SELECTIONS IN ENGLISH POETRY
And up from thence, a wet and misty road,
To the armed damsel's bridge, and Giall's stream.
Worse was that way to go than to return,
For him;—for others all return is barr'd.
Nine days he took to go, two to return, 635
And on'the twelfth morn saw the light of Heaven.
And as a traveller in the early dawn
To the steep edge of some great valley comes,
Through which a river flows, and sees, beneath,
Clouds of white rolling vapours fill the vale, 640
But o'er them, on the farther slope, descries
Vineyards, and crofts, and pastures, bright with sun—
So Hermod, o'er the fog between, saw Heaven.
<• And Sleipner snorted, for he smelt the air
Of Heaven; and mightily, as wing'd, he flew. 645
And Hermod saw the towers of Asgard rise;
And he drew near, and heard no living voice
In Asgard; and the golden halls were dumb.
Then Hermod knew what labour held the Gods;
And through the empty streets he rode, and pass'd
Under the gate-house to the sands, and found 651
The Gods on the sea-shore by Balder's ship.
III. FUNERAL
The Gods held talk together, group'd in knots.
Round Balder's corpse, which they had thithe'r borne;
And Hermod came down tow'rds them from the gate.
And Lok, the father of the serpent, first 656
Beheld him come, and to his neighbour spake :—
"See, here is Hermod, who comes single back
From Hell; and shall I tell thee how he 'seems ?
Like as a farmer, who hath lost his dog, 660
So*ne morn, at market, in a crowded town—
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