Rerir- Norse HeroHero
Description
A wish-maiden dropped a divine apple into his lap, answering years of childless prayer. His wife bore the fruit of that gift for six winters before dying to bring Völsung into the world, the son who would carry Óðinn's bloodline forward.
Mythology & Lore
The Apple and the Six Winters
Rerir was the son of Sigi, who was himself a son of Óðinn, and he inherited his father's kingdom after Sigi was murdered by his wife's brothers. The Völsunga saga says Rerir avenged his father and became a great king, but what troubled him was not war. He and his wife could not conceive a child.
They prayed to the gods for years. Frigg heard them and sent one of Óðinn's wish-maidens, Hljóð, daughter of the giant Hrímnir, in the shape of a crow. She flew over Rerir as he sat on a burial mound and dropped a divine apple into his lap. He brought it home to his wife, and she ate it.
The pregnancy lasted six winters. Rerir fell ill during those years and died. His wife, still carrying the child, could wait no longer. She had the boy cut from her body and kissed him before she died. The child was named Völsung, and he would build the hall with the great tree Barnstokkr growing through its roof, the hall where Óðinn would one day drive a sword into the trunk.
Relationships
- Family