““With a lightness of touch that is almost subliminal, this verse has encouraged us to count Valhalla’s fighters, thus momentarily obliging us to focus our attention on their total number (540 × 800 = 432,000). This total, as we shall see in Chapter Thirty-one is mathematically linked to the phenomenon of precession. It is, unlikely to have found its way into Norse mythology by accident, especially in a context that has previously specified a ‘derangement of the heavens’ severe enough to have caused the stars to come adrift from””
![“It gladdens me to know that Baldr’s father [Odin] makes…” quote by Ragnar Lodbrok](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/1dd/ragnar-lodbrok-80836_ale_it-gladdens-me-to-know-that-baldr-s-fath_718399.jpg)
