Winifred Hodge Rose
Mimir is a mighty figure in Old Norse lore: a deeply wise being, the warder of a mysterious Well of wisdom and inspiration, a ‘friend’ of Odin’s, a hostage to the Vanir to help end a war, a sacrifice, and one who lives on after his sacrifice as a decapitated head that is nevertheless a source of rede and wisdom to Odin. Mimir’s name is probably related to words for thinking and memory (Simek p. 216), and the Well that he wards, Mimisbrunnr, lies under one of the three great roots of the World-Tree Yggdrasil, a source of cosmic power. Odin treasured the wisdom of this Well so highly that he gave his eye as a pledge for a drink from it (Völuspá vs. 28).
‘Friend of Odin’ and his Uncle (?)
Odin is several times referred to as ‘Mim’s friend’ in Old Norse lore. Keep in mind that a ‘friend’ in old Germanic culture did not simply mean someone that a person hangs out with a lot. It implied patronage, as well as what we understand as friendship: a friend was someone that you could rely on to help you out, support you, and promote your success in life. A worthy friend had the power, ability, and willingness to help you. When Heathens took names like Thorsvin (‘friend of Thor,’ Old Norse) or Oswin (‘friend of the Os / Esa-God himself, Woden,’ in Anglo-Saxon), this implied not ‘being buddies’ but rather claiming a patronage relationship with that Deity. So the phrase ‘Mim’s friend’ implies that Mimir is the patron of Odin—the one who is in a position to grant benefits of some kind to Odin. This includes their ongoing relationship of Mimir being the wise advisor to Odin, even after he has been beheaded by the Vanir.
It’s clear from these details that Odin and Mimir have a close relationship, and the suspicion is that they are related as maternal uncle and nephew, a very meaningful relationship in Indo-European society. This suspicion is strengthened by Havamál verse 140 (Poetic Edda), which says that Odin learned nine songs of power from the brother of his mother Bestla:
“Nine mighty spells I learned from the famous son of Bolthor, Bestla’s father, and I got a drink of the precious mead, I, soaked from Ódrœrir.” (Larrington’s translation)
We know from elsewhere (Völuspá vs. 28) that Odin pledged his eye to Mimir’s Well to gain one drink therefrom. Here, just after he comes down from the Tree, Odin says he got a drink of the precious mead. The parallelism is pretty clear, and it’s reasonable to assume that Odin’s ordeal on the Tree was followed by the sacrifice of his eye to Mimir’s Well in order to gain the precious drink. All of these events were, in my view, part of Odin’s great ordeal: hanging on the Tree, gaining the runes, sacrificing his eye for the draught of wisdom from the Well, and then being taught the ‘fimbul-songs,’ the nine songs of power, by his unnamed uncle, Bestla’s famous brother. ‘Famous’ is certainly a term that can be applied to Mimir!
The last line of the verse quoted above, ‘soaked from Óðrœrir,’ reads ausinn Óðreri in Old Norse. Let’s examine that for a minute. Odin, as he speaks this verse, has just undergone a great ordeal, hanging from Yggdrasil for nine nights and days without food or drink, stabbed with a spear, in order to gain the runes (Havamál verses 138-139, Poetic Edda). He has just taken up the runes, screaming or roaring, and fallen from the Tree. This is definitely some kind of initiation ceremony, and the person who normally oversees such a ceremony is the patron and teacher of the initiate.
After going through everything described here, Odin is ausinn Óðreri, soaked, bathed, or sprinkled with Óðrœrir. This phrase tells us a lot, because the Old Norse custom called ausinn vatni, meaning sprinkled or bathed in water, is the ceremony when the father or clan-head officially accepts a newborn baby into the family and gives it a name. (See endnote below.) In my understanding, when the poem says that Odin was ausinn Óðreri, it means that Mimir was enacting a rebirthing / initiation ceremony for Odin as his patron and maternal uncle, the head of Odin’s clan. Instead of being sprinkled or soaked in water, here it is mead: the mead of inspiration. ‘Óðrœrir’ means ‘wode-stirrer, stirrer of inspiration,’ an appellation very suitable to Odin’s powers. Odin becomes an embodiment of eloquence, wisdom, poetry, prophecy, galdor-songs, and runelore.
Based on all this reasoning, I assume that Mimir is Bestla’s brother, Odin’s maternal uncle and his teacher and patron.
