The Viking Afterlife has various places where people go after they die. One of the most troublesome is Viking Hel, in part because it sounds like Christianity’s own Hell. Hel means “hidden” or “covered.” It may fill the role of accepting everyone who didn’t die in battle or in the sea, wasn’t enslaved, and those who weren’t given a holy mountain to rest in. Another problem is that Hel is both the name of the place and the name of the goddess who holds dominion there.
Are Hel and Hell Related?
Because the main source of Norse mythology, Snorri Sturluson, is reputedly Christian and he compiled it decades from the end of the Viking age, his depiction of Hel is questionable. The first obvious problem is the name itself. The word “Hel” looks like “Hell” the Christian punishment of the afterlife. These words do come from the same Indo-European root – “Kel.” The simple etymological relationship, in conjunction with the obvious glory of Valhalla, akin to Heaven’s glory, may have influenced Sturluson’s understanding of places in the Viking afterlife, even though they may have no correlation at all.
Rivers of Hel
Like many other mythologies, Hel has at least one river that the dead and others must cross to get there. The Volsung family tradition holds that Odin ferried Sinfjotl’s body across a river.
One river is called Gjoll. It is spanned by a bridge with a golden roof guarded by Modgudr. Another name for the goddess Hel is “Man Gjallar” translated as “Girl of Gjoll.”
Another river that may be related to Hel, the place, is Slithr. Slithr flows with swords and daggers through valleys of poison. One early scholar stated that the dead had to cross a river of swords to reach Hel.
Where Is Hel?
According to Norse Mythology, Hel is underground. However, some of the imagery used to describe Hel make it difficult to understand how this underground is laid out. One description has a person sitting in an eagle’s nest looking in at Hel, and the food is bad. Professor Jackson Crawford thinks that other realms may be able to look laterally into Hel.
Who Is Hel?
Hel, sometimes pronounced or spelled “Hela” due to 18th century modifications, is Loki’s and the giantess Angrboda’s (“Anguish-Boding” or “Offerer of Sorrow”) daughter. Odin cast Hel into Niflheimr and gave her dominion over those men, who died of sickness and old age. Hel, as described by Sturluson, is half flesh colored and half blue, like a corpse. She has a downcast and gloomy demeanor.
Niflheimr for the Dead
Niflheimr is full of homes and farms. The fences are tall and the gates are huge. Hel’s hall is called “Storm-Increaser.” Her plate or bowl is “Hunger.” Her knife is “Starvation” or “Famine.” The slaves “Walking Man” and “Walking Woman” or “Lazy-Walkers” serve Hel. The door’s threshold is “Falling Pit” or “Stumbling Block.” Her bed is “death bed” or “sick-bed.” Her tapestries are “Glittering Misfortune.” Author Neil Price thinks these names are Sturluson’s inventions.
A Complicated Hel
In the end, Crawford says that Viking Hel may just be the overarching term for the grave and all afterlife possibilities in Norse mythology. There are a few examples of the dead being in Hel while also inhabiting their corpses when someone opens their graves. Norse afterlife concepts are more than just the Heaven and Hell of Christianity, and the mists of time have made it more difficult to decipher what the Norse really thought of the afterlife.
Sources: Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price, 2022.
The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, translated by Jesse Byock, 2005.
