SIF

SOURCES

Poetic Edda

Then came Sif forward and poured mead for Loki in a crystal cup.

She said:

"Hail to thee Loki!     To thy lips now raise
     this beaker full of good beer,
 so that me alone     among the gods
     without a blot thou let'st be."

He took the goblet and drank of it (and said):

"That one thou wert,     if thou wert indeed
     shy and didst shrink from men;
but one I wot,     whom well I know
     made a whore of Hlorrithi's (Thor's) wife:
     sly Loki, Laufey's son.

     - Lokasenna (Poetic Edda, Hollander translation).



The Ferryman said:

"With Sif someone     sleeps in her bower;
they strength thou should'st    stake against his!"

Thor said:

"With wicked words sayst thou     what worse would seem to me;
but, craven knave,      I know that thou liest."

     - Harbarzljodh (Poetic Edda, Hollander translation)

Prose Edda

"Ull is the name of one, son of Sif and step-son of Thor".
	(Prose Edda, Anthony Faulkes translation, page 25).

"How shall Thor be referred to?  By calling him... husband of Sif".
	(p.77)

"How shall Loki be referred to?  By calling him... Sif's hair farmer".
	 (p. 77)

"How shall Sif be referred to? By calling her wife of Thor, mother of Ull, the fair-haired deity, 
rival of Iarnsaxa, mother of Thrud".
	 (p. 86)

"How shall gold be referred to?  By calling it... Sif's hair".
	 (p. 94)

"Why is gold called Sif's hair? Loki Laufeyson had done this for love of mischief: he had cut
off all Sif's hair.  And when Thor found out, he caught Loki and was going to break every one of
his bones until he swore that he would get the black-elves to make Sif a head of hair out of gold
that would grow like any other hair.  After this Loki when to some dwarves called Ivaldi's sons,
and they made a head of hair and Skidbladnir and the spear belonging to Odin called Gungnir... 
The hair was rooted in the flesh as soon as it came on to Sif's head..."
	(p. 96 - 97)

Other Sources

Sif is the wife of Thonar, the mother of Wulþur (by an unknown father) and Trude. Snorri mentions in his prologue to his Edda that her parents are not known, but she is a prophetess. This probably comes from his false etymology of "Sif" as being derived from the Classical "Sibyl", but it is not unlikely that she, like other goddesses such as Frija and Gefjon, may also be a seeress. Sif is best known for her long gold hair, around which the one myth in which she appears - Loki's cropping of it and the forging of the treasures of the gods - centers. It is often thought that her golden hair is the embodiment of the fields of grain, which, when ripe, look very much like long golden hair rippling in the breeze; in England, it used to be thought that the summer lightning was needed for the crops to ripen, which speaks of the relationship between Sif and Thonar. It is worth marking that in saga descriptions of women as attractive, the one physical feature which seems to define beauty is the woman's hair (most ideally, long, straight, golden hair such as Sif's) - other bodily characteristics are almost never mentioned. For instance Helga in fögr (the fair) is described with many superlatives as the fairest woman of Iceland, but the only thing said about her actual looks is that her hair was so long that she could completely wrap herself in it and was as fair as gold (Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, ch. 4). Aside from that, descriptions of a saga-woman's physical beauty were wholly confined to her clothing (Jochens, Jenny, "Before the Male Gaze: the Absence of the Female Body in Old Norse"). Sif, with her gold hair, can thus be seen as the fairest of the goddesses and the very embodiment of the Norse ideal of female attractiveness. More than this, we know that hair was a very meaningful sign of both life-force and holiness among the Germanic peoples: for a man, it was particularly the emblem of a king, priest, or one dedicated to the god/esses; for a woman, it was the very symbol of her being. When Loki crops Sif's hair, it is not only an unmatched insult, it is an attack against the life-force of the Ases' Garth similar to the theft of Iðunn or the offering of Freyja in marriage to an etin: Sif's hair, Iðunn's apples, and the Frowe's womb are all embodiments of the same might. It may be significant that the etin Hrungnir, when boasting in the halls of the gods, threatens to carry away Freyja and Sif for himself; it is these goddesses (and perhaps Sif's daughter Trude, as spoken of below) that draw the interest of the manly wights of the Outgarth. Loki also expresses a certain claim to Sif in Lokasenna, saying that he has slept with her (and, again, no one can tell him that he is simply lying); it is not impossible that his cropping of her hair could have been a way of boasting of this deed. It has also been suggested that Loki's deed could, on a natural level, be seen in the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture, and there may be some truth in this, though we must remember that it is this world which mirrors the worlds of the gods, not their world which is explained simply by happenings in ours. The rowan is probably Sif's tree: as mentioned in "Thonar", we know that the Lappish version of the thunder-god, Hora galles or "Þórr Karl", had a wife named "Rowan", to whom the tree's red berries were holy, and that Þórr clung to this tree against the flood of Geirröðr's daughter. Turville-Petre concludes from this that, "Probably the wife of Thór was once conceived in the form of a rowan, to which the god clung", also making reference to the special reverence given to this tree from the settlement of Iceland to the present day (Myth and Religion, p. 98). We may also note that the rowan is first crowned with white - "fair" blossoms, then loses them, but in their stead gets bright red berries; since, as we will remember, the Germanic people often spoke of gold as being "red", this could likewise be seen as showing the cropping and replacement of Sif's hair. If Sif is indeed the rowan-goddess, this sheds a little more light on her relationship with Thonar and the way in which the two of them work together. The rowan is first and foremost a tree of warding against all ill-willing magic and wights of the Outgarth: next to the hallowing and battle-might of Thonar's Hammer, we thus have the hallowing and magical might of Sif's rowan. The two of them can be called on together as warders against all ill. Sif is never seen as a warrior, nor are any weapons ever attributed to her, despite the image put out by a certain popular comic-book. Her name is related very closely to the word "sib", the kin-group. This suggests that she is very much a deity of the clan and warder of the home and family, just as her husband is. Laurel Olson, who works closely with Sif, mentions that "She understands grief and loss from personal experience and is understanding in the extreme. She is (physical plane) wealth and prosperity, more so, I think, than Freya. She says she sleeps in winter beneath a grey and white cloak Frigga wove of rams' wool. She loves all things gold or golden coloured. She favours spring green, sky blue, berry red, autumnal gold (as opposed to yellow), and white. As offerings she likes cooked barley with honey and butter, fresh berries or berry strudel, and spring flowers. She also likes gold jewelry and amber anything."

