Hafgufa

Hafgufa (Old Norse: haf "sea" + Old Norse: gufa "steam";^[2][3] "sea-reek";^[a][5] "sea-steamer"^[6]) is a legendary massive sea monster (or whale), purported to inhabit Iceland's waters (Greenland Sea) and southward towards Helluland. When the creature remains stationary it is mistaken for an island.

Hafgufa

Grouping	Legendary creature
Sub grouping	Sea monster
Other name(s)	Hafgufu (Old Norwegian)
Country	Greenland

The hafgufa is mentioned in the mid-13th century Norwegian tract called the Konungs skuggsjá ("King's Mirror"). Later recensions of Örvar-Odds saga feature hafgufa and lyngbakr as similar but distinct creatures.

According to the Norwegian didactic work, this creature uses its own vomit like chumming bait to gather prey fish. In the Fornaldarsaga, the hafgufa is reputed to consume even whales or ships and men, though Oddr's ship merely sailed through its jaws above water, which appeared to be nothing more than rocks.

Nomenclature

This creature's name appears as hafgufa in Old Norse in the 13th century Norwegian work.^[7][b][8]

In the Snorra Edda, the hafgufa ("sea-steamer"^[6]) appears in the list (þulur) of whales.^[9][10] The spelling is also hafgúa in some copies.^[11] An 18th century source glosses the term margúa 'mermaid' as hafgúa.^[c][12]

This was rendered "hafgufa ('[mermaid]')" in a recent excerpt of this work,^[13] but has been translated 'kraken' in the past.^[14] It was translated as "sea-reek"^[5] in the saga.^[16]

Norwegian King's Mirror

In the Speculum regale (aka Konungs skuggsjá, the "King's Mirror"), an Old Norwegian philosophical didactic work written in the mid-13th century, the King told his son^[17][18] of several whales that inhabit the Icelandic seas, concluding with a description of a large whale that he himself feared, but he doubted anyone would believe him about without seeing it. He described the hafgufa as a massive fish that looked more like an island than like a living thing. The King noted that hafgufa was rarely seen, but always seen in the same two places. He concluded there must be only two of them and that they must be infertile, otherwise the seas would be full of them.^[13]

The King described the feeding manner of hafgufa: The fish would belch, which would expel so much food that it would attract all the nearby fish. Once a large number had crowded into its mouth and belly, it would close its mouth and devour them all at once.^[13][d]

Its mention in the Speculum regale was noted by Olaus Wormiaus (Ole Worm) in his posthumous Museum Wormianum (1654)^[19][20] and by another Dane, Thomas Bartholin the senior (1657).^[1] Ole Worm classed it as the 22nd type of Cetus, as did Bartholin, but one difference was that Ole Worm's book printed the entry with the skewed spelling hafgufe.^[20][1]

Odd's saga

In the later version of Örvar-Odds saga^[21] dating to the late 14th century,^[22] hafgufa is described as the largest sea monster (sjóskrímsl) of all,^[e] which fed on whales, ships, men, and anything it could catch, according to the deck officer Vignir Oddsson who knew the lore.^[5][24] He said it lived underwater, but reared its snout ("mouth and nostrils") above water for a duration until the tide changed, and that it was the nostril and lower jaw which they had sailed in-between, although they mistook these for two massive rocks rising from the sea.^{[23][25][5][f]}

Örvar-Oddr and his crew, who started from the Greenland Sea were sailing along the coast south and westward, towards a fjord called Skuggi^[g][26] on Helluland (also given by the English-translated name of "Slabland"), and it is on the way there that they encountered two monsters, the hafgufa ('sea-reek') and lyngbakr ('heather-back').^[5]

Original sea monster and analogues

 

St. Brendan says Mass atop Jasconius

The aspidochelone of the Physiologus is identified as the potential source for the hafgufa lore.^[27]

