The wisest being in all the worlds, created from the mingled saliva of Aesir and Vanir at the peace-making, whose blood was mixed into the mead of poetry.
Kvasir came into being when the Aesir and Vanir ended their war and confirmed the peace by having all parties spit into a vessel. From this mingled saliva Kvasir was created, a being so filled with wisdom that he could answer any question put to him. He wandered through the worlds and shared his knowledge freely.
The dwarves Fjalarr and Galarr invited Kvasir to visit them and slew him. They drained his blood into the vat Óðrœrir and the vessels Són and Boðn, mixed it with honey, and created the mead of poetry, which grants the gift of skaldship to all who drink it. They told the gods that Kvasir had choked on his own wisdom, for no vessel was spacious enough to contain it. The story of the mead of poetry then continues with Suttungr's seizure of the mead and Óðinn's cunning to recover it.
Sources in the Eddas
- Skáldskaparmál 1-2
- The complete account of Kvasir's creation, murder, and the transformation of his blood into the mead of poetry. Own translation.
Interpretive traditions
A What we know
Kvasir's origin from the mingled spittle of Aesir and Vanir at the peace-making and his blood's transformation into the mead of poetry are well attested in the Skáldskaparmál and belong to the core of Norse poetic tradition.
B What we think we know
Kvasir is interpreted by many scholars as a personification of consensus and shared wisdom, created in the act of mutual trust that the symbolic spitting of peace represents.
C What we do not know
Some scholars draw a connection between Kvasir's name and the Slavic word kvas, a fermented drink, which would suggest shared Indo-European rituals surrounding sacred mead.