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What is Mead?
A bottle and glass of mead Mead is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey. Sometimes it's called honey wine, but that is technically incorrect. A wine is made from fermented fruit juice, and honey is not that.   
Mead is a class of alcoholic beverage unto itself, which tends to (but doesn't have to) have a high alcohol content. In fact, mead can have as much as 21% alcohol without any distilling. There are various types of mead made by adding spices, fruits, or other strange ingredients, and mead might be hybridized with other alcoholic beverages by adding other fermentables. However, every type of mead must contain fermented honey. Note: Mead was also the name of an American paper products company that is now known as MeadWestvaco, but that is not what this page is about. Who invented mead? Where does mead come from?It comes from the Gods, of course. Okay, in reality, no one is absolutely sure when it was first made, but, in fact, it is known to have predated wine. It was known as early as the Minoan culture on Crete, but evidence has been found for its existence in ancient Europe, Africa, and Asia. Various bee goddesses attest to its popularity in various mythologies. However, it is best known as the preferred drink of the Norse Gods. 
Odin and Gunnlöd The story of the Norse Gods' mead comes from a collection of 13th century mythical and heroic Icelandic poems known as The Prose Edda. In the section titled The Poesy of Skalds, a Vanir (one type of Norse god) named Kvasir is murdered by two dwarven brothers. His blood is mixed with honey which then ferments and becomes a magical mead called "The Mead of Poetry". Any drinker turns into an instant poet. The nefarious dwarves later murder a giant name Gillingr. Gillingr's son, Suttungr, captures the dwarves. They give him the mead to purchase their freedom. Suttungr entrusts the mead to his daughter Gunnlöd. Later, Odin steals the mead by seducing her and brings it to Ásgard where it becomes the drink of the Ćsir(the other type of Norse god). However, Suttungr pursued him and during the chase, Odin dropped some. This was for regular folk to drink and was called the "rhymester's share", though Odin was also known to have shared the good stuff with exceptional human poets. 
Gunnlöd The story is slightly different in the Poetic Edda, another collection of Icelandic poems. In the poem called "Hávamál", Gunnlöd parts with the mead willingly rather than having it stolen. Odin thinks well of her and sites her help in his escape from a "grim troll". |