Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

Thus far Hávamál. We must now examine Grímnismál 50 and Ynglingatal 2,
whose connection with the myth concerning Odin's exploit in the home of Suttung-Fjalar
has not previously been noticed.
Odin says in Grímnismál 50:
Sviður og Sviðrir
er eg hét að Sökkmímis,
og duldag þann inn aldna jötun,
þá er eg Miðvitnis vark
ins mæra burar
orðinn einbani.
"Sviður and Sviðrir I was called at Sökkmimir's, and I presented myself to the
ancient giant, at the time when I alone became the slayer of Midvitnir's famous son."
Ynglingatal 15 reads:
En dagskjarr
Durnis niðja
salvörðuður
Svegði vélti,
þá er í stein
inn stórgeði
Dulsa konur
eft dvergi hljóp
og salur bjartur
þeirra Sökkmímis
jötunbyggður
við jöfri gein.
"The day-shy hall-guard of Durnir's descendants deceived Svegðir when he, the
dauntless son of Dulsi, ran after the dwarf into the rock, and when the shining giantinhabited
hall of Sökkmimir's kinsmen yawned against the chief." (In regard to Dulsi, see
No. 83.)
What attracts attention in a comparison of these two strophes is that the epithet
Sökkmimir is common to both of them, while this name does not occur elsewhere in the
whole Old Norse literature.
In both the strophes Sökkmimir is a giant. Grímnismál calls him inn aldna jötun,
"the ancient giant," with which we may compare Odin's words in Hávamál 104: inn
aldna jötun eg sótta, "the ancient giant I sought," when he visited that giant-chief, to
whose clan Suttung-Fjalar, the possessor of the skald-mead, belonged.
In both the strophes the giant Sökkmimir is the lord and chief of those giants to
whom, according to Grímnismál, Odin comes, and outside of whose hall-door, according
to Ynglingatal, a certain Svegðir is deceived by the ward of the hall. This position of
Sökkmimir in relation to his surroundings already appears, so far as Grímnismál is