“Who are you, and what do you seek here among the dead? Yesterday five hands of men rode across the bridge, but they did not shake it as you alone have done. Your face is not as the face of the dead. Why do you come here? It is no place for the living.”
Then Hermod asked if she had seen the shining Balder pass over her bridge; and the maiden answered,—
“He has crossed it already, and has gone to the dark hall where the feast is now spread.”
So Hermod rode on until he reached Hel’s gloomy palace and came face to face with the terrible queen who ruled over the kingdom of the dead. Hermod trembled with fear as he looked about him, but his love for Balder gave him courage, and he stepped up boldly before the goddess, saying:—
“I have come to beg a boon of thee, O Hel. Your land is full without the shining Balder, and Asgard is empty and lonely since he has gone. Every heart mourns for him, and every eye is filled with tears. Give him back to us.”
Slowly and sternly Hel replied: “Is there indeed no dry eye upon the earth? If it be true as thou sayest, that everything weeps for Balder, he shall return to Asgard; but if there is one who will not weep, he shall stay forever in Helheim.”
Then Hermod hurried with the message back to Asgard, and when Odin heard the answer Hel had made, he gave the command, and everything upon the earth wept and mourned for Balder. Throughout the whole world arose the sound of bitter wailing; and not a single eye remained undimmed by tears. But among the mourners in Asgard there was one old woman[36] whom Odin spied standing apart and shedding no tear.
[36] Loki disguised himself as the giantess Thok. [Back]
“Weep,” he cried, “weep for Balder that he may return.”
“Nay,” replied the old woman, “I will not weep. He has done naught for me that I should mourn him. Let him stay in Helheim.” Then with a mocking laugh she hurried away, and Odin knew that it was Loki.