Queen of the Realm of the Dead
Hel is the daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboda, sister to the wolf Fenrir and the serpent Jormungandr. The Prose Edda describes her as half flesh-coloured and half blue-black, grim of face. When the gods learned what ruin Loki's three children would bring, Odin threw her down into the mists of Niflheim and gave her authority over the dead of the nine worlds: all who die of sickness or old age come to her, while the battle-slain go to Valhalla and Folkvangr.
Everything in her household is named for misery. Her hall is Eljudnir, 'sprayed with sleet'; her dish is Hunger and her knife Famine; her servants are Ganglati and Ganglot, 'the slow-moving'; her threshold is Stumbling-block, her bed Sickbed, and its curtains Glimmering-bale. After Baldr's death, Hermod rode Sleipnir nine nights through dark valleys and over the gold-roofed bridge of the river Gjoll to plead before her throne. She agreed to release Baldr on one condition: that all things in the world weep for him. One giantess refused, and Baldr stayed in her realm.
Her name in the Germanic tongues means 'the hidden place' and is cognate with the English word hell; Helvete remains the everyday word for hell in the Scandinavian languages.
