The Vánir and the Æsir resolve their differences and seal the agreement by spitting into a jar. From the spittle comes a being named Kvasir. He is attacked by dwarves, who kill him and take his blood. The blood ferments into mead. The giant Suttung places the mead inside a mountain and sets his daughter to guard it. Óðinn enters in the form of a snake, seduces the giantess, and drinks the mead. Óðinn flees back toward Ásgarðr in eagle form, with Suttung in close pursuit as a falcon. Óðinn spills a small amount of mead outside the walls of Ásgarðr and drops the rest into a waiting vat.

The myth is, in part, a metaphoric account of creating alcohol. Human spittle was (and still is) used as a source of yeast for the fermentation process, and Kvasir is a personification of alcohol (in Russia, kvas is a fermented beverage).