If I grant you a draught
from my well, you will become as one of us, a wise and dangerous enemy.
It is a goodly price, Odin, which I shall demand for a boon so great."
Now Odin was growing impatient for the sparkling water. "Ask your
price," he frowned. "I have promised that I will pay."
"What say you, then, to leaving one of those far-seeing eyes of yours at
the bottom of my well?" asked Mimer, hoping that he would refuse the
bargain. "This is the only payment I will take."
Odin hesitated. It was indeed a heavy price, and one that he could ill
afford, for he was proud of his noble beauty. But he glanced at the
magic fountain bubbling mysteriously in the shadow, and he knew that he
must have the draught.
"Give me the glittering horn," he answered. "I pledge you my eye for a
draught to the brim."
Very unwillingly Mimer filled the horn from the fountain of wisdom and
handed it to Odin. "Drink, then," he said; "drink and grow wise. This
hour is the beginning of trouble between your race and mine." And wise
Mimer foretold the truth.
Odin thought merely of the wisdom which was to be his. He seized the
horn eagerly, and emptied it without delay. From that moment he became
wiser than anyone else in the world except Mimer himself.
Now he had the price to pay, which was not so pleasant. When he went
away from the grotto, he left at the bottom of the dark pool one of his
fiery eyes, which twinkled and winked up through the magic depths like
the reflection of a star.
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