Bragi

Summary

Bragi is the god of poetry in the Scandinavian myths, and a son of Odin in the poets' names for him. Snorri says in Gylfaginning that he is excellent in wisdom, the best of the gods in eloquence, and the most learned in the craft of poetry; from his name poetry is called bragr, and a man or woman who surpasses others in skill with words is called "the bragr of men" or "the bragr of women". His wife is Iðunn, who keeps in her casket the apples the gods eat when they grow old so that they become young again, and so it will be until Ragnarök. Gylfaginning 26; Skáldskaparmál 10.

His story is that of a teller who keeps the gods' history and tells it. At the start of Skáldskaparmál Ægir, a man who lives on an island in the sea, visits the gods in Asgard, and Bragi sits beside him at the drinking and tells him what has happened among the gods. He tells how Loki was forced to lure Iðunn out of Asgard to the giant Þjazi, who carried her off in the shape of an eagle; how the gods grew old and grey until they threatened Loki, who borrowed the falcon's plumage of Freyja and brought her back in the shape of a nut; how the eagle caught fire at the wall of Asgard and was killed; and how his daughter Skaði came to avenge him. Then Ægir asks him where the craft they call poetry began, and Bragi tells him of the mead of poetry and how Odin won it. Skáldskaparmál 1. Grímnismál says that Bragi is foremost of poets as Odin is foremost of gods and Sleipnir of horses.

The idea the story turns on is that two things keep the gods in being: the youth of their bodies and the memory of their deeds. Iðunn keeps the first with her apples and Bragi keeps the second with his words, so one household holds what keeps the gods alive and what keeps their story after them. That is why Bragi is the first one Loki turns on when he enters Ægir's feast to spoil it: he greets all the gods except Bragi; Bragi offers him a horse, a sword and a ring to keep the peace, and Loki taunts him as the most cowardly of the gods in battle and an ornament of the benches.

We read the name in the Arabic tongue like this. The final i of Bragi is an Old Norse ending that becomes a in the genitive, Braga, as in "Bragi's tongue". What remains is Brag-, b, r and hard g, which the essay reads as Arabic baraʿa. In Lisān al-ʿArab, baraʿa is said of a man who surpassed his companions in knowledge and other qualities; baraʿa ṣāḥibahu means he overcame his companion; and the bāriʿ is one accomplished in every excellence. This is just how Snorri explains the name: a person who surpasses others in skill with words is called bragr, and in the Norse dictionary bragr means "best, foremost". On this reading Bragi is the bāriʿ, the one who surpasses the gods in speech, which is what the story makes him: the speaker in the gods' hall and the teller of their history.

Linguistic Root

Bragi and bāriʿ

Cleasby–Vigfusson gives bragr three senses: "best, foremost", as in "the bragr of women", the best of women; then manner or fashion of life; then poetry. It compares Old English brego, "prince". Hyndluljóð says that Odin gives bragr to poets.

Lane, under b-r-ʿ, gives baraʿa and baruʿa: "he excelled in knowledge, or courage, or other qualities; or he excelled his companions in knowledge &c.; or he was accomplished, perfect in every excellence and in goodliness"; the bāriʿ is such a man, barīʿa a woman excelling in beauty and intelligence, and baraʿa al-jabal means he climbed the mountain. The sense is rising above one's peers, the first sense of bragr.

The sound is less regular than the sense. B and r stay, but in the Juthoor laws ʿayn drops in most recorded correspondences, or becomes h; it does not become hard g. The letter that regularly becomes g is jīm. So beside baraʿa we set the essay's third reading, barija, which Lane gives as "it was apparent, conspicuous, and high", whence burj, a tower. That one matches the sound of the name, while baraʿa matches the sense Snorri gives the word; the two meet in b and r and in the sense of height and prominence.

Other readings in the essay

The essay puts baraʿa first, then baraqa, gleam, which it takes as the brilliance of speech; q often becomes g in the recorded correspondences, but the gleam belongs to light, not to speech. Then baraja, height, which it takes as the high standing of the poet. Then barraka, to seek blessing, making poetry a sacred act. The essay says that Arabic barāʿa describes mastery of language in particular, and compares Bragi with Apollo and Thoth.

Key Mythic Narratives

The quarrel at Ægir's feast

When Loki greets all the gods except Bragi, Bragi offers him a horse, a sword and a ring to keep him from harm. Loki answers: you will never have horse or arm-rings, for you are the most wary of battle among the gods and the shyest of shooting. Bragi says: if I were outside the hall, I would carry your head in my hand. Loki replies: you are bold in your seat, bench-ornament; go out and fight if you are angry. Then Iðunn asks her husband not to answer, Loki accuses her of having embraced her brother's slayer, and she says she is calming Bragi, who is merry with ale. No other text tells of her brother's slayer.

Bragi's tongue

In Sigrdrífumál the valkyrie Sigrdrífa lists the places on which runes were carved, and among them is "Bragi's tongue", beside the bear's paw, the wolf's claws and the eagle's beak.

Poetic names and Bragi the poet

Poets name Bragi, as Snorri collects the terms, husband of Iðunn, first maker of poetry, the long-bearded god (after his name a man with a great beard is called "beard-Bragi"), and son of Odin. At the start of Gylfaginning Snorri quotes verses by a poet he calls "Bragi the Old" about the goddess Gefjun, who ploughed a piece of land away from Sweden. The texts do not say whether the god took his name from a famous poet or the poet bore the god's name.

Symbolic Reading

The Arabic essay reads Bragi as the god of poetry, music and eloquence, with runes carved on his tongue as poetry, and sees in Arabic barāʿa a word for mastery of language in particular, so that poetry for the essay is excellence in speech. In the texts Bragi holds both kinds of word: the remembered word, when he tells Ægir the gods' history, and the carved word, when runes are cut on his tongue.

Cross-Cultural Parallels

The essay compares Bragi with Apollo, the Greek god of music and prophecy, and with Thoth, the Egyptian scribe of the gods, who records the result when the heart is weighed in the court of the dead. Bragi and Thoth both keep the gods' words; they differ in that Thoth writes and records, while Bragi tells stories in the hall and gives poetry its name. Odin himself, Bragi's father, is the one who brought the mead of poetry to the gods in the story Bragi tells.