Key Info

- The personification of Snow

Brief Bio

In the Orkneyinga saga, Snow the Old (Snærr) is son of Frosti 'frost' son of Kári. In the account called Hversu Noregr byggdist ('How Norway was inhabited'), Snær is son of Jökul (Jǫkull 'icicle, ice, glacier') son of Kári. This Kári is lord of the wind and brother of Ægir or Hlér and Logi, all three being sons of the giant Fornjót. Fornjót was the king of "Gotlandi, Kænlandi and Finnlandi" and Snaer bears the title of a king too.

Snow's son in Orkneyinga saga and Hversu is Þorri 'frozen-snow'. The Hversu also gives Snow three daughters: Fön (Fǫnn 'Snowdrift'), Drífa 'snowfall', and Mjöl (Mjǫll, 'powdered snow'). Sturlaugs saga (section 22) brings in King Snow of Finmark and his daughter Mjöl who flies quickly through the air.

The Ynglinga saga relates how Vanlandi the ruler of Sweden visited Snow and married his daughter Drífa, but left in the spring and did not return. Drífa bore Vanlandi a son called Vísbur.

The Hversu also mentions in passing, when speaking of Snær's distant descendant Halfdan the Old, that Snær's life lasted three hundred years.

Snow's son Thorri reigned as king after Snow, and had two sons named Nór and Gór and a daughter named Gói ('thin snow, track-snow').