Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Legends

The left side of Hel's body and face is described as "heart-achingly beautiful, about twenty-five years old, with her ermine cloak shimmering like a snowdrift rippling in the wind." She has long dark hair and pale elven skin. The right side, however, is terrifying - withered skin, a skeletal hand, and leg, patches of blue ice covering decayed flesh, membrane-thin lips over rotten teeth, a milky-white eye and tufts of desiccated hair like black spider webs. She has a milky zombie gaze, which Magnus finds very unnerving.

Her half-sister, Samirah, describes Hel as even more deceitful than their father, Loki. Hela has a raging, impatient, volatile, and supremely ambitious personality, which makes her prone to killing or maiming anyone who stood in her way. However, much of this is masked by a casual confidence and appearance of friendliness. She also appears to take pity on those in her realm. In Magnus's vision, Hel is described to be cold inside and out, and extremely bitter.

Hel was one of three children born to Loki and Angrboða. As the children's birth were one of the catalysts for Ragnarök, she and her brothers were placed under careful watch, with Hel becoming queen of the dishonorable dead. After the death of Baldur at her father's hands, she agreed to resurrect him only if all living things cried for the fallen god. All but a giantess (Loki in disguise) wept for him, and because one person did not weep, he will stay dead until Ragnarök. Previously, Loki gave Magnus Chase a vision of Bunker Hill, where he met Hel. While there, she tells the son of Frey that he can have his mother back if he abandoned his quest. However, Magnus refused her offer and threatens to cut her in two if they ever met again. She then turned into snow and vanished.