
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 ...
, Mímisbrunnr (
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...
"
Mímir's wellspring"
[Simek (2007:216).]) is a
spring or
well
A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...
associated with the being
Mímir, located beneath the world tree
Yggdrasil
Yggdrasil () is an immense and central sacred tree in Norse cosmology. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds.
Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in t ...
. Mímisbrunnr is attested 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 ...
'', compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the ''
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 ...
'', written in the 13th century by
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 th ...
. The wellspring is located beneath one of
three
3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...
roots of the world tree
Yggdrasil
Yggdrasil () is an immense and central sacred tree in Norse cosmology. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds.
Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in t ...
, a root that passes into the
Jötunheimr
The terms Jötunheimr (in Old Norse orthography: Jǫtunheimr ; often Old Norse orthography#Anglicized spelling, anglicised as Jotunheim) or Jötunheimar refer to either a land or multiple lands respectively in Nordic mythology inhabited by the j ...
where the primordial plane of
Ginnungagap once existed. In addition, the ''Prose Edda'' relates that the water of the wellspring contains much wisdom, and that
Odin
Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...
sacrificed one of his eyes to the wellspring in exchange for a drink. In the ''Prose Edda'', Mímisbrunnr is mentioned as one of three wellsprings existing beneath three roots of Yggdrasil, the other two being
Hvergelmir, located beneath a root in
Niflheim, and
Urðarbrunnr
Urðarbrunnr (Old Norse "Wellspring of Urðr"; either referring to a Germanic mythology, Germanic concept of fate—''wyrd, urðr''—or the norns, norn named UrðrSimek (2007:342).) is a Spring_(hydrology), spring or Water well, well in Norse my ...
.
Attestations
''Poetic Edda''

In the ''Poetic Edda'' poem ''
Völuspá
''Völuspá'' (also ''Vǫluspá'', ''Vǫlospá'', or ''Vǫluspǫ́''; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress') is the best known poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. It dates back to the tenth century and tells the story from Norse Mythology of ...
'', a
völva
In Germanic paganism, a seeress is a woman said to have the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. They are also referred to with many other names meaning "prophetess", "staff bearer" and "sorceress", and they are frequently calle ...
recounts to
Odin
Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...
that she knows that Odin once placed one of his eyes in Mímisbrunnr as a pledge, and that Mímir drinks from the wellspring every morning:
The above stanza is absent from the ''
Hauksbók
Hauksbók (; 'Book of Haukr') is a 14th-century Icelandic manuscript created by Haukr Erlendsson. Significant portions of it are lost, but it contains the earliest copies of many of the texts it contains, including the '' Saga of Eric the Red''. ...
'' manuscript version of the poem.
[ Elsewhere in the poem, the völva mentions a scenario involving the hearing or horn (depending on translation of the ]Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...
noun ''hljóð''—bolded for the purpose of illustration) of the god Heimdallr
In Norse mythology, Heimdall (from Old Norse Heimdallr; modern Icelandic language, Icelandic Heimdallur) is a Æsir, god. He is the son of Odin and nine mothers. Heimdall keeps watch for invaders and the onset of Ragnarök from his dwelling Himi ...
:
Scholar Paul Schach comments that the stanzas in this section of Voluspa are "all very mysterious and obscure, as it was perhaps meant to be". Schach details that "''Heimdallar hljóð'' has aroused much speculation. Snorri seems to have confused this word with ''gjallarhorn'', but there is otherwise no attestation of the use of ''hljóð'' in the sense of 'horn' in Icelandic. Various scholars have read this as "hearing" rather than "horn".[Schach (1985:93).]
Scholar Carolyne Larrington comments that if "hearing" rather than "horn" is understood to appear in this stanza, the stanza indicates that Heimdall, like Odin, has left a body part in the well; his ear. Larrington says that "Odin exchanged one of his eyes for wisdom from Mimir, guardian of the well, while Heimdall seems to have forfeited his ear."[Larrington (1999:265).]
''Prose Edda''
In chapter 15 of the ''Prose Edda'' book ''Gylfaginning
''Gylfaginning'' (Old Norse: 'The Beguiling of Gylfi' or 'The Deluding of Gylfi'; 13th century Old Norse pronunciation ) is the first main part of the 13th century ''Prose Edda'', after the initial Prologue. The ''Gylfaginning'' takes the form of ...
'', the enthroned figure High tells Gangleri (described as king Gylfi in disguise) about Yggdrasil. High details that Yggdrasil has three roots. One of these roots reaches to where the primordial space of Ginnungagap once existed and where now the frost jötnar live. High explains that, beneath this root is Mímisbrunnr and that the well contains "wisdom and intelligence" and "the master of the well is called Mimir. He is full of learning because he drinks of the well from the horn Giallarhorn. All-father went there and asked for a single drink from the well, but he did not get one until he placed his eye as a pledge." After his explanation, High quotes the stanza involving Odin and the well from ''Völuspá''.[Faulkes (1995:17).]
See also
* Hoddmímis holt, a holt associated with Mímir
* Hvergelmir
* Urðarbrunnr
Urðarbrunnr (Old Norse "Wellspring of Urðr"; either referring to a Germanic mythology, Germanic concept of fate—''wyrd, urðr''—or the norns, norn named UrðrSimek (2007:342).) is a Spring_(hydrology), spring or Water well, well in Norse my ...
* Wetlands and islands in Germanic paganism
A prominent position was held by wetlands and islands in Germanic paganism, as in other pagan European cultures, featuring as sites of Germanic paganism, religious practice and belief from the Nordic Bronze Age until the Christianisation of the Ge ...
Notes
References
* Bellows, Henry Adams (Trans.) (1936). ''The Poetic Edda''. Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large.
The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...
. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation
The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) is an American non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting international understanding through educational and cultural exchange between the United States and Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Swe ...
.
* Faulkes, Anthony (Trans.) (1995). ''Edda''. Everyman
The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them.
Origin and history
The term ''everyman'' was used ...
.
* Larrington, Carolyne (Trans.) (1999). ''The Poetic Edda''. Oxford World's Classics.
* Schach, Paul (1985). "Some Thoughts on ''Völuspá''" as collected in Glendinning, R. J., Haraldur Bessason (Editors).
Edda: a Collection of Essays
'. University of Manitoba Press.
* Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. D.S. Brewer.
* Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1866).
Edda Sæmundar Hinns Frôða: The Edda of Sæmund the Learned
'' Part I. London: Trübner & Co.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mimisbrunnr
Places in Norse mythology
Holy wells
Odin
Yggdrasil