The hall that remains after Ragnarok, where the good dwell.
Gimlé, 'shining sky' or 'fire-shelter', is the hall or place described in Völuspá 64 as fairer than the sun, covered with gold. It is to there that righteous and wise rulers are to go and live in bliss in the renewed world after Ragnarök. The place is presented as a permanence beyond destruction; while Ásgarðr and Midgárðr are destroyed, Gimlé survives. The Völuspá places it on Gimlé, to the 'south' of heaven, either literally or as a symbolic direction toward light and warmth.
Snorri gives a more complex picture in Gylfaginning. He distinguishes between the Gimlé that exists now, above the visible sky in a third heaven, and the one that will exist in the future world. He states that this Gimlé is a sacred and eternal home. Snorri also adds that there are unrighteous places in the future world, Náströnd and Hvergelmir, for those who are not righteous, suggesting a dualizing eschatology.
Gimlé's character is one of the most debated questions in Old Norse religious history. The place resembles Christian conceptions of paradise and heaven, and it is likely that Snorri's presentation is influenced by Christian theology. The source status of the Völuspá is more uncertain; the poem originates in a Christianized environment in Iceland and may reflect a synthesis of indigenous and Christian eschatology. Whether Gimlé has genuinely pre-Christian Norse roots is difficult to establish.
Sources in the Eddas
- Völuspá 64
- The völva describes Gimlé as a gold-covered hall fairer than the sun, to which righteous rulers are to go.
- Gylfaginning 17, 52
- Snorri describes Gimlé's position above the sky and its role in the future world after Ragnarök.
Interpretive traditions
A What we know
Gimlé is mentioned in the Völuspá as a place that survives Ragnarök and is fairer than the sun.
The righteous and wise are to inhabit Gimlé in the renewed world; the place is associated with light and gold.
Snorri places a present Gimlé above the visible sky and a future one in the world to come.
B What we think we know
Whether Gimlé is a genuinely pre-Christian Norse conception or the result of Christian influence on the Icelandic sources is strongly debated.
Whether Gimlé and Iðavöllr are the same place, or whether they represent parallel conceptions of a renewed world, is debated.
Gimlé's relationship to Vingólf, another divine abode mentioned by Snorri, and to the heavenly spheres is not clarified.
C What we do not know
It is unknown whether 'righteous' in the Völuspá refers to an ethical category or a cultic and social affiliation.
Whether Gimlé already exists as a place beyond the visible sky, or belongs only to the future world, is ambiguous in the sources.
How Gimlé relates to the surviving Norse conceptions of a future divine order outside the Ragnarök cycle is almost entirely unknown.