Yggdrasil · Gods and Their Allies
Ægir’s Feast (Lokasenna)
The feast in Ægir’s hall where, in Lokasenna, many Æsir and Alfar are said to be present.
In Thorpe’s translation
Many other Æsir and Alfar were also present.
2. Of their arms converse, and of their martial fame, the sons of the triumphant gods. Of the Æsir and the Alfar that are here within not one has a friendly word for thee.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Lokasenna, prose introduction and stanza 2 (Thorpe’s numbering; other editions differ) Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
What the sources say
The prose before Lokasenna says that Ægir, also called Gymir, brewed beer for the Æsir and that many gods came, among them Odin, Frigg, Bragi, Freyr and Loki, along with “many other Æsir and Alfar”. Bright gold lights the hall, the beer serves itself, and the place is called a great sanctuary. When Loki arrives, Eldir tells him in stanza 2 that none of the Æsir or Alfar inside has a friendly word for him.
Skáldskaparmál, in Anderson’s translation, opens its Ægir episode with “Æger, or Hler”, a man living on Hler’s Isle who travels to Asgard. So Hlér is a second name for him, and the island is his home. In both accounts the Alfar are guests at a feast. Neither calls it a settlement of elves or places it in Álfheimr.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Lokasenna, prose introduction and stanza 2 Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
- Rasmus B. Anderson, The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda (opens in a new tab) (1897), Skáldskaparmál, Ægir’s journey to Asgard Rights: Public domain. Public domain; Project Gutenberg #18947.
Names and background
The texts used here give Ægir the names Gymir and Hlér. Gymir is also the name of Gerðr’s father in Skírnismál, which these sources do not connect to the host.
The Alfar at the feast are listed beside the Æsir as a group, without names or a home. Nothing in the poem shows that they are the light-elves of Gylfaginning or the people of Álfheimr, and the sources do not say.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Lokasenna, prose introduction Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
- Rasmus B. Anderson, The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda (opens in a new tab) (1897), Skáldskaparmál, Ægir’s journey to Asgard Rights: Public domain. Public domain; Project Gutenberg #18947.
Where the sources attest it
The feast is told in Lokasenna in the Poetic Edda, introduced by a prose headnote, and Ægir’s other name Hlér is given in Skáldskaparmál in the Prose Edda. The two accounts are separate works and differ in detail. No archaeological or pictorial evidence for the feast is known.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Lokasenna Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
- Rasmus B. Anderson, The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda (opens in a new tab) (1897), Skáldskaparmál Rights: Public domain. Public domain; Project Gutenberg #18947.