Feather cloaks have been used by several cultures.
Elaborate feather cloaks called ʻahu ʻula [2] were created by early Hawaiians, and usually reserved for the use of high chiefs and aliʻi (royalty). [3]
The scarlet honeycreeper ʻiʻiwi (Vestiaria coccinea) was the main source of red feathers. [2] [4] [5] Yellow feathers were collected in small amounts each time from the mostly black ʻōʻō ( Moho spp.) or the mamo (Drepanis pacifica). [5] [2] [8]
Another strictly regal item was the kāhili , a symbolic "staff of state" or standard, consisting of pole with plumage attached to the top of it. [11] [3] [5] [12] The Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena in her portrait (cf. fig. right) is depicted holding a kāhili while wearing a feather cloak. [13] She would typically wear a feather cloak with a feather coronet and she would match these with a pair of pāʻū ('skirts' [14] ) [15] which ordinarily would be barkcloth skirt, [16] however, she also had a magnificent yellow feather skirt made for her, which featured in her funerary services. [15] [17] [18] [lower-alpha 2]
Other famous examples include:
A mythical enemy-incinerating kapa (barkcloth) cape, retold as a feather skirt in one telling, occurs in Hawaiian mythology. In the tradition regarding the hero ʻAukelenuiaʻīkū, [lower-alpha 3] , the hero's grandmother Moʻoinanea who is matriarch of the divine lizards (moʻo akua, or simply moʻo ) gives him her severed tail, which transforms into a cape that turns enemies into ashes ( kapa lehu , i.e. tapa), and sends him off on a quest to woo his destined wife, Nāmaka. Nāmaka (who is predicted to attack him when he visits) will be immune to the cape's powers. She is also a granddaughter or descendant of the lizard, and has been given the lizard's battle pāʻū and kāhili, also conferred with power to destroy enemy into ashes. [23] In one retelling, Moʻoinanea (Ka-moʻo-inanea) gives her grandson ʻAukele her "feather skirt" and kāhili which "by shaking.. can reduce his enemies to ashes". [24] [25]
A commentator has argued that feather garment of Nāhiʻenaʻena was regarded as imbued with the apotropaic "powers of a woman's genitals", reminiscent of the mythic pāʻū which Hiʻiaka was given by Pele. [27]
It has been noted there is a pan-Polynesian culture of valuing the use of feathers in garments, especially of red colour, and even trade in feathers, and though various feather garments are worn, feather capes are elsewhere known in New Zealand. [28] [lower-alpha 4]
The Māori feather cloak or kahu huruhuru are known for their rectangular-shaped examples. [lower-alpha 5] [29] [30] The most prized were the red feathers which in Māori culture signified chiefly rank, [31] [29] and were taken from the kaka parrot to make the kahu kura which literally means 'red cape'. [29] [lower-alpha 6]
The feather garment continues to be utilized as symbolic of rank or respect. [35] [36]
The feather cloak or cape was traditional to the coastal Tupi people, notably the Tupinambá. The cape was called guará-abucu [37] (var. gûaráabuku [38] ) Tupi–Guarani, so called from the red plumage of guará ( Eudocimus ruber , scarlet ibis) and not only did it have a hood at the top, [39] but it was meant to cover the body to simulate becoming a bird, [40] and even included a buttocks piece called enduaps. [37] These feather capes were worn by Tupian shamans or pajé (var. paîé) during rituals, and clearly held religious or sacred meaning. [41] [40] The cape was also worn in battle, [42] but it has been clarified that the warrior as well as his victim were deliberately dressed as birds as executioners and the offering in ritual sacrifices. [40]
A bird-hamr (pl. hamir) or feather cloak that enable the wearers to take the form of, or become, birds are widespread in Germanic mythology and legend. The goddess Freyja was known for her "feathered or falcon cloak" (fjaðrhamr, valshamr), which could be borrowed by others to use, and the jötunn Þjazi may have had something similar, referred to as an arnarhamr (eagle-shape or coat). [43] . [45]
The term hamr has the dual meaning of "skin" or "shape", [46] and in this context, fjaðrhamr has been translated variously as "feather-skin", [47] [48] "feather-fell ", [49] "feather-cloak", [50] "feather coat", [51] "feather-dress", [52] "coat of feathers", [53] or form, shape or guise. [54] [55] [56] [lower-alpha 7] [lower-alpha 8]
In Norse mythology, goddesses Freyja (as aforementioned) and Frigg each own a feather cloak that imparts the ability of flight. [56] [59]
Freyja is not attested as using the cloak herself, [61] 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"). [45] [54] [62] [66] This episode is also attested in the poem Haustlöng , where Freyja's garment is referred to as hauks flugbjalfa "hawk's flying-fur", [67] [68] and the jötunn employs a gemlishamr "cloak/shape of eagle". [69]
