Vafthrudnismal and Grimnismal
Vafthrudnir’s and Grimnir’s Sayings
• Both poems begin with a contest or argument
between Odin and his wife, Frigg.
• In each poem, Odin sets off – in disguise – to test
an adversary, the Giant Vafthrudnir or the King
Geirrod.
• In each case, Odin reveals secret knowledge.
• Both poems thus serve to record and transmit
mythological lore to their audience.
Vafthrudnismal
• Vafthrudnismal is devoted to a “wisdom contest,”
in which each participant must answer the other’s
questions.
• The poem begins with Odin’s insatiable curiosity
to learn more of his own fate and to gather
wisdom from other sources.
• His wife Frigg is worried, because Vafthrudnir is
one of the wisest and most powerful of the
Giants, a serious opponent even for Odin.
Vafthrudnismal
• Odin leaves Asgard and travels to Jotunheim,
home of the Giants, to the Hall of Vafthrudnir.
• Vafthrudnir greets him arrogantly:
What man is this to whom I am addressing
myself in my hall?
May you not come out of our halls alive
Unless you turn out to be the wiser one. (7)
• Odin calls himself “Gagnrad” and accepts the
challenge posed by the giant.
Vafthrudnismal
• Vafthrudnir invites Gagnrad to sit in the hall and
he poses his first question:
Tell me, Gagnrad, since on the hall-floor
You want to try your luck,
What that horse is called who draws every
Day to mankind? (11)
• That is, which horse draws the sun across the
sky? Odin answers correctly: Shining-Mane
(Skinfaxi).
Vafthrudnismal
• Vafthrudnir then asks Gagnrad which horse
draws night across the sky.
• Gagnrad (Odin) replies:
Frost-Mane (Hrimfaxi) he is called, who
Draws every night to the beneficent gods;
Foam from his bit he lets fall every morning;
From there dew comes to the valleys. (14)
• Example of aetiological myth, explaining dew.
Vafthrudnismal
• Vafthrudnir continues his questions, asking about
the gods, giant, and geography.
• The name of the river which divides the earth
between the giants and the gods? (Ifing)
• The name of the plain where the giants and gods
will do battle? (Vigrid).
• Gagnrad (Odin) is able to answer these questions
easily. Now the contest changes.
Vafthrudnismal
• Vafthrudnir admits that his opponent is indeed wise, and
challenges him to a greater contest:
Wise you are, guest, come to the giant’s bench,
And we will speak together in the seat;
We shall wager our heads in the hall,
Guest, on our wisdom. (19)
• Gagnrad (Odin) questions Vafthrudnir about the giants,
Ymir and his descendents.
• These questions provide a context for relating
information about the cosmos, for transmitting lore.
Vafthrudnismal
• Odin says:
Tell me this one thing if your knowledge is sufficient
And you, Vafthrudnir, know,
From where the earth came or the sky above,
First, o wise giant. (20)
Vafthrudnir said:
From Ymir’s flesh the earth was shaped,
And the mountains from his bones;
The sky from the skull of the frost-cold giant,
And the sea from his blood. (21)
Vafthrudnismal
• Gagnrad (Odin) poses questions about the origin of the
moon and the sun, day and night, the summer and the
winter.
• Gagnrad (Odin) questions Vafthrudnir about the origins
of the giants, who are older than the gods themselves.
• Vafthrudnir relates the myth of Bergelmir, of
Thrudgelmir his father and Aurgelmir (Ymir) his
grandfather, first of all giants, who emerged from poison
drops out of Elivagar (28-31).
• (Slightly different version than in Voluspa).
Vafthrudnismal
• Odin said:
Tell me this seventh thing, since you are said to be
Wise, and you Vafthrudnir, know,
How he got children, that fierce giant,
When he had no sport with giantesses. (32)
• Vafthrudnir said:
They said that under the frost-giant’s arms
A girl and boy grew together;
One foot with the other, of the wise giant,
Begot a six-headed son. (33)
Vafthrudnismal
• Odin questions Vafthrudnir further about the
origins of the giants and of the winds which no
man sees.
• Odin then poses a question about Njord of the
Vanir, who came to the Æsir as a hostage after
the first war between the gods. (38-39)
• Odin moves on to more personal knowledge,
questioning Vafthrudnir about the Einheriar in
Valhall. (40-41)
Vafthrudnismal
• Odin finally seeks answers to the question of his
own doom, questioning Vafthrudnir about
Ragnarok:
Tell me this twelfth thing, why all the fate of the
gods you, Vafthrudnir, know;
Of the secrets of the giants and of all the gods tell
most truly, all-wise giant. (42)
• Vafthrudnir replies that he has been to the nine
worlds, even to Mist-hell (Niflheim), and thus he
knows the fates of which Gagnrad speaks.
