| Hail is showerstone Though hard guest A crystal of frost, The rune-hoard's A lore-rich kern And the way back Before Ymir breathed, When fire met ice, Down its shape tumbled, Thence all life blossoms From frozen deeps Unseen, can rise Below hollow hills, Tomorrow's hope, Most beautiful and brave, Where the meanest They who hoar and helmless Like most goodfolk, At Hela's table, By the Queen of Spells Half swart, half fair, As Fenrir howls Hailing the Bright God, Through harm and hild, |
and harvest white, in grain-fields; sixfold cloven, rede-roomy seed keeping nine worlds to the beginning or birth of Audhumla, melting rime turned into water, in Laerath's worlds; enduring might as Sun from Night: in Hela's halls holy Balder bides, bound to that place, might find welcome, by hearth end strife, granted a seat happy of welcome and Spaecraft: holder of the harvest, a horn she lifts, He who shall come home to Asgard. |
| Hel is a daughter of Loki and the Giantess Angrboda, along with the Fenris Wolf and Jormungand, the Midgard Serpent. Prophecies warned the Gods that great mischief would come of these siblings, so Allfather had them brought before Him. He threw the Serpent into that deep sea that lies around all lands, and it grew untill it circled the world, and it bites its own tail. Hel he threw into Niflheim, and gave her authority over the nine worlds, so that she must provide hospitality to those who are sent to her, and they are those who die from sickness and old age. She has many mansions there, and the walls are exceedingly high, and the gates massive. Her hall is called Eliudnir, her dish, Hunger, her knife, Famine, her servant Ganglati, her serving maid, Ganglot, the thresthold where one enters, Stumbling Block, and her bed, Sick Bed, her curtains, Gleaming Bale. She is half black and half flesh-coloured. She is easily recognizable, and downcast and fierce-looking. |
