Far in the north of the world-order, in icy remoteness, lies Niflheim – the ‘mist-home’. Here reign cold, frost and everlasting twilight. It is one of the two primal worlds, and from its meeting with fire life first arose.
The name comes from Old Norse nifl – ‘mist, fog, darkness’ (cognate with German Nebel). Niflheim is the cold counterpart to fiery Muspelheim; between the two yawned, at the beginning, the primal void Ginnungagap.
In Niflheim rises the spring Hvergelmir (‘the roaring kettle’), from which all the rivers of the world flow – including the icy Élivágar. When their spray met the fire of Muspelheim, the rime melted and formed the primal giant Ymir. Beneath one of the roots of the world-tree Yggdrasil lies Hvergelmir, and there the dragon Nidhögg gnaws at the root among countless serpents.
“Hvergelmir it is called, whence come all waters, / and take their way from thence.”after Grímnismál 26, translation in the Bellows tradition (public domain)
Niflheim is in Norse cosmology the world of mist, cold and ice – the gloomy counterpole to the fire world Muspelheim. It lies in the north of the primeval space and is as old as creation itself.
In the heart of Niflheim bubbles the primeval spring Hvergelmir, from which many rivers (the Élivágar) rise. When its icy water met the heat of Muspelheim, life began in the chasm Ginnungagap – Niflheim is one of the roots of the world.
One of the three roots of the world tree Yggdrasil reaches down into Niflheim to the spring Hvergelmir. There the dragon Nidhöggr gnaws at the root – an image of eternal threat at the ground of the world.
Niflheim is often connected with the realm of the dead, Hel (Niflhel). In Snorri's order it is the coldest, darkest place – a counter-image to the bright halls of the gods.
Ginnungagap – the yawning void · Muspelheim – the fire world · Ymir · Yggdrasil · Helheim.
Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning (c. 1220). Grímnismál, Völuspá (Poetic Edda), English public domain: Henry Adams Bellows (1923). Scholarship: Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology; John Lindow, Norse Mythology.
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