Heimdall (Heimdallr, Háma) the Watcher of the Realms, the Guardian of the Bridge, and the Connector of the Worlds
Seeing and hearing all, silent you sit,
High upon Himinbjörg,
ever kind to your kindred,
Warding the worlds,
waiting for Wyrd’s end,
Until crows the cock,
cold the horn in your hand.
—Diana L. Paxson, “A Stave for Heimdall”
Heimdall is the watchman of Asgard, standing on the bridge Bifrǫst which links Asgard with Midgard. Snorri tells us that he can see for three hundred leagues in all directions, just as well by night as by day; that he needs less sleep than a bird; and that he can hear the grass growing on the earth and the wool growing on sheep.
Loki tells him that “An ugly life was ordained for you in ancient days; you must always be muddy on your back and stand watch for the gods” (Lokasenna 48). Still, he does get some time off; Grímnismál 13 tells that “Himinbjorg (heaven-mountains) are the eighth, and there Heimdallr rules the sanctuaries, they say. There the warder of the gods, happy, drinks the good mead in his comfortable house.” He also evidently takes a leave of absence when he walks the world as Rígr, as told in the poem Rígsþula.
The meaning of Heimdall’s name is disputed, but the first element is probably heimr, “world”. The second may be dallr, “brightness”; in this case, the name “World-Brightness” would parallel Freyja’s by-name Mardǫll, “Sea-Brightness.” Alternately, the second element could be dalr “bow,” with the name “World-Bow” referring to the Rainbow Bridge (Branston, Gods of the North, pp. 138-139). Puhvel (Comparative Mythology, p. 212) suggests a third etymology, with the second element meaning “tree” (cf. Icelandic dallur, “fruit-bearing tree”); thus Heimdallr would mean “World Tree”— fitting for the God who wards the Tree and watches over the worlds that its branches bear.
Snorri tells us that Heimdall is called the “white Ás,” “Loki’s foe,” and “recoverer of Freyja’s necklace.” He also goes by the by-names Gullintanni (“Gold-Toothed”), Vindhlér (see below), and Hallinskíði (see below). Snorri adds, but does not really explain, an obscure story: “A sword is called ‘Heimdall’s head’; it is said that he was run through with a man’s head. This is said of him in the Heimdallargaldr [now lost; see below], and ever since the head is called ‘Heimdall’s bane;’ a sword is called ‘a man’s bane.’” (Skáldskaparmál 8).
Heimdall may have been known in England as Háma.
A well-known passage in Beowulf (lines 1197-1201) tells how the hero Háma won the necklace Brosinga mene from his adversary Eormenric and brought it to “his shining fort.” Not only is the name Háma cognate with the first element of Heimdall’s name, but the story parallels Heimdall’s recovery of Freyja’s necklace Brisingamen (see below). The bearded man depicted on the Gosforth Cross from Cumbria, England, who is holding a horn in one hand and using a spear or staff in the other hand to fend off two serpents, is often identified as Heimdall (Berg, “The Gosforth Cross,” p. 36).
Horn-blowing figures on Viking-era carvings from the Isle of Man may also depict Heimdall (e.g. Lindow, Norse Mythology, p. 168). Rudolf Much (cited in Lindow, pp. 92-93) suggested that Heimdall may be the same as Dellingr, a figure about whom we know almost nothing except that he is of the Æsir and marries Nótt (Night), who gives birth to Dagr (Day) (Vafþrúðnismál 24; Gylfaginning 10; see Chapter 10). Both names may have the same root meaning “brightness,” and Heimdall’s description as “whitest of the Æsir” matches Snorri’s description of Dagr as “light and fair, after his father’s lineage.”
Heimdall’s Nine Mothers
The first line of Þrymskviða 15 calls Heimdall “whitest of the Æsir”; the second line of the same verse states that “he knew well the future, like other Vanir.” Thus it is not entirely clear which of the two divine kindreds Heimdall might belong to. However, the Prose Edda preserves a fragment of an otherwise lost poem called Heimdallargaldr, “Heimdall’s Magic Spell,” in which the god himself says
Níu em ek moeðra mǫgr, /
níu em ek systra sonr—
“I am the boy of nine mothers,
I am the son of nine sisters” (Gylfaginning 27).
This verse is usually compared with Hyndluljóð 35-38 (part of the Vǫluspá in skamma or “Short Voluspa” section, which is sometimes printed as a separate poem), which tells of how nine jotuns bore and nursed an unnamed “mighty one of the kin of gods” at the ends of the earth:
“Gjálp bore him, Greip bore him, Eistla and Eyrgjafa bore him, Úlfrún and Angeyja bore him, Imðr and Atla and Járnsaxa. He was made greater with the main of the earth, the spray-cold sea and boar’s blood.”
