Once upon a time as Heimdall, the guardian of the rainbow bridge, was drinking his mead in his great castle, Himinbjörg or the Cliff of Heaven, he heard a strange clattering coming up the narrow path of colored light. He immediately rose and took up his place before the gate of Asgard, the home of the godly Spirits, so that he might question the noisy stranger.
Heimdall was surprised to see a man and a woman happily walking toward him up Bifröst, the shimmering path of light.
Heimdall: Who are you that wish to cross from Midgard, the middle earth, into the Home of the Gods?
The man and woman answer together: We are human beings from the land below that have purified ourselves through sacrifice and trial, and taking on the mantle of Love, Will, and Wisdom, wish to enter into the Eternal Light.
Heimdall: Do you not know that the eye of Heimdall can see a fly crawling on Jotunheim, the Mountain of the Ice Giants, and his ear can hear the wool growing on the backs of lambs? Nothing evades my gaze.
The man and woman together: What does this have to do with us, O mighty guardian?
Heimdall: For I see before me no true son and daughter of Man, but instead two trolls riding on the back of a fantastic machine, built by Loki and the Ice Giants. I heard the clattering of its creaking gears from far away. You cannot enter here.
The man and the woman together: We beg to differ, O mighty guardian, for we know in our clearest thought, founded on the strength of human knowledge, that we are indeed a son and daughter of Man.
Heimdall: Then look! (Heimdall lifts up his shield, which is as clear and as bright as a mirror, and they gaze onto its surface)
The man and woman together: O what horror! The guardian of the bridge speaks the truth! This gruesome machine is part of us, and our faces are those of monstrous trolls, licking their lips with vile intent. Every thought coughed out from our brains is churned in the icy cogs of this device. We swear O guardian that we never knew this truth until now!
Heimdall: That may be, but the trolls and their machine cannot enter the Land of Spirits.
The man and the woman together: But we are the trolls, we are the machine. If we left them behind, then we would be nothing.
Heimdall: You speak truly, for you must know that behind this gate the rainbow bridge is broken, and the first step into Asgard must be through the great Abyss. (Heimdall bids them come and look, and then opens the great gate and they look down to see that there is an infinite chasm of darkness yawning behind it. On the other side, they see the lights of Asgard.)
The man and the woman together: But we are so afraid. We cannot become nothing. All we have ever known are the trolls and their machine.
Heimdall: Then you must turn back.
The man and the woman: But, there must be some hope. Because we have seen the trolls and their machine from the outside that must mean that there is something in us that is more than their vile form, their evil intent! There is a small light burning in us, that can choose to leave the troll-machine, and plunge its little flame into the great darkness on the yonder side of that gate. In that simple choice, we are free!
Heimdall: That is the only way. You must become nothing before Vidar, the son of Odin, can take your hand on the yonder side of the Abyss.
Two little flames, like will o wisps, flutter out of the troll-machine, and with great struggle, slowly fly through the gate behind Heimdall. They disappear into the darkness. On the other side, Vidar waits, dipping a great cup into a lake of silver mead.
