THE NORNS THAT TEND YGGDRASILL
those men to whom misfortunes happen ought to ascribe them to the evil Norns."
17. "What more wonders hast thou to tell me," said Gangler, "concerning the ash?"
"What I have further to say respecting it," replied Har, "is, that there is an eagle perched upon its branches who knows many things: between his eyes sits the hawk called Vedurfolnir. The squirrel named Ratatosk runs up and down the ash, and seeks to cause strife between the eagle and Nidhogg. Four harts run across the branches of the tree, and bite the buds. They are called Dainn, Dvalinn, Duneyr, and Durathror. But there are so many snakes with Nidhogg in Hvergelmir that no tongue can recount them."
"It is also said that the Norns who dwell by the Urdar-fount draw every day water from the spring, and with it and the clay that lies around the fount sprinkle the ash, in order that its branches may not rot and wither away. This water is so holy that everything placed in the spring becomes as white as the film within an eggshell. As it is said in the Voluspa—
Named Yggdrasill,
A stately tree sprinkled
With water the purest;
Thence come the dewdrops
That fall in the dales;
Ever blooming, it stands
O'er the Urdar-fountain.'"
"The dew that falls thence on the earth men call honey-dew, and it is the food of the bees. Two fowls are fed in the Urdar-fount; they are called swans, and from them are descended all the birds of this species."
273
