The Afterlife and Hel in Norse Myth
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- Опубликовано: 10 дек 2018
- Norse beliefs in the afterlife were more complicated than usually presented today, and their unusual perspective has often bewildered modern translators. This video looks at general concepts of the afterlife, early evidence, and descriptions of Hel (the afterworld and the goddess who rules it).
Jackson Crawford, Ph.D.: Sharing real expertise in Norse language and myth with people hungry to learn, free of both ivory tower elitism and the agendas of self-appointed gurus. Visit JacksonWCrawford.com (includes bio and linked list of all videos).
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As an Icelander I'd like to point out that we still use this word, gjallarhorn. We use this for the device called megaphone and similar devices. We also still use the term, helblár, as an example when a person is suffocating and the lips turn blue.
I like that icelanders are trying to not use words from other languages for calling things like computer and other modern stuff, but looking for alternatives in their own folklore. That's how we should protect our identity in globalistic world
@@le_osaker I think it's prescriptivism, but I understand why you would do it for languages with small numbers of speakers like Icelandic. They have similar practices in Lithuania, and that actually goes back to a long tradition of language preservation. Under the Russian empire, for instance, Lithuanians would smuggle books around just to keep their language alive so their culture wouldn't get absorbed into Russia's. So while I don't normally like such practices, I'm glad people are doing it to preserve small, unique and interesting languages like Icelandic and Lithuanian.
"Hel-blue"? That sounds awesome lol.
@@le_osaker languages, cultures and nations die with or without globalism. Only difference is that now they will be better remembered by many more.
@le_osaker Late to the party, but another fun thing about Icelandic is that it has a concept called "language purism" which means it takes no loan words from other languages, hence why it has remained relatively unchanged. This is seen in some contemporary words such as "Tölva" meaning "computer," a portmanteau of "Tala," meaning "number" and "Völva" for "seeress" so "computer" translates in its literap form as, "Number telling seeress". This is also the reason Batman is called
"Leðurblökurmaðurinn" in Iceland
I don’t know about you, but the actual traditions sound much more interesting than the systematic afterlife often portrayed. Especially the part about the ships.
You are an invaluable resource.
Explanation please?
I would fight to my death to protect Ol' Doc Norse©®, Gladly!
I WOULD FIGHT TO MY LIFE AS WELL WHAT IS THIS MADNESS
@@noenormand4265 He's full of knowledge, and he gives it to us all for free. His thousands of hours and many many years put into studying norse mythology, and he gives us all of it. It's amazing!
It keeps surprising me, that the easiest way to learn about the old norse, is through this modern Mid Western american :)
Just bought Havamål, looking forward to reading it.
One of my favorite things about Norse mythology is their dynamic afterlife. Christianity and other major religions tend to have extremely structured and set afterlives that supposedly last for all of eternity. Eternity is a very, very, VERY long time. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather be somewhere with more freedom and more interesting places to visit.
This expands further when you throw in the concept of the Norse self, which consisted of four parts; the hamr (body), the hugr (the mind/personality), the fylgja (a sort of familiar/attendant/guide that is kinda of like the Native American spirit animal), and the hamingja (a persons luck/fortune). Each of these can potentially go off and do their own thing, even when dead. So your hamr and hugr might be in Hel, while your fyljga travels about, and your hamingja can be with/passed on to your children (especially if they are named after you). I remember reading something about some people's hugr becoming an elf and regularly playing at places the loved while on Midgard. Supposedly some shaman's could also blend their hugr and fylgja so they could travel as one while the hamr remained stationary (kinda like Bran and his wolf in Game of Thrones).
All of this sounds waaaaay more interesting than perpetual paradise/torment.
You've said much more than I hope to in reply, chiefly because I want to encourage rather than critique.
