Gunnlod

Who Is Gunnlod

Gunnlod is a giantess best known as the guardian of the mead of poetry. She keeps watch over this magical drink deep inside a mountain hall owned by her father Suttung. The mead grants wisdom and the gift of poetic speech to any who drink it which makes her role as its protector extremely important.

Odin journeys in disguise to reach Gunnlod. After passing several trials he spends nights in her company within the mountain. In return for his time and his words she allows him to drink from the precious mead which he then carries back to the gods.

Through Gunnlod the story explores trust, love, and loss. She is loyal to her father and to her duty yet she also opens her heart to Odin, a choice that changes the fate of the mead and of poetry itself.

Character and Nature

Odin and Gunnlod in the Mountain Hall

After the mead of poetry passes into the hands of Suttung he hides it in a mountain and sets Gunnlod to guard it. Odin decides to claim the mead for the gods and travels in disguise to Suttungs domain. He works for a farmer, bores a tunnel into the mountain, and enters Gunnlods hall in the shape of a snake.

Inside, Odin returns to his own form and wins Gunnlods trust. Some traditions say he stays with her for three nights. As a reward she lets him drink three draughts from the mead. With each drink he empties one of the vessels taking all the mead into himself.

Odin then escapes in the shape of an eagle carrying the mead back to Asgard. Gunnlod remains in the mountain hall having kept her side of the bargain while Odin uses cunning to gain much more than he was first given, a reminder of the complex nature of gods and giants in Norse myth.