Mimir: Head of Wisdom

In many popular depictions, Mimir is portrayed as just a head. According to Norse mythology, Odin sacrifices his eye to Mimir’s Well for wisdom and carries Mimir’s head as a trusted advisor.

Who Was Mimir, the Head of Wisdom?

Mimir keeps a well of wisdom beneath Yggdrasil, the world tree. After his death, his head became Odin’s counselor. Dr. Jackson Crawford, a scholar and translator of Old Norse, suggests that Mimir may have always been just a head. This draws parallels to Celtic mythology, where severed heads impart wisdom. This connection may reflect cross-cultural influences in prehistory or even the origins of the Celtic tradition itself. The name Mimir comes from an atypical Old Norse word for ‘memory’.

Mimir’s Well

Mimir’s well held wisdom, perhaps the memory of the whole cosmos. According to Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda (Gylfaginning), Mimir drank from it with the horn Gjallarhorn, the same name as the horn Heimdall will sound at Ragnarök. Snorri never says whether the two are one horn. The well lies beneath the root of Yggdrasil that reaches toward Jötunheim, land of the giants. Crawford also suggests Mimir may himself be a giant, given the well’s location and the fact that the Völuspá, a poem of the Poetic Edda, says “Mim’s sons” stir into play as Ragnarök begins.

In one myth, Odin meets Mimir at Mimir’s Well and asks to drink from the well. Mimir says it will cost Odin an eye, so Odin removes his own eye and pays the price to receive wisdom. It was not the only price Odin paid for knowledge; he also hung nine nights on the tree for the runes and stole the mead of poetry.

The Head of Mimir: An Alternate Story

Snorri Sturluson often contradicted himself. In Ynglinga saga, the opening of his history of the Norwegian kings, he told a different story of how Mimir became a head. Crawford suggests that Snorri may have learned more between his writings. Or perhaps Mimir simply refuses to be neatly categorized.

In a hostage exchange with the Vanir, the Aesir sent Honir and Mimir, the wisest man, to Vanaheim. Honir became a chieftain, and Mimir advised him. When Honir faced a problem and Mimir was not beside him, all Honir would say was, “Let others decide.” The Vanir grew suspicious. They believed they had been deceived and sent the wrong men. In return, the Vanir had sent Njord, Freyr and Kvasir, the cleverest of the Vanir. (The Prose Edda tells it differently. There, Kvasir is made from the gods’ spit at this same truce.)

In the end, the Vanir cut off Mimir’s head and sent it back to the Aesir. Odin preserved it with herbs and chanted spells over it, and ever after the head spoke to him and told him hidden things.

So in one telling Odin pays an eye for a drink from Mimir’s well, and in the other he keeps Mimir’s head as his counselor. Either way, when Odin wants wisdom, he goes to Mimir.

Keep reading: Names of Odin and What They Mean and The Mead of Poetry: Óðrerir and Odin’s Labor follow more of Odin’s search for wisdom. For more Norse mythology in your inbox, sign up for Axe and Anchor, Asgard Alaska’s Newsletter.