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Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri

Norðri, Suðri, Austri, Vestri

Four dwarves named for the cardinal directions; Snorri says the gods set one under each corner of the sky, which is made from Ymir's skull.

Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri — North, South, East and West — are four dwarves who hold up the sky.

In Völuspá they are only names, early in the long list of dwarves: "Nyi and Nithi, Northri and Suthri, / Austri and Vestri, Althjof, Dvalin" Völuspá 11. The poem gives them no role.

Snorri does. When the sons of Borr have made the earth from Ymir's body, they take his skull and set it over the earth as the sky, "with four corners; and under each corner they set a dwarf: the names of these are East, West, North, and South" Gylfaginning 8. Brodeur translates the names, so in the hosted Gylfaginning they appear in English. The idea was established in poetry: Snorri lists "Burden of the Dwarves" and "Helm of Vestri and Austri, Sudri, or Nordri" as kennings for the sky, and quotes a skaldic verse in which "the Toil of Austri" bursts at the world's end Skáldskaparmál 23.

The sources do not say whether Snorri's sky-bearers were the first to have these names or whether he gave the job to four names he found in Völuspá. Scholars have compared them with other world-pillar and sky-bearer figures, but such comparisons are interpretation.

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.

Nyi and Nithi, Northri and Suthri, Austri and Vestri, Althjof, Dvalin
Völuspá 11 In Völuspá the four appear only as names in the dwarf list.
They took his skull also, and made of it the heaven, and set it up over the earth with four corners; and under each corner they set a dwarf: the names of these are East, West, North, and South.
Gylfaginning 8 Snorri gives them a task: each holds up a corner of the sky.
Task or Burden of the Dwarves, or Helm of Vestri and Austri, Sudri, or Nordri
Skáldskaparmál 23 Poets could call the sky 'the dwarves' burden' or 'the helmet of Vestri'.
The Toil of Austri bursteth
Skáldskaparmál 23 A skaldic verse uses 'Austri's toil' for the sky splitting at the world's end.

Myths with Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri

The making of the world Before anything existed there was only a yawning gap. Fire and ice met in it, the giant Ymir woke out of the melting rime, and Odin and his brothers killed him and built the world from his body.

Related

Ymir The first being, a giant who woke in the melting rime of the primeval void. Odin and his brothers killed him and built the world from his body. 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. Mótsognir The first and mightiest of the dwarves in Völuspá, made when the gods decided to shape the race of dwarves; Snorri calls him Módsognir. Durinn The second of the dwarves in Völuspá, after Mótsognir; the dwarves were made in the earth 'as Durin said'. Tolkien borrowed the name. 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. Ginnungagap The empty chasm that existed before the world, between the ice of Niflheim and the fire of Múspell, where the giant Ymir came to life.