Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

dead) beings called ásmegir and ásasynir, Lif and Leifthrasir and their offspring, whose
destiny it is to people the regenerated earth.
Yggdrasil's third root stands over Urd's fountain and the subterranean thingstead
of the gods.
The lower world consists of two chief divisions: Niflhel (with the regions
belonging to it) and Hel; Niflhel situated north of the Hvergelmir mountain, and Hel
south of it. Accordingly both the land where Mimir's well and grove are situated and the
land where Urd's fountain is found are within the domain Hel.
In regard to the zones or climates, in which the roots are located, they have been
conceived as having a southern and northern. We have already shown that the root over
Hvergelmir is the northern one. That the root over Urd's fountain has been conceived as
the southern one is manifest from the following circumstances. Eilif Gudrunarson, who
was converted to Christianity - the same skald who wrote the purely heathen Þórsdrápa -
says in one of his poems, written after his conversion, that Christ sits suðr at
Urðarbrunni, in the south near Urd's fountain, 9 an expression which he could not have
used unless his hearers had retained from the faith of their childhood the idea that Urd's
fountain was situated south of the other fountains. Hrafnagaldur Óðins 2 puts upon Urd's
fountain the task of protecting the world-tree against the devastating cold during the
terrible winter which the poem describes. Óðhrærir skyldi Urðar geyma mættk at verja
mestum þorra. - "Urd's Odrerir (mead-fountain) proved not to retain strength enough to
protect against the terrible cold." 10 This idea shows that the sap which Yggdrasil's
southern root drew from Urd's fountain was thought to be warmer than the saps of the
other wells. As, accordingly, the root over Urd's well was the southern, and that over
Hvergelmir and the frost-giants the northern, it follows that Mimir's well was conceived
as situated between those two. The memory of this fact Gylfaginning has in its fashion
preserved, where in chapter 15 it says that Mimir's fountain is situated where
Ginnungagap formerly was - that is, between the northern Niflheim and the southern
warmer region (Gylfaginning's "Muspellsheim").
Grímnismál 31 says:
Þrjár rætur standa
á þrjá vega
undan aski Yggdrasils:
Hel býr undir einni,
annarri hrímþursar,
þriðju mennskir menn.
Three roots grow
in three directions
below Yggdrasil's ash:
Hel lives under one,
frost-giants under the second,
"human men" under the third.
9 Preserved in Skáldskaparmál 51, Faulkes edition; 65, Jónsson edition.
10 As noted in No. 49, this passage is better understood to mean: " Urður was appointed Óðrærir's keeper
powerful to protect it against the mightiest winter." See Supplement I. Rydberg's apparent mistranslation in
no way undermines his conclusion that Urd's well was conceived of as the southernmost, and therefore the
warmest of the three wells.