Midgard is the realm of women and men, set at the center of the nine worlds and ringed by an ocean where the serpent Jormungandr grips its own tail.
At a glance
- Old Norse
- Midgardr
- Meaning
- "Middle enclosure"
- Type
- The realm of humankind
- Inhabitants
- Women and men
- Bounded by
- An encircling ocean, home to Jormungandr
- Connects
- Asgard (by Bifrost), Jotunheim
- Made from
- The body of the giant Ymir
- Sources
- Poetic Edda, Prose Edda
Midgard is the realm of women and men, set at the center of the nine worlds and ringed entirely by an ocean where the serpent Jormungandr lies coiled around the earth, gripping its own tail. A single strand of Bifrost connects it upward to Asgard.
Built from a giant's body
The Prose Edda tells that after Odin and his brothers Vili and Ve killed the primordial giant Ymir, they raised the nine worlds from his remains. Midgard was shaped from his eyebrows and flesh and set at the center of the whole structure, walled in by his eyelashes as a defense against the giants of Jotunheim who remained hostile ever after.
The first man and woman
Walking a shoreline, Odin and his brothers found two pieces of driftwood, an ash and an elm, and shaped them into the first human beings, Ask and Embla. Odin breathed life into them, one brother gave reason and the power of motion, and the other gave them speech, hearing, and sight. Every person in Midgard, the myths say, descends from this one pair.
Ringed by the serpent
The ocean that surrounds Midgard holds one of the myth's great monsters, the serpent Jormungandr. Cast into the sea by Odin as a child, Loki's offspring grew until it circled the whole earth and could grip its own tail, earning the name the Midgard Serpent. Its ancient enemy is Thor, who hooks it while fishing in one tale and is fated to kill it, and be killed by its venom in turn, at Ragnarok.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Center of the nine worlds | Midgard sits at the middle of the cosmic structure, between the sky-realms and the underworlds |
| Encircling ocean | Home to Jormungandr, the world-serpent |
| Wall of eyelashes | Built from Ymir's brow to hold back Jotunheim |
| Bifrost | The single bridge connecting Midgard to Asgard |
The gods among mortals
Bifrost is the visible link between Midgard and the gods above, but the myths describe the Aesir moving among humans in other ways too. Thor wades rivers on his journeys through Midgard and Jotunheim alike, and several stories tell of gods walking the earth in disguise, testing the hospitality and honor of the mortals they meet.