He is the wisest of the Gods in the sense that he remembers
most about the past and foresees most about the future; yet he is
powerless in difficulty without the craft of Loki and the hammer of
Thor. He always wanders in disguise, and the stories told of him are
chiefly love-adventures; this is true of all the deeds he mentions
in _Harbardsljod_, and also of the two interpolations in _Havamal_,
though one of the two had an object, the stealing of the mead of
inspiration from the giant Suptung, whose daughter Gunnloed guarded it.
_Voeluspa_ makes him one of three creative deities, the other two being
Lodur (probably Loki) and Hoeni, of whom nothing else is known except
the story that he was given as hostage to the Vanir in exchange for
Njoerd. The same three Gods (Odin, Loki and Hoeni) are connected with
the legend of the Nibelung treasure; and it was another adventure of
theirs, according to Snorri, which led to the loss of Idunn.
Of the other Gods, Bragi is a later development; his name means
simply king or chief, and his attributes, as God of eloquence and
poetry, are apparently borrowed from Odin. Heimdal, the watchman and
"far-seeing like the Vanir," who keeps guard on the rainbow bridge
Bifroest, is represented in the curious poem _Rigsthula_ as founder of
the different social orders. He wandered over the world under the name
of Rig, and from his first journey sprang the race of thralls, swarthy,
crooked and broad-backed, who busied themselves with fencing land and
tending goats and swine; from his second, the churls, fine and ruddy,
who broke oxen, built houses and ploughed the land; from his third,
the earls, yellow-haired, rosy, and keen-eyed, who broke horses and
strung bows, rode, swam, and hurled spears; and the youngest of the
earls' race was Konung the king, who knew all mysteries, understood
the speech of birds, could quench fire and heal wounds.
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