Although the original aspidochelone was a turtle-island of warmer waters, this was reinvented as a type of whale named aspedo in the Icelandic Physiologus (fragment B, No. 8).^[27][28][h] In the Icelandic aspedo was described as a whale (hvalr) being mistaken for an island,^[31][32] and as opening its mouth to issue a perfume of sorts to attract prey.^[33] Halldór Hermannsson [is] observed that these were represented as two distinct illustrations in the Icelandic copy; he further theorized that this led to the mistaken notion of separate creatures called hafgufa and lyngbakr in existence, as occurs in the saga.^[21][24]

Contrary to the saga, Danish physician Thomas Bartholin in his Historiarum anatomicarum IV (1657) stated that the hafgufa ('sea vapor') was synonymous with 'lyngbak' ([sic.], 'back like Erica plants').^[i] He added that it was on the back of this beast that St. Brendan read his Mass, causing the island to sink after their departure.^[1][35] The Icelander Jón Guðmundsson (d. 1658)'s Natural History of Iceland^[j] also equated the lyngbakr and hafgufa with the beast mistaken for an island in St. Brendan's voyage.^[36] The island-like creature is indeed told of in the legend of Brendan's voyage,^[37] though the giant fish is named Jasconius/Jaskonius.^[38][39][40]

Hans Egede writing on the kracken (kraken) of Norway equates it with the Icelandic hafgufa, though has heard little on the latter.^[41] and later, the non-native Moravian cleric David Crantz [de]'s History of Greenland (1765, in German) treated hafgafa as synonymous with the krake[n] in the Norwegian tongue.^[42][43] However, Finnur Jónsson for instance has expressed skepticism towards the notion which developed that the krake had its origins in the hafgufa.^[44]

Explanatory notes

1. "reek" is defined as 'vapor, smoke'.^[4]
2. i.e., hafgufa recté hafgufa. It appears as hafgufu [sic.] in the original text,but that nominative is not used, but hafgufa is given instead by Finnur Jónsson in his commentary to his edition of Konungs skuggsjá.
3. The source being Ann. =Íslandske Annaler indtil 1578.
4. Text vs. translation:

   Einn fiskr er enn útaldr, er mér vex heldr í augu frá at segja fyrir vaxtar hans sakir, þviat þat mun flestum mǫnnum útrúligt þykkja; þar kunnu ok fæstir frá hánum nǫkkut at segja gǫrla. þviat hann er flestum sjaldsénn, þviat hann er sjaldan við land eða í ván við veiðarmenn, ok ætla ek ekki þesskyns fisk margan i hǫfum; vér kǫllum hann optast á vára tungu hafgufu. Eigi kann ek skilvísliga fráa lengð hans at secja með álna tali, þviat þeim sinnum er hann hefir birzk fyrir mǫnnum, þá hefir hann landi sýnzk likari en fiski; hvárk spyr ek, at hann hafi veiddr verit né dauðr fundinn; ok þat þykki mér likt, at þeir sé eigi fleiri en tveir í hǫfum, ok ǫngvan ætla ek þá auka geta sín ámilli, þiat ek ætla þá hina sǫmu jafnan vera, of eigo mundi ǫðrum fiskum hlýða, at þeir væri svá margir sem aðrir hvalir fyrir mikilleika sakir þeirra, ok svá mikillar atvinnu er þeir þurfu. En sú er náttúra sǫgð þeirra fiska, at þegar er hann skal eta, þá gefr hann ropa mikinn upp or hálsi sér, ok fylgir þeim ropa mikil áta, svá at allskyns fiskar, þeir er í nánd verða staddir, þá samnask til, bæði smáir ok stórir, ok hyggjask sér skulu þar matar afla ok góðrar atvinnu; en þessi hinn mikli fiskr lætr standa munn sinn opinn meðan, ok er þat hlið eigi minna en sund mikit eða fjǫrðr, ok kunni fiskar eigi at varask þat at renna þar í með fjǫlda sinum. En þegar er kviðr hans er fullr ok munnr, þá lýkr hann saman munn sinn, ok hefir þá all veidda ok inni byrgða, er áðr girntusk þangat at leita sér til matfanga

