Hel

The Norse Goddess of the Underworld and Death

### Titles

Goddess of the Dead, Goddess of Death, Grave Guardian, Entombed Goddess, Matron of the Dead, Walker-between-Worlds, Mistress of Death, Daughter of Loki, Queen of Niflheim, Evil Demoness, Odin's Executioner, Mistress of the Darkness, The Merciless,

## Profile

### Personify

Underworld, the Dead, Death, Failure, Famine, Hunger, Despair, Greed, Cruelty, Harshness

### Occupation

Queen of Helheim, Warden of the Dead, Ruler of Niflheim, Queen of the Dishonorable Dead

### Affiliations

Death, Helheim, Niflheim, Children of Loki

## Relationships

### Siblings

Fenrir, Jörmungandr, Narfi, Váli, Sleipnir

### Other Relationships

Shades and the Dead (Subjects), Sigyn (Step-Mother), Odin (Uncle/Imprisoner), Thor (Cousin), Leah, Ganglati & Ganglot(Servants), Garmr (Guard Dog), Níðhöggr (Pet), Asmodeus (Ally?)

## Other

### Equivalents

Ereshkigal, Persephone, Proserpina, Izanami, Tuonetar, Kali, Lilith, Hades, Pluto, Osiris

### Status

Alive

**Hel Lokidottir**, simply known as **Hel**, is the ancient goddess of death and the Underworld in Norse Mythology. She is Loki's and Angrboða's daughter and sister to the wolf Fenrir and serpent Jörmungandr. She resides in the realm of the same name while ruling over Niflheim (the Norse underworld).

## Overview

She is an ancient goddess of the dead within the Norse mythology who presides over the realm of the same name (and/or Niflheim) which serves a basis for the Christian concept of Hell, where she receives a portion of the dead. She is quite usually described as a horrible hag, half dead and half alive, with a gloomy and grim expression. Her face and body are those of a living woman, but her thighs and legs are of a corpse, mottled and moldering.

Hel is split down the center, half of her form is rotten, dripping, and decayed. The other half is a beautiful pale young woman. In all matters, Hel's demeanor is downcast and severe she is cold and pitiless, neither benevolent nor hateful. She simply is. Her existence brought disease into the world, and she was born to a prophecy that she would bring destruction and doom to all things.

She was appointed by Odin to be the ruler of Niflheim. Warriors who fell in combat did not become her subjects but went instead to the hall called Valhalla to live with Odin. She cares for the ones that have died of age or sickness and sends "wolfish murderers," "men who seduce another's faithful wife," and oath-breakers to Nástrand where the lindworm dragon Nidhoggr dwells. Not only was Hel the queen of Helheim but she was also the queen of greed, cruelty, and harshness.

In this realm Hel has grand mansions with extremely high walls and immense gates, a hall called Eljudner, a dish called "Hunger," a knife called "Famine," the servant Ganglati (Old Norse "lazy walker"), the serving-maid Ganglot (also "lazy walker"), the entrance threshold "Stumbling-block," the bed "Sick-bed," and the curtains "Gleaming-bale." High describes Hel as "half black and half flesh-colored," adding that this makes her easily recognizable, and furthermore that Hel is "rather downcast and fierce-looking."

Sometimes, Hel was depicted alongside with a black hound Garmr who actually guarded the gate of Helheim and the mortal enemy of Tyr in Ragnarök. According to some materials, Hel provided many dead warriors for Loki’s army during the Ragnarok event. Her army teamed up with the Jötunar from Jötunheim came to the stronghold Asgard to wage a bloody war. She is also said to be the only one capable of controlling the dragon Nidhoggr.

## Appearance

Hel is said to appear as a fearsome woman whose appearance could scare the lookers off. Hel appears as a thin woman, beautiful on right side but dead and decayed like a rotting zombie on the left. For this horrid visage she is outcast among the gods, but admired by the dead.

Her appearance is described as half-black and half-flesh colored, and also has a gloomy, down-cast appearance. Hel's visage is frightening for mortals to view. When she reveals the undead half of her face, it inflicts fear in even the bravest of mortals.

