Yggdrasil · Gods and Their Allies
Bifröst
The bridge the gods made between earth and heaven.
In Blackwell’s translation
Hast thou not been told that the gods made a bridge from earth to heaven, and called it Bifrost? Thou must surely have seen it; but, perhaps, thou callest it the rainbow. It is of three hues, and is constructed with more art than any other work. But, strong though it be, it will be broken to pieces when the sons of Muspell, after having traversed great rivers, shall ride over it.
- I. A. Blackwell (translator), The Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson (the Prose Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Gylfaginning, the passage on the way to heaven Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
What the sources say
In Gylfaginning the gods made a bridge from earth to heaven, called Bifröst, which is what people call the rainbow. It is of three hues and made with more art than any other work. Every day the gods ride over it to the Urðr fount, where they hold their court, except Thor, who goes on foot and wades the rivers, because otherwise the bridge would be in flames and the holy waters would boil.
Strong as it is, it will break when the sons of Muspell ride over it at Ragnarök.
The map shows only a dashed route from the Midgard side up to Himinbjörg. The sources describe a bridge, not a position on the world tree.
- attributed to Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (13th century), the passages on the way to heaven and on the Urðr fount
Names and background
The Poetic Edda calls the bridge Bilröst and the Prose Edda Bifröst; both also call it Ásbrú, "bridge of the gods". Orchard reads Bifröst as "shimmering path". Simek offers "swaying road to heaven", or, if Bilröst is the original (he thinks likely), "fleetingly glimpsed rainbow".
The sources differ: the Poetic Edda has Thor wading rivers instead of crossing, and Fáfnismál has the bridge break under the gods; Gylfaginning gives its three colours and says it breaks under Muspell's sons. Thor's destination is Yggdrasil in one, the well Urðarbrunnr in the other. Bellows saw Thor's wading as a hint of the final destruction or of a sun-warmed rainbow after a storm. Several scholars suggest the bridge first stood for the Milky Way.
- Wikipedia contributors, Bifröst (opens in a new tab)
Evidence beyond the Eddas
Beyond the Eddas, the main early source is skaldic verse. Wikipedia’s article quotes a 10th-century poem by Úlfr Uggason in which the bridge is called the powers' way. The Eddic collections themselves are 13th-century, built from older tradition.
- Wikipedia contributors, Bifröst (opens in a new tab)
Later reception
Wagner's Das Rheingold ends with a rainbow bridge the gods cross to Valhalla. Tolkien's "level bridge" in The Fall of Númenor recalls it, and in the Marvel film Thor it is described as an Einstein-Rosen bridge.