Hel is the goddess of the underworld in Norse mythology. Daughter of
Loki, the Queen of Helheim has absolute power over the dead.
The giantess Hel was one of the children of the trickster giant Loki. Born half alive and half dead, she terrified the gods, and Odin banished her to the underworld, where she became its queen. Her power in Helheim was absolute, not even Odin could override it. But in Viking culture, Hel also played a sympathetic role in guiding the dead into the afterlife. This complex figure fits into Norse mythology and Viking beliefs.
Loki's daughter
Although the giant, or jotun, Loki was allowed to live in Asgard among the gods because of the oath of blood brotherhood between him and Odin, the gods never trusted him. In the Gilfaginning, Odin says of the first giant, Ymir, that he was monstrous, as were all his descendants.
The gods clearly considered Loki monstrous, for when they learned that he had three children with the giantess Angrboda, they decided that children from such a monstrous union were too dangerous to be allowed to roam the world freely.
The first of his children was a giant wolf named Fenrir. The gods tricked the wolf into letting himself be imprisoned by a magical unbreakable chain on a desert island. The second child was a serpent named Jormungandr. The gods cast him into the sea surrounding Midgard. There he grew to such an enormous size that he could girdle the entire kingdom and hold his tail in his mouth.
The giantess Hel was the third child of the union of Loki and the giantess Angrboda, born half blue (sometimes called black) and half flesh-colored, meaning she was half alive and half dead.
She also had a sullen, gloomy, and depressed look. She was disgusting to look at, and the gods wanted to send her to a place where they would never have to see her again. Eventually they sent Hel to the cold and misty realm of Niflheim at the very base of the world tree Yggdrasil. There she was to rule the underworld, which later became known as Helheim in her honor.
Road to Helheim
Helheim is only one of many underworlds in Norse mythology, but it seems to have been the main underworld where most people went after death. The lucky few who proved themselves brave by dying bravely in battle were chosen by Odin to spend the afterlife
in Valhalla. Some were chosen by Freya to spend the afterlife in Folkvangra.
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Some of the surviving sources describe the road to the underworld and Helheim itself as the hidden world of the dead. Later Christian authors describe it as a place of eternal torment. This is the result of their attempts to harmonize Norse mythology with the Christian worldview, in which there is a heaven and a hell. It is difficult to see where Norse mythology and Christian ideas meet because many of the sources are from Christian authors.
One of the poems describes Brunnhilde traveling to Helheim and her body being carried in an elaborate wagon. This is probably the same wagon in which the remains were burned and are now being taken to the afterlife. The journey begins with a passage past Brunhild's barrow, which was considered the gateway between the world of the living and the dead. There she meets a dead giantess, probably Hel, with whom she shares her life story.
The barrow appears to be the beginning of the journey to Hel. In another epic, Odin discovers the source of his son Balder's prophetic dreams of his death. He goes to the witch's mound, which serves as a portal to Helheim. There, on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, he jumps the fence of Hel, guarded by the watchdog Garm, and sees a hall full of dead people and decorated with gold rings and gold jewelry. He then raises a witch from the dead to explain what is happening. She tells Odin that Hel is preparing to receive Balder.
In the later, Christianized account of Gylfaginning, Hel's hall is called Eljudnir, meaning "wet with snow and rain". In the hall, Hel eats from a dish called "hunger" with a knife called "hunger", and she is accompanied by servants called "lazy walkers". The threshold of the entrance is called a "stumbling stone", the bed is called a "hospital bed", and the curtains are called "glittering bales". All of this is to say that neither comfort nor relief can be found in Helheim.
There's a passage in "
Voluspa that describes a part of Helheim called Nastrod, which means "
shore of corpses". There is a castle there, facing north, and it is filled with snake venom. Murderers, adulterers, and false witnesses are sent here to be tormented. The dragon Nidhogr sucks the blood from their bodies.
Later, in "Gilfaginning", the god Hermodr sets off to Helheiman on Odin's horse Sleipnir. He rides for nine nights (nine is a sacred number found repeatedly in Norse mythology) through a valley so dark that he sees nothing until he reaches a river called Gjoll, meaning "noisy". There he meets a bridge with a golden roof, and to pass over it he must get the permission of Modgudr, a giantess whose name means "fierce fighter".
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She usually only lets in the recently deceased, but she makes an exception for Hermodr. Modgudr tells him that the people in Helheim are a different color, perhaps blue, and that he must go down and north to reach Hel.
In the Gestas Danorum, another twelfth-century Christianized source, King Hadingus of Denmark is dining when a woman carrying hemlock stalks appears. She asks him if he knows where such fresh herbs grow and offers to show him. The king and the woman, whose name is Hel, disappear from the hall and find themselves on the road to Helheim.
