Asgard

**Asgard** (Old Norse: ***Ásgarðr***, "Enclosure of the Aesir") is one of the nine worlds in Norse cosmology, and is the realm of the Aesir, one of two families of Norse gods and the principal pantheon. Asgard lies at the middle of the cosmos, with the world tree, Yggdrasil, growing in its centre. There are many dwellings in Asgard, owned and used by the gods, with the mighty hall Valhalla being the most important. Valhalla is like a capital for Valhalla, the principal council and meeting place of the gods. Valhalla is also the home of and the seat of government for Odin, king of the Aesir, is the home of several other gods and in addition is one of two places where valkyries bring human warriors who have died in battle, to be their afterlife as the einjerhar. The other hall of the einjerhar is Freyja's come of Folkvang.

Asgard is connected to the human world of Midgard through Bifrost, a rainbow bridge, which is always attached to Himinbjörg, the Sky Mountain/Heavenly Mountain, where Heimdall lives and keeps watch for jotunn for the rest of the Aesir. The other end of the rainbow can sometimes move to other places - basically the bridge "swings" at the bottom end, but is always anchored to Himimbjörg above.

## Dwellings

### Valhalla

Odin's hall of Valhalla is near the centre of Asgard, and is the greatest building of Asgard, being more like a smaller walled city with a central castle than a single hall.

### Bilskirnir

The dwelling of Thor and Sif is located in the south-east, hemmed in by the mountains that separate Asgard from Midgard.

#### Thrudvang

Field or fields to the south-east of Asgard where the god Thor's home of Bilskirnir is located. The field is attested in the *Prose Edda* and in *Heimskringla*, both written by the Icelander Snorri Sturluson in the 13th century.

### Breidablik

Breidablik was the home of the god Baldr until his death. It is located in the north-western corner of Asgard.

### Mimir's Well

Mimir's Well is a well located under Yggdrasil, beneath one of its three roots, the one that passes into the land of the rime thurses where the primordial void of Ginnungagap once existed. The well was attested in the *Poetic Edda*, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional, oral sources, and the *Prose Edda*, written in the 13th century by Icelander Snorri Sturluson. The *Prose Edda* states that the water of the well contains much wisdom, and that Odin sacrificed one of his eyes (his right in the *Valhalla* comics) to the well in exchange for a drink. In the poem *Völuspá* in the *Poetic Edda*, a völva (seeress) relates that Mimir drinks of the well every day - except later on his head was struck from his body, but kept alive by Odin's magic. Mimir possibly used Gjallarhorn to drink of the well (*Heimdall's horn*, Old Norse: *Heimdallar hljóð*, is the term used).

### Folkvang

The hall of Freyja, located in the west of Asgard, near the coast. Here half of the deceased warrior men the valkyries bring back from Midgard goes to dwell in their afterlife.

### Noatun

Noatun, the dwelling of the Vanir god of Njord, is at the south of Asgard's coast, at an inlet that cuts deep into Asgard.

### Himinbjörg or the Heavenly Mountain

Himinbjörg is a smaller castle or fortress atop a high mountain, and is to the far east of Asgard, among the mountains separating Asgard from Midgard. Himinbjörg is the home of the Vanir god Heimdall. From here the rainbow bridge of Bifrost is anchored and reaches down to Midgard and has the potential to be moved to Jotunheim as well. Himinbjörg is also the home of Gjallarhorn, which Heimdall blew in to signal the coming of the jotunns during Ragnarok.

### Alfheim

The homestead of the Vanir fertility god Freyr.

### Barri Grove

The beginning of Asgard. According to *Skírnismál* in the *Poetic Edda*, Barri is where Freyr and Gerdr are to consummate their union. In the *Prose Edda* it is implied that Barri is not in Asgard, as Snorri's narrative claims that Skirnir, Freyr's messenger, returns to Asgard after having been at Barri.