Yggdrasil · Described Without a Place on the Map
Nóatún
The heavenly home of Njörðr, by the sea.
In Thorpe’s translation
16. Nôatûn is the eleventh, there Niörd has himself a dwelling made, prince of men; guiltless of sin, he rules o'er the high-built fane.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Grímnismál, stanza 16 (Thorpe’s numbering; other editions differ) Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
What the sources say
Grímnismál names Nóatún as the eleventh dwelling, where Njörðr has made himself a dwelling, a prince of men without sin. Gylfaginning says Njörðr lives in the heavenly region called Nóatún, rules the winds and calms the sea and fire, and is called on by seafarers and fishermen. It adds that he prefers to live near the sea, and that Njörðr and Skaði agreed to spend nine nights in Þrymheimr and then three at Nóatún.
The sources place it in the heavens, by the sea, but give no place on this map. Njörðr was raised in Vanaheimr, but that does not put Nóatún there.
- Grímnismál (Poetic Edda), stanza 16 (Thorpe’s numbering; other editions differ)
- attributed to Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (13th century), the passage on Njörðr (Blackwell’s chapter 24)
Names and background
Andy Orchard glosses the name Nóatún as “ship-enclosure”, a fitting name for a home tied to the sea-god Njörðr. Grímnismál lists it among the gods’ dwellings, and Gylfaginning is the source that places it in heaven. Beyond that the old texts say little, and nothing in them settles where it lay.
- Wikipedia contributors, Nóatún (mythology) (opens in a new tab)
Where the sources attest it
Nóatún, “ships’ haven”, is the seaside home of Njörðr. Grímnismál names it in stanzas 11 and 16 (Bellows’s numbering), the first in the stanza that also names Þrymheimr. Snorri places it in Gylfaginning, where Njörðr and Skaði cannot agree on a shared home and where Freyr and Freyja are later said to be born. In Skáldskaparmál Skaði chooses her husband by his feet and goes to Nóatún.
The name has a plain meaning, but the place is known from the written sources only.
- Grímnismál (Poetic Edda), 11, 16
- Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation) (opens in a new tab) (1916), Gylfaginning XXIII, XXIV Rights: Public domain. Chapter numbers follow this edition.