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Mimir: Two Myths or One? 43
Then they took Mimir and beheaded him and sent the head
to the msir. 66inn took the head and smeared it with herbs
so that it should not rot, and chanted spells over it and put
such power into it that it spoke with him and told him many
hidden matters. . .. 66inn had Mimir's head with him, and
it told him many tidings from the Otherworld. 7
Besides these two groups of texts we have only
scattered hints: the name 5 [Jkkmimir, 'Mimir of the
Deep'," applied to a being whom 015inn visits in disguise,
apparently to obtain magic mead (Grimnismdl 50); the
names Mimameior and Hoddmimis holt (Fj[Jlsvinnsmdl
19-22, Vafpruonismdl 45), both generally thought to refer
to Yggdrasill, and of which the latter means 'Treasure­
Mimir's Wood' and is parallel to the form Hoddrofnir,
'Treasure-Opener', in Sigrdrifumdl 12.
The interpretation of these passages has caused much
difficulty. Some scholars have declared it impossible to
reconcile the conception of Mimir as guardian of the well
of wisdom with that of him as an oracular head," and have
pointed to the discrepancies in the forms of his name and
the uncertainty as to whether he is Ass or giant as signs
that we have only the remains of separate and irreconcilable
myths. Others consider that he was
originally a water god, and that the expression Mims
h[JfuO in V[Jluspd 46 should be taken figuratively to mean
fountain-head or well-head (source of the waters of
wisdom); the metaphor would then have been misunderstood
as a literal expression, and the tale of the mummified
oracular head would be taken from memories of ancient
headhunting and necromantic practices to account for
it.!? It has also been suggested that Mimir lived in
, Ynglinga saga chs. 4, 7; Bjarni Aoalbjarnarson, Heimskringla I (I94I), 13
18. • Gering prefers the form Sokmimir, which he renders as 'der streitbare
Riese', Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda (I927-3I), I 214.
• C.g. Gering, Kommentar, I 37; H. A. Bellows, The Poetic Edda (I936), 12, 20.
10 See de Vries, loco ell. and references there given; also S. Nordal, VQluspa
(I952), 123-4. For headhunting among Germanic peoples, see H. M. Chadwick,
The Growth of Literature, I 92-4;]. de Vries, Kelten und Germanen (I960), 12-16;
for divination from mummified heads, see M. Eliade, Le Chamanisme et les
Techniques Archaiques de l'Extase (I95I), 352.