Of life bereave.
By compulsion I have spoken;
Now I will be silent.”
Sæmund’s Edda (Thorpe’s tr.).
But in spite of these sad tidings, and of the Vala’s evident reluctance to answer any other questions, Odin was not yet satisfied, and forced her to tell him who would avenge the murdered man by calling his assassin to account—a spirit of revenge and retaliation being considered a sacred duty among the races of the North.
Then the prophetess told him, as Rossthiof had predicted before, that Rinda, the earth-goddess, would bear a son to Odin, and that this divine emissary, Vali, would neither wash his face nor comb his hair until he had avenged Balder and slain Hodur.
“In the caverns of the west,
By Odin’s fierce embrace comprest,
A wondrous boy shall Rinda bear,
Who ne’er shall comb his raven hair,