“The Nornir, who dwell by the Urdar-fount, take each day water from the well, and with it and the mud that is about the well, sprinkle the ash-tree, that its branches may not rot or wither. This water is so holy, that every thing that comes into the well becomes as white as the membrane within an egg-shell. So it is said in the Völuspá,
“‘An ash know I standing,
Yggdrasil it hight,
A lofty tree besprinkled
With white water;
Thence cometh dew
Which in the dales falleth;
Ever green it standeth
Over Urda’s well.’
“The dew which comes from it is called Honey-dew, and is the food of the bees. Two birds are fed in the Urdar-fount: they are called swans, and from them is descended this species of birds.