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Poetic Edda

What call they the house?  for no man beheld 'Mongst the gods so grim a sight."
  Fjolsvith spake:28.[1] "Gastropnir is it,  of old I made it From the limbs of Leirbrimir;I braced it so strongly  that fast it shall stand So long as the world shall last."
  Svipdag spake:29. "Now answer me, Fjolsvith,  the question I ask, For now the truth would I know:What call they the tree  that casts abroad Its limbs o'er every land?"
  Fjolsvith spake:30.[2] "Mimameith its name,  and no man knows What root beneath it runs;And few can guess  what shall fell the tree, For fire nor iron shall fell it."
  Svipdag spake:31. "Now answer me, Fjolsvith,  the question I ask, For now the truth would I know:
  1. ↑ Gastropnir: "Guest-Crusher." Leirbrimir's ("Clay-Giant's") limbs: a poetic circumlocution for "clay"; cf. the description of the making of earth from the body of the giant Ymir, Vafthruthnismol, 21.
  2. ↑ Mimameith ("Mimir's Tree"): the ash Yggdrasil, that overshadows the whole world. The well of Mimir was situated at its base; cf. Voluspo, 27-29.

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