In
Norse mythology,
Hjúki (
Old Norse, possibly meaning "the one returning to health") and
Bil (Old Norse, literally "instant") are a brother and sister pair of children who follow the personified
moon,
Máni, across the heavens. Both Hjúki and Bil are solely attested in the
Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by
Snorri Sturluson. Scholarly theories that surround the two concern their nature, their role as potential personifications of the
craters on the moon or
its phases, and their relation to later folklore in
Germanic Europe. Bil has been identified with the
Bilwis, an agriculture-associated figure that is frequently attested in the folklore of German-speaking areas of Europe.
