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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths of the Norsemen, by H. A. Guerber
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Myths of the Norsemen
+       From the Eddas and Sagas
+
+Author: H. A. Guerber
+
+Release Date: April 4, 2009 [EBook #28497]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS OF THE NORSEMEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net/
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Myths of the Norsemen
+
+                            From the Eddas and Sagas
+
+                                       By
+
+                                 H. A. Guerber
+
+                 Author of "The Myths of Greece and Rome" etc.
+
+
+
+
+                                     London
+                           George G. Harrap & Company
+                          15 York Street Covent Garden
+
+                                      1909
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                      Printed by Ballantyne & Co. Limited
+                    Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+        Chap.                                                      Page
+
+        I.      The Beginning                                         1
+        II.     Odin                                                 16
+        III.    Frigga                                               42
+        IV.     Thor                                                 59
+        V.      Tyr                                                  85
+        VI.     Bragi                                                95
+        VII.    Idun                                                103
+        VIII.   Niörd                                               111
+        IX.     Frey                                                117
+        X.      Freya                                               131
+        XI.     Uller                                               139
+        XII.    Forseti                                             142
+        XIII.   Heimdall                                            146
+        XIV.    Hermod                                              154
+        XV.     Vidar                                               158
+        XVI.    Vali                                                162
+        XVII.   The Norns                                           166
+        XVIII.  The Valkyrs                                         173
+        XIX.    Hel                                                 180
+        XX.     Ægir                                                185
+        XXI.    Balder                                              197
+        XXII.   Loki                                                216
+        XXIII.  The Giants                                          230
+        XXIV.   The Dwarfs                                          239
+        XXV.    The Elves                                           246
+        XXVI.   The Sigurd Saga                                     251
+        XXVII.  The Frithiof Saga                                   298
+        XXVIII. The Twilight of the Gods                            329
+        XXIX.   Greek and Northern Mythologies--A Comparison        342
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+        Norsemen Landing in Iceland   (Oscar Wergeland)    Frontispiece
+
+                                                           To face page
+        The Giant with the Flaming Sword   (J. C. Dollman)            2
+        The Wolves Pursuing Sol and Mani   (J. C. Dollman)            8
+        Odin   (Sir E. Burne-Jones)                                  16
+        The Chosen Slain   (K. Dielitz)                              18
+        A Viking Foray   (J. C. Dollman)                             20
+        The Pied Piper of Hamelin   (H. Kaulbach)                    28
+        Odin   (B. E. Fogelberg)                                     36
+        Frigga Spinning the Clouds   (J. C. Dollman)                 42
+        Tannhäuser and Frau Venus   (J. Wagrez)                      52
+        Eástre   (Jacques Reich)                                     54
+        Huldra's Nymphs   (B. E. Ward)                               58
+        Thor   (B. E. Fogelberg)                                     60
+        Sif   (J. C. Dollman)                                        64
+        Thor and the Mountain   (J. C. Dollman)                      72
+        A Foray   (A. Malmström)                                     88
+        The Binding of Fenris   (Dorothy Hardy)                      92
+        Idun   (B. E. Ward)                                         100
+        Loki and Thiassi   (Dorothy Hardy)                          104
+        Frey   (Jacques Reich)                                      118
+        Freya   (N. J. O. Blommér)                                  132
+        The Rainbow Bridge   (H. Hendrich)                          146
+        Heimdall   (Dorothy Hardy)                                  148
+        Jarl   (Albert Edelfelt)                                    152
+        The Norns   (C. Ehrenberg)                                  166
+        The Dises   (Dorothy Hardy)                                 170
+        The Swan-Maiden   (Gertrude Demain Hammond, R.I.)           174
+        The Ride of the Valkyrs   (J. C. Dollman)                   176
+        Brunhild and Siegmund   (J. Wagrez)                         178
+        The Road to Valhalla   (Severin Nilsson)                    182
+        Ægir   (J. P. Molin)                                        186
+        Ran   (M. E. Winge)                                         190
+        The Neckan   (J. P. Molin)                                  194
+        Loki and Hodur   (C. G. Qvarnström)                         202
+        The Death of Balder   (Dorothy Hardy)                       206
+        Hermod before Hela   (J. C. Dollman)                        210
+        Loki and Svadilfari   (Dorothy Hardy)                       222
+        Loki and Sigyn   (M. E. Winge)                              228
+        Thor and the Giants   (M. E. Winge)                         230
+        Torghatten                                                  234
+        The Peaks of the Trolls                                     244
+        The Elf-Dance   (N. J. O. Blommér)                          246
+        The White Elves   (Charles P. Sainton, R.I.)                248
+        Old Houses with Carved Posts                                250
+        The Were-Wolves   (J. C. Dollman)                           260
+        A Hero's Farewell   (M. E. Winge)                           264
+        The Funeral Procession   (H. Hendrich)                      268
+        Sigurd and Fafnir   (K. Dielitz)                            274
+        Sigurd Finds Brunhild   (J. Wagrez)                         278
+        Odin and Brunhild   (K. Dielitz)                            280
+        Aslaug   (Gertrude Demain Hammond, R.I.)                    282
+        Sigurd and Gunnar   (J. C. Dollman)                         284
+        The Death of Siegfried   (H. Hendrich)                      288
+        The End of Brunhild   (J. Wagrez)                           290
+        Ingeborg   (M. E. Winge)                                    304
+        Frithiof Cleaves the Shield of Helgé   (Knut Ekwall)        308
+        Ingeborg Watches her Lover Depart   (Knut Ekwall)           312
+        Frithiof's Return to Framnäs   (Knut Ekwall)                316
+        Frithiof at the Shrine of Balder   (Knut Ekwall)            318
+        Frithiof at the Court of Ring   (Knut Ekwall)               320
+        Frithiof Watches the Sleeping King   (Knut Ekwall)          324
+        Odin and Fenris   (Dorothy Hardy)                           334
+        The Ride of the Valkyrs   (H. Hendrich)                     344
+        The Storm-Ride   (Gilbert Bayes)                            358
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The prime importance of the rude fragments of poetry preserved in
+early Icelandic literature will now be disputed by none, but there
+has been until recent times an extraordinary indifference to the
+wealth of religious tradition and mythical lore which they contain.
+
+The long neglect of these precious records of our heathen ancestors
+is not the fault of the material in which all that survives of
+their religious beliefs is enshrined, for it may safely be asserted
+that the Edda is as rich in the essentials of national romance
+and race-imagination, rugged though it be, as the more graceful
+and idyllic mythology of the South. Neither is it due to anything
+weak in the conception of the deities themselves, for although
+they may not rise to great spiritual heights, foremost students of
+Icelandic literature agree that they stand out rude and massive as the
+Scandinavian mountains. They exhibit "a spirit of victory, superior
+to brute force, superior to mere matter, a spirit that fights and
+overcomes." [1] "Even were some part of the matter of their myths
+taken from others, yet the Norsemen have given their gods a noble,
+upright, great spirit, and placed them upon a high level that is all
+their own." [2] "In fact these old Norse songs have a truth in them,
+an inward perennial truth and greatness. It is a greatness not of
+mere body and gigantic bulk, but a rude greatness of soul." [3]
+
+The introduction of Christianity into the North brought with it the
+influence of the Classical races, and this eventually supplanted the
+native genius, so that the alien mythology and literature of Greece
+and Rome have formed an increasing part of the mental equipment of the
+northern peoples in proportion as the native literature and tradition
+have been neglected.
+
+Undoubtedly Northern mythology has exercised a deep influence upon
+our customs, laws, and language, and there has been, therefore,
+a great unconscious inspiration flowing from these into English
+literature. The most distinctive traits of this mythology are a
+peculiar grim humour, to be found in the religion of no other race,
+and a dark thread of tragedy which runs throughout the whole woof,
+and these characteristics, touching both extremes, are writ large
+over English literature.
+
+But of conscious influence, compared with the rich draught of Hellenic
+inspiration, there is little to be found, and if we turn to modern
+art the difference is even more apparent.
+
+This indifference may be attributed to many causes, but it was due
+first to the fact that the religious beliefs of our pagan ancestors
+were not held with any real tenacity. Hence the success of the
+more or less considered policy of the early Christian missionaries
+to confuse the heathen beliefs, and merge them in the new faith,
+an interesting example of which is to be seen in the transference
+to the Christian festival of Easter of the attributes of the pagan
+goddess Eástre, from whom it took even the name. Northern mythology
+was in this way arrested ere it had attained its full development,
+and the progress of Christianity eventually relegated it to the limbo
+of forgotten things. Its comprehensive and intelligent scheme, however,
+in strong contrast with the disconnected mythology of Greece and Rome,
+formed the basis of a more or less rational faith which prepared the
+Norseman to receive the teaching of Christianity, and so helped to
+bring about its own undoing.
+
+The religious beliefs of the North are not mirrored with any
+exactitude in the Elder Edda. Indeed only a travesty of the faith of
+our ancestors has been preserved in Norse literature. The early poet
+loved allegory, and his imagination rioted among the conceptions of
+his fertile muse. "His eye was fixed on the mountains till the snowy
+peaks assumed human features and the giant of the rock or the ice
+descended with heavy tread; or he would gaze at the splendour of the
+spring, or of the summer fields, till Freya with the gleaming necklace
+stepped forth, or Sif with the flowing locks of gold." [4]
+
+We are told nothing as to sacrificial and religious rites, and
+all else is omitted which does not provide material for artistic
+treatment. The so-called Northern Mythology, therefore, may be regarded
+as a precious relic of the beginning of Northern poetry, rather than
+as a representation of the religious beliefs of the Scandinavians,
+and these literary fragments bear many signs of the transitional stage
+wherein the confusion of the old and new faiths is easily apparent.
+
+But notwithstanding the limitations imposed by long neglect it is
+possible to reconstruct in part a plan of the ancient Norse beliefs,
+and the general reader will derive much profit from Carlyle's
+illuminating study in "Heroes and Hero-worship." "A bewildering,
+inextricable jungle of delusions, confusions, falsehoods and
+absurdities, covering the whole field of Life!" he calls them,
+with all good reason. But he goes on to show, with equal truth,
+that at the soul of this crude worship of distorted nature was a
+spiritual force seeking expression. What we probe without reverence
+they viewed with awe, and not understanding it, straightway deified
+it, as all children have been apt to do in all stages of the world's
+history. Truly they were hero-worshippers after Carlyle's own heart,
+and scepticism had no place in their simple philosophy.
+
+It was the infancy of thought gazing upon a universe filled with
+divinity, and believing heartily with all sincerity. A large-hearted
+people reaching out in the dark towards ideals which were better than
+they knew. Ragnarok was to undo their gods because they had stumbled
+from their higher standards.
+
+We have to thank a curious phenomenon for the preservation of so much
+of the old lore as we still possess. While foreign influences were
+corrupting the Norse language, it remained practically unaltered in
+Iceland, which had been colonised from the mainland by the Norsemen
+who had fled thither to escape the oppression of Harold Fairhair after
+his crushing victory of Hafrsfirth. These people brought with them the
+poetic genius which had already manifested itself, and it took fresh
+root in that barren soil. Many of the old Norse poets were natives
+of Iceland, and in the early part of the Christian era, a supreme
+service was rendered to Norse literature by the Christian priest,
+Sæmund, who industriously brought together a large amount of pagan
+poetry in a collection known as the Elder Edda, which is the chief
+foundation of our present knowledge of the religion of our Norse
+ancestors. Icelandic literature remained a sealed book, however,
+until the end of the eighteenth century, and very slowly since that
+time it has been winning its way in the teeth of indifference, until
+there are now signs that it will eventually come into its own. "To
+know the old Faith," says Carlyle, "brings us into closer and clearer
+relation with the Past--with our own possessions in the Past. For
+the whole Past is the possession of the Present; the Past had always
+something true, and is a precious possession."
+
+The weighty words of William Morris regarding the Volsunga Saga
+may also be fitly quoted as an introduction to the whole of this
+collection of "Myths of the Norsemen": "This is the great story of
+the North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was
+to the Greeks--to all our race first, and afterwards, when the change
+of the world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has
+been--a story too--then should it be to those that come after us no
+less than the Tale of Troy has been to us."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I: THE BEGINNING
+
+
+Myths of Creation
+
+Although the Aryan inhabitants of Northern Europe are supposed by some
+authorities to have come originally from the plateau of Iran, in the
+heart of Asia, the climate and scenery of the countries where they
+finally settled had great influence in shaping their early religious
+beliefs, as well as in ordering their mode of living.
+
+The grand and rugged landscapes of Northern Europe, the midnight
+sun, the flashing rays of the aurora borealis, the ocean continually
+lashing itself into fury against the great cliffs and icebergs of
+the Arctic Circle, could not but impress the people as vividly as
+the almost miraculous vegetation, the perpetual light, and the blue
+seas and skies of their brief summer season. It is no great wonder,
+therefore, that the Icelanders, for instance, to whom we owe the most
+perfect records of this belief, fancied in looking about them that the
+world was originally created from a strange mixture of fire and ice.
+
+Northern mythology is grand and tragical. Its principal theme is the
+perpetual struggle of the beneficent forces of Nature against the
+injurious, and hence it is not graceful and idyllic in character,
+like the religion of the sunny South, where the people could bask
+in perpetual sunshine, and the fruits of the earth grew ready to
+their hand.
+
+It was very natural that the dangers incurred in hunting and fishing
+under these inclement skies, and the suffering entailed by the long
+cold winters when the sun never shines, made our ancestors contemplate
+cold and ice as malevolent spirits; and it was with equal reason that
+they invoked with special fervour the beneficent influences of heat
+and light.
+
+When questioned concerning the creation of the world, the Northern
+scalds, or poets, whose songs are preserved in the Eddas and Sagas,
+declared that in the beginning, when there was as yet no earth, nor
+sea, nor air, when darkness rested over all, there existed a powerful
+being called Allfather, whom they dimly conceived as uncreated as
+well as unseen, and that whatever he willed came to pass.
+
+In the centre of space there was, in the morning of time, a great
+abyss called Ginnunga-gap, the cleft of clefts, the yawning gulf,
+whose depths no eye could fathom, as it was enveloped in perpetual
+twilight. North of this abode was a space or world known as Nifl-heim,
+the home of mist and darkness, in the centre of which bubbled the
+exhaustless spring Hvergelmir, the seething cauldron, whose waters
+supplied twelve great streams known as the Elivagar. As the water of
+these streams flowed swiftly away from its source and encountered
+the cold blasts from the yawning gulf, it soon hardened into huge
+blocks of ice, which rolled downward into the immeasurable depths of
+the great abyss with a continual roar like thunder.
+
+South of this dark chasm, and directly opposite Nifl-heim, the realm
+of mist, was another world called Muspells-heim, the home of elemental
+fire, where all was warmth and brightness, and whose frontiers were
+continually guarded by Surtr, the flame giant. This giant fiercely
+brandished his flashing sword, and continually sent forth great showers
+of sparks, which fell with a hissing sound upon the ice-blocks in
+the bottom of the abyss, and partly melted them by their heat.
+
+
+    "Great Surtur, with his burning sword,
+    Southward at Muspel's gate kept ward,
+    And flashes of celestial flame,
+    Life-giving, from the fire-world came."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+Ymir and Audhumla
+
+As the steam rose in clouds it again encountered the prevailing cold,
+and was changed into rime or hoarfrost, which, layer by layer, filled
+up the great central space. Thus by the continual action of cold and
+heat, and also probably by the will of the uncreated and unseen,
+a gigantic creature called Ymir or Orgelmir (seething clay), the
+personification of the frozen ocean, came to life amid the ice-blocks
+in the abyss, and as he was born of rime he was called a Hrim-thurs,
+or ice-giant.
+
+
+    "In early times,
+    When Ymir lived,
+    Was sand, nor sea,
+    Nor cooling wave;
+    No earth was found,
+    Nor heaven above;
+    One chaos all,
+    And nowhere grass."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Henderson's tr.).
+
+
+Groping about in the gloom in search of something to eat, Ymir
+perceived a gigantic cow called Audhumla (the nourisher), which
+had been created by the same agency as himself, and out of the same
+materials. Hastening towards her, Ymir noticed with pleasure that
+from her udder flowed four great streams of milk, which would supply
+ample nourishment.
+
+All his wants were thus satisfied; but the cow, looking about her for
+food in her turn, began to lick the salt off a neighbouring ice-block
+with her rough tongue. This she continued to do until first the hair of
+a god appeared and then the whole head emerged from its icy envelope,
+until by-and-by Buri (the producer) stepped forth entirely free.
+
+While the cow had been thus engaged, Ymir, the giant, had fallen
+asleep, and as he slept a son and daughter were born from the
+perspiration under his armpit, and his feet produced the six-headed
+giant Thrudgelmir, who, shortly after his birth, brought forth in
+his turn the giant Bergelmir, from whom all the evil frost giants
+are descended.
+
+
+    "Under the armpit grew,
+    'Tis said of Hrim-thurs,
+    A girl and boy together;
+    Foot with foot begat,
+    Of that wise Jötun,
+    A six-headed son."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Odin, Vili, and Ve
+
+When these giants became aware of the existence of the god Buri, and
+of his son Börr (born), whom he had immediately produced, they began
+waging war against them, for as the gods and giants represented the
+opposite forces of good and evil, there was no hope of their living
+together in peace. The struggle continued evidently for ages, neither
+party gaining a decided advantage, until Börr married the giantess
+Bestla, daughter of Bolthorn (the thorn of evil), who bore him three
+powerful sons, Odin (spirit), Vili (will), and Ve (holy). These three
+sons immediately joined their father in his struggle against the
+hostile frost-giants, and finally succeeded in slaying their deadliest
+foe, the great Ymir. As he sank down lifeless the blood gushed from
+his wounds in such floods that it produced a great deluge, in which
+all his race perished, with the exception of Bergelmir, who escaped
+in a boat and went with his wife to the confines of the world.
+
+
+    "And all the race of Ymir thou didst drown,
+    Save one, Bergelmer: he on shipboard fled
+    Thy deluge, and from him the giants sprang."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Here he took up his abode, calling the place Jötunheim (the home of the
+giants), and here he begat a new race of frost-giants, who inherited
+his dislikes, continued the feud, and were always ready to sally
+forth from their desolate country and raid the territory of the gods.
+
+The gods, in Northern mythology called Æsir (pillars and supporters
+of the world), having thus triumphed over their foes, and being no
+longer engaged in perpetual warfare, now began to look about them,
+with intent to improve the desolate aspect of things and fashion a
+habitable world. After due consideration Börr's sons rolled Ymir's
+great corpse into the yawning abyss, and began to create the world
+out of its various component parts.
+
+
+
+The Creation of the Earth
+
+Out of the flesh they fashioned Midgard (middle garden), as the earth
+was called. This was placed in the exact centre of the vast space,
+and hedged all round with Ymir's eyebrows for bulwarks or ramparts. The
+solid portion of Midgard was surrounded by the giant's blood or sweat,
+which formed the ocean, while his bones made the hills, his flat
+teeth the cliffs, and his curly hair the trees and all vegetation.
+
+Well pleased with the result of their first efforts at creation, the
+gods now took the giant's unwieldy skull and poised it skilfully as
+the vaulted heavens above earth and sea; then scattering his brains
+throughout the expanse beneath they fashioned from them the fleecy
+clouds.
+
+
+    "Of Ymir's flesh
+    Was earth created,
+    Of his blood the sea,
+    Of his bones the hills,
+    Of his hair trees and plants,
+    Of his skull the heavens,
+    And of his brows
+    The gentle powers
+    Formed Midgard for the sons of men;
+    But of his brain
+    The heavy clouds are
+    All created."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+To support the heavenly vault, the gods stationed the strong dwarfs,
+Nordri, Sudri, Austri, Westri, at its four corners, bidding them
+sustain it upon their shoulders, and from them the four points of
+the compass received their present names of North, South, East, and
+West. To give light to the world thus created, the gods studded the
+heavenly vault with sparks secured from Muspells-heim, points of light
+which shone steadily through the gloom like brilliant stars. The most
+vivid of these sparks, however, were reserved for the manufacture of
+the sun and moon, which were placed in beautiful golden chariots.
+
+
+    "And from the flaming world, where Muspel reigns,
+    Thou sent'st and fetched'st fire, and madest lights:
+    Sun, moon, and stars, which thou hast hung in heaven,
+    Dividing clear the paths of night and day."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+When all these preparations had been finished, and the steeds Arvakr
+(the early waker) and Alsvin (the rapid goer) were harnessed to the
+sun-chariot, the gods, fearing lest the animals should suffer from
+their proximity to the ardent sphere, placed under their withers great
+skins filled with air or with some refrigerant substance. They also
+fashioned the shield Svalin (the cooler), and placed it in front of the
+car to shelter them from the sun's direct rays, which would else have
+burned them and the earth to a cinder. The moon-car was, similarly,
+provided with a fleet steed called Alsvider (the all-swift); but no
+shield was required to protect him from the mild rays of the moon.
+
+
+
+Mani and Sol
+
+The chariots were ready, the steeds harnessed and impatient to begin
+what was to be their daily round, but who should guide them along
+the right road? The gods looked about them, and their attention was
+attracted to the two beautiful offspring of the giant Mundilfari. He
+was very proud of his children, and had named them after the newly
+created orbs, Mani (the moon) and Sol (the sun). Sol, the Sun-maid,
+was the spouse of Glaur (glow), who was probably one of Surtr's sons.
+
+The names proved to be happily bestowed, as the brother and sister
+were given the direction of the steeds of their bright namesakes. After
+receiving due counsel from the gods, they were transferred to the sky,
+and day by day they fulfilled their appointed duties and guided their
+steeds along the heavenly paths.
+
+
+    "Know that Mundilfær is hight
+    Father to the moon and sun;
+    Age on age shall roll away,
+    While they mark the months and days."
+
+            Hávamál (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+The gods next summoned Nott (night), a daughter of Norvi, one of the
+giants, and entrusted to her care a dark chariot, drawn by a sable
+steed, Hrim-faxi (frost mane), from whose waving mane the dew and
+hoarfrost dropped down upon the earth.
+
+
+    "Hrim-faxi is the sable steed,
+    From the east who brings the night,
+    Fraught with the showering joys of love:
+    As he champs the foamy bit,
+    Drops of dew are scattered round
+    To adorn the vales of earth."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+The goddess of night had thrice been married, and by her first husband,
+Naglfari, she had had a son named Aud; by her second, Annar, a daughter
+Jörd (earth); and by her third, the god Dellinger (dawn), another son,
+of radiant beauty, was now born to her, and he was given the name of
+Dag (day).
+
+As soon as the gods became aware of this beautiful being's existence
+they provided a chariot for him also, drawn by the resplendent white
+steed Skin-faxi (shining mane), from whose mane bright beams of
+light shone forth in every direction, illuminating all the world,
+and bringing light and gladness to all.
+
+
+    "Forth from the east, up the ascent of heaven,
+    Day drove his courser with the shining mane."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+The Wolves Sköll and Hati
+
+But as evil always treads close upon the footsteps of good, hoping to
+destroy it, the ancient inhabitants of the Northern regions imagined
+that both Sun and Moon were incessantly pursued by the fierce wolves
+Sköll (repulsion) and Hati (hatred), whose sole aim was to overtake
+and swallow the brilliant objects before them, so that the world
+might again be enveloped in its primeval darkness.
+
+
+    "Sköll the wolf is named
+    That the fair-faced goddess
+    To the ocean chases;
+    Another Hati hight
+    He is Hrodvitnir's son;
+    He the bright maid of heaven shall precede."
+
+            Sæmuna's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+At times, they said, the wolves overtook and tried to swallow their
+prey, thus producing an eclipse of the radiant orbs. Then the terrified
+people raised such a deafening clamour that the wolves, frightened by
+the noise, hastily dropped them. Thus rescued, Sun and Moon resumed
+their course, fleeing more rapidly than before, the hungry monsters
+rushing along in their wake, lusting for the time when their efforts
+would prevail and the end of the world would come. For the Northern
+nations believed that as their gods had sprung from an alliance between
+the divine element (Börr) and the mortal (Bestla), they were finite,
+and doomed to perish with the world they had made.
+
+
+    "But even in this early morn
+    Faintly foreshadowed was the dawn
+    Of that fierce struggle, deadly shock,
+    Which yet should end in Ragnarok;
+    When Good and Evil, Death and Life,
+    Beginning now, end then their strife."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Mani was accompanied also by Hiuki, the waxing, and Bil, the waning,
+moon, two children whom he had snatched from earth, where a cruel
+father forced them to carry water all night. Our ancestors fancied
+they saw these children, the original "Jack and Jill," with their pail,
+darkly outlined upon the moon.
+
+The gods not only appointed Sun, Moon, Day, and Night to mark the
+procession of the year, but also called Evening, Midnight, Morning,
+Forenoon, Noon, and Afternoon to share their duties, making Summer and
+Winter the rulers of the seasons. Summer, a direct descendant of Svasud
+(the mild and lovely), inherited his sire's gentle disposition, and
+was loved by all except Winter, his deadly enemy, the son of Vindsual,
+himself a son of the disagreeable god Vasud, the personification of
+the icy wind.
+
+
+    "Vindsual is the name of him
+    Who begat the winter's god;
+    Summer from Suasuthur sprang:
+    Both shall walk the way of years,
+    Till the twilight of the gods."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+The cold winds continually swept down from the north, chilling all
+the earth, and the Northmen imagined that these were set in motion
+by the great giant Hræ-svelgr (the corpse-swallower), who, clad in
+eagle plumes, sat at the extreme northern verge of the heavens, and
+that when he raised his arms or wings the cold blasts darted forth
+and swept ruthlessly over the face of the earth, blighting all things
+with their icy breath.
+
+
+    "Hræ-svelger is the name of him
+    Who sits beyond the end of heaven,
+    And winnows wide his eagle-wings,
+    Whence the sweeping blasts have birth."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+
+Dwarfs and Elves
+
+While the gods were occupied in creating the earth and providing
+for its illumination, a whole host of maggot-like creatures had
+been breeding in Ymir's flesh. These uncouth beings now attracted
+divine attention. Summoning them into their presence, the gods first
+gave them forms and endowed them with superhuman intelligence, and
+then divided them into two large classes. Those which were dark,
+treacherous, and cunning by nature were banished to Svart-alfa-heim,
+the home of the black dwarfs, situated underground, whence they were
+never allowed to come forth during the day, under penalty of being
+turned into stone. They were called Dwarfs, Trolls, Gnomes, or Kobolds,
+and spent all their time and energy in exploring the secret recesses
+of the earth. They collected gold, silver, and precious stones,
+which they stowed away in secret crevices, whence they could withdraw
+them at will. The remainder of these small creatures, including all
+that were fair, good, and useful, the gods called Fairies and Elves,
+and they sent them to dwell in the airy realm of Alf-heim (home of
+the light-elves), situated between heaven and earth, whence they
+could flit downward whenever they pleased, to attend to the plants
+and flowers, sport with the birds and butterflies, or dance in the
+silvery moonlight on the green.
+
+Odin, who had been the leading spirit in all these undertakings,
+now bade the gods, his descendants, follow him to the broad plain
+called Idawold, far above the earth, on the other side of the great
+stream Ifing, whose waters never froze.
+
+
+    "Ifing's deep and murky wave
+    Parts the ancient sons of earth
+    From the dwelling of the Goths:
+    Open flows the mighty flood,
+    Nor shall ice arrest its course
+    While the wheel of Ages rolls."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+In the centre of the sacred space, which from the beginning of the
+world had been reserved for their own abode and called Asgard (home of
+the gods), the twelve Æsir (gods) and twenty-four Asynjur (goddesses)
+all assembled at the bidding of Odin. Then was held a great council,
+at which it was decreed that no blood should be shed within the limits
+of their realm, or peace-stead, but that harmony should reign there
+for ever. As a further result of the conference the gods set up a
+forge where they fashioned all their weapons and the tools required
+to build the magnificent palaces of precious metals, in which they
+lived for many long years in a state of such perfect happiness that
+this period has been called the Golden Age.
+
+
+
+The Creation of Man
+
+Although the gods had from the beginning designed Midgard, or
+Mana-heim, as the abode of man, there were at first no human beings to
+inhabit it. One day Odin, Vili, and Ve, according to some authorities,
+or Odin, Hoenir (the bright one), and Lodur, or Loki (fire), started
+out together and walked along the seashore, where they found either
+two trees, the ash, Ask, and the elm, Embla, or two blocks of wood,
+hewn into rude semblances of the human form. The gods gazed at first
+upon the inanimate wood in silent wonder; then, perceiving the use it
+could be put to, Odin gave these logs souls, Hoenir bestowed motion
+and senses, and Lodur contributed blood and blooming complexions.
+
+Thus endowed with speech and thought, and with power to love and to
+hope and to work, and with life and death, the newly created man and
+woman were left to rule Midgard at will. They gradually peopled it
+with their descendants, while the gods, remembering they had called
+them into life, took a special interest in all they did, watched over
+them, and often vouchsafed their aid and protection.
+
+
+
+The Tree Yggdrasil
+
+Allfather next created a huge ash called Yggdrasil, the tree of the
+universe, of time, or of life, which filled all the world, taking
+root not only in the remotest depths of Nifl-heim, where bubbled the
+spring Hvergelmir, but also in Midgard, near Mimir's well (the ocean),
+and in Asgard, near the Urdar fountain.
+
+From its three great roots the tree attained such a marvellous height
+that its topmost bough, called Lerad (the peace-giver), overshadowed
+Odin's hall, while the other wide-spreading branches towered over the
+other worlds. An eagle was perched on the bough Lerad, and between
+his eyes sat the falcon Vedfolnir, sending his piercing glances down
+into heaven, earth, and Nifl-heim, and reporting all that he saw.
+
+As the tree Yggdrasil was ever green, its leaves never withering,
+it served as pasture-ground not only for Odin's goat Heidrun, which
+supplied the heavenly mead, the drink of the gods, but also for the
+stags Dain, Dvalin, Duneyr, and Durathor, from whose horns honey-dew
+dropped down upon the earth and furnished the water for all the rivers
+in the world.
+
+In the seething cauldron Hvergelmir, close by the great tree, a
+horrible dragon, called Nidhug, continually gnawed the roots, and
+was helped in his work of destruction by countless worms, whose aim
+it was to kill the tree, knowing that its death would be the signal
+for the downfall of the gods.
+
+
+    "Through all our life a tempter prowls malignant,
+      The cruel Nidhug from the world below.
+    He hates that asa-light whose rays benignant
+      On th' hero's brow and glitt'ring sword bright glow."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Scampering continually up and down the branches and trunk of the
+tree, the squirrel Ratatosk (branch-borer), the typical busybody
+and tale-bearer, passed its time repeating to the dragon below the
+remarks of the eagle above, and vice versa, in the hope of stirring
+up strife between them.
+
+
+
+The Bridge Bifröst
+
+It was, of course, essential that the tree Yggdrasil should be
+maintained in a perfectly healthy condition, and this duty was
+performed by the Norns, or Fates, who daily sprinkled it with the
+holy waters from the Urdar fountain. This water, as it trickled down
+to earth through branches and leaves, supplied the bees with honey.
+
+From either edge of Nifl-heim, arching high above Midgard, rose the
+sacred bridge, Bifröst (Asabru, the rainbow), built of fire, water,
+and air, whose quivering and changing hues it retained, and over which
+the gods travelled to and fro to the earth or to the Urdar well, at
+the foot of the ash Yggdrasil, where they daily assembled in council.
+
+
+                        "The gods arose
+    And took their horses, and set forth to ride
+    O'er the bridge Bifrost, where is Heimdall's watch,
+    To the ash Igdrasil, and Ida's plain.
+    Thor came on foot, the rest on horseback rode."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Of all the gods Thor only, the god of thunder, never passed over the
+bridge, for fear lest his heavy tread or the heat of his lightnings
+would destroy it. The god Heimdall kept watch and ward there night
+and day. He was armed with a trenchant sword, and carried a trumpet
+called Giallar-horn, upon which he generally blew a soft note to
+announce the coming or going of the gods, but upon which a terrible
+blast would be sounded when Ragnarok should come, and the frost-giants
+and Surtr combined to destroy the world.
+
+
+    "Surt from the south comes
+    With flickering flame;
+    Shines from his sword
+    The Val-god's sun.
+    The stony hills are dashed together,
+    The giantesses totter;
+    Men tread the path of Hel,
+    And heaven is cloven."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Vanas
+
+Now although the original inhabitants of heaven were the Æsir,
+they were not the sole divinities of the Northern races, who also
+recognised the power of the sea- and wind-gods, the Vanas, dwelling
+in Vana-heim and ruling their realms as they pleased. In early times,
+before the golden palaces in Asgard were built, a dispute arose between
+the Æsir and Vanas, and they resorted to arms, using rocks, mountains,
+and icebergs as missiles in the fray. But discovering ere long that
+in unity alone lay strength, they composed their differences and made
+peace, and to ratify the treaty they exchanged hostages.
+
+It was thus that the Van, Niörd, came to dwell in Asgard with his two
+children, Frey and Freya, while the Asa, Hoenir, Odin's own brother,
+took up his abode in Vana-heim.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II: ODIN
+
+
+The Father of Gods and Men
+
+Odin, Wuotan, or Woden was the highest and holiest god of the
+Northern races. He was the all-pervading spirit of the universe, the
+personification of the air, the god of universal wisdom and victory,
+and the leader and protector of princes and heroes. As all the gods
+were supposed to be descended from him, he was surnamed Allfather,
+and as eldest and chief among them he occupied the highest seat in
+Asgard. Known by the name of Hlidskialf, this chair was not only an
+exalted throne, but also a mighty watch-tower, from whence he could
+overlook the whole world and see at a glance all that was happening
+among gods, giants, elves, dwarfs, and men.
+
+
+    "From the hall of Heaven he rode away
+    To Lidskialf, and sate upon his throne,
+    The mount, from whence his eye surveys the world.
+    And far from Heaven he turned his shining orbs
+    To look on Midgard, and the earth, and men."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+Odin's Personal Appearance
+
+None but Odin and his wife and queen Frigga were privileged to use
+this seat, and when they occupied it they generally gazed towards
+the south and west, the goal of all the hopes and excursions of the
+Northern nations. Odin was generally represented as a tall, vigorous
+man, about fifty years of age, either with dark curling hair or with
+a long grey beard and bald head. He was clad in a suit of grey, with
+a blue hood, and his muscular body was enveloped in a wide blue mantle
+flecked with grey--an emblem of the sky with its fleecy clouds. In his
+hand Odin generally carried the infallible spear Gungnir, which was
+so sacred that an oath sworn upon its point could never be broken,
+and on his finger or arm he wore the marvellous ring, Draupnir, the
+emblem of fruitfulness, precious beyond compare. When seated upon
+his throne or armed for the fray, to mingle in which he would often
+descend to earth, Odin wore his eagle helmet; but when he wandered
+peacefully about the earth in human guise, to see what men were doing,
+he generally donned a broad-brimmed hat, drawn low over his forehead
+to conceal the fact that he possessed but one eye.
+
+Two ravens, Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory), perched upon his
+shoulders as he sat upon his throne, and these he sent out into the
+wide world every morning, anxiously watching for their return at
+nightfall, when they whispered into his ears news of all they had
+seen and heard. Thus he was kept well informed about everything that
+was happening on earth.
+
+
+    "Hugin and Munin
+    Fly each day
+    Over the spacious earth.
+    I fear for Hugin
+    That he come not back,
+    Yet more anxious am I for Munin."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+At his feet crouched two wolves or hunting hounds, Geri and Freki,
+animals which were therefore considered sacred to him, and of good omen
+if met by the way. Odin always fed these wolves with his own hands
+from meat set before him. He required no food at all for himself,
+and seldom tasted anything except the sacred mead.
+
+
+    "Geri and Freki
+    The war-wont sates,
+    The triumphant sire of hosts;
+    But on wine only
+    The famed in arms
+    Odin, ever lives."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+When seated in state upon his throne, Odin rested his feet upon a
+footstool of gold, the work of the gods, all of whose furniture and
+utensils were fashioned either of that precious metal or of silver.
+
+Besides the magnificent hall Glads-heim, where stood the twelve seats
+occupied by the gods when they met in council, and Valaskialf, where
+his throne, Hlidskialf, was placed, Odin had a third palace in Asgard,
+situated in the midst of the marvellous grove Glasir, whose shimmering
+leaves were of red gold.
+
+
+
+Valhalla
+
+This palace, called Valhalla (the hall of the chosen slain), had five
+hundred and forty doors, wide enough to allow the passage of eight
+hundred warriors abreast, and above the principal gate were a boar's
+head and an eagle whose piercing glance penetrated to the far corners
+of the world. The walls of this marvellous building were fashioned
+of glittering spears, so highly polished that they illuminated the
+hall. The roof was of golden shields, and the benches were decorated
+with fine armour, the god's gifts to his guests. Here long tables
+afforded ample accommodation for the Einheriar, warriors fallen in
+battle, who were specially favoured by Odin.
+
+
+    "Easily to be known is,
+    By those who to Odin come,
+    The mansion by its aspect.
+    Its roof with spears is laid,
+    Its hall with shields is decked,
+    With corselets are its benches strewed."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The ancient Northern nations, who deemed warfare the most honourable
+of occupations, and considered courage the greatest virtue, worshipped
+Odin principally as god of battle and victory. They believed that
+whenever a fight was impending he sent out his special attendants,
+the shield-, battle-, or wish-maidens, called Valkyrs (choosers of the
+slain), who selected from the dead warriors one-half of their number,
+whom they bore on their fleet steeds over the quivering rainbow bridge,
+Bifröst, into Valhalla. Welcomed by Odin's sons, Hermod and Bragi,
+the heroes were conducted to the foot of Odin's throne, where they
+received the praise due to their valour. When some special favourite
+of the god was thus brought into Asgard, Valfather (father of the
+slain), as Odin was called when he presided over the warriors, would
+sometimes rise from his throne and in person bid him welcome at the
+great entrance gate.
+
+
+
+The Feast of the Heroes
+
+Besides the glory of such distinction, and the enjoyment of Odin's
+beloved presence day after day, other more material pleasures awaited
+the warriors in Valhalla. Generous entertainment was provided for
+them at the long tables, where the beautiful white-armed virgins,
+the Valkyrs, having laid aside their armour and clad themselves in
+pure white robes, waited upon them with assiduous attention. These
+maidens, nine in number according to some authorities, brought
+the heroes great horns full of delicious mead, and set before them
+huge portions of boar's flesh, upon which they feasted heartily. The
+usual Northern drink was beer or ale, but our ancestors fancied this
+beverage too coarse for the heavenly sphere. They therefore imagined
+that Valfather kept his table liberally supplied with mead or hydromel,
+which was daily furnished in great abundance by his she-goat Heidrun,
+who continually browsed on the tender leaves and twigs on Lerad,
+Yggdrasil's topmost branch.
+
+
+    "Rash war and perilous battle, their delight;
+    And immature, and red with glorious wounds,
+    Unpeaceful death their choice: deriving thence
+    A right to feast and drain immortal bowls,
+    In Odin's hall; whose blazing roof resounds
+    The genial uproar of those shades who fall
+    In desperate fight, or by some brave attempt."
+
+            Liberty (James Thomson).
+
+
+The meat upon which the Einheriar feasted was the flesh of the divine
+boar Sæhrimnir, a marvellous beast, daily slain by the cook Andhrimnir,
+and boiled in the great cauldron Eldhrimnir; but although Odin's
+guests had true Northern appetites and gorged themselves to the full,
+there was always plenty of meat for all.
+
+
+    "Andhrimnir cooks
+    In Eldhrimnir
+    Sæhrimnir;
+    'Tis the best of flesh;
+    But few know
+    What the einherjes eat."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Anderson's version).
+
+
+Moreover, the supply was exhaustless, for the boar always came to
+life again before the time of the next meal. This miraculous renewal
+of supplies in the larder was not the only wonderful occurrence in
+Valhalla, for it is related that the warriors, after having eaten and
+drunk to satiety, always called for their weapons, armed themselves,
+and rode out into the great courtyard, where they fought against one
+another, repeating the feats of arms for which they were famed on
+earth, and recklessly dealing terrible wounds, which, however, were
+miraculously and completely healed as soon as the dinner horn sounded.
+
+
+    "All the chosen guests of Odin
+    Daily ply the trade of war;
+    From the fields of festal fight
+    Swift they ride in gleaming arms,
+    And gaily, at the board of gods,
+    Quaff the cup of sparkling ale
+    And eat Sæhrimni's vaunted flesh."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+Whole and happy at the sound of the horn, and bearing one another
+no grudge for cruel thrusts given and received, the Einheriar would
+ride gaily back to Valhalla to renew their feasts in Odin's beloved
+presence, while the white-armed Valkyrs, with flying hair, glided
+gracefully about, constantly filling their horns or their favourite
+drinking vessels, the skulls of their enemies, while the scalds sang
+of war and of stirring Viking forays.
+
+
+    "And all day long they there are hack'd and hewn
+    'Mid dust, and groans, and limbs lopped off, and blood;
+    But all at night return to Odin's hall
+    Woundless and fresh: such lot is theirs in heaven."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Fighting and feasting thus, the heroes were said to spend their days
+in perfect bliss, while Odin delighted in their strength and number,
+which, however, he foresaw would not avail to prevent his downfall
+when the day of the last battle should dawn.
+
+As such pleasures were the highest a Northern warrior's fancy could
+paint, it was very natural that all fighting men should love Odin, and
+early in life should dedicate themselves to his service. They vowed
+to die arms in hand, if possible, and even wounded themselves with
+their own spears when death drew near, if they had been unfortunate
+enough to escape death on the battlefield and were threatened with
+"straw death," as they called decease from old age or sickness.
+
+
+    "To Odin then true-fast
+    Carves he fair runics,--
+    Death-runes cut deep on his arm and his breast."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+In reward for this devotion Odin watched with special care over his
+favourites, giving them gifts, a magic sword, a spear, or a horse,
+and making them invincible until their last hour had come, when he
+himself appeared to claim or destroy the gift he had bestowed, and
+the Valkyrs bore the heroes to Valhalla.
+
+
+    "He gave to Hermod
+    A helm and corselet,
+    And from him Sigmund
+    A sword received."
+
+            Lay of Hyndla (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Sleipnir
+
+When Odin took an active part in war, he generally rode his
+eight-footed grey steed, Sleipnir, and bore a white shield. His
+glittering spear flung over the heads of the combatants was the signal
+for the fray to commence, and he would dash into the midst of the
+ranks shouting his warcry: "Odin has you all!"
+
+
+    "And Odin donned
+    His dazzling corslet and his helm of gold,
+    And led the way on Sleipnir."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+At times he used his magic bow, from which he would shoot ten arrows at
+once, every one invariably bringing down a foe. Odin was also supposed
+to inspire his favourite warriors with the renowned "Berserker rage"
+(bare sark or shirt), which enabled them, although naked, weaponless,
+and sore beset, to perform unheard-of feats of valour and strength,
+and move about as with charmed lives.
+
+As Odin's characteristics, like the all-pervading elements, were
+multitudinous, so also were his names, of which he had no less than
+two hundred, almost all descriptive of some phase of his activities. He
+was considered the ancient god of seamen and of the wind.
+
+
+            "Mighty Odin,
+      Norsemen hearts we bend to thee!
+    Steer our barks, all-potent Woden,
+      O'er the surging Baltic Sea."
+
+            Vail.
+
+
+
+The Wild Hunt
+
+Odin, as wind-god, was pictured as rushing through mid-air on his
+eight-footed steed, from which originated the oldest Northern riddle,
+which runs as follows: "Who are the two who ride to the Thing? Three
+eyes have they together, ten feet, and one tail: and thus they travel
+through the lands." And as the souls of the dead were supposed to be
+wafted away on the wings of the storm, Odin was worshipped as the
+leader of all disembodied spirits. In this character he was most
+generally known as the Wild Huntsman, and when people heard the
+rush and roar of the wind they cried aloud in superstitious fear,
+fancying they heard and saw him ride past with his train, all mounted
+on snorting steeds, and accompanied by baying hounds. And the passing
+of the Wild Hunt, known as Woden's Hunt, the Raging Host, Gabriel's
+Hounds, or Asgardreia, was also considered a presage of such misfortune
+as pestilence or war.
+
+
+    "The Rhine flows bright; but its waves ere long
+      Must hear a voice of war,
+    And a clash of spears our hills among,
+      And a trumpet from afar;
+    And the brave on a bloody turf must lie,
+    For the Huntsman hath gone by!"
+
+            The Wild Huntsman (Mrs. Hemans).
+
+
+It was further thought that if any were so sacrilegious as to join
+in the wild halloo in mockery, they would be immediately snatched up
+and whirled away with the vanishing host, while those who joined in
+the halloo with implicit good faith would be rewarded by the sudden
+gift of a horse's leg, hurled at them from above, which, if carefully
+kept until the morrow, would be changed into a lump of gold.
+
+Even after the introduction of Christianity the ignorant Northern
+folk still dreaded the on-coming storm, declaring that it was the
+Wild Hunt sweeping across the sky.
+
+
+                    "And ofttimes will start,
+    For overhead are sweeping Gabriel's hounds,
+        Doomed with their impious lord the flying hart
+    To chase forever on aëreal grounds."
+
+            Sonnet (Wordsworth).
+
+
+Sometimes it left behind a small black dog, which, cowering and
+whining upon a neighbouring hearth, had to be kept for a whole year and
+carefully tended unless it could be exorcised or frightened away. The
+usual recipe, the same as for the riddance of changelings, was to brew
+beer in egg-shells, and this performance was supposed so to startle
+the spectral dog that he would fly with his tail between his legs,
+exclaiming that, although as old as the Behmer, or Bohemian forest,
+he had never before beheld such an uncanny sight.
+
+
+    "I am as old
+    As the Behmer wold,
+    And have in my life
+    Such a brewing not seen."
+
+            Old Saying (Thorpe's tr.)
+
+
+The object of this phantom hunt varied greatly, and was either a
+visonary boar or wild horse, white-breasted maidens who were caught
+and borne away bound only once in seven years, or the wood nymphs,
+called Moss Maidens, who were thought to represent the autumn leaves
+torn from the trees and whirled away by the wintry gale.
+
+In the middle ages, when the belief in the old heathen deities
+was partly forgotten, the leader of the Wild Hunt was no longer
+Odin, but Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa, King Arthur, or some
+Sabbath-breaker, like the Squire of Rodenstein or Hans von Hackelberg,
+who, in punishment for his sins, was condemned to hunt for ever
+through the realms of air.
+
+As the winds blew fiercest in autumn and winter, Odin was supposed to
+prefer hunting during that season, especially during the time between
+Christmas and Twelfth-night, and the peasants were always careful to
+leave the last sheaf or measure of grain out in the fields to serve
+as food for his horse.
+
+This hunt was of course known by various names in the different
+countries of Northern Europe; but as the tales told about it are
+all alike, they evidently originated in the same old heathen belief,
+and to this day ignorant people of the North fancy that the baying
+of a hound on a stormy night is an infallible presage of death.
+
+
+    "Still, still shall last the dreadful chase,
+      Till time itself shall have an end;
+    By day, they scour earth's cavern'd space,
+      At midnight's witching hour, ascend.
+
+    "This is the horn, and hound, and horse
+      That oft the lated peasant hears;
+    Appall'd, he signs the frequent cross,
+      When the wild din invades his ears.
+
+    "The wakeful priest oft drops a tear
+      For human pride, for human woe,
+    When, at his midnight mass, he hears
+      The infernal cry of 'Holla, ho!'"
+
+            Sir Walter Scott.
+
+
+The Wild Hunt, or Raging Host of Germany, was called Herlathing
+in England, from the mythical king Herla, its supposed leader; in
+Northern France it bore the name of Mesnée d'Hellequin, from Hel,
+goddess of death; and in the middle ages it was known as Cain's Hunt
+or Herod's Hunt, these latter names being given because the leaders
+were supposed to be unable to find rest on account of the iniquitous
+murders of Abel, of John the Baptist, and of the Holy Innocents.
+
+In Central France the Wild Huntsman, whom we have already seen in
+other countries as Odin, Charlemagne, Barbarossa, Rodenstein, von
+Hackelberg, King Arthur, Hel, one of the Swedish kings, Gabriel,
+Cain, or Herod, is also called the Great Huntsman of Fontainebleau
+(le Grand Veneur de Fontainebleau), and people declare that on the
+eve of Henry IV.'s murder, and also just before the outbreak of the
+great French Revolution, his shouts were distinctly heard as he swept
+across the sky.
+
+It was generally believed among the Northern nations that the soul
+escaped from the body in the shape of a mouse, which crept out of
+a corpse's mouth and ran away, and it was also said to creep in and
+out of the mouths of people in a trance. While the soul was absent,
+no effort or remedy could recall the patient to life; but as soon as
+it had come back animation returned.
+
+
+
+The Pied Piper
+
+As Odin was the leader of all disembodied spirits, he was identified in
+the middle ages with the Pied Piper of Hamelin. According to mediæval
+legends, Hamelin was so infested by rats that life became unbearable,
+and a large reward was offered to any who would rid the town of these
+rodents. A piper, in parti-coloured garments, offered to undertake
+the commission, and the terms being accepted, he commenced to play
+through the streets in such wise that, one and all, the rats were
+beguiled out of their holes until they formed a vast procession. There
+was that in the strains which compelled them to follow, until at last
+the river Weser was reached, and all were drowned in its tide.
+
+
+    "And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,
+    You heard as if an army muttered;
+    And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
+    And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
+    And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.
+    Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
+    Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,
+    Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
+      Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
+    Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,
+      Families by tens and dozens,
+    Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives--
+    Followed the Piper for their lives.
+    From street to street he piped advancing,
+    And step for step they followed dancing,
+    Until they came to the river Weser,
+    Wherein all plunged and perished!"
+
+            Robert Browning.
+
+
+As the rats were all dead, and there was no chance of their returning
+to plague them, the people of Hamelin refused to pay the reward, and
+they bade the piper do his worst. He took them at their word, and a
+few moments later the weird strains of the magic flute again arose,
+and this time it was the children who swarmed out of the houses and
+merrily followed the piper.
+
+
+    "There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling
+    Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling;
+    Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
+    Little hands clapping and little tongues chattering,
+    And, like fowls in a farmyard when barley is scattering,
+    Out came all the children running.
+    All the little boys and girls,
+    With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,
+    And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,
+    Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after
+    The wonderful music with shouting and laughter."
+
+            Robert Browning.
+
+
+The burghers were powerless to prevent the tragedy, and as they
+stood spellbound the piper led the children out of the town to the
+Koppelberg, a hill on the confines of the town, which miraculously
+opened to receive the procession, and only closed again when the last
+child had passed out of sight. This legend probably originated the
+adage "to pay the piper." The children were never seen in Hamelin
+again, and in commemoration of this public calamity all official
+decrees have since been dated so many years after the Pied Piper's
+visit.
+
+
+    "They made a decree that lawyers never
+      Should think their records dated duly
+    If, after the day of the month and year,
+    These words did not as well appear,
+    'And so long after what happened here
+      On the Twenty-second of July,
+    Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:'
+    And the better in memory to fix
+    The place of the children's last retreat,
+    They called it the Pied Piper Street--
+    Where any one playing on pipe or tabor
+    Was sure for the future to lose his labour."
+
+            Robert Browning.
+
+
+In this myth Odin is the piper, the shrill tones of the flute are
+emblematic of the whistling wind, the rats represent the souls of
+the dead, which cheerfully follow him, and the hollow mountain into
+which he leads the children is typical of the grave.
+
+
+
+Bishop Hatto
+
+Another German legend which owes its existence to this belief is
+the story of Bishop Hatto, the miserly prelate, who, annoyed by the
+clamours of the poor during a time of famine, had them burned alive
+in a deserted barn, like the rats whom he declared they resembled,
+rather than give them some of the precious grain which he had laid
+up for himself.
+
+
+    "'I' faith, 'tis an excellent bonfire!' quoth he,
+    'And the country is greatly obliged to me
+    For ridding it in these times forlorn
+    Of rats that only consume the corn.'"
+
+            Robert Southey.
+
+
+Soon after this terrible crime had been accomplished the bishop's
+retainers reported the approach of a vast swarm of rats. These, it
+appears, were the souls of the murdered peasants, which had assumed the
+forms of the rats to which the bishop had likened them. His efforts
+to escape were vain, and the rats pursued him even into the middle
+of the Rhine, to a stone tower in which he took refuge from their
+fangs. They swam to the tower, gnawed their way through the stone
+walls, and, pouring in on all sides at once, they found the bishop
+and devoured him alive.
+
+
+    "And in at the windows, and in at the door,
+    And through the walls, helter-skelter they pour,
+    And down from the ceiling, and up through the floor,
+    From the right and the left, from behind and before,
+    From within and without, from above and below,
+    And all at once to the Bishop they go.
+    They have whetted their teeth against the stones;
+    And now they pick the Bishop's bones;
+    They gnaw'd the flesh from every limb,
+    For they were sent to do judgment on him!"
+
+            Robert Southey.
+
+
+The red glow of the sunset above the Rat Tower near Bingen on the
+Rhine is supposed to be the reflection of the hell fire in which the
+wicked bishop is slowly roasting in punishment for his heinous crime.
+
+
+
+Irmin
+
+In some parts of Germany Odin was considered to be identical with
+the Saxon god Irmin, whose statue, the Irminsul, near Paderborn, was
+destroyed by Charlemagne in 772. Irmin was said to possess a ponderous
+brazen chariot, in which he rode across the sky along the path which
+we know as the Milky Way, but which the ancient Germans designated
+as Irmin's Way. This chariot, whose rumbling sound occasionally
+became perceptible to mortal ears as thunder, never left the sky,
+where it can still be seen in the constellation of the Great Bear,
+which is also known in the North as Odin's, or Charles's, Wain.
+
+
+        "The Wain, who wheels on high
+    His circling course, and on Orion waits;
+    Sole star that never bathes in the Ocean wave."
+
+            Homer's Iliad (Derby's tr.).
+
+
+
+Mimir's Well
+
+To obtain the great wisdom for which he is so famous, Odin, in the
+morn of time, visited Mimir's (Memor, memory) spring, "the fountain
+of all wit and wisdom," in whose liquid depths even the future was
+clearly mirrored, and besought the old man who guarded it to let him
+have a draught. But Mimir, who well knew the value of such a favour
+(for his spring was considered the source or headwater of memory),
+refused the boon unless Odin would consent to give one of his eyes
+in exchange.
+
+The god did not hesitate, so highly did he prize the draught, but
+immediately plucked out one of his eyes, which Mimir kept in pledge,
+sinking it deep down into his fountain, where it shone with mild
+lustre, leaving Odin with but one eye, which is considered emblematic
+of the sun.
+
+
+    "Through our whole lives we strive towards the sun;
+    That burning forehead is the eye of Odin.
+    His second eye, the moon, shines not so bright;
+    It has he placed in pledge in Mimer's fountain,
+    That he may fetch the healing waters thence,
+    Each morning, for the strengthening of this eye."
+
+            Oehlenschläger (Howitt's tr.).
+
+
+Drinking deeply of Mimir's fount, Odin gained the knowledge he
+coveted, and he never regretted the sacrifice he had made, but as
+further memorial of that day broke off a branch of the sacred tree
+Yggdrasil, which overshadowed the spring, and fashioned from it his
+beloved spear Gungnir.
+
+
+    "A dauntless god
+    Drew for drink to its gleam,
+    Where he left in endless
+    Payment the light of an eye.
+    From the world-ash
+    Ere Wotan went he broke a bough;
+    For a spear the staff
+    He split with strength from the stem."
+
+            Dusk of the Gods, Wagner (Forman's tr.).
+
+
+But although Odin was now all-wise, he was sad and oppressed, for
+he had gained an insight into futurity, and had become aware of the
+transitory nature of all things, and even of the fate of the gods,
+who were doomed to pass away. This knowledge so affected his spirits
+that he ever after wore a melancholy and contemplative expression.
+
+To test the value of the wisdom he had thus obtained, Odin went to
+visit the most learned of all the giants, Vafthrudnir, and entered
+with him into a contest of wit, in which the stake was nothing less
+than the loser's head.
+
+
+    "Odin rose with speed, and went
+    To contend in runic lore
+    With the wise and crafty Jute.
+    To Vafthrudni's royal hall
+    Came the mighty king of spells."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+
+Odin and Vafthrudnir
+
+On this occasion Odin had disguised himself as a Wanderer, by Frigga's
+advice, and when asked his name declared it was Gangrad. The contest of
+wit immediately began, Vafthrudnir questioning his guest concerning
+the horses which carried Day and Night across the sky, the river
+Ifing separating Jötun-heim from Asgard, and also about Vigrid,
+the field where the last battle was to be fought.
+
+All these questions were minutely answered by Odin, who, when
+Vafthrudnir had ended, began the interrogatory in his turn, and
+received equally explicit answers about the origin of heaven and
+earth, the creation of the gods, their quarrel with the Vanas, the
+occupations of the heroes in Valhalla, the offices of the Norns, and
+the rulers who were to replace the Æsir when they had all perished
+with the world they had created. But when, in conclusion, Odin bent
+near the giant and softly inquired what words Allfather whispered
+to his dead son Balder as he lay upon his funeral pyre, Vafthrudnir
+suddenly recognised his divine visitor. Starting back in dismay, he
+declared that no one but Odin himself could answer that question,
+and that it was now quite plain to him that he had madly striven
+in a contest of wisdom and wit with the king of the gods, and fully
+deserved the penalty of failure, the loss of his head.
+
+
+    "Not the man of mortal race
+    Knows the words which thou hast spoken
+    To thy son in days of yore.
+    I hear the coming tread of death;
+    He soon shall raze the runic lore,
+    And knowledge of the rise of gods,
+    From his ill-fated soul who strove
+    With Odin's self the strife of wit,
+    Wisest of the wise that breathe:
+    Our stake was life, and thou hast won."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+As is the case with so many of the Northern myths, which are often
+fragmentary and obscure, this one ends here, and none of the scalds
+informs us whether Odin really slew his rival, nor what was the answer
+to his last question; but mythologists have hazarded the suggestion
+that the word whispered by Odin in Balder's ear, to console him for
+his untimely death, must have been "resurrection."
+
+
+
+Invention of Runes
+
+Besides being god of wisdom, Odin was god and inventor of runes,
+the earliest alphabet used by Northern nations, which characters,
+signifying mystery, were at first used for divination, although in
+later times they served for inscriptions and records. Just as wisdom
+could only be obtained at the cost of sacrifice, Odin himself relates
+that he hung nine days and nights from the sacred tree Yggdrasil,
+gazing down into the immeasurable depths of Nifl-heim, plunged in deep
+thought, and self-wounded with his spear, ere he won the knowledge
+he sought.
+
+
+    "I know that I hung
+    On a wind-rocked tree
+    Nine whole nights,
+    With a spear wounded,
+    And to Odin offered
+    Myself to myself;
+    On that tree
+    Of which no one knows
+    From what root it springs."
+
+            Odin's Rune-Song (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+When he had fully mastered this knowledge, Odin cut magic runes upon
+his spear Gungnir, upon the teeth of his horse Sleipnir, upon the
+claws of the bear, and upon countless other animate and inanimate
+things. And because he had thus hung over the abyss for such a long
+space of time, he was ever after considered the patron divinity of
+all who were condemned to be hanged or who perished by the noose.
+
+After obtaining the gift of wisdom and runes, which gave him power over
+all things, Odin also coveted the gift of eloquence and poetry, which
+he acquired in a manner which we shall relate in a subsequent chapter.
+
+
+
+Geirrod and Agnar
+
+Odin, as has already been stated, took great interest in the affairs
+of mortals, and, we are told, was specially fond of watching King
+Hrauding's handsome little sons, Geirrod and Agnar, when they were
+about eight and ten years of age respectively. One day these little
+lads went fishing, and a storm suddenly arose which blew their boat
+far out to sea, where it finally stranded upon an island, upon which
+dwelt a seeming old couple, who in reality were Odin and Frigga in
+disguise. They had assumed these forms in order to indulge a sudden
+passion for the close society of their protégés. The lads were warmly
+welcomed and kindly treated, Odin choosing Geirrod as his favourite,
+and teaching him the use of arms, while Frigga petted and made much
+of little Agnar. The boys tarried on the island with their kind
+protectors during the long, cold winter season; but when spring came,
+and the skies were blue, and the sea calm, they embarked in a boat
+which Odin provided, and set out for their native shore. Favoured by
+gentle breezes, they were soon wafted thither; but as the boat neared
+the strand Geirrod quickly sprang out and pushed it far back into the
+water, bidding his brother sail away into the evil spirit's power. At
+that self-same moment the wind veered, and Agnar was indeed carried
+away, while his brother hastened to his father's palace with a lying
+tale as to what had happened to his brother. He was joyfully received
+as one from the dead, and in due time he succeeded his father upon
+the throne.
+
+Years passed by, during which the attention of Odin had been claimed by
+other high considerations, when one day, while the divine couple were
+seated on the throne Hlidskialf, Odin suddenly remembered the winter's
+sojourn on the desert island, and he bade his wife notice how powerful
+his pupil had become, and taunted her because her favourite Agnar had
+married a giantess and had remained poor and of no consequence. Frigga
+quietly replied that it was better to be poor than hardhearted,
+and accused Geirrod of lack of hospitality--one of the most heinous
+crimes in the eyes of a Northman. She even went so far as to declare
+that in spite of all his wealth he often ill-treated his guests.
+
+When Odin heard this accusation he declared that he would prove the
+falsity of the charge by assuming the guise of a Wanderer and testing
+Geirrod's generosity. Wrapped in his cloud-hued raiment, with slouch
+hat and pilgrim staff,--
+
+
+    "Wanderer calls me the world,
+    Far have I carried my feet,
+    On the back of the earth
+    I have boundlessly been,"--
+
+            Wagner (Forman's tr.).
+
+
+Odin immediately set out by a roundabout way, while Frigga, to outwit
+him, immediately despatched a swift messenger to warn Geirrod to
+beware of a man in wide mantle and broad-brimmed hat, as he was a
+wicked enchanter who would work him ill.
+
+When, therefore, Odin presented himself before the king's palace
+he was dragged into Geirrod's presence and questioned roughly. He
+gave his name as Grimnir, but refused to tell whence he came or what
+he wanted, so as this reticence confirmed the suspicion suggested
+to the mind of Geirrod, he allowed his love of cruelty full play,
+and commanded that the stranger should be bound between two fires,
+in such wise that the flames played around him without quite touching
+him, and he remained thus eight days and nights, in obstinate silence,
+without food. Now Agnar had returned secretly to his brother's palace,
+where he occupied a menial position, and one night when all was still,
+in pity for the suffering of the unfortunate captive, he conveyed to
+his lips a horn of ale. But for this Odin would have had nothing to
+drink--the most serious of all trials to the god.
+
+At the end of the eighth day, while Geirrod, seated upon his throne,
+was gloating over his prisoner's sufferings, Odin began to sing--softly
+at first, then louder and louder, until the hall re-echoed with his
+triumphant notes--a prophecy that the king, who had so long enjoyed
+the god's favour, would soon perish by his own sword.
+
+
+    "The fallen by the sword
+    Ygg shall now have;
+    Thy life is now run out:
+    Wroth with thee are the Dísir:
+    Odin thou now shalt see:
+    Draw near to me if thou canst."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+As the last notes died away the chains dropped from his hands, the
+flames flickered and went out, and Odin stood in the midst of the hall,
+no longer in human form, but in all the power and beauty of a god.
+
+On hearing the ominous prophecy Geirrod hastily drew his sword,
+intending to slay the insolent singer; but when he beheld the sudden
+transformation he started in dismay, tripped, fell upon the sharp
+blade, and perished as Odin had just foretold. Turning to Agnar, who,
+according to some accounts, was the king's son, and not his brother,
+for these old stories are often strangely confused, Odin bade him
+ascend the throne in reward for his humanity, and, further to repay
+him for the timely draught of ale, he promised to bless him with all
+manner of prosperity.
+
+On another occasion Odin wandered to earth, and was absent so
+long that the gods began to think that they would not see him in
+Asgard again. This encouraged his brothers Vili and Ve, who by some
+mythologists are considered as other personifications of himself,
+to usurp his power and his throne, and even, we are told, to espouse
+his wife Frigga.
+
+
+    "Be thou silent, Frigg!
+    Thou art Fiörgyn's daughter
+    And ever hast been fond of men,
+    Since Ve and Vili, it is said,
+    Thou, Vidrir's wife, didst
+    Both to thy bosom take."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+May-Day Festivals
+
+But upon Odin's return the usurpers vanished for ever; and in
+commemoration of the disappearance of the false Odin, who had ruled
+seven months and had brought nothing but unhappiness to the world,
+and of the return of the benevolent deity, the heathen Northmen
+formerly celebrated yearly festivals, which were long continued
+as May Day rejoicings. Until very lately there was always, on that
+day, a grand procession in Sweden, known as the May Ride, in which a
+flower-decked May king (Odin) pelted with blossoms the fur-enveloped
+Winter (his supplanter), until he put him to ignominious flight. In
+England also the first of May was celebrated as a festive occasion,
+in which May-pole dances, May queens, Maid Marian, and Jack in the
+Green played prominent parts.
+
+As personification of heaven, Odin, of course, was the lover and spouse
+of the earth, and as to them the earth bore a threefold aspect, the
+Northmen depicted him as a polygamist, and allotted to him several
+wives. The first among these was Jörd (Erda), the primitive earth,
+daughter of Night or of the giantess Fiorgyn. She bore him his
+famous son Thor, the god of thunder. The second and principal wife
+was Frigga, a personification of the civilised world. She gave him
+Balder, the gentle god of spring, Hermod, and, according to some
+authorities, Tyr. The third wife was Rinda, a personification of the
+hard and frozen earth, who reluctantly yields to his warm embrace,
+but finally gives birth to Vali, the emblem of vegetation.
+
+Odin is also said to have married Saga or Laga, the goddess of history
+(hence our verb "to say"), and to have daily visited her in the crystal
+hall of Sokvabek, beneath a cool, ever-flowing river, to drink its
+waters and listen to her songs about olden times and vanished races.
+
+
+    "Sokvabek hight the fourth dwelling;
+    Over it flow the cool billows;
+    Glad drink there Odin and Saga
+    Every day from golden cups."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+His other wives were Grid, the mother of Vidar; Gunlod, the mother
+of Bragi; Skadi; and the nine giantesses who simultaneously bore
+Heimdall--all of whom play more or less important parts in the various
+myths of the North.
+
+
+
+The Historical Odin
+
+Besides this ancient Odin, there was a more modern, semi-historical
+personage of the same name, to whom all the virtues, powers, and
+adventures of his predecessor have been attributed. He was the
+chief of the Æsir, inhabitants of Asia Minor, who, sore pressed by
+the Romans, and threatened with destruction or slavery, left their
+native land about 70 B.C., and migrated into Europe. This Odin is
+said to have conquered Russia, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden,
+leaving a son on the throne of each conquered country. He also built
+the town of Odensö. He was welcomed in Sweden by Gylfi, the king,
+who gave him a share of the realm, and allowed him to found the city
+of Sigtuna, where he built a temple and introduced a new system of
+worship. Tradition further relates that as his end drew near, this
+mythical Odin assembled his followers, publicly cut himself nine
+times in the breast with his spear,--a ceremony called "carving Geir
+odds,"--and told them he was about to return to his native land Asgard,
+his old home, where he would await their coming, to share with him
+a life of feasting, drinking, and fighting.
+
+According to another account, Gylfi, having heard of the power
+of the Æsir, the inhabitants of Asgard, and wishing to ascertain
+whether these reports were true, journeyed to the south. In due time
+he came to Odin's palace, where he was expected, and where he was
+deluded by the vision of Har, Iafn-har, and Thridi, three divinities,
+enthroned one above the other. The gatekeeper, Gangler, answered all
+his questions, and gave him a long explanation of Northern mythology,
+which is recorded in the Younger Edda, and then, having finished his
+instructions, suddenly vanished with the palace amid a deafening noise.
+
+According to other very ancient poems, Odin's sons, Weldegg, Beldegg,
+Sigi, Skiold, Sæming, and Yngvi, became kings of East Saxony, West
+Saxony, Franconia, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and from them are
+descended the Saxons, Hengist and Horsa, and the royal families of the
+Northern lands. Still another version relates that Odin and Frigga had
+seven sons, who founded the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy. In the course of
+time this mysterious king was confounded with the Odin whose worship
+he introduced, and all his deeds were attributed to the god.
+
+Odin was worshipped in numerous temples, but especially in the
+great fane at Upsala, where the most solemn festivals were held,
+and where sacrifices were offered. The victim was generally a horse,
+but in times of pressing need human offerings were made, even the
+king being once offered up to avert a famine.
+
+
+    "Upsal's temple, where the North
+    Saw Valhal's halls fair imag'd here on earth."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+The first toast at every festival here was drunk in his honour, and,
+besides the first of May, one day in every week was held sacred to
+him, and, from his Saxon name, Woden, was called Woden's day, whence
+the English word "Wednesday" has been derived. It was customary for
+the people to assemble at his shrine on festive occasions, to hear
+the songs of the scalds, who were rewarded for their minstrelsy by
+the gift of golden bracelets or armlets, which curled up at the ends
+and were called "Odin's serpents."
+
+There are but few remains of ancient Northern art now extant, and
+although rude statues of Odin were once quite common they have all
+disappeared, as they were made of wood--a perishable substance, which
+in the hands of the missionaries, and especially of Olaf the Saint,
+the Northern iconoclast, was soon reduced to ashes.
+
+
+    "There in the Temple, carved in wood,
+    The image of great Odin stood."
+
+            Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).
+
+
+Odin himself is supposed to have given his people a code of laws
+whereby to govern their conduct, in a poem called Hávamál, or the
+High Song, which forms part of the Edda. In this lay he taught
+the fallibility of man, the necessity for courage, temperance,
+independence, and truthfulness, respect for old age, hospitality,
+charity, and contentment, and gave instructions for the burial of
+the dead.
+
+
+    "At home let a man be cheerful,
+    And toward a guest liberal;
+    Of wise conduct he should be,
+    Of good memory and ready speech;
+    If much knowledge he desires,
+    He must often talk on what is good."
+
+            Hávamál (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III: FRIGGA
+
+
+The Queen of the Gods
+
+Frigga, or Frigg, daughter of Fiorgyn and sister of Jörd, according to
+some mythologists, is considered by others as a daughter of Jörd and
+Odin, whom she eventually married. This wedding caused such general
+rejoicing in Asgard, where the goddess was greatly beloved, that ever
+after it was customary to celebrate its anniversary with feast and
+song, and the goddess being declared patroness of marriage, her health
+was always proposed with that of Odin and Thor at wedding feasts.
+
+Frigga was goddess of the atmosphere, or rather of the clouds, and as
+such was represented as wearing either snow-white or dark garments,
+according to her somewhat variable moods. She was queen of the gods,
+and she alone had the privilege of sitting on the throne Hlidskialf,
+beside her august husband. From thence she too could look over all
+the world and see what was happening, and, according to the belief
+of our ancestors, she possessed the knowledge of the future, which,
+however, no one could ever prevail upon her to reveal, thus proving
+that Northern women could keep a secret inviolate.
+
+
+    "Of me the gods are sprung;
+    And all that is to come I know, but lock
+    In my own breast, and have to none reveal'd."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+She was generally represented as a tall, beautiful, and stately woman,
+crowned with heron plumes, the symbol of silence or forgetfulness, and
+clothed in pure white robes, secured at the waist by a golden girdle,
+from which hung a bunch of keys, the distinctive sign of the Northern
+housewife, whose special patroness she was said to be. Although she
+often appeared beside her husband, Frigga preferred to remain in her
+own palace, called Fensalir, the hall of mists or of the sea, where
+she diligently plied her wheel or distaff, spinning golden thread or
+weaving long webs of bright-coloured clouds.
+
+In order to perform this work she made use of a marvellous jewelled
+spinning wheel or distaff, which at night shone brightly in the sky as
+a constellation, known in the North as Frigga's Spinning Wheel, while
+the inhabitants of the South called the same stars Orion's Girdle.
+
+To her hall Fensalir the gracious goddess invited husbands and wives
+who had led virtuous lives on earth, so that they might enjoy each
+other's companionship even after death, and never be called upon to
+part again.
+
+
+    "There in the glen, Fensalir stands, the house
+    Of Frea, honour'd mother of the gods,
+    And shows its lighted windows and the open doors."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Frigga was therefore considered the goddess of conjugal and
+motherly love, and was specially worshipped by married lovers and
+tender parents. This exalted office did not entirely absorb her
+thoughts however, for we are told that she was very fond of dress,
+and whenever she appeared before the assembled gods her attire was
+rich and becoming, and her jewels chosen with much taste.
+
+
+
+The Stolen Gold
+
+Frigga's love of adornment once led her sadly astray, for, in her
+longing to possess some new ornament, she secretly purloined a piece
+of gold from a statue representing her husband, which had just been
+placed in his temple. The stolen metal was entrusted to the dwarfs,
+with instructions to fashion a marvellous necklace for her use. This,
+when finished, was so resplendent that it greatly enhanced her charms,
+and even increased Odin's love for her. But when he discovered the
+theft of the gold he angrily summoned the dwarfs and bade them reveal
+who had dared to touch his statue. Unwilling to betray the queen of
+the gods, the dwarfs remained obstinately silent, and, seeing that
+no information could be elicited from them, Odin commanded that the
+statue should be placed above the temple gate, and set to work to
+devise runes which should endow it with the power of speech and enable
+it to denounce the thief. When Frigga heard these tidings she trembled
+with fear, and implored her favourite attendant, Fulla, to invent some
+means of protecting her from Allfather's wrath. Fulla, who was always
+ready to serve her mistress, immediately departed, and soon returned,
+accompanied by a hideous dwarf, who promised to prevent the statue
+from speaking if Frigga would only deign to smile graciously upon
+him. This boon having been granted, the dwarf hastened off to the
+temple, caused a deep sleep to fall upon the guards, and while they
+were thus unconscious, pulled the statue down from its pedestal and
+broke it to pieces, so that it could never betray Frigga's theft,
+in spite of all Odin's efforts to give it the power of speech.
+
+Odin, discovering this sacrilege on the morrow, was very angry indeed;
+so angry that he left Asgard and utterly disappeared, carrying away
+with him all the blessings which he had been wont to shower upon gods
+and men. According to some authorities, his brothers, as we have
+already seen, took advantage of his absence to assume his form and
+secure possession of his throne and wife; but although they looked
+exactly like him they could not restore the lost blessings, and allowed
+the ice-giants, or Jotuns, to invade the earth and bind it fast in
+their cold fetters. These wicked giants pinched the leaves and buds
+till they all shrivelled up, stripped the trees bare, shrouded the
+earth in a great white coverlet, and veiled it in impenetrable mists.
+
+But at the end of seven weary months the true Odin relented and
+returned, and when he saw all the evil that had been done he drove
+the usurpers away, forced the frost-giants to relax their grip of the
+earth and to release her from her icy bonds, and again showered all
+his blessings down upon her, cheering her with the light of his smile.
+
+
+
+Odin Outwitted
+
+As has already been seen, Odin, although god of wit and wisdom, was
+sometimes no match for his wife Frigga, who, womanlike, was sure to
+obtain her way by some means. On one occasion the august pair were
+seated upon Hlidskialf, gazing with interest upon the Winilers and
+Vandals, who were preparing for a battle which was to decide which
+people should henceforth have supremacy. Odin gazed with satisfaction
+upon the Vandals, who were loudly praying to him for victory; but
+Frigga watched the movements of the Winilers with more attention,
+because they had entreated her aid. She therefore turned to Odin
+and coaxingly inquired whom he meant to favour on the morrow; he,
+wishing to evade her question, declared he would not decide, as it
+was time for bed, but would give the victory to those upon whom his
+eyes first rested in the morning.
+
+This answer was shrewdly calculated, for Odin knew that his couch
+was so turned that upon waking he would face the Vandals, and he
+intended looking out from thence, instead of waiting until he had
+mounted his throne. But, although so cunningly contrived, this plan
+was frustrated by Frigga, who, divining his purpose, waited until he
+was sound asleep, and then noiselessly turned his couch so that he
+should face her favourites. Then she sent word to the Winilers to dress
+their women in armour and send them out in battle array at dawn, with
+their long hair carefully combed down over their cheeks and breasts.
+
+
+    "Take thou thy women-folk,
+    Maidens and wives:
+    Over your ankles
+    Lace on the white war-hose;
+    Over your bosoms
+    Link up the hard mail-nets;
+    Over your lips
+    Plait long tresses with cunning;--
+    So war beasts full-bearded
+    King Odin shall deem you,
+    When off the grey sea-beach
+    At sunrise ye greet him."
+
+            The Longbeards' Saga (Charles Kingsley).
+
+
+These instructions were carried out with scrupulous exactness, and
+when Odin awoke the next morning his first conscious glance fell upon
+their armed host, and he exclaimed in surprise, "What Longbeards are
+those?" (In German the ancient word for long beards was Langobarden,
+which was the name used to designate the Lombards.) Frigga, upon
+hearing this exclamation, which she had foreseen, immediately cried
+out in triumph that Allfather had given them a new name, and was
+in honour bound to follow the usual Northern custom and give also a
+baptismal gift.
+
+
+    "'A name thou hast given them,
+    Shames neither thee nor them,
+    Well can they wear it.
+    Give them the victory,
+    First have they greeted thee;
+    Give them the victory,
+    Yoke-fellow mine!'"
+
+            The Longbeards' Saga (Charles Kingsley).
+
+
+Odin, seeing he had been so cleverly outwitted, made no demur, and in
+memory of the victory which his favour vouchsafed to them the Winilers
+retained the name given by the king of the gods, who ever after watched
+over them with special care, giving them many blessings, among others
+a home in the sunny South, on the fruitful plains of Lombardy.
+
+
+
+Fulla
+
+Frigga had, as her own special attendants, a number of beautiful
+maidens, among whom were Fulla (Volla), her sister, according to
+some authorities, to whom she entrusted her jewel casket. Fulla
+always presided over her mistress's toilet, was privileged to put
+on her golden shoes, attended her everywhere, was her confidante,
+and often advised her how best to help the mortals who implored
+her aid. Fulla was very beautiful indeed, and had long golden hair,
+which she wore flowing loose over her shoulders, restrained only by
+a golden circlet or snood. As her hair was emblematic of the golden
+grain, this circlet represented the binding of the sheaf. Fulla
+was also known as Abundia, or Abundantia, in some parts of Germany,
+where she was considered the symbol of the fulness of the earth.
+
+Hlin, Frigga's second attendant, was the goddess of consolation,
+sent out to kiss away the tears of mourners and pour balm into hearts
+wrung by grief. She also listened with ever-open ears to the prayers
+of mortals, carrying them to her mistress, and advising her at times
+how best to answer them and give the desired relief.
+
+
+
+Gna
+
+Gna was Frigga's swift messenger. Mounted upon her fleet steed
+Hofvarpnir (hoof-thrower), she would travel with marvellous rapidity
+through fire and air, over land and sea, and was therefore considered
+the personification of the refreshing breeze. Darting thus to and fro,
+Gna saw all that was happening upon earth, and told her mistress
+all she knew. On one occasion, as she was passing over Hunaland,
+she saw King Rerir, a lineal descendant of Odin, sitting mournfully
+by the shore, bewailing his childlessness. The queen of heaven,
+who was also goddess of childbirth, upon hearing this took an apple
+(the emblem of fruitfulness) from her private store, gave it to Gna,
+and bade her carry it to the king. With the rapidity of the element
+she personified, Gna darted away, and as she passed over Rerir's head,
+she dropped her apple into his lap with a radiant smile.
+
+
+    "'What flies up there, so quickly driving past?'
+    Her answer from the clouds, as rushing by:
+    'I fly not, nor do drive, but hurry fast,
+    Hoof-flinger swift through cloud and mist and sky.'"
+
+            Asgard and the Gods (Wagner-Macdowall).
+
+
+The king pondered for a moment upon the meaning of this sudden
+apparition and gift, and then hurried home, his heart beating high
+with hope, and gave the apple to his wife to eat. In due season,
+to his intense joy, she bore him a son, Volsung, the great Northern
+hero, who became so famous that he gave his name to all his race.
+
+
+
+Lofn, Vjofn, and Syn
+
+Besides the three above mentioned, Frigga had other attendants in her
+train. There was the mild and gracious maiden Lofn (praise or love),
+whose duty it was to remove all obstacles from the path of lovers.
+
+
+    "My lily tall, from her saddle bearing,
+    I led then forth through the temple, faring
+    To th' altar-circle where, priests among,
+    Lofn's vows she took with unfalt'ring tongue."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Vjofn's duty was to incline obdurate hearts to love, to maintain peace
+and concord among mankind, and to reconcile quarrelling husbands and
+wives. Syn (truth) guarded the door of Frigga's palace, refusing to
+open it to those who were not allowed to come in. When she had once
+shut the door upon a would-be intruder no appeal would avail to change
+her decision. She therefore presided over all tribunals and trials,
+and whenever a thing was to be vetoed the usual formula was to declare
+that Syn was against it.
+
+
+
+Gefjon
+
+Gefjon was also one of the maidens in Frigga's palace, and to her
+were entrusted all those who died unwedded, whom she received and
+made happy for ever.
+
+According to some authorities, Gefjon did not remain a virgin herself,
+but married one of the giants, by whom she had four sons. This same
+tradition goes on to declare that Odin sent her before him to visit
+Gylfi, King of Sweden, and to beg for some land which she might call
+her own. The king, amused at her request, promised her as much land as
+she could plough around in one day and night. Gefjon, nothing daunted,
+changed her four sons into oxen, harnessed them to a plough, and began
+to cut a furrow so wide and deep that the king and his courtiers were
+amazed. But Gefjon continued her work without showing any signs of
+fatigue, and when she had ploughed all around a large piece of land
+forcibly wrenched it away, and made her oxen drag it down into the sea,
+where she made it fast and called it Seeland.
+
+
+    "Gefjon drew from Gylfi,
+    Rich in stored up treasure,
+    The land she joined to Denmark.
+    Four heads and eight eyes bearing,
+    While hot sweat trickled down them,
+    The oxen dragged the reft mass
+    That formed this winsome island."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+As for the hollow she left behind her, it was quickly filled with water
+and formed a lake, at first called Logrum (the sea), but now known
+as Mälar, whose every indentation corresponds with the headlands of
+Seeland. Gefjon then married Skiold, one of Odin's sons, and became
+the ancestress of the royal Danish race of Skioldungs, dwelling in
+the city of Hleidra or Lethra, which she founded, and which became
+the principal place of sacrifice for the heathen Danes.
+
+
+
+Eira, Vara, Vör and Snotra
+
+Eira, also Frigga's attendant, was considered a most skilful
+physician. She gathered simples all over the earth to cure both wounds
+and diseases, and it was her province to teach the science to women,
+who were the only ones to practise medicine among the ancient nations
+of the North.
+
+
+    "Gaping wounds are bound by Eyra."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Vara heard all oaths and punished perjurers, while she rewarded those
+who faithfully kept their word. Then there were also Vör (faith),
+who knew all that was to occur throughout the world, and Snotra,
+goddess of virtue, who had mastered all knowledge.
+
+With such a galaxy of attendants it is little wonder that Frigga was
+considered a powerful deity; but in spite of the prominent place she
+occupied in Northern religion, she had no special temple nor shrine,
+and was but little worshipped except in company with Odin.
+
+
+
+Holda
+
+While Frigga was not known by this name in Southern Germany, there
+were other goddesses worshipped there, whose attributes were so exactly
+like hers, that they were evidently the same, although they bore very
+different names in the various provinces. Among them was the fair
+goddess Holda (Hulda or Frau Holle), who graciously dispensed many
+rich gifts. As she presided over the weather, the people were wont to
+declare when the snowflakes fell that Frau Holle was shaking her bed,
+and when it rained, that she was washing her clothes, often pointing
+to the white clouds as her linen which she had put out to bleach. When
+long grey strips of clouds drifted across the sky they said she was
+weaving, for she was supposed to be also a very diligent weaver,
+spinner, and housekeeper. It is said she gave flax to mankind and
+taught them how to use it, and in the Tyrol the following story is
+told about the way in which she bestowed this invaluable gift:
+
+
+
+The Discovery of Flax
+
+There was once a peasant who daily left his wife and children in the
+valley to take his sheep up the mountain to pasture; and as he watched
+his flock grazing on the mountain-side, he often had opportunity to
+use his cross-bow and bring down a chamois, whose flesh would furnish
+his larder with food for many a day.
+
+While pursuing a fine animal one day he saw it disappear behind a
+boulder, and when he came to the spot, he was amazed to see a doorway
+in the neighbouring glacier, for in the excitement of the pursuit he
+had climbed higher and higher, until he was now on top of the mountain,
+where glittered the everlasting snow.
+
+The shepherd boldly passed through the open door, and soon found
+himself in a wonderful jewelled cave hung with stalactites, in the
+centre of which stood a beautiful woman, clad in silvery robes, and
+attended by a host of lovely maidens crowned with Alpine roses. In his
+surprise, the shepherd sank to his knees, and as in a dream heard the
+queenly central figure bid him choose anything he saw to carry away
+with him. Although dazzled by the glow of the precious stones around
+him, the shepherd's eyes constantly reverted to a little nosegay of
+blue flowers which the gracious apparition held in her hand, and he
+now timidly proffered a request that it might become his. Smiling with
+pleasure, Holda, for it was she, gave it to him, telling him he had
+chosen wisely and would live as long as the flowers did not droop and
+fade. Then, giving the shepherd a measure of seed which she told him
+to sow in his field, the goddess bade him begone; and as the thunder
+pealed and the earth shook, the poor man found himself out upon the
+mountain-side once more, and slowly wended his way home to his wife,
+to whom he told his adventure and showed the lovely blue flowers and
+the measure of seed.
+
+The woman reproached her husband bitterly for not having brought some
+of the precious stones which he so glowingly described, instead of the
+blossoms and seed; nevertheless the man proceeded to sow the latter,
+and he found to his surprise that the measure supplied seed enough
+for several acres.
+
+Soon the little green shoots began to appear, and one moonlight
+night, while the peasant was gazing upon them, as was his wont,
+for he felt a curious attraction to the field which he had sown, and
+often lingered there wondering what kind of grain would be produced,
+he saw a misty form hover above the field, with hands outstretched
+as if in blessing. At last the field blossomed, and countless little
+blue flowers opened their calyxes to the golden sun. When the flowers
+had withered and the seed was ripe, Holda came once more to teach the
+peasant and his wife how to harvest the flax--for such it was--and from
+it to spin, weave, and bleach linen. As the people of the neighbourhood
+willingly purchased both linen and flax-seed, the peasant and his
+wife soon grew very rich indeed, and while he ploughed, sowed, and
+harvested, she spun, wove, and bleached the linen. The man lived to
+a good old age, and saw his grandchildren and great-grandchildren
+grow up around him. All this time his carefully treasured bouquet
+had remained fresh as when he first brought it home, but one day he
+saw that during the night the flowers had drooped and were dying.
+
+Knowing what this portended, and that he too must die, the peasant
+climbed the mountain once more to the glacier, and found again the
+doorway for which he had often vainly searched. He entered the icy
+portal, and was never seen or heard of again, for, according to the
+legend, the goddess took him under her care, and bade him live in
+her cave, where his every wish was gratified.
+
+
+
+Tannhäuser
+
+According to a mediæval tradition, Holda dwelt in a cave in the
+Hörselberg, in Thuringia, where she was known as Frau Venus, and
+was considered as an enchantress who lured mortals into her realm,
+where she detained them for ever, steeping their senses in all
+manner of sensual pleasures. The most famous of her victims was
+Tannhäuser, who, after he had lived under her spell for a season,
+experienced a revulsion of feeling which loosened her bonds over his
+spirit and induced anxious thoughts concerning his soul. He escaped
+from her power and hastened to Rome to confess his sins and seek
+absolution. But when the Pope heard of his association with one of
+the pagan goddesses whom the priests taught were nothing but demons,
+he declared that the knight could no more hope for pardon than to
+see his staff bear buds and bloom.
+
+
+    "Hast thou within the nets of Satan lain?
+    Hast thou thy soul to her perdition pledged?
+    Hast thou thy lip to Hell's Enchantress lent,
+    To drain damnation from her reeking cup?
+    Then know that sooner from the withered staff
+    That in my hand I hold green leaves shall spring,
+    Than from the brand in hell-fire scorched rebloom
+    The blossoms of salvation."
+
+            Tannhäuser (Owen Meredith).
+
+
+Crushed with grief at this pronouncement, Tannhäuser fled, and,
+despite the entreaties of his faithful friend, Eckhardt, no great
+time elapsed ere he returned to the Hörselberg, where he vanished
+within the cave. He had no sooner disappeared, however, than the Pope's
+messengers arrived, proclaiming that he was pardoned, for the withered
+staff had miraculously bloomed, thus proving to all that there was
+no sin too heinous to be pardoned, providing repentance were sincere.
+
+
+    "Dashed to the hip with travel, dewed with haste,
+    A flying post, and in his hand he bore
+    A withered staff o'erflourished with green leaves;
+    Who,--followed by a crowd of youth and eld,
+    That sang to stun with sound the lark in heaven,
+    'A miracle! a miracle from Rome!
+    Glory to God that makes the bare bough green!'--
+    Sprang in the midst, and, hot for answer, asked
+    News of the Knight Tannhäuser."
+
+            Tannhäuser (Owen Meredith).
+
+
+Holda was also the owner of a magic fountain called Quickborn, which
+rivalled the famed fountain of youth, and of a chariot in which she
+rode from place to place when she inspected her domain. This vehicle
+having once suffered damage, the goddess bade a wheelwright repair it,
+and when he had finished told him to keep some chips as his pay. The
+man was indignant at such a meagre reward, and kept only a very few of
+the number; but to his surprise he found these on the morrow changed
+to gold.
+
+
+      "Fricka, thy wife--
+    This way she reins her harness of rams.
+    Hey! how she whirls
+    The golden whip;
+    The luckless beasts
+    Unboundedly bleat;
+    Her wheels wildly she rattles;
+    Wrath is lit in her look."
+
+            Wagner (Forman's tr.).
+
+
+
+Eástre, the Goddess of Spring
+
+The Saxon goddess Eástre, or Ostara, goddess of spring, whose name has
+survived in the English word Easter, is also identical with Frigga,
+for she too is considered goddess of the earth, or rather of Nature's
+resurrection after the long death of winter. This gracious goddess
+was so dearly loved by the old Teutons, that even after Christianity
+had been introduced they retained so pleasant a recollection of her,
+that they refused to have her degraded to the rank of a demon, like
+many of their other divinities, and transferred her name to their great
+Christian feast. It had long been customary to celebrate this day by
+the exchange of presents of coloured eggs, for the egg is the type of
+the beginning of life; so the early Christians continued to observe
+this rule, declaring, however, that the egg is also symbolical of the
+Resurrection. In various parts of Germany, stone altars can still be
+seen, which are known as Easter-stones, because they were dedicated
+to the fair goddess Ostara. They were crowned with flowers by the
+young people, who danced gaily around them by the light of great
+bonfires,--a species of popular games practised until the middle of
+the present century, in spite of the priests' denunciations and of
+the repeatedly published edicts against them.
+
+
+
+Bertha, the White Lady
+
+In other parts of Germany, Frigga, Holda, or Ostara is known by
+the name of Brechta, Bertha, or the White Lady. She is best known
+under this title in Thuringia, where she was supposed to dwell in
+a hollow mountain, keeping watch over the Heimchen, souls of unborn
+children, and of those who died unbaptized. Here Bertha watched over
+agriculture, caring for the plants, which her infant troop watered
+carefully, for each babe was supposed to carry a little jar for that
+express purpose. While the goddess was duly respected and her retreat
+unmolested, she remained where she was; but tradition relates that
+she once left the country with her infant train dragging her plough,
+and settled elsewhere to continue her kind ministrations. Bertha
+is the legendary ancestress of several noble families, and she is
+supposed to be the same as the industrious queen of the same name,
+the mythical mother of Charlemagne, whose era has become proverbial,
+for in speaking of the Golden Age in France and Germany it is customary
+to say, "in the days when Bertha spun."
+
+As this Bertha is supposed to have developed a very large and flat
+foot, from continually pressing the treadle of her wheel, she is
+often represented in mediæval art as a woman with a splay foot,
+and hence known as la reine pédauque.
+
+As ancestress of the imperial house of Germany, the White Lady is
+supposed to appear in the palace before a death or misfortune in
+the family, and this superstition is still so rife in Germany, that
+the newspapers in 1884 contained the official report of a sentinel,
+who declared that he had seen her flit past him in one of the palace
+corridors.
+
+As Bertha was renowned for her spinning, she naturally was regarded
+as the special patroness of that branch of female industry, and was
+said to flit through the streets of every village, at nightfall,
+during the twelve nights between Christmas and January 6, peering
+into every window to inspect the spinning of the household.
+
+The maidens whose work had been carefully performed were rewarded by
+a present of one of her own golden threads or a distaff full of extra
+fine flax; but wherever a careless spinner was found, her wheel was
+broken, her flax soiled, and if she had failed to honour the goddess
+by eating plenty of the cakes baked at that period of the year,
+she was cruelly punished.
+
+In Mecklenburg, this same goddess is known as Frau Gode, or Wode, the
+female form of Wuotan or Odin, and her appearance is always considered
+the harbinger of great prosperity. She is also supposed to be a great
+huntress, and to lead the Wild Hunt, mounted upon a white horse,
+her attendants being changed into hounds and all manner of wild beasts.
+
+In Holland she was called Vrou-elde, and from her the Milky Way is
+known by the Dutch as Vrou-elden-straat; while in parts of Northern
+Germany she was called Nerthus (Mother Earth). Her sacred car was
+kept on an island, presumably Rügen, where the priests guarded it
+carefully until she appeared to take a yearly journey throughout
+her realm to bless the land. The goddess, her face completely hidden
+by a thick veil, then sat in this car, which was drawn by two cows,
+and she was respectfully escorted by her priests. When she passed,
+the people did homage by ceasing all warfare, and laying aside their
+weapons. They donned festive attire, and began no quarrel until
+the goddess had again retired to her sanctuary. Then both car and
+goddess were bathed in a secret lake (the Schwartze See, in Rügen),
+which swallowed up the slaves who had assisted at the bathing, and
+once more the priests resumed their watch over the sanctuary and
+grove of Nerthus or Hlodyn, to await her next appearance.
+
+In Scandinavia, this goddess was also known as Huldra, and boasted of
+a train of attendant wood-nymphs, who sometimes sought the society of
+mortals, to enjoy a dance upon the village green. They could always
+be detected, however, by the tip of a cow's tail which trailed from
+beneath their long snow-white garments. These Huldra folk were the
+special protectors of the cattle on the mountain-sides, and were said
+to surprise the lonely traveller, at times, by the marvellous beauty
+of the melodies they sang to beguile the hours at their tasks.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV: THOR
+
+
+The Thunderer
+
+According to some mythologists, Thor, or Donar, is the son of Jörd
+(Erda) and of Odin, but others state that his mother was Frigga,
+queen of the gods. This child was very remarkable for his great size
+and strength, and very soon after his birth amazed the assembled
+gods by playfully lifting and throwing about ten great bales of bear
+skins. Although generally good-tempered, Thor would occasionally fly
+into a terrible rage, and as he was very dangerous at these times, his
+mother, unable to control him, sent him away from home and entrusted
+him to the care of Vingnir (the winged), and of Hlora (heat). These
+foster-parents, who are also considered as the personification of
+sheet-lightning, soon managed to control their troublesome charge, and
+brought him up so wisely, that the gods entertained a very grateful
+recollection of their kind offices. Thor himself, recognising all he
+owed them, assumed the names of Vingthor and Hlorridi, by which he
+is also known.
+
+
+                            "Cry on, Vingi-Thor,
+    With the dancing of the ring-mail and the smitten shields of war."
+
+            Sigurd the Volsung (William Morris).
+
+
+Having attained his full growth and the age of reason, Thor was
+admitted to Asgard among the other gods, where he occupied one of the
+twelve seats in the great judgment hall. He was also given the realm
+of Thrud-vang or Thrud-heim, where he built a wonderful palace called
+Bilskirnir (lightning), the most spacious in all Asgard. It contained
+five hundred and forty halls for the accommodation of the thralls,
+who after death were welcomed to his home, where they received equal
+treatment with their masters in Valhalla, for Thor was the patron
+god of the peasants and lower classes.
+
+
+    "Five hundred halls
+    And forty more,
+    Methinketh, hath
+    Bowed Bilskirnir.
+    Of houses roofed
+    There's none I know
+    My son's surpassing."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Percy's tr.).
+
+
+As he was god of thunder, Thor alone was never allowed to pass over
+the wonderful bridge Bifröst, lest he should set it aflame by the
+heat of his presence; and when he wished to join his fellow gods by
+the Urdar fountain, under the shade of the sacred tree Yggdrasil, he
+was forced to make his way thither on foot, wading through the rivers
+Kormt and Ormt, and the two streams Kerlaug, to the trysting place.
+
+Thor, who was honoured as the highest god in Norway, came second in
+the trilogy of all the other countries, and was called "old Thor,"
+because he is supposed by some mythologists to have belonged to an
+older dynasty of gods, and not on account of his actual age, for he
+was represented and described as a man in his prime, tall and well
+formed, with muscular limbs and bristling red hair and beard, from
+which, in moments of anger, the sparks flew in showers.
+
+
+    "First, Thor with the bent brow,
+      In red beard muttering low,
+      Darting fierce lightnings from eyeballs that glow,
+    Comes, while each chariot wheel
+    Echoes in thunder peal,
+      As his dread hammer shock
+      Makes Earth and Heaven rock,
+    Clouds rifting above, while Earth quakes below."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The Northern races further adorned him with a crown, on each point
+of which was either a glittering star, or a steadily burning flame,
+so that his head was ever surrounded by a kind of halo of fire,
+his own element.
+
+
+
+Thor's Hammer
+
+Thor was the proud possessor of a magic hammer called Miölnir
+(the crusher) which he hurled at his enemies, the frost-giants,
+with destructive power, and which possessed the wonderful property
+of always returning to his hand, however far away he might hurl it.
+
+
+    "I am the Thunderer!
+    Here in my Northland,
+    My fastness and fortress,
+    Reign I forever!
+
+    "Here amid icebergs
+    Rule I the nations;
+    This is my hammer,
+    Miölnir the mighty;
+    Giants and sorcerers
+    Cannot withstand it!"
+
+            Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).
+
+
+As this huge hammer, the emblem of the thunderbolts, was generally
+red-hot, the god had an iron gauntlet called Iarn-greiper, which
+enabled him to grasp it firmly. He could hurl Miölnir a great distance,
+and his strength, which was always remarkable, was doubled when he
+wore his magic belt called Megin-giörd.
+
+
+    "This is my girdle:
+    Whenever I brace it,
+    Strength is redoubled!"
+
+            Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).
+
+
+Thor's hammer was considered so very sacred by the ancient Northern
+people, that they were wont to make the sign of the hammer, as the
+Christians later taught them to make the sign of the cross, to ward
+off all evil influences, and to secure blessings. The same sign
+was also made over the newly born infant when water was poured over
+its head and a name given. The hammer was used to drive in boundary
+stakes, which it was considered sacrilegious to remove, to hallow
+the threshold of a new house, to solemnise a marriage, and, lastly,
+it played a part in the consecration of the funeral pyre upon which
+the bodies of heroes, together with their weapons and steeds, and,
+in some cases, with their wives and dependents, were burned.
+
+In Sweden, Thor, like Odin, was supposed to wear a broad-brimmed hat,
+and hence the storm-clouds in that country are known as Thor's hat, a
+name also given to one of the principal mountains in Norway. The rumble
+and roar of the thunder were said to be the roll of his chariot, for
+he alone among the gods never rode on horseback, but walked, or drove
+in a brazen chariot drawn by two goats, Tanngniostr (tooth-cracker),
+and Tanngrisnr (tooth-gnasher), from whose teeth and hoofs the sparks
+constantly flew.
+
+
+    "Thou camest near the next, O warrior Thor!
+    Shouldering thy hammer, in thy chariot drawn,
+    Swaying the long-hair'd goats with silver'd rein."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+When the god thus drove from place to place, he was called Aku-thor,
+or Thor the charioteer, and in Southern Germany the people, fancying
+a brazen chariot alone inadequate to furnish all the noise they heard,
+declared it was loaded with copper kettles, which rattled and clashed,
+and therefore often called him, with disrespectful familiarity,
+the kettle-vendor.
+
+
+
+Thor's Family
+
+Thor was twice married; first to the giantess Iarnsaxa (iron stone),
+who bore him two sons, Magni (strength) and Modi (courage), both
+destined to survive their father and the twilight of the gods,
+and rule over the new world which was to rise like a phoenix from
+the ashes of the first. His second wife was Sif, the golden-haired,
+who also bore him two children, Lorride, and a daughter named Thrud,
+a young giantess renowned for her size and strength. True to the
+well-known affinity of contrast, Thrud was wooed by the dwarf Alvis,
+whom she rather favoured; and one evening, when this suitor, who,
+being a dwarf, could not face the light of day, presented himself in
+Asgard to sue for her hand, the assembled gods did not refuse their
+consent. They had scarcely signified their approbation, however, when
+Thor, who had been absent, suddenly appeared, and casting a glance of
+contempt upon the puny lover, declared he would have to prove that his
+knowledge atoned for his small stature, before he could win his bride.
+
+To test Alvis's mental powers, Thor then questioned him in the
+language of the gods, Vanas, elves, and dwarfs, artfully prolonging
+his examination until sunrise, when the first beam of light, falling
+upon the unhappy dwarf, petrified him. There he stood, an enduring
+example of the gods' power, to serve as a warning to all other dwarfs
+who might dare to test it.
+
+
+    "Ne'er in human bosom
+    Have I found so many
+    Words of the old time.
+    Thee with subtlest cunning
+    Have I yet befooled.
+    Above ground standeth thou, dwarf
+    By day art overtaken,
+    Bright sunshine fills the hall."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Howitt's version).
+
+
+
+Sif, the Golden-haired
+
+Sif, Thor's wife, was very vain of a magnificent head of long golden
+hair which covered her from head to foot like a brilliant veil; and
+as she too was a symbol of the earth, her hair was said to represent
+the long grass, or the golden grain covering the Northern harvest
+fields. Thor was very proud of his wife's beautiful hair; imagine
+his dismay, therefore, upon waking one morning, to find her shorn,
+and as bald and denuded of ornament as the earth when the grain has
+been garnered, and nothing but the stubble remains! In his anger,
+Thor sprang to his feet, vowing he would punish the perpetrator
+of this outrage, whom he immediately and rightly conjectured to be
+Loki, the arch-plotter, ever on the look-out for some evil deed to
+perform. Seizing his hammer, Thor went in search of Loki, who attempted
+to evade the irate god by changing his form. But it was all to no
+purpose; Thor soon overtook him, and without more ado caught him by
+the throat, and almost strangled him ere he yielded to his imploring
+signs and relaxed his powerful grip. When he could draw his breath,
+Loki begged forgiveness, but all his entreaties were vain, until he
+promised to procure for Sif a new head of hair, as beautiful as the
+first, and as luxuriant in growth.
+
+
+    "And thence for Sif new tresses I'll bring
+      Of gold, ere the daylight's gone,
+    So that she shall liken a field in spring,
+      With its yellow-flowered garment on."
+
+            The Dwarfs, Oehlenschläger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Then Thor consented to let the traitor go; so Loki rapidly crept down
+into the bowels of the earth, where Svart-alfa-heim was situated,
+to beg the dwarf Dvalin to fashion not only the precious hair, but
+a present for Odin and Frey, whose anger he wished to disarm.
+
+His request was favourably received and the dwarf fashioned the spear
+Gungnir, which never failed in its aim, and the ship Skidbladnir,
+which, always wafted by favourable winds, could sail through the air
+as well as on the water, and which had this further magic property,
+that although it could contain the gods and all their steeds, it
+could be folded up into the very smallest compass and thrust in
+one's pocket. Lastly, he spun the finest golden thread, from which
+he fashioned the hair required for Sif, declaring that as soon as it
+touched her head it would grow fast there and become as her own.
+
+
+    "Though they now seem dead, let them touch but her head,
+      Each hair shall the life-moisture fill;
+    Nor shall malice nor spell henceforward prevail
+      Sif's tresses to work aught of ill."
+
+            The Dwarfs, Oehlenschläger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Loki was so pleased with these proofs of the dwarfs' skill that he
+declared the son of Ivald to be the most clever of smiths--words which
+were overheard by Brock, another dwarf, who exclaimed that he was sure
+his brother Sindri could produce three objects which would surpass
+those which Loki held, not only in intrinsic value, but also in magical
+properties. Loki immediately challenged the dwarf to show his skill,
+wagering his head against Brock's on the result of the undertaking.
+
+Sindri, apprised of the wager, accepted Brock's offer to blow the
+bellows, warning him, however, that he must work persistently and
+not for a moment relax his efforts if he wished him to succeed; then
+he threw some gold in the fire, and went out to bespeak the favour
+of the hidden powers. During his absence Brock diligently plied the
+bellows, while Loki, hoping to make him pause, changed himself into
+a gadfly and cruelly stung his hand. In spite of the pain, the dwarf
+kept on blowing, and when Sindri returned, he drew out of the fire
+an enormous wild boar, called Gullin-bursti, because of its golden
+bristles, which had the power of radiating light as it flitted across
+the sky, for it could travel through the air with marvellous velocity.
+
+
+    "And now, strange to tell, from the roaring fire
+      Came the golden-haired Gullinbörst,
+    To serve as a charger the sun-god Frey,
+      Sure, of all wild boars this the first."
+
+            The Dwarfs, Oehlenschläger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+This first piece of work successfully completed, Sindri flung some more
+gold on the fire and bade his brother resume blowing, while he again
+went out to secure magic assistance. This time Loki, still disguised
+as a gadfly, stung the dwarf on his cheek; but in spite of the pain
+Brock worked on, and when Sindri returned, he triumphantly drew
+out of the flames the magic ring Draupnir, the emblem of fertility,
+from which eight similar rings dropped every ninth night.
+
+
+    "They worked it and turned it with wondrous skill,
+      Till they gave it the virtue rare,
+    That each thrice third night from its rim there fell
+      Eight rings, as their parent fair."
+
+            The Dwarfs, Oehlenschläger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Now a lump of iron was cast in the flames, and with renewed caution not
+to forfeit their success by inattention, Sindri passed out, leaving
+Brock to ply the bellows as before. Loki was now in desperation
+and he prepared for a final effort. This time, still in the guise
+of the gadfly, he stung the dwarf above the eye until the blood
+began to flow in such a stream, that it prevented his seeing what
+he was doing. Hastily raising his hand for a second, Brock dashed
+aside the stream of blood; but short as was the interruption it had
+worked irreparable harm, and when Sindri drew his work out of the
+fire he uttered an exclamation of disappointment for the hammer he
+had fashioned was short in the handle.
+
+
+    "Then the dwarf raised his hand to his brow for the smart,
+      Ere the iron well out was beat,
+    And they found that the haft by an inch was too short,
+      But to alter it then 'twas too late."
+
+            The Dwarfs, Oehlenschläger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Notwithstanding this mishap, Brock was sure of winning the wager and
+he did not hesitate to present himself before the gods in Asgard,
+where he gave Odin the ring Draupnir, Frey the boar Gullin-bursti,
+and Thor the hammer Miölnir, whose power none could resist.
+
+Loki in turn gave the spear Gungnir to Odin, the ship Skidbladnir to
+Frey, and the golden hair to Thor; but although the latter immediately
+grew upon Sif's head and was unanimously declared more beautiful than
+her own locks had ever been, the gods decreed that Brock had won
+the wager, on the ground that the hammer Miölnir, in Thor's hands,
+would prove invaluable against the frost giants on the last day.
+
+
+            "And at their head came Thor,
+    Shouldering his hammer, which the giants know."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+In order to save his head, Loki fled precipitately, but was overtaken
+by Thor, who brought him back and handed him over to Brock, telling
+him, however, that although Loki's head was rightfully his, he
+must not touch his neck. Hindered from obtaining full vengeance,
+the dwarf determined to punish Loki by sewing his lips together,
+and as his sword would not pierce them, he borrowed his brother's
+awl for the purpose. However, Loki, after enduring the gods' gibes
+in silence for a little while, managed to cut the string and soon
+after was as loquacious as ever.
+
+In spite of his redoubtable hammer, Thor was not held in dread as
+the injurious god of the storm, who destroyed peaceful homesteads
+and ruined the harvest by sudden hail-storms and cloud-bursts. The
+Northmen fancied he hurled it only against ice giants and rocky walls,
+reducing the latter to powder to fertilise the earth and make it
+yield plentiful fruit to the tillers of the soil.
+
+In Germany, where the eastern storms are always cold and blighting,
+while the western bring warm rains and mild weather, Thor was supposed
+to journey always from west to east, to wage war against the evil
+spirits which would fain have enveloped the country in impenetrable
+veils of mist and have bound it in icy fetters.
+
+
+
+Thor's Journey to Jötun-heim
+
+As the giants from Jötun-heim were continually sending out cold
+blasts of wind to nip the tender buds and hinder the growth of the
+flowers, Thor once made up his mind to go and force them to behave
+better. Accompanied by Loki he set out in his chariot, and after
+riding for a whole day the gods came at nightfall to the confines of
+the giant-world, where, seeing a peasant's hut, they resolved to stay
+for rest and refreshment.
+
+Their host was hospitable but very poor, and Thor, seeing that he
+would scarcely be able to supply the necessary food to satisfy his
+by no means small appetite, slew both his goats, which he cooked and
+made ready to eat, inviting his host and family to partake freely of
+the food thus provided, but cautioning them to throw all the bones,
+without breaking them, into the skins of the goats which he had spread
+out on the floor.
+
+The peasant and his family ate heartily, but his son Thialfi,
+encouraged by mischievous Loki, ventured to break one of the bones
+and suck out the marrow, thinking his disobedience would not be
+detected. On the morrow, however, Thor, ready to depart, struck the
+goat skins with his hammer Miölnir, and immediately the goats sprang up
+as lively as before, except that one seemed somewhat lame. Perceiving
+that his commands had been disregarded, Thor would have slain the whole
+family in his wrath. The culprit acknowledged his fault, however,
+and the peasant offered to compensate for the loss by giving the
+irate god not only his son Thialfi, but also his daughter Roskva,
+to serve him for ever.
+
+Charging the man to take good care of the goats, which he left there
+until he should return, and bidding the young peasants accompany
+him, Thor now set out on foot with Loki, and after walking all day
+found himself at nightfall in a bleak and barren country, which was
+enveloped in an almost impenetrable grey mist. After seeking for
+some time, Thor saw through the fog the uncertain outline of what
+looked like a strangely-shaped house. Its open portal was so wide and
+high that it seemed to take up all one side of the house. Entering
+and finding neither fire nor light, Thor and his companions flung
+themselves wearily down on the floor to sleep, but were soon disturbed
+by a peculiar noise, and a prolonged trembling of the ground beneath
+them. Fearing lest the main roof should fall during this earthquake,
+Thor and his companions took refuge in a wing of the building, where
+they soon fell sound asleep. At dawn, the god and his companions
+passed out, but they had not gone very far ere they saw the recumbent
+form of a sleeping giant, and perceived that the peculiar sounds
+which had disturbed their rest were produced by his snores. At that
+moment the giant awoke, arose, stretched himself, looked about him
+for his missing property, and a second later picked up the object
+which Thor and his companions had mistaken in the darkness for a
+house. They then perceived with amazement that this was nothing more
+than a huge mitten, and that the wing in which they had all slept
+was the separate place for the giant's great thumb! Learning that
+Thor and his companions were on their way to Utgard, as the giants'
+realm was also called, Skrymir, the giant, proposed to be their guide;
+and after walking with them all day, he brought them at nightfall to
+a spot where he proposed to rest. Ere he composed himself for sleep,
+however, he offered them the provisions in his wallet. But, in spite
+of strenuous efforts, neither Thor nor his companions could unfasten
+the knots which Skrymir had tied.
+
+
+    "Skrymir's thongs
+    Seemed to thee hard,
+    When at the food thou couldst not get,
+    When, in full health, of hunger dying."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Utgard-loki
+
+Angry because of his snoring, which kept them awake, Thor thrice
+dealt him fearful blows with his hammer. These strokes, instead of
+annihilating the monster, merely evoked sleepy comments to the effect
+that a leaf, a bit of bark, or a twig from a bird's nest overhead had
+fallen upon his face. Early on the morrow, Skrymir left Thor and his
+companions, pointing out the shortest road to Utgard-loki's castle,
+which was built of great ice blocks, with huge glittering icicles
+as pillars. The gods, slipping between the bars of the great gate,
+presented themselves boldly before the king of the giants, Utgard-loki,
+who, recognising them, immediately pretended to be greatly surprised
+at their small size, and expressed a wish to see for himself what
+they could do, as he had often heard their prowess vaunted.
+
+Loki, who had fasted longer than he wished, immediately declared
+he was ready to eat for a wager with any one. So the king ordered
+a great wooden trough full of meat to be brought into the hall, and
+placing Loki at one end and his cook Logi at the other, he bade them
+see which would win. Although Loki did wonders, and soon reached the
+middle of the trough, he found that, whereas he had picked the bones
+clean, his opponent had devoured both them and the trough.
+
+Smiling contemptuously, Utgard-loki said that it was evident they
+could not do much in the eating line, and this so nettled Thor that
+he declared if Loki could not eat like the voracious cook, he felt
+confident he could drain the biggest vessel in the house, such was
+his unquenchable thirst. Immediately a horn was brought in, and,
+Utgard-loki declaring that good drinkers emptied it at one draught,
+moderately thirsty persons at two, and small drinkers at three,
+Thor applied his lips to the rim. But, although he drank so deep
+that he thought he would burst, the liquid still came almost up to
+the rim when he raised his head. A second and third attempt to empty
+this horn proved equally unsuccessful. Thialfi then offered to run
+a race, but a young fellow named Hugi, who was matched against him,
+soon outstripped him, although Thialfi ran remarkably fast.
+
+Thor proposed next to show his strength by lifting weights, and was
+challenged to pick up the giant's cat. Seizing an opportunity to
+tighten his belt Megin-giörd, which greatly enhanced his strength,
+he tugged and strained but was able only to raise one of its paws
+from the floor.
+
+
+    "Strong is great Thor, no doubt, when Megingarder
+    He braces tightly o'er his rock-firm loins."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+A last attempt on his part to wrestle with Utgard-loki's old nurse
+Elli, the only opponent deemed worthy of such a puny fellow, ended
+just as disastrously, and the gods, acknowledging they were beaten,
+were hospitably entertained. On the morrow they were escorted to the
+confines of Utgard, where the giant politely informed them that he
+hoped they would never call upon him again, as he had been forced
+to employ magic against them. He then went on to explain that he
+was the giant Skrymir, and that had he not taken the precaution
+to interpose a mountain between his head and Thor's blows, while
+he seemingly lay asleep, he would have been slain, as deep clefts
+in the mountain side, to which he pointed, testified to the god's
+strength. Next he informed them that Loki's opponent was Logi (wild
+fire); that Thialfi had run a race with Hugi (thought), than which no
+swifter runner exists; that Thor's drinking horn was connected with
+the ocean, where his deep draughts had produced a perceptible ebb;
+that the cat was in reality the terrible Midgard snake encircling the
+world, which Thor had nearly pulled out of the sea; and that Elli,
+his nurse, was old age, whom none can resist. Having finished these
+explanations and cautioned them never to return or he would defend
+himself by similar delusions, Utgard-loki vanished, and although Thor
+angrily brandished his hammer, and would have destroyed his castle,
+such a mist enveloped it that it could not be seen, and the thunder
+god was obliged to return to Thrud-vang without having administered
+his purposed salutary lesson to the race of giants.
+
+
+        "The strong-armed Thor
+    Full oft against Jotunheim did wend,
+    But spite his belt celestial, spite his gauntlets,
+    Utgard-Loki still his throne retains;
+    Evil, itself a force, to force yields never."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+Thor and Hrungnir
+
+Odin himself was once dashing through the air on his eight-footed steed
+Sleipnir, when he attracted the attention of the giant Hrungnir,
+who proposed a race, declaring that Gullfaxi, his steed, could
+rival Sleipnir in speed. In the heat of the race, Hrungnir did not
+notice the direction in which they were going, until, in the vain
+hope of overtaking Odin, he urged his steed to the very gates of
+Valhalla. Discovering then where he was, the giant grew pale with
+fear, for he knew he had jeopardised his life by venturing into the
+stronghold of the gods, his hereditary foes.
+
+The Æsir, however, were too honourable to take even an enemy at a
+disadvantage, and, instead of doing him harm, they asked him into their
+banqueting-halls, where he proceeded to indulge in liberal potations
+of the heavenly mead set before him. He soon grew so excited that he
+began to boast of his power, declaring he would come some day and take
+possession of Asgard, which he would destroy, together with the gods,
+save only Freya and Sif, upon whom he gazed with an admiring leer.
+
+The gods, knowing he was not responsible, let him talk unmolested;
+but Thor, coming home just then from one of his journeys, and
+hearing his threat to carry away the beloved Sif, flew into a
+terrible rage. He furiously brandished his hammer, with intent to
+annihilate the boaster. This the gods would not permit, however, and
+they quickly threw themselves between the irate Thunderer and their
+guest, imploring Thor to respect the sacred rights of hospitality,
+and not to desecrate their peace-stead by shedding blood.
+
+Thor was at last induced to bridle his wrath, but he demanded that
+Hrungnir should appoint a time and place for a holmgang, as a Northern
+duel was generally called. Thus challenged, Hrungnir promised to meet
+Thor at Griottunagard, the confines of his realm, three days later,
+and departed somewhat sobered by the fright he had experienced. When
+his fellow giants heard how rash he had been, they chided him sorely;
+but they took counsel together in order to make the best of a bad
+situation. Hrungnir told them that he was to have the privilege of
+being accompanied by a squire, whom Thialfi would engage in fight,
+wherefore they proceeded to construct a creature of clay, nine
+miles long, and proportionately wide, whom they called Mokerkialfi
+(mist wader). As they could find no human heart big enough to put in
+this monster's breast, they secured that of a mare, which, however,
+kept fluttering and quivering with apprehension. The day of the duel
+arrived. Hrungnir and his squire were on the ground awaiting the
+arrival of their respective opponents. The giant had not only a flint
+heart and skull, but also a shield and club of the same substance,
+and therefore deemed himself well-nigh invincible. Thialfi came
+before his master and soon after there was a terrible rumbling and
+shaking which made the giant apprehensive that his enemy would come
+up through the ground and attack him from underneath. He therefore
+followed a hint from Thialfi and stood upon his shield.
+
+A moment later, however, he saw his mistake, for, while Thialfi
+attacked Mokerkialfi with a spade, Thor came with a rush upon the scene
+and flung his hammer full at his opponent's head. Hrungnir, to ward
+off the blow, interposed his stone club, which was shivered into pieces
+that flew all over the earth, supplying all the flint stones thereafter
+to be found, and one fragment sank deep into Thor's forehead. As the
+god dropped fainting to the ground, his hammer crashed against the
+head of Hrungnir, who fell dead beside him, in such a position that
+one of his ponderous legs was thrown over the recumbent god.
+
+
+    "Thou now remindest me
+    How I with Hrungnir fought,
+    That stout-hearted Jotun,
+    Whose head was all of stone;
+    Yet I made him fall
+    And sink before me."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Thialfi, who, in the meanwhile, had disposed of the great clay giant
+with its cowardly mare's heart, now rushed to his master's assistance,
+but his efforts were unavailing, nor could the other gods, whom he
+quickly summoned, raise the pinioning leg. While they were standing
+there, helplessly wondering what they should do next, Thor's little
+son Magni came up. According to varying accounts, he was then only
+three days or three years old, but he quickly seized the giant's
+foot, and, unaided, set his father free, declaring that had he only
+been summoned sooner he would easily have disposed of both giant and
+squire. This exhibition of strength made the gods marvel greatly,
+and helped them to recognise the truth of the various predictions,
+which one and all declared that their descendants would be mightier
+than they, would survive them, and would rule in their turn over the
+new heaven and earth.
+
+To reward his son for his timely aid, Thor gave him the steed Gullfaxi
+(golden-maned), to which he had fallen heir by right of conquest,
+and Magni ever after rode this marvellous horse, which almost equalled
+the renowned Sleipnir in speed and endurance.
+
+
+
+Groa, the Sorceress
+
+After vainly trying to remove the stone splinter from his forehead,
+Thor sadly returned home to Thrud-vang, where Sif's loving efforts
+were equally unsuccessful. She therefore resolved to send for Groa
+(green-making), a sorceress, noted for her skill in medicine and for
+the efficacy of her spells and incantations. Groa immediately signified
+her readiness to render every service in her power to the god who had
+so often benefited her, and solemnly began to recite powerful runes,
+under whose influence Thor felt the stone grow looser and looser. His
+delight at the prospect of a speedy deliverance made Thor wish to
+reward the enchantress forthwith, and knowing that nothing could give
+greater pleasure to a mother than the prospect of seeing a long-lost
+child, he proceeded to tell her that he had recently crossed the
+Elivagar, or ice streams, to rescue her little son Orvandil (germ) from
+the frost giants' cruel power, and had succeeded in carrying him off
+in a basket. But, as the little rogue would persist in sticking one of
+his bare toes through a hole in the basket, it had been frost-bitten,
+and Thor, accidentally breaking it off, had flung it up into the sky,
+to shine as a star, known in the North as "Orvandil's Toe."
+
+Delighted with these tidings, the prophetess paused in her incantations
+to express her joy, but, having forgotten just where she left off,
+she was unable to continue her spell, and the flint stone remained
+embedded in Thor's forehead, whence it could never be dislodged.
+
+Of course, as Thor's hammer always did him such good service, it was
+the most prized of all his possessions, and his dismay was very great
+when he awoke one morning and found it gone. His cry of anger and
+disappointment soon brought Loki to his side, and to him Thor confided
+the secret of his loss, declaring that were the giants to hear of it,
+they would soon attempt to storm Asgard and destroy the gods.
+
+
+    "Wroth waxed Thor, when his sleep was flown,
+    And he found his trusty hammer gone;
+    He smote his brow, his beard he shook,
+    The son of earth 'gan round him look;
+    And this the first word that he spoke:
+    'Now listen what I tell thee, Loke;
+    Which neither on earth below is known,
+    Nor in heaven above: my hammer's gone."
+
+            Thrym's Quida (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+
+Thor and Thrym
+
+Loki declared he would try to discover the thief and recover the
+hammer, if Freya would lend him her falcon plumes, and he immediately
+hastened off to Folkvang to borrow them. His errand was successful and
+in the form of a bird he then winged his flight across the river Ifing,
+and over the barren stretches of Jötun-heim, where he suspected that
+the thief would be found. There he saw Thrym, prince of the frost
+giants and god of the destructive thunder-storm, sitting alone on a
+hill-side. Artfully questioning him, he soon learned that Thrym had
+stolen the hammer and had buried it deep underground. Moreover, he
+found that there was little hope of its being restored unless Freya
+were brought to him arrayed as a bride.
+
+
+    "I have the Thunderer's hammer bound
+    Fathoms eight beneath the ground;
+    With it shall no one homeward tread
+    Till he bring me Freya to share my bed."
+
+            Thrym's Quida (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+Indignant at the giant's presumption, Loki returned to Thrud-vang,
+but Thor declared it would be well to visit Freya and try to prevail
+upon her to sacrifice herself for the general good. But when the Æsir
+told the goddess of beauty what they wished her to do, she flew into
+such a passion that even her necklace burst. She told them that she
+would never leave her beloved husband for any god, much less to marry
+a detested giant and dwell in Jötun-heim, where all was dreary in the
+extreme, and where she would soon die of longing for the green fields
+and flowery meadows, in which she loved to roam. Seeing that further
+persuasions would be useless, Loki and Thor returned home and there
+deliberated upon another plan for recovering the hammer. By Heimdall's
+advice, which, however, was only accepted with extreme reluctance,
+Thor borrowed and put on Freya's clothes together with her necklace,
+and enveloped himself in a thick veil. Loki, having attired himself as
+handmaiden, then mounted with him in the goat-drawn chariot, and the
+strangely attired pair set out for Jötun-heim, where they intended to
+play the respective parts of the goddess of beauty and her attendant.
+
+
+    "Home were driven
+    Then the goats,
+    And hitched to the car;
+    Hasten they must--
+    The mountains crashed,
+    The earth stood in flames:
+    Odin's son
+    Rode to Jötun-heim."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Thrym welcomed his guests at the palace door, overjoyed at the thought
+that he was about to secure undisputed possession of the goddess
+of beauty, for whom he had long sighed in vain. He quickly led them
+to the banqueting-hall, where Thor, the bride elect, distinguished
+himself by eating an ox, eight huge salmon, and all the cakes and
+sweets provided for the women, washing down these miscellaneous viands
+with the contents of two barrels of mead.
+
+The giant bridegroom watched these gastronomic feats with amazement,
+whereupon Loki, in order to reassure him, confidentially whispered
+that the bride was so deeply in love with him that she had not been
+able to taste a morsel of food for more than eight days. Thrym then
+sought to kiss the bride, but drew back appalled at the fire of her
+glance, which Loki explained as a burning glance of love. The giant's
+sister, claiming the usual gifts, was not even noticed; wherefore
+Loki again whispered to the wondering Thrym that love makes people
+absent-minded. Intoxicated with passion and mead, which he, too,
+had drunk in liberal quantities, the bridegroom now bade his servants
+produce the sacred hammer to consecrate the marriage, and as soon as
+it was brought he himself laid it in the pretended Freya's lap. The
+next moment a powerful hand closed over the short handle, and soon
+the giant, his sister, and all the invited guests, were slain by the
+terrible Thor.
+
+
+    "'Bear in the hammer to plight the maid;
+    Upon her lap the bruiser lay,
+    And firmly plight our hands and fay.'
+    The Thunderer's soul smiled in his breast;
+    When the hammer hard on his lap was placed,
+    Thrym first, the king of the Thursi, he slew,
+    And slaughtered all the giant crew."
+
+            Thrym's Quida (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+Leaving a smoking heap of ruins behind them, the gods then drove
+rapidly back to Asgard, where the borrowed garments were given back
+to Freya, much to the relief of Thor, and the Æsir rejoiced at the
+recovery of the precious hammer. When next Odin gazed upon that part
+of Jötun-heim from his throne Hlidskialf, he saw the ruins covered
+with tender green shoots, for Thor, having conquered his enemy,
+had taken possession of his land, which henceforth would no longer
+remain barren and desolate, but would bring forth fruit in abundance.
+
+
+
+Thor and Geirrod
+
+Loki once borrowed Freya's falcon-garb and flew off in search of
+adventures to another part of Jötun-heim, where he perched on top
+of the gables of Geirrod's house. He soon attracted the attention
+of this giant, who bade one of his servants catch the bird. Amused
+at the fellow's clumsy attempts to secure him, Loki flitted about
+from place to place, only moving just as the giant was about to lay
+hands upon him, when, miscalculating his distance, he suddenly found
+himself a captive.
+
+Attracted by the bird's bright eyes, Geirrod looked closely at it and
+concluded that it was a god in disguise, and finding that he could
+not force him to speak, he locked him in a cage, where he kept him
+for three whole months without food or drink. Conquered at last by
+hunger and thirst, Loki revealed his identity, and obtained his release
+by promising that he would induce Thor to visit Geirrod without his
+hammer, belt, or magic gauntlet. Loki then flew back to Asgard, and
+told Thor that he had been royally entertained, and that his host had
+expressed a strong desire to see the powerful thunder-god, of whom
+he had heard such wonderful tales. Flattered by this artful speech,
+Thor was induced to consent to a friendly journey to Jötun-heim,
+and the two gods set out, leaving the three marvellous weapons at
+home. They had not gone far, however, ere they came to the house of
+the giantess Grid, one of Odin's many wives. Seeing Thor unarmed,
+she warned him to beware of treachery and lent him her own girdle,
+staff, and glove. Some time after leaving her, Thor and Loki came to
+the river Veimer, which the Thunderer, accustomed to wading, prepared
+to ford, bidding Loki and Thialfi cling fast to his belt.
+
+In the middle of the stream, however, a sudden cloud-burst and freshet
+overtook them; the waters began to rise and roar, and although Thor
+leaned heavily upon his staff, he was almost swept away by the force
+of the raging current.
+
+
+    "Wax not, Veimer,
+    Since to wade I desire
+    To the realm of the giants!
+    Know, if thou waxest,
+    Then waxes my asa-might
+    As high as the heavens."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Thor now became aware of the presence, up stream, of Geirrod's daughter
+Gialp, and rightly suspecting that she was the cause of the storm, he
+picked up a huge boulder and flung it at her, muttering that the best
+place to dam a river was at its source. The missile had the desired
+effect, for the giantess fled, the waters abated, and Thor, exhausted
+but safe, pulled himself up on the opposite bank by a little shrub, the
+mountain-ash or sorb. This has since been known as "Thor's salvation,"
+and occult powers have been attributed to it. After resting awhile
+Thor and his companions resumed their journey; but upon arriving at
+Geirrod's house the god was so exhausted that he sank wearily upon
+the only chair in sight. To his surprise, however, he felt it rising
+beneath him, and fearful lest he should be crushed against the rafters,
+he pushed the borrowed staff against the ceiling and forced the
+chair downward with all his might. Then followed a terrible cracking,
+sudden cries, and moans of pain; and when Thor came to investigate,
+it appeared that the giant's daughters, Gialp and Greip, had slipped
+under his chair with intent treacherously to slay him, and they had
+reaped a righteous retribution and both lay crushed to death.
+
+
+    "Once I employed
+    My asa-might
+    In the realm of giants,
+    When Gialp and Greip,
+    Geirrod's daughters,
+    Wanted to lift me to heaven."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Geirrod now appeared and challenged Thor to a test of strength and
+skill, but without waiting for a preconcerted signal, he flung a
+red-hot wedge at him. Thor, quick of eye and a practised catcher,
+caught the missile with the giantess's iron glove, and hurled it
+back at his opponent. Such was the force of the god, that the missile
+passed, not only through the pillar behind which the giant had taken
+refuge, but through him and the wall of the house, and buried itself
+deep in the earth without.
+
+Thor then strode up to the giant's corpse, which at the blow from his
+weapon had been petrified into stone, and set it up in a conspicuous
+place, as a monument of his strength and of the victory he had won
+over his redoubtable foes, the mountain giants.
+
+
+
+The Worship of Thor
+
+Thor's name has been given to many of the places he was wont to
+frequent, such as the principal harbour of the Faroe Islands, and to
+families which claim to be descended from him. It is still extant
+in such names as Thunderhill in Surrey, and in the family names of
+Thorburn and Thorwaldsen, but is most conspicuous in the name of one
+of the days of the week, Thor's day or Thursday.
+
+
+    "Over the whole earth
+    Still is it Thor's day!"
+
+            Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).
+
+
+Thor was considered a pre-eminently benevolent deity, and it was for
+that reason that he was so widely worshipped and that temples to his
+worship arose at Moeri, Hlader, Godey, Gothland, Upsala, and other
+places, where the people never failed to invoke him for a favourable
+year at Yule-tide, his principal festival. It was customary on this
+occasion to burn a great log of oak, his sacred tree, as an emblem of
+the warmth and light of summer, which would drive away the darkness
+and cold of winter.
+
+Brides invariably wore red, Thor's favourite colour, which was
+considered emblematical of love, and for the same reason betrothal
+rings in the North were almost always set with a red stone.
+
+Thor's temples and statues, like Odin's, were fashioned of wood,
+and the greater number of them were destroyed during the reign of
+King Olaf the Saint. According to ancient chronicles, this monarch
+forcibly converted his subjects. He was specially incensed against
+the inhabitants of a certain province, because they worshipped a
+rude image of Thor, which they decked with golden ornaments, and
+before which they set food every evening, declaring the god ate it,
+as no trace of it was left in the morning.
+
+The people, being called upon in 1030 to renounce this idol in favour
+of the true God, promised to consent if the morrow were cloudy;
+but when after a whole night spent by Olaf in ardent prayer, there
+followed a cloudy day, the obstinate people declared they were not
+yet convinced of his God's power, and would only believe if the sun
+shone on the next day.
+
+Once more Olaf spent the night in prayer, but at dawn, to his
+great chagrin, the sky was overcast. Nevertheless, he assembled the
+people near Thor's statue, and after secretly bidding his principal
+attendant to smash the idol with his battle-axe if the people turned
+their eyes away but for a moment, he began to address them. Suddenly,
+while all were listening to him, Olaf pointed to the horizon, where
+the sun was slowly breaking its way through the clouds, and exclaimed,
+"Behold our God!" The people one and all turned to see what he meant,
+and the attendant seized this opportunity for attacking the idol,
+which yielded easily to his blows, and a host of mice and other vermin
+scattered hastily from its hollow interior. Seeing now that the food
+placed before their god had been devoured by noxious animals only,
+the people ceased to revere Thor, and definitely accepted the faith
+which King Olaf had so long and vainly pressed upon them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V: TYR
+
+
+The God of War
+
+Tyr Tiu, or Ziu was the son of Odin, and, according to different
+mythologists, his mother was Frigga, queen of the gods, or a beautiful
+giantess whose name is unknown, but who was a personification of the
+raging sea. He is the god of martial honour, and one of the twelve
+principal deities of Asgard. Although he appears to have had no
+special dwelling there, he was always welcome to Vingolf or Valhalla,
+and occupied one of the twelve thrones in the great council hall
+of Glads-heim.
+
+
+    "The hall Glads-heim, which is built of gold;
+    Where are in circle, ranged twelve golden chairs,
+    And in the midst one higher, Odin's Throne."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+As the God of courage and of war, Tyr was frequently invoked by the
+various nations of the North, who cried to him, as well as to Odin,
+to obtain victory. That he ranked next to Odin and Thor is proved
+by his name, Tiu, having been given to one of the days of the week,
+Tiu's day, which in modern English has become Tuesday. Under the name
+of Ziu, Tyr was the principal divinity of the Suabians, who originally
+called their capital, the modern Augsburg, Ziusburg. This people,
+venerating the god as they did, were wont to worship him under the
+emblem of a sword, his distinctive attribute, and in his honour held
+great sword dances, where various figures were performed. Sometimes
+the participants forming two long lines, crossed their swords, point
+upward, and challenged the boldest among their number to take a flying
+leap over them. At other times the warriors joined their sword points
+closely together in the shape of a rose or wheel, and when this
+figure was complete invited their chief to stand on the navel thus
+formed of flat, shining steel blades, and then they bore him upon it
+through the camp in triumph. The sword point was further considered
+so sacred that it became customary to register oaths upon it.
+
+
+    "... Come hither, gentlemen,
+    And lay your hands again upon my sword;
+    Never to speak of this that you have heard,
+    Swear by my sword."
+
+            Hamlet (Shakespeare).
+
+
+A distinctive feature of the worship of this god among the Franks and
+some other Northern nations was that the priests called Druids or Godi
+offered up human sacrifices upon his altars, generally cutting the
+bloody- or spread-eagle upon their victims, that is to say, making a
+deep incision on either side of the back-bone, turning the ribs thus
+loosened inside out, and tearing out the viscera through the opening
+thus made. Of course only prisoners of war were treated thus, and it
+was considered a point of honour with north European races to endure
+this torture without a moan. These sacrifices were made upon rude
+stone altars called dolmens, which can still be seen in Northern
+Europe. As Tyr was considered the patron god of the sword, it was
+deemed indispensable to engrave the sign or rune representing him
+upon the blade of every sword--an observance which the Edda enjoined
+upon all those who were desirous of obtaining victory.
+
+
+    "Sig-runes thou must know,
+    If victory (sigr) thou wilt have,
+    And on thy sword's hilt rist them;
+    Some on the chapes,
+    Some on the guard,
+    And twice name the name of Tyr."
+
+            Lay of Sigdrifa (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Tyr was identical with the Saxon god Saxnot (from sax, a sword),
+and with Er, Heru, or Cheru, the chief divinity of the Cheruski,
+who also considered him god of the sun, and deemed his shining sword
+blade an emblem of its rays.
+
+
+    "This very sword a ray of light
+    Snatched from the Sun!"
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+Tyr's Sword
+
+According to an ancient legend, Cheru's sword, which had been fashioned
+by the same dwarfs, sons of Ivald, who had also made Odin's spear,
+was held very sacred by his people, to whose care he had entrusted it,
+declaring that those who possessed it were sure to have the victory
+over their foes. But although carefully guarded in the temple, where
+it was hung so that it reflected the first beams of the morning sun,
+it suddenly and mysteriously disappeared one night. A Vala, druidess,
+or prophetess, consulted by the priests, revealed that the Norns had
+decreed that whoever wielded it would conquer the world and come
+to his death by it; but in spite of all entreaties she refused to
+tell who had taken it or where it might be found. Some time after
+this occurrence a tall and dignified stranger came to Cologne, where
+Vitellius, the Roman prefect, was feasting, and called him away from
+his beloved dainties. In the presence of the Roman soldiery he gave
+him the sword, telling him it would bring him glory and renown, and
+finally hailed him as emperor. The cry was taken up by the assembled
+legions, and Vitellius, without making any personal effort to secure
+the honour, found himself elected Emperor of Rome.
+
+The new ruler, however, was so absorbed in indulging his taste for
+food and drink that he paid but little heed to the divine weapon. One
+day while leisurely making his way towards Rome he carelessly left it
+hanging in the antechamber to his pavilion. A German soldier seized
+this opportunity to substitute in its stead his own rusty blade, and
+the besotted emperor did not notice the exchange. When he arrived at
+Rome, he learned that the Eastern legions had named Vespasian emperor,
+and that he was even then on his way home to claim the throne.
+
+Searching for the sacred weapon to defend his rights, Vitellius
+now discovered the theft, and, overcome by superstitious fears, did
+not even attempt to fight. He crawled away into a dark corner of his
+palace, whence he was ignominiously dragged by the enraged populace to
+the foot of the Capitoline Hill. There the prophecy was duly fulfilled,
+for the German soldier, who had joined the opposite faction, coming
+along at that moment, cut off Vitellius' head with the sacred sword.
+
+The German soldier now changed from one legion to another, and
+travelled over many lands; but wherever he and his sword were found,
+victory was assured. After winning great honour and distinction, this
+man, having grown old, retired from active service to the banks of the
+Danube, where he secretly buried his treasured weapon, building his hut
+over its resting-place to guard it as long as he might live. When he
+lay on his deathbed he was implored to reveal where he had hidden it,
+but he persistently refused to do so, saying that it would be found
+by the man who was destined to conquer the world, but that he would
+not be able to escape the curse. Years passed by. Wave after wave
+the tide of barbarian invasion swept over that part of the country,
+and last of all came the terrible Huns under the leadership of Attila,
+the "Scourge of God." As he passed along the river, he saw a peasant
+mournfully examining his cow's foot, which had been wounded by some
+sharp instrument hidden in the long grass, and when search was made
+the point of a buried sword was found sticking out of the soil.
+
+Attila, seeing the beautiful workmanship and the fine state of
+preservation of this weapon, immediately exclaimed that it was
+Cheru's sword, and brandishing it above his head he announced that
+he would conquer the world. Battle after battle was fought by the
+Huns, who, according to the Saga, were everywhere victorious, until
+Attila, weary of warfare, settled down in Hungary, taking to wife the
+beautiful Burgundian princess Ildico, whose father he had slain. This
+princess, resenting the murder of her kin and wishing to avenge it,
+took advantage of the king's state of intoxication upon his wedding
+night to secure possession of the divine sword, with which she slew
+him in his bed, once more fulfilling the prophecy uttered so many
+years before.
+
+The magic sword again disappeared for a long time, to be unearthed once
+more, for the last time, by the Duke of Alva, Charles V.'s general,
+who shortly after won the victory of Mühlberg (1547). The Franks
+were wont to celebrate yearly martial games in honour of the sword;
+but it is said that when the heathen gods were renounced in favour
+of Christianity, the priests transferred many of their attributes to
+the saints, and that this sword became the property of the Archangel
+St. Michael, who has wielded it ever since.
+
+Tyr, whose name was synonymous with bravery and wisdom, was also
+considered by the ancient Northern people to have the white-armed
+Valkyrs, Odin's attendants, at his command, and they thought that
+he it was who designated the warriors whom they should transfer to
+Valhalla to aid the gods on the last day.
+
+
+    "The god Tyr sent
+    Gondul and Skogul
+    To choose a king
+    Of the race of Ingve,
+    To dwell with Odin
+    In roomy Valhal."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Story of Fenris
+
+Tyr was generally spoken of and represented as one-armed, just as Odin
+was called one-eyed. Various explanations are offered by different
+authorities; some claim that it was because he could give the victory
+only to one side; others, because a sword has but one blade. However
+this may be, the ancients preferred to account for the fact in the
+following way:
+
+Loki married secretly at Jötun-heim the hideous giantess Angur-boda
+(anguish boding), who bore him three monstrous children--the wolf
+Fenris, Hel, the parti-coloured goddess of death, and Iörmungandr,
+a terrible serpent. He kept the existence of these monsters secret as
+long as he could; but they speedily grew so large that they could no
+longer remain confined in the cave where they had come to light. Odin,
+from his throne Hlidskialf, soon became aware of their existence,
+and also of the disquieting rapidity with which they increased in
+size. Fearful lest the monsters, when they had gained further strength,
+should invade Asgard and destroy the gods, Allfather determined to
+get rid of them, and striding off to Jötun-heim, he flung Hel into
+the depths of Nifl-heim, telling her she could reign over the nine
+dismal worlds of the dead. He then cast Iörmungandr into the sea,
+where he attained such immense proportions that at last he encircled
+the earth and could bite his own tail.
+
+
+    "Into mid-ocean's dark depths hurled,
+      Grown with each day to giant size,
+    The serpent soon inclosed the world,
+      With tail in mouth, in circle-wise;
+        Held harmless still
+        By Odin's will."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+None too well pleased that the serpent should attain such fearful
+dimensions in his new element, Odin resolved to lead Fenris to
+Asgard, where he hoped, by kindly treatment, to make him gentle
+and tractable. But the gods one and all shrank in dismay when they
+saw the wolf, and none dared approach to give him food except Tyr,
+whom nothing daunted. Seeing that Fenris daily increased in size,
+strength, voracity, and fierceness, the gods assembled in council
+to deliberate how they might best dispose of him. They unanimously
+decided that as it would desecrate their peace-steads to slay him,
+they would bind him fast so that he could work them no harm.
+
+With that purpose in view, they obtained a strong chain named Læding,
+and then playfully proposed to Fenris to bind this about him as a test
+of his vaunted strength. Confident in his ability to release himself,
+Fenris patiently allowed them to bind him fast, and when all stood
+aside, with a mighty effort he stretched himself and easily burst
+the chain asunder.
+
+Concealing their chagrin, the gods were loud in praise of his strength,
+but they next produced a much stronger fetter, Droma, which, after
+some persuasion, the wolf allowed them to fasten around him as
+before. Again a short, sharp struggle sufficed to burst this bond,
+and it is proverbial in the North to use the figurative expressions,
+"to get loose out of Læding," and "to dash out of Droma," whenever
+great difficulties have to be surmounted.
+
+
+    "Twice did the Æsir strive to bind,
+    Twice did they fetters powerless find;
+    Iron or brass of no avail,
+    Naught, save through magic, could prevail."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The gods, perceiving now that ordinary bonds, however strong, would
+never prevail against the Fenris wolf's great strength, bade Skirnir,
+Frey's servant, go down to Svart-alfa-heim and bid the dwarfs fashion
+a bond which nothing could sever.
+
+By magic arts the dark elves manufactured a slender silken rope from
+such impalpable materials as the sound of a cat's footsteps, a woman's
+beard, the roots of a mountain, the longings of the bear, the voice of
+fishes, and the spittle of birds, and when it was finished they gave
+it to Skirnir, assuring him that no strength would avail to break it,
+and that the more it was strained the stronger it would become.
+
+
+    "Gleipnir, at last,
+    By Dark Elves cast,
+    In Svart-alf-heim, with strong spells wrought,
+    To Odin was by Skirnir brought:
+    As soft as silk, as light as air,
+    Yet still of magic power most rare."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Armed with this bond, called Gleipnir, the gods went with Fenris to the
+Island of Lyngvi, in the middle of Lake Amsvartnir, and again proposed
+to test his strength. But although Fenris had grown still stronger,
+he mistrusted the bond which looked so slight. He therefore refused to
+allow himself to be bound, unless one of the Æsir would consent to put
+his hand in his mouth, and leave it there, as a pledge of good faith,
+and that no magic arts were to be used against him.
+
+The gods heard the decision with dismay, and all drew back except
+Tyr, who, seeing that the others would not venture to comply with
+this condition, boldly stepped forward and thrust his hand between
+the monster's jaws. The gods now fastened Gleipnir securely around
+Fenris's neck and paws, and when they saw that his utmost efforts to
+free himself were fruitless, they shouted and laughed with glee. Tyr,
+however, could not share their joy, for the wolf, finding himself
+captive, bit off the god's hand at the wrist, which since then has
+been known as the wolf's joint.
+
+
+    Loki.
+
+    "Be silent, Tyr!
+    Thou couldst never settle
+    A strife 'twixt two;
+    Of thy right hand also
+    I must mention make,
+    Which Fenris from thee took.
+
+
+    Tyr.
+
+    I of a hand am wanting,
+    But thou of honest fame;
+    Sad is the lack of either.
+    Nor is the wolf at ease:
+    He in bonds must abide
+    Until the gods' destruction."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Deprived of his right hand, Tyr was now forced to use the maimed arm
+for his shield, and to wield his sword with his left hand; but such
+was his dexterity that he slew his enemies as before.
+
+The gods, in spite of the wolf's struggles, drew the end of the fetter
+Gelgia through the rock Gioll, and fastened it to the boulder Thviti,
+which was sunk deep in the ground. Opening wide his fearful jaws,
+Fenris uttered such terrible howls that the gods, to silence him,
+thrust a sword into his mouth, the hilt resting upon his lower jaw
+and the point against his palate. The blood then began to pour out
+in such streams that it formed a great river, called Von. The wolf
+was destined to remain thus chained fast until the last day, when he
+would burst his bonds and would be free to avenge his wrongs.
+
+
+    "The wolf Fenrir,
+    Freed from the chain,
+    Shall range the earth."
+
+            Death-song of Hâkon (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+While some mythologists see in this myth an emblem of crime restrained
+and made innocuous by the power of the law, others see the underground
+fire, which kept within bounds can injure no one, but which unfettered
+fills the world with destruction and woe. Just as Odin's second
+eye is said to rest in Mimir's well, so Tyr's second hand (sword)
+is found in Fenris's jaws. He has no more use for two weapons than
+the sky for two suns.
+
+The worship of Tyr is commemorated in sundry places (such as Tübingen,
+in Germany), which bear more or less modified forms of his name. The
+name has also been given to the aconite, a plant known in Northern
+countries as "Tyr's helm."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI: BRAGI
+
+
+The Origin of Poetry
+
+At the time of the dispute between the Æsir and Vanas, when peace
+had been agreed upon, a vase was brought into the assembly into which
+both parties solemnly spat. From this saliva the gods created Kvasir,
+a being renowned for his wisdom and goodness, who went about the
+world answering all questions asked him, thus teaching and benefiting
+mankind. The dwarfs, hearing about Kvasir's great wisdom, coveted it,
+and finding him asleep one day, two of their number, Fialar and Galar,
+treacherously slew him, and drained every drop of his blood into
+three vessels--the kettle Od-hroerir (inspiration) and the bowls Son
+(expiation) and Boden (offering). After duly mixing this blood with
+honey, they manufactured from it a sort of beverage so inspiring that
+any one who tasted it immediately became a poet, and could sing with
+a charm which was certain to win all hearts.
+
+Now, although the dwarfs had brewed this marvellous mead for their own
+consumption, they did not even taste it, but hid it away in a secret
+place, while they went in search of further adventures. They had not
+gone very far ere they found the giant Gilling also sound asleep,
+lying on a steep bank, and they maliciously rolled him into the water,
+where he perished. Then hastening to his dwelling, some climbed on
+the roof, carrying a huge millstone, while the others, entering,
+told the giantess that her husband was dead. This news caused the
+poor creature great grief, and she rushed out of the house to view
+Gilling's remains. As she passed through the door, the wicked dwarfs
+rolled the millstone down upon her head, and killed her. According to
+another account, the dwarfs invited the giant to go fishing with them,
+and succeeded in slaying him by sending him out in a leaky vessel,
+which sank beneath his weight.
+
+The double crime thus committed did not long remain unpunished, for
+Gilling's brother, Suttung, quickly went in search of the dwarfs,
+determined to avenge him. Seizing them in his mighty grasp, the giant
+conveyed them to a shoal far out at sea, where they would surely have
+perished at the next high tide had they not succeeded in redeeming
+their lives by promising to deliver to the giant their recently
+brewed mead. As soon as Suttung set them ashore, they therefore
+gave him the precious compound, which he entrusted to his daughter
+Gunlod, bidding her guard it night and day, and allow neither gods
+nor mortals to have so much as a taste. The better to fulfil this
+command, Gunlod carried the three vessels into the hollow mountain,
+where she kept watch over them with the most scrupulous care, nor
+did she suspect that Odin had discovered their place of concealment,
+thanks to the sharp eyes of his ever-vigilant ravens Hugin and Munin.
+
+
+
+The Quest of the Draught
+
+As Odin had mastered the runic lore and had tasted the waters of
+Mimir's fountain, he was already the wisest of gods; but learning
+of the power of the draught of inspiration manufactured out of
+Kvasir's blood, he became very anxious to obtain possession of the
+magic fluid. With this purpose in view he therefore donned his
+broad-brimmed hat, wrapped himself in his cloud-hued cloak, and
+journeyed off to Jötun-heim. On his way to the giant's dwelling he
+passed by a field where nine ugly thralls were busy making hay. Odin
+paused for a moment, watching them at their work, and noticing that
+their scythes seemed very dull indeed, he proposed to whet them,
+an offer which the thralls eagerly accepted.
+
+Drawing a whetstone from his bosom, Odin proceeded to sharpen the
+nine scythes, skilfully giving them such a keen edge that the thralls,
+delighted, begged that they might have the stone. With good-humoured
+acquiescence, Odin tossed the whetstone over the wall; but as the
+nine thralls simultaneously sprang forward to catch it, they wounded
+one another with their keen scythes. In anger at their respective
+carelessness, they now began to fight, and did not pause until they
+were all either mortally wounded or dead.
+
+Quite undismayed by this tragedy, Odin continued on his way, and
+shortly after came to the house of the giant Baugi, a brother
+of Suttung, who received him very hospitably. In the course of
+conversation, Baugi informed him that he was greatly embarrassed,
+as it was harvest time and all his workmen had just been found dead
+in the hayfield.
+
+Odin, who on this occasion had given his name as Bolwerk (evil doer),
+promptly offered his services to the giant, promising to accomplish
+as much work as the nine thralls, and to labour diligently all the
+summer in exchange for one single draught of Suttung's magic mead when
+the busy season was ended. This bargain was immediately concluded,
+and Baugi's new servant, Bolwerk, worked incessantly all the summer
+long, more than fulfilling his contract, and safely garnering all the
+grain before the autumn rains began to fall. When the first days of
+winter came, Bolwerk presented himself before his master, claiming
+his reward. But Baugi hesitated and demurred, saying he dared not
+openly ask his brother Suttung for the draught of inspiration, but
+would try to obtain it by guile. Together, Bolwerk and Baugi then
+proceeded to the mountain where Gunlod dwelt, and as they could find
+no other mode of entering the secret cave, Odin produced his trusty
+auger, called Rati, and bade the giant bore with all his might to
+make a hole through which he might crawl into the interior.
+
+Baugi silently obeyed, and after a few moments' work withdrew the tool,
+saying that he had pierced through the mountain, and that Odin would
+have no difficulty in slipping through. But the god, mistrusting this
+statement, merely blew into the hole, and when the dust and chips came
+flying into his face, he sternly bade Baugi resume his boring and not
+attempt to deceive him again. The giant did as he was told, and when
+he withdrew his tool again, Odin ascertained that the hole was really
+finished. Changing himself into a snake, he wriggled through with
+such remarkable rapidity that he managed to elude the sharp auger,
+which Baugi treacherously thrust into the hole after him, intending
+to kill him.
+
+
+    "Rati's mouth I caused
+    To make a space,
+    And to gnaw the rock;
+    Over and under me
+    Were the Jötun's ways:
+    Thus I my head did peril."
+
+            Hávamál (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Rape of the Draught
+
+Having reached the interior of the mountain, Odin reassumed his usual
+godlike form and starry mantle, and then presented himself in the
+stalactite-hung cave before the beautiful Gunlod. He intended to win
+her love as a means of inducing her to grant him a sip from each of
+the vessels confided to her care.
+
+Won by his passionate wooing, Gunlod consented to become his wife,
+and after he had spent three whole days with her in this retreat,
+she brought out the vessels from their secret hiding-place, and told
+him he might take a sip from each.
+
+
+    "And a draught obtained
+    Of the precious mead,
+    Drawn from Od-hroerir."
+
+            Odin's Rune-Song (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Odin made good use of this permission and drank so deeply that he
+completely drained all three vessels. Then, having obtained all that
+he wanted, he emerged from the cave and, donning his eagle plumes,
+rose high into the blue, and, after hovering for a moment over the
+mountain top, winged his flight towards Asgard.
+
+He was still far from the gods' realm when he became aware of a
+pursuer, and, indeed, Suttung, having also assumed the form of an
+eagle, was coming rapidly after him with intent to compel him to
+surrender the stolen mead. Odin therefore flew faster and faster,
+straining every nerve to reach Asgard before the foe should overtake
+him, and as he drew near the gods anxiously watched the race.
+
+Seeing that Odin would only with difficulty be able to escape, the
+Æsir hastily gathered all the combustible materials they could find,
+and as he flew over the ramparts of their dwelling, they set fire to
+the mass of fuel, so that the flames, rising high, singed the wings
+of Suttung, as he followed the god, and he fell into the very midst
+of the fire, where he was burned to death.
+
+As for Odin, he flew to where the gods had prepared vessels for
+the stolen mead, and disgorged the draught of inspiration in such
+breathless haste that a few drops fell and were scattered over the
+earth. There they became the portion of rhymesters and poetasters,
+the gods reserving the main draught for their own consumption, and
+only occasionally vouchsafing a taste to some favoured mortal, who,
+immediately after, would win world-wide renown by his inspired songs.
+
+
+    "Of a well-assumed form
+    I made good use:
+    Few things fail the wise;
+    For Od-hroerir
+    Is now come up
+    To men's earthly dwellings."
+
+            Hávamál (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+As men and gods owed the priceless gift to Odin, they were ever ready
+to express to him their gratitude, and they not only called it by
+his name, but they worshipped him as patron of eloquence, poetry,
+and song, and of all scalds.
+
+
+
+The God of Music
+
+Although Odin had thus won the gift of poetry, he seldom made use of
+it himself. It was reserved for his son Bragi, the child of Gunlod,
+to become the god of poetry and music, and to charm the world with
+his songs.
+
+
+    "White-bearded bard, ag'd
+    Bragi, his gold harp
+    Sweeps--and yet softer
+    Stealeth the day."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+As soon as Bragi was born in the stalactite-hung cave where Odin had
+won Gunlod's affections, the dwarfs presented him with a magical golden
+harp, and, setting him on one of their own vessels, they sent him out
+into the wide world. As the boat gently passed out of subterranean
+darkness, and floated over the threshold of Nain, the realm of the
+dwarf of death, Bragi, the fair and immaculate young god, who until
+then had shown no signs of life, suddenly sat up, and, seizing the
+golden harp beside him, he began to sing the wondrous song of life,
+which rose at times to heaven, and then sank down to the dread realm
+of Hel, goddess of death.
+
+
+    "Yggdrasil's ash is
+    Of all trees most excellent,
+    And of all ships, Skidbladnir;
+    Of the Æsir, Odin,
+    And of horses, Sleipnir;
+    Bifröst of bridges,
+    And of scalds, Bragi."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+While he played the vessel was wafted gently over sunlit waters, and
+soon touched the shore. Bragi then proceeded on foot, threading his
+way through the bare and silent forest, playing as he walked. At the
+sound of his tender music the trees began to bud and bloom, and the
+grass underfoot was gemmed with countless flowers.
+
+Here he met Idun, daughter of Ivald, the fair goddess of immortal
+youth, whom the dwarfs allowed to visit the earth from time to time,
+when, at her approach, nature invariably assumed its loveliest and
+gentlest aspect.
+
+It was only to be expected that two such beings should feel
+attracted to each other, and Bragi soon won this fair goddess for his
+wife. Together they hastened to Asgard, where both were warmly welcomed
+and where Odin, after tracing runes on Bragi's tongue, decreed that
+he should be the heavenly minstrel and composer of songs in honour
+of the gods and of the heroes whom he received in Valhalla.
+
+
+
+Worship of Bragi
+
+As Bragi was god of poetry, eloquence, and song, the Northern
+races also called poetry by his name, and scalds of either sex were
+frequently designated as Braga-men or Braga-women. Bragi was greatly
+honoured by all the Northern races, and hence his health was always
+drunk on solemn or festive occasions, but especially at funeral feasts
+and at Yuletide celebrations.
+
+When it was time to drink this toast, which was served in cups shaped
+like a ship, and was called the Bragaful, the sacred sign of the hammer
+was first made over it. Then the new ruler or head of the family
+solemnly pledged himself to some great deed of valour, which he was
+bound to execute within the year, unless he wished to be considered
+destitute of honour. Following his example, all the guests were then
+wont to make similar vows and declare what they would do; and as some
+of them, owing to previous potations, talked rather too freely of
+their intentions on these occasions, this custom seems to connect the
+god's name with the vulgar but very expressive English verb "to brag."
+
+In art, Bragi is generally represented as an elderly man, with long
+white hair and beard, and holding the golden harp from which his
+fingers could draw such magic strains.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII: IDUN
+
+
+The Apples of Youth
+
+Idun, the personification of spring or immortal youth, who, according
+to some mythologists, had no birth and was never to taste death,
+was warmly welcomed by the gods when she made her appearance in
+Asgard with Bragi. To further win their affections she promised them
+a daily taste of the marvellous apples which she bore in her casket,
+and which had the power of conferring immortal youth and loveliness
+upon all who partook of them.
+
+
+    "The golden apples
+    Out of her garden
+    Have yielded you a dower of youth,
+    Ate you them every day."
+
+            Wagner (Forman's tr.).
+
+
+Thanks to this magic fruit, the Scandinavian gods, who, because
+they sprang from a mixed race, were not all immortal, warded off the
+approach of old age and disease, and remained vigorous, beautiful, and
+young through countless ages. These apples were therefore considered
+very precious indeed, and Idun carefully treasured them in her magic
+casket. No matter how many she drew out, the same number always
+remained for distribution at the feast of the gods, to whom alone she
+vouchsafed a taste, although dwarfs and giants were eager to obtain
+possession of the fruit.
+
+
+    "Bright Iduna, Maid immortal!
+    Standing at Valhalla's portal,
+    In her casket has rich store
+    Of rare apples gilded o'er;
+    Those rare apples, not of Earth,
+    Ageing Æsir give fresh birth."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+The Story of Thiassi
+
+One day, Odin, Hoenir, and Loki started out upon one of their usual
+excursions to earth, and, after wandering for a long while, they
+found themselves in a deserted region, where they could discover no
+hospitable dwelling. Weary and very hungry, the gods, perceiving a
+herd of oxen, slew one of the beasts, and, kindling a fire, they sat
+down beside it to rest while waiting for their meat to cook.
+
+To their surprise, however, in spite of the roaring flames the carcass
+remained quite raw. Realising that some magic must be at work, they
+looked about them to discover what could hinder their cookery, when
+they perceived an eagle perched upon a tree above them. Seeing that he
+was an object of suspicion to the wayfarers, the bird addressed them
+and admitted that he it was who had prevented the fire from doing its
+accustomed work, but he offered to remove the spell if they would give
+him as much food as he could eat. The gods agreed to do this, whereupon
+the eagle, swooping downward, fanned the flames with his huge wings,
+and soon the meat was cooked. The eagle then made ready to carry off
+three quarters of the ox as his share, but this was too much for Loki,
+who seized a great stake lying near at hand, and began to belabour
+the voracious bird, forgetting that it was skilled in magic arts. To
+his great dismay one end of the stake stuck fast to the eagle's back,
+the other to his hands, and he found himself dragged over stones and
+through briers, sometimes through the air, his arms almost torn out
+of their sockets. In vain he cried for mercy and implored the eagle
+to let him go; the bird flew on, until he promised any ransom his
+captor might ask in exchange for his release.
+
+The seeming eagle, who was the storm giant Thiassi, at last agreed
+to release Loki upon one condition. He made him promise upon the
+most solemn of oaths that he would lure Idun out of Asgard, so that
+Thiassi might obtain possession of her and of her magic fruit.
+
+Released at last, Loki returned to Odin and Hoenir, to whom, however,
+he was very careful not to confide the condition upon which he had
+obtained his freedom; and when they had returned to Asgard he began
+to plan how he might entice Idun outside of the gods' abode. A few
+days later, Bragi being absent on one of his minstrel journeys, Loki
+sought Idun in the groves of Brunnaker, where she had taken up her
+abode, and by artfully describing some apples which grew at a short
+distance, and which he mendaciously declared were exactly like hers,
+he lured her away from Asgard with a crystal dish full of fruit,
+which she intended to compare with that which he extolled. No sooner
+had Idun left Asgard, however, than the deceiver Loki forsook her,
+and ere she could return to the shelter of the heavenly abode the
+storm giant Thiassi swept down from the north on his eagle wings,
+and catching her up in his cruel talons, he bore her swiftly away to
+his barren and desolate home of Thrym-heim.
+
+
+    "Thrymheim the sixth is named,
+    Where Thiassi dwelt,
+    That all-powerful Jötun."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Isolated from her beloved companions, Idun pined, grew pale and sad,
+but persistently refused to give Thiassi the smallest bite of her
+magic fruit, which, as he well knew, would make him beautiful and
+renew his strength and youth.
+
+
+        "All woes that fall
+        On Odin's hall
+    Can be traced to Loki base.
+      From out Valhalla's portal
+    'Twas he who pure Iduna lured,--
+        Whose casket fair
+        Held apples rare
+      That render gods immortal,--
+    And in Thiassi's tower immured."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Time passed. The gods, thinking that Idun had accompanied her husband
+and would soon return, at first paid no heed to her departure, but
+little by little the beneficent effect of the last feast of apples
+passed away. They began to feel the approach of old age, and saw
+their youth and beauty disappear; so, becoming alarmed, they began
+to search for the missing goddess.
+
+Close investigation revealed the fact that she had last been seen in
+Loki's company, and when Odin sternly called him to account, he was
+forced to admit that he had betrayed her into the storm-giant's power.
+
+
+    "By his mocking, scornful mien,
+    Soon in Valhal it was seen
+    'Twas the traitor Loki's art
+    Which had led Idun apart
+    To gloomy tower
+    And Jotun power."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+The Return of Idun
+
+The attitude of the gods now became very menacing, and it was clear
+to Loki that if he did not devise means to restore the goddess,
+and that soon, his life would be in considerable danger.
+
+He assured the indignant gods, therefore, that he would leave no
+stone unturned in his efforts to secure the release of Idun, and,
+borrowing Freya's falcon plumage, he flew off to Thrym-heim, where
+he found Idun alone, sadly mourning her exile from Asgard and her
+beloved Bragi. Changing the fair goddess into a nut according to
+some accounts, or according to others, into a swallow, Loki grasped
+her tightly between his claws, and then rapidly retraced his way to
+Asgard, hoping that he would reach the shelter of its high walls ere
+Thiassi returned from a fishing excursion in the Northern seas to
+which he had gone.
+
+Meantime the gods had assembled on the ramparts of the heavenly
+city, and they were watching for the return of Loki with far more
+anxiety than they had felt for Odin when he went in search of
+Od-hroerir. Remembering the success of their ruse on that occasion,
+they had gathered great piles of fuel, which they were ready to set
+on fire at any moment.
+
+Suddenly they saw Loki coming, but descried in his wake a great
+eagle. This was the giant Thiassi who had suddenly returned to
+Thrym-heim and found that his captive had been carried off by a falcon,
+in whom he readily recognised one of the gods. Hastily donning his
+eagle plumes he had given immediate chase and was rapidly overtaking
+his prey. Loki redoubled his efforts as he neared the walls of Asgard,
+and ere Thiassi overtook him he reached the goal and sank exhausted in
+the midst of the gods. Not a moment was lost in setting fire to the
+accumulated fuel, and as the pursuing Thiassi passed over the walls
+in his turn, the flames and smoke brought him to the ground crippled
+and half stunned, an easy prey to the gods, who fell ruthlessly upon
+him and slew him.
+
+The Æsir were overjoyed at the recovery of Idun, and they hastened
+to partake of the precious apples which she had brought safely
+back. Feeling the return of their wonted strength and good looks with
+every mouthful they ate, they good-naturedly declared that it was
+no wonder if even the giants longed to taste the apples of perpetual
+youth. They vowed therefore that they would place Thiassi's eyes as
+a constellation in the heavens, in order to soften any feeling of
+anger which his kinsmen might experience upon learning that he had
+been slain.
+
+
+    "Up I cast the eyes
+    Of Allvaldi's son
+    Into the heaven's serene:
+    They are signs the greatest
+    Of my deeds."
+
+            Lay of Harbard (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Goddess of Spring
+
+The physical explanation of this myth is obvious. Idun, the emblem of
+vegetation, is forcibly carried away in autumn, when Bragi is absent
+and the singing of the birds has ceased. The cold wintry wind, Thiassi,
+detains her in the frozen, barren north, where she cannot thrive,
+until Loki, the south wind, brings back the seed or the swallow,
+which are both precursors of the returning spring. The youth, beauty,
+and strength conferred by Idun are symbolical of Nature's resurrection
+in spring after winter's sleep, when colour and vigour return to the
+earth, which had grown wrinkled and grey.
+
+
+
+Idun Falls to the Nether World
+
+As the disappearance of Idun (vegetation) was a yearly occurrence,
+we might expect to find other myths dealing with the striking
+phenomenon, and there is another favourite of the old scalds which,
+unfortunately, has come down to us only in a fragmentary and very
+incomplete form. According to this account, Idun was once sitting upon
+the branches of the sacred ash Yggdrasil when, growing suddenly faint,
+she loosed her hold and dropped to the ground beneath, and down to
+the lowest depths of Nifl-heim. There she lay, pale and motionless,
+gazing with fixed and horror-struck eyes upon the gruesome sights
+of Hel's realm, trembling violently the while, like one overcome by
+penetrating cold.
+
+
+    "In the dales dwells
+    The prescient Dis,
+    From Yggdrasil's
+    Ash sunk down,
+    Of alfen race,
+    Idun by name,
+    The youngest of Ivaldi's
+    Elder children.
+    She ill brooked
+    Her descent
+    Under the hoar tree's
+    Trunk confined.
+    She would not happy be
+    With Norvi's daughter,
+    Accustomed to a pleasanter
+    Abode at home."
+
+            Odin's Ravens' Song (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Seeing that she did not return, Odin bade Bragi, Heimdall, and another
+of the gods go in search of her, giving them a white wolfskin to
+envelop her in, so that she should not suffer from the cold, and
+bidding them make every effort to rouse her from the stupor which
+his prescience told him had taken possession of her.
+
+
+    "A wolf's skin they gave her,
+    In which herself she clad."
+
+            Odin's Ravens' Song (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Idun passively allowed the gods to wrap her in the warm wolfskin,
+but she persistently refused to speak or move, and from her strange
+manner her husband sadly suspected that she had had a vision of great
+ills. The tears ran continuously down her pallid cheeks, and Bragi,
+overcome by her unhappiness, at length bade the other gods return
+to Asgard without him, vowing that he would remain beside his wife
+until she was ready to leave Hel's dismal realm. The sight of her
+woe oppressed him so sorely that he had no heart for his usual merry
+songs, and the strings of his harp were mute while he remained in
+the underworld.
+
+
+    "That voice-like zephyr o'er flow'r meads creeping,
+    Like Bragi's music his harp strings sweeping."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+In this myth Idun's fall from Yggdrasil is symbolical of the autumnal
+falling of the leaves, which lie limp and helpless on the cold bare
+ground until they are hidden from sight under the snow, represented
+by the wolfskin, which Odin, the sky, sends down to keep them warm;
+and the cessation of the birds' songs is further typified by Bragi's
+silent harp.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII: NIÖRD
+
+
+A Hostage with the Gods
+
+We have already seen how the Æsir and Vanas exchanged hostages after
+the terrible war they had waged against each other, and that while
+Hoenir, Odin's brother, went to live in Vana-heim, Niörd, with his
+two children, Frey and Freya, definitely took up his abode in Asgard.
+
+
+    "In Vana-heim
+    Wise powers him created,
+    And to the gods a hostage gave."
+
+            Lay of Vafthrudnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+As ruler of the winds, and of the sea near the shore, Niörd was
+given the palace of Nôatûn, near the seashore, where, we are told, he
+stilled the terrible tempests stirred up by Ægir, god of the deep sea.
+
+
+    "Niörd, the god of storms, whom fishers know;
+    Not born in Heaven--he was in Van-heim rear'd,
+    With men, but lives a hostage with the gods;
+    He knows each frith, and every rocky creek
+    Fringed with dark pines, and sands where sea-fowl scream."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+He also extended his special protection over commerce and fishing,
+which two occupations could be pursued with advantage only during
+the short summer months, of which he was in a measure considered
+the personification.
+
+
+
+The God of Summer
+
+Niörd is represented in art as a very handsome god, in the prime
+of life, clad in a short green tunic, with a crown of shells and
+seaweed upon his head, or a brown-brimmed hat adorned with eagle or
+heron plumes. As personification of the summer, he was invoked to
+still the raging storms which desolated the coasts during the winter
+months. He was also implored to hasten the vernal warmth and thereby
+extinguish the winter fires.
+
+As agriculture was practised only during the summer months, and
+principally along the fiords or sea inlets, Niörd was also invoked
+for favourable harvests, for he was said to delight in prospering
+those who placed their trust in him.
+
+Niörd's first wife, according to some authorities, was his sister
+Nerthus, Mother Earth, who in Germany was identified with Frigga, as we
+have seen, but in Scandinavia was considered a separate divinity. Niörd
+was, however, obliged to part with her when summoned to Asgard,
+where he occupied one of the twelve seats in the great council hall,
+and was present at all the assemblies of the gods, withdrawing to
+Nôatûn only when his services were not required by the Æsir.
+
+
+    "Nôatûn is the eleventh;
+    There Niörd has
+    Himself a dwelling made,
+    Prince of men;
+    Guiltless of sin,
+    He rules o'er the high-built fane."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+In his home by the seashore, Niörd delighted in watching the gulls
+fly to and fro, and in observing the graceful movements of the swans,
+his favourite birds, which were held sacred to him. He spent many an
+hour, too, gazing at the gambols of the gentle seals, which came to
+bask in the sunshine at his feet.
+
+
+
+Skadi, Goddess of Winter
+
+Shortly after Idun's return from Thrym-heim, and Thiassi's death within
+the bounds of Asgard, the assembled gods were greatly surprised and
+dismayed to see Skadi, the giant's daughter, appear one day in their
+midst, to demand satisfaction for her father's death. Although the
+daughter of an ugly old Hrim-thurs, Skadi, the goddess of winter,
+was very beautiful indeed, in her silvery armour, with her glittering
+spear, sharp-pointed arrows, short white hunting dress, white fur
+leggings, and broad snowshoes; and the gods could not but recognise
+the justice of her claim, wherefore they offered the usual fine in
+atonement. Skadi, however, was so angry that she at first refused
+this compromise, and sternly demanded a life for a life, until Loki,
+wishing to appease her wrath, and thinking that if he could only make
+her cold lips relax in a smile the rest would be easy, began to play
+all manner of pranks. Fastening a goat to himself by an invisible cord,
+he went through a series of antics, which were reproduced by the goat;
+and the sight was so grotesque that all the gods fairly shouted with
+merriment, and even Skadi was forced to smile.
+
+Taking advantage of this softened mood, the gods pointed to the
+firmament where her father's eyes glowed like radiant stars in the
+northern hemisphere. They told her they had placed them there to show
+him all honour, and finally added that she might select as husband
+any of the gods present at the assembly, providing she were content
+to judge of their attractions by their naked feet.
+
+Blindfolded, so that she could see only the feet of the gods standing
+in a circle around her, Skadi looked about her and her gaze fell upon
+a pair of beautifully formed feet. She felt sure they must belong to
+Balder, the god of light, whose bright face had charmed her, and she
+designated their owner as her choice.
+
+When the bandage was removed, however, she discovered to her chagrin
+that she had chosen Niörd, to whom her troth was plighted; but
+notwithstanding her disappointment, she spent a happy honeymoon in
+Asgard, where all seemed to delight in doing her honour. After this,
+Niörd took his bride home to Nôatûn, where the monotonous sound of
+the waves, the shrieking of the gulls, and the cries of the seals
+so disturbed Skadi's slumbers that she finally declared it was quite
+impossible for her to remain there any longer, and she implored her
+husband to take her back to her native Thrym-heim.
+
+
+    "Sleep could I not
+    On my sea-strand couch,
+    For screams of the sea fowl.
+    There wakes me,
+    When from the wave he comes,
+    Every morning the mew."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Niörd, anxious to please his new wife, consented to take her to
+Thrym-heim and to dwell there with her nine nights out of every twelve,
+providing she would spend the remaining three with him at Nôatûn;
+but when he reached the mountain region, the soughing of the wind in
+the pines, the thunder of the avalanches, the cracking of the ice,
+the roar of the waterfalls, and the howling of the wolves appeared
+to him as unbearable as the sound of the sea had seemed to his wife,
+and he could not but rejoice each time when his period of exile was
+ended, and he found himself again at Nôatûn.
+
+
+    "Am weary of the mountains;
+    Not long was I there,
+    Only nine nights;
+    The howl of the wolves
+    Methought sounded ill
+    To the song of the swans."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Parting of Niörd and Skadi
+
+For some time, Niörd and Skadi, who are the personifications of summer
+and winter, alternated thus, the wife spending the three short summer
+months by the sea, and he reluctantly remaining with her in Thrym-heim
+during the nine long winter months. But, concluding at last that their
+tastes would never agree, they decided to part for ever, and returned
+to their respective homes, where each could follow the occupations
+which custom had endeared to them.
+
+
+    "Thrym-heim it's called,
+    Where Thjasse dwelled,
+    That stream-mighty giant;
+    But Skade now dwells,
+    Pure bride of the gods,
+    In her father's old mansion."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Skadi now resumed her wonted pastime of hunting, leaving her realm
+again only to marry the semi-historical Odin, to whom she bore a son
+called Sæming, the first king of Norway, and the supposed founder of
+the royal race which long ruled that country.
+
+According to other accounts, however, Skadi eventually married Uller,
+the winter-god. As Skadi was a skilful marksman, she is represented
+with bow and arrow, and, as goddess of the chase, she is generally
+accompanied by one of the wolf-like Eskimo dogs so common in the
+North. Skadi was invoked by hunters and by winter travellers, whose
+sleighs she would guide over the snow and ice, thus helping them to
+reach their destination in safety.
+
+Skadi's anger against the gods, who had slain her father, the storm
+giant, is an emblem of the unbending rigidity of the ice-enveloped
+earth, which, softened at last by the frolicsome play of Loki (the
+heat lightning), smiles, and permits the embrace of Niörd (summer). His
+love, however, cannot hold her for more than three months of the year
+(typified in the myth by nights), as she is always secretly longing for
+the wintry storms and for her wonted activities among the mountains.
+
+
+
+The Worship of Niörd
+
+Niörd was supposed to bless the vessels passing in and out of port,
+and his temples were situated by the seashore; there oaths in his
+name were commonly sworn, and his health was drunk at every banquet,
+where he was invariably named with his son Frey.
+
+As all aquatic plants were supposed to belong to him, the marine sponge
+was known in the North as "Niörd's glove," a name which was retained
+until lately, when the same plant has been popularly re-named the
+"Virgin's hand."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX: FREY
+
+
+The God of Fairyland
+
+Frey, or Fro, as he was called in Germany, was the son of Niörd and
+Nerthus, or of Niörd and Skadi, and was born in Vana-heim. He therefore
+belonged to the race of the Vanas, the divinities of water and air,
+but was warmly welcomed in Asgard when he came thither as hostage
+with his father. As it was customary among the Northern nations to
+bestow some valuable gift upon a child when he cut his first tooth,
+the Æsir gave the infant Frey the beautiful realm of Alf-heim or
+Fairyland, the home of the Light Elves.
+
+
+    "Alf-heim the gods to Frey
+    Gave in days of yore
+    For a tooth gift."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Here Frey, the god of the golden sunshine and the warm summer
+showers, took up his abode, charmed with the society of the elves
+and fairies, who implicitly obeyed his every order, and at a sign
+from him flitted to and fro, doing all the good in their power,
+for they were pre-eminently beneficent spirits.
+
+Frey also received from the gods a marvellous sword (an emblem of the
+sunbeams), which had the power of fighting successfully, and of its
+own accord, as soon as it was drawn from its sheath. Frey wielded
+this principally against the frost giants, whom he hated almost as
+much as did Thor, and because he carried this glittering weapon,
+he has sometimes been confounded with the sword-god Tyr or Saxnot.
+
+
+    "With a short-shafted hammer fights conquering Thor;
+    Frey's own sword but an ell long is made."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+The dwarfs from Svart-alfa-heim gave Frey the golden-bristled boar
+Gullin-bursti (the golden-bristled), a personification of the sun. The
+radiant bristles of this animal were considered symbolical either
+of the solar rays, of the golden grain, which at his bidding waved
+over the harvest fields of Midgard, or of agriculture; for the boar
+(by tearing up the ground with his sharp tusk) was supposed to have
+first taught mankind how to plough.
+
+
+                    "There was Frey, and sat
+    On the gold-bristled boar, who first, they say,
+    Plowed the brown earth, and made it green for Frey."
+
+            Lovers of Gudrun (William Morris).
+
+Frey sometimes rode astride of this marvellous boar, whose speed was
+very great, and at other times harnessed him to his golden chariot,
+which was said to contain the fruits and flowers which he lavishly
+scattered abroad over the face of the earth.
+
+Frey was, moreover, the proud possessor not only of the dauntless steed
+Blodug-hofi, which would dash through fire and water at his command,
+but also of the magic ship Skidbladnir, a personification of the
+clouds. This vessel, sailing over land and sea, was always wafted
+along by favourable winds, and was so elastic that, while it could
+assume large enough proportions to carry the gods, their steeds,
+and all their equipments, it could also be folded up like a napkin
+and thrust into a pocket.
+
+
+    "Ivaldi's sons
+    Went in days of old
+    Skidbladnir to form,
+    Of ships the best,
+    For the bright Frey,
+    Niörd's benign son."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Wooing of Gerda
+
+It is related in one of the lays of the Edda that Frey once ventured
+to ascend Odin's throne Hlidskialf, from which exalted seat his gaze
+ranged over the wide earth. Looking towards the frozen North, he saw
+a beautiful young maiden enter the house of the frost giant Gymir,
+and as she raised her hand to lift the latch her radiant beauty
+illuminated sea and sky.
+
+A moment later, this lovely creature, whose name was Gerda, and who
+is considered as a personification of the flashing Northern lights,
+vanished within her father's house, and Frey pensively wended his
+way back to Alfheim, his heart oppressed with longing to make this
+fair maiden his wife. Being deeply in love, he was melancholy and
+absent-minded in the extreme, and began to behave so strangely that
+his father, Niörd, became greatly alarmed about his health, and bade
+his favourite servant, Skirnir, discover the cause of this sudden
+change. After much persuasion, Skirnir finally won from Frey an account
+of his ascent of Hlidskialf, and of the fair vision he had seen. He
+confessed his love and also his utter despair, for as Gerda was the
+daughter of Gymir and Angur-boda, and a relative of the murdered
+giant Thiassi, he feared she would never view his suit with favour.
+
+
+    "In Gymer's court I saw her move,
+    The maid who fires my breast with love;
+    Her snow-white arms and bosom fair
+    Shone lovely, kindling sea and air.
+    Dear is she to my wishes, more
+    Than e'er was maid to youth before;
+    But gods and elves, I wot it well,
+    Forbid that we together dwell."
+
+            Skirner's Lay (Herbert's tr.).
+
+Skirnir, however, replied consolingly that he could see no reason why
+his master should take a despondent view of the case, and he offered
+to go and woo the maiden in his name, providing Frey would lend him his
+steed for the journey, and give him his glittering sword for reward.
+
+Overjoyed at the prospect of winning the beautiful Gerda, Frey
+willingly handed Skirnir the flashing sword, and gave him permission to
+use his horse. But he quickly relapsed into the state of reverie which
+had become usual with him since falling in love, and thus he did not
+notice that Skirnir was still hovering near him, nor did he perceive
+him cunningly steal the reflection of his face from the surface of the
+brook near which he was seated, and imprison it in his drinking horn,
+with intent "to pour it out in Gerda's cup, and by its beauty win
+the heart of the giantess for the lord" for whom he was about to go
+a-wooing. Provided with this portrait, with eleven golden apples, and
+with the magic ring Draupnir, Skirnir now rode off to Jötun-heim, to
+fulfil his embassy. As he came near Gymir's dwelling he heard the loud
+and persistent howling of his watch-dogs, which were personifications
+of the wintry winds. A shepherd, guarding his flock in the vicinity,
+told him, in answer to his inquiry, that it would be impossible to
+approach the house, on account of the flaming barrier which surrounded
+it; but Skirnir, knowing that Blodug-hofi would dash through any fire,
+merely set spurs to his steed, and, riding up unscathed to the giant's
+door, was soon ushered into the presence of the lovely Gerda.
+
+To induce the fair maiden to lend a favourable ear to his master's
+proposals, Skirnir showed her the stolen portrait, and proffered the
+golden apples and magic ring, which, however, she haughtily refused
+to accept, declaring that her father had gold enough and to spare.
+
+
+    "I take not, I, that wondrous ring,
+    Though it from Balder's pile you bring
+    Gold lack not I, in Gymer's bower;
+    Enough for me my father's dower."
+
+            Skirner's Lay (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+Indignant at her scorn, Skirnir now threatened to decapitate her with
+his magic sword, but as this did not in the least frighten the maiden,
+and she calmly defied him, he had recourse to magic arts. Cutting
+runes in his stick, he told her that unless she yielded ere the spell
+was ended, she would be condemned either to eternal celibacy, or to
+marry some aged frost giant whom she could never love.
+
+Terrified into submission by the frightful description of her cheerless
+future in case she persisted in her refusal, Gerda finally consented
+to become Frey's wife, and dismissed Skirnir, promising to meet her
+future spouse on the ninth night, in the land of Buri, the green grove,
+where she would dispel his sadness and make him happy.
+
+
+    "Burri is hight the seat of love;
+    Nine nights elapsed, in that known grove
+    Shall brave Niorder's gallant boy
+    From Gerda take the kiss of joy."
+
+            Skirner's Lay (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+Delighted with his success, Skirnir hurried back to Alf-heim, where
+Frey came eagerly to learn the result of his journey. When he learned
+that Gerda had consented to become his wife, his face grew radiant
+with joy; but when Skirnir informed him that he would have to wait
+nine nights ere he could behold his promised bride, he turned sadly
+away, declaring the time would appear interminable.
+
+
+    "Long is one night, and longer twain;
+    But how for three endure my pain?
+    A month of rapture sooner flies
+    Than half one night of wishful sighs."
+
+            Skirner's Lay (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+In spite of this loverlike despondency, however, the time of waiting
+came to an end, and Frey joyfully hastened to the green grove, where,
+true to her appointment, he found Gerda, and she became his happy wife,
+and proudly sat upon his throne beside him.
+
+
+    "Frey to wife had Gerd;
+    She was Gymir's daughter,
+    From Jötuns sprung."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+According to some mythologists, Gerda is not a personification of the
+aurora borealis, but of the earth, which, hard, cold, and unyielding,
+resists the spring-god's proffers of adornment and fruitfulness (the
+apples and ring), defies the flashing sunbeams (Frey's sword), and
+only consents to receive his kiss when it learns that it will else be
+doomed to perpetual barrenness, or given over entirely into the power
+of the giants (ice and snow). The nine nights of waiting are typical
+of the nine winter months, at the end of which the earth becomes the
+bride of the sun, in the groves where the trees are budding forth
+into leaf and blossom.
+
+Frey and Gerda, we are told, became the parents of a son called
+Fiolnir, whose birth consoled Gerda for the loss of her brother
+Beli. The latter had attacked Frey and had been slain by him, although
+the sun-god, deprived of his matchless sword, had been obliged to
+defend himself with a stag horn which he hastily snatched from the
+wall of his dwelling.
+
+Besides the faithful Skirnir, Frey had two other attendants, a
+married couple, Beyggvir and Beyla, the personifications of mill
+refuse and manure, which two ingredients, being used in agriculture
+for fertilising purposes, were therefore considered Frey's faithful
+servants, in spite of their unpleasant qualities.
+
+
+
+The historical Frey
+
+Snorro-Sturleson, in his "Heimskringla," or chronicle of the ancient
+kings of Norway, states that Frey was an historical personage who bore
+the name of Ingvi-Frey, and ruled in Upsala after the death of the
+semi-historical Odin and Niörd. Under his rule the people enjoyed such
+prosperity and peace that they declared their king must be a god. They
+therefore began to invoke him as such, carrying their enthusiastic
+admiration to such lengths that when he died the priests, not daring
+to reveal the fact, laid him in a great mound instead of burning his
+body, as had been customary until then. They then informed the people
+that Frey--whose name was the Northern synonym for "master"--had
+"gone into the mound," an expression which eventually became the
+Northman's phrase for death.
+
+Not until three years later did the people, who had continued paying
+their taxes to the king by pouring gold, silver, and copper coin
+into the mound through three different openings, discover that Frey
+was dead. As their peace and prosperity had remained undisturbed,
+they decreed that his corpse should never be burned, and they thus
+inaugurated the custom of mound-burial, which in due time supplanted
+the funeral pyre in many places. One of the three mounds near Gamla
+Upsala still bears this god's name. His statues were placed in the
+great temple there, and his name was duly mentioned in all solemn
+oaths, of which the usual formula was, "So help me Frey, Niörd,
+and the Almighty Asa" (Odin).
+
+
+
+Worship of Frey
+
+No weapons were ever admitted in Frey's temples, the most celebrated
+of which were at Throndhjeim in Norway, and at Thvera in Iceland. In
+these temples oxen or horses were offered in sacrifice to him, a heavy
+gold ring being dipped in the victim's blood ere the above-mentioned
+oath was solemnly taken upon it.
+
+Frey's statues, like those of all the other Northern divinities,
+were roughly hewn blocks of wood, and the last of these sacred images
+seems to have been destroyed by Olaf the Saint, who, as we have seen,
+forcibly converted many of his subjects. Besides being god of sunshine,
+fruitfulness, peace, and prosperity, Frey was considered the patron
+of horses and horsemen, and the deliverer of all captives.
+
+
+    "Frey is the best
+    Of all the chiefs
+    Among the gods.
+    He causes not tears
+    To maids or mothers:
+    His desire is to loosen the fetters
+    Of those enchained."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Yule Feast
+
+One month of every year, the Yule month, or Thor's month, was
+considered sacred to Frey as well as to Thor, and began on the longest
+night of the year, which bore the name of Mother Night. This month
+was a time of feasting and rejoicing, for it heralded the return of
+the sun. The festival was called Yule (wheel) because the sun was
+supposed to resemble a wheel rapidly revolving across the sky. This
+resemblance gave rise to a singular custom in England, Germany, and
+along the banks of the Moselle. Until within late years, the people
+were wont to assemble yearly upon a mountain, to set fire to a huge
+wooden wheel, twined with straw, which, all ablaze, was then sent
+rolling down the hill, to plunge with a hiss into the water.
+
+
+    "Some others get a rotten Wheele, all worn and cast aside,
+    Which, covered round about with strawe and tow, they closely hide;
+    And caryed to some mountaines top, being all with fire light,
+    They hurle it down with violence, when darke appears the night;
+    Resembling much the sunne, that from the Heavens down should fal,
+    A strange and monstrous sight it seemes, and fearful to them all;
+    But they suppose their mischiefs are all likewise throwne to hell,
+    And that, from harmes and dangers now, in safetie here they dwell."
+
+            Naogeorgus.
+
+
+All the Northern races considered the Yule feast the greatest of
+the year, and were wont to celebrate it with dancing, feasting,
+and drinking, each god being pledged by name. The first Christian
+missionaries, perceiving the extreme popularity of this feast, thought
+it best to encourage drinking to the health of the Lord and his twelve
+apostles when they first began to convert the Northern heathens. In
+honour of Frey, boar's flesh was eaten on this occasion. Crowned
+with laurel and rosemary, the animal's head was brought into the
+banqueting-hall with much ceremony--a custom long after observed,
+as the following lines will show:
+
+
+        "Caput Apri defero
+        Reddens laudes Domino.
+    The boar's head in hand bring I,
+    With garlands gay and rosemary;
+    I pray you all sing merrily,
+      Qui estis in convivio."
+
+            Queen's College Carol, Oxford.
+
+
+The father of the family laid his hand on the sacred dish, which was
+called "the boar of atonement," swearing he would be faithful to his
+family, and would fulfil all his obligations--an example which was
+followed by all present, from the highest to the lowest. This dish
+could be carved only by a man of unblemished reputation and tried
+courage, for the boar's head was a sacred emblem which was supposed
+to inspire every one with fear. For that reason a boar's head was
+frequently used as ornament for the helmets of Northern kings and
+heroes whose bravery was unquestioned.
+
+As Frey's name of Fro is phonetically the same as the word used in
+German for gladness, he was considered the patron of every joy,
+and was invariably invoked by married couples who wished to live
+in harmony. Those who succeeded in doing so for a certain length of
+time were publicly rewarded by the gift of a piece of boar's flesh,
+for which in later times, the English and Viennese substituted a
+flitch of bacon or a ham.
+
+
+    "You shall swear, by custom of confession,
+    If ever you made nuptial transgression,
+    Be you either married man or wife:
+    If you have brawls or contentious strife;
+    Or otherwise, at bed or at board,
+    Offended each other in deed or word;
+    Or, since the parish clerk said Amen,
+    You wish'd yourselves unmarried again;
+    Or, in a twelvemonth and a day
+    Repented not in thought any way,
+    But continued true in thought and desire,
+    As when you join'd hands in the quire.
+    If to these conditions, with all feare,
+    Of your own accord you will freely sweare,
+    A whole gammon of bacon you shall receive,
+    And bear it hence with love and good leave:
+    For this our custom at Dunmow well known--
+    Though the pleasure be ours, the bacon's your own."
+
+            Brand's Popular Antiquities.
+
+
+At the village of Dunmow in Essex, the ancient custom is still
+observed. In Vienna the ham or flitch of bacon was hung over the
+city gate, whence the successful candidate was expected to bring
+it down, after he had satisfied the judges that he lived in peace
+with his wife, but was not under petticoat rule. It is said that in
+Vienna this ham remained for a long time unclaimed until at last
+a worthy burgher presented himself before the judges, bearing his
+wife's written affidavit that they had been married twelve years and
+had never disagreed--a statement which was confirmed by all their
+neighbours. The judges, satisfied with the proofs laid before them,
+told the candidate that the prize was his, and that he only need
+climb the ladder placed beneath it and bring it down. Rejoicing at
+having secured such a fine ham, the man speedily mounted the ladder;
+but as he was about to reach for the prize he noticed that the ham,
+exposed to the noonday sun, was beginning to melt, and that a drop
+of fat threatened to fall upon his Sunday coat. Hastily beating a
+retreat, he pulled off his coat, jocosely remarking that his wife
+would scold him roundly were he to stain it, a confession which made
+the bystanders roar with laughter, and which cost him his ham.
+
+Another Yuletide custom was the burning of a huge log, which had to
+last through the night, otherwise it was considered a very bad omen
+indeed. The charred remains of this log were carefully collected,
+and treasured up for the purpose of setting fire to the log of the
+following year.
+
+
+      "With the last yeeres brand
+      Light the new block, and
+    For good successe in his spending,
+      On your psaltries play,
+      That sweet luck may
+    Come while the log is a-tending."
+
+            Hesperides (Herrick).
+
+
+This festival was so popular in Scandinavia, where it was celebrated in
+January, that King Olaf, seeing how dear it was to the Northern heart,
+transferred most of its observances to Christmas day, thereby doing
+much to reconcile the ignorant people to their change of religion.
+
+As god of peace and prosperity, Frey is supposed to have reappeared
+upon earth many times, and to have ruled the Swedes under the name
+of Ingvi-Frey, whence his descendants were called Inglings. He also
+governed the Danes under the name of Fridleef. In Denmark he is said
+to have married the beautiful maiden Freygerda, whom he had rescued
+from a dragon. By her he had a son named Frodi, who, in due time,
+succeeded him as king.
+
+Frodi ruled Denmark in the days when there was "peace throughout
+the world," that is to say, just at the time when Christ was born
+in Bethlehem of Judea; and because all his subjects lived in amity,
+he was generally known as Peace Frodi.
+
+
+
+How the Sea became salt
+
+It is related that Frodi once received from Hengi-kiaptr a pair of
+magic millstones, called Grotti, which were so ponderous that none
+of his servants nor even his strongest warriors could turn them. The
+king was aware that the mill was enchanted and would grind anything
+he wished, so he was very anxious indeed to set it to work, and,
+during a visit to Sweden, he saw and purchased as slaves the two
+giantesses Menia and Fenia, whose powerful muscles and frames had
+attracted his attention.
+
+On his return home, Peace Frodi led his new servants to the mill,
+and bade them turn the grindstones and grind out gold, peace, and
+prosperity, and they immediately fulfilled his wishes. Cheerfully
+the women worked on, hour after hour, until the king's coffers were
+overflowing with gold, and prosperity and peace were rife throughout
+his land.
+
+
+    "Let us grind riches to Frothi!
+    Let us grind him, happy
+    In plenty of substance,
+    On our gladdening Quern."
+
+            Grotta-Savngr (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+But when Menia and Fenia would fain have rested awhile, the king,
+whose greed had been excited, bade them work on. In spite of their
+entreaties he forced them to labour hour after hour, allowing them
+only as much time to rest as was required for the singing of a verse
+in a song, until exasperated by his cruelty, the giantesses resolved
+at length to have revenge. One night while Frodi slept they changed
+their song, and, instead of prosperity and peace, they grimly began
+to grind an armed host, whereby they induced the Viking Mysinger to
+land with a large body of troops. While the spell was working the
+Danes continued in slumber, and thus they were completely surprised
+by the Viking host, who slew them all.
+
+
+    "An army must come
+    Hither forthwith,
+    And burn the town
+    For the prince."
+
+            Grotta Savngr (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+Mysinger took the magic millstones Grotti and the two slaves and put
+them on board his vessel, bidding the women grind salt, which was
+a very valuable staple of commerce at that time. The women obeyed,
+and their millstones went round, grinding salt in abundance; but
+the Viking, as cruel as Frodi, would give the poor women no rest,
+wherefore a heavy punishment overtook him and his followers. Such an
+immense quantity of salt was ground by the magic millstones that in
+the end its weight sunk the ship and all on board.
+
+The ponderous stones sank into the sea in the Pentland Firth, or
+off the north-western coast of Norway, making a deep round hole,
+and the waters, rushing into the vortex and gurgling in the holes
+in the centre of the stones, produced the great whirlpool which is
+known as the Maelstrom. As for the salt it soon melted; but such was
+the immense quantity ground by the giantesses that it permeated all
+the waters of the sea, which have ever since been very salt.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X: FREYA
+
+
+The Goddess of Love
+
+Freya, the fair Northern goddess of beauty and love, was the sister
+of Frey and the daughter of Niörd and Nerthus, or Skadi. She was the
+most beautiful and best beloved of all the goddesses, and while in
+Germany she was identified with Frigga, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
+and Iceland she was considered a separate divinity. Freya, having
+been born in Vana-heim, was also known as Vanadis, the goddess of
+the Vanas, or as Vanabride.
+
+When she reached Asgard, the gods were so charmed by her beauty and
+grace that they bestowed upon her the realm of Folkvang and the great
+hall Sessrymnir (the roomy-seated), where they assured her she could
+easily accommodate all her guests.
+
+
+    "Folkvang 'tis called,
+    Where Freyja has right
+    To dispose of the hall-seats.
+    Every day of the slain
+    She chooses the half,
+    And leaves half to Odin."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+Queen of the Valkyrs
+
+Although goddess of love, Freya was not soft and pleasure-loving only,
+for the ancient Northern races believed that she had very martial
+tastes, and that as Valfreya she often led the Valkyrs down to the
+battlefields, choosing and claiming one half the heroes slain. She
+was therefore often represented with corselet and helmet, shield
+and spear, the lower part of her body only being clad in the usual
+flowing feminine garb.
+
+Freya transported the chosen slain to Folkvang, where they were duly
+entertained. There also she welcomed all pure maidens and faithful
+wives, that they might enjoy the company of their lovers and husbands
+after death. The joys of her abode were so enticing to the heroic
+Northern women that they often rushed into battle when their loved
+ones were slain, hoping to meet with the same fate; or they fell upon
+their swords, or were voluntarily burned on the same funeral pyre as
+the remains of their beloved.
+
+As Freya was believed to lend a favourable ear to lovers' prayers,
+she was often invoked by them, and it was customary to compose in
+her honour love-songs, which were sung on all festive occasions,
+her very name in Germany being used as the verb "to woo."
+
+
+
+Freya and Odur
+
+Freya, the golden-haired and blue-eyed goddess, was also, at times,
+considered as a personification of the earth. As such she married Odur,
+a symbol of the summer sun, whom she dearly loved, and by whom she
+had two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi. These maidens were so beautiful
+that all things lovely and precious were called by their names.
+
+While Odur lingered contentedly at her side, Freya was smiling
+and perfectly happy; but, alas! the god was a rover at heart, and,
+wearying of his wife's company, he suddenly left home and wandered far
+out into the wide world. Freya, sad and forsaken, wept abundantly,
+and her tears fell upon the hard rocks, which softened at their
+contact. We are told even that they trickled down to the very centre
+of the stones, where they were transformed to gold. Some tears fell
+into the sea and were changed into translucent amber.
+
+Weary of her widowed condition, and longing to clasp her beloved in her
+arms once more, Freya finally started out in search of him, passing
+through many lands, where she became known by different names, such
+as Mardel, Horn, Gefn, Syr, Skialf, and Thrung, inquiring of all she
+met whether her husband had passed that way, and shedding everywhere
+so many tears that gold is to be found in all parts of the earth.
+
+
+    "And Freya next came nigh, with golden tears;
+    The loveliest Goddess she in Heaven, by all
+    Most honour'd after Frea, Odin's wife.
+    Her long ago the wandering Oder took
+    To mate, but left her to roam distant lands;
+    Since then she seeks him, and weeps tears of gold.
+    Names hath she many; Vanadis on earth
+    They call her, Freya is her name in Heaven."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Far away in the sunny South, under the flowering myrtle-trees,
+Freya found Odur at last, and her love being restored to her, she
+was happy and smiling once again, and as radiant as a bride. It is
+perhaps because Freya found her husband beneath the flowering myrtle,
+that Northern brides, to this day, wear myrtle in preference to the
+conventional orange wreath of other climes.
+
+Hand in hand, Odur and Freya now gently wended their way home once
+more, and in the light of their happiness the grass grew green, the
+flowers bloomed, and the birds sang, for all Nature sympathised as
+heartily with Freya's joy as it had mourned with her when she was
+in sorrow.
+
+
+    "Out of the morning land,
+    Over the snowdrifts,
+    Beautiful Freya came
+    Tripping to Scoring.
+    White were the moorlands,
+    And frozen before her;
+    Green were the moorlands,
+    And blooming behind her.
+    Out of her gold locks
+    Shaking the spring flowers,
+    Out of her garments
+    Shaking the south wind,
+    Around in the birches
+    Awaking the throstles,
+    And making chaste housewives all
+    Long for their heroes home,
+    Loving and love-giving,
+    Came she to Scoring."
+
+            The Longbeards' Saga (Charles Kingsley).
+
+
+The prettiest plants and flowers in the North were called Freya's hair
+or Freya's eye dew, while the butterfly was called Freya's hen. This
+goddess was also supposed to have a special affection for the fairies,
+whom she loved to watch dancing in the moonbeams, and for whom she
+reserved her daintiest flowers and sweetest honey. Odur, Freya's
+husband, besides being considered a personification of the sun,
+was also regarded as an emblem of passion, or of the intoxicating
+pleasures of love; so the ancients declared that it was no wonder
+his wife could not be happy without him.
+
+
+
+Freya's Necklace
+
+Being goddess of beauty, Freya, naturally, was very fond of the
+toilet, of glittering adornments, and of precious jewels. One day,
+while she was in Svart-alfa-heim, the underground kingdom, she saw
+four dwarfs fashioning the most wonderful necklace she had ever
+seen. Almost beside herself with longing to possess this treasure,
+which was called Brisinga-men, and was an emblem of the stars, or of
+the fruitfulness of the earth, Freya implored the dwarfs to give it to
+her; but they obstinately refused to do so unless she would promise
+to grant them her favour. Having secured the necklace at this price,
+Freya hastened to put it on, and its beauty so enhanced her charms that
+she wore it night and day, and only occasionally could be persuaded
+to lend it to the other divinities. Thor, however, wore this necklace
+when he personated Freya in Jötun-heim, and Loki coveted and would
+have stolen it, had it not been for the watchfulness of Heimdall.
+
+Freya was also the proud possessor of a falcon garb, or falcon plumes,
+which enabled the wearer to flit through the air as a bird; and this
+garment was so invaluable that it was twice borrowed by Loki, and
+was used by Freya herself when she went in search of the missing Odur.
+
+
+    "Freya one day
+    Falcon wings took, and through space hied away;
+    Northward and southward she sought her
+    Dearly-loved Odur."
+
+            Frithiof Saga, Tegnér (Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+As Freya was also considered the goddess of fruitfulness, she was
+sometimes represented as riding about with her brother Frey in the
+chariot drawn by the golden-bristled boar, scattering, with lavish
+hands, fruits and flowers to gladden the hearts of mankind. She had a
+chariot of her own, however, in which she generally travelled. This
+was drawn by cats, her favourite animals, the emblems of caressing
+fondness and sensuality, or the personifications of fecundity.
+
+
+    "Then came dark-bearded Niörd, and after him
+    Freyia, thin robed, about her ankles slim
+    The gray cats playing."
+
+            Lovers of Gudrun (William Morris).
+
+
+Frey and Freya were held in such high honour throughout the North
+that their names, in modified forms, are still used for "master"
+and "mistress," and one day of the week is called Freya's day,
+or Friday, by the English-speaking race. Freya's temples were very
+numerous indeed, and were long maintained by her votaries, the last,
+in Magdeburg, Germany, being destroyed by order of Charlemagne.
+
+
+
+Story of Ottar and Angantyr
+
+The Northern people were wont to invoke Freya not only for success
+in love, prosperity, and increase, but also, at times, for aid
+and protection. This she vouchsafed to all who served her truly,
+as appeared in the story of Ottar and Angantyr, two men who, after
+disputing for some time concerning their rights to a certain piece of
+property, laid their quarrel before the Thing. That popular assembly
+decreed that the man who could prove that he had the longest line of
+noble ancestors should be declared the winner, and a special day was
+appointed to investigate the genealogy of each claimant.
+
+Ottar, unable to remember the names of more than a few of his
+progenitors, offered sacrifices to Freya, entreating her aid. The
+goddess graciously heard his prayer, and appearing before him, she
+changed him into a boar, and rode off upon his back to the dwelling of
+the sorceress Hyndla, a most renowned witch. By threats and entreaties,
+Freya compelled the old woman to trace Ottar's genealogy back to
+Odin, and to name every individual in turn, with a synopsis of his
+achievements. Then, fearing lest her votary's memory should be unable
+to retain so many details, Freya further compelled Hyndla to brew a
+potion of remembrance, which she gave him to drink.
+
+
+    "He shall drink
+    Delicious draughts.
+    All the gods I pray
+    To favour Ottar."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Thus prepared, Ottar presented himself before the Thing on the
+appointed day, and glibly reciting his pedigree, he named so many
+more ancestors than Angantyr could recollect, that he was easily
+awarded possession of the property he coveted.
+
+
+    "A duty 'tis to act
+    So that the young prince
+    His paternal heritage may have
+    After his kindred."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Husbands of Freya
+
+Freya was so beautiful that all the gods, giants, and dwarfs longed for
+her love and in turn tried to secure her as wife. But Freya scorned
+the ugly giants and refused even Thrym, when urged to accept him
+by Loki and Thor. She was not so obdurate where the gods themselves
+were concerned, if the various mythologists are to be believed, for
+as the personification of the earth she is said to have wedded Odin
+(the sky), Frey (the fruitful rain), Odur (the sunshine), &c., until
+it seems as if she deserved the accusation hurled against her by the
+arch-fiend Loki, of having loved and wedded all the gods in turn.
+
+
+
+Worship of Freya
+
+It was customary on solemn occasions to drink Freya's health with
+that of the other gods, and when Christianity was introduced in the
+North this toast was transferred to the Virgin or to St. Gertrude;
+Freya herself, like all the heathen divinities, was declared a demon
+or witch, and banished to the mountain peaks of Norway, Sweden,
+or Germany, where the Brocken is pointed out as her special abode,
+and the general trysting-place of her demon train on Valpurgisnacht.
+
+
+    Chorus of Witches.
+
+    "On to the Brocken the witches are flocking--
+    Merry meet--merry part--how they gallop and drive,
+    Yellow stubble and stalk are rocking,
+    And young green corn is merry alive,
+    With the shapes and shadows swimming by.
+    To the highest heights they fly,
+    Where Sir Urian sits on high--
+    Throughout and about,
+    With clamour and shout,
+    Drives the maddening rout,
+    Over stock, over stone;
+    Shriek, laughter, and moan,
+    Before them are blown."
+
+            Goethe's Faust (Anster's tr.).
+
+
+As the swallow, cuckoo, and cat were held sacred to Freya in heathen
+times, these creatures were supposed to have demoniacal attributes,
+and to this day witches are always depicted with coal-black cats
+beside them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI: ULLER
+
+
+The God of Winter
+
+Uller, the winter-god, was the son of Sif, and the stepson of Thor. His
+father, who is never mentioned in the Northern sagas, must have been
+one of the dreaded frost giants, for Uller loved the cold and delighted
+in travelling over the country on his broad snowshoes or glittering
+skates. This god also delighted in the chase, and pursued his game
+through the Northern forests, caring but little for ice and snow,
+against which he was well protected by the thick furs in which he
+was always clad.
+
+As god of hunting and archery, he is represented with a quiver full of
+arrows and a huge bow, and as the yew furnishes the best wood for the
+manufacture of these weapons, it is said to have been his favourite
+tree. To have a supply of suitable wood ever at hand ready for use,
+Uller took up his abode at Ydalir, the vale of yews, where it was
+always very damp.
+
+
+    "Ydalir it is called,
+    Where Ullr has
+    Himself a dwelling made."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+As winter-god, Uller, or Oller, as he was also called, was considered
+second only to Odin, whose place he usurped during his absence in
+the winter months of the year. During this period he exercised full
+sway over Asgard and Midgard, and even, according to some authorities,
+took possession of Frigga, Odin's wife, as related in the myth of Vili
+and Ve. But as Uller was very parsimonious, and never bestowed any
+gifts upon mankind, they gladly hailed the return of Odin, who drove
+his supplanter away, forcing him to take refuge either in the frozen
+North or on the tops of the Alps. Here, if we are to believe the poets,
+he had built a summer house into which he retreated until, knowing
+Odin had departed once more, he again dared appear in the valleys.
+
+Uller was also considered god of death, and was supposed to ride in
+the Wild Hunt, and at times even to lead it. He is specially noted
+for his rapidity of motion, and as the snowshoes used in Northern
+regions are sometimes made of bone, and turned up in front like the
+prow of a ship, it was commonly reported that Uller had spoken magic
+runes over a piece of bone, changing it into a vessel, which bore
+him over land or sea at will.
+
+As snowshoes are shaped like a shield, and as the ice with which he
+yearly enveloped the earth acts as a shield to protect it from harm
+during the winter, Uller was surnamed the shield-god, and he was
+specially invoked by all persons about to engage in a duel or in a
+desperate fight.
+
+In Christian times, his place in popular worship was taken by
+St. Hubert, the hunter, who, also, was made patron of the first month
+of the year, which began on November 22, and was dedicated to him as
+the sun passed through the constellation of Sagittarius, the bowman.
+
+In Anglo-Saxon, Uller was known as Vulder; but in some parts of Germany
+he was called Holler and considered to be the husband of the fair
+goddess Holda, whose fields he covered with a thick mantle of snow,
+to make them more fruitful when the spring came.
+
+By the Scandinavians, Uller was said to have married Skadi, Niörd's
+divorced wife, the female personification of winter and cold, and their
+tastes were so congenial that they lived in perfect harmony together.
+
+
+
+Worship of Uller
+
+Numerous temples were dedicated to Uller in the North, and on his
+altars, as well as on those of all the other gods, lay a sacred ring
+upon which oaths were sworn. This ring was said to have the power of
+shrinking so violently as to sever the finger of any premeditated
+perjurer. The people visited Uller's shrine, especially during the
+months of November and December, to entreat him to send a thick
+covering of snow over their lands, as earnest of a good harvest; and
+as he was supposed to send out the glorious flashes of the aurora
+borealis, which illumine the Northern sky during its long night,
+he was considered nearly akin to Balder, the personification of light.
+
+According to other authorities, Uller was Balder's special friend,
+principally because he too spent part of the year in the dismal depths
+of Nifl-heim, with Hel, the goddess of death. Uller was supposed to
+endure a yearly banishment thither, during the summer months, when
+he was forced to resign his sway over the earth to Odin, the summer
+god, and there Balder came to join him at Midsummer, the date of his
+disappearance from Asgard, for then the days began to grow shorter, and
+the rule of light (Balder) gradually yielded to the ever encroaching
+power of darkness (Hodur).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII: FORSETI
+
+
+The God of Justice and Truth
+
+Son of Balder, god of light, and of Nanna, goddess of immaculate
+purity, Forseti was the wisest, most eloquent, and most gentle of all
+the gods. When his presence in Asgard became known, the gods awarded
+him a seat in the council hall, decreed that he should be patron of
+justice and righteousness, and gave him as abode the radiant palace
+Glitnir. This dwelling had a silver roof, supported on pillars of gold,
+and it shone so brightly that it could be seen from a great distance.
+
+
+    "Glitner is the tenth;
+    It is on gold sustained,
+    And also with silver decked.
+    There Forseti dwells
+    Throughout all time,
+    And every strife allays."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Here, upon an exalted throne, Forseti, the lawgiver, sat day after
+day, settling the differences of gods and men, patiently listening
+to both sides of every question, and finally pronouncing sentences
+so equitable that none ever found fault with his decrees. Such were
+this god's eloquence and power of persuasion that he always succeeded
+in touching his hearers' hearts, and never failed to reconcile even
+the most bitter foes. All who left his presence were thereafter sure
+to live in peace, for none dared break a vow once made to him, lest
+they should incur his just anger and be smitten immediately unto death.
+
+
+    "Forsete, Balder's high-born son,
+      Hath heard mine oath;
+    Strike dead, Forset', if e'er I'm won
+      To break my troth."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+As god of justice and eternal law, Forseti was supposed to preside
+over every judicial assembly; he was invariably appealed to by all
+who were about to undergo a trial, and it was said that he rarely
+failed to help the deserving.
+
+
+
+The Story of Heligoland
+
+In order to facilitate the administration of justice throughout their
+land it is related that the Frisians commissioned twelve of their
+wisest men, the Asegeir, or elders, to collect the laws of the various
+families and tribes composing their nation, and to compile from them
+a code which should be the basis of uniform laws. The elders, having
+painstakingly finished their task of collecting this miscellaneous
+information, embarked upon a small vessel, to seek some secluded spot
+where they might conduct their deliberations in peace. But no sooner
+had they pushed away from shore than a tempest arose, which drove
+their vessel far out to sea, first on this course and then on that,
+until they entirely lost their bearings. In their distress the twelve
+jurists called upon Forseti, begging him to help them to reach land
+once again, and the prayer was scarcely ended when they perceived, to
+their utter surprise, that the vessel contained a thirteenth passenger.
+
+Seizing the rudder, the newcomer silently brought the vessel round,
+steering it towards the place where the waves dashed highest, and in
+an incredibly short space of time they came to an island, where the
+steersman motioned them to disembark. In awestruck silence the twelve
+men obeyed; and their surprise was further excited when they saw the
+stranger fling his battle-axe, and a limpid spring gush forth from
+the spot on the greensward where it fell. Imitating the stranger, all
+drank of this water without a word; then they sat down in a circle,
+marvelling because the newcomer resembled each one of them in some
+particular, but yet was very different from any one of them in general
+aspect and mien.
+
+Suddenly the silence was broken, and the stranger began to speak in
+low tones, which grew firmer and louder as he proceeded to expound
+a code of laws which combined all the good points of the various
+existing regulations which the Asegeir had collected. His speech
+being finished, the speaker vanished as suddenly and mysteriously as
+he had appeared, and the twelve jurists, recovering power of speech,
+simultaneously exclaimed that Forseti himself had been among them, and
+had delivered the code of laws by which the Frisians should henceforth
+be judged. In commemoration of the god's appearance they declared the
+island upon which they stood to be holy, and they pronounced a solemn
+curse upon any who might dare to desecrate its sanctity by quarrel
+or bloodshed. Accordingly this island, known as Forseti's land or
+Heligoland (holy land), was greatly respected by all the Northern
+nations, and even the boldest vikings refrained from raiding its
+shores, lest they should suffer shipwreck or meet a shameful death
+in punishment for their crime.
+
+Solemn judicial assemblies were frequently held upon this sacred isle,
+the jurists always drawing water and drinking it in silence, in memory
+of Forseti's visit. The waters of his spring were, moreover, considered
+to be so holy that all who drank of them were held to be sacred, and
+even the cattle who had tasted of them might not be slain. As Forseti
+was said to hold his assizes in spring, summer, and autumn, but never
+in winter, it became customary, in all the Northern countries, to
+dispense justice in those seasons, the people declaring that it was
+only when the light shone clearly in the heavens that right could
+become apparent to all, and that it would be utterly impossible to
+render an equitable verdict during the dark winter season. Forseti
+is seldom mentioned except in connection with Balder. He apparently
+had no share in the closing battle in which all the other gods played
+such prominent parts.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII: HEIMDALL
+
+
+The Watchman of the Gods
+
+In the course of a walk along the sea-shore Odin once beheld nine
+beautiful giantesses, the wave maidens, Gialp, Greip, Egia, Augeia,
+Ulfrun, Aurgiafa, Sindur, Atla, and Iarnsaxa, sound asleep on the
+white sand. The god of the sky was so charmed with these beautiful
+creatures that, as the Eddas relate, he wedded all nine of them,
+and they combined, at the same moment, to bring forth a son, who
+received the name of Heimdall.
+
+
+    "Born was I of mothers nine,
+    Son I am of sisters nine."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The nine mothers proceeded to nourish their babe on the strength of the
+earth, the moisture of the sea, and the heat of the sun, which singular
+diet proved so strengthening that the new god acquired his full growth
+in a remarkably short space of time, and hastened to join his father
+in Asgard. He found the gods proudly contemplating the rainbow bridge
+Bifröst, which they had just constructed out of fire, air, and water,
+the three materials which can still plainly be seen in its long arch,
+where glow the three primary colours: the red representing the fire,
+the blue the air, and the green the cool depths of the sea.
+
+
+
+The Guardian of the Rainbow
+
+This bridge connected heaven and earth, and ended under the shade of
+the mighty world-tree Yggdrasil, close beside the fountain where Mimir
+kept guard, and the only drawback to prevent the complete enjoyment
+of the glorious spectacle, was the fear lest the frost-giants should
+make their way over it and so gain entrance into Asgard.
+
+The gods had been debating the advisability of appointing a trustworthy
+guardian, and they hailed the new recruit as one well-fitted to fulfil
+the onerous duties of the office.
+
+Heimdall gladly undertook the responsibility and henceforth, night
+and day, he kept vigilant watch over the rainbow highway into Asgard.
+
+
+    "Bifröst i' th' east shone forth in brightest green;
+    On its top, in snow-white sheen,
+    Heimdal at his post was seen."
+
+            Oehlenschläger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+To enable their watchman to detect the approach of any enemy from afar,
+the assembled gods bestowed upon him senses so keen that he is said
+to have been able to hear the grass grow on the hillside, and the
+wool on the sheep's back; to see one hundred miles off as plainly by
+night as by day; and with all this he required less sleep than a bird.
+
+
+    "'Mongst shivering giants wider known
+    Than him who sits unmoved on high,
+    The guard of heaven, with sleepless eye."
+
+            Lay of Skirner (Herbert's tr.).
+
+Heimdall was provided further with a flashing sword and a marvellous
+trumpet, called Giallar-horn, which the gods bade him blow whenever he
+saw their enemies approach, declaring that its sound would rouse all
+creatures in heaven, earth, and Nifl-heim. Its last dread blast would
+announce the arrival of that day when the final battle would be fought.
+
+
+    "To battle the gods are called
+    By the ancient
+    Gjallar-horn.
+    Loud blows Heimdall,
+    His sound is in the air."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+To keep this instrument, which was a symbol of the crescent moon,
+ever at hand, Heimdall either hung it on a branch of Yggdrasil above
+his head or sank it in the waters of Mimir's well. In the latter it
+lay side by side with Odin's eye, which was an emblem of the moon at
+its full.
+
+Heimdall's palace, called Himinbiorg, was situated on the highest
+point of the bridge, and here the gods often visited him to quaff
+the delicious mead which he set before them.
+
+
+    "'Tis Himminbjorg called
+    Where Heimdal, they say,
+    Hath dwelling and rule.
+    There the gods' warder drinks,
+    In peaceful old halls,
+    Gladsome the good mead."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Heimdall was always depicted in resplendent white armour, and he was
+therefore called the bright god. He was also known as the light,
+innocent, and graceful god, all of which names he fully deserved,
+for he was as good as he was beautiful, and all the gods loved
+him. Connected on his mothers' side with the sea, he was sometimes
+included with the Vanas; and as the ancient Northmen, especially the
+Icelanders, to whom the surrounding sea appeared the most important
+element, fancied that all things had risen out of it, they attributed
+to him an all-embracing knowledge and imagined him particularly wise.
+
+
+    "Of Æsir the brightest--
+    He well foresaw
+    Like other Vanir."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Heimdall was further distinguished by his golden teeth, which
+flashed when he smiled, and won for him the surname of Gullintani
+(golden-toothed). He was also the proud possessor of a swift,
+golden-maned steed called Gull-top, which bore him to and fro over
+the quivering rainbow bridge. This he crossed many times a day, but
+particularly in the early morn, at which time, as herald of the day,
+he bore the name of Heimdellinger.
+
+
+    "Early up Bifröst
+    Ran Ulfrun's son,
+    The mighty hornblower
+    Of Himinbiörg."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Loki and Freya
+
+His extreme acuteness of hearing caused Heimdall to be disturbed
+one night by the sound of soft, catlike footsteps in the direction
+of Freya's palace, Folkvang. Projecting his eagle gaze through the
+darkness, Heimdall perceived that the sound was produced by Loki,
+who, having stealthily entered the palace as a fly, had approached
+Freya's bedside, and was trying to steal her shining golden necklace,
+Brisinga-men, the emblem of the fruitfulness of the earth.
+
+Heimdall saw that the goddess was resting in her sleep in such a
+way that no one could possibly unclasp the necklace without awaking
+her. Loki stood hesitatingly by the bedside for a few moments, and
+then began rapidly to mutter the runes which enabled the gods to
+change their form at will. As he did this, Heimdall saw him shrivel
+up until he was changed to the size and form of a flea, when he crept
+under the bed-clothes and bit Freya's side, thus causing her to change
+her position without being roused from sleep.
+
+The clasp was now in view, and Loki, cautiously unfastening it,
+secured the coveted treasure, and forthwith proceeded to steal away
+with it. Heimdall immediately started out in pursuit of the midnight
+thief, and quickly overtaking him, he drew his sword from its scabbard,
+with intent to cut off his head, when the god transformed himself into
+a flickering blue flame. Quick as thought, Heimdall changed himself
+into a cloud and sent down a deluge of rain to quench the fire;
+but Loki as promptly altered his form to that of a huge polar bear,
+and opened wide his jaws to swallow the water. Heimdall, nothing
+daunted, then likewise assumed the form of a bear, and attacked
+fiercely; but the combat threatening to end disastrously for Loki,
+the latter changed himself into a seal, and, Heimdall imitating him,
+a last struggle took place, which ended in Loki being forced to give
+up the necklace, which was duly restored to Freya.
+
+In this myth, Loki is an emblem of drought, or of the baleful effects
+of the too ardent heat of the sun, which comes to rob the earth
+(Freya) of its most cherished ornament (Brisinga-men). Heimdall is a
+personification of the gentle rain and dew, which after struggling
+for a while with his foe, the drought, eventually conquers him and
+forces him to relinquish his prize.
+
+
+
+Heimdall's Names
+
+Heimdall has several other names, among which we find those of
+Hallinskide and Irmin, for at times he takes Odin's place and is
+identified with that god, as well as with the other sword-gods, Er,
+Heru, Cheru and Tyr, who are all noted for their shining weapons. He,
+however, is most generally known as warder of the rainbow, and god
+of heaven, and of the fruitful rains and dews which bring refreshment
+to the earth.
+
+Heimdall also shared with Bragi the honour of welcoming heroes to
+Valhalla, and, under the name of Riger, was considered the divine
+sire of the various classes which compose the human race, as appears
+in the following story:
+
+The Story of Riger
+
+
+    "Sacred children,
+    Great and small,
+    Sons of Heimdall!"
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Heimdall left his place in Asgard one day to wander upon the earth,
+as the gods were wont to do. He had not gone far ere he came to a poor
+hut on the seashore, where he found Ai (great grandfather) and Edda
+(great grandmother), a poor but worthy couple, who hospitably invited
+him to share their meagre meal of porridge. Heimdall, who gave his
+name as Riger, gladly accepted this invitation, and remained with
+the couple three whole days, teaching them many things. At the end of
+that time he left to resume his journey. Some time after his visit,
+Edda bore a dark-skinned thick-set boy, whom she called Thrall.
+
+Thrall soon showed uncommon physical strength and a great aptitude
+for all heavy work; and when he had grown up he took to wife Thyr,
+a heavily built girl with sunburnt hands and flat feet, who, like
+her husband, laboured early and late. Many children were born to
+this couple and from them all the serfs or thralls of the Northland
+were descended.
+
+
+    "They had children
+    Lived and were happy;
+     
+    They laid fences,
+    Enriched the plow-land,
+    Tended swine,
+    Herded goats,
+    Dug peat."
+
+            Rigsmál (Du Chaillu's version).
+
+
+After leaving the poor hut on the barren seacoast Riger had
+pushed inland, where ere long he came to cultivated fields and a
+thrifty farmhouse. Entering this comfortable dwelling, he found Afi
+(grandfather) and Amma (grandmother), who hospitably invited him to
+sit down with them and share the plain but bountiful fare which was
+prepared for their meal.
+
+Riger accepted the invitation and he remained three days with
+his hosts, imparting the while all manner of useful knowledge to
+them. After his departure from their house, Amma gave birth to a
+blue-eyed sturdy boy, whom she called Karl. As he grew up he exhibited
+great skill in agricultural pursuits, and in due course he married
+a buxom and thrifty wife named Snor, who bore him many children,
+from whom the race of husbandmen is descended.
+
+
+    "He did grow
+    And thrive well;
+    He broke oxen,
+    Made plows;
+    Timbered houses,
+    Made barns,
+    Made carts,
+    And drove the plow."
+
+            Rigsmál (Du Chaillu's version).
+
+
+Leaving the house of this second couple, Riger continued his journey
+until he came to a hill, upon which was perched a stately castle. Here
+he was received by Fadir (father) and Modir (mother), who, delicately
+nurtured and luxuriously clad, received him cordially, and set before
+him dainty meats and rich wines.
+
+Riger tarried three days with this couple, afterwards returning to
+Himinbiorg to resume his post as guardian of Asa-bridge; and ere long
+the lady of the castle bore a handsome, slenderly built little son,
+whom she called Jarl. This child early showed a great taste for the
+hunt and all manner of martial exercises, learned to understand runes,
+and lived to do great deeds of valour which made his name distinguished
+and added glory to his race. Having attained manhood, Jarl married
+Erna, an aristocratic, slender-waisted maiden, who ruled his household
+wisely and bore him many children, all destined to rule, the youngest
+of whom, Konur, became the first king of Denmark. This myth well
+illustrates the marked sense of class among the Northern races.
+
+
+    "Up grew
+    The sons of Jarl;
+    They brake horses,
+    Bent shields,
+    Smoothed shafts,
+    Shook ash spears
+    But Kon, the young,
+    Knew runes,
+    Everlasting runes
+    And life runes."
+
+            Rigsmál (Du Chaillu's version).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV: HERMOD
+
+
+The Nimble God
+
+Another of Odin's sons was Hermod, his special attendant, a bright
+and beautiful young god, who was gifted with great rapidity of motion
+and was therefore designated as the swift or nimble god.
+
+
+    "But there was one, the first of all the gods
+    For speed, and Hermod was his name in Heaven;
+    Most fleet he was."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+On account of this important attribute Hermod was usually employed
+by the gods as messenger, and at a mere sign from Odin he was always
+ready to speed to any part of creation. As a special mark of favour,
+Allfather gave him a magnificent corselet and helmet, which he
+often donned when he prepared to take part in war, and sometimes
+Odin entrusted to his care the precious spear Gungnir, bidding him
+cast it over the heads of combatants about to engage in battle,
+that their ardour might be kindled into murderous fury.
+
+
+    "Let us Odin pray
+    Into our minds to enter;
+    He gives and grants
+    Gold to the deserving.
+    He gave to Hermod
+    A helm and corselet."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Hermod delighted in battle, and was often called "the valiant in
+battle," and confounded with the god of the universe, Irmin. It is
+said that he sometimes accompanied the Valkyrs on their ride to earth,
+and frequently escorted the warriors to Valhalla, wherefore he was
+considered the leader of the heroic dead.
+
+
+    "To him spake Hermoder and Brage:
+      'We meet thee and greet thee from all,
+    To the gods thou art known by thy valour,
+      And they bid thee a guest to their hall.'"
+
+            Owen Meredith.
+
+
+Hermod's distinctive attribute, besides his corselet and helm, was a
+wand or staff called Gambantein, the emblem of his office, which he
+carried with him wherever he went.
