Gjallarbrú and Móðguðr

“…until he arrived at the river Gjoll, which he passed over on a bridge covered with glittering gold. Modgudur, the maiden who kept the bridge, asked him his name and lineage, telling him that the day before five bands of dead persons had ridden over the bridge, and did not shake it so much as he alone. ‘But,’ she added, ‘thou hast not death’s hue on thee, why then ridest them here on the way to Hel?’”

In Gylfaginning the bridge over the river Gjöll is covered with glittering gold, and a maiden named Móðguðr keeps it. She asks Hermóðr his name and family and tells him that the day before five bands of dead had crossed, yet the bridge shook less under them than under him alone. She remarks that he does not have the colour of death and asks why he rides toward Hel. When he says he seeks Baldr, she answers that Baldr has crossed the bridge, and that the way to the abodes of the dead lies below, toward the north.