114 var
V ar (Pledge)
A goddess, one of the Asynjur,
or females among the Aesir gods. Var’s special
responsibility was to hear the oaths and vows of
faithfulness made between men and women and to
punish those who broke those vows. Thor calls upon
Var’s power when he, dressed up as Freya, pretends
to marry the giant Thrym in the Old Norse poem
T hrymskvitha .
V e
According to Snorri Sturluson in G ylfagin -
ning , one of Odin’s brothers, along with Vili; son of
Bor and the giantess Bestla. Together the three sons
of Bor created the Earth and the heavens from the
body of the first giant, Ymir, and the first humans
from the trunks of two trees. In Snorri’s version of the
creation story of Norse mythology, it was Ve who
gave the humans warmth and color.
In the V oluspa , the three sons of Bor are called
Odin, Hoenir (Vili), and Lothur (Ve).
V edrfolnir (V eÐrfolnir )
The hawk that
sits between the eyes of the eagle that sits in the
branches of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Snorri
Sturluson gives the name Vedrfolnir to the hawk in
G ylfaginning . Neither hawk nor eagle are named in
G rimnismal , which otherwise describes and names
the creatures that live in the World Tree. Some
scholars suggest that the verse naming the hawk and
the eagle was lost as the manuscripts evolved.
venom Venom, like the word serpent, is a gen-
eral term used in Norse mythology; it often indicates
poison, danger, and hardship. Venom represents the
forces of nature that threaten gods and humans alike.
During the Viking Age, serpents represented graves,
death, and the journey to the other world. Their
venom was the threat of death.
As punishment for his mockery and all of the
trouble he caused, the gods chained the god Loki
to a rock beneath a great serpent whose venom
dripped upon the trickster god, slowly killing him.
Only Loki’s wife, Sigyn, faithfully holding a dish
between the serpent and Loki, saved him from
death.
A venomous, icy runoff from the well Hvergelmir
formed the Elivagar, the collective name of the 11
rivers of the worlds connected by Yggdrasil. The
venom that rose in a mist from these rivers formed
the rime-giants.
A harmful substance actually drips from the tips of
the male deer, Eikthyirnir, that nibbles at the tree
that stands next to Valhalla, Odin’s hall.
In the realms of Hel (2), venom seeps through the
walls and down the chimneys of the buildings as
so many serpents live there. Even the Midgard
Serpent, Jormungand, drools venom as Thor drags
the giant snake into his boat and later spews venom to
help destroy Thor and the gods at Ragnarok.
V erdandi (V erdande ;
Present) One of the
three principle Norns, or Fates, according to the
poem V oluspa and Snorri Sturluson in G ylfagin -
ning . Her sisters are Urd (Past) and Skuld (Future).
Because her name is the present-tense form of
the Old Norse verb verda, which means “to become,”
Verdande represents that which is happening now.
She is usually pictured as young and beautiful and
looking straight ahead.
V estri (W estri ;
west) One of the four dwarfs
who represented the four main compass points. The
others are Austri (east), Nordi (north), and Sudri
(south). Though these dwarfs are mentioned in early
Norse poetry, only 13th-century Icelandic writer
Snorri Sturluson assigned to them the job of hold-
ing up the four corners of the sky.
V idar (V i Þ ar )
Son of the god Odin and the
kindly giantess Grid. His home was called Land-
vidi, a place of tall grasses, wildflowers, and growing
saplings, a silent and peaceful place. Vidar, too, was
known for his silence, but it was he who would
avenge his father’s death at Ragnarok, the end of
the world. On that day, Vidar leaped from his horse
and attacked the wolf Fenrir, who had devoured
Odin. Vidi placed one foot on the beast’s lower jaw
and pushed on the upper jaw with his hands until the
monster was torn in two.
Legend has it that Vidar wore a special shoe or
boot that had been made from the scraps that cob-
blers had saved over the years as they trimmed the
leather they used for shoes. Another story says that
his mother, Grid, made the shoe for Vidar.
Vidar was one of the few gods who survived
Ragnarok and became one of the rulers of the new
world.
A famous stone at Gosforth Church, in Cumbria,
England, shows Vidar fighting with Fenrir.
V idblain
The third and uppermost of all of the