Norse Cosmology Part I: The Nine Realms Are Wrong

Abandoning a popular misconception about Norse mythology

“The nine realms of Norse mythology” are, collectively, one of the biggest and most common misconceptions about our source material that exists. It seems an allegedly canonical list of these realms has been incorporated into virtually every piece of popular media dealing with Norse mythology produced within my lifetime, often going to such extremes as to treat these realms as disconnected universes settled within the branches of a giant tree floating in space. But all of this is entirely fabricated. So rather than parroting strange, modern ideas, let’s take some time to learn from what our sources say.

If you aren’t already aware, there are two core sources for Norse mythology, namely the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda (although smaller bits and pieces can be found within other material). The Poetic Edda is a collection of poems, most of which can be linguistically dated to having been composed during the Norse pagan period although they were physically written down later. The Prose Edda is a guide to pagan-era poetry written (probably) by a 13th-century Christian Icelandic scholar named Snorri Sturluson who recounted myths he knew in order to explain the references to those myths that show up in old poetry. The Prose Edda is, above all, a medieval scholarly work so, although it appears Snorri was doing his best to explain his ancestors’ mythology correctly, it is his ancestors’ mythology and the Prose Edda very likely contains a few mistakes, a few inventions, and a bit of accidental Christian bias.

Between these two sources, the phrase “nine realms” shows up a grand total of three times. There is also one mention of “the ninth realm” and one mention of “nine heavens”, both of which exist only in the Prose Edda. I’ll enumerate these in a moment but first we should discuss how this phrase ought to be translated.

“Nine realms” is derived from the Old Norse phrase níu heimar. Níu is simple; it means nine. Heimar (singular heimr), is linguistically related to the English word home, and that’s how I’ll be translating it going forward.

It’s worth noting that heimr is not used exactly the same way home is normally used in English. A heimr can be a small living space, a homestead, a kingdom, a country, a land wherein some cultural group dwells, a realm (whatever that means to you), or even a world. It’s a size-agnostic area where some person or group lives. The problem with translating this word to “realm” or “world” is that it can imply a layer of supernatural otherworldliness to the English-speaking mind that is not inherently present in the Old Norse.

With that out of the way, what follows is a list of “the nine homes” as typically presented in popular media:

Building a List

The most common list of nine homes you will find in movies, video games, blog posts, and so forth is as follows: Alfheim, Asgard, Hel/Helheim, Jotunheim, Midgard, Muspelheim, Niflheim, Svartalfheim, and Vanaheim.

Those who have noticed that the Prose Edda places Hel firmly within the realm of Niflheim¹ (as well as those who mistakenly² purport that Hel is a Christian invention) will usually provide a slightly modified list: Asgard, Alfheim, Hel/Helheim, Jotunheim, Midgard, Muspelheim, Nidavellir, Niflheim, Svartalfheim, and Vanaheim.

This second list, of course, does not account for the fact that the word svartálfr (black elf) only occurs in the Prose Edda where it is used as a synonym for dwarf³, and that Nidavellir is the location given in the poem “Vǫluspá” where dwarves live⁴ so it appears that Svartalfheim and Nidavellir might overlap or be synonymous as well.

Even more egregious than this is the fact that Jotunheim is only referred to in the singular one time across all of its thirty-one independent mentions in both Eddas.⁵ In the thirty other cases where it appears, it appears in plural form meaning “Jotun homes/lands/realms.” This leads us to the realization that the places where Jotuns lived were most typically viewed as a collection of many different heimar (likely including both Muspelheim and Niflheim). In that case, how have the various “Jotun homes” come be included as a singular location in a canonical set of nine total homes?

Of course, these discrepancies beg an even bigger question, which is “where did this list come from in the first place?” The quick answer, of course, is not the sources.

The Poetic Edda uses inflections of the phrase níu heimar twice. Those references are:

Vǫluspá 2

Ek man jǫtna ár um borna, | þá er forðum mik fœdda hǫfðu; | níu man ek heima, níu íviður, | mjǫtvið mœran fyr mold neðan.

I remember jotuns anciently born, those who in olden days had fed me (i.e., raised me); nine homes I remember, nine (supernatural) female beings⁶, a renowned measure-tree beneath the soil.

The poem “Vǫluspá” recounts the words of a seeress spoken to Odin almost certainly as a result of him temporarily raising her from the dead so that she can provide him with otherwise hidden knowledge. In the first couple of stanzas, she discusses conditions and events from long ago. Even the renowned measure-tree (presumably Yggdrasill) is described as “beneath the soil” in this early context. Scholars have commonly interpreted this as referring to a time when the so-called “World Tree” was still a seedling. It’s as good an interpretation as any, especially if we consider the poem as being structured such that it closely follows the life and development of the tree itself (metaphorically, the world).

