Hel

Hel in a Norse Context

As a both a Norse deity and a realm in the Norse mythic cosmos, Hel belonged to a complex religious, mythological and cosmological belief system shared by the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples. This mythological tradition, of which the Scandinavian (and particularly Icelandic) sub-groups are best preserved, developed in the period from the first manifestations of religious and material culture in approximately 1000 B.C.E. until the Christianization of the area, a process that occurred primarily from 900-1200 C.E. The tales recorded within this mythological corpus tend to exemplify a unified cultural focus on physical prowess and military might.

Within this framework, Norse cosmology postulates three separate "clans" of deities: the Aesir, the Vanir, and the Jotun. The distinction between Aesir and Vanir is relative, for the two are said to have made peace, exchanged hostages, intermarried and reigned together after a prolonged war. In fact, the most major divergence between the two groups is in their respective areas of influence, with the Aesir representing war and conquest, and the Vanir representing exploration, fertility and wealth. The Jotun, on the other hand, are seen as a generally malefic (though wise) race of giants who represented the primary adversaries of the Aesir and Vanir.

Hel, whether understood as the goddess of the dead or the realm where their spirits reside, is a clear indication of the place of (non-battle-related) death within the Norse worldview, due to her predominantly negative characterization.

Hel as Deity

Characteristics

In 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:

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. [1]

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

Mythic Accounts

Later in the same source is described how Hermóðr tries to retrieve the dead Baldr's soul from Hel.

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. [2]

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.

The Ynglinga Saga (in the Heimskringla of Snorri Sturluson) relates that Hel procured herself a spouse by having the Swedish king Dyggvi die a natural death.

"Dygve the Brave, the mighty king,

It is no hidden secret thing,

Has gone to meet a royal mate,

Riding upon the horse of Fate.

For Loke's daughter in her house

Of Yngve's race would have a spouse;

Therefore the fell-one snatched away

Brave Dygve from the light of day."

Hel as receiver of the slain:

From their sheaths they drew | their shining swords,

Their blades, to the giantess [Hel]| joy to give;

By a third they lessened | the might that was theirs,

The fighter young | to earth they felled.

But only those who died of natural causes?: [Halfdan the Mild] was a great warrior, who had been long on viking cruises, and had collected great property.... Holtar, in Westfold, was his chief house; and he died there on the bed of sickness, and was buried at Borre under a mound. So says Thjodolf: —

"By Hel's summons, a great king

Was called away to Odin's Thing:

King Halfdan, he who dwelt of late

At Holtar, must obey grim Fate.

At Borre, in the royal mound,

They laid the hero in the ground."

At Ragnarök:

O'er the sea from the north | there sails a ship

With the people of Hel, | at the helm stands Loki;

After the wolf | do wild men follow,

And with them the brother | of Byleist goes.

The same event is described in the Grimnismol:

Hard does it seem | to the host of the slain

To wade the torrent wild.

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 as Cosmic Realm

Hel is the root of the English word 'hell'.

In Norse mythology, the realm Hel 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.

Described in the Völuspá:

A hall I saw, | far from the sun,

On Nastrond it stands, | and the doors face north,

Venom drops | through the smoke-vent down,

For around the walls | do serpents wind.

 

I saw there wading | through rivers wild

Treacherous men | and murderers too,

And workers of ill | with the wives of men;

There Nithhogg sucked | the blood of the slain.

—> Some mythic accounts describe gods traveling to Hel on various errands. In Baldr's Draumr (Balder's Dreams), Odin descends to the underworld to consult with a deceased seeress (a strong parallel to the introductory section of the Völuspá). (Give context (Odin seeking answers after Balder's prescient visions of his own demise))

Then Othin rose, | the enchanter old,

And the saddle he laid | on Sleipnir's back;

Thence rode he down | to Niflhel deep,

And the hound he met | that came from hell.

 

Bloody he was | on his breast before,

At the father of magic | he howled from afar;

Forward rode Othin, | the earth resounded

Till the house so high | of Hel he reached.

— The entire tale told by Brunhild in Helreith Brynhildar (describing her courtship with the doomed Sigurd) occurs after her death, on the road to Hel (the title itself can be literally translated as "Brunhild's Hel-Ride"). This context makes her statement, "But yet we shall live | our lives together, Sigurth and I," all the more poignant.

— Understanding as a general place for the dead (not the nuanced view from the Prose Edda)

And, Fafnir, thou | with death dost fight,

Lying where Hel shall have thee.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• DuBois, Thomas A. Nordic Religions in the Viking Age. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8122-1714-4.
• Dumézil, Georges. Gods of the Ancient Northmen. Edited by Einar Haugen; Introduction by C. Scott Littleton and Udo Strutynski. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. ISBN 0-520-02044-8.
• Lindow, John. Handbook of Norse mythology. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001. ISBN 1-57607-217-7.
• Munch, P. A. Norse Mythology: Legends of Gods and Heroes. In the revision of Magnus Olsen; translated from the Norwegian by Sigurd Bernhard Hustvedt. New York: The American-Scandinavian foundation; London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1926.
• Orchard, Andy. Cassell's Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. London: Cassell; New York: Distributed in the United States by Sterling Pub. Co., 2002. ISBN 0-304-36385-5.
• The Poetic Edda. Translated and with notes by Henry Adams Bellows. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1936. Accessed online at sacred-texts.com.
• Sturluson, Snorri. The Prose Edda. Translated from the Icelandic and with an introduction by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur. New York: American-Scandinavian foundation, 1916. Available online at http://www.northvegr.org/lore/prose/index.php.
• Turville-Petre, Gabriel. Myth and Religion of the North: The Religion of Ancient Scandinavia. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964. ISBN 0837174201.

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Hel_(realm)  ^history
• Hel_(being)  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Hel"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.