Norse Gods of Death

Norse mythology has no single god of death. Several rulers receive the dead, each taking a different share. Hel, daughter of Loki, rules the realm of the dead, and Snorri Sturluson sends to her those who die of sickness or old age, which is why she is usually called the Norse goddess of death. Those slain in battle are shared between Odin's Valhalla and Freya's Fólkvangr, the drowned were said to go to Rán, wife of the sea-giant Ægir, and one Icelandic family expected to pass into the holy mountain Helgafell.

Throughout some of the articles so far, we have mentioned the underworld in Norse mythology. You surely know that the most famous place where the dead of the Norse universe go is Valhalla. But you might not know that it's not the only place where they can end up.

Believe it or not, it is not even the most important place.

In addition to the well-known Valhalla, the sources name at least four more places where the dead could end up: Freya's Folkvangr, the hall of Ran in the sea, the holy mountain Helgafell, and Hel, often called Helheim in modern books. The phrase "gods of death" is a modern label: no medieval text groups these rulers together, and the sources never set out one consistent scheme of the afterlife.

Now let's go over this topic a little more extensively and talk about what happens to the humans and Gods after their death, where they go, and who rules over them.

Afterlife Realms and Who Rules Over Them

Let's start with a word on the soul. Modern books often say that the Norse saw each person as made up of four parts, and the words do come from the sources:

• Shape, or "skin", which a shape-shifter could change: Hamr,
• Mind or thought – Hugr,
• A "follower", a guardian spirit often seen in dreams as an animal or a woman – Fylgja,
• Luck – Hamingja.

No medieval text, however, lays these out as a fixed model of the soul, and none says which part goes on after death. That tidy scheme is a modern reconstruction.

Folkvangr - The Goddess Freya

Although less known than Valhalla, this is the other place that takes in the battle-slain. Folkvangr (Old Norse Fólkvangr) can be translated as "field of the host," "army field," or "people field." It is the dwelling of the Goddess Freya, the goddess of the Vanir whom Snorri Sturluson names as the one to call on in matters of love.

Wherever Freya rides to battle, Snorri writes in Gylfaginning, half of the slain are hers and half are Odin's, and the poem Grímnismál (stanza 14) says she chooses her half every day. No source says who chooses first or how the dead are divided.

Snorri places Folkvangr in heaven, and Freya's hall there is called Sessrúmnir. Beyond that, no medieval source describes the field. So, today we do not truly know what Folkvangr looked like.

Nor does any source say what Freya's dead do there. Modern books often picture them training for Ragnarok like the warriors of Valhalla, but that borrows Valhalla's details: the sources say it only of Odin's warriors.

Valhalla: Odin, the All-father

The most popular realm of the fallen nowadays is without a doubt, Valhalla (in Old Norse Valhöll, meaning "hall of the slain"). It is one of the great halls of Asgard. This hall belongs to the God Odin, the ruler of all Norse Gods. Odin has many names, and several tie him to the dead. Snorri says he is called Valföðr, "father of the slain", because all who fall in battle are his adopted sons, and also Hangaguð, "god of the hanged". Ynglinga saga says he woke dead men from the earth and sat beneath the hanged, and so was called drauga dróttinn, "lord of the dead", and hanga dróttinn, "lord of the hanged". No source, however, calls him a god of death.

As we have already mentioned, Odin has the other half of the slain. Snorri says Odin sends the Valkyries to every battle, where they choose who is to die and decide the victory, and in the poem Hákonarmál two of them are sent to choose which king will go to Odin and dwell in Valhalla. In this great hall, the dead warriors fight and feast until the coming of Ragnarok, when they are destined to fight alongside Odin and the rest of Norse Gods during the last battle.

Those warriors are called Einherjar.

Since we will talk far more about Valhalla in one of the following articles on Norse mythology, we will finish the story of this famous hall of Odin here.

Ran

Taking into account that the Vikings were often at sea, it makes sense that there was a place in the afterlife for them too.

Ran (Old Norse Rán) is the wife of the sea-giant Ægir, and at sea she stood for drowning. In Skáldskaparmál, Snorri says the gods learned that she owned a net in which she caught everyone who went out on the sea. The sources speak of her hall, not of a realm of treasure on the ocean floor.

In Friðþjófs saga, after a great sea sweeps four men overboard, Friðþjófr says they must surely go to Rán and tells every man to carry gold, so that they arrive as fitting guests in her hall. Eyrbyggja saga says that when drowned men came dripping into their own funeral feast, people took it as a sign that they were well received at Rán's, because the old belief had not yet been given up, though people were baptized and called Christian.

