Sæhrímnir: The Norse God Of Eternal Bacon
Alexander Murray/Wikimedia CommonsThe god Freyr rides the magical boar.
Sæhrímnir was the Norse god of eternal bacon. He was a boar cursed with both immortality and being incredibly delicious.
According to Norse legend, every morning, Snorri — the chef to the Norse gods — dragged Sæhrímnir from his pen and threw him into a pot of boiling water. While his body burnt in the pot, Snorri sliced off pieces of his flesh and served them.
Sæhrímnir was pretty big; his flesh was expected to single-handedly feed every single warrior in Valhalla. This hungry crowd included every man who’d fallen in battle from the beginning of the world.
A Meal Fit For All Norse Gods — Except Odin
Apparently, Sæhrímnir was also pretty tasty. Ancient Norse poetry tells us:
“By Andhrímnir in Eldrímnir
Sæhrímnir, the boar, is boiled,
the best of bacons”.
Emil Doepler/Wikimedia CommonsA feast in Valhalla, where Sæhrímnir is served.
Odin alone never touched Sæhrímnir’s meat. He didn’t stop anyone from serving it to him – he just threw the meat to his dogs. Odin himself adhered to a strict, all-liquid diet.
“No food does he need”, the legends tell us. “Wine is both food and drink to him.”
As for Sæhrímnir, he was never allowed to die. Every time a chunk of flesh was cut off his body, it grew back. Chef Snorri cut him down to the bone again and again, from breakfast until the end of dinner, before finally letting the boar go. And then, to his horror, the boar watched his flesh grow back, knowing that soon he’d go through it all over again.
