THE HEROES OE ASGARD 



GIANTS OE JOTUNHEIM. 



WINCHESTER : 

PRINTED BY HUGH BARCLAY, 

HIGH STREET. 



Of forests and enchantments drear, 
Where more is meant than meets the ear." 



LONDON: 
DAVID BOGUE, FLEET STREET. 

M.DCCC.LVII. 


CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

 .... 1 



CHAPTER II. 

WEDNESDAY (ODIN's-DAY) . . . . . . 15 

THE Aesir. 

PART I. A GIANT — A COW — AND A HERO . . 19 

II. — AIR THRONE, THE DWARFS, AND THE 

LIGHT ELVES 29 

III. — NIFLHEIM 37 

IV. — THE CHILDREN OF LOKI . . . 45 

V. — BIFROST, URDA, AND THE NORNS . . 50 



VI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

PAGE 

THURSDAY (THORS-DAY) 64 

. 

PART I. — FROM ASGARD TO TJTGARD ... 67 

II. — THE SERPENT AND THE KETTLE . . 89 

CHAPTER IV. 

FRIDAY (FREY'S-DAY) 107 



PART I. — ON TIPTOE IN AIR THRONE . . . Ill 

II. — THE GIFT 116 

III. — FAIREST GERD 121 

IV. — THE WOOD BARRI 128 

 

PART I. THE NECKLACE BRISINGAMEN . . . 139 

II. — LOKI — THE IRON WOOD — A BOUNDLESS 

WASTE ...... 147 

III. — THE KING OF THE SEA AND HIS DAUGHTERS 155 

CHAPTER V. 

SATURDAY 161 

IDUNA'S APPLES. 

PART T. — REFLECTIONS IN THE WATER . . . 165 

II. — THE WINGED-GTANT .... 172 

III. — HELA 186 

IV. — THROUGH FLOOD AND FIRE . . 192 



CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER VI. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CHRISTMAS EVE 



BALDUR. 

PART I. THE DREAM 209 

II. — THE PEACESTEAD . . . . . 218 

III. — BALDUR DEAD ..... 225 

IV. — HELHEIM 229 

V. — WEEPING ...... 235 

CHAPTER VII. 

TUESDAY (TYR'S-DAY) . . . . , 250 

THE BINDING OF FENRIR. 

PART T. — THE MIGHT OF ASGARD . . . 257 

II. — THE SECRET OF SVARTHEIM . . . 266 

nr. — honour 273 

THE PUNISHMENT OF LOKI . . . 279 



289 



RAGNAROK, 

OR, THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS .... 293 
INDEX OF NAMES, WITH MEANINGS . . . 313 



THE HEROES OF ASGARD. 



CHAPTER I. 


It was the first week in the Christmas holidays, 
and Mr. Lynwood's quiet, old-fashioned house was 
enlivened by its annual influx of school-boy and 
school-girl visitors, who had come to spend the first 
fortnight of their Christmas holidays with their 
grandpapa and grandmamma in London. It was a 
fortnight looked forward to through all the year 
with pleasure by old and young, and yet, as years 
passed by, and the children grew into noisy school- 
boys and laughing school-girls, and the grandparents 
became fonder of quiet, and less able to bear disturbance, there were apt to be times when the 
reality was found to be less pleasant than the an- 
ticipation. The. short winter days passed pleasantly; 
there were always sights to be seen, and visits to be 
paid, which filled up the mornings ; but there were 
certain times between the late dinner and tea-time 
to which Aunt Helen and Aunt Margaret looked 
forward with considerable alarm. 

The promises of quiet and good behaviour, made 
early in the. day, always seemed to escape from 
memory at that time in an extraordinary manner ; 
and just at the critical moment when grandpapa 
was sinking into his afternoon nap, and grand-mamma's head was observed to fall back comfortably 
on the sofa-cushion, a convulsive titter was sure to 
break forth from some dark corner of the room, 
which led to nervous inquiries on the part of the 
elders, and long, sleep-dispelling explanations from 
the young people. The reasons for laughing were 
generally conclusive. Cousin Harry, the wag, had 
suddenly recollected a story about the usher in his 
school that was enough to kill any one ; or Alice 
and Ethel could not be made to understand the 
simplest school trick in the world ; but, unluckily, 
Mr. and Mrs. Lynwood did not always find the 
joke good enough to make up for the loss of their 
evening's comfort ; and Aunt Helen and Aunt 
Margaret, and even Uncle Alick, grew tired of 
perpetually lifting up fingers, and crying " Hush ! " 

After one or two comfortless evenings the boys 
gathered round Aunt Margaret one day after dinner, 
and were loud iu remonstrance. 

" Why cannot we have a fire in the library, and 
go there till tea-time ? " asked William, the eldest 
of the party. 

"No, no," said Aunt Margaret; "left to your- 
selves you will make noise enough to disturb the 
square — that would be worse than anything." 

William. — " Why need we be left to ourselves ? 
You and Uncle Alick and Aunt Helen might come 
too." 

Aunt Margaret. — "And earn headaches for the 
next day. No, thank you." 

Harry. — "But now listen, Aunt Margaret; we 

would be quiet ; if there were any one to talk to 
we should not mind sitting still. You and Aunt 
Helen used to tell capital fairy tales when we were 
children ; why can't you do so now ? You are not 
too old." 

Aunt M. — " You are too old. Fairy tales in- 
deed ! I wonder you are not ashamed of thinking 
of such a thing, seeing it is such a long time since 
1 we were children.'' " 

Harry. — " I, for one, should like to hear them 
all again — Blue-beard and Jack the Giant Killer — 
just as you used to tell them ; but if you do not like 
doing that, surely you can think of something else 
to tell us. It wants a week only to Christmas-day, 
and Christmas-time can't be kept properly without 
tales in blind man's holiday." 