In my slowly growing experience studying the bible, I can attest to you that, at least in the west, there is a clear difference between how we talk about what the bible says and what the bible itself seems to be talking about. The first century believers have a sense of death and the afterlife that does tend to be flattened in our modern discussions about eternity. Very few churches ever get exited about the resurrection of the dead these days, a thing that some might mistake as the literary rebirth motif. This is everywhere in the Greek scriptures - that death and the grave is our enemy, and Jesus has come to defeat them to liberate us from that gaping maw that swallows us all; the burial grave.
Christian afterlife isn't as structured as the regular Christian thinks, there's Hades, Bosom of Abraham, different kinds of Limbos (possibly one's that are very similar to Hel), Gehenna and Heaven. And we have very little idea of how it is to actually be in these places, all we know is if it's a good idea to be there or not.
@@mousinius You're right, plus there is Sheol which pretty much encompasses the underworld, and some Christians actually believe there are 7 different heavens/firmaments.
I forgot who it was but a particular prophet told a story of how he was on the 2nd or 3rd layer and could see an expanse of water/ocean beneath him whilst seeing different lights/angels etc.
@@mousinius Hades and Gehenna seemed to have been taken from the greeks
@@jaxthewolf4572 the whole mediterranean at the time had similar views on death, including jews and greeks
Your thoroughness never fails to impress me
Who's got a cruuUush?
@@luciusavenus8715 everybody!
@@RobertKaucher A good response!
@@celinebutler6056 Yeah, Robert is definitely right. It's everyone. :-D
@@luciusavenus8715 Definitely me
"She burst from her misery and died"
What a way to express dying from sorrow... maybe it was believed she would live on in happiness in the afterlife with Baldr?
16:07 "Well, people had haters back then, too." 😂
Embracing the Moon even the Doc has six haters
The mention of Baldr's horse being led 'into the funeral fire' was an interesting detail. Reminds me of a 23m diameter palisade-surrounded grave hill excavation we learned about in a lecture where a horse was ritually dismembered/beheaded with the pieces gradually leading to the funeral ship-pyre.
As an Norwegian, I do find your lecture informative. Well done.
19:45 I started to think maybe they started cremating the dead to ensure they didn't go to Hel, but then I remembered that this didn't help Balðr...
By the way, that bit about Sigrun and Helgi broke my heart. That was beautiful.
Necrophilia ain't cool bro xD Actually, it'd be around room temperature.
Burning the corpse was probably due to many beliefs in dead walking again, AKA Gengangr/Gangli mannur.
For instance there is a really really old belief in a monster called the Draugr, which is a walking magical corpse. It later turned into those who weren't buried in Holy Ground when Christianity came around. After all we've got a lot of stories about oken, beings of the unknown, in modern day known as the oknytt. These are stories that of beings that can be dated back to before Christianity in many cases. Such as Troll and Draugr and Jótunnaz.
@@livedandletdie that and cremation is a Hel (pun intended) of a lot more sanitary than burying. Remember, we didn't know about the 6 foot rule until the last couple hundred years. So we can't rule out that cremation was used to keep away diseases too (which may be where the idea of Draugr comes from).
If I understand it correctly it's not a bad thing to go to Hel in old Norse mythology. Especially if Dr. Jacksons theory is correct that Valhall is in Hel and Hel is more a general term for the afterlife. Then it's Christianity that have borrowed the world Hel for the negative place for the dead and should not be confused with the original meaning.
@@lubricustheslippery5028Exactly. When Christian missionaries started coming to Europe, they needed a germanic word for their _"unfavorable"_ afterlife, so, to fix this and also make Paganism seem like the "wrong" choice, they named it after the Heathen afterlife which was common at the time.
I have to tell you how much I value this channel, Dr. Crawford. Any trace of my Norse ancestry was locked behind my tight-lipped Swedish born grandfather who not only spoke little if anything of his life there but converted to Mormonism. What a contrast to ancient Norse traditions is that religion! No disrespect for those who are active members, I was one for 50 years. But I have to tell you that stepping out of all that tight constraint and embracing a broader truth of my ancestry through channels like yours has been true joy for me. Deep spiritual enrichment has been my reward. Thanks a million!!
