Ullr: Norse God of Winter Sports

One obscure yet interesting deity in Norse mythology is Ullr. It appears that Ullr used to be a god of some prominence in Norse mythology, however his influence degraded over time. As a result of this, many of the mythological texts on Norse mythology don’t have much mention of him, as they were written later, when Ullr was out of fashion.

However we do know some things about Ullr. He was said to be the son of Sif, and Aesir goddess of grain. His father is unknown, except that it was NOT Thor, the wife of Sif, who is instead Ullr’s stepfather.

Ullr was the god of many things, including winter, snow, hunting, archery, and skiing (of all things) It was said he lived in a glade of yew trees, which makes sense as yew is the ideal wood for bow-making, and Ullr was renowned for his skill in archery. This archery skill translated well to becoming a god of hunting, and he was often pictured as skiing or sledding around in the snow with his bow, on the hunt. When I first learned about Ullr, I was surprised as I didn’t even know the ancient Scandinavian people had skis, or sleds for that matter. It seemed odd that they would have a deity of something so trivial. However, Ullr used to be a much more important deity in Norse mythology.

One example of this is that there is passing mention that when Odin, the leader of the Norse Aesir gods, was away, Ullr took control as a temporary leader. This shows he was an important player, as he was apparently only one step down from Odin, the All-father. Also, Ullr was a common deity to make an oath by, further symbolizing his importance.

There are other disparate facts about Ullr, apparently he was a good deity to invoke before a duel, and he had some connection with a warriors shield. However these don’t seem to relate to other ideas about him, and I think his main domain was that of winter and its various activities, such as skiing, hunting, etc.

So, the next time you decide to go skiing, or for that matter snowboarding, ice-skating, or any other winter sport, consider sending a thought up to Ullr, I’m sure he would welcome the attention.