Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

In Grímnismál, the word Hel occurs twice (28, 31), and this poem (together with
Gylfaginning) is the only ancient record which gives us any information about the
fountain Hvergelmir under this name (26 ff.).
From what is related, it appears that the mythology conceived Hvergelmir as a
vast reservoir, the mother-fountain of all the waters of the world (þaðan eigu vötn öll
vega). 2 In the front rank are mentioned a number of subterranean rivers which rise in
Hvergelmir, and seek their courses from there in various directions. But the waters of
earth and heaven also come from this immense fountain, and after completing their
circuits they return there. The liquids or saps which rise in the world-tree's stem to its
branches and leaves around Herfather's hall (Valhall) return in the form of rain to
Hvergelmir (Grímnismál 26).
Forty rivers rising there are named. (Whether they were all found in the original
text may be a subject of doubt. Interpolators may have added from their own knowledge.)
Three of them are mentioned in other records - namely, Slíður in Völuspá 36, Gjöll in the
account of Hermod's journey to Hel's realm, which in its main outlines was rescued by
the author of Gylfaginning (chapter 49), and Leiftur in Helg. Hund. II, 31 - and all three
are referred to in such a way as to prove that they are subterranean rivers. Slíður flows to
the realms of torture, and whirls weapons in its eddies, presumably to hinder or frighten
anybody from attempting to cross. Over Gjöll there is a bridge of gold to Baldur's
subterranean abode. Leiftur (which name means "the shining one") has clear waters,
which are holy, and by which solemn oaths are sworn, as by Styx. 3 Of these last two
rivers flowing out of Hvergelmir, it is said that they flow down to Hel (falla til Heljar,
Grímnismál 28). Thus these are all subterranean. The next strophe (29) adds four rivers -
Körmt and Örmt, and the two Kerlaugar, these Thor must wade over every day when he
has to go to the judgment-seats of the gods near the ash Yggdrasil. For he does not ride
like the other gods when they journey down over Bifröst to the thingstead near Urd's
fountain. The horses which they use are named in strophe 30, and are ten in number, like
the Aesir, when we subtract Thor who walks, and Baldur and Hodur who dwell in Hel.
Nor must Thor on these journeys, in case he wished to take the route by way of Bifröst,
use the thunder-chariot, for the flames issuing from it might set fire to the Asa-bridge and
make the holy waters glow (29). That the thunder-chariot also is dangerous for higher
regions when it is set in motion, thereof Thjodolf gives us a brilliant description in the
poem Haustlöng. Since Thor for that reason was obliged to wade across four rivers
before he gets to Urd's fountain, the beds of these rivers must have been conceived of as
crossing the paths travelled by the god journeying to the thingstead. Accordingly, they
must have their courses somewhere in Urd's realm, or on the way to it, and consequently
they too belong to the lower world.
Other rivers coming from Hvergelmir are said to turn their course around a place
called Hodd-goða (27 - þær hverfa um hodd goða). This girdle of rivers, which the
mythology unites around a single place, seems to indicate that this is a realm from which
it is important to shut out everything that does not belong there. The name itself, Hodd-
2 "from there all waters rise"
3 In Greek mythology, the river over which the ferryman Charon conveyed souls to the underworld. It's
aspect was so terrible that even the gods swore oaths on it.