The war between the Gods

Once upon a time the Gods in Aasgard fought a bitter war, as always mostly, based on misunderstanding and own faulty character.

Freya was a Vanir. The most prominent of the Gods of sorcery, fertility and wisdom. To make a living she offered her skills to the ones that could pay. A special kind of sorcery, the seidr, is about discerning what is to come and alter the fate. She was good at that, so when she came to Aasgard the Æsirs welcomed her willingly. After a while they found that the integrity and honour they cherished was compromised. They began to use her knowledge selfish. They began to call her Gullveig, the gold seeker and blamed her for their character breach.

Three times they tried to kill her by burning her. Every time she rose from the ashes again. This eventually lead to war between the two branches of Gods. The Æsirs fought with strength and honour and the Vanirs fought with sorcery and tricks. The war swung sometimes in favour of the Æsirs and sometimes in favour of the Vanirs. Both parties became weary of fighting and settled for peace negotiations.

In good Viking tradition they offered each other a peace warranty. Two hostages from the Æsirs were to live with the Vanirs and two hostages from the Vanirs were to live with the Æsirs. Freya and Njord (Freya's father) became hostages at the Æsirs while Mimir and Honir came to live in Vanarheim

Peace settled in Aasgard and both Njord and Freya fit in among the Æsirs. With the Vanirs things were more complex. Honir was the social guy and Mimir the quiet wise guy. He spoke mainly with Honir and the Vanirs got the impression Honir was the wise guy. He could deliver a solution to any problem the Vanirs had,  and they cherished his presence while Mimir more and more was left in the background and overseen. Only Honir spent long hours talking with Mimir. The Vanirs thought they had been cheated with one of the hostages and decided to kill Mimir. They sent his head to Valhalla. Ođin grieved the loss of his wise friend (some say his brother) and preserved his head at Mimir's quell and informed the Vanirs about their mistake.

Both sides were war weary, so they did not engage in new strides over this tragic misunderstanding. Instead both sides spat in a cauldron and with joined forces they cooked a solid mass and hauled  Kvasir, the wisest of all creatures, out of the cauldron. In this way they kept the truth between them. And Kvasir has adapted to new tides and continuously deliver words of wisdom to both Gods and humans.