ar's destiny, the three sisters answered oracularly;
each uttering a sentence:

"Early begun."

"Further spun."

"One day done."

To these their mother, Wyrd, the primitive goddess of fate, added:
"With joy once more won." These mysterious answers would have remained
totally unintelligible had the goddess not gone on to explain that time
progresses, that all must change, but that even if the father fell in
the last battle, his son Vidar would be his avenger, and would live to
rule over a regenerated world, after having conquered all his enemies.

"There sits Odin's
Son on the horse's back;
He will avenge his father."

Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).

As Wyrd spoke, the leaves of the world tree fluttered as if agitated
by a breeze, the eagle on its topmost bough flapped its wings, and
the serpent Nidhug for a moment suspended its work of destruction
at the roots of the tree. Grid, joining the father and son, rejoiced
with Odin when she heard that their son was destined to survive the
older gods and to rule over the new heaven and earth.

"There dwell Vidar and Vale
In the gods' holy seats,
When the fire of Surt is slaked."

Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).

Vidar, however, uttered not a word, but slowly wended his way back to
his palace Landvidi, in the heart of the primaeval forest, and there,
sitting upon his throne, he pondered long about eternity, futurity,
and infinity. If he fathomed their secrets he never revealed them, for
the ancients averred that he was "as silent as the grave"--a silence
which indicated that no man knows what awaits him in the life to come.

Vidar was not only a personification of the imperish-ability of Nature,
but he was also a symbol of resurrection and renewal, exhibiting
the eternal truth that new shoots and blossoms will spring forth to
replace those which have fallen into decay.

The shoe he wore was to be his defence against the wolf Fenris, who,
having destroyed Odin, would direct his wrath against him, and open
wide his terrible jaws to devour him. But the old Northmen declared
that Vidar would brace the foot thus protected against the monster's
lower jaw, and, seizing the upper, would struggle with him until he
had rent him in twain.

As one shoe only is mentioned in the Vidar myths, some mythologists
suppose that he had but one leg, and was the personification of a
waterspout, which would rise suddenly on