This article contains lore based on real-life sources from Norse mythology as introduced from the God of War Norse era.
"It is a land of unyielding cold. Fires cannot burn there, and no magic in all the Nine Realms can create a blaze. As for the dead... your frost axe will be useless. You'll need to find something else."
Helheim, also known as Hel, is one of the Nine Realms of the World Tree, the final destination of the dishonorable dead and a major location in God of War (2018).
Helheim is known as the Realm of the Dead - and the location that those who die a dishonorable death are forced to tread through the icy lands where no fire can live. It is comprised of a preliminary area and path from Tyr's Temple to the Bridge of the Damned - from which no one can return. The realm is ruled and watch over by Hræsvelg.
Norse Mythology[]
In Norse mythology, Hel, the location, shares a name with Hel, a being who rules over the location. In late sources, varying descriptions of Hel are given and various figures are described as being buried with items that will facilitate their journey to Hel after their death. In the Poetic Edda, Brynhildr's trip to Hel after her death is described and Odin, while alive, also visits Hel upon his horse Sleipnir. In Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Baldur goes to Hel on his death and subsequently Hermóðr uses Sleipnir to attempt to retrieve him.
Locations (Unseen Parts)[]
Náströnd (Nidhogg Domain)
Nifhel Region (equivalent hell circle)
Regions[]
Description[]
The Realm of the Dead is a nightmarish land of intense darkness and unyielding cold, being locked in a state of permanent deep-freeze, the extreme temperatures are so lethal that even Odin himself is unable to survive there for very long. Those who die as criminals, of disease, mishap and age end up spending eternity in Helheim, where they are forever tormented by visions of their past.
The only known type of plant life that is able to grow in Helheim appears to be Hel's Bramble, a thick, black, vine-like thorn plant that is only susceptible to the fire from the Blades of Chaos. In addition, Máttugr Helson, a Troll, was also stated to have been born in Helheim, suggesting that native life is possible there if extremely difficult.
The realm possesses dark clouds covering the skies, an emerald-colored thin fog and mist, mountains of ice, structures made of stone and human-shaped metal statues. An ever-present wind current, known as the Winds of Hel, always blows throughout the entire realm. There are spherical devices that can hold the winds, which are usually used as door locks. Despite the overwhelming cold and abundant ice, there are non-frozen rivers of water that flow from waterfalls where Týr's Temple is located. A ship there can be used to traverse these rivers.
Helheim's architecture consists of bridges, gates and buildings made of an ebony black stone, most of which are covered by thick layers of ice and snow. Most of the metal statues scattered throughout the realm depict humans in lament states, and others hold wind-retaining spheres in their hands. There's also two sealed Hidden Chambers of Odin, one where the Raven King imprisoned the Valkyrie Ròta, and one where he hid part of the Shrine the Jötnar made about Týr. Throughout the realm, there are various places that can be found usually hiding rare and unique treasures.
Groups of savage undead marauders including Hel-Walkers, Travelers, and Revenants can often be found roaming the endless wastelands presumably looking for new victims or perhaps a way to escape back to the physical world. In addition other creatures can also be encountered as well such as Nightmares and Ogres. Because of this, Helheim is often viewed by many as being a very lawless and violent place.
The souls of the deceased must pass through the Bridge of the Damned. This bridge is guarded by the Bridge Keeper Máttugr Helson, a native Troll of Helheim whose job is to inspect each soul to make sure the person going past is truly dead.
Those who die and go to Helheim seem to appear primarily as dark featureless silhouetted spirits lacking any physical form of their own. They appear to be mostly indifferent in nature as they allow Kratos and Atreus to move past them with no trouble and don't respond at all even when somebody walks straight through them.
Past the bridge itself is where the residents are usually tormented by visions of their pasts created by the emerald fog taking shape. In this place rises the highest building in all of Helheim, where an enormous silver eagle, Hraesvelgr, sits and simply watches over Helheim and its inhabitants.
In 'God of War' series[]
History[]
Helheim is said has been existed since the time of earliest frosts. With since that too, nine figures have fulfilled their role as the ruler of the realm. The ninth ruler, Hræsvelgr, is said to has been ruled the longest.
At an unknown point, Týr had to chain Garm in this realm due to the dangers of the creature.
At an unknown point, Sigrún imprisoned the Valkyries in different realms. One such Valkyrie, Ròta, was trapped in Helheim. Because of the Valkyries' imprisonment, those who died in battle could not reach Valhalla, leaving the Realm of the Dead overpopulated with souls, forcing many of the dead to return to the realms of the living as Hel-Walkers.
