A fair hall stands under the ash by the spring, and out
of it come three maidens, Norns, named Has-been, Being, Will-be,
who shape the lives of men; there are beside other Norns, who
come to every man that is born to shape his life, and some of
these are good and some evil. In the boughs of the ash sits an
eagle, wise in much, and between his eyes sits the hawk
Vedrfalnir; the squirrel Ratatoskr runs up and down along the
ash, bearing words of hate betwixt the eagle and the worm. Those
Norns who abide by the holy spring draw from it every day water,
and take the clay that lies around the well, and sprinkle them up
over the ash for that its boughs should not wither or rot. All
those men that have fallen in the fight, and borne wounds and
toil unto death, from the beginning of the world, are come to
Odin in Valhall; a very great throng is there, and many more
shall yet come; the flesh of the boar Soerfmnir is sodden for
them every day, and he is whole again at even; and the mead they
drink that flows from the teats of the she-goat Heidhrun.
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