Hella

Hella and her siblings were banished from Asgard by Odin, to the remotest lands.

Odin gave her dominion over the nine worlds of the dead that make up Helheim. Here the Goddess decides the fate of all the people who have died from sickness and old age.

Helheim is not the Hell of the Christian world, where the sins of man are punished. Instead it represents the nine different stages of the transition the soul goes through after death. It was here that the ancestors resided in village like settings. Seers and shamans would journey to these realms to consult with them.

This Goddess is Queen of the underworld and despite her banishment the other Gods have to respect her judgement as shown when she refuses to let Baldr return to the living.

Other spellings of her name include Hell, Hel, Hela and Halja. Her name means one who covers up.

Her hall was called Elivdnir (Sleet Cold).

She represents the Crone aspect of the Goddess in the Pagan tradition.

She was the youngest child of Loki and the giantess Angurboda. She had two siblings Fenri and Jormungand. There are no surviving accounts that suggest she had any children of her own.


Hella is often depicted as being one half beautiful woman and the other side a blue black rotting corpse.She is sometimes depicted with bones growing on the outside of her body.

She therefore represents both the ugliness and peacefulness of death.