Dr. Jackson Crawford I am PROUD of you. Thank you and please continue to be you.
Fine praise. I bet you're 7 foot tall and barrel-chested.
Some NDE (near death experience) researcher (can't remember if it was Bruce Greyson or someone else) mentioned that in western culture people who went through NDEs often begin with description of going through a tunnel of white light, but in Japan NDErs often mention crossing a river instead.
I'm so fascinated by all of this. There is so much to our history and so much of their story of struggle and longings are in the subtitles of these stories.
man so many of your videos are shot in these beautiful extremely calming landscapes, it must feel like the stresses of modern life just can't reach those lands, doesn't it?
This is actually very educating.. Greets from Finland
@Hokusai next state to Los Angeles.. What is there to guess?
@Hokusai I dont understand. i know where Arizona is :D it's just the simple stuff that we get taught to, if you remember the school geo :)
@Hokusai You should just visit Canada for the easy snow :P but Scandinavia would't be bad either.
if hel is part of or located where the rivers form that created life, perhaps this hints at some type of reincarnation. just a thought
A very interesting thought. The soure of the river is the beginning of life. The river is life and the sea is death...
It may refer to the Rhine. Also, the Norse believed cycles; so reincarnation would not be off the table.
@@norsemythsandmagic6555 that would explain why so many people went to hel
@@theviperiscalling Everything connects to Proto Indo-european, so even if reincarnation is upg for Norse/Anglo Saxon, it would make sense.
Morgan Myers I’ve often thought the same thing about the nine mothers. It’s the only explanation that makes sense to me.
I find the fact that you did your dissertation on the development of color terms to be charming (mentioned at 14:24), I suppose that's why you were able to make such a wonderful video about colors in Old Norse! Please continue to make videos!
I'm not going past the burial mound at night any more. I'll have to walk a longer path to get to the shops, but at least i'll be safe
@@sarahgray430 Who could be forgiven for thinking Hell was a God-damned hospital?
@@sarahgray430 hahaha, Good Lord!! Too spookeh
@@luciusavenus8715 Scott Alexander, in his brutally grim essay "who by very slow decay," remarked: "I was sitting in an ICU room yesterday where a patient’s body had just been brought out after their death. My attending was taking care of the paperwork in the other room, and I was sitting there reflecting, and I started thinking about what it would be like to die in that room. There was a big window, and it was a sunny day, and although I mostly had a spectacular view of the hospital parking lot, a bit further in the distance I could see a park full of really big trees. And I knew that if I were dying in that room my last thought would be that I wanted to be outside."
I was taking a course about nature and the supernatural in the Middle Ages this semester and when talking about the undead, my professor mentioned that in northern Europe they tend to be more physical whereas in the south they are more like spirits or shades. Some of the stories we read about people coming out of their graves and talking to or cursing people before being chased back into their graves feel similar to that last part about Helgi. If the grave is the gateway to the afterlife it would make sense that the spirit and the body are not separated, since they go from that hole in the ground into Valhalla or whatever other realm.
Children of ancient times in Europe went into the graves of the dead to retrieve 'their own' (their former life's) belongings. That's the origin of the tradition of gift giving to children around Yule, and the origin of the myth of goblins or "nisser" (now conflated with Santa Claus) that you put out food to for Christmas, which were the displaced children in search of themselves. That's also why graves were made as stone mounds or megaliths with child-sized holes ("Seelenloch", literally a soul hole) in them so they could crawl through, like passing through the birth canal in order to be reborn as themselves (the burial site being thought of as a pregnant belly or womb).
@@Dystisis can you provide some links
Xnaarkhoo, just wikipedia Seelenloch, although that is more of a South Germanic thing than a North Germanic thing.
