Hel- the goddess of death, the ruler of the world of the dead in German-Scandinavian mythology. She is the daughter of the god and giantess Angrboda. In the Edda, a description of the goddess Hel is given: she is gigantic in stature and exceeds most giants in height, one half of her is black and blue, and the other is deathly pale. This is why the Queen of Helheim is often referred to as the blue and white Hel. It is believed that when Ragnarok comes and the gods of the underworld rise up against Asgard (city of the gods), Hel will lead the army of the dead to storm Asgard and the Aesir.

Hel, as the goddess of the dead and queen of the underworld, is an exact copy of our goddess, who is also the queen of the underworld, the goddess of winter and death. Among the ancient sources in which the goddess Hel is mentioned are the Elder and Younger Edda, the Acts of Dan, as well as various sagas, starting from the 9th century. From the name of the goddess of death, such words as Halloween - the holiday of the dead, and the English word "Hell", meaning - hell. Also, the word "hel" was used by the Scandinavians to mean death and grave. In any case, the Scandinavians called the world of the dead by the name of the goddess - Hellheim. Hel became a household name, which in different word forms means anything related to illness, death and danger. The same fate befell Mara (Morana, Marena) - pestilence, darkness, death, etc.

The mother and father of the goddess are Loki and Angrboda. She was brought to Odin along with her brothers - the wolf Fenrir and the serpent Jormungand. One gave the land of the dead to the daughter of Loki in full possession. She became so sovereign here that she stopped listening to the gods and, in particular, Odin, who could not force Hel to return his deceased brother Baldur (Baldur) to her. Thus, not only the souls of dead people, but even the dead gods, enter the kingdom of Hel! Her brother, the wolf Fenrir, was chained deep underground, and is considered the protector of the world of the dead of Helheim. Another brother, the Jormungand snake, lives at the bottom of the ocean. The father of the goddess Loki is also underground, chained to a rock. We can say that all members of the Loki family are the rulers of the underworld of the dead.

All souls after death go to Helheim. Only the most glorious warriors who go to Odin do not get to Helheim. This world cannot be called hell or a place where the souls of the dead are tormented and suffering. Helheim is the place where souls live after death, and in its essence it is a place better than the same land or Midgard. Of course, there is no hell, fire, torture and torment in Helheim and even contradicts the very concept of life after death, where there is no pain, no misery, no suffering. As a digression, it is worth noting that the concept of hell engulfed in flames is characteristic of the Middle East, where heat is one of the most deadly adversities that can destroy crops and harm people. In the Scandinavian countries, in Russia and other countries where winter reigns for half a year, the mistress of the afterlife was equated with the mistress of cold and winter, and not heat and fire. So Mara was both the goddess of death and the goddess of winter.

According to the assumptions of researchers of German-Scandinavian myths, Hel is a late interpretation of the goddess of the hearth and economy, Holda. Holda patronizes home and women, female labor, motherhood. However, Holda had another hypostasis: she sends snow and storms, leads the Wild Hunt. In Germanic folklore, Holda was also called the Lady Blizzard. It was believed that one can get to Holda's kingdom simply by falling into a well. Interestingly, there is a similar split in the personality of the goddess of the dead in other pagan beliefs, for example, in Greece, where she lives for half a year in the world of the dead, and for half a year lives in the world of people, where she is considered the patroness of fertility. The same story with the Roman goddess of the dead and the goddess of fertility. If we take into account such a coincidence of myths that originate from one source, then we can confidently assume that in antiquity the Slavs imagined Morana as well.

As for the realm of the dead Helheim then it is one of the nine worlds of Germanic-Scandinavian mythology. According to some descriptions, Helheim is a dark and hazy place. It should be noted that this does not mean at all that living here is scary and terrible. Often, this is how they imagined in different cultures of the world the underworld, where the souls of the dead live - a dark world, that is, a world where there is no light. By definition, it cannot be considered evil and dangerous, since light is needed only for people who use their eyes to coordinate in space. For people, Helheim is a dark place and even a cold place, but for souls neither darkness nor temperature matters.

Helheim is located at the lowest level in the universe. The land of the dead is surrounded by the impassable river Gjöll. In Slavic mythology, such a river is considered a river, in ancient Greek - the river Styx.

The Gjallarbru Bridge is stretched across the Gyoll River. In Slavic mythology, Kalinov Bridge is considered such a bridge. There is no bridge in the Greek, but Charon transports souls across the river to the world of the dead on his boat. It is worth noting here that, according to the assumptions of some researchers, bridges across the rivers beyond the grave appeared much later. In the original Indo-European mythology, there were only boat carriers. It is for this reason that in ancient times there was a tradition to burn the dead in boats or to leave coins and jewelry with the deceased to pay for transportation.

The bridge over Gyoll is guarded by the giantess Modgud and the dog Garm. Dog Garm is another name for the Fenrir wolf, which is chained to a rock in the underground cave of Gnip. The Greek analogue of Garma-Fenrir is the dog Cerberus. In Slavic mythology, Semargl can be such a defender.

"Polinar" is the medical center of Dr. Klimchenko. Official site narkomaniya.polinar-clinic.com. Getting rid of bad habits and addictions.

A mixture of cultures in the head of the main character.

Regardless of what actually happens, Hellblade relies heavily on images and concepts not only from Scandinavian, but also from Celtic mythology. Some things are told in the course of the narrative, but some may elude the player, and Ninja Theory also allowed themselves to rethink some points. We figured out how everything really was myths.

There are minor spoilers in the text.

Celtic roots

Senua is from the Orkney Islands, an archipelago off the coast of Scotland. The islands were inhabited by the Picts, a people descended from the Celts. At the end of the 9th century, according to the Saga of the Orcneans, the first king of Norway, Harald the Fair-haired, conquered the archipelago, as a result of which Celtic mythology began to give way to Scandinavian.

