kavrmt ok avrmt
ok kerlaugar tvær
þær skal Þórr vaða
hverian dag
er hann dæma ferr
at aski yggdrasils,
því at ásbrú
brenn öll logo
heilog vötn hlóa.  

körmt ok örmt
ok kærlaugar tvær
þær skal Þórr vaða
dag hvern,
er hann dæma ferr
at aski yggdrasils
því at ásbrú
brenn öll loga
hæilög vötn hloa  

29. Körmt ok Örmt
ok Kerlaugar tvær,
þær skal Þórr vaða
dag hvern,
er hann dæma ferr
at aski Yggdrasils,
því at ásbrú
brenn öll loga,
heilög vötn hlóa.  

XXIX. O'er four fam'd rivers spreading far,
Thor drives on his thundering car;
When to the ash of Yggdrasil,
He goes to tell his wond'rous will.
Then ev'ry bridge th' Asori raise,
Shall smoke in undulating blaze,
Each mortal stream its banks forsake,
And sacred fonts combustion take.

"O'er four fam'd rivers," --- Their names are Kaurmt, Aurmt, and the two Herlaugars.

Kaurrmt and Aurmt and the two Kerlaug's,
Through whose cold streams great Thor maketh his way
When he goeth to Yggdrasill, the ancient ash;

29. Körmt and Örmt,
and the Kerlaugs twain:
these Thor must wade each day,
when he to council goes
at Yggdrasil’s ash;
for the As-bridge
is all on fire,
the holy waters boil.

22-23. Kormth and Wormth and the two Charlocks Thor must wade every day when he goes to court at the ash Ygg's-steed, for the Anse-bridge burns all aflame, and the holy waters bellow.

29. Kormt and Ormt and the Bath-tubs twain,
these must the Thunderer wade,
when he fares each day to his throne of doom
under Yggdrasil's ash ;
thence Bifrost burns, the bridge of the gods,
and the mighty waters well.

29. Kormt and Ormt and the Kerlaugs twain
Shall Thor each day wade through,
(When dooms to give he forth shall go
To the ash-tree Yggdrasil;)
For heaven’s bridge burns all in flame,
And the sacred waters seethe.

29. Kormt and Ormt and the Kerlaugs twain,
    Thor does wade through
    every day, to doom when he fares
    'neath the ash Yggdrasil;
    for the bridge of the gods  is ablaze with flames --
    hot are the holy waters.

29. Thor shall wade through the waters of Ormt,
Kormt and the two Kerlaugs,
When he goes each day to deal
Out fates From Yggdrasil the ash tree.
The bridge of the gods shall burst into flame,
The sacred waters seethe.

29 'Kormt and Ormt and the two Kerlaugar,
these Thor must wade
every day, when he goes to sit as judge
at the ash of Yggdrasill,
for the bridge of the Æsir burns all with flames,
the sacred waters boil.

Kormt and Ormt
and the two Kerlaugar,
these must Thor wade
every day,
when he goes to judge
at the Yggdrasil's ash,
else the bridge of the Æsir
would burn in flames,
and the sacred waters boil.

29. The Dike and the Delta
and the Double Baths
Þórr has to wade over
every day,
when he goes to give judgements
at Yggdrasill's Ash-
for the bridge of the Æsir
is all blazing with flame-
the holy waters are not hot!

29. ‘Körmt and Örmt, and the two Kettle-baths,
Thor must wade through these
each day, when he journeys to judgement
close by the ash Yggdrasil,
since the Æsir-bridge burns all aflame
the hallowed waters seethe.
 

In the skaldic poem, Haustlöng, when Thor goes to face the giant Hrungnir in single-combat, he also drives his car. In the Prose Edda’s account of this tale, Snorri simply says that Thor traveled there quickly (Skáldskaparmál 24: fór hann ákafliga).  Haustlöng provides a more detailed description: 

According to these accounts, the effects of Thor's chariot are devastating. When Thor drives his car, the sky rumbles, the ground is beaten with hail, the earth burns, and solid rock splits apart. Such intensity, Grimnismál 29 implies would seriously damage the Bifröst bridge. Thus Thor must drive directly through the sea of air.
 
In some of the tales chronicling the thunder-god’s exploits, when Thor leaves home to face his giant foes, he drives his goat-drawn chariot only part of the way. On those occasions, he leaves them somewhere along the journey in the able hands of a caretaker before proceeding to Jötunheim on foot. In Skáldskaparmál 17, Snorri calls this caretaker a peasant (búandi). Hymiskviða provides his name, indicating that he was a mythic personage the poet's intended audience was expected to know:
 
Hymiskviða

The exact location of Egil the goat-keep’s house is not stated in the surviving lore. However, the available sources provide some indication of where it might be. Hymir, we are told, lives “east of the Elivagor” at “the edge of heaven.” (Hymiskviða 5/1-4).

