Draupnir

‘This burning was attended by beings of many different kinds:
firstly to tell of Odin, that with him went Frigg and valkyries and
his ravens, while Freyr drove in a chariot with a boar called
Gullinbursti or Slidrugtanni. But Heimdall rode a horse called
Gulltopp, and Freyia her cats. There came also a great company of
frost-giants and mountain-giants. Odin laid on the pyre a gold
arm-ring called Draupnir. It afterwards had the property that
every ninth night there dripped from it eight gold rings of the same
weight. Baldr’s horse was led on to the pyre with all its harness.
But there is this to tell of Hermod that he rode for nine nights
through valleys dark and deep so that he saw nothing until he
came to the river Gioll and rode on to Gioll bridge. It is covered
with glowing gold. There is a maiden guarding the bridge called
Modgud. She asked him his name and lineage and said that the
other day there had ridden over the bridge five battalions of dead
men.

‘“But the bridge resounds no less under just you, and you do
not have the colour of dead men. Why are you riding here on the
road to Hel?”

‘He replied: “I am to ride to Hel to seek Baldr. But have you
seen anything of Baldr on the road to Hel?”

‘And she said that Baldr had ridden there over Gioll bridge,
“but downwards and northwards lies the road to Hel.”

‘Then Hermod rode on until he came to Hel’s gates. Then he
dismounted from the horse and tightened its girth, mounted and
spurred it on. The horse jumped so hard and over the gate that it
came nowhere near. Then Hermod rode up to the hall and
dismounted from his horse, went into the hall, saw sitting there in
the seat of honour his brother Baldr; and Hermod stayed there the
night. In the morning Hermod begged from Hel that Baldr might
ride home with him and said what great weeping there was among
the Æsir. But Hel said that it must be tested whether Baldr was as
beloved as people said in the following way,

‘“And if all things in the world, alive and dead, weep for him,
then he shall go back to the Æsir, but be kept with Hel if any
objects or refuses to weep.”

‘Then Hermod got up and Baldr went with him out of the hall
and took the ring Draupnir and sent it to Odin as a keepsake, and
Nanna sent Frigg a linen robe and other gifts too; to Fulla a
finger-ring. Then Hermod rode back on his way and came to
Asgard and told all the tidings he had seen and heard.


- Prose Edda, Gylfaginning