Ullr

The God of the Bow and Ski

Domain: Hunt, Winter & Archery
Alignment: Neutral Good
Element: Air
Relics of Power: Yew-Bone Bow

Speak with Ullr

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

Ullr is a god of the Norse pantheon connected with the bow and with skis. The most direct source is Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda: son of Sif, stepson of Thor, an archer so good and so fast on skis that no one can compete with him, fair of face, with a warrior's qualities, and a god it is good to call on in single combat. The Poetic Edda adds the name of his dwelling, Ydalir, and two brief mentions: a favour wished for in Grímnismál stanza 42 and a ring sworn by in Atlakviða. The texts checked contain no narrated myth about him. Only one account from outside the Icelandic world survives, Saxo Grammaticus on an "Oller" who takes Odin's place during his exile. For that reason this is a short study: it gathers what the passages say and marks where the text goes silent.

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

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

Sacred symbols

The bow, the skis, the shield and the yew

Family

Parents

Sif

Ullr

Genealogy according to Gylfaginning 31 (Snorri, trad. Anderson, Gutenberg 18947): Ullr é filho de Sif e enteado de Thor; nenhum pai é nomeado. Mesma informação em Skáldskaparmál (Ullarkenningar).

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Anonymous, The Poetic Edda, trans. Henry Adams Bellows (Grímnismál 5 and 42; Atlakviða 32, with notes). translation: Bellows, Gutenberg edition. read
Anonymous, The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson, trans. Benjamin Thorpe. translation: Thorpe, Gutenberg edition. read
Snorri Sturluson, The Younger Edda, trans. Rasmus B. Anderson. translation: Anderson, Gutenberg edition. read
Saxo Grammaticus, The Danish History, Books I–IX, trans. Oliver Elton. translation: Elton, Gutenberg edition. read
Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning (Old Norse text). read
Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál (Old Norse text). read
Anonymous, Grímnismál (Old Norse text). read
Anonymous, Atlakviða (Old Norse text). read

Name and epithets

Ullr (Old Norse Ullr; Uller in Anderson's English version, Ull in Bellows's, Ullar in the genitive of Snorri's kennings). Editorial tradition calls him the archer-god among the Æsir.

In the ancient sources

Poetic Edda: Grímnismál, Poem of uncertain date, preserved in medieval Icelandic manuscripts. Stanza 5 names the dwelling Ydalir.

The myths

Ydalir, the house of Ullr. In Grímnismál, Odin, held between two fires, recites the places where the gods live. Stanza 5 says, in Bellows's text, that Ydalir is the name of the place where Ullr made a hall for himself.

Worship and archaeology

The open passages offer three fragments of religious practice and no description of a ceremony. The first is Snorri's instruction that it is good to invoke Ullr in single combat, that is, a prayer from someone facing an…

How the god was depicted

None of the sources checked describes an image, statue, amulet or relief of Ullr. The only visual reference is textual: the shield is called "Ullr's ship" in Snorri's kennings, and the stanzas Snorri quotes have "askr U…

What scholars debate

A god of few words: what the source allows. All the testimonies checked are short and come from two main sources, the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, plus one episode in Saxo.

After antiquity

This round did not open any scholarly source on the modern reception of Ullr, nor on Scandinavian place names that may contain the god's name. For that reason the study asserts nothing on the subject.

Did you know?

In Atlakviða, the same oath formula joins the sun, a mountain tied to Odin, a piece of the bed and the ring of Ullr.

Codex relic

Yew-Bone Bow. The bow with which he hunts swiftly over the snow, gliding on skis across the winter mountains.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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