Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

There are still two poems extant from the heathen time, which describe the
reception of sword-fallen kings in Valhall. One describes the reception of Erik Bloodaxe,
the other that of Hakon the Good. 34
When King Erik, with five other kings and their attendants of fallen warriors,
come riding up there, the gods hear on their approach a mighty din, as if the foundations
of Asgard trembled. All the benches of Valhall quake and tremble. What single
probability can we now conceive as to what the skald presupposed? Did he suppose that
the chosen heroes came on horses that swim in the air, and that the movements of the
horses in this element produced a noise that made Valhall tremble? Or that it is Bifröst
which thunders under the hoofs of hundreds of horses, and quakes beneath their weight?
There is scarcely need of an answer to this alternative. Meanwhile the skald himself gives
the answer. For the skald makes Bragi say that from the din and quaking it might be
presumed that it was Baldur who was returning to the halls of the gods. Baldur dwells in
the lower world; the connection between Asgard and the lower world is Bifröst: this
connection is of such a nature that it quakes and trembles beneath the weight of horses
and riders, and in regard to Bifröst it is predicted that during Ragnarok it shall break
under the weight of the host of riders. Thus Bragi's words show that it is Bifröst from
which the noise is heard when Erik and his men ride up to Valhall. But to get to the
southern end of Bifröst, Erik and his riders must have journeyed in Hel, across Gjoll, and
past the thingstead of the gods near Urd's well. Thus it is by this road that the
psychopomps of the heroes conduct their favorites to their final destination.
In his grand poem Hákonarmál, Eyvind Skaldaspillir makes Odin send the
valkyries Göndul and Skögul "to choose among the kings of Yngvi's race some who are
to come to Odin and abide in Valhall." It is not said by which road the two valkyries
proceed to Midgard, but when they have arrived there they find that a battle is imminent
between the Yngvi descendants, Hakon the Good, and the sons of Erik. Hakon is just
putting on his coat-of-mail, and immediately thereupon begins the brilliantly-described
battle. The sons of Erik are put to flight, but the victor Hakon is wounded by an arrow,
and after the end of the battle he sits on the battlefield, surrounded by his heroes, "with
shields cut by swords and with byrnies pierced by arrows ." Göndul and Skögul, "maids
34 Eiríkirsmál and Hákonarmál