Andlang

In Norse mythology, Andlang (also Andlàngr or Öndlangr) is described as the second heavenly realm which stretches between the first, containing the halls of the gods, and the third, named Vídbláin.[1] In all there are nine heavens according to Snorri.[2] Andlang will serve as a shelter and dwelling place for the souls of the dead during and after the destruction of Ragnarök.

Holtsmark (1964) noted that Snorri's Andlang derived from andlegr himinn ("spiritual heaven") in the medieval Icelandic version of the Elucidarius, crediting Hjalmar Falk for this inspiration,[3][4] adding her own insight that the and- heading made the term readily associable with andi "spirit" (Norwegian: ånd) which was in a way synonymous "elves,"[5] which fits in with the fact that Snorri describes light elves as denizens of the third heaven, Vídbláin. Rudolf Simek (1995), in similar line of inquiry, explores a functional connection between Andlang and the Coelus Spiritualis (the "spiritual heaven" in the original Latin version of the Elucidarius).[6]

Other attempts at interpretation include "long-" or "far-breathing" (Magnusen 1828) and "limitless aether" (Weidenbach 1851),[7] which identify the stem önd- "breath". It has also been glossed as "endlessly long" (Eduard 1843), consistent with the gloss "extended" or "very long" given in Anthony Faulkes's translation of the Prose Edda.[8]

Notes
  1. Gylfaginning 17 (Faulkes 1995, p. 20)
  2. Skáldskaparmál 75 (Faulkes 1995, p. 164)
  3. "Falk har sikkert rett i at Andlangr er laget av andlegr himinn; det andre navnet er ikke så let å forstå, det tør også være laget for anledningen. Det er en anakronisme å tale om «verdensrommet», som Falk gjør" (Holtsmark 1964, p. 37)
  4. Probably Falk, Hjalmar (15 July 1925), "Himmelsfaerene i vår gamle litteratur", Heidersskrift til Marius Hægstad fraa vener og læresveinar, Oslo, pp. 34–38
  5. Holtsmark 1964, pp. 35-36 Sort of synonymous, she says (p.37), because in Nornagests þáttr Olaf Tryggvason thinks there might be a presence of an elf or spirit in the house: "einn álfr eða andi nǫkkurr kom inn í húsit".
  6. Simek 1995, p. 21
  7. Magnusen 1828, p. 234; Eduard 1843, p. 231; Weidenbach 1851, p. 52.
  8. Faulkes 1995, p.229 (index); p.164

References
  • Lorenz, Gottfried (1984). Gylfaginning (in German). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. ISBN 3-534-09324-0.
  • Simek, Rudolf (1995). Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie (in German). Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner. ISBN 978-3-520-36803-4.
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