THE STORY & ITS AFTERLIVES
Heimdall is called the white god; his teeth are of gold, and he was born of nine mothers, often identified as nine wave-sisters. His hall Himinbjorg stands where the rainbow bridge Bifrost touches the sky, and there he keeps watch over the approach to Asgard. His senses were made for sentry duty: he needs less sleep than a bird, sees a hundred leagues by night as well as by day, and hears the grass growing in the fields and the wool growing on sheep. Beside him hangs the Gjallarhorn, whose blast can be heard through all the worlds; it will sound once, when the giants march and Ragnarok begins.
The Rigsthula tells how he wandered the human world under the name Rig, lodging with three households in turn and fathering the three lines of thralls, freemen, and nobles, which is why the Voluspa opens by addressing humankind as the children of Heimdall. His feud with Loki runs deep: in one tale the two fought in the shape of seals over the stolen necklace Brisingamen. At Ragnarok they are each other's final opponents, and each kills the other.