+
+
+
+Hermod and the Soothsayer
+
+Once, oppressed by shadowy fears for the future, and unable to obtain
+from the Norns satisfactory answers to his questions, Odin bade Hermod
+don his armour and saddle Sleipnir, which he alone, besides Odin, was
+allowed to ride, and hasten off to the land of the Finns. This people,
+who lived in the frozen regions of the pole, besides being able to
+call up the cold storms which swept down from the North, bringing much
+ice and snow in their train, were supposed to have great occult powers.
+
+The most noted of these Finnish magicians was Rossthiof (the horse
+thief) who was wont to entice travellers into his realm by magic
+arts, that he might rob and slay them; and he had power to predict
+the future, although he was always very reluctant to do so.
+
+Hermod, "the swift," rode rapidly northward, with directions to seek
+this Finn, and instead of his own wand, he carried Odin's runic staff,
+which Allfather had given him for the purpose of dispelling any
+obstacles that Rossthiof might conjure up to hinder his advance. In
+spite, therefore, of phantom-like monsters and of invisible snares
+and pitfalls, Hermod was enabled safely to reach the magician's abode,
+and upon the giant attacking him, he was able to master him with ease,
+and he bound him hand and foot, declaring that he would not set him
+free until he promised to reveal all that he wished to know.
+
+Rossthiof, seeing that there was no hope of escape, pledged himself
+to do as his captor wished, and upon being set at liberty, he began
+forthwith to mutter incantations, at the mere sound of which the sun
+hid behind the clouds, the earth trembled and quivered, and the storm
+winds howled like a pack of hungry wolves.
+
+Pointing to the horizon, the magician bade Hermod look, and the
+swift god saw in the distance a great stream of blood reddening the
+ground. While he gazed wonderingly at this stream, a beautiful woman
+suddenly appeared, and a moment later a little boy stood beside
+her. To the god's amazement, this child grew with such marvellous
+rapidity that he soon attained his full growth, and Hermod further
+noticed that he fiercely brandished a bow and arrows.
+
+Rossthiof now began to explain the omens which his art had conjured
+up, and he declared that the stream of blood portended the murder
+of one of Odin's sons, but that if the father of the gods should woo
+and win Rinda, in the land of the Ruthenes (Russia), she would bear
+him a son who would attain his full growth in a few hours and would
+avenge his brother's death.
+
+
+    "Rind a son shall bear,
+      In the western halls:
+    He shall slay Odin's son,
+      When one night old."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Hermod listened attentively to the words of Rossthiof and upon his
+return to Asgard he reported all he had seen and heard to Odin,
+whose fears were confirmed and who thus definitely ascertained that
+he was doomed to lose a son by violent death. He consoled himself,
+however, with the thought that another of his descendants would avenge
+the crime and thereby obtain the satisfaction which a true Northman
+ever required.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV: VIDAR
+
+
+The Silent God
+
+It is related that Odin once loved the beautiful giantess Grid, who
+dwelt in a cave in the desert, and that, wooing her, he prevailed
+upon her to become his wife. The offspring of this union between Odin
+(mind) and Grid (matter) was Vidar, a son as strong as he was taciturn,
+whom the ancients considered a personification of the primæval forest
+or of the imperishable forces of Nature.
+
+As the gods, through Heimdall, were intimately connected with the
+sea, they were also bound by close ties to the forests and Nature
+in general through Vidar, surnamed "the silent," who was destined to
+survive their destruction and rule over a regenerated earth. This god
+had his habitation in Landvidi (the wide land), a palace decorated
+with green boughs and fresh flowers, situated in the midst of an
+impenetrable primæval forest where reigned the deep silence and
+solitude which he loved.
+
+
+    "Grown over with shrubs
+    And with high grass
+    In Vidar's wide land."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+This old Scandinavian conception of the silent Vidar is indeed
+very grand and poetical, and was inspired by the rugged Northern
+scenery. "Who has ever wandered through such forests, in a length of
+many miles, in a boundless expanse, without a path, without a goal,
+amid their monstrous shadows, their sacred gloom, without being filled
+with deep reverence for the sublime greatness of Nature above all
+human agency, without feeling the grandeur of the idea which forms
+the basis of Vidar's essence?"
+
+
+
+Vidar's Shoe
+
+Vidar is depicted as tall, well-made, and handsome, clad in armour,
+girded with a broad-bladed sword, and shod with a great iron or leather
+shoe. According to some mythologists, he owed this peculiar footgear
+to his mother Grid, who, knowing that he would be called upon to fight
+against fire on the last day, designed it as a protection against
+the fiery element, as her iron gauntlet had shielded Thor in his
+encounter with Geirrod. But other authorities state that this shoe
+was made of the leather scraps which Northern cobblers had either
+given or thrown away. As it was essential that the shoe should be
+large and strong enough to resist the Fenris wolf's sharp teeth at
+the last day, it was a matter of religious observance among Northern
+shoemakers to give away as many odds and ends of leather as possible.
+
+
+
+The Norn's Prophecy
+
+When Vidar joined his peers in Valhalla, they welcomed him gaily, for
+they knew that his great strength would serve them well in their time
+of need. After they had lovingly regaled him with the golden mead,
+Allfather bade him follow to the Urdar fountain, where the Norns
+were ever busy weaving their web. Questioned by Odin concerning his
+future and Vidar's destiny, the three sisters answered oracularly;
+each uttering a sentence:
+
+"Early begun."
+
+"Further spun."
+
+"One day done."
+
+To these their mother, Wyrd, the primitive goddess of fate, added:
+"With joy once more won." These mysterious answers would have remained
+totally unintelligible had the goddess not gone on to explain that time
+progresses, that all must change, but that even if the father fell in
+the last battle, his son Vidar would be his avenger, and would live to
+rule over a regenerated world, after having conquered all his enemies.
+
+
+    "There sits Odin's
+    Son on the horse's back;
+    He will avenge his father."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+As Wyrd spoke, the leaves of the world tree fluttered as if agitated
+by a breeze, the eagle on its topmost bough flapped its wings, and
+the serpent Nidhug for a moment suspended its work of destruction
+at the roots of the tree. Grid, joining the father and son, rejoiced
+with Odin when she heard that their son was destined to survive the
+older gods and to rule over the new heaven and earth.
+
+
+    "There dwell Vidar and Vale
+    In the gods' holy seats,
+    When the fire of Surt is slaked."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Vidar, however, uttered not a word, but slowly wended his way back to
+his palace Landvidi, in the heart of the primæval forest, and there,
+sitting upon his throne, he pondered long about eternity, futurity,
+and infinity. If he fathomed their secrets he never revealed them, for
+the ancients averred that he was "as silent as the grave"--a silence
+which indicated that no man knows what awaits him in the life to come.
+
+Vidar was not only a personification of the imperish-ability of Nature,
+but he was also a symbol of resurrection and renewal, exhibiting
+the eternal truth that new shoots and blossoms will spring forth to
+replace those which have fallen into decay.
+
+The shoe he wore was to be his defence against the wolf Fenris, who,
+having destroyed Odin, would direct his wrath against him, and open
+wide his terrible jaws to devour him. But the old Northmen declared
+that Vidar would brace the foot thus protected against the monster's
+lower jaw, and, seizing the upper, would struggle with him until he
+had rent him in twain.
+
+As one shoe only is mentioned in the Vidar myths, some mythologists
+suppose that he had but one leg, and was the personification of a
+waterspout, which would rise suddenly on the last day to quench the
+wild fire personified by the terrible wolf Fenris.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI: VALI
+
+
+The Wooing of Rinda
+
+Billing, king of the Ruthenes, was sorely dismayed when he heard
+that a great force was about to invade his kingdom, for he was too
+old to fight as of yore, and his only child, a daughter named Rinda,
+although she was of marriageable age, obstinately refused to choose
+a husband from among her many suitors, and thus give her father the
+help which he so sadly needed.
+
+While Billing was musing disconsolately in his hall, a stranger
+suddenly entered his palace. Looking up, the king beheld a middle-aged
+man wrapped in a wide cloak, with a broad-brimmed hat drawn down
+over his forehead to conceal the fact that he had but one eye. The
+stranger courteously enquired the cause of his evident depression,
+and as there was that in his bearing that compelled confidence, the
+king told him all, and at the end of the relation he volunteered to
+command the army of the Ruthenes against their foe.
+
+His services being joyfully accepted, it was not long ere Odin--for
+it was he--won a signal victory, and, returning in triumph, he asked
+permission to woo the king's daughter Rinda for his wife. Despite the
+suitor's advancing years, Billing hoped that his daughter would lend
+a favourable ear to a wooer who appeared to be very distinguished,
+and he immediately signified his consent. So Odin, still unknown,
+presented himself before the princess, but she scornfully rejected
+his proposal, and rudely boxed his ears when he attempted to kiss her.
+
+Forced to withdraw, Odin nevertheless did not relinquish his purpose to
+make Rinda his wife, for he knew, thanks to Rossthiof's prophecy, that
+none but she could bring forth the destined avenger of his murdered
+son. His next step, therefore, was to assume the form of a smith,
+in which guise he came back to Billing's hall, and fashioning costly
+ornaments of silver and gold, he so artfully multiplied these precious
+trinkets that the king joyfully acquiesced when he inquired whether
+he might pay his addresses to the princess. The smith, Rosterus as
+he announced himself, was, however, as unceremoniously dismissed by
+Rinda as the successful general had been; but although his ear once
+again tingled with the force of her blow, he was more determined than
+ever to make her his wife.
+
+The next time Odin presented himself before the capricious damsel, he
+was disguised as a dashing warrior, for, thought he, a young soldier
+might perchance touch the maiden's heart; but when he again attempted
+to kiss her, she pushed him back so suddenly that he stumbled and
+fell upon one knee.
+
+
+    "Many a fair maiden
+    When rightly known,
+    Towards men is fickle;
+    That I experienced,
+    When that discreet maiden I
+    Strove to win;
+    Contumely of every kind
+    That wily girl
+    Heaped upon me;
+    Nor of that damsel gained I aught."
+
+            Soemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+This third insult so enraged Odin that he drew his magic rune stick
+out of his breast, pointed it at Rinda, and uttered such a terrible
+spell that she fell back into the arms of her attendants rigid and
+apparently lifeless.
+
+When the princess came to life again, her suitor had disappeared,
+but the king discovered with great dismay that she had entirely lost
+her senses and was melancholy mad. In vain all the physicians were
+summoned and all their simples tried; the maiden remained passive
+and sad, and her distracted father had well-nigh abandoned hope when
+an old woman, who announced herself as Vecha, or Vak, appeared and
+offered to undertake the cure of the princess. The seeming old woman,
+who was Odin in disguise, first prescribed a foot-bath for the patient;
+but as this did not appear to have any very marked effect, she proposed
+to try a more drastic treatment. For this, Vecha declared, the patient
+must be entrusted to her exclusive care, securely bound so that she
+could not offer the least resistance. Billing, anxious to save his
+child, was ready to assent to anything; and having thus gained full
+power over Rinda, Odin compelled her to wed him, releasing her from
+bonds and spell only when she had faithfully promised to be his wife.
+
+
+
+The Birth of Vali
+
+The prophecy of Rossthiof was now fulfilled, for Rinda duly bore a son
+named Vali (Ali, Bous, or Beav), a personification of the lengthening
+days, who grew with such marvellous rapidity that in the course of
+a single day he attained his full stature. Without waiting even to
+wash his face or comb his hair, this young god hastened to Asgard,
+bow and arrow in hand, to avenge the death of Balder upon his murderer,
+Hodur, the blind god of darkness.
+
+
+    "But, see! th' avenger, Vali, come,
+    Sprung from the west, in Rinda's womb,
+    True son of Odin! one day's birth!
+    He shall not stop nor stay on earth
+    His locks to comb, his hands to lave,
+    His frame to rest, should rest it crave,
+    Until his mission be complete,
+    And Balder's death find vengeance meet."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+In this myth, Rinda, a personification of the hard-frozen rind of the
+earth, resists the warm wooing of the sun, Odin, who vainly points
+out that spring is the time for warlike exploits, and offers the
+adornments of golden summer. She only yields when, after a shower (the
+footbath), a thaw sets in. Conquered then by the sun's irresistible
+might, the earth yields to his embrace, is freed from the spell (ice)
+which made her hard and cold, and brings forth Vali the nourisher,
+or Bous the peasant, who emerges from his dark hut when the pleasant
+days have come. The slaying of Hodur by Vali is therefore emblematical
+of "the breaking forth of new light after wintry darkness."
+
+Vali, who ranked as one of the twelve deities occupying seats in the
+great hall of Glads-heim, shared with his father the dwelling called
+Valaskialf, and was destined, even before birth, to survive the last
+battle and twilight of the gods, and to reign with Vidar over the
+regenerated earth.
+
+
+
+Worship of Vali
+
+Vali is god of eternal light, as Vidar is of imperishable matter;
+and as beams of light were often called arrows, he is always
+represented and worshipped as an archer. For that reason his month
+in Norwegian calendars is designated by the sign of the bow, and is
+called Lios-beri, the light-bringing. As it falls between the middle
+of January and of February, the early Christians dedicated this month
+to St. Valentine, who was also a skilful archer, and was said, like
+Vali, to be the harbinger of brighter days, the awakener of tender
+sentiments, and the patron of all lovers.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII: THE NORNS
+
+
+The Three Fates
+
+The Northern goddesses of fate, who were called Norns, were in nowise
+subject to the other gods, who might neither question nor influence
+their decrees. They were three sisters, probably descendants of the
+giant Norvi, from whom sprang Nott (night). As soon as the Golden
+Age was ended, and sin began to steal even into the heavenly homes of
+Asgard, the Norns made their appearance under the great ash Yggdrasil,
+and took up their abode near the Urdar fountain. According to some
+mythologists, their mission was to warn the gods of future evil, to
+bid them make good use of the present, and to teach them wholesome
+lessons from the past.
+
+These three sisters, whose names were Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, were
+personifications of the past, present, and future. Their principal
+occupations were to weave the web of fate, to sprinkle daily the sacred
+tree with water from the Urdar fountain, and to put fresh clay around
+its roots, that it might remain fresh and ever green.
+
+
+    "Thence come the maids
+    Who much do know;
+    Three from the hall
+    Beneath the tree;
+    One they named Was,
+    And Being next,
+    The third Shall be."
+
+            The Völuspâ (Henderson's tr.).
+
+
+Some authorities further state that the Norns kept watch over
+the golden apples which hung on the branches of the tree of life,
+experience, and knowledge, allowing none but Idun to pick the fruit,
+which was that with which the gods renewed their youth.
+
+The Norns also fed and tenderly cared for two swans which swam over
+the mirror-like surface of the Urdar fountain, and from this pair of
+birds all the swans on earth are supposed to be descended. At times,
+it is said, the Norns clothed themselves with swan plumage to visit
+the earth, or sported like mermaids along the coast and in various
+lakes and rivers, appearing to mortals, from time to time, to foretell
+the future or give them sage advice.
+
+
+
+The Norns' Web
+
+The Norns sometimes wove webs so large that while one of the weavers
+stood on a high mountain in the extreme east, another waded far out
+into the western sea. The threads of their woof resembled cords,
+and varied greatly in hue, according to the nature of the events
+about to occur, and a black thread, tending from north to south, was
+invariably considered an omen of death. As these sisters flashed the
+shuttle to and fro, they chanted a solemn song. They did not seem to
+weave according to their own wishes, but blindly, as if reluctantly
+executing the wishes of Orlog, the eternal law of the universe, an
+older and superior power, who apparently had neither beginning nor end.
+
+Two of the Norns, Urd and Verdandi, were considered to be very
+beneficent indeed, while the third, it is said, relentlessly undid
+their work, and often, when nearly finished, tore it angrily to shreds,
+scattering the remnants to the winds of heaven. As personifications
+of time, the Norns were represented as sisters of different ages
+and characters, Urd (Wurd, weird) appearing very old and decrepit,
+continually looking backward, as if absorbed in contemplating past
+events and people; Verdandi, the second sister, young, active, and
+fearless, looked straight before her, while Skuld, the type of the
+future, was generally represented as closely veiled, with head turned
+in the direction opposite to where Urd was gazing, and holding a book
+or scroll which had not yet been opened or unrolled.
+
+These Norns were visited daily by the gods, who loved to consult them;
+and even Odin himself frequently rode down to the Urdar fountain
+to bespeak their aid, for they generally answered his questions,
+maintaining silence only about his own fate and that of his fellow
+gods.
+
+
+    "Rode he long and rode he fast.
+      First beneath the great Life Tree,
+      At the sacred Spring sought he
+    Urdar, Norna of the Past;
+    But her backward seeing eye
+    Could no knowledge now supply.
+    Across Verdandi's page there fell
+    Dark shades that ever woes foretell;
+    The shadows which 'round Asgard hung
+    Their baleful darkness o'er it flung;
+    The secret was not written there
+    Might save Valhal, the pure and fair.
+    Last youngest of the sisters three,
+    Skuld, Norna of Futurity,
+    Implored to speak, stood silent by,--
+    Averted was her tearful eye."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+Other Guardian Spirits
+
+Besides the three principal Norns there were many others, far less
+important, who seem to have been the guardian spirits of mankind,
+to whom they frequently appeared, lavishing all manner of gifts
+upon their favourites, and seldom failing to be present at births,
+marriages, and deaths.
+
+
+    "Oh, manifold is their kindred, and who shall tell them all?
+    There are they that rule o'er men folk, and the stars that rise
+    and fall."
+
+            Sigurd the Volsung (William Morris).
+
+
+
+The Story of Nornagesta
+
+On one occasion the three sisters visited Denmark, and entered the
+dwelling of a nobleman as his first child came into the world. Entering
+the apartment where the mother lay, the first Norn promised that the
+child should be handsome and brave, and the second that he should be
+prosperous and a great scald--predictions which filled the parents'
+hearts with joy. Meantime news of what was taking place had gone
+abroad, and the neighbours came thronging the apartment to such a
+degree that the pressure of the curious crowd caused the third Norn
+to be pushed rudely from her chair.
+
+Angry at this insult, Skuld proudly rose and declared that her
+sister's gifts should be of no avail, since she would decree that
+the child should live only as long as the taper then burning near the
+bedside. These ominous words filled the mother's heart with terror,
+and she tremblingly clasped her babe closer to her breast, for the
+taper was nearly burned out and its extinction could not be very long
+delayed. The eldest Norn, however, had no intention of seeing her
+prediction thus set at naught; but as she could not force her sister
+to retract her words, she quickly seized the taper, put out the light,
+and giving the smoking stump to the child's mother, bade her carefully
+treasure it, and never light it again until her son was weary of life.
+
+
+    "In the mansion it was night:
+    The Norns came,
+    Who should the prince's
+    Life determine."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The boy was named Nornagesta, in honour of the Norns, and grew up to
+be as beautiful, brave, and talented as any mother could wish. When he
+was old enough to comprehend the gravity of the trust his mother told
+him the story of the Norns' visit, and placed in his hands the candle
+end, which he treasured for many a year, placing it for safe-keeping
+inside the frame of his harp. When his parents were dead, Nornagesta
+wandered from place to place, taking part and distinguishing himself
+in every battle, singing his heroic lays wherever he went. As he
+was of an enthusiastic and poetic temperament, he did not soon weary
+of life, and while other heroes grew wrinkled and old, he remained
+young at heart and vigorous in frame. He therefore witnessed the
+stirring deeds of the heroic ages, was the boon companion of the
+ancient warriors, and after living three hundred years, saw the
+belief in the old heathen gods gradually supplanted by the teachings
+of Christian missionaries. Finally Nornagesta came to the court of
+King Olaf Tryggvesson, who, according to his usual custom, converted
+him almost by force, and compelled him to receive baptism. Then,
+wishing to convince his people that the time for superstition was
+past, the king forced the aged scald to produce and light the taper
+which he had so carefully guarded for more than three centuries.
+
+In spite of his recent conversion, Nornagesta anxiously watched the
+flame as it flickered, and when, finally, it went out, he sank lifeless
+to the ground, thus proving that in spite of the baptism just received,
+he still believed in the prediction of the Norns.
+
+In the middle ages, and even later, the Norns figure in many a story
+or myth, appearing as fairies or witches, as, for instance, in the
+tale of "the Sleeping Beauty," and Shakespeare's tragedy of Macbeth.
+
+
+	"1st Witch. When shall we three meet again,
+		    In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
+
+	2nd Witch.  When the hurlyburly's done,
+		    When the battle's lost and won:
+
+	3rd Witch.  That will be ere the set of sun."
+
+		    Macbeth (Shakespeare).
+
+
+
+The Vala
+
+Sometimes the Norns bore the name of Vala, or prophetesses, for they
+had the power of divination--a power which was held in great honour
+by all the Northern races, who believed that it was restricted to
+the female sex. The predictions of the Vala were never questioned,
+and it is said that the Roman general Drusus was so terrified by the
+appearance of Veleda, one of these prophetesses, who warned him not
+to cross the Elbe, that he actually beat a retreat. She foretold his
+approaching death, which indeed happened shortly after through a fall
+from his steed.
+
+These prophetesses, who were also known as Idises, Dises, or Hagedises,
+officiated at the forest shrines and in the sacred groves, and
+always accompanied invading armies. Riding ahead, or in the midst
+of the host, they would vehemently urge the warriors on to victory,
+and when the battle was over they would often cut the bloody-eagle
+upon the bodies of the captives. The blood was collected into great
+tubs, wherein the Dises plunged their naked arms up to the shoulders,
+previous to joining in the wild dance with which the ceremony ended.
+
+It is not to be wondered at that these women were greatly
+feared. Sacrifices were offered to propitiate them, and it was only in
+later times that they were degraded to the rank of witches, and sent to
+join the demon host on the Brocken, or Blocksberg, on Valpurgisnacht.
+
+Besides the Norns or Dises, who were also regarded as protective
+deities, the Northmen ascribed to each human being a guardian spirit
+named Fylgie, which attended him through life, either in human or
+brute shape, and was invisible except at the moment of death by all
+except the initiated few.
+
+The allegorical meaning of the Norns and of their web of fate is too
+patent to need explanation; still some mythologists have made them
+demons of the air, and state that their web was the woof of clouds,
+and that the bands of mists which they strung from rock to tree,
+and from mountain to mountain, were ruthlessly torn apart by the
+suddenly rising wind. Some authorities, moreover, declare that Skuld,
+the third Norn, was at times a Valkyr, and at others personated the
+goddess of death, the terrible Hel.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII: THE VALKYRS
+
+
+The Battle Maidens
+
+Odin's special attendants, the Valkyrs, or battle maidens, were either
+his daughters, like Brunhild, or the offspring of mortal kings,
+maidens who were privileged to remain immortal and invulnerable as
+long as they implicitly obeyed the god and remained virgins. They and
+their steeds were the personification of the clouds, their glittering
+weapons being the lightning flashes. The ancients imagined that they
+swept down to earth at Valfather's command, to choose among the slain
+in battle heroes worthy to taste the joys of Valhalla, and brave
+enough to lend aid to the gods when the great battle should be fought.
+
+
+    "There through some battlefield, where men fall fast,
+    Their horses fetlock-deep in blood, they ride,
+    And pick the bravest warriors out for death,
+    Whom they bring back with them at night to Heaven
+    To glad the gods and feast in Odin's hall."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+These maidens were pictured as young and beautiful, with dazzling white
+arms and flowing golden hair. They wore helmets of silver or gold,
+and blood-red corselets, and with spears and shields glittering,
+they boldly charged through the fray on their mettlesome white
+steeds. These horses galloped through the realms of air and over
+the quivering Bifröst, bearing not only their fair riders, but the
+heroes slain, who after having received the Valkyrs' kiss of death,
+were thus immediately transported to Valhalla.
+
+
+
+The Cloud Steeds
+
+As the Valkyrs' steeds were personifications of the clouds, it
+was natural to fancy that the hoar frost and dew dropped down upon
+earth from their glittering manes as they rapidly dashed to and fro
+through the air. They were therefore held in high honour and regard,
+for the people ascribed to their beneficent influence much of the
+fruitfulness of the earth, the sweetness of dale and mountain-slope,
+the glory of the pines, and the nourishment of the meadow-land.
+
+
+
+Choosers of the Slain
+
+The mission of the Valkyrs was not only to battlefields upon earth, but
+they often rode over the sea, snatching the dying Vikings from their
+sinking dragon-ships. Sometimes they stood upon the strand to beckon
+them thither, an infallible warning that the coming struggle would
+be their last, and one which every Northland hero received with joy.
+
+
+    "Slowly they moved to the billow side;
+      And the forms, as they grew more clear,
+    Seem'd each on a tall pale steed to ride,
+      And a shadowy crest to rear,
+    And to beckon with faint hand
+    From the dark and rocky strand,
+      And to point a gleaming spear.
+
+    "Then a stillness on his spirit fell,
+      Before th' unearthly train;
+    For he knew Valhalla's daughters well,
+      The chooser of the slain!"
+
+            Valkyriur Song (Mrs. Hemans).
+
+
+
+Their Numbers and Duties
+
+The numbers of the Valkyrs differ greatly according to various
+mythologists, ranging from three to sixteen, most authorities, however,
+naming only nine. The Valkyrs were considered as divinities of the
+air; they were also called Norns, or wish maidens. It was said that
+Freya and Skuld led them on to the fray.
+
+
+    "She saw Valkyries
+    Come from afar,
+    Ready to ride
+    To the tribes of god;
+    Skuld held the shield,
+    Skaugul came next,
+    Gunnr, Hildr, Gaundul,
+    And Geir-skaugul.
+    Thus now are told
+    The Warrior's Norns."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Henderson's tr.).
+
+
+The Valkyrs, as we have seen, had important duties in Valhalla, when,
+their bloody weapons laid aside, they poured out the heavenly mead for
+the Einheriar. This beverage delighted the souls of the new-comers,
+and they welcomed the fair maidens as warmly as when they had first
+seen them on the battlefield and realised that they had come to
+transport them where they fain would be.
+
+
+    "In the shade now tall forms are advancing,
+    And their wan hands like snowflakes in the moonlight are gleaming;
+    They beckon, they whisper, 'Oh! strong Armed in Valour,
+    The pale guests await thee--mead foams in Valhalla.'"
+
+            Finn's Saga (Hewitt).
+
+
+
+Wayland and the Valkyrs
+
+The Valkyrs were supposed to take frequent flights to earth in swan
+plumage, which they would throw off when they came to a secluded
+stream, that they might indulge in a bath. Any mortal surprising them
+thus, and securing their plumage, could prevent them from leaving the
+earth, and could even force these proud maidens to mate with him if
+such were his pleasure.
+
+It is related that three of the Valkyrs, Olrun, Alvit, and Svanhvit,
+were once sporting in the waters, when suddenly the three brothers
+Egil, Slagfinn, and Völund, or Wayland the smith, came upon them,
+and securing their swan plumage, the young men forced them to remain
+upon earth and become their wives. The Valkyrs, thus detained,
+remained with their husbands nine years, but at the end of that time,
+recovering their plumage, or the spell being broken in some other way,
+they effected their escape.
+
+
+    "There they stayed
+    Seven winters through;
+    But all the eighth
+    Were with longing seized;
+    And in the ninth
+    Fate parted them.
+    The maidens yearned
+    For the murky wood,
+    The young Alvit,
+    Fate to fulfil."
+
+            Lay of Völund (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The brothers felt the loss of their wives extremely, and two of them,
+Egil and Slagfinn, putting on their snow shoes, went in search of
+their loved ones, disappearing in the cold and foggy regions of
+the North. The third brother, Völund, however, remained at home,
+knowing all search would be of no avail, and he found solace in the
+contemplation of a ring which Alvit had given him as a love-token,
+and he indulged the constant hope that she would return. As he was a
+very clever smith, and could manufacture the most dainty ornaments of
+silver and gold, as well as magic weapons which no blow could break,
+he now employed his leisure in making seven hundred rings exactly
+like the one which his wife had given him. These, when finished, he
+bound together; but one night, on coming home from the hunt, he found
+that some one had carried away one ring, leaving the others behind,
+and his hopes received fresh inspiration, for he told himself that
+his wife had been there and would soon return for good.
+
+That selfsame night, however, he was surprised in his sleep, and
+bound and made prisoner by Nidud, King of Sweden, who took possession
+of his sword, a choice weapon invested with magic powers, which he
+reserved for his own use, and of the love ring made of pure Rhine
+gold, which latter he gave to his only daughter, Bodvild. As for the
+unhappy Völund himself, he was led captive to a neighbouring island,
+where, after being hamstrung, in order that he should not escape, the
+king put him to the incessant task of forging weapons and ornaments
+for his use. He also compelled him to build an intricate labyrinth,
+and to this day a maze in Iceland is known as "Völund's house."
+
+Völund's rage and despair increased with every new insult offered
+him by Nidud, and night and day he thought upon how he might obtain
+revenge. Nor did he forget to provide for his escape, and during the
+pauses of his labour he fashioned a pair of wings similar to those his
+wife had used as a Valkyr, which he intended to don as soon as his
+vengeance had been accomplished. One day the king came to visit his
+captive, and brought him the stolen sword that he might repair it;
+but Völund cleverly substituted another weapon so exactly like the
+magic sword as to deceive the king when he came again to claim it. A
+few days later, Völund enticed the king's sons into his smithy and
+slew them, after which he cunningly fashioned drinking vessels out
+of their skulls, and jewels out of their eyes and teeth, bestowing
+these upon their parents and sister.
+
+
+    "But their skulls
+    Beneath the hair
+    He in silver set,
+    And to Nidud gave;
+    And of their eyes
+    Precious stones he formed,
+    Which to Nidud's
+    Wily wife he sent.
+    But of the teeth
+    Of the two
+    Breast ornaments he made,
+    And to Bödvild sent."
+
+            Lay of Völund (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The royal family did not suspect whence they came; and so these gifts
+were joyfully accepted. As for the poor youths, it was believed that
+they had drifted out to sea and had been drowned.
+
+Some time after this, Bodvild, wishing to have her ring repaired, also
+visited the smith's hut, where, while waiting, she unsuspectingly
+partook of a magic drug, which sent her to sleep and left her in
+Völund's power. His last act of vengeance accomplished, Völund
+immediately donned the wings which he had made in readiness for
+this day, and grasping his sword and ring he rose slowly in the
+air. Directing his flight to the palace, he perched there out of reach,
+and proclaimed his crimes to Nidud. The king, beside himself with
+rage, summoned Egil, Völund's brother, who had also fallen into his
+power, and bade him use his marvellous skill as an archer to bring
+down the impudent bird. Obeying a signal from Völund, Egil aimed
+for a protuberance under his wing where a bladder full of the young
+princes' blood was concealed, and the smith flew triumphantly away
+without hurt, declaring that Odin would give his sword to Sigmund--a
+prediction which was duly fulfilled.
+
+Völund then went to Alf-heim, where, if the legend is to be believed,
+he found his beloved wife, and lived happily again with her until
+the twilight of the gods.
+
+But, even in Alf-heim, this clever smith continued to ply his craft,
+and various suits of impenetrable armour, which he is said to have
+fashioned, are described in later heroic poems. Besides Balmung
+and Joyeuse, Sigmund's and Charlemagne's celebrated swords, he is
+reported to have fashioned Miming for his son Heime, and many other
+remarkable blades.
+
+
+    "It is the mate of Miming
+    Of all swerdes it is king,
+    And Weland it wrought,
+    Bitterfer it is hight."
+
+            Anglo-Saxon Poetry (Coneybeare's tr.).
+
+
+There are countless other tales of swan maidens or Valkyrs, who are
+said to have consorted with mortals; but the most popular of all is
+that of Brunhild, the wife of Sigurd, a descendant of Sigmund and
+the most renowned of Northern heroes.
+
+William Morris, in "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon,"
+gives a fascinating version of another of these Norse legends. The
+story is amongst the most charming of the collection in "The Earthly
+Paradise."
+
+
+
+Brunhild
+
+The story of Brunhild is to be found in many forms. Some versions
+describe the heroine as the daughter of a king taken by Odin to serve
+in his Valkyr band, others as chief of the Valkyrs and daughter of
+Odin himself. In Richard Wagner's story, "The Ring of the Nibelung,"
+the great musician presents a particularly attractive, albeit a more
+modern conception of the chief Battle-Maiden, and her disobedience
+to the command of Odin when sent to summon the youthful Siegmund from
+the side of his beloved Sieglinde to the Halls of the Blessed.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX: HEL
+
+
+Loki's Offspring
+
+Hel, goddess of death, was the daughter of Loki, god of evil, and of
+the giantess Angurboda, the portender of ill. She came into the world
+in a dark cave in Jötun-heim together with the serpent Iörmungandr
+and the terrible Fenris wolf, the trio being considered as the emblems
+of pain, sin, and death.
+
+
+    "Now Loki comes, cause of all ill!
+    Men and Æsir curse him still.
+      Long shall the gods deplore,
+      Even till Time be o'er,
+    His base fraud on Asgard's hill.
+    While, deep in Jotunheim, most fell,
+    Are Fenrir, Serpent, and Dread Hel,
+    Pain, Sin, and Death, his children three,
+    Brought up and cherished; thro' them he
+    Tormentor of the world shall be."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+In due time Odin became aware of the terrible brood which Loki was
+cherishing, and resolved, as we have already seen, to banish them from
+the face of the earth. The serpent was therefore cast into the sea,
+where his writhing was supposed to cause the most terrible tempests;
+the wolf Fenris was secured in chains, thanks to the dauntless Tyr;
+and Hel or Hela, the goddess of death, was hurled into the depths of
+Nifl-heim, where Odin gave her power over nine worlds.
+
+
+    "Hela into Niflheim thou threw'st,
+    And gav'st her nine unlighted worlds to rule,
+    A queen, and empire over all the dead."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+Hel's Kingdom in Nifl-heim
+
+This realm, which was supposed to be situated under the earth, could
+only be entered after a painful journey over the roughest roads in the
+cold, dark regions of the extreme North. The gate was so far from all
+human abode that even Hermod the swift, mounted upon Sleipnir, had to
+journey nine long nights ere he reached the river Giöll. This formed
+the boundary of Nifl-heim, over which was thrown a bridge of crystal
+arched with gold, hung on a single hair, and constantly guarded by
+the grim skeleton Mödgud, who made every spirit pay a toll of blood
+ere she would allow it to pass.
+
+
+    "The bridge of glass hung on a hair
+    Thrown o'er the river terrible,--
+    The Giöll, boundary of Hel.
+    Now here the maiden Mödgud stood,
+    Waiting to take the toll of blood,--
+    A maiden horrible to sight,
+    Fleshless, with shroud and pall bedight."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The spirits generally rode or drove across this bridge on the horses
+or in the waggons which had been burned upon the funeral pyre with the
+dead to serve that purpose, and the Northern races were very careful to
+bind upon the feet of the departed a specially strong pair of shoes,
+called Hel-shoes, that they might not suffer during the long journey
+over rough roads. Soon after the Giallar bridge was passed, the spirit
+reached the Ironwood, where stood none but bare and iron-leafed trees,
+and, passing through it, reached Hel-gate, beside which the fierce,
+blood-stained dog Garm kept watch, cowering in a dark hole known as
+the Gnipa cave. This monster's rage could only be appeased by the
+offering of a Hel-cake, which never failed those who had ever given
+bread to the needy.
+
+
+    "Loud bays Garm
+    Before the Gnipa cave."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Within the gate, amid the intense cold and impenetrable darkness,
+was heard the seething of the great cauldron Hvergelmir, the rolling
+of the glaciers in the Elivagar and other streams of Hel, among which
+were the Leipter, by which solemn oaths were sworn, and the Slid,
+in whose turbid waters naked swords continually rolled.
+
+Further on in this gruesome place was Elvidner (misery), the hall of
+the goddess Hel, whose dish was Hunger. Her knife was Greed. "Idleness
+was the name of her man, Sloth of her maid, Ruin of her threshold,
+Sorrow of her bed, and Conflagration of her curtains."
+
+
+    "Elvidner was Hela's hall.
+    Iron-barred, with massive wall;
+    Horrible that palace tall!
+    Hunger was her table bare;
+    Waste, her knife; her bed, sharp Care;
+    Burning Anguish spread her feast;
+    Bleached bones arrayed each guest;
+    Plague and Famine sang their runes,
+    Mingled with Despair's harsh tunes.
+    Misery and Agony
+    E'er in Hel's abode shall be!"
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+This goddess had many different abodes for the guests who daily came to
+her, for she received not only perjurers and criminals of all kinds,
+but also those who were unfortunate enough to die without shedding
+blood. To her realm also were consigned those who died of old age
+or disease--a mode of decease which was contemptuously called "straw
+death," as the beds of the people were generally of that material.
+
+
+                "Temper'd hard by frost,
+    Tempest and toil their nerves, the sons of those
+    Whose only terror was a bloodless death."
+
+            Thomson.
+
+
+
+Ideas of the Future Life
+
+Although the innocent were treated kindly by Hel, and enjoyed a state
+of negative bliss, it is no wonder that the inhabitants of the North
+shrank from the thought of visiting her cheerless abode. And while
+the men preferred to mark themselves with the spear point, to hurl
+themselves down from a precipice, or to be burned ere life was quite
+extinct, the women did not shrink from equally heroic measures. In the
+extremity of their sorrow, they did not hesitate to fling themselves
+down a mountain side, or fall upon the swords which were given them
+at their marriage, so that their bodies might be burned with those
+whom they loved, and their spirits released to join them in the bright
+home of the gods.
+
+Further horrors, however, awaited those whose lives had been criminal
+or impure, these spirits being banished to Nastrond, the strand of
+corpses, where they waded in ice-cold streams of venom, through a cave
+made of wattled serpents, whose poisonous fangs were turned towards
+them. After suffering untold agonies there, they were washed down
+into the cauldron Hvergelmir, where the serpent Nidhug ceased for a
+moment gnawing the root of the tree Yggdrasil to feed upon their bones.
+
+
+    "A hall standing
+    Far from the sun
+    In Nâströnd;
+    Its doors are northward turned,
+    Venom-drops fall
+    In through its apertures;
+    Entwined is that hall
+    With serpents' backs.
+    She there saw wading
+    The sluggish streams
+    Bloodthirsty men
+    And perjurers,
+    And him who the ear beguiles
+    Of another's wife.
+    There Nidhog sucks
+    The corpses of the dead."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Pestilence and Famine
+
+Hel herself was supposed occasionally to leave her dismal abode to
+range the earth upon her three-legged white horse, and in times of
+pestilence or famine, if a part of the inhabitants of a district
+escaped, she was said to use a rake, and when whole villages and
+provinces were depopulated, as in the case of the historical epidemic
+of the Black Death, it was said that she had ridden with a broom.
+
+The Northern races further fancied that the spirits of the dead were
+sometimes allowed to revisit the earth and appear to their relatives,
+whose sorrow or joy affected them even after death, as is related
+in the Danish ballad of Aager and Else, where a dead lover bids his
+sweetheart smile, so that his coffin may be filled with roses instead
+of the clotted blood drops produced by her tears.
+
+
+    "'Listen now, my good Sir Aager!
+      Dearest bridegroom, all I crave
+    Is to know how it goes with thee
+      In that lonely place, the grave.'
+
+    "'Every time that thou rejoicest,
+      And art happy in thy mind,
+    Are my lonely grave's recesses
+      All with leaves of roses lined.'
+
+    "'Every time that, love, thou grievest,
+      And dost shed the briny flood,
+    Are my lonely grave's recesses
+      Filled with black and loathsome blood.'"
+
+            Ballad of Aager and Else (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX: ÆGIR
+
+
+The God of the Sea
+
+Besides Niörd and Mimir, who were both ocean divinities, the one
+representing the sea near the coast and the other the primæval ocean
+whence all things were supposed to have sprung, the Northern races
+recognised another sea-ruler, called Ægir or Hler, who dwelt either
+in the cool depths of his liquid realm or had his abode on the Island
+of Lessoe, in the Cattegat, or Hlesey.
+
+
+    "Beneath the watery dome,
+      With crystalline splendour,
+      In radiant grandeur,
+    Upreared the sea-god's home.
+    More dazzling than foam of the waves
+    E'er glimmered and gleamed thro' deep caves
+    The glistening sands of its floor,
+    Like some placid lake rippled o'er."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Ægir (the sea), like his brothers Kari (the air) and Loki (fire),
+is supposed to have belonged to an older dynasty of the gods, for he
+ranked neither with the Æsir, the Vanas, the giants, dwarfs, or elves,
+but was considered omnipotent within his realm.
+
+He was supposed to occasion and quiet the great tempests which swept
+over the deep, and was generally represented as a gaunt old man,
+with long white beard and hair, and clawlike fingers ever clutching
+convulsively, as though he longed to have all things within his
+grasp. Whenever he appeared above the waves, it was only to pursue and
+overturn vessels, and to greedily drag them to the bottom of the sea,
+a vocation in which he was thought to take fiendish delight.
+
+
+
+The Goddess Ran
+
+Ægir was mated with his sister, the goddess Ran, whose name means
+"robber," and who was as cruel, greedy, and insatiable as her
+husband. Her favourite pastime was to lurk near dangerous rocks,
+whither she enticed mariners, and there spread her net, her most
+prized possession, when, having entangled the men in its meshes and
+broken their vessels on the jagged cliffs, she would calmly draw them
+down into her cheerless realm.
+
+
+    "In the deep sea caves
+      By the sounding shore,
+    In the dashing waves
+      When the wild storms roar,
+    In her cold green bowers
+      In the Northern fiords,
+    She lurks and she glowers,
+      She grasps and she hoards,
+    And she spreads her strong net for her prey."
+
+            Story of Siegfried (Baldwin).
+
+
+Ran was considered the goddess of death for all who perished at sea,
+and the Northern nations fancied that she entertained the drowned
+in her coral caves, where her couches were spread to receive them,
+and where the mead flowed freely as in Valhalla. The goddess was
+further supposed to have a great affection for gold, which was called
+the "flame of the sea," and was used to illuminate her halls. This
+belief originated with the sailors, and sprang from the striking
+phosphorescent gleam of the waves. To win Ran's good graces, the
+Northmen were careful to hide some gold about them whenever any
+special danger threatened them on the sea.
+
+
+    "Gold, on sweetheart ramblings,
+    Pow'rful is and pleasant;
+    Who goes empty-handed
+    Down to sea-blue Ran,
+    Cold her kisses strike, and
+    Fleeting her embrace is--
+    But we ocean's bride be-
+    Troth with purest gold."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Waves
+
+Ægir and Ran had nine beautiful daughters, the Waves, or
+billow-maidens, whose snowy arms and bosoms, long golden hair,
+deep-blue eyes, and willowy, sensuous forms were fascinating in
+the extreme. These maidens delighted in sporting over the surface
+of their father's vast domain, clad lightly in transparent blue,
+white, or green veils. They were very moody and capricious, however,
+varying from playful to sullen and apathetic moods, and at times
+exciting one another almost to madness, tearing their hair and veils,
+flinging themselves recklessly upon their hard beds, the rocks,
+chasing one another with frantic haste, and shrieking aloud with joy
+or despair. But they seldom came out to play unless their brother,
+the Wind, were abroad, and according to his mood they were gentle
+and playful, or rough and boisterous.
+
+The Waves were generally supposed to go about in triplets, and were
+often said to play around the ships of vikings whom they favoured,
+smoothing away every obstacle from their course, and helping them to
+reach speedily their goals.
+
+
+    "And Æger's daughters, in blue veils dight,
+    The helm leap round, and urge it on its flight."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+Ægir's Brewing Kettle
+
+To the Anglo-Saxons the sea-god Ægir was known by the name of Eagor,
+and whenever an unusually large wave came thundering towards the shore,
+the sailors were wont to cry, as the Trent boatmen still do, "Look out,
+Eagor is coming!" He was also known by the name of Hler (the shelterer)
+among the Northern nations, and of Gymir (the concealer), because he
+was always ready to hide things in the depths of his realm, and could
+be depended upon not to reveal the secrets entrusted to his care. And,
+because the waters of the sea were frequently said to seethe and hiss,
+the ocean was often called Ægir's brewing kettle or vat.
+
+The god's two principal servants were Elde and Funfeng, emblems of
+the phosphorescence of the sea; they were noted for their quickness
+and they invariably waited upon the guests whom he invited to his
+banquets in the depths of the sea. Ægir sometimes left his realm to
+visit the Æsir in Asgard, where he was always royally entertained, and
+he delighted in Bragi's many tales of the adventures and achievements
+of the gods. Excited by these narratives, as also by the sparkling
+mead which accompanied them, the god on one occasion ventured to
+invite the Æsir to celebrate the harvest feast with him in Hlesey,
+where he promised to entertain them in his turn.
+
+
+
+Thor and Hymir
+
+Surprised at this invitation, one of the gods ventured to remind
+Ægir that they were accustomed to dainty fare; whereupon the god
+of the sea declared that as far as eating was concerned they need
+be in no anxiety, as he was sure that he could cater for the most
+fastidious appetites; but he confessed that he was not so confident
+about drink, as his brewing kettle was rather small. Hearing this,
+Thor immediately volunteered to procure a suitable kettle, and set
+out with Tyr to obtain it. The two gods journeyed east of the Elivagar
+in Thor's goat chariot, and leaving this at the house of the peasant
+Egil, Thialfi's father, they wended their way on foot to the dwelling
+of the giant Hymir, who was known to own a kettle one mile deep and
+proportionately wide.
+
+
+    "There dwells eastward
+    Of Elivagar
+    The all-wise Hymir,
+    At heaven's end.
+    My sire, fierce of mood,
+    A kettle owns,
+    A capacious cauldron,
+    A rast in depth."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Only the women were at home, however, and Tyr recognised in the
+elder--an ugly old hag with nine hundred heads--his own grandmother;
+while the younger, a beautiful young giantess, was, it appeared,
+his mother, and she received her son and his companion hospitably,
+and gave them to drink.
+
+After learning their errand, Tyr's mother bade the visitors hide under
+some huge kettles, which rested upon a beam at the end of the hall,
+for her husband Hymir was very hasty and often slew his would-be guests
+with a single baleful glance. The gods quickly followed her advice, and
+no sooner were they concealed than the old giant Hymir came in. When
+his wife told him that visitors had come, he frowned so portentously,
+and flashed such a wrathful look towards their hiding-place, that
+the rafter split and the kettles fell with a crash, and, except the
+largest, were all dashed to pieces.
+
+
+    "In shivers flew the pillar
+    At the Jötun's glance;
+    The beam was first
+    Broken in two.
+    Eight kettles fell,
+    But only one of them,
+    A hard-hammered cauldron,
+    Whole from the column."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The giant's wife, however, prevailed upon her husband to welcome
+Tyr and Thor, and he slew three oxen for their refection; but
+great was his dismay to see the thunder-god eat two of these for
+his supper. Muttering that he would have to go fishing early the
+next morning to secure a breakfast for so voracious a guest, the
+giant retired to rest, and when at dawn the next day he went down
+to the shore, he was joined by Thor, who said that he had come to
+help him. The giant bade him secure his own bait, whereupon Thor
+coolly slew his host's largest ox, Himinbrioter (heaven-breaker),
+and cutting off its head, he embarked with it and proceeded to row
+far out to sea. In vain Hymir protested that his usual fishing-ground
+had been reached, and that they might encounter the terrible Midgard
+snake were they to venture any farther; Thor persistently rowed on,
+until he fancied they were directly above this monster.
+
+
+    "On the dark bottom of the great salt lake,
+    Imprisoned lay the giant snake,
+    With naught his sullen sleep to break."
+
+            Thor's Fishing, Oehlenschläger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Baiting his powerful hook with the ox head, Thor angled for
+Iörmungandr, while the giant meantime drew up two whales, which seemed
+to him to be enough for an early morning meal. He was about to propose
+to return, therefore, when Thor suddenly felt a jerk, and began pulling
+as hard as he could, for he knew by the resistance of his prey, and the
+terrible storm created by its frenzied writhings, that he had hooked
+the Midgard snake. In his determined efforts to force the snake to rise
+to the surface, Thor braced his feet so strongly against the bottom
+of the boat that he went through it and stood on the bed of the sea.
+
+After an indescribable struggle, the monster's terrible venom-breathing
+head appeared, and Thor, seizing his hammer, was about to annihilate
+it when the giant, frightened by the proximity of Iörmungandr, and
+fearing lest the boat should sink and he should become the monster's
+prey, cut the fishing-line, and thus allowed the snake to drop back
+like a stone to the bottom of the sea.
+
+
+    "The knife prevails: far down beneath the main
+    The serpent, spent with toil and pain,
+    To the bottom sank again."
+
+            Thor's Fishing, Oehlenschläger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Angry with Hymir for his inopportune interference, Thor dealt him
+a blow with his hammer which knocked him overboard; but Hymir,
+undismayed, waded ashore, and met the god as he returned to the
+beach. Hymir then took both whales, his spoil of the sea, upon his
+back, to carry them to the house; and Thor, wishing also to show his
+strength, shouldered boat, oars, and fishing tackle, and followed him.
+
+Breakfast being disposed of, Hymir challenged Thor to prove his
+strength by breaking his beaker; but although the thunder-god
+threw it with irresistible force against stone pillars and walls,
+it remained whole and was not even bent. In obedience to a whisper
+from Tyr's mother, however, Thor suddenly hurled the vessel against
+the giant's forehead, the only substance tougher than itself, when it
+fell shattered to the ground. Hymir, having thus tested the might of
+Thor, told him he could have the kettle which the two gods had come
+to seek, but Tyr tried to lift it in vain, and Thor could raise it
+from the floor only after he had drawn his belt of strength to the
+very last hole.
+
+
+    "Tyr twice assayed
+    To move the vessel,
+    Yet at each time
+    Stood the kettle fast.
+    Then Môdi's father
+    By the brim grasped it,
+    And trod through
+    The dwelling's floor."
+
+            Lay of Hymir (Thorpe's tr.)
+
+
+The wrench with which he finally pulled it up did great damage to the
+giant's house and his feet broke through the floor. As Tyr and Thor
+were departing, the latter with the huge pot clapped on his head in
+place of a hat, Hymir summoned his brother frost giants, and proposed
+that they should pursue and slay their inveterate foe. Turning round,
+Thor suddenly became aware of their pursuit, and, hurling Miölnir
+repeatedly at the giants, he slew them all ere they could overtake
+him. Tyr and Thor then resumed their journey back to Ægir, carrying
+the kettle in which he was to brew ale for the harvest feast.
+
+The physical explanation of this myth is, of course, a thunder storm
+(Thor), in conflict with the raging sea (the Midgard snake), and the
+breaking up of the polar ice (Hymir's goblet and floor) in the heat
+of summer.
+
+The gods now arrayed themselves in festive attire and proceeded
+joyfully to Ægir's feast, and ever after they were wont to celebrate
+the harvest home in his coral caves.
+
+
+    "Then Vans and Æsir, mighty gods,
+    Of earth and air, and Asgard, lords,--
+    Advancing with each goddess fair,
+    A brilliant retinue most rare,--
+    Attending mighty Odin, swept
+    Up wave-worn aisle in radiant march."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+Unloved Divinities
+
+Ægir, as we have seen, ruled the sea with the help of the treacherous
+Ran. Both of these divinities were considered cruel by the Northern
+nations, who had much to suffer from the sea, which, surrounding
+them on all sides, ran far into the heart of their countries through
+the numerous fiords, and often swallowed the ships of their vikings,
+with all their warrior crews.
+
+
+
+Other Divinities of the Sea
+
+Besides these principal divinities of the sea, the Northern nations
+believed in mermen and mermaids, and many stories are related of
+mermaids who divested themselves for a brief while of swan plumage or
+seal-garments, which they left upon the beach to be found by mortals
+who were thus able to compel the fair maidens to remain on land.
+
+
+    "She came through the waves when the fair moon shone
+      (Drift o' the wave and foam o' the sea);
+    She came where I walked on the sands alone,
+      With a heart as light as a heart may be."
+
+            L. E. R.
+
+
+There were also malignant marine monsters known as Nicors, from whose
+name has been derived the proverbial Old Nick. Many of the lesser
+water divinities had fish tails; the females bore the name of Undines,
+and the males of Stromkarls, Nixies, Necks, or Neckar.
+
+
+    "Where in the marisches boometh the bittern,
+    Nicker the Soul-less sits with his ghittern,
+    Sits inconsolable, friendless and foeless,
+    Wailing his destiny, Nicker the Soul-less."
+
+            From Brother Fabian's Manuscript.
+
+
+In the middle ages these water spirits were believed sometimes to
+leave their native streams, to appear at village dances, where they
+were recognised by the wet hem of their garments. They often sat
+beside the flowing brook or river, playing on a harp, or singing
+alluring songs while combing out their long golden or green hair.
+
+
+    "The Neck here his harp in the glass castle plays,
+    And mermaidens comb out their green hair always,
+    And bleach here their shining white clothes."
+
+            Stagnelius (Keightley's tr.).
+
+
+The Nixies, Undines, and Stromkarls were particularly gentle and
+lovable beings, and were very anxious to obtain repeated assurances
+of their ultimate salvation.
+
+Many stories are told of priests or children meeting them playing by
+a stream, and taunting them with future damnation, which threat never
+failed to turn the joyful music into pitiful wails. Often priest or
+children, discovering their mistake, and touched by the agony of their
+victims, would hasten back to the stream and assure the green-toothed
+water sprites of future redemption, when they invariably resumed
+their happy strains.
+
+
+    "Know you the Nixies, gay and fair?
+    Their eyes are black, and green their hair--
+      They lurk in sedgy shores."
+
+            Mathisson.
+
+
+
+River Nymphs
+
+Besides Elf or Elb, the water sprite who gave its name to the Elbe
+River in Germany, the Neck, from whom the Neckar derives its name,
+and old Father Rhine, with his numerous daughters (tributary streams),
+the most famous of all the lesser water divinities is the Lorelei,
+the siren maiden who sits upon the Lorelei rock near St. Goar, on
+the Rhine, and whose alluring song has enticed many a mariner to
+death. The legends concerning this siren are very numerous indeed,
+one of the most ancient being as follows:
+
+
+
+Legends of the Lorelei
+
+Lorelei was an immortal, a water nymph, daughter of Father Rhine;
+during the day she dwelt in the cool depths of the river bed, but
+late at night she would appear in the moonlight, sitting aloft upon
+a pinnacle of rock, in full view of all who passed up or down the
+stream. At times, the evening breeze wafted some of the notes of
+her song to the boatmen's ears, when, forgetting time and place in
+listening to these enchanting melodies, they drifted upon the sharp
+and jagged rocks, where they invariably perished.
+
+
+    "Above the maiden sitteth,
+      A wondrous form, and fair;
+    With jewels bright she plaiteth
+      Her shining golden hair:
+    With comb of gold prepares it,
+      The task with song beguiled;
+    A fitful burden bears it--
+      That melody so wild.
+
+    "The boatman on the river
+      Lists to the song, spell-bound;
+    Oh! what shall him deliver
+      From danger threat'ning round?
+    The waters deep have caught them,
+      Both boat and boatman brave;
+    'Tis Loreley's song hath brought them
+      Beneath the foaming wave."
+
+            Song, Heine (Selcher's tr.).
+
+
+One person only is said to have seen the Lorelei close by. This was
+a young fisherman from Oberwesel, who met her every evening by the
+riverside, and spent a few delightful hours with her, drinking in her
+beauty and listening to her entrancing song. Tradition had it that ere
+they parted the Lorelei pointed out the places where the youth should
+cast his nets on the morrow--instructions which he always obeyed,
+and which invariably brought him success.
+
+One night the young fisherman was seen going towards the river,
+but as he never returned search was made for him. No clue to his
+whereabouts being found, the credulous Teutons finally reported that
+the Lorelei had dragged him down to her coral caves that she might
+enjoy his companionship for ever.
+
+According to another version, the Lorelei, with her entrancing
+strains from the craggy rocks, lured so many fishermen to a grave in
+the depths of Rhine, that an armed force was once sent at nightfall
+to surround and seize her. But the water nymph laid such a powerful
+spell upon the captain and his men that they could move neither hand
+nor foot. While they stood motionless around her, the Lorelei divested
+herself of her ornaments, and cast them into the waves below; then,
+chanting a spell, she lured the waters to the top of the crag upon
+which she was perched, and to the wonder of the soldiers the waves
+enclosed a sea-green chariot drawn by white-maned steeds, and the
+nymph sprang lightly into this and the magic equipage was instantly
+lost to view. A few moments later the Rhine subsided to its usual
+level, the spell was broken, and the men recovered power of motion,
+and retreated to tell how their efforts had been baffled. Since then,
+however, the Lorelei has not been seen, and the peasants declare that
+she still resents the insult offered her and will never again leave
+her coral caves.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI: BALDER
+
+
+The Best Loved
+
+To Odin and Frigga, we are told, were born twin sons as dissimilar
+in character and physical appearance as it was possible for two
+children to be. Hodur, god of darkness, was sombre, taciturn, and
+blind, like the obscurity of sin, which he was supposed to symbolise,
+while his brother Balder, the beautiful, was worshipped as the pure
+and radiant god of innocence and light. From his snowy brow and golden
+locks seemed to radiate beams of sunshine which gladdened the hearts
+of gods and men, by whom he was equally beloved.
+
+
+    "Of all the twelve round Odin's throne,
+    Balder, the Beautiful, alone,
+    The Sun-god, good, and pure, and bright,
+    Was loved by all, as all love light."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The youthful Balder attained his full growth with marvellous rapidity,
+and was early admitted to the council of the gods. He took up his
+abode in the palace of Breidablik, whose silver roof rested upon
+golden pillars, and whose purity was such that nothing common or
+unclean was ever allowed within its precincts, and here he lived in
+perfect unity with his young wife Nanna (blossom), the daughter of Nip
+(bud), a beautiful and charming goddess.
+
+The god of light was well versed in the science of runes, which were
+carved on his tongue; he knew the various virtues of simples, one of
+which, the camomile, was called "Balder's brow," because its flower
+was as immaculately pure as his forehead. The only thing hidden from
+Balder's radiant eyes was the perception of his own ultimate fate.
+
+
+            "His own house
+    Breidablik, on whose columns Balder graved
+    The enchantments that recall the dead to life.
+    For wise he was, and many curious arts,
+    Postures of runes, and healing herbs he knew;
+    Unhappy! but that art he did not know,
+    To keep his own life safe, and see the sun."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+Balder's Dream
+
+As it was so natural for Balder the beautiful to be smiling and
+happy, the gods were greatly troubled when on a day they began to
+notice a change in his bearing. Gradually the light died out of his
+blue eyes, a careworn look came into his face, and his step grew
+heavy and slow. Odin and Frigga, seeing their beloved son's evident
+depression, tenderly implored him to reveal the cause of his silent
+grief. Balder, yielding at last to their anxious entreaties, confessed
+that his slumbers, instead of being peaceful and restful as of yore,
+had been strangely troubled of late by dark and oppressive dreams,
+which, although he could not clearly remember them when he awoke,
+constantly haunted him with a vague feeling of fear.
+
+
+    "To that god his slumber
+    Was most afflicting;
+    His auspicious dreams
+    Seemed departed."
+
+            Lay of Vegtam (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+When Odin and Frigga heard this, they were very uneasy, but declared
+that nothing would harm their universally beloved son. Nevertheless,
+when the anxious parents further talked the matter over, they
+confessed that they also were oppressed by strange forebodings, and,
+coming at last to believe that Balder's life was really threatened,
+they proceeded to take measures to avert the danger.
+
+Frigga sent her servants in every direction, with strict charge to
+prevail upon all living creatures, all plants, metals, stones--in
+fact, every animate and inanimate thing--to register a solemn vow
+not to harm Balder. All creation readily took the oath, for there was
+nothing on earth which did not love the radiant god. So the servants
+returned to Frigga, telling her that all had been duly sworn save
+the mistletoe, growing upon the oak stem at the gate of Valhalla,
+and this, they added, was such a puny, inoffensive thing that no harm
+could be feared from it.
+
+
+    "On a course they resolved:
+    That they would send
+    To every being,
+    Assurance to solicit,
+    Balder not to harm.
+    All species swore
+    Oaths to spare him;
+    Frigg received all
+    Their vows and compacts."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Frigga now resumed her spinning in great content, for she felt assured
+that no harm could come to the child she loved above all.
+
+
+
+The Vala's Prophecy
+
+Odin, in the meantime, had resolved to consult one of the dead Vala
+or prophetesses. Mounted upon his eight-footed steed Sleipnir, he rode
+over the tremulous bridge Bifröst and over the weary road which leads
+to Giallar and the entrance of Nifl-heim, where, passing through the
+Helgate and by the dog Garm, he penetrated into Hel's dark abode.
+
+
+    "Uprose the king of men with speed,
+    And saddled straight his coal-black steed;
+    Down the yawning steep he rode,
+    That leads to Hela's drear abode."
+
+            Descent of Odin (Gray).
+
+
+Odin saw to his surprise that a feast was being spread in this dark
+realm, and that the couches had been covered with tapestry and rings of
+gold, as if some highly honoured guest were expected. But he hurried on
+without pausing, until he reached the spot where the Vala had rested
+undisturbed for many a year, when he began solemnly to chant a magic
+spell and to trace the runes which had the power of raising the dead.
+
+
+    "Thrice pronounc'd, in accents dread,
+    The thrilling verse that wakes the dead:
+    Till from out the hollow ground
+    Slowly breath'd a sullen sound."
+
+            Descent of Odin (Gray).
+
+
+Suddenly the tomb opened, and the prophetess slowly rose, inquiring
+who had dared thus to trouble her long rest. Odin, not wishing her to
+know that he was the mighty father of gods and men, replied that he
+was Vegtam, son of Valtam, and that he had awakened her to inquire for
+whom Hel was spreading her couches and preparing a festive meal. In
+hollow tones, the prophetess confirmed all his fears by telling him
+that the expected guest was Balder, who was destined to be slain by
+Hodur, his brother, the blind god of darkness.
+
+
+    "Hodur will hither
+    His glorious brother send;
+    He of Balder will
+    The slayer be,
+    And Odin's son
+    Of life bereave.
+    By compulsion I have spoken;
+    Now I will be silent."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Despite the Vala's evident reluctance to speak further, Odin was not
+yet satisfied, and he prevailed upon her to tell him who would avenge
+the murdered god and call his slayer to account. For revenge and
+retaliation were considered as a sacred duty by the races of the North.
+
+Then the prophetess told him, as Rossthiof had already predicted,
+that Rinda, the earth-goddess, would bear a son to Odin, and that
+Vali, as this child would be named, would neither wash his face nor
+comb his hair until he had avenged upon Hodur the death of Balder.
+
+
+    "In the caverns of the west,
+    By Odin's fierce embrace comprest,
+    A wondrous boy shall Rinda bear,
+    Who ne'er shall comb his raven hair,
+    Nor wash his visage in the stream,
+    Nor see the sun's departing beam,
+    Till he on Hoder's corse shall smile
+    Flaming on the fun'ral pile."
+
+            Descent of Odin (Gray).
+
+
+When the reluctant Vala had thus spoken, Odin next asked: "Who would
+refuse to weep at Balder's death?" This incautious question showed a
+knowledge of the future which no mortal could possess, and immediately
+revealed to the Vala the identity of her visitor. Therefore, refusing
+to speak another word, she sank back into the silence of the tomb,
+declaring that none would be able to lure her out again until the
+end of the world was come.
+
+
+    "Hie thee hence, and boast at home,
+    That never shall inquirer come
+    To break my iron sleep again,
+    Till Lok has burst his tenfold chain;
+    Never, till substantial Night
+    Has reassum'd her ancient right:
+    Till wrapt in flames, in ruin hurl'd,
+    Sinks the fabric of the world."
+
+            Descent of Odin (Gray).
+
+
+Odin having learned the decrees of Orlog (fate), which he knew could
+not be set aside, now remounted his steed, and sadly wended his
+way back to Asgard, thinking of the time, not far distant, when his
+beloved son would no more be seen in the heavenly abodes, and when
+the light of his presence would have vanished for ever.
+
+On entering Glads-heim, however, Odin was somewhat reassured by
+the intelligence, promptly conveyed to him by Frigga, that all
+things under the sun had promised that they would not harm Balder,
+and feeling convinced that if nothing would slay their beloved son he
+must surely continue to gladden gods and men with his presence, he cast
+care aside and resigned himself to the pleasures of the festive board.
+
+
+
+The Gods at Play
+
+The playground of the gods was situated on the green plain of Ida,
+and was called Idavold. Here the gods would resort when in sportive
+mood, and their favourite game was to throw their golden disks, which
+they could cast with great skill. They had returned to this wonted
+pastime with redoubled zest since the cloud which had oppressed their
+spirits had been dispersed by the precautions of Frigga. Wearied at
+last, however, of the accustomed sport, they bethought them of a new
+game. They had learned that Balder could not be harmed by any missile,
+and so they amused themselves by casting all manner of weapons, stones,
+etc., at him, certain that no matter how cleverly they tried, and
+how accurately they aimed, the objects, having sworn not to injure
+him, would either glance aside or fall short. This new amusement
+proved to be so fascinating that soon all the gods gathered around
+Balder, greeting each new failure to hurt him with prolonged shouts
+of laughter.
+
+
+
+The Death of Balder
+
+These bursts of merriment excited the curiosity of Frigga, who sat
+spinning in Fensalir; and seeing an old woman pass by her dwelling,
+she bade her pause and tell what the gods were doing to provoke such
+great hilarity. The old woman was none other than Loki in disguise,
+and he answered Frigga that the gods were throwing stones and other
+missiles, blunt and sharp, at Balder, who stood smiling and unharmed
+in their midst, challenging them to touch him.
+
+The goddess smiled, and resumed her work, saying that it was quite
+natural that nothing should harm Balder, as all things loved the light,
+of which he was the emblem, and had solemnly sworn not to injure
+him. Loki, the personification of fire, was greatly chagrined upon
+hearing this, for he was jealous of Balder, the sun, who so entirely
+eclipsed him and who was generally beloved, while he was feared and
+avoided as much as possible; but he cleverly concealed his vexation,
+and inquired of Frigga whether she were quite sure that all objects
+had joined the league.
+
+Frigga proudly answered that she had received the solemn oath of
+all things, a harmless little parasite, the mistletoe, which grew on
+the oak near Valhalla's gate, only excepted, and this was too small
+and weak to be feared. This information was all that Loki wanted,
+and bidding adieu to Frigga he hobbled off. As soon as he was safely
+out of sight, however, he resumed his wonted form and hastened to
+Valhalla, where, at the gate, he found the oak and mistletoe as
+indicated by Frigga. Then by the exercise of magic arts he imparted
+to the parasite a size and hardness quite unnatural to it.
+
+From the wooden stem thus produced he deftly fashioned a shaft with
+which he hastened back to Idavold, where the gods were still hurling
+missiles at Balder, Hodur alone leaning mournfully against a tree the
+while, and taking no part in the game. Carelessly Loki approached
+the blind god, and assuming an appearance of interest, he inquired
+the cause of his melancholy, at the same time artfully insinuating
+that pride and indifference prevented him from participating in
+the sport. In answer to these remarks, Hodur pleaded that only his
+blindness deterred him from taking part in the new game, and when Loki
+put the mistletoe-shaft in his hand, and led him into the midst of the
+circle, indicating the direction of the novel target, Hodur threw his
+shaft boldly. But to his dismay, instead of the loud laughter which
+he expected, a shuddering cry of horror fell upon his ear, for Balder
+the beautiful had fallen to the ground, pierced by the fatal mistletoe.
+
+
+    "So on the floor lay Balder dead; and round
+    Lay thickly strewn swords, axes, darts, and spears,
+    Which all the Gods in sport had idly thrown
+    At Balder, whom no weapon pierced or clove;
+    But in his breast stood fixed the fatal bough
+    Of mistletoe, which Lok, the Accuser, gave
+    To Hoder, and unwitting Hoder threw--
+    'Gainst that alone had Balder's life no charm."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+In dire anxiety the gods crowded around their beloved companion,
+but alas! life was quite extinct, and all their efforts to revive the
+fallen sun-god were unavailing. Inconsolable at their loss, they now
+turned angrily upon Hodur, whom they would there and then have slain
+had they not been restrained by the law of the gods that no wilful
+deed of violence should desecrate their peace-steads. The sound of
+their loud lamentation brought the goddesses in hot haste to the
+dreadful scene, and when Frigga saw that her darling was dead, she
+passionately implored the gods to go to Nifl-heim and entreat Hel to
+release her victim, for the earth could not exist happily without him.
+
+
+
+Hermod's Errand
+
+As the road was rough and painful in the extreme, none of the gods
+would volunteer at first to go; but when Frigga promised that she
+and Odin would reward the messenger by loving him above all the Æsir,
+Hermod signified his readiness to execute the commission. To enable
+him to do so, Odin lent him Sleipnir, and the noble steed, who was
+not wont to allow any but Odin upon his back, set off without demur
+upon the dark road which his hoofs had beaten twice before.
+
+Meantime, Odin caused the body of Balder to be removed to Breidablik,
+and he directed the gods to go to the forest and cut down huge pines
+wherewith to build a worthy pyre.
+
+
+    "But when the Gods were to the forest gone,
+    Hermod led Sleipnir from Valhalla forth
+    And saddled him; before that, Sleipnir brook'd
+    No meaner hand than Odin's on his mane,
+    On his broad back no lesser rider bore;
+    Yet docile now he stood at Hermod's side,
+    Arching his neck, and glad to be bestrode,
+    Knowing the God they went to seek, how dear.
+    But Hermod mounted him, and sadly fared
+    In silence up the dark untravell'd road
+    Which branches from the north of Heaven, and went
+    All day; and daylight waned, and night came on.
+    And all that night he rode, and journey'd so,
+    Nine days, nine nights, toward the northern ice,
+    Through valleys deep-engulph'd by roaring streams.
+    And on the tenth morn he beheld the bridge
+    Which spans with golden arches Giall's stream,
+    And on the bridge a damsel watching, arm'd,
+    In the straight passage, at the further end,
+    Where the road issues between walling rocks."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+The Funeral Pyre
+
+While Hermod was speeding along the cheerless road which led to
+Nifl-heim, the gods hewed and carried down to the shore a vast amount
+of fuel, which they piled upon the deck of Balder's dragon-ship,
+Ringhorn, constructing an elaborate funeral pyre. According to custom,
+this was decorated with tapestry hangings, garlands of flowers,
+vessels and weapons of all kinds, golden rings, and countless objects
+of value, ere the immaculate corpse, richly attired, was brought and
+laid upon it.
+
+One by one, the gods now drew near to take a last farewell of their
+beloved companion, and as Nanna bent over him, her loving heart broke,
+and she fell lifeless by his side. Seeing this, the gods reverently
+laid her beside her husband, that she might accompany him even in
+death; and after they had slain his horse and hounds and twined
+the pyre with thorns, the emblems of sleep, Odin, last of the gods,
+drew near.
+
+In token of affection for the dead and of sorrow for his loss, all
+had lain their most precious possessions upon his pyre, and Odin,
+bending down, now added to the offerings his magic ring Draupnir. It
+was noted by the assembled gods that he was whispering in his dead
+son's ear, but none were near enough to hear what word he said.
+
+These sad preliminaries ended, the gods now prepared to launch the
+ship, but found that the heavy load of fuel and treasures resisted
+their combined efforts and they could not make the vessel stir an
+inch. The mountain giants, witnessing the scene from afar, and noticing
+their quandary, now drew near and said that they knew of a giantess
+called Hyrrokin, who dwelt in Jötun-heim, and was strong enough to
+launch the vessel without any other aid. The gods therefore bade one of
+the storm giants hasten off to summon Hyrrokin, and she soon appeared,
+mounted upon a gigantic wolf, which she guided by a bridle made of
+writhing snakes. Riding down to the shore, the giantess dismounted and
+haughtily signified her readiness to give the required aid, if in the
+meantime the gods would take charge of her steed. Odin immediately
+despatched four of his maddest Berserkers to hold the wolf; but,
+in spite of their phenomenal strength, they could not restrain the
+monstrous creature until the giantess had thrown it down and bound
+it fast.
+
+Hyrrokin, seeing that now they would be able to manage her refractory
+steed, strode along the strand to where, high up from the water's edge,
+lay Balder's mighty ship Ringhorn.
+
+
+    "Seventy ells and four extended
+      On the grass the vessel's keel;
+    High above it, gilt and splendid,
+    Rose the figure-head ferocious
+      With its crest of steel."
+
+            The Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).
+
+
+Setting her shoulder against its stern, with a supreme effort she
+sent it with a rush into the water. Such was the weight of the mass,
+however, and the rapidity with which it shot down into the sea, that
+the earth shook as if from an earthquake, and the rollers on which
+the ship glided caught fire from the friction. The unexpected shock
+almost caused the gods to lose their balance, and this so angered
+Thor that he raised his hammer and would have slain the giantess
+had he not been restrained by his companions. Easily appeased, as
+usual--for Thor's temper, although quickly roused, was evanescent--he
+now boarded the vessel once more to consecrate the funeral pyre with
+his sacred hammer. As he was performing this ceremony, the dwarf
+Lit provokingly stumbled into his way, whereupon Thor, who had not
+entirely recovered his equanimity, kicked him into the fire, which
+he had just kindled with a thorn, and the dwarf was burned to ashes
+with the bodies of the divine pair.
+
+The great ship now drifted out to sea, and the flames from the pyre
+presented a magnificent spectacle, which assumed a greater glory
+with every passing moment, until, when the vessel neared the western
+horizon, it seemed as if sea and sky were on fire. Sadly the gods
+watched the glowing ship and its precious freight, until suddenly it
+plunged into the waves and disappeared; nor did they turn aside and
+return to Asgard until the last spark of light had vanished, and the
+world, in token of mourning for Balder the good, was enveloped in a
+mantle of darkness.
+
+
+    "Soon with a roaring rose the mighty fire,
+    And the pile crackled; and between the logs
+    Sharp quivering tongues of flame shot out, and leapt
+    Curling and darting, higher, until they lick'd
+    The summit of the pile, the dead, the mast,
+    And ate the shrivelling sails; but still the ship
+    Drove on, ablaze above her hull with fire.
+    And the gods stood upon the beach, and gazed;
+    And while they gazed, the sun went lurid down
+    Into the smoke-wrapt sea, and night came on.
+    Then the wind fell with night, and there was calm;
+    But through the dark they watch'd the burning ship
+    Still carried o'er the distant waters, on
+    Farther and farther, like an eye of fire.
+    So show'd in the far darkness, Balder's pile;
+    But fainter, as the stars rose high, it flared;
+    The bodies were consumed, ash choked the pile.
+    And as, in a decaying winter fire,
+    A charr'd log, falling, makes a shower of sparks--
+    So, with a shower of sparks, the pile fell in,
+    Reddening the sea around; and all was dark."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+Hermod's Quest
+
+Sadly the gods entered Asgard, where no sounds of merriment or
+feasting greeted the ear, for all hearts were filled with anxious
+concern for the end of all things which was felt to be imminent. And
+truly the thought of the terrible Fimbul-winter, which was to herald
+their death, was one well calculated to disquiet the gods.
+
+Frigga alone cherished hope, and she watched anxiously for the return
+of her messenger, Hermod the swift, who, meanwhile, had ridden over
+the tremulous bridge, and along the dark Hel-way, until, on the tenth
+night, he had crossed the rushing tide of the river Giöll. Here he was
+challenged by Mödgud, who inquired why the Giallar-bridge trembled
+more beneath his horse's tread than when a whole army passed, and
+asked why he, a living rider, was attempting to penetrate into the
+dreaded realm of Hel.
+
+
+    "Who art thou on thy black and fiery horse,
+    Under whose hoofs the bridge o'er Giall's stream
+    Rumbles and shakes? Tell me thy race and home.
+    But yestermorn five troops of dead pass'd by,
+    Bound on their way below to Hela's realm,
+    Nor shook the bridge so much as thou alone.
+    And thou hast flesh and colour on thy cheeks,
+    Like men who live, and draw the vital air;
+    Nor look'st thou pale and wan, like man deceased,
+    Souls bound below, my daily passers here."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Hermod explained to Mödgud the reason of his coming, and, having
+ascertained that Balder and Nanna had ridden over the bridge before
+him, he hastened on, until he came to the gate, which rose forbiddingly
+before him.
+
+Nothing daunted by this barrier, Hermod dismounted on the smooth ice,
+and tightening the girths of his saddle, remounted, and burying his
+spurs deep into Sleipnir's sleek sides, he put him to a prodigious
+leap, which landed them safely on the other side of Hel-gate.
+
+
+    "Thence on he journey'd o'er the fields of ice
+    Still north, until he met a stretching wall
+    Barring his way, and in the wall a grate.
+    Then he dismounted, and drew tight the girths,
+    On the smooth ice, of Sleipnir, Odin's horse,
+    And made him leap the grate, and came within."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Riding onward, Hermod came at last to Hel's banqueting-hall, where he
+found Balder, pale and dejected, lying upon a couch, his wife Nanna
+beside him, gazing fixedly at a beaker of mead, which apparently he
+had no heart to quaff.
+
+
+
+The Condition of Balder's Release
+
+In vain Hermod informed his brother that he had come to redeem him;
+Balder shook his head sadly, saying that he knew he must remain in
+his cheerless abode until the last day should come, but he implored
+Hermod to take Nanna back with him, as the home of the shades was
+no place for such a bright and beautiful creature. But when Nanna
+heard this request she clung more closely to her husband's side,
+vowing that nothing would ever induce her to part from him, and that
+she would stay with him for ever, even in Nifl-heim.
+
+The long night was spent in close conversation, ere Hermod sought
+Hel and implored her to release Balder. The churlish goddess listened
+in silence to his request, and declared finally that she would allow
+her victim to depart provided that all things animate and inanimate
+would show their sorrow for his loss by shedding tears.
+
+
+    "Come then! if Balder was so dear beloved,
+    And this is true, and such a loss is Heaven's--
+    Hear, how to Heaven may Balder be restored.
+    Show me through all the world the signs of grief!
+    Fails but one thing to grieve, here Balder stops!
+    Let all that lives and moves upon the earth
+    Weep him, and all that is without life weep;
+    Let Gods, men, brutes, beweep him; plants and stones.
+    So shall I know the lost was dear indeed,
+    And bend my heart, and give him back to Heaven."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+This answer was full of encouragement, for all Nature mourned the
+loss of Balder, and surely there was nothing in all creation which
+would withhold the tribute of a tear. So Hermod cheerfully made his
+way out of Hel's dark realm, carrying with him the ring Draupnir,
+which Balder sent back to Odin, an embroidered carpet from Nanna for
+Frigga, and a ring for Fulla.
+
+
+
+The Return of Hermod
+
+The assembled gods crowded anxiously round Hermod as soon as he
+returned, and when he had delivered his messages and gifts, the Æsir
+sent heralds to every part of the world to bid all things animate
+and inanimate weep for Balder.
+
+
+    "Go quickly forth through all the world, and pray
+    All living and unliving things to weep
+    Balder, if haply he may thus be won!"
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+North, South, East and West rode the heralds, and as they passed tears
+fell from every plant and tree, so that the ground was saturated with
+moisture, and metals and stones, despite their hard hearts, wept too.
+
+The way at last led back to Asgard, and by the road-side was a dark
+cave, in which the messengers saw, crouching, the form of a giantess
+named Thok, whom some mythologists suppose to have been Loki in
+disguise. When she was called upon to shed a tear, she mocked the
+heralds, and fleeing into the dark recesses of her cave, she declared
+that no tear should fall from her eyes, and that, for all she cared,
+Hel might retain her prey for ever.
+
+
+    "Thok she weepeth
+    With dry tears
+    For Balder's death--
+    Neither in life, nor yet in death,
+    Gave he me gladness.
+    Let Hel keep her prey."
+
+            Elder Edda (Howitt's version).
+
+
+As soon as the returning messengers arrived in Asgard, the gods
+crowded round them to learn the result of their mission; but their
+faces, all aglow with the joy of anticipation, grew dark with despair
+when they heard that one creature had refused the tribute of tears,
+wherefore they would behold Balder in Asgard no more.
+
+
+    "Balder, the Beautiful, shall ne'er
+    From Hel return to upper air!
+    Betrayed by Loki, twice betrayed,
+    The prisoner of Death is made;
+    Ne'er shall he 'scape the place of doom
+    Till fatal Ragnarok be come!"
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+Vali the Avenger
+
+The decrees of fate had not yet been fully consummated, and the final
+act of the tragedy remains to be briefly stated.
+
+We have already seen how Odin succeeded after many rebuffs in securing
+the consent of Rinda to their union, and that the son born of this
+marriage was destined to avenge the death of Balder. The advent of
+this wondrous infant now took place, and Vali the Avenger, as he
+was called, entered Asgard on the day of his birth, and on that
+very same day he slew Hodur with an arrow from a bundle which he
+seems to have carried for the purpose. Thus the murderer of Balder,
+unwitting instrument though he was, atoned for the crime with his
+blood, according to the code of the true Norseman.
+
+
+
+The Signification of the Story
+
+The physical explanation of this myth is to be found either in the
+daily setting of the sun (Balder), which sinks beneath the western
+waves, driven away by darkness (Hodur), or in the ending of the short
+Northern summer and the long reign of the winter season. "Balder
+represents the bright and clear summer, when twilight and daylight
+kiss each other and go hand in hand in these Northern latitudes."
+
+
+    "Balder's pyre, of the sun a mark,
+    Holy hearth red staineth;
+    Yet, soon dies its last faint spark,
+    Darkly then Hoder reigneth."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+"His death by Hodur is the victory of darkness over light, the darkness
+of winter over the light of summer; and the revenge by Vali is the
+breaking forth of new light after the wintry darkness."
+
+Loki, the fire, is jealous of Balder, the pure light of heaven, who
+alone among the Northern gods never fought, but was always ready with
+words of conciliation and peace.
+
+
+    "But from thy lips, O Balder, night or day,
+    Heard no one ever an injurious word
+    To God or Hero, but thou keptest back
+    The others, labouring to compose their brawls."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+The tears shed by all things for the beloved god are symbolical of
+the spring thaw, setting in after the hardness and cold of winter,
+when every tree and twig, and even the stones drip with moisture;
+Thok (coal) alone shows no sign of tenderness, as she is buried deep
+within the dark earth and needs not the light of the sun.
+
+
+    "And as in winter, when the frost breaks up,
+    At winter's end, before the spring begins,
+    And a warm west wind blows, and thaw sets in--
+    After an hour a dripping sound is heard
+    In all the forests, and the soft-strewn snow
+    Under the trees is dibbled thick with holes,
+    And from the boughs the snow loads shuffle down;
+    And, in fields sloping to the south, dark plots
+    Of grass peep out amid surrounding snow,
+    And widen, and the peasant's heart is glad--
+    So through the world was heard a dripping noise
+    Of all things weeping to bring Balder back;
+    And there fell joy upon the Gods to hear."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+From the depths of their underground prison, the sun (Balder) and
+vegetation (Nanna) try to cheer heaven (Odin) and earth (Frigga)
+by sending them the ring Draupnir, the emblem of fertility, and the
+flowery tapestry, symbolical of the carpet of verdure which will
+again deck the earth and enhance her charms with its beauty.
+
+The ethical signification of the myth is no less beautiful, for Balder
+and Hodur are symbols of the conflicting forces of good and evil,
+while Loki impersonates the tempter.
+
+
+    "But in each human soul we find
+    That night's dark Hoder, Balder's brother blind,
+    Is born and waxeth strong as he;
+    For blind is ev'ry evil born, as bear cubs be,
+    Night is the cloak of evil; but all good
+    Hath ever clad in shining garments stood.
+    The busy Loke, tempter from of old,
+    Still forward treads incessant, and doth hold
+    The blind one's murder hand, whose quick-launch'd spear
+    Pierceth young Balder's breast, that sun of Valhal's sphere!"
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Worship of Balder
+
+One of the most important festivals was held at the summer solstice,
+or midsummer's eve, in honour of Balder the good, for it was
+considered the anniversary of his death and of his descent into
+the lower world. On that day, the longest in the year, the people
+congregated out of doors, made great bonfires, and watched the sun,
+which in extreme Northern latitudes barely dips beneath the horizon
+ere it rises upon a new day. From midsummer, the days gradually grow
+shorter, and the sun's rays less warm, until the winter solstice,
+which was called the "Mother night," as it was the longest night
+in the year. Midsummer's eve, once celebrated in honour of Balder,
+is now called St. John's day, that saint having entirely supplanted
+Balder the good.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII: LOKI
+
+
+The Spirit of Evil
+
+Besides the hideous giant Utgard-Loki, the personification of mischief
+and evil, whom Thor and his companions visited in Jötun-heim, the
+ancient Northern nations had another type of sin, whom they called
+Loki also, and whom we have already seen under many different aspects.
+
+In the beginning, Loki was merely the personification of the hearth
+fire and of the spirit of life. At first a god, he gradually becomes
+"god and devil combined," and ends in being held in general detestation
+as an exact counterpart of the mediæval Lucifer, the prince of lies,
+"the originator of deceit, and the back-biter" of the Æsir.
+
+By some authorities Loki was said to be the brother of Odin, but
+others assert that the two were not related, but had merely gone
+through the form of swearing blood brotherhood common in the North.
+
+
+    "Odin! dost thou remember
+    When we in early days
+    Blended our blood together?
+    When to taste beer
+    Thou did'st constantly refuse
+    Unless to both 'twas offered?"
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Loki's Character
+
+While Thor is the embodiment of Northern activity, Loki represents
+recreation, and the close companionship early established between
+these two gods shows very plainly how soon our ancestors realised that
+both were necessary to the welfare of mankind. Thor is ever busy and
+ever in earnest, but Loki makes fun of everything, until at last his
+love of mischief leads him entirely astray, and he loses all love
+for goodness and becomes utterly selfish and malevolent.
+
+He represents evil in the seductive and seemingly beautiful form
+in which it parades through the world. Because of this deceptive
+appearance the gods did not at first avoid him, but treated him as one
+of themselves in all good-fellowship, taking him with them wherever
+they went, and admitting him not only to their merry-makings, but also
+to their council hall, where, unfortunately, they too often listened
+to his advice.
+
+As we have already seen, Loki played a prominent part in the creation
+of man, endowing him with the power of motion, and causing the blood
+to circulate freely through his veins, whereby he was inspired with
+passions. As personification of fire as well as of mischief, Loki
+(lightning) is often seen with Thor (thunder), whom he accompanies
+to Jötun-heim to recover his hammer, to Utgard-Loki's castle, and
+to Geirrod's house. It is he who steals Freya's necklace and Sif's
+hair, and betrays Idun into the power of Thiassi; and although he
+sometimes gives the gods good advice and affords them real help,
+it is only to extricate them from some predicament into which he has
+rashly inveigled them.
+
+Some authorities declare that, instead of making part of the creative
+trilogy (Odin, Hoenir, and Lodur or Loki), this god originally
+belonged to a pre-Odinic race of deities, and was the son of the
+great giant Fornjotnr (Ymir), his brothers being Kari (air) and Hler
+(water), and his sister Ran, the terrible goddess of the sea. Other
+mythologists, however, make him the son of the giant Farbauti, who
+has been identified with Bergelmir, the sole survivor of the deluge,
+and of Laufeia (leafy isle) or Nal (vessel), his mother, thus stating
+that his connection with Odin was only that of the Northern oath
+of good-fellowship.
+
+Loki (fire) first married Glut (glow), who bore him two daughters,
+Eisa (embers) and Einmyria (ashes); it is therefore very evident
+that Norsemen considered him emblematic of the hearth-fire, and when
+the flaming wood crackles on the hearth the goodwives in the North
+are still wont to say that Loki is beating his children. Besides
+this wife, Loki is also said to have wedded the giantess Angur-boda
+(the anguish-boding), who dwelt in Jötun-heim, and who, as we have
+already seen, bore him the three monsters: Hel, goddess of death,
+the Midgard snake Iörmungandr, and the grim wolf Fenris.
+
+
+    "Loki begat the wolf
+    With Angur-boda."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Sigyn
+
+Loki's third marriage was with Sigyn, who proved a most loving and
+devoted wife, and bore him two sons, Narve and Vali, the latter a
+namesake of the god who avenged Balder. Sigyn was always faithful
+to her husband, and did not forsake him even after he had definitely
+been cast out of Asgard and confined in the bowels of the earth.
+
+As Loki was the embodiment of evil in the minds of the Northern races,
+they entertained nothing but fear of him, built no temples to his
+honour, offered no sacrifices to him, and designated the most noxious
+weeds by his name. The quivering, overheated atmosphere of summer was
+supposed to betoken his presence, for the people were then wont to
+remark that Loki was sowing his wild oats, and when the sun appeared
+to be drawing water they said Loki was drinking.
+
+The story of Loki is so inextricably woven with that of the other
+gods that most of the myths relating to him have already been told,
+and there remain but two episodes of his life to relate, one showing
+his better side before he had degenerated into the arch deceiver,
+and the other illustrating how he finally induced the gods to defile
+their peace-steads by wilful murder.
+
+
+
+Skrymsli and the Peasant's Child
+
+A giant and a peasant were playing a game together one day (probably a
+game of chess, which was a favourite winter pastime with the Northern
+vikings). They of course had determined to play for certain stakes,
+and the giant, being victorious, won the peasant's only son, whom he
+said he would come and claim on the morrow unless the parents could
+hide him so cleverly that he could not be found.
+
+Knowing that such a feat would be impossible for them to perform,
+the parents fervently prayed to Odin to help them, and in answer to
+their entreaties the god came down to earth, and changed the boy into
+a tiny grain of wheat, which he hid in an ear of grain in the midst
+of a large field, declaring that the giant would not be able to find
+him. The giant Skrymsli, however, possessed wisdom far beyond what
+Odin imagined, and, failing to find the child at home, he strode
+off immediately to the field with his scythe, and mowing the wheat
+he selected the particular ear where the boy was hidden. Counting
+over the grains of wheat he was about to lay his hand upon the right
+one when Odin, hearing the child's cry of distress, snatched the
+kernel out of the giant's hand, and restored the boy to his parents,
+telling them that he had done all in his power to help them. But as
+the giant vowed he had been cheated, and would again claim the boy
+on the morrow unless the parents could outwit him, the unfortunate
+peasants now turned to Hoenir for aid. The god heard them graciously
+and changed the boy into a fluff of down, which he hid in the breast
+of a swan swimming in a pond close by. Now when, a few minutes later,
+Skrymsli came up, he guessed what had occurred, and seizing the swan,
+he bit off its neck, and would have swallowed the down had not Hoenir
+wafted it away from his lips and out of reach, restoring the boy safe
+and sound to his parents, but telling them that he could not further
+aid them.
+
+Skrymsli warned the parents that he would make a third attempt to
+secure the child, whereupon they applied in their despair to Loki,
+who carried the boy out to sea, and concealed him, as a tiny egg,
+in the roe of a flounder. Returning from his expedition, Loki
+encountered the giant near the shore, and seeing that he was bent
+upon a fishing excursion, he insisted upon accompanying him. He felt
+somewhat uneasy lest the terrible giant should have seen through his
+device, and therefore thought it would be well for him to be on the
+spot in case of need. Skrymsli baited his hook, and was more or less
+successful in his angling, when suddenly he drew up the identical
+flounder in which Loki had concealed his little charge. Opening the
+fish upon his knee, the giant proceeded to minutely examine the roe,
+until he found the egg which he was seeking.
+
+The plight of the boy was certainly perilous, but Loki, watching his
+chance, snatched the egg out of the giant's grasp, and transforming it
+again into the child, he instructed him secretly to run home, passing
+through the boathouse on his way and closing the door behind him. The
+terrified boy did as he was told immediately he found himself on land,
+and the giant, quick to observe his flight, dashed after him into
+the boathouse. Now Loki had cunningly placed a sharp spike in such a
+position that the great head of the giant ran full tilt against it,
+and he sank to the ground with a groan, whereupon Loki, seeing him
+helpless, cut off one of his legs. Imagine the god's dismay, however,
+when he saw the pieces join and immediately knit together. But Loki
+was a master of guile, and recognising this as the work of magic, he
+cut off the other leg, promptly throwing flint and steel between the
+severed limb and trunk, and thereby hindering any further sorcery. The
+peasants were immensely relieved to find that their enemy was slain,
+and ever after they considered Loki the mightiest of all the heavenly
+council, for he had delivered them effectually from their foe, while
+the other gods had lent only temporary aid.
+
+
+
+The Giant Architect
+
+Notwithstanding their wonderful bridge Bifröst, the tremulous way,
+and the watchfulness of Heimdall, the gods could not feel entirely
+secure in Asgard, and were often fearful lest the frost giants should
+make their way into Asgard. To obviate this possibility, they finally
+decided to build an impregnable fortress; and while they were planning
+how this could be done, an unknown architect came with an offer to
+undertake the construction, provided the gods would give him sun, moon,
+and Freya, goddess of youth and beauty, as reward. The gods were wroth
+at so presumptuous an offer, but when they would have indignantly
+driven the stranger from their presence, Loki urged them to make a
+bargain which it would be impossible for the stranger to keep, and
+so they finally told the architect that the guerdon should be his,
+provided the fortress were finished in the course of a single winter,
+and that he accomplished the work with no other assistance than that
+of his horse Svadilfare.
+
+
+    "To Asgard came an architect,
+    And castle offered to erect,--
+        A castle high
+        Which should defy
+    Deep Jotun guile and giant raid;
+    And this most wily compact made:
+    Fair Freya, with the Moon and Sun,
+    As price the fortress being done."
+
+            Valhalla (J.C. Jones).
+
+
+The unknown architect agreed to these seemingly impossible conditions,
+and immediately set to work, hauling ponderous blocks of stone by
+night, building during the day, and progressing so rapidly that
+the gods began to feel somewhat anxious. Ere long they noticed that
+more than half the labour was accomplished by the wonderful steed
+Svadilfare, and when they saw, near the end of winter, that the work
+was finished save only one portal, which they knew the architect
+could easily erect during the night:
+
+
+    "Horror and fear the gods beset;
+      Finished almost the castle stood!
+        In three days more
+        The work be o'er;
+      Then must they make their contract good,
+    And pay the awful debt."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Terrified lest they should be called upon to part, not only with the
+sun and moon, but also with Freya, the personification of the youth
+and beauty of the world, the gods turned upon Loki, and threatened
+to kill him unless he devised some means of hindering the architect
+from finishing the work within the specified time.
+
+Loki's cunning proved once more equal to the situation. He waited until
+nightfall of the final day, when, as Svadilfare passed the fringe of a
+forest, painfully dragging one of the great blocks of stone required
+for the termination of the work, he rushed out from a dark glade
+in the guise of a mare, and neighed so invitingly that, in a trice,
+the horse kicked himself free of his harness and ran after the mare,
+closely pursued by his angry master. The mare galloped swiftly on,
+artfully luring horse and master deeper and deeper into the forest
+shades, until the night was nearly gone, and it was no longer possible
+to finish the work. The architect was none other than a redoubtable
+Hrim-thurs, in disguise, and he now returned to Asgard in a towering
+rage at the fraud which had been practised upon him. Assuming his
+wonted proportions, he would have annihilated the gods had not Thor
+suddenly returned from a journey and slain him with his magic hammer
+Miölnir, which he hurled with terrific force full in his face.
+
+The gods had saved themselves on this occasion only by fraud and by
+the violent deed of Thor, and these were destined to bring great sorrow
+upon them, and eventually to secure their downfall, and to hasten the
+coming of Ragnarok. Loki, however, felt no remorse for his part, and
+in due time, it is said, he became the parent of an eight-footed steed
+called Sleipnir, which, as we have seen, was Odin's favourite mount.
+
+
+    "But Sleipnir he begat
+    With Svadilfari."
+
+            Lay of Hyndla (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Loki performed so many evil deeds during his career that he richly
+deserved the title of "arch deceiver" which was given him. He was
+generally hated for his subtle malicious ways, and for an inveterate
+habit of prevarication which won for him also the title of "prince
+of lies."
+
+
+
+Loki's last Crime
+
+Loki's last crime, and the one which filled his measure of iniquity,
+was to induce Hodur to throw the fatal mistletoe at Balder, whom he
+hated merely on account of his immaculate purity. Perhaps even this
+crime might have been condoned had it not been for his obduracy when,
+in the disguise of the old woman Thok, he was called upon to shed a
+tear for Balder. His action on this occasion convinced the gods that
+nothing but evil remained within him, and they pronounced unanimously
+upon him the sentence of perpetual banishment from Asgard.
+
+
+
+Ægir's Banquet
+
+To divert the gods' sadness and make them, for a short time, forget
+the treachery of Loki and the loss of Balder, Ægir, god of the sea,
+invited them to partake of a banquet in his coral caves at the bottom
+of the sea.
+
+
+    "Now, to assuage the high gods' grief
+    And bring their mourning some relief,
+        From coral caves
+        'Neath ocean waves,
+        Mighty King Ægir
+        Invited the Æsir
+        To festival
+        In Hlesey's hall;
+    That, tho' for Baldur every guest
+        Was grieving yet,
+        He might forget
+    Awhile his woe in friendly feast."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The gods gladly accepted the invitation, and clad in their richest
+garb, and with festive smiles, they appeared in the coral caves at
+the appointed time. None were absent save the radiant Balder, for
+whom many a regretful sigh was heaved, and the evil Loki, whom none
+could regret. In the course of the feast, however, this last-named
+god appeared in their midst like a dark shadow, and when bidden to
+depart, he gave vent to his evil passions in a torrent of invective
+against the gods.
+
+
+    "Of the Æsir and the Alfar
+    That are here within
+    Not one has a friendly word for thee."
+
+            Ægir's Compotation, or Loki's Altercation (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Then, jealous of the praises which Funfeng, Ægir's servant, had won
+for the dexterity with which he waited upon his master's guests,
+Loki suddenly turned upon him and slew him. At this wanton crime,
+the gods in fierce wrath drove Loki away once more, threatening him
+with dire punishment should he ever appear before them again.
+
+Scarcely had the Æsir recovered from this disagreeable interruption
+to their feast, and resumed their places at the board, when Loki
+came creeping in once more, resuming his slanders with venomous
+tongue, and taunting the gods with their weaknesses or shortcomings,
+dwelling maliciously upon their physical imperfections, and deriding
+them for their mistakes. In vain the gods tried to stem his abuse;
+his voice rose louder and louder, and he was just giving utterance to
+some base slander about Sif, when he was suddenly cut short by the
+sight of Thor's hammer, angrily brandished by an arm whose power he
+knew full well, and he fled incontinently.
+
+
+    "Silence, thou impure being!
+    My mighty hammer, Miöllnir,
+    Shall stop thy prating.
+    I will thy head
+    From thy neck strike;
+    Then will thy life be ended."
+
+            Ægir's Compotation, or Loki's Altercation (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Pursuit of Loki
+
+Knowing that he could now have no hope of being admitted into Asgard
+again, and that sooner or later the gods, seeing the effect of his
+evil deeds, would regret having permitted him to roam the world, and
+would try either to bind or slay him, Loki withdrew to the mountains,
+where he built himself a hut, with four doors which he always left
+wide open to permit of a hasty escape. Carefully laying his plans,
+he decided that if the gods should come in search of him he would
+rush down to the neighbouring cataract, according to tradition the
+Fraananger force or stream, and, changing himself into a salmon,
+would thus evade his pursuers. He reasoned, however, that although
+he could easily avoid any hook, it might be difficult for him to
+effect his escape if the gods should fashion a net like that of the
+sea-goddess Ran.
+
+Haunted by this fear, he decided to test the possibility of making
+such a mesh, and started to make one out of twine. He was still
+engaged upon the task when Odin, Kvasir, and Thor suddenly appeared
+in the distance; and knowing that they had discovered his retreat,
+Loki threw his half-finished net into the fire, and, rushing through
+one of his ever-open doors, he leaped into the waterfall, where, in the
+shape of a salmon, he hid among some stones in the bed of the stream.
+
+The gods, finding the hut empty, were about to depart, when Kvasir
+perceived the remains of the burnt net on the hearth. After some
+thought an inspiration came to him, and he advised the gods to weave
+a similar implement and use it in searching for their foe in the
+neighbouring stream, since it would be like Loki to choose such a
+method of baffling their pursuit. This advice seemed good and was
+immediately followed, and, the net finished, the gods proceeded to
+drag the stream. Loki eluded the net at its first cast by hiding
+at the bottom of the river between two stones; and when the gods
+weighted the mesh and tried a second time, he effected his escape by
+jumping up stream. A third attempt to secure him proved successful,
+however, for, as he once more tried to get away by a sudden leap,
+Thor caught him in mid-air and held him so fast, that he could not
+escape. The salmon, whose slipperiness is proverbial in the North,
+is noted for its remarkably slim tail, and Norsemen attribute this
+to Thor's tight grasp upon his foe.
+
+
+
+Loki's Punishment
+
+Loki now sullenly resumed his wonted shape, and his captors dragged
+him down into a cavern, where they made him fast, using as bonds the
+entrails of his son Narve, who had been torn to pieces by Vali, his
+brother, whom the gods had changed into a wolf for the purpose. One
+of these fetters was passed under Loki's shoulders, and one under
+his loins, thereby securing him firmly hand and foot; but the gods,
+not feeling quite satisfied that the strips, tough and enduring though
+they were, would not give way, changed them into adamant or iron.
+
+
+    "Thee, on a rock's point,
+    With the entrails of thy ice-cold son,
+    The gods will bind."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Skadi, the giantess, a personification of the cold mountain stream,
+who had joyfully watched the fettering of her foe (subterranean
+fire), now fastened a serpent directly over his head, so that its
+venom would fall, drop by drop, upon his upturned face. But Sigyn,
+Loki's faithful wife, hurried with a cup to his side, and until the
+day of Ragnarok she remained by him, catching the drops as they fell,
+and never leaving her post except when her vessel was full, and she was
+obliged to empty it. Only during her short absences could the drops
+of venom fall upon Loki's face, and then they caused such intense
+pain that he writhed with anguish, his efforts to get free shaking
+the earth and producing the earthquakes which so frighten mortals.
+
+
+    "Ere they left him in his anguish,
+    O'er his treacherous brow, ungrateful,
+    Skadi hung a serpent hateful,
+    Venom drops for aye distilling,
+    Every nerve with torment filling;
+    Thus shall he in horror languish.
+    By him, still unwearied kneeling,
+      Sigyn at his tortured side,--
+    Faithful wife! with beaker stealing
+      Drops of venom as they fall,--
+      Agonising poison all!
+    Sleepless, changeless, ever dealing
+      Comfort, will she still abide;
+    Only when the cup's o'erflowing
+      Must fresh pain and smarting cause,
+    Swift, to void the beaker going,
+      Shall she in her watching pause.
+        Then doth Loki
+        Loudly cry;
+        Shrieks of terror,
+    Groans of horror,
+    Breaking forth in thunder peals
+    With his writhings scared Earth reels.
+    Trembling and quaking,
+    E'en high Heav'n shaking!
+    So wears he out his awful doom,
+    Until dread Ragnarok be come."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+In this painful position Loki was destined to remain until the twilight
+of the gods, when his bonds would be loosed, and he would take part
+in the fatal conflict on the battlefield of Vigrid, falling at last
+by the hand of Heimdall, who would be slain at the same time.
+
+As we have seen, the venom-dropping snake in this myth is the
+cold mountain stream, whose waters, falling from time to time
+upon subterranean fire, evaporate in steam, which escapes through
+fissures, and causes earthquakes and geysers, phenomena with which
+the inhabitants of Iceland, for instance, were very familiar.
+
+
+
+Loki's Day
+
+When the gods were reduced to the rank of demons by the introduction of
+Christianity, Loki was confounded with Saturn, who had also been shorn
+of his divine attributes, and both were considered the prototypes of
+Satan. The last day of the week, which was held sacred to Loki, was
+known in the Norse as Laugardag, or wash-day, but in English it was
+changed to Saturday, and was said to owe its name not to Saturn but
+to Sataere, the thief in ambush, and the Teutonic god of agriculture,
+who is supposed to be merely another personification of Loki.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII: THE GIANTS
+
+
+Jötun-heim
+
+As we have already seen, the Northern races imagined that the giants
+were the first creatures who came to life among the icebergs which
+filled the vast abyss of Ginnunga-gap. These giants were from the
+very beginning the opponents and rivals of the gods, and as the
+latter were the personifications of all that is good and lovely,
+the former were representative of all that was ugly and evil.
+
+
+    "He comes--he comes--the Frost Spirit comes! on the rushing
+    northern blast,
+    And the dark Norwegian pines have bowed as his fearful breath
+    went past.
+    With an unscorched wing he has hurried on, where the fires on
+    Hecla glow
+    On the darkly beautiful sky above and the ancient ice below."
+
+            J. G. Whittier.
+
+
+When Ymir, the first giant, fell lifeless on the ice, slain by the
+gods, his progeny were drowned in his blood. One couple only, Bergelmir
+and his wife, effected their escape to Jötun-heim, where they took
+up their abode and became the parents of all the giant race. In the
+North the giants were called by various names, each having a particular
+meaning. Jötun, for instance, meant "the great eater," for the giants
+were noted for their enormous appetites as well as for their uncommon
+size. They were fond of drinking as well as of eating, wherefore they
+were also called Thurses, a word which some writers claim had the
+same meaning as thirst; but others think they owed this name to the
+high towers ("turseis") which they were supposed to have built. As the
+giants were antagonistic to the gods, the latter always strove to force
+them to remain in Jötun-heim, which was situated in the cold regions of
+the Pole. The giants were almost invariably worsted in their encounters
+with the gods, for they were heavy and slow-witted, and had nothing
+but stone weapons to oppose to the Æsir's bronze. In spite of this
+inequality, however, they were sometimes greatly envied by the gods,
+for they were thoroughly conversant with all knowledge relating to
+the past. Even Odin was envious of this attribute, and no sooner had
+he secured it by a draught from Mimir's spring than he hastened to
+Jötun-heim to measure himself against Vafthrudnir, the most learned
+of the giant brood. But he might never have succeeded in defeating
+his antagonist in this strange encounter had he not ceased inquiring
+about the past and propounded a question relating to the future.
+
+Of all the gods Thor was most feared by the Jötuns, for he was
+continually waging war against the frost and mountain giants,
+who would fain have bound the earth for ever in their rigid bands,
+thus preventing men from tilling the soil. In fighting against them,
+Thor, as we have already seen, generally had recourse to his terrible
+hammer Miölnir.
+
+
+
+Origin of the Mountains
+
+According to German legends the uneven surface of the earth was due
+to the giants, who marred its smoothness by treading upon it while
+it was still soft and newly created, while streams were formed from
+the copious tears shed by the giantesses upon seeing the valleys made
+by their husbands' huge footprints. As such was the Teutonic belief,
+the people imagined that the giants, who personified the mountains
+to them, were huge uncouth creatures, who could only move about in
+the darkness or fog, and were petrified as soon as the first rays of
+sunlight pierced through the gloom or scattered the clouds.
+
+This belief led them to name one of their principal mountain chains
+the Riesengebirge (giant mountains). The Scandinavians also shared
+this belief, and to this day the Icelanders designate their highest
+mountain peaks by the name of Jokul, a modification of the word
+"Jötun." In Switzerland, where the everlasting snows rest upon the
+lofty mountain tops, the people still relate old stories of the time
+when the giants roamed abroad; and when an avalanche came crashing
+down the mountain side, they say the giants have restlessly shaken
+off part of the icy burden from their brows and shoulders.
+
+
+
+The First Gods
+
+As the giants were also personifications of snow, ice, cold, stone, and
+subterranean fire, they were said to be descended from the primitive
+Fornjotnr, whom some authorities identify with Ymir. According to this
+version of the myth, Fornjotnr had three sons: Hler, the sea; Kari, the
+air; and Loki, fire. These three divinities, the first gods, formed the
+oldest trinity, and their respective descendants were the sea giants
+Mimir, Gymir, and Grendel, the storm giants Thiassi, Thrym, and Beli,
+and the giants of fire and death, such as the Fenris wolf and Hel.
+
+As all the royal dynasties claimed descent from some mythical being,
+the Merovingians asserted that their first progenitor was a sea giant,
+who rose out of the waves in the form of an ox, and surprised the
+queen while she was walking alone on the seashore, compelling her to
+become his wife. She gave birth to a son named Meroveus, the founder
+of the first dynasty of Frankish kings.
+
+Many stories have already been told about the most important
+giants. They reappear in many of the later myths and fairy-tales,
+and manifest, after the introduction of Christianity, a peculiar
+dislike to the sound of church bells and the singing of monks and nuns.
+
+
+
+The Giant in Love
+
+The Scandinavians relate, in this connection, that in the days
+of Olaf the Saint a giant called Senjemand, dwelt on the Island of
+Senjen, and he was greatly incensed because a nun on the Island of
+Grypto daily sang her morning hymn. This giant fell in love with a
+beautiful maiden called Juterna-jesta, and it was long ere he could
+find courage to propose to her. When at last he made his halting
+request, the fair damsel scornfully rejected him, declaring that he
+was far too old and ugly for her taste.
+
+
+    "Miserable Senjemand--ugly and grey!
+    Thou win the maid of Kvedfiord!
+    No--a churl thou art and shalt ever remain."
+
+            Ballad (Brace's tr.).
+
+
+In his anger at being thus scornfully refused, the giant swore
+vengeance, and soon after he shot a great flint arrow from his bow
+at the maiden, who dwelt eighty miles away. Another lover, Torge,
+also a giant, seeing her peril and wishing to protect her, flung
+his hat at the speeding arrow. This hat was a thousand feet high
+and proportionately broad and thick, nevertheless the arrow pierced
+the headgear, falling short, however, of its aim. Senjemand, seeing
+that he had failed, and fearing the wrath of Torge, mounted his steed
+and prepared to ride off as quickly as possible; but the sun, rising
+just then above the horizon, turned him into stone, together with the
+arrow and Torge's hat, the huge pile being known as the Torghatten
+mountain. The people still point to an obelisk which they say is the
+stone arrow; to a hole in the mountain, 289 feet high and 88 feet wide,
+which they say is the aperture made by the arrow in its flight through
+the hat; and to the horseman on Senjen Island, apparently riding a
+colossal steed and drawing the folds of his wide cavalry cloak closely
+about him. As for the nun whose singing had so disturbed Senjemand, she
+was petrified too, and never troubled any one with her psalmody again.
+
+
+
+The Giant and the Church Bells
+
+Another legend relates that one of the mountain giants, annoyed by
+the ringing of church bells more than fifty miles away, once caught
+up a huge rock, which he hurled at the sacred building. Fortunately
+it fell short and broke in two. Ever since then, the peasants say
+that the trolls come on Christmas Eve to raise the largest piece of
+stone upon golden pillars, and to dance and feast beneath it. A lady,
+wishing to know whether this tale were true, once sent her groom
+to the place. The trolls came forward and hospitably offered him a
+drink from a horn mounted in gold and ornamented with runes. Seizing
+the horn, the groom flung its contents away and dashed off with it
+at a mad gallop, closely pursued by the trolls, from whom he escaped
+only by passing through a stubble field and over running water. Some
+of their number visited the lady on the morrow to claim this horn,
+and when she refused to part with it they laid a curse upon her,
+declaring that her castle would be burned down every time the horn
+should be removed. The prediction has thrice been fulfilled, and now
+the family guard the relic with superstitious care. A similar drinking
+vessel, obtained in much the same fashion by the Oldenburg family,
+is exhibited in the collection of the King of Denmark.
+
+The giants were not supposed to remain stationary, but were said to
+move about in the darkness, sometimes transporting masses of earth
+and sand, which they dropped here and there. The sandhills in northern
+Germany and Denmark were supposed to have been thus formed.
+
+
+
+The Giants' Ship
+
+A North Frisian tradition relates that the giants possessed a colossal
+ship, called Mannigfual, which constantly cruised about in the Atlantic
+Ocean. Such was the size of this vessel that the captain was said
+to patrol the deck on horseback, while the rigging was so extensive
+and the masts so high that the sailors who went up as youths came
+down as gray-haired men, having rested and refreshed themselves in
+rooms fashioned and provisioned for that purpose in the huge blocks
+and pulleys.
+
+By some mischance it happened that the pilot once directed the immense
+vessel into the North Sea, and wishing to return to the Atlantic
+as soon as possible, yet not daring to turn in such a small space,
+he steered into the English Channel. Imagine the dismay of all on
+board when they saw the passage growing narrower and narrower the
+farther they advanced. When they came to the narrowest spot, between
+Calais and Dover, it seemed barely possible that the vessel, drifting
+along with the current, could force its way through. The captain,
+with laudable presence of mind, promptly bade his men soap the sides
+of the ship, and to lay an extra-thick layer on the starboard, where
+the rugged cliffs of Dover rose threateningly. These orders were no
+sooner carried out than the vessel entered the narrow space, and,
+thanks to the captain's precaution, it slipped safely through. The
+rocks of Dover scraped off so much soap, however, that ever since
+they have been particularly white, and the waves dashing against them
+still have an unusually foamy appearance.
+
+This exciting experience was not the only one through which the
+Mannigfual passed, for we are told that it once, nobody knows how,
+penetrated into the Baltic Sea, where, the water not being deep enough
+to keep the vessel afloat, the captain ordered all the ballast to be
+thrown overboard. The material thus cast on either side of the vessel
+into the sea formed the two islands of Bornholm and Christiansoë.
+
+
+
+Princess Ilse
+
+In Thuringia and in the Black Forest the stories of the giants are
+legion, and one of the favourites with the peasants is that about
+Ilse, the lovely daughter of the giant of the Ilsenstein. She was so
+charming that far and wide she was known as the Beautiful Princess
+Ilse, and was wooed by many knights, of whom she preferred the Lord of
+Westerburg. But her father did not at all approve of her consorting
+with a mere mortal, and forbade her to see her lover. Princess Ilse
+was wilful, however, and in spite of her sire's prohibition she
+daily visited her lover. The giant, exasperated by her persistency
+and disobedience, finally stretched out his huge hands and, seizing
+the rocks, tore a great gap between the height where he dwelt and the
+castle of Westerburg. Upon this, Princess Ilse, going to the cleft
+which parted her from her lover, recklessly flung herself over the
+precipice into the raging flood beneath, and was there changed into
+a bewitching undine. She dwelt in the limpid waters for many a year,
+appearing from time to time to exercise her fascinations upon mortals,
+and even, it is said, captivating the affections of the Emperor
+Henry, who paid frequent visits to her cascade. Her last appearance,
+according to popular belief, was at Pentecost, a hundred years ago;
+and the natives have not yet ceased to look for the beautiful princess,
+who is said still to haunt the stream and to wave her white arms to
+entice travellers into the cool spray of the waterfall.
+
+
+    "I am the Princess Ilse,
+      And I dwell at the Ilsenstein;
+    Come with me to my castle,
+      And bliss shall be mine and thine.
+
+    "With the cool of my glass-clear waters
+      Thy brow and thy locks I'll lave;
+    And thou'lt think of thy sorrows no longer,
+      For all that thou look'st so grave.
+
+    "With my white arms twined around thee,
+      And lapped on my breast so white,
+    Thou shalt lie, and dream of elf-land--
+      Its loves and wild delight."
+
+            Heine (Martin's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Giantess's Plaything
+
+The giants inhabited all the earth before it was given to mankind, and
+it was only with reluctance that they made way for the human race, and
+retreated into the waste and barren parts of the country, where they
+brought up their families in strict seclusion. Such was the ignorance
+of their offspring, that a young giantess, straying from home, once
+came to an inhabited valley, where for the first time in her life she
+saw a farmer ploughing on the hillside. Deeming him a pretty plaything,
+she caught him up with his team, and thrusting them into her apron,
+she gleefully carried them home to exhibit to her father. But the
+giant immediately bade her carry peasant and horses back to the place
+where she had found them, and when she had done so he sadly explained
+that the creatures whom she took for mere playthings, would eventually
+drive the giant folk away, and become masters of the earth.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV: THE DWARFS
+
+
+Little Men
+
+In the first chapter we saw how the black elves, dwarfs, or
+Svart-alfar, were bred like maggots in the flesh of the slain giant
+Ymir. The gods, perceiving these tiny, unformed creatures creeping in
+and out, gave them form and features, and they became known as dark
+elves, on account of their swarthy complexions. These small beings
+were so homely, with their dark skin, green eyes, large heads, short
+legs, and crow's feet, that they were enjoined to hide underground,
+being commanded never to show themselves during the daytime lest they
+should be turned into stone. Although less powerful than the gods,
+they were far more intelligent than men, and as their knowledge was
+boundless and extended even to the future, gods and men were equally
+anxious to question them.
+
+The dwarfs were also known as trolls, kobolds, brownies, goblins,
+pucks, or Huldra folk, according to the country where they dwelt.
+
+
+    "You are the grey, grey Troll,
+      With the great green eyes,
+    But I love you, grey, grey Troll--
+      You are so wise!
+
+    "Tell me this sweet morn,
+      Tell me all you know--
+    Tell me, was I born?
+      Tell me, did I grow?"
+
+            The Legend of the Little Fay (Buchanan).
+
+
+
+The Tarnkappe
+
+These little beings could transport themselves with marvellous celerity
+from one place to another, and they loved to conceal themselves
+behind rocks, when they would mischievously repeat the last words
+of conversations overheard from such hiding-places. Owing to this
+well-known trick, the echoes were called dwarfs' talk, and people
+fancied that the reason why the makers of such sounds were never
+seen was because each dwarf was the proud possessor of a tiny red
+cap which made the wearer invisible. This cap was called Tarnkappe,
+and without it the dwarfs dared not appear above the surface of the
+earth after sunrise for fear of being petrified. When wearing it they
+were safe from this peril.
+
+
+    "Away! let not the sun view me--
+      I dare no longer stay;
+    An Elfin-child, thou wouldst me see,
+      To stone turn at his ray."
+
+            La Motte-Fouqué.
+
+
+
+The Legend of Kallundborg
+
+Helva, daughter of the Lord of Nesvek, was loved by Esbern Snare,
+whose suit, however, was rejected by the proud father with the scornful
+words: "When thou shalt build at Kallundborg a stately church, then
+will I give thee Helva to wife."
+
+Now Esbern, although of low estate, was proud of heart, even as
+the lord, and he determined, come what might, to find a way to win
+his coveted bride. So off he strode to a troll in Ullshoi Hill,
+and effected a bargain whereby the troll undertook to build a fine
+church, on completion of which Esbern was to tell the builder's name
+or forfeit his eyes and heart.
+
+Night and day the troll wrought on, and as the building took shape,
+sadder grew Esbern Snare. He listened at the crevices of the hill
+by night; he watched during the day; he wore himself to a shadow
+by anxious thought; he besought the elves to aid him. All to no
+purpose. Not a sound did he hear, not a thing did he see, to suggest
+the name of the builder.
+
+Meantime, rumour was busy, and the fair Helva, hearing of the evil
+compact, prayed for the soul of the unhappy man.
+
+Time passed until one day the church lacked only one pillar,
+and worn out by black despair, Esbern sank exhausted upon a bank,
+whence he heard the troll hammering the last stone in the quarry
+underground. "Fool that I am," he said bitterly, "I have builded
+my tomb."
+
+Just then he heard a light footstep, and looking up, he beheld his
+beloved. "Would that I might die in thy stead," said she, through
+her tears, and with that Esbern confessed how that for love of her
+he had imperilled eyes and heart and soul.
+
+Then fast as the troll hammered underground, Helva prayed beside her
+lover, and the prayers of the maiden prevailed over the spell of the
+troll, for suddenly Esbern caught the sound of a troll-wife singing
+to her infant, bidding it be comforted, for that, on the morrow,
+Father Fine would return bringing a mortal's eyes and heart.
+
+Sure of his victim, the troll hurried to Kallundborg with the last
+stone. "Too late, Fine!" quoth Esbern, and at the word, the troll
+vanished with his stone, and it is said that the peasants heard at
+night the sobbing of a woman underground, and the voice of the troll
+loud with blame.
+
+
+    "Of the Troll of the Church they sing the rune
+    By the Northern Sea in the harvest moon;
+    And the fishers of Zealand hear him still
+    Scolding his wife in Ulshoi hill.
+
+    "And seaward over its groves of birch
+    Still looks the tower of Kallundborg church,
+    Where, first at its altar, a wedded pair,
+    Stood Helva of Nesvek and Esbern Snare!"
+
+            J. G. Whittier
+
+
+
+The Magic of the Dwarfs
+
+The dwarfs, as well as the elves, were ruled by a king, who, in
+various countries of northern Europe, was known as Andvari, Alberich,
+Elbegast, Gondemar, Laurin, or Oberon. He dwelt in a magnificent
+subterranean palace, studded with the gems which his subjects had
+mined from the bosom of the earth, and, besides untold riches and the
+Tarnkappe, he owned a magic ring, an invincible sword, and a belt of
+strength. At his command the little men, who were very clever smiths,
+would fashion marvellous jewels or weapons, which their ruler would
+bestow upon favourite mortals.
+
+We have already seen how the dwarfs fashioned Sif's golden hair,
+the ship Skidbladnir, the point of Odin's spear Gungnir, the ring
+Draupnir, the golden-bristled boar Gullin-bursti, the hammer Miölnir,
+and Freya's golden necklace Brisinga-men. They are also said to
+have made the magic girdle which Spenser describes in his poem of
+the "Faerie Queene,"--a girdle which was said to have the power of
+revealing whether its wearer were virtuous or a hypocrite.
+
+
+    "That girdle gave the virtue of chaste love
+    And wifehood true to all that did it bear;
+    But whosoever contrary doth prove
+    Might not the same about her middle wear
+    But it would loose, or else asunder tear."
+
+            Faerie Queene (Spenser).
+
+
+The dwarfs also manufactured the mythical sword Tyrfing, which could
+cut through iron and stone, and which they gave to Angantyr. This
+sword, like Frey's, fought of its own accord, and could not be
+sheathed, after it was once drawn, until it had tasted blood. Angantyr
+was so proud of this weapon that he had it buried with him; but his
+daughter Hervor visited his tomb at midnight, recited magic spells, and
+forced him to rise from his grave to give her the precious blade. She
+wielded it bravely, and it eventually became the property of another
+of the Northern heroes.
+
+Another famous weapon, which according to tradition was forged by
+the dwarfs in Eastern lands, was the sword Angurvadel which Frithiof
+received as a portion of his inheritance from his fathers. Its hilt
+was of hammered gold, and the blade was inscribed with runes which
+were dull until it was brandished in war, when they flamed red as
+the comb of the fighting-cock.
+
+
+                            "Quick lost was that hero
+    Meeting in battle's night that blade high-flaming with runics.
+    Widely renown'd was this sword, of swords most choice in the
+    Northland."
+
+            Tegnér's Frithiof (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Passing of the Dwarfs
+
+The dwarfs were generally kind and helpful; sometimes they kneaded
+bread, ground flour, brewed beer, performed countless household tasks,
+and harvested and threshed the grain for the farmers. If ill-treated,
+however, or turned to ridicule, these little creatures would forsake
+the house and never come back again. When the old gods ceased to be
+worshipped in the Northlands, the dwarfs withdrew entirely from the
+country, and a ferryman related how he had been hired by a mysterious
+personage to ply his boat back and forth across the river one night,
+and at every trip his vessel was so heavily laden with invisible
+passengers that it nearly sank. When his night's work was over, he
+received a rich reward, and his employer informed him that he had
+carried the dwarfs across the river, as they were leaving the country
+for ever in consequence of the unbelief of the people.
+
+
+
+Changelings
+
+According to popular superstition, the dwarfs, in envy of man's
+taller stature, often tried to improve their race by winning human
+wives or by stealing unbaptized children, and substituting their
+own offspring for the human mother to nurse. These dwarf babies were
+known as changelings, and were recognisable by their puny and wizened
+forms. To recover possession of her own babe, and to rid herself of
+the changeling, a woman was obliged either to brew beer in egg-shells
+or to grease the soles of the child's feet and hold them so near the
+flames that, attracted by their offspring's distressed cries, the dwarf
+parents would hasten to claim their own and return the stolen child.
+
+The troll women were said to have the power of changing themselves
+into Maras or nightmares, and of tormenting any one they pleased;
+but if the victim succeeded in stopping up the hole through which a
+Mara made her ingress into his room, she was entirely at his mercy,
+and he could even force her to wed him if he chose to do so. A wife
+thus obtained was sure to remain as long as the opening through which
+she had entered the house was closed, but if the plug were removed,
+either by accident or design, she immediately effected her escape
+and never returned.
+
+
+
+The Peaks of the Trolls
+
+Naturally, traditions of the little folk abound everywhere throughout
+the North, and many places are associated with their memory. The
+well-known Peaks of the Trolls (Trold-Tindterne) in Norway are said
+to be the scene of a conflict between two bands of trolls, who in
+the eagerness of combat omitted to note the approach of sunrise,
+with the result that they were changed into the small points of rock
+which stand up noticeably upon the crests of the mountain.
+
+
+
+A Conjecture
+
+Some writers have ventured a conjecture that the dwarfs so often
+mentioned in the ancient sagas and fairy-tales were real beings,
+probably the Phoenician miners, who, working the coal, iron, copper,
+gold, and tin mines of England, Norway, Sweden, etc., took advantage
+of the simplicity and credulity of the early inhabitants to make
+them believe that they belonged to a supernatural race and always
+dwelt underground, in a region which was called Svart-alfa-heim,
+or the home of the black elves.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV: THE ELVES
+
+
+The Realm of Faery
+
+Besides the dwarfs there was another numerous class of tiny creatures
+called Lios-alfar, light or white elves, who inhabited the realms of
+air between heaven and earth, and were gently governed by the genial
+god Frey from his palace in Alf-heim. They were lovely, beneficent
+beings, so pure and innocent that, according to some authorities,
+their name was derived from the same root as the Latin word "white"
+(albus), which, in a modified form, was given to the snow-covered
+Alps, and to Albion (England), because of her white chalk cliffs
+which could be seen afar.
+
+The elves were so small that they could flit about unseen while
+they tended the flowers, birds, and butterflies; and as they were
+passionately fond of dancing, they often glided down to earth on a
+moonbeam, to dance on the green. Holding one another by the hand,
+they would dance in circles, thereby making the "fairy rings," which
+were to be discerned by the deeper green and greater luxuriance of
+the grass which their little feet had pressed.
+
+
+    "Merry elves, their morrice pacing
+      To aërial minstrelsy,
+    Emerald rings on brown heath tracing,
+      Trip it deft and merrily."
+
+            Sir Walter Scott.
+
+
+If any mortal stood in the middle of one of these fairy rings he
+could, according to popular belief in England, see the fairies and
+enjoy their favour; but the Scandinavians and Teutons vowed that the
+unhappy man must die. In illustration of this superstition, a story is
+told of how Sir Olaf, riding off to his wedding, was enticed by the
+fairies into their ring. On the morrow, instead of a merry marriage,
+his friends witnessed a triple funeral, for his mother and bride also
+died when they beheld his lifeless corpse.
+
+
+    "Master Olof rode forth ere dawn of the day
+    And came where the Elf-folk were dancing away.
+      The dance is so merry,
+    So merry in the greenwood.
+
+    "And on the next morn, ere the daylight was red,
+    In Master Olof's house lay three corpses dead.
+      The dance is so merry,
+    So merry in the greenwood.
+
+    "First Master Olof, and next his young bride,
+    And third his old mother--for sorrow she died.
+      The dance is so merry,
+    So merry in the greenwood."
+
+            Master Olof at the Elfin Dance (Howitt's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Elf-dance
+
+These elves, who in England were called fairies or fays, were also
+enthusiastic musicians, and delighted especially in a certain air known
+as the elf-dance, which was so irresistible that no one who heard it
+could refrain from dancing. If a mortal, overhearing the air, ventured
+to reproduce it, he suddenly found himself incapable of stopping and
+was forced to play on and on until he died of exhaustion, unless he
+were deft enough to play the tune backwards, or some one charitably
+cut the strings of his violin. His hearers, who were forced to dance
+as long as the tones continued, could only stop when they ceased.
+
+
+
+The Will-o'-the-wisps
+
+In mediæval times, the will-o'-the-wisps were known in the North as elf
+lights, for these tiny sprites were supposed to mislead travellers;
+and popular superstition held that the Jack-o'-lanterns were the
+restless spirits of murderers forced against their will to return
+to the scene of their crimes. As they nightly walked thither, it
+is said that they doggedly repeated with every step, "It is right;"
+but as they returned they sadly reiterated, "It is wrong."
+
+
+
+Oberon and Titania
+
+In later times the fairies or elves were said to be ruled by the king
+of the dwarfs, who, being an underground spirit, was considered a
+demon, and allowed to retain the magic power which the missionaries
+had wrested from the god Frey. In England and France the king of
+the fairies was known by the name of Oberon; he governed fairyland
+with his queen Titania, and the highest revels on earth were held on
+Midsummer night. It was then that the fairies all congregated around
+him and danced most merrily.
+
+
+    "Every elf and fairy sprite
+    Hop as light as bird from brier;
+    And this ditty after me
+    Sing, and dance it trippingly."
+
+            Midsummer-Night's Dream (Shakespeare).
+
+
+These elves, like the brownies, Huldra folk, kobolds, etc., were
+also supposed to visit human dwellings, and it was said that they
+took mischievous pleasure in tangling and knotting horses' manes and
+tails. These tangles were known as elf-locks, and whenever a farmer
+descried them he declared that his steeds had been elf-ridden during
+the night.
+
+
+
+Alf-blot
+
+In Scandinavia and Germany sacrifices were offered to the elves to
+make them propitious. These sacrifices consisted of some small animal,
+or of a bowl of honey and milk, and were known as Alf-blot. They were
+quite common until the missionaries taught the people that the elves
+were mere demons, when they were transferred to the angels, who were
+long entreated to befriend mortals, and propitiated by the same gifts.
+
+Many of the elves were supposed to live and die with the trees and
+plants which they tended, but these moss, wood, or tree maidens, while
+remarkably beautiful when seen in front, were hollow like a trough
+when viewed from behind. They appear in many of the popular tales, but
+almost always as benevolent and helpful spirits, for they were anxious
+to do good to mortals and to cultivate friendly relations with them.
+
+
+
+Images on Doorposts
+
+In Scandinavia the elves, both light and dark, were worshipped
+as household divinities, and their images were carved on the
+doorposts. The Norsemen, who were driven from home by the tyranny of
+Harald Harfager in 874, took their carved doorposts with them upon
+their ships. Similar carvings, including images of the gods and heroes,
+decorated the pillars of their high seats which they also carried
+away. The exiles showed their trust in their gods by throwing these
+wooden images overboard when they neared the Icelandic shores and
+settling where the waves carried the posts, even if the spot scarcely
+seemed the most desirable. "Thus they carried with them the religion,
+the poetry, and the laws of their race, and on this desolate volcanic
+island they kept these records unchanged for hundreds of years,
+while other Teutonic nations gradually became affected by their
+intercourse with Roman and Byzantine Christianity." These records,
+carefully collected by Sæmund the learned, form the Elder Edda, the
+most precious relic of ancient Northern literature, without which we
+should know comparatively little of the religion of our forefathers.
+
+The sagas relate that the first settlements in Greenland and Vinland
+were made in the same way,--the Norsemen piously landing wherever
+their household gods drifted ashore.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI: THE SIGURD SAGA
+
+
+The Beginning of the Story
+
+While the first part of the Elder Edda consists of a collection
+of alliterative poems describing the creation of the world, the
+adventures of the gods, their eventual downfall, and gives a complete
+exposition of the Northern code of ethics, the second part comprises a
+series of heroic lays describing the exploits of the Volsung family,
+and especially of their chief representative, Sigurd, the favourite
+hero of the North.
+
+
+
+The Volsunga Saga
+
+These lays form the basis of the great Scandinavian epic, the Volsunga
+Saga, and have supplied not only the materials for the Nibelungenlied,
+the German epic, and for countless folk tales, but also for Wagner's
+celebrated operas, The Rhinegold, Valkyr, Siegfried, and The Dusk of
+the Gods. In England, William Morris has given them the form which
+they will probably retain in our literature, and it is from his great
+epic poem, by the courteous permission of his trustees, and of his
+publishers, Messrs. Longmans, Green and Co., that almost all the
+quotations in this section are taken in preference to extracts from
+the Edda.
+
+
+
+Sigi
+
+The story of the Volsungs begins with Sigi, a son of Odin, a powerful
+man, and generally respected, until he killed a man from motives
+of jealousy, the latter having slain more game when they were out
+hunting together. In consequence of this crime, Sigi was driven from
+his own land and declared an outlaw. But it seems that he had not
+entirely forfeited Odin's favour, for the god now provided him with
+a well-equipped vessel, together with a number of brave followers,
+and promised that victory should ever attend him.
+
+Thus aided by Odin, the raids of Sigi became a terror to his foes,
+and in the end he won the glorious empire of the Huns and for many
+years reigned as a powerful monarch. But in extreme old age his
+fortune changed, Odin forsook him, his wife's kindred fell upon him,
+and he was slain in a treacherous encounter.
+
+
+
+Rerir
+
+His death was soon avenged, however, for Rerir, his son, returning
+from an expedition upon which he had been absent from the land at the
+time, put the murderers to death as his first act upon mounting the
+throne. The rule of Rerir was marked by every sign of prosperity, but
+his dearest wish, a son to succeed him, remained unfulfilled for many
+a year. Finally, however, Frigga decided to grant his constant prayer,
+and to vouchsafe the heir he longed for. She accordingly despatched
+her swift messenger Gna, or Liod, with a miraculous apple, which she
+dropped into his lap as he was sitting alone on the hillside. Glancing
+upward, Rerir recognised the emissary of the goddess, and joyfully
+hastened home to partake of the apple with his wife. The child who
+in due time was born under these favourable auspices was a handsome
+little lad. His parents called him Volsung, and while he was still
+a mere infant they both died, and the child became ruler of the land.
+
+
+
+Volsung
+
+Years passed and Volsung's wealth and power ever increased. He was the
+boldest leader, and rallied many brave warriors around him. Full oft
+did they drink his mead underneath the Branstock, a mighty oak, which,
+rising in the middle of his hall, pierced the roof and overshadowed
+the whole house.
+
+
+    "And as in all other matters 'twas all earthly houses' crown,
+    And the least of its wall-hung shields was a battle-world's renown,
+    So therein withal was a marvel and a glorious thing to see,
+    For amidst of its midmost hall-floor sprang up a mighty tree,
+    That reared its blessings roofward and wreathed the roof-tree dear
+    With the glory of the summer and the garland of the year."
+
+
+Ten stalwart sons were born to Volsung, and one daughter, Signy,
+came to brighten his home. So lovely was this maiden that when she
+reached marriageable age many suitors asked for her hand, among whom
+was Siggeir, King of the Goths, who finally obtained Volsung's consent,
+although Signy had never seen him.
+
+
+
+The Wedding of Signy
+
+When the wedding-day came, and the bride beheld her destined husband
+she shrank in dismay, for his puny form and lowering glances contrasted
+sadly with her brothers' sturdy frames and open faces. But it was
+too late to withdraw--the family honour was at stake--and Signy so
+successfully concealed her dislike that none save her twin brother
+Sigmund suspected with what reluctance she became Siggeir's wife.
+
+
+
+The Sword in the Branstock
+
+While the wedding feast was in progress, and when the merry-making was
+at its height, the entrance to the hall was suddenly darkened by the
+tall form of a one-eyed man, closely enveloped in a mantle of cloudy
+blue. Without vouchsafing word or glance to any in the assembly, the
+stranger strode to the Branstock and thrust a glittering sword up to
+the hilt in its great bole. Then, turning slowly round, he faced the
+awe-struck and silent assembly, and declared that the weapon would be
+for the warrior who could pull it out of its oaken sheath, and that
+it would assure him victory in every battle. The words ended, he then
+passed out as he had entered, and disappeared, leaving a conviction in
+the minds of all that Odin, king of the gods, had been in their midst.
+
+
+    "So sweet his speaking sounded, so wise his words did seem,
+    That moveless all men sat there, as in a happy dream
+    We stir not lest we waken; but there his speech had end
+    And slowly down the hall-floor, and outward did he wend;
+    And none would cast him a question or follow on his ways,
+    For they knew that the gift was Odin's, a sword for the world
+    to praise."
+
+
+Volsung was the first to recover the power of speech, and, waiving
+his own right first to essay the feat, he invited Siggeir to make the
+first attempt to draw the divine weapon out of the tree-trunk. The
+bridegroom anxiously tugged and strained, but the sword remained
+firmly embedded in the oak and he resumed his seat, with an air of
+chagrin. Then Volsung tried, with the same result. The weapon was
+evidently not intended for either of them, and the young Volsung
+princes were next invited to try their strength.
+
+
+    "Sons I have gotten and cherished, now stand ye forth and try;
+    Lest Odin tell in God-home how from the way he strayed,
+    And how to the man he would not he gave away his blade.
+
+
+
+Sigmund
+
+The nine eldest sons were equally unsuccessful; but when Sigmund,
+the tenth and youngest, laid his firm young hand upon the hilt, the
+sword yielded easily to his touch, and he triumphantly drew it out
+as though it had merely been sheathed in its scabbard.
+
+
+    "At last by the side of the Branstock Sigmund the Volsung stood,
+    And with right hand wise in battle the precious sword-hilt caught,
+    Yet in a careless fashion, as he deemed it all for nought;
+    When, lo, from floor to rafter went up a shattering shout,
+    For aloft in the hand of Sigmund the naked blade shone out
+    As high o'er his head he shook it: for the sword had come away
+    From the grip of the heart of the Branstock, as though all loose
+    it lay."
+
+
+Nearly all present were gratified at the success of the young prince;
+but Siggeir's heart was filled with envy, and he coveted possession of
+the weapon. He offered to purchase it from his young brother-in-law,
+but Sigmund refused to part with it at any price, declaring that it
+was clear that the weapon had been intended for him to wear. This
+refusal so offended Siggeir that he secretly resolved to exterminate
+the proud Volsungs, and to secure the divine sword at the same time
+that he indulged his hatred towards his new kinsmen.
+
+Concealing his chagrin, however, he turned to Volsung and cordially
+invited him to visit his court a month later, together with his sons
+and kinsmen. The invitation was immediately accepted, and although
+Signy, suspecting evil, secretly sought her father while her husband
+slept, and implored him to retract his promise and stay at home,
+he would not consent to withdraw his plighted word and so exhibit fear.
+
+
+
+Siggeir's Treachery
+
+A few weeks after the return of the bridal couple, therefore, Volsung's
+well-manned vessels arrived within sight of Siggeir's shores. Signy
+had been keeping anxious watch, and when she perceived them she
+hastened down to the beach to implore her kinsmen not to land,
+warning them that her husband had treacherously planned an ambush,
+whence they could not escape alive. But Volsung and his sons, whom
+no peril could daunt, calmly bade her return to her husband's palace,
+and donning their arms they boldly set foot ashore.
+
+
+    "Then sweetly Volsung kissed her: 'Woe am I for thy sake,
+    But Earth the word hath hearkened, that yet unborn I spake;
+    How I ne'er would turn me backward from the sword or fire of bale;
+    --I have held that word till to-day, and to-day shall I change
+    the tale?
+    And look on these thy brethren, how goodly and great are they,
+    Wouldst thou have the maidens mock them, when this pain hath
+    passed away
+    And they sit at the feast hereafter, that they feared the deadly
+    stroke?
+    Let us do our day's work deftly for the praise and glory of folk;
+    And if the Norns will have it that the Volsung kin shall fail,
+    Yet I know of the deed that dies not, and the name that shall
+    ever avail.'"
+
+
+It befell as Signy had said, for on their way to the palace the
+brave little troop fell into Siggeir's ambush, and, although they
+fought with heroic courage, they were so borne down by the superior
+number of their foes that Volsung was slain and all his sons were
+made captive. The young men were led bound into the presence of the
+cowardly Siggeir, who had taken no part in the fight, and Sigmund
+was forced to relinquish his precious sword, after which he and his
+brothers were condemned to death.
+
+Signy, hearing the cruel sentence, vainly interceded for her brothers:
+all she could obtain by her prayers and entreaties was that they should
+be chained to a fallen oak in the forest, to perish of hunger and
+thirst if the wild beasts should spare them. Then, lest she should
+visit and succour her brothers, Siggeir confined his wife in the
+palace, where she was closely guarded night and day.
+
+Every morning early Siggeir himself sent a messenger into the forest
+to see whether the Volsungs were still living, and every morning
+the man returned saying a monster had come during the night and had
+devoured one of the princes, leaving nothing but his bones. At last,
+when none but Sigmund remained alive, Signy thought of a plan, and
+she prevailed on one of her servants to carry some honey into the
+forest and smear it over her brother's face and mouth.
+
+When the wild beast came that night, attracted by the smell of the
+honey, it licked Sigmund's face, and even thrust its tongue into
+his mouth. Clinching his teeth upon it, Sigmund, weak and wounded
+as he was, held on to the animal, and in its frantic struggles his
+bonds gave way, and he succeeded in slaying the prowling beast who
+had devoured his brothers. Then he vanished into the forest, where
+he remained concealed until the king's messenger had come as usual,
+and until Signy, released from captivity, came speeding to the forest
+to weep over her kinsmen's remains.
+
+Seeing her intense grief, and knowing that she had not participated
+in Siggeir's cruelty, Sigmund stole out of his place of concealment
+and comforted her as best he could. Together they then buried the
+whitening bones, and Sigmund registered a solemn oath to avenge
+his family's wrongs. This vow was fully approved by Signy, who,
+however, bade her brother bide a favourable time, promising to send
+him aid. Then the brother and sister sadly parted, she to return to
+her distasteful palace home, and he to a remote part of the forest,
+where he built a tiny hut and plied the craft of a smith.
+
+
+                                "And men say that Signy wept
+    When she left that last of her kindred: yet wept she never more
+    Amid the earls of Siggeir, and as lovely as before
+    Was her face to all men's deeming: nor aught it changed for ruth,
+    Nor for fear nor any longing; and no man said for sooth
+    That she ever laughed thereafter till the day of her death
+    was come."
+
+
+
+Signy's Sons
+
+Siggeir now took possession of the Volsung kingdom, and during the next
+few years he proudly watched the growth of his eldest son, whom Signy
+secretly sent to her brother when he was ten years of age, that Sigmund
+might train up the child to help him to obtain vengeance if he should
+prove worthy. Sigmund reluctantly accepted the charge; but as soon
+as he had tested the boy he found him deficient in physical courage,
+so he either sent him back to his mother, or, as some versions relate,
+slew him.
+
+Some time after this Signy's second son was sent into the forest
+for the same purpose, but Sigmund found him equally lacking in
+courage. Evidently none but a pure-blooded Volsung would avail for
+the grim work of revenge, and Signy, realising this, resolved to
+commit a crime.
+
+
+    "And once in the dark she murmured: 'Where then was the ancient
+    song
+    That the Gods were but twin-born once, and deemed it nothing wrong
+    To mingle for the world's sake, whence had the Æsir birth,
+    And the Vanir and the Dwarf-kind, and all the folk of earth?"
+
+
+Her resolution taken, she summoned a beautiful young witch, and
+exchanging forms with her, she sought the depths of the dark forest
+and took shelter in Sigmund's hut. The Volsung did not penetrate his
+sister's disguise. He deemed her nought but the gypsy she seemed,
+and being soon won by her coquetry, he made her his wife. Three days
+later she disappeared from the hut, and, returning to the palace,
+she resumed her own form, and when she next gave birth to a son,
+she rejoiced to see in his bold glance and strong frame the promise
+of a true Volsung hero.
+
+
+
+Sinfiotli
+
+When Sinfiotli, as the child was called, was ten years of age, she
+herself made a preliminary test of his courage by sewing his garment
+to his skin, and then suddenly snatching it off, and as the brave boy
+did not so much as wince, but laughed aloud, she confidently sent him
+to the forest hut. Sigmund speedily prepared his usual test, and ere
+leaving the hut one day he bade Sinfiotli take meal from a certain
+sack, and knead it and bake some bread. On returning home, Sigmund
+asked whether his orders had been carried out. The lad replied by
+showing the bread, and when closely questioned he artlessly confessed
+that he had been obliged to knead into the loaf a great adder which
+was hidden in the meal. Pleased to see that the boy, for whom he felt
+a strange affection, had successfully stood the test which had daunted
+his brothers, Sigmund bade him refrain from eating of the loaf, for
+although he was proof against the bite of a reptile, he could not,
+like his mentor, taste poison unharmed.
+
+
+    "For here, the tale of the elders doth men a marvel to wit,
+    That such was the shaping of Sigmund among all earthly kings,
+    That unhurt he handled adders and other deadly things,
+    And might drink unscathed of venom: but Sinfiotli was so wrought
+    That no sting of creeping creatures would harm his body aught."
+
+
+
+The Werewolves
+
+Sigmund now began patiently to teach Sinfiotli all that a warrior
+of the North should know, and the two soon became inseparable
+companions. One day while ranging the forest together they came
+to a hut, where they found two men sound asleep. Near by hung two
+wolf-skins, which suggested immediately that the strangers were
+werewolves, whom a cruel spell prevented from bearing their natural
+form save for a short space at a time. Prompted by curiosity, Sigmund
+and Sinfiotli donned the wolf-skins, and they were soon, in the guise
+of wolves, rushing through the forest, slaying and devouring all that
+came in their way.
+
+Such were their wolfish passions that soon they attacked each other,
+and after a fierce struggle Sinfiotli, the younger and weaker, fell
+dead. This catastrophe brought Sigmund to his senses, and he hung
+over his murdered companion in despair. While thus engaged he saw two
+weasels come out of the forest and attack each other fiercely until
+one lay dead. The victor then sprang into the thicket, to return with
+a leaf, which it laid upon its companion's breast. Then was seen a
+marvellous thing, for at the touch of the magic herb the dead beast
+came back to life. A moment later a raven flying overhead dropped a
+similar leaf at Sigmund's feet, and he, understanding that the gods
+wished to help him, laid it upon Sinfiotli, who was at once restored
+to life.
+
+In dire fear lest they might work each other further mischief, Sigmund
+and Sinfiotli now crept home and patiently waited until the time of
+their release should come. To their great relief the skins dropped
+off on the ninth night, and they hastily flung them into the fire,
+where they were entirely consumed, and the spell was broken for ever.
+
+
+
+Sigmund and Sinfiotli taken by Siggeir
+
+Sigmund now confided the story of his wrongs to Sinfiotli, who swore
+that, although Siggeir was his father (for neither he nor Sigmund
+knew the secret of his birth), he would aid him in his revenge. At
+nightfall, therefore, he accompanied Sigmund to the king's hall, and
+they entered unseen, concealing themselves in the cellar, behind the
+huge vats of beer. Here they were discovered by Signy's two youngest
+children, who, while playing with golden rings, which rolled into
+the cellar, came suddenly upon the men in ambush.
+
+They loudly proclaimed their discovery to their father and his guests,
+but, before Siggeir and his men could take up arms, Signy took both
+children, and dragging them into the cellar bade her brother slay the
+little traitors. This Sigmund utterly refused to do, but Sinfiotli
+struck off their heads ere he turned to fight against the assailants,
+who were now closing in upon them.
+
+In spite of all efforts Sigmund and his brave young companion soon
+fell into the hands of the Goths, whereupon Siggeir sentenced them to
+be buried alive in the same mound, with a stone partition between them
+so that they could neither see nor touch each other. The prisoners were
+accordingly confined in their living grave, and their foes were about
+to place the last stones on the roof, when Signy drew near, bearing a
+bundle of straw, which she was allowed to throw at Sinfiotli's feet,
+for the Goths fancied that it contained only a few provisions which
+would prolong his agony without helping him to escape.
+
+When all was still, Sinfiotli undid the sheaf, and great was his
+joy when he found instead of bread the sword which Odin had given to
+Sigmund. Knowing that nothing could dull or break the keen edge of
+this fine weapon, Sinfiotli thrust it through the stone partition,
+and, aided by Sigmund, he succeeded in cutting an opening, and in
+the end both effected their escape through the roof.
+
+
+    "Then in the grave-mound's darkness did Sigmund the king upstand,
+    And unto that saw of battle he set his naked hand;
+    And hard the gift of Odin home to their breasts they drew;
+    Sawed Sigmund, sawed Sinfiotli, till the stone was cleft atwo,
+    And they met and kissed together: then they hewed and heaved
+    full hard
+    Till, lo, through the bursten rafters the winter heavens bestarred!
+    And they leap out merry-hearted; nor is there need to say
+    A many words between them of whither was the way."
+
+
+
+Sigmund's Vengeance
+
+As soon as they were free, Sigmund and Sinfiotli returned to the king's
+hall, and piling combustible materials around it, they set fire to
+the mass. Then stationing themselves on either side of the entrance,
+they prevented all but the women from passing through. They loudly
+adjured Signy to escape ere it was too late, but she did not desire
+to live, and so coming to the entrance for a last embrace she found
+opportunity to whisper the secret of Sinfiotli's birth, after which
+she sprang back into the flames and perished with the rest.
+
+
+    "And then King Siggeir's roof-tree upheaved for its utmost fall,
+    And its huge walls clashed together, and its mean and lowly things
+    The fire of death confounded with the tokens of the kings."
+
+
+
+Helgi
+
+The long-planned vengeance for the slaughter of the Volsungs having
+thus been carried out, Sigmund, feeling that nothing now detained
+him in the land of the Goths, set sail with Sinfiotli and returned to
+Hunaland, where he was warmly welcomed to the seat of power under the
+shade of his ancestral tree, the mighty Branstock. When his authority
+was fully established, Sigmund married Borghild, a beautiful princess,
+who bore him two sons, Hamond and Helgi. The latter was visited by
+the Norns as he lay in his cradle, and they promised him sumptuous
+entertainment in Valhalla when his earthly career should be ended.
+
+
+    "And the woman was fair and lovely and bore him sons of fame;
+    Men called them Hamond and Helgi, and when Helgi first saw light,
+    There came the Norns to his cradle and gave him life full bright,
+    And called him Sunlit Hill, Sharp Sword, and Land of Rings,
+    And bade him be lovely and great, and a joy in the tale of kings."
+
+
+Northern kings generally entrusted their sons' upbringing to a
+stranger, for they thought that so they would be treated with less
+indulgence than at home. Accordingly Helgi was fostered by Hagal,
+and under his care the young prince became so fearless that at the
+age of fifteen he ventured alone into the hall of Hunding, with whose
+race his family was at feud. Passing through the hall unmolested and
+unrecognised, he left an insolent message, which so angered Hunding
+that he immediately set out in pursuit of the bold young prince,
+whom he followed to the dwelling of Hagal. Helgi would then have been
+secured but that meanwhile he had disguised himself as a servant-maid,
+and was busy grinding corn as if this were his wonted occupation. The
+invaders marvelled somewhat at the maid's tall stature and brawny
+arms, nevertheless they departed without suspecting that they had
+been so near the hero whom they sought.
+
+Having thus cleverly escaped, Helgi joined Sinfiotli, and collecting an
+army, the two young men marched boldly against the Hundings, with whom
+they fought a great battle, over which the Valkyrs hovered, waiting
+to convey the slain to Valhalla. Gudrun, one of the battle-maidens,
+was so struck by the courage which Helgi displayed, that she openly
+sought him and promised to be his wife. Only one of the Hunding race,
+Dag, remained alive, and he was allowed to go free after promising not
+to endeavour to avenge his kinsmen's death. This promise was not kept,
+however, and Dag, having obtained possession of Odin's spear Gungnir,
+treacherously slew Helgi with it. Gudrun, who in the meantime had
+fulfilled her promise to become his wife, wept many tears at his death,
+and laid a solemn curse upon his murderer; then, hearing from one of
+her maids that her slain husband kept calling for her from the depths
+of the tomb, she fearlessly entered the mound at night and tenderly
+inquired why he called and why his wounds continued to bleed after
+death. Helgi answered that he could not rest happy because of her
+grief, and declared that for every tear she shed a drop of his blood
+must flow.
+
+
+    "Thou weepest, gold-adorned!
+    Cruel tears,
+    Sun-bright daughter of the south!
+    Ere to sleep thou goest;
+    Each one falls bloody
+    On the prince's breast,
+    Wet, cold, and piercing,
+    With sorrow big."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+To appease the spirit of her beloved husband, Gudrun from that time
+ceased to weep, but they did not long remain separated; for soon after
+the spirit of Helgi had ridden over Bifröst and entered Valhalla,
+to become leader of the Einheriar, he was joined by Gudrun who, as a
+Valkyr once more, resumed her loving tendance of him. When at Odin's
+command she left his side for scenes of human strife, it was to seek
+new recruits for the army which her lord was to lead into battle when
+Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, should come.
+
+
+
+The Death of Sinfiotli
+
+Sinfiotli, Sigmund's eldest son, also met an early death; for, having
+slain in a quarrel the brother of Borghild, she determined to poison
+him. Twice Sinfiotli detected the attempt and told his father that
+there was poison in his cup. Twice Sigmund, whom no venom could injure,
+drained the bowl; and when Borghild made a third attempt, he bade
+Sinfiotli let the wine flow through his beard. Mistaking the meaning
+of his father's words, Sinfiotli forthwith drained the cup, and fell
+lifeless to the ground, for the poison was of the most deadly kind.
+
+
+    "He drank as he spake the word, and forthwith the venom ran
+    In a chill flood over his heart and down fell the mighty man
+    With never an uttered death-word and never a death-changed look,
+    And the floor of the hall of the Volsungs beneath his falling
+    shook.
+    Then up rose the elder of days with a great and bitter cry,
+    And lifted the head of the fallen; and none durst come anigh
+    To hearken the words of his sorrow, if any words he said
+    But such as the Father of all men might speak over Baldur dead.
+    And again, as before the death-stroke, waxed the hall of the
+    Volsungs dim,
+    And once more he seemed in the forest, where he spake with nought
+    but him."
+
+
+Speechless with grief, Sigmund tenderly raised his son's body in
+his arms, and strode out of the hall and down to the shore, where he
+deposited his precious burden in a skiff which an old one-eyed boatman
+brought at his call. He would fain have stepped aboard also, but ere
+he could do so the boatman pushed off and the frail craft was soon
+lost to sight. The bereaved father then slowly wended his way home,
+taking comfort from the thought that Odin himself had come to claim
+the young hero and had rowed away with him "out into the west."
+
+
+
+Hiordis
+
+Sigmund deposed Borghild as his wife and queen in punishment for
+this crime, and when he was very old he sued for the hand of Hiordis,
+a fair young princess, daughter of Eglimi, King of the Islands. This
+young maiden had many suitors, among others King Lygni of Hunding's
+race, but so great was Sigmund's fame that she gladly accepted him
+and became his wife. Lygni, the discarded suitor, was so angry at
+this decision, that he immediately collected a great army and marched
+against his successful rival, who, though overpowered by superior
+numbers, fought with the courage of despair.
+
+From the depths of a thicket which commanded the field of battle,
+Hiordis and her maid anxiously watched the progress of the strife. They
+saw Sigmund pile the dead around him, for none could stand against
+him, until at last a tall, one-eyed warrior suddenly appeared, and
+the press of battle gave way before the terror of his presence.
+
+Without a moment's pause the new champion aimed a fierce blow
+at Sigmund, which the old hero parried with his sword. The shock
+shattered the matchless blade, and although the strange assailant
+vanished as he had come, Sigmund was left defenceless and was soon
+wounded unto death by his foes.
+
+
+    "But lo, through the hedge of the war-shafts, a mighty man
+    there came,
+    One-eyed and seeming ancient, but his visage shone like flame:
+    Gleaming grey was his kirtle, and his hood was cloudy blue;
+    And he bore a mighty twi-bill, as he waded the fight-sheaves
+    through,
+    And stood face to face with Sigmund, and upheaved the bill
+    to smite.
+    Once more round the head of the Volsung fierce glittered the
+    Branstock's light,
+    The sword that came from Odin; and Sigmund's cry once more
+    Rang out to the very heavens above the din of war.
+    Then clashed the meeting edges with Sigmund's latest stroke,
+    And in shivering shards fell earthward that fear of worldly folk.
+    But changed were the eyes of Sigmund, and the war-wrath left
+    his face;
+    For that grey-clad, mighty helper was gone, and in his place
+    Drave on the unbroken spear-wood 'gainst the Volsung's empty hands:
+    And there they smote down Sigmund, the wonder of all lands,
+    On the foemen, on the death-heap his deeds had piled that day."
+
+
+As the battle was now won, and the Volsung family all slain, Lygni
+hastened from the battlefield to take possession of the kingdom and
+force the fair Hiordis to become his wife. As soon as he had gone,
+however, the beautiful young queen crept from her hiding-place in
+the thicket, and sought the spot where Sigmund lay all but dead. She
+caught the stricken hero to her breast in a last passionate embrace,
+and then listened tearfully while he bade her gather the fragments of
+his sword and carefully treasure them for their son whom he foretold
+was soon to be born, and who was destined to avenge his father's
+death and to be far greater than he.
+
+
+    "'I have wrought for the Volsungs truly, and yet have I known
+    full well
+    That a better one than I am shall bear the tale to tell:
+    And for him shall these shards be smithied: and he shall be my son,
+    To remember what I have forgotten and to do what I left undone.'"
+
+
+
+Elf, the Viking
+
+While Hiordis was mourning over Sigmund's lifeless body, her handmaiden
+suddenly warned her of the approach of a band of vikings. Retreating
+into the thicket once more, the two women exchanged garments, after
+which Hiordis bade the maid walk first and personate the queen, and
+they went thus to meet the viking Elf (Helfrat or Helferich). Elf
+received the women graciously, and their story of the battle so
+excited his admiration for Sigmund that he caused the remains of the
+slain hero to be reverentially removed to a suitable spot, where they
+were interred with all due ceremony. He then offered the queen and
+her maid a safe asylum in his hall, and they gladly accompanied him
+over the seas.
+
+As he had doubted their relative positions from the first, Elf took
+the first opportunity after arriving in his kingdom to ask a seemingly
+idle question in order to ascertain the truth. He asked the pretended
+queen how she knew the hour had come for rising when the winter days
+were short and there was no light to announce the coming of morn,
+and she replied that, as she was in the habit of drinking milk ere
+she fed the cows, she always awoke thirsty. When the same question
+was put to the real Hiordis, she answered, with as little reflection,
+that she knew it was morning because at that hour the golden ring
+which her father had given her grew cold on her hand.
+
+
+
+The Birth of Sigurd
+
+The suspicions of Elf having thus been confirmed, he offered marriage
+to the pretended handmaiden, Hiordis, promising to cherish her
+infant son, a promise which he nobly kept. When the child was born
+Elf himself sprinkled him with water--a ceremony which our pagan
+ancestors scrupulously observed--and bestowed upon him the name of
+Sigurd. As he grew up he was treated as the king's own son, and his
+education was entrusted to Regin, the wisest of men, who knew all
+things, his own fate not even excepted, for it had been revealed to
+him that he would fall by the hand of a youth.
+
+
+    "Again in the house of the Helper there dwelt a certain man,
+    Beardless and low of stature, of visage pinched and wan:
+    So exceeding old was Regin, that no son of man could tell
+    In what year of the days passed over he came to that land to dwell:
+    But the youth of king Elf had he fostered, and the Helper's
+    youth thereto,
+    Yea and his father's father's: the lore of all men he knew,
+    And was deft in every cunning, save the dealings of the sword:
+    So sweet was his tongue-speech fashioned, that men trowed his
+    every word;
+    His hand with the harp-strings blended was the mingler of delight
+    With the latter days of sorrow; all tales he told aright;
+    The Master of the Masters in the smithying craft was he;
+    And he dealt with the wind and the weather and the stilling of
+    the sea;
+    Nor might any learn him leech-craft, for before that race was made,
+    And that man-folk's generation, all their life-days had he
+    weighed."
+
+
+Under this tutor Sigurd grew daily in wisdom until few could surpass
+him. He mastered the smith's craft, and the art of carving all manner
+of runes; he learned languages, music, and eloquence; and, last but
+not least, he became a doughty warrior whom none could subdue. When he
+had reached manhood Regin prompted him to ask the king for a war-horse,
+a request which was immediately granted, and Gripir, the stud-keeper,
+was bidden to allow him to choose from the royal stables the steed
+which he most fancied.
+
+On his way to the meadow where the horses were at pasture, Sigurd met
+a one-eyed stranger, clad in grey and blue, who accosted the young
+man and bade him drive the horses into the river and select the one
+which could breast the tide with least difficulty.
+
+Sigurd received the advice gladly, and upon reaching the meadow he
+drove the horses into the stream which flowed on one side. One of the
+number, after crossing, raced round the opposite meadow; and, plunging
+again into the river, returned to his former pasture without showing
+any signs of fatigue. Sigurd therefore did not hesitate to select this
+horse, and he gave him the name of Grane or Greyfell. The steed was
+a descendant of Odin's eight-footed horse Sleipnir, and besides being
+unusually strong and indefatigable, was as fearless as his master.
+
+One winter day while Regin and his pupil were sitting by the fire,
+the old man struck his harp, and, after the manner of the Northern
+scalds, sang or recited in the following tale, the story of his life:
+
+
+
+The Treasure of the Dwarf King
+
+Hreidmar, king of the dwarf folk, was the father of three sons. Fafnir,
+the eldest, was gifted with a fearless soul and a powerful arm; Otter,
+the second, with snare and net, and the power of changing his form
+at will; and Regin, the youngest, with all wisdom and deftness of
+hand. To please the avaricious Hreidmar, this youngest son fashioned
+for him a house lined with glittering gold and flashing gems, and
+this was guarded by Fafnir, whose fierce glances and Ægis helmet none
+dared encounter.
+
+Now it came to pass that Odin, Hoenir, and Loki once came in human
+guise, upon one of their wonted expeditions to test the hearts of men,
+unto the land where Hreidmar dwelt.
+
+
+    "And the three were the heart-wise Odin, the Father of the Slain,
+    And Loki, the World's Begrudger, who maketh all labour vain,
+    And Hænir, the Utter-Blameless, who wrought the hope of man,
+    And his heart and inmost yearnings, when first the work began;--
+    The God that was aforetime, and hereafter yet shall be
+    When the new light yet undreamed of shall shine o'er earth
+    and sea."
+
+
+As the gods came near to Hreidmar's dwelling, Loki perceived
+an otter basking in the sun. This was none other than the dwarf
+king's second son, Otter, who now succumbed to Loki's usual love of
+destruction. Killing the unfortunate creature he flung its lifeless
+body over his shoulders, thinking it would furnish a good dish when
+meal time came.
+
+Loki then hastened after his companions, and entering Hreidmar's
+house with them, he flung his burden down upon the floor. The moment
+the dwarf king's glance fell upon the seeming otter, he flew into
+a towering rage, and ere they could offer effective resistance the
+gods found themselves lying bound, and they heard Hreidmar declare
+that never should they recover their liberty until they could satisfy
+his thirst for gold by giving him of that precious substance enough
+to cover the skin of the otter inside and out.
+
+
+    "'Now hearken the doom I shall speak! Ye stranger-folk shall
+    be free
+    When ye give me the Flame of the Waters, the gathered Gold of
+    the Sea,
+    That Andvari hideth rejoicing in the wan realm pale as the grave;
+    And the Master of Sleight shall fetch it, and the hand that
+    never gave,
+And the heart that begrudgeth for ever, shall gather and give and rue.
+    --Lo, this is the doom of the wise, and no doom shall be spoken
+    anew.'"
+
+
+As the otter-skin developed the property of stretching itself to a
+fabulous size, no ordinary treasure could suffice to cover it, and the
+plight of the gods, therefore, was a very bad one. The case, however,
+became a little more hopeful when Hreidmar consented to liberate one
+of their number. The emissary selected was Loki, who lost no time in
+setting off to the waterfall where the dwarf Andvari dwelt, in order
+that he might secure the treasure there amassed.
+
+
+    "There is a desert of dread in the uttermost part of the world,
+    Where over a wall of mountains is a mighty water hurled,
+    Whose hidden head none knoweth, nor where it meeteth the sea;
+    And that force is the Force of Andvari, and an Elf of the Dark
+    is he.
+    In the cloud and the desert he dwelleth amid that land alone;
+    And his work is the storing of treasure within his house of stone."
+
+
+In spite of diligent search, however, Loki could not find the dwarf,
+until, perceiving a salmon sporting in the foaming waters, it occurred
+to him that the dwarf might have assumed this shape. Borrowing Ran's
+net he soon caught the fish, and learned, as he had suspected, that it
+was Andvari. Finding that there was nothing else for it, the dwarf now
+reluctantly brought forth his mighty treasure and surrendered it all,
+including the Helmet of Dread and a hauberk of gold, reserving only a
+ring which was gifted with miraculous powers, and which, like a magnet,
+attracted the precious ore. But the greedy Loki, catching sight of it,
+wrenched it from off the dwarf's finger and departed laughing, while
+his victim hurled angry curses after him, declaring that the ring would
+ever prove its possessor's bane and would cause the death of many.
+
+
+    "That gold
+    Which the dwarf possessed
+    Shall to two brothers
+    Be cause of death,
+    And to eight princes,
+    Of dissension.
+    From my wealth no one
+    Shall good derive."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+On arriving at Hreidmar's house, Loki found the mighty treasure none
+too great, for the skin became larger with every object placed upon it,
+and he was forced to throw in the ring Andvaranaut (Andvari's loom),
+which he had intended to retain, in order to secure the release of
+himself and his companions. Andvari's curse of the gold soon began
+to operate. Fafnir and Regin both coveted a share, while Hriedmar
+gloated over his treasure night and day, and would not part with an
+item of it. Fafnir the invincible, seeing at last that he could not
+otherwise gratify his lust, slew his father, and seized the whole
+of the treasure, then, when Regin came to claim a share he drove him
+scornfully away and bade him earn his own living.
+
+Thus exiled, Regin took refuge among men, to whom he taught the arts
+of sowing and reaping. He showed them how to work metals, sail the
+seas, tame horses, yoke beasts of burden, build houses, spin, weave,
+and sew--in short, all the industries of civilised life, which had
+hitherto been unknown. Years elapsed, and Regin patiently bided
+his time, hoping that some day he would find a hero strong enough
+to avenge his wrongs upon Fafnir, whom years of gloating over his
+treasure had changed into a horrible dragon, the terror of Gnîtaheid
+(Glittering Heath), where he had taken up his abode.
+
+His story finished, Regin turned suddenly to the attentive Sigurd,
+saying he knew that the young man could slay the dragon if he wished,
+and inquiring whether he were ready to aid him to avenge his wrongs.
+
+
+    "And he spake: 'Hast thou hearkened, Sigurd? Wilt thou help a
+    man that is old
+    To avenge him for his father? Wilt thou win that treasure of Gold
+    And be more than the Kings of the earth? Wilt thou rid the earth
+    of a wrong
+    And heal the woe and the sorrow my heart hath endured o'er long?'"
+
+
+
+Sigurd's Sword
+
+Sigurd immediately assented, on the condition, however, that the curse
+should be assumed by Regin, who, also, in order to fitly equip the
+young man for the coming fight, should forge him a sword, which no
+blow could break. Twice Regin fashioned a marvellous weapon, but twice
+Sigurd broke it to pieces on the anvil. Then Sigurd bethought him of
+the broken fragments of Sigmund's weapon which were treasured by his
+mother, and going to Hiordis he begged these from her; and either
+he or Regin forged from them a blade so strong that it divided the
+great anvil in two without being dinted, and whose temper was such
+that it neatly severed some wool floating gently upon the stream.
+
+Sigurd now went upon a farewell visit to Gripir, who, knowing the
+future, foretold every event in his coming career; after which he
+took leave of his mother, and accompanied by Regin set sail for the
+land of his fathers, vowing to slay the dragon when he had fulfilled
+his first duty, which was to avenge the death of Sigmund.
+
+
+    "'First wilt thou, prince,
+    Avenge thy father,
+    And for the wrongs of Eglymi
+    Wilt retaliate.
+    Thou wilt the cruel,
+    The sons of Hunding,
+    Boldly lay low:
+    Thou wilt have victory.'"
+
+            Lay of Sigurd Fafnicide (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+On his way to the land of the Volsungs a most marvellous sight was
+seen, for there came a man walking on the waters. Sigurd straightway
+took him on board his dragon ship, and the stranger, who gave his name
+as Feng or Fiöllnir, promised favourable winds. Also he taught Sigurd
+how to distinguish auspicious omens. In reality the old man was Odin
+or Hnikar, the wave-stiller, but Sigurd did not suspect his identity.
+
+
+
+The Fight with the Dragon
+
+Sigurd was entirely successful in his descent upon Lygni, whom he
+slew, together with many of his followers. He then departed from his
+reconquered kingdom and returned with Regin to slay Fafnir. Together
+they rode through the mountains, which ever rose higher and higher
+before them, until they came to a great tract of desert which Regin
+said was the haunt of Fafnir. Sigurd now rode on alone until he met
+a one-eyed stranger, who bade him dig trenches in the middle of the
+track along which the dragon daily dragged his slimy length to the
+river to quench his thirst, and to lie in wait in one of these until
+the monster passed over him, when he could thrust his sword straight
+into its heart.
+
+Sigurd gratefully followed this counsel, and was rewarded with complete
+success, for as the monster's loathsome folds rolled overhead, he
+thrust his sword upward into its left breast, and as he sprang out
+of the trench the dragon lay gasping in the throes of death.
+
+
+    "Then all sank into silence, and the son of Sigmund stood
+    On the torn and furrowed desert by the pool of Fafnir's blood,
+    And the Serpent lay before him, dead, chilly, dull, and grey;
+    And over the Glittering Heath fair shone the sun and the day,
+    And a light wind followed the sun and breathed o'er the fateful
+    place,
+    As fresh as it furrows the sea-plain, or bows the acres' face."
+
+
+Regin had prudently remained at a distance until all danger was past,
+but seeing that his foe was slain, he now came up. He was fearful
+lest the young hero should claim a reward, so he began to accuse him
+of having murdered his kin, but, with feigned magnanimity, he declared
+that instead of requiring life for life, in accordance with the custom
+of the North, he would consider it sufficient atonement if Sigurd
+would cut out the monster's heart and roast it for him on a spit.
+
+
+    "Then Regin spake to Sigurd: 'Of this slaying wilt thou be free?
+    Then gather thou fire together and roast the heart for me,
+    That I may eat it and live, and be thy master and more;
+    For therein was might and wisdom, and the grudged and hoarded lore:
+    --Or, else depart on thy ways afraid from the Glittering Heath.'"
+
+
+Sigurd was aware that a true warrior never refused satisfaction of
+some kind to the kindred of the slain, so he agreed to the seemingly
+small proposal, and immediately prepared to act as cook, while Regin
+dozed until the meat was ready. After an interval Sigurd touched the
+roast to ascertain whether it were tender, but burning his fingers
+severely, he instinctively thrust them into his mouth to allay the
+smart. No sooner had Fafnir's blood thus touched his lips than he
+discovered, to his utter surprise, that he could understand the
+songs of the birds, many of which were already gathering round the
+carrion. Listening attentively, he found that they were telling how
+Regin meditated mischief against him, and how he ought to slay the
+old man and take the gold, which was his by right of conquest, after
+which he ought to partake of the heart and blood of the dragon. As
+this coincided with his own wishes, he slew the evil old man with a
+thrust of his sword and proceeded to eat and drink as the birds had
+suggested, reserving a small portion of Fafnir's heart for future
+consumption. He then wandered off in search of the mighty hoard,
+and, after donning the Helmet of Dread, the hauberk of gold, and the
+ring Andvaranaut, and loading Greyfell with as much gold as he could
+carry, he sprang to the saddle and sat listening eagerly to the birds'
+songs to know what his future course should be.
+
+
+
+The Sleeping Warrior Maiden
+
+Soon he heard of a warrior maiden fast asleep on a mountain and
+surrounded by a glittering barrier of flames, through which only the
+bravest of men could pass to arouse her.
+
+
+    "On the fell I know
+    A warrior maid to sleep;
+    Over her waves
+    The linden's bane:
+    Ygg whilom stuck
+    A sleep-thorn in the robe
+    Of the maid who
+    Would heroes choose."
+
+            Lay of Fafnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+This adventure was the very thing for Sigurd, and he set off at
+once. The way lay through trackless regions, and the journey was long
+and cheerless, but at length he came to the Hindarfiall in Frankland,
+a tall mountain whose cloud-wreathed summit seemed circled by fiery
+flames.
+
+
+    "Long Sigurd rideth the waste, when, lo, on a morning of day,
+    From out of the tangled crag-walls, amidst the cloudland grey,
+    Comes up a mighty mountain, and it is as though there burns
+    A torch amidst of its cloud-wreath; so thither Sigurd turns,
+    For he deems indeed from its topmost to look on the best of
+    the earth;
+    And Greyfell neigheth beneath him, and his heart is full of mirth."
+
+
+Sigurd rode up the mountain side, and the light grew more and more
+vivid as he proceeded, until when he had neared the summit a barrier
+of lurid flames stood before him. The fire burned with a roar which
+would have daunted the heart of any other, but Sigurd remembered
+the words of the birds, and without a moment's hesitation he plunged
+bravely into its very midst.
+
+
+    "Now Sigurd turns in his saddle, and the hilt of the Wrath
+    he shifts,
+    And draws a girth the tighter; then the gathered reins he lifts,
+    And crieth aloud to Greyfell, and rides at the wildfire's heart;
+    But the white wall wavers before him and the flame-flood rusheth
+    apart,
+    And high o'er his head it riseth, and wide and wild its roar
+    As it beareth the mighty tidings to the very heavenly floor:
+    But he rideth through its roaring as the warrior rides the rye,
+    When it bows with the wind of the summer and the hid spears
+    draw anigh;
+    The white flame licks his raiment and sweeps through Greyfell's
+    mane,
+    And bathes both hands of Sigurd and the hilt of Fafnir's bane,
+    And winds about his war-helm and mingles with his hair,
+But nought his raiment dusketh or dims his glittering gear;
+    Then it fails and fades and darkens till all seems left behind,
+    And dawn and the blaze is swallowed in mid-mirk stark and blind."
+
+
+The threatening flames having now died away, Sigurd pursued his
+journey over a broad tract of white ashes, directing his course to
+a great castle, with shield-hung walls. The great gates stood wide
+open, and Sigurd rode through them unchallenged by warders or men at
+arms. Proceeding cautiously, for he feared some snare, he at last came
+to the centre of the courtyard, where he saw a recumbent form cased
+in armour. Sigurd dismounted from his steed and eagerly removed the
+helmet, when he started with surprise to behold, instead of a warrior,
+the face of a most beautiful maiden.
+
+All his efforts to awaken the sleeper were vain, however, until he
+had removed her armour, and she lay before him in pure-white linen
+garments, her long hair falling in golden waves around her. Then as the
+last fastening of her armour gave way, she opened wide her beautiful
+eyes, which met the rising sun, and first greeting with rapture the
+glorious spectacle, she turned to her deliverer, and the young hero
+and the maiden loved each other at first sight.
+
+
+    "Then she turned and gazed on Sigurd, and her eyes met the
+    Volsung's eyes.
+    And mighty and measureless now did the tide of his love arise,
+    For their longing had met and mingled, and he knew of her heart
+    that she loved,
+    And she spake unto nothing but him and her lips with the
+    speech-flood moved."
+
+
+The maiden now proceeded to tell Sigurd her story. Her name was
+Brunhild, and according to some authorities she was the daughter of
+an earthly king whom Odin had raised to the rank of a Valkyr. She
+had served him faithfully for a long while, but once had ventured to
+set her own wishes above his, giving to a younger and therefore more
+attractive opponent the victory which Odin had commanded for another.
+
+In punishment for this act of disobedience, she had been deprived
+of her office and banished to earth, where Allfather decreed she
+should wed like any other member of her sex. This sentence filled
+Brunhild's heart with dismay, for she greatly feared lest it might be
+her fate to mate with a coward, whom she would despise. To quiet these
+apprehensions, Odin took her to Hindarfiall or Hindfell, and touching
+her with the Thorn of Sleep, that she might await in unchanged youth
+and beauty the coming of her destined husband, he surrounded her with
+a barrier of flame which none but a hero would venture through.
+
+From the top of Hindarfiall, Brunhild now pointed out to Sigurd her
+former home, at Lymdale or Hunaland, telling him he would find her
+there whenever he chose to come and claim her as his wife; and then,
+while they stood on the lonely mountain top together, Sigurd placed
+the ring Andvaranaut upon her finger, in token of betrothal, swearing
+to love her alone as long as life endured.
+
+
+    "From his hand then draweth Sigurd Andvari's ancient Gold;
+    There is nought but the sky above them as the ring together
+    they hold,
+    The shapen ancient token, that hath no change nor end,
+    No change, and no beginning, no flaw for God to mend:
+    Then Sigurd cried: 'O Brynhild, now hearken while I swear,
+    That the sun shall die in the heavens and the day no more be fair,
+    If I seek not love in Lymdale and the house that fostered thee,
+    And the land where thou awakedst 'twixt the woodland and the sea!'
+    And she cried: 'O Sigurd, Sigurd, now hearken while I swear
+    That the day shall die for ever and the sun to blackness wear,
+    Ere I forget thee, Sigurd, as I lie 'twixt wood and sea
+    In the little land of Lymdale and the house that fostered me!'"
+
+
+
+The Fostering of Aslaug
+
+According to some authorities, the lovers parted after thus plighting
+their troth; but others say that Sigurd soon sought out and wedded
+Brunhild, with whom he lived for a while in perfect happiness until
+forced to leave her and his infant daughter Aslaug. This child, left
+orphaned at three years of age, was fostered by Brunhild's father, who,
+driven away from home, concealed her in a cunningly fashioned harp,
+until reaching a distant land he was murdered by a peasant couple for
+the sake of the gold they supposed it to contain. Their surprise and
+disappointment were great indeed when, on breaking the instrument open,
+they found a beautiful little girl, whom they deemed mute, as she would
+not speak a word. Time passed, and the child, whom they had trained
+as a drudge, grew to be a beautiful maiden, and she won the affection
+of a passing viking, Ragnar Lodbrog, King of the Danes, to whom she
+told her tale. The viking sailed away to other lands to fulfil the
+purposes of his voyage, but when a year had passed, during which time
+he won much glory, he came back and carried away Aslaug as his bride.
+
+
+    "She heard a voice she deemed well known,
+    Long waited through dull hours bygone
+    And round her mighty arms were cast:
+    But when her trembling red lips passed
+    From out the heaven of that dear kiss,
+    And eyes met eyes, she saw in his
+    Fresh pride, fresh hope, fresh love, and saw
+    The long sweet days still onward draw,
+    Themselves still going hand in hand,
+    As now they went adown the strand."
+
+            The Fostering of Aslaug (William Morris).
+
+
+In continuation of the story of Sigurd and Brunhild, however, we are
+told that the young man went to seek adventures in the great world,
+where he had vowed, as a true hero, to right the wrong and defend
+the fatherless and oppressed.
+
+
+
+The Niblungs
+
+In the course of his wanderings, Sigurd came to the land of the
+Niblungs, the land of continual mist, where Giuki and Grimhild were
+king and queen. The latter was specially to be feared, as she was well
+versed in magic lore, and could weave spells and concoct marvellous
+potions which had power to steep the drinker in temporary forgetfulness
+and compel him to yield to her will.
+
+The king and queen had three sons, Gunnar, Högni, and Guttorm,
+who were brave young men, and one daughter, Gudrun, the gentlest
+as well as the most beautiful of maidens. All welcomed Sigurd most
+warmly, and Giuki invited him to tarry awhile. The invitation was
+very agreeable after his long wanderings, and Sigurd was glad to
+stay and share the pleasures and occupations of the Niblungs. He
+accompanied them to war, and so distinguished himself by his valour,
+that he won the admiration of Grimhild and she resolved to secure him
+as her daughter's husband. One day, therefore, she brewed one of her
+magic potions, and when he had partaken of it at the hand of Gudrun,
+he utterly forgot Brunhild and his plighted troth, and all his love
+was diverted unto the queen's daughter.
+
+
+    "But the heart was changed in Sigurd; as though it ne'er had been
+    His love of Brynhild perished as he gazed on the Niblung Queen:
+    Brynhild's beloved body was e'en as a wasted hearth,
+    No more for bale or blessing, for plenty or for dearth."
+
+
+Although there was not wanting a vague fear that he had forgotten
+some event in the past which should rule his conduct, Sigurd asked for
+and obtained Gudrun's hand, and their wedding was celebrated amid the
+rejoicings of the people, who loved the young hero very dearly. Sigurd
+gave his bride some of Fafnir's heart to eat, and the moment she
+had tasted it her nature was changed, and she began to grow cold and
+silent to all except him. To further cement his alliance with the two
+eldest Giukings (as the sons of Giuki were called) Sigurd entered the
+"doom ring" with them, and the three young men cut a sod which was
+placed upon a shield, beneath which they stood while they bared and
+slightly cut their right arms, allowing their blood to mingle in the
+fresh earth. Then, when they had sworn eternal friendship, the sod
+was replaced.
+
+But although Sigurd loved his wife and felt a true fraternal affection
+for her brothers, he could not lose his haunting sense of oppression,
+and was seldom seen to smile as radiantly as of old. Giuki had now
+died, and his eldest son, Gunnar, ruled in his stead. As the young
+king was unwedded, Grimhild, his mother, besought him to take a wife,
+suggesting that none seemed more worthy to become Queen of the Niblungs
+than Brunhild, who, it was reported, sat in a golden hall surrounded
+by flames, whence she had declared she would issue only to marry the
+warrior who would dare brave the fire for her sake.
+
+
+
+Gunnar's Stratagem
+
+Gunnar immediately prepared to seek this maiden, and strengthened
+by one of his mother's magic potions, and encouraged by Sigurd, who
+accompanied him, he felt confident of success. But when on reaching
+the summit of the mountain he would have ridden into the fire, his
+steed drew back affrighted and he could not induce him to advance a
+step. Seeing that his companion's steed did not show signs of fear,
+he asked him of Sigurd; but although Greyfell allowed Gunnar to mount,
+he would not stir because his master was not on his back.
+
+Now as Sigurd carried the Helmet of Dread, and Grimhild had given
+Gunnar a magic potion in case it should be needed, it was possible
+for the companions to exchange their forms and features, and seeing
+that Gunnar could not penetrate the flaming wall Sigurd proposed to
+assume the appearance of Gunnar and woo the bride for him. The king
+was greatly disappointed, but as no alternative offered he dismounted,
+and the necessary exchange was soon effected. Then Sigurd mounted
+Greyfell in the semblance of his companion, and this time the steed
+showed not the least hesitation, but leaped into the flames at the
+first touch on his bridle, and soon brought his rider to the castle,
+where, in the great hall, sat Brunhild. Neither recognised the other:
+Sigurd because of the magic spell cast over him by Grimhild; Brunhild
+because of the altered appearance of her lover.
+
+The maiden shrank in disappointment from the dark-haired intruder,
+for she had deemed it impossible for any but Sigurd to ride through
+the flaming circle. But she advanced reluctantly to meet her visitor,
+and when he declared that he had come to woo her, she permitted him
+to take a husband's place at her side, for she was bound by solemn
+injunction to accept as her spouse him who should thus seek her
+through the flames.
+
+Three days did Sigurd remain with Brunhild, and his bright sword lay
+bared between him and his bride. This singular behaviour aroused the
+curiosity of the maiden, wherefore Sigurd told her that the gods had
+bidden him celebrate his wedding thus.
+
+
+    "There they went in one bed together; but the foster-brother laid
+    'Twixt him and the body of Brynhild his bright blue battle-blade;
+    And she looked and heeded it nothing; but, e'en as the dead
+    folk lie,
+    With folded hands she lay there, and let the night go by:
+    And as still lay that Image of Gunnar as the dead of life forlorn,
+    And hand on hand he folded as he waited for the morn.
+    So oft in the moonlit minster your fathers may ye see
+    By the side of the ancient mothers await the day to be."
+
+
+When the fourth morning dawned, Sigurd drew the ring Andvaranaut from
+Brunhild's hand, and, replacing it by another, he received her solemn
+promise that in ten days' time she would appear at the Niblung court
+to take up her duties as queen and faithful wife.
+
+
+    "'I thank thee, King, for thy goodwill, and thy pledge of love
+    I take,
+    Depart with my troth to thy people: but ere full ten days are o'er
+    I shall come to the Sons of the Niblungs, and then shall we part
+    no more
+    Till the day of the change of our life-days, when Odin and Freya
+    shall call.'"
+
+
+The promise given, Sigurd again passed out of the palace, through the
+ashes, and joined Gunnar, with whom, after he had reported the success
+of his venture, he hastened to exchange forms once more. The warriors
+then turned their steeds homeward, and only to Gudrun did Sigurd reveal
+the secret of her brother's wooing, and he gave her the fatal ring,
+little suspecting the many woes which it was destined to occasion.
+
+
+
+The Coming of Brunhild
+
+True to her promise, Brunhild appeared ten days later, and solemnly
+blessing the house she was about to enter, she greeted Gunnar
+kindly, and allowed him to conduct her to the great hall, where sat
+Sigurd beside Gudrun. The Volsung looked up at that moment and as he
+encountered Brunhild's reproachful eyes Grimhild's spell was broken and
+the past came back in a flood of bitter recollection. It was too late,
+however: both were in honour bound, he to Gudrun and she to Gunnar,
+whom she passively followed to the high seat, to sit beside him as
+the scalds entertained the royal couple with the ancient lays of
+their land.
+
+The days passed, and Brunhild remained apparently indifferent, but
+her heart was hot with anger, and often did she steal out of her
+husband's palace to the forest, where she could give vent to her
+grief in solitude.
+
+Meanwhile, Gunnar perceived the cold indifference of his wife to his
+protestations of affection, and began to have jealous suspicions,
+wondering whether Sigurd had honestly told the true story of the
+wooing, and fearing lest he had taken advantage of his position to win
+Brunhild's love. Sigurd alone continued the even tenor of his way,
+striving against none but tyrants and oppressors, and cheering all
+by his kindly words and smile.
+
+
+
+The Quarrel of the Queens
+
+On a day the queens went down together to the Rhine to bathe, and as
+they were entering the water Gudrun claimed precedence by right of
+her husband's courage. Brunhild refused to yield what she deemed her
+right, and a quarrel ensued, in the course of which Gudrun accused
+her sister-in-law of not having kept her faith, producing the ring
+Andvaranaut in support of her charge. The sight of the fatal ring
+in the hand of her rival crushed Brunhild, and she fled homeward,
+and lay in speechless grief day after day, until all thought she must
+die. In vain did Gunnar and the members of the royal family seek her
+in turn and implore her to speak; she would not utter a word until
+Sigurd came and inquired the cause of her unutterable grief. Then,
+like a long-pent-up stream, her love and anger burst forth, and she
+overwhelmed the hero with reproaches, until his heart so swelled
+with grief for her sorrow that the tight bands of his strong armour
+gave way.
+
+
+    "Out went Sigurd
+    From that interview
+    Into the hall of kings,
+    Writhing with anguish;
+    So that began to start
+    The ardent warrior's
+    Iron-woven sark
+    Off from his sides."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Words had no power to mend that woeful situation, and Brunhild
+refused to heed when Sigurd offered to repudiate Gudrun, saying,
+as she dismissed him, that she would not be faithless to Gunnar. The
+thought that two living men had called her wife was unendurable to
+her pride, and the next time her husband sought her presence she
+implored him to put Sigurd to death, thus increasing his jealousy
+and suspicion. He refused to deal violently with Sigurd, however,
+because of their oath of good fellowship, and so she turned to Högni
+for aid. He, too, did not wish to violate his oath, but he induced
+Guttorm, by means of much persuasion and one of Grimhild's potions,
+to undertake the dastardly deed.
+
+
+
+The Death of Sigurd
+
+Accordingly, in the dead of night, Guttorm stole into Sigurd's chamber,
+weapon in hand; but as he bent over the bed he saw Sigurd's bright
+eyes fixed upon him, and fled precipitately. Later on he returned
+and the scene was repeated; but towards morning, stealing in for
+the third time, he found the hero asleep, and traitorously drove his
+spear through his back.
+
+Although wounded unto death, Sigurd raised himself in bed, and seizing
+his renowned sword which hung beside him, he flung it with all his
+remaining strength at the flying murderer, cutting him in two as
+he reached the door. Then, with a last whispered farewell to the
+terrified Gudrun, Sigurd sank back and breathed his last.
+
+
+                    "'Mourn not, O Gudrun, this stroke is the last
+                    of ill;
+    Fear leaveth the House of the Niblungs on this breaking of
+    the morn;
+    Mayst thou live, O woman beloved, unforsaken, unforlorn!'
+     
+    'It is Brynhild's deed,' he murmured, 'and the woman that loves
+    me well;
+    Nought now is left to repent of, and the tale abides to tell.
+    I have done many deeds in my life-days; and all these, and my love,
+    they lie
+    In the hollow hand of Odin till the day of the world go by.
+    I have done and I may not undo, I have given and I take not again:
+    Art thou other than I, Allfather, wilt thou gather my glory
+    in vain?'"
+
+
+Sigurd's infant son was slain at the same time, and poor Gudrun mourned
+over her dead in silent, tearless grief; while Brunhild laughed aloud,
+thereby incurring the wrath of Gunnar, who repented, too late, that
+he had not taken measures to avert the dastardly crime.
+
+The grief of the Niblungs found expression in the public funeral
+celebration which was shortly held. A mighty pyre was erected, to
+which were brought precious hangings, fresh flowers, and glittering
+arms, as was the custom for the burial of a prince; and as these sad
+preparations took shape, Gudrun was the object of tender solicitude
+from the women, who, fearing lest her heart would break, tried to open
+the flood-gate of her tears by recounting the bitterest sorrows they
+had known, one telling of how she too had lost all she held dear. But
+these attempts to make her weep were utterly vain, until at length
+they laid her husband's head in her lap, bidding her kiss him as if
+he were still alive; then her tears began to flow in torrents.
+
+The reaction soon set in for Brunhild also; her resentment was all
+forgotten when she saw the body of Sigurd laid on the pyre, arrayed
+as if for battle in burnished armour, with the Helmet of Dread at his
+head, and accompanied by his steed, which was to be burned with him,
+together with several of his faithful servants who would not survive
+his loss. She withdrew to her apartment, and after distributing her
+possessions among her handmaidens, she donned her richest array,
+and stabbed herself as she lay stretched upon her bed.
+
+The tidings soon reached Gunnar, who came with all haste to his wife
+and just in time to receive her dying injunction to lay her beside the
+hero she loved, with the glittering, unsheathed sword between them,
+as it had lain when he had wooed her by proxy. When she had breathed
+her last, these wishes were faithfully executed, and her body was
+burned with Sigurd's amid the lamentations of all the Niblungs.
+
+In Richard Wagner's story of "The Ring" Brunhild's end is more
+picturesque. Mounted on her steed, as when she led the battle-maidens
+at the command of Odin, she rode into the flames which leaped to heaven
+from the great funeral pyre, and passed for ever from the sight of men.
+
+
+    "They are gone--the lovely, the mighty, the hope of the ancient
+    Earth:
+    It shall labour and bear the burden as before that day of their
+    birth:
+    It shall groan in its blind abiding for the day that Sigurd
+    hath sped,
+    And the hour that Brynhild hath hastened, and the dawn that waketh
+    the dead:
+    It shall yearn, and be oft-times holpen, and forget their deeds
+    no more,
+    Till the new sun beams on Baldur and the happy sea-less shore."
+
+
+The death scene of Sigurd (Siegfried) is far more powerful in the
+Nibelungenlied. In the Teutonic version his treacherous assailant
+lures him from a hunting party in the forest to quench his thirst at
+a brook, where he thrusts him through the back with a spear. His body
+was thence borne home by the hunters and laid at his wife's feet.
+
+
+
+The Flight of Gudrun
+
+Gudrun, still inconsolable, and loathing the kindred who had
+treacherously robbed her of all joy in life, fled from her father's
+house and took refuge with Elf, Sigurd's foster father, who, after the
+death of Hiordis, had married Thora, the daughter of King Hakon. The
+two women became great friends, and here Gudrun tarried several years,
+employing herself in embroidering upon tapestry the great deeds of
+Sigurd, and watching over her little daughter Swanhild, whose bright
+eyes reminded her vividly of the husband whom she had lost.
+
+
+
+Atli, King of the Huns
+
+In the meantime, Atli, Brunhild's brother, who was now King of the
+Huns, had sent to Gunnar to demand atonement for his sister's death;
+and to satisfy his claims Gunnar had promised that when her years of
+widowhood had been accomplished he would give him Gudrun's hand in
+marriage. Time passed, and Atli clamoured for the fulfilment of his
+promise, wherefore the Niblung brothers, with their mother Grimhild,
+went to seek the long-absent princess, and by the aid of the magic
+potion administered by Grimhild they succeeded in persuading Gudrun
+to leave little Swanhild in Denmark and to become Atli's wife in the
+land of the Huns.
+
+Nevertheless, Gudrun secretly detested her husband, whose avaricious
+tendencies were extremely repugnant to her; and even the birth of
+two sons, Erp and Eitel, did not console her for the death of her
+loved ones and the absence of Swanhild. Her thoughts were continually
+of the past, and she often spoke of it, little suspecting that her
+descriptions of the wealth of the Niblungs had excited Atli's greed,
+and that he was secretly planning some pretext for seizing it.
+
+Atli at last decided to send Knefrud or Wingi, one of his servants,
+to invite the Niblung princes to visit his court, intending to slay
+them when he should have them in his power; but Gudrun, fathoming this
+design, sent a rune message to her brothers, together with the ring
+Andvaranaut, around which she had twined a wolf's hair. On the way,
+however, the messenger partly effaced the runes, thus changing their
+meaning; and when he appeared before the Niblungs, Gunnar accepted
+the invitation, in spite of Högni's and Grimhild's warnings, and an
+ominous dream of Glaumvor, his second wife.
+
+
+
+Burial of the Niblung Treasure
+
+Before departing, however, Gunnar was prevailed upon to bury secretly
+the great Niblung hoard in the Rhine, and he sank it in a deep hole
+in the bed of the river, the position of which was known to the royal
+brothers only, who took a solemn oath never to reveal it.
+
+
+    "Down then and whirling outward the ruddy Gold fell forth,
+    As a flame in the dim grey morning, flashed out a kingdom's worth;
+    Then the waters roared above it, the wan water and the foam
+    Flew up o'er the face of the rock-wall as the tinkling Gold
+    fell home,
+    Unheard, unseen for ever, a wonder and a tale,
+    Till the last of earthly singers from the sons of men shall fail."
+
+
+
+The Treachery of Atli
+
+In martial array the royal band then rode out of the city of the
+Niblungs, which they were never again to see, and after many adventures
+they entered the land of the Huns, and arrived at Atli's hall, where,
+finding that they had been foully entrapped, they slew the traitor
+Knefrud, and prepared to sell their lives as dearly as possible.
+
+Gudrun hastened to meet them with tender embraces, and, seeing that
+they must fight, she grasped a weapon and loyally aided them in the
+terrible massacre which ensued. After the first onslaught, Gunnar kept
+up the spirits of his followers by playing on his harp, which he laid
+aside only when the assaults were renewed. Thrice the brave Niblungs
+resisted the assault of the Huns, until all save Gunnar and Högni had
+perished, and the king and his brother, wounded, faint, and weary,
+fell into the hands of their foes, who cast them, securely bound,
+into a dungeon to await death.
+
+Atli had prudently abstained from taking any active part in the
+fight, and he now had his brothers-in-law brought in turn before him,
+promising them freedom if they would reveal the hiding-place of the
+golden hoard; but they proudly kept silence, and it was only after
+much torture that Gunnar spake, saying that he had sworn a solemn
+oath never to reveal the secret as long as Högni lived. At the same
+time he declared that he would believe his brother dead only when
+his heart was brought to him on a platter.
+
+
+    "With a dreadful voice cried Gunnar: 'O fool, hast thou heard
+    it told
+    Who won the Treasure aforetime and the ruddy rings of the Gold?
+    It was Sigurd, child of the Volsungs, the best sprung forth from
+    the best:
+    He rode from the North and the mountains, and became my summer
+    guest,
+    My friend and my brother sworn: he rode the Wavering Fire,
+    And won me the Queen of Glory and accomplished my desire;
+    The praise of the world he was, the hope of the biders in wrong,
+    The help of the lowly people, the hammer of the strong:
+    Ah, oft in the world, henceforward, shall the tale be told of
+    the deed,
+    And I, e'en I, will tell it in the day of the Niblungs' Need:
+    For I sat night-long in my armour, and when light was wide o'er
+    the land
+    I slaughtered Sigurd my brother, and looked on the work of
+    mine hand.
+    And now, O mighty Atli, I have seen the Niblung's wreck,
+    And the feet of the faint-heart dastard have trodden Gunnar's neck;
+    And if all be little enough, and the Gods begrudge me rest,
+    Let me see the heart of Högni cut quick from his living breast,
+    And laid on the dish before me: and then shall I tell of the Gold,
+    And become thy servant, Atli, and my life at thy pleasure hold.'"
+
+
+Urged by greed, Atli gave immediate orders that Högni's heart should
+be brought; but his servants, fearing to lay hands on such a grim
+warrior, slew the cowardly scullion Hialli. The trembling heart
+of this poor wretch called forth contemptuous words from Gunnar,
+who declared that such a timorous organ could never have belonged
+to his fearless brother. Atli again issued angry commands, and this
+time the unquivering heart of Högni was produced, whereupon Gunnar,
+turning to the monarch, solemnly swore that since the secret now
+rested with him alone it would never be revealed.
+
+
+
+The Last of the Niblungs
+
+Livid with anger, the king bade his servants throw Gunnar, with
+hands bound, into a den of venomous snakes; but this did not daunt
+the reckless Niblung, and, his harp having been flung after him
+in derision, he calmly sat in the pit, harping with his toes, and
+lulling to sleep all the reptiles save one only. It was said that
+Atli's mother had taken the form of this snake, and that she it was
+who now bit him in the side, and silenced his triumphant song for ever.
+
+To celebrate his triumph, Atli now ordered a great feast, commanding
+Gudrun to be present to wait upon him. At this banquet he ate and
+drank heartily, little suspecting that his wife had slain both his
+sons, and had served up their roasted hearts and their blood mixed
+with wine in cups made of their skulls. After a time the king and his
+guests became intoxicated, when Gudrun, according to one version of
+the story, set fire to the palace, and as the drunken men were aroused,
+too late to escape, she revealed what she had done, and first stabbing
+her husband, she calmly perished in the flames with the Huns. Another
+version relates, however, that she murdered Atli with Sigurd's sword,
+and having placed his body on a ship, which she sent adrift, she cast
+herself into the sea and was drowned.
+
+
+    "She spread out her arms as she spake it, and away from the earth
+    she leapt
+    And cut off her tide of returning: for the sea-waves over her
+    swept,
+    And their will is her will henceforward, and who knoweth the
+    deeps of the sea,
+    And the wealth of the bed of Gudrun, and the days that yet
+    shall be?"
+
+
+According to a third and very different version, Gudrun was not
+drowned, but was borne by the waves to the land where Jonakur was
+king. There she became his wife, and the mother of three sons, Sörli,
+Hamdir, and Erp. She recovered possession, moreover, of her beloved
+daughter Swanhild, who, in the meantime, had grown into a beautiful
+maiden of marriageable age.
+
+
+
+Swanhild
+
+Swanhild became affianced to Ermenrich, King of Gothland, who sent his
+son, Randwer, and one of his servants, Sibich, to escort the bride to
+his kingdom. Sibich was a traitor, and as part of a plan to compass the
+death of the royal family that he might claim the kingdom, he accused
+Randwer of having tried to win his young stepmother's affections. This
+accusation so roused the anger of Ermenrich that he ordered his son to
+be hanged, and Swanhild to be trampled to death under the feet of wild
+horses. The beauty of this daughter of Sigurd and Gudrun was such,
+however, that even the wild steeds could not be induced to harm her
+until she had been hidden from their sight under a great blanket,
+when they trod her to death under their cruel hoofs.
+
+Upon learning the fate of her beloved daughter, Gudrun called her
+three sons to her side, and girding them with armour and weapons
+against which nothing but stone could prevail, she bade them depart
+and avenge their murdered sister, after which she died of grief,
+and was burned on a great pyre.
+
+The three youths, Sörli, Hamdir, and Erp, proceeded to Ermenrich's
+kingdom, but ere they met their foes, the two eldest, deeming Erp too
+young to assist them, taunted him with his small size, and finally
+slew him. Sörli and Hamdir then attacked Ermenrich, cut off his hands
+and feet, and would have slain him but for a one-eyed stranger who
+suddenly appeared and bade the bystanders throw stones at the young
+men. His orders were immediately carried out, and Sörli and Hamdir
+soon fell slain under the shower of stones, which, as we have seen,
+alone had power to injure them.
+
+
+    "Ye have heard of Sigurd aforetime, how the foes of God he slew;
+    How forth from the darksome desert the Gold of Waters he drew;
+    How he wakened Love on the Mountain, and wakened Brynhild the
+    Bright,
+    And dwelt upon Earth for a season, and shone in all men's sight.
+    Ye have heard of the Cloudy People, and the dimming of the day,
+    And the latter world's confusion, and Sigurd gone away;
+    Now ye know of the Need of the Niblungs and the end of broken
+    troth,
+    All the death of kings and of kindreds and the Sorrow of Odin
+    the Goth."
+
+
+
+Interpretation of the Saga
+
+This story of the Volsungs is supposed by some authorities to be
+a series of sun myths, in which Sigi, Rerir, Volsung, Sigmund, and
+Sigurd in turn personify the glowing orb of day. They are all armed
+with invincible swords, the sunbeams, and all travel through the world
+fighting against their foes, the demons of cold and darkness. Sigurd,
+like Balder, is beloved of all; he marries Brunhild, the dawn maiden,
+whom he finds in the midst of flames, the flush of morn, and parts
+from her only to find her again when his career is ended. His body is
+burned on the funeral pyre, which, like Balder's, represents either
+the setting sun or the last gleam of summer, of which he too is a
+type. The slaying of Fafnir symbolises the destruction of the demon
+of cold or darkness, who has stolen the golden hoard of summer or
+the yellow rays of the sun.
+
+According to other authorities, this Saga is based upon history. Atli
+is the cruel Attila, the "Scourge of God," while Gunnar is Gundicarius,
+a Burgundian monarch, whose kingdom was destroyed by the Huns, and who
+was slain with his brothers in 451. Gudrun is the Burgundian princess
+Ildico, who slew her husband on her wedding-night, as has already
+been related, using the glittering blade which had once belonged to
+the sun-god to avenge her murdered kinsmen.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII: THE STORY OF FRITHIOF
+
+
+Bishop Tegnér
+
+Probably no writer of the nineteenth century did so much to awaken
+interest in the literary treasures of Scandinavia as Bishop Esaias
+Tegnér, whom a Swedish author characterised as, "that mighty Genie
+who organises even disorder."
+
+Tegnér's "Frithiof Saga" has been translated once at least into every
+European tongue, and some twenty times into English and German. Goethe
+spoke of the work with the greatest enthusiasm, and the tale, which
+gives a matchless picture of the life of our heathen ancestors in the
+North, drew similar praise from Longfellow, who considered it to be
+one of the most remarkable productions of his century.
+
+Although Tegnér has chosen for his theme the Frithiof saga only, we
+find that that tale is the sequel to the older but less interesting
+Thorsten saga, of which we give here a very brief outline, merely to
+enable the reader to understand clearly every allusion in the more
+modern poem.
+
+As is so frequently the case with these ancient tales, the story begins
+with Haloge (Loki), who came north with Odin, and began to reign over
+northern Norway, which from him was called Halogaland. According to
+Northern mythology, this god had two lovely daughters. They were
+carried off by bold suitors, who, banished from the mainland by
+Haloge's curses and magic spells, took refuge with their newly won
+wives upon neighbouring islands.
+
+
+
+Birth of Viking
+
+Thus it happened that Haloge's grandson, Viking, was born upon the
+island of Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea, where he dwelt until he was
+fifteen, and where he became the biggest and strongest man of his
+time. Rumours of his valour finally reached Hunvor, a Swedish princess,
+who was oppressed by the attentions of a gigantic suitor whom none
+dared drive away, and she sent for Viking to deliver her.
+
+Thus summoned, the youth departed, after having received from his
+father a magic sword named Angurvadel, whose blows would prove fatal
+even to a giant like the suitor of Hunvor. A "holmgang," as a duel
+was termed in the North, ensued as soon as the hero arrived upon the
+scene, and Viking, having slain his antagonist, could have married
+the princess had it not been considered disgraceful for a Northman
+to marry before he was twenty.
+
+To beguile the time of waiting for his promised bride, Viking set
+out in a well-manned dragon ship; and cruising about the Northern and
+Southern seas, he met with countless adventures. During this time he
+was particularly persecuted by the kindred of the giant he had slain,
+who were adepts in magic, and they brought upon him innumerable perils
+by land and sea.
+
+Aided and abetted by his bosom friend, Halfdan, Viking escaped every
+danger, slew many of his foes, and, after rescuing Hunvor, whom, in
+the meantime, the enemy had carried off to India, he settled down in
+Sweden. His friend, faithful in peace as well as in war, settled near
+him, and married also, choosing for wife Ingeborg, Hunvor's attendant.
+
+The saga now describes the long, peaceful winters, when the warriors
+feasted and listened to the tales of scalds, rousing themselves to
+energetic efforts only when returning spring again permitted them to
+launch their dragon ships and set out once more upon their piratical
+expeditions.
+
+
+    "Then the Scald took his harp and sang,
+    And loud through the music rang
+        The sound of that shining word;
+    And the harp-strings a clangour made,
+    As if they were struck with the blade
+        Of a sword.
+
+    "And the Berserks round about
+    Broke forth into a shout
+        That made the rafters ring:
+    They smote with their fists on the board,
+    And shouted, 'Long live the Sword,
+        And the King!'"
+
+            Longfellow's Saga of King Olaf.
+
+
+In the old story the scalds relate with great gusto every phase of
+attack and defence during cruise and raid, and describe every blow
+given and received, dwelling with satisfaction upon the carnage and
+lurid flames which envelop both enemies and ships in common ruin. A
+fierce fight is often an earnest of future friendship, however, and
+we are told that Halfdan and Viking, having failed to conquer Njorfe,
+a foeman of mettle, sheathed their swords after a most obstinate
+struggle, and accepted their enemy as a third link in their close
+bond of friendship.
+
+On returning home from one of these customary raids, Viking lost
+his beloved wife; and, entrusting her child, Ring, to the care of a
+foster father, after undergoing a short period of mourning, the brave
+warrior married again. This time his marital bliss was more lasting,
+for the saga tells that his second wife bore him nine stalwart sons.
+
+Njorfe, King of Uplands, in Norway, also rejoiced in a family of
+nine brave sons. Now, although their fathers were united in bonds of
+the closest friendship, having sworn blood brotherhood according to
+the true Northern rites, the young men were jealous of one another,
+and greatly inclined to quarrel.
+
+
+
+The Game of Ball
+
+Notwithstanding this smouldering animosity, the youths often met;
+and the saga relates that they used to play ball together, and gives
+a description of the earliest ball game on record in the Northern
+annals. Viking's sons, as tall and strong as he, were inclined to be
+rather reckless of their opponents' welfare, and, judging from the
+following account, translated from the old saga, the players were
+often left in as sorry a condition as after a modern game.
+
+"The next morning the brothers went to the games, and generally had
+the ball during the day; they pushed men and let them fall roughly,
+and beat others. At night three men had their arms broken, and many
+were bruised or maimed."
+
+The game between Njorfe's and Viking's sons culminated in a
+disagreement, and one of Njorfe's sons struck one of his opponents
+a dangerous and treacherous blow. Prevented from taking his revenge
+then and there by the interference of the spectators, the injured
+man made a trivial excuse to return to the ground alone; and, meeting
+his assailant there, he slew him.
+
+
+
+The Blood Feud
+
+When Viking heard that one of his sons had slain one of his friend's
+children, he was very indignant, and mindful of his oath to avenge all
+Njorfe's wrongs, he banished the young murderer. The other brothers,
+on hearing this sentence, vowed that they would accompany the exile,
+and so Viking sorrowfully bade them farewell, giving his sword
+Angurvadel to Thorsten, the eldest, and cautioning him to remain
+quietly on an island in Lake Wener until all danger of retaliation
+on the part of Njorfe's remaining sons should be over.
+
+The young men obeyed; but Njorfe's sons were determined to avenge
+their brother, and although they had no boats to convey them over
+the lake, they made use of a conjurer's art to bring about a great
+frost. Accompanied by many armed men, they then stole noiselessly
+over the ice to attack Thorsten and his brothers, and a terrible
+carnage ensued. Only two of the attacking party managed to escape,
+but they left, as they fancied, all their foes among the dead.
+
+Then came Viking to bury his sons, and he found that two of them,
+Thorsten and Thorer, were still alive; whereupon he secretly conveyed
+them to a cellar beneath his dwelling, and in due time they recovered
+from their wounds.
+
+Njorfe's two surviving sons soon discovered by magic arts that their
+opponents were not dead, and they made a second desperate but vain
+attempt to kill them. Viking saw that the quarrel would be incessantly
+renewed if his sons remained at home; so he now sent them to Halfdan,
+whose court they reached after a series of adventures which in many
+points resemble those of Theseus on his way to Athens.
+
+When spring came round Thorsten embarked on a piratical excursion,
+in the course of which he encountered Jokul, Njorfe's eldest son,
+who, meanwhile, had taken forcible possession of the kingdom of Sogn,
+having killed the king, banished his heir, Belé, and changed his
+beautiful daughter, Ingeborg, into the similitude of an old witch.
+
+Throughout the story Jokul is represented as somewhat of a coward,
+for he resorted by preference to magic when he wished to injure
+Viking's sons. Thus he stirred up great tempests, and Thorsten,
+after twice suffering shipwreck, was only saved from the waves by
+the seeming witch, whom he promised to marry in gratitude for her
+good offices. Thorsten, advised by Ingeborg, now went in search of
+Belé, whom he found and replaced upon his hereditary throne, having
+sworn eternal friendship with him. After this, the baleful spell was
+removed, and Ingeborg, now revealed in her native beauty, was united
+to Thorsten, and dwelt with him at Framnäs.
+
+
+
+Thorsten and Belé
+
+Every spring Thorsten and Belé set out together in their ships; and,
+upon one of these expeditions, they joined forces with Angantyr,
+a foe whose mettle they had duly tested, and proceeded to recover
+possession of a priceless treasure, a magic dragon ship named Ellida,
+which Ægir, god of the sea, had once given to Viking in reward for
+hospitable treatment, and which had been stolen from him.
+
+
+    "A royal gift to behold, for the swelling planks of its framework
+    Were not fastened with nails, as is wont, but grown in together.
+    Its shape was that of a dragon when swimming, but forward
+    Its head rose proudly on high, the throat with yellow gold flaming;
+    Its belly was spotted with red and yellow, but back by the rudder
+    Coiled out its mighty tail in circles, all scaly with silver;
+    Black wings with edges of red; when all were expanded
+    Ellida raced with the whistling storm, but outstript the eagle.
+    When filled to the edge with warriors, it sailed o'er the waters,
+    You'd deem it a floating fortress, or warlike abode of a monarch.
+    The ship was famed far and wide, and of ships was first in
+    the North."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (Spalding's tr.).
+
+
+The next season, Thorsten, Belé, and Angantyr conquered the Orkney
+Islands, which were given as a kingdom to the latter, he voluntarily
+pledging himself to pay a yearly tribute to Belé. Next Thorsten and
+Belé went in quest of a magic ring, or armlet, once forged by Völund,
+the smith, and stolen by Soté, a famous pirate.
+
+This bold robber was so afraid lest some one should gain possession of
+the magic ring, that he had buried himself alive with it in a mound
+in Bretland. Here his ghost was said to keep constant watch over it,
+and when Thorsten entered his tomb, Belé, who waited outside, heard
+the sound of frightful blows given and returned, and saw lurid gleams
+of supernatural fire.
+
+When Thorsten finally staggered out of the mound, pale and bloody,
+but triumphant, he refused to speak of the horrors he had encountered
+to win the coveted treasure, but often would he say, as he showed it,
+"I trembled but once in my life, and 'twas when I seized it!"
+
+
+
+Birth of Frithiof and Ingeborg
+
+Thus owner of the three greatest treasures of the North, Thorsten
+returned home to Framnäs, where Ingeborg bore him a fine boy, Frithiof,
+while two sons, Halfdan and Helgé, were born to Belé. The lads played
+together, and were already well grown when Ingeborg, Belé's little
+daughter, was born, and some time later the child was entrusted to
+the care of Hilding, who was already Frithiof's foster father, as
+Thorsten's frequent absences made it difficult for him to undertake
+the training of his boy.
+
+
+    "Jocund they grew, in guileless glee;
+    Young Frithiof was the sapling tree;
+    In budding beauty by his side,
+    Sweet Ingeborg, the garden's pride."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+Frithiof soon became hardy and fearless under his foster father's
+training, and Ingeborg rapidly developed the sweetest traits of
+character and loveliness. Both were happiest when together; and as
+they grew older their childish affection daily became deeper and more
+intense, until Hilding, perceiving this state of affairs, bade the
+youth remember that he was a subject of the king, and therefore no
+mate for his only daughter.
+
+
+    "To Odin, in his star-lit sky,
+    Ascends her titled ancestry;
+    But Thorsten's son art thou; give way!
+    For 'like thrives best with like,' they say."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+Frithiof's Love for Ingeborg
+
+These wise admonitions came too late, however, and Frithiof vehemently
+declared that he would win the fair Ingeborg for his bride in spite
+of all obstacles and his more humble origin.
+
+Shortly after this Belé and Thorsten met for the last time, near the
+magnificent shrine of Balder, where the king, feeling that his end was
+near, had convened a solemn assembly, or Thing, of all his principal
+subjects, in order to present his sons Helgé and Halfdan to the people
+as his chosen successors. The young heirs were very coldly received
+on this occasion, for Helgé was of a sombre and taciturn disposition,
+and inclined to the life of a priest, and Halfdan was of a weak,
+effeminate nature, and noted for his love of pleasure rather than of
+war and the chase. Frithiof, who was present, and stood beside them,
+was the object of many admiring glances from the throng.
+
+
+    "But close behind them Frithiof goes,
+      Wrapp'd in his mantle blue;
+    His height a whole head taller rose
+      Than that of both the two.
+
+    He stands between the brothers there--
+      As though the ripe day stood
+    Atween young morning rosy-fair,
+      And night within the wood."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+After giving his last instructions and counsel to his sons, and
+speaking kindly to Frithiof, for whom he entertained a warm regard,
+the old king turned to his lifelong companion, Thorsten, to take
+leave of him, but the old warrior declared that they would not long
+be parted. Belé then spoke again to his sons, and bade them erect his
+howe, or funeral mound, within sight of that of Thorsten, that their
+spirits might commune over the waters of the narrow firth which would
+flow between them, that so they might not be sundered even in death.
+
+
+
+Helgé and Halfdan
+
+These instructions were piously carried out when, shortly after, the
+aged companions breathed their last; and the great barrows having been
+erected, the brothers, Helgé and Halfdan, began to rule their kingdom,
+while Frithiof, their former playmate, withdrew to his own place at
+Framnäs, a fertile homestead, lying in a snug valley enclosed by the
+towering mountains and the waters of the ever-changing firth.
+
+
+    "Three miles extended around the fields of the homestead; on
+    three sides
+    Valleys and mountains and hills, but on the fourth side was
+    the ocean.
+    Birch-woods crowned the summits, but over the down-sloping
+    hill-sides
+    Flourished the golden corn, and man-high was waving the rye-field."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+But although surrounded by faithful retainers, and blessed with much
+wealth and the possession of the famous treasures of his hero sire,
+the sword Angurvadel, the Völund ring, and the matchless dragon
+ship Ellida, Frithiof was unhappy, because he could no longer see
+the fair Ingeborg daily. All his former spirits revived, however,
+when in the spring, at his invitation, both kings came to visit him,
+together with their fair sister, and once again they spent long
+hours in cheerful companionship. As they were thus constantly thrown
+together, Frithiof found opportunity to make known to Ingeborg his
+deep affection, and he received in return an avowal of her love.
+
+
+    "He sat by her side, and he pressed her soft hand,
+    And he felt a soft pressure responsive and bland;
+    Whilst his love-beaming gaze
+    Was returned as the sun's in the moon's placid rays."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+
+Frithiof's Suit
+
+When the visit was ended and the guests had departed, Frithiof informed
+his confidant and chief companion, Björn, of his determination to
+follow them and openly ask for Ingeborg's hand. His ship was set free
+from its moorings and it swooped like an eagle over to the shore near
+Balder's shrine, where the royal brothers were seated in state on
+Belé's tomb to listen to the petitions of their subjects. Straightway
+Frithiof presented himself before them, and manfully made his request,
+adding that the old king had always loved him and would surely have
+granted his prayer.
+
+
+    "No king was my sire, not a jarl, ev'n--'tis true;
+    Yet Scald-songs his mem'ry and exploits renew;
+    The Rune-stones will tell
+    On high-vaulted cairn what my race hath done well.
+
+    "With ease could I win me both empire and land;--
+    But rather I stay on my forefathers' strand;
+    While arms I can wield--
+    Both poverty's hut and king's palace I'll shield.
+
+    "On Belé's round barrow we stand; each word
+    In the dark deeps beneath us he hears and has heard;
+    With Frithiof pleadeth
+    The old Chief in his cairn: think! your answer thought needeth."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Then he went on to promise lifelong fealty and the service of his
+strong right arm in exchange for the boon he craved.
+
+As Frithiof ceased King Helgé rose, and regarding the young man
+scornfully, he said: "Our sister is not for a peasant's son; proud
+chiefs of the Northland may dispute for her hand, but not thou. As
+for thy arrogant proffer, know that I can protect my kingdom. Yet if
+thou wouldst be my man, place in my household mayst thou have."
+
+Enraged at the insult thus publicly offered, Frithiof drew his
+invincible sword; but, remembering that he stood on a consecrated spot,
+he struck only at the royal shield, which fell in two pieces clashing
+to the ground. Then striding back to his ship in sullen silence,
+he embarked and sailed away.
+
+
+                "And lo! cloven in twain at a stroke
+    Fell King Helge's gold shield from its pillar of oak:
+    At the clang of the blow,
+    The live started above, the dead started below."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+
+Sigurd Ring a Suitor
+
+After his departure came messengers from Sigurd Ring, the aged King
+of Ringric, in Norway, who, having lost his wife, sent to Helgé and
+Halfdan to ask Ingeborg's hand in marriage. Before returning answer
+to this royal suitor, Helgé consulted the Vala, or prophetess, and
+the priests, who all declared that the omens were not in favour of the
+marriage. Upon this Helgé assembled his people to hear the word which
+the messengers were to carry to their master, but unfortunately King
+Halfdan gave way to his waggish humour, and made scoffing reference
+to the advanced age of the royal suitor. These impolitic words
+were reported to King Ring, and so offended him that he immediately
+collected an army and prepared to march against the Kings of Sogn to
+avenge the insult with his sword. When the rumour of his approach
+reached the cowardly brothers they were terrified, and fearing to
+encounter the foe unaided, they sent Hilding to Frithiof to implore
+his help.
+
+Hilding found Frithiof playing chess with Björn, and immediately made
+known his errand.
+
+
+                "'From Bele's high heirs
+    I come with courteous words and prayers
+    Disastrous tidings rouse the brave;
+    On thee a nation's hope relies.
+     
+    In Balder's fane, griefs loveliest prey,
+    Sweet Ing'borg weeps the livelong day:
+    Say, can her tears unheeded fall,
+    Nor call her champion to her side?'"
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+While the old man was speaking Frithiof continued to play, ever and
+anon interjecting an enigmatical reference to the game, until at this
+point he said:
+
+
+    "Björn; thou in vain my queen pursuest,
+    She from childhood dearest, truest!
+      She's my game's most darling piece, and
+        Come what will--I'll save my queen!"
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Hilding did not understand such mode of answering, and at length
+rebuked Frithiof for his indifference. Then Frithiof rose, and
+pressing kindly the old man's hand, he bade him tell the kings that
+he was too deeply offended to listen to their appeal.
+
+Helgé and Halfdan, thus forced to fight without their bravest leader,
+preferred to make a treaty with Sigurd Ring, and they agreed to give
+him not only their sister Ingeborg, but also a yearly tribute.
+
+
+
+At Balder's Shrine
+
+While they were thus engaged at Sogn Sound, Frithiof hastened to
+Balder's temple, to which Ingeborg had been sent for security, and
+where, as Hilding had declared, he found her a prey to grief. Now
+although it was considered a sacrilege for man and woman to exchange a
+word in the sacred building, Frithiof could not forbear to console her;
+and, forgetting all else, he spoke to her and comforted her, quieting
+all her apprehensions of the gods' anger by assuring her that Balder,
+the good, must view their innocent passion with approving eyes, for
+love so pure as theirs could defile no sanctuary; and they ended by
+plighting their troth before the shrine of Balder.
+
+
+    "'Thou whisp'rest "Balder,"--His wrath fearest;--
+      That gentle god all anger flies.
+    We worship here a Lover, dearest!
+      Our hearts' love is his sacrifice;
+    That god whose brow beams sunshine-splendour,
+      Whose faith lasts through eternity,--
+    Was not his love to beauteous Nanna
+      As pure, as warm, as mine to thee?
+
+    "'His image see!--himself broods o'er it--
+      How mild, how kind, his bright eyes move!
+    An off'ring bear I here before it,
+      A warm heart full of purest love.
+Come, kneel with me! no altar incense
+      To Balder's soul more grateful is
+    Than two hearts, vowing in his presence
+      A mutual faith as true as his!'"
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Reassured by this reasoning, which received added strength from the
+voice which spoke loudly from her own heart, Ingeborg could not refuse
+to see and converse with Frithiof. During the kings' absence the
+young lovers met every day, and they exchanged love-tokens, Frithiof
+giving to Ingeborg Völund's arm-ring, which she solemnly promised to
+send back to her lover should she be compelled to break her promise
+to live for him alone. Frithiof lingered at Framnäs until the kings'
+return, when, yielding to the fond entreaties of Ingeborg the Fair,
+he again appeared before them, and pledged himself to free them from
+their thraldom to Sigurd Ring if they would only reconsider their
+decision and promise him their sister's hand.
+
+
+                            "'War stands and strikes
+    His glitt'ring shield within thy boundaries;
+    Thy realm, King Helge, is in jeopardy:
+    But give thy sister, and I'll lend mine arm
+    Thy guard in battle. It may stead thee well.
+    Come! let this grudge between us be forgotten,
+    Unwilling bear I such 'gainst Ing'borg's brother.
+    Be counsell'd, King! be just! and save at once
+    Thy golden crown and thy fair sister's heart!
+    Here is my hand: by Asa-Thor I swear
+    Never again 'tis stretch'd in reconcilement!'"
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+Frithiof Banished
+
+But although this offer was received with acclamation by the assembled
+warriors, Helgé scornfully demanded of Frithiof whether he had spoken
+with Ingeborg and so defiled the temple of Balder.
+
+A shout of "Say nay, Frithiof! say nay!" broke from the ring
+of warriors, but he proudly answered: "I would not lie to gain
+Valhalla. I have spoken to thy sister, Helgé, yet have I not broken
+Balder's peace."
+
+A murmur of horror passed through the ranks at this avowal, and when
+the harsh voice of Helgé was raised in judgment, none was there to
+gainsay the justice of the sentence.
+
+This apparently was not a harsh one, but Helgé well knew that it
+meant death, and he so intended it.
+
+Far westward lay the Orkney Islands, ruled by Jarl Angantyr, whose
+yearly tribute to Belé was withheld now that the old king lay in
+his cairn. Hard-fisted he was said to be, and heavy of hand, and to
+Frithiof was given the task of demanding the tribute face to face.
+
+Before he sailed upon the judgment-quest, however, he once more sought
+Ingeborg, and implored her to elope with him to a home in the sunny
+South, where her happiness should be his law, and where she should
+rule over his subjects as his honoured wife. But Ingeborg sorrowfully
+refused to accompany him, saying that, since her father was no more,
+she was in duty bound to obey her brothers implicitly, and could not
+marry without their consent.
+
+The fiery spirit of Frithiof was at first impatient under this
+disappointment of his hopes, but in the end his noble nature conquered,
+and after a heartrending parting scene, he embarked upon Ellida, and
+sorrowfully sailed out of the harbour, while Ingeborg, through a mist
+of tears, watched the sail as it faded and disappeared in the distance.
+
+The vessel was barely out of sight when Helgé sent for two witches
+named Heid and Ham, bidding them by incantations to stir up a tempest
+at sea in which it would be impossible for even the god-given vessel
+Ellida to live, that so all on board should perish. The witches
+immediately complied; and with Helgé's aid they soon stirred up a
+storm the fury of which is unparalleled in history.
+
+
+        "Helgé on the strand
+        Chants his wizard-spell,
+        Potent to command
+        Fiends of earth or hell.
+    Gathering darkness shrouds the sky;
+    Hark, the thunder's distant roll!
+    Lurid lightnings, as they fly,
+    Streak with blood the sable pole.
+    Ocean, boiling to its base,
+    Scatters wide its wave of foam;
+    Screaming, as in fleetest chase,
+    Sea-birds seek their island home."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+    "Then the storm unfetter'd wingeth
+      Wild his course; in Ocean's foam
+    Now he dips him, now up-swingeth,
+      Whirling toward the God's own home:
+    Rides each Horror-spirit, warning,
+      High upon the topmost wave--
+    Up from out the white, vast, yawning,
+      Bottomless, unfathom'd grave."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+The Tempest
+
+Unfrighted by tossing waves and whistling blasts, Frithiof sang a
+cheery song to reassure his terrified crew; but when the peril grew
+so great that his exhausted followers gave themselves up for lost, he
+bethought him of tribute to the goddess Ran, who ever requires gold of
+them who would rest in peace under the ocean wave. Taking his armlet,
+he hewed it with his sword and made fair division among his men.
+
+
+    "Who goes empty-handed
+    Down to sea-blue Ran?
+    Cold her kisses strike, and
+    Fleeting her embrace is."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+He then bade Björn hold the rudder, and himself climbed to the mast-top
+to view the horizon. While perched there he descried a whale, upon
+which the two witches were riding the storm. Speaking to his good
+ship, which was gifted with power of understanding and could obey
+his commands, he now ran down both whale and witches, and the sea was
+reddened with their blood. At the same instant the wind fell, the waves
+ceased to threaten, and fair weather soon smiled again upon the seas.
+
+Exhausted by their previous superhuman efforts and by the labour
+of baling their water-logged vessel, the men were too weak to land
+when they at last reached the Orkney Islands, and had to be carried
+ashore by Björn and Frithiof, who gently laid them down on the sand,
+bidding them rest and refresh themselves after all the hardships they
+had endured.
+
+
+    "Yet more wearied than their Dragon
+      Totter Frithiof's gallant men;
+    Though each leans upon his weapon,
+      Scarcely upright stand they then.
+    Björn, on pow'rful shoulder, dareth
+      Four to carry to the land;
+    Frithiof, all alone, eight beareth,--
+      Sets them so round the upblaz'd brand.
+
+        'Nay! ye white-fac'd, shame not!
