Helheim: The Realm of the Dead in Norse Mythology
Explore Helheim, the Norse realm of the dead: the goddess Hel, the bridge Gjallarbrú, Náströnd, and the dishonored dead of Norse afterlife belief.
Helheim (Old Norse Hel, “the hidden,” or Helheimr, “the home of Hel”) is the realm of the dead in Norse mythology, the cold and gloomy underworld to which those who die of sickness, old age, or any cause other than a glorious death in battle are taken. It is ruled by the goddess Hel, daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboða, and it is described in the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda as a place of mild suffering and unending twilight, situated beneath one of Yggdrasil’s roots. The goddess of the underworld is half-black, half-flesh, and her high-walled enclosure contains the high halls of the dead, with a separate strand of corpses for the dishonored, the perjurers, and the murderers.
This page is an encyclopedic account of Helheim: the goddess Hel, the geography of the underworld, the road that the dead must travel, the hall Éljúðnir, the strand of corpses at Náströnd, and the famous helreið (Hel-ride) of the hero Hermóðr to ransom the dead Baldr.
The Name and the Goddess
The name Hel is the Old Norse word for “the hidden” or “that which is concealed,” and it is the same word as the Old English hel (cf. hell) and the Old High German hella (cf. German Hölle). The Norse Hel is the source of the modern English word hell, although the Norse and Christian concepts are not equivalent. In Norse tradition, Hel is a place of neutral afterlife, not a place of punishment; it is the destination of most dead human beings, regardless of moral character, although the dishonored and the perjurers go to a darker part of Hel called Náströnd.
The goddess Hel is a figure of considerable complexity. She is the daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboða, and she is the sister of the World Serpent and the wolf Fenrir. Snorri describes her in the Gylfaginning as being half-black and half-flesh, with a face that is both terrible and beautiful. The gods of Asgard, recognizing the threat posed by the children of Loki and Angrboða, took the three siblings and sent them to the appropriate realms: the World Serpent was cast into the encircling sea, Fenrir was bound on the island of Lyngvi, and Hel was cast down into the underworld and given authority over the dead in nine worlds.
The image of Hel as half-black, half-flesh is a striking one. It suggests that the goddess of death is both of the world of the living (the flesh side) and of the world of the dead (the black side), and it is the visual expression of her role as the boundary figure between the two realms. The dead enter her realm, and she determines the kind of existence they have there. She is not an evil figure in the Christian sense, but she is a formidable one — a being to be propitiated, and a being whose power extends to all those who do not die in battle.
The Road to Hel
The road to Hel is a long and difficult one, and the Eddic and saga sources describe it in some detail. The principal features of the journey are:
- The river Gjöll (“loud” or “roaring”) must be crossed. The river is one of the cold waters of the underworld, and it is a barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
- The bridge Gjallarbrú (“resounding bridge”) crosses the river Gjöll, and the dead who cross it are met at the bridge by the maiden Móðgjöð, who guards the entrance to Hel.
- The gate of Hel is guarded by the hound Garmr, a bloody hound that howls at the entrance to the underworld. The Völuspá mentions Garmr in the context of Ragnarok, when he breaks free and joins the giants on the field of Vígríðr.
- The high walls of Hel enclose the underworld, and within the walls are the high halls of the dead, including the great hall Éljúðnir (“rain of sleet” or “sleet-cold”).
The image of the road to Hel as a long, dark, and dangerous journey is one of the most consistent in the Norse sources. The dead are not received into Hel instantly at the moment of death; they are received after a journey, in which they traverse the river Gjöll and cross the bridge Gjallarbrú, and only at the end of this journey do they enter the underworld proper. This image of the journey is parallel to the journey of the dead in many other mythologies, and it is the basis for the various legends of the resurrection of the dead in the Eddas (e.g., the draugr legends of the sagas) and the Christian legend of the descent into Hell.
The Hall Éljúðnir
The Éljúðnir (“rain of sleet” or “sleet-cold”) is the great hall of the goddess Hel. The Gylfaginning describes it as the high hall of the underworld, with a dish called Hringhorni (from which all food in Hel is served) and a knife called Fáfnir (a corruption in the manuscript, since the name Fáfnir is more commonly associated with the dragon of the Völsunga saga; some readings give Hringhorni as the dish and Fáfnir as a knife, others as a different name). The name Éljúðnir is itself evocative: él (sleet) and júðnir (rain), “the sleet-rain,” a name for a place of cold and unending precipitation.
