The Rivers of Hvergelmir

27. Sid and Vid, Soekin and Eikin, Svöl and Gunnthrô, Fiörm and Fimbulthul, Rin and Rennandi, Gipul and Göpul, Gömul and Geirvimul: they round the gods’ dwelling wind. Thyn and Vin, Thöll and Höll, Grâd and Gunnthorin.

28. Vina one is called, a second Vegsvin, a third Thiodnuma; Nyt and Nön and Hrön, Slid and Hrid, Sylg and Ylg, Vîd and Vân, Vönd and Strönd, Gioll and Leipt; these (two) fall near to men, but fall hence to Hel.

In Grímnismál the hart Eikthyrnir stands over Odin’s hall, and drops from his horns fall into Hvergelmir, “whence all waters rise”. Two stanzas then list the rivers. The first group is said to wind round the dwelling of the gods, and of the second the poem says that two, Gjöll and Leiptr, “fall near to men, but fall hence to Hel”. A later stanza names the rivers Körmt and Ormt, which Thor must wade each day to reach the council at Yggdrasill’s ash.

In the Blackwell translation of Gylfaginning, Hvergelmir lies in the middle of Niflheim and twelve rivers flow from it, with Gjöll nearest the gate of the abode of death. Gylfaginning also says that Eikthyrnir’s drops supply the rivers that run through the celestial abodes. Leiptr is named in Helgakviða Hundingsbana II as the water at which an oath was sworn.

The poem gives no explanation of the river names, and the lists do not agree between editions in spelling or in every detail. Fimbulþul, written Fimbulthul in stanza 27, is linked in this edition’s glossary with a word for a reciter or speaker, and nothing else is told about that river.

The two lists in Grímnismál are not matched by one list in Snorri, who in the translation used here names only Gjöll and says there are twelve rivers. Leiptr is the one river of the lists that is also named outside them, as a place where oaths were sworn, but the passage gives no description of its course.