Hel - The Goddess of the Underworld - Figurine / Statue, bronzed

In Norse mythology, Hel is the goddess of death and ruler of the underworld, "Helheim."

Her siblings are the Fenris wolf and the Midgard serpent, "Jörmungandr." They are the children of Loki and the giantess Angrboda.

The goddess Hel's upper body appears very lifelike and beautiful, with normal, fair skin; her lower body, however, often appears dark blue to black, half-rotted and decomposed.

Just like her countenance, her nature is described as half white and half black. Just like her physical appearance, her character is marked by apparent contradictions, ranging from very just and lovable to relentless and cruel tendencies.

Helheim is one of the worlds of Utgard, located beneath the roots of the world tree, "Yggdrasil." Helheim can only be reached via the bridge of the afterlife, Gjallarbru, which crosses the river of death, Gjöll. The bridge is guarded by Modgud and the hellhound Garm.

The goddess Hel’s residence is called Eljudnir (misery), her hall is called Eljudni (plague), and the threshold is Fallandaforad (falling peril). The table is named Hungr (hunger) and her knife is called Sultr (starvation). Her bed is called Kor (coffin), and the bed curtain is Blikjandabol (gleaming disaster).

Hel’s horse is the grey, three-legged death horse, "Helhesten": it has blue-black eyes with an intense, bright luminosity. Hel uses her horse to collect the dead and bring them to Nifelheim (the world of mist).

Helhesten is the bringer of death: wherever its gaze turns, someone soon dies.

Hel feeds on dead bodies. She breaks the bones and eats the marrow from them. The serpent-like death dragon, Nidhöggr, also lives under Yggdrasil. The dead are tormented by him and experience the worst suffering. Nidhöggr (Old Norse: *Niðhǫggr*, lit. "the hateful striker") feeds on the flesh of the dead, just as Hel does. Criminals such as murderers and thieves, adulterers, perjurers, and also liars are banished to a special part of Helheim—Náströnd—to experience what cold, heat, pain, and hunger mean as punishment. Náströnd is the most terrible place imaginable, where the dragon Nidhögg vents his rage upon the dead.

The realm of Hel was designated by Christianity as the place of eternal damnation, "Hell."

Hel should by no means be viewed as a hellish creature, but as a just, yet simultaneously relentless, goddess.

Before Odin gained increasing importance here in the North, our Nordic-Germanic ancestors also revered the war god Tyr as well as the death goddess Hel in a special way.

In more recent times, Hel has been increasingly "demonized"—she deserves much more respect, just as she was once accorded in "ancient times."

The Indo-Germanic roots of the death goddess:

The partial identification of the goddesses Hel and Holle stems from "ancient" times. The Indo-Germanic root word "kel" means "hell" (underworld / lower world), to conceal, to veil, to protect.

We find a connection here to Frau Holle (Frigga)! The Germanic linguistic root "hel" or "hal" therefore contains the meaning "to conceal"; also called Helja or Helanan in more recent Nordic/Germanic times. The proto-Germanic syllable "haljō" means hell / the subterranean underworld in a cave (compare also Hel / Cybele (Greek) as well as Holle / Hulle / Hulda)!

As a death goddess, Hella is simultaneously a goddess of rebirth.

It is said that in her subterranean realm there is a well from which she lifts all unborn children and places them in the bodies of mothers, while all the deceased return to this well to be born again.

Since her realm is subterranean, Hella also has power over everything that sprouts from the earth, which is why, in this aspect, she can be equated to a fertility goddess like the Greek Demeter. Hel is the patron saint of farmers, fields, and plants. In her honor, a sheaf of grain was left standing in the field at the end of the harvest season (see parallels to the Earth Mother and All-Mother Frigga).

Even after the advent of Christianity in Europe, the belief persisted that all unbaptized children went to the goddess Hella / Hel / Holda / Holle and thus to "hell," while baptized children reached the Christian God in heaven.

Further reading: “Göttin Holle: Auf der Suche nach einer alten Göttin” (Goddess Holle: In Search of an Ancient Goddess).

Frigga is to be equated with Frau Holle—she is the Earth Mother / All-Mother. Frigga is often depicted with a spinning wheel—she spins the thread of life for humans and gods, which she gives to the three goddesses of fate.

The eldest of these three is Urd (the past / what has happened), the middle one is Verdandi (the present / what is happening), and the youngest is Skuld (the future / what should be). - https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nornen

Together, they determine fate and the time of death.

The Valkyries and Hel then brought the dead to the appropriate worlds and halls of the dead.

The Hagalaz rune is attributed to the death goddess Hel, expressing destruction and rebirth.

The rune Hagalaz, or Hagall, embodies everything, just like the All-Mother Holle (Frigga) or Hel—love and justice, birth, but also the cruelty of destruction and banishment.

The elderberry tree is considered a protective tree for the home and farm. Very good further information and video: https://wiki.yoga-vidya.de/Holunder

Through the elderberry, access was provided to the forebears—ancestors and household spirits.

(note here the further literature by Wolf-Dieter Storl: “Holunder - Ein Baum mit zwei Gesichtern” (Elderberry - A Tree with Two Faces), "Pflanzen des Schattenreichs & Totenrituale unserer keltischen Vorfahren" (Plants of the Shadow Realm & Death Rituals of our Celtic Ancestors), as well as the video “Der Holunder in der Mythologie” (The Elderberry in Mythology)).

It was a custom to take the measurements for the construction of a coffin using a cut elderberry branch.

Frau Holle (Perchta), especially venerated in Southern Germany, was defamed as a witch with increasing Christianization.

(further literature: “Mythos Baum" by Doris Laudert)

The elderberry schnapps, particularly enjoyed in Scandinavia, is connected to the fairy-tale figure "Frau Holle"—she embodies the underworld and death goddess Hel.

(further literature: “Der Geist der Bäume” by Fred Hageneder).

Black elderberry was sacred to people in ancient times; it was considered a tree or shrub of life and kin. It was known as the seat of the good household spirit and dedicated to the goddess Holda / Holle (from *hold* / *huld* = healing).

(further literature: „Heilpflanzen in der Kinderheilkunde - Das Praxis-Lehrbuch“ (Medicinal Plants in Pediatrics - The Practical Textbook) – Haug Verlag).

Whether Frigga, Holle, and Hel were once one and the same deity cannot be answered unequivocally.

The pantheon of the "Indo-Germanic Proto-Religion" became more tangible over the centuries and was divided into more and more gods, just as Tyr lost importance as the supreme deity. People turned increasingly to Odin.

Similarities and overlaps—depending on regions, tribes, different languages, and modified customs—led to different appraisals of the gods over the epochs, as well as differences in their names and meanings.

Hel—even if she is a daughter of Loki—deserves anything but to be "demonized" and "spoken ill of," for she receives not only criminals, adulterers, and perjurers, but also those who have died of natural causes, Aesir, and Elves in her halls, and assigns them to their worlds justly.

We should accept the death goddess with her apparent contradictions, for ultimately her decisions and inclinations are governed by her lovable, yet also relentless and cruel, nature—characterized by extraordinary justice.

Hel, Goddess of the Underworld - bronzed figurine / sculpture. Crafted and cast from polyresin (artificial stone).