The image of the dish Hringhorni (“ring of the horn” or “horned ring”) as the dish of the goddess Hel is one of the more obscure in the Gylfaginning. The name suggests a great dish or bowl, perhaps of horn or with a horned shape, from which the dead are served their meager fare. The dead of Helheim are described as eating and drinking little, and their diet is unappealing: the food is described as “hateful” and the meat as “wetness.” The image of the dead eating meager fare in a great hall is one of the standard tropes of the Norse underworld.
The Náströnd
The Náströnd (“the strand of corpses”) is a darker part of Helheim, the location to which the dishonored, the perjurers, and the murderers are taken. The Völuspá describes it in one of its most striking stanzas:
“I saw a hall standing far from the sun, on Náströnd; the door opens to the north; the drops of venom fall in through the roof-vents; the walls are woven of serpents’ spines.”
This is one of the few explicit descriptions of punishment in the Norse underworld, and it is worth pausing on. The image of a hall of the dishonored, with venom dripping from the roof and walls of serpents’ spines, is strikingly close to the Christian image of Hell, and the passage is sometimes argued to be a Christian interpolation into the Eddic text. Other scholars read the passage as authentically Norse, drawing on a pre-Christian concept of the dishonored dead being consigned to a darker part of the underworld. The principal inhabitant of Náströnd is the dragon Níðhöggr, who gnaws at the corpses of the dishonored. The image of the dragon gnawing the corpse-thieves and the perjurers is one of the most powerful in Old Norse poetry.
The association of Níðhöggr with Náströnd is significant. Níðhöggr is the gnawer at the root of Yggdrasil, and his presence in the underworld connects the slow destruction of the cosmic tree to the continued punishment of the dishonored dead. The two images are related: the gnawing at the root is the cosmic form of the same force that gnaws at the corpse-thieves, and the dishonored dead are the human form of the cosmic decay.
The Helreið of Hermóðr
The helreið (“Hel-ride”) of the hero Hermóðr is one of the most famous journeys in Norse mythology. According to the Gylfaginning, after the death of Baldr, the gods sent Hermóðr the Bold to ransom the dead god from Hel. Hermóðr rode Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse of Odin, and after a long journey, he came to the bridge Gjallarbrú, which he crossed. The maiden Móðgjöð guarded the bridge, and she asked Hermóðr his name and business. He answered that he was the son of Odin, and that he had come to ransom Baldr.
After a long ride, Hermóðr came to the high walls of Hel and to the great hall Éljúðnir. There he found Baldr sitting in the high seat, and he stayed with him for the night. The next morning, Hermóðr asked Hel to release Baldr, and Hel agreed — but on the condition that everything in the world, alive or dead, must weep for Baldr to bring him back. The gods sent messengers throughout the world, and everything did weep — except for a single giantess (in some readings, the giantess Þökk, “thanks,” who may be Loki in disguise). Because of this single refusal, Baldr had to remain in Helheim.
The helreið of Hermóðr is a key text for understanding the Norse eschatology. The journey to Hel is possible but difficult; the ransom of the dead is conditional on the agreement of the goddess of death; and the single refusal of the giantess (a refusal that, in some readings, is the trickster-god Loki in disguise) is enough to defeat the ransom. The narrative suggests that the Norse underworld is not a place of fixed fate — it is a place where the gods can negotiate for the dead — but that the negotiation is risky and contingent on the agreement of the dead.
The Hel-Rides in the Sagas
The helreið is a recurring motif in the heroic sagas, and several examples are attested:
- The Hervör alvitr of the Hervarar saga, who rides to the burial mound of her father Angantýr to claim the sword Tyrfingr.
- The Sigrún of the Helreið Brynhildar, who follows the dead Helgi Hundingsbani to his burial mound.
- The Búi of the Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar, who is sent to the burial mound of Kárr inn gamli and who must wrestle the draugr.
- The Þorstein of the Hrólfs saga kraka, who rides to the mound of his dead mother and is killed by her.
The helreið is, in each case, a descent to the world of the dead, a negotiation with the dead, and a return to the world of the living. The pattern is fixed: a hero (or heroine) rides or walks to the world of the dead, encounters a figure of authority (the dead, the goddess, the draugr), and either succeeds in a task, fails, or is killed.
The Other Afterworlds
In addition to Helheim, the Norse sources attest several other afterworlds:
- Valhalla — for half of those who die in battle
- Fólkvangr — for the other half of those who die in battle
- The hall of Rán — for those who drown, at the bottom of the sea
- Bilskírnir — for the righteous dead, in some traditions
- Breiðablik — for Baldr, in some readings
- Brimir — a hall mentioned in the Völuspá as being “on Okolnir”
- Sindri — a hall of the pure and good, mentioned in the Vafþrúðnismál
The image of a plurality of afterworlds is one of the distinctive features of Norse eschatology, in contrast to the single afterworld of the Christian tradition. The dead of the Norse world go to different places depending on the manner of their death, and each afterworld has its own character and its own inhabitants.
