Vafþrúðnir’s Hall: Knowledge with a Life at Stake

19. Wise art thou, O guest! Approach the Jötuns bench, and sitting let us together talk; we will our heads in the hall pledge, guest! for wise utterance.

54. Much have I journeyed, etc. What said Odin in his son’s ear, ere he on the pile was laid?

55. That no one knoweth, what thou in days of old saidst in thy son’s ear. With dying mouth my ancient saws I have said, and the gods’ destruction. With Odin I have contended in wise utterances: of men thou ever art the wisest!

Vafþrúðnismál opens with Odin telling Frigg that he longs to test the wise giant Vafþrúðnir. Frigg advises him to stay at home, since no giant is as mighty as Vafþrúðnir, but she wishes him a safe journey. Odin goes in, calling himself Gagnráðr and asking for hospitality. Vafþrúðnir says Odin will not leave his halls unless he proves the wiser.

The two first trade easy questions, about the horses of day and night, a river between giants and gods, and the plain of the last battle. Then they pledge their heads, and the contest widens to the making of the world, the giants, the gods, the dead and the end of the powers. Vafþrúðnir answers every question until Odin asks what he said in his son’s ear before the pyre. Only Odin could know that, and Vafþrúðnir names him the wisest of men. The poem stops there and does not say what becomes of the wager.

The poem never names the hall or says where it stands. It calls Vafþrúðnir a giant, and no more of the setting is given.

Thorpe’s glossary derives Vafþrúðnir from the verb for weaving or entangling. Gagnráðr is the false name Odin gives himself in stanza 8; the poem gives no meaning for it, and translators render it in several ways.

The same questions-and-answers poem touches many places and beings that have their own pages here. Vafþrúðnir tells of the river Élivágar, the plain Vígríðr, Niflhel, Vanaheim and the survivors Líf and Lífþrasir, who are hidden in Hoddmímis holt. These answers come from the giant’s mouth, and the poem does not say how far Odin agrees with them.

Because the hall is not placed by any source, this page lists it with Jötunheimr only as the home of a giant, not as a stated location.