+        Waves are mighty Vikings;
+        Hard's the unequal struggle--
+        Ocean's maids our foes.
+        See! there comes the mead-horn,
+        Wand'ring on bright gold-foot;
+        Shipmates! cold limbs warm,--and
+        Here's to Ingeborg!'"
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephen's tr.).
+
+
+The arrival of Frithiof and his men, and their mode of landing, had
+been noted by the watchman of Angantyr, who immediately informed his
+master of all he had seen. The jarl exclaimed that the ship which had
+weathered such a gale could be none but Ellida, and that its captain
+was doubtless Frithiof, Thorsten's gallant son. At these words one
+of his Berserkers, Atlé, caught up his weapons and strode from the
+hall, vowing that he would challenge Frithiof, and thus satisfy
+himself concerning the veracity of the tales he had heard of the
+young hero's courage.
+
+
+
+Atlé's Challenge
+
+Although still greatly exhausted, Frithiof immediately accepted
+Atlé's challenge, and, after a sharp encounter with swords,
+in which Angurvadel was triumphant, the two champions grappled in
+deadly embrace. Widely is that wrestling-match renowned in the North,
+and well matched were the heroes, but in the end Frithiof threw his
+antagonist, whom he would have slain then and there had his sword been
+within reach. Atlé saw his intention, and bade him go in search of the
+weapon, promising to remain motionless during his absence. Frithiof,
+knowing that such a warrior's promise was inviolable, immediately
+obeyed; but when he returned with his sword, and found his antagonist
+calmly awaiting death, he relented, and bade Atlé rise and live.
+
+
+    "Then storm they, nothing yielded,
+      Two autumn-billows like!
+    And oft, with steel round shielded,
+      Their jarring breasts fierce strike.
+
+    "All like two bears they wrestle,
+      On hills of snow; and draw
+    And strain, each like an eagle
+      On the angry sea at war.
+    The root-fast rock resisted
+      Full hardly them between
+    And green iron oaks down-twisted
+      With lesser pulls have been.
+
+    "From each broad brow sweat rushes;
+      Their bosoms coldly heave;
+    And stones and mounds and bushes
+      Dints hundred-fold receive."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Together the appeased warriors now wended their way to Angantyr's hall,
+which Frithiof found to be far different from the rude dwellings of
+his native land. The walls were covered with leather richly decorated
+with gilt designs. The chimney-piece was of marble, and glass panes
+were in the window-frames. A soft light was diffused from many candles
+burning in silver branches, and the tables groaned under the most
+luxurious fare.
+
+High in a silver chair sat the jarl, clad in a coat of golden
+mail, over which was flung a rich mantle bordered with ermine,
+but when Frithiof entered he strode from his seat with cordial hand
+outstretched. "Full many a horn have I emptied with my old friend
+Thorsten," said he, "and his brave son is equally welcome at my board."
+
+Nothing loth, Frithiof seated himself beside his host, and after he
+had eaten and drunk he recounted his adventures upon land and sea.
+
+At last, however, Frithiof made known his errand, whereupon Angantyr
+said that he owed no tribute to Helgé, and would pay him none; but
+that he would give the required sum as a free gift to his old friend's
+son, leaving him at liberty to dispose of it as he pleased. Meantime,
+since the season was unpropitious for the return journey, and storms
+continually swept the sea, the king invited Frithiof to tarry with
+him over the winter; and it was only when the gentle spring breezes
+were blowing once more that he at last allowed him to depart.
+
+
+
+Frithiof's Home-coming
+
+Taking leave of his kind host, Frithiof set sail, and wafted by
+favourable winds, the hero, after six days, came in sight of Framnäs,
+and found that his home had been reduced to a shapeless heap of ashes
+by Helgé's orders. Sadly Frithiof strode over the ravaged site of his
+childhood's home, and as he viewed the desolate scene his heart burned
+within him. The ruins were not entirely deserted, however, and suddenly
+Frithiof felt the cold nozzle of his hound thrust into his hand. A
+few moments later his favourite steed bounded to his master's side,
+and the faithful creatures were well-nigh frantic with delight. Then
+came Hilding to greet him with the information that Ingeborg was
+now the wife of Sigurd Ring. When Frithiof heard this he flew into a
+Berserker rage, and bade his men scuttle the vessels in the harbour,
+while he strode to the temple in search of Helgé.
+
+The king stood crowned amid a circle of priests, some of whom
+brandished flaming pine-knots, while all grasped a sacrificial flint
+knife. Suddenly there was a clatter of arms and in burst Frithiof, his
+brow dark as autumn storms. Helgé's face went pale as he confronted the
+angry hero, for he knew what his coming presaged. "Take thy tribute,
+King," said Frithiof, and with the words, he took the purse from his
+girdle and flung it in Helgé's face with such force that blood gushed
+from his mouth and he fell swooning at Balder's feet.
+
+The silver-bearded priests advanced to the scene of violence, but
+Frithiof motioned them back, and his looks were so threatening that
+they durst not disobey.
+
+Then his eye fell upon the arm-ring which he had given to Ingeborg
+and which Helgé had placed upon the arm of Balder, and striding up
+to the wooden image he said: "Pardon, great Balder, not for thee
+was the ring wrested from Völund's tomb!" Then he seized the ring,
+but strongly as he tugged it would not come apart. At last he put
+forth all his strength, and with a sudden jerk he recovered the ring,
+and at the same time the image of the god fell prone across the altar
+fire. The next moment it was enveloped in flames, and before aught
+could be done the whole temple was wreathed in fire and smoke.
+
+
+    "All, all's lost! From half-burned hall
+      Th' fire-red cock up-swingeth!--
+    Sits on the roof, and, with shrilly call
+      Flutt'ring, his free course wingeth."
+
+            Tegnér's Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Frithiof, horror-stricken at the sacrilege which he had involuntarily
+occasioned, vainly tried to extinguish the flames and save the costly
+sanctuary, but finding his efforts unavailing he escaped to his ship
+and resolved upon the weary life of an outcast and exile.
+
+
+    "Thou may'st not rest thee,
+    Thou still must haste thee,
+    Ellida!--out
+    Th' wide world about.
+    Yes! rock on! roaming
+    Mid froth salt-foaming
+    My Dragon good!
+
+    "Thou billow bold
+    Befriend me!--Never
+    I'll from thee sever!--
+    My father's Mound
+    Dull stands, fast-bound,
+    And self-same surges
+    Chaunt changeless dirges;
+    But blue shall mine
+    Through foam-flow'rs shine,
+    'Mid tempests swimming,
+    And storms thick dimming,
+    And draw yet mo
+    Down, down, below.--
+    My Life-Home given,
+    Thou shalt, far-driven!
+    My Barrow be--
+    Thou free broad Sea!"
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+Frithiof an Exile
+
+Helgé started in pursuit with ten great dragon-ships, but these had
+barely got under way when they began to sink, and Björn said with a
+laugh, "What Ran enfolds I trust she will keep." Even King Helgé was
+with difficulty got ashore, and the survivors were forced to stand in
+helpless inactivity while Ellida's great sails slowly sank beneath the
+horizon. It was thus that Frithiof sadly saw his native land vanish
+from sight; and as it disappeared he breathed a tender farewell to
+the beloved country which he never expected to see again.
+
+After thus parting from his native land, Frithiof roved the sea as a
+pirate, or viking. His code was never to settle anywhere, to sleep on
+his shield, to fight and neither give nor take quarter, to protect
+the ships which paid him tribute and to plunder the others, and to
+distribute all the booty to his men, reserving for himself nothing
+but the glory of the enterprise. Sailing and fighting thus, Frithiof
+visited many lands, and came at last to the sunny isles of Greece,
+whither he would fain have carried Ingeborg as his bride; and the
+sights called up such a flood of sad memories that he was well-nigh
+overwhelmed with longing for his beloved and for his native land.
+
+
+
+At the Court of Sigurd Ring
+
+Three years had passed away and Frithiof determined to return
+northward and visit Sigurd Ring's court. When he announced his
+purpose to Björn, his faithful companion reproached him for his
+rashness in thinking to journey alone, but Frithiof would not be
+turned from his purpose, saying: "I am never alone while Angurvadel
+hangs at my side." Steering Ellida up the Vik (the main part of the
+Christiania Fiord), he entrusted her to Björn's care, and, enveloped in
+a bear-hide, which he wore as a disguise, he set out on foot alone for
+the court of Sigurd Ring, arriving there as the Yuletide festivities
+were in progress. As if nothing more than an aged beggar, Frithiof sat
+down upon the bench near the door, where he quickly became the butt
+of the courtiers' rough jokes. When one of his tormentors, however,
+approached too closely, the seeming beggar caught him in a powerful
+grasp and swung him high above his head.
+
+Terrified by this exhibition of superhuman strength, the courtiers
+quickly withdrew from the dangerous vicinity, while Sigurd Ring,
+whose attention was attracted by the commotion, sternly bade the
+stranger-guest approach and tell who thus dared to break the peace
+in his royal hall.
+
+Frithiof answered evasively that he was fostered in penitence, that
+he inherited want, and that he came from the wolf; as to his name,
+this did not matter. The king, as was the courteous custom, did not
+press him further, but invited him to take a seat beside him and the
+queen, and to share his good cheer. "But first," said he, "let fall
+the clumsy covering which veils, if I mistake not, a proper form."
+
+Frithiof gladly accepted the invitation thus cordially given, and when
+the hairy hide fell from off his head and shoulders, he stood disclosed
+in the pride of youth, much to the surprise of the assembled warriors.
+
+But although his appearance marked him as of no common race,
+none of the courtiers recognised him. It was different, however,
+with Ingeborg. Had any curious eye been upon her at that moment
+her changing colour and the quick heaving of her breast would have
+revealed her deep emotion.
+
+
+    "The astonish'd queen's pale cheeks, how fast-changing rose-tints
+    dye!--
+    So purple Northlights, quiv'ring, on snow-hid meadows lie;
+    Like two white water-lilies on storm-wave wild that rest,
+    Each moment rising, falling,--so heaves her trembling breast!"
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Frithiof had barely taken his seat at the board when with flourish of
+trumpets a great boar was brought in and placed before the king. In
+accordance with the Yule-tide custom of those days the old monarch
+rose, and touching the head of the animal, he uttered a vow that with
+the help of Frey, Odin, and Thor, he would conquer the bold champion
+Frithiof. The next moment Frithiof, too, was upon his feet, and dashing
+his sword upon the great wooden bench he declared that Frithiof was
+his kinsman and he also would vow that though all the world withstood,
+no harm should reach the hero while he had power to wield his sword.
+
+At this unexpected interruption the warriors had risen quickly
+from the oaken benches, but Sigurd Ring smiled indulgently at the
+young man's vehemence and said: "Friend, thy words are overbold,
+but never yet was guest restrained from uttering his thoughts in
+this kingly hall." Then he turned to Ingeborg and bade her fill to
+the brim with her choicest mead a huge horn, richly decorated, which
+stood in front of her, and present it to the guest. The queen obeyed
+with downcast eyes, and the trembling of her hand caused the liquid
+to overflow. Two ordinary men could hardly have drained the mighty
+draught, but Frithiof raised it to his lips, and when he removed the
+horn not one drop of the mead remained.
+
+Ere the banquet was ended Sigurd Ring invited the youthful stranger
+to remain at his court until the return of spring, and accepting the
+proffered hospitality, Frithiof became the constant companion of the
+royal couple, whom he accompanied upon all occasions.
+
+One day Sigurd Ring set out to a banquet with Ingeborg. They travelled
+in a sleigh, while Frithiof, with steel-shod feet, sped gracefully
+by their side, cutting many mystic characters in the ice. Their way
+lay over a dangerous portion of the frozen surface, and Frithiof
+warned the king that it would be prudent to avoid this. He would
+not listen to the counsel, however, and suddenly the sleigh sank
+in a deep fissure, which threatened to engulph it with the king and
+queen. But like falcon descending upon its quarry, Frithiof was at
+their side in a moment, and without apparent effort he dragged the
+steed and its burden on to the firm ice. "In good sooth," said Ring,
+"Frithiof himself could not have done better."
+
+The long winter came to an end, and in the early spring the king and
+queen arranged a hunting-party in which all the court were to take
+part. During the progress of the chase the advancing years of Sigurd
+Ring made it impossible for him to keep up with the eager hunt, and
+thus it happened that he dropped behind, until at length he was left
+with Frithiof as his sole companion. They rode slowly together until
+they reached a pleasant dell which invited the weary king to repose,
+and he declared that he would lie down for a season to rest.
+
+
+    "Then threw Frithiof down his mantle, and upon the greensward
+    spread,
+    And the ancient king so trustful laid on Frithiof's knee his head;
+    Slept, as calmly as the hero sleepeth after war's alarms
+    On his shield, calm as an infant sleepeth in its mother's arms."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+
+Frithiof's Loyalty
+
+While the aged king was thus reposing, a bird sang to Frithiof from a
+tree near by, bidding him take advantage of his host's powerlessness
+to slay him, and recover the bride of whom he had been unfairly
+deprived. But although Frithiof's hot young heart clamoured for his
+beloved, he utterly refused to entertain the dastardly suggestion,
+but, fearing lest he should be overcome by temptation, despite his
+horror at the thought, he impulsively flung his sword far from him
+into a neighbouring thicket.
+
+A few moments later Sigurd Ring opened his eyes, and informed Frithiof
+that he had only feigned sleep; he told him also that having recognised
+him from the first, he had tested him in many ways, and had found
+his honour equal to his courage. Old age had now overtaken him and
+he felt that death was drawing nigh. In but a short time, therefore,
+Frithiof might hope to realise his dearest hope, and Sigurd Ring told
+him that he would die happy if he would stay by him until the end.
+
+A revulsion of feeling had, however, overtaken Frithiof, and he told
+the aged king that he felt that Ingeborg could never be his, because
+of the wrath of Balder. Too long had he stayed; he would now go once
+more upon the sea and would seek death in the fray, that so he might
+appease the offended gods.
+
+Full of his resolve, he quickly made preparations to depart, but when
+he returned to the court to bid farewell to his royal hosts he found
+that Sigurd Ring was at the point of death. The old warrior bethought
+him that "a straw death" would not win the favour of Odin, and in
+the presence of Frithiof and his court he slashed bravely the death
+runes on his arm and breast. Then clasping Ingeborg with one hand,
+he raised the other in blessing over Frithiof and his youthful son,
+and so passed in peace to the halls of the blessed.
+
+
+            "Gods all, I hail ye!
+                Sons of Valhalla!
+    Earth disappears; to the Asa's high feast
+            Gjallar-horn bids me;
+                Blessedness, like a
+    Gold-helmet, circles their up-coming guest!"
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+Betrothal of Frithiof and Ingeborg
+
+The warriors of the nation now assembled in solemn Thing to choose a
+successor to the throne. Frithiof had won the people's enthusiastic
+admiration, and they would fain have elected him king; but he raised
+Sigurd Ring's little son high on his shield when he heard the shout
+which acclaimed his name, and presented the boy to the assembly as
+their future king, publicly swearing to uphold him until he was of
+age to defend the realm. The lad, weary of his cramped position,
+boldly sprang to the ground as soon as Frithiof's speech was ended,
+and alighted upon his feet. This act of agile daring in one so young
+appealed to the rude Northmen, and a loud shout arose, "We choose thee,
+shield-borne child!"
+
+
+    "But thron'd king-like, the lad sat proud
+        On shield-floor high;
+    So the eaglet glad, from rock-hung cloud,
+        The Sun will eye!
+
+    At length this place his young blood found
+        Too dull to keep;
+    And, with one spring, he gains the ground--
+        A royal leap!"
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+According to some accounts, Frithiof now made war against Ingeborg's
+brothers, and after conquering them, allowed them to retain their
+kingdom on condition that they paid him a yearly tribute. Then he and
+Ingeborg remained in Ringric until the young king was able to assume
+the government, when they repaired to Hordaland, a kingdom Frithiof
+had obtained by conquest, and which he left to his sons Gungthiof
+and Hunthiof.
+
+Bishop Tegnér's conclusion, however, differs very considerably,
+and if it appears less true to the rude temper of the rugged days
+of the sea-rovers, its superior spiritual qualities make it more
+attractive. According to Tegnér's poem, Frithiof was urged by the
+people of Sigurd Ring to espouse Ingeborg and remain amongst them as
+guardian of the realm. But he answered that this might not be, since
+the wrath of Balder still burned against him, and none else could
+bestow his cherished bride. He told the people that he would fare over
+the seas and seek forgiveness of the god, and soon after, his farewells
+were spoken, and once more his vessel was speeding before the wind.
+
+Frithiof's first visit was paid to his father's burial mound, where,
+plunged in melancholy at the desolation around, he poured out his soul
+to the outraged god. He reminded him that it was the custom of the
+Northmen to exact blood-fines for kinsmen slain, and surely the blessed
+gods would not be less forgiving than the earth-born. Passionately
+he adjured Balder to show him how he could make reparation for his
+unpremeditated fault, and suddenly, an answer was vouchsafed, and
+Frithiof beheld in the clouds a vision of a new temple.
+
+
+    "Then sudden, o'er the western waters pendent,
+    An Image comes, with gold and flames resplendent,
+    O'er Balder's grove it hovers, night's clouds under,
+    Like gold crown resting on a bed of green.
+    At last to a temple settling, firm 'tis grounded--
+    Where Balder stood, another temple's founded."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+The hero immediately understood that the gods had thus indicated a
+means of atonement, and he grudged neither wealth nor pains until a
+glorious temple and grove, which far exceeded the splendour of the
+old shrine, rose out of the ruins.
+
+
+            "Finish'd great Balder's Temple stood!
+                Round it no palisade of wood
+                    Ran now as erst;
+            A railing stronger, fairer than the first,
+            And all of hammer'd iron--each bar
+                Gold-tipp'd and regular--
+    Walls Balder's sacred House. Like some long line
+    Of steel-clad champions, whose bright war-spears shine
+                And golden helms afar--so stood
+            This glitt'ring guard within the holy wood!
+
+    "Of granite blocks enormous, join'd with curious care
+    And daring art, the massy pile was built; and there
+                (A giant-work intended
+            To last till time was ended,)
+    It rose like Upsal's temple, where the north
+    Saw Valhall's halls fair imag'd here on earth.
+
+    "Proud stood it there on mountain-steep, its lofty brow
+    Reflected calmly on the sea's bright-flowing wave.
+    But round about, some girdle like of beauteous flow'rs,
+    Went Balder's Dale, with all its groves' soft-murmur'd sighs,
+    And all its birds' sweet-twitter'd songs,--the Home of Peace."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Meantime, while the timbers were being hewed, King Helgé was absent
+upon a foray amongst the Finnish mountains. One day it chanced that his
+band passed by a crag where stood the lonely shrine of some forgotten
+god, and King Helgé scaled the rocky summit with intent to raze the
+ruined walls. The lock held fast, and, as Helgé tugged fiercely at
+the mouldered gate, suddenly a sculptured image of the deity, rudely
+summoned from his ancient sleep, started from his niche above.
+
+Heavily he fell upon the head of the intruder, and Helgé stretched
+his length upon the rocky floor, nor stirred again.
+
+When the temple was duly consecrated to Balder's service, Frithiof
+stood by the altar to await the coming of his expected bride. But
+Halfdan first crossed the threshold, his faltering gait showing
+plainly that he feared an unfriendly reception. Seeing this,
+Frithiof unbuckled his sword and strode frankly to Halfdan with hand
+outstretched, whereupon the king, blushing deeply, grasped heartily
+the proffered hand, and from that moment all their differences were
+forgotten. The next moment Ingeborg approached and the renewed amity
+of the long-sundered friends was ratified with the hand of the bride,
+which Halfdan placed in that of his new brother.
+
+
+    "Over the copper threshold Halfdan now,
+            With pallid brow
+      And fearful fitful glance, advanceth slow
+    Tow'rds yonder tow'ring ever-dreaded foe--
+        And, silent, at a distance stands,--
+        Then Frithiof, with quick hands,
+      The corslet-hater, Angurvadel, from his thigh
+    Unbuckleth, and his bright shield's golden round
+      Leaning 'gainst the altar, thus draws nigh;--
+
+                While his cow'd enemy
+          He thus accosts, with pleasant dignity.--
+          'Most noble in this strife will he be found
+            Who first his right hand good
+        Offers in pledge of peaceful brotherhood!'--
+      Then Halfdan, deeply blushing, doffs with haste
+    His iron-gauntlet and,--with hearty grasp embrac'd,--
+          Each long, long, sever'd hand
+      Its friend-foe hails, steadfast as mountain-bases stand!
+
+                    "And as th' last deep accents
+        Of reconcilement and of blessing sounded;
+        Lo! Ing'borg sudden enters, rich adorn'd
+        With bridal ornaments, and all enrob'd
+        In gorgeous ermine, and by bright-ey'd maidens
+        Slow-follow'd, as on heav'n's broad canopy,
+        Attending star-trains guard the regent-moon!--
+            But the young bride's fair eyes,
+                    Those two blue skies,
+                    Fill quick with tears,
+        And to her brother's heart she trembling sinketh;--
+            He, with his sister's fears
+      Deep-mov'd, her hand all tenderly in Frithiof's linketh,
+        His burden soft transferring to that hero's breast,
+            Its long-tried faith fit place for Ing'borg's rest."
+
+            Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII: THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
+
+
+The Decline of the Gods
+
+One of the distinctive features of Northern mythology is that the
+people always believed that their gods belonged to a finite race. The
+Æsir had had a beginning; therefore, it was reasoned, they must have
+an end; and as they were born from a mixture of the divine and giant
+elements, being thus imperfect, they bore within them the germ of
+death, and were, like men, doomed to suffer physical death in order
+to attain spiritual immortality.
+
+The whole scheme of Northern mythology was therefore a drama, every
+step leading gradually to the climax or tragic end, when, with true
+poetic justice, punishment and reward were impartially meted out. In
+the foregoing chapters, the gradual rise and decline of the gods have
+been carefully traced. We have recounted how the Æsir tolerated the
+presence of evil, personated by Loki, in their midst; how they weakly
+followed his advice, allowed him to involve them in all manner of
+difficulties from which they could be extricated only at the price
+of part of their virtue or peace, and finally permitted him to gain
+such ascendency over them that he did not scruple to rob them of
+their dearest possession, purity, or innocence, as personified by
+Balder the good.
+
+Too late the gods realised how evil was this spirit that had found
+a home among them, and too late they banished Loki to earth, where
+men, following the gods' example, listened to his teachings, and were
+corrupted by his sinister influence.
+
+
+    "Brothers slay brothers;
+    Sisters' children
+    Shed each other's blood.
+    Hard is the world;
+    Sensual sin grows huge.
+    There are sword-ages, axe-ages;
+    Shields are cleft in twain;
+    Storm-ages, murder-ages;
+    Till the world falls dead,
+    And men no longer spare
+    Or pity one another."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Fimbul-winter
+
+Seeing that crime was rampant, and all good banished from the earth,
+the gods realised that the prophecies uttered of old were about to be
+fulfilled, and that the shadow of Ragnarok, the twilight or dusk of the
+gods, was already upon them. Sol and Mani grew pale with affright, and
+drove their chariots tremblingly along their appointed paths, looking
+back with fear at the pursuing wolves which would shortly overtake and
+devour them; and as their smiles disappeared the earth grew sad and
+cold, and the terrible Fimbul-winter began. Then snow fell from the
+four points of the compass at once, the biting winds swept down from
+the north, and all the earth was covered with a thick layer of ice.
+
+
+    "Grim Fimbul raged, and o'er the world
+    Tempestuous winds and snowstorms hurled;
+    The roaring ocean icebergs ground,
+    And flung its frozen foam around,
+    E'en to the top of mountain height;
+        No warming air
+        Nor radiance fair
+    Of gentle Summer's soft'ning light,
+    Tempered this dreadful glacial night."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+This severe winter lasted during three whole seasons without a break,
+and was followed by three others, equally severe, during which all
+cheer departed from the earth, and the crimes of men increased with
+fearful rapidity, whilst, in the general struggle for life, the last
+feelings of humanity and compassion disappeared.
+
+
+
+The Wolves Let Loose
+
+In the dim recesses of the Ironwood the giantess Iarnsaxa or Angur-boda
+diligently fed the wolves Hati, Sköll, and Managarm, the progeny of
+Fenris, with the marrow of murderers' and adulterers' bones; and
+such was the prevalence of these vile crimes, that the well-nigh
+insatiable monsters were never stinted for food. They daily gained
+strength to pursue Sol and Mani, and finally overtook and devoured
+them, deluging the earth with blood from their dripping jaws.
+
+
+    "In the east she was seated, that aged woman, in Jarnrid,
+    And there she nourished the posterity of Fenrir;
+    He will be the most formidable of all, he
+    Who, under the form of a monster, will swallow up the moon."
+
+            Voluspa (Pfeiffer's tr.).
+
+
+At this terrible calamity the whole earth trembled and shook, the
+stars, affrighted, fell from their places, and Loki, Fenris, and Garm,
+renewing their efforts, rent their chains asunder and rushed forth to
+take their revenge. At the same moment the dragon Nidhug gnawed through
+the root of the ash Yggdrasil, which quivered to its topmost bough;
+the red cock Fialar, perched above Valhalla, loudly crowed an alarm,
+which was immediately echoed by Gullin-kambi, the rooster in Midgard,
+and by Hel's dark-red bird in Nifl-heim.
+
+
+                "The gold-combed cock
+    The gods in Valhal loudly crowed to arms;
+    The blood-red cock as shrilly summons all
+    On earth and down beneath it."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+Heimdall Gives the Alarm
+
+Heimdall, noting these ominous portents and hearing the cock's
+shrill cry, immediately put the Giallar-horn to his lips and blew the
+long-expected blast, which was heard throughout the world. At the first
+sound of this rally Æsir and Einheriar sprang from their golden couches
+and sallied bravely out of the great hall, armed for the coming fray,
+and, mounting their impatient steeds, they galloped over the quivering
+rainbow bridge to the spacious field of Vigrid, where, as Vafthrudnir
+had predicted long before, the last battle was to take place.
+
+
+
+The Terrors of the Sea
+
+The terrible Midgard snake Iörmungandr had been aroused by the general
+disturbance, and with immense writhings and commotion, whereby the
+seas were lashed into huge waves such as had never before disturbed
+the deeps of ocean, he crawled out upon the land, and hastened to
+join the dread fray, in which he was to play a prominent part.
+
+
+    "In giant wrath the Serpent tossed
+    In ocean depths, till, free from chain,
+    He rose upon the foaming main;
+    Beneath the lashings of his tail,
+    Seas, mountain high, swelled on the land;
+    Then, darting mad the waves acrost,
+    Pouring forth bloody froth like hail,
+    Spurting with poisoned, venomed breath
+    Foul, deadly mists o'er all the Earth,
+    Thro' thundering surge, he sought the strand."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+One of the great waves, stirred up by Iörmungandr's struggles, set
+afloat Nagilfar, the fatal ship, which was constructed entirely out
+of the nails of those dead folks whose relatives had failed, through
+the ages, in their duty, having neglected to pare the nails of the
+deceased, ere they were laid to rest. No sooner was this vessel
+afloat, than Loki boarded it with the fiery host from Muspells-heim,
+and steered it boldly over the stormy waters to the place of conflict.
+
+This was not the only vessel bound for Vigrid, however, for out of a
+thick fog bank towards the north came another ship, steered by Hrym,
+in which were all the frost giants, armed to the teeth and eager for
+a conflict with the Æsir, whom they had always hated.
+
+
+
+The Terrors of the Underworld
+
+At the same time, Hel, the goddess of death, crept through a crevice
+in the earth out of her underground home, closely followed by the
+Hel-hound Garm, the malefactors of her cheerless realm, and the dragon
+Nidhug, which flew over the battlefield bearing corpses upon his wings.
+
+As soon as he landed, Loki welcomed these reinforcements with joy,
+and placing himself at their head he marched with them to the fight.
+
+Suddenly the skies were rent asunder, and through the fiery breach
+rode Surtr with his flaming sword, followed by his sons; and as
+they rode over the bridge Bifröst, with intent to storm Asgard,
+the glorious arch sank with a crash beneath their horses' tread.
+
+
+    "Down thro' the fields of air,
+    With glittering armour fair,
+    In battle order bright,
+    They sped while seething flame
+    From rapid hoofstrokes came.
+    Leading his gleaming band, rode Surtur,
+    'Mid the red ranks of raging fire."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The gods knew full well that their end was now near, and that their
+weakness and lack of foresight placed them under great disadvantages;
+for Odin had but one eye, Tyr but one hand, and Frey nothing but a
+stag's horn wherewith to defend himself, instead of his invincible
+sword. Nevertheless, the Æsir did not show any signs of despair, but,
+like true battle-gods of the North, they donned their richest attire,
+and gaily rode to the battlefield, determined to sell their lives as
+dearly as possible.
+
+While they were mustering their forces, Odin once more rode down to
+the Urdar fountain, where, under the toppling Yggdrasil, the Norns
+sat with veiled faces and obstinately silent, their web lying torn at
+their feet. Once more the father of the gods whispered a mysterious
+communication to Mimir, after which he remounted Sleipnir and rejoined
+the waiting host.
+
+
+
+The Great Battle
+
+The combatants were now assembled on Vigrid's broad plain. On one side
+were ranged the stern, calm faces of the Æsir, Vanas, and Einheriar;
+while on the other were gathered the motley host of Surtr, the grim
+frost giants, the pale army of Hel, and Loki and his dread followers,
+Garm, Fenris, and Iörmungandr, the two latter belching forth fire and
+smoke, and exhaling clouds of noxious, deathly vapours, which filled
+all heaven and earth with their poisonous breath.
+
+
+                    "The years roll on,
+    The generations pass, the ages grow,
+    And bring us nearer to the final day
+    When from the south shall march the fiery band
+    And cross the bridge of heaven, with Lok for guide,
+    And Fenris at his heel with broken chain;
+    While from the east the giant Rymer steers
+    His ship, and the great serpent makes to land;
+    And all are marshall'd in one flaming square
+    Against the Gods, upon the plains of Heaven."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+All the pent-up antagonism of ages was now let loose in a torrent
+of hate, each member of the opposing hosts fighting with grim
+determination, as did our ancestors of old, hand to hand and face to
+face. With a mighty shock, heard above the roar of battle which filled
+the universe, Odin and the Fenris wolf came into impetuous contact,
+while Thor attacked the Midgard snake, and Tyr came to grips with
+the dog Garm. Frey closed with Surtr, Heimdall with Loki, whom he
+had defeated once before, and the remainder of the gods and all the
+Einheriar engaged foes equally worthy of their courage. But, in spite
+of their daily preparation in the heavenly city, Valhalla's host was
+doomed to succumb, and Odin was amongst the first of the shining
+ones to be slain. Not even the high courage and mighty attributes
+of Allfather could withstand the tide of evil as personified in the
+Fenris wolf. At each succeeding moment of the struggle its colossal
+size assumed greater proportions, until finally its wide-open jaws
+embraced all the space between heaven and earth, and the foul monster
+rushed furiously upon the father of gods and engulphed him bodily
+within its horrid maw.
+
+
+    "Fenrir shall with impious tooth
+    Slay the sire of rolling years:
+    Vithar shall avenge his fall,
+    And, struggling with the shaggy wolf,
+    Shall cleave his cold and gory jaws."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+None of the gods could lend Allfather a helping hand at that critical
+moment, for it was a time of sore trial to all. Frey put forth heroic
+efforts, but Surtr's flashing sword now dealt him a death-stroke. In
+his struggle with the arch-enemy, Loki, Heimdall fared better, but his
+final conquest was dearly bought, for he, too, fell dead. The struggle
+between Tyr and Garm had the same tragic end, and Thor, after a most
+terrible encounter with the Midgard snake, and after slaying him with
+a stroke from Miölnir, staggered back nine paces, and was drowned in
+the flood of venom which poured from the dying monster's jaws.
+
+
+    "Odin's son goes
+    With the monster to fight;
+    Midgard's Veor in his rage
+    Will slay the worm;
+    Nine feet will go
+    Fiörgyn's son,
+    Bowed by the serpent
+    Who feared no foe."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Vidar now came rushing from a distant part of the plain to avenge the
+death of his mighty sire, and the doom foretold fell upon Fenris, whose
+lower jaw now felt the impress of that shoe which had been reserved
+for this day. At the same moment Vidar seized the monster's upper
+jaw with his hands, and with one terrible wrench tore him asunder.
+
+
+
+The Devouring Fire
+
+The other gods who took part in the fray, and all the Einheriar having
+now perished, Surtr suddenly flung his fiery brands over heaven, earth,
+and the nine kingdoms of Hel. The raging flames enveloped the massive
+stem of the world ash Yggdrasil, and reached the golden palaces of
+the gods, which were utterly consumed. The vegetation upon earth was
+likewise destroyed, and the fervent heat made all the waters seethe
+and boil.
+
+
+    "Fire's breath assails
+    The all-nourishing tree,
+    Towering fire plays
+    Against heaven itself."
+
+            Sæmund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The great conflagration raged fiercely until everything was consumed,
+when the earth, blackened and scarred, slowly sank beneath the boiling
+waves of the sea. Ragnarok had indeed come; the world tragedy was
+over, the divine actors were slain, and chaos seemed to have resumed
+its former sway. But as in a play, after the principals are slain and
+the curtain has fallen, the audience still looks for the favourites
+to appear and make their bow, so the ancient Northern races fancied
+that, all evil having perished in Surtr's flames, from the general
+ruin goodness would rise, to resume its sway over the earth, and that
+some of the gods would return to dwell in heaven for ever.
+
+
+                        "All evil
+    Dies there an endless death, while goodness riseth
+    From that great world-fire, purified at last,
+    To a life far higher, better, nobler than the past.
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+Regeneration
+
+Our ancestors believed fully in regeneration, and held that after a
+certain space of time the earth, purged by fire and purified by its
+immersion in the sea, rose again in all its pristine beauty and was
+illumined by the sun, whose chariot was driven by a daughter of Sol,
+born before the wolf had devoured her mother. The new orb of day
+was not imperfect, as the first sun had been, and its rays were no
+longer so ardent that a shield had to be placed between it and the
+earth. These more beneficent rays soon caused the earth to renew its
+green mantle, and to bring forth flowers and fruit in abundance. Two
+human beings, a woman, Lif, and a man, Lifthrasir, now emerged from the
+depths of Hodmimir's (Mimir's) forest, whence they had fled for refuge
+when Surtr set fire to the world. They had sunk into peaceful slumber
+there, unconscious of the destruction around them, and had remained,
+nurtured by the morning dew, until it was safe for them to wander
+out once more, when they took possession of the regenerated earth,
+which their descendants were to people and over which they were to
+have full sway.
+
+
+                "We shall see emerge
+    From the bright Ocean at our feet an earth
+    More fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits
+    Self-springing, and a seed of man preserved,
+    Who then shall live in peace, as then in war."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+A New Heaven
+
+All the gods who represented the developing forces of Nature were
+slain on the fatal field of Vigrid, but Vali and Vidar, the types of
+the imperishable forces of Nature, returned to the field of Ida, where
+they were met by Modi and Magni, Thor's sons, the personifications
+of strength and energy, who rescued their father's sacred hammer from
+the general destruction, and carried it thither with them.
+
+
+    "Vithar's then and Vali's force
+    Heirs the empty realm of gods;
+    Mothi's thew and Magni's might
+    Sways the massy mallet's weight,
+    Won from Thor, when Thor must fall."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+Here they were joined by Hoenir, no longer an exile among the Vanas,
+who, as developing forces, had also vanished for ever; and out of
+the dark underworld where he had languished so long rose the radiant
+Balder, together with his brother Hodur, with whom he was reconciled,
+and with whom he was to live in perfect amity and peace. The past
+had gone for ever, and the surviving deities could recall it without
+bitterness. The memory of their former companions was, however, dear
+to them, and full often did they return to their old haunts to linger
+over the happy associations. It was thus that walking one day in the
+long grass on Idavold, they found again the golden disks with which
+the Æsir had been wont to sport.
+
+
+    "We shall tread once more that well-known plain
+    Of Ida, and among the grass shall find
+    The golden dice with which we play'd of yore;
+    And that will bring to mind the former life
+    And pastime of the Gods, the wise discourse
+    Of Odin, the delights of other days."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+When the small band of gods turned mournfully towards the place
+where their lordly dwellings once stood, they became aware, to their
+joyful surprise, that Gimli, the highest heavenly abode, had not
+been consumed, for it rose glittering before them, its golden roof
+outshining the sun. Hastening thither they discovered, to the great
+increase of their joy, that it had become the place of refuge for
+all the virtuous.
+
+
+    "In Gimli the lofty
+    There shall the hosts
+    Of the virtuous dwell,
+    And through all ages
+    Taste of deep gladness."
+
+            Literature and Romance of Northern Europe (Howitt).
+
+
+
+One too Mighty to Name
+
+As the Norsemen who settled in Iceland, and through whom the
+most complete exposition of the Odinic faith has come down to us
+in the Eddas and Sagas, were not definitely converted until the
+eleventh century,--although they had come in contact with Christians
+during their viking raids nearly six centuries before,--it is very
+probable that the Northern scalds gleaned some idea of the Christian
+doctrines, and that this knowledge influenced them to a certain
+extent, and coloured their descriptions of the end of the world and
+the regeneration of the earth. It was perhaps this vague knowledge,
+also, which induced them to add to the Edda a verse, which is generally
+supposed to have been an interpolation, proclaiming that another God,
+too mighty to name, would arise to bear rule over Gimli. From his
+heavenly seat he would judge mankind, and separate the bad from the
+good. The former would be banished to the horrors of Nastrond, while
+the good would be transported to the blissful halls of Gimli the fair.
+
+
+    "Then comes another,
+    Yet more mighty.
+    But Him I dare not
+    Venture to name.
+    Few farther may look
+    Than to where Odin
+    To meet the wolf goes."
+
+            Literature and Romance of Northern Europe (Howitt).
+
+There were two other heavenly mansions, however, one reserved for
+the dwarfs and the other for the giants; for as these creatures
+had no free will, and but blindly executed the decrees of fate,
+they were not thought to be responsible for any harm done by them,
+and were therefore held to be undeserving of punishment.
+
+The dwarfs, ruled by Sindri, were said to occupy a hall in the Nida
+mountains, where they drank the sparkling mead, while the giants took
+their pleasure in the hall Brimer, situated in the region Okolnur
+(not cool), for the power of cold was entirely annihilated, and there
+was no more ice.
+
+Various mythologists have, of course, attempted to explain these myths,
+and some, as we have already stated, see in the story of Ragnarok the
+influence of Christian teachings, and esteem it only a barbaric version
+of the end of the world and the coming judgment day, when a new heaven
+and earth shall arise, and all the good shall enjoy eternal bliss.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX: GREEK AND NORTHERN MYTHOLOGIES
+
+
+Comparative Mythology
+
+During the past fifty years learned men of many nations have
+investigated philology and comparative mythology so thoroughly that
+they have ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt "that English,
+together with all the Teutonic dialects of the Continent, belongs to
+that large family of speech which comprises, besides the Teutonic,
+Latin, Greek, Slavonic, and Celtic, the Oriental languages of India
+and Persia." "It has also been proved that the various tribes who
+started from the central home to discover Europe in the north,
+and India in the south, carried away with them, not only a common
+language, but a common faith and a common mythology. These are facts
+which may be ignored but cannot be disputed, and the two sciences
+of comparative grammar and comparative mythology, though but of
+recent origin, rest on a foundation as sound and safe as that of
+any of the inductive sciences." "For more than a thousand years the
+Scandinavian inhabitants of Norway have been separated in language
+from their Teutonic brethren on the Continent, and yet both have not
+only preserved the same stock of popular stories, but they tell them,
+in several instances, in almost the same words."
+
+This resemblance, so strong in the early literature of nations
+inhabiting countries which present much the same physical aspect and
+have nearly the same climate, is not so marked when we compare the
+Northern myths with those of the genial South. Still, notwithstanding
+the contrast between Northern and Southern Europe, where these myths
+gradually ripened and attained their full growth, there is an analogy
+between the two mythologies which shows that the seeds from whence
+both sprang were originally the same.
+
+In the foregoing chapters the Northern system of mythology has been
+outlined as clearly as possible, and the physical significance of
+the myths has been explained. Now we shall endeavour to set forth the
+resemblance of Northern mythology to that of the other Aryan nations,
+by comparing it with the Greek, which, however, it does not resemble
+as closely as it does the Oriental.
+
+It is, of course, impossible in a work of this character to do more
+than mention the main points of resemblance in the stories forming the
+basis of these religions; but that will be sufficient to demonstrate,
+even to the most sceptical, that they must have been identical at a
+period too remote to indicate now with any certainty.
+
+
+
+The Beginning of Things
+
+The Northern nations, like the Greeks, imagined that the world
+rose out of chaos; and while the latter described it as a vapoury,
+formless mass, the former, influenced by their immediate surroundings,
+depicted it as a chaos of fire and ice--a combination which is only
+too comprehensible to any one who has visited Iceland and seen the
+wild, peculiar contrast between its volcanic soil, spouting geysers,
+and the great icebergs which hedge it round during the long, dark
+winter season.
+
+From these opposing elements, fire and ice, were born the first
+divinities, who, like the first gods of the Greeks, were gigantic in
+stature and uncouth in appearance. Ymir, the huge ice giant, and his
+descendants, are comparable to the Titans, who were also elemental
+forces of Nature, personifications of subterranean fire; and both,
+having held full sway for a time, were obliged to yield to greater
+perfection. After a fierce struggle for supremacy, they all found
+themselves defeated and banished to the respective remote regions of
+Tartarus and Jötun-heim.
+
+The triad, Odin, Vili, and Ve, of the Northern myth is the exact
+counterpart of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, who, superior to the
+Titan forces, rule supreme over the world in their turn. In the Greek
+mythology, the gods, who are also all related to one another, betake
+themselves to Olympus, where they build golden palaces for their use;
+and in the Northern mythology the divine conquerors repair to Asgard,
+and there construct similar dwellings.
+
+
+
+Cosmogony
+
+Northern cosmogony was not unlike the Greek, for the people imagined
+that the earth, Mana-heim, was entirely surrounded by the sea, at
+the bottom of which lay coiled the huge Midgard snake, biting its
+own tail; and it was perfectly natural that, viewing the storm-lashed
+waves which beat against their shores, they should imagine these to
+be caused by his convulsive writhing. The Greeks, who also fancied
+the earth was round and compassed by a mighty river called Oceanus,
+described it as flowing with "a steady, equable current," for they
+generally gazed out upon calm and sunlit seas. Nifl-heim, the Northern
+region of perpetual cold and mist, had its exact counterpart in the
+land north of the Hyperboreans, where feathers (snow) continually
+hovered in the air, and where Hercules drove the Ceryneian stag into
+a snowdrift ere he could seize and bind it fast.
+
+
+
+The Phenomena of the Sky
+
+Like the Greeks, the Northern races believed that the earth was
+created first, and that the vaulted heavens were made afterwards to
+overshadow it entirely. They also imagined that the sun and moon were
+daily driven across the sky in chariots drawn by fiery steeds. Sol,
+the sun maiden, therefore corresponded to Helios, Hyperion, Phoebus,
+or Apollo, while Mani, the Moon (owing to a peculiarity of Northern
+grammar, which makes the sun feminine and the moon masculine), was
+the exact counterpart of Phoebe, Diana, or Cynthia.
+
+The Northern scalds, who thought that they descried the prancing
+forms of white-maned steeds in the flying clouds, and the glitter
+of spears in the flashing light of the aurora borealis, said that
+the Valkyrs, or battle maidens, galloped across the sky, while the
+Greeks saw in the same natural phenomena the white flocks of Apollo
+guarded by Phaetusa and Lampetia.
+
+As the dew fell from the clouds, the Northern poets declared that
+it dropped from the manes of the Valkyrs' steeds, while the Greeks,
+who observed that it generally sparkled longest in the thickets,
+identified it with Daphne and Procris, whose names are derived from
+the Sanskrit word which means "to sprinkle," and who are slain by
+their lovers, Apollo and Cephalus, personifications of the sun.
+
+The earth was considered in the North as well as in the South as
+a female divinity, the fostering mother of all things; and it was
+owing to climatic difference only that the mythology of the North,
+where people were daily obliged to conquer the right to live by a
+hand-to-hand struggle with Nature, should represent her as hard and
+frozen like Rinda, while the Greeks embodied her in the genial goddess
+Ceres. The Greeks believed that the cold winter winds swept down from
+the North, and the Northern races, in addition, added that they were
+produced by the winnowing of the wings of the great eagle Hræ-svelgr.
+
+The dwarfs, or dark elves, bred in Ymir's flesh, were like Pluto's
+servants in that they never left their underground realm, where they,
+too, sought the precious metals, which they moulded into delicate
+ornaments such as Vulcan bestowed upon the gods, and into weapons
+which no one could either dint or mar. As for the light elves, who
+lived above ground and cared for plants, trees, and streams, they were
+evidently the Northern equivalents to the nymphs, dryads, oreades,
+and hamadryads, which peopled the woods, valleys, and fountains of
+ancient Greece.
+
+
+
+Jupiter and Odin
+
+Jupiter, like Odin, was the father of the gods, the god of victory,
+and a personification of the universe. Hlidskialf, Allfather's lofty
+throne, was no less exalted than Olympus or Ida, whence the Thunderer
+could observe all that was taking place; and Odin's invincible spear
+Gungnir was as terror-inspiring as the thunderbolts brandished by his
+Greek prototype. The Northern deities feasted continually upon mead
+and boar's flesh, the drink and meat most suitable to the inhabitants
+of a Northern climate, while the gods of Olympus preferred the nectar
+and ambrosia which formed their only sustenance.
+
+Twelve Æsir sat in Odin's council hall to deliberate over the wisest
+measures for the government of the world and men, and an equal number
+of gods assembled on the cloudy peak of Mount Olympus for a similar
+purpose. The Golden Age in Greece was a period of idyllic happiness,
+amid ever-flowering groves and under balmy skies, while the Northern
+age of bliss was also a time when peace and innocence flourished on
+the earth, and when evil was as yet entirely unknown.
+
+
+
+The Creation of Man
+
+Using the materials near at hand, the Greeks modelled their first
+images out of clay; hence they naturally imagined that Prometheus had
+made man out of that substance when called upon to fashion a creature
+inferior to the gods only. As the Northern statues were hewn out
+of wood, the Northern races inferred, as a matter of course, that
+Odin, Vili, and Ve (who here correspond to Prometheus, Epimetheus,
+and Minerva, the three Greek creators of man) made the first human
+couple, Ask and Embla, out of blocks of wood.
+
+The goat Heidrun, which supplied the heavenly mead, is like Amalthea,
+Jupiter's first nurse, and the busy, tell-tale Ratatosk is equivalent
+to the snow-white crow in the story of Coronis, which was turned black
+in punishment for its tattling. Jupiter's eagle has its counterpart
+in the ravens Hugin and Munin, or in the wolves Geri and Freki,
+which are ever crouching at Odin's feet.
+
+
+
+Norns and Fates
+
+The close resemblance between the Northern Orlog and the Greek Destiny,
+goddesses whose decrees the gods themselves were obliged to respect,
+and the equally powerful Norns and Moeræ, is too obvious to need
+pointing out, while the Vanas are counterparts of Neptune and the
+other ocean divinities. The great quarrel between the Vanas and the
+Æsir is merely another version of the dispute between Jupiter and
+Neptune for the supremacy of the world. Just as Jupiter forces his
+brother to yield to his authority, so the Æsir remain masters of all,
+but do not refuse to continue to share their power with their conquered
+foes, who thus become their allies and friends.
+
+Like Jupiter, Odin is always described as majestic and middle-aged,
+and both gods are regarded as the divine progenitors of royal
+races, for while the Heraclidæ claimed Jupiter as their father, the
+Inglings, Skioldings, etc., held that Odin was the founder of their
+families. The most solemn oaths were sworn by Odin's spear as well as
+by Jupiter's footstool, and both gods rejoice in a multitude of names,
+all descriptive of the various phases of their nature and worship.
+
+Odin, like Jupiter, frequently visited the earth in disguise, to
+judge of the hospitable intentions of mankind, as in the story of
+Geirrod and Agnar, which resembles that of Philemon and Baucis. The
+aim was to encourage hospitality; therefore, in both stories, those
+who showed themselves humanely inclined are richly rewarded, and in
+the Northern myth the lesson is enforced by the punishment inflicted
+upon Geirrod, as the scalds believed in poetic justice and saw that
+it was carefully meted out.
+
+The contest of wit between Odin and Vafthrudnir has its parallel in
+the musical rivalry of Apollo and Marsyas, or in the test of skill
+between Minerva and Arachne. Odin further resembled Apollo in that
+he, too, was god of eloquence and poetry, and could win all hearts
+by means of his divine voice; he was like Mercury in that he taught
+mortals the use of runes, while the Greek god introduced the alphabet.
+
+
+
+Myths of the Seasons
+
+The disappearance of Odin, the sun or summer, and the consequent
+desolation of Frigga, the earth, is merely a different version of
+the myths of Proserpine and Adonis. When Proserpine and Adonis have
+gone, the earth (Ceres or Venus) bitterly mourns their absence, and
+refuses all consolation. It is only when they return from their exile
+that she casts off her mourning garments and gloom, and again decks
+herself in all her jewels. So Frigga and Freya bewail the absence of
+their husbands Odin and Odur, and remain hard and cold until their
+return. Odin's wife, Saga, the goddess of history, who lingered by
+Sokvabek, "the stream of time and events," taking note of all she saw,
+is like Clio, the muse of history, whom Apollo sought by the inspiring
+fount of Helicon.
+
+Just as, according to Euhemerus, there was an historical Zeus,
+buried in Crete, where his grave can still be seen, so there was an
+historical Odin, whose mound rises near Upsala, where the greatest
+Northern temple once stood, and where there was a mighty oak which
+rivalled the famous tree of Dodona.
+
+
+
+Frigga and Juno
+
+Frigga, like Juno, was a personification of the atmosphere, the
+patroness of marriage, of connubial and motherly love, and the goddess
+of childbirth. She, too, is represented as a beautiful, stately
+woman, rejoicing in her adornments; and her special attendant, Gna,
+rivals Iris in the rapidity with which she executes her mistress's
+behests. Juno has full control over the clouds, which she can brush
+away with a motion of her hand, and Frigga is supposed to weave them
+out of the thread she has spun on her jewelled spinning wheel.
+
+In Greek mythology we find many examples of the way in which Juno
+seeks to outwit Jupiter. Similar tales are not lacking in the Northern
+myths. Juno obtains possession of Io, in spite of her husband's
+reluctance to part with her, and Frigga artfully secures the victory
+for the Winilers in the Langobarden Saga. Odin's wrath at Frigga's
+theft of the gold from his statue is equivalent to Jupiter's marital
+displeasure at Juno's jealousy and interference during the war of
+Troy. In the story of Gefjon, and the clever way in which she procured
+land from Gylfi to form her kingdom of Seeland, we have a reproduction
+of the story of Dido, who obtained by stratagem the land upon which she
+founded her city of Carthage. In both accounts oxen come into play,
+for while in the Northern myth these sturdy beasts draw the piece
+of land far out to sea, in the other an ox hide, cut into strips,
+serves to enclose the queen's grant.
+
+
+
+Musical Myths
+
+The Pied Piper of Hamelin, who could attract all living creatures
+by his music, is like Orpheus or Amphion, whose lyres had the same
+power; and Odin, as leader of the dead, is the counterpart of Mercury
+Psychopompus, both being personifications of the wind, on whose wings
+disembodied souls were thought to be wafted from this mortal sphere.
+
+The trusty Eckhardt, who would fain save Tannhäuser and prevent his
+returning to expose himself to the enchantments of the sorceress,
+in the Hörselberg, is like the Greek Mentor, who not only accompanied
+Telemachus, but gave him good advice and wise instructions, and would
+have rescued Ulysses from the hands of Calypso.
+
+
+
+Thor and the Greek Gods
+
+Thor, the Northern thunder-god, also has many points of resemblance
+with Jupiter. He bears the hammer Miölnir, the Northern emblem of the
+deadly thunderbolt, and, like Jupiter, uses it freely when warring
+against the giants. In his rapid growth Thor resembles Mercury, for
+while the former playfully tosses about several loads of ox hides a
+few hours after his birth, the latter steals Apollo's oxen before he
+is one day old. In physical strength Thor resembles Hercules, who also
+gave early proofs of uncommon vigour by strangling the serpents sent
+to slay him in his cradle, and who delighted, later on, in attacking
+and conquering giants and monsters. Hercules became a woman and took
+to spinning to please Omphale, the Lydian queen, and Thor assumed a
+woman's apparel to visit Thrym and recover his hammer, which had been
+buried nine rasts underground. The hammer, his principal attribute,
+was used for many sacred purposes. It consecrated the funeral pyre
+and the marriage rite, and boundary stakes driven in by a hammer were
+considered as sacred among Northern nations as the Hermæ or statues
+of Mercury, removal of which was punishable by death.
+
+Thor's wife, Sif, with her luxuriant golden hair, is, as we have
+already stated, an emblem of the earth, and her hair of its rich
+vegetation. Loki's theft of these tresses is equivalent to Pluto's rape
+of Proserpine. To recover the golden locks, Loki must visit the dwarfs
+(Pluto's servants), crouching in the low passages of the underground
+world; so Mercury must seek Proserpine in Hades.
+
+The gadfly which hinders Jupiter from recovering possession of
+Io, after Mercury has slain Argus, reappears in the Northern myth
+to sting Brock and to endeavour to prevent the manufacture of the
+magic ring Draupnir, which is merely a counterpart of Sif's tresses,
+as it also represents the fruits of the earth. The fly continues to
+torment the dwarf during the manufacture of Frey's golden-bristled
+boar, a prototype of Apollo's golden sun chariot, and it prevents
+the perfect formation of the handle of Thor's hammer.
+
+The magic ship Skidbladnir, also made by the dwarfs, is like the
+swift-sailing Argo, which was a personification of the clouds sailing
+overhead; and just as the former was said to be large enough to
+accommodate all the gods, so the latter bore all the Greek heroes
+off to the distant land of Colchis.
+
+The Germans, wishing to name the days of the week after their gods,
+as the Romans had done, gave the name of Thor to Jove's day, and thus
+made it the present Thursday.
+
+Thor's struggle against Hrungnir is a parallel to the fight between
+Hercules and Cacus or Antæus; while Groa is evidently Ceres, for she,
+too, mourns for her absent child Orvandil (Proserpine), and breaks
+out into a song of joy when she hears that it will return.
+
+Magni, Thor's son, who when only three hours old exhibits his
+marvellous strength by lifting Hrungnir's leg off his recumbent father,
+also reminds us of the infant Hercules; and Thor's voracious appetite
+at Thrym's wedding feast has its parallel in Mercury's first meal,
+which consisted of two whole oxen.
+
+The crossing of the swollen tide of Veimer by Thor reminds us of
+Jason's feat when he waded across the torrent on his way to visit
+the tyrant Pelias and recover possession of his father's throne.
+
+The marvellous necklace worn by Frigga and Freya to enhance their
+charms is like the cestus or girdle of Venus, which Juno borrowed to
+subjugate her lord, and is, like Sif's tresses and the ring Draupnir,
+an emblem of luxuriant vegetation or a type of the stars which shine
+in the firmament.
+
+The Northern sword-god Tyr is, of course, the Greek war-god Ares,
+whom he so closely resembles that his name was given to the day of
+the week held sacred to Ares, which is even now known as Tuesday or
+Tiu's day. Like Ares, Tyr was noisy and courageous; he delighted in
+the din of battle, and was fearless at all times. He alone dared to
+brave the Fenris wolf; and the Southern proverb concerning Scylla and
+Charybdis has its counterpart in the Northern adage, "to get loose
+out of Læding and to dash out of Droma." The Fenris wolf, also a
+personification of subterranean fire, is bound, like his prototypes
+the Titans, in Tartarus.
+
+The similarity between the gentle, music-loving Bragi, with his harp,
+and Apollo or Orpheus, is very great; so is the resemblance between
+the magic draught Od-hroerir and the waters of Helicon, both of which
+were supposed to serve as inspiration to mortal as well as to immortal
+poets. Odin dons eagle plumes to bear away this precious mead, and
+Jupiter assumes a similar guise to secure his cupbearer Ganymede.
+
+Idun, like Adonis and Proserpine, or still more like Eurydice, is also
+a fair personification of spring. She is borne away by the cruel ice
+giant Thiassi, who represents the boar which slew Adonis, the kidnapper
+of Proserpine, or the poisonous serpent which bit Eurydice. Idun is
+detained for a long time in Jötun-heim (Hades), where she forgets all
+her merry, playful ways, and becomes mournful and pale. She cannot
+return alone to Asgard, and it is only when Loki (now an emblem of
+the south wind) comes to bear her away in the shape of a nut or a
+swallow that she can effect her escape. She reminds us of Proserpine
+and Adonis escorted back to earth by Mercury (god of the wind), or
+of Eurydice lured out of Hades by the sweet sounds of Orpheus's harp,
+which were also symbolical of the soughing of the winds.
+
+
+
+Idun and Eurydice
+
+The myth of Idun's fall from Yggdrasil into the darkest depths of
+Nifl-heim, while subject to the same explanation and comparison as the
+above story, is still more closely related to the tale of Orpheus and
+Eurydice, for the former, like Bragi, cannot exist without the latter,
+whom he follows even into the dark realm of death; without her his
+songs are entirely silenced. The wolf-skin in which Idun is enveloped
+is typical of the heavy snows in Northern regions, which preserve the
+tender roots from the blighting influence of the extreme winter cold.
+
+
+
+Skadi and Diana
+
+The Van Niörd, who is god of the sunny summer seas, has his counterpart
+in Neptune and more especially in Nereus, the personification of the
+calm and pleasant aspect of the mighty deep. Niörd's wife, Skadi,
+is the Northern huntress; she therefore resembles Diana. Like her,
+she bears a quiver full of arrows, and a bow which she handles with
+consummate skill. Her short gown permits the utmost freedom of motion,
+also, and she, too, is generally accompanied by a hound.
+
+The story of the transference of Thiassi's eyes to the firmament,
+where they glow like brilliant stars, reminds us of many Greek star
+myths, and especially of Argus's eyes ever on the watch, of Orion and
+his jewelled girdle, and of his dog Sirius, all changed into stars
+by the gods to appease angry goddesses. Loki's antics to win a smile
+from the irate Skadi are considered akin to the quivering flashes of
+sheet-lightning which he personified in the North, while Steropes,
+the Cyclops, typified it for the Greeks.
+
+
+
+Frey and Apollo
+
+The Northern god of sunshine and summer showers, the genial Frey,
+has many traits in common with Apollo, for, like him, he is beautiful
+and young, rides the golden-bristled boar which was the Northern
+conception of the sunbeams, or drives across the sky in a golden car,
+which reminds us of Apollo's glittering chariot.
+
+Frey has some of the gentle Zephyrus's characteristics besides, for
+he, too, scatters flowers along his way. His horse Blodug-hofi is
+not unlike Pegasus, Apollo's favourite steed, for it can pass through
+fire and water with equal ease and velocity.
+
+Fro, like Odin and Jupiter, is also identified with a human king, and
+his mound lies beside Odin's near Upsala. His reign was so happy that
+it was called the Golden Age, and he therefore reminds us of Saturn,
+who, exiled to earth, ruled over the people of Italy, and granted
+them similar prosperity.
+
+
+
+Freya and Venus
+
+Gerda, the beautiful maiden, is like Venus, and also like Atalanta;
+she is hard to woo and hard to win, like the fleet-footed maiden,
+but, like her, she yields at last and becomes a happy wife. The golden
+apples with which Skirnir tries to bribe her remind us of the golden
+fruit which Hippomenes cast in Atalanta's way, and which made her
+lose the race.
+
+Freya, the goddess of youth, love, and beauty, like Venus, sprang from
+the sea, for she is a daughter of the sea-god Niörd. Venus bestowed
+her best affections upon the god of war and upon the martial Anchises,
+while Freya often assumes the garb of a Valkyr, and rides rapidly
+to earth to take part in mortal strife and bear away the heroic
+slain to feast in her halls. Like Venus, she delights in offerings
+of fruits and flowers, and lends a gracious ear to the petitions
+of lovers. Freya also resembles Minerva, for, like her, she wears
+a helmet and breastplate, and, like her, also, she is noted for her
+beautiful blue eyes.
+
+
+
+Odur and Adonis
+
+Odur, Freya's husband, is like Adonis, and when he leaves her,
+she, too, sheds countless tears, which, in her case, are turned
+to gold, while Venus's tears are changed into anemones, and those
+of the Heliades, mourning for Phaeton, harden to amber, which
+resembles gold in colour and in consistency. Just as Venus rejoices
+at Adonis's return, and all Nature blooms in sympathy with her joy,
+so Freya becomes lighthearted once more when she has found her husband
+beneath the flowering myrtles of the South. Venus's car is drawn by
+fluttering doves, and Freya's is swiftly carried along by cats, which
+are emblems of sensual love, as the doves were considered types of
+tenderest love. Freya is appreciative of beauty and angrily refuses
+to marry Thrym, while Venus scorns and finally deserts Vulcan, whom
+she has been forced to marry against her will.
+
+The Greeks represented Justice as a goddess blindfolded, with scales
+in one hand and a sword in the other, to indicate the impartiality and
+the fixity of her decrees. The corresponding deity of the North was
+Forseti, who patiently listened to both sides of a question ere he,
+too, promulgated his impartial and irrevocable sentence.
+
+Uller, the winter-god, resembles Apollo and Orion only in his love for
+the chase, which he pursues with ardour under all circumstances. He
+is the Northern bowman, and his skill is quite as unerring as theirs.
+
+Heimdall, like Argus, was gifted with marvellous keenness of sight,
+which enabled him to see a hundred miles off as plainly by night as
+by day. His Giallar-horn, which could be heard throughout all the
+world, proclaiming the gods' passage to and fro over the quivering
+bridge Bifröst, was like the trumpet of the goddess Renown. As he
+was related to the water deities on his mother's side, he could,
+like Proteus, assume any form at will, and he made good use of this
+power on the occasion when he frustrated Loki's attempt to steal the
+necklace Brisinga-men.
+
+Hermod, the quick or nimble, resembles Mercury not only in his
+marvellous celerity of motion. He, too, was the messenger of the gods,
+and, like the Greek divinity, flashed hither and thither, aided not by
+winged cap and sandals, but by Odin's steed Sleipnir, whom he alone
+was allowed to bestride. Instead of the Caduceus, he bore the wand
+Gambantein. He questioned the Norns and the magician Rossthiof, through
+whom he learned that Vali would come to avenge his brother Balder and
+to supplant his father Odin. Instances of similar consultations are
+found in Greek mythology, where Jupiter would fain have married Thetis,
+yet desisted when the Fates foretold that if he did so she would be
+the mother of a son who would surpass his father in glory and renown.
+
+The Northern god of silence, Vidar, has some resemblance to Hercules,
+for while the latter has nothing but a club with which to defend
+himself against the Nemean lion, whom he tears asunder, the former
+is enabled to rend the Fenris wolf at Ragnarok by the possession of
+one large shoe.
+
+
+
+Rinda and Danae
+
+Odin's courtship of Rinda reminds us of Jupiter's wooing of Danae,
+who is also a symbol of the earth; and while the shower of gold in
+the Greek tale is intended to represent the fertilising sunbeams, the
+footbath in the Northern story typifies the spring thaw which sets in
+when the sun has overcome the resistance of the frozen earth. Perseus,
+the child of this union, has many points of resemblance with Vali,
+for he, too, is an avenger, and slays his mother's enemies just as
+surely as Vali destroys Hodur, the murderer of Balder.
+
+The Fates were supposed to preside over birth in Greece, and to
+foretell a child's future, as did the Norns; and the story of Meleager
+has its unmistakable parallel in that of Nornagesta. Althæa preserves
+the half-consumed brand in a chest, Nornagesta conceals the candle-end
+in his harp; and while the Greek mother brings about her son's death
+by casting the brand into the fire, Nornagesta, compelled to light
+his candle-end at Olaf's command, dies as it sputters and burns out.
+
+Hebe and the Valkyrs were the cupbearers of Olympus and Asgard. They
+were all personifications of youth; and while Hebe married the great
+hero and demigod Hercules when she ceased to fulfil her office, the
+Valkyrs were relieved from their duties when united to heroes like
+Helgi, Hakon, Völund, or Sigurd.
+
+The Cretan labyrinth has its counterpart in the Icelandic Völundarhaus,
+and Völund and Dædalus both effect their escape from a maze by a
+cleverly devised pair of wings, which enable them to fly in safety
+over land and sea and escape from the tyranny of their respective
+masters, Nidud and Minos. Völund resembles Vulcan, also, in that
+he is a clever smith and makes use of his talents to work out his
+revenge. Vulcan, lamed by a fall from Olympus, and neglected by Juno,
+whom he had tried to befriend, sends her a golden throne, which is
+provided with cunning springs to seize and hold her fast. Völund,
+hamstrung by the suggestion of Nidud's queen, secretly murders her
+sons, and out of their eyes fashions marvellous jewels, which she
+unsuspectingly wears upon her breast until he reveals their origin.
+
+
+
+Myths of the Sea
+
+Just as the Greeks fancied that the tempests were the effect of
+Neptune's wrath, so the Northern races attributed them either to the
+writhings of Iörmungandr, the Midgard snake, or to the anger of Ægir,
+who, crowned with seaweed like Neptune, often sent his children,
+the wave maidens (the counterpart of the Nereides and Oceanides),
+to play on the tossing billows. Neptune had his dwelling in the coral
+caves near the Island of Euboea, while Ægir lived in a similar palace
+near the Cattegat. Here he was surrounded by the nixies, undines,
+and mermaids, the counterpart of the Greek water nymphs, and by the
+river-gods of the Rhine, Elbe, and Neckar, who remind us of Alpheus
+and Peneus, the river-gods of the Greeks.
+
+The frequency of shipwrecks on the Northern coasts made the people
+think of Ran (the equivalent of the Greek sea-goddess Amphitrite) as
+greedy and avaricious, and they described her as armed with a strong
+net, with which she drew all things down into the deep. The Greek
+Sirens had their parallel in the Northern Lorelei, who possessed the
+same gift of song, and also lured mariners to their death; while
+Princess Ilse, who was turned into a fountain, reminds us of the
+nymph Arethusa, who underwent a similar transformation.
+
+In the Northern conception of Nifl-heim we have an almost exact
+counterpart of the Greek Hades. Mödgud, the guardian of the
+Giallar-bridge (the bridge of death), over which all the spirits of
+the dead must pass, exacts a tribute of blood as rigorously as Charon
+demands an obolus from every soul he ferries over Acheron, the river
+of death. The fierce dog Garm, cowering in the Gnipa hole, and keeping
+guard at Hel's gate, is like the three-headed monster Cerberus; and
+the nine worlds of Nifl-heim are not unlike the divisions of Hades,
+Nastrond being an adequate substitute for Tartarus, where the wicked
+were punished with equal severity.
+
+The custom of burning dead heroes with their arms, and of slaying
+victims, such as horses and dogs, upon their pyre, was much the same
+in the North as in the South; and while Mors or Thanatos, the Greek
+Death, was represented with a sharp scythe, Hel was depicted with a
+broom or rake, which she used as ruthlessly, and with which she did
+as much execution.
+
+
+
+Balder and Apollo
+
+Balder, the radiant god of sunshine, reminds us not only of Apollo and
+Orpheus, but of all the other heroes of sun myths. His wife Nanna is
+like Flora, and still more like Proserpine, for she, too, goes down
+into the underworld, where she tarries for a while. Balder's golden
+hall of Breidablik is like Apollo's palace in the east; he, also,
+delights in flowers; all things smile at his approach, and willingly
+pledge themselves not to injure him. As Achilles was vulnerable only
+in the heel, so Balder could be slain only by the harmless mistletoe,
+and his death is occasioned by Loki's jealousy just as Hercules was
+slain by that of Deianeira. Balder's funeral pyre on Ringhorn reminds
+us of Hercules's death on Mount OEta, the flames and reddish glow of
+both fires serving to typify the setting sun. The Northern god of sun
+and summer could only be released from Nifl-heim if all animate and
+inanimate objects shed tears; so Proserpine could issue from Hades
+only upon condition that she had partaken of no food. The trifling
+refusal of Thok to shed a single tear is like the pomegranate seeds
+which Proserpine ate, and the result is equally disastrous in both
+cases, as it detains Balder and Proserpine underground, and the earth
+(Frigga or Ceres) must continue to mourn their absence.
+
+Through Loki evil entered into the Northern world; Prometheus's
+gift of fire brought the same curse upon the Greeks. The punishment
+inflicted by the gods upon the culprits is not unlike, for while
+Loki is bound with adamantine chains underground, and tortured by
+the continuous dropping of venom from the fangs of a snake fastened
+above his head, Prometheus is similarly fettered to Caucasus, and a
+ravenous vulture continually preys upon his liver. Loki's punishment
+has another counterpart in that of Tityus, bound in Hades, and in
+that of Enceladus, chained beneath Mount Ætna, where his writhing
+produced earthquakes, and his imprecations caused sudden eruptions
+of the volcano. Loki, further, resembles Neptune in that he, too,
+assumed an equine form and was the parent of a wonderful steed,
+for Sleipnir rivals Arion both in speed and endurance.
+
+The Fimbul-winter has been compared to the long preliminary fight under
+the walls of Troy, and Ragnarok, the grand closing drama of Northern
+mythology, to the burning of that famous city. "Thor is Hector;
+the Fenris wolf, Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, who slew Priam (Odin);
+and Vidar, who survives in Ragnarok, is Æneas." The destruction of
+Priam's palace is the type of the ruin of the gods' golden halls;
+and the devouring wolves Hati, Sköll, and Managarm, the fiends of
+darkness, are prototypes of Paris and all the other demons of darkness,
+who bear away or devour the sun-maiden Helen.
+
+
+
+Ragnarok and the Deluge
+
+According to another interpretation, however, Ragnarok and the
+consequent submersion of the world is but a Northern version of the
+Deluge. The survivors, Lif and Lifthrasir, like Deucalion and Pyrrha,
+were destined to repeople the world; and just as the shrine of Delphi
+alone resisted the destructive power of the great cataclysm, so Gimli
+stood radiant to receive the surviving gods.
+
+
+
+Giants and Titans
+
+We have already seen how closely the Northern giants resembled the
+Titans. It only remains to mention that while the Greeks imagined
+that Atlas was changed into a mountain, so the Northmen believed that
+the Riesengebirge, in Germany, were formed from giants, and that the
+avalanches which descended from their lofty heights were the burdens
+of snow which these giants impatiently shook from their crests as
+they changed their cramped positions. The apparition, in the shape of
+a bull, of one of the water giants, who came to woo the queen of the
+Franks, has its parallel in the story of Jupiter's wooing of Europa,
+and Meroveus is evidently the exact counterpart of Sarpedon. A faint
+resemblance can be traced between the giant ship Mannigfual and the
+Argo, for while the one is supposed to have cruised through the Ægean
+and Euxine Seas, and to have made many places memorable by the dangers
+it encountered there, so the Northern vessel sailed about the North
+and Baltic Seas, and is mentioned in connection with the Island of
+Bornholm and the cliffs of Dover.
+
+While the Greeks imagined that Nightmares were the evil dreams which
+escaped from the Cave of Somnus, the Northern race fancied they were
+female dwarfs or trolls, who crept out of the dark recesses of the
+earth to torment them. All magic weapons in the North were said to
+be the work of the dwarfs, the underground smiths, while those of the
+Greeks were manufactured by Vulcan and the Cyclopes, under Mount Ætna,
+or on the Island of Lemnos.
+
+
+
+The Volsunga Saga
+
+In the Sigurd myth we find Odin one-eyed like the Cyclopes, who, like
+him, are personifications of the sun. Sigurd is instructed by Gripir,
+the horse-trainer, who is reminiscent of Chiron, the centaur. He is
+not only able to teach a young hero all he need know, and to give him
+good advice concerning his future conduct, but is also possessed of
+the gift of prophecy.
+
+The marvellous sword which becomes the property of Sigmund and of
+Sigurd as soon as they prove themselves worthy to wield it, and the
+sword Angurvadel which Frithiof inherits from his sire, remind us of
+the weapon which Ægeus concealed beneath the rock, and which Theseus
+secured as soon as he had become a man. Sigurd, like Theseus, Perseus,
+and Jason, seeks to avenge his father's wrongs ere he sets out in
+search of the golden hoard, the exact counterpart of the golden fleece,
+which is also guarded by a dragon, and is very hard to secure. Like
+all the Greek sun-gods and heroes, Sigurd has golden hair and bright
+blue eyes. His struggle with Fafnir reminds us of Apollo's fight with
+Python, while the ring Andvaranaut can be likened to Venus's cestus,
+and the curse attached to its possessor is like the tragedy of Helen,
+who brought endless bloodshed upon all connected with her.
+
+Sigurd could not have conquered Fafnir without the magic sword, just
+as the Greeks failed to take Troy without the arrows of Philoctetes,
+which are also emblems of the all-conquering rays of the sun. The
+recovery of the stolen treasure is like Menelaus's recovery of Helen,
+and it apparently brings as little happiness to Sigurd as his recreant
+wife did to the Spartan king.
+
+
+
+Brunhild
+
+Brunhild resembles Minerva in her martial tastes, physical appearance,
+and wisdom; but her anger and resentment when Sigurd forgets her
+for Gudrun is like the wrath of OEnone, whom Paris deserts to woo
+Helen. Brunhild's anger continues to accompany Sigurd through life,
+and she even seeks to compass his death, while OEnone, called to cure
+her wounded lover, refuses to do so and permits him to die. OEnone
+and Brunhild are both overcome by the same remorseful feelings when
+their lovers have breathed their last, and both insist upon sharing
+their funeral pyres, and end their lives by the side of those whom
+they had loved.
+
+
+Sun Myths
+
+Containing, as it does, a whole series of sun myths, the Volsunga Saga
+repeats itself in every phase; and just as Ariadne, forsaken by the
+sun-hero Theseus, finally marries Bacchus, so Gudrun, when Sigurd has
+departed, marries Atli, the King of the Huns. He, too, ends his life
+amid the flames of his burning palace or ship. Gunnar, like Orpheus
+or Amphion, plays such marvellous strains upon his harp that even
+the serpents are lulled to sleep. According to some interpretations,
+Atli is like Fafnir, and covets the possession of the gold. Both are
+therefore probably personifications "of the winter cloud which broods
+over and keeps from mortals the gold of the sun's light and heat,
+till in the spring the bright orb overcomes the powers of darkness
+and tempests, and scatters his gold over the face of the earth."
+
+Swanhild, Sigurd's daughter, is another personification of the sun,
+as is seen in her blue eyes and golden hair; and her death under the
+hoofs of black steeds represents the blotting out of the sun by clouds
+of storm or of darkness.
+
+Just as Castor and Pollux hasten to rescue their sister Helen when
+she has been borne away by Theseus, so Swanhild's brothers, Erp,
+Hamdir, and Sörli, hasten off to avenge her death.
+
+Such are the main points of resemblance between the mythologies
+of the North and South, and the analogy goes far to prove that
+they were originally formed from the same materials, the principal
+differences being due to the local colouring imparted unconsciously
+by the different races.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+[1] "Northern Mythology," Kauffmann.
+
+[2] Halliday Sparling.
+
+[3] Carlyle, "Heroes and Hero Worship."
+
+[4] "Northern Mythology," Kauffmann.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths of the Norsemen, by H. A. Guerber
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths of the Norsemen, by H. A. Guerber
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Myths of the Norsemen
+       From the Eddas and Sagas
+
+Author: H. A. Guerber
+
+Release Date: April 4, 2009 [EBook #28497]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS OF THE NORSEMEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net/
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="front">
+<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><p></p>
+<div class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p000.jpg" alt="Norsemen landing in Iceland" width="720" height="493"><p class="figureHead">Norsemen landing in Iceland</p>
+<p>Oscar Wergeland</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/titlepage.gif" alt="Original titlepage." width="415" height="720"></div><p>
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="titlePage">
+<h1 class="docTitle">Myths of the Norsemen</h1>
+<h2 class="docTitle">From the Eddas and Sagas</h2>
+<h2 class="byline">By
+<br>
+<span class="docAuthor">H. A. Guerber</span>
+<br>
+Author of &#8220;The Myths of Greece and Rome&#8221; etc.
+</h2>
+<div class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/logo.gif" alt="Publisher Logo: G.G.H. &amp; Co." width="199" height="197"></div>
+<h2 class="docImprint">London<br>
+George G. Harrap &amp; Company<br>
+15 York Street Covent Garden
+<br>
+1909
+</h2>
+</div><div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><p class="aligncenter">Printed by <span class="smallcaps">Ballantyne &amp; Co. Limited</span><br>
+Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e160" href="#xd0e160">v</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div id="toc" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Contents</h2>
+<ol class="lsoff">
+<li>Chap. Page
+
+</li>
+<li>I. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch1">The Beginning</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">1</span></li>
+<li>II. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch2">Odin</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">16</span></li>
+<li>III. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch3">Frigga</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">42</span></li>
+<li>IV. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch4">Thor</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">59</span></li>
+<li>V. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch5">Tyr</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">85</span></li>
+<li>VI. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch6">Bragi</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">95</span></li>
+<li>VII. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch7">Idun</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">103</span></li>
+<li>VIII. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch8">Ni&ouml;rd</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">111</span></li>
+<li>IX. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch9">Frey</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">117</span></li>
+<li>X. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch10">Freya</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">131</span></li>
+<li>XI. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch11">Uller</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">139</span></li>
+<li>XII. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch12">Forseti</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">142</span></li>
+<li>XIII. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch13">Heimdall</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">146</span></li>
+<li>XIV. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch14">Hermod</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">154</span></li>
+<li>XV. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch15">Vidar</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">158</span></li>
+<li>XVI. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch16">Vali</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">162</span></li>
+<li>XVII. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch17">The Norns</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">166</span></li>
+<li>XVIII. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch18">The Valkyrs</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">173</span></li>
+<li>XIX. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch19">Hel</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">180</span></li>
+<li>XX. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch20">&AElig;gir</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">185</span></li>
+<li>XXI. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch21">Balder</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">197</span></li>
+<li>XXII. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch22">Loki</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">216</span></li>
+<li>XXIII. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch23">The Giants</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">230</span></li>
+<li>XXIV. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch24">The Dwarfs</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">239</span></li>
+<li>XXV. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch25">The Elves</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">246</span></li>
+<li>XXVI. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch26">The Sigurd Saga</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">251</span></li>
+<li>XXVII. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch27">The Frithiof Saga</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">298</span><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e383" href="#xd0e383">vi</a>]</span></li>
+<li>XXVIII. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch28">The Twilight of the Gods</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">329</span></li>
+<li>XXIX. <span class="smallcaps"><a href="#ch29">Greek and Northern Mythologies&#8212;A Comparison</a></span> <span class="tocPagenum">342</span>
+
+</li>
+<li><a href="#index1">Index to Poetical Quotations</a> <span class="tocPagenum">367</span>
+
+</li>
+<li><a href="#index2">Glossary and Index</a> <span class="tocPagenum">369</span></li>
+</ol><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e414" href="#xd0e414">vii</a>]</span></div>
+<div id="loi" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">List of Illustrations</h2>
+<ol class="lsoff">
+<li>Norsemen Landing in Iceland (<i>Oscar Wergeland</i>) <span class="tocPagenum"><i>Frontispiece</i></span>
+
+</li>
+<li>&nbsp; <span class="tocPagenum"><i>To face page</i></span>
+
+</li>
+<li><a href="#p002">The Giant with the Flaming Sword</a> (<i>J. C. Dollman</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">2</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p008">The Wolves Pursuing Sol and Mani</a> (<i>J. C. Dollman</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">8</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p016">Odin</a> (<i>Sir E. Burne-Jones</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">16</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p018">The Chosen Slain</a> (<i>K. Dielitz</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">18</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p020">A Viking Foray</a> (<i>J. C. Dollman</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">20</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p028">The Pied Piper of Hamelin</a> (<i>H. Kaulbach</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">28</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p036">Odin</a> (<i>B. E. Fogelberg</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">36</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p042">Frigga Spinning the Clouds</a> (<i>J. C. Dollman</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">42</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p052">Tannh&auml;user and Frau Venus</a> (<i>J. Wagrez</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">52</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p054">E&aacute;stre</a> (<i>Jacques Reich</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">54</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p058">Huldra&#8217;s Nymphs</a> (<i>B. E. Ward</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">58</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p060">Thor</a> (<i>B. E. Fogelberg</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">60</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p064">Sif</a> (<i>J. C. Dollman</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">64</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p072">Thor and the Mountain</a> (<i>J. C. Dollman</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">72</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p088">A Foray</a> (<i>A. Malmstr&ouml;m</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">88</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p092">The Binding of Fenris</a> (<i>Dorothy Hardy</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">92</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p100">Idun</a> (<i>B. E. Ward</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">100</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p104">Loki and Thiassi</a> (<i>Dorothy Hardy</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">104</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p118">Frey</a> (<i>Jacques Reich</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">118</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p132">Freya</a> (<i>N. J. O. Blomm&eacute;r</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">132</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p146">The Rainbow Bridge</a> (<i>H. Hendrich</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">146</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p148">Heimdall</a> (<i>Dorothy Hardy</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">148</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p152">Jarl</a> (<i>Albert Edelfelt</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">152</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p166">The Norns</a> (<i>C. Ehrenberg</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">166</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p170">The Dises</a> (<i>Dorothy Hardy</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">170</span><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e659" href="#xd0e659">viii</a>]</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p174">The Swan-Maiden</a> (<i>Gertrude Demain Hammond, R.I.</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">174</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p176">The Ride of the Valkyrs</a> (<i>J. C. Dollman</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">176</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p178">Brunhild and Siegmund</a> (<i>J. Wagrez</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">178</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p182">The Road to Valhalla</a> (<i>Severin Nilsson</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">182</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p186">&AElig;gir</a> (<i>J. P. Molin</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">186</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p190">Ran</a> (<i>M. E. Winge</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">190</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p194">The Neckan</a> (<i>J. P. Molin</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">194</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p202">Loki and Hodur</a> (<i>C. G. Qvarnstr&ouml;m</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">202</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p206">The Death of Balder</a> (<i>Dorothy Hardy</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">206</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p210">Hermod before Hela</a> (<i>J. C. Dollman</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">210</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p222">Loki and Svadilfari</a> (<i>Dorothy Hardy</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">222</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p228">Loki and Sigyn</a> (<i>M. E. Winge</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">228</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p230">Thor and the Giants</a> (<i>M. E. Winge</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">230</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p234">Torghatten</a> <span class="tocPagenum">234</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p244">The Peaks of the Trolls</a> <span class="tocPagenum">244</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p246">The Elf-Dance</a> (<i>N. J. O. Blomm&eacute;r</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">246</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p248">The White Elves</a> (<i>Charles P. Sainton, R.I.</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">248</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p250">Old Houses with Carved Posts</a> <span class="tocPagenum">250</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p260">The Were-Wolves</a> (<i>J. C. Dollman</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">260</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p264">A Hero&#8217;s Farewell</a> (<i>M. E. Winge</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">264</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p268">The Funeral Procession</a> (<i>H. Hendrich</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">268</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p274">Sigurd and Fafnir</a> (<i>K. Dielitz</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">274</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p278">Sigurd Finds Brunhild</a> (<i>J. Wagrez</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">278</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p280">Odin and Brunhild</a> (<i>K. Dielitz</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">280</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p282">Aslaug</a> (<i>Gertrude Demain Hammond, R.I.</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">282</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p284">Sigurd and Gunnar</a> (<i>J. C. Dollman</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">284</span><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e885" href="#xd0e885">ix</a>]</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p288">The Death of Siegfried</a> (<i>H. Hendrich</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">288</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p290">The End of Brunhild</a> (<i>J. Wagrez</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">290</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p304">Ingeborg</a> (<i>M. E. Winge</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">304</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p308">Frithiof Cleaves the Shield of Helg&eacute;</a> (<i>Knut Ekwall</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">308</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p312">Ingeborg Watches her Lover Depart</a> (<i>Knut Ekwall</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">312</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p316">Frithiof&#8217;s Return to Framn&auml;s</a> (<i>Knut Ekwall</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">316</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p318">Frithiof at the Shrine of Balder</a> (<i>Knut Ekwall</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">318</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p320">Frithiof at the Court of Ring</a> (<i>Knut Ekwall</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">320</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p324">Frithiof Watches the Sleeping King</a> (<i>Knut Ekwall</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">324</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p334">Odin and Fenris</a> (<i>Dorothy Hardy</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">334</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p344">The Ride of the Valkyrs</a> (<i>H. Hendrich</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">344</span></li>
+<li><a href="#p358">The Storm-Ride</a> (<i>Gilbert Bayes</i>) <span class="tocPagenum">358</span></li>
+</ol><span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e994" href="#xd0e994">xi</a>]</span></div>
+<div id="xd0e995" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Introduction</h2>
+<p>The prime importance of the rude fragments of poetry preserved in early Icelandic literature will now be disputed by none,
+but there has been until recent times an extraordinary indifference to the wealth of religious tradition and mythical lore
+which they contain.
+
+</p>
+<p>The long neglect of these precious records of our heathen ancestors is not the fault of the material in which all that survives
+of their religious beliefs is enshrined, for it may safely be asserted that the Edda is as rich in the essentials of national
+romance and race-imagination, rugged though it be, as the more graceful and idyllic mythology of the South. Neither is it
+due to anything weak in the conception of the deities themselves, for although they may not rise to great spiritual heights,
+foremost students of Icelandic literature agree that they stand out rude and massive as the Scandinavian mountains. They exhibit
+&#8220;a spirit of victory, superior to brute force, superior to mere matter, a spirit that fights and overcomes.&#8221;<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1002src" href="#xd0e1002">1</a> &#8220;Even were some part of the matter of their myths taken from others, yet the Norsemen have given their gods a noble, upright,
+great spirit, and placed them upon a high level that is all their own.&#8221;<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1005src" href="#xd0e1005">2</a> &#8220;In fact these old Norse songs have a truth in them, an inward perennial truth and greatness. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e1008" href="#xd0e1008">xii</a>]</span>It is a greatness not of mere body and gigantic bulk, but a rude greatness of soul.&#8221;<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1010src" href="#xd0e1010">3</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>The introduction of Christianity into the North brought with it the influence of the Classical races, and this eventually
+supplanted the native genius, so that the alien mythology and literature of Greece and Rome have formed an increasing part
+of the mental equipment of the northern peoples in proportion as the native literature and tradition have been neglected.
+
+</p>
+<p>Undoubtedly Northern mythology has exercised a deep influence upon our customs, laws, and language, and there has been, therefore,
+a great unconscious inspiration flowing from these into English literature. The most distinctive traits of this mythology
+are a peculiar grim humour, to be found in the religion of no other race, and a dark thread of tragedy which runs throughout
+the whole woof, and these characteristics, touching both extremes, are writ large over English literature.
+
+</p>
+<p>But of conscious influence, compared with the rich draught of Hellenic inspiration, there is little to be found, and if we
+turn to modern art the difference is even more apparent.
+
+</p>
+<p>This indifference may be attributed to many causes, but it was due first to the fact that the religious beliefs of our pagan
+ancestors were not held with any real tenacity. Hence the success of the more or less considered policy of the early Christian
+missionaries to confuse the heathen beliefs, and merge them in the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e1021" href="#xd0e1021">xiii</a>]</span>new faith, an interesting example of which is to be seen in the transference to the Christian festival of Easter of the attributes
+of the pagan goddess E&aacute;stre, from whom it took even the name. Northern mythology was in this way arrested ere it had attained
+its full development, and the progress of Christianity eventually relegated it to the limbo of forgotten things. Its comprehensive
+and intelligent scheme, however, in strong contrast with the disconnected mythology of Greece and Rome, formed the basis of
+a more or less rational faith which prepared the Norseman to receive the teaching of Christianity, and so helped to bring
+about its own undoing.
+
+</p>
+<p>The religious beliefs of the North are not mirrored with any exactitude in the Elder Edda. Indeed only a travesty of the faith
+of our ancestors has been preserved in Norse literature. The early poet loved allegory, and his imagination rioted among the
+conceptions of his fertile muse. &#8220;His eye was fixed on the mountains till the snowy peaks assumed human features and the giant
+of the rock or the ice descended with heavy tread; or he would gaze at the splendour of the spring, or of the summer fields,
+till Freya with the gleaming necklace stepped forth, or Sif with the flowing locks of gold.&#8221;<a class="noteref" id="xd0e1025src" href="#xd0e1025">4</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>We are told nothing as to sacrificial and religious rites, and all else is omitted which does not provide material for artistic
+treatment. The so-called Northern Mythology, therefore, may be regarded as <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e1030" href="#xd0e1030">xiv</a>]</span>a precious relic of the beginning of Northern poetry, rather than as a representation of the religious beliefs of the Scandinavians,
+and these literary fragments bear many signs of the transitional stage wherein the confusion of the old and new faiths is
+easily apparent.
+
+</p>
+<p>But notwithstanding the limitations imposed by long neglect it is possible to reconstruct in part a plan of the ancient Norse
+beliefs, and the general reader will derive much profit from Carlyle&#8217;s illuminating study in &#8220;Heroes and Hero-worship.&#8221; &#8220;A
+bewildering, inextricable jungle of delusions, confusions, falsehoods and absurdities, covering the whole field of Life!&#8221;
+he calls them, with all good reason. But he goes on to show, with equal truth, that at the soul of this crude worship of distorted
+nature was a spiritual force seeking expression. What we probe without reverence they viewed with awe, and not understanding
+it, straightway deified it, as all children have been apt to do in all stages of the world&#8217;s history. Truly they were hero-worshippers
+after Carlyle&#8217;s own heart, and scepticism had no place in their simple philosophy.
+
+</p>
+<p>It was the infancy of thought gazing upon a universe filled with divinity, and believing heartily with all sincerity. A large-hearted
+people reaching out in the dark towards ideals which were better than they knew. Ragnarok was to undo their gods because they
+had stumbled from their higher standards.
+
+</p>
+<p>We have to thank a curious phenomenon for the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e1038" href="#xd0e1038">xv</a>]</span>preservation of so much of the old lore as we still possess. While foreign influences were corrupting the Norse language,
+it remained practically unaltered in Iceland, which had been colonised from the mainland by the Norsemen who had fled thither
+to escape the oppression of Harold Fairhair after his crushing victory of Hafrsfirth. These people brought with them the poetic
+genius which had already manifested itself, and it took fresh root in that barren soil. Many of the old Norse poets were natives
+of Iceland, and in the early part of the Christian era, a supreme service was rendered to Norse literature by the Christian
+priest, S&aelig;mund, who industriously brought together a large amount of pagan poetry in a collection known as the Elder Edda,
+which is the chief foundation of our present knowledge of the religion of our Norse ancestors. Icelandic literature remained
+a sealed book, however, until the end of the eighteenth century, and very slowly since that time it has been winning its way
+in the teeth of indifference, until there are now signs that it will eventually come into its own. &#8220;To know the old Faith,&#8221;
+says Carlyle, &#8220;brings us into closer and clearer relation with the Past&#8212;with our own possessions in the Past. For the whole
+Past is the possession of the Present; the Past had always something true, and is a precious possession.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>The weighty words of William Morris regarding the Volsunga Saga may also be fitly quoted as an introduction to the whole of
+this collection of &#8220;Myths of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="xd0e1042" href="#xd0e1042">xvi</a>]</span>the Norsemen&#8221;: &#8220;This is the great story of the North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was to the Greeks&#8212;to
+all our race first, and afterwards, when the change of the world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has been&#8212;a
+story too&#8212;then should it be to those that come after us no less than the Tale of Troy has been to us.&#8221;
+
+
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="footnotes">
+<hr class="fnsep">
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href="#xd0e1002src" id="xd0e1002">1</a></span> &#8220;Northern Mythology,&#8221; Kauffmann.
+</p>
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href="#xd0e1005src" id="xd0e1005">2</a></span> Halliday Sparling.
+</p>
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href="#xd0e1010src" id="xd0e1010">3</a></span> Carlyle, &#8220;Heroes and Hero Worship.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a class="noteref" href="#xd0e1025src" id="xd0e1025">4</a></span> &#8220;Northern Mythology,&#8221; Kauffmann.
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb1" href="#pb1">1</a>]</span><div class="body">
+<div id="ch1" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter I: The Beginning</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1049">
+<h3 class="normal">Myths of Creation</h3>
+<p>Although the Aryan inhabitants of Northern Europe are supposed by some authorities to have come originally from the plateau
+of Iran, in the heart of Asia, the climate and scenery of the countries where they finally settled had great influence in
+shaping their early religious beliefs, as well as in ordering their mode of living.
+
+</p>
+<p>The grand and rugged landscapes of Northern Europe, the midnight sun, the flashing rays of the aurora borealis, the ocean
+continually lashing itself into fury against the great cliffs and icebergs of the Arctic Circle, could not but impress the
+people as vividly as the almost miraculous vegetation, the perpetual light, and the blue seas and skies of their brief summer
+season. It is no great wonder, therefore, that the Icelanders, for instance, to whom we owe the most perfect records of this
+belief, fancied in looking about them that the world was originally created from a strange mixture of fire and ice.
+
+</p>
+<p>Northern mythology is grand and tragical. Its principal theme is the perpetual struggle of the beneficent forces of Nature
+against the injurious, and hence it is not graceful and idyllic in character, like the religion of the sunny South, where
+the people could bask in perpetual sunshine, and the fruits of the earth grew ready to their hand.
+
+</p>
+<p>It was very natural that the dangers incurred in hunting and fishing under these inclement skies, and the suffering entailed
+by the long cold winters when the sun never shines, made our ancestors contemplate cold and ice as malevolent spirits; and
+it was with equal reason that they invoked with special fervour the beneficent influences of heat and light.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p002" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p002.jpg" alt="The Giant with the Flaming Sword" width="490" height="720"><p class="figureHead">The Giant with the Flaming Sword</p>
+<p>J. C. Dollman</p>
+</div><p>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb2" href="#pb2">2</a>]</span></p>
+<p>When questioned concerning the creation of the world, the Northern scalds, or poets, whose songs are preserved in the Eddas
+and Sagas, declared that in the beginning, when there was as yet no earth, nor sea, nor air, when darkness rested over all,
+there existed a powerful being called Allfather, whom they dimly conceived as uncreated as well as unseen, and that whatever
+he willed came to pass.
+
+</p>
+<p>In the centre of space there was, in the morning of time, a great abyss called Ginnunga-gap, the cleft of clefts, the yawning
+gulf, whose depths no eye could fathom, as it was enveloped in perpetual twilight. North of this abode was a space or world
+known as Nifl-heim, the home of mist and darkness, in the centre of which bubbled the exhaustless spring Hvergelmir, the seething
+cauldron, whose waters supplied twelve great streams known as the Elivagar. As the water of these streams flowed swiftly away
+from its source and encountered the cold blasts from the yawning gulf, it soon hardened into huge blocks of ice, which rolled
+downward into the immeasurable depths of the great abyss with a continual roar like thunder.
+
+</p>
+<p>South of this dark chasm, and directly opposite Nifl-heim, the realm of mist, was another world called Muspells-heim, the
+home of elemental fire, where all was warmth and brightness, and whose frontiers were continually guarded by Surtr, the flame
+giant. This giant fiercely brandished his flashing sword, and continually sent forth great showers of sparks, which fell with
+a hissing sound upon the ice-blocks in the bottom of the abyss, and partly melted them by their heat.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Great Surtur, with his burning sword,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Southward at Muspel&#8217;s gate kept ward,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And flashes of celestial flame,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Life-giving, from the fire-world came.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb3" href="#pb3">3</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1088">
+<h3 class="normal">Ymir and Audhumla</h3>
+<p>As the steam rose in clouds it again encountered the prevailing cold, and was changed into rime or hoarfrost, which, layer
+by layer, filled up the great central space. Thus by the continual action of cold and heat, and also probably by the will
+of the uncreated and unseen, a gigantic creature called Ymir or Orgelmir (seething clay), the personification of the frozen
+ocean, came to life amid the ice-blocks in the abyss, and as he was born of rime he was called a Hrim-thurs, or ice-giant.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In early times,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When Ymir lived,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Was sand, nor sea,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor cooling wave;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">No earth was found,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor heaven above;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">One chaos all,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And nowhere grass.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Henderson&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Groping about in the gloom in search of something to eat, Ymir perceived a gigantic cow called Audhumla (the nourisher), which
+had been created by the same agency as himself, and out of the same materials. Hastening towards her, Ymir noticed with pleasure
+that from her udder flowed four great streams of milk, which would supply ample nourishment.
+
+</p>
+<p>All his wants were thus satisfied; but the cow, looking about her for food in her turn, began to lick the salt off a neighbouring
+ice-block with her rough tongue. This she continued to do until first the hair of a god appeared and then the whole head emerged
+from its icy envelope, until by-and-by Buri (the producer) stepped forth entirely free.
+
+</p>
+<p>While the cow had been thus engaged, Ymir, the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb4" href="#pb4">4</a>]</span>giant, had fallen asleep, and as he slept a son and daughter were born from the perspiration under his armpit, and his feet
+produced the six-headed giant Thrudgelmir, who, shortly after his birth, brought forth in his turn the giant Bergelmir, from
+whom all the evil frost giants are descended.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Under the armpit grew,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Tis said of Hrim-thurs,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A girl and boy together;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Foot with foot begat,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of that wise J&ouml;tun,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A six-headed son.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1139">
+<h3 class="normal">Odin, Vili, and Ve</h3>
+<p>When these giants became aware of the existence of the god Buri, and of his son B&ouml;rr (born), whom he had immediately produced,
+they began waging war against them, for as the gods and giants represented the opposite forces of good and evil, there was
+no hope of their living together in peace. The struggle continued evidently for ages, neither party gaining a decided advantage,
+until B&ouml;rr married the giantess Bestla, daughter of Bolthorn (the thorn of evil), who bore him three powerful sons, Odin (spirit),
+Vili (will), and Ve (holy). These three sons immediately joined their father in his struggle against the hostile frost-giants,
+and finally succeeded in slaying their deadliest foe, the great Ymir. As he sank down lifeless the blood gushed from his wounds
+in such floods that it produced a great deluge, in which all his race perished, with the exception of Bergelmir, who escaped
+in a boat and went with his wife to the confines of the world.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And all the race of Ymir thou didst drown,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Save one, Bergelmer: he on shipboard fled
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thy deluge, and from him the giants sprang.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb5" href="#pb5">5</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Here he took up his abode, calling the place J&ouml;tunheim (the home of the giants), and here he begat a new race of frost-giants,
+who inherited his dislikes, continued the feud, and were always ready to sally forth from their desolate country and raid
+the territory of the gods.
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods, in Northern mythology called &AElig;sir (pillars and supporters of the world), having thus triumphed over their foes,
+and being no longer engaged in perpetual warfare, now began to look about them, with intent to improve the desolate aspect
+of things and fashion a habitable world. After due consideration B&ouml;rr&#8217;s sons rolled Ymir&#8217;s great corpse into the yawning abyss,
+and began to create the world out of its various component parts.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1160">
+<h3 class="normal">The Creation of the Earth</h3>
+<p>Out of the flesh they fashioned Midgard (middle garden), as the earth was called. This was placed in the exact centre of the
+vast space, and hedged all round with Ymir&#8217;s eyebrows for bulwarks or ramparts. The solid portion of Midgard was surrounded
+by the giant&#8217;s blood or sweat, which formed the ocean, while his bones made the hills, his flat teeth the cliffs, and his
+curly hair the trees and all vegetation.
+
+</p>
+<p>Well pleased with the result of their first efforts at creation, the gods now took the giant&#8217;s unwieldy skull and poised it
+skilfully as the vaulted heavens above earth and sea; then scattering his brains throughout the expanse beneath they fashioned
+from them the fleecy clouds.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Of Ymir&#8217;s flesh
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Was earth created,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of his blood the sea,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of his bones the hills,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb6" href="#pb6">6</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Of his hair trees and plants,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of his skull the heavens,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And of his brows
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The gentle powers
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Formed Midgard for the sons of men;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But of his brain
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The heavy clouds are
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">All created.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>To support the heavenly vault, the gods stationed the strong dwarfs, Nordri, Sudri, Austri, Westri, at its four corners, bidding
+them sustain it upon their shoulders, and from them the four points of the compass received their present names of North,
+South, East, and West. To give light to the world thus created, the gods studded the heavenly vault with sparks secured from
+Muspells-heim, points of light which shone steadily through the gloom like brilliant stars. The most vivid of these sparks,
+however, were reserved for the manufacture of the sun and moon, which were placed in beautiful golden chariots.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And from the flaming world, where Muspel reigns,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou sent&#8217;st and fetched&#8217;st fire, and madest lights:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sun, moon, and stars, which thou hast hung in heaven,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Dividing clear the paths of night and day.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>When all these preparations had been finished, and the steeds Arvakr (the early waker) and Alsvin (the rapid goer) were harnessed
+to the sun-chariot, the gods, fearing lest the animals should suffer from their proximity to the ardent sphere, placed under
+their withers great skins filled with air or with some refrigerant substance. They also fashioned the shield Svalin (the cooler),
+and placed it in front of the car to shelter them from the sun&#8217;s direct rays, which would else have <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb7" href="#pb7">7</a>]</span>burned them and the earth to a cinder. The moon-car was, similarly, provided with a fleet steed called Alsvider (the all-swift);
+but no shield was required to protect him from the mild rays of the moon.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1216">
+<h3 class="normal">Mani and Sol</h3>
+<p>The chariots were ready, the steeds harnessed and impatient to begin what was to be their daily round, but who should guide
+them along the right road? The gods looked about them, and their attention was attracted to the two beautiful offspring of
+the giant Mundilfari. He was very proud of his children, and had named them after the newly created orbs, Mani (the moon)
+and Sol (the sun). Sol, the Sun-maid, was the spouse of Glaur (glow), who was probably one of Surtr&#8217;s sons.
+
+</p>
+<p>The names proved to be happily bestowed, as the brother and sister were given the direction of the steeds of their bright
+namesakes. After receiving due counsel from the gods, they were transferred to the sky, and day by day they fulfilled their
+appointed duties and guided their steeds along the heavenly paths.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Know that Mundilf&aelig;r is hight
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Father to the moon and sun;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Age on age shall roll away,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">While they mark the months and days.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>H&aacute;vam&aacute;l (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods next summoned Nott (night), a daughter of Norvi, one of the giants, and entrusted to her care a dark chariot, drawn
+by a sable steed, Hrim-faxi (frost mane), from whose waving mane the dew and hoarfrost dropped down upon the earth.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Hrim-faxi is the sable steed,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From the east who brings the night,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fraught with the showering joys of love:
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb8" href="#pb8">8</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">As he champs the foamy bit,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Drops of dew are scattered round
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To adorn the vales of earth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Vafthrudni&#8217;s-mal (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The goddess of night had thrice been married, and by her first husband, Naglfari, she had had a son named Aud; by her second,
+Annar, a daughter J&ouml;rd (earth); and by her third, the god Dellinger (dawn), another son, of radiant beauty, was now born to
+her, and he was given the name of Dag (day).
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p008" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p008.jpg" alt="The Wolves pursuing Sol and Mani" width="720" height="488"><p class="figureHead">The Wolves pursuing Sol and Mani</p>
+<p>J. C. Dollman</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As soon as the gods became aware of this beautiful being&#8217;s existence they provided a chariot for him also, drawn by the resplendent
+white steed Skin-faxi (shining mane), from whose mane bright beams of light shone forth in every direction, illuminating all
+the world, and bringing light and gladness to all.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Forth from the east, up the ascent of heaven,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Day drove his courser with the shining mane.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The Wolves Sk&ouml;ll and Hati
+
+</p>
+<p>But as evil always treads close upon the footsteps of good, hoping to destroy it, the ancient inhabitants of the Northern
+regions imagined that both Sun and Moon were incessantly pursued by the fierce wolves Sk&ouml;ll (repulsion) and Hati (hatred),
+whose sole aim was to overtake and swallow the brilliant objects before them, so that the world might again be enveloped in
+its primeval darkness.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Sk&ouml;ll the wolf is named
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That the fair-faced goddess
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To the ocean chases;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Another Hati hight
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He is Hrodvitnir&#8217;s son;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He the bright maid of heaven shall precede.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;muna&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb9" href="#pb9">9</a>]</span></p>
+<p>At times, they said, the wolves overtook and tried to swallow their prey, thus producing an eclipse of the radiant orbs. Then
+the terrified people raised such a deafening clamour that the wolves, frightened by the noise, hastily dropped them. Thus
+rescued, Sun and Moon resumed their course, fleeing more rapidly than before, the hungry monsters rushing along in their wake,
+lusting for the time when their efforts would prevail and the end of the world would come. For the Northern nations believed
+that as their gods had sprung from an alliance between the divine element (B&ouml;rr) and the mortal (Bestla), they were finite,
+and doomed to perish with the world they had made.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But even in this early morn
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Faintly foreshadowed was the dawn
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of that fierce struggle, deadly shock,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Which yet should end in Ragnarok;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When Good and Evil, Death and Life,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Beginning now, end then their strife.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Mani was accompanied also by Hiuki, the waxing, and Bil, the waning, moon, two children whom he had snatched from earth, where
+a cruel father forced them to carry water all night. Our ancestors fancied they saw these children, the original &#8220;Jack and
+Jill,&#8221; with their pail, darkly outlined upon the moon.
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods not only appointed Sun, Moon, Day, and Night to mark the procession of the year, but also called Evening, Midnight,
+Morning, Forenoon, Noon, and Afternoon to share their duties, making Summer and Winter the rulers of the seasons. Summer,
+a direct descendant of Svasud (the mild and lovely), inherited his sire&#8217;s gentle disposition, and was loved by all except
+Winter, his deadly enemy, the son of Vindsual, himself <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb10" href="#pb10">10</a>]</span>a son of the disagreeable god Vasud, the personification of the icy wind.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Vindsual is the name of him
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Who begat the winter&#8217;s god;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Summer from Suasuthur sprang:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Both shall walk the way of years,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till the twilight of the gods.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Vafthrudni&#8217;s-mal (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The cold winds continually swept down from the north, chilling all the earth, and the Northmen imagined that these were set
+in motion by the great giant Hr&aelig;-svelgr (the corpse-swallower), who, clad in eagle plumes, sat at the extreme northern verge
+of the heavens, and that when he raised his arms or wings the cold blasts darted forth and swept ruthlessly over the face
+of the earth, blighting all things with their icy breath.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Hr&aelig;-svelger is the name of him
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Who sits beyond the end of heaven,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And winnows wide his eagle-wings,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Whence the sweeping blasts have birth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Vafthrudni&#8217;s-mal (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1353">
+<h3 class="normal">Dwarfs and Elves</h3>
+<p>While the gods were occupied in creating the earth and providing for its illumination, a whole host of maggot-like creatures
+had been breeding in Ymir&#8217;s flesh. These uncouth beings now attracted divine attention. Summoning them into their presence,
+the gods first gave them forms and endowed them with superhuman intelligence, and then divided them into two large classes.
+Those which were dark, treacherous, and cunning by nature were banished to Svart-alfa-heim, the home of the black dwarfs,
+situated underground, whence they were never allowed to come forth during the day, under penalty of being turned into stone.
+They were <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb11" href="#pb11">11</a>]</span>called Dwarfs, Trolls, Gnomes, or Kobolds, and spent all their time and energy in exploring the secret recesses of the earth.
+They collected gold, silver, and precious stones, which they stowed away in secret crevices, whence they could withdraw them
+at will. The remainder of these small creatures, including all that were fair, good, and useful, the gods called Fairies and
+Elves, and they sent them to dwell in the airy realm of Alf-heim (home of the light-elves), situated between heaven and earth,
+whence they could flit downward whenever they pleased, to attend to the plants and flowers, sport with the birds and butterflies,
+or dance in the silvery moonlight on the green.
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin, who had been the leading spirit in all these undertakings, now bade the gods, his descendants, follow him to the broad
+plain called Idawold, far above the earth, on the other side of the great stream Ifing, whose waters never froze.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Ifing&#8217;s deep and murky wave
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Parts the ancient sons of earth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From the dwelling of the Goths:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Open flows the mighty flood,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor shall ice arrest its course
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">While the wheel of Ages rolls.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Vafthrudni&#8217;s-mal (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In the centre of the sacred space, which from the beginning of the world had been reserved for their own abode and called
+Asgard (home of the gods), the twelve &AElig;sir (gods) and twenty-four Asynjur (goddesses) all assembled at the bidding of Odin.
+Then was held a great council, at which it was decreed that no blood should be shed within the limits of their realm, or peace-stead,
+but that harmony should reign there for ever. As a further result of the conference the gods set up a forge where they fashioned
+all their weapons <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb12" href="#pb12">12</a>]</span>and the tools required to build the magnificent palaces of precious metals, in which they lived for many long years in a state
+of such perfect happiness that this period has been called the Golden Age.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1383">
+<h3 class="normal">The Creation of Man</h3>
+<p>Although the gods had from the beginning designed Midgard, or Mana-heim, as the abode of man, there were at first no human
+beings to inhabit it. One day Odin, Vili, and Ve, according to some authorities, or Odin, Hoenir (the bright one), and Lodur,
+or Loki (fire), started out together and walked along the seashore, where they found either two trees, the ash, Ask, and the
+elm, Embla, or two blocks of wood, hewn into rude semblances of the human form. The gods gazed at first upon the inanimate
+wood in silent wonder; then, perceiving the use it could be put to, Odin gave these logs souls, Hoenir bestowed motion and
+senses, and Lodur contributed blood and blooming complexions.
+
+</p>
+<p>Thus endowed with speech and thought, and with power to love and to hope and to work, and with life and death, the newly created
+man and woman were left to rule Midgard at will. They gradually peopled it with their descendants, while the gods, remembering
+they had called them into life, took a special interest in all they did, watched over them, and often vouchsafed their aid
+and protection.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1390">
+<h3 class="normal">The Tree Yggdrasil</h3>
+<p>Allfather next created a huge ash called Yggdrasil, the tree of the universe, of time, or of life, which filled all the world,
+taking root not only in the remotest depths of Nifl-heim, where bubbled the spring Hvergelmir, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb13" href="#pb13">13</a>]</span>but also in Midgard, near Mimir&#8217;s well (the ocean), and in Asgard, near the Urdar fountain.
+
+</p>
+<p>From its three great roots the tree attained such a marvellous height that its topmost bough, called Lerad (the peace-giver),
+overshadowed Odin&#8217;s hall, while the other wide-spreading branches towered over the other worlds. An eagle was perched on the
+bough Lerad, and between his eyes sat the falcon Vedfolnir, sending his piercing glances down into heaven, earth, and Nifl-heim,
+and reporting all that he saw.
+
+</p>
+<p>As the tree Yggdrasil was ever green, its leaves never withering, it served as pasture-ground not only for Odin&#8217;s goat Heidrun,
+which supplied the heavenly mead, the drink of the gods, but also for the stags Dain, Dvalin, Duneyr, and Durathor, from whose
+horns honey-dew dropped down upon the earth and furnished the water for all the rivers in the world.
+
+</p>
+<p>In the seething cauldron Hvergelmir, close by the great tree, a horrible dragon, called Nidhug, continually gnawed the roots,
+and was helped in his work of destruction by countless worms, whose aim it was to kill the tree, knowing that its death would
+be the signal for the downfall of the gods.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Through all our life a tempter prowls malignant,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">The cruel Nidhug from the world below.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He hates that asa-light whose rays benignant
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">On th&#8217; hero&#8217;s brow and glitt&#8217;ring sword bright glow.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Scampering continually up and down the branches and trunk of the tree, the squirrel Ratatosk (branch-borer), the typical busybody
+and tale-bearer, passed its time repeating to the dragon below the remarks of the eagle above, and <i>vice versa</i>, in the hope of stirring up strife between them.
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb14" href="#pb14">14</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1422">
+<h3 class="normal">The Bridge Bifr&ouml;st</h3>
+<p>It was, of course, essential that the tree Yggdrasil should be maintained in a perfectly healthy condition, and this duty
+was performed by the Norns, or Fates, who daily sprinkled it with the holy waters from the Urdar fountain. This water, as
+it trickled down to earth through branches and leaves, supplied the bees with honey.
+
+</p>
+<p>From either edge of Nifl-heim, arching high above Midgard, rose the sacred bridge, Bifr&ouml;st (Asabru, the rainbow), built of
+fire, water, and air, whose quivering and changing hues it retained, and over which the gods travelled to and fro to the earth
+or to the Urdar well, at the foot of the ash Yggdrasil, where they daily assembled in council.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 12em; ">&#8220;The gods arose
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And took their horses, and set forth to ride
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">O&#8217;er the bridge Bifrost, where is Heimdall&#8217;s watch,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To the ash Igdrasil, and Ida&#8217;s plain.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thor came on foot, the rest on horseback rode.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Of all the gods Thor only, the god of thunder, never passed over the bridge, for fear lest his heavy tread or the heat of
+his lightnings would destroy it. The god Heimdall kept watch and ward there night and day. He was armed with a trenchant sword,
+and carried a trumpet called Giallar-horn, upon which he generally blew a soft note to announce the coming or going of the
+gods, but upon which a terrible blast would be sounded when Ragnarok should come, and the frost-giants and Surtr combined
+to destroy the world.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Surt from the south comes
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With flickering flame;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shines from his sword
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The Val-god&#8217;s sun.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb15" href="#pb15">15</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">The stony hills are dashed together,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The giantesses totter;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Men tread the path of Hel,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And heaven is cloven.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1468">
+<h3 class="normal">The Vanas</h3>
+<p>Now although the original inhabitants of heaven were the &AElig;sir, they were not the sole divinities of the Northern races, who
+also recognised the power of the sea- and wind-gods, the Vanas, dwelling in Vana-heim and ruling their realms as they pleased.
+In early times, before the golden palaces in Asgard were built, a dispute arose between the &AElig;sir and Vanas, and they resorted
+to arms, using rocks, mountains, and icebergs as missiles in the fray. But discovering ere long that in unity alone lay strength,
+they composed their differences and made peace, and to ratify the treaty they exchanged hostages.
+
+</p>
+<p>It was thus that the Van, Ni&ouml;rd, came to dwell in Asgard with his two children, Frey and Freya, while the Asa, Hoenir, Odin&#8217;s
+own brother, took up his abode in Vana-heim.
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb16" href="#pb16">16</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch2" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter II: Odin</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1479">
+<h3 class="normal">The Father of Gods and Men</h3>
+<p>Odin, Wuotan, or Woden was the highest and holiest god of the Northern races. He was the all-pervading spirit of the universe,
+the personification of the air, the god of universal wisdom and victory, and the leader and protector of princes and heroes.
+As all the gods were supposed to be descended from him, he was surnamed Allfather, and as eldest and chief among them he occupied
+the highest seat in Asgard. Known by the name of Hlidskialf, this chair was not only an exalted throne, but also a mighty
+watch-tower, from whence he could overlook the whole world and see at a glance all that was happening among gods, giants,
+elves, dwarfs, and men.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;From the hall of Heaven he rode away
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To Lidskialf, and sate upon his throne,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The mount, from whence his eye surveys the world.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And far from Heaven he turned his shining orbs
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To look on Midgard, and the earth, and men.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p016" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p016.jpg" alt="Odin" width="330" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Odin</p>
+<p>Sir E. Burne-Jones
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of Frederick Hollyer</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1508">
+<h3 class="normal">Odin&#8217;s Personal Appearance</h3>
+<p>None but Odin and his wife and queen Frigga were privileged to use this seat, and when they occupied it they generally gazed
+towards the south and west, the goal of all the hopes and excursions of the Northern nations. Odin was generally represented
+as a tall, vigorous man, about fifty years of age, either with dark curling hair or with a long grey beard and bald head.
+He was clad in a suit of grey, with a blue hood, and his muscular body was enveloped in a wide blue mantle flecked with grey&#8212;an
+emblem of the sky with its fleecy clouds. In his hand Odin generally carried the infallible <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb17" href="#pb17">17</a>]</span>spear Gungnir, which was so sacred that an oath sworn upon its point could never be broken, and on his finger or arm he wore
+the marvellous ring, Draupnir, the emblem of fruitfulness, precious beyond compare. When seated upon his throne or armed for
+the fray, to mingle in which he would often descend to earth, Odin wore his eagle helmet; but when he wandered peacefully
+about the earth in human guise, to see what men were doing, he generally donned a broad-brimmed hat, drawn low over his forehead
+to conceal the fact that he possessed but one eye.
+
+</p>
+<p>Two ravens, Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory), perched upon his shoulders as he sat upon his throne, and these he sent out
+into the wide world every morning, anxiously watching for their return at nightfall, when they whispered into his ears news
+of all they had seen and heard. Thus he was kept well informed about everything that was happening on earth.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Hugin and Munin
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fly each day
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Over the spacious earth.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I fear for Hugin
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That he come not back,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yet more anxious am I for Munin.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>At his feet crouched two wolves or hunting hounds, Geri and Freki, animals which were therefore considered sacred to him,
+and of good omen if met by the way. Odin always fed these wolves with his own hands from meat set before him. He required
+no food at all for himself, and seldom tasted anything except the sacred mead.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Geri and Freki
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The war-wont sates,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The triumphant sire of hosts;
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb18" href="#pb18">18</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">But on wine only
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The famed in arms
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Odin, ever lives.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>When seated in state upon his throne, Odin rested his feet upon a footstool of gold, the work of the gods, all of whose furniture
+and utensils were fashioned either of that precious metal or of silver.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p018" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p018.jpg" alt="The Chosen Slain" width="419" height="720"><p class="figureHead">The Chosen Slain</p>
+<p>K. Dielitz
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., 133 New Bond St., W.</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Besides the magnificent hall Glads-heim, where stood the twelve seats occupied by the gods when they met in council, and Valaskialf,
+where his throne, Hlidskialf, was placed, Odin had a third palace in Asgard, situated in the midst of the marvellous grove
+Glasir, whose shimmering leaves were of red gold.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1567">
+<h3 class="normal">Valhalla</h3>
+<p>This palace, called Valhalla (the hall of the chosen slain), had five hundred and forty doors, wide enough to allow the passage
+of eight hundred warriors abreast, and above the principal gate were a boar&#8217;s head and an eagle whose piercing glance penetrated
+to the far corners of the world. The walls of this marvellous building were fashioned of glittering spears, so highly polished
+that they illuminated the hall. The roof was of golden shields, and the benches were decorated with fine armour, the god&#8217;s
+gifts to his guests. Here long tables afforded ample accommodation for the Einheriar, warriors fallen in battle, who were
+specially favoured by Odin.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Easily to be known is,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By those who to Odin come,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The mansion by its aspect.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Its roof with spears is laid,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Its hall with shields is decked,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With corselets are its benches strewed.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb19" href="#pb19">19</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The ancient Northern nations, who deemed warfare the most honourable of occupations, and considered courage the greatest virtue,
+worshipped Odin principally as god of battle and victory. They believed that whenever a fight was impending he sent out his
+special attendants, the shield-, battle-, or wish-maidens, called Valkyrs (choosers of the slain), who selected from the dead
+warriors one-half of their number, whom they bore on their fleet steeds over the quivering rainbow bridge, Bifr&ouml;st, into Valhalla.
+Welcomed by Odin&#8217;s sons, Hermod and Bragi, the heroes were conducted to the foot of Odin&#8217;s throne, where they received the
+praise due to their valour. When some special favourite of the god was thus brought into Asgard, Valfather (father of the
+slain), as Odin was called when he presided over the warriors, would sometimes rise from his throne and in person bid him
+welcome at the great entrance gate.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1592">
+<h3 class="normal">The Feast of the Heroes</h3>
+<p>Besides the glory of such distinction, and the enjoyment of Odin&#8217;s beloved presence day after day, other more material pleasures
+awaited the warriors in Valhalla. Generous entertainment was provided for them at the long tables, where the beautiful white-armed
+virgins, the Valkyrs, having laid aside their armour and clad themselves in pure white robes, waited upon them with assiduous
+attention. These maidens, nine in number according to some authorities, brought the heroes great horns full of delicious mead,
+and set before them huge portions of boar&#8217;s flesh, upon which they feasted heartily. The usual Northern drink was beer or
+ale, but our ancestors fancied this beverage too coarse for the heavenly sphere. They therefore imagined that Valfather kept
+his table liberally supplied with mead or hydromel, which was daily furnished in great abundance <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb20" href="#pb20">20</a>]</span>by his she-goat Heidrun, who continually browsed on the tender leaves and twigs on Lerad, Yggdrasil&#8217;s topmost branch.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Rash war and perilous battle, their delight;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And immature, and red with glorious wounds,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Unpeaceful death their choice: deriving thence
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A right to feast and drain immortal bowls,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In Odin&#8217;s hall; whose blazing roof resounds
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The genial uproar of those shades who fall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In desperate fight, or by some brave attempt.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Liberty (James Thomson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p020" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p020.jpg" alt="A Viking Foray" width="720" height="423"><p class="figureHead">A Viking Foray</p>
+<p>J. C. Dollman
+
+</p>
+<p>By Arrangement with the Artist</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The meat upon which the Einheriar feasted was the flesh of the divine boar S&aelig;hrimnir, a marvellous beast, daily slain by the
+cook Andhrimnir, and boiled in the great cauldron Eldhrimnir; but although Odin&#8217;s guests had true Northern appetites and gorged
+themselves to the full, there was always plenty of meat for all.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Andhrimnir cooks
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In Eldhrimnir
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">S&aelig;hrimnir;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Tis the best of flesh;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But few know
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">What the einherjes eat.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Grimnir (Anderson&#8217;s version).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Moreover, the supply was exhaustless, for the boar always came to life again before the time of the next meal. This miraculous
+renewal of supplies in the larder was not the only wonderful occurrence in Valhalla, for it is related that the warriors,
+after having eaten and drunk to satiety, always called for their weapons, armed themselves, and rode out into the great courtyard,
+where they fought against one another, repeating the feats of arms for which they were famed on earth, and recklessly dealing
+terrible wounds, which, however, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb21" href="#pb21">21</a>]</span>were miraculously and completely healed as soon as the dinner horn sounded.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;All the chosen guests of Odin
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Daily ply the trade of war;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From the fields of festal fight
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Swift they ride in gleaming arms,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And gaily, at the board of gods,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Quaff the cup of sparkling ale
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And eat S&aelig;hrimni&#8217;s vaunted flesh.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Vafthrudni&#8217;s-mal (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Whole and happy at the sound of the horn, and bearing one another no grudge for cruel thrusts given and received, the Einheriar
+would ride gaily back to Valhalla to renew their feasts in Odin&#8217;s beloved presence, while the white-armed Valkyrs, with flying
+hair, glided gracefully about, constantly filling their horns or their favourite drinking vessels, the skulls of their enemies,
+while the scalds sang of war and of stirring Viking forays.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And all day long they there are hack&#8217;d and hewn
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Mid dust, and groans, and limbs lopped off, and blood;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But all at night return to Odin&#8217;s hall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Woundless and fresh: such lot is theirs in heaven.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Fighting and feasting thus, the heroes were said to spend their days in perfect bliss, while Odin delighted in their strength
+and number, which, however, he foresaw would not avail to prevent his downfall when the day of the last battle should dawn.
+
+</p>
+<p>As such pleasures were the highest a Northern warrior&#8217;s fancy could paint, it was very natural that all fighting men should
+love Odin, and early in life should dedicate themselves to his service. They vowed to die arms in hand, if possible, and even
+wounded themselves <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb22" href="#pb22">22</a>]</span>with their own spears when death drew near, if they had been unfortunate enough to escape death on the battlefield and were
+threatened with &#8220;straw death,&#8221; as they called decease from old age or sickness.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;To Odin then true-fast
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Carves he fair runics,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Death-runes cut deep on his arm and his breast.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In reward for this devotion Odin watched with special care over his favourites, giving them gifts, a magic sword, a spear,
+or a horse, and making them invincible until their last hour had come, when he himself appeared to claim or destroy the gift
+he had bestowed, and the Valkyrs bore the heroes to Valhalla.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;He gave to Hermod
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A helm and corselet,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And from him Sigmund
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A sword received.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Hyndla (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1716">
+<h3 class="normal">Sleipnir</h3>
+<p>When Odin took an active part in war, he generally rode his eight-footed grey steed, Sleipnir, and bore a white shield. His
+glittering spear flung over the heads of the combatants was the signal for the fray to commence, and he would dash into the
+midst of the ranks shouting his warcry: &#8220;Odin has you all!&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And Odin donned
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His dazzling corslet and his helm of gold,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And led the way on Sleipnir.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>At times he used his magic bow, from which he would shoot ten arrows at once, every one invariably bringing down a foe. Odin
+was also supposed to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb23" href="#pb23">23</a>]</span>inspire his favourite warriors with the renowned &#8220;Berserker rage&#8221; (bare sark or shirt), which enabled them, although naked,
+weaponless, and sore beset, to perform unheard-of feats of valour and strength, and move about as with charmed lives.
+
+</p>
+<p>As Odin&#8217;s characteristics, like the all-pervading elements, were multitudinous, so also were his names, of which he had no
+less than two hundred, almost all descriptive of some phase of his activities. He was considered the ancient god of seamen
+and of the wind.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">&#8220;Mighty Odin,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Norsemen hearts we bend to thee!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Steer our barks, all-potent Woden,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">O&#8217;er the surging Baltic Sea.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Vail.</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1751">
+<h3 class="normal">The Wild Hunt</h3>
+<p>Odin, as wind-god, was pictured as rushing through mid-air on his eight-footed steed, from which originated the oldest Northern
+riddle, which runs as follows: &#8220;<i>Who are the two who ride to the Thing? Three eyes have they together, ten feet, and one tail: and thus they travel through
+the lands.</i>&#8221; And as the souls of the dead were supposed to be wafted away on the wings of the storm, Odin was worshipped as the leader
+of all disembodied spirits. In this character he was most generally known as the Wild Huntsman, and when people heard the
+rush and roar of the wind they cried aloud in superstitious fear, fancying they heard and saw him ride past with his train,
+all mounted on snorting steeds, and accompanied by baying hounds. And the passing of the Wild Hunt, known as Woden&#8217;s Hunt,
+the Raging Host, Gabriel&#8217;s Hounds, or Asgardreia, was also considered a presage of such misfortune as pestilence or war.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb24" href="#pb24">24</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The Rhine flows bright; but its waves ere long
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Must hear a voice of war,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And a clash of spears our hills among,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And a trumpet from afar;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the brave on a bloody turf must lie,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For the Huntsman hath gone by!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Wild Huntsman (Mrs. Hemans).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>It was further thought that if any were so sacrilegious as to join in the wild halloo in mockery, they would be immediately
+snatched up and whirled away with the vanishing host, while those who joined in the halloo with implicit good faith would
+be rewarded by the sudden gift of a horse&#8217;s leg, hurled at them from above, which, if carefully kept until the morrow, would
+be changed into a lump of gold.
+
+</p>
+<p>Even after the introduction of Christianity the ignorant Northern folk still dreaded the on-coming storm, declaring that it
+was the Wild Hunt sweeping across the sky.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 12em; ">&#8220;And ofttimes will start,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For overhead are sweeping Gabriel&#8217;s hounds,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Doomed with their impious lord the flying hart
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To chase forever on a&euml;real grounds.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Sonnet (Wordsworth).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Sometimes it left behind a small black dog, which, cowering and whining upon a neighbouring hearth, had to be kept for a whole
+year and carefully tended unless it could be exorcised or frightened away. The usual recipe, the same as for the riddance
+of changelings, was to brew beer in egg-shells, and this performance was supposed so to startle the spectral dog that he would
+fly with his tail between his legs, exclaiming that, although as old as the Behmer, or Bohemian forest, he had never before
+beheld such an uncanny sight.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb25" href="#pb25">25</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;I am as old
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As the Behmer wold,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And have in my life
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Such a brewing not seen.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Old Saying (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.)</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The object of this phantom hunt varied greatly, and was either a visonary boar or wild horse, white-breasted maidens who were
+caught and borne away bound only once in seven years, or the wood nymphs, called Moss Maidens, who were thought to represent
+the autumn leaves torn from the trees and whirled away by the wintry gale.
+
+</p>
+<p>In the middle ages, when the belief in the old heathen deities was partly forgotten, the leader of the Wild Hunt was no longer
+Odin, but Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa, King Arthur, or some Sabbath-breaker, like the Squire of Rodenstein or Hans von
+Hackelberg, who, in punishment for his sins, was condemned to hunt for ever through the realms of air.
+
+</p>
+<p>As the winds blew fiercest in autumn and winter, Odin was supposed to prefer hunting during that season, especially during
+the time between Christmas and Twelfth-night, and the peasants were always careful to leave the last sheaf or measure of grain
+out in the fields to serve as food for his horse.
+
+</p>
+<p>This hunt was of course known by various names in the different countries of Northern Europe; but as the tales told about
+it are all alike, they evidently originated in the same old heathen belief, and to this day ignorant people of the North fancy
+that the baying of a hound on a stormy night is an infallible presage of death.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Still, still shall last the dreadful chase,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Till time itself shall have an end;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By day, they scour earth&#8217;s cavern&#8217;d space,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">At midnight&#8217;s witching hour, ascend.</p>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb26" href="#pb26">26</a>]</span><div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;This is the horn, and hound, and horse
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">That oft the lated peasant hears;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Appall&#8217;d, he signs the frequent cross,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">When the wild din invades his ears.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The wakeful priest oft drops a tear
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">For human pride, for human woe,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When, at his midnight mass, he hears
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">The infernal cry of &#8216;Holla, ho!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Sir Walter Scott.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The Wild Hunt, or Raging Host of Germany, was called Herlathing in England, from the mythical king Herla, its supposed leader;
+in Northern France it bore the name of <i>Mesn&eacute;e d&#8217;Hellequin</i>, from Hel, goddess of death; and in the middle ages it was known as Cain&#8217;s Hunt or Herod&#8217;s Hunt, these latter names being
+given because the leaders were supposed to be unable to find rest on account of the iniquitous murders of Abel, of John the
+Baptist, and of the Holy Innocents.
+
+</p>
+<p>In Central France the Wild Huntsman, whom we have already seen in other countries as Odin, Charlemagne, Barbarossa, Rodenstein,
+von Hackelberg, King Arthur, Hel, one of the Swedish kings, Gabriel, Cain, or Herod, is also called the Great Huntsman of
+Fontainebleau (<i>le Grand Veneur de Fontainebleau</i>), and people declare that on the eve of Henry IV.&#8217;s murder, and also just before the outbreak of the great French Revolution,
+his shouts were distinctly heard as he swept across the sky.
+
+</p>
+<p>It was generally believed among the Northern nations that the soul escaped from the body in the shape of a mouse, which crept
+out of a corpse&#8217;s mouth and ran away, and it was also said to creep in and out of the mouths of people in a trance. While
+the soul was absent, no effort or remedy could recall the patient to life; but as soon as it had come back animation returned.
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb27" href="#pb27">27</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1865">
+<h3 class="normal">The Pied Piper</h3>
+<p>As Odin was the leader of all disembodied spirits, he was identified in the middle ages with the Pied Piper of Hamelin. According
+to medi&aelig;val legends, Hamelin was so infested by rats that life became unbearable, and a large reward was offered to any who
+would rid the town of these rodents. A piper, in parti-coloured garments, offered to undertake the commission, and the terms
+being accepted, he commenced to play through the streets in such wise that, one and all, the rats were beguiled out of their
+holes until they formed a vast procession. There was that in the strains which compelled them to follow, until at last the
+river Weser was reached, and all were drowned in its tide.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">You heard as if an army muttered;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Families by tens and dozens,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Followed the Piper for their lives.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From street to street he piped advancing,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And step for step they followed dancing,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Until they came to the river Weser,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wherein all plunged and perished!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Robert Browning.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As the rats were all dead, and there was no chance of their returning to plague them, the people of Hamelin refused to pay
+the reward, and they bade the piper do his worst. He took them at their word, and a few <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb28" href="#pb28">28</a>]</span>moments later the weird strains of the magic flute again arose, and this time it was the children who swarmed out of the houses
+and merrily followed the piper.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Little hands clapping and little tongues chattering,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And, like fowls in a farmyard when barley is scattering,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Out came all the children running.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">All the little boys and girls,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Robert Browning.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p028" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p028.jpg" alt="The Pied Piper of Hamelin" width="517" height="720"><p class="figureHead">The Pied Piper of Hamelin</p>
+<p>H. Kaulbach
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., 133 New Bond St., W.</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The burghers were powerless to prevent the tragedy, and as they stood spellbound the piper led the children out of the town
+to the Koppelberg, a hill on the confines of the town, which miraculously opened to receive the procession, and only closed
+again when the last child had passed out of sight. This legend probably originated the adage &#8220;to pay the piper.&#8221; The children
+were never seen in Hamelin again, and in commemoration of this public calamity all official decrees have since been dated
+so many years after the Pied Piper&#8217;s visit.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;They made a decree that lawyers never
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Should think their records dated duly
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">If, after the day of the month and year,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">These words did not as well appear,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;And so long after what happened here
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">On the Twenty-second of July,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:&#8217;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the better in memory to fix
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The place of the children&#8217;s last retreat,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They called it the Pied Piper Street&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where any one playing on pipe or tabor
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Was sure for the future to lose his labour.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Robert Browning.</i>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb29" href="#pb29">29</a>]</span></p>
+<p>In this myth Odin is the piper, the shrill tones of the flute are emblematic of the whistling wind, the rats represent the
+souls of the dead, which cheerfully follow him, and the hollow mountain into which he leads the children is typical of the
+grave.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e1983">
+<h3 class="normal">Bishop Hatto</h3>
+<p>Another German legend which owes its existence to this belief is the story of Bishop Hatto, the miserly prelate, who, annoyed
+by the clamours of the poor during a time of famine, had them burned alive in a deserted barn, like the rats whom he declared
+they resembled, rather than give them some of the precious grain which he had laid up for himself.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;I&#8217; faith, &#8217;tis an excellent bonfire!&#8217; quoth he,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8216;And the country is greatly obliged to me
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For ridding it in these times forlorn
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of rats that only consume the corn.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Robert Southey.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Soon after this terrible crime had been accomplished the bishop&#8217;s retainers reported the approach of a vast swarm of rats.
+These, it appears, were the souls of the murdered peasants, which had assumed the forms of the rats to which the bishop had
+likened them. His efforts to escape were vain, and the rats pursued him even into the middle of the Rhine, to a stone tower
+in which he took refuge from their fangs. They swam to the tower, gnawed their way through the stone walls, and, pouring in
+on all sides at once, they found the bishop and devoured him alive.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And in at the windows, and in at the door,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And through the walls, helter-skelter they pour,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And down from the ceiling, and up through the floor,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From the right and the left, from behind and before,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb30" href="#pb30">30</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">From within and without, from above and below,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And all at once to the Bishop they go.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They have whetted their teeth against the stones;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And now they pick the Bishop&#8217;s bones;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They gnaw&#8217;d the flesh from every limb,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For they were sent to do judgment on him!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Robert Southey.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The red glow of the sunset above the Rat Tower near Bingen on the Rhine is supposed to be the reflection of the hell fire
+in which the wicked bishop is slowly roasting in punishment for his heinous crime.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2031">
+<h3 class="normal">Irmin</h3>
+<p>In some parts of Germany Odin was considered to be identical with the Saxon god Irmin, whose statue, the Irminsul, near Paderborn,
+was destroyed by Charlemagne in 772. Irmin was said to possess a ponderous brazen chariot, in which he rode across the sky
+along the path which we know as the Milky Way, but which the ancient Germans designated as Irmin&#8217;s Way. This chariot, whose
+rumbling sound occasionally became perceptible to mortal ears as thunder, never left the sky, where it can still be seen in
+the constellation of the Great Bear, which is also known in the North as Odin&#8217;s, or Charles&#8217;s, Wain.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">&#8220;The Wain, who wheels on high
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His circling course, and on Orion waits;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sole star that never bathes in the Ocean wave.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Homer&#8217;s Iliad (Derby&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2047">
+<h3 class="normal">Mimir&#8217;s Well</h3>
+<p>To obtain the great wisdom for which he is so famous, Odin, in the morn of time, visited Mimir&#8217;s (Memor, memory) spring, &#8220;the
+fountain of all wit and wisdom,&#8221; in whose liquid depths even the future was clearly mirrored, and besought the old man who
+guarded it to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb31" href="#pb31">31</a>]</span>let him have a draught. But Mimir, who well knew the value of such a favour (for his spring was considered the source or headwater
+of memory), refused the boon unless Odin would consent to give one of his eyes in exchange.
+
+</p>
+<p>The god did not hesitate, so highly did he prize the draught, but immediately plucked out one of his eyes, which Mimir kept
+in pledge, sinking it deep down into his fountain, where it shone with mild lustre, leaving Odin with but one eye, which is
+considered emblematic of the sun.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Through our whole lives we strive towards the sun;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That burning forehead is the eye of Odin.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His second eye, the moon, shines not so bright;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">It has he placed in pledge in Mimer&#8217;s fountain,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That he may fetch the healing waters thence,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Each morning, for the strengthening of this eye.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Oehlenschl&auml;ger (Howitt&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Drinking deeply of Mimir&#8217;s fount, Odin gained the knowledge he coveted, and he never regretted the sacrifice he had made,
+but as further memorial of that day broke off a branch of the sacred tree Yggdrasil, which overshadowed the spring, and fashioned
+from it his beloved spear Gungnir.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;A dauntless god
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Drew for drink to its gleam,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where he left in endless
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Payment the light of an eye.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From the world-ash
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ere Wotan went he broke a bough;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For a spear the staff
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He split with strength from the stem.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Dusk of the Gods, Wagner (Forman&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>But although Odin was now all-wise, he was sad and oppressed, for he had gained an insight into futurity, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb32" href="#pb32">32</a>]</span>and had become aware of the transitory nature of all things, and even of the fate of the gods, who were doomed to pass away.
+This knowledge so affected his spirits that he ever after wore a melancholy and contemplative expression.
+
+</p>
+<p>To test the value of the wisdom he had thus obtained, Odin went to visit the most learned of all the giants, Vafthrudnir,
+and entered with him into a contest of wit, in which the stake was nothing less than the loser&#8217;s head.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Odin rose with speed, and went
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To contend in runic lore
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With the wise and crafty Jute.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To Vafthrudni&#8217;s royal hall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Came the mighty king of spells.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Vafthrudni&#8217;s-mal (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2117">
+<h3 class="normal">Odin and Vafthrudnir</h3>
+<p>On this occasion Odin had disguised himself as a Wanderer, by Frigga&#8217;s advice, and when asked his name declared it was Gangrad.
+The contest of wit immediately began, Vafthrudnir questioning his guest concerning the horses which carried Day and Night
+across the sky, the river Ifing separating J&ouml;tun-heim from Asgard, and also about Vigrid, the field where the last battle
+was to be fought.
+
+</p>
+<p>All these questions were minutely answered by Odin, who, when Vafthrudnir had ended, began the interrogatory in his turn,
+and received equally explicit answers about the origin of heaven and earth, the creation of the gods, their quarrel with the
+Vanas, the occupations of the heroes in Valhalla, the offices of the Norns, and the rulers who were to replace the &AElig;sir when
+they had all perished with the world they had created. But when, in conclusion, Odin bent near the giant and softly inquired
+what words Allfather whispered to his dead son Balder as he lay upon his funeral pyre, Vafthrudnir <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb33" href="#pb33">33</a>]</span>suddenly recognised his divine visitor. Starting back in dismay, he declared that no one but Odin himself could answer that
+question, and that it was now quite plain to him that he had madly striven in a contest of wisdom and wit with the king of
+the gods, and fully deserved the penalty of failure, the loss of his head.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Not the man of mortal race
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Knows the words which thou hast spoken
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To thy son in days of yore.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I hear the coming tread of death;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He soon shall raze the runic lore,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And knowledge of the rise of gods,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From his ill-fated soul who strove
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With Odin&#8217;s self the strife of wit,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wisest of the wise that breathe:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Our stake was life, and thou hast won.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Vafthrudni&#8217;s-mal (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As is the case with so many of the Northern myths, which are often fragmentary and obscure, this one ends here, and none of
+the scalds informs us whether Odin really slew his rival, nor what was the answer to his last question; but mythologists have
+hazarded the suggestion that the word whispered by Odin in Balder&#8217;s ear, to console him for his untimely death, must have
+been &#8220;resurrection.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2153">
+<h3 class="normal">Invention of Runes</h3>
+<p>Besides being god of wisdom, Odin was god and inventor of runes, the earliest alphabet used by Northern nations, which characters,
+signifying mystery, were at first used for divination, although in later times they served for inscriptions and records. Just
+as wisdom could only be obtained at the cost of sacrifice, Odin himself relates that he hung nine days and nights from the
+sacred tree Yggdrasil, gazing down into the immeasurable depths of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb34" href="#pb34">34</a>]</span>Nifl-heim, plunged in deep thought, and self-wounded with his spear, ere he won the knowledge he sought.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;I know that I hung
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On a wind-rocked tree
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nine whole nights,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With a spear wounded,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And to Odin offered
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Myself to myself;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On that tree
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of which no one knows
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From what root it springs.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Odin&#8217;s Rune-Song (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>When he had fully mastered this knowledge, Odin cut magic runes upon his spear Gungnir, upon the teeth of his horse Sleipnir,
+upon the claws of the bear, and upon countless other animate and inanimate things. And because he had thus hung over the abyss
+for such a long space of time, he was ever after considered the patron divinity of all who were condemned to be hanged or
+who perished by the noose.
+
+</p>
+<p>After obtaining the gift of wisdom and runes, which gave him power over all things, Odin also coveted the gift of eloquence
+and poetry, which he acquired in a manner which we shall relate in a subsequent chapter.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2187">
+<h3 class="normal">Geirrod and Agnar</h3>
+<p>Odin, as has already been stated, took great interest in the affairs of mortals, and, we are told, was specially fond of watching
+King Hrauding&#8217;s handsome little sons, Geirrod and Agnar, when they were about eight and ten years of age respectively. One
+day these little lads went fishing, and a storm suddenly arose which blew their boat far out to sea, where it finally stranded
+upon an island, upon which dwelt a seeming old couple, who in reality were Odin and Frigga in disguise. They <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb35" href="#pb35">35</a>]</span>had assumed these forms in order to indulge a sudden passion for the close society of their <i>prot&eacute;g&eacute;s</i>. The lads were warmly welcomed and kindly treated, Odin choosing Geirrod as his favourite, and teaching him the use of arms,
+while Frigga petted and made much of little Agnar. The boys tarried on the island with their kind protectors during the long,
+cold winter season; but when spring came, and the skies were blue, and the sea calm, they embarked in a boat which Odin provided,
+and set out for their native shore. Favoured by gentle breezes, they were soon wafted thither; but as the boat neared the
+strand Geirrod quickly sprang out and pushed it far back into the water, bidding his brother sail away into the evil spirit&#8217;s
+power. At that self-same moment the wind veered, and Agnar was indeed carried away, while his brother hastened to his father&#8217;s
+palace with a lying tale as to what had happened to his brother. He was joyfully received as one from the dead, and in due
+time he succeeded his father upon the throne.
+
+</p>
+<p>Years passed by, during which the attention of Odin had been claimed by other high considerations, when one day, while the
+divine couple were seated on the throne Hlidskialf, Odin suddenly remembered the winter&#8217;s sojourn on the desert island, and
+he bade his wife notice how powerful his pupil had become, and taunted her because her favourite Agnar had married a giantess
+and had remained poor and of no consequence. Frigga quietly replied that it was better to be poor than hardhearted, and accused
+Geirrod of lack of hospitality&#8212;one of the most heinous crimes in the eyes of a Northman. She even went so far as to declare
+that in spite of all his wealth he often ill-treated his guests.
+
+</p>
+<p>When Odin heard this accusation he declared that he <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb36" href="#pb36">36</a>]</span>would prove the falsity of the charge by assuming the guise of a Wanderer and testing Geirrod&#8217;s generosity. Wrapped in his
+cloud-hued raiment, with slouch hat and pilgrim staff,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Wanderer calls me the world,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Far have I carried my feet,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On the back of the earth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I have boundlessly been,&#8221;&#8212;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Wagner (Forman&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin immediately set out by a roundabout way, while Frigga, to outwit him, immediately despatched a swift messenger to warn
+Geirrod to beware of a man in wide mantle and broad-brimmed hat, as he was a wicked enchanter who would work him ill.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p036" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p036.jpg" alt="Odin" width="494" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Odin</p>
+<p>B. E. Fogelberg</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>When, therefore, Odin presented himself before the king&#8217;s palace he was dragged into Geirrod&#8217;s presence and questioned roughly.
+He gave his name as Grimnir, but refused to tell whence he came or what he wanted, so as this reticence confirmed the suspicion
+suggested to the mind of Geirrod, he allowed his love of cruelty full play, and commanded that the stranger should be bound
+between two fires, in such wise that the flames played around him without quite touching him, and he remained thus eight days
+and nights, in obstinate silence, without food. Now Agnar had returned secretly to his brother&#8217;s palace, where he occupied
+a menial position, and one night when all was still, in pity for the suffering of the unfortunate captive, he conveyed to
+his lips a horn of ale. But for this Odin would have had nothing to drink&#8212;the most serious of all trials to the god.
+
+</p>
+<p>At the end of the eighth day, while Geirrod, seated upon his throne, was gloating over his prisoner&#8217;s sufferings, Odin began
+to sing&#8212;softly at first, then louder and louder, until the hall re-echoed with his triumphant <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb37" href="#pb37">37</a>]</span>notes&#8212;a prophecy that the king, who had so long enjoyed the god&#8217;s favour, would soon perish by his own sword.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The fallen by the sword
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ygg shall now have;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thy life is now run out:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wroth with thee are the D&iacute;sir:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Odin thou now shalt see:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Draw near to me if thou canst.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As the last notes died away the chains dropped from his hands, the flames flickered and went out, and Odin stood in the midst
+of the hall, no longer in human form, but in all the power and beauty of a god.
+
+</p>
+<p>On hearing the ominous prophecy Geirrod hastily drew his sword, intending to slay the insolent singer; but when he beheld
+the sudden transformation he started in dismay, tripped, fell upon the sharp blade, and perished as Odin had just foretold.
+Turning to Agnar, who, according to some accounts, was the king&#8217;s son, and not his brother, for these old stories are often
+strangely confused, Odin bade him ascend the throne in reward for his humanity, and, further to repay him for the timely draught
+of ale, he promised to bless him with all manner of prosperity.
+
+</p>
+<p>On another occasion Odin wandered to earth, and was absent so long that the gods began to think that they would not see him
+in Asgard again. This encouraged his brothers Vili and Ve, who by some mythologists are considered as other personifications
+of himself, to usurp his power and his throne, and even, we are told, to espouse his wife Frigga.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Be thou silent, Frigg!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou art Fi&ouml;rgyn&#8217;s daughter
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And ever hast been fond of men,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb38" href="#pb38">38</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Since Ve and Vili, it is said,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou, Vidrir&#8217;s wife, didst
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Both to thy bosom take.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2272">
+<h3 class="normal">May-Day Festivals</h3>
+<p>But upon Odin&#8217;s return the usurpers vanished for ever; and in commemoration of the disappearance of the false Odin, who had
+ruled seven months and had brought nothing but unhappiness to the world, and of the return of the benevolent deity, the heathen
+Northmen formerly celebrated yearly festivals, which were long continued as May Day rejoicings. Until very lately there was
+always, on that day, a grand procession in Sweden, known as the May Ride, in which a flower-decked May king (Odin) pelted
+with blossoms the fur-enveloped Winter (his supplanter), until he put him to ignominious flight. In England also the first
+of May was celebrated as a festive occasion, in which May-pole dances, May queens, Maid Marian, and Jack in the Green played
+prominent parts.
+
+</p>
+<p>As personification of heaven, Odin, of course, was the lover and spouse of the earth, and as to them the earth bore a threefold
+aspect, the Northmen depicted him as a polygamist, and allotted to him several wives. The first among these was J&ouml;rd (Erda),
+the primitive earth, daughter of Night or of the giantess Fiorgyn. She bore him his famous son Thor, the god of thunder. The
+second and principal wife was Frigga, a personification of the civilised world. She gave him Balder, the gentle god of spring,
+Hermod, and, according to some authorities, Tyr. The third wife was Rinda, a personification of the hard and frozen earth,
+who reluctantly yields to his warm embrace, but finally gives birth to Vali, the emblem of vegetation.
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin is also said to have married Saga or Laga, the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb39" href="#pb39">39</a>]</span>goddess of history (hence our verb &#8220;to say&#8221;), and to have daily visited her in the crystal hall of Sokvabek, beneath a cool,
+ever-flowing river, to drink its waters and listen to her songs about olden times and vanished races.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Sokvabek hight the fourth dwelling;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Over it flow the cool billows;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Glad drink there Odin and Saga
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Every day from golden cups.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>His other wives were Grid, the mother of Vidar; Gunlod, the mother of Bragi; Skadi; and the nine giantesses who simultaneously
+bore Heimdall&#8212;all of whom play more or less important parts in the various myths of the North.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2298">
+<h3 class="normal">The Historical Odin</h3>
+<p>Besides this ancient Odin, there was a more modern, semi-historical personage of the same name, to whom all the virtues, powers,
+and adventures of his predecessor have been attributed. He was the chief of the &AElig;sir, inhabitants of Asia Minor, who, sore
+pressed by the Romans, and threatened with destruction or slavery, left their native land about 70 <span class="smallcaps">B.C.</span>, and migrated into Europe. This Odin is said to have conquered Russia, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, leaving a son
+on the throne of each conquered country. He also built the town of Odens&ouml;. He was welcomed in Sweden by Gylfi, the king, who
+gave him a share of the realm, and allowed him to found the city of Sigtuna, where he built a temple and introduced a new
+system of worship. Tradition further relates that as his end drew near, this mythical Odin assembled his followers, publicly
+cut himself nine times in the breast with his spear,&#8212;a ceremony called &#8220;carving Geir odds,&#8221;&#8212;and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb40" href="#pb40">40</a>]</span>told them he was about to return to his native land Asgard, his old home, where he would await their coming, to share with
+him a life of feasting, drinking, and fighting.
+
+</p>
+<p>According to another account, Gylfi, having heard of the power of the &AElig;sir, the inhabitants of Asgard, and wishing to ascertain
+whether these reports were true, journeyed to the south. In due time he came to Odin&#8217;s palace, where he was expected, and
+where he was deluded by the vision of Har, Iafn-har, and Thridi, three divinities, enthroned one above the other. The gatekeeper,
+Gangler, answered all his questions, and gave him a long explanation of Northern mythology, which is recorded in the Younger
+Edda, and then, having finished his instructions, suddenly vanished with the palace amid a deafening noise.
+
+</p>
+<p>According to other very ancient poems, Odin&#8217;s sons, Weldegg, Beldegg, Sigi, Skiold, S&aelig;ming, and Yngvi, became kings of East
+Saxony, West Saxony, Franconia, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and from them are descended the Saxons, Hengist and Horsa, and
+the royal families of the Northern lands. Still another version relates that Odin and Frigga had seven sons, who founded the
+Anglo-Saxon heptarchy. In the course of time this mysterious king was confounded with the Odin whose worship he introduced,
+and all his deeds were attributed to the god.
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin was worshipped in numerous temples, but especially in the great fane at Upsala, where the most solemn festivals were
+held, and where sacrifices were offered. The victim was generally a horse, but in times of pressing need human offerings were
+made, even the king being once offered up to avert a famine.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Upsal&#8217;s temple, where the North
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Saw Valhal&#8217;s halls fair imag&#8217;d here on earth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb41" href="#pb41">41</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The first toast at every festival here was drunk in his honour, and, besides the first of May, one day in every week was held
+sacred to him, and, from his Saxon name, Woden, was called Woden&#8217;s day, whence the English word &#8220;Wednesday&#8221; has been derived.
+It was customary for the people to assemble at his shrine on festive occasions, to hear the songs of the scalds, who were
+rewarded for their minstrelsy by the gift of golden bracelets or armlets, which curled up at the ends and were called &#8220;Odin&#8217;s
+serpents.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>There are but few remains of ancient Northern art now extant, and although rude statues of Odin were once quite common they
+have all disappeared, as they were made of wood&#8212;a perishable substance, which in the hands of the missionaries, and especially
+of Olaf the Saint, the Northern iconoclast, was soon reduced to ashes.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;There in the Temple, carved in wood,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The image of great Odin stood.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin himself is supposed to have given his people a code of laws whereby to govern their conduct, in a poem called H&aacute;vam&aacute;l,
+or the High Song, which forms part of the Edda. In this lay he taught the fallibility of man, the necessity for courage, temperance,
+independence, and truthfulness, respect for old age, hospitality, charity, and contentment, and gave instructions for the
+burial of the dead.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;At home let a man be cheerful,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And toward a guest liberal;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of wise conduct he should be,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of good memory and ready speech;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">If much knowledge he desires,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He must often talk on what is good.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>H&aacute;vam&aacute;l (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb42" href="#pb42">42</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch3" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter III: Frigga</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2360">
+<h3 class="normal">The Queen of the Gods</h3>
+<p>Frigga, or Frigg, daughter of Fiorgyn and sister of J&ouml;rd, according to some mythologists, is considered by others as a daughter
+of J&ouml;rd and Odin, whom she eventually married. This wedding caused such general rejoicing in Asgard, where the goddess was
+greatly beloved, that ever after it was customary to celebrate its anniversary with feast and song, and the goddess being
+declared patroness of marriage, her health was always proposed with that of Odin and Thor at wedding feasts.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p042" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p042.jpg" alt="Frigga spinning the Clouds" width="720" height="492"><p class="figureHead">Frigga spinning the Clouds</p>
+<p>J. C. Dollman</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Frigga was goddess of the atmosphere, or rather of the clouds, and as such was represented as wearing either snow-white or
+dark garments, according to her somewhat variable moods. She was queen of the gods, and she alone had the privilege of sitting
+on the throne Hlidskialf, beside her august husband. From thence she too could look over all the world and see what was happening,
+and, according to the belief of our ancestors, she possessed the knowledge of the future, which, however, no one could ever
+prevail upon her to reveal, thus proving that Northern women could keep a secret inviolate.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Of me the gods are sprung;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And all that is to come I know, but lock
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In my own breast, and have to none reveal&#8217;d.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>She was generally represented as a tall, beautiful, and stately woman, crowned with heron plumes, the symbol of silence or
+forgetfulness, and clothed in pure white robes, secured at the waist by a golden girdle, from which hung a bunch of keys,
+the distinctive sign <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb43" href="#pb43">43</a>]</span>of the Northern housewife, whose special patroness she was said to be. Although she often appeared beside her husband, Frigga
+preferred to remain in her own palace, called Fensalir, the hall of mists or of the sea, where she diligently plied her wheel
+or distaff, spinning golden thread or weaving long webs of bright-coloured clouds.
+
+</p>
+<p>In order to perform this work she made use of a marvellous jewelled spinning wheel or distaff, which at night shone brightly
+in the sky as a constellation, known in the North as Frigga&#8217;s Spinning Wheel, while the inhabitants of the South called the
+same stars Orion&#8217;s Girdle.
+
+</p>
+<p>To her hall Fensalir the gracious goddess invited husbands and wives who had led virtuous lives on earth, so that they might
+enjoy each other&#8217;s companionship even after death, and never be called upon to part again.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;There in the glen, Fensalir stands, the house
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of Frea, honour&#8217;d mother of the gods,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And shows its lighted windows and the open doors.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Frigga was therefore considered the goddess of conjugal and motherly love, and was specially worshipped by married lovers
+and tender parents. This exalted office did not entirely absorb her thoughts however, for we are told that she was very fond
+of dress, and whenever she appeared before the assembled gods her attire was rich and becoming, and her jewels chosen with
+much taste.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2406">
+<h3 class="normal">The Stolen Gold</h3>
+<p>Frigga&#8217;s love of adornment once led her sadly astray, for, in her longing to possess some new ornament, she secretly purloined
+a piece of gold from a statue representing her husband, which had just been placed <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb44" href="#pb44">44</a>]</span>in his temple. The stolen metal was entrusted to the dwarfs, with instructions to fashion a marvellous necklace for her use.
+This, when finished, was so resplendent that it greatly enhanced her charms, and even increased Odin&#8217;s love for her. But when
+he discovered the theft of the gold he angrily summoned the dwarfs and bade them reveal who had dared to touch his statue.
+Unwilling to betray the queen of the gods, the dwarfs remained obstinately silent, and, seeing that no information could be
+elicited from them, Odin commanded that the statue should be placed above the temple gate, and set to work to devise runes
+which should endow it with the power of speech and enable it to denounce the thief. When Frigga heard these tidings she trembled
+with fear, and implored her favourite attendant, Fulla, to invent some means of protecting her from Allfather&#8217;s wrath. Fulla,
+who was always ready to serve her mistress, immediately departed, and soon returned, accompanied by a hideous dwarf, who promised
+to prevent the statue from speaking if Frigga would only deign to smile graciously upon him. This boon having been granted,
+the dwarf hastened off to the temple, caused a deep sleep to fall upon the guards, and while they were thus unconscious, pulled
+the statue down from its pedestal and broke it to pieces, so that it could never betray Frigga&#8217;s theft, in spite of all Odin&#8217;s
+efforts to give it the power of speech.
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin, discovering this sacrilege on the morrow, was very angry indeed; so angry that he left Asgard and utterly disappeared,
+carrying away with him all the blessings which he had been wont to shower upon gods and men. According to some authorities,
+his brothers, as we have already seen, took advantage of his absence to assume his form and secure possession of his throne
+and wife; but although they looked exactly like him <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb45" href="#pb45">45</a>]</span>they could not restore the lost blessings, and allowed the ice-giants, or Jotuns, to invade the earth and bind it fast in
+their cold fetters. These wicked giants pinched the leaves and buds till they all shrivelled up, stripped the trees bare,
+shrouded the earth in a great white coverlet, and veiled it in impenetrable mists.
+
+</p>
+<p>But at the end of seven weary months the true Odin relented and returned, and when he saw all the evil that had been done
+he drove the usurpers away, forced the frost-giants to relax their grip of the earth and to release her from her icy bonds,
+and again showered all his blessings down upon her, cheering her with the light of his smile.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2419">
+<h3 class="normal">Odin Outwitted</h3>
+<p>As has already been seen, Odin, although god of wit and wisdom, was sometimes no match for his wife Frigga, who, womanlike,
+was sure to obtain her way by some means. On one occasion the august pair were seated upon Hlidskialf, gazing with interest
+upon the Winilers and Vandals, who were preparing for a battle which was to decide which people should henceforth have supremacy.
+Odin gazed with satisfaction upon the Vandals, who were loudly praying to him for victory; but Frigga watched the movements
+of the Winilers with more attention, because they had entreated her aid. She therefore turned to Odin and coaxingly inquired
+whom he meant to favour on the morrow; he, wishing to evade her question, declared he would not decide, as it was time for
+bed, but would give the victory to those upon whom his eyes first rested in the morning.
+
+</p>
+<p>This answer was shrewdly calculated, for Odin knew that his couch was so turned that upon waking he would face the Vandals,
+and he intended looking out <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb46" href="#pb46">46</a>]</span>from thence, instead of waiting until he had mounted his throne. But, although so cunningly contrived, this plan was frustrated
+by Frigga, who, divining his purpose, waited until he was sound asleep, and then noiselessly turned his couch so that he should
+face her favourites. Then she sent word to the Winilers to dress their women in armour and send them out in battle array at
+dawn, with their long hair carefully combed down over their cheeks and breasts.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Take thou thy women-folk,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Maidens and wives:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Over your ankles
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Lace on the white war-hose;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Over your bosoms
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Link up the hard mail-nets;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Over your lips
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Plait long tresses with cunning;&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So war beasts full-bearded
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">King Odin shall deem you,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When off the grey sea-beach
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">At sunrise ye greet him.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Longbeards&#8217; Saga (Charles Kingsley).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>These instructions were carried out with scrupulous exactness, and when Odin awoke the next morning his first conscious glance
+fell upon their armed host, and he exclaimed in surprise, &#8220;What Longbeards are those?&#8221; (In German the ancient word for long
+beards was <i>Langobarden</i>, which was the name used to designate the Lombards.) Frigga, upon hearing this exclamation, which she had foreseen, immediately
+cried out in triumph that Allfather had given them a new name, and was in honour bound to follow the usual Northern custom
+and give also a baptismal gift.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;A name thou hast given them,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shames neither thee nor them,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Well can they wear it.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb47" href="#pb47">47</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Give them the victory,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">First have they greeted thee;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Give them the victory,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yoke-fellow mine!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Longbeards&#8217; Saga (Charles Kingsley).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin, seeing he had been so cleverly outwitted, made no demur, and in memory of the victory which his favour vouchsafed to
+them the Winilers retained the name given by the king of the gods, who ever after watched over them with special care, giving
+them many blessings, among others a home in the sunny South, on the fruitful plains of Lombardy.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2484">
+<h3 class="normal">Fulla</h3>
+<p>Frigga had, as her own special attendants, a number of beautiful maidens, among whom were Fulla (Volla), her sister, according
+to some authorities, to whom she entrusted her jewel casket. Fulla always presided over her mistress&#8217;s toilet, was privileged
+to put on her golden shoes, attended her everywhere, was her confidante, and often advised her how best to help the mortals
+who implored her aid. Fulla was very beautiful indeed, and had long golden hair, which she wore flowing loose over her shoulders,
+restrained only by a golden circlet or snood. As her hair was emblematic of the golden grain, this circlet represented the
+binding of the sheaf. Fulla was also known as Abundia, or Abundantia, in some parts of Germany, where she was considered the
+symbol of the fulness of the earth.
+
+</p>
+<p>Hlin, Frigga&#8217;s second attendant, was the goddess of consolation, sent out to kiss away the tears of mourners and pour balm
+into hearts wrung by grief. She also listened with ever-open ears to the prayers of mortals, carrying them to her mistress,
+and advising her at times how best to answer them and give the desired relief.
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb48" href="#pb48">48</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2492">
+<h3 class="normal">Gna</h3>
+<p>Gna was Frigga&#8217;s swift messenger. Mounted upon her fleet steed Hofvarpnir (hoof-thrower), she would travel with marvellous
+rapidity through fire and air, over land and sea, and was therefore considered the personification of the refreshing breeze.
+Darting thus to and fro, Gna saw all that was happening upon earth, and told her mistress all she knew. On one occasion, as
+she was passing over Hunaland, she saw King Rerir, a lineal descendant of Odin, sitting mournfully by the shore, bewailing
+his childlessness. The queen of heaven, who was also goddess of childbirth, upon hearing this took an apple (the emblem of
+fruitfulness) from her private store, gave it to Gna, and bade her carry it to the king. With the rapidity of the element
+she personified, Gna darted away, and as she passed over Rerir&#8217;s head, she dropped her apple into his lap with a radiant smile.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;What flies up there, so quickly driving past?&#8217;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Her answer from the clouds, as rushing by:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8216;I fly not, nor do drive, but hurry fast,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hoof-flinger swift through cloud and mist and sky.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Asgard and the Gods (Wagner-Macdowall).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The king pondered for a moment upon the meaning of this sudden apparition and gift, and then hurried home, his heart beating
+high with hope, and gave the apple to his wife to eat. In due season, to his intense joy, she bore him a son, Volsung, the
+great Northern hero, who became so famous that he gave his name to all his race.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2512">
+<h3 class="normal">Lofn, Vjofn, and Syn</h3>
+<p>Besides the three above mentioned, Frigga had other attendants in her train. There was the mild and gracious maiden Lofn (praise
+or love), whose duty it was to remove all obstacles from the path of lovers. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb49" href="#pb49">49</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;My lily tall, from her saddle bearing,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I led then forth through the temple, faring
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To th&#8217; altar-circle where, priests among,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Lofn&#8217;s vows she took with unfalt&#8217;ring tongue.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R<span class="corr" id="xd0e2531" title="Not in source">.</span> B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Vjofn&#8217;s duty was to incline obdurate hearts to love, to maintain peace and concord among mankind, and to reconcile quarrelling
+husbands and wives. Syn (truth) guarded the door of Frigga&#8217;s palace, refusing to open it to those who were not allowed to
+come in. When she had once shut the door upon a would-be intruder no appeal would avail to change her decision. She therefore
+presided over all tribunals and trials, and whenever a thing was to be vetoed the usual formula was to declare that Syn was
+against it.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2537">
+<h3 class="normal">Gefjon</h3>
+<p>Gefjon was also one of the maidens in Frigga&#8217;s palace, and to her were entrusted all those who died unwedded, whom she received
+and made happy for ever.
+
+</p>
+<p>According to some authorities, Gefjon did not remain a virgin herself, but married one of the giants, by whom she had four
+sons. This same tradition goes on to declare that Odin sent her before him to visit Gylfi, King of Sweden, and to beg for
+some land which she might call her own. The king, amused at her request, promised her as much land as she could plough around
+in one day and night. Gefjon, nothing daunted, changed her four sons into oxen, harnessed them to a plough, and began to cut
+a furrow so wide and deep that the king and his courtiers were amazed. But Gefjon continued her work without showing any signs
+of fatigue, and when she had ploughed all around a large piece of land forcibly wrenched it away, and made her <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb50" href="#pb50">50</a>]</span>oxen drag it down into the sea, where she made it fast and called it Seeland.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Gefjon drew from Gylfi,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Rich in stored up treasure,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The land she joined to Denmark.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Four heads and eight eyes bearing,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">While hot sweat trickled down them,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The oxen dragged the reft mass
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That formed this winsome island.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As for the hollow she left behind her, it was quickly filled with water and formed a lake, at first called Logrum (the sea),
+but now known as M&auml;lar, whose every indentation corresponds with the headlands of Seeland. Gefjon then married Skiold, one
+of Odin&#8217;s sons, and became the ancestress of the royal Danish race of Skioldungs, dwelling in the city of Hleidra or Lethra,
+which she founded, and which became the principal place of sacrifice for the heathen Danes.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2567">
+<h3 class="normal">Eira, Vara, V&ouml;r and Snotra</h3>
+<p>Eira, also Frigga&#8217;s attendant, was considered a most skilful physician. She gathered simples all over the earth to cure both
+wounds and diseases, and it was her province to teach the science to women, who were the only ones to practise medicine among
+the ancient nations of the North.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Gaping wounds are bound by Eyra.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Vara heard all oaths and punished perjurers, while she rewarded those who faithfully kept their word. Then there were also
+V&ouml;r (faith), who knew all that was to occur throughout the world, and Snotra, goddess of virtue, who had mastered all knowledge.
+
+</p>
+<p>With such a galaxy of attendants it is little wonder <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb51" href="#pb51">51</a>]</span>that Frigga was considered a powerful deity; but in spite of the prominent place she occupied in Northern religion, she had
+no special temple nor shrine, and was but little worshipped except in company with Odin.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2585">
+<h3 class="normal">Holda</h3>
+<p>While Frigga was not known by this name in Southern Germany, there were other goddesses worshipped there, whose attributes
+were so exactly like hers, that they were evidently the same, although they bore very different names in the various provinces.
+Among them was the fair goddess Holda (Hulda or Frau Holle), who graciously dispensed many rich gifts. As she presided over
+the weather, the people were wont to declare when the snowflakes fell that Frau Holle was shaking her bed, and when it rained,
+that she was washing her clothes, often pointing to the white clouds as her linen which she had put out to bleach. When long
+grey strips of clouds drifted across the sky they said she was weaving, for she was supposed to be also a very diligent weaver,
+spinner, and housekeeper. It is said she gave flax to mankind and taught them how to use it, and in the Tyrol the following
+story is told about the way in which she bestowed this invaluable gift:
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2590">
+<h3 class="normal">The Discovery of Flax</h3>
+<p>There was once a peasant who daily left his wife and children in the valley to take his sheep up the mountain to pasture;
+and as he watched his flock grazing on the mountain-side, he often had opportunity to use his cross-bow and bring down a chamois,
+whose flesh would furnish his larder with food for many a day.
+
+</p>
+<p>While pursuing a fine animal one day he saw it disappear behind a boulder, and when he came to the spot, he was amazed to
+see a doorway in the neighbouring <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb52" href="#pb52">52</a>]</span>glacier, for in the excitement of the pursuit he had climbed higher and higher, until he was now on top of the mountain, where
+glittered the everlasting snow.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p052" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p052.jpg" alt="Tannhauser and Frau Venus" width="549" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Tannhauser and Frau Venus</p>
+<p>J. Wagrez
+
+</p>
+<p>Photo, Braun, Cl&eacute;ment &amp; Co.</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The shepherd boldly passed through the open door, and soon found himself in a wonderful jewelled cave hung with stalactites,
+in the centre of which stood a beautiful woman, clad in silvery robes, and attended by a host of lovely maidens crowned with
+Alpine roses. In his surprise, the shepherd sank to his knees, and as in a dream heard the queenly central figure bid him
+choose anything he saw to carry away with him. Although dazzled by the glow of the precious stones around him, the shepherd&#8217;s
+eyes constantly reverted to a little nosegay of blue flowers which the gracious apparition held in her hand, and he now timidly
+proffered a request that it might become his. Smiling with pleasure, Holda, for it was she, gave it to him, telling him he
+had chosen wisely and would live as long as the flowers did not droop and fade. Then, giving the shepherd a measure of seed
+which she told him to sow in his field, the goddess bade him begone; and as the thunder pealed and the earth shook, the poor
+man found himself out upon the mountain-side once more, and slowly wended his way home to his wife, to whom he told his adventure
+and showed the lovely blue flowers and the measure of seed.
+
+</p>
+<p>The woman reproached her husband bitterly for not having brought some of the precious stones which he so glowingly described,
+instead of the blossoms and seed; nevertheless the man proceeded to sow the latter, and he found to his surprise that the
+measure supplied seed enough for several acres.
+
+</p>
+<p>Soon the little green shoots began to appear, and one moonlight night, while the peasant was gazing upon them, as was his
+wont, for he felt a curious attraction <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb53" href="#pb53">53</a>]</span>to the field which he had sown, and often lingered there wondering what kind of grain would be produced, he saw a misty form
+hover above the field, with hands outstretched as if in blessing. At last the field blossomed, and countless little blue flowers
+opened their calyxes to the golden sun. When the flowers had withered and the seed was ripe, Holda came once more to teach
+the peasant and his wife how to harvest the flax&#8212;for such it was&#8212;and from it to spin, weave, and bleach linen. As the people
+of the neighbourhood willingly purchased both linen and flax-seed, the peasant and his wife soon grew very rich indeed, and
+while he ploughed, sowed, and harvested, she spun, wove, and bleached the linen. The man lived to a good old age, and saw
+his grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up around him. All this time his carefully treasured bouquet had remained fresh
+as when he first brought it home, but one day he saw that during the night the flowers had drooped and were dying.
+
+</p>
+<p>Knowing what this portended, and that he too must die, the peasant climbed the mountain once more to the glacier, and found
+again the doorway for which he had often vainly searched. He entered the icy portal, and was never seen or heard of again,
+for, according to the legend, the goddess took him under her care, and bade him live in her cave, where his every wish was
+gratified.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2618">
+<h3 class="normal">Tannh&auml;user</h3>
+<p>According to a medi&aelig;val tradition, Holda dwelt in a cave in the H&ouml;rselberg, in Thuringia, where she was known as Frau Venus,
+and was considered as an enchantress who lured mortals into her realm, where she detained them for ever, steeping their senses
+in all manner of sensual pleasures. The most famous of her victims was Tannh&auml;user, who, after he had lived under <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb54" href="#pb54">54</a>]</span>her spell for a season, experienced a revulsion of feeling which loosened her bonds over his spirit and induced anxious thoughts
+concerning his soul. He escaped from her power and hastened to Rome to confess his sins and seek absolution. But when the
+Pope heard of his association with one of the pagan goddesses whom the priests taught were nothing but demons, he declared
+that the knight could no more hope for pardon than to see his staff bear buds and bloom.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Hast thou within the nets of Satan lain?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hast thou thy soul to her perdition pledged?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hast thou thy lip to Hell&#8217;s Enchantress lent,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To drain damnation from her reeking cup?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then know that sooner from the withered staff
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That in my hand I hold green leaves shall spring,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Than from the brand in hell-fire scorched rebloom
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The blossoms of salvation.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tannh&auml;user (Owen Meredith).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p054" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p054.jpg" alt="E&aacute;stre" width="477" height="720"><p class="figureHead">E&aacute;stre</p>
+<p>Jacques Reich</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Crushed with grief at this pronouncement, Tannh&auml;user fled, and, despite the entreaties of his faithful friend, Eckhardt, no
+great time elapsed ere he returned to the H&ouml;rselberg, where he vanished within the cave. He had no sooner disappeared, however,
+than the Pope&#8217;s messengers arrived, proclaiming that he was pardoned, for the withered staff had miraculously bloomed, thus
+proving to all that there was no sin too heinous to be pardoned, providing repentance were sincere.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Dashed to the hip with travel, dewed with haste,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A flying post, and in his hand he bore
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A withered staff o&#8217;erflourished with green leaves;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Who,&#8212;followed by a crowd of youth and eld,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That sang to stun with sound the lark in heaven,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;A miracle! a miracle from Rome!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Glory to God that makes the bare bough green!&#8217;&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sprang in the midst, and, hot for answer, asked
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">News of the Knight Tannh&auml;user.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tannh&auml;user (Owen Meredith).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb55" href="#pb55">55</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Holda was also the owner of a magic fountain called Quickborn, which rivalled the famed fountain of youth, and of a chariot
+in which she rode from place to place when she inspected her domain. This vehicle having once suffered damage, the goddess
+bade a wheelwright repair it, and when he had finished told him to keep some chips as his pay. The man was indignant at such
+a meagre reward, and kept only a very few of the number; but to his surprise he found these on the morrow changed to gold.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">&#8220;Fricka, thy wife&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">This way she reins her harness of rams.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hey! how she whirls
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The golden whip;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The luckless beasts
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Unboundedly bleat;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Her wheels wildly she rattles;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wrath is lit in her look.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Wagner (Forman&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2702">
+<h3 class="normal">E&aacute;stre, the Goddess of Spring</h3>
+<p>The Saxon goddess E&aacute;stre, or Ostara, goddess of spring, whose name has survived in the English word Easter, is also identical
+with Frigga, for she too is considered goddess of the earth, or rather of Nature&#8217;s resurrection after the long death of winter.
+This gracious goddess was so dearly loved by the old Teutons, that even after Christianity had been introduced they retained
+so pleasant a recollection of her, that they refused to have her degraded to the rank of a demon, like many of their other
+divinities, and transferred her name to their great Christian feast. It had long been customary to celebrate this day by the
+exchange of presents of coloured eggs, for the egg is the type of the beginning of life; so the early Christians continued
+to observe this rule, declaring, however, that the egg is also symbolical of the Resurrection. In various parts of Germany,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb56" href="#pb56">56</a>]</span>stone altars can still be seen, which are known as Easter-stones, because they were dedicated to the fair goddess Ostara.
+They were crowned with flowers by the young people, who danced gaily around them by the light of great bonfires,&#8212;a species
+of popular games practised until the middle of the present century, in spite of the priests&#8217; denunciations and of the repeatedly
+published edicts against them.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2709">
+<h3 class="normal">Bertha, the White Lady</h3>
+<p>In other parts of Germany, Frigga, Holda, or Ostara is known by the name of Brechta, Bertha, or the White Lady. She is best
+known under this title in Thuringia, where she was supposed to dwell in a hollow mountain, keeping watch over the Heimchen,
+souls of unborn children, and of those who died unbaptized. Here Bertha watched over agriculture, caring for the plants, which
+her infant troop watered carefully, for each babe was supposed to carry a little jar for that express purpose. While the goddess
+was duly respected and her retreat unmolested, she remained where she was; but tradition relates that she once left the country
+with her infant train dragging her plough, and settled elsewhere to continue her kind ministrations. Bertha is the legendary
+ancestress of several noble families, and she is supposed to be the same as the industrious queen of the same name, the mythical
+mother of Charlemagne, whose era has become proverbial, for in speaking of the Golden Age in France and Germany it is customary
+to say, &#8220;in the days when Bertha spun.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>As this Bertha is supposed to have developed a very large and flat foot, from continually pressing the treadle of her wheel,
+she is often represented in medi&aelig;val art as a woman with a splay foot, and hence known as <i>la reine p&eacute;dauque</i>.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb57" href="#pb57">57</a>]</span></p>
+<p>As ancestress of the imperial house of Germany, the White Lady is supposed to appear in the palace before a death or misfortune
+in the family, and this superstition is still so rife in Germany, that the newspapers in 1884 contained the official report
+of a sentinel, who declared that he had seen her flit past him in one of the palace corridors.
+
+</p>
+<p>As Bertha was renowned for her spinning, she naturally was regarded as the special patroness of that branch of female industry,
+and was said to flit through the streets of every village, at nightfall, during the twelve nights between Christmas and January
+6, peering into every window to inspect the spinning of the household.
+
+</p>
+<p>The maidens whose work had been carefully performed were rewarded by a present of one of her own golden threads or a distaff
+full of extra fine flax; but wherever a careless spinner was found, her wheel was broken, her flax soiled, and if she had
+failed to honour the goddess by eating plenty of the cakes baked at that period of the year, she was cruelly punished.
+
+</p>
+<p>In Mecklenburg, this same goddess is known as Frau Gode, or Wode, the female form of Wuotan or Odin, and her appearance is
+always considered the harbinger of great prosperity. She is also supposed to be a great huntress, and to lead the Wild Hunt,
+mounted upon a white horse, her attendants being changed into hounds and all manner of wild beasts.
+
+</p>
+<p>In Holland she was called Vrou-elde, and from her the Milky Way is known by the Dutch as <i>Vrou-elden-straat</i>; while in parts of Northern Germany she was called Nerthus (Mother Earth). Her sacred car was kept on an island, presumably
+R&uuml;gen, where the priests guarded it carefully until she appeared to take a yearly journey throughout her realm to bless the
+land. The goddess, her face completely hidden by a thick veil, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb58" href="#pb58">58</a>]</span>then sat in this car, which was drawn by two cows, and she was respectfully escorted by her priests. When she passed, the
+people did homage by ceasing all warfare, and laying aside their weapons. They donned festive attire, and began no quarrel
+until the goddess had again retired to her sanctuary. Then both car and goddess were bathed in a secret lake (the Schwartze
+See, in R&uuml;gen), which swallowed up the slaves who had assisted at the bathing, and once more the priests resumed their watch
+over the sanctuary and grove of Nerthus or Hlodyn, to await her next appearance.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p058" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p058.jpg" alt="Huldra&#8217;s Nymphs" width="720" height="495"><p class="figureHead">Huldra&#8217;s Nymphs</p>
+<p>B. E. Ward</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In Scandinavia, this goddess was also known as Huldra, and boasted of a train of attendant wood-nymphs, who sometimes sought
+the society of mortals, to enjoy a dance upon the village green. They could always be detected, however, by the tip of a cow&#8217;s
+tail which trailed from beneath their long snow-white garments. These Huldra folk were the special protectors of the cattle
+on the mountain-sides, and were said to surprise the lonely traveller, at times, by the marvellous beauty of the melodies
+they sang to beguile the hours at their tasks.
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb59" href="#pb59">59</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch4" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter IV: Thor</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2748">
+<h3 class="normal">The Thunderer</h3>
+<p>According to some mythologists, Thor, or Donar, is the son of J&ouml;rd (Erda) and of Odin, but others state that his mother was
+Frigga, queen of the gods. This child was very remarkable for his great size and strength, and very soon after his birth amazed
+the assembled gods by playfully lifting and throwing about ten great bales of bear skins. Although generally good-tempered,
+Thor would occasionally fly into a terrible rage, and as he was very dangerous at these times, his mother, unable to control
+him, sent him away from home and entrusted him to the care of Vingnir (the winged), and of Hlora (heat). These foster-parents,
+who are also considered as the personification of sheet-lightning, soon managed to control their troublesome charge, and brought
+him up so wisely, that the gods entertained a very grateful recollection of their kind offices. Thor himself, recognising
+all he owed them, assumed the names of Vingthor and Hlorridi, by which he is also known.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 16em; ">&#8220;Cry on, Vingi-Thor,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With the dancing of the ring-mail and the smitten shields of war.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Sigurd the Volsung (William Morris)<span class="corr" id="xd0e2761" title="Not in source">.</span></i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Having attained his full growth and the age of reason, Thor was admitted to Asgard among the other gods, where he occupied
+one of the twelve seats in the great judgment hall. He was also given the realm of Thrud-vang or Thrud-heim, where he built
+a wonderful palace called Bilskirnir (lightning), the most spacious in all Asgard. It contained five hundred and forty halls
+for the accommodation of the thralls, who after death were welcomed to his home, where they received equal <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb60" href="#pb60">60</a>]</span>treatment with their masters in Valhalla, for Thor was the patron god of the peasants and lower classes.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Five hundred halls
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And forty more,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Methinketh, hath
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Bowed Bilskirnir.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of houses roofed
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There&#8217;s none I know
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">My son&#8217;s surpassing.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Percy&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As he was god of thunder, Thor alone was never allowed to pass over the wonderful bridge Bifr&ouml;st, lest he should set it aflame
+by the heat of his presence; and when he wished to join his fellow gods by the Urdar fountain, under the shade of the sacred
+tree Yggdrasil, he was forced to make his way thither on foot, wading through the rivers Kormt and Ormt, and the two streams
+Kerlaug, to the trysting place.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p060" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p060.jpg" alt="Thor" width="493" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Thor</p>
+<p>B. E. Fogelberg</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Thor, who was honoured as the highest god in Norway, came second in the trilogy of all the other countries, and was called
+&#8220;old Thor,&#8221; because he is supposed by some mythologists to have belonged to an older dynasty of gods, and not on account of
+his actual age, for he was represented and described as a man in his prime, tall and well formed, with muscular limbs and
+bristling red hair and beard, from which, in moments of anger, the sparks flew in showers.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;First, Thor with the bent brow,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">In red beard muttering low,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Darting fierce lightnings from eyeballs that glow,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Comes, while each chariot wheel
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Echoes in thunder peal,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">As his dread hammer shock
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Makes Earth and Heaven rock,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Clouds rifting above, while Earth quakes below.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb61" href="#pb61">61</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The Northern races further adorned him with a crown, on each point of which was either a glittering star, or a steadily burning
+flame, so that his head was ever surrounded by a kind of halo of fire, his own element.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2822">
+<h3 class="normal">Thor&#8217;s Hammer</h3>
+<p>Thor was the proud possessor of a magic hammer called Mi&ouml;lnir (the crusher) which he hurled at his enemies, the frost-giants,
+with destructive power, and which possessed the wonderful property of always returning to his hand, however far away he might
+hurl it.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;I am the Thunderer!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Here in my Northland,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">My fastness and fortress,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Reign I forever!</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Here amid icebergs
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Rule I the nations;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">This is my hammer,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Mi&ouml;lnir the mighty;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Giants and sorcerers
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Cannot withstand it!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As this huge hammer, the emblem of the thunderbolts, was generally red-hot, the god had an iron gauntlet called Iarn-greiper,
+which enabled him to grasp it firmly. He could hurl Mi&ouml;lnir a great distance, and his strength, which was always remarkable,
+was doubled when he wore his magic belt called Megin-gi&ouml;rd.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;This is my girdle:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Whenever I brace it,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Strength is redoubled!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow)<span class="corr" id="xd0e2865" title="Not in source">.</span></i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Thor&#8217;s hammer was considered so very sacred by the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb62" href="#pb62">62</a>]</span>ancient Northern people, that they were wont to make the sign of the hammer, as the Christians later taught them to make the
+sign of the cross, to ward off all evil influences, and to secure blessings. The same sign was also made over the newly born
+infant when water was poured over its head and a name given. The hammer was used to drive in boundary stakes, which it was
+considered sacrilegious to remove, to hallow the threshold of a new house, to solemnise a marriage, and, lastly, it played
+a part in the consecration of the funeral pyre upon which the bodies of heroes, together with their weapons and steeds, and,
+in some cases, with their wives and dependents, were burned.
+
+</p>
+<p>In Sweden, Thor, like Odin, was supposed to wear a broad-brimmed hat, and hence the storm-clouds in that country are known
+as Thor&#8217;s hat, a name also given to one of the principal mountains in Norway. The rumble and roar of the thunder were said
+to be the roll of his chariot, for he alone among the gods never rode on horseback, but walked, or drove in a brazen chariot
+drawn by two goats, Tanngniostr (tooth-cracker), and Tanngrisnr (tooth-gnasher), from whose teeth and hoofs the sparks constantly
+flew.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thou camest near the next, O warrior Thor!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shouldering thy hammer, in thy chariot drawn,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Swaying the long-hair&#8217;d goats with silver&#8217;d rein.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>When the god thus drove from place to place, he was called Aku-thor, or Thor the charioteer, and in Southern Germany the people,
+fancying a brazen chariot alone inadequate to furnish all the noise they heard, declared it was loaded with copper kettles,
+which rattled and clashed, and therefore often called him, with disrespectful familiarity, the kettle-vendor.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb63" href="#pb63">63</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2888">
+<h3 class="normal">Thor&#8217;s Family</h3>
+<p>Thor was twice married; first to the giantess Iarnsaxa (iron stone), who bore him two sons, Magni (strength) and Modi (courage),
+both destined to survive their father and the twilight of the gods, and rule over the new world which was to rise like a ph&#339;nix
+from the ashes of the first. His second wife was Sif, the golden-haired, who also bore him two children, Lorride, and a daughter
+named Thrud, a young giantess renowned for her size and strength. True to the well-known affinity of contrast, Thrud was wooed
+by the dwarf Alvis, whom she rather favoured; and one evening, when this suitor, who, being a dwarf, could not face the light
+of day, presented himself in Asgard to sue for her hand, the assembled gods did not refuse their consent. They had scarcely
+signified their approbation, however, when Thor, who had been absent, suddenly appeared, and casting a glance of contempt
+upon the puny lover, declared he would have to prove that his knowledge atoned for his small stature, before he could win
+his bride.
+
+</p>
+<p>To test Alvis&#8217;s mental powers, Thor then questioned him in the language of the gods, Vanas, elves, and dwarfs, artfully prolonging
+his examination until sunrise, when the first beam of light, falling upon the unhappy dwarf, petrified him. There he stood,
+an enduring example of the gods&#8217; power, to serve as a warning to all other dwarfs who might dare to test it.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Ne&#8217;er in human bosom
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Have I found so many
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Words of the old time.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thee with subtlest cunning
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Have I yet befooled.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Above ground standeth thou, dwarf
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By day art overtaken,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Bright sunshine fills the hall.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Howitt&#8217;s version).</i>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb64" href="#pb64">64</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e2917">
+<h3 class="normal">Sif, the Golden-haired</h3>
+<p>Sif, Thor&#8217;s wife, was very vain of a magnificent head of long golden hair which covered her from head to foot like a brilliant
+veil; and as she too was a symbol of the earth, her hair was said to represent the long grass, or the golden grain covering
+the Northern harvest fields. Thor was very proud of his wife&#8217;s beautiful hair; imagine his dismay, therefore, upon waking
+one morning, to find her shorn, and as bald and denuded of ornament as the earth when the grain has been garnered, and nothing
+but the stubble remains! In his anger, Thor sprang to his feet, vowing he would punish the perpetrator of this outrage, whom
+he immediately and rightly conjectured to be Loki, the arch-plotter, ever on the look-out for some evil deed to perform. Seizing
+his hammer, Thor went in search of Loki, who attempted to evade the irate god by changing his form. But it was all to no purpose;
+Thor soon overtook him, and without more ado caught him by the throat, and almost strangled him ere he yielded to his imploring
+signs and relaxed his powerful grip. When he could draw his breath, Loki begged forgiveness, but all his entreaties were vain,
+until he promised to procure for Sif a new head of hair, as beautiful as the first, and as luxuriant in growth.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And thence for Sif new tresses I&#8217;ll bring
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Of gold, ere the daylight&#8217;s gone,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So that she shall liken a field in spring,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">With its yellow-flowered garment on.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Dwarfs, Oehlenschl&auml;ger (Pigott&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p064" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p064.jpg" alt="Sif and Thor" width="490" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Sif and Thor</p>
+<p>J. C. Dollman</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Then Thor consented to let the traitor go; so Loki rapidly crept down into the bowels of the earth, where Svart-alfa-heim
+was situated, to beg the dwarf Dvalin to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb65" href="#pb65">65</a>]</span>fashion not only the precious hair, but a present for Odin and Frey, whose anger he wished to disarm.
+
+</p>
+<p>His request was favourably received and the dwarf fashioned the spear Gungnir, which never failed in its aim, and the ship
+Skidbladnir, which, always wafted by favourable winds, could sail through the air as well as on the water, and which had this
+further magic property, that although it could contain the gods and all their steeds, it could be folded up into the very
+smallest compass and thrust in one&#8217;s pocket. Lastly, he spun the finest golden thread, from which he fashioned the hair required
+for Sif, declaring that as soon as it touched her head it would grow fast there and become as her own.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Though they now seem dead, let them touch but her head,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Each hair shall the life-moisture fill;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor shall malice nor spell henceforward prevail
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Sif&#8217;s tresses to work aught of ill.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Dwarfs, Oehlenschl&auml;ger (Pigott&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Loki was so pleased with these proofs of the dwarfs&#8217; skill that he declared the son of Ivald to be the most clever of smiths&#8212;words
+which were overheard by Brock, another dwarf, who exclaimed that he was sure his brother Sindri could produce three objects
+which would surpass those which Loki held, not only in intrinsic value, but also in magical properties. Loki immediately challenged
+the dwarf to show his skill, wagering his head against Brock&#8217;s on the result of the undertaking.
+
+</p>
+<p>Sindri, apprised of the wager, accepted Brock&#8217;s offer to blow the bellows, warning him, however, that he must work persistently
+and not for a moment relax his efforts if he wished him to succeed; then he threw some gold in the fire, and went out to bespeak
+the favour of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb66" href="#pb66">66</a>]</span>the hidden powers. During his absence Brock diligently plied the bellows, while Loki, hoping to make him pause, changed himself
+into a gadfly and cruelly stung his hand. In spite of the pain, the dwarf kept on blowing, and when Sindri returned, he drew
+out of the fire an enormous wild boar, called Gullin-bursti, because of its golden bristles, which had the power of radiating
+light as it flitted across the sky, for it could travel through the air with marvellous velocity.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And now, strange to tell, from the roaring fire
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Came the golden-haired Gullinb&ouml;rst,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To serve as a charger the sun-god Frey,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Sure, of all wild boars this the first.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Dwarfs, Oehlenschl&auml;ger (Pigott&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>This first piece of work successfully completed, Sindri flung some more gold on the fire and bade his brother resume blowing,
+while he again went out to secure magic assistance. This time Loki, still disguised as a gadfly, stung the dwarf on his cheek;
+but in spite of the pain Brock worked on, and when Sindri returned, he triumphantly drew out of the flames the magic ring
+Draupnir, the emblem of fertility, from which eight similar rings dropped every ninth night.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;They worked it and turned it with wondrous skill,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Till they gave it the virtue rare,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That each thrice third night from its rim there fell
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Eight rings, as their parent fair.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Dwarfs, Oehlenschl&auml;ger (Pigott&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Now a lump of iron was cast in the flames, and with renewed caution not to forfeit their success by inattention, Sindri passed
+out, leaving Brock to ply the bellows as before. Loki was now in desperation and he prepared for a final effort. This time,
+still in the guise of the gadfly, he stung the dwarf above the eye <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb67" href="#pb67">67</a>]</span>until the blood began to flow in such a stream, that it prevented his seeing what he was doing. Hastily raising his hand for
+a second, Brock dashed aside the stream of blood; but short as was the interruption it had worked irreparable harm, and when
+Sindri drew his work out of the fire he uttered an exclamation of disappointment for the hammer he had fashioned was short
+in the handle.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then the dwarf raised his hand to his brow for the smart,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Ere the iron well out was beat,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And they found that the haft by an inch was too short,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">But to alter it then &#8217;twas too late.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Dwarfs, Oehlenschl&auml;ger (Pigott&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Notwithstanding this mishap, Brock was sure of winning the wager and he did not hesitate to present himself before the gods
+in Asgard, where he gave Odin the ring Draupnir, Frey the boar Gullin-bursti, and Thor the hammer Mi&ouml;lnir, whose power none
+could resist.
+
+</p>
+<p>Loki in turn gave the spear Gungnir to Odin, the ship Skidbladnir to Frey, and the golden hair to Thor; but although the latter
+immediately grew upon Sif&#8217;s head and was unanimously declared more beautiful than her own locks had ever been, the gods decreed
+that Brock had won the wager, on the ground that the hammer Mi&ouml;lnir, in Thor&#8217;s hands, would prove invaluable against the frost
+giants on the last day.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">&#8220;And at their head came Thor,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shouldering his hammer, which the giants know.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In order to save his head, Loki fled precipitately, but was overtaken by Thor, who brought him back and handed him over to
+Brock, telling him, however, that <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb68" href="#pb68">68</a>]</span>although Loki&#8217;s head was rightfully his, he must not touch his neck. Hindered from obtaining full vengeance, the dwarf determined
+to punish Loki by sewing his lips together, and as his sword would not pierce them, he borrowed his brother&#8217;s awl for the
+purpose. However, Loki, after enduring the gods&#8217; gibes in silence for a little while, managed to cut the string and soon after
+was as loquacious as ever.
+
+</p>
+<p>In spite of his redoubtable hammer, Thor was not held in dread as the injurious god of the storm, who destroyed peaceful homesteads
+and ruined the harvest by sudden hail-storms and cloud-bursts. The Northmen fancied he hurled it only against ice giants and
+rocky walls, reducing the latter to powder to fertilise the earth and make it yield plentiful fruit to the tillers of the
+soil.
+
+</p>
+<p>In Germany, where the eastern storms are always cold and blighting, while the western bring warm rains and mild weather, Thor
+was supposed to journey always from west to east, to wage war against the evil spirits which would fain have enveloped the
+country in impenetrable veils of mist and have bound it in icy fetters.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3033">
+<h3 class="normal">Thor&#8217;s Journey to J&ouml;tun-heim</h3>
+<p>As the giants from J&ouml;tun-heim were continually sending out cold blasts of wind to nip the tender buds and hinder the growth
+of the flowers, Thor once made up his mind to go and force them to behave better. Accompanied by Loki he set out in his chariot,
+and after riding for a whole day the gods came at nightfall to the confines of the giant-world, where, seeing a peasant&#8217;s
+hut, they resolved to stay for rest and refreshment.
+
+</p>
+<p>Their host was hospitable but very poor, and Thor, seeing that he would scarcely be able to supply the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb69" href="#pb69">69</a>]</span>necessary food to satisfy his by no means small appetite, slew both his goats, which he cooked and made ready to eat, inviting
+his host and family to partake freely of the food thus provided, but cautioning them to throw all the bones, without breaking
+them, into the skins of the goats which he had spread out on the floor.
+
+</p>
+<p>The peasant and his family ate heartily, but his son Thialfi, encouraged by mischievous Loki, ventured to break one of the
+bones and suck out the marrow, thinking his disobedience would not be detected. On the morrow, however, Thor, ready to depart,
+struck the goat skins with his hammer Mi&ouml;lnir, and immediately the goats sprang up as lively as before, except that one seemed
+somewhat lame. Perceiving that his commands had been disregarded, Thor would have slain the whole family in his wrath. The
+culprit acknowledged his fault, however, and the peasant offered to compensate for the loss by giving the irate god not only
+his son Thialfi, but also his daughter Roskva, to serve him for ever.
+
+</p>
+<p>Charging the man to take good care of the goats, which he left there until he should return, and bidding the young peasants
+accompany him, Thor now set out on foot with Loki, and after walking all day found himself at nightfall in a bleak and barren
+country, which was enveloped in an almost impenetrable grey mist. After seeking for some time, Thor saw through the fog the
+uncertain outline of what looked like a strangely-shaped house. Its open portal was so wide and high that it seemed to take
+up all one side of the house. Entering and finding neither fire nor light, Thor and his companions flung themselves wearily
+down on the floor to sleep, but were soon disturbed by a peculiar noise, and a prolonged trembling of the ground beneath them.
+Fearing lest the main roof <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb70" href="#pb70">70</a>]</span>should fall during this earthquake, Thor and his companions took refuge in a wing of the building, where they soon fell sound
+asleep. At dawn, the god and his companions passed out, but they had not gone very far ere they saw the recumbent form of
+a sleeping giant, and perceived that the peculiar sounds which had disturbed their rest were produced by his snores. At that
+moment the giant awoke, arose, stretched himself, looked about him for his missing property, and a second later picked up
+the object which Thor and his companions had mistaken in the darkness for a house. They then perceived with amazement that
+this was nothing more than a huge mitten, and that the wing in which they had all slept was the separate place for the giant&#8217;s
+great thumb! Learning that Thor and his companions were on their way to Utgard, as the giants&#8217; realm was also called, Skrymir,
+the giant, proposed to be their guide; and after walking with them all day, he brought them at nightfall to a spot where he
+proposed to rest. Ere he composed himself for sleep, however, he offered them the provisions in his wallet. But, in spite
+of strenuous efforts, neither Thor nor his companions could unfasten the knots which Skrymir had tied.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Skrymir&#8217;s thongs
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Seemed to thee hard,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When at the food thou couldst not get,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When, in full health, of hunger dying.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3061">
+<h3 class="normal">Utgard-loki</h3>
+<p>Angry because of his snoring, which kept them awake, Thor thrice dealt him fearful blows with his hammer. These strokes, instead
+of annihilating the monster, merely evoked sleepy comments to the effect that a leaf, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb71" href="#pb71">71</a>]</span>a bit of bark, or a twig from a bird&#8217;s nest overhead had fallen upon his face. Early on the morrow, Skrymir left Thor and
+his companions, pointing out the shortest road to Utgard-loki&#8217;s castle, which was built of great ice blocks, with huge glittering
+icicles as pillars. The gods, slipping between the bars of the great gate, presented themselves boldly before the king of
+the giants, Utgard-loki, who, recognising them, immediately pretended to be greatly surprised at their small size, and expressed
+a wish to see for himself what they could do, as he had often heard their prowess vaunted.
+
+</p>
+<p>Loki, who had fasted longer than he wished, immediately declared he was ready to eat for a wager with any one. So the king
+ordered a great wooden trough full of meat to be brought into the hall, and placing Loki at one end and his cook Logi at the
+other, he bade them see which would win. Although Loki did wonders, and soon reached the middle of the trough, he found that,
+whereas he had picked the bones clean, his opponent had devoured both them and the trough.
+
+</p>
+<p>Smiling contemptuously, Utgard-loki said that it was evident they could not do much in the eating line, and this so nettled
+Thor that he declared if Loki could not eat like the voracious cook, he felt confident he could drain the biggest vessel in
+the house, such was his unquenchable thirst. Immediately a horn was brought in, and, Utgard-loki declaring that good drinkers
+emptied it at one draught, moderately thirsty persons at two, and small drinkers at three, Thor applied his lips to the rim.
+But, although he drank so deep that he thought he would burst, the liquid still came almost up to the rim when he raised his
+head. A second and third attempt to empty this horn proved equally unsuccessful. Thialfi then offered to run a race, but a
+young fellow named Hugi, who was matched <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb72" href="#pb72">72</a>]</span>against him, soon outstripped him, although Thialfi ran remarkably fast.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p072" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p072.jpg" alt="Thor and the Mountain" width="489" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Thor and the Mountain</p>
+<p>J. C. Dollman</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Thor proposed next to show his strength by lifting weights, and was challenged to pick up the giant&#8217;s cat. Seizing an opportunity
+to tighten his belt Megin-gi&ouml;rd, which greatly enhanced his strength, he tugged and strained but was able only to raise one
+of its paws from the floor.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Strong is great Thor, no doubt, when Megingarder
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He braces tightly o&#8217;er his rock-firm loins.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>A last attempt on his part to wrestle with Utgard-loki&#8217;s old nurse Elli, the only opponent deemed worthy of such a puny fellow,
+ended just as disastrously, and the gods, acknowledging they were beaten, were hospitably entertained. On the morrow they
+were escorted to the confines of Utgard, where the giant politely informed them that he hoped they would never call upon him
+again, as he had been forced to employ magic against them. He then went on to explain that he was the giant Skrymir, and that
+had he not taken the precaution to interpose a mountain between his head and Thor&#8217;s blows, while he seemingly lay asleep,
+he would have been slain, as deep clefts in the mountain side, to which he pointed, testified to the god&#8217;s strength. Next
+he informed them that Loki&#8217;s opponent was Logi (wild fire); that Thialfi had run a race with Hugi (thought), than which no
+swifter runner exists; that Thor&#8217;s drinking horn was connected with the ocean, where his deep draughts had produced a perceptible
+ebb; that the cat was in reality the terrible Midgard snake encircling the world, which Thor had nearly pulled out of the
+sea; and that Elli, his nurse, was old age, whom none can resist. Having finished these <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb73" href="#pb73">73</a>]</span>explanations and cautioned them never to return or he would defend himself by similar delusions, Utgard-loki vanished, and
+although Thor angrily brandished his hammer, and would have destroyed his castle, such a mist enveloped it that it could not
+be seen, and the thunder god was obliged to return to Thrud-vang without having administered his purposed salutary lesson
+to the race of giants.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">&#8220;The strong-armed Thor
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Full oft against Jotunheim did wend,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But spite his belt celestial, spite his gauntlets,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Utgard-Loki still his throne retains;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Evil, itself a force, to force yields never.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3111">
+<h3 class="normal">Thor and Hrungnir</h3>
+<p>Odin himself was once dashing through the air on his eight-footed steed Sleipnir, when he attracted the attention of the giant
+Hrungnir, who proposed a race, declaring that Gullfaxi, his steed, could rival Sleipnir in speed. In the heat of the race,
+Hrungnir did not notice the direction in which they were going, until, in the vain hope of overtaking Odin, he urged his steed
+to the very gates of Valhalla. Discovering then where he was, the giant grew pale with fear, for he knew he had jeopardised
+his life by venturing into the stronghold of the gods, his hereditary foes.
+
+</p>
+<p>The &AElig;sir, however, were too honourable to take even an enemy at a disadvantage, and, instead of doing him harm, they asked
+him into their banqueting-halls, where he proceeded to indulge in liberal potations of the heavenly mead set before him. He
+soon grew so excited that he began to boast of his power, declaring he would come some day and take possession of Asgard,
+which he would destroy, together with the gods, save <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb74" href="#pb74">74</a>]</span>only Freya and Sif, upon whom he gazed with an admiring leer.
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods, knowing he was not responsible, let him talk unmolested; but Thor, coming home just then from one of his journeys,
+and hearing his threat to carry away the beloved Sif, flew into a terrible rage. He furiously brandished his hammer, with
+intent to annihilate the boaster. This the gods would not permit, however, and they quickly threw themselves between the irate
+Thunderer and their guest, imploring Thor to respect the sacred rights of hospitality, and not to desecrate their peace-stead
+by shedding blood.
+
+</p>
+<p>Thor was at last induced to bridle his wrath, but he demanded that Hrungnir should appoint a time and place for a holmgang,
+as a Northern duel was generally called. Thus challenged, Hrungnir promised to meet Thor at Griottunagard, the confines of
+his realm, three days later, and departed somewhat sobered by the fright he had experienced. When his fellow giants heard
+how rash he had been, they chided him sorely; but they took counsel together in order to make the best of a bad situation.
+Hrungnir told them that he was to have the privilege of being accompanied by a squire, whom Thialfi would engage in fight,
+wherefore they proceeded to construct a creature of clay, nine miles long, and proportionately wide, whom they called Mokerkialfi
+(mist wader). As they could find no human heart big enough to put in this monster&#8217;s breast, they secured that of a mare, which,
+however, kept fluttering and quivering with apprehension. The day of the duel arrived. Hrungnir and his squire were on the
+ground awaiting the arrival of their respective opponents. The giant had not only a flint heart and skull, but also a shield
+and club of the same substance, and therefore deemed himself well-nigh invincible. Thialfi came before his <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb75" href="#pb75">75</a>]</span>master and soon after there was a terrible rumbling and shaking which made the giant apprehensive that his enemy would come
+up through the ground and attack him from underneath. He therefore followed a hint from Thialfi and stood upon his shield.
+
+</p>
+<p>A moment later, however, he saw his mistake, for, while Thialfi attacked Mokerkialfi with a spade, Thor came with a rush upon
+the scene and flung his hammer full at his opponent&#8217;s head. Hrungnir, to ward off the blow, interposed his stone club, which
+was shivered into pieces that flew all over the earth, supplying all the flint stones thereafter to be found, and one fragment
+sank deep into Thor&#8217;s forehead. As the god dropped fainting to the ground, his hammer crashed against the head of Hrungnir,
+who fell dead beside him, in such a position that one of his ponderous legs was thrown over the recumbent god.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thou now remindest me
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">How I with Hrungnir fought,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That stout-hearted Jotun,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Whose head was all of stone;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yet I made him fall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And sink before me.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Thialfi, who, in the meanwhile, had disposed of the great clay giant with its cowardly mare&#8217;s heart, now rushed to his master&#8217;s
+assistance, but his efforts were unavailing, nor could the other gods, whom he quickly summoned, raise the pinioning leg.
+While they were standing there, helplessly wondering what they should do next, Thor&#8217;s little son Magni came up. According
+to varying accounts, he was then only three days or three years old, but he quickly seized the giant&#8217;s foot, and, unaided,
+set his father free, declaring that had he only been summoned sooner he would easily have <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb76" href="#pb76">76</a>]</span>disposed of both giant and squire. This exhibition of strength made the gods marvel greatly, and helped them to recognise
+the truth of the various predictions, which one and all declared that their descendants would be mightier than they, would
+survive them, and would rule in their turn over the new heaven and earth.
+
+</p>
+<p>To reward his son for his timely aid, Thor gave him the steed Gullfaxi (golden-maned), to which he had fallen heir by right
+of conquest, and Magni ever after rode this marvellous horse, which almost equalled the renowned Sleipnir in speed and endurance.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3151">
+<h3 class="normal">Groa, the Sorceress</h3>
+<p>After vainly trying to remove the stone splinter from his forehead, Thor sadly returned home to Thrud-vang, where Sif&#8217;s loving
+efforts were equally unsuccessful. She therefore resolved to send for Groa (green-making), a sorceress, noted for her skill
+in medicine and for the efficacy of her spells and incantations. Groa immediately signified her readiness to render every
+service in her power to the god who had so often benefited her, and solemnly began to recite powerful runes, under whose influence
+Thor felt the stone grow looser and looser. His delight at the prospect of a speedy deliverance made Thor wish to reward the
+enchantress forthwith, and knowing that nothing could give greater pleasure to a mother than the prospect of seeing a long-lost
+child, he proceeded to tell her that he had recently crossed the Elivagar, or ice streams, to rescue her little son Orvandil
+(germ) from the frost giants&#8217; cruel power, and had succeeded in carrying him off in a basket. But, as the little rogue would
+persist in sticking one of his bare toes through a hole in the basket, it had been frost-bitten, and Thor, accidentally breaking
+it off, had <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb77" href="#pb77">77</a>]</span>flung it up into the sky, to shine as a star, known in the North as &#8220;Orvandil&#8217;s Toe.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>Delighted with these tidings, the prophetess paused in her incantations to express her joy, but, having forgotten just where
+she left off, she was unable to continue her spell, and the flint stone remained embedded in Thor&#8217;s forehead, whence it could
+never be dislodged.
+
+</p>
+<p>Of course, as Thor&#8217;s hammer always did him such good service, it was the most prized of all his possessions, and his dismay
+was very great when he awoke one morning and found it gone. His cry of anger and disappointment soon brought Loki to his side,
+and to him Thor confided the secret of his loss, declaring that were the giants to hear of it, they would soon attempt to
+storm Asgard and destroy the gods.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Wroth waxed Thor, when his sleep was flown,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And he found his trusty hammer gone;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He smote his brow, his beard he shook,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The son of earth &#8217;gan round him look;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And this the first word that he spoke:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Now listen what I tell thee, Loke;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Which neither on earth below is known,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor in heaven above: my hammer&#8217;s gone.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Thrym&#8217;s Quida (Herbert&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3183">
+<h3 class="normal">Thor and Thrym</h3>
+<p>Loki declared he would try to discover the thief and recover the hammer, if Freya would lend him her falcon plumes, and he
+immediately hastened off to Folkvang to borrow them. His errand was successful and in the form of a bird he then winged his
+flight across the river Ifing, and over the barren stretches of J&ouml;tun-heim, where he suspected that the thief would be found.
+There he saw Thrym, prince of the frost giants and god of the destructive thunder-storm, sitting <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb78" href="#pb78">78</a>]</span>alone on a hill-side. Artfully questioning him, he soon learned that Thrym had stolen the hammer and had buried it deep underground.
+Moreover, he found that there was little hope of its being restored unless Freya were brought to him arrayed as a bride.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;I have the Thunderer&#8217;s hammer bound
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fathoms eight beneath the ground;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With it shall no one homeward tread
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till he bring me Freya to share my bed.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Thrym&#8217;s Quida (Herbert&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Indignant at the giant&#8217;s presumption, Loki returned to Thrud-vang, but Thor declared it would be well to visit Freya and try
+to prevail upon her to sacrifice herself for the general good. But when the &AElig;sir told the goddess of beauty what they wished
+her to do, she flew into such a passion that even her necklace burst. She told them that she would never leave her beloved
+husband for any god, much less to marry a detested giant and dwell in J&ouml;tun-heim, where all was dreary in the extreme, and
+where she would soon die of longing for the green fields and flowery meadows, in which she loved to roam. Seeing that further
+persuasions would be useless, Loki and Thor returned home and there deliberated upon another plan for recovering the hammer.
+By Heimdall&#8217;s advice, which, however, was only accepted with extreme reluctance, Thor borrowed and put on Freya&#8217;s clothes
+together with her necklace, and enveloped himself in a thick veil. Loki, having attired himself as handmaiden, then mounted
+with him in the goat-drawn chariot, and the strangely attired pair set out for J&ouml;tun-heim, where they intended to play the
+respective parts of the goddess of beauty and her attendant.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb79" href="#pb79">79</a>]</span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Home were driven
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then the goats,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And hitched to the car;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hasten they must&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The mountains crashed,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The earth stood in flames:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Odin&#8217;s son
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Rode to <span class="corr" id="xd0e3223" title="Source: Jotun-heim">J&ouml;tun-heim</span>.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Thrym welcomed his guests at the palace door, overjoyed at the thought that he was about to secure undisputed possession of
+the goddess of beauty, for whom he had long sighed in vain. He quickly led them to the banqueting-hall, where Thor, the bride
+elect, distinguished himself by eating an ox, eight huge salmon, and all the cakes and sweets provided for the women, washing
+down these miscellaneous viands with the contents of two barrels of mead.
+
+</p>
+<p>The giant bridegroom watched these gastronomic feats with amazement, whereupon Loki, in order to reassure him, confidentially
+whispered that the bride was so deeply in love with him that she had not been able to taste a morsel of food for more than
+eight days. Thrym then sought to kiss the bride, but drew back appalled at the fire of her glance, which Loki explained as
+a burning glance of love. The giant&#8217;s sister, claiming the usual gifts, was not even noticed; wherefore Loki again whispered
+to the wondering Thrym that love makes people absent-minded. Intoxicated with passion and mead, which he, too, had drunk in
+liberal quantities, the bridegroom now bade his servants produce the sacred hammer to consecrate the marriage, and as soon
+as it was brought he himself laid it in the pretended Freya&#8217;s lap. The next moment a powerful hand closed over the short handle,
+and soon the giant, his sister, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb80" href="#pb80">80</a>]</span>and all the invited guests, were slain by the terrible Thor.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;Bear in the hammer to plight the maid;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Upon her lap the bruiser lay,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And firmly plight our hands and fay.&#8217;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The Thunderer&#8217;s soul smiled in his breast;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When the hammer hard on his lap was placed,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thrym first, the king of the Thursi, he slew,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And slaughtered all the giant crew.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Thrym&#8217;s Quida (Herbert&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Leaving a smoking heap of ruins behind them, the gods then drove rapidly back to Asgard, where the borrowed garments were
+given back to Freya, much to the relief of Thor, and the &AElig;sir rejoiced at the recovery of the precious hammer. When next Odin
+gazed upon that part of J&ouml;tun-heim from his throne Hlidskialf, he saw the ruins covered with tender green shoots, for Thor,
+having conquered his enemy, had taken possession of his land, which henceforth would no longer remain barren and desolate,
+but would bring forth fruit in abundance.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3257">
+<h3 class="normal">Thor and Geirrod</h3>
+<p>Loki once borrowed Freya&#8217;s falcon-garb and flew off in search of adventures to another part of J&ouml;tun-heim, where he perched
+on top of the gables of Geirrod&#8217;s house. He soon attracted the attention of this giant, who bade one of his servants catch
+the bird. Amused at the fellow&#8217;s clumsy attempts to secure him, Loki flitted about from place to place, only moving just as
+the giant was about to lay hands upon him, when, miscalculating his distance, he suddenly found himself a captive.
+
+</p>
+<p>Attracted by the bird&#8217;s bright eyes, Geirrod looked closely at it and concluded that it was a god in disguise, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb81" href="#pb81">81</a>]</span>and finding that he could not force him to speak, he locked him in a cage, where he kept him for three whole months without
+food or drink. Conquered at last by hunger and thirst, Loki revealed his identity, and obtained his release by promising that
+he would induce Thor to visit Geirrod without his hammer, belt, or magic gauntlet. Loki then flew back to Asgard, and told
+Thor that he had been royally entertained, and that his host had expressed a strong desire to see the powerful thunder-god,
+of whom he had heard such wonderful tales. Flattered by this artful speech, Thor was induced to consent to a friendly journey
+to J&ouml;tun-heim, and the two gods set out, leaving the three marvellous weapons at home. They had not gone far, however, ere
+they came to the house of the giantess Grid, one of Odin&#8217;s many wives. Seeing Thor unarmed, she warned him to beware of treachery
+and lent him her own girdle, staff, and glove. Some time after leaving her, Thor and Loki came to the river Veimer, which
+the Thunderer, accustomed to wading, prepared to ford, bidding Loki and Thialfi cling fast to his belt.
+
+</p>
+<p>In the middle of the stream, however, a sudden cloud-burst and freshet overtook them; the waters began to rise and roar, and
+although Thor leaned heavily upon his staff, he was almost swept away by the force of the raging current.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Wax not, Veimer,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Since to wade I desire
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To the realm of the giants!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Know, if thou waxest,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then waxes my asa-might
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As high as the heavens.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Thor now became aware of the presence, up stream, of Geirrod&#8217;s daughter Gialp, and rightly suspecting that <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb82" href="#pb82">82</a>]</span>she was the cause of the storm, he picked up a huge boulder and flung it at her, muttering that the best place to dam a river
+was at its source. The missile had the desired effect, for the giantess fled, the waters abated, and Thor, exhausted but safe,
+pulled himself up on the opposite bank by a little shrub, the mountain-ash or sorb. This has since been known as &#8220;Thor&#8217;s salvation,&#8221;
+and occult powers have been attributed to it. After resting awhile Thor and his companions resumed their journey; but upon
+arriving at Geirrod&#8217;s house the god was so exhausted that he sank wearily upon the only chair in sight. To his surprise, however,
+he felt it rising beneath him, and fearful lest he should be crushed against the rafters, he pushed the borrowed staff against
+the ceiling and forced the chair downward with all his might. Then followed a terrible cracking, sudden cries, and moans of
+pain; and when Thor came to investigate, it appeared that the giant&#8217;s daughters, Gialp and Greip, had slipped under his chair
+with intent treacherously to slay him, and they had reaped a righteous retribution and both lay crushed to death.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Once I employed
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">My asa-might
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In the realm of giants,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When Gialp and Greip,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Geirrod&#8217;s daughters,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wanted to lift me to heaven.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Geirrod now appeared and challenged Thor to a test of strength and skill, but without waiting for a preconcerted signal, he
+flung a red-hot wedge at him. Thor, quick of eye and a practised catcher, caught the missile with the giantess&#8217;s iron glove,
+and hurled it back at his opponent. Such was the force of the god, that the missile passed, not only through the pillar behind
+which the giant had taken refuge, but through him and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb83" href="#pb83">83</a>]</span>the wall of the house, and buried itself deep in the earth without.
+
+</p>
+<p>Thor then strode up to the giant&#8217;s corpse, which at the blow from his weapon had been petrified into stone, and set it up
+in a conspicuous place, as a monument of his strength and of the victory he had won over his redoubtable foes, the mountain
+giants.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3312">
+<h3 class="normal">The Worship of Thor</h3>
+<p>Thor&#8217;s name has been given to many of the places he was wont to frequent, such as the principal harbour of the Faroe Islands,
+and to families which claim to be descended from him. It is still extant in such names as Thunderhill in Surrey, and in the
+family names of Thorburn and Thorwaldsen, but is most conspicuous in the name of one of the days of the week, Thor&#8217;s day or
+Thursday.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Over the whole earth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Still is it Thor&#8217;s day!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Thor was considered a pre-eminently benevolent deity, and it was for that reason that he was so widely worshipped and that
+temples to his worship arose at Moeri, Hlader, Godey, Gothland, Upsala, and other places, where the people never failed to
+invoke him for a favourable year at Yule-tide, his principal festival. It was customary on this occasion to burn a great log
+of oak, his sacred tree, as an emblem of the warmth and light of summer, which would drive away the darkness and cold of winter.
+
+</p>
+<p>Brides invariably wore red, Thor&#8217;s favourite colour, which was considered emblematical of love, and for the same reason betrothal
+rings in the North were almost always set with a red stone.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb84" href="#pb84">84</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Thor&#8217;s temples and statues, like Odin&#8217;s, were fashioned of wood, and the greater number of them were destroyed during the
+reign of King Olaf the Saint. According to ancient chronicles, this monarch forcibly converted his subjects. He was specially
+incensed against the inhabitants of a certain province, because they worshipped a rude image of Thor, which they decked with
+golden ornaments, and before which they set food every evening, declaring the god ate it, as no trace of it was left in the
+morning.
+
+</p>
+<p>The people, being called upon in 1030 to renounce this idol in favour of the true God, promised to consent if the morrow were
+cloudy; but when after a whole night spent by Olaf in ardent prayer, there followed a cloudy day, the obstinate people declared
+they were not yet convinced of his God&#8217;s power, and would only believe if the sun shone on the next day.
+
+</p>
+<p>Once more Olaf spent the night in prayer, but at dawn, to his great chagrin, the sky was overcast. Nevertheless, he assembled
+the people near Thor&#8217;s statue, and after secretly bidding his principal attendant to smash the idol with his battle-axe if
+the people turned their eyes away but for a moment, he began to address them. Suddenly, while all were listening to him, Olaf
+pointed to the horizon, where the sun was slowly breaking its way through the clouds, and exclaimed, &#8220;Behold our God!&#8221; The
+people one and all turned to see what he meant, and the attendant seized this opportunity for attacking the idol, which yielded
+easily to his blows, and a host of mice and other vermin scattered hastily from its hollow interior. Seeing now that the food
+placed before their god had been devoured by noxious animals only, the people ceased to revere Thor, and definitely accepted
+the faith which King Olaf had so long and vainly pressed upon them.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb85" href="#pb85">85</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch5" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter V: Tyr</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3341">
+<h3 class="normal">The God of War</h3>
+<p>Tyr Tiu, or Ziu was the son of Odin, and, according to different mythologists, his mother was Frigga, queen of the gods, or
+a beautiful giantess whose name is unknown, but who was a personification of the raging sea. He is the god of martial honour,
+and one of the twelve principal deities of Asgard. Although he appears to have had no special dwelling there, he was always
+welcome to Vingolf or Valhalla, and occupied one of the twelve thrones in the great council hall of Glads-heim.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The hall Glads-heim, which is built of gold;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where are in circle, ranged twelve golden chairs,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And in the midst one higher, Odin&#8217;s Throne.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As the God of courage and of war, Tyr was frequently invoked by the various nations of the North, who cried to him, as well
+as to Odin, to obtain victory. That he ranked next to Odin and Thor is proved by his name, Tiu, having been given to one of
+the days of the week, Tiu&#8217;s day, which in modern English has become Tuesday. Under the name of Ziu, Tyr was the principal
+divinity of the Suabians, who originally called their capital, the modern Augsburg, Ziusburg. This people, venerating the
+god as they did, were wont to worship him under the emblem of a sword, his distinctive attribute, and in his honour held great
+sword dances, where various figures were performed. Sometimes the participants forming two long lines, crossed their swords,
+point upward, and challenged the boldest among their number to take a flying leap over them. At other times the warriors joined
+their sword points closely <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb86" href="#pb86">86</a>]</span>together in the shape of a rose or wheel, and when this figure was complete invited their chief to stand on the navel thus
+formed of flat, shining steel blades, and then they bore him upon it through the camp in triumph. The sword point was further
+considered so sacred that it became customary to register oaths upon it.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8221;... Come hither, gentlemen,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And lay your hands again upon my sword;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Never to speak of this that you have heard,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Swear by my sword.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Hamlet (Shakespeare).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>A distinctive feature of the worship of this god among the Franks and some other Northern nations was that the priests called
+Druids or Godi offered up human sacrifices upon his altars, generally cutting the bloody- or spread-eagle upon their victims,
+that is to say, making a deep incision on either side of the back-bone, turning the ribs thus loosened inside out, and tearing
+out the viscera through the opening thus made. Of course only prisoners of war were treated thus, and it was considered a
+point of honour with north European races to endure this torture without a moan. These sacrifices were made upon rude stone
+altars called dolmens, which can still be seen in Northern Europe. As Tyr was considered the patron god of the sword, it was
+deemed indispensable to engrave the sign or rune representing him upon the blade of every sword&#8212;an observance which the Edda
+enjoined upon all those who were desirous of obtaining victory.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Sig-runes thou must know,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">If victory (<i>sigr</i>) thou wilt have,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And on thy sword&#8217;s hilt rist them;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Some on the chapes,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Some on the guard,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And twice name the name of Tyr.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Sigdrifa (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb87" href="#pb87">87</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Tyr was identical with the Saxon god Saxnot (from <i>sax</i>, a sword), and with Er, Heru, or Cheru, the chief divinity of the Cheruski, who also considered him god of the sun, and deemed
+his shining sword blade an emblem of its rays.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;This very sword a ray of light
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Snatched from the Sun!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3411">
+<h3 class="normal">Tyr&#8217;s Sword</h3>
+<p>According to an ancient legend, Cheru&#8217;s sword, which had been fashioned by the same dwarfs, sons of Ivald, who had also made
+Odin&#8217;s spear, was held very sacred by his people, to whose care he had entrusted it, declaring that those who possessed it
+were sure to have the victory over their foes. But although carefully guarded in the temple, where it was hung so that it
+reflected the first beams of the morning sun, it suddenly and mysteriously disappeared one night. A Vala, druidess, or prophetess,
+consulted by the priests, revealed that the Norns had decreed that whoever wielded it would conquer the world and come to
+his death by it; but in spite of all entreaties she refused to tell who had taken it or where it might be found. Some time
+after this occurrence a tall and dignified stranger came to Cologne, where Vitellius, the Roman prefect, was feasting, and
+called him away from his beloved dainties. In the presence of the Roman soldiery he gave him the sword, telling him it would
+bring him glory and renown, and finally hailed him as emperor. The cry was taken up by the assembled legions, and Vitellius,
+without making any personal effort to secure the honour, found himself elected Emperor of Rome.
+
+</p>
+<p>The new ruler, however, was so absorbed in indulging <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb88" href="#pb88">88</a>]</span>his taste for food and drink that he paid but little heed to the divine weapon. One day while leisurely making his way towards
+Rome he carelessly left it hanging in the antechamber to his pavilion. A German soldier seized this opportunity to substitute
+in its stead his own rusty blade, and the besotted emperor did not notice the exchange. When he arrived at Rome, he learned
+that the Eastern legions had named Vespasian emperor, and that he was even then on his way home to claim the throne.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p088" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p088.jpg" alt="A Foray" width="720" height="491"><p class="figureHead">A Foray</p>
+<p>A. Malmstr&ouml;m</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Searching for the sacred weapon to defend his rights, Vitellius now discovered the theft, and, overcome by superstitious fears,
+did not even attempt to fight. He crawled away into a dark corner of his palace, whence he was ignominiously dragged by the
+enraged populace to the foot of the Capitoline Hill. There the prophecy was duly fulfilled, for the German soldier, who had
+joined the opposite faction, coming along at that moment, cut off Vitellius&#8217; head with the sacred sword.
+
+</p>
+<p>The German soldier now changed from one legion to another, and travelled over many lands; but wherever he and his sword were
+found, victory was assured. After winning great honour and distinction, this man, having grown old, retired from active service
+to the banks of the Danube, where he secretly buried his treasured weapon, building his hut over its resting-place to guard
+it as long as he might live. When he lay on his deathbed he was implored to reveal where he had hidden it, but he persistently
+refused to do so, saying that it would be found by the man who was destined to conquer the world, but that he would not be
+able to escape the curse. Years passed by. Wave after wave the tide of barbarian invasion swept over that part of the country,
+and last of all came the terrible Huns under the leadership of Attila, the &#8220;Scourge of God.&#8221; As he passed <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb89" href="#pb89">89</a>]</span>along the river, he saw a peasant mournfully examining his cow&#8217;s foot, which had been wounded by some sharp instrument hidden
+in the long grass, and when search was made the point of a buried sword was found sticking out of the soil.
+
+</p>
+<p>Attila, seeing the beautiful workmanship and the fine state of preservation of this weapon, immediately exclaimed that it
+was Cheru&#8217;s sword, and brandishing it above his head he announced that he would conquer the world. Battle after battle was
+fought by the Huns, who, according to the Saga, were everywhere victorious, until Attila, weary of warfare, settled down in
+Hungary, taking to wife the beautiful Burgundian princess Ildico, whose father he had slain. This princess, resenting the
+murder of her kin and wishing to avenge it, took advantage of the king&#8217;s state of intoxication upon his wedding night to secure
+possession of the divine sword, with which she slew him in his bed, once more fulfilling the prophecy uttered so many years
+before.
+
+</p>
+<p>The magic sword again disappeared for a long time, to be unearthed once more, for the last time, by the Duke of Alva, Charles
+V.&#8217;s general, who shortly after won the victory of M&uuml;hlberg (1547). The Franks were wont to celebrate yearly martial games
+in honour of the sword; but it is said that when the heathen gods were renounced in favour of Christianity, the priests transferred
+many of their attributes to the saints, and that this sword became the property of the Archangel St. Michael, who has wielded
+it ever since.