   There is a fish that is still unmentioned, which it is scarcely advisable to speak about on account of its size, because it will seem to most people incredible. There are only a very few who can speak upon it clearly, because it is seldom near land nor appears where it may be seen by fishermen, and I suppose there are not many of this sort of fish in the sea. Most often in our tongue we call it hafgufa. Nor can I conclusively speak about its length in ells, because the times he has shown before men, he has appeared more like land than like a fish. Neither have I heard that one had been caught or found dead; and it seems to me as though there must be no more than two in the oceans, and I deem that each is unable to reproduce itself, for I believe that they are always the same ones. Then too, neither would it do for other fish if the hafgufa were of such a number as other whales, on account of their vastness, and how much subsistence that they need. It is said to be the nature of these fish that when one shall desire to eat, then it stretches up its neck with a great belching, and following this belching comes forth much food, so that all kinds of fish that are near to hand will come to present location, then will gather together, both small and large, believing they shall obtain there food and good eating; but this great fish lets its mouth stand open the while, and the gap is no less wide than that of a great sound or fjord, And nor may the fish avoid running together there in their great numbers. But as soon as its stomach and mouth is full, then it locks together its jaws and has the fish all caught and enclosed, that before greedily came there looking for food

   —Keyser; Munch; Unger edd., Konungs skuggsjá^[7]

   —Translation

5. Technically the hafgufa and lygbakr are mentioned as two sea monsters, and the hafgufa is called the "biggest monster in the whole ocean".^[23][5]
6. Text vs. English translation:

   Vignir sagði: «..[N]ú mun ek segja þér, at þetta eru sjáskrímsl tvau, heitir annat hafgufa, en annat lyngbakr; er hann mestr allra hvala í heiminum, en hafgufa er mest skrímsl skapat í sjánum; er þat hennar náttúra, at hon gleypir bæði menn ok skip ok hvali ok allt þat hon náir; hon er í kafi, svá at dægrum skiptir, ok þá hon skýtr upp hǫfði sínu ok nǫsum, þá er þat aldri skemmr en sjávarfall, at hon er uppi. Nú var þat leiðarsundit, er vér fórum á millum kjapta hennar, en nasir hennar ok inn neðri kjaptrinn váru klettar þeir, er yðr sýndiz í hafinu, en lyngbakr var ey sjá, er niðr sǫkk. En Ǫgmundr flóki hefir sent þessi kvikvendi í móti þér með fjǫlkynngi sinni til þess at bana þér ok ǫllum mǫnnum þínum; hugði hann, at svá skyldi hafa farit fleiri sem þeir, at nú druknuðu, en hann ætlaði, at hafgufan skyldi hafa gleypt oss alla. Nú siglda ek því í gin hennar, at ek vissa, at hún var nýkomin upp.

   Vignir said, "..Now I will tell you that there are two sea-monsters. One is called the hafgufa [sea-mist], another lyngbakr. It [the lyngbakr] is the largest whale in the world, but the hafgufa is the largest monster in the sea. It is the nature of this creature to swallow men and ships, and even whales and everything else within reach. It stays submerged for days, then rears its head and nostrils above surface and stays that way at least until the change of tide. Now, that sound we just sailed through was the space between its jaws, and its nostrils and lower jaw were those rocks that appeared in the sea, while the lyngbakr was the island we saw sinking down. However, Ogmund Tussock has sent these creatures to you by means of his magic to cause the death of you [Odd] and all your men. He thought more men would have gone the same way as those that had already drowned [i.e., to the lyngbakr which wasn't an island, and sank], and he expected that the hafgufa would have swallowed us all. Today I sailed through its mouth because I knew that it had recently surfaced.

