SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

50 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
It therefore seems advisable to re-examine in some detail
the texts concerning Mimir with Dr Ross's arguments in
mind, and to see how far they cast light on the problems
involved.
On this hypothesis, it becomes clear that there are not
two or three Mimirs with different natures and attributes,
but one; the severed head, still magically alive, is inside
the well at the root of Yggdrasill, and Snorri's paraphrase
of malir ()ainn via Mims h(!fua as "Ooinn rides to Mimir's
Well and takes counsel from Mimir" is no longer an
arbitrary piece of rationalizing. The problem of whether
Mimir was an Ass or a giant becomes of less importance;
probably he never belonged to either category, but was
essentially the Head, an Otherworld deity whose aptest
title is S(!kkmimir, 'Mimir of the Depths'. As such, he
belongs neither to the world of the living nor wholly to
that of the dead; there is thus no real contradiction
between passages where he seems living and active,
drinking the waters of his own well, and those where he
seems merely to respond to 6