+
+</p>
+<p>Tyr, whose name was synonymous with bravery and wisdom, was also considered by the ancient Northern people to have the white-armed
+Valkyrs, Odin&#8217;s attendants, at his command, and they thought that he it was who designated the warriors whom they should transfer
+to Valhalla to aid the gods on the last day.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb90" href="#pb90">90</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The god Tyr sent
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gondul and Skogul
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To choose a king
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of the race of Ingve,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To dwell with Odin
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In roomy Valhal.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3458">
+<h3 class="normal">The Story of Fenris</h3>
+<p>Tyr was generally spoken of and represented as one-armed, just as Odin was called one-eyed. Various explanations are offered
+by different authorities; some claim that it was because he could give the victory only to one side; others, because a sword
+has but one blade. However this may be, the ancients preferred to account for the fact in the following way:
+
+</p>
+<p>Loki married secretly at J&ouml;tun-heim the hideous giantess Angur-boda (anguish boding), who bore him three monstrous children&#8212;the
+wolf Fenris, Hel, the parti-coloured goddess of death, and I&ouml;rmungandr, a terrible serpent. He kept the existence of these
+monsters secret as long as he could; but they speedily grew so large that they could no longer remain confined in the cave
+where they had come to light. Odin, from his throne Hlidskialf, soon became aware of their existence, and also of the disquieting
+rapidity with which they increased in size. Fearful lest the monsters, when they had gained further strength, should invade
+Asgard and destroy the gods, Allfather determined to get rid of them, and striding off to J&ouml;tun-heim, he flung Hel into the
+depths of Nifl-heim, telling her she could reign over the nine dismal worlds of the dead. He then cast I&ouml;rmungandr into the
+sea, where he attained such immense proportions that at last he encircled the earth and could bite his own tail.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb91" href="#pb91">91</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Into mid-ocean&#8217;s dark depths hurled,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Grown with each day to giant size,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The serpent soon inclosed the world,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">With tail in mouth, in circle-wise;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Held harmless still
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">By Odin&#8217;s will.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>None too well pleased that the serpent should attain such fearful dimensions in his new element, Odin resolved to lead Fenris
+to Asgard, where he hoped, by kindly treatment, to make him gentle and tractable. But the gods one and all shrank in dismay
+when they saw the wolf, and none dared approach to give him food except Tyr, whom nothing daunted. Seeing that Fenris daily
+increased in size, strength, voracity, and fierceness, the gods assembled in council to deliberate how they might best dispose
+of him. They unanimously decided that as it would desecrate their peace-steads to slay him, they would bind him fast so that
+he could work them no harm.
+
+</p>
+<p>With that purpose in view, they obtained a strong chain named L&aelig;ding, and then playfully proposed to Fenris to bind this about
+him as a test of his vaunted strength. Confident in his ability to release himself, Fenris patiently allowed them to bind
+him fast, and when all stood aside, with a mighty effort he stretched himself and easily burst the chain asunder.
+
+</p>
+<p>Concealing their chagrin, the gods were loud in praise of his strength, but they next produced a much stronger fetter, Droma,
+which, after some persuasion, the wolf allowed them to fasten around him as before. Again a short, sharp struggle sufficed
+to burst this bond, and it is proverbial in the North to use the figurative expressions, &#8220;to get loose out of L&aelig;ding,&#8221; and
+&#8220;to dash out of Droma,&#8221; whenever great difficulties have to be surmounted.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb92" href="#pb92">92</a>]</span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Twice did the &AElig;sir strive to bind,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Twice did they fetters powerless find;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Iron or brass of no avail,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Naught, save through magic, could prevail.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods, perceiving now that ordinary bonds, however strong, would never prevail against the Fenris wolf&#8217;s great strength,
+bade Skirnir, Frey&#8217;s servant, go down to Svart-alfa-heim and bid the dwarfs fashion a bond which nothing could sever.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p092" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p092.jpg" alt="The Binding of Fenris" width="503" height="720"><p class="figureHead">The Binding of Fenris</p>
+<p>Dorothy Hardy</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>By magic arts the dark elves manufactured a slender silken rope from such impalpable materials as the sound of a cat&#8217;s footsteps,
+a woman&#8217;s beard, the roots of a mountain, the longings of the bear, the voice of fishes, and the spittle of birds, and when
+it was finished they gave it to Skirnir, assuring him that no strength would avail to break it, and that the more it was strained
+the stronger it would become.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Gleipnir, at last,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By Dark Elves cast,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In Svart-alf-heim, with strong spells wrought,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To Odin was by Skirnir brought:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As soft as silk, as light as air,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yet still of magic power most rare.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Armed with this bond, called Gleipnir, the gods went with Fenris to the Island of Lyngvi, in the middle of Lake Amsvartnir,
+and again proposed to test his strength. But although Fenris had grown still stronger, he mistrusted the bond which looked
+so slight. He therefore refused to allow himself to be bound, unless one of the &AElig;sir would consent to put his hand in his
+mouth, and leave it there, as a pledge of good faith, and that no magic arts were to be used against him.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb93" href="#pb93">93</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The gods heard the decision with dismay, and all drew back except Tyr, who, seeing that the others would not venture to comply
+with this condition, boldly stepped forward and thrust his hand between the monster&#8217;s jaws. The gods now fastened Gleipnir
+securely around Fenris&#8217;s neck and paws, and when they saw that his utmost efforts to free himself were fruitless, they shouted
+and laughed with glee. Tyr, however, could not share their joy, for the wolf, finding himself captive, bit off the god&#8217;s hand
+at the wrist, which since then has been known as the wolf&#8217;s joint.
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p><b><span class="smallcaps">Loki.</span></b></p>
+<p class="line">&#8220;Be silent, Tyr!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou couldst never settle
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A strife &#8217;twixt two;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of thy right hand also
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I must mention make,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Which Fenris from thee took.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p><b><span class="smallcaps">Tyr.</span></b></p>
+<p class="line">I of a hand am wanting,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But thou of honest fame;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sad is the lack of either.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor is the wolf at ease:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He in bonds must abide
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Until the gods&#8217; destruction.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Deprived of his right hand, Tyr was now forced to use the maimed arm for his shield, and to wield his sword with his left
+hand; but such was his dexterity that he slew his enemies as before.
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods, in spite of the wolf&#8217;s struggles, drew the end of the fetter Gelgia through the rock Gioll, and fastened it to the
+boulder Thviti, which was sunk deep in the ground. Opening wide his fearful jaws, Fenris uttered such terrible howls that
+the gods, to silence <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb94" href="#pb94">94</a>]</span>him, thrust a sword into his mouth, the hilt resting upon his lower jaw and the point against his palate. The blood then began
+to pour out in such streams that it formed a great river, called Von. The wolf was destined to remain thus chained fast until
+the last day, when he would burst his bonds and would be free to avenge his wrongs.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The wolf Fenrir,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Freed from the chain,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shall range the earth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Death-song of H&acirc;kon (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>While some mythologists see in this myth an emblem of crime restrained and made innocuous by the power of the law, others
+see the underground fire, which kept within bounds can injure no one, but which unfettered fills the world with destruction
+and woe. Just as Odin&#8217;s second eye is said to rest in Mimir&#8217;s well, so Tyr&#8217;s second hand (sword) is found in Fenris&#8217;s jaws.
+He has no more use for two weapons than the sky for two suns.
+
+</p>
+<p>The worship of Tyr is commemorated in sundry places (such as T&uuml;bingen, in Germany), which bear more or less modified forms
+of his name. The name has also been given to the aconite, a plant known in Northern countries as &#8220;Tyr&#8217;s helm.&#8221;
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb95" href="#pb95">95</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch6" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter VI: Bragi</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3598">
+<h3 class="normal">The Origin of Poetry</h3>
+<p>At the time of the dispute between the &AElig;sir and Vanas, when peace had been agreed upon, a vase was brought into the assembly
+into which both parties solemnly spat. From this saliva the gods created Kvasir, a being renowned for his wisdom and goodness,
+who went about the world answering all questions asked him, thus teaching and benefiting mankind. The dwarfs, hearing about
+Kvasir&#8217;s great wisdom, coveted it, and finding him asleep one day, two of their number, Fialar and Galar, treacherously slew
+him, and drained every drop of his blood into three vessels&#8212;the kettle Od-hroerir (inspiration) and the bowls Son (expiation)
+and Boden (offering). After duly mixing this blood with honey, they manufactured from it a sort of beverage so inspiring that
+any one who tasted it immediately became a poet, and could sing with a charm which was certain to win all hearts.
+
+</p>
+<p>Now, although the dwarfs had brewed this marvellous mead for their own consumption, they did not even taste it, but hid it
+away in a secret place, while they went in search of further adventures. They had not gone very far ere they found the giant
+Gilling also sound asleep, lying on a steep bank, and they maliciously rolled him into the water, where he perished. Then
+hastening to his dwelling, some climbed on the roof, carrying a huge millstone, while the others, entering, told the giantess
+that her husband was dead. This news caused the poor creature great grief, and she rushed out of the house to view Gilling&#8217;s
+remains. As she passed through the door, the wicked dwarfs rolled the millstone down upon her head, and killed her. According
+to another account, the dwarfs invited the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb96" href="#pb96">96</a>]</span>giant to go fishing with them, and succeeded in slaying him by sending him out in a leaky vessel, which sank beneath his weight.
+
+</p>
+<p>The double crime thus committed did not long remain unpunished, for Gilling&#8217;s brother, Suttung, quickly went in search of
+the dwarfs, determined to avenge him. Seizing them in his mighty grasp, the giant conveyed them to a shoal far out at sea,
+where they would surely have perished at the next high tide had they not succeeded in redeeming their lives by promising to
+deliver to the giant their recently brewed mead. As soon as Suttung set them ashore, they therefore gave him the precious
+compound, which he entrusted to his daughter Gunlod, bidding her guard it night and day, and allow neither gods nor mortals
+to have so much as a taste. The better to fulfil this command, Gunlod carried the three vessels into the hollow mountain,
+where she kept watch over them with the most scrupulous care, nor did she suspect that Odin had discovered their place of
+concealment, thanks to the sharp eyes of his ever-vigilant ravens Hugin and Munin.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3609">
+<h3 class="normal">The Quest of the Draught</h3>
+<p>As Odin had mastered the runic lore and had tasted the waters of Mimir&#8217;s fountain, he was already the wisest of gods; but
+learning of the power of the draught of inspiration manufactured out of Kvasir&#8217;s blood, he became very anxious to obtain possession
+of the magic fluid. With this purpose in view he therefore donned his broad-brimmed hat, wrapped himself in his cloud-hued
+cloak, and journeyed off to J&ouml;tun-heim. On his way to the giant&#8217;s dwelling he passed by a field where nine ugly thralls were
+busy making hay. Odin paused for a moment, watching them at their work, and noticing that their scythes seemed very dull indeed,
+he <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb97" href="#pb97">97</a>]</span>proposed to whet them, an offer which the thralls eagerly accepted.
+
+</p>
+<p>Drawing a whetstone from his bosom, Odin proceeded to sharpen the nine scythes, skilfully giving them such a keen edge that
+the thralls, delighted, begged that they might have the stone. With good-humoured acquiescence, Odin tossed the whetstone
+over the wall; but as the nine thralls simultaneously sprang forward to catch it, they wounded one another with their keen
+scythes. In anger at their respective carelessness, they now began to fight, and did not pause until they were all either
+mortally wounded or dead.
+
+</p>
+<p>Quite undismayed by this tragedy, Odin continued on his way, and shortly after came to the house of the giant Baugi, a brother
+of Suttung, who received him very hospitably. In the course of conversation, Baugi informed him that he was greatly embarrassed,
+as it was harvest time and all his workmen had just been found dead in the hayfield.
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin, who on this occasion had given his name as Bolwerk (evil doer), promptly offered his services to the giant, promising
+to accomplish as much work as the nine thralls, and to labour diligently all the summer in exchange for one single draught
+of Suttung&#8217;s magic mead when the busy season was ended. This bargain was immediately concluded, and Baugi&#8217;s new servant, Bolwerk,
+worked incessantly all the summer long, more than fulfilling his contract, and safely garnering all the grain before the autumn
+rains began to fall. When the first days of winter came, Bolwerk presented himself before his master, claiming his reward.
+But Baugi hesitated and demurred, saying he dared not openly ask his brother Suttung for the draught of inspiration, but would
+try to obtain it by guile. Together, Bolwerk and Baugi then proceeded to the mountain where <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb98" href="#pb98">98</a>]</span>Gunlod dwelt, and as they could find no other mode of entering the secret cave, Odin produced his trusty auger, called Rati,
+and bade the giant bore with all his might to make a hole through which he might crawl into the interior.
+
+</p>
+<p>Baugi silently obeyed, and after a few moments&#8217; work withdrew the tool, saying that he had pierced through the mountain, and
+that Odin would have no difficulty in slipping through. But the god, mistrusting this statement, merely blew into the hole,
+and when the dust and chips came flying into his face, he sternly bade Baugi resume his boring and not attempt to deceive
+him again. The giant did as he was told, and when he withdrew his tool again, Odin ascertained that the hole was really finished.
+Changing himself into a snake, he wriggled through with such remarkable rapidity that he managed to elude the sharp auger,
+which Baugi treacherously thrust into the hole after him, intending to kill him.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Rati&#8217;s mouth I caused
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To make a space,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And to gnaw the rock;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Over and under me
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Were the J&ouml;tun&#8217;s ways:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thus I my head did peril.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>H&aacute;vam&aacute;l (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3643">
+<h3 class="normal">The Rape of the Draught</h3>
+<p>Having reached the interior of the mountain, Odin reassumed his usual godlike form and starry mantle, and then presented himself
+in the stalactite-hung cave before the beautiful Gunlod. He intended to win her love as a means of inducing her to grant him
+a sip from each of the vessels confided to her care.
+
+</p>
+<p>Won by his passionate wooing, Gunlod consented to become his wife, and after he had spent three whole days with her in this
+retreat, she brought out the vessels <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb99" href="#pb99">99</a>]</span>from their secret hiding-place, and told him he might take a sip from each.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And a draught obtained
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of the precious mead,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Drawn from Od-hroerir.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Odin&#8217;s Rune-Song (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin made good use of this permission and drank so deeply that he completely drained all three vessels. Then, having obtained
+all that he wanted, he emerged from the cave and, donning his eagle plumes, rose high into the blue, and, after hovering for
+a moment over the mountain top, winged his flight towards Asgard.
+
+</p>
+<p>He was still far from the gods&#8217; realm when he became aware of a pursuer, and, indeed, Suttung, having also assumed the form
+of an eagle, was coming rapidly after him with intent to compel him to surrender the stolen mead. Odin therefore flew faster
+and faster, straining every nerve to reach Asgard before the foe should overtake him, and as he drew near the gods anxiously
+watched the race.
+
+</p>
+<p>Seeing that Odin would only with difficulty be able to escape, the &AElig;sir hastily gathered all the combustible materials they
+could find, and as he flew over the ramparts of their dwelling, they set fire to the mass <span class="corr" id="xd0e3669" title="Source: or">of</span> fuel, so that the flames, rising high, singed the wings of Suttung, as he followed the god, and he fell into the very midst
+of the fire, where he was burned to death.
+
+</p>
+<p>As for Odin, he flew to where the gods had prepared vessels for the stolen mead, and disgorged the draught of inspiration
+in such breathless haste that a few drops fell and were scattered over the earth. There they became the portion of rhymesters
+and poetasters, the gods reserving the main draught for their own consumption, and only occasionally vouchsafing a taste to
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb100" href="#pb100">100</a>]</span>some favoured mortal, who, immediately after, would win world-wide renown by his inspired songs.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Of a well-assumed form
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I made good use:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Few things fail the wise;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For Od-hroerir
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Is now come up
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To men&#8217;s earthly dwellings.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>H&aacute;vam&aacute;l (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p100" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p100.jpg" alt="Idun" width="720" height="492"><p class="figureHead">Idun</p>
+<p>B. E. Ward</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As men and gods owed the priceless gift to Odin, they were ever ready to express to him their gratitude, and they not only
+called it by his name, but they worshipped him as patron of eloquence, poetry, and song, and of all scalds.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3702">
+<h3 class="normal">The God of Music</h3>
+<p>Although Odin had thus won the gift of poetry, he seldom made use of it himself. It was reserved for his son Bragi, the child
+of Gunlod, to become the god of poetry and music, and to charm the world with his songs.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;White-bearded bard, ag&#8217;d
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Bragi, his gold harp
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sweeps&#8212;and yet softer
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Stealeth the day.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As soon as Bragi was born in the stalactite-hung cave where Odin had won Gunlod&#8217;s affections, the dwarfs presented him with
+a magical golden harp, and, setting him on one of their own vessels, they sent him out into the wide world. As the boat gently
+passed out of subterranean darkness, and floated over the threshold of Nain, the realm of the dwarf of death, Bragi, the fair
+and immaculate young god, who until then had shown no signs of life, suddenly sat up, and, seizing the golden harp beside
+him, he began to sing the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb101" href="#pb101">101</a>]</span>wondrous song of life, which rose at times to heaven, and then sank down to the dread realm of Hel, goddess of death.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Yggdrasil&#8217;s ash is
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of all trees most excellent,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And of all ships, Skidbladnir;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of the &AElig;sir, Odin,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And of horses, Sleipnir;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Bifr&ouml;st of bridges,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And of scalds, Bragi.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>While he played the vessel was wafted gently over sunlit waters, and soon touched the shore. Bragi then proceeded on foot,
+threading his way through the bare and silent forest, playing as he walked. At the sound of his tender music the trees began
+to bud and bloom, and the grass underfoot was gemmed with countless flowers.
+
+</p>
+<p>Here he met Idun, daughter of Ivald, the fair goddess of immortal youth, whom the dwarfs allowed to visit the earth from time
+to time, when, at her approach, nature invariably assumed its loveliest and gentlest aspect.
+
+</p>
+<p>It was only to be expected that two such beings should feel attracted to each other, and Bragi soon won this fair goddess
+for his wife. Together they hastened to Asgard, where both were warmly welcomed and where Odin, after tracing runes on Bragi&#8217;s
+tongue, decreed that he should be the heavenly minstrel and composer of songs in honour of the gods and of the heroes whom
+he received in Valhalla.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3749">
+<h3 class="normal">Worship of Bragi</h3>
+<p>As Bragi was god of poetry, eloquence, and song, the Northern races also called poetry by his name, and scalds of either sex
+were frequently designated as Braga-men <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb102" href="#pb102">102</a>]</span>or Braga-women. Bragi was greatly honoured by all the Northern races, and hence his health was always drunk on solemn or festive
+occasions, but especially at funeral feasts and at Yuletide celebrations.
+
+</p>
+<p>When it was time to drink this toast, which was served in cups shaped like a ship, and was called the Bragaful, the sacred
+sign of the hammer was first made over it. Then the new ruler or head of the family solemnly pledged himself to some great
+deed of valour, which he was bound to execute within the year, unless he wished to be considered destitute of honour. Following
+his example, all the guests were then wont to make similar vows and declare what they would do; and as some of them, owing
+to previous potations, talked rather too freely of their intentions on these occasions, this custom seems to connect the god&#8217;s
+name with the vulgar but very expressive English verb &#8220;to brag.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>In art, Bragi is generally represented as an elderly man, with long white hair and beard, and holding the golden harp from
+which his fingers could draw such magic strains.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb103" href="#pb103">103</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch7" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter VII: Idun</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3764">
+<h3 class="normal">The Apples of Youth</h3>
+<p>Idun, the personification of spring or immortal youth, who, according to some mythologists, had no birth and was never to
+taste death, was warmly welcomed by the gods when she made her appearance in Asgard with Bragi. To further win their affections
+she promised them a daily taste of the marvellous apples which she bore in her casket, and which had the power of conferring
+immortal youth and loveliness upon all who partook of them.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The golden apples
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Out of her garden
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Have yielded you a dower of youth,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ate you them every day.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Wagner (Forman&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Thanks to this magic fruit, the Scandinavian gods, who, because they sprang from a mixed race, were not all immortal, warded
+off the approach of old age and disease, and remained vigorous, beautiful, and young through countless ages. These apples
+were therefore considered very precious indeed, and Idun carefully treasured them in her magic casket. No matter how many
+she drew out, the same number always remained for distribution at the feast of the gods, to whom alone she vouchsafed a taste,
+although dwarfs and giants were eager to obtain possession of the fruit.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Bright Iduna, Maid immortal!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Standing at Valhalla&#8217;s portal,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In her casket has rich store
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of rare apples gilded o&#8217;er;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Those rare apples, not of Earth,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ageing &AElig;sir give fresh birth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb104" href="#pb104">104</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3802">
+<h3 class="normal">The Story of Thiassi</h3>
+<p>One day, Odin, Hoenir, and Loki started out upon one of their usual excursions to earth, and, after wandering for a long while,
+they found themselves in a deserted region, where they could discover no hospitable dwelling. Weary and very hungry, the gods,
+perceiving a herd of oxen, slew one of the beasts, and, kindling a fire, they sat down beside it to rest while waiting for
+their meat to cook.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p104" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p104.jpg" alt="Loki and Thiassi" width="504" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Loki and Thiassi</p>
+<p>Dorothy Hardy</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>To their surprise, however, in spite of the roaring flames the carcass remained quite raw. Realising that some magic must
+be at work, they looked about them to discover what could hinder their cookery, when they perceived an eagle perched upon
+a tree above them. Seeing that he was an object of suspicion to the wayfarers, the bird addressed them and admitted that he
+it was who had prevented the fire from doing its accustomed work, but he offered to remove the spell if they would give him
+as much food as he could eat. The gods agreed to do this, whereupon the eagle, swooping downward, fanned the flames with his
+huge wings, and soon the meat was cooked. The eagle then made ready to carry off three quarters of the ox as his share, but
+this was too much for Loki, who seized a great stake lying near at hand, and began to belabour the voracious bird, forgetting
+that it was skilled in magic arts. To his great dismay one end of the stake stuck fast to the eagle&#8217;s back, the other to his
+hands, and he found himself dragged over stones and through briers, sometimes through the air, his arms almost torn out of
+their sockets. In vain he cried for mercy and implored the eagle to let him go; the bird flew on, until he promised any ransom
+his captor might ask in exchange for his release.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb105" href="#pb105">105</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The seeming eagle, who was the storm giant Thiassi, at last agreed to release Loki upon one condition. He made him promise
+upon the most solemn of oaths that he would lure Idun out of Asgard, so that Thiassi might obtain possession of her and of
+her magic fruit.
+
+</p>
+<p>Released at last, Loki returned to Odin and Hoenir, to whom, however, he was very careful not to confide the condition upon
+which he had obtained his freedom; and when they had returned to Asgard he began to plan how he might entice Idun outside
+of the gods&#8217; abode. A few days later, Bragi being absent on one of his minstrel journeys, Loki sought Idun in the groves of
+Brunnaker, where she had taken up her abode, and by artfully describing some apples which grew at a short distance, and which
+he mendaciously declared were exactly like hers, he lured her away from Asgard with a crystal dish full of fruit, which she
+intended to compare with that which he extolled. No sooner had Idun left Asgard, however, than the deceiver Loki forsook her,
+and ere she could return to the shelter of the heavenly abode the storm giant Thiassi swept down from the north on his eagle
+wings, and catching her up in his cruel talons, he bore her swiftly away to his barren and desolate home of Thrym-heim.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thrymheim the sixth is named,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where Thiassi dwelt,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That all-powerful J&ouml;tun.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Isolated from her beloved companions, Idun pined, grew pale and sad, but persistently refused to give Thiassi the smallest
+bite of her magic fruit, which, as he well knew, would make him beautiful and renew his strength and youth.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb106" href="#pb106">106</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">&#8220;All woes that fall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">On Odin&#8217;s hall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Can be traced to Loki base.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">From out Valhalla&#8217;s portal
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Twas he who pure Iduna lured,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Whose casket fair
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Held apples rare
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">That render gods immortal,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And in Thiassi&#8217;s tower immured.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Time passed. The gods, thinking that Idun had accompanied her husband and would soon return, at first paid no heed to her
+departure, but little by little the beneficent effect of the last feast of apples passed away. They began to feel the approach
+of old age, and saw their youth and beauty disappear; so, becoming alarmed, they began to search for the missing goddess.
+
+</p>
+<p>Close investigation revealed the fact that she had last been seen in Loki&#8217;s company, and when Odin sternly called him to account,
+he was forced to admit that he had betrayed her into the storm-giant&#8217;s power.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;By his mocking, scornful mien,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Soon in Valhal it was seen
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Twas the traitor Loki&#8217;s art
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Which had led Idun apart
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To gloomy tower
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And Jotun power.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3880">
+<h3 class="normal">The Return of Idun</h3>
+<p>The attitude of the gods now became very menacing, and it was clear to Loki that if he did not devise means to restore the
+goddess, and that soon, his life would be in considerable danger.
+
+</p>
+<p>He assured the indignant gods, therefore, that he would leave no stone unturned in his efforts to secure <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb107" href="#pb107">107</a>]</span>the release of Idun, and, borrowing Freya&#8217;s falcon plumage, he flew off to Thrym-heim, where he found Idun alone, sadly mourning
+her exile from Asgard and her beloved Bragi. Changing the fair goddess into a nut according to some accounts, or according
+to others, into a swallow, Loki grasped her tightly between his claws, and then rapidly retraced his way to Asgard, hoping
+that he would reach the shelter of its high walls ere Thiassi returned from a fishing excursion in the Northern seas to which
+he had gone.
+
+</p>
+<p>Meantime the gods had assembled on the ramparts of the heavenly city, and they were watching for the return of Loki with far
+more anxiety than they had felt for Odin when he went in search of Od-hroerir. Remembering the success of their ruse on that
+occasion, they had gathered great piles of fuel, which they were ready to set on fire at any moment.
+
+</p>
+<p>Suddenly they saw Loki coming, but descried in his wake a great eagle. This was the giant Thiassi who had suddenly returned
+to Thrym-heim and found that his captive had been carried off by a falcon, in whom he readily recognised one of the gods.
+Hastily donning his eagle plumes he had given immediate chase and was rapidly overtaking his prey. Loki redoubled his efforts
+as he neared the walls of Asgard, and ere Thiassi overtook him he reached the goal and sank exhausted in the midst of the
+gods. Not a moment was lost in setting fire to the accumulated fuel, and as the pursuing Thiassi passed over the walls in
+his turn, the flames and smoke brought him to the ground crippled and half stunned, an easy prey to the gods, who fell ruthlessly
+upon him and slew him.
+
+</p>
+<p>The &AElig;sir were overjoyed at the recovery of Idun, and they hastened to partake of the precious apples which she had brought
+safely back. Feeling the return <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb108" href="#pb108">108</a>]</span>of their wonted strength and good looks with every mouthful they ate, they good-naturedly declared that it was no wonder if
+even the giants longed to taste the apples of perpetual youth. They vowed therefore that they would place Thiassi&#8217;s eyes as
+a constellation in the heavens, in order to soften any feeling of anger which his kinsmen might experience upon learning that
+he had been slain.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Up I cast the eyes
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of Allvaldi&#8217;s son
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Into the heaven&#8217;s serene:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They are signs the greatest
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of my deeds.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Harbard (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3912">
+<h3 class="normal">The Goddess of Spring</h3>
+<p>The physical explanation of this myth is obvious. Idun, the emblem of vegetation, is forcibly carried away in autumn, when
+Bragi is absent and the singing of the birds has ceased. The cold wintry wind, Thiassi, detains her in the frozen, barren
+north, where she cannot thrive, until Loki, the south wind, brings back the seed or the swallow, which are both precursors
+of the returning spring. The youth, beauty, and strength conferred by Idun are symbolical of Nature&#8217;s resurrection in spring
+after winter&#8217;s sleep, when colour and vigour return to the earth, which had grown wrinkled and grey.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3917">
+<h3 class="normal">Idun Falls to the Nether World</h3>
+<p>As the disappearance of Idun (vegetation) was a yearly occurrence, we might expect to find other myths dealing with the striking
+phenomenon, and there is another favourite of the old scalds which, unfortunately, has come down to us only in a fragmentary
+and very incomplete form. According to this account, Idun was once sitting upon the branches of the sacred ash Yggdrasil <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb109" href="#pb109">109</a>]</span>when, growing suddenly faint, she loosed her hold and dropped to the ground beneath, and down to the lowest depths of Nifl-heim.
+There she lay, pale and motionless, gazing with fixed and horror-struck eyes upon the gruesome sights of Hel&#8217;s realm, trembling
+violently the while, like one overcome by penetrating cold.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In the dales dwells
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The prescient Dis,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From Yggdrasil&#8217;s
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ash sunk down,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of alfen race,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Idun by name,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The youngest of Ivaldi&#8217;s
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Elder children.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">She ill brooked
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Her descent
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Under the hoar tree&#8217;s
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Trunk confined.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">She would not happy be
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With Norvi&#8217;s daughter,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Accustomed to a pleasanter
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Abode at home.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Odin&#8217;s Ravens&#8217; Song (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Seeing that she did not return, Odin bade Bragi, Heimdall, and another of the gods go in search of her, giving them a white
+wolfskin to envelop her in, so that she should not suffer from the cold, and bidding them make every effort to rouse her from
+the stupor which his prescience told him had taken possession of her.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;A wolf&#8217;s skin they gave her,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In which herself she clad.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Odin&#8217;s Ravens&#8217; Song (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Idun passively allowed the gods to wrap her in the warm wolfskin, but she persistently refused to speak <span class="corr" id="xd0e3974" title="Source: of">or</span> move, and from her strange manner her husband sadly <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb110" href="#pb110">110</a>]</span>suspected that she had had a vision of great ills. The tears ran continuously down her pallid cheeks, and Bragi, overcome
+by her unhappiness, at length bade the other gods return to Asgard without him, vowing that he would remain beside his wife
+until she was ready to leave Hel&#8217;s dismal realm. The sight of her woe oppressed him so sorely that he had no heart for his
+usual merry songs, and the strings of his harp were mute while he remained in the underworld.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line"><span class="corr" id="xd0e3981" title="Source: &#8216;">&#8220;</span>That voice-like zephyr o&#8217;er flow&#8217;r meads creeping,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Like Bragi&#8217;s music his harp strings sweeping.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In this myth Idun&#8217;s fall from Yggdrasil is symbolical of the autumnal falling of the leaves, which lie limp and helpless on
+the cold bare ground until they are hidden from sight under the snow, represented by the wolfskin, which Odin, the sky, sends
+down to keep them warm; and the cessation of the birds&#8217; songs is further typified by Bragi&#8217;s silent harp.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb111" href="#pb111">111</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch8" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter VIII: Ni&ouml;rd</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e3996">
+<h3 class="normal">A Hostage with the Gods</h3>
+<p>We have already seen how the &AElig;sir and Vanas exchanged hostages after the terrible war they had waged against each other, and
+that while Hoenir, Odin&#8217;s brother, went to live in Vana-heim, Ni&ouml;rd, with his two children, Frey and Freya, definitely took
+up his abode in Asgard.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In Vana-heim
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wise powers him created,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And to the gods a hostage gave.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Vafthrudnir (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As ruler of the winds, and of the sea near the shore, Ni&ouml;rd was given the palace of N&ocirc;at&ucirc;n, near the seashore, where, we are
+told, he stilled the terrible tempests stirred up by &AElig;gir, god of the deep sea.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Ni&ouml;rd, the god of storms, whom fishers know;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Not born in Heaven&#8212;he was in Van-heim rear&#8217;d,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With men, but lives a hostage with the gods;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He knows each frith, and every rocky creek
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fringed with dark pines, and sands where sea-fowl scream.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew <span class="corr" id="xd0e4028" title="Source: Arnola">Arnold</span>).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>He also extended his special protection over commerce and fishing, which two occupations could be pursued with advantage only
+during the short summer months, of which he was in a measure considered the personification.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4034">
+<h3 class="normal">The God of Summer</h3>
+<p>Ni&ouml;rd is represented in art as a very handsome god, in the prime of life, clad in a short green tunic, with a crown of shells
+and seaweed upon his head, or a brown-brimmed hat adorned with eagle or heron plumes. As <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb112" href="#pb112">112</a>]</span>personification of the summer, he was invoked to still the raging storms which desolated the coasts during the winter months.
+He was also implored to hasten the vernal warmth and thereby extinguish the winter fires.
+
+</p>
+<p>As agriculture was practised only during the summer months, and principally along the fiords or sea inlets, Ni&ouml;rd was also
+invoked for favourable harvests, for he was said to delight in prospering those who placed their trust in him.
+
+</p>
+<p>Ni&ouml;rd&#8217;s first wife, according to some authorities, was his sister Nerthus, Mother Earth, who in Germany was identified with
+Frigga, as we have seen, but in Scandinavia was considered a separate divinity. Ni&ouml;rd was, however, obliged to part with her
+when summoned to Asgard, where he occupied one of the twelve seats in the great council hall, and was present at all the assemblies
+of the gods, withdrawing to N&ocirc;at&ucirc;n only when his services were not required by the &AElig;sir.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;N&ocirc;at&ucirc;n is the eleventh;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There Ni&ouml;rd has
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Himself a dwelling made,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Prince of men;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Guiltless of sin,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He rules o&#8217;er the high-built fane.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In his home by the seashore, Ni&ouml;rd delighted in watching the gulls fly to and fro, and in observing the graceful movements
+of the swans, his favourite birds, which were held sacred to him. He spent many an hour, too, gazing at the gambols of the
+gentle seals, which came to bask in the sunshine at his feet.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4064">
+<h3 class="normal">Skadi, Goddess of Winter</h3>
+<p>Shortly after Idun&#8217;s return from Thrym-heim, and Thiassi&#8217;s death within the bounds of Asgard, the assembled <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb113" href="#pb113">113</a>]</span>gods were greatly surprised and dismayed to see Skadi, the giant&#8217;s daughter, appear one day in their midst, to demand satisfaction
+for her father&#8217;s death. Although the daughter of an ugly old Hrim-thurs, Skadi, the goddess of winter, was very beautiful
+indeed, in her silvery armour, with her glittering spear, sharp-pointed arrows, short white hunting dress, white fur leggings,
+and broad snowshoes; and the gods could not but recognise the justice of her claim, wherefore they offered the usual fine
+in atonement. Skadi, however, was so angry that she at first refused this compromise, and sternly demanded a life for a life,
+until Loki, wishing to appease her wrath, and thinking that if he could only make her cold lips relax in a smile the rest
+would be easy, began to play all manner of pranks. Fastening a goat to himself by an invisible cord, he went through a series
+of antics, which were reproduced by the goat; and the sight was so grotesque that all the gods fairly shouted with merriment,
+and even Skadi was forced to smile.
+
+</p>
+<p>Taking advantage of this softened mood, the gods pointed to the firmament where her father&#8217;s eyes glowed like radiant stars
+in the northern hemisphere. They told her they had placed them there to show him all honour, and finally added that she might
+select as husband any of the gods present at the assembly, providing she were content to judge of their attractions by their
+naked feet.
+
+</p>
+<p>Blindfolded, so that she could see only the feet of the gods standing in a circle around her, Skadi looked about her and her
+gaze fell upon a pair of beautifully formed feet. She felt sure they must belong to Balder, the god of light, whose bright
+face had charmed her, and she designated their owner as her choice.
+
+</p>
+<p>When the bandage was removed, however, she discovered <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb114" href="#pb114">114</a>]</span>to her chagrin that she had chosen Ni&ouml;rd, to whom her troth was plighted; but notwithstanding her disappointment, she spent
+a happy honeymoon in Asgard, where all seemed to delight in doing her honour. After this, Ni&ouml;rd took his bride home to N&ocirc;at&ucirc;n,
+where the monotonous sound of the waves, the shrieking of the gulls, and the cries of the seals so disturbed Skadi&#8217;s slumbers
+that she finally declared it was quite impossible for her to remain there any longer, and she implored her husband to take
+her back to her native Thrym-heim.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Sleep could I not
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On my sea-strand couch,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For screams of the sea fowl.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There wakes me,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When from the wave he comes,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Every morning the mew.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Ni&ouml;rd, anxious to please his new wife, consented to take her to Thrym-heim and to dwell there with her nine nights out of
+every twelve, providing she would spend the remaining three with him at N&ocirc;at&ucirc;n; but when he reached the mountain region, the
+soughing of the wind in the pines, the thunder of the avalanches, the cracking of the ice, the roar of the waterfalls, and
+the howling of the wolves appeared to him as unbearable as the sound of the sea had seemed to his wife, and he could not but
+rejoice each time when his period of exile was ended, and he found himself again at N&ocirc;at&ucirc;n.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Am weary of the mountains;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Not long was I there,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Only nine nights;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The howl of the wolves
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Methought sounded ill
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To the song of the swans.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb115" href="#pb115">115</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4116">
+<h3 class="normal">The Parting of Ni&ouml;rd and Skadi</h3>
+<p>For some time, Ni&ouml;rd and Skadi, who are the personifications of summer and winter, alternated thus, the wife spending the
+three short summer months by the sea, and he reluctantly remaining with her in Thrym-heim during the nine long winter months.
+But, concluding at last that their tastes would never agree, they decided to part for ever, and returned to their respective
+homes, where each could follow the occupations which custom had endeared to them.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thrym-heim it&#8217;s called,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where Thjasse dwelled,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That stream-mighty giant;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But Skade now dwells,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Pure bride of the gods,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In her father&#8217;s old mansion.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Skadi now resumed her wonted pastime of hunting, leaving her realm again only to marry the semi-historical Odin, to whom she
+bore a son called S&aelig;ming, the first king of Norway, and the supposed founder of the royal race which long ruled that country.
+
+</p>
+<p>According to other accounts, however, Skadi eventually married Uller, the winter-god. As Skadi was a skilful marksman, she
+is represented with bow and arrow, and, as goddess of the chase, she is generally accompanied by one of the wolf-like Eskimo
+dogs so common in the North. Skadi was invoked by hunters and by winter travellers, whose sleighs she would guide over the
+snow and ice, thus helping them to reach their destination in safety.
+
+</p>
+<p>Skadi&#8217;s anger against the gods, who had slain her father, the storm giant, is an emblem of the unbending rigidity of the ice-enveloped
+earth, which, softened at <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb116" href="#pb116">116</a>]</span>last by the frolicsome play of Loki (the heat lightning), smiles, and permits the embrace of Ni&ouml;rd (summer). His love, however,
+cannot hold her for more than three months of the year (typified in the myth by nights), as she is always secretly longing
+for the wintry storms and for her wonted activities among the mountains.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4146">
+<h3 class="normal">The Worship of Ni&ouml;rd</h3>
+<p>Ni&ouml;rd was supposed to bless the vessels passing in and out of port, and his temples were situated by the seashore; there oaths
+in his name were commonly sworn, and his health was drunk at every banquet, where he was invariably named with his son Frey.
+
+</p>
+<p>As all aquatic plants were supposed to belong to him, the marine sponge was known in the North as &#8220;Ni&ouml;rd&#8217;s glove,&#8221; a name
+which was retained until lately, when the same plant has been popularly re-named the &#8220;Virgin&#8217;s hand.&#8221;
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb117" href="#pb117">117</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch9" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter IX: Frey</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4157">
+<h3 class="normal">The God of Fairyland</h3>
+<p>Frey, or Fro, as he was called in Germany, was the son of Ni&ouml;rd and Nerthus, or of Ni&ouml;rd and Skadi, and was born in Vana-heim.
+He therefore belonged to the race of the Vanas, the divinities of water and air, but was warmly welcomed in Asgard when he
+came thither as hostage with his father. As it was customary among the Northern nations to bestow some valuable gift upon
+a child when he cut his first tooth, the &AElig;sir gave the infant Frey the beautiful realm of Alf-heim or Fairyland, the home
+of the Light Elves.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Alf-heim the gods to Frey
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gave in days of yore
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For a tooth gift.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Here Frey, the god of the golden sunshine and the warm summer showers, took up his abode, charmed with the society of the
+elves and fairies, who implicitly obeyed his every order, and at a sign from him flitted to and fro, doing all the good in
+their power, for they were pre-eminently beneficent spirits.
+
+</p>
+<p>Frey also received from the gods a marvellous sword (an emblem of the sunbeams), which had the power of fighting successfully,
+and of its own accord, as soon as it was drawn from its sheath. Frey wielded this principally against the frost giants, whom
+he hated almost as much as did Thor, and because he carried this glittering weapon, he has sometimes been confounded with
+the sword-god Tyr or Saxnot.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;With a short-shafted hammer fights conquering Thor;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Frey&#8217;s own sword but an ell long is made.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb118" href="#pb118">118</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The dwarfs from Svart-alfa-heim gave Frey the golden-bristled boar Gullin-bursti (the golden-bristled), a personification
+of the sun. The radiant bristles of this animal were considered symbolical either of the solar rays, of the golden grain,
+which at his bidding waved over the harvest fields of Midgard, or of agriculture; for the boar (by tearing up the ground with
+his sharp tusk) was supposed to have first taught mankind how to plough.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 10em; ">&#8220;There was Frey, and sat
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On the gold-bristled boar, who first, they say,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Plowed the brown earth, and made it green for Frey.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lovers of Gudrun (William Morris).</i>
+
+</p>
+<p>Frey sometimes rode astride of this marvellous boar, whose speed was very great, and at other times harnessed him to his golden
+chariot, which was said to contain the fruits and flowers which he lavishly scattered abroad over the face of the earth.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p118" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p118.jpg" alt="Frey" width="517" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Frey</p>
+<p>Jacques Reich</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Frey was, moreover, the proud possessor not only of the dauntless steed Blodug-hofi, which would dash through fire and water
+at his command, but also of the magic ship Skidbladnir, a personification of the clouds. This vessel, sailing over land and
+sea, was always wafted along by favourable winds, and was so elastic that, while it could assume large enough proportions
+to carry the gods, their steeds, and all their equipments, it could also be folded up like a napkin and thrust into a pocket.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Ivaldi&#8217;s sons
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Went in days of old
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Skidbladnir to form,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of ships the best,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For the bright Frey,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ni&ouml;rd&#8217;s benign son.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb119" href="#pb119">119</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4229">
+<h3 class="normal">The Wooing of Gerda</h3>
+<p>It is related in one of the lays of the Edda that Frey once ventured to ascend Odin&#8217;s throne Hlidskialf, from which exalted
+seat his gaze ranged over the wide earth. Looking towards the frozen North, he saw a beautiful young maiden enter the house
+of the frost giant Gymir, and as she raised her hand to lift the latch her radiant beauty illuminated sea and sky.
+
+</p>
+<p>A moment later, this lovely creature, whose name was Gerda, and who is considered as a personification of the flashing Northern
+lights, vanished within her father&#8217;s house, and Frey pensively wended his way back to Alfheim, his heart oppressed with longing
+to make this fair maiden his wife. Being deeply in love, he was melancholy and absent-minded in the extreme, and began to
+behave so strangely that his father, Ni&ouml;rd, became greatly alarmed about his health, and bade his favourite servant, Skirnir,
+discover the cause of this sudden change. After much persuasion, Skirnir finally won from Frey an account of his ascent of
+Hlidskialf, and of the fair vision he had seen. He confessed his love and also his utter despair, for as Gerda was the daughter
+of Gymir and Angur-boda, and a relative of the murdered giant Thiassi, he feared she would never view his suit with favour.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In Gymer&#8217;s court I saw her move,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The maid who fires my breast with love;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Her snow-white arms and bosom fair
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shone lovely, kindling sea and air.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Dear is she to my wishes, more
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Than e&#8217;er was maid to youth before;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But gods and elves, I wot it well,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Forbid that we together dwell.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Skirner&#8217;s Lay (Herbert&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+</p>
+<p>Skirnir, however, replied consolingly that he could <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb120" href="#pb120">120</a>]</span>see no reason why his master should take a despondent view of the case, and he offered to go and woo the maiden in his name,
+providing Frey would lend him his steed for the journey, and give him his glittering sword for reward.
+
+</p>
+<p>Overjoyed at the prospect of winning the beautiful Gerda, Frey willingly handed Skirnir the flashing sword, and gave him permission
+to use his horse. But he quickly relapsed into the state of reverie which had become usual with him since falling in love,
+and thus he did not notice that Skirnir was still hovering near him, nor did he perceive him cunningly steal the reflection
+of his face from the surface of the brook near which he was seated, and imprison it in his drinking horn, with intent &#8220;to
+pour it out in Gerda&#8217;s cup, and by its beauty win the heart of the giantess for the lord&#8221; for whom he was about to go a-wooing.
+Provided with this portrait, with eleven golden apples, and with the magic ring Draupnir, Skirnir now rode off to J&ouml;tun-heim,
+to fulfil his embassy. As he came near Gymir&#8217;s dwelling he heard the loud and persistent howling of his watch-dogs, which
+were personifications of the wintry winds. A shepherd, guarding his flock in the vicinity, told him, in answer to his inquiry,
+that it would be impossible to approach the house, on account of the flaming barrier which surrounded it; but Skirnir, knowing
+that Blodug-hofi would dash through any fire, merely set spurs to his steed, and, riding up unscathed to the giant&#8217;s door,
+was soon ushered into the presence of the lovely Gerda.
+
+</p>
+<p>To induce the fair maiden to lend a favourable ear to his master&#8217;s proposals, Skirnir showed her the stolen portrait, and
+proffered the golden apples and magic ring, which, however, she haughtily refused to accept, declaring that her father had
+gold enough and to spare.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb121" href="#pb121">121</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;I take not, I, that wondrous ring,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Though it from Balder&#8217;s pile you bring
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gold lack not I, in Gymer&#8217;s bower;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Enough for me my father&#8217;s dower.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Skirner&#8217;s Lay (Herbert&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Indignant at her scorn, Skirnir now threatened to decapitate her with his magic sword, but as this did not in the least frighten
+the maiden, and she calmly defied him, he had recourse to magic arts. Cutting runes in his stick, he told her that unless
+she yielded ere the spell was ended, she would be condemned either to eternal celibacy, or to marry some aged frost giant
+whom she could never love.
+
+</p>
+<p>Terrified into submission by the frightful description of her cheerless future in case she persisted in her refusal, Gerda
+finally consented to become Frey&#8217;s wife, and dismissed Skirnir, promising to meet her future spouse on the ninth night, in
+the land of Buri, the green grove, where she would dispel his sadness and make him happy.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Burri is hight the seat of love;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nine nights elapsed, in that known grove
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shall brave Niorder&#8217;s gallant boy
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From Gerda take the kiss of joy.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Skirner&#8217;s Lay (Herbert&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Delighted with his success, Skirnir hurried back to Alf-heim, where Frey came eagerly to learn the result of his journey.
+When he learned that Gerda had consented to become his wife, his face grew radiant with joy; but when Skirnir informed him
+that he would have to wait nine nights ere he could behold his promised bride, he turned sadly away, declaring the time would
+appear interminable.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb122" href="#pb122">122</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Long is one night, and longer twain;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But how for three endure my pain?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A month of rapture sooner flies
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Than half one night of wishful sighs.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Skirner&#8217;s Lay (Herbert&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In spite of this loverlike despondency, however, the time of waiting came to an end, and Frey joyfully hastened to the green
+grove, where, true to her appointment, he found Gerda, and she became his happy wife, and proudly sat upon his throne beside
+him.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Frey to wife had Gerd;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">She was Gymir&#8217;s daughter,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From J&ouml;tuns sprung.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>According to some mythologists, Gerda is not a personification of the aurora borealis, but of the earth, which, hard, cold,
+and unyielding, resists the spring-god&#8217;s proffers of adornment and fruitfulness (the apples and ring), defies the flashing
+sunbeams (Frey&#8217;s sword), and only consents to receive his kiss when it learns that it will else be doomed to perpetual barrenness,
+or given over entirely into the power of the giants (ice and snow). The nine nights of waiting are typical of the nine winter
+months, at the end of which the earth becomes the bride of the sun, in the groves where the trees are budding forth into leaf
+and blossom.
+
+</p>
+<p>Frey and Gerda, we are told, became the parents of a son called Fiolnir, whose birth consoled Gerda for the loss of her brother
+Beli. The latter had attacked Frey and had been slain by him, although the sun-god, deprived of his matchless sword, had been
+obliged to defend himself with a stag horn which he hastily snatched from the wall of his dwelling.
+
+</p>
+<p>Besides the faithful Skirnir, Frey had two other <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb123" href="#pb123">123</a>]</span>attendants, a married couple, Beyggvir and Beyla, the personifications of mill refuse and manure, which two ingredients, being
+used in agriculture for fertilising purposes, were therefore considered Frey&#8217;s faithful servants, in spite of their unpleasant
+qualities.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4335">
+<h3 class="normal">The historical Frey</h3>
+<p>Snorro-Sturleson, in his &#8220;Heimskringla,&#8221; or chronicle of the ancient kings of Norway, <span class="corr" id="xd0e4340" title="Source: state">states</span> that Frey was an historical personage who bore the name of Ingvi-Frey, and ruled in Upsala after the death of the semi-historical
+Odin and Ni&ouml;rd. Under his rule the people enjoyed such prosperity and peace that they declared their king must be a god. They
+therefore began to invoke him as such, carrying their enthusiastic admiration to such lengths that when he died the priests,
+not daring to reveal the fact, laid him in a great mound instead of burning his body, as had been customary until then. They
+then informed the people that Frey&#8212;whose name was the Northern synonym for &#8220;master&#8221;&#8212;had &#8220;gone into the mound,&#8221; an expression
+which eventually became the Northman&#8217;s phrase for death.
+
+</p>
+<p>Not until three years later did the people, who had continued paying their taxes to the king by pouring gold, silver, and
+copper coin into the mound through three different openings, discover that Frey was dead. As their peace and prosperity had
+remained undisturbed, they decreed that his corpse should never be burned, and they thus inaugurated the custom of mound-burial,
+which in due time supplanted the funeral pyre in many places. One of the three mounds near Gamla Upsala still bears this god&#8217;s
+name. His statues were placed in the great temple there, and his name was duly mentioned in all solemn oaths, of which the
+usual formula was, &#8220;So help me Frey, Ni&ouml;rd, and the Almighty Asa&#8221; (Odin).
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb124" href="#pb124">124</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4346">
+<h3 class="normal">Worship of Frey</h3>
+<p>No weapons were ever admitted in Frey&#8217;s temples, the most celebrated of which were at Throndhjeim in Norway, and at Thvera
+in Iceland. In these temples oxen or horses were offered in sacrifice to him, a heavy gold ring being dipped in the victim&#8217;s
+blood ere the above-mentioned oath was solemnly taken upon it.
+
+</p>
+<p>Frey&#8217;s statues, like those of all the other Northern divinities, were roughly hewn blocks of wood, and the last of these sacred
+images seems to have been destroyed by Olaf the Saint, who, as we have seen, forcibly converted many of his subjects. Besides
+being god of sunshine, fruitfulness, peace, and prosperity, Frey was considered the patron of horses and horsemen, and the
+deliverer of all captives.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Frey is the best
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of all the chiefs
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Among the gods.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He causes not tears
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To maids or mothers:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His desire is to loosen the fetters
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of those enchained.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4372">
+<h3 class="normal">The Yule Feast</h3>
+<p>One month of every year, the Yule month, or Thor&#8217;s month, was considered sacred to Frey as well as to Thor, and began on the
+longest night of the year, which bore the name of Mother Night. This month was a time of feasting and rejoicing, for it heralded
+the return of the sun. The festival was called Yule (wheel) because the sun was supposed to resemble a wheel rapidly revolving
+across the sky. This resemblance gave rise to a singular custom in England, Germany, and along the banks of the Moselle. Until
+within late years, the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb125" href="#pb125">125</a>]</span>people were wont to assemble yearly upon a mountain, to set fire to a huge wooden wheel, twined with straw, which, all ablaze,
+was then sent rolling down the hill, to plunge with a hiss into the water.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Some others get a rotten Wheele, all worn and cast aside,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Which, covered round about with strawe and tow, they closely hide;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And caryed to some mountaines top, being all with fire light,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They hurle it down with violence, when darke appears the night;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Resembling much the sunne, that from the Heavens down should fal,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A strange and monstrous sight it seemes, and fearful to them all;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But they suppose their mischiefs are all likewise throwne to hell,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And that, from harmes and dangers now, in safetie here they dwell.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Naogeorgus.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>All the Northern races considered the Yule feast the greatest of the year, and were wont to celebrate it with dancing, feasting,
+and drinking, each god being pledged by name. The first Christian missionaries, perceiving the extreme popularity of this
+feast, thought it best to encourage drinking to the health of the Lord and his twelve apostles when they first began to convert
+the Northern heathens. In honour of Frey, boar&#8217;s flesh was eaten on this occasion. Crowned with laurel and rosemary, the animal&#8217;s
+head was brought into the banqueting-hall with much ceremony&#8212;a custom long after observed, as the following lines will show:
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" lang="la" style="text-indent: 4em; ">&#8220;Caput Apri defero
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" lang="la" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Reddens laudes Domino.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The boar&#8217;s head in hand bring I,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With garlands gay and rosemary;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I pray you all sing merrily,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" lang="la" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Qui estis in convivio.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Queen&#8217;s College Carol, Oxford.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The father of the family laid his hand on the sacred dish, which was called &#8220;the boar of atonement,&#8221; swearing he would be
+faithful to his family, and would <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb126" href="#pb126">126</a>]</span>fulfil all his obligations&#8212;an example which was followed by all present, from the highest to the lowest. This dish could be
+carved only by a man of unblemished reputation and tried courage, for the boar&#8217;s head was a sacred emblem which was supposed
+to inspire every one with fear. For that reason a boar&#8217;s head was frequently used as ornament for the helmets of Northern
+kings and heroes whose bravery was unquestioned.
+
+</p>
+<p>As Frey&#8217;s name of Fro is phonetically the same as the word used in German for gladness, he was considered the patron of every
+joy, and was invariably invoked by married couples who wished to live in harmony. Those who succeeded in doing so for a certain
+length of time were publicly rewarded by the gift of a piece of boar&#8217;s flesh, for which in later times, the English and Viennese
+substituted a flitch of bacon or a ham.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;You shall swear, by custom of confession,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">If ever you made nuptial transgression,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Be you either married man or wife:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">If you have brawls or contentious strife;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Or otherwise, at bed or at board,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Offended each other in deed or word;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Or, since the parish clerk said Amen,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">You wish&#8217;d yourselves unmarried again;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Or, in a twelvemonth and a day
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Repented not in thought any way,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But continued true in thought and desire,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As when you join&#8217;d hands in the quire.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">If to these conditions, with all feare,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of your own accord you will freely sweare,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A whole gammon of bacon you shall receive,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And bear it hence with love and good leave:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For this our custom at Dunmow well known&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Though the pleasure be ours, the bacon&#8217;s your own.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Brand&#8217;s Popular Antiquities.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>At the village of Dunmow in Essex, the ancient custom is still observed. In Vienna the ham or flitch <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb127" href="#pb127">127</a>]</span>of bacon was hung over the city gate, whence the successful candidate was expected to bring it down, after he had satisfied
+the judges that he lived in peace with his wife, but was not under petticoat rule. It is said that in Vienna this ham remained
+for a long time unclaimed until at last a worthy burgher presented himself before the judges, bearing his wife&#8217;s written affidavit
+that they had been married twelve years and had never disagreed&#8212;a statement which was confirmed by all their neighbours. The
+judges, satisfied with the proofs laid before them, told the candidate that the prize was his, and that he only need climb
+the ladder placed beneath it and bring it down. Rejoicing at having secured such a fine ham, the man speedily mounted the
+ladder; but as he was about to reach for the prize he noticed that the ham, exposed to the noonday sun, was beginning to melt,
+and that a drop of fat threatened to fall upon his Sunday coat. Hastily beating a retreat, he pulled off his coat, jocosely
+remarking that his wife would scold him roundly were he to stain it, a confession which made the bystanders roar with laughter,
+and which cost him his ham.
+
+</p>
+<p>Another Yuletide custom was the burning of a huge log, which had to last through the night, otherwise it was considered a
+very bad omen indeed. The charred remains of this log were carefully collected, and treasured up for the purpose of setting
+fire to the log of the following year.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">&#8220;With the last yeeres brand
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Light the new block, and
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For good successe in his spending,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">On your psaltries play,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">That sweet luck may
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Come while the log is a-tending.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Hesperides (Herrick).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb128" href="#pb128">128</a>]</span></p>
+<p>This festival was so popular in Scandinavia, where it was celebrated in January, that King Olaf, seeing how dear it was to
+the Northern heart, transferred most of its observances to Christmas day, thereby doing much to reconcile the ignorant people
+to their change of religion.
+
+</p>
+<p>As god of peace and prosperity, Frey is supposed to have reappeared upon earth many times, and to have ruled the Swedes under
+the name of Ingvi-Frey, whence his descendants were called Inglings. He also governed the Danes under the name of Fridleef.
+In Denmark he is said to have married the beautiful maiden Freygerda, whom he had rescued from a dragon. By her he had a son
+named Frodi, who, in due time, succeeded him as king.
+
+</p>
+<p>Frodi ruled Denmark in the days when there was &#8220;peace throughout the world,&#8221; that is <span class="corr" id="xd0e4496" title="Source: say">to say</span>, just at the time when Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea; and because all his subjects lived in amity, he was generally
+known as Peace Frodi.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4499">
+<h3 class="normal">How the Sea became salt</h3>
+<p>It is related that Frodi once received from Hengi-kiaptr a pair of magic millstones, called Grotti, which were so ponderous
+that none of his servants nor even his strongest warriors could turn them. The king was aware that the mill was enchanted
+and would grind anything he wished, so he was very anxious indeed to set it to work, and, during a visit to Sweden, he saw
+and purchased as slaves the two giantesses Menia and Fenia, whose powerful muscles and frames had attracted his attention.
+
+</p>
+<p>On his return home, Peace Frodi led his new servants to the mill, and bade them turn the grindstones and grind out gold, peace,
+and prosperity, and they immediately <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb129" href="#pb129">129</a>]</span>fulfilled his wishes. Cheerfully the women worked on, hour after hour, until the king&#8217;s coffers were overflowing with gold,
+and prosperity and peace were rife throughout his land.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Let us grind riches to Frothi!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Let us grind him, happy
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In plenty of substance,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On our gladdening Quern.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Grotta-Savngr (Longfellow&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>But when Menia and Fenia would fain have rested awhile, the king, whose greed had been excited, bade them work on. In spite
+of their entreaties he forced them to labour hour after hour, allowing them only as much time to rest as was required for
+the singing of a verse in a song, until exasperated by his cruelty, the giantesses resolved at length to have revenge. One
+night while Frodi slept they changed their song, and, instead of prosperity and peace, they grimly began to grind an armed
+host, whereby they induced the Viking Mysinger to land with a large body of troops. While the spell was working the Danes
+continued in slumber, and thus they were completely surprised by the Viking host, who slew them all.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;An army must come
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hither forthwith,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And burn the town
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For the prince.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Grotta Savngr (Longfellow&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Mysinger took the magic millstones Grotti and the two slaves and put them on board his vessel, bidding the women grind salt,
+which was a very valuable staple of commerce at that time. The women obeyed, and their millstones went round, grinding salt
+in abundance; but the Viking, as cruel as Frodi, would give the poor <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb130" href="#pb130">130</a>]</span>women no rest, wherefore a heavy punishment overtook him and his followers. Such an immense quantity of salt was ground by
+the magic millstones that in the end its weight sunk the ship and all on board.
+
+</p>
+<p>The ponderous stones sank into the sea in the Pentland Firth, or off the north-western coast of Norway, making a deep round
+hole, and the waters, rushing into the vortex and gurgling in the holes in the centre of the stones, produced the great whirlpool
+which is known as the Maelstrom. As for the salt it soon melted; but such was the immense quantity ground by the giantesses
+that it permeated all the waters of the sea, which have ever since been very salt.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb131" href="#pb131">131</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch10" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter X: Freya</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4546">
+<h3 class="normal">The Goddess of Love</h3>
+<p>Freya, the fair Northern goddess of beauty and love, was the sister of Frey and the daughter of Ni&ouml;rd and Nerthus, or Skadi.
+She was the most beautiful and best beloved of all the goddesses, and while in Germany she was identified with Frigga, in
+Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland she was considered a separate divinity. Freya, having been born in Vana-heim, was also
+known as Vanadis, the goddess of the Vanas, or as Vanabride.
+
+</p>
+<p>When she reached Asgard, the gods were so charmed by her beauty and grace that they bestowed upon her the realm of Folkvang
+and the great hall Sessrymnir (the roomy-seated), where they assured her she could easily accommodate all her guests.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Folkvang &#8217;tis called,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where Freyja has right
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To dispose of the hall-seats.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Every day of the slain
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">She chooses the half,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And leaves half to Odin.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4570">
+<h3 class="normal">Queen of the Valkyrs</h3>
+<p>Although goddess of love, Freya was not soft and pleasure-loving only, for the ancient Northern races believed that she had
+very martial tastes, and that as Valfreya she often led the Valkyrs down to the battlefields, choosing and claiming one half
+the heroes slain. She was therefore often represented with corselet and helmet, shield and spear, the lower part of her body
+only being clad in the usual flowing feminine garb.
+
+</p>
+<p>Freya transported the chosen slain to Folkvang, where they were duly entertained. There also she <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb132" href="#pb132">132</a>]</span>welcomed all pure maidens and faithful wives, that they might enjoy the company of their lovers and husbands after death.
+The joys of her abode were so enticing to the heroic Northern women that they often rushed into battle when their loved ones
+were slain, hoping to meet with the same fate; or they fell upon their swords, or were voluntarily burned on the same funeral
+pyre as the remains of their beloved.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p132" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p132.jpg" alt="Freya" width="720" height="490"><p class="figureHead">Freya</p>
+<p>N. J. O. Blomm&eacute;r</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As Freya was believed to lend a favourable ear to lovers&#8217; prayers, she was often invoked by them, and it was customary to
+compose in her honour love-songs, which were sung on all festive occasions, her very name in Germany being used as the verb
+&#8220;to woo.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4588">
+<h3 class="normal">Freya and Odur</h3>
+<p>Freya, the golden-haired and blue-eyed goddess, was also, at times, considered as a personification of the earth. As such
+she married Odur, a symbol of the summer sun, whom she dearly loved, and by whom she had two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi.
+These maidens were so beautiful that all things lovely and precious were called by their names.
+
+</p>
+<p>While Odur lingered contentedly at her side, Freya was smiling and perfectly happy; but, alas! the god was a rover at heart,
+and, wearying of his wife&#8217;s company, he suddenly left home and wandered far out into the wide world. Freya, sad and forsaken,
+wept abundantly, and her tears fell upon the hard rocks, which softened at their contact. We are told even that they trickled
+down to the very centre of the stones, where they were transformed to gold. Some tears fell into the sea and were changed
+into translucent amber.
+
+</p>
+<p>Weary of her widowed condition, and longing to clasp her beloved in her arms once more, Freya finally started out in search
+of him, passing through many <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb133" href="#pb133">133</a>]</span>lands, where she became known by different names, such as Mardel, Horn, Gefn, Syr, Skialf, and Thrung, inquiring of all she
+met whether her husband had passed that way, and shedding everywhere so many tears that gold is to be found in all parts of
+the earth.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And Freya next came nigh, with golden tears;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The loveliest Goddess she in Heaven, by all
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Most honour&#8217;d after Frea, Odin&#8217;s wife.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Her long ago the wandering Oder took
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To mate, but left her to roam distant lands;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Since then she seeks him, and weeps tears of gold.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Names hath she many; Vanadis on earth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They call her, Freya is her name in Heaven.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Far away in the sunny South, under the flowering myrtle-trees, Freya found Odur at last, and her love being restored to her,
+she was happy and smiling once again, and as radiant as a bride. It is perhaps because Freya found her husband beneath the
+flowering myrtle, that Northern brides, to this day, wear myrtle in preference to the conventional orange wreath of other
+climes.
+
+</p>
+<p>Hand in hand, Odur and Freya now gently wended their way home once more, and in the light of their happiness the grass grew
+green, the flowers bloomed, and the birds sang, for all Nature sympathised as heartily with Freya&#8217;s joy as it had mourned
+with her when she was in sorrow.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Out of the morning land,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Over the snowdrifts,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Beautiful Freya came
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Tripping to Scoring.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">White were the moorlands,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And frozen before her;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Green were the moorlands,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And blooming behind her.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Out of her gold locks
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb134" href="#pb134">134</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Shaking the spring flowers,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Out of her garments
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shaking the south wind,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Around in the birches
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Awaking the throstles,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And making chaste housewives all
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Long for their heroes home,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Loving and love-giving,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Came she to Scoring.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Longbeards&#8217; Saga (Charles Kingsley).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The prettiest plants and flowers in the North were called Freya&#8217;s hair or Freya&#8217;s eye dew, while the butterfly was called
+Freya&#8217;s hen. This goddess was also supposed to have a special affection for the fairies, whom she loved to watch dancing in
+the moonbeams, and for whom she reserved her daintiest flowers and sweetest honey. Odur, Freya&#8217;s husband, besides being considered
+a personification of the sun, was also regarded as an emblem of passion, or of the intoxicating pleasures of love; so the
+ancients declared that it was no wonder his wife could not be happy without him.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4668">
+<h3 class="normal">Freya&#8217;s Necklace</h3>
+<p>Being goddess of beauty, Freya, naturally, was very fond of the toilet, of glittering adornments, and of precious jewels.
+One day, while she was in Svart-alfa-heim, the underground kingdom, she saw four dwarfs fashioning the most wonderful necklace
+she had ever seen. Almost beside herself with longing to possess this treasure, which was called Brisinga-men, and was an
+emblem of the stars, or of the fruitfulness of the earth, Freya implored the dwarfs to give it to her; but they obstinately
+refused to do so unless she would promise to grant them her favour. Having secured the necklace at this price, Freya hastened
+to put it on, and its beauty so enhanced her charms that she wore it night <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb135" href="#pb135">135</a>]</span>and day, and only occasionally could be persuaded to lend it to the other divinities. Thor, however, wore this necklace when
+he personated Freya in J&ouml;tun-heim, and Loki coveted and would have stolen it, had it not been for the watchfulness of Heimdall.
+
+</p>
+<p>Freya was also the proud possessor of a falcon garb, or falcon plumes, which enabled the wearer to flit through the air as
+a bird; and this garment was so invaluable that it was twice borrowed by Loki, and was used by Freya herself when she went
+in search of the missing Odur.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Freya one day
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Falcon wings took, and through space hied away;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Northward and southward she sought her
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Dearly-loved Odur.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Frithiof Saga, Tegn&eacute;r (Stephens&#8217;s tr.)<span class="corr" id="xd0e4689" title="Not in source">.</span></i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As Freya was also considered the goddess of fruitfulness, she was sometimes represented as riding about with her brother Frey
+in the chariot drawn by the golden-bristled boar, scattering, with lavish hands, fruits and flowers to gladden the hearts
+of mankind. She had a chariot of her own, however, in which she generally travelled. This was drawn by cats, her favourite
+animals, the emblems of caressing fondness and sensuality, or the personifications of fecundity.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then came dark-bearded Ni&ouml;rd, and after him
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Freyia, thin robed, about her ankles slim
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The gray cats playing.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lovers of Gudrun (William Morris).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Frey and Freya were held in such high honour throughout the North that their names, in modified forms, are still used for
+&#8220;master&#8221; and &#8220;mistress,&#8221; and one day of the week is called Freya&#8217;s day, or Friday, by the English-speaking race. Freya&#8217;s temples
+were very numerous indeed, and were long maintained by her <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb136" href="#pb136">136</a>]</span>votaries, the last, in Magdeburg, Germany, being destroyed by order of Charlemagne.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4709">
+<h3 class="normal">Story of Ottar and Angantyr</h3>
+<p>The Northern people were wont to invoke Freya not only for success in love, prosperity, and increase, but also, at times,
+for aid and protection. This she vouchsafed to all who served her truly, as appeared in the story of Ottar and Angantyr, two
+men who, after disputing for some time concerning their rights to a certain piece of property, laid their quarrel before the
+Thing. That popular assembly decreed that the man who could prove that he had the longest line of noble ancestors should be
+declared the winner, and a special day was appointed to investigate the genealogy of each claimant.
+
+</p>
+<p>Ottar, unable to remember the names of more than a few of his progenitors, offered sacrifices to Freya, entreating her aid.
+The goddess graciously heard his prayer, and appearing before him, she changed him into a boar, and rode off upon his back
+to the dwelling of the sorceress Hyndla, a most renowned witch. By threats and entreaties, Freya compelled the old woman to
+trace Ottar&#8217;s genealogy back to Odin, and to name every individual in turn, with a synopsis of his achievements. Then, fearing
+lest her votary&#8217;s memory should be unable to retain so many details, Freya further compelled Hyndla to brew a potion of remembrance,
+which she gave him to drink.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;He shall drink
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Delicious draughts.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">All the gods I pray
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To favour Ottar.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb137" href="#pb137">137</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Thus prepared, Ottar presented himself before the Thing on the appointed day, and glibly reciting his pedigree, he named so
+many more ancestors than Angantyr could recollect, that he was easily awarded possession of the property he coveted.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;A duty &#8217;tis to act
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So that the young prince
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His paternal heritage may have
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">After his kindred.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4745">
+<h3 class="normal">The Husbands of Freya</h3>
+<p>Freya was so beautiful that all the gods, giants, and dwarfs longed for her love and in turn tried to secure her as wife.
+But Freya scorned the ugly giants and refused even Thrym, when urged to accept him by Loki and Thor. She was not so obdurate
+where the gods themselves were concerned, if the various mythologists are to be believed, for as the personification of the
+earth she is said to have wedded Odin (the sky), Frey (the fruitful rain), Odur (the sunshine), &amp;c., until it seems as if
+she deserved the accusation hurled against her by the arch-fiend Loki, of having loved and wedded all the gods in turn.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4750">
+<h3 class="normal">Worship of Freya</h3>
+<p>It was customary on solemn occasions to drink Freya&#8217;s health with that of the other gods, and when Christianity was introduced
+in the North this toast was transferred to the Virgin or to St. Gertrude; Freya herself, like all the heathen divinities,
+was declared a demon or witch, and banished to the mountain peaks of Norway, Sweden, or Germany, where the Brocken is pointed
+out as her special abode, and the general trysting-place of her demon train on Valpurgisnacht.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb138" href="#pb138">138</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<h4 class="&#xA; lghead&#xA; "><span class="smallcaps">Chorus of Witches.</span></h4>
+<p class="line">&#8220;On to the Brocken the witches are flocking&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Merry meet&#8212;merry part&#8212;how they gallop and drive,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yellow stubble and stalk are rocking,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And young green corn is merry alive,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With the shapes and shadows swimming by.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To the highest heights they fly,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where Sir Urian sits on high&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Throughout and about,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With clamour and shout,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Drives the maddening rout,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Over stock, over stone;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shriek, laughter, and moan,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Before them are blown.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Goethe&#8217;s Faust (Anster&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As the swallow, cuckoo, and cat were held sacred to Freya in heathen times, these creatures were supposed to have demoniacal
+attributes, and to this day witches are always depicted with coal-black cats beside them.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb139" href="#pb139">139</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch11" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XI: Uller</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4797">
+<h3 class="normal">The God of Winter</h3>
+<p>Uller, the winter-god, was the son of Sif, and the stepson of Thor. His father, who is never mentioned in the Northern sagas,
+must have been one of the dreaded frost giants, for Uller loved the cold and delighted in travelling over the country on his
+broad snowshoes or glittering skates. This god also delighted in the chase, and pursued his game through the Northern forests,
+caring but little for ice and snow, against which he was well protected by the thick furs in which he was always clad.
+
+</p>
+<p>As god of hunting and archery, he is represented with a quiver full of arrows and a huge bow, and as the yew furnishes the
+best wood for the manufacture of these weapons, it is said to have been his favourite tree. To have a supply of suitable wood
+ever at hand ready for use, Uller took up his abode at Ydalir, the vale of yews, where it was always very damp.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Ydalir it is called,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where Ullr has
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Himself a dwelling made.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As winter-god, Uller, or Oller, as he was also called, was considered second only to Odin, whose place he usurped during his
+absence in the winter months of the year. During this period he exercised full sway over Asgard and Midgard, and even, according
+to some authorities, took possession of Frigga, Odin&#8217;s wife, as related in the myth of Vili and Ve. But as Uller was very
+parsimonious, and never bestowed any gifts upon mankind, they gladly hailed the return of Odin, who drove his supplanter away,
+forcing him to take refuge <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb140" href="#pb140">140</a>]</span>either in the frozen North or on the tops of the Alps. Here, if we are to believe the poets, he had built a summer house into
+which he retreated until, knowing Odin had departed once more, he again dared appear in the valleys.
+
+</p>
+<p>Uller was also considered god of death, and was supposed to ride in the Wild Hunt, and at times even to lead it. He is specially
+noted for his rapidity of motion, and as the snowshoes used in Northern regions are sometimes made of bone, and turned up
+in front like the prow of a ship, it was commonly reported that Uller had spoken magic runes over a piece of bone, changing
+it into a vessel, which bore him over land or sea at will.
+
+</p>
+<p>As snowshoes are shaped like a shield, and as the ice with which he yearly enveloped the earth acts as a shield to protect
+it from harm during the winter, Uller was surnamed the shield-god, and he was specially invoked by all persons about to engage
+in a duel or in a desperate fight.
+
+</p>
+<p>In Christian times, his place in popular worship was taken by St. Hubert, the hunter, who, also, was made patron of the first
+month of the year, which began on November 22, and was dedicated to him as the sun passed through the constellation of Sagittarius,
+the bowman.
+
+</p>
+<p>In Anglo-Saxon, Uller was known as Vulder; but in some parts of Germany he was called Holler and considered to be the husband
+of the fair goddess Holda, whose fields he covered with a thick mantle of snow, to make them more fruitful when the spring
+came.
+
+</p>
+<p>By the Scandinavians, Uller was said to have married Skadi, Ni&ouml;rd&#8217;s divorced wife, the female personification of winter and
+cold, and their tastes were so congenial that they lived in perfect harmony together.
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb141" href="#pb141">141</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4830">
+<h3 class="normal">Worship of Uller</h3>
+<p>Numerous temples were dedicated to Uller in the North, and on his altars, as well as on those of all the other gods, lay a
+sacred ring upon which oaths were sworn. This ring was said to have the power of shrinking so violently as to sever the finger
+of any premeditated perjurer. The people visited Uller&#8217;s shrine, especially during the months of November and December, to
+entreat him to send a thick covering of snow over their lands, as earnest of a good harvest; and as he was supposed to send
+out the glorious flashes of the aurora borealis, which illumine the Northern sky during its long night, he was considered
+nearly akin to Balder, the personification of light.
+
+</p>
+<p>According to other authorities, Uller was Balder&#8217;s special friend, principally because he too spent part of the year in the
+dismal depths of Nifl-heim, with Hel, the goddess of death. Uller was supposed to endure a yearly banishment thither, during
+the summer months, when he was forced to resign his sway over the earth to Odin, the summer god, and there Balder came to
+join him at Midsummer, the date of his disappearance from Asgard, for then the days began to grow shorter, and the rule of
+light (Balder) gradually yielded to the ever encroaching power of darkness (Hodur).
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb142" href="#pb142">142</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch12" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XII: Forseti</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4841">
+<h3 class="normal">The God of Justice and Truth</h3>
+<p>Son of Balder, god of light, and of Nanna, goddess of immaculate purity, Forseti was the wisest, most eloquent, and most gentle
+of all the gods. When his presence in Asgard became known, the gods awarded him a seat in the council hall, decreed that he
+should be patron of justice and righteousness, and gave him as abode the radiant palace Glitnir. This dwelling had a silver
+roof, supported on pillars of gold, and it shone so brightly that it could be seen from a great distance.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Glitner is the tenth;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">It is on gold sustained,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And also with silver decked.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There Forseti dwells
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Throughout all time,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And every strife allays.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Here, upon an exalted throne, Forseti, the lawgiver, sat day after day, settling the differences of gods and men, patiently
+listening to both sides of every question, and finally pronouncing sentences so equitable that none ever found fault with
+his decrees. Such were this god&#8217;s eloquence and power of persuasion that he always succeeded in touching his hearers&#8217; hearts,
+and never failed to reconcile even the most bitter foes. All who left his presence were thereafter sure to live in peace,
+for none dared break a vow once made to him, lest they should incur his just anger and be smitten immediately unto death.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Forsete, Balder&#8217;s high-born son,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Hath heard mine oath;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Strike dead, Forset&#8217;, if e&#8217;er I&#8217;m won
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">To break my troth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb143" href="#pb143">143</a>]</span></p>
+<p>As god of justice and eternal law, Forseti was supposed to preside over every judicial assembly; he was invariably appealed
+to by all who were about to undergo a trial, and it was said that he rarely failed to help the deserving.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4881">
+<h3 class="normal">The Story of Heligoland</h3>
+<p>In order to facilitate the administration of justice throughout their land it is related that the Frisians commissioned twelve
+of their wisest men, the Asegeir, or elders, to collect the laws of the various families and tribes composing their nation,
+and to compile from them a code which should be the basis of uniform laws. The elders, having painstakingly finished their
+task of collecting this miscellaneous information, embarked upon a small vessel, to seek some secluded spot where they might
+conduct their deliberations in peace. But no sooner had they pushed away from shore than a tempest arose, which drove their
+vessel far out to sea, first on this course and then on that, until they entirely lost their bearings. In their distress the
+twelve jurists called upon Forseti, begging him to help them to reach land once again, and the prayer was scarcely ended when
+they perceived, to their utter surprise, that the vessel contained a thirteenth passenger.
+
+</p>
+<p>Seizing the rudder, the newcomer silently brought the vessel round, steering it towards the place where the waves dashed highest,
+and in an incredibly short space of time they came to an island, where the steersman motioned them to disembark. In awestruck
+silence the twelve men obeyed; and their surprise was further excited when they saw the stranger fling his battle-axe, and
+a limpid spring gush forth from the spot on the greensward where it fell. Imitating the stranger, all drank of this water
+without a word; then they sat <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb144" href="#pb144">144</a>]</span>down in a circle, marvelling because the newcomer resembled each one of them in some particular, but yet was very different
+from any one of them in general aspect and mien.
+
+</p>
+<p>Suddenly the silence was broken, and the stranger began to speak in low tones, which grew firmer and louder as he proceeded
+to expound a code of laws which combined all the good points of the various existing regulations which the Asegeir had collected.
+His speech being finished, the speaker vanished as suddenly and mysteriously as he had appeared, and the twelve jurists, recovering
+power of speech, simultaneously exclaimed that Forseti himself had been among them, and had delivered the code of laws by
+which the Frisians should henceforth be judged. In commemoration of the god&#8217;s appearance they declared the island upon which
+they stood to be holy, and they pronounced a solemn curse upon any who might dare to desecrate its sanctity by quarrel or
+bloodshed. Accordingly this island, known as Forseti&#8217;s land or Heligoland (holy land), was greatly respected by all the Northern
+nations, and even the boldest vikings refrained from raiding its shores, lest they should suffer shipwreck or meet a shameful
+death in punishment for their crime.
+
+</p>
+<p>Solemn judicial assemblies were frequently held upon this sacred isle, the jurists always drawing water and drinking it in
+silence, in memory of Forseti&#8217;s visit. The waters of his spring were, moreover, considered to be so holy that all who drank
+of them were held to be sacred, and even the cattle who had tasted of them might not be slain. As Forseti was said to hold
+his assizes in spring, summer, and autumn, but never in winter, it became customary, in all the Northern countries, to dispense
+justice in those seasons, the people declaring that it was only when the light shone clearly <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb145" href="#pb145">145</a>]</span>in the heavens that right could become apparent to all, and that it would be utterly impossible to render an equitable verdict
+during the dark winter season. Forseti is seldom mentioned except in connection with Balder. He apparently had no share in
+the closing battle in which all the other gods played such prominent parts.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb146" href="#pb146">146</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch13" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XIII: Heimdall</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4900">
+<h3 class="normal">The Watchman of the Gods</h3>
+<p>In the course of a walk along the sea-shore Odin once beheld nine beautiful giantesses, the wave maidens, Gialp, Greip, Egia,
+Augeia, Ulfrun, Aurgiafa, Sindur, Atla, and Iarnsaxa, sound asleep on the white sand. The god of the sky was so charmed with
+these beautiful creatures that, as the Eddas relate, he wedded all nine of them, and they combined, at the same moment, to
+bring forth a son, who received the name of Heimdall.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Born was I of mothers nine,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Son I am of sisters nine.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p146" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p146.jpg" alt="The Rainbow Bridge" width="720" height="519"><p class="figureHead">The Rainbow Bridge</p>
+<p>H. Hendrich
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of the &#8220;Illustrirte Zeitung&#8221; (J. J. Weber, Leipzig<span class="corr" id="xd0e4922" title="Not in source">)</span></p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The nine mothers proceeded to nourish their babe on the strength of the earth, the moisture of the sea, and the heat of the
+sun, which singular diet proved so strengthening that the new god acquired his full growth in a remarkably short space of
+time, and hastened to join his father in Asgard. He found the gods proudly contemplating the rainbow bridge Bifr&ouml;st, which
+they had just constructed out of fire, air, and water, the three materials which can still plainly be seen in its long arch,
+where glow the three primary colours: the red representing the fire, the blue the air, and the green the cool depths of the
+sea.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e4927">
+<h3 class="normal">The Guardian of the Rainbow</h3>
+<p>This bridge connected heaven and earth, and ended under the shade of the mighty world-tree Yggdrasil, close beside the fountain
+where Mimir kept guard, and the only drawback to prevent the complete enjoyment of the glorious spectacle, was the fear lest
+the frost-giants <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb147" href="#pb147">147</a>]</span>should make their way over it and so gain entrance into Asgard.
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods had been debating the advisability of appointing a trustworthy guardian, and they hailed the new recruit as one well-fitted
+to fulfil the onerous duties of the office.
+
+</p>
+<p>Heimdall gladly undertook the responsibility and henceforth, night and day, he kept vigilant watch over the rainbow highway
+into Asgard.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Bifr&ouml;st i&#8217; th&#8217; east shone forth in brightest green;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On its top, in snow-white sheen,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Heimdal at his post was seen.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Oehlenschl&auml;ger (Pigott&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+</p>
+<p>To enable their watchman to detect the approach of any enemy from afar, the assembled gods bestowed upon him senses so keen
+that he is said to have been able to hear the grass grow on the hillside, and the wool on the sheep&#8217;s back; to see one hundred
+miles off as plainly by night as by day; and with all this he required less sleep than a bird.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8217;Mongst shivering giants wider known
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Than him who sits unmoved on high,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The guard of heaven, with sleepless eye.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Skirner (Herbert&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+</p>
+<p>Heimdall was provided further with a flashing sword and a marvellous trumpet, called Giallar-horn, which the gods bade him
+blow whenever he saw their enemies approach, declaring that its sound would rouse all creatures in heaven, earth, and Nifl-heim.
+Its last dread blast would announce the arrival of that day when the final battle would be fought.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb148" href="#pb148">148</a>]</span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;To battle the gods are called
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By the ancient
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gjallar-horn.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Loud blows Heimdall,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His sound is in the air.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>To keep this instrument, which was a symbol of the crescent moon, ever at hand, Heimdall either hung it on a branch of Yggdrasil
+above his head or sank it in the waters of Mimir&#8217;s well. In the latter it lay side by side with Odin&#8217;s eye, which was an emblem
+of the moon at its full.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p148" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p148.jpg" alt="Heimdall" width="720" height="502"><p class="figureHead">Heimdall</p>
+<p>Dorothy Hardy</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Heimdall&#8217;s palace, called Himinbiorg, was situated on the highest point of the bridge, and here the gods often visited him
+to quaff the delicious mead which he set before them.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8217;Tis Himminbjorg called
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where Heimdal, they say,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hath dwelling and rule.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There the gods&#8217; warder drinks,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In peaceful old halls,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gladsome the good mead.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Heimdall was always depicted in resplendent white armour, and he was therefore called the bright god. He was also known as
+the light, innocent, and graceful god, all of which names he fully deserved, for he was as good as he was beautiful, and all
+the gods loved him. Connected on his mothers&#8217; side with the sea, he was sometimes included with the Vanas; and as the ancient
+Northmen, especially the Icelanders, to whom the surrounding sea appeared the most important element, fancied that all things
+had risen out of it, they attributed to him an all-embracing knowledge and imagined him particularly wise.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb149" href="#pb149">149</a>]</span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Of &AElig;sir the brightest&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He well foresaw
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Like other Vanir.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Heimdall was further distinguished by his golden teeth, which flashed when he smiled, and won for him the surname of Gullintani
+(golden-toothed). He was also the proud possessor of a swift, golden-maned steed called Gull-top, which bore him to and fro
+over the quivering rainbow bridge. This he crossed many times a day, but particularly in the early morn, at which time, as
+herald of the day, he bore the name of Heimdellinger.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Early up Bifr&ouml;st
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ran Ulfrun&#8217;s son,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The mighty hornblower
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of Himinbi&ouml;rg.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5037">
+<h3 class="normal">Loki and Freya</h3>
+<p>His extreme acuteness of hearing caused Heimdall to be disturbed one night by the sound of soft, catlike footsteps in the
+direction of Freya&#8217;s palace, Folkvang. Projecting his eagle gaze through the darkness, Heimdall perceived that the sound was
+produced by Loki, who, having stealthily entered the palace as a fly, had approached Freya&#8217;s bedside, and was trying to steal
+her shining golden necklace, Brisinga-men, the emblem of the fruitfulness of the earth.
+
+</p>
+<p>Heimdall saw that the goddess was resting in her sleep in such a way that no one could possibly unclasp the necklace without
+awaking her. Loki stood hesitatingly by the bedside for a few moments, and then began rapidly to mutter the runes which enabled
+the gods to change their form at will. As he did this, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb150" href="#pb150">150</a>]</span>Heimdall saw him shrivel up until he was changed to the size and form of a flea, when he crept under the bed-clothes and bit
+Freya&#8217;s side, thus causing her to change her position without being roused from sleep.
+
+</p>
+<p>The clasp was now in view, and Loki, cautiously unfastening it, secured the coveted treasure, and forthwith proceeded to steal
+away with it. Heimdall immediately started out in pursuit of the midnight thief, and quickly overtaking him, he drew his sword
+from its scabbard, with intent to cut off his head, when the god transformed himself into a flickering blue flame. Quick as
+thought, Heimdall changed himself into a cloud and sent down a deluge of rain to quench the fire; but Loki as promptly altered
+his form to that of a huge polar bear, and opened wide his jaws to swallow the water. Heimdall, nothing daunted, then likewise
+assumed the form of a bear, and attacked fiercely; but the combat threatening to end disastrously for Loki, the latter changed
+himself into a seal, and, Heimdall imitating him, a last struggle took place, which ended in Loki being forced to give up
+the necklace, which was duly restored to Freya.
+
+</p>
+<p>In this myth, Loki is an emblem of drought, or of the baleful effects of the too ardent heat of the sun, which comes to rob
+the earth (Freya) of its most cherished ornament (Brisinga-men). Heimdall is a personification of the gentle rain and dew,
+which after struggling for a while with his foe, the drought, eventually conquers him and forces him to relinquish his prize.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5050">
+<h3 class="normal">Heimdall&#8217;s Names</h3>
+<p>Heimdall has several other names, among which we find those of Hallinskide and Irmin, for at times he takes Odin&#8217;s place and
+is identified with that god, as <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb151" href="#pb151">151</a>]</span>well as with the other sword-gods, Er, Heru, Cheru and Tyr, who are all noted for their shining weapons. He, however, is most
+generally known as warder of the rainbow, and god of heaven, and of the fruitful rains and dews which bring refreshment to
+the earth.
+
+</p>
+<p>Heimdall also shared with Bragi the honour of welcoming heroes to Valhalla, and, under the name of Riger, was considered the
+divine sire of the various classes which compose the human race, as appears in the following story:
+
+</p>
+<p>The Story of Riger
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Sacred children,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Great and small,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sons of Heimdall!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Heimdall left his place in Asgard one day to wander upon the earth, as the gods were wont to do. He had not gone far ere he
+came to a poor hut on the seashore, where he found Ai (great grandfather) and Edda (great grandmother), a poor but worthy
+couple, who hospitably invited him to share their meagre meal of porridge. Heimdall, who gave his name as Riger, gladly accepted
+this invitation, and remained with the couple three whole days, teaching them many things. At the end of that time he left
+to resume his journey. Some time after his visit, Edda bore a dark-skinned thick-set boy, whom she called Thrall.
+
+</p>
+<p>Thrall soon showed uncommon physical strength and a great aptitude for all heavy work; and when he had grown up he took to
+wife Thyr, a heavily built girl with sunburnt hands and flat feet, who, like her husband, laboured early and late. Many children
+were born to this couple and from them all the serfs or thralls of the Northland were descended.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb152" href="#pb152">152</a>]</span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;They had children
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Lived and were happy;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&nbsp;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They laid fences,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Enriched the plow-land,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Tended swine,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Herded goats,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Dug peat.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Rigsm&aacute;l (Du Chaillu&#8217;s version).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>After leaving the poor hut on the barren seacoast Riger had pushed inland, where ere long he came to cultivated fields and
+a thrifty farmhouse. Entering this comfortable dwelling, he found Afi (grandfather) and Amma (grandmother), who hospitably
+invited him to sit down with them and share the plain but bountiful fare which was prepared for their meal.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p152" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p152.jpg" alt="Jarl" width="499" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Jarl</p>
+<p>Albert Edelfelt</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Riger accepted the invitation and he remained three days with his hosts, imparting the while all manner of useful knowledge
+to them. After his departure from their house, Amma gave birth to a blue-eyed sturdy boy, whom she called Karl. As he grew
+up he exhibited great skill in agricultural pursuits, and in due course he married a buxom and thrifty wife named Snor, who
+bore him many children, from whom the race of husbandmen is descended.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;He did grow
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And thrive well;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He broke oxen,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Made plows;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Timbered houses,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Made barns,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Made carts,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And drove the plow.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Rigsm&aacute;l (Du Chaillu&#8217;s version).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Leaving the house of this second couple, Riger continued his journey until he came to a hill, upon which was perched a stately
+castle. Here he was received by <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb153" href="#pb153">153</a>]</span>Fadir (father) and Modir (mother), who, delicately nurtured and luxuriously clad, received him cordially, and set before him
+dainty meats and rich wines.
+
+</p>
+<p>Riger tarried three days with this couple, afterwards returning to Himinbiorg to resume his post as guardian of Asa-bridge;
+and ere long the lady of the castle bore a handsome, slenderly built little son, whom she called Jarl. This child early showed
+a great taste for the hunt and all manner of martial exercises, learned to understand runes, and lived to do great deeds of
+valour which made his name distinguished and added glory to his race. Having attained manhood, Jarl married Erna, an aristocratic,
+slender-waisted maiden, who ruled his household wisely and bore him many children, all destined to rule, the youngest of whom,
+Konur, became the first king of Denmark. This myth well illustrates the marked sense of class among the Northern races.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Up grew
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The sons of Jarl;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They brake horses,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Bent shields,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Smoothed shafts,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shook ash spears
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But Kon, the young,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Knew runes,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Everlasting runes
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And life runes.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Rigsm&aacute;l (Du Chaillu&#8217;s version).</i>
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb154" href="#pb154">154</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch14" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XIV: Hermod</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5165">
+<h3 class="normal">The Nimble God</h3>
+<p>Another of Odin&#8217;s sons was Hermod, his special attendant, a bright and beautiful young god, who was gifted with great rapidity
+of motion and was therefore designated as the swift or nimble god.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But there was one, the first of all the gods
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For speed, and Hermod was his name in Heaven;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Most fleet he was.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>On account of this important attribute Hermod was usually employed by the gods as messenger, and at a mere sign from Odin
+he was always ready to speed to any part of creation. As a special mark of favour, Allfather gave him a magnificent corselet
+and helmet, which he often donned when he prepared to take part in war, and sometimes Odin entrusted to his care the precious
+spear Gungnir, bidding him cast it over the heads of combatants about to engage in battle, that their ardour might be kindled
+into murderous fury.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Let us Odin pray
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Into our minds to enter;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He gives and grants
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gold to the deserving.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He gave to Hermod
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A helm and corselet.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Hermod delighted in battle, and was often called &#8220;the valiant in battle,&#8221; and confounded with the god of the universe, Irmin.
+It is said that he sometimes accompanied the Valkyrs on their ride to earth, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb155" href="#pb155">155</a>]</span>frequently escorted the warriors to Valhalla, wherefore he was considered the leader of the heroic dead.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;To him spake Hermoder and Brage:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">&#8216;We meet thee and greet thee from all,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To the gods thou art known by thy valour,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And they bid thee a guest to their hall.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Owen Meredith.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Hermod&#8217;s distinctive attribute, besides his corselet and helm, was a wand or staff called Gambantein, the emblem of his office,
+which he carried with him wherever he went.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5219">
+<h3 class="normal">Hermod and the Soothsayer</h3>
+<p>Once, oppressed by shadowy fears for the future, and unable to obtain from the Norns satisfactory answers to his questions,
+Odin bade Hermod don his armour and saddle Sleipnir, which he alone, besides Odin, was allowed to ride, and hasten off to
+the land of the Finns. This people, who lived in the frozen regions of the pole, besides being able to call up the cold storms
+which swept down from the North, bringing much ice and snow in their train, were supposed to have great occult powers.
+
+</p>
+<p>The most noted of these Finnish magicians was Rossthiof (the horse thief) who was wont to entice travellers into his realm
+by magic arts, that he might rob and slay them; and he had power to predict the future, although he was always very reluctant
+to do so.
+
+</p>
+<p>Hermod, &#8220;the swift,&#8221; rode rapidly northward, with directions to seek this Finn, and instead of his own wand, he carried Odin&#8217;s
+runic staff, which Allfather had given him for the purpose of dispelling any obstacles that Rossthiof might conjure up to
+hinder his advance. In spite, therefore, of phantom-like monsters and of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb156" href="#pb156">156</a>]</span>invisible snares and pitfalls, Hermod was enabled safely to reach the magician&#8217;s abode, and upon the giant attacking him,
+he was able to master him with ease, and he bound him hand and foot, declaring that he would not set him free until he promised
+to reveal all that he wished to know.
+
+</p>
+<p>Rossthiof, seeing that there was no hope of escape, pledged himself to do as his captor wished, and upon being set at liberty,
+he began forthwith to mutter incantations, at the mere sound of which the sun hid behind the clouds, the earth trembled and
+quivered, and the storm winds howled like a pack of hungry wolves.
+
+</p>
+<p>Pointing to the horizon, the magician bade Hermod look, and the swift god saw in the distance a great stream of blood reddening
+the ground. While he gazed wonderingly at this stream, a beautiful woman suddenly appeared, and a moment later a little boy
+stood beside her. To the god&#8217;s amazement, this child grew with such marvellous rapidity that he soon attained his full growth,
+and Hermod further noticed that he fiercely brandished a bow and arrows.
+
+</p>
+<p>Rossthiof now began to explain the omens which his art had conjured up, and he declared that the stream of blood portended
+the murder of one of Odin&#8217;s sons, but that if the father of the gods should woo and win Rinda, in the land of the Ruthenes
+(Russia), she would bear him a son who would attain his full growth in a few hours and would avenge his brother&#8217;s death.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Rind a son shall bear,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">In the western halls:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He shall slay Odin&#8217;s son,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">When one night old.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Hermod listened attentively to the words of Rossthiof <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb157" href="#pb157">157</a>]</span>and upon his return to Asgard he reported all he had seen and heard to Odin, whose fears were confirmed and who thus definitely
+ascertained that he was doomed to lose a son by violent death. He consoled himself, however, with the thought that another
+of his descendants would avenge the crime and thereby obtain the satisfaction which a true Northman ever required.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb158" href="#pb158">158</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch15" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XV: Vidar</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5257">
+<h3 class="normal">The Silent God</h3>
+<p>It is related that Odin once loved the beautiful giantess Grid, who dwelt in a cave in the desert, and that, wooing her, he
+prevailed upon her to become his wife. The offspring of this union between Odin (mind) and Grid (matter) was Vidar, a son
+as strong as he was taciturn, whom the ancients considered a personification of the prim&aelig;val forest or of the imperishable
+forces of Nature.
+
+</p>
+<p>As the gods, through Heimdall, were intimately connected with the sea, they were also bound by close ties to the forests and
+Nature in general through Vidar, surnamed &#8220;the silent,&#8221; who was destined to survive their destruction and rule over a regenerated
+earth. This god had his habitation in Landvidi (the wide land), a palace decorated with green boughs and fresh flowers, situated
+in the midst of an impenetrable prim&aelig;val forest where reigned the deep silence and solitude which he loved.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Grown over with shrubs
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And with high grass
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In Vidar&#8217;s wide land.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>This old Scandinavian conception of the silent Vidar is indeed very grand and poetical, and was inspired by the rugged Northern
+scenery. &#8220;Who has ever wandered through such forests, in a length of many miles, in a boundless expanse, without a path, without
+a goal, amid their monstrous shadows, their sacred gloom, without being filled with deep reverence for the sublime greatness
+of Nature above all human agency, without feeling the grandeur of the idea which forms the basis of Vidar&#8217;s essence?&#8221;
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb159" href="#pb159">159</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5278">
+<h3 class="normal">Vidar&#8217;s Shoe</h3>
+<p>Vidar is depicted as tall, well-made, and handsome, clad in armour, girded with a broad-bladed sword, and shod with a great
+iron or leather shoe. According to some mythologists, he owed this peculiar footgear to his mother Grid, who, knowing that
+he would be called upon to fight against fire on the last day, designed it as a protection against the fiery element, as her
+iron gauntlet had shielded Thor in his encounter with Geirrod. But other authorities state that this shoe was made of the
+leather scraps which Northern cobblers had either given or thrown away. As it was essential that the shoe should be large
+and strong enough to resist the Fenris wolf&#8217;s sharp teeth at the last day, it was a matter of religious observance among Northern
+shoemakers to give away as many odds and ends of leather as possible.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5283">
+<h3 class="normal">The Norn&#8217;s Prophecy</h3>
+<p>When Vidar joined his peers in Valhalla, they welcomed him gaily, for they knew that his great strength would serve them well
+in their time of need. After they had lovingly regaled him with the golden mead, Allfather bade him follow to the Urdar fountain,
+where the Norns were ever busy weaving their web. Questioned by Odin concerning his future and Vidar&#8217;s destiny, the three
+sisters answered oracularly; each uttering a sentence:
+
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Early begun.</i>&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>Further spun.</i>&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;<i>One day done.</i>&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>To these their mother, Wyrd, the primitive goddess of fate, added: &#8220;<i>With joy once more won.</i>&#8221; These mysterious answers would have remained totally unintelligible had the goddess not gone on to explain that <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb160" href="#pb160">160</a>]</span>time progresses, that all must change, but that even if the father fell in the last battle, his son Vidar would be his avenger,
+and would live to rule over a regenerated world, after having conquered all his enemies.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;There sits Odin&#8217;s
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Son on the horse&#8217;s back;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He will avenge his father.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As Wyrd spoke, the leaves of the world tree fluttered as if agitated by a breeze, the eagle on its topmost bough flapped its
+wings, and the serpent Nidhug for a moment suspended its work of destruction at the roots of the tree. Grid, joining the father
+and son, rejoiced with Odin when she heard that their son was destined to survive the older gods and to rule over the new
+heaven and earth.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;There dwell Vidar and Vale
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In the gods&#8217; holy seats,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When the fire of Surt is slaked.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Vidar, however, uttered not a word, but slowly wended his way back to his palace Landvidi, in the heart of the prim&aelig;val forest,
+and there, sitting upon his throne, he pondered long about eternity, futurity, and infinity. If he fathomed their secrets
+he never revealed them, for the ancients averred that he was &#8220;as silent as the grave&#8221;&#8212;a silence which indicated that no man
+knows what awaits him in the life to come.
+
+</p>
+<p>Vidar was not only a personification of the imperish-ability of Nature, but he was also a symbol of resurrection and renewal,
+exhibiting the eternal truth that new shoots and blossoms will spring forth to replace those which have fallen into decay.
+
+</p>
+<p>The shoe he wore was to be his defence against the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb161" href="#pb161">161</a>]</span>wolf Fenris, who, having destroyed Odin, would direct his wrath against him, and open wide his terrible jaws to devour him.
+But the old Northmen declared that Vidar would brace the foot thus protected against the monster&#8217;s lower jaw, and, seizing
+the upper, would struggle with him until he had rent him in twain.
+
+</p>
+<p>As one shoe only is mentioned in the Vidar myths, some mythologists suppose that he had but one leg, and was the personification
+of a waterspout, which would rise suddenly on the last day to quench the wild fire personified by the terrible wolf Fenris.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb162" href="#pb162">162</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch16" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XVI: Vali</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5348">
+<h3 class="normal">The Wooing of Rinda</h3>
+<p>Billing, king of the Ruthenes, was sorely dismayed when he heard that a great force was about to invade his kingdom, for he
+was too old to fight as of yore, and his only child, a daughter named Rinda, although she was of marriageable age, obstinately
+refused to choose a husband from among her many suitors, and thus give her father the help which he so sadly needed.
+
+</p>
+<p>While Billing was musing disconsolately in his hall, a stranger suddenly entered his palace. Looking up, the king beheld a
+middle-aged man wrapped in a wide cloak, with a broad-brimmed hat drawn down over his forehead to conceal the fact that he
+had but one eye. The stranger courteously enquired the cause of his evident depression, and as there was that in his bearing
+that compelled confidence, the king told him all, and at the end of the relation he volunteered to command the army of the
+Ruthenes against their foe.
+
+</p>
+<p>His services being joyfully accepted, it was not long ere Odin&#8212;for it was he&#8212;won a signal victory, and, returning in triumph,
+he asked permission to woo the king&#8217;s daughter Rinda for his wife. Despite the suitor&#8217;s advancing years, Billing hoped that
+his daughter would lend a favourable ear to a wooer who appeared to be very distinguished, and he immediately signified his
+consent. So Odin, still unknown, presented himself before the princess, but she scornfully rejected his proposal, and rudely
+boxed his ears when he attempted to kiss her.
+
+</p>
+<p>Forced to withdraw, Odin nevertheless did not relinquish his purpose to make Rinda his wife, for he knew, thanks to Rossthiof&#8217;s
+prophecy, that none but she <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb163" href="#pb163">163</a>]</span>could bring forth the destined avenger of his murdered son. His next step, therefore, was to assume the form of a smith, in
+which guise he came back to Billing&#8217;s hall, and fashioning costly ornaments of silver and gold, he so artfully multiplied
+these precious trinkets that the king joyfully acquiesced when he inquired whether he might pay his addresses to the princess.
+The smith, Rosterus as he announced himself, was, however, as unceremoniously dismissed by Rinda as the successful general
+had been; but although his ear once again tingled with the force of her blow, he was more determined than ever to make her
+his wife.
+
+</p>
+<p>The next time Odin presented himself before the capricious damsel, he was disguised as a dashing warrior, for, thought he,
+a young soldier might perchance touch the maiden&#8217;s heart; but when he again attempted to kiss her, she pushed him back so
+suddenly that he stumbled and fell upon one knee.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Many a fair maiden
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When rightly known,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Towards men is fickle;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That I experienced,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When that discreet maiden I
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Strove to win;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Contumely of every kind
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That wily girl
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Heaped upon me;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor of that damsel gained I aught.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&#339;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>This third insult so enraged Odin that he drew his magic rune stick out of his breast, pointed it at Rinda, and uttered such
+a terrible spell that she fell back into the arms of her attendants rigid and apparently lifeless.
+
+</p>
+<p>When the princess came to life again, her suitor had disappeared, but the king discovered with great dismay <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb164" href="#pb164">164</a>]</span>that she had entirely lost her senses and was melancholy mad. In vain all the physicians were summoned and all their simples
+tried; the maiden remained passive and sad, and her distracted father had well-nigh abandoned hope when an old woman, who
+announced herself as Vecha, or Vak, appeared and offered to undertake the cure of the princess. The seeming old woman, who
+was Odin in disguise, first prescribed a foot-bath for the patient; but as this did not appear to have any very marked effect,
+she proposed to try a more drastic treatment. For this, Vecha declared, the patient must be entrusted to her exclusive care,
+securely bound so that she could not offer the least resistance. Billing, anxious to save his child, was ready to assent to
+anything; and having thus gained full power over Rinda, Odin compelled her to wed him, releasing her from bonds and spell
+only when she had faithfully promised to be his wife.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5394">
+<h3 class="normal">The Birth of Vali</h3>
+<p>The prophecy of Rossthiof was now fulfilled, for Rinda duly bore a son named Vali (Ali, Bous, or Beav), a personification
+of the lengthening days, who grew with such marvellous rapidity that in the course of a single day he attained his full stature.
+Without waiting even to wash his face or comb his hair, this young god hastened to Asgard, bow and arrow in hand, to avenge
+the death of Balder upon his murderer, Hodur, the blind god of darkness.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But, see! th&#8217; avenger, Vali, come,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sprung from the west, in Rinda&#8217;s womb,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">True son of Odin! one day&#8217;s birth!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He shall not stop nor stay on earth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His locks to comb, his hands to lave,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His frame to rest, should rest it crave,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb165" href="#pb165">165</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Until his mission be complete,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And Balder&#8217;s death find vengeance meet.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In this myth, Rinda, a personification of the hard-frozen rind of the earth, resists the warm wooing of the sun, Odin, who
+vainly points out that spring is the time for warlike exploits, and offers the adornments of golden summer. She only yields
+when, after a shower (the footbath), a thaw sets in. Conquered then by the sun&#8217;s irresistible might, the earth yields to his
+embrace, is freed from the spell (ice) which made her hard and cold, and brings forth Vali the nourisher, or Bous the peasant,
+who emerges from his dark hut when the pleasant days have come. The slaying of Hodur by Vali is therefore emblematical of
+&#8220;the breaking forth of new light after wintry darkness.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>Vali, who ranked as one of the twelve deities occupying seats in the great hall of Glads-heim, shared with his father the
+dwelling called Valaskialf, and was destined, even before birth, to survive the last battle and twilight of the gods, and
+to reign with Vidar over the regenerated earth.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5425">
+<h3 class="normal">Worship of Vali</h3>
+<p>Vali is god of eternal light, as Vidar is of imperishable matter; and as beams of light were often called arrows, he is always
+represented and worshipped as an archer. For that reason his month in Norwegian calendars is designated by the sign of the
+bow, and is called Lios-beri, the light-bringing. As it falls between the middle of January and of February, the early Christians
+dedicated this month to St. Valentine, who was also a skilful archer, and was said, like Vali, to be the harbinger of brighter
+days, the awakener of tender sentiments, and the patron of all lovers.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb166" href="#pb166">166</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch17" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XVII: The Norns</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5434">
+<h3 class="normal">The Three Fates</h3>
+<p>The Northern goddesses of fate, who were called Norns, were in nowise subject to the other gods, who might neither question
+nor influence their decrees. They were three sisters, probably descendants of the giant Norvi, from whom sprang Nott (night).
+As soon as the Golden Age was ended, and sin began to steal even into the heavenly homes of Asgard, the Norns made their appearance
+under the great ash Yggdrasil, and took up their abode near the Urdar fountain. According to some mythologists, their mission
+was to warn the gods of future evil, to bid them make good use of the present, and to teach them wholesome lessons from the
+past.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p166" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p166.jpg" alt="The Norns" width="540" height="720"><p class="figureHead">The Norns</p>
+<p>C. Ehrenberg
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., 133 New Bond St., W.</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>These three sisters, whose names were Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, were personifications of the past, present, and future. Their
+principal occupations were to weave the web of fate<span class="corr" id="xd0e5450" title="Source: ;">,</span> to sprinkle daily the sacred tree with water from the Urdar fountain, and to put fresh clay around its roots, that it might
+remain fresh and ever green.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thence come the maids
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Who much do know;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Three from the hall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Beneath the tree;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">One they named <i>Was</i>,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And <i>Being</i> next,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The third <i>Shall be</i>.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The V&ouml;lusp&acirc; (Henderson&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Some authorities further state that the Norns kept watch over the golden apples which hung on the branches of the tree of
+life, experience, and knowledge, allowing none but Idun to pick the fruit, which was that with which the gods renewed their
+youth.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb167" href="#pb167">167</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The Norns also fed and tenderly cared for two swans which swam over the mirror-like surface of the Urdar fountain, and from
+this pair of birds all the swans on earth are supposed to be descended. At times, it is said, the Norns clothed themselves
+with swan plumage to visit the earth, or sported like mermaids along the coast and in various lakes and rivers, appearing
+to mortals, from time to time, to foretell the future or give them sage advice.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5486">
+<h3 class="normal">The Norns&#8217; Web</h3>
+<p>The Norns sometimes wove webs so large that while one of the weavers stood on a high mountain in the extreme east, another
+waded far out into the western sea. The threads of their woof resembled cords, and varied greatly in hue, according to the
+nature of the events about to occur, and a black thread, tending from north to south, was invariably considered an omen of
+death. As these sisters flashed the shuttle to and fro, they chanted a solemn song. They did not seem to weave according to
+their own wishes, but blindly, as if reluctantly executing the wishes of Orlog, the eternal law of the universe, an older
+and superior power, who apparently had neither beginning nor end.
+
+</p>
+<p>Two of the Norns, Urd and Verdandi, were considered to be very beneficent indeed, while the third, it is said, relentlessly
+undid their work, and often, when nearly finished, tore it angrily to shreds, scattering the remnants to the winds of heaven.
+As personifications of time, the Norns were represented as sisters of different ages and characters, Urd (Wurd, weird) appearing
+very old and decrepit, continually looking backward, as if absorbed in contemplating past events and people; Verdandi, the
+second sister, young, active, and fearless, looked straight before her, while Skuld, the type of the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb168" href="#pb168">168</a>]</span>future, was generally represented as closely veiled, with head turned in the direction opposite to where Urd was gazing, and
+holding a book or scroll which had not yet been opened or unrolled.
+
+</p>
+<p>These Norns were visited daily by the gods, who loved to consult them; and even Odin himself frequently rode down to the Urdar
+fountain to bespeak their aid, for they generally answered his questions, maintaining silence only about his own fate and
+that of his fellow gods.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Rode he long and rode he fast.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">First beneath the great Life Tree,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">At the sacred Spring sought he
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Urdar, Norna of the Past;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But her backward seeing eye
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Could no knowledge now supply.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Across Verdandi&#8217;s page there fell
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Dark shades that ever woes foretell;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The shadows which &#8217;round Asgard hung
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Their baleful darkness o&#8217;er it flung;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The secret was not written there
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Might save Valhal, the pure and fair.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Last youngest of the sisters three,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Skuld, Norna of Futurity,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Implored to speak, stood silent by,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Averted was her tearful eye.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5534">
+<h3 class="normal">Other Guardian Spirits</h3>
+<p>Besides the three principal Norns there were many others, far less important, who seem to have been the guardian spirits of
+mankind, to whom they frequently appeared, lavishing all manner of gifts upon their favourites, and seldom failing to be present
+at births, marriages, and deaths.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Oh, manifold is their kindred, and who shall tell them all?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There are they that rule o&#8217;er men folk, and the stars that rise and fall.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Sigurd the Volsung (William Morris).</i>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb169" href="#pb169">169</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5549">
+<h3 class="normal">The Story of Nornagesta</h3>
+<p>On one occasion the three sisters visited Denmark, and entered the dwelling of a nobleman as his first child came into the
+world. Entering the apartment where the mother lay, the first Norn promised that the child should be handsome and brave, and
+the second that he should be prosperous and a great scald&#8212;predictions which filled the parents&#8217; hearts with joy. Meantime
+news of what was taking place had gone abroad, and the neighbours came thronging the apartment to such a degree that the pressure
+of the curious crowd caused the third Norn to be pushed rudely from her chair.
+
+</p>
+<p>Angry at this insult, Skuld proudly rose and declared that her sister&#8217;s gifts should be of no avail, since she would decree
+that the child should live only as long as the taper then burning near the bedside. These ominous words filled the mother&#8217;s
+heart with terror, and she tremblingly clasped her babe closer to her breast, for the taper was nearly burned out and its
+extinction could not be very long delayed. The eldest Norn, however, had no intention of seeing her prediction thus set at
+naught; but as she could not force her sister to retract her words, she quickly seized the taper, put out the light, and giving
+the smoking stump to the child&#8217;s mother, bade her carefully treasure it, and never light it again until her son was weary
+of life.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In the mansion it was night:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The Norns came,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Who should the prince&#8217;s
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Life determine.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The boy was named Nornagesta, in honour of the Norns, and grew up to be as beautiful, brave, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb170" href="#pb170">170</a>]</span>talented as any mother could wish. When he was old enough to comprehend the gravity of the trust his mother told him the story
+of the Norns&#8217; visit, and placed in his hands the candle end, which he treasured for many a year, placing it for safe-keeping
+inside the frame of his harp. When his parents were dead, Nornagesta wandered from place to place, taking part and distinguishing
+himself in every battle, singing his heroic lays wherever he went. As he was of an enthusiastic and poetic temperament, he
+did not soon weary of life, and while other heroes grew wrinkled and old, he remained young at heart and vigorous in frame.
+He therefore witnessed the stirring deeds of the heroic ages, was the boon companion of the ancient warriors, and after living
+three hundred years, saw the belief in the old heathen gods gradually supplanted by the teachings of Christian missionaries.
+Finally Nornagesta came to the court of King Olaf Tryggvesson, who, according to his usual custom, converted him almost by
+force, and compelled him to receive baptism. Then, wishing to convince his people that the time for superstition was past,
+the king forced the aged scald to produce and light the taper which he had so carefully guarded for more than three centuries.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p170" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p170.jpg" alt="The Dises" width="720" height="493"><p class="figureHead">The Dises</p>
+<p>Dorothy Hardy</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In spite of his recent conversion, Nornagesta anxiously watched the flame as it flickered, and when, finally, it went out,
+he sank lifeless to the ground, thus proving that in spite of the baptism just received, he still believed in the prediction
+of the Norns.
+
+</p>
+<p>In the middle ages, and even later, the Norns figure in many a story or myth, appearing as fairies or witches, as, for instance,
+in the tale of &#8220;the Sleeping Beauty,&#8221; and Shakespeare&#8217;s tragedy of <i>Macbeth</i>.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p><b>&#8221;<i>1st Witch.</i></b></p>
+<p class="line">When shall we three meet again,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In thunder, lightning, or in rain?</p>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb171" href="#pb171">171</a>]</span><div class="poem">
+<p><b><i>2nd Witch.</i></b></p>
+<p class="line">When the hurlyburly&#8217;s done,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When the battle&#8217;s lost and won:</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p><b><i>3rd Witch.</i></b></p>
+<p class="line">That will be ere the set of sun.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Macbeth (Shakespeare).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5615">
+<h3 class="normal">The Vala</h3>
+<p>Sometimes the Norns bore the name of Vala, or prophetesses, for they had the power of divination&#8212;a power which was held in
+great honour by all the Northern races, who believed that it was restricted to the female sex. The predictions of the Vala
+were never questioned, and it is said that the Roman general Drusus was so terrified by the appearance of Veleda, one of these
+prophetesses, who warned him not to cross the Elbe, that he actually beat a retreat. She foretold his approaching death, which
+indeed happened shortly after through a fall from his steed.
+
+</p>
+<p>These prophetesses, who were also known as Idises, Dises, or Hagedises, officiated at the forest shrines and in the sacred
+groves, and always accompanied invading armies. Riding ahead, or in the midst of the host, they would vehemently urge the
+warriors on to victory, and when the battle was over they would often cut the bloody-eagle upon the bodies of the captives.
+The blood was collected into great tubs, wherein the Dises plunged their naked arms up to the shoulders, previous to joining
+in the wild dance with which the ceremony ended.
+
+</p>
+<p>It is not to be wondered at that these women were greatly feared. Sacrifices were offered to propitiate them, and it was only
+in later times that they were degraded to the rank of witches, and sent to join the demon host on the Brocken, or Blocksberg,
+on Valpurgisnacht.
+
+</p>
+<p>Besides the Norns or Dises, who were also regarded as protective deities, the Northmen ascribed to each human being a guardian
+spirit named Fylgie, which <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb172" href="#pb172">172</a>]</span>attended him through life, either in human or brute shape, and was invisible except at the moment of death by all except the
+initiated few.
+
+</p>
+<p>The allegorical meaning of the Norns and of their web of fate is too patent to need explanation; still some mythologists have
+made them demons of the air, and state that their web was the woof of clouds, and that the bands of mists which they strung
+from rock to tree, and from mountain to mountain, were ruthlessly torn apart by the suddenly rising wind. Some authorities,
+moreover, declare that Skuld, the third Norn, was at times a Valkyr, and at others personated the goddess of death, the terrible
+Hel.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb173" href="#pb173">173</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch18" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XVIII: The Valkyrs</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5634">
+<h3 class="normal">The Battle Maidens</h3>
+<p>Odin&#8217;s special attendants, the Valkyrs, or battle maidens, were either his daughters, like Brunhild, or the offspring of mortal
+kings, maidens who were privileged to remain immortal and invulnerable as long as they implicitly obeyed the god and remained
+virgins. They and their steeds were the personification of the clouds, their glittering weapons being the lightning flashes.
+The ancients imagined that they swept down to earth at Valfather&#8217;s command, to choose among the slain in battle heroes worthy
+to taste the joys of Valhalla, and brave enough to lend aid to the gods when the great battle should be fought.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;There through some battlefield, where men fall fast,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Their horses fetlock-deep in blood, they ride,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And pick the bravest warriors out for death,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Whom they bring back with them at night to Heaven
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To glad the gods and feast in Odin&#8217;s hall.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>These maidens were pictured as young and beautiful, with dazzling white arms and flowing golden hair. They wore helmets of
+silver or gold, and blood-red corselets, and with spears and shields glittering, they boldly charged through the fray on their
+mettlesome white steeds. These horses galloped through the realms of air and over the quivering Bifr&ouml;st, bearing not only
+their fair riders, but the heroes slain, who after having received the Valkyrs&#8217; kiss of death, were thus immediately transported
+to Valhalla.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5656">
+<h3 class="normal">The Cloud Steeds</h3>
+<p>As the Valkyrs&#8217; steeds were personifications of the clouds, it was natural to fancy that the hoar frost and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb174" href="#pb174">174</a>]</span>dew dropped down upon earth from their glittering manes as they rapidly dashed to and fro through the air. They were therefore
+held in high honour and regard, for the people ascribed to their beneficent influence much of the fruitfulness of the earth,
+the sweetness of dale and mountain-slope, the glory of the pines, and the nourishment of the meadow-land.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p174" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p174.jpg" alt="The Swan Maiden" width="496" height="720"><p class="figureHead">The Swan Maiden</p>
+<p>Gertrude Demain Hammond, R.I.</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5670">
+<h3 class="normal">Choosers of the Slain</h3>
+<p>The mission of the Valkyrs was not only to battlefields upon earth, but they often rode over the sea, snatching the dying
+Vikings from their sinking dragon-ships. Sometimes they stood upon the strand to beckon them thither, an infallible warning
+that the coming struggle would be their last, and one which every Northland hero received with joy.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Slowly they moved to the billow side;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And the forms, as they grew more clear,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Seem&#8217;d each on a tall pale steed to ride,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And a shadowy crest to rear,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And to beckon with faint hand
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From the dark and rocky strand,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And to point a gleaming spear.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then a stillness on his spirit fell,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Before th&#8217; unearthly train;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For he knew Valhalla&#8217;s daughters well,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">The chooser of the slain!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valkyriur Song (Mrs. Hemans).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5703">
+<h3 class="normal">Their Numbers and Duties</h3>
+<p>The numbers of the Valkyrs differ greatly according to various mythologists, ranging from three to sixteen, most authorities,
+however, naming only nine. The Valkyrs were considered as divinities of the air; they were also called Norns, or wish maidens.
+It was said that Freya and Skuld led them on to the fray.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb175" href="#pb175">175</a>]</span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;She saw Valkyries
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Come from afar,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ready to ride
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To the tribes of god;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Skuld held the shield,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Skaugul came next,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gunnr, Hildr, Gaundul,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And Geir-skaugul.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thus now are told
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The Warrior&#8217;s Norns.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Henderson&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The Valkyrs, as we have seen, had important duties in Valhalla, when, their bloody weapons laid aside, they poured out the
+heavenly mead for the Einheriar. This beverage delighted the souls of the new-comers, and they welcomed the fair maidens as
+warmly as when they had first seen them on the battlefield and realised that they had come to transport them where they fain
+would be.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In the shade now tall forms are advancing,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And their wan hands like snowflakes in the moonlight are gleaming;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They beckon, they whisper, &#8216;Oh! strong Armed in Valour,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The pale guests await thee&#8212;mead foams in Valhalla.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Finn&#8217;s Saga (Hewitt).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5749">
+<h3 class="normal">Wayland and the Valkyrs</h3>
+<p>The Valkyrs were supposed to take frequent flights to earth in swan plumage, which they would throw off when they came to
+a secluded stream, that they might indulge in a bath. Any mortal surprising them thus, and securing their plumage, could prevent
+them from leaving the earth, and could even force these proud maidens to mate with him if such were his pleasure.
+
+</p>
+<p>It is related that three of the Valkyrs, Olrun, Alvit, and Svanhvit, were once sporting in the waters, when suddenly the three
+brothers Egil, Slagfinn, and V&ouml;lund, or Wayland the smith, came upon them, and securing <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb176" href="#pb176">176</a>]</span>their swan plumage, the young men forced them to remain upon earth and become their wives. The Valkyrs, thus detained, remained
+with their husbands nine years, but at the end of that time, recovering their plumage, or the spell being broken in some other
+way, they effected their escape.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;There they stayed
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Seven winters through;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But all the eighth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Were with longing seized;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And in the ninth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fate parted them.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The maidens yearned
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For the murky wood,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The young Alvit,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fate to fulfil.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of V&ouml;lund (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The brothers felt the loss of their wives extremely, and two of them, Egil and Slagfinn, putting on their snow shoes, went
+in search of their loved ones, disappearing in the cold and foggy regions of the North. The third brother, V&ouml;lund, however,
+remained at home, knowing all search would be of no avail, and he found solace in the contemplation of a ring which Alvit
+had given him as a love-token, and he indulged the constant hope that she would return. As he was a very clever smith, and
+could manufacture the most dainty ornaments of silver and gold, as well as magic weapons which no blow could break, he now
+employed his leisure in making seven hundred rings exactly like the one which his wife had given him. These, when finished,
+he bound together; but one night, on coming home from the hunt, he found that some one had carried away one ring, leaving
+the others behind, and his hopes received fresh inspiration, for he told himself that his wife had been there and would soon
+return for good.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p176" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p176.jpg" alt="The Ride of the Valkyrs" width="720" height="442"><p class="figureHead">The Ride of the Valkyrs</p>
+<p>J. C. Dollman
+
+</p>
+<p>By Arrangement with the Artist</p>
+</div><p>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb177" href="#pb177">177</a>]</span></p>
+<p>That selfsame night, however, he was surprised in his sleep, and bound and made prisoner by Nidud, King of Sweden, who took
+possession of his sword, a choice weapon invested with magic powers, which he reserved for his own use, and of the love ring
+made of pure Rhine gold, which latter he gave to his only daughter, Bodvild. As for the unhappy V&ouml;lund himself, he was led
+captive to a neighbouring island, where, after being hamstrung, in order that he should not escape, the king put him to the
+incessant task of forging weapons and ornaments for his use. He also compelled him to build an intricate labyrinth, and to
+this day a maze in Iceland is known as &#8220;V&ouml;lund&#8217;s house.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>V&ouml;lund&#8217;s rage and despair increased with every new insult offered him by Nidud, and night and day he thought upon how he might
+obtain revenge. Nor did he forget to provide for his escape, and during the pauses of his labour he fashioned a pair of wings
+similar to those his wife had used as a Valkyr, which he intended to don as soon as his vengeance had been accomplished. One
+day the king came to visit his captive, and brought him the stolen sword that he might repair it; but V&ouml;lund cleverly substituted
+another weapon so exactly like the magic sword as to deceive the king when he came again to claim it. A few days later, V&ouml;lund
+enticed the king&#8217;s sons into his smithy and slew them, after which he cunningly fashioned drinking vessels out of their skulls,
+and jewels out of their eyes and teeth, bestowing these upon their parents and sister.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But their skulls
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Beneath the hair
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He in silver set,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And to Nidud gave;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And of their eyes
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Precious stones he formed,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb178" href="#pb178">178</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Which to Nidud&#8217;s
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wily wife he sent.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But of the teeth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of the two
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Breast ornaments he made,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And to B&ouml;dvild sent.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of V&ouml;lund (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The royal family did not suspect whence they came; and so these gifts were joyfully accepted. As for the poor youths, it was
+believed that they had drifted out to sea and had been drowned.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p178" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p178.jpg" alt="Brunhild and Siegmund" width="551" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Brunhild and Siegmund</p>
+<p>J. Wagrez
+
+</p>
+<p>Photo, Braun, Cl&eacute;ment &amp; Co.</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Some time after this, Bodvild, wishing to have her ring repaired, also visited the smith&#8217;s hut, where, while waiting, she
+unsuspectingly partook of a magic drug, which sent her to sleep and left her in V&ouml;lund&#8217;s power. His last act of vengeance
+accomplished, V&ouml;lund immediately donned the wings which he had made in readiness for this day, and grasping his sword and
+ring he rose slowly in the air. Directing his flight to the palace, he perched there out of reach, and proclaimed his crimes
+to Nidud. The king, beside himself with rage, summoned Egil, V&ouml;lund&#8217;s brother, who had also fallen into his power, and bade
+him use his marvellous skill as an archer to bring down the impudent bird. Obeying a signal from V&ouml;lund, Egil aimed for a
+protuberance under his wing where a bladder full of the young princes&#8217; blood was concealed, and the smith flew triumphantly
+away without hurt, declaring that Odin would give his sword to Sigmund&#8212;a prediction which was duly fulfilled.
+
+</p>
+<p>V&ouml;lund then went to Alf-heim, where, if the legend is to be believed, he found his beloved wife, and lived happily again with
+her until the twilight of the gods.
+
+</p>
+<p>But, even in Alf-heim, this clever smith continued to ply his craft, and various suits of impenetrable armour, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb179" href="#pb179">179</a>]</span>which he is said to have fashioned, are described in later heroic poems. Besides Balmung and Joyeuse, Sigmund&#8217;s and Charlemagne&#8217;s
+celebrated swords, he is reported to have fashioned Miming for his son Heime, and many other remarkable blades.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;It is the mate of Miming
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of all swerdes it is king,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And Weland it wrought,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Bitterfer it is hight.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Anglo-Saxon Poetry (Coneybeare&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>There are countless other tales of swan maidens or Valkyrs, who are said to have consorted with mortals; but the most popular
+of all is that of Brunhild, the wife of Sigurd, a descendant of Sigmund and the most renowned of Northern heroes.
+
+</p>
+<p>William Morris, in &#8220;The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon,&#8221; gives a fascinating version of another of these Norse
+legends. The story is amongst the most charming of the collection in &#8220;The Earthly Paradise.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5865">
+<h3 class="normal">Brunhild</h3>
+<p>The story of Brunhild is to be found in many forms. Some versions describe the heroine as the daughter of a king taken by
+Odin to serve in his Valkyr band, others as chief of the Valkyrs and daughter of Odin himself. In Richard Wagner&#8217;s story,
+&#8220;The Ring of the Nibelung,&#8221; the great musician presents a particularly attractive, albeit a more modern conception of the
+chief Battle-Maiden, and her disobedience to the command of Odin when sent to summon the youthful Siegmund from the side of
+his beloved Sieglinde to the Halls of the Blessed.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb180" href="#pb180">180</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch19" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XIX: Hel</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5874">
+<h3 class="normal">Loki&#8217;s Offspring</h3>
+<p>Hel, goddess of death, was the daughter of Loki, god of evil, and of the giantess Angurboda, the portender of ill. She came
+into the world in a dark cave in J&ouml;tun-heim together with the serpent I&ouml;rmungandr and the terrible Fenris wolf, the trio being
+considered as the emblems of pain, sin, and death.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Now Loki comes, cause of all ill!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Men and &AElig;sir curse him still.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Long shall the gods deplore,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Even till Time be o&#8217;er,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His base fraud on Asgard&#8217;s hill.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">While, deep in Jotunheim, most fell,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Are Fenrir, Serpent, and Dread Hel,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Pain, Sin, and Death, his children three,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Brought up and cherished; thro&#8217; them he
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Tormentor of the world shall be.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In due time Odin became aware of the terrible brood which Loki was cherishing, and resolved, as we have already seen, to banish
+them from the face of the earth. The serpent was therefore cast into the sea, where his writhing was supposed to cause the
+most terrible tempests; the wolf Fenris was secured in chains, thanks to the dauntless Tyr; and Hel or Hela, the goddess of
+death, was hurled into the depths of Nifl-heim, where Odin gave her power over nine worlds.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Hela into Niflheim thou threw&#8217;st,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And gav&#8217;st her nine unlighted worlds to rule,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A queen, and empire over all the dead.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e5917">
+<h3 class="normal">Hel&#8217;s Kingdom in Nifl-heim</h3>
+<p>This realm, which was supposed to be situated under <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb181" href="#pb181">181</a>]</span>the earth, could only be entered after a painful journey over the roughest roads in the cold, dark regions of the extreme
+North. The gate was so far from all human abode that even Hermod the swift, mounted upon Sleipnir, had to journey nine long
+nights ere he reached the river Gi&ouml;ll. This formed the boundary of Nifl-heim, over which was thrown a bridge of crystal arched
+with gold, hung on a single hair, and constantly guarded by the grim skeleton M&ouml;dgud, who made every spirit pay a toll of
+blood ere she would allow it to pass.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The bridge of glass hung on a hair
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thrown o&#8217;er the river terrible,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The Gi&ouml;ll, boundary of Hel.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Now here the maiden M&ouml;dgud stood,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Waiting to take the toll of blood,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A maiden horrible to sight,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fleshless, with shroud and pall bedight.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The spirits generally rode or drove across this bridge on the horses or in the waggons which had been burned upon the funeral
+pyre with the dead to serve that purpose, and the Northern races were very careful to bind upon the feet of the departed a
+specially strong pair of shoes, called <span class="corr" id="xd0e5945" title="Source: Hel shoes">Hel-shoes</span>, that they might not suffer during the long journey over rough roads. Soon after the Giallar bridge was passed, the spirit
+reached the Ironwood, where stood none but bare and iron-leafed trees, and, passing through it, reached Hel-gate, beside which
+the fierce, blood-stained dog Garm kept watch, cowering in a dark hole known as the Gnipa cave. This monster&#8217;s rage could
+only be appeased by the offering of a Hel-cake, which never failed those who had ever given bread to the needy.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Loud bays Garm
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Before the Gnipa cave.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb182" href="#pb182">182</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Within the gate, amid the intense cold and impenetrable darkness, was heard the seething of the great cauldron Hvergelmir,
+the rolling of the glaciers in the Elivagar and other streams of Hel, among which were the Leipter, by which solemn oaths
+were sworn, and the Slid, in whose turbid waters naked swords continually rolled.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p182" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p182.jpg" alt="The Road to Valhalla" width="550" height="679"><p class="figureHead">The Road to Valhalla</p>
+<p>Severin Nilsson</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Further on in this gruesome place was Elvidner (misery), the hall of the goddess Hel, whose dish was Hunger. Her knife was
+Greed. &#8220;Idleness was the name of her man, Sloth of her maid, Ruin of her threshold, Sorrow of her bed, and Conflagration of
+her curtains.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Elvidner was Hela&#8217;s hall.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Iron-barred, with massive wall;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Horrible that palace tall!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hunger was her table bare;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Waste, her knife; her bed, sharp Care;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Burning Anguish spread her feast;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Bleached bones arrayed each guest;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Plague and Famine sang their runes,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Mingled with Despair&#8217;s harsh tunes.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Misery and Agony
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">E&#8217;er in Hel&#8217;s abode shall be!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>This goddess had many different abodes for the guests who daily came to her, for she received not only perjurers and criminals
+of all kinds, but also those who were unfortunate enough to die without shedding blood. To her realm also were consigned those
+who died of old age or disease&#8212;a mode of decease which was contemptuously called &#8220;straw death,&#8221; as the beds of the people
+were generally of that material.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 10em; ">&#8220;Temper&#8217;d hard by frost,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Tempest and toil their nerves, the sons of those
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Whose only terror was a bloodless death.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Thomson.</i>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb183" href="#pb183">183</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6010">
+<h3 class="normal">Ideas of the Future Life</h3>
+<p>Although the innocent were treated kindly by Hel, and enjoyed a state of negative bliss, it is no wonder that the inhabitants
+of the North shrank from the thought of visiting her cheerless abode. And while the men preferred to mark themselves with
+the spear point, to hurl themselves down from a precipice, or to be burned ere life was quite extinct, the women did not shrink
+from equally heroic measures. In the extremity of their sorrow, they did not hesitate to fling themselves down a mountain
+side, or fall upon the swords which were given them at their marriage, so that their bodies might be burned with those whom
+they loved, and their spirits released to join them in the bright home of the gods.
+
+</p>
+<p>Further horrors, however, awaited those whose lives had been criminal or impure, these spirits being banished to Nastrond,
+the strand of corpses, where they waded in ice-cold streams of venom, through a cave made of wattled serpents, whose poisonous
+fangs were turned towards them. After suffering untold agonies there, they were washed down into the cauldron Hvergelmir,
+where the serpent Nidhug ceased for a moment gnawing the root of the tree Yggdrasil to feed upon their bones.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;A hall standing
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Far from the sun
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In N&acirc;str&ouml;nd;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Its doors are northward turned,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Venom-drops fall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In through its apertures;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Entwined is that hall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With serpents&#8217; backs.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">She there saw wading
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The sluggish streams
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb184" href="#pb184">184</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Bloodthirsty men
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And perjurers,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And him who the ear beguiles
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of another&#8217;s wife.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There Nidhog sucks
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The corpses of the dead.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6055">
+<h3 class="normal">Pestilence and Famine</h3>
+<p>Hel herself was supposed occasionally to leave her dismal abode to range the earth upon her three-legged white horse, and
+in times of pestilence or famine, if a part of the inhabitants of a district escaped, she was said to use a rake, and when
+whole villages and provinces were depopulated, as in the case of the historical epidemic of the Black Death, it was said that
+she had ridden with a broom.
+
+</p>
+<p>The Northern races further fancied that the spirits of the dead were sometimes allowed to revisit the earth and appear to
+their relatives, whose sorrow or joy affected them even after death, as is related in the Danish ballad of Aager and Else,
+where a dead lover bids his sweetheart smile, so that his coffin may be filled with roses instead of the clotted blood drops
+produced by her tears.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;Listen now, my good Sir Aager!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Dearest bridegroom, all I crave
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Is to know how it goes with thee
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">In that lonely place, the grave.&#8217;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;Every time that thou rejoicest,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And art happy in thy mind,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Are my lonely grave&#8217;s recesses
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">All with leaves of roses lined.<span class="corr" id="xd0e6080" title="Not in source">&#8217;</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;Every time that, love, thou grievest,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And dost shed the briny flood,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Are my lonely grave&#8217;s recesses
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Filled with black and loathsome blood.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Ballad of Aager and Else (Longfellow&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb185" href="#pb185">185</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch20" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XX: &AElig;gir</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6099">
+<h3 class="normal">The God of the Sea</h3>
+<p>Besides Ni&ouml;rd and Mimir, who were both ocean divinities, the one representing the sea near the coast and the other the prim&aelig;val
+ocean whence all things were supposed to have sprung, the Northern races recognised another sea-ruler, called &AElig;gir or Hler,
+who dwelt either in the cool depths of his liquid realm or had his abode on the Island of Lessoe, in the Cattegat, or Hlesey.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Beneath the watery dome,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">With crystalline splendour,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">In radiant grandeur,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Upreared the sea-god&#8217;s home.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">More dazzling than foam of the waves
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">E&#8217;er glimmered and gleamed thro&#8217; deep caves
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The glistening sands of its floor,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Like some placid lake rippled o&#8217;er.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>&AElig;gir (the sea), like his brothers Kari (the air) and Loki (fire), is supposed to have belonged to an older dynasty of the
+gods, for he ranked neither with the &AElig;sir, the Vanas, the giants, dwarfs, or elves, but was considered omnipotent within his
+realm.
+
+</p>
+<p>He was supposed to occasion and quiet the great tempests which swept over the deep, and was generally represented as a gaunt
+old man, with long white beard and hair, and clawlike fingers ever clutching convulsively, as though he longed to have all
+things within his grasp. Whenever he appeared above the waves, it was only to pursue and overturn vessels, and to greedily
+drag them to the bottom of the sea, a vocation in which he was thought to take fiendish delight.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb186" href="#pb186">186</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6130">
+<h3 class="normal">The Goddess Ran</h3>
+<p>&AElig;gir was mated with his sister, the goddess Ran, whose name means &#8220;robber,&#8221; and who was as cruel, greedy, and insatiable as
+her husband. Her favourite pastime was to lurk near dangerous rocks, whither she enticed mariners, and there spread her net,
+her most prized possession, when, having entangled the men in its meshes and broken their vessels on the jagged cliffs, she
+would calmly draw them down into her cheerless realm.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In the deep sea caves
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">By the sounding shore,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In the dashing waves
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">When the wild storms roar,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In her cold green bowers
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">In the Northern fiords,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">She lurks and she glowers,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">She grasps and she hoards,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And she spreads her strong net for her prey.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Story of Siegfried (Baldwin).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p186" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p186.jpg" alt="&AElig;gir" width="485" height="720"><p class="figureHead">&AElig;gir</p>
+<p>J. P. Molin</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Ran was considered the goddess of death for all who perished at sea, and the Northern nations fancied that she entertained
+the drowned in her coral caves, where her couches were spread to receive them, and where the mead flowed freely as in Valhalla.
+The goddess was further supposed to have a great affection for gold, which was called the &#8220;flame of the sea,&#8221; and was used
+to illuminate her halls. This belief originated with the sailors, and sprang from the striking phosphorescent gleam of the
+waves. To win Ran&#8217;s good graces, the Northmen were careful to hide some gold about them whenever any special danger threatened
+them on the sea.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Gold, on sweetheart ramblings,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Pow&#8217;rful is and pleasant;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line"><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb187" href="#pb187">187</a>]</span>Who goes empty-handed
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Down to sea-blue Ran,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Cold her kisses strike, and
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fleeting her embrace is&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But we ocean&#8217;s bride be-
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Troth with purest gold.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6189">
+<h3 class="normal">The Waves</h3>
+<p>&AElig;gir and Ran had nine beautiful daughters, the Waves, or billow-maidens, whose snowy arms and bosoms, long golden hair, deep-blue
+eyes, and willowy, sensuous forms were fascinating in the extreme. These maidens delighted in sporting over the surface of
+their father&#8217;s vast domain, clad lightly in transparent blue, white, or green veils. They were very moody and capricious,
+however, varying from playful to sullen and apathetic moods, and at times exciting one another almost to madness, tearing
+their hair and veils, flinging themselves recklessly upon their hard beds, the rocks, chasing one another with frantic haste,
+and shrieking aloud with joy or despair. But they seldom came out to play unless their brother, the Wind, were abroad, and
+according to his mood they were gentle and playful, or rough and boisterous.
+
+</p>
+<p>The Waves were generally supposed to go about in triplets, and were often said to play around the ships of vikings whom they
+favoured, smoothing away every obstacle from their course, and helping them to reach speedily their goals.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And &AElig;ger&#8217;s daughters, in blue veils dight,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The helm leap round, and urge it on its flight.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6205">
+<h3 class="normal">&AElig;gir&#8217;s Brewing Kettle</h3>
+<p>To the Anglo-Saxons the sea-god &AElig;gir was known by <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb188" href="#pb188">188</a>]</span>the name of Eagor, and whenever an unusually large wave came thundering towards the shore, the sailors were wont to cry, as
+the Trent boatmen still do, &#8220;Look out, Eagor is coming!&#8221; He was also known by the name of Hler (the shelterer) among the Northern
+nations, and of Gymir (the concealer), because he was always ready to hide things in the depths of his realm, and could be
+depended upon not to reveal the secrets entrusted to his care. And, because the waters of the sea were frequently said to
+seethe and hiss, the ocean was often called &AElig;gir&#8217;s brewing kettle or vat.
+
+</p>
+<p>The god&#8217;s two principal servants were Elde and Funfeng, emblems of the phosphorescence of the sea; they were noted for their
+quickness and they invariably waited upon the guests whom he invited to his banquets in the depths of the sea. &AElig;gir sometimes
+left his realm to visit the &AElig;sir in Asgard, where he was always royally entertained, and he delighted in Bragi&#8217;s many tales
+of the adventures and achievements of the gods. Excited by these narratives, as also by the sparkling mead which accompanied
+them, the god on one occasion ventured to invite the &AElig;sir to celebrate the harvest feast with him in Hlesey, where he promised
+to entertain them in his turn.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6214">
+<h3 class="normal">Thor and Hymir</h3>
+<p>Surprised at this invitation, one of the gods ventured to remind &AElig;gir that they were accustomed to dainty fare; whereupon
+the god of the sea declared that as far as eating was concerned they need be in no anxiety, as he was sure that he could cater
+for the most fastidious appetites; but he confessed that he was not so confident about drink, as his brewing kettle was rather
+small. Hearing this, Thor immediately volunteered to procure a suitable kettle, and set out with Tyr to obtain it. <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb189" href="#pb189">189</a>]</span>The two gods journeyed east of the Elivagar in Thor&#8217;s goat chariot, and leaving this at the house of the peasant Egil, Thialfi&#8217;s
+father, they wended their way on foot to the dwelling of the giant Hymir, who was known to own a kettle one mile deep and
+proportionately wide.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;There dwells eastward
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of Elivagar
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The all-wise Hymir,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">At heaven&#8217;s end.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">My sire, fierce of mood,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A kettle owns,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A capacious cauldron,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A rast in depth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Only the women were at home, however, and Tyr recognised in the elder&#8212;an ugly old hag with nine hundred heads&#8212;his own grandmother;
+while the younger, a beautiful young giantess, was, it appeared, his mother, and she received her son and his companion hospitably,
+and gave them to drink.
+
+</p>
+<p>After learning their errand, Tyr&#8217;s mother bade the visitors hide under some huge kettles, which rested upon a beam at the
+end of the hall, for her husband Hymir was very hasty and often slew his would-be guests with a single baleful glance. The
+gods quickly followed her advice, and no sooner were they concealed than the old giant Hymir came in. When his wife told him
+that visitors had come, he frowned so portentously, and flashed such a wrathful look towards their hiding-place, that the
+rafter split and the kettles fell with a crash, and, except the largest, were all dashed to pieces.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In shivers flew the pillar
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">At the J&ouml;tun&#8217;s glance;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The beam was first
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Broken in two.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb190" href="#pb190">190</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Eight kettles fell,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But only one of them,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A hard-hammered cauldron,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Whole from the column.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p190" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p190.jpg" alt="Ran" width="720" height="488"><p class="figureHead">Ran</p>
+<p>M. E. Winge</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The giant&#8217;s wife, however, prevailed upon her husband to welcome Tyr and Thor, and he slew three oxen for their refection;
+but great was his dismay to see the thunder-god eat two of these for his supper. Muttering that he would have to go fishing
+early the next morning to secure a breakfast for so voracious a guest, the giant retired to rest, and when at dawn the next
+day he went down to the shore, he was joined by Thor, who said that he had come to help him. The giant bade him secure his
+own bait, whereupon Thor coolly slew his host&#8217;s largest ox, Himinbrioter (heaven-breaker), and cutting off its head, he embarked
+with it and proceeded to row far out to sea. In vain Hymir protested that his usual fishing-ground had been reached, and that
+they might encounter the terrible Midgard snake were they to venture any farther; Thor persistently rowed on, until he fancied
+they were directly above this monster.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;On the dark bottom of the great salt lake,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Imprisoned lay the giant snake,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With naught his sullen sleep to break.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Thor&#8217;s Fishing, Oehlenschl&auml;ger (Pigott&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Baiting his powerful hook with the ox head, Thor angled for I&ouml;rmungandr, while the giant meantime drew up two whales, which
+seemed to him to be enough for an early morning meal. He was about to propose to return, therefore, when Thor suddenly felt
+a jerk, and began pulling as hard as he could, for he knew by the resistance of his prey, and the terrible storm created by
+its frenzied writhings, that he had hooked the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb191" href="#pb191">191</a>]</span>Midgard snake. In his determined efforts to force the snake to rise to the surface, Thor braced his feet so strongly against
+the bottom of the boat that he went through it and stood on the bed of the sea.
+
+</p>
+<p>After an indescribable struggle, the monster&#8217;s terrible venom-breathing head appeared, and Thor, seizing his hammer, was about
+to annihilate it when the giant, frightened by the proximity of I&ouml;rmungandr, and fearing lest the boat should sink and he
+should become the monster&#8217;s prey, cut the fishing-line, and thus allowed the snake to drop back like a stone to the bottom
+of the sea.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The knife prevails: far down beneath the main
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The serpent, spent with toil and pain,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To the bottom sank again.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Thor&#8217;s Fishing, Oehlenschl&auml;ger (Pigott&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Angry with Hymir for his inopportune interference, Thor dealt him a blow with his hammer which knocked him overboard; but
+Hymir, undismayed, waded ashore, and met the god as he returned to the beach. Hymir then took both whales, his spoil of the
+sea, upon his back, to carry them to the house; and Thor, wishing also to show his strength, shouldered boat, oars, and fishing
+tackle, and followed him.
+
+</p>
+<p>Breakfast being disposed of, Hymir challenged Thor to prove his strength by breaking his beaker; but although the thunder-god
+threw it with irresistible force against stone pillars and walls, it remained whole and was not even bent. In obedience to
+a whisper from Tyr&#8217;s mother, however, Thor suddenly hurled the vessel against the giant&#8217;s forehead, the only substance tougher
+than itself, when it fell shattered to the ground. Hymir, having thus tested the might of Thor, told him he could have the
+kettle which the two gods had come to seek, but Tyr tried to lift it in vain, and Thor could <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb192" href="#pb192">192</a>]</span>raise it from the floor only after he had drawn his belt of strength to the very last hole.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Tyr twice assayed
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To move the vessel,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yet at each time
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Stood the kettle fast.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then M&ocirc;di&#8217;s father
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By the brim grasped it,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And trod through
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The dwelling&#8217;s floor.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Hymir (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.)</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The wrench with which he finally pulled it up did great damage to the giant&#8217;s house and his feet broke through the floor.
+As Tyr and Thor were departing, the latter with the huge pot clapped on his head in place of a hat, Hymir summoned his brother
+frost giants, and proposed that they should pursue and slay their inveterate foe. Turning round, Thor suddenly became aware
+of their pursuit, and, hurling Mi&ouml;lnir repeatedly at the giants, he slew them all ere they could overtake him. Tyr and Thor
+then resumed their journey back to &AElig;gir, carrying the kettle in which he was to brew ale for the harvest feast.
+
+</p>
+<p>The physical explanation of this myth is, of course, a thunder storm (Thor), in conflict with the raging sea (the Midgard
+snake), and the breaking up of the polar ice (Hymir&#8217;s goblet and floor) in the heat of summer.
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods now arrayed themselves in festive attire and proceeded joyfully to &AElig;gir&#8217;s feast, and ever after they were wont to
+celebrate the harvest home in his coral caves.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then Vans and &AElig;sir, mighty gods,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of earth and air, and Asgard, lords,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Advancing with each goddess fair,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A brilliant retinue most rare,&#8212;
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb193" href="#pb193">193</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Attending mighty Odin, swept
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Up wave-worn aisle in radiant march.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6356">
+<h3 class="normal">Unloved Divinities</h3>
+<p>&AElig;gir, as we have seen, ruled the sea with the help of the treacherous Ran. Both of these divinities were considered cruel
+by the Northern nations, who had much to suffer from the sea, which, surrounding them on all sides, ran far into the heart
+of their countries through the numerous fiords, and often swallowed the ships of their vikings, with all their warrior crews.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6361">
+<h3 class="normal">Other Divinities of the Sea</h3>
+<p>Besides these principal divinities of the sea, the Northern nations believed in mermen and mermaids, and many stories are
+related of mermaids who divested themselves for a brief while of swan plumage or seal-garments, which they left upon the beach
+to be found by mortals who were thus able to compel the fair maidens to remain on land.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;She came through the waves when the fair moon shone
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">(Drift o&#8217; the wave and foam o&#8217; the sea);
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">She came where I walked on the sands alone,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">With a heart as light as a heart may be.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>L. E. R.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>There were also malignant marine monsters known as Nicors, from whose name has been derived the proverbial Old Nick. Many
+of the lesser water divinities had fish tails; the females bore the name of Undines, and the males of Stromkarls, Nixies,
+Necks, or Neckar.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Where in the marisches boometh the bittern,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nicker the Soul-less sits with his ghittern,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sits inconsolable, friendless and foeless,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wailing his destiny, Nicker the Soul-less.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>From Brother Fabian&#8217;s Manuscript.</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb194" href="#pb194">194</a>]</span></p>
+<p>In the middle ages these water spirits were believed sometimes to leave their native streams, to appear at village dances,
+where they were recognised by the wet hem of their garments. They often sat beside the flowing brook or river, playing on
+a harp, or singing alluring songs while combing out their long golden or green hair.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The Neck here his harp in the glass castle plays,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And mermaidens comb out their green hair always,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And bleach here their shining white clothes.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Stagnelius (Keightley&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The Nixies, Undines, and Stromkarls were particularly gentle and lovable beings, and were very anxious to obtain repeated
+assurances of their ultimate salvation.
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p194" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p194.jpg" alt="The Neckan" width="495" height="720"><p class="figureHead">The Neckan</p>
+<p>J. P. Molin</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Many stories are told of priests or children meeting them playing by a stream, and taunting them with future damnation, which
+threat never failed to turn the joyful music into pitiful wails. Often priest or children, discovering their mistake, and
+touched by the agony of their victims, would hasten back to the stream and assure the green-toothed water sprites of future
+redemption, when they invariably resumed their happy strains.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Know you the Nixies, gay and fair?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Their eyes are black, and green their hair&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">They lurk in sedgy shores.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Mathisson</i>.
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6430">
+<h3 class="normal">River Nymphs</h3>
+<p>Besides Elf or Elb, the water sprite who gave its name to the Elbe River in Germany, the Neck, from whom the Neckar derives
+its name, and old Father Rhine, with his numerous daughters (tributary streams), the most famous of all the lesser water divinities
+is the Lorelei, the siren maiden who sits upon the Lorelei <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb195" href="#pb195">195</a>]</span>rock near St. Goar, on the Rhine, and whose alluring song has enticed many a mariner to death. The legends concerning this
+siren are very numerous indeed, one of the most ancient being as follows:
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6437">
+<h3 class="normal">Legends of the Lorelei</h3>
+<p>Lorelei was an immortal, a water nymph, daughter of Father Rhine; during the day she dwelt in the cool depths of the river
+bed, but late at night she would appear in the moonlight, sitting aloft upon a pinnacle of rock, in full view of all who passed
+up or down the stream. At times, the evening breeze wafted some of the notes of her song to the boatmen&#8217;s ears, when, forgetting
+time and place in listening to these enchanting melodies, they drifted upon the sharp and jagged rocks, where they invariably
+perished.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Above the maiden sitteth,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">A wondrous form, and fair;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With jewels bright she plaiteth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Her shining golden hair:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With comb of gold prepares it,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">The task with song beguiled;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A fitful burden bears it&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">That melody so wild.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The boatman on the river
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Lists to the song, spell-bound;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Oh! what shall him deliver
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">From danger threat&#8217;ning round?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The waters deep have caught them,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Both boat and boatman brave;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Tis Loreley&#8217;s song hath brought them
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Beneath the foaming wave.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Song, Heine (Selcher&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>One person only is said to have seen the Lorelei close by. This was a young fisherman from Oberwesel, who met her every evening
+by the riverside, and spent a few delightful hours with her, drinking in her beauty <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb196" href="#pb196">196</a>]</span>and listening to her entrancing song. Tradition had it that ere they parted the Lorelei pointed out the places where the youth
+should cast his nets on the morrow&#8212;instructions which he always obeyed, and which invariably brought him success.
+
+</p>
+<p>One night the young fisherman was seen going towards the river, but as he never returned search was made for him. No clue
+to his whereabouts being found, the credulous Teutons finally reported that the Lorelei had dragged him down to her coral
+caves that she might enjoy his companionship for ever.
+
+</p>
+<p>According to another version, the Lorelei, with her entrancing strains from the craggy rocks, lured so many fishermen to a
+grave in the depths of Rhine, that an armed force was once sent at nightfall to surround and seize her. But the water nymph
+laid such a powerful spell upon the captain and his men that they could move neither hand nor foot. While they stood motionless
+around her, the Lorelei divested herself of her ornaments, and cast them into the waves below; then, chanting a spell, she
+lured the waters to the top of the crag upon which she was perched, and to the wonder of the soldiers the waves enclosed a
+sea-green chariot drawn by white-maned steeds, and the nymph sprang lightly into this and the magic equipage was instantly
+lost to view. A few moments later the Rhine subsided to its usual level, the spell was broken, and the men recovered power
+of motion, and retreated to tell how their efforts had been baffled. Since then, however, the Lorelei has not been seen, and
+the peasants declare that she still resents the insult offered her and will never again leave her coral caves.
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb197" href="#pb197">197</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch21" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XXI: Balder</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6492">
+<h3 class="normal">The Best Loved</h3>
+<p>To Odin and Frigga, we are told, were born twin sons as dissimilar in character and physical appearance as it was possible
+for two children to be. Hodur, god of darkness, was sombre, taciturn, and blind, like the obscurity of sin, which he was supposed
+to symbolise, while his brother Balder, the beautiful, was worshipped as the pure and radiant god of innocence and light.
+From his snowy brow and golden locks seemed to radiate beams of sunshine which gladdened the hearts of gods and men, by whom
+he was equally beloved.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Of all the twelve round Odin&#8217;s throne,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Balder, the Beautiful, alone,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The Sun-god, good, and pure, and bright,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Was loved by all, as all love light.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The youthful Balder attained his full growth with marvellous rapidity, and was early admitted to the council of the gods.
+He took up his abode in the palace of Breidablik, whose silver roof rested upon golden pillars, and whose purity was such
+that nothing common or unclean was ever allowed within its precincts, and here he lived in perfect unity with his young wife
+Nanna (blossom), the daughter of Nip (bud), a beautiful and charming goddess.
+
+</p>
+<p>The god of light was well versed in the science of runes, which were carved on his tongue; he knew the various virtues of
+simples, one of which, the camomile, was called &#8220;Balder&#8217;s brow,&#8221; because its flower was as immaculately pure as his forehead.
+The only thing hidden from Balder&#8217;s radiant eyes was the perception of his own ultimate fate.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb198" href="#pb198">198</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">&#8220;His own house
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Breidablik, on whose columns Balder graved
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The enchantments that recall the dead to life.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For wise he was, and many curious arts,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Postures of runes, and healing herbs he knew;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Unhappy! but that art he did not know,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To keep his own life safe, and see the sun.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6535">
+<h3 class="normal">Balder&#8217;s Dream</h3>
+<p>As it was so natural for Balder the beautiful to be smiling and happy, the gods were greatly troubled when on a day they began
+to notice a change in his bearing. Gradually the light died out of his blue eyes, a careworn look came into his face, and
+his step grew heavy and slow. Odin and Frigga, seeing their beloved son&#8217;s evident depression, tenderly implored him to reveal
+the cause of his silent grief. Balder, yielding at last to their anxious entreaties, confessed that his slumbers, instead
+of being peaceful and restful as of yore, had been strangely troubled of late by dark and oppressive dreams, which, although
+he could not clearly remember them when he awoke, constantly haunted him with a vague feeling of fear.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;To that god his slumber
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Was most afflicting;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His auspicious dreams
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Seemed departed.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Vegtam (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>When Odin and Frigga heard this, they were very uneasy, but declared that nothing would harm their universally beloved son.
+Nevertheless, when the anxious parents further talked the matter over, they confessed that they also were oppressed by strange
+forebodings, and, coming at last to believe that Balder&#8217;s life was really threatened, they proceeded to take measures to avert
+the danger.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb199" href="#pb199">199</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Frigga sent her servants in every direction, with strict charge to prevail upon all living creatures, all plants, metals,
+stones&#8212;in fact, every animate and inanimate thing&#8212;to register a solemn vow not to harm Balder. All creation readily took the
+oath, for there was nothing on earth which did not love the radiant god. So the servants returned to Frigga, telling her that
+all had been duly sworn save the mistletoe, growing upon the oak stem at the gate of Valhalla, and this, they added, was such
+a puny, inoffensive thing that no harm could be feared from it.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;On a course they resolved:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That they would send
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To every being,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Assurance to solicit,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Balder not to harm.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">All species swore
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Oaths to spare him;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Frigg received all
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Their vows and compacts.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Frigga now resumed her spinning in great content, for she felt assured that no harm could come to the child she loved above
+all.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6583">
+<h3 class="normal">The Vala&#8217;s Prophecy</h3>
+<p>Odin, in the meantime, had resolved to consult one of the dead Vala or prophetesses. Mounted upon his eight-footed steed Sleipnir,
+he rode over the tremulous bridge Bifr&ouml;st and over the weary road which leads to Giallar and the entrance of Nifl-heim, where,
+passing through the Helgate and by the dog Garm, he penetrated into Hel&#8217;s dark abode.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Uprose the king of men with speed,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And saddled straight his coal-black steed;
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb200" href="#pb200">200</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Down the yawning steep he rode,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That leads to Hela&#8217;s drear abode.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Descent of Odin (Gray).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin saw to his surprise that a feast was being spread in this dark realm, and that the couches had been covered with tapestry
+and rings of gold, as if some highly honoured guest were expected. But he hurried on without pausing, until he reached the
+spot where the Vala had rested undisturbed for many a year, when he began solemnly to chant a magic spell and to trace the
+runes which had the power of raising the dead.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thrice pronounc&#8217;d, in accents dread,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The thrilling verse that wakes the dead:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till from out the hollow ground
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Slowly breath&#8217;d a sullen sound.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Descent of Odin (Gray).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Suddenly the tomb opened, and the prophetess slowly rose, inquiring who had dared thus to trouble her long rest. Odin, not
+wishing her to know that he was the mighty father of gods and men, replied that he was Vegtam, son of Valtam, and that he
+had awakened her to inquire for whom Hel was spreading her couches and preparing a festive meal. In hollow tones, the prophetess
+confirmed all his fears by telling him that the expected guest was Balder, who was destined to be slain by Hodur, his brother,
+the blind god of darkness.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Hodur will hither
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His glorious brother send;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He of Balder will
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The slayer be,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And Odin&#8217;s son
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of life bereave.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By compulsion I have spoken;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Now I will be silent.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Despite the Vala&#8217;s evident reluctance to speak further, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb201" href="#pb201">201</a>]</span>Odin was not yet satisfied, and he prevailed upon her to tell him who would avenge the murdered god and call his slayer to
+account. For revenge and retaliation were considered as a sacred duty by the races of the North.
+
+</p>
+<p>Then the prophetess told him, as Rossthiof had already predicted, that Rinda, the earth-goddess, would bear a son to Odin,
+and that Vali, as this child would be named, would neither wash his face nor comb his hair until he had avenged upon Hodur
+the death of Balder.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In the caverns of the west,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By Odin&#8217;s fierce embrace comprest,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A wondrous boy shall Rinda bear,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Who ne&#8217;er shall comb his raven hair,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor wash his visage in the stream,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor see the sun&#8217;s departing beam,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till he on Hoder&#8217;s corse shall smile
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Flaming on the fun&#8217;ral pile.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Descent of Odin (Gray).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>When the reluctant Vala had thus spoken, Odin next asked: &#8220;Who would refuse to weep at Balder&#8217;s death?&#8221; This incautious question
+showed a knowledge of the future which no mortal could possess, and immediately revealed to the Vala the identity of her visitor.
+Therefore, refusing to speak another word, she sank back into the silence of the tomb, declaring that none would be able to
+lure her out again until the end of the world was come.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Hie thee hence, and boast at home,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That never shall inquirer come
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To break my iron sleep again,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till Lok has burst his tenfold chain;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Never, till substantial Night
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Has reassum&#8217;d her ancient right:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till wrapt in flames, in ruin hurl&#8217;d,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sinks the fabric of the world.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Descent of Odin (Gray).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb202" href="#pb202">202</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Odin having learned the decrees of Orlog (fate), which he knew could not be set aside, now remounted his steed, and sadly
+wended his way back to Asgard, thinking of the time, not far distant, when his beloved son would no more be seen in the heavenly
+abodes, and when the light of his presence would have vanished for ever.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p202" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p202.jpg" alt="Loki and Hodur" width="497" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Loki and Hodur</p>
+<p>C. G. Qvarnstr&ouml;m</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>On entering Glads-heim, however, Odin was somewhat reassured by the intelligence, promptly conveyed to him by Frigga, that
+all things under the sun had promised that they would not harm Balder, and feeling convinced that if nothing would slay their
+beloved son he must surely continue to gladden gods and men with his presence, he cast care aside and resigned himself to
+the pleasures of the festive board.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6702">
+<h3 class="normal">The Gods at Play</h3>
+<p>The playground of the gods was situated on the green plain of Ida, and was called Idavold. Here the gods would resort when
+in sportive mood, and their favourite game was to throw their golden disks, which they could cast with great skill. They had
+returned to this wonted pastime with redoubled zest since the cloud which had oppressed their spirits had been dispersed by
+the precautions of Frigga. Wearied at last, however, of the accustomed sport, they bethought them of a new game. They had
+learned that Balder could not be harmed by any missile, and so they amused themselves by casting all manner of weapons, stones,
+etc., at him, certain that no matter how cleverly they tried, and how accurately they aimed, the objects, having sworn not
+to injure him, would either glance aside or fall short. This new amusement proved to be so fascinating that soon all the gods
+gathered around Balder, greeting each new failure to hurt him with prolonged shouts of laughter.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb203" href="#pb203">203</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6708">
+<h3 class="normal">The Death of Balder</h3>
+<p>These bursts of merriment excited the curiosity of Frigga, who sat spinning in Fensalir; and seeing an old woman pass by her
+dwelling, she bade her pause and tell what the gods were doing to provoke such great hilarity. The old woman was none other
+than Loki in disguise, and he answered Frigga that the gods were throwing stones and other missiles, blunt and sharp, at Balder,
+who stood smiling and unharmed in their midst, challenging them to touch him.
+
+</p>
+<p>The goddess smiled, and resumed her work, saying that it was quite natural that nothing should harm Balder, as all things
+loved the light, of which he was the emblem, and had solemnly sworn not to injure him. Loki, the personification of fire,
+was greatly chagrined upon hearing this, for he was jealous of Balder, the sun, who so entirely eclipsed him and who was generally
+beloved, while he was feared and avoided as much as possible; but he cleverly concealed his vexation, and inquired of Frigga
+whether she were quite sure that all objects had joined the league.
+
+</p>
+<p>Frigga proudly answered that she had received the solemn oath of all things, a harmless little parasite, the mistletoe, which
+grew on the oak near Valhalla&#8217;s gate, only excepted, and this was too small and weak to be feared. This information was all
+that Loki wanted, and bidding adieu to Frigga he hobbled off. As soon as he was safely out of sight, however, he resumed his
+wonted form and hastened to Valhalla, where, at the gate, he found the oak and mistletoe as indicated by Frigga. Then by the
+exercise of magic arts he imparted to the parasite a size and hardness quite unnatural to it.
+
+</p>
+<p>From the wooden stem thus produced he deftly <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb204" href="#pb204">204</a>]</span>fashioned a shaft with which he hastened back to Idavold, where the gods were still hurling missiles at Balder, Hodur alone
+leaning mournfully against a tree the while, and taking no part in the game. Carelessly Loki approached the blind god, and
+assuming an appearance of interest, he inquired the cause of his melancholy, at the same time artfully insinuating that pride
+and indifference prevented him from participating in the sport. In answer to these remarks, Hodur pleaded that only his blindness
+deterred him from taking part in the new game, and when Loki put the mistletoe-shaft in his hand, and led him into the midst
+of the circle, indicating the direction of the novel target, Hodur threw his shaft boldly. But to his dismay, instead of the
+loud laughter which he expected, a shuddering cry of horror fell upon his ear, for Balder the beautiful had fallen to the
+ground, pierced by the fatal mistletoe.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;So on the floor lay Balder dead; and round
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Lay thickly strewn swords, axes, darts, and spears,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Which all the Gods in sport had idly thrown
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">At Balder, whom no weapon pierced or clove;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But in his breast stood fixed the fatal bough
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of mistletoe, which Lok, the Accuser, gave
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To Hoder, and unwitting Hoder threw&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Gainst that alone had Balder&#8217;s life no charm.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In dire anxiety the gods crowded around their beloved companion, but alas! life was quite extinct, and all their efforts to
+revive the fallen sun-god were unavailing. Inconsolable at their loss, they now turned angrily upon Hodur, whom they would
+there and then have slain had they not been restrained by the law of the gods that no wilful deed of violence should desecrate
+their peace-steads. The sound of their loud lamentation <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb205" href="#pb205">205</a>]</span>brought the goddesses in hot haste to the dreadful scene, and when Frigga saw that her darling was dead, she passionately
+implored the gods to go to Nifl-heim and entreat Hel to release her victim, for the earth could not exist happily without
+him.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6746">
+<h3 class="normal">Hermod&#8217;s Errand</h3>
+<p>As the road was rough and painful in the extreme, none of the gods would volunteer at first to go; but when Frigga promised
+that she and Odin would reward the messenger by loving him above all the &AElig;sir, Hermod signified his readiness to execute the
+commission. To enable him to do so, Odin lent him Sleipnir, and the noble steed, who was not wont to allow any but Odin upon
+his back, set off without demur upon the dark road which his hoofs had beaten twice before.
+
+</p>
+<p>Meantime, Odin caused the body of Balder to be removed to Breidablik, and he directed the gods to go to the forest and cut
+down huge pines wherewith to build a worthy pyre.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But when the Gods were to the forest gone,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hermod led Sleipnir from Valhalla forth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And saddled him; before that, Sleipnir brook&#8217;d
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">No meaner hand than Odin&#8217;s on his mane,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On his broad back no lesser rider bore;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yet docile now he stood at Hermod&#8217;s side,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Arching his neck, and glad to be bestrode,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Knowing the God they went to seek, how dear.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But Hermod mounted him, and sadly fared
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In silence up the dark untravell&#8217;d road
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Which branches from the north of Heaven, and went
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">All day; and daylight waned, and night came on.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And all that night he rode, and journey&#8217;d so,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nine days, nine nights, toward the northern ice,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Through valleys deep-engulph&#8217;d by roaring streams.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And on the tenth morn he beheld the bridge
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Which spans with golden arches Giall&#8217;s stream,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb206" href="#pb206">206</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">And on the bridge a damsel watching, arm&#8217;d,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In the straight passage, at the further end,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where the road issues between walling rocks.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p206" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p206.jpg" alt="The Death of Balder" width="720" height="492"><p class="figureHead">The Death of Balder</p>
+<p>Dorothy Hardy</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6806">
+<h3 class="normal">The Funeral Pyre</h3>
+<p>While Hermod was speeding along the cheerless road which led to Nifl-heim, the gods hewed and carried down to the shore a
+vast amount of fuel, which they piled upon the deck of Balder&#8217;s dragon-ship, Ringhorn, constructing an elaborate funeral pyre.
+According to custom, this was decorated with tapestry hangings, garlands of flowers, vessels and weapons of all kinds, golden
+rings, and countless objects of value, ere the immaculate corpse, richly attired, was brought and laid upon it.
+
+</p>
+<p>One by one, the gods now drew near to take a last farewell of their beloved companion, and as Nanna bent over him, her loving
+heart broke, and she fell lifeless by his side. Seeing this, the gods reverently laid her beside her husband, that she might
+accompany him even in death; and after they had slain his horse and hounds and twined the pyre with thorns, the emblems of
+sleep, Odin, last of the gods, drew near.
+
+</p>
+<p>In token of affection for the dead and of sorrow for his loss, all had lain their most precious possessions upon his pyre,
+and Odin, bending down, now added to the offerings his magic ring Draupnir. It was noted by the assembled gods that he was
+whispering in his dead son&#8217;s ear, but none were near enough to hear what word he said.
+
+</p>
+<p>These sad preliminaries ended, the gods now prepared to launch the ship, but found that the heavy load of fuel and treasures
+resisted their combined efforts and they could not make the vessel stir an inch. The mountain giants, witnessing the scene
+from afar, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb207" href="#pb207">207</a>]</span>noticing their quandary, now drew near and said that they knew of a giantess called Hyrrokin, who dwelt in J&ouml;tun-heim, and
+was strong enough to launch the vessel without any other aid. The gods therefore bade one of the storm giants hasten off to
+summon Hyrrokin, and she soon appeared, mounted upon a gigantic wolf, which she guided by a bridle made of writhing snakes.
+Riding down to the shore, the giantess dismounted and haughtily signified her readiness to give the required aid, if in the
+meantime the gods would take charge of her steed. Odin immediately despatched four of his maddest Berserkers to hold the wolf;
+but, in spite of their phenomenal strength, they could not restrain the monstrous creature until the giantess had thrown it
+down and bound it fast.
+
+</p>
+<p>Hyrrokin, seeing that now they would be able to manage her refractory steed, strode along the strand to where, high up from
+the water&#8217;s edge, lay Balder&#8217;s mighty ship Ringhorn.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Seventy ells and four extended
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">On the grass the vessel&#8217;s keel;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">High above it, gilt and splendid,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Rose the figure-head ferocious
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">With its crest of steel.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Setting her shoulder against its stern, with a supreme effort she sent it with a rush into the water. Such was the weight
+of the mass, however, and the rapidity with which it shot down into the sea, that the earth shook as if from an earthquake,
+and the rollers on which the ship glided caught fire from the friction. The unexpected shock almost caused the gods to lose
+their balance, and this so angered Thor that he raised his hammer and would have slain the giantess had he not been restrained
+by his companions. Easily appeased, as <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb208" href="#pb208">208</a>]</span>usual&#8212;for Thor&#8217;s temper, although quickly roused, was evanescent&#8212;he now boarded the vessel once more to consecrate the funeral
+pyre with his sacred hammer. As he was performing this ceremony, the dwarf Lit provokingly stumbled into his way, whereupon
+Thor, who had not entirely recovered his equanimity, kicked him into the fire, which he had just kindled with a thorn, and
+the dwarf was burned to ashes with the bodies of the divine pair.
+
+</p>
+<p>The great ship now drifted out to sea, and the flames from the pyre presented a magnificent spectacle, which assumed a greater
+glory with every passing moment, until, when the vessel neared the western horizon, it seemed as if sea and sky were on fire.
+Sadly the gods watched the glowing ship and its precious freight, until suddenly it plunged into the waves and disappeared;
+nor did they turn aside and return to Asgard until the last spark of light had vanished, and the world, in token of mourning
+for Balder the good, was enveloped in a mantle of darkness.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Soon with a roaring rose the mighty fire,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the pile crackled; and between the logs
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sharp quivering tongues of flame shot out, and leapt
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Curling and darting, higher, until they lick&#8217;d
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The summit of the pile, the dead, the mast,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And ate the shrivelling sails; but still the ship
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Drove on, ablaze above her hull with fire.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the gods stood upon the beach, and gazed;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And while they gazed, the sun went lurid down
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Into the smoke-wrapt sea, and night came on.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then the wind fell with night, and there was calm;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But through the dark they watch&#8217;d the burning ship
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Still carried o&#8217;er the distant waters, on
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Farther and farther, like an eye of fire.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So show&#8217;d in the far darkness, Balder&#8217;s pile;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But fainter, as the stars rose high, it flared;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The bodies were consumed, ash choked the pile.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And as, in a decaying winter fire,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb209" href="#pb209">209</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">A charr&#8217;d log, falling, makes a shower of sparks&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So, with a shower of sparks, the pile fell in,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Reddening the sea around; and all was dark.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6890">
+<h3 class="normal">Hermod&#8217;s Quest</h3>
+<p>Sadly the gods entered Asgard, where no sounds of merriment or feasting greeted the ear, for all hearts were filled with anxious
+concern for the end of all things which was felt to be imminent. And truly the thought of the terrible Fimbul-winter, which
+was to herald their death, was one well calculated to disquiet the gods.
+
+</p>
+<p>Frigga alone cherished hope, and she watched anxiously for the return of her messenger, Hermod the swift, who, meanwhile,
+had ridden over the tremulous bridge, and along the dark Hel-way, until, on the tenth night, he had crossed the rushing tide
+of the river Gi&ouml;ll. Here he was challenged by M&ouml;dgud, who inquired why the Giallar-bridge trembled more beneath his horse&#8217;s
+tread than when a whole army passed, and asked why he, a living rider, was attempting to penetrate into the dreaded realm
+of Hel.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Who art thou on thy black and fiery horse,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Under whose hoofs the bridge o&#8217;er Giall&#8217;s stream
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Rumbles and shakes? Tell me thy race and home.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But yestermorn five troops of dead pass&#8217;d by,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Bound on their way below to Hela&#8217;s realm,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor shook the bridge so much as thou alone.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And thou hast flesh and colour on thy cheeks,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Like men who live, and draw the vital air;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor look&#8217;st thou pale and wan, like man deceased,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Souls bound below, my daily passers here.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Hermod explained to M&ouml;dgud the reason of his coming, and, having ascertained that Balder and Nanna <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb210" href="#pb210">210</a>]</span>had ridden over the bridge before him, he hastened on, until he came to the gate, which rose forbiddingly before him.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p210" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p210.jpg" alt="Hermod before Hela" width="489" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Hermod before Hela</p>
+<p>J. C. Dollman</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Nothing daunted by this barrier, Hermod dismounted on the smooth ice, and tightening the girths of his saddle, remounted,
+and burying his spurs deep into Sleipnir&#8217;s sleek sides, he put him to a prodigious leap, which landed them safely on the other
+side of Hel-gate.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thence on he journey&#8217;d o&#8217;er the fields of ice
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Still north, until he met a stretching wall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Barring his way, and in the wall a grate.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then he dismounted, and drew tight the girths,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On the smooth ice, of Sleipnir, Odin&#8217;s horse,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And made him leap the grate, and came within.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Riding onward, Hermod came at last to Hel&#8217;s banqueting-hall, where he found Balder, pale and dejected, lying upon a couch,
+his wife Nanna beside him, gazing fixedly at a beaker of mead, which apparently he had no heart to quaff.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6954">
+<h3 class="normal">The Condition of Balder&#8217;s Release</h3>
+<p>In vain Hermod informed his brother that he had come to redeem him; Balder shook his head sadly, saying that he knew he must
+remain in his cheerless abode until the last day should come, but he implored Hermod to take Nanna back with him, as the home
+of the shades was no place for such a bright and beautiful creature. But when Nanna heard this request she clung more closely
+to her husband&#8217;s side, vowing that nothing would ever induce her to part from him, and that she would stay with him for ever,
+even in Nifl-heim.
+
+</p>
+<p>The long night was spent in close conversation, ere Hermod sought Hel and implored her to release Balder. The churlish goddess
+listened in silence to his request, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb211" href="#pb211">211</a>]</span>and declared finally that she would allow her victim to depart provided that all things animate and inanimate would show their
+sorrow for his loss by shedding tears.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Come then! if Balder was so dear beloved,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And this is true, and such a loss is Heaven&#8217;s&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hear, how to Heaven may Balder be restored.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Show me through all the world the signs of grief!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fails but one thing to grieve, here Balder stops!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Let all that lives and moves upon the earth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Weep him, and all that is without life weep;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Let Gods, men, brutes, beweep him; plants and stones.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So shall I know the lost was dear indeed,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And bend my heart, and give him back to Heaven.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>This answer was full of encouragement, for all Nature mourned the loss of Balder, and surely there was nothing in all creation
+which would withhold the tribute of a tear. So Hermod cheerfully made his way out of Hel&#8217;s dark realm, carrying with him the
+ring Draupnir, which Balder sent back to Odin, an embroidered carpet from Nanna for Frigga, and a ring for Fulla.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e6990">
+<h3 class="normal">The Return of Hermod</h3>
+<p>The assembled gods crowded anxiously round Hermod as soon as he returned, and when he had delivered his messages and gifts,
+the &AElig;sir sent heralds to every part of the world to bid all things animate and inanimate weep for Balder.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Go quickly forth through all the world, and pray
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">All living and unliving things to weep
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Balder, if haply he may thus be won!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>North, South, East and West rode the heralds, and as they passed tears fell from every plant and tree, so <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb212" href="#pb212">212</a>]</span>that the ground was saturated with moisture, and metals and stones, despite their hard hearts, wept too.
+
+</p>
+<p>The way at last led back to Asgard, and by the road-side was a dark cave, in which the messengers saw, crouching, the form
+of a giantess named Thok, whom some mythologists suppose to have been Loki in disguise. When she was called upon to shed a
+tear, she mocked the heralds, and fleeing into the dark recesses of her cave, she declared that no tear should fall from her
+eyes, and that, for all she cared, Hel might retain her prey for ever.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thok she weepeth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With dry tears
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For Balder&#8217;s death&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Neither in life, nor yet in death,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gave he me gladness.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Let Hel keep her prey.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Elder Edda (Howitt&#8217;s version).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As soon as the returning messengers arrived in Asgard, the gods crowded round them to learn the result of their mission; but
+their faces, all aglow with the joy of anticipation, grew dark with despair when they heard that one creature had refused
+the tribute of tears, wherefore they would behold Balder in Asgard no more.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Balder, the Beautiful, shall ne&#8217;er
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From Hel return to upper air!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Betrayed by Loki, <i>twice</i> betrayed,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The prisoner of Death is made;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ne&#8217;er shall he &#8217;scape the place of doom
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till fatal Ragnarok be come!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7051">
+<h3 class="normal">Vali the Avenger</h3>
+<p>The decrees of fate had not yet been fully consummated, and the final act of the tragedy remains to be briefly stated.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb213" href="#pb213">213</a>]</span></p>
+<p>We have already seen how Odin succeeded after many rebuffs in securing the consent of Rinda to their union, and that the son
+born of this marriage was destined to avenge the death of Balder. The advent of this wondrous infant now took place, and Vali
+the Avenger, as he was called, entered Asgard on the day of his birth, and on that very same day he slew Hodur with an arrow
+from a bundle which he seems to have carried for the purpose. Thus the murderer of Balder, unwitting instrument though he
+was, atoned for the crime with his blood, according to the code of the true Norseman.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7059">
+<h3 class="normal">The Signification of the Story</h3>
+<p>The physical explanation of this myth is to be found either in the daily setting of the sun (Balder), which sinks beneath
+the western waves, driven away by darkness (Hodur), or in the ending of the short Northern summer and the long reign of the
+winter season. &#8220;Balder represents the bright and clear summer, when twilight and daylight kiss each other and go hand in hand
+in these Northern latitudes.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Balder&#8217;s pyre, of the sun a mark,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Holy hearth red staineth;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yet, soon dies its last faint spark,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Darkly then Hoder reigneth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;His death by Hodur is the victory of darkness over light, the darkness of winter over the light of summer; and the revenge
+by Vali is the breaking forth of new light after the wintry darkness.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>Loki, the fire, is jealous of Balder, the pure light of heaven, who alone among the Northern gods never fought, but was always
+ready with words of conciliation and peace.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb214" href="#pb214">214</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But from thy lips, O Balder, night or day,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Heard no one ever an injurious word
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To God or Hero, but thou keptest back
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The others, labouring to compose their brawls.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The tears shed by all things for the beloved god are symbolical of the spring thaw, setting in after the hardness and cold
+of winter, when every tree and twig, and even the stones drip with moisture; Thok (coal) alone shows no sign of tenderness,
+as she is buried deep within the dark earth and needs not the light of the sun.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And as in winter, when the frost breaks up,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">At winter&#8217;s end, before the spring begins,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And a warm west wind blows, and thaw sets in&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">After an hour a dripping sound is heard
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In all the forests, and the soft-strewn snow
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Under the trees is dibbled thick with holes,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And from the boughs the snow loads shuffle down;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And, in fields sloping to the south, dark plots
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of grass peep out amid surrounding snow,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And widen, and the peasant&#8217;s heart is glad&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So through the world was heard a dripping noise
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of all things weeping to bring Balder back;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And there fell joy upon the Gods to hear.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>From the depths of their underground prison, the sun (Balder) and vegetation (Nanna) try to cheer heaven (Odin) and earth
+(Frigga) by sending them the ring Draupnir, the emblem of fertility, and the flowery tapestry, symbolical of the carpet of
+verdure which will again deck the earth and enhance her charms with its beauty.
+
+</p>
+<p>The ethical signification of the myth is no less beautiful, for Balder and Hodur are symbols of the conflicting forces of
+good and evil, while Loki impersonates the tempter.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb215" href="#pb215">215</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But in each human soul we find
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That night&#8217;s dark Hoder, Balder&#8217;s brother blind,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Is born and waxeth strong as he;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For blind is ev&#8217;ry evil born, as bear cubs be,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Night is the cloak of evil; but all good
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hath ever clad in shining garments stood.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The busy Loke, tempter from of old,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Still forward treads incessant, and doth hold
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The blind one&#8217;s murder hand, whose quick-launch&#8217;d spear
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Pierceth young Balder&#8217;s breast, that sun of Valhal&#8217;s sphere!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7160">
+<h3 class="normal">The Worship of Balder</h3>
+<p>One of the most important festivals was held at the summer solstice, or midsummer&#8217;s eve, in honour of Balder the good, for
+it was considered the anniversary of his death and of his descent into the lower world. On that day, the longest in the year,
+the people congregated out of doors, made great bonfires, and watched the sun, which in extreme Northern latitudes barely
+dips beneath the horizon ere it rises upon a new day. From midsummer, the days gradually grow shorter, and the sun&#8217;s rays
+less warm, until the winter solstice, which was called the &#8220;Mother night,&#8221; as it was the longest night in the year. Midsummer&#8217;s
+eve, once celebrated in honour of Balder, is now called St. John&#8217;s day, that saint having entirely supplanted Balder the good.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb216" href="#pb216">216</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch22" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XXII: Loki</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7169">
+<h3 class="normal">The Spirit of Evil</h3>
+<p>Besides the hideous giant Utgard-Loki, the personification of mischief and evil, whom Thor and his companions visited in J&ouml;tun-heim,
+the ancient Northern nations had another type of sin, whom they called Loki also, and whom we have already seen under many
+different aspects.
+
+</p>
+<p>In the beginning, Loki was merely the personification of the hearth fire and of the spirit of life. At first a god, he gradually
+becomes &#8220;god and devil combined,&#8221; and ends in being held in general detestation as an exact counterpart of the medi&aelig;val Lucifer,
+the prince of lies, &#8220;the originator of deceit, and the back-biter&#8221; of the &AElig;sir.
+
+</p>
+<p>By some authorities Loki was said to be the brother of Odin, but others assert that the two were not related, but had merely
+gone through the form of swearing blood brotherhood common in the North.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Odin! dost thou remember
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When we in early days
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Blended our blood together?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When to taste beer
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou did&#8217;st constantly refuse
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Unless to both &#8217;twas offered?&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7195">
+<h3 class="normal">Loki&#8217;s Character</h3>
+<p>While Thor is the embodiment of Northern activity, Loki represents recreation, and the close companionship early established
+between these two gods shows very plainly how soon our ancestors realised that both were necessary to the welfare of mankind.
+Thor is ever busy and ever in earnest, but Loki makes fun of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb217" href="#pb217">217</a>]</span>everything, until at last his love of mischief leads him entirely astray, and he loses all love for goodness and becomes utterly
+selfish and malevolent.
+
+</p>
+<p>He represents evil in the seductive and seemingly beautiful form in which it parades through the world. Because of this deceptive
+appearance the gods did not at first avoid him, but treated him as one of themselves in all good-fellowship, taking him with
+them wherever they went, and admitting him not only to their merry-makings, but also to their council hall, where, unfortunately,
+they too often listened to his advice.
+
+</p>
+<p>As we have already seen, Loki played a prominent part in the creation of man, endowing him with the power of motion, and causing
+the blood to circulate freely through his veins, whereby he was inspired with passions. As personification of fire as well
+as of mischief, Loki (lightning) is often seen with Thor (thunder), whom he accompanies to J&ouml;tun-heim to recover his hammer,
+to Utgard-Loki&#8217;s castle, and to Geirrod&#8217;s house. It is he who steals Freya&#8217;s necklace and Sif&#8217;s hair, and betrays Idun into
+the power of Thiassi; and although he sometimes gives the gods good advice and affords them real help, it is only to extricate
+them from some predicament into which he has rashly inveigled them.
+
+</p>
+<p>Some authorities declare that, instead of making part of the creative trilogy (Odin, Hoenir, and Lodur or Loki), this god
+originally belonged to a pre-Odinic race of deities, and was the son of the great giant Fornjotnr (Ymir), his brothers being
+Kari (air) and Hler (water), and his sister Ran, the terrible goddess of the sea. Other mythologists, however, make him the
+son of the giant Farbauti, who has been identified with Bergelmir, the sole survivor of the deluge, and of Laufeia (leafy
+isle) or Nal (vessel), his mother, thus stating that his connection <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb218" href="#pb218">218</a>]</span>with Odin was only that of the Northern oath of good-fellowship.
+
+</p>
+<p>Loki (fire) first married Glut (glow), who bore him two daughters, Eisa (embers) and Einmyria (ashes); it is therefore very
+evident that Norsemen considered him emblematic of the hearth-fire, and when the flaming wood crackles on the hearth the goodwives
+in the North are still wont to say that Loki is beating his children. Besides this wife, Loki is also said to have wedded
+the giantess Angur-boda (the anguish-boding), who dwelt in J&ouml;tun-heim, and who, as we have already seen, bore him the three
+monsters: Hel, goddess of death, the Midgard snake I&ouml;rmungandr, and the grim wolf Fenris.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Loki begat the wolf
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With Angur-boda.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7221">
+<h3 class="normal">Sigyn</h3>
+<p>Loki&#8217;s third marriage was with Sigyn, who proved a most loving and devoted wife, and bore him two sons, Narve and Vali, the
+latter a namesake of the god who avenged Balder. Sigyn was always faithful to her husband, and did not forsake him even after
+he had definitely been cast out of Asgard and confined in the bowels of the earth.
+
+</p>
+<p>As Loki was the embodiment of evil in the minds of the Northern races, they entertained nothing but fear of him, built no
+temples to his honour, offered no sacrifices to him, and designated the most noxious weeds by his name. The quivering, overheated
+atmosphere of summer was supposed to betoken his presence, for the people were then wont to remark that Loki was sowing his
+wild oats, and when the sun appeared to be drawing water they said Loki was drinking.
+
+</p>
+<p>The story of Loki is so inextricably woven with that <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb219" href="#pb219">219</a>]</span>of the other gods that most of the myths relating to him have already been told, and there remain but two episodes of his
+life to relate, one showing his better side before he had degenerated into the arch deceiver, and the other illustrating how
+he finally induced the gods to defile their peace-steads by wilful murder.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7232">
+<h3 class="normal">Skrymsli and the Peasant&#8217;s Child</h3>
+<p>A giant and a peasant were playing a game together one day (probably a game of chess, which was a favourite winter pastime
+with the Northern vikings). They of course had determined to play for certain stakes, and the giant, being victorious, won
+the peasant&#8217;s only son, whom he said he would come and claim on the morrow unless the parents could hide him so cleverly that
+he could not be found.
+
+</p>
+<p>Knowing that such a feat would be impossible for them to perform, the parents fervently prayed to Odin to help them, and in
+answer to their entreaties the god came down to earth, and changed the boy into a tiny grain of wheat, which he hid in an
+ear of grain in the midst of a large field, declaring that the giant would not be able to find him. The giant Skrymsli, however,
+possessed wisdom far beyond what Odin imagined, and, failing to find the child at home, he strode off immediately to the field
+with his scythe, and mowing the wheat he selected the particular ear where the boy was hidden. Counting over the grains of
+wheat he was about to lay his hand upon the right one when Odin, hearing the child&#8217;s cry of distress, snatched the kernel
+out of the giant&#8217;s hand, and restored the boy to his parents, telling them that he had done all in his power to help them.
+But as the giant vowed he had been cheated, and would again claim the boy on the morrow unless the parents could outwit him,
+the unfortunate <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb220" href="#pb220">220</a>]</span>peasants now turned to Hoenir for aid. The god heard them graciously and changed the boy into a fluff of down, which he hid
+in the breast of a swan swimming in a pond close by. Now when, a few minutes later, Skrymsli came up, he guessed what had
+occurred, and seizing the swan, he bit off its neck, and would have swallowed the down had not Hoenir wafted it away from
+his lips and out of reach, restoring the boy safe and sound to his parents, but telling them that he could not further aid
+them.
+
+</p>
+<p>Skrymsli warned the parents that he would make a third attempt to secure the child, whereupon they applied in their despair
+to Loki, who carried the boy out to sea, and concealed him, as a tiny egg, in the roe of a flounder. Returning from his expedition,
+Loki encountered the giant near the shore, and seeing that he was bent upon a fishing excursion, he insisted upon accompanying
+him. He felt somewhat uneasy lest the terrible giant should have seen through his device, and therefore thought it would be
+well for him to be on the spot in case of need. Skrymsli baited his hook, and was more or less successful in his angling,
+when suddenly he drew up the identical flounder in which Loki had concealed his little charge. Opening the fish upon his knee,
+the giant proceeded to minutely examine the roe, until he found the egg which he was seeking.
+
+</p>
+<p>The plight of the boy was certainly perilous, but Loki, watching his chance, snatched the egg out of the giant&#8217;s grasp, and
+transforming it again into the child, he instructed him secretly to run home, passing through the boathouse on his way and
+closing the door behind him. The terrified boy did as he was told immediately he found himself on land, and the giant, quick
+to observe his flight, dashed after him into the boathouse. Now Loki had cunningly placed a sharp spike in such a position
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb221" href="#pb221">221</a>]</span>that the great head of the giant ran full tilt against it, and he sank to the ground with a groan, whereupon Loki, seeing
+him helpless, cut off one of his legs. Imagine the god&#8217;s dismay, however, when he saw the pieces join and immediately knit
+together. But Loki was a master of guile, and recognising this as the work of magic, he cut off the other leg, promptly throwing
+flint and steel between the severed limb and trunk, and thereby hindering any further sorcery. The peasants were immensely
+relieved to find that their enemy was slain, and ever after they considered Loki the mightiest of all the heavenly council,
+for he had delivered them effectually from their foe, while the other gods had lent only temporary aid.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7247">
+<h3 class="normal">The Giant Architect</h3>
+<p>Notwithstanding their wonderful bridge Bifr&ouml;st, the tremulous way, and the watchfulness of Heimdall, the gods could not feel
+entirely secure in Asgard, and were often fearful lest the frost giants should make their way into Asgard. To obviate this
+possibility, they finally decided to build an impregnable fortress; and while they were planning how this could be done, an
+unknown architect came with an offer to undertake the construction, provided the gods would give him sun, moon, and Freya,
+goddess of youth and beauty, as reward. The gods were wroth at so presumptuous an offer, but when they would have indignantly
+driven the stranger from their presence, Loki urged them to make a bargain which it would be impossible for the stranger to
+keep, and so they finally told the architect that the guerdon should be his, provided the fortress were finished in the course
+of a single winter, and that he accomplished the work with no other assistance than that of his horse Svadilfare.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb222" href="#pb222">222</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;To Asgard came an architect,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And castle offered to erect,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">A castle high
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Which should defy
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Deep Jotun guile and giant raid;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And this most wily compact made:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fair Freya, with the Moon and Sun,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As price the fortress being done.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J.C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p222" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p222.jpg" alt="Loki and Svadilfari" width="720" height="495"><p class="figureHead">Loki and Svadilfari</p>
+<p>Dorothy Hardy</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The unknown architect agreed to these seemingly impossible conditions, and immediately set to work, hauling ponderous blocks
+of stone by night, building during the day, and progressing so rapidly that the gods began to feel somewhat anxious. Ere long
+they noticed that more than half the labour was accomplished by the wonderful steed Svadilfare, and when they saw, near the
+end of winter, that the work was finished save only one portal, which they knew the architect could easily erect during the
+night:
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Horror and fear the gods beset;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Finished almost the castle stood!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">In three days more
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">The work be o&#8217;er;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Then must they make their contract good,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And pay the awful debt.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Terrified lest they should be called upon to part, not only with the sun and moon, but also with Freya, the personification
+of the youth and beauty of the world, the gods turned upon Loki, and threatened to kill him unless he devised some means of
+hindering the architect from finishing the work within the specified time.
+
+</p>
+<p>Loki&#8217;s cunning proved once more equal to the situation. He waited until nightfall of the final day, when, as Svadilfare passed
+the fringe of a forest, painfully dragging one of the great blocks of stone required for <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb223" href="#pb223">223</a>]</span>the termination of the work, he rushed out from a dark glade in the guise of a mare, and neighed so invitingly that, in a
+trice, the horse kicked himself free of his harness and ran after the mare, closely pursued by his angry master. The mare
+galloped swiftly on, artfully luring horse and master deeper and deeper into the forest shades, until the night was nearly
+gone, and it was no longer possible to finish the work. The architect was none other than a redoubtable Hrim-thurs, in disguise,
+and he now returned to Asgard in a towering rage at the fraud which had been practised upon him. Assuming his wonted proportions,
+he would have annihilated the gods had not Thor suddenly returned from a journey and slain him with his magic hammer Mi&ouml;lnir,
+which he hurled with terrific force full in his face.
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods had saved themselves on this occasion only by fraud and by the violent deed of Thor, and these were destined to bring
+great sorrow upon them, and eventually to secure their downfall, and to hasten the coming of Ragnarok. Loki, however, felt
+no remorse for his part, and in due time, it is said, he became the parent of an eight-footed steed called Sleipnir, which,
+as we have seen, was Odin&#8217;s favourite mount.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But Sleipnir he begat
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With Svadilfari.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Hyndla (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Loki performed so many evil deeds during his career that he richly deserved the title of &#8220;arch deceiver&#8221; which was given him.
+He was generally hated for his subtle malicious ways, and for an inveterate habit of prevarication which won for him also
+the title of &#8220;prince of lies.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7320">
+<h3 class="normal">Loki&#8217;s last Crime</h3>
+<p>Loki&#8217;s last crime, and the one which filled his measure <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb224" href="#pb224">224</a>]</span>of iniquity, was to induce Hodur to throw the fatal mistletoe at Balder, whom he hated merely on account of his immaculate
+purity. Perhaps even this crime might have been condoned had it not been for his obduracy when, in the disguise of the old
+woman Thok, he was called upon to shed a tear for Balder. His action on this occasion convinced the gods that nothing but
+evil remained within him, and they pronounced unanimously upon him the sentence of perpetual banishment from Asgard.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7327">
+<h3 class="normal">&AElig;gir&#8217;s Banquet</h3>
+<p>To divert the gods&#8217; sadness and make them, for a short time, forget the treachery of Loki and the loss of Balder, &AElig;gir, god
+of the sea, invited them to partake of a banquet in his coral caves at the bottom of the sea.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Now, to assuage the high gods&#8217; grief
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And bring their mourning some relief,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">From coral caves
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">&#8217;Neath ocean waves,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Mighty King &AElig;gir
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Invited the &AElig;sir
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">To festival
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">In Hlesey&#8217;s hall;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That, tho&#8217; for Baldur every guest
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Was grieving yet,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">He might forget
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Awhile his woe in friendly feast.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones)</i><span class="corr" id="xd0e7360" title="Not in source">.</span>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods gladly accepted the invitation, and clad in their richest garb, and with festive smiles, they appeared in the coral
+caves at the appointed time. None were absent save the radiant Balder, for whom many a regretful sigh was heaved, and the
+evil Loki, whom none could regret. In the course of the feast, however, this last-named god appeared in their midst like a
+dark <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb225" href="#pb225">225</a>]</span>shadow, and when bidden to depart, he gave vent to his evil passions in a torrent of invective against the gods.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Of the &AElig;sir and the Alfar
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That are here within
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Not one has a friendly word for thee.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>&AElig;gir&#8217;s Compotation, or Loki&#8217;s Altercation (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Then, jealous of the praises which Funfeng, &AElig;gir&#8217;s servant, had won for the dexterity with which he waited upon his master&#8217;s
+guests, Loki suddenly turned upon him and slew him. At this wanton crime, the gods in fierce wrath drove Loki away once more,
+threatening him with dire punishment should he ever appear before them again.
+
+</p>
+<p>Scarcely had the &AElig;sir recovered from this disagreeable interruption to their feast, and resumed their places at the board,
+when Loki came creeping in once more, resuming his slanders with venomous tongue, and taunting the gods with their weaknesses
+or shortcomings, dwelling maliciously upon their physical imperfections, and deriding them for their mistakes. In vain the
+gods tried to stem his abuse; his voice rose louder and louder, and he was just giving utterance to some base slander about
+Sif, when he was suddenly cut short by the sight of Thor&#8217;s hammer, angrily brandished by an arm whose power he knew full well,
+and he fled incontinently.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Silence, thou impure being!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">My mighty hammer, Mi&ouml;llnir,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shall stop thy prating.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I will thy head
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From thy neck strike;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then will thy life be ended.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>&AElig;gir&#8217;s Compotation, or Loki&#8217;s Altercation (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7399">
+<h3 class="normal">The Pursuit of Loki</h3>
+<p>Knowing that he could now have no hope of being <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb226" href="#pb226">226</a>]</span>admitted into Asgard again, and that sooner or later the gods, seeing the effect of his evil deeds, would regret having permitted
+him to roam the world, and would try either to bind or slay him, Loki withdrew to the mountains, where he built himself a
+hut, with four doors which he always left wide open to permit of a hasty escape. Carefully laying his plans, he decided that
+if the gods should come in search of him he would rush down to the neighbouring cataract, according to tradition the Fraananger
+force or stream, and, changing himself into a salmon, would thus evade his pursuers. He reasoned, however, that although he
+could easily avoid any hook, it might be difficult for him to effect his escape if the gods should fashion a net like that
+of the sea-goddess Ran.
+
+</p>
+<p>Haunted by this fear, he decided to test the possibility of making such a mesh, and started to make one out of twine. He was
+still engaged upon the task when Odin, Kvasir, and Thor suddenly appeared in the distance; and knowing that they had discovered
+his retreat, Loki threw his half-finished net into the fire, and, rushing through one of his ever-open doors, he leaped into
+the waterfall, where, in the shape of a salmon, he hid among some stones in the bed of the stream.
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods, finding the hut empty, were about to depart, when Kvasir perceived the remains of the burnt net on the hearth. After
+some thought an inspiration came to him, and he advised the gods to weave a similar implement and use it in searching for
+their foe in the neighbouring stream, since it would be like Loki to choose such a method of baffling their pursuit. This
+advice seemed good and was immediately followed, and, the net finished, the gods proceeded to drag the stream. Loki eluded
+the net at its first cast <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb227" href="#pb227">227</a>]</span>by hiding at the bottom of the river between two stones; and when the gods weighted the mesh and tried a second time, he effected
+his escape by jumping up stream. A third attempt to secure him proved successful, however, for, as he once more tried to get
+away by a sudden leap, Thor caught him in mid-air and held him so fast, that he could not escape. The salmon, whose slipperiness
+is proverbial in the North, is noted for its remarkably slim tail, and Norsemen attribute this to Thor&#8217;s tight grasp upon
+his foe.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7412">
+<h3 class="normal">Loki&#8217;s Punishment</h3>
+<p>Loki now sullenly resumed his wonted shape, and his captors dragged him down into a cavern, where they made him fast, using
+as bonds the entrails of his son Narve, who had been torn to pieces by Vali, his brother, whom the gods had changed into a
+wolf for the purpose. One of these fetters was passed under Loki&#8217;s shoulders, and one under his loins, thereby securing him
+firmly hand and foot; but the gods, not feeling quite satisfied that the strips, tough and enduring though they were, would
+not give way, changed them into adamant or iron.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thee, on a rock&#8217;s point,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With the entrails of thy ice-cold son,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The gods will bind.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Skadi, the giantess, a personification of the cold mountain stream, who had joyfully watched the fettering of her foe (subterranean
+fire), now fastened a serpent directly over his head, so that its venom would fall, drop by drop, upon his upturned face.
+But Sigyn, Loki&#8217;s faithful wife, hurried with a cup to his side, and until the day of Ragnarok she remained by him, catching
+the drops as they fell, and never leaving her post <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb228" href="#pb228">228</a>]</span>except when her vessel was full, and she was obliged to empty it. Only during her short absences could the drops of venom
+fall upon Loki&#8217;s face, and then they caused such intense pain that he writhed with anguish, his efforts to get free shaking
+the earth and producing the earthquakes which so frighten mortals.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Ere they left him in his anguish,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">O&#8217;er his treacherous brow, ungrateful,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Skadi hung a serpent hateful,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Venom drops for aye distilling,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Every nerve with torment filling;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thus shall he in horror languish.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By him, still unwearied kneeling,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Sigyn at his tortured side,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Faithful wife! with beaker stealing
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Drops of venom as they fall,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Agonising poison all!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sleepless, changeless, ever dealing
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Comfort, will she still abide;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Only when the cup&#8217;s o&#8217;erflowing
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Must fresh pain and smarting cause,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Swift, to void the beaker going,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Shall she in her watching pause.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Then doth Loki
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Loudly cry;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Shrieks of terror,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Groans of horror,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Breaking forth in thunder peals
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With his writhings scared Earth reels.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Trembling and quaking,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">E&#8217;en high Heav&#8217;n shaking!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So wears he out his awful doom,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Until dread Ragnarok be come.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In this painful position Loki was destined to remain until the twilight of the gods, when his bonds would be loosed, and he
+would take part in the fatal conflict on the battlefield of Vigrid, falling at last by the hand of Heimdall, who would be
+slain at the same time.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p228" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p228.jpg" alt="Loki and Sigyn" width="550" height="712"><p class="figureHead">Loki and Sigyn</p>
+<p>M. E. Winge</p>
+</div><p>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb229" href="#pb229">229</a>]</span></p>
+<p>As we have seen, the venom-dropping snake in this myth is the cold mountain stream, whose waters, falling from time to time
+upon subterranean fire, evaporate in steam, which escapes through fissures, and causes earthquakes and geysers, phenomena
+with which the inhabitants of Iceland, for instance, were very familiar.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7503">
+<h3 class="normal">Loki&#8217;s Day</h3>
+<p>When the gods were reduced to the rank of demons by the introduction of Christianity, Loki was confounded with Saturn, who
+had also been shorn of his divine attributes, and both were considered the prototypes of Satan. The last day of the week,
+which was held sacred to Loki, was known in the Norse as Laugardag, or wash-day, but in English it was changed to Saturday,
+and was said to owe its name not to Saturn but to Sataere, the thief in ambush, and the Teutonic god of agriculture, who is
+supposed to be merely another personification of Loki.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb230" href="#pb230">230</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch23" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XXIII: The Giants</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7512">
+<h3 class="normal">J&ouml;tun-heim</h3>
+<p>As we have already seen, the Northern races imagined that the giants were the first creatures who came to life among the icebergs
+which filled the vast abyss of Ginnunga-gap. These giants were from the very beginning the opponents and rivals of the gods,
+and as the latter were the personifications of all that is good and lovely, the former were representative of all that was
+ugly and evil.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;He comes&#8212;he comes&#8212;the Frost Spirit comes! on the rushing northern blast,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the dark Norwegian pines have bowed as his fearful breath went past.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With an unscorched wing he has hurried on, where the fires on Hecla glow
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On the darkly beautiful sky above and the ancient ice below.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>J. G. Whittier.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p230" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p230.jpg" alt="Thor and the Giants" width="550" height="714"><p class="figureHead">Thor and the Giants</p>
+<p>M. E. Winge</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>When Ymir, the first giant, fell lifeless on the ice, slain by the gods, his progeny were drowned in his blood. One couple
+only, Bergelmir and his wife, effected their escape to J&ouml;tun-heim, where they took up their abode and became the parents of
+all the giant race. In the North the giants were called by various names, each having a particular meaning. J&ouml;tun, for instance,
+meant &#8220;the great eater,&#8221; for the giants were noted for their enormous appetites as well as for their uncommon size. They were
+fond of drinking as well as of eating, wherefore they were also called Thurses, a word which some writers claim had the same
+meaning as thirst; but others think they owed this name to the high towers (&#8220;turseis&#8221;) which they were supposed to have built.
+As the giants were antagonistic to the gods, the latter always strove to force them to remain in J&ouml;tun-heim, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb231" href="#pb231">231</a>]</span>which was situated in the cold regions of the Pole. The giants were almost invariably worsted in their encounters with the
+gods, for they were heavy and slow-witted, and had nothing but stone weapons to oppose to the &AElig;sir&#8217;s bronze. In spite of this
+inequality, however, they were sometimes greatly envied by the gods, for they were thoroughly conversant with all knowledge
+relating to the past. Even Odin was envious of this attribute, and no sooner had he secured it by a draught from Mimir&#8217;s spring
+than he hastened to J&ouml;tun-heim to measure himself against Vafthrudnir, the most learned of the giant brood. But he might never
+have succeeded in defeating his antagonist in this strange encounter had he not ceased inquiring about the past and propounded
+a question relating to the future.
+
+</p>
+<p>Of all the gods Thor was most feared by the J&ouml;tuns, for he was continually waging war against the frost and mountain giants,
+who would fain have bound the earth for ever in their rigid bands, thus preventing men from tilling the soil. In fighting
+against them, Thor, as we have already seen, generally had recourse to his terrible hammer Mi&ouml;lnir.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7543">
+<h3 class="normal">Origin of the Mountains</h3>
+<p>According to German legends the uneven surface of the earth was due to the giants, who marred its smoothness by treading upon
+it while it was still soft and newly created, while streams were formed from the copious tears shed by the giantesses upon
+seeing the valleys made by their husbands&#8217; huge footprints. As such was the Teutonic belief, the people imagined that the
+giants, who personified the mountains to them, were huge uncouth creatures, who could only move about in the darkness or fog,
+and were petrified as soon <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb232" href="#pb232">232</a>]</span>as the first rays of sunlight pierced through the gloom or scattered the clouds.
+
+</p>
+<p>This belief led them to name one of their principal mountain chains the Riesengebirge (giant mountains). The Scandinavians
+also shared this belief, and to this day the Icelanders designate their highest mountain peaks by the name of Jokul, a modification
+of the word &#8220;J&ouml;tun.&#8221; In Switzerland, where the everlasting snows rest upon the lofty mountain tops, the people still relate
+old stories of the time when the giants roamed abroad; and when an avalanche came crashing down the mountain side, they say
+the giants have restlessly shaken off part of the icy burden from their brows and shoulders.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7552">
+<h3 class="normal">The First Gods</h3>
+<p>As the giants were also personifications of snow, ice, cold, stone, and subterranean fire, they were said to be descended
+from the primitive Fornjotnr, whom some authorities identify with Ymir. According to this version of the myth, Fornjotnr had
+three sons: Hler, the sea; Kari, the air; and Loki, fire. These three divinities, the first gods, formed the oldest trinity,
+and their respective descendants were the sea giants Mimir, Gymir, and Grendel, the storm giants Thiassi, Thrym, and Beli,
+and the giants of fire and death, such as the Fenris wolf and Hel.
+
+</p>
+<p>As all the royal dynasties claimed descent from some mythical being, the Merovingians asserted that their first progenitor
+was a sea giant, who rose out of the waves in the form of an ox, and surprised the queen while she was walking alone on the
+seashore, compelling her to become his wife. She gave birth to a son named Meroveus, the founder of the first dynasty of Frankish
+kings.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb233" href="#pb233">233</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Many stories have already been told about the most important giants. They reappear in many of the later myths and fairy-tales,
+and manifest, after the introduction of Christianity, a peculiar dislike to the sound of church bells and the singing of monks
+and nuns.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7562">
+<h3 class="normal">The Giant in Love</h3>
+<p>The Scandinavians relate, in this connection, that in the days of Olaf the Saint a giant called Senjemand, dwelt on the Island
+of Senjen, and he was greatly incensed because a nun on the Island of Grypto daily sang her morning hymn. This giant fell
+in love with a beautiful maiden called Juterna-jesta, and it was long ere he could find courage to propose to her. When at
+last he made his halting request, the fair damsel scornfully rejected him, declaring that he was far too old and ugly for
+her taste.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Miserable Senjemand&#8212;ugly and grey!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou win the maid of Kvedfiord!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">No&#8212;a churl thou art and shalt ever remain.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Ballad (Brace&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In his anger at being thus scornfully refused, the giant swore vengeance, and soon after he shot a great flint arrow from
+his bow at the maiden, who dwelt eighty miles away. Another lover, Torge, also a giant, seeing her peril and wishing to protect
+her, flung his hat at the speeding arrow. This hat was a thousand feet high and proportionately broad and thick, nevertheless
+the arrow pierced the headgear, falling short, however, of its aim. Senjemand, seeing that he had failed, and fearing the
+wrath of Torge, mounted his steed and prepared to ride off as quickly as possible; but the sun, rising just then above the
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb234" href="#pb234">234</a>]</span>horizon, turned him into stone, together with the arrow and Torge&#8217;s hat, the huge pile being known as the Torghatten mountain.
+The people still point to an obelisk which they say is the stone arrow; to a hole in the mountain, 289 feet high and 88 feet
+wide, which they say is the aperture made by the arrow in its flight through the hat; and to the horseman on Senjen Island,
+apparently riding a colossal steed and drawing the folds of his wide cavalry cloak closely about him. As for the nun whose
+singing had so disturbed Senjemand, she was petrified too, and never troubled any one with her psalmody again.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p234" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p234.jpg" alt="Torghatten" width="720" height="492"><p class="figureHead">Torghatten</p>
+<p>From a photograph by S. J. Beckett, F.R.P.S.</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7589">
+<h3 class="normal">The Giant and the Church Bells</h3>
+<p>Another legend relates that one of the mountain giants, annoyed by the ringing of church bells more than fifty miles away,
+once caught up a huge rock, which he hurled at the sacred building. Fortunately it fell short and broke in two. Ever since
+then, the peasants say that the trolls come on Christmas Eve to raise the largest piece of stone upon golden pillars, and
+to dance and feast beneath it. A lady, wishing to know whether this tale were true, once sent her groom to the place. The
+trolls came forward and hospitably offered him a drink from a horn mounted in gold and ornamented with runes. Seizing the
+horn, the groom flung its contents away and dashed off with it at a mad gallop, closely pursued by the trolls, from whom he
+escaped only by passing through a stubble field and over running water. Some of their number visited the lady on the morrow
+to claim this horn, and when she refused to part with it they laid a curse upon her, declaring that her castle would be burned
+down every time the horn should be removed. The prediction has thrice been fulfilled, and now the family guard <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb235" href="#pb235">235</a>]</span>the relic with superstitious care. A similar drinking vessel, obtained in much the same fashion by the Oldenburg family, is
+exhibited in the collection of the King of Denmark.
+
+</p>
+<p>The giants were not supposed to remain stationary, but were said to move about in the darkness, sometimes transporting masses
+of earth and sand, which they dropped here and there. The sandhills in northern Germany and Denmark were supposed to have
+been thus formed.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7598">
+<h3 class="normal">The Giants&#8217; Ship</h3>
+<p>A North Frisian tradition relates that the giants possessed a colossal ship, called Mannigfual, which constantly cruised about
+in the Atlantic Ocean. Such was the size of this vessel that the captain was said to patrol the deck on horseback, while the
+rigging was so extensive and the masts so high that the sailors who went up as youths came down as gray-haired men, having
+rested and refreshed themselves in rooms fashioned and provisioned for that purpose in the huge blocks and pulleys.
+
+</p>
+<p>By some mischance it happened that the pilot once directed the immense vessel into the North Sea, and wishing to return to
+the Atlantic as soon as possible, yet not daring to turn in such a small space, he steered into the English Channel. Imagine
+the dismay of all on board when they saw the passage growing narrower and narrower the farther they advanced. When they came
+to the narrowest spot, between Calais and Dover, it seemed barely possible that the vessel, drifting along with the current,
+could force its way through. The captain, with laudable presence of mind, promptly bade his men soap the sides of the ship,
+and to lay an extra-thick layer on the starboard, where the rugged cliffs of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb236" href="#pb236">236</a>]</span>Dover rose threateningly. These orders were no sooner carried out than the vessel entered the narrow space, and, thanks to
+the captain&#8217;s precaution, it slipped safely through. The rocks of Dover scraped off so much soap, however, that ever since
+they have been particularly white, and the waves dashing against them still have an unusually foamy appearance.
+
+</p>
+<p>This exciting experience was not the only one through which the Mannigfual passed, for we are told that it once, nobody knows
+how, penetrated into the Baltic Sea, where, the water not being deep enough to keep the vessel afloat, the captain ordered
+all the ballast to be thrown overboard. The material thus cast on either side of the vessel into the sea formed the two islands
+of Bornholm and Christianso&euml;.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7609">
+<h3 class="normal">Princess Ilse</h3>
+<p>In Thuringia and in the Black Forest the stories of the giants are legion, and one of the favourites with the peasants is
+that about Ilse, the lovely daughter of the giant of the Ilsenstein. She was so charming that far and wide she was known as
+the Beautiful Princess Ilse, and was wooed by many knights, of whom she preferred the Lord of Westerburg. But her father did
+not at all approve of her consorting with a mere mortal, and forbade her to see her lover. Princess Ilse was wilful, however,
+and in spite of her sire&#8217;s prohibition she daily visited her lover. The giant, exasperated by her persistency and disobedience,
+finally stretched out his huge hands and, seizing the rocks, tore a great gap between the height where he dwelt and the castle
+of Westerburg. Upon this, Princess Ilse, going to the cleft which parted her from her lover, recklessly flung herself over
+the precipice into the raging flood beneath, and was there changed into <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb237" href="#pb237">237</a>]</span>a bewitching undine. She dwelt in the limpid waters for many a year, appearing from time to time to exercise her fascinations
+upon mortals, and even, it is said, captivating the affections of the Emperor Henry, who paid frequent visits to her cascade.
+Her last appearance, according to popular belief, was at Pentecost, a hundred years ago; and the natives have not yet ceased
+to look for the beautiful princess, who is said still to haunt the stream and to wave her white arms to entice travellers
+into the cool spray of the waterfall.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;I am the Princess Ilse,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And I dwell at the Ilsenstein;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Come with me to my castle,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And bliss shall be mine and thine.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;With the cool of my glass-clear waters
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Thy brow and thy locks I&#8217;ll lave;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And thou&#8217;lt think of thy sorrows no longer,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">For all that thou look&#8217;st so grave.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;With my white arms twined around thee,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And lapped on my breast so white,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou shalt lie, and dream of elf-land&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Its loves and wild delight.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Heine (Martin&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7647">
+<h3 class="normal">The Giantess&#8217;s Plaything</h3>
+<p>The giants inhabited all the earth before it was given to mankind, and it was only with reluctance that they made way for
+the human race, and retreated into the waste and barren parts of the country, where they brought up their families in strict
+seclusion. Such was the ignorance of their offspring, that a young giantess, straying from home, once came to an inhabited
+valley, where for the first time in her life she saw a farmer ploughing on the hillside. Deeming him a pretty plaything, she
+caught him up with his team, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb238" href="#pb238">238</a>]</span>and thrusting them into her apron, she gleefully carried them home to exhibit to her father. But the giant immediately bade
+her carry peasant and horses back to the place where she had found them, and when she had done so he sadly explained that
+the creatures whom she took for mere playthings, would eventually drive the giant folk away, and become masters of the earth.
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb239" href="#pb239">239</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch24" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XXIV: The Dwarfs</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7658">
+<h3 class="normal">Little Men</h3>
+<p>In the first chapter we saw how the black elves, dwarfs, or Svart-alfar, were bred like maggots in the flesh of the slain
+giant Ymir. The gods, perceiving these tiny, unformed creatures creeping in and out, gave them form and features, and they
+became known as dark elves, on account of their swarthy complexions. These small beings were so homely, with their dark skin,
+green eyes, large heads, short legs, and crow&#8217;s feet, that they were enjoined to hide underground, being commanded never to
+show themselves during the daytime lest they should be turned into stone. Although less powerful than the gods, they were
+far more intelligent than men, and as their knowledge was boundless and extended even to the future, gods and men were equally
+anxious to question them.
+
+</p>
+<p>The dwarfs were also known as trolls, kobolds, brownies, goblins, pucks, or Huldra folk, according to the country where they
+dwelt.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;You are the grey, grey Troll,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">With the great green eyes,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But I love you, grey, grey Troll&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">You are so wise!</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Tell me this sweet morn,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Tell me all you know&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Tell me, was I born?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Tell me, did I grow?&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Legend of the Little Fay (Buchanan).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7687">
+<h3 class="normal">The Tarnkappe</h3>
+<p>These little beings could transport themselves with marvellous celerity from one place to another, and they loved to conceal
+themselves behind rocks, when they <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb240" href="#pb240">240</a>]</span>would mischievously repeat the last words of conversations overheard from such hiding-places. Owing to this well-known trick,
+the echoes were called dwarfs&#8217; talk, and people fancied that the reason why the makers of such sounds were never seen was
+because each dwarf was the proud possessor of a tiny red cap which made the wearer invisible. This cap was called Tarnkappe,
+and without it the dwarfs dared not appear above the surface of the earth after sunrise for fear of being petrified. When
+wearing it they were safe from this peril.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Away! let not the sun view me&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">I dare no longer stay;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">An Elfin-child, thou wouldst me see,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">To stone turn at his ray.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>La Motte-Fouqu&eacute;.</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7707">
+<h3 class="normal">The Legend of Kallundborg</h3>
+<p>Helva, daughter of the Lord of Nesvek, was loved by Esbern Snare, whose suit, however, was rejected by the proud father with
+the scornful words: &#8220;When thou shalt build at Kallundborg a stately church, then will I give thee Helva to wife.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>Now Esbern, although of low estate, was proud of heart, even as the lord, and he determined, come what might, to find a way
+to win his coveted bride. So off he strode to a troll in Ullshoi Hill, and effected a bargain whereby the troll undertook
+to build a fine church, on completion of which Esbern was to tell the builder&#8217;s name or forfeit his eyes and heart.
+
+</p>
+<p>Night and day the troll wrought on, and as the building took shape, sadder grew Esbern Snare. He listened at the crevices
+of the hill by night; he watched during the day; he wore himself to a shadow by anxious thought; he besought the elves to
+aid him. All to no purpose. Not a sound did he hear, not a thing did he see, to suggest the name of the builder.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb241" href="#pb241">241</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Meantime, rumour was busy, and the fair Helva, hearing of the evil compact, prayed for the soul of the unhappy man.
+
+</p>
+<p>Time passed until one day the church lacked only one pillar, and worn out by black despair, Esbern sank exhausted upon a bank,
+whence he heard the troll hammering the last stone in the quarry underground. &#8220;Fool that I am,&#8221; he said bitterly, &#8220;I have
+builded my tomb.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>Just then he heard a light footstep, and looking up, he beheld his beloved. &#8220;Would that I might die in thy stead,&#8221; said she,
+through her tears, and with that Esbern confessed how that for love of her he had imperilled eyes and heart and soul.
+
+</p>
+<p>Then fast as the troll hammered underground, Helva prayed beside her lover, and the prayers of the maiden prevailed over the
+spell of the troll, for suddenly Esbern caught the sound of a troll-wife singing to her infant, bidding it be comforted, for
+that, on the morrow, <i>Father Fine</i> would return bringing a mortal&#8217;s eyes and heart.
+
+</p>
+<p>Sure of his victim, the troll hurried to Kallundborg with the last stone. &#8220;Too late, Fine!&#8221; quoth Esbern, and at the word,
+the troll vanished with his stone, and it is said that the peasants heard at night the sobbing of a woman underground, and
+the voice of the troll loud with blame.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Of the Troll of the Church they sing the rune
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By the Northern Sea in the harvest moon;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the fishers of Zealand hear him still
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Scolding his wife in Ulshoi hill.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And seaward over its groves of birch
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Still looks the tower of Kallundborg church,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where, first at its altar, a wedded pair,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Stood Helva of Nesvek and Esbern Snare!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>J. G. Whittier</i>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb242" href="#pb242">242</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7753">
+<h3 class="normal">The Magic of the Dwarfs</h3>
+<p>The dwarfs, as well as the elves, were ruled by a king, who, in various countries of northern Europe, was known as Andvari,
+Alberich, Elbegast, Gondemar, Laurin, or Oberon. He dwelt in a magnificent subterranean palace, studded with the gems which
+his subjects had mined from the bosom of the earth, and, besides untold riches and the Tarnkappe, he owned a magic ring, an
+invincible sword, and a belt of strength. At his command the little men, who were very clever smiths, would fashion marvellous
+jewels or weapons, which their ruler would bestow upon favourite mortals.
+
+</p>
+<p>We have already seen how the dwarfs fashioned Sif&#8217;s golden hair, the ship Skidbladnir, the point of Odin&#8217;s spear Gungnir,
+the ring Draupnir, the golden-bristled boar Gullin-bursti, the hammer Mi&ouml;lnir, and Freya&#8217;s golden necklace Brisinga-men. They
+are also said to have made the magic girdle which Spenser describes in his poem of the &#8220;Faerie Queene,&#8221;&#8212;a girdle which was
+said to have the power of revealing whether its wearer were virtuous or a hypocrite.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;That girdle gave the virtue of chaste love
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And wifehood true to all that did it bear;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But whosoever contrary doth prove
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Might not the same about her middle wear
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But it would loose, or else asunder tear.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Faerie Queene (Spenser).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The dwarfs also manufactured the mythical sword Tyrfing, which could cut through iron and stone, and which they gave to Angantyr.
+This sword, like Frey&#8217;s, fought of its own accord, and could not be sheathed, after it was once drawn, until it had tasted
+blood. Angantyr was so proud of this weapon that he had it buried with him; but his daughter Hervor visited his <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb243" href="#pb243">243</a>]</span>tomb at midnight, recited magic spells, and forced him to rise from his grave to give her the precious blade. She wielded
+it bravely, and it eventually became the property of another of the Northern heroes.
+
+</p>
+<p>Another famous weapon, which according to tradition was forged by the dwarfs in Eastern lands, was the sword Angurvadel which
+Frithiof received as a portion of his inheritance from his fathers. Its hilt was of hammered gold, and the blade was inscribed
+with runes which were dull until it was brandished in war, when they flamed red as the comb of the fighting-cock.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 16em; ">&#8220;Quick lost was that hero
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Meeting in battle&#8217;s night that blade high-flaming with runics.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Widely renown&#8217;d was this sword, of swords most choice in the Northland.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r&#8217;s Frithiof (G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7792">
+<h3 class="normal">The Passing of the Dwarfs</h3>
+<p>The dwarfs were generally kind and helpful; sometimes they kneaded bread, ground flour, brewed beer, performed countless household
+tasks, and harvested and threshed the grain for the farmers. If ill-treated, however, or turned to ridicule, these little
+creatures would forsake the house and never come back again. When the old gods ceased to be worshipped in the Northlands,
+the dwarfs withdrew entirely from the country, and a ferryman related how he had been hired by a mysterious personage to ply
+his boat back and forth across the river one night, and at every trip his vessel was so heavily laden with invisible passengers
+that it nearly sank. When his night&#8217;s work was over, he received a rich reward, and his employer informed him that he had
+carried the dwarfs across the river, as they were leaving the country for ever in consequence of the unbelief of the people.
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb244" href="#pb244">244</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7798">
+<h3 class="normal">Changelings</h3>
+<p>According to popular superstition, the dwarfs, in envy of man&#8217;s taller stature, often tried to improve their race by winning
+human wives or by stealing unbaptized children, and substituting their own offspring for the human mother to nurse. These
+dwarf babies were known as changelings, and were recognisable by their puny and wizened forms. To recover possession of her
+own babe, and to rid herself of the changeling, a woman was obliged either to brew beer in egg-shells or to grease the soles
+of the child&#8217;s feet and hold them so near the flames that, attracted by their offspring&#8217;s distressed cries, the dwarf parents
+would hasten to claim their own and return the stolen child.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p244" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p244.jpg" alt="The Troldtinderne, Romsdal" width="720" height="496"><p class="figureHead">The Troldtinderne, Romsdal</p>
+<p>From a photograph by S. J. Beckett, F.R.P.S.</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The troll women were said to have the power of changing themselves into Maras or nightmares, and of tormenting any one they
+pleased; but if the victim succeeded in stopping up the hole through which a Mara made her ingress into his room, she was
+entirely at his mercy, and he could even force her to wed him if he chose to do so. A wife thus obtained was sure to remain
+as long as the opening through which she had entered the house was closed, but if the plug were removed, either by accident
+or design, she immediately effected her escape and never returned.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7812">
+<h3 class="normal">The Peaks of the Trolls</h3>
+<p>Naturally, traditions of the little folk abound everywhere throughout the North, and many places are associated with their
+memory. The well-known Peaks of the Trolls (Trold-Tindterne) in Norway are said to be the scene of a conflict between two
+bands of trolls, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb245" href="#pb245">245</a>]</span>who in the eagerness of combat omitted to note the approach of sunrise, with the result that they were changed into the small
+points of rock which stand up noticeably upon the crests of the mountain.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7819">
+<h3 class="normal">A Conjecture</h3>
+<p>Some writers have ventured a conjecture that the dwarfs so often mentioned in the ancient sagas and fairy-tales were real
+beings, probably the Ph&#339;nician miners, who, working the coal, iron, copper, gold, and tin mines of England, Norway, Sweden,
+etc., took advantage of the simplicity and credulity of the early inhabitants to make them believe that they belonged to a
+supernatural race and always dwelt underground, in a region which was called Svart-alfa-heim, or the home of the black elves.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb246" href="#pb246">246</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch25" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XXV: The Elves</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7828">
+<h3 class="normal">The Realm of Faery</h3>
+<p>Besides the dwarfs there was another numerous class of tiny creatures called Lios-alfar, <span class="corr" id="xd0e7833" title="Source: lightor">light or</span> white elves, who inhabited the realms of air between heaven and earth, and were gently governed by the genial god Frey from
+his palace in Alf-heim. They were lovely, beneficent beings, so pure and innocent that, according to some authorities, their
+name was derived from the same root as the Latin word &#8220;white&#8221; (<i>albus</i>), which, in a modified form, was given to the snow-covered Alps, and to Albion (England), because of her white chalk cliffs
+which could be seen afar.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p246" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p246.jpg" alt="The Elf-Dance" width="720" height="491"><p class="figureHead">The Elf-Dance</p>
+<p>N. J. O. Blomm&eacute;r</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The elves were so small that they could flit about unseen while they tended the flowers, birds, and butterflies; and as they
+were passionately fond of dancing, they often glided down to earth on a moonbeam, to dance on the green. Holding one another
+by the hand, they would dance in circles, thereby making the &#8220;fairy rings,&#8221; which were to be discerned by the deeper green
+and greater luxuriance of the grass which their little feet had pressed.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Merry elves, their morrice pacing
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">To a&euml;rial minstrelsy,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Emerald rings on brown heath tracing,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Trip it deft and merrily.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Sir Walter Scott.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>If any mortal stood in the middle of one of these fairy rings he could, according to popular belief in England, see the fairies
+and enjoy their favour; but the Scandinavians and Teutons vowed that the unhappy man must die. In illustration of this superstition,
+a story is told of how Sir Olaf, riding off to his <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb247" href="#pb247">247</a>]</span>wedding, was enticed by the fairies into their ring. On the morrow, instead of a merry marriage, his friends witnessed a triple
+funeral, for his mother and bride also died when they beheld his lifeless corpse.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Master Olof rode forth ere dawn of the day
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And came where the Elf-folk were dancing away.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">The dance is so merry,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So merry in the greenwood.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And on the next morn, ere the daylight was red,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In Master Olof&#8217;s house lay three corpses dead.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">The dance is so merry,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So merry in the greenwood.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;First Master Olof, and next his young bride,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And third his old mother&#8212;for sorrow she died.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">The dance is so merry,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So merry in the greenwood.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Master Olof at the Elfin Dance (Howitt&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7896">
+<h3 class="normal">The Elf-dance</h3>
+<p>These elves, who in England were called fairies or fays, were also enthusiastic musicians, and delighted especially in a certain
+air known as the elf-dance, which was so irresistible that no one who heard it could refrain from dancing. If a mortal, overhearing
+the air, ventured to reproduce it, he suddenly found himself incapable of stopping and was forced to play on and on until
+he died of exhaustion, unless he were deft enough to play the tune backwards, or some one charitably cut the strings of his
+violin. His hearers, who were forced to dance as long as the tones continued, could only stop when they ceased.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7901">
+<h3 class="normal">The Will-o&#8217;-the-wisps</h3>
+<p>In medi&aelig;val times, the will-o&#8217;-the-wisps were known in the North as elf lights, for these tiny sprites were <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb248" href="#pb248">248</a>]</span>supposed to mislead travellers; and popular superstition held that the Jack-o&#8217;-lanterns were the restless spirits of murderers
+forced against their will to return to the scene of their crimes. As they nightly walked thither, it is said that they doggedly
+repeated with every step, &#8220;It is right;&#8221; but as they returned they sadly reiterated, &#8220;It is wrong.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p248" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p248.jpg" alt="The White Elves" width="460" height="720"><p class="figureHead">The White Elves</p>
+<p>Chas. P. Sainton, R.I.
