Nine Mothers of Heimdallr

The Nine Mothers of Heimdallr are mentioned in two books of the Prose Edda; Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál. In Gylfaginning, Heimdallr is introduced in chapter 27, where the enthroned figure of High tells the disguised mythical king Gangleri details about the god. Among other details, High says that Heimdallr is the son of nine sisters and, as a reference, provides two lines of the (otherwise now lost) poem Heimdalargaldr, in which Heimdallr says that he was born of nine sisters: :"Offspring of nine mothers am I and of nine sisters am I the son". In chapter 16 of Skáldskaparmál a work by the 10th century skald Úlfr Uggason is quoted. The poem refers to Heimdallr as the "son of eight mothers plus one". Prose following the poem points out that the poem refers to Heimdallr as the son of nine mothers. The poem Völuspá hin skamma (contained within the poem Hyndluljóð, often considered a part of the Poetic Edda) contains three stanza that scholars have frequently theorized as referring to Heimdallr and his nine mothers. According to the stanzas, long ago, a mighty god was born by nine jötnar maidens at the edge of the world. This boy grew strong, nourished by the strength of the earth, the ice-cold sea, and the blood of swine. Names are provided for these nine maidens. For discussion of these names, see Names section below (note that the translations below present anglicizations of Old Norse forms). The stanzas in question read as follows: == Names ==

Some of the names of Heimdallr's mothers found in Völuspá hin skamma appear in a variety of other sources, where they may or may not refer to separate entities: == Scholarly reception and interpretation ==

The names of all nine mothers mentioned above in Völuspá hin skamma appear elsewhere as the names of female jötnar (generally in the þulur). Adding to the confusion, Orchard points out, Gjálp and Greip are otherwise mentioned as jötnar maidens who seek to contravene the god Thor from reaching their father Geirröðr, and Járnsaxa is otherwise the mother of Magni and Móði by Thor. (1882), depicts Heimdallr's mothers as "wave maidens" Some scholars have linked the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr with the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán (nine goddesses who personify the sea waves), an identification that would mean that Heimdallr was thus born from the waves of the sea. However, this connection has been questioned on the grounds that the names presented for the Nine Daughters of Ægir and Rán and the Nine Mothers of Heimdallr (as found in Völuspá hin skamma) do not match. Scholar John Lindow comments that the identification of Heimdallr's mothers as Ægir and Rán's daughters do, however, match on the grounds that Ægir and Rán's daughters, like Heimdallr's mothers, are sisters, and that two separate traditions about Heimdallr's mothers may explain the differences between the two sisterhoods. == See also ==