Nastrond was a dark, nightmarish place, described as a hall made up of the spines of snakes. These souls were sent to Nastrond which was situated next to Helheim but still within Niflheim. The worst was saved for the souls of oath breakers, murderers, and adulterers. Helheim as a place was most likely not all that bad, more analogous in Norse writing to the Christian idea of purgatory rather than Christian hell. Most people would end up in Helheim, which was ruled over by one of Loki’s children, Hel. Which part of Niflheim depended on how bad a Viking they had been. If a Viking had a dishonorable death, they ended up in Niflheim. Some cultists also believed if they sacrificed themselves to their god or died in service of their god but outside of battle, they would also go to Valhalla. Within this hall mortal souls could feast with the gods and help prepare them for the final battle, Ragnarok. Valhalla is usually represented as residing in the heavens, a great hall surrounded by beautiful fields. If a Viking died in battle, with his weapon in his hand, it was considered to be an honorable death and he went to Valhalla. How a person died decided which kind of death they had, which in turn decided where they ended up after they died.
The realm’s importance was threefold.īroadly speaking Norse mythology divided death into two categories, honorable and dishonorable. Niflheim was one of the more important realms in Norse mythology, so it is unsurprising it was one of the more thoroughly recorded. Jörmungandr: The Misunderstood Midgard Serpent of Norse Mythology.Idunn: The Rejuvenating Goddess that Keeps Norse Deities Young.Niflheim was made up of more than one area, each with its own environment. Whilst this is largely true, the actual mythology isn’t that simple. It was usually portrayed as being a dark, unforgiving realm characterized by brutal cold. Niflheim is one of the realms which we know more about, although sources tend to contradict each other. For example, we know substantially more about Midgard (Earth) and Asgard (home of Aesir gods like Odin and Thor) compared to Svartalfheim (home to the dark elves). Of the nine realms in Norse mythology, we know more about some than others. But how accurate are these depictions and how much do we actually know about Niflheim in Norse mythology on the whole? What was Niflheim? One of the most popular in western pop culture is Niflheim, making its way into the Marvel movies and video games like God of War. Each had its unique inhabitants and mythology, but some played bigger parts in the Norse mythology than others. In Norse cosmology, the universe was made up of nine distinct realms.
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