| “ | You know it doesn't work that way! Though sweet Bestla I wish it did. | ” |
Bestla is an Aesir Goddess. She is a member of the Aesir Royal Family, being wife of Borr, the mother of Odin, Vili and Vé, grandmother of Thor and Baldur, and great-grandmother of Magni, Modi, and Thrúd.
Norse Mythology[]
Bestla (Old Norse: [ˈbestlɑ]) is a jötunn in Norse mythology, and the mother of the gods Odin, Vili and Vé (by way of Borr). She is also the sister of an unnamed man (Possibly the wise being Mímir) Who assisted Odin, and the daughter (or granddaughter depending on the source) of the jötunn Bölþorn. Odin is frequently called "Bestla's son" in both skaldic verses and the Poetic Edda.
Bestla is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds. Scholars have commented on the obscurity of the figure's name and have proposed various theories to explain the role and origin of the giantess.
On the basis of the Hávamál stanza handled above (wherein Odin learns nine magic songs from the unnamed brother of Bestla), some scholars have theorized that Bestla's brother may in fact be the wise being Mímir, from whose severed head the god Odin gains wisdom.
Since Odin is descended from the jötnar on his mother's side, the slaying of Ymir by him and his brothers could be seen as an intra-familial killing and, according to scholar John Lindow, "the slaying or denial of a maternal relation".
Waltraud Hunke has argued that Bestla should be regarded as the bark of the world tree on which Odin was perhaps born, alluding to Hávamál (141): "then I started to grow fruitful".