Asgard- Norse LocationLocation · Realm"Home of the Æsir"

The Celestial Fortress

Asgard sits in the upper branches of Yggdrasil, the highest of the Nine Worlds. Bifröst, the burning rainbow bridge, connects it to Midgard below. Heimdall guards the Asgard end, his hearing so sharp he can detect grass growing on the earth and wool on sheep. Only the gods may cross safely.

The crossing ran both ways. Odin wandered Midgard in a broad hat and a tattered cloak, testing human hospitality. The Valkyries rode to battlefields and carried the worthy dead back to the halls above.

The Plain of Iðavöllr

In the earliest age, the gods gathered at the plain of Iðavöllr in the center of Asgard. The Völuspá describes them raising temples and forges, shaping tools and gold. They played board-games in the grass with golden pieces and knew no sorrow. That age ended when three giantesses came from Jötunheim. What they brought the poem does not say plainly, but afterward the golden age was over.

After Ragnarök, the surviving gods will find those golden pieces in the grass once more.

The Walls of Asgard

After the war with the Vanir left Asgard's defenses in ruins, a builder appeared with an offer: a wall so strong no giant could breach it, completed in a single winter. His price was the sun, the moon, and Freyja. The gods agreed on Loki's advice, certain no one could finish in time.

The builder's stallion Svaðilfari hauled stone with supernatural speed. As the deadline neared and the wall stood almost complete, the gods turned on Loki. He transformed into a mare, lured Svaðilfari into the forest, and the work stalled. When the builder missed his deadline and revealed himself as a jötunn, Thor killed him with Mjölnir. Months later, Loki returned leading an eight-legged foal. Sleipnir became Odin's steed. The gods finished the wall themselves.

The Æsir-Vanir War

The war began with Gullveig. The Völuspá tells how this Vanir sorceress came to Asgard and the Æsir killed her three times: they stabbed her, they burned her, and three times she was reborn. The Vanir marched on Asgard. Neither side could break the other.

Peace came through exchange. The Vanir sent Njörðr and his children to Asgard; the Æsir sent Hœnir and Mímir to Vanaheim. Freyja taught the Æsir the craft of seiðr. The blended court governed Asgard for the rest of its days.

Valhalla and the Halls

Valhalla, the Hall of the Slain, stood at Asgard's heart. Its rafters were spears. Its roof was thatched with shields, and coats of mail hung on the benches. Five hundred and forty doors lined its walls, each wide enough for eight hundred warriors abreast. Each day the einherjar fought and died on the fields outside; each evening they rose whole to feast on the boar Sæhrímnir, who was slaughtered and reborn with them, and to drink mead from the goat Heiðrún. Odin sat at the head, giving his meat to the wolves Geri and Freki. He drank only wine.

Freyja kept her own hall, Sessrúmnir, in the fields of Fólkvangr, where she received her share of the battle-dead. From Valaskjálf, Odin's silver-roofed hall, the throne Hliðskjálf looked out over all the Nine Worlds.

Each day the twelve chief gods rode to the Well of Urðr, where Yggdrasil's root reaches into the spring tended by the Norns. Thor could not cross Bifröst without shattering it, so he waded through the rivers Körmt and Örmt to reach the assembly. Beneath the World Tree, the gods held council while the Norns carved fates into the wood above them.

Ragnarök

When the last battle begins, the sons of Múspell will ride across Bifröst and the bridge will shatter beneath them. Surtr's flaming sword will breach the walls that were built to hold against giants.

Fenrir will swallow Odin. Thor will kill Jörmungandr but stagger nine steps and fall to its venom. Freyr, who gave his sword away to win Gerðr, will face Surtr unarmed. Heimdall and Loki will find each other, and neither will walk away. Then Surtr will cast fire over all the worlds, and Asgard will burn.

After the Fire

The Völuspá says the earth will rise green from the sea. Baldr and Höðr will return from the dead, reconciled. Thor's sons Magni and Móði will carry Mjölnir. The gods will gather again at Iðavöllr, and in the grass they will find the golden game pieces of the old world.