Álfröðull

Álfröðull appears in Old Norse mythopoetic sources as the sun-disc/beam/glory (röðull) compounded with álfr ('elf'), producing a kenning that functions as the sun, its chariot, and its rider (identified with the goddess Sól). In the prophetic verses of Vafþrúðnismál the sun (Álfröðull) will be pursued and consumed in the events of Ragnarök but will bear a daughter who continues the solar course after the catastrophe.

Sources present Álfröðull primarily as the shining solar disc or glory and as the sun-chariot bearing its rider (Sól). The chariot is drawn by the named horses Árvakr and Alsviðr. No detailed anthropomorphic or coloristic portrait is supplied beyond its identity as the sun, the chariot, and the rider.

Álfröðull embodies the sun's motion across the sky — it shines and traverses the heavens in a chariot drawn by horses. In eschatological narrative it is pursued by a cosmic wolf and is prophesied to be devoured at Ragnarök, yet to produce a daughter who will succeed it and ride 'on her mother's course' after the destruction of the powers. As a kenning it also functions poetically as a synonym for the sun and carries associative links between the sun and the category álfr (elves).