[niv-uh
l-heym] 
| a place of eternal cold, darkness, and fog, ruled over by Hel: abode of those who die of illness or old age. |
| Nif·l·heim (nĭv'əl-hām') n. Mythology The realm of the dead in Norse myth. [Old Norse niflheimr : nifl-, mist, dark; see nebh- in Indo-European roots + heimr, home; see tkei- in Indo-European roots.] |
Niflheim
in Norse mythology, the cold, dark, misty world of the dead, ruled by the goddess Hel. In some accounts it was the last of nine worlds, a place into which evil men passed after reaching the region of death (Hel). Situated below one of the roots of the world tree, Yggdrasill, Niflheim contained a well, Hvergelmir, from which many rivers flowed. In the Norse creation story, Niflheim was the misty region north of the void (Ginnungagap) in which the world was created
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