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:

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 thrall; 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.

Mythic Accounts

Yet more children had Loki. Angrboda was the name of a certain giantess in Jötunheim, with whom Loki gat three children: one was Fenris-Wolf, the second Jörmungandr—that is the Midgard Serpent,—the third is Hel. But when the gods learned that this kindred was nourished in Jötunheim, and when the gods perceived by prophecy that from this kindred great misfortune should befall them; and since it seemed to all that there was great prospect of ill—(first from the mother's blood, and yet worse from the father's)-then Allfather sent gods thither to take the children and bring them to him. ... Hel he cast into Niflheim, and gave to her power over nine worlds, to apportion all abodes among those that were sent to her: that is, men dead of sickness or of old age.

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

"Now this is to be told concerning Hermódr, that he rode nine nights through dark dales and deep, so that he saw not before he was come to the river Gjöll and rode onto the Gjöll-Bridge; which bridge is thatched with glittering gold. Módgudr is the maiden called who guards the bridge; she asked him his name and race, saying that the day before there had ridden over the bridge five companies of dead men; but the bridge thunders no less under thee alone, and thou hast not the color of dead men. Why ridest thou hither on Hel-way?' He answered: 'I am appointed to ride to Hel to seek out Baldr. Hast thou perchance seen Baldr on Hel-way?' She said that Baldr had ridden there over Gjöll's Bridge,—'but down and north lieth Hel-way.'

'Then Hermódr rode on till he came to Hel-gate; he dismounted from his steed and made his girths fast, mounted and pricked him with his spurs; and the steed leaped so hard over the gate that he came nowise near to it. Then Hermódr rode home to the hall and dismounted from his steed, went into the hall, and saw sitting there in the high-seat Baldr, his brother; and Hermódr tarried there overnight. At morn Hermódr prayed Hel that Baldr might ride home with him, and told her how great weeping was among the Æsir. But Hel said that in this wise it should be put to the test, whether Baldr were so all-beloved as had been said: 'If all things in the world, quick and dead, weep for him, then he shall go back to the Æsir; but he shall remain with Hel if any gainsay it or will not weep.' Then Hermódr arose; but Baldr led him out of the hall, and took the ring Draupnir and sent it to Odin for a remembrance. And Nanna sent Frigg a linen smock, and yet more gifts, and to Fulla a golden finger-ring.

"Then Hermódr rode his way back, and came into Ásgard, and told all those tidings which he had seen and heard. Thereupon the Æsir sent over all the world messengers to pray that Baldr be wept out of Hel; and all men did this, and quick things, and the earth, and stones, and trees, and all metals,—even as thou must have seen that these things weep when they come out of frost and into the heat. Then, when the messengers went home, having well wrought their errand, they found, in a certain cave, where a giantess sat: she called herself Thökk. They prayed her to weep Baldr out of Hel; she answered:

Thökk will weep | waterless tears

For Baldr's bale-fare;

Living or dead, | I loved not the churl's son;

Let Hel hold to that she hath!

And men deem that she who was there was Loki Laufeyarson, who hath wrought most ill among the Æsir."

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'.

"evil men go to Hel and thence down to the Misty Hel; and that is down in the ninth world."

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.

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