The whole place is surrounded by a wall, "so solid that it shall stand as long as the world" (str. 12). It is built of Lerbrimer's (Ymer's) limbs, and is called Gastrofnir, "the same one as refuses admittance to uninvited guests." In the wall is inserted the gate skilfully made by Solblinde's sons, the one which I have already mentioned in No. 36. Svipdag, who had been in the lower world and had there seen the halls of the gods and the well-fortified castle of the ásmegir (see No. 53), admires the wall and the gate, and remarks that no more dangerous contrivances (for uninvited guests) than these were seen among the gods (str. 9-12).
The gate is guarded by two "garms," wolf-dogs. Fjölsvin explains that their names are Gifr and Geri, that they are to live and perform their duty as watch-dogs to the end of the world (unz rjúfask regin), and that they are the watchers of watchers, whose number is eleven (vardir ellifu, er their varda—str. 14).
Just as the mythic personality that Svipdag met outside of the castle is named by the Odin-epithet Fjölsvidr, so we here find one of the watching dogs called after one of Odin's wolf-dogs, Geri (Grimnersmal, 19). Their duty of watching, which does not cease before Ragnarok, they perform in connection with eleven mythic persons dwelling within the citadel, who are themselves called vardir, an epithet for world-protecting divinities. Heimdal is vördr goda, Balder is vördr Hálfdanar jarda. The number of the Asas is eleven after Balder descended to the lower world. Hyndluljod says: Voru ellifu æsir taldir, Balldr er hne vid banathufu.
These wolf-dogs are foes of giants and trolls. If a vættr came there he would not be able to get past them (str. 16—ok kemt thá vættr, ef thá kom). The troll-beings that are called gifr and kveldridur (Völuspa, 50; Helge Hjorv., 15), and that fly about in the air with lim (bundles of sticks) in their hands, have been made to fall by these dogs. They have made gifr-lim into a "land-wreck" (er gjordu gífrlim reka fyrir löndin—str. 13). As one of the dogs is himself called Gifr, his ability, like that of those chased by him, to fly in the air seems to be indicated. The old tradition about Odin, who with his dogs flies through the air above the earth, has its root in the myth concerning the duty devolving upon the Asa-father, in his capacity of lord of the heavens, to keep space free from gifr, kveddridur, tunridur, who "leika á lopti," do their mischief in the air (cp. Havamál, 155).
The hall in which Menglad lives, and that part of the wall-surrounded domain which belongs to her, seems to be situated directly in front of the gate, for Svipdag, standing before it, asks who is the ruler of the domain which he sees before him, and Fjölsvin answers that it is Menglad who there holds sway, owns the land, and is mistress of the treasure-chambers.
The poem tells us in the most unmistakable manner that Menglad is an asynje, and that one of the very noblest ones. "What are the names," asks Svipdag, "of the young women who sit so pleasantly together at Menglad's feet?" Fjölsvin answers by naming nine, among whom are the goddess of healing, Eir (Prose Edda, i. 114), and the dises Hlif, "the protectress," Björt, "the shining," Blid, "the blithe," and Frid, "the fair." Their place at Menglad's feet indicates that they are subordinate to her and belong to her attendants. Nevertheless they are, Fjölsvin assures us, higher beings, who have sanctuaries and altars (str. 40), and have both power and inclination quickly to help men who offer sacrifices to them. Nay, "no so severe evil can happen to the sons of men that these maids are not able to help them out of their distress." It follows with certainty that their mistress Menglad, "the one fond of ornaments," must be one of the highest and most worshipped goddesses in the mythology. And to none of the asynjes is the epithet "fond of ornaments" (Menglad) more applicable than to the fair owner of the first among female ornaments, Brisingamen—to Freyja, whose daughters Hnoss and Gersami are called by names that mean "ornaments," and of whose fondness for beautiful jewels even Christian saga authors speak. To the court of no other goddess are such dises as Björt, Blid, and Frid so well suited as to hers. And all that Fjölsvinnsmal tells about Menglad is in harmony with this.
Freyja was the goddess of love, of matrimony, and of fertility, and for this reason she was regarded as the divine ruler and helper, to whom loving maids, wives who are to bear children, and sick women were to address themselves with prayers and offerings. Figuratively this is expressed in Fjölsvinnsmal with the words that every sick woman who walks up the mountain on which Menglad sits regains her health. "That mountain has long been the joy of the sick and wounded" (str. 36). The great tree whose foliage spreads over Menglad's palace bears the fruits that help kélisjúkar konur, so that utar hverva that thær innar skyli (str. 22). In the midst of the fair dises who attend Menglad the poem also mentions Aurboda, the giantess, who afterwards becomes the mother-in-law of Freyja's brother, and whose appearance in Asgard as a maid-servant of Freyja, and as one of those that bring fruits from the world-tree to kélisjúkar konur, has already been mentioned in No. 35. If we now add that Menglad, though a mighty goddess, is married to Svipdag, who is not one of the gods, and that Freyja, despite her high rank among the goddesses, does not have a god for her husband, but, as Gylfaginning expresses it, giptist theim manni er Ódr heitir, and, finally that Menglad's father is characterised by a name which refers to Freyja's father, Njord,[3] then these circumstances alone, without the additional and decisive proofs which are to be presented as this investigation progresses, are sufficient to form a solid basis for the identity of Menglad and Freyja, and as a necessary consequence for the identity of Svipdag and Ódr, also called Óttarr.
The glorious castle to which Svipdag travelled "up" is therefore Asgard, as is plain from its very description—with its gold-glittering palace, with its wall standing until Ragnarok, with its artistic gate, with its eleven watchers, with its Fjölsvin-Odin, with its asynje Eir, with its benevolent and lovely dises worshipped by men, with its two wolf-dogs who are to keep watch so long as the world stands, and which clear the air of tunridur, with its shady arbour formed by the overhanging branches of the world-tree, and with its gold-feathered cock Vidofnir (Völuspa's Gullinkambi).
Svipdag comes as a stranger to Asgard's gate, and what he there sees he has never before seen. His conversation with Fjölsvin is a series of curious questions in regard to the strange things that he now witnesses for the first time. His designation as thursa thjodar sjólr indicates not only that he is a stranger in Asgard, but also that he has been the foe of the Asgards. That he under such circumstances was able to secure admittance to the only way that leads to Asgard, the bridge Bifrost; that he was allowed unhindered to travel up this bridge and approach the gate unpunished, and without encountering any other annoyances than a few repelling words from Fjölsvin, who soon changes his tone and gives him such information as he desires—all this presupposes that the mythology must have had strong and satisfactory reasons for permitting a thing so unusual to take place. In several passages in Grogalder and in Fjölsvinnsmal it is hinted that the powers of fate had selected Svipdag to perform extraordinary things and gain an end the attaining of which seemed impossible. That the norns have some special purpose with him, and that Urd is to protect him and direct his course with invisible bonds, however erratic it may seem, all this gleams forth from the words of his mother Groa in the grave-chamber. And when Svipdag finally sees Menglad hasten to throw herself into his arms, he says himself that it is Urd's irresistible decree that has shaped things thus: Urdar ordi kvedr engi madr. But Urd's resolve alone cannot be a sufficient reason in the epic for Svipdag's adoption in Asgard, and for his gaining, though he is not of Asa-birth, the extraordinary honour and good luck of becoming the husband of the fairest of the asynjes and of one of the foremost of the goddesses. Urd must have arranged the chain of events in such a manner that Menglad desires to possess him, that Svipdag has deserved her love, and that the Asa-gods deem it best for themselves to secure this opponent of theirs by bonds of kinship.
98.