The Role of the Thul

Throughout the Lore, various figures known for their exceeding wisdom are referred to as thul ("thool"). The Old Norse term is þulR, while the Anglo-Saxon is thyle. The word is etymologically connected to ON thula, which is a type of poem particularly connected with the imparting of knowledge (it forms a part of the name of the Eddic poem Rígsþula, for example). Consistently, those addressed as thul are said to be possessed of great wisdom, and have some role in imparting that wisdom to others:

Never laugh at the old thuls when they offer counsel, often their words are wise: from shrivelled skin, from scraggy things that hand among the hides and move amid the guts, clear words often come. - Hávamál 134

The store of knowledge the thul possessed is directly referenced in situations where challenges of Lore are involved:

Tell me, Gagnrad, why you talk from the floor and do not seat yourself: you shall prove to me who has more wit, the guest or the old thul. - Vafþrúðnismál 9

Indeed, the teaching role is especially clear in the reference to Regin, who brought up Sigurd and was his teacher in the arts of combat and metalworking, as a thul:

A head shorter, let him (Regin), the hoary thul, fare hence to Hel! He would be able to rule all the gold alone, the wealth which lay under Fafnir. - Fáfnismál 34

Even the quintessential font of wisdom, Odin Himself, is referred to by the epithet, specifically in relation to his command of knowledge relating to the runes:

Runes you will find, and readable staves, very strong staves, very stout staves, staves that the great thul painted, made by mighty powers, graven by the god Hropt (Odin). - Hávamál 142

Too, it can be seen that the thul (þyle in Anglo-Saxon) was a recognized position, and one who was high enough in rank to be seated at the feet of a king:

…Unferth the thyle at the Scylding lord's feet sat: men had faith in his spirit, his keenness of courage, though kinsmen had found him unsure at the sword-play. - Beowulf 1165-68

It should be noted that this is the same Unferth who, earlier in the poem, had challenged Beowulf's boast that he would be able to defeat the monster Grendel. Clearly Unferth's high rank within the court of the king gave him sufficient authority to outright challenge a boast made at sumbl; few indeed would be able to do so to the boast of a visiting hero and honored guest. However, there is nothing in the poem (or any other source) to indicate that issuing such challenges was a function of the office of thul; rather, it seems simply that the high honor accorded the thul was sufficient to allow such challenges, and that others possessing similar honor would be similarly allowed.

Just as the high-seat is connected with the lord of the hall, and those who practice seidth are said to do so on a special platform, so too is the thul said to have a special "seat of office", whence he dispenses his special wisdom:

It is time to sing in the seat of the wise, of what at Urd's Well I saw in silence, saw and thought on. Long I listened to men, runes heard spoken, counsels revealed, at Har's hall, in Har's hall: there I heard this. - Hávamál 111

Thus the image of the thul begins to fill in. He is an elder, a teacher, one steeped in Lore, either of a general nature or relating to one or more specific fields. He is accomplished at poetry, or at least at the recitation of that poetry that relates to the transmission of the Lore. There is no particular sense that the wisdom and Lore possessed by the thul is supernatural in origin; it seems to be more a function of having learned much through the course of one's life, but with the sense of more than mere "common sense". There is a definite sense that the thul's Lore goes far deeper than the everyday; it penetrates deep into the mists of history and into the very nature of the cosmos itself. In that sense, perhaps, the thul can be said to possess extraordinary knowledge; what better way to gain a mastery of the Lore than by direct experience and questioning those giants and other wights that witnessed it all unfold?

This, then, is the role of the thul; a Lore-master in every sense of the word. Accomplished at language and poetry, old enough to have had wide experience of the world, but keen enough to have used that time not merely to accumulate mundane knowledge, but also the esoteric knowledge of the roots of the world. Too, the thul is not above sharing his wealth of wisdom with others; indeed, it seems to be a primary function of his kind.

© 2006 JJB. Used with permission.

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