Bifröst

In Norse mythology, Bifröst (ⁱ/ˈbɪvrɒst/ or sometimes Bilröst or Bivrost) is a burning rainbow bridge that reaches between Midgard (the world) and Asgard, the realm of the gods. The bridge is attested as Bilröst in the Poetic Edda; compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and as Bifröst in the Prose Edda; written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds. Both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda alternately refer to the bridge as Asbrú (Old Norse "Æsir's bridge").

According to the Prose Edda, the bridge ends in heaven at Himinbjörg, the residence of the god Heimdallr, who guards it from the jötnar. The bridge's destruction during Ragnarök by the forces of Muspell is foretold. Scholars have proposed that the bridge may have originally represented the Milky Way and have noted parallels between the bridge and another bridge in Norse mythology, Gjallarbrú.

Etymology

Scholar Andy Orchard posits that Bifröst may mean "shimmering path." He notes that the first element of Bilröst—bil (meaning "a moment")—"suggests the fleeting nature of the rainbow," which he connects to the first element of Bifröst—the Old Norse verb bifa (meaning "to shimmer" or "to shake")—noting that the element provokes notions of the "lustrous sheen" of the bridge. Austrian Germanist Rudolf Simek says that Bifröst either means "the swaying road to heaven" (also citing bifa) or, if Bilröst is the original form of the two (which Simek says is likely), "the fleetingly glimpsed rainbow" (possibly connected to bil, perhaps meaning "moment, weak point").

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Bifröst (town)

Bifröst is a small settlement in western Iceland, in the Mýrasýsla county.

It is located in the Northwest Political constituency and is the site of Bifröst University, a small private campus university. In the town of Bifröst there is a convenience store called Samkaup strax, a coffee house, a kindergarten and a gym among other things.

Grábrókarhraun

Bifröst is surrounded by a 3,000-year-old lava field, Grábrókarhraun, which has been overgrown with moss and heather. Just behind the university campus there is an old volcano called Grábrók and another mountain called Grábrókarfell.