Hel is full of life

So hel is  proto-germanic word that makes its way into English at some point as Hell. And of course it refers to the underworld. The biblical underword is very uninviting; devils, pitchforks, and all that junk. Whereas the Hel of the vikings does not seem so different than the world of the vikings; fighting, drinkings and perhaps even farming.

We don't know much about the viking Hel or underworld. So, in reading about it, I came across this interesting snippet,

It’s often impossible to distinguish between ancestors and elves in Old Norse literature, to the point that it wouldn’t be amiss to speak of a part of the dead human becoming an elf in some cases. One example of this comes from The Saga of Olaf the Holy, one of the first Christian kings of Norway. Olaf and a servant ride past the burial mound of the king’s ancestor and namesake, who is now called by the name of Ólaf Geirstaðaálfr – literally “Olaf, the Elf of Geirstad,” a title that clearly implies the currently elfin state of the king’s forefather.

From this

to this

As an unrelated afterthought,  Snori Sturluson is beginning to sound like a very unreliable reporter.