Eldir is attested only in the poem Lokasenna (Loki's Flyting) where, in the sequence of events, Loki has killed Ægir's praised servant Fimafeng and been driven from the hall; upon returning to Ægir's feast Loki encounters Eldir outside the hall, asks what the Æsir are discussing, and is answered before entering to provoke the gods. The poem is the sole primary context supplied in the cited sources for Eldir's presence and function; scholarly commentary frames him as a literary threshold-attendant type within hall-feast episodes.
The surviving sources supply no physical description of Eldir beyond his occupational implication. His Old Norse name is translated as 'fire-stoker', which situates him conceptually by the hearth as a household servant tending the fire at Ægir's hall. Aside from this onomastic implication and his placement outside the hall in Lokasenna, no details of clothing, age, stature, or distinctive features are recorded in the cited material.
No supernatural powers are attributed to Eldir in the provided sources. He functions in Lokasenna as a competent household attendant (one of Ægir's two praised servants) and as a verbal actor who answers Loki's question about the conversation inside the hall. Scholarly commentary (e.g., John Lindow) identifies Eldir with the 'outer guardian' or threshold interlocutor character-type found in other Old Norse poems; his agency in the surviving tradition is limited to service duties and speech rather than magical action.
Alvaldi
Alvaldi (Old Norse: Alvaldi / Ölvaldi) is a jötunn in Norse mythic genealogies, attested chiefly as the father of the notable jötunn Þjazi and described in one source as exceedingly rich in gold. He survives in the record mainly as a familial antecedent and an etiological figure rather than as an active participant in preserved narratives.
Andhrímnir
Andhrímnir is the named cook of the Æsir and the einherjar in Old Norse myth, responsible for slaughtering and preparing the beast Sæhrímnir daily in Valhalla and for producing the gods' mead from Heiðrún's milk. He is attested in the Poetic Edda and summarized in modern reference works.
Austri, Vestri, Norðri and Suðri
A quartet of named dwarfs in Old Norse cosmology positioned at the four cardinal points who are described in medieval sources as holding up the sky after the gods made heaven from Ymir’s skull. They function as structural/cosmogonic supports and are attested in the Prose Edda and the Dvergatal of Völuspá, with echoes in skaldic kennings and in later scholarly interpretation linking their role to roof-beam terminology.
Bestla
Bestla is a jötunn (giantess) in Old Norse mythic genealogies, attested as the mother of Odin, Vili, and Vé by the giant Borr. She functions primarily as a maternal progenitor in the medieval Icelandic corpus (Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, and skaldic verse), and surviving references to her are sparse and fragmentary.
Brimir
In Old Norse mythic tradition the name Brimir appears in two closely related roles: as a name applied to a primordial jötunn (often equated with Ymir/Aurgelmir) whose body supplies the material of the world, and as the name of a beer‑hall or hall of plenty that Snorri interprets as an afterlife dwelling for virtuous survivors after Ragnarök.
Búri
Búri is an Old Norse primordial divinity attested in the Prose Edda and a skaldic verse as an early ancestor of the Æsir. He is presented as a first-born godlike figure who is freed from salty rime by the primeval cow Auðumbla and is genealogically prior to later gods such as Borr and, by descent, the Æsir.
Býleistr
Býleistr is an Old Norse mythic name attested as a brother of Loki. He appears only as a kin-term in skaldic and Eddic contexts and in Snorri Sturluson's prose lists; no independent deeds or narratives are preserved for him in the cited sources.
Dagr
Dagr is the Old Norse personification of the day: a luminous being who rides across the sky on the horse Skinfaxi, bringing daylight in the mythic cosmology preserved in the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda. The lexical item Dagr functions both as the common noun for 'day' and as a proper name for this mythic actor.
Durinn
Durinn is an early named dwarf (Old Norse: dvergr) attested in the medieval Norse corpus; counted as the second-created dwarf after Mótsognir and associated in saga tradition with exceptional smithcraft, including a role in forging the magic sword Tyrfing.
Dvalinn
Dvalinn is an Old Norse mythic name attested in the Poetic Edda and several sagas applied to at least two distinct figures: a named dwarf among the dwarf-kind (craftsman, rune‑figure, leader in some lists) and one of the four harts/stags that feed among the branches of the world‑tree Yggdrasill. The corpus does not reconcile these uses of the same name into a single coherent biography.
Eitri
Eitri (also attested as Sindri) is an Old Norse dwarf smith celebrated in the Skáldskaparmál episode for forging three famous artifacts — Gullinbursti, Draupnir, and Mjöllnir — while working with his brother Brokkr. He is presented as a master craftsman whose work directly affects the gods, not as a deity.
Fornjótr
Fornjótr (Old Norse Fornjótr) is an Old Norse mythic jötunn presented in medieval sources as the father of the personified forces Hlér (sea), Logi (fire) and Kári (wind). In saga and genealogical material he is also portrayed in some manuscripts as a legendary ruler of northern lands (Finnland/Kvenland) and appears as an ancestral figure in certain royal genealogies.
Community Record
- [1]Eldir. Wikipedia: 'Eldir (Old Norse: [ˈeldez̠], "fire-stoker") is a servant of Ægir in Norse mythology, and Loki's first verbal opponent in the poem Lokasenna.'wiki
- [2]Lokasenna (as in the Saemundar Edda / Thorpe translation). Benjamin Thorpe, The Saemundar Edda (1865) — Lokasenna: narrative context of Eldir answering Loki outside Ægir's hall.literary
- [3]Norse Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. John Lindow (as cited in summaries of Eldir): commentary identifying Eldir with the 'outer guardian' character-type encountered before entry to a hall; compares to herdsman in Skírnismál.academic