Hel

Myth and origin

Hel's name descends from Proto-Germanic *haljō, meaning "concealed place" or "covered place," from a root meaning "to cover or hide" (the same root that gives English "hall" and "hole"). The original concept is of the underworld as the hidden realm—not necessarily a place of torment but simply the unseen world of the dead. The Christian "hell" inherited her name but radically transformed her realm into a place of fiery punishment, whereas the Norse Hel was a cold, foggy, joyless but not particularly punitive land where most of the dead would end up.

Our chief sources are the Poetic Edda—especially the Völuspá, the Vafþrúðnismál, and the Baldrs draumar—and Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (c. 1220), which gives the fullest description in Gylfaginning: "She is half black and half flesh-coloured, by which she is easily recognised; and somewhat lowering and fierce-looking. Her hall is called Sleet-Cold; her dish, Hunger; her knife, Famine; the servant, Ganglati [Slow-Walker]; her bed, Sick-Bed." The Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum (c. 1200) preserves additional underworld lore. Place-names referring to Hel are scarce, suggesting she was a mythic figure rather than a cult-recipient.

Attributes and stories

You recognise Hel by her half-living, half-dead body—the upper or right side bright, the lower or left side discoloured in death; by her dark realm reached by the road Helvegr that descends nine days northward and downward; by the river Gjöll spanned by the gold-roofed bridge guarded by the maiden Móðguðr; and by the hellhound Garm who watches at the cave Gnipahellir. Her companions are the slow-moving servants Ganglati and Ganglöt, her bed is named Sick-Bed and curtained with Glimmering Misfortune. Everything in her hall is named for sorrow.

Her central myth is her role in the fate of Baldr. When the bright god is slain by Loki's trick, his soul descends to her realm. The gods send the messenger Hermóðr riding Sleipnir down the Helvegr to plead for his return. Hel sets a condition: if everything in the world will weep for Baldr, she will release him. The gods send messengers, and every creature, plant, stone, and metal weeps—except one giantess in a cave (Loki in disguise) who refuses, condemning Baldr to remain in Hel's realm until after Ragnarök. At Ragnarök, Hel's dead will sail on the ship Naglfar, made of dead men's fingernails, to fight against the gods. After the world's rebirth, Baldr returns from her realm to the renewed earth.

Modern reception

Hel has been substantially reclaimed in modern Heathen and Pagan spirituality as a death-goddess of dignity and necessity rather than the Christian demon she was once conflated with. Marvel's Hela (Cate Blanchett, 2017) gave her striking cinematic presence, though heavily reimagined as a war-goddess. Diana Paxson, Galina Krasskova, and other contemporary Norse Pagans have written extensively on her cult, particularly as patron of ancestor work, hospice care, dying with dignity, and chronic illness. Wagner did not include her in the Ring, though her shadow falls across his underworld scenes.

In contemporary practice Hel is invoked for grief work, work with ancestors, the dying and the bereaved, chronic illness, depression, and the integration of darkness as a necessary aspect of wholeness. Astrologically she corresponds to Pluto as ruler of the underworld, to Saturn in his death-and-time aspect, and to the dark Moon. The asteroid 949 Hel bears her name. She has strong affinities with the rune Hagalaz. The mythological deity test can reveal whether her half-shadowed face turns toward you. Continue with Loki, Ragnarök, and Yggdrasil.

Symbolic depth

In the tarot, Hel corresponds most clearly to Death (XIII) as the great transformer, to The High Priestess (II) in her chthonic veiled aspect, and to The Moon (XVIII) in her underworld journey. Judgement (XX) carries her role in calling forth the dead. On the Kabbalistic Tree of Life she resonates with Binah (the dark womb of form) and with Yesod's lunar shadow, and she walks the path of the Daath abyss.

Jungian readings see Hel as a powerful image of the half-self, the wholeness that includes shadow, the necessary descent. Her two-coloured body refuses the choice between life and death: she is both, simultaneously, and cannot be split into one or the other without violating her truth. Her shadow is the goddess who cannot let go of what she holds—almost releasing Baldr but bound by the cosmic legalism of "every weeping." To work with this archetype is to befriend your own mortality, to honour the descent that grief and illness force upon you, and to discover the strange dignity of the half that is not bright. Return to the main glossary.

Also known as

• Hela
• Lady of Helheim
• Mistress of the Dead
• Half-Dead Queen
• Daughter of Loki