Seiðr Loom

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Óðrerir

In Snorri, the kettle into which the dwarves drained Kvasir's blood to brew the mead of poetry; in Hávamál, apparently the name of the mead itself.

Odin and Gunnlöð by Frølich
Odin and Gunnlöð by Frølich, Lorenz Frølich (1895). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Óðrerir is one of the three vessels that held the mead of poetry. According to Snorri, when the dwarves Fjalarr and Galarr killed Kvasir, they ran his blood "into two vats and a kettle. The kettle is named Ódrerir, and the vats Són and Bodn" Skáldskaparmál 1. When Odin gets his three draughts in Suttungr's mountain, he empties Óðrerir with the first Skáldskaparmál 1. Skalds called poetry the "liquor of Ódrerir" Skáldskaparmál 3, and one verse speaks of "Ódrerir's Sea" Skáldskaparmál 3.

Hávamál uses the name differently. After the Gunnlöð episode Odin says "Othrörir now has up been brought to the midst of the men of earth" Hávamál 107. There it reads most naturally as the mead itself, the thing brought up from the giants' world. In the rune stanzas Odin gets "a drink … of the goodly mead poured out from Othrörir" Hávamál 141, which could mean either. Many scholars think Hávamál's use is the older one and that Snorri turned the name into a container to tidy up his story. That is a reasonable guess, not a certainty.

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.

The kettle is named Ódrerir, and the vats Són and Bodn
Skáldskaparmál 1 Snorri names the three vessels.
Kvasir's blood was liquid in Ódrerir before the mead was made
Skáldskaparmál 3 Snorri explains why poetry is called 'liquid' or 'sea'.
So Othrörir now has up been brought To the midst of the men of earth.
Hávamál 107 Hávamál uses the name for what Odin brings back: the mead.
And a drink I got of the goodly mead Poured out from Othrörir.
Hávamál 141 In the rune stanzas Odin drinks from Óðrerir.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • Snorri's Óðrerir is a kettle; Hávamál 107 seems to use the name for the mead. Hávamál 141 ('poured out from Othrörir') fits either.

Myths with Óðrerir

Odin on the tree: how the runes were won In Hávamál Odin tells how he hung for nine nights on a windswept tree, wounded with a spear and given to himself, without food or drink, until he seized the runes and fell back. It is the most famous passage in Old Norse poetry, and one of the most mysterious. The mead of poetry From the spittle of the gods' peace comes Kvasir, wisest of beings; from his blood two dwarfs brew a mead that makes poets. It passes to the giant Suttungr, and Odin wins it by labour, seduction and theft, flying home as an eagle.

Related

The mead of poetry skáldskapar mjaðar The mead brewed from the blood of the wise Kvasir: whoever drinks it becomes a poet or a scholar. Odin steals it from the giant Suttungr and gives it to the gods and to poets. Kvasir The wisest of beings, made from the spittle of the Æsir and Vanir at their peace-making. Two dwarves killed him and brewed his blood with honey into the mead of poetry. Fjalar and Galarr Fjalarr ok Galarr Two murderous dwarf brothers who kill Kvasir and brew the mead of poetry from his blood, then kill the giant Gillingr and his wife, and give up the mead to save their own lives. Suttungr The giant who takes the mead of poetry from the dwarves as compensation for his father's murder, hides it inside a mountain with his daughter Gunnlöð, and loses it to Odin. Gunnlöð Suttungr's daughter, set to guard the mead of poetry inside a mountain. Odin spends three nights with her and leaves with all the mead; Hávamál remembers her as a woman he wronged. 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.