NorsePlaying Bragi's hall: Bókrumnir.
The Norse Lore has assigned hall names for many of the Gods' residences, but an omission I've always been curious about is where Bragi dwells.
While Bragi, in a very Baldr-like way, is always welcome everywhere thanks to his storytelling abilities and the potential to glorify his host in poetry, it's never mentioned where he actually goes home to.
Functionally Bragi's partly described as a meet-and-greeter for the honoured warriors who come into Valhalla. One could suppose that maybe he heralds them upon entry, perhaps naming & enumerating their martial deeds for those already in the hall. But this MC duty still doesn't actually place Bragi as living in Valhalla.
There's also the possibly that he perhaps instead moved in with Iðunn. One attestation from Hrafnagaldr Óðins places Iðunn as descending from elves, as one of "Ivaldi's elder children", and as a dís who dwells in dales. Those descriptors would make Iðunn at least part elf and possibly part dwarf since the Sons Of Ivaldi are dwarves that make items for the Gods in Skáldskaparmál, but it's never defined that Ivaldi himself is a dwarf (and perhaps she's a later step-sister from a differing non-dwarven mother), so all of that could place her away in Alfheimr or Niðavellir. Yet it's implied the sacred grove where her apples are grown & picked is in Asgard, which would more easily place her there with the Aesir. As some of the other Goddesses have their own halls despite being married, this could make sense, but if like Odin & Frigg, Odin has his own hall it then stands to reason Bragi has his own as well.
Bragi's non-residence and perma-guestlisted-ness would imply that the Aesir are constantly entertaining every single night, and while they are the Gods, there have to be periods where daily business/cosmic functions/external crises take precedence over feasting and the need to have tales & song must be set aside.
Ergo, Bragi has to have a hall, not only to rest, but probably also to write new material like any creative type (the temporal requirement alone on entertaining his co-divinities for a possibly endless span of time would require near-constant new content), and private space in which he & Iðunn can enjoy each other's company.
As a working writer I would imagine an ideal godsworthy oversized library with references, and a study/studio area where the research & creation of new works are wordsmithed into prose & poetry. While this may not jibe with the skaldic tradition of remembering by rote & improvisation to accommodate specific audiences, we're talking about a god that lives in mythic time that would have a technological superiority in terms of media, so all the books inclusive of the other-races' runescripted works mentioned in the Rúnatal, maybe even some form of metaphysical/Thor-matrixed smartpaper for easier data retrieval, annotation, and composition, probably used with an evolved cursive-based runic for quicker writing, and maybe a wireless futhark keyboard.
To NorsePlay some Bragi's Hall names based on his contexts:
Fyllahugmóði: "Fill-the-mind"/"Filled-with-ingenuity". This modern Icelandic phrase turned compound is a good alternative to the Old Norse Óðr, or roughly "inspiration", which I'm avoiding since this is the name of Freyja's wandering husband and as a name is more properly his than associatively Bragi's, so this is a close fit and makes a great placename.
Sǫngrtún: "Music-enclosure". This would be a good likening to a modern recording studio, or a practice space.
Skáldsalir: "Halls of the Poet".
Bókrumnir: "Book-room". This carries the modern Icelandic word for book backwards, but the Gods' perspective from mythic time makes that possible, and the prefix actually does have older Proto-Germanic etymology behind it.
With the concept of kennings, Bragi's Hall could be called all the above, though NorsePlay nametakes Bókrumnir for Bragi's Hall as the idea of a reference & research library, along with Iceland's marked penchant as a book-loving culture, makes this the most appropriate choice.
 |
| [this is actually "The Den" area of Mr & Mrs Fox, a brewhouse restaurant in Hong Kong.] |
I would also like to think that those dedicated to Bragi and exhibit his talents might win permanent afterlife research/creative residencies and armring style library cards.
Comments
Post a Comment