Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

final destiny received Hel-shoes like all others, það er tíðska að binda mönnum helskó,
sem menn skulu á ganga til Valhallar. 31 It would be impossible to explain this custom if
it had not been believed that those who were chosen for the joys of Valhall were obliged,
like all others, to travel á Helvegum. 32 Wherever this custom prevailed, Egil's view in
regard to the fate which immediately awaited sword-fallen men was general.
When Hermod proceeded to the lower world to find Baldur he came, as we know,
to the golden bridge across the river Gjöll. Urd's maid-servant, who watches the bridge,
mentioned to him that the day before five fylki of dead men had ridden across the same
bridge. Consequently all these dead are on horseback and they do not come separately or
a few at a time, but in large troops called fylki, an expression which, in the Icelandic
literature, denotes larger or smaller divisions of an army - legions, cohorts, maniples or
companies in battle array; and with fylki the verb fylkja, to form an army or a division of
an army in line of battle, is most intimately connected. This indicates with sufficient
clearness that the dead here in question are men who have fallen on the field of battle and
are on their way to Hel, each one riding, in company with his fallen brothers in arms,
with those who belonged to his own fylki. The account presupposes that men fallen by the
sword, whose final destination is Asgard, first have to ride down to the lower world.
Otherwise we would not find these fylki on a Hel-way galloping across a subterranean
bridge, into the same realm as had received Baldur and Nanna after death.
It has already been pointed out that Bifröst is the only connecting link between
Asgard and the lower regions of the universe. The air was regarded as an ether sea which
the bridge spanned, and although the horses of mythology were able to swim in this sea,
the solid connection was of the greatest importance. The gods used the bridge every day
(Grímnismál 29, 30, Gylfaginning 15). Frost-giants and mountain-giants are anxious to
get possession of it, for it is the key to Asgard. It therefore has its special watchman in the
keen-eyed and vigilant Heimdall. During Ragnarok, when the gods ride to the last
conflict they pass over Bifröst (Fáfnismál 15). 33 The bridge does not lead to Midgard. Its
lower ends were not conceived as situated among mortal men. It stood outside and below
the edge of the earth's crust both in the north and in the south. In the south, it descended
to Urd's fountain and to the thingstead of the gods in the lower world (see the
accompanying drawing, intended to make these facts intelligible). From this mythological
topographical arrangement it follows of necessity that the valkyries at the head of the
chosen slain must take their course through the lower world, by the way of Urd's fountain
and the thingstead of the gods, if they are to ride on Bifröst bridge to Asgard, and not be
obliged to proceed there on swimming horses.
31 "It is custom to bind hel-shoes to men, so that they shall walk on to Valhall."
32 On the Hel-ways
33 The text of the poem says that the bridge will break as the gods cross over it on their way to the final
battle, but in Gylfaginning 51, Snorri indicates that the bridge will break under the weight of Surt and his
riders.