Since Hakon went
To the heathen gods
Many men are mournful.
The warriors who went to Valhalla were named Einherjar, and their food and drink are thus described:—
“Then said Gangleri: ‘Thou sayest that all men who have fallen in battle since the beginning of the world have now come to Odin in Valhalla: what has he to give them to eat? It seems to me that there must now be a great multitude.’ Hár replied, ‘Thou sayest true that there are very great hosts of men there; but there will be many more, nevertheless they will be thought too few, when the wolf comes; but there are never such hosts in Valhalla that there is not more than enough of the flesh of the boar called Sæhrimnir. He is boiled every day, and every night he is whole again. As to this question which thou now askest, I think few are wise enough to be able to tell the truth about it’” (Later Edda).
“Then Gangleri said: ‘What have the Einherjar[[376]] to drink which may last as long as the food? Is water drunk there?’ Hár answered: ‘Strangely dost thou ask; as if Allfödr (Allfather = Odin) would invite to him kings or jarls or other powerful men and give them water to drink; and, by my troth, many of the comers to Valhalla would think the drink of water dearly bought if no better cheer were to be had there, and they have before suffered pains and wounds unto death. I can tell thee another thing. The goat Heidrún stands on the roof of Valhalla, and bites buds off the branches of a very famous tree, Lerad, and from her teats flows a mead which fills a large vessel every day; the vessel is so large that all the Einherjar may get quite drunk out of it.’ Gangleri said: ‘That is an exceedingly useful goat for them; the tree on which she feeds must be very good.’ Hár said: ‘Still more remarkable is the stag Eikthyrnir which stands on Valhalla and feeds on the branches of this tree. From his horns there falls such a large drop that it comes down into Hvergelmir, and thence fall the rivers named, Sid, Vid, Sekin, Ekin, Svöl, Gunnthró, Fjörm, Fimbulthul, Gipul, Göpul, Gömul, Geirvimul, which run through the Asa-land’” (Later Edda, Gylfaginning, c. 39).
The warriors in Valhalla appear to have divided their time between drinking and fighting.
Odin.
Tell me,...
Where men in the grass-plot