Part 4

The Norse Hel is the same word as the Gothic Halja, the Old High German Hella, the Anglo-Saxon Hellia, and the English Hell. On account of its occurrence with similar signification in different Teutonic tongues in their oldest linguistic monuments, scholars have been able to draw the conclusion that the word points to a primitive Teutonic Halja, meaning lower world, lower world divinity. It is believed to be related to the Latin oc-cul-ere, cel-are, clam, and to mean the one who "hides," "conceals," "preserves".

When the books of the New Testament were for the first time translated into a Teutonic tongue, into a Gothic dialect, the translator, Ulfilas, had to find some way of distinguishing with suitable words between the two realms of the lower world mentioned in the New Testament, Hades and Gehenna (Gr. geenna).

Hades, the middle condition, and the locality corresponding to this condition, which contains both fields of bliss and regions of torture, he translated with Halja, doubtless because the signification of this word corresponded most faithfully with the meaning of the word Hades. For Gehenna, hell, he used the borrowed word gaiainna.

The Old High German translation also reproduces Hades with the word Hella. For Gehenna it uses two expressions compounded with Hella. One of these, Hellawisi, belongs to the form which afterwards predominated in Scandinavia. Both the compounds bear testimony that the place of punishment in the lower world could not be expressed with Hella, but it was necessary to add a word, which showed that a subterranean place of punishment was meant. The same word for Gehenna is found among the Christian Teutons in England, namely, Hellewite; that is to say, the Hellia, that part of the lower world where it is necessary to do penance (víti) for one's sins. From England the expression doubtless came to Scandinavia, where we find in the Icelandic Hel-víti, in the Swedish Hälvete, and in the Danish Helvede. In the Icelandic literature it is found for the first time in Hallfred, the same skald who with great hesitation permitted himself to be persuaded by Olaf Tryggvason to abandon the faith of his fathers.

Many centuries before Scandinavia was converted to Christianity, the Roman Church had very nearly obliterated the boundary line between the subterranean Hades and Gehenna of the New Testament. The lower world had, as a whole, become a realm of torture, though with various gradations. Regions of bliss were no longer to be found there, and for Hel in the sense in which Ulfilas used Halja, and the Old High German translation Hella, there was no longer room in the Christian conception. In the North, Hel was therefore permitted to remain a heathen word, and to retain its heathen signification as long as the Christian generations were able or cared to preserve it. It is natural that the memory of this signification should gradually fade, and that the idea of the Christian hell should gradually be transferred to the heathen Hel. This change can be pretty accurately traced in the Old Norse literature. It came slowly, for the doctrine in regard to the lower world in the Teutonic religion addressed itself powerfully to the imagination, and, as appears from a careful examination, far from being indefinite in its outlines, it was, on the contrary, described with the clearest lines and most vivid colours, even down to the minutest details. Not until the thirteenth century could such a description of the heathen Hel as Gylfaginning's be possible and find readers who would accept it. But not even then were the memories (preserved in fragments from the heathen days) in regard to the lower world doctrine so confused, but that it was possible to present a far more faithful (or rather not so utterly false) description thereof. Gylfaginning's representation of the heathen Hades is based less on the then existing confusion of the traditions than on the conclusions drawn from the author's own false premises.

In determining the question, how far Hel among the heathen Scandinavians has had a meaning identical with or similar to that which Halja and Hella had among their Gothic and German kinsmen - that is to say, the signification of a death-kingdom of such a nature that it could not with linguistic propriety be used in translating Gehenna - we must first consult that which really is the oldest source, the usage of the spoken language in expressions where Hel is found. Such expressions show by the very presence of Hel that they have been handed down from heathendom, or have been formed in analogy with old heathen phrases. One of these modes of speech still exists: i hjäl (slå ihjäl, svälta ihjäl, frysa ihjäl, &c.), which is the Old Norse í Hel. We do not use this expression in the sense that a person killed by a weapon, famine, or frost is relegated to the abyss of torture. Still less could the heathens have used it in that sense. The phrase would never have been created if the word Hel had especially conveyed the notion of a place of punishment. Already in a very remote age í Hel had acquired the abstract meaning to death, but in such a manner that the phrase easily suggested the concrete idea - the realm of death (an example of this will be given below). What there is to be said about í Hel also applies to such phrases as bíða Heljar, to await Hel (death); búast til Heljar, to become equipped for the journey to Hel (to be shrouded); liggja milli heims og Heljar, to lie between this world and Hel (between life and death); liggja á Heljar þremi, to lie on Hel's threshold. A funeral could be called a Helför (a Hel-journey); fatal illness Helsótt (Hel-sickness); the deceased could be called Helgengnir (those gone to Hel). Of friends it is said that Hel (death) alone could separate them (Heimskringla, Inga saga Haraldssonar 18).

Thus it is evident that Hel, in the more general local sense of the word, referred to a place common for all the dead, and that the word was used without any additional suggestion of damnation amid torture in the minds of those employing it.