lífr

Lífr is a term that appears in Old Norse and Old Icelandic texts, often used in the context of the Norse gods and their interactions with humans. The term is typically translated as "life" or "lifeblood," and it is often associated with the concept of vitality and sustenance. In the Prose Edda, a collection of Old Norse myths and legends, Lífr is mentioned in relation to the god Odin. According to the text, Odin is said to have drunk from the well of Mímir, which contained the mead of poetry, and from the well of Urd, which contained the mead of life, or Lífr. This act is said to have granted Odin the wisdom and knowledge that he possessed. The term Lífr is also used in other contexts, such as in the description of the god Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, which is said to be made from the root of Yggdrasil, the world tree, and imbued with the power of Lífr. This suggests that Lífr is a fundamental aspect of the Norse cosmology, representing the essence of life and vitality that permeates the universe. The term Lífr is not found in the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old Norse poems, and its usage is limited to the Prose Edda. This may indicate that the concept of Lífr was not as central to the earlier Norse poetic tradition as it was to the later Prose Edda. Overall, Lífr is a term that reflects the Norse understanding of life and vitality, and its associations with the gods and the natural world.