Part 4

I dare say the most characteristic figure of Teutonic mythology is Mimir, the lord of the fountain which bears his name. The liquid contained in the fountain is the object of Odin's deepest desire. He has neither authority nor power over it. Nor does he or anyone else of the gods seek to get control of it by force. Instances are mentioned showing that Odin, to get a drink from it, must subject himself to great sufferings and sacrifices (Völuspá 27-28, Gylfaginning 15; also Hávamál 138-141), and it is as a gift or a loan that he afterwards receives from Mimir the invigorating and soul-inspiring drink (Hávamál 140-141). Over the fountain and its territory Mimir, of course, exercises unlimited control, an authority which the gods never appear to have disputed. He has a sphere of power which the gods recognise as inviolable. The domain of his rule belongs to the lower world; it is situated under one of the roots of the world-tree (Völuspá 27-28; Gylfaginning 15), and when Odin, from the world-tree, asks for the precious mead of the fountain, he peers downward into the deep, and thence brings up the runes (nýsta eg niður, nam eg up rúnar - Hávamál 139). Saxo's account of the adventure of Hotherus (Book III, 70) shows that there was thought to be a descent to Mimir's land in the form of a mountain cave (specus), and that this descent was, like the one to Gudmund's domain, to be found in the uttermost North, where terrible cold reigns.

Though a giant, Mimir is the friend of the order of the world and of the gods. He, like Urd, guards the sacred ash, the world-tree (Völuspá 28), which accordingly also bears his name and is called Mimir's tree (Mímameiður - Fjölsvinnsmál 20; meiður Míma - Fjölsvinnsmál 24). The intercourse between the Asa-father and him has been of such a nature that the expression "Mimir's friend" (Míms vinur - Sonatorrek 23; Skáldskaparmál 9 - Hér er hann kallaður Míms vinur - "here he is called Mím's friend") could be used by the skalds as an epithet of Odin. Of this friendship Ynglingasaga 4 has preserved a record. It makes Mimir lose his life in his activity for the good of the gods, and makes Odin embalm his head, in order that he may always be able to get wise counsels from its lips. Sigurdrífumál 14 represents Odin as listening to the words of truth which come from Mimir's head. Völuspá 46 predicts that Odin, when Ragnarok approaches, shall converse with Mimir's head; and, according to Gylfaginning 51, he, immediately before the conflagration of the world, rides to Mimir's fountain to get advice from the deep thinker for himself and his friends. The firm friendship between All-father and this strange giant of the lower world was formed in time's morning while Odin was still young and undeveloped (Hávamál 141), and continued until the end of the gods and the world.

Mimir is the collector of treasures. The same treasures as Gorm and his men found in the land which Gudmund let them visit are, according to mythology, in the care of Mimir. The wonderful horn (Völuspá 27), the sword of victory, and the ring (Saxo: Book III, 70; cp. Nos. 87, 97, 98, 101, 103).

In all these points the Gudmund of the middle-age sagas and Mimir of the mythology are identical. There still remains an important point. In Gudmund's domain there is a splendid grove, an enclosed place, from which weaknesses, age, and death are banished - a Paradise of the peculiar kind, that it is not intended for the souls of the dead, but for certain lifandi menn, yet inaccessible to people in general. In the myth concerning Mimir we also find such a grove.