Hel and Tyr
Hel was born of war and born to fight. She was wonderful in battle she could bring down entire armies by her strength or by her beauty alone. In the beginning the beauty was a curse to Hel. Only thought of as a machine of war and a tool used for others to get off. She hated her beauty so much when she refused to be Odins' consort he assigned her to rule over all souls who would be deemed unworthy to fight for Odin.
She thought to herself I'll raise an army of those who he has deemed unworthy and we'll fight to the death to see who is really worthy of the throne. For years she fought and trained for years she listened to warriors tell her they only followed her because of the beauty of this Queen of All Damned. Where one day a man came through the gates of Helheim. He told Hel "I was the king until Odin threw me out. I ran but eventually Odin found me and killed me. The Valkyries had judged me unworthy to serve Odin and cast my soul to Helheim."
Tyr was lost and confused knowing only war he begged her to join her armies. She made him General and Commander of all the armies of Helheim. Tyr and Hel spent many years together. Eventually they forgot about Odin. They found each other. Hel fell in love with The First King and he told her "I loved you for you, for your defiance, your strength, and your determination. Sure you ARE beautiful but it isn't the most astonishing thing to me". Hel wanted to see how loyal he was how much he truly loved her.
She threw herself down onto the fiery gates of Helheim letting each soul walk over her letting them go forth to be free to do what they had pleased for the first time in their existence. When she returned to her chambers half burnt and half just as beautiful, Tyr embraced her and whispered in her ear "and you give me hope." That she abused by all could be the first one to let the souls be free to be themselves and not what anyone had wanted them to be.
Tyr stayed in Helheim with Hel for what felt like forever until one day he asked her "would you like to travel the worlds and all the realms with me." She agreed she wanted so very badly to go with him. But as where Tyr could cross the gates of Helheim so easily Hel was met with an invisible wall. The curse Odin had put on her still remained. She could not leave this cage and view the world and the realms with her love but loving Tyr the way she always did she could not keep him from his dreams. She told Tyr "You may go, you may travel the world and all the realms and you may learn all that you can learn, but I must stay here." Tyr held Hel in a tight embrace tighter than he had ever held her and he told her "I will go visit the realms and learn what I can and when I've gotten what I need I'll be back to get you." Hel was confused he had understood that she could not leave or had he ignored that fact. He spend one last night with Hel before he left on his journey…. leaving her in her cage.
While Hel roam her frozen palace alone as she seemed he was exploring and searching. Searching feverishly for that one thing he wanted the most the one thing that could break Odins' spell on his love. The one thing that could set her free. He knew it existed somewhere in the nine realms it had to and he was not going to fail this quest. But Hel didn't know why he had wanted to leave her. She became weary. Losing hope that he would return. She had never known love before Tyr and she questioned everything. Her sorrows and her doubts had gotten to her. She made endless statues to which she would crush while training herself once again for war. Believing she had been tricked by Odin again, tricked into rule, tricked into imprisonment, and now tricked into setting her armies free. She thought him a fool she knew she alone could take down entire armies without breaking any of her blades. She trained so that she would be guaranteed to take every one of Odins' men down.
But three days before she had planned to meet Odin a strange thing happened. There was a knock coming from the mirror behind her. She turned to the mirror ready to fight but cautious for she did not she what was on the other side. A dwarf named Brok and his brother Eitree had stepped out of the mirror and started walking around Hel with a sort of curious look. Not looking directly at her the Queen of this Realm was offended. Brok begged her " wait for two nights time and you will be free from this place but we will wait with you for him to bring the final ingredients." She was more confused now than she had ever been. Who was this HE that these dwarfs had mentioned and how did they get here alive she wondered to herself.
Hel waited two nights all the while the two dwarfs circled her non stop they examined the room and her closely. Confused but willing to go along with whatever may be happening. If they fail she thought to herself watching them circling her, at least it would be entertaining to watch. On the final night she sat never once moving when the mirror still in front of her knocked three times.
Brok pointed and traced the mirror and with a turn of his hand he opened it. None other than Tyr was the third they spoke of she smiled watching him climb out of her mirror. He had kept his promise. He had come back. This alone made her the happiest being in all existence. To not be forgotten to not be abandoned by the one person she had longed for. Tyr held her and told her "After you set all of the souls free I only wanted to set you free. When Odin saw what you had done he locked the bifrost and almost nobody could get back to Helheim. On my journey I had learned of the dwarfs who didn't need the bifrost to travel between realms. They told me they could break this curse using Vanir Magic. I travelled to Vannaheim and I studied until everything I had learned I could perform perfectly. I could not risk losing you for good. If I couldn't find a way to free you I would find a way to be imprisoned here with you. Though I longed so deeply to set you free like you had done for me and so many others. I knew I had to keep searching for that one thing that could set you free"
Hel sat crying the happiest tears she had ever felt crying the hardest she had ever allowed herself to cry. Her tears glowed a blue green color and Tyr was more astonished by this than anything he had seen. He had learned of many things on his travels how each realm had its own magic and how each magic had its own color. He Brok and Eitree worked through the night and the following day chanting and throwing gold magic and purple magic around in circles and in circles they went. Hel felt this weight lift off her as she saw chains appear right before her eyes. She had been chained and caged her the whole time and she did not know. Brok started a separate chant, nothing she could make out but the chained started to dissolve and melt away. A few hours later she was truly freed from Odin.
Again Hel sat there crying those happiest of all tears and Tyr was brought back to the green glow running down his loves beautiful face. "I must tell you something wonderful that I've learned on my journeys" he told her. "There was this teacher on Vannaheim a teacher named Fey, she taught me how there was magic in each Realm she showed me how to use my own and then how to use others. She taught me that each Realms magic had its own color. How the magic on Vannaheim is Orange how the Asas magic is Yellow like mine. How Helheim magic is Blue." She understood what he was saying about magic being colorful she had always had blue magic in Helheim. It suddenly hit her. She wasn't crying blue she was crying green. He told her "The green tears falling down your face is that of our child growing writhing you" She finally understood everything and she finally had everything she had wanted. It was them all along.
She hadn't known at all what was happening to her body this whole time. There was no one there to explain it to her after everyone had left. That night she gave birth to a beautiful boy whom they named Heldol. The Dol from Helheim. A babe so pure and perfect that they knew they could not keep him secret. They had gotten Hel free so that Tyr and Hel could raise their child in a better world. Not in the icy fires of Helheim. Tyr picked her up now holding their son and carried them out past the Gates of Helheim. Where they all travelled and learned and spread their knowledge. Together they changed the nine realms and Odins' reign would be over at last. Tyr reclaimed the throne he once used for ruling with war he now uses to rule with peace.
a fanfic from the prose edda, a type of sort of viking fairytale.
or historical fanfic depending on your views.