Odin and the Three Drinks: One Wine

 

In Norse mythology, there are three wells which feed the world-tree: Urd’s well, Mimir’s well, and Hvergelmir.

 

Three gods are depicted as taking three drinks in our sources: Thor, Heimdall and Odin.

 

Odin is closely associated with drinks, particularly the mead of inspiration, in the lore. The mead is stored in three containers, at least one of which is identified by a name indicating Mimir's well. Might we have the mythic antecedents of actual rituals here?

 

 

Compare this to the drink of forgetfulness described in Gudrunarkvida II, 21

 

21. Grimhild brought me a cup to drink,

Cool and bitter, so I could not recall the past,

…That drink was strengthened with

“Urd’s power” (Urdar magn),

“Cool-cold sea”

and “Son’s blood”

 

 

In the 7^th century, Jonas of Bobbio records an encounter St. Columban had with the Suebi, who were preparing a sacrifice to their god. Their offering is mead:

 

“Once as he [Columban] was going through this country, he discovered that the natives were going to make a heathen offering. They had a large cask that they called a cupa, and that held about twenty-six measures, filled with beer and set in their midst. On Columban's asking what they intended to do with it, they answered that they were making an offering to their God Wodan (whom others call Mercury). When he heard of this abomination, he breathed on the cask, and lo! it broke with a crash and fell in pieces so that all the beer ran out.”

 

 

 

From Heimskringla’s Saga of Hakon the Good

 

"Sigurd, earl of Hlader, was one of the greatest men for sacrifices, and so had Hakon his father been; and Sigurd always presided on account of the king at all the festivals of sacrifice in the Throndhjem country.  It was an old custom, that when there was to be sacrifice all the bondes should come to the spot where the temple stood and bring with them all that they required while the festival of the sacrifice lasted.  To this festival all the men brought ale with them; and all kinds of cattle, as well as horses, were slaughtered, and all the blood that came from them was called "hlaut", and the vessels in which it was collected were called hlaut-vessels.  Hlaut-staves were made, like sprinkling brushes, with which the whole of the altars and the temple walls, both outside and inside, were sprinkled over, and also the people were sprinkled with the blood; but the flesh was boiled into savoury meat for those present.  The fire was in the middle of the floor of the temple, and over it hung the kettles, and the full goblets were handed across the fire; and he who made the feast, and was a chief, blessed the full goblets, and all the meat of the sacrifice.  And first Odin's goblet was emptied for victory and power to his king; thereafter, Niord's and Freyja's goblets for peace and a good season.  Then it was the custom of many to empty the bragarfull; and then the guests emptied a goblet to the memory of departed friends, called the remembrance goblet." 

 

Here goblet(s) are passed across the fire. The first drink is “given” to Odin. This reminds us of Odin’s position in the prose intro to Grimnismal.

 

 

In the surviving mythic lore, Odin is depicted taking three drinks under mythic circumstances:

 

1. As young man, Odin got a drink from Mimir, an old man. 
2. As a mature man, Odin got a drink from Gunnlod, a woman. 
3. As an old man, Odin got a cool drink from a young man, Geirrod. 

 

The three drinks appear to correspond to each stage of a man’s life, involving the acquisition of knowledge necessary for success in each rite of passage.  In turn, the three drinks correspond to the three world-wells which are said to feed Yggdrasill’s Askur, just as the first man is named Askur. The associations of macrocosmos with microcsomos is evident (and can be naturally extended further).

 

As a young man, an older man instructs him. Odin first takes up runes. Mimir: “the famous son of Bolthorn, Bestla’s father,” advises him at the beginning and end of time. Mimir appears to be Odin’s maternal uncle, his mother’s brother (Havamal  143). Bestla is Odin’s mother. She and Mimir are said to be children of Bolthorn here. In Germania, Tacitus informs us that the relationship between mother’s brother’s and sister’s sons was sacred. Here we may have the mythic paradigm.

 

 

I. As a young man, Odin got a drink from Mimir’s well

 

Odin hung on the “windy tree” for nine nights

He ate nor bread or drank any water

He was wounded with a spear.

A sacrifice, Odin to himself.

Odin’s subordinant position and his being pierced with a spear suggest sexual submission

He is pierced with a spear.

