Heidrun
Supernatural she-goat in Valhal whose teats produce enough mead daily for all the einherjes.
Heidrun is the she-goat who stands in Valhal, biting the leaves from the branches of the tree Lerad. From her teats "runs so much mead that she fills every day a vessel in the hall from which the horns are filled, and which is so large that all the einherjes get all the drink they want out of it" (Prose Edda, Life In Valhal). She is one of the supernatural animals that sustain the afterlife of the warrior dead.
The Prose Edda describes Heidrun with a specificity that connects the mythological to the practical. The mead she produces is not symbolic but functional: it fills a vessel large enough for all the einherjes. The image of a goat feeding on a cosmic tree to produce an inexhaustible supply of mead mirrors the complementary figure of the boar whose flesh regenerates each day. Together these animals solve the logistics of an eternal feast -- the Prose Edda's Valhal is a place where the practical problems of feeding an ever-growing company of dead warriors have been anticipated and resolved.
Appears in: Beings, Entities in Prose Edda, Norse Tradition