place
Náströnd
The 'corpse-shore', where a hall woven of serpents, far from the sun, drips venom on oath-breakers and murderers; the Norse sources' clearest place of punishment.
Náströnd, the "corpse-shore," is where the worst of the dead are punished. Völuspá describes it in two stanzas: a hall far from the sun, its doors facing north, with venom dripping through the smoke-hole because its walls are made of serpents Völuspá 38. Through it wade "Treacherous men and murderers too. / And workers of ill with the wives of men," and there Níðhöggr sucks the blood of the dead Völuspá 39.
Snorri quotes these lines and elaborates: the hall is woven of serpents' backs "like a wattle-house," the snake-heads all turn inward and blow venom, and rivers of venom run through the hall for oath-breakers and murderers to wade. "But it is worst in Hvergelmir," he adds, where the snake tears the corpses Gylfaginning 52. He puts the hall in the world after Ragnarök, as the evil counterpart of Gimlé.
Náströnd is unusual in Norse myth. Elsewhere the dead are sorted by how they died, not by how they lived: the battle-slain to Odin, others to Hel. A place of punishment for moral crimes, and its pairing with a golden hall for the righteous, has led many scholars to suspect Christian influence on these stanzas. Others note that oath-breaking and murder were the gravest crimes in Norse law, so the choice of sinners fits a native moral world. The sources cannot decide it.
In the sources
Quoted from the hosted translations; each line is checked against the text when the site is built. Select a reference to read it in context.
A hall I saw, far from the sun, On Nastrond it stands, and the doors face north; Venom drops through the smoke-vent down, For around the walls do serpents wind.
I saw there wading through rivers wild Treacherous men and murderers too. And workers of ill with the wives of men
it is all woven of serpent-backs like a wattle-house; and all the snake-heads turn into the house and blow venom, so that along the hall run rivers of venom
Where the sources disagree or fall silent
- Bellows's Völuspá places the Náströnd stanzas before the description of Ragnarök (Völuspá 38-39); Snorri places the hall in the world after Ragnarök (Gylfaginning 52), so it is unclear whether it is a present or a future punishment.
- Völuspá adds 'workers of ill with the wives of men', seducers or adulterers, who are absent from Snorri's list.