Vafthrudnismal
• Odin asks more pointedly who will survive when
the “Mighty Winter (fimbulvetr) comes among
men”?
• Vafthrudnir said:
Life (Lif) and Lifthrasir, and they will hide in
Hoddmimir’s wood,
They will have the morning dew for food;
From them the generations will spring. (45)
Vafthrudnismal
• Gagnrad (Odin) poses further questions about
Ragnarok, about the fate of the sun after Fenrir has
assailed her, about mysterious maidens (the
Norns?), and about the possessions of the gods
after the battle of Ragnarok:
Vidar and Vali will live in the temples of the gods,
When Surt’s fire is slaked;
Modi and Magni shall have Mjollnir
For battle-strength. (51)
Vafthrudnismal
• Odin now poses the question he really came to ask:
Much have I travelled, much have I tried out,
Much have I tested the Powers;
What will Odin’s life’s end be,
When the Powers are torn apart? (52)
Vafthrudnir replies:
The wolf will swallow the Father of Men,
Vidar will avenge this;
The cold jaws of the beast he will sunder
In battle. (53)
Vafthrudnismal
• Once Gagnrad (Odin) has knowledge of his own
doom, he puts a quick end to the contest, posing
a question which no one but he himself can
answer:
Much have I traveled, much have I tried out,
Much have I tested the Powers;
What did Odin say into the ear of his son
Before he mounted the pyre? (54)
Vafthrudnismal
• Vafthrudnir realizes that his guest can only be Odin in
disguise, and that he has lost the wager (and his head).
• The poem ends with the Giant’s admission of defeat:
No man knows what you said in bygone days into
your son’s ear;
With doomed mouth I’ve spoken my ancient lore
about the fate of the gods;
I’ve been contending with Odin in wisdom;
You’ll always be the wisest of beings. (55)
Grimnismal / Grimnir’s Sayings
Odin in the Hall of Geirrod
Grimnismal / Grimnir’s Sayings
• Grimnismal begins with a prose introduction,
recounting the legend of King Hraudung and his sons,
favored by Odin and Frigg.
• King Hraudung had two sons, Agnar (10) and
Geirrod (8), who are lost at sea while fishing.
• Their boat crashes upon an island, where Geirrod is
taken in by a farmer, and Agnar by his wife.
• After a winter on the island, the boys return to the
boat; the farmer whispers secretly into Agnar’s ear.
• On arriving home, Geirrod leaps from the ship, yells
“Go where the trolls take you!” and shoves the boat
back out to sea.
Grimnismal
• Geirrod discovers that his father has died; he is
greeted as the heir to the throne and is made king.
• Meanwhile, Agnar washes ashore in Jotunheim, takes
a giantess to wife, and lives in a cave.
• Odin and Frigg view these events from his high seat
Hlidskialf, and Odin boasts to Frigg that his own
foster-child Geirrod is now a king, while her fosterchild Agnar is raising giant children in a cave!
• Raising a foster-child a common practice in Norse
society, cemented bonds between families.
Grimnismal
• Frigg is indignant that her foster-child has a
lesser fate than Odin’s, so she tells a lie about
Geirrod:
Geirrod is so stingy with food that he tortures
his guests if it seems to him that too many have
come.
• Hospitality an important Norse virtue; a sacred
obligation to care and provide for guests.
• Odin is outraged and calls that a lie (which it is).
• The two wager on the truth of the accusation;
Odin determines to test Geirrod.
Grimnismal
• Frigg sends Fulla to Geirrod, warning him of a
dangerous wizard who will come to bewitch him.
• Fulla tells Geirrod that he can recognize the wizard
because no dog is fierce enough to attack him–dogs
and wolves are favorites of Odin.
• A man calling himself Grimnir appears; since no dog
will attack him and he refuses to answer questions,
Geirrod assumes he is a wizard and has him tortured.
• Grimnir (Odin) lies between two fires for eight
nights.
• Suffering for knowledge is common in Odinic stories.
Grimnismal
• Geirrod’s son, Agnar (10 years old, named
after his uncle raising mutant giant kids in the
cave) takes pity on his father’s (innocent)
victim, and brings him a horn to drink from.
• Agnar thus fulfills the obligations of a host to
care for his guests.
• Agnar wins Odin’s favor, for he has shown
himself worthy of support from the gods.
