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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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