It is clear that Scandinavian mythology from Marvel is significantly different from reality. Despite the fact that Hel is the goddess of the underworld, she was never considered evil in its purest form. This is a more complex character.
Hel is the goddess of death. In fact, she was a giantess, the daughter of Loki and Angrboda (giantess).
This made Hel the sister of the monsters Fenrir, a powerful Norwegian wolf, and Jormungandra, the Serpent of Midgard.
The Azir gods were afraid of these three children because of their monstrous origin and prophecies about the chaos that they would arrange at the time of the onset of Ragnarok.
To solve this problem, Odin sent each of the children to the place where they could do the least harm. In the case of Hel, he sent her to Niflheim, one of the Norwegian lands of the dead.
As the goddess of the grave world, she was responsible for taking souls who were there.
The goddess of death is described in the sources as half black and half flesh-colored. Some scholars interpret the description as a half-living being and half-dead. It is said that Hel had a dejected and frightening look.
Her name means “hidden” in Old Norse, probably referring to the fact that the underworld was hidden from the kingdom of the living.
Hel ruled the kingdom of Niflheim, also often called Helheim in connection with the goddess of the underworld.
This was the place where the Norwegian dead appeared, who did not die on the battlefield. Warriors who died in battle were brought either to Valhalla, to Odin’s hall, or to Volkwangr, to Frigg’s hall.
All the rest of the dead will be in Helheim. Thus, unlike the Christian concept of hell, this was not a place of torment for the wicked and cruel.
According to the prophecy, Loki will break his own chains (he was imprisoned for his role in the death of Balder) and set off on a ship made of toenails and nails of the dead to Asgard. On board will be accompanied by his daughter Hel and the army of dishonorable dead. Her final fate in the battle is not recorded.
Does Hel’s participation in the last battle against the gods represent a bloodthirsty character who decided to bring death to the Scandinavian world in order to take control of everyone?
Or is she a woman participating in the battle to avenge the way the gods treated her and her family, driving them into the corners of the universe out of fear and prejudice?
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