Vidar is the brother of Vali, and the son of Odin and Grid. Vidar is known as the Silent God and will avenge Odin's death by slaying the Fenris wolf at Ragnarok.

Odin once saw and fell in love with the beautiful Grid, who dwelt in a cave in the desert, and, wooing her, prevailed upon her to become his wife. The offspring of this union between Odin (mind) and Grid (matter) was a son as strong as taciturn, named Vidar, whom the ancients considered a personification of the primeval forest or of the imperishable forces of Nature.
As the Gods, through Heimdall, were intimately connected with the sea, they were also bound by close ties to the forests and Nature in general by Vidar, surnamed “The Silent,” who was destined to survive their destruction and rule over the regenerated earth. This God has his home in Landvidi (the wide land), a palace decorated with green boughs and fresh flowers, situated in the midst of an impenetrable primeval forest where reigns the deep silence and solitude which he loves.

“Grown over with shrubs
And with high grass
Is Vidar’s wide land.”
              -NORSE MYTHOLOGY (R. B. Anderson)

This old Scandinavian conception of the silent Vidar is very grand and poetical indeed, and was inspired by the rugged Northern scenery. “Who has ever wandered through such forests, in a length of many miles, in a boundless expanse, without a path, without a goal, amid their monstrous shadows, their sacred gloom, without being filled with deep reverence for the sublime greatness of Nature above all human agency, without feeling the grandeur of the idea which forms the basis of Vidar’s essence?”

Vidar’s Shoe

Vidar is tall, strong, and handsome, has a broad-bladed sword, and besides his armor wears a great leather shoe. Vidar's "thick shoe" consists of all the leather waste pieces that Northern cobblers have cut from their own shoes at the toe and heel, collected by the God throughout all time. As it was very important that the shoe should be large and strong enough to resist the Fenris wolf’s sharp teeth at the last day, it became a matter of religious observance among Northern shoe-makers to give away as many odds and ends of leather as possible.

The Norns’ Prophecy

One day, when Vidar had joined his peers in Valhalla, they welcomed him gaily, for they all loved him and placed their reliance upon him, for they knew he would use his great strength in their favor in time of need. But after he had quaffed the golden mead, Allfather bade him accompany him to the Urdar fountain, where the Norns were busy weaving their web. When questioned by Odin concerning his future and Vidar’s destiny, the three sisters answered oracularly each by the following short sentences:

“Early begun.”
“Further spun.”
“One day done.”

To which their mother, Wyrd, the primitive goddess of fate, added:
“With joy once more won.”

These mysterious answers would have remained totally unintelligible to the Gods, had she not gone on to explain that time progresses, that all must change, but that even if the father fell in the last battle, his son Vidar would be his avenger, and would live to rule over a regenerated world, after having conquered all his enemies.

“There sits Odin’s
Son on the horse’s back;
He will avenge his father.”
              -NORSE MYTHOLOGY (R. B. Anderson)

At Wyrd’s words the leaves of the world tree began to flutter as if agitated by a breeze, the eagle on its topmost bough flapped its wings, and the serpent Nidhug for a moment suspended its work of destruction at the roots of the tree. Grid, joining the father and son, rejoiced with Odin when she heard that their son was destined to survive the older Gods and to rule over the new heaven and earth.

“There dwell Vidar and Vale
In the gods’ holy seats,
When the fire of Surt is slaked.”
              -NORSE MYTHOLOGY (R. B. Anderson)

Vidar, however, said not a word, but slowly wended his way back to his palace Landvidi, in the heart of the primeval forest, where, sitting down upon his throne, he pondered long about eternity, futurity, and infinity. If he fathomed their secrets he never revealed them, for the ancients averred that he was “as silent as the grave” — a silence which indicated that no man knows what awaits him in the life to come.

Vidar is not only a personification of the imperishability of Nature, but he is also a symbol of resurrection and renewal, proving that new shoots and blossoms are always ready to spring forth to replace those which have fallen into decay.
The shoe he wears is to be his defense against the wolf Fenris, who, having destroyed Odin, would turn his entire wrath upon him, and open wide his terrible jaws to devour him. But the old Northerners declared that Vidar would brace the foot thus protected against the monster’s lower jaw, and, seizing the upper, would struggle with him until he had rent him to pieces.