Vafþrúðnismál 43

Vafþrúðnir kvað: “Frá jǫtna rúnum ok allra goða | ek kann segja satt, því at hvern hef ek | heim of komit; | níu kom ek heima fyr Niflhel neðan; | hinig deyja ór helju halir.”

Vafþrúðnir quoth: “Regarding secrets of the jotuns and all the gods I can speak true, because I have come to every home; I came to nine homes beneath Niflhel; thither men die out from Hel.”

As we will see momentarily, properly interpreting the phrase “nine homes” hinges entirely upon having a good translation of this stanza. To that end, you are invited to scrutinize my translation for yourself or run it by any Old Norse specialist you may happen to know. It is important that we accept the wording we are given, and not try to force this stanza to conform to any sort of preconceived notion.

In addition to these two references, it’s worth noting that the poem “Grímnismál” also provides a list of twelve locations (although the count appears to be wrong⁷) wherein different gods live/rule in their various halls, or where they own land.

From Grímnismál 4-17:

1. Thor rules Thrudheim

2. Ullr rules Ydalir

3. Freyr rules Alfheim

4. “A god” (probably Odin) rules Valaskjalf (which may be another name for Valhall. The stanza calls this “a third home” although it is actually fourth in the list.)

5. Odin and Saga drink together in Sokkvabekk (“a fourth”)

6. Valhall is located in Gladsheim (“a fifth”)

7. Skadi lives in her father’s ancient courts in Thrymheim (“a sixth”)

8. Baldr rules in Breidablik (“a seventh”)

9. Heimdall rules in Himinbjorg (“the eighth”)

10. Freyja fixes allocation of seats in the hall at Folkvang (“the ninth”)

11. Forseti lives in Glitnir (“the tenth”)

12. Njord rules in Noatun (“the eleventh”)

13. Vidarr owns an unnamed land with high grass and wood

A few of these locations incorporate the word heimr into their names and most that do are never included in the “traditional” list of nine homes (i.e., Thrudheim, Gladsheim, and Thrymheim), yet Alfheim oddly is. Why should we believe that Alfheim is more independent than these other heimar?

This list also leaves us with plenty of other questions. For instance, are Valaskjalf (slain shelf) and Valhall (slain hall) actually identical? Does that mean Valaskjalf and Gladsheim should be combined as well? How many of these locations are large regions and how many are smaller, named estates?

All we can say for sure is that the composer of “Grímnismál” seems to have believed he was delivering a list of several important mythological locations and felt no need to conform to the number nine. In any case, we certainly do not have a list of homes here that looks anything like the traditional lists we see in modern media.

By contrast, the Prose Edda uses a version níu heimar only once, as well as the phrases níunda heim (ninth realm) and níu himnar (nine heavens), also once each. These instances are as follows:

Gylfaginning 34:

Hel kastaði hann í Niflheim ok gaf henni vald yfir níu heimum, at hon skyldi skipta ǫllum vistum með þeim, er til hennar váru sendir, en þat eru sóttdauðir menn ok ellidauðir.

Hel he (Odin) cast into Niflheim, and gave her charge over nine homes, that she should divvy up all room-and-board among those who were sent to her, and those are the sick-dead people and the old-age-dead.

This is a fascinating little passage because, on its own, it could be interpreted in either of two ways: Firstly, Hel might have charge over nine homes of the living such that when their inhabitants die, she is the one who receives them. Secondly, Hel might have charge over nine homes of the dead within which she apportions resources to new inhabitants as they are sent to her. But which is it?

Snorri (the likely author of “Gylfaginning”) seems to have drawn much of his interpretation about the underworld from “Vafþrúðnismál”, and is likely referring back to it in Gylfaginning 3 wherein he writes:

...vándir menn fara til Heljar ok þaðan í Niflhel. Þat er niðr í inn níunda heim.

…evil people go to Hel and thence into Niflhel. That is down in the ninth home.

Thus, if the “ninth home” is believed by Snorri to be part of the underworld, it seems likely that nine underworld realms are what he intended us to interpret from his passage about Hel’s charge over room and board.

On a related note, though Snorri clearly believes that Niflhel is a place one can go after dying from out of Hel, my own reading of Vm. 43 indicates some ambiguity. The phrase in question is, "I came to nine homes beneath Niflhel; thither men die out from Hel." Given the wording, when men die out from Hel, do they die into Niflhel or into the nine homes beneath Niflhel? I contend that this is not perfectly clear. The lack of clarity may not have been a problem for an ancient audience already familiar with the concept, but for us in modern times (and perhaps equally for Snorri himself), we are forced to try and interpret this single stanza which has been crafted to prioritize poetic meter and alliteration over clarity.