Loki also uses Frigg's feather cloak to journey to Geirröðargarða, referred to here as a valshamr ("falcon-feathered cloak"). [72]
Óðinn is described as being able to change his shape into that of animals, as attested in the Ynglinga saga . [73] [74] Furthermore, in the story of the Mead of Poetry from Skáldskaparmál, he does not explicitly require a physical item to assume an arnarhamr ("eagle-form") to flee with the mead, [75] in contrast to the jötunn Suttungr, who must put on his (arnarhamr) in order to pursue him. [76] [77] [lower-alpha 9]
In the 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. [79] [80] [81]
The master smith Wayland (Old Norse : Völundr) uses some sort of device to fly away and escape from King Niðhad after he is hamstrung, as described in the Eddic lay Völundarkviða . [82] [83] The lay has Völundr saying he has regained his "webbed feet" which soldiers had taken away from him, and with it he is able to soar into air. This is explained as a circumlocution for him recovering a magical artifact (perhaps a ring), which allows him to transform into a swan or such waterfowl with webbed feet. [82] [83] An alternate interpretation is that the text here should not be construed as "feet" but "wings" ("feather coat or artificial wings" [84] ), which gave him ability to fly away. [86] [87] [lower-alpha 10]
The second "wing" scenario coincides with the version of the story given in Þiðreks saga , where Völundr's brother Egill shot birds and collected plumage for him, providing him with the raw material for crafting a set of wings, [82] and this latter story is corroborated also corroborated on depictions on the panels of the 8th-century whale-bone Franks Casket. [82] [85] [89]
In the Þiðreks saga Wayland (here Old Norse : Velent)'s device is referred to as "wings" or "a wing" (Old Norse : flygill, a term borrowed from the German Flügel [90] ) but is described as resembling a fjaðrhamr, supposedly flayed from a griffin, or vulture, or an ostrich. [lower-alpha 11] [lower-alpha 12] [lower-alpha 13] [95] [94] [96] Modern commentators suggest that the Low German source [99] originally just meant "wings", but the Norse translators took license to interpret it as being just like a "feather cloak". [91] [89] In the saga version, Velent not only requested his brother Egill to obtain the plumage materialMcKinnel 2002 , p. 201 (as aforementioned) but also asks Egill to wear the wings first to perform a test flight. [94] [89] Afterwards Velent himself escapes with the wings, and instructs Egil to shoot him, but aiming for his blood sack prop to fake his death. [94]
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. [100] [101] [102] [103] This bears similarity to the account of the eight valkyrjur with hamir in Helreið Brynhildar . [104] [105] [101]
The legendary king Bladud of the Celtic Britons fashioned himself a pair of wings to fly with, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae . [106] This winged contraption is rendered as a "fjaðrhamr" in the Old Norse translation Breta sögur , [107] [53] here meant strictly as a flying suit, not a means of transformation into bird. [53]
Bladud's wings are also rendered into Middle English as "Middle English : feðer-home", cognate with Old Norse : fjaðrhamr, in Layamon's Brut version of Geoffrey's History. [108] [109]
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. [110]
King Bladud of Britain created artificial wings to enable flight according to Galfridian sources, conceived of as "feather skin" in Old Norse and Middle English versions (as already discussed above in § Bladud's wings ).
In Ireland, the elite class of poets known as the filid wore a feathered cloak, the tuigen, according to Sanas Cormaic ("Cormac's glossary"). Although the term may merey refer to a "precious" sort of toga , as Cormac glosses in Latin, it can also signify tuige 'covering ' tuige 'of birds', and goes on to describe the composition of this garment in minute detail. [111] [112] [lower-alpha 14]
Since it is attested in the Lebor na Cert ("Book of Rights") that the rights of the Kings of Cashel rested with the chief poet of Ireland, together with his taiden, [114] [115] Cormac, being the king of Cashel, would have had firsthand knowledge.
Cormac's glossary goes on to describe the tuigen thus: "for it is of skins ( croiccenn , dat. chroicnib [116] ) of birds white and many-coloured that the poets' toga is made from their girdle downwards, and of mallards' necks and of their crests from the girdle upwards to their neck". [112]
The tuigen is also described in the Immacallam in dá Thuarad ("The Colloquy of the two Sages").
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. [117]
Regarding the above description of the "Gelts" sprouting feathers, compare Buile Shuibhne where Suibhne Gelt seems to transform into a feathered form.
