Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

dormant one," "the one slumbering" (cp. the Old Swedish dvale, sleep, unconscious
condition). Their fates have made them the representatives of death and sleep, a sort of
equivalent of Thanatos and Hypnos. As such they appear in the allegorical strophes
incorporated in Grímnismál, which, describing how the world-tree suffers and grows old,
make Dáinn and Dvalinn, "death" and "slumber," get their food from its branches, while
Nidhogg and other serpents wound its roots.
In Hyndluljóð 7 the artists who made Frey's golden boar are called Dáinn and
Nabbi. In the Prose Edda (Skáldskaparmál 43) they are called Brokkur and Sindri.
Strange to say, on account of mythological circumstances not known to us, the skalds
have been able to use Dáinn as a paraphrase for a grazing four-footed animal, and
Brokkur too has a similar signification (cp. the Prose Edda, Nafnaþulur, 25 and Vigfusson,
Dictionary, under Brokkr 26 ). This points to an original identity of these epithets. Thus we
arrive at the following parallels:
Dáinn (-Brokkur) and Dvalinn made treasures together;
(Dáinn-) Brokkur and Sindri made Frey's golden boar;
Dáinn and Nabbi made Frey's golden boar;
and the conclusion we draw from this is that in our mythology, in which there is
such a plurality of names, Dvalinn, Sindri, and Nabbi are the same person, and that Dáinn
and Brokkur are identical. I may have an opportunity later to present further evidence of
this identity.
The primeval artist Sindri, who with his kinsmen inhabits a golden hall in Mimir's
realm under the Hvergelmir mountains, near the subterranean fountain of the maelstrom,
has therefore borne the epithet Dvalinn, "the one wrapped in slumber." "The slumberer"
thus rests with his kinsmen, where Paulus Diaconus has heard that seven men sleep from
time immemorial, and where Adam of Bremen makes smithying giants, rich in treasures,
keep themselves concealed in lower-world caves within walls surrounded by water.
It has already been demonstrated that Dvalinn is a son of Mimir (see No. 53).
Sindri-Dvalin and his kinsmen are therefore Mimir's offspring (Míms synir). The golden
citadel situated near the fountain of the maelstrom is therefore inhabited by the sons of
Mimir.
It has also been shown that, according to Sólarljóð, the sons of Mímir-Niði come
from this region (from the north in Mimir's domain), and that they are seven altogether:
Norðan sá eg ríða
Niðja sonu,
og voru sjö saman;
From the North I saw ride
Nidi's sons,
They were seven together;
25 In the Nafnaþulur, Dáinn is found among the list of Stags (Hjörtr) along with the other 3 harts named in
Grímnismál 33.
26 In Vigfusson's Dictionary, Brokkr is defined as a dwarf, and as a "trotter" i.e. a horse from the verb
brokka, to trot, a word of foreign origin.