Seiðr Loom

dwarf

Litr

The dwarf who ran in front of Thor at Baldr's funeral and was kicked into the burning pyre; also a name in the Völuspá list of dwarves.

Thor kicks Litr
Thor kicks Litr, Emil Doepler (1905). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Litr is a dwarf who appears in one sentence of Snorri's account of Baldr's funeral (see Baldr's dreams and death). Thor stood by the pyre and hallowed it with Mjöllnir, and "before his feet ran a certain dwarf which was named Litr; Thor kicked at him with his foot and thrust him into the fire, and he burned" Gylfaginning 49. Thor was already angry, having just been stopped from killing the giantess Hyrrokkin. Snorri gives no reason for the kick and no further comment.

The name also appears in Völuspá's long list of dwarves, "Vit and Lit" Völuspá 12, and Snorri's version of that list Gylfaginning 14. Whether this is meant to be the same dwarf cannot be told. Why a dwarf burns on Baldr's pyre at all is never explained.

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.

before his feet ran a certain dwarf which was named Litr; Thor kicked at him with his foot and thrust him into the fire, and he burned
Gylfaginning 49 The dwarf's single, brief scene.
Thekk and Thorin, Thror, Vit and Lit
Völuspá 12 A dwarf named Lit appears in Völuspá's catalogue of dwarves.

Myths with Litr

Baldr's dreams and death Baldr dreams of his own death; Odin rides to Hel to question a dead seeress; and, in Snorri's telling, Loki puts a sprig of mistletoe into blind Höðr's hand. The gods lose their brightest member and the slide toward Ragnarök begins.

Related

Thor Þórr The thunder god, strongest of the Æsir: son of Odin and Earth, husband of Sif, and with his hammer Mjöllnir the gods' defender against the giants, until he dies killing the World Serpent. Baldr Odin and Frigg's son, the brightest and best-loved of the gods. His death by a mistletoe dart, thrown by his blind brother Höðr, is the first great loss on the road to Ragnarök. Hyrrokkin The giantess who rode a wolf with vipers for reins to Baldr's funeral and launched his ship, which the gods could not move, with a single push. 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. Mjölnir Mjöllnir Thor's short-handled hammer, forged by the dwarf brothers Brokkr and Sindri: it never misses, always returns to his hand, kills giants, and hallows brides, pyres and the dead goats it brings back to life.