Tradition / Region: Icelandic Mythology
Alternate Names: Halibut Mother; Laxamóðir (Salmon Mother); Silungamóðir (Trout Mother)
Category: Fish, Trout
The Myth
In the cold seas around Iceland there swims a being known as the Flyðrumóðir, the Halibut Mother. She appears as a halibut of monstrous size, so vast that she can rival a fishing boat. With age her body turns grey on both sides, and shells, barnacles, and seaweed cling to her skin, so that when she rises to the surface she resembles a small drifting island.
Though some say she is the mother of all fish in the sea, her true children are the halibut. Far offshore she is followed by entire schools of them, and she watches over them fiercely. When fishermen take too many halibut, the Flyðrumóðir rises in anger.
Once, a schooner in Faxaflói hauled forty halibut aboard. The Halibut Mother appeared and pursued the ship, though it narrowly escaped. Another vessel was not so fortunate. It caught a Flyðrumóðir on a coffin-nail hook, and in her fury she overturned the boat, drowning all who were aboard.
Even when a Flyðrumóðir is successfully killed, her death brings ruin. In Breiðafjörður, a halibut mother was snagged with a golden hook and cut apart. After that, the waters yielded no fish, and the man who caught her never caught another fish for the rest of his life.
Other mothers are known as well. The Laxamóðir, the Salmon Mother, swims down from salmon-rich rivers, tearing through fishing nets as she goes. The Silungamóðir, the Trout Mother, has an enormous head and brings great misfortune to anyone who catches her. Wise fishermen release such beings at once.
Thus the fish-mothers endure in memory as guardians of the waters—vast, ancient, and unforgiving to those who forget that the sea has its own kin to protect.
Gallery
Sources
A Book of Creatures contributors. (n.d.). Flydrumodir. In A Book of Creatures, from https://abookofcreatures.com/2016/08/28/flydrumodir/
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive
Other
- How to Invite The Flyðrumóðir