It is Bifrost's north bridge-head which particularly requires the vigilance of Heimdal, the ward of the gods, since the rimthurses and the damned are its neighbours. Heimdal is therefore "widely known" among the inhabitants of Nifelhel (Skirnersmal, 28), and Loke reproaches Heimdal that his vocation as watchman always compels him to expose his back to the torrents of an unfavourable sky (Lokas., 48). In the night which constantly broods over this northern zone shine the forms of the "white" god and of his gold-beaming horse Gulltoppr, when he makes spying expeditions there. His eye penetrates the darkness of a hundred "rasts," and his ear catches the faintest sound (Gylfag., 27). Near Bifrost, presumably at the very bridge-head, mythology has given him a fortified citadel, Himinbjorg, "the ward of heaven," with a comfortable hall well supplied with "the good mead" (Grimn., 13; Gylfag., 27).
The lower world is more extensive in all directions than the surface of the earth above it. Bifrost would not be able to pass outside and below the crust of the earth to rest with its bridge-heads on the domain of the three world-fountains if this were not the case. The lower world is therefore called Jormungrund, "the great ground or foundation" (Forspjallsljod, 25), and its uttermost zone, jadarr Jormungrundar, "the domain of the great ground," is open to the celestial canopy, and the under side of the earth is not its roof. From Hlidskjalf, the outlook of the gods in Asgard (Forspjallsljod, the prose texts in Skirnersmal and in Grimnersmal), the view is open to Midgard, to the sea, and to the giant-world situated beyond the Elivagar rivers (see the texts mentioned), and should accordingly also be so to the broad zone of Jormungrund, excepting its northernmost part, which always is shrouded in night. From Hlidskjalf the eye cannot discern what is done there. But Heimdal keeps watch there, and when anything unusual is perceived Odin sends the raven Huginn (Hugr) thither to spy it out (Forspjallsljod, 10, 3, which strophes belong together). But from Hlidskjalf as the point of observation the earth conceals all that part of Jormungrund below it; and as it is important to Odin that he should know all that happens there, Huginn and Muninn fly daily over these subterranean regions: Huginn oc Muninn fljuga hverjan dag iormungrund yfir (Grimnersmal, 20). The expeditions of the ravens over Nifelhel in the north and over Surt's "deep dales" in the south expose them to dangers: Odin expresses his fear that some misfortune may befall them on these excursions (Grimnersmal, 20).
In the western and eastern parts of jadarr Jormungrundar dwell the two divine clans the Vans and Elves, and the former rule over the whole zone ever since "the gods in time's morning," gave Frey, Njord's bounteous son, Alfheim as a tooth-gift (Grimners., 5). Delling is to be regarded as clan-chief of the Elves (light-Elves), since in the very theogony he is ranked with the most ancient powers. With Mimer's daughter Nat he becomes the father of Dag and the progenitor of Dag's synir (the light-Elves). It has already been emphasised (see No. 53) that he is the lord of the rosy-dawn, and that outside of his doors the song of awakening is sung every morning over the world: "Power to the Asas, success to the Elves, and wisdom to Hroptatyr" (Havamál, 100). The glow of dawn blazes up from his domain beyond the eastern horizon. Where this clan-chieftain of the Elves dwells, thither the mythology has referred the original home of his clan. Alfheimr occupies the eastern part of Jormungrund's zone. It is in the eastern part that Dag, Delling's son, and Sol, his kinswoman, mount their chariots to make their journey around the earth in the sky. Here is also the Hel-gate through which all the dead must pass in the lower world (No. 68).
There are many proofs that the giant settlement with the Ironwood or Myrkwood was conceived as extending from the north over large portions of the east (Völuspa, 39, 48, &c.). These regions of Alfheim constitute the southern coasts of the Elivagar, and are the scenes of important events in the epic of the mythology (see the treatise on the Ivalde race).
Vanaheimr is situated in the western half of the zone. At the banquet in Ægir's hall described in Lokasenna, Loke says to Njord:
thu vast austr hedan
gisl um sendr godum—
"From here you were sent out east as a hostage to the gods."
Ægir's hall is far out in the depths of the sea. The ocean known by the Teutons was the North Sea. The author has manifestly conceived Ægir's hall as situated in the same direction from Asgard as Vanaheim, and not far from the native home of the Vans. This lies in the word hedan (from here). According to Vafthrudnersmal (str. 39), Njord was "created in Vanaheim by wise regin." When he was sent as a hostage to the gods to Asgard he had to journey eastward (austr). The western location of Vanaheim is thereby demonstrated.
