Bragi is famous for wisdom, and best in tongue-wit,
and cunning speech, and song-craft. `And many other are there,
good and great; and one, Loki, fair of face, ill in temper and
fickle of mood, is called the backbiter of the Asa, and speaker
of evil redes and shame of all gods and men; he has above all
that craft called sleight, and cheats all in all things. Among
the children of Loki are Fenris-wolf and Midgards-worm; the
second lies about all the world in the deep sea, holding his tail
in his teeth, though some say Thor has slain him; but Fenris-wolf
is bound until the doom of the gods, when gods and men shall come
to an end, and earth and heaven be burnt, when he shall slay
Odin. After this the earth shoots up from the sea, and it is
green and fair, and the fields bear unsown, and gods and men
shall be alive again, and sit in fair halls, and talk of old
tales and the tidings that happened aforetime. The head-seat, or
holiest-stead, of the gods is at Yggdrasil's ash, which is of all
trees best and biggest; its boughs are spread over the whole
world and stand above heaven; one root of the ash is in heaven,
and under the root is the right holy spring; there hold the gods
doom every day; the second root is with the Hrimthursar, where
before was Yawning-gap; under that root is Mimir's spring, where
knowledge and wit lie hidden; thither came Allfather and begged a
drink, but got it not before he left his eye in pledge; the third
root is over Niflheim, and the worm Nidhogg gnaws the root
beneath.
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