Sumarr and Vetr

Key takeaways

Sumarr and Vetr belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sumarr and Vetr to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sumarr and Vetr from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sumarr ('summer') and vetr ('winter') are the two divisions of the year in the Old Norse calendar. Vetr is also the term for counting years. In Norse mythology, Sumarr and Vetr occur as personified figures with named fathers in both 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. The Prose Edda additionally names Vetr's grandfather and cites skaldic kennings in which both Sumarr and Vetr are personified.

Etymology The Old Icelandic nouns sumarr (also neuter sumar) and vetr derive from Proto-Germanic, and their cognates are found throughout other Germanic languages, including contemporary English summer and winter. The Proto-Germanic words are reconstructed as *sumeraz and *wentruz.

Seasons The Old Norse year was divided into two halves, winter and summer, referred to as misseri. The four-fold division of the year into seasons was introduced from the Julian calendar, but the two-fold division remained important in people's minds. In addition, vetr (literally, 'winter') was the word normally used in counting years, for example in stating ages; ár, the word cognate with English "year", was primarily used in the specialized meaning "good harvest", as in the fixed phrase til árs ok friðar, "for peace and plenty".

Personifications

Attestations In stanza 26 of the Poetic Edda poem Vafþrúðnismál, the god Odin (disguised as "Gagnráðr") asks the jötunn Vafþrúðnir where Vetr and "warm Sumar" originally came from when they arrived "among the wise Powers" (regin; the gods). In stanza 27, Vafþrúðnir responds:

Wind-cool [Vindsvalr] he is called, Winter's [Vetr's] father, and Mild-One [Svásuðr], the father of Summer [Sumar(r)].

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.

In chapter 19 of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Gangleri (King Gylfi in disguise) asks why there is 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 known as Vindsvalr or, alternately, Vindljóni, son of Vásaðr, and Vetr has inherited his disposition from these "cruel and cold-hearted kinsmen". The Prose Edda book Skáldskaparmál lists winter and summer (sumar), followed by spring and autumn as a second pair, as words for "times" in chapter 63. In addition, Skáldskaparmál cites kennings referring to summer and winter, some of which personify them. Kennings for "summer" listed in chapter 30 are "son of Svásuðr", "comfort of the snakes", and "growth of men". The illustrative example excerpted from a poem by the skald Egill Skallagrímsson refers to summer as "valley-fish's [snake's] mercy". In chapter 26, "Son of Vindsvalr", "snake's death", and "storm season" are listed as kennings for "winter". The examples given are "snake woe" in a verse by the 12th-century skald Ásgrímr Ketilsson, his only preserved work, and the personified "Vindsvalr's son" in a verse by Ormr Steinþórsson, who may also have lived and worked in the 12th century.

Scholarly reception The 19th-century German philologist and folklorist Jacob Grimm interpreted the personified Sumar (Grimm was aware only of the neuter usages) and Vetr as jötuns, Sumar and his father "of a good friendly sort" and Vetr and his line "of a malignant [sort]", displaying "the twofold nature" of the jötuns. He highlights that both "winter" and "summer" appear as Germanic name elements (such as in Wintarolf, meaning 'Winter-wolf'). Discussing a variety of other personifications of summer and winter in the Germanic textual corpus, he relates the personified figures to the personified day and night in Norse mythology, Dagr and Nótt, and refers to a topos in folk tradition of the two seasons being "at war with one another, exactly like Day and Night". In the 21st century, Paul S. Langeslag similarly regarded Sumarr and Vetr as figures in conflict, but as divinities rather than giants: "gods that govern seasonally", with the genealogies providing "a divine aetiology" for the difference between the seasons. Austrian philologist Rudolf Simek regarded both personifications as late "purely literary" inventions since they do not occur in any recorded myths, suggesting that they may have been "adopted from ... riddle poetry".

Notes

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sumarr and Vetr

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sumarr and Vetr claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sumarr and Vetr before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sumarr and Vetr ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sumarr and Vetr

In research: Sumarr and Vetr appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sumarr and Vetr in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sumarr and Vetr is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Mythological duos, Personifications in Norse mythology, Seasons, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sumarr and Vetr outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Sumarr and Vetr in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sumarr and Vetr means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sumarr and Vetr out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sumarr and Vetr in simple terms?

Sumarr ('summer') and vetr ('winter') are the two divisions of the year in the Old Norse calendar. Vetr is also the term for counting years.

Why does Sumarr and Vetr matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sumarr and Vetr?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sumarr and Vetr.