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This article is about the realm of Norse
Mythology. For other uses of the names
Asgard,
Asguard,
Asgaard,
Aasgaard,
Aasgard, or
Asgård, see
Asgard (disambiguation).
In Norse
mythology, Asgard (Old Norse: Ásgarðr; meaning
"Enclosure of the Æsir"[1])
is one of the Nine Worlds and is the country or capital city of the
Norse Gods surrounded by an
incomplete wall attributed to a Hrimthurs riding the stallion Svadilfari, according to
Gylfaginning. Valhalla is located within Asgard. Odin and his wife, Frigg are the rulers of Asgard.
Attestations
In the
Prose
Edda,
Gylfi, King of
Sweden before the arrival of the
Æsir under
Odin,
travels to Asgard, questions the three officials shown in the
illumination concerning the Æsir, and is beguiled. Note that the
officials have one eye, a sign of Odin. One of his attributes is
that he can make the false seem true. 18th century Icelandic
manuscript.
The primary sources regarding Asgard come from the Prose Edda, written in
the 13th century by icelandic Snorri Sturluson, and the Poetic Edda, compiled
in the 13th century from a basis of much older Skaldic poetry.
Poetic
Edda
Völuspá, the first poem of the work,
mentions many of the features and characters of Asgard portrayed by
Snorri, such as Yggdrasil and Iðavöllr.
Prose
Edda
The Prose Edda
presents two views regarding Asgard.
Prologue
In the Prologue Snorri offers an euhemerized and Christian-influenced
interpretation of the myths and tales of his forefathers. As-gard,
he conjectures, is the home of the Æsir (singular Ás) in As-ia,
making a folk etymological connection between the
three "As-"; that is, the Æsir were "men of Asia", not gods, who
moved from Asia to the north and some of which intermarried with
the peoples already there. Snorri's interpretation of the 13th
century foreshadows 20th century views of Indo-European migration from
the east.
Snorri further writes that Asgard is a land more fertile than
any other, blessed also with a great abundance of gold and jewels.
Correspondingly, the Æsir excelled beyond all other people in
strength, beauty and talent.
Snorri proposes the location of Asgard as Troy, the center of the earth. About it were 12
kingdoms and 12 chiefs. One of them, Múnón, married Priam's daughter, Tróán, and had by
her a son, Trór, to be pronounced Thor in Old
Norse. The latter was raised in Thrace. At age 12 he was whiter than ivory, had
hair lighter than gold, and could lift 10 bear skins at once. He
explored far and wide. His son, Odin, led a migration to the
northern lands, where they took wives and had many children,
populating the entire north with Aesir. One of the sons of Odin was
Yngvi, founder of the Ynglingar, an early royal family of Sweden.
Gylfaginning
A depiction of the creation of the world by
Odin,
Vili and Vé. Illustration by Lorenz
Frølich.
In Gylfaginning, Snorri presents the
mythological version taken no doubt from his sources. Icelanders
were still being converted at that time. He could not present the
myths as part of any current belief. Instead he resorts to a
debunking device: Gylfi, king of Sweden before the Æsir, travels to
Asgard and finds there a large hall (Valhalla) in Section 2.
Within are three officials, whom Gylfi in the guise of Gangleri
is allowed to question about the Asgard and the Æsir. A revelation
of the ancient myths follows, but at the end the palace and the
people disappear in a clap of thunder and Gylfi finds himself alone
on the plain, having been deluded (Section 59).
In Gylfi's delusion, ancient Asgard was ruled by the senior god,
the all-father, who had twelve names. He was the ruler of
everything and the creator of heaven and earth (Section 3). During
a complex creation myth in which the cosmic cow licked Buri free from the ice, the sons of
Buri's son, Bor, who were Odin, Vili and Vé, constructed the universe and
put Midgard in it as a
residence for the first human couple, Ask and Embla, whom they created from
driftwood trees in Section 9.
Consistency is not to be expected from the myth. The sons of Bor
then constructed Asgard (to be identified with Troy, Snorri insists
in section 9) as a home for the Æsir, who were divinities. Odin is
identified as the all-father. Asgard is conceived as being on the
earth. A rainbow bridge, Bifröst, connects it to heaven (Section 13). In
Asgard also is a temple for the 12 gods, Gladsheim, and another
for the 12 goddesses, Vingólf. The plain of Idavoll is the centre of
Asgard (Section 14).
The gods hold court there every day at the Well of Urd, beneath an ash tree, Yggdrasil, debating the
fates of men and gods. The more immediate destinies of men are
assigned by the Norns (Section 15).
Long descriptions of the gods follow. Among the more memorable
details are the Valkyries, the battle maidens whom Odin
sends to allot death or victory to soldiers. Section 37 names 13
Valkyries and states that the source as the Poetic Edda poem Grímnismál. Odin's residence is Valhalla, to which he takes
those slain in battle, the Einherjar (Section 20). Snorri quips: "There
is a huge crowd there, and there will be many more still ...."
(Section 39). They amuse themselves every day by fighting each
other and then going to drink in the big hall.
