jewelry

Draupnir

By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.

Description

Ring that drips eight more

Brokkr and Eitri make Draupnir in the same wager that produces Mjöllnir: every ninth night it drips eight rings of equal weight (Skáldskaparmál). Odin lays it on Baldr's pyre; Hermóðr brings it back from Hel as a token that the errand reached the dead (Gylfaginning). It is multiplying gold, a king's ring, not a weapon. Skaldic gift-gold sits behind the image. There is no cult of Draupnir; Snorri lists it among dwarf-work and funeral gear.

Primary Sources

“The ring Draupnir: every ninth night eight rings of equal weight drip from it.”
Prose Edda, Skáldskaparmál(c. 1220 CE)

“Odin laid the gold ring Draupnir on Baldr's pyre; Hermod brought it out of Hel.”
Prose Edda, Gylfaginning (death of Baldr)(c. 1220 CE)

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