 Scholarly theories have been proposed about Hel's potential connections to figures appearing in the 11th-century "Old English Gospel of Nicodemus" and Old Norse "Bartholomeus saga postola", that she may have been considered a goddess with potential Indo-European parallels in Bhavani, Kali, and Mahakali or that Hel may have become a being only as a late personification of the location of the same name.The Old Norse divine name "Hel" is identical to the name of the location over which she rules.It stems from the Proto-Germanic feminine noun "*haljō-" ('concealed place, the underworld'; compare with Gothic "halja", Old English "hel", Old Frisian "helle", Old Saxon "hellia", Old High German "hella"), itself a derivative of "*helan-" ('to cover > conceal, hide'; compare with OE "helan", OF "hela", OS "helan", OHG "helan").