the roof was made of golden shields.

"And wondrous gleamed Valhalla on the heights,--
Her walls shone bright as rows of glittering spears;
The roof resplendent like great golden shields;
Hundreds of open gates and welcoming doors
For myriad warriors from the fields of earth,--
The chosen heroes of the future years,
To be great Odin's mighty bodyguard
Against the awful prophecies of doom."

From end to end of the great hall stood long tables and benches loaded
with armour, ready prepared for the fortunate guests. And this was the
manner of their selection. Whenever a great battle was about to be
fought on the earth, Odin sent forth the nine Valkyrs, or Battle
Maidens, his especial attendants, to watch the progress of the fight
and to choose from the fallen warriors half of their number. These the
Battle Maidens carried on their swift steeds over the Rainbow Bridge
into the great hall of Valhalla, where they were welcomed by the sons
of Odin and taken to the All-Father's throne to receive his
greeting. But if one had shown himself especially heroic in the fight,
Odin would descend from his throne and advance to the door to bid him
welcome.

And now, seated at the long tables, loaded with great beakers of mead
and dishes of boar flesh, the warriors feasted merrily, tended by the
fair Battle Maidens.

"The blazing roof resounds
The genial uproar of those shades who fall
In desperate fight, or by some brave attempt."

When they had eaten all they could, the warriors would call for their
weapons, ride out into the great courtyard, and there wage desperate
fights, in the course of which many a man would be sorely wounded. But
this mattered little, for at the sound of the dinner horn all wounds
were healed.

"And all day long they there are hacked and hewn
'Mid dust, and groans, and limbs lopped off, and blood
But all at night return to Odin's hall
Woundless and fresh; such lot is theirs in heaven."

These warriors were Odin's special joy and delight, and he was never
weary of watching them at feast or in the combat. Sometimes, indeed,
when some battle on earth was impending, he would appear, riding upon
his eight-footed grey horse, and with white shield on arm would fling
his glittering spear into the ranks of the warriors as signal for the
fight to begin, and would rush into the fray with his war-cry, "Odin
has you all!"

Now, though all