Gunnlǫð (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

: ; also Gunnlöd) is a

jötunn A (also jotun; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse, ; ; plural / ) or, in Old English, (plural ) is a type of supernatural being in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, they are often contrasted with gods ( Æsir and Vani ...

in Norse mythology. She is the daughter of Suttungr, for whom she guards the

mead of poetry In Norse mythology, the Poetic Mead or Mead of Poetry, also known as Mead of Suttungr, is a mythical beverage that whoever "drinks becomes a skald or scholar" able to recite any information and solve any question. This myth was reported by Snorri ...

. Saturn's moon Gunnlod is named after her.

Name

The

name has been translated as 'war-invitation', or 'battle-invitation'. It stems from Old Norse ('battle').

Attestations

Skáldskaparmál ''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Language of Poetry'; c. 50,000 words; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda''. The section consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification of the sea, and Bragi, the god of poetry, ...

'' (The Language of Poetry) mentions that the

Suttungr has entrusted his daughter Gunnlöð to the guard of the

: But Odin, in the form of a snake, manages to gain access to the chamber within the Hnitbjörg mountain where the mead is kept. The god seduces the guardian Gunnlöð, and sleeps with her three nights. In return, Gunnlöð allows Odin to obtain three drinks of the mead, after which he immediately flies himself out of the cavern as an eagle. In ''

Hávamál ''Hávamál'' ( ; Old Norse: ,Unnormalised spelling in the :Title: Final stanza: ../ref> classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of he High One��) is presented as a single poem in the Icelandic , a collection of Old Norse poems fr ...

'' (Sayings of the High One), the account given by Odin differs in a number of details, and the narrative pays most attention to Gunnlöð herself.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunnlod Gýgjar