   —Boer, Richard Constant ed., Ǫrvar-Odds saga^[23]

   —Translation

7. This was where Vignir knew to find the troll Ögmundr flóki (Ogmund Tussock), slayer of Eyþjófr (Eythjof). They aimed to fight Ögmundr so they could exact vengeance.
8. A finer point is that the Latin aspidochelone being called cetus only signified it was a "cetacean" in the non-modern, broader sense including sharks,^[29] and actually, the classical Greek equivalent κῆτος signified "sea monster" of any kind.^[30]
9. The common heather was actually the type species of Linnaeus's Erica genus, and it wasn't until 1802 the common heather was reclassified Calluna vulgaris.^[34]
10. The actual title is Stutt undirrétting um Íslands aðskiljanlegar náttúrur [is] ("A brief description of Iceland's various natures").

References

Citations

1. Bartholin, Thomas (1657). "Historia XXIV. Cetorum genera". Thomae Bartholini historiarum anatomicarum rariorum centuria [III et ]IV (in Latin). typis Petri Hakii, acad. typogr. p. 283. Vigesimum secundum Hafgufa, vapor marinus, quibusdam Lyngbak, quod ejus dorsum Ericeto sit simile. Extat historia de Episcop quodam Brandano, qui in hujus belluae dorso tabernam fixit, missam celbravit, & non multo post hanc ut purabant , insulam submersam esse.
2. Glossed as:"Hafgufa, vapor marinus".^[1]
3. Cleasby & Vigfusson (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, s.v. "gufa". 'vapour, steam'.
4. Skeat, Walter William, ed. (1882), "reek", An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, Clarendon Press, p. 497
5. Edwards & Pálsson 1970 tr., Arrow-Odd: a medieval novel, "Ch. 21. Death of Vignir", pp. 68–69: "one called 'sea-reek' and the other 'heather-back'". Based on Guðni Jónsson (1950) edition.
6. Faulkes, Anthony (tr), ed. (1995). "Skaldskaparmál 75". Edda: Snorri Sturluson. Everyman. p. 162. ISBN 0-460-87616-3.
7. Keyser, Munch & Unger (1848), p. 32.
8. Finnur Jónsson (1920), pp. 113–115.
9. Halldór Hermannsson (1924), p. 36, endnote
10. Phelpstead, Carl (1996). A History of Norway, and the Passion and Miracles of Blessed Óláfr. Kunin, Devra Levingson (tr.). London: Viking Society for Northern Research. p. 4. ISBN 9780903521482.
11. "Skaldskaparmál 75". Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Formáli, Gylfaginníng, Bragaræður, Skáldskaparmál et Háttatal. Vol. 1. Copenhagen: sumptibus Legati Arnamagnæani. 1848. p. 580.
12. Halldór Hermannsson [in Icelandic] (1975), Old Icelandic Heiti in Modern Icelandic, Institute of Nordic Linguistics, Margúa ' mermaid ' occurs in the 18th cent. as a synonym of hafgúa (Ann. IV 45 (OH) ), found in OI in the form hafgúfa
13. Somerville, A. A. tr., "Wonders of the Iceland sea" in Somerville & McDonald (2020), p. 308 based on 'Speculum Regale[Konungs skuggsjá] wKeyser, Munch & Unger (1848) ed. pp. 29–32, 33–40.
14. Larson (1917) (tr.), p. 125
15. Edwards & Pálsson (1970), pp. xx–xxi.
16. First complete translation, by Edwards and Pálsson in 1970, though Jacqueline Simpson had published selections in 1965.^[15]
17. Somerville & McDonald (2020), p. 307.
18. Larson (1917), p. 7.
19. Denys-Montfort, Pierre (1801). "La poulpe colossal – La poulpe kraken". Des mollusques. Histoire naturelle : générale et particulière 102 (in French). Vol. 2. Paris: L'Imprimerie de F. Dufart. p. 387.; alt text (Vol. 102) via Biodiversity Heritage Library
20. Wormius, Olaus (1655). "Musei Wormiani Historiae de animalibus (liber tertius). Cap. XIII. De Cetis". Museum Wormianum, seu Historia rerum rariorum [...] adornata ab Olav Worm. Leyden (Lugduni Batavorum): J.Elsevirium. p. 280. ISBN 9780903521482.
21. Halldór Hermannsson (1938), p. 11: "the representation of our Physiologus has in Iceland caused a tradition to be formed about two separate animals, lyngbakr og hafgufa, as we see in the younger recension of the Örvar-Odds Saga".
22. Edwards & Pálsson (1970), p. xxi.
23. Boer (1888), p. 132.
24. Power, Rosemary (1985). Louis-Jensen, Jonna [in Icelandic]; Sanders, Christopher; Springborg, Peter (eds.). Christian influence in the Fornaldarsǫgur Norðrlanda (PDF). The Sixth International Saga Conference, 28.7-28.8 1985: Workshop papers I-II. Copenhagen: Det arnamagnæanske Institut. p. 849.
25. Rafn (1829) ed. Örvar-Odds saga Kap. 21, pp. 248–249
