NAME: No one has yet to offer a better etymology than the doubtful *heim-dalthu-, which might be taken to mean "world tree."

CHARACTERISTICS: Heimdall is the guardian; he stands at the high end of Bifrøst and will sound a warning on his Gjallerhorn when the hordes of Ragnarøk approach. He is well-suited to his task, being able to see a hundred leagues and to hear grass and wool growing. Vøluspá reports that he deposits his hljóð beneath Yggdrasill; one possible meaning is that he leaves one ear in Mímir's Well for increased abilities, much as Óðinn leaves his eye.

WORSHIP: Although there is some evidence to suggest that Heimdall is an old and once important god, his position in the extant literature is minor, and he was not worshipped as a major god. The surviving sources are primarily concerned with the gods of the rulers and warriors. Heimdall has certain features that associate him with the Vanir and so the literature may not fully reflect his importance, but onomastic evidence does not suggest a major following. Either the god was never fully incorporated into the Germanic pantheon or his early importance has faded

THE RAM: Heimdall is regularly associated with the ram. Heimdali is a poetic synonym for ram, and while Heimdall has no weapon, a kenning for "sword" is "Heimdal's head," i.e., the butting weapon of a ram. Conversely, a kenning for "head" is "Heimdal's sword." Regular epithets for Heimdall are Gullintanni and Hallinskíði -- "golden-toothed" and "bent sticks," referring to the teeth and horns of an old ram. Welsh folklore refers to whitecaps as the "sheep" of the mermaid Gwenhudwy, "the White Sorceress;" the eight sheep are followed by the ninth, most powerful, breaker, which is called "the ram." Perhaps significantly, Heimdall is born of "one and eight mothers" (the nine sisters are sometimes giantesses) and he is called both Vindhlér ("gale sea") and hvíti áss, ("the white god").

VESTIGE OR BORROWING?: Heimdall is said in Rígsþula to have fathered the three divisions of human society (slaves, farmers, and leaders) over several generations. Vøluspá begins with a curious invocation:

Hearken I bid all hallowed kindred,
Major and minor sons of Heimdall.

Is Heimdall the progenitor of all humans? Vøluspá says he was born "in days of yore," (or "in the beginning") and Heimdall will be the last to die at Ragnarøk (battling Loki). His possible connection to the ninth wave as the "ram" of Celtic tradition may parallel the Indic Bhísma (an incarnation of Dyaus), the ninth and sole surviving offspring of the river Ganges, after his eight bothers drown. Without further evidence it is difficult to decide whether Heimdall is a vestige of an ancient Indo-European tradition of a progenitor god born from a river goddess, or an incomplete assimilation of specifically Celtic traditions of a progenitor sea-god.