We’re going to leave the topic of Óðrœrir here, because it becomes quite confused with other events and their timing: the coming-into-being, death, and blood of Kvasir whose blood became Óðrœrir after his death; the Æsir-Vanir war; the wooing of Gunnloð and the mead-theft; the access of humans to the mead, and more. This mead has its own saga, for sure! It’s not clear how or why this mead Óðrœrir is in Mimir’s Well at the time of young Odin’s initiation, and scholars have offered various discussions about it. For myself, I resolve the problem by assuming that Mimir’s Well does contain a form of mead of inspiration, but not necessarily the mead made from Kvasir’s blood. There are some clear parallels between Kvasir and Mimir as beings of great wisdom who were killed, but continue to impart wisdom and inspiration through their remains—Kvasir’s blood, and Mimir’s decapitated head. I think this has something to do with the nature of Óðrœrir, but I’ll leave this intriguing mystery for now, and get back to Mimir’s tale.
Mimir’s Relatives
So, we’re going on the assumption that Mimir and Bestla are siblings. I also accept Rydberg’s argument that Bolthorn Bestla’s father was another name for Ymir the primordial Giant (also called Aurgelmir, Blain, Brimir, multi-named as are many in our mythology). Rydberg posits that Mimir and Bestla were the ‘boy and girl’ who grew underneath Ymir’s arm. (See Rydberg’s chapter 86, Vol. 2. Vafthrudnir’s Sayings in the Poetic Edda, vs. 33, mentions this ‘boy and girl,’ but does not name them.) That would put Mimir and Bestla in the same generation as Odin/Vili/Ve’s father Borr, son of Buri, the first of the Æsir, which would make complete sense.
First were Ymir, Audhumla the cow, and Búri, whom Auðhumla licked free of the primordial ice. Though there is no indication of this in the lore, I believe that Auðhumla is the Ur-Mother, a shapeshifting being who can appear as a cow or a woman, and that she was the mate of Búri and hence the mother of Borr and grandmother of Odin, Vili and Ve. I list here the generations as I understand them. Bold type shows relationships that are attested in the lore; italics show relationships that I am assuming.
First generation:
– Ymir, Auðhumla as a cow, Búri.
Second generation:
– Ymir self-generates a boy and girl (Mimir and Bestla) under his arm, and the first giant offspring, Thrudgelmir, from his legs. (See Gylfaginning in the prose Edda, Sturluson p. 11.)
– Búri (and Auðhumla as the Ur-Mother in woman form) produce Borr.
Third generation:
– Borr and Bestla produce Odin, Vili, and Ve. (Mimir is their maternal uncle.)
* * * * * *
Mimir as a Cosmogonic Sacrifice
Ymir was sacrificed by Odin, Vili, and Ve so that they could shape the Earth out of his body: the physical world with its sky and its encircling waters, where humans and other beings live. I believe that Mimir’s baffling execution, while he was hostage to the Vanir, was also a cosmogonic sacrifice like Ymir’s. (Ynglingasaga p. 3, in Heimskringla.) Here’s the story, in brief: The Æsir and Vanir became tired of their war and agreed to make peace and exchange hostages. Njorð and Frey, and according to some accounts Kvasir, went from the Vanir to Asgard. (In other accounts, Kvasir was created by all the Æsir and Vanir spitting into a vat together to signify their truce; wise Kvasir was made from this.) Hœnir and Mimir went from the Æsir to Vanaheim.
The Vanir admired handsome Hœnir and made him a chieftain, but it turned out he lacked the wisdom for this role. In their anger and disappointment, the Vanir beheaded—not Hœnir—but Mimir. The Vanir returned Mimir’s head to Odin, who preserved it using rune-power and continued to consult it for its wisdom. In the lore, Odin apparently sometimes carries Mimir’s head around with him, but in my perception, the head spends much of the time near to or within Mimir’s well.
