Untitled - Centrostudirpinia.it

818 TIME AND WOULD.
(Sn. 2) and numbers 540 doors, each affording passage to 800
einheries at once, or 432,000 in all, Saem. 43 a . In the midst of
it stands a mighty tree LjeracFr, Lcerd&r, whose foliage is cropt by
the she-goat Heiffrun ; the goat s udder yields (as Amalthea s
horn did nectar) a barrelful of mead a day, enough to nourish all
the einheries. The stag Eikfiyrnir gnaws the branches of the
tree, and out of his horns water trickles down into Hvergelmir
continually, to feed the rivers of the underworld (pp. 558. 561).
This mansion of bliss all valiant men aspired to, and attained
after death ; to the evildoer, the coward, it was closed 1 : mun
sa maftr braut rekinn ur Valkollu, ok )?ar aldrei koma/ Nialss.
cap. 89. To wage a life-and- death conflict with a hero was
called shewing him to Walhaila (visa til Valhallar), Fornald.
sog. 1, 424. Sagas and panegyric poems paint the reception of
departed heroes in Walhaila: when Helgi arrives, OSinn offers
to let him reign with him, Saam. 166 b
; the moment Helgi has
acquired the joint sovereignty, he exercises it by imposing menial
service on Hundingr, whom he had slain. Thus the distinctions
of rank were supposed to be perpetuated in the future life. On
the approach of Eyrikr, Oftinn has the benches arranged, the
goblets prepared, and wine brought up (Fragm. of song, Sn. 97) ;
Sigmund and Sinfiotli are sent to meet him (Miiller s Sagabibl.
2, 375). The Hakonarmal is a celebrated poem on Hakon s wel
come in Valholl. Bnt even the hall of a king on earth, where
heroes carouse as in the heavenly one, bears the same name
Valholl (Saem. 244 a . 246 a anent Atli). The abodes and pleasures
of the gods and those of men are necessarily mirrored in each
other; conf. pp. 336. 393 (see Suppl.).
Indian mythology has a heaven for heroes, and that of Greece
assigns them an elysium in the far West, on the happy isles of
Okeanos ; we may with perfect confidence assert, that a belief in
Walhaila was not confined to our North, but was common to all
Teutonic nations. A vita Idae in Pertz 2, 571 uses the ex
pression coelorum palatinae sedes, implying that a court is
maintained like the king s palatium, where the departed dwell.
Still more to the point is the AS. poet s calling heaven a shield-
1 A 13th cent, poem, to be presently quoted, has already an unmistakable refer
ence to our tale of the spielmann or spielhansel (Jack player), who is
heaven, because he has led a bad life, and performed no deeds.
turned out of