Þul Himins I 1III/1 — himnar ‘heavens’
Níu eru himnar á hæð talðir;
veit ek inn nezta, sá es Vindbláinn,
sá es Heiðornir ok Hreggmímir;
annarr heitir Andlangr himinn
— þat máttu skilja — þriði Víðbláinn;
Víðfeðmi kveðk vesa inn fjórða,
Hrjóðr — ok Hlýrni hygg inn sétta —
Gimir, Vetmímir; get ek nú vesa
átta himna upp um talða;
Skatyrnir stendr skýjum efri;
hann es útan alla heima.
Níu himnar eru talðir á hæð; ek veit inn nezta, sá es Vindbláinn, sá es Heiðornir ok Hreggmímir; annarr heitir Andlangr himinn – máttu skilja þat – þriði Víðbláinn; kveðk Víðfeðmi vesa inn fjórða, Hrjóðr – ok hygg Hlýrni inn sétta – Gimir, Vetmímir; get ek nú vesa átta himna upp um talða; stendr Skatyrnir efri skýjum; hann es útan alla heima.
Nine heavens are counted on high; I know the lowest, it is Vindbláinn, it is Heiðornir and Hreggmímir; the second is called Andlangr himinn – you can understand that – the third [is] Víðbláinn; Víðfeðmir I say is the fourth; Hrjóðr – and Hlýrnir I believe is the sixth – Gimir, Vetmímir; I say that now eight heavens have been counted; Skatyrnir stands above the clouds; it is beyond all the worlds.
readings
[1] Níu eru himnar: so Tˣ, ‘Ni[…]’ R, Níu eru heimar C, A, ‘[…]u eru heimar’ B, ‘Nju eru heimar’ 744ˣ
notes
[1] níu himnar eru ‘nine heavens are’: So ms. Tˣ; mss A, B (744ˣ) and C have níu heimar eru ‘nine worlds are’. This introduction as well as the heading Heima heiti ‘Names for worlds’ in A and B might be due to analogues in eddic poems, cf. Vsp 2/5 (NK 1): Nío man ec heima ‘Nine worlds I remember’; Vafþr 43/5 (NK 53): nío kom ec heima ‘I have come through nine worlds’ (cf. also níu heimum ‘nine worlds’ mentioned in Gylf, SnE 2005, 27). Nine is a traditional number in Old Norse mythology. The mythical concept of a multi-levelled sky is widespread all over the world, but neither the notion of nine heavens nor the majority of names listed in this þula are mentioned in other Old Norse sources. The only parallel is found in Gylf (SnE 2005, 20), although only three heavens are mentioned there, which may reflect influence from the Christian notion of three heavens. The names of two of the heavens given in Gylf (loc. cit.), namely the second and the third, coincide with those listed in the present þula: annarr himinn ‘the second heaven’, Andlangr (‘Outstretched one’), is situated ‘to the south and above this heaven’, i.e. the sky (suðr ok upp þessum himni), and the third, called Víðbláinn (‘Wide-blue one’), is believed to be above the first and the second heaven. Aside from Vindbláinn and Gimir, all heiti recorded in the þula are also listed among nǫfn himins ‘names for heaven’ in Skm (SnE 1998, I, 85), where it is said that not all of these names are found in verse and it is recommended not to use those heiti which are not found in the poetry of the great skalds (hǫfuðskáld), a comment suggesting that the author of Skm was using some written lists of heiti, perhaps these þulur.