Kvasir

Über die ostgothische Heldensage.

In Norse mythology, Kvasir was a being born of the saliva of the Æsir and the Vanir, two groups of gods. Extremely wise, Kvasir traveled far and wide, teaching and spreading knowledge. This continued until the dwarfs Fjalar and Galar killed Kvasir and drained him of his blood. The two mixed his blood with honey, resulting in the Mead of Poetry, a mead which imbues the drinker with skaldship and wisdom, and the spread of which eventually resulted in the introduction of poetry to mankind.

Kvasir is attested in the Prose Edda and Heimskringla, both written by Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century, and in the poetry of skalds. According to the Prose Edda, Kvasir was instrumental in the capture and binding of Loki, and an euhemerized account of the god appears in Heimskringla, where he is attested as the wisest among the Vanir.

Scholars have connected Kvasir to methods of beverage production and peacemaking practices among ancient peoples, and have pointed to a potential basis in Proto-Indo-European myth by way of Sanskrit narratives involving the holy beverage Soma and its theft by the god Indra.

In the Prose Edda, Kvasir appears in the books Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál. Kvasir is mentioned a single time in Gylfaginning; in chapter 50, where the enthroned figure of High tells Gangleri (Gylfi in disguise) of how Loki was caught by the gods after being responsible for the murder of the god Baldr. In the chapter, High says that while Loki was hiding from the gods, he often took the form of a salmon during the day and swam in the waterfall Franangrsfors. Loki considered what sort of device that the gods might craft to catch him there, and so, sitting in his four-door mountain lookout house, knotted together linen thread in “which ever since the net has been”. Loki noticed that the gods were not far away from him, and that Odin had spotted him from Hliðskjálf. Loki sat before a fire, and when he noticed the gods were coming near him, he threw the net into the fire and jumped up and slipped into the river. The gods reached Loki’s house, and the first to enter was Kvasir, who High describes as “the wisest of all”. Kvasir saw the shape of the net in the ash of the fire, and so realized its purpose; to catch fish. And so Kvasir told the gods about it. The gods used the shape found in the ash as their model, and with it flushed Loki out of the river, resulting in his binding.

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