The river which rings Midgard serves as the home of Thor's eternal enemy— Loki’s son, Jörmungand, the great Midgard-serpent. Speaking of Loki’s monstrous children, Gylfaginning 34 says:

However, there is another viable explanation. In Gylfaginning 4, the rivers that flow from Hvergelmir collectively are called the Elivagor, and in Grímnismál 28, Hraunn is named as one of the rivers  said to flow from Hvergelmir. Thus, hraunn-búi can also indicate a dweller by the river Hraunn (Hrönn). Both interpretations of this kenning are valid. Thus, the kenning 'Hraunn-dweller" may indicate that Thor's friend Egil lives along the banks of the waters separating Jötunheim from Midgard. If so, Hraunn is used here as another name of Ifing and the Elivagor. Here, one of the streams that form the Elivagor is used to designate the whole, a not uncommon practice in Old Norse kennings, where a part is often used to designate the whole.  As a trusted friend of Thor, Egil keeps the thunder-god’s draught-animals safe when Thor ventures into Jötunheim to face the hostile “Hraunn-whales”, which pursue him out into the water as he escapes with Hymir’s kettle.
 
The crossing of the Elivagor need not be directly stated, as the cues which allude to it are sufficient to evoke this image the minds of those already familiar with it.  It’s clear from the context that Hymir lives near a great body of water where he and Thor fish for the World-serpent. The poet effectively plays with mythic imagery throughout the poem. In verse 26, Hymir refers to the boat Thor rows as a “floating-goat” (flotbrúsa). Andy Orchard believes that “this unusual kenning presumably refers to Thor’s usual mode of transportation” (i.e. his goat-drawn chariot') also invoked in verses 20 and 31, which call Thor the “lord of goats” (hafra dróttinn). This is likely since boats are often described as steeds and wagons of the sea. Conversely, on Thor’s  return trip, the cauldron he carries is called an öl-kjól  “ale-ship”, likely alluding to his crossing the body of water which seperates the land of the gods from the land of the giants. Kjöll is a kind of ship. The same word is used of Hymir’s boat in verse 19, during the fishing-trip on the same waters. The Hymiskviða poet thus demonstrates skill in his art.
 
If this interpretation of hraunn-búa is correct, then Egil was thought to live on one side of the Elivagor, opposite Jötunheim; and the giants on the other, in Jötunheim proper. In Skáldskaparmál 18, we may find yet another name for this river.

After lodging for the night with the giantess Grið, who lends him her girdle of strength, gloves and staff, Thor, who left his own precious possessions behind on Loki's advice, crosses the river Vimur, “the greatest of all rivers,” (allra á mest).

A historicized version of these events also appears in the story of Thorstein Mansion-Might in the collected Fornaldarsögur.

We know that the Elivagor are bitter cold. In the tale of Thor and his friend Aurvandil (see below) contact with its waters causes instant frost-bite, a condition which turns skin black and kills tissue, not unlike snake venom. The word eitr, ‘venom’ is also used to indicate "deadly cold". In Thórsdrápa 5, the poet Eilífr Goðrúnarson, uses the phrase þjóðáar fnæstu eitri, ‘the mighty rivers, spewing venom" to describe the waters Thor must wade through on his way to the giant Geirrod’s.  The expression fnæstu eitri "snorted/spewed poison" invokes the image of a spitting serpent. In this context, the serpent can only be Jörmungandr, the Midgard serpent, who lies on the bottom of the sea, ringing the world. In Thórsdrápa 2/5, the same serpent is called gjarðvenjuðr, the girdle of the earth. 

In Thorsdrapa 2, we encounter a body of water called Gandvik. The word is either part of a kenning Gandvikr skotum “Gandvik’s Scots” (‘giants’, Anthony Faulkes’) or  gjarðvenjuðr Gandvíkr (‘the girdle of Gandvik’, Eysteinn Björnsson). In historical times, the name Gandvík ("Magic Bay") seems to have indicated the White Sea, and less  specifically, the Arctic Ocean in general. Mythologically, it is equivalent to the great river that Thor must wade through on his expeditions to Jötunheim. Thus, the icy Arctic Ocean, which undulates with waves of hail and ice, is likened to the Midgard serpent, which spews venom of deadly cold. From this, we can surmise that the great serpent's head was thought to be located in the North. Its eitr ‘venom’ is poisons the freezing brine, which Thor braves during his crossing. There, the serpent’s foul head can be seen biting its own tail. It is in these waters that Thor fishes for Jormungand in Hymir’s boat. Ironically, the same venom, undiluted by the waves, will be the cause of Thor’s death at Ragnarök.

