Sæhrímnir

Overview

Sæhrímnir supplies the recurring feast of the warriors in Valhöll. In Gylfaginning, Gangleri asks how Odin can feed all those who have fallen in battle. The answer in Anderson’s translation is that even the enormous company will have enough flesh from a boar called Sahrimner. It is boiled every day and is whole again in the evening. The repeated restoration, rather than a single heroic capture or killing, makes the food supply possible.

The prose names Andhrímnir as the cook and Eldhrímnir as the kettle. A verse then links all three names and describes Sæhrímnir as excellent flesh. These are distinct participants and objects: Sæhrímnir is not the cook’s alternative name, and Eldhrímnir is not another animal. The selected account gives no hunting expedition, parentage or birthplace for the renewing boar.

Grímnismál, read separately in Benjamin Thorpe’s translation, gives the corresponding food passage in stanza 18. It names the cooking of Sæhrímnir in Eldhrímnir by Andhrímnir and the feeding of the einherjar. That stanza does not itself spell out the boar identification and evening restoration in the way Snorri’s prose does. The two witnesses therefore allow a useful distinction between a compact poetic statement and the explanatory narrative surrounding its quotation.

The adjacent passages place this food within the wider life of the hall. Odin gives the food before him to his wolves and lives on wine, while Heiðrún supplies the warriors’ mead. The warriors also fight and return to feast. These recurring provisions and activities explain Sæhrímnir’s setting, without making all the named animals a biological family. The literary cycle offers no evidence that an ordinary boar could survive cooking; its significance here is the hall’s inexhaustible hospitality in preparation for the final conflict.

Origins & earliest records

Gylfaginning’s food account was read in Anderson’s 1901 edition, The Fooling of Gylfe XII, paragraph 39, p. 104, with paragraphs 40–42 for context. Grímnismál 18 was independently located within the complete poem in the inspected 1906 Thorpe collection. Publication dates refer to these translations, not the beginnings of the medieval material.

Records & interpretation

Complete Anderson Life in Valhal chapter and the complete Lay of Grimnir with its prose frame and notes read. The verse and prose are separately located, so the fuller prose explanation is not silently attributed to stanza 18 alone.

In the literature

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   The Younger Edda: The Fooling of Gylfe

   Snorri Sturluson; translated by Rasmus B. Anderson · Medieval work; inspected edition 1901, copyright 1879

   Chapter XII, Life in Valhal, paragraph 39, p. 104; full paragraphs 39–42 read.

2. 02

   The Lay of Grimnir (Grímnismál), in The Elder Eddas

   Anonymous Old Norse poem; translated by Benjamin Thorpe · Inspected Norrœna Society edition 1906

   Stanza 18, p. 21; complete poem, surrounding prose frame and notes read. The stanza is not described as explicitly narrating nightly regeneration.

3. 03

   The Younger Edda

   Snorri Sturluson · 1901

   Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1901; translation copyright 1879, with translator’s preface dated September 1879.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Located primary passages

Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Primary textAnderson, The Younger Edda, Life in ValhalResearch access: 2026-10-05
2. Primary textThorpe, The Lay of Grimnir, stanza 18Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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