Beli (jötunn)


Beli is a jötunn in Norse mythology. He is said in eddic poetry to have been killed by the god Freyr.

Name

The Old Norse name Beli has been translated as 'roarer'. It is related to the Old Norse weak verb belja.

Attestations

Eddas

In Gylfaginning, the god Freyr is forced to fight weaponless against the giant Beli, since he has given his sword to his servant Skírnir before sending him to court Gerðr for his mater. Freyr eventually manages to kill the giant with the antler of a hart.
In Völuspá, Freyr is portrayed as "Beli's slayer".

Viking Age

In Háleygjatal, written by 10th-century skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir, Freyr is called "Beli's enemy", and Þjóðólfr of Hvinir uses the kenning "evil troop of Beli" in his Haustlöng.

Theories

According to scholar John Lindow, the killing of Beli is part of an older myth that has been lost and "can be glimpsed only in passing".
Elsewhere in Skírnismál, Gerðr complains of the slaying of her brother by Frey, which some scholars have interpreted as evidence that she was the sister of Beli. According to Orchard, "it is clear that Gerd’s reluctance to accept Frey’s favours is based in no small part on her grief for her unnamed brother, whom Frey has killed. It is therefore possible that Beli is the brother of Gerd, although Frey’s traditional weaponlessness, most tellingly at Ragnarok against Surt, render the identification uncertain."