In Heimskringla, Snorri informs us that dying warriors devoted themselves to Odin by piercing themselves with a spear.

Compare the killing of the slave girl in Ibn Fadhlan’s account of the 10^th century Rus: she is straggled (hanged) and stabbed.

Odin likely hangs on the Tree in an inverted position, according to Jere Fleck (1971).

Odin peers down into the fountain “which lies where Ginnungagap once was” and takes up the runes.

Odin’s eye and Heimdall’s ear (Voluspa 28, Heimdalls hljoð) in the well [symbol of the head, cauldron of the sea] may indicate an inversion, i.e. of a hanged man with his head down and feet in the air.  

Eyes and ears are otherwise sensory organs of the head

 

After this drink, Odin began to “become wise, to grow, to blossom, etc”

After this event that he participated in the slaying of Ymir and crafting the world from the giant’s corpse.

Ymir was dissected and reshaped (man = cosmos)

Ymir is the first sacrifice, all subsequent sacrifice serve to recreate and sustain the cosmos [Bruce Lincoln]

It is beneath the middle root of Yggdrassils Askur, thus is called “Mimir’s Tree” (Fjölsvinnsmál 20)

Mimir’s well lies “where Ginnungagp once was” (Gylfaginning 9)

 

 

This episode represents the drink from Mimir’s well.

 

 

II. The second drink as a mature man (Havamal 13, 14; 104-110)

 

Urd’s well is located in the “south” (Skaldskaparmal)

Swans swim in its warm waters.

The sacred water of Mimir’s well is known as Oðrerir ‘the soul-stirrer” the “rouser of wod”. Mimir’s best student is Odin, whose name is built in óðr.

Hrafnagaldur Odins 2 speaks of Urd’s Oðrerir.

  

This mead falls into the hands of the fire giants in the deep south.

The mead of poetry is hidden in “Surts sökkdalir” (Surt’s sunken dales)

Surt lives in the fiery south.

The sun and moon were forged in this realm.

 

Surt-Durinn is possibly another name for Lodurr, Odin’s brother. (Carla O’Harris)

Motsognir (Mimir) and Durinn work together to create the dwarves.

He craves the mead (evident by his actions), but at some point is exiled from it.

After breaking with Mimir (Motsognir), Durinn-Surt flees to the deep south.

Fjalar is also called Suttung, which may mean “Surt’s son”

Fjalar is another name for Utgard-Loki (Harbardsljod 26)

His servants are wildfire, old age, and thought

He causes earthquakes with his snoring.

Loki causes earthquakes with his writhing.

Loki cuts/ burns away Sif’s hair

 

At Fjalar’s, Thor takes three drinks from a horn which is really the sea, and it noticeably lowers, causing ebb and flood tides thereafter.

 

The fire giants are skilled in visual allusions (heat mirages, feverish hallucinations)

Here, Odin beats them at their own game.

Odin arrived in the guise of the expected bridegroom (a visual allusion, ironically)

Odin assumes the high-seat, as the guest of honor

Odin weds Gunnlod and obtains the mead

[Lady with the Mead Cup]

Odin takes an oath on the ring to Gunnlod

They retire to their bed chamber, but Odin steals the mead and makes his escape.

Odin betrays the ring-oath, he breaks the marriage vow.

For this (and the theft of the mead) he is her clan’s eternal enemy.

[If Surt is Odin’s brother Lodurr, gone bad… this adds additional depth]

Odin escapes (after a fight in which he kills Gunnlod’s brother).

Odin enters as a snake and leaves as an eagle, representing the animals at the root and the top of the tree. Thus, this episode evokes the world-tree itself; which I suggest is central to the theme of the myth.

The snake in the cave is an obvious sexual symbol.

Odin spits the mead into three vats (i.e. the three wells)

 

This episode represents a drink obtained from Urd’s well, which is female, hot, and southerly.