There's many an undead in Norse faith and belief. Draugr being the most popular iteration of them.
thats interesting, as if the place where bodies are preserved longer due to cold would have a more tangible consideration vs those in a place where the bodies would decay quicker tend to lend a thought of a spirit .
I am such a fan of your channel Dr. Crawford. Always happy to see a new video uploaded. They are so informative. Thank you very much.
The discussion of Nordic myth reminds me of this book. The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition [May 15, 2018] Graves, Robert. Very well thought out and with the right amout of real linguistic questions to be very scholarly presented. Thanks for sharing your wisdom on You Tube. Peace and Health to all.
Probably my favorite of your videos. I can't wait for the second one
Very interesting, looking forward to the next part.
Odin's call lead me here and I can honestly say your videos are especially resourceful and informative.
I absolutely adore your videos. They are easy to follow along with. Thank you!
Love it, Dr.Crawford you enlighten me so much.
I just discovered your channel, but I'm really enjoying it 🎉
Probably my favourite JC video so far
Bólstaði means living place and it's still one of the words that exist in all modern Scandinavian languages. Bostad. Bo for To reside stad or in English Stead, which means place/ground/area.
Bólstaði just means living place and as such it can be interpreted as both farmsteads and homesteads, but it's quite weird seeing as she brings Hunger, Starvation, to the Frail Men and Frail Women... She's a representation of all things bleak.
Thank you for everthing you do
Thank you so much as always for your insight. And the locations you pick to film are just beautiful. I used to live out in Fort Collins and hope to get back out there one day. Much love
Enjoy reading your books. Thanks for sharing.
I never knew any of this. Thank you.
Watching your videos as inspiration for my Norse Mythology class, thank you for the beautiful scenery! Have you thought about making your intro sequence there 3-5 seconds longer? It seems jarringly short.
Awesome - Amazing Video , thanks Dr.Crawford❤
Great delivery. Scholarly, yet accessible. Very reminiscent of one of "the Great Courses," which it seems like these videos could be adapted into.
And I see from another video that is in the works!
In Swedish there is a word called göl, its a small lake in a bog. Since both are water related maybe göl comes from gjoll.
It would be cool if in some places they tought a göl is a vertical river down to hel's underground. From an eagles nest you could look straight down into it. Her doorstep is the falling pit. Complete speculation of course, but a fun one.
Thanks for sharing .
So interesting, thank you! 🌞
This is a nice and pretty acurate summary of many things consitering old Scandinavian religinon.. not complete but still pretty good one..
5:34 Lord of the Rings? Is that where he got the idea from? From Draupnir? Holy cow.
I like your content a lot Professor Cowboy !
Great video!
9:08 "A river of swords" That brings to my mind a river of ice or Perhaps a very cold river.
Nice to see ones last name mentioned in a video (11:30), although not in that context.
Great topic and insights! Seemed like a bit of an editing nightmare though...
Merci (L) , je cherchais désespérément quelqu'un de compétent et honnête. Bonsoir de la France ;)
Great works Doc! Thank you so very much!
Alternatively in that poem you may be able to look in from an eagles nest because Hel could have some sort of pit opening similar to how in the Greek there is Tartarus.
Another excellent video :)
That’s so nice.
Just brilliant.
Fascinating!
Fascinating.
While watching this, I was reminded of a driver's ed video in which a man's corpse was pulled from his truck exsanguninated- he had bled out before they found him. His skin was a pastel blue... interesting how Hel's dead side is also blue.
These videos teach me so much! Is there any way you could help with a translation of a sentence from English to old Norse?
The river is called "Stjørdalselva" and the bridge today is called "Sandfærhusbrua." The feasting is at the Scandic-Hell hotel restaurant.
