starkad 95
Son( Reconciliation) The vessel used by the dwarfs to hold the blood of the wise poet Kvasir( 1) after they killed him in order to brew the mead of poetry. Son was one of two such containers; the other is Bodn. A kettle, Odrerir, was also used by the dwarfs in this story.
Snorri Sturluson gives the names Son and Bodn to these two vessels in Skaldsaparmal. The names are not found anywhere else in the manuscripts of Norse mythology. Some scholars suggest that Snorri chose Son, which means reconciliation, as the name for one vessel to suggest that the mead of poetry would bring peace between the Aesir and Vanir gods.( See“ The Mead of Poetry” under Odin.)
Statue of Snorri Sturluson by Gustav Vigeland, in Bergen, Norway
Sol( Sun) According to 13th-century Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson, a servant of the Sun. Sol was the daughter of the human Mundilfari and the sister of Mani. The gods stole Sol and Mani from their father when they were children— or perhaps young adults, since Snorri says Sol was married to a man named Glen. The gods were offended that a human, Mundilfari, had named his children after the Sun and the Moon.
In Snorri’ s telling of their story, the gods put Sol to work in the heavens, where she drove the chariot that carried the Sun through the sky. Two horses, Arvakr and Alsvid, pulled the chariot. To protect the horses and Sol from the flaming heat of the Sun, which would burn up anything that came too close to it, the gods placed the shield Svalin between them and the Sun.
The huge, evil wolf Skoll chased Sol and the Sun’ s chariot through the sky until Ragnarok, when he caught and devoured the Sun.
Sol is rarely given human characteristics in Norse poetry. Only Snorri tells the story of her work in the heavens. An older poem, part of the Poetic Edda, identifies Sol as the Sun, not a servant, and only names her and the Moon as children of Mundilfari. The Sun played only a small role in Norse mythology.
Sorla thattr( Sorla Þattr; The Tale of Hogni and Hedinn) Sorla thattr is the tale of the conflict between two kings, Hogni and Hedinn, which includes the story of the making of the golden Brisinga men, a necklace of great beauty and value.
The beginning of the Sorla thattr describes the bargain Freya makes with four dwarfs to get the marvelous golden necklace she sees them creating. It then describes the trickery Loki used to steal the necklace from the sleeping goddess and the mighty Odin’ s bargain with Freya required for her to get the necklace back from her husband.
The Sorla thattr is found only in the manuscript known as Flateyjarbok.
Starkad A famous Norse hero who was both blessed and cursed by the gods. Starkad was the name of the main character of many heroic legends, and scholars suggest there may have been several different heroes with the same name. In the stories that survive, there are two Starkads. One was the descendent of giants who himself had six or eight arms. This Starkad, who had the last name Aludreng, was the grandfather of the most famous Starkad, a divine hero and the foster son of the god Odin.
Odin remained in disguise as he helped raise the younger Starkad. Once Starkad witnessed a gathering of the gods, 12 of them sitting in chairs with an empty chair in the gathering. Only when Odin joined the gathering and sat in the empty chair did Starkad recognize his foster father for the god he was.
The mighty thunder god, Thor, hated Starkad. On one occasion, Odin wanted to honor the bravery of the warrior Starkad, but Thor wanted to harm the hero he so hated. Odin bestowed many blessings upon Starkad, among them success in battle,