Symbols & Their Meanings
no:13 ~ Three Horns of Odin
On our Blueberry Dry Mead you'll find an image of three interlocked horns. This image has been found on various stone engravings across southern Scandinavia though there are no written sources on what the symbol means.
The most likely explanation for the three horns of Odin comes from the story of how he stole a special brew of poetic mead from the jotun Suttungr. The symbol may also have come from Odin’s association with mead and the symbolic importance of the number three in Norse mythology.
THE NUMBER 3 IS IMPORTANT IN NORSE MYTHOLOGY
This story is told in the Skaldskaparmal section of the Prose Edda. After the Aesir and the Vanir (the two primary groups of gods & goddesses) finished warring with one another, they spit into a vat as part of their peace negotiations. From that collection came Kvasir, a deity who was wise and intelligent beyond any other deity.
Eventually, two dwarves named Fjalar and Galarr ask Kvasir to join them for a chat. Instead of a good conversation, he got a quick death before the dwarves brewed him with some honey to make a special mead that contained poesy, the art of creating poetry.
It wasn’t long before the dwarves lost the mead to a Jötunn (giant) named Suttungr. They had continued their devious ways by killing Gillingr, Suttungr’s father, plus his unnamed wife, and the giant had come for revenge. The dwarves offered him the mead in exchange for their lives, and he accepted the deal.
Suttungr had a brother named Baugi who had a farm and some thralls to work the land. After somehow gaining knowledge of where the mead ended up, Odin tricked Baugi’s thralls into killing each other, then he offered to do all their work for Baugi under a false name. His price was one drink from the Mesas of Poetry.
THE DWARVES CREATED 3 VATS OF MEAD CONTAINING THE ART OF CREATING POETRY
After fulfilling his end of the deal, Odin had Baugi help bore a hole into the place where the mead was guarded by Gunnlod, Suttungr’s daughter. Baugi agrees to help, but he instead attempts to backstab Odin. First, he lies about boring all the way through the rock, which would have left Odin trapped had he gone inside.
Odin transformed into a snake to go down the hole after making Baugi finish it, narrowly dodging a blow from the giant as he slithered inside. Once there, he made himself comfortable with Gunnlod for THREE days. The time he spent with her likely played a role in her accepting Odin’s request to get a drink from each of the THREE vats.
While he did only take one drink from each, he managed to gulp their entire contents down with each one. Knowing he wouldn’t have much time, he transformed into an eagle and flew away. Suttungr discovered the theft and tried to give chase in his own eagle form, but Odin reached safety first and shared the mead with his fellow gods and humanity.
ODIN STOLE THE VATS' CONTENTS AND SHARED THEM WITH THE GODS AND HUMANITY
I chose to have this symbol on our Blueberry Dry Mead bottles because well, Norse history is awesome and is significant to our ancestral culture.
Hope you learned something!
Skål.
