Baugi- Norse GiantGiant
Also known as: Baugi Gillingsson
Description
Tricked by Odin into breaching the mountain Hnitbjörg, Baugi bored through solid rock with the auger Rati after the disguised god spent a summer doing the work of nine thralls he had killed, all to reach the Mead of Poetry hidden within.
Mythology & Lore
The Whetstone
In the Skáldskaparmál, Odin disguised himself as a wanderer called Bölverkr and came upon nine thralls mowing hay in Baugi's field. He offered to sharpen their scythes. The thralls were so pleased with the edge that they all wanted to buy the whetstone. Odin threw it into the air. In the scramble to catch it, the nine thralls cut each other's throats with their own scythes.
Odin approached Baugi, who had just lost his entire workforce, and offered to do the work of nine men for a summer. His price: a single drink of the Mead of Poetry that Baugi's brother Suttungr kept inside the mountain Hnitbjörg. Baugi said the mead was Suttungr's, not his, but agreed to help Bölverkr ask.
Suttungr refused.
The Boring
Odin produced the auger Rati and told Baugi to bore through the mountain. Baugi drilled and said the hole was through. Odin blew into it. The chips flew back at him. Baugi had not finished. Odin told him to bore again. This time the chips flew inward.
Odin became a serpent and slipped through the hole. Baugi stabbed after him with the auger and missed. The Skáldskaparmál does not mention Baugi again.
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