Norse

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Norse

Nótt

The Personification of Night

Domain: Night & Darkness
Alignment: True Neutral
Element: Darkness
Relics of Power: Dew-Laden Mantle

Speak with Nótt

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.

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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

Nótt, Night, is a minor but well-attested figure of Norse mythology. In Gylfaginning 10, Snorri Sturluson makes her the daughter of the giant Nörfi or Narfi, mother of Auðr, Jörð and Dagr by three successive unions, and driver of a chariot drawn by Hrímfaxi, whose foam becomes dew. The Eddic poems confirm the father (Nörvi), the horse and the kinship with Day, but do not repeat the list of husbands. No source preserves a cult, an image or a long legend of her. What survives is genealogy, cosmology and poetic vocabulary.

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

The dark mantle, the horse Hrímfaxi, the dew and the stars

Family

Parents

Nörfi or Narfi in Snorri; Nör in the poem

Nótt

Unions

NaglfariAnnarrDellingr

Children

Auðr, with NaglfariJörð, with AnnarrDagr, with Dellingr, in most manuscripts

Genealogy according to Gylfaginning 10; Vafþrúðnismál 25. Há variante manuscrita na genealogia.

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Anônimo, The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (trad. Benjamin Thorpe), Vafþrúðnismál 11–14, 24–25; Alvíssmál 30–31; Völuspá 6; Sigrdrífumál 3–4. translation: Benjamin Thorpe, 1866 (Project Gutenberg). read
Snorri Sturluson, The Younger Edda, Gylfaginning 10–11. translation: Rasmus B. Anderson, 1879 (Project Gutenberg). read
Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál, seção 32 (Jarðarkenningar) e heiti da noite, texto em nórdico antigo. read

Studies

Haukur Þorgeirsson, Hinn fagri foldar son: Þáttur úr handrita- og viðtökusögu Snorra-Eddu. Gripla XIX, 2008. open

Name and epithets

Nótt is the Old Norse word for 'night' and belongs to the same family as English night and German Nacht; the glossary of Thorpe's volume records these correspondences.

In the ancient sources

Prose Edda, Gylfaginning, 13th century. The only source that gives the full genealogy of Nótt, her three husbands, and the assignment of chariot and horse to Night and Day.

The myths

The genealogy: three unions, three children. Gylfaginning 10 opens the subject with a giant who lives in Jötunheim.

Worship and archaeology

None of the passages cited mentions a temple, offering, priest, feast or sacrifice for Nótt. The greeting in Sigrdrífumál is a character's speech in a narrative poem and does not prove a historical rite, and the poem Al…

How the god was depicted

No image of Nótt could be supported by a verified open source: no archaeological piece, rune stone or illumination.

What scholars debate

The manuscripts of Gylfaginning: who is Dellingr's wife?. Haukur Þorgeirsson examines the four independent manuscripts of Gylfaginning: Konungsbók (R), Ormsbók (W), Trektarbók (T) and Uppsalabók (U).

After antiquity

The formula 'daughter of Night', as it appears in Skáldskaparmál 32, shows that the genealogy of Nótt circulated among poets and was useful for making periphrases about the Earth.

Did you know?

Vafþrúðnismál 14 and Gylfaginning 10 explain the dew with the same image: drops or foam that the horse of night lets fall from the bit at the end of its course. The children of Nótt are Auðr, Jörð and Dagr.

Codex relic

Dew-Laden Mantle. A dark mantle whose passing lets the morning dew fall from the foam of the horse Hrímfaxi.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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