urney? Snow has snowed on me, rain has beaten me,
dew has drenched me, I have long been dead." He gives the name Wegtam,
or Way-wise, and then follow question and answer until she discovers
his identity and will say no more. In _Voeluspa_ there is no descriptive
introduction, and no dialogue; the whole is spoken by the Sibyl,
who plunges at once into her story, with only the explanatory words:
"Thou, Valfather, wouldst have me tell the ancient histories of men as
far as I remember." She describes the creation of the world and sky
by Bor's sons; the building by the Gods of a citadel in Ida-plain,
and their age of innocence till three giant-maids brought greed of
gold; the creation of the dwarfs; the creation of the first man and
woman out of two trees by Odin, Hoeni and Lodur; the world-ash and
the spring beside it where dwell the three Norns who order the fates
of men. Then follows an allusion to the war between the Aesir and the
Vanir, the battle with the giants who had got possession of the goddess
Freyja, and the breaking of bargains; an obscure reference to Mimi's
spring where Odin left his eye as a pledge; and an enumeration of his
war-maids or Valkyries. Turning to the future, the Sibyl prophesies
the death of Baldr, the vengeance on his slayer, and the chaining of
Loki, the doom of the Gods and the destruction of the world at the
coming of the fire-giants and the release of Loki's children from
captivity. The rest of the poem seems to be later; it tells how the
earth shall rise again from the deep, and the Aesir dwell once more
in Odin's halls, and there is a suggestion of Christian influence in
it which is absent from the earlier part.

Of the other general poems, the next four were probably composed before
950; in each the setting is different. _Vafthrudnismal_, a riddle-poem,
shows Odin in a favourite position, seeking in disguise for knowledge
of the future. Under the name of Gangrad (Wanderer), he visits the
wise giant Vafthrudni, and the two agree to test their wisdom: the one
who fails to answer a question is to forfeit his head. In each case
the questions deal first with the past. Vafthrudni asks about Day and
Night, and the river which divides the Giants from the Gods, matters of
common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future: "What is
the plain where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?" Odin
replies, and proceeds to question in his turn; first about the creation
of Earth and Sky