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of the Artist. All Rights Reserved</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7917">
+<h3 class="normal">Oberon and Titania</h3>
+<p>In later times the fairies or elves were said to be ruled by the king of the dwarfs, who, being an underground spirit, was
+considered a demon, and allowed to retain the magic power which the missionaries had wrested from the god Frey. In England
+and France the king of the fairies was known by the name of Oberon; he governed fairyland with his queen Titania, and the
+highest revels on earth were held on Midsummer night. It was then that the fairies all congregated around him and danced most
+merrily.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Every elf and fairy sprite
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hop as light as bird from brier;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And this ditty after me
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sing, and dance it trippingly.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Midsummer-Night&#8217;s Dream (Shakespeare).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>These elves, like the brownies, Huldra folk, kobolds, etc., were also supposed to visit human dwellings, and it was said that
+they took mischievous pleasure in tangling and knotting horses&#8217; manes and tails. These tangles were known as elf-locks, and
+whenever a farmer descried them he declared that his steeds had been elf-ridden during the night.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7937">
+<h3 class="normal">Alf-blot</h3>
+<p>In Scandinavia and Germany sacrifices were offered to the elves to make them propitious. These sacrifices <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb249" href="#pb249">249</a>]</span>consisted of some small animal, or of a bowl of honey and milk, and were known as Alf-blot. They were quite common until the
+missionaries taught the people that the elves were mere demons, when they were transferred to the angels, who were long entreated
+to befriend mortals, and propitiated by the same gifts.
+
+</p>
+<p>Many of the elves were supposed to live and die with the trees and plants which they tended, but these moss, wood, or tree
+maidens, while remarkably beautiful when seen in front, were hollow like a trough when viewed from behind. They appear in
+many of the popular tales, but almost always as benevolent and helpful spirits, for they were anxious to do good to mortals
+and to cultivate friendly relations with them.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7946">
+<h3 class="normal">Images on Doorposts</h3>
+<p>In Scandinavia the elves, both light and dark, were worshipped as household divinities, and their images were carved on the
+doorposts. The Norsemen, who were driven from home by the tyranny of Harald Harfager in 874, took their carved doorposts with
+them upon their ships. Similar carvings, including images of the gods and heroes, decorated the pillars of their high seats
+which they also carried away. The exiles showed their trust in their gods by throwing these wooden images overboard when they
+neared the Icelandic shores and settling where the waves carried the posts, even if the spot scarcely seemed the most desirable.
+&#8220;Thus they carried with them the religion, the poetry, and the laws of their race, and on this desolate volcanic island they
+kept these records unchanged for hundreds of years, while other Teutonic nations gradually became affected by their intercourse
+with Roman and Byzantine Christianity.&#8221; These records, carefully collected by S&aelig;mund the learned, form the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb250" href="#pb250">250</a>]</span>Elder Edda, the most precious relic of ancient Northern literature, without which we should know comparatively little of the
+religion of our forefathers.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p250" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p250.jpg" alt="Old Houses with Carved Posts" width="720" height="517"><p class="figureHead">Old Houses with Carved Posts</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The sagas relate that the first settlements in Greenland and Vinland were made in the same way,&#8212;the Norsemen piously landing
+wherever their household gods drifted ashore.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb251" href="#pb251">251</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch26" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XXVI: The Sigurd Saga</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7964">
+<h3 class="normal">The Beginning of the Story</h3>
+<p>While the first part of the Elder Edda consists of a collection of alliterative poems describing the creation of the world,
+the adventures of the gods, their eventual downfall, and gives a complete exposition of the Northern code of ethics, the second
+part comprises a series of heroic lays describing the exploits of the Volsung family, and especially of their chief representative,
+Sigurd, the favourite hero of the North.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7969">
+<h3 class="normal">The Volsunga Saga</h3>
+<p>These lays form the basis of the great Scandinavian epic, the Volsunga Saga, and have supplied not only the materials for
+the Nibelungenlied, the German epic, and for countless folk tales, but also for Wagner&#8217;s celebrated operas, <i>The Rhinegold</i>, <i>Valkyr</i>, <i>Siegfried</i>, and <i>The Dusk of the Gods</i>. In England, William Morris has given them the form which they will probably retain in our literature, and it is from his
+great epic poem, by the courteous permission of his trustees, and of his publishers, Messrs. Longmans, Green and Co., that
+almost all the quotations in this section are taken in preference to extracts from the Edda.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7986">
+<h3 class="normal">Sigi</h3>
+<p>The story of the Volsungs begins with Sigi, a son of Odin, a powerful man, and generally respected, until he killed a man
+from motives of jealousy, the latter having slain more game when they were out hunting together. In consequence of this crime,
+Sigi was driven from his own land and declared an outlaw. But it seems that he had not entirely forfeited Odin&#8217;s favour, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb252" href="#pb252">252</a>]</span>for the god now provided him with a well-equipped vessel, together with a number of brave followers, and promised that victory
+should ever attend him.
+
+</p>
+<p>Thus aided by Odin, the raids of Sigi became a terror to his foes, and in the end he won the glorious empire of the Huns and
+for many years reigned as a powerful monarch. But in extreme old age his fortune changed, Odin forsook him, his wife&#8217;s kindred
+fell upon him, and he was slain in a treacherous encounter.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e7995">
+<h3 class="normal">Rerir</h3>
+<p>His death was soon avenged, however, for Rerir, his son, returning from an expedition upon which he had been absent from the
+land at the time, put the murderers to death as his first act upon mounting the throne. The rule of Rerir was marked by every
+sign of prosperity, but his dearest wish, a son to succeed him, remained unfulfilled for many a year. Finally, however, Frigga
+decided to grant his constant prayer, and to vouchsafe the heir he longed for. She accordingly despatched her swift messenger
+Gna, or Liod, with a miraculous apple, which she dropped into his lap as he was sitting alone on the hillside. Glancing upward,
+Rerir recognised the emissary of the goddess, and joyfully hastened home to partake of the apple with his wife. The child
+who in due time was born under these favourable auspices was a handsome little lad. His parents called him Volsung, and while
+he was still a mere infant they both died, and the child became ruler of the land.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8000">
+<h3 class="normal">Volsung</h3>
+<p>Years passed and Volsung&#8217;s wealth and power ever increased. He was the boldest leader, and rallied many <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb253" href="#pb253">253</a>]</span>brave warriors around him. Full oft did they drink his mead underneath the Branstock, a mighty oak, which, rising in the middle
+of his hall, pierced the roof and overshadowed the whole house.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And as in all other matters &#8217;twas all earthly houses&#8217; crown,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the least of its wall-hung shields was a battle-world&#8217;s renown,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So therein withal was a marvel and a glorious thing to see,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For amidst of its midmost hall-floor sprang up a mighty tree,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That reared its blessings roofward and wreathed the roof-tree dear
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With the glory of the summer and the garland of the year.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Ten stalwart sons were born to Volsung, and one daughter, Signy, came to brighten his home. So lovely was this maiden that
+when she reached marriageable age many suitors asked for her hand, among whom was Siggeir, King of the Goths, who finally
+obtained Volsung&#8217;s consent, although Signy had never seen him.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8022">
+<h3 class="normal">The Wedding of Signy</h3>
+<p>When the wedding-day came, and the bride beheld her destined husband she shrank in dismay, for his puny form and lowering
+glances contrasted sadly with her brothers&#8217; sturdy frames and open faces. But it was too late to withdraw&#8212;the family honour
+was at stake&#8212;and Signy so successfully concealed her dislike that none save her twin brother Sigmund suspected with what reluctance
+she became Siggeir&#8217;s wife.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8027">
+<h3 class="normal">The Sword in the Branstock</h3>
+<p>While the wedding feast was in progress, and when the merry-making was at its height, the entrance to the hall was suddenly
+darkened by the tall form of a one-eyed man, closely enveloped in a mantle of cloudy blue. Without vouchsafing word or glance
+to any in the assembly, the stranger strode to the Branstock and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb254" href="#pb254">254</a>]</span>thrust a glittering sword up to the hilt in its great bole. Then, turning slowly round, he faced the awe-struck and silent
+assembly, and declared that the weapon would be for the warrior who could pull it out of its oaken sheath, and that it would
+assure him victory in every battle. The words ended, he then passed out as he had entered, and disappeared, leaving a conviction
+in the minds of all that Odin, king of the gods, had been in their midst.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;So sweet his speaking sounded, so wise his words did seem,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That moveless all men sat there, as in a happy dream
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">We stir not lest we waken; but there his speech had end
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And slowly down the hall-floor, and outward did he wend;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And none would cast him a question or follow on his ways,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For they knew that the gift was Odin&#8217;s, a sword for the world to praise.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Volsung was the first to recover the power of speech, and, waiving his own right first to essay the feat, he invited Siggeir
+to make the first attempt to draw the divine weapon out of the tree-trunk. The bridegroom anxiously tugged and strained, but
+the sword remained firmly embedded in the oak and he resumed his seat, with an air of chagrin. Then Volsung tried, with the
+same result. The weapon was evidently not intended for either of them, and the young Volsung princes were next invited to
+try their strength.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Sons I have gotten and cherished, now stand ye forth and try;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Lest Odin tell in God-home how from the way he strayed,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And how to the man he would not he gave away his blade.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8056">
+<h3 class="normal">Sigmund</h3>
+<p>The nine eldest sons were equally unsuccessful; but when Sigmund, the tenth and youngest, laid his firm young hand upon the
+hilt, the sword yielded easily to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb255" href="#pb255">255</a>]</span>his touch, and he triumphantly drew it out as though it had merely been sheathed in its scabbard.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;At last by the side of the Branstock Sigmund the Volsung stood,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And with right hand wise in battle the precious sword-hilt caught,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yet in a careless fashion, as he deemed it all for nought;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When, lo, from floor to rafter went up a shattering shout,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For aloft in the hand of Sigmund the naked blade shone out
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As high o&#8217;er his head he shook it: for the sword had come away
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From the grip of the heart of the Branstock, as though all loose it lay.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Nearly all present were gratified at the success of the young prince; but Siggeir&#8217;s heart was filled with envy, and he coveted
+possession of the weapon. He offered to purchase it from his young brother-in-law, but Sigmund refused to part with it at
+any price, declaring that it was clear that the weapon had been intended for him to wear. This refusal so offended Siggeir
+that he secretly resolved to exterminate the proud Volsungs, and to secure the divine sword at the same time that he indulged
+his hatred towards his new kinsmen.
+
+</p>
+<p>Concealing his chagrin, however, he turned to Volsung and cordially invited him to visit his court a month later, together
+with his sons and kinsmen. The invitation was immediately accepted, and although Signy, suspecting evil, secretly sought her
+father while her husband slept, and implored him to retract his promise and stay at home, he would not consent to withdraw
+his plighted word and so exhibit fear.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8082">
+<h3 class="normal">Siggeir&#8217;s Treachery</h3>
+<p>A few weeks after the return of the bridal couple, therefore, Volsung&#8217;s well-manned vessels arrived within sight of Siggeir&#8217;s
+shores. Signy had been keeping anxious watch, and when she perceived them she hastened <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb256" href="#pb256">256</a>]</span>down to the beach to implore her kinsmen not to land, warning them that her husband had treacherously planned an ambush, whence
+they could not escape alive. But Volsung and his sons, whom no peril could daunt, calmly bade her return to her husband&#8217;s
+palace, and donning their arms they boldly set foot ashore.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then sweetly Volsung kissed her: &#8216;Woe am I for thy sake,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But Earth the word hath hearkened, that yet unborn I spake;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">How I ne&#8217;er would turn me backward from the sword or fire of bale;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8212;I have held that word till to-day, and to-day shall I change the tale?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And look on these thy brethren, how goodly and great are they,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wouldst thou have the maidens mock them, when this pain hath passed away
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And they sit at the feast hereafter, that they feared the deadly stroke?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Let us do our day&#8217;s work deftly for the praise and glory of folk;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And if the Norns will have it that the Volsung kin shall fail,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yet I know of the deed that dies not, and the name that shall ever avail.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>It befell as Signy had said, for on their way to the palace the brave little troop fell into Siggeir&#8217;s ambush, and, although
+they fought with heroic courage, they were so borne down by the superior number of their foes that Volsung was slain and all
+his sons were made captive. The young men were led bound into the presence of the cowardly Siggeir, who had taken no part
+in the fight, and Sigmund was forced to relinquish his precious sword, after which he and his brothers were condemned to death.
+
+</p>
+<p>Signy, hearing the cruel sentence, vainly interceded for her brothers: all she could obtain by her prayers and entreaties
+was that they should be chained to a fallen oak in the forest, to perish of hunger and thirst if the wild beasts should spare
+them. Then, lest she <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb257" href="#pb257">257</a>]</span>should visit and succour her brothers, Siggeir confined his wife in the palace, where she was closely guarded night and day.
+
+</p>
+<p>Every morning early Siggeir himself sent a messenger into the forest to see whether the Volsungs were still living, and every
+morning the man returned saying a monster had come during the night and had devoured one of the princes, leaving nothing but
+his bones. At last, when none but Sigmund remained alive, Signy thought of a plan, and she prevailed on one of her servants
+to carry some honey into the forest and smear it over her brother&#8217;s face and mouth.
+
+</p>
+<p>When the wild beast came that night, attracted by the smell of the honey, it licked Sigmund&#8217;s face, and even thrust its tongue
+into his mouth. Clinching his teeth upon it, Sigmund, weak and wounded as he was, held on to the animal, and in its frantic
+struggles his bonds gave way, and he succeeded in slaying the prowling beast who had devoured his brothers. Then he vanished
+into the forest, where he remained concealed until the king&#8217;s messenger had come as usual, and until Signy, released from
+captivity, came speeding to the forest to weep over her kinsmen&#8217;s remains.
+
+</p>
+<p>Seeing her intense grief, and knowing that she had not participated in Siggeir&#8217;s cruelty, Sigmund stole out of his place of
+concealment and comforted her as best he could. Together they then buried the whitening bones, and Sigmund registered a solemn
+oath to avenge his family&#8217;s wrongs. This vow was fully approved by Signy, who, however, bade her brother bide a favourable
+time, promising to send him aid. Then the brother and sister sadly parted, she to return to her distasteful palace home, and
+he to a remote part of the forest, where he built a tiny hut and plied the craft of a smith.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb258" href="#pb258">258</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 16em; ">&#8220;And men say that Signy wept
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When she left that last of her kindred: yet wept she never more
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Amid the earls of Siggeir, and as lovely as before
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Was her face to all men&#8217;s deeming: nor aught it changed for ruth,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor for fear nor any longing; and no man said for sooth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That she ever laughed thereafter till the day of her death was come.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8137">
+<h3 class="normal">Signy&#8217;s Sons</h3>
+<p>Siggeir now took possession of the Volsung kingdom, and during the next few years he proudly watched the growth of his eldest
+son, whom Signy secretly sent to her brother when he was ten years of age, that Sigmund might train up the child to help him
+to obtain vengeance if he should prove worthy. Sigmund reluctantly accepted the charge; but as soon as he had tested the boy
+he found him deficient in physical courage, so he either sent him back to his mother, or, as some versions relate, slew him.
+
+</p>
+<p>Some time after this Signy&#8217;s second son was sent into the forest for the same purpose, but Sigmund found him equally lacking
+in courage. Evidently none but a pure-blooded Volsung would avail for the grim work of revenge, and Signy, realising this,
+resolved to commit a crime.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And once in the dark she murmured: &#8216;Where then was the ancient song
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That the Gods were but twin-born once, and deemed it nothing wrong
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To mingle for the world&#8217;s sake, whence had the &AElig;sir birth,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the Vanir and the Dwarf-kind, and all the folk of earth?&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Her resolution taken, she summoned a beautiful young witch, and exchanging forms with her, she sought the depths of the dark
+forest and took shelter in Sigmund&#8217;s hut. The Volsung did not penetrate his sister&#8217;s disguise. He deemed her nought but the
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb259" href="#pb259">259</a>]</span>gypsy she seemed, and being soon won by her coquetry, he made her his wife. Three days later she disappeared from the hut,
+and, returning to the palace, she resumed her own form, and when she next gave birth to a son, she rejoiced to see in his
+bold glance and strong frame the promise of a true Volsung hero.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8157">
+<h3 class="normal">Sinfiotli</h3>
+<p>When Sinfiotli, as the child was called, was ten years of age, she herself made a preliminary test of his courage by sewing
+his garment to his skin, and then suddenly snatching it off, and as the brave boy did not so much as wince, but laughed aloud,
+she confidently sent him to the forest hut. Sigmund speedily prepared his usual test, and ere leaving the hut one day he bade
+Sinfiotli take meal from a certain sack, and knead it and bake some bread. On returning home, Sigmund asked whether his orders
+had been carried out. The lad replied by showing the bread, and when closely questioned he artlessly confessed that he had
+been obliged to knead into the loaf a great adder which was hidden in the meal. Pleased to see that the boy, for whom he felt
+a strange affection, had successfully stood the test which had daunted his brothers, Sigmund bade him refrain from eating
+of the loaf, for although he was proof against the bite of a reptile, he could not, like his mentor, taste poison unharmed.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;For here, the tale of the elders doth men a marvel to wit,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That such was the shaping of Sigmund among all earthly kings,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That unhurt he handled adders and other deadly things,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And might drink unscathed of venom: but Sinfiotli was so wrought
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That no sting of creeping creatures would harm his body aught.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8173">
+<h3 class="normal">The Werewolves</h3>
+<p>Sigmund now began patiently to teach Sinfiotli all <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb260" href="#pb260">260</a>]</span>that a warrior of the North should know, and the two soon became inseparable companions. One day while ranging the forest
+together they came to a hut, where they found two men sound asleep. Near by hung two wolf-skins, which suggested immediately
+that the strangers were werewolves, whom a cruel spell prevented from bearing their natural form save for a short space at
+a time. Prompted by curiosity, Sigmund and Sinfiotli donned the wolf-skins, and they were soon, in the guise of wolves, rushing
+through the forest, slaying and devouring all that came in their way.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p260" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p260.jpg" alt="The Were-wolves" width="720" height="490"><p class="figureHead">The Were-wolves</p>
+<p>J. C. Dollman</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Such were their wolfish passions that soon they attacked each other, and after a fierce struggle Sinfiotli, the younger and
+weaker, fell dead. This catastrophe brought Sigmund to his senses, and he hung over his murdered companion in despair. While
+thus engaged he saw two weasels come out of the forest and attack each other fiercely until one lay dead. The victor then
+sprang into the thicket, to return with a leaf, which it laid upon its companion&#8217;s breast. Then was seen a marvellous thing,
+for at the touch of the magic herb the dead beast came back to life. A moment later a raven flying overhead dropped a similar
+leaf at Sigmund&#8217;s feet, and he, understanding that the gods wished to help him, laid it upon Sinfiotli, who was at once restored
+to life.
+
+</p>
+<p>In dire fear lest they might work each other further mischief, Sigmund and Sinfiotli now crept home and patiently waited until
+the time of their release should come. To their great relief the skins dropped off on the ninth night, and they hastily flung
+them into the fire, where they were entirely consumed, and the spell was broken for ever.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb261" href="#pb261">261</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8192">
+<h3 class="normal">Sigmund and Sinfiotli taken by Siggeir</h3>
+<p>Sigmund now confided the story of his wrongs to Sinfiotli, who swore that, although Siggeir was his father (for neither he
+nor Sigmund knew the secret of his birth), he would aid him in his revenge. At nightfall, therefore, he accompanied Sigmund
+to the king&#8217;s hall, and they entered unseen, concealing themselves in the cellar, behind the huge vats of beer. Here they
+were discovered by Signy&#8217;s two youngest children, who, while playing with golden rings, which rolled into the cellar, came
+suddenly upon the men in ambush.
+
+</p>
+<p>They loudly proclaimed their discovery to their father and his guests, but, before Siggeir and his men could take up arms,
+Signy took both children, and dragging them into the cellar bade her brother slay the little traitors. This Sigmund utterly
+refused to do, but Sinfiotli struck off their heads ere he turned to fight against the assailants, who were now closing in
+upon them.
+
+</p>
+<p>In spite of all efforts Sigmund and his brave young companion soon fell into the hands of the Goths, whereupon Siggeir sentenced
+them to be buried alive in the same mound, with a stone partition between them so that they could neither see nor touch each
+other. The prisoners were accordingly confined in their living grave, and their foes were about to place the last stones on
+the roof, when Signy drew near, bearing a bundle of straw, which she was allowed to throw at Sinfiotli&#8217;s feet, for the Goths
+fancied that it contained only a few provisions which would prolong his agony without helping him to escape.
+
+</p>
+<p>When all was still, Sinfiotli undid the sheaf, and great was his joy when he found instead of bread the sword which Odin had
+given to Sigmund. Knowing <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb262" href="#pb262">262</a>]</span>that nothing could dull or break the keen edge of this fine weapon, Sinfiotli thrust it through the stone partition, and,
+aided by Sigmund, he succeeded in cutting an opening, and in the end both effected their escape through the roof.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then in the grave-mound&#8217;s darkness did Sigmund the king upstand,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And unto that saw of battle he set his naked hand;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And hard the gift of Odin home to their breasts they drew;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sawed Sigmund, sawed Sinfiotli, till the stone was cleft atwo,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And they met and kissed together: then they hewed and heaved full hard
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till, lo, through the bursten rafters the winter heavens bestarred!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And they leap out merry-hearted; nor is there need to say
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A many words between them of whither was the way.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8222">
+<h3 class="normal">Sigmund&#8217;s Vengeance</h3>
+<p>As soon as they were free, Sigmund and Sinfiotli returned to the king&#8217;s hall, and piling combustible materials around it,
+they set fire to the mass. Then stationing themselves on either side of the entrance, they prevented all but the women from
+passing through. They loudly adjured Signy to escape ere it was too late, but she did not desire to live, and so coming to
+the entrance for a last embrace she found opportunity to whisper the secret of Sinfiotli&#8217;s birth, after which she sprang back
+into the flames and perished with the rest.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And then King Siggeir&#8217;s roof-tree upheaved for its utmost fall,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And its huge walls clashed together, and its mean and lowly things
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The fire of death confounded with the tokens of the kings.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8234">
+<h3 class="normal">Helgi</h3>
+<p>The long-planned vengeance for the slaughter of the Volsungs having thus been carried out, Sigmund, feeling that nothing now
+detained him in the land of <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb263" href="#pb263">263</a>]</span>the Goths, set sail with Sinfiotli and returned to Hunaland, where he was warmly welcomed to the seat of power under the shade
+of his ancestral tree, the mighty Branstock. When his authority was fully established, Sigmund married Borghild, a beautiful
+princess, who bore him two sons, Hamond and Helgi. The latter was visited by the Norns as he lay in his cradle, and they promised
+him sumptuous entertainment in Valhalla when his earthly career should be ended.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And the woman was fair and lovely and bore him sons of fame;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Men called them Hamond and Helgi, and when Helgi first saw light,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There came the Norns to his cradle and gave him life full bright,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And called him Sunlit Hill, Sharp Sword, and Land of Rings,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And bade him be lovely and great, and a joy in the tale of kings.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Northern kings generally entrusted their sons&#8217; upbringing to a stranger, for they thought that so they would be treated with
+less indulgence than at home. Accordingly Helgi was fostered by Hagal, and under his care the young prince became so fearless
+that at the age of fifteen he ventured alone into the hall of Hunding, with whose race his family was at feud. Passing through
+the hall unmolested and unrecognised, he left an insolent message, which so angered Hunding that he immediately set out in
+pursuit of the bold young prince, whom he followed to the dwelling of Hagal. Helgi would then have been secured but that meanwhile
+he had disguised himself as a servant-maid, and was busy grinding corn as if this were his wonted occupation. The invaders
+marvelled somewhat at the maid&#8217;s tall stature and brawny arms, nevertheless they departed without suspecting that they had
+been so near the hero whom they sought.
+
+</p>
+<p>Having thus cleverly escaped, Helgi joined Sinfiotli, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb264" href="#pb264">264</a>]</span>and collecting an army, the two young men marched boldly against the Hundings, with whom they fought a great battle, over
+which the Valkyrs hovered, waiting to convey the slain to Valhalla. Gudrun, one of the battle-maidens, was so struck by the
+courage which Helgi displayed, that she openly sought him and promised to be his wife. Only one of the Hunding race, Dag,
+remained alive, and he was allowed to go free after promising not to endeavour to avenge his kinsmen&#8217;s death. This promise
+was not kept, however, and Dag, having obtained possession of Odin&#8217;s spear Gungnir, treacherously slew Helgi with it. Gudrun,
+who in the meantime had fulfilled her promise to become his wife, wept many tears at his death, and laid a solemn curse upon
+his murderer; then, hearing from one of her maids that her slain husband kept calling for her from the depths of the tomb,
+she fearlessly entered the mound at night and tenderly inquired why he called and why his wounds continued to bleed after
+death. Helgi answered that he could not rest happy because of her grief, and declared that for every tear she shed a drop
+of his blood must flow.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thou weepest, gold-adorned!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Cruel tears,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sun-bright daughter of the south!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ere to sleep thou goest;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Each one falls bloody
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On the prince&#8217;s breast,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wet, cold, and piercing,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With sorrow big.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>To appease the spirit of her beloved husband, Gudrun from that time ceased to weep, but they did not long remain separated;
+for soon after the spirit of Helgi had ridden over Bifr&ouml;st and entered Valhalla, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb265" href="#pb265">265</a>]</span>to become leader of the Einheriar, he was joined by Gudrun who, as a Valkyr once more, resumed her loving tendance of him.
+When at Odin&#8217;s command she left his side for scenes of human strife, it was to seek new recruits for the army which her lord
+was to lead into battle when Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, should come.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p264" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p264.jpg" alt="A Hero&#8217;s Farewell" width="720" height="517"><p class="figureHead">A Hero&#8217;s Farewell</p>
+<p>M. E. Winge</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8290">
+<h3 class="normal">The Death of Sinfiotli</h3>
+<p>Sinfiotli, Sigmund&#8217;s eldest son, also met an early death; for, having slain in a quarrel the brother of Borghild, she determined
+to poison him. Twice Sinfiotli detected the attempt and told his father that there was poison in his cup. Twice Sigmund, whom
+no venom could injure, drained the bowl; and when Borghild made a third attempt, he bade Sinfiotli let the wine flow through
+his beard. Mistaking the meaning of his father&#8217;s words, Sinfiotli forthwith drained the cup, and fell lifeless to the ground,
+for the poison was of the most deadly kind.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;He drank as he spake the word, and forthwith the venom ran
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In a chill flood over his heart and down fell the mighty man
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With never an uttered death-word and never a death-changed look,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the floor of the hall of the Volsungs beneath his falling shook.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then up rose the elder of days with a great and bitter cry,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And lifted the head of the fallen; and none durst come anigh
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To hearken the words of his sorrow, if any words he said
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But such as the Father of all men might speak over Baldur dead.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And again, as before the death-stroke, waxed the hall of the Volsungs dim,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And once more he seemed in the forest, where he spake with nought but him.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Speechless with grief, Sigmund tenderly raised his son&#8217;s body in his arms, and strode out of the hall and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb266" href="#pb266">266</a>]</span>down to the shore, where he deposited his precious burden in a skiff which an old one-eyed boatman brought at his call. He
+would fain have stepped aboard also, but ere he could do so the boatman pushed off and the frail craft was soon lost to sight.
+The bereaved father then slowly wended his way home, taking comfort from the thought that Odin himself had come to claim the
+young hero and had rowed away with him &#8220;out into the west.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8320">
+<h3 class="normal">Hiordis</h3>
+<p>Sigmund deposed Borghild as his wife and queen in punishment for this crime, and when he was very old he sued for the hand
+of Hiordis, a fair young princess, daughter of Eglimi, King of the Islands. This young maiden had many suitors, among others
+King Lygni of Hunding&#8217;s race, but so great was Sigmund&#8217;s fame that she gladly accepted him and became his wife. Lygni, the
+discarded suitor, was so angry at this decision, that he immediately collected a great army and marched against his successful
+rival, who, though overpowered by superior numbers, fought with the courage of despair.
+
+</p>
+<p>From the depths of a thicket which commanded the field of battle, Hiordis and her maid anxiously watched the progress of the
+strife. They saw Sigmund pile the dead around him, for none could stand against him, until at last a tall, one-eyed warrior
+suddenly appeared, and the press of battle gave way before the terror of his presence.
+
+</p>
+<p>Without a moment&#8217;s pause the new champion aimed a fierce blow at Sigmund, which the old hero parried with his sword. The shock
+shattered the matchless blade, and although the strange assailant vanished as he had come, Sigmund was left defenceless and
+was soon wounded unto death by his foes.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb267" href="#pb267">267</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But lo, through the hedge of the war-shafts, a mighty man there came,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">One-eyed and seeming ancient, but his visage shone like flame:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gleaming grey was his kirtle, and his hood was cloudy blue;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And he bore a mighty twi-bill, as he waded the fight-sheaves through,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And stood face to face with Sigmund, and upheaved the bill to smite.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Once more round the head of the Volsung fierce glittered the Branstock&#8217;s light,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The sword that came from Odin; and Sigmund&#8217;s cry once more
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Rang out to the very heavens above the din of war.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then clashed the meeting edges with Sigmund&#8217;s latest stroke,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And in shivering shards fell earthward that fear of worldly folk.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But changed were the eyes of Sigmund, and the war-wrath left his face;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For that grey-clad, mighty helper was gone, and in his place
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Drave on the unbroken spear-wood &#8217;gainst the Volsung&#8217;s empty hands:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And there they smote down Sigmund, the wonder of all lands,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On the foemen, on the death-heap his deeds had piled that day.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>As the battle was now won, and the Volsung family all slain, Lygni hastened from the battlefield to take possession of the
+kingdom and force the fair Hiordis to become his wife. As soon as he had gone, however, the beautiful young queen crept from
+her hiding-place in the thicket, and sought the spot where Sigmund lay all but dead. She caught the stricken hero to her breast
+in a last passionate embrace, and then listened tearfully while he bade her gather the fragments of his sword and carefully
+treasure them for their son whom he foretold was soon to be born, and who was destined to avenge his father&#8217;s death and to
+be far greater than he.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;I have wrought for the Volsungs truly, and yet have I known full well
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That a better one than I am shall bear the tale to tell:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And for him shall these shards be smithied: and he shall be my son,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To remember what I have forgotten and to do what I left undone.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb268" href="#pb268">268</a>]</span></div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8374">
+<h3 class="normal">Elf, the Viking</h3>
+<p>While Hiordis was mourning over Sigmund&#8217;s lifeless body, her handmaiden suddenly warned her of the approach of a band of vikings.
+Retreating into the thicket once more, the two women exchanged garments, after which Hiordis bade the maid walk first and
+personate the queen, and they went thus to meet the viking Elf (Helfrat or Helferich). Elf received the women graciously,
+and their story of the battle so excited his admiration for Sigmund that he caused the remains of the slain hero to be reverentially
+removed to a suitable spot, where they were interred with all due ceremony. He then offered the queen and her maid a safe
+asylum in his hall, and they gladly accompanied him over the seas.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p268" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p268.jpg" alt="The Funeral Procession" width="720" height="503"><p class="figureHead">The Funeral Procession</p>
+<p>H. Hendrich
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of the &#8220;Illustrirte Zeitung&#8221; (J. J. Weber, Leipzig)</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As he had doubted their relative positions from the first, Elf took the first opportunity after arriving in his kingdom to
+ask a seemingly idle question in order to ascertain the truth. He asked the pretended queen how she knew the hour had come
+for rising when the winter days were short and there was no light to announce the coming of morn, and she replied that, as
+she was in the habit of drinking milk ere she fed the cows, she always awoke thirsty. When the same question was put to the
+real Hiordis, she answered, with as little reflection, that she knew it was morning because at that hour the golden ring which
+her father had given her grew cold on her hand.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8390">
+<h3 class="normal">The Birth of Sigurd</h3>
+<p>The suspicions of Elf having thus been confirmed, he offered marriage to the pretended handmaiden, Hiordis, promising to cherish
+her infant son, a promise which he nobly kept. When the child was born Elf <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb269" href="#pb269">269</a>]</span>himself sprinkled him with water&#8212;a ceremony which our pagan ancestors scrupulously observed&#8212;and bestowed upon him the name
+of Sigurd. As he grew up he was treated as the king&#8217;s own son, and his education was entrusted to Regin, the wisest of men,
+who knew all things, his own fate not even excepted, for it had been revealed to him that he would fall by the hand of a youth.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Again in the house of the Helper there dwelt a certain man,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Beardless and low of stature, of visage pinched and wan:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So exceeding old was Regin, that no son of man could tell
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In what year of the days passed over he came to that land to dwell:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But the youth of king Elf had he fostered, and the Helper&#8217;s youth thereto,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yea and his father&#8217;s father&#8217;s: the lore of all men he knew,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And was deft in every cunning, save the dealings of the sword:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So sweet was his tongue-speech fashioned, that men trowed his every word;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His hand with the harp-strings blended was the mingler of delight
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With the latter days of sorrow; all tales he told aright;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The Master of the Masters in the smithying craft was he;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And he dealt with the wind and the weather and the stilling of the sea;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor might any learn him leech-craft, for before that race was made,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And that man-folk&#8217;s generation, all their life-days had he weighed.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Under this tutor Sigurd grew daily in wisdom until few could surpass him. He mastered the smith&#8217;s craft, and the art of carving
+all manner of runes; he learned languages, music, and eloquence; and, last but not least, he became a doughty warrior whom
+none could subdue. When he had reached manhood Regin prompted him to ask the king for a war-horse, a request which was immediately
+granted, and Gripir, the stud-keeper, was bidden to allow him to choose <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb270" href="#pb270">270</a>]</span>from the royal stables the steed which he most fancied.
+
+</p>
+<p>On his way to the meadow where the horses were at pasture, Sigurd met a one-eyed stranger, clad in grey and blue, who accosted
+the young man and bade him drive the horses into the river and select the one which could breast the tide with least difficulty.
+
+</p>
+<p>Sigurd received the advice gladly, and upon reaching the meadow he drove the horses into the stream which flowed on one side.
+One of the number, after crossing, raced round the opposite meadow; and, plunging again into the river, returned to his former
+pasture without showing any signs of fatigue. Sigurd therefore did not hesitate to select this horse, and he gave him the
+name of Grane or Greyfell. The steed was a descendant of Odin&#8217;s eight-footed horse Sleipnir, and besides being unusually strong
+and indefatigable, was as fearless as his master.
+
+</p>
+<p>One winter day while Regin and his pupil were sitting by the fire, the old man struck his harp, and, after the manner of the
+Northern scalds, sang or recited in the following tale, the story of his life:
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8436">
+<h3 class="normal">The Treasure of the Dwarf King</h3>
+<p>Hreidmar, king of the dwarf folk, was the father of three sons. Fafnir, the eldest, was gifted with a fearless soul and a
+powerful arm; Otter, the second, with snare and net, and the power of changing his form at will; and Regin, the youngest,
+with all wisdom and deftness of hand. To please the avaricious Hreidmar, this youngest son fashioned for him a house lined
+with glittering gold and flashing gems, and this was guarded by Fafnir, whose fierce glances and &AElig;gis helmet none dared encounter.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb271" href="#pb271">271</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Now it came to pass that Odin, Hoenir, and Loki once came in human guise, upon one of their wonted expeditions to test the
+hearts of men, unto the land where Hreidmar dwelt.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And the three were the heart-wise Odin, the Father of the Slain,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And Loki, the World&#8217;s Begrudger, who maketh all labour vain,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And H&aelig;nir, the Utter-Blameless, who wrought the hope of man,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And his heart and inmost yearnings, when first the work began;&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The God that was aforetime, and hereafter yet shall be
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When the new light yet undreamed of shall shine o&#8217;er earth and sea.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>As the gods came near to Hreidmar&#8217;s dwelling, Loki perceived an otter basking in the sun. This was none other than the dwarf
+king&#8217;s second son, Otter, who now succumbed to Loki&#8217;s usual love of destruction. Killing the unfortunate creature he flung
+its lifeless body over his shoulders, thinking it would furnish a good dish when meal time came.
+
+</p>
+<p>Loki then hastened after his companions, and entering Hreidmar&#8217;s house with them, he flung his burden down upon the floor.
+The moment the dwarf king&#8217;s glance fell upon the seeming otter, he flew into a towering rage, and ere they could offer effective
+resistance the gods found themselves lying bound, and they heard Hreidmar declare that never should they recover their liberty
+until they could satisfy his thirst for gold by giving him of that precious substance enough to cover the skin of the otter
+inside and out.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;Now hearken the doom I shall speak! Ye stranger-folk shall be free
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When ye give me the Flame of the Waters, the gathered Gold of the Sea,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That Andvari hideth rejoicing in the wan realm pale as the grave;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the Master of Sleight shall fetch it, and the hand that never gave,<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb272" href="#pb272">272</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">And the heart that begrudgeth for ever, shall gather and give and rue.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8212;Lo, this is the doom of the wise, and no doom shall be spoken anew.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>As the otter-skin developed the property of stretching itself to a fabulous size, no ordinary treasure could suffice to cover
+it, and the plight of the gods, therefore, was a very bad one. The case, however, became a little more hopeful when Hreidmar
+consented to liberate one of their number. The emissary selected was Loki, who lost no time in setting off to the waterfall
+where the dwarf Andvari dwelt, in order that he might secure the treasure there amassed.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;There is a desert of dread in the uttermost part of the world,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where over a wall of mountains is a mighty water hurled,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Whose hidden head none knoweth, nor where it meeteth the sea;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And that force is the Force of Andvari, and an Elf of the Dark is he.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In the cloud and the desert he dwelleth amid that land alone;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And his work is the storing of treasure within his house of stone.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>In spite of diligent search, however, Loki could not find the dwarf, until, perceiving a salmon sporting in the foaming waters,
+it occurred to him that the dwarf might have assumed this shape. Borrowing Ran&#8217;s net he soon caught the fish, and learned,
+as he had suspected, that it was Andvari. Finding that there was nothing else for it, the dwarf now reluctantly brought forth
+his mighty treasure and surrendered it all, including the Helmet of Dread and a hauberk of gold, reserving only a ring which
+was gifted with miraculous powers, and which, like a magnet, attracted the precious ore. But the greedy Loki, catching sight
+of it, wrenched it from off the dwarf&#8217;s finger and departed laughing, while his victim hurled angry curses after him, declaring
+that the ring would ever prove its possessor&#8217;s bane and would cause the death of many.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb273" href="#pb273">273</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;That gold
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Which the dwarf possessed
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shall to two brothers
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Be cause of death,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And to eight princes,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of dissension.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From my wealth no one
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shall good derive.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda</i> (<i>Thorpe&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>On arriving at Hreidmar&#8217;s house, Loki found the mighty treasure none too great, for the skin became larger with every object
+placed upon it, and he was forced to throw in the ring Andvaranaut (Andvari&#8217;s loom), which he had intended to retain, in order
+to secure the release of himself and his companions. Andvari&#8217;s curse of the gold soon began to operate. Fafnir and Regin both
+coveted a share, while Hriedmar gloated over his treasure night and day, and would not part with an item of it. Fafnir the
+invincible, seeing at last that he could not otherwise gratify his lust, slew his father, and seized the whole of the treasure,
+then, when Regin came to claim a share he drove him scornfully away and bade him earn his own living.
+
+</p>
+<p>Thus exiled, Regin took refuge among men, to whom he taught the arts of sowing and reaping. He showed them how to work metals,
+sail the seas, tame horses, yoke beasts of burden, build houses, spin, weave, and sew&#8212;in short, all the industries of civilised
+life, which had hitherto been unknown. Years elapsed, and Regin patiently bided his time, hoping that some day he would find
+a hero strong enough to avenge his wrongs upon Fafnir, whom years of gloating over his treasure had changed into a horrible
+dragon, the terror of Gn&icirc;taheid (Glittering Heath), where he had taken up his abode.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb274" href="#pb274">274</a>]</span></p>
+<p>His story finished, Regin turned suddenly to the attentive Sigurd, saying he knew that the young man could slay the dragon
+if he wished, and inquiring whether he were ready to aid him to avenge his wrongs.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And he spake: &#8216;Hast thou hearkened, Sigurd? Wilt thou help a man that is old
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To avenge him for his father? Wilt thou win that treasure of Gold
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And be more than the Kings of the earth? Wilt thou rid the earth of a wrong
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And heal the woe and the sorrow my heart hath endured o&#8217;er long?&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8534">
+<h3 class="normal">Sigurd&#8217;s Sword</h3>
+<p>Sigurd immediately assented, on the condition, however, that the curse should be assumed by Regin, who, also, in order to
+fitly equip the young man for the coming fight, should forge him a sword, which no blow could break. Twice Regin fashioned
+a marvellous weapon, but twice Sigurd broke it to pieces on the anvil. Then Sigurd bethought him of the broken fragments of
+Sigmund&#8217;s weapon which were treasured by his mother, and going to Hiordis he begged these from her; and either he or Regin
+forged from them a blade so strong that it divided the great anvil in two without being dinted, and whose temper was such
+that it neatly severed some wool floating gently upon the stream.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p274" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p274.jpg" alt="Sigurd and Fafnir" width="509" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Sigurd and Fafnir</p>
+<p>K. Dielitz
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., 133 New Bond St., W.</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Sigurd now went upon a farewell visit to Gripir, who, knowing the future, foretold every event in his coming career; after
+which he took leave of his mother, and accompanied by Regin set sail for the land of his fathers, vowing to slay the dragon
+when he had fulfilled his first duty, which was to avenge the death of Sigmund.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb275" href="#pb275">275</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;First wilt thou, prince,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Avenge thy father,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And for the wrongs of Eglymi
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Wilt retaliate.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou wilt the cruel,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The sons of Hunding,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Boldly lay low:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou wilt have victory.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Sigurd Fafnicide</i> (<i>Thorpe&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>On his way to the land of the Volsungs a most marvellous sight was seen, for there came a man walking on the waters. Sigurd
+straightway took him on board his dragon ship, and the stranger, who gave his name as Feng or Fi&ouml;llnir, promised favourable
+winds. Also he taught Sigurd how to distinguish auspicious omens. In reality the old man was Odin or Hnikar, the wave-stiller,
+but Sigurd did not suspect his identity.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8578">
+<h3 class="normal">The Fight with the Dragon</h3>
+<p>Sigurd was entirely successful in his descent upon Lygni, whom he slew, together with many of his followers. He then departed
+from his reconquered kingdom and returned with Regin to slay Fafnir. Together they rode through the mountains, which ever
+rose higher and higher before them, until they came to a great tract of desert which Regin said was the haunt of Fafnir. Sigurd
+now rode on alone until he met a one-eyed stranger, who bade him dig trenches in the middle of the track along which the dragon
+daily dragged his slimy length to the river to quench his thirst, and to lie in wait in one of these until the monster passed
+over him, when he could thrust his sword straight into its heart.
+
+</p>
+<p>Sigurd gratefully followed this counsel, and was <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb276" href="#pb276">276</a>]</span>rewarded with complete success, for as the monster&#8217;s loathsome folds rolled overhead, he thrust his sword upward into its
+left breast, and as he sprang out of the trench the dragon lay gasping in the throes of death.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then all sank into silence, and the son of Sigmund stood
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On the torn and furrowed desert by the pool of Fafnir&#8217;s blood,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the Serpent lay before him, dead, chilly, dull, and grey;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And over the Glittering Heath fair shone the sun and the day,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And a light wind followed the sun and breathed o&#8217;er the fateful place,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As fresh as it furrows the sea-plain, or bows the acres&#8217; face.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Regin had prudently remained at a distance until all danger was past, but seeing that his foe was slain, he now came up. He
+was fearful lest the young hero should claim a reward, so he began to accuse him of having murdered his kin, but, with feigned
+magnanimity, he declared that instead of requiring life for life, in accordance with the custom of the North, he would consider
+it sufficient atonement if Sigurd would cut out the monster&#8217;s heart and roast it for him on a spit.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then Regin spake to Sigurd: &#8216;Of this slaying wilt thou be free?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then gather thou fire together and roast the heart for me,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That I may eat it and live, and be thy master and more;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For therein was might and wisdom, and the grudged and hoarded lore:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8212;Or, else depart on thy ways afraid from the Glittering Heath.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Sigurd was aware that a true warrior never refused satisfaction of some kind to the kindred of the slain, so he agreed to
+the seemingly small proposal, and immediately prepared to act as cook, while Regin dozed until the meat was ready. After an
+interval Sigurd touched the roast to ascertain whether it were tender, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb277" href="#pb277">277</a>]</span>but burning his fingers severely, he instinctively thrust them into his mouth to allay the smart. No sooner had Fafnir&#8217;s blood
+thus touched his lips than he discovered, to his utter surprise, that he could understand the songs of the birds, many of
+which were already gathering round the carrion. Listening attentively, he found that they were telling how Regin meditated
+mischief against him, and how he ought to slay the old man and take the gold, which was his by right of conquest, after which
+he ought to partake of the heart and blood of the dragon. As this coincided with his own wishes, he slew the evil old man
+with a thrust of his sword and proceeded to eat and drink as the birds had suggested, reserving a small portion of Fafnir&#8217;s
+heart for future consumption. He then wandered off in search of the mighty hoard, and, after donning the Helmet of Dread,
+the hauberk of gold, and the ring Andvaranaut, and loading Greyfell with as much gold as he could carry, he sprang to the
+saddle and sat listening eagerly to the birds&#8217; songs to know what his future course should be.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8617">
+<h3 class="normal">The Sleeping Warrior Maiden</h3>
+<p>Soon he heard of a warrior maiden fast asleep on a mountain and surrounded by a glittering barrier of flames, through which
+only the bravest of men could pass to arouse her.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;On the fell I know
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A warrior maid to sleep;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Over her waves
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The linden&#8217;s bane:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ygg whilom stuck
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A sleep-thorn in the robe
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of the maid who
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Would heroes choose.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Lay of Fafnir</i> (<i>Thorpe&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb278" href="#pb278">278</a>]</span></p>
+<p>This adventure was the very thing for Sigurd, and he set off at once. The way lay through trackless regions, and the journey
+was long and cheerless, but at length he came to the Hindarfiall in Frankland, a tall mountain whose cloud-wreathed summit
+seemed circled by fiery flames.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Long Sigurd rideth the waste, when, lo, on a morning of day,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From out of the tangled crag-walls, amidst the cloudland grey,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Comes up a mighty mountain, and it is as though there burns
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">A torch amidst of its cloud-wreath; so thither Sigurd turns,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For he deems indeed from its topmost to look on the best of the earth;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And Greyfell neigheth beneath him, and his heart is full of mirth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p278" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p278.jpg" alt="Sigurd finds Brunhild" width="516" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Sigurd finds Brunhild</p>
+<p>J. Wagrez</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Sigurd rode up the mountain side, and the light grew more and more vivid as he proceeded, until when he had neared the summit
+a barrier of lurid flames stood before him. The fire burned with a roar which would have daunted the heart of any other, but
+Sigurd remembered the words of the birds, and without a moment&#8217;s hesitation he plunged bravely into its very midst.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Now Sigurd turns in his saddle, and the hilt of the Wrath he shifts,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And draws a girth the tighter; then the gathered reins he lifts,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And crieth aloud to Greyfell, and rides at the wildfire&#8217;s heart;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But the white wall wavers before him and the flame-flood rusheth apart,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And high o&#8217;er his head it riseth, and wide and wild its roar
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As it beareth the mighty tidings to the very heavenly floor:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But he rideth through its roaring as the warrior rides the rye,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When it bows with the wind of the summer and the hid spears draw anigh;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The white flame licks his raiment and sweeps through Greyfell&#8217;s mane,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And bathes both hands of Sigurd and the hilt of Fafnir&#8217;s bane,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And winds about his war-helm and mingles with his hair,<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb279" href="#pb279">279</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">But nought his raiment dusketh or dims his glittering gear;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then it fails and fades and darkens till all seems left behind,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And dawn and the blaze is swallowed in mid-mirk stark and blind.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>The threatening flames having now died away, Sigurd pursued his journey over a broad tract of white ashes, directing his course
+to a great castle, with shield-hung walls. The great gates stood wide open, and Sigurd rode through them unchallenged by warders
+or men at arms. Proceeding cautiously, for he feared some snare, he at last came to the centre of the courtyard, where he
+saw a recumbent form cased in armour. Sigurd dismounted from his steed and eagerly removed the helmet, when he started with
+surprise to behold, instead of a warrior, the face of a most beautiful maiden.
+
+</p>
+<p>All his efforts to awaken the sleeper were vain, however, until he had removed her armour, and she lay before him in pure-white
+linen garments, her long hair falling in golden waves around her. Then as the last fastening of her armour gave way, she opened
+wide her beautiful eyes, which met the rising sun, and first greeting with rapture the glorious spectacle, she turned to her
+deliverer, and the young hero and the maiden loved each other at first sight.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then she turned and gazed on Sigurd, and her eyes met the Volsung&#8217;s eyes.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And mighty and measureless now did the tide of his love arise,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For their longing had met and mingled, and he knew of her heart that she loved,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And she spake unto nothing but him and her lips with the speech-flood moved.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>The maiden now proceeded to tell Sigurd her story. Her name was Brunhild, and according to some authorities she was the daughter
+of an earthly king <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb280" href="#pb280">280</a>]</span>whom Odin had raised to the rank of a Valkyr. She had served him faithfully for a long while, but once had ventured to set
+her own wishes above his, giving to a younger and therefore more attractive opponent the victory which Odin had commanded
+for another.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p280" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p280.jpg" alt="Odin and Brunhild" width="460" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Odin and Brunhild</p>
+<p>K. Dielitz
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., <span class="corr" id="xd0e8726" title="Not in source">133 </span>New Bond St., W.
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In punishment for this act of disobedience, she had been deprived of her office and banished to earth, where Allfather decreed
+she should wed like any other member of her sex. This sentence filled Brunhild&#8217;s heart with dismay, for she greatly feared
+lest it might be her fate to mate with a coward, whom she would despise. To quiet these apprehensions, Odin took her to Hindarfiall
+or Hindfell, and touching her with the Thorn of Sleep, that she might await in unchanged youth and beauty the coming of her
+destined husband, he surrounded her with a barrier of flame which none but a hero would venture through.
+
+</p>
+<p>From the top of Hindarfiall, Brunhild now pointed out to Sigurd her former home, at Lymdale or Hunaland, telling him he would
+find her there whenever he chose to come and claim her as his wife; and then, while they stood on the lonely mountain top
+together, Sigurd placed the ring Andvaranaut upon her finger, in token of betrothal, swearing to love her alone as long as
+life endured.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;From his hand then draweth Sigurd Andvari&#8217;s ancient Gold;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There is nought but the sky above them as the ring together they hold,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The shapen ancient token, that hath no change nor end,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">No change, and no beginning, no flaw for God to mend:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then Sigurd cried: &#8216;O Brynhild, now hearken while I swear,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That the sun shall die in the heavens and the day no more be fair,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">If I seek not love in Lymdale and the house that fostered thee,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb281" href="#pb281">281</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">And the land where thou awakedst &#8217;twixt the woodland and the sea!&#8217;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And she cried: &#8216;O Sigurd, Sigurd, now hearken while I swear
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That the day shall die for ever and the sun to blackness wear,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ere I forget thee, Sigurd, as I lie &#8217;twixt wood and sea
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In the little land of Lymdale and the house that fostered me!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8760">
+<h3 class="normal">The Fostering of Aslaug</h3>
+<p>According to some authorities, the lovers parted after thus plighting their troth; but others say that Sigurd soon sought
+out and wedded Brunhild, with whom he lived for a while in perfect happiness until forced to leave her and his infant daughter
+Aslaug. This child, left orphaned at three years of age, was fostered by Brunhild&#8217;s father, who, driven away from home, concealed
+her in a cunningly fashioned harp, until reaching a distant land he was murdered by a peasant couple for the sake of the gold
+they supposed it to contain. Their surprise and disappointment were great indeed when, on breaking the instrument open, they
+found a beautiful little girl, whom they deemed mute, as she would not speak a word. Time passed, and the child, whom they
+had trained as a drudge, grew to be a beautiful maiden, and she won the affection of a passing viking, Ragnar Lodbrog, King
+of the Danes, to whom she told her tale. The viking sailed away to other lands to fulfil the purposes of his voyage, but when
+a year had passed, during which time he won much glory, he came back and carried away Aslaug as his bride.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;She heard a voice she deemed well known,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Long waited through dull hours bygone
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And round her mighty arms were cast:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But when her trembling red lips passed
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From out the heaven of that dear kiss,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And eyes met eyes, she saw in his
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb282" href="#pb282">282</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Fresh pride, fresh hope, fresh love, and saw
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The long sweet days still onward draw,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Themselves still going hand in hand,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As now they went adown the strand.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>The Fostering of Aslaug</i> (<i>William Morris</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p282" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p282.jpg" alt="Aslaug" width="490" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Aslaug</p>
+<p>Gertrude Demain Hammond, R.I.</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In continuation of the story of Sigurd and Brunhild, however, we are told that the young man went to seek adventures in the
+great world, where he had vowed, as a true hero, to right the wrong and defend the fatherless and oppressed.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8803">
+<h3 class="normal">The Niblungs</h3>
+<p>In the course of his wanderings, Sigurd came to the land of the Niblungs, the land of continual mist, where Giuki and Grimhild
+were king and queen. The latter was specially to be feared, as she was well versed in magic lore, and could weave spells and
+concoct marvellous potions which had power to steep the drinker in temporary forgetfulness and compel him to yield to her
+will.
+
+</p>
+<p>The king and queen had three sons, Gunnar, H&ouml;gni, and Guttorm, who were brave young men, and one daughter, Gudrun, the gentlest
+as well as the most beautiful of maidens. All welcomed Sigurd most warmly, and Giuki invited him to tarry awhile. The invitation
+was very agreeable after his long wanderings, and Sigurd was glad to stay and share the pleasures and occupations of the Niblungs.
+He accompanied them to war, and so distinguished himself by his valour, that he won the admiration of Grimhild and she resolved
+to secure him as her daughter&#8217;s husband. One day, therefore, she brewed one of her magic potions, and when he had partaken
+of it at the hand of Gudrun, he utterly forgot Brunhild and his plighted troth, and all his love was diverted unto the queen&#8217;s
+daughter.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb283" href="#pb283">283</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But the heart was changed in Sigurd; as though it ne&#8217;er had been
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His love of Brynhild perished as he gazed on the Niblung Queen:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Brynhild&#8217;s beloved body was e&#8217;en as a wasted hearth,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">No more for bale or blessing, for plenty or for dearth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Although there was not wanting a vague fear that he had forgotten some event in the past which should rule his conduct, Sigurd
+asked for and obtained Gudrun&#8217;s hand, and their wedding was celebrated amid the rejoicings of the people, who loved the young
+hero very dearly. Sigurd gave his bride some of Fafnir&#8217;s heart to eat, and the moment she had tasted it her nature was changed,
+and she began to grow cold and silent to all except him. To further cement his alliance with the two eldest Giukings (as the
+sons of Giuki were called) Sigurd entered the &#8220;doom ring&#8221; with them, and the three young men cut a sod which was placed upon
+a shield, beneath which they stood while they bared and slightly cut their right arms, allowing their blood to mingle in the
+fresh earth. Then, when they had sworn eternal friendship, the sod was replaced.
+
+</p>
+<p>But although Sigurd loved his wife and felt a true fraternal affection for her brothers, he could not lose his haunting sense
+of oppression, and was seldom seen to smile as radiantly as of old. Giuki had now died, and his eldest son, Gunnar, ruled
+in his stead. As the young king was unwedded, Grimhild, his mother, besought him to take a wife, suggesting that none seemed
+more worthy to become Queen of the Niblungs than Brunhild, who, it was reported, sat in a golden hall surrounded by flames,
+whence she had declared she would issue only to marry the warrior who would dare brave the fire for her sake.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb284" href="#pb284">284</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8826">
+<h3 class="normal">Gunnar&#8217;s Stratagem</h3>
+<p>Gunnar immediately prepared to seek this maiden, and strengthened by one of his mother&#8217;s magic potions, and encouraged by
+Sigurd, who accompanied him, he felt confident of success. But when on reaching the summit of the mountain he would have ridden
+into the fire, his steed drew back affrighted and he could not induce him to advance a step. Seeing that his companion&#8217;s steed
+did not show signs of fear, he asked him of Sigurd; but although Greyfell allowed Gunnar to mount, he would not stir because
+his master was not on his back.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p284" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p284.jpg" alt="Sigurd and Gunnar" width="720" height="489"><p class="figureHead">Sigurd and Gunnar</p>
+<p>J. C. Dollman</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Now as Sigurd carried the Helmet of Dread, and Grimhild had given Gunnar a magic potion in case it should be needed, it was
+possible for the companions to exchange their forms and features, and seeing that Gunnar could not penetrate the flaming wall
+Sigurd proposed to assume the appearance of Gunnar and woo the bride for him. The king was greatly disappointed, but as no
+alternative offered he dismounted, and the necessary exchange was soon effected. Then Sigurd mounted Greyfell in the semblance
+of his companion, and this time the steed showed not the least hesitation, but leaped into the flames at the first touch on
+his bridle, and soon brought his rider to the castle, where, in the great hall, sat Brunhild. Neither recognised the other:
+Sigurd because of the magic spell cast over him by Grimhild; Brunhild because of the altered appearance of her lover.
+
+</p>
+<p>The maiden shrank in disappointment from the dark-haired intruder, for she had deemed it impossible for any but Sigurd to
+ride through the flaming circle. But she advanced reluctantly to meet her visitor, and when he declared that he had come to
+woo her, she <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb285" href="#pb285">285</a>]</span>permitted him to take a husband&#8217;s place at her side, for she was bound by solemn injunction to accept as her spouse him who
+should thus seek her through the flames.
+
+</p>
+<p>Three days did Sigurd remain with Brunhild, and his bright sword lay bared between him and his bride. This singular behaviour
+aroused the curiosity of the maiden, wherefore Sigurd told her that the gods had bidden him celebrate his wedding thus.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;There they went in one bed together; but the foster-brother laid
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Twixt him and the body of Brynhild his bright blue battle-blade;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And she looked and heeded it nothing; but, e&#8217;en as the dead folk lie,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With folded hands she lay there, and let the night go by:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And as still lay that Image of Gunnar as the dead of life forlorn,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And hand on hand he folded as he waited for the morn.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So oft in the moonlit minster your fathers may ye see
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">By the side of the ancient mothers await the day to be.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>When the fourth morning dawned, Sigurd drew the ring Andvaranaut from Brunhild&#8217;s hand, and, replacing it by another, he received
+her solemn promise that in ten days&#8217; time she would appear at the Niblung court to take up her duties as queen and faithful
+wife.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;I thank thee, King, for thy goodwill, and thy pledge of love I take,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Depart with my troth to thy people: but ere full ten days are o&#8217;er
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I shall come to the Sons of the Niblungs, and then shall we part no more
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till the day of the change of our life-days, when Odin and Freya shall call.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>The promise given, Sigurd again passed out of the palace, through the ashes, and joined Gunnar, with whom, after he had reported
+the success of his venture, he hastened to exchange forms once more. The warriors then turned their steeds homeward, and only
+to Gudrun did Sigurd reveal the secret of her brother&#8217;s <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb286" href="#pb286">286</a>]</span>wooing, and he gave her the fatal ring, little suspecting the many woes which it was destined to occasion.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8878">
+<h3 class="normal">The Coming of Brunhild</h3>
+<p>True to her promise, Brunhild appeared ten days later, and solemnly blessing the house she was about to enter, she greeted
+Gunnar kindly, and allowed him to conduct her to the great hall, where sat Sigurd beside Gudrun. The Volsung looked up at
+that moment and as he encountered Brunhild&#8217;s reproachful eyes Grimhild&#8217;s spell was broken and the past came back in a flood
+of bitter recollection. It was too late, however: both were in honour bound, he to Gudrun and she to Gunnar, whom she passively
+followed to the high seat, to sit beside him as the scalds entertained the royal couple with the ancient lays of their land.
+
+</p>
+<p>The days passed, and Brunhild remained apparently indifferent, but her heart was hot with anger, and often did she steal out
+of her husband&#8217;s palace to the forest, where she could give vent to her grief in solitude.
+
+</p>
+<p>Meanwhile, Gunnar perceived the cold indifference of his wife to his protestations of affection, and began to have jealous
+suspicions, wondering whether Sigurd had honestly told the true story of the wooing, and fearing lest he had taken advantage
+of his position to win Brunhild&#8217;s love. Sigurd alone continued the even tenor of his way, striving against none but tyrants
+and oppressors, and cheering all by his kindly words and smile.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8887">
+<h3 class="normal">The Quarrel of the Queens</h3>
+<p>On a day the queens went down together to the Rhine to bathe, and as they were entering the water Gudrun claimed precedence
+by right of her husband&#8217;s <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb287" href="#pb287">287</a>]</span>courage. Brunhild refused to yield what she deemed her right, and a quarrel ensued, in the course of which Gudrun accused
+her sister-in-law of not having kept her faith, producing the ring Andvaranaut in support of her charge. The sight of the
+fatal ring in the hand of her rival crushed Brunhild, and she fled homeward, and lay in speechless grief day after day, until
+all thought she must die. In vain did Gunnar and the members of the royal family seek her in turn and implore her to speak;
+she would not utter a word until Sigurd came and inquired the cause of her unutterable grief. Then, like a long-pent-up stream,
+her love and anger burst forth, and she overwhelmed the hero with reproaches, until his heart so swelled with grief for her
+sorrow that the tight bands of his strong armour gave way.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Out went Sigurd
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From that interview
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Into the hall of kings,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Writhing with anguish;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So that began to start
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The ardent warrior&#8217;s
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Iron-woven sark
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Off from his sides.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda</i> (<i>Thorpe&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Words had no power to mend that woeful situation, and Brunhild refused to heed when Sigurd offered to repudiate Gudrun, saying,
+as she dismissed him, that she would not be faithless to Gunnar. The thought that two living men had called her wife was unendurable
+to her pride, and the next time her husband sought her presence she implored him to put Sigurd to death, thus increasing his
+jealousy and suspicion. He refused to deal violently with Sigurd, however, because of their oath of good fellowship, and so
+she turned to H&ouml;gni <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb288" href="#pb288">288</a>]</span>for aid. He, too, did not wish to violate his oath, but he induced Guttorm, by means of much persuasion and one of Grimhild&#8217;s
+potions, to undertake the dastardly deed.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8922">
+<h3 class="normal">The Death of Sigurd</h3>
+<p>Accordingly, in the dead of night, Guttorm stole into Sigurd&#8217;s chamber, weapon in hand; but as he bent over the bed he saw
+Sigurd&#8217;s bright eyes fixed upon him, and fled precipitately. Later on he returned and the scene was repeated; but towards
+morning, stealing in for the third time, he found the hero asleep, and traitorously drove his spear through his back.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p288" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p288.jpg" alt="The Death of Siegfried" width="720" height="538"><p class="figureHead">The Death of Siegfried</p>
+<p>H. Hendrich
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of the &#8220;Illustrirte Zeitung&#8221; (J. J. Weber. Leipzig)</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Although wounded unto death, Sigurd raised himself in bed, and seizing his renowned sword which hung beside him, he flung
+it with all his remaining strength at the flying murderer, cutting him in two as he reached the door. Then, with a last whispered
+farewell to the terrified Gudrun, Sigurd sank back and breathed his last.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 10em; ">&#8221;&#8216;Mourn not, O Gudrun, this stroke is the last of ill;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fear leaveth the House of the Niblungs on this breaking of the morn;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Mayst thou live, O woman beloved, unforsaken, unforlorn!&#8217;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&nbsp;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8216;It is Brynhild&#8217;s deed,&#8217; he murmured, &#8216;and the woman that loves me well;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nought now is left to repent of, and the tale abides to tell.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I have done many deeds in my life-days; and all these, and my love, they lie
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In the hollow hand of Odin till the day of the world go by.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I have done and I may not undo, I have given and I take not again:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Art thou other than I, Allfather, wilt thou gather my glory in vain?&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>Sigurd&#8217;s infant son was slain at the same time, and poor Gudrun mourned over her dead in silent, tearless <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb289" href="#pb289">289</a>]</span>grief; while Brunhild laughed aloud, thereby incurring the wrath of Gunnar, who repented, too late, that he had not taken
+measures to avert the dastardly crime.
+
+</p>
+<p>The grief of the Niblungs found expression in the public funeral celebration which was shortly held. A mighty pyre was erected,
+to which were brought precious hangings, fresh flowers, and glittering arms, as was the custom for the burial of a prince;
+and as these sad preparations took shape, Gudrun was the object of tender solicitude from the women, who, fearing lest her
+heart would break, tried to open the flood-gate of her tears by recounting the bitterest sorrows they had known, one telling
+of how she too had lost all she held dear. But these attempts to make her weep were utterly vain, until at length they laid
+her husband&#8217;s head in her lap, bidding her kiss him as if he were still alive; then her tears began to flow in torrents.
+
+</p>
+<p>The reaction soon set in for Brunhild also; her resentment was all forgotten when she saw the body of Sigurd laid on the pyre,
+arrayed as if for battle in burnished armour, with the Helmet of Dread at his head, and accompanied by his steed, which was
+to be burned with him, together with several of his faithful servants who would not survive his loss. She withdrew to her
+apartment, and after distributing her possessions among her handmaidens, she donned her richest array, and stabbed herself
+as she lay stretched upon her bed.
+
+</p>
+<p>The tidings soon reached Gunnar, who came with all haste to his wife and just in time to receive her dying injunction to lay
+her beside the hero she loved, with the glittering, unsheathed sword between them, as it had lain when he had wooed her by
+proxy. When she had breathed her last, these wishes were faithfully <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb290" href="#pb290">290</a>]</span>executed, and her body was burned with Sigurd&#8217;s amid the lamentations of all the Niblungs.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p290" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p290.jpg" alt="The End of Brunhild" width="532" height="720"><p class="figureHead">The End of Brunhild</p>
+<p>J. Wagrez</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In Richard Wagner&#8217;s story of &#8220;The Ring&#8221; Brunhild&#8217;s end is more picturesque. Mounted on her steed, as when she led the battle-maidens
+at the command of Odin, she rode into the flames which leaped to heaven from the great funeral pyre, and passed for ever from
+the sight of men.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;They are gone&#8212;the lovely, the mighty, the hope of the ancient Earth:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">It shall labour and bear the burden as before that day of their birth:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">It shall groan in its blind abiding for the day that Sigurd hath sped,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the hour that Brynhild hath hastened, and the dawn that waketh the dead:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">It shall yearn, and be oft-times holpen, and forget their deeds no more,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till the new sun beams on Baldur and the happy sea-less shore.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>The death scene of Sigurd (Siegfried) is far more powerful in the Nibelungenlied. In the Teutonic version his treacherous
+assailant lures him from a hunting party in the forest to quench his thirst at a brook, where he thrusts him through the back
+with a spear. His body was thence borne home by the hunters and laid at his wife&#8217;s feet.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e8995">
+<h3 class="normal">The Flight of Gudrun</h3>
+<p>Gudrun, still inconsolable, and loathing the kindred who had treacherously robbed her of all joy in life, fled from her father&#8217;s
+house and took refuge with Elf, Sigurd&#8217;s foster father, who, after the death of Hiordis, had married Thora, the daughter of
+King Hakon. The two women became great friends, and here Gudrun tarried several years, employing herself in embroidering upon
+tapestry the great deeds of Sigurd, and watching <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb291" href="#pb291">291</a>]</span>over her little daughter Swanhild, whose bright eyes reminded her vividly of the husband whom she had lost.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9002">
+<h3 class="normal">Atli, King of the Huns</h3>
+<p>In the meantime, Atli, Brunhild&#8217;s brother, who was now King of the Huns, had sent to Gunnar to demand atonement for his sister&#8217;s
+death; and to satisfy his claims Gunnar had promised that when her years of widowhood had been accomplished he would give
+him Gudrun&#8217;s hand in marriage. Time passed, and Atli clamoured for the fulfilment of his promise, wherefore the Niblung brothers,
+with their mother Grimhild, went to seek the long-absent princess, and by the aid of the magic potion administered by Grimhild
+they succeeded in persuading Gudrun to leave little Swanhild in Denmark and to become Atli&#8217;s wife in the land of the Huns.
+
+</p>
+<p>Nevertheless, Gudrun secretly detested her husband, whose avaricious tendencies were extremely repugnant to her; and even
+the birth of two sons, Erp and Eitel, did not console her for the death of her loved ones and the absence of Swanhild. Her
+thoughts were continually of the past, and she often spoke of it, little suspecting that her descriptions of the wealth of
+the Niblungs had excited Atli&#8217;s greed, and that he was secretly planning some pretext for seizing it.
+
+</p>
+<p>Atli at last decided to send Knefrud or Wingi, one of his servants, to invite the Niblung princes to visit his court, intending
+to slay them when he should have them in his power; but Gudrun, fathoming this design, sent a rune message to her brothers,
+together with the ring Andvaranaut, around which she had twined a wolf&#8217;s hair. On the way, however, the messenger partly effaced
+the runes, thus changing their meaning; and when he appeared before the Niblungs, Gunnar <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb292" href="#pb292">292</a>]</span>accepted the invitation, in spite of H&ouml;gni&#8217;s and Grimhild&#8217;s warnings, and an ominous dream of Glaumvor, his second wife.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9013">
+<h3 class="normal">Burial of the Niblung Treasure</h3>
+<p>Before departing, however, Gunnar was prevailed upon to bury secretly the great Niblung hoard in the Rhine, and he sank it
+in a deep hole in the bed of the river, the position of which was known to the royal brothers only, who took a solemn oath
+never to reveal it.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Down then and whirling outward the ruddy Gold fell forth,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As a flame in the dim grey morning, flashed out a kingdom&#8217;s worth;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then the waters roared above it, the wan water and the foam
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Flew up o&#8217;er the face of the rock-wall as the tinkling Gold fell home,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Unheard, unseen for ever, a wonder and a tale,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till the last of earthly singers from the sons of men shall fail.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9031">
+<h3 class="normal">The Treachery of Atli</h3>
+<p>In martial array the royal band then rode out of the city of the Niblungs, which they were never again to see, and after many
+adventures they entered the land of the Huns, and arrived at Atli&#8217;s hall, where, finding that they had been foully entrapped,
+they slew the traitor Knefrud, and prepared to sell their lives as dearly as possible.
+
+</p>
+<p>Gudrun hastened to meet them with tender embraces, and, seeing that they must fight, she grasped a weapon and loyally aided
+them in the terrible massacre which ensued. After the first onslaught, Gunnar kept up the spirits of his followers by playing
+on his harp, which he laid aside only when the assaults were renewed. Thrice the brave Niblungs resisted the assault of the
+Huns, until all save Gunnar and H&ouml;gni <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb293" href="#pb293">293</a>]</span>had perished, and the king and his brother, wounded, faint, and weary, fell into the hands of their foes, who cast them, securely
+bound, into a dungeon to await death.
+
+</p>
+<p>Atli had prudently abstained from taking any active part in the fight, and he now had his brothers-in-law brought in turn
+before him, promising them freedom if they would reveal the hiding-place of the golden hoard; but they proudly kept silence,
+and it was only after much torture that Gunnar spake, saying that he had sworn a solemn oath never to reveal the secret as
+long as H&ouml;gni lived. At the same time he declared that he would believe his brother dead only when his heart was brought to
+him on a platter.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;With a dreadful voice cried Gunnar: &#8216;O fool, hast thou heard it told
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Who won the Treasure aforetime and the ruddy rings of the Gold?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">It was Sigurd, child of the Volsungs, the best sprung forth from the best:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He rode from the North and the mountains, and became my summer guest,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">My friend and my brother sworn: he rode the Wavering Fire,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And won me the Queen of Glory and accomplished my desire;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The praise of the world he was, the hope of the biders in wrong,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The help of the lowly people, the hammer of the strong:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ah, oft in the world, henceforward, shall the tale be told of the deed,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And I, e&#8217;en I, will tell it in the day of the Niblungs&#8217; Need:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For I sat night-long in my armour, and when light was wide o&#8217;er the land
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I slaughtered Sigurd my brother, and looked on the work of mine hand.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And now, O mighty Atli, I have seen the Niblung&#8217;s wreck,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the feet of the faint-heart dastard have trodden Gunnar&#8217;s neck;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And if all be little enough, and the Gods begrudge me rest,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Let me see the heart of H&ouml;gni cut quick from his living breast,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And laid on the dish before me: and then shall I tell of the Gold,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And become thy servant, Atli, and my life at thy pleasure hold.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb294" href="#pb294">294</a>]</span><p>Urged by greed, Atli gave immediate orders that H&ouml;gni&#8217;s heart should be brought; but his servants, fearing to lay hands on
+such a grim warrior, slew the cowardly scullion Hialli. The trembling heart of this poor wretch called forth contemptuous
+words from Gunnar, who declared that such a timorous organ could never have belonged to his fearless brother. Atli again issued
+angry commands, and this time the unquivering heart of H&ouml;gni was produced, whereupon Gunnar, turning to the monarch, solemnly
+swore that since the secret now rested with him alone it would never be revealed.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9082">
+<h3 class="normal">The Last of the Niblungs</h3>
+<p>Livid with anger, the king bade his servants throw Gunnar, with hands bound, into a den of venomous snakes; but this did not
+daunt the reckless Niblung, and, his harp having been flung after him in derision, he calmly sat in the pit, harping with
+his toes, and lulling to sleep all the reptiles save one only. It was said that Atli&#8217;s mother had taken the form of this snake,
+and that she it was who now bit him in the side, and silenced his triumphant song for ever.
+
+</p>
+<p>To celebrate his triumph, Atli now ordered a great feast, commanding Gudrun to be present to wait upon him. At this banquet
+he ate and drank heartily, little suspecting that his wife had slain both his sons, and had served up their roasted hearts
+and their blood mixed with wine in cups made of their skulls. After a time the king and his guests became intoxicated, when
+Gudrun, according to one version of the story, set fire to the palace, and as the drunken men were aroused, too late to escape,
+she revealed what she had done, and first stabbing her husband, she calmly perished in the flames with the Huns. Another <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb295" href="#pb295">295</a>]</span>version relates, however, that she murdered Atli with Sigurd&#8217;s sword, and having placed his body on a ship, which she sent
+adrift, she cast herself into the sea and was drowned.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;She spread out her arms as she spake it, and away from the earth she leapt
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And cut off her tide of returning: for the sea-waves over her swept,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And their will is her will henceforward, and who knoweth the deeps of the sea,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the wealth of the bed of Gudrun, and the days that yet shall be?&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p>According to a third and very different version, Gudrun was not drowned, but was borne by the waves to the land where Jonakur
+was king. There she became his wife, and the mother of three sons, S&ouml;rli, Hamdir, and Erp. She recovered possession, moreover,
+of her beloved daughter Swanhild, who, in the meantime, had grown into a beautiful maiden of marriageable age.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9102">
+<h3 class="normal">Swanhild</h3>
+<p>Swanhild became affianced to Ermenrich, King of Gothland, who sent his son, Randwer, and one of his servants, Sibich, to escort
+the bride to his kingdom. Sibich was a traitor, and as part of a plan to compass the death of the royal family that he might
+claim the kingdom, he accused Randwer of having tried to win his young stepmother&#8217;s affections. This accusation so roused
+the anger of Ermenrich that he ordered his son to be hanged, and Swanhild to be trampled to death under the feet of wild horses.
+The beauty of this daughter of Sigurd and Gudrun was such, however, that even the wild steeds could not be induced to harm
+her until she had been hidden from their sight <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb296" href="#pb296">296</a>]</span>under a great blanket, when they trod her to death under their cruel hoofs.
+
+</p>
+<p>Upon learning the fate of her beloved daughter, Gudrun called her three sons to her side, and girding them with armour and
+weapons against which nothing but stone could prevail, she bade them depart and avenge their murdered sister, after which
+she died of grief, and was burned on a great pyre.
+
+</p>
+<p>The three youths, S&ouml;rli, Hamdir, and Erp, proceeded to Ermenrich&#8217;s kingdom, but ere they met their foes, the two eldest, deeming
+Erp too young to assist them, taunted him with his small size, and finally slew him. S&ouml;rli and Hamdir then attacked Ermenrich,
+cut off his hands and feet, and would have slain him but for a one-eyed stranger who suddenly appeared and bade the bystanders
+throw stones at the young men. His orders were immediately carried out, and S&ouml;rli and Hamdir soon fell slain under the shower
+of stones, which, as we have seen, alone had power to injure them.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Ye have heard of Sigurd aforetime, how the foes of God he slew;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">How forth from the darksome desert the Gold of Waters he drew;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">How he wakened Love on the Mountain, and wakened Brynhild the Bright,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And dwelt upon Earth for a season, and shone in all men&#8217;s sight.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ye have heard of the Cloudy People, and the dimming of the day,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the latter world&#8217;s confusion, and Sigurd gone away;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Now ye know of the Need of the Niblungs and the end of broken troth,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">All the death of kings and of kindreds and the Sorrow of Odin the Goth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9130">
+<h3 class="normal">Interpretation of the Saga</h3>
+<p>This story of the Volsungs is supposed by some authorities to be a series of sun myths, in which Sigi, Rerir, Volsung, Sigmund,
+and Sigurd in turn personify the glowing orb of day. They are all armed with <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb297" href="#pb297">297</a>]</span>invincible swords, the sunbeams, and all travel through the world fighting against their foes, the demons of cold and darkness.
+Sigurd, like Balder, is beloved of all; he marries Brunhild, the dawn maiden, whom he finds in the midst of flames, the flush
+of morn, and parts from her only to find her again when his career is ended. His body is burned on the funeral pyre, which,
+like Balder&#8217;s, represents either the setting sun or the last gleam of summer, of which he too is a type. The slaying of Fafnir
+symbolises the destruction of the demon of cold or darkness, who has stolen the golden hoard of summer or the yellow rays
+of the sun.
+
+</p>
+<p>According to other authorities, this Saga is based upon history. Atli is the cruel Attila, the &#8220;Scourge of God,&#8221; while Gunnar
+is Gundicarius, a Burgundian monarch, whose kingdom was destroyed by the Huns, and who was slain with his brothers in 451.
+Gudrun is the Burgundian princess Ildico, who slew her husband on her wedding-night, as has already been related, using the
+glittering blade which had once belonged to the sun-god to avenge her murdered kinsmen.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb298" href="#pb298">298</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch27" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XXVII: The Story of Frithiof</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9143">
+<h3 class="normal">Bishop Tegn&eacute;r</h3>
+<p>Probably no writer of the nineteenth century did so much to awaken interest in the literary treasures of Scandinavia as Bishop
+Esaias Tegn&eacute;r, whom a Swedish author characterised as, &#8220;that mighty Genie who organises even disorder.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>Tegn&eacute;r&#8217;s &#8220;Frithiof Saga&#8221; has been translated once at least into every European tongue, and some twenty times into English
+and German. Goethe spoke of the work with the greatest enthusiasm, and the tale, which gives a matchless picture of the life
+of our heathen ancestors in the North, drew similar praise from Longfellow, who considered it to be one of the most remarkable
+productions of his century.
+
+</p>
+<p>Although Tegn&eacute;r has chosen for his theme the Frithiof saga only, we find that that tale is the sequel to the older but less
+interesting Thorsten saga, of which we give here a very brief outline, merely to enable the reader to understand clearly every
+allusion in the more modern poem.
+
+</p>
+<p>As is so frequently the case with these ancient tales, the story begins with Haloge (Loki), who came north with Odin, and
+began to reign over northern Norway, which from him was called Halogaland. According to Northern mythology, this god had two
+lovely daughters. They were carried off by bold suitors, who, banished from the mainland by Haloge&#8217;s curses and magic spells,
+took refuge with their newly won wives upon neighbouring islands.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9154">
+<h3 class="normal">Birth of Viking</h3>
+<p>Thus it happened that Haloge&#8217;s grandson, Viking, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb299" href="#pb299">299</a>]</span>was born upon the island of Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea, where he dwelt until he was fifteen, and where he became the biggest
+and strongest man of his time. Rumours of his valour finally reached Hunvor, a Swedish princess, who was oppressed by the
+attentions of a gigantic suitor whom none dared drive away, and she sent for Viking to deliver her.
+
+</p>
+<p>Thus summoned, the youth departed, after having received from his father a magic sword named Angurvadel, whose blows would
+prove fatal even to a giant like the suitor of Hunvor. A &#8220;holmgang,&#8221; as a duel was termed in the North, ensued as soon as
+the hero arrived upon the scene, and Viking, having slain his antagonist, could have married the princess had it not been
+considered disgraceful for a Northman to marry before he was twenty.
+
+</p>
+<p>To beguile the time of waiting for his promised bride, Viking set out in a well-manned dragon ship; and cruising about the
+Northern and Southern seas, he met with countless adventures. During this time he was particularly persecuted by the kindred
+of the giant he had slain, who were adepts in magic, and they brought upon him innumerable perils by land and sea.
+
+</p>
+<p>Aided and abetted by his bosom friend, Halfdan, Viking escaped every danger, slew many of his foes, and, after rescuing Hunvor,
+whom, in the meantime, the enemy had carried off to India, he settled down in Sweden. His friend, faithful in peace as well
+as in war, settled near him, and married also, choosing for wife Ingeborg, Hunvor&#8217;s attendant.
+
+</p>
+<p>The saga now describes the long, peaceful winters, when the warriors feasted and listened to the tales of scalds, rousing
+themselves to energetic efforts only when returning spring again permitted them to launch <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb300" href="#pb300">300</a>]</span>their dragon ships and set out once more upon their piratical expeditions.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then the Scald took his harp and sang,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And loud through the music rang
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">The sound of that shining word;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the harp-strings a clangour made,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">As if they were struck with the blade
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Of a sword.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;And the Berserks round about
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Broke forth into a shout
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">That made the rafters ring:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They smote with their fists on the board,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And shouted, &#8216;Long live the Sword,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">And the King!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Longfellow&#8217;s Saga of King Olaf.</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>In the old story the scalds relate with great gusto every phase of attack and defence during cruise and raid, and describe
+every blow given and received, dwelling with satisfaction upon the carnage and lurid flames which envelop both enemies and
+ships in common ruin. A fierce fight is often an earnest of future friendship, however, and we are told that Halfdan and Viking,
+having failed to conquer Njorfe, a foeman of mettle, sheathed their swords after a most obstinate struggle, and accepted their
+enemy as a third link in their close bond of friendship.
+
+</p>
+<p>On returning home from one of these customary raids, Viking lost his beloved wife; and, entrusting her child, Ring, to the
+care of a foster father, after undergoing a short period of mourning, the brave warrior married again. This time his marital
+bliss was more lasting, for the saga tells that his second wife bore him nine stalwart sons.
+
+</p>
+<p>Njorfe, King of Uplands, in Norway, also rejoiced in a family of nine brave sons. Now, although their <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb301" href="#pb301">301</a>]</span>fathers were united in bonds of the closest friendship, having sworn blood brotherhood according to the true Northern rites,
+the young men were jealous of one another, and greatly inclined to quarrel.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9209">
+<h3 class="normal">The Game of Ball</h3>
+<p>Notwithstanding this smouldering animosity, the youths often met; and the saga relates that they used to play ball together,
+and gives a description of the earliest ball game on record in the Northern annals. Viking&#8217;s sons, as tall and strong as he,
+were inclined to be rather reckless of their opponents&#8217; welfare, and, judging from the following account, translated from
+the old saga, the players were often left in as sorry a condition as after a modern game.
+
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The next morning the brothers went to the games, and generally had the ball during the day; they pushed men and let them
+fall roughly, and beat others. At night three men had their arms broken, and many were bruised or maimed.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>The game between Njorfe&#8217;s and Viking&#8217;s sons culminated in a disagreement, and one of Njorfe&#8217;s sons struck one of his opponents
+a dangerous and treacherous blow. Prevented from taking his revenge then and there by the interference of the spectators,
+the injured man made a trivial excuse to return to the ground alone; and, meeting his assailant there, he slew him.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9218">
+<h3 class="normal">The Blood Feud</h3>
+<p>When Viking heard that one of his sons had slain one of his friend&#8217;s children, he was very indignant, and mindful of his oath
+to avenge all Njorfe&#8217;s wrongs, he banished the young murderer. The other brothers, on hearing this sentence, vowed that they
+would accompany the exile, and so Viking sorrowfully bade them farewell, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb302" href="#pb302">302</a>]</span>giving his sword Angurvadel to Thorsten, the eldest, and cautioning him to remain quietly on an island in Lake Wener until
+all danger of retaliation on the part of Njorfe&#8217;s remaining sons should be over.
+
+</p>
+<p>The young men obeyed; but Njorfe&#8217;s sons were determined to avenge their brother, and although they had no boats to convey
+them over the lake, they made use of a conjurer&#8217;s art to bring about a great frost. Accompanied by many armed men, they then
+stole noiselessly over the ice to attack Thorsten and his brothers, and a terrible carnage ensued. Only two of the attacking
+party managed to escape, but they left, as they fancied, all their foes among the dead.
+
+</p>
+<p>Then came Viking to bury his sons, and he found that two of them, Thorsten and Thorer, were still alive; whereupon he secretly
+conveyed them to a cellar beneath his dwelling, and in due time they recovered from their wounds.
+
+</p>
+<p>Njorfe&#8217;s two surviving sons soon discovered by magic arts that their opponents were not dead, and they made a second desperate
+but vain attempt to kill them. Viking saw that the quarrel would be incessantly renewed if his sons remained at home; so he
+now sent them to Halfdan, whose court they reached after a series of adventures which in many points resemble those of Theseus
+on his way to Athens.
+
+</p>
+<p>When spring came round Thorsten embarked on a piratical excursion, in the course of which he encountered Jokul, Njorfe&#8217;s eldest
+son, who, meanwhile, had taken forcible possession of the kingdom of Sogn, having killed the king, banished his heir, Bel&eacute;,
+and changed his beautiful daughter, Ingeborg, into the similitude of an old witch.
+
+</p>
+<p>Throughout the story Jokul is represented as somewhat of a coward, for he resorted by preference to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb303" href="#pb303">303</a>]</span>magic when he wished to injure Viking&#8217;s sons. Thus he stirred up great tempests, and Thorsten, after twice suffering shipwreck,
+was only saved from the waves by the seeming witch, whom he promised to marry in gratitude for her good offices. Thorsten,
+advised by Ingeborg, now went in search of Bel&eacute;, whom he found and replaced upon his hereditary throne, having sworn eternal
+friendship with him. After this, the baleful spell was removed, and Ingeborg, now revealed in her native beauty, was united
+to Thorsten, and dwelt with him at Framn&auml;s.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9237">
+<h3 class="normal">Thorsten and Bel&eacute;</h3>
+<p>Every spring Thorsten and Bel&eacute; set out together in their ships; and, upon one of these expeditions, they joined forces with
+Angantyr, a foe whose mettle they had duly tested, and proceeded to recover possession of a priceless treasure, a magic dragon
+ship named Ellida, which &AElig;gir, god of the sea, had once given to Viking in reward for hospitable treatment, and which had
+been stolen from him.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;A royal gift to behold, for the swelling planks of its framework
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Were not fastened with nails, as is wont, but <i>grown</i> in together.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Its shape was that of a dragon when swimming, but forward
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Its head rose proudly on high, the throat with yellow gold flaming;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Its belly was spotted with red and yellow, but back by the rudder
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Coiled out its mighty tail in circles, all scaly with silver;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Black wings with edges of red; when all were expanded
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ellida raced with the whistling storm, but outstript the eagle.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When filled to the edge with warriors, it sailed o&#8217;er the waters,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">You&#8217;d deem it a floating fortress, or warlike abode of a monarch.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The ship was famed far and wide, and of ships was first in the North.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>Spalding&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The next season, Thorsten, Bel&eacute;, and Angantyr conquered the Orkney Islands, which were given as a <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb304" href="#pb304">304</a>]</span>kingdom to the latter, he voluntarily pledging himself to pay a yearly tribute to Bel&eacute;. Next Thorsten and Bel&eacute; went in quest
+of a magic ring, or armlet, once forged by V&ouml;lund, the smith, and stolen by Sot&eacute;, a famous pirate.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p304" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p304.jpg" alt="Ingeborg" width="490" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Ingeborg</p>
+<p>M. E. Winge</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>This bold robber was so afraid lest some one should gain possession of the magic ring, that he had buried himself alive with
+it in a mound in Bretland. Here his ghost was said to keep constant watch over it, and when Thorsten entered his tomb, Bel&eacute;,
+who waited outside, heard the sound of frightful blows given and returned, and saw lurid gleams of supernatural fire.
+
+</p>
+<p>When Thorsten finally staggered out of the mound, pale and bloody, but triumphant, he refused to speak of the horrors he had
+encountered to win the coveted treasure, but often would he say, as he showed it, &#8220;I trembled but once in my life, and &#8217;twas
+when I seized it!&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9290">
+<h3 class="normal">Birth of Frithiof and Ingeborg</h3>
+<p>Thus owner of the three greatest treasures of the North, Thorsten returned home to Framn&auml;s, where Ingeborg bore him a fine
+boy, Frithiof, while two sons, Halfdan and Helg&eacute;, were born to Bel&eacute;. The lads played together, and were already well grown
+when Ingeborg, Bel&eacute;&#8217;s little daughter, was born, and some time later the child was entrusted to the care of Hilding, who was
+already Frithiof&#8217;s foster father, as Thorsten&#8217;s frequent absences made it difficult for him to undertake the training of his
+boy.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Jocund they grew, in guileless glee;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Young Frithiof was the sapling tree;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In budding beauty by his side,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sweet Ingeborg, the garden&#8217;s pride.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>Longfellow&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Frithiof soon became hardy and fearless under his <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb305" href="#pb305">305</a>]</span>foster father&#8217;s training, and Ingeborg rapidly developed the sweetest traits of character and loveliness. Both were happiest
+when together; and as they grew older their childish affection daily became deeper and more intense, until Hilding, perceiving
+this state of affairs, bade the youth remember that he was a subject of the king, and therefore no mate for his only daughter.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;To Odin, in his star-lit sky,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ascends her titled ancestry;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But Thorsten&#8217;s son art thou; give way!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">For &#8216;like thrives best with like,&#8217; they say.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9331">
+<h3 class="normal">Frithiof&#8217;s Love for Ingeborg</h3>
+<p>These wise admonitions came too late, however, and Frithiof vehemently declared that he would win the fair Ingeborg for his
+bride in spite of all obstacles and his more humble origin.
+
+</p>
+<p>Shortly after this Bel&eacute; and Thorsten met for the last time, near the magnificent shrine of Balder, where the king, feeling
+that his end was near, had convened a solemn assembly, or Thing, of all his principal subjects, in order to present his sons
+Helg&eacute; and Halfdan to the people as his chosen successors. The young heirs were very coldly received on this occasion, for
+Helg&eacute; was of a sombre and taciturn disposition, and inclined to the life of a priest, and Halfdan was of a weak, effeminate
+nature, and noted for his love of pleasure rather than of war and the chase. Frithiof, who was present, and stood beside them,
+was the object of many admiring glances from the throng.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But close behind them Frithiof goes,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Wrapp&#8217;d in his mantle blue;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His height a whole head taller rose
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Than that of both the two.</p>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb306" href="#pb306">306</a>]</span><div class="poem">
+<p class="line">He stands between the brothers there&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">As though the ripe day stood
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Atween young morning rosy-fair,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And night within the wood.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>After giving his last instructions and counsel to his sons, and speaking kindly to Frithiof, for whom he entertained a warm
+regard, the old king turned to his lifelong companion, Thorsten, to take leave of him, but the old warrior declared that they
+would not long be parted. Bel&eacute; then spoke again to his sons, and bade them erect his howe, or funeral mound, within sight
+of that of Thorsten, that their spirits might commune over the waters of the narrow firth which would flow between them, that
+so they might not be sundered even in death.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9366">
+<h3 class="normal">Helg&eacute; and Halfdan</h3>
+<p>These instructions were piously carried out when, shortly after, the aged companions breathed their last; and the great barrows
+having been erected, the brothers, Helg&eacute; and Halfdan, began to rule their kingdom, while Frithiof, their former playmate,
+withdrew to his own place at Framn&auml;s, a fertile homestead, lying in a snug valley enclosed by the towering mountains and the
+waters of the ever-changing firth.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Three miles extended around the fields of the homestead; on three sides
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Valleys and mountains and hills, but on the fourth side was the ocean.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Birch-woods crowned the summits, but over the down-sloping hill-sides
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Flourished the golden corn, and man-high was waving the rye-field.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>Longfellow&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb307" href="#pb307">307</a>]</span></p>
+<p>But although surrounded by faithful retainers, and blessed with much wealth and the possession of the famous treasures of
+his hero sire, the sword Angurvadel, the V&ouml;lund ring, and the matchless dragon ship Ellida, Frithiof was unhappy, because
+he could no longer see the fair Ingeborg daily. All his former spirits revived, however, when in the spring, at his invitation,
+both kings came to visit him, together with their fair sister, and once again they spent long hours in cheerful companionship.
+As they were thus constantly thrown together, Frithiof found opportunity to make known to Ingeborg his deep affection, and
+he received in return an avowal of her love.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;He sat by her side, and he pressed her soft hand,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And he felt a soft pressure responsive and bland;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Whilst his love-beaming gaze
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Was returned as the sun&#8217;s in the moon&#8217;s placid rays.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>Longfellow&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9406">
+<h3 class="normal">Frithiof&#8217;s Suit</h3>
+<p>When the visit was ended and the guests had departed, Frithiof informed his confidant and chief companion, Bj&ouml;rn, of his determination
+to follow them and openly ask for Ingeborg&#8217;s hand. His ship was set free from its moorings and it swooped like an eagle over
+to the shore near Balder&#8217;s shrine, where the royal brothers were seated in state on Bel&eacute;&#8217;s tomb to listen to the petitions
+of their subjects. Straightway Frithiof presented himself before them, and manfully made his request, adding that the old
+king had always loved him and would surely have granted his prayer.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;No king was my sire, not a jarl, ev&#8217;n&#8212;&#8217;tis true;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yet Scald-songs his mem&#8217;ry and exploits renew;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The Rune-stones will tell
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On high-vaulted cairn what my race hath done well.</p>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb308" href="#pb308">308</a>]</span><div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;With ease could I win me both empire and land;&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But rather I stay on my forefathers&#8217; strand;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">While arms I can wield&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Both poverty&#8217;s hut and king&#8217;s palace I&#8217;ll shield.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;On Bel&eacute;&#8217;s round barrow we stand; each word
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In the dark deeps beneath us he hears and has heard;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With Frithiof pleadeth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The old Chief in his cairn: think! your answer thought needeth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Then he went on to promise lifelong fealty and the service of his strong right arm in exchange for the boon he craved.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p308" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p308.jpg" alt="Frithiof cleaves the Shield of Helg&eacute;" width="520" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Frithiof cleaves the Shield of Helg&eacute;</p>
+<p>Knut Ekwall
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of F. Bruckmann, Munich</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>As Frithiof ceased King Helg&eacute; rose, and regarding the young man scornfully, he said: &#8220;Our sister is not for a peasant&#8217;s son;
+proud chiefs of the Northland may dispute for her hand, but not thou. As for thy arrogant proffer, know that I can protect
+my kingdom. Yet if thou wouldst be my man, place in my household mayst thou have.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>Enraged at the insult thus publicly offered, Frithiof drew his invincible sword; but, remembering that he stood on a consecrated
+spot, he struck only at the royal shield, which fell in two pieces clashing to the ground. Then striding back to his ship
+in sullen silence, he embarked and sailed away.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">&#8220;And lo! cloven in twain at a stroke
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fell King Helge&#8217;s gold shield from its pillar of oak:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">At the clang of the blow,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The live started above, the dead started below.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>Longfellow&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9477">
+<h3 class="normal">Sigurd Ring a Suitor</h3>
+<p>After his departure came messengers from Sigurd Ring, the aged King of Ringric, in Norway, who, having lost his wife, sent
+to Helg&eacute; and Halfdan to ask <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb309" href="#pb309">309</a>]</span>Ingeborg&#8217;s hand in marriage. Before returning answer to this royal suitor, Helg&eacute; consulted the Vala, or prophetess, and the
+priests, who all declared that the omens were not in favour of the marriage. Upon this Helg&eacute; assembled his people to hear
+the word which the messengers were to carry to their master, but unfortunately King Halfdan gave way to his waggish humour,
+and made scoffing reference to the advanced age of the royal suitor. These impolitic words were reported to King Ring, and
+so offended him that he immediately collected an army and prepared to march against the Kings of Sogn to avenge the insult
+with his sword. When the rumour of his approach reached the cowardly brothers they were terrified, and fearing to encounter
+the foe unaided, they sent Hilding to Frithiof to implore his help.
+
+</p>
+<p>Hilding found Frithiof playing chess with Bj&ouml;rn, and immediately made known his errand.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">&#8220;&#8216;From Bele&#8217;s high heirs
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I come with courteous words and prayers
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Disastrous tidings rouse the brave;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On thee a nation&#8217;s hope relies.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&nbsp;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In Balder&#8217;s fane, griefs loveliest prey,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sweet Ing&#8217;borg weeps the livelong day:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Say, can her tears unheeded fall,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nor call her champion to her side?&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>Longfellow&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>While the old man was speaking Frithiof continued to play, ever and anon interjecting an enigmatical reference to the game,
+until at this point he said:
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Bj&ouml;rn; thou in vain my queen pursuest,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">She from childhood dearest, truest!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">She&#8217;s my game&#8217;s most darling piece, and
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Come what will&#8212;I&#8217;ll save my queen!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb310" href="#pb310">310</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Hilding did not understand such mode of answering, and at length rebuked Frithiof for his indifference. Then Frithiof rose,
+and pressing kindly the old man&#8217;s hand, he bade him tell the kings that he was too deeply offended to listen to their appeal.
+
+</p>
+<p>Helg&eacute; and Halfdan, thus forced to fight without their bravest leader, preferred to make a treaty with Sigurd Ring, and they
+agreed to give him not only their sister Ingeborg, but also a yearly tribute.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9535">
+<h3 class="normal">At Balder&#8217;s Shrine</h3>
+<p>While they were thus engaged at Sogn Sound, Frithiof hastened to Balder&#8217;s temple, to which Ingeborg had been sent for security,
+and where, as Hilding had declared, he found her a prey to grief. Now although it was considered a sacrilege for man and woman
+to exchange a word in the sacred building, Frithiof could not forbear to console her; and, forgetting all else, he spoke to
+her and comforted her, quieting all her apprehensions of the gods&#8217; anger by assuring her that Balder, the good, must view
+their innocent passion with approving eyes, for love so pure as theirs could defile no sanctuary; and they ended by plighting
+their troth before the shrine of Balder.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;Thou whisp&#8217;rest &#8220;Balder,&#8221;&#8212;His wrath fearest;&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">That gentle god all anger flies.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">We worship here a Lover, dearest!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Our hearts&#8217; love is his sacrifice;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">That god whose brow beams sunshine-splendour,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Whose faith lasts through eternity,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Was not his love to beauteous Nanna
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">As pure, as warm, as mine to thee?</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;&#8216;His image see!&#8212;himself broods o&#8217;er it&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">How mild, how kind, his bright eyes move!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">An off&#8217;ring bear I here before it,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">A warm heart full of purest love.<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb311" href="#pb311">311</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Come, kneel with me! no altar incense
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">To Balder&#8217;s soul more grateful is
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Than two hearts, vowing in his presence
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">A mutual faith as true as his!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Reassured by this reasoning, which received added strength from the voice which spoke loudly from her own heart, Ingeborg
+could not refuse to see and converse with Frithiof. During the kings&#8217; absence the young lovers met every day, and they exchanged
+love-tokens, Frithiof giving to Ingeborg V&ouml;lund&#8217;s arm-ring, which she solemnly promised to send back to her lover should she
+be compelled to break her promise to live for him alone. Frithiof lingered at Framn&auml;s until the kings&#8217; return, when, yielding
+to the fond entreaties of Ingeborg the Fair, he again appeared before them, and pledged himself to free them from their thraldom
+to Sigurd Ring if they would only reconsider their decision and promise him their sister&#8217;s hand.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 16em; ">&#8220;&#8216;War stands and strikes
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His glitt&#8217;ring shield within thy boundaries;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thy realm, King Helge, is in jeopardy:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But give thy sister, and I&#8217;ll lend mine arm
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thy guard in battle. It may stead thee well.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Come! let this grudge between us be forgotten,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Unwilling bear I such &#8217;gainst Ing&#8217;borg&#8217;s brother.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Be counsell&#8217;d, King! be just! and save at once
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thy golden crown and thy fair sister&#8217;s heart!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Here is my hand: by Asa-Thor I swear
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Never again &#8217;tis stretch&#8217;d in reconcilement!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9614">
+<h3 class="normal">Frithiof Banished</h3>
+<p>But although this offer was received with acclamation by the assembled warriors, Helg&eacute; scornfully demanded of Frithiof whether
+he had spoken with Ingeborg and so defiled the temple of Balder.
+
+</p>
+<p>A shout of &#8220;Say nay, Frithiof! say nay!&#8221; broke <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb312" href="#pb312">312</a>]</span>from the ring of warriors, but he proudly answered: &#8220;I would not lie to gain Valhalla. I have spoken to thy sister, Helg&eacute;,
+yet have I not broken Balder&#8217;s peace.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p312" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p312.jpg" alt="Ingeborg watches her lover depart" width="499" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Ingeborg watches her lover depart</p>
+<p>Knut Ekwall
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of F. Bruckmann, Munich</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>A murmur of horror passed through the ranks at this avowal, and when the harsh voice of Helg&eacute; was raised in judgment, none
+was there to gainsay the justice of the sentence.
+
+</p>
+<p>This apparently was not a harsh one, but Helg&eacute; well knew that it meant death, and he so intended it.
+
+</p>
+<p>Far westward lay the Orkney Islands, ruled by Jarl Angantyr, whose yearly tribute to Bel&eacute; was withheld now that the old king
+lay in his cairn. Hard-fisted he was said to be, and heavy of hand, and to Frithiof was given the task of demanding the tribute
+face to face.
+
+</p>
+<p>Before he sailed upon the judgment-quest, however, he once more sought Ingeborg, and implored her to elope with him to a home
+in the sunny South, where her happiness should be his law, and where she should rule over his subjects as his honoured wife.
+But Ingeborg sorrowfully refused to accompany him, saying that, since her father was no more, she was in duty bound to obey
+her brothers implicitly, and could not marry without their consent.
+
+</p>
+<p>The fiery spirit of Frithiof was at first impatient under this disappointment of his hopes, but in the end his noble nature
+conquered, and after a heartrending parting scene, he embarked upon Ellida, and sorrowfully sailed out of the harbour, while
+Ingeborg, through a mist of tears, watched the sail as it faded and disappeared in the distance.
+
+</p>
+<p>The vessel was barely out of sight when Helg&eacute; sent for two witches named Heid and Ham, bidding them by incantations to stir
+up a tempest at sea in which it would be impossible for even the god-given vessel Ellida to live, that so all on board should
+perish. The <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb313" href="#pb313">313</a>]</span>witches immediately complied; and with Helg&eacute;&#8217;s aid they soon stirred up a storm the fury of which is unparalleled in history.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">&#8220;Helg&eacute; on the strand
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Chants his wizard-spell,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Potent to command
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Fiends of earth or hell.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gathering darkness shrouds the sky;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hark, the thunder&#8217;s distant roll!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Lurid lightnings, as they fly,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Streak with blood the sable pole.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ocean, boiling to its base,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Scatters wide its wave of foam;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Screaming, as in fleetest chase,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sea-birds seek their island home.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>Longfellow&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then the storm unfetter&#8217;d wingeth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Wild his course; in Ocean&#8217;s foam
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Now he dips him, now up-swingeth,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Whirling toward the God&#8217;s own home:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Rides each Horror-spirit, warning,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">High upon the topmost wave&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Up from out the white, vast, yawning,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Bottomless, unfathom&#8217;d grave.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The Tempest
+
+</p>
+<p>Unfrighted by tossing waves and whistling blasts, Frithiof sang a cheery song to reassure his terrified crew; but when the
+peril grew so great that his exhausted followers gave themselves up for lost, he bethought him of tribute to the goddess Ran,
+who ever requires gold of them who would rest in peace under the ocean wave. Taking his armlet, he hewed it with his sword
+and made fair division among his men.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Who goes empty-handed
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Down to sea-blue Ran?
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Cold her kisses strike, and
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fleeting her embrace is.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb314" href="#pb314">314</a>]</span></p>
+<p>He then bade Bj&ouml;rn hold the rudder, and himself climbed to the mast-top to view the horizon. While perched there he descried
+a whale, upon which the two witches were riding the storm. Speaking to his good ship, which was gifted with power of understanding
+and could obey his commands, he now ran down both whale and witches, and the sea was reddened with their blood. At the same
+instant the wind fell, the waves ceased to threaten, and fair weather soon smiled again upon the seas.
+
+</p>
+<p>Exhausted by their previous superhuman efforts and by the labour of baling their water-logged vessel, the men were too weak
+to land when they at last reached the Orkney Islands, and had to be carried ashore by Bj&ouml;rn and Frithiof, who gently laid
+them down on the sand, bidding them rest and refresh themselves after all the hardships they had endured.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Yet more wearied than their Dragon
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Totter Frithiof&#8217;s gallant men;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Though each leans upon his weapon,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Scarcely upright stand they then.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Bj&ouml;rn, on pow&#8217;rful shoulder, dareth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Four to carry to the land;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Frithiof, all alone, eight beareth,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Sets them so round the upblaz&#8217;d brand.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">&#8217;Nay! ye white-fac&#8217;d, shame not!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Waves are mighty Vikings;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Hard&#8217;s the unequal struggle&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Ocean&#8217;s maids our foes.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">See! there comes the mead-horn,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Wand&#8217;ring on bright gold-foot;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Shipmates! cold limbs warm,&#8212;and
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Here&#8217;s to Ingeborg!&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephen&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The arrival of Frithiof and his men, and their mode of landing, had been noted by the watchman of Angantyr, who immediately
+informed his master of all <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb315" href="#pb315">315</a>]</span>he had seen. The jarl exclaimed that the ship which had weathered such a gale could be none but Ellida, and that its captain
+was doubtless Frithiof, Thorsten&#8217;s gallant son. At these words one of his Berserkers, Atl&eacute;, caught up his weapons and strode
+from the hall, vowing that he would challenge Frithiof, and thus satisfy himself concerning the veracity of the tales he had
+heard of the young hero&#8217;s courage.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9772">
+<h3 class="normal">Atl&eacute;&#8217;s Challenge</h3>
+<p>Although still greatly exhausted, Frithiof immediately accepted Atl&eacute;&#8217;s challenge, and, after a sharp encounter with swords,
+in which Angurvadel was triumphant, the two champions grappled in deadly embrace. Widely is that wrestling-match renowned
+in the North, and well matched were the heroes, but in the end Frithiof threw his antagonist, whom he would have slain then
+and there had his sword been within reach. Atl&eacute; saw his intention, and bade him go in search of the weapon, promising to remain
+motionless during his absence. Frithiof, knowing that such a warrior&#8217;s promise was inviolable, immediately obeyed; but when
+he returned with his sword, and found his antagonist calmly awaiting death, he relented, and bade Atl&eacute; rise and live.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then storm they, nothing yielded,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Two autumn-billows like!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And oft, with steel round shielded,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Their jarring breasts fierce strike.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;All like two bears they wrestle,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">On hills of snow; and draw
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And strain, each like an eagle
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">On the angry sea at war.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The root-fast rock resisted
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Full hardly them between
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And green iron oaks down-twisted
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">With lesser pulls have been.</p>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb316" href="#pb316">316</a>]</span><div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;From each broad brow sweat rushes;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Their bosoms coldly heave;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And stones and mounds and bushes
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Dints hundred-fold receive.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Together the appeased warriors now wended their way to Angantyr&#8217;s hall, which Frithiof found to be far different from the
+rude dwellings of his native land. The walls were covered with leather richly decorated with gilt designs. The chimney-piece
+was of marble, and glass panes were in the window-frames. A soft light was diffused from many candles burning in silver branches,
+and the tables groaned under the most luxurious fare.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p316" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p316.jpg" alt="Frithiof&#8217;s Return to Framn&auml;s" width="512" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Frithiof&#8217;s Return to Framn&auml;s</p>
+<p>Knut Ekwall
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of F. Bruckmann, Munich</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>High in a silver chair sat the jarl, clad in a coat of golden mail, over which was flung a rich mantle bordered with ermine,
+but when Frithiof entered he strode from his seat with cordial hand outstretched. &#8220;Full many a horn have I emptied with my
+old friend Thorsten,&#8221; said he, &#8220;and his brave son is equally welcome at my board.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>Nothing loth, Frithiof seated himself beside his host, and after he had eaten and drunk he recounted his adventures upon land
+and sea.
+
+</p>
+<p>At last, however, Frithiof made known his errand, whereupon Angantyr said that he owed no tribute to Helg&eacute;, and would pay
+him none; but that he would give the required sum as a free gift to his old friend&#8217;s son, leaving him at liberty to dispose
+of it as he pleased. Meantime, since the season was unpropitious for the return journey, and storms continually swept the
+sea, the king invited Frithiof to tarry with him over the winter; and it was only when the gentle spring breezes were blowing
+once more that he at last allowed him to depart.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb317" href="#pb317">317</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9838">
+<h3 class="normal">Frithiof&#8217;s Home-coming</h3>
+<p>Taking leave of his kind host, Frithiof set sail, and wafted by favourable winds, the hero, after six days, came in sight
+of Framn&auml;s, and found that his home had been reduced to a shapeless heap of ashes by Helg&eacute;&#8217;s orders. Sadly Frithiof strode
+over the ravaged site of his childhood&#8217;s home, and as he viewed the desolate scene his heart burned within him. The ruins
+were not entirely deserted, however, and suddenly Frithiof felt the cold nozzle of his hound thrust into his hand. A few moments
+later his favourite steed bounded to his master&#8217;s side, and the faithful creatures were well-nigh frantic with delight. Then
+came Hilding to greet him with the information that Ingeborg was now the wife of Sigurd Ring. When Frithiof heard this he
+flew into a Berserker rage, and bade his men scuttle the vessels in the harbour, while he strode to the temple in search of
+Helg&eacute;.
+
+</p>
+<p>The king stood crowned amid a circle of priests, some of whom brandished flaming pine-knots, while all grasped a sacrificial
+flint knife. Suddenly there was a clatter of arms and in burst Frithiof, his brow dark as autumn storms. Helg&eacute;&#8217;s face went
+pale as he confronted the angry hero, for he knew what his coming presaged. &#8220;Take thy tribute, King,&#8221; said Frithiof, and with
+the words, he took the purse from his girdle and flung it in Helg&eacute;&#8217;s face with such force that blood gushed from his mouth
+and he fell swooning at Balder&#8217;s feet.
+
+</p>
+<p>The silver-bearded priests advanced to the scene of violence, but Frithiof motioned them back, and his looks were so threatening
+that they durst not disobey.
+
+</p>
+<p>Then his eye fell upon the arm-ring which he had given to Ingeborg and which Helg&eacute; had placed upon <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb318" href="#pb318">318</a>]</span>the arm of Balder, and striding up to the wooden image he said: &#8220;Pardon, great Balder, not for thee was the ring wrested from
+V&ouml;lund&#8217;s tomb!&#8221; Then he seized the ring, but strongly as he tugged it would not come apart. At last he put forth all his strength,
+and with a sudden jerk he recovered the ring, and at the same time the image of the god fell prone across the altar fire.
+The next moment it was enveloped in flames, and before aught could be done the whole temple was wreathed in fire and smoke.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;All, all&#8217;s lost! From half-burned hall
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Th&#8217; fire-red cock up-swingeth!&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sits on the roof, and, with shrilly call
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Flutt&#8217;ring, his free course wingeth.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r&#8217;s Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p318" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p318.jpg" alt="Frithiof at the Shrine of Balder" width="508" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Frithiof at the Shrine of Balder</p>
+<p>Knut Ekwall
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of F. Bruckmann<span class="corr" id="xd0e9875" title="Not in source">,</span> Munich
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Frithiof, horror-stricken at the sacrilege which he had involuntarily occasioned, vainly tried to extinguish the flames and
+save the costly sanctuary, but finding his efforts unavailing he escaped to his ship and resolved upon the weary life of an
+outcast and exile.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thou may&#8217;st not rest thee,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou still must haste thee,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Ellida!&#8212;out
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Th&#8217; wide world about.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yes! rock on! roaming
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Mid froth salt-foaming
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">My Dragon good!</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Thou billow bold
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Befriend me!&#8212;Never
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">I&#8217;ll from thee sever!&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">My father&#8217;s Mound
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Dull stands, fast-bound,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And self-same surges
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Chaunt changeless dirges;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But blue shall mine
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Through foam-flow&#8217;rs shine,
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb319" href="#pb319">319</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Mid tempests swimming,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And storms thick dimming,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And draw yet mo
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Down, down, below.&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">My Life-Home given,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou shalt, far-driven!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">My Barrow be&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thou free broad Sea!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga</i> (<i>G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.</i>).
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9939">
+<h3 class="normal">Frithiof an Exile</h3>
+<p>Helg&eacute; started in pursuit with ten great dragon-ships, but these had barely got under way when they began to sink, and Bj&ouml;rn
+said with a laugh, &#8220;What Ran enfolds I trust she will keep.&#8221; Even King Helg&eacute; was with difficulty got ashore, and the survivors
+were forced to stand in helpless inactivity while Ellida&#8217;s great sails slowly sank beneath the horizon. It was thus that Frithiof
+sadly saw his native land vanish from sight; and as it disappeared he breathed a tender farewell to the beloved country which
+he never expected to see again.
+
+</p>
+<p>After thus parting from his native land, Frithiof roved the sea as a pirate, or viking. His code was never to settle anywhere,
+to sleep on his shield, to fight and neither give nor take quarter, to protect the ships which paid him tribute and to plunder
+the others, and to distribute all the booty to his men, reserving for himself nothing but the glory of the enterprise. Sailing
+and fighting thus, Frithiof visited many lands, and came at last to the sunny isles of Greece, whither he would fain have
+carried Ingeborg as his bride; and the sights called up such a flood of sad memories that he was well-nigh overwhelmed with
+longing for his beloved and for his native land.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb320" href="#pb320">320</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e9947">
+<h3 class="normal">At the Court of Sigurd Ring</h3>
+<p>Three years had passed away and Frithiof determined to return northward and visit Sigurd Ring&#8217;s court. When he announced his
+purpose to Bj&ouml;rn, his faithful companion reproached him for his rashness in thinking to journey alone, but Frithiof would
+not be turned from his purpose, saying: &#8220;I am never alone while Angurvadel hangs at my side.&#8221; Steering Ellida up the Vik (the
+main part of the Christiania Fiord), he entrusted her to Bj&ouml;rn&#8217;s care, and, enveloped in a bear-hide, which he wore as a disguise,
+he set out on foot alone for the court of Sigurd Ring, arriving there as the Yuletide festivities were in progress. As if
+nothing more than an aged beggar, Frithiof sat down upon the bench near the door, where he quickly became the butt of the
+courtiers&#8217; rough jokes. When one of his tormentors, however, approached too closely, the seeming beggar caught him in a powerful
+grasp and swung him high above his head.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p320" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p320.jpg" alt="Frithiof at the Court of Ring" width="508" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Frithiof at the Court of Ring</p>
+<p>Knut Ekwall
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of F. Bruckmann, Munich</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Terrified by this exhibition of superhuman strength, the courtiers quickly withdrew from the dangerous vicinity, while Sigurd
+Ring, whose attention was attracted by the commotion, sternly bade the stranger-guest approach and tell who thus dared to
+break the peace in his royal hall.
+
+</p>
+<p>Frithiof answered evasively that he was fostered in penitence, that he inherited want, and that he came from the wolf; as
+to his name, this did not matter. The king, as was the courteous custom, did not press him further, but invited him to take
+a seat beside him and the queen, and to share his good cheer. &#8220;But first,&#8221; said he, &#8220;let fall the clumsy covering which veils,
+if I mistake not, a proper form.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>Frithiof gladly accepted the invitation thus cordially <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb321" href="#pb321">321</a>]</span>given, and when the hairy hide fell from off his head and shoulders, he stood disclosed in the pride of youth, much to the
+surprise of the assembled warriors.
+
+</p>
+<p>But although his appearance marked him as of no common race, none of the courtiers recognised him. It was different, however,
+with Ingeborg. Had any curious eye been upon her at that moment her changing colour and the quick heaving of her breast would
+have revealed her deep emotion.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;The astonish&#8217;d queen&#8217;s pale cheeks, how fast-changing rose-tints dye!&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So purple Northlights, quiv&#8217;ring, on snow-hid meadows lie;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Like two white water-lilies on storm-wave wild that rest,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Each moment rising, falling,&#8212;so heaves her trembling breast!<span class="corr" id="xd0e9980" title="Not in source">&#8221;</span></p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Frithiof had barely taken his seat at the board when with flourish of trumpets a great boar was brought in and placed before
+the king. In accordance with the Yule-tide custom of those days the old monarch rose, and touching the head of the animal,
+he uttered a vow that with the help of Frey, Odin, and Thor, he would conquer the bold champion Frithiof. The next moment
+Frithiof, too, was upon his feet, and dashing his sword upon the great wooden bench he declared that Frithiof was his kinsman
+and he also would vow that though all the world withstood, no harm should reach the hero while he had power to wield his sword.
+
+</p>
+<p>At this unexpected interruption the warriors had risen quickly from the oaken benches, but Sigurd Ring smiled indulgently
+at the young man&#8217;s vehemence and said: &#8220;Friend, thy words are overbold, but never yet was guest restrained from uttering his
+thoughts in this kingly hall.&#8221; Then he turned to Ingeborg and bade her fill to the brim with her choicest mead a huge horn,
+richly decorated, which stood in front of her, and present <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb322" href="#pb322">322</a>]</span>it to the guest. The queen obeyed with downcast eyes, and the trembling of her hand caused the liquid to overflow. Two ordinary
+men could hardly have drained the mighty draught, but Frithiof raised it to his lips, and when he removed the horn not one
+drop of the mead remained.
+
+</p>
+<p>Ere the banquet was ended Sigurd Ring invited the youthful stranger to remain at his court until the return of spring, and
+accepting the proffered hospitality, Frithiof became the constant companion of the royal couple, whom he accompanied upon
+all occasions.
+
+</p>
+<p>One day Sigurd Ring set out to a banquet with Ingeborg. They travelled in a sleigh, while Frithiof, with steel-shod feet,
+sped gracefully by their side, cutting many mystic characters in the ice. Their way lay over a dangerous portion of the frozen
+surface, and Frithiof warned the king that it would be prudent to avoid this. He would not listen to the counsel, however,
+and suddenly the sleigh sank in a deep fissure, which threatened to engulph it with the king and queen. But like falcon descending
+upon its quarry, Frithiof was at their side in a moment, and without apparent effort he dragged the steed and its burden on
+to the firm ice. &#8220;In good sooth,&#8221; said Ring, &#8220;Frithiof himself could not have done better.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>The long winter came to an end, and in the early spring the king and queen arranged a hunting-party in which all the court
+were to take part. During the progress of the chase the advancing years of Sigurd Ring made it impossible for him to keep
+up with the eager hunt, and thus it happened that he dropped behind, until at length he was left with Frithiof as his sole
+companion. They rode slowly together until they reached a pleasant dell which invited the weary king to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb323" href="#pb323">323</a>]</span>repose, and he declared that he would lie down for a season to rest.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then threw Frithiof down his mantle, and upon the greensward spread,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And the ancient king so trustful laid on Frithiof&#8217;s knee his head;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Slept, as calmly as the hero sleepeth after war&#8217;s alarms
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On his shield, calm as an infant sleepeth in its mother&#8217;s arms.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10013">
+<h3 class="normal">Frithiof&#8217;s Loyalty</h3>
+<p>While the aged king was thus reposing, a bird sang to Frithiof from a tree near by, bidding him take advantage of his host&#8217;s
+powerlessness to slay him, and recover the bride of whom he had been unfairly deprived. But although Frithiof&#8217;s hot young
+heart clamoured for his beloved, he utterly refused to entertain the dastardly suggestion, but, fearing lest he should be
+overcome by temptation, despite his horror at the thought, he impulsively flung his sword far from him into a neighbouring
+thicket.
+
+</p>
+<p>A few moments later Sigurd Ring opened his eyes, and informed Frithiof that he had only feigned sleep; he told him also that
+having recognised him from the first, he had tested him in many ways, and had found his honour equal to his courage. Old age
+had now overtaken him and he felt that death was drawing nigh. In but a short time, therefore, Frithiof might hope to realise
+his dearest hope, and Sigurd Ring told him that he would die happy if he would stay by him until the end.
+
+</p>
+<p>A revulsion of feeling had, however, overtaken Frithiof, and he told the aged king that he felt that Ingeborg could never
+be his, because of the wrath of Balder. Too long had he stayed; he would now go once more upon the sea and would seek death
+in the fray, that so he might appease the offended gods.
+
+</p>
+<p>Full of his resolve, he quickly made preparations to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb324" href="#pb324">324</a>]</span>depart, but when he returned to the court to bid farewell to his royal hosts he found that Sigurd Ring was at the point of
+death. The old warrior bethought him that &#8220;a straw death&#8221; would not win the favour of Odin, and in the presence of Frithiof
+and his court he slashed bravely the death runes on his arm and breast. Then clasping Ingeborg with one hand, he raised the
+other in blessing over Frithiof and his youthful son, and so passed in peace to the halls of the blessed.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 6em; ">&#8220;Gods all, I hail ye!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">Sons of Valhalla!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Earth disappears; to the Asa&#8217;s high feast
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 6em; ">Gjallar-horn bids me;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">Blessedness, like a
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Gold-helmet, circles their up-coming guest!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p324" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p324.jpg" alt="Frithiof watches the sleeping King" width="498" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Frithiof watches the sleeping King</p>
+<p>Knut Ekwall
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of F. Bruckmann, Munich</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10052">
+<h3 class="normal">Betrothal of Frithiof and Ingeborg</h3>
+<p>The warriors of the nation now assembled in solemn Thing to choose a successor to the throne. Frithiof had won the people&#8217;s
+enthusiastic admiration, and they would fain have elected him king; but he raised Sigurd Ring&#8217;s little son high on his shield
+when he heard the shout which acclaimed his name, and presented the boy to the assembly as their future king, publicly swearing
+to uphold him until he was of age to defend the realm. The lad, weary of his cramped position, boldly sprang to the ground
+as soon as Frithiof&#8217;s speech was ended, and alighted upon his feet. This act of agile daring in one so young appealed to the
+rude Northmen, and a loud shout arose, &#8220;We choose thee, shield-borne child!&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;But thron&#8217;d king-like, the lad sat proud
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">On shield-floor high;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">So the eaglet glad, from rock-hung cloud,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">The Sun will eye!</p>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb325" href="#pb325">325</a>]</span><div class="poem">
+<p class="line">At length this place his young blood found
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Too dull to keep;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And, with one spring, he gains the ground&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">A royal leap!&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+<p>According to some accounts, Frithiof now made war against Ingeborg&#8217;s brothers, and after conquering them, allowed them to
+retain their kingdom on condition that they paid him a yearly tribute. Then he and Ingeborg remained in Ringric until the
+young king was able to assume the government, when they repaired to Hordaland, a kingdom Frithiof had obtained by conquest,
+and which he left to his sons Gungthiof and Hunthiof.
+
+</p>
+<p>Bishop Tegn&eacute;r&#8217;s conclusion, however, differs very considerably, and if it appears less true to the rude temper of the rugged
+days of the sea-rovers, its superior spiritual qualities make it more attractive. According to Tegn&eacute;r&#8217;s poem, Frithiof was
+urged by the people of Sigurd Ring to espouse Ingeborg and remain amongst them as guardian of the realm. But he answered that
+this might not be, since the wrath of Balder still burned against him, and none else could bestow his cherished bride. He
+told the people that he would fare over the seas and seek forgiveness of the god, and soon after, his farewells were spoken,
+and once more his vessel was speeding before the wind.
+
+</p>
+<p>Frithiof&#8217;s first visit was paid to his father&#8217;s burial mound, where, plunged in melancholy at the desolation around, he poured
+out his soul to the outraged god. He reminded him that it was the custom of the Northmen to exact blood-fines for kinsmen
+slain, and surely the blessed gods would not be less forgiving than the earth-born. Passionately he adjured Balder to show
+him how he could make reparation for his <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb326" href="#pb326">326</a>]</span>unpremeditated fault, and suddenly, an answer was vouchsafed, and Frithiof beheld in the clouds a vision of a new temple.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then sudden, o&#8217;er the western waters pendent,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">An Image comes, with gold and flames resplendent,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">O&#8217;er Balder&#8217;s grove it hovers, night&#8217;s clouds under,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Like gold crown resting on a bed of green.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">At last to a temple settling, firm &#8217;tis grounded&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Where Balder stood, another temple&#8217;s founded.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The hero immediately understood that the gods had thus indicated a means of atonement, and he grudged neither wealth nor pains
+until a glorious temple and grove, which far exceeded the splendour of the old shrine, rose out of the ruins.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 6em; ">&#8220;Finish&#8217;d great Balder&#8217;s Temple stood!
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">Round it no palisade of wood
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 12em; ">Ran now as erst;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 6em; ">A railing stronger, fairer than the first,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 6em; ">And all of hammer&#8217;d iron&#8212;each bar
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">Gold-tipp&#8217;d and regular&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Walls Balder&#8217;s sacred House. Like some long line
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of steel-clad champions, whose bright war-spears shine
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">And golden helms afar&#8212;so stood
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 6em; ">This glitt&#8217;ring guard within the holy wood!</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Of granite blocks enormous, join&#8217;d with curious care
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And daring art, the massy pile was built; and there
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">(A giant-work intended
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 6em; ">To last till time was ended,)
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">It rose like Upsal&#8217;s temple, where the north
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Saw Valhall&#8217;s halls fair imag&#8217;d here on earth.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Proud stood it there on mountain-steep, its lofty brow
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Reflected calmly on the sea&#8217;s bright-flowing wave.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But round about, some girdle like of beauteous flow&#8217;rs,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Went Balder&#8217;s Dale, with all its groves&#8217; soft-murmur&#8217;d sighs,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And all its birds&#8217; sweet-twitter&#8217;d songs,&#8212;the Home of Peace.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb327" href="#pb327">327</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Meantime, while the timbers were being hewed, King Helg&eacute; was absent upon a foray amongst the Finnish mountains. One day it
+chanced that his band passed by a crag where stood the lonely shrine of some forgotten god, and King Helg&eacute; scaled the rocky
+summit with intent to raze the ruined walls. The lock held fast, and, as Helg&eacute; tugged fiercely at the mouldered gate, suddenly
+a sculptured image of the deity, rudely summoned from his ancient sleep, started from his niche above.
+
+</p>
+<p>Heavily he fell upon the head of the intruder, and Helg&eacute; stretched his length upon the rocky floor, nor stirred again.
+
+</p>
+<p>When the temple was duly consecrated to Balder&#8217;s service, Frithiof stood by the altar to await the coming of his expected
+bride. But Halfdan first crossed the threshold, his faltering gait showing plainly that he feared an unfriendly reception.
+Seeing this, Frithiof unbuckled his sword and strode frankly to Halfdan with hand outstretched, whereupon the king, blushing
+deeply, grasped heartily the proffered hand, and from that moment all their differences were forgotten. The next moment Ingeborg
+approached and the renewed amity of the long-sundered friends was ratified with the hand of the bride, which Halfdan placed
+in that of his new brother.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Over the copper threshold Halfdan now,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">With pallid brow
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">And fearful fitful glance, advanceth slow
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Tow&#8217;rds yonder tow&#8217;ring ever-dreaded foe&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">And, silent, at a distance stands,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Then Frithiof, with quick hands,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">The corslet-hater, Angurvadel, from his thigh
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Unbuckleth, and his bright shield&#8217;s golden round
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Leaning &#8217;gainst the altar, thus draws nigh;&#8212;</p>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb328" href="#pb328">328</a>]</span><div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 12em; ">While his cow&#8217;d enemy
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 6em; ">He thus accosts, with pleasant dignity.&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 6em; ">&#8217;Most noble in this strife will he be found
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">Who first his right hand good
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Offers in pledge of peaceful brotherhood!&#8217;&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Then Halfdan, deeply blushing, doffs with haste
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His iron-gauntlet and,&#8212;with hearty grasp embrac&#8217;d,&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 6em; ">Each long, long, sever&#8217;d hand
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Its friend-foe hails, steadfast as mountain-bases stand!</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 12em; ">&#8220;And as th&#8217; last deep accents
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Of reconcilement and of blessing sounded;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Lo! Ing&#8217;borg sudden enters, rich adorn&#8217;d
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">With bridal ornaments, and all enrob&#8217;d
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">In gorgeous ermine, and by bright-ey&#8217;d maidens
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Slow-follow&#8217;d, as on heav&#8217;n&#8217;s broad canopy,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Attending star-trains guard the regent-moon!&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">But the young bride&#8217;s fair eyes,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 12em; ">Those two blue skies,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 12em; ">Fill quick with tears,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">And to her brother&#8217;s heart she trembling sinketh;&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">He, with his sister&#8217;s fears
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 2em; ">Deep-mov&#8217;d, her hand all tenderly in Frithiof&#8217;s linketh,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">His burden soft transferring to that hero&#8217;s breast,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">Its long-tried faith fit place for Ing&#8217;borg&#8217;s rest.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb329" href="#pb329">329</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch28" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XXVIII: The Twilight of the Gods</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10241">
+<h3 class="normal">The Decline of the Gods</h3>
+<p>One of the distinctive features of Northern mythology is that the people always believed that their gods belonged to a finite
+race. The &AElig;sir had had a beginning; therefore, it was reasoned, they must have an end; and as they were born from a mixture
+of the divine and giant elements, being thus imperfect, they bore within them the germ of death, and were, like men, doomed
+to suffer physical death in order to attain spiritual immortality.
+
+</p>
+<p>The whole scheme of Northern mythology was therefore a drama, every step leading gradually to the climax or tragic end, when,
+with true poetic justice, punishment and reward were impartially meted out. In the foregoing chapters, the gradual rise and
+decline of the gods have been carefully traced. We have recounted how the &AElig;sir tolerated the presence of evil, personated
+by Loki, in their midst; how they weakly followed his advice, allowed him to involve them in all manner of difficulties from
+which they could be extricated only at the price of part of their virtue or peace, and finally permitted him to gain such
+ascendency over them that he did not scruple to rob them of their dearest possession, purity, or innocence, as personified
+by Balder the good.
+
+</p>
+<p>Too late the gods realised how evil was this spirit that had found a home among them, and too late they banished Loki to earth,
+where men, following the gods&#8217; example, listened to his teachings, and were corrupted by his sinister influence.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Brothers slay brothers;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sisters&#8217; children
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb330" href="#pb330">330</a>]</span></p>
+<p class="line">Shed each other&#8217;s blood.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Hard is the world;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sensual sin grows huge.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There are sword-ages, axe-ages;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shields are cleft in twain;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Storm-ages, murder-ages;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Till the world falls dead,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And men no longer spare
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Or pity one another.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10278">
+<h3 class="normal">The Fimbul-winter</h3>
+<p>Seeing that crime was rampant, and all good banished from the earth, the gods realised that the prophecies uttered of old
+were about to be fulfilled, and that the shadow of Ragnarok, the twilight or dusk of the gods, was already upon them. Sol
+and Mani grew pale with affright, and drove their chariots tremblingly along their appointed paths, looking back with fear
+at the pursuing wolves which would shortly overtake and devour them; and as their smiles disappeared the earth grew sad and
+cold, and the terrible Fimbul-winter began. Then snow fell from the four points of the compass at once, the biting winds swept
+down from the north, and all the earth was covered with a thick layer of ice.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Grim Fimbul raged, and o&#8217;er the world
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Tempestuous winds and snowstorms hurled;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The roaring ocean icebergs ground,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And flung its frozen foam around,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">E&#8217;en to the top of mountain height;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">No warming air
+
+</p>
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 4em; ">Nor radiance fair
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of gentle Summer&#8217;s soft&#8217;ning light,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Tempered this dreadful glacial night.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+</p>
+<p>This severe winter lasted during three whole seasons without a break, and was followed by three others, equally severe, during
+which all cheer departed from the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb331" href="#pb331">331</a>]</span>earth, and the crimes of men increased with fearful rapidity, whilst, in the general struggle for life, the last feelings
+of humanity and compassion disappeared.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10310">
+<h3 class="normal">The Wolves Let Loose</h3>
+<p>In the dim recesses of the Ironwood the giantess Iarnsaxa or Angur-boda diligently fed the wolves Hati, Sk&ouml;ll, and Managarm,
+the progeny of Fenris, with the marrow of murderers&#8217; and adulterers&#8217; bones; and such was the prevalence of these vile crimes,
+that the well-nigh insatiable monsters were never stinted for food. They daily gained strength to pursue Sol and Mani, and
+finally overtook and devoured them, deluging the earth with blood from their dripping jaws.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In the east she was seated, that aged woman, in Jarnrid,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And there she nourished the posterity of Fenrir;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He will be the most formidable of all, he
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Who, under the form of a monster, will swallow up the moon.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Voluspa (Pfeiffer&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>At this terrible calamity the whole earth trembled and shook, the stars, affrighted, fell from their places, and Loki, Fenris,
+and Garm, renewing their efforts, rent their chains asunder and rushed forth to take their revenge. At the same moment the
+dragon Nidhug gnawed through the root of the ash Yggdrasil, which quivered to its topmost bough; the red cock Fialar, perched
+above Valhalla, loudly crowed an alarm, which was immediately echoed by Gullin-kambi, the rooster in Midgard, and by Hel&#8217;s
+dark-red bird in Nifl-heim.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">&#8220;The gold-combed cock
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The gods in Valhal loudly crowed to arms;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The blood-red cock as shrilly summons all
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">On earth and down beneath it.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb332" href="#pb332">332</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10344">
+<h3 class="normal">Heimdall Gives the Alarm</h3>
+<p>Heimdall, noting these ominous portents and hearing the cock&#8217;s shrill cry, immediately put the Giallar-horn to his lips and
+blew the long-expected blast, which was heard throughout the world. At the first sound of this rally &AElig;sir and Einheriar sprang
+from their golden couches and sallied bravely out of the great hall, armed for the coming fray, and, mounting their impatient
+steeds, they galloped over the quivering rainbow bridge to the spacious field of Vigrid, where, as Vafthrudnir had predicted
+long before, the last battle was to take place.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10349">
+<h3 class="normal">The Terrors of the Sea</h3>
+<p>The terrible Midgard snake I&ouml;rmungandr had been aroused by the general disturbance, and with immense writhings and commotion,
+whereby the seas were lashed into huge waves such as had never before disturbed the deeps of ocean, he crawled out upon the
+land, and hastened to join the dread fray, in which he was to play a prominent part.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In giant wrath the Serpent tossed
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In ocean depths, till, free from chain,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">He rose upon the foaming main;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Beneath the lashings of his tail,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Seas, mountain high, swelled on the land;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Then, darting mad the waves acrost,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Pouring forth bloody froth like hail,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Spurting with poisoned, venomed breath
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Foul, deadly mists o&#8217;er all the Earth,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Thro&#8217; thundering surge, he sought the strand.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>One of the great waves, stirred up by I&ouml;rmungandr&#8217;s struggles, set afloat Nagilfar, the fatal ship, which was constructed
+entirely out of the nails of those dead folks whose relatives had failed, through the ages, in their <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb333" href="#pb333">333</a>]</span>duty, having neglected to pare the nails of the deceased, ere they were laid to rest. No sooner was this vessel afloat, than
+Loki boarded it with the fiery host from Muspells-heim, and steered it boldly over the stormy waters to the place of conflict.
+
+</p>
+<p>This was not the only vessel bound for Vigrid, however, for out of a thick fog bank towards the north came another ship, steered
+by Hrym, in which were all the frost giants, armed to the teeth and eager for a conflict with the &AElig;sir, whom they had always
+hated.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10385">
+<h3 class="normal">The Terrors of the Underworld</h3>
+<p>At the same time, Hel, the goddess of death, crept through a crevice in the earth out of her underground home, closely followed
+by the Hel-hound Garm, the malefactors of her cheerless realm, and the dragon Nidhug, which flew over the battlefield bearing
+corpses upon his wings.
+
+</p>
+<p>As soon as he landed, Loki welcomed these reinforcements with joy, and placing himself at their head he marched with them
+to the fight.
+
+</p>
+<p>Suddenly the skies were rent asunder, and through the fiery breach rode Surtr with his flaming sword, followed by his sons;
+and as they rode over the bridge Bifr&ouml;st, with intent to storm Asgard, the glorious arch sank with a crash beneath their horses&#8217;
+tread.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Down thro&#8217; the fields of air,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With glittering armour fair,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">In battle order bright,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">They sped while seething flame
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From rapid hoofstrokes came.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Leading his gleaming band, rode Surtur,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">&#8217;Mid the red ranks of raging fire.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Valhalla (J. C. Jones).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The gods knew full well that their end was now near, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb334" href="#pb334">334</a>]</span>and that their weakness and lack of foresight placed them under great disadvantages; for Odin had but one eye, Tyr but one
+hand, and Frey nothing but a stag&#8217;s horn wherewith to defend himself, instead of his invincible sword. Nevertheless, the &AElig;sir
+did not show any signs of despair, but, like true battle-gods of the North, they donned their richest attire, and gaily rode
+to the battlefield, determined to sell their lives as dearly as possible.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p334" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p334.jpg" alt="Odin and Fenris" width="503" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Odin and Fenris</p>
+<p>Dorothy Hardy</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>While they were mustering their forces, Odin once more rode down to the Urdar fountain, where, under the toppling Yggdrasil,
+the Norns sat with veiled faces and obstinately silent, their web lying torn at their feet. Once more the father of the gods
+whispered a mysterious communication to Mimir, after which he remounted Sleipnir and rejoined the waiting host.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10426">
+<h3 class="normal">The Great Battle</h3>
+<p>The combatants were now assembled on Vigrid&#8217;s broad plain. On one side were ranged the stern, calm faces of the &AElig;sir, Vanas,
+and Einheriar; while on the other were gathered the motley host of Surtr, the grim frost giants, the pale army of Hel, and
+Loki and his dread followers, Garm, Fenris, and I&ouml;rmungandr, the two latter belching forth fire and smoke, and exhaling clouds
+of noxious, deathly vapours, which filled all heaven and earth with their poisonous breath.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">&#8220;The years roll on,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The generations pass, the ages grow,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And bring us nearer to the final day
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">When from the south shall march the fiery band
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And cross the bridge of heaven, with Lok for guide,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And Fenris at his heel with broken chain;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">While from the east the giant Rymer steers
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">His ship, and the great serpent makes to land;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And all are marshall&#8217;d in one flaming square
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Against the Gods, upon the plains of Heaven.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb335" href="#pb335">335</a>]</span></p>
+<p>All the pent-up antagonism of ages was now let loose in a torrent of hate, each member of the opposing hosts fighting with
+grim determination, as did our ancestors of old, hand to hand and face to face. With a mighty shock, heard above the roar
+of battle which filled the universe, Odin and the Fenris wolf came into impetuous contact, while Thor attacked the Midgard
+snake, and Tyr came to grips with the dog Garm. Frey closed with Surtr, Heimdall with Loki, whom he had defeated once before,
+and the remainder of the gods and all the Einheriar engaged foes equally worthy of their courage. But, in spite of their daily
+preparation in the heavenly city, Valhalla&#8217;s host was doomed to succumb, and Odin was amongst the first of the shining ones
+to be slain. Not even the high courage and mighty attributes of Allfather could withstand the tide of evil as personified
+in the Fenris wolf. At each succeeding moment of the struggle its colossal size assumed greater proportions, until finally
+its wide-open jaws embraced all the space between heaven and earth, and the foul monster rushed furiously upon the father
+of gods and engulphed him bodily within its horrid maw.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Fenrir shall with impious tooth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Slay the sire of rolling years:
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Vithar shall avenge his fall,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And, struggling with the shaggy wolf,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Shall cleave his cold and gory jaws.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Vafthrudni&#8217;s-mal (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>None of the gods could lend Allfather a helping hand at that critical moment, for it was a time of sore trial to all. Frey
+put forth heroic efforts, but Surtr&#8217;s flashing sword now dealt him a death-stroke. In his struggle with the arch-enemy, Loki,
+Heimdall fared better, but his final conquest was dearly bought, for he, too, fell dead. The struggle between Tyr and Garm
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb336" href="#pb336">336</a>]</span>had the same tragic end, and Thor, after a most terrible encounter with the Midgard snake, and after slaying him with a stroke
+from Mi&ouml;lnir, staggered back nine paces, and was drowned in the flood of venom which poured from the dying monster&#8217;s jaws.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Odin&#8217;s son goes
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">With the monster to fight;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Midgard&#8217;s Veor in his rage
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Will slay the worm;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Nine feet will go
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Fi&ouml;rgyn&#8217;s son,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Bowed by the serpent
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Who feared no foe.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Vidar now came rushing from a distant part of the plain to avenge the death of his mighty sire, and the doom foretold fell
+upon Fenris, whose lower jaw now felt the impress of that shoe which had been reserved for this day. At the same moment Vidar
+seized the monster&#8217;s upper jaw with his hands, and with one terrible wrench tore him asunder.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10501">
+<h3 class="normal">The Devouring Fire</h3>
+<p>The other gods who took part in the fray, and all the Einheriar having now perished, Surtr suddenly flung his fiery brands
+over heaven, earth, and the nine kingdoms of Hel. The raging flames enveloped the massive stem of the world ash Yggdrasil,
+and reached the golden palaces of the gods, which were utterly consumed. The vegetation upon earth was likewise destroyed,
+and the fervent heat made all the waters seethe and boil.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Fire&#8217;s breath assails
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The all-nourishing tree,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Towering fire plays
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Against heaven itself.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>S&aelig;mund&#8217;s Edda (Thorpe&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb337" href="#pb337">337</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The great conflagration raged fiercely until everything was consumed, when the earth, blackened and scarred, slowly sank beneath
+the boiling waves of the sea. Ragnarok had indeed come; the world tragedy was over, the divine actors were slain, and chaos
+seemed to have resumed its former sway. But as in a play, after the principals are slain and the curtain has fallen, the audience
+still looks for the favourites to appear and make their bow, so the ancient Northern races fancied that, all evil having perished
+in Surtr&#8217;s flames, from the general ruin goodness would rise, to resume its sway over the earth, and that some of the gods
+would return to dwell in heaven for ever.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 16em; ">&#8220;All evil
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Dies there an endless death, while goodness riseth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From that great world-fire, purified at last,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To a life far higher, better, nobler than the past.</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10535">
+<h3 class="normal">Regeneration</h3>
+<p>Our ancestors believed fully in regeneration, and held that after a certain space of time the earth, purged by fire and purified
+by its immersion in the sea, rose again in all its pristine beauty and was illumined by the sun, whose chariot was driven
+by a daughter of Sol, born before the wolf had devoured her mother. The new orb of day was not imperfect, as the first sun
+had been, and its rays were no longer so ardent that a shield had to be placed between it and the earth. These more beneficent
+rays soon caused the earth to renew its green mantle, and to bring forth flowers and fruit in abundance. Two human beings,
+a woman, Lif, and a man, Lifthrasir, now emerged from the depths of Hodmimir&#8217;s (Mimir&#8217;s) forest, whence they had fled for
+refuge when Surtr set fire to the world. They had sunk into peaceful slumber there, unconscious of the destruction around
+them, and <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb338" href="#pb338">338</a>]</span>had remained, nurtured by the morning dew, until it was safe for them to wander out once more, when they took possession of
+the regenerated earth, which their descendants were to people and over which they were to have full sway.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line" style="text-indent: 8em; ">&#8220;We shall see emerge
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">From the bright Ocean at our feet an earth
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">More fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Self-springing, and a seed of man preserved,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Who then shall live in peace, as then in war.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10557">
+<h3 class="normal">A New Heaven</h3>
+<p>All the gods who represented the developing forces of Nature were slain on the fatal field of Vigrid, but Vali and Vidar,
+the types of the imperishable forces of Nature, returned to the field of Ida, where they were met by Modi and Magni, Thor&#8217;s
+sons, the personifications of strength and energy, who rescued their father&#8217;s sacred hammer from the general destruction,
+and carried it thither with them.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Vithar&#8217;s then and Vali&#8217;s force
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Heirs the empty realm of gods;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Mothi&#8217;s thew and Magni&#8217;s might
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Sways the massy mallet&#8217;s weight,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Won from Thor, when Thor must fall.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Vafthrudni&#8217;s-mal (W. Taylor&#8217;s tr.).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Here they were joined by Hoenir, no longer an exile among the Vanas, who, as developing forces, had also vanished for ever;
+and out of the dark underworld where he had languished so long rose the radiant Balder, together with his brother Hodur, with
+whom he was reconciled, and with whom he was to live in perfect amity and peace. The past had gone for ever, and the surviving
+deities could recall it without bitterness. The memory of their former companions was, however, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb339" href="#pb339">339</a>]</span>dear to them, and full often did they return to their old haunts to linger over the happy associations. It was thus that walking
+one day in the long grass on Idavold, they found again the golden disks with which the &AElig;sir had been wont to sport.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;We shall tread once more that well-known plain
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of Ida, and among the grass shall find
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">The golden dice with which we play&#8217;d of yore;
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And that will bring to mind the former life
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And pastime of the Gods, the wise discourse
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of Odin, the delights of other days.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).</i>
+
+</p>
+<p>When the small band of gods turned mournfully towards the place where their lordly dwellings once stood, they became aware,
+to their joyful surprise, that Gimli, the highest heavenly abode, had not been consumed, for it rose glittering before them,
+its golden roof outshining the sun. Hastening thither they discovered, to the great increase of their joy, that it had become
+the place of refuge for all the virtuous.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;In Gimli the lofty
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">There shall the hosts
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Of the virtuous dwell,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">And through all ages
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Taste of deep gladness.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Literature and Romance of Northern Europe (Howitt).</i>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10615">
+<h3 class="normal">One too Mighty to Name</h3>
+<p>As the Norsemen who settled in Iceland, and through whom the most complete exposition of the Odinic faith has come down to
+us in the Eddas and Sagas, were not definitely converted until the eleventh century,&#8212;although they had come in contact with
+Christians during their viking raids nearly six centuries before,&#8212;it is very probable that the Northern scalds gleaned <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb340" href="#pb340">340</a>]</span>some idea of the Christian doctrines, and that this knowledge influenced them to a certain extent, and coloured their descriptions
+of the end of the world and the regeneration of the earth. It was perhaps this vague knowledge, also, which induced them to
+add to the Edda a verse, which is generally supposed to have been an interpolation, proclaiming that another God, too mighty
+to name, would arise to bear rule over Gimli. From his heavenly seat he would judge mankind, and separate the bad from the
+good. The former would be banished to the horrors of Nastrond, while the good would be transported to the blissful halls of
+Gimli the fair.
+
+</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="line">&#8220;Then comes another,
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Yet more mighty.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">But Him I dare not
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Venture to name.
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Few farther may look
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">Than to where Odin
+
+</p>
+<p class="line">To meet the wolf goes.&#8221;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="alignright"><i>Literature and Romance of Northern Europe (Howitt).</i>
+
+</p>
+<p>There were two other heavenly mansions, however, one reserved for the dwarfs and the other for the giants; for as these creatures
+had no free will, and but blindly executed the decrees of fate, they were not thought to be responsible for any harm done
+by them, and were therefore held to be undeserving of punishment.
+
+</p>
+<p>The dwarfs, ruled by Sindri, were said to occupy a hall in the Nida mountains, where they drank the sparkling mead, while
+the giants took their pleasure in the hall Brimer, situated in the region Okolnur (not cool), for the power of cold was entirely
+annihilated, and there was no more ice.
+
+</p>
+<p>Various mythologists have, of course, attempted to <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb341" href="#pb341">341</a>]</span>explain these myths, and some, as we have already stated, see in the story of Ragnarok the influence of Christian teachings,
+and esteem it only a barbaric version of the end of the world and the coming judgment day, when a new heaven and earth shall
+arise, and all the good shall enjoy eternal bliss.
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb342" href="#pb342">342</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div id="ch29" class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Chapter XXIX: Greek and Northern Mythologies</h2>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10653">
+<h3 class="normal">Comparative Mythology</h3>
+<p>During the past fifty years learned men of many nations have investigated philology and comparative mythology so thoroughly
+that they have ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt &#8220;that English, together with all the Teutonic dialects of the Continent,
+belongs to that large family of speech which comprises, besides the Teutonic, Latin, Greek, Slavonic, and Celtic, the Oriental
+languages of India and Persia.&#8221; &#8220;It has also been proved that the various tribes who started from the central home to discover
+Europe in the north, and India in the south, carried away with them, not only a common language, but a common faith and a
+common mythology. These are facts which may be ignored but cannot be disputed, and the two sciences of comparative grammar
+and comparative mythology, though but of recent origin, rest on a foundation as sound and safe as that of any of the inductive
+sciences.&#8221; &#8220;For more than a thousand years the Scandinavian inhabitants of Norway have been separated in language from their
+Teutonic brethren on the Continent, and yet both have not only preserved the same stock of popular stories, but they tell
+them, in several instances, in almost the same words.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>This resemblance, so strong in the early literature of nations inhabiting countries which present much the same physical aspect
+and have nearly the same climate, is not so marked when we compare the Northern myths with those of the genial South. Still,
+notwithstanding the contrast between Northern and Southern Europe, where these myths gradually ripened and attained their
+full growth, there is an analogy between the <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb343" href="#pb343">343</a>]</span>two mythologies which shows that the seeds from whence both sprang were originally the same.
+
+</p>
+<p>In the foregoing chapters the Northern system of mythology has been outlined as clearly as possible, and the physical significance
+of the myths has been explained. Now we shall endeavour to set forth the resemblance of Northern mythology to that of the
+other Aryan nations, by comparing it with the Greek, which, however, it does not resemble as closely as it does the Oriental.
+
+</p>
+<p>It is, of course, impossible in a work of this character to do more than mention the main points of resemblance in the stories
+forming the basis of these religions; but that will be sufficient to demonstrate, even to the most sceptical, that they must
+have been identical at a period too remote to indicate now with any certainty.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10666">
+<h3 class="normal">The Beginning of Things</h3>
+<p>The Northern nations, like the Greeks, imagined that the world rose out of chaos; and while the latter described it as a vapoury,
+formless mass, the former, influenced by their immediate surroundings, depicted it as a chaos of fire and ice&#8212;a combination
+which is only too comprehensible to any one who has visited Iceland and seen the wild, peculiar contrast between its volcanic
+soil, spouting geysers, and the great icebergs which hedge it round during the long, dark winter season.
+
+</p>
+<p>From these opposing elements, fire and ice, were born the first divinities, who, like the first gods of the Greeks, were gigantic
+in stature and uncouth in appearance. Ymir, the huge ice giant, and his descendants, are comparable to the Titans, who were
+also elemental forces of Nature, personifications of subterranean fire; and both, having held full sway for a time, were obliged
+to yield to greater perfection. After a <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb344" href="#pb344">344</a>]</span>fierce struggle for supremacy, they all found themselves defeated and banished to the respective remote regions of Tartarus
+and J&ouml;tun-heim.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p344" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p344.jpg" alt="The Ride of the Valkyrs" width="485" height="720"><p class="figureHead">The Ride of the Valkyrs</p>
+<p>H. Hendrich
+
+</p>
+<p>By Permission of the &#8220;Illustrirte Zeitung&#8221; (J. J. Weber, Leipzig)</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The triad, Odin, Vili, and Ve, of the Northern myth is the exact counterpart of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, who, superior
+to the Titan forces, rule supreme over the world in their turn. In the Greek mythology, the gods, who are also all related
+to one another, betake themselves to Olympus, where they build golden palaces for their use; and in the Northern mythology
+the divine conquerors repair to Asgard, and there construct similar dwellings.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10686">
+<h3 class="normal">Cosmogony</h3>
+<p>Northern cosmogony was not unlike the Greek, for the people imagined that the earth, Mana-heim, was entirely surrounded by
+the sea, at the bottom of which lay coiled the huge Midgard snake, biting its own tail; and it was perfectly natural that,
+viewing the storm-lashed waves which beat against their shores, they should imagine these to be caused by his convulsive writhing.
+The Greeks, who also fancied the earth was round and compassed by a mighty river called Oceanus, described it as flowing with
+&#8220;a steady, equable current,&#8221; for they generally gazed out upon calm and sunlit seas. Nifl-heim, the Northern region of perpetual
+cold and mist, had its exact counterpart in the land north of the Hyperboreans, where feathers (snow) continually hovered
+in the air, and where Hercules drove the Ceryneian stag into a snowdrift ere he could seize and bind it fast.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10691">
+<h3 class="normal">The Phenomena of the Sky</h3>
+<p>Like the Greeks, the Northern races believed that the earth was created first, and that the vaulted heavens were made afterwards
+to overshadow it entirely. They <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb345" href="#pb345">345</a>]</span>also imagined that the sun and moon were daily driven across the sky in chariots drawn by fiery steeds. Sol, the sun maiden,
+therefore corresponded to Helios, Hyperion, Ph&#339;bus, or Apollo, while Mani, the Moon (owing to a peculiarity of Northern grammar,
+which makes the sun feminine and the moon masculine), was the exact counterpart of Ph&#339;be, Diana, or Cynthia.
+
+</p>
+<p>The Northern scalds, who thought that they descried the prancing forms of white-maned steeds in the flying clouds, and the
+glitter of spears in the flashing light of the aurora borealis, said that the Valkyrs, or battle maidens, galloped across
+the sky, while the Greeks saw in the same natural phenomena the white flocks of Apollo guarded by Phaetusa and Lampetia.
+
+</p>
+<p>As the dew fell from the clouds, the Northern poets declared that it dropped from the manes of the Valkyrs&#8217; steeds, while
+the Greeks, who observed that it generally sparkled longest in the thickets, identified it with Daphne and Procris, whose
+names are derived from the Sanskrit word which means &#8220;to sprinkle,&#8221; and who are slain by their lovers, Apollo and Cephalus,
+personifications of the sun.
+
+</p>
+<p>The earth was considered in the North as well as in the South as a female divinity, the fostering mother of all things; and
+it was owing to climatic difference only that the mythology of the North, where people were daily obliged to conquer the right
+to live by a hand-to-hand struggle with Nature, should represent her as hard and frozen like Rinda, while the Greeks embodied
+her in the genial goddess Ceres. The Greeks believed that the cold winter winds swept down from the North, and the Northern
+races, in addition, added that they were produced by the winnowing of the wings of the great eagle Hr&aelig;-svelgr.
+
+</p>
+<p>The dwarfs, or dark elves, bred in Ymir&#8217;s flesh, were <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb346" href="#pb346">346</a>]</span>like Pluto&#8217;s servants in that they never left their underground realm, where they, too, sought the precious metals, which
+they moulded into delicate ornaments such as Vulcan bestowed upon the gods, and into weapons which no one could either dint
+or mar. As for the light elves, who lived above ground and cared for plants, trees, and streams, they were evidently the Northern
+equivalents to the nymphs, dryads, oreades, and hamadryads, which peopled the woods, valleys, and fountains of ancient Greece.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10708">
+<h3 class="normal">Jupiter and Odin</h3>
+<p>Jupiter, like Odin, was the father of the gods, the god of victory, and a personification of the universe. Hlidskialf, Allfather&#8217;s
+lofty throne, was no less exalted than Olympus or Ida, whence the Thunderer could observe all that was taking place; and Odin&#8217;s
+invincible spear Gungnir was as terror-inspiring as the thunderbolts brandished by his Greek prototype. The Northern deities
+feasted continually upon mead and boar&#8217;s flesh, the drink and meat most suitable to the inhabitants of a Northern climate,
+while the gods of Olympus preferred the nectar and ambrosia which formed their only sustenance.
+
+</p>
+<p>Twelve &AElig;sir sat in Odin&#8217;s council hall to deliberate over the wisest measures for the government of the world and men, and
+an equal number of gods assembled on the cloudy peak of Mount Olympus for a similar purpose. The Golden Age in Greece was
+a period of idyllic happiness, amid ever-flowering groves and under balmy skies, while the Northern age of bliss was also
+a time when peace and innocence flourished on the earth, and when evil was as yet entirely unknown.
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb347" href="#pb347">347</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10716">
+<h3 class="normal">The Creation of Man</h3>
+<p>Using the materials near at hand, the Greeks modelled their first images out of clay; hence they naturally imagined that Prometheus
+had made man out of that substance when called upon to fashion a creature inferior to the gods only. As the Northern statues
+were hewn out of wood, the Northern races inferred, as a matter of course, that Odin, Vili, and Ve (who here correspond to
+Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Minerva, the three Greek creators of man) made the first human couple, Ask and Embla, out of blocks
+of wood.
+
+</p>
+<p>The goat Heidrun, which supplied the heavenly mead, is like Amalthea, Jupiter&#8217;s first nurse, and the busy, tell-tale Ratatosk
+is equivalent to the snow-white crow in the story of Coronis, which was turned black in punishment for its tattling. Jupiter&#8217;s
+eagle has its counterpart in the ravens Hugin and Munin, or in the wolves Geri and Freki, which are ever crouching at Odin&#8217;s
+feet.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10723">
+<h3 class="normal">Norns and Fates</h3>
+<p>The close resemblance between the Northern Orlog and the Greek Destiny, goddesses whose decrees the gods themselves were obliged
+to respect, and the equally powerful Norns and M&#339;r&aelig;, is too obvious to need pointing out, while the Vanas are counterparts
+of Neptune and the other ocean divinities. The great quarrel between the Vanas and the &AElig;sir is merely another version of the
+dispute between Jupiter and Neptune for the supremacy of the world. Just as Jupiter forces his brother to yield to his authority,
+so the &AElig;sir remain masters of all, but do not refuse to continue to share their power with their conquered foes, who thus
+become their allies and friends.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb348" href="#pb348">348</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Like Jupiter, Odin is always described as majestic and middle-aged, and both gods are regarded as the divine progenitors of
+royal races, for while the Heraclid&aelig; claimed Jupiter as their father, the Inglings, Skioldings, etc., held that Odin was the
+founder of their families. The most solemn oaths were sworn by Odin&#8217;s spear as well as by Jupiter&#8217;s footstool, and both gods
+rejoice in a multitude of names, all descriptive of the various phases of their nature and worship.
+
+</p>
+<p>Odin, like Jupiter, frequently visited the earth in disguise, to judge of the hospitable intentions of mankind, as in the
+story of Geirrod and Agnar, which resembles that of Philemon and Baucis. The aim was to encourage hospitality; therefore,
+in both stories, those who showed themselves humanely inclined are richly rewarded, and in the Northern myth the lesson is
+enforced by the punishment inflicted upon Geirrod, as the scalds believed in poetic justice and saw that it was carefully
+meted out.
+
+</p>
+<p>The contest of wit between Odin and Vafthrudnir has its parallel in the musical rivalry of Apollo and Marsyas, or in the test
+of skill between Minerva and Arachne. Odin further resembled Apollo in that he, too, was god of eloquence and poetry, and
+could win all hearts by means of his divine voice; he was like Mercury in that he taught mortals the use of runes, while the
+Greek god introduced the alphabet.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10735">
+<h3 class="normal">Myths of the Seasons</h3>
+<p>The disappearance of Odin, the sun or summer, and the consequent desolation of Frigga, the earth, is merely a different version
+of the myths of Proserpine and Adonis. When Proserpine and Adonis have gone, the earth (Ceres or Venus) bitterly mourns their
+absence, and refuses all consolation. It is only when <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb349" href="#pb349">349</a>]</span>they return from their exile that she casts off her mourning garments and gloom, and again decks herself in all her jewels.
+So Frigga and Freya bewail the absence of their husbands Odin and Odur, and remain hard and cold until their return. Odin&#8217;s
+wife, Saga, the goddess of history, who lingered by Sokvabek, &#8220;the stream of time and events,&#8221; taking note of all she saw,
+is like Clio, the muse of history, whom Apollo sought by the inspiring fount of Helicon.
+
+</p>
+<p>Just as, according to Euhemerus, there was an historical Zeus, buried in Crete, where his grave can still be seen, so there
+was an historical Odin, whose mound rises near Upsala, where the greatest Northern temple once stood, and where there was
+a mighty oak which rivalled the famous tree of Dodona.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10744">
+<h3 class="normal">Frigga and Juno</h3>
+<p>Frigga, like Juno, was a personification of the atmosphere, the patroness of marriage, of connubial and motherly love, and
+the goddess of childbirth. She, too, is represented as a beautiful, stately woman, rejoicing in her adornments; and her special
+attendant, Gna, rivals Iris in the rapidity with which she executes her mistress&#8217;s behests. Juno has full control over the
+clouds, which she can brush away with a motion of her hand, and Frigga is supposed to weave them out of the thread she has
+spun on her jewelled spinning wheel.
+
+</p>
+<p>In Greek mythology we find many examples of the way in which Juno seeks to outwit Jupiter. Similar tales are not lacking in
+the Northern myths. Juno obtains possession of Io, in spite of her husband&#8217;s reluctance to part with her, and Frigga artfully
+secures the victory for the Winilers in the Langobarden Saga. Odin&#8217;s wrath at Frigga&#8217;s theft of the gold from his <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb350" href="#pb350">350</a>]</span>statue is equivalent to Jupiter&#8217;s marital displeasure at Juno&#8217;s jealousy and interference during the war of Troy. In the story
+of Gefjon, and the clever way in which she procured land from Gylfi to form her kingdom of Seeland, we have a reproduction
+of the story of Dido, who obtained by stratagem the land upon which she founded her city of Carthage. In both accounts oxen
+come into play, for while in the Northern myth these sturdy beasts draw the piece of land far out to sea, in the other an
+ox hide, cut into strips, serves to enclose the queen&#8217;s grant.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10753">
+<h3 class="normal">Musical Myths</h3>
+<p>The Pied Piper of Hamelin, who could attract all living creatures by his music, is like Orpheus or Amphion, whose lyres had
+the same power; and Odin, as leader of the dead, is the counterpart of Mercury Psychopompus, both being personifications of
+the wind, on whose wings disembodied souls were thought to be wafted from this mortal sphere.
+
+</p>
+<p>The trusty Eckhardt, who would fain save Tannh&auml;user and prevent his returning to expose himself to the enchantments of the
+sorceress, in the H&ouml;rselberg, is like the Greek Mentor, who not only accompanied Telemachus, but gave him good advice and
+wise instructions, and would have rescued Ulysses from the hands of Calypso.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10760">
+<h3 class="normal">Thor and the Greek Gods</h3>
+<p>Thor, the Northern thunder-god, also has many points of resemblance with Jupiter. He bears the hammer Mi&ouml;lnir, the Northern
+emblem of the deadly thunderbolt, and, like Jupiter, uses it freely when warring against the giants. In his rapid growth Thor
+resembles Mercury, for while the former playfully <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb351" href="#pb351">351</a>]</span>tosses about several loads of ox hides a few hours after his birth, the latter steals Apollo&#8217;s oxen before he is one day old.
+In physical strength Thor resembles Hercules, who also gave early proofs of uncommon vigour by strangling the serpents sent
+to slay him in his cradle, and who delighted, later on, in attacking and conquering giants and monsters. Hercules became a
+woman and took to spinning to please Omphale, the Lydian queen, and Thor assumed a woman&#8217;s apparel to visit Thrym and recover
+his hammer, which had been buried nine rasts underground. The hammer, his principal attribute, was used for many sacred purposes.
+It consecrated the funeral pyre and the marriage rite, and boundary stakes driven in by a hammer were considered as sacred
+among Northern nations as the Herm&aelig; or statues of Mercury, removal of which was punishable by death.
+
+</p>
+<p>Thor&#8217;s wife, Sif, with her luxuriant golden hair, is, as we have already stated, an emblem of the earth, and her hair of its
+rich vegetation. Loki&#8217;s theft of these tresses is equivalent to Pluto&#8217;s rape of Proserpine. To recover the golden locks, Loki
+must visit the dwarfs (Pluto&#8217;s servants), crouching in the low passages of the underground world; so Mercury must seek Proserpine
+in Hades.
+
+</p>
+<p>The gadfly which hinders Jupiter from recovering possession of Io, after Mercury has slain Argus, reappears in the Northern
+myth to sting Brock and to endeavour to prevent the manufacture of the magic ring Draupnir, which is merely a counterpart
+of Sif&#8217;s tresses, as it also represents the fruits of the earth. The fly continues to torment the dwarf during the manufacture
+of Frey&#8217;s golden-bristled boar, a prototype of Apollo&#8217;s golden sun chariot, and it prevents the perfect formation of the handle
+of Thor&#8217;s hammer.
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb352" href="#pb352">352</a>]</span></p>
+<p>The magic ship Skidbladnir, also made by the dwarfs, is like the swift-sailing Argo, which was a personification of the clouds
+sailing overhead; and just as the former was said to be large enough to accommodate all the gods, so the latter bore all the
+Greek heroes off to the distant land of Colchis.
+
+</p>
+<p>The Germans, wishing to name the days of the week after their gods, as the Romans had done, gave the name of Thor to Jove&#8217;s
+day, and thus made it the present Thursday.
+
+</p>
+<p>Thor&#8217;s struggle against Hrungnir is a parallel to the fight between Hercules and Cacus or Ant&aelig;us; while Groa is evidently
+Ceres, for she, too, mourns for her absent child Orvandil (Proserpine), and breaks out into a song of joy when she hears that
+it will return.
+
+</p>
+<p>Magni, Thor&#8217;s son, who when only three hours old exhibits his marvellous strength by lifting Hrungnir&#8217;s leg off his recumbent
+father, also reminds us of the infant Hercules; and Thor&#8217;s voracious appetite at Thrym&#8217;s wedding feast has its parallel in
+Mercury&#8217;s first meal, which consisted of two whole oxen.
+
+</p>
+<p>The crossing of the swollen tide of Veimer by Thor reminds us of Jason&#8217;s feat when he waded across the torrent on his way
+to visit the tyrant Pelias and recover possession of his father&#8217;s throne.
+
+</p>
+<p>The marvellous necklace worn by Frigga and Freya to enhance their charms is like the cestus or girdle of Venus, which Juno
+borrowed to subjugate her lord, and is, like Sif&#8217;s tresses and the ring Draupnir, an emblem of luxuriant vegetation or a type
+of the stars which shine in the firmament.
+
+</p>
+<p>The Northern sword-god Tyr is, of course, the Greek war-god Ares, whom he so closely resembles that his name was given to
+the day of the week held sacred to Ares, which is even now known as Tuesday or Tiu&#8217;s <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb353" href="#pb353">353</a>]</span>day. Like Ares, Tyr was noisy and courageous; he delighted in the din of battle, and was fearless at all times. He alone dared
+to brave the Fenris wolf; and the Southern proverb concerning Scylla and Charybdis has its counterpart in the Northern adage,
+&#8220;to get loose out of L&aelig;ding and to dash out of Droma.&#8221; The Fenris wolf, also a personification of subterranean fire, is bound,
+like his prototypes the Titans, in Tartarus.
+
+</p>
+<p>The similarity between the gentle, music-loving Bragi, with his harp, and Apollo or Orpheus, is very great; so is the resemblance
+between the magic draught Od-hroerir and the waters of Helicon, both of which were supposed to serve as inspiration to mortal
+as well as to immortal poets. Odin dons eagle plumes to bear away this precious mead, and Jupiter assumes a similar guise
+to secure his cupbearer Ganymede.
+
+</p>
+<p>Idun, like Adonis and Proserpine, or still more like Eurydice, is also a fair personification of spring. She is borne away
+by the cruel ice giant Thiassi, who represents the boar which slew Adonis, the kidnapper of Proserpine, or the poisonous serpent
+which bit Eurydice. Idun is detained for a long time in J&ouml;tun-heim (Hades), where she forgets all her merry, playful ways,
+and becomes mournful and pale. She cannot return alone to Asgard, and it is only when Loki (now an emblem of the south wind)
+comes to bear her away in the shape of a nut or a swallow that she can effect her escape. She reminds us of Proserpine and
+Adonis escorted back to earth by Mercury (god of the wind), or of Eurydice lured out of Hades by the sweet sounds of Orpheus&#8217;s
+harp, which were also symbolical of the soughing of the winds.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10792">
+<h3 class="normal">Idun and Eurydice</h3>
+<p>The myth of Idun&#8217;s fall from Yggdrasil into the darkest depths of Nifl-heim, while subject to the same <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb354" href="#pb354">354</a>]</span>explanation and comparison as the above story, is still more closely related to the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, for the
+former, like Bragi, cannot exist without the latter, whom he follows even into the dark realm of death; without her his songs
+are entirely silenced. The wolf-skin in which Idun is enveloped is typical of the heavy snows in Northern regions, which preserve
+the tender roots from the blighting influence of the extreme winter cold.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10799">
+<h3 class="normal">Skadi and Diana</h3>
+<p>The Van Ni&ouml;rd, who is god of the sunny summer seas, has his counterpart in Neptune and more especially in Nereus, the personification
+of the calm and pleasant aspect of the mighty deep. Ni&ouml;rd&#8217;s wife, Skadi, is the Northern huntress; she therefore resembles
+Diana. Like her, she bears a quiver full of arrows, and a bow which she handles with consummate skill. Her short gown permits
+the utmost freedom of motion, also, and she, too, is generally accompanied by a hound.
+
+</p>
+<p>The story of the transference of Thiassi&#8217;s eyes to the firmament, where they glow like brilliant stars, reminds us of many
+Greek star myths, and especially of Argus&#8217;s eyes ever on the watch, of Orion and his jewelled girdle, and of his dog Sirius,
+all changed into stars by the gods to appease angry goddesses. Loki&#8217;s antics to win a smile from the irate Skadi are considered
+akin to the quivering flashes of sheet-lightning which he personified in the North, while Steropes, the Cyclops, typified
+it for the Greeks.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10806">
+<h3 class="normal">Frey and Apollo</h3>
+<p>The Northern god of sunshine and summer showers, the genial Frey, has many traits in common with Apollo, for, like him, he
+is beautiful and young, rides the golden-bristled boar which was the Northern conception <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb355" href="#pb355">355</a>]</span>of the sunbeams, or drives across the sky in a golden car, which reminds us of Apollo&#8217;s glittering chariot.
+
+</p>
+<p>Frey has some of the gentle Zephyrus&#8217;s characteristics besides, for he, too, scatters flowers along his way. His horse Blodug-hofi
+is not unlike Pegasus, Apollo&#8217;s favourite steed, for it can pass through fire and water with equal ease and velocity.
+
+</p>
+<p>Fro, like Odin and Jupiter, is also identified with a human king, and his mound lies beside Odin&#8217;s near Upsala. His reign
+was so happy that it was called the Golden Age, and he therefore reminds us of Saturn, who, exiled to earth, ruled over the
+people of Italy, and granted them similar prosperity.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10817">
+<h3 class="normal">Freya and Venus</h3>
+<p>Gerda, the beautiful maiden, is like Venus, and also like Atalanta; she is hard to woo and hard to win, like the fleet-footed
+maiden, but, like her, she yields at last and becomes a happy wife. The golden apples with which Skirnir tries to bribe her
+remind us of the golden fruit which Hippomenes cast in Atalanta&#8217;s way, and which made her lose the race.
+
+</p>
+<p>Freya, the goddess of youth, love, and beauty, like Venus, sprang from the sea, for she is a daughter of the sea-god Ni&ouml;rd.
+Venus bestowed her best affections upon the god of war and upon the martial Anchises, while Freya often assumes the garb of
+a Valkyr, and rides rapidly to earth to take part in mortal strife and bear away the heroic slain to feast in her halls. Like
+Venus, she delights in offerings of fruits and flowers, and lends a gracious ear to the petitions of lovers. Freya also resembles
+Minerva, for, like her, she wears a helmet and breastplate, and, like her, also, she is noted for her beautiful blue eyes.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb356" href="#pb356">356</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10825">
+<h3 class="normal">Odur and Adonis</h3>
+<p>Odur, Freya&#8217;s husband, is like Adonis, and when he leaves her, she, too, sheds countless tears, which, in her case, are turned
+to gold, while Venus&#8217;s tears are changed into anemones, and those of the Heliades, mourning for Phaeton, harden to amber,
+which resembles gold in colour and in consistency. Just as Venus rejoices at Adonis&#8217;s return, and all Nature blooms in sympathy
+with her joy, so Freya becomes lighthearted once more when she has found her husband beneath the flowering myrtles of the
+South. Venus&#8217;s car is drawn by fluttering doves, and Freya&#8217;s is swiftly carried along by cats, which are emblems of sensual
+love, as the doves were considered types of tenderest love. Freya is appreciative of beauty and angrily refuses to marry Thrym,
+while Venus scorns and finally deserts Vulcan, whom she has been forced to marry against her will.
+
+</p>
+<p>The Greeks represented Justice as a goddess blindfolded, with scales in one hand and a sword in the other, to indicate the
+impartiality and the fixity of her decrees. The corresponding deity of the North was Forseti, who patiently listened to both
+sides of a question ere he, too, promulgated his impartial and irrevocable sentence.
+
+</p>
+<p>Uller, the winter-god, resembles Apollo and Orion only in his love for the chase, which he pursues with ardour under all circumstances.
+He is the Northern bowman, and his skill is quite as unerring as theirs.
+
+</p>
+<p>Heimdall, like Argus, was gifted with marvellous keenness of sight, which enabled him to see a hundred miles off as plainly
+by night as by day. His Giallar-horn, which could be heard throughout all the world, proclaiming the gods&#8217; passage to and
+fro over the quivering bridge Bifr&ouml;st, was like the trumpet of the goddess Renown. As he was related to the water <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb357" href="#pb357">357</a>]</span>deities on his mother&#8217;s side, he could, like Proteus, assume any form at will, and he made good use of this power on the occasion
+when he frustrated Loki&#8217;s attempt to steal the necklace Brisinga-men.
+
+</p>
+<p>Hermod, the quick or nimble, resembles Mercury not only in his marvellous celerity of motion. He, too, was the messenger of
+the gods, and, like the Greek divinity, flashed hither and thither, aided not by winged cap and sandals, but by Odin&#8217;s steed
+Sleipnir, whom he alone was allowed to bestride. Instead of the Caduceus, he bore the wand Gambantein. He questioned the Norns
+and the magician Rossthiof, through whom he learned that Vali would come to avenge his brother Balder and to supplant his
+father Odin. Instances of similar consultations are found in Greek mythology, where Jupiter would fain have married Thetis,
+yet desisted when the Fates foretold that if he did so she would be the mother of a son who would surpass his father in glory
+and renown.
+
+</p>
+<p>The Northern god of silence, Vidar, has some resemblance to Hercules, for while the latter has nothing but a club with which
+to defend himself against the Nemean lion, whom he tears asunder, the former is enabled to rend the Fenris wolf at Ragnarok
+by the possession of one large shoe.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10842">
+<h3 class="normal">Rinda and Danae</h3>
+<p>Odin&#8217;s courtship of Rinda reminds us of Jupiter&#8217;s wooing of Danae, who is also a symbol of the earth; and while the shower
+of gold in the Greek tale is intended to represent the fertilising sunbeams, the footbath in the Northern story typifies the
+spring thaw which sets in when the sun has overcome the resistance of the frozen earth. Perseus, the child of this union,
+has many points of resemblance with Vali, for he, too, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb358" href="#pb358">358</a>]</span>is an avenger, and slays his mother&#8217;s enemies just as surely as Vali destroys Hodur, the murderer of Balder.
+
+
+</p>
+<p></p>
+<div id="p358" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p358.jpg" alt="The Storm-Ride" width="720" height="397"><p class="figureHead">The Storm-Ride</p>
+<p>Gilbert Bayes</p>
+</div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The Fates were supposed to preside over birth in Greece, and to foretell a child&#8217;s future, as did the Norns; and the story
+of Meleager has its unmistakable parallel in that of Nornagesta. Alth&aelig;a preserves the half-consumed brand in a chest, Nornagesta
+conceals the candle-end in his harp; and while the Greek mother brings about her son&#8217;s death by casting the brand into the
+fire, Nornagesta, compelled to light his candle-end at Olaf&#8217;s command, dies as it sputters and burns out.
+
+</p>
+<p>Hebe and the Valkyrs were the cupbearers of Olympus and Asgard. They were all personifications of youth; and while Hebe married
+the great hero and demigod Hercules when she ceased to fulfil her office, the Valkyrs were relieved from their duties when
+united to heroes like Helgi, Hakon, V&ouml;lund, or Sigurd.
+
+</p>
+<p>The Cretan labyrinth has its counterpart in the Icelandic V&ouml;lundarhaus, and V&ouml;lund and D&aelig;dalus both effect their escape from
+a maze by a cleverly devised pair of wings, which enable them to fly in safety over land and sea and escape from the tyranny
+of their respective masters, Nidud and Minos. V&ouml;lund resembles Vulcan, also, in that he is a clever smith and makes use of
+his talents to work out his revenge. Vulcan, lamed by a fall from Olympus, and neglected by Juno, whom he had tried to befriend,
+sends her a golden throne, which is provided with cunning springs to seize and hold her fast. V&ouml;lund, hamstrung by the suggestion
+of Nidud&#8217;s queen, secretly murders her sons, and out of their eyes fashions marvellous jewels, which she unsuspectingly wears
+upon her breast until he reveals their origin.
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb359" href="#pb359">359</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10863">
+<h3 class="normal">Myths of the Sea</h3>
+<p>Just as the Greeks fancied that the tempests were the effect of Neptune&#8217;s wrath, so the Northern races attributed them either
+to the writhings of I&ouml;rmungandr, the Midgard snake, or to the anger of &AElig;gir, who, crowned with seaweed like Neptune, often
+sent his children, the wave maidens (the counterpart of the Nereides and Oceanides), to play on the tossing billows. Neptune
+had his dwelling in the coral caves near the Island of Eub&#339;a, while &AElig;gir lived in a similar palace near the Cattegat. Here
+he was surrounded by the nixies, undines, and mermaids, the counterpart of the Greek water nymphs, and by the river-gods of
+the Rhine, Elbe, and Neckar, who remind us of Alpheus and Peneus, the river-gods of the Greeks.
+
+</p>
+<p>The frequency of shipwrecks on the Northern coasts made the people think of Ran (the equivalent of the Greek sea-goddess Amphitrite)
+as greedy and avaricious, and they described her as armed with a strong net, with which she drew all things down into the
+deep. The Greek Sirens had their parallel in the Northern Lorelei, who possessed the same gift of song, and also lured mariners
+to their death; while Princess Ilse, who was turned into a fountain, reminds us of the nymph Arethusa, who underwent a similar
+transformation.
+
+</p>
+<p>In the Northern conception of Nifl-heim we have an almost exact counterpart of the Greek Hades. M&ouml;dgud, the guardian of the
+Giallar-bridge (the bridge of death), over which all the spirits of the dead must pass, exacts a tribute of blood as rigorously
+as Charon demands an obolus from every soul he ferries over Acheron, the river of death. The fierce dog Garm, cowering in
+the Gnipa hole, and keeping guard at Hel&#8217;s gate, is like <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb360" href="#pb360">360</a>]</span>the three-headed monster Cerberus; and the nine worlds of Nifl-heim are not unlike the divisions of Hades, Nastrond being
+an adequate substitute for Tartarus, where the wicked were punished with equal severity.
+
+</p>
+<p>The custom of burning dead heroes with their arms, and of slaying victims, such as horses and dogs, upon their pyre, was much
+the same in the North as in the South; and while Mors or Thanatos, the Greek Death, was represented with a sharp scythe, Hel
+was depicted with a broom or rake, which she used as ruthlessly, and with which she did as much execution.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10876">
+<h3 class="normal">Balder and Apollo</h3>
+<p>Balder, the radiant god of sunshine, reminds us not only of Apollo and Orpheus, but of all the other heroes of sun myths.
+His wife Nanna is like Flora, and still more like Proserpine, for she, too, goes down into the underworld, where she tarries
+for a while. Balder&#8217;s golden hall of Breidablik is like Apollo&#8217;s palace in the east; he, also, delights in flowers; all things
+smile at his approach, and willingly pledge themselves not to injure him. As Achilles was vulnerable only in the heel, so
+Balder could be slain only by the harmless mistletoe, and his death is occasioned by Loki&#8217;s jealousy just as Hercules was
+slain by that of Deianeira. Balder&#8217;s funeral pyre on Ringhorn reminds us of Hercules&#8217;s death on Mount &#338;ta, the flames and
+reddish glow of both fires serving to typify the setting sun. The Northern god of sun and summer could only be released from
+Nifl-heim if all animate and inanimate objects shed tears; so Proserpine could issue from Hades only upon condition that she
+had partaken of no food. The trifling refusal of Thok to shed a single tear is like the pomegranate seeds which Proserpine
+ate, and the result <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb361" href="#pb361">361</a>]</span>is equally disastrous in both cases, as it detains Balder and Proserpine underground, and the earth (Frigga or Ceres) must
+continue to mourn their absence.
+
+</p>
+<p>Through Loki evil entered into the Northern world; Prometheus&#8217;s gift of fire brought the same curse upon the Greeks. The punishment
+inflicted by the gods upon the culprits is not unlike, for while Loki is bound with adamantine chains underground, and tortured
+by the continuous dropping of venom from the fangs of a snake fastened above his head, Prometheus is similarly fettered to
+Caucasus, and a ravenous vulture continually preys upon his liver. Loki&#8217;s punishment has another counterpart in that of Tityus,
+bound in Hades, and in that of Enceladus, chained beneath Mount &AElig;tna, where his writhing produced earthquakes, and his imprecations
+caused sudden eruptions of the volcano. Loki, further, resembles Neptune in that he, too, assumed an equine form and was the
+parent of a wonderful steed, for Sleipnir rivals Arion both in speed and endurance.
+
+</p>
+<p>The Fimbul-winter has been compared to the long preliminary fight under the walls of Troy, and Ragnarok, the grand closing
+drama of Northern mythology, to the burning of that famous city. &#8220;Thor is Hector; the Fenris wolf, Pyrrhus, son of Achilles,
+who slew Priam (Odin); and Vidar, who survives in Ragnarok, is &AElig;neas.&#8221; The destruction of Priam&#8217;s palace is the type of the
+ruin of the gods&#8217; golden halls; and the devouring wolves Hati, Sk&ouml;ll, and Managarm, the fiends of darkness, are prototypes
+of Paris and all the other demons of darkness, who bear away or devour the sun-maiden Helen.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10887">
+<h3 class="normal">Ragnarok and the Deluge</h3>
+<p>According to another interpretation, however, Ragnarok and the consequent submersion of the world is <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb362" href="#pb362">362</a>]</span>but a Northern version of the Deluge. The survivors, Lif and Lifthrasir, like Deucalion and Pyrrha, were destined to repeople
+the world; and just as the shrine of Delphi alone resisted the destructive power of the great cataclysm, so Gimli stood radiant
+to receive the surviving gods.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10894">
+<h3 class="normal">Giants and Titans</h3>
+<p>We have already seen how closely the Northern giants resembled the Titans. It only remains to mention that while the Greeks
+imagined that Atlas was changed into a mountain, so the Northmen believed that the Riesengebirge, in Germany, were formed
+from giants, and that the avalanches which descended from their lofty heights were the burdens of snow which these giants
+impatiently shook from their crests as they changed their cramped positions. The apparition, in the shape of a bull, of one
+of the water giants, who came to woo the queen of the Franks, has its parallel in the story of Jupiter&#8217;s wooing of Europa,
+and Meroveus is evidently the exact counterpart of Sarpedon. A faint resemblance can be traced between the giant ship Mannigfual
+and the Argo, for while the one is supposed to have cruised through the &AElig;gean and Euxine Seas, and to have made many places
+memorable by the dangers it encountered there, so the Northern vessel sailed about the North and Baltic Seas, and is mentioned
+in connection with the Island of Bornholm and the cliffs of Dover.
+
+</p>
+<p>While the Greeks imagined that Nightmares were the evil dreams which escaped from the Cave of Somnus, the Northern race fancied
+they were female dwarfs or trolls, who crept out of the dark recesses of the earth to torment them. All magic weapons in the
+North were said to be the work of the dwarfs, the underground smiths, while those of the Greeks were <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb363" href="#pb363">363</a>]</span>manufactured by Vulcan and the Cyclopes, under Mount &AElig;tna, or on the Island of Lemnos.
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10903">
+<h3 class="normal">The Volsunga Saga</h3>
+<p>In the Sigurd myth we find Odin one-eyed like the Cyclopes, who, like him, are personifications of the sun. Sigurd is instructed
+by Gripir, the horse-trainer, who is reminiscent of Chiron, the centaur. He is not only able to teach a young hero all he
+need know, and to give him good advice concerning his future conduct, but is also possessed of the gift of prophecy.
+
+</p>
+<p>The marvellous sword which becomes the property of Sigmund and of Sigurd as soon as they prove themselves worthy to wield
+it, and the sword Angurvadel which Frithiof inherits from his sire, remind us of the weapon which &AElig;geus concealed beneath
+the rock, and which Theseus secured as soon as he had become a man. Sigurd, like Theseus, Perseus, and Jason, seeks to avenge
+his father&#8217;s wrongs ere he sets out in search of the golden hoard, the exact counterpart of the golden fleece, which is also
+guarded by a dragon, and is very hard to secure. Like all the Greek sun-gods and heroes, Sigurd has golden hair and bright
+blue eyes. His struggle with Fafnir reminds us of Apollo&#8217;s fight with Python, while the ring Andvaranaut can be likened to
+Venus&#8217;s cestus, and the curse attached to its possessor is like the tragedy of Helen, who brought endless bloodshed upon all
+connected with her.
+
+</p>
+<p>Sigurd could not have conquered Fafnir without the magic sword, just as the Greeks failed to take Troy without the arrows
+of Philoctetes, which are also emblems of the all-conquering rays of the sun. The recovery of the stolen treasure is like
+Menelaus&#8217;s recovery of Helen, and it apparently brings as little happiness to Sigurd as his recreant wife did to the Spartan
+king.
+
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb364" href="#pb364">364</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10913">
+<h3 class="normal">Brunhild</h3>
+<p>Brunhild resembles Minerva in her martial tastes, physical appearance, and wisdom; but her anger and resentment when Sigurd
+forgets her for Gudrun is like the wrath of &#338;none, whom Paris deserts to woo Helen. Brunhild&#8217;s anger continues to accompany
+Sigurd through life, and she even seeks to compass his death, while &#338;none, called to cure her wounded lover, refuses to do
+so and permits him to die. &#338;none and Brunhild are both overcome by the same remorseful feelings when their lovers have breathed
+their last, and both insist upon sharing their funeral pyres, and end their lives by the side of those whom they had loved.
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e10918">
+<h3 class="normal">Sun Myths</h3>
+<p>Containing, as it does, a whole series of sun myths, the Volsunga Saga repeats itself in every phase; and just as Ariadne,
+forsaken by the sun-hero Theseus, finally marries Bacchus, so Gudrun, when Sigurd has departed, marries Atli, the King of
+the Huns. He, too, ends his life amid the flames of his burning palace or ship. Gunnar, like Orpheus or Amphion, plays such
+marvellous strains upon his harp that even the serpents are lulled to sleep. According to some interpretations, Atli is like
+Fafnir, and covets the possession of the gold. Both are therefore probably personifications &#8220;of the winter cloud which broods
+over and keeps from mortals the gold of the sun&#8217;s light and heat, till in the spring the bright orb overcomes the powers of
+darkness and tempests, and scatters his gold over the face of the earth.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p>Swanhild, Sigurd&#8217;s daughter, is another personification of the sun, as is seen in her blue eyes and golden hair; and her death
+under the hoofs of black steeds <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb365" href="#pb365">365</a>]</span>represents the blotting out of the sun by clouds of storm or of darkness.
+
+</p>
+<p>Just as Castor and Pollux hasten to rescue their sister Helen when she has been borne away by Theseus, so Swanhild&#8217;s brothers,
+Erp, Hamdir, and S&ouml;rli, hasten off to avenge her death.
+
+</p>
+<p>Such are the main points of resemblance between the mythologies of the North and South, and the analogy goes far to prove
+that they were originally formed from the same materials, the principal differences being due to the local colouring imparted
+unconsciously by the different races.
+
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</div><span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb367" href="#pb367">367</a>]</span><div class="back">
+<div id="index1" class="div1 index"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Index to Poetical Quotations</h2>
+<p>Aager and Else, Ballad of, <a href="#pb184" class="pageref">184</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Anderson, Rasmus B., <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, <a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a>, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>, <a href="#pb22" class="pageref">22</a>, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>, <a href="#pb49" class="pageref">49</a>, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a>, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>, <a href="#pb79" class="pageref">79</a>, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a>, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>, <a href="#pb100" class="pageref">100</a>, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a>, <a href="#pb114" class="pageref">114</a>, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a>, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>, <a href="#pb142" class="pageref">142</a>, <a href="#pb148" class="pageref">148</a>, <a href="#pb158" class="pageref">158</a>, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>, <a href="#pb187" class="pageref">187</a>, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a>, <a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a>, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a>, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>, <a href="#pb337" class="pageref">337</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Anster (translation from Goethe), <a href="#pb138" class="pageref">138</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Arnold, Matthew, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>, <a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a>, <a href="#pb22" class="pageref">22</a>, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>, <a href="#pb43" class="pageref">43</a>, <a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>, <a href="#pb198" class="pageref">198</a>, <a href="#pb204" class="pageref">204</a>, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a>, <a href="#pb208" class="pageref">208</a>, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a>, <a href="#pb211" class="pageref">211</a>, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Baldwin, James, Story of Siegfried, <a href="#pb186" class="pageref">186</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Brace (translation of ballad), <a href="#pb233" class="pageref">233</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Brand, <a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Browning, Robert, <a href="#pb27" class="pageref">27</a>, <a href="#pb28" class="pageref">28</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Buchanan, Robert, <a href="#pb239" class="pageref">239</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Coneybeare (translation from the Anglo-Saxon), <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Du Chaillu, Paul, Viking Age, <a href="#pb152" class="pageref">152</a>, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Edda (S&aelig;mund&#8217;s, or the Elder), <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>, <a href="#pb70" class="pageref">70</a>, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>, <a href="#pb122" class="pageref">122</a>, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>, <a href="#pb142" class="pageref">142</a>, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>, <a href="#pb148" class="pageref">148</a>, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a>, <a href="#pb163" class="pageref">163</a>, <a href="#pb169" class="pageref">169</a>, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>, <a href="#pb184" class="pageref">184</a>, <a href="#pb189" class="pageref">189</a>, <a href="#pb190" class="pageref">190</a>, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>, <a href="#pb227" class="pageref">227</a>, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>, <a href="#pb273" class="pageref">273</a>, <a href="#pb287" class="pageref">287</a>, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Fabian&#8217;s MS., <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Forman (translations), <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>, <a href="#pb36" class="pageref">36</a>, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>, <a href="#pb103" class="pageref">103</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Goethe, <a href="#pb138" class="pageref">138</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Gray, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>, <a href="#pb201" class="pageref">201</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Grotta-Savngr, <a href="#pb129" class="pageref">129</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Heine, <a href="#pb195" class="pageref">195</a>, <a href="#pb237" class="pageref">237</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Hemans, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Henderson (translations), <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Herbert (translations), <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>, <a href="#pb121" class="pageref">121</a>, <a href="#pb122" class="pageref">122</a>, <a href="#pb147" class="pageref">147</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Herrick, <a href="#pb127" class="pageref">127</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Hewitt (translation), <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Homer, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Howitt, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>, <a href="#pb212" class="pageref">212</a>, <a href="#pb247" class="pageref">247</a>, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>, <a href="#pb340" class="pageref">340</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Jones, Julia Clinton, Valhalla, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a>, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, <a href="#pb103" class="pageref">103</a>, <a href="#pb106" class="pageref">106</a>, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>, <a href="#pb168" class="pageref">168</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>, <a href="#pb192" class="pageref">192</a>, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>, <a href="#pb212" class="pageref">212</a>, <a href="#pb222" class="pageref">222</a>, <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a>, <a href="#pb228" class="pageref">228</a>, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a>, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Keightley (translation), <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Kingsley, Charles, <a href="#pb46" class="pageref">46</a>, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>, <a href="#pb134" class="pageref">134</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>L. E. R., <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>La Motte-Fouqu&eacute;, <a href="#pb240" class="pageref">240</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Longfellow, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>, <a href="#pb61" class="pageref">61</a>, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>, <a href="#pb129" class="pageref">129</a>, <a href="#pb184" class="pageref">184</a>, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a>, <a href="#pb300" class="pageref">300</a>, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>, <a href="#pb306" class="pageref">306</a>, <a href="#pb307" class="pageref">307</a>, <a href="#pb308" class="pageref">308</a>, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a>, <a href="#pb313" class="pageref">313</a>, <a href="#pb323" class="pageref">323</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Macdowall, Asgard and the Gods, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Martin (translation from Heine), <a href="#pb237" class="pageref">237</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Mathisson, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Meredith, Owen, <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a>, <a href="#pb155" class="pageref">155</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Morris, William, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a>, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>, <a href="#pb168" class="pageref">168</a>, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a>, <a href="#pb254" class="pageref">254</a>, <a href="#pb255" class="pageref">255</a>, <a href="#pb256" class="pageref">256</a>, <a href="#pb258" class="pageref">258</a>, <a href="#pb259" class="pageref">259</a>, <a href="#pb262" class="pageref">262</a>, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>, <a href="#pb265" class="pageref">265</a>, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a>, <a href="#pb269" class="pageref">269</a>, <a href="#pb271" class="pageref">271</a>, <a href="#pb272" class="pageref">272</a>, <a href="#pb274" class="pageref">274</a>, <a href="#pb276" class="pageref">276</a>, <a href="#pb278" class="pageref">278</a>, <a href="#pb279" class="pageref">279</a>, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>, <a href="#pb281" class="pageref">281</a>, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>, <a href="#pb283" class="pageref">283</a>, <a href="#pb285" class="pageref">285</a>, <a href="#pb288" class="pageref">288</a>, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>, <a href="#pb293" class="pageref">293</a>, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Naogeorgus, <a href="#pb125" class="pageref">125</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Oehlenschl&auml;ger, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>, <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a>, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb66" class="pageref">66</a>, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb147" class="pageref">147</a>, <a href="#pb190" class="pageref">190</a>, <a href="#pb191" class="pageref">191</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Oxford Carol, <a href="#pb125" class="pageref">125</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Percy (translation from the Edda), <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Pfeiffer (translation), <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Pigott (translations from Oehlenschl&auml;ger), <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a>, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb66" class="pageref">66</a>, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb147" class="pageref">147</a>, <a href="#pb190" class="pageref">190</a>, <a href="#pb191" class="pageref">191</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Scott, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Selcher (translation), <a href="#pb195" class="pageref">195</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Shakespeare, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>, <a href="#pb170" class="pageref">170</a>, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Southey, <a href="#pb29" class="pageref">29</a>, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Spalding (translations from the Frithiof Saga), <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Spenser, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Stagnelius, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Stephens (translations from the Frithiof Saga), <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>, <a href="#pb243" class="pageref">243</a>, <a href="#pb305" class="pageref">305</a>, <a href="#pb306" class="pageref">306</a>, <a href="#pb308" class="pageref">308</a>, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a>, <a href="#pb311" class="pageref">311</a>, <a href="#pb313" class="pageref">313</a>, <a href="#pb314" class="pageref">314</a>, <a href="#pb315" class="pageref">315</a>, <a href="#pb316" class="pageref">316</a>, <a href="#pb318" class="pageref">318</a>, <a href="#pb319" class="pageref">319</a>, <a href="#pb321" class="pageref">321</a>, <a href="#pb324" class="pageref">324</a>, <a href="#pb325" class="pageref">325</a>, <a href="#pb326" class="pageref">326</a>, <a href="#pb328" class="pageref">328</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Taylor (translations from the Sagas), <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>, <a href="#pb10" class="pageref">10</a>, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>, <a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a>, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a>, <a href="#pb94" class="pageref">94</a>, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Tegn&eacute;r, Frithiof Saga, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>, <a href="#pb243" class="pageref">243</a>, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>, <a href="#pb305" class="pageref">305</a>, <a href="#pb306" class="pageref">306</a>, <a href="#pb307" class="pageref">307</a>, <a href="#pb308" class="pageref">308</a>, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a>, <a href="#pb311" class="pageref">311</a>, <span class="corr" id="xd0e11910" title="Source: 314, 314"><a href="#pb314" class="pageref">314</a></span>, <a href="#pb315" class="pageref">315</a>, <a href="#pb316" class="pageref">316</a>, <a href="#pb318" class="pageref">318</a>, <a href="#pb319" class="pageref">319</a>, <a href="#pb321" class="pageref">321</a>, <a href="#pb323" class="pageref">323</a>, <a href="#pb324" class="pageref">324</a>, <a href="#pb325" class="pageref">325</a>, <a href="#pb326" class="pageref">326</a>, <a href="#pb328" class="pageref">328</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Thomson, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb368" href="#pb368">368</a>]</span></p>
+<p>Thorpe (translations), <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>, <a href="#pb22" class="pageref">22</a>, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>, <a href="#pb70" class="pageref">70</a>, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, <a href="#pb98" class="pageref">98</a>, <a href="#pb99" class="pageref">99</a>, <a href="#pb100" class="pageref">100</a>, <a href="#pb101" class="pageref">101</a>, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb108" class="pageref">108</a>, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a>, <a href="#pb122" class="pageref">122</a>, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>, <a href="#pb142" class="pageref">142</a>, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>, <a href="#pb148" class="pageref">148</a>, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a>, <a href="#pb163" class="pageref">163</a>, <a href="#pb169" class="pageref">169</a>, <a href="#pb176" class="pageref">176</a>, <a href="#pb178" class="pageref">178</a>, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>, <a href="#pb184" class="pageref">184</a>, <a href="#pb189" class="pageref">189</a>, <a href="#pb190" class="pageref">190</a>, <a href="#pb192" class="pageref">192</a>, <a href="#pb198" class="pageref">198</a>, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a>, <a href="#pb225" class="pageref">225</a>, <a href="#pb227" class="pageref">227</a>, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>, <a href="#pb273" class="pageref">273</a>, <a href="#pb275" class="pageref">275</a>, <a href="#pb277" class="pageref">277</a>, <a href="#pb287" class="pageref">287</a>, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Vail, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>Wagner, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>, <a href="#pb36" class="pageref">36</a>, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>, <a href="#pb103" class="pageref">103</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Wagner-Macdowall, Asgard and the Gods, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Whittier, J. G., <a href="#pb230" class="pageref">230</a>, <a href="#pb241" class="pageref">241</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>Wordsworth, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>
+
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb369" href="#pb369">369</a>]</span></p>
+</div>
+<div id="index2" class="div1 index"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Glossary and Index</h2>
+<div class="transcribernote">
+<div style="text-align: center"><a href="#xd0e12172">A</a> | <a href="#xd0e13325">B</a> | <a href="#xd0e14084">C</a> | <a href="#xd0e14462">D</a> | <a href="#xd0e14809">E</a> | <a href="#xd0e15321">F</a> | <a href="#xd0e16156">G</a> | <a href="#xd0e17144">H</a> | <a href="#xd0e18496">I</a> | <a href="#xd0e18880">J</a> | <a href="#xd0e19141">K</a> | <a href="#xd0e19238">L</a> | <a href="#xd0e19653">M</a> | <a href="#xd0e20254">N</a> | <a href="#xd0e20835">O</a> | <a href="#xd0e21486">P</a> | <a href="#xd0e21730">Q</a> | <a href="#xd0e21740">R</a> | <a href="#xd0e22122">S</a> | <a href="#xd0e23240">T</a> | <a href="#xd0e24025">U</a> | <a href="#xd0e24159">V</a> | <a href="#xd0e24865">W</a> | <a href="#xd0e25097">Y</a> | <a href="#xd0e25238">Z</a></div>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e12171">
+<h3 id="xd0e12172" class="normal">A</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Aager</span> (&auml;&#8242;ger) and Else. Ballad of, <a href="#pb184" class="pageref">184</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Abel.</span> Cain in Wild Hunt because of the murder of, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Abundantia</span> (a-bun-dan&#8242;shya&#775;). Same as Fulla, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Abundia.</span> Same as Fulla, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Acheron</span> (ak&#8242;e-ron). Gi&ouml;ll, the Northern, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Achilles</span> (a-kil&#8242;&#275;z). Balder, the Northern, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>;
+father of Pyrrhus, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Adonis</span> (a-d&#333;&#8242;nis). Odin, the Northern, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>;
+Idun lost like, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>;
+Odur, the Northern, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">&AElig;gean</span> (&#275;-j&#275;&#8242;an). Argo&#8217;s cruise round the, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">&AElig;geus</span> (&#275;-j&#275;&#8242;us). Sigmund&#8217;s sword compared to that of, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">&AElig;gir</span> (&#257;&#8242;jir). Tempests caused by, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>;
+god of the sea, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>&#8211;193, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>;
+banquet in halls of, <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a>;
+Neptune, the Greek, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">&AElig;gis</span> (&#275;&#8242;jis). Fafnir&#8217;s Helmet of Dread so called, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">&AElig;neas</span> (&#275;-n&#275;&#8242;as). Vidar, the Northern, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">&AElig;sir</span> (&#257;&#8242;sir). Northern gods called, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>;
+twelve in number, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>;
+Asgard, home of, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>;
+dispute between Vanas and, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>;
+to be supplanted, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>;
+inhabitants of Asia Minor, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+Gylfi visits the, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>;
+Hrungnir feasts with the, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>;
+Freya visited by the, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>;
+recovery of hammer pleases the, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>;
+Fenris bound by the, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>;
+Suttung slain by the, <a href="#pb99" class="pageref">99</a>;
+Idun welcomed by the, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a>;
+Ni&ouml;rd among the, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>;
+&AElig;gir not ranked with the, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>;
+&AElig;gir visits the, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>;
+reward promised to the, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>;
+heralds sent out by the, <a href="#pb211" class="pageref">211</a>;
+Loki slanders the, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>, <a href="#pb225" class="pageref">225</a>;
+battle between the giants and the, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a>;
+beginning and end of the, <a href="#pb329" class="pageref">329</a>;
+<span class="corr" id="xd0e12352" title="Source: Gialllar-horn">Giallar-horn</span> summons the, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>;
+giants come to fight the, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>;
+courage and death of the, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>;
+golden disks of the, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>;
+Greek gods compared to the, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>;
+Greek equivalent of dispute between the Vanas and the, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">&AElig;tna</span> (et&#8242;na&#775;), <span class="smallcaps">Mount</span>. Northern equivalent for earthquakes in, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>;
+dwarfs&#8217; forge equivalent to Vulcan&#8217;s in, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Afi</span> (&auml;&#8242;f&#275;). Riger visits, <a href="#pb152" class="pageref">152</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Afternoon.</span> Division of day, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Agnar.</span> Son of Hrauding, fostered by Frigga, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>, <a href="#pb36" class="pageref">36</a>;
+gives Odin a drink, <a href="#pb36" class="pageref">36</a>;
+becomes king, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ai</span> (&auml;&#8242;&#275;). Riger visits, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Aku-Thor</span> (ak&#8242;u-thor). The charioteer, <a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alberich</span> (al&#8242;b&#277;r-ik). King of the dwarfs, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Albion</span> (al&#8242;bi-on). Conjectured origin of name, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alf-blot.</span> Sacrifices offered to elves, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alf-heim</span> (alf&#8242;h&#299;m). Home of elves in, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>;
+Frey, ruler of, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>;
+Frey&#8217;s return to, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>;
+Skirnir&#8217;s return to, <a href="#pb121" class="pageref">121</a>;
+V&ouml;lund goes to dwell in, <a href="#pb178" class="pageref">178</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ali.</span> Same as Vali, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Allfather.</span> The uncreated is, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>;
+Yggdrasil, created by, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+Odin called, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>;
+questions Vafthrudnir, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>;
+wrath of, <a href="#pb44" class="pageref">44</a>;
+Longbeards named by, <a href="#pb46" class="pageref">46</a>;
+disposes of Hel, Midgard snake, and Fenris, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>;
+sends Hermod to Finland, <a href="#pb155" class="pageref">155</a>;
+goes with Vidar, to consult Norns, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>;
+dooms Brunhild to marry, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>;
+is slain, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alpheus</span> (al-f&#275;&#8242;us). Greek equivalent of Northern river-god, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alpine Rose.</span> Attendants of Holda crowned with the, <a href="#pb52" class="pageref">52</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alps.</span> Uller&#8217;s home on the, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>;
+supposed meaning of the name, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb370" href="#pb370">370</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alsvider</span> (&auml;l&#8242;svid-er). Steed of moon chariot, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alsvin</span> (&auml;l&#8242;svin). Steed of sun chariot, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alth&aelig;a</span> (al-th&#275;&#8242;a&#775;). Like mother of Nornagesta, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alva.</span> Cheru&#8217;s sword borne by Duke of, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alvis.</span> A dwarf, changed to stone, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Alvit.</span> A Valkyr, marries mortal, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Amalthea</span> (am-al-th&#275;&#8242;a&#775;). Compared to Heidrun, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ambrosia.</span> Northern gods eat boar&#8217;s flesh instead of, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Amma.</span> Riger visits, <a href="#pb152" class="pageref">152</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Amphion</span> (am-f&#299;&#8242;on). Pied Piper like, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>;
+Gunnar like, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Amphitrite</span> (am-fi-tr&#299;&#8242;t&#275;). Greek equivalent for Ran, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Amsvartnir</span> (am-sv&auml;rt&#8242;nir). Lake where Fenris is bound, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Anchises</span> (an-k&#299;&#8242;s&#275;z). Northern equivalent of, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Andhrimnir</span> (&auml;n-dhrim&#8242;nir). Cook in Valhalla, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Andvaranaut</span> (&auml;nd-v&auml;&#8242;ra-nout). Ring of Andvari, <a href="#pb273" class="pageref">273</a>;
+Sigurd appropriates, <a href="#pb277" class="pageref">277</a>;
+Brunhild betrothed with, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>;
+Sigurd deprives Brunhild of, <a href="#pb285" class="pageref">285</a>;
+Gudrun shows, <a href="#pb287" class="pageref">287</a>;
+Gudrun sends Gunnar, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Andvari</span> (&auml;nd&#8242;v&auml;-r&#275;). King of dwarfs, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>;
+Loki visits, <a href="#pb272" class="pageref">272</a>;
+ring of, <a href="#pb273" class="pageref">273</a>, <a href="#pb277" class="pageref">277</a>, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>, <a href="#pb285" class="pageref">285</a>, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Angantyr</span> (&auml;n-g&auml;n&#8242;t&#275;r). Ottar and, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+Tyrfing, sword of, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>;
+joins Thorsten and Bel&eacute;, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>;
+tribute of, <a href="#pb312" class="pageref">312</a>;
+receives Frithiof, <a href="#pb316" class="pageref">316</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Anglo-Saxon.</span> Heptarchy, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>;
+Uller called Vulder in, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>;
+&AElig;gir called Eagor in, <a href="#pb187" class="pageref">187</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Angur-boda</span> (&auml;n-gur-b&#333;&#8242;da&#775;). Mother of Hel, Fenris, and I&ouml;rmungandr, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>;
+mother of Gerda, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>;
+wife of Loki, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>;
+feeds wolves in Ironwood, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Angurvadel</span> (&auml;n-gur-v&auml;&#8242;del). Viking&#8217;s magic sword, <a href="#pb299" class="pageref">299</a>, <a href="#pb315" class="pageref">315</a>;
+comparison, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Annar.</span> Husband of Nott, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ant&aelig;us</span> (an-t&#7869;&#8242;us). Greek equivalent for Hrungnir, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Apollo</span> (a-pol&#8242;&#333;). Greek equivalent for Sol, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>;
+personification of the sun, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>;
+his contest with Marsyas compared to Odin&#8217;s with Vafthrudnir, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>;
+marriage with Clio compared to Odin&#8217;s with Saga, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>;
+flocks stolen by Mercury, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>;
+chariot compared to Frey&#8217;s boar, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>;
+god of music, like Bragi, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>;
+Frey compared to, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>;
+Uller, a hunter like, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>;
+sun-god, like Balder, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>;
+sun myth, like that of Sigurd, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Apples.</span> Gna&#8217;s, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>, <a href="#pb252" class="pageref">252</a>;
+Idun&#8217;s, <a href="#pb103" class="pageref">103</a>, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a>;
+Skirnir gives Gerda golden, <a href="#pb120" class="pageref">120</a>;
+emblem of fruitfulness, <a href="#pb122" class="pageref">122</a>;
+Norns watch over the magic, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>;
+Idun only can pick magic, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>;
+Rerir receives a magic, <a href="#pb252" class="pageref">252</a>;
+comparison between Atalanta&#8217;s and Gerda&#8217;s, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Arachne</span> (a-rak&#8242;n&#275;). Vafthrudnir, Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Archangel St. Michael.</span> Wields Cheru&#8217;s sword, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Arctic Circle.</span> Scenery in the, <a href="#pb1" class="pageref">1</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ares</span> (a&#8242;res). Resembles Tyr, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Arethusa</span> (ar-&#275;-tho&#861;o&#8242;sa&#775;). Princess Ilse equivalent to, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Argo.</span> Like Skidbladnir, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>;
+like Mannigfual, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Argus.</span> Story compared to that of Brock, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>;
+eyes compared to Thiassi&#8217;s, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>;
+eyes compared to Heimdall&#8217;s, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ariadne</span> (ar-i-ad&#8242;n&#275;). Compared to Gudrun, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Arion</span> (a-ri&#8242;on). Compared to Sleipner, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Arthur.</span> In Wild Hunt, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Arvakr</span> (ar&#8242;wak-r). Steed of sun chariot, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Aryans</span> (&auml;r&#8242;yanz). Origin of, <a href="#pb1" class="pageref">1</a>;
+myths of, <a href="#pb343" class="pageref">343</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Asa</span> (&#257;&#8242;sa&#775;). Hoenir an, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>;
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb371" href="#pb371">371</a>]</span>Odin, the almighty, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>;
+Balder an, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Asa-bridge.</span> Same as Bifr&ouml;st, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+Heimdall, guardian of the, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Asabru</span> (&#257;&#8242;sa&#775;-br&#363;). Bridge of gods, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Asegeir</span> (&#257;&#8242;se-g&#299;r). Frisian elders, <a href="#pb143" class="pageref">143</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Asgard</span> (as&#8242;g&auml;rd). Home of gods, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>;
+one root of Yggdrasil in, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>;
+gods&#8217; palaces in, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>;
+Ni&ouml;rd welcomed in, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>;
+Odin&#8217;s seat in, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>;
+heroes brought to, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>;
+Ifing separates J&ouml;tun-heim from, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>;
+Odin leaves, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb44" class="pageref">44</a>;
+Odin returns to, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>;
+Gylfi visits, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>;
+Thor admitted into, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>;
+Bilskirnir in, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>;
+Brock visits, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>;
+Hrungnir boasts in, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>;
+unprotected state of, <a href="#pb221" class="pageref">221</a>;
+Thor&#8217;s return to, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>;
+Loki&#8217;s return to, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>;
+Tyr, a god of, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>;
+Fenris brought to, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a>;
+Odin brings inspiration to, <a href="#pb99" class="pageref">99</a>;
+Idun and Bragi arrive in, <a href="#pb103" class="pageref">103</a>;
+Idun to be lured out of, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>;
+Idun mourns for, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb106" class="pageref">106</a>, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>;
+gods return without Idun to, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a>;
+Frey, Freya, and Ni&ouml;rd in, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>;
+Ni&ouml;rd summoned to, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>;
+Thiassi slain in, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a>, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>;
+Skadi&#8217;s honeymoon in, <a href="#pb114" class="pageref">114</a>;
+Frey welcomed to, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>;
+Freya welcomed to, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>;
+Uller rules in, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>;
+Balder leaves, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a>;
+Forseti arrives in, <a href="#pb142" class="pageref">142</a>;
+Heimdall arrives in, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>;
+Heimdall leaves, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>;
+Hermod returns to, <a href="#pb157" class="pageref">157</a>;
+Vali comes to, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>;
+sin enters, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>;
+&AElig;gir&#8217;s visit to, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>;
+Odin&#8217;s return to, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a>;
+gods&#8217; sad return to, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>;
+messengers&#8217; return to, <a href="#pb212" class="pageref">212</a>;
+Loki banished from, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>, <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a>;
+gods wish to fortify, <a href="#pb221" class="pageref">221</a>;
+a Hrim-thurs threatens, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a>;
+Loki forfeits, <a href="#pb226" class="pageref">226</a>;
+fire giants storm, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>;
+Olympus, the Greek, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>;
+Valkyrs, cupbearers in, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Asgardreia</span> (as-gard-r&#299;&#8242;a). Wild Hunt called, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Asia.</span> Plateau of Iran in, <a href="#pb1" class="pageref">1</a>;
+&AElig;sir come from, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ask</span> (&auml;sk). Ash tree from which gods made man, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+compared to creation of Prometheus, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Aslaug</span> (a-sloug&#8242;). The fostering of, <a href="#pb281" class="pageref">281</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Asynjur</span> (a-sin&#8242;joor). Northern goddesses called, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Atalanta</span> (at-a&#775;-lan&#8242;ta&#775;). Her apples compared to Gerda&#8217;s, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Atla</span> (at&#8242;la&#775;). One of the wave maidens, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Atlantic.</span> Cruise of the Mannigfual in the, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Atlas.</span> Greek equivalent for Riesengebirge, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Atl&eacute;</span> (at&#8242;l&#257;). Challenges Frithiof, <a href="#pb315" class="pageref">315</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Atli</span> (at&#8242;l&#275;). Gudrun wooed by, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>;
+treachery of, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>;
+H&ouml;gni and Gunnar slain by, <a href="#pb294" class="pageref">294</a>;
+Gudrun slays, <a href="#pb294" class="pageref">294</a>;
+same as Attila, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>;
+Gudrun&#8217;s union with, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Attila</span> (at&#8242;i-la&#775;). King of the Huns, has Cheru&#8217;s sword, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>;
+same as Atli, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Aud</span> (oud). Son of Nott, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Audhumla</span> (ou-dhum&#8242;la&#775;). Cow nourishes Ymir, <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Augeia</span> (ou-g&#299;&#8242;ya&#775;). Wave maiden, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Augsburg</span> (ougz&#8242;burg). Tyr&#8217;s city, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Aurgiafa</span> (our-gy&#257;&#8242;fa&#775;) Wave maiden, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Austri</span> (ou&#8242;str&#275;). Dwarf, supporter of heavenly vault at East, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Austria.</span> Curious custom in, <a href="#pb127" class="pageref">127</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e13324">
+<h3 id="xd0e13325" class="normal">B</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bacchus</span> (bak&#8242;kus). Atli compared to, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Balder</span> (b&auml;l&#8242;der). Allfather questions Vafthrudnir about, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>;
+son of Frigga, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>;
+Skadi wishes to marry, <a href="#pb113" class="pageref">113</a>;
+Uller akin to, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a>;
+Forseti, son of, <a href="#pb142" class="pageref">142</a>;
+Forseti&#8217;s connection with, <a href="#pb145" class="pageref">145</a>;
+Vali, the avenger of, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>;
+god of sun and summer, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>&#8211;215;
+Loki, real murderer of, <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a>;
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb372" href="#pb372">372</a>]</span>absent from &AElig;gir&#8217;s banquet, <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a>;
+compared to Sigurd, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>;
+Loki deprives &AElig;sir of, <a href="#pb329" class="pageref">329</a>;
+the return of, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>;
+his death avenged, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>;
+Hodur murders, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>;
+compared to Greek sun-gods, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>;
+shrine of, <a href="#pb305" class="pageref">305</a>;
+shrine burnt by Frithiof, <a href="#pb318" class="pageref">318</a>;
+temple rebuilt, <a href="#pb327" class="pageref">327</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Balmung</span> (b&auml;l&#8242;mung). V&ouml;lund forges, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>;
+Odin drives into Branstock, <a href="#pb254" class="pageref">254</a>;
+Sigmund secures, <a href="#pb254" class="pageref">254</a>;
+Siggeir obtains, <a href="#pb256" class="pageref">256</a>;
+Sinfiotli makes use of, <a href="#pb261" class="pageref">261</a>, <a href="#pb262" class="pageref">262</a>;
+Odin breaks, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>;
+Hiordis treasures shards of, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a>;
+forged again, <a href="#pb274" class="pageref">274</a>;
+Fafnir slain by, <a href="#pb276" class="pageref">276</a>;
+laid between Sigurd and Brunhild, <a href="#pb285" class="pageref">285</a>;
+Guttorm slain by, <a href="#pb288" class="pageref">288</a>;
+placed on funeral pyre, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>;
+emblem of sunbeam, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>;
+compared to sword of &AElig;geus, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Baltic Sea.</span> Cruise of Mannigfual in, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Barbarossa</span> (b&auml;r-ba&#775;-ros&#8242;sa&#775;), <span class="smallcaps">Frederick</span>. Leader of Wild Hunt, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Baucis</span> (baw&#8242;sis). Story of, compared with Geirrod and Agnar, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Baugi</span> (bou&#8242;g&#275;). Odin serves, <a href="#pb97" class="pageref">97</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Beav.</span> Same as Vali, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Behmer</span> (b&#257;&#8242;mer). Forest in Bohemia, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Beldegg</span> (bel&#8242;deg). King of West Saxony, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bel&eacute;</span> (b&#257;-l&#257;&#8242;). Heir of Sogn, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>;
+banished by Jokul, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>;
+replaced on throne, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>;
+conquers Orkney Islands, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>;
+helps Thorsten to secure V&ouml;lund ring, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>;
+sons of, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>;
+last instructions of, <a href="#pb305" class="pageref">305</a>;
+kings seated on the tomb of, <a href="#pb307" class="pageref">307</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Beli</span> (b&#257;l&#8242;&#275;). Death of, <a href="#pb122" class="pageref">122</a>;
+son of Kari, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bergelmir</span> (ber-gel&#8242;mir). Escapes deluge, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>, <a href="#pb230" class="pageref">230</a>;
+same as Farbauti, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Berserker</span> (b&#7869;r&#8242;serk-er). Rage of, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>;
+Frithiof in similar rage, <a href="#pb317" class="pageref">317</a>;
+wolf held by, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bertha</span> (b&#7869;r&#8242;tha&#775;). Same as Frigga, <a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>;
+mother of Charlemagne, <a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>;
+patroness of spinning, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bestla</span> (best&#8242;la&#775;). Giantess, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>;
+&AElig;sir&#8217;s mortal element from, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bethlehem</span> (beth&#8242;l&#275;-em). Peace of Frodi when Christ was born in, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Beyggvir</span> (b&#299;g&#8242;vir). Servant of Frey, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Beyla</span> (b&#299;&#8242;la&#775;). Servant of Frey, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bifr&ouml;st</span> (b&#275;&#8242;fr&#7869;st). Rainbow bridge, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+Valkyrs ride over, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>;
+description of, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>;
+Heimdall, warder of, <a href="#pb147" class="pageref">147</a>;
+Odin rides over, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>;
+insufficiency of, <a href="#pb221" class="pageref">221</a>;
+Helgi rides over, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>;
+downfall of, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>;
+Giallar-horn proclaims passage of gods over, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bil.</span> The waning moon, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Billing.</span> King of Ruthenes, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a>;
+anxious to save Rinda, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bilskirnir</span> (bil&#8242;sk&#7869;r-nir). Thor&#8217;s palace called, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>;
+thralls entertained in, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bingen</span> (bing&#8242;en). Rat Tower near, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bishop Hatto.</span> Story of, <a href="#pb29" class="pageref">29</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bj&ouml;rn</span> (by&#7869;rn). Confidant of Frithiof, <a href="#pb307" class="pageref">307</a>;
+plays chess with Frithiof, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a>;
+steers Ellida, <a href="#pb314" class="pageref">314</a>;
+carries men ashore, <a href="#pb314" class="pageref">314</a>;
+takes charge of Ellida, <a href="#pb320" class="pageref">320</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Black Death.</span> Pestilence, <a href="#pb184" class="pageref">184</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Black Forest.</span> Giants in the, <a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Blocksberg</span> (bloks&#8242;berg). Norns on the, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Blodug-hofi</span> (bl&#333;&#8242;dug-h&#333;&#8242;f&#275;). Frey&#8217;s steed called, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a>;
+Gymir&#8217;s fire crossed by, <a href="#pb120" class="pageref">120</a>;
+compared to Pegasus, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bloody Eagle.</span> Description of, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Boden</span> (b&#333;&#8242;den). The bowl of offering, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bodvild</span> (bod&#8242;v&#275;ld). Betrayed by V&ouml;lund, <a href="#pb177" class="pageref">177</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bohemian Forest.</span> Same as Behmer, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bolthorn</span> (bol&#8242;thorn). Giant called, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb373" href="#pb373">373</a>]</span>
+
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bolwerk</span> (bol&#8242;w&#7869;rk). Odin serves, <a href="#pb97" class="pageref">97</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Borr</span> (b&#7869;r). Marries Bestla, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>;
+earth created by sons of, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>;
+divine element of gods in, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Borghild</span> (b&ocirc;rg&#8242;hild). Sigmund marries, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>;
+Sinfiotli poisoned by, <a href="#pb265" class="pageref">265</a>;
+Sigmund repudiates, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bornholm</span> (b&ocirc;rn&#8242;holm). The formation of, <a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a>;
+Mannigfual cruise connected with, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bous</span> (b&#333;&#8242;us). Same as Vali, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Braga-ful</span> (br&auml;&#8242;ga&#775;&#8242;ful). Toast in honour of Bragi, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Braga-men.</span> Northern scalds, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Braga-women.</span> Northern priestesses, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bragi</span> (br&auml;&#8242;g&#275;). Heroes welcomed to Asgard by, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>;
+Gunlod, mother of, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+god of music and eloquence, <a href="#pb100" class="pageref">100</a>&#8211;110;
+birth of, <a href="#pb100" class="pageref">100</a>;
+the absence of, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>;
+Idun mourns for, <a href="#pb106" class="pageref">106</a>;
+Idun sought by, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>;
+remains with Idun in Nifl-heim, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a>;
+heroes welcomed by Heimdall and, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>;
+&AElig;gir delights in tales of, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>;
+compared to Greek divinities, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Branstock</span> (bran&#8242;stok). Oak in Volsungs&#8217; hall, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a>;
+sword thrust in the, <a href="#pb254" class="pageref">254</a>;
+Sigmund under the, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Brechta</span> (brek&#8242;ta&#775;). Frigga, <a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Breidablik</span> (br&#299;&#8242;da&#775;-blik). Balder&#8217;s palace, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>;
+Balder&#8217;s corpse carried to, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>;
+compared to Apollo&#8217;s palace, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Bretland</span> (bret&#8242;land). Mound in, where Sot&eacute; hides, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Brimer</span> (bri&#8242;mer). Hall of giants, <a href="#pb340" class="pageref">340</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Brisinga-men</span> (bri-sing&#8242;a&#775;-men). Necklace of Freya, <a href="#pb134" class="pageref">134</a>;
+Loki attempts to steal, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>;
+emblem of fruitfulness, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a>;
+made by dwarfs, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Brock</span>. Jealousy of, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>;
+Loki&#8217;s wager with, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>;
+three treasures of, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>;
+wager won by, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>;
+story compared with that of Io, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Brocken</span> (br&#466;k&#8242;en). Witches&#8217; dance on the, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+Norns on the, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Brownies.</span> Same as dwarfs, <a href="#pb239" class="pageref">239</a>;
+same as elves, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Brunhild</span> (bro&#862;on&#8242;hild). A Valkyr, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>;
+Sigurd finds, <a href="#pb279" class="pageref">279</a>;
+Sigurd wooes, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>;
+Sigurd marries, <a href="#pb281" class="pageref">281</a>;
+Sigurd forgets, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>;
+Gunnar loves, <a href="#pb283" class="pageref">283</a>;
+Gunnar wooes by proxy, <a href="#pb284" class="pageref">284</a>;
+wrath and jealousy of, <a href="#pb287" class="pageref">287</a>;
+H&ouml;gni swears to avenge, <a href="#pb288" class="pageref">288</a>;
+rejoices at death of Sigurd, <a href="#pb289" class="pageref">289</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb289" class="pageref">289</a>;
+Atli, brother of, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>;
+compared to Greek divinities, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Brunnaker</span> (bro&#862;on&#8242;na-ker). Idun&#8217;s grove in, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Burgundian</span> (b&#7869;r-gun&#8242;di-an). Ildico, a princess, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>;
+Gunnar, a monarch, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Buri</span> (bur&#8242;&#275;). Creation of, <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>;
+giants&#8217; war against, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Buri.</span> Grove where Frey and Gerda meet, <a href="#pb121" class="pageref">121</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Byzantine</span> (bi-zan&#8242;t&#299;n). Teutonic race influenced by that faith, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e14083">
+<h3 id="xd0e14084" class="normal">C</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cacus</span> (k&#257;&#8242;kus). Hrungnir compared to, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Caduceus</span> (ka-d&#363;&#8242;ce-us). Gambantein compared to, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cain&#8217;s Hunt.</span> The Wild Hunt, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Calais</span> (kal&#8242;&#257;). Mannigfual passes, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Calypso</span> (ka-lip&#8242;so). Compared to Holda, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Camomile</span> (kam&#8242;&#333;-m&#299;l). Called &#8220;Balder&#8217;s brow,&#8221; <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Capitoline</span> (cap&#8242;i-tol-ine) <span class="smallcaps">Hill</span>. Vitellius slain on, <a href="#pb88" class="pageref">88</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Carthage</span> (car&#8242;thage). Compared to Seeland, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Castor</span> (cas&#8242;tor). Compared to Erp, S&ouml;rli, and Hamdir, <a href="#pb365" class="pageref">365</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cattegat</span> (kat&#8242;e-gat). &AElig;gir dwells in, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb374" href="#pb374">374</a>]</span>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Caucasus</span> (kaw&#8242;ka-sus). Loki&#8217;s punishment compared to Prometheus&#8217;s on the, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Celtic</span> (kel&#8242;tik). Origin of the language, <a href="#pb342" class="pageref">342</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cephalus</span> (sef&#8242;a-lus). A personification of the sun, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cerberus</span> (s&#7869;r&#8242;be-rus). Analogy of Garm and, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ceres</span> (s&#275;&#8242;r&#275;z). Compared to Rinda, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>;
+compared to Frigga, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>;
+compared to Groa, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>;
+personification of earth, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ceryneian Stag</span> (ser-i-n&#275;&#8242;an). Story of, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Changelings.</span> Recipe for riddance of, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>, <a href="#pb244" class="pageref">244</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Chaos</span> (k&#257;&#8242;os). World rose from, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>;
+analogy between Greek and Northern conception of, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Chariot.</span> Sun and moon, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>;
+night and day, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>;
+Irmin&#8217;s, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>;
+Holda&#8217;s, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>;
+Nerthus&#8217;s, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>;
+Thor&#8217;s, <a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>, <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a>, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>;
+Frey&#8217;s, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a>;
+Freya&#8217;s, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>;
+comparison between chariots of Greek and Northern gods, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Charlemagne</span> (sh&auml;r&#8242;le-m&#257;n). Leader of Wild Hunt, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>;
+Bertha, mother of, <a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>;
+Freya&#8217;s temple destroyed by, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>;
+sword of, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Charles V.</span> Alva, general of, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Charles&#8217;s Wain.</span> Same as Great Bear, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Charon</span> (k&#257;&#8242;ron). Compared to M&#333;dgud, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Charybdis</span> (ka-rib&#8242;dis). Northern parallel to, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cheru</span> (k&#7869;r&#8242;&#363;). Same as Tyr, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>;
+sword of, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>&#8211;89;
+Heimdall same as, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cheruski</span> (ke-rus&#8242;k&#275;). The worship of the, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Chiron</span> (ki&#8242;ron). Compared to Gripir, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Christ.</span> Peace of Frodi at birth of, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Christianity.</span> Attempts to introduce, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>, <a href="#pb233" class="pageref">233</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Christians.</span> Easter feast, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>;
+Norsemen in contact with, <a href="#pb340" class="pageref">340</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Christianso&euml;</span>. Formation of, <a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Christmas</span>. Wild Hunt at, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>;
+Bertha&#8217;s visit at, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>;
+Yule now called, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>;
+trolls celebrate, <a href="#pb234" class="pageref">234</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Clio</span> (kl&#299;&#8242;&#333;). Same as Saga, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Colchis</span> (kol&#8242;kis). Argo sails to, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cologne</span> (ko-l&#333;n&#8242;). Odin visits, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Coronis</span> (ko-r&#333;&#8242;nis). Ratatosk compared to crow in story of, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cretan Labyrinth.</span> Compared to V&ouml;lund&#8217;s house, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Crete</span> (kr&#275;t). Odin&#8217;s tomb at Upsala compared to Jupiter&#8217;s in, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cyclops</span> (si&#8242;klops). Compared to Loki, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>;
+to Northern dwarfs, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Cynthia</span> (sin&#8242;thi-a&#775;). Mani compared to, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e14461">
+<h3 id="xd0e14462" class="normal">D</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">D&aelig;dalus</span> (d&#275;&#8242;d&#257;a&#775;-lus). Compared to V&ouml;lund, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dag.</span> Son of Nott, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>;
+a treacherous Hunding, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dain</span> (d&#257;&#8242;in). Stag on Yggdrasil, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Danae</span> (dan&#8242;&#257;-&#275;). Compared to Rinda, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Danes.</span> Sacrificing place of, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>;
+Frey, ruler of, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>;
+Mysinger slays, <a href="#pb129" class="pageref">129</a>;
+Ragnar Lodbrog, king of the, <a href="#pb281" class="pageref">281</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Danish Ballad.</span> Aager and Else a, <a href="#pb184" class="pageref">184</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Danube.</span> Cheru&#8217;s sword buried on banks of, <a href="#pb88" class="pageref">88</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Daphne</span> (daf&#8242;ne). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Day.</span> Divisions of, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>;
+Vafthrudnir&#8217;s questions about, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">December.</span> Uller&#8217;s month, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Deianeira</span> (d&#275;-i-a-ni&#8242;ra&#775;). Loki&#8217;s jealousy compared to that of, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dellinger</span> (del&#8242;ling-er). Third husband of Nott, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Delphi</span> (del&#8242;fi). Compared to Gimli, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb375" href="#pb375">375</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Deluge.</span> Ymir&#8217;s blood causes, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>;
+Ragnarok, a version of, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Denmark.</span> Odin conquers, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>;
+Frey in, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>;
+Freya in, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>;
+Konur, king of, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>;
+Norns visit, <a href="#pb169" class="pageref">169</a>;
+horn in collection of, <a href="#pb234" class="pageref">234</a>;
+Gudrun leaves, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Destiny.</span> Compared to Orlog, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Deucalion</span> (D&#363;-k&#257;&#8242;li-on) and Pyrrha compared to Lif and Lifthrasir, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Diana</span> (di-&auml;&#8242;na&#775;). Mani corresponds to, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>;
+Skadi compared to, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dido</span> (d&#299;&#8242;d&#333;). Compared to Gefjon, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dises</span> (dis&#8242;ez). Norns same as, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dodona</span> (d&#333;-d&#333;&#8242;na&#775;). Compared to Upsala, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dolmens.</span> Stone altars called, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Donar</span> (d&#333;&#8242;n&auml;r). Same as Thor, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dover.</span> Mannigfual passes, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a>, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Draupnir</span> (droup&#8242;nir). Odin&#8217;s ring called, <a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a>;
+Sindri and Brock make, <a href="#pb66" class="pageref">66</a>;
+Odin receives, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>;
+Skirnir offers Gerda, <a href="#pb120" class="pageref">120</a>;
+laid on Balder&#8217;s pyre, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a>;
+Balder sends Odin, <a href="#pb211" class="pageref">211</a>;
+emblem of fertility, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>;
+dwarfs fashion, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Droma</span> (dr&#333;&#8242;ma&#775;). Chain for Fenris, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a>;
+proverb about, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Druids</span> (dro&#862;o&#8242;idz). Human sacrifices of, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Drusus</span> (dro&#862;o&#8242;sus). Warned by a Vala, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dryads</span> (dr&#299;&#8242;adz). Northern equivalent for, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Duke of Alva.</span> Cheru&#8217;s sword found by, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Duneyr</span> (do&#862;o&#8242;n&#299;r). Stag on Yggdrasil, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dunmow</span> (dun&#8242;mo). Flitch of bacon, <a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Durathor</span> (do&#862;o&#8242;ra-th&ocirc;r). Stag on Yggdrasil, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smallcaps">Dusk of the Gods.</span>&#8221; Wagner&#8217;s opera, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dvalin</span> (dv&auml;&#8242;lin). Stag on Yggdrasil, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>;
+dwarf visited by Loki, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Dwarfs.</span> Black elves called, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>;
+&AElig;gir does not rank with, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>;
+one burned with Balder, <a href="#pb208" class="pageref">208</a>;
+occupations of, <a href="#pb239" class="pageref">239</a>&#8211;245;
+home of the, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>;
+nightmares are, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e14808">
+<h3 id="xd0e14809" class="normal">E</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eagor.</span> Same as &AElig;gir, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">East Saxony.</span> Conquered by Odin, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Easter.</span> Same as Ostara, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>;
+stones, altars to Ostara, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>, <a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">E&aacute;stre.</span> Same as Ostara, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Echo.</span> Dwarf&#8217;s talk, <a href="#pb240" class="pageref">240</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eckhardt</span> (ek&#8242;hart). Tries to stop Tannh&auml;user, <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a>;
+compared to Mentor, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eclipses.</span> Northern belief concerning cause of, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Edda.</span> Collection of Northern myths, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>;
+sword-runes in, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>;
+Frey&#8217;s wooing related in, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>;
+Heimdall&#8217;s visit to earth described in, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>;
+S&aelig;mund, compiler of Elder, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>;
+heroic lays in, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>;
+Younger, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Egia</span> (&#275;&#8242;djya&#775;). Wave maiden, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Egil</span> (&#257;&#8242;gil). Marries a Valkyr, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>;
+arrow of, <a href="#pb178" class="pageref">178</a>;
+Thialfi&#8217;s father, <a href="#pb189" class="pageref">189</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eglimi</span> (eg&#8242;li-m&#275;). Father of Hiordis, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Einheriar</span> (&#299;n-h&#257;&#8242;ri-ar). Odin&#8217;s guests, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>;
+meat of, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>;
+daily battles of, <a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a>;
+Valkyrs wait on, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>;
+Helgi, leader of, <a href="#pb265" class="pageref">265</a>;
+Giallar-horn calls, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>;
+muster of, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>;
+all slain on Vigrid, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Einmyria</span> (&#299;n-m&#275;&#8242;ri-a&#775;). Daughter of Loki, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eira</span> (&#299;&#8242;ra&#775;). Goddess of medicine, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eisa</span> (&#299;&#8242;sa&#775;). Daughter of Loki, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eitel</span> (&#299;&#8242;tel). Son of Atli and Gudrun, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb376" href="#pb376">376</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Elb.</span> Water sprite, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>;
+god of the Elbe, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Elbe</span> (elb). Drusus stopped at, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>;
+river named after Elb, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Elbegast</span> (el&#8242;be-gast). King of the dwarfs, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Elde</span> (el&#8242;de). &AElig;gir&#8217;s servant, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eldhrimnir</span> (el-dhrim&#8242;nir). Cauldron in Valhalla, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Elf.</span> Water sprite, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>;
+elf lights, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>;
+elf locks, <a href="#pb247" class="pageref">247</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Elf.</span> Sigmund buried by, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a>;
+Hiordis marries, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a>;
+second marriage of, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Elivagar</span> (el-i-vag&#8242;ar). Streams of ice from Hvergelmir, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>;
+Thor crosses, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>;
+rolling ice in, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>;
+Thor&#8217;s journey east of, <a href="#pb189" class="pageref">189</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Elli</span> (el&#8242;l&#275;). Thor wrestles with, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ellida</span> (el-li&#8242;-da). Magic dragon ship, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>, <a href="#pb307" class="pageref">307</a>, <a href="#pb312" class="pageref">312</a>, <a href="#pb319" class="pageref">319</a>, <a href="#pb320" class="pageref">320</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Else</span> (el&#8242;sa). Ballad of Aager and, <a href="#pb184" class="pageref">184</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Elves.</span> Light elves, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>;
+occupation of the, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>&#8211;249;
+&AElig;gir does not rank with the, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Elvidner</span> (el-vid&#8242;ner). Hel&#8217;s hall <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Embla</span> (em&#8242;bla&#775;). The elm or first woman, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+wooden, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Enceladus</span> (en-sel&#8242;a-dus). Compared to Loki, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">England.</span> Wild Hunt in, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>;
+May-day in, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>;
+Yule in, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>;
+flitch of bacon in, <a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a>;
+miners in, <a href="#pb244" class="pageref">244</a>;
+Albion same as, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>;
+fairies in, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>, <a href="#pb247" class="pageref">247</a>;
+Oberon, fairy king in, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">English Channel.</span> Mannigfual in, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Epimetheus</span> (ep-i-m&#275;&#8242;thy&#363;s). Compared to Northern creators, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Er.</span> Same as Tyr, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>;
+Heimdall same as, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Erda.</span> Same as J&ouml;rd, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ermenrich</span> (&#7869;r&#8242;men-r&#275;k). Swanhild marries, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>;
+Gudrun&#8217;s sons attack, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Erna.</span> Jarl marries, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Erp.</span> Son of Atli and Gudrun, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>;
+son of Jonakur and Gudrun, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>;
+slain by brothers, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>;
+to avenge Swanhild, <a href="#pb365" class="pageref">365</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Esbern Snare.</span> Legend of, <a href="#pb240" class="pageref">240</a>&#8211;241
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eskimo.</span> Skadi&#8217;s dog, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eub&#339;a</span> (&#363;-b&#275;&#8242;a&#775;). &AElig;gir&#8217;s palace resembles Neptune&#8217;s home in, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Euhemerus</span> (&#363;-hem&#8242;er-us). Historical theory of, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Europa</span> (&#363;-r&#333;&#8242;pa&#775;). Northern equivalent for story of, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Europe.</span> &AElig;sir migrate into, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+discovery of, <a href="#pb342" class="pageref">342</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Eurydice</span> (&#363;-rid&#8242;i-s&#275;). Compared to Idun, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Euxine Sea</span> (&#363;k&#8242;sin). Mannigfual&#8217;s cruise compared to Argo&#8217;s in, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Evening.</span> Part of day, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Exorcism.</span> Of spectral hound, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>;
+of changelings, <a href="#pb244" class="pageref">244</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e15320">
+<h3 id="xd0e15321" class="normal">F</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fadir</span> (f&auml;&#8242;dir). Heimdall visits, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smallcaps">Faerie Queene.</span>&#8221; Girdle in, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fafnir</span> (faf&#8242;nir). Son of Hreidmar, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>;
+gold seized by, <a href="#pb273" class="pageref">273</a>;
+Sigurd goes to slay, <a href="#pb275" class="pageref">275</a>, <a href="#pb276" class="pageref">276</a>, <a href="#pb277" class="pageref">277</a>;
+Gudrun eats heart of, <a href="#pb283" class="pageref">283</a>;
+personification of cold and darkness, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>;
+compared to Python, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fairy Rings.</span> Magic spell of, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fairyland.</span> Alf-heim is, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Farbauti</span> (far-bou&#8242;t&#275;) Same as Bergelmir, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Faroe Islands.</span> Thor&#8217;s name in, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fates.</span> Yggdrasil sprinkled by, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+compared to Norns, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Father Fine.</span> Outwitted by Esbern, <a href="#pb241" class="pageref">241</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">February.</span> Vali&#8217;s month is, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Feng.</span> Same as Odin, <a href="#pb275" class="pageref">275</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fenia</span> (fen&#8242;ya&#775;). Giantess slave of Frodi, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb377" href="#pb377">377</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fenris</span> (fen&#8242;ris). Birth and capture of, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>;
+story of, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>&#8211;94;
+shoe to defend Vidar against, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>;
+prediction concerning, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>;
+Hel related to, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>;
+birth of, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>;
+Loki, father of, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>;
+released from bonds, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>;
+Loki leads, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>;
+Tyr alone dare face, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>;
+compared to Nemean lion, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>;
+compared to Pyrrhus, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a><span class="corr" id="xd0e15484" title="Source: ."></span>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fensalir</span> (fen&#8242;s&auml;l-ir). Frigga&#8217;s palace, <a href="#pb43" class="pageref">43</a>;
+Frigga spinning in, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fialar</span> (fy&#257;l&#8242;ar).
