Seiðr Loom

Æsir

Víðarr

The silent son of Odin and the giantess Gríðr, nearly as strong as Thor. At Ragnarök he avenges his father by tearing apart the wolf Fenrir, and he survives into the new world.

Vidar by Collingwood
Vidar by Collingwood, W.G. Collingwood (1908). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Víðarr is the god who avenges Odin. Snorri's introduction is short and odd: he is "the silent god. He has a thick shoe. He is nearly as strong as Thor; in him the gods have great trust in all struggles" Gylfaginning 29. His mother is the giantess Gríðr Skáldskaparmál 18.

The wolf

At Ragnarök Fenrir swallows Odin. Víðarr kills the wolf at once, and the sources describe how in three ways. Völuspá has him thrust a sword "full to the heart" of "the giant's son" Völuspá 54. In Vafþrúðnismál he tears the jaws apart Vafþrúðnismál 53. Snorri combines the images and adds the shoe: Víðarr sets one foot on the wolf's lower jaw, takes the upper jaw in his hand and tears the gullet apart Gylfaginning 51.

The wolf shall fell the father of men,And this shall Vithar avenge;The terrible jaws shall he tear apart,And so the wolf shall he slay.Vafþrúðnismál 53

The shoe, Snorri says, has been gathering material since the beginning of time: it is made of the scraps of leather that people cut from their shoes at the toe and heel, "therefore he who desires in his heart to come to the Æsir's help should cast those scraps away" Gylfaginning 51. Skáldskaparmál calls him "Possessor of the Iron Shoe" Skáldskaparmál 11, which does not quite match.

Grímnismál gives him a land, Viði, full of trees and tall grass, and recalls the son leaping from his horse there to avenge his father Grímnismál 17.

In Ægir's hall and after the end

Víðarr has one scene in the poems before Ragnarök. In Lokasenna, when Loki demands a seat at the feast, Odin tells Víðarr to stand and give the "wolf's father" his place Lokasenna 10, and Víðarr pours him a drink Lokasenna, prose 4. The scene hints at a careful pairing: Loki's son will kill Odin, and Víðarr will kill Loki's son.

Víðarr survives. "In the gods' home Vithar and Vali shall dwell, when the fires of Surt have sunk" Vafþrúðnismál 51, and Snorri says neither sea nor fire harmed them Gylfaginning 53.

A carved stone cross at Gosforth in Cumbria, from the tenth century, shows a figure holding open the jaws of a beast with one foot on its lower jaw; many scholars read it as Víðarr and Fenrir.

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.

Vídarr is the name of one, the silent god. He has a thick shoe. He is nearly as strong as Thor
Gylfaginning 29 Snorri's whole entry for Víðarr among the Æsir.
Then comes Sigfather's mighty son, Vithar, to fight with the foaming wolf; In the giant's son does he thrust his sword Full to the heart: his father is avenged.
Völuspá 54 In Völuspá Víðarr kills the wolf with a sword.
The wolf shall fell the father of men, And this shall Vithar avenge; The terrible jaws shall he tear apart
Vafþrúðnismál 53 In Vafþrúðnismál he tears the wolf's jaws apart.
on that foot he has the shoe, materials for which have been gathering throughout all time
Gylfaginning 51 Snorri explains the shoe: it is made of the leather scraps people trim from their own shoes.
Filled with growing trees and high-standing grass Is Vithi, Vithar's land
Grímnismál 17 His land, where he will leap from his horse to avenge his father.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • How Víðarr kills the wolf: with a sword to the heart (Völuspá 54), by tearing its jaws apart (Vafþrúðnismál 53), or by standing on its lower jaw and tearing the upper (Gylfaginning 51). Snorri quotes the Völuspá stanza right after his own version without noting the difference.
  • Why he is called silent: no source explains it. A common guess links it to a vow of silence until vengeance is taken.

Myths with Víðarr

Loki's flyting at Ægir's feast Thrown out of the sea-giant Ægir's feast for killing a servant, Loki walks back in and insults every god and goddess in turn, until Thor comes home and threatens him with the hammer. Odin's contest of wisdom with Vafþrúðnir Against Frigg's advice, Odin goes in disguise to the wisest of the giants and stakes his head on a contest of questions about the creation, the gods and the end of the world. He wins with a question only he can answer. 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 binding of Fenrir The gods raise Loki's wolf-son Fenrir at home until they fear him, then trick him into a magic fetter made of impossible things. Týr puts his hand in the wolf's mouth as a pledge, and loses it. 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. Thor in the hall of Geirröðr To save his own life Loki promises to bring Thor, unarmed, to the giant Geirröðr. A friendly giantess lends Thor a belt, gloves and staff; he survives a flooding river, a rising chair and a red-hot iron bar, and kills Geirröðr and his daughters.

Related

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. Fenrir The giant wolf fathered by Loki on Angrboða, raised by the gods, bound with the fetter Gleipnir at the cost of Týr's hand, and fated to swallow Odin at Ragnarök. Gríðr A giantess, mother of Odin's son Víðarr, who helped Thor on his way to the giant Geirröðr by lending him a girdle of might, iron gloves and her staff. Váli Odin's son by Rindr, born to avenge Baldr: at one night old, unwashed and uncombed, he killed Baldr's slayer Höðr. He survives Ragnarök. 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. 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.