26. Boer (1888), p. 131.
27. Helland, Amund Theodor, ed. (1906), Norges land og folk: Finmarkens amt (in Danish), Aschehoug, p. 302, Aspedo, som hvalen kaldes i «Physiologus», er en forkortelse af aspidochelone, som betyder havskildpadde, og dyret opfattes som en hval. Det er da sandsynligt, at det er den varme zones store flydende havskildpadder, som i middelalderen hos de nordlige folk er blevet forstørret til øer. [Aspedo, as the whale is called in [the Icelandic] «Physiologus», is an abbreviation of aspidochelone, which means sea turtle, and the animal is perceived as a whale. It is then probable that it is the large floating sea turtles of the warm zone which in the Middle Ages among the northern peoples have been magnified into islands.]
28. Halldór Hermannsson (1938), p. 10.
29. Clark, Willene B. (2006). "CXIII De aspidochelone". A Medieval Book of Beasts: The Second-family Bestiary : Commentary, Art, Text and Translation. Boydell Press. p. 205. ISBN 9780851156828. aspidochelone.. the cetaceans (note 406: 'Whales, dolphins, sharks')
30. Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon s.v. "[κῆτος]", 'any sea-monster or huge fish'.
31. Kalinke, Marianne E. [in Icelandic] (January 1992). "Reykjahólabók:A Legendary on the Eve of the Reformation". Skáldskaparmál. 2: 248, and note 17. Er hvalr í sæ , er heitir aspedo , ok er of bak sem skógr sé . En í miðju hafi skýtt þat upp baki sínu, en skipverjar ætla ey vera festa skip sitt við þar,　ok kynda elda síðan. En aspedo kennir hita, ok drekkir sér í sjó ǫllum skipverjum
32. Kalinke, Marianne E. [in Icelandic] (1996). The Book of Reykjahólar: The Last of the Great Medieval Legendaries. University of Toronto Press. p. 143. ISBN 9780802078148. Er hvalr í sæ, er heitir aspedo.. /There is a whale in the ocean, who is called ' aspedo ' and its back is like a forest. And in the middle of the ocean it lifts up its back so that the sailors think it's an island..
33. Jónas Kristjánsson (1970). Icelandic Sagas and Manuscripts. Boucher, Alan (tr.). Saga Publishing Company. p. 143. There is in the sea a whale called Aspedo ... When he is hungry he opens his mouth and emits as it were a sort of perfume . And the little fishes smell the perfume..
34. Wallace, Alexander (1903). The Heather in Lore, Lyric and Lay. New York: A.T. De La Mare ptg. and Publishing Company, Limited. pp. 20–22.
35. Hunter, John (F.R.S.) (1882), Schneider, Johann Gottlob (tr., comm.) (ed.), Beyträge zur Naturgeschichte der Wallfischarten, Erster Theil, Leipzig: Schäfer, p. 117
36. Jón Guðmundsson. Halldór Hermannsson (1924) ed., p. 8, line 31 and p. 36, endnote: "So er lesit j sögu hins H. Brandanij biskups, at j ysta vthafi, þá skylldi hann messu sungit hafa á eylandi nockru lijnguöxnu, sem sijdan sockit hafdi, og menn nú nefna lijngbak edur hafgufu, sem endist med heiminum en fiölgar alldri" (in Icelandic)
37. Halldór Hermannsson (1938), p. 11: Speculum regiae of the 13th century describes a monstrous whale which it calls hafgufa... The whale as an island was, of course, known from the Saga of St. Brandan, but there it was called Jaskonius".
38. W[ilson] (1818), p. 649.
39. Unger, Carl Richard (tr.), ed. (1877). Brandanus saga (fragment). Heilagra manna søgur. Fortællinger og legender om hellige mænd og kvinder. Christiania: Trykt hos B.M. Bentzen. pp. 272–275. Archived from the original on 2008-06-01. Retrieved 2021-01-12.
40. Dunn, Joseph (January 1921). "The Brendan problem". The Catholic Historical Review. 6 (4): 427–428. JSTOR 25011716.
41. Egede, Hans (1745). "Ch. 6. Of the Greenland Sea Animals, and Sea Fowl and Fishes / § Of other Sea Animals". A description of Greenland : Shewing the natural history, situation, boundaries and face of the country, the nature of the soil;. London: Printed for C. Hitch in Pater-noster Row; S. Austen in Newgate-Street; and J. Jackson near St. James’s Gate. p. 87.
42. Crantz, David [in German] (1820). The History of Greenland: Including an Account of the Mission Carried on by the United Brethren in that Country. From the German of David Crantz. Vol. 1. p. 122.; Cf. Note X, pp. 323–338
43. W[ilson] (1818), Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, p.649
44. Finnur Jónsson (1920), pp. 113–114.

