsta or Bestla, a daughter of the giant Bölthorn (spina
  calamitosa), is possibly the mass of ice formed on the alpine summits."[6] In
  his Lexicon Mythologicum, published four years later, he modified his theory to
  claim that Borr symbolized the earth, and Bestla the ocean, which gave birth to
  Odin as the "world spirit" or "great soul of the earth" (spiritus mundi nostri;
  terrae magna anima, aëris et aurae numen), Vili or Hoenir as the "heavenly
  light" (lux, imprimis coelestis) and Vé or Lódur as "fire" (ignis, vel
  elementalis vel proprie sic dictus).[7] Highlighting that no source provides
  information about Borr's mother (Borr's father was licked free from the earth by
  the primeval cow Auðumbla), Rudolf Simek observes that "It is not clear how Burr
  came to be".[8] Footnotes edit- ^ The Konungsbók or Codex Regius MS of the
  Völuspá reads Búrr; the Hauksbók MS reads Borr; cf. Nordal (1980), p. 31. The
  latter form alone was used by 13th century historian and poet Snorri Sturluson;
  cf. Simek (1988), p. 54. - ^ "Must not Buri, Börr, Oðinn be parallel, though
  under other names, to Tvisco, Mannus, Inguio? Inguio has two brothers at his
  side, Iscio and Hermino, as Oðinn has Vili and Ve; we should then see the reason
  why the names Týski (Tvisco, i.e. Tuisto) and Maðr (Mannus) are absent from the
  Edda, because Buri and Börr are their substitutes." Grimm (1883), p. 349
  References edit- ^ de Vries (1977), p. 51 - ^ Nordal (1980), p. 31 - ^ Sturluson
  (1927), p. 4, tr. Bellows - ^ Lorenz (1984), p. 136 - ^ Sturluson (1916), tr.
  Brodeur - ^ Magnússon (1824), p. 42, as quoted by Mallet (1847), p. 486-487. - ^
  Mallet (1847), p. 487 - ^ Simek (2007), p. 50 References edit- Sturluson, S.
  (1916). The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson. Translated by Brodeur, A.G. New
  York, NY: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. - Sturluson, S. (1927). The
  Poetic Edda. Translated by Bellows, Henry Adams. New York, NY: The American-
  Scandinavian Foundation. - de Vries, J. (1977). Altnordisches Etymologisches
  Wörterbuch [Old Norse Etymological Dictionary] (in German). Leiden, NL: Brill. -
  Magnússon, F. (1824). Eddalaeren og dens oprindelse [The Poetic Edda and its
  Origins] (in Danish). Vol. I. - Grimm, J. (1883). Teutonic Mythology. Vol. I.
  London, UK: G. Bell and Sons. - Lindow, John (2001). Handbook of Norse
  Mythology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. - Lorenz, Gottfried (1984). Gylfaginning
  [The Confounding of Gylfi] (in Icelandic). Darmstadt, DE: Wissenschaftliche
  Buchgesellschaft. - Mallet, M. (1847). Northern Antiquities. London, UK: Henry
  G. Bohn. - Nordal, Sigurd (1980). Völuspá. Darmstadt, DE: Wissenschaftliche
  Buchgesellschaft. - Simek, Rudolf (1988). Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie
  [Dictionary of Germanic Mythology] (in German). Stuttgart, DE: Alfred Kröner. -
  Simek, Rudolf (2007). Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Translated by Hall,
  Angela. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-513-1. - Thorpe, Benjamin (1851). Northern
  Mythology. London, UK: Edward Lumley.