Excerpt taken from Our Troth, Chapter XIII.

In his Teutonic Mythology (Volume 1), Jacob Grimm tells us that there is an herb (polytrichum aureum), that bears the name "haddr Sifjar" (Sif's hair). "Sifjar haddr" is the kenning for gold in Skaldskaparmal.

OUR THOUGHTS

Many scholars claim that Sif is associated with grain. Her hair represents the waving, golden wheat and the story about her haircut is a metaphor for the harvest. She is married to Thor, God of Thunder, because he is associated with the summer rain and because according to Anglo-Saxon folklore, thunder caused the grain to ripen.

This doesn't, however, fit in that well with the stories we *do* have about Sif. Why would Thor get so upset about the harvest? Isn't that a *good* thing? And if she is all about cereal, why do all the other references to her have to do with whether or not she is a faithful wife?

Let's put scholarly speculation about grain aside for a moment and look at what we do have about Sif:

Her name means "relation" or "family member". She is the mother of Ullr, who is Thor's stepson and who is specifically remarked to be especially good at single combat.

In the _Lay of Harbard_, Odin insults Thor by claiming that Sif has a lover; he also mentions giving Thor an arm-ring as a settlement for some kind of seduction in Asgard. In _Lokasenna_, Loki claims that he had been Sif's lover. In the Prose Edda, Snorre tells the story of Hrungnir, a giant who showed up at Asgard and (after he got drunk) threatened to tear the place up and take Sif home with him. Thor takes exception; Hrungnir, a famous fighter, challenges Thor to single combat and loses fatally.

The most famous story that refers to Sif is really about Loki. In the Prose Edda, Snorre tells of the time Loki "for a joke" cut off all of Sif's hair. Thor is enraged and threaten to kill Loki unless he comes up with a magical replacement, Loki heads off to the dwarves, and returns with all of the gods greatest treasure-tools. Odin gets a spear and gold-making ring; Frey, a ship and golden boar; And Thor, a hammer and Sif's new hair. The gods handle the hair incident as a personal offense to Thor.

What speculation naturally grows out of this lore? Some wonder if Hrungnir was Sif's first husband or lover and the father of Ullr (since our predecessors commonly believed that things like skill in single combat would pass down through family lines). Others wonder how Sif's hair parallels the other magical treasures. Does it represent wealth or power? And what does Sif have in common with her husband? Are their spheres of interest and activity related? And just how did Loki get access to Sif's hair anyway?

I think that Sif should be associated with something that comprised all these things and others to our predecessors: the solidarity of the family. We read in saga after saga that a gracious, faithful, and sensible wife is the keystone of a successful family and that the family is critical to wealth, power, and security. Sif is certainly described in terms consistent with those admirable qualities, and she is the (only) Asgardian that most resembles Mother in the _Lay of Rig_. (In my opinion, Frigga is more interested in the business side of the family concern, and in politics.)

And to me, this role for Sif fits better with Thor's role as protector of the common man than a job as grain goddess. The common men *needed* their families for survival. They absolutely relied on them. The breakdown of family solidarity is the first sign of the coming of Ragnarok. That is why suggestions that Sif is unfaithful are so significant (and why discussions of faithfulness are just about the only time her name comes up).

Of course, none of the gods or goddesses is simply the "god of X". There is no reason that a role as glue of the family precludes an interest in grain. But I don't think there is any reason to believe is her main association.

- Manny Olds

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