The left side of Hel's body and face is described as "heart-achingly beautiful, about twenty-five years old, with her ermine cloak shimmering like a snowdrift rippling in the wind." She has long dark hair and pale elven skin. The right side, however, is terrifying - withered skin, a skeletal hand, and leg, patches of blue ice covering decayed flesh, membrane-thin lips over rotten teeth, a milky-white eye and tufts of desiccated hair like black spider webs. She has a milky zombie gaze, which many find very unnerving.

While wearing her cloak, she is a tall, beautiful woman with long hair which is a mix of blue plus red. Hel is sometimes depicted with half of her face a featureless white, and the other half black. When wearing the garment that serves as her cloak, cowl, and headdress, Hel's body is fully alive and healthy. However, deprived of her cloak, Hel reverts to her true form.

She occasionally sends an avatar to Midgard who takes the form of a warrior-priestess with a swarthy complexion and black hair.

## Personality

Hel is arguably the least malevolent of three siblings, simply cold and detached rather than evil like her portrayals in popular culture. Despite having animosity towards the Aesir of Asgard for casting her into Helheim at which she allowed to have dominion over, she wholeheartedly accepted her role as the Goddess of Death. Hel is grim and fierce. She is merciless in destroying those who offend her. Hel rarely conveys emotion, except for the occasional mocking smile.

While sometimes it is depicted that Hel also holds similar resentments towards her father for being born as half-undead Jötunn, it is more likely that she shows more loyalty and respect to her father due to aiding him in his fateful war against the Gods during the Ragnarök by giving him command over the legion of dishonorable dead who join his cause, proving that she poses a threat against the Gods as much as both Jörmungandr and Fenrir would.

## Powers and Abilities

As the goddess of death and the underworld and one of the children of Angrboða and Loki, Hel is formidable goddess among the most powerful of the chthonic gods and the Norse gods as a whole, having great proficiency with both physical and magical powers. In fact, it is implied that Hel is arguably the most powerful of the Nordic deities given her mastery over death applies to even the gods themselves. Despite her great and terrifying power, Hel rarely if ever engages in combat as she is more interested in maintaining balance between life and death and overlooking the development of her realm. However, this does not mean that she is vulnerable as Freya herself stated that Hel is one goddess that no one should ever provoke. Hel is a formidable hand to hand combatant, as well as having great proficiency with swordsmanship. She is particularly skillful at using her powers in combat situations.

Hel's power was made evident when she threatened Mundus himself. The Dark Emperor conceded to her warnings and not bother her again, which implies that Mundus, despite being in his prime, was well aware of Hel's power and did not take the risk in engaging her regardless of how prideful he was over his own power. Like any deity embodying death and the underworld, Hel had absolute control over corpses, skeletons and spirits. She also has total control over darkness, and her presence alone fills any mortal or even a god with immense dread and fear. Whilst there are other gods associated with death in the Norse pantheon, Hel is the most prominent one for obvious reasons and her power in that domain surpasses their own as she has the final say over whether or not this specific soul would be taken into her embrace or be carried off into Valhalla.

