Ride to Hel

1 All together the Æsir came in council*
and all the Asynior in consultation,
and what they debated, those dauntless gods,
was why Baldr was having baleful dreams.

2 Up rose Odin, Gaut of men,*
and on Sleipnir he laid a saddle;
down from there he rode to Mist-hell,
there he met a whelp coming from hell.*

3 Bloody it was on the front of its chest
and long it barked at the father of magic;
on rode Odin, the earth-road resounded,
he approached the high hall of Hel.

4 Then Odin rode east of the doors,
where he knew the seeress’s grave to be;
he began to speak a corpse-reviving spell for the magic-wise woman,*
until reluctantly she rose, spoke these corpse-words:

5 ‘Which man is that, unknown to me,
who makes me travel this difficult road?
I was snowed upon, I was rained upon,
dew fell on me, dead I’ve been a long time.’


- Poetic Edda, Baldrs draumar