The children of Odin - Germanic Mythology

54
CHILDREN OF ODIN
could overlook tHe world and have a glimpse of all who
wandered there. That place was Hlidskjalf, Odin's lofty
Watch-Tower.
High up into the blue of the air that Tower went. Frey
came to it and he knew that Odin All-Father was not upon
Hlidskjalf. Only the two wolves, Geri and Freki, that crouched
beside Odin's seat at the banquet, were there, and they stood in
the way of Frey's entrance to the Tower. But Frey spoke to
Geri and Freki in the language of the Gods, and Odin's wolves
had to let him pass.
But, as he went up the steps within the Tower, Frey, chief of
the Vanir, knew that he was doing a fateful thing. For none
of the High Gods, not even Thor, the Defender of Asgard, nor
Baldur, the Best-beloved of the Gods, had ever climbed to the
top of that Tower and seated themselves upon the All-Father's
seat. "But if I could see my sister once I should be contented,"
said Frey to himself, " and no harm can come to me if I look out
on the world."
He came to the top of Hlidskjalf. He seated himself on Odin's
lofty seat. He looked out on the world. He saw Midgard, the
World of Men, with its houses and towns, its farms and people.
Beyond Midgard he saw Jotunheim, the Realm of the Giants,
terrible with its dark moimtains and its masses of snow and ice.
He saw Freya as she went upon her wanderings, and he marked
that her face was turned towards Asgard and that her steps were
leading towards the City of the Gods. " I have contented myself