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Æsir

Ullr

Sif's son and Thor's stepson, a god of the bow and the snowshoe whose many place-names hint at an importance the surviving myths no longer show.

Ullr is the son of Sif and the stepson of Thor. Snorri describes him as a bowman and a skier without equal, handsome and warlike, "and it is well to call on him in single-combats" Gylfaginning 31. His kennings in Skáldskaparmál are "God of the Snowshoe, God of the Bow, Hunting-God, God of the Shield" Skáldskaparmál 14, and skalds called a shield "Ship of Ullr" Skáldskaparmál 48. Snorri does not explain why.

No myth about Ullr survives. In Grímnismál he has a hall at Ýdalir, the "yew dales" Grímnismál 5, an apt home for an archer, since bows were made of yew. Later in the poem Odin, suffering between two fires, says that whoever first reaches into the flames will have "the favor of Ull and of all the gods" Grímnismál 42. In Atlakviða, Guðrún reminds Atli of oaths sworn "by the ring of Ull" Atlakviða 32. Both passages imply a god of more weight than Snorri's short paragraph suggests.

Place-names support that impression. Names formed with Ull-, such as Ullensaker and Ullevål in Norway, are common in Norway and Sweden, which points to a real cult. Saxo Grammaticus tells of an Ollerus who ruled the gods for a time while Odin was in exile and crossed the sea on a bone carved with spells; scholars usually identify him with Ullr, though the story has no parallel in the Eddas.

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.

One is called Ullr, son of Sif, step-son of Thor; he is so excellent a bowman, and so swift on snowshoes, that none may contend with him.
Gylfaginning 31 Snorri's entry for Ullr among the Æsir.
Ydalir call they the place where Ull A hall for himself hath set
Grímnismál 5 Ullr's dwelling, Ýdalir, 'yew dales', fitting a bowman.
His the favor of Ull and of all the gods Who first in the flames will reach
Grímnismál 42 Odin, tortured between fires, promises the favour of Ullr and all the gods to whoever helps him.
By the horse of the rest-bed, and the ring of Ull.
Atlakviða 32 An oath sworn on Ullr's ring, suggesting he once guarded oaths.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Why Ullr is named first in Odin's promise in Grímnismál 42, ahead of 'all the gods': some scholars see a trace of an older cult in which he was a leading god.
  • Who his father was: no source says.

Related

Sif Thor's wife, mother of Ullr and Þrúðr, famous for the golden hair the dwarfs made for her after Loki cut off her own. Thor Þórr The thunder god, strongest of the Æsir: son of Odin and Earth, husband of Sif, and with his hammer Mjöllnir the gods' defender against the giants, until he dies killing the World Serpent. Ýdalir The hall of the god Ullr, named only once, in Grímnismál's list of the dwellings of the gods. 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.