page_title: Ullr
section_title: Poetic Edda
hierarchical_section_title: Ullr / Literary tradition / Poetic Edda
context_page_description: In early Germanic paganism, *Wulþuz appears to have been an important concept, perhaps personified as a god, or an epithet of an important god; it is continued in Old Norse tradition as Ullr, a god associated with archery.
context_section_description: Ullr is mentioned in the poem Grímnismál where the homes of individual gods are recounted. The English versions shown here are by Thorpe.
  Ýdalir heita
  þar er Ullr hefir
  sér of görva sali.
  Ýdalir it is called,
  where Ullr has
  himself a dwelling made.
  The name Ýdalir, meaning "yew dales", is not otherwise attested. The yew was an important material in the making of bows, and the word ýr, "yew", is often used metonymically to refer to bows. It seems likely that the name Ýdalir is connected with the idea of Ullr as a bow-god.
  Another strophe in Grímnismál also mentions Ullr.
  Ullar hylli
  hefr ok allra goða
  hverr er tekr fyrstr á funa,
  því at opnir heimar
  verða of ása sonum,
  þá er hefja af hvera.
  Ullr’s and all the gods’
  favour shall have,
  whoever first shall look to the fire;
  for open will the dwelling be,
  to the Æsir's sons,
  when the kettles are lifted off.
  The strophe is obscure but may refer to some sort of religious ceremony. It seems to indicate Ullr as an important god.
  The last reference to Ullr in the Poetic Edda is found in Atlakviða:
  Svá gangi þér, Atli,
  sem þú við Gunnar áttir
  eiða oft of svarða
  ok ár of nefnda,
  at sól inni suðrhöllu
  ok at Sigtýs bergi,
  hölkvi hvílbeðjar
  ok at hringi Ullar.
  So be it with thee, Atli!
  as toward Gunnar thou hast held
  the oft-sworn oaths,
  formerly taken -
  by the southward verging sun,
  and by Sigtý’s hill,
  the secluded bed of rest,
  and by Ullr’s ring.
  Both Atlakviða and Grímnismál are often considered to be among the oldest extant Eddic poems. It may not be a coincidence that they are the only ones to refer to Ullr. Again we seem to find Ullr associated with some sort of ceremony, this time that of swearing an oath by a ring, a practice associated with Thor in later sources.
caption: Illustration from an 18th-century Icelandic manuscript shows Ullr on his skis and with his bow.
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