Аузвандалил: Герман мифологиясындағы тұлға

Figure in Germanic mythology

Aurvandill (Old Norse) is a figure in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, the god Thor tosses Aurvandill's toe – which had frozen while the thunder god was carrying him in a basket across the Élivágar rivers – into the sky to form a star called Aurvandils tá ('Aurvandill's toe'). In wider medieval Germanic speaking cultures, he was known as Ēarendel in Old English, Aurendil in Old High German, Auriwandalo in Lombardic, and possibly as auzandil in Gothic. An Old Danish Latinized version, Horwendillus (Ørvendil), is also the name given to the father of Amlethus (Amleth) in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. Comparative studies of the various myths where the figure is involved have led scholars to reconstruct a Common Germanic mythical figure named Auza wandilaz, which seems to have personified the 'rising light' of the morning, possibly the Morning Star (Venus). However, the German and – to a lesser extent – the Old Danish evidence remain difficult to interpret in this model.

The Old Norse name Aurvandill stems from a Proto Germanic form reconstructed as Auza wandilaz, Auzi wandalaz, or Auzo wandiloz. It is cognate with Old English Ēarendel, Old High German Aurendil (≈ Orentil), and Lombardic Auriwandalo. The original meaning of the Common Germanic name remains obscure. The most semantically plausible explanation is to interpret Auza wandilaz as a compound meaning 'light beam' or 'ray of light', by deriving the prefix auza from Proto Germanic auzom ('shiny [especially of liquids]'; cf. ON aurr 'gold', OE ēar 'wave, sea'), and wandilaz from wanđuz ('rod, cane'; cf. Goth. wandus, ON vǫndr). Efn|1=Middle English wond (modern wand 'a stick or rod') was borrowed from Old Norse. The latter probably stems from the root wanđ ('to turn, wind'), so that the etymological connotation is that of suppleness or flexibility. This theory is encouraged by the Old English association of the idea of 'rising light' with Ēarendel, whose name has been translated as 'radiance, morning star',

Commentators since at least the time of Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, first published in 1835, have emphasized the great age of the tradition reflected in the mythological material surrounding this name, without being able to fully reconstruct the motifs of a Common Germanic myth. The task is complicated because the mythical stories of Orendel and Horwendillus appear to be unrelated to that of Ēarendel and Aurvandill. However, some scholars, including Georges Dumézil, have attempted to demonstrate that Saxo's Horwendillus and Snorri's Aurvandill are based on the same archetypal myth. Furthermore, the apparent discrepancies may be explained by the fact that derivatives of Auza wandilaz were also used as personal names in the Lombardic and German traditions, as attested by historical figures who are named Auriwandalo and Aurendil by the 8th century AD.

The oldest attestation of this name may occur in the Gothica Bononiensia, a sermon from Ostrogothic Italy written in the Gothic language not later than the first half of the 6th century, and discovered in 2009. On folio 2 recto, in the context of a quotation from Isaiah 14:12, linguist P. A. Kerkhof suggested to see the word 𐌰𐌿𐌶𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌹𐌻 (auzandil) in a difficult to read part of the palimpsest. This reading, which has been accepted by various experts such as Carla Falluomini and Roland Schuhmann, translates the Koine Greek word ἑωσφόρος (heōsphóros, 'dawnbringer') from the Septuagint, which in Latin is rendered lucifer ('light bringer, morning star'):

ƕaiwa usdraus us himina auzandil sa in maurgin urrinnanda how Lucifer did fall from heaven, he who emerges in the morning

The term ēarendel (≈ eorendel, earendil) appears only seven times in the Old English corpus, where it is used in certain contexts to interpret the Latin oriens ('rising sun'), lucifer ('light bringer'), aurora ('dawn') or iubar ('radiance'). According to scholar J. E. Cross, textual evidence indicate that it originally meant 'coming or rising light, beginning of light, bringer of light', and that later innovations led to an extended meaning of 'radiance, light'. Philologist Tiffany Beechy writes that "the evidence from the early glossary tradition shows earendel to be a rare alternative for common words for the dawn/rising sun." According to her, the "Anglo Saxons appear to have known earendel as a quasi mythological figure who personified a natural phenomenon (sunrise) and an astrological/astronomical object (the morning star)."

The forms Aurendil (≈ Horindil, Urendil), dating from the 8th century, and Orendil (≈ Orentil), dating from the 9th–10th century, were used in Old High German as personal names. A Bavarian count named Orendil is recorded in 843. The Middle High German epic poem Orendel, written in the late 12th century, provides a fictional account of how the Holy Mantle of Christ came to the city of Trier that was probably inspired by the actual transfer of the Mantle to the main altar of Trier Cathedral in 1196. The style of the poem, characterized by its "paratactic organization of episodes and the repetition of poetic formulas", may point to an older oral tradition. The eponymous hero of the tale, Orendel, son of King Ougel, embarks on the sea with a mighty fleet in order to reach the Holy Land and seek the hand of Bride, Queen of Jerusalem. Suffering shipwreck, Orendel is rescued by a fisherman and eventually recovers the lost Mantle in the belly of a whale. The coat provides him protection and he succeeds in winning Bride for his wife. After ruling Jerusalem with Bride for a time, the two of them meet with many adventures. At the end of the story, Orendel finally disposes of the Holy Coat after bringing it to Trier. The appendix to the Strassburger Heldenbuch (15th c.) names King Orendel (≈ Erentel) of Trier as the first of the heroes that were ever born. The name also gave way to various toponyms found in present day Germany, including Orendileshûs (in Grabfeld), Orendelsall (now part of Zweiflingen), and Orendelstein (in Öhringen).

The Lombardic form Auriwandalo appears as a personal name in the 8th century. In the 2022 revenge thriller film The Northman, written and directed by Robert Eggers, Aurvandill is portrayed by Ethan Hawke. In the film Aurvandill is mentioned as the Raven King, who is the father of Amleth, the protagonist of the film, portrayed by the Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård. The film is based primarily on the medieval Scandinavian legend of Amleth, which is the direct inspiration behind the character Hamlet from William Shakespeare's 16th century tragedy of the same name.