The Mead That Makes Poets

How was the mead that makes poets created?

Kvasir traveled the world, sharing his knowledge with people. When the dwarfs Fjalar and Galar invited him to visit, they took him somewhere no one else was present. There they killed him and collected his blood in vessels.

The dwarfs mixed his blood with honey. The result was mead that could make anyone who drank it a poet or scholar. Next, they invited the giant Gilling and his wife to their home. They took Gilling out to sea in a boat, ran it onto a rock in the shallows, and overturned it. Unable to swim, he drowned.

When his wife wept loudly, Fjalar invited her to look out at the sea. As she stepped through the doorway, Galar dropped a millstone on her from above and killed her. When their son Suttung learned what had happened, he took the dwarfs out to sea. He left them on a reef that would disappear beneath the water at high tide.

The dwarfs begged for their lives. They offered the mead as compensation for killing his father, and they made peace. Suttung stored the mead in Hnitbjorg and set his daughter Gunnlod to guard it.

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