A fierce struggle is taking place within the realm of the Norse Gods. The Goddess Hel has been banished for defying Odin, Lord of Asgard. Angry at her fate, Hel has raised an army of resurrected Viking warriors to wipe out all of humanity in the mortal realm of Midgard, seeking to bring about Ragnarok – the apocalyptic battle that that will destroy Asgard and the Gods themselves. The task of stopping Hel and defending the future of mankind falls to Skarin, a promising but deeply flawed young warrior, ignorant of the true reason for his favour with the Gods…
Character Background:
Hel is the offspring of Loki, Norse god of chaos. She wishes to begin Ragnarok – the Norse apocalypse – to bring about the Age of the Underworld Gods.
Hel was not always evil, but she was banished by Odin, some say, for plotting with her father to overthrow Midgard; others say for asking too many questions about the nature of the Gods and Valhalla. The more common belief is that she annoyed Freya, primarily because Hel used to be very beautiful, and it was Freya who orchestrated the whole thing.
Like Freya, Hel cannot interfere directly with Midgard, but she does have supreme power in the Underworld and, like Freya, she can also influence others to work for her.
As part of her curse Hel cannot assume the shape of a mortal in the same way that other Gods and Goddesses (Freya) can. Instead she must literally take over mortals’ bodies. And although she chooses the most beautiful maidens on Midgard, Hel’s proximity to Evil and the Underworld means that it’s only a matter of time before they start to become withered and corrupted – a literal representation of what she has lost and what she has become.
Hel believes the Asgardian Gods to be vain, selfish, arrogant and extremely elitist. This belief is typified by man’s afterlife in Valhalla. Hel believes that this ‘heaven’ should be open for all not reserved for the select – who just spend their days drinking and eating! She desires to initiate the age of the Underworld Gods and create a New Valhalla that is open to all whether they died a ‘valiant’ death or not.
Unfortunately what seems like a reasonable belief has been twisted into a fairly warped obsession and consequently Hel has started killing indiscriminately to bolster her underworld army. She’s not even waiting for mortals to die natural deaths.
Hel is also very jealous and bitter towards Freya, especially as she blames Freya for getting her kicked out of Asgard in the first place. This only fuels her desire to take over Midgard and swing the balance of power in her favour.
Although she is essentially evil, Hel is far more of a tragic figure – in line with Medusa in Greek mythology.
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I think you have the wrong impression of Hel, she is not evil and does not really care about Midgard. She is essentially neutral.
The following is from Wikipedia:
It has been suggested that this description of Hel is of later date, and that she originally was a much more neutral goddess over the realm of shadows, where all, despite their deeds, gather after death. This can be seen as being supported by the etymology of Hel (Lat. Celāre, Ger. hehlen), meaning the “hider”.
And this is from Godchecker:
HEL: Goddess of the Inglorious Dead and Queen of HELHEIM, the Norse Underworld.
The daughter of LOKI and ANGRBODA, she’s an ugly half-dead hag with gangrene legs and a hideous face. Which just shows that sometimes you can judge by appearances.
Having been banished to the Underworld by order of ODIN — merely for being the ugly evil daughter of LOKI — she made the place her own and became HEL of the HELHEIM Hell Hall. Which tends to become hellishly confusing.
Yes, her name gives us the word ‘Hell’, but her domain is almost the complete opposite of SATAN’s abode: it’s cold, damp, and populated by the kind of apathetic souls most devils would hardly feel worth the trouble of roasting. In fact most souls go to HELHEIM because they’ve spent their lives sitting on their asses instead of killing, pillaging and then singing rude songs about it.
It’s a melancholy and depressing place filled with gloomy pessimistic spirits. Which is why HEL is also Goddess of the Blues. Half her body is blue and the words associated with her say it all: dank, clouds, hunger, tardy feet, splendid misery…
Those aren’t my impressions of Hel. The Creative Assembly made the game and that’s the character bio they made for their version of Hel.
Hel is my favourite goddess in german mythology. but she looked a bit defferent: she was half black and half white. I think Hel is a bit evil, cause shes the goddess of the death. but she looked great!
Hel was created in later times but she wasn`t ever really ugly or evil. Most of the bad sides are created through christian influence. Most of the time, Hel or Haljar was a normal place for all dead, Heroes and Gods equally. For example, Balder and Sigurd (from the Nibelungen) both went to Hel after they died.
So the goddess Hel and the play Hel are in reality very neutral and everyone goes to them, after dying.
The Hel of the game might be wrong but I kind of like her. She looks strong and more realistic than the later versions of her as a mutant.