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The nine worlds

níu heimar

The Eddas say there are nine worlds but never list them; the familiar list of nine realms is a modern reconstruction built mostly from Snorri's place-names.

Oluf Olufsen Bagge - Yggdrasil, The Mundane Tree 1847 - full page
Oluf Olufsen Bagge - Yggdrasil, The Mundane Tree 1847 - full page, Oluf Bagge (1847). Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The number is old; the list is not. The seeress who speaks Völuspá begins her memory with "nine worlds … the nine in the tree" Völuspá 2, and in Vafþrúðnismál the giant Vafþrúðnir boasts that he has come "to nine worlds" and to Niflhel below them Vafþrúðnismál 43. Neither poem names the nine. No other poem in the Poetic Edda names them either, and Snorri never does. The neat roster of nine realms found in modern books is a reconstruction, put together by later readers from names scattered through the sources.

What the sources actually say

The poems give the number and a few fixed points. Völuspá ties the worlds to the tree Yggdrasil Völuspá 2. Grímnismál gives the tree three roots, over Hel, over the frost-giants and over "the lands of men" Grímnismál 31: three regions, not nine. Vafþrúðnir's nine worlds seem to sit above Niflhel, "the home where dead men dwell" Vafþrúðnismál 43.

Snorri uses the number twice, both times about the dead. The wicked go "to Hel and thence down to the Misty Hel; and that is down in the ninth world" Gylfaginning 3. And when Odin casts Hel into Niflheim he gives her "power over nine worlds", to share out lodgings among those who die of sickness or old age Gylfaginning 34. In these passages the nine worlds look like levels of the underworld, or the whole cosmos seen from below. Snorri does not stop to explain.

Alvíssmál is often cited as a key to the nine. Thor asks the dwarf Alvíss what the earth, sky, moon and so on are called "in each and every world" Alvíssmál 9. The answers name peoples, not places: men, gods, Vanir ("the Wanes"), giants, elves, dwarfs, "the holy ones high", the dwellers in hell, and once "Suttung's sons" Alvíssmál 10 Alvíssmál 34. No single answer uses all of them, and the poem never counts them. It suggests a world shared by several races, each with its own speech, which is close to the modern idea, but it is not a list of nine worlds.

'Heaven' men call it, 'The Height' the gods,The Wanes 'The Weaver of Winds';Giants 'The Up-World,' elves 'The Fair-Roof,'The dwarfs 'The Dripping Hall.'Alvíssmál 12

Where the modern list comes from

Each name in the familiar list is medieval; the selection is not.

That makes ten candidates for nine places, and two of them (Niflheim and Hel) overlap in Snorri himself. Modern lists usually choose Svartálfaheimr or Niðavellir as the dwarves' world and keep both Niflheim and Hel. The arrangement in three tiers, with Ásgarðr at the top and Hel at the bottom, is likewise a modern diagram; the closest medieval source is Snorri's account of the three roots Gylfaginning 15, which does not match Grímnismál's Grímnismál 31.

How to read it

Scholars generally treat "nine" as a sacred or formulaic number in Norse tradition (Odin hangs nine nights on the tree Hávamál 139, Heimdallr has nine mothers Gylfaginning 27) rather than as the end of a fixed catalogue. A common reading is that the poets knew the cosmos had nine parts without needing to recite them, much as the listener knew the names of the gods. Whether a fixed list of nine ever existed is unknown. What the sources offer is a crowded cosmos — gods, Vanir, elves, men, giants, dwarves and the dead, each in their own home — held together by the tree.

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.

Nine worlds I knew, the nine in the tree With mighty roots beneath the mold.
Völuspá 2 The seeress remembers nine worlds and the tree before creation: the oldest mention of the number, with no names.
To nine worlds came I, to Niflhel beneath, The home where dead men dwell.
Vafþrúðnismál 43 The giant Vafþrúðnir claims to have visited all nine worlds, and Niflhel below them.
Hel he cast into Niflheim, and gave to her power over nine worlds
Gylfaginning 34 Snorri gives Hel authority over nine worlds, apparently nine realms of the dead, not the whole cosmos.
evil men go to Hel and thence down to the Misty Hel; and that is down in the ninth world.
Gylfaginning 3 Snorri's only attempt to number a world: the Misty Hel is 'the ninth', counting downward.
What call they the earth, that lies before all, In each and every world?
Alvíssmál 9 Alvíssmál asks for names 'in each and every world' and answers with peoples, not places.

Where the sources disagree or fall silent

  • No medieval source lists the nine worlds by name; any list of nine is a modern reconstruction.
  • The Old Norse of Völuspá 2 pairs 'nine worlds' with a second, obscure phrase that Bellows renders 'the nine in the tree'; some editors read it as 'nine giantesses' or 'nine wood-dwellers'. Its meaning is disputed.
  • Whether Snorri's 'nine worlds' under Hel (Gylfaginning 34) are the same nine as Völuspá's is unclear.

In modern culture

Not from the medieval sources.

Almost every modern book, game and film gives a tidy list of nine: Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Midgard, Jotunheim, Muspelheim, Niflheim, Svartalfheim (or Nidavellir) and Hel, often stacked on three levels of Yggdrasil. Marvel's Thor films and comics and the God of War games (2018 onward) made this scheme familiar worldwide; Marvel swaps in Nidavellir as a dwarf forge-world. The list is a reasonable modern synthesis, but no medieval text gives it.

Myths with The nine worlds

Odin's contest of wisdom with Vafþrúðnir Against Frigg's advice, Odin goes in disguise to the wisest of the giants and stakes his head on a contest of questions about the creation, the gods and the end of the world. He wins with a question only he can answer.

Related

Yggdrasil Yggdrasill The world-ash at the centre of the Norse cosmos: its roots reach the realms of gods, giants and the dead, and the gods hold court beneath it every day. 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. Midgard Miðgarðr The world of humans, made by Odin and his brothers from the body of the giant Ymir and fenced with his eyebrows against the giants who live around the ocean's edge. Jötunheimr The land of the giants, at the edge of the world beyond rivers and sea, usually to the east of the gods and men. Thor goes there to fight, and gods go there to court and steal. Vanaheimr The home of the Vanir, the gods of Njörðr's family; the sources mention it only as the place Njörðr came from and will return to. Álfheimr The home of the elves: in Grímnismál a hall given to Freyr as a tooth-gift, in Snorri a heavenly dwelling of the light-elves. Svartálfaheimr Snorri's 'home of the black elves', where the gods go to have dwarves forge their treasures; the name occurs only in his prose, and his merging of black elves with dwarves is debated. Niðavellir A place named once in Völuspá, where a golden hall stands for 'Sindri's race'; modern lists often make it the dwarves' world, which the sources do not quite say. Niflheimr The cold, misty world of the north in Snorri's creation story, source of the rivers and later Hel's realm; the poems know only Niflhel, a deep region of the dead. Muspellsheimr The burning world of the far south, guarded by Surtr: its sparks lit the sun and stars at creation, and its 'sons' ride out to destroy the world at Ragnarök. Hel (the realm) Hel The underworld of the dead, ruled by Loki's daughter Hel: reached by the Hel-way and the Gjöll bridge, set down and to the north, under one root of Yggdrasil.