Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

There are at least three caves of torture, and in one of them there are many iron benches.
This is confirmed, as we shall see, by Völuspá.
Saxo also says that there was a harbor. From Völuspá we learn that when
Yggdrasil trembles at the approach of Ragnarok, the ship of the dead, Naglfar, lies so that
the liberated Loki can go aboard it. That it has long lain moored in its harbor is evident
from the fact that, according to Völuspá, it then "becomes loose." Unknown hands are its
builders. The material out of which it is constructed is the nail-parings of dead men
(Gylfaginning 51 - probably according to some popular tradition). The less regard for
religion, the less respect for the dead. But from each person who is left unburied, or is put
into his grave without being, when possible, washed, combed, cleaned as to hands and
feet, and so cared for that his appearance may be a favorable evidence to the judges at the
Thing of the dead in regard to his survivors -- from each such person comes building
material for the death-ship, which is to carry the hosts of world-destroyers to the great
conflict. Much building material is accumulated in the last days -- in the "dagger-and-axe
age," when "men no longer respect each other" (Völuspá).
Naglfar is the largest of all ships, larger than Skíðblaðnir (Skíðblaðnir er beztur
skipanna . . . en Naglfari er mest skip - Gylfaginning 43). This very fact shows that it is to
have a large number of persons on board when it departs from Loki's rocky island.
Völuspá 47:8-48 says:
Naglfar losnar.
Kjóll fer austan,
koma munu Múspells
um lög lýðir,
en Loki stýrir.
Fara Fífls megir
með Freka allir,
þeim er bróðir
Byleipts í för.
Naglfar becomes loose.
A ship comes from the east,
the hosts of Muspell
come over the ocean,
Loki is pilot.
All of Fifl's sons
come with Freki,
Byleipt's brother
travels with them.
Here it is expressly stated that "the hosts of Muspell" are on board the ship,
Naglfar, guided by Loki, after it had "become loose" and had set sail from the island
where Loki and other damned ones were imprisoned.
How can this be harmonized with the doctrine based on the authority of
Gylfaginning, that the sons of Muspell are inhabitants of the southernmost region of light
and warmth, Gylfaginning's so-called Muspellsheim? or with the doctrine that Surt is the
protector of the borders of this realm? or that Muspell's sons proceed under his command
to the Ragnarok conflict, and that they consequently must come from the South, which
Völuspá also seems to corroborate with the words Surtur fer sunnan með sviga lævi? 1
The answer is that the one statement cannot be harmonized with the other, and the
question then arises as to which of the two authorities is the authentic one, the heathen
poem Völuspá or Gylfaginning, produced in the thirteenth century by a man who had a
1 "Surt fares from the south with the destroyer of twigs"