Senua sails to Helheim to ask the goddess of the underworld to bring her fiancé back to life. She believes that the soul of a man is still in Dillian's severed head, but the Vikings simply did not have such a concept.

The word "soul" (sál) appeared in the Old Norse language only after its adoption by the speakers of Christianity. The closest analogue of this concept can be Hugr - what, according to Viking beliefs, characterizes a person. His thoughts, views, beliefs are all hugh. The Vikings believed that people with whom he is especially strong can influence others simply by the power of thought.

The Celts have a cult of the human head. The ancient Greek historian Strabo stated that they treated the severed heads of enemies with cedar oil and bragged about them. And although archaeological finds confirm the fact of embalming body parts in this way, why the Celts actually did it and how widespread it was, it is not completely clear. In addition, there is reason to believe that ancient Greek and Roman sources often painted their enemies more cruel than they actually were in order to justify the conquest of their lands.

Heads and faces are often found in Celtic designs, and it is also a common motif in Celtic sculpture.

The head as the seat of the soul in Celtic culture is considered by archaeologist Ann Ross in a book written in 1974. At the moment, there is no consensus among researchers on this matter, however, given how often the image of a human head appears in Celtic ornaments, the possibility of a sacred meaning of this part of the body is not denied.

As for Senua's satellite, Drut, he came from Erin. This is what the Celts called Ireland. The man mentions that before turning his back on the old gods, he worshiped the Tuatha De Danann, a mythical people from Irish mythology. Each of its members was responsible for some of the forces of nature. The tribe was destroyed during the battle of Thailti, where the people of the goddess Danu met with the Sons of Mil, the ancestors of the modern Irish.

The Seed Riders (1911) painting by the Scottish modernist artist John Duncan depicts the most notable of the Tuatha

Land of the Dead

The land of the dead is ruled by Hel - the daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboda, who gave birth to two more children from God: the serpent Jormungand and the wolf Fenrir. Upon learning of this, Odin ordered to bring all three to him. The ases left the wolf, the snake was immersed in the sea, and Hel was sent to oversee the world of the dead, which was named Helheim.

According to "Vision of Gulvi" - the first part of "The Younger Edda", written by the Icelandic skald Snorri Sturluson (there is a theory that he is the brother of the author of the "Saga of the Orcneans") - people "who died of disease or old age" get here, while those who have been killed go to Valhalla.

Helheim in Hellblade

Despite the fact that the "Younger Edda" is one of the main sources in the study of German-Scandinavian folklore, among researchers it is customary to treat it with caution, due to the large number of inaccuracies and inconsistencies. In particular, as Balder, who died a violent death from a spear (from an arrow or a rod in other interpretations) launched by the blind Höd, goes to Helheim at the Icelandic skald, although he should have a feast in Valhalla.

Sturluson projects into the Viking mythology the concepts of punishment and reward after death, accepted in the Christian tradition, as a result of which Helheim appears as an eerie place, reminiscent of Hell. Moreover, in The Younger Edda, Hel eats from a dish called "hunger", sleeps on a "sick bed," and her skin is half blue and half the color of meat. Loki's daughter also has a double color in Hellblade, and her kingdom in the game resembles a Christian afterlife with rivers of blood, fire and red skies.

Hel in the game

Woodcut after painting "Hel" by German illustrator Johannes Gerts

Apart from the Younger Edda, there are not many descriptions of Helheim, but Hilda Ellis-Davidson, in her work The Road to Hel: A Study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature, citing more ancient sources, states that the afterlife in the Nordic tradition, it was not such a terrible place - the dead settled here with families, talked with friends and generally did the same thing as in life, without experiencing inconvenience.

The geography of the underworld can be judged by the "Younger Edda" and "Acts of the Danes" - a chronicle written by Saxon Grammaticus in the XII century. There are similarities in the descriptions of Grammar and Sturluson that are reflected in Hellblade. Thus, both authors say that Helheim is surrounded by the river Gjoll (translated as "loud noise"), across which the golden bridge Gjallarbru is thrown. He is guarded by the giantess Modgud. The gates to the kingdom of Hel open only to those who have already died. The living, who want to get to the afterlife, have to look for workarounds (for example, as Hermod, who went to rescue Balder from Helheim, jumped over the gate on his horse).

Since Senua passed through the gate, it can be concluded that she is already dead (or considers herself so). Another proof of this is the fact that Gjallarbru, according to the "Vision of Gulvi", makes a loud noise when a living person walks on him. In the game, the bridge does not make any special sounds. when the heroine walks on it.

Bridge over Gjoll in Hellblade. In myths, the river thunders from a weapon drowned in its waters.

Enemies

To get to the bridge, Senua must kill two gods - Surt and Valravn. In Helheim, she meets with another formidable enemy - the guardian of the underworld Garm.

Surt

Surt in the game

And this is how the fiery giant was portrayed by the English artist John Dollman in 1909

Giant, lord of the fiery world of Muspelheim. The latter existed even when there were no other worlds. It was located on the southern edge of the Ginnungagap Abyss, opposite Niflheim - the world of cold and snow (by the way, it contains a stream from which the Gyoll and 10 more rivers flow). When the frost from Niflheim melted under the influence of the heat of the fiery world, Ymir was born - the first of the giants and the first living being in general.

Gulvi's vision looks strange in this context. Here Surt is mentioned at the moment when it comes to the creation of the world, while there are no clear indications of when the fire giant appeared.

Before there was a country in the south, her name was Muspell. This is a bright and hot country, everything in it is burning and ablaze. And there is no access there for those who do not live there and do not lead their family from there. Surt is the one who sits on the edge of Muspell and protects him.

"Vision of Gulvi", About Niflheim and Muspell

In general, little is known about the origin of Surt. Both Edds focus on his role in Ragnarok and the final battle between aesir and monsters. But even here there are discrepancies between the two sources.

