I am taking the 36-lesson
course on The Vikings from The Great Courses.
I learned that good Vikings
go to Valhalla. Bad Vikings go to Hel which is ruled over by
a blue lady also named Hel who is the daughter of Loki.
So, when Loki Casey gets
married, he should name his daughter Hel!
Could there be a connection
with Helgeson?
Unlike Christian hell which
is a hot place of unending fire, Viking hel is frigid and blue like an unending
Scandinavian winter.
In Norse mythology, Hel
is a being who presides over a realm of the same name, where she receives a portion of the
dead. Hel is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century
from earlier traditional sources, and the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson. In addition, she is mentioned
in poems recorded in Heimskringla and Egils saga that date from the 9th and 10th
centuries, respectively. An episode in the Latin work Gesta Danorum, written in the 12th century by
Saxo Grammaticus, is generally considered to
refer to Hel, and Hel may appear on various Migration Period bracteates.
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