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Æsir

Hermóðr

Odin's son who rode Sleipnir for nine nights down to Hel to ask for his brother Baldr's release, and brought back Hel's condition: that all the world must weep.

Hermod before Hela
Hermod before Hela, John Charles Dollman (1909). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Hermóðr is known for one journey. After Baldr was killed, Frigg asked who among the gods would win all her love and favour by riding to Hel to offer a ransom. The volunteer was "Hermódr the Bold, Odin's son". He was given Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged horse, and galloped off Gylfaginning 49.

The ride to Hel

Snorri's account in Gylfaginning is the most detailed journey to the land of the dead in the Eddas. Hermóðr rode nine nights through dark, deep valleys until he reached the river Gjöll and its bridge, "thatched with glittering gold". The maiden Móðguðr, who guards it, told him that five companies of dead men had crossed the day before, yet the bridge thundered more under him alone, and he did not have the colour of the dead. She pointed the way: "down and north lieth Hel-way" Gylfaginning 49.

At the gate of Hel he tightened Sleipnir's girths and spurred him, and the horse cleared it without touching. Inside, Hermóðr found his brother sitting in the high seat, and stayed the night. In the morning he asked Hel to let Baldr ride home. She set a condition: if all things in the world, living and dead, wept for Baldr, he could return Gylfaginning 49. Baldr walked him out and sent the ring Draupnir back to Odin; Nanna sent gifts to Frigg and Fulla. Hermóðr rode home and reported what he had heard, and the gods sent messengers through the world to ask everything to weep. A single giantess refused, and Baldr stayed in Hel Gylfaginning 49.

Elsewhere

Hermóðr does not appear in any narrative poem of the Poetic Edda. A Hermoth receives "helm and mail-coat" from Odin in Hyndluljóð Hyndluljóð 2, in a stanza about the gifts Odin gives to heroes. In Eyvindr's poem on the death of King Hákon, quoted in Skáldskaparmál, Odin sends "Hermódr and Bragi" to greet the dead king arriving at Valhöll Skáldskaparmál 2. Whether these are the same Hermóðr is unclear; the Old English poem Beowulf also mentions a Danish king Heremod. Some scholars think the name belonged first to a legendary hero and was later attached to a son of Odin. See Hermóðr's ride to Hel.

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.

And he is named Hermódr the Bold, Odin's son, who undertook that embassy. Then Sleipnir was taken, Odin's steed, and led forward
Gylfaginning 49 Hermóðr volunteers to ride to Hel on Odin's horse.
he rode nine nights through dark dales and deep, so that he saw not before he was come to the river Gjöll
Gylfaginning 49 The ride to the underworld and the gold-roofed bridge over the river Gjöll.
the steed leaped so hard over the gate that he came nowise near to it
Gylfaginning 49 Sleipnir clears the gate of Hel.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Hermóðr is called Odin's son only in this chapter of Gylfaginning (Gylfaginning 49); he is absent from Snorri's list of the twelve Æsir and from the kennings for Odin's sons.
  • Whether the Hermóðr whom Odin sends to greet a dead king in Eyvindr's verse (Skáldskaparmál 2), or the Hermoth given helm and mail-coat in Hyndluljóð 2, is the same figure as Baldr's brother.

Myths with Hermóðr

Hermóðr's ride to Hel After Baldr's death Hermóðr rides Sleipnir nine nights down to Hel to ransom his brother. Hel agrees to let Baldr go if everything in the world weeps for him; one giantess in a cave will not.

Related

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. 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. Frigg Odin's wife and the foremost of the goddesses: she knows the fates of all but never speaks them, and her failed attempt to protect her son Baldr is the hinge of Norse myth. Sleipnir Odin's grey, eight-legged horse, best of all steeds, foaled by Loki after he lured away the giant builder's stallion Svaðilfari. Hel Loki's daughter by Angrboða, half dark and half flesh-coloured, whom Odin cast down to rule the dead in Niflheim; she holds Baldr and sets the price of his return. Nanna Baldr's wife and the mother of Forseti. When she saw Baldr's body carried to his ship her heart burst with grief, and she was burned on his pyre. Draupnir Odin's gold ring, forged by a dwarf, from which eight rings of equal weight drop every ninth night; Odin lays it on Baldr's pyre and Baldr sends it back from Hel. Hel (the realm) Hel The underworld of the dead, ruled by Loki's daughter Hel: reached by the Hel-way and the Gjöll bridge, set down and to the north, under one root of Yggdrasil.