Heil og sæl inIcelandic andNorwegian (Old Norse:heill ok sæll,Old Swedish:hæl oc sæl,Early Modern Swedish:hell och säll), roughly meaning "healthy and happy", is an oldNordic greeting phrase which is still common onIceland. It is comparable to English ”safe and sound”.
Beyond Iceland, the phrase was also used in Sweden, up until around the 19th century. DuringWorld War II, the phrase was also used by the Norwegian Nazi party,Nasjonal Samling, as a Norwegian equivalent to theHeil Hitler-salute.
Originally fromOld Norse, the formheill ok sæll was used when addressed to a man, andheil ok sæl when addressed to a woman. Other versions werever heill ok sæll (roughly "be healthy and happy" etc) and simplyheill ("healthy" etc).[1] The phrase inOld Swedish wasliff hæl oc sæl (roughly "live healthy and safe" etc), and inEarly Modern Swedishhell och säll, disappearing around the end of the 18th century or later.[2][3]
The Norse adjectiveheill/heil (in later Nordic alsohell, hel etc) is cognate to English adjectivewhole of the same meaning, including datedhale (“sound, healthy”). A related word is the Norse verbheila (in later Nordic alsohela, hele, heile etc), which is cognate to the English verbheal of the same meaning (originally "to make whole"), stemming from the Germanic word stem*haila-, from which also the German verbheilen and the adjective „heile“, i.e. "functioning" / "not defective", descends.
The Norse adjectivesæll/sæl (in later Nordic alsosäl, säll etc) is cognate to the now obsolete English adjectiveseel of the same meaning, meaning “safe, healthy, fortunate, happy” etc, or as a greeting “good fortune” and thereof. It is documented in Old English as*sǣle, albeit only in the negated variantunsǣle, meaningevil.[4]
According toStore norske leksikon, the originally Norse greeting “heill ok sæll” was—adjusted to modern orthography and pronunciation—adopted as “heil og sæl” by the political partyNasjonal Samling.[5] According toBokmålsordboka, the adoption was inspired by Germany's “Heil Hitler” and similar.[6]
During the1940–1945 German occupation of Norway,Nasjonal Samling, being the governing and only legal political party, sought to introduce all parts of society to a greeting combining “heil og sæl” and a raised right hand. Whilst the attempt was not successful, the said greeting remained compulsory for party members and police. It has subsequently remained closely associated with nationalism.
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