aþria rætr
standa á þría vega
vndan aski ygðrasils?
hel býr undir einni
annarri hrímþursar
þriðju menn  

Þriar rætr
standa á þría vega
und aski yggðrasils
hel býr und einni
annarri hrímþursar
þriðju mænzkir menn

31. Þrjár rætr
standa á þría vega
undan aski Yggdrasils;
Hel býr und einni,
annarri hrímþursar,
þriðju mennskir menn.  

XXXI.
O'er three fam'd nations wide it shoots,
Three majestic antique roots:
One spreads o'er Hela's confines far;
Another shades the Hrimthursar;[1]
Long will the third a race[2] protect,
That laws nor sacred rites neglect.

[1]  HRIMTHURSAR, a nation of one-eyed inhabitants; this is said of them because they are great marksmen and shut one eye when they take aim; they dwelt in the East.
[2] "Long will the third a race," --- This means the inhabitants of Southern regions.

Downward from Yggdrasill three roots extend
Triverse; 'neath one is dark-browed Hela's home;
Beneath the second dwell the Hrimthursi, fierce
In war; and under the third dwell learned men.

31. Three roots stand
on three ways
under Yggdrasil’s ash:
Hel under one abides,
under the second the Hrimthursar,
under the third mankind.

24-29. Three roots stretch three ways under the ash Ygg's-steed. Hell dwells under one, the Frost Giants under the second, mortal men under the third.

31. There are three roots stretching three divers ways
from under Yggdrasil's ash:
'neath the first dwells Hel, 'neath the second Frost giants,
and human kind[2] 'neath the third.

[2] Human kind. These are the dead folk whose dwelling is in the underworld (see Völuspá st. 52), not, as Snorri suggests, the living. We are repeatedly told that Yggdrasil springs from under the earth. (Dieter-Heinzel.) Hel, see Baldrs draumr. st.1

31. Three roots there are that three ways run
‘Neath the ash-tree Yggdrasil;
‘Neath the first lives Hel, ‘neath the second the frost-giants,
‘Neath the last are the lands of men.

31. Three roots do spread    in threefold ways
    beneath the ash Yggdrasil:
    dwell etins 'neath one,    'neath the other, Hel,
    'neath the third;    Mithgarth's men.

31. Three roots spread three ways
Under the ash Yggdrasil:
Nifehel is under the first,
Frost Giants under the second,
Mankind below the last.

31 'Three roots there grow in three directions
under the ash of Yggdrasill;
Hel lives under one, under the second, the frost-giants,
the third, humankind.

Three roots
branch in three directions
from beneath Yggdrasil's ash;
Hel resides under one,
rime-giants under the second,
human men under the third.

31. Three roots rest
on three roads
from under Yggdrasill’s Ash.
Hel dwells under one,
under the second the frost ogres,
under the third the men of mankind.

31. ‘Three roots spread in three directions
under the ash Yggdrassil;
under one Hel dwells, the second frost-ogres,
the third the human race.

"As the horizontal plane has been mapped in the catalogue of the gods’ dwellings, the vertical plane now comes into focus, making clear the spatial relationship between the gods’ realm and the territory of the other major groups in the cosmos:
 
'Three roots there grow in three directions
 under the ash of Yggdrassil
Hel lives under one,
Under the second, the frost-giants,
The third humankind.'
 
"Óðinn’s focus broadens now from a close focus on the ‘sacred land’ out into an inclusive view of the universe, situating the realm of death, of frost-giants, and of humans below the central point of the divine land, Yggdrasill. The gods now seem to exist above humans, not contiguous with them.

 "Elsewhere the gods and giants certainly seem to exist on the same horizontal plane, as in the geography of Hárbarðsljóð, for example, but since the gods interact so little with human it is difficult to evidence a consistent spatial dimension when the gods journey to humankind."

Without drawing any conclusions on the accuracy of Snorri’s text as a whole, a literal reading of the unabridged text gives us good reason to believe that the Prose Edda contains  a mixture of genuine heathen ideas interlaced with Roman Catholic traditions accepted as factual history. When we consider that Snorri wrote his Edda more than 200 years after the Christian conversion of Iceland, we have little reason to doubt that he himself accepted Church history as factual. Thus it seems foolish to simply strike out the obviously borrowed foriegn material and accept the remainder of the text as an accurate reflection of old Heathen beliefs. Yet, this has been the common approach to the material for the last two centuries. This method is deeply engrained in modern scholarship. As a result, scholars have unquestionably placed the roots of Yggdrasill along a vertical axis, as Snorri did. if we wish to remain objective, at the very least, we should question how the foreign material imported into and layered over the Old Norse mythology effected Snorri's understanding of it, especially as it relates to his concept of the Old Norse cosmology.  Can it simply be struck through and ignored, or is it an intregal part of the text?

