foretelling; but your words are vague, and their meaning
very broad. When shall that hero come? and who shall he be?
and what deeds shall be his doing?"

"Alas!" answered Mimer, "I know not, save that he shall be
of the Volsung race, and that my fate is linked with his."

"And why do you not know?" returned Siegfried. "Are you not
that old Mimer, in whom it is said the garnered wisdom of
the world is stored? Is there not truth in the old story
that even Odin pawned one of his eyes for a single draught
from your fountain of knowledge? And is the possessor of so
much wisdom unable to look into the future with clearness
and certainty?"

"Alas!" answered Mimer again, and his words came hard and
slow, "I am not that Mimer, of whom old stories tell, who
gave wisdom to the All-Father in exchange for an eye. He is
one of the giants, and he still watches his fountain in
far-off Jotunheim.[EN#2] I claim kinship with the dwarfs,
and am sometimes known as an elf, sometimes as a
wood-sprite. Men have called me Mimer because of my wisdom
and skill, and the learning which I impart to my pupils.
Could I but drink from the fountain of the real Mimer, then
the wisdom of the world would in truth be mine, and the
secrets of the future would be no longer hidden. But I must
wait, as I have long waited, for the day and the deed and
the doom that the Norns have foretold."

And the old strange look of longing came again into his