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Asgard and Vanaheim - Home of the Gods

© Linda Casselman

Last time, we had a look at the home of the Frost Giants, Jotunheim, situated on the world tree Yggdrasil from Norse mythology. Let's continue our look into the myths of the Norsemen this week by further exploring the nine worlds on that cosmic tree. This time, let's have a look at Asgard and Vanaheim - the homes of the gods.

Asgard is the home of the younger, stronger branch of the gods, the Aesir, led by the chief god Odin. Situated on a plane just above Midgard, the realm of humankind, on the world tree, Asgard held a glorious stronghold containing countless great halls for all of the Aesir gods. Furthermore, Asgard was connected to Midgard by the ethereal rainbow bridge, Bifrost. One can just imagine an ancient Norseman looking into the sky at a shining rainbow, seeing one of his mighty gods descending to his earthly plane.

As we saw last time, the Frost Giants were the gods' main enemies, so it is quite ironic that a frost giant built the mighty walls of their home and fortress.

The story goes: The gods gave the stonemason Hrimthurs the task of building their stronghold in Asgard. As payment for this 18-month long work, the stonemason demanded the beautiful fertility goddess Freyja as his bride, along with the sun and the moon. Horrified at the thought of turning over the fair Freyja to Hrimthurs, Odin took Loki's suggestion of imposing the impossible time limit of 6 months on the construction project. Hrimthurs agreed to this bargain with the concession that he be permitted the help from his magic horse Svadilfari.

Work on the stronghold progressed rapidly and much to the shock and horror of the gods, Hrimthurs and his horse had completed all but one gateway of the fortress with 3 days yet remaining in their 6-month time limit.

Again it was up to Loki to trick the stonemason in the effort to protect their beloved goddess. So, turning himself into an attractive mare, Loki set out to enchant Hrimthurs' horse, thus preventing them from completing the construction of the stronghold.

In a fit of rage, the stonemason revealed that he was in fact a frost giant and meant to crush the gods. But Thor quickly stepped up and sent his hammer crashing down on Hrimthurs breaking his skull. So it is ironic that the fortress meant to defend the gods from the Frost Giants was in fact built magnificently by their enemy.