Ásgarð:The Home of the Æsir

   In Eddic poetry, Asgard is named only in Hymiskviða 7, Þrymskviða 18, and in skaldic poetry in a poem by Þórbjörn dísarskáld from the 10th century. 

 

Hymiskviða 7

7. Fóru drjúgum 
dag þann fram 
Ásgarði frá, 
unz til Egils kvómu. 
Hirði hann hafra 
horngöfgasta; 
hurfu at höllu 
er Hymir átti.   		That day they
went forth a long way
from Ásgarðr,
until they arrived at Egil's.
Leaving in his care the goats,
magnificently horned,
they went on towards
Hymir's hall.

 

Þrymskviða 18

18. Þá kvað þat Loki
Laufeyjar sonr:

"Þegi þú, Þórr,
þeira orða.
Þegar munu jötnar
Ásgarð búa,
nema þú þinn hamar
þér of heimtir."

Then said

Loki Laufey's son:

 

"Hold your tongue, Thor!'

‘Soon giants will

live in Asgard,
'Unless your hammer,

you take back."

 

 

Þórbjörn dísarskáld

Þórr hefir Yggs með árum
Ásgarð ad þrek varðan		 "Thor has with Ygg's [Odin's] angels [the Æsir] defended Asgard with might."

 

 

     Another Eddic poem describes the way there:

 

Hárbarðsljóð 56

56. Lítit er at synja,

langt er at fara; stund er til stokksins,

önnur til steinsins,

haltu svá til vinstra vegsins,

unz þú hittir Verland;

þar mun Fjörgyn hitta Þór, son sinn,

ok mun hon kenna hánum áttunga

brautir til Óðins landa."

56. That’s too little to refuse.
‘Tis far to go; ‘tis to the stock an hour,
and to the stone another;
then keep the left hand way,
until you reach Verland;
there will Fjörgyn find her son Thor,
and point out to him his kinsmen’s
ways to Odin’s land.