The way in which a hero, who died in battle, or marked his bosom with runes to Odin, left Midgard for Valhalla, is poetically described. Thus shortly after his burial, king Hako, in his silent mound, first changed his posture from the supine to the sitting. He grasped his sword in his right hand; his shield with his left; while the celestial gold-hoofed courser, which had been sent to convey him, pawed the ground outside with manifest impatience. The mound opens; the monarch rises, mounts the noble horse, gallops up Vifrost, and passes through Gladsheim into Valhalla, where the gods came forward to meet him; while Braga, the deity of song, sounds the celestial harp with his praises. We have seen the pursuits of the Einheriar by day,—fighting and drinking. Did they sleep? So we suppose. Sometimes, however, they mounted their horses, galloped down Vifrost, and entered their sepulchral mounds. Sometimes, too, they were present in battle; at other times they communed with their mortal friends. The blood-thirsty character of the Northmen, which could not enjoy peace without cutting one another to pieces, has been justly exposed by historians. Still, however valour might be esteemed, we would not assert that it was the only virtue in the mind of the Scandinavians, or that heaven was closed to every other. There is, indeed, room to infer that this tenet was confined merely to a sect,—a caste,—the dominant one,—the immediate followers of Odin. As we shall have frequently to speak of these celestial residences in the course of this chapter, we shall only add that Asgard had another palace called Vingolf, where the Asyniar, or goddesses, met, just as the gods met in Valhalla. SWARTALFAHEIM Was the abode of the Black Elves, (to distinguish them from the Light or shining Elves, who dwelt in Loisalsfaheim,) and also of the Dwarfs. But there were elves who dwelt in the air, in water, amongst the trees. These could not be called underground people; and it is almost doubtful whether they can be classed among the Black Elves. As the term, however, has been adopted for the purpose we have indicated, viz., to distinguish the elves of earth from those of the highest heaven,—both those who dwell _on_, and those who dwell _below_, the earth’s surface—the well and the ill disposed—may here be considered.