Key Info

- He and his wife's murder by the dwarves led to his son gaining the Mead of Poetry

Brief Bio

In the Skáldskaparmál, the dwarfs Fjalar and Galar kill Gillingr by overturning his boat. When his wife hears of the news, she is "greatly distressed" and "weeps loudly" and the dwarf Galar, "weary of her howling", eventually kills her by dropping a millstone on her head.

As stated in the Skáldskaparmál:

"Then these dwarfs invited to stay with them a giant called Gilling and his wife. Then the dwarfs invited Gilling to go out to sea in a boat with them. But as they went along the coast the dwarfs rowed on to a shoal and the boat capsized. Gilling could not swim and was drowned, but the dwarfs righted their boat and rowed to land."