Old Norse Aurvandil, Old English Éarendel, Lombardic Auriwandalo, German Orentil (or Erentil) are cognate Germanic personal names. Auriwandalo is attested as a historical Lombardic prince. A latinized version, Horvandillus appears as the name of the father of Amleth (Shakespeare's Hamlet) in Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. German Orentil is the hero of a medieval poem of the same name. He is son of a certain Eigel of Trier and has numerous adventures in the Holy Land. The Old Norse variant appears in purely mythological context, linking the name to a star. Th ...
Old English Earendel appears in glosses as translating iubar "radiance, morning star".
In the Old English poem Crist I are the lines (104–108):
éala éarendel engla beorhtast
ofer middangeard monnum sended
and sodfasta sunnan leoma,
tohrt ofer tunglas þu tida gehvane
of sylfum þe symle inlihtes.
Hail Earendel, brightest of angels,
over Midgard to men sent,
and true radiance of the Sun
bright above the stars, every season
thou ...
Aurvandil is mentioned once in Norse Mythology, in the Skáldskaparmál section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda:
Thor went home to Thrúdvangar, and the hone remained sticking in his head. Then came the wise woman who was called Gróa, wife of Aurvandill the Valiant: she sang her spells over Thor until the hone was loosened. But when Thor knew that, and thought that there was hope that the hone might be removed, he desired to reward Gróa for her leech-craft and make her glad, and told her these things: that he had waded ...
