Ephemeral or Eternal: The Temporality of Transformations
How mutable or stable the self appears in transformation-episodes is also impacted by the reversibility of the change depicted: human-to-human transformations are consistently temporary, while human-to-animal transformations are very rarely permanent, and ambiguously so. For instance, Bjǫrn’s curse confines him to bear-form by day but human form by night: while the curse is permanent, he himself is not a bear at all times. Similarly, Fáfnir’s transformation into a dragon is often interpreted as permanent, though the texts do not explicitly confirm this. It is
Vǫlsunga saga alone that hints at a causal link between Fáfnir’s antisocial behaviour and his transformation, thereby implying a permanent change: ‘Síðan drap Fáfnir fǫður sinn […] Hann gerðisk svá illr at hann lagðisk úr ok unni engum at njóta fjárins nema sér ok varð síðan at inum versta ormi og liggr nú á því fé’ (‘Later Fáfnir killed his father […] He became so evil, that he went out into the wilderness, and allowed nobody but himself to enjoy the riches and he later became the worst serpent and now lies on the treasure’).
1 Vǫls., ch. 14 (p. 26). On the relationship between social transgression and animal transformation, as well as the different treatments of the same story-material across the textual witnesses of this cycle, see Chapter 4.Otr’s case in
Vǫlsunga saga is similarly ambiguous, with the narrator intertwining his animal form with enduring behavioural traits in a way that obfuscates the temporary/permanent binary: though Otr does not remain in otter shape at all times, his animal nature (
náttúra) nonetheless persists.
2 Ibid. (p. 25). The
Vǫlsunga saga-narrator in fact fleshes out his enduring animality, describing how ‘Mjǫk hefir hans otrs líki á sér, kom síð heim ok át blundandi ok einn saman, því at hann mátti eigi sjá at þyrri’ (‘he had much of the form of an otter in him: he came home late and ate closing his eyes and alone, because he could not watch the food diminish’).
3 Ibid. While these details are included in the prose introduction to the eddic poem
Reginsmál, here they are presented as part of the narrative setup rather than an aspect of characterisation:
‘Otr hét bróðir várr’, kvað Reginn, ‘er opt fór í forsinn í otrs líki. Hann hafði tekit einn lax ok sat á árbakkanum ok át blundandi. Loki laust hann með steini til bana’.
4 Rm., p. 298. Skáldskaparmál’s telling of this episode aligns with the prose of Reginsmál, rather than Vǫlsunga saga, presenting Otr’s transformation as a singular occurrence in a larger divine drama, providing motivation for the kenning Otrsgjǫld (‘otter-payment [gold]’). Skm., ch. 39 (p. 45).[‘Our brother was called Otr’, said Reginn, ‘who often went into the waterfall in the form of an otter. He had caught a salmon and sat on the riverbank and ate with his eyes closed. Loki struck him to death with a stone’.]
Permanent transformations into objects are portrayed as fatal and final, afflicting beings who are already marked by abjection, such as Hrímgerðr, the ogress, who is turned to stone at the close of the senna in Helgakviða Hjǫrvarðssonar. The prevalence of temporary transformations suggests that, while narrators and audiences were interested in testing out the physical and conceptual boundaries of human identity through the motif of transformation, ultimately there is a desire at the narrative level to restore the ‘natural’ order, to separate the self from the other. This process of subversion of norms followed by restoration of ‘reality’ functionally parallels the kenning, which, as discussed in earlier chapters, momentarily blurs the lines between humans, animals and objects, encouraging the audience to envision a world of interconnectedness rather than separation. Just as ‘solving’ a kenning provides only partial resolution (since the kenning’s imaginative potential remains active in the audience’s mind, even after we’ve identified the referent), temporary transformation-episodes provoke enduring reflections on identity, extending beyond their immediate narrative context.