Rindr

"Rinda" redirects here. For other uses, see Rinda (disambiguation).

Rindr (Old Norse) or Rinda (Latin) (sometimes Anglicized Rind) is a female character in Old Norse mythology, alternatively described as a giantess, a goddess or a human princess from the east (somewhere in present-day Russia). She was impregnated by Odin and gave birth to Váli.

The main account of Rindr is book III of the Gesta Danorum, written by Saxo Grammaticus around the early thirteenth century. There she is called Rinda and is the daughter of the King of the Ruthenians. After Balderus' death Odin consulted seers on how to get revenge. On their advice Odin went to the Ruthenians disguised as a warrior called Roster. There he was twice turned down by Rinda. He then disguised himself as a medicine woman called Wecha. When Rinda later fell ill, the disguised Odin said he had medicine with which to cure her but it would cause a violent reaction. On advice from Odin the king tied Rinda to her bed. Odin then proceeded to rape her. From the rape was born Bous who would later avenge Balderus.

Óðinn’s seduction of Rindr is described once outside the Gesta Danorum, in a line of stanza 3 of Sigurðarkviða, a poem by Kormákr Ögmundarson praising Sigurðr Hlaðajarl, who ruled around Trondheim in the mid-tenth century. Like other such praise-poems, it is generally assumed to be genuine rather than a later pseudo-historical composition. Kormákr’s verse mentions that ‘Óðinn seið til Rindar’ (‘Óðinn ?enchanted Rindr’), denoting Óðinn’s magical seduction of Rindr with the verb síða. This suggests that Kormakr thought the magic known as seiðr was integral to Óðinn’s wooing of Rindr, and is important evidence for Óðinn's association with this kind of magic.