Charlie. — " And real tales, too ; not a sham 
tale with chemistiy in it." 

Harry. — "Uncle Alick was reading a book 
yesterday that seemed full of curious stories. I 
looked over his shoulder : there was a very odd 
picture in the beginning, and from what I saw it 

appeared to be about all sorts of giants and mon- 
sters. He might tell us something about them." 

Aunt M. — "I daresay you mean the Northern 
Antiquities. Well, Uncle Alick and Aunt Helen 
are in the library, and there is a fire there now. 
We will all go in and see if we can find some 
amusement to keep us quiet till tea-time." 

Aunt Helen was drawing at the library table, and 
Uncle Alick was standing near with a book in his 
hand, when the noisy troop invaded their quiet. 

Harry ran up, and peeped over his aunt's shoulder. 
" The very picture I saw in the book yesterday," he 
exclaimed, "only larger, and still more curious. 
Aunt Helen, what are you doing?" 

"lam drawing a map of the world as our Saxon 
ancestors supposed it to be, and Uncle Alick is 
giving me instructions out of that dusty old book." 

Harry. — " A map of the world ! Why, it is 
more like a green table than anything else, or a 
monstrous soup-plate. Do let us all look." 

The picture passed from one to another, and a 
tumult of questions followed. 

" Why is there that great tree growing through 
the middle of the land ?" 

" Oh, look! there is a serpent with his tail in his 
mouth ! What does that mean ? " 

" Is that a fountain up there ?" 

" Do you mean this for a rainbow ? " 

" Is any one supposed to live in those dark 
houses underneath the tree?" 

Uncle Alice. — " Softly, softly. Don't pull Aunt 
Helen's picture to pieces. And now I have some- 
thing to say to you, boys. If you really wish to 
understand this picture, and to hear anything about 
Northern Mythology, I shall be glad to tell you ; 
but I can't explain everything in a few questions 
and answers. It will take more than one even- 
ing ; for if you hear anything, I should like you to 
hear enough to have some idea of the beauty and 
grandeur of the old tales in which our forefathers 
believed." 

" Mythology has rather a school sound," said 
Harry, doubtfully. 

"But we never hear anything about Northern 



Mythology at school," said William ; " and the 
Grecian and Roman is interesting enough when one 
has not to translate it. Have you forgotten the 
Tanglewood tales or Mr. Kingsley's Heroes? If 
you can tell us stories as good as those, Uncle 
Alick, you may depend on our being quiet." 

Uncle A. — " I cannot promise to tell stories as 
well as Mr. Kingsley ; but I can promise that the 
tales themselves are well worth listening to." 

" Besides, if the stories are what the old Saxons 
and Norsemen believed, I think we ought to hear 
them," said Alice. " We learn a great deal about 
the Grecian and Roman gods, and we have not so 
much to do with them." 

" I don't quite agree with you there," said Aunt 
Helen ; " we have a great deal to do with the 
Grecian and Roman gods, because the myths about 
them have mixed with the thoughts of so many 
generations, and have come down to us clothed in 
so many different forms, in paintings, and build- 
ings, and in the very words of our own English 
language." 


" True," said Uncle Alick, " and so have these 
Northern Myths, as I hope to show you as we go 
along if you choose to hear these old tales. I think 
they will throw light on many old customs that are 
almost without meaning to you now, and give a 
deep interest to words which you now use without 
knowing what wonderful tales hang upon them." 

William. — " Are not the names of the days of 
the week derived from the names of the Northern 
gods ? " 

Uncle A. — " Yes ; and it has often surprised 
me that you should talk so constantly of Tuesday, 
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with- 
out having the least curiosity to know something 
about Tyr, Woden, Thor, Frey, and Surtur, in 
whose honour the days were named." 

Alfred. — " Well, uncle, as we have a week 
before Christmas, suppose you tell us the history 
of these people each on his own day." 

Uncle A. — "It would be a good plan; it 
would oblige us to go on regularly ; but I cannot 
undertake all the talking myself. You must ask 
your aunts to help ; they have done so much copying 
and translating for me, that they know the Mytho- 
logy as well as I do." 

Aunt M. — "We shall be quite ready to take a 
share in the story-telling. I brought this invasion 
of barbarians into the library, so I will take the 
first tale, and as to-morrow is Wednesday, I will 
introduce you to Woden, or Odin, as he is generally 
called, and tell you of some of his doings." 

Alfred. — " Hengist and Horsa were descended 
from him — I do know so much." 

Charlie. — " Why are we not to have a tale to- 
night ? " 

Aunt M. — " I must arrange my story a little 
before I tell it ; but, by way of preparation, I advise 
you to look at this picture again, and get Uncle 
Alick to explain it to you." 

Uncle A. — " There, I have put it up on the 
easel, so that you can all look while I talk. The 
earth, you see, is represented here as a circular 
plain, not unlike a green table, as Harry said. In 
the very middle stands Asgard, the City of Lords, 

in which dwelt Odin and the gods. At the foot of 
the hill of Asgard lies Manheini, the dwelling-place 
of mortals ; beyond that is the sea, in which you 
perceive a serpent with his tail in his mouth — you 
will hear of him by-and-by ; beyond the sea, great 
icebergs stand up — that is Jotunheim, or Giant 
Land. The stories I am going to tell you chiefly 
relate to the combats which our ancestors supposed 
to have been carried on between wicked giants who 
lived in this gloomy region, and the good heroes of 
Asgard, who defended the inhabitants of Manheim 
from their invasions." 

Charlie. — " But you have not explained all the 
picture. What is this great tree with roots above 
and below, and a serpent round one root, and a 
fountain under the other?" 

