In the narrative attested in the Skáldskaparmál tradition (as preserved in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda and summarized in later retellings), Fjalar (Fjalarr) and Galar (Galarr) kill Kvasir — a being born of the Æsir and Vanir's spittle and famed for his wisdom — and mix his blood with honey to produce the mead of poetry that inspires poets. Afterward they murder a jötunn named Gilling and his wife; when Gilling's son Suttungr threatens the dwarfs for revenge, the brothers offer him the magical mead in exchange for their lives. Suttungr takes the mead and conceals it within a mountain, placing his daughter Gunnlöð to guard it, a chain of events that culminates in Odin's later acquisition of the mead.
The sources recorded here identify Fjalar and Galar by the social/ontological category 'dwarfs' (Old Norse Fjalarr, Galarr). The provided materials do not supply specific physical descriptions (height, clothing, or facial features) for these individuals beyond that classification; more general Norse traditions associate dwarfs with crafting and subterranean settings, but such associations are not detailed in the supplied excerpts for Fjalar and Galar themselves.
The narratives attribute to Fjalar and Galar moral cunning, lethal violence, and crafted transformative action: they murder Kvasir and deliberately convert his blood (mixed with honey in the tale) into the mead of poetry, a magical substance that confers poetic inspiration. They also commit the murder of Gilling and his wife and negotiate (offer the mead) to avoid retaliation, demonstrating bargaining and deceit. The sources do not ascribe wider, systematic magical powers to them beyond these recorded deeds.
Weaknesses
- conditionvulnerability to retributive threat or force (exposed by Suttungr's pursuit)
Wards
None recorded.
Agnarr Geirröðsson
Agnarr Geirröðsson is a mortal prince attested only in the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál; he aids Odin (disguised as Grímnir) during Geirröðr's torture and, after Odin reveals himself and King Geirröðr dies, Agnarr succeeds as king.
Anund (Bröt-Anund)
Anund, commonly known by the byname Bröt-Anund ('trail‑blazer' or 'land clearer'), is a semi-legendary Swedish king of the Yngling dynasty attested in early Norse genealogical poetry and saga prose. Sources credit him with avenging his father in Estonia, accumulating wealth, promoting settlement by clearing land and making roads, and dying under ambiguous circumstances (landslide or killing).
Aurvandill
Aurvandill is a figure attested in medieval Germanic onomastics and Norse narrative, most famously remembered in an Old Norse tale where Thor carries him across icy rivers and his frozen toe is cast into the sky as the star called Aurvandils-tá. Comparative linguistic study reconstructs a Common Germanic name associated with dawn or the morning star.
Beaduhild (Böðvildr)
Beaduhild (Old Norse Böðvildr; Old English Beaduhild/Beadohild; also Bodil, Badhild) is a legendary human princess in Germanic heroic tradition whose life is entangled with the smith Wayland (Weland/Vǫlundr). In earlier sources she appears as a tragic victim in the Weland cycle; in later Scandinavian recensions she is recast as Wayland's wife and the mother of a heroic descendant (Viðga).
Billingr
Billingr is a named paternal figure in Old Norse sources, best attested as the father of a maiden whose household prevents Odin from consummating a nocturnal rendezvous (Hávamál stanzas 96–102). Manuscript and kenning evidence leave his taxonomic identity (dwarf or jötunn) ambiguous.
Domalde (Dómaldi)
Domalde (Old Norse Dómaldi/Dómaldr) is a legendary Swedish king of the Yngling dynasty whose reign is associated with prolonged famine. In Old Norse sources his personal ill‑luck (ósgæssa), said to be caused by a curse from his stepmother, is presented as coterminous with the land's fertility; communal cultic escalation culminates in the king's sacrificial killing and the restoration of good harvests.
Dwarf (folklore)
A type of supernatural, human-shaped being in Germanic tradition associated with subterranean places, craft (notably metalwork), and a liminal role between nature and culture. In Norse mythic sources dwarfs function as artisan-makers of powerful objects for gods and occasionally appear in folktales as magical servants bound to objects.
Eadgils (Aðils / Adils)
Eadgils is a semi-legendary 6th-century Swedish king of the Yngling/Skilfing dynasty attested in Old Norse skaldic poetry and sagas and in the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf. Sources present him as a dynastic figure whose exile, restoration, and conflicts (notably with Onela/Áli and later associations with Hrólfr Kraki) explain succession and inter-kingdom violence; he is treated as a mortal ruler rather than a supernatural being.
Fulla
Fulla (Old Norse Fulla; Old High German Volla/Folla) is a named goddess (ásynja) in the Germanic tradition, attested as Frigg's trusted attendant and confidante in Old Norse sources and as a named singer in the Old High German Merseburg horse-healing charm.
Fáfnir
In Old Norse heroic legend Fáfnir is a kin-figure who, after killing his father Hreiðmarr over a cursed hoard, withdraws into the wilderness and takes the hamr of a worm/dragon to brood over treasure; he is slain by the hero Sigurð (Sigurd).
Læraðr
Læraðr (also Léraðr; anglicized Laerad) is a named sacred tree in Old Norse mythic geography described as standing over Odin’s hall/Valhöll. In the Poetic Edda (Grímnismál) and Prose Edda (Gylfaginning) it is the tree browsed by the goat Heiðrún and the stag Eikþyrnir; modern scholars sometimes identify it with or as an aspect/name of the central world-tree Yggdrasill.
Sigi
Sigi is a mytho-historical ancestral figure in Old Norse tradition, presented in the Völsung cycle as a son of Odin and the progenitor of the Völsung lineage. His narrative in saga summaries records outlawry for murder, flight aided by Odin, raiding and kingship in Húnaland, and eventual assassination followed by his son's vengeance.
Community Record
- [1]Fjalar and Galar. "Fjalar (Old Norse: Fjalarr) and his brother Galar (Old Norse: Galarr), were wicked dwarfs who killed Kvasir and turned his blood into the mead of poetry..." (Wikipedia entry summary).wiki
- [2]Kvasir. Summary accounts connecting Kvasir's murder by Fjalar and Galar and the mead of poetry derive from the Skáldskaparmál tradition as summarized in modern references (see Kvasir entry).wiki
- [3]The Mead of Poetry (Hurstwic summary). Retelling and summary of the Skáldskaparmál narrative sequence: murder of Kvasir, conversion to mead, murder of Gilling, Suttungr's taking and hiding of the mead, and Odin's later acquisition.literary
- [4]The Mead of Poets: Part 1. Popular-retelling summary of the mead narrative and the role of Fjalar and Galar in producing the mead of poetry.other
- [5]Fjalar and Galar | Assassin's Creed Wiki. Fandom summary aligning with the broad sequence from Snorri: the dwarfs' murders, the mead's creation, and subsequent transfer to Suttungr.folk