Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland, Vol. 2

MEMBER OF THE SWEDISH ACADEMY; AUTHOR OF THE LAST ATHENIAN AND OTHER WORKS.
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE SWEDISH
RASMUS B. ANDERSON, LL.D., EX-UNITED STATES MINISTER TO DENMARK; AUTHOR OF NORSE MYTHOLOGY, VIKING TALES, ETC.
HON. RASMUS B. ANDERSON, LL.D., Ph.D., EDITOR IN CHIEF. J. W. BUEL, Ph.D., MANAGING EDITOR.
VOL. II.
PUBLISHED BY THE NORRŒNA SOCIETY, LONDON COPENHAGEN STOCKHOLM BERLIN NEW YORK 1906
OF THE Viking Edition
There are but six hundred and fifty sets made for the world, of which this is
No. 99
COPYRIGHT, T. H. SMART, 1905.
VALKYRIES BRINGING THE BODY OF A SLAIN WARRIOR TO VALHALLA ( From an etching by Lorenz Frölich. ) Heimdal, the god of light, father of men, sire of kings, was warder of the gates of Valhalla and lived in a castle at the end of the rainbow (Bifröst bridge). He possessed a trumpet called Gjallarhorn with which he summoned together the gods at Ragnarok. He is represented as the zealous gate-keeper who received and admitted to Valhalla the bodies of warriors slain in battle, when brought hence by Valkyrie maidens who gathered them from battle-fields. Valhalla was the abode of Odin in Asgard which was situated in Gladsheim, the valley of joy. In this paradise dead warriors were revived and spent all after-time fighting, feasting, and drinking as the guests of Odin, pursuing those pleasures that most delighted them when in the flesh.