I started my quest to find the name or word Aurkonungr while reviewing Lecouteux’s new Encyclopedia, which has an entry for Aurkonungr saying it is a name of Honir. Some of the entries had citations to sources, but not that one. Because I had never heard of such a name for Honir, I set out to find the source. Long did I trek through the mountains up the rocky river, seeking the source, the well of wisdom, beset by skaven and… ahem, no, I sensibly got on Google, which returned 0 results. That word literally does not exist on the internet. Well, it didn’t—it does now, ironically, here in this blog post.
Members of the American Asatru Association’s Facebook discussion group helped me track down where Lecouteux was most likely to have gotten the word from. Although aurkonungr does not appear on the net, there is exactly one return for a reasonable variation of the word, árkonungr: “et, que Ynglingasaga qualifie plusieurs rois de árkonungr, gódr árkonungr, roi, bon roi à moissons” from Tripertita: fonctionnels chez divers peuples indoeuropéens by Georges Dumézil. This word is only written that way in French. In Icelandic texts, it's written as two words, ár konungr.
Neither árkonungr nor aurkonungr appear in Icelandic as a proper name, at least not in any text searchable by Google. Texts one can Google might not amount to the entire body of human knowledge, but if one is using a source so obscure that it can’t be independently verified, a quote and citation would be nice.
I like the word anyway, not only because it could be accepted on Lecouteux’s reputation as a respected academic but also because it fits how I see Honir. The phrase ár konungr translates into English as “the ur-king,” the ancient or original king. Honir is one of Odin’s brothers. In the lore, Odin’s brothers are listed by several different names, but they always form a trinity: Odin/ Vili / Ve, Wotan / Wili / We, Odin / Honir / Lodhur, Odin / Honir / Loki, and Har / Jafnhar / Thridi. The first three groups are variations on the creator trinity that shaped the world and humankind, the fourth group is the one that travels together, and the last one, which translates as High, Just As High, and Third, is depicted as three co-kings on a triple throne using bynames to disguise their true selves. If Honir is Jafnhar, then he is a co-king with his brothers.
For now, I’m placing the name Aurkonungr in the my mental "pending" category: sounds right, acceptance on hold pending further evidence. In this case, further evidence would have to be an original text (preferably in Icelandic, but a related language would do) from the conversion era identifying Aurkonungr as Honir, or at least as a brother of Odin.
Ultimately, I did not include my wild goose chase after the name Aurkonungr in my review of Lecouteux’s book. My review already included many critiques of entries for which I was on solid ground, being familiar with the sources on which they were based. Trying to decide whether the Aurkonungr entry is correct is mental quicksand, which has pulled me into far too much research already. Being unable to find the source, I cannot prove anything about it one way or another. I finished my review, which I expect to be published in the next edition of Eternal Haunted Summer Magazine (which would be the Winter 2016 issue.) I decided to blog about Aurkonungr on the off chance that someone reading this has a text that includes it—not just as a word, but as a name, a proper name, a kenning or aspect of Honir. I’m done with writing the review, but I’m not done learning about Honir.
Image: High, Just-as-high, and Third, by By Jakob Sigurðsson, [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.