Reykjavík Grapevine - des. 2020, Blaðsíða 7

Get on your knees, mortals, for now,
it is time to talk about Hel—ruler of
Hel, daughter of Loki and someone
who is described on nearly all websites
mentioning her as having a “gloomy,
downcast appearance.”
Gloomy and downcast
To be fair, we understand why she’d
be gloomy. Apparently, the deity was
known for being partially decomposed
with the legs of a corpse and the face
and torso of a living woman. We don’t
want to judge, but that probably limits
her dating pool. We’d be gloomy, too.
Along with the aforementioned
gloomy exterior, it was also said in the
Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson that
her expression is perpetually grim
and fierce. We can only assume this
was due to her parentage. See, Hel was
the daughter of Loki and Angrboda, a
giantess, and therefore the sister of
wolf Fenrir and serpent Jormungand.
Based on our intuition, we highly doubt
this was a particularly nurturing and
supportive environment to grow up in.
In fact, we’d hazard a guess and say that
it might have been a pretty chaotic place
and the world should probably be grate-
ful that Hel only ended up “grim” and
“fierce” and not “a fucking serial killer.”
Unfortunately, due to lack of info,
we don’t know a ton about Hel’s daily
activities. She’s rarely featured in most
of the Nordic myths, which is probably
due to discrimination against goths,
and in fact, the only myth she plays
a large part in is that of the Death of
Baldr.
The tale of the death of
Baldr
Baldr was a very cool god who everyone
liked, much like Tom Hanks or Meryl
Streep. Unfortunately, he died. The
story of how he did so is super long and
convoluted but the TL;DR of it is that
Loki got this blind dude to slam dunk
on Baldr with some mistletoe. Don’t
ask questions. That’s what happened.
So Baldr, now deceased via shrub,
is sent to the domain of Hel. He’s
followed by Hermod, his brother, who
pleads with Hel to let Baldr—who is
now also gloomy and downcast—go.
Hel says that she will happily let him go
if everything in the cosmos weeps for
him.
The Gods then go all Avengers,
mobilise and get everything in the
cosmos to weep for Baldr.
Well… not everything. Loki, being a
dick as usual, pretends to be the giant-
ess Tokk and decidedly doesn’t weep
for Baldr. Why does he do this? Prob-
ably just to be a dick. That said, maybe
he just wanted his lovely daughter Hel
to finally have a super cool friend like
Baldr for all of eternity. Wouldn’t that
be sweet? It would, but we still think he
was probably just being a dick.
And with a father like that, who
can blame Hel for being gloomy? We
certainly won’t. Loki was probably a
distant and untrustworthy caretaker,
so it’s natural this Goddess would be
full to the brim with Daddy Issues. That
said, we’re a magazine, not a tabloid, so
we won’t speculate. We’ll just wait until
we die and journey down to Hel to ask
the woman herself how she feels about
Lana Del Rey. Then we’ll know.
Anyway, that’s the story of Hel. All
hail the goth queen.
7 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10— 2020
KARÍTAS - The Girl
That You Want
Last year, she made
us sad with her de-
but EP ‘Songs 4 Cry-
ing’. Now she’s back
with an equally sad
number. “The Girl
That You Want” is a
dreamy slow-burn
harmonic/trap bal-
lad that’ll bring you
back to when you
were insecure and
went for bad people
and went through
heartbreak, dra-
matic and low-key
self-destructive.
We wish we didn’t
relate, KARÍTAS, but
we so do. HJC
Fortí! - Son of a Bar-
ren Land
Fortí! is a project
by Einar Eldur Thor-
berg, an elder of
the Icelandic metal
scene known for
his work in groups
like Potentiam
(their track Báls"n”
is an absolutely
must-listen for any
foreign metalheads
reading this article).
But in contrast to
Potentiam’s synth-y
melancholy, Fortí!
has a more rocking
black/death metal
sound and “Son of a
Barren Land” jumps
between beautiful
atmospheric sec-
tions and furious
traditional black
metal like the best
of ‘em. Ain’t nothing
better than some
good ole’ internal
turmoil, right? HJC
Röskva - Laug
The title track of
Röskva’s new album,
“Laug” has energy,
but in the most se-
rene way: electronic
and synth-y with
enchanting vocals.
Sometimes dance-y,
sometimes eu-
phoric, sometimes
reflective—the
release has it all.
Röskva’s bandcamp
reveals, “This album
was never meant
to be released,” but
I’m really glad it
was. MM
Herdís Stefánsdót-
tir - "oka
The nuanced ethe-
real soundscape
of Herdís Stefáns-
dóttir’s “#oka”
manages to feel
at once both deli-
cately toned-down
as well as warmly
imposing. Truly, the
composer’s debut
o$ her upcoming
album is the per-
fect soundtrack for
early December. Let
it play during a long
snowy twilight walk
and indulge in the
beauty of nature
and loneliness. HJC
Atli Örvarsson - Fly-
ing (Talos Remix)
Atli Örvarsson
dropped his first
solo album ‘You Are
Here’ back in July.
“Flying”—a delicate,
yearning piano bal-
lad—has now been
given a rather cin-
ematic makeover
by Talos. We particu-
larly like the vocals,
which have a sort
of primal-pining
feel that oscillates
between strength
and solemnity in a
weirdly empower-
ing manner. Also,
you can dance to it,
but in a very dance-
til-you-die kind of
way. Hey—remem-
ber dancing? HJC
GRAPEVINE
PLAYLIST
JUST SAYINGS
The Icelandic honour system is compli-
cated. If you have a shitty reputation, it
will literally be more difficult for you
to get a job than for those that have a
good reputation. This can be especially
true in smaller towns. But if you have
been an idiot, pissing everybody off—or
worse—there is still hope. The phrase
“A! fá uppreisn æru” literally means
restoring your honour. We even have
this term integrated into our laws, in
English that would be a pardon, but
we use the legal term ‘uppreist æra’
when pardoning. Honour has always
been a big thing in Iceland and many
even quote a verse from our old Edda
Poems, Hávamál, that says: “Or!stír:
deyr aldregi: hveim er sér gó!an getur.”
Meaning, your reputation will outlive
you. In short; don’t be an asshole. VG
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Icelandic entrepreneur/politician, yesterday
„A! fá
uppreisn
æru“
DEITIES OF
ICELAND
Superpowers:
Owns a hellish
underworld.
Weaknesses:
Susceptible to
sulking. Very few
friends. Half-zombie.
Modern Analogue:
Weird loner goth
kid who becomes
a dictator and
punishes preps.
Hel
The %oth loner half-zombie Queen
Words:
Hannah Jane
Cohen
Photo:
Adobe Stock
Hella Good Time (sorry)