Breiðablik

12. Breidablik is the seventh, where Baldr has built for himself a hall, in that land, in which I know exists the fewest crimes.

“So fair and dazzling is he in form and features, that rays of light seem to issue from him; and thou mayst have some idea of the beauty of his hair, when I tell thee that the whitest of all plants is called Baldur’s brow. Baldur is the mildest, the wisest, and the most eloquent of all the Æsir, yet such is his nature that the judgment he has pronounced can never be altered. He dwells in the heavenly mansion called Breidablik, in which nothing unclean can enter.”

Grímnismál names Breiðablik as the seventh dwelling, where Baldr has built himself a hall in a land where, the speaker says, the fewest crimes are known. Gylfaginning lists the mansion Breiðablik among the homesteads of heaven and says it is not inferior to any other in beauty.

Its place among the other halls on the map is the artist’s choice.

Neither source tells the story of the hall itself. What they give is a picture of its owner. In Gylfaginning, Snorri’s description of Baldr comes just before the line that places him at Breiðablik: he is the best of the gods and praised by all, so bright that light seems to shine from him, and mild, wise and eloquent. The one odd detail is that a judgment he has given can never be changed. The hall is then described only by what cannot enter it.

Elsewhere in Gylfaginning, Breiðablik appears in a list of the fair homesteads of heaven, beside Glitnir and Himinbjörg, and is said to be as beautiful as any other. Grímnismál counts it as the seventh dwelling in Odin’s list of the gods’ halls, and its link to Baldr and to a land of very few crimes is stated there in a single stanza. Neither text says where in the divine world the hall stands.

The name is translated "broad sheen", "broad gleam" or "far-shining one", and scholars tie it to Baldr's links with light and beauty. Grímnismál lists it seventh among the dwellings and says no harmful runes are there; Gylfaginning calls it fairer than any other in heaven and says nothing unclean can enter.

Some scholars identify Breiðablik with Asgard, though that is interpretation. Liberman and Lindow compare it with Heorot in Beowulf, since both are described as free of baleful runes and both have been suggested as sanctuaries. No settled view exists on its exact meaning or identity.