It is usually assumed that this “mighty one” is Heimdall. The other set of nine sisters in Norse mythology is the ocean waves, personified as daughters of Ægir and Rán. Their names are very different from those of Heimdall’s mothers, all being synonyms or poetic expressions for “wave” (Bylgja “Billow,” Drǫfn “Breaking Wave,” Hefrung “Lifting,” Blóðughadda “Bloody-Hair,” Himinglæva “Heaven-Clear,” and so on). Nonetheless, some commentators have suspected that the two sets of sisters are one and the same.
Heimdall certainly has connections with the sea: not only is he strengthened by “the spray-cold sea,” he transforms into a seal in his fight with Loki, and he walks along a beach at the start of Rígsþula. His by-name Vindhlér means either “Wind-Sea” (“Hlér” is both a poetic term for the sea and a by-name for Ægir) or “Wind-Protection.” Dumézil (Gods of the Ancient Northmen, pp. 132-138) notes that several European folk traditions associate breaking waves with animals. He quotes a Welsh folk belief that the waves are the sheep of the supernatural female Gwenhidwy, with every ninth wave being a ram. He points out that this story parallels both Heimdall’s birth from nine mothers who may (possibly) be identified with waves, and his identification with the ram (see below). Whether or not the Welsh belief is a borrowing from English or Norse tradition (or vice versa), or part of their shared ancestry, it seems congruent with the links between Heimdall and the sea.
The Kalevala Connection? Heimdall and Väinämöinen
The concept of Heimdall being born of nine mothers identified with the ocean might also be compared with the birth of the Finnish hero Väinämöinen as told in the Kalevala, canto 1 (Lönnrot, pp. 4-10). Väinämöinen’s mother, Ilmatar or Luonnotar, is made pregnant by the sea stirred up by the wind. Väinämöinen is born after a 700-year pregnancy (unusually long pregnancies are typical of heroes, notably Sigurd in the Volsunga saga) and spends nine years floating in the waves, before finally setting foot on land in his tenth year. Like Heimdall, Väinämöinen is a culture-hero, the founder of basic aspects of human society; his own name (derived from an old word for “calm waters” or “slow river”) and his mother’s impregnation by the wind-stirred sea are reminiscent of Heimdall’s watery associations and his name Vindhlér; and his mastery of magical songs is similar to Heimdall’s knowledge of runes and galdor.
Whether the figure of Heimdall actually did influence Väinämöinen, or vice versa, is not clear. Nonetheless, this parallelism might provide us with some insight into Heimdall’s nature.
Who’s Heimdall’s Father?
It’s not clear who Heimdall’s father’s is. Snorri says that may be called “son of Odin” (Skáldskaparmál 8), but Snorri identifies several deities as Odin’s sons when this is contradicted elsewhere. For example, Snorri identifies Týr as Odin’s son (Skáldskaparmál 9), whereas Hymiskviða 5 states that Tyr’s father is the jotun Hymir; Snorri also lists Freyr among Odin’s sons (Skáldskaparmál verse 429) when Freyr is not even one of the Æsir. Turville-Petre suggests that since Heimdall has been killed at least once (when he was run through with a man’s head), and since he will be killed again at Ragnarok, his birth from nine mothers may be a sequence of nine incarnations (Myth and Religion, p. 152).
Margaret Clunies Ross suggested that, if Heimdall’s nine mothers are in fact the waves, then his father was probably associated with the sea as well, and may have been Njord, which could explain why Þrymskviða calls Heimdall one of the Vanir (Prolonged Echoes, vol. 1, p. 176-177).
Though we don’t know Heimdall’s parents, the Rígsþula tells us that Heimdall is actually the father of human social structure
In Hyndluljóð 43 (also in the Vǫluspá in skamma section), “one greater than all” is born, who is “the most high-minded,” “made greater with Earth’s might,” and most importantly, sif sifjaðan sjǫtum gǫrvǫllum, “related by kinship to the entirety of the hosts [of mankind].” This matches the unnamed god in verse 38, who was born of nine mothers and is also “made greater with Earth’s might,” and it is almost certain that both passages refer to Heimdall. Vǫluspá begins with the seeress’s words, “I ask a hearing from all holy ones, both high and low of Heimdall’s kin.” “Heimdall’s kin” must include humans as well as deities. Given Heimdall’s nine mothers, it must include the jotnar as well.
