Bifrǫst

Authors: Youla Azkarrula

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Bifrǫst, painting by Jessica Gullberg for Stellarium.

Bifrǫst, the bridge that extends from the Earth to the heavens, is a Norse constellation mentioned in the Rímtǫl glosses, which dates back to the 11th century CE and is an Old Norse calendar of 52 weeks (364 days). 

Concordance, Etymology, History

Origin of Constellation

Bifrǫst (bifrost) is the bridge that extends from the Earth to the heavens (Edda, 1997/2017, p. 26). The Æsir ride across Bifrǫst daily to the well of Urðr at the World Tree and hold council there (Sturluson 2017, p. 29). In literary scholarship, Bifrǫst is identified as a rainbow by day and as the Milky Way by night. However, the Milky Way is already well represented by Yggdrasil, and the translation of Bifrǫst as “shimmering road” could equally well be interpreted as a stellar formation. The arc-shaped group of stars from Pegasus to Deneb in the Milky Way closely resembles a bridge leading the Æsir to the well of Urðr at Yggdrasil.

Transfer and Transformation of the Constellation

nothing known

Rökstenen, rune stone near Ödeshög in south Sweden (CC BY Bengt Olof ÅRADSSON)

Weblinks

• Norse Constellations by Digitalis Solutions
• Valkyria.com Norse Calendar

All HIP Stars within this constellation

Convex Hull for the stars inside Bifrǫst (CC BY Jakob Eyermann).

References

• References (general)