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In Norse mythology, Váli is a son of the god Odin and the giantess Rindr. He was birthed for the sole purpose of killing Höđr as revenge for Höđr's accidental murder of his half-brother, Baldr. He grew to full adulthood within one day of his birth, and slew Höđr. Váli is fated to survive Ragnarök.
The Váli myth is referred to in Baldrs draumar:
- Rindr will bear Váli
- in western halls;
- that son of Óđinn
- will kill when one night old-
- he will not wash hand,
- nor comb head,
- before he bears to the pyre
- Baldr's adversary. - Ursula Dronke's translation
And in Völuspá:
- There formed from that stem,
- which was slender-seeming,
- a shaft of anguish, perilous:
- H-đr started shooting.
- A brother of Baldr
- was born quickly:
- he started-Óđinn's son-
- slaying, at one night old.
There is another Váli, a son of Loki by Sigyn, who was transformed by the gods into a slavering wolf who tore out the throat of his brother Narfi to punish Loki for his crimes. See Váli (son of Loki).
The two figures named Váli may originally have been conceived of as the same being.
In Gesta Danorum the figure Bous corresponds to Váli.
References
- Dronke, Ursula (1997). The Poetic Edda : Volume II : Mythological Poems. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Finnur Jónsson (1913). Gođafrćđi Norđmanna og Íslendinga eftir heimildum. Reykjavík: Hiđ íslenska bókmentafjelag.
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