In the "western halls" of Vanaheim dwells Billing, Rind's father, the father of the Asa-god, Vale's mother (Rindr berr Vala i væstrsölum—Vegt., 11). His name has been preserved in both the German and the Anglo-Saxon mythic records. An Old German document mentions together Billunc and Nidunc, that is, Billing and Mimer (see No. 87). In the mythology Mimer's domain is bounded on the west by Billing's realm, and on the east by Delling's. Delling is Mimer's son-in-law. According to Völuspa, 13 (Codex Hauk.), Billing is a being which in time's morning, on the resolve of the gods, was created by Modsognir-Mimer and Durinn. Mimer's neighbours in the east and in the west were therefore intimately connected with him. An Anglo-Saxon record (Codex Exoniensis, 320, 7) makes Billing the race-hero of the kinsmen and neighbours of the Angles, the Varnians (Billing veold Vernum). This too has a mythological foundation, as appears in Grimnersmal (39) and in the saga of Helge Hjorvardson, which, as before stated, is composed of mythic fragments. When Sol and Mane leave Delling's domain and begin their march across the heavens, their journey is not without danger. From the Ironwood (cp. Völuspa, 39) come the wolf-giants Skoll and Hate and pursue them. Skoll does not desist from the pursuit before the car of the bright-faced goddess has descended toward the western halls and reached Varna vidr (Scaull heitir ulfr, er fylgir eno scirleita godi til Varna vidar—Grimnersmal, 39). Varna vidr is the forest of the mythic Varnians or Varinians. Varnians, Varinians, means "defenders," and the protection here referred to can be none other than that given to the journeying divinities of light when they have reached the western horizon. According to Helge Hjorvardson's saga, Hate, who pursues the moon, is slain near Varin's Bay. Varinn, the "defender," "protector," is the singular form of the same word as reappears in the genitive plural Varna. These expressions—Billing veold Vernum, Varna vidr, and Varins vik—are to be considered as belonging together. So also the local names borrowed from the mythology, Varinsfjördr and Varinsey, in Helge Hjorvardson's saga, where several names reappear, e.g., Svarinn, Móinn, Álfr, and Yngvi, which in connection with that of Billing occur in the list of the beings created by Mimer and Durinn. It is manifest that Varna vidr, where the wolf Skoll is obliged to turn back from his pursuit of Sol, and that Varins vik, where the moon's pursuer Hate is conquered, were conceived in the mythology as situated in the western horizon, since the sun and the moon making their journey from the east to west on the heavens are pursued and are not safe before they reach the western halls. And now as Billing dwells in the western halls and is remembered in the Anglo-Saxon mythic fragments as the prince of the Varnians or Varinians, and as, furthermore, Varinsfjördr and Varinsey are connected with adventures in which there occur several names of mythic persons belonging to Billing's clan, then this proves absolutely an original mythic connection between Billing and his western halls and those western halls in whose regions Varna vidr and Varinsvik are situated, and where the divinities of light, their journey athwart the sky accomplished, find defenders and can take their rest. And when we add to this that Delling, Mimer's kinsman and eastern neighbour, is the lord of morning and the rosy dawn, and that Billing is Mimer's kinsman and western neighbour, then it follows that Billing, from the standpoint of a symbol of nature, represents the evening and the glow of twilight, and that in the epic he is ruler of those regions of the world where the divinities of light find rest and peace. The description which the Havamál strophes (97-101) give us of life in Billing's halls corresponds most perfectly with this view. Through the epic presentation there gleams, as it seems, a conscious symbolising of nature, which paints to the fancy the play of colours in the west when the sun is set. When eventide comes Billing's lass, "the sun-glittering one," sleeps on her bed (Billing's mey ec fann bedjum á solhvita sofa—str. 97). In his halls Billing has a body-guard of warriors, his saldrótt, vigdrótt (str. 100, 101), in whom we must recognise those Varnians who protect the divinities of light that come to his dwelling, and these warriors watch far into the night, "with burning lights and with torches in their hands," over the slumbering "sun-white" maiden. But when day breaks their services are no longer necessary. Then they in their turn go to sleep (Oc nær morni ... thá var saldrott um sofin—str. 101).
When the Asas—all on horseback excepting Thor—on their daily journey to the thingstead near Urd's fountain, have reached the southern rune-risted bridge-head of Bifrost, they turn to the north and ride through a southern Hel-gate into the lower world proper. Here, in the south, and far below Jormungrund's southern zone, we must conceive those "deep dales" where the fire-giant Surt dwells with his race, Suttung's sons (not Muspel's sons). The idea presented in Gylfaginning's cosmogony, according to which there was a world of fire in the south and a world of cold in the north of that Ginungagap in which the world was formed, is certainly a genuine myth, resting on a view of nature which the very geographical position forced upon the Teutons. Both these border realms afterwards find their representatives in the organised world: the fire-world in Surt's Sökkdalir, and the frost-world in the Nifelhel incorporated with the eschatological places; and as the latter constitutes the northern part of the realm of death, we may in analogy herewith refer the dales of Surt and Suttung's sons to the south, and we may do this without fear of error, for Völuspa (50) states positively that Surt and his descendants come from the south to the Ragnarok conflict (Surtr fer sunan med sviga læfi). While the northern bridge-head of Bifrost is threatened by the rimthurses, the southern is exposed to attacks from Suttung's sons. In Ragnarok the gods have to meet storms from both quarters, and we must conceive the conflict as extending along Jormungrund's outer zone and especially near both ends of the Bifrost bridge. The plain around the south end of Bifrost where the gods are to "mix the liquor of the sword with Surt" is called Oskópnir in a part of a heathen poem incorporated with Fafnersmal. Here Frey with his hosts of einherjes meets Surt and Suttung's sons, and falls by the sword which once was his, after the arch of Bifrost on this side is already broken under the weight of the hosts of riders (Fafnersmal, 14, 15; Völuspa, 51). Oskópnir's plain must therefore be referred to the south end of Bifrost and outside of the southern Hel-gate of the lower world. The plain is also called Vigridr (Vafthrudnersmal, 18), and is said to be one hundred rasts long each way. As the gods who here appear in the conflict are called in svaso god, "the sweet," and as Frey falls in the battle, those who here go to meet Surt and his people seem to be particularly Vana-gods and Vans, while those who contend with the giants and with Loke's progeny are chiefly Asas.