Baugi

Baugi is attested in the prose account of the mead of poetry in Snorri Sturluson's Skáldskaparmál and in the þulur name-lists. In the preserved narrative Odin (disguised as Bölverk) strikes a bargain with Baugi — offering to do the labour of nine men for him after Odin arranged that those nine men were killed — in exchange for a drink of Suttungr’s mead. Baugi agrees to attempt to reach the chamber in the mountain Hnitbjörg by boring with an auger named Rati so Odin can gain access to the mead. Scholarly notes in the sources warn that Baugi is only attested in Skáldskaparmál and the þulur and absent from other source-poems used by Snorri; some scholars have suggested Baugi may be a later addition or misunderstanding by the compiler, a point noted as an unresolved uncertainty in the attestation.

The surviving sources provide no physical description of Baugi beyond his classification as a jötunn. The texts do not record height, color, clothing, or other visual details; this lack of description is consistent with many minor jötnar who appear primarily as narrative functionaries in the mythic corpus.

The attested behaviours are practical rather than overtly supernatural: Baugi furnishes and uses an auger named Rati to bore into the mountain Hnitbjörg and initially cooperates with Odin (Bölverk) after accepting his proposed recompense. In the narrative Baugi either deceives Odin by leaving the tunnel blocked (Odin concludes Baugi is trying to deceive him) or the tunnel was genuinely incomplete; when Odin transforms into a serpent and slips into the hole, Baugi attempts to strike him with Rati but misses. The sources do not ascribe specific magical powers to Baugi beyond his status as a jötunn and his capacity for labour and interpersonal negotiation.