A Bridge to the Other Side: Death in the Folklore Tradition

A Bridge to the Other Side is a collection of articles and traditional folk tales that deal with our feelings about and attitudes towards Death, both our own death and that of those nearest and dearest to us. A bridge between earth and heaven, this world and the next, features in the mythology of many different peoples. For example, in Norse legends, Bifrst or Bilrst is a burning rainbow bridge between Midgard, the world, and Asgard, the realm of the gods. The bridge is known as Bilrst in the Poetic Edda; compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and as Bifrst in the Prose Edda; written in the 13th century by Snorri Stureuson. Both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda alternately refer to the bridge as Asbr (Old Norse sirs means bridge). The Persians believed in a bridge between earth and paradise too. In his prayers the penitent in his confession would say: I am wholly without doubt in the existence of the Mazdayanian faith; in the coming of the resurrection of the latter body; in the stepping over the bridge Chinvat; as well as in the continuance of paradise.