Why does skoll chase the sun

It was Skoll and Hati who swallowed these shining stars. Skoll and Hati were two wolves that played supporting roles in Norse mythology.

In Norse mythology, these wolves ran across the sky every day in the hope of swallowing the sun and the moon. Their attempts only succeeded when Ragnarok was about to happen. Although it is not clearly which pursued the Sun and which pursued the Moon, a stanza by Snorri Sturluson mentioned:. In Norse mythology, the moon was male and the sun was female, this suggested that Skoll pursued the moon while Hati chased the sun.

And in Lokasenna from Poetic Edda, this name appeared too. Despite the evidence, it is hard to prove the mythology and history of Skoll and Hati due to the many inconsistencies found in the sources. Many people believe that the reason there are so many inconsistencies is because the Norse religion lacked structure and organization, so there is a lot of conflicting information.

Previous Next. Table of Contents 1 Mythology of Skoll and Hati 1. Share This Article! When sunlight refracts through ice crystals in the atmosphere it can sometimes produce what is known as a halo. This is most often visible as a ring of light around the sun that can appear white, blue, or even red depending on conditions. While high clouds can be cold enough to form ice crystals in any region, halos can also be formed by freezing air at lower levels.

This makes them particularly common in colder climates. Sometimes ice crystals float downward from the higher regions of the atmosphere. In English, this bright light is called a sundog. The lights that seemed to follow the sun and moon were imagined as hunting wolves stalking their prey. The fact that only English and the Scandinavian language use this imagery when talking about halos gives credence to this idea. They are solhund or solhunde in modern Norwegian and Danish, respectively.

It is possible that the Norse explanation for an unusual atmospheric event inspired the term that is used in these modern languages. The two wolves ran across the sky. The sun and moon would be swallowed and the world would be plunged into total darkness.

Some accounts gave hope, however, that this would not be eternal. While their origins are unclear, some historians believe that they were at least in part inspired by an atmospheric phenomenon.