Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

get light on this point. According to this song it was Rostiophus Phinnicus who told Odin
that a son of the latter and Rind was to avenge Baldur's death. Rostiophus is, as P. E.
Müller has already remarked, the frost-giant Hrossþjófur mentioned in Hyndluljóð (i.e.
Völuspá in skamma 4) as a son of Hrímnir and brother of the sorceress Heiður, the vala
and witch well known from Völuspá and other sources. Niflhel is, as shown above (No.
60), the abode of the frost-giants transferred to the lower world. Where his father Hrímnir
(Bergelmir) and his progenitor Hrímgrímnir (Thrudgelmir) 3 dwell in the thurs-hall
mentioned in Skírnismál, there we also find Hrossþjófur, and Odin must there seek him.
Vegtamskviða makes Odin seek his sister.
It is Bifröst's north bridge-head which particularly requires the vigilance of
Heimdall, the ward of the gods, since the frost-giants and the damned are its neighbors.
Heimdall is therefore "widely known" among the inhabitants of Niflhel (Skírnismál 28),
and Loki reproaches Heimdall that his vocation as watchman always compels him to
expose his back to the torrents of an unfavorable sky (Lokasenna 48). In the night which
constantly broods over this northern zone shine the forms of the "white" god and of his
gold-beaming horse Gulltoppur, when he makes spying expeditions there. His eye
penetrates the darkness of a hundred rasts, and his ear catches the faintest sound
(Gylfaginning 27). Near Bifröst, presumably at the very bridge-head, mythology has
given him a fortified citadel, Himinbjörg, "the ward of heaven" with a comfortable hall
well supplied with "the good mead" (Grímnismál 13; Gylfaginning 27).
The lower world is more extensive in all directions than the surface of the earth
above it. Bifröst would not be able to pass outside and below the crust of the earth to rest
with its bridge-heads on the domain of the three world-fountains if this were not the case.
The lower world is therefore called Jörmungrund, "the great ground or foundation"
(Hrafnagaldur Óðins 25), and its uttermost zone, jaðarr Jörmungrundar, "the domain of
the great ground," 4 is open to the celestial canopy, and the under side of the earth is not
its roof. From Hliðskjálf, the outlook of the gods in Asgard (Hrafnagaldur Óðins, the
prose texts in Skírnismál and in Grímnismál), the view is open to Midgard, to the sea, and
to the giant-world situated beyond the Elivogar rivers (see the texts mentioned), 5 and
should accordingly also be so to the broad zone of Jormungrund, excepting its
subterranean realms of bliss is to receive Baldur, chooses the route through Niflhel is explained not by
Vegtamskviða, where this fact is stated, but by the older poem mentioned by Saxo, which makes him seek
the dweller in Niflhel, the frost-giant Hrossþjófur, son of Hrímnir. [This is Rydberg's footnote. These extra
verses which are preserved in late paper manuscripts are quoted by Bugge in his Sæmundar Edda, as well
as by Benjamin Thorpe in his translation of the poem.]
3 This is the only place that Rydberg identifies Hrimnir and Bergelmir, his reasons for doing so are
unknown. Rydberg identifies Hrimgrimnir as Thrudgelmir in No. 60. Skírnismál does not actually identify
Hrimgrimnir and Hrimnir as father and son, thus there are no grounds to identify Hrimnir and Bergelmir.
4 Jaðarr is a younger form of jöðurr, meaning "rim, edge." Rydberg bases the expression jaðarr
Jörmungrundar on Hrafnagaldur Óðins 25 which reads Jörmungrundar í jóðyr (variants: iaðyr, iaþir)
nyrðra. The word jóðyr also appears in the Codex Regius version of Völuspá 5, and is typically emended to
jöðurr based on the Hauksbók reading ioður. Rydberg's use of the term here demonstrates that he accepts
this emendation. The word jóðyr however can only mean "horse-door." If the meaning "horse-door" is
accepted, it might refer to the portals through which the horses of the Sun, Day, and Night, as well as the
Aesir enter and exit the lower world.
5 In Hrafnagaldur Óðins 10, Odin watches the sons of Ivaldi (Rögnir and Regin) as they travel to the
Wolfdales. In the prose introduction to Skírnismál, Frey observes Gerd in Jötunheim and in the prose
introduction to Grímnismál, Odin and Frigg see into Jötunheim and Midgard. However, both Skírnismál
and Grímnismál use the expression sá um heima alla, saw into all the worlds.