Yggdrasil and the nine worlds – how the cosmos of Norse tradition fits together.
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The world was ordered, the sun ran its course – but the shore lay empty. Then three gods found on the sea-strand two pieces of driftwood and made …
Read more →Before there were gods, before the world was formed, there were two beings in the frost: the primal giant Ymir and a mighty cow. Audhumla, the primal …
Read more →Deep below, beyond a dark river and a gold-roofed bridge, lies Helheim – the realm of the dead. Not the shining hall of the fallen warriors, but the …
Read more →Beyond the wall, beyond the roaring rivers, lies Jötunheim – the land of the giants. It is the world of the untamed: frost and rock, ancient forces …
Read more →When the sun is devoured, when fire and flood have taken the world – then not all is over. Two humans survive Ragnarök, hidden in the wood of the …
Read more →At the centre of the nine worlds lies Midgard – the ‘middle enclosure’, the fenced homestead of humankind. Not a distant heaven of the gods, but the …
Read more →In the south of the world-order blazes Muspelheim – the world of fire. Embers, sparks and flames, so hot that only its own dwellers can endure it. At …
Read more →Far in the north of the world-order, in icy remoteness, lies Niflheim – the ‘mist-home’. Here reign cold, frost and everlasting twilight. It is one …
Read more →Deep beneath the earth, in the half-dark of shafts and forges, lies Svartalfheim – the world of the black elves, as the dwarves are also called. From …
Read more →Apart from Asgard, in a world whose location the sources leave vague, dwell the Vanir – the other family of gods. Vanaheim is the home of the deities …
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