What Are the 9 Worlds?

What clues do we have about the 9 worlds?

The seeress in The Seeress's Prophecy remembers giants from long ago, who once raised her. She also says that she remembers 9 worlds. She speaks too of a famous great tree beneath the ground.

In The Sayings of Vafthrudnir, a god asks the giant Vafthrudnir how he knows the fate of the gods. The giant answers that he has traveled to every world. That is why he can speak truly of the secrets of gods and giants.

The giant, too, has visited 9 worlds. His travels have taken him as far as the depths beneath Niflhel. Gylfaginning explains where wicked people go after death. From the realm of the dead, they descend farther into Niflhel, called the 9th world below.

Neither this verse of The Seeress's Prophecy nor this answer in The Sayings of Vafthrudnir gives a list of the worlds' names.

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