Who is Mimir?
by Gudrun of Mimirsbrunnr
Mimir is the oracular giant-god in Norse
mythology. I see him very much as the god of oracles and prophecy. His name
means “the rememberer” or “the wise one”.
There are two different myths about Mimir. One sees him as a mountain giant who guarded his sacred well, and stood still for so long that he grew into the mountain, and bore the entirety of the Kjolen mountains on his shoulders. in this myth, he continues to be a guardian of living stone, and some artwork has been made of him as the living statue carved from a huge mountain, the Well of Wisdom emanating from his mouth.
The second myth shows him as a more tragic figure. According to snippets in the Prose Edda and other ancient sources, Mimir was the brother of Bestla, a frost-giantess who bore the gods Odin, Vili, and Ve. He was the keeper of the second sacred well of Yggdrasil, which was found by the root of the World Tree that rose in Jotunheim. This was the Well of Wisdom, and to drink of it gave great mental powers. When his sister married into the early tribe of Aesir, he was welcomed there as well.
After the war between the Aesir and the Vanir, the two sides agreed to an exchange of hostages. Odin sent Mimir and Hoenir, but the Vanir were dissatisfied with the exchange and decapitated Mimir. Odin took his severed head and treated it with herbs and magic, and brought it back to life. One account has him carrying the head about with him and consulting it for advice; another has him flinging the head into the Well of Wisdom – Mimirsbrunnr – and only coming back when he needed advice. During his period of wanderings, Odin goes to Mimir and asks for a magical gift. Mimir gives him the magical ravens Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory), but the price Mimir asked of him was to dig out his own eye and drop it into the well. From then on, Odin was one-eyed.
The story of Mimir draws from the customs of Northern Europe regarding oracular severed heads.
Artwork by Miguel Regodon.