Seiðr Loom

place

Glitnir

Forseti's hall, pillared with gold and roofed with silver, where every quarrel brought before him is settled.

Glitnir is the hall of Forseti, the god who settles disputes. Grímnismál lists it tenth among the dwellings of the gods: "its pillars are gold, / And its roof with silver is set", and there Forseti "sets all strife at end" Grímnismál 15.

Snorri describes it twice. Among the abodes of heaven, Glitnir's "walls, and all its posts and pillars, are of red gold, but its roof of silver" Gylfaginning 17. In his chapter on Forseti, the son of Baldr and Nanna, Snorri says everyone who comes to him with a lawsuit goes home reconciled, and calls Glitnir "the best seat of judgment among gods and men" Gylfaginning 32. He then quotes the Grímnismál stanza, in Brodeur's version: "There Forseti bides / the full day through, / And puts to sleep all suits."

The poem and Snorri agree. Snorri's only addition is the legal framing. Nothing happens at Glitnir in any surviving story.

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 tenth is Glitnir; its pillars are gold, And its roof with silver is set; There most of his days does Forseti dwell, And sets all strife at end.
Grímnismál 15 The tenth hall in Grímnismál, and Forseti's role as peacemaker.
There, too, is the one called Glitnir, whose walls, and all its posts and pillars, are of red gold, but its roof of silver.
Gylfaginning 17 Snorri's description of the hall among the abodes of heaven.
All that come to him with such quarrels as arise out of law-suits, all these return thence reconciled.
Gylfaginning 32 Snorri calls Glitnir the best seat of judgment among gods and men.

Related

Forseti Son of Baldr and Nanna, a god of justice whose hall Glitnir, pillared with gold and roofed with silver, is the best court among gods and men. Baldr Odin and Frigg's son, the brightest and best-loved of the gods. His death by a mistletoe dart, thrown by his blind brother Höðr, is the first great loss on the road to Ragnarök. Breiðablik Baldr's hall, the fairest dwelling in heaven, in a land where nothing unclean may be and where, the poem says, there are fewest baleful runes. Syn The goddess who keeps the hall door against unwelcome visitors and stands as defence for those who deny a charge at law. Valaskjálf A silver-thatched hall built by a god for himself in ancient days; Snorri makes it Odin's hall and places the high seat Hliðskjálf inside it.