Tormentor of the world shall be.”
Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
Odin, having become aware of the terrible brood which Loki was cherishing, resolved, as we have already seen, to banish them from the face of the earth. The serpent was therefore cast into the sea, where his writhing was supposed to cause the most terrible tempests; the wolf Fenris was chained fast, thanks to the dauntless Tyr; and Hel or Hela, the party-colored goddess of death, was hurled down into the depths of Nifl-heim, where Odin gave her power over nine worlds.
“Hela into Nifl-heim thou threw’st,
And gav’st her nine unlighted worlds to rule,
A queen, and empire over all the dead.”
Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
Hel’s kingdom in Nifl-heim.
This realm, which was supposed to be situated under the earth, could only be entered after a painful journey over the roughest roads in the cold, dark regions of the extreme North. The gate was so far from all human abode that even Hermod the swift, mounted upon Sleipnir, had to journey nine long nights ere he reached the river Giöll. This formed the boundary of Nifl-heim, over which was thrown a bridge of crystal arched with gold, hung on a single hair, and constantly guarded by the grim skeleton Mödgud, who made every spirit pay a toll of blood ere she would allow it to pass.
“The bridge of glass hung on a hair