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enough what they relished during life. "The heroes, says the Edda[1], who are received into the palace of Odin, have every day the pleasure of arming themselves, of passing in review, of ranging themselves in order of battle, and of cutting one another in pieces; but as soon as the hour of repast approaches, they return on horseback all safe and sound back to the Hall of Odin, and fall to eating and drinking. Though the number of them cannot be counted, the flesh of the boar Serimner is sufficient for them all; every day it is served up at table, and every day it is renewed again intire: their beverage is beer and mead; one single goat, whose milk is excellent mead, furnishes enough of that liquor to intoxicate all the heroes: their cups are the skulls of enemies they have slain. Odin alone, who sits at a table by himself, drinks wine for his entire liquor. A crowd of virgins wait upon the heroes at table, and fill their cups as fast as they empty them.” Such was that happy state, the bare hope of which rendered all the inhabitants of the North of Europe intrepid, and which made them not only to defy, but even seek with ardor the most cruel deaths. Accordingly
- ↑ Edda Iceland. Mythol. 31, 33, 34, 35.