As I mentioned earlier, the Prose Edda also mentions “nine heavens”, as follows (this time using the Faulkes translation rather than my own).

Nafnaþulur/Skáldskaparmál 75:

Níu eru himnar á hæð talðir. Veit ek inn neðsta, sá er vindbláinn, sá er heiðþyrnir ok hreggmímir, annarr heitir andlangr himinn, þat máttu skilja, þriði víðbláinn, víðfeðmi kveð ek vera inn fjórða, hrjóðr ok hlýrni hygg ek inn sétta, gimir, vetmímir, get ek nú vera átta himna upp of talða, skattyrnir stendr skýjum efri, hann er útan alla heima.

There are nine heavens on high that are listed. I know the nethermost, it is Vindblain [wind-dark], it is Heidthornir [clouded-brightness] and Hregg-Mimir [storm-Mimir]. The second heaven is Andlang [extended] — this you can under­ stand — the third Vidblain [wide-dark]. I declare that Vidfedmir [wide-embracer] is the fourth, Hriod [coverer], and Hlyrnir [twin-lit] I think is the sixth; Gimir [fiery or jewelled], Vet-Mimir [winter-Mimir]. I guess now that eight heavens have been enumerated. Skatyrnir [rich-wetter] stands higher than the clouds, it is beyond all worlds.

Each of these heavens appears, at least on the surface, to be a poetic allusion to weather phenomena. Whether there was ever any additional belief around them is unfortunately lost to history. Note also that Faulkes translates the final phrase here to “it is beyond all worlds”, which he derives from the Old Norse hann er útan alla heima (literally, “it is outside all homes”). This is a great example of how the words chosen in a translation can have an enormous impact on how concepts are perceived. “Beyond all worlds” sounds mystical and mysterious while “outside all homes” could mean something as simple here as “outside all locations on the ground” (poetically, up in the sky).

What does it all mean?

Looking back over the information we have (and truly, this is all the information we have), what can we deduce about the phrase “nine homes”?

First and foremost, the sources do not provide a list of nine homes. When we do get lists, we either get a list of twelve(ish) locations or a list of nine heavens, neither of which looks anything like the traditional lists of nine homes we see in popular media. There are also plenty of other locations listed in the sources that we haven’t discussed here.

In fact, I don't believe we can even be certain that all three references to nine homes refer to the same nine homes. It is quite possible that they do and I suspect that they might; but the lack of clarity presents a bit of trouble when trying to claim this as a fact. In one case we have a seeress remembering nine homes that apparently existed prior to the slaying of Ymir and the creation of the world. In another case we have a reference to nine underworld homes that lie beneath Niflhel. Might these underworld homes have existed before the creation of the world around us? Maybe. Might they be the same homes remembered by the seeress? Also maybe.

What we can say with certainty is that the idea of nine homes is never associated with Yggdrasill’s branches. The reason Yggdrasill is often called the “World Tree” is that it has three roots that demarcate different regions of the world as we see in Grímnismál 31:

Þríar rætr standa á þría vega | undan aski Yggdrasils; | Hel býr und einni, annarri hrímþursar, | þriðju mennskir menn.

Three roots extend out in three directions under Yggdrasill’s ash; Hel lives under one, (under) the second the frost-thurses, (under) the third, humankind.

The three (not nine) roots of Yggdrasill therefore effectively encompass the entire world in the form of 1) the physical world in which humans live, 2) the unseen but very much alive supernatural world, and 3) the world of the dead. The one time Yggrdrasill’s branches are mentioned anywhere near a heimr is in Gylfaginning 15:

Askrinn er allra trjá mestr ok beztr. Limar hans dreifast um heim allan ok standa yfir himni.

The ash is of all trees the biggest and best. Its branches spread out over all the world and extend out across the heaven (sky).

This is a description of one world with a canopy over it.

In 1992, Jens Peter Schjødt suggested⁸ that the nine realms of Norse mythology might never have referred to locations in space but could instead have referred to ages in time. I love the fact that this paper exists because, even though I don’t actually agree with it, we can’t definitively prove it wrong because there is so little solid, pagan-era information about these nine realms available to us.

What information we do have can be summed up as follows:

1. a completely obscure, unhelpful poetic reference to nine homes in “Vǫluspá”;

2. an extremely clear poetic reference to nine underworld homes in “Vafþrúðnismál” (or at least, nine homes beneath Niflhel);

3. a connection between Hel and nine homes in Gylfaginning 34, which are possibly clarified as underworld homes by an interpretive reference to the "ninth home" in Gylfaginning 3 wherein that ninth home is called Niflhel.

