HEIMKRINGLAS, name given to the universe in the Scandinavian mythology. Etym.: Heim (abode), kring (round about), and lâs (clasp).
HELA, or HEL, name of the queen of death and of the shades below, daughter of Asa-Lok and of the giantess Angurbod. She is frightful and appalling to behold: her body is of white or natural colour below the girdle, but all above is blue or livid, from congealed blood. The gods, terrified at her sight, exiled her from Asagard, and cast her down into Niffelheim, to rule over the dead. There, in her castle Helheim, she receives the ghosts of the worthless and cowardly, and of those who die of old age or sickness, who omit to cut runes to Odin. Of Hela it is said in the prosaic Edda, that her abode is anguish; her table, famine; her attendants, delay and fruitless expectation; her threshold, precipice; her bed, lingering sickness; her bed-curtains, heart-rending care.
HELHEIM (abode of Hela), name of a strong castle situate in Niffelheim, in the midst of eternal damp, ice, snow and darkness. Herein Hela receives and detains her dead guests.
HERMOD, an Asa, the messenger of Odin; from his name and attributes he bears a strong resemblance to the Mercury of the Greeks, Hermes.
HERTHA (the Earth), a purely allegorical divinity, and sometimes used as a synonyme for Frigga. In the pagan time her image was bathed once a year by female slaves, captives of war, who were afterwards drowned by the priests in her honour, that they might not reveal to profane ears the description of the charms and mysteries they had seen and witnessed.
HILDUR, name of a heroine in the northern legends, afterwards deified and enrolled among the Valkyrior. The story of Hildur, as related by Samsoes, is as follows: Her lover Hedin and her father Hogni slew one another in single combat. One night, in the violence of her grief, she by her magic spells evoked the ghost of Hedin; but her spells were so powerful, that the ghost of her father Hogni also arose. The two ghosts commence fighting, and every night they renew the combat, which is destined to last until Ragnarok. Hildur is present and applauds their courage. From this circumstance, War is called by the Skalds Hildur’s game.
HLESEY, an Island in the Cattegat, supposed to be the peculiar residence of Ægir, the god of the sea. Hlesey is now called Lessoe. The word oe in Danish and ö in Swedish means Island.
HLIDSKIALF, name of an immense high tower in Odin’s palace Valaskialf, from the top of which he can see all that passes in the world below.