Uncle A. — " That tree is the mighty ash, 
Yggdrasil, on which the earth was supposed to rest. 
Jt has three roots : one grows out of Niflheim, or 
Mist-Home, the abyss of abysses, which lies under 
all ; the second shoots up into heaven ; the third lies 
in Jotunheim, among the homes of the Frost Giants. 

Yggdrasil is called in the Voluspa, or sacred poem, 
• Time's hoary nurse,' and by many writers it is 
thought to be an emblem of enduring time, growing 
and changing, but still the same." 

Aunt M. — " You will not, perhaps, be able to 
understand all the meaning of this wonderful em- 
blem ; but do not forget to notice the position of 
the three roots. The one below, which takes its rise 
from Niflheim, is eternally gnawed by the envious 
serpent, Nidhogg, the father of poisonous diseases ; 
while, underneath the one which shoots up into 
heaven, the Urda fountain rises. Here dwelt three 
wise sisters, the Norns, or Fates, whose business 
it was to water the great earth-tree with living water 
from the sacred fountain, and thus constantly renew 
the life which the destroyer underneath was wearing 
away." 

William. — " That means the war between good 
and evil in the world, and that all the good, and 
strength, and life must come down from heaven — I 
can understand that." 

Aunt M. — " I believe it is the great idea of the 

Mythology. We shall find it under some fresh 
emblem in every tale." 

Harry. — " But you said just now that there were 
three roots. I only see two." 

Aunt Helen. — " The third lies under Jotunheim. 
Yon cannot see it in the picture ; but you can see 
the branches that rise up on each side." 

Alice. — " Is there not a kind of road leading up 
to the fountain ? " 

Aunt M. — " That road was called Bifrost, the 
tremulous bridge — a poetical name for the rainbow. 
One end rested on the heavenly hills, the other 
dropped into the sea, and it led up to the sacred 
fountain and the palace of the mysterious sisters. 
They were called Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, and 
personified the past, the present, and the future : 
Urd, past; Verdandi, present; Skuld, future. 
Each entrance of the bridge had its guardian, of 
whom I will tell you in ray first story." 

Aunt H. — " There are one or two other curious 
things about the tree that I may as well tell you 
now. An eagle with a hawk between his eyes  

was supposed to live on its topmost bough, and 
a little squirrel, called Ratatosk, was always run- 
ning up and down the branches, taking mischief- 
making messages from Nidhogg, the serpent below, 
to the eagle above." 

Uncle A. — " A rap at all future gossips in the 
world, young ladies." 

Aunt H. — "There were also four harts, that fed 
on the branches ; they are sometimes supposed to 
mean the four winds." 

Charlie. — " You have not told us yet the name 
of the little dark house below." 

Aunt H. — " I did not mean it for a house. Jt 
is Helheim, the dwelling-place of the dead." 

Alfred. — " What a number of heims ! Let me 
see if I understand them all. Manheim, where 
men live ; Jotuiiheim, Giant Home ; Niflheim, 
Mist-Home ; Helheim, the dwelling of the dead." 

Charlie. — " Is Helheim below Niflheim?" 

Uncle A. — " No. Niflheim lies above, below, 
•beyond. It is boundless space." 

Aunt M. — " Now I think you have learned all 

you can by looking at the picture. If you can 
keep the names in your head, you will be ready for 
my story to-morrow night." 

Uncle A. — " I must say one word more about 
the life-tree before I have done. It is supposed 
to be the type of the English May-pole, and also 
of the German Christmas-tree, of which your heads 
are so full just now." 

Ethel. — "How strange! Who would have 
thought of there being any particular meaning in 
the Christmas presents being hung upon a tree 
instead of anything else ?" 

Uncle A. — "As we go on we shall find other 
Christmas customs which appear to have a pagan 
origin. It is certainly strange." 

Harry. — " Ah ! there is the bell for tea. How 
quickly the time has passed ! I will run upstairs, 
and puzzle grandpapa by talking of Yggdrasil, and 
Nidhogg, and Ratatosk." 

Uncle A. — " You conceited monkey ! Grandpapa 
knew more about them than your head will ever 
hold before you were born." 


CHAPTER II. 



WEDNESDAY EVENING. 

" Earnest wed with sport." 

Tennyson. 

" Now," said Aunt Margaret, when the young people 
were assembled round a bright fire in the library, 
on Wednesday evening, " are you ready to hear my 
story? Has any one a question to ask before I 
begin?" 

11 1 've been thinking of something," cried Harry. 
" I 've been thinking all dinner-time what a capital 
name Ratatosk would be for a fellow at our school, 
who is always running about making mischief and 
carrying messages." 

" And I 'm thinking," said Uncle Alick, " that 
if you intend to learn nothing but nicknames out of 
the stories, you had better leave the room before we 
begin to tell them." 

"Oh! no, no!" cried Harry; "begin, AuDt 
Margaret, begin before there is time for any one 
else to say anything unfortunate." 

Aunt M. — " This is Woden's day, and the story 
I shall tell you to-night is called " The Aesir." I 
have divided it into parts." 


A GIANT A COW AND A HERO. 

In the beginning of ages there lived a cow, whose 
breath was sweet, and whose milk was bitter. This 
cow was called Audhunila, and she lived all by 
herself on a frosty, misty plain, where there was 
nothing to be seen but heaps of snow and ice 
piled strangely over one another. Far away to the 
north it was night, far away to the south it was 
day; but all around where Audhumla lay a cold, 
grey twilight reigned. By-and-by a giant came out 
of the dark north, and lay down upon the ice near 

Audhumla. " You must let me drink of your 
milk," said the giant to the cow; and though her 
milk was bitter, he liked it well, and for him it 
was certainly good enough. 

After a little while the cow looked all round 
her for something to eat, and she saw a very few 
grains of salt spinkled over the ice ; so she licked 
the salt, and breathed with her sweet breath, and 
then long golden locks rose out of the ice, and 
the southern day shone upon them, which made 
them look bright and glittering. 

