Feather cloak
Feather cloaks have been used by several cultures.
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Hawaii
Elaborate feather cloaks called ʻahu ʻula[1] were created by early Hawaiians for the aliʻi (royalty).[2] Feathers were also used in women's skirts called pāʻū.[3] The ʻiʻiwi (Vestiaria coccinea) and ʻapapane (Himatione sanguinea), which provided red feathers, were killed and skinned due to their abundance. Yellow feathers were obtained from the mostly black and rarer ʻōʻō (Moho nobilis) and mamo (Drepanis pacifica) using a catch and release philosophy to ensure future availability.[4]
Famous works include:
- Nāhiʻenaʻena's Paʻū, feather skirt of Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena and funeral garment of Hawaiian royals[5][6]
- Kamehameha's Cloak, feather cloak of Kamehameha I made entirely of the golden-yellow feather of the mamo, used by the kings of Hawaii
- Kiwalao's Cloak, feather cloak of Kīwalaʻō captured by Kamehameha I in 1782, used by the Queens of Hawaii
- Liloa's Kāʻei, sash of King Līloa of the island of Hawaii
Brazil
Feather cloaks were known to the coastal Tupi people, notably the Tupinambá. The cloaks called gûaraabuku were dressed by the paîé (Tupian shamans) during rituals. They were made from the red plumage of gûará (Eudocimus ruber) and had a hood at the top, which could cover the entire head, shoulders and thighs up to the buttocks.
Māori
In Māori culture feathers are a sign of chiefly rank,[7] and the kahu huruhuru (feather cloak),[8] is still used as sign of rank or respect.[9][10]
Germanic
Bird-hamir or feather cloaks that enable the wearers to take the form of, or become, birds are widespread in Germanic mythology and legend. The term hamir can be translated as various terms such as skin, cloak, costume, coat or form.[11][12][13][14][15]
Gods and jötnar
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In Norse mythology, goddesses Freyja and Frigg each own a feather cloak or feather costume that imparts the ability of flight.[15][16] Freyja is not attested as using the cloak herself,[17] however she lent her fjaðrhamr "feather cloak" to Loki so he could fly to Jötunheimr after Þórr's hammer went missing in Þrymskviða, and to rescue Iðunn from the jötunn Þjazi in Skáldskaparmál who had abducted the goddess while in an arnarhamr "eagle shape".[12][18][22] Loki also uses Frigg's feather cloak to journey to Geirröðargarða, referred to here as a valshamr ("falcon-feathered cloak").[25]
In Ynglinga saga, Óðinn is described as being able to change his shape into that of animals.[26] In the story of the Mead of Poetry from Skáldskaparmál, he does not explicitly require a physical item to assume an "eagle-form" (arnarhamr) to flee with the mead, in contrast to the jötunn Suttung, who must put on his (arnarhamr) in order to pursue him.[27][28]
Heroic legend
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In Völsunga saga, the wife of King Rerir is unable to conceive a child and so the couple prays to Odin and Frigg for help. Hearing this, Frigg then sends one of her maids wearing a krákuhamr (crow-cloak) to the king with a magic apple that, when eaten, made the queen pregnant with her son Völsung.[29][30][31]
The master smith Wayland forges a pair of wings to help his escape from King Niðhad after he is hamstrung, as depicted on a panel of the 8th-century whale-bone Franks Casket and described in the corresponding episode preserved in the Þiðreks saga.[32] Though the flying apparatus is called "wings" or "a wing" (Old Norse: flygil), borrowed from the German Flügel,[33] the finished product is said to be very much like a fjaðrhamr flayed from a griffin, or vulture, or an ostrich.[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3][34][35][37]
Furthermore, the three swan-maidens, also described as valkyrjur, in the prose prologue of Völundarkviða own álftarhamir ("swan cloaks" or "swan garments") which give the wearer the form of a swan.[38][39][40] This bears similarity to the account of the eight valkyrjur with hamir in Helreið Brynhildar.[41][38]
Translations
There are also several attested uses of the term fjaðrhamr found in foreign material translated into Old Norse.[42][43] One example is Breta sögur, an Old Norse adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae that describes a pseudo-history of the Celtic Britons. In this account, the king Bladud uses a fjaðrhamr to fly;[44][14][43] while here fjaðrhamr does describe a flying suit, its usage does not involve transformation into bird.[14] In the original source, Bladud's flying contraption is described as a set of artificial wings he orders to be made.[14] The Middle English rendition, Layamon's Brut, also refers to Bladud's wings as Middle English: feðer-home, cognate with Old Norse: fjaðrhamr.[45]
Other
There are bird-people depicted on the Oseberg tapestry fragments, which may be some personage or deity wearing winged cloaks, but it is difficult to identify the figures or even ascertain gender.[46]
Celtic
In Ireland, the elite class of poets known as the filid wore a feathered cloak, the tuigen (see Suibhne Gelt).
