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Poetic Edda
Now Skathi abides, the god's fair bride, In the home that her father had.
12.[1] The seventh is Breithablik; Baldr has there For himself a dwelling set,In the land I know that lies so fair, And from evil fate is free.
13.[2] Himinbjorg is the eighth, and Heimdall there O'er men holds sway, it is said;In his well-built house does the warder of heaven The good mead gladly drink.
- ↑ Breithablik ("Wide-Shining"): the house in heaven, free from everything unclean, in which Baldr (cf. Voluspo, 32, note), the fairest and best of the gods, lived.
- ↑ Himinbjorg ("Heaven's Cliff"): the dwelling at the end of the bridge Bifrost (the rainbow), where Heimdall (cf. Voluspo, 27) keeps watch against the coming of the giants. In this stanza the two functions of Heimdall—as father of mankind (cf. Voluspo, 1 and note, and Rigsthula, introductory prose and note) and as warder of the gods—seem both to be mentioned, but the second line in the manuscripts is apparently in bad shape, and in the editions is more or less conjectural.
- ↑ Folkvang ("Field of the Folk"): here is situated Freyja's
Thrymheim ("the Home of Clamor"): on this mountain the giant Thjazi built his home. The god, or rather Wane, Njorth (cf. Voluspo, 21, note) married Thjazi's daughter, Skathi. She wished to live in her father's hall among the mountains, while Njorth loved his home, Noatun, by the sea. They agreed to compromise by spending nine nights at Thrymheim and then three at Noatun, but neither could endure the surroundings of the other's home, so Skathi returned to Thrymheim, while Njorth stayed at Noatun. Snorri quotes stanzas 11-15.
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