View source for Dagr

{{short description|Personification of day in Norse mythology}}
{{About||other uses of Dagr|Dagr (disambiguation)}}
[[File:Dagr by Arbo.jpg|thumb|260px|''Dagr'' (1874) by [[Peter Nicolai Arbo]]]]
'''Dagr''' ([[Old Norse]] 'day')<ref name="LINDOW91">Lindow (2001:91).</ref> is the [[divine]] personification of the [[day]] in [[Norse mythology]]. He appears 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]]. In both sources, Dagr is stated to be the son of the god [[Dellingr]] and is associated with the bright-maned horse [[Skinfaxi]], who "draw[s] day to mankind". Depending on manuscript variation, the ''Prose Edda'' adds that Dagr is either Dellingr's son by [[Nótt]], the personified night, or [[Jörð]], the personified Earth. Otherwise, Dagr appears as a [[Common noun#Proper nouns and common nouns|common noun]] simply meaning "day" throughout Old Norse works. Connections have been proposed between Dagr and other similarly named figures in [[Germanic mythology]].

==Eddaic Dagr==

===''Poetic Edda''===
Dagr is mentioned in stanzas 12 and 25 of the poem ''[[Vafþrúðnismál]]''. In stanza 24, the god [[Odin]] (disguised as "[[List of names of Odin|Gagnráðr]]") asks the [[jötunn]] [[Vafþrúðnir]] from where the day comes, and the night and its tides. In stanza 25, Vafþrúðnir responds:
<blockquote>
:Delling hight he who the day's father is,
:but night was of Nörvi born;
:the new and waning moons the beneficent powers created,
:to count the years for men.<ref name=THORPE13>Thorpe (1907:13).</ref>
In stanza 12, the horse Skinfaxi, his mane gleaming, is stated by Vafþrúðnir as "drawing day to mankind".<ref name=LARRINGTON41>Larrington (1996:41).</ref>
</blockquote>
In ''[[Sigrdrífumál]]'', after the [[valkyrie]] [[Sigrdrífa]] is woken from her sleep curse by the hero [[Sigurd]], Sigurd asks her name, and she gives him a "memory-drink" of a [[drinking horn]] full of [[mead]], and then Sigrdrifa says a [[prayer]]. The first verse of this prayer features a reference to the "sons of Dagr" and the "female relative" (''[[:wikt:nipt#Old Norse|nipt]]'', "niece" or "daughter") of Nótt.

In the poem ''[[Hrafnagaldr Óðins]]'', the appearance of Dagr and his horse and chariot are described:
<blockquote>
:The son of Delling
:urged on his horse
:adorned with
:precious jewels.
:Over [[Midgard|Mannheim]] shines
:the horse's mane,
:the steed Dvalin's deluder
:dew in his chariot.<ref name=THORPE31-32>Thorpe (1866:31—32).</ref>
</blockquote>

===''Prose Edda''===
In the ''Prose Edda'' book ''[[Gylfaginning]]'', Dagr is again personified. In chapter 10, the enthroned figure of High states that Dagr is the son of the couple of Dellingr of the [[Æsir]] and his wife Nótt ("night"). Dagr is described as "as bright and beautiful as his father's people". Odin took Dagr and his mother Nótt, gave them each a chariot and a horse — Dagr receiving the horse Skinfaxi, whose mane illuminates all the sky and the Earth — and placed them in the sky to ride around the Earth every 24 hours.<ref name="BYOCK19">Byock (2005:19).</ref>

Dagr is again personified in chapter 24 of the ''Prose Edda'' book ''[[Skáldskaparmál]]'', where he is stated as a brother of [[Jörð]].<ref name=FAULKES90>Faulkes (1995:90).</ref> As a common noun, Dagr appears in chapter 58, where "Skinfaxi or Glad" is stated as pulling forth the day,<ref name="FAULKES90">Faulkes (1995:90).</ref> and chapter 64, where Dagr is stated as one of various words for time.<ref name=FAULKES144>Faulkes (1995:144).</ref>

However, scholar Haukur Thorgeirsson points out that the four manuscripts of ''Gylfaginning'' vary in their descriptions of the family relations between Nótt, Jörð, Dagr, and Dellingr. In other words, depending on the manuscript, either Jörð or Nótt is the mother of Dagr and partner of Dellingr. Haukur details that "the oldest manuscript, U, offers a version where Jǫrð is the wife of Dellingr and the mother of Dagr while the other manuscripts, R, W and T, cast Nótt in the role of Dellingr's wife and Dagr's mother", and argues that "the version in U came about accidentally when the writer of U or its antecedent shortened a text similar to that in RWT. The results of this accident made their way into the Icelandic poetic tradition".<ref name="HAUKUR-159-168">Haukur (2008:159—168).</ref>

==Svipdagr==
{{main|Svipdagr}}
[[Otto Höfler]] theorized that Dagr may be related to (or may be the same figure as) the hero [[Svipdagr]] (whose name means "the suddenly dawning day") who is attested in various texts. Among other sources, this figure is found in two poems compiled together and known as ''[[Svipdagsmál]]'' in the ''Poetic Edda'', the Prologue to the ''Prose Edda'', and by the name Swæfdæg in the mythical genealogies of the Anglian houses of [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon England]]. Otto Höfler also proposed that Svipdagr may have been a "Dagr of the [[Suebi]]", and because of the names of his family members, Sólbjartr ("the sun-light", indicating a potential god of the skies) and [[Gróa]] ("growth", indicating a possible goddess of growth), and his wooing of [[Menglöð]] (often identified with the goddess [[Freyja]]), he further suggested that Svipdagr may have been a fertility god.<ref name=SIMEK307>Simek (2007:55 and 307).</ref>

==See also==
*[[Dagaz]], the ''d'' rune
*[[Dag the Wise]]
*[[Dies (deity)]]
*[[Hemera]]

{{Commons category|Dagr}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}

==References==
{{Refbegin}}
* Byock, Jesse (Trans.) (2006). ''The Prose Edda''. [[Penguin Classics]]. {{ISBN|0-14-044755-5}}
* Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). ''Edda''. [[Everyman's Library|Everyman]]. {{ISBN|0-460-87616-3}}
* Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999). ''The Poetic Edda''. [[Oxford World's Classics]]. {{ISBN|0-19-283946-2}}
* Haukur Thorgeirsson (2008). "Hinn fagri foldar son" as published in ''Gripla XIX'', pages 159–168. [[Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies]].
* [[John Lindow|Lindow, John]] (2001). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=KlT7tv3eMSwC Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs]''. [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-19-515382-0}}
* [[Rudolf Simek|Simek, Rudolf]] (2007) translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. [[Boydell & Brewer|D.S. Brewer]]. {{ISBN|0-85991-513-1}}
* [[Benjamin Thorpe|Thorpe, Benjamin]] (Trans.) (1866). ''Edda Sæmundar Hinns Frôða: The Edda of Sæmund the Learned.'' Part I. London: Trübner & Co.
* Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1907). ''The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson''. [[Norrœna Society]].
{{Refend}}

{{Norse cosmology}}
{{Norse mythology}}

{{Good article}}

[[Category:Æsir]]
[[Category:Day]]
[[Category:Personifications in Norse mythology]]
[[Category:Sky and weather gods]]
[[Category:Norse gods]]