Víðblindi or Viðblindi ("Very blind") is a jötunn in Norse mythology.
Attestations The skald Hallar-Steinn uses the kenning "Viðblindi's boar" () for whale in a stanza quoted by Snorri Sturluson in his Skáldskaparmál. Snorri explains it as follows:
Here the whale is called Boar of Viðblindi; this Viðblindi was a giant who drew whales out of the sea like fishes.
—Skáldskaparmál (XLVI), Brodeur's translation
A similar kenning for whale, "Víðblindi's pig" (), can be found in an anonymous stanza from the 13th century preserved in Laufás-Edda.Online at Skaldic Arts.
Víðblindi is also listed among the in the þulur.
Interpretation and discussion Rudolf Simek noted that the only known for fishing whales is Hymir,Hymiskviða 21. but he is never called Víðblindi / Viðblindi.Simek 1996.
Notes
References Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (trans.). 1916. Snorri Sturluson: The Prose Edda. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Simek, Rudolf. 1996. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Translated by Angela Hall. First published: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1984. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer. .