Rindr (

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

: ) or Rinda (Latin) (sometimes Anglicized Rind) is a female goddess in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

, alternatively described as a

giantess A giantess is a female giant: either a mythical being, such as the Amazons of Greek mythology, resembling a woman of superhuman size and strength or a human woman of exceptional stature, often the result of some medical or genetic abnormality ( ...

or a human princess from the east. She was impregnated by

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...

and gave birth to the avenger of

Baldr Baldr (also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, Baldr (Old Norse: ) is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was kno ...

's death—in the Old Norse sources, Váli.

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...

's ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been t ...

'' refers to Rindr as the mother of Váli and one of the ásynjur (goddesses)."Rind".

John Lindow John Frederick Lindow (born July 23, 1946) is an American philologist who is Professor Emeritus of Old Norse and Folklore at University of California, Berkeley. He is a well known authority on Old Norse religion and literature. Biography John Lin ...

. 2001. ''Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs''. (Oxford / New York: Oxford University), 262–63."Rindr". Rudolf Simek. Tr. Angela Hall. 1993, repr. 2000. ''A Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. (Cambridge: Brewer), 265–66. The most detailed account is in Book III of the '' Gesta Danorum'', written by Saxo Grammaticus around the early 13th century. There she is called Rinda and is the daughter of the King of the Ruthenians. After Balderus' death Odin consulted seers on how to get revenge. On their advice Odin went to the Ruthenians disguised as a warrior called Roster. There he was twice turned down by Rinda. He then wrote runes on a piece of bark and touched her with it, causing her to go mad, and disguised himself as a medicine woman called Wecha, who was allowed to see her. Finally she fell ill; the disguised Odin then said he had medicine with which to cure her but that it would cause a violent reaction. On Odin's advice, the king tied Rinda to her bed, and Odin proceeded to rape her. From the rape was born Váli, who would later avenge Balderus. Jan de Vries. 2nd ed. 1957, repr. 1970. ''Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte''. 2 vols. Vol. 2. (Berlin: De Gruyter), 79–80. Óðinn’s rape of Rindr is described once outside the ''Gesta Danorum'', in a line of stanza 3 of ''Sigurðardrápa'', a poem by Kormákr Ögmundarson praising

Sigurðr Hlaðajarl Sigurd Håkonsson (died 962) (Old Norse: ''Sigurðr Hákonarson'') was a Norwegian nobleman and Jarl of Lade in Trøndelag. Sigurd Håkonsson Ladejarl was the son of Håkon Grjotgardsson, the first Jarl of Lade (Old Norse Hlaðir). In 900, H� ...

, who ruled around

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

in the mid-10th century. Like other such praise-poems, it is generally assumed to be genuine rather than a later pseudo-historical composition. Kormákr’s verse contains the statement, ''seið Yggr til Rindar'' (Yggr �ðinn?enchanted Rindr), denoting Óðinn’s magical rape of Rindr with the verb ''síða''. This suggests that Kormakr thought the magic known as ''

seiðr In Old Norse, (sometimes anglicized as ''seidhr'', ''seidh'', ''seidr'', ''seithr'', ''seith'', or ''seid'') was a type of magic which was practised in Norse society during the Late Scandinavian Iron Age. The practice of is believed to be a ...

'' was integral to Óðinn’s raping of Rindr, and is important evidence for Óðinn's association with this kind of magic. Another passage that may refer to the same event is in verse 6 of the Eddic poem "

Grógaldr ''Grógaldr'' or ''The Spell of Gróa'' is the first of two poems, now commonly published under the title '' Svipdagsmál'' found in several 17th-century paper manuscripts with ''Fjölsvinnsmál''. In at least three of these manuscripts, the poems ...

": ''þann gól Rindi Rani'' (that harmRani chanted to Rindr). Rindr's name occurs in several skaldic verses and in " Baldrs draumar", where alliteration suggests it may originally have been *''Vrindr''; the etymology remains uncertain but there may be a connection with the Swedish placename Vrinnevi or Vrinnevid, near

Norrköping Norrköping (; ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Linköp ...

.De Vries 332.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rindr Gýgjar Mythological rape victims Mythological princesses