Bibliography

• Boer, Richard Constant, ed. (1888). Ǫrvar-Odds saga. E. J. Brill. p. 132.

• Edwards, Paul; Pálsson, Hermann (trr.) (1970). Arrow-Odd: a medieval novel. New York University Press.

• Finnur Jónsson, ed. (1920). "12". Konungs skuggsjá: Speculum regale. Vol. 2. Reykjavík: I kommission i den Gyldendalske boghandel, Nordisk forlag.

• Guðni Jónsson, ed. (1950). "21. Vignir kom til Odds". Örvar-Odds saga. Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda. Vol. 2. Reykjavík: Íslendingasagnaútgáfan. pp. 199−363.; 1959 ed. 2 286–280, e-text@snerpa

• Halldór Hermannsson [in Icelandic] (1924), "Jón Guðmundsson and his natural history of Iceland", Islandica, 15: 8, 36, archived from the original on 2017-08-13
• Halldór Hermannsson [in Icelandic] (1938), "Icelandic Physiologus", Islandica, 27: 4–17

• Keyser, Rudolf; Munch, Peter Andreas; Unger, Carl Richard, eds. (1848), "Chapter 12", Speculum Regale. Konungs-Skuggsjá, Oslo: Carl C. Werner & Co., p. 32

• Larson, Laurence Marcellus, ed. (1917), "XXII. The Marvels of the Icelandic Seas: whales; the kraken", The King's Mirror: (Speculum Regalae - Konungs Skuggsjá), Library of Scandinavian literature 15, Twayne Publishers, p. 125, ISBN 9780890670088

• Somerville, Angus A.; McDonald, R. Andrew, eds. (2020) [2019], The Viking Age: A Reader (3 ed.), University of Toronto Press, p. 308, ISBN 9781487570477

• Rafn, Carl Christian, ed. (1829). "Kap. 21". Ǫrvar-Odds saga. Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda. Vol. 2. Copenhagen: Enni Poppsku. pp. 248–249.

• W[ilson], [James] (March 1818). "Remarks on the histories of the kraken and great sea serpent". Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. William Blackwood. 2 (12): 645-654.