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marvel cinematic universe - Is there any significance to the patterns of Bifrost Landing sites?


When Thor arrives on Earth via the Bifrost, a pattern is left (burned?) onto the ground.


The pattern is fairly intricate, and does not appear to be random. However, the pattern seems to change from site to site, or possibly use to use.


Is there any significance to the designs, or logic to them?


A landing site from the first movie:


Thor landing site



A landing site from the second movie:


Thor 2 landing site


Another Landing site: Thor landing site



Answer



In the script for Thor, it's clear that the Bifröst 'landing sites' are branded with Asgardian "runes from the bifrost".


I've edited for brevity;



33 EXT. BIFROST LANDING SITE (JOTUNHEIM) - DAY 33


Snow flurries up when the Bifrost hits, as Thor and his band touch down. RUNES from the Bifrost are imprinted on the ice around them.




and



111 EXT. BIFROST LANDING SITE (EARTH) - DAY 111


The Bifrost runes cover the desert sand around them.



The patterns appear to serve no specific purpose other than to make the landing site look more interesting.


As Visual Effects Supervisor Jake Morrison says;



They have nano-technology and anti-gravity but instead of making futuristic spaceships they chose to make flying boats, because they like boats; they’re Vikings!




The same principle (of covering their stuff with Norse and Celtic runes) clearly applies to all of their other technology. In the absence of any canon description, we can assume that they're simply decorative.




Out of universe, similar runes are found on the side of Mjolnir as well as in the designs for the forcefield, boats and other props seen in Thor and Thor 2. These are described by the Director of Thor 2 (Alan Taylor) as simply being



embedded or drawn from Norse sources and Celtic sources



and are intended to create an obvious visual link between Asgardian culture and ancient Earth culture. Again, there is no special meaning to the runes and designs which were evidently selected for their artistic appeal.


Mjolnir Runes Loki Prison


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