+1. Kvasir slain by, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>.
+2. Red cock of Valhalla, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fimbul-winter</span> (fim&#8242;bul-win-ter)<span class="corr" id="xd0e15510" title="Not in source">.</span> Prediction of coming, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>;
+terror of people at approach of, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Finite Nature.</span> Of gods, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Finnish Mountains.</span> Helg&eacute; absent on a foray amongst, <a href="#pb327" class="pageref">327</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Finns.</span> Hermod visits the, <a href="#pb155" class="pageref">155</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fi&ouml;llnir</span> (fy&#7869;l&#8242;nir). Same as Odin, <a href="#pb275" class="pageref">275</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fiolnir</span> (fyol&#8242;nir). Birth of, <a href="#pb122" class="pageref">122</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fiorgyn</span> (fy&ocirc;r&#8242;g&#275;n). Genealogy of, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>;
+Frigga, daughter of, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Flax.</span> Discovery of, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a>&#8211;53
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Flint.</span> Origin of, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Flitch.</span> Of bacon, <a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a>, <a href="#pb127" class="pageref">127</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Flora.</span> Nanna compared to, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Folkvang</span> (f&#333;k&#8242;vang). Freya&#8217;s home, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>;
+warriors and wives in, <a href="#pb132" class="pageref">132</a>;
+Loki enters, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Forenoon.</span> Part of day, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fornjotnr</span> (f&ocirc;rn-y&#333;t&#8242;nr). Same as Ymir, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>;
+giants descended from, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Forseti</span> (f&ocirc;r-set&#8242;e<span class="corr" id="xd0e15638" title="Source: .)">).</span> God of justice, <a href="#pb142" class="pageref">142</a>&#8211;145;
+Greek equivalent for, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>;
+the land of, <a href="#pb144" class="pageref">144</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fraananger</span> (fr&#257;-nan&#8242;ger). Loki takes refuge in, <a href="#pb226" class="pageref">226</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Framn&auml;s</span> (fram&#8242;n&auml;s). Ingeborg and Thorsten dwell at, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>;
+Frithiof dwells at, <a href="#pb306" class="pageref">306</a>, <a href="#pb317" class="pageref">317</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">France.</span> Golden age in, <a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>;
+Oberon, fairy king in, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Franconia.</span> Conquered by Odin, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frankish.</span> Kings&#8217; descent, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>;
+queen marries giant, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frankland.</span> Hindarfiall in, <a href="#pb278" class="pageref">278</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Franks.</span> Worship of Tyr among the, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>;
+martial games of the, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frau Gode</span> (frou g&#333;&#8242;d&#257;). Same as Frigga, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frau Holle</span> (hol-le). Same as Frigga, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frau Venus.</span> Same as Holda, <a href="#pb53" class="pageref">53</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frederick Barbarossa.</span> Wild Hunt led by, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Freki</span> (frek&#8242;&#275;). Odin&#8217;s wolf, <a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a>, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">French Revolution.</span> Wild Hunt announces, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frey</span> (fr&#299;). Comes to Asgard, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>;
+present for, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>;
+Gullin-bursti and Skidbladnir for, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>;
+toast to, <a href="#pb116" class="pageref">116</a>;
+god of summer, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>&#8211;138;
+Freya, sister of, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>;
+rides with Freya, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>;
+Freya said to marry, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+sword of, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>;
+elves governed by, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>;
+deprived of power, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>;
+weapon of, a stag&#8217;s horn, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>;
+fights Surtr, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>;
+boar of, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Freya</span> (fr&#299;a&#775;&#8242;). Comes to Asgard, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>;
+Hrungnir wants, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a>;
+Loki borrows falcon plumes of, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a>;
+anger of, <a href="#pb70" class="pageref">70</a>;
+Thor borrows garments of, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>;
+Thor personates, <a href="#pb79" class="pageref">79</a>;
+Freya, goddess of beauty, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>&#8211;138;
+Friday sacred to, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>;
+Loki steals necklace of, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>;
+the earth is, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a>;
+Valkyrs led by, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a>;
+promised to giant, <a href="#pb221" class="pageref">221</a>;
+gods fear to lose, <a href="#pb222" class="pageref">222</a>;
+dwarfs made necklace for, <a href="#pb134" class="pageref">134</a>, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Freygerda</span> (fr&#299;-g&#7869;r&#8242;da&#775;). Wife of Fridleef, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Friday.</span> Sacred to Freya, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fridleef</span> (frid&#8242;l&#257;f). Same as Frey, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frigga</span> (frig&#8242;a&#775;). Sits on Hlidskialf, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>;
+Odin disguises himself by advice of, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>;
+Agnar fostered by, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>;
+Odin outwitted by, <a href="#pb36" class="pageref">36</a>, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>;
+wife of, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb378" href="#pb378">378</a>]</span>Vili and Ve, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>;
+Odin&#8217;s wife, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>;
+seven sons of, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>;
+goddess of earth, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>&#8211;58;
+goddess of atmosphere, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>;
+secrecy of, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>;
+worshipped with Odin, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a>;
+Thor, son of, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>;
+Nerthus same as, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>;
+Freya same as, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>;
+Uller marries, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>;
+Balder and Hodur, sons of, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>;
+Balder&#8217;s depression noticed by, <a href="#pb198" class="pageref">198</a>;
+all things swear to, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>;
+Loki wrests secret from, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a>, <a href="#pb204" class="pageref">204</a>;
+Hermod departs at request of, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>;
+the hope of, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>;
+emblem of earth, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>;
+grants Rerir&#8217;s wish, <a href="#pb252" class="pageref">252</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frisians</span> (friz&#8242;ianz). Want new laws, <a href="#pb143" class="pageref">143</a>;
+tradition of, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frithiof</span> (fr&#301;t&#8242;yof). Story of, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a>&#8211;328;
+Saga put into verse by Tegn&eacute;r, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a>;
+birth of, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>;
+son of Thorsten, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>;
+Angurvadel, sword of, <a href="#pb243" class="pageref">243</a>;
+V&ouml;lund ring, possesses, <a href="#pb307" class="pageref">307</a>;
+loves Ingeborg, <a href="#pb305" class="pageref">305</a>;
+home of, <a href="#pb306" class="pageref">306</a>;
+sues for hand of Ingeborg, <a href="#pb307" class="pageref">307</a>;
+suit of rejected, <a href="#pb308" class="pageref">308</a>;
+Ingeborg&#8217;s brothers ask aid of, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a>;
+meets Ingeborg in temple, <a href="#pb310" class="pageref">310</a>;
+tries to make terms with Kings, <a href="#pb311" class="pageref">311</a>;
+journey to Orkney Islands, <a href="#pb312" class="pageref">312</a>;
+in tempest, <a href="#pb312" class="pageref">312</a>;
+fights Atl&eacute;, <a href="#pb315" class="pageref">315</a>;
+visits Angantyr, <a href="#pb316" class="pageref">316</a>;
+returns to Framn&auml;s, <a href="#pb317" class="pageref">317</a>;
+goes into exile, <a href="#pb319" class="pageref">319</a>;
+becomes a pirate, <a href="#pb319" class="pageref">319</a>;
+visits Sigurd Ring, <a href="#pb320" class="pageref">320</a>;
+Ingeborg recognises, <a href="#pb321" class="pageref">321</a>;
+loyalty of, <a href="#pb323" class="pageref">323</a>;
+rebuilds temple, <a href="#pb327" class="pageref">327</a>;
+marries Ingeborg, <a href="#pb325" class="pageref">325</a>, <a href="#pb327" class="pageref">327</a>;
+comparison, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fro.</span> Same as Frey, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>, <a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a>, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Frodi</span> (fr&#333;&#8242;d&#275;). Mill of, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>;
+rule of, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb129" class="pageref">129</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fulla</span> (ful&#8242;a&#775;). Attendant of Frigga, <a href="#pb44" class="pageref">44</a>, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>;
+Nanna sends ring to, <a href="#pb211" class="pageref">211</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Funfeng</span> (fun&#8242;feng). &AElig;gir&#8217;s servant, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>;
+Loki jealous of, <a href="#pb225" class="pageref">225</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Fylgie</span> (f&#299;l&#8242;gye). Guardian spirit, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e16155">
+<h3 id="xd0e16156" class="normal">G</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gabriel&#8217;s Hounds.</span> Wild Hunt in England, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>;
+Leader of Wild Hunt, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Galar</span> (g&auml;l&#8242;ar). Kvasir slain by, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gambantein</span> (gam&#8242;ban-t&#299;n). Wand of Hermod, <a href="#pb155" class="pageref">155</a>;
+like Caduceus, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gamla Upsala</span> (gam&#8242;la&#775; up-s&auml;&#8242;la&#775;). Odin&#8217;s, Frey&#8217;s, and Thor&#8217;s mounds near, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gangler</span> (gang&#8242;ler). Deludes Gylfi, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gangrad</span> (gang&#8242;r&#257;d). Odin as, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ganymede</span> (gan&#8242;i-m&#275;d). Northern equivalent for story of, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Garm.</span> Dog of Hel, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>;
+Odin passes, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>;
+Hel followed by, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>;
+Loki leads, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>;
+compared to Cerberus, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gefjon</span> (gef&#8242;yon). Gylfi visited by, <a href="#pb49" class="pageref">49</a>;
+compared to Dido, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gefn</span> (gef&#8242;n). Same as Freya, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Geir Odds</span> (g&#299;r odz). Carving of, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb183" class="pageref">183</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Geirrod</span> (g&#299;r&#8242;rod).
+1. Story of, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>&#8211;37.
+2. Loki visits, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>;
+Thor visits, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a>, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>;
+Loki accompanies Thor to, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gelgia</span> (gel&#8242;gya&#775;). End of Fenris&#8217;s fetter, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gerda</span> (g&#7869;r&#8242;da&#775;). Wooed by Frey, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>&#8211;122;
+Greek counterparts of, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Geri</span> (g&#275;r&#8242;&#275;). Odin&#8217;s wolf, <a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a>, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">German.</span> Cheru&#8217;s sword belongs to a, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>;
+Langobart, a long beard in, <a href="#pb46" class="pageref">46</a>;
+Eckhardt the mentor, <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a>;
+ideas of the origin of physical features, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a>;
+belief in fairies, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>;
+epic, Nibelungenlied, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Germany.</span> Wild Hunt in, <a href="#pb27" class="pageref">27</a>;
+Odin conquers, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+Abundantia worshipped in, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>;
+worship of Frigga in, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a>;
+Easter-stones in, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>;
+golden age in, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb379" href="#pb379">379</a>]</span><a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>;
+belief in White Lady in, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>;
+Thor, kettle vendor in, <a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>;
+storms in, <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a>;
+Nerthus in, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>;
+Frey is Fro in, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>, <a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a>;
+Yule in, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>;
+Freya&#8217;s worship in, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>, <a href="#pb132" class="pageref">132</a>;
+temple in Magdeburg in, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>;
+Freya now a witch in, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+Uller in, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>;
+the Elbe in, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>;
+sandhills in, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a>;
+sacrifices to elves in, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gersemi</span> (g&#7869;r-se-m&#275;). Freya&#8217;s daughter, <a href="#pb132" class="pageref">132</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gertrude.</span> Replaces Freya in Germany, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Giallar</span> (gy&auml;l&#8242;lar). Bridge in Niflheim, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>;
+Odin rides over, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>;
+trembling of, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Giallar-horn.</span> Heimdall&#8217;s trumpet, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>, <a href="#pb147" class="pageref">147</a>;
+last blast of the, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gialp</span> (gy&auml;lp). Incantation of, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>;
+Thor breaks the back of, <a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a>;
+wave maiden called, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Giants.</span> Birth of ice, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>;
+gods slay the, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>;
+&AElig;gis does not belong to the, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>;
+Hyrrokin summoned by the, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a>;
+general account of the, <a href="#pb230" class="pageref">230</a>&#8211;238;
+Brimer, hall of, <a href="#pb340" class="pageref">340</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gilling</span> (gil&#8242;ling). Giant slain by dwarfs, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>;
+death of wife of, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gimli</span> (gim&#8242;l&#275;). Not consumed in Ragnarok, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>;
+compared to Delphi, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ginnunga-gap</span> (gi-no&#862;on&#8242;g&#257;-gap). Primeval abyss, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>;
+giants come to life in, <a href="#pb230" class="pageref">230</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gioll</span> (gyol). Rock to which Fenris is bound, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gi&ouml;ll</span> (gy&#7869;l). River boundary of Nifl-heim, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>;
+Hermod crosses <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>;
+like Acheron, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Giuki</span> (gi&#8242;o&#862;oki). Niblung king, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>;
+Sigurd, blood brother of sons of, <a href="#pb283" class="pageref">283</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Giukings.</span> Sons of Giuki, <a href="#pb283" class="pageref">283</a>;
+Sigurd slain by, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Glads-heim</span> (gl&auml;dz-h&#299;m). Twelve seats in, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>;
+Tyr welcomed in, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>;
+Vali dwells in, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>;
+Odin returns to, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Glasir</span> (gl&auml;&#8242;sir). The golden grove of, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Glaumvor</span> (gloum&#8242;vor). Second wife of Gunnar, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Glaur</span> (glour). Husband of Sol, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gleipnir</span> (gl&#299;p&#8242;nir). Manufacture of, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Glitnir</span> (glit&#8242;nir). Forseti&#8217;s hall, <a href="#pb142" class="pageref">142</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Glittering Heath.</span> Fafnir on the, <a href="#pb273" class="pageref">273</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Glut</span> (glo&#862;ot). Loki&#8217;s first wife, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gna</span> (gn&auml;). Messenger of Frigga, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>;
+carries apple to Rerir, <a href="#pb252" class="pageref">252</a>;
+compared to Iris, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gnipa</span> (gn&#275;&#8242;pa&#775;). Cave in Nifl-heim, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>;
+Garm in, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gn&icirc;taheid</span> (gn&#275;&#8242;ta&#775;-h&#299;d). Fafnir on, <a href="#pb273" class="pageref">273</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gnomes</span> (n&#333;mz). Same as dwarfs, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Goblins.</span> Same as dwarfs, <a href="#pb239" class="pageref">239</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gode</span> (g&ouml;&#8242;da). Same as Frigga, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Godey</span> (go&#8242;d&#299;). Thor&#8217;s temple at, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Godi </span> (go&#8242;d&#275;). Human sacrifices by, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gold.</span> Freya&#8217;s tears are, <a href="#pb132" class="pageref">132</a>;
+the flame of the sea, <a href="#pb186" class="pageref">186</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Golden Age.</span> <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+Norns arrive after, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>;
+Greek equivalent for Northern, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>;
+Frey&#8217;s reign the, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gondemar</span> (gon&#8242;de-mar). King of the dwarfs, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gothland.</span> Thor&#8217;s temple in, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>;
+Sigmund leaves, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>;
+Ermenrich, king of, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Goths.</span> Siggeir, king of the, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a>;
+Sigmund and Sinfiotli prisoners of the, <a href="#pb261" class="pageref">261</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Grane</span> (gr&auml;&#8242;n&#257;). Sigurd chooses, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Great Bear.</span> Odin&#8217;s Wain, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Greenland.</span> First settlement, <a href="#pb250" class="pageref">250</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Greip</span> (gr&#299;p). Thor breaks the back of, <a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a>;
+a wave maiden called, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Grendel.</span> Son of Hler, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Greyfell</span> (gr&#299;&#8242;fel). Same as Grane, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>;
+Sigurd loads hoard on, <a href="#pb277" class="pageref">277</a>;
+Gunnar borrows, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb380" href="#pb380">380</a>]</span>284;
+Sigurd rides through flames on, <a href="#pb284" class="pageref">284</a>;
+burned with Sigurd, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Grid.</span> Wife of Odin, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb158" class="pageref">158</a>;
+gives Vidar shoe, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>;
+with Vidar and Odin, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Grimhild</span> (grim&#8242;hild). Queen of the Niblungs, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>;
+wishes Gunnar to marry, <a href="#pb283" class="pageref">283</a>, <a href="#pb284" class="pageref">284</a>, <a href="#pb285" class="pageref">285</a>;
+gives magic <span class="corr" id="xd0e16835" title="Source: potiont o">potion to</span> Gunnar, <a href="#pb284" class="pageref">284</a>;
+to Guttorm, <a href="#pb288" class="pageref">288</a>;
+to Gudrun, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Grimnir</span> (grim&#8242;nir). Odin as, <a href="#pb36" class="pageref">36</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Griottunagard</span> (gryot-t&#363;&#8242;na-g&auml;rd). The duel in, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gripir</span> (gr&#275;&#8242;pir). Stud-keeper of Elf, <a href="#pb269" class="pageref">269</a>;
+prophecies of, <a href="#pb274" class="pageref">274</a>;
+compared to Chiron, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Groa</span> (gr&#333;&#8242;a&#775;). Incantations of, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>;
+compared to Ceres, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Grotti.</span> Magic mill, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>, <a href="#pb129" class="pageref">129</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Grypto</span> (grip&#8242;to). Nun on, <a href="#pb233" class="pageref">233</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gudrun</span> (gud-ro&#862;on&#8242;).
+1. A Valkyr marries Helgi, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>;
+self-sacrifice of, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>.
+2. Gives magic potion to Sigurd, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>;
+marries Sigurd, <a href="#pb283" class="pageref">283</a>;
+Sigurd gives ring to, <a href="#pb286" class="pageref">286</a>;
+Sigurd offers to repudiate, <a href="#pb287" class="pageref">287</a>;
+mourning of, <a href="#pb288" class="pageref">288</a>;
+goes to Denmark, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>;
+wooed by Atli, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>;
+Niblungs helped by, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>;
+slays her children, <a href="#pb294" class="pageref">294</a>;
+revenge of, <a href="#pb294" class="pageref">294</a>;
+sends sons to avenge Swanhild, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>;
+same as Ildico, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gull-top</span> (gul-top). Heimdall&#8217;s steed, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gullfaxi</span> (gul-fax&#8242;&#275;). Hrungnir&#8217;s steed, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>;
+Magni receives, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gullin-bursti</span> (gul&#8242;in-b&#7869;rs-t&#275;). Making of, <a href="#pb66" class="pageref">66</a>;
+Frey receives, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a>;
+dwarfs manufacture, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gullin-kambi</span> (gul&#8242;in-k&#257;m-b&#275;). Midgard rooster, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gullintani</span> (gul&#8242;in-t&auml;-n&#275;). Same as Heimdall, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gundicarius</span> (gun-di-c&auml;r&#8242;i-us). Same as Gunnar, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gungnir</span> (gung&#8242;nir). Odin&#8217;s spear, <a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a>;
+made of Yggdrasil wood, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>;
+runes on, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>;
+Dvalin makes point of, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>;
+Odin receives, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>;
+Hermod throws, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>;
+Dag borrows, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gungthiof</span> (gung&#8242;thiof). Son of Frithiof, <a href="#pb325" class="pageref">325</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gunlod</span> (go&#862;on&#8242;lod). Mother of Bragi, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb100" class="pageref">100</a>;
+guardian of inspiration, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>;
+Odin visits, <a href="#pb98" class="pageref">98</a>, <a href="#pb99" class="pageref">99</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gunnar</span> (gun&#8242;n&auml;r). Son of Giuki, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>;
+wooing of Brunhild by, <a href="#pb284" class="pageref">284</a>;
+Brunhild marries, <a href="#pb286" class="pageref">286</a>;
+repentance of, <a href="#pb289" class="pageref">289</a>;
+Brunhild burned by order of, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>;
+Atli asks compensation for death of the sister of, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>;
+courage and oath of, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb294" class="pageref">294</a>;
+same as Gundicarius, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Guttorm</span> (gut&#8242;torm). Son of Giuki, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>;
+Sigurd slain by, <a href="#pb288" class="pageref">288</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb288" class="pageref">288</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gylfi</span> (g&#275;l&#8242;f&#275;). Odin welcomed by, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+delusion of, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>;
+Gefjon visits, <a href="#pb49" class="pageref">49</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Gymir</span> (g&#275;&#8242;mir). Gerda, daughter of, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>;
+dwelling of, <a href="#pb120" class="pageref">120</a>;
+&AElig;gir same as, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>;
+son of Hler, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e17143">
+<h3 id="xd0e17144" class="normal">H</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hades</span> (h&#257;&#8242;d&#275;z). Compared to Nifl-heim, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>;
+J&ouml;tunheim compared to, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hagal</span> (hag&#8242;al). Fosters Helgi, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hagedises</span> (hag&#8242;e-dis-ez). Norns called, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hakon</span> (h&auml;&#8242;kon). Thora, daughter of, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>;
+marries a Valkyr, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Halfdan</span> (half&#8242;dan). Friend of Viking, <a href="#pb299" class="pageref">299</a>;
+makes friends with Njorfe, <a href="#pb300" class="pageref">300</a>;
+Viking&#8217;s sons visit, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>;
+son of Bel&eacute;, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>;
+reconciled to Frithiof, <a href="#pb327" class="pageref">327</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hallinskide</span> (h&auml;l&#8242;lin-sk&#275;-de). Heimdall, same as, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Halogaland.</span> Haloge and Odin reign over, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a>;
+Viking, grandson of, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb381" href="#pb381">381</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Haloge</span> (hal&#8242;o-ge). Same as Loki. Reigned over Norway, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ham.</span> Witch summoned by Helg&eacute;, <a href="#pb312" class="pageref">312</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hamadryads.</span> Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hamdir</span> (ham&#8242;dir). Son of Gudrun, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb365" class="pageref">365</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hamelin</span> (ham&#8242;e-lin). Story of Pied Piper of, <a href="#pb27" class="pageref">27</a>, <a href="#pb28" class="pageref">28</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hammer.</span> To dedicate boundaries, homes, marriages, <a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>;
+effect of, <a href="#pb70" class="pageref">70</a>, <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a>;
+the theft of the, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>;
+sign of the, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hamond</span> (h&auml;&#8242;mond). Son of Sigmund, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hans Von Hackelberg.</span> Leader of Wild Hunt, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Har.</span> One of the triad seen by Gylfi, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Harald Harfager</span> (h&#257;r&#8242;fag-er). Norsemen driven away by, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hati</span> (h&#257;&#8242;t&#275;). Wolf pursuing orbs, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>;
+fed in Ironwood, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>;
+demon of darkness, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hatto.</span> Bishop of Mayence, <a href="#pb29" class="pageref">29</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">H&aacute;vam&aacute;l</span> (hav&#8242;a-mal). Code of laws and ethics, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hebe</span> (h&#275;&#8242;b&#275;). Compared to Valkyrs, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hector.</span> Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Heid</span> (h&#299;d). Witch summoned by Helg&eacute;, <a href="#pb312" class="pageref">312</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Heidrun</span> (h&#299;&#8242;dro&#862;on). Goat supplying mead, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>;
+compared to Amalthea, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Heim-dellinger.</span> Same as Heimdall, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Heimchen</span> (h&#299;m&#8242;shen). Unborn children, <a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Heimdall</span> (h&#299;m&#8242;d&auml;l). Bifr&ouml;st guarded by, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+nine mothers of, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>;
+Thor advised by, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>;
+Idun sought by, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>;
+Brisinga-men saved by, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a>;
+watch-warder of Asgard, <a href="#pb147" class="pageref">147</a>&#8211;153;
+connected with &AElig;sir, <a href="#pb158" class="pageref">158</a>;
+watchfulness of, <a href="#pb221" class="pageref">221</a>;
+Loki to be slain by, <a href="#pb228" class="pageref">228</a>;
+horn blown by, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>;
+Loki fights, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Heime</span> (h&#299;&#8242;me&#775;). Miming, the sword of, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smallcaps">Heimskringla</span>&#8221; (h&#299;mz&#8242;kring-la&#775;). Northern chronicle, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hel.</span> Goddess of death, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>;
+birth and banishment of, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>;
+realm of, <a href="#pb101" class="pageref">101</a>;
+Idun&#8217;s sojourn with, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a>;
+Uller with, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a>;
+Skuld as, <a href="#pb172" class="pageref">172</a>;
+the home of, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>&#8211;184;
+Odin visits, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>;
+daughter of Loki, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>;
+Hermod goes to, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>;
+couches spread by, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a>;
+Hermod visits, <a href="#pb208" class="pageref">208</a>;
+challenged <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>;
+urged to release Balder, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a>;
+Hermod leaves, <a href="#pb211" class="pageref">211</a>;
+the bird of, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>;
+arrives on Vigrid, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>;
+army of, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>;
+realm burned, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>;
+Garm guards gate of, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>;
+rake of, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hel-cake.</span> Provided for Garm, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hel-gate.</span> Hermod passes, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hel-shoes.</span> For feet of dead, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hel-way.</span> Hermod journeys along the, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hela.</span> Same as Hel, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Helen.</span> Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>, <a href="#pb365" class="pageref">365</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Helferich</span> (hel&#8242;fer-&#275;k). Same as Elf, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Helfrat</span> (hel&#8242;frat). Same as Elf, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Helg&eacute;</span> (hel&#8242;ge). Son of Bel&eacute;, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>;
+refuses to give Ingeborg to Frithiof, <a href="#pb308" class="pageref">308</a>;
+rejects Sigurd Ring, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a>;
+makes treaty with Sigurd Ring, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a>;
+accuses Frithiof of sacrilege, <a href="#pb311" class="pageref">311</a>;
+stirs up tempest against Frithiof, <a href="#pb312" class="pageref">312</a>;
+Angantyr refuses to pay tribute to, <a href="#pb316" class="pageref">316</a>;
+Frithiof snatches ring from Balder, <a href="#pb318" class="pageref">318</a>;
+pursues Frithiof, <a href="#pb319" class="pageref">319</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb327" class="pageref">327</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Helgi</span> (hel&#8242;gy). Glorious career of, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>;
+marriage of, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Heliades</span> (he-l&#299;&#8242;a-d&euml;z). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Helicon.</span> Compared to Sokvabek, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>;
+to Od-hroerir, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Heligoland</span> (hel&#8242;i-go-land). Naming of, <a href="#pb143" class="pageref">143</a>, <a href="#pb144" class="pageref">144</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb382" href="#pb382">382</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Helios</span> (h&#275;&#8242;li-os). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Helmet of Dread</span>, <a href="#pb272" class="pageref">272</a>;
+Sigurd uses the, <a href="#pb277" class="pageref">277</a>, <a href="#pb284" class="pageref">284</a>, <a href="#pb289" class="pageref">289</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Helva.</span> Daughter of Lord of Nesvek, prays for Esbern, <a href="#pb241" class="pageref">241</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hengi-kiaptr</span> (heng&#8242;g&#275;-ky&auml;p&#8242;tr). Frodi&#8217;s mill called, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hengist</span> (heng&#8242;ist). Descendant of Odin, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Henry.</span> Murder of, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>;
+Ilse seen by, <a href="#pb237" class="pageref">237</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Heraclid&aelig;</span> (her-a-kl&#299;&#8242;d&#275;). Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hercules</span> (h&#7869;r&#8242;cu-l&#275;z). Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Herla.</span> Mythical king of England, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Herlathing</span> (her&#8242;la&#775;-thing). Wild Hunt called, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Herm&aelig;</span> (h&#7869;r&#8242;m&#275;). Comparison between Northern boundaries and, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hermod</span> (h&#7869;r&#8242;mod). Heroes welcomed by, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>;
+Frigga mother of, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>;
+messenger of gods, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>, <a href="#pb155" class="pageref">155</a>;
+journeys to Nifl-heim, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a>&#8211;211;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Herod.</span> Leader of Wild Hunt, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Heru</span> (h&#7869;r&#8242;oo). Same as Tyr, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>;
+same as Heimdall, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hervor</span> (h&#7869;r&#8242;vor). Daughter of Angantyr, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hialli</span> (hy&auml;l&#8242;l&#275;). The trembling heart of, <a href="#pb294" class="pageref">294</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">High Song.</span> Same as H&aacute;vam&aacute;l, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hilding</span> (hil&#8242;ding). Foster father of Frithiof and Ingeborg, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>;
+asks Frithiof&#8217;s aid for Kings of Sogn, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a>;
+failure of mission of, <a href="#pb310" class="pageref">310</a>;
+announces Ingeborg&#8217;s marriage to Frithiof, <a href="#pb317" class="pageref">317</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Himinbiorg</span> (him&#8242;in-by&#7869;rg). Heimdall&#8217;s palace, <a href="#pb148" class="pageref">148</a>, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Himinbrioter</span> (him&#8242;in-bry&#333;-ter). Thor slays, <a href="#pb190" class="pageref">190</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hindarfiall</span> (hin&#8242;dar-fy&auml;l). Sigurd comes to, <a href="#pb278" class="pageref">278</a>;
+Brunhild asleep on, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>;
+Brunhild&#8217;s story not ended on, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hindfell</span> (hind&#8242;fel). Same as Hindarfiall, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hiordis</span> (hy&ocirc;r&#8242;dis). Sigmund marries, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>;
+and leaves sword to, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a>;
+Sigurd obtains sword from, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a>;
+Elf marries, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hippomenes</span> (hip-pom&#8242;e-n&#275;z). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hiuki</span> (h&#363;&#8242;k&#275;). Companion of Mani, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hlader</span> (hl&auml;&#8242;der). Thor&#8217;s temple at, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hleidra</span> (hl&#299;&#8242;dra&#775;). Capital of Denmark, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hler</span> (hl&#7869;r). Same as &AElig;gir, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>;
+brother of Loki, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>;
+son of Fornjotnr, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hlesey</span> (hl&#7869;&#8242;sy). &AElig;gir&#8217;s palace in, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hlidskialf</span> (hlidz&#8242;kya&#775;lf). Odin&#8217;s seat, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>;
+Odin sees sons of Hrauding from, <a href="#pb35" class="pageref">35</a>;
+Frigga sits on, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>;
+Odin, sees Vandals from, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>;
+Frey mounts, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hlin.</span> Frigga&#8217;s attendant, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hlodyn</span> (hlo&#8242;d&#275;n). Same as Nerthus, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hlora.</span> Thor fostered by, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hlorridi</span> (hl&ocirc;r-r&#275;&#8242;d&#275;). Same as Thor, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hnikar</span> (hn&#275;&#8242;kar). Same as Odin, <a href="#pb275" class="pageref">275</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hnoss.</span> Freya&#8217;s daughter, <a href="#pb132" class="pageref">132</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hodmimir</span> (hod-m&#275;&#8242;mir). The forest of, <a href="#pb337" class="pageref">337</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hodur</span> (h&#333;&#8242;do&#862;or). Personification of darkness, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a>, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a>;
+Vali to slay, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>, <a href="#pb201" class="pageref">201</a>;
+twin brother of Balder, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>;
+Balder to be slain by, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>;
+Balder slain by, <a href="#pb204" class="pageref">204</a>, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>;
+Vali slays, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a>, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>;
+explanation of myth of, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a>;
+Loki guides hand of, <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a>;
+return of, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hoenir</span> (h&#7869;&#8242;nir). Gives motion to man, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+earth visited by, <a href="#pb104" class="pageref">104</a>, <a href="#pb271" class="pageref">271</a>;
+Loki joins, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>;
+hostage in Vana-heim, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>;
+peasant asks aid of, <a href="#pb220" class="pageref">220</a>;
+survival of, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hofvarpnir</span> (hof-v&auml;rp&#8242;nir). Gna&#8217;s fleet steed, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb383" href="#pb383">383</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">H&ouml;gni</span> (h&#7869;g&#8242;n&#275;). Son of Giuki, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>;
+Sigurd&#8217;s death planned by, <a href="#pb288" class="pageref">288</a>;
+warning given by, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>;
+captive, <a href="#pb293" class="pageref">293</a>;
+the heart of, <a href="#pb293" class="pageref">293</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Holda.</span> Same as Frigga, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a>;
+Uller, husband of, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Holland.</span> Frigga worshipped in, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Holle, Frau.</span> Same as Frigga, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Holler.</span> Same as Uller, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Holmgang.</span> Thor&#8217;s and Hrungnir&#8217;s, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a>, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Holy Innocents.</span> In Wild Hunt, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Honey.</span> Drips from Yggdrasil, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hordaland</span> (hor&#8242;da-land). Conquered by Frithiof and left to his sons, <a href="#pb325" class="pageref">325</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Horn.</span> Same as Freya, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Horsa.</span> Descendant of Odin, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">H&ouml;rselberg</span> (h&#7869;r&#8242;sel-berg). Holda&#8217;s abode in the, <a href="#pb53" class="pageref">53</a>, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hostages.</span> Exchanged by &AElig;sir and Vanas, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hr&aelig;-svelgr</span> (hr&#257;-svelgr&#8242;). Giant eagle, <a href="#pb10" class="pageref">10</a>;
+winds personified by, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hrauding</span> (hroud&#8242;ing). Agnar and Geirrod, sons of, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hreidmar</span> (hr&#299;d&#8242;mar). Story of, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>&#8211;274
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hrim-faxi</span> (hr&#275;m-faxy). Steed of Night, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hrim-thurs</span> (hr&#275;m-to&#862;ors). Ice giants at creation, <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>;
+Skadi, a, <a href="#pb113" class="pageref">113</a>;
+architect of Valhalla, a, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hrungnir</span> (hro&#862;ong&#8242;nir). Odin races with, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>;
+Thor&#8217;s duel with, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a>, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hrym</span> (hr&#275;m). Vessel steered by, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hubert, Saint.</span> Uller merged into, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hugi</span> (ho&#862;o&#8242;gi). Thialfi races with, <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hugin</span> (ho&#862;o&#8242;gin). Odin&#8217;s raven, <a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a>, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>;
+Od-hroerir discovered by, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps"><span class="corr" id="xd0e18326" title="Source: Huda">Hulda</span></span> (hul&#8242;da&#775;). Same as Holda, <span class="corr" id="xd0e18329" title="Source: 5L"><a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a></span>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Huldra</span> (hul&#8242;dra&#775;). Same as Holda, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Huldra Folk.</span> Same as dwarfs and elves, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>, <a href="#pb239" class="pageref">239</a>, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hunaland</span> (hun&#8242;a-land). Gna flies over, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>;
+Brunhild&#8217;s home in, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hunding.</span> Helgi&#8217;s feud with, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>;
+descendants of, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>, <a href="#pb294" class="pageref">294</a>,297
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hungary.</span> Attila settles in, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Huns.</span> Invasion by the, <a href="#pb88" class="pageref">88</a>;
+Sigi, king of the, <a href="#pb252" class="pageref">252</a>;
+Land of the, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>, <a href="#pb294" class="pageref">294</a>, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hunthiof</span> (hun&#8242;-thiof). Son of Frithiof, <a href="#pb325" class="pageref">325</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Huntsman of Fontainebleau.</span> Leader of Wild Hunt, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hunvor</span> (hun&#8242;vor). Delivered by Viking, <a href="#pb299" class="pageref">299</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hvergelmir</span> (hver-gel&#8242;m&#275;r). The seething cauldron, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>;
+Yggdrasil root near, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+Nidhug in, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>;
+ice streams from, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>;
+wicked in, <a href="#pb183" class="pageref">183</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hymir</span> (h&#275;&#8242;mir). Story of Thor&#8217;s visit and fishing with, <a href="#pb189" class="pageref">189</a>&#8211;192
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hyndla</span> (h&#275;nd&#8242;la&#775;). Freya and Ottar visit, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hyperboreans</span> (h&#299;p-er-bor&#8242;&#275;-ans). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hyperion</span> (h&#299;-p&#275;r&#8242;yon). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Hyrrokin</span> (h&#275;r&#8242;ro-kin). Ringhorn launched by, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a>, <a href="#pb208" class="pageref">208</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e18495">
+<h3 id="xd0e18496" class="normal">I</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Iafn-har</span> (ya&#775;fn&#8242;h&#257;r). Gylfi sees, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Iarn-greiper</span> (y&auml;rn&#8242;gr&#299;-per). Thor&#8217;s glove, <a href="#pb61" class="pageref">61</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Iarnsaxa</span> (y&auml;rn&#8242;sax-a&#775;).
+1. Thor&#8217;s wife called, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>;
+feeds wolves, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>.
+2. A wave maiden, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Iceland.</span> Thvera in, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>;
+Freya in, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>;
+maze in, <a href="#pb177" class="pageref">177</a>;
+earthquakes and geysers in, <a href="#pb229" class="pageref">229</a>;
+Norsemen settle in, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>;
+scenery of, <a href="#pb343" class="pageref">343</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Icelanders.</span> Records of, <a href="#pb1" class="pageref">1</a>, <a href="#pb148" class="pageref">148</a>;
+call mountains Jokul, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Icelandic.</span> Shores, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ida</span> (&#275;&#8242;da&#775;). Same as Idavold, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a>;
+gods return to, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>;
+same as Asgard, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb384" href="#pb384">384</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Idavold</span> (&#275;da&#8242;vold). Plain where gods dwell, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>;
+gods play on, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a>;
+Balder slain on, <a href="#pb204" class="pageref">204</a>;
+last meeting on, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Idises</span> (&#275;-dis&#8242;ez). Norns, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Idun</span> (&#275;&#8242;doon). Daughter of Ivald, <a href="#pb101" class="pageref">101</a>;
+story of, <a href="#pb103" class="pageref">103</a>&#8211;110;
+returns to Asgard, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a>;
+apples of, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>;
+Loki betrays, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ifing</span> (&#275;&#8242;fing). River surrounding Idavold, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>;
+Vafthrudnir asks about, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>;
+Loki flies across, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ildico</span> (il&#8242;di-co). Wife of Attila, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>;
+same as Gudrun, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ilse</span> (il&#8242;se). Story of Princess, <a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a>;
+compared to Arethusa, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ilsenstein</span> (il&#8242;sen-st&#299;n). Home of Princess Ilse, <a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">India.</span> Languages of, <a href="#pb342" class="pageref">342</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ingeborg</span> (in&#8242;-ge-borg).
+1. Attendant of Hunvor, <a href="#pb299" class="pageref">299</a>.
+2. Changed into witch, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>;
+Thorsten saved by, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>;
+mother of Frithiof, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>.
+<a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>. Daughter of Bel&eacute;, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>;
+Frithiof vows to marry, <a href="#pb305" class="pageref">305</a>;
+Frithiof sues for, <a href="#pb307" class="pageref">307</a>;
+Sigurd Ring sues for, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a>;
+meets Frithiof in temple, <a href="#pb310" class="pageref">310</a>;
+Frithiof parts with, <a href="#pb312" class="pageref">312</a>;
+married to Sigurd Ring, <a href="#pb317" class="pageref">317</a>;
+Frithiof&#8217;s longing for, <a href="#pb319" class="pageref">319</a>;
+Frithiof visits, <a href="#pb320" class="pageref">320</a>;
+given to Frithiof by Sigurd Ring, <a href="#pb324" class="pageref">324</a>;
+Frithiof wars against brothers of, <a href="#pb325" class="pageref">325</a>;
+marriage of Frithiof and, <a href="#pb325" class="pageref">325</a>, <a href="#pb327" class="pageref">327</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Inglings.</span> Frey&#8217;s descendants called, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ingvi-Frey</span> (ing&#8242;vi-fr&#299;). Story of, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>&#8211;128
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Inspiration.</span> The story of the<span class="corr" id="xd0e18761" title="Source: ,"></span> draught of, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>&#8211;102
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Io</span> (&#299;&#8242;&#333;). Northern equivalents for story of, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">I&ouml;rmungandr</span> (y&#7869;r&#8242;mun-gandr). Birth and banishment of, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>;
+Hel related to, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>;
+Thor angles for, <a href="#pb190" class="pageref">190</a>;
+origin of, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>;
+rises from sea, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>;
+Loki leads, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>;
+tempests caused by, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Iran</span> (&#275;-r&auml;n&#8242;). The plateau of, <a href="#pb1" class="pageref">1</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Iris</span> (&#299;&#8242;ris). Compared to Gna, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Irmin</span> (&#7869;r&#8242;min). Same as Odin, Heimdall, or Hermod, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a>, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Irmin&#8217;s Way.</span> The Milky Way, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Irminsul</span> (&#7869;r&#8242;min-sul). Destroyed by Charlemagne, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ironwood.</span> Iron leaves of, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>;
+wolves fed in, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Islands.</span> Eglimi, king of the, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Italy.</span> Golden Age in, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ivald</span> (&#275;&#8242;v&auml;ld). Dwarf blacksmith, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>;
+Idun, daughter of, <a href="#pb101" class="pageref">101</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e18879">
+<h3 id="xd0e18880" class="normal">J</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Jack and Jill.</span> Origin of story, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Jack in the Green</span>, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Jack-o&#8217;lanterns.</span> Elf lights, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">January.</span> Yule in, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>;
+Vali&#8217;s month, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Jarl</span> (y&auml;rl). The birth of, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Jason</span> (j&#257;&#8242;son). Northern equivalents,
+352, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Jill.</span> The origin of Jack and, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">John the Baptist</span>, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Jokul</span> (y&#333;&#8242;kul). Same as J&ouml;tun, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Jonakur</span> (yon&#8242;a-kur). Gudrun, wife of, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">J&ouml;rd</span> (y&#7869;rd). Daughter of Nott, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>;
+wife of Odin, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">J&ouml;tun-heim</span> (y&#7869;&#8242;to&#862;on-h&#299;m). Home of giants, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>;
+Vafthrudnir inquires about, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>;
+frost comes from, <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a>;
+Loki&#8217;s journey to, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>;
+Odin gazes at, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>;
+Thor visits Geirrod in, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>;
+Loki&#8217;s progeny in, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a>;
+Odin goes to, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>;
+Skirnir visits, <a href="#pb120" class="pageref">120</a>;
+Thor personates Freya in, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>;
+Hel born in, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>;
+Hyrrokin dwells in, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a>;
+Loki goes to, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>;
+Loki&#8217;s home in, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>;
+giants dwell in, <a href="#pb230" class="pageref">230</a>;
+Tartarus compared to, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>;
+Idun in, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">J&ouml;tuns</span> (y&#7869;&#8242;tuns). Earth in the power of the, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>;
+the origin of, <a href="#pb230" class="pageref">230</a>, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a>;
+Thor feared by the, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb385" href="#pb385">385</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Jove</span>. Day of, in the North, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Joyeuse</span> (zhw&auml;&#8242;y&#7869;z). Charlemagne&#8217;s sword, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Judea</span> (ju-d&#275;&#8242;a&#775;). Bethlehem in, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Juno</span>. Compared to Frigga, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>;
+to Freya, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span>. Odin compared to, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>;
+Amalthea, nurse of, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>;
+quarrels with Neptune, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>;
+outwitted by Juno, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>;
+Thor compared to, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>;
+secures Ganymede, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>;
+compared to Frey, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>;
+wishes to marry Thetis, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>;
+wooing of Europa, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Justice</span>. Compared to Forseti, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Juterna-jesta</span> (yo&#862;o-ter-na-yest&#8242;a&#775;). Senjemand loves, <a href="#pb233" class="pageref">233</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e19140">
+<h3 id="xd0e19141" class="normal">K</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Kallundborg</span> (kal&#8242;lund-borg). The legend of, <a href="#pb240" class="pageref">240</a>, <a href="#pb241" class="pageref">241</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Kari </span> (k&auml;r&#8242;&#275;). Brother of &AElig;gir, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>;
+brother of Loki, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>;
+son of Fornjotnr, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Karl</span>. The birth of, <a href="#pb152" class="pageref">152</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Kerlaug</span> (k&#7869;r&#8242;loug). Thor wades across, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Knefrud</span> (knef&#8242;ro&#862;od). Invites Niblungs to Hungary, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Kobolds</span>. Same as dwarfs, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>, <a href="#pb239" class="pageref">239</a>;
+same as elves, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Konur</span> (kon&#8242;ur). The birth of, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Koppelberg</span>. Children in the, <a href="#pb28" class="pageref">28</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Kormt</span>. Thor crosses, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Kvasir</span> (kv&auml;&#8242;sir).
+1. Murder of, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>;
+Odin covets mead of, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>.
+2. Loki surprised by, <a href="#pb226" class="pageref">226</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e19237">
+<h3 id="xd0e19238" class="normal">L</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">L&aelig;ding</span> (l&#257;&#8242;ding). Chain for Fenris, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a>;
+proverb concerning, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Laga</span> (l&auml;&#8242;ga&#775;). Same as Saga, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lampetia</span> (lam-pe-sh&#299;&#8242;a&#775;). Northern equivalent for flocks of, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Landvidi</span> (l&auml;nd-v&#275;&#8242;di). Home of Vidar, <a href="#pb158" class="pageref">158</a>, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Langobarden</span>. Story of, <a href="#pb46" class="pageref">46</a>;
+Greek equivalent for, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Laufeia</span> (lou-f&#299;&#8242;a&#775;). Mother of Loki, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Laugardag</span> (lou&#8242;gar-dag). Saturday called, <a href="#pb229" class="pageref">229</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Laurin</span> (lou&#8242;rin). King of the dwarfs, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Leipter</span> (l&#299;p&#8242;ter). Sacred stream in Nifl-heim, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lemnos</span>. Northern equivalent for forge of, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lerad</span> (l&#257;&#8242;r&auml;d). Topmost bough of Yggdrasil, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>;
+the animals upon, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lessoe</span>. Island, home of &AElig;gir, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lethra</span> (leth&#8242;ra&#775;). Sacrifices offered at, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lif</span>. One of the survivors of Ragnarok, <a href="#pb337" class="pageref">337</a>;
+Greek counterpart of, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lifthrasir</span> (lif&#8242;thr&auml;-sir). One of the survivors of Ragnarok, <a href="#pb337" class="pageref">337</a>;
+Greek counterpart, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Light elves</span>. Alf-heim, dwelling of, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Liod</span> (ly&#333;d). Same as Gna, <a href="#pb252" class="pageref">252</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lios-alfar</span> (ly&#333;s&#8242;alf-ar). Same as light elves, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lios-beri</span> (ly&#333;s&#8242;-b&#257;-r&#275;). Month of Vali, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lit</span>, dwarf slain by Thor, <a href="#pb208" class="pageref">208</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lodur</span> (l&#333;&#8242;do&#862;or). Gives blood to man, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+same as Loki, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lofn</span> (l&#333;fn). Attendant of Frigga, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Logi</span> (l&#333;&#8242;g&#275;). Cook of Utgard-loki, <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a>;
+wild fire, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Logrum</span> (l&#333;&#8242;grum). Lake of, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Loki</span> (l&#333;&#8242;k&#275;). God of fire, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+Sif&#8217;s hair stolen by, <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a>;
+changes his form, <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a>;
+Thor attacks, <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a>;
+wager with Brock, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>;
+flight of, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>;
+Brock sews lips of, <a href="#pb68" class="pageref">68</a>;
+eating-wager of, <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a>;
+hammer recovered by, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>;
+marries giantess, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>;
+adventure with eagle, <a href="#pb104" class="pageref">104</a>;
+called to account, <a href="#pb106" class="pageref">106</a>;
+south wind is, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb386" href="#pb386">386</a>]</span>108;
+Skadi laughs at antics of, <a href="#pb113" class="pageref">113</a>;
+the lightning is, <a href="#pb116" class="pageref">116</a>;
+Brisinga-men coveted by, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>, <a href="#pb149" class="pageref">149</a>;
+falcon plumes borrowed by, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>;
+Freya urged by, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+Freya accused by, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+Hel, daughter of, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>;
+&AElig;gir, brother of, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>;
+Frigga questioned by, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a>;
+Hodur&#8217;s hand guided by, <a href="#pb204" class="pageref">204</a>;
+Thok, same as, <a href="#pb212" class="pageref">212</a>;
+the jealousy of, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a>;
+tempter personified by, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>;
+god of fire, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a>&#8211;229;
+son of Fornjotnr, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>;
+visits the earth, <a href="#pb271" class="pageref">271</a>;
+slays Otter, <a href="#pb271" class="pageref">271</a>;
+secures hoard, <a href="#pb272" class="pageref">272</a>;
+&AElig;sir tolerate, <a href="#pb329" class="pageref">329</a>;
+released from bonds, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>;
+boards Nagilfar, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>;
+foes led by, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>;
+Greek equivalent for Loki&#8217;s theft, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>;
+comparisons, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lombards.</span> Story of the, <a href="#pb46" class="pageref">46</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lombardy.</span> The possession of, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Longbeards.</span> The saga of the, <a href="#pb46" class="pageref">46</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lorelei</span> (l&#333;&#8242;re-l&#299;). Story of, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>&#8211;196;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lorride</span> (lor&#8242;r&#275;-de). Thor&#8217;s daughter, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lucifer.</span> Loki the medi&aelig;val, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lydian Queen.</span> Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lygni</span> (lig&#8242;ni). Wars against Sigmund, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>;
+Sigurd slays, <a href="#pb275" class="pageref">275</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lymdale</span> (lim&#8242;d&#257;l). Brunhild&#8217;s home at, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Lyngvi</span> (ling&#8242;vi). Island where Fenris is bound, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e19652">
+<h3 id="xd0e19653" class="normal">M</h3>
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smallcaps">Macbeth.</span>&#8221; The Norns in, <a href="#pb170" class="pageref">170</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Maelstrom</span> (m&#257;l&#8242;strom). Millstones form the, <a href="#pb130" class="pageref">130</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Magdeburg.</span> Freya&#8217;s temple at, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Magni.</span> Thor&#8217;s son, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>;
+survival of, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Maid Marian.</span> On May day, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">M&auml;lar Lake</span> (m&#257;&#8242;lar). Legend of its formation, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mana-heim</span> (man&#8242;a&#775;-h&#299;m). Same as Midgard, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Managarm.</span> The feeding of, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mani</span> (man&#8242;e). The moon, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>;
+his companions, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a>, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>;
+equivalent, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mannigfual</span> (manig&#8242;-f&#363;-al). Ship, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a>, <a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Maras</span> (m&#257;r&#8242;az). Female trolls, <a href="#pb244" class="pageref">244</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mardel</span> (m&auml;r&#8242;del). Freya, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mars.</span> Same as Ares. Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Marsyas</span> (m&#257;r-sy-as). Compared to Vafthrudnir, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">May Festivals</span>, &amp;c., <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mead.</span> Heidrun supplies mead, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mecklenburg.</span> Worship of Frigga in, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Megin-gi&ouml;rd</span> (m&#257;&#8242;gin-gy&#7869;rd). Thor&#8217;s belt, <a href="#pb61" class="pageref">61</a>;
+Thor tightens, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Meleager</span> (mel-e-&#257;&#8242;jer). Nornagesta compared to, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Memor.</span> Same as Mimir, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Menelaus</span> (men&#8242;e-lors). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Menia</span> (men&#8242;i-a). Frodi&#8217;s giantess slave, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mentor.</span> Eckhardt compared to, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mercury.</span> Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mermaids.</span> In &AElig;gir&#8217;s palace, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Meroveus</span> (mer-&#333;&#8242;ve-us). Birth of, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Merovingian</span> (mer-&#333;-vin&#8242;ji-an). Mythical descent of kings, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mesn&eacute;e d&#8217;Hellequin</span> (m&#257;-n&#257; del-&#7869;-ca&ntilde;). Wild Hunt in France, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Midgard</span> (mid&#8242;g&auml;rd). Earth called, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>;
+man dwells in, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+root of Yggdrasil in, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>;
+Bifr&ouml;st spans, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+fields of, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a>;
+Uller rules, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>;
+rooster of, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb387" href="#pb387">387</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Midgard Snake.</span> Thor attempts to lift, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a>;
+Hymir fears, <a href="#pb190" class="pageref">190</a>;
+Thor hooks, <a href="#pb191" class="pageref">191</a>, <a href="#pb192" class="pageref">192</a>; birth of, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>;
+rises from sea, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>;
+Thor slays, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>;
+equivalent, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>;
+tempests caused by, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Midnight.</span> Part of day, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Midsummer.</span> Balder disappears at, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a>;
+night, fairy revels, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>;
+eve, festival, <a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Milky Way</span> in Germany and Holland, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Miming</span> (m&#275;&#8242;ming). A sword, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mimir</span> (m&#275;&#8242;mir). Well of, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>, <a href="#pb94" class="pageref">94</a>, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>, <a href="#pb148" class="pageref">148</a>, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a>;
+god of ocean, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>;
+son of Hler, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>;
+Odin&#8217;s last talk with, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Minerva.</span> Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Minos</span> (m&#299;&#8242;nos). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mi&ouml;lnir</span> (my&#7869;l&#8242;nir). Thor&#8217;s hammer, <a href="#pb61" class="pageref">61</a>;
+Thor receives, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>;
+dwarfs make, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>;
+Thor gives life with, <a href="#pb69" class="pageref">69</a>;
+Thor slays with, <a href="#pb192" class="pageref">192</a>;
+giant slain by, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a>, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a>;
+Midgard snake slain with, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>;
+Greek equivalent for, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mistletoe.</span> Oath not sworn by, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">M&ouml;dgud</span> (m&#7869;d&#8242;gud). Warder of Gi&ouml;ll, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>, <a href="#pb209" class="pageref">209</a>, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Modi</span> (m&#333;&#8242;d&#275;). Thor&#8217;s son, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>;
+survival of, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Modir</span> (mo&#8242;d&#275;r). Heimdall visits, <a href="#pb153" class="pageref">153</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">M&#339;r&aelig;</span> (m&#275;&#8242;r&#275;). Compared to Norns, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Moeri</span> (m&#7869;&#8242;r&#275;). Thor&#8217;s temple at, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mokerkialfi</span> (m&#333;&#8242;ker-kya&#775;lf-&#275;). A clay image which Thialfi fights, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a>, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Morning.</span> Part of day, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mors.</span> Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Moselle</span> (m&#333;-zel&#8242;). Celebrations along the, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Moss Maidens.</span> Wild Hunt for, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mother Night.</span> Longest night in year, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>, <a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">M&uuml;hlberg</span> (m&#275;l&#8242;berg). Battle of, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mundilfari</span> (mo&#862;on&#8242;dil-f&auml;r-&#275;). Father of sun and moon drivers, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Munin</span> (mo&#862;o&#8242;nin). Odin&#8217;s raven, <a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a>;
+Od-hroerir found by, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Muspell</span> (mus&#8242;pel). Sons of, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Muspells-heim</span> (mus&#8242;pels-h&#299;m). Home of fire, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>;
+sparks from, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>;
+host from, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Mysinger</span> (m&#275;&#8242;sing-er). Viking, slays Frodi, <a href="#pb129" class="pageref">129</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e20253">
+<h3 id="xd0e20254" class="normal">N</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nagilfar</span> (nag&#8242;il-f&auml;r). Launching of, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nagilfari</span> (nag&#8242;il-f&#257;r-i). Nott&#8217;s first husband, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nain.</span> Dwarf of death, <a href="#pb100" class="pageref">100</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nal.</span> Mother of Loki, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nanna</span> (n&auml;n&#8242;n&auml;). Forseti&#8217;s mother <a href="#pb142" class="pageref">142</a>;
+Balder&#8217;s wife, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a>;
+accompanies Balder, <a href="#pb208" class="pageref">208</a>;
+sends carpet to Frigga, <a href="#pb211" class="pageref">211</a>;
+emblem of vegetation, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>;
+compared to Greek divinities, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Narve</span> (n&auml;r&#8242;va). Son of Loki, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb227" class="pageref">227</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nastrond</span> (n&auml;&#8242;strond). The wicked in, <a href="#pb183" class="pageref">183</a>, <a href="#pb340" class="pageref">340</a>;
+compared to Tartarus, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Neckar</span> (nek&#8242;kar). God and river, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Necks.</span> Water sprites, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nectar.</span> Compared to Northern drink, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nemean Lion</span> (n&#275;&#8242;m&#275;-an l&#299;&#8242;on). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Neptune.</span> Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nereides</span> (ne-r&#275;&#8242;i-d&#275;z). Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nereus</span> (n&#275;&#8242;re-us). Ni&ouml;rd like, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nerthus</span> (n&#7869;r&#8242;thus). Same as Frigga, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>;
+Ni&ouml;rd&#8217;s wife, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nibelungenlied</span> (n&#275;&#8242;be-lung-en-l&#275;d<span class="corr" id="xd0e20428" title="Not in source">).</span> German epic, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>, <a href="#pb289" class="pageref">289</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb388" href="#pb388">388</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Niblungs</span> (n&#275;&#8242;blungz). Sigurd visits the, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>;
+Brunhild, queen, <a href="#pb283" class="pageref">283</a>, <a href="#pb284" class="pageref">284</a>;
+lament of, <a href="#pb289" class="pageref">289</a>;
+visit Atli, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nick, Old.</span> Origin of the name of, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nicors</span> (nik&#8242;orz). Sea monsters, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nida</span> (n&#275;&#8242;da&#775;). Home of dwarfs, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>O
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nidhug</span> (n&#275;&#8242;dho&#862;og). Gnaws Yggdrasil, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>, <a href="#pb183" class="pageref">183</a>, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nidud</span> (n&#275;&#8242;do&#862;od). King of Sweden, <a href="#pb177" class="pageref">177</a>, <a href="#pb178" class="pageref">178</a>;
+comparison, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nifl-heim</span> (n&#301;fl&#8242;-h&#299;m). Land of mist, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>;
+root of Yggdrasil, in, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+Bifr&ouml;st connects, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+Odin gazes into, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>;
+Hel in, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>;
+Hel&#8217;s bird in, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>;
+Idun in, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>;
+Uller in, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a>;
+horn heard in, <a href="#pb147" class="pageref">147</a>;
+Odin visits, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>;
+Hermod visits, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a>;
+Balder in, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a>;
+equivalents, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Night.</span> Daughter of Norvi, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ni&ouml;rd</span> (ny&#7869;rd). A hostage, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>;
+god of sea, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>&#8211;117, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>;
+Skadi marries, <a href="#pb114" class="pageref">114</a>, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>;
+glove of, <a href="#pb116" class="pageref">116</a>;
+Frey, son of, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>&#8211;119; semi-historical, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>;
+oath sworn by, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>;
+Freya, daughter of, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nip.</span> Father of Nanna, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nixies.</span> Dwell with &AElig;gir, water spirits, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Njorfe</span> (ny&#7869;r&#8242;fe). King of Uplands, friend of Viking of Halfdan, <a href="#pb300" class="pageref">300</a>;
+sons of, attack Viking&#8217;s sons, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">N&ocirc;at&ucirc;n</span> (n&#333;&#8242;a&#775;-to&#862;on). Ni&ouml;rd&#8217;s home, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>, <a href="#pb114" class="pageref">114</a>, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Noon.</span> Part of day, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nordri</span> (n&ocirc;r&#8242;dr&#275;). Dwarf, supports heaven, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nornagesta</span> (n&ocirc;rn-a-ges&#8242;ta&#775;). Story of, <a href="#pb169" class="pageref">169</a>, <a href="#pb170" class="pageref">170</a>;
+compared to Meleager, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Norns.</span> Yggdrasil sprinkled by, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+office of, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>&#8211;172; decree of, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>;
+Odin questions, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>, <a href="#pb168" class="pageref">168</a><span class="corr" id="xd0e20706" title="Source: .">;</span>
+Valkyrs same as, <a href="#pb172" class="pageref">172</a>;
+mortals visited by, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a>, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>;
+torn web of, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Norsemen.</span> Elves guide, <a href="#pb250" class="pageref">250</a>;
+various beliefs of the, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Northern Riddle</span>, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">North Sea.</span> Mannigfual in, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a>, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Norvi</span> (n&ocirc;r&#8242;v&#275;). Father of Night, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>;
+ancestor of Norns, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Norway.</span> Odin conquers, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+Thor, god in, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>&#8211;62;
+kings of, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a>, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>;
+Maelstrom near, <a href="#pb130" class="pageref">130</a>;
+Freya in, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+Miners in, <a href="#pb245" class="pageref">245</a>;
+Haloge, King of, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a>;
+Sigurd Ring, King in, <a href="#pb308" class="pageref">308</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nott.</span> Goddess of night, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">November.</span> Sacred to Uller, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Nymphs.</span> Compared to elves, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e20834">
+<h3 id="xd0e20835" class="normal">O</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Oaths.</span> Sworn on Gungnir, <a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a>, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>;
+on swords, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>;
+by Frey, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>;
+on boar, <a href="#pb125" class="pageref">125</a>;
+by Uller, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>;
+by Leipter, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>;
+in favour of Balder, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Oberon</span> (&#333;&#8242;be-ron). Fairy king, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Oberwesel</span> (&#333;-ber-v&#257;&#8242;zel). Fisherman of, <a href="#pb195" class="pageref">195</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ocean.</span> Ymir&#8217;s blood, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Oceanides</span> (&#333;-s&#275;-an&#8242;i-d&#275;z). Compared to wave maidens, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Oceanus</span> (&#333;-se&#8242;a&#775;-nus). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Od-hroerir</span> (od-hr&#7869;&#8242;rir). Kettle of inspiration, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>;
+Odin in quest of, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>;
+compared to Helicon, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span> (&#333;&#8242;din). Birth of, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>;
+creates man, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+hall of, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>;
+goat of, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>;
+brother of, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>;
+general account of, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>&#8211;41;
+characteristics of, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>;
+mantle and spear of, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>, <a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a>;
+footstool of, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>;
+god of victory, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>;
+battle loved by, <a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a>;
+the Wild Huntsman, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>;
+leader of souls, <a href="#pb27" class="pageref">27</a>;
+constellation of, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>;
+one eye of, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>, <a href="#pb94" class="pageref">94</a>, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>;
+Geirod fostered by, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>;
+historical Odin, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>, <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb389" href="#pb389">389</a>]</span>349;
+serpents of, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>;
+statues of, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>;
+Frigga, wife of, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>;
+toast to, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>;
+return of, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>;
+Thor, son of, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>;
+present for, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>&#8211;67;
+Hrungnir races with, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>;
+Thrym-heim viewed by, <a href="#pb80" class="pageref">80</a>;
+Grid, wife of, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb158" class="pageref">158</a>;
+compared to Tyr, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>;
+spear of, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>;
+disposes of Loki&#8217;s progeny, <a href="#pb90" class="pageref">90</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>;
+discovers Od-hroerir, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>;
+Gunlod won by, <a href="#pb98" class="pageref">98</a>;
+runes of, <a href="#pb101" class="pageref">101</a>;
+visits earth, <a href="#pb104" class="pageref">104</a>;
+Loki joins, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>;
+Loki called to account by, <a href="#pb106" class="pageref">106</a>;
+gives Idun wolfskin, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>;
+sky is, <a href="#pb110" class="pageref">110</a>;
+Hoenir related to, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>;
+throne of, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>;
+Freya marries, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+Uller replaces, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>;
+drives Uller away, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>, <a href="#pb141" class="pageref">141</a>;
+wave maidens, wives of, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>;
+Heimdall as, <a href="#pb150" class="pageref">150</a>;
+Hermod, messenger of, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>;
+runic staff of, <a href="#pb155" class="pageref">155</a>;
+to lose son, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a>;
+prediction concerning, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>;
+Rinda courted by, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a>&#8211;165, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a>;
+visits Norns, <a href="#pb168" class="pageref">168</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>;
+Valkyrs attend, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>;
+decree concerning V&ouml;lund&#8217;s sword, <a href="#pb178" class="pageref">178</a>;
+Balder, son of, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>, <a href="#pb198" class="pageref">198</a>;
+Vala consulted by, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>&#8211;202;
+cheered by Frigga, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a>;
+lends Sleipnir, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>;
+whispers to Balder, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a>;
+Draupnir returned to, <a href="#pb211" class="pageref">211</a>;
+emblem of sky, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>;
+Loki, brother of, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>;
+trilogy, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>;
+helps peasants, <a href="#pb219" class="pageref">219</a>;
+Sleipnir, horse of, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a>;
+Loki surprised by, <a href="#pb226" class="pageref">226</a>;
+visits giants, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a>;
+Sigi, son of, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>;
+gives sword to Sigmund, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a>, <a href="#pb261" class="pageref">261</a>;
+Helgi approved by, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>;
+receives Sinfiotli, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>;
+Sigurd advised by, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>, <a href="#pb275" class="pageref">275</a>;
+visits Hreidmar, <a href="#pb271" class="pageref">271</a>;
+Brunhild punished by, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>;
+downfall of, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>;
+comparisons between Greek divinities and, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Odens&ouml;</span> (&#333;&#8242;den-s&#275;). Founded by Odin, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Odur</span> (&#333;&#8242;dur). Freya&#8217;s husband, <a href="#pb132" class="pageref">132</a>;
+Freya finds, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>;
+Freya&#8217;s search for, <a href="#pb132" class="pageref">132</a>, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>;
+sunshine is, <a href="#pb134" class="pageref">134</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+equivalents, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">&#338;none</span> (&#275;-n&#333;&#8242;n&#275;). Compared to Brunhild, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">&#338;ta</span> (&#275;&#8242;ta&#775;). Northern equivalent for pyre on, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Okolnur</span> (o-kol&#8242;nur). Giants dwell in, <a href="#pb340" class="pageref">340</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Olaf</span> (&#333;&#8242;l&auml;f). Destroys statues, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>, <a href="#pb84" class="pageref">84</a>, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>;
+Yule changed by, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>;
+Nornagesta visits, <a href="#pb170" class="pageref">170</a>, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>;
+giants in days of, <a href="#pb233" class="pageref">233</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Olaf, Sir.</span> Captured by fairies, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Old Nick.</span> Origin of name, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Oldenburg.</span> Drinking horn, <a href="#pb235" class="pageref">235</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Oller.</span> Same as Uller, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Olrun</span> (ol&#8242;ro&#862;on). Marries mortal, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Olympus</span> (o-lim&#8242;pus). Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Omens.</span> Wolves are good, <a href="#pb17" class="pageref">17</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Omphale</span> (om&#8242;fa-l&#275;). Northern equivalent for, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Oreades</span> (o-r&#275;&#8242;a-d&#275;z). Compared to Northern divinities, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Orgelmir</span> (&ocirc;r-gel&#8242;mir). Ice and fire giant, <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Orion</span> (o-r&#299;&#8242;on). Northern equivalents for, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Orkney Islands.</span> Conquered by Thorsten, &amp;c., <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>;
+visited by Frithiof, <a href="#pb312" class="pageref">312</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Orlog</span> (&ocirc;r&#8242;log). Irrevocable decrees of, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a>, <a href="#pb202" class="pageref">202</a>;
+equivalent, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ormt.</span> Thor wades across, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Orpheus</span> (&ocirc;r&#8242;fy&#363;s). Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Orvandil</span> (&ocirc;r-van&#8242;dil). Thor brings home, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>;
+equivalent, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ostara</span> (os&#8242;t&auml;-ra&#775;). E&aacute;stre, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ottar.</span> Freya helps, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Otter.</span> Slain by Loki, <a href="#pb271" class="pageref">271</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Oxford.</span> Yule at, <a href="#pb125" class="pageref">125</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e21485">
+<h3 id="xd0e21486" class="normal">P</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Paderborn</span> (p&auml;&#8242;der-born). Irminsul near, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Paris.</span> Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Peace Frodi.</span> Story of, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb390" href="#pb390">390</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Peace Steads.</span> Of the gods, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>, <a href="#pb204" class="pageref">204</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Pegasus</span> (peg&#8242;a&#775;-sus). Blodug-hofi compared to, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Pelias</span> (p&#275;&#8242;li-as). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Peneus</span> (pe-n&#275;&#8242;us). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Pentecost.</span> Princess Ilse appeared at, <a href="#pb237" class="pageref">237</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Pentland Firth.</span> Whirlpool in, <a href="#pb130" class="pageref">130</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Perseus</span> (per&#8242;s&#363;s). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Phaetusa</span> (f&#257;-t&#363;&#8242;sa). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Phaeton</span> (f&#257;&#8242;ton). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Philemon</span> (fi-l&#275;&#8242;mon). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Philoctetes</span> (fil-ok-t&#275;&#8242;t&#275;z). Northern equivalent for arrows of, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ph&#339;be</span> (f&#275;&#8242;be). Equivalent, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ph&#339;bus</span> (f&#275;&#8242;bus). Equivalent, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ph&#339;nician</span> (f&#275;-nish&#8242;ian). Dwarfs compared to miners, <a href="#pb245" class="pageref">245</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Pied Piper.</span> Story of, <a href="#pb27" class="pageref">27</a>, <a href="#pb28" class="pageref">28</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Pluto</span> (pl&#363;&#8242;t&#333;). Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Pollux</span> (pol&#8242;uks). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb365" class="pageref">365</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Priam</span> (pr&#299;&#8242;am). Compared to Odin, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Procris</span> (pr&#333;&#8242;kris). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Prometheus</span> (pr&#333;-m&#275;&#8242;thy&#363;s). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Proserpine</span> (pros&#8242;er-p&#275;n). Northern equivalents for, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Proteus</span> (pr&#333;&#8242;ty&#363;s). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Psychopompus</span> (s&#299;-ko-p&#335;m&#8242;pus). Compared to Odin, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Pucks.</span> Same as dwarfs, <a href="#pb239" class="pageref">239</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Pyrrha</span> (pir&#8242;a&#775;). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Pyrrhus</span> (pir&#8242;us). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Python</span> (p&#299;&#8242;thon). Compared to Fafnir, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e21729">
+<h3 id="xd0e21730" class="normal">Q</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Quickborn.</span> Magic fountain of, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e21739">
+<h3 id="xd0e21740" class="normal">R</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Raging Host.</span> Same as Wild Hunt, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ragnar Lodbrog</span> (ra&#775;g&#8242;nar l&#335;d&#8242;brog). Aslaug marries, <a href="#pb281" class="pageref">281</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ragnarok</span> (ra&#775;g&#8242;na&#775;-rok). Heimdall to announce, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+murder, precursor of, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a>;
+recruits for battle at, <a href="#pb265" class="pageref">265</a>;
+the tragedy of, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a>, <a href="#pb337" class="pageref">337</a>;
+comparisons, <a href="#pb341" class="pageref">341</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>;
+Fenris dies at, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ran.</span> Wife of &AElig;gir, <a href="#pb186" class="pageref">186</a>, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>;
+sister of Loki, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>;
+Loki makes a net like, <a href="#pb226" class="pageref">226</a>;
+Loki borrows net of, <a href="#pb272" class="pageref">272</a>;
+compared to Amphitrite, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>;
+Frithiof provides tribute for, <a href="#pb313" class="pageref">313</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Randwer</span> (ra&#775;nd&#8242;ver). The death of, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Rat Tower.</span> In the Rhine, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ratatosk</span> (r&auml;&#8242;ta&#775;-tosk). Squirrel, telltale, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>;
+equivalent, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Rati</span> (r&auml;&#8242;t&#275;). Odin&#8217;s auger, <a href="#pb98" class="pageref">98</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Regin</span> (r&#257;&#8242;gin). Sigurd educated by, <a href="#pb269" class="pageref">269</a>;
+the story of, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>&#8211;274;
+sword forged by, <a href="#pb274" class="pageref">274</a>;
+Sigurd to slay Fafnir for, <a href="#pb275" class="pageref">275</a>;
+demands satisfaction, <a href="#pb276" class="pageref">276</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb277" class="pageref">277</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Reine P&eacute;dauque</span> (r&#257;n-p&#257;-d&#333;k&#8242;). Frigga same as, <a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Renown.</span> Compared to Heimdall, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Rerir</span> (r&#257;&#8242;rir). Son of Odin, receives apple, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>, <a href="#pb252" class="pageref">252</a>;
+Greek equivalent for story of, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Resurrection.</span> Word whispered by Odin, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a>, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Rhine.</span> Tower in the, <a href="#pb29" class="pageref">29</a>;
+gold of the, <a href="#pb177" class="pageref">177</a>, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>;
+divinity of the, <a href="#pb195" class="pageref">195</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>;
+Lorelei in the, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>&#8211;196;
+Brunhild and Gudrun bathe in the, <a href="#pb286" class="pageref">286</a>;
+hoard sunk in the, <a href="#pb292" class="pageref">292</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Riesengebirge</span> (r&#275;&#8242;zen-ge-b&#275;r-ge). Giant mountains, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb391" href="#pb391">391</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Riger</span> (r&#275;&#8242;ger). Heimdall visits earth as, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Rinda</span> (rin&#8242;da&#775;). Wife of Odin, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a>;
+prophecy concerning, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a>, <a href="#pb201" class="pageref">201</a>;
+Odin courts, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a>, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ring.</span> Viking&#8217;s son, <a href="#pb300" class="pageref">300</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ringric</span> (ring&#8242;-ric). Sigurd Ring, king of, <a href="#pb308" class="pageref">308</a>;
+Frithiof in, <a href="#pb325" class="pageref">325</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ringhorn.</span> Balder&#8217;s pyre on, <a href="#pb206" class="pageref">206</a>, <a href="#pb207" class="pageref">207</a>;
+Greek equivalent, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Rodenstein</span> (r&#333;&#8242;den-st&#299;n). Wild Hunt led by, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Romans.</span> &AElig;sir driven from Asia Minor by, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+Vitellius, prefect, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>;
+Christianity, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Rome.</span> Tannh&auml;user visits, <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a>;
+Vitellius, emperor of, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Roskva</span> (ros&#8242;kva&#775;). Thor&#8217;s servant, <a href="#pb69" class="pageref">69</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Rossthiof</span> (ros&#8242;thy&#7869;f). The prophecy of, <a href="#pb155" class="pageref">155</a>, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a>, <a href="#pb157" class="pageref">157</a>, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a>, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>, <a href="#pb201" class="pageref">201</a>;
+compared, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Rosterus</span> (ros&#8242;ter-us). Odin as smith, <a href="#pb163" class="pageref">163</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">R&uuml;gen</span> (r&#275;&#8242;gen). Nerthus&#8217;s worship on island of, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Runes</span> (ro&#862;onz). Odin masters and uses, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a>, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>, <a href="#pb197" class="pageref">197</a>, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Russia.</span> &AElig;sir migrate to, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+name for, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ruthenes</span> (ru-th&#275;&#8242;nez). Odin visits the land of the, <a href="#pb156" class="pageref">156</a>, <a href="#pb162" class="pageref">162</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e22121">
+<h3 id="xd0e22122" class="normal">S</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">S&aelig;hrimnir</span> (s&#257;&#8242;hrim-nir). Boar in Valhalla, <a href="#pb20" class="pageref">20</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">S&aelig;ming</span> (s&#257;&#8242;ming). King of Norway, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">S&aelig;mund</span> (s&#257;&#8242;mund). Compiler of Elder Edda, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Saga</span> (s&#257;&#8242;ga&#775;). 1. Wife of Odin, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>.
+2. Records called, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>, <a href="#pb339" class="pageref">339</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sagittarius</span> (sag-it-t&auml;&#8242;ri-us). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">St. Gertrude.</span> Belief in, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">St. Goar.</span> Lorelei at, <a href="#pb195" class="pageref">195</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">St. Hubert.</span> Uller is, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">St. John&#8217;s Day.</span> Celebrations, <a href="#pb215" class="pageref">215</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">St. Michael.</span> Bears Cheru&#8217;s sword, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">St. Valentine.</span> Replaces Vali, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sarpedon</span> (s&auml;r-p&#275;&#8242;don). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sataere</span> (s&#259;t&#8242;&#257;-re). God of agriculture, <a href="#pb229" class="pageref">229</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Satan.</span> Same as Loki, <a href="#pb229" class="pageref">229</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Saturday.</span> Sacred to Loki, <a href="#pb229" class="pageref">229</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Saturn.</span> Equivalent, <a href="#pb229" class="pageref">229</a>, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Saxnot.</span> God of Saxons, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>;
+Frey like, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Saxon.</span> Irmin, a god, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>;
+Hengist and Horsa, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>;
+E&aacute;stre, goddess, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Saxony.</span> Conquered by Odin, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Scalds.</span> Edda the work of, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Scandinavia.</span> Worship in, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>, <a href="#pb112" class="pageref">112</a>, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>;
+fairies in, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Scandinavians.</span> Belief of the, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>, <a href="#pb158" class="pageref">158</a>, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>, <a href="#pb233" class="pageref">233</a>;
+epic of the, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>;
+ideas of the origin of physical features of the, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Schwartze See</span> (shv&auml;rt&#8242;se-s&#257;). <span class="corr" id="xd0e22342" title="Source: Nerthus s">Nerthus&#8217;s</span> car bathed in the, <a href="#pb58" class="pageref">58</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Scourge of God.</span> Attila the, <a href="#pb88" class="pageref">88</a>, <a href="#pb297" class="pageref">297</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Scylla</span> (sil&#8242;la&#775;). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Seasons.</span> The division of the, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Seeland</span> (z&#257;&#8242;land). Gefjon ploughs, <a href="#pb49" class="pageref">49</a>, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Senjemand</span> (sen&#8242;ye-m&auml;nd). Story of giant, <a href="#pb233" class="pageref">233</a>, <a href="#pb234" class="pageref">234</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Senjen</span> (sen&#8242;yen). Island of, <a href="#pb233" class="pageref">233</a>, <a href="#pb234" class="pageref">234</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sessrymnir</span> (ses&#8242;rim-nir). Freya&#8217;s home is, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Shakespeare.</span> Norns introduced by, <a href="#pb170" class="pageref">170</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sibich</span> (s&#275;&#8242;bik). The traitor, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>
+
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;<span class="smallcaps">Siegfried</span>&#8221; (s&#275;g&#8242;fr&#275;d). Wagner&#8217;s opera of, <a href="#pb289" class="pageref">289</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sif.</span> Wife of Thor, <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a>; hair
+stolen, <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a>&#8211;67, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>;
+Uller, son of, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>;
+Loki slanders, <a href="#pb225" class="pageref">225</a>;
+dwarfs make hair for, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>;
+comparisons, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb392" href="#pb392">392</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Siggeir</span> (sig&#8242;g&#299;r). Marriage feast of, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a>&#8211;255;
+treachery and death of, <a href="#pb255" class="pageref">255</a>, <a href="#pb256" class="pageref">256</a>, <a href="#pb262" class="pageref">262</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sigi</span> (sig&#8242;&#275;). Son of Odin, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>;
+comparison, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sigmund</span> (sig&#8242;mund). V&ouml;lund&#8217;s sword for, <a href="#pb178" class="pageref">178</a>;
+brother of Signy, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a>;
+sword won by, <a href="#pb254" class="pageref">254</a>;
+a prisoner, <a href="#pb257" class="pageref">257</a>;
+the vow of, <a href="#pb257" class="pageref">257</a>;
+tests Signy&#8217;s sons, <a href="#pb258" class="pageref">258</a>;
+a werewolf, <a href="#pb260" class="pageref">260</a>;
+prisoner of Siggeir, <a href="#pb261" class="pageref">261</a>;
+escape and vengeance of, <a href="#pb262" class="pageref">262</a>;
+the son of, <a href="#pb265" class="pageref">265</a>;
+Hiordis, wife of, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>;
+Sigurd, son of, <a href="#pb269" class="pageref">269</a>;
+the sword of, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>, <a href="#pb267" class="pageref">267</a>;
+comparisons, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Signy</span> (sig&#8242;ni). Volsung&#8217;s daughter, <a href="#pb253" class="pageref">253</a>&#8211;259;
+vengeance of, <a href="#pb258" class="pageref">258</a>&#8211;262
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sigtuna</span> (sig-to&#862;o&#8242;na&#775;). Odin founds, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sigurd</span> (s&#275;&#8242;go&#862;ord). Brunhild to marry, <a href="#pb179" class="pageref">179</a>;
+story of, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>;
+birth of, <a href="#pb268" class="pageref">268</a>;
+Grane selected by, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>;
+Regin speaks to, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>;
+sword of, <a href="#pb274" class="pageref">274</a>;
+slays Fafnir, <a href="#pb275" class="pageref">275</a>;
+rides through flames, <a href="#pb278" class="pageref">278</a>;
+betrothal of, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>;
+marriage of, <a href="#pb281" class="pageref">281</a>;
+Gudrun gives potion to, <a href="#pb282" class="pageref">282</a>;
+Gudrun, wife of, <a href="#pb283" class="pageref">283</a>;
+woos Brunhild for Gunnar, <a href="#pb284" class="pageref">284</a>;
+awakening of, <a href="#pb286" class="pageref">286</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb288" class="pageref">288</a>&#8211;290;
+funeral pyre of, <a href="#pb289" class="pageref">289</a>;
+Gudrun mourns, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>;
+Atli slain with sword of, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>;
+a sun myth, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sigyn</span> (s&#275;&#8242;g&#275;n). Loki&#8217;s faithful wife, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>, <a href="#pb227" class="pageref">227</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sindri</span> (sin&#8242;dr&#275;). Dwarf, smith, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb66" class="pageref">66</a>;
+king of dwarfs, <a href="#pb340" class="pageref">340</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sindur</span> (sin&#8242;do&#862;or). A wave maiden, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sinfiotli</span> (sin-fy&#7869;-ot&#8242;li). Birth and education of, <a href="#pb259" class="pageref">259</a>;
+Signy aids, <a href="#pb261" class="pageref">261</a>;
+vengeance of, <a href="#pb262" class="pageref">262</a>;
+career and death of, <a href="#pb265" class="pageref">265</a>, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sir Olaf.</span> Fairies beguile, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sirens</span> (s&#299;&#8242;rens). Compared to Lorelei, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sirius</span> (sir&#8242;i-us). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Skadi</span> (sk&auml;&#8242;d&#275;). Wife of Odin, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+in Asgard, <a href="#pb113" class="pageref">113</a>, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a>;
+wife of Ni&ouml;rd, <a href="#pb114" class="pageref">114</a>, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>;
+wife of Uller, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>;
+punishes Loki, <a href="#pb227" class="pageref">227</a>;
+comparison, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Skialf</span> (skya&#775;lf). Same as Freya, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Skidbladnir</span> (skid-bl&auml;d&#8242;nir). Dvalin makes, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>;
+properties of, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>;
+Frey owns, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a>;
+comparison, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Skin-faxi.</span> Steed of Day, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Skiold</span> (sk&#333;ld). King of Denmark, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Skioldings</span> (sk&#333;ld&#8242;ings). Descendants of, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Skirnir</span> (sk&#275;r&#8242;nir). Servant of Frey, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>&#8211;121;
+journey of, <a href="#pb120" class="pageref">120</a>&#8211;121, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sk&ouml;ll</span> (sk&#7869;l). Wolf pursuing sun and moon, <a href="#pb8" class="pageref">8</a>, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Skrymir</span> (skrim&#8242;ir). Thor&#8217;s encounter with, <a href="#pb70" class="pageref">70</a>, <a href="#pb72" class="pageref">72</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Skrymsli</span> (skrims&#8242;l&#275;). The story of giant, <a href="#pb219" class="pageref">219</a>&#8211;221
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Skuld</span> (sko&#862;old). One of the Norns called, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a>, <a href="#pb169" class="pageref">169</a>, <a href="#pb172" class="pageref">172</a>, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Slagfinn.</span> Marries a Valkyr, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sleeping Beauty.</span> Origin of myth, <a href="#pb170" class="pageref">170</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sleipnir</span> (sl&#299;p&#8242;nir). Odin&#8217;s steed, <a href="#pb22" class="pageref">22</a>, <a href="#pb34" class="pageref">34</a>, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>, <a href="#pb205" class="pageref">205</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>;
+Hermod rides, <a href="#pb155" class="pageref">155</a>, <a href="#pb181" class="pageref">181</a>, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>, <a href="#pb210" class="pageref">210</a>;
+Loki, parent of, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>;
+Grane, son of, <a href="#pb270" class="pageref">270</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Slid</span> (sl&#275;d). Stream in Nifl-heim, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Snor.</span> Wife of Karl, <a href="#pb152" class="pageref">152</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Snorro-Sturleson</span> (snor&#8242;r&#333;-sto&#862;or&#8242;-l&#257;-sun). Author of &#8220;Heimskringla,&#8221; <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Snotra</span> (sn&#333;&#8242;tra&#775;). Goddess of virtue, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sogn.</span> Jokul, king of, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>;
+kings of, <a href="#pb309" class="pageref">309</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sokvabek</span> (so-kv&auml;&#8242;bek). Home of Saga, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>;
+comparison of, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sol.</span> The sun maid, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>, <a href="#pb337" class="pageref">337</a>;
+compared, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Somnus.</span> Northern equivalent for servants of, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Son</span> (s&#335;n). Bowl of expiation, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">S&ouml;rli</span> (s&#7869;r&#8242;li). Son of Gudrun, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>;
+compared, <a href="#pb365" class="pageref">365</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb393" href="#pb393">393</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sot&eacute;</span> (so&#8242;t&#257;). A famous pirate, steals ring forged by V&ouml;lund, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Spartan King.</span> Equivalent, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Steropes</span> (ster&#8242;o-p&#275;z). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Straw Death.</span> Northern contempt for, <a href="#pb182" class="pageref">182</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Stromkarls.</span> Water divinities, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Suabians</span> (sw&#257;&#8242;be-a&#775;nz). Tyr, a god of the, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sudri</span> (s&#363;&#8242;dr&#275;). Supports heavenly vault, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Surtr</span> (so&#862;ortr). Flame giant, <a href="#pb2" class="pageref">2</a>;
+progeny, <a href="#pb7" class="pageref">7</a>;
+world destroyed by, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+arrival of, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>;
+Frey slain by, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>;
+world consumed by, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Suttung</span> (sut-to&#862;ong). The story of giant, <a href="#pb96" class="pageref">96</a>, <a href="#pb97" class="pageref">97</a>, <a href="#pb99" class="pageref">99</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Svadilfare</span> (sv&auml;&#8242;dil-f&auml;r-e). Horse of architect, <a href="#pb221" class="pageref">221</a>, <a href="#pb222" class="pageref">222</a>, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Svalin</span> (sv&auml;&#8242;lin). Shield which protected sun chariot, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Svanhvit</span> (svon&#8242;whit). Marries mortal, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Svart-alfa-heim</span> (sv&auml;rt-alf&#8242;a-h&#299;m). Home of dwarfs, <a href="#pb10" class="pageref">10</a>, <a href="#pb65" class="pageref">65</a>, <a href="#pb92" class="pageref">92</a>, <a href="#pb118" class="pageref">118</a>, <a href="#pb134" class="pageref">134</a>, <a href="#pb245" class="pageref">245</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Svart-alfar</span> (sv&auml;rt-alf&#8242;ar), <a href="#pb239" class="pageref">239</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Svasud</span> (sv&auml;&#8242;zood). Father of Summer, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Swanhild</span> (swon&#8242;hild). Daughter of Gudrun, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>, <a href="#pb295" class="pageref">295</a>;
+compared, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sweden.</span> May-day in, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>;
+Odin conquers, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+Gylfi, king of, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>;
+Thor in, <a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>;
+Frey, king of, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>;
+Frodi visits, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>;
+Freya in, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+Nidud, king of, <a href="#pb177" class="pageref">177</a>;
+miners in, <a href="#pb245" class="pageref">245</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Switzerland.</span> Giants in, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Sword Dances</span>, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>, <a href="#pb86" class="pageref">86</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Syn</span> (s&#275;n). Goddess of truth, <a href="#pb49" class="pageref">49</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Syr</span> (s&#275;r). Same as Freya, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e23239">
+<h3 id="xd0e23240" class="normal">T</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tanngniostr</span> (t&auml;ng&#8242;nyos-ter). Thor&#8217;s goat, <a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tanngrisnr</span> (t&#257;n&#8242;gris-ner). Thor&#8217;s goat, <a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tannh&auml;user</span> (t&auml;n&#8242;hoi-zer). Story of, <a href="#pb53" class="pageref">53</a>, <a href="#pb54" class="pageref">54</a>;
+equivalent for, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tarnkappe</span> (t&auml;rn&#8242;kap-pa). Invisible cap, <a href="#pb240" class="pageref">240</a>, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tartarus</span> (t&auml;r&#8242;tar-us). Northern equivalents, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Telemachus</span> (te-lem&#8242;a-kus). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Teuton</span> (ti&#363;&#8242;ton). Ostara, a goddess, <a href="#pb55" class="pageref">55</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Teutons</span> (ti&#363;&#8242;tons). Belief in Lorelei, <a href="#pb196" class="pageref">196</a>;
+superstition of regarding fairies, <a href="#pb246" class="pageref">246</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Teutonic Gods</span>, <a href="#pb229" class="pageref">229</a>, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thanatos</span> (than&#8242;a-tos). Same as Hel, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Theseus</span> (th&#275;&#8242;sy&#363;s). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>, <a href="#pb365" class="pageref">365</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thetis</span> (the&#8242;tis). Northern equivalent for, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thialfi</span> (the-&auml;lf&#8242;e). Servant of Thor, <a href="#pb69" class="pageref">69</a>, <a href="#pb70" class="pageref">70</a>, <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a>, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>;
+duel of, <a href="#pb74" class="pageref">74</a>, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>;
+Egil&#8217;s son, <a href="#pb189" class="pageref">189</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thiassi</span> (the-&auml;s&#8242;se). Loki&#8217;s adventure with, <a href="#pb104" class="pageref">104</a>;
+Idun kidnapped, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb106" class="pageref">106</a>, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a>, <a href="#pb108" class="pageref">108</a>, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>;
+Loki pursued by, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a>;
+Gerda, relative of, <a href="#pb119" class="pageref">119</a>;
+the eyes of, <a href="#pb108" class="pageref">108</a>, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thing</span> (thing). Northern popular assembly, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb136" class="pageref">136</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>, <a href="#pb305" class="pageref">305</a>, <a href="#pb324" class="pageref">324</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thok</span> (thok). Loki as, <a href="#pb212" class="pageref">212</a>, <a href="#pb214" class="pageref">214</a>, <a href="#pb224" class="pageref">224</a>;
+comparison, <a href="#pb360" class="pageref">360</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span> (th&ocirc;r). Never crosses Bifr&#333;st, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+J&ouml;rd, mother of, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>;
+toast to, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>;
+god of thunder, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>&#8211;84;
+infancy of, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>;
+anger of, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>, <a href="#pb64" class="pageref">64</a>;
+description of, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>;
+hat of, <a href="#pb62" class="pageref">62</a>;
+Alvis petrified by, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>;
+Mi&#333;lnir given to, <a href="#pb67" class="pageref">67</a>;
+drinking wager of, <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a>;
+duel with Hrungnir, <a href="#pb75" class="pageref">75</a>;
+adventure with Geirrod, <a href="#pb82" class="pageref">82</a>;
+temples and statues of, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>;
+Tyr like, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>;
+giants hated by, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a>;
+Yule sacred to, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>;
+Brisinga-men worn by, <a href="#pb135" class="pageref">135</a>;
+Uller, step-son of, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>;
+Grid&#8217;s gauntlet helps, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>;
+kettle secured by, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>;
+goes fishing, <a href="#pb190" class="pageref">190</a>, <a href="#pb191" class="pageref">191</a>, <a href="#pb192" class="pageref">192</a>;
+consecrates Balder&#8217;s pyre, <a href="#pb208" class="pageref">208</a>;
+visits Utgard-loki, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>;
+slays architect, <a href="#pb223" class="pageref">223</a>;
+threatens Loki, <a href="#pb226" class="pageref">226</a>;
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb394" href="#pb394">394</a>]</span>slays Midgard snake, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>;
+sons of, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>;
+Greek equivalents, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thora</span> (th&#333;&#8242;r&auml;). Wife of Elf, daughter of Hakon, <a href="#pb290" class="pageref">290</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thorburn.</span> Origin of name, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thorer</span> (th&#333;&#8242;rer). Viking&#8217;s son, banished, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thorn of Sleep.</span> Brunhild stung by, <a href="#pb280" class="pageref">280</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thorsten</span> (Thor&#8242;sten). 1. Saga, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a>.
+2. Son of Viking, receives Angurvadel, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>;
+shipwrecks of, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>;
+marriage and conquests of, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>;
+at Framn&auml;s, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>;
+father of Frithiof, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>;
+last interview with Bel&eacute;, <a href="#pb305" class="pageref">305</a>;
+death and burial of, <a href="#pb306" class="pageref">306</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thorwaldsen</span> (th&ocirc;r&#8242;v&auml;ld-sn). Origin of name, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thrall.</span> Birth of, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thridi</span> (thr&#275;&#8242;d&#275;). One of the trilogy, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Throndhjeim</span> (thr&#333;nd&#8242;yem). Temple of Frey at, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thrud</span> (thro&#862;od). Thor&#8217;s daughter, <a href="#pb63" class="pageref">63</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thrudgelmir</span> (thro&#862;od-gel&#8242;mir). Birth of giant, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thrud-heim</span> (thro&#862;od&#8242;h&#299;m). Thor&#8217;s realm, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thrud-vang</span> (thro&#862;od&#8242;-v&auml;ng). Same as Thrud-heim, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>, <a href="#pb76" class="pageref">76</a>, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thrung</span> (thro&#862;ong). Freya, <a href="#pb133" class="pageref">133</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thrym</span> (thrim). Thor visits, <a href="#pb77" class="pageref">77</a>, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>, <a href="#pb351" class="pageref">351</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>;
+Freya refuses, <a href="#pb78" class="pageref">78</a>, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>;
+son of Kari, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thrym-heim</span> (thrim&#8242;h&#299;m). Home of Thiassi, <a href="#pb105" class="pageref">105</a>;
+Loki visits, <a href="#pb107" class="pageref">107</a>;
+home of Skadi, <a href="#pb114" class="pageref">114</a>, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thunderer.</span> Same as Odin, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thunderhill.</span> Named after Thor, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thuringia</span> (th&#363;-rin&#8242;ji-a&#775;). H&ouml;rselberg in, <a href="#pb53" class="pageref">53</a>;
+giants in, <a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thursday.</span> Sacred to Thor, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thurses</span> (tho&#862;ors&#8242;ez). Giants called, <a href="#pb230" class="pageref">230</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thvera</span> (thv&#257;&#8242;r&auml;). Temple of Frey at, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thviti</span> (thv&#275;&#8242;ti). Boulder where Fenris is bound, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Thyr</span> (thir or th&#275;r). Wife of Thrall, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Titania</span> (tit-&#257;&#8242;nia). Queen of fairies, <a href="#pb248" class="pageref">248</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Titans</span> (t&#299;&#8242;tans). Northern equivalents for, <a href="#pb343" class="pageref">343</a>, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tityus</span> (tit&#8242;i-us). Northern equivalent, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tiu</span> (ty&#363;). Same as Tyr, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Toasts.</span> To Odin, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>;
+to Frigga, <a href="#pb42" class="pageref">42</a>;
+to Bragi, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>;
+to Ni&ouml;rd and Frey, <a href="#pb116" class="pageref">116</a>;
+to Freya, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Torge</span> (t&ocirc;r&#8242;ge). Story of giant, <a href="#pb233" class="pageref">233</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Torghatten</span> (torg-hat&#8242;ten). Mountain, <a href="#pb234" class="pageref">234</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tree Maidens.</span> Elves same as, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Trent.</span> Superstition along the, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Trolls.</span> Dwarfs known as, <a href="#pb11" class="pageref">11</a>, <a href="#pb234" class="pageref">234</a>, <a href="#pb239" class="pageref">239</a>, <a href="#pb241" class="pageref">241</a>, <a href="#pb362" class="pageref">362</a>;
+Peaks of, <a href="#pb244" class="pageref">244</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Troy.</span> Northern equivalent for, siege of, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">T&uuml;bingen</span> (t&#275;&#8242;bing-en). Worship of Tyr in, <a href="#pb94" class="pageref">94</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tuesday.</span> Tyr&#8217;s day, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Twelfth-Night.</span> Wild Hunt at, <a href="#pb25" class="pageref">25</a>; festival, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Twilight of the Gods</span>, <a href="#pb178" class="pageref">178</a>, <a href="#pb265" class="pageref">265</a>, <a href="#pb330" class="pageref">330</a>, <a href="#pb340" class="pageref">340</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tyr</span> (t&#275;r). Son of Frigga, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>;
+god of war, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>&#8211;94;
+one arm, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>;
+feeds Fenris, <a href="#pb91" class="pageref">91</a>;
+like Frey, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>;
+like Irmin, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>;
+chains Fenris, <a href="#pb93" class="pageref">93</a>, <a href="#pb180" class="pageref">180</a>;
+accompanies Thor, <a href="#pb188" class="pageref">188</a>&#8211;192;
+fights Garm, <a href="#pb335" class="pageref">335</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tyrfing</span> (t&#275;r&#8242;fing). Magic sword, <a href="#pb242" class="pageref">242</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tyrol</span> (t&#275;&#8242;rol). Story of flax in, <a href="#pb51" class="pageref">51</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Tyr&#8217;s Helm.</span> Aconite called, <a href="#pb94" class="pageref">94</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e24024">
+<h3 id="xd0e24025" class="normal">U</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ulfrun</span> (o&#861;ol&#8242;froon). A wave maiden, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Uller</span> (o&#861;ol&#8242;er). Skadi marries, <a href="#pb115" class="pageref">115</a>;
+winter-god, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>&#8211;141;
+equivalents, <a href="#pb356" class="pageref">356</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ulysses</span> (&#363;-lis&#8242;sez). Compared to Tannh&auml;user, <a href="#pb350" class="pageref">350</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Undines</span> (un&#8242;d&#275;nz). Female water divinities, <a href="#pb193" class="pageref">193</a>, <a href="#pb194" class="pageref">194</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Uplands.</span> Njorfe, king of, <a href="#pb300" class="pageref">300</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb395" href="#pb395">395</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Upsala</span> (up-s&auml;&#8242;la&#775;). Temple at, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>;
+Ingvi-Frey at, <a href="#pb123" class="pageref">123</a>;
+mound at, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Urd</span> (o&#861;ord). One of the Norns, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Urdar</span> (o&#861;ord&#8242;ar). Fountain, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>, <a href="#pb168" class="pageref">168</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Utgard</span> (o&#862;ot&#8242;gard). Realm of, <a href="#pb70" class="pageref">70</a>, <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Utgard-loki.</span> Castle of, <a href="#pb70" class="pageref">70</a>, <a href="#pb71" class="pageref">71</a>, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>;
+evil, <a href="#pb216" class="pageref">216</a>;
+Thor visits, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e24158">
+<h3 id="xd0e24159" class="normal">V</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vafthrudnir</span> (v&#257;f-thro&#862;od&#8242;nir). Odin&#8217;s visit to, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, <a href="#pb231" class="pageref">231</a>, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>;
+fulfilment of prediction, <a href="#pb332" class="pageref">332</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vak</span> (v&auml;k). Odin as, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vala</span> (v&auml;&#8242;la&#775;). Norns called, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>;
+Odin consults, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>;
+grave of, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Valaskialf</span> (v&auml;&#8242;la-skya&#775;lf). Hall in Asgard, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>;
+Vali in, <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Valentine.</span> Vali as St., <a href="#pb165" class="pageref">165</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Valfather.</span> Same as Odin, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Valfreya</span> (val-fr&#299;&#8242;a). Same as Freya, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Valhalla</span> (v&auml;l-h&auml;l&#8242;l&aacute;). Description of, <a href="#pb18" class="pageref">18</a>&#8211;21;
+masters of, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>;
+Hrungnir enters, <a href="#pb73" class="pageref">73</a>;
+Tyr welcomed to, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>;
+Tyr&#8217;s warriors in, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>;
+Bragi, bard of, <a href="#pb101" class="pageref">101</a>;
+heroes in, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, <a href="#pb151" class="pageref">151</a>, <a href="#pb155" class="pageref">155</a>, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>;
+Vidar visits, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>;
+Valkyrs choose guests for, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>;
+Ran&#8217;s hall rivals, <a href="#pb186" class="pageref">186</a>;
+mistletoe near, <a href="#pb199" class="pageref">199</a>, <a href="#pb203" class="pageref">203</a>;
+Helgi promised, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>;
+Gudrun returns to, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>;
+Fialar above, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>;
+host of, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vali</span> (v&auml;&#8242;l&#275;). Emblem of spring, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>.
+1. The avenger, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>&#8211;165, <a href="#pb201" class="pageref">201</a>;
+slays Hodur, <a href="#pb213" class="pageref">213</a>;
+survival of, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>.
+2. Son of Loki, <a href="#pb218" class="pageref">218</a>, <a href="#pb227" class="pageref">227</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Valkyrs</span> (val&#8242;k&#275;rz). Attendants of Odin, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>;
+of the heroes, <a href="#pb19" class="pageref">19</a>, <a href="#pb21" class="pageref">21</a>;
+of Tyr, <a href="#pb89" class="pageref">89</a>;
+led by Freya, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>;
+accompany Hermod, <a href="#pb154" class="pageref">154</a>;
+Skuld a, <a href="#pb172" class="pageref">172</a>;
+general account of, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>&#8211;179;
+Helgi marries a, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>;
+Gudrun a, <a href="#pb264" class="pageref">264</a>;
+Brunhild a, <a href="#pb173" class="pageref">173</a>;
+Freya a, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>;
+Hebe compared to the, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Valpurgisnacht</span> (v&auml;l-po&#862;or&#8242;gis-n&auml;kt). Witches&#8217; dance on, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a> I
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Valtam</span> (v&auml;l&#8242;tam). Vegtam, son of, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Van.</span> Ni&ouml;rd a, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>, <a href="#pb354" class="pageref">354</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vana-heim</span> (v&auml;na&#8242;h&#299;m). Home of the Vanas, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>, <a href="#pb117" class="pageref">117</a>, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vanabride</span> (v&auml;na-br&#275;&#8242;da&#775;). Freya, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vanadis</span> (va&#775;n&#8242;a&#775;-dis). Freya, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vanas.</span> Sea and wind gods, <a href="#pb15" class="pageref">15</a>, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>, <a href="#pb131" class="pageref">131</a>, <a href="#pb148" class="pageref">148</a>, <a href="#pb185" class="pageref">185</a>;
+quarrel between the &AElig;sir and the, <a href="#pb95" class="pageref">95</a>, <a href="#pb111" class="pageref">111</a>;
+comparisons, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vandals.</span> Story of Winilers and, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vara</span> (v&auml;&#8242;ra&#775;). Oath keeper, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vasud</span> (v&auml;&#8242;so&#862;od). Father of Vindsual, <a href="#pb10" class="pageref">10</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ve</span> (v&#257;). Birth of, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>;
+at creation of man, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>;
+replaces Odin, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>;
+equivalent, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vecha</span> (vech&#8242;a&#775;). Odin as, <a href="#pb164" class="pageref">164</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vedfolnir</span> (ved-fol&#8242;nir). Falcon reporter, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vegtam</span> (veg&#8242;tam). Odin, <a href="#pb200" class="pageref">200</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Veimer</span> (v&#299;&#8242;mer). Thor fords, <a href="#pb81" class="pageref">81</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Veleda</span> (vel-&#257;&#8242;da&#775;). Warns Drusus, <a href="#pb171" class="pageref">171</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Veneur de Fontainebleau</span> (v&#7869;n-urde-fon-t&#257;n-bl&#333;). Wild Huntsman, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Venus.</span> Northern equivalents for, <a href="#pb348" class="pageref">348</a>, <a href="#pb352" class="pageref">352</a>, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Verdandi</span> (v&#7869;r-d&auml;n&#8242;d&#275;). Norn of present, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>;
+beneficent ways of, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vespasian</span> (ves-p&#257;&#8242;shan). Election of, <a href="#pb88" class="pageref">88</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vidar</span> (v&#275;&#8242;d&auml;r) Parents of, <a href="#pb39" class="pageref">39</a>;
+story of, <a href="#pb158" class="pageref">158</a>&#8211;161;
+slays Fenris, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>;
+the survival of, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>;
+comparisons, <a href="#pb357" class="pageref">357</a>, <a href="#pb361" class="pageref">361</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vienna.</span> Customs in, <a href="#pb126" class="pageref">126</a>, <a href="#pb127" class="pageref">127</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vigrid</span> (vig&#8242;rid). Last battle on plain of, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>, <a href="#pb228" class="pageref">228</a>, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>, <a href="#pb333" class="pageref">333</a>, <a href="#pb334" class="pageref">334</a>, <a href="#pb338" class="pageref">338</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Viking</span> (vik&#8242;ing). Grandson of Haloge, <a href="#pb298" class="pageref">298</a>;
+early adventures and marriage of, <a href="#pb299" class="pageref">299</a>&#8211;300;
+second marriage of, <a href="#pb300" class="pageref">300</a>;
+adventures of sons of, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>&#8211;304;
+&AElig;gir gives Ellida to, <a href="#pb303" class="pageref">303</a>
+<span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb396" href="#pb396">396</a>]</span></p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vikings</span> (vik&#8242;ingz). Valkyrs take, <a href="#pb174" class="pageref">174</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vili</span> (vi&#8242;l&#275;). Birth of, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>;
+at creation of man, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>, <a href="#pb347" class="pageref">347</a>;
+replaces Odin, <a href="#pb37" class="pageref">37</a>, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>;
+comparison, <a href="#pb344" class="pageref">344</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vindsual</span> (vind&#8242;su-al). Father of Winter, <a href="#pb9" class="pageref">9</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vingnir</span> (ving&#8242;nir). Foster father of Thor, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vingolf</span> (ving&#8242;golf). Tyr welcome in, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vingthor</span> (ving&#8242;thor). Same as Thor, <a href="#pb59" class="pageref">59</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vinland.</span> Norse settlement in, <a href="#pb250" class="pageref">250</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Virgin.</span> Sponge called hand of, <a href="#pb116" class="pageref">116</a>;
+health of, <a href="#pb137" class="pageref">137</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vitellius</span> (vit-el&#8242;lius). Has Cheru&#8217;s sword, <a href="#pb87" class="pageref">87</a>, <a href="#pb88" class="pageref">88</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vjofn</span> (vyofn). Goddess of concord, <a href="#pb49" class="pageref">49</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Volla.</span> Same as Fulla, <a href="#pb47" class="pageref">47</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Volsung</span> (vol&#8242;sung). Saga of, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>, <a href="#pb364" class="pageref">364</a>;
+birth of, <a href="#pb48" class="pageref">48</a>, <a href="#pb252" class="pageref">252</a>;
+career and death of, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>&#8211;257;
+descendants of, <a href="#pb258" class="pageref">258</a>, <a href="#pb263" class="pageref">263</a>, <a href="#pb266" class="pageref">266</a>, <a href="#pb296" class="pageref">296</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">V&ouml;lund</span> (v&#7869;l&#8242;oond). Story of the smith, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>&#8211;179, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>;
+arm ring, <a href="#pb304" class="pageref">304</a>, <a href="#pb311" class="pageref">311</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">V&ouml;lundarhaus</span> (v&#7869;l&#8242;oond-ar-hous&#8242;). Maze, <a href="#pb177" class="pageref">177</a>;
+compared to Cretan labyrinth, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Von.</span> River from Fenris&#8217;s mouth, <a href="#pb94" class="pageref">94</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">V&ouml;r</span> (v&#7869;r). Same as Faith, <a href="#pb50" class="pageref">50</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vrou-elde</span> (vro&#862;o-eld&#8242;e). Same as Frigga, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vrou-elden-straat</span> (vro&#862;o-elden&#8242;-strart) Milky Way in Holland, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vulcan.</span> Northern equivalents for, <a href="#pb346" class="pageref">346</a>, <a href="#pb358" class="pageref">358</a>, <a href="#pb363" class="pageref">363</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Vulder</span> (vul&#8242;der). Same as Uller, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e24864">
+<h3 id="xd0e24865" class="normal">W</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wagner</span> (v&auml;g&#8242;ner). Four operas from Volsunga Saga, <a href="#pb251" class="pageref">251</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wain.</span> Same as Great Bear, <a href="#pb30" class="pageref">30</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wanderer.</span> Same as Odin, <a href="#pb32" class="pageref">32</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Waves.</span> &AElig;gir&#8217;s daughters, <a href="#pb187" class="pageref">187</a>, <a href="#pb359" class="pageref">359</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wayland.</span> Same as V&ouml;lund, <a href="#pb175" class="pageref">175</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wednesday.</span> Sacred to Odin, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Weldegg</span> (vel&#8242;deg). King of East Saxony, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wener</span> (w&#257;n&#8242;er). Lake, Thorsten banished to, <a href="#pb302" class="pageref">302</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Werewolf</span> (wer&#8242;wulf). Sigmund a, <a href="#pb259" class="pageref">259</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Weser</span> (v&#257;&#8242;zer). Rats drowned in, <a href="#pb27" class="pageref">27</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">West Saxony.</span> Conquered by Odin, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Westerburg</span> (ves&#8242;ter-burg). Ilse loves knight of the, <a href="#pb236" class="pageref">236</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Westri</span> (wes&#8242;tr&#275;). Dwarf supporting heavenly vault, <a href="#pb6" class="pageref">6</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">White Lady.</span> Last appearance of, <a href="#pb56" class="pageref">56</a>, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wild Hunt.</span> Leaders of, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb24" class="pageref">24</a>, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>, <a href="#pb140" class="pageref">140</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wild Huntsman</span>. <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>, <a href="#pb26" class="pageref">26</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Will-o&#8217;-the-wisp.</span> Medi&aelig;val superstition concerning, <a href="#pb247" class="pageref">247</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wind.</span> Waves play with, <a href="#pb187" class="pageref">187</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wingi</span> (wing&#8242;&#275;). Same as Knefrud, <a href="#pb291" class="pageref">291</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Winilers</span> (win&#8242;i-lerz). Story of Vandals and, <a href="#pb45" class="pageref">45</a>, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Winter.</span> Odin supplanted by, <a href="#pb38" class="pageref">38</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wode</span> (w&#333;&#8242;da). Same as Frigga, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Woden.</span> Same as Odin, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>, <a href="#pb23" class="pageref">23</a>,41
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Woden&#8217;s Day.</span> Same as Wednesday, <a href="#pb41" class="pageref">41</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wood Maidens.</span> Elves known as, <a href="#pb249" class="pageref">249</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wuotan</span> (w&#333;&#8242;tan). Same as Odin, <a href="#pb16" class="pageref">16</a>, <a href="#pb57" class="pageref">57</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wurd</span> (wurd). Same as Urd, <a href="#pb167" class="pageref">167</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Wyrd</span> (w&#275;rd). Mother of Norns, <a href="#pb159" class="pageref">159</a>, <a href="#pb160" class="pageref">160</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e25096">
+<h3 id="xd0e25097" class="normal">Y</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ydalir</span> (&#275;-d&auml;l&#8242;ir). Abode of Uller, <a href="#pb139" class="pageref">139</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Yggdrasil</span> (ig&#8242;dra&#775;-sil). Creation of, <a href="#pb12" class="pageref">12</a>;
+stags pasture on, <a href="#pb13" class="pageref">13</a>;
+assembly under, <a href="#pb14" class="pageref">14</a>;
+spear from, <a href="#pb31" class="pageref">31</a>;
+Odin hangs from, <a href="#pb33" class="pageref">33</a>;
+Thor goes to, <a href="#pb60" class="pageref">60</a>;
+Idun falls from, <a href="#pb109" class="pageref">109</a>;
+Bifr&ouml;st reaches <span class="pagenum">[<a id="pb397" href="#pb397">397</a>]</span>to, <a href="#pb146" class="pageref">146</a>;
+Giallar-horn hung on, <a href="#pb148" class="pageref">148</a>;
+Norns dwell under, <a href="#pb166" class="pageref">166</a>;
+Nidhug eats, <a href="#pb183" class="pageref">183</a>, <a href="#pb331" class="pageref">331</a>;
+consumed, <a href="#pb336" class="pageref">336</a>;
+comparison, <a href="#pb353" class="pageref">353</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ymir</span> (&#275;&#8242;mir). Giant of fire and ice, <a href="#pb3" class="pageref">3</a>;
+sleep of, <a href="#pb4" class="pageref">4</a>;
+death of, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>, <a href="#pb230" class="pageref">230</a>;
+earth created from, <a href="#pb5" class="pageref">5</a>;
+dwarfs from, <a href="#pb10" class="pageref">10</a>, <a href="#pb239" class="pageref">239</a>, <a href="#pb345" class="pageref">345</a>;
+Fornjotnr same as, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>, <a href="#pb232" class="pageref">232</a>;
+comparisons, <a href="#pb217" class="pageref">217</a>, <a href="#pb343" class="pageref">343</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Younger Edda.</span> Gylfi&#8217;s delusion described in the, <a href="#pb40" class="pageref">40</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Yule.</span> Month and festival of, <a href="#pb124" class="pageref">124</a>, <a href="#pb128" class="pageref">128</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Yule Log</span>, <a href="#pb127" class="pageref">127</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Yuletide</span>, <a href="#pb83" class="pageref">83</a>, <a href="#pb102" class="pageref">102</a>, <a href="#pb127" class="pageref">127</a>, <a href="#pb320" class="pageref">320</a>, <a href="#pb321" class="pageref">321</a>
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div2" id="xd0e25237">
+<h3 id="xd0e25238" class="normal">Z</h3>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Zephyrus</span> (Zef&#8242;i-rus). Frey like, <a href="#pb355" class="pageref">355</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Zeus</span> (zy&#363;s). Northern equivalents for, <a href="#pb349" class="pageref">349</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ziu</span> (z&#363;). Same as Tyr, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>
+
+</p>
+<p><span class="smallcaps">Ziusburg</span> (z&#363;z&#8242;berg). Same as Augsburg, <a href="#pb85" class="pageref">85</a>
+
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Told Through the Ages</h2>
+<p><i>Each volume contains sixteen full-page illustrations after leading artists</i>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>1.<i> Legends of Greece and Rome.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">By <span class="smallcaps">G. H. Kupfer</span>, M.A. Third Edition, 1907.
+
+</p>
+<p>2. <i>Favourite Greek Myths.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">By <span class="smallcaps">L. S. Hyde</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p>3. <i>Stories of Robin Hood and His Merry Outlaws.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold from the Old Ballads by <span class="smallcaps">J. Walker McSpadden</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p>4. <i>Stories of King Arthur and His Knights.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold from Malory&#8217;s &#8220;Morte d&#8217;Arthur&#8221; by <span class="smallcaps">U. W<span class="corr" id="xd0e25315" title="Not in source">.</span> Cutler.</span>
+
+</p>
+<p>5. <i>Stories from Greek History.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold from Herodotus by <span class="smallcaps">H. L. Havell</span>, B.A., formerly Scholar of University College, Oxford.
+
+</p>
+<p>6. <i>Stories from Wagner.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold by <span class="smallcaps">J. Walker McSpadden</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p>7. <i>Britain Long Ago.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Stories from Old English and Celtic Sources. Retold by <span class="smallcaps">E. M. Wilmot-Buxton</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p>8. <i>Stories from Scottish History.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Selected from Scott&#8217;s &#8220;Tales of a Grandfather&#8221; by <span class="smallcaps">Madalen Edgar</span>, M.A.
+
+</p>
+<p>9. <i>Stories from Greek Tragedy.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold by <span class="smallcaps">H. L. Havell</span>, B.A.
+
+</p>
+<p>10. <i>Stories from Dickens.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Selected by <span class="smallcaps">J. Walker McSpadden</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p>11. <i>Stories from The Earthly Paradise.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold from William Morris by <span class="smallcaps">Madalen Edgar</span>, M.A.
+
+</p>
+<p>12. <i>Stories from the &AElig;neid.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold from Virgil by <span class="smallcaps">H. L. Havell</span>, B.A.
+
+</p>
+<p>13. <i>The Book of Rustem.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold from &#8220;Shah Nameh&#8221; by <span class="smallcaps">E. M. Wilmot-Buxton</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p>14. <i>Stories from Chaucer.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold by <span class="smallcaps">J. Walker McSpadden</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p>15. <i>Stories from the Old Testament.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold by <span class="smallcaps">S. Platt</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p>16. <i>Stories from the Odyssey.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold by <span class="smallcaps">H. L. Havell</span>, B.A.
+
+</p>
+<p>17. <i>Stories from the Iliad.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold by <span class="smallcaps">H. L. Havell</span>, B.A.
+
+</p>
+<p>18. <i>Told by the Northmen.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold from the Eddas and Sagas by <span class="smallcaps">E. M. Wilmot-Buxton</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p>19. <i>Stories from Don Quixote.</i>
+
+</p>
+<p style="text-indent: 4em; ">Retold by <span class="smallcaps">H. L. Havell</span>, B.A.
+
+</p>
+<p>A List of Prices, etc., will be sent to any address.
+
+
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Uniform with &#8220;Myths of the Norsemen&#8221;</h2>
+<p>The Myths of Greece &amp; Rome
+
+</p>
+<p>Their Stories, Signification, and Origin
+
+</p>
+<p>By H. A. GUERBER
+
+</p>
+<p><i>With Sixty-four Exquisite Full-page Illustrations, including the best works of</i> <span class="smallcaps">Lord Leighton</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Sir E. Burne-Jones</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Solomon J. Solomon</span>, <span class="smallcaps">G. F. Watts</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Herbert Draper</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Henrietta Rae</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Harry Bates</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Hon. John Collier</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Sir E. J. Poynter</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Michael Angelo</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Raphael</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Rubens</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Canova</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Guido Reni</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Phidias</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Bernini</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Titian</span>, <span class="smallcaps">Velasquez</span>, etc. etc.
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote"><i>Demy 8vo, 8&#8541; &times; 5&frac34; inches, 416 pp. Letterpress</i></div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p><i>The Bookman</i> says:&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">&#8220;This magnificently illustrated volume, for which Messrs. Harrap are to be warmly thanked, is among the most successful of
+its kind. They are stories which Mr. Guerber has told with grace and charm, and right feeling for the classic periods; they
+are stories which we have grown to believe can never be told too often. The book is a fitting presentment of such a subject.&#8221;
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p><i>The Nation</i> says:&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">&#8220;The stories are well told, and the arrangement of the book is admirable. Indeed, we know no other book in which the classical
+myths are treated with such a combination of accurate scholarship, simplicity, and literary skill.&#8221;
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p><i>The Scotsman</i> says:&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">&#8220;Mr. Guerber has woven the classic mythology into a coherent history, and told with remarkable freshness of interest the familiar
+myths and traditions of Greek and Roman literature. The volume is at once a fascinating story-book and a valuable book of
+reference, and not its least attraction lies in the beautiful illustrations, all of which are reproductions of famous pictures,
+ancient and modern.&#8221;
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p><i>The Educational News</i> says:&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">&#8220;This is indeed a glorious book, causing your reviewer to spend more of his time on its pages than he can well afford. We
+need to know more about the Myths of Greece and Rome ... here is the very book to illumine, and, by its very beauty, to imbue
+its readers with an appreciation of that gospel of the beautiful which these ancient myths inculcate.&#8221;
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p><i>The Aberdeen Free Press</i> says:&#8212;
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">&#8220;There are many books on mythology, but we do not know any quite like the present. It gives in a convenient compass all that
+the ordinary student need know, and the stories are carefully classified. Mr. Guerber has produced a book which is a delight
+to mind and eye alike.&#8221;
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum">
+[<a href="#toc">Contents</a>]
+</span><h2 class="normal">Ready September 1909</h2>
+<p><i>Uniform with &#8220;The Myths of Greece and Rome&#8221; and &#8220;Myths of the Norsemen.&#8221;</i>
+
+</p>
+<p>Myths &amp; Legends of the Middle Ages
+
+</p>
+<p>By <span class="smallcaps">H. A. Guerber</span>
+
+</p>
+<p>With Sixty-four exquisite Full-page Illustrations from important works of great artists
+
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote"><i>Demy 8vo, 8&#8541; &times; 5&frac34; inches, 416 pp. Letterpress. With Full Index</i></div><p>
+
+
+</p>
+<p>The object of this work is to familiarize students with the myths and legends which form the principal subjects of medi&aelig;val
+literature, and whose influence is everywhere apparent in the subsequent history of literature and art. Following the plan
+and treatment of the author&#8217;s earlier volumes in this series, appropriate quotations from medi&aelig;val and modern writings are
+given in connection with the various legends. These illustrate the style of the poem in which they are embodied, or lend additional
+force to some point in the story. The book includes notable illustrations and a chapter on the romance literature of the period
+in the various countries of Europe.
+
+
+
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="div1">
+<h2 class="normal">Table of Contents</h2>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#toc">Contents</a></li>
+<li><a href="#loi">List of Illustrations</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e995">Introduction</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch1">Chapter I: The Beginning</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1049">Myths of Creation</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1088">Ymir and Audhumla</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1139">Odin, Vili, and Ve</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1160">The Creation of the Earth</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1216">Mani and Sol</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1353">Dwarfs and Elves</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1383">The Creation of Man</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1390">The Tree Yggdrasil</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1422">The Bridge Bifr&ouml;st</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1468">The Vanas</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch2">Chapter II: Odin</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1479">The Father of Gods and Men</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1508">Odin&#8217;s Personal Appearance</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1567">Valhalla</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1592">The Feast of the Heroes</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1716">Sleipnir</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1751">The Wild Hunt</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1865">The Pied Piper</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e1983">Bishop Hatto</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2031">Irmin</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2047">Mimir&#8217;s Well</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2117">Odin and Vafthrudnir</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2153">Invention of Runes</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2187">Geirrod and Agnar</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2272">May-Day Festivals</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2298">The Historical Odin</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch3">Chapter III: Frigga</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2360">The Queen of the Gods</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2406">The Stolen Gold</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2419">Odin Outwitted</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2484">Fulla</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2492">Gna</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2512">Lofn, Vjofn, and Syn</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2537">Gefjon</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2567">Eira, Vara, V&ouml;r and Snotra</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2585">Holda</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2590">The Discovery of Flax</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2618">Tannh&auml;user</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2702">E&aacute;stre, the Goddess of Spring</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2709">Bertha, the White Lady</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch4">Chapter IV: Thor</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2748">The Thunderer</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2822">Thor&#8217;s Hammer</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2888">Thor&#8217;s Family</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e2917">Sif, the Golden-haired</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3033">Thor&#8217;s Journey to J&ouml;tun-heim</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3061">Utgard-loki</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3111">Thor and Hrungnir</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3151">Groa, the Sorceress</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3183">Thor and Thrym</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3257">Thor and Geirrod</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3312">The Worship of Thor</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch5">Chapter V: Tyr</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3341">The God of War</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3411">Tyr&#8217;s Sword</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3458">The Story of Fenris</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch6">Chapter VI: Bragi</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3598">The Origin of Poetry</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3609">The Quest of the Draught</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3643">The Rape of the Draught</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3702">The God of Music</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3749">Worship of Bragi</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch7">Chapter VII: Idun</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3764">The Apples of Youth</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3802">The Story of Thiassi</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3880">The Return of Idun</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3912">The Goddess of Spring</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3917">Idun Falls to the Nether World</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch8">Chapter VIII: Ni&ouml;rd</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e3996">A Hostage with the Gods</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4034">The God of Summer</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4064">Skadi, Goddess of Winter</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4116">The Parting of Ni&ouml;rd and Skadi</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4146">The Worship of Ni&ouml;rd</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch9">Chapter IX: Frey</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4157">The God of Fairyland</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4229">The Wooing of Gerda</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4335">The historical Frey</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4346">Worship of Frey</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4372">The Yule Feast</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4499">How the Sea became salt</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch10">Chapter X: Freya</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4546">The Goddess of Love</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4570">Queen of the Valkyrs</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4588">Freya and Odur</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4668">Freya&#8217;s Necklace</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4709">Story of Ottar and Angantyr</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4745">The Husbands of Freya</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4750">Worship of Freya</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch11">Chapter XI: Uller</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4797">The God of Winter</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4830">Worship of Uller</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch12">Chapter XII: Forseti</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4841">The God of Justice and Truth</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4881">The Story of Heligoland</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch13">Chapter XIII: Heimdall</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4900">The Watchman of the Gods</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e4927">The Guardian of the Rainbow</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5037">Loki and Freya</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5050">Heimdall&#8217;s Names</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch14">Chapter XIV: Hermod</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5165">The Nimble God</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5219">Hermod and the Soothsayer</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch15">Chapter XV: Vidar</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5257">The Silent God</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5278">Vidar&#8217;s Shoe</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5283">The Norn&#8217;s Prophecy</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch16">Chapter XVI: Vali</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5348">The Wooing of Rinda</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5394">The Birth of Vali</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5425">Worship of Vali</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch17">Chapter XVII: The Norns</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5434">The Three Fates</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5486">The Norns&#8217; Web</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5534">Other Guardian Spirits</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5549">The Story of Nornagesta</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5615">The Vala</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch18">Chapter XVIII: The Valkyrs</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5634">The Battle Maidens</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5656">The Cloud Steeds</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5670">Choosers of the Slain</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5703">Their Numbers and Duties</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5749">Wayland and the Valkyrs</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5865">Brunhild</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch19">Chapter XIX: Hel</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5874">Loki&#8217;s Offspring</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e5917">Hel&#8217;s Kingdom in Nifl-heim</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6010">Ideas of the Future Life</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6055">Pestilence and Famine</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch20">Chapter XX: &AElig;gir</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6099">The God of the Sea</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6130">The Goddess Ran</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6189">The Waves</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6205">&AElig;gir&#8217;s Brewing Kettle</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6214">Thor and Hymir</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6356">Unloved Divinities</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6361">Other Divinities of the Sea</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6430">River Nymphs</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6437">Legends of the Lorelei</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch21">Chapter XXI: Balder</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6492">The Best Loved</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6535">Balder&#8217;s Dream</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6583">The Vala&#8217;s Prophecy</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6702">The Gods at Play</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6708">The Death of Balder</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6746">Hermod&#8217;s Errand</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6806">The Funeral Pyre</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6890">Hermod&#8217;s Quest</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6954">The Condition of Balder&#8217;s Release</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e6990">The Return of Hermod</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7051">Vali the Avenger</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7059">The Signification of the Story</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7160">The Worship of Balder</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch22">Chapter XXII: Loki</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7169">The Spirit of Evil</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7195">Loki&#8217;s Character</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7221">Sigyn</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7232">Skrymsli and the Peasant&#8217;s Child</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7247">The Giant Architect</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7320">Loki&#8217;s last Crime</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7327">&AElig;gir&#8217;s Banquet</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7399">The Pursuit of Loki</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7412">Loki&#8217;s Punishment</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7503">Loki&#8217;s Day</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch23">Chapter XXIII: The Giants</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7512">J&ouml;tun-heim</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7543">Origin of the Mountains</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7552">The First Gods</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7562">The Giant in Love</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7589">The Giant and the Church Bells</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7598">The Giants&#8217; Ship</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7609">Princess Ilse</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7647">The Giantess&#8217;s Plaything</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch24">Chapter XXIV: The Dwarfs</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7658">Little Men</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7687">The Tarnkappe</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7707">The Legend of Kallundborg</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7753">The Magic of the Dwarfs</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7792">The Passing of the Dwarfs</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7798">Changelings</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7812">The Peaks of the Trolls</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7819">A Conjecture</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch25">Chapter XXV: The Elves</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7828">The Realm of Faery</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7896">The Elf-dance</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7901">The Will-o&#8217;-the-wisps</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7917">Oberon and Titania</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7937">Alf-blot</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7946">Images on Doorposts</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch26">Chapter XXVI: The Sigurd Saga</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7964">The Beginning of the Story</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7969">The Volsunga Saga</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7986">Sigi</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e7995">Rerir</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8000">Volsung</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8022">The Wedding of Signy</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8027">The Sword in the Branstock</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8056">Sigmund</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8082">Siggeir&#8217;s Treachery</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8137">Signy&#8217;s Sons</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8157">Sinfiotli</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8173">The Werewolves</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8192">Sigmund and Sinfiotli taken by Siggeir</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8222">Sigmund&#8217;s Vengeance</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8234">Helgi</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8290">The Death of Sinfiotli</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8320">Hiordis</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8374">Elf, the Viking</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8390">The Birth of Sigurd</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8436">The Treasure of the Dwarf King</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8534">Sigurd&#8217;s Sword</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8578">The Fight with the Dragon</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8617">The Sleeping Warrior Maiden</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8760">The Fostering of Aslaug</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8803">The Niblungs</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8826">Gunnar&#8217;s Stratagem</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8878">The Coming of Brunhild</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8887">The Quarrel of the Queens</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8922">The Death of Sigurd</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e8995">The Flight of Gudrun</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9002">Atli, King of the Huns</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9013">Burial of the Niblung Treasure</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9031">The Treachery of Atli</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9082">The Last of the Niblungs</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9102">Swanhild</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9130">Interpretation of the Saga</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch27">Chapter XXVII: The Story of Frithiof</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9143">Bishop Tegn&eacute;r</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9154">Birth of Viking</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9209">The Game of Ball</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9218">The Blood Feud</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9237">Thorsten and Bel&eacute;</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9290">Birth of Frithiof and Ingeborg</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9331">Frithiof&#8217;s Love for Ingeborg</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9366">Helg&eacute; and Halfdan</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9406">Frithiof&#8217;s Suit</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9477">Sigurd Ring a Suitor</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9535">At Balder&#8217;s Shrine</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9614">Frithiof Banished</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9772">Atl&eacute;&#8217;s Challenge</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9838">Frithiof&#8217;s Home-coming</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9939">Frithiof an Exile</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e9947">At the Court of Sigurd Ring</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10013">Frithiof&#8217;s Loyalty</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10052">Betrothal of Frithiof and Ingeborg</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch28">Chapter XXVIII: The Twilight of the Gods</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10241">The Decline of the Gods</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10278">The Fimbul-winter</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10310">The Wolves Let Loose</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10344">Heimdall Gives the Alarm</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10349">The Terrors of the Sea</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10385">The Terrors of the Underworld</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10426">The Great Battle</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10501">The Devouring Fire</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10535">Regeneration</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10557">A New Heaven</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10615">One too Mighty to Name</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#ch29">Chapter XXIX: Greek and Northern Mythologies</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10653">Comparative Mythology</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10666">The Beginning of Things</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10686">Cosmogony</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10691">The Phenomena of the Sky</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10708">Jupiter and Odin</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10716">The Creation of Man</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10723">Norns and Fates</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10735">Myths of the Seasons</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10744">Frigga and Juno</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10753">Musical Myths</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10760">Thor and the Greek Gods</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10792">Idun and Eurydice</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10799">Skadi and Diana</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10806">Frey and Apollo</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10817">Freya and Venus</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10825">Odur and Adonis</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10842">Rinda and Danae</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10863">Myths of the Sea</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10876">Balder and Apollo</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10887">Ragnarok and the Deluge</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10894">Giants and Titans</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10903">The Volsunga Saga</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10913">Brunhild</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e10918">Sun Myths</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+<li><a href="#index1">Index to Poetical Quotations</a></li>
+<li><a href="#index2">Glossary and Index</a><ul>
+<li><a href="#xd0e12171">A</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e13324">B</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e14083">C</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e14461">D</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e14808">E</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e15320">F</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e16155">G</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e17143">H</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e18495">I</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e18879">J</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e19140">K</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e19237">L</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e19652">M</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e20253">N</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e20834">O</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e21485">P</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e21729">Q</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e21739">R</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e22121">S</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e23239">T</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e24024">U</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e24158">V</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e24864">W</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e25096">Y</a></li>
+<li><a href="#xd0e25237">Z</a></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+<div class="transcribernote">
+<h2>Colophon</h2>
+<h3>Availability</h3>
+<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give
+it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/">www.gutenberg.org</a>.
+
+</p>
+<p>This eBook is produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at <a href="https://www.pgdp.net/">www.pgdp.net</a>.
+
+</p>
+<ol class="lsoff">
+<li>H&eacute;l&egrave;ne Adeline Guerber (1859&#8211;1929)
+
+</li>
+<li>Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet (28 August 1833&#8211;17 June 1898)</li>
+<li>Konrad Dielitz (1845&#8211;1933)</li>
+<li>John Charles Dollman (6 May 1851&#8211;11 December 1934)</li>
+<li>Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt (21 July 1854&#8211;18 August 1905)</li>
+<li>Knut Ekwall (3 April 1843 in S&auml;by (province Sm&aring;land), Sweden&#8211;4 April 1912 in S&auml;by)</li>
+<li>Bengt Erland Fogelberg (also Benedict Fogelberg) (August 8, 1786&#8211;December 22, 1854)</li>
+<li>Gertrude Demain Hammond (1862&#8211;1953)</li>
+<li>Dorothy Hardy (fl. 1891&#8211;1925)</li>
+<li>Hermann Kaulbach (German, 1846&#8211;1909)</li>
+<li>Johan August Malmstr&ouml;m (1829&#8211;1901)</li>
+<li>Jacques Reich (1852&#8211;1923)</li>
+<li>Jacques Wagrez (1850&#8211;1946)</li>
+<li>Bernard Evans Ward (1857&#8211;August 3, 1933)</li>
+<li>Oscar Arnold Wergeland (1844&#8211;1910)</li>
+<li>M&aring;rten Eskil Winge (1825&#8211;1896)</li>
+</ol><p>
+
+</p>
+<p>Related Open Library catalog page:
+<a href="http://openlibrary.org/b/OL7211656M">OL7211656M</a>.
+
+</p>
+<p>Related WorldCat catalog page:
+<a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/186944762">186944762</a>.
+
+</p>
+<h3>Encoding</h3>
+<p></p>
+<h3>Revision History</h3>
+<ol class="lsoff">
+<li>2009-03-28 Started.
+
+</li>
+</ol>
+<h3>External References</h3>
+<p>This Project Gutenberg eBook contains external references. These links may not work for you.</p>
+<h3>Corrections</h3>
+<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p>
+<table width="75%">
+<tr>
+<th>Page</th>
+<th>Source</th>
+<th>Correction</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2531">49</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2761">59</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e2865">61</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e3223">79</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Jotun-heim</td>
+<td width="40%">J&ouml;tun-heim</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e3669">99</a></td>
+<td width="40%">or</td>
+<td width="40%">of</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e3974">109</a></td>
+<td width="40%">of</td>
+<td width="40%">or</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e3981">110</a></td>
+<td width="40%">&#8216;</td>
+<td width="40%">&#8220;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e4028">111</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Arnola</td>
+<td width="40%">Arnold</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e4340">123</a></td>
+<td width="40%">state</td>
+<td width="40%">states</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e4496">128</a></td>
+<td width="40%">say</td>
+<td width="40%">to say</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e4689">135</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e4922">146</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">)</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e5450">166</a></td>
+<td width="40%">;</td>
+<td width="40%">,</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e5945">181</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Hel shoes</td>
+<td width="40%">Hel-shoes</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e6080">184</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">&#8217;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e7360">224</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e7833">246</a></td>
+<td width="40%">lightor</td>
+<td width="40%">light or</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e8726">280</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">133 </td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e9875">318</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">,</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e9980">321</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">&#8221;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e11910">367</a></td>
+<td width="40%">314, 314</td>
+<td width="40%">314</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e12352">369</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Gialllar-horn</td>
+<td width="40%">Giallar-horn</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e15484">377</a></td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Deleted</i>]
+
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e15510">377</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e15638">377</a></td>
+<td width="40%">.)</td>
+<td width="40%">).</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e16835">380</a></td>
+<td width="40%">potiont o</td>
+<td width="40%">potion to</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e18326">383</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Huda</td>
+<td width="40%">Hulda</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e18329">383</a></td>
+<td width="40%">5L</td>
+<td width="40%">51</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e18761">384</a></td>
+<td width="40%">,</td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Deleted</i>]
+
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e20428">387</a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">).</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e20706">388</a></td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+<td width="40%">;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e22342">391</a></td>
+<td width="40%">Nerthus s</td>
+<td width="40%">Nerthus&#8217;s</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td width="20%"><a class="pageref" href="#xd0e25315"></a></td>
+<td width="40%">
+[<i>Not in source</i>]
+
+</td>
+<td width="40%">.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths of the Norsemen, by H. A. Guerber
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Myths of the Norsemen
+       From the Eddas and Sagas
+
+Author: H. A. Guerber
+
+Release Date: April 4, 2009 [EBook #28497]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MYTHS OF THE NORSEMEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net/
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             Myths of the Norsemen
+
+                            From the Eddas and Sagas
+
+                                       By
+
+                                 H. A. Guerber
+
+                 Author of "The Myths of Greece and Rome" etc.
+
+
+
+
+                                     London
+                           George G. Harrap & Company
+                          15 York Street Covent Garden
+
+                                      1909
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                      Printed by Ballantyne & Co. Limited
+                    Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+        Chap.                                                      Page
+
+        I.      The Beginning                                         1
+        II.     Odin                                                 16
+        III.    Frigga                                               42
+        IV.     Thor                                                 59
+        V.      Tyr                                                  85
+        VI.     Bragi                                                95
+        VII.    Idun                                                103
+        VIII.   Nioerd                                               111
+        IX.     Frey                                                117
+        X.      Freya                                               131
+        XI.     Uller                                               139
+        XII.    Forseti                                             142
+        XIII.   Heimdall                                            146
+        XIV.    Hermod                                              154
+        XV.     Vidar                                               158
+        XVI.    Vali                                                162
+        XVII.   The Norns                                           166
+        XVIII.  The Valkyrs                                         173
+        XIX.    Hel                                                 180
+        XX.     AEgir                                                185
+        XXI.    Balder                                              197
+        XXII.   Loki                                                216
+        XXIII.  The Giants                                          230
+        XXIV.   The Dwarfs                                          239
+        XXV.    The Elves                                           246
+        XXVI.   The Sigurd Saga                                     251
+        XXVII.  The Frithiof Saga                                   298
+        XXVIII. The Twilight of the Gods                            329
+        XXIX.   Greek and Northern Mythologies--A Comparison        342
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+        Norsemen Landing in Iceland   (Oscar Wergeland)    Frontispiece
+
+                                                           To face page
+        The Giant with the Flaming Sword   (J. C. Dollman)            2
+        The Wolves Pursuing Sol and Mani   (J. C. Dollman)            8
+        Odin   (Sir E. Burne-Jones)                                  16
+        The Chosen Slain   (K. Dielitz)                              18
+        A Viking Foray   (J. C. Dollman)                             20
+        The Pied Piper of Hamelin   (H. Kaulbach)                    28
+        Odin   (B. E. Fogelberg)                                     36
+        Frigga Spinning the Clouds   (J. C. Dollman)                 42
+        Tannhaeuser and Frau Venus   (J. Wagrez)                      52
+        Eastre   (Jacques Reich)                                     54
+        Huldra's Nymphs   (B. E. Ward)                               58
+        Thor   (B. E. Fogelberg)                                     60
+        Sif   (J. C. Dollman)                                        64
+        Thor and the Mountain   (J. C. Dollman)                      72
+        A Foray   (A. Malmstroem)                                     88
+        The Binding of Fenris   (Dorothy Hardy)                      92
+        Idun   (B. E. Ward)                                         100
+        Loki and Thiassi   (Dorothy Hardy)                          104
+        Frey   (Jacques Reich)                                      118
+        Freya   (N. J. O. Blommer)                                  132
+        The Rainbow Bridge   (H. Hendrich)                          146
+        Heimdall   (Dorothy Hardy)                                  148
+        Jarl   (Albert Edelfelt)                                    152
+        The Norns   (C. Ehrenberg)                                  166
+        The Dises   (Dorothy Hardy)                                 170
+        The Swan-Maiden   (Gertrude Demain Hammond, R.I.)           174
+        The Ride of the Valkyrs   (J. C. Dollman)                   176
+        Brunhild and Siegmund   (J. Wagrez)                         178
+        The Road to Valhalla   (Severin Nilsson)                    182
+        AEgir   (J. P. Molin)                                        186
+        Ran   (M. E. Winge)                                         190
+        The Neckan   (J. P. Molin)                                  194
+        Loki and Hodur   (C. G. Qvarnstroem)                         202
+        The Death of Balder   (Dorothy Hardy)                       206
+        Hermod before Hela   (J. C. Dollman)                        210
+        Loki and Svadilfari   (Dorothy Hardy)                       222
+        Loki and Sigyn   (M. E. Winge)                              228
+        Thor and the Giants   (M. E. Winge)                         230
+        Torghatten                                                  234
+        The Peaks of the Trolls                                     244
+        The Elf-Dance   (N. J. O. Blommer)                          246
+        The White Elves   (Charles P. Sainton, R.I.)                248
+        Old Houses with Carved Posts                                250
+        The Were-Wolves   (J. C. Dollman)                           260
+        A Hero's Farewell   (M. E. Winge)                           264
+        The Funeral Procession   (H. Hendrich)                      268
+        Sigurd and Fafnir   (K. Dielitz)                            274
+        Sigurd Finds Brunhild   (J. Wagrez)                         278
+        Odin and Brunhild   (K. Dielitz)                            280
+        Aslaug   (Gertrude Demain Hammond, R.I.)                    282
+        Sigurd and Gunnar   (J. C. Dollman)                         284
+        The Death of Siegfried   (H. Hendrich)                      288
+        The End of Brunhild   (J. Wagrez)                           290
+        Ingeborg   (M. E. Winge)                                    304
+        Frithiof Cleaves the Shield of Helge   (Knut Ekwall)        308
+        Ingeborg Watches her Lover Depart   (Knut Ekwall)           312
+        Frithiof's Return to Framnaes   (Knut Ekwall)                316
+        Frithiof at the Shrine of Balder   (Knut Ekwall)            318
+        Frithiof at the Court of Ring   (Knut Ekwall)               320
+        Frithiof Watches the Sleeping King   (Knut Ekwall)          324
+        Odin and Fenris   (Dorothy Hardy)                           334
+        The Ride of the Valkyrs   (H. Hendrich)                     344
+        The Storm-Ride   (Gilbert Bayes)                            358
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+The prime importance of the rude fragments of poetry preserved in
+early Icelandic literature will now be disputed by none, but there
+has been until recent times an extraordinary indifference to the
+wealth of religious tradition and mythical lore which they contain.
+
+The long neglect of these precious records of our heathen ancestors
+is not the fault of the material in which all that survives of
+their religious beliefs is enshrined, for it may safely be asserted
+that the Edda is as rich in the essentials of national romance
+and race-imagination, rugged though it be, as the more graceful
+and idyllic mythology of the South. Neither is it due to anything
+weak in the conception of the deities themselves, for although
+they may not rise to great spiritual heights, foremost students of
+Icelandic literature agree that they stand out rude and massive as the
+Scandinavian mountains. They exhibit "a spirit of victory, superior
+to brute force, superior to mere matter, a spirit that fights and
+overcomes." [1] "Even were some part of the matter of their myths
+taken from others, yet the Norsemen have given their gods a noble,
+upright, great spirit, and placed them upon a high level that is all
+their own." [2] "In fact these old Norse songs have a truth in them,
+an inward perennial truth and greatness. It is a greatness not of
+mere body and gigantic bulk, but a rude greatness of soul." [3]
+
+The introduction of Christianity into the North brought with it the
+influence of the Classical races, and this eventually supplanted the
+native genius, so that the alien mythology and literature of Greece
+and Rome have formed an increasing part of the mental equipment of the
+northern peoples in proportion as the native literature and tradition
+have been neglected.
+
+Undoubtedly Northern mythology has exercised a deep influence upon
+our customs, laws, and language, and there has been, therefore,
+a great unconscious inspiration flowing from these into English
+literature. The most distinctive traits of this mythology are a
+peculiar grim humour, to be found in the religion of no other race,
+and a dark thread of tragedy which runs throughout the whole woof,
+and these characteristics, touching both extremes, are writ large
+over English literature.
+
+But of conscious influence, compared with the rich draught of Hellenic
+inspiration, there is little to be found, and if we turn to modern
+art the difference is even more apparent.
+
+This indifference may be attributed to many causes, but it was due
+first to the fact that the religious beliefs of our pagan ancestors
+were not held with any real tenacity. Hence the success of the
+more or less considered policy of the early Christian missionaries
+to confuse the heathen beliefs, and merge them in the new faith,
+an interesting example of which is to be seen in the transference
+to the Christian festival of Easter of the attributes of the pagan
+goddess Eastre, from whom it took even the name. Northern mythology
+was in this way arrested ere it had attained its full development,
+and the progress of Christianity eventually relegated it to the limbo
+of forgotten things. Its comprehensive and intelligent scheme, however,
+in strong contrast with the disconnected mythology of Greece and Rome,
+formed the basis of a more or less rational faith which prepared the
+Norseman to receive the teaching of Christianity, and so helped to
+bring about its own undoing.
+
+The religious beliefs of the North are not mirrored with any
+exactitude in the Elder Edda. Indeed only a travesty of the faith of
+our ancestors has been preserved in Norse literature. The early poet
+loved allegory, and his imagination rioted among the conceptions of
+his fertile muse. "His eye was fixed on the mountains till the snowy
+peaks assumed human features and the giant of the rock or the ice
+descended with heavy tread; or he would gaze at the splendour of the
+spring, or of the summer fields, till Freya with the gleaming necklace
+stepped forth, or Sif with the flowing locks of gold." [4]
+
+We are told nothing as to sacrificial and religious rites, and
+all else is omitted which does not provide material for artistic
+treatment. The so-called Northern Mythology, therefore, may be regarded
+as a precious relic of the beginning of Northern poetry, rather than
+as a representation of the religious beliefs of the Scandinavians,
+and these literary fragments bear many signs of the transitional stage
+wherein the confusion of the old and new faiths is easily apparent.
+
+But notwithstanding the limitations imposed by long neglect it is
+possible to reconstruct in part a plan of the ancient Norse beliefs,
+and the general reader will derive much profit from Carlyle's
+illuminating study in "Heroes and Hero-worship." "A bewildering,
+inextricable jungle of delusions, confusions, falsehoods and
+absurdities, covering the whole field of Life!" he calls them,
+with all good reason. But he goes on to show, with equal truth,
+that at the soul of this crude worship of distorted nature was a
+spiritual force seeking expression. What we probe without reverence
+they viewed with awe, and not understanding it, straightway deified
+it, as all children have been apt to do in all stages of the world's
+history. Truly they were hero-worshippers after Carlyle's own heart,
+and scepticism had no place in their simple philosophy.
+
+It was the infancy of thought gazing upon a universe filled with
+divinity, and believing heartily with all sincerity. A large-hearted
+people reaching out in the dark towards ideals which were better than
+they knew. Ragnarok was to undo their gods because they had stumbled
+from their higher standards.
+
+We have to thank a curious phenomenon for the preservation of so much
+of the old lore as we still possess. While foreign influences were
+corrupting the Norse language, it remained practically unaltered in
+Iceland, which had been colonised from the mainland by the Norsemen
+who had fled thither to escape the oppression of Harold Fairhair after
+his crushing victory of Hafrsfirth. These people brought with them the
+poetic genius which had already manifested itself, and it took fresh
+root in that barren soil. Many of the old Norse poets were natives
+of Iceland, and in the early part of the Christian era, a supreme
+service was rendered to Norse literature by the Christian priest,
+Saemund, who industriously brought together a large amount of pagan
+poetry in a collection known as the Elder Edda, which is the chief
+foundation of our present knowledge of the religion of our Norse
+ancestors. Icelandic literature remained a sealed book, however,
+until the end of the eighteenth century, and very slowly since that
+time it has been winning its way in the teeth of indifference, until
+there are now signs that it will eventually come into its own. "To
+know the old Faith," says Carlyle, "brings us into closer and clearer
+relation with the Past--with our own possessions in the Past. For
+the whole Past is the possession of the Present; the Past had always
+something true, and is a precious possession."
+
+The weighty words of William Morris regarding the Volsunga Saga
+may also be fitly quoted as an introduction to the whole of this
+collection of "Myths of the Norsemen": "This is the great story of
+the North, which should be to all our race what the Tale of Troy was
+to the Greeks--to all our race first, and afterwards, when the change
+of the world has made our race nothing more than a name of what has
+been--a story too--then should it be to those that come after us no
+less than the Tale of Troy has been to us."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I: THE BEGINNING
+
+
+Myths of Creation
+
+Although the Aryan inhabitants of Northern Europe are supposed by some
+authorities to have come originally from the plateau of Iran, in the
+heart of Asia, the climate and scenery of the countries where they
+finally settled had great influence in shaping their early religious
+beliefs, as well as in ordering their mode of living.
+
+The grand and rugged landscapes of Northern Europe, the midnight
+sun, the flashing rays of the aurora borealis, the ocean continually
+lashing itself into fury against the great cliffs and icebergs of
+the Arctic Circle, could not but impress the people as vividly as
+the almost miraculous vegetation, the perpetual light, and the blue
+seas and skies of their brief summer season. It is no great wonder,
+therefore, that the Icelanders, for instance, to whom we owe the most
+perfect records of this belief, fancied in looking about them that the
+world was originally created from a strange mixture of fire and ice.
+
+Northern mythology is grand and tragical. Its principal theme is the
+perpetual struggle of the beneficent forces of Nature against the
+injurious, and hence it is not graceful and idyllic in character,
+like the religion of the sunny South, where the people could bask
+in perpetual sunshine, and the fruits of the earth grew ready to
+their hand.
+
+It was very natural that the dangers incurred in hunting and fishing
+under these inclement skies, and the suffering entailed by the long
+cold winters when the sun never shines, made our ancestors contemplate
+cold and ice as malevolent spirits; and it was with equal reason that
+they invoked with special fervour the beneficent influences of heat
+and light.
+
+When questioned concerning the creation of the world, the Northern
+scalds, or poets, whose songs are preserved in the Eddas and Sagas,
+declared that in the beginning, when there was as yet no earth, nor
+sea, nor air, when darkness rested over all, there existed a powerful
+being called Allfather, whom they dimly conceived as uncreated as
+well as unseen, and that whatever he willed came to pass.
+
+In the centre of space there was, in the morning of time, a great
+abyss called Ginnunga-gap, the cleft of clefts, the yawning gulf,
+whose depths no eye could fathom, as it was enveloped in perpetual
+twilight. North of this abode was a space or world known as Nifl-heim,
+the home of mist and darkness, in the centre of which bubbled the
+exhaustless spring Hvergelmir, the seething cauldron, whose waters
+supplied twelve great streams known as the Elivagar. As the water of
+these streams flowed swiftly away from its source and encountered
+the cold blasts from the yawning gulf, it soon hardened into huge
+blocks of ice, which rolled downward into the immeasurable depths of
+the great abyss with a continual roar like thunder.
+
+South of this dark chasm, and directly opposite Nifl-heim, the realm
+of mist, was another world called Muspells-heim, the home of elemental
+fire, where all was warmth and brightness, and whose frontiers were
+continually guarded by Surtr, the flame giant. This giant fiercely
+brandished his flashing sword, and continually sent forth great showers
+of sparks, which fell with a hissing sound upon the ice-blocks in
+the bottom of the abyss, and partly melted them by their heat.
+
+
+    "Great Surtur, with his burning sword,
+    Southward at Muspel's gate kept ward,
+    And flashes of celestial flame,
+    Life-giving, from the fire-world came."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+Ymir and Audhumla
+
+As the steam rose in clouds it again encountered the prevailing cold,
+and was changed into rime or hoarfrost, which, layer by layer, filled
+up the great central space. Thus by the continual action of cold and
+heat, and also probably by the will of the uncreated and unseen,
+a gigantic creature called Ymir or Orgelmir (seething clay), the
+personification of the frozen ocean, came to life amid the ice-blocks
+in the abyss, and as he was born of rime he was called a Hrim-thurs,
+or ice-giant.
+
+
+    "In early times,
+    When Ymir lived,
+    Was sand, nor sea,
+    Nor cooling wave;
+    No earth was found,
+    Nor heaven above;
+    One chaos all,
+    And nowhere grass."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Henderson's tr.).
+
+
+Groping about in the gloom in search of something to eat, Ymir
+perceived a gigantic cow called Audhumla (the nourisher), which
+had been created by the same agency as himself, and out of the same
+materials. Hastening towards her, Ymir noticed with pleasure that
+from her udder flowed four great streams of milk, which would supply
+ample nourishment.
+
+All his wants were thus satisfied; but the cow, looking about her for
+food in her turn, began to lick the salt off a neighbouring ice-block
+with her rough tongue. This she continued to do until first the hair of
+a god appeared and then the whole head emerged from its icy envelope,
+until by-and-by Buri (the producer) stepped forth entirely free.
+
+While the cow had been thus engaged, Ymir, the giant, had fallen
+asleep, and as he slept a son and daughter were born from the
+perspiration under his armpit, and his feet produced the six-headed
+giant Thrudgelmir, who, shortly after his birth, brought forth in
+his turn the giant Bergelmir, from whom all the evil frost giants
+are descended.
+
+
+    "Under the armpit grew,
+    'Tis said of Hrim-thurs,
+    A girl and boy together;
+    Foot with foot begat,
+    Of that wise Joetun,
+    A six-headed son."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Odin, Vili, and Ve
+
+When these giants became aware of the existence of the god Buri, and
+of his son Boerr (born), whom he had immediately produced, they began
+waging war against them, for as the gods and giants represented the
+opposite forces of good and evil, there was no hope of their living
+together in peace. The struggle continued evidently for ages, neither
+party gaining a decided advantage, until Boerr married the giantess
+Bestla, daughter of Bolthorn (the thorn of evil), who bore him three
+powerful sons, Odin (spirit), Vili (will), and Ve (holy). These three
+sons immediately joined their father in his struggle against the
+hostile frost-giants, and finally succeeded in slaying their deadliest
+foe, the great Ymir. As he sank down lifeless the blood gushed from
+his wounds in such floods that it produced a great deluge, in which
+all his race perished, with the exception of Bergelmir, who escaped
+in a boat and went with his wife to the confines of the world.
+
+
+    "And all the race of Ymir thou didst drown,
+    Save one, Bergelmer: he on shipboard fled
+    Thy deluge, and from him the giants sprang."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Here he took up his abode, calling the place Joetunheim (the home of the
+giants), and here he begat a new race of frost-giants, who inherited
+his dislikes, continued the feud, and were always ready to sally
+forth from their desolate country and raid the territory of the gods.
+
+The gods, in Northern mythology called AEsir (pillars and supporters
+of the world), having thus triumphed over their foes, and being no
+longer engaged in perpetual warfare, now began to look about them,
+with intent to improve the desolate aspect of things and fashion a
+habitable world. After due consideration Boerr's sons rolled Ymir's
+great corpse into the yawning abyss, and began to create the world
+out of its various component parts.
+
+
+
+The Creation of the Earth
+
+Out of the flesh they fashioned Midgard (middle garden), as the earth
+was called. This was placed in the exact centre of the vast space,
+and hedged all round with Ymir's eyebrows for bulwarks or ramparts. The
+solid portion of Midgard was surrounded by the giant's blood or sweat,
+which formed the ocean, while his bones made the hills, his flat
+teeth the cliffs, and his curly hair the trees and all vegetation.
+
+Well pleased with the result of their first efforts at creation, the
+gods now took the giant's unwieldy skull and poised it skilfully as
+the vaulted heavens above earth and sea; then scattering his brains
+throughout the expanse beneath they fashioned from them the fleecy
+clouds.
+
+
+    "Of Ymir's flesh
+    Was earth created,
+    Of his blood the sea,
+    Of his bones the hills,
+    Of his hair trees and plants,
+    Of his skull the heavens,
+    And of his brows
+    The gentle powers
+    Formed Midgard for the sons of men;
+    But of his brain
+    The heavy clouds are
+    All created."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+To support the heavenly vault, the gods stationed the strong dwarfs,
+Nordri, Sudri, Austri, Westri, at its four corners, bidding them
+sustain it upon their shoulders, and from them the four points of
+the compass received their present names of North, South, East, and
+West. To give light to the world thus created, the gods studded the
+heavenly vault with sparks secured from Muspells-heim, points of light
+which shone steadily through the gloom like brilliant stars. The most
+vivid of these sparks, however, were reserved for the manufacture of
+the sun and moon, which were placed in beautiful golden chariots.
+
+
+    "And from the flaming world, where Muspel reigns,
+    Thou sent'st and fetched'st fire, and madest lights:
+    Sun, moon, and stars, which thou hast hung in heaven,
+    Dividing clear the paths of night and day."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+When all these preparations had been finished, and the steeds Arvakr
+(the early waker) and Alsvin (the rapid goer) were harnessed to the
+sun-chariot, the gods, fearing lest the animals should suffer from
+their proximity to the ardent sphere, placed under their withers great
+skins filled with air or with some refrigerant substance. They also
+fashioned the shield Svalin (the cooler), and placed it in front of the
+car to shelter them from the sun's direct rays, which would else have
+burned them and the earth to a cinder. The moon-car was, similarly,
+provided with a fleet steed called Alsvider (the all-swift); but no
+shield was required to protect him from the mild rays of the moon.
+
+
+
+Mani and Sol
+
+The chariots were ready, the steeds harnessed and impatient to begin
+what was to be their daily round, but who should guide them along
+the right road? The gods looked about them, and their attention was
+attracted to the two beautiful offspring of the giant Mundilfari. He
+was very proud of his children, and had named them after the newly
+created orbs, Mani (the moon) and Sol (the sun). Sol, the Sun-maid,
+was the spouse of Glaur (glow), who was probably one of Surtr's sons.
+
+The names proved to be happily bestowed, as the brother and sister
+were given the direction of the steeds of their bright namesakes. After
+receiving due counsel from the gods, they were transferred to the sky,
+and day by day they fulfilled their appointed duties and guided their
+steeds along the heavenly paths.
+
+
+    "Know that Mundilfaer is hight
+    Father to the moon and sun;
+    Age on age shall roll away,
+    While they mark the months and days."
+
+            Havamal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+The gods next summoned Nott (night), a daughter of Norvi, one of the
+giants, and entrusted to her care a dark chariot, drawn by a sable
+steed, Hrim-faxi (frost mane), from whose waving mane the dew and
+hoarfrost dropped down upon the earth.
+
+
+    "Hrim-faxi is the sable steed,
+    From the east who brings the night,
+    Fraught with the showering joys of love:
+    As he champs the foamy bit,
+    Drops of dew are scattered round
+    To adorn the vales of earth."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+The goddess of night had thrice been married, and by her first husband,
+Naglfari, she had had a son named Aud; by her second, Annar, a daughter
+Joerd (earth); and by her third, the god Dellinger (dawn), another son,
+of radiant beauty, was now born to her, and he was given the name of
+Dag (day).
+
+As soon as the gods became aware of this beautiful being's existence
+they provided a chariot for him also, drawn by the resplendent white
+steed Skin-faxi (shining mane), from whose mane bright beams of
+light shone forth in every direction, illuminating all the world,
+and bringing light and gladness to all.
+
+
+    "Forth from the east, up the ascent of heaven,
+    Day drove his courser with the shining mane."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+The Wolves Skoell and Hati
+
+But as evil always treads close upon the footsteps of good, hoping to
+destroy it, the ancient inhabitants of the Northern regions imagined
+that both Sun and Moon were incessantly pursued by the fierce wolves
+Skoell (repulsion) and Hati (hatred), whose sole aim was to overtake
+and swallow the brilliant objects before them, so that the world
+might again be enveloped in its primeval darkness.
+
+
+    "Skoell the wolf is named
+    That the fair-faced goddess
+    To the ocean chases;
+    Another Hati hight
+    He is Hrodvitnir's son;
+    He the bright maid of heaven shall precede."
+
+            Saemuna's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+At times, they said, the wolves overtook and tried to swallow their
+prey, thus producing an eclipse of the radiant orbs. Then the terrified
+people raised such a deafening clamour that the wolves, frightened by
+the noise, hastily dropped them. Thus rescued, Sun and Moon resumed
+their course, fleeing more rapidly than before, the hungry monsters
+rushing along in their wake, lusting for the time when their efforts
+would prevail and the end of the world would come. For the Northern
+nations believed that as their gods had sprung from an alliance between
+the divine element (Boerr) and the mortal (Bestla), they were finite,
+and doomed to perish with the world they had made.
+
+
+    "But even in this early morn
+    Faintly foreshadowed was the dawn
+    Of that fierce struggle, deadly shock,
+    Which yet should end in Ragnarok;
+    When Good and Evil, Death and Life,
+    Beginning now, end then their strife."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Mani was accompanied also by Hiuki, the waxing, and Bil, the waning,
+moon, two children whom he had snatched from earth, where a cruel
+father forced them to carry water all night. Our ancestors fancied
+they saw these children, the original "Jack and Jill," with their pail,
+darkly outlined upon the moon.
+
+The gods not only appointed Sun, Moon, Day, and Night to mark the
+procession of the year, but also called Evening, Midnight, Morning,
+Forenoon, Noon, and Afternoon to share their duties, making Summer and
+Winter the rulers of the seasons. Summer, a direct descendant of Svasud
+(the mild and lovely), inherited his sire's gentle disposition, and
+was loved by all except Winter, his deadly enemy, the son of Vindsual,
+himself a son of the disagreeable god Vasud, the personification of
+the icy wind.
+
+
+    "Vindsual is the name of him
+    Who begat the winter's god;
+    Summer from Suasuthur sprang:
+    Both shall walk the way of years,
+    Till the twilight of the gods."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+The cold winds continually swept down from the north, chilling all
+the earth, and the Northmen imagined that these were set in motion
+by the great giant Hrae-svelgr (the corpse-swallower), who, clad in
+eagle plumes, sat at the extreme northern verge of the heavens, and
+that when he raised his arms or wings the cold blasts darted forth
+and swept ruthlessly over the face of the earth, blighting all things
+with their icy breath.
+
+
+    "Hrae-svelger is the name of him
+    Who sits beyond the end of heaven,
+    And winnows wide his eagle-wings,
+    Whence the sweeping blasts have birth."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+
+Dwarfs and Elves
+
+While the gods were occupied in creating the earth and providing
+for its illumination, a whole host of maggot-like creatures had
+been breeding in Ymir's flesh. These uncouth beings now attracted
+divine attention. Summoning them into their presence, the gods first
+gave them forms and endowed them with superhuman intelligence, and
+then divided them into two large classes. Those which were dark,
+treacherous, and cunning by nature were banished to Svart-alfa-heim,
+the home of the black dwarfs, situated underground, whence they were
+never allowed to come forth during the day, under penalty of being
+turned into stone. They were called Dwarfs, Trolls, Gnomes, or Kobolds,
+and spent all their time and energy in exploring the secret recesses
+of the earth. They collected gold, silver, and precious stones,
+which they stowed away in secret crevices, whence they could withdraw
+them at will. The remainder of these small creatures, including all
+that were fair, good, and useful, the gods called Fairies and Elves,
+and they sent them to dwell in the airy realm of Alf-heim (home of
+the light-elves), situated between heaven and earth, whence they
+could flit downward whenever they pleased, to attend to the plants
+and flowers, sport with the birds and butterflies, or dance in the
+silvery moonlight on the green.
+
+Odin, who had been the leading spirit in all these undertakings,
+now bade the gods, his descendants, follow him to the broad plain
+called Idawold, far above the earth, on the other side of the great
+stream Ifing, whose waters never froze.
+
+
+    "Ifing's deep and murky wave
+    Parts the ancient sons of earth
+    From the dwelling of the Goths:
+    Open flows the mighty flood,
+    Nor shall ice arrest its course
+    While the wheel of Ages rolls."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+In the centre of the sacred space, which from the beginning of the
+world had been reserved for their own abode and called Asgard (home of
+the gods), the twelve AEsir (gods) and twenty-four Asynjur (goddesses)
+all assembled at the bidding of Odin. Then was held a great council,
+at which it was decreed that no blood should be shed within the limits
+of their realm, or peace-stead, but that harmony should reign there
+for ever. As a further result of the conference the gods set up a
+forge where they fashioned all their weapons and the tools required
+to build the magnificent palaces of precious metals, in which they
+lived for many long years in a state of such perfect happiness that
+this period has been called the Golden Age.
+
+
+
+The Creation of Man
+
+Although the gods had from the beginning designed Midgard, or
+Mana-heim, as the abode of man, there were at first no human beings to
+inhabit it. One day Odin, Vili, and Ve, according to some authorities,
+or Odin, Hoenir (the bright one), and Lodur, or Loki (fire), started
+out together and walked along the seashore, where they found either
+two trees, the ash, Ask, and the elm, Embla, or two blocks of wood,
+hewn into rude semblances of the human form. The gods gazed at first
+upon the inanimate wood in silent wonder; then, perceiving the use it
+could be put to, Odin gave these logs souls, Hoenir bestowed motion
+and senses, and Lodur contributed blood and blooming complexions.
+
+Thus endowed with speech and thought, and with power to love and to
+hope and to work, and with life and death, the newly created man and
+woman were left to rule Midgard at will. They gradually peopled it
+with their descendants, while the gods, remembering they had called
+them into life, took a special interest in all they did, watched over
+them, and often vouchsafed their aid and protection.
+
+
+
+The Tree Yggdrasil
+
+Allfather next created a huge ash called Yggdrasil, the tree of the
+universe, of time, or of life, which filled all the world, taking
+root not only in the remotest depths of Nifl-heim, where bubbled the
+spring Hvergelmir, but also in Midgard, near Mimir's well (the ocean),
+and in Asgard, near the Urdar fountain.
+
+From its three great roots the tree attained such a marvellous height
+that its topmost bough, called Lerad (the peace-giver), overshadowed
+Odin's hall, while the other wide-spreading branches towered over the
+other worlds. An eagle was perched on the bough Lerad, and between
+his eyes sat the falcon Vedfolnir, sending his piercing glances down
+into heaven, earth, and Nifl-heim, and reporting all that he saw.
+
+As the tree Yggdrasil was ever green, its leaves never withering,
+it served as pasture-ground not only for Odin's goat Heidrun, which
+supplied the heavenly mead, the drink of the gods, but also for the
+stags Dain, Dvalin, Duneyr, and Durathor, from whose horns honey-dew
+dropped down upon the earth and furnished the water for all the rivers
+in the world.
+
+In the seething cauldron Hvergelmir, close by the great tree, a
+horrible dragon, called Nidhug, continually gnawed the roots, and
+was helped in his work of destruction by countless worms, whose aim
+it was to kill the tree, knowing that its death would be the signal
+for the downfall of the gods.
+
+
+    "Through all our life a tempter prowls malignant,
+      The cruel Nidhug from the world below.
+    He hates that asa-light whose rays benignant
+      On th' hero's brow and glitt'ring sword bright glow."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Scampering continually up and down the branches and trunk of the
+tree, the squirrel Ratatosk (branch-borer), the typical busybody
+and tale-bearer, passed its time repeating to the dragon below the
+remarks of the eagle above, and vice versa, in the hope of stirring
+up strife between them.
+
+
+
+The Bridge Bifroest
+
+It was, of course, essential that the tree Yggdrasil should be
+maintained in a perfectly healthy condition, and this duty was
+performed by the Norns, or Fates, who daily sprinkled it with the
+holy waters from the Urdar fountain. This water, as it trickled down
+to earth through branches and leaves, supplied the bees with honey.
+
+From either edge of Nifl-heim, arching high above Midgard, rose the
+sacred bridge, Bifroest (Asabru, the rainbow), built of fire, water,
+and air, whose quivering and changing hues it retained, and over which
+the gods travelled to and fro to the earth or to the Urdar well, at
+the foot of the ash Yggdrasil, where they daily assembled in council.
+
+
+                        "The gods arose
+    And took their horses, and set forth to ride
+    O'er the bridge Bifrost, where is Heimdall's watch,
+    To the ash Igdrasil, and Ida's plain.
+    Thor came on foot, the rest on horseback rode."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Of all the gods Thor only, the god of thunder, never passed over the
+bridge, for fear lest his heavy tread or the heat of his lightnings
+would destroy it. The god Heimdall kept watch and ward there night
+and day. He was armed with a trenchant sword, and carried a trumpet
+called Giallar-horn, upon which he generally blew a soft note to
+announce the coming or going of the gods, but upon which a terrible
+blast would be sounded when Ragnarok should come, and the frost-giants
+and Surtr combined to destroy the world.
+
+
+    "Surt from the south comes
+    With flickering flame;
+    Shines from his sword
+    The Val-god's sun.
+    The stony hills are dashed together,
+    The giantesses totter;
+    Men tread the path of Hel,
+    And heaven is cloven."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Vanas
+
+Now although the original inhabitants of heaven were the AEsir,
+they were not the sole divinities of the Northern races, who also
+recognised the power of the sea- and wind-gods, the Vanas, dwelling
+in Vana-heim and ruling their realms as they pleased. In early times,
+before the golden palaces in Asgard were built, a dispute arose between
+the AEsir and Vanas, and they resorted to arms, using rocks, mountains,
+and icebergs as missiles in the fray. But discovering ere long that
+in unity alone lay strength, they composed their differences and made
+peace, and to ratify the treaty they exchanged hostages.
+
+It was thus that the Van, Nioerd, came to dwell in Asgard with his two
+children, Frey and Freya, while the Asa, Hoenir, Odin's own brother,
+took up his abode in Vana-heim.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II: ODIN
+
+
+The Father of Gods and Men
+
+Odin, Wuotan, or Woden was the highest and holiest god of the
+Northern races. He was the all-pervading spirit of the universe, the
+personification of the air, the god of universal wisdom and victory,
+and the leader and protector of princes and heroes. As all the gods
+were supposed to be descended from him, he was surnamed Allfather,
+and as eldest and chief among them he occupied the highest seat in
+Asgard. Known by the name of Hlidskialf, this chair was not only an
+exalted throne, but also a mighty watch-tower, from whence he could
+overlook the whole world and see at a glance all that was happening
+among gods, giants, elves, dwarfs, and men.
+
+
+    "From the hall of Heaven he rode away
+    To Lidskialf, and sate upon his throne,
+    The mount, from whence his eye surveys the world.
+    And far from Heaven he turned his shining orbs
+    To look on Midgard, and the earth, and men."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+Odin's Personal Appearance
+
+None but Odin and his wife and queen Frigga were privileged to use
+this seat, and when they occupied it they generally gazed towards
+the south and west, the goal of all the hopes and excursions of the
+Northern nations. Odin was generally represented as a tall, vigorous
+man, about fifty years of age, either with dark curling hair or with
+a long grey beard and bald head. He was clad in a suit of grey, with
+a blue hood, and his muscular body was enveloped in a wide blue mantle
+flecked with grey--an emblem of the sky with its fleecy clouds. In his
+hand Odin generally carried the infallible spear Gungnir, which was
+so sacred that an oath sworn upon its point could never be broken,
+and on his finger or arm he wore the marvellous ring, Draupnir, the
+emblem of fruitfulness, precious beyond compare. When seated upon
+his throne or armed for the fray, to mingle in which he would often
+descend to earth, Odin wore his eagle helmet; but when he wandered
+peacefully about the earth in human guise, to see what men were doing,
+he generally donned a broad-brimmed hat, drawn low over his forehead
+to conceal the fact that he possessed but one eye.
+
+Two ravens, Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory), perched upon his
+shoulders as he sat upon his throne, and these he sent out into the
+wide world every morning, anxiously watching for their return at
+nightfall, when they whispered into his ears news of all they had
+seen and heard. Thus he was kept well informed about everything that
+was happening on earth.
+
+
+    "Hugin and Munin
+    Fly each day
+    Over the spacious earth.
+    I fear for Hugin
+    That he come not back,
+    Yet more anxious am I for Munin."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+At his feet crouched two wolves or hunting hounds, Geri and Freki,
+animals which were therefore considered sacred to him, and of good omen
+if met by the way. Odin always fed these wolves with his own hands
+from meat set before him. He required no food at all for himself,
+and seldom tasted anything except the sacred mead.
+
+
+    "Geri and Freki
+    The war-wont sates,
+    The triumphant sire of hosts;
+    But on wine only
+    The famed in arms
+    Odin, ever lives."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+When seated in state upon his throne, Odin rested his feet upon a
+footstool of gold, the work of the gods, all of whose furniture and
+utensils were fashioned either of that precious metal or of silver.
+
+Besides the magnificent hall Glads-heim, where stood the twelve seats
+occupied by the gods when they met in council, and Valaskialf, where
+his throne, Hlidskialf, was placed, Odin had a third palace in Asgard,
+situated in the midst of the marvellous grove Glasir, whose shimmering
+leaves were of red gold.
+
+
+
+Valhalla
+
+This palace, called Valhalla (the hall of the chosen slain), had five
+hundred and forty doors, wide enough to allow the passage of eight
+hundred warriors abreast, and above the principal gate were a boar's
+head and an eagle whose piercing glance penetrated to the far corners
+of the world. The walls of this marvellous building were fashioned
+of glittering spears, so highly polished that they illuminated the
+hall. The roof was of golden shields, and the benches were decorated
+with fine armour, the god's gifts to his guests. Here long tables
+afforded ample accommodation for the Einheriar, warriors fallen in
+battle, who were specially favoured by Odin.
+
+
+    "Easily to be known is,
+    By those who to Odin come,
+    The mansion by its aspect.
+    Its roof with spears is laid,
+    Its hall with shields is decked,
+    With corselets are its benches strewed."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The ancient Northern nations, who deemed warfare the most honourable
+of occupations, and considered courage the greatest virtue, worshipped
+Odin principally as god of battle and victory. They believed that
+whenever a fight was impending he sent out his special attendants,
+the shield-, battle-, or wish-maidens, called Valkyrs (choosers of the
+slain), who selected from the dead warriors one-half of their number,
+whom they bore on their fleet steeds over the quivering rainbow bridge,
+Bifroest, into Valhalla. Welcomed by Odin's sons, Hermod and Bragi,
+the heroes were conducted to the foot of Odin's throne, where they
+received the praise due to their valour. When some special favourite
+of the god was thus brought into Asgard, Valfather (father of the
+slain), as Odin was called when he presided over the warriors, would
+sometimes rise from his throne and in person bid him welcome at the
+great entrance gate.
+
+
+
+The Feast of the Heroes
+
+Besides the glory of such distinction, and the enjoyment of Odin's
+beloved presence day after day, other more material pleasures awaited
+the warriors in Valhalla. Generous entertainment was provided for
+them at the long tables, where the beautiful white-armed virgins,
+the Valkyrs, having laid aside their armour and clad themselves in
+pure white robes, waited upon them with assiduous attention. These
+maidens, nine in number according to some authorities, brought
+the heroes great horns full of delicious mead, and set before them
+huge portions of boar's flesh, upon which they feasted heartily. The
+usual Northern drink was beer or ale, but our ancestors fancied this
+beverage too coarse for the heavenly sphere. They therefore imagined
+that Valfather kept his table liberally supplied with mead or hydromel,
+which was daily furnished in great abundance by his she-goat Heidrun,
+who continually browsed on the tender leaves and twigs on Lerad,
+Yggdrasil's topmost branch.
+
+
+    "Rash war and perilous battle, their delight;
+    And immature, and red with glorious wounds,
+    Unpeaceful death their choice: deriving thence
+    A right to feast and drain immortal bowls,
+    In Odin's hall; whose blazing roof resounds
+    The genial uproar of those shades who fall
+    In desperate fight, or by some brave attempt."
+
+            Liberty (James Thomson).
+
+
+The meat upon which the Einheriar feasted was the flesh of the divine
+boar Saehrimnir, a marvellous beast, daily slain by the cook Andhrimnir,
+and boiled in the great cauldron Eldhrimnir; but although Odin's
+guests had true Northern appetites and gorged themselves to the full,
+there was always plenty of meat for all.
+
+
+    "Andhrimnir cooks
+    In Eldhrimnir
+    Saehrimnir;
+    'Tis the best of flesh;
+    But few know
+    What the einherjes eat."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Anderson's version).
+
+
+Moreover, the supply was exhaustless, for the boar always came to
+life again before the time of the next meal. This miraculous renewal
+of supplies in the larder was not the only wonderful occurrence in
+Valhalla, for it is related that the warriors, after having eaten and
+drunk to satiety, always called for their weapons, armed themselves,
+and rode out into the great courtyard, where they fought against one
+another, repeating the feats of arms for which they were famed on
+earth, and recklessly dealing terrible wounds, which, however, were
+miraculously and completely healed as soon as the dinner horn sounded.
+
+
+    "All the chosen guests of Odin
+    Daily ply the trade of war;
+    From the fields of festal fight
+    Swift they ride in gleaming arms,
+    And gaily, at the board of gods,
+    Quaff the cup of sparkling ale
+    And eat Saehrimni's vaunted flesh."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+Whole and happy at the sound of the horn, and bearing one another
+no grudge for cruel thrusts given and received, the Einheriar would
+ride gaily back to Valhalla to renew their feasts in Odin's beloved
+presence, while the white-armed Valkyrs, with flying hair, glided
+gracefully about, constantly filling their horns or their favourite
+drinking vessels, the skulls of their enemies, while the scalds sang
+of war and of stirring Viking forays.
+
+
+    "And all day long they there are hack'd and hewn
+    'Mid dust, and groans, and limbs lopped off, and blood;
+    But all at night return to Odin's hall
+    Woundless and fresh: such lot is theirs in heaven."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Fighting and feasting thus, the heroes were said to spend their days
+in perfect bliss, while Odin delighted in their strength and number,
+which, however, he foresaw would not avail to prevent his downfall
+when the day of the last battle should dawn.
+
+As such pleasures were the highest a Northern warrior's fancy could
+paint, it was very natural that all fighting men should love Odin, and
+early in life should dedicate themselves to his service. They vowed
+to die arms in hand, if possible, and even wounded themselves with
+their own spears when death drew near, if they had been unfortunate
+enough to escape death on the battlefield and were threatened with
+"straw death," as they called decease from old age or sickness.
+
+
+    "To Odin then true-fast
+    Carves he fair runics,--
+    Death-runes cut deep on his arm and his breast."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+In reward for this devotion Odin watched with special care over his
+favourites, giving them gifts, a magic sword, a spear, or a horse,
+and making them invincible until their last hour had come, when he
+himself appeared to claim or destroy the gift he had bestowed, and
+the Valkyrs bore the heroes to Valhalla.
+
+
+    "He gave to Hermod
+    A helm and corselet,
+    And from him Sigmund
+    A sword received."
+
+            Lay of Hyndla (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Sleipnir
+
+When Odin took an active part in war, he generally rode his
+eight-footed grey steed, Sleipnir, and bore a white shield. His
+glittering spear flung over the heads of the combatants was the signal
+for the fray to commence, and he would dash into the midst of the
+ranks shouting his warcry: "Odin has you all!"
+
+
+    "And Odin donned
+    His dazzling corslet and his helm of gold,
+    And led the way on Sleipnir."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+At times he used his magic bow, from which he would shoot ten arrows at
+once, every one invariably bringing down a foe. Odin was also supposed
+to inspire his favourite warriors with the renowned "Berserker rage"
+(bare sark or shirt), which enabled them, although naked, weaponless,
+and sore beset, to perform unheard-of feats of valour and strength,
+and move about as with charmed lives.
+
+As Odin's characteristics, like the all-pervading elements, were
+multitudinous, so also were his names, of which he had no less than
+two hundred, almost all descriptive of some phase of his activities. He
+was considered the ancient god of seamen and of the wind.
+
+
+            "Mighty Odin,
+      Norsemen hearts we bend to thee!
+    Steer our barks, all-potent Woden,
+      O'er the surging Baltic Sea."
+
+            Vail.
+
+
+
+The Wild Hunt
+
+Odin, as wind-god, was pictured as rushing through mid-air on his
+eight-footed steed, from which originated the oldest Northern riddle,
+which runs as follows: "Who are the two who ride to the Thing? Three
+eyes have they together, ten feet, and one tail: and thus they travel
+through the lands." And as the souls of the dead were supposed to be
+wafted away on the wings of the storm, Odin was worshipped as the
+leader of all disembodied spirits. In this character he was most
+generally known as the Wild Huntsman, and when people heard the
+rush and roar of the wind they cried aloud in superstitious fear,
+fancying they heard and saw him ride past with his train, all mounted
+on snorting steeds, and accompanied by baying hounds. And the passing
+of the Wild Hunt, known as Woden's Hunt, the Raging Host, Gabriel's
+Hounds, or Asgardreia, was also considered a presage of such misfortune
+as pestilence or war.
+
+
+    "The Rhine flows bright; but its waves ere long
+      Must hear a voice of war,
+    And a clash of spears our hills among,
+      And a trumpet from afar;
+    And the brave on a bloody turf must lie,
+    For the Huntsman hath gone by!"
+
+            The Wild Huntsman (Mrs. Hemans).
+
+
+It was further thought that if any were so sacrilegious as to join
+in the wild halloo in mockery, they would be immediately snatched up
+and whirled away with the vanishing host, while those who joined in
+the halloo with implicit good faith would be rewarded by the sudden
+gift of a horse's leg, hurled at them from above, which, if carefully
+kept until the morrow, would be changed into a lump of gold.
+
+Even after the introduction of Christianity the ignorant Northern
+folk still dreaded the on-coming storm, declaring that it was the
+Wild Hunt sweeping across the sky.
+
+
+                    "And ofttimes will start,
+    For overhead are sweeping Gabriel's hounds,
+        Doomed with their impious lord the flying hart
+    To chase forever on aereal grounds."
+
+            Sonnet (Wordsworth).
+
+
+Sometimes it left behind a small black dog, which, cowering and
+whining upon a neighbouring hearth, had to be kept for a whole year and
+carefully tended unless it could be exorcised or frightened away. The
+usual recipe, the same as for the riddance of changelings, was to brew
+beer in egg-shells, and this performance was supposed so to startle
+the spectral dog that he would fly with his tail between his legs,
+exclaiming that, although as old as the Behmer, or Bohemian forest,
+he had never before beheld such an uncanny sight.
+
+
+    "I am as old
+    As the Behmer wold,
+    And have in my life
+    Such a brewing not seen."
+
+            Old Saying (Thorpe's tr.)
+
+
+The object of this phantom hunt varied greatly, and was either a
+visonary boar or wild horse, white-breasted maidens who were caught
+and borne away bound only once in seven years, or the wood nymphs,
+called Moss Maidens, who were thought to represent the autumn leaves
+torn from the trees and whirled away by the wintry gale.
+
+In the middle ages, when the belief in the old heathen deities
+was partly forgotten, the leader of the Wild Hunt was no longer
+Odin, but Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa, King Arthur, or some
+Sabbath-breaker, like the Squire of Rodenstein or Hans von Hackelberg,
+who, in punishment for his sins, was condemned to hunt for ever
+through the realms of air.
+
+As the winds blew fiercest in autumn and winter, Odin was supposed to
+prefer hunting during that season, especially during the time between
+Christmas and Twelfth-night, and the peasants were always careful to
+leave the last sheaf or measure of grain out in the fields to serve
+as food for his horse.
+
+This hunt was of course known by various names in the different
+countries of Northern Europe; but as the tales told about it are
+all alike, they evidently originated in the same old heathen belief,
+and to this day ignorant people of the North fancy that the baying
+of a hound on a stormy night is an infallible presage of death.
+
+
+    "Still, still shall last the dreadful chase,
+      Till time itself shall have an end;
+    By day, they scour earth's cavern'd space,
+      At midnight's witching hour, ascend.
+
+    "This is the horn, and hound, and horse
+      That oft the lated peasant hears;
+    Appall'd, he signs the frequent cross,
+      When the wild din invades his ears.
+
+    "The wakeful priest oft drops a tear
+      For human pride, for human woe,
+    When, at his midnight mass, he hears
+      The infernal cry of 'Holla, ho!'"
+
+            Sir Walter Scott.
+
+
+The Wild Hunt, or Raging Host of Germany, was called Herlathing
+in England, from the mythical king Herla, its supposed leader; in
+Northern France it bore the name of Mesnee d'Hellequin, from Hel,
+goddess of death; and in the middle ages it was known as Cain's Hunt
+or Herod's Hunt, these latter names being given because the leaders
+were supposed to be unable to find rest on account of the iniquitous
+murders of Abel, of John the Baptist, and of the Holy Innocents.
+
+In Central France the Wild Huntsman, whom we have already seen in
+other countries as Odin, Charlemagne, Barbarossa, Rodenstein, von
+Hackelberg, King Arthur, Hel, one of the Swedish kings, Gabriel,
+Cain, or Herod, is also called the Great Huntsman of Fontainebleau
+(le Grand Veneur de Fontainebleau), and people declare that on the
+eve of Henry IV.'s murder, and also just before the outbreak of the
+great French Revolution, his shouts were distinctly heard as he swept
+across the sky.
+
+It was generally believed among the Northern nations that the soul
+escaped from the body in the shape of a mouse, which crept out of
+a corpse's mouth and ran away, and it was also said to creep in and
+out of the mouths of people in a trance. While the soul was absent,
+no effort or remedy could recall the patient to life; but as soon as
+it had come back animation returned.
+
+
+
+The Pied Piper
+
+As Odin was the leader of all disembodied spirits, he was identified in
+the middle ages with the Pied Piper of Hamelin. According to mediaeval
+legends, Hamelin was so infested by rats that life became unbearable,
+and a large reward was offered to any who would rid the town of these
+rodents. A piper, in parti-coloured garments, offered to undertake
+the commission, and the terms being accepted, he commenced to play
+through the streets in such wise that, one and all, the rats were
+beguiled out of their holes until they formed a vast procession. There
+was that in the strains which compelled them to follow, until at last
+the river Weser was reached, and all were drowned in its tide.
+
+
+    "And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,
+    You heard as if an army muttered;
+    And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
+    And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
+    And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.
+    Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
+    Brown rats, black rats, grey rats, tawny rats,
+    Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,
+      Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
+    Cocking tails and pricking whiskers,
+      Families by tens and dozens,
+    Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives--
+    Followed the Piper for their lives.
+    From street to street he piped advancing,
+    And step for step they followed dancing,
+    Until they came to the river Weser,
+    Wherein all plunged and perished!"
+
+            Robert Browning.
+
+
+As the rats were all dead, and there was no chance of their returning
+to plague them, the people of Hamelin refused to pay the reward, and
+they bade the piper do his worst. He took them at their word, and a
+few moments later the weird strains of the magic flute again arose,
+and this time it was the children who swarmed out of the houses and
+merrily followed the piper.
+
+
+    "There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling
+    Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling;
+    Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
+    Little hands clapping and little tongues chattering,
+    And, like fowls in a farmyard when barley is scattering,
+    Out came all the children running.
+    All the little boys and girls,
+    With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,
+    And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,
+    Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after
+    The wonderful music with shouting and laughter."
+
+            Robert Browning.
+
+
+The burghers were powerless to prevent the tragedy, and as they
+stood spellbound the piper led the children out of the town to the
+Koppelberg, a hill on the confines of the town, which miraculously
+opened to receive the procession, and only closed again when the last
+child had passed out of sight. This legend probably originated the
+adage "to pay the piper." The children were never seen in Hamelin
+again, and in commemoration of this public calamity all official
+decrees have since been dated so many years after the Pied Piper's
+visit.
+
+
+    "They made a decree that lawyers never
+      Should think their records dated duly
+    If, after the day of the month and year,
+    These words did not as well appear,
+    'And so long after what happened here
+      On the Twenty-second of July,
+    Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:'
+    And the better in memory to fix
+    The place of the children's last retreat,
+    They called it the Pied Piper Street--
+    Where any one playing on pipe or tabor
+    Was sure for the future to lose his labour."
+
+            Robert Browning.
+
+
+In this myth Odin is the piper, the shrill tones of the flute are
+emblematic of the whistling wind, the rats represent the souls of
+the dead, which cheerfully follow him, and the hollow mountain into
+which he leads the children is typical of the grave.
+
+
+
+Bishop Hatto
+
+Another German legend which owes its existence to this belief is
+the story of Bishop Hatto, the miserly prelate, who, annoyed by the
+clamours of the poor during a time of famine, had them burned alive
+in a deserted barn, like the rats whom he declared they resembled,
+rather than give them some of the precious grain which he had laid
+up for himself.
+
+
+    "'I' faith, 'tis an excellent bonfire!' quoth he,
+    'And the country is greatly obliged to me
+    For ridding it in these times forlorn
+    Of rats that only consume the corn.'"
+
+            Robert Southey.
+
+
+Soon after this terrible crime had been accomplished the bishop's
+retainers reported the approach of a vast swarm of rats. These, it
+appears, were the souls of the murdered peasants, which had assumed the
+forms of the rats to which the bishop had likened them. His efforts
+to escape were vain, and the rats pursued him even into the middle
+of the Rhine, to a stone tower in which he took refuge from their
+fangs. They swam to the tower, gnawed their way through the stone
+walls, and, pouring in on all sides at once, they found the bishop
+and devoured him alive.
+
+
+    "And in at the windows, and in at the door,
+    And through the walls, helter-skelter they pour,
+    And down from the ceiling, and up through the floor,
+    From the right and the left, from behind and before,
+    From within and without, from above and below,
+    And all at once to the Bishop they go.
+    They have whetted their teeth against the stones;
+    And now they pick the Bishop's bones;
+    They gnaw'd the flesh from every limb,
+    For they were sent to do judgment on him!"
+
+            Robert Southey.
+
+
+The red glow of the sunset above the Rat Tower near Bingen on the
+Rhine is supposed to be the reflection of the hell fire in which the
+wicked bishop is slowly roasting in punishment for his heinous crime.
+
+
+
+Irmin
+
+In some parts of Germany Odin was considered to be identical with
+the Saxon god Irmin, whose statue, the Irminsul, near Paderborn, was
+destroyed by Charlemagne in 772. Irmin was said to possess a ponderous
+brazen chariot, in which he rode across the sky along the path which
+we know as the Milky Way, but which the ancient Germans designated
+as Irmin's Way. This chariot, whose rumbling sound occasionally
+became perceptible to mortal ears as thunder, never left the sky,
+where it can still be seen in the constellation of the Great Bear,
+which is also known in the North as Odin's, or Charles's, Wain.
+
+
+        "The Wain, who wheels on high
+    His circling course, and on Orion waits;
+    Sole star that never bathes in the Ocean wave."
+
+            Homer's Iliad (Derby's tr.).
+
+
+
+Mimir's Well
+
+To obtain the great wisdom for which he is so famous, Odin, in the
+morn of time, visited Mimir's (Memor, memory) spring, "the fountain
+of all wit and wisdom," in whose liquid depths even the future was
+clearly mirrored, and besought the old man who guarded it to let him
+have a draught. But Mimir, who well knew the value of such a favour
+(for his spring was considered the source or headwater of memory),
+refused the boon unless Odin would consent to give one of his eyes
+in exchange.
+
+The god did not hesitate, so highly did he prize the draught, but
+immediately plucked out one of his eyes, which Mimir kept in pledge,
+sinking it deep down into his fountain, where it shone with mild
+lustre, leaving Odin with but one eye, which is considered emblematic
+of the sun.
+
+
+    "Through our whole lives we strive towards the sun;
+    That burning forehead is the eye of Odin.
+    His second eye, the moon, shines not so bright;
+    It has he placed in pledge in Mimer's fountain,
+    That he may fetch the healing waters thence,
+    Each morning, for the strengthening of this eye."
+
+            Oehlenschlaeger (Howitt's tr.).
+
+
+Drinking deeply of Mimir's fount, Odin gained the knowledge he
+coveted, and he never regretted the sacrifice he had made, but as
+further memorial of that day broke off a branch of the sacred tree
+Yggdrasil, which overshadowed the spring, and fashioned from it his
+beloved spear Gungnir.
+
+
+    "A dauntless god
+    Drew for drink to its gleam,
+    Where he left in endless
+    Payment the light of an eye.
+    From the world-ash
+    Ere Wotan went he broke a bough;
+    For a spear the staff
+    He split with strength from the stem."
+
+            Dusk of the Gods, Wagner (Forman's tr.).
+
+
+But although Odin was now all-wise, he was sad and oppressed, for
+he had gained an insight into futurity, and had become aware of the
+transitory nature of all things, and even of the fate of the gods,
+who were doomed to pass away. This knowledge so affected his spirits
+that he ever after wore a melancholy and contemplative expression.
+
+To test the value of the wisdom he had thus obtained, Odin went to
+visit the most learned of all the giants, Vafthrudnir, and entered
+with him into a contest of wit, in which the stake was nothing less
+than the loser's head.
+
+
+    "Odin rose with speed, and went
+    To contend in runic lore
+    With the wise and crafty Jute.
+    To Vafthrudni's royal hall
+    Came the mighty king of spells."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+
+Odin and Vafthrudnir
+
+On this occasion Odin had disguised himself as a Wanderer, by Frigga's
+advice, and when asked his name declared it was Gangrad. The contest of
+wit immediately began, Vafthrudnir questioning his guest concerning
+the horses which carried Day and Night across the sky, the river
+Ifing separating Joetun-heim from Asgard, and also about Vigrid,
+the field where the last battle was to be fought.
+
+All these questions were minutely answered by Odin, who, when
+Vafthrudnir had ended, began the interrogatory in his turn, and
+received equally explicit answers about the origin of heaven and
+earth, the creation of the gods, their quarrel with the Vanas, the
+occupations of the heroes in Valhalla, the offices of the Norns, and
+the rulers who were to replace the AEsir when they had all perished
+with the world they had created. But when, in conclusion, Odin bent
+near the giant and softly inquired what words Allfather whispered
+to his dead son Balder as he lay upon his funeral pyre, Vafthrudnir
+suddenly recognised his divine visitor. Starting back in dismay, he
+declared that no one but Odin himself could answer that question,
+and that it was now quite plain to him that he had madly striven
+in a contest of wisdom and wit with the king of the gods, and fully
+deserved the penalty of failure, the loss of his head.
+
+
+    "Not the man of mortal race
+    Knows the words which thou hast spoken
+    To thy son in days of yore.
+    I hear the coming tread of death;
+    He soon shall raze the runic lore,
+    And knowledge of the rise of gods,
+    From his ill-fated soul who strove
+    With Odin's self the strife of wit,
+    Wisest of the wise that breathe:
+    Our stake was life, and thou hast won."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+As is the case with so many of the Northern myths, which are often
+fragmentary and obscure, this one ends here, and none of the scalds
+informs us whether Odin really slew his rival, nor what was the answer
+to his last question; but mythologists have hazarded the suggestion
+that the word whispered by Odin in Balder's ear, to console him for
+his untimely death, must have been "resurrection."
+
+
+
+Invention of Runes
+
+Besides being god of wisdom, Odin was god and inventor of runes,
+the earliest alphabet used by Northern nations, which characters,
+signifying mystery, were at first used for divination, although in
+later times they served for inscriptions and records. Just as wisdom
+could only be obtained at the cost of sacrifice, Odin himself relates
+that he hung nine days and nights from the sacred tree Yggdrasil,
+gazing down into the immeasurable depths of Nifl-heim, plunged in deep
+thought, and self-wounded with his spear, ere he won the knowledge
+he sought.
+
+
+    "I know that I hung
+    On a wind-rocked tree
+    Nine whole nights,
+    With a spear wounded,
+    And to Odin offered
+    Myself to myself;
+    On that tree
+    Of which no one knows
+    From what root it springs."
+
+            Odin's Rune-Song (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+When he had fully mastered this knowledge, Odin cut magic runes upon
+his spear Gungnir, upon the teeth of his horse Sleipnir, upon the
+claws of the bear, and upon countless other animate and inanimate
+things. And because he had thus hung over the abyss for such a long
+space of time, he was ever after considered the patron divinity of
+all who were condemned to be hanged or who perished by the noose.
+
+After obtaining the gift of wisdom and runes, which gave him power over
+all things, Odin also coveted the gift of eloquence and poetry, which
+he acquired in a manner which we shall relate in a subsequent chapter.
+
+
+
+Geirrod and Agnar
+
+Odin, as has already been stated, took great interest in the affairs
+of mortals, and, we are told, was specially fond of watching King
+Hrauding's handsome little sons, Geirrod and Agnar, when they were
+about eight and ten years of age respectively. One day these little
+lads went fishing, and a storm suddenly arose which blew their boat
+far out to sea, where it finally stranded upon an island, upon which
+dwelt a seeming old couple, who in reality were Odin and Frigga in
+disguise. They had assumed these forms in order to indulge a sudden
+passion for the close society of their proteges. The lads were warmly
+welcomed and kindly treated, Odin choosing Geirrod as his favourite,
+and teaching him the use of arms, while Frigga petted and made much
+of little Agnar. The boys tarried on the island with their kind
+protectors during the long, cold winter season; but when spring came,
+and the skies were blue, and the sea calm, they embarked in a boat
+which Odin provided, and set out for their native shore. Favoured by
+gentle breezes, they were soon wafted thither; but as the boat neared
+the strand Geirrod quickly sprang out and pushed it far back into the
+water, bidding his brother sail away into the evil spirit's power. At
+that self-same moment the wind veered, and Agnar was indeed carried
+away, while his brother hastened to his father's palace with a lying
+tale as to what had happened to his brother. He was joyfully received
+as one from the dead, and in due time he succeeded his father upon
+the throne.
+
+Years passed by, during which the attention of Odin had been claimed by
+other high considerations, when one day, while the divine couple were
+seated on the throne Hlidskialf, Odin suddenly remembered the winter's
+sojourn on the desert island, and he bade his wife notice how powerful
+his pupil had become, and taunted her because her favourite Agnar had
+married a giantess and had remained poor and of no consequence. Frigga
+quietly replied that it was better to be poor than hardhearted,
+and accused Geirrod of lack of hospitality--one of the most heinous
+crimes in the eyes of a Northman. She even went so far as to declare
+that in spite of all his wealth he often ill-treated his guests.
+
+When Odin heard this accusation he declared that he would prove the
+falsity of the charge by assuming the guise of a Wanderer and testing
+Geirrod's generosity. Wrapped in his cloud-hued raiment, with slouch
+hat and pilgrim staff,--
+
+
+    "Wanderer calls me the world,
+    Far have I carried my feet,
+    On the back of the earth
+    I have boundlessly been,"--
+
+            Wagner (Forman's tr.).
+
+
+Odin immediately set out by a roundabout way, while Frigga, to outwit
+him, immediately despatched a swift messenger to warn Geirrod to
+beware of a man in wide mantle and broad-brimmed hat, as he was a
+wicked enchanter who would work him ill.
+
+When, therefore, Odin presented himself before the king's palace
+he was dragged into Geirrod's presence and questioned roughly. He
+gave his name as Grimnir, but refused to tell whence he came or what
+he wanted, so as this reticence confirmed the suspicion suggested
+to the mind of Geirrod, he allowed his love of cruelty full play,
+and commanded that the stranger should be bound between two fires,
+in such wise that the flames played around him without quite touching
+him, and he remained thus eight days and nights, in obstinate silence,
+without food. Now Agnar had returned secretly to his brother's palace,
+where he occupied a menial position, and one night when all was still,
+in pity for the suffering of the unfortunate captive, he conveyed to
+his lips a horn of ale. But for this Odin would have had nothing to
+drink--the most serious of all trials to the god.
+
+At the end of the eighth day, while Geirrod, seated upon his throne,
+was gloating over his prisoner's sufferings, Odin began to sing--softly
+at first, then louder and louder, until the hall re-echoed with his
+triumphant notes--a prophecy that the king, who had so long enjoyed
+the god's favour, would soon perish by his own sword.
+
+
+    "The fallen by the sword
+    Ygg shall now have;
+    Thy life is now run out:
+    Wroth with thee are the Disir:
+    Odin thou now shalt see:
+    Draw near to me if thou canst."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+As the last notes died away the chains dropped from his hands, the
+flames flickered and went out, and Odin stood in the midst of the hall,
+no longer in human form, but in all the power and beauty of a god.
+
+On hearing the ominous prophecy Geirrod hastily drew his sword,
+intending to slay the insolent singer; but when he beheld the sudden
+transformation he started in dismay, tripped, fell upon the sharp
+blade, and perished as Odin had just foretold. Turning to Agnar, who,
+according to some accounts, was the king's son, and not his brother,
+for these old stories are often strangely confused, Odin bade him
+ascend the throne in reward for his humanity, and, further to repay
+him for the timely draught of ale, he promised to bless him with all
+manner of prosperity.
+
+On another occasion Odin wandered to earth, and was absent so
+long that the gods began to think that they would not see him in
+Asgard again. This encouraged his brothers Vili and Ve, who by some
+mythologists are considered as other personifications of himself,
+to usurp his power and his throne, and even, we are told, to espouse
+his wife Frigga.
+
+
+    "Be thou silent, Frigg!
+    Thou art Fioergyn's daughter
+    And ever hast been fond of men,
+    Since Ve and Vili, it is said,
+    Thou, Vidrir's wife, didst
+    Both to thy bosom take."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+May-Day Festivals
+
+But upon Odin's return the usurpers vanished for ever; and in
+commemoration of the disappearance of the false Odin, who had ruled
+seven months and had brought nothing but unhappiness to the world,
+and of the return of the benevolent deity, the heathen Northmen
+formerly celebrated yearly festivals, which were long continued
+as May Day rejoicings. Until very lately there was always, on that
+day, a grand procession in Sweden, known as the May Ride, in which a
+flower-decked May king (Odin) pelted with blossoms the fur-enveloped
+Winter (his supplanter), until he put him to ignominious flight. In
+England also the first of May was celebrated as a festive occasion,
+in which May-pole dances, May queens, Maid Marian, and Jack in the
+Green played prominent parts.
+
+As personification of heaven, Odin, of course, was the lover and spouse
+of the earth, and as to them the earth bore a threefold aspect, the
+Northmen depicted him as a polygamist, and allotted to him several
+wives. The first among these was Joerd (Erda), the primitive earth,
+daughter of Night or of the giantess Fiorgyn. She bore him his
+famous son Thor, the god of thunder. The second and principal wife
+was Frigga, a personification of the civilised world. She gave him
+Balder, the gentle god of spring, Hermod, and, according to some
+authorities, Tyr. The third wife was Rinda, a personification of the
+hard and frozen earth, who reluctantly yields to his warm embrace,
+but finally gives birth to Vali, the emblem of vegetation.
+
+Odin is also said to have married Saga or Laga, the goddess of history
+(hence our verb "to say"), and to have daily visited her in the crystal
+hall of Sokvabek, beneath a cool, ever-flowing river, to drink its
+waters and listen to her songs about olden times and vanished races.
+
+
+    "Sokvabek hight the fourth dwelling;
+    Over it flow the cool billows;
+    Glad drink there Odin and Saga
+    Every day from golden cups."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+His other wives were Grid, the mother of Vidar; Gunlod, the mother
+of Bragi; Skadi; and the nine giantesses who simultaneously bore
+Heimdall--all of whom play more or less important parts in the various
+myths of the North.
+
+
+
+The Historical Odin
+
+Besides this ancient Odin, there was a more modern, semi-historical
+personage of the same name, to whom all the virtues, powers, and
+adventures of his predecessor have been attributed. He was the
+chief of the AEsir, inhabitants of Asia Minor, who, sore pressed by
+the Romans, and threatened with destruction or slavery, left their
+native land about 70 B.C., and migrated into Europe. This Odin is
+said to have conquered Russia, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden,
+leaving a son on the throne of each conquered country. He also built
+the town of Odensoe. He was welcomed in Sweden by Gylfi, the king,
+who gave him a share of the realm, and allowed him to found the city
+of Sigtuna, where he built a temple and introduced a new system of
+worship. Tradition further relates that as his end drew near, this
+mythical Odin assembled his followers, publicly cut himself nine
+times in the breast with his spear,--a ceremony called "carving Geir
+odds,"--and told them he was about to return to his native land Asgard,
+his old home, where he would await their coming, to share with him
+a life of feasting, drinking, and fighting.
+
+According to another account, Gylfi, having heard of the power
+of the AEsir, the inhabitants of Asgard, and wishing to ascertain
+whether these reports were true, journeyed to the south. In due time
+he came to Odin's palace, where he was expected, and where he was
+deluded by the vision of Har, Iafn-har, and Thridi, three divinities,
+enthroned one above the other. The gatekeeper, Gangler, answered all
+his questions, and gave him a long explanation of Northern mythology,
+which is recorded in the Younger Edda, and then, having finished his
+instructions, suddenly vanished with the palace amid a deafening noise.
+
+According to other very ancient poems, Odin's sons, Weldegg, Beldegg,
+Sigi, Skiold, Saeming, and Yngvi, became kings of East Saxony, West
+Saxony, Franconia, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and from them are
+descended the Saxons, Hengist and Horsa, and the royal families of the
+Northern lands. Still another version relates that Odin and Frigga had
+seven sons, who founded the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy. In the course of
+time this mysterious king was confounded with the Odin whose worship
+he introduced, and all his deeds were attributed to the god.
+
+Odin was worshipped in numerous temples, but especially in the
+great fane at Upsala, where the most solemn festivals were held,
+and where sacrifices were offered. The victim was generally a horse,
+but in times of pressing need human offerings were made, even the
+king being once offered up to avert a famine.
+
+
+    "Upsal's temple, where the North
+    Saw Valhal's halls fair imag'd here on earth."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+The first toast at every festival here was drunk in his honour, and,
+besides the first of May, one day in every week was held sacred to
+him, and, from his Saxon name, Woden, was called Woden's day, whence
+the English word "Wednesday" has been derived. It was customary for
+the people to assemble at his shrine on festive occasions, to hear
+the songs of the scalds, who were rewarded for their minstrelsy by
+the gift of golden bracelets or armlets, which curled up at the ends
+and were called "Odin's serpents."
+
+There are but few remains of ancient Northern art now extant, and
+although rude statues of Odin were once quite common they have all
+disappeared, as they were made of wood--a perishable substance, which
+in the hands of the missionaries, and especially of Olaf the Saint,
+the Northern iconoclast, was soon reduced to ashes.
+
+
+    "There in the Temple, carved in wood,
+    The image of great Odin stood."
+
+            Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).
+
+
+Odin himself is supposed to have given his people a code of laws
+whereby to govern their conduct, in a poem called Havamal, or the
+High Song, which forms part of the Edda. In this lay he taught
+the fallibility of man, the necessity for courage, temperance,
+independence, and truthfulness, respect for old age, hospitality,
+charity, and contentment, and gave instructions for the burial of
+the dead.
+
+
+    "At home let a man be cheerful,
+    And toward a guest liberal;
+    Of wise conduct he should be,
+    Of good memory and ready speech;
+    If much knowledge he desires,
+    He must often talk on what is good."
+
+            Havamal (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III: FRIGGA
+
+
+The Queen of the Gods
+
+Frigga, or Frigg, daughter of Fiorgyn and sister of Joerd, according to
+some mythologists, is considered by others as a daughter of Joerd and
+Odin, whom she eventually married. This wedding caused such general
+rejoicing in Asgard, where the goddess was greatly beloved, that ever
+after it was customary to celebrate its anniversary with feast and
+song, and the goddess being declared patroness of marriage, her health
+was always proposed with that of Odin and Thor at wedding feasts.
+
+Frigga was goddess of the atmosphere, or rather of the clouds, and as
+such was represented as wearing either snow-white or dark garments,
+according to her somewhat variable moods. She was queen of the gods,
+and she alone had the privilege of sitting on the throne Hlidskialf,
+beside her august husband. From thence she too could look over all
+the world and see what was happening, and, according to the belief
+of our ancestors, she possessed the knowledge of the future, which,
+however, no one could ever prevail upon her to reveal, thus proving
+that Northern women could keep a secret inviolate.
+
+
+    "Of me the gods are sprung;
+    And all that is to come I know, but lock
+    In my own breast, and have to none reveal'd."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+She was generally represented as a tall, beautiful, and stately woman,
+crowned with heron plumes, the symbol of silence or forgetfulness, and
+clothed in pure white robes, secured at the waist by a golden girdle,
+from which hung a bunch of keys, the distinctive sign of the Northern
+housewife, whose special patroness she was said to be. Although she
+often appeared beside her husband, Frigga preferred to remain in her
+own palace, called Fensalir, the hall of mists or of the sea, where
+she diligently plied her wheel or distaff, spinning golden thread or
+weaving long webs of bright-coloured clouds.
+
+In order to perform this work she made use of a marvellous jewelled
+spinning wheel or distaff, which at night shone brightly in the sky as
+a constellation, known in the North as Frigga's Spinning Wheel, while
+the inhabitants of the South called the same stars Orion's Girdle.
+
+To her hall Fensalir the gracious goddess invited husbands and wives
+who had led virtuous lives on earth, so that they might enjoy each
+other's companionship even after death, and never be called upon to
+part again.
+
+
+    "There in the glen, Fensalir stands, the house
+    Of Frea, honour'd mother of the gods,
+    And shows its lighted windows and the open doors."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Frigga was therefore considered the goddess of conjugal and
+motherly love, and was specially worshipped by married lovers and
+tender parents. This exalted office did not entirely absorb her
+thoughts however, for we are told that she was very fond of dress,
+and whenever she appeared before the assembled gods her attire was
+rich and becoming, and her jewels chosen with much taste.
+
+
+
+The Stolen Gold
+
+Frigga's love of adornment once led her sadly astray, for, in her
+longing to possess some new ornament, she secretly purloined a piece
+of gold from a statue representing her husband, which had just been
+placed in his temple. The stolen metal was entrusted to the dwarfs,
+with instructions to fashion a marvellous necklace for her use. This,
+when finished, was so resplendent that it greatly enhanced her charms,
+and even increased Odin's love for her. But when he discovered the
+theft of the gold he angrily summoned the dwarfs and bade them reveal
+who had dared to touch his statue. Unwilling to betray the queen of
+the gods, the dwarfs remained obstinately silent, and, seeing that
+no information could be elicited from them, Odin commanded that the
+statue should be placed above the temple gate, and set to work to
+devise runes which should endow it with the power of speech and enable
+it to denounce the thief. When Frigga heard these tidings she trembled
+with fear, and implored her favourite attendant, Fulla, to invent some
+means of protecting her from Allfather's wrath. Fulla, who was always
+ready to serve her mistress, immediately departed, and soon returned,
+accompanied by a hideous dwarf, who promised to prevent the statue
+from speaking if Frigga would only deign to smile graciously upon
+him. This boon having been granted, the dwarf hastened off to the
+temple, caused a deep sleep to fall upon the guards, and while they
+were thus unconscious, pulled the statue down from its pedestal and
+broke it to pieces, so that it could never betray Frigga's theft,
+in spite of all Odin's efforts to give it the power of speech.
+
+Odin, discovering this sacrilege on the morrow, was very angry indeed;
+so angry that he left Asgard and utterly disappeared, carrying away
+with him all the blessings which he had been wont to shower upon gods
+and men. According to some authorities, his brothers, as we have
+already seen, took advantage of his absence to assume his form and
+secure possession of his throne and wife; but although they looked
+exactly like him they could not restore the lost blessings, and allowed
+the ice-giants, or Jotuns, to invade the earth and bind it fast in
+their cold fetters. These wicked giants pinched the leaves and buds
+till they all shrivelled up, stripped the trees bare, shrouded the
+earth in a great white coverlet, and veiled it in impenetrable mists.
+
+But at the end of seven weary months the true Odin relented and
+returned, and when he saw all the evil that had been done he drove
+the usurpers away, forced the frost-giants to relax their grip of the
+earth and to release her from her icy bonds, and again showered all
+his blessings down upon her, cheering her with the light of his smile.
+
+
+
+Odin Outwitted
+
+As has already been seen, Odin, although god of wit and wisdom, was
+sometimes no match for his wife Frigga, who, womanlike, was sure to
+obtain her way by some means. On one occasion the august pair were
+seated upon Hlidskialf, gazing with interest upon the Winilers and
+Vandals, who were preparing for a battle which was to decide which
+people should henceforth have supremacy. Odin gazed with satisfaction
+upon the Vandals, who were loudly praying to him for victory; but
+Frigga watched the movements of the Winilers with more attention,
+because they had entreated her aid. She therefore turned to Odin
+and coaxingly inquired whom he meant to favour on the morrow; he,
+wishing to evade her question, declared he would not decide, as it
+was time for bed, but would give the victory to those upon whom his
+eyes first rested in the morning.
+
+This answer was shrewdly calculated, for Odin knew that his couch
+was so turned that upon waking he would face the Vandals, and he
+intended looking out from thence, instead of waiting until he had
+mounted his throne. But, although so cunningly contrived, this plan
+was frustrated by Frigga, who, divining his purpose, waited until he
+was sound asleep, and then noiselessly turned his couch so that he
+should face her favourites. Then she sent word to the Winilers to dress
+their women in armour and send them out in battle array at dawn, with
+their long hair carefully combed down over their cheeks and breasts.
