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place

Glaðsheimr

The gold-bright place where Valhalla stands, according to Grímnismál; Snorri makes it the golden hall of the gods' twelve judgment seats.

The two sources describe Glaðsheimr differently.

In Grímnismál it is a place. Odin names it fifth in his list of dwellings, and says that "gold-bright there / Stands Valhall stretching wide", where he chooses the fallen every day Grímnismál 8. Glaðsheimr is the setting; Valhalla is the hall in it.

In Gylfaginning it is a building. When Allfather had made Ásgard, the gods' first work at Iðavöllr was the court where their twelve judgment seats stand, with a high seat for Allfather. "Without and within, it is all like one piece of gold; men call it Gladsheim" Gylfaginning 14. Next, Snorri says, they built Vingólf for the goddesses. He does not connect his Glaðsheimr with Valhalla.

Both agree on gold. The difference may be Snorri's reading of the stanza, or he may have had other sources. The name, "bright" or "glad home", gives no help.

In the sources

Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.

The fifth is Glathsheim, and gold-bright there Stands Valhall stretching wide; And there does Othin each day choose The men who have fallen in fight.
Grímnismál 8 In the poem Glaðsheimr is the place where Valhalla stands.
It was their first work to make that court in which their twelve seats stand, and another, the high-seat which Allfather himself has. That house is the best-made of any on earth, and the greatest; without and within, it is all like one piece of gold; men call it Gladsheim.
Gylfaginning 14 Snorri makes it a single golden building, the gods' court.

Related

Valhalla Valhöll Odin's vast hall of the battle-dead, roofed with shields and raftered with spears, where the einherjar feast and fight each day until they march out to meet the wolf at Ragnarök. Odin Óðinn Chief of the Æsir: a one-eyed god of wisdom, poetry, magic, war and the dead, who gave an eye and hanged himself on a tree for knowledge, and who dies at Ragnarök. Iðavöllr The plain at the heart of the gods' home where they first built their temples and forges, and where the surviving gods meet again after Ragnarök. Asgard Ásgarðr The stronghold of the Æsir, walled against the giants, full of halls such as Valhall and Bilskirnir; Snorri also identifies it, confusingly, with Troy. Valaskjálf A silver-thatched hall built by a god for himself in ancient days; Snorri makes it Odin's hall and places the high seat Hliðskjálf inside it. Einherjar einherjar The dead warriors of Valhalla, who fight and fall every day, rise to feast on boar-meat and mead, and wait to march out with Odin against the wolf at Ragnarök.