Feather cloak

Feather cloaks have been used by several cultures.

Hawaii

Main article: ʻahu ʻula

 

Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena in her cloak.

—Robert Dampier, 1825

 

Feather cape^[a]

—Display at Keauhou, Hawaii

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][b]}

Other famous examples include:

• Kamehameha's feather cloak - made entirely of the golden-yellow feather of the mamo, inherited by Kamehameha I. King Kalākaua displayed this artefact to emphasize his own legitimate authority.^[19][20]
• Kiwalao's feather cloak - King Kīwalaʻō cloak, captured by half-brother Kamehameha I who slew him in 1782. It symbolized leadership and was worn by chieftains during times of war.^[21]
• Liloa's kāʻei - sash of King Līloa of the island of Hawaii^[22]

Hawaiian mythology

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,^[c], 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 (or kapa lehu, i.e. tapa) that turns enemies into ashes, 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 (skirt) and kāhili (feathered staff), 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 the 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]

Māori

The Māori feather cloak or kahu huruhuru are known for their rectangular-shaped examples.^[d][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][e]

The feather garment continues to be utilized as symbolic of rank or respect.^[35][36]

Brazil

Main article: Tupinambà cape

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]

Germanic

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][f][g]}

Gods and jötnar

 

The Gotlandic image stone Stora Hammars III is believed to depict Odin in the form of an eagle (note the eagle's beard), Gunnlöð holding the mead of poetry, and Suttungr.^[60]

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,^[62] and to rescue Iðunn from the jötunn Þjazi in Skáldskaparmál who had abducted the goddess while in an arnarhamr ("eagle shape").^[45][54][65] The latter episode is also attested in the poem Haustlöng, where Freyja's garment is referred to as hauks flugbjalfa "hawk's flying-fur",^[66] or "hawk's flight-skin"^[67][68] and the jötunn employs a gemlishamr "cloak/shape of eagle".^[69]

Loki also uses Frigg's feather cloak to journey to Geirröðargarða ("Geirröðr's courts"^[71] in Jötunheimr^[73]), referred to here as a valshamr ("falcon-feathered cloak").^[76]

Óðinn is described as being able to change his shape into that of animals, as attested in the Ynglinga saga.^[77][78] 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,^[79] in contrast to the jötunn Suttungr, who must put on his (arnarhamr) in order to pursue him.^[80][81][h]

Völsunga saga

 

Wayland's smithy in the centre, Niðhad's daughter to the left, and Niðhad's dead sons hidden to the right of the smithy. Between the girl and the smithy, Wayland can be seen in a fjaðrhamr flying away. From the Ardre image stone VIII.^[82]

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.^[83][84][85]

Wayland

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.^[86][87] 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.^[86][87] An alternate interpretation is that the text here should not be construed as "feet" but "wings" ("feather coat or artificial wings"^[88]), which gave him ability to fly away.^[90][91][i]

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,^[86] and this latter story is corroborated also corroborated on depictions on the panels of the 8th-century whale-bone Franks Casket.^[86][89][93]

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^[94]) but is described as resembling a fjaðrhamr, supposedly flayed from a griffin, or vulture, or an ostrich.^{[j][k][l][99][98][100]} Modern commentators suggest that the Low German source^[103] originally just meant "wings", but the Norse translators took license to interpret it as being just like a "feather cloak".^[95][93] 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.^[98][93] Afterwards Velent himself escapes with the wings, and instructs Egil to shoot him, but aiming for his blood sack prop to fake his death.^[98]

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.^{[104][105][106][107]} This bears similarity to the account of the eight valkyrjur with hamir in Helreið Brynhildar.^{[108][109][105]}

Bladud's wings

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.^[110] This winged contraption is rendered as a "fjaðrhamr" in the Old Norse translation Breta sögur,^[111][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.^[112][113]

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.^[114]

Celtic

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 ).

Poet's cloak

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.^{[115][116][m]}

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 tugen or taiden.^[118][119] 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^[120]) 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".^[116]

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.^[121]

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.^[122]

See also

• Hagoromo, the feathered stole of Japanese-Buddhist mythology.