The rising waters present no problem for Thor, who says  in response, that his Ás-strength will rise as high as heaven itself. In Gylfaginning 21, Snorri informs us that when Thor buckles on his belt of strength, that his Ás-strength is increased by half (megingjarðar, ok er hann spennir þeim um sik, þá vex honum ásmegin hálfu). Thus, the true nature of Thor’s belt seems to be that it allows him to grow in height and strength, equal to that of his opponents. Thus, when faced with giant foes, no matter how large, he can meet them face to face and breast to breast. Even the mightiest giant is no match for him, as his duel with Hrungnir attests. The Midgard-serpent, however, is so long that it tests his limits. In the tale of Thor’s journey to the giant Utgard-Loki, told in Gylfaginning 44, when Thor attempts to lift the serpent, disguised in the shape of a giant's cat, the cat simply arches its back, so that no matter how tall Thor grows, one of its feet always appears to remain on the ground.

The tale of Utgard-Loki also provides details, useful to our understanding. Along the way to the abode of Utgard-Loki (called Fjalar in Harbardsljóð 26), Thor stops to rest for the evening at the house of a ‘peasant’ (búanda)  before proceeding to Jötunheim. On that occassion, he is accompanied by Loki:

The same adventure is referenced in Hymisviða 37-38, where it is said to have occurred upon Thor’s return to Egil’s home (cf. verse 7) with Hymir’s kettle.

The close grouping of the Æsir and elves, with Thor’s home Thrudheim, Ull’s home Ydalir, and Alfheim itself in Grímnismál 4 and 5 may allude to their close relationship with another. Völund and Egil may well be Sons of Ivaldi, related to the goddess Idunn and to Thor's wife Sif.  The records are simply too fragmentary to be conclusive.

In the lore, the Finns are closely associated with the elves. In the prose introduction to Völundarkviða, the elf-princes, Völund and Egil  are said to be the sons of a Finnish king. North and east of Finland lies the Arctic Ocean, the waters thought to lie at the edge of the world. In Germania 45, Tacitus remarks:

 "It is this sea that encircles and envelops the world, as proved by the fact that the final gleam of the setting sun lingers on until dawn, so brightly that it obscures the stars. Furthermore popular fance asserts that one can hear the sound of the rising sun, and see the shapes of his horses and the rays of his head. Only so far, and the rumour seems true, does the world extend."

The Prose Edda offers additional confirmation that across the waters from Jötunheim, Thor has friends who aid him in his war with the giants. In Skáldskapamál 17, these waters are again called the Elivagor. On his way back from battling the giant Hrungnir, with a chunk of Hrungnir’s hone imbedded in his forehead, Thor encounters his friend Aurvandill, husband of the sorceress Gróa, along the way:
 

The elves thus seem to act as a buffer, assisting Thor in protecting Midgard from the onslaught of the powers of frost, represented by the giants. Thor's friends Aurvandil and the elf-prince Egil make their homes by Hraunn, in which we recognize the Elivagor. Thor uses this place as a safehouse to keep his goats, and as a lodge, on his expeditions into Jötunheim. If necessary, he can also gather reinforcements here before crossing the Elivagor.

According to Grímnismál 29-30 and Gylfaginning 15, the gods gather at Urd’s well daily to hold council.
 
Gylfaginning 15 says:

Thor, however, who does not ride a horse, but drives his fiery thunder-chariot drawn by goats, cannot drive across Ás-brú, the Bridge of the Æsir (i.e. Bifröst), like the other gods do. If he does, the bridge itself would burn and the holy waters (of Urd's well) would boil.  So instead, Thor must wade through no less than four rivers.

The modern interpretation holds that these are heavenly rivers. Carolyne Larrington, in “Vafþrúðnismál and Grímnismál: Cosmic History, Cosmic Geography” in The Poetic Edda; Essays on Old Norse Mythology (2002) remarks: 

"Rivers are major transport routes in the human world, but here they seem to function as barriers, separating the known from the unknown world (Hale). The river Þund (st. 21, a hard verse to construe) is difficult for those made cheerful by slaughter (the Einherjar?) to cross, while Þórr seems to be obliged to wade through rivers in the divine world to go to a judgment seat beneath Yggdrasill." 