The giant frowned when he saw the glitter of 
the golden hair; but Audhumla licked the pure 
salt again, and a head of a man rose out of the 
ice. The head was more handsome than could 
be described, and a wonderful light beamed out 
of its clear blue eyes. The giant frowned still 
more when he saw the head ; but Audhumla licked 
the salt a third time, and then an entire man arose 
— a hero, majestic in strength and marvellous in 
beauty. 

Now, it happened that when the giant looked 
full in the face of that beautiful man, he hated 
him with his whole heart, and, what was still worse, 
he took a terrible oath, by all the snows of Ginnun- 
gagap, that he would never cease fighting until 
either he or Bur, the hero, should lie dead upon 
the ground. And he kept his vow ; he did not 
cease fighting until Bur had fallen beneath his 
cruel blows. I cannot tell how it could be that 
one so wicked should be able to conquer one so 
majestic and so beautiful; but so it was, and after- 
wards, when the sons of the hero began to grow 
up, the giant and his sons fought against them, 
too, and were very near conquering them many 
times. 

But there was of the sons of the heroes one of 
very great strength and wisdom, called Odin, who, 
after many combats, did at last slay the great old 
giant, and pierced his body through with his keen 
spear, so that the blood swelled forth in a mighty 
torrent, broad and deep, and all the hideous giant 
brood were drowned in it excepting one, who ran 
away panting and afraid. 

After this Odin called round him his sons, 
brothers, and cousins, and spoke to them thus : 
" Heroes, we have won a great victory; our ene- 
mies are dead, or have run away from us. We 
cannot stay any longer here, where there is nothing 
evil for us to fight against." 

The heroes looked round them at the words of 
Odin. North, south, east, and west there was no 
one to fight against them anywhere, and they called 
out with one voice, " It is well spoken, Odin ; we 
follow you." 

"Southward," answered Odin, "heat lies, and 
northward night. From the dim east the sun 
begins his journey westward home." 

" Westward home ! " shouted they all ; and west- 
ward they went. 

Odin rode in the midst of them, and they all paid 
to him reverence and homage as to a king and 
father. On his right hand rode Thor, Odin's strong, 
warlike, eldest son. On his left hand rode Baldur, 
the most beautiful and exalted of his children ; for 
the very light of the sun itself shone forth from his 

pure and noble brow. After hirn came Tyr the 
Brave ; the Silent Vidar ; Hodur, who, alas ! was 
born blind ; Hermod, the Flying Word ; Vili ; 
Haenir, and many more mighty lords and heroes ; 
and then came a shell chariot, in which sat Frigga, 
the wife of Odin, with all her daughters, friends, 
and tirewomen. 

Eleven months they journeyed westward, enliven- 
ing the way with cheerful songs and conversation, 
and at the twelfth new moon they pitched their 
tents upon a range of hills which stood near the 
borders of an inland sea. The greater part of one 
night they were disturbed by mysterious whisper- 
ings, which appeared to proceed from the sea-coast, 
and creep up the mountain side ; but as Tyr, who 
got up half a dozen times, and ran furiously about 
among the gorse and bushes, always returned 
saying that he could see ho one, Frigga and her 
maidens at length resigned themselves to sleep, 
though they certainly trembled and started a good 
deal at intervals. Odin lay awake all night, however; for he felt certain that something unusual 
was going to happen. And such proved to be the 
case; for in the morning, before the tents were 
struck, a most terrific hurricane levelled the poles, 
and tore in pieces the damask coverings, swept from 
over the water furiously up the mountain gorges, 
round the base of the hills, and up again all along 
their steep sides right in the faces of the heroes. 

Thor swung himself backwards and forwards, and 
threw stones in every possible direction. Tyr sat 
down on the top of a precipice, and defied the winds 
to displace him ; whilst Baldur vainly endeavoured 
to comfort his poor mother, Frigga. But Odin 
stepped forth calm and unruffled, spread his arms 
towards the sky, and called out to the spirits of the 
wind, " Cease, foolish, empty-headed Vanir " (for 
that was the name by which they were called), 
"cease your rough play, and tell us in what manner 
we have offended you that you serve us thus." 

The winds laughed in a whispered chorus at the 
words of the brave king, and, after a few low titter- 
ings, sank into silence. But each sound in dying 
grew into a shape ; one by one the strange, loose-
limbed, uncertain forms stepped forth from caves, 
from gorges, dropped from the tree tops, or rose 
out of the grass — each wind-gust a separate Van. 

Then Niord, their leader, stood forward from the 
rest of them, and said, " We know, mighty Odin, 
how you and your company are truly the Aesir  — that 
is to say, the lords of the whole earth — since you 
slew the huge, wicked giant. We, too, are lords, 
not of the earth, but of the sea and air, and we 
thought to have had glorious sport in fighting one 
against another ; but if such be not your pleasure, 
let us, instead of that, shake hands." And as he 
spoke, Niurd held out his long, cold hand, which 
was like a windbag to the touch. Odin grasped 
it heartily, as did all the Aesir ; for they liked the 
appearance of the good-natured, gusty chief, whom 
they begged to become one of their company, and 
live henceforth with them. 

To this Niord consented, whistled good-bye to his 
kinsfolk, and strode cheerfully along amongst his 
new friends. After this they journeyed on and on 
steadily westward until they reached the summit of a lofty mountain, called the Meeting Hill. There 
they all sat round in a circle, and took a general 
survey of the surrounding neighbourhood. 

As they sat talking together Baldur looked up 
suddenly, and said, " Is it not strange, Father Odin, 
that we do not find any traces of that giant who 
fled from us, and who escaped drowning in his 
father's blood ? " 

" Perhaps he has fallen into Niflheim, and so 
perished," remarked Thor. 

