Loki's Palace in Helheim

There is a great ash tree Yggdrasil, keeper of the nine worlds; it balances all that is, reaching from centeredness itself to the top of the heavens.  Here, at the Twilight of the Gods, the Yggdrasil has caught fire.  It appears as a flaming and deadly crown to my home. My realm is Helheim, among Yggdrasil’s deepest roots.  Here I stay with my daughter, Hel, and her army of dead. 

Map of Yggdrasil

            Around Helheim, the impassable, cold river Gjöll flows.  The water is so cold it is said to flow with daggers.  The air in Helheim tastes of crisp, dry blood, and ice crystals engulf all that exists here.  There are even dead souls encased in translucent crystals. My palace lies at the center of Helheim, a large structure of frost and mist.  The palace is never-ending, as new crystals constantly grow and form in the frozen realm.  The architecture is that of the cycles of frost and melt, crystallize and liquefy, stopped at their harshest.

The river Gjöll

Souls encased in ice

Loki's Palace in Helheim

            A Great Hall exists where strategies may be planned and where the dead soldiers may drink mead.  To the left of the hall is the armory; icicles, waiting to become the daggers and swords of their dead masters, hang from the ceiling.  Archery targets splinter and regenerate with each hit, the bulls eyes pointing to great crackling centers in blocks of ice.  North of the Great Hall is the throne room, a magnificent place where darkness and mist lift at a singular point; the throne itself is where light has reflected from crystal to crystal, reverberated throughout structures, and pinpointed itself at my countenance. 

The Great Hall

The Armory's supply of daggers and swords

To the Throne Room

Just beyond Helheim, my child Jormungand, the World Serpent, wraps around a higher root of Yggdrasil, poison waiting in his mouth for those who cross him. Beyond is the root of Asgard, my brother Odin’s realm, a large and forested place surrounded by great stone walls. I know it well.

I am the one that tricked the giant who built the walls surrounding Asgard; I know the dimensions and boundaries of this incomplete project.  The Aesir asked me to stop the giant who was building the walls so they would not have to pay him.  Disguised as a mare, I distracted the giant’s stallion from his work.  From him, I bore Sleipnir, the great eight-legged horse, who I gave to Odin as a gift.  This was, of course, before Odin’s betrayal.

Distracting the giant's stallion

It is true that I had been cast out of Asgard for a slight misunderstanding with the Aesir, but I have heard the call of the Gjallarhorn and felt the tree Yggdrasil shudder as it caught fire.  My children Fenrir and Sleipnir remain in Asgard, ready to fight.  Ragnarök, the Twilight of the Gods, has begun; I have broken my bonds and I am free to seek my life among The Almighty.