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This article is part of the Nine Worlds series
The Nine Worlds of Germanic Paganism
Álfheimr Asgard Jötunheimr Midgard Muspelheim Niðavellir Niflheim Svartálfaheim
Connected by
Yggdrasil
Aspect of
Norse cosmology

Midgard (an Anglicized ^[1] form of Old Norse Miðgarðr), is an old Germanic name for our world, the places inhabited by humans, with the literal meaning "middle enclosure".

This name is attested in many ancient germanic language. It occurs in Old Norse literature as Miðgarðr. In Old High German poem Muspilli it appears as Mittilagart. The Gothic form Midjungards is attested in Luke's Gospel as a traduction of the word "earth". The word is present in Old English epic and poetry as Middangeard; later transformed to Middellærd or Middel-erde ("Middle-earth") in Middle English literature.

All these forms are from a conjectural Proto-Germanic *medja-gardaz (*meddila-, *medjan-). Even if the two terms derive from Indoeuropean roots *medhyo ("middle") and *ghartos ("enclosure"), the construct exists only in Germanic. It's possible to speculate about the ancientness of this cosmological concept, but it may be inappropriate to trace back the Germanic terminology in common Indoeuropean.

The Danish and Swedish form Midgård, the Norwegian Midgard or Midgård, derive from the Old Norse term.

Contents 1 Old Norse 2 Old and Middle English 3 Old High German 4 In Literature, Games, and other Media Today 5 References

[edit] Old Norse

Midgard is a realm in Norse mythology. Pictured as placed somewhere in the middle of Yggdrasil, Midgard is surrounded by a world of water, or ocean, that is impassable. The ocean is inhabited by the great sea serpent Jormungand, who is so huge that he encircles the world entirely, grasping his own tail. In Norse mythology, Miðgarðr became applied to the wall around the world that the gods constructed from the eyebrows of the giant Ymir as a defence against the Jotuns who lived in Jotunheim, west of Mannheim, "the home of men," a word used to refer to the entire world (there is no direct relation to the German city of Mannheim, which is attested from the 8th century, named after an early settler called Manno). It is depicted as an intermediate world between heaven (Asgard) and hell (Niflheim or Hel). Thus it is part of a triad of upper (Heaven), middle (Earth), and lower (Underworld). It was said to have been formed from the flesh and blood of Ymir, his flesh constituting the land and his blood the oceans, and was connected to Asgard by the Bifrost Bridge, guarded by Heimdall.

According to the Eddas, Midgard will be destroyed in Ragnarok, the battle at the end of the world. Jormungand will arise from the ocean, poisoning the land and sea with his venom and causing the sea to rear up and lash against the land. The final battle will take place on the plain of Vígríðr, following which Midgard and almost all life on it will be destroyed, with the earth sinking into the sea.

Although most surviving instances of the word refer to spiritual matters, it was also used in more mundane situations, as in the Viking Age runestone poem Sö 56:

Iak væit Hastæin þa Holmstæin brøðr, mænnr rynasta a Miðgarði, sattu stæin ok stafa marga æftiR Frøystæin, faður sinn.[2][3]

I know Hásteinn and Holmsteinn, the most rune-skilled brothers in Middle Earth, placed many a stone and staff in memory of Freysteinn, their father.[2]

[edit] Old and Middle English

The name middangeard occurs half a dozen times in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, and is the same word as Midgard in Old Norse. The term is equivalent in meaning to the Greek term Oikoumene, as referring to the known and inhabited world.

The concept of Midgard occurs many times in Middle English. The association with earth (OE eorðe) in Middle English middellærd, middelerde is by popular etymology; the continuation of geard "enclosure" is yard. An early example of this transformation is from the Ormulum:

þatt ure Drihhtin wollde / ben borenn i þiss middellærd

that our Lord wanted / be born in this middle-earth.

The usage of "Middle-earth" as a name for a setting was popularized by Old English scholar J. R. R. Tolkien in his The Lord of the Rings and other fantasy works; he was originally inspired by the references to middangeard and Éarendel in the Old English poem Crist.

[edit] Old High German

Mittilagart is mentioned in the 9th century Old High German Muspilli (v. 54) meaning "the world" as opposed to the sea and the heavens:

muor varsuuilhit sih, suilizot lougiu der himil,

mano uallit, prinnit mittilagart

Sea is swallowed, flaming burn the heavens,

Moon falls, Midgard burns

[edit] In Literature, Games, and other Media Today

• In the highly acclaimed MMORPG "Dark Age of Camelot", Midgard refers to the ancient Netherlands as the realm of the Viking, just after the time of Arthurs death in Albion, and along with Albion and Hibernia is one of three realms at war with one another which player characters can choose to originate from. Playable 'races' from the realm of Midgard are Norseman, Kobold, Troll, Frostalf (frost elf), Valkyn, and Dwarf.

[edit] References

v • d • e Norse mythology
List of Norse gods • Æsir • Vanir • Giants • Elves • Dwarves • Troll • Valkyries • Einherjar • Norns • Odin • Thor • Freyr • Freyja • Frigg • Heimdall • Loki • Baldr • Týr • Yggdrasil • Ginnungagap • Ragnarök
Sources	Poetic Edda • Prose Edda • The Sagas • Volsung Cycle • Tyrfing Cycle • Rune stones • Old Norse language • Orthography • Later influence
Society	Viking Age • Skald • Kenning • Blót • Seid • Numbers
People, places and things