Hel, Land of the Dead

Here Hel reins, the daughter of the trickster god Loki and the giantess Angrboda, half alive and half dead, sitting on a bone throne adorned by images of her siblings, Fenris the Wolf and Jörmungandr, the World Snake. Helheim is a bleak, dark realm, cold and desolate and quiet, a place reserved for those whose death in battle has not taken and who have withered away from sickness and old age /the so-called "straw dead" because they died in the straw of their beds). This gloomy realm is the opposite of the cheery Valhalla where heroes drink and chant at Odin's table, but it is still a more favorable place than the icy wastes of Nilfheim, where the dishonored dead roam.

On its border, Garm the Guardian Hound stands swatch, to greet each newcomer with his loud bark. he is both part and not part of Nalgrind, the barrier that marks the boundaries between Helheim and the other eight worlds. On the day that Ragnarök comes the leashes binding him will vanish and he will be free to attack Asgard. Before the dead can pass into Helheim over the gold-paved stones of Gjallarbrú that spans over the foaming depths of the River Gjöll, they have to pass the queries and watchful eyes of Modgudr, the giant maiden.

As with all realms, Yggdrasil is the root that binds them together as the seed and plant of creation, so even dark and desolate Helheim is criss-crossed by one of its giant roots.