+
+
+    "Take thou thy women-folk,
+    Maidens and wives:
+    Over your ankles
+    Lace on the white war-hose;
+    Over your bosoms
+    Link up the hard mail-nets;
+    Over your lips
+    Plait long tresses with cunning;--
+    So war beasts full-bearded
+    King Odin shall deem you,
+    When off the grey sea-beach
+    At sunrise ye greet him."
+
+            The Longbeards' Saga (Charles Kingsley).
+
+
+These instructions were carried out with scrupulous exactness, and
+when Odin awoke the next morning his first conscious glance fell upon
+their armed host, and he exclaimed in surprise, "What Longbeards are
+those?" (In German the ancient word for long beards was Langobarden,
+which was the name used to designate the Lombards.) Frigga, upon
+hearing this exclamation, which she had foreseen, immediately cried
+out in triumph that Allfather had given them a new name, and was
+in honour bound to follow the usual Northern custom and give also a
+baptismal gift.
+
+
+    "'A name thou hast given them,
+    Shames neither thee nor them,
+    Well can they wear it.
+    Give them the victory,
+    First have they greeted thee;
+    Give them the victory,
+    Yoke-fellow mine!'"
+
+            The Longbeards' Saga (Charles Kingsley).
+
+
+Odin, seeing he had been so cleverly outwitted, made no demur, and in
+memory of the victory which his favour vouchsafed to them the Winilers
+retained the name given by the king of the gods, who ever after watched
+over them with special care, giving them many blessings, among others
+a home in the sunny South, on the fruitful plains of Lombardy.
+
+
+
+Fulla
+
+Frigga had, as her own special attendants, a number of beautiful
+maidens, among whom were Fulla (Volla), her sister, according to
+some authorities, to whom she entrusted her jewel casket. Fulla
+always presided over her mistress's toilet, was privileged to put
+on her golden shoes, attended her everywhere, was her confidante,
+and often advised her how best to help the mortals who implored
+her aid. Fulla was very beautiful indeed, and had long golden hair,
+which she wore flowing loose over her shoulders, restrained only by
+a golden circlet or snood. As her hair was emblematic of the golden
+grain, this circlet represented the binding of the sheaf. Fulla
+was also known as Abundia, or Abundantia, in some parts of Germany,
+where she was considered the symbol of the fulness of the earth.
+
+Hlin, Frigga's second attendant, was the goddess of consolation,
+sent out to kiss away the tears of mourners and pour balm into hearts
+wrung by grief. She also listened with ever-open ears to the prayers
+of mortals, carrying them to her mistress, and advising her at times
+how best to answer them and give the desired relief.
+
+
+
+Gna
+
+Gna was Frigga's swift messenger. Mounted upon her fleet steed
+Hofvarpnir (hoof-thrower), she would travel with marvellous rapidity
+through fire and air, over land and sea, and was therefore considered
+the personification of the refreshing breeze. Darting thus to and fro,
+Gna saw all that was happening upon earth, and told her mistress
+all she knew. On one occasion, as she was passing over Hunaland,
+she saw King Rerir, a lineal descendant of Odin, sitting mournfully
+by the shore, bewailing his childlessness. The queen of heaven,
+who was also goddess of childbirth, upon hearing this took an apple
+(the emblem of fruitfulness) from her private store, gave it to Gna,
+and bade her carry it to the king. With the rapidity of the element
+she personified, Gna darted away, and as she passed over Rerir's head,
+she dropped her apple into his lap with a radiant smile.
+
+
+    "'What flies up there, so quickly driving past?'
+    Her answer from the clouds, as rushing by:
+    'I fly not, nor do drive, but hurry fast,
+    Hoof-flinger swift through cloud and mist and sky.'"
+
+            Asgard and the Gods (Wagner-Macdowall).
+
+
+The king pondered for a moment upon the meaning of this sudden
+apparition and gift, and then hurried home, his heart beating high
+with hope, and gave the apple to his wife to eat. In due season,
+to his intense joy, she bore him a son, Volsung, the great Northern
+hero, who became so famous that he gave his name to all his race.
+
+
+
+Lofn, Vjofn, and Syn
+
+Besides the three above mentioned, Frigga had other attendants in her
+train. There was the mild and gracious maiden Lofn (praise or love),
+whose duty it was to remove all obstacles from the path of lovers.
+
+
+    "My lily tall, from her saddle bearing,
+    I led then forth through the temple, faring
+    To th' altar-circle where, priests among,
+    Lofn's vows she took with unfalt'ring tongue."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Vjofn's duty was to incline obdurate hearts to love, to maintain peace
+and concord among mankind, and to reconcile quarrelling husbands and
+wives. Syn (truth) guarded the door of Frigga's palace, refusing to
+open it to those who were not allowed to come in. When she had once
+shut the door upon a would-be intruder no appeal would avail to change
+her decision. She therefore presided over all tribunals and trials,
+and whenever a thing was to be vetoed the usual formula was to declare
+that Syn was against it.
+
+
+
+Gefjon
+
+Gefjon was also one of the maidens in Frigga's palace, and to her
+were entrusted all those who died unwedded, whom she received and
+made happy for ever.
+
+According to some authorities, Gefjon did not remain a virgin herself,
+but married one of the giants, by whom she had four sons. This same
+tradition goes on to declare that Odin sent her before him to visit
+Gylfi, King of Sweden, and to beg for some land which she might call
+her own. The king, amused at her request, promised her as much land as
+she could plough around in one day and night. Gefjon, nothing daunted,
+changed her four sons into oxen, harnessed them to a plough, and began
+to cut a furrow so wide and deep that the king and his courtiers were
+amazed. But Gefjon continued her work without showing any signs of
+fatigue, and when she had ploughed all around a large piece of land
+forcibly wrenched it away, and made her oxen drag it down into the sea,
+where she made it fast and called it Seeland.
+
+
+    "Gefjon drew from Gylfi,
+    Rich in stored up treasure,
+    The land she joined to Denmark.
+    Four heads and eight eyes bearing,
+    While hot sweat trickled down them,
+    The oxen dragged the reft mass
+    That formed this winsome island."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+As for the hollow she left behind her, it was quickly filled with water
+and formed a lake, at first called Logrum (the sea), but now known
+as Maelar, whose every indentation corresponds with the headlands of
+Seeland. Gefjon then married Skiold, one of Odin's sons, and became
+the ancestress of the royal Danish race of Skioldungs, dwelling in
+the city of Hleidra or Lethra, which she founded, and which became
+the principal place of sacrifice for the heathen Danes.
+
+
+
+Eira, Vara, Voer and Snotra
+
+Eira, also Frigga's attendant, was considered a most skilful
+physician. She gathered simples all over the earth to cure both wounds
+and diseases, and it was her province to teach the science to women,
+who were the only ones to practise medicine among the ancient nations
+of the North.
+
+
+    "Gaping wounds are bound by Eyra."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Vara heard all oaths and punished perjurers, while she rewarded those
+who faithfully kept their word. Then there were also Voer (faith),
+who knew all that was to occur throughout the world, and Snotra,
+goddess of virtue, who had mastered all knowledge.
+
+With such a galaxy of attendants it is little wonder that Frigga was
+considered a powerful deity; but in spite of the prominent place she
+occupied in Northern religion, she had no special temple nor shrine,
+and was but little worshipped except in company with Odin.
+
+
+
+Holda
+
+While Frigga was not known by this name in Southern Germany, there
+were other goddesses worshipped there, whose attributes were so exactly
+like hers, that they were evidently the same, although they bore very
+different names in the various provinces. Among them was the fair
+goddess Holda (Hulda or Frau Holle), who graciously dispensed many
+rich gifts. As she presided over the weather, the people were wont to
+declare when the snowflakes fell that Frau Holle was shaking her bed,
+and when it rained, that she was washing her clothes, often pointing
+to the white clouds as her linen which she had put out to bleach. When
+long grey strips of clouds drifted across the sky they said she was
+weaving, for she was supposed to be also a very diligent weaver,
+spinner, and housekeeper. It is said she gave flax to mankind and
+taught them how to use it, and in the Tyrol the following story is
+told about the way in which she bestowed this invaluable gift:
+
+
+
+The Discovery of Flax
+
+There was once a peasant who daily left his wife and children in the
+valley to take his sheep up the mountain to pasture; and as he watched
+his flock grazing on the mountain-side, he often had opportunity to
+use his cross-bow and bring down a chamois, whose flesh would furnish
+his larder with food for many a day.
+
+While pursuing a fine animal one day he saw it disappear behind a
+boulder, and when he came to the spot, he was amazed to see a doorway
+in the neighbouring glacier, for in the excitement of the pursuit he
+had climbed higher and higher, until he was now on top of the mountain,
+where glittered the everlasting snow.
+
+The shepherd boldly passed through the open door, and soon found
+himself in a wonderful jewelled cave hung with stalactites, in the
+centre of which stood a beautiful woman, clad in silvery robes, and
+attended by a host of lovely maidens crowned with Alpine roses. In his
+surprise, the shepherd sank to his knees, and as in a dream heard the
+queenly central figure bid him choose anything he saw to carry away
+with him. Although dazzled by the glow of the precious stones around
+him, the shepherd's eyes constantly reverted to a little nosegay of
+blue flowers which the gracious apparition held in her hand, and he
+now timidly proffered a request that it might become his. Smiling with
+pleasure, Holda, for it was she, gave it to him, telling him he had
+chosen wisely and would live as long as the flowers did not droop and
+fade. Then, giving the shepherd a measure of seed which she told him
+to sow in his field, the goddess bade him begone; and as the thunder
+pealed and the earth shook, the poor man found himself out upon the
+mountain-side once more, and slowly wended his way home to his wife,
+to whom he told his adventure and showed the lovely blue flowers and
+the measure of seed.
+
+The woman reproached her husband bitterly for not having brought some
+of the precious stones which he so glowingly described, instead of the
+blossoms and seed; nevertheless the man proceeded to sow the latter,
+and he found to his surprise that the measure supplied seed enough
+for several acres.
+
+Soon the little green shoots began to appear, and one moonlight
+night, while the peasant was gazing upon them, as was his wont,
+for he felt a curious attraction to the field which he had sown, and
+often lingered there wondering what kind of grain would be produced,
+he saw a misty form hover above the field, with hands outstretched
+as if in blessing. At last the field blossomed, and countless little
+blue flowers opened their calyxes to the golden sun. When the flowers
+had withered and the seed was ripe, Holda came once more to teach the
+peasant and his wife how to harvest the flax--for such it was--and from
+it to spin, weave, and bleach linen. As the people of the neighbourhood
+willingly purchased both linen and flax-seed, the peasant and his
+wife soon grew very rich indeed, and while he ploughed, sowed, and
+harvested, she spun, wove, and bleached the linen. The man lived to
+a good old age, and saw his grandchildren and great-grandchildren
+grow up around him. All this time his carefully treasured bouquet
+had remained fresh as when he first brought it home, but one day he
+saw that during the night the flowers had drooped and were dying.
+
+Knowing what this portended, and that he too must die, the peasant
+climbed the mountain once more to the glacier, and found again the
+doorway for which he had often vainly searched. He entered the icy
+portal, and was never seen or heard of again, for, according to the
+legend, the goddess took him under her care, and bade him live in
+her cave, where his every wish was gratified.
+
+
+
+Tannhaeuser
+
+According to a mediaeval tradition, Holda dwelt in a cave in the
+Hoerselberg, in Thuringia, where she was known as Frau Venus, and
+was considered as an enchantress who lured mortals into her realm,
+where she detained them for ever, steeping their senses in all
+manner of sensual pleasures. The most famous of her victims was
+Tannhaeuser, who, after he had lived under her spell for a season,
+experienced a revulsion of feeling which loosened her bonds over his
+spirit and induced anxious thoughts concerning his soul. He escaped
+from her power and hastened to Rome to confess his sins and seek
+absolution. But when the Pope heard of his association with one of
+the pagan goddesses whom the priests taught were nothing but demons,
+he declared that the knight could no more hope for pardon than to
+see his staff bear buds and bloom.
+
+
+    "Hast thou within the nets of Satan lain?
+    Hast thou thy soul to her perdition pledged?
+    Hast thou thy lip to Hell's Enchantress lent,
+    To drain damnation from her reeking cup?
+    Then know that sooner from the withered staff
+    That in my hand I hold green leaves shall spring,
+    Than from the brand in hell-fire scorched rebloom
+    The blossoms of salvation."
+
+            Tannhaeuser (Owen Meredith).
+
+
+Crushed with grief at this pronouncement, Tannhaeuser fled, and,
+despite the entreaties of his faithful friend, Eckhardt, no great
+time elapsed ere he returned to the Hoerselberg, where he vanished
+within the cave. He had no sooner disappeared, however, than the Pope's
+messengers arrived, proclaiming that he was pardoned, for the withered
+staff had miraculously bloomed, thus proving to all that there was
+no sin too heinous to be pardoned, providing repentance were sincere.
+
+
+    "Dashed to the hip with travel, dewed with haste,
+    A flying post, and in his hand he bore
+    A withered staff o'erflourished with green leaves;
+    Who,--followed by a crowd of youth and eld,
+    That sang to stun with sound the lark in heaven,
+    'A miracle! a miracle from Rome!
+    Glory to God that makes the bare bough green!'--
+    Sprang in the midst, and, hot for answer, asked
+    News of the Knight Tannhaeuser."
+
+            Tannhaeuser (Owen Meredith).
+
+
+Holda was also the owner of a magic fountain called Quickborn, which
+rivalled the famed fountain of youth, and of a chariot in which she
+rode from place to place when she inspected her domain. This vehicle
+having once suffered damage, the goddess bade a wheelwright repair it,
+and when he had finished told him to keep some chips as his pay. The
+man was indignant at such a meagre reward, and kept only a very few of
+the number; but to his surprise he found these on the morrow changed
+to gold.
+
+
+      "Fricka, thy wife--
+    This way she reins her harness of rams.
+    Hey! how she whirls
+    The golden whip;
+    The luckless beasts
+    Unboundedly bleat;
+    Her wheels wildly she rattles;
+    Wrath is lit in her look."
+
+            Wagner (Forman's tr.).
+
+
+
+Eastre, the Goddess of Spring
+
+The Saxon goddess Eastre, or Ostara, goddess of spring, whose name has
+survived in the English word Easter, is also identical with Frigga,
+for she too is considered goddess of the earth, or rather of Nature's
+resurrection after the long death of winter. This gracious goddess
+was so dearly loved by the old Teutons, that even after Christianity
+had been introduced they retained so pleasant a recollection of her,
+that they refused to have her degraded to the rank of a demon, like
+many of their other divinities, and transferred her name to their great
+Christian feast. It had long been customary to celebrate this day by
+the exchange of presents of coloured eggs, for the egg is the type of
+the beginning of life; so the early Christians continued to observe
+this rule, declaring, however, that the egg is also symbolical of the
+Resurrection. In various parts of Germany, stone altars can still be
+seen, which are known as Easter-stones, because they were dedicated
+to the fair goddess Ostara. They were crowned with flowers by the
+young people, who danced gaily around them by the light of great
+bonfires,--a species of popular games practised until the middle of
+the present century, in spite of the priests' denunciations and of
+the repeatedly published edicts against them.
+
+
+
+Bertha, the White Lady
+
+In other parts of Germany, Frigga, Holda, or Ostara is known by
+the name of Brechta, Bertha, or the White Lady. She is best known
+under this title in Thuringia, where she was supposed to dwell in
+a hollow mountain, keeping watch over the Heimchen, souls of unborn
+children, and of those who died unbaptized. Here Bertha watched over
+agriculture, caring for the plants, which her infant troop watered
+carefully, for each babe was supposed to carry a little jar for that
+express purpose. While the goddess was duly respected and her retreat
+unmolested, she remained where she was; but tradition relates that
+she once left the country with her infant train dragging her plough,
+and settled elsewhere to continue her kind ministrations. Bertha
+is the legendary ancestress of several noble families, and she is
+supposed to be the same as the industrious queen of the same name,
+the mythical mother of Charlemagne, whose era has become proverbial,
+for in speaking of the Golden Age in France and Germany it is customary
+to say, "in the days when Bertha spun."
+
+As this Bertha is supposed to have developed a very large and flat
+foot, from continually pressing the treadle of her wheel, she is
+often represented in mediaeval art as a woman with a splay foot,
+and hence known as la reine pedauque.
+
+As ancestress of the imperial house of Germany, the White Lady is
+supposed to appear in the palace before a death or misfortune in
+the family, and this superstition is still so rife in Germany, that
+the newspapers in 1884 contained the official report of a sentinel,
+who declared that he had seen her flit past him in one of the palace
+corridors.
+
+As Bertha was renowned for her spinning, she naturally was regarded
+as the special patroness of that branch of female industry, and was
+said to flit through the streets of every village, at nightfall,
+during the twelve nights between Christmas and January 6, peering
+into every window to inspect the spinning of the household.
+
+The maidens whose work had been carefully performed were rewarded by
+a present of one of her own golden threads or a distaff full of extra
+fine flax; but wherever a careless spinner was found, her wheel was
+broken, her flax soiled, and if she had failed to honour the goddess
+by eating plenty of the cakes baked at that period of the year,
+she was cruelly punished.
+
+In Mecklenburg, this same goddess is known as Frau Gode, or Wode, the
+female form of Wuotan or Odin, and her appearance is always considered
+the harbinger of great prosperity. She is also supposed to be a great
+huntress, and to lead the Wild Hunt, mounted upon a white horse,
+her attendants being changed into hounds and all manner of wild beasts.
+
+In Holland she was called Vrou-elde, and from her the Milky Way is
+known by the Dutch as Vrou-elden-straat; while in parts of Northern
+Germany she was called Nerthus (Mother Earth). Her sacred car was
+kept on an island, presumably Ruegen, where the priests guarded it
+carefully until she appeared to take a yearly journey throughout
+her realm to bless the land. The goddess, her face completely hidden
+by a thick veil, then sat in this car, which was drawn by two cows,
+and she was respectfully escorted by her priests. When she passed,
+the people did homage by ceasing all warfare, and laying aside their
+weapons. They donned festive attire, and began no quarrel until
+the goddess had again retired to her sanctuary. Then both car and
+goddess were bathed in a secret lake (the Schwartze See, in Ruegen),
+which swallowed up the slaves who had assisted at the bathing, and
+once more the priests resumed their watch over the sanctuary and
+grove of Nerthus or Hlodyn, to await her next appearance.
+
+In Scandinavia, this goddess was also known as Huldra, and boasted of
+a train of attendant wood-nymphs, who sometimes sought the society of
+mortals, to enjoy a dance upon the village green. They could always
+be detected, however, by the tip of a cow's tail which trailed from
+beneath their long snow-white garments. These Huldra folk were the
+special protectors of the cattle on the mountain-sides, and were said
+to surprise the lonely traveller, at times, by the marvellous beauty
+of the melodies they sang to beguile the hours at their tasks.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV: THOR
+
+
+The Thunderer
+
+According to some mythologists, Thor, or Donar, is the son of Joerd
+(Erda) and of Odin, but others state that his mother was Frigga,
+queen of the gods. This child was very remarkable for his great size
+and strength, and very soon after his birth amazed the assembled
+gods by playfully lifting and throwing about ten great bales of bear
+skins. Although generally good-tempered, Thor would occasionally fly
+into a terrible rage, and as he was very dangerous at these times, his
+mother, unable to control him, sent him away from home and entrusted
+him to the care of Vingnir (the winged), and of Hlora (heat). These
+foster-parents, who are also considered as the personification of
+sheet-lightning, soon managed to control their troublesome charge, and
+brought him up so wisely, that the gods entertained a very grateful
+recollection of their kind offices. Thor himself, recognising all he
+owed them, assumed the names of Vingthor and Hlorridi, by which he
+is also known.
+
+
+                            "Cry on, Vingi-Thor,
+    With the dancing of the ring-mail and the smitten shields of war."
+
+            Sigurd the Volsung (William Morris).
+
+
+Having attained his full growth and the age of reason, Thor was
+admitted to Asgard among the other gods, where he occupied one of the
+twelve seats in the great judgment hall. He was also given the realm
+of Thrud-vang or Thrud-heim, where he built a wonderful palace called
+Bilskirnir (lightning), the most spacious in all Asgard. It contained
+five hundred and forty halls for the accommodation of the thralls,
+who after death were welcomed to his home, where they received equal
+treatment with their masters in Valhalla, for Thor was the patron
+god of the peasants and lower classes.
+
+
+    "Five hundred halls
+    And forty more,
+    Methinketh, hath
+    Bowed Bilskirnir.
+    Of houses roofed
+    There's none I know
+    My son's surpassing."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Percy's tr.).
+
+
+As he was god of thunder, Thor alone was never allowed to pass over
+the wonderful bridge Bifroest, lest he should set it aflame by the
+heat of his presence; and when he wished to join his fellow gods by
+the Urdar fountain, under the shade of the sacred tree Yggdrasil, he
+was forced to make his way thither on foot, wading through the rivers
+Kormt and Ormt, and the two streams Kerlaug, to the trysting place.
+
+Thor, who was honoured as the highest god in Norway, came second in
+the trilogy of all the other countries, and was called "old Thor,"
+because he is supposed by some mythologists to have belonged to an
+older dynasty of gods, and not on account of his actual age, for he
+was represented and described as a man in his prime, tall and well
+formed, with muscular limbs and bristling red hair and beard, from
+which, in moments of anger, the sparks flew in showers.
+
+
+    "First, Thor with the bent brow,
+      In red beard muttering low,
+      Darting fierce lightnings from eyeballs that glow,
+    Comes, while each chariot wheel
+    Echoes in thunder peal,
+      As his dread hammer shock
+      Makes Earth and Heaven rock,
+    Clouds rifting above, while Earth quakes below."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The Northern races further adorned him with a crown, on each point
+of which was either a glittering star, or a steadily burning flame,
+so that his head was ever surrounded by a kind of halo of fire,
+his own element.
+
+
+
+Thor's Hammer
+
+Thor was the proud possessor of a magic hammer called Mioelnir
+(the crusher) which he hurled at his enemies, the frost-giants,
+with destructive power, and which possessed the wonderful property
+of always returning to his hand, however far away he might hurl it.
+
+
+    "I am the Thunderer!
+    Here in my Northland,
+    My fastness and fortress,
+    Reign I forever!
+
+    "Here amid icebergs
+    Rule I the nations;
+    This is my hammer,
+    Mioelnir the mighty;
+    Giants and sorcerers
+    Cannot withstand it!"
+
+            Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).
+
+
+As this huge hammer, the emblem of the thunderbolts, was generally
+red-hot, the god had an iron gauntlet called Iarn-greiper, which
+enabled him to grasp it firmly. He could hurl Mioelnir a great distance,
+and his strength, which was always remarkable, was doubled when he
+wore his magic belt called Megin-gioerd.
+
+
+    "This is my girdle:
+    Whenever I brace it,
+    Strength is redoubled!"
+
+            Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).
+
+
+Thor's hammer was considered so very sacred by the ancient Northern
+people, that they were wont to make the sign of the hammer, as the
+Christians later taught them to make the sign of the cross, to ward
+off all evil influences, and to secure blessings. The same sign
+was also made over the newly born infant when water was poured over
+its head and a name given. The hammer was used to drive in boundary
+stakes, which it was considered sacrilegious to remove, to hallow
+the threshold of a new house, to solemnise a marriage, and, lastly,
+it played a part in the consecration of the funeral pyre upon which
+the bodies of heroes, together with their weapons and steeds, and,
+in some cases, with their wives and dependents, were burned.
+
+In Sweden, Thor, like Odin, was supposed to wear a broad-brimmed hat,
+and hence the storm-clouds in that country are known as Thor's hat, a
+name also given to one of the principal mountains in Norway. The rumble
+and roar of the thunder were said to be the roll of his chariot, for
+he alone among the gods never rode on horseback, but walked, or drove
+in a brazen chariot drawn by two goats, Tanngniostr (tooth-cracker),
+and Tanngrisnr (tooth-gnasher), from whose teeth and hoofs the sparks
+constantly flew.
+
+
+    "Thou camest near the next, O warrior Thor!
+    Shouldering thy hammer, in thy chariot drawn,
+    Swaying the long-hair'd goats with silver'd rein."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+When the god thus drove from place to place, he was called Aku-thor,
+or Thor the charioteer, and in Southern Germany the people, fancying
+a brazen chariot alone inadequate to furnish all the noise they heard,
+declared it was loaded with copper kettles, which rattled and clashed,
+and therefore often called him, with disrespectful familiarity,
+the kettle-vendor.
+
+
+
+Thor's Family
+
+Thor was twice married; first to the giantess Iarnsaxa (iron stone),
+who bore him two sons, Magni (strength) and Modi (courage), both
+destined to survive their father and the twilight of the gods,
+and rule over the new world which was to rise like a phoenix from
+the ashes of the first. His second wife was Sif, the golden-haired,
+who also bore him two children, Lorride, and a daughter named Thrud,
+a young giantess renowned for her size and strength. True to the
+well-known affinity of contrast, Thrud was wooed by the dwarf Alvis,
+whom she rather favoured; and one evening, when this suitor, who,
+being a dwarf, could not face the light of day, presented himself in
+Asgard to sue for her hand, the assembled gods did not refuse their
+consent. They had scarcely signified their approbation, however, when
+Thor, who had been absent, suddenly appeared, and casting a glance of
+contempt upon the puny lover, declared he would have to prove that his
+knowledge atoned for his small stature, before he could win his bride.
+
+To test Alvis's mental powers, Thor then questioned him in the
+language of the gods, Vanas, elves, and dwarfs, artfully prolonging
+his examination until sunrise, when the first beam of light, falling
+upon the unhappy dwarf, petrified him. There he stood, an enduring
+example of the gods' power, to serve as a warning to all other dwarfs
+who might dare to test it.
+
+
+    "Ne'er in human bosom
+    Have I found so many
+    Words of the old time.
+    Thee with subtlest cunning
+    Have I yet befooled.
+    Above ground standeth thou, dwarf
+    By day art overtaken,
+    Bright sunshine fills the hall."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Howitt's version).
+
+
+
+Sif, the Golden-haired
+
+Sif, Thor's wife, was very vain of a magnificent head of long golden
+hair which covered her from head to foot like a brilliant veil; and
+as she too was a symbol of the earth, her hair was said to represent
+the long grass, or the golden grain covering the Northern harvest
+fields. Thor was very proud of his wife's beautiful hair; imagine
+his dismay, therefore, upon waking one morning, to find her shorn,
+and as bald and denuded of ornament as the earth when the grain has
+been garnered, and nothing but the stubble remains! In his anger,
+Thor sprang to his feet, vowing he would punish the perpetrator
+of this outrage, whom he immediately and rightly conjectured to be
+Loki, the arch-plotter, ever on the look-out for some evil deed to
+perform. Seizing his hammer, Thor went in search of Loki, who attempted
+to evade the irate god by changing his form. But it was all to no
+purpose; Thor soon overtook him, and without more ado caught him by
+the throat, and almost strangled him ere he yielded to his imploring
+signs and relaxed his powerful grip. When he could draw his breath,
+Loki begged forgiveness, but all his entreaties were vain, until he
+promised to procure for Sif a new head of hair, as beautiful as the
+first, and as luxuriant in growth.
+
+
+    "And thence for Sif new tresses I'll bring
+      Of gold, ere the daylight's gone,
+    So that she shall liken a field in spring,
+      With its yellow-flowered garment on."
+
+            The Dwarfs, Oehlenschlaeger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Then Thor consented to let the traitor go; so Loki rapidly crept down
+into the bowels of the earth, where Svart-alfa-heim was situated,
+to beg the dwarf Dvalin to fashion not only the precious hair, but
+a present for Odin and Frey, whose anger he wished to disarm.
+
+His request was favourably received and the dwarf fashioned the spear
+Gungnir, which never failed in its aim, and the ship Skidbladnir,
+which, always wafted by favourable winds, could sail through the air
+as well as on the water, and which had this further magic property,
+that although it could contain the gods and all their steeds, it
+could be folded up into the very smallest compass and thrust in
+one's pocket. Lastly, he spun the finest golden thread, from which
+he fashioned the hair required for Sif, declaring that as soon as it
+touched her head it would grow fast there and become as her own.
+
+
+    "Though they now seem dead, let them touch but her head,
+      Each hair shall the life-moisture fill;
+    Nor shall malice nor spell henceforward prevail
+      Sif's tresses to work aught of ill."
+
+            The Dwarfs, Oehlenschlaeger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Loki was so pleased with these proofs of the dwarfs' skill that he
+declared the son of Ivald to be the most clever of smiths--words which
+were overheard by Brock, another dwarf, who exclaimed that he was sure
+his brother Sindri could produce three objects which would surpass
+those which Loki held, not only in intrinsic value, but also in magical
+properties. Loki immediately challenged the dwarf to show his skill,
+wagering his head against Brock's on the result of the undertaking.
+
+Sindri, apprised of the wager, accepted Brock's offer to blow the
+bellows, warning him, however, that he must work persistently and
+not for a moment relax his efforts if he wished him to succeed; then
+he threw some gold in the fire, and went out to bespeak the favour
+of the hidden powers. During his absence Brock diligently plied the
+bellows, while Loki, hoping to make him pause, changed himself into
+a gadfly and cruelly stung his hand. In spite of the pain, the dwarf
+kept on blowing, and when Sindri returned, he drew out of the fire
+an enormous wild boar, called Gullin-bursti, because of its golden
+bristles, which had the power of radiating light as it flitted across
+the sky, for it could travel through the air with marvellous velocity.
+
+
+    "And now, strange to tell, from the roaring fire
+      Came the golden-haired Gullinboerst,
+    To serve as a charger the sun-god Frey,
+      Sure, of all wild boars this the first."
+
+            The Dwarfs, Oehlenschlaeger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+This first piece of work successfully completed, Sindri flung some more
+gold on the fire and bade his brother resume blowing, while he again
+went out to secure magic assistance. This time Loki, still disguised
+as a gadfly, stung the dwarf on his cheek; but in spite of the pain
+Brock worked on, and when Sindri returned, he triumphantly drew
+out of the flames the magic ring Draupnir, the emblem of fertility,
+from which eight similar rings dropped every ninth night.
+
+
+    "They worked it and turned it with wondrous skill,
+      Till they gave it the virtue rare,
+    That each thrice third night from its rim there fell
+      Eight rings, as their parent fair."
+
+            The Dwarfs, Oehlenschlaeger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Now a lump of iron was cast in the flames, and with renewed caution not
+to forfeit their success by inattention, Sindri passed out, leaving
+Brock to ply the bellows as before. Loki was now in desperation
+and he prepared for a final effort. This time, still in the guise
+of the gadfly, he stung the dwarf above the eye until the blood
+began to flow in such a stream, that it prevented his seeing what
+he was doing. Hastily raising his hand for a second, Brock dashed
+aside the stream of blood; but short as was the interruption it had
+worked irreparable harm, and when Sindri drew his work out of the
+fire he uttered an exclamation of disappointment for the hammer he
+had fashioned was short in the handle.
+
+
+    "Then the dwarf raised his hand to his brow for the smart,
+      Ere the iron well out was beat,
+    And they found that the haft by an inch was too short,
+      But to alter it then 'twas too late."
+
+            The Dwarfs, Oehlenschlaeger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Notwithstanding this mishap, Brock was sure of winning the wager and
+he did not hesitate to present himself before the gods in Asgard,
+where he gave Odin the ring Draupnir, Frey the boar Gullin-bursti,
+and Thor the hammer Mioelnir, whose power none could resist.
+
+Loki in turn gave the spear Gungnir to Odin, the ship Skidbladnir to
+Frey, and the golden hair to Thor; but although the latter immediately
+grew upon Sif's head and was unanimously declared more beautiful than
+her own locks had ever been, the gods decreed that Brock had won
+the wager, on the ground that the hammer Mioelnir, in Thor's hands,
+would prove invaluable against the frost giants on the last day.
+
+
+            "And at their head came Thor,
+    Shouldering his hammer, which the giants know."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+In order to save his head, Loki fled precipitately, but was overtaken
+by Thor, who brought him back and handed him over to Brock, telling
+him, however, that although Loki's head was rightfully his, he
+must not touch his neck. Hindered from obtaining full vengeance,
+the dwarf determined to punish Loki by sewing his lips together,
+and as his sword would not pierce them, he borrowed his brother's
+awl for the purpose. However, Loki, after enduring the gods' gibes
+in silence for a little while, managed to cut the string and soon
+after was as loquacious as ever.
+
+In spite of his redoubtable hammer, Thor was not held in dread as
+the injurious god of the storm, who destroyed peaceful homesteads
+and ruined the harvest by sudden hail-storms and cloud-bursts. The
+Northmen fancied he hurled it only against ice giants and rocky walls,
+reducing the latter to powder to fertilise the earth and make it
+yield plentiful fruit to the tillers of the soil.
+
+In Germany, where the eastern storms are always cold and blighting,
+while the western bring warm rains and mild weather, Thor was supposed
+to journey always from west to east, to wage war against the evil
+spirits which would fain have enveloped the country in impenetrable
+veils of mist and have bound it in icy fetters.
+
+
+
+Thor's Journey to Joetun-heim
+
+As the giants from Joetun-heim were continually sending out cold
+blasts of wind to nip the tender buds and hinder the growth of the
+flowers, Thor once made up his mind to go and force them to behave
+better. Accompanied by Loki he set out in his chariot, and after
+riding for a whole day the gods came at nightfall to the confines of
+the giant-world, where, seeing a peasant's hut, they resolved to stay
+for rest and refreshment.
+
+Their host was hospitable but very poor, and Thor, seeing that he
+would scarcely be able to supply the necessary food to satisfy his
+by no means small appetite, slew both his goats, which he cooked and
+made ready to eat, inviting his host and family to partake freely of
+the food thus provided, but cautioning them to throw all the bones,
+without breaking them, into the skins of the goats which he had spread
+out on the floor.
+
+The peasant and his family ate heartily, but his son Thialfi,
+encouraged by mischievous Loki, ventured to break one of the bones
+and suck out the marrow, thinking his disobedience would not be
+detected. On the morrow, however, Thor, ready to depart, struck the
+goat skins with his hammer Mioelnir, and immediately the goats sprang up
+as lively as before, except that one seemed somewhat lame. Perceiving
+that his commands had been disregarded, Thor would have slain the whole
+family in his wrath. The culprit acknowledged his fault, however,
+and the peasant offered to compensate for the loss by giving the
+irate god not only his son Thialfi, but also his daughter Roskva,
+to serve him for ever.
+
+Charging the man to take good care of the goats, which he left there
+until he should return, and bidding the young peasants accompany
+him, Thor now set out on foot with Loki, and after walking all day
+found himself at nightfall in a bleak and barren country, which was
+enveloped in an almost impenetrable grey mist. After seeking for
+some time, Thor saw through the fog the uncertain outline of what
+looked like a strangely-shaped house. Its open portal was so wide and
+high that it seemed to take up all one side of the house. Entering
+and finding neither fire nor light, Thor and his companions flung
+themselves wearily down on the floor to sleep, but were soon disturbed
+by a peculiar noise, and a prolonged trembling of the ground beneath
+them. Fearing lest the main roof should fall during this earthquake,
+Thor and his companions took refuge in a wing of the building, where
+they soon fell sound asleep. At dawn, the god and his companions
+passed out, but they had not gone very far ere they saw the recumbent
+form of a sleeping giant, and perceived that the peculiar sounds
+which had disturbed their rest were produced by his snores. At that
+moment the giant awoke, arose, stretched himself, looked about him
+for his missing property, and a second later picked up the object
+which Thor and his companions had mistaken in the darkness for a
+house. They then perceived with amazement that this was nothing more
+than a huge mitten, and that the wing in which they had all slept
+was the separate place for the giant's great thumb! Learning that
+Thor and his companions were on their way to Utgard, as the giants'
+realm was also called, Skrymir, the giant, proposed to be their guide;
+and after walking with them all day, he brought them at nightfall to
+a spot where he proposed to rest. Ere he composed himself for sleep,
+however, he offered them the provisions in his wallet. But, in spite
+of strenuous efforts, neither Thor nor his companions could unfasten
+the knots which Skrymir had tied.
+
+
+    "Skrymir's thongs
+    Seemed to thee hard,
+    When at the food thou couldst not get,
+    When, in full health, of hunger dying."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Utgard-loki
+
+Angry because of his snoring, which kept them awake, Thor thrice
+dealt him fearful blows with his hammer. These strokes, instead of
+annihilating the monster, merely evoked sleepy comments to the effect
+that a leaf, a bit of bark, or a twig from a bird's nest overhead had
+fallen upon his face. Early on the morrow, Skrymir left Thor and his
+companions, pointing out the shortest road to Utgard-loki's castle,
+which was built of great ice blocks, with huge glittering icicles
+as pillars. The gods, slipping between the bars of the great gate,
+presented themselves boldly before the king of the giants, Utgard-loki,
+who, recognising them, immediately pretended to be greatly surprised
+at their small size, and expressed a wish to see for himself what
+they could do, as he had often heard their prowess vaunted.
+
+Loki, who had fasted longer than he wished, immediately declared
+he was ready to eat for a wager with any one. So the king ordered
+a great wooden trough full of meat to be brought into the hall, and
+placing Loki at one end and his cook Logi at the other, he bade them
+see which would win. Although Loki did wonders, and soon reached the
+middle of the trough, he found that, whereas he had picked the bones
+clean, his opponent had devoured both them and the trough.
+
+Smiling contemptuously, Utgard-loki said that it was evident they
+could not do much in the eating line, and this so nettled Thor that
+he declared if Loki could not eat like the voracious cook, he felt
+confident he could drain the biggest vessel in the house, such was
+his unquenchable thirst. Immediately a horn was brought in, and,
+Utgard-loki declaring that good drinkers emptied it at one draught,
+moderately thirsty persons at two, and small drinkers at three,
+Thor applied his lips to the rim. But, although he drank so deep
+that he thought he would burst, the liquid still came almost up to
+the rim when he raised his head. A second and third attempt to empty
+this horn proved equally unsuccessful. Thialfi then offered to run
+a race, but a young fellow named Hugi, who was matched against him,
+soon outstripped him, although Thialfi ran remarkably fast.
+
+Thor proposed next to show his strength by lifting weights, and was
+challenged to pick up the giant's cat. Seizing an opportunity to
+tighten his belt Megin-gioerd, which greatly enhanced his strength,
+he tugged and strained but was able only to raise one of its paws
+from the floor.
+
+
+    "Strong is great Thor, no doubt, when Megingarder
+    He braces tightly o'er his rock-firm loins."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+A last attempt on his part to wrestle with Utgard-loki's old nurse
+Elli, the only opponent deemed worthy of such a puny fellow, ended
+just as disastrously, and the gods, acknowledging they were beaten,
+were hospitably entertained. On the morrow they were escorted to the
+confines of Utgard, where the giant politely informed them that he
+hoped they would never call upon him again, as he had been forced
+to employ magic against them. He then went on to explain that he
+was the giant Skrymir, and that had he not taken the precaution
+to interpose a mountain between his head and Thor's blows, while
+he seemingly lay asleep, he would have been slain, as deep clefts
+in the mountain side, to which he pointed, testified to the god's
+strength. Next he informed them that Loki's opponent was Logi (wild
+fire); that Thialfi had run a race with Hugi (thought), than which no
+swifter runner exists; that Thor's drinking horn was connected with
+the ocean, where his deep draughts had produced a perceptible ebb;
+that the cat was in reality the terrible Midgard snake encircling the
+world, which Thor had nearly pulled out of the sea; and that Elli,
+his nurse, was old age, whom none can resist. Having finished these
+explanations and cautioned them never to return or he would defend
+himself by similar delusions, Utgard-loki vanished, and although Thor
+angrily brandished his hammer, and would have destroyed his castle,
+such a mist enveloped it that it could not be seen, and the thunder
+god was obliged to return to Thrud-vang without having administered
+his purposed salutary lesson to the race of giants.
+
+
+        "The strong-armed Thor
+    Full oft against Jotunheim did wend,
+    But spite his belt celestial, spite his gauntlets,
+    Utgard-Loki still his throne retains;
+    Evil, itself a force, to force yields never."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+Thor and Hrungnir
+
+Odin himself was once dashing through the air on his eight-footed steed
+Sleipnir, when he attracted the attention of the giant Hrungnir,
+who proposed a race, declaring that Gullfaxi, his steed, could
+rival Sleipnir in speed. In the heat of the race, Hrungnir did not
+notice the direction in which they were going, until, in the vain
+hope of overtaking Odin, he urged his steed to the very gates of
+Valhalla. Discovering then where he was, the giant grew pale with
+fear, for he knew he had jeopardised his life by venturing into the
+stronghold of the gods, his hereditary foes.
+
+The AEsir, however, were too honourable to take even an enemy at a
+disadvantage, and, instead of doing him harm, they asked him into their
+banqueting-halls, where he proceeded to indulge in liberal potations
+of the heavenly mead set before him. He soon grew so excited that he
+began to boast of his power, declaring he would come some day and take
+possession of Asgard, which he would destroy, together with the gods,
+save only Freya and Sif, upon whom he gazed with an admiring leer.
+
+The gods, knowing he was not responsible, let him talk unmolested;
+but Thor, coming home just then from one of his journeys, and
+hearing his threat to carry away the beloved Sif, flew into a
+terrible rage. He furiously brandished his hammer, with intent to
+annihilate the boaster. This the gods would not permit, however, and
+they quickly threw themselves between the irate Thunderer and their
+guest, imploring Thor to respect the sacred rights of hospitality,
+and not to desecrate their peace-stead by shedding blood.
+
+Thor was at last induced to bridle his wrath, but he demanded that
+Hrungnir should appoint a time and place for a holmgang, as a Northern
+duel was generally called. Thus challenged, Hrungnir promised to meet
+Thor at Griottunagard, the confines of his realm, three days later,
+and departed somewhat sobered by the fright he had experienced. When
+his fellow giants heard how rash he had been, they chided him sorely;
+but they took counsel together in order to make the best of a bad
+situation. Hrungnir told them that he was to have the privilege of
+being accompanied by a squire, whom Thialfi would engage in fight,
+wherefore they proceeded to construct a creature of clay, nine
+miles long, and proportionately wide, whom they called Mokerkialfi
+(mist wader). As they could find no human heart big enough to put in
+this monster's breast, they secured that of a mare, which, however,
+kept fluttering and quivering with apprehension. The day of the duel
+arrived. Hrungnir and his squire were on the ground awaiting the
+arrival of their respective opponents. The giant had not only a flint
+heart and skull, but also a shield and club of the same substance,
+and therefore deemed himself well-nigh invincible. Thialfi came
+before his master and soon after there was a terrible rumbling and
+shaking which made the giant apprehensive that his enemy would come
+up through the ground and attack him from underneath. He therefore
+followed a hint from Thialfi and stood upon his shield.
+
+A moment later, however, he saw his mistake, for, while Thialfi
+attacked Mokerkialfi with a spade, Thor came with a rush upon the scene
+and flung his hammer full at his opponent's head. Hrungnir, to ward
+off the blow, interposed his stone club, which was shivered into pieces
+that flew all over the earth, supplying all the flint stones thereafter
+to be found, and one fragment sank deep into Thor's forehead. As the
+god dropped fainting to the ground, his hammer crashed against the
+head of Hrungnir, who fell dead beside him, in such a position that
+one of his ponderous legs was thrown over the recumbent god.
+
+
+    "Thou now remindest me
+    How I with Hrungnir fought,
+    That stout-hearted Jotun,
+    Whose head was all of stone;
+    Yet I made him fall
+    And sink before me."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Thialfi, who, in the meanwhile, had disposed of the great clay giant
+with its cowardly mare's heart, now rushed to his master's assistance,
+but his efforts were unavailing, nor could the other gods, whom he
+quickly summoned, raise the pinioning leg. While they were standing
+there, helplessly wondering what they should do next, Thor's little
+son Magni came up. According to varying accounts, he was then only
+three days or three years old, but he quickly seized the giant's
+foot, and, unaided, set his father free, declaring that had he only
+been summoned sooner he would easily have disposed of both giant and
+squire. This exhibition of strength made the gods marvel greatly,
+and helped them to recognise the truth of the various predictions,
+which one and all declared that their descendants would be mightier
+than they, would survive them, and would rule in their turn over the
+new heaven and earth.
+
+To reward his son for his timely aid, Thor gave him the steed Gullfaxi
+(golden-maned), to which he had fallen heir by right of conquest,
+and Magni ever after rode this marvellous horse, which almost equalled
+the renowned Sleipnir in speed and endurance.
+
+
+
+Groa, the Sorceress
+
+After vainly trying to remove the stone splinter from his forehead,
+Thor sadly returned home to Thrud-vang, where Sif's loving efforts
+were equally unsuccessful. She therefore resolved to send for Groa
+(green-making), a sorceress, noted for her skill in medicine and for
+the efficacy of her spells and incantations. Groa immediately signified
+her readiness to render every service in her power to the god who had
+so often benefited her, and solemnly began to recite powerful runes,
+under whose influence Thor felt the stone grow looser and looser. His
+delight at the prospect of a speedy deliverance made Thor wish to
+reward the enchantress forthwith, and knowing that nothing could give
+greater pleasure to a mother than the prospect of seeing a long-lost
+child, he proceeded to tell her that he had recently crossed the
+Elivagar, or ice streams, to rescue her little son Orvandil (germ) from
+the frost giants' cruel power, and had succeeded in carrying him off
+in a basket. But, as the little rogue would persist in sticking one of
+his bare toes through a hole in the basket, it had been frost-bitten,
+and Thor, accidentally breaking it off, had flung it up into the sky,
+to shine as a star, known in the North as "Orvandil's Toe."
+
+Delighted with these tidings, the prophetess paused in her incantations
+to express her joy, but, having forgotten just where she left off,
+she was unable to continue her spell, and the flint stone remained
+embedded in Thor's forehead, whence it could never be dislodged.
+
+Of course, as Thor's hammer always did him such good service, it was
+the most prized of all his possessions, and his dismay was very great
+when he awoke one morning and found it gone. His cry of anger and
+disappointment soon brought Loki to his side, and to him Thor confided
+the secret of his loss, declaring that were the giants to hear of it,
+they would soon attempt to storm Asgard and destroy the gods.
+
+
+    "Wroth waxed Thor, when his sleep was flown,
+    And he found his trusty hammer gone;
+    He smote his brow, his beard he shook,
+    The son of earth 'gan round him look;
+    And this the first word that he spoke:
+    'Now listen what I tell thee, Loke;
+    Which neither on earth below is known,
+    Nor in heaven above: my hammer's gone."
+
+            Thrym's Quida (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+
+Thor and Thrym
+
+Loki declared he would try to discover the thief and recover the
+hammer, if Freya would lend him her falcon plumes, and he immediately
+hastened off to Folkvang to borrow them. His errand was successful and
+in the form of a bird he then winged his flight across the river Ifing,
+and over the barren stretches of Joetun-heim, where he suspected that
+the thief would be found. There he saw Thrym, prince of the frost
+giants and god of the destructive thunder-storm, sitting alone on a
+hill-side. Artfully questioning him, he soon learned that Thrym had
+stolen the hammer and had buried it deep underground. Moreover, he
+found that there was little hope of its being restored unless Freya
+were brought to him arrayed as a bride.
+
+
+    "I have the Thunderer's hammer bound
+    Fathoms eight beneath the ground;
+    With it shall no one homeward tread
+    Till he bring me Freya to share my bed."
+
+            Thrym's Quida (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+Indignant at the giant's presumption, Loki returned to Thrud-vang,
+but Thor declared it would be well to visit Freya and try to prevail
+upon her to sacrifice herself for the general good. But when the AEsir
+told the goddess of beauty what they wished her to do, she flew into
+such a passion that even her necklace burst. She told them that she
+would never leave her beloved husband for any god, much less to marry
+a detested giant and dwell in Joetun-heim, where all was dreary in the
+extreme, and where she would soon die of longing for the green fields
+and flowery meadows, in which she loved to roam. Seeing that further
+persuasions would be useless, Loki and Thor returned home and there
+deliberated upon another plan for recovering the hammer. By Heimdall's
+advice, which, however, was only accepted with extreme reluctance,
+Thor borrowed and put on Freya's clothes together with her necklace,
+and enveloped himself in a thick veil. Loki, having attired himself as
+handmaiden, then mounted with him in the goat-drawn chariot, and the
+strangely attired pair set out for Joetun-heim, where they intended to
+play the respective parts of the goddess of beauty and her attendant.
+
+
+    "Home were driven
+    Then the goats,
+    And hitched to the car;
+    Hasten they must--
+    The mountains crashed,
+    The earth stood in flames:
+    Odin's son
+    Rode to Joetun-heim."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Thrym welcomed his guests at the palace door, overjoyed at the thought
+that he was about to secure undisputed possession of the goddess
+of beauty, for whom he had long sighed in vain. He quickly led them
+to the banqueting-hall, where Thor, the bride elect, distinguished
+himself by eating an ox, eight huge salmon, and all the cakes and
+sweets provided for the women, washing down these miscellaneous viands
+with the contents of two barrels of mead.
+
+The giant bridegroom watched these gastronomic feats with amazement,
+whereupon Loki, in order to reassure him, confidentially whispered
+that the bride was so deeply in love with him that she had not been
+able to taste a morsel of food for more than eight days. Thrym then
+sought to kiss the bride, but drew back appalled at the fire of her
+glance, which Loki explained as a burning glance of love. The giant's
+sister, claiming the usual gifts, was not even noticed; wherefore
+Loki again whispered to the wondering Thrym that love makes people
+absent-minded. Intoxicated with passion and mead, which he, too,
+had drunk in liberal quantities, the bridegroom now bade his servants
+produce the sacred hammer to consecrate the marriage, and as soon as
+it was brought he himself laid it in the pretended Freya's lap. The
+next moment a powerful hand closed over the short handle, and soon
+the giant, his sister, and all the invited guests, were slain by the
+terrible Thor.
+
+
+    "'Bear in the hammer to plight the maid;
+    Upon her lap the bruiser lay,
+    And firmly plight our hands and fay.'
+    The Thunderer's soul smiled in his breast;
+    When the hammer hard on his lap was placed,
+    Thrym first, the king of the Thursi, he slew,
+    And slaughtered all the giant crew."
+
+            Thrym's Quida (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+Leaving a smoking heap of ruins behind them, the gods then drove
+rapidly back to Asgard, where the borrowed garments were given back
+to Freya, much to the relief of Thor, and the AEsir rejoiced at the
+recovery of the precious hammer. When next Odin gazed upon that part
+of Joetun-heim from his throne Hlidskialf, he saw the ruins covered
+with tender green shoots, for Thor, having conquered his enemy,
+had taken possession of his land, which henceforth would no longer
+remain barren and desolate, but would bring forth fruit in abundance.
+
+
+
+Thor and Geirrod
+
+Loki once borrowed Freya's falcon-garb and flew off in search of
+adventures to another part of Joetun-heim, where he perched on top
+of the gables of Geirrod's house. He soon attracted the attention
+of this giant, who bade one of his servants catch the bird. Amused
+at the fellow's clumsy attempts to secure him, Loki flitted about
+from place to place, only moving just as the giant was about to lay
+hands upon him, when, miscalculating his distance, he suddenly found
+himself a captive.
+
+Attracted by the bird's bright eyes, Geirrod looked closely at it and
+concluded that it was a god in disguise, and finding that he could
+not force him to speak, he locked him in a cage, where he kept him
+for three whole months without food or drink. Conquered at last by
+hunger and thirst, Loki revealed his identity, and obtained his release
+by promising that he would induce Thor to visit Geirrod without his
+hammer, belt, or magic gauntlet. Loki then flew back to Asgard, and
+told Thor that he had been royally entertained, and that his host had
+expressed a strong desire to see the powerful thunder-god, of whom
+he had heard such wonderful tales. Flattered by this artful speech,
+Thor was induced to consent to a friendly journey to Joetun-heim,
+and the two gods set out, leaving the three marvellous weapons at
+home. They had not gone far, however, ere they came to the house of
+the giantess Grid, one of Odin's many wives. Seeing Thor unarmed,
+she warned him to beware of treachery and lent him her own girdle,
+staff, and glove. Some time after leaving her, Thor and Loki came to
+the river Veimer, which the Thunderer, accustomed to wading, prepared
+to ford, bidding Loki and Thialfi cling fast to his belt.
+
+In the middle of the stream, however, a sudden cloud-burst and freshet
+overtook them; the waters began to rise and roar, and although Thor
+leaned heavily upon his staff, he was almost swept away by the force
+of the raging current.
+
+
+    "Wax not, Veimer,
+    Since to wade I desire
+    To the realm of the giants!
+    Know, if thou waxest,
+    Then waxes my asa-might
+    As high as the heavens."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Thor now became aware of the presence, up stream, of Geirrod's daughter
+Gialp, and rightly suspecting that she was the cause of the storm, he
+picked up a huge boulder and flung it at her, muttering that the best
+place to dam a river was at its source. The missile had the desired
+effect, for the giantess fled, the waters abated, and Thor, exhausted
+but safe, pulled himself up on the opposite bank by a little shrub, the
+mountain-ash or sorb. This has since been known as "Thor's salvation,"
+and occult powers have been attributed to it. After resting awhile
+Thor and his companions resumed their journey; but upon arriving at
+Geirrod's house the god was so exhausted that he sank wearily upon
+the only chair in sight. To his surprise, however, he felt it rising
+beneath him, and fearful lest he should be crushed against the rafters,
+he pushed the borrowed staff against the ceiling and forced the
+chair downward with all his might. Then followed a terrible cracking,
+sudden cries, and moans of pain; and when Thor came to investigate,
+it appeared that the giant's daughters, Gialp and Greip, had slipped
+under his chair with intent treacherously to slay him, and they had
+reaped a righteous retribution and both lay crushed to death.
+
+
+    "Once I employed
+    My asa-might
+    In the realm of giants,
+    When Gialp and Greip,
+    Geirrod's daughters,
+    Wanted to lift me to heaven."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Geirrod now appeared and challenged Thor to a test of strength and
+skill, but without waiting for a preconcerted signal, he flung a
+red-hot wedge at him. Thor, quick of eye and a practised catcher,
+caught the missile with the giantess's iron glove, and hurled it
+back at his opponent. Such was the force of the god, that the missile
+passed, not only through the pillar behind which the giant had taken
+refuge, but through him and the wall of the house, and buried itself
+deep in the earth without.
+
+Thor then strode up to the giant's corpse, which at the blow from his
+weapon had been petrified into stone, and set it up in a conspicuous
+place, as a monument of his strength and of the victory he had won
+over his redoubtable foes, the mountain giants.
+
+
+
+The Worship of Thor
+
+Thor's name has been given to many of the places he was wont to
+frequent, such as the principal harbour of the Faroe Islands, and to
+families which claim to be descended from him. It is still extant
+in such names as Thunderhill in Surrey, and in the family names of
+Thorburn and Thorwaldsen, but is most conspicuous in the name of one
+of the days of the week, Thor's day or Thursday.
+
+
+    "Over the whole earth
+    Still is it Thor's day!"
+
+            Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).
+
+
+Thor was considered a pre-eminently benevolent deity, and it was for
+that reason that he was so widely worshipped and that temples to his
+worship arose at Moeri, Hlader, Godey, Gothland, Upsala, and other
+places, where the people never failed to invoke him for a favourable
+year at Yule-tide, his principal festival. It was customary on this
+occasion to burn a great log of oak, his sacred tree, as an emblem of
+the warmth and light of summer, which would drive away the darkness
+and cold of winter.
+
+Brides invariably wore red, Thor's favourite colour, which was
+considered emblematical of love, and for the same reason betrothal
+rings in the North were almost always set with a red stone.
+
+Thor's temples and statues, like Odin's, were fashioned of wood,
+and the greater number of them were destroyed during the reign of
+King Olaf the Saint. According to ancient chronicles, this monarch
+forcibly converted his subjects. He was specially incensed against
+the inhabitants of a certain province, because they worshipped a
+rude image of Thor, which they decked with golden ornaments, and
+before which they set food every evening, declaring the god ate it,
+as no trace of it was left in the morning.
+
+The people, being called upon in 1030 to renounce this idol in favour
+of the true God, promised to consent if the morrow were cloudy;
+but when after a whole night spent by Olaf in ardent prayer, there
+followed a cloudy day, the obstinate people declared they were not
+yet convinced of his God's power, and would only believe if the sun
+shone on the next day.
+
+Once more Olaf spent the night in prayer, but at dawn, to his
+great chagrin, the sky was overcast. Nevertheless, he assembled the
+people near Thor's statue, and after secretly bidding his principal
+attendant to smash the idol with his battle-axe if the people turned
+their eyes away but for a moment, he began to address them. Suddenly,
+while all were listening to him, Olaf pointed to the horizon, where
+the sun was slowly breaking its way through the clouds, and exclaimed,
+"Behold our God!" The people one and all turned to see what he meant,
+and the attendant seized this opportunity for attacking the idol,
+which yielded easily to his blows, and a host of mice and other vermin
+scattered hastily from its hollow interior. Seeing now that the food
+placed before their god had been devoured by noxious animals only,
+the people ceased to revere Thor, and definitely accepted the faith
+which King Olaf had so long and vainly pressed upon them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V: TYR
+
+
+The God of War
+
+Tyr Tiu, or Ziu was the son of Odin, and, according to different
+mythologists, his mother was Frigga, queen of the gods, or a beautiful
+giantess whose name is unknown, but who was a personification of the
+raging sea. He is the god of martial honour, and one of the twelve
+principal deities of Asgard. Although he appears to have had no
+special dwelling there, he was always welcome to Vingolf or Valhalla,
+and occupied one of the twelve thrones in the great council hall
+of Glads-heim.
+
+
+    "The hall Glads-heim, which is built of gold;
+    Where are in circle, ranged twelve golden chairs,
+    And in the midst one higher, Odin's Throne."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+As the God of courage and of war, Tyr was frequently invoked by the
+various nations of the North, who cried to him, as well as to Odin,
+to obtain victory. That he ranked next to Odin and Thor is proved
+by his name, Tiu, having been given to one of the days of the week,
+Tiu's day, which in modern English has become Tuesday. Under the name
+of Ziu, Tyr was the principal divinity of the Suabians, who originally
+called their capital, the modern Augsburg, Ziusburg. This people,
+venerating the god as they did, were wont to worship him under the
+emblem of a sword, his distinctive attribute, and in his honour held
+great sword dances, where various figures were performed. Sometimes
+the participants forming two long lines, crossed their swords, point
+upward, and challenged the boldest among their number to take a flying
+leap over them. At other times the warriors joined their sword points
+closely together in the shape of a rose or wheel, and when this
+figure was complete invited their chief to stand on the navel thus
+formed of flat, shining steel blades, and then they bore him upon it
+through the camp in triumph. The sword point was further considered
+so sacred that it became customary to register oaths upon it.
+
+
+    "... Come hither, gentlemen,
+    And lay your hands again upon my sword;
+    Never to speak of this that you have heard,
+    Swear by my sword."
+
+            Hamlet (Shakespeare).
+
+
+A distinctive feature of the worship of this god among the Franks and
+some other Northern nations was that the priests called Druids or Godi
+offered up human sacrifices upon his altars, generally cutting the
+bloody- or spread-eagle upon their victims, that is to say, making a
+deep incision on either side of the back-bone, turning the ribs thus
+loosened inside out, and tearing out the viscera through the opening
+thus made. Of course only prisoners of war were treated thus, and it
+was considered a point of honour with north European races to endure
+this torture without a moan. These sacrifices were made upon rude
+stone altars called dolmens, which can still be seen in Northern
+Europe. As Tyr was considered the patron god of the sword, it was
+deemed indispensable to engrave the sign or rune representing him
+upon the blade of every sword--an observance which the Edda enjoined
+upon all those who were desirous of obtaining victory.
+
+
+    "Sig-runes thou must know,
+    If victory (sigr) thou wilt have,
+    And on thy sword's hilt rist them;
+    Some on the chapes,
+    Some on the guard,
+    And twice name the name of Tyr."
+
+            Lay of Sigdrifa (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Tyr was identical with the Saxon god Saxnot (from sax, a sword),
+and with Er, Heru, or Cheru, the chief divinity of the Cheruski,
+who also considered him god of the sun, and deemed his shining sword
+blade an emblem of its rays.
+
+
+    "This very sword a ray of light
+    Snatched from the Sun!"
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+Tyr's Sword
+
+According to an ancient legend, Cheru's sword, which had been fashioned
+by the same dwarfs, sons of Ivald, who had also made Odin's spear,
+was held very sacred by his people, to whose care he had entrusted it,
+declaring that those who possessed it were sure to have the victory
+over their foes. But although carefully guarded in the temple, where
+it was hung so that it reflected the first beams of the morning sun,
+it suddenly and mysteriously disappeared one night. A Vala, druidess,
+or prophetess, consulted by the priests, revealed that the Norns had
+decreed that whoever wielded it would conquer the world and come
+to his death by it; but in spite of all entreaties she refused to
+tell who had taken it or where it might be found. Some time after
+this occurrence a tall and dignified stranger came to Cologne, where
+Vitellius, the Roman prefect, was feasting, and called him away from
+his beloved dainties. In the presence of the Roman soldiery he gave
+him the sword, telling him it would bring him glory and renown, and
+finally hailed him as emperor. The cry was taken up by the assembled
+legions, and Vitellius, without making any personal effort to secure
+the honour, found himself elected Emperor of Rome.
+
+The new ruler, however, was so absorbed in indulging his taste for
+food and drink that he paid but little heed to the divine weapon. One
+day while leisurely making his way towards Rome he carelessly left it
+hanging in the antechamber to his pavilion. A German soldier seized
+this opportunity to substitute in its stead his own rusty blade, and
+the besotted emperor did not notice the exchange. When he arrived at
+Rome, he learned that the Eastern legions had named Vespasian emperor,
+and that he was even then on his way home to claim the throne.
+
+Searching for the sacred weapon to defend his rights, Vitellius
+now discovered the theft, and, overcome by superstitious fears, did
+not even attempt to fight. He crawled away into a dark corner of his
+palace, whence he was ignominiously dragged by the enraged populace to
+the foot of the Capitoline Hill. There the prophecy was duly fulfilled,
+for the German soldier, who had joined the opposite faction, coming
+along at that moment, cut off Vitellius' head with the sacred sword.
+
+The German soldier now changed from one legion to another, and
+travelled over many lands; but wherever he and his sword were found,
+victory was assured. After winning great honour and distinction, this
+man, having grown old, retired from active service to the banks of the
+Danube, where he secretly buried his treasured weapon, building his hut
+over its resting-place to guard it as long as he might live. When he
+lay on his deathbed he was implored to reveal where he had hidden it,
+but he persistently refused to do so, saying that it would be found
+by the man who was destined to conquer the world, but that he would
+not be able to escape the curse. Years passed by. Wave after wave
+the tide of barbarian invasion swept over that part of the country,
+and last of all came the terrible Huns under the leadership of Attila,
+the "Scourge of God." As he passed along the river, he saw a peasant
+mournfully examining his cow's foot, which had been wounded by some
+sharp instrument hidden in the long grass, and when search was made
+the point of a buried sword was found sticking out of the soil.
+
+Attila, seeing the beautiful workmanship and the fine state of
+preservation of this weapon, immediately exclaimed that it was
+Cheru's sword, and brandishing it above his head he announced that
+he would conquer the world. Battle after battle was fought by the
+Huns, who, according to the Saga, were everywhere victorious, until
+Attila, weary of warfare, settled down in Hungary, taking to wife the
+beautiful Burgundian princess Ildico, whose father he had slain. This
+princess, resenting the murder of her kin and wishing to avenge it,
+took advantage of the king's state of intoxication upon his wedding
+night to secure possession of the divine sword, with which she slew
+him in his bed, once more fulfilling the prophecy uttered so many
+years before.
+
+The magic sword again disappeared for a long time, to be unearthed once
+more, for the last time, by the Duke of Alva, Charles V.'s general,
+who shortly after won the victory of Muehlberg (1547). The Franks
+were wont to celebrate yearly martial games in honour of the sword;
+but it is said that when the heathen gods were renounced in favour
+of Christianity, the priests transferred many of their attributes to
+the saints, and that this sword became the property of the Archangel
+St. Michael, who has wielded it ever since.
+
+Tyr, whose name was synonymous with bravery and wisdom, was also
+considered by the ancient Northern people to have the white-armed
+Valkyrs, Odin's attendants, at his command, and they thought that
+he it was who designated the warriors whom they should transfer to
+Valhalla to aid the gods on the last day.
+
+
+    "The god Tyr sent
+    Gondul and Skogul
+    To choose a king
+    Of the race of Ingve,
+    To dwell with Odin
+    In roomy Valhal."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Story of Fenris
+
+Tyr was generally spoken of and represented as one-armed, just as Odin
+was called one-eyed. Various explanations are offered by different
+authorities; some claim that it was because he could give the victory
+only to one side; others, because a sword has but one blade. However
+this may be, the ancients preferred to account for the fact in the
+following way:
+
+Loki married secretly at Joetun-heim the hideous giantess Angur-boda
+(anguish boding), who bore him three monstrous children--the wolf
+Fenris, Hel, the parti-coloured goddess of death, and Ioermungandr,
+a terrible serpent. He kept the existence of these monsters secret as
+long as he could; but they speedily grew so large that they could no
+longer remain confined in the cave where they had come to light. Odin,
+from his throne Hlidskialf, soon became aware of their existence,
+and also of the disquieting rapidity with which they increased in
+size. Fearful lest the monsters, when they had gained further strength,
+should invade Asgard and destroy the gods, Allfather determined to
+get rid of them, and striding off to Joetun-heim, he flung Hel into
+the depths of Nifl-heim, telling her she could reign over the nine
+dismal worlds of the dead. He then cast Ioermungandr into the sea,
+where he attained such immense proportions that at last he encircled
+the earth and could bite his own tail.
+
+
+    "Into mid-ocean's dark depths hurled,
+      Grown with each day to giant size,
+    The serpent soon inclosed the world,
+      With tail in mouth, in circle-wise;
+        Held harmless still
+        By Odin's will."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+None too well pleased that the serpent should attain such fearful
+dimensions in his new element, Odin resolved to lead Fenris to
+Asgard, where he hoped, by kindly treatment, to make him gentle
+and tractable. But the gods one and all shrank in dismay when they
+saw the wolf, and none dared approach to give him food except Tyr,
+whom nothing daunted. Seeing that Fenris daily increased in size,
+strength, voracity, and fierceness, the gods assembled in council
+to deliberate how they might best dispose of him. They unanimously
+decided that as it would desecrate their peace-steads to slay him,
+they would bind him fast so that he could work them no harm.
+
+With that purpose in view, they obtained a strong chain named Laeding,
+and then playfully proposed to Fenris to bind this about him as a test
+of his vaunted strength. Confident in his ability to release himself,
+Fenris patiently allowed them to bind him fast, and when all stood
+aside, with a mighty effort he stretched himself and easily burst
+the chain asunder.
+
+Concealing their chagrin, the gods were loud in praise of his strength,
+but they next produced a much stronger fetter, Droma, which, after
+some persuasion, the wolf allowed them to fasten around him as
+before. Again a short, sharp struggle sufficed to burst this bond,
+and it is proverbial in the North to use the figurative expressions,
+"to get loose out of Laeding," and "to dash out of Droma," whenever
+great difficulties have to be surmounted.
+
+
+    "Twice did the AEsir strive to bind,
+    Twice did they fetters powerless find;
+    Iron or brass of no avail,
+    Naught, save through magic, could prevail."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The gods, perceiving now that ordinary bonds, however strong, would
+never prevail against the Fenris wolf's great strength, bade Skirnir,
+Frey's servant, go down to Svart-alfa-heim and bid the dwarfs fashion
+a bond which nothing could sever.
+
+By magic arts the dark elves manufactured a slender silken rope from
+such impalpable materials as the sound of a cat's footsteps, a woman's
+beard, the roots of a mountain, the longings of the bear, the voice of
+fishes, and the spittle of birds, and when it was finished they gave
+it to Skirnir, assuring him that no strength would avail to break it,
+and that the more it was strained the stronger it would become.
+
+
+    "Gleipnir, at last,
+    By Dark Elves cast,
+    In Svart-alf-heim, with strong spells wrought,
+    To Odin was by Skirnir brought:
+    As soft as silk, as light as air,
+    Yet still of magic power most rare."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Armed with this bond, called Gleipnir, the gods went with Fenris to the
+Island of Lyngvi, in the middle of Lake Amsvartnir, and again proposed
+to test his strength. But although Fenris had grown still stronger,
+he mistrusted the bond which looked so slight. He therefore refused to
+allow himself to be bound, unless one of the AEsir would consent to put
+his hand in his mouth, and leave it there, as a pledge of good faith,
+and that no magic arts were to be used against him.
+
+The gods heard the decision with dismay, and all drew back except
+Tyr, who, seeing that the others would not venture to comply with
+this condition, boldly stepped forward and thrust his hand between
+the monster's jaws. The gods now fastened Gleipnir securely around
+Fenris's neck and paws, and when they saw that his utmost efforts to
+free himself were fruitless, they shouted and laughed with glee. Tyr,
+however, could not share their joy, for the wolf, finding himself
+captive, bit off the god's hand at the wrist, which since then has
+been known as the wolf's joint.
+
+
+    Loki.
+
+    "Be silent, Tyr!
+    Thou couldst never settle
+    A strife 'twixt two;
+    Of thy right hand also
+    I must mention make,
+    Which Fenris from thee took.
+
+
+    Tyr.
+
+    I of a hand am wanting,
+    But thou of honest fame;
+    Sad is the lack of either.
+    Nor is the wolf at ease:
+    He in bonds must abide
+    Until the gods' destruction."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Deprived of his right hand, Tyr was now forced to use the maimed arm
+for his shield, and to wield his sword with his left hand; but such
+was his dexterity that he slew his enemies as before.
+
+The gods, in spite of the wolf's struggles, drew the end of the fetter
+Gelgia through the rock Gioll, and fastened it to the boulder Thviti,
+which was sunk deep in the ground. Opening wide his fearful jaws,
+Fenris uttered such terrible howls that the gods, to silence him,
+thrust a sword into his mouth, the hilt resting upon his lower jaw
+and the point against his palate. The blood then began to pour out
+in such streams that it formed a great river, called Von. The wolf
+was destined to remain thus chained fast until the last day, when he
+would burst his bonds and would be free to avenge his wrongs.
+
+
+    "The wolf Fenrir,
+    Freed from the chain,
+    Shall range the earth."
+
+            Death-song of Hakon (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+While some mythologists see in this myth an emblem of crime restrained
+and made innocuous by the power of the law, others see the underground
+fire, which kept within bounds can injure no one, but which unfettered
+fills the world with destruction and woe. Just as Odin's second
+eye is said to rest in Mimir's well, so Tyr's second hand (sword)
+is found in Fenris's jaws. He has no more use for two weapons than
+the sky for two suns.
+
+The worship of Tyr is commemorated in sundry places (such as Tuebingen,
+in Germany), which bear more or less modified forms of his name. The
+name has also been given to the aconite, a plant known in Northern
+countries as "Tyr's helm."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI: BRAGI
+
+
+The Origin of Poetry
+
+At the time of the dispute between the AEsir and Vanas, when peace
+had been agreed upon, a vase was brought into the assembly into which
+both parties solemnly spat. From this saliva the gods created Kvasir,
+a being renowned for his wisdom and goodness, who went about the
+world answering all questions asked him, thus teaching and benefiting
+mankind. The dwarfs, hearing about Kvasir's great wisdom, coveted it,
+and finding him asleep one day, two of their number, Fialar and Galar,
+treacherously slew him, and drained every drop of his blood into
+three vessels--the kettle Od-hroerir (inspiration) and the bowls Son
+(expiation) and Boden (offering). After duly mixing this blood with
+honey, they manufactured from it a sort of beverage so inspiring that
+any one who tasted it immediately became a poet, and could sing with
+a charm which was certain to win all hearts.
+
+Now, although the dwarfs had brewed this marvellous mead for their own
+consumption, they did not even taste it, but hid it away in a secret
+place, while they went in search of further adventures. They had not
+gone very far ere they found the giant Gilling also sound asleep,
+lying on a steep bank, and they maliciously rolled him into the water,
+where he perished. Then hastening to his dwelling, some climbed on
+the roof, carrying a huge millstone, while the others, entering,
+told the giantess that her husband was dead. This news caused the
+poor creature great grief, and she rushed out of the house to view
+Gilling's remains. As she passed through the door, the wicked dwarfs
+rolled the millstone down upon her head, and killed her. According to
+another account, the dwarfs invited the giant to go fishing with them,
+and succeeded in slaying him by sending him out in a leaky vessel,
+which sank beneath his weight.
+
+The double crime thus committed did not long remain unpunished, for
+Gilling's brother, Suttung, quickly went in search of the dwarfs,
+determined to avenge him. Seizing them in his mighty grasp, the giant
+conveyed them to a shoal far out at sea, where they would surely have
+perished at the next high tide had they not succeeded in redeeming
+their lives by promising to deliver to the giant their recently
+brewed mead. As soon as Suttung set them ashore, they therefore
+gave him the precious compound, which he entrusted to his daughter
+Gunlod, bidding her guard it night and day, and allow neither gods
+nor mortals to have so much as a taste. The better to fulfil this
+command, Gunlod carried the three vessels into the hollow mountain,
+where she kept watch over them with the most scrupulous care, nor
+did she suspect that Odin had discovered their place of concealment,
+thanks to the sharp eyes of his ever-vigilant ravens Hugin and Munin.
+
+
+
+The Quest of the Draught
+
+As Odin had mastered the runic lore and had tasted the waters of
+Mimir's fountain, he was already the wisest of gods; but learning
+of the power of the draught of inspiration manufactured out of
+Kvasir's blood, he became very anxious to obtain possession of the
+magic fluid. With this purpose in view he therefore donned his
+broad-brimmed hat, wrapped himself in his cloud-hued cloak, and
+journeyed off to Joetun-heim. On his way to the giant's dwelling he
+passed by a field where nine ugly thralls were busy making hay. Odin
+paused for a moment, watching them at their work, and noticing that
+their scythes seemed very dull indeed, he proposed to whet them,
+an offer which the thralls eagerly accepted.
+
+Drawing a whetstone from his bosom, Odin proceeded to sharpen the
+nine scythes, skilfully giving them such a keen edge that the thralls,
+delighted, begged that they might have the stone. With good-humoured
+acquiescence, Odin tossed the whetstone over the wall; but as the
+nine thralls simultaneously sprang forward to catch it, they wounded
+one another with their keen scythes. In anger at their respective
+carelessness, they now began to fight, and did not pause until they
+were all either mortally wounded or dead.
+
+Quite undismayed by this tragedy, Odin continued on his way, and
+shortly after came to the house of the giant Baugi, a brother
+of Suttung, who received him very hospitably. In the course of
+conversation, Baugi informed him that he was greatly embarrassed,
+as it was harvest time and all his workmen had just been found dead
+in the hayfield.
+
+Odin, who on this occasion had given his name as Bolwerk (evil doer),
+promptly offered his services to the giant, promising to accomplish
+as much work as the nine thralls, and to labour diligently all the
+summer in exchange for one single draught of Suttung's magic mead when
+the busy season was ended. This bargain was immediately concluded,
+and Baugi's new servant, Bolwerk, worked incessantly all the summer
+long, more than fulfilling his contract, and safely garnering all the
+grain before the autumn rains began to fall. When the first days of
+winter came, Bolwerk presented himself before his master, claiming
+his reward. But Baugi hesitated and demurred, saying he dared not
+openly ask his brother Suttung for the draught of inspiration, but
+would try to obtain it by guile. Together, Bolwerk and Baugi then
+proceeded to the mountain where Gunlod dwelt, and as they could find
+no other mode of entering the secret cave, Odin produced his trusty
+auger, called Rati, and bade the giant bore with all his might to
+make a hole through which he might crawl into the interior.
+
+Baugi silently obeyed, and after a few moments' work withdrew the tool,
+saying that he had pierced through the mountain, and that Odin would
+have no difficulty in slipping through. But the god, mistrusting this
+statement, merely blew into the hole, and when the dust and chips came
+flying into his face, he sternly bade Baugi resume his boring and not
+attempt to deceive him again. The giant did as he was told, and when
+he withdrew his tool again, Odin ascertained that the hole was really
+finished. Changing himself into a snake, he wriggled through with
+such remarkable rapidity that he managed to elude the sharp auger,
+which Baugi treacherously thrust into the hole after him, intending
+to kill him.
+
+
+    "Rati's mouth I caused
+    To make a space,
+    And to gnaw the rock;
+    Over and under me
+    Were the Joetun's ways:
+    Thus I my head did peril."
+
+            Havamal (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Rape of the Draught
+
+Having reached the interior of the mountain, Odin reassumed his usual
+godlike form and starry mantle, and then presented himself in the
+stalactite-hung cave before the beautiful Gunlod. He intended to win
+her love as a means of inducing her to grant him a sip from each of
+the vessels confided to her care.
+
+Won by his passionate wooing, Gunlod consented to become his wife,
+and after he had spent three whole days with her in this retreat,
+she brought out the vessels from their secret hiding-place, and told
+him he might take a sip from each.
+
+
+    "And a draught obtained
+    Of the precious mead,
+    Drawn from Od-hroerir."
+
+            Odin's Rune-Song (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Odin made good use of this permission and drank so deeply that he
+completely drained all three vessels. Then, having obtained all that
+he wanted, he emerged from the cave and, donning his eagle plumes,
+rose high into the blue, and, after hovering for a moment over the
+mountain top, winged his flight towards Asgard.
+
+He was still far from the gods' realm when he became aware of a
+pursuer, and, indeed, Suttung, having also assumed the form of an
+eagle, was coming rapidly after him with intent to compel him to
+surrender the stolen mead. Odin therefore flew faster and faster,
+straining every nerve to reach Asgard before the foe should overtake
+him, and as he drew near the gods anxiously watched the race.
+
+Seeing that Odin would only with difficulty be able to escape, the
+AEsir hastily gathered all the combustible materials they could find,
+and as he flew over the ramparts of their dwelling, they set fire to
+the mass of fuel, so that the flames, rising high, singed the wings
+of Suttung, as he followed the god, and he fell into the very midst
+of the fire, where he was burned to death.
+
+As for Odin, he flew to where the gods had prepared vessels for
+the stolen mead, and disgorged the draught of inspiration in such
+breathless haste that a few drops fell and were scattered over the
+earth. There they became the portion of rhymesters and poetasters,
+the gods reserving the main draught for their own consumption, and
+only occasionally vouchsafing a taste to some favoured mortal, who,
+immediately after, would win world-wide renown by his inspired songs.
+
+
+    "Of a well-assumed form
+    I made good use:
+    Few things fail the wise;
+    For Od-hroerir
+    Is now come up
+    To men's earthly dwellings."
+
+            Havamal (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+As men and gods owed the priceless gift to Odin, they were ever ready
+to express to him their gratitude, and they not only called it by
+his name, but they worshipped him as patron of eloquence, poetry,
+and song, and of all scalds.
+
+
+
+The God of Music
+
+Although Odin had thus won the gift of poetry, he seldom made use of
+it himself. It was reserved for his son Bragi, the child of Gunlod,
+to become the god of poetry and music, and to charm the world with
+his songs.
+
+
+    "White-bearded bard, ag'd
+    Bragi, his gold harp
+    Sweeps--and yet softer
+    Stealeth the day."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+As soon as Bragi was born in the stalactite-hung cave where Odin had
+won Gunlod's affections, the dwarfs presented him with a magical golden
+harp, and, setting him on one of their own vessels, they sent him out
+into the wide world. As the boat gently passed out of subterranean
+darkness, and floated over the threshold of Nain, the realm of the
+dwarf of death, Bragi, the fair and immaculate young god, who until
+then had shown no signs of life, suddenly sat up, and, seizing the
+golden harp beside him, he began to sing the wondrous song of life,
+which rose at times to heaven, and then sank down to the dread realm
+of Hel, goddess of death.
+
+
+    "Yggdrasil's ash is
+    Of all trees most excellent,
+    And of all ships, Skidbladnir;
+    Of the AEsir, Odin,
+    And of horses, Sleipnir;
+    Bifroest of bridges,
+    And of scalds, Bragi."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+While he played the vessel was wafted gently over sunlit waters, and
+soon touched the shore. Bragi then proceeded on foot, threading his
+way through the bare and silent forest, playing as he walked. At the
+sound of his tender music the trees began to bud and bloom, and the
+grass underfoot was gemmed with countless flowers.
+
+Here he met Idun, daughter of Ivald, the fair goddess of immortal
+youth, whom the dwarfs allowed to visit the earth from time to time,
+when, at her approach, nature invariably assumed its loveliest and
+gentlest aspect.
+
+It was only to be expected that two such beings should feel
+attracted to each other, and Bragi soon won this fair goddess for his
+wife. Together they hastened to Asgard, where both were warmly welcomed
+and where Odin, after tracing runes on Bragi's tongue, decreed that
+he should be the heavenly minstrel and composer of songs in honour
+of the gods and of the heroes whom he received in Valhalla.
+
+
+
+Worship of Bragi
+
+As Bragi was god of poetry, eloquence, and song, the Northern
+races also called poetry by his name, and scalds of either sex were
+frequently designated as Braga-men or Braga-women. Bragi was greatly
+honoured by all the Northern races, and hence his health was always
+drunk on solemn or festive occasions, but especially at funeral feasts
+and at Yuletide celebrations.
+
+When it was time to drink this toast, which was served in cups shaped
+like a ship, and was called the Bragaful, the sacred sign of the hammer
+was first made over it. Then the new ruler or head of the family
+solemnly pledged himself to some great deed of valour, which he was
+bound to execute within the year, unless he wished to be considered
+destitute of honour. Following his example, all the guests were then
+wont to make similar vows and declare what they would do; and as some
+of them, owing to previous potations, talked rather too freely of
+their intentions on these occasions, this custom seems to connect the
+god's name with the vulgar but very expressive English verb "to brag."
+
+In art, Bragi is generally represented as an elderly man, with long
+white hair and beard, and holding the golden harp from which his
+fingers could draw such magic strains.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII: IDUN
+
+
+The Apples of Youth
+
+Idun, the personification of spring or immortal youth, who, according
+to some mythologists, had no birth and was never to taste death,
+was warmly welcomed by the gods when she made her appearance in
+Asgard with Bragi. To further win their affections she promised them
+a daily taste of the marvellous apples which she bore in her casket,
+and which had the power of conferring immortal youth and loveliness
+upon all who partook of them.
+
+
+    "The golden apples
+    Out of her garden
+    Have yielded you a dower of youth,
+    Ate you them every day."
+
+            Wagner (Forman's tr.).
+
+
+Thanks to this magic fruit, the Scandinavian gods, who, because
+they sprang from a mixed race, were not all immortal, warded off the
+approach of old age and disease, and remained vigorous, beautiful, and
+young through countless ages. These apples were therefore considered
+very precious indeed, and Idun carefully treasured them in her magic
+casket. No matter how many she drew out, the same number always
+remained for distribution at the feast of the gods, to whom alone she
+vouchsafed a taste, although dwarfs and giants were eager to obtain
+possession of the fruit.
+
+
+    "Bright Iduna, Maid immortal!
+    Standing at Valhalla's portal,
+    In her casket has rich store
+    Of rare apples gilded o'er;
+    Those rare apples, not of Earth,
+    Ageing AEsir give fresh birth."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+The Story of Thiassi
+
+One day, Odin, Hoenir, and Loki started out upon one of their usual
+excursions to earth, and, after wandering for a long while, they
+found themselves in a deserted region, where they could discover no
+hospitable dwelling. Weary and very hungry, the gods, perceiving a
+herd of oxen, slew one of the beasts, and, kindling a fire, they sat
+down beside it to rest while waiting for their meat to cook.
+
+To their surprise, however, in spite of the roaring flames the carcass
+remained quite raw. Realising that some magic must be at work, they
+looked about them to discover what could hinder their cookery, when
+they perceived an eagle perched upon a tree above them. Seeing that he
+was an object of suspicion to the wayfarers, the bird addressed them
+and admitted that he it was who had prevented the fire from doing its
+accustomed work, but he offered to remove the spell if they would give
+him as much food as he could eat. The gods agreed to do this, whereupon
+the eagle, swooping downward, fanned the flames with his huge wings,
+and soon the meat was cooked. The eagle then made ready to carry off
+three quarters of the ox as his share, but this was too much for Loki,
+who seized a great stake lying near at hand, and began to belabour
+the voracious bird, forgetting that it was skilled in magic arts. To
+his great dismay one end of the stake stuck fast to the eagle's back,
+the other to his hands, and he found himself dragged over stones and
+through briers, sometimes through the air, his arms almost torn out
+of their sockets. In vain he cried for mercy and implored the eagle
+to let him go; the bird flew on, until he promised any ransom his
+captor might ask in exchange for his release.
+
+The seeming eagle, who was the storm giant Thiassi, at last agreed
+to release Loki upon one condition. He made him promise upon the
+most solemn of oaths that he would lure Idun out of Asgard, so that
+Thiassi might obtain possession of her and of her magic fruit.
+
+Released at last, Loki returned to Odin and Hoenir, to whom, however,
+he was very careful not to confide the condition upon which he had
+obtained his freedom; and when they had returned to Asgard he began
+to plan how he might entice Idun outside of the gods' abode. A few
+days later, Bragi being absent on one of his minstrel journeys, Loki
+sought Idun in the groves of Brunnaker, where she had taken up her
+abode, and by artfully describing some apples which grew at a short
+distance, and which he mendaciously declared were exactly like hers,
+he lured her away from Asgard with a crystal dish full of fruit,
+which she intended to compare with that which he extolled. No sooner
+had Idun left Asgard, however, than the deceiver Loki forsook her,
+and ere she could return to the shelter of the heavenly abode the
+storm giant Thiassi swept down from the north on his eagle wings,
+and catching her up in his cruel talons, he bore her swiftly away to
+his barren and desolate home of Thrym-heim.
+
+
+    "Thrymheim the sixth is named,
+    Where Thiassi dwelt,
+    That all-powerful Joetun."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Isolated from her beloved companions, Idun pined, grew pale and sad,
+but persistently refused to give Thiassi the smallest bite of her
+magic fruit, which, as he well knew, would make him beautiful and
+renew his strength and youth.
+
+
+        "All woes that fall
+        On Odin's hall
+    Can be traced to Loki base.
+      From out Valhalla's portal
+    'Twas he who pure Iduna lured,--
+        Whose casket fair
+        Held apples rare
+      That render gods immortal,--
+    And in Thiassi's tower immured."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Time passed. The gods, thinking that Idun had accompanied her husband
+and would soon return, at first paid no heed to her departure, but
+little by little the beneficent effect of the last feast of apples
+passed away. They began to feel the approach of old age, and saw
+their youth and beauty disappear; so, becoming alarmed, they began
+to search for the missing goddess.
+
+Close investigation revealed the fact that she had last been seen in
+Loki's company, and when Odin sternly called him to account, he was
+forced to admit that he had betrayed her into the storm-giant's power.
+
+
+    "By his mocking, scornful mien,
+    Soon in Valhal it was seen
+    'Twas the traitor Loki's art
+    Which had led Idun apart
+    To gloomy tower
+    And Jotun power."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+The Return of Idun
+
+The attitude of the gods now became very menacing, and it was clear
+to Loki that if he did not devise means to restore the goddess,
+and that soon, his life would be in considerable danger.
+
+He assured the indignant gods, therefore, that he would leave no
+stone unturned in his efforts to secure the release of Idun, and,
+borrowing Freya's falcon plumage, he flew off to Thrym-heim, where
+he found Idun alone, sadly mourning her exile from Asgard and her
+beloved Bragi. Changing the fair goddess into a nut according to
+some accounts, or according to others, into a swallow, Loki grasped
+her tightly between his claws, and then rapidly retraced his way to
+Asgard, hoping that he would reach the shelter of its high walls ere
+Thiassi returned from a fishing excursion in the Northern seas to
+which he had gone.
+
+Meantime the gods had assembled on the ramparts of the heavenly
+city, and they were watching for the return of Loki with far more
+anxiety than they had felt for Odin when he went in search of
+Od-hroerir. Remembering the success of their ruse on that occasion,
+they had gathered great piles of fuel, which they were ready to set
+on fire at any moment.
+
+Suddenly they saw Loki coming, but descried in his wake a great
+eagle. This was the giant Thiassi who had suddenly returned to
+Thrym-heim and found that his captive had been carried off by a falcon,
+in whom he readily recognised one of the gods. Hastily donning his
+eagle plumes he had given immediate chase and was rapidly overtaking
+his prey. Loki redoubled his efforts as he neared the walls of Asgard,
+and ere Thiassi overtook him he reached the goal and sank exhausted in
+the midst of the gods. Not a moment was lost in setting fire to the
+accumulated fuel, and as the pursuing Thiassi passed over the walls
+in his turn, the flames and smoke brought him to the ground crippled
+and half stunned, an easy prey to the gods, who fell ruthlessly upon
+him and slew him.
+
+The AEsir were overjoyed at the recovery of Idun, and they hastened
+to partake of the precious apples which she had brought safely
+back. Feeling the return of their wonted strength and good looks with
+every mouthful they ate, they good-naturedly declared that it was
+no wonder if even the giants longed to taste the apples of perpetual
+youth. They vowed therefore that they would place Thiassi's eyes as
+a constellation in the heavens, in order to soften any feeling of
+anger which his kinsmen might experience upon learning that he had
+been slain.
+
+
+    "Up I cast the eyes
+    Of Allvaldi's son
+    Into the heaven's serene:
+    They are signs the greatest
+    Of my deeds."
+
+            Lay of Harbard (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Goddess of Spring
+
+The physical explanation of this myth is obvious. Idun, the emblem of
+vegetation, is forcibly carried away in autumn, when Bragi is absent
+and the singing of the birds has ceased. The cold wintry wind, Thiassi,
+detains her in the frozen, barren north, where she cannot thrive,
+until Loki, the south wind, brings back the seed or the swallow,
+which are both precursors of the returning spring. The youth, beauty,
+and strength conferred by Idun are symbolical of Nature's resurrection
+in spring after winter's sleep, when colour and vigour return to the
+earth, which had grown wrinkled and grey.
+
+
+
+Idun Falls to the Nether World
+
+As the disappearance of Idun (vegetation) was a yearly occurrence,
+we might expect to find other myths dealing with the striking
+phenomenon, and there is another favourite of the old scalds which,
+unfortunately, has come down to us only in a fragmentary and very
+incomplete form. According to this account, Idun was once sitting upon
+the branches of the sacred ash Yggdrasil when, growing suddenly faint,
+she loosed her hold and dropped to the ground beneath, and down to
+the lowest depths of Nifl-heim. There she lay, pale and motionless,
+gazing with fixed and horror-struck eyes upon the gruesome sights
+of Hel's realm, trembling violently the while, like one overcome by
+penetrating cold.
+
+
+    "In the dales dwells
+    The prescient Dis,
+    From Yggdrasil's
+    Ash sunk down,
+    Of alfen race,
+    Idun by name,
+    The youngest of Ivaldi's
+    Elder children.
+    She ill brooked
+    Her descent
+    Under the hoar tree's
+    Trunk confined.
+    She would not happy be
+    With Norvi's daughter,
+    Accustomed to a pleasanter
+    Abode at home."
+
+            Odin's Ravens' Song (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Seeing that she did not return, Odin bade Bragi, Heimdall, and another
+of the gods go in search of her, giving them a white wolfskin to
+envelop her in, so that she should not suffer from the cold, and
+bidding them make every effort to rouse her from the stupor which
+his prescience told him had taken possession of her.
+
+
+    "A wolf's skin they gave her,
+    In which herself she clad."
+
+            Odin's Ravens' Song (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Idun passively allowed the gods to wrap her in the warm wolfskin,
+but she persistently refused to speak or move, and from her strange
+manner her husband sadly suspected that she had had a vision of great
+ills. The tears ran continuously down her pallid cheeks, and Bragi,
+overcome by her unhappiness, at length bade the other gods return
+to Asgard without him, vowing that he would remain beside his wife
+until she was ready to leave Hel's dismal realm. The sight of her
+woe oppressed him so sorely that he had no heart for his usual merry
+songs, and the strings of his harp were mute while he remained in
+the underworld.
+
+
+    "That voice-like zephyr o'er flow'r meads creeping,
+    Like Bragi's music his harp strings sweeping."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+In this myth Idun's fall from Yggdrasil is symbolical of the autumnal
+falling of the leaves, which lie limp and helpless on the cold bare
+ground until they are hidden from sight under the snow, represented
+by the wolfskin, which Odin, the sky, sends down to keep them warm;
+and the cessation of the birds' songs is further typified by Bragi's
+silent harp.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII: NIOeRD
+
+
+A Hostage with the Gods
+
+We have already seen how the AEsir and Vanas exchanged hostages after
+the terrible war they had waged against each other, and that while
+Hoenir, Odin's brother, went to live in Vana-heim, Nioerd, with his
+two children, Frey and Freya, definitely took up his abode in Asgard.
+
+
+    "In Vana-heim
+    Wise powers him created,
+    And to the gods a hostage gave."
+
+            Lay of Vafthrudnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+As ruler of the winds, and of the sea near the shore, Nioerd was
+given the palace of Noatun, near the seashore, where, we are told, he
+stilled the terrible tempests stirred up by AEgir, god of the deep sea.
+
+
+    "Nioerd, the god of storms, whom fishers know;
+    Not born in Heaven--he was in Van-heim rear'd,
+    With men, but lives a hostage with the gods;
+    He knows each frith, and every rocky creek
+    Fringed with dark pines, and sands where sea-fowl scream."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+He also extended his special protection over commerce and fishing,
+which two occupations could be pursued with advantage only during
+the short summer months, of which he was in a measure considered
+the personification.
+
+
+
+The God of Summer
+
+Nioerd is represented in art as a very handsome god, in the prime
+of life, clad in a short green tunic, with a crown of shells and
+seaweed upon his head, or a brown-brimmed hat adorned with eagle or
+heron plumes. As personification of the summer, he was invoked to
+still the raging storms which desolated the coasts during the winter
+months. He was also implored to hasten the vernal warmth and thereby
+extinguish the winter fires.
+
+As agriculture was practised only during the summer months, and
+principally along the fiords or sea inlets, Nioerd was also invoked
+for favourable harvests, for he was said to delight in prospering
+those who placed their trust in him.
+
+Nioerd's first wife, according to some authorities, was his sister
+Nerthus, Mother Earth, who in Germany was identified with Frigga, as we
+have seen, but in Scandinavia was considered a separate divinity. Nioerd
+was, however, obliged to part with her when summoned to Asgard,
+where he occupied one of the twelve seats in the great council hall,
+and was present at all the assemblies of the gods, withdrawing to
+Noatun only when his services were not required by the AEsir.
+
+
+    "Noatun is the eleventh;
+    There Nioerd has
+    Himself a dwelling made,
+    Prince of men;
+    Guiltless of sin,
+    He rules o'er the high-built fane."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+In his home by the seashore, Nioerd delighted in watching the gulls
+fly to and fro, and in observing the graceful movements of the swans,
+his favourite birds, which were held sacred to him. He spent many an
+hour, too, gazing at the gambols of the gentle seals, which came to
+bask in the sunshine at his feet.
+
+
+
+Skadi, Goddess of Winter
+
+Shortly after Idun's return from Thrym-heim, and Thiassi's death within
+the bounds of Asgard, the assembled gods were greatly surprised and
+dismayed to see Skadi, the giant's daughter, appear one day in their
+midst, to demand satisfaction for her father's death. Although the
+daughter of an ugly old Hrim-thurs, Skadi, the goddess of winter,
+was very beautiful indeed, in her silvery armour, with her glittering
+spear, sharp-pointed arrows, short white hunting dress, white fur
+leggings, and broad snowshoes; and the gods could not but recognise
+the justice of her claim, wherefore they offered the usual fine in
+atonement. Skadi, however, was so angry that she at first refused
+this compromise, and sternly demanded a life for a life, until Loki,
+wishing to appease her wrath, and thinking that if he could only make
+her cold lips relax in a smile the rest would be easy, began to play
+all manner of pranks. Fastening a goat to himself by an invisible cord,
+he went through a series of antics, which were reproduced by the goat;
+and the sight was so grotesque that all the gods fairly shouted with
+merriment, and even Skadi was forced to smile.
+
+Taking advantage of this softened mood, the gods pointed to the
+firmament where her father's eyes glowed like radiant stars in the
+northern hemisphere. They told her they had placed them there to show
+him all honour, and finally added that she might select as husband
+any of the gods present at the assembly, providing she were content
+to judge of their attractions by their naked feet.
+
+Blindfolded, so that she could see only the feet of the gods standing
+in a circle around her, Skadi looked about her and her gaze fell upon
+a pair of beautifully formed feet. She felt sure they must belong to
+Balder, the god of light, whose bright face had charmed her, and she
+designated their owner as her choice.
+
+When the bandage was removed, however, she discovered to her chagrin
+that she had chosen Nioerd, to whom her troth was plighted; but
+notwithstanding her disappointment, she spent a happy honeymoon in
+Asgard, where all seemed to delight in doing her honour. After this,
+Nioerd took his bride home to Noatun, where the monotonous sound of
+the waves, the shrieking of the gulls, and the cries of the seals
+so disturbed Skadi's slumbers that she finally declared it was quite
+impossible for her to remain there any longer, and she implored her
+husband to take her back to her native Thrym-heim.
+
+
+    "Sleep could I not
+    On my sea-strand couch,
+    For screams of the sea fowl.
+    There wakes me,
+    When from the wave he comes,
+    Every morning the mew."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Nioerd, anxious to please his new wife, consented to take her to
+Thrym-heim and to dwell there with her nine nights out of every twelve,
+providing she would spend the remaining three with him at Noatun;
+but when he reached the mountain region, the soughing of the wind in
+the pines, the thunder of the avalanches, the cracking of the ice,
+the roar of the waterfalls, and the howling of the wolves appeared
+to him as unbearable as the sound of the sea had seemed to his wife,
+and he could not but rejoice each time when his period of exile was
+ended, and he found himself again at Noatun.
+
+
+    "Am weary of the mountains;
+    Not long was I there,
+    Only nine nights;
+    The howl of the wolves
+    Methought sounded ill
+    To the song of the swans."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Parting of Nioerd and Skadi
+
+For some time, Nioerd and Skadi, who are the personifications of summer
+and winter, alternated thus, the wife spending the three short summer
+months by the sea, and he reluctantly remaining with her in Thrym-heim
+during the nine long winter months. But, concluding at last that their
+tastes would never agree, they decided to part for ever, and returned
+to their respective homes, where each could follow the occupations
+which custom had endeared to them.
+
+
+    "Thrym-heim it's called,
+    Where Thjasse dwelled,
+    That stream-mighty giant;
+    But Skade now dwells,
+    Pure bride of the gods,
+    In her father's old mansion."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Skadi now resumed her wonted pastime of hunting, leaving her realm
+again only to marry the semi-historical Odin, to whom she bore a son
+called Saeming, the first king of Norway, and the supposed founder of
+the royal race which long ruled that country.
+
+According to other accounts, however, Skadi eventually married Uller,
+the winter-god. As Skadi was a skilful marksman, she is represented
+with bow and arrow, and, as goddess of the chase, she is generally
+accompanied by one of the wolf-like Eskimo dogs so common in the
+North. Skadi was invoked by hunters and by winter travellers, whose
+sleighs she would guide over the snow and ice, thus helping them to
+reach their destination in safety.
+
+Skadi's anger against the gods, who had slain her father, the storm
+giant, is an emblem of the unbending rigidity of the ice-enveloped
+earth, which, softened at last by the frolicsome play of Loki (the
+heat lightning), smiles, and permits the embrace of Nioerd (summer). His
+love, however, cannot hold her for more than three months of the year
+(typified in the myth by nights), as she is always secretly longing for
+the wintry storms and for her wonted activities among the mountains.
+
+
+
+The Worship of Nioerd
+
+Nioerd was supposed to bless the vessels passing in and out of port,
+and his temples were situated by the seashore; there oaths in his
+name were commonly sworn, and his health was drunk at every banquet,
+where he was invariably named with his son Frey.
+
+As all aquatic plants were supposed to belong to him, the marine sponge
+was known in the North as "Nioerd's glove," a name which was retained
+until lately, when the same plant has been popularly re-named the
+"Virgin's hand."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX: FREY
+
+
+The God of Fairyland
+
+Frey, or Fro, as he was called in Germany, was the son of Nioerd and
+Nerthus, or of Nioerd and Skadi, and was born in Vana-heim. He therefore
+belonged to the race of the Vanas, the divinities of water and air,
+but was warmly welcomed in Asgard when he came thither as hostage
+with his father. As it was customary among the Northern nations to
+bestow some valuable gift upon a child when he cut his first tooth,
+the AEsir gave the infant Frey the beautiful realm of Alf-heim or
+Fairyland, the home of the Light Elves.
+
+
+    "Alf-heim the gods to Frey
+    Gave in days of yore
+    For a tooth gift."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Here Frey, the god of the golden sunshine and the warm summer
+showers, took up his abode, charmed with the society of the elves
+and fairies, who implicitly obeyed his every order, and at a sign
+from him flitted to and fro, doing all the good in their power,
+for they were pre-eminently beneficent spirits.
+
+Frey also received from the gods a marvellous sword (an emblem of the
+sunbeams), which had the power of fighting successfully, and of its
+own accord, as soon as it was drawn from its sheath. Frey wielded
+this principally against the frost giants, whom he hated almost as
+much as did Thor, and because he carried this glittering weapon,
+he has sometimes been confounded with the sword-god Tyr or Saxnot.
+
+
+    "With a short-shafted hammer fights conquering Thor;
+    Frey's own sword but an ell long is made."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+The dwarfs from Svart-alfa-heim gave Frey the golden-bristled boar
+Gullin-bursti (the golden-bristled), a personification of the sun. The
+radiant bristles of this animal were considered symbolical either
+of the solar rays, of the golden grain, which at his bidding waved
+over the harvest fields of Midgard, or of agriculture; for the boar
+(by tearing up the ground with his sharp tusk) was supposed to have
+first taught mankind how to plough.
+
+
+                    "There was Frey, and sat
+    On the gold-bristled boar, who first, they say,
+    Plowed the brown earth, and made it green for Frey."
+
+            Lovers of Gudrun (William Morris).
+
+Frey sometimes rode astride of this marvellous boar, whose speed was
+very great, and at other times harnessed him to his golden chariot,
+which was said to contain the fruits and flowers which he lavishly
+scattered abroad over the face of the earth.
+
+Frey was, moreover, the proud possessor not only of the dauntless steed
+Blodug-hofi, which would dash through fire and water at his command,
+but also of the magic ship Skidbladnir, a personification of the
+clouds. This vessel, sailing over land and sea, was always wafted
+along by favourable winds, and was so elastic that, while it could
+assume large enough proportions to carry the gods, their steeds,
+and all their equipments, it could also be folded up like a napkin
+and thrust into a pocket.
+
+
+    "Ivaldi's sons
+    Went in days of old
+    Skidbladnir to form,
+    Of ships the best,
+    For the bright Frey,
+    Nioerd's benign son."
+
+            Lay of Grimnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Wooing of Gerda
+
+It is related in one of the lays of the Edda that Frey once ventured
+to ascend Odin's throne Hlidskialf, from which exalted seat his gaze
+ranged over the wide earth. Looking towards the frozen North, he saw
+a beautiful young maiden enter the house of the frost giant Gymir,
+and as she raised her hand to lift the latch her radiant beauty
+illuminated sea and sky.
+
+A moment later, this lovely creature, whose name was Gerda, and who
+is considered as a personification of the flashing Northern lights,
+vanished within her father's house, and Frey pensively wended his
+way back to Alfheim, his heart oppressed with longing to make this
+fair maiden his wife. Being deeply in love, he was melancholy and
+absent-minded in the extreme, and began to behave so strangely that
+his father, Nioerd, became greatly alarmed about his health, and bade
+his favourite servant, Skirnir, discover the cause of this sudden
+change. After much persuasion, Skirnir finally won from Frey an account
+of his ascent of Hlidskialf, and of the fair vision he had seen. He
+confessed his love and also his utter despair, for as Gerda was the
+daughter of Gymir and Angur-boda, and a relative of the murdered
+giant Thiassi, he feared she would never view his suit with favour.
+
+
+    "In Gymer's court I saw her move,
+    The maid who fires my breast with love;
+    Her snow-white arms and bosom fair
+    Shone lovely, kindling sea and air.
+    Dear is she to my wishes, more
+    Than e'er was maid to youth before;
+    But gods and elves, I wot it well,
+    Forbid that we together dwell."
+
+            Skirner's Lay (Herbert's tr.).
+
+Skirnir, however, replied consolingly that he could see no reason why
+his master should take a despondent view of the case, and he offered
+to go and woo the maiden in his name, providing Frey would lend him his
+steed for the journey, and give him his glittering sword for reward.
+
+Overjoyed at the prospect of winning the beautiful Gerda, Frey
+willingly handed Skirnir the flashing sword, and gave him permission to
+use his horse. But he quickly relapsed into the state of reverie which
+had become usual with him since falling in love, and thus he did not
+notice that Skirnir was still hovering near him, nor did he perceive
+him cunningly steal the reflection of his face from the surface of the
+brook near which he was seated, and imprison it in his drinking horn,
+with intent "to pour it out in Gerda's cup, and by its beauty win
+the heart of the giantess for the lord" for whom he was about to go
+a-wooing. Provided with this portrait, with eleven golden apples, and
+with the magic ring Draupnir, Skirnir now rode off to Joetun-heim, to
+fulfil his embassy. As he came near Gymir's dwelling he heard the loud
+and persistent howling of his watch-dogs, which were personifications
+of the wintry winds. A shepherd, guarding his flock in the vicinity,
+told him, in answer to his inquiry, that it would be impossible to
+approach the house, on account of the flaming barrier which surrounded
+it; but Skirnir, knowing that Blodug-hofi would dash through any fire,
+merely set spurs to his steed, and, riding up unscathed to the giant's
+door, was soon ushered into the presence of the lovely Gerda.
+
+To induce the fair maiden to lend a favourable ear to his master's
+proposals, Skirnir showed her the stolen portrait, and proffered the
+golden apples and magic ring, which, however, she haughtily refused
+to accept, declaring that her father had gold enough and to spare.
+
+
+    "I take not, I, that wondrous ring,
+    Though it from Balder's pile you bring
+    Gold lack not I, in Gymer's bower;
+    Enough for me my father's dower."
+
+            Skirner's Lay (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+Indignant at her scorn, Skirnir now threatened to decapitate her with
+his magic sword, but as this did not in the least frighten the maiden,
+and she calmly defied him, he had recourse to magic arts. Cutting
+runes in his stick, he told her that unless she yielded ere the spell
+was ended, she would be condemned either to eternal celibacy, or to
+marry some aged frost giant whom she could never love.
+
+Terrified into submission by the frightful description of her cheerless
+future in case she persisted in her refusal, Gerda finally consented
+to become Frey's wife, and dismissed Skirnir, promising to meet her
+future spouse on the ninth night, in the land of Buri, the green grove,
+where she would dispel his sadness and make him happy.
+
+
+    "Burri is hight the seat of love;
+    Nine nights elapsed, in that known grove
+    Shall brave Niorder's gallant boy
+    From Gerda take the kiss of joy."
+
+            Skirner's Lay (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+Delighted with his success, Skirnir hurried back to Alf-heim, where
+Frey came eagerly to learn the result of his journey. When he learned
+that Gerda had consented to become his wife, his face grew radiant
+with joy; but when Skirnir informed him that he would have to wait
+nine nights ere he could behold his promised bride, he turned sadly
+away, declaring the time would appear interminable.
+
+
+    "Long is one night, and longer twain;
+    But how for three endure my pain?
+    A month of rapture sooner flies
+    Than half one night of wishful sighs."
+
+            Skirner's Lay (Herbert's tr.).
+
+
+In spite of this loverlike despondency, however, the time of waiting
+came to an end, and Frey joyfully hastened to the green grove, where,
+true to her appointment, he found Gerda, and she became his happy wife,
+and proudly sat upon his throne beside him.
+
+
+    "Frey to wife had Gerd;
+    She was Gymir's daughter,
+    From Joetuns sprung."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+According to some mythologists, Gerda is not a personification of the
+aurora borealis, but of the earth, which, hard, cold, and unyielding,
+resists the spring-god's proffers of adornment and fruitfulness (the
+apples and ring), defies the flashing sunbeams (Frey's sword), and
+only consents to receive his kiss when it learns that it will else be
+doomed to perpetual barrenness, or given over entirely into the power
+of the giants (ice and snow). The nine nights of waiting are typical
+of the nine winter months, at the end of which the earth becomes the
+bride of the sun, in the groves where the trees are budding forth
+into leaf and blossom.
+
+Frey and Gerda, we are told, became the parents of a son called
+Fiolnir, whose birth consoled Gerda for the loss of her brother
+Beli. The latter had attacked Frey and had been slain by him, although
+the sun-god, deprived of his matchless sword, had been obliged to
+defend himself with a stag horn which he hastily snatched from the
+wall of his dwelling.
+
+Besides the faithful Skirnir, Frey had two other attendants, a
+married couple, Beyggvir and Beyla, the personifications of mill
+refuse and manure, which two ingredients, being used in agriculture
+for fertilising purposes, were therefore considered Frey's faithful
+servants, in spite of their unpleasant qualities.
+
+
+
+The historical Frey
+
+Snorro-Sturleson, in his "Heimskringla," or chronicle of the ancient
+kings of Norway, states that Frey was an historical personage who bore
+the name of Ingvi-Frey, and ruled in Upsala after the death of the
+semi-historical Odin and Nioerd. Under his rule the people enjoyed such
+prosperity and peace that they declared their king must be a god. They
+therefore began to invoke him as such, carrying their enthusiastic
+admiration to such lengths that when he died the priests, not daring
+to reveal the fact, laid him in a great mound instead of burning his
+body, as had been customary until then. They then informed the people
+that Frey--whose name was the Northern synonym for "master"--had
+"gone into the mound," an expression which eventually became the
+Northman's phrase for death.
+
+Not until three years later did the people, who had continued paying
+their taxes to the king by pouring gold, silver, and copper coin
+into the mound through three different openings, discover that Frey
+was dead. As their peace and prosperity had remained undisturbed,
+they decreed that his corpse should never be burned, and they thus
+inaugurated the custom of mound-burial, which in due time supplanted
+the funeral pyre in many places. One of the three mounds near Gamla
+Upsala still bears this god's name. His statues were placed in the
+great temple there, and his name was duly mentioned in all solemn
+oaths, of which the usual formula was, "So help me Frey, Nioerd,
+and the Almighty Asa" (Odin).
+
+
+
+Worship of Frey
+
+No weapons were ever admitted in Frey's temples, the most celebrated
+of which were at Throndhjeim in Norway, and at Thvera in Iceland. In
+these temples oxen or horses were offered in sacrifice to him, a heavy
+gold ring being dipped in the victim's blood ere the above-mentioned
+oath was solemnly taken upon it.
+
+Frey's statues, like those of all the other Northern divinities,
+were roughly hewn blocks of wood, and the last of these sacred images
+seems to have been destroyed by Olaf the Saint, who, as we have seen,
+forcibly converted many of his subjects. Besides being god of sunshine,
+fruitfulness, peace, and prosperity, Frey was considered the patron
+of horses and horsemen, and the deliverer of all captives.
+
+
+    "Frey is the best
+    Of all the chiefs
+    Among the gods.
+    He causes not tears
+    To maids or mothers:
+    His desire is to loosen the fetters
+    Of those enchained."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Yule Feast
+
+One month of every year, the Yule month, or Thor's month, was
+considered sacred to Frey as well as to Thor, and began on the longest
+night of the year, which bore the name of Mother Night. This month
+was a time of feasting and rejoicing, for it heralded the return of
+the sun. The festival was called Yule (wheel) because the sun was
+supposed to resemble a wheel rapidly revolving across the sky. This
+resemblance gave rise to a singular custom in England, Germany, and
+along the banks of the Moselle. Until within late years, the people
+were wont to assemble yearly upon a mountain, to set fire to a huge
+wooden wheel, twined with straw, which, all ablaze, was then sent
+rolling down the hill, to plunge with a hiss into the water.
+
+
+    "Some others get a rotten Wheele, all worn and cast aside,
+    Which, covered round about with strawe and tow, they closely hide;
+    And caryed to some mountaines top, being all with fire light,
+    They hurle it down with violence, when darke appears the night;
+    Resembling much the sunne, that from the Heavens down should fal,
+    A strange and monstrous sight it seemes, and fearful to them all;
+    But they suppose their mischiefs are all likewise throwne to hell,
+    And that, from harmes and dangers now, in safetie here they dwell."
+
+            Naogeorgus.
+
+
+All the Northern races considered the Yule feast the greatest of
+the year, and were wont to celebrate it with dancing, feasting,
+and drinking, each god being pledged by name. The first Christian
+missionaries, perceiving the extreme popularity of this feast, thought
+it best to encourage drinking to the health of the Lord and his twelve
+apostles when they first began to convert the Northern heathens. In
+honour of Frey, boar's flesh was eaten on this occasion. Crowned
+with laurel and rosemary, the animal's head was brought into the
+banqueting-hall with much ceremony--a custom long after observed,
+as the following lines will show:
+
+
+        "Caput Apri defero
+        Reddens laudes Domino.
+    The boar's head in hand bring I,
+    With garlands gay and rosemary;
+    I pray you all sing merrily,
+      Qui estis in convivio."
+
+            Queen's College Carol, Oxford.
+
+
+The father of the family laid his hand on the sacred dish, which was
+called "the boar of atonement," swearing he would be faithful to his
+family, and would fulfil all his obligations--an example which was
+followed by all present, from the highest to the lowest. This dish
+could be carved only by a man of unblemished reputation and tried
+courage, for the boar's head was a sacred emblem which was supposed
+to inspire every one with fear. For that reason a boar's head was
+frequently used as ornament for the helmets of Northern kings and
+heroes whose bravery was unquestioned.
+
+As Frey's name of Fro is phonetically the same as the word used in
+German for gladness, he was considered the patron of every joy,
+and was invariably invoked by married couples who wished to live
+in harmony. Those who succeeded in doing so for a certain length of
+time were publicly rewarded by the gift of a piece of boar's flesh,
+for which in later times, the English and Viennese substituted a
+flitch of bacon or a ham.
+
+
+    "You shall swear, by custom of confession,
+    If ever you made nuptial transgression,
+    Be you either married man or wife:
+    If you have brawls or contentious strife;
+    Or otherwise, at bed or at board,
+    Offended each other in deed or word;
+    Or, since the parish clerk said Amen,
+    You wish'd yourselves unmarried again;
+    Or, in a twelvemonth and a day
+    Repented not in thought any way,
+    But continued true in thought and desire,
+    As when you join'd hands in the quire.
+    If to these conditions, with all feare,
+    Of your own accord you will freely sweare,
+    A whole gammon of bacon you shall receive,
+    And bear it hence with love and good leave:
+    For this our custom at Dunmow well known--
+    Though the pleasure be ours, the bacon's your own."
+
+            Brand's Popular Antiquities.
+
+
+At the village of Dunmow in Essex, the ancient custom is still
+observed. In Vienna the ham or flitch of bacon was hung over the
+city gate, whence the successful candidate was expected to bring
+it down, after he had satisfied the judges that he lived in peace
+with his wife, but was not under petticoat rule. It is said that in
+Vienna this ham remained for a long time unclaimed until at last
+a worthy burgher presented himself before the judges, bearing his
+wife's written affidavit that they had been married twelve years and
+had never disagreed--a statement which was confirmed by all their
+neighbours. The judges, satisfied with the proofs laid before them,
+told the candidate that the prize was his, and that he only need
+climb the ladder placed beneath it and bring it down. Rejoicing at
+having secured such a fine ham, the man speedily mounted the ladder;
+but as he was about to reach for the prize he noticed that the ham,
+exposed to the noonday sun, was beginning to melt, and that a drop
+of fat threatened to fall upon his Sunday coat. Hastily beating a
+retreat, he pulled off his coat, jocosely remarking that his wife
+would scold him roundly were he to stain it, a confession which made
+the bystanders roar with laughter, and which cost him his ham.
+
+Another Yuletide custom was the burning of a huge log, which had to
+last through the night, otherwise it was considered a very bad omen
+indeed. The charred remains of this log were carefully collected,
+and treasured up for the purpose of setting fire to the log of the
+following year.
+
+
+      "With the last yeeres brand
+      Light the new block, and
+    For good successe in his spending,
+      On your psaltries play,
+      That sweet luck may
+    Come while the log is a-tending."
+
+            Hesperides (Herrick).
+
+
+This festival was so popular in Scandinavia, where it was celebrated in
+January, that King Olaf, seeing how dear it was to the Northern heart,
+transferred most of its observances to Christmas day, thereby doing
+much to reconcile the ignorant people to their change of religion.
+
+As god of peace and prosperity, Frey is supposed to have reappeared
+upon earth many times, and to have ruled the Swedes under the name
+of Ingvi-Frey, whence his descendants were called Inglings. He also
+governed the Danes under the name of Fridleef. In Denmark he is said
+to have married the beautiful maiden Freygerda, whom he had rescued
+from a dragon. By her he had a son named Frodi, who, in due time,
+succeeded him as king.
+
+Frodi ruled Denmark in the days when there was "peace throughout
+the world," that is to say, just at the time when Christ was born
+in Bethlehem of Judea; and because all his subjects lived in amity,
+he was generally known as Peace Frodi.
+
+
+
+How the Sea became salt
+
+It is related that Frodi once received from Hengi-kiaptr a pair of
+magic millstones, called Grotti, which were so ponderous that none
+of his servants nor even his strongest warriors could turn them. The
+king was aware that the mill was enchanted and would grind anything
+he wished, so he was very anxious indeed to set it to work, and,
+during a visit to Sweden, he saw and purchased as slaves the two
+giantesses Menia and Fenia, whose powerful muscles and frames had
+attracted his attention.
+
+On his return home, Peace Frodi led his new servants to the mill,
+and bade them turn the grindstones and grind out gold, peace, and
+prosperity, and they immediately fulfilled his wishes. Cheerfully
+the women worked on, hour after hour, until the king's coffers were
+overflowing with gold, and prosperity and peace were rife throughout
+his land.
+
+
+    "Let us grind riches to Frothi!
+    Let us grind him, happy
+    In plenty of substance,
+    On our gladdening Quern."
+
+            Grotta-Savngr (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+But when Menia and Fenia would fain have rested awhile, the king,
+whose greed had been excited, bade them work on. In spite of their
+entreaties he forced them to labour hour after hour, allowing them
+only as much time to rest as was required for the singing of a verse
+in a song, until exasperated by his cruelty, the giantesses resolved
+at length to have revenge. One night while Frodi slept they changed
+their song, and, instead of prosperity and peace, they grimly began
+to grind an armed host, whereby they induced the Viking Mysinger to
+land with a large body of troops. While the spell was working the
+Danes continued in slumber, and thus they were completely surprised
+by the Viking host, who slew them all.
+
+
+    "An army must come
+    Hither forthwith,
+    And burn the town
+    For the prince."
+
+            Grotta Savngr (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+Mysinger took the magic millstones Grotti and the two slaves and put
+them on board his vessel, bidding the women grind salt, which was
+a very valuable staple of commerce at that time. The women obeyed,
+and their millstones went round, grinding salt in abundance; but
+the Viking, as cruel as Frodi, would give the poor women no rest,
+wherefore a heavy punishment overtook him and his followers. Such an
+immense quantity of salt was ground by the magic millstones that in
+the end its weight sunk the ship and all on board.
+
+The ponderous stones sank into the sea in the Pentland Firth, or
+off the north-western coast of Norway, making a deep round hole,
+and the waters, rushing into the vortex and gurgling in the holes
+in the centre of the stones, produced the great whirlpool which is
+known as the Maelstrom. As for the salt it soon melted; but such was
+the immense quantity ground by the giantesses that it permeated all
+the waters of the sea, which have ever since been very salt.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X: FREYA
+
+
+The Goddess of Love
+
+Freya, the fair Northern goddess of beauty and love, was the sister
+of Frey and the daughter of Nioerd and Nerthus, or Skadi. She was the
+most beautiful and best beloved of all the goddesses, and while in
+Germany she was identified with Frigga, in Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
+and Iceland she was considered a separate divinity. Freya, having
+been born in Vana-heim, was also known as Vanadis, the goddess of
+the Vanas, or as Vanabride.
+
+When she reached Asgard, the gods were so charmed by her beauty and
+grace that they bestowed upon her the realm of Folkvang and the great
+hall Sessrymnir (the roomy-seated), where they assured her she could
+easily accommodate all her guests.
+
+
+    "Folkvang 'tis called,
+    Where Freyja has right
+    To dispose of the hall-seats.
+    Every day of the slain
+    She chooses the half,
+    And leaves half to Odin."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+Queen of the Valkyrs
+
+Although goddess of love, Freya was not soft and pleasure-loving only,
+for the ancient Northern races believed that she had very martial
+tastes, and that as Valfreya she often led the Valkyrs down to the
+battlefields, choosing and claiming one half the heroes slain. She
+was therefore often represented with corselet and helmet, shield
+and spear, the lower part of her body only being clad in the usual
+flowing feminine garb.
+
+Freya transported the chosen slain to Folkvang, where they were duly
+entertained. There also she welcomed all pure maidens and faithful
+wives, that they might enjoy the company of their lovers and husbands
+after death. The joys of her abode were so enticing to the heroic
+Northern women that they often rushed into battle when their loved
+ones were slain, hoping to meet with the same fate; or they fell upon
+their swords, or were voluntarily burned on the same funeral pyre as
+the remains of their beloved.
+
+As Freya was believed to lend a favourable ear to lovers' prayers,
+she was often invoked by them, and it was customary to compose in
+her honour love-songs, which were sung on all festive occasions,
+her very name in Germany being used as the verb "to woo."
+
+
+
+Freya and Odur
+
+Freya, the golden-haired and blue-eyed goddess, was also, at times,
+considered as a personification of the earth. As such she married Odur,
+a symbol of the summer sun, whom she dearly loved, and by whom she
+had two daughters, Hnoss and Gersemi. These maidens were so beautiful
+that all things lovely and precious were called by their names.
+
+While Odur lingered contentedly at her side, Freya was smiling
+and perfectly happy; but, alas! the god was a rover at heart, and,
+wearying of his wife's company, he suddenly left home and wandered far
+out into the wide world. Freya, sad and forsaken, wept abundantly,
+and her tears fell upon the hard rocks, which softened at their
+contact. We are told even that they trickled down to the very centre
+of the stones, where they were transformed to gold. Some tears fell
+into the sea and were changed into translucent amber.
+
+Weary of her widowed condition, and longing to clasp her beloved in her
+arms once more, Freya finally started out in search of him, passing
+through many lands, where she became known by different names, such
+as Mardel, Horn, Gefn, Syr, Skialf, and Thrung, inquiring of all she
+met whether her husband had passed that way, and shedding everywhere
+so many tears that gold is to be found in all parts of the earth.
+
+
+    "And Freya next came nigh, with golden tears;
+    The loveliest Goddess she in Heaven, by all
+    Most honour'd after Frea, Odin's wife.
+    Her long ago the wandering Oder took
+    To mate, but left her to roam distant lands;
+    Since then she seeks him, and weeps tears of gold.
+    Names hath she many; Vanadis on earth
+    They call her, Freya is her name in Heaven."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Far away in the sunny South, under the flowering myrtle-trees,
+Freya found Odur at last, and her love being restored to her, she
+was happy and smiling once again, and as radiant as a bride. It is
+perhaps because Freya found her husband beneath the flowering myrtle,
+that Northern brides, to this day, wear myrtle in preference to the
+conventional orange wreath of other climes.
+
+Hand in hand, Odur and Freya now gently wended their way home once
+more, and in the light of their happiness the grass grew green, the
+flowers bloomed, and the birds sang, for all Nature sympathised as
+heartily with Freya's joy as it had mourned with her when she was
+in sorrow.
+
+
+    "Out of the morning land,
+    Over the snowdrifts,
+    Beautiful Freya came
+    Tripping to Scoring.
+    White were the moorlands,
+    And frozen before her;
+    Green were the moorlands,
+    And blooming behind her.
+    Out of her gold locks
+    Shaking the spring flowers,
+    Out of her garments
+    Shaking the south wind,
+    Around in the birches
+    Awaking the throstles,
+    And making chaste housewives all
+    Long for their heroes home,
+    Loving and love-giving,
+    Came she to Scoring."
+
+            The Longbeards' Saga (Charles Kingsley).
+
+
+The prettiest plants and flowers in the North were called Freya's hair
+or Freya's eye dew, while the butterfly was called Freya's hen. This
+goddess was also supposed to have a special affection for the fairies,
+whom she loved to watch dancing in the moonbeams, and for whom she
+reserved her daintiest flowers and sweetest honey. Odur, Freya's
+husband, besides being considered a personification of the sun,
+was also regarded as an emblem of passion, or of the intoxicating
+pleasures of love; so the ancients declared that it was no wonder
+his wife could not be happy without him.
+
+
+
+Freya's Necklace
+
+Being goddess of beauty, Freya, naturally, was very fond of the
+toilet, of glittering adornments, and of precious jewels. One day,
+while she was in Svart-alfa-heim, the underground kingdom, she saw
+four dwarfs fashioning the most wonderful necklace she had ever
+seen. Almost beside herself with longing to possess this treasure,
+which was called Brisinga-men, and was an emblem of the stars, or of
+the fruitfulness of the earth, Freya implored the dwarfs to give it to
+her; but they obstinately refused to do so unless she would promise
+to grant them her favour. Having secured the necklace at this price,
+Freya hastened to put it on, and its beauty so enhanced her charms that
+she wore it night and day, and only occasionally could be persuaded
+to lend it to the other divinities. Thor, however, wore this necklace
+when he personated Freya in Joetun-heim, and Loki coveted and would
+have stolen it, had it not been for the watchfulness of Heimdall.
+
+Freya was also the proud possessor of a falcon garb, or falcon plumes,
+which enabled the wearer to flit through the air as a bird; and this
+garment was so invaluable that it was twice borrowed by Loki, and
+was used by Freya herself when she went in search of the missing Odur.
+
+
+    "Freya one day
+    Falcon wings took, and through space hied away;
+    Northward and southward she sought her
+    Dearly-loved Odur."
+
+            Frithiof Saga, Tegner (Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+As Freya was also considered the goddess of fruitfulness, she was
+sometimes represented as riding about with her brother Frey in the
+chariot drawn by the golden-bristled boar, scattering, with lavish
+hands, fruits and flowers to gladden the hearts of mankind. She had a
+chariot of her own, however, in which she generally travelled. This
+was drawn by cats, her favourite animals, the emblems of caressing
+fondness and sensuality, or the personifications of fecundity.
+
+
+    "Then came dark-bearded Nioerd, and after him
+    Freyia, thin robed, about her ankles slim
+    The gray cats playing."
+
+            Lovers of Gudrun (William Morris).
+
+
+Frey and Freya were held in such high honour throughout the North
+that their names, in modified forms, are still used for "master"
+and "mistress," and one day of the week is called Freya's day,
+or Friday, by the English-speaking race. Freya's temples were very
+numerous indeed, and were long maintained by her votaries, the last,
+in Magdeburg, Germany, being destroyed by order of Charlemagne.
+
+
+
+Story of Ottar and Angantyr
+
+The Northern people were wont to invoke Freya not only for success
+in love, prosperity, and increase, but also, at times, for aid
+and protection. This she vouchsafed to all who served her truly,
+as appeared in the story of Ottar and Angantyr, two men who, after
+disputing for some time concerning their rights to a certain piece of
+property, laid their quarrel before the Thing. That popular assembly
+decreed that the man who could prove that he had the longest line of
+noble ancestors should be declared the winner, and a special day was
+appointed to investigate the genealogy of each claimant.
+
+Ottar, unable to remember the names of more than a few of his
+progenitors, offered sacrifices to Freya, entreating her aid. The
+goddess graciously heard his prayer, and appearing before him, she
+changed him into a boar, and rode off upon his back to the dwelling of
+the sorceress Hyndla, a most renowned witch. By threats and entreaties,
+Freya compelled the old woman to trace Ottar's genealogy back to
+Odin, and to name every individual in turn, with a synopsis of his
+achievements. Then, fearing lest her votary's memory should be unable
+to retain so many details, Freya further compelled Hyndla to brew a
+potion of remembrance, which she gave him to drink.
+
+
+    "He shall drink
+    Delicious draughts.
+    All the gods I pray
+    To favour Ottar."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Thus prepared, Ottar presented himself before the Thing on the
+appointed day, and glibly reciting his pedigree, he named so many
+more ancestors than Angantyr could recollect, that he was easily
+awarded possession of the property he coveted.
+
+
+    "A duty 'tis to act
+    So that the young prince
+    His paternal heritage may have
+    After his kindred."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Husbands of Freya
+
+Freya was so beautiful that all the gods, giants, and dwarfs longed for
+her love and in turn tried to secure her as wife. But Freya scorned
+the ugly giants and refused even Thrym, when urged to accept him
+by Loki and Thor. She was not so obdurate where the gods themselves
+were concerned, if the various mythologists are to be believed, for
+as the personification of the earth she is said to have wedded Odin
+(the sky), Frey (the fruitful rain), Odur (the sunshine), &c., until
+it seems as if she deserved the accusation hurled against her by the
+arch-fiend Loki, of having loved and wedded all the gods in turn.
+
+
+
+Worship of Freya
+
+It was customary on solemn occasions to drink Freya's health with
+that of the other gods, and when Christianity was introduced in the
+North this toast was transferred to the Virgin or to St. Gertrude;
+Freya herself, like all the heathen divinities, was declared a demon
+or witch, and banished to the mountain peaks of Norway, Sweden,
+or Germany, where the Brocken is pointed out as her special abode,
+and the general trysting-place of her demon train on Valpurgisnacht.
+
+
+    Chorus of Witches.
+
+    "On to the Brocken the witches are flocking--
+    Merry meet--merry part--how they gallop and drive,
+    Yellow stubble and stalk are rocking,
+    And young green corn is merry alive,
+    With the shapes and shadows swimming by.
+    To the highest heights they fly,
+    Where Sir Urian sits on high--
+    Throughout and about,
+    With clamour and shout,
+    Drives the maddening rout,
+    Over stock, over stone;
+    Shriek, laughter, and moan,
+    Before them are blown."
+
+            Goethe's Faust (Anster's tr.).
+
+
+As the swallow, cuckoo, and cat were held sacred to Freya in heathen
+times, these creatures were supposed to have demoniacal attributes,
+and to this day witches are always depicted with coal-black cats
+beside them.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI: ULLER
+
+
+The God of Winter
+
+Uller, the winter-god, was the son of Sif, and the stepson of Thor. His
+father, who is never mentioned in the Northern sagas, must have been
+one of the dreaded frost giants, for Uller loved the cold and delighted
+in travelling over the country on his broad snowshoes or glittering
+skates. This god also delighted in the chase, and pursued his game
+through the Northern forests, caring but little for ice and snow,
+against which he was well protected by the thick furs in which he
+was always clad.
+
+As god of hunting and archery, he is represented with a quiver full of
+arrows and a huge bow, and as the yew furnishes the best wood for the
+manufacture of these weapons, it is said to have been his favourite
+tree. To have a supply of suitable wood ever at hand ready for use,
+Uller took up his abode at Ydalir, the vale of yews, where it was
+always very damp.
+
+
+    "Ydalir it is called,
+    Where Ullr has
+    Himself a dwelling made."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+As winter-god, Uller, or Oller, as he was also called, was considered
+second only to Odin, whose place he usurped during his absence in
+the winter months of the year. During this period he exercised full
+sway over Asgard and Midgard, and even, according to some authorities,
+took possession of Frigga, Odin's wife, as related in the myth of Vili
+and Ve. But as Uller was very parsimonious, and never bestowed any
+gifts upon mankind, they gladly hailed the return of Odin, who drove
+his supplanter away, forcing him to take refuge either in the frozen
+North or on the tops of the Alps. Here, if we are to believe the poets,
+he had built a summer house into which he retreated until, knowing
+Odin had departed once more, he again dared appear in the valleys.
+
+Uller was also considered god of death, and was supposed to ride in
+the Wild Hunt, and at times even to lead it. He is specially noted
+for his rapidity of motion, and as the snowshoes used in Northern
+regions are sometimes made of bone, and turned up in front like the
+prow of a ship, it was commonly reported that Uller had spoken magic
+runes over a piece of bone, changing it into a vessel, which bore
+him over land or sea at will.
+
+As snowshoes are shaped like a shield, and as the ice with which he
+yearly enveloped the earth acts as a shield to protect it from harm
+during the winter, Uller was surnamed the shield-god, and he was
+specially invoked by all persons about to engage in a duel or in a
+desperate fight.
+
+In Christian times, his place in popular worship was taken by
+St. Hubert, the hunter, who, also, was made patron of the first month
+of the year, which began on November 22, and was dedicated to him as
+the sun passed through the constellation of Sagittarius, the bowman.
+
+In Anglo-Saxon, Uller was known as Vulder; but in some parts of Germany
+he was called Holler and considered to be the husband of the fair
+goddess Holda, whose fields he covered with a thick mantle of snow,
+to make them more fruitful when the spring came.
+
+By the Scandinavians, Uller was said to have married Skadi, Nioerd's
+divorced wife, the female personification of winter and cold, and their
+tastes were so congenial that they lived in perfect harmony together.
+
+
+
+Worship of Uller
+
+Numerous temples were dedicated to Uller in the North, and on his
+altars, as well as on those of all the other gods, lay a sacred ring
+upon which oaths were sworn. This ring was said to have the power of
+shrinking so violently as to sever the finger of any premeditated
+perjurer. The people visited Uller's shrine, especially during the
+months of November and December, to entreat him to send a thick
+covering of snow over their lands, as earnest of a good harvest; and
+as he was supposed to send out the glorious flashes of the aurora
+borealis, which illumine the Northern sky during its long night,
+he was considered nearly akin to Balder, the personification of light.
+
+According to other authorities, Uller was Balder's special friend,
+principally because he too spent part of the year in the dismal depths
+of Nifl-heim, with Hel, the goddess of death. Uller was supposed to
+endure a yearly banishment thither, during the summer months, when
+he was forced to resign his sway over the earth to Odin, the summer
+god, and there Balder came to join him at Midsummer, the date of his
+disappearance from Asgard, for then the days began to grow shorter, and
+the rule of light (Balder) gradually yielded to the ever encroaching
+power of darkness (Hodur).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII: FORSETI
+
+
+The God of Justice and Truth
+
+Son of Balder, god of light, and of Nanna, goddess of immaculate
+purity, Forseti was the wisest, most eloquent, and most gentle of all
+the gods. When his presence in Asgard became known, the gods awarded
+him a seat in the council hall, decreed that he should be patron of
+justice and righteousness, and gave him as abode the radiant palace
+Glitnir. This dwelling had a silver roof, supported on pillars of gold,
+and it shone so brightly that it could be seen from a great distance.
+
+
+    "Glitner is the tenth;
+    It is on gold sustained,
+    And also with silver decked.
+    There Forseti dwells
+    Throughout all time,
+    And every strife allays."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Here, upon an exalted throne, Forseti, the lawgiver, sat day after
+day, settling the differences of gods and men, patiently listening
+to both sides of every question, and finally pronouncing sentences
+so equitable that none ever found fault with his decrees. Such were
+this god's eloquence and power of persuasion that he always succeeded
+in touching his hearers' hearts, and never failed to reconcile even
+the most bitter foes. All who left his presence were thereafter sure
+to live in peace, for none dared break a vow once made to him, lest
+they should incur his just anger and be smitten immediately unto death.
+
+
+    "Forsete, Balder's high-born son,
+      Hath heard mine oath;
+    Strike dead, Forset', if e'er I'm won
+      To break my troth."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+As god of justice and eternal law, Forseti was supposed to preside
+over every judicial assembly; he was invariably appealed to by all
+who were about to undergo a trial, and it was said that he rarely
+failed to help the deserving.
+
+
+
+The Story of Heligoland
+
+In order to facilitate the administration of justice throughout their
+land it is related that the Frisians commissioned twelve of their
+wisest men, the Asegeir, or elders, to collect the laws of the various
+families and tribes composing their nation, and to compile from them
+a code which should be the basis of uniform laws. The elders, having
+painstakingly finished their task of collecting this miscellaneous
+information, embarked upon a small vessel, to seek some secluded spot
+where they might conduct their deliberations in peace. But no sooner
+had they pushed away from shore than a tempest arose, which drove
+their vessel far out to sea, first on this course and then on that,
+until they entirely lost their bearings. In their distress the twelve
+jurists called upon Forseti, begging him to help them to reach land
+once again, and the prayer was scarcely ended when they perceived, to
+their utter surprise, that the vessel contained a thirteenth passenger.
+
+Seizing the rudder, the newcomer silently brought the vessel round,
+steering it towards the place where the waves dashed highest, and in
+an incredibly short space of time they came to an island, where the
+steersman motioned them to disembark. In awestruck silence the twelve
+men obeyed; and their surprise was further excited when they saw the
+stranger fling his battle-axe, and a limpid spring gush forth from
+the spot on the greensward where it fell. Imitating the stranger, all
+drank of this water without a word; then they sat down in a circle,
+marvelling because the newcomer resembled each one of them in some
+particular, but yet was very different from any one of them in general
+aspect and mien.
+
+Suddenly the silence was broken, and the stranger began to speak in
+low tones, which grew firmer and louder as he proceeded to expound
+a code of laws which combined all the good points of the various
+existing regulations which the Asegeir had collected. His speech
+being finished, the speaker vanished as suddenly and mysteriously as
+he had appeared, and the twelve jurists, recovering power of speech,
+simultaneously exclaimed that Forseti himself had been among them, and
+had delivered the code of laws by which the Frisians should henceforth
+be judged. In commemoration of the god's appearance they declared the
+island upon which they stood to be holy, and they pronounced a solemn
+curse upon any who might dare to desecrate its sanctity by quarrel
+or bloodshed. Accordingly this island, known as Forseti's land or
+Heligoland (holy land), was greatly respected by all the Northern
+nations, and even the boldest vikings refrained from raiding its
+shores, lest they should suffer shipwreck or meet a shameful death
+in punishment for their crime.
+
+Solemn judicial assemblies were frequently held upon this sacred isle,
+the jurists always drawing water and drinking it in silence, in memory
+of Forseti's visit. The waters of his spring were, moreover, considered
+to be so holy that all who drank of them were held to be sacred, and
+even the cattle who had tasted of them might not be slain. As Forseti
+was said to hold his assizes in spring, summer, and autumn, but never
+in winter, it became customary, in all the Northern countries, to
+dispense justice in those seasons, the people declaring that it was
+only when the light shone clearly in the heavens that right could
+become apparent to all, and that it would be utterly impossible to
+render an equitable verdict during the dark winter season. Forseti
+is seldom mentioned except in connection with Balder. He apparently
+had no share in the closing battle in which all the other gods played
+such prominent parts.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII: HEIMDALL
+
+
+The Watchman of the Gods
+
+In the course of a walk along the sea-shore Odin once beheld nine
+beautiful giantesses, the wave maidens, Gialp, Greip, Egia, Augeia,
+Ulfrun, Aurgiafa, Sindur, Atla, and Iarnsaxa, sound asleep on the
+white sand. The god of the sky was so charmed with these beautiful
+creatures that, as the Eddas relate, he wedded all nine of them,
+and they combined, at the same moment, to bring forth a son, who
+received the name of Heimdall.
+
+
+    "Born was I of mothers nine,
+    Son I am of sisters nine."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The nine mothers proceeded to nourish their babe on the strength of the
+earth, the moisture of the sea, and the heat of the sun, which singular
+diet proved so strengthening that the new god acquired his full growth
+in a remarkably short space of time, and hastened to join his father
+in Asgard. He found the gods proudly contemplating the rainbow bridge
+Bifroest, which they had just constructed out of fire, air, and water,
+the three materials which can still plainly be seen in its long arch,
+where glow the three primary colours: the red representing the fire,
+the blue the air, and the green the cool depths of the sea.
+
+
+
+The Guardian of the Rainbow
+
+This bridge connected heaven and earth, and ended under the shade of
+the mighty world-tree Yggdrasil, close beside the fountain where Mimir
+kept guard, and the only drawback to prevent the complete enjoyment
+of the glorious spectacle, was the fear lest the frost-giants should
+make their way over it and so gain entrance into Asgard.
+
+The gods had been debating the advisability of appointing a trustworthy
+guardian, and they hailed the new recruit as one well-fitted to fulfil
+the onerous duties of the office.
+
+Heimdall gladly undertook the responsibility and henceforth, night
+and day, he kept vigilant watch over the rainbow highway into Asgard.
+
+
+    "Bifroest i' th' east shone forth in brightest green;
+    On its top, in snow-white sheen,
+    Heimdal at his post was seen."
+
+            Oehlenschlaeger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+To enable their watchman to detect the approach of any enemy from afar,
+the assembled gods bestowed upon him senses so keen that he is said
+to have been able to hear the grass grow on the hillside, and the
+wool on the sheep's back; to see one hundred miles off as plainly by
+night as by day; and with all this he required less sleep than a bird.
+
+
+    "'Mongst shivering giants wider known
+    Than him who sits unmoved on high,
+    The guard of heaven, with sleepless eye."
+
+            Lay of Skirner (Herbert's tr.).
+
+Heimdall was provided further with a flashing sword and a marvellous
+trumpet, called Giallar-horn, which the gods bade him blow whenever he
+saw their enemies approach, declaring that its sound would rouse all
+creatures in heaven, earth, and Nifl-heim. Its last dread blast would
+announce the arrival of that day when the final battle would be fought.
+
+
+    "To battle the gods are called
+    By the ancient
+    Gjallar-horn.
+    Loud blows Heimdall,
+    His sound is in the air."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+To keep this instrument, which was a symbol of the crescent moon,
+ever at hand, Heimdall either hung it on a branch of Yggdrasil above
+his head or sank it in the waters of Mimir's well. In the latter it
+lay side by side with Odin's eye, which was an emblem of the moon at
+its full.
+
+Heimdall's palace, called Himinbiorg, was situated on the highest
+point of the bridge, and here the gods often visited him to quaff
+the delicious mead which he set before them.
+
+
+    "'Tis Himminbjorg called
+    Where Heimdal, they say,
+    Hath dwelling and rule.
+    There the gods' warder drinks,
+    In peaceful old halls,
+    Gladsome the good mead."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Heimdall was always depicted in resplendent white armour, and he was
+therefore called the bright god. He was also known as the light,
+innocent, and graceful god, all of which names he fully deserved,
+for he was as good as he was beautiful, and all the gods loved
+him. Connected on his mothers' side with the sea, he was sometimes
+included with the Vanas; and as the ancient Northmen, especially the
+Icelanders, to whom the surrounding sea appeared the most important
+element, fancied that all things had risen out of it, they attributed
+to him an all-embracing knowledge and imagined him particularly wise.
+
+
+    "Of AEsir the brightest--
+    He well foresaw
+    Like other Vanir."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Heimdall was further distinguished by his golden teeth, which
+flashed when he smiled, and won for him the surname of Gullintani
+(golden-toothed). He was also the proud possessor of a swift,
+golden-maned steed called Gull-top, which bore him to and fro over
+the quivering rainbow bridge. This he crossed many times a day, but
+particularly in the early morn, at which time, as herald of the day,
+he bore the name of Heimdellinger.
+
+
+    "Early up Bifroest
+    Ran Ulfrun's son,
+    The mighty hornblower
+    Of Himinbioerg."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Loki and Freya
+
+His extreme acuteness of hearing caused Heimdall to be disturbed
+one night by the sound of soft, catlike footsteps in the direction
+of Freya's palace, Folkvang. Projecting his eagle gaze through the
+darkness, Heimdall perceived that the sound was produced by Loki,
+who, having stealthily entered the palace as a fly, had approached
+Freya's bedside, and was trying to steal her shining golden necklace,
+Brisinga-men, the emblem of the fruitfulness of the earth.
+
+Heimdall saw that the goddess was resting in her sleep in such a
+way that no one could possibly unclasp the necklace without awaking
+her. Loki stood hesitatingly by the bedside for a few moments, and
+then began rapidly to mutter the runes which enabled the gods to
+change their form at will. As he did this, Heimdall saw him shrivel
+up until he was changed to the size and form of a flea, when he crept
+under the bed-clothes and bit Freya's side, thus causing her to change
+her position without being roused from sleep.
+
+The clasp was now in view, and Loki, cautiously unfastening it,
+secured the coveted treasure, and forthwith proceeded to steal away
+with it. Heimdall immediately started out in pursuit of the midnight
+thief, and quickly overtaking him, he drew his sword from its scabbard,
+with intent to cut off his head, when the god transformed himself into
+a flickering blue flame. Quick as thought, Heimdall changed himself
+into a cloud and sent down a deluge of rain to quench the fire;
+but Loki as promptly altered his form to that of a huge polar bear,
+and opened wide his jaws to swallow the water. Heimdall, nothing
+daunted, then likewise assumed the form of a bear, and attacked
+fiercely; but the combat threatening to end disastrously for Loki,
+the latter changed himself into a seal, and, Heimdall imitating him,
+a last struggle took place, which ended in Loki being forced to give
+up the necklace, which was duly restored to Freya.
+
+In this myth, Loki is an emblem of drought, or of the baleful effects
+of the too ardent heat of the sun, which comes to rob the earth
+(Freya) of its most cherished ornament (Brisinga-men). Heimdall is a
+personification of the gentle rain and dew, which after struggling
+for a while with his foe, the drought, eventually conquers him and
+forces him to relinquish his prize.
+
+
+
+Heimdall's Names
+
+Heimdall has several other names, among which we find those of
+Hallinskide and Irmin, for at times he takes Odin's place and is
+identified with that god, as well as with the other sword-gods, Er,
+Heru, Cheru and Tyr, who are all noted for their shining weapons. He,
+however, is most generally known as warder of the rainbow, and god
+of heaven, and of the fruitful rains and dews which bring refreshment
+to the earth.
+
+Heimdall also shared with Bragi the honour of welcoming heroes to
+Valhalla, and, under the name of Riger, was considered the divine
+sire of the various classes which compose the human race, as appears
+in the following story:
+
+The Story of Riger
+
+
+    "Sacred children,
+    Great and small,
+    Sons of Heimdall!"
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Heimdall left his place in Asgard one day to wander upon the earth,
+as the gods were wont to do. He had not gone far ere he came to a poor
+hut on the seashore, where he found Ai (great grandfather) and Edda
+(great grandmother), a poor but worthy couple, who hospitably invited
+him to share their meagre meal of porridge. Heimdall, who gave his
+name as Riger, gladly accepted this invitation, and remained with
+the couple three whole days, teaching them many things. At the end of
+that time he left to resume his journey. Some time after his visit,
+Edda bore a dark-skinned thick-set boy, whom she called Thrall.
+
+Thrall soon showed uncommon physical strength and a great aptitude
+for all heavy work; and when he had grown up he took to wife Thyr,
+a heavily built girl with sunburnt hands and flat feet, who, like
+her husband, laboured early and late. Many children were born to
+this couple and from them all the serfs or thralls of the Northland
+were descended.
+
+
+    "They had children
+    Lived and were happy;
+     
+    They laid fences,
+    Enriched the plow-land,
+    Tended swine,
+    Herded goats,
+    Dug peat."
+
+            Rigsmal (Du Chaillu's version).
+
+
+After leaving the poor hut on the barren seacoast Riger had
+pushed inland, where ere long he came to cultivated fields and a
+thrifty farmhouse. Entering this comfortable dwelling, he found Afi
+(grandfather) and Amma (grandmother), who hospitably invited him to
+sit down with them and share the plain but bountiful fare which was
+prepared for their meal.
+
+Riger accepted the invitation and he remained three days with
+his hosts, imparting the while all manner of useful knowledge to
+them. After his departure from their house, Amma gave birth to a
+blue-eyed sturdy boy, whom she called Karl. As he grew up he exhibited
+great skill in agricultural pursuits, and in due course he married
+a buxom and thrifty wife named Snor, who bore him many children,
+from whom the race of husbandmen is descended.
+
+
+    "He did grow
+    And thrive well;
+    He broke oxen,
+    Made plows;
+    Timbered houses,
+    Made barns,
+    Made carts,
+    And drove the plow."
+
+            Rigsmal (Du Chaillu's version).
+
+
+Leaving the house of this second couple, Riger continued his journey
+until he came to a hill, upon which was perched a stately castle. Here
+he was received by Fadir (father) and Modir (mother), who, delicately
+nurtured and luxuriously clad, received him cordially, and set before
+him dainty meats and rich wines.
+
+Riger tarried three days with this couple, afterwards returning to
+Himinbiorg to resume his post as guardian of Asa-bridge; and ere long
+the lady of the castle bore a handsome, slenderly built little son,
+whom she called Jarl. This child early showed a great taste for the
+hunt and all manner of martial exercises, learned to understand runes,
+and lived to do great deeds of valour which made his name distinguished
+and added glory to his race. Having attained manhood, Jarl married
+Erna, an aristocratic, slender-waisted maiden, who ruled his household
+wisely and bore him many children, all destined to rule, the youngest
+of whom, Konur, became the first king of Denmark. This myth well
+illustrates the marked sense of class among the Northern races.
+
+
+    "Up grew
+    The sons of Jarl;
+    They brake horses,
+    Bent shields,
+    Smoothed shafts,
+    Shook ash spears
+    But Kon, the young,
+    Knew runes,
+    Everlasting runes
+    And life runes."
+
+            Rigsmal (Du Chaillu's version).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV: HERMOD
+
+
+The Nimble God
+
+Another of Odin's sons was Hermod, his special attendant, a bright
+and beautiful young god, who was gifted with great rapidity of motion
+and was therefore designated as the swift or nimble god.
+
+
+    "But there was one, the first of all the gods
+    For speed, and Hermod was his name in Heaven;
+    Most fleet he was."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+On account of this important attribute Hermod was usually employed
+by the gods as messenger, and at a mere sign from Odin he was always
+ready to speed to any part of creation. As a special mark of favour,
+Allfather gave him a magnificent corselet and helmet, which he
+often donned when he prepared to take part in war, and sometimes
+Odin entrusted to his care the precious spear Gungnir, bidding him
+cast it over the heads of combatants about to engage in battle,
+that their ardour might be kindled into murderous fury.
+
+
+    "Let us Odin pray
+    Into our minds to enter;
+    He gives and grants
+    Gold to the deserving.
+    He gave to Hermod
+    A helm and corselet."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Hermod delighted in battle, and was often called "the valiant in
+battle," and confounded with the god of the universe, Irmin. It is
+said that he sometimes accompanied the Valkyrs on their ride to earth,
+and frequently escorted the warriors to Valhalla, wherefore he was
+considered the leader of the heroic dead.
+
+
+    "To him spake Hermoder and Brage:
+      'We meet thee and greet thee from all,
+    To the gods thou art known by thy valour,
+      And they bid thee a guest to their hall.'"
+
+            Owen Meredith.
+
+
+Hermod's distinctive attribute, besides his corselet and helm, was a
+wand or staff called Gambantein, the emblem of his office, which he
+carried with him wherever he went.
+
+
+
+Hermod and the Soothsayer
+
+Once, oppressed by shadowy fears for the future, and unable to obtain
+from the Norns satisfactory answers to his questions, Odin bade Hermod
+don his armour and saddle Sleipnir, which he alone, besides Odin, was
+allowed to ride, and hasten off to the land of the Finns. This people,
+who lived in the frozen regions of the pole, besides being able to
+call up the cold storms which swept down from the North, bringing much
+ice and snow in their train, were supposed to have great occult powers.
+
+The most noted of these Finnish magicians was Rossthiof (the horse
+thief) who was wont to entice travellers into his realm by magic
+arts, that he might rob and slay them; and he had power to predict
+the future, although he was always very reluctant to do so.
+
+Hermod, "the swift," rode rapidly northward, with directions to seek
+this Finn, and instead of his own wand, he carried Odin's runic staff,
+which Allfather had given him for the purpose of dispelling any
+obstacles that Rossthiof might conjure up to hinder his advance. In
+spite, therefore, of phantom-like monsters and of invisible snares
+and pitfalls, Hermod was enabled safely to reach the magician's abode,
+and upon the giant attacking him, he was able to master him with ease,
+and he bound him hand and foot, declaring that he would not set him
+free until he promised to reveal all that he wished to know.
+
+Rossthiof, seeing that there was no hope of escape, pledged himself
+to do as his captor wished, and upon being set at liberty, he began
+forthwith to mutter incantations, at the mere sound of which the sun
+hid behind the clouds, the earth trembled and quivered, and the storm
+winds howled like a pack of hungry wolves.
+
+Pointing to the horizon, the magician bade Hermod look, and the
+swift god saw in the distance a great stream of blood reddening the
+ground. While he gazed wonderingly at this stream, a beautiful woman
+suddenly appeared, and a moment later a little boy stood beside
+her. To the god's amazement, this child grew with such marvellous
+rapidity that he soon attained his full growth, and Hermod further
+noticed that he fiercely brandished a bow and arrows.
+
+Rossthiof now began to explain the omens which his art had conjured
+up, and he declared that the stream of blood portended the murder
+of one of Odin's sons, but that if the father of the gods should woo
+and win Rinda, in the land of the Ruthenes (Russia), she would bear
+him a son who would attain his full growth in a few hours and would
+avenge his brother's death.
+
+
+    "Rind a son shall bear,
+      In the western halls:
+    He shall slay Odin's son,
+      When one night old."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Hermod listened attentively to the words of Rossthiof and upon his
+return to Asgard he reported all he had seen and heard to Odin,
+whose fears were confirmed and who thus definitely ascertained that
+he was doomed to lose a son by violent death. He consoled himself,
+however, with the thought that another of his descendants would avenge
+the crime and thereby obtain the satisfaction which a true Northman
+ever required.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV: VIDAR
+
+
+The Silent God
+
+It is related that Odin once loved the beautiful giantess Grid, who
+dwelt in a cave in the desert, and that, wooing her, he prevailed
+upon her to become his wife. The offspring of this union between Odin
+(mind) and Grid (matter) was Vidar, a son as strong as he was taciturn,
+whom the ancients considered a personification of the primaeval forest
+or of the imperishable forces of Nature.
+
+As the gods, through Heimdall, were intimately connected with the
+sea, they were also bound by close ties to the forests and Nature
+in general through Vidar, surnamed "the silent," who was destined to
+survive their destruction and rule over a regenerated earth. This god
+had his habitation in Landvidi (the wide land), a palace decorated
+with green boughs and fresh flowers, situated in the midst of an
+impenetrable primaeval forest where reigned the deep silence and
+solitude which he loved.
+
+
+    "Grown over with shrubs
+    And with high grass
+    In Vidar's wide land."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+This old Scandinavian conception of the silent Vidar is indeed
+very grand and poetical, and was inspired by the rugged Northern
+scenery. "Who has ever wandered through such forests, in a length of
+many miles, in a boundless expanse, without a path, without a goal,
+amid their monstrous shadows, their sacred gloom, without being filled
+with deep reverence for the sublime greatness of Nature above all
+human agency, without feeling the grandeur of the idea which forms
+the basis of Vidar's essence?"
+
+
+
+Vidar's Shoe
+
+Vidar is depicted as tall, well-made, and handsome, clad in armour,
+girded with a broad-bladed sword, and shod with a great iron or leather
+shoe. According to some mythologists, he owed this peculiar footgear
+to his mother Grid, who, knowing that he would be called upon to fight
+against fire on the last day, designed it as a protection against
+the fiery element, as her iron gauntlet had shielded Thor in his
+encounter with Geirrod. But other authorities state that this shoe
+was made of the leather scraps which Northern cobblers had either
+given or thrown away. As it was essential that the shoe should be
+large and strong enough to resist the Fenris wolf's sharp teeth at
+the last day, it was a matter of religious observance among Northern
+shoemakers to give away as many odds and ends of leather as possible.
+
+
+
+The Norn's Prophecy
+
+When Vidar joined his peers in Valhalla, they welcomed him gaily, for
+they knew that his great strength would serve them well in their time
+of need. After they had lovingly regaled him with the golden mead,
+Allfather bade him follow to the Urdar fountain, where the Norns
+were ever busy weaving their web. Questioned by Odin concerning his
+future and Vidar's destiny, the three sisters answered oracularly;
+each uttering a sentence:
+
+"Early begun."
+
+"Further spun."
+
+"One day done."
+
+To these their mother, Wyrd, the primitive goddess of fate, added:
+"With joy once more won." These mysterious answers would have remained
+totally unintelligible had the goddess not gone on to explain that time
+progresses, that all must change, but that even if the father fell in
+the last battle, his son Vidar would be his avenger, and would live to
+rule over a regenerated world, after having conquered all his enemies.
+
+
+    "There sits Odin's
+    Son on the horse's back;
+    He will avenge his father."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+As Wyrd spoke, the leaves of the world tree fluttered as if agitated
+by a breeze, the eagle on its topmost bough flapped its wings, and
+the serpent Nidhug for a moment suspended its work of destruction
+at the roots of the tree. Grid, joining the father and son, rejoiced
+with Odin when she heard that their son was destined to survive the
+older gods and to rule over the new heaven and earth.
+
+
+    "There dwell Vidar and Vale
+    In the gods' holy seats,
+    When the fire of Surt is slaked."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+Vidar, however, uttered not a word, but slowly wended his way back to
+his palace Landvidi, in the heart of the primaeval forest, and there,
+sitting upon his throne, he pondered long about eternity, futurity,
+and infinity. If he fathomed their secrets he never revealed them, for
+the ancients averred that he was "as silent as the grave"--a silence
+which indicated that no man knows what awaits him in the life to come.
+
+Vidar was not only a personification of the imperish-ability of Nature,
+but he was also a symbol of resurrection and renewal, exhibiting
+the eternal truth that new shoots and blossoms will spring forth to
+replace those which have fallen into decay.
+
+The shoe he wore was to be his defence against the wolf Fenris, who,
+having destroyed Odin, would direct his wrath against him, and open
+wide his terrible jaws to devour him. But the old Northmen declared
+that Vidar would brace the foot thus protected against the monster's
+lower jaw, and, seizing the upper, would struggle with him until he
+had rent him in twain.
+
+As one shoe only is mentioned in the Vidar myths, some mythologists
+suppose that he had but one leg, and was the personification of a
+waterspout, which would rise suddenly on the last day to quench the
+wild fire personified by the terrible wolf Fenris.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI: VALI
+
+
+The Wooing of Rinda
+
+Billing, king of the Ruthenes, was sorely dismayed when he heard
+that a great force was about to invade his kingdom, for he was too
+old to fight as of yore, and his only child, a daughter named Rinda,
+although she was of marriageable age, obstinately refused to choose
+a husband from among her many suitors, and thus give her father the
+help which he so sadly needed.
+
+While Billing was musing disconsolately in his hall, a stranger
+suddenly entered his palace. Looking up, the king beheld a middle-aged
+man wrapped in a wide cloak, with a broad-brimmed hat drawn down
+over his forehead to conceal the fact that he had but one eye. The
+stranger courteously enquired the cause of his evident depression,
+and as there was that in his bearing that compelled confidence, the
+king told him all, and at the end of the relation he volunteered to
+command the army of the Ruthenes against their foe.
+
+His services being joyfully accepted, it was not long ere Odin--for
+it was he--won a signal victory, and, returning in triumph, he asked
+permission to woo the king's daughter Rinda for his wife. Despite the
+suitor's advancing years, Billing hoped that his daughter would lend
+a favourable ear to a wooer who appeared to be very distinguished,
+and he immediately signified his consent. So Odin, still unknown,
+presented himself before the princess, but she scornfully rejected
+his proposal, and rudely boxed his ears when he attempted to kiss her.
+
+Forced to withdraw, Odin nevertheless did not relinquish his purpose to
+make Rinda his wife, for he knew, thanks to Rossthiof's prophecy, that
+none but she could bring forth the destined avenger of his murdered
+son. His next step, therefore, was to assume the form of a smith,
+in which guise he came back to Billing's hall, and fashioning costly
+ornaments of silver and gold, he so artfully multiplied these precious
+trinkets that the king joyfully acquiesced when he inquired whether
+he might pay his addresses to the princess. The smith, Rosterus as
+he announced himself, was, however, as unceremoniously dismissed by
+Rinda as the successful general had been; but although his ear once
+again tingled with the force of her blow, he was more determined than
+ever to make her his wife.
+
+The next time Odin presented himself before the capricious damsel, he
+was disguised as a dashing warrior, for, thought he, a young soldier
+might perchance touch the maiden's heart; but when he again attempted
+to kiss her, she pushed him back so suddenly that he stumbled and
+fell upon one knee.
+
+
+    "Many a fair maiden
+    When rightly known,
+    Towards men is fickle;
+    That I experienced,
+    When that discreet maiden I
+    Strove to win;
+    Contumely of every kind
+    That wily girl
+    Heaped upon me;
+    Nor of that damsel gained I aught."
+
+            Soemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+This third insult so enraged Odin that he drew his magic rune stick
+out of his breast, pointed it at Rinda, and uttered such a terrible
+spell that she fell back into the arms of her attendants rigid and
+apparently lifeless.
+
+When the princess came to life again, her suitor had disappeared,
+but the king discovered with great dismay that she had entirely lost
+her senses and was melancholy mad. In vain all the physicians were
+summoned and all their simples tried; the maiden remained passive
+and sad, and her distracted father had well-nigh abandoned hope when
+an old woman, who announced herself as Vecha, or Vak, appeared and
+offered to undertake the cure of the princess. The seeming old woman,
+who was Odin in disguise, first prescribed a foot-bath for the patient;
+but as this did not appear to have any very marked effect, she proposed
+to try a more drastic treatment. For this, Vecha declared, the patient
+must be entrusted to her exclusive care, securely bound so that she
+could not offer the least resistance. Billing, anxious to save his
+child, was ready to assent to anything; and having thus gained full
+power over Rinda, Odin compelled her to wed him, releasing her from
+bonds and spell only when she had faithfully promised to be his wife.
+
+
+
+The Birth of Vali
+
+The prophecy of Rossthiof was now fulfilled, for Rinda duly bore a son
+named Vali (Ali, Bous, or Beav), a personification of the lengthening
+days, who grew with such marvellous rapidity that in the course of
+a single day he attained his full stature. Without waiting even to
+wash his face or comb his hair, this young god hastened to Asgard,
+bow and arrow in hand, to avenge the death of Balder upon his murderer,
+Hodur, the blind god of darkness.
+
+
+    "But, see! th' avenger, Vali, come,
+    Sprung from the west, in Rinda's womb,
+    True son of Odin! one day's birth!
+    He shall not stop nor stay on earth
+    His locks to comb, his hands to lave,
+    His frame to rest, should rest it crave,
+    Until his mission be complete,
+    And Balder's death find vengeance meet."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+In this myth, Rinda, a personification of the hard-frozen rind of the
+earth, resists the warm wooing of the sun, Odin, who vainly points
+out that spring is the time for warlike exploits, and offers the
+adornments of golden summer. She only yields when, after a shower (the
+footbath), a thaw sets in. Conquered then by the sun's irresistible
+might, the earth yields to his embrace, is freed from the spell (ice)
+which made her hard and cold, and brings forth Vali the nourisher,
+or Bous the peasant, who emerges from his dark hut when the pleasant
+days have come. The slaying of Hodur by Vali is therefore emblematical
+of "the breaking forth of new light after wintry darkness."
+
+Vali, who ranked as one of the twelve deities occupying seats in the
+great hall of Glads-heim, shared with his father the dwelling called
+Valaskialf, and was destined, even before birth, to survive the last
+battle and twilight of the gods, and to reign with Vidar over the
+regenerated earth.
+
+
+
+Worship of Vali
+
+Vali is god of eternal light, as Vidar is of imperishable matter;
+and as beams of light were often called arrows, he is always
+represented and worshipped as an archer. For that reason his month
+in Norwegian calendars is designated by the sign of the bow, and is
+called Lios-beri, the light-bringing. As it falls between the middle
+of January and of February, the early Christians dedicated this month
+to St. Valentine, who was also a skilful archer, and was said, like
+Vali, to be the harbinger of brighter days, the awakener of tender
+sentiments, and the patron of all lovers.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII: THE NORNS
+
+
+The Three Fates
+
+The Northern goddesses of fate, who were called Norns, were in nowise
+subject to the other gods, who might neither question nor influence
+their decrees. They were three sisters, probably descendants of the
+giant Norvi, from whom sprang Nott (night). As soon as the Golden
+Age was ended, and sin began to steal even into the heavenly homes of
+Asgard, the Norns made their appearance under the great ash Yggdrasil,
+and took up their abode near the Urdar fountain. According to some
+mythologists, their mission was to warn the gods of future evil, to
+bid them make good use of the present, and to teach them wholesome
+lessons from the past.
+
+These three sisters, whose names were Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, were
+personifications of the past, present, and future. Their principal
+occupations were to weave the web of fate, to sprinkle daily the sacred
+tree with water from the Urdar fountain, and to put fresh clay around
+its roots, that it might remain fresh and ever green.
+
+
+    "Thence come the maids
+    Who much do know;
+    Three from the hall
+    Beneath the tree;
+    One they named Was,
+    And Being next,
+    The third Shall be."
+
+            The Voeluspa (Henderson's tr.).
+
+
+Some authorities further state that the Norns kept watch over
+the golden apples which hung on the branches of the tree of life,
+experience, and knowledge, allowing none but Idun to pick the fruit,
+which was that with which the gods renewed their youth.
+
+The Norns also fed and tenderly cared for two swans which swam over
+the mirror-like surface of the Urdar fountain, and from this pair of
+birds all the swans on earth are supposed to be descended. At times,
+it is said, the Norns clothed themselves with swan plumage to visit
+the earth, or sported like mermaids along the coast and in various
+lakes and rivers, appearing to mortals, from time to time, to foretell
+the future or give them sage advice.
+
+
+
+The Norns' Web
+
+The Norns sometimes wove webs so large that while one of the weavers
+stood on a high mountain in the extreme east, another waded far out
+into the western sea. The threads of their woof resembled cords,
+and varied greatly in hue, according to the nature of the events
+about to occur, and a black thread, tending from north to south, was
+invariably considered an omen of death. As these sisters flashed the
+shuttle to and fro, they chanted a solemn song. They did not seem to
+weave according to their own wishes, but blindly, as if reluctantly
+executing the wishes of Orlog, the eternal law of the universe, an
+older and superior power, who apparently had neither beginning nor end.
+
+Two of the Norns, Urd and Verdandi, were considered to be very
+beneficent indeed, while the third, it is said, relentlessly undid
+their work, and often, when nearly finished, tore it angrily to shreds,
+scattering the remnants to the winds of heaven. As personifications
+of time, the Norns were represented as sisters of different ages
+and characters, Urd (Wurd, weird) appearing very old and decrepit,
+continually looking backward, as if absorbed in contemplating past
+events and people; Verdandi, the second sister, young, active, and
+fearless, looked straight before her, while Skuld, the type of the
+future, was generally represented as closely veiled, with head turned
+in the direction opposite to where Urd was gazing, and holding a book
+or scroll which had not yet been opened or unrolled.
+
+These Norns were visited daily by the gods, who loved to consult them;
+and even Odin himself frequently rode down to the Urdar fountain
+to bespeak their aid, for they generally answered his questions,
+maintaining silence only about his own fate and that of his fellow
+gods.
+
+
+    "Rode he long and rode he fast.
+      First beneath the great Life Tree,
+      At the sacred Spring sought he
+    Urdar, Norna of the Past;
+    But her backward seeing eye
+    Could no knowledge now supply.
+    Across Verdandi's page there fell
+    Dark shades that ever woes foretell;
+    The shadows which 'round Asgard hung
+    Their baleful darkness o'er it flung;
+    The secret was not written there
+    Might save Valhal, the pure and fair.
+    Last youngest of the sisters three,
+    Skuld, Norna of Futurity,
+    Implored to speak, stood silent by,--
+    Averted was her tearful eye."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+Other Guardian Spirits
+
+Besides the three principal Norns there were many others, far less
+important, who seem to have been the guardian spirits of mankind,
+to whom they frequently appeared, lavishing all manner of gifts
+upon their favourites, and seldom failing to be present at births,
+marriages, and deaths.
+
+
+    "Oh, manifold is their kindred, and who shall tell them all?
+    There are they that rule o'er men folk, and the stars that rise
+    and fall."
+
+            Sigurd the Volsung (William Morris).
+
+
+
+The Story of Nornagesta
+
+On one occasion the three sisters visited Denmark, and entered the
+dwelling of a nobleman as his first child came into the world. Entering
+the apartment where the mother lay, the first Norn promised that the
+child should be handsome and brave, and the second that he should be
+prosperous and a great scald--predictions which filled the parents'
+hearts with joy. Meantime news of what was taking place had gone
+abroad, and the neighbours came thronging the apartment to such a
+degree that the pressure of the curious crowd caused the third Norn
+to be pushed rudely from her chair.
+
+Angry at this insult, Skuld proudly rose and declared that her
+sister's gifts should be of no avail, since she would decree that
+the child should live only as long as the taper then burning near the
+bedside. These ominous words filled the mother's heart with terror,
+and she tremblingly clasped her babe closer to her breast, for the
+taper was nearly burned out and its extinction could not be very long
+delayed. The eldest Norn, however, had no intention of seeing her
+prediction thus set at naught; but as she could not force her sister
+to retract her words, she quickly seized the taper, put out the light,
+and giving the smoking stump to the child's mother, bade her carefully
+treasure it, and never light it again until her son was weary of life.
+
+
+    "In the mansion it was night:
+    The Norns came,
+    Who should the prince's
+    Life determine."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The boy was named Nornagesta, in honour of the Norns, and grew up to
+be as beautiful, brave, and talented as any mother could wish. When he
+was old enough to comprehend the gravity of the trust his mother told
+him the story of the Norns' visit, and placed in his hands the candle
+end, which he treasured for many a year, placing it for safe-keeping
+inside the frame of his harp. When his parents were dead, Nornagesta
+wandered from place to place, taking part and distinguishing himself
+in every battle, singing his heroic lays wherever he went. As he
+was of an enthusiastic and poetic temperament, he did not soon weary
+of life, and while other heroes grew wrinkled and old, he remained
+young at heart and vigorous in frame. He therefore witnessed the
+stirring deeds of the heroic ages, was the boon companion of the
+ancient warriors, and after living three hundred years, saw the
+belief in the old heathen gods gradually supplanted by the teachings
+of Christian missionaries. Finally Nornagesta came to the court of
+King Olaf Tryggvesson, who, according to his usual custom, converted
+him almost by force, and compelled him to receive baptism. Then,
+wishing to convince his people that the time for superstition was
+past, the king forced the aged scald to produce and light the taper
+which he had so carefully guarded for more than three centuries.
+
+In spite of his recent conversion, Nornagesta anxiously watched the
+flame as it flickered, and when, finally, it went out, he sank lifeless
+to the ground, thus proving that in spite of the baptism just received,
+he still believed in the prediction of the Norns.
+
+In the middle ages, and even later, the Norns figure in many a story
+or myth, appearing as fairies or witches, as, for instance, in the
+tale of "the Sleeping Beauty," and Shakespeare's tragedy of Macbeth.
+
+
+	"1st Witch. When shall we three meet again,
+		    In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
+
+	2nd Witch.  When the hurlyburly's done,
+		    When the battle's lost and won:
+
+	3rd Witch.  That will be ere the set of sun."
+
+		    Macbeth (Shakespeare).
+
+
+
+The Vala
+
+Sometimes the Norns bore the name of Vala, or prophetesses, for they
+had the power of divination--a power which was held in great honour
+by all the Northern races, who believed that it was restricted to
+the female sex. The predictions of the Vala were never questioned,
+and it is said that the Roman general Drusus was so terrified by the
+appearance of Veleda, one of these prophetesses, who warned him not
+to cross the Elbe, that he actually beat a retreat. She foretold his
+approaching death, which indeed happened shortly after through a fall
+from his steed.
+
+These prophetesses, who were also known as Idises, Dises, or Hagedises,
+officiated at the forest shrines and in the sacred groves, and
+always accompanied invading armies. Riding ahead, or in the midst
+of the host, they would vehemently urge the warriors on to victory,
+and when the battle was over they would often cut the bloody-eagle
+upon the bodies of the captives. The blood was collected into great
+tubs, wherein the Dises plunged their naked arms up to the shoulders,
+previous to joining in the wild dance with which the ceremony ended.
+
+It is not to be wondered at that these women were greatly
+feared. Sacrifices were offered to propitiate them, and it was only in
+later times that they were degraded to the rank of witches, and sent to
+join the demon host on the Brocken, or Blocksberg, on Valpurgisnacht.
+
+Besides the Norns or Dises, who were also regarded as protective
+deities, the Northmen ascribed to each human being a guardian spirit
+named Fylgie, which attended him through life, either in human or
+brute shape, and was invisible except at the moment of death by all
+except the initiated few.
+
+The allegorical meaning of the Norns and of their web of fate is too
+patent to need explanation; still some mythologists have made them
+demons of the air, and state that their web was the woof of clouds,
+and that the bands of mists which they strung from rock to tree,
+and from mountain to mountain, were ruthlessly torn apart by the
+suddenly rising wind. Some authorities, moreover, declare that Skuld,
+the third Norn, was at times a Valkyr, and at others personated the
+goddess of death, the terrible Hel.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII: THE VALKYRS
+
+
+The Battle Maidens
+
+Odin's special attendants, the Valkyrs, or battle maidens, were either
+his daughters, like Brunhild, or the offspring of mortal kings,
+maidens who were privileged to remain immortal and invulnerable as
+long as they implicitly obeyed the god and remained virgins. They and
+their steeds were the personification of the clouds, their glittering
+weapons being the lightning flashes. The ancients imagined that they
+swept down to earth at Valfather's command, to choose among the slain
+in battle heroes worthy to taste the joys of Valhalla, and brave
+enough to lend aid to the gods when the great battle should be fought.
+
+
+    "There through some battlefield, where men fall fast,
+    Their horses fetlock-deep in blood, they ride,
+    And pick the bravest warriors out for death,
+    Whom they bring back with them at night to Heaven
+    To glad the gods and feast in Odin's hall."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+These maidens were pictured as young and beautiful, with dazzling white
+arms and flowing golden hair. They wore helmets of silver or gold,
+and blood-red corselets, and with spears and shields glittering,
+they boldly charged through the fray on their mettlesome white
+steeds. These horses galloped through the realms of air and over
+the quivering Bifroest, bearing not only their fair riders, but the
+heroes slain, who after having received the Valkyrs' kiss of death,
+were thus immediately transported to Valhalla.
+
+
+
+The Cloud Steeds
+
+As the Valkyrs' steeds were personifications of the clouds, it
+was natural to fancy that the hoar frost and dew dropped down upon
+earth from their glittering manes as they rapidly dashed to and fro
+through the air. They were therefore held in high honour and regard,
+for the people ascribed to their beneficent influence much of the
+fruitfulness of the earth, the sweetness of dale and mountain-slope,
+the glory of the pines, and the nourishment of the meadow-land.
+
+
+
+Choosers of the Slain
+
+The mission of the Valkyrs was not only to battlefields upon earth, but
+they often rode over the sea, snatching the dying Vikings from their
+sinking dragon-ships. Sometimes they stood upon the strand to beckon
+them thither, an infallible warning that the coming struggle would
+be their last, and one which every Northland hero received with joy.
+
+
+    "Slowly they moved to the billow side;
+      And the forms, as they grew more clear,
+    Seem'd each on a tall pale steed to ride,
+      And a shadowy crest to rear,
+    And to beckon with faint hand
+    From the dark and rocky strand,
+      And to point a gleaming spear.
+
+    "Then a stillness on his spirit fell,
+      Before th' unearthly train;
+    For he knew Valhalla's daughters well,
+      The chooser of the slain!"
+
+            Valkyriur Song (Mrs. Hemans).
+
+
+
+Their Numbers and Duties
+
+The numbers of the Valkyrs differ greatly according to various
+mythologists, ranging from three to sixteen, most authorities, however,
+naming only nine. The Valkyrs were considered as divinities of the
+air; they were also called Norns, or wish maidens. It was said that
+Freya and Skuld led them on to the fray.
+
+
+    "She saw Valkyries
+    Come from afar,
+    Ready to ride
+    To the tribes of god;
+    Skuld held the shield,
+    Skaugul came next,
+    Gunnr, Hildr, Gaundul,
+    And Geir-skaugul.
+    Thus now are told
+    The Warrior's Norns."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Henderson's tr.).
+
+
+The Valkyrs, as we have seen, had important duties in Valhalla, when,
+their bloody weapons laid aside, they poured out the heavenly mead for
+the Einheriar. This beverage delighted the souls of the new-comers,
+and they welcomed the fair maidens as warmly as when they had first
+seen them on the battlefield and realised that they had come to
+transport them where they fain would be.
+
+
+    "In the shade now tall forms are advancing,
+    And their wan hands like snowflakes in the moonlight are gleaming;
+    They beckon, they whisper, 'Oh! strong Armed in Valour,
+    The pale guests await thee--mead foams in Valhalla.'"
+
+            Finn's Saga (Hewitt).
+
+
+
+Wayland and the Valkyrs
+
+The Valkyrs were supposed to take frequent flights to earth in swan
+plumage, which they would throw off when they came to a secluded
+stream, that they might indulge in a bath. Any mortal surprising them
+thus, and securing their plumage, could prevent them from leaving the
+earth, and could even force these proud maidens to mate with him if
+such were his pleasure.
+
+It is related that three of the Valkyrs, Olrun, Alvit, and Svanhvit,
+were once sporting in the waters, when suddenly the three brothers
+Egil, Slagfinn, and Voelund, or Wayland the smith, came upon them,
+and securing their swan plumage, the young men forced them to remain
+upon earth and become their wives. The Valkyrs, thus detained,
+remained with their husbands nine years, but at the end of that time,
+recovering their plumage, or the spell being broken in some other way,
+they effected their escape.
+
+
+    "There they stayed
+    Seven winters through;
+    But all the eighth
+    Were with longing seized;
+    And in the ninth
+    Fate parted them.
+    The maidens yearned
+    For the murky wood,
+    The young Alvit,
+    Fate to fulfil."
+
+            Lay of Voelund (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The brothers felt the loss of their wives extremely, and two of them,
+Egil and Slagfinn, putting on their snow shoes, went in search of
+their loved ones, disappearing in the cold and foggy regions of
+the North. The third brother, Voelund, however, remained at home,
+knowing all search would be of no avail, and he found solace in the
+contemplation of a ring which Alvit had given him as a love-token,
+and he indulged the constant hope that she would return. As he was a
+very clever smith, and could manufacture the most dainty ornaments of
+silver and gold, as well as magic weapons which no blow could break,
+he now employed his leisure in making seven hundred rings exactly
+like the one which his wife had given him. These, when finished, he
+bound together; but one night, on coming home from the hunt, he found
+that some one had carried away one ring, leaving the others behind,
+and his hopes received fresh inspiration, for he told himself that
+his wife had been there and would soon return for good.
+
+That selfsame night, however, he was surprised in his sleep, and
+bound and made prisoner by Nidud, King of Sweden, who took possession
+of his sword, a choice weapon invested with magic powers, which he
+reserved for his own use, and of the love ring made of pure Rhine
+gold, which latter he gave to his only daughter, Bodvild. As for the
+unhappy Voelund himself, he was led captive to a neighbouring island,
+where, after being hamstrung, in order that he should not escape, the
+king put him to the incessant task of forging weapons and ornaments
+for his use. He also compelled him to build an intricate labyrinth,
+and to this day a maze in Iceland is known as "Voelund's house."
+
+Voelund's rage and despair increased with every new insult offered
+him by Nidud, and night and day he thought upon how he might obtain
+revenge. Nor did he forget to provide for his escape, and during the
+pauses of his labour he fashioned a pair of wings similar to those his
+wife had used as a Valkyr, which he intended to don as soon as his
+vengeance had been accomplished. One day the king came to visit his
+captive, and brought him the stolen sword that he might repair it;
+but Voelund cleverly substituted another weapon so exactly like the
+magic sword as to deceive the king when he came again to claim it. A
+few days later, Voelund enticed the king's sons into his smithy and
+slew them, after which he cunningly fashioned drinking vessels out
+of their skulls, and jewels out of their eyes and teeth, bestowing
+these upon their parents and sister.
+
+
+    "But their skulls
+    Beneath the hair
+    He in silver set,
+    And to Nidud gave;
+    And of their eyes
+    Precious stones he formed,
+    Which to Nidud's
+    Wily wife he sent.
+    But of the teeth
+    Of the two
+    Breast ornaments he made,
+    And to Boedvild sent."
+
+            Lay of Voelund (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The royal family did not suspect whence they came; and so these gifts
+were joyfully accepted. As for the poor youths, it was believed that
+they had drifted out to sea and had been drowned.
+
+Some time after this, Bodvild, wishing to have her ring repaired, also
+visited the smith's hut, where, while waiting, she unsuspectingly
+partook of a magic drug, which sent her to sleep and left her in
+Voelund's power. His last act of vengeance accomplished, Voelund
+immediately donned the wings which he had made in readiness for
+this day, and grasping his sword and ring he rose slowly in the
+air. Directing his flight to the palace, he perched there out of reach,
+and proclaimed his crimes to Nidud. The king, beside himself with
+rage, summoned Egil, Voelund's brother, who had also fallen into his
+power, and bade him use his marvellous skill as an archer to bring
+down the impudent bird. Obeying a signal from Voelund, Egil aimed
+for a protuberance under his wing where a bladder full of the young
+princes' blood was concealed, and the smith flew triumphantly away
+without hurt, declaring that Odin would give his sword to Sigmund--a
+prediction which was duly fulfilled.
+
+Voelund then went to Alf-heim, where, if the legend is to be believed,
+he found his beloved wife, and lived happily again with her until
+the twilight of the gods.
+
+But, even in Alf-heim, this clever smith continued to ply his craft,
+and various suits of impenetrable armour, which he is said to have
+fashioned, are described in later heroic poems. Besides Balmung
+and Joyeuse, Sigmund's and Charlemagne's celebrated swords, he is
+reported to have fashioned Miming for his son Heime, and many other
+remarkable blades.
+
+
+    "It is the mate of Miming
+    Of all swerdes it is king,
+    And Weland it wrought,
+    Bitterfer it is hight."
+
+            Anglo-Saxon Poetry (Coneybeare's tr.).
+
+
+There are countless other tales of swan maidens or Valkyrs, who are
+said to have consorted with mortals; but the most popular of all is
+that of Brunhild, the wife of Sigurd, a descendant of Sigmund and
+the most renowned of Northern heroes.
+
+William Morris, in "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon,"
+gives a fascinating version of another of these Norse legends. The
+story is amongst the most charming of the collection in "The Earthly
+Paradise."
+
+
+
+Brunhild
+
+The story of Brunhild is to be found in many forms. Some versions
+describe the heroine as the daughter of a king taken by Odin to serve
+in his Valkyr band, others as chief of the Valkyrs and daughter of
+Odin himself. In Richard Wagner's story, "The Ring of the Nibelung,"
+the great musician presents a particularly attractive, albeit a more
+modern conception of the chief Battle-Maiden, and her disobedience
+to the command of Odin when sent to summon the youthful Siegmund from
+the side of his beloved Sieglinde to the Halls of the Blessed.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX: HEL
+
+
+Loki's Offspring
+
+Hel, goddess of death, was the daughter of Loki, god of evil, and of
+the giantess Angurboda, the portender of ill. She came into the world
+in a dark cave in Joetun-heim together with the serpent Ioermungandr
+and the terrible Fenris wolf, the trio being considered as the emblems
+of pain, sin, and death.
+
+
+    "Now Loki comes, cause of all ill!
+    Men and AEsir curse him still.
+      Long shall the gods deplore,
+      Even till Time be o'er,
+    His base fraud on Asgard's hill.
+    While, deep in Jotunheim, most fell,
+    Are Fenrir, Serpent, and Dread Hel,
+    Pain, Sin, and Death, his children three,
+    Brought up and cherished; thro' them he
+    Tormentor of the world shall be."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+In due time Odin became aware of the terrible brood which Loki was
+cherishing, and resolved, as we have already seen, to banish them from
+the face of the earth. The serpent was therefore cast into the sea,
+where his writhing was supposed to cause the most terrible tempests;
+the wolf Fenris was secured in chains, thanks to the dauntless Tyr;
+and Hel or Hela, the goddess of death, was hurled into the depths of
+Nifl-heim, where Odin gave her power over nine worlds.
+
+
+    "Hela into Niflheim thou threw'st,
+    And gav'st her nine unlighted worlds to rule,
+    A queen, and empire over all the dead."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+Hel's Kingdom in Nifl-heim
+
+This realm, which was supposed to be situated under the earth, could
+only be entered after a painful journey over the roughest roads in the
+cold, dark regions of the extreme North. The gate was so far from all
+human abode that even Hermod the swift, mounted upon Sleipnir, had to
+journey nine long nights ere he reached the river Gioell. This formed
+the boundary of Nifl-heim, over which was thrown a bridge of crystal
+arched with gold, hung on a single hair, and constantly guarded by
+the grim skeleton Moedgud, who made every spirit pay a toll of blood
+ere she would allow it to pass.
+
+
+    "The bridge of glass hung on a hair
+    Thrown o'er the river terrible,--
+    The Gioell, boundary of Hel.
+    Now here the maiden Moedgud stood,
+    Waiting to take the toll of blood,--
+    A maiden horrible to sight,
+    Fleshless, with shroud and pall bedight."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The spirits generally rode or drove across this bridge on the horses
+or in the waggons which had been burned upon the funeral pyre with the
+dead to serve that purpose, and the Northern races were very careful to
+bind upon the feet of the departed a specially strong pair of shoes,
+called Hel-shoes, that they might not suffer during the long journey
+over rough roads. Soon after the Giallar bridge was passed, the spirit
+reached the Ironwood, where stood none but bare and iron-leafed trees,
+and, passing through it, reached Hel-gate, beside which the fierce,
+blood-stained dog Garm kept watch, cowering in a dark hole known as
+the Gnipa cave. This monster's rage could only be appeased by the
+offering of a Hel-cake, which never failed those who had ever given
+bread to the needy.
+
+
+    "Loud bays Garm
+    Before the Gnipa cave."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Within the gate, amid the intense cold and impenetrable darkness,
+was heard the seething of the great cauldron Hvergelmir, the rolling
+of the glaciers in the Elivagar and other streams of Hel, among which
+were the Leipter, by which solemn oaths were sworn, and the Slid,
+in whose turbid waters naked swords continually rolled.
+
+Further on in this gruesome place was Elvidner (misery), the hall of
+the goddess Hel, whose dish was Hunger. Her knife was Greed. "Idleness
+was the name of her man, Sloth of her maid, Ruin of her threshold,
+Sorrow of her bed, and Conflagration of her curtains."
+
+
+    "Elvidner was Hela's hall.
+    Iron-barred, with massive wall;
+    Horrible that palace tall!
+    Hunger was her table bare;
+    Waste, her knife; her bed, sharp Care;
+    Burning Anguish spread her feast;
+    Bleached bones arrayed each guest;
+    Plague and Famine sang their runes,
+    Mingled with Despair's harsh tunes.
+    Misery and Agony
+    E'er in Hel's abode shall be!"
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+This goddess had many different abodes for the guests who daily came to
+her, for she received not only perjurers and criminals of all kinds,
+but also those who were unfortunate enough to die without shedding
+blood. To her realm also were consigned those who died of old age
+or disease--a mode of decease which was contemptuously called "straw
+death," as the beds of the people were generally of that material.
+
+
+                "Temper'd hard by frost,
+    Tempest and toil their nerves, the sons of those
+    Whose only terror was a bloodless death."
+
+            Thomson.
+
+
+
+Ideas of the Future Life
+
+Although the innocent were treated kindly by Hel, and enjoyed a state
+of negative bliss, it is no wonder that the inhabitants of the North
+shrank from the thought of visiting her cheerless abode. And while
+the men preferred to mark themselves with the spear point, to hurl
+themselves down from a precipice, or to be burned ere life was quite
+extinct, the women did not shrink from equally heroic measures. In the
+extremity of their sorrow, they did not hesitate to fling themselves
+down a mountain side, or fall upon the swords which were given them
+at their marriage, so that their bodies might be burned with those
+whom they loved, and their spirits released to join them in the bright
+home of the gods.
+
+Further horrors, however, awaited those whose lives had been criminal
+or impure, these spirits being banished to Nastrond, the strand of
+corpses, where they waded in ice-cold streams of venom, through a cave
+made of wattled serpents, whose poisonous fangs were turned towards
+them. After suffering untold agonies there, they were washed down
+into the cauldron Hvergelmir, where the serpent Nidhug ceased for a
+moment gnawing the root of the tree Yggdrasil to feed upon their bones.
+
+
+    "A hall standing
+    Far from the sun
+    In Nastroend;
+    Its doors are northward turned,
+    Venom-drops fall
+    In through its apertures;
+    Entwined is that hall
+    With serpents' backs.
+    She there saw wading
+    The sluggish streams
+    Bloodthirsty men
+    And perjurers,
+    And him who the ear beguiles
+    Of another's wife.
+    There Nidhog sucks
+    The corpses of the dead."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Pestilence and Famine
+
+Hel herself was supposed occasionally to leave her dismal abode to
+range the earth upon her three-legged white horse, and in times of
+pestilence or famine, if a part of the inhabitants of a district
+escaped, she was said to use a rake, and when whole villages and
+provinces were depopulated, as in the case of the historical epidemic
+of the Black Death, it was said that she had ridden with a broom.
+
+The Northern races further fancied that the spirits of the dead were
+sometimes allowed to revisit the earth and appear to their relatives,
+whose sorrow or joy affected them even after death, as is related
+in the Danish ballad of Aager and Else, where a dead lover bids his
+sweetheart smile, so that his coffin may be filled with roses instead
+of the clotted blood drops produced by her tears.
+
+
+    "'Listen now, my good Sir Aager!
+      Dearest bridegroom, all I crave
+    Is to know how it goes with thee
+      In that lonely place, the grave.'
+
+    "'Every time that thou rejoicest,
+      And art happy in thy mind,
+    Are my lonely grave's recesses
+      All with leaves of roses lined.'
+
+    "'Every time that, love, thou grievest,
+      And dost shed the briny flood,
+    Are my lonely grave's recesses
+      Filled with black and loathsome blood.'"
+
+            Ballad of Aager and Else (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX: AEGIR
+
+
+The God of the Sea
+
+Besides Nioerd and Mimir, who were both ocean divinities, the one
+representing the sea near the coast and the other the primaeval ocean
+whence all things were supposed to have sprung, the Northern races
+recognised another sea-ruler, called AEgir or Hler, who dwelt either
+in the cool depths of his liquid realm or had his abode on the Island
+of Lessoe, in the Cattegat, or Hlesey.
+
+
+    "Beneath the watery dome,
+      With crystalline splendour,
+      In radiant grandeur,
+    Upreared the sea-god's home.
+    More dazzling than foam of the waves
+    E'er glimmered and gleamed thro' deep caves
+    The glistening sands of its floor,
+    Like some placid lake rippled o'er."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+AEgir (the sea), like his brothers Kari (the air) and Loki (fire),
+is supposed to have belonged to an older dynasty of the gods, for he
+ranked neither with the AEsir, the Vanas, the giants, dwarfs, or elves,
+but was considered omnipotent within his realm.
+
+He was supposed to occasion and quiet the great tempests which swept
+over the deep, and was generally represented as a gaunt old man,
+with long white beard and hair, and clawlike fingers ever clutching
+convulsively, as though he longed to have all things within his
+grasp. Whenever he appeared above the waves, it was only to pursue and
+overturn vessels, and to greedily drag them to the bottom of the sea,
+a vocation in which he was thought to take fiendish delight.
+
+
+
+The Goddess Ran
+
+AEgir was mated with his sister, the goddess Ran, whose name means
+"robber," and who was as cruel, greedy, and insatiable as her
+husband. Her favourite pastime was to lurk near dangerous rocks,
+whither she enticed mariners, and there spread her net, her most
+prized possession, when, having entangled the men in its meshes and
+broken their vessels on the jagged cliffs, she would calmly draw them
+down into her cheerless realm.
+
+
+    "In the deep sea caves
+      By the sounding shore,
+    In the dashing waves
+      When the wild storms roar,
+    In her cold green bowers
+      In the Northern fiords,
+    She lurks and she glowers,
+      She grasps and she hoards,
+    And she spreads her strong net for her prey."
+
+            Story of Siegfried (Baldwin).
+
+
+Ran was considered the goddess of death for all who perished at sea,
+and the Northern nations fancied that she entertained the drowned
+in her coral caves, where her couches were spread to receive them,
+and where the mead flowed freely as in Valhalla. The goddess was
+further supposed to have a great affection for gold, which was called
+the "flame of the sea," and was used to illuminate her halls. This
+belief originated with the sailors, and sprang from the striking
+phosphorescent gleam of the waves. To win Ran's good graces, the
+Northmen were careful to hide some gold about them whenever any
+special danger threatened them on the sea.
+
+
+    "Gold, on sweetheart ramblings,
+    Pow'rful is and pleasant;
+    Who goes empty-handed
+    Down to sea-blue Ran,
+    Cold her kisses strike, and
+    Fleeting her embrace is--
+    But we ocean's bride be-
+    Troth with purest gold."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Waves
+
+AEgir and Ran had nine beautiful daughters, the Waves, or
+billow-maidens, whose snowy arms and bosoms, long golden hair,
+deep-blue eyes, and willowy, sensuous forms were fascinating in
+the extreme. These maidens delighted in sporting over the surface
+of their father's vast domain, clad lightly in transparent blue,
+white, or green veils. They were very moody and capricious, however,
+varying from playful to sullen and apathetic moods, and at times
+exciting one another almost to madness, tearing their hair and veils,
+flinging themselves recklessly upon their hard beds, the rocks,
+chasing one another with frantic haste, and shrieking aloud with joy
+or despair. But they seldom came out to play unless their brother,
+the Wind, were abroad, and according to his mood they were gentle
+and playful, or rough and boisterous.
+
+The Waves were generally supposed to go about in triplets, and were
+often said to play around the ships of vikings whom they favoured,
+smoothing away every obstacle from their course, and helping them to
+reach speedily their goals.
+
+
+    "And AEger's daughters, in blue veils dight,
+    The helm leap round, and urge it on its flight."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+AEgir's Brewing Kettle
+
+To the Anglo-Saxons the sea-god AEgir was known by the name of Eagor,
+and whenever an unusually large wave came thundering towards the shore,
+the sailors were wont to cry, as the Trent boatmen still do, "Look out,
+Eagor is coming!" He was also known by the name of Hler (the shelterer)
+among the Northern nations, and of Gymir (the concealer), because he
+was always ready to hide things in the depths of his realm, and could
+be depended upon not to reveal the secrets entrusted to his care. And,
+because the waters of the sea were frequently said to seethe and hiss,
+the ocean was often called AEgir's brewing kettle or vat.
+
+The god's two principal servants were Elde and Funfeng, emblems of
+the phosphorescence of the sea; they were noted for their quickness
+and they invariably waited upon the guests whom he invited to his
+banquets in the depths of the sea. AEgir sometimes left his realm to
+visit the AEsir in Asgard, where he was always royally entertained, and
+he delighted in Bragi's many tales of the adventures and achievements
+of the gods. Excited by these narratives, as also by the sparkling
+mead which accompanied them, the god on one occasion ventured to
+invite the AEsir to celebrate the harvest feast with him in Hlesey,
+where he promised to entertain them in his turn.
+
+
+
+Thor and Hymir
+
+Surprised at this invitation, one of the gods ventured to remind
+AEgir that they were accustomed to dainty fare; whereupon the god
+of the sea declared that as far as eating was concerned they need
+be in no anxiety, as he was sure that he could cater for the most
+fastidious appetites; but he confessed that he was not so confident
+about drink, as his brewing kettle was rather small. Hearing this,
+Thor immediately volunteered to procure a suitable kettle, and set
+out with Tyr to obtain it. The two gods journeyed east of the Elivagar
+in Thor's goat chariot, and leaving this at the house of the peasant
+Egil, Thialfi's father, they wended their way on foot to the dwelling
+of the giant Hymir, who was known to own a kettle one mile deep and
+proportionately wide.
+
+
+    "There dwells eastward
+    Of Elivagar
+    The all-wise Hymir,
+    At heaven's end.
+    My sire, fierce of mood,
+    A kettle owns,
+    A capacious cauldron,
+    A rast in depth."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Only the women were at home, however, and Tyr recognised in the
+elder--an ugly old hag with nine hundred heads--his own grandmother;
+while the younger, a beautiful young giantess, was, it appeared,
+his mother, and she received her son and his companion hospitably,
+and gave them to drink.
+
+After learning their errand, Tyr's mother bade the visitors hide under
+some huge kettles, which rested upon a beam at the end of the hall,
+for her husband Hymir was very hasty and often slew his would-be guests
+with a single baleful glance. The gods quickly followed her advice, and
+no sooner were they concealed than the old giant Hymir came in. When
+his wife told him that visitors had come, he frowned so portentously,
+and flashed such a wrathful look towards their hiding-place, that
+the rafter split and the kettles fell with a crash, and, except the
+largest, were all dashed to pieces.
+
+
+    "In shivers flew the pillar
+    At the Joetun's glance;
+    The beam was first
+    Broken in two.
+    Eight kettles fell,
+    But only one of them,
+    A hard-hammered cauldron,
+    Whole from the column."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The giant's wife, however, prevailed upon her husband to welcome
+Tyr and Thor, and he slew three oxen for their refection; but
+great was his dismay to see the thunder-god eat two of these for
+his supper. Muttering that he would have to go fishing early the
+next morning to secure a breakfast for so voracious a guest, the
+giant retired to rest, and when at dawn the next day he went down
+to the shore, he was joined by Thor, who said that he had come to
+help him. The giant bade him secure his own bait, whereupon Thor
+coolly slew his host's largest ox, Himinbrioter (heaven-breaker),
+and cutting off its head, he embarked with it and proceeded to row
+far out to sea. In vain Hymir protested that his usual fishing-ground
+had been reached, and that they might encounter the terrible Midgard
+snake were they to venture any farther; Thor persistently rowed on,
+until he fancied they were directly above this monster.
+
+
+    "On the dark bottom of the great salt lake,
+    Imprisoned lay the giant snake,
+    With naught his sullen sleep to break."
+
+            Thor's Fishing, Oehlenschlaeger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Baiting his powerful hook with the ox head, Thor angled for
+Ioermungandr, while the giant meantime drew up two whales, which seemed
+to him to be enough for an early morning meal. He was about to propose
+to return, therefore, when Thor suddenly felt a jerk, and began pulling
+as hard as he could, for he knew by the resistance of his prey, and the
+terrible storm created by its frenzied writhings, that he had hooked
+the Midgard snake. In his determined efforts to force the snake to rise
+to the surface, Thor braced his feet so strongly against the bottom
+of the boat that he went through it and stood on the bed of the sea.
+
+After an indescribable struggle, the monster's terrible venom-breathing
+head appeared, and Thor, seizing his hammer, was about to annihilate
+it when the giant, frightened by the proximity of Ioermungandr, and
+fearing lest the boat should sink and he should become the monster's
+prey, cut the fishing-line, and thus allowed the snake to drop back
+like a stone to the bottom of the sea.
+
+
+    "The knife prevails: far down beneath the main
+    The serpent, spent with toil and pain,
+    To the bottom sank again."
+
+            Thor's Fishing, Oehlenschlaeger (Pigott's tr.).
+
+
+Angry with Hymir for his inopportune interference, Thor dealt him
+a blow with his hammer which knocked him overboard; but Hymir,
+undismayed, waded ashore, and met the god as he returned to the
+beach. Hymir then took both whales, his spoil of the sea, upon his
+back, to carry them to the house; and Thor, wishing also to show his
+strength, shouldered boat, oars, and fishing tackle, and followed him.
+
+Breakfast being disposed of, Hymir challenged Thor to prove his
+strength by breaking his beaker; but although the thunder-god
+threw it with irresistible force against stone pillars and walls,
+it remained whole and was not even bent. In obedience to a whisper
+from Tyr's mother, however, Thor suddenly hurled the vessel against
+the giant's forehead, the only substance tougher than itself, when it
+fell shattered to the ground. Hymir, having thus tested the might of
+Thor, told him he could have the kettle which the two gods had come
+to seek, but Tyr tried to lift it in vain, and Thor could raise it
+from the floor only after he had drawn his belt of strength to the
+very last hole.
+
+
+    "Tyr twice assayed
+    To move the vessel,
+    Yet at each time
+    Stood the kettle fast.
+    Then Modi's father
+    By the brim grasped it,
+    And trod through
+    The dwelling's floor."
+
+            Lay of Hymir (Thorpe's tr.)
+
+
+The wrench with which he finally pulled it up did great damage to the
+giant's house and his feet broke through the floor. As Tyr and Thor
+were departing, the latter with the huge pot clapped on his head in
+place of a hat, Hymir summoned his brother frost giants, and proposed
+that they should pursue and slay their inveterate foe. Turning round,
+Thor suddenly became aware of their pursuit, and, hurling Mioelnir
+repeatedly at the giants, he slew them all ere they could overtake
+him. Tyr and Thor then resumed their journey back to AEgir, carrying
+the kettle in which he was to brew ale for the harvest feast.
+
+The physical explanation of this myth is, of course, a thunder storm
+(Thor), in conflict with the raging sea (the Midgard snake), and the
+breaking up of the polar ice (Hymir's goblet and floor) in the heat
+of summer.
+
+The gods now arrayed themselves in festive attire and proceeded
+joyfully to AEgir's feast, and ever after they were wont to celebrate
+the harvest home in his coral caves.
+
+
+    "Then Vans and AEsir, mighty gods,
+    Of earth and air, and Asgard, lords,--
+    Advancing with each goddess fair,
+    A brilliant retinue most rare,--
+    Attending mighty Odin, swept
+    Up wave-worn aisle in radiant march."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+Unloved Divinities
+
+AEgir, as we have seen, ruled the sea with the help of the treacherous
+Ran. Both of these divinities were considered cruel by the Northern
+nations, who had much to suffer from the sea, which, surrounding
+them on all sides, ran far into the heart of their countries through
+the numerous fiords, and often swallowed the ships of their vikings,
+with all their warrior crews.
+
+
+
+Other Divinities of the Sea
+
+Besides these principal divinities of the sea, the Northern nations
+believed in mermen and mermaids, and many stories are related of
+mermaids who divested themselves for a brief while of swan plumage or
+seal-garments, which they left upon the beach to be found by mortals
+who were thus able to compel the fair maidens to remain on land.
+
+
+    "She came through the waves when the fair moon shone
+      (Drift o' the wave and foam o' the sea);
+    She came where I walked on the sands alone,
+      With a heart as light as a heart may be."
+
+            L. E. R.
+
+
+There were also malignant marine monsters known as Nicors, from whose
+name has been derived the proverbial Old Nick. Many of the lesser
+water divinities had fish tails; the females bore the name of Undines,
+and the males of Stromkarls, Nixies, Necks, or Neckar.
+
+
+    "Where in the marisches boometh the bittern,
+    Nicker the Soul-less sits with his ghittern,
+    Sits inconsolable, friendless and foeless,
+    Wailing his destiny, Nicker the Soul-less."
+
+            From Brother Fabian's Manuscript.
+
+
+In the middle ages these water spirits were believed sometimes to
+leave their native streams, to appear at village dances, where they
+were recognised by the wet hem of their garments. They often sat
+beside the flowing brook or river, playing on a harp, or singing
+alluring songs while combing out their long golden or green hair.
+
+
+    "The Neck here his harp in the glass castle plays,
+    And mermaidens comb out their green hair always,
+    And bleach here their shining white clothes."
+
+            Stagnelius (Keightley's tr.).
+
+
+The Nixies, Undines, and Stromkarls were particularly gentle and
+lovable beings, and were very anxious to obtain repeated assurances
+of their ultimate salvation.
+
+Many stories are told of priests or children meeting them playing by
+a stream, and taunting them with future damnation, which threat never
+failed to turn the joyful music into pitiful wails. Often priest or
+children, discovering their mistake, and touched by the agony of their
+victims, would hasten back to the stream and assure the green-toothed
+water sprites of future redemption, when they invariably resumed
+their happy strains.
+
+
+    "Know you the Nixies, gay and fair?
+    Their eyes are black, and green their hair--
+      They lurk in sedgy shores."
+
+            Mathisson.
+
+
+
+River Nymphs
+
+Besides Elf or Elb, the water sprite who gave its name to the Elbe
+River in Germany, the Neck, from whom the Neckar derives its name,
+and old Father Rhine, with his numerous daughters (tributary streams),
+the most famous of all the lesser water divinities is the Lorelei,
+the siren maiden who sits upon the Lorelei rock near St. Goar, on
+the Rhine, and whose alluring song has enticed many a mariner to
+death. The legends concerning this siren are very numerous indeed,
+one of the most ancient being as follows:
+
+
+
+Legends of the Lorelei
+
+Lorelei was an immortal, a water nymph, daughter of Father Rhine;
+during the day she dwelt in the cool depths of the river bed, but
+late at night she would appear in the moonlight, sitting aloft upon
+a pinnacle of rock, in full view of all who passed up or down the
+stream. At times, the evening breeze wafted some of the notes of
+her song to the boatmen's ears, when, forgetting time and place in
+listening to these enchanting melodies, they drifted upon the sharp
+and jagged rocks, where they invariably perished.
+
+
+    "Above the maiden sitteth,
+      A wondrous form, and fair;
+    With jewels bright she plaiteth
+      Her shining golden hair:
+    With comb of gold prepares it,
+      The task with song beguiled;
+    A fitful burden bears it--
+      That melody so wild.
+
+    "The boatman on the river
+      Lists to the song, spell-bound;
+    Oh! what shall him deliver
+      From danger threat'ning round?
+    The waters deep have caught them,
+      Both boat and boatman brave;
+    'Tis Loreley's song hath brought them
+      Beneath the foaming wave."
+
+            Song, Heine (Selcher's tr.).
+
+
+One person only is said to have seen the Lorelei close by. This was
+a young fisherman from Oberwesel, who met her every evening by the
+riverside, and spent a few delightful hours with her, drinking in her
+beauty and listening to her entrancing song. Tradition had it that ere
+they parted the Lorelei pointed out the places where the youth should
+cast his nets on the morrow--instructions which he always obeyed,
+and which invariably brought him success.
+
+One night the young fisherman was seen going towards the river,
+but as he never returned search was made for him. No clue to his
+whereabouts being found, the credulous Teutons finally reported that
+the Lorelei had dragged him down to her coral caves that she might
+enjoy his companionship for ever.
+
+According to another version, the Lorelei, with her entrancing
+strains from the craggy rocks, lured so many fishermen to a grave in
+the depths of Rhine, that an armed force was once sent at nightfall
+to surround and seize her. But the water nymph laid such a powerful
+spell upon the captain and his men that they could move neither hand
+nor foot. While they stood motionless around her, the Lorelei divested
+herself of her ornaments, and cast them into the waves below; then,
+chanting a spell, she lured the waters to the top of the crag upon
+which she was perched, and to the wonder of the soldiers the waves
+enclosed a sea-green chariot drawn by white-maned steeds, and the
+nymph sprang lightly into this and the magic equipage was instantly
+lost to view. A few moments later the Rhine subsided to its usual
+level, the spell was broken, and the men recovered power of motion,
+and retreated to tell how their efforts had been baffled. Since then,
+however, the Lorelei has not been seen, and the peasants declare that
+she still resents the insult offered her and will never again leave
+her coral caves.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI: BALDER
+
+
+The Best Loved
+
+To Odin and Frigga, we are told, were born twin sons as dissimilar
+in character and physical appearance as it was possible for two
+children to be. Hodur, god of darkness, was sombre, taciturn, and
+blind, like the obscurity of sin, which he was supposed to symbolise,
+while his brother Balder, the beautiful, was worshipped as the pure
+and radiant god of innocence and light. From his snowy brow and golden
+locks seemed to radiate beams of sunshine which gladdened the hearts
+of gods and men, by whom he was equally beloved.
+
+
+    "Of all the twelve round Odin's throne,
+    Balder, the Beautiful, alone,
+    The Sun-god, good, and pure, and bright,
+    Was loved by all, as all love light."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The youthful Balder attained his full growth with marvellous rapidity,
+and was early admitted to the council of the gods. He took up his
+abode in the palace of Breidablik, whose silver roof rested upon
+golden pillars, and whose purity was such that nothing common or
+unclean was ever allowed within its precincts, and here he lived in
+perfect unity with his young wife Nanna (blossom), the daughter of Nip
+(bud), a beautiful and charming goddess.
+
+The god of light was well versed in the science of runes, which were
+carved on his tongue; he knew the various virtues of simples, one of
+which, the camomile, was called "Balder's brow," because its flower
+was as immaculately pure as his forehead. The only thing hidden from
+Balder's radiant eyes was the perception of his own ultimate fate.
+
+
+            "His own house
+    Breidablik, on whose columns Balder graved
+    The enchantments that recall the dead to life.
+    For wise he was, and many curious arts,
+    Postures of runes, and healing herbs he knew;
+    Unhappy! but that art he did not know,
+    To keep his own life safe, and see the sun."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+Balder's Dream
+
+As it was so natural for Balder the beautiful to be smiling and
+happy, the gods were greatly troubled when on a day they began to
+notice a change in his bearing. Gradually the light died out of his
+blue eyes, a careworn look came into his face, and his step grew
+heavy and slow. Odin and Frigga, seeing their beloved son's evident
+depression, tenderly implored him to reveal the cause of his silent
+grief. Balder, yielding at last to their anxious entreaties, confessed
+that his slumbers, instead of being peaceful and restful as of yore,
+had been strangely troubled of late by dark and oppressive dreams,
+which, although he could not clearly remember them when he awoke,
+constantly haunted him with a vague feeling of fear.
+
+
+    "To that god his slumber
+    Was most afflicting;
+    His auspicious dreams
+    Seemed departed."
+
+            Lay of Vegtam (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+When Odin and Frigga heard this, they were very uneasy, but declared
+that nothing would harm their universally beloved son. Nevertheless,
+when the anxious parents further talked the matter over, they
+confessed that they also were oppressed by strange forebodings, and,
+coming at last to believe that Balder's life was really threatened,
+they proceeded to take measures to avert the danger.
+
+Frigga sent her servants in every direction, with strict charge to
+prevail upon all living creatures, all plants, metals, stones--in
+fact, every animate and inanimate thing--to register a solemn vow
+not to harm Balder. All creation readily took the oath, for there was
+nothing on earth which did not love the radiant god. So the servants
+returned to Frigga, telling her that all had been duly sworn save
+the mistletoe, growing upon the oak stem at the gate of Valhalla,
+and this, they added, was such a puny, inoffensive thing that no harm
+could be feared from it.
+
+
+    "On a course they resolved:
+    That they would send
+    To every being,
+    Assurance to solicit,
+    Balder not to harm.
+    All species swore
+    Oaths to spare him;
+    Frigg received all
+    Their vows and compacts."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Frigga now resumed her spinning in great content, for she felt assured
+that no harm could come to the child she loved above all.
+
+
+
+The Vala's Prophecy
+
+Odin, in the meantime, had resolved to consult one of the dead Vala
+or prophetesses. Mounted upon his eight-footed steed Sleipnir, he rode
+over the tremulous bridge Bifroest and over the weary road which leads
+to Giallar and the entrance of Nifl-heim, where, passing through the
+Helgate and by the dog Garm, he penetrated into Hel's dark abode.
+
+
+    "Uprose the king of men with speed,
+    And saddled straight his coal-black steed;
+    Down the yawning steep he rode,
+    That leads to Hela's drear abode."
+
+            Descent of Odin (Gray).
+
+
+Odin saw to his surprise that a feast was being spread in this dark
+realm, and that the couches had been covered with tapestry and rings of
+gold, as if some highly honoured guest were expected. But he hurried on
+without pausing, until he reached the spot where the Vala had rested
+undisturbed for many a year, when he began solemnly to chant a magic
+spell and to trace the runes which had the power of raising the dead.
+
+
+    "Thrice pronounc'd, in accents dread,
+    The thrilling verse that wakes the dead:
+    Till from out the hollow ground
+    Slowly breath'd a sullen sound."
+
+            Descent of Odin (Gray).
+
+
+Suddenly the tomb opened, and the prophetess slowly rose, inquiring
+who had dared thus to trouble her long rest. Odin, not wishing her to
+know that he was the mighty father of gods and men, replied that he
+was Vegtam, son of Valtam, and that he had awakened her to inquire for
+whom Hel was spreading her couches and preparing a festive meal. In
+hollow tones, the prophetess confirmed all his fears by telling him
+that the expected guest was Balder, who was destined to be slain by
+Hodur, his brother, the blind god of darkness.
+
+
+    "Hodur will hither
+    His glorious brother send;
+    He of Balder will
+    The slayer be,
+    And Odin's son
+    Of life bereave.
+    By compulsion I have spoken;
+    Now I will be silent."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Despite the Vala's evident reluctance to speak further, Odin was not
+yet satisfied, and he prevailed upon her to tell him who would avenge
+the murdered god and call his slayer to account. For revenge and
+retaliation were considered as a sacred duty by the races of the North.
+
+Then the prophetess told him, as Rossthiof had already predicted,
+that Rinda, the earth-goddess, would bear a son to Odin, and that
+Vali, as this child would be named, would neither wash his face nor
+comb his hair until he had avenged upon Hodur the death of Balder.
+
+
+    "In the caverns of the west,
+    By Odin's fierce embrace comprest,
+    A wondrous boy shall Rinda bear,
+    Who ne'er shall comb his raven hair,
+    Nor wash his visage in the stream,
+    Nor see the sun's departing beam,
+    Till he on Hoder's corse shall smile
+    Flaming on the fun'ral pile."
+
+            Descent of Odin (Gray).
+
+
+When the reluctant Vala had thus spoken, Odin next asked: "Who would
+refuse to weep at Balder's death?" This incautious question showed a
+knowledge of the future which no mortal could possess, and immediately
+revealed to the Vala the identity of her visitor. Therefore, refusing
+to speak another word, she sank back into the silence of the tomb,
+declaring that none would be able to lure her out again until the
+end of the world was come.
+
+
+    "Hie thee hence, and boast at home,
+    That never shall inquirer come
+    To break my iron sleep again,
+    Till Lok has burst his tenfold chain;
+    Never, till substantial Night
+    Has reassum'd her ancient right:
+    Till wrapt in flames, in ruin hurl'd,
+    Sinks the fabric of the world."
+
+            Descent of Odin (Gray).
+
+
+Odin having learned the decrees of Orlog (fate), which he knew could
+not be set aside, now remounted his steed, and sadly wended his
+way back to Asgard, thinking of the time, not far distant, when his
+beloved son would no more be seen in the heavenly abodes, and when
+the light of his presence would have vanished for ever.
+
+On entering Glads-heim, however, Odin was somewhat reassured by
+the intelligence, promptly conveyed to him by Frigga, that all
+things under the sun had promised that they would not harm Balder,
+and feeling convinced that if nothing would slay their beloved son he
+must surely continue to gladden gods and men with his presence, he cast
+care aside and resigned himself to the pleasures of the festive board.
+
+
+
+The Gods at Play
+
+The playground of the gods was situated on the green plain of Ida,
+and was called Idavold. Here the gods would resort when in sportive
+mood, and their favourite game was to throw their golden disks, which
+they could cast with great skill. They had returned to this wonted
+pastime with redoubled zest since the cloud which had oppressed their
+spirits had been dispersed by the precautions of Frigga. Wearied at
+last, however, of the accustomed sport, they bethought them of a new
+game. They had learned that Balder could not be harmed by any missile,
+and so they amused themselves by casting all manner of weapons, stones,
+etc., at him, certain that no matter how cleverly they tried, and
+how accurately they aimed, the objects, having sworn not to injure
+him, would either glance aside or fall short. This new amusement
+proved to be so fascinating that soon all the gods gathered around
+Balder, greeting each new failure to hurt him with prolonged shouts
+of laughter.
+
+
+
+The Death of Balder
+
+These bursts of merriment excited the curiosity of Frigga, who sat
+spinning in Fensalir; and seeing an old woman pass by her dwelling,
+she bade her pause and tell what the gods were doing to provoke such
+great hilarity. The old woman was none other than Loki in disguise,
+and he answered Frigga that the gods were throwing stones and other
+missiles, blunt and sharp, at Balder, who stood smiling and unharmed
+in their midst, challenging them to touch him.
+
+The goddess smiled, and resumed her work, saying that it was quite
+natural that nothing should harm Balder, as all things loved the light,
+of which he was the emblem, and had solemnly sworn not to injure
+him. Loki, the personification of fire, was greatly chagrined upon
+hearing this, for he was jealous of Balder, the sun, who so entirely
+eclipsed him and who was generally beloved, while he was feared and
+avoided as much as possible; but he cleverly concealed his vexation,
+and inquired of Frigga whether she were quite sure that all objects
+had joined the league.
+
+Frigga proudly answered that she had received the solemn oath of
+all things, a harmless little parasite, the mistletoe, which grew on
+the oak near Valhalla's gate, only excepted, and this was too small
+and weak to be feared. This information was all that Loki wanted,
+and bidding adieu to Frigga he hobbled off. As soon as he was safely
+out of sight, however, he resumed his wonted form and hastened to
+Valhalla, where, at the gate, he found the oak and mistletoe as
+indicated by Frigga. Then by the exercise of magic arts he imparted
+to the parasite a size and hardness quite unnatural to it.
+
+From the wooden stem thus produced he deftly fashioned a shaft with
+which he hastened back to Idavold, where the gods were still hurling
+missiles at Balder, Hodur alone leaning mournfully against a tree the
+while, and taking no part in the game. Carelessly Loki approached
+the blind god, and assuming an appearance of interest, he inquired
+the cause of his melancholy, at the same time artfully insinuating
+that pride and indifference prevented him from participating in
+the sport. In answer to these remarks, Hodur pleaded that only his
+blindness deterred him from taking part in the new game, and when Loki
+put the mistletoe-shaft in his hand, and led him into the midst of the
+circle, indicating the direction of the novel target, Hodur threw his
+shaft boldly. But to his dismay, instead of the loud laughter which
+he expected, a shuddering cry of horror fell upon his ear, for Balder
+the beautiful had fallen to the ground, pierced by the fatal mistletoe.
+
+
+    "So on the floor lay Balder dead; and round
+    Lay thickly strewn swords, axes, darts, and spears,
+    Which all the Gods in sport had idly thrown
+    At Balder, whom no weapon pierced or clove;
+    But in his breast stood fixed the fatal bough
+    Of mistletoe, which Lok, the Accuser, gave
+    To Hoder, and unwitting Hoder threw--
+    'Gainst that alone had Balder's life no charm."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+In dire anxiety the gods crowded around their beloved companion,
+but alas! life was quite extinct, and all their efforts to revive the
+fallen sun-god were unavailing. Inconsolable at their loss, they now
+turned angrily upon Hodur, whom they would there and then have slain
+had they not been restrained by the law of the gods that no wilful
+deed of violence should desecrate their peace-steads. The sound of
+their loud lamentation brought the goddesses in hot haste to the
+dreadful scene, and when Frigga saw that her darling was dead, she
+passionately implored the gods to go to Nifl-heim and entreat Hel to
+release her victim, for the earth could not exist happily without him.
+
+
+
+Hermod's Errand
+
+As the road was rough and painful in the extreme, none of the gods
+would volunteer at first to go; but when Frigga promised that she
+and Odin would reward the messenger by loving him above all the AEsir,
+Hermod signified his readiness to execute the commission. To enable
+him to do so, Odin lent him Sleipnir, and the noble steed, who was
+not wont to allow any but Odin upon his back, set off without demur
+upon the dark road which his hoofs had beaten twice before.
+
+Meantime, Odin caused the body of Balder to be removed to Breidablik,
+and he directed the gods to go to the forest and cut down huge pines
+wherewith to build a worthy pyre.
+
+
+    "But when the Gods were to the forest gone,
+    Hermod led Sleipnir from Valhalla forth
+    And saddled him; before that, Sleipnir brook'd
+    No meaner hand than Odin's on his mane,
+    On his broad back no lesser rider bore;
+    Yet docile now he stood at Hermod's side,
+    Arching his neck, and glad to be bestrode,
+    Knowing the God they went to seek, how dear.
+    But Hermod mounted him, and sadly fared
+    In silence up the dark untravell'd road
+    Which branches from the north of Heaven, and went
+    All day; and daylight waned, and night came on.
+    And all that night he rode, and journey'd so,
+    Nine days, nine nights, toward the northern ice,
+    Through valleys deep-engulph'd by roaring streams.
+    And on the tenth morn he beheld the bridge
+    Which spans with golden arches Giall's stream,
+    And on the bridge a damsel watching, arm'd,
+    In the straight passage, at the further end,
+    Where the road issues between walling rocks."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+The Funeral Pyre
+
+While Hermod was speeding along the cheerless road which led to
+Nifl-heim, the gods hewed and carried down to the shore a vast amount
+of fuel, which they piled upon the deck of Balder's dragon-ship,
+Ringhorn, constructing an elaborate funeral pyre. According to custom,
+this was decorated with tapestry hangings, garlands of flowers,
+vessels and weapons of all kinds, golden rings, and countless objects
+of value, ere the immaculate corpse, richly attired, was brought and
+laid upon it.
+
+One by one, the gods now drew near to take a last farewell of their
+beloved companion, and as Nanna bent over him, her loving heart broke,
+and she fell lifeless by his side. Seeing this, the gods reverently
+laid her beside her husband, that she might accompany him even in
+death; and after they had slain his horse and hounds and twined
+the pyre with thorns, the emblems of sleep, Odin, last of the gods,
+drew near.
+
+In token of affection for the dead and of sorrow for his loss, all
+had lain their most precious possessions upon his pyre, and Odin,
+bending down, now added to the offerings his magic ring Draupnir. It
+was noted by the assembled gods that he was whispering in his dead
+son's ear, but none were near enough to hear what word he said.
+
+These sad preliminaries ended, the gods now prepared to launch the
+ship, but found that the heavy load of fuel and treasures resisted
+their combined efforts and they could not make the vessel stir an
+inch. The mountain giants, witnessing the scene from afar, and noticing
+their quandary, now drew near and said that they knew of a giantess
+called Hyrrokin, who dwelt in Joetun-heim, and was strong enough to
+launch the vessel without any other aid. The gods therefore bade one of
+the storm giants hasten off to summon Hyrrokin, and she soon appeared,
+mounted upon a gigantic wolf, which she guided by a bridle made of
+writhing snakes. Riding down to the shore, the giantess dismounted and
+haughtily signified her readiness to give the required aid, if in the
+meantime the gods would take charge of her steed. Odin immediately
+despatched four of his maddest Berserkers to hold the wolf; but,
+in spite of their phenomenal strength, they could not restrain the
+monstrous creature until the giantess had thrown it down and bound
+it fast.
+
+Hyrrokin, seeing that now they would be able to manage her refractory
+steed, strode along the strand to where, high up from the water's edge,
+lay Balder's mighty ship Ringhorn.
+
+
+    "Seventy ells and four extended
+      On the grass the vessel's keel;
+    High above it, gilt and splendid,
+    Rose the figure-head ferocious
+      With its crest of steel."
+
+            The Saga of King Olaf (Longfellow).
+
+
+Setting her shoulder against its stern, with a supreme effort she
+sent it with a rush into the water. Such was the weight of the mass,
+however, and the rapidity with which it shot down into the sea, that
+the earth shook as if from an earthquake, and the rollers on which
+the ship glided caught fire from the friction. The unexpected shock
+almost caused the gods to lose their balance, and this so angered
+Thor that he raised his hammer and would have slain the giantess
+had he not been restrained by his companions. Easily appeased, as
+usual--for Thor's temper, although quickly roused, was evanescent--he
+now boarded the vessel once more to consecrate the funeral pyre with
+his sacred hammer. As he was performing this ceremony, the dwarf
+Lit provokingly stumbled into his way, whereupon Thor, who had not
+entirely recovered his equanimity, kicked him into the fire, which
+he had just kindled with a thorn, and the dwarf was burned to ashes
+with the bodies of the divine pair.
+
+The great ship now drifted out to sea, and the flames from the pyre
+presented a magnificent spectacle, which assumed a greater glory
+with every passing moment, until, when the vessel neared the western
+horizon, it seemed as if sea and sky were on fire. Sadly the gods
+watched the glowing ship and its precious freight, until suddenly it
+plunged into the waves and disappeared; nor did they turn aside and
+return to Asgard until the last spark of light had vanished, and the
+world, in token of mourning for Balder the good, was enveloped in a
+mantle of darkness.
+
+
+    "Soon with a roaring rose the mighty fire,
+    And the pile crackled; and between the logs
+    Sharp quivering tongues of flame shot out, and leapt
+    Curling and darting, higher, until they lick'd
+    The summit of the pile, the dead, the mast,
+    And ate the shrivelling sails; but still the ship
+    Drove on, ablaze above her hull with fire.
+    And the gods stood upon the beach, and gazed;
+    And while they gazed, the sun went lurid down
+    Into the smoke-wrapt sea, and night came on.
+    Then the wind fell with night, and there was calm;
+    But through the dark they watch'd the burning ship
+    Still carried o'er the distant waters, on
+    Farther and farther, like an eye of fire.
+    So show'd in the far darkness, Balder's pile;
+    But fainter, as the stars rose high, it flared;
+    The bodies were consumed, ash choked the pile.
+    And as, in a decaying winter fire,
+    A charr'd log, falling, makes a shower of sparks--
+    So, with a shower of sparks, the pile fell in,
+    Reddening the sea around; and all was dark."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+Hermod's Quest
+
+Sadly the gods entered Asgard, where no sounds of merriment or
+feasting greeted the ear, for all hearts were filled with anxious
+concern for the end of all things which was felt to be imminent. And
+truly the thought of the terrible Fimbul-winter, which was to herald
+their death, was one well calculated to disquiet the gods.
+
+Frigga alone cherished hope, and she watched anxiously for the return
+of her messenger, Hermod the swift, who, meanwhile, had ridden over
+the tremulous bridge, and along the dark Hel-way, until, on the tenth
+night, he had crossed the rushing tide of the river Gioell. Here he was
+challenged by Moedgud, who inquired why the Giallar-bridge trembled
+more beneath his horse's tread than when a whole army passed, and
+asked why he, a living rider, was attempting to penetrate into the
+dreaded realm of Hel.
+
+
+    "Who art thou on thy black and fiery horse,
+    Under whose hoofs the bridge o'er Giall's stream
+    Rumbles and shakes? Tell me thy race and home.
+    But yestermorn five troops of dead pass'd by,
+    Bound on their way below to Hela's realm,
+    Nor shook the bridge so much as thou alone.
