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giant

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.

Suttungr is the giant who owns the mead of poetry before Odin steals it. The fullest account is Snorri's Skáldskaparmál 1. The dwarves Fjalarr and Galarr kill the wise Kvasir and brew mead from his blood. Then they drown the giant Gillingr and drop a millstone on his wife. Their son Suttungr takes the dwarves out to sea and leaves them on a reef that will be covered at high tide. To save their lives they pay him the mead as compensation for his father. Suttungr hides it inside the mountain Hnitbjörg and sets his daughter Gunnlöð to guard it.

Odin, calling himself Bölverkr, works a summer for Suttungr's brother Baugi, but Suttungr will not give "a single drop" Skáldskaparmál 1. So Odin bores into the mountain, spends three nights with Gunnlöð and drinks all the mead. Suttungr takes eagle form and chases him back to Ásgard, so closely that some mead is spilled behind, "the poetaster's part" Skáldskaparmál 1.

Hávamál tells it from Odin's side and leaves out the chase. Odin says he talked his way through "Suttung's hall" Hávamál 104 and that he deceived Suttungr, breaking an oath sworn on a ring Hávamál 110. The poem also hints at what happened next: the frost-giants came asking whether Bolverk was back among the gods "or had Suttung slain him there?" Hávamál 109.

Other poems remember the name. In Alvíssmál ale is called "the Feast-Draught" by "Suttung's sons" Alvíssmál 34, and Skírnir calls on the "Sons of Suttung" with the giants in his curse Skírnismál 34. In both places the phrase seems to mean giants in general.

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.

Suttungr carried the mead home and concealed it in the place called Hnitbjörg, placing his daughter Gunnlöd there to watch over it.
Skáldskaparmál 1 Suttungr wins the mead from the dwarves who killed his parents.
when Suttungr saw the eagle's flight, he too assumed the fashion of an eagle and flew after him
Skáldskaparmál 1 Suttungr chases Odin to the edge of Ásgard.
Full many a word, my will to get, I spoke in Suttung's hall.
Hávamál 104 In Hávamál, Odin remembers his visit to the giant's hall.
Suttung's betrayal he sought with drink, And Gunnloth to grief he left.
Hávamál 110 The poem admits that Odin broke an oath to win the mead.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Hávamál does not mention Baugi or the eagle chase, and its 'Fjalar' (Hávamál 14) seems to stand for Suttungr, where Snorri's Fjalar is a dwarf.
  • Hávamál 109 says the frost-giants came the next day to ask whether 'Bolverk' was back among the gods 'or had Suttung slain him there?', which suggests that Suttungr died trying to recover the mead. The poem does not say so plainly.

Myths with Suttungr

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. Thor and the dwarf Alvíss A dwarf named Alvíss, 'All-Wise', comes to claim Thor's daughter as his promised bride. Thor agrees, if the dwarf can tell him what everything is called in every world, and keeps him answering until the sun comes up.

Related

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. Gunnlöð Suttungr's daughter, set to guard the mead of poetry inside a mountain. Odin spends three nights with her and leaves with all the mead; Hávamál remembers her as a woman he wronged. Baugi Suttungr's brother, who hires the disguised Odin to replace nine dead farmhands, then bores into the mountain where the mead of poetry is hidden and tries to cheat him. 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. 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. 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. 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 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.