* **Transcendent Undead Physiology**: Hel is the half-dead Jötunn and daughter of Angrboða and Loki who born with immense death-related powers which complimented her role as the Goddess of Death appointed by Odin the Allfather himself.
	+ **Death-Force Manipulation**: Hel can control the essence of death, a force in every mortals which causes things to wither, rot, weaken, and eventually die for various feats such as;
	+ **Age Manipulation**: Hel can use death force to induce death on her victims through accelerated aging.
	+ **Disease Manipulation**: Hela can use death force to cause and spread harmful disease that can kill those it touches. She automatically senses all deaths by disease, accident, or poison, and anything which occurs in graveyards.
	+ **Necromancy**: As the Goddess of Death and the Dead, Hel can use death force to perform necromantic feats such as reviving the deceased along with having control over the dead.
	+ **Death Empowerment**: Not surprisingly, Hel can gain strength from death itself, perhaps through souls of deceased mortals who entered her namesake realm.
	+ **Undead Pulse**: As half of her body is alive and healthy while the rest looked death and decomposing yet not bothered by such condition in any way, Hela is virtually in a state between alive and undead.
* **Cryokinesis**: Some sources stated that Hel can manipulate ice and cold to some degree, though compared to that of other Norse Deities, her cryokinetic powers leaned more to its destructive and harmful aspects.
	+ **Snow Mimicry**: She is able to turn into a flurry of snow.
* **Asgardian Physiology**: Hel possesses the conventional superhuman abilities of an Asgardian woman, as well as certain special abilities that pertain to her role as a goddess of death and the underworld.
	+ **Superhuman Strength**: Hel possesses vast superhuman strength considerably greater than most of the Aesir. She has proven capable of standing toe-to-toe with Thor.
	+ **Superhuman Speed**: Hel is capable of running and moving at superhuman speeds, achieving a peak of potentially 1150 mph.
	+ **Superhuman Stamina**: Hel's body produces considerably less fatigue toxins than the bodies of human beings, or most other Asgardians for that matter, during physical activity. As a result, Hel possesses almost limitless physical stamina.
	+ **Superhuman Durability**: Hel's body is considerably more resistant to physical injury than the bodies of human beings, and to even most other gods. Hel is capable of withstanding great impact forces, temperature and pressure extremes, high caliber bullets, and powerful energy blasts without sustaining injury.
	+ **Immortality**: Hel is immortal and doesn't age beyond her prime. This is due to her being the Goddess of Death who controls life. She can rapidly age people, even someone as powerful as Thor. She can also grant immortality to other beings like Rugga, the Storm Giant, who kidnapped Sif and brought her to Hel so that she can grant him immortality.
	+ **Regenerative Healing Factor**: Despite her body's high resistance to injury, it is possible to injure her. However, Hel's body is capable of healing itself with high levels of superhuman speed and efficiency. The extent of Hel's healing abilities is considerably beyond that the the vast majority of Aesir, able to reconstitute herself even following molecular disintegration.

* **Portal Creation**: It can inferred that Hel was the one who created the hole/portal to Helheim near the Naglfar since it is her realm.

* **Magic Manipulation**: Hel is capable of manipulating great quantities of Asgardian magic for numerous purposes, such as limitless astral projection, firing deadly bolts of energy from her hands that could kill an immortal, levitation, time-travel and the creation of illusions. She is even capable of channeling the energy through her hand and use them to strike a powerful blow that can rend even the strongest celestial flesh. She refers to this as the "Hand of Glory".
* **Astral Projection**: Hel is able to travel about in her astral form, possessing the same powers of death as her physical form has. Because of her Asgardian metabolism, she does not have any limitation on the amount of time she can spend out of her physical form, unlike mortal astral projectionists.
* **Avatar Creation**: Hel can create an avatar of herself. Her avatar is often tasked with recovering a man who Hel favors and taking him to Niflheim. The kiss of her avatar causes death, and mere proximity to her is dangerous.
* **Control Over Life and Death**: As the Norse Goddess of Death, Hel holds the power of life and death over the gods of Yggdrasil. Death for an Asgardian is somewhat different from death for an Earth human being. In both cases, the corporeal body ceases all functions and activities, but whereas mortal spirits flee the physical form at the moment of death, the spirits of gods remain in their bodies until the death goddess draws them out and dispatches them to her realms. These spirits (or astral selves) remain integral for eternity and reside, apparently forever, in the other-dimensional realms of Hel and Niflheim, where they take on a quasi-physical existence, under Hel's control. The souls of those who die heroically in battle remain within their bodies and are accompanied by Odin's Valkyries into Valhalla, where the deceased heroes lead a new physical existence. These *dead* heroes are known as the Einherjar. Hel too accompanies these heroes on their journey to Valhalla, but she has no right to govern them. Although Hel is usually content to wait until an Asgardian is on the verge of succumbing to fatal wounds before she touches him or her and draws the spirit from his or her body, she can also kill perfectly healthy Asgardians with her touch if she chooses. Although Hel's touch of death is effective even when she touches someone with her gloved hand, she must contact that person's bare skin for him or her to die. However, Hel can also project mystic bolts that will cause their target to age or die, even if they strike a portion of the target's body that is covered by clothing.

* **Allspeak**: Thanks to the Allspeak, she can communicate in all of the languages of the Nine Realms, Earth's dialects, and various alien and celestial languages.

