Seiðr Loom

god or goddess

Vili and Vé

Vili ok Vé

Odin's two brothers, sons of Borr and Bestla. With Odin they killed Ymir, built the world from his body and gave life to the first humans, then all but vanish from the myths.

Vili and Vé are Odin's brothers, and they share his greatest deeds before disappearing almost entirely. In Snorri's Gylfaginning they are the second and third sons of Borr and the giantess Bestla Gylfaginning 6.

Makers of the world

Snorri never separates their actions from Odin's. "The sons of Borr" kill Ymir Gylfaginning 7, carry his body into the void and make earth, sea and sky from it Gylfaginning 8. Walking along the shore, they find two trees and shape the first people, Askr and Embla. Each brother gives a gift: "the first gave them spirit and life; the second, wit and feeling; the third, form, speech, hearing, and sight" Gylfaginning 9. Snorri does not say which brother gave which, though the order suggests Odin, Vili, Vé.

Völuspá tells the making of humans differently. Three gods come from the gods' home and find Ask and Embla "empty of might"; the gifts come from "Othin", "Hönir" and "Lothur" Völuspá 18. The poem's earlier line "Bur's sons lifted the level land" Völuspá 4 may include Vili and Vé, but it never names them.

An accusation in Ægir's hall

The brothers' only appearance in the Poetic Edda is an insult. In Lokasenna, Loki tells Frigg that "Vili and Ve, thou wife of Vithrir, both in thy bosom have lain" Lokasenna 26. The poem does not explain the jibe. Snorri's Ynglinga saga, part of his history of the Norwegian kings, supplies a story that fits: while Odin was away for a long time, his brothers divided his inheritance and both took Frigg as wife, until he came home and took her back. Whether the poet knew that story, or Snorri invented it to explain the verse, cannot be settled.

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.

they had three sons: one was Odin, the second Vili, the third Vé. And this is my belief, that he, Odin, with his brothers, must be ruler of heaven and earth
Gylfaginning 6 Snorri names the three sons of Borr and Bestla.
the first gave them spirit and life; the second, wit and feeling; the third, form, speech, hearing, and sight
Gylfaginning 9 In Snorri, the three sons of Borr each give a gift to the first humans.
For Vili and Ve, thou wife of Vithrir, Both in thy bosom have lain.
Lokasenna 26 Loki accuses Frigg of sleeping with her husband's brothers, the only mention of them in the poems.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Snorri credits the making of the first humans to the three sons of Borr; Völuspá 18 gives the gifts to Odin, Hœnir and Lóðurr instead. Whether Hœnir and Lóðurr are other names for Vili and Vé, or a different trio, is unknown.

Myths with Vili and Vé

Ask and Embla: the first humans Three gods walking by the shore find two lifeless pieces of wood, Ask and Embla, and give them breath, mind, warmth and colour. Völuspá and Snorri agree on the gifts but not on who gave them. The making of the world Before anything existed there was only a yawning gap. Fire and ice met in it, the giant Ymir woke out of the melting rime, and Odin and his brothers killed him and built the world from his body.

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. Borr Son of Búri and father of Odin, Vili and Vé by the giantess Bestla. His sons killed Ymir and raised the earth, and the poems often call them simply 'Bur's sons'. Bestla A giantess, daughter of Bölþorn, wife of Borr and mother of Odin, Vili and Vé. Through her the chief god is half giant by birth. Ymir The first being, a giant who woke in the melting rime of the primeval void. Odin and his brothers killed him and built the world from his body. Ask and Embla Askr ok Embla The first man and woman, made by three gods from two pieces of wood found on the shore. All humankind descends from them. 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. 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. Midgard Miðgarðr The world of humans, made by Odin and his brothers from the body of the giant Ymir and fenced with his eyebrows against the giants who live around the ocean's edge.