isters, who know all that shall come to
pass, sprinkle the tree and keep it fresh and green. And the water, as
it trickles down from the leaves, falls as drops of honey on the
earth, and the bees take it for their food.

Close to this sacred well is the Council Hall of the gods, to which
every morning they rode, over the Rainbow Bridge, to hold converse
together.

And this is the end of the tale of How All Things began.

CHAPTER II

How All-Father Odin Became Wise

_These are the tales which the Northmen tell
concerning the wisdom of All-Father Odin._

On the highest hill of Asgard, upon a great chair, sat All-Father
Odin, watching from thence all that was happening on and above and
under the earth.

The Father of Asas and of men had long grey locks and thick curling
beard, and he wore a great blue coat flecked with grey like unto the
sky when the fleecy clouds scud across it.

In his hand he carried a spear, so sacred that, if anyone swore an
oath upon its point, that oath could never be broken.

On his head he wore, when sitting upon his watch-tower throne, a
helmet shaped like an eagle; but when he wandered, as he loved to do,
about the earth, he wore a large broad-brimmed hat drawn low over his
forehead.

Perched on his broad shoulders sat two inky-black ravens, Hugin and
Munin, whom every morning he sent to wing their flight about the world
that they might see what was going on.

Every evening when they returned, they whispered all that they had
seen and heard in his ears.

At Odin's feet crouched two great wolves, whom he fed from the meat
set before him; for he himself cared not to eat flesh-food, and
preferred rather to drink the sacred mead provided by the goat who fed
upon the leaves of the Tree of Life.

Sometimes Odin left his watch-tower throne for the great Council Hall
where the twelve Asas sat and took counsel together; but his favourite
seat of all was in his own palace of Valhalla, or the Hall of the
Chosen Slain. This palace stood in the midst of a wonderful grove of
trees, whose leaves were all of red gold, rustling and shimmering in
the breeze. Five and forty doors opened into it, each wide enough to
allow eight hundred warriors to enter abreast, and over the chief
entrance was a boar's head and a great eagle, whose keen gaze looked
forth over all the world. The walls of the palace were built of spears
of polished steel, so bright that they lighted the whole building; and