 

III. As an old man, Odin accepts a drink from a young boy (intro to Grimnismal)

  

The story is filled with giant-imagery

This represents Hvergelmir: male, cold, and northerly

 

Grimnismal says:

 

King Hraudung had two sons, one named Agnar, the other Geirröd. Agnar was ten, and Geirröd eight winters old. They both rowed out in a boat, with their hooks and lines, to catch small fish; but the wind drove them out to sea. In the darkness of the night they were wrecked on the shore, and went up into the country, where they found a cottager, with whom they stayed through the winter. The cottager’s wife brought up Agnar, and the cottager, Geirröd, and gave him good advice. In the spring the man got them a ship; but when he and his wife accompanied them to the strand, the man talked apart with Geirröd. They had a fair wind, and reached their father´s place. Geirröd was at the ship’s prow: he sprang on shore, but pushed the ship out, saying, “Go where an evil spirit may get thee.” The vessel was driven out to sea, but Geirröd went up to the town, where he was well received; but his father was dead. Geirröd was then taken for king, and became a famous man.
        

The next verse makes it clear that the cottagers were Odin and his wife Frigg, who each had their favorite. Frigg arranged it so that Odin’s favorite captured Odin himself and place him in chains.

 

 “He was clad in a blue cloak, and was named Grimnir, and would say no more concerning himself, although he was questioned. The king ordered him to be tortured to make him confess, and to be set between two fires; and there he sat for eight nights. King Geirröd had a son ten years old, whom he named Agnar, after his brother. Agnar went to Grimnir and gave him a full horn to drink from, saying that the king did wrong in causing him to be tortured, though innocent. Grimnir drank from it. The fire had then so approached him that his cloak was burnt; whereupon he said: -“

1. Fire! thou art hot,
and much too great;
flame! let us separate.
My garment is singed,
although I lift it up,
my cloak is scorched before it.

2. Eight nights have I sat
between fires here,
and to me no one
food has offered,
save only Agnar,
the son of Geirröd,
who alone shall rule
over the land of the Goths.

3. Be thou blessed, Agnar!
as blessed as the god of men
bids thee to be.
For one draught
thou never shalt
get better recompense.

 

This episode is associated with the Einherjar in the poem.

51. Drunken art thou, Geirröd,
thou hast drunk too much,
thou art greatly by mead beguiled.
Much didst thou lose,
when thou wast
of my help bereft,
of all the Einherjar´s
and Odin´s favour.

[Odin and the Einherjar will battle Surt at Ragnarok]

52. Many things I told thee,
but thou hast few remembered:
thy friends mislead thee.
My friend’s sword
lying I see,
with blood all dripping.

53. The fallen by the sword
Ygg shall now have;
thy life is now run out:
Wroth with thee are the Disir:
Odin thou now shalt see:
draw near to me if thou canst.

        King Geirröd was sitting with his sword lying across his knees, half drawn from the scabbard, but on finding that it was Odin, he rose for the purpose of removing him from the fires, when the sword slipt from his hand with the hilt downwards; and the king having stumbled, the sword pierced him through and killed him. Odin then vanished, and Agnar was king for a long time after.

 

The father of the boy being pierced by a sword is a kind of sexual symbol as well. This is the inverse of the first drink. Now Odin imbibes knowledge from a young man, while Odin himself is in his later years.

 

Eight seems to be associated with the giants (examples in Thyrmskvida).

The drink itself is “cool”

Geirrod is a famous giant’s name.

 

Thor battled Geirrod and his daughters.

Thor pierced Gierrod with a thrown  piece of molten slag (the raw material of a sword)

Geirr-rod means “Spear-red”; Odin is the spear god. 

 

This episode represents the drink from the well Hvergelmir in the cold north.

 

 

Carolyne Larrington on Grimnismal 3 in The Poetic Edda: Essays on Old Norse Mythology, 2002, p. 73

 

“Geirrod has failed in his duty of hospitality towards a guest, but more importantly, he has failed to sacrifice to the god, whose sustenance and superiority are thereby threatened. At the very start of the poem, Agnarr’s ceremonial giving of the horn is, unbeknownst to Agnarr himself, an act of sacrifice, a dedication of festive drink to the god without which the feast should not begin (compare the actions of Sigurd Jarl in the previous post). Odinn recognizes the nature of Agnarr’s actions when he blesses the boy, deliberately using the language of invocation (st. 3: 1-2). To give drink to the god is to worship him; Agnarr and Odinn are now aligned in the right relationship of worshipper and worshipped."