The Nine Worlds

The Nordics liked nines. So they have nine worlds. YGGDRASIL, the Tree of Life, has nine roots which feed or lead to different realms. Starting from the bottom up, theres:

HELHEIM: The Icy Underworld and Land of the Dead ruled by HEL.

Inhabited by a growing population of ghastly spirits — in particular, the souls of cowards, losers, wastrels, lazybums and liars — HELHEIM is a grim place at the best of times.

With marrow-clenching cold and no heating facilities, there is nothing for the punished soul to do except shiver out their miserable stint in eternity. If you ever get haunted by a spectre, you can easily tell if it's come from HELHEIM — the ghost will be shivering and covered with goosebumps instead of you.

The place appears to be a frozen subsidiary of NIFLHEIM of the NINE-WORLDS, the vast underground realm of ice. But HELHEIM is at the dead center of operations. It's HEL in there

NIFLHEIM:

The underground Realm of Ice and the ancient place where FROST-GIANTS, YMIR and practically everything else in Norse Mythology was created

JOTUNHEIM:

Land of the Giants. This is one of the NINE-WORLDS, where the FROST-GIANTS and Rock Giants have their abode.

NIDAVELLIR:

The Land of the Dwarfs

SVARTALFHEIM:

The Land of the Dark Elves


MIDGARD:

The Realm of Mankind. This is the Earthy bit of Norse cosmology where all the humans live.

MIDGARD actually means 'Middle-earth', the place sandwiched between heaven and hell.

ALFHEIM:

The Land of the Light Elves

VANAHEIM:

The World of the VANIR

The Vanir are Rival Gods to the AESIR. They were mostly wild and rough Nature Gods and detested the more noble Warrior Gods, who included ODIN, THOR, et al.

But after a number of battles and betrayals, the two sides were reconciled. The VANIR now live next door to the AESIR in VANAHEIM

ASGARD: This is Norse God H.Q, where the AESIR live and rule.

ASGARD lies at the far side of BIFROST, the Rainbow Bridge, and security is very tight. You won't get in unless you're a dead hero on the way to VALHALLA via the tradesman's entrance. The halls of ASGARD have been built to withstand the onslaught of giants, and for extra security the exact geography of the place is a closely-guarded secret.

Although brochures of the warrior's paradise VALHALLA are readily available, what goes on in THRUDHEIM and the remaining halls is out of bounds. The Gods seem to do most of their carousing at their local club, a banqueting hall called GLADSHEIM. They are often to be found hanging out at the Well of Urd to catch up on the latest gossip from the Three NORNS as they sit in the shade of YGGDRASIL.

We live in MIDGARD and below is NIFLHEIM or Deadville. The Norse Gods are mad about the number nine so there are another six regions floating about somewhere. Even the most ancient legends contradict each other on the subject. We would guess that after enough beers it all makes sense. See NINE-WORLDS.

http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/norse-mythology.php?