The "Well to Hell" is an

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

regarding a putative

borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petrol ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

which was purportedly drilled so deep that it broke through into Hell. It is first attested in English as a 1989 broadcast by a U.S. domestic

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

-based TV broadcaster,

Trinity Broadcasting Network The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is an international Christian-based broadcast television network and the world's largest religious television network. TBN was headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, until March 3, 2017, when it sold its ...

Legend and basis

The legend holds that a team of Soviet engineers purportedly led by an individual named "Mr. Azakov" in an unnamed place in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...

had drilled a hole that was deep before breaking through to a cavity. Intrigued by this unexpected discovery, they lowered an extremely heat-tolerant

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publ ...

, along with other sensory equipment, into the well. The temperature deep within was —heat from a chamber of fire from which the tormented screams of the damned could be heard. The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

had, in fact, drilled a hole more than deep, the

Kola Superdeep Borehole The Kola Superdeep Borehole (russian: Кольская сверхглубокая скважина, translit=Kol'skaya sverkhglubokaya skvazhina) SG-3 is the result of a scientific drilling project of the Soviet Union in the Pechengsky District ...

, located not in Siberia but on the

Kola Peninsula sjd, Куэлнэгк нёа̄ррк , image_name= Kola peninsula.png , image_caption= Kola Peninsula as a part of Murmansk Oblast , image_size= 300px , image_alt= , map_image= Murmansk in Russia.svg , map_caption = Location of Murmansk Oblas ...

, which shares borders with

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Upon reaching the depth of in 1989, some interesting geological anomalies were found, although they reported no supernatural encounters. The recording of "tormented screams" was later found to be looped together from various sound effects, sometimes identified as the soundtrack of the 1972 movie ''

Baron Blood Baron Blood is the name of several supervillains appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The first incarnation of Baron Blood, John Falsworth, first appeared in ''The Invaders'' #7 (July 1976). The second incarnation, Victor ...

''.

Propagation

The story was reported to first have been published by the Finnish newspaper ''Ammennusastia'', a journal published by a group of

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

from , a village in the municipality of

Siikainen Siikainen ( sv, Siikais) is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the former province of Western Finland and is part of the Satakunta region. The municipality has a population of (), which make it the smallest municipality in Satakunta in t ...

Western Finland Western Finland ( fi, Länsi-Suomen lääni, sv, Västra Finlands län) was a province of Finland from 1997 to 2009. It bordered the provinces of Oulu, Eastern Finland and Southern Finland. It also bordered the Gulf of Bothnia towards Åland. ...

Rich Buhler Rich Buhler (July 17, 1946 – May 7, 2012) was an American evangelical Christian radio talk show host, writer, and pastor. He held honorary doctorates from Biola University and Trinity College of Graduate Studies. He is best known for his ...

, who interviewed the editors, found that the story had been based on recollections of a letter printed in the feature section of a newspaper called ''Etelä Suomen'' (possibly the ''

Etelä-Suomen Sanomat ''Etelä-Suomen Sanomat'' (meaning ''South Finland News'' in English; nickname ''Etlari'') is a Finnish daily newspaper published in Lahti, Finland. It is the leading paper in its metropolitan area.

''). When contacting the letter's author, Buhler found that he had drawn from a story appearing in a Finnish Christian newsletter named ''Vaeltajat'', which had printed the story in July 1989. The newsletter's editor claimed that its origin had been a newsletter called ''Jewels of Jericho'', published by a group of

Messianic Jews Messianic Judaism ( he, or , ) is a modernist and syncretic movement of Protestant Christianity that incorporates some elements of Judaism and other Jewish traditions into evangelicalism. It emerged in the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Here, Buhler stopped tracing the origins any further. American tabloids soon ran the story, and sound files began appearing on various sites across the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. Sensationalistic retellings of the legend can be found on YouTube, usually featuring the aforementioned ''Baron Blood'' sound effects.

TBN involvement

The story eventually made its way to the American Christian

(TBN), which broadcast it on the network, claiming it to be proof of the literal existence of Hell. Åge Rendalen, a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

teacher, heard the story on TBN while visiting the United States. Disgusted with what he perceived to be mass gullibility, Rendalen decided to augment the tale at TBN's expense. Rendalen wrote to the network, originally claiming that he disbelieved the tale but, upon his return to Norway, supposedly read a factual account of the story. According to Rendalen, the story claimed not only that the cursed well was real, but that a

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...

-like apparition (a common pictorial representation of demons, such as in Michelangelo's ''

The Torment of Saint Anthony ''The Torment of Saint Anthony'' (or ''The Temptation of Saint Anthony'', c. 1487–88) is attributed to Michelangelo, who painted a close copy of the famous engraving by Martin Schongauer when he was only 12 or 13 years old. There is no eviden ...

'' or the more recent Bat Boy by ''

Weekly World News The ''Weekly World News'' was a tabloid which published mostly fictional "news" stories in the United States from 1979 to 2007, renowned for its outlandish cover stories often based on supernatural or paranormal themes and an approach to news th ...

'') had risen out of it before blazing a trail across the Russian sky. To perpetuate his hoax, Rendalen deliberately mistranslated a trivial Norwegian article about a local building inspector into the story, and submitted both the original Norwegian article and the English "translation" to TBN. Rendalen also included his real name, phone number and address, as well as those of a pastor friend who knew about the hoax and had agreed to expose it to anyone who called seeking verification. However, TBN did nothing to verify Rendalen's claims, and aired the story as proof of the validity of the original story.

Alternative versions

Since its publicity, many alternative versions of the Well to Hell story have been published. In 1992, the U.S. tabloid ''

'' published an alternative version of the story, which was set in Alaska where 13 miners were killed after Satan came roaring out of hell.

Legend and basis

Propagation

TBN involvement

Alternative versions

See also

References

Further reading