• Odin speaks to Agnar, describing the world of
the gods and magic lore. The poem begins.
Grimnismal
Eight nights I have sat here between the fires,
And no one offered me food,
Except Agnar alone, and he alone shall rule,
The son of Geirrod, over the land of the Goths.
Blessed shall you be Agnar,
Since Odin bids you be blest;
For one drink you shall never get
A better reward. (2-3)
Grimnismal
• Odin describes Asgard and the realms of the
gods and giants to Agnar.
• He lists the lands and halls of Thor, Ull (the archer
god), Freyr (Alfheim), and his own halls Valaskialf,
Sokkvabekk, Gladsheim and Vallhall.
• The halls of Skadi (skiing giantess), Baldr,
Heimdall, Freyia (Volkvangr, which holds half of all
fallen warriors), Forseti, Njord, and Vidar (Odin’s
son).
• Mnemonic poetry, designed to help the poet
remember the catalogue of gods and their dwellings.
Grimnismal
•Grimnismal has one of the best descriptions of Valhall:
Andhrimnir has Sæhrimnir boiled
In Eldhrimnir,
The best of pork, but few know
By what the Einheriar are nourished. (18)
Geri and Freki, tamed to war, he satiates,
The glorious father of Hosts;
But on wine alone the weapon-magnificent
Odin always lives. (19)
Grimnismal
Hugin and Munin fly every day
Over the wide world;
I fear for Hugin that he will not come back,
Yet I tremble more for Munin. (20)
Five hundred doors and forty
I think there are in Valhall;
Eight hundreds of warriors will go together
from one door
When they go to fight the wolf. (23)
Grimnismal
• Grimnir (Odin) also describes other halls and animals
in Valhall, especially Heidrun (the goat who furnishes
mead for the Einheriar). (24-26)
• Grimnir names a list of rivers, most of which are
fictional. (27-29)
• Grimnir lists the horses of the Æsir (30)
• Grimnir describes Yggdrasil, the world tree, and the
animals living on or near it (31-35):
• Ratatosk, the Squirrel. The Eagle and the Dragon Nidhogg.
• Four harts: Dain, Dvalin, Duneyr and Durathror.
• A few of the many serpents biting on the tree’s branches.
Grimnismal
The ash of Yggdrasil suffers agony
More than men know:
A hart bites it from above, and it decays at the sides,
And Nidhogg rends it beneath. (35)
• Grimnir lists many of the Valkyries (warrior-maidens,
literally choosers of the slain). They also bear ale to the
Einheriar in Valhall. (36)
• Grimnir lists the horses that pull the sun and moon, and
the wolves that chase the sun and moon. (37-39)
• Grimnir describes how the earth was formed from the
flesh of Ymir. (40-41)
Grimnismal
•Grimnir lists the best of things:
Skidbladnir, the best of ships
Yggdrasill the noblest of trees
Sleipnir the best of horses
Odin the best of the Æsir
Bifrost, the best of bridges
Bragi the best of poets
Habrok the best of hawks
Garm the best of dogs
• Grimnir finally reveals himself as Odin and lists many
of the names he has assumed: Mask, Wanderer, Warrior,
Helm-wearer, Known and Third, Thund, Ud, Hellblind and
High, as well as many others. (45-50)
Grimnismal
• Finally, Odin turns to confront King Geirrod:
Drunk are you, Geirrod! You’ve drunk too much;
You lose much when you lose
My favor, and that of all the Einheriar. (51)
Much I said to you but you remember little of it;
Your friend has deceived you.
I see the sword of my friend lying
All covered in blood. (52)
Grimnismal
Slaughter that wearies sword-edges the Terrible One
Now wants to have;
I know your life is over;
The disir are against you, now you may see Odin;
Draw near to me if you can! (53)
• Geirrod realizes that his guest is Odin; he rises to release
him from the fire.
• The sword lying on his lap falls with its hilt downward,
Geirrod slips and is impaled on his own weapon.
• Odin disappears; Agnar assumes the throne and rules for a
long time.
Grimnismal
• Odin a capricious god, often betrays those such as
Geirrod who try to follow his advice.
• Geirrod tricked into mistreating Odin; his “innocence”
does not matter, he is still punished for his actions.
• Lack of Hospitality a greater sin than tyranny and
oppression, raping, looting and pillaging!
• Image of Odin being tortured also typical; as a god he
suffers mightily, often in order to procure wisdom.
• Ordeal by fire might represent a shamanistic rite, a
ritual associated with Odin-worship that led to visions
and occult knowledge granted by Odin to initiates in his
cult (such as Agnar in the poem).