But Niord pointed northward, where the troubled 
ocean rolled, and said, " Yonder, beyond that sea, 
lies the snowy region of Jotunheim. It is there 
the giant lives, and builds cities and castles, and 
brings up his children — a more hideous brood even 
than the old one." 

'i-How do you know that, Niord ?" asked Odin. 

" I have seen him many times," answered Niord, 
" both before I came to live with you, and also 
since then, at night, when I have not been able to 
sleep, and have made little journeys to Jotunheim, 
to pass the time away." 
" This is indeed terrible news," said Frigga, 
" for the giants will come again out of Jotunheim, 
and devastate the earth." 

" Not so," answered Odin, " not so, my dear 
Frigga ; for here, upon this very hill, we will build 
for ourselves a city, from which we will keep guard 
over the poor earth, with its weak men and women, 
and from whence we will go forth to make war 
upon Jotunheim." 

" That is remarkably well said, Father Odin," 
observed Thor, laughing amidst his red beard. 

Tyr shouted, and Vidar smiled, but said nothing ; 
and then all the Aesir set to work with their 
whole strength and industry to build for themselves 
a glorious city on the summit of the mountain. 
For days, and weeks, and months, and years they 
worked, and never wearied ; so strong a purpose 
was in them, so determined and powerful were they 
to fulfil it. Even Frigga and her ladies did not 
disdain to fetch stones in their marble wheel- 
barrows, or to draw water from the well in golden 
buckets, and then, with delicate hands, to mix the 

mortar upon silver plates. And so that city rose by 
beautiful degrees, stone above stone, tower above 
tower, height above height, until it crowned the hill. 
Then all the Aesir stood at a little distance, and 
looked at it, and sighed from their great happi- 
ness. Towering at a giddy height in the centre of 
the city rose Odin's seat, called Air Throne, from 
whence he could see over the whole earth. On 
one side of Air Throne stood the Palace of Friends, 
where Frigga was to live ; on the other rose the 
glittering Gladsheim, a palace roofed entirely with 
golden shields, and whose great hall, Valhalla, had 
a ceiling covered with spears, benches spread with 
coats of mail, and five hundred and forty entrance- 
gates, through each of which eight hundred men 
might ride abreast. There was also a large iron 
smithy, situated on the eastern side of the city, 
where the Aesir might forge their arms and shape 
their armour. That night they all supped in 
Valhalla, and drank to the health of their strong, 
new home, " The City of Asgard," as Bragi, their 
chief orator, said it ought to be called. 


PART II. 

AIR THRONE, THE DWARFS, AND THE LIGHT ELVES. 

In the morning Odin mounted Air Throne, and 
looked over the whole earth, whilst the Aesir 
stood all round waiting to hear what he thought 
about it. 

" The earth is very beautiful," said Odin, from 
the top of his throne, " very beautiful in every 
part, even to the shores of the dark North Sea ; 
but, alas ! the men of the earth are puny and 
fearful. At this moment I see a three-headed 
giant striding out of Jdtunheim. He throws a 
shepherd-boy into the sea, and puts the whole of 
the flock into his pocket. Now he takes them out 
again one by one, and cracks their bones as if 
they were hazel-nuts, whilst, all the time, men 
look on, and do nothing." 

" Father," cried Thor in a rage, " last night I 
forged for myself a belt, a glove, and a hammer, 
with which three things I will go forth alone to 
Jotunheini." 

Thor went, and Odin looked again. 

" The men of the earth are idle and stupid," 
said Odin. " There are dwarfs and elves, who live 
amongst them, and play tricks which they cannot 
understand, and do not know how to prevent. At 
this moment I see a husbandman sowing grains of 
wheat in the furrows, whilst a dwarf runs after 
him, and changes them into stones. Again, I see 
two hideous little beings, who are holding under 
water the head of a strange man until he dies. 
Now they are mixing his blood with honey ; they 
have put it in a jar, and given it to a giant to 
keep for them." 

Then Odin was very angry with the dwarfs, for 
he saw that they were bent on mischief; so he 
called to him Hermocl, his Flying Word, and 
despatched him with a message to the dwarfs and 
light elves, to say that Odin sent his compliments, 
and would he glad to speak with them, in his palace 
of Gladsheim, upon a matter of some importance. 

When they received Hermod's summons, the 
dwarfs and light elves were very much surprised, 
not quite knowing whether to feel honoured or 
afraid. However, they put on their pertest man- 
ners, and went clustering after Hermod like a 
swarm of ladybirds. 

When they were arrived in the great city they 
found Odin descended from his throne, and sitting 
with the rest of the Aesir in the Judgment Hall 
of Gladsheim. Hermod flew in, saluted his master, 
and pointed to the dwarfs and elves hanging like 
a cloud in the doorway to show that he had fulfilled 
his mission. Then Odin beckoned the little people 
to come forward. Cowering and whispering they 
peeped over one another's shoulders ; now running 
on a little way into the hall, now back again, half 
curious, half afraid ; and it was not until Odin had 
beckoned three times that they finally reached his footstool. Then Odin spoke to them in calm, low, 
serious tones ahout the wickedness of their mis- 
chievous propensities. Some, the very worst of 
them, only laughed in a forward, hardened manner ; 
but a great many looked up surprised and a little 
pleased at the novelty of serious words ; whilst the 
light elves all wept, for they were tender-hearted 
little things. At length Odin spoke to the two 
dwarfs by name whom he had seen drowning the 
strange man. " Whose blood was it," he asked, 
" that you mixed with honey and put into a jar ?" 

