first wedded to a man called Naglfare, and had by him a son named Aud, and afterward to another man called Annar, by whom she had a daughter called Earth (jörd). She finally espoused Delling (day-break), of asa-race, and their son was Day (dagr), a child light and fair like his father. Allfather gave Night and Day two horses and two cars, and set them up in the heavens that they might drive successively one after the other, each in twenty-four hours' time, round the world. Night rides first with her steed Hrimfaxe (rime-fax),[1] that every morn, as he ends his course, bedews the earth with the foam from his bit. The steed driven by Day is called Skinfaxe (shining-fax), and all the sky and earth glistens from his mane. Thus the Elder Edda, in the lay of Vafthrudner:
Mundilfare hight he
Who the moon's father is,
And also the sun's:
Round heaven journey
Each day they must,
To count years for men.
In the lay of Grimner:
Aarvak and Alsvinn,
Theirs it is up hence
Tired the sun to draw
Under their shoulder
These gentle powers, the gods,
Have concealed an iron-coolness.
Svalin the shield is called
Which stands before the sun,
The refulgent deity;
Rocks and ocean must, I ween,
Be burnt,
Fell it from its place.
- ↑ Fax = mane.
