This document lists all mentions of the god Heimdallr, including direct narratives, descriptive passages, and kennings, as found in the Poetic Edda and Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda.
**Stanza 1:** The poem begins with the seeress addressing all beings as Heimdallr's kin.
‘A hearing I ask from all kindreds,
greater and lesser, the sons of Heimdallr!
You wish, Valfǫðr, that I well recount
ancient tales of the living, those which I recall from longest ago.
Stanza 27: The seeress mentions that "Heimdallar hljóð" is hidden in Mimir's well. (Note: This word means something like sound/hearing, some scholars think it is about Gjallahorn and others think It might reference a lost myth about Heimdallr trading his ear in similar fashion to Odin trading his eye.)
‘She knows of Heimdallr’s hearing,
hidden under the light-accustomed holy tree;
she sees a river splashing in a muddy fall
from Valfǫðr’s pledge. Would you know still [more], or what?
**Stanza 45:** During the onset of Ragnarök, Heimdallr sounds his horn.
‘Mímr’s sons play, and destiny is kindled
at [the sound of?] the resonant Gjallarhorn;
Heimdallr blows loud — the horn’s aloft —
Óðinn speaks to Mímr’s head.
**Stanza 13:** Heimdallr's dwelling, Himinbjörg, is described.
‘Himinbjǫrg is the eighth, and there Heimdallr,
they say, presides over sanctuaries;
there the gods’ watchman drinks in a homely hall,
glad, the good mead.
**Stanza 47-48:** Heimdallr speaks, attempting to stop Loki's insults.
Heimdallr said:
47. ‘You’re drunk, Loki, so that you’ve lost your wits,
why don’t you control yourself, Loki?
Because, for every man, excess drinking ensures
that he doesn’t recall his prattling!’
Loki said:
48. ‘Silence, Heimdallr! In early days
the loathsome life was allotted to you;
with a muddy back you’ll always be,
and stay awake as the gods’ warder!’
**Stanza 15:** Heimdallr offers the wise counsel that solves the gods' dilemma of how to retrieve Thor's hammer.
Then Heimdallr, whitest of Æsir, said this —
he knew the future well, like other Vanir:
‘Let’s bind Þórr, then, in a bride’s linen,
let him have the great torc of the Brísingar!
(Note: Even though the introduction names Heimdallr as Rig, the poem makes no reference to Heimdallr, and some scholars think the poem is actually about Odin. Voluspa stanza 1 seems to agree with the Rig being Heimdallr.)
**Prose Introduction:** The prose introduction to the poem explicitly identifies the protagonist, Rígr, as Heimdallr.
People say thus in ancient stories, that a certain one of the Æsir, the one who was called Heimdallr, went on his travels and, advancing along a certain sea-strand, came to a farmstead and named himself Rígr. This poem is based on that story:
Narrative Summary: The poem then narrates how Rígr (Heimdallr) visits three households. In each, he sleeps between the husband and wife for three nights. Nine months later, a son is born in each home: Thrall (progenitor of the serfs), Karl (progenitor of the free farmers), and Jarl (progenitor of the aristocracy). Heimdallr is thus presented as the father of the three classes of mankind.