High, Just-as-High, and Third

Hár [ˈhɑːrː], Jafnhár [ˈjɑvnˌhɑːrː], and Þriði [ˈθriðe] (anglicized as Thridi)[a] are three men on thrones who appear in the Prose Edda in the Gylfaginning ("The Beguiling of Gylfi"), one of the oldest and most important sources on Norse mythology.

In the story, King Gylfi, calling himself Gangleri, engages in a test of wisdom with the three, asking them detailed questions about the Æsir, their deeds, and their future.

While the Gylfaginning never says so directly, some scholars believe the intent is that all three are manifestations of Odin, and thus would be able to answer Gangleri's questions in such detail, including ones on the eventual fate of the Æsir.

If Snorri was either responsible for or approved of the euhemerization account in the Prologue of the Prose Edda that conflates the Norse Æsir with Greco-Asian refugees from the fall of Troy, then the three may have merely been descendants of such a claimed migration in-setting.

[7] A Proto-Indo-European origin is also suggested by the Latin caecus ('blind') and the Old Irish caech ('one-eyed'), with regular Germanic sound shift *k- > *h-.

[4] In the Skáldskaparmál, a quote from the Þórsdrápa (Thorsdrapa) appears to also refer to Thridi as a name of Odin, given that it would make sense for Thor to be departing from Asgard in the journey described to Jötunheimr that originates "from Third's": The sea-thread's [Midgard serpent's] father [Loki] set out to urge the feller [Thor] of flight-ledge-gods' [giants'] life-net from home.

The mind-tough Thor let vulture-way [air = lopt; Lopt is a name for Loki] urge him only a little time to go—they were eager to crush Thorn's kin [giants]—when Idi's yard-visitor [Thor], mightier than White Sea Scots [giants], set out once from Third's [Odin's, Asgard] to the seat of Ymsi's kind [Giantland].