Sturluson's “sons of Muspell” under the leadership of Surt will descend from the sky during the battle, and in “Divination of the Volva” - the opening song of the “Elder Edda” - it is said that the troops of Muspelheim will be led by Loki and they will sail “from the east in a boat”. The giant himself will come from the south, that is, from where the fiery world is. However, both there and there Surt ends the battle, burning the ground to ashes with the flame of his sword.

Sinmara, Yeni Nyström (1893)

Another interesting detail concerns Surt's wife. Presumably she is the giantess Sinmara. She is mentioned only in the "Song of Fjolsvidr" from the "Elder Edda".

Vidofnir the bird is called brilliant,

She Mimameydr serve as a dwelling;

He brought many unceasing worries

Sinmare and Surtru golden rooster.

"Song of Fjolsvidr"

Here she is described as the keeper of Levatein's sword, capable of killing Vidofnir. The secret of Sinmara's personality allows us to build the most daring hypotheses. So, the famous linguist and philologist Hjalmar Falk, having analyzed the description of the giantess, at the beginning of the 20th century, suggested that Sinmara is Hel.

This explains why Surt in Hellblade is so close to Helheim. But most likely both gods are simply preparing for Ragnarok, which, according to Drut, will soon come, and in the decisive battle, the fire giant and the queen of the underworld will fight shoulder to shoulder.

Walravn

With Valravn, things are more complicated - Senua is fighting a creature assembled from several mythological characters at once.

In Hellblade, Drut refers to him as "the god of illusion" and "Lord of the ravens." In fact, there is no god of illusion in Norse mythology. There is a god of deception - Loki - but he can be associated with horses (which he gives birth to) and snakes (which give birth from him), but not with crows.

As for these birds, the song "Grimnir's Speech" from "The Elder Edda" speaks of Hugin and Munin - two world crows, about whose fate Odin worries.

Hugin and Munin

over the world all the time

fly tirelessly;

I'm scared for Hugin,

worse for Munin, -

will the crows return!

Grimnir's Speeches

It is the leader of the Aesir who in the "Younger Edda" is called "the god of ravens." Hugin and Munin (whose names are translated as "thought" and "memory", respectively) at Sturluson sat on Odin's shoulders. At dawn, he sent them to fly around the whole world, and by breakfast the birds returned and told the owner what they had seen.

Odin with his faithful ravens was often depicted on helmets and jewelry

And this is how Johannes Gerts portrayed the leader of the aces, Hugin and Munin

The word "valravn" refers to fantastic creatures from Danish folklore. They appeared, according to research by the collector of Danish folk tales, Ewald Christensen, when crows ate the corpse of a king who fell on the battlefield, whom the soldiers could not find. Having eaten his heart, the birds received a human mind and the ability to transform, according to various sources, into humans or half-wolves, half-ravens.

Garm

Towards the end of the game, Senua meets Garm, the guardian of the gates to the world of Hel. The battle takes place in the Gnipachellir cave, where the beast languishes until the onset of Ragnarok. Almost nothing is known about where it came from. Moreover, even its essence is not completely clear.

In Speeches of Grimnir, Garm is referred to as a dog (the best of his kind), while in Divination of the Völva, he is a wolf. During Ragnarok, Garm breaks free and kills the one-armed ace Tyr. Then another animal throws off its shackles - the wolf Fenrir, in a battle with which Tyr lost his hand. Due to such coincidences, some researchers believe that Fenrir and Garm are one and the same creature.

Magic sword

The gram in Senua's hands shines with a blue light

In one of the episodes of the game, Senua loses his sword, but instead finds another - the legendary Gram. The appearance of the weapon is very different from how it is described in sagas and songs. According to The Wolsungs Saga, the sword shone in such a way that the blacksmith's apprentices thought it was “like a flame is shooting from a blade,” and in Hellblade, Gram emits a blue glow. In addition, some translations say that the sword was engraved in the form of a dragon, which is not in the game. Nevertheless, the story of Gram is perhaps the most detailed of all that is found in it.

An apple tree grows in the chambers of the king of the "kingdom in the Hun land" Wolsung, father of Sigmund (and nine more boys and one girl - Signyu). During the feast, Odin came to the hall, stuck a sword into a tree and said that the weapon will be received by the one who can pull it out. Only Sigmund succeeded. King Siggeir offered Wolsung's son "triple weight of a sword in gold" for the blade, but he refused.

"He swung his sword and drove it into the trunk so that the sword went into the tree up to the hilt."

Siggeir later summoned Wolsung's troops to aid in the battle and deceived them. The king was killed, and his sons were taken alive, chained in a deck and left in the forest. Every night a she-wolf came out to them and ate one of the warriors until only Sigmund remained alive. Signy (who at that time was Siggeir's wife) sent a servant to him, whom she ordered to smear honey on her brother's face. At night, the she-wolf began to lick the honey, and Sigmund bit her tongue and got free. After that, he wandered through the woods.

After some time, Signy sent her two sons to her brother, "in order to help him if he wants to do something in revenge for his father." Sigmund killed both boys on the advice of his sister. It is not known what the second was guilty of, but the first simply refused to knead the dough due to the fact that there was something swarming in the flour.

Then Signy changed her appearance with the witch and conceived a son from her brother. The boy was named Sinfjotli. Before sending him to Sigmund's dugout, Signy sewed the sleeves of his clothes to the body, and then abruptly tore off the fabric along with the skin. Sinfjotli did not budge, saying only that "this pain would seem small to Wolsung." When Sigmund, as usual, asked his son to bake bread, he kneaded the dough along with what frightened his older brother (as Sigmund later admitted, this "something" was a snake, the poison of which he took inside).

