Page:The Prose Edda (1916 translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur).pdf/79

 the door in the hall, and locks it before those who should not go in; she is also set at trials as a defence against such suits as she wishes to refute: thence is the expression, that syn is set forward, when a man denies. The twelfth is Hlín: she is established as keeper over those men whom Frigg desires to preserve from any danger; thence comes the saying, that he who escapes 'leans.' Snotra is thirteenth: she is prudent and of gentle bearing; from her name a woman or a man who is moderate is called snotr. The fourteenth is Gná: her Frigg sends into divers lands on her errands; she has that horse which runs over sky and sea and is called Hoof-Tosser. Once when she was riding, certain of the Vanir saw her course in the air; then one spake:


 * What flieth there?
 * What fareth there,
 * Or glideth in the air?

She made answer:


 * I fly not,
 * though I fare
 * And in the air glide
 * On Hoof-Tosser,
 * him that Hamskerpir
 * Gat with Gardrofa.

From Gná's name that which soars high is said to gnæfa. Sól and Bil are reckoned among the Ásynjur, but their nature has been told before.

XXXVI. "There are also those others whose office it is to serve in Valhall, to bear drink and mind the table-service and ale-flagons; thus are they named in Grímnismál: