harrowing of hell

harrowing of hell noun: a raid into the underworld by a heroic figure.

Noun

harrowing of hell (plural harrowings of hell)

A raid into the underworld by a heroic figure.
- Not the direct vision of the harrowings of hell as reported, for example, by many Christian visionaries, but accounts given by the departed souls themselves are more frequent and typical features of Jewish moralist writing.1977, Raphael Werblowsky, Joseph Karo: lawyer and mystic, 2nd edition, page 44
- Of the four harrowings of hell that are cornerstones of Western literature […], we can eliminate the oldest.2003, Robert J. Andreach, Drawing upon the Past: Classical Theatre in the Contemporary American Theatre, page 36

the Harrowing of Hell

Christ's freeing from the underworld of those souls of the dead who were to go to Heaven.
- The source of the Harrowing of Hell tradition is, of course, the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, the oldest manuscripts of which date back to the fifth century, and that work was tremendously popular in England from the earliest days of Christianity there.1991, M. B. McNamee, “Beowulf-An Allegory of Salvation?”, in Robert D. Fulk, editor, Interpretations of Beowulf, Indiana University Press, page 94

plural	harrowings of hell
alternative form	harrying of hell

What does harrowing of hell mean?: Harrowing of hell means a raid into the underworld by a heroic figure.
What part of speech is harrowing of hell?: Harrowing of hell can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of harrowing of hell?: The plural of harrowing of hell is harrowings of hell.

Adapted from Wiktionary: harrowing of hell (page history and authors); Harrowing of Hell (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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