### Equipment

* **Nightsword**: Hel is often armed with her *Nightsword*, and is a proficient swords-woman. She battled Pluto proficiently with the Nightsword pitted against his enchanted scythe until Pluto brought reapers in to attack Hel in the course of their duel. The sword is strong enough to injure someone as resilient as Lucifer.
* **Death Armor**: The **Death Armor** is a divine armor created by the two Dwarven craftsmen Sindri and Brok which boosts her death and underworld powers while making her immune to anyone else powers under those concepts (with exception of Death and Tartarus themselves).

## History

### Origins

Hel was born from the union between Loki and the giantess Angrboða alongside Fenrir and Jörmungandr. Her childhood is unknown but Loki states that she was a recluse and quite shy.

It is said that once the gods found that these three children are being brought up in the land of Jötunheimr, and when the gods "traced prophecies that from these siblings great mischief and disaster would arise for them" then the gods expected a lot of trouble from the three children, partially due to the nature of the mother of the children, yet worse so due to the perceived nature of their father.

### Goddess of the Dead

After this discovery, Odin sent the gods to gather the children and bring them to him. Upon their arrival, Odin threw Jörmungandr into "that deep sea that lies around all lands," Odin tossed Hel into Niflheim, and bestowed upon her authority over nine worlds, in that she must "administer board and lodging to those sent to her, and that is those who die of sickness or old age."

Hel was once approached by the Dark Prince, Mundus, with an offer involving the collaboration between their kingdoms where they would trade souls and resources but the goddess immediately, and threateningly, turned his offer down as she does not take kindly to the likes of Mundus even setting foot into her domain and moreover that she is well aware of how deceitful and power hungry Mundus truly is. The Dark Emperor left at Hel's demands in the end, preventing any rising animosity that would spark a chthonic war between two underworlds.

### Death of Baldr

After the death of Baldr at the hands of Loki, the goddess Frigg asks who among the Aesir will earn "all her love and favor" by riding to Hel, the location, to try to find Baldr, and offer Hel herself a ransom. The god Hermodr volunteers and sets off upon the eight-legged horse Sleipnir to Hel. Hermodr arrives in Hel's hall, finds his brother Baldr there, and stays the night. The next morning, Hermodr begs Hel to allow Baldr to ride home with him, and tells her about the great weeping the Aesir have done upon Baldr's death. Hel says the love people have for Baldr that Hermodr has claimed must be tested. This test being that if all the things in this world, living or dead, mourn for Baldr then he will return to the land of the living. If one refuses, then he will remain in her domain.

All but a giantess, who some believe was Loki in disguise, did not weep for him, so he will stay dead until Ragnarök.

Despite his confinement within the realm of the dead, Baldr was treated with fine hospitality from the Underworld goddess although she would be cold and distant from the light god due to his contrasting theme and characteristics from her own. At some point, Baldr eventually fell in love with the death goddess to whom she returned the feelings of affection which surprised her subjects as Hel would not be one to mingle herself with the concept of romance, but nevertheless they relented as Baldr was known to be quite respectful and affectionate towards her, and it is said to be one of the reasons why Hel did not wish for Baldr to leave the underworld. Regardless, Hel and Baldr have conceived a child together though the child's purpose after Ragnarök is unknown.

## Myths and Legends

Hel is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In addition, she is mentioned in poems recorded in Heimskringla and Egils saga that date from the 9th and 10th century respectively. An episode in the Latin work Gesta Danorum, written in the 12th century by Saxo Grammaticus, is generally considered to refer to Hel, and Hel may appear on various Migration Period bracteates.

In the Poetic Edda, Prose Edda, and Heimskringla, Hel is referred to as a daughter of both the divine trickster Loki and the immortal giantess Angrboða (his first wife), and to "go to Hel" is to die. In the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, Hel is described as having been appointed by the god Odin as ruler of a realm of the same name, located in Niflheim. In the same source, her appearance is described as half-black and half-flesh coloured and as further having a gloomy, down-cast appearance. The Prose Edda details that Hel rules over vast mansions, her servants in her underworld realm, and as playing a key role in the attempted resurrection of the god Baldr. She cares for the ones that have died of age or sickness and sends "wolfish murderers," "men who seduce another's faithful wife," and oath-breakers to Nástrand where the lindworm Nidhögg dwells.