Explanatory notes

1. Similar in design to cape worn by Nahiennaena in portrait above, and also similar to Bishop Museum piece catalogued C.9558^[1]
2. Incidentally, a tertiary meaning of pāʻū is that it signifies the red feathers around the yellow in an ornamental feather bundle, called ʻuo.^[14]
3. Of which there are nine version according to Brown (2022).
4. Whereas the Hawaiian feather cape developed from rectangular to circular shape, as aforementioned
5. Though the kahu kura was literally 'red cape' it was understood to signify a cape made from the feathers of the kaka parrot.^[32] Māori kahu kura may be cognate with Hawaiian ʻahu ʻula, since the latter will result from dropping the k.^[33] Though not the kaka parrot, Hiroa elsewhere states that koko is an olden name for the tūī bird, and he also suggests dropping the k yields Hawaiian ʻōʻō, a source of yellow feathers there.^[34]
6. The Cleasby-Vigufsson definition of fjaðr-hamr as "'feather ham' or winged haunch.."^[57] is avoided by the aforementioned translators and commentators; Haymes's translation The Saga of Thidrek being an exception.
7. To complicate matters, despite the choice of wording ("cloak", the primary sense), the intended meaning may be opposite. Thus Larrington's translation "Thrym's Poem" renders the term as "feather cloak", but in endnote explains this is meant as "attribute" of flying capability.^[58] And vice versa: Morris says "shape" but in the next breath describes as "such a costume"^[59]
8. Gunnel notes that Oðinn's heiti Arnhöfði ('eagle head') may be a reference to him assuming the eagle shape to flee from Suttungr.^[47]
9. There is yet a third but a clear minority view that Völundr somehow regained his ability as shapeshifter to transform at will without any device.^[92]
10. Old Norse: "fleginn af grip eða af gambr eða af þeim fugl er struz heitir".
11. The translation "griffin" here is backed by German sources, such as Franz Rolf Schröder block-quoted in English translation,^[95] and Alfred Becker.^[93] But "griffin" is lacking in Haymes's English translation: the terms gripr and gambr (gammr) are both glossed as 'vulture' in Cleasby-Vigfusson,^[96][97] which explains why Haymes's translation collapses three birds into two: "winged haunch of a vulture, or of a bird called ostrich". But Cleasby-Vigfusson admits gripr derives from German griff [meaning 'griffin'] and only cites this one instance in the Þiðreks saga;^[96] the word is clearly a hapax legomenon.^[93]
12. The fjaðrhamr has also been rendered as "feather haunch" or "winged haunch",^[98] as according to Cleasby-Vigfusson for the combined form,^[57] though the literal translation would be "feather skin".^[46][95]
13. Atkinson (1901) did register some doubt whether this was a genuine bird-skin garment from the very beginning which was thus name aptly, or an ex post facto explanation later developed, based on the name (or the conjectural etymology thereof.^[117] Atkinson's reservation is also noted in the eDIL.^[115]