There is no logic to this tale of the Vanir beheading Mimir when they were disappointed in Hœnir. For one thing, according to Völuspa 18 (Poetic Edda), it was Hœnir who gave Ask and Embla ‘oðr’ when they were being turned into humans, which is variously interpreted as ‘spirit, consciousness, wit, wode’. How could he have given such a gift if he lacked it himself? The illogicality of Mimir’s execution leads me to look for a more mythic, symbolic underpinning. I think that, in fact, Mimir is a cosmogonic—a World-generating—sacrifice, just as his purported father Ymir was. As Ymir’s body became physical Midgard, I believe that Mimir’s head / brain / mind became the metaphysical space where inspired Thought occurs. The skull of Ymir became the sky of Midgard, and his brains became the clouds. I see Mimir’s head / World-Mind superimposed over Ymir’s skull and brains as the sky of Midgard, with the movements of clouds and winds in the physical world mirroring the movement of inspired thoughts floating through World-Mind.
So as I see it, both Ymir and Mimir were cosmogonic sacrifices, sacrificed by the Æsir and the Vanir. They were sacrificed at different times: Ymir at the beginning, the foundation of the physical world, and Mimir much later, after beings capable of Thought had multiplied in Midgard and the other Worlds.
World-Mind
Mimir’s beheading thus led, in my view, to the coming-into-being of World-Mind or the Noösphere, represented by Mimir’s Well of Memory and Inspiration. (Noösphere is a word formed from Greek nóos (‘noh-ohs’) meaning ‘thought, mind’ plus ‘sphere’, and is used in a modern context to parallel the biosphere, the domain of physical life. It’s a good word, but I like World-Mind even better!) World-Mind is the intangible space, the energetic matrix, where inspired thought occurs: an individual person’s thoughts, and the multitude of thoughts arising from all inspired, thinking beings which circulate there, influence and build upon each other.
When I call this the ‘World-Mind’ I don’t mean some kind of horrible supercomputer or AI running the world! I use ‘mind’ in its old Anglo-Saxon meaning of gemynd: ‘memory, recollection’; and gemynde meaning ‘mindful’ but also ‘the mouth of a river.’ ‘The mouth of a river’ and ‘mindfulness’ fit perfectly with the image of wisdom and inspiration flowing forth from the water of Mimir’s Well. (‘Mouth of a river’ is also one of the meanings of the Os / Ansuz rune, a rune of eloquence and wisdom-words.)
I perceive Mimir’s World-Mind as an echoing, shadowy, dimly-lit cavern under a root of the Tree, holding the deep, reflective Well at its center. Here, it accumulates knowledge and experience from all the Worlds within itself and slowly ferments them into wisdom and inspiration. I see this active, vital process of World-Mind’s fermentation as a parallel to Kvasir’s origins: the spittle of the Æsir and Vanir, which formed Kvasir, represents their essences and wisdoms trickling daily into the well, as orlog filters daily into the Well of Wyrd, falling like dew from Yggdrasil. In parallel, Odin’s eye and Heimdall’s hearing / Gjallarhorn both lie within Mimir’s well, where Mimir drinks from them daily: presumably because the eye and the hearing / horn represent the occult powers of Odin and Heimdall, as well as supporting or feeding those powers.
(Mimir drinks from them, according to Völuspá 29 that was spoken by the Seeress not long before Ragnarök, even though he was beheaded long before that, during the truce after the ‘first war in the world’ between the Æsir and Vanir! The whole mystery about Mimir, Oðrœrir, Kvasir, severed head, blood, mead, truce, wisdom, inspiration, wellsprings and other forms of water is very confused but fascinating and forms an ongoing topic for meditation for me! I haven’t figured it out yet, but I continue to work on it….the poem I offer, below, is part of this work.)
Mimir’s Well is a deep, reflective place, but it has an ‘organ’ or ‘agent’ in the outer world: Odin’s raven Muninn, and the powers of muninn / gemynd within each of us. When Odin consults Mimir’s head, depth and height, inner and outer, are united. Mimir’s deep Well links with Hlidskjalf, Odin’s High Seat of perception where he views the worlds and where his ravens come to him. I associate Mimir’s Well with Muninn, and Hlidskjalf with Huginn, when viewing this phenomenon of deep versus high wisdom blending together. The powers of Mimir’s and Odin’s minds, deep and high, thus unite to act with wisdom and inspiration in our own beloved Middle World.
