Sól (Germanic mythology)

In Germanic mythology, Sól (Old Norse: [ˈsoːl]) or Sunna (Old High German, and existing as an Old Norse and Icelandic synonym: see Wiktionary sunna), Old English: Siġel, Sunne; Old Frisian: Sunne, Old Saxon: Sunna, Old High German: Sunna, Gothic: 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌽𐍉, romanized: Sunnō) is the Sun personified as a goddess. In Norse mythology, she travels across the sky in a horse-drawn wagon, a motif dating to the Nordic Bronze Age, as depicted on the Trundholm sun chariot, and is sometimes referred to Álfröðull.

One of the two Old High German Merseburg Incantations, written in the 9th or 10th century CE, refers to Sunna as the sister of Sinthgunt. Sól is attested as one of the Æsir in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. Both describe her as the sister of the personified moon, Máni, and the daughter of Mundilfari, and foretell that she will be killed by a monstrous wolf during the events of Ragnarök, although she will have previously given birth to a daughter who will continue her mother's course through the heavens. In the Prose Edda, she is additionally described as the wife of Glenr. As a proper noun, Sól appears throughout Old Norse literature. Scholars have produced theories about the development of the goddess from potential Nordic Bronze Age and Proto-Indo-European roots.

West Germanic attestations

Merseburg Incantations

One of the two Old High German Merseburg Incantations, dated to the 9th or 10th century, mentions Sunna, who is described as having a sister, Sinthgunt. The incantation describes how Phol and Wodan rode to a wood, and there Balder's foal sprained its foot.