Poetic Edda · Prose Edda
The Norse nine worlds
Choose a world on the ash tree Yggdrasil to see who lives there and which eddic passages mention it. No single text lists all nine, so the passages are the evidence.
Worlds on Yggdrasil
The layout follows a common modern way of drawing the worlds; the sources give no map. Tab and arrow keys move between worlds.
Midgard Miðgarðr
“the middle enclosure”
Who lives there
- Humans, descended from Ask and Embla, whom the gods made from two treesVöluspá st. 17–18 (Poetic Edda, Völuspá)Gylfaginning ch. 9 (Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda, Gylfaginning)
Where the texts mention it
- Bur's sons lifted the land and made “Mithgarth the mighty”Völuspá st. 4 (Poetic Edda, Völuspá)
- The gods made Midgard from the giant Ymir's eyebrowsGrímnismál st. 41 (Poetic Edda, Grímnismál)
- Snorri: a stronghold round the world against the giants, raised from Ymir's browsGylfaginning ch. 8 (Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda, Gylfaginning)
Named in the eddic poems.
Why “nine”, and which nine?
The number comes from the poems: the seeress of Völuspá remembers “nine worlds”, the giant Vafþrúðnir has been “to nine worlds”, and Snorri says Odin gave Hel power over nine worlds. But no single eddic text lists all nine. Every list of nine is put together by modern readers from scattered mentions, and the lists differ.
- The seeress remembers “nine worlds” Völuspá st. 2 (Poetic Edda, Völuspá)
- The giant Vafþrúðnir has been “to nine worlds”, down to Niflhel Vafþrúðnismál st. 43 (Poetic Edda, Vafþrúðnismál)
- Odin gives Hel power over nine worlds Gylfaginning ch. 34 (Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda, Gylfaginning)
Henry Adams Bellows, whose 1923 translation this site links, gave his own list in a note to Völuspá 2: Asgarth (gods); Vanaheim (Wanes); Alfheim (elves); Mithgarth (men); Jotunheim (giants); Muspellsheim (fire); Svartalfaheim (dark elves); Niflheim (the dead); perhaps Nithavellir (dwarfs): “the ninth world is uncertain”. Völuspá st. 2 (Poetic Edda, Völuspá) (Bellows' note) Many recent lists instead count Hel as a world of its own, as the diagram above does, and some treat Niðavellir, where Völuspá 37 puts a golden hall of the dwarves, as the dwarves' world. Snorri also places some worlds differently from the diagram: Múspell lies in the south, and Álfheimr is among the abodes of heaven.
The tree itself
- “Nine worlds I knew, the nine in the tree with mighty roots beneath the mold” Völuspá st. 2 (Poetic Edda, Völuspá)
- An ash called Yggdrasil, ever green by Urth's well Völuspá st. 19 (Poetic Edda, Völuspá)
- Three roots: under one lives Hel, under the second the frost-giants, under the third the lands of men Grímnismál st. 31 (Poetic Edda, Grímnismál)
- Snorri's three roots: one among the Æsir, one among the Rime-Giants, one over Niflheim Gylfaginning ch. 15 (Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda, Gylfaginning)
- The squirrel Ratatosk runs between the eagle at the top and the dragon Nithhogg below Grímnismál st. 32 (Poetic Edda, Grímnismál)
- “Northward a hall in Nithavellir of gold there rose for Sindri's race” (the dwarves) Völuspá st. 37 (Poetic Edda, Völuspá)
Even the roots disagree: Grímnismál puts Hel, the frost-giants and the lands of men under them, while Snorri has the Æsir, the Rime-Giants and Niflheim.
Each world and its passages
Sources
The Poetic Edda survives mainly in a manuscript written in Iceland in the 13th century, and Snorri Sturluson wrote the Prose Edda in the same century, long after Iceland became Christian. Chapter numbers here follow Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur's 1916 translation, and stanza numbers follow Bellows; other translations number some stanzas differently.
Old Norse texts
- Poetic Edda, Völuspá, tr. Henry Adams Bellows (1923), Wikisource.
- Poetic Edda, Vafþrúðnismál, tr. Henry Adams Bellows (1923), Wikisource.
- Poetic Edda, Grímnismál, tr. Henry Adams Bellows (1923), Wikisource.
- Poetic Edda, Þrymskviða, tr. Henry Adams Bellows (1923), Wikisource.
- Poetic Edda, Lokasenna, tr. Henry Adams Bellows (1923), Wikisource.
- Poetic Edda, Baldrs draumar, tr. Henry Adams Bellows (1923), Wikisource.
- Poetic Edda, Alvíssmál, tr. Henry Adams Bellows (1923), Wikisource.
- Poetic Edda, Hymiskviða, tr. Henry Adams Bellows (1923), Wikisource.
- Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda, Gylfaginning, tr. Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (1916), Wikisource.
Questions
What are the nine worlds of Norse mythology?
The sources never say. Völuspá and Vafþrúðnismál speak of nine worlds without naming them, and modern lists are reconstructions. A common one is Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Midgard, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Niflheim, Muspelheim and Hel; Bellows' 1923 list has Niflheim for the dead and leaves the ninth uncertain.
Where do humans live?
In Midgard. Völuspá says the sons of Bur made “Mithgarth the mighty”, Grímnismál says the gods made it from the giant Ymir's eyebrows, and Snorri describes it as a stronghold round the world against the giants.
Is Hel a place or a person?
Both. In Snorri, Hel is Loki's daughter, whom Odin cast into Niflheim and set over those who die of sickness or old age, and her realm is called by the same name. In the poems, Odin rides to “the house so high of Hel”.
Is Valhalla one of the nine worlds?
No. Valhall is Odin's hall, where he chooses each day the men who have fallen in fight (Grímnismál 8). It is one of many halls of the gods, not a world.