Odin.  “Leave thou the river; crossing shall be refused thee.”

Thor.  “Show me the way, since thou wilt not ferry me.”

Odin.  “That is a small thing to refuse.  It is a long way to go:  a while to the stock, and another to the stone, then keep to the left hand till thou reach Verland.  There will Fjoergyn meet her son Thor, and she will tell him the highway to Odin’s land.”

Thor.  “Shall I get there to-day?”

Odin.  “With toil and trouble thou wilt get there about sunrise, as I think.”

Thor.  “Our talk shall be short, since thou answerest with mockery.  I will reward thee for refusing passage, if we two meet again.”

Odin.  “Go thy way, where all the fiends may take thee.”

Lokasenna also is in dialogue form.  A prose introduction tells how the giant Oegi, or Gymi, gave a feast to the Aesir.  Loki was turned out for killing a servant, but presently returned and began to revile the Gods and Goddesses, each one in turn trying to interfere, only to provoke a taunt from Loki.  At last Thor, who had been absent on a journey, came in and threatened the slanderer with his hammer, whereupon Loki said, “I spoke to the Aesir and the sons of the Aesir what my mind told me; but for thee alone I will go away, for I know thou wilt strike.”  Some of the poem is rather pointless abuse, but much touches points already suggested in the other poems.

Hyndluljod is much later than the others, probably not before 1200.  The style is late, and the form imitated from Voeluspa.  It describes a visit paid by Freyja to the Sibyl to learn the genealogy of her favourite Ottar.  The larger part deals with heroic genealogies, but there are scanty allusions to Baldr, Frey, Heimdal, Loki’s children, and Thor, and a Christian reference to a God who shall come after Ragnaroek “when Odin shall meet the wolf.”  It tells nothing new.

We have here then, omitting Hyndluljod, five poems (four of them belonging to the first half of the tenth century) which suggest a general outline of Norse mythology:  there is a hierarchy of Gods, the Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin being the chief.  Among them are several who are not Aesir by origin:  Njoerd and his son and daughter, Frey and Freyja, are Vanir; Loki is really an enemy and an agent in their fall; and there are one or two Goddesses of giant race.  The giants are rivals and enemies to the Gods; the dwarfs are also antagonistic, but in bondage.  The meeting-place of the Gods is by the World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of Gods and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake.  The Gods have foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnaroek, the great fight when they shall meet Loki’s children, the Wolf and the Snake; both sides will fall and the world be destroyed.  An episode in the story is the death of Baldr.  This we may assume to be the religion of the Viking age (800-1000 A.D.), a compound of the beliefs of various ages and tribes.