The boar cooked daily in Valhöll that is restored whole each morning to be slaughtered again.
Sæhrímnir is the boar boiled in the cauldron Eldhrímnir by the cook Andhrímnir to feed all the einherjar in Valhöll. Each day he is slaughtered and cooked, and each morning he is alive and whole again. This account appears in Grímnismál 18, where Odin mentions the eternal cycle of cooking and resurrection.
In Gylfaginning 38, Snorri states that no one knows what kind of creature Sæhrímnir truly is, yet his flesh suffices for all. The cauldron Eldhrímnir and the cook Andhrímnir form a cosmological trio with the boar as the central figure. The motif of the inexhaustible animal appears in related forms in Celtic and other Indo-European tradition.
Sources in the Eddas
- Grímnismál 18
- Odin names the boar Sæhrímnir and the cook Andhrímnir. Own translation.
- Gylfaginning 38
- Snorri confirms the boar's daily resurrection and the meat sufficient for all. Own translation.
Interpretive traditions
A What we know
Sæhrímnir is Valhöll's eternally self-renewing boar, attested in Grímnismál and Gylfaginning.
B What we think we know
The motif of the inexhaustible animal connects to Indo-European conceptions of paradisiacal abundance and sacred slaughter.