Grímnismál 31 informs us that three roots extend on three ways below Yggdrasil's ash: Hel lives near one, frost giants near another, and under the third, human men.  As shown above, an attempt to correlate these three locations with Snorri’s text immediately presents problems.   When considering Snorri's understanding of the placement of the roots and their supporting wells, questions naturally arise:  

 Do the mythic sources make a distinction between Hel and Niflhel ('Misty-Hel')?
Although Mimir is designated as a jötun, is he in fact a frost-giant (Hrímþurs)?
Would a heathen poet ever refer to the Æsir as mennskir menn, "mortal men"?

As we saw in the previous two verses, a genuine heathen understanding of Grímnismál 29 and 30,   leads us to believe that Asgard is located on one side of the Bifröst bridge and that Urd’s well is located on the other. In agreement with this,  Snorri consistently portrays the Aesir as human men from Asia who built a bridge to the sky and established a thingstead there. Clearly, he interprets Grímnismál 29-30 to mean that the human Aesir ride upwards daily to reach Urd's well in heaven. As evidence of this, he actually uses the word upp in Gylfaginning 15.

In  Snorri's account, Bifröst is depicted as a bridge leading from the city of Troy (the home of the human Aesir) upwards to Urd’s well in the heavens. As a result, Bifröst is most often understood as a bridge leading from earth to heaven in modern mythological texts. However, the skaldic poem Sonatorrek composed by a known heathen poet, Egil Skalagrimsson, contradicts this, clearly stating that the home of the gods  is located above the earth (upp í Goðheim), not on the face of the earth. So only one of these statements can be correct. Either Asgard is an earthly city, or it is located in the heavens.  The home of the gods and Urd's well cannot both be located in heaven, and still on opposite ends of the Bifröst bridge. 

Yet today, many people place both Asgard and Urd's well in heaven, and still hold that Bifröst connects heaven and earth.  Despite the fact that this view finds no support in the older heathen poetry, or in Snorri's Edda. The map of the Old Norse universe which accompanies Kevin Crossley-Holland's The Norse Myths (1980) best expresses this view. Note that the map places both Asgard and Urd's well in heaven, yet depicts Bifröst as a bridge leading from heaven to earth, directly contradicting both Grímnismál 29-30 and Gylfaginning 16!

Before investigating what the sources actually say, I would like to highlight some points of agreement between the Prose Edda and poetic passages which may aid us in our understanding of the placement of the roots and the wells that support them.

Since the Prose Edda, composed by Snorri Sturluson, appears to contain a mixture of Heathen and Roman Catholic ideas, mingled together, it may be useful to examine the cosmological statements found there and examine how well they correspond to the older poetic sources. Reading through the evidence from Snorri's Edda cited above, certain statements regarding the roots of Yggdrasil stand out, which might allow us to look under the Roman Catholic veneer and orient ourselves in the mythic world proper. They are:

In Gylfaginning 4, Snorri places the well Hvergelmir to the north in Niflheim. From there, venomous streams flow south into a great abyss called Ginnungagap, where the primeval giant Ymir first arose.  Although Snorri places Urd's well in heaven, he quotes a skaldic verse in Skáldskaparmál 65 composed by a heathen poet converted to Christianity,   which says that Christ sits "south at Urd’s well", in other words, in the opposite direction from Niflheim.  In addition, Snorri says that Mimir's well is located "where Ginnungagap once was."

These locations for the three wells remind us of the creation story provided by Snorri in Gylfaginning. There, Snorri places a world of fire to the south which he calls Muspell or Muspelsheim. To the north, he places a world of ice called Niflheim, in which Hvergelmir occupies a central position. In contrast to the frigid waters of Hvergelmir, we gather that the waters of Urd's well are warm. In Gylfaginning 16, Snorri says that swan’s swim in it,  and that the norns lave its healing mud on the Tree.

