Mímir

The Keeper of the Well of Wisdom

Domain: Wisdom & Counsel
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Water
Relics of Power: Well of Knowledge

Speak with Mímir

The full Codex

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

Mímir appears in the Norse sources in three roles that the texts do not join into one biography: keeper of a well of wisdom beneath Yggdrasil, a counsellor of the Æsir handed over as a hostage to the Vanir, and a severed head that goes on speaking to Odin. The Völuspá, the Sigrdrífumál, the Prose Edda and the Ynglinga saga supply pieces of this picture, some of them incompatible. There is no secure genealogy and no attested cult; what survives are brief allusions and two longer accounts, both by Snorri.

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

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

Sacred symbols

The well, the preserved head, the runes and the root of Yggdrasil

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Anonymous, Poetic Edda: Völuspá, Hávamál, Sigrdrífumál, Vafþrúðnismál, Fjölsvinnsmál. translation: Henry Adams Bellows, 1923. read
Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning. translation: I. A. Blackwell in The Younger Eddas (Gutenberg, volume with Benjamin Thorpe). read
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla: Ynglinga saga, chapters 4 and 7 (Old Norse). translation: edition in Old Norse, heimskringla.no. read

Studies

Henry Adams Bellows, Notes to The Poetic Edda. 1923. open

Name and epithets

The name appears as Mímir and, in oblique cases or in English editions, as Mim or Mime. The same root occurs in Mímisbrunnr (Mímir's well), in Mímameiðr (Mímir's tree, which Fjölsvinnsmál 30 applies to the cosmic tree)…

In the ancient sources

Poetic Edda, Völuspá, poem preserved in medieval manuscripts; date of composition debated. Mentions Odin's eye in Mímir's well, Heimdall's horn hidden beneath the tree, and Odin's attention to the head of Mim before the…

The myths

The well, the eye and the price of wisdom. In the Völuspá the seeress says that Odin sought her out and looked into her eyes. She answers that she knows where his eye is hidden: in the famous well of Mímir.

Worship and archaeology

Völuspá, Gylfaginning and Ynglinga saga describe no priests, offerings or feasts dedicated to Mímir. He appears in none of the texts as the recipient of worship, and the speaking head belongs to Odin's magic, not to a p…

How the god was depicted

The visual elements described are the well beneath Yggdrasil, the eye left by Odin, the horn Gjöll and the severed head that speaks.

What scholars debate

Do the well and the head belong to the same tradition?. The Völuspá mentions the well in stanzas 27–29 and the head in 47, but does not explain how one condition leads to the other.

After antiquity

In modern editions the episode of the eye is usually read as an explanation of Odin's pursuit of wisdom. The reading should preserve the difference between the brief allusion of the Völuspá and Snorri's more developed a…

Did you know?

Fjölsvinnsmál 30 calls the cosmic tree Mímameiðr, Mímir's tree, and says that no one knows what root runs beneath it and that neither fire nor iron will fell it.

Codex relic

Well of Knowledge. A well beneath the root of Yggdrasil whose waters grant wisdom to those who pay the proper price.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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