Hi! I'm new here! Following you now! Can you do a video about Hel? Please? :)
I will add that Ganglati would translate to Gang(walk) and lati (lazy). Lazywalkers. Could mean those that are lazy, weakened by sickness, or even zombie features. Also, worth to mention that when you say Hel is half blue. Blue at the time would not directly mean blue but could be either blue, dark og black, just like the men of muspelheim. Also, I think you should add the written names in younger futhark when mentioning the names. Great video.
The first thing I thought when I heard that description was that Hel runs the Heartbreak Hotel, on Lonely Street, off Heartache Avenue...
Hey Crawford! How did you get in to studying old norse? Do you discuss this in another video or something? Perhaps a fascination since your childhood?
could you do a video on Viktor Rydberg ?
amazing video. It reminds me a lot of Erwin Rhode´s Book Psyche. You should check it out, its a classic and explores the afterlife believes of the ancient greeks and its evolution throughout history.
Do you plan on writing a book on the runes? I have all your books and I have new age spiritual books on runes but I feel you writing a book on the runes would be of much help to our understanding of the Norse and Germanic tribes
It looks like the people in their graves are in a state similar to shamanistic trance: during a ritual a shaman is bodily present in the realm of the living, but the actions he takes are only meaningful in the otherworld, where he's also bodily present at the same time. In other worlds, what is his soul (or ghost) from this world's point of view, is a body from the point of view of the otherworld. It is noteworthy, that a shaman undergoes a symbolic death as a part of his initiation. The Norse might have imagined their dead as sleaping the sleap of death, while sailing and traveling through the otherworld, but perhaps as still capable of temporarily waking up to the world of the living. This way the grave would be the door to Hel, or Valhalla, but only for its inhabitant, much like the bed is a door to a dream for the dreamer.
Incredible channel!!! soooo glad I found it! Christmas came early :D
But wild speculation is so much fun.
And that really sounded like Helgi was drengr enough to go AWOL from Valhall.
Christian Hell is a Lake of Fire. Hell being underground is from the "Inferno" by Dante
@Hokusai Dante's works were published in the 1300s, though, which is after the initial creation of the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda.
"Hell being underground is from the "Inferno" by Dante" His portrayal of Hell again being borrowed from Tartarus in Greek mythology.
@@Tsotha I am pretty sure Hell being underground was a thought and idea before Dante.
@@Tsotha But it does make sense to me that it originated during his time.
@@Luka1180 Yeah I am sure the popular depiction of Hell is rooted more in Tartarus from Greek myth than anything in the Bible.
I was taught that the servant of Hel was "slow walker" or "limp walker"?
Can you also share with us some pictures or drawing ? e.g. ships - how did they look like, how big they were and how long it could have taken them to build. thanks
Just Google Viking longships...
A question - I see some of the names of things are translated but some are not - I'm headed out to purchase your books soon and was wondering if you translate all people and place names in them or how you choose which ones you do and which you don't? ~ Thank you, I appreciate all your work!
Gæll ( but spelled with an A with two dots above, not æ, and pronounced like "yell") is a word we use in swedish, meaning something very loud.
What are your thoughts on Helgafjell?
Professor, have you considered that hel shoes may refer to the fact that feet swell at death and a larger pair of shoes are required to shod a fallen warrior for burial? I've worked as a casualty assistance officer several times during my Army career and I've inspected soldiers in their caskets for burial. A soldier receiving military honors is buried in full uniform and a larger shoe size is required to accommodate fluids that swell the feet before burial. Is this a biproduct of modern embalming? I don't know but a physician or mortician could answer definitively.
After having watched the talk about "troll" and what it might have meant to the old Norse, i find it interesting how in the "blue as hel" section that troll is being used clearly as a descriptive term rather than as like a classification type term. "very trollish to see". In that talk it was mentioned that a troll was maybe something to do with magic. But here it seems to describe appearance in conjunction with looking like a corpse. So I wonder if there is some association with the term and ugliness or scariness. I wonder because it seems like its a long standing trope that the witches and wizards that live out in the woods are ugly as hel.