Scholarly theories have been proposed about Hel's potential connections to figures appearing in the 11th century Old English Gospel of Nicodemus and Old Norse Bartholomeus saga postola, potential Indo-European parallels to other deities that reigns over the dead such as Bhavani, Kali, and Mahakali, and her origins.

## Quotes

* *"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. 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."* - The Prose Edda.

* *"If all things in the world, alive or dead, weep for him, then he will be allowed to return to the Aesir. If anyone speaks against him or refuses to cry, then he will remain with Hel."* - Hel to Hermodr about Baldr's resurrection.

* *"I'm not a queen, or a monster. I'm the goddess of death."* - Hel.

* *"Restore or decay, heal or destroy. Each stance brings a new Hel."*

* *"You will be surprised by how much people believe that I'm some malevolent figure, child. Compare to the bastards living in Asgard, I'm the freaking messiah."* - Hel.

* *"My own realm is presently beyond my reach. So I will accept the crown of this one for the time being."* - Hel to a reaper.

* *"But Hel is no ordinary warrior... and mine are not a warrior's weapons! You force me to do what even I cannot undo! Raise your eyes, Thor... and see what my true power is."* - Hel to Thor.

* *"For all the mockery and humiliation that they gave to me and my family, Asgard shall fall underneath my boot."* - Hel to Asmodeus.

* *"The prayers and wishes of the living often affect the dead. Mortals have always known that."* - Hel to a Demigod.

* *"Both beautiful and terrible, the Goddess Hel is keeper of the dead, lays judgment on souls, and decides who is reborn. She is both sides of two extremes.
As the daughter of Loki, the trickster God, Hel's destiny, much like her brothers Fenrir and Jormungandr, was doomed to darkness from the start. Odin, the All-Father, uncovered prophecies that Hel and her siblings would be the source of great calamity resulting in Ragnarök, the battle that would end all things. In an effort to prevent this, he cast each of the three into different realms; not quite a prison, though far from freedom. For Hel, Odin gave her charge of the realm of the dead, specifically those that died of sickness and old age. For himself, Odin retained Valhalla for those that died in battle.
At birth, Hel's face was cast half in shadow, half in light; she was both living and dead, so took immediately and graciously to her new role, gifting Odin with the ravens Huginn and Muninn in appreciation. As the spirits of the kind-hearted, the sick, the elderly were brought to her, she cared for them, gave them comfort, yet those she deemed evil she mercilessly hurled into the frozen depths of Niflheim.
Yet, despite Odin's efforts, destiny cannot be averted. Hel's conflicting struggle between benevolence and malice will force her to one extreme or the other. A time will come when Hel will fulfill her prophecy, though it is yet unknown if she will be a shadow of darkness or a force of light."*

## Gallery

*An old artwork of Hel**Hel with her siblings, Jörmungandr and Fenrir**A portrait of Hel**A stretch of Hel**Hel in her youth**Hel in her adolescence**The Warden of the Dead**Hel in Helheim**Hel with the hound Garmr**Hel preparing for battle**Hel with her guard dog**Hel in a more human form**Hel's reaper form**Mistress of Death**Hel on a skeleton throne**Hel and Garmr**Hel in her "Death Armor"**Hel using her powers over the dead**Hel with the Nightsword**Hel negotiating with Lucifer**Hel as a Jötunn**Light or Dark Hel**Hel Light**The Merciless**Hel's demon form*
## Trivia

* In early Norse mythology, Hel was also the name of the world of the dead.
* The name shares the origin of the English word for "Hell", and means "hidden", "concealed".
	+ The phrase "Go to Hell" actually originated from "Go to Hel" meaning the same thing, which is "go die", since Hel was the name for both the ruler of the underworld as well as the name of the underworld.
* The Old Norse word for "rime" or "hoarfrost" is Héla.
* In some myths she is said to be the mother of Krampus, a horned creature from alpine lore.
	+ Others make her the mother of Santa Claus himself but this is very unlikely.
* In January 2017, the Icelandic Naming Committee ruled that parents could not name their child *Hel* on the grounds that the name would cause the child significant distress and trouble as it grows up.