Helgafell

Helgafell, often spelled Helgafjell in modern books, means "holy mountain", and it is a real hill on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in western Iceland. Eyrbyggja saga says the settler Þórólfr Mostrarskegg held it so holy that no one was to look at it unwashed, and believed that he and all his kinsmen on the headland would go into it when they died. It was one family's mountain, not a general afterlife.

The saga shows what that meant. One autumn evening a shepherd saw the north side of the mountain open. Inside were great fires, and he heard feasting and the clamour of drinking horns, and heard Þórólfr's son Þorsteinn cod-biter and his companions being welcomed. The next morning news came that Þorsteinn had drowned while fishing. So the dead of this family feasted together inside their own mountain, even one who had drowned.

Helheim - The Goddess Hel

In Snorri's account, those who die of sickness or old age go to Hel, often called Helheim in modern books; the medieval texts almost always call the place simply hel. It is ruled by Hel, the Goddess of Death. No medieval source draws a map with her realm below Midgard. Snorri says Odin cast Hel into Niflheim, the world of mist and cold, and Grímnismál (stanza 31) says Hel lives under one of the three roots of the world-tree Yggdrasil.

In Snorri's story of the god Hermóðr's ride to fetch Baldur, the road to Hel runs down and to the north through dark, deep valleys to the river Gjoll (Gjöll). The river is crossed by a bridge roofed with gold, kept by the maiden Móðguðr, and beyond it stand the high walls and huge gates of Hel. Modern books often set a monstrous hound called Garm to guard them, but no medieval source makes that link.

Hermóðr, who was alive, rode there and back, but the dead stay. Not even a God could come home before the end of the world.

As a matter of fact, one of the most loved Norse Gods, Baldur, son of Odin and Frigg, ended up in Helheim after his tragic death. Odin, the All-father, with all his knowledge and wisdom, was not able to bring Baldur back to life.

Only Hel could release him. When Hermóðr asked, she set a condition: if everything in the world, living and dead, wept for Baldur, he would go back to the gods. Everything wept except one giantess, thought to be Loki in disguise, so Baldur stayed with Hel, and Snorri says he comes back only after Ragnarok. In her own hall, it was Hel, not the almighty Odin, who decided.

We deliberately mentioned this interesting story about Baldur, because it is proof that the Gods of Norse mythology could not cheat death, and that death held even them until the end of the world.

If you imagine Helheim as a place where the dead are tortured and spend eternity in suffering, you would be wrong. Snorri's chapter on Hel says nothing of guilt or torment, and Baldur sits in the high seat of her hall; in the poem Baldrs draumar, mead stands brewed for him there. But no source describes what the ordinary dead do in Hel, and the names Snorri gives her household are grim: her dish is Hunger, her knife Starvation and her bed Sickbed.

Not a place of torment, then, but hardly a feast hall either.

Hell in Christianity Vs Helheim in Norse Mythology

Through what we have read so far, we can conclude that the Norse mythology has comprehension of death that is different from the understanding spread throughout the world today, with its division into Paradise (think of it as a reward), and Hell (sort of punishment).

Some scholars think that Christian influence lies behind the one place in Norse myth that looks like Hell as we know it today. This place is called Nastrond, and the sources never call it part of Hel. In the poem Völuspá (stanzas 38 and 39), perjurers, murderers and the man who seduces another's wife wade heavy streams there. Snorri also says, early in Gylfaginning, that wicked men go to Hel and from there into Niflhel, "down in the ninth world".

On Nastrond (Náströnd in Old Norse, meaning "shore of corpses") stands a hall far from the sun, its doors facing north and its walls woven of serpents' spines, with poison dripping in through the roof-vents. Snorri adds that the serpents' heads all face into the hall and blow poison, so that rivers of poison run through it, and that oath-breakers and murderers wade those rivers. He puts Náströnd in the world after Ragnarok, not in Hel.

Also, in Völuspá the dragon Níðhöggr sucks the corpses of the dead at Náströnd, and a wolf tears men apart. The poem never says how long this lasts.

Hel, the Norse Goddess of Death

Goddess Hel with Loki, Fenrir, and Jormungandr

Lastly, let's say a few words about perhaps the most famous Goddess of Death in Norse mythology, Hel.

Hel (Hel in Old Norse, probably meaning "the concealed place") is the Norse Goddess of Death who rules over the same-named realm of Hel/Helheim. It is the underworld where those who die of sickness or old age dwell. The word comes from a root meaning "to hide", and it names both the realm of the dead and its ruler.

According to Snorri Sturluson, Goddess Hel is the daughter of the trickster God Loki and the giantess Angrboda (Angrboða in Old Norse, meaning "Anguish-boding"). Therefore she is the sister of Jormungand, the World Serpent, and the wolf Fenrir. This origin makes Hel part of a highly disreputable and dangerous family of the Norse pantheon.