God of War (2018)[]
After having his head cut off by Kratos, Mimir's soul briefly entered Helheim. Before his soul could pass the Bridge of the Damned, he was brought back to life by Freya. The experience apparently left Mimir deeply terrified of the dreaded realm and he had no desire to ever return there.
In order to save his ill son Atreus, Kratos journeys into Helheim to retrieve the heart of the Keeper of the Bridge of the Damned with his Blades of Chaos. After killing Máttugr Helson and retrieving his heart, the mists of Helheim haunt Kratos with a vision of his father. Mimir assures him that it's not real. The information from this though is what leads Mimir to realize that Kratos was the Ghost of Sparta.
Later, Kratos, Atreus, Mimir and Baldur are thrown into Helheim, beyond the Bridge of the Damned, by the sudden use of the Bifröst in Týr's Temple. Atreus is tormented by a vision of him killing Modi, but Kratos reassures him. The trio then find Baldur, and secretly watch the vision that haunts him. There, they learn that Freya is Baldur's mother, and that she took away his ability to feel in order to protect him. The group makes its way into a ship docked in Helheim Landing, and modify it to make it fly up the waterfall. During the travel, Kratos is once again tormented by a vision of Zeus, this time of Kratos killing him with his bare fists. All the while, Hraesvelg flaps his wings, and the ship reaches Týr's Temple. The trio jump from the ship and find one of Odin's hidden chambers. Inside lies the missing part of Týr's Shrine, depicting the God of War traveling across the different worlds.
Kratos, Atreus, and Mimir would later return to Helheim to free the corrupted Valkyrie Ròta from her imprisonment.
Fimbulwinter[]
Ever since the Fimbulwinter, Helheim became even more colder and darker. The Hel-Walkers appears to be even more aggressive and still overpopulated.
God of War: Ragnarök[]
Having seemingly translated another piece of the mask, Atreus tells Odin that they have to travel to Helheim in order to find the last piece of the mask. The All-Father then sent him, along with Thrúd and Heimdall, into the Realm of the Dead. The mask glowing-green energy leads them to a chamber that's being guarded by the Hel's Hound Garm, while he's being chained.
Concerned, Thrúd suggests that they shouldn't break the chains of the beast as it was chained there for good. But Atreus believes that last piece of the mask is in the chamber behind the creature. As a result, they finally breaks the chains that bounds Garm, which wakes up the Hel's Hound and brutally breaks the last chain and then fled away.
However, after entering the chamber that Garm guarded, they found but nothing inside, much to their disappointment. With Garm is now free, he begin to tears holes and spread chaos across the realms, where Hel-Walkers are now can wreak havoc.
Much later, Atreus returned to Helheim with Kratos to stop the Garm. However, having seemingly killed the creature, it came back to life - 'revived' himself - and continued to attack the duo. After Atreus realizes that Garm's nature which has no soul to get being killed, he, with the help of his father, managed to stab the wolf with the knife that has Fenrir's soul in it, inserting it to Garm. As a result, Fenrir, now in Garm's body, is now reborn and this seemingly tamed the beast.
Moments later, they meet and talks with Hræsvelgr, in which she gave them a quest to close six tears that caused by Garm to stop the spreading of Hel-Walkers. After closing all the tears, the eagle said there's no reward from them from doing so because it should've been done and it merely them fixing a problem they caused. After traversing the realms, Kratos and Atreus managed to close all of Garm's realm tears and informed Hræsvelgr to which Hel's Eagle was already aware and as she first told them, there was no reward.
Later on, after deciding that instigating Ragnarök was the only way to end Odin's despotic reign over the Nine Realms, Kratos and his allies sought to recruit Helheim's Army of the Dead, leading Hildisvíni to negotiate with Hræsvelgr. However to make the negotiations go more smoothly, Hildisvíni brought Mimir along believing Hræsvelgr would be more open to speaking to one of the "deceased". Mimir and Hræsvelgr succeeded in gaining Hræsvelgr's cooperation, lending Hel's army as the realm's vanguard against Asgard. However, as part of the arrangement, whether or not they succeeded or not, Mimir stated that they would need to find a successor for Hræsvelgr to become ruler of Helheim, as Hel's Eagle wished to retire.
Following Odin's death and Asgard's destruction, the realms slowly began to heal, Helheim included, with its gates open to allow the dead to pass through unhindered. In this, the amount of Hel-Walkers appearing in Midgard declined greatly, though some still remained. This was nonetheless was met with Hræsvelgr's approval (at least based on the expression Sigrun recognized).
Known Residents[]
The following list includes only those who have been known to be a resident of Helheim at some point during the series. Naturally, it can be assumed that any mortal in the Nine Worlds will eventually become a resident.
