Helgardh, also known as Hel ("house of mists"), shares a name with the goddess who rules it. In Norse mythology, Hel is one of the nine worlds, the abode of the dead, ruled over by Hel. It is thronged with the shivering and shadowy spectres of those who have died ingloriously of disease or in old age. Niflheim is cold and low on the overall order of the universe. It lies beneath Yggdrasil's third root, near Hvergelmir and Nastrond.