In the Konungs skuggsjá, we can read a description of these poets in the chapter dealing with Irish marvels (XI):
There is still another matter, that about the men who are called “gelts,” which must seem wonderful. Men appear to become gelts in this way: when hostile forces meet and are drawn up in two lines and both set up a terrifying battle-cry, it happens that timid and youthful men who have never been in the host before are sometimes seized with such fear and terror that they lose their wits and run away from the rest into the forest, where they seek food like beasts and shun the meeting of men like wild animals. It is also told that if these people live in the woods for twenty winters in this way, feathers will grow upon their bodies as on birds; these serve to protect them from frost and cold, but they have no large feathers to use in flight as birds have. But so great is their fleetness said to be that it is not possible for other men or even for greyhounds to come near them; for those men can dash up into a tree almost as swiftly as apes or squirrels.[47]
The tuigen is also described in Sanas Cormaic and in the Immacallam in dá Thuarad.
This concept is adapted to the Greek mythology ; Mercury, god of medicine, wears a "bird covering" or "feather mantle" rather than talaria (usually conceived of as feathered slippers) in medieval Irish versions of the Greco-Roman classics, such as the Aeneid.[48]
Explanatory notes
- Old Norse: "fleginn af grip eða af gambr eða af þeim fugl er struz heitir".
- The terms grip and gambr (gammr) are both glossed as 'vulture' in Cleasby-Vigfusson and Haymes's translation collapses three birds into two: "winged haunch of a vulture, or of a bird called ostrich". The sense of 'vulture' (prob. for grip) is suggested by Schröder.[34]
- The fjaðrhamr has also been rendered as "feather haunch" or "winged haunch",[35] even though the literal translation would be "feather skin".[36]
References
- Mary Kawena Pukui and Elbert (2003). "lookup of ahu". on Hawaiian dictionary. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii. Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
- "Na Hulu AliʻI: Royal Feathers ~ An Exhibition Of Rare Hawaiian Featherwork". Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau. 2 September 2006. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
- Mary Kawena Pukui and Elbert (2003). "lookup of pā.ʻū". on Hawaiian dictionary. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii. Archived from the original on 16 July 2012. Retrieved 4 April 2010.
- Hiroa, Te Rangi (1944). "The Local Evolution of Hawaiian Feather Capes and Cloaks". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 53 (1): 1–16.
- Ron Staton (9 June 2003). "Historic feather garment to be displayed". The Honolulu Advertiser.
- Burl Burlingame (6 May 2003). "Rare pa'u pageantry The grand cloak is made of hundreds of thousands of feathers from the 'oo and mamo birds". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Retrieved 29 November 2001.
- Te Ara
- Te Ara
- "Elton John gifted rare Maori cloak". The New Zealand Herald. 7 December 2007. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
- Kay, Martin (9 April 2009). "Clark gets cloak for a queen". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
- Orchard tr. 2011, pp. 96–101, 304, Thrymskvida: The song of Thrym, Notes: Thrymskvida: The song of Thrym.
- Davidson 2002, p. 109.
- Vigfússon 1883, p. 176, Þryms-kviða; or, The Lay of Thrym.
- McKinnel 2014, p-201 and note 13.
- Näsström 1995, p. 110.
- Morris 1991, p. 201.
- Egeler (2013), p. 117.
- Þrymskviða 3,6; 5,2; 9,2.[14] Finnur Jónsson ed. (1905),1905 Vigfusson & Powell ed. with prose tr. (1883)[13] Orchard tr. (2011)[11]
- Sveinbjörn Egilsson ed. 1848, p. 208ff, Bragaræður 56.
- Byock tr. 2005.
