Bragi

## God of Poetry

Bragi is the Aesir god of poetry, described by Snorri Sturluson as famed above all for his wisdom, eloquence, and skill with words. In the *Prose Edda*, the very word for poetry in the skaldic tradition, *bragr*, is explained as deriving from his name, and a gifted poet is said to receive "Bragi's gift."

### The Storyteller of Skaldskaparmal

In the *Skaldskaparmal* ("The Language of Poetry") section of the *Prose Edda*, it is Bragi who sits at a feast hosted by the sea-giant Aegir and answers his questions about the origins of poetic diction, recounting several of the mythic tales — including the abduction of Idun, his own wife, by the giant Thjazi — that make up much of that section's narrative material.

### Mocked in Lokasenna

In the Eddic poem *Lokasenna*, Bragi is present at Aegir's feast when Loki arrives and begins insulting each god in turn. Loki taunts Bragi as a coward who dares not fight, provoking Bragi to threaten him before Idun intervenes to calm her husband and prevent violence inside the hall.

### A Possible Historical Root

Some scholars have noted a resemblance between the god Bragi and Bragi Boddason, a 9th-century Norwegian skald whose surviving verse is among the oldest attributed skaldic poetry known. Whether the god Bragi represents a deified memory of this historical poet, an independent mythological figure later associated with him, or simply a shared name is debated and not settled by the surviving sources.