Heimdall

Heimdall was the dutiful sentry who kept watch over Asgard to warn of any approaching giants or other beings who might want to hard the gods. Heimdall actually kept “watch” by listening to everything that was happening in the entire cosmos. It was said that he could “hear grass growing on the ground and wool growing on sheep”. There seems to be a lost myth about Heimdall sacrificing one of his ears in order to gain exceptional hearing just like Odin who sacrificed one of his own eyes for his own exceptional perceptual ability. Heimdall required less sleep than a bird and tirelessly defended the gods and their heavenly fortress. He sat atop the rainbow bridge called Bifrost which was the entry point to Asgard. In his hand he held Gjallarhorn or the “Resounding Horn” in which he would blow if there was danger. Heimdall is said to have fathered the ancestors of the three main social classes in Norse society: aristocrats, freemen, and slaves. Heimdall was also credited, sometimes, of fathering all of humankind. The animal related to Heimdall was the ram for unknown reasons. The birth of Heimdall was rather confusing for his father was Odin, but he had nine mothers, a feat which is possible for gods, but not humans. Heimdall was not a major god and therefore there is not very much other information related to him.