s made
welcome: in Fensalir, the Halls of Mists, where Frigga, the wife of Odin
All-Father, sat spinning with golden threads; in Breidablik, where
Baldur, the Well Beloved, lived with his fair wife, the young Nanna; in
Bilskirnir, the Winding House, where Thor and Sif lived; and in Odin's
own palace Valaskjalf, that was all roofed over with silver shields.

The greatest of all the palaces was Gladsheim, that was built by the
golden-leaved wood, Glasir. Here the banquets of the Gods were held.
Often little Hnossa looked within and saw Odin All-Father seated at the
banquet table, with a mantle of blue over him and a shining helmet
shaped like an eagle upon his head. Odin would sit there, not eating at
all, but drinking the wine of the Gods, and taking the food off the
table and giving it to Geri and Freki, the two wolves that crouched
beside his seat.

She loved to go outside the great gate and stay beside Heimdall, the
Warder of the Rainbow Bridge. There, when there was no one crossing that
she might watch, she would sit beside Heimdall and listen to the wonders
that he spoke of.

Heimdall held in his hands the horn that was called the Gialarhorn. He
would sound it to let the Dwellers in Asgard know that one was crossing
the Rainbow Bridge. And Heimdall told little Hnossa how he had trained
himself to hear the grasses grow, and how he could see all around him
for a hundred miles. He could see in the night as well as the day. He
never slept. He had nine mothers, he told Hnossa, and he fed on the
strength of the earth and the cold sea.

As she sat beside him day after day, Heimdall would tell little Hnossa
how all things began. He had lived from the beginning of time and he
knew all things. "Before Asgard was built," he said, "and before Odin
lived, earth and sea and sky were all mixed together: what was then was
the Chasm of Chasms. In the North there was Niflheim, the Place of
Deadly Cold. In the South there was Muspelheim, the Land of Fire. In
Niflheim there was a cauldron called Hveigelmer that poured out twelve
rivers that flowed into the Chasm of Chasms.

"Ginnungagap, the Chasm of Chasms, filled up with ice, for the waters of
the rivers froze as they poured into it. From Muspelheim came clouds of
fire that turned the ice into thick mists. The mists fell down again in
drops of dew, and from these drops were formed Ymir, the Ancient Giant.

"Ymir, the Ancient Giant, traveled along by the twelve rivers until he