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OCTOHELA – NORDIC COLLECTION

NFT - OCTOHELA - HELMET - NIFLAM

coming soon

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NORDIC

About This Project

OCTOHELA

GODDES OF DEATH

Hel, goddess of death, was the daughter of Loki, god of evil, and of the giantess Angur-boda, the portender of ill. She came into the world in a dark cave in Jötun-heim together with the serpent lörmungandr and the terrible Fenris wolf, the trio being considered as the emblems of pain, sin, and death.

Now Loki comes, cause of all ill!
Men and Æsir curse him still.
Long shall the gods deplore,
Even till Time be o’er,
His base fraud on Asgard’s hill.
While, deep in Jötunheim, most fell,
Are Fenrir, Serpent, and Dread Hel,
Pain, Sin, and Death, his children three,
Brought up and cherished; thro‘ them he
Tormentor of the world shall be.

-Valhalla, J. C. Jones

In due time Odin became aware of the terrible brood which Loki was cherishing, and resolved, as we have already seen, to banish them from the face of the earth. The serpent was therefore cast into the sea, where his writhing was sup posed to cause the most terrible tempests; the wolf Fenris was secured in chains, thanks to the dauntless Tyr; and Hel or Hela, the goddess of death, was hurled into the depths of Nifl-heim, where Odin gave her power over nine worlds.

Hela into Niflheim thou threw’st,
And gav’st her nine unlighted worlds to rule,
A queen, and empire over all the dead.

-Balder Dead, Matthew Arnold

HEL’S KINGDOM IN NIFLHEIM

This realm, which was supposed to be situated under the earth, could only be entered after a painful journey over the roughest roads in the cold, dark regions of the extreme North. The gate was so far from all human abode that even Hermod the swift, mounted upon Sleipnir, had to journey nine long nights ere he reached the river Giöll. This formed the bound ary of Nifl-heim, over which was thrown a bridge of crystal arched with gold, hung on a single hair, and constantly guarded by the grim skeleton Mödgud, who made every spirit pay a toll of blood ere she would allow it to pass.

The bridge of glass hung on a hair
Thrown o’er the river terrible,
The Giöll, boundary of Hel.
Now here the maiden Mödgud stood,
Waiting to take the toll of blood,
A maiden horrible to sight,
Fleshless, with shroud and pall bedight.

-Valhalla, J. C. Jones

The spirits generally rode or drove across this bridge on the horses or in the waggons which had been burned upon the funeral pyre with the dead to serve that purpose, and the Northern races were very careful to bind upon the feet of the departed a specially strong pair of shoes, called Hel shoes, that they might not suffer during the long journey over rough roads. Soon after the Giallar bridge was passed, the spirit reached the Ironwood, where stood none but bare and ironleafed trees, and, passing through it, reached Hel-gate, beside which the fierce, blood-stained dog Garm kept watch, cowering in a dark hole known as the Gnipa cave. This monster’s rage could only be appeased by the offering of a Hel-cake, which never failed those who had ever given bread to the needy.

Loud bays Garm Before the Gnipa cave.
-Sæmund’s Edda, Thorpe’s translation

Within the gate, amid the intense cold and impenetrable darkness, was heard the seething of the great cauldron Hvergelmir, the rolling of the glaciers in the Elivagar and other streams of Hel, among which were the Leipter, by which solemn oaths were sworn, and the Slid, in whose turbid waters naked swords continually rolled.
Further on in this gruesome place was Elvidner (misery), the hall of the goddess Hel, whose dish was Hunger. Her knife was Greed. „Idleness was the name of her man, Sloth of her maid, Ruin of her threshold, Sorrow of her bed, and Conflagration of her curtains.“

Elvidner was Hela’s hall.
Iron-barred, with massive wall;
Horrible that palace tall!
Hunger was her table bare;
Waste, her knife; her bed, sharp Care;
Burning Anguish spread her feast; Bleached bones arrayed each guest;
Plague and Famine sang their runes, Mingled with Despair’s harsh tunes.
Misery and Agony
E’er in Hel’s abode shall be!

-Valhalla, J. C. Jones

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