Gestumblindi
Encyclopedia
Gestumblindi is a character in Norse mythology
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...

 who appears in Hervarar saga
Hervarar saga
Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas. It is a valuable saga for several different reasons beside its literary qualities. It contains traditions of wars between Goths and Huns, from the 4th century, and the last part is used as...

and in Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus also known as Saxo cognomine Longus was a Danish historian, thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, foremost advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the first full history of Denmark.- Life :The Jutland Chronicle gives...

' Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...

as Gestiblindus. Later, he also appears in several Scandinavian folk tales as Gest Blinde.

Hervarar saga

According to Hervarar saga
Hervarar saga
Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks is a legendary saga from the 13th century combining matter from several older sagas. It is a valuable saga for several different reasons beside its literary qualities. It contains traditions of wars between Goths and Huns, from the 4th century, and the last part is used as...

, Gestumblindi was a powerful man in Reidgotaland
Reidgotaland
Reidgotaland, Hreidgotaland or Hreiðgotaland was a land in Scandinavian sagas as well as in the pre-Viking English Widsith, which usually referred to the land of the Goths...

, i.e. a Goth
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....

, who had angered king Heidrek
Heidrek
Heidrek or Heiðrekr was one of the main characters in the cycle about the magic sword Tyrfing. He appears in the Hervarar saga, and probably also in Widsith, line 115, as Heathoric together with his sons Angantyr and Hlöð , and Hlöð's mother Sifka...

 by refusing to pay him tribute.

King Heidrek had in his hird
Hird
The hird, in Norwegian history, was originally an informal retinue of personal armed companions, hirdmen or housecarls, but came to mean not only the nucleus of the royal army, but also developed into a more formal royal court household....

 twelve men who were entrusted to take care of all the legal disputes in the kingdom. If anyone had any complaint, they had the right to approach these men and would have right to both life and limb on the condition that they asked the king a number of riddles that the king could not answer.

Heidrek sent a message to Gestumblindi that if he did not appear at the court at a certain date, he would be imprisoned.

In desperation, Gestumblindi sacrificed
Blót
The blót was Norse pagan sacrifice to the Norse gods and the spirits of the land. The sacrifice often took the form of a sacramental meal or feast. Related religious practices were performed by other Germanic peoples, such as the pagan Anglo-Saxons...

 to Odin
Odin
Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....

 asking him for assistance. Shortly thereafter, a stranger appeared at Gestumblindi's homestead, and this stranger also called himself Gestumblindi. The two men were so similar that no one could tell them apart. They changed clothes and Gestumblindi went away to hide.

Everyone thought that the new man was the real Gestumblindi and then the stranger went to king Heidrek and between them was the most exquisite contest in wisdom. Gestumblindi told riddles, mostly about nature but also about Norse mythology, and Heidrek answered them all (these riddles are presented in detail and they are among the most interesting riddles in Norse mythology).

Finally, Odin/Gestumblindi told Heidrek the same riddle that he had once asked Vafthruthnir, i.e. "What did Odin whisper in Balder
Balder
Baldr is a god in Norse mythology.In the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story...

's ear before Balder was cremated?" Heidrek, realising that Gestumblindi was Odin, became very angry and wanted to strike Odin with his cursed sword Tyrfing
Tyrfing
Tyrfing or Tirfing was a magic sword in Norse mythology, which figures in a poem from the Poetic Edda called Hervararkviða, and in Hervarar saga...

. Odin turned into a hawk
Hawk
The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...

, but Heidrek's sword cut off a piece of the bird's tail, which is why the hawk has the tail he has.

Gesta Danorum

Saxo Grammaticus relates that Gestiblindus was a king of the Geats
King of the Geats
Geatish kings , ruling over the provinces of Götaland , appears in several sources for early Swedish history...

 who gave himself and his kingdom up to Frodi, the king of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 on condition that Frodi would defend him against Alrik, the king of Sweden.
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