Vanaheim

The Garden Realm

Vanaheim is the realm of counterpoints, the realm of Freyja. It is the realm of the wild, the unfettered, and the innocent.

Vanaheim is often called the great meadow, but this title is disingenuous to the wild forests, snow-topped mountains, rushing rivers and salt-soaked shores of the land. In many ways, Vanaheim is a land of extremes, but it would be wrong to think of it as inhospitable. While the winds of the mountain steppes can be bitter, the stillness and peace of her snows can be serene. Where the forests can be as thick and dangerous as any jungle on Midgard, the towering redwood forests are open and gentle. It is as though the land itself is in conflict over what it should be.

Of course, one should not detract from the central majesty of Freyja’s meadows. An endless sea of flowers and grasses, they are home to countless souls who are granted a place with the mother goddess. Freyja is well known to take all who come with a pure heart into her keeping, including infants and children who lost their lives too early. Here, amongst the plains, they live an existence of laughter and song for all their days.

There are warriors, too. Freyja selects those with a deep sense of justice and compassion to join the ranks of her war-hall, Folkvangr. From the great long-house, the warriors of Folkvangr protect the plains and forests of Vanaheim and prepare for the day when they will join those in Asgard to fight at Ragnarok.

The forests are ruled by the fighter-prince, Freyr. He has no particular love for humanity and has, in day gone by, been known to hunt humans for sport. Freyr loves the hunt more than anything else and when a human shows themselves to be a cunning, skilled, and respectful hunter, he allows them to stalk his forests unconfronted.

  • No. Though more than Asgard or Hel, it is often considered to be so. This is mostly because it fits the ideal of paradise that many have: to live in peace with the natural world. Those who live there are immortal and contented, but they live simple and good lives rather than an existence of endless pleasure.

    It is worth noting that Freyja loves the sound of children’s laughter and the nights in her meadows are often filled with the pleasant giggles of joy and mischief.

    There are three primary places that those who move on from our word can arrive, Vanaheim is but one of those places.

  • No, not at all. Many good people will go to Vanaheim or to Hel. Death does not have an intrinsic moral judgement.

    To be granted a place in Vanaheim is at the sole discretion of the great lady, Freyja. She looks for those with an innocent heart who have shown compassion to those around them. She also accepts those who are lost or did not know their way but treated all things with kindness.

    Occasionally other of the Vanir will advocate for souls to join Vanaheim. It is said that a good hunter who can live as one with the forest will gain Freyr’s petition, but he would just as quickly abandon that hunter in the mountains if it suited his whims.

  • This is an interesting question, surely it happens that a parent and child might choose different places to be, a person might be granted a place in Vanaheim and their spouse may not.

    It is not completely clear how these things are handled in the next realms, but there are some hints.

    In her consolations to the warrior Tania, Hlinn assured her that she would be given a place in the honour guard of Frigg, and that her children would join her. In the story of Anat and the elf-king, Anat finds a place among the Vanir in Vanaheim, yet her lover resides in Asgard, they seem to be able to visit each other freely. Finally, it is clear that many residents of Asgard and Vanaheim visit loved ones in Hel during the Winternights feast.

  • Their are few comforts that can hope to console a parent who has lost a child. No wise man can say with absolutely certainty which realm a soul will travel to after death.

    What is known, and known very well, is that Freyja is the great mother who loves all children. There is not a single child, in any realm, that she does not love and would not welcome into her arms. She does not need to be asked to keep children in her care, she does so implicitly; taking them to her meadows to laugh and play with the other children in her keeping.