The kinship with all humans is developed further in the poem Rígsþula, which begins by telling how Heimdall was walking along a beach when he came to the humble house of Ái and Edda, “Great-Grandfather” and “Great-Grandmother,” and gave his name as Rígr (probably derived from the Irish word for “king,” rí). Here he counseled the couple and fathered a boy child: Thrall, the ancestor of slaves. Walking onward, he came to the sturdy house of Afi and Amma, “Grandfather” and “Grandmother.” Here he also gave advice and fathered a boy child: Karl, the ancestor of free farmers. Finally, he came to the great hall of Faðir and Móðir, “Father” and “Mother,” and gain gave advice and fathered Jarl (Earl), the ancestor of rulers. Jarl won lands and a wife, and Rígr appeared once more to teach rune-lore to Jarl’s son Konr (called Konr ungr, “Kon the Young,” a pun on konungr, “king”).
Well, that’s not great.
No, no it is not.
The idea of physically distinct classes of humanity, seemingly destined by nature to servitude, farming, and rulership, is repellent to most modern readers with any sense of moral integrity; Rígsþula has been called “a repellent poem” with “clear intimations of a kind of racism implicit in the description of the various social classes” (Hill, “Rígsþula: Some Medieval Christian Analogs,” p. 80).
Stories are sometimes invented to justify “the way things are” even (and especially) where “the way things are” is unfair. You can imagine someone in times when slavery was still a practiced institution asking why some people have to be slaves when they clearly are people just like us. What did they do to deserve this? You can imagine a man toiling all day to give his levy to his Lord asking why the Lord is in charge of this anyway. Why does he get to tell me what to do?
What better way to settle things than just telling them “that’s just how you were born.”
Thankfully, that explanation didn’t satisfy people forever. The vile institution of human slavery is no longer in common practice, and the idea of an in born right of some to rule has been thoroughly (though not entirely) overturned. Thank the Gods.
Where was Heimdall Worshiped?
Although there is as yet no evidence for holy places or active worship dedicated to Heimdall, we do know that he was sometimes called on by humans, thanks to a lead spindle whorl carved with runes that was discovered in 2010 at Saltfleetby in Lincolnshire. The runes are Younger Futhark, and the inscription is in Old Norse, which shows that Norse speakers were living in northern England as late as the early 11th century, when the spindle whorl was made. The inscription reads
+ oþen . ok . einmtalr . ok : þalfa . þeir / ielba . þeruolfit . ok. kiriusef.
The last word is obscure, but most of this seems to be clear: Óðinn ok Heimdallr ok Þalfa, þeir hjalpa þér, Ulfljót: “Odin and Heimdall and Thalfa, they help you, Ulfljot.”
It’s unclear who Thalfa is, unless this is a variant (or a misspelling) of Thjalfi, who appears in the Prose Edda as Thor’s servant (see Chapter 4). But it’s clear that Heimdall is being called on for help, and the context suggests that he could be invoked within a household for a domestic matter (Hines, “A Glimpse of the Heathen Norse”).
Why worship Heimdall?
Heimdall is not usually seen as a god who brings wealth, but he is called kostigr in the skaldic poem Húsdrápa 8 (ed. Marold, p. 418). The word means “excellent,” and comes from the noun kostr, literally “a choice” but also meaning both “good qualities” and “good things; provisions; riches.” Heimdall evidently has both. He is also a teacher and counselor to those who can learn his wisdom; Húsdrápa 2 calls Heimdall ráðgegninn, “ready with counsel,” and Rígsþula repeatedly states that Rígr kunni þeim ráð at segja, “Rigr knew well how to speak counsel” to each of the couples that he encounters.
It is he, not Odin as one might expect, who teaches knowledge of the runes to Konr the Young and grants him his own title of “Rígr.” One might intuit that Heimdall is not simply excellent, but a “god of excellence,” with high standards.
Like any good teacher, he doesn’t spoon-feed his students. Instead, he requires effort from those who would learn from him, and encourages them to equal and exceed his own level of knowledge.
Heimdallr and Loki
Although Heimdallr and Loki work together well enough in Þrymskviða, when they get Thor to dress up like Freyja, several other sources depict them as opponents. Snorri tells us that Heimdall and Loki will kill each other at Ragnarok (Gylfaginning 51). The skaldic poem Húsdrápa 2, as interpreted by Snorri (Skáldskaparmál 8, 16) describes Loki stealing Freyja’s necklace; Heimdall comes to take it back, and they fight over it in the shape of seals at a place called Singasteinn. This fight is why Snorri says that Loki may be called þrætudólgr Heimdalar, “quarrel-opponent of Heimdall” (ed. Marold, p. 407).
Brian Branston sees Heimdall as a fire god, reading his name Vindlér, “turner,” as a reference to the fire-drill. Specifically, he sees Heimdall as “good fire,” the useful fire of the hearth. This sets him at odds with Loki, whom Branston sees as the god of destructive, dangerous fire (Gods of the North, pp. 138-142). Branston concludes that the name Heimdall was originally a by-name for Odin’s brother Lóðurr, who gave the warmth of life to humanity, but who was forgotten and replaced by Loki during the later Viking Age (pp. 144-147). The core of Branston’s argument, however, is that Loki is always evil and Lóðurr is always good (p. 146), which many scholars would take issue with now.
