Kvasir

The Sage of the Mead

Domain: Wisdom, Poetry & Knowledge
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Light
Relics of Power: Mead of Poetry

Speak with Kvasir

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4 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

Kvasir appears in the Norse sources in several roles that do not merge into one account. In Snorri's Skáldskaparmál, the gods spit into a vat to seal peace with the Vanir and, from that spittle, shape a man so wise that no question left him without an answer. Two dwarves, Fjalar and Galar, kill him and turn his blood, mixed with honey, into the mead that makes whoever drinks it a skald or a sage. Odin eventually steals that mead from Suttung, and the skalds come to call poetry «Kvasir's blood». In the Ynglinga saga the same name belongs to the wisest of the Vanir, handed over as a hostage to the Æsir, and in the Prose Edda he also reads the ashes of Loki's net. The Poetic Edda in Bellows's translation does not contain the name.

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

Sacred symbols

The mead, the cauldron, the word and the wisdom

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál (Prose Edda), Old Norse text. read
Snorri Sturluson, Ynglinga saga (Heimskringla), Old Norse text. read
Snorri Sturluson, The Younger Edda (translation by Rasmus B. Anderson). read
Anonymous, The Poetic Edda (translation by Henry Adams Bellows). read

Studies

Benjamin Thorpe (translator), . open

Name and epithets

The name appears as Kvasir in the Skáldskaparmál and as Kvásir, with an accent, in the Ynglinga saga, both read in the Old Norse text on heimskringla.no. The translations by Anderson and Thorpe write Kvaser and Kvasir.

In the ancient sources

Prose Edda, Skáldskaparmál, Date not checked in the sources read. Main source: Kvasir is born from spittle, killed by the dwarves, and the mead passes to Gillingr, Suttung and finally Odin.

The myths

The spittle of the truce. Bragi explains to Ægir where the skald's art comes from. The gods had a quarrel with the people called the Vanir.

Worship and archaeology

In the sources read there is no cult, altar or feast dedicated to Kvasir. His relation to practice is indirect: his blood explains an art, that of the skald, and poets use his name in kennings.

How the god was depicted

Skáldskaparmál describes objects in the myth, such as the vats Són and Boðn, the kettle Óðrerir and the auger Rati.

What scholars debate

Two Kvasirs or one?. The Skáldskaparmál makes Kvasir be born from the spittle of the two peoples of gods. The Ynglinga saga puts him as a Vanir given in hostage, exchanged for Mímir.

After antiquity

Within the sources read, Kvasir's reception is internal to the skalds' system: his blood becomes a kenning for poetry and is cited by Einarr skálaglamm.

Did you know?

The poetic names of poetry, in Bragi's words, stand as an index of the myth: Kvasir's blood, ship of the dwarves, Suttung's mead, liquor of Hnitbjörg, Odin's prey and gift.

Codex relic

Mead of Poetry. The drink made from his blood that grants whoever tastes it the gift of poetry and wisdom.

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