Aesir
The principal family of Norse gods — Odin, Thor, Frigg, Baldr, Tyr, Heimdall, Bragi and the rest — whose home is Asgard and who "met at Ithavoll" and built the world. Bellows's translation renders the word simply as "the gods"; the Old Norse Æsir (singular Áss) is the modern scholarly name, set against the Vanir, the giants and the elves.
Why this wins its question: Tells the reader that the word is invisible in the English Edda and shows where the group is nonetheless defined, stanza by stanza.
Key takeaways
- Where Bellows writes 'the gods', the Old Norse has Æsir; where he writes 'the Wanes', it has Vanir.
- The Aesir are defined by Asgard and by the war and hostage-exchange with the Vanir (Voluspo 21–24; Vafthruthnismol 39).
- Loki is among them by blood-oath (Lokasenna 9), Njord and his children by treaty.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
In the Voluspo the gods act as one body from the beginning: "Bur's sons lifted the level land" (Voluspo 4), "At Ithavoll met the mighty gods, / Shrines and temples they timbered high" (Voluspo 7), and after the end "The gods in Ithavoll meet together" again (Voluspo 60). Their home is Asgard: "Else will the giants in Asgarth dwell" (Thrymskvitha 17); "From Asgarth came they" (Hymiskvitha 7).
Grimnismol assigns them dwellings: Thor in Thruthheim, Ull in Ydalir, Freyr in Alfheim, Odin in Valaskjolf and Glathsheim with Valhalla, Baldr in Breithablik, Heimdall in Himinbjorg, Freyja in Folkvang, Forseti in Glitnir, Njord in Noatun, Vithar in Vithi (Grimnismol 4–17) — a roster of the gods by house.
They are distinguished from the Wanes (Vanir) by the first war and the exchange of hostages: "the war I remember, the first in the world" (Voluspo 21), "the field by the warlike Wanes was trodden" (Voluspo 23), and the Wanes "gave him [Njord] as pledge to the gods" (Vafthruthnismol 39) — "eastward sent, / To the gods as a hostage given" (Lokasenna 34).
Loki sits among them by oath, not by birth — "we both our blood have mixed" (Lokasenna 9) — and Lokasenna is the fullest muster: Odin, Frigg, Bragi, Idunn, Gefjun, Freyja, Njord, Freyr, Tyr, Heimdall, Skadi, Sif and Thor are all present at Aegir's feast and each is addressed in turn (Lokasenna 9–63).
"Æsir" (singular Áss) is the Old Norse word, kept in modern usage; Bellows translates it throughout as "the gods", so the term does not appear in the English text this corpus cites, though "Asgarth" (the Æsir's enclosure) does.