Introduction
Bestla is a giantess (jotunn), daughter of the giant Bölthorn, and, through her marriage to Bor, the mother of Odin, Vili and Ve. Her union across the boundary between gods and giants is one of the earliest examples in Norse myth of the intermarriage that repeatedly links the two races despite their later enmity.
Family
Family
Bestla's father Bölthorn is named in the Poetic Edda's Havamal, in a passage where Odin says he learned nine powerful magic songs from his uncle, Bölthorn's son, suggesting that Bestla had a brother, sometimes identified with Mimir, which would make Mimir Odin's maternal uncle.
Sons
With Bor, Bestla is the mother of Odin, Vili and Ve, the three gods who slay the giant Ymir and shape the world from his body, making her, through this union, a direct ancestor of the entire pantheon of Aesir that follows.