The Theft of the Mead of Poetry

As with many stories from mythology, the Theft of the Mead of Poetry includes murder and deception.

The story starts at the end of the war between the Aesir and Vanir gods

and goddesses when a truce was reached between them. To seal that

truce, each of them took their turn to spit into a large vat which led to the

creation of Kvasir, the divine being. As a result of his creation from the

spittle of the gods, Kvasir was extremely wise, and he would travel

endlessly across the world providing wisdom and counsel to the people

of the world. He provided great service to the people of the world.

Now, as is still the case today, not all the people who inhabit the world

are good and this was certainly the case for two dwarven brothers

named Fjalar and Galar. There names translated as ‘Deceiver’ and

‘Screamer’ which was probably a slight give away about their

personalities, but we digress!

Kvasir arrived at the home of the dwarf brothers after being asked to

come and answer a question for them. It was well known that there was

no question that Kvasir could not answer, and he had never had cause

to fear invitations to answer questions. This time, however, death

awaited and immediately after he arrived, the brothers killed Kvasir and

used his blood to make mead which would contain all his wisdom and

the ability to be as wise as Kvasir had been. This mead became known

as Óðrœrir, which translates of ‘Stirrer of Inspiration.’ It became known

that anyone who drank the mead would become a port or a scholar, with

all Kvasir’s wisdom available to them.

The Gods were not oblivious to the disappearance of Kvasir, but they

were not aware of this exact fate. They knew that Kvasir had been on his

way to visit the brothers, but when the approached them, Fjalar and

Galar said that Kvasir had been a victim of his own wisdom, choking on

his vast knowledge.

As is often the case, the two brothers found that they actually quite

enjoyed the act of killing and so they set out to find their next victim.

The next creature to fall prey to the murderous dwarven bothers, was

the giant Gilling. His death was cruel. Fjalar and Galar dragged Gilling

out to sea and drowned him, for no other reason than they thought it

would be fun. Gilling had a wife, who saw his demise and weep for her

husband. The brothers were callous and had not hearts and so the

broken-hearted sobs irritated them and so they decided that Gilling’s

wife had to die as well. When she walked into their house, the brothers

dropped a millstone onto her head, killing her instantly.

Gilling and his wife had a son, named Suttung, which translated as

‘Heavy with Drink. He was, understandably, furious about the murders of

his parents and vowed he would have revenge, and he did. Suttung

dragged Fjalar and Galar out into the sea to a reef which was known to

submerge fully with the tides. Terrified the brothers pleaded with Suttung

for their lives and Suttung agreed to spare them if they turned over to

him the mead made from Kvasir’s blood. The brothers did not want to do

this, but they wanted to live and so they agreed to Suttung’s terms. The

mead was then transferred inside the mountain Hnitbjorg, ‘Pulsing

Rock,’ and was guarded by Suttung’s daughter, Gunnlod, or ‘Invitation to

Battle.’

Fjalar and Galar escaped with their lives, but they were bitter about the

whole situation. They had travelled to a market and were telling

everyone who would listen about how they had been mistreated, and the

precious Mead had been stolen, and this is where Huginn and Muninn

come into our story.

The ravens were out and about picking up information and stories to

take back to Odin and they heard the brothers complaining. They heard

the tale of how Fjalar and Galar had murdered the divine being, Kvasir

and the giant Gilling and his wife. They learnt that the Mead was not in

the possession of the giant’s son Suttung and his daughter. All this

valuable knowledge they returned to Odin.

Odin, the Allfather, wanted nothing more than to gain all the knowledge

of the world and he believed that the Mead should not be hoarded away

under a mountain. It was now Odin’s goal to acquire the Mead for

himself and anyone he saw worthy of the knowledge.

Odin disguised himself as a farmhand and began his quest to acquire

the mead by travelling to the home of Baugi, who was Suttung’s brother.

At this point in the tale, Odin’s actions could be described as ‘murky’ as

to get what he wanted, he showed Baugi’s workers that he was able to

sharpen they scythe’s better than they had ever seen. He offered them

his whetstone and, in the scramble, to claim it, nine of the servants killed

each other with the scythes that Odin had sharpened. It is safe to say

that Odin would do whatever it took to get to the Mead!

Odin when presented himself at Baugi’s house and said, “It seems your

servant’s killed each other in a dispute, but if you will agree to give me a

sip of Suttung’s Mead, I will do the same work that those nine would

have done.” Odin had introduced himself as Bölverkr or the ‘Worker of

Misfortune,’ which was a bit of an understatement!!!!

Baugi told the disguised Odin that he could not provide this as Suttung

was possessive of the Mead, but if Odin proved he could do the work as

promised, he would try his best to speak to Suttung about it. Odin was

true to his word and Baugi travelled with him to the mountain where the

Mead was hidden. Although, Baugi tried to betray Odin, he was not

successful, and Odin made his way into the mountain.

Finished with his disguise as a common fieldworker, Odin changed into

the body of a handsome young man, and when to find Suttung’s

daughter, Gunnlod. Odin promised Gunnlod that he would spend three

nights with her as her lover if she would allow him three sips of the

Mead. Odin spent three nights with the girl, but on the third night instead

of three sips, he emptied all three vats of Mead in one go!

Odin transformed into an eagle and flew quickly back toward Asgard

with Suttung close behind. When the other gods saw the Allfather being

pursued by Suttung, they closed ranks and Suttung could do nothing but

retreat in anguish.

Odin was successful in his quest, BUT Odin had to regurgitate the Mead

back into containers, and as he did, droplets fell from his beak down to

the human home of Midgard. The droplets were low in quality and fell

upon people who did not truly benefit from them and these drops are the

reason for bad poets, awful writers, and useless scholars. Odin found

poets, writers, and scholars who had potential for greatness and to these

he dispensed the Mead personally and so their writings and thoughts

would never be described as awful.