The name's meaning is unknown. It has been speculatively linked to various Old Norsewords, such as lóð, "fruit, land", ljóðar, "people" and laða, "to attract". The Gothic words liudan, "to grow" and laudi, "shape", as well as the German word lodern, "to blaze", have also been mentioned in this context. The metrical position of Lóðurr's name in the skaldic poemÍslendingadrápa, composed in the strict dróttkvætt metre, indicates that it contains the sound value /ó/ rather than /o/. This evidence, while strong, is not incontrovertible and some scholars have held out for a Loðurr reading. Danish and Norwegian lørdag, Swedish lördag, as well as Finnish lauantai may possibly derive from Lóður Dag, meaning "Saturday", although more typically the etymology is proposed to originate from "washing day".
Attestations
Völuspá
In the Poetic Edda the name Lóðurr occurs only once; in Völuspá, where the gods animate the first humans. The precise meaning of these strophes and their context in lang\|non|lálang\|non|litu góðalang\|non|lálang\|non|litu goðalang\|non|Völuspá
Other attestations
Apart from the strophe in Völuspá, Lóðurr's name occurs only twice in the original sources. The name is found in the skaldic poemsHáleygjatal and Íslendingadrápa where "Lóðurr's friend" is used as a kenning for Odin. This seems consistent with Lóðurr's role in Völuspá. In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Lóðurr is conspicuously absent. Here the creation of humans is attributed to the sons of Borr, whom Snorri names elsewhere as Odin, Vili and Vé. Snorri often quotes Völuspá in his work, but in this case he does not. We cannot know whether he knew the strophes above or whether he was working entirely from other sources.
Another source sometimes brought into the discussion is the Nordendorf fibula. This artifact, dating from about 600 CE, contains the runic inscriptionlogaþorewodanwigiþonar. This is usually interpreted as Logaþore Wodan Wigiþonar, where Wodan is Odin and Wigiþonar probably is Thor. It would be natural for
Theories
Since the Prose Edda mentions the sons of Borr in the same context as Völuspá does Hœnir and Lóðurr, some scholars have reasoned that Lóðurr might be another name for either Vili or Vé. Viktor Rydberg was an early proponent of this theory, but recently it has received little attention. A more popular theory proposed by the scholar Ursula Dronke is that Lóðurr is "a third name of Loki/Loptr". The main argument for this is that the gods Odin, Hœnir and Loki occur as a trio in Haustlöng, in the prose prologue to Reginsmál and also in the Loka Táttur a Faroese ballad which is a rare example of the occurrence of Norse gods in folklore. The Odin-kenning "Lóðurr's friend" furthermore appears to parallel the kenning "Loptr's friend" and Loki is similarly referred to as "Hœnir's friend" in Haustlöng, strengthening the trio connection. While many scholars agree with this identification, it is not universally accepted. One argument against it is that Loki appears as a malevolent being later in Völuspá, seemingly conflicting with the image of Lóðurr as a "mighty and loving" figure. Many scholars, including Jan de Vries and Georges Dumézil, have also identified Lóðurr as being the same deity as Loki. Recently, Haukur Þorgeirsson of the University of Iceland suggested that Loki and Lóðurr were different names of the same deity based on that Loki is referred to as Lóður in the rimur Lokrur. Haukur argues that whatever if the rimur is based on Snorri's Gylfaginning or a folksource the writer must have had the information about the identification from either a tradition or drawing the conclusion based on Edda poems, since Snorri does not mention Lóðurr in his Edda. Since the contents of the Poetic Edda are assumed to have been forgotten around 1400 when the rimur was written Haukur argues for a traditional identification. Haukur also points to Þrymlur where the same identification is made with Loki and Lóðurr. Haukur Þorgeirsson says that unless the possible but unlikely idea that the 14th and 15th century poets possessed lost written sources unknown to us, the idea must have come from either an unlikely amount of sources from where the poets could have drawn a similar conclusion that Loki and Lóðurr are identical like some recent scholars or that there still were remnants of an oral tradition. Haukur concludes that if Lóðurr was historically considered an independent deity from Loki, then a discussion of when and why he became identified with Loki is appropriate. An identification with Freyr has also been proposed. This theory emphasizes the possible fertility-related meanings of Lóðurr's name but otherwise has little direct evidence to support it.