"Oh," said the dwarfs, jumping up into the air, 
and clapping their hands, " that was Kvasir's blood. 
Don't you know who Kvasir was ? He sprang up 
out of the peace made between the Vanir and your- 
selves, and has been wandering about these seven 
years or more ; so wise he was that men thought 
he must be a god. Well, just now we found him 
lying in a meadow drowned in his own wisdom ; so 
we mixed his blood with honey, and gave it to the 
giant, Suttung, to keep. Was not that well done, 
Odin ? " 

"Well done!" answered Odin. "Well done! 
You cruel, cowardly, lying dwarfs ! I myself saw 
you kill hint. For shame ! for shame ! " and then 
Odin proceeded to pass sentence upon them all. 
Those who had been the most wicked, he said, 
were to live, henceforth, a long way underground, 
and were to spend their time in throwing fuel upon 
the great earth's central fire ; whilst those who had 
only been mischievous were to work in the gold 
and diamond mines, fashioning precious stones and 
metals. They might all come up at night, Odin 
said ; but must vanish at the dawn. Then he 
waved his hand, and the dwarfs turned round, 
shrilly chattering, scampered down the palace-steps, 
out of the city, over the green fields, to their un- 
known, deep-buried earth-homes. But the light 
elves still lingered, with upturned, tearful, smiling 
faces, like sunshiny morning dew. 

" And you," said Odin, looking them through 
and through with his serious eyes, " and you " 

" Oh ! indeed, Odin, ' interrupted they, speaking 
all together in quick, uncertain tones ; "Oh! indeed, 

Odin, we are not so very wicked. We have never 
done anybody any harm." 

"Have you ever done anybody any good?" 
asked Odin. 

" Oh ! no, indeed," answered the light elves ; 
" we have never done anything at all." 

" You may go, then," said Odin, " to live 
amongst the flowers, and play with the wild bees 
and summer insects. You must, however, find 
something to do, or you will get to be mischievous 
like the dwarfs." 

" If only we had any one to teach us," said the 
light elves, " for we are such foolish little people." 

Odin looked round inquiringly upon the Aesir; 
but amongst them there was no teacher found for 
the silly little elves. Then he turned to Niord, 
who nodded his head good-naturedly, and said, 
" Yes, yes, I will see about it; " and then he strode 
out of the Judgment Hall, right away through the 
city gates, and sat down upon the mountain's 
edge. 

After awhile he began to whistle in a most 
alarming manner, londer and louder, in strong, 
wild gusts, now advancing, now retreating ; then 
he dropped his voice a little, lower and lower, 
until it became a bird-like whistle — low, soft, en- 
ticing music, like a spirit's call; and far away 
from the south a little fluttering answer came, 
sweet as the invitation itself, nearer and nearer, 
until the two sounds dropped into one another. 
Then through the clear sky two forms came 
floating, wonderfully fair — a brother and sister — 
their beautiful arms twined round one another, 
their golden hair bathed in sunlight, and supported 
by the wind. 

" My son and daughter," said Niord, proudly, 
to the surrounding AEsir, " Frey and Freyja, 
Summer and Beauty, hand in hand." 

When Frey and Freyja dropped upon the hill 
Niord took his son by the hand, led him grace- 
fully to the foot of the throne, and said, " Look 
here, dear brother Lord, what a fair young in- 
structor I have brought for your pretty little elves." 

Odin was very much pleased with the appearance 
of Frey ; but, before constituting him king and 
schoolmaster of the light elves, he desired to know 
what his accomplishments were, and what he con- 
sidered himself competent to teach. 

"I am the genius of clouds and sunshine," 
answered Frey ; and, as he spoke, the essences of 
a hundred perfumes were exhaled from his breath. 
" I am the genius of clouds and sunshine, and if 
the light elves will have me for their king I can 
teach them how to burst the folded buds, to set 
the blossoms, to pour sweetness into the swelling 
fruit, to lead the bees through the honey-passages 
of the flowers, to make the single ear a stalk of 
wheat, to hatch birds' eggs, and teach the little 
ones to sing — all this, and much more," said Frey, 
" I know, and will teach them." 

"Then," answered Odin, "it is well;" and Frey 
took his scholars away with him to Alf heim, which 
is in every beautiful place under the sun. 

Now, in the city of Asgard dwelt one called Loki, 
who, though amongst the Aesir, was not of the Aesir, 
but utterly unlike to them ; for to do the wrong, and 
leave the right undone, was, night and day, this wicked 
Loki's one unwearied aim. How he came amongst 
the Aesir no one knew, nor even whence he came. 
Once, when Odin questioned him on the subject, 
Loki stoutly declared that there had been a time 
when he was innocent and noble-purposed like the 
Aesir themselves ; but that, after many wanderings 
up and down the earth, it had been his misfortune, 
Loki said, to discover the half-burnt heart of a 
woman ; " since when," continued he, " I became 

what you now see me, Odin." As this was too 
fearful a story for any one to wish to hear twice 
over Odin never questioned him again. 

Whilst the Aesir were building their city, Loki, 
instead of helping them, had been continually running over to Jotunheim to make friends amongst 
the giants and wicked witches of the place. Now, 
amongst the witches there was one so fearful to 
behold in her sin and her cruelty, that one would 
have thought it impossible even for such an one 
as Loki to find any pleasure in her companionship ; 
nevertheless, so it was that he married her, and 
they lived together a long time, making each 
other worse and worse out of the abundance of 
their own wicked hearts, and bringing up their 
three children to be the plague, dread, and misery 
of mankind. These three children were just what 
they might have been expected to be from their 
parentage and education. The eldest was Jormun- 
gand, a monstrous serpent ; the second Fenrir, 
most ferocious of wolves ; the third was Hela, half 
corpse, half queen. When Loki and his witch- 

wife looked at their fearful progeny they thought 
within themselves, " What would the Aesir say if 
they could see?" "But they cannot see," said 
Loki ; " and, lest they should suspect Witch-wife, I 
will go- back to Asgard for a little while, and salute 
old Father Odin bravely, as if I had no secret 
here." So saying, Loki wished his wife good morn- 
ing, bade her hide the children securely in-doors, 
and set forth on the road to Asgard. 

