In Norse mythology, Hel rules Hel, the realm where many of the dead are said to dwell. The same name refers both to the place and to its female ruler, a daughter of Loki in sources such as the Prose Edda.
Hel is not simply identical to the Christian concept of Hell. In Norse myth, the realm receives many people who die from sickness or old age, while warriors who die in battle may be associated with Valhalla or Fólkvangr. The sources do not present a single modern-style moral scheme in which every inhabitant is punished.
The ruler Hel is often described as having a partly living and partly corpse-like appearance. Norse afterlife traditions are varied, and the surviving medieval texts were written after the conversion of Scandinavia to Christianity. That context means scholars treat the sources carefully rather than assuming they preserve every earlier belief unchanged.