Máni

The God Who Guides the Moon

Domain: Moon & the Reckoning of Time
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Air
Relics of Power: Lunar Chariot

Speak with Máni

The full Codex

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.

See PRO Get the app

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

Máni is the male figure of the moon in the Old Norse sources. In Vafþrúðnismál, the Poetic Edda says that the father of the moon and the sun is Mundilfari, and that the two bodies travel across the sky so that people may count the years. Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda adds a small narrative: Mundilfari gave his children the names Máni and Sól because of their beauty, the gods took offence at the presumption and set the siblings in the sky, and Máni came to guide the course of the moon and rule its phases. He also took two children from the earth, Bil and Hjúki, who accompany him in the sky. Snorri further links the moon with a dark fate: the wolf Hati runs after it, and the wolf Mánagarmr will swallow it at the end of time. What survives about Máni fits in a few paragraphs. There is no attested cult, temple, image or long adventure; for that reason this study is short and separates what the texts say from what they do not say.

The ancient sources on this deity are scarce. This study gathers only what is on record.

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

Sacred symbols

Lunar chariot, the phases of the moon, the children Hjúki and Bil and the wolf Hati

Family

Parents

Mundilfari

Siblings

Sól (sister)

Máni

Genealogy according to Vafþrúðnismál 22–25 (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/14726/pg14726-images.html); Gylfaginning 11–12 (https://heimskringla.no/wiki/Gylfaginning; https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/18947/pg18947-images.html)

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Anonymous (Poetic Edda), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (translation by Benjamin Thorpe, edition by Blackwell). translation: Benjamin Thorpe; edited by J. A. Blackwell. read
Snorri Sturluson, The Younger Edda (Prose Edda), translation by Rasmus B. Anderson. translation: Rasmus B. Anderson. read
Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning, text in Old Norse. read

Studies

Rasmus B. Anderson (tradutor), Footnotes and glossary in The Younger Edda. Project Gutenberg (digital edition). open

Name and epithets

In Old Norse, máni means “moon”. It is the common word, so the same sound names the heavenly body and the character.

In the ancient sources

Vafþrúðnismál (Poetic Edda), anonymous poem; date of composition uncertain, preserved in medieval Icelandic manuscripts.

The myths

The children of Mundilfari and the measure of time. The oldest answer about Máni is in Vafþrúðnismál. Odin, who introduces himself as Gagnráðr, asks the wise giant Vafþrúðnir where the moon and the sun that pass over hu…

Worship and archaeology

Vafþrúðnismál, Völuspá and Gylfaginning do not describe an altar, feast, sacrifice or priesthood dedicated to Máni.

How the god was depicted

The texts read here give Máni no appearance, clothing, weapons, animals or symbol of his own. What exists is the pair of children who accompany him and the image of the wolf who pursues him.

What scholars debate

Poem and prose tell different stories. Vafþrúðnismál and Völuspá speak of a divine ordering of the moon and the sun without mentioning Mundilfari's vanity, the anger of the gods, Bil and Hjúki or the wolves.

After antiquity

The material on Máni is known chiefly by two routes: the English translation of the Poetic Edda by Thorpe, made in the nineteenth century and published in Blackwell's edition, now freely available, and the translation o…

Did you know?

In Alvíssmál, the moon has at least six names, each assigned to a different people, from mani among men to artali among the elves. The word used by men is the one that coincides with the name of the character.

Codex relic

Lunar Chariot. A silver chariot that measures time and the phases of the moon, pursued by the wolf Hati.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

The legends, the myth, the cult and relics are part of the full Codex. You can open 1 full entry for free every day; to open all 500 deities with no limits and no ads, subscribe to Codex PRO.

See Codex PRO Get it on Google Play