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Ásynjur

Sól

The sun as a goddess: daughter of Mundilfari and sister of the Moon, she drives the sun's horses across the sky with a wolf at her heels.

The Chariot of the Sun by Collingwood
The Chariot of the Sun by Collingwood, W. G. Collingwood (1908). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

In Norse myth the sun is a woman. The poems call her the sister of the moon Völuspá 5 and the child of Mundilfari Vafþrúðnismál 23; Snorri turns this into a story and gives her the name Sól, which is simply the word for "sun".

Mundilfari's daughter

According to Gylfaginning, a man called Mundilfari had two children so beautiful that he named the boy Moon and the girl Sun, and married the girl to a man called Glenr. The gods took offence at this presumption, seized the brother and sister and set them in the sky. Sól was made to drive the horses that pull the sun's chariot, which the gods had made from the sparks of Múspellheim Gylfaginning 11. The horses are Árvakr and Alsviðr, and a cooling device under their shoulders keeps them from burning.

The story is Snorri's. Vafþrúðnismál says only that Mundilfari "fathered the flaming sun" and that sun and moon run the round of heaven "to tell the time for men" Vafþrúðnismál 23. Snorri's account also sits awkwardly beside his own creation story, where the gods make the heavenly lights from Múspellheim's sparks without any human children involved Gylfaginning 8. He seems to keep both: the sun is a fiery body, and Sól is its driver. The poems do not make this distinction. In Grímnismál the horses themselves "drag / Weary the weight of the sun" Grímnismál 37, and a shield, Svalinn, stands before the sun to keep the world from burning Grímnismál 38.

The chase and the end

Sól hurries across the sky because a wolf, Sköll, follows her Grímnismál 39. Snorri says Sköll will catch her Gylfaginning 12, and at Ragnarök "the Wolf shall swallow the sun" Gylfaginning 51. Völuspá speaks of one of Fenrir's brood who will "steal the sun from the sky" Völuspá 40, and at the end "the sun turns black" Völuspá 57. Before the end, however, she bears a daughter as bright as herself, who will ride her mother's paths in the new world Vafþrúðnismál 47; Snorri quotes the same stanza Gylfaginning 53.

Snorri counts Sól among the Ásynjur Gylfaginning 35, and the skalds called the sun "Daughter of Mundilfari, Sister of the Moon, Wife of Glenr" Skáldskaparmál 26. Of Glenr nothing more is known.

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.

Mundilferi is he who begat the moon, And fathered the flaming sun; The round of heaven each day they run, To tell the time for men.
Vafþrúðnismál 23 The poem's version of the sun's parentage: she and the moon are children of Mundilfari.
they were so fair and comely that he called his son Moon, and his daughter Sun, and wedded her to the man called Glenr.
Gylfaginning 11 Snorri's story of how Mundilfari's children were named and taken into the sky.
The sun, the sister of the moon, from the south Her right hand cast over heaven's rim; No knowledge she had where her home should be
Völuspá 5 At the creation the sun does not yet know her place.
Skoll is the wolf that to Ironwood Follows the glittering god
Grímnismál 39 The wolf that pursues the sun.
A daughter bright Alfrothul bears Ere Fenrir snatches her forth; Her mother's paths shall the maiden tread
Vafþrúðnismál 47 The sun will bear a daughter who takes her place after Ragnarök.

In modern culture

Not from the medieval sources.

A sun goddess appears outside Scandinavia too: the Old High German Second Merseburg Charm names Sunna alongside Frija (Frigg) and Volla. In modern German the sun is still grammatically feminine (die Sonne) and the moon masculine (der Mond), as in Old Norse.

Myths with Sól

Sun, Moon, Night and Day How the Norse sources explain the sky's clock: Night and Day ride round the world on two horses, the children of Mundilfari drive the sun and moon, and two wolves chase them until the end of the world. The giant builder and the wall of Asgard A stranger offers to wall the gods' stronghold in a single winter, for the price of Freyja, the sun and the moon. When he is about to win, Loki saves the gods by turning himself into a mare — and gives birth to Sleipnir. The world reborn After Ragnarök a green earth rises from the sea. Surviving gods meet on Iðavöllr, Baldr returns from Hel, two humans come out of hiding, and a new sun rides the sky. The sources do not agree on who survives.

Related

Máni The moon as a god: son of Mundilfari and brother of the Sun, he steers the moon's course and governs its waxing and waning, pursued by a wolf. Mundilfari The father of the Sun and the Moon; Snorri says the gods took his children into the sky because he dared to name them after the heavenly lights. Árvakr and Alsviðr Árvakr ok Alsviðr The two horses that pull the sun across the sky, cooled by an 'iron cool' that the gods set under their yokes. Svalinn The shield that stands before the sun; if it fell, Grímnismál says, mountains and sea would burst into flame. Sköll and Hati Sköll ok Hati The two wolves that chase the sun and the moon across the sky; at Ragnarök they catch them, and the heavens go dark. Dagr Day personified: son of Night and the bright Dellingr, he rides round the earth behind his mother on the horse Skinfaxi, whose mane lights the world. Nótt Night personified: a dark giant's daughter who rides around the earth on the horse Hrímfaxi, whose bit-foam falls as dew; mother of Day and of Earth. Ragnarök The foretold end of the gods' world: wolves swallow sun and moon, Loki and the monsters break loose, the gods fall in battle, Surtr burns the earth, and a new world rises.