Description:
Sovngarde is an afterlife in The Elder Scrolls universe reserved for Nords who die valiantly in combat. It houses the Hall of Valor (LINK), also known as Shor's Hall, an enormous great hall building where heroes' souls can feast and drink mead endlessly until the end of time. Sovngarde contains a misty valley called the Shadowed Vale, separating the threshold of the realm from a bridge made of a whale's spine and ribcage that leads to the Hall. This bridge is guarded by Tsun (LINK), one of Shor's servants and a god of battle in his own right, tasked with testing the mettle of souls who wish to cross the bridge to join the company in the Hall of Valor. Alduin (LINK) uses Sovngarde as a hunting ground in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, devouring the souls of fallen Nord warriors before they can reach the safety of the Hall. This is the source of his power and immortality, and he is being given an flush of souls generated by the civil war ongoing in Skyrim between the Imperial loyalists and the Stormcloak rebellion. The name is from the word for "sleep" in several Scandinavian languages(søvn, sofn, etc.) combined with -garde, from Old Norse -garðr "enclosure, realm", to form a word for "realm/world of sleep" i.e. an afterlife. Like Valhöll, in Ásgarðr; Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál, Grímnismál. Shor's Hall is also the afterlife of Nords who die in combat, like the einherjar. The entire setting is modeled closely on Valhöll as given in SnE and Völuspá.| Medieval Citation | Medieval Sources | Description | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| Einherjar | Gylfaginning Prose Edda/Younger Edda Poetic Edda/Elder Edda Grímnismál | Einherjar, meaning "lone fighters" or "one man armies," are warriors who died in battle and thus earned a place in Valhöll (LINK), Óðinn's (LINK) hall... | Never-ending battle |