Seiðr Loom

god or goddess

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.

Nanna is the wife of Baldr, and her story is a single scene of grief. Snorri calls her "Nanna the daughter of Nep" and the mother of Forseti Gylfaginning 32. Nep is not mentioned anywhere else.

When the gods carried Baldr's body on board his ship to burn it, Nanna saw it, "and straightway her heart burst with grief, and she died". She was laid on the pyre beside him Gylfaginning 49. When Hermóðr rode to Hel to ask for Baldr's release, he found the two of them there. As he left, Baldr sent the ring Draupnir back to Odin, and Nanna sent Frigg a linen smock and other gifts, and her maid Fulla a gold finger-ring Gylfaginning 49. Snorri's kennings call Frigg "Mother-in-law of Nanna" Skáldskaparmál 19, and Skáldskaparmál lists Nanna among the goddesses at the banquet when Ægir visited Ásgard Skáldskaparmál 1.

That is all the Eddas tell. No poem in the Poetic Edda mentions Baldr's wife; a Nanna in Hyndluljóð belongs to a list of human ancestors Hyndluljóð 20. Saxo Grammaticus's Danish history makes Nanna the woman over whom Balderus and Høtherus fight, and she marries Høtherus. How Saxo's version relates to Snorri's is one of the open questions of the Baldr myth (see Baldr's dreams and death).

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.

when his wife, Nanna the daughter of Nep, saw that, straightway her heart burst with grief, and she died
Gylfaginning 49 Nanna dies of grief at Baldr's funeral and is burned with him.
And Nanna sent Frigg a linen smock, and yet more gifts, and to Fulla a golden finger-ring.
Gylfaginning 49 From Hel's hall she sends gifts back to Ásgard with Hermóðr.
Forseti is the name of the son of Baldr and Nanna daughter of Nep
Gylfaginning 32 Snorri names her as Forseti's mother.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Hyndluljóð 20 names a 'Nanna, daughter of Nokkvi' in a human genealogy; she is usually taken to be a different woman.

Myths with Nanna

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. 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. Forseti Son of Baldr and Nanna, a god of justice whose hall Glitnir, pillared with gold and roofed with silver, is the best court among gods and men. 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. Fulla Frigg's maidservant and confidante, who carries her mistress's coffer, minds her shoes and knows her secrets; poets called gold 'Fulla's snood'. 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. 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.