Seiðr Loom

god or goddess

Mímir

The wise guardian of the well beneath Yggdrasil, where Odin pledged an eye for a drink. In the poems only his head survives, and Odin consults it for secret knowledge.

Mímir is a figure of pure wisdom, and the sources barely give him a body. In Völuspá the seeress tells Odin she knows where his eye is hidden: "Deep in the wide-famed well of Mimir", and that "Mead from the pledge of Othin each morn Does Mimir drink" Völuspá 29. Snorri explains: under the root of Yggdrasil that reaches toward the frost-giants lies Mímir's well, "wherein wisdom and understanding are stored". Mímir keeps it and "is full of ancient lore, since he drinks of the well from the Gjallar-Horn". Odin came and asked for a drink, and got it only after he had laid his eye in pledge Gylfaginning 15. See Odin's eye and Mímir's well.

The head

In the poems, Mímir is a head. As Ragnarök begins, "To the head of Mim does Othin give heed" Völuspá 47, and in Sigrdrífumál "the head of Mim spoke forth, And words of truth it told" about the runes Sigrdrífumál 14. The Eddas never explain how he came to be only a head. Snorri's Ynglinga saga, outside the Eddas, says the Æsir sent Mímir with Hœnir as hostages to the Vanir, who beheaded him; Odin preserved the head with herbs and spells so that it could speak to him.

Snorri's own account of Ragnarök does not mention the head. In his prose, Odin "shall ride to Mímir's Well and take counsel of Mímir" Gylfaginning 51, though the verse he quotes immediately after says "Odin communes with Mimir's head" Gylfaginning 51. The skalds called Odin "Friend of Mímir" Skáldskaparmál 2.

Two names may contain his: Hoddmímir's Holt, where the humans Líf and Lífþrasir survive the end Vafþrúðnismál 45, and Mímameiðr, "Mímir's tree", in Svipdagsmál Svipdagsmál 30. Both are often taken to mean Yggdrasil, but neither text says 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.

I know where Othin's eye is hidden, Deep in the wide-famed well of Mimir; Mead from the pledge of Othin each morn Does Mimir drink
Völuspá 29 The seeress reveals that Odin's eye lies in Mímir's well.
he is called Mímir, who keeps the well. He is full of ancient lore, since he drinks of the well from the Gjallar-Horn.
Gylfaginning 15 Snorri makes Mímir the keeper of a well of wisdom.
To the head of Mim does Othin give heed.
Völuspá 47 As Ragnarök begins, Odin consults Mímir's head.
Then first the head of Mim spoke forth, And words of truth it told.
Sigrdrífumál 14 Mímir's head speaks wisdom about the runes.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • How Mímir lost his head. The Eddas never say; the beheading story comes from Snorri's Ynglinga saga.
  • Whether Mímir is a god, a giant or something else; the sources never say what kind of being he is. Who the 'sons of Mim' are (Völuspá 46) is also unclear.

In modern culture

Not from the medieval sources.

Mímir's talking head is a main character in the video games God of War (2018) and God of War Ragnarök (2022), which make him a witty Scottish-accented advisor; his family and backstory there are invented.

Myths with Mímir

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. Odin's eye and Mímir's well Odin gave one of his eyes as a pledge for a drink from the well of wisdom kept by Mímir. The sources tell it in a few lines, and the eye's hiding-place becomes one of the secrets the seeress of Völuspá throws back at the god. Ragnarök: the doom of the gods The end of the Norse world as told in Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál and Snorri's Gylfaginning: winter and war, the wolf and the serpent loose, the gods killed one by one, and Surtr's fire over the earth. The war of the Æsir and the Vanir The first war in the world, fought between the two families of gods. The surviving texts give only fragments — a witch burned three times, Odin's spear, a broken wall, a truce sealed with spittle and hostages — but they add up to the story of how the Vanir came to live among the Æsir.

Related

Mímisbrunnr The well of wisdom under a root of Yggdrasil, kept by Mímir. Odin left one of his eyes there as the price of a single drink. 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. Yggdrasil Yggdrasill The world-ash at the centre of the Norse cosmos: its roots reach the realms of gods, giants and the dead, and the gods hold court beneath it every day. Hœnir A shadowy god, Odin's travelling companion, who gave sense to the first humans, went to the Vanir as a hostage after their war, and survives Ragnarök to take up the prophetic wand. The Vanir Vanir The second family of gods, associated with wealth, fertility, the sea and foresight. After a war with the Æsir they exchanged hostages, and Njörðr, Freyr and Freyja came to live among the Æsir. Gjallarhorn Heimdall's horn, whose blast is heard in all worlds. He will sound it to wake the gods when Ragnarök begins; Snorri also has Mímir drink from it at his well. Líf and Lífþrasir Líf ok Lífþrasir The two humans who survive the end of the world hidden in Hoddmímir's wood, living on the morning dew, and from whom the new world is peopled.