Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

The names, epithets, and paraphrases with which the king of the lower world, the
ward of the fountain of wisdom, was designated, according to the statements previously
made, are the following:
(1) Mímir (Hodd-mímir, Mímr, Mími, Mime der alte).
(2) Narfi (Narvi, Njörvi, Nörr, Nari, Neri).
(3) Niði (Nidhad, Niðaðr, Niðuðr, Niðungr).
These three names, which mean the Thinker, the Binder, the Subterranean, are
presumably all ancient.
(4) Móðsognir, "the mead-drinker."
(5) Hoddrofnir, presumably "the one bounteous in treasures."
(6) Gauta spjalli, "the one with whom Gauti (Odin) counsels."
(7) Baugreginn, Ring-regin.
(8) Goðmundr, the name by which Mimir appears in Christian Middle-Age sagas
of Norse origin. To these names may still be added:
(9) Fimbulþulr, "the great teacher" (the reciter). Hávamál (str. 142; cp. str. 80) 5
says that Fimbulþulr drew (fáði) the runes, that ginnregin "made" (görðu) them, that is to
say, in the older sense of the word, prepared them for use, and that Odin (hroptr rögna)
carved (reist) them. In the strophes immediately preceding, it is said that Odin, by selfsacrifice,
begot runes out of the deep and fimbul-songs from Bestla's brother. These
statements, joined with those which mention how the runes given by Mimir were spread
over the world, and were taught by various clan-chiefs to different clans (see No. 53),
make it evident that a perfect myth had been developed in regard to the origin of the
runes and the spreading of runic knowledge. Mimir, as the possessor of the well of
wisdom, was the inventor or source of the runes. When Sigurdrífumál (str. 13) says that
they dropped out of Hoddrofnir's horn, this is, figuratively speaking, the same as
Hávamál tells, when it states that Fimbulthul carved them. 6 The oldest powers
(ginnregin) and Odin afterwards developed and spread them.
At the time of Tacitus, and probably one or two centuries earlier, the art of writing
was known among the Teutons. The runic inscriptions that have come down to our time
bear evidence of a Greek-Roman origin.
By this we do not mean to deny that there were runes -- at least, non-phonetic
ones -- before them. The many kinds of magic runes of which our mythic records speak
are perhaps reminiscences of them. At all events we must distinguish the latter from the
common runes for writing, and also from the many kinds of cipher-runes, the keys of
which are to be sought in the common phonetic rune-row.
(10) Brimir. By the side of the golden hall of Sindri, Völuspá 37 mentions the
giant Brimir's "bjór" hall, which is in Ókólnir. Bjórr is a synonym for mead and ale
(Alvíssmál 34). Ókólnir means "the place where cold is not found." The reference is to a
5 Even though the identity of Fimbulþulr is unclear from the strophe itself, this name is widely assumed to
refer to Odin. On this view, see Simek DNM pg. 83 and David Evans' Hávamál, Viking Society for
Northern Research, University College, London 1986.
6 Today the meaning of this verse is considered obscure, and the names are found nowhere else.