Yggdrasil · Gods and Their Allies
Vanaheim (Vanaheimr)
Home of the Vanir, the second family of gods.
In Thorpe’s translation
39. In Vanaheim wise powers him created, and to the gods a hostage gave. At the world's dissolution, he will return to the wise Vanir.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Vafþrúðnismál, stanza 39 (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
Vafþrúðnismál says the god Njörðr was created in Vanaheimr and given to the gods as a hostage; at the dissolution of the world he will return to the wise Vanir. Gylfaginning says Njörðr was born and bred in Vanaheimr, that the Vanir gave him as a hostage to the Æsir, and that the Æsir gave Hœnir in exchange, which restored peace between the two families.
Nothing in these texts describes the land or its halls.
- Vafþrúðnismál (Poetic Edda), stanza 39 (Thorpe’s numbering; other editions differ)
- attributed to Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (13th century), the passage on Njörðr
Names and background
The name means home of the Vanir. The sources are thin and uneven. Vafþrúðnismál says the wise powers made Njörðr in Vanaheimr and gave him to the gods as a hostage, while Gylfaginning says only that he was brought up there. In Heimskringla, Snorri places a Van Home near the Don, and separately mentions a Vanaland in Sweden where king Sveigðir married a woman named Vana.
Its place among the Nine Worlds is an assumption, since the worlds are never listed in order in the sources. Rudolf Simek holds that Snorri invented the name as a counterpart to Asgard, while Hilda Ellis Davidson thinks Vanaheimr was probably in the underworld and links the Vanir with land spirits dwelling in mounds, hills and water.
- Wikipedia contributors, Vanaheimr (opens in a new tab)
Where the sources attest it
The name appears in the Poetic Edda in Vafþrúðnismál, stanza 39 in Thorpe’s numbering, which says Njörðr was made in Vanaheim by wise powers and given to the Æsir as a hostage. Snorri repeats the story in Gylfaginning, saying Njörðr was raised in Vanaheim. In both sources the place is known only as the Vanir’s home and as the origin of Njörðr; neither describes its geography, and no archaeological evidence for it is known.
Snorri’s Prose Edda survives in several medieval manuscripts, chiefly Codex Regius, Codex Wormianus and the Uppsala manuscript, so the Gylfaginning accounts rest on those copies rather than on a single text.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906) Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
- Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation) (opens in a new tab) (1916) Rights: Public domain. Chapter numbers follow this edition.