Sinfjotli died after drinking poisoned wine that was meant for Sigmund. The father took his son's body to the fjords, where he met Odin. God took Sinfjotli's corpse and sailed with him to Valhalla

The sword reappears in the saga after Sigmund and Sinfjotli are caught by Siggeir. With the help of a blade, they saw through the stone slab with which the king divided them, and get out of the trap. Later, the sword helped Sigmund more than once, but in the battle with the king Lyngvi, he split in two, hitting Odin's spear. Apparently, it was thanks to this sword that the son of Wolsung won the battles.

And when the Sigmund-king struck with all his might, the sword collided with the spear and broke in half into two parts. Here Sigmund the King was abandoned by Fortune, and many fell from his retinue.

"Saga of the Volsungs", XI

Hjordis, the wife of Sigmund, gave the fragments of the sword to her son - Sigurd. The dwarf Regin became his mentor, who reforged the pieces of his father's blade in Gram. With his help, Sigurd avenged King Lingvi, chopping him in two, and also slain his teacher's brother, the dragon Fafnir.

"Sigurd struck the anvil and cut it in half to the foot, but the sword did not crack or break."

The last mention of Gram occurs in the scene of the burial of Sigurd. The hero, while he was sleeping, was stabbed to death by the Hunnic king Gottor. Brunhild - Sigurd's wife - asks to put the body of her husband on a large fire, along with the corpse of her own three-year-old child (whom she had previously ordered to kill), five maids, eight servants and two falcons. After that, she herself ascends the fire and puts Gram between herself and Sigurd.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is a bizarre mix of Celtic and Norse mythologies. Many references are outside of Drut's narrative and stories. Take, for example, the Helheim gate, which depicts Yggdrasil, or the triskelion, which appears on the main character's mirror and in the interface elements. It is the mixing of cultures, as well as the use of not the most hackneyed mythological plots and characters that make the lore of the game so interesting.

Hellblade: Senua "s Sacrifice is a project from the studio Ninja Theory, which is an action-adventure game inspired by Scandinavian mythology. In the game, we, the players, have to walk, not much, not a little, through hell.
My name is Ilya, I want to go a little deeper before going through Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice into mythology, which Ninja Theory was inspired by. But this is a video of the Sandinavian hell - Helheim:

Impressive, however.

One of the nine worlds, the world of the dead, to Helheim the god Odin overthrew the giantess Hel, where she now rules.
It is a cold, dark and hazy place where all the dead go. Helheim is located in Niflheim, at the very bottom of the universe. It is surrounded by the impassable Gjöll River. Not a single creature, not even gods, can return from Helheim (Well, it is true, there was one ambassador there, but he flew through the pull). The entrance to Helheim is guarded by Garm, the monstrous dog, and the giantess Modgud, which you can see in the picture below. In front of the gates to Helm is the iron forest - Yarnwind. If a person never helped those in need, then the dog would certainly devour them. He is a kind of cruel justice that punishes scoundrels with non-existence.

It looks like not an entrance to hell, but to a parking lot. Well, these are claims against the artist, it doesn't matter.

No mortal comes out of there. Physical suffering in Helm is not so much as psychological. Of the physical, only constant cold and hunger can be distinguished. The place is disgusting and you will get there if you have not fought with honor and courage, kids! Only a brave warrior will fall into Valhalla. During the day he will fight, in the evening he will feast and at night he will be gratified by women. That's it to you, honest workers!
You can get there only through the thin gold Gjallarbr bridge. If a dead person is moving across the bridge, he will not make any sounds. But if it is alive, it will ring madly. There was even a tradition to put on good shoes for the dead, because the road to hell is long, you can even erase your feet in blood.
And during the apocalypse of Ragnarok, Helm, along with the rest of the worlds, will fall, and the souls from there will fly away into oblivion.

Helhelm in games

There are two appearances of this hideous place in video games. This is in World of Warcraft. Screenshot of the location below:

Of the features, it is worth highlighting that upon death in this location, you will receive the "Lost Soul" debuff. Your soul will belong to Helya. Anyway, the place is depressing.

Helheim's second appearance in games is Tomb Rider: Underworld.

Authentic.

Lara Croft in the game enters the kingdom of the dead across the Arctic Ocean, oddly enough, but okay, I accepted that.

This is all of the big appearances, but do not forget about God Of War, which, however, has not yet come out, but we can say with confidence that the kingdom of the dead will be there.

Let's summarize the above.

Sobsna, it came out short and angry, but this is all you need to know about the realm of the dead before playing Hellblade: Senua "s Sacrifice. Good luck in the realm of the dead and don't go crazy there. Well, you know, such an environment will not wake up your butterflies in the stomach. Maximum skeletons in the closet. The place is cold, scary and brutal. Everything, peace in all worlds, people, bye!

At the turn of the 1st and 2nd millennia of our era, all of Europe, especially the inhabitants of its coastal territories, experienced constant horror of the bloodthirsty Vikings who knew neither pity nor fear, known in Western Europe as Normans, and in Eastern Europe as Varangians. The horror of the Vikings was explained by their extreme cruelty. No wonder one of the most popular prayers in southern England and northern France was: "God save us from the Normans" .
But the Vikings caused not only horror, but also admiration for their bravery and fearlessness in battle, which entered the tradition. That is why the Vikings-Varangians constituted the elite part of the squads of the Russian princes of the times of Kievan Rus. Yes, and many kings of Western Europe sought to hire the Vikings, knowing about their neglect before death in battles, of which there were many in those days.
What is the reason for the legendary fearlessness of the Vikings?
In my opinion, one of the main reasons for the fearlessness of the Normans during battles was their religious beliefs, which were based not on the fear of God's punishment, as in Christianity, but on the conviction that only a valiant death in battle guarantees them a happy posthumous existence in Scandinavian mythological paradise - Valhalle- the kingdom of the supreme deity Odin. And get there without help VALKYR was impossible.
So who are these Valkyries?
The answer to this question is devoted to this illustrated essay.

