Grimnos Kenning

Only one man is an island, only one being is a stranger to all he meets.  Among men, he is called the Stranger, the Hooded One, and the Man of Letters. Among the gods he is called Grimnos, and in their land, as in ours, he is a wanderer and a foreigner.  Everywhere his story is the same: He comes at dusk, seeking hospitality from a charitable household.  In return for bread and bed, he tells tales and reveals the hidden meaning of things, but he is also a thief and a liar and often takes more than he gives.

Some say that in the sunrise of the world, Grimnos carved himself from an oak tree. As both sculpture and sculptor, he chose the form of a wizened old man and began to wander the earth in search of knowledge and magic.

When he faced a titan that stood guard over a tree of knowledge, Grimnos cut off his right hand in exchange for a bite of the fruit, as the titan demanded.  Soon after, Grimnos invented fire, the wheel, the cup, the cord, and the knife, which he shared with the sons of Manu. The next day, he returned for another bite, and when the titan demanded payment, he gouged out his right eye. Eating the fruit, his mind flooded with inspiration, and he created rune-letters, and shared them with the sons of Manu.