Midgard
Midgard (Old Norse Miðgarðr, "the middle enclosure") is the world of humans in Norse mythology. Snorri Sturluson says Odin and his brothers made the earth from the body of the giant Ymir and built Midgard from Ymir's eyebrows as a wall against the giants. Around all lands lies the deep sea where the Midgard Serpent, Jörmungandr, bites its own tail, and the bridge Bifröst runs from earth to heaven.
The Norse mythology universe has a lot of exciting topics and elements. Most of them are somewhat familiar to the general public thanks to increasingly popular Nordic literature and blockbuster movies as well as TV shows that became a real hype in recent years.
All Norse mythology creatures, characters, places, and events have their background, and there are plenty of origin stories and character development stories that depict every tale into details.
However, the less familiar stories are usually about less-known characters and worlds from the Norse universe. The old poems speak of nine worlds, and for us, the people, the most exciting one is the human realm known as Midgard (Old Norse Miðgarðr).
Norse Mythology Gods and Creatures
People that are into Norse mythology are well-aware that the more they read and learn about it, the more hooked to it they’ll become. The entire mythology revolves around mystical beings, magic, incredible creatures, battles, various worlds, and grand events.
Who doesn’t like to read more about the exceptional fantasy universe?
The Nine Realms In Norse Cosmology
The number nine comes from the poems. In Völuspá (stanza 2) the seeress says she remembers nine worlds, and in Vafþrúðnismál (stanza 43) the wise giant Vafþrúðnir says he has been to nine worlds. Snorri Sturluson, writing his Gylfaginning around 1220, says Odin gave the goddess Hel power over nine worlds. None of these texts names the nine.
The list most modern books use is Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Midgard, Jötunheim, Svartalfheim (or Nidavellir), Muspelheim, Niflheim and Hel, which modern books call Helheim. It is put together from place-names scattered through Snorri's Edda and the Eddic poems. So is the familiar diagram that stacks the nine in three levels on the world-tree Yggdrasil, with Asgard in the crown, Midgard on the trunk and Hel among the roots. No medieval text draws the world that way.
What the sources say is simpler. The poem Grímnismál (stanza 31) says Hel lives under one of Yggdrasil's three roots, the frost giants under the second and human beings under the third. Snorri gives the roots differently, one among the Aesir, one among the frost giants and one over Niflheim, and says the branches spread over the whole world and stand above heaven. His own map of the world is mostly level: a round earth with the deep sea lying around it, the giants given land along the shore, Midgard inside, and Asgard built by the gods in the middle of the world.
Yggdrasil is often called the Tree of Life, but that is a modern label; Snorri calls it an ash, the greatest and best of all trees, and the place where the gods hold their court every day. No source says where it came from. At Ragnarök, Völuspá says, the ash shakes where it stands, but no source says what becomes of it afterwards.
Midgard Has Many Names
Midgard is known by many names in numerous languages, because the word is much older than the Norse myths. Old Norse Miðgarðr is built from miðr, "middle", and garðr, "enclosure, yard". The extinct Gothic language had the same word, midjungards: Wulfila's Gothic Bible, translated in the 4th century, uses it in Luke 2:1, where all the world is to be registered. "The home of men", Manheimar, is sometimes given as another name for Midgard, but in Snorri's Ynglinga saga Manheimar is a name for Sweden.
There are numerous variations of Midgard’s name in other languages as well, like Mittilagart in the Old High German poem Muspilli, Middangeard in Old English (spelled middungeard in the Northumbrian text of Cædmon's Hymn in the Moore manuscript, c. 737), and Middilgard in the Old Saxon epic poem Heliand. All of these are Christian texts, and in each the word simply means the world people live in. Middle-earth comes from middel-erde, the later Middle English form of the same word. In Scandinavia itself, the Viking Age Fyrby runestone in Södermanland praises two brothers as the most rune-skilled men "in Midgard".
The Creation Of Midgard
In Snorri's account the world began with a gap, Ginnungagap, between icy Niflheim in the north and fiery Muspelheim in the south. Where the rime from the north met the warm air from the south, it melted and dripped, and the drops came to life, Snorri says, "by the power of the one who sent the heat". From them came the first giant, Ymir, whom the frost giants call Aurgelmir. A cow, Audhumla (Old Norse Auðhumla), formed from the dripping rime as well, and Ymir fed on her milk. She licked the salty rime-stones, and over three days she uncovered a man, Buri, the grandfather of Odin.
