Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

ihjäl, frysa ihjäl, etc.), 6 which is the Old Norse í Hel. We do not use this expression in the
sense that a person killed by a weapon, famine, or frost is relegated to the abyss of
torture. Still less could the heathens have used it in that sense. The phrase would never
have been created if the word Hel had especially conveyed the notion of a place of
punishment. Already in a very remote age í Hel had acquired the abstract meaning "to
death," but in such a manner that the phrase easily suggested the concrete idea - the realm
of death (an example of this will be given below). What there is to be said about í Hel
also applies to such phrases as bíða Heljar, to await Hel (death); búast til Heljar, to
become equipped for the journey to Hel (to be shrouded); liggja milli heims og Heljar, to
lie between this world and Hel (between life and death); liggja á Heljar þremi, to lie on
Hel's threshold. A funeral could be called a Helför (a Hel-journey); fatal illness Helsótt
(Hel-sickness); the deceased could be called Helgengnir (those gone to Hel). Of friends,
it is said that Hel (death) alone could separate them (Heimskringla, Inga saga
Haraldssonar 18). 7
Thus it is evident that Hel, in the more general local sense of the word, referred to
a place common for all the dead, and that the word was used without any additional
suggestion of damnation amid torture in the minds of those employing it.
58.
THE WORD HEL IN VEGTAMSKVIÐA AND IN VAFÞRÚÐNISMÁL.
When Odin, according to Vegtamskviða, resolved to get reliable information in
the lower world in regard to the fate which threatened Baldur, he saddled Sleipnir and
rode there. On the way he took, he first came to Niflhel. While he was still in Niflhel, on
his way he met a dog bloody about the breast, which came from the direction where that
division of the lower world called Hel is situated. Thus the rider and the dog came from
opposite directions, and the rider continued his course in the direction from where the
dog came. The dog turned, and long pursued Odin with his barking. Then the rider
reached a foldvegr, that is to say, a road along grass-grown plains. The way resounded
under the hoofs of the steed. Then Odin finally came to a high dwelling, which is called
Heljar rann. The name of the dwelling shows that it was situated in Hel, not in Niflhel.
This latter realm of the lower world Odin now had had behind him ever since he reached
the green fields, and since the dog, evidently a watch of the borders between Niflhel and
Hel, had left him in peace. The high dwelling was decorated as for a feast, and mead was
served. It was, Odin learned, the abode where the ásmegir longingly waited for the arrival
of Baldur. Thus Vegtamskviða:
6 In Swedish ihjäl means death; slå ihjäl, strike dead; svälta ihjäl, starve to death; frysa ihjäl, freeze to
death.
7 "Anund and Andrew, the sons of Simon and Gunhild were also raised there. They and Hakon thought so
much of one another that nothing but Hel could separate them."