VALKYRIA in Norse mythology ( VALKYRJA- from Old Norse - "choosing the slain" ) called the warlike maidens subordinate to Odin and participating in the distribution of victories and deaths in battles.

"... virgins in helmets from the heavens
They raced in chain mail, splattered with blood,
The spears of the Valkyries radiated light. "

(See: "The First Canto about Helga the Hunding Killer" / Scandinavian Epic: The Elder Edda, The Younger Edda. Icelandic Sagas. - M, 2009. S. 81.)

Possessing the appearance of beautiful maidens, the Valkyries were akin to the Norns, only the Norns determined the fate of the world and the gods, and the Valkyries - each individual person, more precisely, a warrior in battle. Figuratively speaking, "from the bones and guts" the Valkyries weaved the future of each battle.
These are the words that were put into the mouth of the Valkyries in "Saga of Nyala":

"Weaved cloth, large as a cloud,
To announce death to the soldiers.
Let's sprinkle her with blood.
Tight fabric, steel from the spears,
Bloody duck battle ferocious
We must weave.
Let's make a cloth from human intestines ...

We weave, we weave the battle banner,
Brave warriors rush forward.
We will protect the king's life, -
We choose who will die in the battle. "

(See: Icelandic sagas. In 2 volumes. - SPb., 1999.)

Having determined the outcome of the battle in advance, the Valkyries circled over the battlefield in the guise of horsemen galloping on winged horses-clouds. From the manes of the Valkyries-horses, fertilizing dew dripped onto the ground, and light emanated from their swords and spears. During the bloodiest action, the Valkyries hovered over the battle and took courageous warriors from the bloody ground (or the deck of the drakkar) - EINKHERIEV... They took not just somewhere, but carried away to Valhalla (from Old Icelandic - "palace killed " ).

In the dwelling located in the sky, which belonged to Odin himself, the brave warriors who fell in battle - the Eincherias spend their afterlife in the earthly realities familiar to them in life: mortal duels. But the mortal wounds he inflicted on each other heal by themselves, and the limbs, severed by battle axes and swords, magically grow back again.

After the battles, the Einherii feast at Odin's table, drink inexhaustible honey intoxicated milk goat Heidrun and eat never-ending meat Sehrimnir's boar that brews in cauldron eldhrimnir cook Andhrimnir... At the same time, the magic boar, eaten by the brave dead, is reborn daily unharmed.
During feasts in Valhalla, valkyries serve the brave warriors. They bring them drinks, change dishes and bowls.

There are thirteen Valkyries in total. This is known thanks to the saga "Greenmare Speeches" from "Elder Edda", which provides a complete list of Valkyries:

"Christ and Myst, let the horn be offered to me,
Skeggjold and Skegul, Hild and Trud,
Hlökk and Herfjötur, Geir and Geyrölul,
Rangrid and Radgrid and Reginleia
They also serve beer to Einherias. "

(See: "Speeches of Greenmire" / Scandinavian epic ... pp. 42-43.)

Some Valkyries names decrypted:

- Hild- "battle";
- Herfjötur- "the bonds of the army";
- Hlöck- "the noise of the battle";
- Work- "power";
-Christ- "amazing";
- Myst- "foggy".
Other names: Skeggjold, Skegul, Gol (Geir), Geyrahed (Geyrulul), Randgrid, Radgrid and Reginleia- the exact decoding has not yet been submitted.

(See: Myths of the peoples of the world. Encyclopedia in 2 volumes. - M., 1994. T. 1. S. 211.)

However, given the transcultural parallels, most likely the Valkyries provided the Einherias with other services, pleasing them at night. At least in the late, romanticized tradition.

In later Scandinavian myths, the image of the Valkyries was romanticized, and they turned into Nordic beauties with dazzlingly bright blue eyes and long blond hair. As worthy couples to the fallen heroes, the Valkyries were dressed accordingly: usually in armor (most often in a lightweight version), in their hands - swords or spears, on their head - a helmet decorated with horns or bird wings.

According to legends, the northern lights appear in the sky from the shine of their armor.

The romanticization of the image led to the fact that the Valkyries became more independent characters, able to resist the will of Odin, fall in love with earthly heroes, marry them and give birth to children from them. The nature of the Valkyries has seriously changed: they ceased to be the daughters of Odin and acquired a human essence.

"One king's name was Eilimi. He had a daughter, Swava. She was a Valkyrie and flew across the sky and the sea. She gave Helga a name and often defended him in battles afterwards."

(See: "Song of Helga, son of Hjerward" / Scandinavian epic ... p. 88.)

What hell do you personally plan to go to after death?

The number of religions is incalculable, and each has its own concept. In some, after death, sinners are roasted on fires and put on colas, in others, about the same thing happens to the righteous. It comes to the point that sometimes hell looks more attractive than heaven.

Everything should be in paradise: hell too!
Stanislav Jerzy Lec

Gehenna fiery

Hell as such does not exist in all world religions. There is a certain concept of the afterlife, where some are a little worse, others are a little better, and to each according to his deeds. The underworld as a place of punishment for sinners has become a popular topic in connection with the spread of Christianity. Of course, hell exists in Buddhism (Naraka), Mayan beliefs (Shibalba), among the Scandinavians (Helheim), but nowhere, apart from Christianity, was it given such importance, nowhere was it drawn so brightly, colorfully, effectively. However, Christianity is always better than other religions to skillfully show a beautiful picture - in order to attract or intimidate.

Satan sitting on the throne of hell is nothing more than an advertisement for the church as an institution of salvation. There is not a word about this in the Bible.

