Hodr

The Blind God

Domain: Darkness, Fate & Tragedy
Alignment: True Neutral
Element: Darkness
Relics of Power: Mistletoe Dart

Speak with Hodr

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5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Norse & Germanic peoples

Region

Scandinavia & northern Europe

Period

Viking Age, 8th–11th c.

The gods of Asgard were worshipped by the Norse peoples of Scandinavia and by the Germanic tribes, especially during the Viking Age. Warriors sought to die in battle to reach Odin's Valhalla, and the myths were preserved in the Icelandic Eddas. The cult declined with the region's Christianization around the year 1000.

The Norse celebrated blóts, seasonal sacrifices with feasts of meat and mead, such as the Yule of the winter solstice. The great temple at Uppsala, in Sweden, hosted every nine years one of the largest sacrificial festivals of the Viking world.

At a glance

Hodr (Old Norse Höðr) is the blind god of the Æsir and the unwitting author of the first great divine catastrophe: the death of his brother Baldr. The poems of the Poetic Edda and Snorri's Prose Edda agree on the essentials. The mistletoe, the only thing that had not sworn to spare Baldr, becomes a dart; Hodr throws it, guided by Loki; Baldr falls; and Váli, a son of Odin, is born to avenge him. Outside Snorri's Norse tradition, the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus tells a very different story, in which Høtherus is a human hero who kills Balderus in battle. This study gathers what was opened and read in the translations by Bellows, Thorpe and Anderson and in the English version of Saxo, and it separates what each source says from modern commentary.

9 min read · Reviewed on October 14, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The blindfold, the mistletoe sprig, the darkness and the winter

Family

Siblings

Baldur Váli

Hodr

Genealogy according to Os textos abertos nesta rodada (Bellows, Thorpe, Anderson) chamam Hodr de irmão de Baldr, mas não nomeiam pai, mãe, esposa nem filhos dele; por isso parents, consorts e children ficam vazios. Na versão de Saxo (livro 3) Høtherus tem outra genealogia, tratada nos debates.

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Anônimo (Edda Poética), The Poetic Edda (Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál, Lokasenna, Baldrs draumar). translation: Henry Adams Bellows. read
Anônimo / Snorri Sturluson, The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson. translation: Benjamin Thorpe; Joseph Andrew Blackwell. read
Snorri Sturluson, The Younger Edda (Prose Edda), Gylfaginning. translation: Rasmus Björn Anderson. read
Saxo Grammaticus, The Danish History, Books I-IX (Gesta Danorum). translation: Oliver Elton. read

Name and epithets

Hodr (Höðr) The blind one: Snorri describes him as one of the Æsir, blind but exceedingly strong; in Gylfaginning, in the scene of Baldr's death, he stands to one side in the ring of men precisely because he is blind.

In the ancient sources

Völuspá (Poetic Edda), date not verified in the open sources. The seeress sees Baldr's fate, the mistletoe that becomes a dart hurled by Hoth, and Baldr's brother, born to avenge him.

The myths

Baldr's death by the mistletoe dart (Gylfaginning). According to Snorri in Anderson's version, Baldr had dreams dangerous to his life.

Worship and archaeology

None of the texts read mentions a cult, temple, sacrifice or festival of Hodr. Snorri names him among the Æsir and says that gods and men would prefer never to have to pronounce his name, since the work of his hand will…

How the god was depicted

In the open sources read, there is no description of an image of Hodr in stone, metal or manuscript. No iconography is claimed.

What scholars debate

Is Hodr a god or a hero? Snorri against Saxo. Snorri and the Eddic poems make Hodr one of the Æsir, blind and strong, who kills his brother by mistake and without explicit guilt.

After antiquity

In the open texts read, Hodr's later reception is limited to what is in the sources themselves: the return beside Baldr in the renewed world and Saxo's alternative version.

Did you know?

For Snorri, the name of Hoder is one that gods and men would gladly never utter. The god is described as blind but exceedingly strong, and the memory of what he did endures.

Codex relic

Mistletoe Dart. The mistletoe sprig that, guided by Loki, became the unwitting weapon that killed his own brother.

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