Hel is the Old Norse name for both a realm of the dead and its female ruler, a half-living, half-corpse figure from the 13th-century Eddas. Hela is a Marvel Comics character created in 1964, who borrows the name but little else. The confusion is understandable. The distance between them is not.
What Hel Actually Is in Norse Sources
Hel appears in two primary medieval texts: the Poetic Edda (compiled c. 1270, though poems are older) and Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda (written around 1220). In both, Hel is the daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboða, making her sibling to the wolf Fenrir and the serpent Jörmungandr. Snorri describes her as “half black and half flesh-colored” – a body split between living and decaying tissue. She rules over the realm also called Hel, where those who die of sickness, old age, or accident go. Warriors who fall in battle go to Valhalla or Fólkvangr, not to her.
The name Hel itself comes from Proto-Germanic haljō, meaning “concealed place” or “the hidden.” The English word “hell” descends from the same root, but the Christian concept of a fiery punishment is a later overlay. In Norse cosmology, Hel is cold, misty, and walled. Snorri writes that her hall is called Éljúðnir (“sprayed with snowstorms”), her dish is Hunger, her knife is Famine, her bed is Sick-bed, and her bed-curtains are Gleaming Bale. These are not metaphors for torment. They are descriptions of a place that is simply barren and joyless.
The human consequence: a Viking who died in bed did not expect punishment. They expected a grey, quiet existence in a hall where nothing much happened. That was not a threat. It was a fact of the afterlife.
How Marvel Created Hela
Marvel Comics introduced Hela in Journey into Mystery #102, published in March 1964, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. She was designed as a death goddess and villain for Thor. Her origin has shifted across continuities: sometimes she is the daughter of Loki, sometimes the daughter of Odin, sometimes an ancient entity. Her appearance – a green-and-black costume, a horned headdress that covers half her face, and the ability to kill with a touch – owes more to Kirby’s visual imagination than to any medieval manuscript. Her half-dead face in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (2017’s Thor: Ragnarok) echoes Snorri’s description of Hel’s complexion, but the character’s personality, goals, and power set are entirely modern.
Marvel’s Hela is a conqueror. She seeks to rule Asgard and the Nine Realms. She is a clear antagonist. The Norse Hel, by contrast, is not evil. She does not seek power. She simply receives the dead who come to her. Snorri calls her “rather grim” but never malicious. The difference is not subtle.
Symbolism and Meaning: A Neutral Ruler Versus a Villain
The Norse Hel embodies the inevitability of death for those who do not die in battle. She is not a judge. She does not punish. She is a gatekeeper and a host. Her half-living appearance symbolizes the boundary between life and death – a liminal figure who belongs fully to neither side. That liminality made her useful in seidr (Norse shamanic magic) and in the practice of útiseta (sitting out at night to gain wisdom from the dead). A practitioner might call on Hel not to bargain for life, but to understand what lies beyond it.
Marvel’s Hela symbolizes death as a weapon. She is a threat, a force to be overcome. Her iconography – skulls, dark magic, a crown of antlers or spikes – draws on generic gothic imagery rather than specific Norse motifs. Where the Norse Hel is passive, Hela is active. Where Hel is neutral, Hela is malevolent.
That contrast matters for anyone working with Norse deities in a modern pagan or occult context. If you approach Hel as you would approach Hela, you will misunderstand the relationship entirely. For more on how different traditions understand death deities, see our glossary entry on death gods.
How You Spoke to Each
There is no evidence that the Norse worshipped Hel with temples, blóts, or seasonal festivals. She appears in the Eddas as a figure of myth, not of cult. The sagas never describe an offering made to her. That silence is telling: the dead who went to Hel were not actively venerated. They were remembered at the grave mound, but the goddess herself received no public rites.
Modern heathens and Norse pagans have reconstructed practices. Some give offerings of bread, ale, or apples at a boundary – a crossroads, a riverbank, a grave. The intention is not to appease a dangerous entity but to acknowledge the dead and the one who holds them. We have seen practitioners pour a libation of mead into the earth while speaking the goddess’s name, then leave without looking back. The gesture is simple. The weight is not.
Marvel’s Hela, of course, receives no offerings. She is a character in a story, not a being in a cosmology. That distinction is the whole point.
Hel vs Hela: A Direct Comparison
| Aspect | Norse Hel | Marvel Hela |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Poetic Edda, Prose Edda (13th century) | Journey into Mystery #102 (1964) |
| Appearance | Half blue/black, half flesh-colored | Green/black costume, horned headdress, sometimes half-decayed face |
| Domain | Helheim (the realm of the dead) | Hel (as a realm, often conflated with Niflheim) |
| Role | Ruler of the dead, neutral gatekeeper | Villain, conqueror, death goddess |
| Alignment | Neither good nor evil | Evil |
| Parentage | Loki and Angrboða | Varies: Loki, Odin, or self-created |
| Worship | No historical cult, modern reconstruction | None (fictional character) |
The table is not exhaustive, but it captures the core split. The name is the same. The being is not.
Common Misconceptions About Hel and Hela
“Hela is just Marvel’s version of the Norse Hel.”
She is a loose adaptation, not a version. Marvel changed her origin, personality, and role. Treating her as a valid source for Norse mythology is like treating Disney’s Hercules as a valid source for Greek myth.
“Hel is the Norse goddess of death.”
She is the ruler of the dead, not a personification of death itself. The Norse had no single “god of death” in the way Greek mythology has Thanatos. Death was a process overseen by multiple beings: Odin took the slain, Freyja took half, Hel took the rest.
“Hel is evil.”
The Eddas never describe her as evil. She is grim, cold, and unyielding, but she does not torment the dead. The Christian idea of a punitive hell was grafted onto the Norse word after conversion.
“Hel and Helheim are the same thing.”
In the sources, the name Hel refers to both the goddess and her realm. Snorri uses “Hel” for both. Modern scholars sometimes distinguish “Hel” (the being) from “Helheim” (the place), but the medieval texts do not make that clear. It is a useful convention, not a rule.
FAQ
Is Hela from Thor the same as the Norse Hel?
No. Hela is a Marvel character loosely inspired by the Norse goddess Hel. The two share a name and a half-dead appearance, but their origins, personalities, and roles are completely different.
Why does the Norse Hel look half-rotten?
Snorri Sturluson wrote that she is “half black and half flesh-colored.” This likely symbolizes her position between the living and the dead, not a curse or punishment.
Did Vikings pray to Hel?
There is no historical evidence of a cult of Hel. She is a mythological figure, not a deity who received regular worship. Modern pagans sometimes make offerings to her, but that is a reconstruction, not a continuation.
Closing
The difference between Hel and Hela is not a trivial nitpick. It is the difference between a medieval understanding of death and a modern superhero narrative. One asks us to sit with the quiet inevitability of the end. The other asks us to fight it. Both have their place, but they are not the same story. If you want to work with the Norse goddess, you start with the Eddas, not the comics.
For more on the deities of the Norse otherworld, see our guide to Norse death goddesses. For the glossary entry on Hel, we cover the etymology and primary sources in detail. And for a broader look at how myth and pop culture diverge, visit our deity comparison hub.