"People had haters back then too" 😆
The ship burial is obviously a recurring theme, but the use of actual, real ships overlaps the stone ship tradition. I wonder if the difference is mostly regional, or if the stone ship was a budget alternative for someone whose estate simply couldn't afford or justify a real ship. Of if the stone ship regionally morphed into a real ship tradition... If so that might indicate a regional morphing of the belief of an ethereal afterlife into an actual physical transition?
It may be related to the Hellenic tradition of giving the dead fare for the Boatman. Only instead of cash, you give the departed a ship by which to get there. The Ægptians held similar beliefs. The Pharoahs would cross to the Divine realms by barge.
It's also worth noting that there's bronze age tombs with the oblong shape. These, however, may originally have been covered, essentially being houses of the dead rather than ships. The notion goes that maybe Iron Age excavations found the ancient kings lying in what seemed to them to be ships, and thought that ship-burial would be an excellent way to honor people of rank.
The overlap is quite literal, with the ship being propped up by stones which after so many centuries leaves only the stones and possibly nails & decomposed\burned wood in the shape of the vessel.
Interesting the Norse do not seem to have the problems with grave robbing as many other traditions. Would this be due to their beliefs in the after life?
Not very different from the Egyptians, it seems. They also equipped their kings with every material belonging they were supposed to need in the afterlife, as if they were to physically leave the grave. It seems this belief was very pervasive in the ancient world (judaism still maintains it to some degree), and the idea of rivers in hell, etc. makes me think those cultures were either influencing each other or preserving the same beliefs from a common source
All religion comes from a common source, the rest is based on cultural and regional influences. It's like light passing through a prism. The light is the thing everyone senses and wants to worship, the world is like the prism with all it's angles and facets, and the result is a rainbow of color and diversity that are all born from a the same thing.
Of course in order for the analogy to really fit humanity, each color of the rainbow would then declare that it is the one true color and that all the other colors are false. Then the colors would try to supplant each other, at times with violence, and do their best to make the world one single boring color; while the prism and the light facepalm and sigh.
Oh, and the color black goes around saying that the colors aren't real and the light is impossible and imaginary, because it doesn't have evidence of them itself. Therefore it and everything else must end in a black and empty void.
@@silvussol8966 that's beautiful!
@@silvussol8966 its a good analogy, but Id say if a single belief is powerful enough to unite others under its "color" thats not necessarily a bad thing, the problem is as always political power and violence. In fact if the original light will one day be revealed or known in its true nature, then the opposite process should occur. One truth means that all different colors will return to the oneness they originally branched from
Very informative, but I've also heard about other outcomes, I've heard that people who drown go to Ran and that people who die as virgins go to Gefjon. Is that a thing?
Is your pronunciation of the Ls in Hel and Valhall authentic? In modern-day Norway, most of the country would use a different, non-American (non-retroflex, I think one would say) L. I'm just wondering whether you use that L for convenience or authenticity. I find some sources saying that L could be pronounced as you do in "old Norwegian" (which is a vague term), but none that it _had_ to be pronounced that way in Norse.
Thank you for your videos, they are fantastic. I always link to you when foreign friends ask about Viking culture and language.
Heill ok sæll
Dr Jackson Crawford could you do a video on nastrond in norse myth is Christian influence or is it something genuinely believed in Norse religion.
I'm curious about the witch mentioned at 5:15. Anyone have a lead on more info on that? I can't quite make out what he says.
I dreamt my dad was at a farm, even his own shortly after he passed away.
Might I hazard that the Norse Hel is stylistically related to the Hellenistic realm of Hades, wherein the Elysian Fields lie
check out compared indo-european mythology, especially greek/roman/norse pantheons. It's rather speculative but very interesting
I'm still waiting on your prose edda
Is it possible that the battle death were entitled a place in Valhall, but they were supposed to go there by themselves using special shoes?
like the new hat
I wonder if that was the mound that got dug up over seas they found on a lady's property
How many books do you have out? I see three on Amazon
Could "Gjall" mean something like "Wail" so it would be the river of wails, the wailing bridge, Heimdall would have the Wailing Horn, etc?
