Náströnd

In Norse mythology, Náströnd ("Corpse Shore") is a place in Hel where Níðhöggr lives and chews on corpses. It is the afterlife for those guilty of murder, and severe oath-breaking.

Orthography

In the standardized Old Norse orthography, the name was spelled Nástrǫnd, which in 11th century Old West Norse was pronounced [ˈnɑːˌstrɔnd]. In Modern Icelandic the letter 'ǫ' is replaced by ö, and Náströnd is pronounced [ˈnauˌstrœnt].

Poetic Edda

The Völuspá says:

Sal sá hón standa

sólo fiarri,

Nástrǫndu á,

norðr horfa dyrr.

Fello eitrdropar

inn um lióra.

Sá er undinn salr

orma hryggiom.

Sá hón þar vaða

þunga strauma

menn meinsvara

ok morðvarga

ok þannz annars glepr

eyrarúno.

Þar saug Níðhǫggr

nái framgengna,

sleit vargr vera.

Vitoð ér enn, eða hvat?

Völuspá 38-39, Dronke's edition

A hall she saw standing

remote from the sun

on Dead Body Shore.

Its door looks north.

There fell drops of venom

in through the roof vent.

That hall is woven

of serpents’ spines.

She saw there wading

onerous streams

men perjured

and wolfish murderers

and the one who seduces

another’s close-trusted wife.

There Malice Striker sucked

corpses of the dead,

the wolf tore men.

Do you still seek to know? And what?

Völuspá 38-39, Dronke's translation

Prose Edda

Snorri Sturluson quotes this part of Völuspá in the Gylfaginning section of his Prose Edda. He uses the plural of the word: Nástrandir (Corpse Shores).

Á Náströndum er mikill salr ok illr, ok horfa í norðr dyrr, hann er ok ofinn allr ormahryggjum sem vandahús, en ormahöfuð öll vitu inn í húsit ok blása eitri, svá at eptir salnum renna eitrár, ok vaða þær ár eiðrofar ok morðvargar, svá sem hér segir:

Sal veit ek standa

sólu fjarri

Náströndu á,

norðr horfa dyrr.

Falla eitrdropar

inn of ljóra.

Sá er undinn salr

orma hryggjum.

Skulu þar vaða

þunga strauma

menn meinsvara

ok morðvargar.

En í Hvergelmi er verst:

Þar kvelr Níðhöggr

nái framgengna. Gylfaginning 52, EB's edition

On Nástrand [Strand of the Dead] is a great hall and evil, and its doors face to the north: 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; and they who have broken oaths, and murderers, wade those rivers, even as it says here:

I know a hall standing

far from the sun,

In Nástrand:

the doors to northward are turned;

Venom-drops falls

down from the roof-holes;

That hall is bordered

with backs of serpents.

There are doomed to wade

the weltering streams

Men that are mansworn,

and they that murderers are.

But it is worst in Hvergelmir:

There the cursed snake tears

dead men's corpses. Gylfaginning 52, Brodeur's translation

References

Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (transl.) (1916). The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Available online
Dronke, Ursula (ed.) (1997) The Poetic Edda: Mythological Poems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-811181-9.
Eysteinn Björnsson (ed.). Snorra-Edda: Formáli & Gylfaginning : Textar fjögurra meginhandrita. 2005. Available online