Yggdrasil · Gods and Their Allies
Læraðr
The tree by Odin’s hall that the goat Heiðrún and the hart Eikþyrnir feed on, in Grímnismál.
In Thorpe’s translation
25. Heidrûn the goat is called, that stands o’er Odin’s hall, and bites from Lærâd’s branches. He a bowl shall fill with the bright mead; that drink shall never fail.
26. Eikthyrnir the hart is called, that stands o’er Odin’s hall, and bites from Lærâd’s branches; from his horns fall drops into Hvergelmir, whence all waters rise:--
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Grímnismál, stanzas 25 and 26 (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
Grímnismál names Læraðr through the two animals that feed on it. The goat Heiðrún stands over Odin’s hall and bites the tree’s branches; from her comes a bowl of bright mead that never runs out. The hart Eikþyrnir stands in the same place and also bites the branches, and drops from his horns fall into Hvergelmir, the spring from which all waters are said to rise.
The poem does not describe the tree itself and does not say that Læraðr is Yggdrasill. Snorri tells the same of the goat and the hart in Gylfaginning, calling the tree “very famous”, and he too does not give it another name or equate it with Yggdrasill in that passage.
- Grímnismál (Poetic Edda), stanzas 25-26 (Thorpe’s numbering)
- attributed to Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (13th century), in Gylfaginning
Names and background
The meaning of Læraðr is debated and the poem does not explain it. Many handbooks suggest it is another name for Yggdrasill, since a tree over the gods’ hall that feeds the waters of Hvergelmir fits the world tree. Other readers treat it as a separate tree. The sources leave the question open.
Related figures are Heiðrún, the mead-giving goat, and Eikþyrnir, whose name an edition glossary reads as “oak” and “thorn”. They appear in Grímnismál just before its long list of rivers.
- Grímnismál (Poetic Edda), stanzas 25-26 (Thorpe’s numbering)
- attributed to Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (13th century), in Gylfaginning
Where the sources attest it
Læraðr is named in Grímnismál, stanzas 25 and 26 in Thorpe’s numbering, and in Snorri’s Gylfaginning, where the goat and the hart are described in the account of Valhöll.
No archaeological find or early picture shows this tree. It is known only from the written texts.
- Grímnismál (Poetic Edda), stanzas 25-26 (Thorpe’s numbering)
- attributed to Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (13th century), in Gylfaginning