References

1. Hiroa 1944, Plate 6
2. Mary Kawena Pukui; Samuel Hoyt Elbert (2003). "lookup of ʻahu ʻula". in Hawaiian Dictionary. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii Press.; Kepau's Combined Hawaiian Dictionary, s.v. "ʻahu ʻula"
3. Malo, David (1903). Hawaiian Antiquities: (Moolelo Hawaii). Translated by Emerson, Nathaniel Bright. Honolulu: Hawaiian Gazette. pp. 63, 106–107.
4. Hiroa 1944, pp. 9–10.
5. Pratt, H. Douglas (2005). The Hawaiian Honeycreepers: Drepanidinae. OUP Oxford. pp. 279–280. ISBN 9780198546535.
6. Hall, H. U. (March 1923). "Two Hawaiian Feather Garments, Ahuula". The Museum Journal (University of Pennsylvania). 14 (1): 41, 42.
7. Bishop, Marcia Brown (1940). Hawaiian Life of the Pre-European Period. Southworth-Anthoensen Press. pp. 36–37.
8. The mamo feathers were yellow tinged with orange or even called "rich orange" compared with the ʻōʻō feathers which were "bright yellow".^[6][7] And the mamo was forbidden use except by a king of an entire island.^[6][3]
9. Sinclair 1976, repr. Sinclair 1995, p. 67
10. Sinclair 1995, p. 120.
11. Although the kāhili was strictly for the aliʻi there was a kāhili bearer appointed to hold it,^[9] and it was waved over the royal during sleep, as a fly-brush^[3] or fly-whisk. Contrary to the one-handed version in the princess's painting, the multi-colored kāhili held by her bearer may be 30 feet long.^[10]
12. Holt 1985, p. 68.
13. Sinclair 1976, repr. Sinclair 1995, p. xiii, "she firmly holds a kāhili"
14. Mary Kawena Pukui; Samuel Hoyt Elbert (2003). "lookup of pāʻū". in Hawaiian Dictionary. Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library, University of Hawaii Press.
15. Sinclair 1995, p. 34.
16. Harger 1983, p. 8.
17. Ron Staton (9 June 2003). "Historic feather garment to be displayed". The Honolulu Advertiser.
18. 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.
19. Hiroa 1944, p. 3.
20. Kamehiro, Stacy L. (2009). The Arts of Kingship: Hawaiian Art and National Culture of the Kalakaua Era. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 46–47. ISBN 9780824832636.
21. Harger, Barbara (1983). "Dress and Adornment of Pre-European Hawaiians". National Meeting Proceedings. Association of College Professors of Textiles and Clothing: 9–10.
22. Harger (1983), p. 11.
23. Brown, Marie Alohalani (2022). Ka Po'e Mo'o Akua: Hawaiian Reptilian Water Deities. University of Hawaii Press. p. 122. ISBN 9780824891091.
24. Version of Haleʻole, S. N. (1863), reprinted in: Beckwith, Martha Warren (1919). "The Hawaiian Romance of Laieikawai". Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1911–1912. 33: 636–638.
25. Beckwith, Martha Warren (1982) [1940]. Hawaiian Mythology. University of Hawaii Press. p. 491. ISBN 9780824805142.
26. Charlot, John (June 1991). "The Feather Skirt of Nāhiʻenaʻena: an Innovation in Postcontact Hawaiian Art". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 100 (2): 137. JSTOR 20706388.
27. Charlot (1991), p. 137,^[26] cited by Brown.^[23]
28. Hiroa 1944, pp. 1, 9–10.
29. Hiroa, Te Rangi (1926). The Evolution of Maori Clothing. New Plymouth, NZ: Thomas Avery & Sons. pp. xxii, 58–59 and Pl. 22.
30. Te Ara
31. Te Ara
32. Hiroa (1926), p. xxii.
33. Hiroa (1926), p. 195.
34. Hiroa 1944, p. 10.
35. "Elton John gifted rare Maori cloak". The New Zealand Herald. 7 December 2007. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
36. Kay, Martin (9 April 2009). "Clark gets cloak for a queen". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
37. Buono 2012, p. 238.
38. Freitas da Silva, Rafael (2020) [2015]. O Rio antes do Rio (in Portuguese) (4 ed.). Relicário. n124. ISBN 9786586279047.
39. Françozo 2015, p. 111 citing naturalist George Marcgraf (1610–1644)
40. Françozo 2015, p. 111.
41. Soares, Bruno Brulon (2023). "§Dressed in the feather of birds". The Anticolonial Museum: Reclaiming Our Colonial Heritage. Taylor & Francis. pp. 2019–2020. ISBN 9781000932690.
42. Bleichmar, Daniela (2017). Visual Voyages: Images of Latin American Nature from Columbus to Darwin. Yale University Press. pp. xi–xii. ISBN 9780300224023.
43. Mitchell, Stephen A. (2023). Old Norse Folklore: Tradition, Innovation, and Performance in Medieval Scandinavia. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501773471.
