Vali was a son of Odin by the giantess Rindr, conceived for the express purpose of avenging Baldr — Odin had been told by prophetic vision that only this child, conceived from Rindr, could carry out the vengeance, and the wooing of the unwilling Rindr was a long and difficult labor that Saxo Grammaticus narrates at length. When born, Vali grew at extraordinary speed; at one day old, with neither washed hands nor combed hair, he killed the blind god Hodr who had thrown the mistletoe-dart at Baldr, in fulfillment of his birth-purpose. He had no further narrative beyond this; like Vidar, he would survive Ragnarök and live into the new age.
Before thisVidar
Next on the wallHodr
Curator’s note
What the sources say, and what later tradition added. The sources for this bay
Völuspá 33; Baldrs draumar 11; Snorri's Gylfaginning 30, 51. Saxo's version of the conception of Vali (under the name Bous, son of Othinus and Rinda) is in Gesta Danorum 3.4. The motif of the precocious avenger born for a specific purpose has parallels in other Indo-European traditions.
Kin in the sources
Each tie is quoted from the entry that states it.
Child ofOdinVali was a son of Odin by the giantess Rindr, conceived for the express purpose of avenging Baldr
Sibling ofBaldrVali was a son of Odin by the giantess Rindr, conceived for the express purpose of avenging Baldr
- SlewHodr
he killed the blind god Hodr who had thrown the mistletoe-dart at Baldr
When the sources speak
Dated witnesses for The Norse and Germanic Gods. A date marks when the evidence was written down, not when the belief began. The whole timeline
- 2nd–1st millennia BCE
- Indo-European language dispersals and regional Bronze Age cultures provide a remote comparative background, not a recoverable common canon.
- c. 500 BCE–1 CE
- Iron Age material culture, names, sanctuaries, and classical ethnography offer early but external evidence for Celtic and Germanic religions.
- 1st–4th centuries CE
- Roman inscriptions and provincial cults preserve many Celtic, Germanic, and local divine names.
- 4th–8th centuries CE
- Migration-period and early medieval conversion transform ritual institutions while heroic traditions continue.
- 8th–11th centuries CE
- Viking Age poetry, runic evidence, archaeology, and Scandinavian conversion form the core context of Norse myth.
- 9th–12th centuries CE
- Slavic, Baltic, and Finnic traditions enter chronicles and missionary accounts, often through hostile observers.
- 11th–14th centuries CE
- Irish, Welsh, and Icelandic manuscripts preserve major narrative corpora in Christian literary environments.
- 12th–16th centuries CE
- Saxo, saga compilers, Baltic chroniclers, and later antiquarians systematize or reinterpret older material.