But all the time he was travelling Loki's children 
went on growing, and long before he had reached 
the lofty city Jormungand had become so large, 
that Ins mother was obliged to open the door to 
let his tail out. At first it hung only a little way 
across the road ; but he grew, Oh, how fearfully 
Jormungand grew ! Whether it was from sudden 
exposure to the air, I do not know ; but in a single 
day he grew from one end of Jotunheim to the 
other, and early next morning began to shoot out 
in the direction of Asgard. Luckily, however, just 
at that moment Odin caught sight of him, when, 
from the top of Air Throne, the eyes of this vigilant 

ruler were taking their morning walk. " Now," 
said Odin, "it is quite clear, Frigga, that I must 
remain in idleness no longer at Asgard, for monsters 
are bred up in Jotunheim, and the earth has need 
of me." So saying, descending instantly from 
Air Throne, Odin went forth of Asgard's golden 
gates to tread the earth of common men, fight- 
ing to pierce through Jotunheim, and slay its 
monstrous sins. 

In his journeyings Odin mixed freely with the 
people of the countries through which' he passed ; 
shared with them toil and pleasure, war and grief ; 
taught them out of his own large experience, in- 
spired them with his noble thoughts, and exalted 
them by his example. Even to the oldest he could 
teach much ; and in the evening, when the labours 
of the day were ended, and the sun cast slanting 
rays upon the village green, it was pleasant to 
see the sturdy village youths grouped round that 
noble chief, hanging open mouthed upon his words, 
as he told them of his great fight with the 
giant of long ago, and then, pointing towards 

Jotunheim, explained to them how that fight was 
not yet over, for that giants and monsters grew 
round them on every side, and they, too, might 
do battle bravely, and be heroes and Aesir of 
the earth. 

One evening, after thus drinking in his burning 
words, they all trouped together to the village 
smithy, and Odin forged for them all night arms 
and armour, instructing them, at the same time, 
in their use. In the morning he said, " Farewell, 
children ; I have further to go than you can come ; 
but do not forget me when I am gone, nor how 
to fight as I have taught you. Never cease to be 
true and brave ; never turn your arms against one 
another ; and never turn them away from the giant 
and the oppressor." 

Then the villagers returned to their homes and 
their field-labour, and Odin pressed on, through 
trackless, uninhabited woods, up silent mountains, 
over the lonely ocean, until he reached that strange, 
mysterious meeting-place of sea and sky. There, 
brooding over the waters like a grey sea fog, sat 

Mimer, guardian of the well where wit and wisdom 
lie hidden. 

" Mimer," said Odin, going up to him boldly, 
"let me drink of the waters of wisdom." 

" Truly, Odin," answered Mimer, " it is a great 
treasure that you seek, and one which many have 
sought before, but who, when they knew the price 
of it, turned back." 

Then replied Odin, " I would give my right 
hand for wisdom willingly." 

" Nay," rejoined the remorseless Mimer, " it is 
not your right hand, but your right eye you must 
give." 

Odin was very sorry when he heard the words 
of Mimer, and yet he did not deem the price too 
great ; for, plucking out his right eye, and casting 
it from him, he received in return a draught of 
the fathomless deep. As Odin gave back the horn 
into Mimer's hand he felt as if there were a 
fountain of wisdom springing up within him — an 
inward light ; for which you may be sure he never 
grudged having given his perishable eye. Now, 

also, he knew what it was necessary for him to do 
in order to become a really noble Asa,- and that 
was to push on to the extreme edge of the earth 
itself, and peep over into Niflheini. Odin knew 
it was precisely that he must do ; and precisely 
that he did. Onward and northward he went over 
ice-bound seas, through twilight, fog, and snow, 
right onward in the face of winds that were like 
swords, until he came into the unknown land, where 
sobs, and sighs, and sad, unfinished shapes were 
drifting up and down. " Then," said Odin, thought- 
fully, " I have come to the end of all creation, 
and a little further on Niflheim must lie." 

Accordingly he pushed on further and further 
until he reached the earth's extremest edge, where, 
lying down, and leaning over from its last cold peak, 
he looked into the gulf below. It was Niflheim. At 
first Odin imagined that it was only empty dark- 
ness ; but, after hanging there three nights and 
days, his eye fell on one of Yggdrasil's mighty 
stems. Yggdrasil was the old earth-tree, whose 

roots sprang far and wide, from Jotunheim, from 
above, and this, the oldest of the three, out of 
Niflheim. Odin looked long upon its time-worn, 
knotted fibres, and watched how they were for ever 
gnawed by Nidhogg, the envious serpent, and his 
brood of poisonous diseases. Then he wondered 
what he should see next ; and one by one spectres 
arose from Nastrond, the Shore of Corpses — arose, 
and wandered pale, naked, nameless, and without 
a home. Then Odin looked down deeper into the 
abyss of abysses, and saw all its shapeless, name- 
less ills ; whilst far below him, deeper than Nas- 
trond, Yggdrasil, and Nidhogg, roared Hvergelmir, 
the boiling cauldron of evil. Nine nights and days 
this brave, wise Asa hung over Niflheim pondering. 
More brave and more wise he turned away from 
it than when he came. It is true that he sighed 
often on his road thence to Jotunheim; but is it 
not always thus that wisdom and strength come 
to us weeping? 

PART IV. 


THE CHILDREN OF LOKI. 