Following the list of rivers named in Grímnismál 27-28, which ends with the statement that they þær falla gumnum nær, falla til Heljar héðan “flow close to men, then flow hence to Hel,” we may reasonably suspect that the four rivers named in Grimnismál 29 are also subterranean, rather than celestial, rivers. At least three of the rivers named in Grímnismál 28 are rivers in Hel known from other Eddic sources (Sliðr, Leiptr, and Gjöll) and a fourth (Hraunn), as we shall see below, is probably located in the far north.  In Grímnsimál 26, all these rivers are said to flow from the spring Hvergelmir, located to the north in Niflheim according to Gylfaginning 4. In Grímnismál 27, we are told that a number of them also “wind around  hodd goða [‘the hoard of the gods’] which appears to be a reference to the living treasures hidden in Hodd-Mimir’s grove (hoddmimis holt).
 
The Poetic Edda mentions only three wells; each supports a root of Yggdrasil. They are Hvergelmir, Mimir's well and Urd's well. In the modern interpretation of these passages, based on Snorri’s statements in Gylfaginning 15, the well Hvergelmir is said to be located in the lower world, in Niflheim; Mimir’s well is said to be located in Jötunheim, parallel to Midgard; and Urd’s well is said to be located in the heavens, parallel to Asgard. This gives us a just distribution of the three wells and the roots of Yggdrasil they support on three different levels of the VERTICAL axis, neatly corresponding to heaven, earth and hell in the Christian worldview. If this vertical orientation is correct from a heathen perspective, then these mythic rivers apparently were thought to flow vertically, rushing upwards from the lower world  toward the heavens. This, we have good reason to doubt.

In the diagram below, note the position of Asgard, the position of Urd's well, and that of the Bifröst bridge. It is the common modern view, but is it consistent with the ideas contained in Grímnismál 29 and 30?

If Asgard is conceived of as located on one side of the bridge, and Urd’s well on the other side of Bifröst, how can both Asgard and Urd’s well be located in heaven? Of course we can rationalize it in various ways [Asgard is on a mountaintop, not in really in heaven; Urd's well is further up the bridge from earth than Asgard, etc.] , but really should we have to? The most obvious argument against any of the purposed rationalizations is that Snorri himself doesn’t place Asgard in heaven or on a mountaintop, but rather on the surface of Midgard. In the Prologue to Gylfaginning and in chapter 14, he expressly places Asgard at the center of the earth, identifying it with the classical city of Troy, known both in Greek and Roman mythology and later Roman Catholic church histories:

Thus, the Prose Edda begins with the tale of the human Odin's immigration to Sweden from the classical city of Troy. Lest this be dismissed as a fictional framing device designed to allude persecution by the Christian church, and therefore not considered intregal to the Prose Edda and its account of Old Norse mythology, notice that Snorri continues this reasoning into Gylfaginning, returning again to the time before Odin's migration to Sweden:

Without question, Snorri protrays Asgard as an earthly city. No mention is made of it being located on a mountaintop. To the contrary, it is identified with the Turkish city of Troy, and later with the Swedish city of Sigtuna (Old Uppsala). This is no simple framing device. The identification of the Æsir as Asia-men from the city of Troy is mentioned throughout his text, appearing again in Gylfaginning 54 [Faulkes tr. pp. 63-64] and Skáldskaparmál 58 [Faulkes tr. p. 65]. Snorri is consistent in his statements that Asgard, the home of Odin and his Æsir-men, is an earthly abode identical to the classical city of Troy, well-known from Roman Catholic history. When the Asia-men eventually reach heaven, it is only to hold counsel there around Urd's well (also see Grímnismál 30). Although he gives some of the Æsir homes there, Snorri maintains throughout the Edda that Asgard (both Elder Asgard and New Asgard) is an earthly abode, inhabited by mortal men.

Obviously, this is not the genuine heathen conception. It is an intergretion of native mythology and Roman Catholic history. For the genuine heathen conception regarding the location of Asgard, we must turn to the poetic sources. Unfortunately Eddic and skaldic verse provide no clear account of the heathen cosmology. Thus we are forced to reconstruct the worldview from the few clues they do provide.

From Grímnismál 29-30 we gather that Asgard is on one side of the Bifröst bridge and that Urd's well is on the other.  Since the gods travel there daily, the clear inference is that they travel from their homes in Asgard. Since the bridge is identified as a rainbow, we can imagine (at the very least) a half-arc span stretching from its apex in heaven to a point somewhere beyond the horizon. The question now becomes what the poetic sources actually say about the locations of Urd's well and Asgard, the home of the gods.

In a skaldic verse, composed by a recently converted poet, Eilif Guðrúnarson, which has been preserved in Skáldskaparmál 65 [Faulkes’ tr. p. 126], we learn that “[Christ] is said to have his throne south at Urd’s well.” In the heathen tradition, Urd’s well is the place where gods meet in council every day, thus a convert to the new religion, unclear of its doctrine, would naturally place his new deity in the holiest place of the former religion, either by ignorance or design. Thus Christ appears at the meeting place of the Æsir, "in the south at Urd's well."

