Ullr
Ullr (Ull) is the Norse god of the bow, the ski and the hunt, the son of Sif and stepson of Thor. Snorri says no one can match him as an archer or on skis; his hall is Ydalir, the Yew Dales, and oaths were sworn on his ring.
Meaning
Ullr is the archer and skier among the Norse gods, the son of Sif and the stepson of Thor. His name means “glory” or “splendour”, Store norske leksikon says, and he is the god of single combat, hunting and skiing. Snorri Sturluson’s Edda says he is “so excellent a bowman, and so swift on snowshoes, that none may contend with him”, and that it is good to call on him in single combat; its list of names for him includes God of the Snowshoe, God of the Bow, Hunting-God and God of the Shield. The Eddas survive in manuscripts of the 13th and early 14th centuries and, the National Museum of Denmark notes, were written by Christian writers; the Eddic poems name him only a few times, Lex says. Place names say more: Ullr was important in cult in central Sweden and southern Norway, where many places carry his name. He is honoured in modern Heathenry, where The Troth calls him “the Lord of Hunts and Bounty, the Bow Master, and the Forest Friend”.
Origin and history
Store norske leksikon thinks Ullr is a god with roots far back in time, who still played a large part in cult in the Viking Age. Places named after him include Ullevål and Ulltveit in Norway, and a side form of his name, Ullin, is in Ullensaker and Ullensvang. Ullensaker comes from Old Norse Ullinshof, Ullin’s temple; Ullevål has the genitive of the god’s name as its first part. Lex explains Ullevi, the name of the great stadium in Gothenburg, as “Ull’s vi, his sanctuary”, and The Troth counts no fewer than twenty-three Swedish place names derived from Ullevi. One such sanctuary has been dug. At Lilla Ullevi in Bro parish, north of Stockholm, the vé was excavated in 2007, Stockholm County Museum reports, and found to have had a large stone platform, fences, raised posts and deposited amulet rings; it was given up about the year 800. The Troth counts 67 miniature iron rings in and around the platform. The god’s name may be older still. The Troth, citing a study by Stoklund, notes a scabbard chape from the 3rd-century Thorsberg bog deposit in Schleswig-Holstein whose runic inscription reads “Wolþur’s Servant, not ill-famed”, the oldest possible evidence for the name.
The skier on the Balingsta stone
A runestone at Balingsta in Uppland (U 855), dated to about 1050, shows a hunter on horseback, and in one corner a small archer on skis. Following von Friesen’s reading, it was generally taken as a winter elk hunt, the skier giving the season. In 1983 Lars Silén, of the zoology department at Stockholm University, argued in the journal Fornvännen that the figures do not belong to one scene. The skier, he wrote, shows only three things, and shows them plainly: a man, a bow and arrow, and skis. That is Snorri’s Ullr, and Silén took the little skier as Ull, put there as the symbol or protector of the hunt. He ruled out Skadi, because the skier is too clearly a man, and he called his reading of the rider as Odin far more speculative. He also answered an older doubt. Lindquist had suspected in 1926 that Ullr’s skis were Snorri’s misunderstanding; a figure some two hundred years older than Snorri’s book, if it is Ull, would show that the skis need not be Snorri’s own addition.
Ydalir and the ring of Ull
In the Eddic poem Grímnismál, Odin lists the gods’ halls: “Ydalir call they the place where Ull / A hall for himself hath set”. Bellows translates the name as Yew-Dales and notes that yew wood was used for bows in the North, as Store norske leksikon also says. In Atlakviða, Guthrun reminds Atli of the oaths sworn to her brother Gunnar “By the horse of the rest-bed, and the ring of Ull”; Lex reads this as an oath ring, and Bellows notes that nothing is known of it. The Troth finds the line “reminiscent of the rings found at Lilla Ullevi”.
Ollerus, who ruled in Odin’s place
The one story about him is told by Saxo. Odin, cast out by the gods after an erotic escapade, goes into exile, and Ull, whom Saxo calls Ollerus, becomes chief in his place, Lex summarises; he rules for ten years until Odin returns, then flees to Sweden, where the Danes kill him. The Troth adds that Ollerus sails away over the sea on a bone carved with spells, and notes that the skalds could call a shield “ship of Ullr”, which could hint at a myth in which Ullr sailed on a shield. Lex finds it impossible to say what lies behind Saxo’s version, and asks whether a god of that name was once a rival of Odin.
Ullr today
Nordiska Asa-samfundet describes Ull as the god of the hunt, of oaths and of single combat, who travels on skis or snowshoes and carries a shield and a bow; it notes that the Eddas mention him sparingly, but that many Swedish and Norwegian place names carry his name, which suggests his cult was widespread. Lex compares him with the goddess Skadi. His name is still on the map: Ullensaker’s municipal arms, in use since about 1980, refer to the god (Store norske leksikon), and the big stadiums in Gothenburg and Oslo, Ullevi and Ullevål, both carry his name, Lex notes.
Read next
- Next in Norse gods and their symbolsNjordNjord was the Norse god of the sea, ships and wealth, the god Snorri says men should call on for voyages and hunting. He lives at Nóatún, the “ship-enclosure”, he is the father of Freyr and Freyja, and the giantess Skadi chose him for her husband by his feet.
- The same shape in Greek gods and their symbolsPoseidonPoseidon’s symbol is the trident, a three-pronged spear. Greek artists also gave him the horse, which he was said to have created, and the dolphin, so that he is easy to pick out among the gods.
See also
Skadi, Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr, Tyr.
Sources
- The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation), Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (trans.), 1916, American-Scandinavian Foundation (Internet Archive), Gylfaginning, chapter XXXI; Skáldskaparmál, chapter XIV
- The Poetic Edda (Bellows translation), Henry Adams Bellows (trans.), 1923, American-Scandinavian Foundation (Project Gutenberg), Introduction; Grimnismol, stanza 5 and note; Atlakvitha, stanza 32 and note
- The old religion, National Museum of Denmark, Written sources
- Ull – i norrøn mytologi (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon
- Ullensaker (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon
- Ullevål (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon
- Ull (Lex), Lex, Danmarks Nationalleksikon
- Några reflektioner angående bilderna på Balingsta-stenen i Uppland (Lars Silén, Fornvännen 78, 1983), Lars Silén, Fornvännen 78 (1983), pp. 88–91, Fornvännen, pp. 88–90 and English summary
- Runstenarnas tid (Arkeologi i Stockholms län, seminarierapport 8), Peter Bratt and Richard Grönwall (eds.), Stockholms läns museum (Kulturarv Stockholm), p. 12, “På väg från Ullevi”
- Ullr (Ull, Uller, Wuldor), The Troth
- Gudar, Nordiska Asa-samfundet
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from arrows or lines.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 10, 2026. How we research
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