It should be added that the moon-goddess, like her father, could be called Máni without there being any obstacle in the masculine form of the word. The name of the goddess Skadi is also masculine in form, and is inflected as a masculine noun (oblique case, Skada—Younger Edda, 212, 268).
93.
COSMOGRAPHIC REVIEW.
In the preceding pages various scattered contributions have been made to Teutonic cosmography, and particularly to the topography of the lower world. It may not be out of the way to gather and complete these fragments.
The world-tree's three roots, which divide themselves in the lower world and penetrate through the three lower-world fountains into the foundations of the world-structure and hold it together, stand in a direction from north to south—the northernmost over the Hvergelmer fountain, with its cold waters; the middle one over Mimer's well, which is the fountain of spiritual forces; and the third over Urd's well, whose liquids give warmth to Ygdrasil (see No. 63).
In a north and south direction stands likewise the bridge Bifröst, also called Bilröst, Ásbru (Grimnersmal, 29), and in a bold paraphrase, hitherto not understood, thiodvitnis fiscr, "the fish of the folk-wolf." The paraphrase occurs in Grimnersmal (21) in its description of Valhal and other abodes of the gods:
thytr thund,
unir thiódvitnis
fiscr flódi i
árstraumr thickir
ofmicil
valglaumi at vatha.
"Thund (the air-river) roars. The fish of the folk-wolf stands secure in the stream. To the noisy crowd of sword-fallen men the current seems too strong to wade through."
It has already been shown (No. 65) that those fallen by the sword ride with their psychopomps on Bifrost up to Valhal, and do not proceed thither through space, but have a solid foundation for the hoofs of their steeds. Here, as in Fafnersmal (15), the air is compared with a river, in which the horses are compelled to wade or swim if the bridge leading to Asgard is not used, and the current in this roaring stream is said to be very strong; while, on the other hand, "the fish" stands safe and inviting therein. That the author of Grimnersmal called the bridge a fish must seem strange, but has its natural explanation in Icelandic usage, which called every bridge-end or bridge-head a spordr, that is, a fish-tail. Compare Sigrdrifumal (16), which informs us that runes were risted on "the fish-tail" of the great mythic bridge (á bruar spordi), and the expression brúarspordr (bridge-head, bridge-"fish-tail") in Njala (246) and Biskupas (1, 17). As a bridge-pier could be called a fish-tail, it was perfectly logical for the poem to make the bridge a fish. On the zenith of the bridge stands Valhal, that secures those fallen in battle, and whose entrance is decorated with images of the wolf and of the eagle (Grimnersmal, 10), animals that satisfy their hunger on the field of battle. This explains why the fish is called that of the folk-wolf or great wolf. The meaning of the paraphrase is simply "the Valhal bridge." That the bow of Bifrost stands north and south follows from the fact that the gods pass over one end of the bridge on their way to Urd's fountain, situated in the south of the lower world, while the other end is outside of Nifelhel, situated in the north. From the south the gods come to their judgment-seats in the realm of the dis of fate and death. From the north came, according to Vegtamskvida, Odin when he rode through Nifelhel to that hall which awaited Balder. Why the Asa-father on that occasion chose that route Vegtamskvida does not inform us. But from Saxo (Hist. Dan., 126), who knew an old heathen song about Odin's visit in the lower world on account of Balder's death, we get light on this point. According to this song[17] it was Rostiophus Phinnicus who told Odin that a son of the latter and Rind was to avenge Balder's death. Rostiophus is, as P. E. Müller has already remarked, the rimthurs Hrossthiófr mentioned in Hyndluljod as a son of Hrimnir and brother of the sorceress Heidr, the vala and witch well known from Völuspa and other sources. Nifelhel is, as shown above (No. 60), the abode of the rimthurses transferred to the lower world. Where his father Hrimnir (Bergelmer) and his progenitor Hrimgrimnir (Thrudgelmer) dwell in the thurs-hall mentioned in Skirnersmal, there we also find Hrossthiófr, and Odin must there seek him. Vegtamskvida makes Odin seek his sister.