Death

The 2 of shields

 

Hal:

Hal is the second ice world, the world of death. This world is connected to the umbilical chakra. With this we control our emotional (also called astral) body and we make social contacts. Someone with a strong umbilical chakra can travel to the astral world, retrieve lost souls from the realm of the dead and guide souls of the deceased to the other world.

Hal or Hel is related to: healing, to make whole. It is also related to: to disguise, to hide. A hall is a closed space, where you can relax. A hull is a shell around a seed. In Dutch 'verhullen' means 'to conceal', 'to hide' or 'to cover up'. 'In duisternis hullen' in Dutch means 'conceal something with a cloak of darkness'. In German 'umhüllen' means to 'encase'.

Hal is the world of Lady Halja or Frau Holle, the deity of death. Hal is a subterranean space, filled with mists and ice. The souls of people who have died 'the straw death' dwell here. The straw death indicates dying from hunger, disease or old age. Then you die in the straw. People who die like this are too weak and exhausted to climb up. Then they fall down to Hal, the world of Lady Halja.

In Icelandic texts Lady Halja is usually named Hal or Hel. Her world is also called Hal or Hel. To avoid confusion I use the middle germanic name Halja. And I avoid the word Hel, because this has to many emotional links to the Christian Hel. The world Hal is nothing like any version of the Christian hel.

Lady Halja is the deity of death. One half of her face is dead white, the other half blue-black, the color of rotting flesh. She rides a gigantic three-legged death horse: Halhest. The three legs of this horse are called: hunger, disease and old age. As she rides across the earth, three spirits rush ahead of her. These are the ghosts of hunger, disease and old age. (See also 2.6 Percht.)

Lady Halja has built a huge hall for the dead. This hall is called Éljúðnir. There is no good translation for this name. Perhaps it is spelled wrong. It could mean something like 'gigantic hall of ice'. On her table is a plate with the name: Hunger. Next to it is her knife with the name: Sultr. That means starvation. The name of her male slave is Ganglati. That means: goes disinterested. The name of her female slave is called Ganglöt. That means: goes dissuaded. At the entrance of the hall is a high threshold called: Fallandaforað. This means 'fall of the soul into the abyss'. Her bed is called Kör. That means sick bed. Her bed curtains are called: Blíkjandaböl. That means: 'growing pale due to misfortune'.

 

Child of Loki and Angrboða

Loki had three children with Angrboða: Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Hal (Lady Halja).

 

gylfaginning 34

In the gylfaginning we read:

Loki had more children. Angrboða is a creture in Jötunheimar. With her Loki had three children: Fenrir, Jörmungandr and Hal.

Snorri Sturluson states that Angrboða (bode of anger, bode of grieve) lives in Jötunheimar. I believe that this is an error. Jötunheimar is the land of the fire-giants. Everything there is light and warm. I see Angrboða as a creture of Niflheimar, the realm of ice, cold and mist. She lives in Myrkheimar. She entangled Loki in her spiderweb. Loki had to mate with her. Otherwise she had sucked him dry. Then the spider-woman laid three eggs. From the first hatched the wolf Fenrir. From the second hatched Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent. And from the third hatched Hal, the deity of Dead.

 

Then 'the gods' verified that these children were raised in Jötunheimar

and that undermining of the ginn regin was foretold in a doom prophecy as a result of a conflict with these children

and that this would cause great harm

and unluck to endure

and that everyone would face much evil

most likely from mothers side and maybe worse from fathers side.

Then the father of all send (his men) to Angrboða to take the children and to bring them to him.

 

He threw Hal in Niflheimar and gave her power over nine worlds.

Hal gives provisions and lodging to all that are send to her. And that are the people that die of sickness or old age (or hungr).

She made in that world a great hall for the ones with misfortune and the walls are extremely high.

Éljúðnir is the name of her hall, hunger the name of her plate and famine the name of her knife. 'Walks slow' is the name of her bodsman and 'goes discouraged' the name of her bondswoman.

The threshold at the entrance of her hall is named 'fall of the soul into the abyss', for those that are still able to walk on.

In her hall is the sacrificial bed with bed curtains named 'bleaching of the soul by misfortune'.

Half of her face is colored blue of rotting flesh, the other half has the pale hue of death. She emanates a feeling of desolation and she is very stern-looking with a terrifying countenance.

 

For the original text see GYLFAGINNING 34.

This is a peculiar part of the Gylfaginning. The world tree Yggdrasil is supposed to have nine worlds according to voluspa 2 and vafthrudnismal 43. If Lady Halja was given dominion over nine worlds, she was given dominion over the whole universe.

I interpret the old writings differently. Yggdrasil has three roots to Niflheimar (Ice), Jötunheimar (Fire) and Vanaheimar (Sea and water). And the tree has a trunk, which corresponds to Ásaheimar (Wind). Each of these areas has nine worlds. They are linked with Middle Earth or Midgardr, the physical world. Midgardr is 'the garden in the middle', the center of Yggdrasil. From Midgardr three roots go in three directions. And the trunk grows in the fourth direction. (You should visualize this three-dimensional and not two-dimensional.) So the previous paragraph states, that Hel was given dominion over the nine worlds of Niflheimar and not over the entire universe.

Snorri calls this being 'Hel', with a strong connection to the Christian hell. I believe this is Christian bias. To me, her name is not Hel but Halja. This is derived from haljō. It means: to cover something. I believe it also has a relation to healing, recovering, becoming whole again.

Grimm describes a fairytale about Frau Holle. This can be interpreted as Lady Halja, the daughter of Angrboða and Loki. When people die by sickness, hunger or old age, they sink to Hal, the world of Lady Halja. There they are covered until they are recovered and made whole again.

I believe that the Haliurunas were the priestesses of Lady Halja. They take care of the death and are able to speak with the death.

The Dutch word 'verhullen' means 'to hide with a cover'. 'Huls' can mean 'cocoon'. It also has a strong connection to 'helen' (to heal) and 'heel maken' (to make whole). Frau Holle is in Dutch Vrouw Holle. 'Een hol' means 'a hole', 'konijnenhol' means 'rabbit hole', 'hol' means 'hollow'. The world of Lady Halja is called Hal. This can be interpreted as a hole in the earth, somewhere to hide and to become whole again.

Snorri Sturluson was educated by Christians and probably a Christian. He calls the daughter of Angrboða and Loki 'Hel' with a Christian bias. This is not how I see Lady Halja.

 

Translation of Éljúðnir

In the word Éljúðnir Él can refer to ice cold or to old age. Perhaps júðnir is misspelled and Snorri meant jötnir. Then it would translate to giant: a giant hall of ice. But the Jötunn are fire-giants and not ice-giants. We should keep in mind, that Snorri was educated by Christians. We do not know how much he really knew the pagan mythology. In previous centuries there are many examples of authors writing about something without thorough understanding.

 

Translation of Ganglati and Ganglöt

In Dutch one often says 'laat maar zitten' (do not bother) or 'laat maar gaan' (let it be, do not do anything about it).

 

Translation of Fallandaforað

I translate Fall-anda-forað to 'fall of the soul into the abyss'.

 

Translation of Blíkjandaböl

I could not find a translation for something like 'janda'. If we interpret it as 'blikna andi böl' the meaning would be something like 'bleaching of the soul by misfortune'.