Hello, fellow Steemians!
Today I have a special post for you. I am sure many of you have already seen and read the wonderful post by @blog-fictions titled “Medusa - The Misunderstood and Raped Gorgon”. If you haven’t please go and check it out it is an interesting read and I promise you will enjoy it.
When I saw @blog-fictions’s post I immediately thought of my favorite goddess, the goddess Hel or Hela. Through the ages, this amazing goddess has survived the purge of the old gods by the church, yet (as with many ancient goddesses) she has been greatly misunderstood.
Who Exactly is Hel?
Hel, or Hela, comes from the Norse pantheon of gods and goddesses. She is the goddess of the dead, She controls a realm in the underworld where those who have not died in battle reside. Hel has been the target of Christian influencers since the forced conversion of Europe and has been used as a tool to scare people into a righteous life. Hel has been depicted as an evil, collector of souls and as with many women figures of the Christian dogma the root of sin and the enemy of righteousness. However, this is simply not the case.
Being the daughter of Loke, Hel was given the special duty of guardian of the dead by Odin the Allfather. She was so grateful for this appointment that she gifted Odin with two ravens, memory and thought. Odin’s ravens act as messengers that can travel between all planes of existence.
Hel is a goddess of darkness, but that does not make her evil. In nature there is darkness and there is light, there is order and there is chaos; however, good and evil does not exist. It is the same with the gods and goddesses, they just are. Hel has even been depicted as an image of half dead / half alive or half black / half white. This image of duality is most likely another product of the Christian church, not existing in nature.
Hel accepts all of the dead into her realm, and it is said she has a special affection for children who have died and also for women who have died in childbirth. She offers them protection and solitude while their souls wait to be reborn into their ancestral line. Life, death, and rebirth are the natural way of the universe and the underworld is a pit stop along the way, a piece of the cycle no different than that of the living world. It is even possible that Valhalla exists in the underworld only given the idea of existing in the sky like heaven, again, by Christian authors.
Hel is also associated with her magic abilities. She controls the veil between life and death and is often called upon for protection and knowledge. It is said she will only speak to one person at a time as to what she says is too important to waste on several ears. She is the goddess of death, I mean who could possess more knowledge than her?
A Modern Adaption of the Church
Most of our modern understanding of the old gods is based on the historical record depicted by the church. The first archeologists and historians were all male, additionally, they were all men of the church. Luckily, with the help of some surviving oral traditions and modern archeology, we have been able to shed some light on this goddess of darkness and who she really is.
A Little More About the Underworld
For our pre-Christian ancestors, the underworld was never an inferno for damned souls to rot in torment for all eternity, but a place of darkness and stillness. Think of it like a cave where our first ancestors dwelled. The outside world was scary and dangerous and caves were a sanctuary for our ancestors to be protected.
This can give us an understanding of the concept of the underworld. Life is full of emotion, stress, love, color, and chaos. Death is calm, silent, and brings order to our existence. Once we became aware of our mortality, we probably began to imagine what happens after death. And thus we have a concept of the underworld, a place of stillness and rest.
To our ancestors, the underworld existed in the same way that our world does. There were many different layers and inhabitants, not only for the dead to reside. The realm of the dead may just be a small part of the underworld, which is ruled by Hel.
To me, Hel is one of the most important goddesses of the European people. She looks after the souls of the dead, welcomes all into her realm, and possesses all of the knowledge of the nine worlds. She is not an evil deity and is certainly not trying to manipulate and collect souls to torture for all time. She is caring and nurturing, however, you certainly do not want to get on her bad side.
Thanks, everyone for reading and please let me know what you think!
