Heiðrún or Heidrun is a nanny goat 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 as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

, that consumes the foliage of the tree

Læraðr Læraðr (Laerad) is a tree in Norse mythology, often identified with Yggdrasil. It stands at the top of the Valhöll. Two animals, the goat Heiðrún and the hart Eikþyrnir, graze its foliage. Etymology The meaning of Læraðr / Léraðr i ...

and produces

mead Mead (), also called honey wine, and hydromel (particularly when low in alcohol content), is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alco ...

from her udders for the einherjar. She is described in the ''

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...

'' and ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...

''.

Etymology

The etymology of ''Heiðrún'' remains debatable.Liberman (2016:337–346). Anatoly Liberman suggests that ''Heiðþyrnir'', the name of the lowest heaven in Scandinavian mythology (from ''heið'' "bright sky"), was cut into two, and on the basis of those halves the names the heavenly goat ''Heiðrún'' and of the heavenly stag Eikþyrnir were formed (the element ''rún ~ run'' concealed several puns, but it is a common suffix of female names).Liberman (2016:345). The etymology of the

New High German New High German (NHG; ) is the term used for the most recent period in the history of the German language, starting in the 17th century. It is a loan translation of the German (). The most important characteristic of the period is the developme ...

name ''Heidrun'' is also debatable. Heiðrún's name is sometimes

anglicized Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

''Heidrun'', ''Heidhrun'', ''Heithrun'', ''Heidrún'', ''Heithrún'' or ''Heidhrún''.

''Prose Edda''

''Poetic Edda''

In the ''

'' Heiðrún is mentioned twice. She is described in the ''

Grímnismál ''Grímnismál'' (Old Norse: ; 'The Lay of Grímnir') is one of the mythological poems of the '' Poetic Edda''. It is preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript and the AM 748 I 4to fragment. It is spoken through the voice of ''Grímnir'', one ...

'' in a way similar to Snorri's description. Since Snorri quotes other strophes of ''Grímnismál'' it seems reasonable to assume that he knew this strophe too and used it as his source for his description of Heiðrún. In the ''

Hyndluljóð ''Hyndluljóð'' (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Hyndla') is an Old Norse poem often considered a part of the ''Poetic Edda''. It is preserved in its entirety only in ''Flateyjarbók'', but some stanzas are also quoted in the ''Prose Edda'', where they ...

'' the giantess Hyndla (lit. ''bitch/she-dog'') used the term "Heiðrún" to insult the goddess

Freyja In Norse mythology, Freyja (Old Norse "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future). Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a char ...

. Thorpe and some other translators translated the name straight to "she-goat".

In Popular Culture

* Heidrun is a song by

Amon Amarth Amon Amarth () are a Swedish melodic death metal band from Tumba, Sweden, Tumba, formed in 1992. The band take its name from the Sindarin name of Mount Doom, a volcano in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. Their lyrics mostly deal with Viking myt ...

, a Swedish

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band, about the goat Heiðrún. *

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

-based

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

band

Agalloch Agalloch () is an American extreme metal band from Portland, Oregon. Formed in 1995 by frontman John Haughm, they released five full-length albums, four EPs, two singles, one split single, two demos, four compilation albums and one live video a ...

mentions Heiðrún in the lyrics to their 2006 song "Not Unlike the Waves" from the album '' Ashes Against the Grain''. * Heiðrún is a character in '' Fire Emblem Heroes'', first revealed in June 2024.

Bibliography

* Bellows, Henry Adams. Translation of the Poetic Edda. * Eysteinn Björnsson (ed.) (2005). ''Snorra-Edda: Formáli & Gylfaginning : Textar fjögurra meginhandrita''. * Hollander, Lee M. (1962). ''The Poetic Edda''. Austin: University of Texas. . * Jón Helgason (Ed.). (1955). ''Eddadigte'' (3 vols.). Copenhagen: Munksgaard. * Liberman, Anatoly (2016). ''In Prayer and Laughter. Essays on Medieval Scandinavian and Germanic Mythology, Literature, and Culture''. Paleograph Press. . * Young, Jean I. (1964). ''Snorri Sturluson : the Prose Edda''. Berkeley: University of California Press. .

References