The world of humans, fashioned from Ymir and encircled by the great ocean.
Midgarðr, the middle enclosure, is the world the gods fashioned from the slain jötunn Ymir's body. His flesh became earth, his blood sea, his bones mountains, and his brain clouds. The gods raised a barrier of Ymir's eyebrows around the dwelling place.
Midgarðr is connected to Ásgarðr by the rainbow bridge Bifrost and to subterranean regions via Yggdrasil's roots. At Ragnarök Midgarðr drowns beneath the sea but then rises anew, clean and fertile.
Attestations
- Völuspá str. 4, 59, Poetisk Edda (ca. 1270, Codex Regius)
- Creation and renewal of Midgard within Völuspá's frame.