Yggdrasil · Cold and the Dead
Niflheim (Niflheimr)
The cold, misty world of the beginning.
In Blackwell’s translation
…was Niflheim formed, in the middle of which lies the spring called Hvergelmir, from which flow twelve rivers, Gjoll being the nearest to the gate of the abode of death.
- I. A. Blackwell (translator), The Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson (the Prose Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906), Gylfaginning, the creation passage on Niflheim Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
What the sources say
Gylfaginning says Niflheimr was formed many ages before the earth, with the spring Hvergelmir in the middle of it and twelve rivers flowing from it. The northern part of the empty gap Ginnungagap was filled with ice and frost from Niflheimr, while the southern part was lit by sparks from Muspellsheimr. One of the three roots of the world tree stands over Niflheimr, and under it Níðhöggr gnaws.
Whether Niflheimr and the land of the dead are the same place is not clear. Gylfaginning says Odin cast Hel into Niflheimr to rule, and that the wicked go to Hel and from there to Niflhel, below, in the ninth world. Vafþrúðnismál speaks of nine worlds and of “Niflhel beneath”.
- attributed to Snorri Sturluson, Prose Edda: Gylfaginning (13th century), the creation passage and the passage on the three roots
- Vafþrúðnismál (Poetic Edda), stanza 43 (Thorpe’s numbering; other editions differ)
Names and background
Niflheimr means World of Mist. The first part, nifl, has relatives in Old English nifol (dark, gloomy), Middle Dutch nevel and Old High German nebul (fog), and further afield Greek nephelē (cloud). Wikipedia’s article says the name survives in only two sources: Snorri's Gylfaginning and the disputed poem Hrafnagaldr Óðins, which places it to the north.
Gylfaginning puts Hel inside Niflheim, and Wikipedia’s article says this is the only place the two are equated; the Poetic Edda mentions Hel but not Niflheim. Manuscripts also differ over whether a giant's final resting place is Niflheim or Niflhel, the lowest level of Hel.
- Wikipedia contributors, Niflheim (opens in a new tab)
Where the sources attest it
Snorri’s Gylfaginning places Niflheim before the making of the earth, with the well Hvergelmir at its centre and the Élivágar rivers flowing out of it. The Poetic Edda uses the related name Niflhel: Vafþrúðnismál, stanza 43 in Thorpe’s numbering, has Odin travel there, as the place men die into Hel. Snorri’s Niflheim is a primal region at the beginning of the world; the poem’s name belongs to the world of the dead. The relation of the two is a matter of interpretation.
Snorri’s Prose Edda survives in several medieval manuscripts, chiefly Codex Regius, Codex Wormianus and the Uppsala manuscript, so the Gylfaginning accounts rest on those copies rather than on a single text.
- Benjamin Thorpe (translator), The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson (the Poetic Edda) (opens in a new tab) (19th c.; Norroena ed. 1906) Rights: Public domain. Nineteenth-century translation, in the public domain. Text as published online by Project Gutenberg (ebook #14726).
- Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, The Prose Edda (Brodeur translation) (opens in a new tab) (1916) Rights: Public domain. Chapter numbers follow this edition.