Resident | Cause(s) of residency |
---|---|
Hræsvelgr | A Jötunn who rules and watches over the lands of Helheim. She is also known as "Hel". |
Máttugr Helson | A Troll native to Helheim. Killed by Kratos who needed his heart in order to make a cure for his son. |
Garm | Trapped in Helheim by Týr so he doesn't tear holes between realms. Let loose by Atreus but was taken down by placing a soul in him. |
Kratos | Traveled to Helheim to take Máttugr Helson's heart to make a cure for his son's sickness. Shot back into Helheim after he switched travel runes in order to escape Baldur. |
Mimir | Head cut off by Kratos to get him free from his imprisonment. Escorted Kratos to Helheim in order to get a cure for Atreus' sickness. Shot back into Helheim after Kratos switched the travel runes in order to escape Baldur. |
Atreus | Shot into Helheim after Kratos switched travel runes in order to escape Baldur. |
Baldur | Shot into Helheim after Kratos switched travel runes during their fight in order to escape him. |
Heimdall | Traveled to Helheim with Atreus and Thrúd to find the half of the Mask of Creation. |
Thrúd | Traveled to Helheim with Atreus and Heimdall to find the half of the Mask of Creation. |
Fenrir | A deceased wolf that had his soul placed in Garm and reborn while he was in Helheim. |
Ròta | Valkyrie imprisoned within Helheim by the Valkyrie Queen Sigrún after she became corrupted by Odin. Saved by Kratos and left the Realm alongside the Valkyries. |
Gunter | Killed by Kratos who hacked him to death with his axe along with the other Reavers who tried to attack him and his son. Killed again by Kratos as he came back to life as a Hel-Walker. |
Sigmund | Killed by Kratos who hacked him to death with his axe along with the other Reavers who tried to attack him and his son. Killed again by Kratos as he came back to life as a Hel-Walker. |
Trivia[]
- The rune for Helheim is Hagalaz (ᚺ), which among other things, represents hail.
- Helheim has been described as a place of great horror and suffering for anyone who has the misfortune of ending up there, with even the Aesir and the Vanir greatly fearing it and referring to it as being a cursed land. It is said that even Odin himself can only survive there for a limited amount of time, which is indicated to be no extaggeration, as Odin knew a spell he could use to keep others warm while in Hel, suggesting he either learned or created that spell to compensate for his physical durability's limitations.
- Helheim continues the tradition from the previous games for Kratos to visit the land of the dead like Underworld, Asphodel, and Domain of Death.
- Mimir states that time moves much slower in Helheim than it does in Midgard.
- Kratos wondered why it's dishonorable to grow old, but Mimir couldn't give him a clear answer. The ancient Nordic culture believed that it was better to go out fighting. In contrast, ancient Spartan culture revered those that lived to old age.
- Though the cold and wind are so great within Helheim that no fire of any kind in the Nine Realms can stay alight, fire from foreign realms can remain burning. This includes the fire from Kratos' original weapons, the Blades of Chaos.
- Thus, such fire is very effective and deadly to the denizens of Helheim.
- This could be considered a direct contrast to the Greco-Roman Underworld which was often seen as a heavily volcanic area.
- Helheim doesn't make differences between the criminals it's meant to torture and everyone else, thus the ones who died of sickness, age, and even the living ones that visit Helheim are haunted by visions of their past.
- Towards Kratos, it was visions of Zeus who called to him, and even depicted a ghostly reenactment of his death.
- Towards Baldur, it was a vision of when he confronted Freya, his mother, and tried to make her lift his curse of not being able to feel.
- Towards Atreus, it was a vision of his recent cruelty against Modi.
- With the possible exception of Baldur, Magni, and Modi, it is likely that most, if not all of the characters fought and killed within the game ended up in Helheim.
- Interestingly, in Norse mythology, Baldur did in fact end up in Helheim after his death. Whether or not this holds true in the games' continuity is currently unknown.
- It's implied that Mimir's soul entered Helheim before he was reanimated by Freya. The experience apparently traumatized him greatly as he mentions that he had hoped to never see the dreaded realm again.
- If Kratos revisits Helheim after defeating Garm, Mimir expresses relief at not having to revisit 'the other part of Helheim' that makes you relive your worst memories. This implies that only certain sections of Helheim torment their inhabitants with visions from their past.
- The Realm travel door to Helheim shows the massive pillars and doors that the souls of the cross through and has a mural of multiple dead souls walking towards the entrance.
- Helheim, with Jötunheim are the only realms where Kratos never fought Asgardian forces; Both are also the only realm in which fragments of Asgard seemingly doesn't fall into after its destruction.