There is a day of judgment. The good and bad are separated. The god, whom the Edda dare not name, is the judge. The Younger Edda once calls him Allfather, for he is to the new world what Odin was to the old. He was before the beginning of time, and at the end of time he enters upon his eternal reign.
The reward is eternal. Is the punishment also eternal? When light and darkness (Balder and Hoder) can live peaceably together,—when darkness can resolve itself into light,—cannot then the evil be dissolved in the good; cannot the eternal streams of goodness wash away the evil? We think so, and the Edda seems to justify us in this thought; at least the Elder Edda seems to take this view of the subject. Listen again to the last vision of the vala:
There comes the dark
Dragon flying,
The shining serpent
From the Nida-mountains
In the deep.
Over the plain it flies;
Dead bodies Nidhug
Drags in his whizzing plumage,—