Hel, the ruler of Niflheim the Norse Underworld, a realm that 13th century author Snorri described as the primordial realm of snow, mists and ice. Yet to some, this reference may have actually related a more recent Ice Age, thus denoting Hel as a pre-Viking age deity.
The daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboða, Hel is depicted with one half of her face beautiful and alive, and the other blue, the colour of cold, dead flesh, or that of a corpse.
She was also tasked by Óðin to give lodging to all who die of sickness and old age – a “straw death” - the people who did not die of honour and therefore were not able to enter Valhalla. This meant that oath breakers and murderers also entered Hel's realm, however they ended up in Nástrǫnd ("Corpse Shore") where lived the dragon Níðhöggr who devoured the corpses of the honourless dead, effectively destroying them entirely.