It is dark and foggy and the path is frayed from heavy use over many generations. They pass richly dressed people who appear to be rich dead men with their beautiful tombstones, until they come to a sunny field where grasses grow. The pair walks on until they come to a fast-flowing river that is noisy because it is full of weapons.
It is probably the Gjoll River. When they cross the river, they see a great battlefield. Hel informs the king that these are men who have died in battle and are forever trying to win that last battle they lost.
Finally, the Danish king and queen of the underworld encounter a huge wall with no way through it. This is the same wall that Odin and Hermodr were able to jump over on Sleipnir. The woman takes the head from the rooster she was carrying and throws it over the wall. The rooster comes back to life, and Hadingus is once again among the living.
Other sources describe Hel as the guide of the dead on the way to Helheim. This is not perceived as a horror, but as an aid in the transition. Several medallions (bracteates) from the Migration period (300-700 AD) show a rider descending a slope and encountering a female figure holding a scepter, presumably Hel.
The ruler of the underworld
One source says that Hel accepts those who have died of illness or old age. This is probably intended to make a clear distinction between brave warriors who died in battle and went to Valhalla and those who ended up in Helheim. But some Vikings who died in battle also ended up in Helheim, as was evidenced by the death of King Hadingus.
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Perhaps the most interesting person to find himself in Helheim is the god Balder, son of Odin. Balder was considered invincible because his mother Frigg had secured a promise from all creatures that they would never harm her son. As a result, the gods often played a game in which they threw weapons at Balder and watched them bounce harmlessly.
However, Loki learned that Frigg had forgotten to seal her promise with the humble mistletoe plant. He made a dart out of mistletoe and convinced Balder's blind brother Hodr to throw it at Balder as a joke. Not knowing what would happen, Hodr threw the dart and killed Balder. Balder, along with his wife Nanna (who threw herself on her husband's funeral pyre) and Hodr (who was executed for his role in the death) ended up in Helheim.
Odin was desperate to get his son back, but even though he was the king of the gods, the god of the afterlife of Valhalla and the one who had given Hel control of Helheim, he could not bring Balder back. Only Hel could set him free. Hermodr then goes to Hel to negotiate with the goddess.
Once there, Hermodr sees that Balder is treated with honor in Helheim, but still asks Hel to return him to Asgard, saying that he is loved by all, and so it is a tragedy that he must remain in Helheim. Hel listens to the pleas and says that she will let Balder go if Hermodr proves that he is loved by all.
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The gods turned to all the creatures in existence and asked them to mourn Balder. All did so, except a witch named Tokk, who refused. This is supposed to be Loki in disguise. As a result, Balder was forced to stay in Helheim.
This story emphasizes that Helheim was not just for the wicked; anyone could be there. It also emphasizes Hel's absolute power to enter and leave the underworld, although she seems to have allowed the dead to visit the living. The Vikings believed that on Yule, when the sun barely rises in Scandinavian countries, the veil between the worlds becomes thinnest and the dead can visit the living. Once again, the barrows acted as gateways.
In the Eddic poem Helgaknitha Hundingsbana II, a slain hero leaves the underworld to visit his burial mound during Yule. He has a physical body that still bleeds from his battle wounds. There he is met by his widow Sigrun and spends the night in her arms before returning to the underworld. After that, Sigrun returns to the mound every night in search of him, but he never returns, and she dies of a broken heart.
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The giantess also plays a role in
Ragnarok, the Norse apocalypse. Balder's death is often seen as the event that sets Ragnarok in motion. It is this event that leads to the severing of the relationship between the gods and Loki. He is cast out of Asgard and then hunted down and chained to a rock.
Hel at the time of Ragnarok
When Ragnarok comes, Loki will break his chains and lead the giants against the gods. He will be joined by his son Fenrir, who will also break his chains and eat Odin. Loki's son Jormungandr will emerge from the waters, and he and Thor will kill each other. Hel will also join the battle. She will sail out of Helheim on a boat called Naglfar, made from the nails and fingers of the dead.
When they arrive in Asgard, Hel will engage in battle and her watchdog Garm will kill the god Tyr. It is not reported what exactly happens to Hel, but the apocalyptic battle between gods and giants seems likely to end in mutual destruction, and the world will sink back into the waters of chaos from whence it came.
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Some later Christian sources say that the world rose again from the waters and that a few gods survived to restore it. This is probably a Christian addition not included in the original stories. Nevertheless, Hel is not mentioned among the survivors. In contrast, Balder and Hodr figure, as they were probably protected from destruction in Helheim.