This reads as a very confused, meandering post where you self-refuted your own argument. You first argue that it doesn't necessarily refer to nine different realms of otherworldly nature but nine homes, and then argue that it doesn't refer to nine homes, but nine otherworldly locations possibly of an underworld. Maybe proofread your work next time before posting it? As it stands, you didn't really explain much of anything and seemed to have confused yourself on the purpose of the topic that you were purportedly addressing.
I think you may have misunderstood. You are correct that “heimr” does not necessarily refer to otherworldly locations but that does not mean it can’t. Simply translating the word as “home” does not imply that the home in question can’t be otherworldly. For example, I could call France “French-home” and I could also call heaven “God’s-home”. The point is to establish that the word itself is ambiguous with regard to what kind of home we are talking about. I establish that ambiguity first and then work toward a source-based interpretation from there. This is important in order to counter the common, pop-culture assumption of “nine worlds” conceptualized as planets, dimensions, and that sort of thing. I’m sorry you found this post meandering and self-refuting, but my ultimate conclusion is quite clearly stated and I suspect that in reality you just didn’t like it :)
This reads as a very confused, meandering post where you self-refuted your own argument. You first argue that it doesn't necessarily refer to nine different realms of otherworldly nature but nine homes, and then argue that it doesn't refer to nine homes, but nine otherworldly locations possibly of an underworld. Maybe proofread your work next time before posting it? As it stands, you didn't really explain much of anything and seemed to have confused yourself on the purpose of the topic that you were purportedly addressing.
I think you may have misunderstood. You are correct that “heimr” does not necessarily refer to otherworldly locations but that does not mean it can’t. Simply translating the word as “home” does not imply that the home in question can’t be otherworldly. For example, I could call France “French-home” and I could also call heaven “God’s-home”. The point is to establish that the word itself is ambiguous with regard to what kind of home we are talking about. I establish that ambiguity first and then work toward a source-based interpretation from there. This is important in order to counter the common, pop-culture assumption of “nine worlds” conceptualized as planets, dimensions, and that sort of thing. I’m sorry you found this post meandering and self-refuting, but my ultimate conclusion is quite clearly stated and I suspect that in reality you just didn’t like it :)