There is another side to this coin. The fact is that the Bible is generally silent about the afterlife. The kingdom of heaven and hell are mentioned several times in passing as places where the righteous rejoice and sinners suffer, but that is all. All modern concepts of the Christian underworld appeared in the Middle Ages thanks to zealous preachers and the wild imagination of illustrators. Moreover, the theory of hell and heaven promoted by the modern church is contrary to the Bible. According to the Bible, Satan cannot rule over hell, because God says to him: “... and I will bring out fire from among you, which will devour you; and I will turn you to ashes on the earth before the eyes of all who see you; all who knew you among the nations will be amazed at you; you will become a terror; and you will never be ”(Ezek. 28:18, 19). Also, we must not forget that God gave his own son to atone for human sins - is it really in vain? .. So hell is more a product of the church as an institution than religion itself.

Hieronymus van Aken Bosch had a peculiar view of the underworld. The right wing of his famous triptych "The Garden of Earthly Delights" depicts hell, but what a hell! Musical hell, where martyrs are crucified on strings and necks ...

Catholics and Orthodox have very strict requirements for believers. Believing and being righteous is not enough to go to heaven. It is required to be baptized, regularly receive communion, do many good deeds, and constantly pray for your own salvation. In general, it turns out that almost all people, even law-abiding and kind, are entitled to the rank of hell, if they do not attend church every day and do not spend several hours a day in prayer. Protestantism on this score is much more logical and simpler: it is enough to believe in God and be righteous. Protestants do not recognize rituals and idols.

Dante and Virgil in Hell. Painting by Adolphe-William Bouguereau (1850).

But back, actually, to hell. Today, the most common picture of Christian hell can be considered the one depicted by the great Dante in the "Divine Comedy". Why? Because Dante systematized what before him was a mash of non-canonical Gospels, sermons, lectures, folk beliefs. Of course, Dante strictly follows Aristotle, who classified sinners long before the advent of Christianity, but in this case it seems perfectly appropriate.

According to Dante's version, the souls of virtuous non-Christians and unbaptized babies languish in the first circle of hell (Limbe). That is, those who were close to accepting Christ, but, unfortunately, did not know anything about him. To some extent, this is an evil parody, but it is definitely more fair than the assertion that all pagans, without exception, are doomed to hellish torments. Souls in Limbe do not hurt - just sad and very boring. Although the presence of Aristotle, Socrates and Ptolemy there can brighten up the boredom of any casual guest.

The rest of the circles are more or less evenly distributed among sinners of various kinds. Libertines are torn apart and twisted by a hurricane, gluttons rot in the rain, misers are dragged from place to place of gravity, heretics lie in red-hot graves (just about, pans have already appeared). More cruel torments rightly rely on rapists and bandits who boil in red-hot blood, as well as blasphemers who are thirsty in a hot desert (and it is raining from the sky). Others are gutted, bathed in fetid feces, scourged, boiled in tar. In the last, ninth circle, traitors are tortured, who are frozen into the eternal ice of Lake Cocytus. Lucifer, the angel of hell, also dwells there.

In 1439, at the Florentine Cathedral, the Catholic Church officially made a deal with God and adopted the dogma of purgatory - probably not without the influence of Dante, who had long been deceased by that time. People did not want to go straight to hell for eternal torment without the possibility of redemption. The tale of purgatory originated among the people (and even in Old Testament times), Pope Gregory I at the end of the 6th century recognized the justice of the innovation, Thomas Aquinas and Dante systematized it, and the church went to meet people and gave them a chance for salvation. Purgatory became an intermediate territory between hell and heaven. Ambiguous sinners (for example, righteous, but unbaptized) did not immediately go to eternal torment, but first went to purgatory, where for some time they atoned for their sins through prayers. The prayers of living people for him also go to help the sinner. At the Council of Trent in 1562, the doctrine of purgatory was officially confirmed. Tellingly, harsh Orthodoxy rejects this teaching: since a sinner means to hell, no condescension. Protestantism also rejects it, but there are still much more lenient requirements for a candidate for the inhabitants of paradise.

A few words should be added about the Christian paradise, where souls go either directly or after purgatory. Strange as it may seem, there is no exact concept of paradise for Christians. Most often, a certain light heavenly-cloudy substance is presented, from which the blessed can contemplate the eternal radiance of God, drinking nectar and eating ambrosia. Such a picture came from Judaism, where the righteous in paradise forever contemplate the supreme deity (however, they do not need to eat or drink). There are fears that for many inhabitants of our planet, such a paradise may seem worse than hell. Boring, boring, gentlemen.

However, we are well acquainted with the principles and postulates of the Christian hell. It makes no sense to dwell on them in detail. Let's go to another hell. For example, in Scandinavian.

Brief classification of the underworlds

• Type 1. A series of circles (or individual hells) with various tortures and suffering for sinners of varying severity: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Chinese beliefs, Zoroastrianism, Aztec mythology.
• Type 2. A common underworld for all: ancient Greek and Scandinavian mythology.
• Type 3. Absolute emptiness: ancient Egyptian mythology.

Hel vs Hades

The amazing similarity between the ancient Greek and Old Norse afterlife allows not only to combine them into one subsection, but also to speak of them as one hell with some differences. In principle, many religions are subject to the phenomenon of syncretism - when the same legends find their place in the beliefs of different peoples. Let's clarify right away: in Scandinavian mythology (as well as in ancient Greek) there is neither hell nor heaven as such. As in most religions, there is some kind of afterlife, and that's it.

The Scandinavians believed that there are nine worlds in total, one of them, the middle one, is Midgard - our Earth. The dead fall into two categories - heroes and everyone else. There are no other principles, no sinners and righteous. We'll talk about the heroes separately, while the rest have only one way: if you die, you get a ticket to hell, Helheim. Helheim itself is only a part of a larger world, Niflheim, one of the first worlds that gave rise to our native Midgard. It is cold and uncomfortable in Niflheim, eternal ice and fog reign there, and its most unpleasant part, Helheim itself, is headed by the goddess Hel, the daughter of the cunning Loki.

