Nótt is night personified in Norse mythology, a dark giantess who rides across the heavens on her horse and gives way each morning to her radiant son, the Day. She is one of the oldest ordering figures of the Norse sky, the darkness through which the world turns before dawn.
Who is Nótt?
Nótt — the Old Norse word for "night" — is, in Snorri Sturluson's Gylfaginning, the daughter of a giant named Nörfi (or Narfi) who dwelt in Jötunheim. She was dark and swarthy, as befits the night, and she married three times. By her first husband she bore a son, Auðr; by her second, Annar, she bore a daughter, Jörð, the Earth who would become the mother of Thor; and by her third husband, Dellingr of the kin of the Æsir, she bore a son named Dagr — the Day, bright and fair after his father's people.
Riding the sky
When the Allfather saw Nótt and her son Dagr, Snorri tells, he took them and set them in the sky with horses and chariots to ride around the earth every twenty-four hours. Nótt goes first, drawn by her horse Hrímfaxi, "frost-mane," and each morning the foam that drips from his bit falls upon the earth as the morning dew. After her rides Dagr with his horse Skinfaxi, "shining-mane," whose mane lights up all the sky and the earth below. So night and day chase one another around the world in an endless, ordered round. The Eddic poem Vafþrúðnismál preserves the same reckoning, when Odin asks the wise giant to name the horses that draw forth day and night over the hosts of mankind.
Symbols and legacy
Nótt embodies the night as a living power — not a void but a rider with her own course, mother of the Earth and of the Day alike. She keeps company in the heavens with Máni the moon and Sól the sun, the three of them dividing the reckoning of time between them. Her cold, quiet dominion carries the same still energy as the rune Isa, the rune of ice and waiting. As the mother of Day, Nótt embodies a truth the Norse held close: that light is born out of darkness, and the dawn always follows the night.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Nótt in Norse mythology?
Nótt is night itself, personified as a dark-haired giantess. Daughter of the jötunn Nörfi, she rides across the sky ahead of the day and is counted the mother of Dagr, the Day.
What is the name of Nótt's horse?
Nótt rides a horse called Hrímfaxi, meaning 'frost-mane'. It is said that the foam from his bit falls to earth each morning as dew.
Who are Nótt's children?
Nótt married three times. Her children include Auðr, Jörð (the Earth), and Dagr (the Day), whose father Dellingr was of the Æsir and who follows his mother across the sky.
Is Nótt a goddess or a giantess?
Nótt is of giant descent, the daughter of the jötunn Nörfi, but she rides the heavens by the gods' arrangement and is honoured among the ordering powers of the cosmos.