Odin’s Ride to Hel

6. Uprose Odin lord of men and on Sleipnir he the saddle laid; rode thence down to Niflhel. A dog he met, from Hel coming.

7. It was blood-stained on its breast, on its slaughter-craving throat, and nether jaw. It bayed and widely gaped at the sire of magic song:—long it howled.

8. Forth rode Odin—the ground rattled—till to Hel’s lofty house he came. Then rode Ygg to the eastern gate, where he knew there was a Vala’s grave.

In Baldrs draumar the Æsir meet to ask why Baldr has been troubled by dreams. Odin saddles Sleipnir and rides down to Niflhel. A dog comes from Hel, blood-stained on breast and throat and jaw, and bays at him a long while. Odin rides on until he reaches Hel’s lofty house, then to the eastern gate, where he knew a seeress was buried. He chants a spell, looks to the north, and compels her to rise. She asks who disturbs her; he gives the name Vegtam, son of Valtam, and asks for whom the benches strewn with rings and the couches laid with gold are prepared. She answers that mead is brewed for Baldr and the Æsir are in despair, and later names Höðr as his slayer.

The poem does not name the dog. It is sometimes linked to Garmr, but the translation used here gives no name, so that link is a reader’s guess and not something the poem says. The poem uses both Niflhel and Hel’s house without saying how the two relate. Odin gives the name Vegtam, and the seeress later says he is not Vegtam after all.