44. Ruggerini 2006, pp. 204–205.
45. In the narrative, Þjazi appears "in eagle form" (Old Norse: í arnarhami) at the meal (and in the woods), but when he goes in pursuit, he "wears an eagle coat" (Old Norse: tekr an arnarhamin.^[44]
46. Cleasby-Vigfusson (1874), s.v. "hamr"
47. Gunnell, Terry (1995). The Origins of Drama in Scandinavia. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 82. ISBN 9780859914581.
48. arnar-hamr: giant in "eagle's skin; vals-hamr", a falcon's skin.
49. Vigfússon 1883, p. 176, Þryms-kviða; or, The Lay of Thrym.
50. Orchard tr. 2011, pp. 96–101, 304, Thrymskvida: The song of Thrym, Notes: Thrymskvida: The song of Thrym.
51. Zoega (1910), s.v. "fjaðr-hamr": 'feather coat'.
52. Bellows tr. (1923) Thrymskvida
53. McKinnel, John (2014a) [2000]. "Chapter 8. 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.
54. Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis (2002) [1993]. The lost beliefs of northern Europe. London: Routledge. p. 109. ISBN 9781134944682.
55. Byock tr. (2005) Skaldskaparmal
56. 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.
57. Cleasby-Vigfusson (1874), s.v. "fjaðr-hamr"
58. "Thrym's Poem". The Poetic Edda. Translated by Larrington, Carolyne. OUP Oxford. 2014. pp. 93–98 and note to "feather cloak" at str. 3. ISBN 9780191662942.: St, 3: "feather cloak: 'attribute of Freyja which allows her to fly".
59. 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)
60. Mitchell 2023 Fig. 3.1 and description in List of Illustrations
61. Egeler, Matthias (2013). Celtic Influences in Germanic Religion: A Survey. Münchner nordistische Studien 15. Herbert Utz Verlag. pp. 393–466. ISBN 9783831642267.
62. Þrymskviða 3,6; 5,2; 9,2.^[53] Finnur Jónsson ed. (1905),¹⁹⁰⁵ Vigfusson & Powell ed. with prose tr. (1883)^[49] Orchard tr. (2011)^[50]
63. Sveinbjörn Egilsson ed. 1848, p. 208ff, Bragaræður 56.
64. Byock tr. 2005.
65. Snorra Edda, Skaldskaparmál G1, G56.^[59][61] In the 1848 edition, this belongs in the section "Bragi's sayings" 56, prior to Skáldskaparmál,^[63] but Faulkes tr. 1995 places it near the beginning of Skáldskaparmál marked as section "[56]" at pp. 59–60. Cf. also Byock (2005),^[64]
66. Ruggerini 2006, pp. 204, 209.
67. Haustlöng quoted in Skaldskaparmál 22, Faulkes tr. 1995, pp. 86–88
68. Or hauks bjalfi "hawk's skin"^[47]
69. Ruggerini 2006, pp. 203, 206.
70. Sveinbjörn Egilsson ed. 1848, p. 284.
71. Skaldskaparmál 18, "..Þórr fór til Geirröðargarða",^[70], "how Thor went to Geirrod's courts" (Faulkes tr. 1995, p. 80).
72. Sveinbjörn Egilsson ed. 1848, p. 292.
73. "Jötunheimr" ("Giantland") is not explicit in text, but the Þórsdrápa here quoted periphrases Þórr's destination as "ymsa kindar iðja"^[72] which has been translated as "seat of Ymir's kin [Giantland]" (Faulkes tr. 1995, p. 83). As the story goes, Loki in falcoln form was captured, and is compelled to bring Þórr to Geirröðr.
74. Faulkes tr. 1995, Skáldskaparmál 18 & 19.
75. Thorpe 1851, pp. 52–53.
76. Skaldskaparmál G18.^[59] Translations by Faulkes (1995)^[74] and Thorpe (1851).^[75]
77. Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis (2013) [1968]. The Road to Hel: a study of the conception of the dead in Old Norse literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 122. ISBN 9781107632349.; originally New York: Greenwood Press, 1968
78. Grimstad 1983 discusses the transformation of gods "donning a feather coat", and in the attached footnoted ((n18, p. 206) with an association with Oðinn's ability to transform into creatures in the Ynglinga saga.
79. Ruggerini 2006, pp. 206 notes that the verb taka "to wear" is not used, and the bregða i meaning turning appearance into something suggests use of black magic like seiðr.
80. Egeler 2009, p. 443.
81. Sveinbjörn Egilsson ed. 1848, p. 218ff, Bragaræður 58.
82. McKinnel, John (2002). "Chapter 18. The Context of Völunarkviða". In Acker, Paul; Larrington, Carolyne (eds.). The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology. Routeledge. p. 200. ISBN 9780815316602.
83. Egeler 2009, pp. 442, 444.
84. "Völsunga saga – heimskringla.no". heimskringla.no. Retrieved 26 June 2022.
85. Crawford 2017, pp. 2–3.