The image of the hall of Rán is particularly interesting. Rán, the wife of the sea-giant Ægir, is said to have a net in which she catches those who drown, and the drowned dead are welcomed into her hall at the bottom of the sea. The Sonatorrek of Egill Skallagrímsson mentions the drowned dead in a way that suggests the image of the hall of Rán was well known. The drowned are not the warriors of Valhalla, but they are not the dishonored of Helheim either; they are the special dead of the sea, with Rán as their mistress.
The Sources
The principal sources for Helheim are the Gylfaginning of the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson (which contains the most systematic account), the Völuspá (which contains the image of Náströnd and the death of Baldr), the Baldrs draumar (which contains the prophecy of the death of Baldr and its consequences), and the Gylfaginning’s account of the helreið of Hermóðr. The Hervarar saga, the Helreið Brynhildar, the Grettis saga, the Hrólfs saga kraka, and various other sagas and þættir contain helreið-related material.
The archaeological evidence for the Norse conception of the afterlife is extensive. The Vendel and Valsgärde burial sites, with their rich grave-goods and their warrior-burials, are the most famous. The Oseberg ship in Norway, with its 14 human remains, is another. The Tuna burial in Sweden, with its rich grave-goods, is yet another. The Tjängvide picture-stone in Gotland depicts a scene that may be the welcome of the dead warrior in Valhalla, and the Gotlandic picture-stones in general are a rich source for the late Viking Age imagination of the afterlife.
The Helheim in the Christianization of the Norse World
The conversion of Scandinavia to Christianity (10th–13th centuries) had a profound effect on the Norse conception of the afterlife. The single Christian Hell, with its punishments and its everlasting fire, was superimposed on the plural Norse afterworlds, and the Norse Hel became the Christian Hell in the popular imagination. The image of Náströnd, with its venom-dripping roof and its walls of serpents’ spines, was particularly close to the Christian image of Hell, and the Norse image was assimilated to the Christian one in the medieval period.
The image of Hel as a Christian Hell is, however, a late development. In the pre-Christian period, Hel was a place of neutral afterlife, and the dead of Hel were not punished (with the exception of those in Náströnd). The image of Hel as a place of punishment is a Christianization of an older, more neutral concept. The Norse afterlife, in the older tradition, was a place of mild, melancholic, but not actively punitive existence; the dead were not tormented, they were simply not blessed.
Hel and the Cult of the Dead
The image of Hel is intimately connected to the cult of the dead in the medieval North. The Norse practice of burial (rather than cremation) became dominant in the Christianization period, and the late medieval Scandinavian and Icelandic grave-sites are full of grave-goods — weapons, jewelry, food, drink, and even ships — that suggest a continued belief in an active existence of the dead in the underworld. The famous Viking ship-burials (Oseberg, Gokstad, Tune, Ladby) are the most striking examples, but the practice was common throughout the Viking world.
The cult of the dead also includes the draugr tradition of the sagas, in which the dead return from the burial mound to walk among the living. The draugr is a figure of the persistent dead, the one who is not at peace, and the resolution of a draugr-saga is the resolution of an unfinished business. The relationship between the draugr tradition and the Christian image of Hell is a complex one: in some readings, the draugr is a pre-Christian figure that was assimilated to the Christian idea of the restless soul; in others, the draugr is a distinctively Norse figure that has no Christian counterpart.
The Hel-Ride and the Ruler of the Dead
The figure of Hel as a personal ruler of the underworld is a distinctive feature of the Norse tradition. The Greek Hades is not a person in the same way; the Christian Hell is a place, not a person; the Celtic Otherworld is governed by a complex of gods. But the Norse Hel is a single figure — a half-black, half-fleshed goddess who rules the dead with great power and is capable of being negotiated with. The Gylfaginning’s account of the ransom of Baldr is a striking example: Hel is approached as a person, with her own interests and her own conditions, and the ransom is a negotiation rather than a rescue.
This personalization of the ruler of the dead is a feature of the Norse tradition that is not paralleled in many other Indo-European mythologies. The Greek Hades is rarely encountered directly; the Christian Hell is rarely personified. The Norse Hel is encountered directly, and the saga of her encounter with Hermóðr is one of the most striking in Old Norse literature. The fact that Hel is half-flesh, half-black is, in this sense, an image of her personal character: she is of the world of the living (the flesh side) and of the world of the dead (the black side), and the two halves are integrated in her being.