Hel
Hel in Norse Mythology
n Norse mythology, Hel (sometimes Anglicized or Latinized as Hela) is the queen of Hel, the Norse underworld. This word is the root of the English word hell. Hel's hall is named Eliudnir.
In the Gylfaginning, she is described as the daughter of Loki and Angrboða – a giantess (gýgr, see jotun) – and thus sister of the Fenrisulfr and the sea serpent Jörmungandr. Since her father is often described as a god, although both his parents were giants, the same might be said of Hel.
When Odin became aware of the existence of Loki's children, he banished them to remote places. Hel he cast down to her realm in the underworld and gave her authority over all those in the nine worlds who do not die gloriously in battle but of sickness or of old age.
Hel's possessions are described thus:
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Hon á þar mikla bólstaði ok eru garðar hennar forkunnar hávir ok grindr stórar. Éljúðnir heitir salr hennar, Hungr diskr hennar, Sultr knífr hennar, Ganglati þrællinn, Ganglöt ambátt, Fallandaforað þresköldr hennar er inn gengr, Kör sæing, Blíkjandaböl ársali hennar. Hon er blá hálf en hálf með hörundarlit, því er hon auðkend ok heldr gnúpleit ok grimmlig.
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She has great possessions there; her walls are exceeding high and her gates great. Her hall is called Sleet-Cold; her dish, Hunger; Famine is her knife; Idler, her slave; Sloven, her maidservant; Pit of Stumbling, her threshold, by which one enters; Disease, her bed; Gleaming Bale, her bed-hangings. She is half blue-black and half flesh-color (by which she is easily recognized), and very lowering and fierce. —Brodeur translation
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Later in the same source is described how Hermóðr tries to retrieve the dead Baldr's soul from Hel.
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En þat er at segja frá Hermóði at hann reið níu nætr døkkva dala ok djúpa svá at hann sá ekki fyrr en hann kom til árinnar Gjallar ok reið á Gjallarbrúna. Hon er þökt lýsigulli. Móðguðr er nefnd mær sú er gætir brúarinnar.
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Now this is to be told concerning Hermóðr, that he rode nine nights through dark dales and deep, so that he saw not before he was come to the river Gjöll (or Gjallar-river) and rode onto the Gjöll-Bridge (or Gjallar-bridge); which bridge is thatched with glittering gold. Móðguðr is the maiden called who guards the bridge. |
The path to Hel is known as the Helvegr and the gates Helgrindr or Nágrind ("Corpse Gate"). Here Garmr is fastened, Hel's watchdog, who is bloody both on chest and neck.
Heimskringla relates that she procured herself a spouse by having the Swedish king Dyggvi die a natural death.
Mikchail Bulgakov named the devil's witch Hela, in his masterpiece "The Master and Margarita".
Theories
It has been suggested that this description of Hel is of later date, and that she originally was a much more neutral goddess over the realm of shadows, where all, both good and evil, courageous and cowardly, gather after death. This can be seen as being supported by the etymology of Hel (Lat. Celāre, Ger. hehlen), meaning the "hider". It is important to note that also the noble Baldr and the brave Sigurd are sent to Hel after their deaths. Bishop Wulfila uses the Gothic word Halja to translate the Greek "Hades."
Viktor Rydberg, in particular, advocated this view. In the book "Our Fathers' Godsaga" he theorizes that the correct name for Loki's daughter is in fact "Leikn" and that, in Christian times, she was confused with Urðr, one of the three Norns and the dís of fate and death. Rydberg's theories are not generally accepted.
Hel in Norse Cosmology
Hel is the root of the English word 'hell'.
In Norse mythology, the realm Hel[1] shares a name with its ruler, Hel. As described in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda it is a place thronged with the shivering and shadowy spectres of those who have died ingloriously of disease or in old age. Hel is also home to dishonourable people who have broken oaths. Hel is cold and low in the overall order of the universe. It lies beneath Yggdrasil's third root, near Hvergelmir and Náströnd. Hel is not to be confused with Niflheim. They are completely different places.
Hel is said to be a hall with a roof woven from the spines of serpents which drip poison down onto those who wade in the rivers of blood below. The people who dwell in the halls are given nothing but goat's urine to quench their thirst. The doors of the hall are said to be set in the south, away from Asgard which lies to the north. The Poetic Edda describes the doors as facing north.
The hall is surrounded by a river called Gjoll, which is freezing cold and has knives flowing in it.
The only way across the river is over a bridge guarded by the giantess Móðguð (Modgud). If a living person steps on the bridge, it rings out as if a thousand men walk across it, yet the dead pass without a sound.
It is similar to Hades and the River Styx from Greek mythology.
Notes
- ↑ Sometimes called Helheim, a modern construction not found in the original sources.[citation needed]
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