Hell, Norway
Hell is a village in the Lånke area of the municipality of Stjørdal in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is located in the western part of the municipality, about 3 kilometres (2 mi) south of the municipal center of Stjørdalshalsen. The 1.06-square-kilometre (260-acre) village has a population (2013) of 1,440. The population density of the village is 1,358 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,520/sq mi).
Hell is a post town with two post codes: 7517 for delivery route addresses and 7570 for post-office boxes. Hell currently has a grocery store, gas station, a fast food shop and a retirement home. Until late 1995, the European route E6 highway was aligned through Hell and across the Hell bridge to Sandfærhus (nearby Trondheim Airport, Værnes). The new road now goes around the village.
The village of Hell has become a minor tourist attraction because of its name, as visitors often have their photograph taken in front of the station sign. A smaller building on the railway station has been given the sign Gods-expedition, which is the archaic spelling of the word for "goods handling". (godsekspedisjon would be the spelling in contemporary Norwegian).
The name Hell stems from the Old Norse word hellir, which means "overhang" or "cliff cave". It has a more used homonym in modern Norwegian that means "luck". The Old Norse word Hel is the same as today's English Hell, and as a proper noun, Hel was the ruler of Hel. In modern Norwegian the word for hell is helvete.
Among English-speaking tourists, popular postcards depict the station with a heavy frost on the ground, making a visual joke about "Hell frozen over". Temperatures in Hell can reach −25 °C (−13 °F) during winter.
British punk band The Boys recorded their third album in the village, and as a result named it To Hell with the Boys.
Source: Hell, Norway
