The Nine Worlds: Niflheim

Niflheim

The name Niflheim means, The Home of Mists, In the norse mythology and cosmology this is a cold and frozen realm, one of the two worlds that collided and created all the other worlds and life forms, and when i mean worlds, is it because in the myths, there are nine different worlds, but in truth, it is just one, huge enough, with many realms, with different weathers in each one and different fauna, this led people to belive, that there are different worlds, because each realm they visited is so vast, that seems to be a world.  

In this frozen realm, glaciers and mountains were once solidified a long time ago by a great river called Elivagar, the meaning of its name is, icy waves. This great river crystallized all things into frost, and thus, everything turned into ice. When Muspelheim collided with Niflheim, fire and frost, the ice in Niflheim began to melt away in the southernmost areas. By this time, the first being was created from this union, Ymir the frost-giant.

 Time and Seasons: 

There are a few seasonal changes in Niflheim, but those are very similar to any artic area of our own world. For those who live in the artic reagions, it is easy to them to know which season the area might been in, but for those unfamiliar with that, it might just be winter all the time because snow and frost covers everything. The days are long and the nights longer and at winter, the night doesn't seem to have an end. 

Geography:

Half of Niflheim is covered in snow and ice, and it will never melt and the weather is often cloudy, one of the reasons that turns to a difficult work to know in which season this realm is, because the sky is covered most of the time. It is easy to get lost in here, since the landscape is covered in fog many times and blizzard conditions with lots of snow falling, the cold is terrible and deadly, this may be the last place you want to get stuck in. Towards Svartalfheim, the landscape turns more mountainous and the ice starts to melt there. In here, the land is nearly all water, with some mountaintops here and there, forming islands. The water that floats here is freezing cold, running with icebergs.

If you are looking for shelter in Niflheim, it's vain to look for any kind of building, if those ever existed, they wouldn't survive the storms. All the inhabitants burrow underground in caves. Frost-etins have made a lot of cave-tunnels, but if you try to get shelter in those, that is a mistake.

The most important geographical feature in Niflheim, is probably Hvergelmir one of the sacred wells. Unlike the other wells that are small, Hvergelmir is an enormous hot-spring of turbulent water from which many rivers flow. Hvergelmir is located near the gates of Helheim.

 Flora: 

In the Frozen area of Niflheim, none dwell, but there are some plants near the islands and in the tundras.

Fauna: 

Like our artic places, in Niflheim there are some artic-type animals close to the snowy rigions, there are also seals and other cold-water mammals. 

 

If you need more information or if you want to check my works, take a look at my Facebook page and make a like at --> www.facebook.com/ArithHarger