Amongst all of these references there is really only one bit of clear information, and that single bit of clarity tells us that Vafþrúðnir visited nine homes beneath Niflhel. This works well enough in tandem with Snorri's information and, at the very least, does not contradict “Vǫluspá”. We are therefore forced to conclude that if the phrase "nine homes" is supposed to refer to just one thing every time it's used in ancient Norse religion, and if Vm. 43 is indeed meant to be understood according to its literal phrasing, then the nine homes of Norse mythology must be a group of underworld locations over which Hel has been given authority.

You may be interested to learn that this opinion is not solely my own. It is also shared by scholars such as John Lindow and Anders Andrén,⁹ and it is accepted as plausible by others such as Edward Pettit who are less confident in general. Here’s how Pettit describes it in his translation¹⁰:

The nine worlds are obscure, but Vm. 43 refers to ‘nine worlds beneath Niflhel’; alternatively, they might include those of gods (Æsir and Vanir), humans, giants, dwarves, elves and the dead.

Pettit appears to feel some obligation to present the traditionally popular idea as an “alternative” interpretation, perhaps out of respect for this concept’s inherent obscurity, but he does not cite a corroborating source for this alternative in Old Norse material because, of course, there is none.

Epilogue

It is perhaps strange that the idea of nine underworld homes wouldn't show up more often in more contexts. People die constantly in heroic poetry and sagas but they never go to nine underworld homes; they always just go to Hel (as long as they are not destined for Valhall, etc). One possible explanation for this could be that Hel is intended as an umbrella term for the underworld as a whole. In that case, no matter which specific "home" you finally landed in within Hel, you would still be in Hel.

A survey of other well-attested Indo-European religions sharing ancient origins with Norse belief seems to reveal similar ideas. Indian religions, for example, have an overarching underworld called Patala, within which exist seven tiered realms. Given that the "nine homes" of Norse myth are "beneath Niflhel", and given the notion that a person can die out from one into another, it could be possible that these homes are are intended to be vertically tiered in some way as well. Even Tartarus exists beneath Hades.

But let's stop here before I get too far into conjecture. Comparative studies will probably yield more information for someone more versed in other mythologies than myself. My main point here is to illustrate that when we take the time to examine the words written in the source language of our source material (rather than relying on someone else to do it for us), we may discover that the clues are pointing in a very different direction than we originally suspected.

1. Faulkes, A., trans., Snorri Sturluson: ‘Edda’ (London: J. M. Dent, 1987), http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/EDDArestr.pdf, p. 27

2. Hel, as a destination of the dead, is definitively pre-Christian. The word itself descends from an older, Indo-European root meaning “to cover, conceal” and is thusly related to burial in a Germanic context already by the beginning of the first millennium A.D. Bragi Boddason, who is traditionally remembered as being the first skald, referred to death as ulfs at sinna með algífris lifru (to join the company of the sister [=Hel] of the quite monstrous wolf [=Fenrir]) in the poem “Ragnarsdrápa”, composed in the first half of the 9th century (the early Viking Age).

3. Simek, R., Dictionary of Northern Mythology, (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2007). p. 305

4. Pettit, E., trans., The Poetic Edda: A Dual Language Edition, (Open Book Publishers, 2023), p. 47

5. This is independent research, however readers may feel free to confirm this via full-text searches of Old Norse source material. A free, digital copy of the Poetic Edda including the Old Norse text can be downloaded from Open Book Publishers, while Old Norse texts of Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál can be found at heimskringla.no. For more information on this, I also made a less formal Reddit post explaining the breakdown.

6. The word often traditionally read as íviði from the Codex Regius and occasionally translated as something related to a tree, its branches, or even its roots, has been normalized here as íviðjur meaning something a lot more like "jǫtun women". This follows Karlsson's argument involving x-ray scans of the Codex Regius manuscript that detected a faint suffix implying -ur, placing Regius in line with Hauksbók which already reads íviðior. (Karlsson, S. “Samtíningur; Íviðjur” Gripla, vol. 3, 1979.)

7. There are good indicators that the numbering system in these stanzas did not exist in the original poem. Their inclusion makes the first line of each stanza excessively long for the meter and the numbers themselves do not participate in the alliterative system. Additionally, a quotation of stanza 14 as appearing in the Prose Edda replaces Fólkvangr er inn níundi (Folkvang is the ninth) with Fólkvangr heitir (Folkvang it is called).

8. Schjødt, J. P., “Nío man ec heima, nío íviði, miǫtvið mæran fyr mold neðan. Tid og rum i Vǫluspá 2”, Arkiv för nordisk filologi, no. 107, 1992

9. Lindow, J. and Andrén A., “Worlds of the Dead”, The Pre-Christian Religions of the North: History and Structures, vol. 2, (Turnhout: Brepos, 2020) pp. 897-926.

10. Pettit, p. 56