Realm VI of VIII
The River of Life
Rainbow waters from the sanctuary
From the pool beneath the World Tree a river of shifting color runs south, turquoise and green and gold, folding over terraces and down the cliffs in shining falls.
Its waters pass beneath bridges and beside a hanging island crowned with shrines, then pour away into the sea of clouds far below.
Look closer
- The rainbow falls at the river's lowest drop
- Steps descending from the sanctuary to the water
- Shrines on the island that hangs beside the falls
- Two fairies following the current
Two fairies hide in this realm.
In our world
The river of five colors
Caño Cristales, in the Serranía de la Macarena national park in Colombia's Meta department, is called the river of five colors. For a few weeks from about September through November a riverweed, Macarenia clavigera, turns bright red on the riverbed among yellow and green sand and blue water.
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A bridge made of rainbow
In Norse myth, Asgard, the world of the gods, was joined to Midgard, the world of people, by Bifröst, a rainbow bridge guarded by the watchful god Heimdall. Its name may mean the shimmering or fleetingly glimpsed rainbow, fitting for a bridge the giants cross to storm Asgard at Ragnarök.
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