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giant

Bestla

A giantess, daughter of Bölþorn, wife of Borr and mother of Odin, Vili and Vé. Through her the chief god is half giant by birth.

Bestla is Odin's mother. Snorri's Gylfaginning says that Borr "wedded the woman named Bestla, daughter of Bölthorn the giant", and that their sons were Odin, Vili and Vé Gylfaginning 6. The ruler of the gods is therefore the son of a giantess, and the line of the Æsir mixes with the giants from its first generation.

The only other mention in the Eddas is in Hávamál. Describing what he gained from hanging on the tree, Odin says he learned nine mighty songs "from the son of Bolthorn, Bestla's father" Hávamál 141. The unnamed son is Bestla's brother, Odin's maternal uncle. A skaldic verse quoted in Skáldskaparmál calls Odin "Bestla's Offspring" Skáldskaparmál 2, so the relationship was a known poetic resource.

That is all. No source describes Bestla herself, tells how she met Borr, or says what became of her. Some scholars have suggested that the uncle in Hávamál is Mímir, which would make Odin's adviser his mother's brother, a close tie in early Germanic society. The texts never say so.

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.

He begat a son called Borr, who wedded the woman named Bestla, daughter of Bölthorn the giant; and they had three sons: one was Odin, the second Vili, the third Vé.
Gylfaginning 6 Snorri's statement of Bestla's parentage, marriage and sons.
Nine mighty songs I got from the son Of Bolthorn, Bestla's father
Hávamál 141 Odin learns from his mother's brother; Bestla is named only to identify the giant line.

Myths with Bestla

Odin on the tree: how the runes were won In Hávamál Odin tells how he hung for nine nights on a windswept tree, wounded with a spear and given to himself, without food or drink, until he seized the runes and fell back. It is the most famous passage in Old Norse poetry, and one of the most mysterious. 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

Bölþorn A giant, father of Bestla and so grandfather of Odin. His unnamed son taught Odin nine mighty songs. Borr Son of Búri and father of Odin, Vili and Vé by the giantess Bestla. His sons killed Ymir and raised the earth, and the poems often call them simply 'Bur's sons'. 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. Vili and Vé Vili ok Vé Odin's two brothers, sons of Borr and Bestla. With Odin they killed Ymir, built the world from his body and gave life to the first humans, then all but vanish from the myths. Búri The first ancestor of the gods in Snorri's creation story: licked out of the salty ice by the cow Auðhumla, he was the father of Borr and grandfather of Odin. The giants (jötnar) jötnar The giants of Norse myth: the oldest race in the world, descended from Ymir, wise and often wealthy, enemies of the gods yet their kin, their wives and their mothers.