Hræsvelgr

Hræsvelgr (Old Norse)^{[needs IPA]} is a jötunn in Norse mythology. He is portrayed as the eagle-shaped originator of the wind.^[1]

Name

The Old Norse name Hræsvelgr has been translated as 'corpse-swallower',^[2][3] or as 'shipwreck-current'.^[3]

Hræsvelgr's name is sometimes anglicised as Hraesvelgr, Hresvelgr, Hraesveglur, or Hraesvelg. The common Danish form is Hræsvælg and the common Swedish form is Räsvelg.^{[citation needed]}

Attestation

In Vafþrúðnismál (The Lay of Vafþrúðnir), Odin questions the wise jötunn Vafþrúðnir about the origin of the wind, and the jötunn answers:^[1]

He is called Hræsvelg,
who sits at heaven’s end,
a giant, in the shape of an eagle;
from his wings
they say the wind comes over all people.

— Vafþrúðnismál, 37, trans. J. Lindow, 2002.

This stanza is paraphrased by Snorri Sturluson in Gylfaginning (The Beguiling of Gylfi), when Hárr answers the same question, that time asked by Gangleri (Gylfi in disguise).^[3] Snorri adds that Hræsvelgr sits at the north end of heaven, and that winds originate from under his gigantic eagle’s wings when he spreads them for flight.^[3]