Cult of Gods

Hel

Norse tradition. See the whole pantheon.

Domains
the dead who die of sickness or age
Symbols and attributes
Half-living, half-corpse in Snorri
Parents (per the sources used)
Loki
Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.
Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.

Key myth

Loki's daughter by the giantess Angrboða. Odin cast her into Niflheim, where she rules those who die of sickness and old age. In Gylfaginning she receives Baldr, and will release him only if all things weep.

Primary sources

  • Gylfaginning 34, 49

All sources for the Norse pantheon

Lineage in the sources used: Loki.

Place in the family graph

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

YmirFriggBúriNjörðrÆgirRánSólBorrBestlaFreyrFreyjaSifLokiSigynHeimdallrTýrOdinHelThorBaldr

More traditions

Papyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.EgyptianA chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.MesopotamianVishvarupa Vishnu, Kashmir or Himachal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection.HinduFolio 309r of the Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin), c. 800.Celtic (Irish)

Elsewhere in the world

Deities in other traditions who share a theme with Hel: death and the underworld. This is overlap in one area only.

Egyptian

Nut

sky, stars

Egyptian

Osiris

afterlife, resurrection, fertility of the flood

Egyptian

Isis

magic, protection, motherhood

Egyptian

Nephthys

mourning, protection of the dead

Egyptian

Anubis

embalming, guide of the dead

Mesopotamian

Nergal

plague, war, the underworld

Compare across cultures