Hel

/hel/, n. Scand. Myth.

1. the goddess ruling Niflheim: a daughter of Loki and Angerboda.

2. the home of the dead; Niflheim.

[ < ON; see HELL]

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In Norse mythology, the realm of the dead and, later, the goddess of the dead.

She was the daughter of Loki. Her kingdom, Niflheim, or the World of Darkness, was divided into several sections. Murderers, perjurers, and adulterers suffered torment in a castle filled with serpents' venom, while the dragon Nidhogg sucked their blood. Those who fell in battle went to Valhalla and thus avoided Hel.

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▪ Norse deity

      in Norse mythology, originally the name of the world of the dead; it later came to mean the goddess of death. Hel was one of the children of the trickster god Loki, and her kingdom was said to lie downward and northward. It was called Niflheim, or the World of Darkness, and appears to have been divided into several sections, one of which was Náströnd, the shore of corpses. There stood a castle facing north; it was filled with the venom of serpents, in which murderers, adulterers, and perjurers suffered torment, while the dragon Nidhogg sucked the blood from their bodies. Mention is made in an early poem of the nine worlds of Niflheim. It was said that those who fell in battle did not go to Hel but to the god Odin, in Valhalla, the hall of the slain.

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