Máttugr Helson: the Bridge Keeper of Helheim

Máttugr Helson, called the Bridge Keeper, was a being of troll and Jötunn blood born in the cold of Helheim and set to guard the Bridge of the Damned. His name meant Mighty Son of Hel, and he fell to Kratos, who sought his heart as the only cure for his dying son Atreus.

The Bridge Keeper of Helheim#

Máttugr Helson was born and raised within Helheim, the frozen realm of the dead, the offspring of troll and Jötunn lineage. In time he was made keeper of the Bridge of the Damned, charged with ensuring that every being who crossed it was already dead. His name carried the weight of his birthplace, for it meant Mighty Son of Hel.

He was no ordinary troll. A totem in his keeping held the very energy of Helheim itself, lending him a greater store of power than any other of his kind. With it he could vanish and reappear to strike without warning, conjure roaming spheres of energy that burst on impact, slam the totem to loose fast waves of darkness, and call up frost and hail from his hands. He held some measure of authority over the dead realm as well, able to bend the structures of the bridge to his will, sealing its gates, and to summon Hel-Walkers to fight beside him.

The hunt for the heart#

When the young Atreus fell gravely ill after the battle against the brothers Magni and Modi, Kratos bore him in desperation to Freya. She found that the boy's true nature, his godhood, was warring within him, and told Kratos that the cure required a rare ingredient that could be found in only one place. It lay in Helheim, and it was the heart of the Bridge Keeper.

Kratos crossed into the realm of the dead to seek it. He fought his way through Máttugr Helson's relentless assault and at last broke past the troll's defenses, disarming and impaling him upon his fiery weapons before tearing the heart from his chest, leaving the body to lie at the entrance to the bridge.

In a gesture he extended to few of the foes he slew, Kratos rested a hand upon the dead troll's chest as a kind of apology, marking his remorse at having taken a life to mend a fault of his own.