Breidablik
What is Breidablik? Why, it’s the name of Baldur’s soon to-be-constructed mead hall, of course. The next several weeks of Odin and Friends will follow the adventures of Baldur as he designs and constructs that versatile place of eating, drinking, sleeping, and conspiring known as the mead hall.
According to the Eddas:
He [Baldur] dwells in the place called Breidablik, which is in heaven; in that place may nothing unclean be
So we have yet another important lesson in making our lives more exciting from the Viking gods: name your mead hall.
Or by extension, your house, or your apartment, or your car… wherever you happen to live, gather with friends, make merry, stow hostages, and poison your enemies. Take some pride in your mead hall, give it some character, build some reputation, starting with a semi-pronounceable name in Old Norse.
And if you really want to go traditional, make sure to name the gates, the doors, and your favorite chair while you are at it.
Some famous mead halls:
Valhalla - Where dead heroes go to dine, fight, drink, watch Bloodsport, and wait for the Ragnarok.
Gladsheim - Where the gods gather to make important decisions, eg. how to fund repairs to the Rainbow Bridge, the need to establish new tariffs on Elven imports, how to keep the giants at bay. Male gods only! No chick gods allowed!
Vingólf - Ha! Where the chick gods go to complain about the male gods.
Heorot - The mead hall from Beowulf.
Sessrúmnir - Freyja’s hall. Dead heroes go here too. 50% of them, in fact. But no one ever talks about Sessrúmnir. Why?
Valaskjálf - Odin’s hall made of solid silver. Odin has three mead halls. That’s three more than most people.
What’s the name of your mead hall?
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