Seiðr Loom

creature

Huginn and Muninn

Huginn ok Muninn

Odin's two ravens, Thought and Mind, who fly over the world every day and bring him news; Odin admits he fears they will not come back.

Huginn and Muninn are Odin's two ravens. Their names mean "Thought" and "Mind" (Muninn is often rendered "Memory"), and they are his eyes and ears in the world.

In the poems

Only one stanza of the Poetic Edda names them. In Grímnismál, Odin, tortured between two fires and speaking as Grímnir, says:

O'er Mithgarth Hugin and Munin bothEach day set forth to fly;For Hugin I fear lest he come not home,But for Munin my care is more.Grímnismál 20

The stanza sits beside the one about his wolves Geri and Freki Grímnismál 19. Together they show Odin as a lord with animals that eat for him and see for him.

In Snorri

Snorri quotes the stanza and explains it. The ravens "sit on his shoulders and say into his ear all the tidings which they see or hear". He sends them out at daybreak to fly over the whole world, and they return by the morning meal, "thus he is acquainted with many tidings. Therefore men call him Raven-God" Gylfaginning 38. At Baldr's funeral Odin comes with Frigg, the valkyries "and his ravens" Gylfaginning 49. In Skáldskaparmál Huginn and Muninn are listed as poetic names for any raven Skáldskaparmál 59, and the skalds use phrases like "Huginn's corpse-load" for the dead on a battlefield.

Reading them

The poem gives no reason for Odin's fear that Muninn may not return. Many readers take the pair as an image of Odin's own mind sent out from his body, and the worry as the fear of losing it; this is interpretation, and the text does not say so. Ravens were also the birds of the battlefield in Norse poetry, feeding on the slain, which suits a god who chooses the dead.

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.

O'er Mithgarth Hugin and Munin both Each day set forth to fly; For Hugin I fear lest he come not home, But for Munin my care is more.
Grímnismál 20 Odin himself, as Grímnir, describes the ravens' daily flight and his fear of losing them.
The ravens sit on his shoulders and say into his ear all the tidings which they see or hear; they are called thus: Huginn and Muninn.
Gylfaginning 38 Snorri explains their job: they fly out at dawn and report to Odin by the morning meal.
Therefore men call him Raven-God
Gylfaginning 38 The ravens give Odin one of his by-names.
These are names of the raven: Crow, Huginn, Muninn
Skáldskaparmál 59 In poetry the two names could stand for any raven.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Why Odin fears more for Muninn than for Huginn is not explained. Readings range from a joke to a hint about the risks of shamanic trance; none is supported directly by the text.

In modern culture

Not from the medieval sources.

Odin's ravens are among the most reproduced Norse images, on everything from Viking-themed logos to tattoos. They appear in Marvel comics, in Neil Gaiman's American Gods (2001) and in the God of War games. Their association with 'thought and memory' is often treated as a fixed allegory; the sources give only the names.

Myths with Huginn and Muninn

Odin as Grímnir between the fires To win a wager with Frigg, Odin visits his foster-son King Geirröðr in disguise and is tortured between two fires for eight nights. Given a drink by the king's young son, he pours out a vision of the gods' halls and the world-tree, then reveals himself, and the king falls on his own sword.

Related

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. Geri and Freki Geri ok Freki Odin's two wolves, to whom he gives all the food from his table, since he himself lives on wine alone. Hliðskjálf Odin's high seat, from which he can see over all the worlds; Frigg shares it with him, and Freyr's one forbidden turn in it costs him his sword. Midgard Miðgarðr The world of humans, made by Odin and his brothers from the body of the giant Ymir and fenced with his eyebrows against the giants who live around the ocean's edge. Valhalla Valhöll Odin's vast hall of the battle-dead, roofed with shields and raftered with spears, where the einherjar feast and fight each day until they march out to meet the wolf at Ragnarök. Sleipnir Odin's grey, eight-legged horse, best of all steeds, foaled by Loki after he lured away the giant builder's stallion Svaðilfari.