86. "Lay of Volund". The Poetic Edda. Translated by Larrington, Carolyne. OUP Oxford. 2014. pp. 99–111 and note to str. 29. ISBN 9780191662942.: St, 29: "'Lucky..' said Volund 'that I can use my webbed feet'/of which Nidud's warriors deprived me!'/Laughing, Volund rose into air..".
87. In Grimstad 1983, p. 191, it is the "second interpretation" which postulates that a transformation ring is meant; it is further explained that the ring could have belonged to the swan-maiden wife of Volund, and the ring endowed its wearer with an ability of transformation into a swan, etc. The authorities on this point of view listed (n20) are Richard Constant Boer (1907), Völundarkviða" Arkiv för nordisk filologi 23 (Ny följd. 19): 139–140, Ferdinand Detter (1886) "Bemerkungen zu den Eddaliedern", Arkiv för nordisk filologi 3: 309–319, Halldór Halldórsson (1960) " Hringtöfrar í íslenzkum orðtökum” Íslenzk tunga 2: 18–20 Deutsche Heldensagen, pp. 10–15, Alois Wolf (München, 1965 ) "Gestaltungskerne und Gestaltungsweisen in der altgermanischen Heldendichtung", p. 84.
88. Grimstad 1983, p. 191.
89. McKinnel, John (2014b) [2000]. "Chapter 9. Völunðarkvida: Origins and Interpretation". In Kick, Donata; Shafer, John D. (eds.). Essays on Eddic Poetry. University of Toronto Press. pp. 227–228. ISBN 9781442615885.
90. Jan de Vries [1952] pp. 196–197 contended that the plural word fitjar in the phrase à fitjum need not be translated "webbed feet" but can be interpreted to mean "wings", cognate with Old Saxon federac and Middle Low German vittek, though McKinnel considers this problematic.^[89]
91. Grimstad 1983, p. 191 places "wings" vs. "ring" as the two major schools of thought on the interpretation of this phrase.^[88] As exponents of the "feather coat or a pair of artificial wings" view names (n19) Georg Baesecke (1937), A. G. van Hamel (1929) "On Völundarkviða" Arkiv för nordisk filologi 45: 161–175, Hellmut Rosenfeld (1955) and Philip Webster Souers (1943) as anticipating Jan de Vries (1952).
92. Grimstad 1983, p. 192
93. Becker, Alfred (2021). Franks Casket: Das Runenkästchen von Auzon: Magie in Bildern, Runen und Zahlen (in German). Frank & Timme GmbH. p. 262. ISBN 9783732907380. Cf. the translation of this book, Becker (2023) The King's Gift Box: The Runic Casket of Auzon ISBN 979-8865378730 (in English)
94. Cleasby-Vigfusson (1874), s.v. "flygill"
95. Shröder, Franz Rolf (1977) "Der Name Wieland", BzN, new ser. 4:53–62, quoted by Harris 2005, p. 103.^[102]
96. Cleasby-Vigfusson (1874), s.v. "gripr(2)" "m. [Germ. griff], a vulture. Þiðr. 92
97. Cleasby-Vigfusson (1874), s.v. "gammr"
98. Haymes tr. 1988, pp. 53–54, Chapter 77.
99. Ruggerini 2006, pp. 218–220.
100. Unger tr. 1853, pp. 92–94, Chapter 77.
101. 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. p. 334. ISBN 9781785704550.
102. 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.
103. Þiðreks saga is considered "foreign" by McKinnel^[101] since it was translated from a Low German source.^[89][102]
104. Ruggerini 2006, p. 215.
105. Egeler 2009, pp. 441–442.
106. Finnur Jónsson ed. 1905, p. 147ff, Völundarkviða.
107. Orchard tr. 2011, Völundarkvida: The song of Völund.
108. 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.
109. Ruggerini 2006, p. 214.
110. Geoffrey of Monmouth (1904) Histories of the Kings of Britain, II.iv Bladud foundeth Bath. Translated by Sebastian Evans. p. 44
111. Jónsson & 1892-1896.
112. 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).
113. Ruggerini 2006, p. 220.
114. Mannering, Ulla (2016). Iconic Costumes: Scandinavian Late Iron Age Costume Iconography. Oxbow Books. pp. 6–27. ISBN 9781785702181.
115. eDIL s.v. "tuigen, tugan": var. "stuigen"
116. O'Donovan, John tr., annot. Stokes, Whitley ed., notes, eds. (1868). "tugen". Sanas Chormaic [Cormac's glossary]. Calcutta: O.T. Cutter. p. 160.
117. Atkinson, Robert, ed. (1901). "tugain". Ancient laws of Ireland: Glossary. Vol. VI. H.M. Stationery Office. p. 756. though one might be curious as to which was the prius here, the word or its explanation
118. Joyce, Patrick Weston (1903). A Social History of Ancient Ireland: Treating of the Government, Military System, and Law. Longmans, Green, and Company. p. 447.
119. O'Donovan, John, ed. (1847). Leabhar na g-ceart [The Book of Rights]. Dublin: Celtic Society. pp. 32–33.:

     Dliġeaḋ cach riġ ó riġ Caisil bíḋ ceist ar ḃárdaiḃ co bráth, fo gebthar i taeiḃ na Taiḋean ac ruaiḋ na n-Gaeiḋel co gnáth	The Right of each king from the king of Caiseal, Shall be question to bards for ever: It shall be found along with the Taeidhean With the chief post of the Geidhil constantly

120. eDIL s.v. "croiccenn"
121. "The King's Mirror (Speculum Regale--Konungs Skuggsjá) tr. from the old Norwegian, by Anonymous--A Project Gutenberg eBook". www.gutenberg.org.
122. Miles, Brent (2011). Heroic Saga and Classical Epic in Medieval Ireland. Cambridge: DS Brewer. pp. 75–76. ISBN 1843842645. ISSN 0261-9865.

Bibliography

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• Sinclair, Marjorie (1976). Nāhiʻenaʻena, Sacred Daughter of Hawaiʻi. University Press of Hawaii. ISBN 9780824803674.
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• Buono, Amy (2012). "14. Crafts of Color: Tupi Tapirage in Early Colonial Brazil". In Feeser, Andrea; Goggin, Maureen Daly (eds.). The Materiality of Color: The Production, Circulation, and Application of Dyes and Pigments, 1400-1800. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. pp. 235–246. ISBN 9781409429159.

• Françozo, Mariana (2015). "Beyond the kunstakammer. Brazilian featherwork in early modern Europe". In Gerritsen, Anne; Riello, Giorgio (eds.). The Global Lives of Things: The Material Culture of Connections in the Early Modern World. Routledge. pp. 105–127. ISBN 9781317374565.

(European material)

• 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.

• Grimstad, Kaaren (1983). "The Revenge of Völundr". In Glendinning, Robert James; Haraldur Bessason [in Icelandic] (eds.). Edda: A Collection of Essays. University of Manitoba Press. pp. 187–209. ISBN 9780887553196.

• Ruggerini, Maria Elena (2006). "Tales of Flight in Old Norse and Medieval English Texts". Viking and Medieval Scandinavia. 2: 201–238. JSTOR 45019112.