Seiðr Loom

dwarf

Fjalar and Galarr

Fjalarr ok Galarr

Two murderous dwarf brothers who kill Kvasir and brew the mead of poetry from his blood, then kill the giant Gillingr and his wife, and give up the mead to save their own lives.

Fjalarr and Galarr are dwarf brothers who appear only in Snorri's account of the mead of poetry Skáldskaparmál 1. They invite the wise Kvasir to their home, take him aside and kill him. They drain his blood into the kettle Óðrerir and the vats Són and Boðn and mix it with honey. Then they tell the gods that Kvasir "had choked on his own shrewdness".

They kill again. They take the giant Gillingr rowing, capsize the boat on purpose, and let him drown. When his wife will not stop weeping, Fjalarr offers to show her where he died and tells Galarr to drop a millstone on her head as she goes through the door, because "her weeping grew wearisome to him". The couple's son Suttungr leaves the brothers on a reef that will be covered at high tide, and they buy their lives with the mead Skáldskaparmál 1. This is why skalds call poetry the dwarves' ship and the giants' father-ransom Skáldskaparmál 3.

Nothing else is told of them. Fjalar is a common name in the poems and belongs to several unrelated figures, which can confuse readers. In Hávamál, "Fjalar wise" in the stanza next to Gunnlöð is usually taken to be another name for Suttungr Hávamál 14.

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.

when he came upon invitation to the abode of certain dwarves, Fjalar and Galarr, they called him into privy converse with them, and killed him
Skáldskaparmál 1 The dwarves murder Kvasir and make the mead.
bidding him go up over the doorway, when she should go out, and let a mill-stone fall on her head, saying that her weeping grew wearisome to him
Skáldskaparmál 1 Fjalarr has Galarr kill the giant Gillingr's grieving widow.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • The name Fjalar is used for other beings in the poems: a dwarf in Völuspá's list (Völuspá 16), a red cock at Ragnarök (Völuspá 42), the giant of the glove story in Hárbarðsljóð (Hárbarðsljóð 26), and apparently Suttungr in Hávamál (Hávamál 14). Only Snorri pairs Fjalarr with Galarr.

Myths with Fjalar and Galarr

The mead of poetry From the spittle of the gods' peace comes Kvasir, wisest of beings; from his blood two dwarfs brew a mead that makes poets. It passes to the giant Suttungr, and Odin wins it by labour, seduction and theft, flying home as an eagle.

Related

Kvasir The wisest of beings, made from the spittle of the Æsir and Vanir at their peace-making. Two dwarves killed him and brewed his blood with honey into the mead of poetry. The mead of poetry skáldskapar mjaðar The mead brewed from the blood of the wise Kvasir: whoever drinks it becomes a poet or a scholar. Odin steals it from the giant Suttungr and gives it to the gods and to poets. Óðrerir In Snorri, the kettle into which the dwarves drained Kvasir's blood to brew the mead of poetry; in Hávamál, apparently the name of the mead itself. Suttungr The giant who takes the mead of poetry from the dwarves as compensation for his father's murder, hides it inside a mountain with his daughter Gunnlöð, and loses it to Odin. Dwarves dvergar The underground smiths of Norse myth, made from the giant Ymir's flesh or blood; they forge the gods' greatest treasures, brew the mead of poetry, and fear the daylight.