Ullr

Summary

Ullr is the son of Sif and the stepson of Thor in the Scandinavian myths; the sources do not name his father. Snorri says he is such a bowman and skier that no one can match him, that he is fair of appearance and has a warrior's accomplishments, and that it is good to call on him in single combat. The poets call him the ski-god, the bow-god, the hunting-god and the shield-god.

The Eddas keep no full story of him, but they keep his name in places that matter. His dwelling in Grímnismál is Ýdalir, the yew-dales, and yew is the wood bows are made from, so that the Norse word for yew also came to mean a bow. In the same poem: "Ullr's favour, and that of all the gods, has he who first reaches for the fire." In Atlakviða Guðrún reminds her husband Atli of the oaths he swore to her brother Gunnarr: by the sun turning south, by the rock of the victory-god, by the marriage bed, "and by Ullr's ring".

The idea his stories turn on is that Ullr is the god of the skills a hunter lives by in the snow: the bow, the skis and the shield. His name comes up where two men meet with weapons or with an oath: he is called on in single combat, and oaths are sworn by his ring. Snorri describes him in the words he uses for Skaði, who also goes about much on skis and hunts with the bow. The hunter on the snow has two faces in the myths: Thor's stepson from the gods' household, and the giant's daughter who joined the gods by marriage.

We read the name in the Arabic tongue like this. The final r of Ullr is the Old Norse nominative ending, the genitive being Ullar, which leaves Ull-: u followed by a doubled l. The essay gives four readings, two of them from one root: ulla, a sharp spear, and alla, to gleam and shine. That root is hamza with a doubled l: the hamza drops in the European languages, and the doubled l answers the two l's of the Norse name. Al-Jawharī's Ṣiḥāḥ has allahu, "he pierced him with the spear", and alla lawnuhu, "his colour became clear and gleamed"; Lane gives ill as a covenant, a league and kinship. The root joins the hunter's weapon, the gleam of a fair face and the covenant, the three things Ullr is known by: the bow and the hunt, his fair appearance, and the ring sworn by.

Linguistic Root

Ullr and alla

Cleasby–Vigfusson say Ullr is akin to Gothic wulþus, glory. Orel gives the Germanic source as *wulþuz, "splendour" in Gothic, says it is identical with Latin vultus, facial expression and appearance, and cites Old English wuldor, glory, beside it. In Germanic, then, Ullr's name carries splendour and appearance, which is what Snorri says: fair of appearance.

Al-Jawharī's Ṣiḥāḥ, under ʾ-l-l: "allahu, he pierced him with the spear"; "alla lawnuhu, his colour became clear and gleamed"; and "al-ill is also covenant and kinship". Lane gives ill as a compact by which a person becomes responsible for another's safety, a confederacy, a covenant of protection, relationship, and lordship.

The comparison keeps the doubled l as it is and drops the hamza, as the gutturals drop in the European languages under the Juthoor sound laws, with the u in its place at the start. One thing remains: the two l's of Ullr come from an older l and þ, as in Gothic wulþus, and a w at the start was lost before u. The root ʾ-l-l explains the Norse form, not the w and þ of the older one.

Other readings in the essay

The essay puts ʿalā, to be high, first, making Ullr a god of high mountains, then ulla, then wallala, to rise, then alla, to gleam on the snow. Lane gives ʿalāʾ as high rank, eminence and nobility, and one says a man surpassed others in nobility and goodliness, so it meets the sense of glory in the Germanic word; its ʿ drops as the hamza does, but it has a single l and a final w. Wallala begins with the w that stood at the start of the Germanic word, but Lane gives nothing under this root except walwala, a woman raising her voice in weeping.

Key Mythic Narratives

Ollerus in Saxo

Saxo Grammaticus tells in Book Three of his Gesta Danorum that the gods exiled Odin for a disgrace he had incurred and set in his place a man called Ollerus, giving him Odin's name and the emblems of kingship and godhead, so that he presided over the gods' council for nearly ten years. When Odin returned, Ollerus was driven out to Sweden, where the Danes killed him. Saxo says he was a sorcerer who crossed the sea on a bone carved with spells instead of a ship. Commentators see Ullr in Ollerus, and the bone that carries him over water recalls the skis on which he travels over snow in Snorri's account.

The fire and the cauldrons

The Grímnismál stanza on Ullr's favour for whoever first reaches for the fire comes in the middle of Odin's speech as he sits between two fires in King Geirröðr's hall, and is followed by the words: the worlds open to the sons of the gods when the cauldrons are lifted off. The text does not explain Ullr's link with the fire and the cauldrons.

Symbolic Reading

The Semitic-reading essay makes Ullr the god of winter, skiing, hunting and fighting with the bow, dwelling in the high mountains, and calls him "the fair god" by whose name oaths are sworn in agreements, which Ullr's ring in Atlakviða bears out. No ancient text places him on mountains, though: his dwelling in Grímnismál is in dales, not on peaks.

Cross-Cultural Parallels

Artemis is the Greek huntress with the bow in the wild places, and Diana the Roman one. Ullr shares the bow and the hunt with them and differs in the skis and the snow, and in being called on in single combat and sworn by on his ring. The figure closest to him in Norse myth itself is Skaði, whom Snorri describes in the same words.