Geirrodr- Norse FigureMortal

The Foster-Sons of Hrauðungr

Geirröðr and his brother Agnarr were the young sons of King Hrauðungr. According to the prose introduction of Grímnismál, the two boys went out fishing and were driven far from shore by the wind. They landed on a distant coast where an old couple took them in and fostered them through the winter. The old man took particular care of Geirröðr, while his wife favored Agnarr. When spring came, the old man gave Geirröðr a boat and spoke with him privately before the brothers set out for home.

As they neared their father's shore, Geirröðr, who sat in the stern, leapt out and shoved the boat back into the open sea with Agnarr still aboard. He told his brother to go where the trolls would take him. Geirröðr went ashore alone and was received with joy, for their father had died during the winter. Geirröðr was made king in his place. The old couple who had fostered them were Odin and Frigg in disguise, though neither brother knew it.

The Torture of Grímnir

Years later, Odin and Frigg sat together in Hliðskjálf, Odin's high seat from which all worlds can be seen. Odin taunted Frigg that her foster-son Agnarr was living in a cave, fathering children with a giantess, while his own foster-son Geirröðr ruled as king. Frigg retorted that Geirröðr was so miserly a host that he tortured his guests when he thought too many had come. To settle the dispute, Odin resolved to visit Geirröðr's hall himself.

Frigg, determined to prove her accusation, sent her handmaid Fulla ahead to warn Geirröðr that a dangerous sorcerer was approaching, recognizable because no dog would attack him. When a cloaked wanderer arrived at the hall and no hound would go near him, Geirröðr seized him. The stranger gave his name only as Grímnir, "the masked one," and would say nothing more. The king ordered him placed between two great fires and kept there. For eight nights Grímnir sat in torment between the blazes, and no one in the hall offered him food or drink.

Death by His Own Blade

On the eighth night, Geirröðr's young son, named Agnarr after his lost uncle, took pity on the captive and brought him a full horn of ale. Grímnir drank and began to speak. Stanza after stanza poured out of him: the halls of the gods, the roots of the world-tree, the names Odin had worn across the nine worlds. He spoke as a man reciting what he had seen with his own eyes.

At the poem's climax, Grímnir declared himself to be Odin and pronounced Geirröðr's doom. The king, who had been sitting with his sword drawn across his knees, sprang up to pull his guest from the flames. As he rose, the sword slipped and he stumbled forward, falling upon the blade. Odin vanished. Young Agnarr became king in his father's place.