m. [in Cumberland three farms, High-garth, Middle-garth, Low-garth]

I. the ‘mid-yard’ ‘middle-town,’ i. e. the earth, a mythol. word common to all ancient Teut. languages; thus Ulf. renders the Gr. οἰκουμένη by midjungards; Hel, calls the earth middil-gard; the. A. S. homilies instead of earth say middan-geard (meddlert, Jamieson), and use the word as an appellative; but the Icel. Edda alone has preserved the true mythical bearing of this old Teut. word.—The earth (Miðgarð), the abode of men, is seated in the middle of the universe, bordered by mountains and surrounded by the great sea (úthaf); on the other side of this sea is the Út-garð (out-yard), the abode of giants; the Miðgarð is defended by the ‘yard’ or ‘burgh’ Ás-garð (the burgh of the gods), lying in the middle (the heaven being conceived as rising above the earth). Thus the earth and mankind are represented as a stronghold besieged by the powers of evil from without, defended by the gods from above and from within; see Vsp. 4, Gm. 41, Edda 6, 25, 26, 35: mankind is said to abide ‘undir Miðgarði,’ under the Midgard, Hbl. 23; mest manna-val und Miðgarði, Hdl. 11, 16, Fms. vi. 423 (in a verse); um allan Miðgarð, Blanda. Miðgarðs-ormr, m. the Serpent of Midgard. the world serpent of the ancient mythology hidden in the ocean, whose coils gird round the whole Midgard, Edda 18, 34–36, 41, 42; dólgr Miðgarðs-orms, the antagonist of the M. = Thor, Edda 53; muntú vera ormr sá er verstr er til er menn kalla Miðgarðsorm, Fas. i. 373. In old Icel. translations of legends Leviathan is rendered by Miðgarðsormr, Niðrst. 3, Post. 686 C. 2. The god Thor is called Miðgarðs-véorr, m. = the holy one of M., Vsp.; miðgarðs verjandi, the defender of Midgard, Edda 53; cp. Þórr hefir varðan Miðgarð af þrek, Edda (in a verse).

II. Miðgarðr, as a local name. Icel. map.