68 meili
described in older Norse sagas, but only Snorri calls it
Megingjardir.
M eili A brother of Thor and son of Odin about
which little information remains in the surviving
manuscripts of Norse mythology. Meili is referred to
three times in Snorri Sturluson’s S kaldskaparmal .
Sturluson uses the kenning “Meili’s brother” twice to
refer to Thor, and once he uses the kenning “Meili’s
sire” to refer to Odin.
M englod (M engloth ;
Necklace-Happy)
A very beautiful giantess who was served by eight
maiden goddesses, including Eir. Svipdag fell in
love with Menglod and traveled to the underworld
to learn from his dead mother how to win the love
of this maiden. She is part of the story in the poem
S vipdagsmal .
M enja
See Fenja and Menja.
M idgard (Middle Earth)
The world of humans
formed from the body of the giant Ymir. It was
midway between Asgard, the home of the gods,
and Jotunheim, the home of the giants. Midgard
was connected to Asgard by Bilrost, the Rainbow
Bridge. It was surrounded by an ocean in which lived
Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent. The first man
and woman to live in Midgard were Ask and Embla.
One of the three roots of the sacred tree, Yggdrasil,
was embedded in Midgard.
M igration P eriod
In Scandinavian and
Germanic history, the time from about 400 a.d. to
approximately 575 a.d. when the Germanic peoples
of northern Europe moved and shifted their territory,
spreading their influence and culture as the Roman
Empire collapsed. The Migration Period, also known
as the Merovingian Era, was a time of change
throughout northern Europe and, based on archaeo-
logical and written evidence, historians believe there
was a great mixing of the tribes of northern Europe.
Those peoples most connected with the mythol-
ogy now known as Norse were well established on
the Scandinavian peninsula and in Denmark at the
beginning of this period. They spread with other
tribes, extending their reach to Great Britain, the
Faroe Islands, Iceland, and even Ireland. This
migration was recorded by Roman writers such as the
historian Tacitus and later by the Danish historian
Saxo Grammaticus.
A Migration Period iron helmet excavated from a
boat grave in Vendel, Uppland, Sweden (Photo by
Mararie/Used under a Creative Commons license)
Rock carvings, burial sites, and artifacts suggest
that the gods of Norse mythology were worshipped
by the people in Scandinavia as early as the Bronze
Age, from 1000 b.c. Saxo describes a cult to Odin
existing during the Migration Period.
Human remains discovered in peat bogs in Den-
mark and Sweden from the Migration Period indicate
the cause of death was ritual hanging. Other evidence
at these burial sites suggests that hanging people was
a common sacrifice to the prominent Norse gods.
Rock carvings that date to the Migration Period in
Sodermanland and Gotland, Sweden, show a monster
or serpent devouring a human, a symbol associated
with the worship of Odin.
By the end of the Migration Period, the com-
munities that had spread at its beginning had settled
into larger recognizable kingdoms. In Scandinavia,
the Migration Period ends with the beginning of
the Viking Age and the rise of the influence of these
seafaring people throughout the North and Baltic
seas and as far away as the Mediterranean Sea.