Hey Ladies! Hel, Hell, and Hades
Who the Hell?
Hel – Norse; Rules a place called Hel, the Underworld. Female.
Hades – Greek; Rules a place called Hades, the Underworld. Male.
We have to assume that Hel and her male, Greek counterpart share some form of common ancestry. That is, that both are representations of the same concept that pre-dates even the great Greek civilization. The use of “H”, along with the fact that in both cases, the realm shares its name with the entity itself – is too much synchronicity to be dismissed as common coincidence.
Throwing a minor curveball into the game, there is also Helel. Helel is an older name for the so-called “Lucifer”, the morning/evening star, the first and prettiest of angels, he who would become synonymous with “Satan” the Adversary, in the Abrahamic-Judaic lore. This does track with the theme, though, considering Satan, as we know him today, is the modern, Christian-slash-Hollywood version of Hades.
Where the Hell?
The Christian underworld, also called Hell, is known as such expressly because of the Norse Hel. Back in the day, as Christianity slowly dominated the Nordic landscape, many ideas and concepts were traded back and forth between the old pagan heathen religion(s) and the new Christ-flavored hotness. “Hell” is simply a borrowed and moderately bastardized version of “Hel” 1. Make no mistake, however – there is a massive difference in the meanings of Hel and Hell. The Norse Hel is actually the Norse version of Paradise. It is “the Glittering Plains” of the afterlife. Once Ragnarök occurs, burning away all of Asgard (the home of Gods) and Midgard (the land of humans), it is Hel that shall be, at last, revealed. This is the same basic story of the Rapture in Christianity, with the final outcome being a new Eden. Hel is literally Eden.
…A far cry from the fiery pit of damnation and torment that is the Christian Hell, wouldn’t you say? 2
Haegl Yeah
Let’s get our etymology on!
Hel, and by extension, Hell. Hail. Hall. These are all essentially the same word. At the very least, they all share the same PIE (Proto-Indo-European) root. That in itself is fairly intriguing. The Old Norse word is “Hagall”. The Old English word is “Hægl”. The modern Dane word (also a name) is Haegl.
The third aett of the Elder Futhark is “Hagall’s Aett”. With this knowledge, we can then put to rest the debate over which God(dess) the Aett refers to. It is Hel’s Aett, no doubt. The first row of the Futhark (Freyr’s Aett) can be considered that of Asgard. The second (Hagall’s Aett), that of Hel, and the third (Tyr’s Aett), of Midgard. Above, Below, and then there’s us. 3
Haegl is where we get “hag” from as well – the traditional image of the crotchety, twisted crone. Which in itself is a defamation of one third of the mother goddess trinity – the mother, maiden, and crone. Haegl is even the actual name of an evil old witch in Dutch folklore.
Haegl and Hagall translate to “hail”. The Norse rune poem for the rune Hagalaz 4 – also mentions hail as the “tiniest grain”. Those poems lost a lot in translation, I believe, as this is another case of “Dafuq!?” when attempting to parse the original meaning behind the words. Although an analogy can be made for the Asgard-Midgard-Underworld structure in the Anglo-Saxon poem.
Old Norse:
“Hail is the coldest of grain;
Christ created the world of old.”
Old Icelandic:
“Hail is cold grain
and shower of sleet
and sickness of serpents.”
Anglo-Saxon:
“Hail is the whitest of grain;
it is whirled from the vault of heaven
and is tossed about by gusts of wind
and then it melts into water.”
Holy Hell!
The Old Norse word “heilagr”, modern Norse “hellig” means “holy”. In which case, it is entirely possible that “Hel” originally meant “holy”, or “divine”, before the influence of Christianity turned it into “hail” or “Hell”. That is entirely speculation, backed only by the fact they already did exactly this with the term Hel which, again, was meant to be Paradise. Just consider the impact that has on the meaning of Hagalaz, were that the case!
Go To Hel! (That’s a blessing because I love you. Please give me money.)
- Why they doubled up on the hockey sticks, I don’t know.
- But then, that is how Christianity won the Religion Wars. Through fear and intimidation tactics. And by absorbing the relgions, cults, and customs of the peoples they encountered. Christianity is the Borg of human culture.
- When we break it down this way, it’s interesting to note that the third Aett is the only one governed by an Aesir – Tyr. Freyr is Van. Hel is, presumably, a jotunn (giant/monster).
- Hagalaz being the first rune in Hagall’s Aett, just as the F rune, Feoh, is the first in Freyr’s Aett and the T rune, Tyr, is the first in Tyr’s Aett.
