Hela

in Scandinavian mythology, the goddess of the lower world, which was called Hel or Helheim. The name Hela signifies death. She was a daughter of Loki. She is represented as a horrible creature, half black and half blue, who feeds on the brains and the marrow of human beings. She has dead women for her maids. Her table is called Famine and her knife Starvation. Hel or Helheim is so far from Asgard, the abode of the gods, that Odin's swift horse Sleipnir took nine days and nights to reach it. Helheim bears some resemblance to the Hades of the Greeks. A river, gloomy and desolate, flows through it, and the entrance is guarded by a fierce dog. To Helheim are sent the souls of all who die natural deaths, that is, from old age or illness. Far below Helheim is Anguish, the prison house of the wicked. Here Hela sends the souls of sinners to be punished, assigning them according to their deeds to one of the "nine worlds."