Hell

A hell is kind of low-life bar where the customers are rough, ragged and have no scruples. The term is first mentioned in The Great Hunt when Yarin Maeldan says to Bayle Domon "[The crew] are all aboard but three I couldn't find, Captain. I've spread the word through every tavern, hell, and crib in the quarter." The term is not mentioned again until becomes more central to the plot in the chapter A Hell in Madeirin.

Matrim Cauthon's desription of a hell is as follows:

"Hells were the lowest of the low, dirty and dimly lit, where the ale and wine were cheap and still not worth half what you paid, the food was worse and any women who set on your lap was trying to pick your pocket or cut your purse or else had two men waiting upstairs to crack you over the head... At any time of the day you would find dice rolling in a dozen games... Few of the gamblers would have come by their coin by any means even halfway honest... Hells always had two or three strong arms with cudgels about to break up fights... They usually stopped the patrons from killing one another, but when they failed the corpses were dragged out the back...and left on a rubbish heap. And while they were dragging the drinking never slowed, or the gambling either."

Events

Mat brought Tuon to a place called The White Ring, claiming it was a hell. Although Tuon and Selucia were convinced that it was a hell, it was not.

Trivia

The name is obviously derived from the Christian Hell, presumably because of it being an undesireable place to be and filled with thieves, murderers and various other sinners. It does not appear to have any origin in real-life terms for drinking establishments.