In Norse mythology

Norse mythology

Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...

, Eggthér (or Egdir) is a giant and herdsman

Herder

A herder is a worker who lives a possibly semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals, in places where these animals wander pasture lands....

 who is described as sitting on a mound

Mound

A mound is a general term for an artificial heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. The most common use is in reference to natural earthen formation such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. The term may also be applied to any rounded area of topographically...

 and joyfully playing his harp

Harp

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

 while the red rooster Fjalar

Fjalar

In Norse mythology, Fjalar may refer to:* Fjalar and Galar, dwarf brothers who killed the god Kvasir and turned his blood into the mead of poetry* The other is a rooster that will crow to signify the beginning of Ragnarok...

 begins to crow, heralding the onset of Ragnarök

Ragnarök

In Norse mythology, Ragnarök is a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures , the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water...

.

According to stanza 42 of the poem Völuspá

Völuspá

Völuspá is the first and best known poem of the Poetic Edda. It tells the story of the creation of the world and its coming end related by a völva addressing Odin...

from the Poetic Edda

Poetic Edda

The Poetic Edda is a collection of Old Norse poems primarily preserved in the Icelandic mediaeval manuscript Codex Regius. Along with Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, the Poetic Edda is the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends, and from the early 19th century...

:

"He sat on the mound and plucked his harp

the herdsman of the giantess, cheerful Eggther

a rooster crowed in Gallows-wood

Galgvid

In Norse mythology, Gálgviðr is a forest in Jotunheim, land of the jötnar, from which the rooster Fjalar is foretold to begin crowing during the onset of Ragnarok....

that bright-red cockerel who is called Fialar"

— Larrington trans.

The identity of the giantess is not known, but according to John Lindow she may be the one described in stanza 40 of the same poem, who dwelt in the forest of Jarnvid and raised the offspring of Fenrir (and who is often identified with Angrboda

Angrboda

In Norse mythology, Angrboða is a female jötunn . In the Poetic Edda, Angrboða is mentioned only in Völuspá hin skamma as the mother of Fenrir by Loki. However, she is also mother of Fenrir's siblings, Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, and Hel...

). He also notes that Eggther's name is identical to that of Ecgtheow, the father of Beowulf

Beowulf (hero)

Beowulf is a legendary Geatish hero and later turned king in the epic poem named after him, one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in the English language.-Etymology and origins of the character:...

 from the Old English

Old English language

Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...

 epic poem

Epic poetry

An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...

 of the same name

Beowulf

Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...

. However, he agrees with Andy Orchard who states in his Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend that this parallel is most likely a red herring

Red herring (plot device)

Red herring is an idiomatic expression referring to the rhetorical or literary tactic of diverting attention away from an item of significance...

.