Norse PantheonSacred Site
Bifrost
The burning rainbow bridge connecting Asgard to Midgard, guarded by the vigilant god Heimdall with his Gjallarhorn.
About Bifrost
The burning bridge
Bifrost (also Bilrost) is the rainbow bridge from the gods to other worlds, guarded by Heimdall and his horn Gjallarhorn. Snorri says it will break when Muspell's sons ride it at Ragnarok; that is why it is made with care and yet is mortal. The Poetic Edda mentions the bridge without a tourist prospectus. There is no shrine of Bifrost. It is a cosmological device: color, fire, and a watchman who never sleeps.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda, Gylfaginning
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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