the sight of his right
eye! Almost he would have turned back to Asgard, giving up his quest for
wisdom.

He went on, turning neither to Asgard nor to Mimir's Well. And when he
went toward the South he saw Muspelheim, where stood Surtur with the
Flaming Sword, a terrible figure, who would one day join the Giants in
their war against the Gods. And when he turned North he heard the
roaring of the cauldron Hvergelmer as it poured itself out of Niflheim,
the place of darkness and dread. And Odin knew that the world must not
be left between Surtur, who would destroy it with fire, and Niflheim,
that would gather it back to Darkness and Nothingness. He, the eldest of
the Gods, would have to win the wisdom that would help to save the
world.

And so, with his face stern in front of his loss and pain, Odin
All-Father turned and went toward Mimir's Well. It was under the great
root of Ygdrassil--the root that grew out of Joetunheim. And there sat
Mimir, the Guardian of the Well of Wisdom, with his deep eyes bent upon
the deep water. And Mimir, who had drunk every day from the Well of
Wisdom, knew who it was that stood before him.

"Hail, Odin, Eldest of the Gods," he said.

Then Odin made reverence to Mimir, the wisest of the world's beings. "I
would drink from your well, Mimir," he said.

"There is a price to be paid. All who have come here to drink have
shrunk from paying that price. Will you, Eldest of the Gods, pay it?"

"I will not shrink from the price that has to be paid, Mimir," said Odin
All-Father.

"Then drink," said Mimir. He filled up a great horn with water from the
well and gave it to Odin.

Odin took the horn in both his hands and drank and drank. And as he
drank all the future became clear to him. He saw all the sorrows and
troubles that would fall upon Men and Gods. But he saw, too, why the
sorrows and troubles had to fall, and he saw how they might be borne so
that Gods and Men, by being noble in the days of sorrow and trouble,
would leave in the world a force that one day, a day that was far off
indeed, would destroy the evil that brought terror and sorrow and
despair into the world.

Then when he had drunk out of the great horn that Mimir had given him,
he put his hand to his face and he plucked out his right eye. Terrible
was the pain that Odin All-Father endured. But he made no groan nor
moan. He bowed his head and put his cloak before his face, as Mimir took
the eye and let it sink deep, deep int