Of interest to our investigation, Snorri's statements regarding the location of the three wells, thus form an exact parallel to the first conditions of creation, described by Snorri in the opening chapters of Gylfaginning. To the north, he says there was a world of ice called Niflheim. To the south, he says there was a world of fire, where the demon Surt makes his home. In between the two, yawns an empty abyss called Ginnungagap. Rivers originating in Hvergelmir flow out from Niflheim into Ginnungagap, forming layer upon layer, filling it in.  When heat from the south met the ice floes from the north, life first formed in the great chasm between them. The three directions that the roots of Yggdrasil extend thus correspond to the three primeval spaces: Niflheim, Muspelheim and Ginnungagap.

When we consider that the wells are owned by some of the oldest and the most powerful beings in the universe, who are not subject to the authority of the gods, this localization of the three wells begins to make sense.
 

Urd controls the power of fate. She and her sisters personally tend to the world-tree, also called “the Measuring-Tree”, the "Tree of Fate" (mjötvið, Völuspá 2), laving it with healing mud from their spring (hár baðmr, ausinn hvíta auri); as a result the ash Yggdrasil "stands ever green over Urd's well," (stendr æ yfir grænn Urðarbrunni, Völuspá 19).  She and her sisters lay down laws, and chose the fate of the children of men, (þær lög lögðu, þær líf kuru alda börnum, Völuspá 20). They are present at the birth of kings, determining in advance what lands they will hold in life, and perhaps even their fortunes in war (Helgakvida Hundingsbana I, 2-4).    She employs unbreakable bonds which hold men fast to the course she lays out for them, even against their will (Gróagaldur 7).  “No one can refute Urd’s decree even if it incurs blame,’ (Urðar orði kveðr engi maðr, þótt þat sé við löst lagit, Fjölsvinnsmál 47).

The gods themselves are subject to fate.  Although Odin knows his destiny, he is powerless to change it.  Fate is the provenance of the Norns alone. The Æsir  hold a tribunal near Urd's well every day, but they do not have total jurisdiction over men's fate, not even on the battlefield. Remarkably, the youngest Norn, Skuld, is the foremost of the Valkyries (Skuld ina þriðju, Voluspá 20; compare Sá hon valkyrjur vítt of komnar, ...Skuld helt skildi, Völuspá 30).

In Fjölsvinnsmal 20, the world-tree is called Mimameiðr, Mimir’s Tree. Mimir is so powerful that to gain power, Odin, the ruler of the gods willingly hangs on the world-tree for nine days and nights with no food or drink (Hávamál 138-139) to obtain a single draught of the precious mead in Mimir’s well (ek drykk of gat ins dýra mjaðar, Hávamál 140); Only then does Odin “quicken and begin to flourish, grow and thrive” (Þá nam ek frævask ok fróðr vera ok vaxa ok vel hafask, Hávamál 141). In addition, Odin pledges one of his eyes to Mimir, who keeps it in his well (Allt veit ek, Óðinn, hvar þú auga falt, í inum mæra Mímisbrunni, Völuspá 28). Yet, what Odin sacrifices to get a single drink of, Mimir has in abundance. Every morning Mimir drinks the same mead from Odin’s pledge (Drekkr mjöð Mímir morgun hverjan af veði Valföðrs, Völuspá 28).  Mimir is well-known as a keeper of treasures. As we have seen, the expression hodd goða (hoard of the gods) in Grímnismál 27 most likely refers to his grove, Hoddmimis holt.

In spite of its great value, the gods never challenge Mimir’s authority over this well, even after Mimir is murdered. Instead, Odin embalms his head, and uses it as an oracle (sagði honum marga leynda hluti, Ynglingasaga 4).  Even in this state, Mimir retains control over his well and keeps Odin’s confidence until the day Odin himself dies. Just before Ragnarök, as Heimdall blows his horn to commence the battle, Odin consults Mimir’s head one last time (mælir Óðinn við Míms höfuð; Völuspá 46). And, worthy of remark, the two human beings who survive the final battle to repopulate the new earth are hidden there in Hoddmimis Holt, Hoard-Mimir’s grove (Vafþrúðnismál 45).

The primeval giant, Ymir, from whose corpse Odin and his brothers created earth and heaven, rises from rivers flowing out of Hvergelmir in the earliest days. He and the cow Audhumbla are the oldest living creatures. Thus, Ymir is older than Mimir. Since Mimir acts as Odin's mentor, he is no doubt older than Odin. According to Snorri, Odin and his brothers are born in the third generation of beings. Thus Mimir likely belongs to the second generation. 

