Náströnd

"Corpse-strand." A sunless place in Hel where a great hall stands, the abode of perjurers and murderers and workers of ill with the wives of men. The hall has north-facing doors, with venom dripping from the smoke hole, and the walls are woven with snakes. The dragon-like Níðhöggr sucks the blood from corpses, and the wolf tears men, according to Völuspá:

42. She saw a hall standing,
far from the sun,
in Náströnd;
its doors are northward turned,
venom-drops fall
in through its apertures:
entwined is that hall
with serpent's backs.
43. She there saw wading
the sluggish streams
bloodthirsty men
and perjurers,
and him who the ear beguiles
of another's wife.
There Nidhögg sucks
the corpses of the dead;
the wolf tears men.

Snorri Sturluson adds that the venom of snakes form rivers which run along the hall and that perjurers and murderers are doomed to wade these streams.

The two worst classes of criminals known to Old Norse morality were oath-breakers and murderers.

References

Sources

  • Gunnars slagr, 20.
  • Gylfaginning, 52.
  • Völuspá, 42-43.