MIDGARD

'Midgard' (an Anglicized form of Old Norse 'Miðgarðr'), is an old Germanic name for our world, the places inhabited by humans, with the literal meaning "middle enclosure".
This name is attested in many ancient germanic language. It occurs in Old Norse literature as 'Miðgarðr'. In Old High German poem ''Muspilli'' it appears as 'Mittilagart'. The Gothic form 'Midjungards' is attested in Luke's Gospel as a traduction of the word "earth". The word is present in Old English epic and poetry as 'Middangeard'; later transformed to 'Middellærd' or 'Middel-erde' ("Middle-earth") in Middle English literature.
All these forms are from a conjectural Proto-Germanic ''
★ medja-gardaz'' (''
★ meddila-'', ''
★ medjan-''). Even if the two terms derive from Indoeuropean roots ''
★ medhyo'' ("middle") and ''
★ ghartos'' ("enclosure"), the construct exists only in Germanic. It's possible to speculate about the ancientness of this cosmological concept, but it may be inappropriate to trace back the Germanic terminology in common Indoeuropean.
The Danish and Swedish form 'Midgård', the Norwegian 'Midgard' or 'Midgård', derive from the Old Norse term.

Contents

Old Norse

Old and Middle English

Old High German

References

Old Norse

Midgard is a realm in Norse mythology. Pictured as placed somewhere in the middle of Yggdrasil, Midgard is surrounded by a world of water, or ocean, that is impassable. The ocean is inhabited by the great sea serpent Jormungand, who is so huge that he encircles the world entirely, grasping his own tail. In Norse mythology, ''Miðgarðr'' became applied to the wall around the world that the gods constructed from the eyebrows of the giant Ymir as a defence against the Jotuns who lived in Jotunheim, west of 'Mannheim', "the home of men," a word used to refer to the entire world (there is no direct relation to the German city of Mannheim, which is attested from the 8th century, named after an early settler called ''Manno'').
It is depicted as an intermediate world between heaven (Asgard) and hell (Niflheim or Hel). Thus it is part of a triad of upper (Heaven), middle (Earth), and lower (Underworld). It was said to have been formed from the flesh and blood of Ymir, his flesh constituting the land and his blood the oceans, and was connected to Asgard by the Bifrost Bridge, guarded by Heimdall.

According to the Eddas, Midgard will be destroyed in Ragnarok, the battle at the end of the world. Jormungand will arise from the ocean, poisoning the land and sea with his venom and causing the sea to rear up and lash against the land. The final battle will take place on the plain of Vígríðr, following which Midgard and almost all life on it will be destroyed, with the earth sinking into the sea.
Although most surviving instances of the word refer to spiritual matters, it was also used in more mundane situations, as in the Viking Age runestone poem Sö 56:

:Iak væit Hastæin :þa Holmstæin brøðr, :mænnr rynasta:a Miðgarði, :sattu stæin:ok stafa marga:æftiR Frøystæin, :faður sinn.[1][2]

:I know Hásteinn :and Holmsteinn, :the most rune-skilled :brothers in Middle Earth, :placed many a stone :and staff :in memory of Freysteinn, :their father.[1]

Old and Middle English

The name ''middangeard'' occurs half a dozen times in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf, and is the same word as Midgard in Old Norse. The term is equivalent in meaning to the Greek term Oikoumene, as referring to the known and inhabited world.
The concept of Midgard occurs many times in Middle English. The association with ''earth'' (OE ''eorðe'') in Middle English ''middellærd'', ''middelerde'' is by popular etymology; the continuation of ''geard'' "enclosure" is ''yard''. An early example of this transformation is from the Ormulum:
::''þatt ure Drihhtin wollde / ben borenn i þiss middellærd''
::that our Lord wanted / be born in this middle-earth.
The usage of "Middle-earth" as a name for a setting was popularized by Old English scholar J. R. R. Tolkien in his ''The Lord of the Rings'' and other fantasy works; he was originally inspired by the references to ''middangeard'' and ''Éarendel'' in the Old English poem ''Crist''.

Old High German

''Mittilagart'' is mentioned in the 9th century Old High German ''Muspilli'' (v. 54) meaning "the world" as opposed to the sea and the heavens:
::''muor varsuuilhit sih, suilizot lougiu der himil,''
::''mano uallit, prinnit mittilagart''
::Sea is swallowed, flaming burn the heavens,
::Moon falls, Midgard burns

References

1. Rundata
2. See also ''Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages'' for a version in normalized Old Norse orthography.
3. Rundata