According to Gylfaginning 4, the well Hvergelmir is located in the north, at the center of Niflheim, the primeval world of rime and ice. To the south, Gylfaginning speaks of a primeval world of heat and fire. A large chasm called Ginnungagap lies in between them.  In Gylfaginning 15, Snorri informs us that Mimir’s well is located where “Ginnungagap once was.” As the skald Eilif placed Urd’s well in the “south”,  the location of the three wells thus corresponds to the contemporary conditions of creation outlined in Gylfaginning 5: one is located in Niflheim, a world of ice to the north; a second is located where the empty abyss, Ginnungagap, once was, and a third (Urd's well) is located "in the south" within or near the world of heat and fire, inhabited by Surt, who arrives to the battle of Ragnarök, also "from the south" according to Völuspá 52.

This mapping of the three wells, derived from genuine heathen sources, gives us an even distribution of the three wells and the roots of Yggdrasil they support, along a HORIZONTAL axis from north to south. Thus, Snorri’s account of the cosmology appears to be a mixture of genuine heathen ideas, which we can confirm in Eddic and skaldic verse, reorganized according to Christian and Classical learning in which the pagan gods were thought of as human men from earth, who are powerful and clever enough to build a bridge to heaven.  
 
Since the gods ride there "every day” according to both Grímnismál 29 and 30, logically they make the journey to Urd’s well each day from their homes in Asgard. Thus, Asgard must be located on one side of the Bifröst bridge, and Urd’s well located on the other.  The journey must be of considerable length since the gods ride their horses to get there, and Thor, who cannot ride, must wade through at least four rivers to arrive there.  This point is underscored when we recognize that the horses of the gods are also able to fly.

In Gylfaginning 35, we are told that Frigg's messenger Gna has a horse named Hófvarpnir, that "runs across air and sea," (er renn loft ok lög). Similarly, when the giant Hrungnir first sees Odin riding on Sleipnir in Skáldskaparmál 17, he asks what manner of man can "ride on air and sea" (er ríðr loft ok lög).  In Fáfnismal 15, the air is compared to a river in which the horses of the gods will “swim” when the Bifröst bridge is broken. It breaks under the weight of riders, when Surt and his men, arriving from the south (the same direction as Urd's well) attempt an ascent to Asgard during Ragnarök.  Like a normal bridge spans a river, Bifröst thus spans the atmosphere, conceived of as a body of water with swift currents.  (See Grímnismál 21). As crossing a bridge is more efficient than swimming across a river, Bifröst is necessary for traveling long distances in the atmosphere, because even though the horses of the gods can fly, a horse naturally moves more efficiently while running on a solid pathway.

In the same manner, those chosen on the battlefield arrive in Valhall, riding horses over the Bifröst bridge. Unquestionably, the skaldic poem Eiríksmál found in Fagrskinna, ch. 8, contains the clearest account of a king and his retinue arriving in Valhall (see Grímnismál 21). There, King Eirík arrives spearheading a great multitude of riders, comprised of six kings, including himself, and their armies.  From the context, it is clear that they arrive over Bifröst. Helgakviða Hundingsbana II, 49, provides another example. After speaking to the mourning Sigrun who has called him back from the grave, the dead hero Helgi says:

In the modern scholarly conception of Old Norse cosmology, Asgard is a celestial city located in heaven. However, as we saw above, Snorri expressly placed Asgard on earth and Urd’s well in the heavens, at opposite ends of the bridge. Thus, in Snorri’s account, the human Æsir ride ‘upp’ to Urd’s well (Glyfaginning 14). While the Eddic poems do not pinpoint the location of Asgard, a skaldic verse by the heathen poet Egil Skallagrímsson (ca. 910–990), who laments the loss of a son gone to Valhall, confirms that Asgard is indeed located in heaven.  Verse 21 of his poem Sonatorrek contains the phrase, upp í goðheim, ‘up in the home of the gods’:

So, if Asgard is located at one end of Bifröst, and Urd's well is located on the other, and if Asgard is located in heaven (not Earth as Snorri states), might Urd’s well be located somewhere below at the opposite end of the bridge? This is a question we will explore in the commentary on the two verses of Grímnismál. 

A comprehensive look at Snorri’s account of Old Norse cosmology and the various diagrams it has inspired in the last 200 years can be found HERE.

A closer look at the passages speaking of the road to Hel and the way to Valhall can be found HERE.