e than this. They took the
sparks and the clouds of flame that blew from Muspelheim, and they made
them into the sun and the moon and all the stars that are in the sky.
Odin found a dusky Giantess named Night whose son was called Day, and he
gave both of them horses to drive across the sky. Night drove a horse
that is named Hrimfaxe, Frosty Mane, and Day drove a horse that is named
Skinfaxe, Shining Mane. From Hrimfaxe's bit fall the drops that make the
dew upon the earth.
"Then Odin and his sons made a race of men and women and gave them
Midgard to live in. Ugly Dwarfs had grown up and had spread themselves
over the earth. These Odin made go live in the hollow places beneath the
earth. The Elves he let stay on the earth, but he gave them the tasks of
tending the streams and the grasses and the flowers. And with the Vanir
he made peace after a war had been waged, taking Nioerd from them for a
hostage.
"Bergelmir, the Giant who escaped drowning in Ymir's blood, had sons and
daughters in Joetunheim. They hated Odin and his sons and strove against
them. When Odin lighted up the world with the sun and the moon they were
very wroth, and they found two of the fiercest of the mighty wolves of
Joetunheim and set them to follow them. And still the sun and the moon,
Sol and Mani, are followed by the wolves of Joetunheim."
Such wonders did Heimdall with the Golden Teeth tell Hnossa, the
youngest of the Dwellers in Asgard. Often the child stayed with him by
the Rainbow Bridge, and saw the Gods pass to and from Midgard: Thor,
with his crown of stars, with the great hammer Mioelnir in his hands,
with the gloves of iron that he used when he grasped Mioelnir; Thor in
his chariot drawn by two goats and wearing the belt that doubled his
strength; Frigga, with her dress of falcon feathers, flying swiftly as a
bird; Odin All-Father himself, riding upon Sleipner, his eight-legged
steed, clad all in golden armor, with his golden helmet, shaped like an
eagle, upon his head, and with his spear Gungnir in his hand.
Heimdall kept his horn in the branch of a great tree. This tree was
called Ygdrassil, he told little Hnossa, and it was a wonder to Gods and
Men. "No one knows of a time when Ygdrassil was not growing, and all are
afraid to speak of the time when it will be destroyed.
"Ygdrassil has three roots. One goes deep under Midgard, another goes
deep under Joetunheim, and the third grows above Asgard. Over Odin's hall
a branch of Yg
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