Alvaldi

Alvaldi is attested in Old Norse poetic and prose texts as a jötunn whose primary role in the surviving corpus is genealogical. He is named as the father of Þjazi in the poem Hárbarðsljóð and appears under the form Ölvaldi in Snorri Sturluson's Skáldskaparmál, where he is described as the father of Þjazi, Gangr and Iði and as being very rich in gold. Modern scholars (e.g., Rudolf Simek, as cited in the summarized sources) have suggested that the account of Alvaldi's distribution of gold may be a remnant of an older, now-lost mythic episode, but no fuller narrative or origin tale survives in the cited materials.

No physical description of Alvaldi survives in the cited sources. He is identified in the texts only by name, by kinship (father of Þjazi; in Skáldskaparmál also father of Gangr and Iði), and by the attribute of great wealth in gold. The sources do not record his stature, features, or any distinctive visual traits.

The only explicit attribute recorded in the surviving attestations is great material wealth: Skáldskaparmál describes Ölvaldi as 'very rich in gold' and relates that he divided his gold among his sons 'in such a way that each may take the same mouthful of gold.' Beyond this episode of inheritance division, the provided summaries record no other powers, deeds, or behaviors for Alvaldi; he functions in the texts primarily as a wealthy progenitor rather than as an actor demonstrating magical or martial abilities.