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Gylfi

The legendary king of Sweden who, disguised as the wanderer Gangleri, questions three mysterious lords in Ásgard; their answers make up Snorri's Gylfaginning.

Gylfi is the listener of the Prose Edda. Snorri's Gylfaginning, "the tricking of Gylfi", is built as a long dialogue in which this Swedish king asks questions about the gods and three strange lords answer them.

Snorri introduces him with a story against him. Gylfi offered a wandering woman as much land as four oxen could plough in a day and a night. She was Gefjun, of the Æsir. She yoked her four sons by a giant as oxen and dragged a piece of Sweden out to sea, where it became the Danish island of Zealand. The hole filled with water and became the Lögr Gylfaginning 1. Gylfi, "a wise man and skilled in magic", then wonders whether the Æsir's success comes from their own nature or from the gods they worship. He travels "secretly" to Ásgard in the shape of an old man, calling himself Gangleri Gylfaginning 2. The Æsir see him coming and prepare "deceptions of the eye". He enters a hall roofed with golden shields and finds three lords on high-seats, one above another: Hárr, Jafnhárr and Thridi. They answer his questions, from creation to Ragnarök. At the end the hall disappears with a great noise, and Gylfi stands alone on an empty plain Gylfaginning 54.

The disguise name is not innocent. Gangleri, "the walk-weary", is one of Odin's own names in Grímnismál Grímnismál 46 and in Snorri's list Gylfaginning 20. The deceiver and the deceived share a name.

The Prologue tells his story differently. There, Gylfi hears that men from Asia called Æsir are coming, goes to meet them and offers Odin as much power in his kingdom as he has himself Prose Edda, Prologue. In one account he submits to the newcomers, in the other he spies on them. Skáldskaparmál also lists a Gylfi among the legendary sea-kings, and calls the sea "Gylfi's Land" Skáldskaparmál 50 Skáldskaparmál 64. Snorri never says whether this is the same figure.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

King Gylfi ruled the land that men now call Sweden.
Gylfaginning 1 The opening of Gylfaginning, before the story of Gefjun's ploughing.
He set out on his way to Ásgard, going secretly, and clad himself in the likeness of an old man, with which he dissembled.
Gylfaginning 2 Gylfi travels in disguise to learn the source of the Æsir's power.
Thereupon Gangleri heard great noises on every side of him; and then, when he had looked about him more, lo, he stood out of doors on a level plain, and saw no hall there and no castle.
Gylfaginning 54 The hall vanishes; Gylfi goes home and tells what he heard.
After that he went northward, where the land is called Sweden; the king there was named Gylfi.
Prose Edda, Prologue In the Prologue, Gylfi meets Odin's people on earth and yields power to them.

Related

High, Just-as-High and Third Hárr, Jafnhárr, Þriði The three enthroned lords who answer Gylfi's questions in Snorri's Gylfaginning; their names are all names of Odin, and the whole hall turns out to be an illusion. Gefjun The goddess who ploughed the Danish island of Zealand out of Sweden with four oxen, her sons by a giant. Snorri also calls her a virgin who receives women who die unmarried. Odin Óðinn Chief of the Æsir: a one-eyed god of wisdom, poetry, magic, war and the dead, who gave an eye and hanged himself on a tree for knowledge, and who dies at Ragnarök. The Æsir Æsir The main family of Norse gods, led by Odin and living in Asgard: Thor, Baldr, Týr, Heimdall and others, with the goddesses called Ásynjur. They fought and made peace with the Vanir. Kennings kenningar The compressed poetic riddles of skaldic verse, such as 'Ymir's skull' for the sky or 'Kvasir's blood' for poetry, which only make sense if you know the myths; Snorri wrote Skáldskaparmál to explain them.