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148 EELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN.
Skald, in a song of praise to the fallen king Eirik
Blood-axe, lets Odin say to Bragi, in answer to the
question why he had bereaved Eirik the Victorious
who. was so brave : "Our lot is uncertain; the gray
wolf gazes on the hosts of the Gods," *. e. we know
not when the Fenris-wolf shall come, therefore we
may need the help of heroes. Li the same sense
Eyvind Skaldaspillir, in his Hakonarmal, makes
the Yalkyrja say : " Ifow do the helping hosts of
the Gods grow stronger, when' they have, by their
brave baiids, brought Hakon to their home."
But because the dead who were slain by anns
were thought to be called to the hosts of the Einher-
jar, it was not supposed that Hel was deprived of .
all share in their being ; nor yet, on the other hand,
that the soul of every one who died a natural death
was shut out from Jleaven, and forced to follow the.
body down into the abodes, of Hel. That it was
virtue, on the whole, and not bravery albne, wMeh
was to be rewarded in another life, and that it was
wickedness and vice which were to be punished, is
distinctly shown in the ancient heathen poem Vo-
luspa, where it Says that in Gimli shaU the righteous
hosts (dyggvar dr6ttir) enjoy gladness forever, while
perjurers, murderers, and they who seduce men's
wives, shall wade lAirough thick venom-streams in
IN'astrond. Although the language is here used in
reference .to the state of things after Kagnarokkr, it
may be assumed that they had similar ideas concerning
the preceding middle state of the Dead.
It was certainly believed that the soul of the Yir-
tuous, even though death by arms had not released
.