Helheim

**Helheim**, or simply **Hel**, is a gloomy, cold realm located under the great tree of Yggdrasil in Norse mythology. It is ruled by the hideous goddess of death, Hel, who keeps those who die peacefully or in illness.

To some extent, it is the opposite of Asgard and its capital of Valhalla, in terms of location (down) and association (with the daughter of Loki).

## Description

In surviving accounts of Norse mythology, such as the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, this realm was described as a realm of mist, cold, and darkness. It is where those who die of old age and illness go, both good and evil, though the worst of all evildoers end up in the snake-infested, venomous swamps of Nastrond to be torn apart by its beasts. Some accounts claim that Helheim is part of the frigid realm of Niflheim, domain of the cruel frost giants.

Those who died were buried or cremated with their own belongings, even murdered slaves, to accompany them along the journey to Helheim. At the border of Helheim is a bridge guarded by a jotunn woman, the Gjallarbrú with its golden roof across the Gjöll River.

The hall in Helheim is Eljudnir, Hel's royal palace. It was named for its heavy snowstorms.

In spite of the somewhat bleak depictions in later history, life in Helheim is not really that bad, but more or less like life on Earth. In fact, that was where the bright god Baldr ended up in after he was poisoned by Hodr with mistletoe. There, he sits on a throne in a glorious feast.

## In the Rabydosverse

To the Freyrgardian Norse humans, they started venerating Helheim and its queen as a paradise, as a protest against their earthly kin's descent into cruelty and violence and to seek communion with their holy ancestors.

### Funerary rites

Helheim, praised in funerary hymns as Saleimaz, Salaranda, Salai, Sauloi, or Saloria, is not feared by the Freyrgardians, but welcomed as a paradise. That is why when a good Freyrgardian dies, his funeral is not necessarily a sad event, but a joyful departure like a second or third birthday; that is when the deceased's soul will meet their ancestors.

During the funeral, it is permitted to cry to help the loved ones let go of their attachments and continue with their lives. The deceased is bathed in fragrant water, dressed in white and gold-thread robes, and is brought to a pyre with wreaths and flowers around their coffin on a cart. The priest reads the righteous deeds of the deceased, and then the loved ones light the body.

On the third day, the deceased crosses a white bridge, where they cross a cold path into the Field of Plenty, the threshold into the Freyrgardian paradise.

### The realm itself

According to Freyrgardian iconography, Helheim is depicted as a field where it is always autumn, surrounded by splendid mountains and windy forests. It is centred around the silver city of Eljudnir, the Bastion of the Righteous, filled with libraries of marble and gardens of a million blossoms.

Above its coloured skies, stars shine even at day, and constellations encircle over Eljudnir to remind the righteous of the good and heroic deeds they had done in life. A ring of sixteen stars dance above Eljudnir's spires, representing the crown of stars that the goddess Hel wears.

Yet even with the beauty of Helheim, it is considered very unnecessary for a person to spend their whole life preparing for the afterlife. Those who do enter Helheim, but fail to finish whatever they need in life, would feel empty in the afterlife.

Therefore, the Freyrgardians continue one virtue that they inherited from their ancestors, even in a very distorted form: "It is better to make your own life meaningful, so when you look back, your help to the world will fill you with joy." Their views were also influenced by their observations of their warlike Jerdiskar kin: eventually, seeing how their artistic, scientific lifestyles contrasted against their belligerent, primitive counterparts influenced them to focus less on battle, and more on peaceful and higher motivations.

### Elsewhere

Likewise, perhaps due to Freyrgardian influence, other Norse peoples on Jerde saw Helheim not as a place of fear and cold, but a pleasant realm to see those whom they loved in life.

In Novantirna mythology, influenced also by Freyrgardian mysticism, Helheim became the domain of victims of disasters.