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Svalinn

The shield that stands before the sun; if it fell, Grímnismál says, mountains and sea would burst into flame.

Svalinn is the shield that protects the world from the sun. Odin, speaking as Grímnir, says:

In front of the sun does Svalin stand,The shield for the shining god;Mountains and sea would be set in flamesIf it fell from before the sun.Grímnismál 38

The stanza follows directly on the one about the sun's horses, Árvakr and Alsviðr, and their "iron cool" Grímnismál 37, so Grímnismál seems to picture the sun as too hot for horses or world without protection.

The shield is probably meant again in Sigrdrífumál, where runes were cut "on the shield before the shining goddess", followed in the same breath by the sun-horses' ear and hoof Sigrdrífumál 15. The poem does not give the name.

Snorri never mentions Svalinn. In his account of the sun the only cooling device is the pair of bellows under the horses' shoulders Gylfaginning 11. Svalinn is known only from these two stanzas.

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.

In front of the sun does Svalin stand, The shield for the shining god; Mountains and sea would be set in flames If it fell from before the sun.
Grímnismál 38 The only passage that names the shield and gives its purpose.
He bade write on the shield before the shining goddess
Sigrdrífumál 15 Runes cut on the shield that stands before the sun, probably Svalinn.

Myths with Svalinn

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.

Related

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. 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. 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. 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.