Myrkviðr

In Germanic mythology, Myrkviðr (Old Norse "dark wood"[1] or "black forest"[2]) is the name of
several European forests.

The direct derivatives of the name occur as a place name both in Sweden and Norway. Related
forms of the name occur elsewhere in Europe, such as in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), and may
thus be a general term for dark and dense forests of ancient Europe.[3][4]

The name was anglicised by Sir Walter Scott (in Waverley) and William Morris (in The House of
the Wolfings) and later popularized by J. R. R. Tolkien as "Mirkwood".

Etymology
The word myrkviðr is a compound of two words. The first element is myrkr "dark", which is
cognate to, among others, the English adjectives mirky and murky.[5][6] The second element is
viðr "wood, forest".[7]

Attestations
The name is attested as a mythical local name of a forest in the Poetic Edda poem Lokasenna, and
the heroic poems Atlakviða, Helgakviða Hundingsbana I and Hlöðskviða, and in prose in
Fornmanna sögur, Flateyjarbók, Hervarar Saga, Ála flekks saga.[1][5][8]

The localization of Myrkviðr varies by source:

1. The Ore Mountains in the writings of Thietmar of Merseburg.[9]

2. The forests north of the Ukrainian steppe during the time of the Goths and the Huns in the
Norse Hervarar saga[10]
3. The forest that separates the Huns from the Burgundians
4. Kolmården ("the dark forest"), in Sweden, in Sögubrot and in legends such as that of Helge
Hundingsbane
5. The forest south of Uppsala in Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa (the present remnant of this forest is
called Lunsen)
6. Uncertain locations, such as in the Völundarkviða, where it is probably located elsewhere in
Scandinavia (Weyland is here described as a Finnish prince, which would make him a Saami
prince). Stanza 1 (on the swan maidens):
Meyjar flugu sunnan Maids from the south
myrkvið í gögnum, through Myrkwood flew,
Alvitr unga, Fair and young,
örlög drýgja; their fate to follow;
þær á sævarströnd On the shore of the sea
settusk at hvílask to rest them they sat,
drósir suðrænar, The maids of the south,
dýrt lín spunnu.[11] and flax they spun.[12]

1.
 6. Mythological. In other sources, such as the Poetic Edda, e.g. Lokasenna, the location seems to
be between Asgard and Muspelheim, as Muspell's sons ride through it at Ragnarök. Stanza 42:
Loci qvaþ: Loki spake:
«Gvlli keypta "The daughter of Gymir
leztv Gymis dottvr with gold didst thou buy,
oc seldir þitt sva sverþ; And sold thy sword to boot;
enn er Mvspellz synir But when Muspell's sons
ríða Myrcviþ yfir, through Myrkwood ride,
veizta þv þa, vesall! hve þv vegr.»[13] Thou shalt weaponless wait, poor wretch."[14]

Theories
J. R. R. Tolkien comments on Myrkviðr in a letter to his eldest grandson:

Mirkwood is not an invention of mine, but a very ancient name, weighted with legendary
associations. It was probably the Primitive Germanic name for the great mountainous
forest regions that anciently formed a barrier to the south of the lands of Germanic
expansion. In some traditions it became used especially of the boundary between Goths
and Huns. I speak now from memory: its ancientness seems indicated by its appearance
in very early German (11th c.?) as mirkiwidu although the *merkw- stem 'dark' is not
otherwise found in German at all (only in O[ld] E[nglish], O[ld] S[axon], and O[ld]
N[orse]), and the stem *widu- > witu was in German (I think) limited to the sense of
'timber,' not very common, and did not survive into mod[ern] G[erman]. In O[ld]
E[nglish] mirce only survives in poetry, and in the sense 'dark', or rather 'gloomy', only in
Beowulf [line] 1405 ofer myrcan mor: elsewhere only with the sense 'murky' > wicked,
hellish. It was never, I think, a mere 'colour' word: 'black', and was from the beginning
weighted with the sense of 'gloom'...[15]

Regarding the forests, Francis Gentry comments that "in the Norse tradition 'crossing the Black
Forest' came to signify penetrating the barriers between one world and another, especially the
world of the gods and the world of fire, where Surt lives [...]."[2]

Modern influence
It was first anglicized as Mirkwood by Sir Walter Scott in Waverley, followed by William Morris in
A Tale of the House of the Wolfings from 1888, and later by J. R. R. Tolkien in his fiction.[16]

See also
Járnviðr
Hercynian Forest, an ancient forest of southern Germany
Miriquidi

Notes
1. Simek (2007:224)
2. Gentry (2002:101–102)
 3. Bugge (1896:65).
4. Chadwick (1922:201)
5. Cleasby and Vigfusson (1874:549)
6. Bjorvand and Lindeman (2007:770)
7. Cleasby and Vigfusson (1874:703)
8. Lagerholm, Åke, ed. (1927). Drei Lygisǫgur. Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana,
Ála flekks saga, Flóres saga konungs ok sona hans (in Old Norse). Halle: Max Niemeyer
Verlag. p. 116.
9. Gentry 2002, p. 101.
10. Eggers, M. (2002). "Myrkviðr". In Beck, Heinrich (ed.). Reallexikon der germansichen
Altertumskunde (https://books.google.com/books?id=CvSk4Ds393oC&pg=PA460). Vol. 20
(2 ed.). pp. 460–461. ISBN 9783110171648.
11. Völundarkviða from heimskringla.no (http://www.heimskringla.no/original/edda/volundarkvida.p
hp) Archived (http://wayback.vefsafn.is/wayback/20070508181623/http://www.heimskringla.no/
original/edda/volundarkvida.php) 2007-05-08 at the National and University Library of Iceland
12. Bellows' translation of Völundarkviða. (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe17.htm)
13. Lokasenna. (http://www.home.no/norron-mytologi/sgndok/edda/06lokas.htm)
14. Bellows' translation of Lokasenna. (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe10.htm)
15. Carpenter (1981:369) quoted in "Mirkwood" (http://www.henneth-annun.net/resources/places_v
iew.cfm?plid=145). Henneth Annûn Story Archive. Retrieved 15 November 2008.
16. "Mirkwood" (http://www.henneth-annun.net/resources/places_view.cfm?plid=145). Henneth
Annûn Story Archive. Retrieved 15 November 2008.

References
Bugge, Sophus (1896). [1] (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_46AdYjlC2zEC) Helge-digtene i
den Ældre Edda. G. E. C. Gad
Bjordvand, Harald; Lindeman, Fredrik Otto (2007). Våre arveord. Novus. ISBN 978-82-7099-
467-0
Gentry, Francis G. (2002). The Nibelungen Tradition: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 0-
8153-1785-9.
Carpenter, Humphrey (1981). The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. London: Allen & Unwin
Chadwick, Nora K. (1922). [2] (https://archive.org/details/anglosaxonnorsep00chadrich) Anglo-
Saxon and Norse poems. Cambridge: The University press
Cleasby, Richard; Vigfusson, Gudbrand (1874). [3] (http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germa
nic/oi_cleasbyvigfusson_about.html) Icelandic–English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer.
ISBN 0-85991-513-1

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