## Image Sources

* (Hel (Norse goddess).jpg) Hel, pictured here with her hound Garmr by Johannes Gehrts
* (Hel the goddess of death.jpg) Hel by Anna Novikova
* (Hel CB.jpg) Hel from Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard
* (Black&White Hel.png) Hel from Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard
* (Children of Loki by Willy Pogany.jpg) The Children of Loki by Willy Pogany
* (Benu-h Hel.jpg) Hel by benu-h
* (Hel by wickard dbbe5v3-fullview.jpg) Hel by Evgeniy Chugunov/Wickard
* (Hel Rotten.jpg) Hel by ???
* (Mona-finden-hel.jpg) Hel by Mona Finden
* (Michelle-tolo-hel-keyshot-michelletolo.jpg) Hel by Michelle Tolo
* (Michelle-tolo-hel-sketches-michelletolo.jpg) Hel by Michelle Tolo
* (Riccardo-gualdi-hel.jpg) Hel, goddess of death by Riccardo Gualdi
* (Johan-egerkrans-hel-img-0033.jpg) Hel by JOHAN EGERKRANS
* (Rod-wong-hel.jpg) Hel Goddess of the Dead by Rod Wong
* (Sue-jang-hel-v35-b-crop.jpg) Hel by sue jang
* (Ngoc-tran-hei.jpg) Hel by Ngoc Tran
* (Adrien-le-coz-hell.jpg) Hel by Adrien Le Coz
* (Bryan-fogaca-rosado-hel-16-alt-web.jpg) Hel, goddess of the dead by Bryan F. Rosado Art
* (Hel by genzoman.jpg) Hel by GENZOMAN
* (Hela Lokisdottir.jpg) Hela Lokisdottir by GENZOMAN
* (Finalhel by theartfulmegalodon dc5lbf6-fullview.jpg) FinalHel by TheArtfulMegalodon
* (Request hel by tvattbjornsart dcbhxhx-fullview.jpg) | Request | Hel | by TvattbjornsART
* (Hel norse gods and goddesses by yliade ddcka4d.jpg) Hel ~ Norse Gods and Goddesses by Yliade
* (Hel by icecube90 dcts6lp-fullview.jpg) Hel by Icecube90
* (Hel by sijumon d4lh5mx-fullview.jpg) Hel by sijumon
* (Hel and Garm.jpg) Hel and Garm by ???
* (Hel with the Dead.jpg) Hel by ???
* (Hela.jpg) Hel by shoomlah
* (Hela by chickenzpunk db5nt1m-fullview.jpg) Hela by ChickenzPunk
* (Hela Odinsdottir (Earth-TRN662) from Marvel Contest of Champions 004.jpg) Hela Odinsdottir from Marvel Contest of Champions
* (Esteban-barrientos-hela.jpg) Hela by Esteban Barrientos
* (Thor ragnarok hela by chimeraic dbk7yli-fullview.jpg) Thor: Ragnarok - Hela by chimeraic
* (Hela queen of hel by francislugfran deg4d9o-fullview.jpg) HELA - QUEEN OF HEL by FrancisLugfran
* (Hel MCU.png) Hel by LaFuriosa
* (Hela ragnarok by francislugfran dc30h7q-fullview.jpg) Hela - Ragnarok by FrancisLugfran
* (Hela (Earth-616) Journey into Mystery Vol 1 625.png) Hela from Marvel Comics
* (Hel lokisdottir by kbartz d84bg7w-fullview.jpg) Hel Lokisdottir by KBArtz
* (Hel the feminomicon by christopher stoll db7fane-fullview.jpg) Hel- The Feminomicon by Christopher-Stoll
* (SkinArt Hel Default.jpg) Hel's card from Smite
* (T Hel Default Card Old.png) Hel's old card from Smite
* (Hel light smite by sciamano240 d9u06dj-fullview.jpg) Hel (light) - Smite by Sciamano240
* (Hel p181.jpg) Hel from Dungeons & Dragons
* (Hel.jpg) Hel from Shin Megami Tensei NINE