in his teeth, though some say Thor has slain him; but Fenris-wolf
is bound until the doom of the gods, when gods and men shall come
to an end, and earth and heaven be burnt, when he shall slay
Odin. After this the earth shoots up from the sea, and it is
green and fair, and the fields bear unsown, and gods and men
shall be alive again, and sit in fair halls, and talk of old
tales and the tidings that happened aforetime. The head-seat, or
holiest-stead, of the gods is at Yggdrasil's ash, which is of all
trees best and biggest; its boughs are spread over the whole
world and stand above heaven; one root of the ash is in heaven,
and under the root is the right holy spring; there hold the gods
doom every day; the second root is with the Hrimthursar, where
before was Yawning-gap; under that root is Mimir's spring, where
knowledge and wit lie hidden; thither came Allfather and begged a
drink, but got it not before he left his eye in pledge; the third
root is over Niflheim, and the worm Nidhogg gnaws the root
beneath. A fair hall stands under the ash by the spring, and out
of it come three maidens, Norns, named Has-been, Being, Will-be,
who shape the lives of men; there are beside other Norns, who
come to every man that is born to shape his life, and some of
these are good and some evil. In the boughs of the ash sits an
eagle, wise in much, and between his eyes sits the hawk
Vedrfalnir; the squirrel Ratatoskr runs up and down along the
ash, bearing words of hate betwixt the eagle and the worm. Those
Norns who abide by the holy spring draw from it every day water,
and take the clay that lies around the well, and sprinkle them up
over the ash for that its boughs should not wither or rot. All
those men that have fallen in the fight, and borne wounds and
toil unto death, from the beginning of the world, are come to
Odin in Valhall; a very great throng is there, and many more