Asgard

In Norse religion and Norse mythology, Asgard (Old Norse: Ásgarðr) is the country or capital city of the Æsir. In the most ancient view, the Æsir were the gods. Etymologically, Asgard means the yard or enclosure of the spirits and is not an earthly place. In the works of Snorri Sturluson, the major source, the Æsir are the proto-Germanic people and Asgard is their homeland.

Asgard and the Æsir are entirely Scandinavian. The individual gods, however, are well attested in the most ancient literature about Germanics; moreover, the etymology of some words, such as As-, as well as the characterization of Asgard, have parallels in ancient Iranian. These possible connections hint of an Indo-European tradition not documented in pre-literate Scandinavia but persisting as an oral tradition. It is seldom possible to say, however, how ancient any element of the Scandinavian myths may be.

Myths of Asgard made Snorri popular in his own time. They have not flagged in popularity since then. In modern times they have been celebrated in song, story and painting, often by the greatest of artists. They reached perhaps their widest distribution in Der Ring des Niebelungen, a series of four operas by Richard Wagner.

Unfortunately Wagner's superficial antisemitism led to his adoption long after his time as a culture hero of the Nazi party in Germany, which brought considerable discredit and odium to the myth for some decades. However, it contains an escape clause: the Ragnarök, German Götterdämmerung, the "twilight of the gods", the last great battle in Asgard and the destruction of the Aesir. The world accepted the fall of the Nazi party as this twilight, enabling the myth to continue. Wagner is more popular today than he ever was, due to the brilliance of his music and the imaginative appeal of the myth.