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Bestla (Old Norse: ) is a jötunn in Norse mythology, and the mother of the Odin, Vili and Vé (by way of Borr). She is also the sister of an unnamed man who assisted Odin, and the daughter (or granddaughter depending on the source) of the jötunn Bölþorn. Odin is frequently called "Bestla's son" in both skaldic verses and the Poetic Edda.
Bestla is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of . Scholars have commented on the obscurity of the figure's name and have proposed various theories to explain the role and origin of the giantess.
According to Rudolf Simek, "the name appears to be very old" due to its obscurity.
In Skáldskaparmál (The Language of Poetry), a poem by the skald Einarr Helgason refers to Odin as "Bestla's son".
Hávamál (140) makes Bölþor(n) the grandfather of Bestla. Odin recounts his gaining of nine galdr from Bestla's unnamed brother. If nothing indicates a family relationship between Odin and the man in the stanza (although skalds were certainly aware of Bestla as Odin's mother), and if the mead was allegedly stolen according to other sources, it is possible that Odin obtained magical songs from his maternal uncle.
- Benjamin Thorpe translation (1866):
- Potent songs nine from the famed son I learned
- of Bolthorn, Bestla’s sire,
- and a draught obtained of the
- precious mead, drawn from Odhrærir.
- H. A. Bellows translation (1923):
- Nine mighty songs I got from the son
- Of Bolthorn, Bestla's father;
- And a drink I got of the goodly mead
- Poured out from Othrorir.Bellows (1923:92).
- John Lindow translation (2002):
- Nine magic songs I got learned? from the famous son
- Of Bölthor, Bestla’s father,
- And I got a drink of the precious mead,
- Poured from by? Ódrerir.
Since Odin is descended from the jötnar on his mother's side, the slaying of Ymir by him and his brothers could be seen as an intra-familial killing and, according to scholar John Lindow, "the slaying or denial of a maternal relation".
Waltraud Hunke has argued that Bestla should be regarded as the bark of the Yggdrasil on which Odin was perhaps born, alluding to Hávamál (141): "then I started to grow fruitful".
In his translation of the Poetic Edda, Henry Adams Bellows comments that such the position of the stanza 140 in Hávamál appears to be the result of manuscript interpolation, and that its meaning is obscure.
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