Mímir

Long before the world was neatly divided between gods and giants, war and peace, Mímir stood as a figure of deep and dangerous knowing. He is not a god in the glittering sense, nor a seer who merely watches from afar. Mímir is knowledge—raw, costly, and unkind. His wisdom is so vast that even Odin, Allfather and wanderer, sought his counsel. But wisdom, like anything worth having, demands a price. And Odin paid it with one of his eyes, casting it into Mímir’s well, Mímisbrunnr, beneath the roots of Yggdrasil. There, the well still whispers secrets to the severed head of Mímir, which Odin preserved and speaks to still.

Mímir’s fate is tangled in the war between the Aesir and the Vanir. When peace was brokered, Mímir was sent to the Vanir as a hostage—an unfortunate role for someone so cunning. Finding him less than cooperative, the Vanir cut off his head and sent it back. But death did not silence Mímir. Odin, refusing to lose that wellspring of wisdom, embalmed the head with magic and herbs, speaking spells that let it speak again. Now, Mímir dwells neither in the realm of the living nor the dead but somewhere stranger—disembodied and unforgotten, offering truths no one else dares ask for.

Visual Description:

Mímir is most often represented not as a whole figure, but as a preserved, severed head—etched with ancient wisdom and filled with unsettling vitality. His face is lined and noble, eyes closed in deep thought or glowing faintly with internal light. His hair and beard are grey, streaked with moss, water droplets clinging to his lashes and brows like dew. The base of his neck is bound in bronze and leather, covered in runes and tightly sealed with sacred herbs.

Sometimes, he appears in vision or dream, his head resting on a stone pedestal beside the well, surrounded by reeds and rootwork. Wisps of mist curl around him, and the waters below reflect not just faces but memories and futures. His presence is quiet, heavy, and watching—like a question you haven’t dared to ask yet.