John Lindow (Norse Mythology, p. 170) gives a better explanation for their antagonism: Heimdall is associated with boundaries. He was born at the edge of the Earth, visits settlements along a shoreline when he fathers mankind, guards the borders of Asgard, and will mark the end of the world by blowing the Gjallarhorn. He also creates the social classes, and by implication the boundaries between them, in Rígsþula. Loki is the figure who most frequently crosses boundaries—whether he’s travelling between the worlds, dancing across gender boundaries (turning into a mare and bearing Sleipnir, for example), acting generally anti-social in Lokasenna, or leading the hosts of Hel against the Gods at Ragnarok.
Symbols and Signs of Heimdall
Thus it isn’t surprising that the two are opposed. Heimdall will blow his horn, Gjallarhorn (“Resounding Horn”), when the end of the world has come (Vǫluspá 46). Nineteenth-century writers were known to compare or even equate Heimdall to the Archangel Gabriel, who will sound “the last trumpet” according to Christian mythology: “. . . as Gabriel with flaming sword stands at the Gate of Heaven, so stood Heimdal at Asgard’s portal; and as he, in dreadful Ragnarock, sounded the summons on great Gjallar-horn,—so shall Gabriel with his trump, call the quick and the dead to judgment” (Jones, Valhalla, p. 21).
This interpretation may be old; the runestone from Jurby on the Isle of Man shows a male figure blowing a long trumpet, which might well have been understood by Christian viewers as Gabriel and by Heathen viewers as Heimdall. However, trumpets were widely used as war and signaling instruments; there is no reason to assume that the image of Heimdall blowing his horn was borrowed from Christianity.
In Vǫluspá 27, Heimdall’s hljóð is said to be hidden “under the holy, brightness-accustomed tree; she sees it sprinkled by watery falls from Valfather’s pledge.” This must mean that Heimdall’s hljóð is in the Well of Mímir with Odin’s eye (Valfather’s pledge). The word hljóð can mean both “hearing” and “sound; the thing heard,” and there is some question as to what it means specifically in this verse. Lee Hollander translates hljóð as “horn” (The Poetic Edda, p. 5), and if so, the Gjallarhorn may be hidden in the Well, until the time has come for it to be brought forth and signal the final fulfillment of the world’s wyrd.
On the other hand, Turville-Petre interprets hljóð as “hearing” and compares it to Odin’s eye. Just as Odin sacrifices an eye in the Well and yet sees all Detail of the cross form Jurby, Isle of Man, interpreted as Heimdall blowing his horn. Christians may have interpreted this as the angel Gabriel. Kermode, Manx Crosses (1907). 391 Gods of Scandinavia from Hliðskjálf, Heimdallr may have given up his hearing to the Well and yet hears everything on Earth (Myth and Religion, pp. 149-150).
Heimdall is said to transform into a seal for his fight with Loki over Brísingamen. Heimdall is also associated with rams. We have no way of knowing if there were once myths in which Heimdall was said to own a ram, like Freyr’s boar or Freyja’s cats, but Gullintanni (“Golden-Toothed” and Hallinskíði (literally “Leaning Planks,” but possibly “Asymmetrical Horns” in this case) are both by-names for Heimdall and poetic words for “ram,” and a ram is also called heimdali (Skáldskaparmál verse 507; see Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion, pp. 151-152).
The kennings “Heimdall’s head” for a sword and “Heimdall’s sword” for a head might be most simply explained by Heimdall’s identification with an animal that bears pointed objects on its head (Dumézil, Gods of the Ancient Northmen, p. 132). Heimdall has no traditional emblem, but some Heathens use the horn to represent him. Viking Age horns were generally either cow-horns or long wooden tubes, but in Romantic-era art Heimdall is often depicted blowing a lurhorn from the Bronze Age. From a historical perspective, this is an anachronism of about 2000 years; from a spiritual perspective, it probably doesn’t matter. In Harry Harrison’s fiction The Hammer and the Cross and its sequels, the hero wears a pendant in the shape of a pole-ladder as the symbol of his patron, Rígr, the god of human advancement.
I [BW] haven’t seen any modern Heathens adopt this, but it might bear thinking about. The rainbow is also associated with him, and modern Heathens often see white and gold as fitting colors for Heimdall. Some modern Heathens have used the trefot or triskele (a three-armed spiral design similar to the four-armed swastika) as his emblem.56 It is the traditional sign of the Isle of Man, which was linked with the Irish god Manannan mac Lir, who has often been compared to Heimdall; both gods are related to the sea, for example. It could also represent the three roots of Yggdrasil, which he watches over; or the three classes of humanity, which he fathered as Rígr.