Toward the end of the chapter Snorri becomes prophetic,
describing Ragnarök,
the twilight of the gods. Much of it sounds like the Apocalypse, by which
Snorri, a Christian, can hardly fail to have been influenced. It
will begin with three winters of snow, with no summers in between.
Wars will follow, then earthquakes and tidal waves. The sky will
split open and out will ride the sons of Muspell intent on universal
destruction. They will try to enter heaven but Bifröst will break
(Section 55). Heimdall
will blow his mighty horn Gjöll and the Æsir and Einherjar will
ride out to battle. Most of the Æsir will die and Asgard be
destroyed. Snorri quotes his own source saying: "The sun will go
black, earth sink in the sea, heaven be stripped of its bright
stars;...." (Section 56).
Afterwards, the earth rises again from the sea, is fairer than
before, and where Asgard used to be a remnant of the Æsir gather,
some coming up from Hel, and talk and play chess all day
with the golden chessmen of the ancient Æsir, which they find in
the grass (Section 58).
Skáldskaparmál
The 10th century Skald Þorbjörn dísarskáld is quoted in
Skáldskaparmál as stating:
"Thor has defended Asgard and Ygg's [Odin's] people [the gods]
with strength."[1]
Heimskringla
Ynglinga
Saga
By the time of the Ynglinga Saga,
Snorri had developed his concept of Asgard further, although the
differences might be accounted for by his sources. In the initial
stanzas of the poem Asagarth is the capital of Asaland, a section
of Asia to the east of the Tana-kvísl or Vana-Kvísl river (kvísl is
"fork"), which Snorri explains is the Tanais, or Don River, flowing into the Black Sea. The river
divides "Sweden the Great", a concession to the Viking point of view. It is never called that
prior to the Vikings (Section 1).
The river lands are occupied by the Vanir and are called Vanaland or Vanaheim. It is
unclear what people Snorri thinks the Vanes are, whether the
proto-Slavic
Venedi or
the east Germanic Vandals,
who had been in that region at that time for well over 1000 years.
He does not say; however, the Germanic names of the characters,
such as Njord, Frey and Vanlandi, indicate he had the Vandals in
mind.
Odin is the chief of Asagarth. From there he conducts and
dispatches military expeditions to all parts of the world. He has
the virtue of never losing a battle (Section 2). When he is away,
his two brothers, Vili and Vé, rule Asaland from
Asagarth.
On the border of Sweden is a mountain range running from
northeast to southwest. South of it are the lands of the Turks,
where Odin had possessions; thus, the mountains must be the Caucasus
Mountains. On the north are the unihabitable fells, which must
be the tundra/taiga country. Apparently the Vikings did not
encounter the Urals or the Uralics of the region.
Snorri evidences no knowledge of them.
There also is no mention of Troy, which was not far from Constantinople,
capital of the Byzantine empire and militarily beyond the
reach of the Vikings. Troy cannot have been Asagarth, Snorri
realizes, the reason being that the Æsir in Asaland were unsettled
by the military activities of the Romans; that is, of the Byzantine
Empire.
As a result, Odin led a section of the Æsir to the north looking
for new lands in which to settle. They used the Viking route up the
Don and the Volga through Garðaríki, Viking
Russia. From there they went
to Saxland (Germany) and to the lands of Gylfi in Scandinavia (Section 5). The historical
view, of course, is mainly fantastical. The Germanics were in
Germany and Scandinavia during earliest mention of them in Roman
literature, long before the Romans had even conquered Italy. To
what extent Snorri's presentation is poetic creation only remains
unclear.
Demoted from his position as all-father, or king of the gods,
Odin becomes a great sorcerer in the Ynglinga Saga. He can
shape-shift, speaks only in verse, and lies so well that everything
he says seems true. He strikes enemies blind and deaf but when his
own men fight they go berserk and cannot be harmed. He has a ship
that can be rolled up like a tablecloth when not used, he relies on
two talking ravens to gather intelligence, and he consults the
talking head of a dwarf for prophecy (he carries it around long
since detached from its body) (Section 7).
As a man, however, Odin is faced with the necessity to die. He
is cremated and his possessions are burned with him so that he can
ascend to - where? If Asgard is an earthly place, not there. Snorri
says at first it is Valhalla and then adds: "The Swedes now
believed that he had gone to the old Asagarth and would live there
forever" (Section 9). Finally Snorri resorts to Heaven, even though
nothing in Christianity advocates cremation and certainly the
burning of possessions avails the Christian nothing.
Etymology
According to the The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,
Asgard is derived from Old Norse āss, god +
gardhr, enclosure; from Indo-European roots ansu- spirit,
demon (see cognate ahura) + gher- grasp, enclose (see
cognates garden and yard).[2]
Other
spellings
- Alternatives Anglicisations: Ásgard, Ásegard, Ásgardr, Asgardr,
Ásgarthr, Ásgarth, Asgarth, Esageard, Ásgardhr, Asgaard
- Common Swedish and Danish form: Asgård
- Norwegian: Åsgard (also Åsgård,
Asgaard, Aasgaard)
- Icelandic, Faroese:
Ásgarður
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