Now, this is the fun part.
Buri had a son, Borr, but Snorri does not say who the mother was. Borr married the giantess Bestla, daughter of the giant Bölþorn, and they had three sons: Odin, Vili and Vé. Ymir had already produced the first frost giants on his own: while he slept he sweated, a man and a woman grew under his left arm, and one of his legs begot a son with the other.
Odin, Vili and Vé killed Ymir. So much blood ran from his wounds that it drowned the frost giants, all but Bergelmir and his wife. The brothers carried Ymir's body into the middle of Ginnungagap and made the world from it.
Ymir’s flesh became the land, and his blood became the sea, which the gods laid in a ring around the earth. The mountains came from his bones, and rocks and scree from his teeth and broken bones. Grímnismál adds that the trees came from his hair. His brains were flung into the air to make the clouds.
The gods raised Ymir’s skull over the earth as the sky and set a dwarf under each of its four corners: Nordri, Austri, Vestri and Sudri, the four directions. The lights of the sky did not come from the skull. Snorri says the gods took the sparks and glowing embers that flew out of Muspelheim and set them in the sky to light heaven and earth.
That’s not all, since this is when the dawn of the first humans began.
Prose and Poetic Edda by Snorri Sturluson
According to Snorri, Odin and his two brothers were walking along the seashore when they found two trees and made people from them. The first gave them breath and life, the second wit and movement, the third a face, speech, hearing and sight. The man was called Ask (Old Norse Askr) and the woman Embla (Old Norse Embla). Askr means "ash"; the meaning of Embla is less certain, and "elm" is only one of the explanations scholars have proposed. In the Poetic Edda, Völuspá (stanzas 17 and 18) tells it differently: there the three gods who give life to Ask and Embla are Odin, Hœnir and Lóðurr.
Midgard itself was the gods' defence against the giants. Snorri says the earth is round, with the deep sea lying around it. Along its shore the gods gave land to the giants, and further in they built a stronghold around the world from Ymir’s brár, his eyelashes (often translated “brows”), and called it Midgard. Grímnismál (stanza 41) says it in verse: from Ymir's brows the kindly gods made Midgard for the sons of men. The descendants of Ask and Embla were given their home inside it.
Midgard is often said to lie between Muspelheim and Niflheim. That holds only in the sense that the earth was made in the middle of Ginnungagap, the gap between them. The gods also built a bridge from the earth up to heaven, the rainbow bridge called Bifrost.
The Connection Between Asgard And Midgard
Heimdal the Guardian of the Bifrost Bridge
The Bifrost (Old Norse Bifröst) is the gods' road between the earth and heaven. When Gangleri asks Snorri's High One what road leads from earth to heaven, he laughs at the question: the gods built a bridge from earth to heaven called Bifröst, "and perhaps you call it the rainbow". Every day the Aesir ride over it to hold their court at the well of Urðr under Yggdrasil. At its heavenly end stands Himinbjörg, the home of Heimdallr, who guards the bridge against the mountain giants.
Snorri never says the bridge ends at Asgard, though. In his account the gods built Asgard in the middle of the world, so Bifröst joins the earth with heaven rather than Midgard with Asgard.
Now that we’ve scratched the surface, let’s dig a bit deeper.
The Midgard Serpent
A vast ocean surrounds the realm of humans, and Snorri says most people would think it impossible to cross. A mighty creature dwells in it, the Midgard Serpent Jormungand (Old Norse Jörmungandr). Odin threw Loki's serpent child into the deep sea that lies around all lands, and the serpent grew until it lay in the middle of the ocean around every land, biting its own tail. The mighty serpent Jormungand has two siblings, Fenrir and Hel.
According to the Prose Edda, Midgard will not escape Ragnarök. The serpent turns in giant fury and comes up onto the land, and the sea surges over the earth. It blows so much venom that it spatters the whole sky and sea.
More significantly, the fire giant Surtr (the name means “the black one”) rides out with the sons of Múspell, and Bifröst breaks under them. The last battle is fought on the plain that Snorri and Vafþrúðnismál call Vígríðr, a hundred leagues wide each way; the poem Fáfnismál calls the battleground Óskópnir. Thor kills the serpent, walks nine steps and falls dead from its poison. Then Surtr flings fire over the earth and burns the whole world, and Völuspá says the earth sinks into the sea.