Goddess Hel was a role model for Marvel's screen adaptation of Thor's sister Hela in the movie Thor: Ragnarok (2017). The beautiful Cate Blanchett "gave life" to Hela in the movie. In the film Hela is Odin's firstborn; in the sources Hel is Loki's daughter, and Odin is the god who banished her. However, don't think about the Goddess of Death in that way.

Here is why.

Hel's Appearance and Her Banishment to Helheim

In Gylfaginning, Snorri says Hel is half blue-black and half flesh-colored, so that she is easy to recognize, and that she looks rather downcast and fierce. That one sentence is the only description of her in the medieval sources. The familiar picture of a woman who is half beautiful and half a rotting corpse is modern, and no source gives her a fiery, all-seeing eye.

Goddess Hel

Her appearance was not why Hel was sent away from the other Norse Gods and Goddesses. Snorri says prophecy warned the gods that Loki's three children would bring them great harm, so Odin had them fetched. He threw the serpent into the sea, and Hel he cast into Niflheim and gave her authority over nine worlds, to share out lodgings among those sent to her.

In Hel, the goddess has a thrall called Ganglati and a serving-maid called Ganglöt, both names meaning roughly "slow-goer". Her hall is called Éljúðnir, her dish Hungr ("hunger") and her knife Sultr ("starvation"). Snorri gives only the names; servants so slow that they seem to stand still are a modern elaboration.

Then again, Goddess Hel is only rarely mentioned in the existing literature on Norse mythology. She speaks in only one story, the death of Baldur, and her looks and household are known only from Snorri. Older poets did picture death as Loki's daughter: the poem Ynglingatal, traditionally dated to around 900, says that "Loki's maid" has taken a king who died of sickness. How far a goddess Hel was believed in before Snorri, rather than used as a poetic image of death, is debated. What do you think?

Interesting Facts About the Norse Goddess of Death and the Underworld

You may also have read these popular claims. Here is how they hold up:

• Helsinki, Holland, Helvetia, and Holstein were not named after Hel. Helvetia comes from the Celtic Helvetii, Holland from holtland, "wood-land", Holstein from the Holsati, the "wood-dwellers", and Helsinki from its Swedish name Helsingfors, the rapids of Helsinge,
• English hell and Norse hel are the same Germanic word, probably meaning "concealed place", and when the English became Christian the Old English form was used for the Christian hell. So "go to hell" points to the Christian place, not to Hel's realm,
• Unlike the fiery Christian hell, Hel is never described as burning. Snorri puts it in Niflheim, the world of mist and cold, and the road there runs north, though no source describes Hel itself as icy.

So the cities are a myth, the word hell really is related, and the cold belongs to Niflheim rather than to Hel itself.

Let Us Finish This Story Here

There is very little literature and evidence on the Norse afterlife that can describe life after death in more detail. And all of it was written down by Christians, generations after the conversion.

At least we are sure that there was more than one ruler of the afterlife. Where would you like to go when the time comes? Our choice is definitely Helgafell.

We have tried, and we hope that we were able to explain to you the afterlife of the brave Vikings. As always, if you have any additional questions or you think that we skipped some essential details concerning the Gods of Death and the afterlife in the Norse mythology, feel free to write to us in the comments section below.

Norse Underworld, FAQ

Who is the Norse god of the underworld?

The underworld of Norse mythology is ruled by Hel, a daughter of Loki. She is a goddess rather than a god, and she governs the realm of Helheim.

What is the Norse underworld called?

The Norse underworld is called Hel, or Helheim in many modern books. Snorri Sturluson places it in Niflheim, the world of mist and cold, and the poem Grímnismál puts Hel under one of the three roots of the world-tree Yggdrasil. The road there crosses the river Gjöll by a bridge roofed with gold.

Who is the Norse goddess of death?

Hel is the Norse goddess of death. According to Snorri Sturluson she is the daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboda, and the sister of the wolf Fenrir and the serpent Jörmungandr.

Is there a Norse god of death?

No single god of death appears in the sources, and "gods of death" is a modern label. Hel rules the realm of the dead and is usually called the goddess of death. Odin, called Valföðr, "father of the slain", has half of those who fall in battle and Freya the other half, and Rán catches the drowned in her net.

Where do Vikings go when they die?

It depends how they die: those slain in battle are shared between Odin's Valhalla and Freya's Folkvangr, the drowned were said to go to Rán, and those who die of sickness or old age go to Hel, according to Snorri. The sources never set out one consistent scheme.

Keep exploring: Hel, goddess of the underworld, the wider Norse afterlife, Valhalla, or shop Norse jewelry.