Hel: Goddess of the Underworld

In Norse Mythology Hel was known for being the Goddess of the Underworld and her name Her stands for hidden which links to the underworld as it hidden from people or could relate to the fact the dead is hidden by being buried underground.

Hel was the daughter of Loki the trickster God,  she also has two brother one being wolf Fenrir and the World serpent Jormungand. This made her part of an extremely dangerous and disreputable family.

She was born was half human half dead. She had a ghastly appearance, with a skull fully exposed on one side of her face, meant she cut a terrifying figure.

Hel was seen as greedy, harsh and cruel, or at least indifferent to the concerns of the both living and the dead. However, in the old Norse literature she was mostly mentioned only in passing.

The only surviving myth in which she features prominently is that of The Death of Baldur. She was pleaded with as everyone was in sorrow over the lost of Baldur that she order to have every last thing in the universe to wept for him but there was one refusal and due to that Hel offers weren’t met and Hel kept in Baldur in her cold clutches.

Hel was also responsible for judging the dead that came to her any which has sinned got brutal punishment which would be in Hel torture chambers which were made from poisonous snakes. The chambers also emitted loud screams.

The entrance to Hel was guarded by a monstrous dog named Garmr.His face dripped with blood of those souls who had tried in vain to escape their grim fate in the underworld.