Asgard – the Fortress of the Gods

High above the world of humans, beyond the burning rainbow bridge, lies Asgard – the fortified home of the Æsir. It is fortress, city and heaven all at once: a place of golden halls, ringed by a wall that holds one of the cunningest stories of the North.

Asgard (Old Norse Ásgarðr, „enclosure of the Æsir“) is joined to the other worlds through the world-tree Yggdrasil. At its centre lies the field Idavöll, where the gods build their hall, play with golden game-pieces and hold court. From here Odin surveys all nine worlds from his high seat Hlidskjálf.

The Halls of Asgard

Asgard is rich in halls: Valhalla, where Odin gathers the fallen warriors; Breidablik, the purest hall of Balder; Fensalir of Frigg; Thrúdheim/Bilskirnir, the huge hall of Thor with its supposed 540 rooms; Himinbjörg, where Heimdall guards the bridge; and Fólkvangr, the realm of Freyja, who likewise receives a share of the fallen.

The Building of the Wall – Loki's Trick

The most famous Asgard story is the building of its protective wall. A stranger, a master-builder, offers to raise an impregnable wall in a single winter – in payment he demands the sun, the moon and the goddess Freyja. On Loki's advice the gods accept, certain he will fail. But the builder has a magic stallion, Svaðilfari, who hauls immense stones night after night – and the wall grows dangerously fast.

To save the wager, Loki turns himself into a mare and lures the stallion away. Without his draught-horse the builder misses the deadline; he reveals himself as a giant and is slain by Thor. Loki, though, later gives birth to the eight-legged steed Sleipnir, swiftest of all horses – Odin's mount. So out of a deceit comes a treasure.

The fortress of the gods

Asgard (Ásgarðr) is in Norse mythology the world and fortress of the Aesir – the heavenly home of Odin, Thor, Frigg and the other gods. Situated high above the human world Midgard, it is the centre of the divine order.

Halls full of splendour

In Asgard stand the famous halls of the gods: Valhalla, where Odin gathers the fallen warriors, Frigg's Fensalir, Baldr's radiant Breidablik and many more. Each deity has its own seat here.

Linked by Bifröst

With the human world Asgard is linked by the rainbow bridge Bifröst, guarded by the watchful Heimdall. Thus the world of the gods does not stand sealed off but in the web of the nine worlds.

The wall and the giant builder

A famous story tells how a giant offered to build the protective wall around Asgard – for an impossible reward. Only through Loki's ruse (and the foal Sleipnir) did the gods escape the bargain. Even the fortress of the gods was not without danger.

Read more with us

Valhalla · Bifröst · The nine worlds · Odin & Sleipnir · Loki · Hlidskjálf & the treasures.

Sources & literature

Poetic Edda: Völuspá (Idavöll), Grímnismál (the halls). Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda (Gylfaginning: Asgard, Hlidskjálf, the wall-building; Prologue: the Troy equation), c. 1220. German public-domain translation: Karl Simrock, Die Edda (1851). Scholarship: Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology; John Lindow, Norse Mythology (2001).

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