Helheim is unusually similar to the well-known Greek Hades. Unless the latter has a male ruler. The analogy is not difficult to draw. In Hades, you can cross the river Styx on the boat of Charon, and to Helheim - across the river Gyol. Through the latter, however, a bridge was built, vigilantly guarded by the giantess Modgud and the four-eyed dog Garm. Guess what name Garm bears in ancient Greek mythology. That's right, Cerberus.

The torment of the dead in Hades and Helheim is almost identical. Mostly they consist of boredom and spiritual suffering. Sinners who have distinguished themselves receive specific punishments, sometimes even physical ones. You can recall Sisyphus, doomed day after day to do meaningless work, pushing a heavy stone to the top of the mountain, breaking off every second a second before the end of the work. King Sipila Tantalus is doomed in Hades to eternal pangs of hunger and thirst. He stands up to his throat in water under the spreading crowns of trees weighed down with fruits, but he cannot drink, because the water leaves as soon as he bends down and bite off the fruit, because the branches rise when he pulls his hand towards them. And a serpent is assigned to the giant Titius, devouring his liver every day, which grows back overnight. In principle, these martyrs have more fun in Hades than others. At least they have something to do.

There are some differences in Helheim. Firstly, its inhabitants constantly suffer not only from boredom, but also from cold, hunger and disease. Secondly, no one can return from Helheim - neither man nor god. The only one who has been there and returned is the messenger of Odin Hermod, but this is a separate story. Let me remind you that they return from Hades regularly, and sometimes even go there of their own free will. The main thing is to have a couple of coins for Charon.

The main difference between the Scandinavian afterlife is the presence of Valhalla, a kind of paradise. Valhalla is a palace located in Asgard, the heavenly city. The analogue of Asgard among the Greeks is Mount Olympus. A rather narrow stratum of the population of Scandinavia falls into Valhalla: warriors who distinguished themselves in battle and died with honor on the battlefield. Half of the heroes go to the god Odin, half goes to another palace, Folkwang, which belongs to the goddess Freya. However, the existence of both groups of warriors is approximately the same. In the morning they put on armor and fight to the death all day. In the evening they come to life and dine on Sehrimnir's boar, washed down with intoxicated honey. And then women are pleasing them all night. Here is such a real man's paradise: fight, devour, get drunk and girls. However, for most men, such a paradise is indeed closer than angelic singing in Christian heaven.

In fact, in ancient Greek mythology, there is also an analogue of paradise - Elysium (not to be confused with Olympus - the abode of the gods), the country of the blessed, outlandish overseas islands. There are no worries and sorrows, there is sun, sea and water. But only the souls of outstanding heroes of antiquity and especially righteous people, whose life was "approved" by the judges of the underworld of Hades, get there. Unlike Valhalla, Elysium has a lot of "doubles" in other religions. The mythology of the ancient Celts and Britons (Avalon), the Chinese (Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou islands) and even the Japanese (the Island of eternal youth) tells us exactly about the same paradise.

Aztec Hell

Several hundred idol images of Miktlantecutli have survived to this day.

Among the Aztecs, the class division extended even to the afterlife. The place of posthumous appointment was predetermined not so much by a person's personal qualities as by his social status. Depending on who the deceased was during his lifetime - a priest or a simple farmer - his soul, subject to righteousness, fell into one of three types of paradise. Ordinary people fell into the circle of paradise Tlalocan, as close as possible to earthly life, but an enlightened priest could be honored to go to truly cosmic heights, to the disembodied country of Tlillan-Tlapallan or to the house of the Sun Tonatiuhikan. Hell in the Aztec tradition was called Miktlan. It was headed by the cruel and evil (like almost all other gods of the Aztecs) god Miktlantecutli. Sinners, regardless of position, had to go through nine circles of hell in order to achieve enlightenment and be reborn. Among other things, it is worth adding that a certain river flows near Miktlan, guarded by a yellow dog. Familiar plot, isn't it?

Book of the Dead

Osiris, ruler of the kingdom of the dead, Duat. Sometimes he was depicted not with a human, but with a bull's head.

Egyptian mythology, in contrast to Scandinavian and Ancient Greek, includes a description of paradise. But there is no hell as such in it. The god Osiris, who was meanly killed by his brother Set, and then resurrected by his son Horus, dominates the entire afterlife, Duat. Osiris does not match the rest of the rulers of the afterlife: he is quite kind and peaceful, and is considered the god of rebirth, not death. Yes, and power over the Duat passed to Osiris from Anubis, that is, some kind of change of government took place already in those days.

Egypt in those distant times was a truly rule-of-law state. The first thing the deceased did not get into the cauldrons of hell or heavenly booths, but a fair trial. Before reaching the court, the soul of the deceased had to go through a series of tests, avoid many traps, answer various questions to the guards. The one who had gone through all this appeared before a host of Egyptian gods led by Osiris. Further, on special scales, the weight of the heart of the deceased and Truth (in the form of a figurine of the goddess Maat) was compared. If a person lived his life righteously, the heart and Truth weighed the same, and the deceased received the right to go to the fields of Ialu, that is, to paradise. An average sinner had the opportunity to justify himself before divine judgment, but a serious violator of higher laws could not get to heaven in any way. Where did he go? Nowhere. His soul was eaten by the monster Amat, a lion with a crocodile head, and an absolute emptiness set in, which seemed to the Egyptians more terrible than any hell. By the way, Amat sometimes appeared in a triple guise - a hippopotamus was added to the crocodile head.

Hell or Gehenna?