- Faulkes tr. 2005, Skáldskaparmál 56.
- Snorra Edda, Skaldskaparmál G1, G56.[16][17] Text, Copenhagen edition (1848);[19] Translations by Byock (2005),[20] and by Faulkes (1995)[21].
- Faulkes tr. 2005, Skáldskaparmál 18 & 19.
- Thorpe 1851, pp. 52–53.
- Skaldskaparmál G18.[16] Translations by Faulkes (1995)[23] and Thorpe (1851).[24]
- Davidson 1968, p. 122.
- Egeler (2009), p. 443.
- Sveinbjörn Egilsson ed. 1848, p. 218ff, Bragaræður 58.
- Egeler (2009), pp. 442, 444.
- "Völsunga saga – heimskringla.no". heimskringla.no. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
- Crawford 2017, pp. 2–3.
- Vandersall 1972, pp. 12–13.
- Cleasby 2017, flygil.
- Shröder, Franz Rolf (1977) "Der Name Wieland", BzN, new ser. 4:53–62. Quoted by: Harris, Joseph (2005) [1985]. "Eddic Poetry". In Clover, Carol J.; Lindow, John (eds.). Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide. University of Toronto Press. p. 103. ISBN 9780802038234.
- Haymes tr. 1988, pp. 53–54, Chapter 77.
- Cleasby 2017, hamr.
- Unger tr. 1853, pp. 92–94, Chapter 77.
- Egeler (2009), pp. 441–442.
- Finnur Jónsson ed. 1905, p. 147ff, Völundarkviða.
- Orchard tr. 2011, Völundarkvida: The song of Völund.
- Benoit 1989, pp. 69–84.
- Aforementioned Þiðreks saga is considered "foreign" here by McKinnel since it was translated from a Low German source.
- McKinnel 2016, p. 334.
- Jónsson & 1892-1896.
- Prior 1860, pp. 3–10.
- Mannering 2016, pp. 6–27.
- "The King's Mirror (Speculum Regale--Konungs Skuggsjá) tr. from the old Norwegian, by Anonymous--A Project Gutenberg eBook". www.gutenberg.org.
- Miles 2011, pp. 75–76.
Bibliography
Primary
- ""Mythic and legendary tales from Skaldskaparmal: §The Theft of Idunn and Her Apples; §Loki Retrieves Idunn from the Giant Thiazi"". The Prose Edda. Translated by Byock, Jesse. Penguin UK. 2005. ISBN 9780141912745. and "Introduction", p. xxii, 'valshamr'.
- Crawford, Jackson (2017). The Saga of the Volsungs: With the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN 9781624666339.
- Sveinbjörn Egilsson, ed. (1848). "Bragaræður 56 & 58". Edda Snorra Sturlusonar. Vol. 3. Copenhagen.
- Edda: Snorri Sturluson. Everyman Library. Translated by Faulkes, Anthony. J. M. Dent. 1995 [1987]. p. 60, 81-83, 84. ISBN 978-0-4608-7616-2. The chapter numbering follows the 1848 Copenhagen edition, which is the one usually cited (p. xxiii).
- Haymes, Edward R., tr. (1988). The Saga of Thidrek of Bern. Garland. ISBN 0-8240-8489-6.
- Eiríkur Jónsson; Finnur Jónsson, eds. (1892–1896). Breta sögur. Hauksbók:udgiven efter de Arnamagnænske Händskrifter No. 371, 544 og 675 4º. samt forskellige Papirshändskrifter. Kongelige Nordiske oldskriftselskab (Denmark). Copenhagen: Thieles bogtr. "Af Madann", c. 12, line 157ff. (p. 248).
het Bladvð er riki.. .xx. vetr konengr verit þa let hann gera ser fiaðrham
- The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking Lore. Translated by Orchard, Andy. London: Penguin Books. 2011. ISBN 9780141393728.
- Thorpe, Benjamin (1851). "Thor in the house of Geirröd (Geirröðr)". Northern Mythology. Edward Lumley. pp. 52–53.
- Unger, Henrik, ed. (1853). Saga Điðriks konungs af Bern: Fortælling om Kong Thidrik af Bern og hans kæmper, i norsk bearbeidelse fra det trettende aarhundrede efter tydske kilder. Christiania: Feilberg & Landmark. pp. 92–94.