+    And thou hast flesh and colour on thy cheeks,
+    Like men who live, and draw the vital air;
+    Nor look'st thou pale and wan, like man deceased,
+    Souls bound below, my daily passers here."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Hermod explained to Moedgud the reason of his coming, and, having
+ascertained that Balder and Nanna had ridden over the bridge before
+him, he hastened on, until he came to the gate, which rose forbiddingly
+before him.
+
+Nothing daunted by this barrier, Hermod dismounted on the smooth ice,
+and tightening the girths of his saddle, remounted, and burying his
+spurs deep into Sleipnir's sleek sides, he put him to a prodigious
+leap, which landed them safely on the other side of Hel-gate.
+
+
+    "Thence on he journey'd o'er the fields of ice
+    Still north, until he met a stretching wall
+    Barring his way, and in the wall a grate.
+    Then he dismounted, and drew tight the girths,
+    On the smooth ice, of Sleipnir, Odin's horse,
+    And made him leap the grate, and came within."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+Riding onward, Hermod came at last to Hel's banqueting-hall, where he
+found Balder, pale and dejected, lying upon a couch, his wife Nanna
+beside him, gazing fixedly at a beaker of mead, which apparently he
+had no heart to quaff.
+
+
+
+The Condition of Balder's Release
+
+In vain Hermod informed his brother that he had come to redeem him;
+Balder shook his head sadly, saying that he knew he must remain in
+his cheerless abode until the last day should come, but he implored
+Hermod to take Nanna back with him, as the home of the shades was
+no place for such a bright and beautiful creature. But when Nanna
+heard this request she clung more closely to her husband's side,
+vowing that nothing would ever induce her to part from him, and that
+she would stay with him for ever, even in Nifl-heim.
+
+The long night was spent in close conversation, ere Hermod sought
+Hel and implored her to release Balder. The churlish goddess listened
+in silence to his request, and declared finally that she would allow
+her victim to depart provided that all things animate and inanimate
+would show their sorrow for his loss by shedding tears.
+
+
+    "Come then! if Balder was so dear beloved,
+    And this is true, and such a loss is Heaven's--
+    Hear, how to Heaven may Balder be restored.
+    Show me through all the world the signs of grief!
+    Fails but one thing to grieve, here Balder stops!
+    Let all that lives and moves upon the earth
+    Weep him, and all that is without life weep;
+    Let Gods, men, brutes, beweep him; plants and stones.
+    So shall I know the lost was dear indeed,
+    And bend my heart, and give him back to Heaven."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+This answer was full of encouragement, for all Nature mourned the
+loss of Balder, and surely there was nothing in all creation which
+would withhold the tribute of a tear. So Hermod cheerfully made his
+way out of Hel's dark realm, carrying with him the ring Draupnir,
+which Balder sent back to Odin, an embroidered carpet from Nanna for
+Frigga, and a ring for Fulla.
+
+
+
+The Return of Hermod
+
+The assembled gods crowded anxiously round Hermod as soon as he
+returned, and when he had delivered his messages and gifts, the AEsir
+sent heralds to every part of the world to bid all things animate
+and inanimate weep for Balder.
+
+
+    "Go quickly forth through all the world, and pray
+    All living and unliving things to weep
+    Balder, if haply he may thus be won!"
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+North, South, East and West rode the heralds, and as they passed tears
+fell from every plant and tree, so that the ground was saturated with
+moisture, and metals and stones, despite their hard hearts, wept too.
+
+The way at last led back to Asgard, and by the road-side was a dark
+cave, in which the messengers saw, crouching, the form of a giantess
+named Thok, whom some mythologists suppose to have been Loki in
+disguise. When she was called upon to shed a tear, she mocked the
+heralds, and fleeing into the dark recesses of her cave, she declared
+that no tear should fall from her eyes, and that, for all she cared,
+Hel might retain her prey for ever.
+
+
+    "Thok she weepeth
+    With dry tears
+    For Balder's death--
+    Neither in life, nor yet in death,
+    Gave he me gladness.
+    Let Hel keep her prey."
+
+            Elder Edda (Howitt's version).
+
+
+As soon as the returning messengers arrived in Asgard, the gods
+crowded round them to learn the result of their mission; but their
+faces, all aglow with the joy of anticipation, grew dark with despair
+when they heard that one creature had refused the tribute of tears,
+wherefore they would behold Balder in Asgard no more.
+
+
+    "Balder, the Beautiful, shall ne'er
+    From Hel return to upper air!
+    Betrayed by Loki, twice betrayed,
+    The prisoner of Death is made;
+    Ne'er shall he 'scape the place of doom
+    Till fatal Ragnarok be come!"
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+
+Vali the Avenger
+
+The decrees of fate had not yet been fully consummated, and the final
+act of the tragedy remains to be briefly stated.
+
+We have already seen how Odin succeeded after many rebuffs in securing
+the consent of Rinda to their union, and that the son born of this
+marriage was destined to avenge the death of Balder. The advent of
+this wondrous infant now took place, and Vali the Avenger, as he
+was called, entered Asgard on the day of his birth, and on that
+very same day he slew Hodur with an arrow from a bundle which he
+seems to have carried for the purpose. Thus the murderer of Balder,
+unwitting instrument though he was, atoned for the crime with his
+blood, according to the code of the true Norseman.
+
+
+
+The Signification of the Story
+
+The physical explanation of this myth is to be found either in the
+daily setting of the sun (Balder), which sinks beneath the western
+waves, driven away by darkness (Hodur), or in the ending of the short
+Northern summer and the long reign of the winter season. "Balder
+represents the bright and clear summer, when twilight and daylight
+kiss each other and go hand in hand in these Northern latitudes."
+
+
+    "Balder's pyre, of the sun a mark,
+    Holy hearth red staineth;
+    Yet, soon dies its last faint spark,
+    Darkly then Hoder reigneth."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+"His death by Hodur is the victory of darkness over light, the darkness
+of winter over the light of summer; and the revenge by Vali is the
+breaking forth of new light after the wintry darkness."
+
+Loki, the fire, is jealous of Balder, the pure light of heaven, who
+alone among the Northern gods never fought, but was always ready with
+words of conciliation and peace.
+
+
+    "But from thy lips, O Balder, night or day,
+    Heard no one ever an injurious word
+    To God or Hero, but thou keptest back
+    The others, labouring to compose their brawls."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+The tears shed by all things for the beloved god are symbolical of
+the spring thaw, setting in after the hardness and cold of winter,
+when every tree and twig, and even the stones drip with moisture;
+Thok (coal) alone shows no sign of tenderness, as she is buried deep
+within the dark earth and needs not the light of the sun.
+
+
+    "And as in winter, when the frost breaks up,
+    At winter's end, before the spring begins,
+    And a warm west wind blows, and thaw sets in--
+    After an hour a dripping sound is heard
+    In all the forests, and the soft-strewn snow
+    Under the trees is dibbled thick with holes,
+    And from the boughs the snow loads shuffle down;
+    And, in fields sloping to the south, dark plots
+    Of grass peep out amid surrounding snow,
+    And widen, and the peasant's heart is glad--
+    So through the world was heard a dripping noise
+    Of all things weeping to bring Balder back;
+    And there fell joy upon the Gods to hear."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+From the depths of their underground prison, the sun (Balder) and
+vegetation (Nanna) try to cheer heaven (Odin) and earth (Frigga)
+by sending them the ring Draupnir, the emblem of fertility, and the
+flowery tapestry, symbolical of the carpet of verdure which will
+again deck the earth and enhance her charms with its beauty.
+
+The ethical signification of the myth is no less beautiful, for Balder
+and Hodur are symbols of the conflicting forces of good and evil,
+while Loki impersonates the tempter.
+
+
+    "But in each human soul we find
+    That night's dark Hoder, Balder's brother blind,
+    Is born and waxeth strong as he;
+    For blind is ev'ry evil born, as bear cubs be,
+    Night is the cloak of evil; but all good
+    Hath ever clad in shining garments stood.
+    The busy Loke, tempter from of old,
+    Still forward treads incessant, and doth hold
+    The blind one's murder hand, whose quick-launch'd spear
+    Pierceth young Balder's breast, that sun of Valhal's sphere!"
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Worship of Balder
+
+One of the most important festivals was held at the summer solstice,
+or midsummer's eve, in honour of Balder the good, for it was
+considered the anniversary of his death and of his descent into
+the lower world. On that day, the longest in the year, the people
+congregated out of doors, made great bonfires, and watched the sun,
+which in extreme Northern latitudes barely dips beneath the horizon
+ere it rises upon a new day. From midsummer, the days gradually grow
+shorter, and the sun's rays less warm, until the winter solstice,
+which was called the "Mother night," as it was the longest night
+in the year. Midsummer's eve, once celebrated in honour of Balder,
+is now called St. John's day, that saint having entirely supplanted
+Balder the good.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII: LOKI
+
+
+The Spirit of Evil
+
+Besides the hideous giant Utgard-Loki, the personification of mischief
+and evil, whom Thor and his companions visited in Joetun-heim, the
+ancient Northern nations had another type of sin, whom they called
+Loki also, and whom we have already seen under many different aspects.
+
+In the beginning, Loki was merely the personification of the hearth
+fire and of the spirit of life. At first a god, he gradually becomes
+"god and devil combined," and ends in being held in general detestation
+as an exact counterpart of the mediaeval Lucifer, the prince of lies,
+"the originator of deceit, and the back-biter" of the AEsir.
+
+By some authorities Loki was said to be the brother of Odin, but
+others assert that the two were not related, but had merely gone
+through the form of swearing blood brotherhood common in the North.
+
+
+    "Odin! dost thou remember
+    When we in early days
+    Blended our blood together?
+    When to taste beer
+    Thou did'st constantly refuse
+    Unless to both 'twas offered?"
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Loki's Character
+
+While Thor is the embodiment of Northern activity, Loki represents
+recreation, and the close companionship early established between
+these two gods shows very plainly how soon our ancestors realised that
+both were necessary to the welfare of mankind. Thor is ever busy and
+ever in earnest, but Loki makes fun of everything, until at last his
+love of mischief leads him entirely astray, and he loses all love
+for goodness and becomes utterly selfish and malevolent.
+
+He represents evil in the seductive and seemingly beautiful form
+in which it parades through the world. Because of this deceptive
+appearance the gods did not at first avoid him, but treated him as one
+of themselves in all good-fellowship, taking him with them wherever
+they went, and admitting him not only to their merry-makings, but also
+to their council hall, where, unfortunately, they too often listened
+to his advice.
+
+As we have already seen, Loki played a prominent part in the creation
+of man, endowing him with the power of motion, and causing the blood
+to circulate freely through his veins, whereby he was inspired with
+passions. As personification of fire as well as of mischief, Loki
+(lightning) is often seen with Thor (thunder), whom he accompanies
+to Joetun-heim to recover his hammer, to Utgard-Loki's castle, and
+to Geirrod's house. It is he who steals Freya's necklace and Sif's
+hair, and betrays Idun into the power of Thiassi; and although he
+sometimes gives the gods good advice and affords them real help,
+it is only to extricate them from some predicament into which he has
+rashly inveigled them.
+
+Some authorities declare that, instead of making part of the creative
+trilogy (Odin, Hoenir, and Lodur or Loki), this god originally
+belonged to a pre-Odinic race of deities, and was the son of the
+great giant Fornjotnr (Ymir), his brothers being Kari (air) and Hler
+(water), and his sister Ran, the terrible goddess of the sea. Other
+mythologists, however, make him the son of the giant Farbauti, who
+has been identified with Bergelmir, the sole survivor of the deluge,
+and of Laufeia (leafy isle) or Nal (vessel), his mother, thus stating
+that his connection with Odin was only that of the Northern oath
+of good-fellowship.
+
+Loki (fire) first married Glut (glow), who bore him two daughters,
+Eisa (embers) and Einmyria (ashes); it is therefore very evident
+that Norsemen considered him emblematic of the hearth-fire, and when
+the flaming wood crackles on the hearth the goodwives in the North
+are still wont to say that Loki is beating his children. Besides
+this wife, Loki is also said to have wedded the giantess Angur-boda
+(the anguish-boding), who dwelt in Joetun-heim, and who, as we have
+already seen, bore him the three monsters: Hel, goddess of death,
+the Midgard snake Ioermungandr, and the grim wolf Fenris.
+
+
+    "Loki begat the wolf
+    With Angur-boda."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+Sigyn
+
+Loki's third marriage was with Sigyn, who proved a most loving and
+devoted wife, and bore him two sons, Narve and Vali, the latter a
+namesake of the god who avenged Balder. Sigyn was always faithful
+to her husband, and did not forsake him even after he had definitely
+been cast out of Asgard and confined in the bowels of the earth.
+
+As Loki was the embodiment of evil in the minds of the Northern races,
+they entertained nothing but fear of him, built no temples to his
+honour, offered no sacrifices to him, and designated the most noxious
+weeds by his name. The quivering, overheated atmosphere of summer was
+supposed to betoken his presence, for the people were then wont to
+remark that Loki was sowing his wild oats, and when the sun appeared
+to be drawing water they said Loki was drinking.
+
+The story of Loki is so inextricably woven with that of the other
+gods that most of the myths relating to him have already been told,
+and there remain but two episodes of his life to relate, one showing
+his better side before he had degenerated into the arch deceiver,
+and the other illustrating how he finally induced the gods to defile
+their peace-steads by wilful murder.
+
+
+
+Skrymsli and the Peasant's Child
+
+A giant and a peasant were playing a game together one day (probably a
+game of chess, which was a favourite winter pastime with the Northern
+vikings). They of course had determined to play for certain stakes,
+and the giant, being victorious, won the peasant's only son, whom he
+said he would come and claim on the morrow unless the parents could
+hide him so cleverly that he could not be found.
+
+Knowing that such a feat would be impossible for them to perform,
+the parents fervently prayed to Odin to help them, and in answer to
+their entreaties the god came down to earth, and changed the boy into
+a tiny grain of wheat, which he hid in an ear of grain in the midst
+of a large field, declaring that the giant would not be able to find
+him. The giant Skrymsli, however, possessed wisdom far beyond what
+Odin imagined, and, failing to find the child at home, he strode
+off immediately to the field with his scythe, and mowing the wheat
+he selected the particular ear where the boy was hidden. Counting
+over the grains of wheat he was about to lay his hand upon the right
+one when Odin, hearing the child's cry of distress, snatched the
+kernel out of the giant's hand, and restored the boy to his parents,
+telling them that he had done all in his power to help them. But as
+the giant vowed he had been cheated, and would again claim the boy
+on the morrow unless the parents could outwit him, the unfortunate
+peasants now turned to Hoenir for aid. The god heard them graciously
+and changed the boy into a fluff of down, which he hid in the breast
+of a swan swimming in a pond close by. Now when, a few minutes later,
+Skrymsli came up, he guessed what had occurred, and seizing the swan,
+he bit off its neck, and would have swallowed the down had not Hoenir
+wafted it away from his lips and out of reach, restoring the boy safe
+and sound to his parents, but telling them that he could not further
+aid them.
+
+Skrymsli warned the parents that he would make a third attempt to
+secure the child, whereupon they applied in their despair to Loki,
+who carried the boy out to sea, and concealed him, as a tiny egg,
+in the roe of a flounder. Returning from his expedition, Loki
+encountered the giant near the shore, and seeing that he was bent
+upon a fishing excursion, he insisted upon accompanying him. He felt
+somewhat uneasy lest the terrible giant should have seen through his
+device, and therefore thought it would be well for him to be on the
+spot in case of need. Skrymsli baited his hook, and was more or less
+successful in his angling, when suddenly he drew up the identical
+flounder in which Loki had concealed his little charge. Opening the
+fish upon his knee, the giant proceeded to minutely examine the roe,
+until he found the egg which he was seeking.
+
+The plight of the boy was certainly perilous, but Loki, watching his
+chance, snatched the egg out of the giant's grasp, and transforming it
+again into the child, he instructed him secretly to run home, passing
+through the boathouse on his way and closing the door behind him. The
+terrified boy did as he was told immediately he found himself on land,
+and the giant, quick to observe his flight, dashed after him into
+the boathouse. Now Loki had cunningly placed a sharp spike in such a
+position that the great head of the giant ran full tilt against it,
+and he sank to the ground with a groan, whereupon Loki, seeing him
+helpless, cut off one of his legs. Imagine the god's dismay, however,
+when he saw the pieces join and immediately knit together. But Loki
+was a master of guile, and recognising this as the work of magic, he
+cut off the other leg, promptly throwing flint and steel between the
+severed limb and trunk, and thereby hindering any further sorcery. The
+peasants were immensely relieved to find that their enemy was slain,
+and ever after they considered Loki the mightiest of all the heavenly
+council, for he had delivered them effectually from their foe, while
+the other gods had lent only temporary aid.
+
+
+
+The Giant Architect
+
+Notwithstanding their wonderful bridge Bifroest, the tremulous way,
+and the watchfulness of Heimdall, the gods could not feel entirely
+secure in Asgard, and were often fearful lest the frost giants should
+make their way into Asgard. To obviate this possibility, they finally
+decided to build an impregnable fortress; and while they were planning
+how this could be done, an unknown architect came with an offer to
+undertake the construction, provided the gods would give him sun, moon,
+and Freya, goddess of youth and beauty, as reward. The gods were wroth
+at so presumptuous an offer, but when they would have indignantly
+driven the stranger from their presence, Loki urged them to make a
+bargain which it would be impossible for the stranger to keep, and
+so they finally told the architect that the guerdon should be his,
+provided the fortress were finished in the course of a single winter,
+and that he accomplished the work with no other assistance than that
+of his horse Svadilfare.
+
+
+    "To Asgard came an architect,
+    And castle offered to erect,--
+        A castle high
+        Which should defy
+    Deep Jotun guile and giant raid;
+    And this most wily compact made:
+    Fair Freya, with the Moon and Sun,
+    As price the fortress being done."
+
+            Valhalla (J.C. Jones).
+
+
+The unknown architect agreed to these seemingly impossible conditions,
+and immediately set to work, hauling ponderous blocks of stone by
+night, building during the day, and progressing so rapidly that
+the gods began to feel somewhat anxious. Ere long they noticed that
+more than half the labour was accomplished by the wonderful steed
+Svadilfare, and when they saw, near the end of winter, that the work
+was finished save only one portal, which they knew the architect
+could easily erect during the night:
+
+
+    "Horror and fear the gods beset;
+      Finished almost the castle stood!
+        In three days more
+        The work be o'er;
+      Then must they make their contract good,
+    And pay the awful debt."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+Terrified lest they should be called upon to part, not only with the
+sun and moon, but also with Freya, the personification of the youth
+and beauty of the world, the gods turned upon Loki, and threatened
+to kill him unless he devised some means of hindering the architect
+from finishing the work within the specified time.
+
+Loki's cunning proved once more equal to the situation. He waited until
+nightfall of the final day, when, as Svadilfare passed the fringe of a
+forest, painfully dragging one of the great blocks of stone required
+for the termination of the work, he rushed out from a dark glade
+in the guise of a mare, and neighed so invitingly that, in a trice,
+the horse kicked himself free of his harness and ran after the mare,
+closely pursued by his angry master. The mare galloped swiftly on,
+artfully luring horse and master deeper and deeper into the forest
+shades, until the night was nearly gone, and it was no longer possible
+to finish the work. The architect was none other than a redoubtable
+Hrim-thurs, in disguise, and he now returned to Asgard in a towering
+rage at the fraud which had been practised upon him. Assuming his
+wonted proportions, he would have annihilated the gods had not Thor
+suddenly returned from a journey and slain him with his magic hammer
+Mioelnir, which he hurled with terrific force full in his face.
+
+The gods had saved themselves on this occasion only by fraud and by
+the violent deed of Thor, and these were destined to bring great sorrow
+upon them, and eventually to secure their downfall, and to hasten the
+coming of Ragnarok. Loki, however, felt no remorse for his part, and
+in due time, it is said, he became the parent of an eight-footed steed
+called Sleipnir, which, as we have seen, was Odin's favourite mount.
+
+
+    "But Sleipnir he begat
+    With Svadilfari."
+
+            Lay of Hyndla (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Loki performed so many evil deeds during his career that he richly
+deserved the title of "arch deceiver" which was given him. He was
+generally hated for his subtle malicious ways, and for an inveterate
+habit of prevarication which won for him also the title of "prince
+of lies."
+
+
+
+Loki's last Crime
+
+Loki's last crime, and the one which filled his measure of iniquity,
+was to induce Hodur to throw the fatal mistletoe at Balder, whom he
+hated merely on account of his immaculate purity. Perhaps even this
+crime might have been condoned had it not been for his obduracy when,
+in the disguise of the old woman Thok, he was called upon to shed a
+tear for Balder. His action on this occasion convinced the gods that
+nothing but evil remained within him, and they pronounced unanimously
+upon him the sentence of perpetual banishment from Asgard.
+
+
+
+AEgir's Banquet
+
+To divert the gods' sadness and make them, for a short time, forget
+the treachery of Loki and the loss of Balder, AEgir, god of the sea,
+invited them to partake of a banquet in his coral caves at the bottom
+of the sea.
+
+
+    "Now, to assuage the high gods' grief
+    And bring their mourning some relief,
+        From coral caves
+        'Neath ocean waves,
+        Mighty King AEgir
+        Invited the AEsir
+        To festival
+        In Hlesey's hall;
+    That, tho' for Baldur every guest
+        Was grieving yet,
+        He might forget
+    Awhile his woe in friendly feast."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The gods gladly accepted the invitation, and clad in their richest
+garb, and with festive smiles, they appeared in the coral caves at
+the appointed time. None were absent save the radiant Balder, for
+whom many a regretful sigh was heaved, and the evil Loki, whom none
+could regret. In the course of the feast, however, this last-named
+god appeared in their midst like a dark shadow, and when bidden to
+depart, he gave vent to his evil passions in a torrent of invective
+against the gods.
+
+
+    "Of the AEsir and the Alfar
+    That are here within
+    Not one has a friendly word for thee."
+
+            AEgir's Compotation, or Loki's Altercation (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Then, jealous of the praises which Funfeng, AEgir's servant, had won
+for the dexterity with which he waited upon his master's guests,
+Loki suddenly turned upon him and slew him. At this wanton crime,
+the gods in fierce wrath drove Loki away once more, threatening him
+with dire punishment should he ever appear before them again.
+
+Scarcely had the AEsir recovered from this disagreeable interruption
+to their feast, and resumed their places at the board, when Loki
+came creeping in once more, resuming his slanders with venomous
+tongue, and taunting the gods with their weaknesses or shortcomings,
+dwelling maliciously upon their physical imperfections, and deriding
+them for their mistakes. In vain the gods tried to stem his abuse;
+his voice rose louder and louder, and he was just giving utterance to
+some base slander about Sif, when he was suddenly cut short by the
+sight of Thor's hammer, angrily brandished by an arm whose power he
+knew full well, and he fled incontinently.
+
+
+    "Silence, thou impure being!
+    My mighty hammer, Mioellnir,
+    Shall stop thy prating.
+    I will thy head
+    From thy neck strike;
+    Then will thy life be ended."
+
+            AEgir's Compotation, or Loki's Altercation (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Pursuit of Loki
+
+Knowing that he could now have no hope of being admitted into Asgard
+again, and that sooner or later the gods, seeing the effect of his
+evil deeds, would regret having permitted him to roam the world, and
+would try either to bind or slay him, Loki withdrew to the mountains,
+where he built himself a hut, with four doors which he always left
+wide open to permit of a hasty escape. Carefully laying his plans,
+he decided that if the gods should come in search of him he would
+rush down to the neighbouring cataract, according to tradition the
+Fraananger force or stream, and, changing himself into a salmon,
+would thus evade his pursuers. He reasoned, however, that although
+he could easily avoid any hook, it might be difficult for him to
+effect his escape if the gods should fashion a net like that of the
+sea-goddess Ran.
+
+Haunted by this fear, he decided to test the possibility of making
+such a mesh, and started to make one out of twine. He was still
+engaged upon the task when Odin, Kvasir, and Thor suddenly appeared
+in the distance; and knowing that they had discovered his retreat,
+Loki threw his half-finished net into the fire, and, rushing through
+one of his ever-open doors, he leaped into the waterfall, where, in the
+shape of a salmon, he hid among some stones in the bed of the stream.
+
+The gods, finding the hut empty, were about to depart, when Kvasir
+perceived the remains of the burnt net on the hearth. After some
+thought an inspiration came to him, and he advised the gods to weave
+a similar implement and use it in searching for their foe in the
+neighbouring stream, since it would be like Loki to choose such a
+method of baffling their pursuit. This advice seemed good and was
+immediately followed, and, the net finished, the gods proceeded to
+drag the stream. Loki eluded the net at its first cast by hiding
+at the bottom of the river between two stones; and when the gods
+weighted the mesh and tried a second time, he effected his escape by
+jumping up stream. A third attempt to secure him proved successful,
+however, for, as he once more tried to get away by a sudden leap,
+Thor caught him in mid-air and held him so fast, that he could not
+escape. The salmon, whose slipperiness is proverbial in the North,
+is noted for its remarkably slim tail, and Norsemen attribute this
+to Thor's tight grasp upon his foe.
+
+
+
+Loki's Punishment
+
+Loki now sullenly resumed his wonted shape, and his captors dragged
+him down into a cavern, where they made him fast, using as bonds the
+entrails of his son Narve, who had been torn to pieces by Vali, his
+brother, whom the gods had changed into a wolf for the purpose. One
+of these fetters was passed under Loki's shoulders, and one under
+his loins, thereby securing him firmly hand and foot; but the gods,
+not feeling quite satisfied that the strips, tough and enduring though
+they were, would not give way, changed them into adamant or iron.
+
+
+    "Thee, on a rock's point,
+    With the entrails of thy ice-cold son,
+    The gods will bind."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Skadi, the giantess, a personification of the cold mountain stream,
+who had joyfully watched the fettering of her foe (subterranean
+fire), now fastened a serpent directly over his head, so that its
+venom would fall, drop by drop, upon his upturned face. But Sigyn,
+Loki's faithful wife, hurried with a cup to his side, and until the
+day of Ragnarok she remained by him, catching the drops as they fell,
+and never leaving her post except when her vessel was full, and she was
+obliged to empty it. Only during her short absences could the drops
+of venom fall upon Loki's face, and then they caused such intense
+pain that he writhed with anguish, his efforts to get free shaking
+the earth and producing the earthquakes which so frighten mortals.
+
+
+    "Ere they left him in his anguish,
+    O'er his treacherous brow, ungrateful,
+    Skadi hung a serpent hateful,
+    Venom drops for aye distilling,
+    Every nerve with torment filling;
+    Thus shall he in horror languish.
+    By him, still unwearied kneeling,
+      Sigyn at his tortured side,--
+    Faithful wife! with beaker stealing
+      Drops of venom as they fall,--
+      Agonising poison all!
+    Sleepless, changeless, ever dealing
+      Comfort, will she still abide;
+    Only when the cup's o'erflowing
+      Must fresh pain and smarting cause,
+    Swift, to void the beaker going,
+      Shall she in her watching pause.
+        Then doth Loki
+        Loudly cry;
+        Shrieks of terror,
+    Groans of horror,
+    Breaking forth in thunder peals
+    With his writhings scared Earth reels.
+    Trembling and quaking,
+    E'en high Heav'n shaking!
+    So wears he out his awful doom,
+    Until dread Ragnarok be come."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+In this painful position Loki was destined to remain until the twilight
+of the gods, when his bonds would be loosed, and he would take part
+in the fatal conflict on the battlefield of Vigrid, falling at last
+by the hand of Heimdall, who would be slain at the same time.
+
+As we have seen, the venom-dropping snake in this myth is the
+cold mountain stream, whose waters, falling from time to time
+upon subterranean fire, evaporate in steam, which escapes through
+fissures, and causes earthquakes and geysers, phenomena with which
+the inhabitants of Iceland, for instance, were very familiar.
+
+
+
+Loki's Day
+
+When the gods were reduced to the rank of demons by the introduction of
+Christianity, Loki was confounded with Saturn, who had also been shorn
+of his divine attributes, and both were considered the prototypes of
+Satan. The last day of the week, which was held sacred to Loki, was
+known in the Norse as Laugardag, or wash-day, but in English it was
+changed to Saturday, and was said to owe its name not to Saturn but
+to Sataere, the thief in ambush, and the Teutonic god of agriculture,
+who is supposed to be merely another personification of Loki.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII: THE GIANTS
+
+
+Joetun-heim
+
+As we have already seen, the Northern races imagined that the giants
+were the first creatures who came to life among the icebergs which
+filled the vast abyss of Ginnunga-gap. These giants were from the
+very beginning the opponents and rivals of the gods, and as the
+latter were the personifications of all that is good and lovely,
+the former were representative of all that was ugly and evil.
+
+
+    "He comes--he comes--the Frost Spirit comes! on the rushing
+    northern blast,
+    And the dark Norwegian pines have bowed as his fearful breath
+    went past.
+    With an unscorched wing he has hurried on, where the fires on
+    Hecla glow
+    On the darkly beautiful sky above and the ancient ice below."
+
+            J. G. Whittier.
+
+
+When Ymir, the first giant, fell lifeless on the ice, slain by the
+gods, his progeny were drowned in his blood. One couple only, Bergelmir
+and his wife, effected their escape to Joetun-heim, where they took
+up their abode and became the parents of all the giant race. In the
+North the giants were called by various names, each having a particular
+meaning. Joetun, for instance, meant "the great eater," for the giants
+were noted for their enormous appetites as well as for their uncommon
+size. They were fond of drinking as well as of eating, wherefore they
+were also called Thurses, a word which some writers claim had the
+same meaning as thirst; but others think they owed this name to the
+high towers ("turseis") which they were supposed to have built. As the
+giants were antagonistic to the gods, the latter always strove to force
+them to remain in Joetun-heim, which was situated in the cold regions of
+the Pole. The giants were almost invariably worsted in their encounters
+with the gods, for they were heavy and slow-witted, and had nothing
+but stone weapons to oppose to the AEsir's bronze. In spite of this
+inequality, however, they were sometimes greatly envied by the gods,
+for they were thoroughly conversant with all knowledge relating to
+the past. Even Odin was envious of this attribute, and no sooner had
+he secured it by a draught from Mimir's spring than he hastened to
+Joetun-heim to measure himself against Vafthrudnir, the most learned
+of the giant brood. But he might never have succeeded in defeating
+his antagonist in this strange encounter had he not ceased inquiring
+about the past and propounded a question relating to the future.
+
+Of all the gods Thor was most feared by the Joetuns, for he was
+continually waging war against the frost and mountain giants,
+who would fain have bound the earth for ever in their rigid bands,
+thus preventing men from tilling the soil. In fighting against them,
+Thor, as we have already seen, generally had recourse to his terrible
+hammer Mioelnir.
+
+
+
+Origin of the Mountains
+
+According to German legends the uneven surface of the earth was due
+to the giants, who marred its smoothness by treading upon it while
+it was still soft and newly created, while streams were formed from
+the copious tears shed by the giantesses upon seeing the valleys made
+by their husbands' huge footprints. As such was the Teutonic belief,
+the people imagined that the giants, who personified the mountains
+to them, were huge uncouth creatures, who could only move about in
+the darkness or fog, and were petrified as soon as the first rays of
+sunlight pierced through the gloom or scattered the clouds.
+
+This belief led them to name one of their principal mountain chains
+the Riesengebirge (giant mountains). The Scandinavians also shared
+this belief, and to this day the Icelanders designate their highest
+mountain peaks by the name of Jokul, a modification of the word
+"Joetun." In Switzerland, where the everlasting snows rest upon the
+lofty mountain tops, the people still relate old stories of the time
+when the giants roamed abroad; and when an avalanche came crashing
+down the mountain side, they say the giants have restlessly shaken
+off part of the icy burden from their brows and shoulders.
+
+
+
+The First Gods
+
+As the giants were also personifications of snow, ice, cold, stone, and
+subterranean fire, they were said to be descended from the primitive
+Fornjotnr, whom some authorities identify with Ymir. According to this
+version of the myth, Fornjotnr had three sons: Hler, the sea; Kari, the
+air; and Loki, fire. These three divinities, the first gods, formed the
+oldest trinity, and their respective descendants were the sea giants
+Mimir, Gymir, and Grendel, the storm giants Thiassi, Thrym, and Beli,
+and the giants of fire and death, such as the Fenris wolf and Hel.
+
+As all the royal dynasties claimed descent from some mythical being,
+the Merovingians asserted that their first progenitor was a sea giant,
+who rose out of the waves in the form of an ox, and surprised the
+queen while she was walking alone on the seashore, compelling her to
+become his wife. She gave birth to a son named Meroveus, the founder
+of the first dynasty of Frankish kings.
+
+Many stories have already been told about the most important
+giants. They reappear in many of the later myths and fairy-tales,
+and manifest, after the introduction of Christianity, a peculiar
+dislike to the sound of church bells and the singing of monks and nuns.
+
+
+
+The Giant in Love
+
+The Scandinavians relate, in this connection, that in the days
+of Olaf the Saint a giant called Senjemand, dwelt on the Island of
+Senjen, and he was greatly incensed because a nun on the Island of
+Grypto daily sang her morning hymn. This giant fell in love with a
+beautiful maiden called Juterna-jesta, and it was long ere he could
+find courage to propose to her. When at last he made his halting
+request, the fair damsel scornfully rejected him, declaring that he
+was far too old and ugly for her taste.
+
+
+    "Miserable Senjemand--ugly and grey!
+    Thou win the maid of Kvedfiord!
+    No--a churl thou art and shalt ever remain."
+
+            Ballad (Brace's tr.).
+
+
+In his anger at being thus scornfully refused, the giant swore
+vengeance, and soon after he shot a great flint arrow from his bow
+at the maiden, who dwelt eighty miles away. Another lover, Torge,
+also a giant, seeing her peril and wishing to protect her, flung
+his hat at the speeding arrow. This hat was a thousand feet high
+and proportionately broad and thick, nevertheless the arrow pierced
+the headgear, falling short, however, of its aim. Senjemand, seeing
+that he had failed, and fearing the wrath of Torge, mounted his steed
+and prepared to ride off as quickly as possible; but the sun, rising
+just then above the horizon, turned him into stone, together with the
+arrow and Torge's hat, the huge pile being known as the Torghatten
+mountain. The people still point to an obelisk which they say is the
+stone arrow; to a hole in the mountain, 289 feet high and 88 feet wide,
+which they say is the aperture made by the arrow in its flight through
+the hat; and to the horseman on Senjen Island, apparently riding a
+colossal steed and drawing the folds of his wide cavalry cloak closely
+about him. As for the nun whose singing had so disturbed Senjemand, she
+was petrified too, and never troubled any one with her psalmody again.
+
+
+
+The Giant and the Church Bells
+
+Another legend relates that one of the mountain giants, annoyed by
+the ringing of church bells more than fifty miles away, once caught
+up a huge rock, which he hurled at the sacred building. Fortunately
+it fell short and broke in two. Ever since then, the peasants say
+that the trolls come on Christmas Eve to raise the largest piece of
+stone upon golden pillars, and to dance and feast beneath it. A lady,
+wishing to know whether this tale were true, once sent her groom
+to the place. The trolls came forward and hospitably offered him a
+drink from a horn mounted in gold and ornamented with runes. Seizing
+the horn, the groom flung its contents away and dashed off with it
+at a mad gallop, closely pursued by the trolls, from whom he escaped
+only by passing through a stubble field and over running water. Some
+of their number visited the lady on the morrow to claim this horn,
+and when she refused to part with it they laid a curse upon her,
+declaring that her castle would be burned down every time the horn
+should be removed. The prediction has thrice been fulfilled, and now
+the family guard the relic with superstitious care. A similar drinking
+vessel, obtained in much the same fashion by the Oldenburg family,
+is exhibited in the collection of the King of Denmark.
+
+The giants were not supposed to remain stationary, but were said to
+move about in the darkness, sometimes transporting masses of earth
+and sand, which they dropped here and there. The sandhills in northern
+Germany and Denmark were supposed to have been thus formed.
+
+
+
+The Giants' Ship
+
+A North Frisian tradition relates that the giants possessed a colossal
+ship, called Mannigfual, which constantly cruised about in the Atlantic
+Ocean. Such was the size of this vessel that the captain was said
+to patrol the deck on horseback, while the rigging was so extensive
+and the masts so high that the sailors who went up as youths came
+down as gray-haired men, having rested and refreshed themselves in
+rooms fashioned and provisioned for that purpose in the huge blocks
+and pulleys.
+
+By some mischance it happened that the pilot once directed the immense
+vessel into the North Sea, and wishing to return to the Atlantic
+as soon as possible, yet not daring to turn in such a small space,
+he steered into the English Channel. Imagine the dismay of all on
+board when they saw the passage growing narrower and narrower the
+farther they advanced. When they came to the narrowest spot, between
+Calais and Dover, it seemed barely possible that the vessel, drifting
+along with the current, could force its way through. The captain,
+with laudable presence of mind, promptly bade his men soap the sides
+of the ship, and to lay an extra-thick layer on the starboard, where
+the rugged cliffs of Dover rose threateningly. These orders were no
+sooner carried out than the vessel entered the narrow space, and,
+thanks to the captain's precaution, it slipped safely through. The
+rocks of Dover scraped off so much soap, however, that ever since
+they have been particularly white, and the waves dashing against them
+still have an unusually foamy appearance.
+
+This exciting experience was not the only one through which the
+Mannigfual passed, for we are told that it once, nobody knows how,
+penetrated into the Baltic Sea, where, the water not being deep enough
+to keep the vessel afloat, the captain ordered all the ballast to be
+thrown overboard. The material thus cast on either side of the vessel
+into the sea formed the two islands of Bornholm and Christiansoe.
+
+
+
+Princess Ilse
+
+In Thuringia and in the Black Forest the stories of the giants are
+legion, and one of the favourites with the peasants is that about
+Ilse, the lovely daughter of the giant of the Ilsenstein. She was so
+charming that far and wide she was known as the Beautiful Princess
+Ilse, and was wooed by many knights, of whom she preferred the Lord of
+Westerburg. But her father did not at all approve of her consorting
+with a mere mortal, and forbade her to see her lover. Princess Ilse
+was wilful, however, and in spite of her sire's prohibition she
+daily visited her lover. The giant, exasperated by her persistency
+and disobedience, finally stretched out his huge hands and, seizing
+the rocks, tore a great gap between the height where he dwelt and the
+castle of Westerburg. Upon this, Princess Ilse, going to the cleft
+which parted her from her lover, recklessly flung herself over the
+precipice into the raging flood beneath, and was there changed into
+a bewitching undine. She dwelt in the limpid waters for many a year,
+appearing from time to time to exercise her fascinations upon mortals,
+and even, it is said, captivating the affections of the Emperor
+Henry, who paid frequent visits to her cascade. Her last appearance,
+according to popular belief, was at Pentecost, a hundred years ago;
+and the natives have not yet ceased to look for the beautiful princess,
+who is said still to haunt the stream and to wave her white arms to
+entice travellers into the cool spray of the waterfall.
+
+
+    "I am the Princess Ilse,
+      And I dwell at the Ilsenstein;
+    Come with me to my castle,
+      And bliss shall be mine and thine.
+
+    "With the cool of my glass-clear waters
+      Thy brow and thy locks I'll lave;
+    And thou'lt think of thy sorrows no longer,
+      For all that thou look'st so grave.
+
+    "With my white arms twined around thee,
+      And lapped on my breast so white,
+    Thou shalt lie, and dream of elf-land--
+      Its loves and wild delight."
+
+            Heine (Martin's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Giantess's Plaything
+
+The giants inhabited all the earth before it was given to mankind, and
+it was only with reluctance that they made way for the human race, and
+retreated into the waste and barren parts of the country, where they
+brought up their families in strict seclusion. Such was the ignorance
+of their offspring, that a young giantess, straying from home, once
+came to an inhabited valley, where for the first time in her life she
+saw a farmer ploughing on the hillside. Deeming him a pretty plaything,
+she caught him up with his team, and thrusting them into her apron,
+she gleefully carried them home to exhibit to her father. But the
+giant immediately bade her carry peasant and horses back to the place
+where she had found them, and when she had done so he sadly explained
+that the creatures whom she took for mere playthings, would eventually
+drive the giant folk away, and become masters of the earth.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV: THE DWARFS
+
+
+Little Men
+
+In the first chapter we saw how the black elves, dwarfs, or
+Svart-alfar, were bred like maggots in the flesh of the slain giant
+Ymir. The gods, perceiving these tiny, unformed creatures creeping in
+and out, gave them form and features, and they became known as dark
+elves, on account of their swarthy complexions. These small beings
+were so homely, with their dark skin, green eyes, large heads, short
+legs, and crow's feet, that they were enjoined to hide underground,
+being commanded never to show themselves during the daytime lest they
+should be turned into stone. Although less powerful than the gods,
+they were far more intelligent than men, and as their knowledge was
+boundless and extended even to the future, gods and men were equally
+anxious to question them.
+
+The dwarfs were also known as trolls, kobolds, brownies, goblins,
+pucks, or Huldra folk, according to the country where they dwelt.
+
+
+    "You are the grey, grey Troll,
+      With the great green eyes,
+    But I love you, grey, grey Troll--
+      You are so wise!
+
+    "Tell me this sweet morn,
+      Tell me all you know--
+    Tell me, was I born?
+      Tell me, did I grow?"
+
+            The Legend of the Little Fay (Buchanan).
+
+
+
+The Tarnkappe
+
+These little beings could transport themselves with marvellous celerity
+from one place to another, and they loved to conceal themselves
+behind rocks, when they would mischievously repeat the last words
+of conversations overheard from such hiding-places. Owing to this
+well-known trick, the echoes were called dwarfs' talk, and people
+fancied that the reason why the makers of such sounds were never
+seen was because each dwarf was the proud possessor of a tiny red
+cap which made the wearer invisible. This cap was called Tarnkappe,
+and without it the dwarfs dared not appear above the surface of the
+earth after sunrise for fear of being petrified. When wearing it they
+were safe from this peril.
+
+
+    "Away! let not the sun view me--
+      I dare no longer stay;
+    An Elfin-child, thou wouldst me see,
+      To stone turn at his ray."
+
+            La Motte-Fouque.
+
+
+
+The Legend of Kallundborg
+
+Helva, daughter of the Lord of Nesvek, was loved by Esbern Snare,
+whose suit, however, was rejected by the proud father with the scornful
+words: "When thou shalt build at Kallundborg a stately church, then
+will I give thee Helva to wife."
+
+Now Esbern, although of low estate, was proud of heart, even as
+the lord, and he determined, come what might, to find a way to win
+his coveted bride. So off he strode to a troll in Ullshoi Hill,
+and effected a bargain whereby the troll undertook to build a fine
+church, on completion of which Esbern was to tell the builder's name
+or forfeit his eyes and heart.
+
+Night and day the troll wrought on, and as the building took shape,
+sadder grew Esbern Snare. He listened at the crevices of the hill
+by night; he watched during the day; he wore himself to a shadow
+by anxious thought; he besought the elves to aid him. All to no
+purpose. Not a sound did he hear, not a thing did he see, to suggest
+the name of the builder.
+
+Meantime, rumour was busy, and the fair Helva, hearing of the evil
+compact, prayed for the soul of the unhappy man.
+
+Time passed until one day the church lacked only one pillar,
+and worn out by black despair, Esbern sank exhausted upon a bank,
+whence he heard the troll hammering the last stone in the quarry
+underground. "Fool that I am," he said bitterly, "I have builded
+my tomb."
+
+Just then he heard a light footstep, and looking up, he beheld his
+beloved. "Would that I might die in thy stead," said she, through
+her tears, and with that Esbern confessed how that for love of her
+he had imperilled eyes and heart and soul.
+
+Then fast as the troll hammered underground, Helva prayed beside her
+lover, and the prayers of the maiden prevailed over the spell of the
+troll, for suddenly Esbern caught the sound of a troll-wife singing
+to her infant, bidding it be comforted, for that, on the morrow,
+Father Fine would return bringing a mortal's eyes and heart.
+
+Sure of his victim, the troll hurried to Kallundborg with the last
+stone. "Too late, Fine!" quoth Esbern, and at the word, the troll
+vanished with his stone, and it is said that the peasants heard at
+night the sobbing of a woman underground, and the voice of the troll
+loud with blame.
+
+
+    "Of the Troll of the Church they sing the rune
+    By the Northern Sea in the harvest moon;
+    And the fishers of Zealand hear him still
+    Scolding his wife in Ulshoi hill.
+
+    "And seaward over its groves of birch
+    Still looks the tower of Kallundborg church,
+    Where, first at its altar, a wedded pair,
+    Stood Helva of Nesvek and Esbern Snare!"
+
+            J. G. Whittier
+
+
+
+The Magic of the Dwarfs
+
+The dwarfs, as well as the elves, were ruled by a king, who, in
+various countries of northern Europe, was known as Andvari, Alberich,
+Elbegast, Gondemar, Laurin, or Oberon. He dwelt in a magnificent
+subterranean palace, studded with the gems which his subjects had
+mined from the bosom of the earth, and, besides untold riches and the
+Tarnkappe, he owned a magic ring, an invincible sword, and a belt of
+strength. At his command the little men, who were very clever smiths,
+would fashion marvellous jewels or weapons, which their ruler would
+bestow upon favourite mortals.
+
+We have already seen how the dwarfs fashioned Sif's golden hair,
+the ship Skidbladnir, the point of Odin's spear Gungnir, the ring
+Draupnir, the golden-bristled boar Gullin-bursti, the hammer Mioelnir,
+and Freya's golden necklace Brisinga-men. They are also said to
+have made the magic girdle which Spenser describes in his poem of
+the "Faerie Queene,"--a girdle which was said to have the power of
+revealing whether its wearer were virtuous or a hypocrite.
+
+
+    "That girdle gave the virtue of chaste love
+    And wifehood true to all that did it bear;
+    But whosoever contrary doth prove
+    Might not the same about her middle wear
+    But it would loose, or else asunder tear."
+
+            Faerie Queene (Spenser).
+
+
+The dwarfs also manufactured the mythical sword Tyrfing, which could
+cut through iron and stone, and which they gave to Angantyr. This
+sword, like Frey's, fought of its own accord, and could not be
+sheathed, after it was once drawn, until it had tasted blood. Angantyr
+was so proud of this weapon that he had it buried with him; but his
+daughter Hervor visited his tomb at midnight, recited magic spells, and
+forced him to rise from his grave to give her the precious blade. She
+wielded it bravely, and it eventually became the property of another
+of the Northern heroes.
+
+Another famous weapon, which according to tradition was forged by
+the dwarfs in Eastern lands, was the sword Angurvadel which Frithiof
+received as a portion of his inheritance from his fathers. Its hilt
+was of hammered gold, and the blade was inscribed with runes which
+were dull until it was brandished in war, when they flamed red as
+the comb of the fighting-cock.
+
+
+                            "Quick lost was that hero
+    Meeting in battle's night that blade high-flaming with runics.
+    Widely renown'd was this sword, of swords most choice in the
+    Northland."
+
+            Tegner's Frithiof (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Passing of the Dwarfs
+
+The dwarfs were generally kind and helpful; sometimes they kneaded
+bread, ground flour, brewed beer, performed countless household tasks,
+and harvested and threshed the grain for the farmers. If ill-treated,
+however, or turned to ridicule, these little creatures would forsake
+the house and never come back again. When the old gods ceased to be
+worshipped in the Northlands, the dwarfs withdrew entirely from the
+country, and a ferryman related how he had been hired by a mysterious
+personage to ply his boat back and forth across the river one night,
+and at every trip his vessel was so heavily laden with invisible
+passengers that it nearly sank. When his night's work was over, he
+received a rich reward, and his employer informed him that he had
+carried the dwarfs across the river, as they were leaving the country
+for ever in consequence of the unbelief of the people.
+
+
+
+Changelings
+
+According to popular superstition, the dwarfs, in envy of man's
+taller stature, often tried to improve their race by winning human
+wives or by stealing unbaptized children, and substituting their
+own offspring for the human mother to nurse. These dwarf babies were
+known as changelings, and were recognisable by their puny and wizened
+forms. To recover possession of her own babe, and to rid herself of
+the changeling, a woman was obliged either to brew beer in egg-shells
+or to grease the soles of the child's feet and hold them so near the
+flames that, attracted by their offspring's distressed cries, the dwarf
+parents would hasten to claim their own and return the stolen child.
+
+The troll women were said to have the power of changing themselves
+into Maras or nightmares, and of tormenting any one they pleased;
+but if the victim succeeded in stopping up the hole through which a
+Mara made her ingress into his room, she was entirely at his mercy,
+and he could even force her to wed him if he chose to do so. A wife
+thus obtained was sure to remain as long as the opening through which
+she had entered the house was closed, but if the plug were removed,
+either by accident or design, she immediately effected her escape
+and never returned.
+
+
+
+The Peaks of the Trolls
+
+Naturally, traditions of the little folk abound everywhere throughout
+the North, and many places are associated with their memory. The
+well-known Peaks of the Trolls (Trold-Tindterne) in Norway are said
+to be the scene of a conflict between two bands of trolls, who in
+the eagerness of combat omitted to note the approach of sunrise,
+with the result that they were changed into the small points of rock
+which stand up noticeably upon the crests of the mountain.
+
+
+
+A Conjecture
+
+Some writers have ventured a conjecture that the dwarfs so often
+mentioned in the ancient sagas and fairy-tales were real beings,
+probably the Phoenician miners, who, working the coal, iron, copper,
+gold, and tin mines of England, Norway, Sweden, etc., took advantage
+of the simplicity and credulity of the early inhabitants to make
+them believe that they belonged to a supernatural race and always
+dwelt underground, in a region which was called Svart-alfa-heim,
+or the home of the black elves.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV: THE ELVES
+
+
+The Realm of Faery
+
+Besides the dwarfs there was another numerous class of tiny creatures
+called Lios-alfar, light or white elves, who inhabited the realms of
+air between heaven and earth, and were gently governed by the genial
+god Frey from his palace in Alf-heim. They were lovely, beneficent
+beings, so pure and innocent that, according to some authorities,
+their name was derived from the same root as the Latin word "white"
+(albus), which, in a modified form, was given to the snow-covered
+Alps, and to Albion (England), because of her white chalk cliffs
+which could be seen afar.
+
+The elves were so small that they could flit about unseen while
+they tended the flowers, birds, and butterflies; and as they were
+passionately fond of dancing, they often glided down to earth on a
+moonbeam, to dance on the green. Holding one another by the hand,
+they would dance in circles, thereby making the "fairy rings," which
+were to be discerned by the deeper green and greater luxuriance of
+the grass which their little feet had pressed.
+
+
+    "Merry elves, their morrice pacing
+      To aerial minstrelsy,
+    Emerald rings on brown heath tracing,
+      Trip it deft and merrily."
+
+            Sir Walter Scott.
+
+
+If any mortal stood in the middle of one of these fairy rings he
+could, according to popular belief in England, see the fairies and
+enjoy their favour; but the Scandinavians and Teutons vowed that the
+unhappy man must die. In illustration of this superstition, a story is
+told of how Sir Olaf, riding off to his wedding, was enticed by the
+fairies into their ring. On the morrow, instead of a merry marriage,
+his friends witnessed a triple funeral, for his mother and bride also
+died when they beheld his lifeless corpse.
+
+
+    "Master Olof rode forth ere dawn of the day
+    And came where the Elf-folk were dancing away.
+      The dance is so merry,
+    So merry in the greenwood.
+
+    "And on the next morn, ere the daylight was red,
+    In Master Olof's house lay three corpses dead.
+      The dance is so merry,
+    So merry in the greenwood.
+
+    "First Master Olof, and next his young bride,
+    And third his old mother--for sorrow she died.
+      The dance is so merry,
+    So merry in the greenwood."
+
+            Master Olof at the Elfin Dance (Howitt's tr.).
+
+
+
+The Elf-dance
+
+These elves, who in England were called fairies or fays, were also
+enthusiastic musicians, and delighted especially in a certain air known
+as the elf-dance, which was so irresistible that no one who heard it
+could refrain from dancing. If a mortal, overhearing the air, ventured
+to reproduce it, he suddenly found himself incapable of stopping and
+was forced to play on and on until he died of exhaustion, unless he
+were deft enough to play the tune backwards, or some one charitably
+cut the strings of his violin. His hearers, who were forced to dance
+as long as the tones continued, could only stop when they ceased.
+
+
+
+The Will-o'-the-wisps
+
+In mediaeval times, the will-o'-the-wisps were known in the North as elf
+lights, for these tiny sprites were supposed to mislead travellers;
+and popular superstition held that the Jack-o'-lanterns were the
+restless spirits of murderers forced against their will to return
+to the scene of their crimes. As they nightly walked thither, it
+is said that they doggedly repeated with every step, "It is right;"
+but as they returned they sadly reiterated, "It is wrong."
+
+
+
+Oberon and Titania
+
+In later times the fairies or elves were said to be ruled by the king
+of the dwarfs, who, being an underground spirit, was considered a
+demon, and allowed to retain the magic power which the missionaries
+had wrested from the god Frey. In England and France the king of
+the fairies was known by the name of Oberon; he governed fairyland
+with his queen Titania, and the highest revels on earth were held on
+Midsummer night. It was then that the fairies all congregated around
+him and danced most merrily.
+
+
+    "Every elf and fairy sprite
+    Hop as light as bird from brier;
+    And this ditty after me
+    Sing, and dance it trippingly."
+
+            Midsummer-Night's Dream (Shakespeare).
+
+
+These elves, like the brownies, Huldra folk, kobolds, etc., were
+also supposed to visit human dwellings, and it was said that they
+took mischievous pleasure in tangling and knotting horses' manes and
+tails. These tangles were known as elf-locks, and whenever a farmer
+descried them he declared that his steeds had been elf-ridden during
+the night.
+
+
+
+Alf-blot
+
+In Scandinavia and Germany sacrifices were offered to the elves to
+make them propitious. These sacrifices consisted of some small animal,
+or of a bowl of honey and milk, and were known as Alf-blot. They were
+quite common until the missionaries taught the people that the elves
+were mere demons, when they were transferred to the angels, who were
+long entreated to befriend mortals, and propitiated by the same gifts.
+
+Many of the elves were supposed to live and die with the trees and
+plants which they tended, but these moss, wood, or tree maidens, while
+remarkably beautiful when seen in front, were hollow like a trough
+when viewed from behind. They appear in many of the popular tales, but
+almost always as benevolent and helpful spirits, for they were anxious
+to do good to mortals and to cultivate friendly relations with them.
+
+
+
+Images on Doorposts
+
+In Scandinavia the elves, both light and dark, were worshipped
+as household divinities, and their images were carved on the
+doorposts. The Norsemen, who were driven from home by the tyranny of
+Harald Harfager in 874, took their carved doorposts with them upon
+their ships. Similar carvings, including images of the gods and heroes,
+decorated the pillars of their high seats which they also carried
+away. The exiles showed their trust in their gods by throwing these
+wooden images overboard when they neared the Icelandic shores and
+settling where the waves carried the posts, even if the spot scarcely
+seemed the most desirable. "Thus they carried with them the religion,
+the poetry, and the laws of their race, and on this desolate volcanic
+island they kept these records unchanged for hundreds of years,
+while other Teutonic nations gradually became affected by their
+intercourse with Roman and Byzantine Christianity." These records,
+carefully collected by Saemund the learned, form the Elder Edda, the
+most precious relic of ancient Northern literature, without which we
+should know comparatively little of the religion of our forefathers.
+
+The sagas relate that the first settlements in Greenland and Vinland
+were made in the same way,--the Norsemen piously landing wherever
+their household gods drifted ashore.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI: THE SIGURD SAGA
+
+
+The Beginning of the Story
+
+While the first part of the Elder Edda consists of a collection
+of alliterative poems describing the creation of the world, the
+adventures of the gods, their eventual downfall, and gives a complete
+exposition of the Northern code of ethics, the second part comprises a
+series of heroic lays describing the exploits of the Volsung family,
+and especially of their chief representative, Sigurd, the favourite
+hero of the North.
+
+
+
+The Volsunga Saga
+
+These lays form the basis of the great Scandinavian epic, the Volsunga
+Saga, and have supplied not only the materials for the Nibelungenlied,
+the German epic, and for countless folk tales, but also for Wagner's
+celebrated operas, The Rhinegold, Valkyr, Siegfried, and The Dusk of
+the Gods. In England, William Morris has given them the form which
+they will probably retain in our literature, and it is from his great
+epic poem, by the courteous permission of his trustees, and of his
+publishers, Messrs. Longmans, Green and Co., that almost all the
+quotations in this section are taken in preference to extracts from
+the Edda.
+
+
+
+Sigi
+
+The story of the Volsungs begins with Sigi, a son of Odin, a powerful
+man, and generally respected, until he killed a man from motives
+of jealousy, the latter having slain more game when they were out
+hunting together. In consequence of this crime, Sigi was driven from
+his own land and declared an outlaw. But it seems that he had not
+entirely forfeited Odin's favour, for the god now provided him with
+a well-equipped vessel, together with a number of brave followers,
+and promised that victory should ever attend him.
+
+Thus aided by Odin, the raids of Sigi became a terror to his foes,
+and in the end he won the glorious empire of the Huns and for many
+years reigned as a powerful monarch. But in extreme old age his
+fortune changed, Odin forsook him, his wife's kindred fell upon him,
+and he was slain in a treacherous encounter.
+
+
+
+Rerir
+
+His death was soon avenged, however, for Rerir, his son, returning
+from an expedition upon which he had been absent from the land at the
+time, put the murderers to death as his first act upon mounting the
+throne. The rule of Rerir was marked by every sign of prosperity, but
+his dearest wish, a son to succeed him, remained unfulfilled for many
+a year. Finally, however, Frigga decided to grant his constant prayer,
+and to vouchsafe the heir he longed for. She accordingly despatched
+her swift messenger Gna, or Liod, with a miraculous apple, which she
+dropped into his lap as he was sitting alone on the hillside. Glancing
+upward, Rerir recognised the emissary of the goddess, and joyfully
+hastened home to partake of the apple with his wife. The child who
+in due time was born under these favourable auspices was a handsome
+little lad. His parents called him Volsung, and while he was still
+a mere infant they both died, and the child became ruler of the land.
+
+
+
+Volsung
+
+Years passed and Volsung's wealth and power ever increased. He was the
+boldest leader, and rallied many brave warriors around him. Full oft
+did they drink his mead underneath the Branstock, a mighty oak, which,
+rising in the middle of his hall, pierced the roof and overshadowed
+the whole house.
+
+
+    "And as in all other matters 'twas all earthly houses' crown,
+    And the least of its wall-hung shields was a battle-world's renown,
+    So therein withal was a marvel and a glorious thing to see,
+    For amidst of its midmost hall-floor sprang up a mighty tree,
+    That reared its blessings roofward and wreathed the roof-tree dear
+    With the glory of the summer and the garland of the year."
+
+
+Ten stalwart sons were born to Volsung, and one daughter, Signy,
+came to brighten his home. So lovely was this maiden that when she
+reached marriageable age many suitors asked for her hand, among whom
+was Siggeir, King of the Goths, who finally obtained Volsung's consent,
+although Signy had never seen him.
+
+
+
+The Wedding of Signy
+
+When the wedding-day came, and the bride beheld her destined husband
+she shrank in dismay, for his puny form and lowering glances contrasted
+sadly with her brothers' sturdy frames and open faces. But it was
+too late to withdraw--the family honour was at stake--and Signy so
+successfully concealed her dislike that none save her twin brother
+Sigmund suspected with what reluctance she became Siggeir's wife.
+
+
+
+The Sword in the Branstock
+
+While the wedding feast was in progress, and when the merry-making was
+at its height, the entrance to the hall was suddenly darkened by the
+tall form of a one-eyed man, closely enveloped in a mantle of cloudy
+blue. Without vouchsafing word or glance to any in the assembly, the
+stranger strode to the Branstock and thrust a glittering sword up to
+the hilt in its great bole. Then, turning slowly round, he faced the
+awe-struck and silent assembly, and declared that the weapon would be
+for the warrior who could pull it out of its oaken sheath, and that
+it would assure him victory in every battle. The words ended, he then
+passed out as he had entered, and disappeared, leaving a conviction in
+the minds of all that Odin, king of the gods, had been in their midst.
+
+
+    "So sweet his speaking sounded, so wise his words did seem,
+    That moveless all men sat there, as in a happy dream
+    We stir not lest we waken; but there his speech had end
+    And slowly down the hall-floor, and outward did he wend;
+    And none would cast him a question or follow on his ways,
+    For they knew that the gift was Odin's, a sword for the world
+    to praise."
+
+
+Volsung was the first to recover the power of speech, and, waiving
+his own right first to essay the feat, he invited Siggeir to make the
+first attempt to draw the divine weapon out of the tree-trunk. The
+bridegroom anxiously tugged and strained, but the sword remained
+firmly embedded in the oak and he resumed his seat, with an air of
+chagrin. Then Volsung tried, with the same result. The weapon was
+evidently not intended for either of them, and the young Volsung
+princes were next invited to try their strength.
+
+
+    "Sons I have gotten and cherished, now stand ye forth and try;
+    Lest Odin tell in God-home how from the way he strayed,
+    And how to the man he would not he gave away his blade.
+
+
+
+Sigmund
+
+The nine eldest sons were equally unsuccessful; but when Sigmund,
+the tenth and youngest, laid his firm young hand upon the hilt, the
+sword yielded easily to his touch, and he triumphantly drew it out
+as though it had merely been sheathed in its scabbard.
+
+
+    "At last by the side of the Branstock Sigmund the Volsung stood,
+    And with right hand wise in battle the precious sword-hilt caught,
+    Yet in a careless fashion, as he deemed it all for nought;
+    When, lo, from floor to rafter went up a shattering shout,
+    For aloft in the hand of Sigmund the naked blade shone out
+    As high o'er his head he shook it: for the sword had come away
+    From the grip of the heart of the Branstock, as though all loose
+    it lay."
+
+
+Nearly all present were gratified at the success of the young prince;
+but Siggeir's heart was filled with envy, and he coveted possession of
+the weapon. He offered to purchase it from his young brother-in-law,
+but Sigmund refused to part with it at any price, declaring that it
+was clear that the weapon had been intended for him to wear. This
+refusal so offended Siggeir that he secretly resolved to exterminate
+the proud Volsungs, and to secure the divine sword at the same time
+that he indulged his hatred towards his new kinsmen.
+
+Concealing his chagrin, however, he turned to Volsung and cordially
+invited him to visit his court a month later, together with his sons
+and kinsmen. The invitation was immediately accepted, and although
+Signy, suspecting evil, secretly sought her father while her husband
+slept, and implored him to retract his promise and stay at home,
+he would not consent to withdraw his plighted word and so exhibit fear.
+
+
+
+Siggeir's Treachery
+
+A few weeks after the return of the bridal couple, therefore, Volsung's
+well-manned vessels arrived within sight of Siggeir's shores. Signy
+had been keeping anxious watch, and when she perceived them she
+hastened down to the beach to implore her kinsmen not to land,
+warning them that her husband had treacherously planned an ambush,
+whence they could not escape alive. But Volsung and his sons, whom
+no peril could daunt, calmly bade her return to her husband's palace,
+and donning their arms they boldly set foot ashore.
+
+
+    "Then sweetly Volsung kissed her: 'Woe am I for thy sake,
+    But Earth the word hath hearkened, that yet unborn I spake;
+    How I ne'er would turn me backward from the sword or fire of bale;
+    --I have held that word till to-day, and to-day shall I change
+    the tale?
+    And look on these thy brethren, how goodly and great are they,
+    Wouldst thou have the maidens mock them, when this pain hath
+    passed away
+    And they sit at the feast hereafter, that they feared the deadly
+    stroke?
+    Let us do our day's work deftly for the praise and glory of folk;
+    And if the Norns will have it that the Volsung kin shall fail,
+    Yet I know of the deed that dies not, and the name that shall
+    ever avail.'"
+
+
+It befell as Signy had said, for on their way to the palace the
+brave little troop fell into Siggeir's ambush, and, although they
+fought with heroic courage, they were so borne down by the superior
+number of their foes that Volsung was slain and all his sons were
+made captive. The young men were led bound into the presence of the
+cowardly Siggeir, who had taken no part in the fight, and Sigmund
+was forced to relinquish his precious sword, after which he and his
+brothers were condemned to death.
+
+Signy, hearing the cruel sentence, vainly interceded for her brothers:
+all she could obtain by her prayers and entreaties was that they should
+be chained to a fallen oak in the forest, to perish of hunger and
+thirst if the wild beasts should spare them. Then, lest she should
+visit and succour her brothers, Siggeir confined his wife in the
+palace, where she was closely guarded night and day.
+
+Every morning early Siggeir himself sent a messenger into the forest
+to see whether the Volsungs were still living, and every morning
+the man returned saying a monster had come during the night and had
+devoured one of the princes, leaving nothing but his bones. At last,
+when none but Sigmund remained alive, Signy thought of a plan, and
+she prevailed on one of her servants to carry some honey into the
+forest and smear it over her brother's face and mouth.
+
+When the wild beast came that night, attracted by the smell of the
+honey, it licked Sigmund's face, and even thrust its tongue into
+his mouth. Clinching his teeth upon it, Sigmund, weak and wounded
+as he was, held on to the animal, and in its frantic struggles his
+bonds gave way, and he succeeded in slaying the prowling beast who
+had devoured his brothers. Then he vanished into the forest, where
+he remained concealed until the king's messenger had come as usual,
+and until Signy, released from captivity, came speeding to the forest
+to weep over her kinsmen's remains.
+
+Seeing her intense grief, and knowing that she had not participated
+in Siggeir's cruelty, Sigmund stole out of his place of concealment
+and comforted her as best he could. Together they then buried the
+whitening bones, and Sigmund registered a solemn oath to avenge
+his family's wrongs. This vow was fully approved by Signy, who,
+however, bade her brother bide a favourable time, promising to send
+him aid. Then the brother and sister sadly parted, she to return to
+her distasteful palace home, and he to a remote part of the forest,
+where he built a tiny hut and plied the craft of a smith.
+
+
+                                "And men say that Signy wept
+    When she left that last of her kindred: yet wept she never more
+    Amid the earls of Siggeir, and as lovely as before
+    Was her face to all men's deeming: nor aught it changed for ruth,
+    Nor for fear nor any longing; and no man said for sooth
+    That she ever laughed thereafter till the day of her death
+    was come."
+
+
+
+Signy's Sons
+
+Siggeir now took possession of the Volsung kingdom, and during the next
+few years he proudly watched the growth of his eldest son, whom Signy
+secretly sent to her brother when he was ten years of age, that Sigmund
+might train up the child to help him to obtain vengeance if he should
+prove worthy. Sigmund reluctantly accepted the charge; but as soon
+as he had tested the boy he found him deficient in physical courage,
+so he either sent him back to his mother, or, as some versions relate,
+slew him.
+
+Some time after this Signy's second son was sent into the forest
+for the same purpose, but Sigmund found him equally lacking in
+courage. Evidently none but a pure-blooded Volsung would avail for
+the grim work of revenge, and Signy, realising this, resolved to
+commit a crime.
+
+
+    "And once in the dark she murmured: 'Where then was the ancient
+    song
+    That the Gods were but twin-born once, and deemed it nothing wrong
+    To mingle for the world's sake, whence had the AEsir birth,
+    And the Vanir and the Dwarf-kind, and all the folk of earth?"
+
+
+Her resolution taken, she summoned a beautiful young witch, and
+exchanging forms with her, she sought the depths of the dark forest
+and took shelter in Sigmund's hut. The Volsung did not penetrate his
+sister's disguise. He deemed her nought but the gypsy she seemed,
+and being soon won by her coquetry, he made her his wife. Three days
+later she disappeared from the hut, and, returning to the palace,
+she resumed her own form, and when she next gave birth to a son,
+she rejoiced to see in his bold glance and strong frame the promise
+of a true Volsung hero.
+
+
+
+Sinfiotli
+
+When Sinfiotli, as the child was called, was ten years of age, she
+herself made a preliminary test of his courage by sewing his garment
+to his skin, and then suddenly snatching it off, and as the brave boy
+did not so much as wince, but laughed aloud, she confidently sent him
+to the forest hut. Sigmund speedily prepared his usual test, and ere
+leaving the hut one day he bade Sinfiotli take meal from a certain
+sack, and knead it and bake some bread. On returning home, Sigmund
+asked whether his orders had been carried out. The lad replied by
+showing the bread, and when closely questioned he artlessly confessed
+that he had been obliged to knead into the loaf a great adder which
+was hidden in the meal. Pleased to see that the boy, for whom he felt
+a strange affection, had successfully stood the test which had daunted
+his brothers, Sigmund bade him refrain from eating of the loaf, for
+although he was proof against the bite of a reptile, he could not,
+like his mentor, taste poison unharmed.
+
+
+    "For here, the tale of the elders doth men a marvel to wit,
+    That such was the shaping of Sigmund among all earthly kings,
+    That unhurt he handled adders and other deadly things,
+    And might drink unscathed of venom: but Sinfiotli was so wrought
+    That no sting of creeping creatures would harm his body aught."
+
+
+
+The Werewolves
+
+Sigmund now began patiently to teach Sinfiotli all that a warrior
+of the North should know, and the two soon became inseparable
+companions. One day while ranging the forest together they came
+to a hut, where they found two men sound asleep. Near by hung two
+wolf-skins, which suggested immediately that the strangers were
+werewolves, whom a cruel spell prevented from bearing their natural
+form save for a short space at a time. Prompted by curiosity, Sigmund
+and Sinfiotli donned the wolf-skins, and they were soon, in the guise
+of wolves, rushing through the forest, slaying and devouring all that
+came in their way.
+
+Such were their wolfish passions that soon they attacked each other,
+and after a fierce struggle Sinfiotli, the younger and weaker, fell
+dead. This catastrophe brought Sigmund to his senses, and he hung
+over his murdered companion in despair. While thus engaged he saw two
+weasels come out of the forest and attack each other fiercely until
+one lay dead. The victor then sprang into the thicket, to return with
+a leaf, which it laid upon its companion's breast. Then was seen a
+marvellous thing, for at the touch of the magic herb the dead beast
+came back to life. A moment later a raven flying overhead dropped a
+similar leaf at Sigmund's feet, and he, understanding that the gods
+wished to help him, laid it upon Sinfiotli, who was at once restored
+to life.
+
+In dire fear lest they might work each other further mischief, Sigmund
+and Sinfiotli now crept home and patiently waited until the time of
+their release should come. To their great relief the skins dropped
+off on the ninth night, and they hastily flung them into the fire,
+where they were entirely consumed, and the spell was broken for ever.
+
+
+
+Sigmund and Sinfiotli taken by Siggeir
+
+Sigmund now confided the story of his wrongs to Sinfiotli, who swore
+that, although Siggeir was his father (for neither he nor Sigmund
+knew the secret of his birth), he would aid him in his revenge. At
+nightfall, therefore, he accompanied Sigmund to the king's hall, and
+they entered unseen, concealing themselves in the cellar, behind the
+huge vats of beer. Here they were discovered by Signy's two youngest
+children, who, while playing with golden rings, which rolled into
+the cellar, came suddenly upon the men in ambush.
+
+They loudly proclaimed their discovery to their father and his guests,
+but, before Siggeir and his men could take up arms, Signy took both
+children, and dragging them into the cellar bade her brother slay the
+little traitors. This Sigmund utterly refused to do, but Sinfiotli
+struck off their heads ere he turned to fight against the assailants,
+who were now closing in upon them.
+
+In spite of all efforts Sigmund and his brave young companion soon
+fell into the hands of the Goths, whereupon Siggeir sentenced them to
+be buried alive in the same mound, with a stone partition between them
+so that they could neither see nor touch each other. The prisoners were
+accordingly confined in their living grave, and their foes were about
+to place the last stones on the roof, when Signy drew near, bearing a
+bundle of straw, which she was allowed to throw at Sinfiotli's feet,
+for the Goths fancied that it contained only a few provisions which
+would prolong his agony without helping him to escape.
+
+When all was still, Sinfiotli undid the sheaf, and great was his
+joy when he found instead of bread the sword which Odin had given to
+Sigmund. Knowing that nothing could dull or break the keen edge of
+this fine weapon, Sinfiotli thrust it through the stone partition,
+and, aided by Sigmund, he succeeded in cutting an opening, and in
+the end both effected their escape through the roof.
+
+
+    "Then in the grave-mound's darkness did Sigmund the king upstand,
+    And unto that saw of battle he set his naked hand;
+    And hard the gift of Odin home to their breasts they drew;
+    Sawed Sigmund, sawed Sinfiotli, till the stone was cleft atwo,
+    And they met and kissed together: then they hewed and heaved
+    full hard
+    Till, lo, through the bursten rafters the winter heavens bestarred!
+    And they leap out merry-hearted; nor is there need to say
+    A many words between them of whither was the way."
+
+
+
+Sigmund's Vengeance
+
+As soon as they were free, Sigmund and Sinfiotli returned to the king's
+hall, and piling combustible materials around it, they set fire to
+the mass. Then stationing themselves on either side of the entrance,
+they prevented all but the women from passing through. They loudly
+adjured Signy to escape ere it was too late, but she did not desire
+to live, and so coming to the entrance for a last embrace she found
+opportunity to whisper the secret of Sinfiotli's birth, after which
+she sprang back into the flames and perished with the rest.
+
+
+    "And then King Siggeir's roof-tree upheaved for its utmost fall,
+    And its huge walls clashed together, and its mean and lowly things
+    The fire of death confounded with the tokens of the kings."
+
+
+
+Helgi
+
+The long-planned vengeance for the slaughter of the Volsungs having
+thus been carried out, Sigmund, feeling that nothing now detained
+him in the land of the Goths, set sail with Sinfiotli and returned to
+Hunaland, where he was warmly welcomed to the seat of power under the
+shade of his ancestral tree, the mighty Branstock. When his authority
+was fully established, Sigmund married Borghild, a beautiful princess,
+who bore him two sons, Hamond and Helgi. The latter was visited by
+the Norns as he lay in his cradle, and they promised him sumptuous
+entertainment in Valhalla when his earthly career should be ended.
+
+
+    "And the woman was fair and lovely and bore him sons of fame;
+    Men called them Hamond and Helgi, and when Helgi first saw light,
+    There came the Norns to his cradle and gave him life full bright,
+    And called him Sunlit Hill, Sharp Sword, and Land of Rings,
+    And bade him be lovely and great, and a joy in the tale of kings."
+
+
+Northern kings generally entrusted their sons' upbringing to a
+stranger, for they thought that so they would be treated with less
+indulgence than at home. Accordingly Helgi was fostered by Hagal,
+and under his care the young prince became so fearless that at the
+age of fifteen he ventured alone into the hall of Hunding, with whose
+race his family was at feud. Passing through the hall unmolested and
+unrecognised, he left an insolent message, which so angered Hunding
+that he immediately set out in pursuit of the bold young prince,
+whom he followed to the dwelling of Hagal. Helgi would then have been
+secured but that meanwhile he had disguised himself as a servant-maid,
+and was busy grinding corn as if this were his wonted occupation. The
+invaders marvelled somewhat at the maid's tall stature and brawny
+arms, nevertheless they departed without suspecting that they had
+been so near the hero whom they sought.
+
+Having thus cleverly escaped, Helgi joined Sinfiotli, and collecting an
+army, the two young men marched boldly against the Hundings, with whom
+they fought a great battle, over which the Valkyrs hovered, waiting
+to convey the slain to Valhalla. Gudrun, one of the battle-maidens,
+was so struck by the courage which Helgi displayed, that she openly
+sought him and promised to be his wife. Only one of the Hunding race,
+Dag, remained alive, and he was allowed to go free after promising not
+to endeavour to avenge his kinsmen's death. This promise was not kept,
+however, and Dag, having obtained possession of Odin's spear Gungnir,
+treacherously slew Helgi with it. Gudrun, who in the meantime had
+fulfilled her promise to become his wife, wept many tears at his death,
+and laid a solemn curse upon his murderer; then, hearing from one of
+her maids that her slain husband kept calling for her from the depths
+of the tomb, she fearlessly entered the mound at night and tenderly
+inquired why he called and why his wounds continued to bleed after
+death. Helgi answered that he could not rest happy because of her
+grief, and declared that for every tear she shed a drop of his blood
+must flow.
+
+
+    "Thou weepest, gold-adorned!
+    Cruel tears,
+    Sun-bright daughter of the south!
+    Ere to sleep thou goest;
+    Each one falls bloody
+    On the prince's breast,
+    Wet, cold, and piercing,
+    With sorrow big."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+To appease the spirit of her beloved husband, Gudrun from that time
+ceased to weep, but they did not long remain separated; for soon after
+the spirit of Helgi had ridden over Bifroest and entered Valhalla,
+to become leader of the Einheriar, he was joined by Gudrun who, as a
+Valkyr once more, resumed her loving tendance of him. When at Odin's
+command she left his side for scenes of human strife, it was to seek
+new recruits for the army which her lord was to lead into battle when
+Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, should come.
+
+
+
+The Death of Sinfiotli
+
+Sinfiotli, Sigmund's eldest son, also met an early death; for, having
+slain in a quarrel the brother of Borghild, she determined to poison
+him. Twice Sinfiotli detected the attempt and told his father that
+there was poison in his cup. Twice Sigmund, whom no venom could injure,
+drained the bowl; and when Borghild made a third attempt, he bade
+Sinfiotli let the wine flow through his beard. Mistaking the meaning
+of his father's words, Sinfiotli forthwith drained the cup, and fell
+lifeless to the ground, for the poison was of the most deadly kind.
+
+
+    "He drank as he spake the word, and forthwith the venom ran
+    In a chill flood over his heart and down fell the mighty man
+    With never an uttered death-word and never a death-changed look,
+    And the floor of the hall of the Volsungs beneath his falling
+    shook.
+    Then up rose the elder of days with a great and bitter cry,
+    And lifted the head of the fallen; and none durst come anigh
+    To hearken the words of his sorrow, if any words he said
+    But such as the Father of all men might speak over Baldur dead.
+    And again, as before the death-stroke, waxed the hall of the
+    Volsungs dim,
+    And once more he seemed in the forest, where he spake with nought
+    but him."
+
+
+Speechless with grief, Sigmund tenderly raised his son's body in
+his arms, and strode out of the hall and down to the shore, where he
+deposited his precious burden in a skiff which an old one-eyed boatman
+brought at his call. He would fain have stepped aboard also, but ere
+he could do so the boatman pushed off and the frail craft was soon
+lost to sight. The bereaved father then slowly wended his way home,
+taking comfort from the thought that Odin himself had come to claim
+the young hero and had rowed away with him "out into the west."
+
+
+
+Hiordis
+
+Sigmund deposed Borghild as his wife and queen in punishment for
+this crime, and when he was very old he sued for the hand of Hiordis,
+a fair young princess, daughter of Eglimi, King of the Islands. This
+young maiden had many suitors, among others King Lygni of Hunding's
+race, but so great was Sigmund's fame that she gladly accepted him
+and became his wife. Lygni, the discarded suitor, was so angry at
+this decision, that he immediately collected a great army and marched
+against his successful rival, who, though overpowered by superior
+numbers, fought with the courage of despair.
+
+From the depths of a thicket which commanded the field of battle,
+Hiordis and her maid anxiously watched the progress of the strife. They
+saw Sigmund pile the dead around him, for none could stand against
+him, until at last a tall, one-eyed warrior suddenly appeared, and
+the press of battle gave way before the terror of his presence.
+
+Without a moment's pause the new champion aimed a fierce blow
+at Sigmund, which the old hero parried with his sword. The shock
+shattered the matchless blade, and although the strange assailant
+vanished as he had come, Sigmund was left defenceless and was soon
+wounded unto death by his foes.
+
+
+    "But lo, through the hedge of the war-shafts, a mighty man
+    there came,
+    One-eyed and seeming ancient, but his visage shone like flame:
+    Gleaming grey was his kirtle, and his hood was cloudy blue;
+    And he bore a mighty twi-bill, as he waded the fight-sheaves
+    through,
+    And stood face to face with Sigmund, and upheaved the bill
+    to smite.
+    Once more round the head of the Volsung fierce glittered the
+    Branstock's light,
+    The sword that came from Odin; and Sigmund's cry once more
+    Rang out to the very heavens above the din of war.
+    Then clashed the meeting edges with Sigmund's latest stroke,
+    And in shivering shards fell earthward that fear of worldly folk.
+    But changed were the eyes of Sigmund, and the war-wrath left
+    his face;
+    For that grey-clad, mighty helper was gone, and in his place
+    Drave on the unbroken spear-wood 'gainst the Volsung's empty hands:
+    And there they smote down Sigmund, the wonder of all lands,
+    On the foemen, on the death-heap his deeds had piled that day."
+
+
+As the battle was now won, and the Volsung family all slain, Lygni
+hastened from the battlefield to take possession of the kingdom and
+force the fair Hiordis to become his wife. As soon as he had gone,
+however, the beautiful young queen crept from her hiding-place in
+the thicket, and sought the spot where Sigmund lay all but dead. She
+caught the stricken hero to her breast in a last passionate embrace,
+and then listened tearfully while he bade her gather the fragments of
+his sword and carefully treasure them for their son whom he foretold
+was soon to be born, and who was destined to avenge his father's
+death and to be far greater than he.
+
+
+    "'I have wrought for the Volsungs truly, and yet have I known
+    full well
+    That a better one than I am shall bear the tale to tell:
+    And for him shall these shards be smithied: and he shall be my son,
+    To remember what I have forgotten and to do what I left undone.'"
+
+
+
+Elf, the Viking
+
+While Hiordis was mourning over Sigmund's lifeless body, her handmaiden
+suddenly warned her of the approach of a band of vikings. Retreating
+into the thicket once more, the two women exchanged garments, after
+which Hiordis bade the maid walk first and personate the queen, and
+they went thus to meet the viking Elf (Helfrat or Helferich). Elf
+received the women graciously, and their story of the battle so
+excited his admiration for Sigmund that he caused the remains of the
+slain hero to be reverentially removed to a suitable spot, where they
+were interred with all due ceremony. He then offered the queen and
+her maid a safe asylum in his hall, and they gladly accompanied him
+over the seas.
+
+As he had doubted their relative positions from the first, Elf took
+the first opportunity after arriving in his kingdom to ask a seemingly
+idle question in order to ascertain the truth. He asked the pretended
+queen how she knew the hour had come for rising when the winter days
+were short and there was no light to announce the coming of morn,
+and she replied that, as she was in the habit of drinking milk ere
+she fed the cows, she always awoke thirsty. When the same question
+was put to the real Hiordis, she answered, with as little reflection,
+that she knew it was morning because at that hour the golden ring
+which her father had given her grew cold on her hand.
+
+
+
+The Birth of Sigurd
+
+The suspicions of Elf having thus been confirmed, he offered marriage
+to the pretended handmaiden, Hiordis, promising to cherish her
+infant son, a promise which he nobly kept. When the child was born
+Elf himself sprinkled him with water--a ceremony which our pagan
+ancestors scrupulously observed--and bestowed upon him the name of
+Sigurd. As he grew up he was treated as the king's own son, and his
+education was entrusted to Regin, the wisest of men, who knew all
+things, his own fate not even excepted, for it had been revealed to
+him that he would fall by the hand of a youth.
+
+
+    "Again in the house of the Helper there dwelt a certain man,
+    Beardless and low of stature, of visage pinched and wan:
+    So exceeding old was Regin, that no son of man could tell
+    In what year of the days passed over he came to that land to dwell:
+    But the youth of king Elf had he fostered, and the Helper's
+    youth thereto,
+    Yea and his father's father's: the lore of all men he knew,
+    And was deft in every cunning, save the dealings of the sword:
+    So sweet was his tongue-speech fashioned, that men trowed his
+    every word;
+    His hand with the harp-strings blended was the mingler of delight
+    With the latter days of sorrow; all tales he told aright;
+    The Master of the Masters in the smithying craft was he;
+    And he dealt with the wind and the weather and the stilling of
+    the sea;
+    Nor might any learn him leech-craft, for before that race was made,
+    And that man-folk's generation, all their life-days had he
+    weighed."
+
+
+Under this tutor Sigurd grew daily in wisdom until few could surpass
+him. He mastered the smith's craft, and the art of carving all manner
+of runes; he learned languages, music, and eloquence; and, last but
+not least, he became a doughty warrior whom none could subdue. When he
+had reached manhood Regin prompted him to ask the king for a war-horse,
+a request which was immediately granted, and Gripir, the stud-keeper,
+was bidden to allow him to choose from the royal stables the steed
+which he most fancied.
+
+On his way to the meadow where the horses were at pasture, Sigurd met
+a one-eyed stranger, clad in grey and blue, who accosted the young
+man and bade him drive the horses into the river and select the one
+which could breast the tide with least difficulty.
+
+Sigurd received the advice gladly, and upon reaching the meadow he
+drove the horses into the stream which flowed on one side. One of the
+number, after crossing, raced round the opposite meadow; and, plunging
+again into the river, returned to his former pasture without showing
+any signs of fatigue. Sigurd therefore did not hesitate to select this
+horse, and he gave him the name of Grane or Greyfell. The steed was
+a descendant of Odin's eight-footed horse Sleipnir, and besides being
+unusually strong and indefatigable, was as fearless as his master.
+
+One winter day while Regin and his pupil were sitting by the fire,
+the old man struck his harp, and, after the manner of the Northern
+scalds, sang or recited in the following tale, the story of his life:
+
+
+
+The Treasure of the Dwarf King
+
+Hreidmar, king of the dwarf folk, was the father of three sons. Fafnir,
+the eldest, was gifted with a fearless soul and a powerful arm; Otter,
+the second, with snare and net, and the power of changing his form
+at will; and Regin, the youngest, with all wisdom and deftness of
+hand. To please the avaricious Hreidmar, this youngest son fashioned
+for him a house lined with glittering gold and flashing gems, and
+this was guarded by Fafnir, whose fierce glances and AEgis helmet none
+dared encounter.
+
+Now it came to pass that Odin, Hoenir, and Loki once came in human
+guise, upon one of their wonted expeditions to test the hearts of men,
+unto the land where Hreidmar dwelt.
+
+
+    "And the three were the heart-wise Odin, the Father of the Slain,
+    And Loki, the World's Begrudger, who maketh all labour vain,
+    And Haenir, the Utter-Blameless, who wrought the hope of man,
+    And his heart and inmost yearnings, when first the work began;--
+    The God that was aforetime, and hereafter yet shall be
+    When the new light yet undreamed of shall shine o'er earth
+    and sea."
+
+
+As the gods came near to Hreidmar's dwelling, Loki perceived
+an otter basking in the sun. This was none other than the dwarf
+king's second son, Otter, who now succumbed to Loki's usual love of
+destruction. Killing the unfortunate creature he flung its lifeless
+body over his shoulders, thinking it would furnish a good dish when
+meal time came.
+
+Loki then hastened after his companions, and entering Hreidmar's
+house with them, he flung his burden down upon the floor. The moment
+the dwarf king's glance fell upon the seeming otter, he flew into
+a towering rage, and ere they could offer effective resistance the
+gods found themselves lying bound, and they heard Hreidmar declare
+that never should they recover their liberty until they could satisfy
+his thirst for gold by giving him of that precious substance enough
+to cover the skin of the otter inside and out.
+
+
+    "'Now hearken the doom I shall speak! Ye stranger-folk shall
+    be free
+    When ye give me the Flame of the Waters, the gathered Gold of
+    the Sea,
+    That Andvari hideth rejoicing in the wan realm pale as the grave;
+    And the Master of Sleight shall fetch it, and the hand that
+    never gave,
+And the heart that begrudgeth for ever, shall gather and give and rue.
+    --Lo, this is the doom of the wise, and no doom shall be spoken
+    anew.'"
+
+
+As the otter-skin developed the property of stretching itself to a
+fabulous size, no ordinary treasure could suffice to cover it, and the
+plight of the gods, therefore, was a very bad one. The case, however,
+became a little more hopeful when Hreidmar consented to liberate one
+of their number. The emissary selected was Loki, who lost no time in
+setting off to the waterfall where the dwarf Andvari dwelt, in order
+that he might secure the treasure there amassed.
+
+
+    "There is a desert of dread in the uttermost part of the world,
+    Where over a wall of mountains is a mighty water hurled,
+    Whose hidden head none knoweth, nor where it meeteth the sea;
+    And that force is the Force of Andvari, and an Elf of the Dark
+    is he.
+    In the cloud and the desert he dwelleth amid that land alone;
+    And his work is the storing of treasure within his house of stone."
+
+
+In spite of diligent search, however, Loki could not find the dwarf,
+until, perceiving a salmon sporting in the foaming waters, it occurred
+to him that the dwarf might have assumed this shape. Borrowing Ran's
+net he soon caught the fish, and learned, as he had suspected, that it
+was Andvari. Finding that there was nothing else for it, the dwarf now
+reluctantly brought forth his mighty treasure and surrendered it all,
+including the Helmet of Dread and a hauberk of gold, reserving only a
+ring which was gifted with miraculous powers, and which, like a magnet,
+attracted the precious ore. But the greedy Loki, catching sight of it,
+wrenched it from off the dwarf's finger and departed laughing, while
+his victim hurled angry curses after him, declaring that the ring would
+ever prove its possessor's bane and would cause the death of many.
+
+
+    "That gold
+    Which the dwarf possessed
+    Shall to two brothers
+    Be cause of death,
+    And to eight princes,
+    Of dissension.
+    From my wealth no one
+    Shall good derive."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+On arriving at Hreidmar's house, Loki found the mighty treasure none
+too great, for the skin became larger with every object placed upon it,
+and he was forced to throw in the ring Andvaranaut (Andvari's loom),
+which he had intended to retain, in order to secure the release of
+himself and his companions. Andvari's curse of the gold soon began
+to operate. Fafnir and Regin both coveted a share, while Hriedmar
+gloated over his treasure night and day, and would not part with an
+item of it. Fafnir the invincible, seeing at last that he could not
+otherwise gratify his lust, slew his father, and seized the whole
+of the treasure, then, when Regin came to claim a share he drove him
+scornfully away and bade him earn his own living.
+
+Thus exiled, Regin took refuge among men, to whom he taught the arts
+of sowing and reaping. He showed them how to work metals, sail the
+seas, tame horses, yoke beasts of burden, build houses, spin, weave,
+and sew--in short, all the industries of civilised life, which had
+hitherto been unknown. Years elapsed, and Regin patiently bided
+his time, hoping that some day he would find a hero strong enough
+to avenge his wrongs upon Fafnir, whom years of gloating over his
+treasure had changed into a horrible dragon, the terror of Gnitaheid
+(Glittering Heath), where he had taken up his abode.
+
+His story finished, Regin turned suddenly to the attentive Sigurd,
+saying he knew that the young man could slay the dragon if he wished,
+and inquiring whether he were ready to aid him to avenge his wrongs.
+
+
+    "And he spake: 'Hast thou hearkened, Sigurd? Wilt thou help a
+    man that is old
+    To avenge him for his father? Wilt thou win that treasure of Gold
+    And be more than the Kings of the earth? Wilt thou rid the earth
+    of a wrong
+    And heal the woe and the sorrow my heart hath endured o'er long?'"
+
+
+
+Sigurd's Sword
+
+Sigurd immediately assented, on the condition, however, that the curse
+should be assumed by Regin, who, also, in order to fitly equip the
+young man for the coming fight, should forge him a sword, which no
+blow could break. Twice Regin fashioned a marvellous weapon, but twice
+Sigurd broke it to pieces on the anvil. Then Sigurd bethought him of
+the broken fragments of Sigmund's weapon which were treasured by his
+mother, and going to Hiordis he begged these from her; and either
+he or Regin forged from them a blade so strong that it divided the
+great anvil in two without being dinted, and whose temper was such
+that it neatly severed some wool floating gently upon the stream.
+
+Sigurd now went upon a farewell visit to Gripir, who, knowing the
+future, foretold every event in his coming career; after which he
+took leave of his mother, and accompanied by Regin set sail for the
+land of his fathers, vowing to slay the dragon when he had fulfilled
+his first duty, which was to avenge the death of Sigmund.
+
+
+    "'First wilt thou, prince,
+    Avenge thy father,
+    And for the wrongs of Eglymi
+    Wilt retaliate.
+    Thou wilt the cruel,
+    The sons of Hunding,
+    Boldly lay low:
+    Thou wilt have victory.'"
+
+            Lay of Sigurd Fafnicide (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+On his way to the land of the Volsungs a most marvellous sight was
+seen, for there came a man walking on the waters. Sigurd straightway
+took him on board his dragon ship, and the stranger, who gave his name
+as Feng or Fioellnir, promised favourable winds. Also he taught Sigurd
+how to distinguish auspicious omens. In reality the old man was Odin
+or Hnikar, the wave-stiller, but Sigurd did not suspect his identity.
+
+
+
+The Fight with the Dragon
+
+Sigurd was entirely successful in his descent upon Lygni, whom he
+slew, together with many of his followers. He then departed from his
+reconquered kingdom and returned with Regin to slay Fafnir. Together
+they rode through the mountains, which ever rose higher and higher
+before them, until they came to a great tract of desert which Regin
+said was the haunt of Fafnir. Sigurd now rode on alone until he met
+a one-eyed stranger, who bade him dig trenches in the middle of the
+track along which the dragon daily dragged his slimy length to the
+river to quench his thirst, and to lie in wait in one of these until
+the monster passed over him, when he could thrust his sword straight
+into its heart.
+
+Sigurd gratefully followed this counsel, and was rewarded with complete
+success, for as the monster's loathsome folds rolled overhead, he
+thrust his sword upward into its left breast, and as he sprang out
+of the trench the dragon lay gasping in the throes of death.
+
+
+    "Then all sank into silence, and the son of Sigmund stood
+    On the torn and furrowed desert by the pool of Fafnir's blood,
+    And the Serpent lay before him, dead, chilly, dull, and grey;
+    And over the Glittering Heath fair shone the sun and the day,
+    And a light wind followed the sun and breathed o'er the fateful
+    place,
+    As fresh as it furrows the sea-plain, or bows the acres' face."
+
+
+Regin had prudently remained at a distance until all danger was past,
+but seeing that his foe was slain, he now came up. He was fearful
+lest the young hero should claim a reward, so he began to accuse him
+of having murdered his kin, but, with feigned magnanimity, he declared
+that instead of requiring life for life, in accordance with the custom
+of the North, he would consider it sufficient atonement if Sigurd
+would cut out the monster's heart and roast it for him on a spit.
+
+
+    "Then Regin spake to Sigurd: 'Of this slaying wilt thou be free?
+    Then gather thou fire together and roast the heart for me,
+    That I may eat it and live, and be thy master and more;
+    For therein was might and wisdom, and the grudged and hoarded lore:
+    --Or, else depart on thy ways afraid from the Glittering Heath.'"
+
+
+Sigurd was aware that a true warrior never refused satisfaction of
+some kind to the kindred of the slain, so he agreed to the seemingly
+small proposal, and immediately prepared to act as cook, while Regin
+dozed until the meat was ready. After an interval Sigurd touched the
+roast to ascertain whether it were tender, but burning his fingers
+severely, he instinctively thrust them into his mouth to allay the
+smart. No sooner had Fafnir's blood thus touched his lips than he
+discovered, to his utter surprise, that he could understand the
+songs of the birds, many of which were already gathering round the
+carrion. Listening attentively, he found that they were telling how
+Regin meditated mischief against him, and how he ought to slay the
+old man and take the gold, which was his by right of conquest, after
+which he ought to partake of the heart and blood of the dragon. As
+this coincided with his own wishes, he slew the evil old man with a
+thrust of his sword and proceeded to eat and drink as the birds had
+suggested, reserving a small portion of Fafnir's heart for future
+consumption. He then wandered off in search of the mighty hoard,
+and, after donning the Helmet of Dread, the hauberk of gold, and the
+ring Andvaranaut, and loading Greyfell with as much gold as he could
+carry, he sprang to the saddle and sat listening eagerly to the birds'
+songs to know what his future course should be.
+
+
+
+The Sleeping Warrior Maiden
+
+Soon he heard of a warrior maiden fast asleep on a mountain and
+surrounded by a glittering barrier of flames, through which only the
+bravest of men could pass to arouse her.
+
+
+    "On the fell I know
+    A warrior maid to sleep;
+    Over her waves
+    The linden's bane:
+    Ygg whilom stuck
+    A sleep-thorn in the robe
+    Of the maid who
+    Would heroes choose."
+
+            Lay of Fafnir (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+This adventure was the very thing for Sigurd, and he set off at
+once. The way lay through trackless regions, and the journey was long
+and cheerless, but at length he came to the Hindarfiall in Frankland,
+a tall mountain whose cloud-wreathed summit seemed circled by fiery
+flames.
+
+
+    "Long Sigurd rideth the waste, when, lo, on a morning of day,
+    From out of the tangled crag-walls, amidst the cloudland grey,
+    Comes up a mighty mountain, and it is as though there burns
+    A torch amidst of its cloud-wreath; so thither Sigurd turns,
+    For he deems indeed from its topmost to look on the best of
+    the earth;
+    And Greyfell neigheth beneath him, and his heart is full of mirth."
+
+
+Sigurd rode up the mountain side, and the light grew more and more
+vivid as he proceeded, until when he had neared the summit a barrier
+of lurid flames stood before him. The fire burned with a roar which
+would have daunted the heart of any other, but Sigurd remembered
+the words of the birds, and without a moment's hesitation he plunged
+bravely into its very midst.
+
+
+    "Now Sigurd turns in his saddle, and the hilt of the Wrath
+    he shifts,
+    And draws a girth the tighter; then the gathered reins he lifts,
+    And crieth aloud to Greyfell, and rides at the wildfire's heart;
+    But the white wall wavers before him and the flame-flood rusheth
+    apart,
+    And high o'er his head it riseth, and wide and wild its roar
+    As it beareth the mighty tidings to the very heavenly floor:
+    But he rideth through its roaring as the warrior rides the rye,
+    When it bows with the wind of the summer and the hid spears
+    draw anigh;
+    The white flame licks his raiment and sweeps through Greyfell's
+    mane,
+    And bathes both hands of Sigurd and the hilt of Fafnir's bane,
+    And winds about his war-helm and mingles with his hair,
+But nought his raiment dusketh or dims his glittering gear;
+    Then it fails and fades and darkens till all seems left behind,
+    And dawn and the blaze is swallowed in mid-mirk stark and blind."
+
+
+The threatening flames having now died away, Sigurd pursued his
+journey over a broad tract of white ashes, directing his course to
+a great castle, with shield-hung walls. The great gates stood wide
+open, and Sigurd rode through them unchallenged by warders or men at
+arms. Proceeding cautiously, for he feared some snare, he at last came
+to the centre of the courtyard, where he saw a recumbent form cased
+in armour. Sigurd dismounted from his steed and eagerly removed the
+helmet, when he started with surprise to behold, instead of a warrior,
+the face of a most beautiful maiden.
+
+All his efforts to awaken the sleeper were vain, however, until he
+had removed her armour, and she lay before him in pure-white linen
+garments, her long hair falling in golden waves around her. Then as the
+last fastening of her armour gave way, she opened wide her beautiful
+eyes, which met the rising sun, and first greeting with rapture the
+glorious spectacle, she turned to her deliverer, and the young hero
+and the maiden loved each other at first sight.
+
+
+    "Then she turned and gazed on Sigurd, and her eyes met the
+    Volsung's eyes.
+    And mighty and measureless now did the tide of his love arise,
+    For their longing had met and mingled, and he knew of her heart
+    that she loved,
+    And she spake unto nothing but him and her lips with the
+    speech-flood moved."
+
+
+The maiden now proceeded to tell Sigurd her story. Her name was
+Brunhild, and according to some authorities she was the daughter of
+an earthly king whom Odin had raised to the rank of a Valkyr. She
+had served him faithfully for a long while, but once had ventured to
+set her own wishes above his, giving to a younger and therefore more
+attractive opponent the victory which Odin had commanded for another.
+
+In punishment for this act of disobedience, she had been deprived
+of her office and banished to earth, where Allfather decreed she
+should wed like any other member of her sex. This sentence filled
+Brunhild's heart with dismay, for she greatly feared lest it might be
+her fate to mate with a coward, whom she would despise. To quiet these
+apprehensions, Odin took her to Hindarfiall or Hindfell, and touching
+her with the Thorn of Sleep, that she might await in unchanged youth
+and beauty the coming of her destined husband, he surrounded her with
+a barrier of flame which none but a hero would venture through.
+
+From the top of Hindarfiall, Brunhild now pointed out to Sigurd her
+former home, at Lymdale or Hunaland, telling him he would find her
+there whenever he chose to come and claim her as his wife; and then,
+while they stood on the lonely mountain top together, Sigurd placed
+the ring Andvaranaut upon her finger, in token of betrothal, swearing
+to love her alone as long as life endured.
+
+
+    "From his hand then draweth Sigurd Andvari's ancient Gold;
+    There is nought but the sky above them as the ring together
+    they hold,
+    The shapen ancient token, that hath no change nor end,
+    No change, and no beginning, no flaw for God to mend:
+    Then Sigurd cried: 'O Brynhild, now hearken while I swear,
+    That the sun shall die in the heavens and the day no more be fair,
+    If I seek not love in Lymdale and the house that fostered thee,
+    And the land where thou awakedst 'twixt the woodland and the sea!'
+    And she cried: 'O Sigurd, Sigurd, now hearken while I swear
+    That the day shall die for ever and the sun to blackness wear,
+    Ere I forget thee, Sigurd, as I lie 'twixt wood and sea
+    In the little land of Lymdale and the house that fostered me!'"
+
+
+
+The Fostering of Aslaug
+
+According to some authorities, the lovers parted after thus plighting
+their troth; but others say that Sigurd soon sought out and wedded
+Brunhild, with whom he lived for a while in perfect happiness until
+forced to leave her and his infant daughter Aslaug. This child, left
+orphaned at three years of age, was fostered by Brunhild's father, who,
+driven away from home, concealed her in a cunningly fashioned harp,
+until reaching a distant land he was murdered by a peasant couple for
+the sake of the gold they supposed it to contain. Their surprise and
+disappointment were great indeed when, on breaking the instrument open,
+they found a beautiful little girl, whom they deemed mute, as she would
+not speak a word. Time passed, and the child, whom they had trained
+as a drudge, grew to be a beautiful maiden, and she won the affection
+of a passing viking, Ragnar Lodbrog, King of the Danes, to whom she
+told her tale. The viking sailed away to other lands to fulfil the
+purposes of his voyage, but when a year had passed, during which time
+he won much glory, he came back and carried away Aslaug as his bride.
+
+
+    "She heard a voice she deemed well known,
+    Long waited through dull hours bygone
+    And round her mighty arms were cast:
+    But when her trembling red lips passed
+    From out the heaven of that dear kiss,
+    And eyes met eyes, she saw in his
+    Fresh pride, fresh hope, fresh love, and saw
+    The long sweet days still onward draw,
+    Themselves still going hand in hand,
+    As now they went adown the strand."
+
+            The Fostering of Aslaug (William Morris).
+
+
+In continuation of the story of Sigurd and Brunhild, however, we are
+told that the young man went to seek adventures in the great world,
+where he had vowed, as a true hero, to right the wrong and defend
+the fatherless and oppressed.
+
+
+
+The Niblungs
+
+In the course of his wanderings, Sigurd came to the land of the
+Niblungs, the land of continual mist, where Giuki and Grimhild were
+king and queen. The latter was specially to be feared, as she was well
+versed in magic lore, and could weave spells and concoct marvellous
+potions which had power to steep the drinker in temporary forgetfulness
+and compel him to yield to her will.
+
+The king and queen had three sons, Gunnar, Hoegni, and Guttorm,
+who were brave young men, and one daughter, Gudrun, the gentlest
+as well as the most beautiful of maidens. All welcomed Sigurd most
+warmly, and Giuki invited him to tarry awhile. The invitation was
+very agreeable after his long wanderings, and Sigurd was glad to
+stay and share the pleasures and occupations of the Niblungs. He
+accompanied them to war, and so distinguished himself by his valour,
+that he won the admiration of Grimhild and she resolved to secure him
+as her daughter's husband. One day, therefore, she brewed one of her
+magic potions, and when he had partaken of it at the hand of Gudrun,
+he utterly forgot Brunhild and his plighted troth, and all his love
+was diverted unto the queen's daughter.
+
+
+    "But the heart was changed in Sigurd; as though it ne'er had been
+    His love of Brynhild perished as he gazed on the Niblung Queen:
+    Brynhild's beloved body was e'en as a wasted hearth,
+    No more for bale or blessing, for plenty or for dearth."
+
+
+Although there was not wanting a vague fear that he had forgotten
+some event in the past which should rule his conduct, Sigurd asked for
+and obtained Gudrun's hand, and their wedding was celebrated amid the
+rejoicings of the people, who loved the young hero very dearly. Sigurd
+gave his bride some of Fafnir's heart to eat, and the moment she
+had tasted it her nature was changed, and she began to grow cold and
+silent to all except him. To further cement his alliance with the two
+eldest Giukings (as the sons of Giuki were called) Sigurd entered the
+"doom ring" with them, and the three young men cut a sod which was
+placed upon a shield, beneath which they stood while they bared and
+slightly cut their right arms, allowing their blood to mingle in the
+fresh earth. Then, when they had sworn eternal friendship, the sod
+was replaced.
+
+But although Sigurd loved his wife and felt a true fraternal affection
+for her brothers, he could not lose his haunting sense of oppression,
+and was seldom seen to smile as radiantly as of old. Giuki had now
+died, and his eldest son, Gunnar, ruled in his stead. As the young
+king was unwedded, Grimhild, his mother, besought him to take a wife,
+suggesting that none seemed more worthy to become Queen of the Niblungs
+than Brunhild, who, it was reported, sat in a golden hall surrounded
+by flames, whence she had declared she would issue only to marry the
+warrior who would dare brave the fire for her sake.
+
+
+
+Gunnar's Stratagem
+
+Gunnar immediately prepared to seek this maiden, and strengthened
+by one of his mother's magic potions, and encouraged by Sigurd, who
+accompanied him, he felt confident of success. But when on reaching
+the summit of the mountain he would have ridden into the fire, his
+steed drew back affrighted and he could not induce him to advance a
+step. Seeing that his companion's steed did not show signs of fear,
+he asked him of Sigurd; but although Greyfell allowed Gunnar to mount,
+he would not stir because his master was not on his back.
+
+Now as Sigurd carried the Helmet of Dread, and Grimhild had given
+Gunnar a magic potion in case it should be needed, it was possible
+for the companions to exchange their forms and features, and seeing
+that Gunnar could not penetrate the flaming wall Sigurd proposed to
+assume the appearance of Gunnar and woo the bride for him. The king
+was greatly disappointed, but as no alternative offered he dismounted,
+and the necessary exchange was soon effected. Then Sigurd mounted
+Greyfell in the semblance of his companion, and this time the steed
+showed not the least hesitation, but leaped into the flames at the
+first touch on his bridle, and soon brought his rider to the castle,
+where, in the great hall, sat Brunhild. Neither recognised the other:
+Sigurd because of the magic spell cast over him by Grimhild; Brunhild
+because of the altered appearance of her lover.
+
+The maiden shrank in disappointment from the dark-haired intruder,
+for she had deemed it impossible for any but Sigurd to ride through
+the flaming circle. But she advanced reluctantly to meet her visitor,
+and when he declared that he had come to woo her, she permitted him
+to take a husband's place at her side, for she was bound by solemn
+injunction to accept as her spouse him who should thus seek her
+through the flames.
+
+Three days did Sigurd remain with Brunhild, and his bright sword lay
+bared between him and his bride. This singular behaviour aroused the
+curiosity of the maiden, wherefore Sigurd told her that the gods had
+bidden him celebrate his wedding thus.
+
+
+    "There they went in one bed together; but the foster-brother laid
+    'Twixt him and the body of Brynhild his bright blue battle-blade;
+    And she looked and heeded it nothing; but, e'en as the dead
+    folk lie,
+    With folded hands she lay there, and let the night go by:
+    And as still lay that Image of Gunnar as the dead of life forlorn,
+    And hand on hand he folded as he waited for the morn.
+    So oft in the moonlit minster your fathers may ye see
+    By the side of the ancient mothers await the day to be."
+
+
+When the fourth morning dawned, Sigurd drew the ring Andvaranaut from
+Brunhild's hand, and, replacing it by another, he received her solemn
+promise that in ten days' time she would appear at the Niblung court
+to take up her duties as queen and faithful wife.
+
+
+    "'I thank thee, King, for thy goodwill, and thy pledge of love
+    I take,
+    Depart with my troth to thy people: but ere full ten days are o'er
+    I shall come to the Sons of the Niblungs, and then shall we part
+    no more
+    Till the day of the change of our life-days, when Odin and Freya
+    shall call.'"
+
+
+The promise given, Sigurd again passed out of the palace, through the
+ashes, and joined Gunnar, with whom, after he had reported the success
+of his venture, he hastened to exchange forms once more. The warriors
+then turned their steeds homeward, and only to Gudrun did Sigurd reveal
+the secret of her brother's wooing, and he gave her the fatal ring,
+little suspecting the many woes which it was destined to occasion.
+
+
+
+The Coming of Brunhild
+
+True to her promise, Brunhild appeared ten days later, and solemnly
+blessing the house she was about to enter, she greeted Gunnar
+kindly, and allowed him to conduct her to the great hall, where sat
+Sigurd beside Gudrun. The Volsung looked up at that moment and as he
+encountered Brunhild's reproachful eyes Grimhild's spell was broken and
+the past came back in a flood of bitter recollection. It was too late,
+however: both were in honour bound, he to Gudrun and she to Gunnar,
+whom she passively followed to the high seat, to sit beside him as
+the scalds entertained the royal couple with the ancient lays of
+their land.
+
+The days passed, and Brunhild remained apparently indifferent, but
+her heart was hot with anger, and often did she steal out of her
+husband's palace to the forest, where she could give vent to her
+grief in solitude.
+
+Meanwhile, Gunnar perceived the cold indifference of his wife to his
+protestations of affection, and began to have jealous suspicions,
+wondering whether Sigurd had honestly told the true story of the
+wooing, and fearing lest he had taken advantage of his position to win
+Brunhild's love. Sigurd alone continued the even tenor of his way,
+striving against none but tyrants and oppressors, and cheering all
+by his kindly words and smile.
+
+
+
+The Quarrel of the Queens
+
+On a day the queens went down together to the Rhine to bathe, and as
+they were entering the water Gudrun claimed precedence by right of
+her husband's courage. Brunhild refused to yield what she deemed her
+right, and a quarrel ensued, in the course of which Gudrun accused
+her sister-in-law of not having kept her faith, producing the ring
+Andvaranaut in support of her charge. The sight of the fatal ring
+in the hand of her rival crushed Brunhild, and she fled homeward,
+and lay in speechless grief day after day, until all thought she must
+die. In vain did Gunnar and the members of the royal family seek her
+in turn and implore her to speak; she would not utter a word until
+Sigurd came and inquired the cause of her unutterable grief. Then,
+like a long-pent-up stream, her love and anger burst forth, and she
+overwhelmed the hero with reproaches, until his heart so swelled
+with grief for her sorrow that the tight bands of his strong armour
+gave way.
+
+
+    "Out went Sigurd
+    From that interview
+    Into the hall of kings,
+    Writhing with anguish;
+    So that began to start
+    The ardent warrior's
+    Iron-woven sark
+    Off from his sides."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Words had no power to mend that woeful situation, and Brunhild
+refused to heed when Sigurd offered to repudiate Gudrun, saying,
+as she dismissed him, that she would not be faithless to Gunnar. The
+thought that two living men had called her wife was unendurable to
+her pride, and the next time her husband sought her presence she
+implored him to put Sigurd to death, thus increasing his jealousy
+and suspicion. He refused to deal violently with Sigurd, however,
+because of their oath of good fellowship, and so she turned to Hoegni
+for aid. He, too, did not wish to violate his oath, but he induced
+Guttorm, by means of much persuasion and one of Grimhild's potions,
+to undertake the dastardly deed.
+
+
+
+The Death of Sigurd
+
+Accordingly, in the dead of night, Guttorm stole into Sigurd's chamber,
+weapon in hand; but as he bent over the bed he saw Sigurd's bright
+eyes fixed upon him, and fled precipitately. Later on he returned
+and the scene was repeated; but towards morning, stealing in for
+the third time, he found the hero asleep, and traitorously drove his
+spear through his back.
+
+Although wounded unto death, Sigurd raised himself in bed, and seizing
+his renowned sword which hung beside him, he flung it with all his
+remaining strength at the flying murderer, cutting him in two as
+he reached the door. Then, with a last whispered farewell to the
+terrified Gudrun, Sigurd sank back and breathed his last.
+
+
+                    "'Mourn not, O Gudrun, this stroke is the last
+                    of ill;
+    Fear leaveth the House of the Niblungs on this breaking of
+    the morn;
+    Mayst thou live, O woman beloved, unforsaken, unforlorn!'
+     
+    'It is Brynhild's deed,' he murmured, 'and the woman that loves
+    me well;
+    Nought now is left to repent of, and the tale abides to tell.
+    I have done many deeds in my life-days; and all these, and my love,
+    they lie
+    In the hollow hand of Odin till the day of the world go by.
+    I have done and I may not undo, I have given and I take not again:
+    Art thou other than I, Allfather, wilt thou gather my glory
+    in vain?'"
+
+
+Sigurd's infant son was slain at the same time, and poor Gudrun mourned
+over her dead in silent, tearless grief; while Brunhild laughed aloud,
+thereby incurring the wrath of Gunnar, who repented, too late, that
+he had not taken measures to avert the dastardly crime.
+
+The grief of the Niblungs found expression in the public funeral
+celebration which was shortly held. A mighty pyre was erected, to
+which were brought precious hangings, fresh flowers, and glittering
+arms, as was the custom for the burial of a prince; and as these sad
+preparations took shape, Gudrun was the object of tender solicitude
+from the women, who, fearing lest her heart would break, tried to open
+the flood-gate of her tears by recounting the bitterest sorrows they
+had known, one telling of how she too had lost all she held dear. But
+these attempts to make her weep were utterly vain, until at length
+they laid her husband's head in her lap, bidding her kiss him as if
+he were still alive; then her tears began to flow in torrents.
+
+The reaction soon set in for Brunhild also; her resentment was all
+forgotten when she saw the body of Sigurd laid on the pyre, arrayed
+as if for battle in burnished armour, with the Helmet of Dread at his
+head, and accompanied by his steed, which was to be burned with him,
+together with several of his faithful servants who would not survive
+his loss. She withdrew to her apartment, and after distributing her
+possessions among her handmaidens, she donned her richest array,
+and stabbed herself as she lay stretched upon her bed.
+
+The tidings soon reached Gunnar, who came with all haste to his wife
+and just in time to receive her dying injunction to lay her beside the
+hero she loved, with the glittering, unsheathed sword between them,
+as it had lain when he had wooed her by proxy. When she had breathed
+her last, these wishes were faithfully executed, and her body was
+burned with Sigurd's amid the lamentations of all the Niblungs.
+
+In Richard Wagner's story of "The Ring" Brunhild's end is more
+picturesque. Mounted on her steed, as when she led the battle-maidens
+at the command of Odin, she rode into the flames which leaped to heaven
+from the great funeral pyre, and passed for ever from the sight of men.
+
+
+    "They are gone--the lovely, the mighty, the hope of the ancient
+    Earth:
+    It shall labour and bear the burden as before that day of their
+    birth:
+    It shall groan in its blind abiding for the day that Sigurd
+    hath sped,
+    And the hour that Brynhild hath hastened, and the dawn that waketh
+    the dead:
+    It shall yearn, and be oft-times holpen, and forget their deeds
+    no more,
+    Till the new sun beams on Baldur and the happy sea-less shore."
+
+
+The death scene of Sigurd (Siegfried) is far more powerful in the
+Nibelungenlied. In the Teutonic version his treacherous assailant
+lures him from a hunting party in the forest to quench his thirst at
+a brook, where he thrusts him through the back with a spear. His body
+was thence borne home by the hunters and laid at his wife's feet.
+
+
+
+The Flight of Gudrun
+
+Gudrun, still inconsolable, and loathing the kindred who had
+treacherously robbed her of all joy in life, fled from her father's
+house and took refuge with Elf, Sigurd's foster father, who, after the
+death of Hiordis, had married Thora, the daughter of King Hakon. The
+two women became great friends, and here Gudrun tarried several years,
+employing herself in embroidering upon tapestry the great deeds of
+Sigurd, and watching over her little daughter Swanhild, whose bright
+eyes reminded her vividly of the husband whom she had lost.
+
+
+
+Atli, King of the Huns
+
+In the meantime, Atli, Brunhild's brother, who was now King of the
+Huns, had sent to Gunnar to demand atonement for his sister's death;
+and to satisfy his claims Gunnar had promised that when her years of
+widowhood had been accomplished he would give him Gudrun's hand in
+marriage. Time passed, and Atli clamoured for the fulfilment of his
+promise, wherefore the Niblung brothers, with their mother Grimhild,
+went to seek the long-absent princess, and by the aid of the magic
+potion administered by Grimhild they succeeded in persuading Gudrun
+to leave little Swanhild in Denmark and to become Atli's wife in the
+land of the Huns.
+
+Nevertheless, Gudrun secretly detested her husband, whose avaricious
+tendencies were extremely repugnant to her; and even the birth of
+two sons, Erp and Eitel, did not console her for the death of her
+loved ones and the absence of Swanhild. Her thoughts were continually
+of the past, and she often spoke of it, little suspecting that her
+descriptions of the wealth of the Niblungs had excited Atli's greed,
+and that he was secretly planning some pretext for seizing it.
+
+Atli at last decided to send Knefrud or Wingi, one of his servants,
+to invite the Niblung princes to visit his court, intending to slay
+them when he should have them in his power; but Gudrun, fathoming this
+design, sent a rune message to her brothers, together with the ring
+Andvaranaut, around which she had twined a wolf's hair. On the way,
+however, the messenger partly effaced the runes, thus changing their
+meaning; and when he appeared before the Niblungs, Gunnar accepted
+the invitation, in spite of Hoegni's and Grimhild's warnings, and an
+ominous dream of Glaumvor, his second wife.
+
+
+
+Burial of the Niblung Treasure
+
+Before departing, however, Gunnar was prevailed upon to bury secretly
+the great Niblung hoard in the Rhine, and he sank it in a deep hole
+in the bed of the river, the position of which was known to the royal
+brothers only, who took a solemn oath never to reveal it.
+
+
+    "Down then and whirling outward the ruddy Gold fell forth,
+    As a flame in the dim grey morning, flashed out a kingdom's worth;
+    Then the waters roared above it, the wan water and the foam
+    Flew up o'er the face of the rock-wall as the tinkling Gold
+    fell home,
+    Unheard, unseen for ever, a wonder and a tale,
+    Till the last of earthly singers from the sons of men shall fail."
+
+
+
+The Treachery of Atli
+
+In martial array the royal band then rode out of the city of the
+Niblungs, which they were never again to see, and after many adventures
+they entered the land of the Huns, and arrived at Atli's hall, where,
+finding that they had been foully entrapped, they slew the traitor
+Knefrud, and prepared to sell their lives as dearly as possible.
+
+Gudrun hastened to meet them with tender embraces, and, seeing that
+they must fight, she grasped a weapon and loyally aided them in the
+terrible massacre which ensued. After the first onslaught, Gunnar kept
+up the spirits of his followers by playing on his harp, which he laid
+aside only when the assaults were renewed. Thrice the brave Niblungs
+resisted the assault of the Huns, until all save Gunnar and Hoegni had
+perished, and the king and his brother, wounded, faint, and weary,
+fell into the hands of their foes, who cast them, securely bound,
+into a dungeon to await death.
+
+Atli had prudently abstained from taking any active part in the
+fight, and he now had his brothers-in-law brought in turn before him,
+promising them freedom if they would reveal the hiding-place of the
+golden hoard; but they proudly kept silence, and it was only after
+much torture that Gunnar spake, saying that he had sworn a solemn
+oath never to reveal the secret as long as Hoegni lived. At the same
+time he declared that he would believe his brother dead only when
+his heart was brought to him on a platter.
+
+
+    "With a dreadful voice cried Gunnar: 'O fool, hast thou heard
+    it told
+    Who won the Treasure aforetime and the ruddy rings of the Gold?
+    It was Sigurd, child of the Volsungs, the best sprung forth from
+    the best:
+    He rode from the North and the mountains, and became my summer
+    guest,
+    My friend and my brother sworn: he rode the Wavering Fire,
+    And won me the Queen of Glory and accomplished my desire;
+    The praise of the world he was, the hope of the biders in wrong,
+    The help of the lowly people, the hammer of the strong:
+    Ah, oft in the world, henceforward, shall the tale be told of
+    the deed,
+    And I, e'en I, will tell it in the day of the Niblungs' Need:
+    For I sat night-long in my armour, and when light was wide o'er
+    the land
+    I slaughtered Sigurd my brother, and looked on the work of
+    mine hand.
+    And now, O mighty Atli, I have seen the Niblung's wreck,
+    And the feet of the faint-heart dastard have trodden Gunnar's neck;
+    And if all be little enough, and the Gods begrudge me rest,
+    Let me see the heart of Hoegni cut quick from his living breast,
+    And laid on the dish before me: and then shall I tell of the Gold,
+    And become thy servant, Atli, and my life at thy pleasure hold.'"
+
+
+Urged by greed, Atli gave immediate orders that Hoegni's heart should
+be brought; but his servants, fearing to lay hands on such a grim
+warrior, slew the cowardly scullion Hialli. The trembling heart
+of this poor wretch called forth contemptuous words from Gunnar,
+who declared that such a timorous organ could never have belonged
+to his fearless brother. Atli again issued angry commands, and this
+time the unquivering heart of Hoegni was produced, whereupon Gunnar,
+turning to the monarch, solemnly swore that since the secret now
+rested with him alone it would never be revealed.
+
+
+
+The Last of the Niblungs
+
+Livid with anger, the king bade his servants throw Gunnar, with
+hands bound, into a den of venomous snakes; but this did not daunt
+the reckless Niblung, and, his harp having been flung after him
+in derision, he calmly sat in the pit, harping with his toes, and
+lulling to sleep all the reptiles save one only. It was said that
+Atli's mother had taken the form of this snake, and that she it was
+who now bit him in the side, and silenced his triumphant song for ever.
+
+To celebrate his triumph, Atli now ordered a great feast, commanding
+Gudrun to be present to wait upon him. At this banquet he ate and
+drank heartily, little suspecting that his wife had slain both his
+sons, and had served up their roasted hearts and their blood mixed
+with wine in cups made of their skulls. After a time the king and his
+guests became intoxicated, when Gudrun, according to one version of
+the story, set fire to the palace, and as the drunken men were aroused,
+too late to escape, she revealed what she had done, and first stabbing
+her husband, she calmly perished in the flames with the Huns. Another
+version relates, however, that she murdered Atli with Sigurd's sword,
+and having placed his body on a ship, which she sent adrift, she cast
+herself into the sea and was drowned.
+
+
+    "She spread out her arms as she spake it, and away from the earth
+    she leapt
+    And cut off her tide of returning: for the sea-waves over her
+    swept,
+    And their will is her will henceforward, and who knoweth the
+    deeps of the sea,
+    And the wealth of the bed of Gudrun, and the days that yet
+    shall be?"
+
+
+According to a third and very different version, Gudrun was not
+drowned, but was borne by the waves to the land where Jonakur was
+king. There she became his wife, and the mother of three sons, Soerli,
+Hamdir, and Erp. She recovered possession, moreover, of her beloved
+daughter Swanhild, who, in the meantime, had grown into a beautiful
+maiden of marriageable age.
+
+
+
+Swanhild
+
+Swanhild became affianced to Ermenrich, King of Gothland, who sent his
+son, Randwer, and one of his servants, Sibich, to escort the bride to
+his kingdom. Sibich was a traitor, and as part of a plan to compass the
+death of the royal family that he might claim the kingdom, he accused
+Randwer of having tried to win his young stepmother's affections. This
+accusation so roused the anger of Ermenrich that he ordered his son to
+be hanged, and Swanhild to be trampled to death under the feet of wild
+horses. The beauty of this daughter of Sigurd and Gudrun was such,
+however, that even the wild steeds could not be induced to harm her
+until she had been hidden from their sight under a great blanket,
+when they trod her to death under their cruel hoofs.
+
+Upon learning the fate of her beloved daughter, Gudrun called her
+three sons to her side, and girding them with armour and weapons
+against which nothing but stone could prevail, she bade them depart
+and avenge their murdered sister, after which she died of grief,
+and was burned on a great pyre.
+
+The three youths, Soerli, Hamdir, and Erp, proceeded to Ermenrich's
+kingdom, but ere they met their foes, the two eldest, deeming Erp too
+young to assist them, taunted him with his small size, and finally
+slew him. Soerli and Hamdir then attacked Ermenrich, cut off his hands
+and feet, and would have slain him but for a one-eyed stranger who
+suddenly appeared and bade the bystanders throw stones at the young
+men. His orders were immediately carried out, and Soerli and Hamdir
+soon fell slain under the shower of stones, which, as we have seen,
+alone had power to injure them.
+
+
+    "Ye have heard of Sigurd aforetime, how the foes of God he slew;
+    How forth from the darksome desert the Gold of Waters he drew;
+    How he wakened Love on the Mountain, and wakened Brynhild the
+    Bright,
+    And dwelt upon Earth for a season, and shone in all men's sight.
+    Ye have heard of the Cloudy People, and the dimming of the day,
+    And the latter world's confusion, and Sigurd gone away;
+    Now ye know of the Need of the Niblungs and the end of broken
+    troth,
+    All the death of kings and of kindreds and the Sorrow of Odin
+    the Goth."
+
+
+
+Interpretation of the Saga
+
+This story of the Volsungs is supposed by some authorities to be
+a series of sun myths, in which Sigi, Rerir, Volsung, Sigmund, and
+Sigurd in turn personify the glowing orb of day. They are all armed
+with invincible swords, the sunbeams, and all travel through the world
+fighting against their foes, the demons of cold and darkness. Sigurd,
+like Balder, is beloved of all; he marries Brunhild, the dawn maiden,
+whom he finds in the midst of flames, the flush of morn, and parts
+from her only to find her again when his career is ended. His body is
+burned on the funeral pyre, which, like Balder's, represents either
+the setting sun or the last gleam of summer, of which he too is a
+type. The slaying of Fafnir symbolises the destruction of the demon
+of cold or darkness, who has stolen the golden hoard of summer or
+the yellow rays of the sun.
+
+According to other authorities, this Saga is based upon history. Atli
+is the cruel Attila, the "Scourge of God," while Gunnar is Gundicarius,
+a Burgundian monarch, whose kingdom was destroyed by the Huns, and who
+was slain with his brothers in 451. Gudrun is the Burgundian princess
+Ildico, who slew her husband on her wedding-night, as has already
+been related, using the glittering blade which had once belonged to
+the sun-god to avenge her murdered kinsmen.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII: THE STORY OF FRITHIOF
+
+
+Bishop Tegner
+
+Probably no writer of the nineteenth century did so much to awaken
+interest in the literary treasures of Scandinavia as Bishop Esaias
+Tegner, whom a Swedish author characterised as, "that mighty Genie
+who organises even disorder."
+
+Tegner's "Frithiof Saga" has been translated once at least into every
+European tongue, and some twenty times into English and German. Goethe
+spoke of the work with the greatest enthusiasm, and the tale, which
+gives a matchless picture of the life of our heathen ancestors in the
+North, drew similar praise from Longfellow, who considered it to be
+one of the most remarkable productions of his century.
+
+Although Tegner has chosen for his theme the Frithiof saga only, we
+find that that tale is the sequel to the older but less interesting
+Thorsten saga, of which we give here a very brief outline, merely to
+enable the reader to understand clearly every allusion in the more
+modern poem.
+
+As is so frequently the case with these ancient tales, the story begins
+with Haloge (Loki), who came north with Odin, and began to reign over
+northern Norway, which from him was called Halogaland. According to
+Northern mythology, this god had two lovely daughters. They were
+carried off by bold suitors, who, banished from the mainland by
+Haloge's curses and magic spells, took refuge with their newly won
+wives upon neighbouring islands.
+
+
+
+Birth of Viking
+
+Thus it happened that Haloge's grandson, Viking, was born upon the
+island of Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea, where he dwelt until he was
+fifteen, and where he became the biggest and strongest man of his
+time. Rumours of his valour finally reached Hunvor, a Swedish princess,
+who was oppressed by the attentions of a gigantic suitor whom none
+dared drive away, and she sent for Viking to deliver her.
+
+Thus summoned, the youth departed, after having received from his
+father a magic sword named Angurvadel, whose blows would prove fatal
+even to a giant like the suitor of Hunvor. A "holmgang," as a duel
+was termed in the North, ensued as soon as the hero arrived upon the
+scene, and Viking, having slain his antagonist, could have married
+the princess had it not been considered disgraceful for a Northman
+to marry before he was twenty.
+
+To beguile the time of waiting for his promised bride, Viking set
+out in a well-manned dragon ship; and cruising about the Northern and
+Southern seas, he met with countless adventures. During this time he
+was particularly persecuted by the kindred of the giant he had slain,
+who were adepts in magic, and they brought upon him innumerable perils
+by land and sea.
+
+Aided and abetted by his bosom friend, Halfdan, Viking escaped every
+danger, slew many of his foes, and, after rescuing Hunvor, whom, in
+the meantime, the enemy had carried off to India, he settled down in
+Sweden. His friend, faithful in peace as well as in war, settled near
+him, and married also, choosing for wife Ingeborg, Hunvor's attendant.
+
+The saga now describes the long, peaceful winters, when the warriors
+feasted and listened to the tales of scalds, rousing themselves to
+energetic efforts only when returning spring again permitted them to
+launch their dragon ships and set out once more upon their piratical
+expeditions.
+
+
+    "Then the Scald took his harp and sang,
+    And loud through the music rang
+        The sound of that shining word;
+    And the harp-strings a clangour made,
+    As if they were struck with the blade
+        Of a sword.
+
+    "And the Berserks round about
+    Broke forth into a shout
+        That made the rafters ring:
+    They smote with their fists on the board,
+    And shouted, 'Long live the Sword,
+        And the King!'"
+
+            Longfellow's Saga of King Olaf.
+
+
+In the old story the scalds relate with great gusto every phase of
+attack and defence during cruise and raid, and describe every blow
+given and received, dwelling with satisfaction upon the carnage and
+lurid flames which envelop both enemies and ships in common ruin. A
+fierce fight is often an earnest of future friendship, however, and
+we are told that Halfdan and Viking, having failed to conquer Njorfe,
+a foeman of mettle, sheathed their swords after a most obstinate
+struggle, and accepted their enemy as a third link in their close
+bond of friendship.
+
+On returning home from one of these customary raids, Viking lost
+his beloved wife; and, entrusting her child, Ring, to the care of a
+foster father, after undergoing a short period of mourning, the brave
+warrior married again. This time his marital bliss was more lasting,
+for the saga tells that his second wife bore him nine stalwart sons.
+
+Njorfe, King of Uplands, in Norway, also rejoiced in a family of
+nine brave sons. Now, although their fathers were united in bonds of
+the closest friendship, having sworn blood brotherhood according to
+the true Northern rites, the young men were jealous of one another,
+and greatly inclined to quarrel.
+
+
+
+The Game of Ball
+
+Notwithstanding this smouldering animosity, the youths often met;
+and the saga relates that they used to play ball together, and gives
+a description of the earliest ball game on record in the Northern
+annals. Viking's sons, as tall and strong as he, were inclined to be
+rather reckless of their opponents' welfare, and, judging from the
+following account, translated from the old saga, the players were
+often left in as sorry a condition as after a modern game.
+
+"The next morning the brothers went to the games, and generally had
+the ball during the day; they pushed men and let them fall roughly,
+and beat others. At night three men had their arms broken, and many
+were bruised or maimed."
+
+The game between Njorfe's and Viking's sons culminated in a
+disagreement, and one of Njorfe's sons struck one of his opponents
+a dangerous and treacherous blow. Prevented from taking his revenge
+then and there by the interference of the spectators, the injured
+man made a trivial excuse to return to the ground alone; and, meeting
+his assailant there, he slew him.
+
+
+
+The Blood Feud
+
+When Viking heard that one of his sons had slain one of his friend's
+children, he was very indignant, and mindful of his oath to avenge all
+Njorfe's wrongs, he banished the young murderer. The other brothers,
+on hearing this sentence, vowed that they would accompany the exile,
+and so Viking sorrowfully bade them farewell, giving his sword
+Angurvadel to Thorsten, the eldest, and cautioning him to remain
+quietly on an island in Lake Wener until all danger of retaliation
+on the part of Njorfe's remaining sons should be over.
+
+The young men obeyed; but Njorfe's sons were determined to avenge
+their brother, and although they had no boats to convey them over
+the lake, they made use of a conjurer's art to bring about a great
+frost. Accompanied by many armed men, they then stole noiselessly
+over the ice to attack Thorsten and his brothers, and a terrible
+carnage ensued. Only two of the attacking party managed to escape,
+but they left, as they fancied, all their foes among the dead.
+
+Then came Viking to bury his sons, and he found that two of them,
+Thorsten and Thorer, were still alive; whereupon he secretly conveyed
+them to a cellar beneath his dwelling, and in due time they recovered
+from their wounds.
+
+Njorfe's two surviving sons soon discovered by magic arts that their
+opponents were not dead, and they made a second desperate but vain
+attempt to kill them. Viking saw that the quarrel would be incessantly
+renewed if his sons remained at home; so he now sent them to Halfdan,
+whose court they reached after a series of adventures which in many
+points resemble those of Theseus on his way to Athens.
+
+When spring came round Thorsten embarked on a piratical excursion,
+in the course of which he encountered Jokul, Njorfe's eldest son,
+who, meanwhile, had taken forcible possession of the kingdom of Sogn,
+having killed the king, banished his heir, Bele, and changed his
+beautiful daughter, Ingeborg, into the similitude of an old witch.
+
+Throughout the story Jokul is represented as somewhat of a coward,
+for he resorted by preference to magic when he wished to injure
+Viking's sons. Thus he stirred up great tempests, and Thorsten,
+after twice suffering shipwreck, was only saved from the waves by
+the seeming witch, whom he promised to marry in gratitude for her
+good offices. Thorsten, advised by Ingeborg, now went in search of
+Bele, whom he found and replaced upon his hereditary throne, having
+sworn eternal friendship with him. After this, the baleful spell was
+removed, and Ingeborg, now revealed in her native beauty, was united
+to Thorsten, and dwelt with him at Framnaes.
+
+
+
+Thorsten and Bele
+
+Every spring Thorsten and Bele set out together in their ships; and,
+upon one of these expeditions, they joined forces with Angantyr,
+a foe whose mettle they had duly tested, and proceeded to recover
+possession of a priceless treasure, a magic dragon ship named Ellida,
+which AEgir, god of the sea, had once given to Viking in reward for
+hospitable treatment, and which had been stolen from him.
+
+
+    "A royal gift to behold, for the swelling planks of its framework
+    Were not fastened with nails, as is wont, but grown in together.
+    Its shape was that of a dragon when swimming, but forward
+    Its head rose proudly on high, the throat with yellow gold flaming;
+    Its belly was spotted with red and yellow, but back by the rudder
+    Coiled out its mighty tail in circles, all scaly with silver;
+    Black wings with edges of red; when all were expanded
+    Ellida raced with the whistling storm, but outstript the eagle.
+    When filled to the edge with warriors, it sailed o'er the waters,
+    You'd deem it a floating fortress, or warlike abode of a monarch.
+    The ship was famed far and wide, and of ships was first in
+    the North."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (Spalding's tr.).
+
+
+The next season, Thorsten, Bele, and Angantyr conquered the Orkney
+Islands, which were given as a kingdom to the latter, he voluntarily
+pledging himself to pay a yearly tribute to Bele. Next Thorsten and
+Bele went in quest of a magic ring, or armlet, once forged by Voelund,
+the smith, and stolen by Sote, a famous pirate.
+
+This bold robber was so afraid lest some one should gain possession of
+the magic ring, that he had buried himself alive with it in a mound
+in Bretland. Here his ghost was said to keep constant watch over it,
+and when Thorsten entered his tomb, Bele, who waited outside, heard
+the sound of frightful blows given and returned, and saw lurid gleams
+of supernatural fire.
+
+When Thorsten finally staggered out of the mound, pale and bloody,
+but triumphant, he refused to speak of the horrors he had encountered
+to win the coveted treasure, but often would he say, as he showed it,
+"I trembled but once in my life, and 'twas when I seized it!"
+
+
+
+Birth of Frithiof and Ingeborg
+
+Thus owner of the three greatest treasures of the North, Thorsten
+returned home to Framnaes, where Ingeborg bore him a fine boy, Frithiof,
+while two sons, Halfdan and Helge, were born to Bele. The lads played
+together, and were already well grown when Ingeborg, Bele's little
+daughter, was born, and some time later the child was entrusted to
+the care of Hilding, who was already Frithiof's foster father, as
+Thorsten's frequent absences made it difficult for him to undertake
+the training of his boy.
+
+
+    "Jocund they grew, in guileless glee;
+    Young Frithiof was the sapling tree;
+    In budding beauty by his side,
+    Sweet Ingeborg, the garden's pride."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+Frithiof soon became hardy and fearless under his foster father's
+training, and Ingeborg rapidly developed the sweetest traits of
+character and loveliness. Both were happiest when together; and as
+they grew older their childish affection daily became deeper and more
+intense, until Hilding, perceiving this state of affairs, bade the
+youth remember that he was a subject of the king, and therefore no
+mate for his only daughter.
+
+
+    "To Odin, in his star-lit sky,
+    Ascends her titled ancestry;
+    But Thorsten's son art thou; give way!
+    For 'like thrives best with like,' they say."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+Frithiof's Love for Ingeborg
+
+These wise admonitions came too late, however, and Frithiof vehemently
+declared that he would win the fair Ingeborg for his bride in spite
+of all obstacles and his more humble origin.
+
+Shortly after this Bele and Thorsten met for the last time, near the
+magnificent shrine of Balder, where the king, feeling that his end was
+near, had convened a solemn assembly, or Thing, of all his principal
+subjects, in order to present his sons Helge and Halfdan to the people
+as his chosen successors. The young heirs were very coldly received
+on this occasion, for Helge was of a sombre and taciturn disposition,
+and inclined to the life of a priest, and Halfdan was of a weak,
+effeminate nature, and noted for his love of pleasure rather than of
+war and the chase. Frithiof, who was present, and stood beside them,
+was the object of many admiring glances from the throng.
+
+
+    "But close behind them Frithiof goes,
+      Wrapp'd in his mantle blue;
+    His height a whole head taller rose
+      Than that of both the two.
+
+    He stands between the brothers there--
+      As though the ripe day stood
+    Atween young morning rosy-fair,
+      And night within the wood."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+After giving his last instructions and counsel to his sons, and
+speaking kindly to Frithiof, for whom he entertained a warm regard,
+the old king turned to his lifelong companion, Thorsten, to take
+leave of him, but the old warrior declared that they would not long
+be parted. Bele then spoke again to his sons, and bade them erect his
+howe, or funeral mound, within sight of that of Thorsten, that their
+spirits might commune over the waters of the narrow firth which would
+flow between them, that so they might not be sundered even in death.
+
+
+
+Helge and Halfdan
+
+These instructions were piously carried out when, shortly after, the
+aged companions breathed their last; and the great barrows having been
+erected, the brothers, Helge and Halfdan, began to rule their kingdom,
+while Frithiof, their former playmate, withdrew to his own place at
+Framnaes, a fertile homestead, lying in a snug valley enclosed by the
+towering mountains and the waters of the ever-changing firth.
+
+
+    "Three miles extended around the fields of the homestead; on
+    three sides
+    Valleys and mountains and hills, but on the fourth side was
+    the ocean.
+    Birch-woods crowned the summits, but over the down-sloping
+    hill-sides
+    Flourished the golden corn, and man-high was waving the rye-field."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+But although surrounded by faithful retainers, and blessed with much
+wealth and the possession of the famous treasures of his hero sire,
+the sword Angurvadel, the Voelund ring, and the matchless dragon
+ship Ellida, Frithiof was unhappy, because he could no longer see
+the fair Ingeborg daily. All his former spirits revived, however,
+when in the spring, at his invitation, both kings came to visit him,
+together with their fair sister, and once again they spent long
+hours in cheerful companionship. As they were thus constantly thrown
+together, Frithiof found opportunity to make known to Ingeborg his
+deep affection, and he received in return an avowal of her love.
+
+
+    "He sat by her side, and he pressed her soft hand,
+    And he felt a soft pressure responsive and bland;
+    Whilst his love-beaming gaze
+    Was returned as the sun's in the moon's placid rays."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+
+Frithiof's Suit
+
+When the visit was ended and the guests had departed, Frithiof informed
+his confidant and chief companion, Bjoern, of his determination to
+follow them and openly ask for Ingeborg's hand. His ship was set free
+from its moorings and it swooped like an eagle over to the shore near
+Balder's shrine, where the royal brothers were seated in state on
+Bele's tomb to listen to the petitions of their subjects. Straightway
+Frithiof presented himself before them, and manfully made his request,
+adding that the old king had always loved him and would surely have
+granted his prayer.
+
+
+    "No king was my sire, not a jarl, ev'n--'tis true;
+    Yet Scald-songs his mem'ry and exploits renew;
+    The Rune-stones will tell
+    On high-vaulted cairn what my race hath done well.
+
+    "With ease could I win me both empire and land;--
+    But rather I stay on my forefathers' strand;
+    While arms I can wield--
+    Both poverty's hut and king's palace I'll shield.
+
+    "On Bele's round barrow we stand; each word
+    In the dark deeps beneath us he hears and has heard;
+    With Frithiof pleadeth
+    The old Chief in his cairn: think! your answer thought needeth."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Then he went on to promise lifelong fealty and the service of his
+strong right arm in exchange for the boon he craved.
+
+As Frithiof ceased King Helge rose, and regarding the young man
+scornfully, he said: "Our sister is not for a peasant's son; proud
+chiefs of the Northland may dispute for her hand, but not thou. As
+for thy arrogant proffer, know that I can protect my kingdom. Yet if
+thou wouldst be my man, place in my household mayst thou have."
+
+Enraged at the insult thus publicly offered, Frithiof drew his
+invincible sword; but, remembering that he stood on a consecrated spot,
+he struck only at the royal shield, which fell in two pieces clashing
+to the ground. Then striding back to his ship in sullen silence,
+he embarked and sailed away.
+
+
+                "And lo! cloven in twain at a stroke
+    Fell King Helge's gold shield from its pillar of oak:
+    At the clang of the blow,
+    The live started above, the dead started below."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+
+Sigurd Ring a Suitor
+
+After his departure came messengers from Sigurd Ring, the aged King
+of Ringric, in Norway, who, having lost his wife, sent to Helge and
+Halfdan to ask Ingeborg's hand in marriage. Before returning answer
+to this royal suitor, Helge consulted the Vala, or prophetess, and
+the priests, who all declared that the omens were not in favour of the
+marriage. Upon this Helge assembled his people to hear the word which
+the messengers were to carry to their master, but unfortunately King
+Halfdan gave way to his waggish humour, and made scoffing reference
+to the advanced age of the royal suitor. These impolitic words
+were reported to King Ring, and so offended him that he immediately
+collected an army and prepared to march against the Kings of Sogn to
+avenge the insult with his sword. When the rumour of his approach
+reached the cowardly brothers they were terrified, and fearing to
+encounter the foe unaided, they sent Hilding to Frithiof to implore
+his help.
+
+Hilding found Frithiof playing chess with Bjoern, and immediately made
+known his errand.
+
+
+                "'From Bele's high heirs
+    I come with courteous words and prayers
+    Disastrous tidings rouse the brave;
+    On thee a nation's hope relies.
+     
+    In Balder's fane, griefs loveliest prey,
+    Sweet Ing'borg weeps the livelong day:
+    Say, can her tears unheeded fall,
+    Nor call her champion to her side?'"
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+While the old man was speaking Frithiof continued to play, ever and
+anon interjecting an enigmatical reference to the game, until at this
+point he said:
+
+
+    "Bjoern; thou in vain my queen pursuest,
+    She from childhood dearest, truest!
+      She's my game's most darling piece, and
+        Come what will--I'll save my queen!"
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Hilding did not understand such mode of answering, and at length
+rebuked Frithiof for his indifference. Then Frithiof rose, and
+pressing kindly the old man's hand, he bade him tell the kings that
+he was too deeply offended to listen to their appeal.
+
+Helge and Halfdan, thus forced to fight without their bravest leader,
+preferred to make a treaty with Sigurd Ring, and they agreed to give
+him not only their sister Ingeborg, but also a yearly tribute.
+
+
+
+At Balder's Shrine
+
+While they were thus engaged at Sogn Sound, Frithiof hastened to
+Balder's temple, to which Ingeborg had been sent for security, and
+where, as Hilding had declared, he found her a prey to grief. Now
+although it was considered a sacrilege for man and woman to exchange a
+word in the sacred building, Frithiof could not forbear to console her;
+and, forgetting all else, he spoke to her and comforted her, quieting
+all her apprehensions of the gods' anger by assuring her that Balder,
+the good, must view their innocent passion with approving eyes, for
+love so pure as theirs could defile no sanctuary; and they ended by
+plighting their troth before the shrine of Balder.
+
+
+    "'Thou whisp'rest "Balder,"--His wrath fearest;--
+      That gentle god all anger flies.
+    We worship here a Lover, dearest!
+      Our hearts' love is his sacrifice;
+    That god whose brow beams sunshine-splendour,
+      Whose faith lasts through eternity,--
+    Was not his love to beauteous Nanna
+      As pure, as warm, as mine to thee?
+
+    "'His image see!--himself broods o'er it--
+      How mild, how kind, his bright eyes move!
+    An off'ring bear I here before it,
+      A warm heart full of purest love.
+Come, kneel with me! no altar incense
+      To Balder's soul more grateful is
+    Than two hearts, vowing in his presence
+      A mutual faith as true as his!'"
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Reassured by this reasoning, which received added strength from the
+voice which spoke loudly from her own heart, Ingeborg could not refuse
+to see and converse with Frithiof. During the kings' absence the
+young lovers met every day, and they exchanged love-tokens, Frithiof
+giving to Ingeborg Voelund's arm-ring, which she solemnly promised to
+send back to her lover should she be compelled to break her promise
+to live for him alone. Frithiof lingered at Framnaes until the kings'
+return, when, yielding to the fond entreaties of Ingeborg the Fair,
+he again appeared before them, and pledged himself to free them from
+their thraldom to Sigurd Ring if they would only reconsider their
+decision and promise him their sister's hand.
+
+
+                            "'War stands and strikes
+    His glitt'ring shield within thy boundaries;
+    Thy realm, King Helge, is in jeopardy:
+    But give thy sister, and I'll lend mine arm
+    Thy guard in battle. It may stead thee well.
+    Come! let this grudge between us be forgotten,
+    Unwilling bear I such 'gainst Ing'borg's brother.
+    Be counsell'd, King! be just! and save at once
+    Thy golden crown and thy fair sister's heart!
+    Here is my hand: by Asa-Thor I swear
+    Never again 'tis stretch'd in reconcilement!'"
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+Frithiof Banished
+
+But although this offer was received with acclamation by the assembled
+warriors, Helge scornfully demanded of Frithiof whether he had spoken
+with Ingeborg and so defiled the temple of Balder.
+
+A shout of "Say nay, Frithiof! say nay!" broke from the ring
+of warriors, but he proudly answered: "I would not lie to gain
+Valhalla. I have spoken to thy sister, Helge, yet have I not broken
+Balder's peace."
+
+A murmur of horror passed through the ranks at this avowal, and when
+the harsh voice of Helge was raised in judgment, none was there to
+gainsay the justice of the sentence.
+
+This apparently was not a harsh one, but Helge well knew that it
+meant death, and he so intended it.
+
+Far westward lay the Orkney Islands, ruled by Jarl Angantyr, whose
+yearly tribute to Bele was withheld now that the old king lay in
+his cairn. Hard-fisted he was said to be, and heavy of hand, and to
+Frithiof was given the task of demanding the tribute face to face.
+
+Before he sailed upon the judgment-quest, however, he once more sought
+Ingeborg, and implored her to elope with him to a home in the sunny
+South, where her happiness should be his law, and where she should
+rule over his subjects as his honoured wife. But Ingeborg sorrowfully
+refused to accompany him, saying that, since her father was no more,
+she was in duty bound to obey her brothers implicitly, and could not
+marry without their consent.
+
+The fiery spirit of Frithiof was at first impatient under this
+disappointment of his hopes, but in the end his noble nature conquered,
+and after a heartrending parting scene, he embarked upon Ellida, and
+sorrowfully sailed out of the harbour, while Ingeborg, through a mist
+of tears, watched the sail as it faded and disappeared in the distance.
+
+The vessel was barely out of sight when Helge sent for two witches
+named Heid and Ham, bidding them by incantations to stir up a tempest
+at sea in which it would be impossible for even the god-given vessel
+Ellida to live, that so all on board should perish. The witches
+immediately complied; and with Helge's aid they soon stirred up a
+storm the fury of which is unparalleled in history.
+
+
+        "Helge on the strand
+        Chants his wizard-spell,
+        Potent to command
+        Fiends of earth or hell.
+    Gathering darkness shrouds the sky;
+    Hark, the thunder's distant roll!
+    Lurid lightnings, as they fly,
+    Streak with blood the sable pole.
+    Ocean, boiling to its base,
+    Scatters wide its wave of foam;
+    Screaming, as in fleetest chase,
+    Sea-birds seek their island home."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+    "Then the storm unfetter'd wingeth
+      Wild his course; in Ocean's foam
+    Now he dips him, now up-swingeth,
+      Whirling toward the God's own home:
+    Rides each Horror-spirit, warning,
+      High upon the topmost wave--
+    Up from out the white, vast, yawning,
+      Bottomless, unfathom'd grave."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+The Tempest
+
+Unfrighted by tossing waves and whistling blasts, Frithiof sang a
+cheery song to reassure his terrified crew; but when the peril grew
+so great that his exhausted followers gave themselves up for lost, he
+bethought him of tribute to the goddess Ran, who ever requires gold of
+them who would rest in peace under the ocean wave. Taking his armlet,
+he hewed it with his sword and made fair division among his men.
+
+
+    "Who goes empty-handed
+    Down to sea-blue Ran?
+    Cold her kisses strike, and
+    Fleeting her embrace is."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+He then bade Bjoern hold the rudder, and himself climbed to the mast-top
+to view the horizon. While perched there he descried a whale, upon
+which the two witches were riding the storm. Speaking to his good
+ship, which was gifted with power of understanding and could obey
+his commands, he now ran down both whale and witches, and the sea was
+reddened with their blood. At the same instant the wind fell, the waves
+ceased to threaten, and fair weather soon smiled again upon the seas.
+
+Exhausted by their previous superhuman efforts and by the labour
+of baling their water-logged vessel, the men were too weak to land
+when they at last reached the Orkney Islands, and had to be carried
+ashore by Bjoern and Frithiof, who gently laid them down on the sand,
+bidding them rest and refresh themselves after all the hardships they
+had endured.
+
+
+    "Yet more wearied than their Dragon
+      Totter Frithiof's gallant men;
+    Though each leans upon his weapon,
+      Scarcely upright stand they then.
+    Bjoern, on pow'rful shoulder, dareth
+      Four to carry to the land;
+    Frithiof, all alone, eight beareth,--
+      Sets them so round the upblaz'd brand.
+
+        'Nay! ye white-fac'd, shame not!
+        Waves are mighty Vikings;
+        Hard's the unequal struggle--
+        Ocean's maids our foes.
+        See! there comes the mead-horn,
+        Wand'ring on bright gold-foot;
+        Shipmates! cold limbs warm,--and
+        Here's to Ingeborg!'"
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephen's tr.).
+
+
+The arrival of Frithiof and his men, and their mode of landing, had
+been noted by the watchman of Angantyr, who immediately informed his
+master of all he had seen. The jarl exclaimed that the ship which had
+weathered such a gale could be none but Ellida, and that its captain
+was doubtless Frithiof, Thorsten's gallant son. At these words one
+of his Berserkers, Atle, caught up his weapons and strode from the
+hall, vowing that he would challenge Frithiof, and thus satisfy
+himself concerning the veracity of the tales he had heard of the
+young hero's courage.
+
+
+
+Atle's Challenge
+
+Although still greatly exhausted, Frithiof immediately accepted
+Atle's challenge, and, after a sharp encounter with swords,
+in which Angurvadel was triumphant, the two champions grappled in
+deadly embrace. Widely is that wrestling-match renowned in the North,
+and well matched were the heroes, but in the end Frithiof threw his
+antagonist, whom he would have slain then and there had his sword been
+within reach. Atle saw his intention, and bade him go in search of the
+weapon, promising to remain motionless during his absence. Frithiof,
+knowing that such a warrior's promise was inviolable, immediately
+obeyed; but when he returned with his sword, and found his antagonist
+calmly awaiting death, he relented, and bade Atle rise and live.
+
+
+    "Then storm they, nothing yielded,
+      Two autumn-billows like!
+    And oft, with steel round shielded,
+      Their jarring breasts fierce strike.
+
+    "All like two bears they wrestle,
+      On hills of snow; and draw
+    And strain, each like an eagle
+      On the angry sea at war.
+    The root-fast rock resisted
+      Full hardly them between
+    And green iron oaks down-twisted
+      With lesser pulls have been.
+
+    "From each broad brow sweat rushes;
+      Their bosoms coldly heave;
+    And stones and mounds and bushes
+      Dints hundred-fold receive."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Together the appeased warriors now wended their way to Angantyr's hall,
+which Frithiof found to be far different from the rude dwellings of
+his native land. The walls were covered with leather richly decorated
+with gilt designs. The chimney-piece was of marble, and glass panes
+were in the window-frames. A soft light was diffused from many candles
+burning in silver branches, and the tables groaned under the most
+luxurious fare.
+
+High in a silver chair sat the jarl, clad in a coat of golden
+mail, over which was flung a rich mantle bordered with ermine,
+but when Frithiof entered he strode from his seat with cordial hand
+outstretched. "Full many a horn have I emptied with my old friend
+Thorsten," said he, "and his brave son is equally welcome at my board."
+
+Nothing loth, Frithiof seated himself beside his host, and after he
+had eaten and drunk he recounted his adventures upon land and sea.
+
+At last, however, Frithiof made known his errand, whereupon Angantyr
+said that he owed no tribute to Helge, and would pay him none; but
+that he would give the required sum as a free gift to his old friend's
+son, leaving him at liberty to dispose of it as he pleased. Meantime,
+since the season was unpropitious for the return journey, and storms
+continually swept the sea, the king invited Frithiof to tarry with
+him over the winter; and it was only when the gentle spring breezes
+were blowing once more that he at last allowed him to depart.
+
+
+
+Frithiof's Home-coming
+
+Taking leave of his kind host, Frithiof set sail, and wafted by
+favourable winds, the hero, after six days, came in sight of Framnaes,
+and found that his home had been reduced to a shapeless heap of ashes
+by Helge's orders. Sadly Frithiof strode over the ravaged site of his
+childhood's home, and as he viewed the desolate scene his heart burned
+within him. The ruins were not entirely deserted, however, and suddenly
+Frithiof felt the cold nozzle of his hound thrust into his hand. A
+few moments later his favourite steed bounded to his master's side,
+and the faithful creatures were well-nigh frantic with delight. Then
+came Hilding to greet him with the information that Ingeborg was
+now the wife of Sigurd Ring. When Frithiof heard this he flew into a
+Berserker rage, and bade his men scuttle the vessels in the harbour,
+while he strode to the temple in search of Helge.
+
+The king stood crowned amid a circle of priests, some of whom
+brandished flaming pine-knots, while all grasped a sacrificial flint
+knife. Suddenly there was a clatter of arms and in burst Frithiof, his
+brow dark as autumn storms. Helge's face went pale as he confronted the
+angry hero, for he knew what his coming presaged. "Take thy tribute,
+King," said Frithiof, and with the words, he took the purse from his
+girdle and flung it in Helge's face with such force that blood gushed
+from his mouth and he fell swooning at Balder's feet.
+
+The silver-bearded priests advanced to the scene of violence, but
+Frithiof motioned them back, and his looks were so threatening that
+they durst not disobey.
+
+Then his eye fell upon the arm-ring which he had given to Ingeborg
+and which Helge had placed upon the arm of Balder, and striding up
+to the wooden image he said: "Pardon, great Balder, not for thee
+was the ring wrested from Voelund's tomb!" Then he seized the ring,
+but strongly as he tugged it would not come apart. At last he put
+forth all his strength, and with a sudden jerk he recovered the ring,
+and at the same time the image of the god fell prone across the altar
+fire. The next moment it was enveloped in flames, and before aught
+could be done the whole temple was wreathed in fire and smoke.
+
+
+    "All, all's lost! From half-burned hall
+      Th' fire-red cock up-swingeth!--
+    Sits on the roof, and, with shrilly call
+      Flutt'ring, his free course wingeth."
+
+            Tegner's Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Frithiof, horror-stricken at the sacrilege which he had involuntarily
+occasioned, vainly tried to extinguish the flames and save the costly
+sanctuary, but finding his efforts unavailing he escaped to his ship
+and resolved upon the weary life of an outcast and exile.
+
+
+    "Thou may'st not rest thee,
+    Thou still must haste thee,
+    Ellida!--out
+    Th' wide world about.
+    Yes! rock on! roaming
+    Mid froth salt-foaming
+    My Dragon good!
+
+    "Thou billow bold
+    Befriend me!--Never
+    I'll from thee sever!--
+    My father's Mound
+    Dull stands, fast-bound,
+    And self-same surges
+    Chaunt changeless dirges;
+    But blue shall mine
+    Through foam-flow'rs shine,
+    'Mid tempests swimming,
+    And storms thick dimming,
+    And draw yet mo
+    Down, down, below.--
+    My Life-Home given,
+    Thou shalt, far-driven!
+    My Barrow be--
+    Thou free broad Sea!"
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+Frithiof an Exile
+
+Helge started in pursuit with ten great dragon-ships, but these had
+barely got under way when they began to sink, and Bjoern said with a
+laugh, "What Ran enfolds I trust she will keep." Even King Helge was
+with difficulty got ashore, and the survivors were forced to stand in
+helpless inactivity while Ellida's great sails slowly sank beneath the
+horizon. It was thus that Frithiof sadly saw his native land vanish
+from sight; and as it disappeared he breathed a tender farewell to
+the beloved country which he never expected to see again.
+
+After thus parting from his native land, Frithiof roved the sea as a
+pirate, or viking. His code was never to settle anywhere, to sleep on
+his shield, to fight and neither give nor take quarter, to protect
+the ships which paid him tribute and to plunder the others, and to
+distribute all the booty to his men, reserving for himself nothing
+but the glory of the enterprise. Sailing and fighting thus, Frithiof
+visited many lands, and came at last to the sunny isles of Greece,
+whither he would fain have carried Ingeborg as his bride; and the
+sights called up such a flood of sad memories that he was well-nigh
+overwhelmed with longing for his beloved and for his native land.
+
+
+
+At the Court of Sigurd Ring
+
+Three years had passed away and Frithiof determined to return
+northward and visit Sigurd Ring's court. When he announced his
+purpose to Bjoern, his faithful companion reproached him for his
+rashness in thinking to journey alone, but Frithiof would not be
+turned from his purpose, saying: "I am never alone while Angurvadel
+hangs at my side." Steering Ellida up the Vik (the main part of the
+Christiania Fiord), he entrusted her to Bjoern's care, and, enveloped in
+a bear-hide, which he wore as a disguise, he set out on foot alone for
+the court of Sigurd Ring, arriving there as the Yuletide festivities
+were in progress. As if nothing more than an aged beggar, Frithiof sat
+down upon the bench near the door, where he quickly became the butt
+of the courtiers' rough jokes. When one of his tormentors, however,
+approached too closely, the seeming beggar caught him in a powerful
+grasp and swung him high above his head.
+
+Terrified by this exhibition of superhuman strength, the courtiers
+quickly withdrew from the dangerous vicinity, while Sigurd Ring,
+whose attention was attracted by the commotion, sternly bade the
+stranger-guest approach and tell who thus dared to break the peace
+in his royal hall.
+
+Frithiof answered evasively that he was fostered in penitence, that
+he inherited want, and that he came from the wolf; as to his name,
+this did not matter. The king, as was the courteous custom, did not
+press him further, but invited him to take a seat beside him and the
+queen, and to share his good cheer. "But first," said he, "let fall
+the clumsy covering which veils, if I mistake not, a proper form."
+
+Frithiof gladly accepted the invitation thus cordially given, and when
+the hairy hide fell from off his head and shoulders, he stood disclosed
+in the pride of youth, much to the surprise of the assembled warriors.
+
+But although his appearance marked him as of no common race,
+none of the courtiers recognised him. It was different, however,
+with Ingeborg. Had any curious eye been upon her at that moment
+her changing colour and the quick heaving of her breast would have
+revealed her deep emotion.
+
+
+    "The astonish'd queen's pale cheeks, how fast-changing rose-tints
+    dye!--
+    So purple Northlights, quiv'ring, on snow-hid meadows lie;
+    Like two white water-lilies on storm-wave wild that rest,
+    Each moment rising, falling,--so heaves her trembling breast!"
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Frithiof had barely taken his seat at the board when with flourish of
+trumpets a great boar was brought in and placed before the king. In
+accordance with the Yule-tide custom of those days the old monarch
+rose, and touching the head of the animal, he uttered a vow that with
+the help of Frey, Odin, and Thor, he would conquer the bold champion
+Frithiof. The next moment Frithiof, too, was upon his feet, and dashing
+his sword upon the great wooden bench he declared that Frithiof was
+his kinsman and he also would vow that though all the world withstood,
+no harm should reach the hero while he had power to wield his sword.
+
+At this unexpected interruption the warriors had risen quickly
+from the oaken benches, but Sigurd Ring smiled indulgently at the
+young man's vehemence and said: "Friend, thy words are overbold,
+but never yet was guest restrained from uttering his thoughts in
+this kingly hall." Then he turned to Ingeborg and bade her fill to
+the brim with her choicest mead a huge horn, richly decorated, which
+stood in front of her, and present it to the guest. The queen obeyed
+with downcast eyes, and the trembling of her hand caused the liquid
+to overflow. Two ordinary men could hardly have drained the mighty
+draught, but Frithiof raised it to his lips, and when he removed the
+horn not one drop of the mead remained.
+
+Ere the banquet was ended Sigurd Ring invited the youthful stranger
+to remain at his court until the return of spring, and accepting the
+proffered hospitality, Frithiof became the constant companion of the
+royal couple, whom he accompanied upon all occasions.
+
+One day Sigurd Ring set out to a banquet with Ingeborg. They travelled
+in a sleigh, while Frithiof, with steel-shod feet, sped gracefully
+by their side, cutting many mystic characters in the ice. Their way
+lay over a dangerous portion of the frozen surface, and Frithiof
+warned the king that it would be prudent to avoid this. He would
+not listen to the counsel, however, and suddenly the sleigh sank
+in a deep fissure, which threatened to engulph it with the king and
+queen. But like falcon descending upon its quarry, Frithiof was at
+their side in a moment, and without apparent effort he dragged the
+steed and its burden on to the firm ice. "In good sooth," said Ring,
+"Frithiof himself could not have done better."
+
+The long winter came to an end, and in the early spring the king and
+queen arranged a hunting-party in which all the court were to take
+part. During the progress of the chase the advancing years of Sigurd
+Ring made it impossible for him to keep up with the eager hunt, and
+thus it happened that he dropped behind, until at length he was left
+with Frithiof as his sole companion. They rode slowly together until
+they reached a pleasant dell which invited the weary king to repose,
+and he declared that he would lie down for a season to rest.
+
+
+    "Then threw Frithiof down his mantle, and upon the greensward
+    spread,
+    And the ancient king so trustful laid on Frithiof's knee his head;
+    Slept, as calmly as the hero sleepeth after war's alarms
+    On his shield, calm as an infant sleepeth in its mother's arms."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow's tr.).
+
+
+
+Frithiof's Loyalty
+
+While the aged king was thus reposing, a bird sang to Frithiof from a
+tree near by, bidding him take advantage of his host's powerlessness
+to slay him, and recover the bride of whom he had been unfairly
+deprived. But although Frithiof's hot young heart clamoured for his
+beloved, he utterly refused to entertain the dastardly suggestion,
+but, fearing lest he should be overcome by temptation, despite his
+horror at the thought, he impulsively flung his sword far from him
+into a neighbouring thicket.
+
+A few moments later Sigurd Ring opened his eyes, and informed Frithiof
+that he had only feigned sleep; he told him also that having recognised
+him from the first, he had tested him in many ways, and had found
+his honour equal to his courage. Old age had now overtaken him and
+he felt that death was drawing nigh. In but a short time, therefore,
+Frithiof might hope to realise his dearest hope, and Sigurd Ring told
+him that he would die happy if he would stay by him until the end.
+
+A revulsion of feeling had, however, overtaken Frithiof, and he told
+the aged king that he felt that Ingeborg could never be his, because
+of the wrath of Balder. Too long had he stayed; he would now go once
+more upon the sea and would seek death in the fray, that so he might
+appease the offended gods.
+
+Full of his resolve, he quickly made preparations to depart, but when
+he returned to the court to bid farewell to his royal hosts he found
+that Sigurd Ring was at the point of death. The old warrior bethought
+him that "a straw death" would not win the favour of Odin, and in
+the presence of Frithiof and his court he slashed bravely the death
+runes on his arm and breast. Then clasping Ingeborg with one hand,
+he raised the other in blessing over Frithiof and his youthful son,
+and so passed in peace to the halls of the blessed.
+
+
+            "Gods all, I hail ye!
+                Sons of Valhalla!
+    Earth disappears; to the Asa's high feast
+            Gjallar-horn bids me;
+                Blessedness, like a
+    Gold-helmet, circles their up-coming guest!"
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+Betrothal of Frithiof and Ingeborg
+
+The warriors of the nation now assembled in solemn Thing to choose a
+successor to the throne. Frithiof had won the people's enthusiastic
+admiration, and they would fain have elected him king; but he raised
+Sigurd Ring's little son high on his shield when he heard the shout
+which acclaimed his name, and presented the boy to the assembly as
+their future king, publicly swearing to uphold him until he was of
+age to defend the realm. The lad, weary of his cramped position,
+boldly sprang to the ground as soon as Frithiof's speech was ended,
+and alighted upon his feet. This act of agile daring in one so young
+appealed to the rude Northmen, and a loud shout arose, "We choose thee,
+shield-borne child!"
+
+
+    "But thron'd king-like, the lad sat proud
+        On shield-floor high;
+    So the eaglet glad, from rock-hung cloud,
+        The Sun will eye!
+
+    At length this place his young blood found
+        Too dull to keep;
+    And, with one spring, he gains the ground--
+        A royal leap!"
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+According to some accounts, Frithiof now made war against Ingeborg's
+brothers, and after conquering them, allowed them to retain their
+kingdom on condition that they paid him a yearly tribute. Then he and
+Ingeborg remained in Ringric until the young king was able to assume
+the government, when they repaired to Hordaland, a kingdom Frithiof
+had obtained by conquest, and which he left to his sons Gungthiof
+and Hunthiof.
+
+Bishop Tegner's conclusion, however, differs very considerably,
+and if it appears less true to the rude temper of the rugged days
+of the sea-rovers, its superior spiritual qualities make it more
+attractive. According to Tegner's poem, Frithiof was urged by the
+people of Sigurd Ring to espouse Ingeborg and remain amongst them as
+guardian of the realm. But he answered that this might not be, since
+the wrath of Balder still burned against him, and none else could
+bestow his cherished bride. He told the people that he would fare over
+the seas and seek forgiveness of the god, and soon after, his farewells
+were spoken, and once more his vessel was speeding before the wind.
+
+Frithiof's first visit was paid to his father's burial mound, where,
+plunged in melancholy at the desolation around, he poured out his soul
+to the outraged god. He reminded him that it was the custom of the
+Northmen to exact blood-fines for kinsmen slain, and surely the blessed
+gods would not be less forgiving than the earth-born. Passionately
+he adjured Balder to show him how he could make reparation for his
+unpremeditated fault, and suddenly, an answer was vouchsafed, and
+Frithiof beheld in the clouds a vision of a new temple.
+
+
+    "Then sudden, o'er the western waters pendent,
+    An Image comes, with gold and flames resplendent,
+    O'er Balder's grove it hovers, night's clouds under,
+    Like gold crown resting on a bed of green.
+    At last to a temple settling, firm 'tis grounded--
+    Where Balder stood, another temple's founded."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+The hero immediately understood that the gods had thus indicated a
+means of atonement, and he grudged neither wealth nor pains until a
+glorious temple and grove, which far exceeded the splendour of the
+old shrine, rose out of the ruins.
+
+
+            "Finish'd great Balder's Temple stood!
+                Round it no palisade of wood
+                    Ran now as erst;
+            A railing stronger, fairer than the first,
+            And all of hammer'd iron--each bar
+                Gold-tipp'd and regular--
+    Walls Balder's sacred House. Like some long line
+    Of steel-clad champions, whose bright war-spears shine
+                And golden helms afar--so stood
+            This glitt'ring guard within the holy wood!
+
+    "Of granite blocks enormous, join'd with curious care
+    And daring art, the massy pile was built; and there
+                (A giant-work intended
+            To last till time was ended,)
+    It rose like Upsal's temple, where the north
+    Saw Valhall's halls fair imag'd here on earth.
+
+    "Proud stood it there on mountain-steep, its lofty brow
+    Reflected calmly on the sea's bright-flowing wave.
+    But round about, some girdle like of beauteous flow'rs,
+    Went Balder's Dale, with all its groves' soft-murmur'd sighs,
+    And all its birds' sweet-twitter'd songs,--the Home of Peace."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+Meantime, while the timbers were being hewed, King Helge was absent
+upon a foray amongst the Finnish mountains. One day it chanced that his
+band passed by a crag where stood the lonely shrine of some forgotten
+god, and King Helge scaled the rocky summit with intent to raze the
+ruined walls. The lock held fast, and, as Helge tugged fiercely at
+the mouldered gate, suddenly a sculptured image of the deity, rudely
+summoned from his ancient sleep, started from his niche above.
+
+Heavily he fell upon the head of the intruder, and Helge stretched
+his length upon the rocky floor, nor stirred again.
+
+When the temple was duly consecrated to Balder's service, Frithiof
+stood by the altar to await the coming of his expected bride. But
+Halfdan first crossed the threshold, his faltering gait showing
+plainly that he feared an unfriendly reception. Seeing this,
+Frithiof unbuckled his sword and strode frankly to Halfdan with hand
+outstretched, whereupon the king, blushing deeply, grasped heartily
+the proffered hand, and from that moment all their differences were
+forgotten. The next moment Ingeborg approached and the renewed amity
+of the long-sundered friends was ratified with the hand of the bride,
+which Halfdan placed in that of his new brother.
+
+
+    "Over the copper threshold Halfdan now,
+            With pallid brow
+      And fearful fitful glance, advanceth slow
+    Tow'rds yonder tow'ring ever-dreaded foe--
+        And, silent, at a distance stands,--
+        Then Frithiof, with quick hands,
+      The corslet-hater, Angurvadel, from his thigh
+    Unbuckleth, and his bright shield's golden round
+      Leaning 'gainst the altar, thus draws nigh;--
+
+                While his cow'd enemy
+          He thus accosts, with pleasant dignity.--
+          'Most noble in this strife will he be found
+            Who first his right hand good
+        Offers in pledge of peaceful brotherhood!'--
+      Then Halfdan, deeply blushing, doffs with haste
+    His iron-gauntlet and,--with hearty grasp embrac'd,--
+          Each long, long, sever'd hand
+      Its friend-foe hails, steadfast as mountain-bases stand!
+
+                    "And as th' last deep accents
+        Of reconcilement and of blessing sounded;
+        Lo! Ing'borg sudden enters, rich adorn'd
+        With bridal ornaments, and all enrob'd
+        In gorgeous ermine, and by bright-ey'd maidens
+        Slow-follow'd, as on heav'n's broad canopy,
+        Attending star-trains guard the regent-moon!--
+            But the young bride's fair eyes,
+                    Those two blue skies,
+                    Fill quick with tears,
+        And to her brother's heart she trembling sinketh;--
+            He, with his sister's fears
+      Deep-mov'd, her hand all tenderly in Frithiof's linketh,
+        His burden soft transferring to that hero's breast,
+            Its long-tried faith fit place for Ing'borg's rest."
+
+            Tegner, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens's tr.).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII: THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS
+
+
+The Decline of the Gods
+
+One of the distinctive features of Northern mythology is that the
+people always believed that their gods belonged to a finite race. The
+AEsir had had a beginning; therefore, it was reasoned, they must have
+an end; and as they were born from a mixture of the divine and giant
+elements, being thus imperfect, they bore within them the germ of
+death, and were, like men, doomed to suffer physical death in order
+to attain spiritual immortality.
+
+The whole scheme of Northern mythology was therefore a drama, every
+step leading gradually to the climax or tragic end, when, with true
+poetic justice, punishment and reward were impartially meted out. In
+the foregoing chapters, the gradual rise and decline of the gods have
+been carefully traced. We have recounted how the AEsir tolerated the
+presence of evil, personated by Loki, in their midst; how they weakly
+followed his advice, allowed him to involve them in all manner of
+difficulties from which they could be extricated only at the price
+of part of their virtue or peace, and finally permitted him to gain
+such ascendency over them that he did not scruple to rob them of
+their dearest possession, purity, or innocence, as personified by
+Balder the good.
+
+Too late the gods realised how evil was this spirit that had found
+a home among them, and too late they banished Loki to earth, where
+men, following the gods' example, listened to his teachings, and were
+corrupted by his sinister influence.
+
+
+    "Brothers slay brothers;
+    Sisters' children
+    Shed each other's blood.
+    Hard is the world;
+    Sensual sin grows huge.
+    There are sword-ages, axe-ages;
+    Shields are cleft in twain;
+    Storm-ages, murder-ages;
+    Till the world falls dead,
+    And men no longer spare
+    Or pity one another."
+
+            Norse Mythology (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+The Fimbul-winter
+
+Seeing that crime was rampant, and all good banished from the earth,
+the gods realised that the prophecies uttered of old were about to be
+fulfilled, and that the shadow of Ragnarok, the twilight or dusk of the
+gods, was already upon them. Sol and Mani grew pale with affright, and
+drove their chariots tremblingly along their appointed paths, looking
+back with fear at the pursuing wolves which would shortly overtake and
+devour them; and as their smiles disappeared the earth grew sad and
+cold, and the terrible Fimbul-winter began. Then snow fell from the
+four points of the compass at once, the biting winds swept down from
+the north, and all the earth was covered with a thick layer of ice.
+
+
+    "Grim Fimbul raged, and o'er the world
+    Tempestuous winds and snowstorms hurled;
+    The roaring ocean icebergs ground,
+    And flung its frozen foam around,
+    E'en to the top of mountain height;
+        No warming air
+        Nor radiance fair
+    Of gentle Summer's soft'ning light,
+    Tempered this dreadful glacial night."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+This severe winter lasted during three whole seasons without a break,
+and was followed by three others, equally severe, during which all
+cheer departed from the earth, and the crimes of men increased with
+fearful rapidity, whilst, in the general struggle for life, the last
+feelings of humanity and compassion disappeared.
+
+
+
+The Wolves Let Loose
+
+In the dim recesses of the Ironwood the giantess Iarnsaxa or Angur-boda
+diligently fed the wolves Hati, Skoell, and Managarm, the progeny of
+Fenris, with the marrow of murderers' and adulterers' bones; and
+such was the prevalence of these vile crimes, that the well-nigh
+insatiable monsters were never stinted for food. They daily gained
+strength to pursue Sol and Mani, and finally overtook and devoured
+them, deluging the earth with blood from their dripping jaws.
+
+
+    "In the east she was seated, that aged woman, in Jarnrid,
+    And there she nourished the posterity of Fenrir;
+    He will be the most formidable of all, he
+    Who, under the form of a monster, will swallow up the moon."
+
+            Voluspa (Pfeiffer's tr.).
+
+
+At this terrible calamity the whole earth trembled and shook, the
+stars, affrighted, fell from their places, and Loki, Fenris, and Garm,
+renewing their efforts, rent their chains asunder and rushed forth to
+take their revenge. At the same moment the dragon Nidhug gnawed through
+the root of the ash Yggdrasil, which quivered to its topmost bough;
+the red cock Fialar, perched above Valhalla, loudly crowed an alarm,
+which was immediately echoed by Gullin-kambi, the rooster in Midgard,
+and by Hel's dark-red bird in Nifl-heim.
+
+
+                "The gold-combed cock
+    The gods in Valhal loudly crowed to arms;
+    The blood-red cock as shrilly summons all
+    On earth and down beneath it."
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+Heimdall Gives the Alarm
+
+Heimdall, noting these ominous portents and hearing the cock's
+shrill cry, immediately put the Giallar-horn to his lips and blew the
+long-expected blast, which was heard throughout the world. At the first
+sound of this rally AEsir and Einheriar sprang from their golden couches
+and sallied bravely out of the great hall, armed for the coming fray,
+and, mounting their impatient steeds, they galloped over the quivering
+rainbow bridge to the spacious field of Vigrid, where, as Vafthrudnir
+had predicted long before, the last battle was to take place.
+
+
+
+The Terrors of the Sea
+
+The terrible Midgard snake Ioermungandr had been aroused by the general
+disturbance, and with immense writhings and commotion, whereby the
+seas were lashed into huge waves such as had never before disturbed
+the deeps of ocean, he crawled out upon the land, and hastened to
+join the dread fray, in which he was to play a prominent part.
+
+
+    "In giant wrath the Serpent tossed
+    In ocean depths, till, free from chain,
+    He rose upon the foaming main;
+    Beneath the lashings of his tail,
+    Seas, mountain high, swelled on the land;
+    Then, darting mad the waves acrost,
+    Pouring forth bloody froth like hail,
+    Spurting with poisoned, venomed breath
+    Foul, deadly mists o'er all the Earth,
+    Thro' thundering surge, he sought the strand."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+One of the great waves, stirred up by Ioermungandr's struggles, set
+afloat Nagilfar, the fatal ship, which was constructed entirely out
+of the nails of those dead folks whose relatives had failed, through
+the ages, in their duty, having neglected to pare the nails of the
+deceased, ere they were laid to rest. No sooner was this vessel
+afloat, than Loki boarded it with the fiery host from Muspells-heim,
+and steered it boldly over the stormy waters to the place of conflict.
+
+This was not the only vessel bound for Vigrid, however, for out of a
+thick fog bank towards the north came another ship, steered by Hrym,
+in which were all the frost giants, armed to the teeth and eager for
+a conflict with the AEsir, whom they had always hated.
+
+
+
+The Terrors of the Underworld
+
+At the same time, Hel, the goddess of death, crept through a crevice
+in the earth out of her underground home, closely followed by the
+Hel-hound Garm, the malefactors of her cheerless realm, and the dragon
+Nidhug, which flew over the battlefield bearing corpses upon his wings.
+
+As soon as he landed, Loki welcomed these reinforcements with joy,
+and placing himself at their head he marched with them to the fight.
+
+Suddenly the skies were rent asunder, and through the fiery breach
+rode Surtr with his flaming sword, followed by his sons; and as
+they rode over the bridge Bifroest, with intent to storm Asgard,
+the glorious arch sank with a crash beneath their horses' tread.
+
+
+    "Down thro' the fields of air,
+    With glittering armour fair,
+    In battle order bright,
+    They sped while seething flame
+    From rapid hoofstrokes came.
+    Leading his gleaming band, rode Surtur,
+    'Mid the red ranks of raging fire."
+
+            Valhalla (J. C. Jones).
+
+
+The gods knew full well that their end was now near, and that their
+weakness and lack of foresight placed them under great disadvantages;
+for Odin had but one eye, Tyr but one hand, and Frey nothing but a
+stag's horn wherewith to defend himself, instead of his invincible
+sword. Nevertheless, the AEsir did not show any signs of despair, but,
+like true battle-gods of the North, they donned their richest attire,
+and gaily rode to the battlefield, determined to sell their lives as
+dearly as possible.
+
+While they were mustering their forces, Odin once more rode down to
+the Urdar fountain, where, under the toppling Yggdrasil, the Norns
+sat with veiled faces and obstinately silent, their web lying torn at
+their feet. Once more the father of the gods whispered a mysterious
+communication to Mimir, after which he remounted Sleipnir and rejoined
+the waiting host.
+
+
+
+The Great Battle
+
+The combatants were now assembled on Vigrid's broad plain. On one side
+were ranged the stern, calm faces of the AEsir, Vanas, and Einheriar;
+while on the other were gathered the motley host of Surtr, the grim
+frost giants, the pale army of Hel, and Loki and his dread followers,
+Garm, Fenris, and Ioermungandr, the two latter belching forth fire and
+smoke, and exhaling clouds of noxious, deathly vapours, which filled
+all heaven and earth with their poisonous breath.
+
+
+                    "The years roll on,
+    The generations pass, the ages grow,
+    And bring us nearer to the final day
+    When from the south shall march the fiery band
+    And cross the bridge of heaven, with Lok for guide,
+    And Fenris at his heel with broken chain;
+    While from the east the giant Rymer steers
+    His ship, and the great serpent makes to land;
+    And all are marshall'd in one flaming square
+    Against the Gods, upon the plains of Heaven."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+All the pent-up antagonism of ages was now let loose in a torrent
+of hate, each member of the opposing hosts fighting with grim
+determination, as did our ancestors of old, hand to hand and face to
+face. With a mighty shock, heard above the roar of battle which filled
+the universe, Odin and the Fenris wolf came into impetuous contact,
+while Thor attacked the Midgard snake, and Tyr came to grips with
+the dog Garm. Frey closed with Surtr, Heimdall with Loki, whom he
+had defeated once before, and the remainder of the gods and all the
+Einheriar engaged foes equally worthy of their courage. But, in spite
+of their daily preparation in the heavenly city, Valhalla's host was
+doomed to succumb, and Odin was amongst the first of the shining
+ones to be slain. Not even the high courage and mighty attributes
+of Allfather could withstand the tide of evil as personified in the
+Fenris wolf. At each succeeding moment of the struggle its colossal
+size assumed greater proportions, until finally its wide-open jaws
+embraced all the space between heaven and earth, and the foul monster
+rushed furiously upon the father of gods and engulphed him bodily
+within its horrid maw.
+
+
+    "Fenrir shall with impious tooth
+    Slay the sire of rolling years:
+    Vithar shall avenge his fall,
+    And, struggling with the shaggy wolf,
+    Shall cleave his cold and gory jaws."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+None of the gods could lend Allfather a helping hand at that critical
+moment, for it was a time of sore trial to all. Frey put forth heroic
+efforts, but Surtr's flashing sword now dealt him a death-stroke. In
+his struggle with the arch-enemy, Loki, Heimdall fared better, but his
+final conquest was dearly bought, for he, too, fell dead. The struggle
+between Tyr and Garm had the same tragic end, and Thor, after a most
+terrible encounter with the Midgard snake, and after slaying him with
+a stroke from Mioelnir, staggered back nine paces, and was drowned in
+the flood of venom which poured from the dying monster's jaws.
+
+
+    "Odin's son goes
+    With the monster to fight;
+    Midgard's Veor in his rage
+    Will slay the worm;
+    Nine feet will go
+    Fioergyn's son,
+    Bowed by the serpent
+    Who feared no foe."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+Vidar now came rushing from a distant part of the plain to avenge the
+death of his mighty sire, and the doom foretold fell upon Fenris, whose
+lower jaw now felt the impress of that shoe which had been reserved
+for this day. At the same moment Vidar seized the monster's upper
+jaw with his hands, and with one terrible wrench tore him asunder.
+
+
+
+The Devouring Fire
+
+The other gods who took part in the fray, and all the Einheriar having
+now perished, Surtr suddenly flung his fiery brands over heaven, earth,
+and the nine kingdoms of Hel. The raging flames enveloped the massive
+stem of the world ash Yggdrasil, and reached the golden palaces of
+the gods, which were utterly consumed. The vegetation upon earth was
+likewise destroyed, and the fervent heat made all the waters seethe
+and boil.
+
+
+    "Fire's breath assails
+    The all-nourishing tree,
+    Towering fire plays
+    Against heaven itself."
+
+            Saemund's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).
+
+
+The great conflagration raged fiercely until everything was consumed,
+when the earth, blackened and scarred, slowly sank beneath the boiling
+waves of the sea. Ragnarok had indeed come; the world tragedy was
+over, the divine actors were slain, and chaos seemed to have resumed
+its former sway. But as in a play, after the principals are slain and
+the curtain has fallen, the audience still looks for the favourites
+to appear and make their bow, so the ancient Northern races fancied
+that, all evil having perished in Surtr's flames, from the general
+ruin goodness would rise, to resume its sway over the earth, and that
+some of the gods would return to dwell in heaven for ever.
+
+
+                        "All evil
+    Dies there an endless death, while goodness riseth
+    From that great world-fire, purified at last,
+    To a life far higher, better, nobler than the past.
+
+            Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).
+
+
+
+Regeneration
+
+Our ancestors believed fully in regeneration, and held that after a
+certain space of time the earth, purged by fire and purified by its
+immersion in the sea, rose again in all its pristine beauty and was
+illumined by the sun, whose chariot was driven by a daughter of Sol,
+born before the wolf had devoured her mother. The new orb of day
+was not imperfect, as the first sun had been, and its rays were no
+longer so ardent that a shield had to be placed between it and the
+earth. These more beneficent rays soon caused the earth to renew its
+green mantle, and to bring forth flowers and fruit in abundance. Two
+human beings, a woman, Lif, and a man, Lifthrasir, now emerged from the
+depths of Hodmimir's (Mimir's) forest, whence they had fled for refuge
+when Surtr set fire to the world. They had sunk into peaceful slumber
+there, unconscious of the destruction around them, and had remained,
+nurtured by the morning dew, until it was safe for them to wander
+out once more, when they took possession of the regenerated earth,
+which their descendants were to people and over which they were to
+have full sway.
+
+
+                "We shall see emerge
+    From the bright Ocean at our feet an earth
+    More fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits
+    Self-springing, and a seed of man preserved,
+    Who then shall live in peace, as then in war."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+
+
+A New Heaven
+
+All the gods who represented the developing forces of Nature were
+slain on the fatal field of Vigrid, but Vali and Vidar, the types of
+the imperishable forces of Nature, returned to the field of Ida, where
+they were met by Modi and Magni, Thor's sons, the personifications
+of strength and energy, who rescued their father's sacred hammer from
+the general destruction, and carried it thither with them.
+
+
+    "Vithar's then and Vali's force
+    Heirs the empty realm of gods;
+    Mothi's thew and Magni's might
+    Sways the massy mallet's weight,
+    Won from Thor, when Thor must fall."
+
+            Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).
+
+
+Here they were joined by Hoenir, no longer an exile among the Vanas,
+who, as developing forces, had also vanished for ever; and out of
+the dark underworld where he had languished so long rose the radiant
+Balder, together with his brother Hodur, with whom he was reconciled,
+and with whom he was to live in perfect amity and peace. The past
+had gone for ever, and the surviving deities could recall it without
+bitterness. The memory of their former companions was, however, dear
+to them, and full often did they return to their old haunts to linger
+over the happy associations. It was thus that walking one day in the
+long grass on Idavold, they found again the golden disks with which
+the AEsir had been wont to sport.
+
+
+    "We shall tread once more that well-known plain
+    Of Ida, and among the grass shall find
+    The golden dice with which we play'd of yore;
+    And that will bring to mind the former life
+    And pastime of the Gods, the wise discourse
+    Of Odin, the delights of other days."
+
+            Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).
+
+When the small band of gods turned mournfully towards the place
+where their lordly dwellings once stood, they became aware, to their
+joyful surprise, that Gimli, the highest heavenly abode, had not
+been consumed, for it rose glittering before them, its golden roof
+outshining the sun. Hastening thither they discovered, to the great
+increase of their joy, that it had become the place of refuge for
+all the virtuous.
+
+
+    "In Gimli the lofty
+    There shall the hosts
+    Of the virtuous dwell,
+    And through all ages
+    Taste of deep gladness."
+
+            Literature and Romance of Northern Europe (Howitt).
+
+
+
+One too Mighty to Name
+
+As the Norsemen who settled in Iceland, and through whom the
+most complete exposition of the Odinic faith has come down to us
+in the Eddas and Sagas, were not definitely converted until the
+eleventh century,--although they had come in contact with Christians
+during their viking raids nearly six centuries before,--it is very
+probable that the Northern scalds gleaned some idea of the Christian
+doctrines, and that this knowledge influenced them to a certain
+extent, and coloured their descriptions of the end of the world and
+the regeneration of the earth. It was perhaps this vague knowledge,
+also, which induced them to add to the Edda a verse, which is generally
+supposed to have been an interpolation, proclaiming that another God,
+too mighty to name, would arise to bear rule over Gimli. From his
+heavenly seat he would judge mankind, and separate the bad from the
+good. The former would be banished to the horrors of Nastrond, while
+the good would be transported to the blissful halls of Gimli the fair.
+
+
+    "Then comes another,
+    Yet more mighty.
+    But Him I dare not
+    Venture to name.
+    Few farther may look
+    Than to where Odin
+    To meet the wolf goes."
+
+            Literature and Romance of Northern Europe (Howitt).
+
+There were two other heavenly mansions, however, one reserved for
+the dwarfs and the other for the giants; for as these creatures
+had no free will, and but blindly executed the decrees of fate,
+they were not thought to be responsible for any harm done by them,
+and were therefore held to be undeserving of punishment.
+
+The dwarfs, ruled by Sindri, were said to occupy a hall in the Nida
+mountains, where they drank the sparkling mead, while the giants took
+their pleasure in the hall Brimer, situated in the region Okolnur
+(not cool), for the power of cold was entirely annihilated, and there
+was no more ice.
+
+Various mythologists have, of course, attempted to explain these myths,
+and some, as we have already stated, see in the story of Ragnarok the
+influence of Christian teachings, and esteem it only a barbaric version
+of the end of the world and the coming judgment day, when a new heaven
+and earth shall arise, and all the good shall enjoy eternal bliss.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX: GREEK AND NORTHERN MYTHOLOGIES
+
+
+Comparative Mythology
+
+During the past fifty years learned men of many nations have
+investigated philology and comparative mythology so thoroughly that
+they have ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt "that English,
+together with all the Teutonic dialects of the Continent, belongs to
+that large family of speech which comprises, besides the Teutonic,
+Latin, Greek, Slavonic, and Celtic, the Oriental languages of India
+and Persia." "It has also been proved that the various tribes who
+started from the central home to discover Europe in the north,
+and India in the south, carried away with them, not only a common
+language, but a common faith and a common mythology. These are facts
+which may be ignored but cannot be disputed, and the two sciences
+of comparative grammar and comparative mythology, though but of
+recent origin, rest on a foundation as sound and safe as that of
+any of the inductive sciences." "For more than a thousand years the
+Scandinavian inhabitants of Norway have been separated in language
+from their Teutonic brethren on the Continent, and yet both have not
+only preserved the same stock of popular stories, but they tell them,
+in several instances, in almost the same words."
+
+This resemblance, so strong in the early literature of nations
+inhabiting countries which present much the same physical aspect and
+have nearly the same climate, is not so marked when we compare the
+Northern myths with those of the genial South. Still, notwithstanding
+the contrast between Northern and Southern Europe, where these myths
+gradually ripened and attained their full growth, there is an analogy
+between the two mythologies which shows that the seeds from whence
+both sprang were originally the same.
+
+In the foregoing chapters the Northern system of mythology has been
+outlined as clearly as possible, and the physical significance of
+the myths has been explained. Now we shall endeavour to set forth the
+resemblance of Northern mythology to that of the other Aryan nations,
+by comparing it with the Greek, which, however, it does not resemble
+as closely as it does the Oriental.
+
+It is, of course, impossible in a work of this character to do more
+than mention the main points of resemblance in the stories forming the
+basis of these religions; but that will be sufficient to demonstrate,
+even to the most sceptical, that they must have been identical at a
+period too remote to indicate now with any certainty.
+
+
+
+The Beginning of Things
+
+The Northern nations, like the Greeks, imagined that the world
+rose out of chaos; and while the latter described it as a vapoury,
+formless mass, the former, influenced by their immediate surroundings,
+depicted it as a chaos of fire and ice--a combination which is only
+too comprehensible to any one who has visited Iceland and seen the
+wild, peculiar contrast between its volcanic soil, spouting geysers,
+and the great icebergs which hedge it round during the long, dark
+winter season.
+
+From these opposing elements, fire and ice, were born the first
+divinities, who, like the first gods of the Greeks, were gigantic in
+stature and uncouth in appearance. Ymir, the huge ice giant, and his
+descendants, are comparable to the Titans, who were also elemental
+forces of Nature, personifications of subterranean fire; and both,
+having held full sway for a time, were obliged to yield to greater
+perfection. After a fierce struggle for supremacy, they all found
+themselves defeated and banished to the respective remote regions of
+Tartarus and Joetun-heim.
+
+The triad, Odin, Vili, and Ve, of the Northern myth is the exact
+counterpart of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, who, superior to the
+Titan forces, rule supreme over the world in their turn. In the Greek
+mythology, the gods, who are also all related to one another, betake
+themselves to Olympus, where they build golden palaces for their use;
+and in the Northern mythology the divine conquerors repair to Asgard,
+and there construct similar dwellings.
+
+
+
+Cosmogony
+
+Northern cosmogony was not unlike the Greek, for the people imagined
+that the earth, Mana-heim, was entirely surrounded by the sea, at
+the bottom of which lay coiled the huge Midgard snake, biting its
+own tail; and it was perfectly natural that, viewing the storm-lashed
+waves which beat against their shores, they should imagine these to
+be caused by his convulsive writhing. The Greeks, who also fancied
+the earth was round and compassed by a mighty river called Oceanus,
+described it as flowing with "a steady, equable current," for they
+generally gazed out upon calm and sunlit seas. Nifl-heim, the Northern
+region of perpetual cold and mist, had its exact counterpart in the
+land north of the Hyperboreans, where feathers (snow) continually
+hovered in the air, and where Hercules drove the Ceryneian stag into
+a snowdrift ere he could seize and bind it fast.
+
+
+
+The Phenomena of the Sky
+
+Like the Greeks, the Northern races believed that the earth was
+created first, and that the vaulted heavens were made afterwards to
+overshadow it entirely. They also imagined that the sun and moon were
+daily driven across the sky in chariots drawn by fiery steeds. Sol,
+the sun maiden, therefore corresponded to Helios, Hyperion, Phoebus,
+or Apollo, while Mani, the Moon (owing to a peculiarity of Northern
+grammar, which makes the sun feminine and the moon masculine), was
+the exact counterpart of Phoebe, Diana, or Cynthia.
+
+The Northern scalds, who thought that they descried the prancing
+forms of white-maned steeds in the flying clouds, and the glitter
+of spears in the flashing light of the aurora borealis, said that
+the Valkyrs, or battle maidens, galloped across the sky, while the
+Greeks saw in the same natural phenomena the white flocks of Apollo
+guarded by Phaetusa and Lampetia.
+
+As the dew fell from the clouds, the Northern poets declared that
+it dropped from the manes of the Valkyrs' steeds, while the Greeks,
+who observed that it generally sparkled longest in the thickets,
+identified it with Daphne and Procris, whose names are derived from
+the Sanskrit word which means "to sprinkle," and who are slain by
+their lovers, Apollo and Cephalus, personifications of the sun.
+
+The earth was considered in the North as well as in the South as
+a female divinity, the fostering mother of all things; and it was
+owing to climatic difference only that the mythology of the North,
+where people were daily obliged to conquer the right to live by a
+hand-to-hand struggle with Nature, should represent her as hard and
+frozen like Rinda, while the Greeks embodied her in the genial goddess
+Ceres. The Greeks believed that the cold winter winds swept down from
+the North, and the Northern races, in addition, added that they were
+produced by the winnowing of the wings of the great eagle Hrae-svelgr.
+
+The dwarfs, or dark elves, bred in Ymir's flesh, were like Pluto's
+servants in that they never left their underground realm, where they,
+too, sought the precious metals, which they moulded into delicate
+ornaments such as Vulcan bestowed upon the gods, and into weapons
+which no one could either dint or mar. As for the light elves, who
+lived above ground and cared for plants, trees, and streams, they were
+evidently the Northern equivalents to the nymphs, dryads, oreades,
+and hamadryads, which peopled the woods, valleys, and fountains of
+ancient Greece.
+
+
+
+Jupiter and Odin
+
+Jupiter, like Odin, was the father of the gods, the god of victory,
+and a personification of the universe. Hlidskialf, Allfather's lofty
+throne, was no less exalted than Olympus or Ida, whence the Thunderer
+could observe all that was taking place; and Odin's invincible spear
+Gungnir was as terror-inspiring as the thunderbolts brandished by his
+Greek prototype. The Northern deities feasted continually upon mead
+and boar's flesh, the drink and meat most suitable to the inhabitants
+of a Northern climate, while the gods of Olympus preferred the nectar
+and ambrosia which formed their only sustenance.
+
+Twelve AEsir sat in Odin's council hall to deliberate over the wisest
+measures for the government of the world and men, and an equal number
+of gods assembled on the cloudy peak of Mount Olympus for a similar
+purpose. The Golden Age in Greece was a period of idyllic happiness,
+amid ever-flowering groves and under balmy skies, while the Northern
+age of bliss was also a time when peace and innocence flourished on
+the earth, and when evil was as yet entirely unknown.
+
+
+
+The Creation of Man
+
+Using the materials near at hand, the Greeks modelled their first
+images out of clay; hence they naturally imagined that Prometheus had
+made man out of that substance when called upon to fashion a creature
+inferior to the gods only. As the Northern statues were hewn out
+of wood, the Northern races inferred, as a matter of course, that
+Odin, Vili, and Ve (who here correspond to Prometheus, Epimetheus,
+and Minerva, the three Greek creators of man) made the first human
+couple, Ask and Embla, out of blocks of wood.
+
+The goat Heidrun, which supplied the heavenly mead, is like Amalthea,
+Jupiter's first nurse, and the busy, tell-tale Ratatosk is equivalent
+to the snow-white crow in the story of Coronis, which was turned black
+in punishment for its tattling. Jupiter's eagle has its counterpart
+in the ravens Hugin and Munin, or in the wolves Geri and Freki,
+which are ever crouching at Odin's feet.
+
+
+
+Norns and Fates
+
+The close resemblance between the Northern Orlog and the Greek Destiny,
+goddesses whose decrees the gods themselves were obliged to respect,
+and the equally powerful Norns and Moerae, is too obvious to need
+pointing out, while the Vanas are counterparts of Neptune and the
+other ocean divinities. The great quarrel between the Vanas and the
+AEsir is merely another version of the dispute between Jupiter and
+Neptune for the supremacy of the world. Just as Jupiter forces his
+brother to yield to his authority, so the AEsir remain masters of all,
+but do not refuse to continue to share their power with their conquered
+foes, who thus become their allies and friends.
+
+Like Jupiter, Odin is always described as majestic and middle-aged,
+and both gods are regarded as the divine progenitors of royal
+races, for while the Heraclidae claimed Jupiter as their father, the
+Inglings, Skioldings, etc., held that Odin was the founder of their
+families. The most solemn oaths were sworn by Odin's spear as well as
+by Jupiter's footstool, and both gods rejoice in a multitude of names,
+all descriptive of the various phases of their nature and worship.
+
+Odin, like Jupiter, frequently visited the earth in disguise, to
+judge of the hospitable intentions of mankind, as in the story of
+Geirrod and Agnar, which resembles that of Philemon and Baucis. The
+aim was to encourage hospitality; therefore, in both stories, those
+who showed themselves humanely inclined are richly rewarded, and in
+the Northern myth the lesson is enforced by the punishment inflicted
+upon Geirrod, as the scalds believed in poetic justice and saw that
+it was carefully meted out.
+
+The contest of wit between Odin and Vafthrudnir has its parallel in
+the musical rivalry of Apollo and Marsyas, or in the test of skill
+between Minerva and Arachne. Odin further resembled Apollo in that
+he, too, was god of eloquence and poetry, and could win all hearts
+by means of his divine voice; he was like Mercury in that he taught
+mortals the use of runes, while the Greek god introduced the alphabet.
+
+
+
+Myths of the Seasons
+
+The disappearance of Odin, the sun or summer, and the consequent
+desolation of Frigga, the earth, is merely a different version of
+the myths of Proserpine and Adonis. When Proserpine and Adonis have
+gone, the earth (Ceres or Venus) bitterly mourns their absence, and
+refuses all consolation. It is only when they return from their exile
+that she casts off her mourning garments and gloom, and again decks
+herself in all her jewels. So Frigga and Freya bewail the absence of
+their husbands Odin and Odur, and remain hard and cold until their
+return. Odin's wife, Saga, the goddess of history, who lingered by
+Sokvabek, "the stream of time and events," taking note of all she saw,
+is like Clio, the muse of history, whom Apollo sought by the inspiring
+fount of Helicon.
+
+Just as, according to Euhemerus, there was an historical Zeus,
+buried in Crete, where his grave can still be seen, so there was an
+historical Odin, whose mound rises near Upsala, where the greatest
+Northern temple once stood, and where there was a mighty oak which
+rivalled the famous tree of Dodona.
+
+
+
+Frigga and Juno
+
+Frigga, like Juno, was a personification of the atmosphere, the
+patroness of marriage, of connubial and motherly love, and the goddess
+of childbirth. She, too, is represented as a beautiful, stately
+woman, rejoicing in her adornments; and her special attendant, Gna,
+rivals Iris in the rapidity with which she executes her mistress's
+behests. Juno has full control over the clouds, which she can brush
+away with a motion of her hand, and Frigga is supposed to weave them
+out of the thread she has spun on her jewelled spinning wheel.
+
+In Greek mythology we find many examples of the way in which Juno
+seeks to outwit Jupiter. Similar tales are not lacking in the Northern
+myths. Juno obtains possession of Io, in spite of her husband's
+reluctance to part with her, and Frigga artfully secures the victory
+for the Winilers in the Langobarden Saga. Odin's wrath at Frigga's
+theft of the gold from his statue is equivalent to Jupiter's marital
+displeasure at Juno's jealousy and interference during the war of
+Troy. In the story of Gefjon, and the clever way in which she procured
+land from Gylfi to form her kingdom of Seeland, we have a reproduction
+of the story of Dido, who obtained by stratagem the land upon which she
+founded her city of Carthage. In both accounts oxen come into play,
+for while in the Northern myth these sturdy beasts draw the piece
+of land far out to sea, in the other an ox hide, cut into strips,
+serves to enclose the queen's grant.
+
+
+
+Musical Myths
+
+The Pied Piper of Hamelin, who could attract all living creatures
+by his music, is like Orpheus or Amphion, whose lyres had the same
+power; and Odin, as leader of the dead, is the counterpart of Mercury
+Psychopompus, both being personifications of the wind, on whose wings
+disembodied souls were thought to be wafted from this mortal sphere.
+
+The trusty Eckhardt, who would fain save Tannhaeuser and prevent his
+returning to expose himself to the enchantments of the sorceress,
+in the Hoerselberg, is like the Greek Mentor, who not only accompanied
+Telemachus, but gave him good advice and wise instructions, and would
+have rescued Ulysses from the hands of Calypso.
+
+
+
+Thor and the Greek Gods
+
+Thor, the Northern thunder-god, also has many points of resemblance
+with Jupiter. He bears the hammer Mioelnir, the Northern emblem of the
+deadly thunderbolt, and, like Jupiter, uses it freely when warring
+against the giants. In his rapid growth Thor resembles Mercury, for
+while the former playfully tosses about several loads of ox hides a
+few hours after his birth, the latter steals Apollo's oxen before he
+is one day old. In physical strength Thor resembles Hercules, who also
+gave early proofs of uncommon vigour by strangling the serpents sent
+to slay him in his cradle, and who delighted, later on, in attacking
+and conquering giants and monsters. Hercules became a woman and took
+to spinning to please Omphale, the Lydian queen, and Thor assumed a
+woman's apparel to visit Thrym and recover his hammer, which had been
+buried nine rasts underground. The hammer, his principal attribute,
+was used for many sacred purposes. It consecrated the funeral pyre
+and the marriage rite, and boundary stakes driven in by a hammer were
+considered as sacred among Northern nations as the Hermae or statues
+of Mercury, removal of which was punishable by death.
+
+Thor's wife, Sif, with her luxuriant golden hair, is, as we have
+already stated, an emblem of the earth, and her hair of its rich
+vegetation. Loki's theft of these tresses is equivalent to Pluto's rape
+of Proserpine. To recover the golden locks, Loki must visit the dwarfs
+(Pluto's servants), crouching in the low passages of the underground
+world; so Mercury must seek Proserpine in Hades.
+
+The gadfly which hinders Jupiter from recovering possession of
+Io, after Mercury has slain Argus, reappears in the Northern myth
+to sting Brock and to endeavour to prevent the manufacture of the
+magic ring Draupnir, which is merely a counterpart of Sif's tresses,
+as it also represents the fruits of the earth. The fly continues to
+torment the dwarf during the manufacture of Frey's golden-bristled
+boar, a prototype of Apollo's golden sun chariot, and it prevents
+the perfect formation of the handle of Thor's hammer.
+
+The magic ship Skidbladnir, also made by the dwarfs, is like the
+swift-sailing Argo, which was a personification of the clouds sailing
+overhead; and just as the former was said to be large enough to
+accommodate all the gods, so the latter bore all the Greek heroes
+off to the distant land of Colchis.
+
+The Germans, wishing to name the days of the week after their gods,
+as the Romans had done, gave the name of Thor to Jove's day, and thus
+made it the present Thursday.
+
+Thor's struggle against Hrungnir is a parallel to the fight between
+Hercules and Cacus or Antaeus; while Groa is evidently Ceres, for she,
+too, mourns for her absent child Orvandil (Proserpine), and breaks
+out into a song of joy when she hears that it will return.
+
+Magni, Thor's son, who when only three hours old exhibits his
+marvellous strength by lifting Hrungnir's leg off his recumbent father,
+also reminds us of the infant Hercules; and Thor's voracious appetite
+at Thrym's wedding feast has its parallel in Mercury's first meal,
+which consisted of two whole oxen.
+
+The crossing of the swollen tide of Veimer by Thor reminds us of
+Jason's feat when he waded across the torrent on his way to visit
+the tyrant Pelias and recover possession of his father's throne.
+
+The marvellous necklace worn by Frigga and Freya to enhance their
+charms is like the cestus or girdle of Venus, which Juno borrowed to
+subjugate her lord, and is, like Sif's tresses and the ring Draupnir,
+an emblem of luxuriant vegetation or a type of the stars which shine
+in the firmament.
+
+The Northern sword-god Tyr is, of course, the Greek war-god Ares,
+whom he so closely resembles that his name was given to the day of
+the week held sacred to Ares, which is even now known as Tuesday or
+Tiu's day. Like Ares, Tyr was noisy and courageous; he delighted in
+the din of battle, and was fearless at all times. He alone dared to
+brave the Fenris wolf; and the Southern proverb concerning Scylla and
+Charybdis has its counterpart in the Northern adage, "to get loose
+out of Laeding and to dash out of Droma." The Fenris wolf, also a
+personification of subterranean fire, is bound, like his prototypes
+the Titans, in Tartarus.
+
+The similarity between the gentle, music-loving Bragi, with his harp,
+and Apollo or Orpheus, is very great; so is the resemblance between
+the magic draught Od-hroerir and the waters of Helicon, both of which
+were supposed to serve as inspiration to mortal as well as to immortal
+poets. Odin dons eagle plumes to bear away this precious mead, and
+Jupiter assumes a similar guise to secure his cupbearer Ganymede.
+
+Idun, like Adonis and Proserpine, or still more like Eurydice, is also
+a fair personification of spring. She is borne away by the cruel ice
+giant Thiassi, who represents the boar which slew Adonis, the kidnapper
+of Proserpine, or the poisonous serpent which bit Eurydice. Idun is
+detained for a long time in Joetun-heim (Hades), where she forgets all
+her merry, playful ways, and becomes mournful and pale. She cannot
+return alone to Asgard, and it is only when Loki (now an emblem of
+the south wind) comes to bear her away in the shape of a nut or a
+swallow that she can effect her escape. She reminds us of Proserpine
+and Adonis escorted back to earth by Mercury (god of the wind), or
+of Eurydice lured out of Hades by the sweet sounds of Orpheus's harp,
+which were also symbolical of the soughing of the winds.
+
+
+
+Idun and Eurydice
+
+The myth of Idun's fall from Yggdrasil into the darkest depths of
+Nifl-heim, while subject to the same explanation and comparison as the
+above story, is still more closely related to the tale of Orpheus and
+Eurydice, for the former, like Bragi, cannot exist without the latter,
+whom he follows even into the dark realm of death; without her his
+songs are entirely silenced. The wolf-skin in which Idun is enveloped
+is typical of the heavy snows in Northern regions, which preserve the
+tender roots from the blighting influence of the extreme winter cold.
+
+
+
+Skadi and Diana
+
+The Van Nioerd, who is god of the sunny summer seas, has his counterpart
+in Neptune and more especially in Nereus, the personification of the
+calm and pleasant aspect of the mighty deep. Nioerd's wife, Skadi,
+is the Northern huntress; she therefore resembles Diana. Like her,
+she bears a quiver full of arrows, and a bow which she handles with
+consummate skill. Her short gown permits the utmost freedom of motion,
+also, and she, too, is generally accompanied by a hound.
+
+The story of the transference of Thiassi's eyes to the firmament,
+where they glow like brilliant stars, reminds us of many Greek star
+myths, and especially of Argus's eyes ever on the watch, of Orion and
+his jewelled girdle, and of his dog Sirius, all changed into stars
+by the gods to appease angry goddesses. Loki's antics to win a smile
+from the irate Skadi are considered akin to the quivering flashes of
+sheet-lightning which he personified in the North, while Steropes,
+the Cyclops, typified it for the Greeks.
+
+
+
+Frey and Apollo
+
+The Northern god of sunshine and summer showers, the genial Frey,
+has many traits in common with Apollo, for, like him, he is beautiful
+and young, rides the golden-bristled boar which was the Northern
+conception of the sunbeams, or drives across the sky in a golden car,
+which reminds us of Apollo's glittering chariot.
+
+Frey has some of the gentle Zephyrus's characteristics besides, for
+he, too, scatters flowers along his way. His horse Blodug-hofi is
+not unlike Pegasus, Apollo's favourite steed, for it can pass through
+fire and water with equal ease and velocity.
+
+Fro, like Odin and Jupiter, is also identified with a human king, and
+his mound lies beside Odin's near Upsala. His reign was so happy that
+it was called the Golden Age, and he therefore reminds us of Saturn,
+who, exiled to earth, ruled over the people of Italy, and granted
+them similar prosperity.
+
+
+
+Freya and Venus
+
+Gerda, the beautiful maiden, is like Venus, and also like Atalanta;
+she is hard to woo and hard to win, like the fleet-footed maiden,
+but, like her, she yields at last and becomes a happy wife. The golden
+apples with which Skirnir tries to bribe her remind us of the golden
+fruit which Hippomenes cast in Atalanta's way, and which made her
+lose the race.
+
+Freya, the goddess of youth, love, and beauty, like Venus, sprang from
+the sea, for she is a daughter of the sea-god Nioerd. Venus bestowed
+her best affections upon the god of war and upon the martial Anchises,
+while Freya often assumes the garb of a Valkyr, and rides rapidly
+to earth to take part in mortal strife and bear away the heroic
+slain to feast in her halls. Like Venus, she delights in offerings
+of fruits and flowers, and lends a gracious ear to the petitions
+of lovers. Freya also resembles Minerva, for, like her, she wears
+a helmet and breastplate, and, like her, also, she is noted for her
+beautiful blue eyes.
+
+
+
+Odur and Adonis
+
+Odur, Freya's husband, is like Adonis, and when he leaves her,
+she, too, sheds countless tears, which, in her case, are turned
+to gold, while Venus's tears are changed into anemones, and those
+of the Heliades, mourning for Phaeton, harden to amber, which
+resembles gold in colour and in consistency. Just as Venus rejoices
+at Adonis's return, and all Nature blooms in sympathy with her joy,
+so Freya becomes lighthearted once more when she has found her husband
+beneath the flowering myrtles of the South. Venus's car is drawn by
+fluttering doves, and Freya's is swiftly carried along by cats, which
+are emblems of sensual love, as the doves were considered types of
+tenderest love. Freya is appreciative of beauty and angrily refuses
+to marry Thrym, while Venus scorns and finally deserts Vulcan, whom
+she has been forced to marry against her will.
+
+The Greeks represented Justice as a goddess blindfolded, with scales
+in one hand and a sword in the other, to indicate the impartiality and
+the fixity of her decrees. The corresponding deity of the North was
+Forseti, who patiently listened to both sides of a question ere he,
+too, promulgated his impartial and irrevocable sentence.
+
+Uller, the winter-god, resembles Apollo and Orion only in his love for
+the chase, which he pursues with ardour under all circumstances. He
+is the Northern bowman, and his skill is quite as unerring as theirs.
+
+Heimdall, like Argus, was gifted with marvellous keenness of sight,
+which enabled him to see a hundred miles off as plainly by night as
+by day. His Giallar-horn, which could be heard throughout all the
+world, proclaiming the gods' passage to and fro over the quivering
+bridge Bifroest, was like the trumpet of the goddess Renown. As he
+was related to the water deities on his mother's side, he could,
+like Proteus, assume any form at will, and he made good use of this
+power on the occasion when he frustrated Loki's attempt to steal the
+necklace Brisinga-men.
+
+Hermod, the quick or nimble, resembles Mercury not only in his
+marvellous celerity of motion. He, too, was the messenger of the gods,
+and, like the Greek divinity, flashed hither and thither, aided not by
+winged cap and sandals, but by Odin's steed Sleipnir, whom he alone
+was allowed to bestride. Instead of the Caduceus, he bore the wand
+Gambantein. He questioned the Norns and the magician Rossthiof, through
+whom he learned that Vali would come to avenge his brother Balder and
+to supplant his father Odin. Instances of similar consultations are
+found in Greek mythology, where Jupiter would fain have married Thetis,
+yet desisted when the Fates foretold that if he did so she would be
+the mother of a son who would surpass his father in glory and renown.
+
+The Northern god of silence, Vidar, has some resemblance to Hercules,
+for while the latter has nothing but a club with which to defend
+himself against the Nemean lion, whom he tears asunder, the former
+is enabled to rend the Fenris wolf at Ragnarok by the possession of
+one large shoe.
+
+
+
+Rinda and Danae
+
+Odin's courtship of Rinda reminds us of Jupiter's wooing of Danae,
+who is also a symbol of the earth; and while the shower of gold in
+the Greek tale is intended to represent the fertilising sunbeams, the
+footbath in the Northern story typifies the spring thaw which sets in
+when the sun has overcome the resistance of the frozen earth. Perseus,
+the child of this union, has many points of resemblance with Vali,
+for he, too, is an avenger, and slays his mother's enemies just as
+surely as Vali destroys Hodur, the murderer of Balder.
+
+The Fates were supposed to preside over birth in Greece, and to
+foretell a child's future, as did the Norns; and the story of Meleager
+has its unmistakable parallel in that of Nornagesta. Althaea preserves
+the half-consumed brand in a chest, Nornagesta conceals the candle-end
+in his harp; and while the Greek mother brings about her son's death
+by casting the brand into the fire, Nornagesta, compelled to light
+his candle-end at Olaf's command, dies as it sputters and burns out.
+
+Hebe and the Valkyrs were the cupbearers of Olympus and Asgard. They
+were all personifications of youth; and while Hebe married the great
+hero and demigod Hercules when she ceased to fulfil her office, the
+Valkyrs were relieved from their duties when united to heroes like
+Helgi, Hakon, Voelund, or Sigurd.
+
+The Cretan labyrinth has its counterpart in the Icelandic Voelundarhaus,
+and Voelund and Daedalus both effect their escape from a maze by a
+cleverly devised pair of wings, which enable them to fly in safety
+over land and sea and escape from the tyranny of their respective
+masters, Nidud and Minos. Voelund resembles Vulcan, also, in that
+he is a clever smith and makes use of his talents to work out his
+revenge. Vulcan, lamed by a fall from Olympus, and neglected by Juno,
+whom he had tried to befriend, sends her a golden throne, which is
+provided with cunning springs to seize and hold her fast. Voelund,
+hamstrung by the suggestion of Nidud's queen, secretly murders her
+sons, and out of their eyes fashions marvellous jewels, which she
+unsuspectingly wears upon her breast until he reveals their origin.
+
+
+
+Myths of the Sea
+
+Just as the Greeks fancied that the tempests were the effect of
+Neptune's wrath, so the Northern races attributed them either to the
+writhings of Ioermungandr, the Midgard snake, or to the anger of AEgir,
+who, crowned with seaweed like Neptune, often sent his children,
+the wave maidens (the counterpart of the Nereides and Oceanides),
+to play on the tossing billows. Neptune had his dwelling in the coral
+caves near the Island of Euboea, while AEgir lived in a similar palace
+near the Cattegat. Here he was surrounded by the nixies, undines,
+and mermaids, the counterpart of the Greek water nymphs, and by the
+river-gods of the Rhine, Elbe, and Neckar, who remind us of Alpheus
+and Peneus, the river-gods of the Greeks.
+
+The frequency of shipwrecks on the Northern coasts made the people
+think of Ran (the equivalent of the Greek sea-goddess Amphitrite) as
+greedy and avaricious, and they described her as armed with a strong
+net, with which she drew all things down into the deep. The Greek
+Sirens had their parallel in the Northern Lorelei, who possessed the
+same gift of song, and also lured mariners to their death; while
+Princess Ilse, who was turned into a fountain, reminds us of the
+nymph Arethusa, who underwent a similar transformation.
+
+In the Northern conception of Nifl-heim we have an almost exact
+counterpart of the Greek Hades. Moedgud, the guardian of the
+Giallar-bridge (the bridge of death), over which all the spirits of
+the dead must pass, exacts a tribute of blood as rigorously as Charon
+demands an obolus from every soul he ferries over Acheron, the river
+of death. The fierce dog Garm, cowering in the Gnipa hole, and keeping
+guard at Hel's gate, is like the three-headed monster Cerberus; and
+the nine worlds of Nifl-heim are not unlike the divisions of Hades,
+Nastrond being an adequate substitute for Tartarus, where the wicked
+were punished with equal severity.
+
+The custom of burning dead heroes with their arms, and of slaying
+victims, such as horses and dogs, upon their pyre, was much the same
+in the North as in the South; and while Mors or Thanatos, the Greek
+Death, was represented with a sharp scythe, Hel was depicted with a
+broom or rake, which she used as ruthlessly, and with which she did
+as much execution.
+
+
+
+Balder and Apollo
+
+Balder, the radiant god of sunshine, reminds us not only of Apollo and
+Orpheus, but of all the other heroes of sun myths. His wife Nanna is
+like Flora, and still more like Proserpine, for she, too, goes down
+into the underworld, where she tarries for a while. Balder's golden
+hall of Breidablik is like Apollo's palace in the east; he, also,
+delights in flowers; all things smile at his approach, and willingly
+pledge themselves not to injure him. As Achilles was vulnerable only
+in the heel, so Balder could be slain only by the harmless mistletoe,
+and his death is occasioned by Loki's jealousy just as Hercules was
+slain by that of Deianeira. Balder's funeral pyre on Ringhorn reminds
+us of Hercules's death on Mount OEta, the flames and reddish glow of
+both fires serving to typify the setting sun. The Northern god of sun
+and summer could only be released from Nifl-heim if all animate and
+inanimate objects shed tears; so Proserpine could issue from Hades
+only upon condition that she had partaken of no food. The trifling
+refusal of Thok to shed a single tear is like the pomegranate seeds
+which Proserpine ate, and the result is equally disastrous in both
+cases, as it detains Balder and Proserpine underground, and the earth
+(Frigga or Ceres) must continue to mourn their absence.
+
+Through Loki evil entered into the Northern world; Prometheus's
+gift of fire brought the same curse upon the Greeks. The punishment
+inflicted by the gods upon the culprits is not unlike, for while
+Loki is bound with adamantine chains underground, and tortured by
+the continuous dropping of venom from the fangs of a snake fastened
+above his head, Prometheus is similarly fettered to Caucasus, and a
+ravenous vulture continually preys upon his liver. Loki's punishment
+has another counterpart in that of Tityus, bound in Hades, and in
+that of Enceladus, chained beneath Mount AEtna, where his writhing
+produced earthquakes, and his imprecations caused sudden eruptions
+of the volcano. Loki, further, resembles Neptune in that he, too,
+assumed an equine form and was the parent of a wonderful steed,
+for Sleipnir rivals Arion both in speed and endurance.
+
+The Fimbul-winter has been compared to the long preliminary fight under
+the walls of Troy, and Ragnarok, the grand closing drama of Northern
+mythology, to the burning of that famous city. "Thor is Hector;
+the Fenris wolf, Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, who slew Priam (Odin);
+and Vidar, who survives in Ragnarok, is AEneas." The destruction of
+Priam's palace is the type of the ruin of the gods' golden halls;
+and the devouring wolves Hati, Skoell, and Managarm, the fiends of
+darkness, are prototypes of Paris and all the other demons of darkness,
+who bear away or devour the sun-maiden Helen.
+
+
+
+Ragnarok and the Deluge
+
+According to another interpretation, however, Ragnarok and the
+consequent submersion of the world is but a Northern version of the
+Deluge. The survivors, Lif and Lifthrasir, like Deucalion and Pyrrha,
+were destined to repeople the world; and just as the shrine of Delphi
+alone resisted the destructive power of the great cataclysm, so Gimli
+stood radiant to receive the surviving gods.
+
+
+
+Giants and Titans
+
+We have already seen how closely the Northern giants resembled the
+Titans. It only remains to mention that while the Greeks imagined
+that Atlas was changed into a mountain, so the Northmen believed that
+the Riesengebirge, in Germany, were formed from giants, and that the
+avalanches which descended from their lofty heights were the burdens
+of snow which these giants impatiently shook from their crests as
+they changed their cramped positions. The apparition, in the shape of
+a bull, of one of the water giants, who came to woo the queen of the
+Franks, has its parallel in the story of Jupiter's wooing of Europa,
+and Meroveus is evidently the exact counterpart of Sarpedon. A faint
+resemblance can be traced between the giant ship Mannigfual and the
+Argo, for while the one is supposed to have cruised through the AEgean
+and Euxine Seas, and to have made many places memorable by the dangers
+it encountered there, so the Northern vessel sailed about the North
+and Baltic Seas, and is mentioned in connection with the Island of
+Bornholm and the cliffs of Dover.
+
+While the Greeks imagined that Nightmares were the evil dreams which
+escaped from the Cave of Somnus, the Northern race fancied they were
+female dwarfs or trolls, who crept out of the dark recesses of the
+earth to torment them. All magic weapons in the North were said to
+be the work of the dwarfs, the underground smiths, while those of the
+Greeks were manufactured by Vulcan and the Cyclopes, under Mount AEtna,
+or on the Island of Lemnos.
+
+
+
+The Volsunga Saga
+
+In the Sigurd myth we find Odin one-eyed like the Cyclopes, who, like
+him, are personifications of the sun. Sigurd is instructed by Gripir,
+the horse-trainer, who is reminiscent of Chiron, the centaur. He is
+not only able to teach a young hero all he need know, and to give him
+good advice concerning his future conduct, but is also possessed of
+the gift of prophecy.
+
+The marvellous sword which becomes the property of Sigmund and of
+Sigurd as soon as they prove themselves worthy to wield it, and the
+sword Angurvadel which Frithiof inherits from his sire, remind us of
+the weapon which AEgeus concealed beneath the rock, and which Theseus
+secured as soon as he had become a man. Sigurd, like Theseus, Perseus,
+and Jason, seeks to avenge his father's wrongs ere he sets out in
+search of the golden hoard, the exact counterpart of the golden fleece,
+which is also guarded by a dragon, and is very hard to secure. Like
+all the Greek sun-gods and heroes, Sigurd has golden hair and bright
+blue eyes. His struggle with Fafnir reminds us of Apollo's fight with
+Python, while the ring Andvaranaut can be likened to Venus's cestus,
+and the curse attached to its possessor is like the tragedy of Helen,
+who brought endless bloodshed upon all connected with her.
+
+Sigurd could not have conquered Fafnir without the magic sword, just
+as the Greeks failed to take Troy without the arrows of Philoctetes,
+which are also emblems of the all-conquering rays of the sun. The
+recovery of the stolen treasure is like Menelaus's recovery of Helen,
+and it apparently brings as little happiness to Sigurd as his recreant
+wife did to the Spartan king.
+
+
+
+Brunhild
+
+Brunhild resembles Minerva in her martial tastes, physical appearance,
+and wisdom; but her anger and resentment when Sigurd forgets her
+for Gudrun is like the wrath of OEnone, whom Paris deserts to woo
+Helen. Brunhild's anger continues to accompany Sigurd through life,
+and she even seeks to compass his death, while OEnone, called to cure
+her wounded lover, refuses to do so and permits him to die. OEnone
+and Brunhild are both overcome by the same remorseful feelings when
+their lovers have breathed their last, and both insist upon sharing
+their funeral pyres, and end their lives by the side of those whom
+they had loved.
+
+
+Sun Myths
+
+Containing, as it does, a whole series of sun myths, the Volsunga Saga
+repeats itself in every phase; and just as Ariadne, forsaken by the
+sun-hero Theseus, finally marries Bacchus, so Gudrun, when Sigurd has
+departed, marries Atli, the King of the Huns. He, too, ends his life
+amid the flames of his burning palace or ship. Gunnar, like Orpheus
+or Amphion, plays such marvellous strains upon his harp that even
+the serpents are lulled to sleep. According to some interpretations,
+Atli is like Fafnir, and covets the possession of the gold. Both are
+therefore probably personifications "of the winter cloud which broods
+over and keeps from mortals the gold of the sun's light and heat,
+till in the spring the bright orb overcomes the powers of darkness
+and tempests, and scatters his gold over the face of the earth."
+
+Swanhild, Sigurd's daughter, is another personification of the sun,
+as is seen in her blue eyes and golden hair; and her death under the
+hoofs of black steeds represents the blotting out of the sun by clouds
+of storm or of darkness.
+
+Just as Castor and Pollux hasten to rescue their sister Helen when
+she has been borne away by Theseus, so Swanhild's brothers, Erp,
+Hamdir, and Soerli, hasten off to avenge her death.
+
+Such are the main points of resemblance between the mythologies
+of the North and South, and the analogy goes far to prove that
+they were originally formed from the same materials, the principal
+differences being due to the local colouring imparted unconsciously
+by the different races.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+[1] "Northern Mythology," Kauffmann.
+
+[2] Halliday Sparling.
+
+[3] Carlyle, "Heroes and Hero Worship."
+
+[4] "Northern Mythology," Kauffmann.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Myths of the Norsemen, by H. A. Guerber
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