Helheim

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Heimdal demands Idun's return from the underworld

Helheim , also called Hel , Old Norse Helheimr , is the kingdom of the goddess of the dead Hel . Presumably she is the namesake for the English word " hell " ( German  "hell" ). Translated, Hel means something like "hidden, hidden" (compare the verb "hide")

mythology

Hel is a daughter of the god Loki and the giantess Angrboda . Your realm of the same name is dark and cold. It lies at the lower end of Yggdrasil , the world tree. This is where everyone comes who has died “straw death” (old age, illness). In one part Helheims which náströnd is called, perjurers, murderers and adulterers are punished. The empire also accepts deceased gods like Balder . There is no return from this realm. Helheim experienced a revaluation. At first it was intended as a place for all the dead. Presumably under the influence of Christianity , the idea of ​​a place of punishment and suffering arose and later corresponds to the Christian idea of ​​hell.

Helheim is surrounded by the Helgrind fence, also called Nágrind or Valgrind. You have to enter the realm of the dead through a gate that is guarded by the hellhound Garm , who greets the deceased with his loud barking. The Gjöll River , over which the Gjallarbrú Bridge spans , also flows through this opening . This bridge is guarded by the maiden giant Modgudr .

Hel's residence is called Eljudnir (misery), her table Hungr (hunger), her knife Sultr (squalor) and her doorstep Fallandaforad (falling danger). Kor (coffin) is the name of her bed and Blikjandabol (flashing disaster) that of her bed curtain.

Her servants are the maid Ganglot (sluggish step) and the servant Ganglati (slow step).

literature

  • Paul Herrmann: Nordic Mythology . abridged new edition edition. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-7466-8000-X , p. 281 ff .
  • Ulf Diederichs (Ed.): Germanic doctrine of gods . 4th edition. Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-424-00746-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helheim. In: Norse-Mythology.org. Retrieved November 27, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Christoph A. Weidner: The encyclopedia of mythology. The mysterious world of the ancient Greeks, Germans and Celts . Fränkisch-Crumbach 2013, ISBN 978-3-86313-303-0 , p. 140 .
  3. ↑ Ludwig Noack : Mythology and Revelation . Religion in its general essence and its mythological development. tape 1 .. Leske, 1845, p. 458 .