- Vigfússon, Guðbrandur; Powell, Frederick York, eds. (1883). Corpus poeticum boreale: the poetry of the old northern tongue, from the earliest times to the thirteenth century (in Icelandic and English). Vol. 1. Clarendon Press.
Secondary
- Benoit, Jérémie (1989). "Le Cygne et la Valkyrie. Dévaluation d'un mythe". Romantisme (in French). 19 (64): 69–84. doi:10.3406/roman.1989.5588.
- Cleasby, Richard (2017). An Icelandic English Dictionary Chiefly founded on the collections made from prose worls of the 12th-14th centuries by the late Richard Cleasby, enlarged and completed by Gudbrand Vigfusson (Nachdruck der Ausgabe von 1869 ed.). Norderstedt: Hansebooks. ISBN 9783337317614.
- Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis (1968). The Road to Hel: a study of the conception of the dead in Old Norse literature. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0837100704.
- Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis (2002) [1993]. The lost beliefs of northern Europe. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781134944682.
- Egeler, Matthias (2009). "Keltisch-mediterrane Perspektiven auf die altnordischen Walkürenvorstellungen". In Heizmann, Wilhelm; Böldl, Klaus; Beck, Heinrich (eds.). Analecta Septentrionalia: Beiträge zur nordgermanischen Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte. Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 65 (in German). Walter de Gruyter. pp. 393–466. ISBN 9783110218701.
- Egeler, Matthias (2013). Celtic Influences in Germanic Religion: A Survey. Münchner nordistische Studien 15. Herbert Utz Verlag. pp. 393–466. ISBN 9783831642267.
- Finnur Jónsson, ed. (1905). Sæmundar-Edda: Eddukvæði. Reykjavík: S. Kristjánsson.
- Mannering, Ulla (2016). Iconic Costumes: Scandinavian Late Iron Age Costume Iconography. Oxbow Books. pp. 6–27. ISBN 9781785702181.
- McKinnel, John (2014) [2000]. "Chapter8. Myth as Therapy: The Function of Þrymskviða". In Kick, Donata; Shafer, John D. (eds.). Essays on Eddic Poetry. University of Toronto Press. pp. 201 and note 13. ISBN 9781442615885.
13 See e.g. Breta sögur, in Hauksbók.. Eiríkur Jónsson and Finnur Jónsson (Copenhagen, 1892-6), 231-302 (p. 248); this was translated from the Latin of Geoffrey of Monmouth.. Geoffrey simply refers at this point to the wings which King Bladud orders..
. Originally —— (2000). "Myth as Therapy: The Function of Þrymskviða". Medium Ævum. 69 (1): 1–20. doi:10.2307/43631487. JSTOR 43631487. - McKinnel, John (2016). "Chapter 19. Eddic poetry in Anglo-Scandinavian northern England". In Graham-Campbell, James; Hall, Richard; Jesch, Judith; Parsons, David N. (eds.). Vikings and the Danelaw. Oxbow Books. ISBN 9781785704550.
- Miles, Brent (2011). Heroic Saga and Classical Epic in Medieval Ireland. Cambridge: DS Brewer. pp. 75–76. ISBN 1843842645. ISSN 0261-9865.
- Morris, Katherine S. (1991). Sorceress Or Witch?: The Image of Gender in Medieval Iceland and Northern Europe. University Press of America. p. 201. ISBN 9780819182562.
Freyja possessed a feather or falcon shape, ON valshamr (Skáldskaparmál 1). Frigg also owned such a costume, and Loki borrowed it (Skáldskaparmál 18)
- Näsström, Britt-Mari [in Swedish] (1995). Freyja, the Great Goddess of the North. Department of History of Religions, University of Lund. p. 110. ISBN 9789122016946.
- Prior, Richard Chandler Alexander (1860). "Thor of Asgard". Ancient Danish Ballads: trans by R C Alexander Prior. London: Williams and Norgate. pp. 3–10 (note to str. 3).
- Vandersall, Amy L. (1972). "The Date and Provenance of the Franks Casket". Gesta. 11 (2): 12–13-. doi:10.2307/766591. JSTOR 766591. S2CID 192781403.
Further reading
- The Saga of Thidrek of Bern. Translated by Edward R. Haymes. New York: Garland, 1988. ISBN 0-8240-8489-6.