The names of Hel and Hell come from the same root in the Proto-Germanic language, which is an ancestor of both Old Norse and of Old English. Modern English speakers call the Christian concept of a land of damnation "Hell" because the concept was called 'hel' or 'helle' in Old English.
Apart from the fact that Hel and Hell are both realms of the dead located beneath the ground, the two concepts have nothing in common. The death in Hel spend their time doing the same kind of things that Viking Age men and women did: eating, drinking, fighting, sleeping, and so forth. It was not a place of eternal bliss or torment.
The Vikings' religion never contained any formal doctrines concerning what happens to someone when he/she dies. Nevertheless, the picture presented by archaeology and the Old Norse literary sources is not a chaos. There are discernible patterns in the way the Norse conceived death and afterlife.
The most famous of these dwelling-places of the dead is Val'Halla (the hall of the fallen), the hall of the god Odin. Those chosen by Odin and his valkyries live there as celebrated heroes until they are called upon to fight by Odin's side in the doomed battle at Ragnarok, the downfall of the gods and the rest of the universe. Their engagement in continuous battle never cease to end. The name Val'Halla seems to be related to the name Val'Holl (the rock of the fallen), a title given to certain rocks and hills where the dead were thought to dwell in Southern Sweden, one of the greatest historical centers of the worship of Odin. Val'Halla also is elsewhere described as being part of As'Gard, the celestial realm of the gods.
The goddess Freya is said to welcome some of the dead into her hall, Folk'Vang (the field of people or the the field of warriors).
Those who die at sea are sometimes, but not always, said to be taken to the underwater abode of the giantess Ran.
Hel, a world beneath the ground to which the dead are most commonly portrayed as going to. People from particular families and localities are sometimes depicted as remaining together in a particular place close to where they lived while they were alive -for example, underneath a specific mountain. Some sources speak of the dead as being reborn in one of their descendants, belonging to the same family as a form of reincarnation, and is named after him or her. They eat, drink, carouse, fight, sleep, practice magic, and in general they do all of the things that living Viking Age men and women did.
The line between these various abodes of the dead are quite blurry and there is no consistent picture of who decides where a particular person goes after death or how the decision is made. A often repeated line is that those who die in battle goes to Val'Halla, whereas those who die of other causes go to Hel.
The Norse concept of soul held it was composed of separate parts: -Hamr (appearance, conceived of having an spiritual element that could be manipulated magically).
-Hugr (mind, emotions, will) conceived of as leaving the body on death, potentially after the body was fully destroyed decay or immolation.
-Fylgia (attendant spirit) can travel away from the body during life. Through magical practices (spa or seidr), some aspect of the mind could leave the body during moment of unconsciousness, ecstacy, trance, or sleep. -Hamingja (potentiality of fate) could leave the person during life, and be inherited by another member of the lineage after death.
In funerals the grave goods had to be subjected to the same treatment as the body, if they were to accompany the death person to the afterlife. If a person were immolated, then the grave goods had to be burnt as well, and if the deceased was to be interred, the objects were interred together with him.
The usual grave for a slave was not much more than a hole in the ground to ensure both that he did not return to haunt his master and that he could be of use to his masters after they died. Slaves were sometimes sacrificed to be useful in the next life.
It was common to burn the corpse and the grave offering in a pyre constructed in a way that the pillar of smoke would be a massive as possible in order to elevate the decease to the afterlife. On the 7th day after the person had died, people celebrated the funeral ale (sjaund) since it involved a ritual drinking. It was only after the funeral that the heirs could rightfully claim their inheritance.
In Norse world view the notion of self is a complicated entity. There is no oneness in their perspective. The self is made of numerous different parts that are semi-autonomous and can detach themselves from one another under certain circumstances. In other words, the self was defined by its social position and deeds rather than by a detached essence. Even the spiritual parts of the self were social and active entities. As much as the Norse stressed competitive individual success, that success (or failure) occurred within a particular social framework and was defined in social terms, an earning fame. None of these parts quite correspond to the concept of a self in the traditional way -an absolute unique and nontransferable essence of a person.
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