Myrkviðr

In Germanic mythology, Myrkviðr (Old Norse "mirky wood, dark wood" or "black forest") or, as anglicised by William Morris and later adopted by JRR Tolkien, Mirkwood, is the name of several European forests.

The direct derivatives of the name occur as a place name both in Sweden and Norway, and related forms of the name occur elsewhere in Europe, most famously the Black Forest (Schwarzwald), and may thus be a general term for dark and dense forests of ancient Europe.

The word myrkviðr is a compound of two words. The first element is myrk "dark", which is cognate to, among others, the English adjectives mirky and . The second element is viðr "wood, forest".

The name is attested as a mythical local name of a forest in the Poetic Edda poem Lokasenna, and the heroic poems Atlakviða, Helgakviða Hundingsbana I and Hlöðskviða, and in prose in Fornmanna sögur, Flateyjarbók, Hervarar Saga, Ála flekks saga.

The localization of Myrkviðr varies by source:

Meyjar flugu sunnan
myrkvið í gögnum,
Alvitr unga,
örlög drýgja;
þær á sævarströnd
settusk at hvílask
drósir suðrænar,
dýrt lín spunnu.

Maids from the south
through Myrkwood flew,
Fair and young,
their fate to follow;
On the shore of the sea
to rest them they sat,
The maids of the south,
and flax they spun.

Loci qvaþ:
«Gvlli keypta
leztv Gymis dottvr
oc seldir þitt sva sverþ;
enn er Mvspellz synir
ríða Myrcviþ yfir,
veizta þv þa, vesall! hve þv vegr.»

Loki spake:
"The daughter of Gymir
with gold didst thou buy,
And sold thy sword to boot;
But when Muspell's sons
through Myrkwood ride,
Thou shalt weaponless wait, poor wretch."

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