Significantly, the Bible clearly distinguishes between hell (Sheol) and Gehenna. Sheol is the general name for the afterlife, a coffin, a grave where both sinners and righteous dwell after death. But Gehenna is exactly what we call hell today, that is, a certain area where sinful souls suffer in ice and fire. Initially, even the souls of the Old Testament righteous were in hell, but Jesus descended after them down to the last, lowest circle of hell, and took them with him to the Kingdom of Heaven. The word "Gehenna" came from the real geographical name of the valley near Jerusalem, where the bodies of fallen animals and executed criminals were burned, and sacrifices were made to Moloch.

Copper buddha music

But back to modern world religions. In particular, to Islam and Buddhism.

Islam is much softer towards Muslims than Christianity towards Christians. At least for Muslims there is only one sin that will not be forgiven by Allah - this is polytheism (shirk). For non-Muslims, of course, there is no salvation: everyone will go to hell as cute.

Doomsday in Islam is just the first step on the road to paradise. After Allah weighs the sins of a person and allows him to continue on the path, the believer must pass over the hellish abysses along a bridge as thin as the blade of a knife. A person who has led a sinful life will certainly slip and fall, and the righteous will reach paradise. By itself, the hell of Islam (Jahannam) hardly differs from the Christian one. Sinners will be given boiling water to drink, clothed in clothes made of flame, and generally roasted in fire in all sorts of ways. Moreover, unlike the Bible, the Koran tells about the torment of sinners quite clearly and in detail.

In hot cakes, sinners are boiled in cauldrons, just like in Christian hell.

Buddhism has its own "hellish" characteristics. In particular, there is not one hell in Buddhism, but as many as sixteen - eight hot and eight cold. Moreover, sometimes additional and occasionally arising underworlds appear as a matter of necessity. And all of them, unlike their counterparts in other religions, are only temporary havens for sinful souls.

Depending on the degree of earthly sins, the deceased goes to the hell predetermined for him. For example, in hot Sanghata-naraka, hell is crushing. Here sinners are ground into bloody crumbly shifting rocks. Or to the cold Mahapadma-naraka, where there is such frost that the body and internal organs stiffen and crack. Or in Tapana-naraka, where the victims are pierced with red-hot spears. At its core, the multiple hells of Buddhism are somewhat reminiscent of the classical Christian circles of hell. The number of years that must be served in each hell for complete atonement and a new rebirth is clearly stated. For example, for the mentioned Sanghata-naraka this number is 10368x10 10 years. In general, a lot, let's face it.

It should be noted that the concept of narak has changed over time. In the sources of different years, narak is not only sixteen, but also twenty, and even fifty. In ancient Indian mythology, there is one naraka and is divided into seven circles, and cruel physical torture is applied to sinners living in the last three circles. The inhabitants of the last circle (mostly boiled in oil) are forced to suffer until the death of the universe.

Infernal dungeons in Buddhism are located under the mythological continent of Jambudwipa and are located, like a truncated cone, in eight layers, on each - one cold and one hot hell. The lower the hell, the more terrible it is, and the longer it will take to suffer in it. If Dante had been a Buddhist, he would have found something to describe.

Similar principles govern hell in Hinduism. Sinners and righteous people, depending on their achievements, may after death go to different planets of existence (lokas), where they will be tortured or, conversely, drown in pleasures. Staying on hellish lokas has an end point. You can shorten the "term" with the help of prayers and offerings of children of the last incarnation of a suffering soul. After serving the sentence, the soul is reincarnated in a new being.

But in Taoism, heaven and hell very much resemble Christian ones. Only they are in the same place - in the sky. The Paradise Tabernacles are located in the central, light part of the sky and obey Yang-chu, the lord of light. Hell is located in the north, in the region of the gloomy sky, and obeys Yin-chu, the lord of darkness. By the way, both a Hindu and a Taoist can easily show hell or heaven with a finger - in both religions, the locations of the planets-lokas and stars are combined with real astronomy. The torment of Taoist sinners is reminiscent of the ancient Greek - it is repentance, boredom, internal struggle.

In Chinese mythology, under the influence of Buddhism, the Diyu system of hell was formed of ten courts, in each of which there are 16 halls for punishment. All the dead, without exception, go to the first trial. Judge Qinguang-wang interrogates them and decides whether the soul is sinful or not. The righteous go straight to the tenth judgment seat, where they drink the drink of oblivion and cross one of the six bridges back to the world of the living in order to be reincarnated. But sinners before reincarnation will have to sweat in the courts from the first to the ninth. Torture there is quite traditional - tearing out hearts, eternal hunger (by the way, this is how cannibals are punished), climbing stairs from the steps of knives, and so on.

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You shouldn't be afraid of hell. There are too many variants of it, different people perceive the underworld too differently. This testifies only to one thing: no one knows what awaits us beyond. We will be able to find out about this only by getting there. But there is perhaps no need to rush to do this for research purposes. Remember that everyone has their own hell - and it doesn't have to be fire and tar.

Eternal memory as eternal life

In Russian science fiction, one of the most interesting, complex and unlike anything “after deaths” is described in the novel by Svyatoslav Loginov “The Light in the Window”. In his version, there is no retribution beyond the line, but just another world, more reminiscent of purgatory than hell or heaven. And what matters in it is not how sinful or righteous you were, but how long they remember you. Every time someone from the living remembers someone from the dead, this memory turns into a coin, the only currency in the land of the dead. Those who are remembered a lot and often, and after death live happily ever after. And those who remained only in the memory of two or three close relatives fade pretty soon.

This is a deliberately materialistic concept. It is precisely the memory of the living in it that is the measure of the meaning and value of human life. After all, we do not know anything about the people who lived in the past, they seem to be no more, and the few who are still remembered, in a sense, continue to live. Morality is taken out of the brackets, the tyrant-conqueror and the writer - the master of minds - find themselves in an equal situation. This is unfair, but unfortunately very believable.

The phrase "a person is alive as long as he is remembered" in this concept of "after death" takes on flesh. And after reading the book, you involuntarily wonder, how many will remember you after death?