Heiðr (also rendered Heid, Hed, Heith, Hetha etc, from the
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...
adjective meaning "bright" or the noun meaning "honour") is a
Norse female personal name.
It may refer to the seeress and witch (''
völva'') mentioned in one stanza of ''
Völuspá'', related to the story of the
Æsir-Vanir war:
:Heith they named her
:who sought their home,
:The wide-seeing witch,
:in
magic wise;
:Minds she bewitched
:that were moved by her magic,
:To evil women
:a joy she was.
:
::—''Völuspá''
(22)Bellows’ translationref>Bellows, Henry Adams (trans.). 1923. ''The poetic Edda''. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
The general assumption is that here, "Heiðr" is an alternate name for the witch
Gullveig, mentioned in the previous stanza, who, in turn, is often thought to be a
hypostasis of
Freyja. But it is sometimes argued that the ''völva'' who recites the poem refers to herself.
Heiðr is also a seeress in several works such as ''
Landnámabók
(, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.
is divided into five parts and ov ...
''
( S 179 / H 45), ''
Hrólfs saga kraka''
(3) and ''
Örvar-Odds saga''
(2), where she predicts Örvar's death.
Heiðr is also the name of a child of the
giant Hrímnir
Hrímnir (Old Norse: ) is a jǫtunn in Norse mythology. He is the father of Hljód.
Name
The Old Norse name ''Hrímnir'' has been translated as 'frosty', 'the one covered with hoarfrost', or 'the sooty one.' It is not clear whether the name i ...
according to ''
Völuspá hin skamma'' (''
Hyndluljóð'',
32).
Saxo Grammaticus reported a
shield-maiden bearing this name as captain of the contingent from
Sle fighting for the Danes at the
Battle of Brávellir
The Battle of Brávellir or the Battle of Bråvalla was a legendary battle, said to have taken place c.770, that is described in the sagas as taking place on the Brávellir between Sigurd Hring, king of Sweden and the Geats of Västergötland, an ...
in the year 750. She was said to be the daughter of King
Harald Hildetand.
References
Legendary Norsemen
Witchcraft in folklore and mythology
Characters in Norse mythology
Germanic seeresses
{{norse-myth-stub