However, it is said that the earth will rise once again out of the sea, green and fair, and fields will grow that were never sown. The gods Víðarr and Váli survive, Thor's sons Móði and Magni bring his hammer Mjölnir, and Baldr and Höðr come back from Hel. Two humans, Líf and Lífþrasir, hide in Hoddmímir's wood and live on the morning dew, and from them the world is peopled again. No source says the whole cycle will repeat; the idea of an endless round of destruction and creation is a modern reading.
The Protector Of The Human Realm
Thor the Protector of Midgard Facing a Giant
Thor, son of Allfather Odin, is the protector of both the human realm and the Aesir realm. Völuspá (stanza 56) calls the God of Thunder Miðgarðs véurr, usually translated “Midgard's defender”, and Snorri's Skáldskaparmál lists “defender of Asgard and of Midgard” among the poetic names for him.
But that’s not all!
Thor does not ride over the Bifrost bridge, though. Grímnismál (stanza 29) says that every day he wades the rivers Körmt and Örmt and the two Kerlaugar on his way to the gods' court, because the bridge of the Aesir burns with flame. The bridge itself is guarded by Heimdallr, who sits at its heavenly end and watches for the mountain giants.
Most of Thor's stories are journeys against the giants. Snorri says he once went “out over Midgard like a young lad” to reach the giant Hymir, and rowed out with him to hook the Midgard Serpent. The Allfather Odin watches the world in his own way: from his high seat Hliðskjálf he can see over all worlds, and every morning his two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, fly over the whole world and come back with the news.
The Popularity Of Midgard Through Books And Movies
In recent history, Midgard, under its English name Middle-earth, has inspired many writers of the high epic fantasy genre to come up with incredible stories, exceptional characters, and epic events. The best-known example is J.R.R. Tolkien, who taught Old English at Oxford and gave the old word to the world of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”; his son Christopher later edited more of his writings, such as “The Peoples of Middle-earth.”
The popularity of these books was so high that it had become a solid base for recreating the stories in the form of big-screen blockbuster movies. All these movies helped improve the perspective that people had about the Middle-earth and its residents.
If you like to read stories about the trolls, dragons, wizards, elves, dwarfs, and all the other creatures of Middle-earth, these are the stories for you.
Who doesn’t like a good epic fantasy story with wizards and dragons?
Additionally, Marvel Comics and Marvel movies gave us another perspective of the entire Norse universe and all of its realms, including the realm of humans. It is an entertaining picture, but much of it, from the Bifrost as a beam of light to Thor and Loki as brothers, comes from the comics rather than from the Eddas.
The Final Words
In the myths, the creation of the realm of men is the essential decision that Odin and his two brothers made as far as ordinary people are concerned. Thanks to them, the story goes, humans, including you, exist today.
If you could choose one, which one of the Midgard stories left the strongest impression on you and why? Why do you think the poets let the earth rise green from the sea after Ragnarök? Which one of the nine worlds sounds most interesting to you, and why?
If there are any more stories you know about the realm of humans that we haven't mentioned today, please share them with the community and us in the comments below.
Midgard, FAQ
What is Midgard?
Midgard (Old Norse Miðgarðr) is the world of humans in Norse mythology. Its name means "middle enclosure." Snorri Sturluson says the gods built it as a wall around the inner part of the earth to keep out the giants, who were given land along the shore of the sea that surrounds it.
How was Midgard created?
The gods Odin, Vili and Vé killed the primordial giant Ymir and made the world from his body: his flesh became the land, his blood the sea, his bones the mountains and his skull the sky. From his eyebrows they built Midgard as a protected home for humankind.
What surrounds Midgard?
The deep sea that rings all lands. In it lies the Midgard Serpent, Jörmungandr, so vast that it lies around every land and bites its own tail. Along the shore of that sea the gods gave land to the giants.
How is Midgard connected to Asgard?
By the bridge Bifröst, which Snorri Sturluson says the gods built from earth to heaven and which people call the rainbow. The Aesir ride over it every day to their court at the well of Urðr, and Heimdall guards it against the giants. Snorri places Asgard itself in the middle of the world.
What happens to Midgard at Ragnarök?
The Midgard Serpent comes up onto the land, the sea surges over the earth, and the fire giant Surtr burns the whole world. Afterward the earth rises green from the sea, some of the gods return, and two humans, Líf and Lífþrasir, who survive by hiding in Hoddmímir's wood, repopulate it.
Keep exploring: the Nine Realms, the world-tree Yggdrasil, and Asgard, or shop Norse jewelry.