Part 4

In Alvíssmál occur the phrases: those í helju and halir. The premise of the poem is that such objects as earth, heaven, moon, sun, night, wind, fire, &c., are expressed in six different ways, and that each one of these ways of expression is, with the exclusion of the others, applicable within one or two of the classes of beings found in the world. For example, Heaven is called (in Alvíssmál 12) -

Himinn among men,
hlyrnir among gods,
vindofnir among Vans,
uppheim among giants,
fagraræfur (fair-roof) among elves,
drjúpur salur (dripping-hall) among dwarfs.

In this manner thirteen objects are mentioned, each one with its six names. In all of the thirteen cases man has a way of his own of naming the objects. Likewise the giants. No other class of beings has any of the thirteen appellations in common with them. On the other hand, the Asas and Vans have the same name for two objects (moon and sun); elves and dwarfs have names in common for no less than six objects (cloud, wind, fire, tree, seed, mead); the dwarfs and the inhabitants of the lower world for three (heaven, sea, and calm). Nine times it is stated how those in the lower world express themselves. In six of these nine cases Alvíssmál refers to the inhabitants of the lower world by the general expression "those in Hel"; in three cases the poem lets "those in Hel" be represented by some one of those classes of beings that reside in Hel. These three are uppregin (10), ásasynir (16), and halir (28).

The name uppregin suggests that it refers to beings of a very certain divine rank (the Vans are in Alvíssmál called ginnregin, 20, 30) that have their sphere of activity in the upper world. As they none the less dwell in the lower world, the appellation must have reference to beings which have their homes and abiding places in Hel when they are not occupied with their affairs in the world above. These beings are Nott, Dag, Mani, Sol.

Ásasynir has the same signification as ásmegir. As this is the case, and as the ásmegir dwell in the lower world and the ásasynir likewise, then they must be identical, unless we should be credulous enough to assume that there were in the lower world two categories of beings, both called sons of Asas.

Halir, when the question is about the lower world, means the souls of the dead (Vafþrúðnismál 43; see above).

From this we find that Alvíssmál employs the word Hel in such a manner that it embraces those regions where Nott and Dag, Mani and Sol, the living human inhabitants of Mimir's grove, and the souls of departed human beings dwell. Among the last-named are included also souls of the damned, which are found in the abodes of torture below Niflhel, and it is within the limits of possibility that the author of the poem also had them in mind, though there is not much probability that he should conceive them as having a nomenclature in common with gods, ásmegir, and the happy departed. At all events, he has particularly - and probably exclusively - had in his mind the regions of bliss when he used the word Hel, in which case he has conformed in the use of the word to Völuspá, Vafþrúðnismál, Grímnismál, Skírnismál, Vegtamskviða, and Þórsdrápa.