Hoenir: the silent god of the Aesir

Hoenir was one of the Aesir of Asgard, remembered in later retellings of the myths as a god of silence and indecision. By the account of Mimir, he was a kind, sweet, but simple minded young man who required constant care to keep him from hurting himself. Odin sent him to Vanaheim under the banner of a cultural exchange between the realms, though the All-Father's true purpose was simply to be rid of him. The Vanir families of Vanaheim took Hoenir in and cared for him together, honouring him with a family crest of their own. His story ended in grief: when he learned why he had truly been sent away, Hoenir took his own life. (God of War Ragnarök; Heimskringla)

The god of silence#

Later retellings of the Norse myths call Hoenir a god of silence and indecision, a picture that goes back to the Ynglinga saga, where he would decide nothing without Mimir at his side and answered every hard question by telling others to decide. The old poems give him a grander part too: in the Völuspá he is one of the gods who help Odin give life to the first humans. (Heimskringla; Poetic Edda)

God of War says little of his place among the Aesir, and it never makes clear whether he belonged to the Aesir royal family at all. What Mimir did make clear was his nature. He remembered Hoenir as kind and sweet, a gentle soul among the gods of Asgard, but also simple minded, a young man who needed constant watching to keep him from coming to harm. (God of War Ragnarök)

The exchange between Asgard and Vanaheim#

In the years when Asgard and Vanaheim sought to bind their peace, the two realms arranged a cultural exchange, each sending one of their own to live among the other tribe. The Vanir meant to honour the agreement in good faith. They chose a young bladesmith named Sturla and sent him to Asgard, offering the Aesir a craftsman whose skill spoke well of his people. (God of War Ragnarök)

Odin's choice revealed a different intent. The All-Father sent Hoenir to Vanaheim, and it soon became apparent that he had done so simply as a means of getting rid of him. Hoenir required constant care to keep him from hurting himself, and Odin had no patience for such a charge. What the realms were told was diplomacy was, in truth, a quiet act of abandonment, the disposal of a young god whom the master of Asgard considered a burden. (God of War Ragnarök)

A ward of the Vanir families#

Whatever Odin's purpose, the Vanir did not treat Hoenir as a burden. The various families of Vanaheim welcomed the young god and came together to care for him, sharing the watchfulness his condition required among many households rather than leaving it to one. In time they gave him the highest token of belonging they had: a Vanir family crest of his own, marking him as kin among the people to whom he had been sent away. (God of War Ragnarök)

That gift set Hoenir's crest alongside those of Vanaheim's own honoured names. Long afterward, family crests bearing the marks of Skirnir, Hylli, Kvasir, Freya, and even Odin could be found across the land, and Hoenir's lay among them in Noatun's Garden, resting in a quiet corner of that place. The crest endured as proof of what the Vanir had chosen to do for him: a god discarded by Asgard had been claimed as family by the people who took him in. (God of War Ragnarök)

The truth and his death#

Hoenir's peace in Vanaheim did not survive the truth. By accident he overheard one of his caretakers discussing the All-Father's clear disgust for him, and with those words the kindness of his new home was poisoned by the knowledge of why he had come to it. He had not been sent as an honoured guest of the exchange. He had been thrown away. (God of War Ragnarök)

Distraught at the revelation, Hoenir was found the next morning having taken his own life. He died in Vanaheim, among the families who had cared for him, undone not by any enemy of the realms but by the contempt of the god who should have protected him. His death left its stain on Odin rather than on the Vanir, for the households of Vanaheim had done all that compassion asked of them, and the crest they had given him remained behind as the record of it. (God of War Ragnarök)

In the accounts of Mimir#

Hoenir never walked through the recorded struggles of the Norse realms, but his name survived in the tellings of Mimir. In the account known as the Lost Pages of Norse Myth, Mimir placed Hoenir among the gods who witnessed the First Great War between the Aesir and the Vanir, standing alongside Idunn, Hodr, and Heimdall. In the same telling, when Freyr was set aflame, he caught sight of Hoenir, Bragi, and Sif drunk among the company. (The Lost Pages of Norse Myth)

It was Mimir, too, who preserved the truth of Hoenir's exile and death, remembering him as the kind, sweet, simple minded young man that Odin cast off and the Vanir embraced. Beside the long wars and murders that filled the histories of Asgard, the fate of the Silent god was a small sorrow, but it was among the plainest measures of the All-Father's character: even a gentle son of Asgard who threatened no one was not safe from Odin's contempt. (God of War Ragnarök)