Himinbjörg
In
Attestations
Himinbjörg receives a single mention in the Poetic Edda. In the poem Grímnismál, Odin (disguised as Grímnir), tortured, starved and thirsty, tells the young Agnar of a number of mythological locations. The eighth location he mentions is Himinbjörg, where he says Heimdallr drinks fine mead:
Benjamin Thorpe translation:
- Himinbiörg is the eighth, where Heimdall,
- it is said, rules o'er the holy fanes:
- there the gods' watchman, in his tranquil home,
- drinks joyful the good mead.[3]
Henry Adams Bellows translation:
- Himingbjorg is the eight, and Heimdall there
- O'er men hold sway, it is said;
- In his well-built house does the warder of heaven
- The good mead gladly drink.[4]
Regarding the above stanza, Henry Adams Bellows comments that "in stanza the two functions of Heimdall—as father of mankind [ . . . ] and as warder of the gods—seem both to be mentioned, but the second line in the manuscripts is apparently in bad shape, and in the editions it is more or less conjecture".[4]
In the Prose Edda, Himinbjörg is mentioned twice, both times in the book
In
Theories
Regarding the differences between the Grímnismál and Gylfaginning attestations, scholar John Lindow says that while the bridge Bilröst "leads to the well, which is presumably at the center of the abode of the gods, Snorri's notion of Bilröst as the rainbow may have led him to put Himinbjörg at the end of heaven". Lindow further comments that the notion "is, however, consistent with the notion of Heimdall as a boundary figure".[2]
19th century scholar
Notes
References
- American-Scandinavian Foundation.
- ISBN 0-460-87616-3
- ISBN 978-0-292-73061-8
- Grimm, Jacob (1882) translated by James Steven Stallybrass. Teutonic Mythology: Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix by James Stallybrass. Volume I. London: George Bell and Sons.
- ISBN 0-19-283946-2
- ISBN 0-19-515382-0
- Thorpe, Benjamin (Trans.) (1866) The Elder Edda of Saemund Sigfusson. Norrœna Society.
- ISBN 0-85991-513-1