Heimdall

Heimdall keeps watch for invaders and the onset of Ragnarök from his dwelling Himinbjörg, where the burning rainbow bridge Bifröst meets the sky.

Other notable stories include the recovery of Freyja's treasured possession Brísingamen while doing battle in the shape of a seal with Loki.

Whilst there are difficulties in interpreting the inscription, it likely records a charm asking for help from Odin, Heimdallr and Þalfa, a figure whose name closely resembles that of Þjálfi, one of Thor's servants.

[4][5] In the Poetic Edda, Heimdall is attested in six poems; Völuspá, Grímnismál, Lokasenna, Þrymskviða, Rígsþula, and Hrafnagaldr Óðins.

Some scholars have pointed to the prose introduction to the poem Rígsþula, where Heimdall is said to have once gone about people, slept between couples, and so doled out classes among them (see Rígsthula section below).

[11] Earlier in the same poem, the völva mentions a scenario involving the hearing or horn (depending on translation of the Old Norse noun hljóð—translations bolded below for the purpose of illustration) of the god Heimdall: Scholar Paul Schach comments that the stanzas in this section of Völuspá are "all very mysterious and obscure, as it was perhaps meant to be".

"[16] In the poem Grímnismál, Odin (disguised as Grímnir), tortured, starved and thirsty, tells the young Agnar of a number of mythological locations.

At one point in the tale, the gods gather at the thing and debate how to get Thor's hammer back from the jötnar, who demand the beautiful goddess Freyja in return for it.

[23] The introductory prose to the poem Rígsþula says that "people say in the old stories" that Heimdall, described as a god among the Æsir, once fared on a journey.

In the poem, Rígr, who is described as a wise and powerful god, walks in the middle of roads on his way to steads, where he meets a variety of couples and dines with them, giving them advice and spending three nights at a time between them in their bed.

In Gylfaginning, the enthroned figure of High tells the disguised mythical king Gangleri of various gods, and, in chapter 25, mentions Heimdall.

High then quotes the above-mentioned Grímnismál stanza about Himinbjörg and provides two lines from the otherwise lost poem about Heimdall, Heimdalargaldr, in which he proclaims himself to be the son of Nine Mothers.

[28] Later in the book, Húsdrápa, a poem by 10th century skald Úlfr Uggason, is cited, during which Heimdall is described as having ridden to Baldr's funeral pyre.

[29] In chapter 8, means of referring to Heimdall are provided; "son of nine mothers", "guardian of the gods", "the white As" (see Poetic Edda discussion regarding hvítastr ása above), "Loki's enemy", and "recoverer of Freyja's necklace".

A few chapters later, ways of referring to Loki are provided, including "wrangler with Heimdall and Skadi", and section of Úlfr Uggason's Húsdrápa is then provided in reference: Renowned defender [Heimdall] of the powers' way [Bifrost], kind of counsel, competes with Farbauti's terribly sly son at Singastein.

[31] In Ynglinga saga compiled in Heimskringla, Snorri presents a euhemerized origin of the Norse gods and rulers descending from them.

[32] A figure holding a large horn to his lips and clasping a sword on his hip appears on a stone cross from the Isle of Man.

[33] A 9th or 10th century Gosforth Cross in Cumbria, England depicts a figure holding a horn and a sword standing defiantly before two open-mouthed beasts.

[36] In the textual corpus, Heimdall is frequently described as maintaining a particular association with boundaries, borders, and liminal spaces, both spatial and temporal.

For example, influential philologist and folklorist Georges Dumézil, comparing motifs and clusters of motifs in western Europe, proposes the following explanation for Heimdall's birth and association with rams (italics are Dumézil's own): Many folklores compare waves which, under a strong wind, are topped with white foam ... to different animals, especially to horses or mares, to cows or bulls, to dogs or sheep.

The modern Welsh, like the Irish, speak of "white mares (cesyg)" but the old tradition linked to the name of Gwenhidwy, as in French, Basque, and other folklores, turned these waves into sheep.

This concept furnishes a satisfactory explanation of that section of Heimdall's dossier which we are considering: it allows us to combine his birth—nine mothers who are waves, at the confines of the earth—and his attributes of a ram.

We understand that whatever his mythical value and functions were, the scene of his birth made him, in the sea's white frothing, the ram produced by the ninth wave.

Heimdall appears as a character in Marvel Comics and is portrayed in the film versions by English actor Idris Elba.

[44] Heimdall also appears as an antagonist in the 2022 action-adventure video game God of War Ragnarök and is played by the American actor Scott Porter.

As all who have dealt with him have emphasized, this is primarily because of a very fragmentary documentation; but even more because the few traits that have been saved from oblivion diverge in too many directions to be easily "thought of together," or to be grouped as members of a unitary structure.