*********************
I’ll close with a poem of mine and some commentary on it, where I tried an experiment to meditatively place myself in the positions of both Odin and Mimir as they related to the Well at crucial points of their lives. The poem is thus my perception of three beings: myself, Odin, and Mimir, blended together while facing the challenge of this Well. As I write in my commentary, this experience turned out to be an important personal initiation for me, which took the form of ‘fermentation.’ Though I do not refer to Kvasir in the poem, the experience that underlies the poem led me to him as well. For me Kvasir is the ‘master of thought-fermentation’ which leads eventually to wisdom, and I honor him along with Mimir and Odin as teachers and initiators on the path of wisdom-striving.
The ‘I’ in Mimir’s Well
Secrets on the wind.
A leaf flutters, floating, drawn
To its own reflection in the Well.
Leaf and image kiss:
Souls & body,
Myth & memory,
Then & now & will-be
Meet at the membrane of water:
The holy kiss of wisdom
In Mimir’s Well.
* * * *
And is it worth an eye?
Worth a self, a soul,
To sip this water,
Cool and silky on the tongue,
Trickling down my throat
Into unseen depths…
* * * *
What will happen when this yeasty sip
Reaches the great vat of unknown liquids
Pooled in the depths of myself?
Will a heady brew arise,
Lifting and mixing all parts of myself,
Suffusing me
With Mod and Wode and Wisdom
Till I myself am a poem
Brewed by a Master?
* * * *
Or will this yeasty sip
Run berserk within me,
Exploding me into fragments
Instead of fermenting me slowly?
* * * *
What shall I wager on the chance?
* * * *
Would there be a home for my eye
Within the Well?
For my mind, my memory?
What is it like down there?
What will I Know?
* * * *
I hear a song I could not sing
Humming from the Well
Like a seashell sings the Sea.
And the water smells like everlastingness:
Rocky and green and echoing through time.
It is full of whispers.
* * * *
I dip my finger in, take one drop,
Dab it on the eye I do not have.
Fire and shards and cacophony,
Bursting and breaking,
Shattering, shimmering.
I can’t see.
I’m coming apart.
I’m on fire.
* * * *
I’ve got to quench this burning eye
Or I’ll go mad.
I grope around blindly…..
Water!
* * * *
With a gasp, I plunge my whole head in.
* * * *
This wasn’t what I expected.
* * * *
Can I have my head back?
* * * *
This is just the beginning of my tale,
But all my thoughts & words are bubbles now,
Floating like leaves on the wind,
Fermenting.
*****************
Comments:
In this experience-experiment (which happened in 2003) I tried to blend myself with Odin and with Mimir together, and approach the Well while tuned in to the senses and reactions of all three of us. This poem is what happened!
What happened next, after this experience, was a time of wordless fermentation that was of great importance to me. A couple of years later this fermentation segued into the beginning and continuation of my Heathen Soul Lore work. I feel that this and all my work is rooted in Mimir’s Well, drawing upon the Memory and Inspiration therein.
Something of mine (not an eye, but maybe my head!) was sacrificed or transformed during this experience of personal initiation in Mimir’s Well. Knowledge began to flow for me, and hasn’t stopped since. I don’t claim ‘absolute truth’ or ‘authority’ for this knowledge. It is what it is, to be evaluated as each of us sees fit. For me, this knowledge is filled with love, delight, and spiritual fullness; it is my life’s path, the world of my heart.
****************
End-note on ausinn vatni, from Wikipedia entry on Old Norse religion:
“A child was accepted into the family via a ritual of sprinkling with water (Old Norse ausa vatni) which is mentioned in two Eddic poems, “Rígsþula” and “Hávamál”, and was afterwards given a name.[212] The child was frequently named after a dead relative, since there was a traditional belief in rebirth, particularly in the family.[213]” References: [212] De Vries, Volume 1, pp. 178–80. Before the water rite, a child could be rejected; infanticide was still permitted under the earliest Christian laws of Norway, p. 179. [213] De Vries 1970, Volume 1, pp. 181–83.
Book-Hoard / Bibliography
deVries, Jan. Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. Band I. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1956.
Larrington, Carolyne, transl. The Poetic Edda, revised edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Rydberg, Viktor. Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland, transl. Rasmus B. Anderson. New York: Norroena Society, 1907.
Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1993.
Sturlason, Snorre. Heimskringla or The Lives of the Norse Kings. Ed. and transl. Erling Monsen, A.H. Smith. Mineola NY: Dover Publications reprint, 1990.
Sturlason, Snorri. Edda. Transl. Anthony Faulkes. Vermont: Everyman, Charles E. Tuttle, 1995.