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When Odin came to the grave he got off his horse, and stood with his face northward, looking through barred inclosures into the city of Helheim itself. The servants of Hela were very busy there making preparations for some new guest hanging gilded couches with curtains of anguish and splendid misery upon the walls.
"Now go away and let me sleep again, for my eyes are heavy." But Odin said, "Only one word more. Is Baldur going to Helheim?" "Yes, I've told you that he is," was the answer. "Will he never come back to Asgard again?" "If everything on earth should weep for him," said she, "he will go back; if not, he will remain in Helheim." Then Odin covered his face with his hands and looked into darkness.
Besides," she added, looking more closely at Hermod, "you are not a dead man at all. Your lips are neither cold not blue. Why, then, do you ride on the way to Helheim?" "I seek Baldur," answered Hermod. "Tell me, have you seen him pass?" "Baldur," she said, "has ridden over the bridge; but there below, towards the north, lies the way to the Abodes of Death."
"If that is true," was the slow, icy answer, "if every created thing weeps for Balder, he shall return to Asgard; but if one eye is dry he remains henceforth in Helheim." Then Hermod rode swiftly away, and the decree of Hel was soon told in Asgard. Through all the worlds the gods sent messengers to say that all who loved Balder should weep for his return, and everywhere tears fell like rain.
So Hermod went on the way until he came to the barred gates of Helheim itself. There he alighted, tightened his saddle-girths, remounted, clapped both spurs to his horse, and cleared the gate by one tremendous leap. Then Hermod found himself in a place where no living man had ever been before the City of the Dead. Perhaps you think there is a great silence there, but you are mistaken.
Then immediately he arose, saddled Sleipnir, his eight-footed steed, mounted him, and, turning to Frigga, said, "I know of a dead prophetess, Frigga, who, when she was alive, could tell what was going to happen; her grave lies on the east side of Helheim, and I am going there to awake her, and ask whether any terrible grief is really coming upon us."
He mounted Sleipner, his eight-legged steed, and rode down toward the abodes of the Dead. For three days and three nights of silence and darkness he journeyed on. Once one of the hounds of Helheim broke loose and bayed upon Sleipner's tracks. For a day and a night Garm, the hound, pursued them, and Odin smelled the blood that dripped from his monstrous jaws.
Then Odin, for the first time in his life, said what was not true; the shadow of Baldur dead fell upon his lips, and he made answer, "My name is Vegtam, the son of Valtam." "And what do you want from me?" asked the Vala. "I want to know," replied Odin, "for whom Hela is making ready that gilded couch in Helheim?" "That is for Baldur the Beloved," answered the dead Vala.
And all night long, while ghostly forms wandered restless and sleepless through Helheim, Hermod talked with Balder and Nanna. There is no record of what they said, but the talk was sad enough, doubtless, and ran like a still stream among the happy days in Asgard when Balder's smile was morning over the earth and the sight of his face the summer of the world.
When Odin came to the grave he got off his horse, and stood with his face northward, looking through barred enclosures into the city of Helheim itself. The servants of Hela were very busy there making preparations for some new guest hanging gilded couches with curtains of anguish and splendid misery upon the walls.
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