TY - JOUR
TI - The mythological Norse ravens Huginn and Muninn: Interrogators of the newly slain
AU - Sayers, William
TI - The mythological Norse ravens Huginn and Muninn: Interrogators of the newly slain
AB - 
	In preference to the common assumption that Óðinn’s ravens daily gather general in­formation from around the world and report back to their master, this study identifies their principal informants as the newly dead (recently slain warriors and hanged men), and the information gathered not simply wisdom but tactical intelligence needed for the eventual cataclysmic battle of Ragnarǫk, in which Óðinn’s troop of fallen warriors, the Einherjar of Valhǫll (named in Gylfaginning in the same context as the ravens), will also participate. The study addresses the central questions of chthonic wisdom, of how the dead (are presumed to) know what is hidden from the living, and why Snorri, in contrast to the skalds, paints an innocuous picture of the ravens.
VL - 2022
IS - Volume 139, Issue 2
PY - 2022
SN - 1897-1059
C1 - 2083-4624
SP - 143
EP - 155
DO - 10.4467/20834624SL.22.008.15632
UR - https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/studia-linguistica-uic/artykul/the-mythological-norse-ravens-huginn-and-muninn-interrogators-of-the-newly-slain
KW - Óðinn
KW - ravens
KW - death
KW - Ragnarǫk
KW - religious conversion