Since Midgard was formed from Ymir’s corpse, and the heavens from his skull, are we to believe that Urd and Mimir, who Snorri tells us  live in heaven and in Jötunheim respectively, had to wait until the gods formed the upper worlds before establishing their homes and their dominion over their own wells?  That, of course, is the logical result of accepting a vertical orientation of the three roots and the wells which support them. In a vertical arrangement, Urd and Mimir could not have taken control of their wells, until the places they are supposedly located were created by the younger gods.

Such a belief seems incredible in light of Hávamál 138-141 which suggests that only after a drink from Mimir’s fountain did Odin begin to blossom and grow, thrive and become wise. Could Odin have fashioned Midgard, Asgard and all the wonders therein before obtaining such power? Certainly not. Odin had to submit to Mimir before tasting one drop from his precious well. Therefore the well must have belonged to Mimir since Odin was young. Thus, logic dictates that the roots and the wells must be located in the oldest layers of the world, and that their ownership was established long, before Ymir was slain. 

Not surprisingly, this conclusion is in agreement with Snorri’s statements that the three wells are located in the north, the south and 'where Ginnungagap once was'— the same places as the world of ice in the north, the world of fire in the south and the empty abyss, which Snorri says laid between them in his account of creation in the opening chapters of Gylfaginning. 

Thus, it seems we can detect the authentic heathen worldview in Snorri's statements, even though it has been overlaid by Roman Catholic ideas concerning the nature of the cosmos as a three-tiered system containing heaven, earth and hell.

In visual terms, the actual heathen worldview probably looked like this:

The poetic sources tell us that warriors, who have fallen on the battlefields of Midgard and who are destined for Valhall, arrive there over Bifröst. Even this does not contradict placing Bifröst's bridgeheads in the underworld.  The fallen do not ascend directly to heaven. In the sources, they first pass through Hel.

Fafnismál 10 informs us that “at some time, all men will travel hence to Hel” (því at einu sinni skal alda hverr fara til heljar heðan). Warriors are no exception. Gisli Surrson’s Saga chapter 24, expressly states that even those men destined for Valhall are bound with hel-shoes like all the rest (binda mönnum helskó þá er þeir skulu ganga á til Valhallar). The purpose of these shoes is no doubt to walk the road to Hel.
 
In Atlamál in grænlenzku, warriors who fall in open combat likewise are sent to Hel.
 

In the same poem, when Gudrun fiercely attacks and slays two warriors, she sends them both to Hel:

In Egil’s saga ch. 45, three members of King Erik Blood-axe’s retinue are attacked and die in open combat. In a verse accompanying the text, Egil, their attacker, himself a heathen skald, recites a verse which says that they “have gone to Hel’s high hall” (til hásalar Heljar helgengnir).  While none of these warriors died in a formal battle, there is ample evidence that the case was the same for those who did.
 
In Gylfaginning 49, when Hermod rides to Hel on Frigg’s behalf to get news of her son Baldur, the guardian of the bridge spanning the river Gjöll remarks that the din he makes is more than that of five fylki of men who passed the previous day. Those men together made less noise than he.  Fylki are military divisions, leaving no doubt that the men who had come before Hermod had died together in battle. They too traveled to Hel with their companions. These men may be associated with Baldur. In Saxo’s tale of Baldur’s death (Danish History, Book 3), Baldur himself is a military leader who dies in battle with Hotherus (Höðr). 
 
In Hakonarmál, a panegyric composed by the heathen skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir, King Hakon sits wounded on the battlefield, pierced with an arrow. Dying, he senses two valkyries, Göndul and Skögul standing by. He hears Göndul, leaning on her spear, tell Skögul that this wound will surely cause his death. Her companion confirms this:

This verse gives us definite information regarding the way from earth to Valhall. The fields through which the Valkyries’ horses run are green, thus the sky cannot be meant. Here too, a company of men killed in battle ride together. There is no question that Valhall is their destination. The poem says “that army was not glad of heart; it was on the way to Valhall” and “the Aesir’s following grows when Hakon the high goes with so great an army to the burgh of the gods.” Odin himself had send Göndul and Skögul “to choose among the kings, which of the Yngvi-race should go to Odin and be in Valhall.”  The Valkyries lead the way before them. Their path is not directly from earth to Asgard, through the sky. First they must traverse “green realms of the gods.”

