The Strand of the Deadthe Scandinavian and Icelandic
hell, said to be of an icy temperature. It lies in the lowest depths
of Niflheim, is a dark abode far from the sun, and its gates
face the cutting north. Its walls are formed of wreathed
snakes, and their venom is ever falling like rain. It is surrounded
by dark and poisonous streams, and Nidhog, the great dragon
that dwells beneath the central root of Ygdrassil, torments
and gnaws the dead. Here Loki is chained to a splintered rock,
where the venom of the snake Skada falls on him unceasingly,
and it was believed that his shuddering was the cause of earthquakes.
Nastrond is featured in the Voluspa, a poem in the Icelandic
The Poetic Edda. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1969.