Sumarr and Vetr

In Norse mythology, Sumarr (Old Norse: Summer^[1]) and Vetr ("Winter"^[2]) are personified seasons. Sumarr and Vetr, personified, are attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, composed or compiled in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In both, the two are given genealogies, while in the Prose Edda the two figure into a number of kennings used by various skalds.

Summer near Geysir, Iceland.

Etymology

The Old Icelandic nouns sumar and vetr derive from Proto-Germanic and their cognates can be found throughout other Germanic languages, including contemporary English summer and winter. The words are reconstructed in Proto-Germanic as *sumeraz and *wentruz.^[3]

Attestations

Winter in Blefjell, Norway.

Poetic Edda

In the stanza 26 of the Poetic Edda poem Vafþrúðnismál, the god Odin (disguised as "Gagnráðr") asks the jötunn Vafþrúðnir from where warm Sumarr and Vetr come from, stating that they arrived "first among the Wise powers".^[4] In stanza 27, Vafþrúðnir responds:

Wind-cool [Vindsvalr] he is called, Winter's [Vetr's] father,

and Mild-One [Svásuðr], the father of Summer [Sumarr].^[4]

The second half of this stanza is missing from early manuscripts, but some later manuscripts feature the addition of:

And both of these shall ever be

Till the gods to destruction go.^[5]

Prose Edda

In chapter 19 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Gangleri (king Gylfi in disguise) asks why there's an evident difference between summer and winter. The enthroned figure of High responds, and (after scolding him for asking a question everyone knows the answer to) states that the father of Sumarr is Svásuðr, who is quite pleasant, while the father of Vetr is referred to as Vindsvalr or, alternately, Vindljóni, and that Vetr derives his countenance from his ancestors, as they are "cruel and cold-hearted kinsmen".^[6]

Sumarr and Vetr are additionally personified in the Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál, where they are referred to in kennings. Kennings for Sumarr are given in chapter 30, including "son of Svásuðr", "comfort of the snakes", "growth of men", exemplified in an excerpt given from a work by the skald Egill Skallagrímsson where "Valley-fish's mercy" points to "Snake's mercy", which signifies "Summer".^[7] Kennings are given for Vetr in chapter 26; "Son of Vindsvalr", "snake's death", and "storm season". Excerpts of works by the skalds Ormr Steinþórsson (who uses the kenning "Vindsvalr's son") and Ásgrímr (who employs the kenning "snake woe") are then given as examples.^[8] Both Sumarr and Vetr are given as terms for "times" in chapter 63.^[9]

Scholarly reception

Writing in the early 1800s, German philologist and folklorist Jacob Grimm says that Summar and Vetr were personified as jötuns, summer "of a friendly sort" and winter "of a malignant" kind, displaying "the twofold nature" of the jötuns. He highlights their resemblance to the personified day and night, Dagr and Nótt. Grimm finds it notable that the year "as a whole" does not receive personification. Grimm also highlights that both 'winter' and 'summer' appear as Germanic name elements (such as in Wintarolf, meaning 'Winter-wolf'). Grimm discusses a variety of other personifications of summer and winter in the Germanic textual corpus, concluding that some instances "are at war with one another, exactly like Day and Night".^[10] In the late 1900s, Austrian philologist Rudolf Simek proposes that both seasons were "purely literary personifications", "perhaps adopted from earlier riddle poetry".^[11]