Yggdrasil · Gods and Their Allies
Hnoss: A Name for Something Precious
Freyja’s daughter in Gylfaginning, so fair that precious things are called by her name.
In Anderson’s translation
“She is wedded to the man whose name is Oder; their daughter’s name is Hnos, and she is so fair that all things fair and precious are called, from her name, Hnos.”
- Rasmus B. Anderson, The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda (opens in a new tab) (1897), Gylfaginning, the list of the goddesses (Anderson’s translation) Rights: Public domain. Public domain; Project Gutenberg #18947.
What the sources say
Gylfaginning names Hnoss as the daughter of Freyja and her husband Óðr. Snorri says she is so fair that fair and precious things are called by her name. That is all the passage tells of her: no tasks, no home, no story.
Elsewhere in the volume, in the account of the Ynglings, the same couple is said to have two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi, so beautiful that precious jewels were named for them. The two texts agree on the point that matters: a word for treasure comes from her name.
- Rasmus B. Anderson, The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda (opens in a new tab) (1897), Gylfaginning, the list of the goddesses (Anderson’s translation) Rights: Public domain. Public domain; Project Gutenberg #18947.
Names and background
An older glossary gives hnoss as a ball of yarn, a clew of thread, a knot. The sense of a treasure or jewel is how Snorri uses it. The two meanings may be connected, but the texts do not say so.
Nothing in the sources gives Hnoss a worship, a treasury or a cult. She appears only as Freyja’s child and as the origin of a word.
- Rasmus B. Anderson, The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda (opens in a new tab) (1897), Gylfaginning, the list of the goddesses (Anderson’s translation) Rights: Public domain. Public domain; Project Gutenberg #18947.