Hel horse

The **Hel horse** (Danish: *helhesten*) is a three-legged horse ridden by Mortimer, Death. It is said that the sight of the Hel horse is an omen of the arrival of Death.

## Anatomi

The Hel horse looks deformed. It only has three legs, which are thin, and is scrawny like an old cadaver and skeletal. Its pale-yellow hide is stretched so tautly over its bony body that it is nearly translucent. It has a grey mane that flutters like tattered spiderweb. Deep in its misshapen skull are a pair of blood-red eyes. The horse mostly resembles a corpse, which is also the reason it has been nicknamed "the corpse horse". A swarm of flies follows the horse wherever it goes, but everytime one of the flies touches the horse's hide, it falls to the ground dead. Sitting on top of the Hel horse's back feels like sitting on a sack of writhing maggots and broken bones, and a rancid stench of blood and death follows the horse everywhere. To get on top of the horse, one has to step onto its ribs, which are curved and protrudes from its skeletal body.

## Behavior

Even though the Hel horse is a wasted nag and missing one front leg, it is swift as the wind. Even when trotting, the Hel horse shoots on at a breakneck speed that feels like a gallop. Even though the Hel horse appears to be an undead being, it eats and drinks water, but it is unknown if it is essential for its survival, or if it simply feels hunger and thirst like the immortal condemned human souls in Hell, who do not need food or drink. It is also unknown if the Hel horse is immortal like its rider, Mortimer.

## Appearances

### *The Great Devil War*

* *The Die of Death*
* *The Wrongful Death*

## Background

In Danish folkore, a helhest ("Hel horse") is a ghostly, three-legged horse associated with Hel, the goddess of death and ruler of Helheim, the world of the dead, in Norse mythology, and is said to be an omen of death, illness and misfortune or accident. It appears in poetry and stories as both a personification of death, or as the mode of transport for a separate personification of death, including "Grim Reaper"-like figures or Hel. The helhest is mentioned in folklore as having been spotted in many places in Denmark.

Several legends dictate that in former days, a living horse was to be buried beneath the foundation or the cemetary before a church was founded. That is, before a single human body was to be buried, a living horse was. It is also said, that this horse walks again as a ghost, called 'Helhesten' or 'the Hel horse'. At Søllested the church's tower could not, according to the legend, be constructed before a one-year-old white horse had been buried under it. 19th century scholar Jacob Grimm theorizes that, prior to Christianization, the helhest was originally the steed of the goddess Hel.

## Referencer

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 According to the original Danish edition of *The Die of Death*, called *Dødens terning* in Danish, the Hel horse is also called "lighesten", which literally translates to "the coprse horse." This fact was stated by Satina to Philip Engel in chapter 7, after Philip noted that the horse looked as if it should not even be alive and that it looked like a corpse. This fact was however omitted in the English translation of the book.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kenneth B. Andersen. *The Die of Death*. Høst & Søn, October 19, 2018 (English print-on-demand paperback). Høst & Søn, October 11 2018 (English e-book). (Original Danish version published August 31, 2007 by Høst & Søn)