We know that they will arrive in Valhall over Bifröst which definitely forms a path through the sky. In Erikirsmál, a large number of men have who died together in battle arrive in Valhal. Foremost among them is King Erik who arrives at the head of a great host consisting of five kings and their followers. Upon their approach, the benches in Valhall tremble and the whole building quakes. This tells us that the road they ride on was conceived of as a solid pathway firmly connected to the foundation of Asgard.  Vibrations on the bridge cause Valhall itself to shake. The noise this approaching host makes is so great, Bragi wonders aloud if Baldur himself has returned. After his death, we know that Baldur resides in Hel. The logical conclusion is that the bridge King Erik and his men now arrive on (i.e. Bifröst, the “trembling way”) has its apex in heaven and at least one of its bridgeheads in Hel.
 
If so, then Hel must contain the “green realms of the gods” that Göndul and Skögul pass through on their way back to Valhall. This should come as no surprise. As we have seen, a bridgehead of Bifröst is found near Urd’s well, where they can ascend to Asgard, their charges in tow. This is  the same span that the gods ride over “every day to sit in judgment by Urd’s well.” Hel is often characterized as green. In Saxo’s Danish History (Book 1), when the hero Hadding, a favorite of Odin, is taken on a tour of the underworld, “to the regions whither he must go when he died.” He and his companion travel “along a path that was worn away with long thoroughfaring.”  In this region “fresh herbs grow in winter.” Hadding also encounters a group of warriors there.

Despite this, warriors who are burnt on their vessels do not arrive in Valhall by ship. Funeral ships transport their cargo to Hel. When Baldur is burnt on his ship Hringhorn along with the ring Draupnir, Hermod later finds him in Hel. As proof Baldur was physically transported to Hel, Hermod returns the ring Draupnir to Odin, demonstrating that even those burnt at sea arrive in Hel along with the possessions they carry. In Völuspá 36, we are told that the lower world has beachheads called Naströnds (corpse-shores) and in Saxo Book 8, an adventurer arrives there by ship. Since warriors destined for Valhall go to Hel, and afterward ride to Valhall over Bifröst, we have independent confirmation that at least one of its bridgeheads is located in the lower world. This is most likely the bridgehead located “south At Urd’s well” where the gods gather daily to sit in judgement.

A full rainbow appears to have two ends, set in opposite directions. Since Odin is said to ride Sleipnir “to Niflhel” in Baldrs Draumr 2, we have good reason to place the other bridgehead there. Thus Bifröst has two bridgeheads, one in the south, in Hel, and one in the north, in Niflhel.  The southern span appears to be the one the gods on their horses ride across daily. It is too delicate for Thor’s fiery chariot to bear. When Surt leading his men rides "from the south", carrying "the bane of branches" in a bold attempt to ascend to heaven, then the bridge will break, just as it would if Thor had driven his chariot across it.

The northern bridgehead, on the other hand, is most likely the one watched over by Heimdall, lest the frost-giants attempt to storm the ramparts of heaven. It extends to Niflheim, the cold world of the ancient Hrim-þursar, those giants who are hostile to the gods.  

The position of the three roots and wells of Yggdrasil in the lower world, along a horizontal line running from north to the south, also helps us understand the mechanics of Ragnarök. When Surt and his men come riding from the deep south, Bifröst breaks. A poetic verse preserved in Skáldskaparmál, designates their home as Surts sökkdalir, 'Surt's deep-dales.' According to Völuspá, Surt wields  the 'bane of branches', a metaphor for fire. With this sword, he sets the whole world ablaze. Flames play against heaven itself, the sky cracks and the burnt crust of the earth sinks into the sea. Nothing on land or in the air could survive this conflagration. Yet, when the flames die out, a new world rises from the sea. It is lush and green. On it, fields yield grain unsown, and an eagle flies above, catching fish in a stream.

Having now established that the location of all three roots of Yggdrasil's Ash most likely lie in the underworld, the question becomes what the poet who composed Grímnismál 31 meant with the words:

In light of the foregoing investigation, based on a comprehensive review of the cosmological statements contained in Eddic and skaldic sources, the best solution seems to be: