Four stags of Yggdrasill

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The 17th century Icelander who made this illustration had probably never seen a stag and had little idea what one looked like.

In Norse mythology, there are four stags living in the branches of Yggdrasill. The following is related in the Gylfaginning section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda.

En fjórir hirtir renna í limum asksins ok bíta barr, þeir heita svá: Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr, Duraþrór. Gylfaginning 16, [EB's edition] [A]nd four harts run in the limbs of the Ash and bite the leaves. They are called thus: Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr, Durathrór. Gylfaginning XVI, [Brodeur's translation]

Snorri's source for this information was almost certainly Grímnismál where the following strophe is found.

Hirtir ero ok fiórir,

þeirs af hæfingar á

gaghálsir gnaga:

Dáinn ok Dvalinn,

Dúneyrr ok Duraþrór. Grímnismál 33, [JH's edition]

Harts there are also four,

which from its summits,

arch-necked, gnaw.

Dain and Dvalin,

Duneyr and Durathror. Grímnismál 33, [Thorpe's translation]

References

Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (transl.) (1916). The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Available online at http://www.northvegr.org/lore/prose/index.php
Eysteinn Björnsson (ed.). Snorra-Edda: Formáli & Gylfaginning : Textar fjögurra meginhandrita. 2005. http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/gg/
Jón Helgason (ed.) (1955). Eddadigte (3 vols). København: Munksgaard. Text of Grímnismál available online at http://www.snerpa.is/net/kvaedi/grimnir.htm
Thorpe, Benjamin (tr.) (1866). Edda Sæmundar Hinns Froða : The Edda Of Sæmund The Learned. (2 vols.) London: Trübner & Co. Available online at http://www.northvegr.org/lore/poetic2/000.php

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