This article contains lore based on real-life sources from Norse mythology as introduced from the God of War Norse era.
| “ | A stag of the World Tree who watches the gates of Jötunheim (Where Giants come from). This really IS the Giants' mountain! | ” |
–Codex | ||
Duraþrór is the one of the stags across the Nine Realms. He appears as a statue in God of War (2018) and physically in God of War Ragnarök.
Norse Mythology[]
In Norse mythology, four stags or harts (male red deer) eat among the branches of the world tree Yggdrasill. According to the Poetic Edda, the stags crane their necks upward to chomp at the branches. The morning dew gathers in their horns and forms the rivers of the world. Their names are given as Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór. An amount of speculation exists regarding the deer and their potential symbolic value.
The poem Grímnismál, a part of the Poetic Edda, is the only extant piece of Old Norse poetry to mention the stags.
The second line is enigmatic. The word á is hard to explain in context and is sometimes omitted from editions. The word hæfingar is of uncertain meaning. Finnur Jónsson conjecturally translated it as "shoots". English translators have translated it as "the highest shoots" (Hollander), "summits" (Thorpe), "the highest twigs" (Bellows), "the high boughs" (Taylor and Auden) and "the highest boughs" (Larrington).
This verse of Grímnismál is preserved in two medieval manuscripts, Codex Regius (R) and AM 748 I 4to (A). The text and translations above mostly follow R, the older manuscript. Where R has the word hæfingar, A has the equally enigmatic hæfingiar. Where R has gnaga ("gnaw"), A has ganga ("walk"), usually regarded as an error. A third difference is that R has "ágaghálsir" in one word where A clearly has "á gaghálsir" in two words. In this case the A reading is usually accepted. Early suggestions for interpretations of the stags included connecting them with the four elements, the four seasons, or the phases of the moon.
In his influential 1824 work, Finnur Magnússon suggested that the stags represented winds. Based on an interpretation of their names, he took Dáinn ("The Dead One") and Dvalinn ("The Unconscious One") to be calm winds, and Duneyrr ("Thundering in the Ear") and Duraþrór ("Thriving Slumber", perhaps referencing snoring) to be heavy winds. He interpreted the stags biting the leaves of the tree as winds tearing at clouds. He noted that dwarves control the winds (cf. Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri, the dwarves of the cardinal points), and that two of the stag names, Dáinn and Dvalinn, are also dwarf names as well.
Many scholars, following Sophus Bugge, believe that stanzas 33 and 34 of Grímnismál are of a later origin than those surrounding them. Finnur Jónsson surmised that there was originally only one stag which had later been turned into four, probably one on each side. This is consistent with stanza 35 of Grímnismál, which mentions only one hart. It has been suggested that this original stag is identical with Eikþyrnir, mentioned earlier in Grímnismál.
God of War (2018)[]
During Kratos, Mimir and Atreus' journey, they encounter the statue of Duraþrór.
In the codex Kratos writes: "In our journey to deliver Faye's ashes, it was a Jötnar statue of Duraþrór, the Stag of Winter, that aided our passage through the Mountain of Midgard. It is only fitting. When Atreus was too excited to sleep, Faye would sing of "The Thriving Slumber" — and the sleep of winter that allows for the dreaming of spring The body needs rest, she would say, but the soul needs to dream."
Appearance[]
Duraþrór has the same look as the rest of the Seasonal Stags, with blue light coming from his roots as a representation of winter.
In his statue, he was portrayed as a bulky, muscular male with a human body and the head of a stag. Reaching from his collarbone down to the upper middle of his chest and slightly across his shoulders is the fur to the stag head. He has huge symmetrical antlers and carries a large staff resembling that of a hammer. In terms of clothing we only see him wearing a cloth around his waist but nothing else. He seems to have human hands and human legs, although it is unclear if he has human feet.
Appearances[]
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