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 . [118]
Ægir, Hlér, or Gymir, is a jötunn and a personification of the sea in Norse mythology. In the Old Norse record, Ægir hosts the gods in his halls and is associated with brewing ale. Ægir is attested as married to a goddess, Rán, who also personifies the sea, and together the two produced daughters who personify waves, the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán, and Ægir's son is Snær, personified snow. Ægir may also be the father of the beautiful jötunn Gerðr, wife of the god Freyr, or these may be two separate figures who share the same name.
In Norse mythology, Freyja is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr. Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chariot pulled by two cats, is accompanied by the boar Hildisvíni, and possesses a cloak of falcon feathers. By her husband Óðr, she is the mother of two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi. Along with her twin brother Freyr, her father Njörðr, and her mother, she is a member of the Vanir. Stemming from Old Norse Freyja, modern forms of the name include Freya, Freyia, and Freja.
The terms Jötunheimr or Jötunheimar refer to either a land or multiple lands respectively in Nordic mythology inhabited by the jötnar. Jötunheimar are typically, but not exclusively, presented in Eddic sources as prosperous lands located to the north and are commonly separated from the lands inhabited by gods and humans by barriers that cannot be traversed by usual means.
In Norse mythology, Njörðr is a god among the Vanir. Njörðr, father of the deities Freyr and Freyja by his unnamed sister, was in an ill-fated marriage with the goddess Skaði, lives in Nóatún and is associated with the sea, seafaring, wind, fishing, wealth, and crop fertility.
In Norse mythology, Rán is a goddess and a personification of the sea. Rán and her husband Ægir, a jötunn who also personifies the sea, have nine daughters, who personify waves. The goddess is frequently associated with a net, which she uses to capture sea-goers. According to the prose introduction to a poem in the Poetic Edda and in Völsunga saga, Rán once loaned her net to the god Loki.
In Norse mythology, Sif is a golden-haired goddess associated with earth. Sif is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, she is known for her golden hair and is married to the thunder god Thor.
The Poetic Edda is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related Prose Edda, although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse poetry. Several versions of the Poetic Edda exist: especially notable is the medieval Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius, which contains 31 poems.
In Norse mythology, Vár or Vór is a goddess associated with oaths and agreements. Vár is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources; the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson; and kennings found in skaldic poetry and a runic inscription. Scholars have proposed theories about the implications of the goddess.
In Norse mythology, Þrymr was a jötunn. He is the namesake of the Eddic poem Þrymskviða, in which he stole Thor's hammer Mjǫlnir. An early king of the same name is mentioned in Hversu Noregr byggðist.
In Germanic mythology, Wayland the Smith is a master blacksmith originating in Germanic heroic legend, described by Jessie Weston as "the weird and malicious craftsman, Weyland".
In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer", "wise woman" and "sorceress", and they are frequently called witches or priestesses both in early sources and in modern scholarship. In Norse mythology the seeress is usually referred to as völva or vala.
Þrymskviða is one of the best known poems from the Poetic Edda. The Norse myth had enduring popularity in Scandinavia and continued to be told and sung in several forms until the 19th century.
In Germanic mythology, Myrkviðr is the name of several European forests.
In Norse mythology, Líf and Lífþrasir, sometimes anglicized as Lif and Lifthrasir, female and male respectively, are two humans who are foretold to survive the events of Ragnarök by hiding in a wood called Hoddmímis holt and, after the flames have abated, to repopulate the newly risen and fertile world. Líf and Lífþrasir are mentioned in the Poetic Edda, which was compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. Many scholars have speculated as to the underlying meaning and origins of both names.
Heitstrenging (pl. heitstrengingar) is an Old Norse term referring to the swearing of a solemn oath to perform a future action. They were often performed at Yule and other large social events, where they played a role in establishing and maintaining good relationships principally between members of the aristocratic warrior elite. The oath-swearing practice varied significantly, sometimes involving ritualised drinking or placing hands on a holy pig that could later be sacrificed. While originally containing heathen religious components such as prayers and worship of gods such as Freyr and Thor, the practice continued in an altered manner after the Christianisation of Scandinavia.
In Norse mythology, the Kerlaugar i.e. "bath-tub", are two rivers through which the god Thor wades. The Kerlaugar are attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional material, and in a citation of the same verse in the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson.
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.
Freyja possessed a feather or falcon shape, ON valshamr (Skáldskaparmál 1). Frigg also owned such a costume, and Loki borrowed it (Skáldskaparmál 18)
though one might be curious as to which was the prius here, the word or its explanation
Old Irish | English |
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Dliġeaḋ cach riġ ó riġ Caisil | The Right of each king from the king of Caiseal, |
het Bladvð er riki.. .xx. vetr konengr verit þa let hann gera ser fiaðrham