im. Every day his two ravens
flew through the world, and coming back to him told him of all that was
happening. And now they might tell him of happenings that would let him
guess if Hela had indeed turned her thoughts toward Asgard, or if she
had the power to draw one down to her dismal abode.

The ravens flew to him, and lighting one on each of his shoulders, told
him of things that were being said up and down Ygdrassil, the World
Tree. Ratatoesk the Squirrel was saying them. And Ratatoesk had heard them
from the brood of serpents that with Nidhoegg, the great dragon, gnawed
ever at the root of Ygdrassil. He told it to the Eagle that sat ever on
the topmost bough, that in Hela's habitation a bed was spread and a
chair was left empty for some lordly comer.

And hearing this, Odin thought that it were better that Fenrir the Wolf
should range ravenously through Asgard than that Hela should win one
from amongst them to fill that chair and lie in that bed.

He mounted Sleipner, his eight-legged steed, and rode down toward the
abodes of the Dead. For three days and three nights of silence and
darkness he journeyed on. Once one of the hounds of Helheim broke loose
and bayed upon Sleipner's tracks. For a day and a night Garm, the hound,
pursued them, and Odin smelled the blood that dripped from his monstrous
jaws.

At last he came to where, wrapped in their shrouds, a field of the Dead
lay. He dismounted from Sleipner and called upon one to rise and speak
with him. It was on Volva, a dead prophetess, he called. And when he
pronounced her name he uttered a rune that had the power to break the
sleep of the Dead.

There was a groaning in the middle of where the shrouded ones lay. Then
Odin cried, out, "Arise, Volva, prophetess." There was a stir in the
middle of where the shrouded ones lay, and a head and shoulders were
thrust up from amongst the Dead.

"Who calls on Volva the Prophetess? The rains have drenched my flesh and
the storms have shaken my bones for more seasons than the living know.
No living voice has a right to call me from my sleep with the Dead."

"It is Vegtam the Wanderer who calls. For whom is the bed prepared and
the seat left empty in Hela's habitation?"

"For Baldur, Odin's son, is the bed prepared and the seat left empty.
Now let me go back to my sleep with the Dead."

But now Odin saw beyond Volva's prophecy. "Who is it," he cried out,
"that stands with unbowed head and that will not lament for B