Kvasir Associated: Wisdom
Name:
Kvasir
Culture: Germanic Norse
Classification:
God
Literature:
The Prose Edda
Kvasir
(pronounced “KVAHSS-ir”) is a being who was created by the Aesir and Vanir gods
and goddesses at the conclusion of the Aesir-Vanir War.
The
war had ended with a truce. In the tale of the Mead of Poetry, whose storyline
picks up where that of the Aesir-Vanir War leaves off, the deities sealed their
peace treaty by coming together to produce an alcoholic drink by an ancient,
communal method: everyone in the group chewed berries and spat out the
resulting mush into a single vat. This liquid was then fermented. In this
particular instance, the fermented liquid became the god Kvasir, whose name is
surely related to Norwegian kvase and Russian kvas, both of which mean
“fermented berry juice
Kvasir
was the wisest of all beings. There was no question for which he did not have a
ready and satisfying answer. He took up the life of a wanderer, dispensing his
wisdom to all whom he met along the road. When he came to the house of two
dwarves, Fjalar (“Deceiver” and Galar (“Screamer”, they killed him and drained
his blood into three containers. They told the gods that Kvasir had suffocated
from an excess of wisdom. The two dwarves then brewed mead by mixing Kvasir’s
blood with honey – the Mead of Poetry.
a
mead which imbues the drinker with skaldship and wisdom, and the spread of
which eventually resulted in the introduction of poetry to mankind.