There is a German fairy tale character : Frau Holle Clearly some pre Christian goddess who can punish and reward and who makes it snow on earth, always wondered if she has to do with Hel
I have as well, but it may also be Frigg.
You can be in an underworld and be seen from above if you are under water.
In regards to the description of blue, it reminded me of an interesting article I read, in which historically, there were people who suffered from a rare recessive genetic skin disorder called blue skin methemoglobinemia. They actually hid in hills and due to incest, the recessive gene became rampant and many of them had blue skin.
Another factor in blue skin tone is Argyria, which is attributed to coming in contact with silver dust.
I am curious as to the possibility of the genetic disorder, or Argyria, frightning the general population, if someone did appear blue from either of these. I feel that it could be possible that the written descriptions could then be very accurate, although hard to prove. Genetics begin somewhere, right?
Also, from that era, metal was precious and it is entirely possible that someone who had an abundance of it to carve and melt could have gotten Argyria as well. So maybe a greedy theiving tyrant could have stolen loads of silver and then got this disease, making him/her the trollish evil monster that was described a very accurate portrait of those times.
But that family didn't have genetic disorders, as I remember they used salt of silver as medicine. As blue assocites with dead the colour of the dead body's skin makes more sence. People always had special feelings about dead.
How do I get the SOUND to play? It's usually a setting to turn on! Do they make me pay somehoe first?
Thanks for the video! Love the subject and your obvious love of it. I do think I detected a fairly major error however. In the bit that starts about 16 minutes in, you explains valhål as slain+hall, but val might not have meant slain, but chosen. The root appears to me to be the same word that's used in modern scandinavian languages for 'choose' as well as 'vote.' So valhål might mean not the hall of the slain, but the hall of the chosen or selected men. If this was what was originally mean the early reference would in no way be tongue in cheek. If I'm wrong please point out my error, if I'm right this only strengthens the point you were making, and thanks again for so many great videos!
Laughing Daffodils I’ve never once heard of Valr meaning anything other than “corpse.” Are you perhaps confusing it with Valkyrja (Valkyrie), which means chooser of the slain (kyrja=chooser)
@@user-bl3fo7dz3o Obviously it shouldn't be surprising if I'm wrong and Dr Crawford is right, and it may be that this really does come from a different root entirely, but in modern Swedish and Norwegian /val/ is commonly used in the sense of choose, select or vote. For example just count how many times "val" occurs on sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riksdagsvalet_i_Sverige_2018. Val can also mean whale but I don't think it occurs in that sense in this article. What does occur are things like "riksdagsvalet" meaning "parliamentary election", "val till" meaning "votes for," "nya valregler" meaning "new voting rules" even "valbara" meaning "selectable" and so forth. There are 340 occurences of "val" in that article by search count, and a manual account would probably result in a higher number, as this root sometimes changes form becoming e.g. "välja" which would not hit on my search. Point being it's very common word in modern scandinavia with the meaning of choose, rather than slain, and if we parse it that way it would seem to make perfect sense, especially with the older reference where the men do not seem to have been slain, but likely were indeed chosen or selected. Even valkyrja could make sense parsed this way - it could mean something like 'elector of the chosen.' Dr Crawford (and possibly yourself) obviously knows the subject much better than myself, and I may easily be wrong, reasoning primarily from modern usage rather than a deep knowledge of the old norse texts, but from where I'm sitting it looks plausible.
The modern scandinavian word "valg" (choice) and the old norse word "val" (slain) don't have any common roots. so please don't lecture an expert in old norse language and call his translation "a fairly major error" when it's you who don't know what you're talking about.
I think that Ragnarok talks about children who hurt their parents. What happens to them in helheim?