When, at length, Odin found himself in the land of 
giants — frost giants, mountain giants, three-headed 
and wolf-headed giants, monsters, and iron witches 
of every kind — he walked straight on, without 
stopping to fight with any one of them, until he 
came to the middle of Jormungand's body. Then 
he seized the monster, growing fearfully as he 
was all the time, and threw him headlong into 
the deep ocean. There Jormungand still grew, 
until, encircling the whole earth, he found that 
his tail was growing down his throat, after which 
he lay quite still, binding himself together ; 
and neither Odin nor any one else has been 

able to move him thence. When Odin had thus 
disposed of Jormungand, henceforth called the 
Midgard Serpent, he went on to the house of 
Loki's wife. The door was thrown open, and the 
wicked Witch- mother sat in the entrance, whilst on 
one side crouched Fenrir, her ferocious wolf-son, 
and on the other stood Hela, most terrible of 
monsters and women. A crowd of giants strode 
after Odin, curious to obtain a glance of Loki's 
strange children before they should be sent away. 
At Fenrir and the Witch-mother they stared with 
great eyes, joyfully and savagely glittering; but, 
when he looked at Hela, each giant became as 
pale as new snow, and cold with terror as a moun- 
tain of ice. Pale, cold, frozen, they never moved 
again ; but a rugged chain of rocks stood behind 
Odin, and he looked on fearless and unchilled. 

" Strange daughter of Loki," he said, speaking to 
Hela, " you have the head of a queen, proud fore- 
head, and large, imperial eyes ; but your heart is 
pulseless, and your cruel arms kill what they 
embrace. Without doubt you have somewhere a  

kingdom ; not where the sun shines, and men 
breathe the free air, but down below in infinite 
depths, where bodiless spirits wander, and the cast- 
off corpses are cold." 

Then Odin pointed downwards towards Niflheim, 
and Hela sank right through the earth, downward, 
downward, to that abyss of abysses, where she ruled 
over spectres, and made for herself a home called 
Helheim, nine lengthy kingdoms wide and deep. 

After this, Odin desired Fenrir to follow him, 
promising that if he became tractable and obedient, 
and exchanged his ferocity for courage, he should 
not be banished as his brother and sister had been. 
So Fenrir followed, and Odin led the way out of 
Jotunheim, across the ocean, over the earth, until 
he came to the heavenly hills, which held up the 
southern sky tenderly in their glittering arms. 
There, half on the mountain -top and half in air, 
sat Heimdall, guardian of the tremulous bridge 
Bifrost, that arches from earth to heaven. 

Heimdall was a tall, white Van, with golden teeth, 
and a wonderful horn, called the Giallar Horn, which 
he generally kept hidden under the tree Yggdrasil ; 
but when he blew it the sound went out into all 
worlds. 

Now, Odin had never been introduced to Heim- 
dall — had never even seen him before ; but he 
did not pass him by without speaking on that 
account. On the contrary, being altogether much 
struck by his appearance, he could not refrain from 
asking him a few questions. First, he requested 
to know whom he had the pleasure of address- 
ing ; secondly, who his parents were, and what his 
education had been ; and thirdly, how he explained 
his present circumstances and occupation. 

" My name is Heimdall," answered the guardian 
of Bifrost, "and the son of nine sisters am I. 
Born in the beginning of time, at the boundaries 
of the earth, I was fed on the strength of the earth 
and the cold sea. My training, moreover, was so 
perfect, that I now need no more sleep than a 
bird. I can see for a hundred miles around me 
as well by night as by day ; I can hear the grass 
growing and the wool on the backs of sheep. I 

can blow mightily my horn Giallar, and I for ever 
guard the tremulous bridge-head against monsters, 
giants, iron witches, and dwarfs." 

Then asked Odin, gravely, " Is it also for- 
bidden to the Esir to pass this way, Heimdall ? 
Must you guard Bifrost, also, against them?" 

" Assuredly not," answered Heimdall. " All 
Aesir and heroes are free to tread its trembling, 
many-coloured pavement, and they will do well to 
tread it, for above the arch's summit I know that 
the Urda fountain springs, rises, and falls, in a 
perpetual glitter, and by its sacred waters the 
Nornir dwell — tbose three mysterious, mighty 
maidens, through whose cold fingers run the golden 
threads of Time." 

" Enough, Heimdall," answered Odin. " Tomorrow we will come." 


PART V. 

Odin departed from Heimdall, and went on his 
way, Fenrir obediently following, though not now 
much noticed by his captor, who pondered over the 
new wonders of which he had heard. " Bifrost, 
Urda, and the Norns — what can they mean?" 

Thus pondering and wondering he went, as- 
cended Asgard's Hill, walked through the golden 
gates of the city into the palace of Gladsheim, and 
into the hall Valhalla, where, just then, the Aesir 
and Disir * were assembled at their evening meal. 
Odin sat down to the table without speaking, and, 
still absent and meditative, proceeded to carve the 
* Disir — Ladies. 
great boar, Saehrimnir, which, every evening eaten, 
was every morning whole again. No one thought of 
disturbing him by asking any questions, for they 
saw that something was on his mind, and the Aesir 
were well-bred. It is probable, therefore, that the 
supper would have been concluded in perfect 
silence if Fenrir had not poked his nose in at the 
doorway, just opposite to the seat of the lovely 
Freyja. She, genius of beauty as she was, and 
who had never in her whole life seen even the 
shadow of a wolf, covered her face with her hands, 
and screamed a little, which caused all the Aesir 
to start and turn round, in order to see what was 
the matter. But Odin directed a reproving glance 
at the ill-mannered Fenrir, and then gave orders 
that the wolf should be fed; "after which," con- 
cluded he, " I will relate my adventures to the 
assembled Aesir." 

" That is all very well, Asa Odin," answered 
Frey ; " but who, let me ask, is to undertake the 
office of feeding yon hideous and unmannerly 
animal?" 

" That will I, joyfully," cried Tyr, who liked 
nothing better than an adventure ; and then, seizing 
a plate of meat from the table, he ran out of the 
hall, followed by Fenrir, who howled, and sniffed, 
and jumped up at him in a most impatient, un- 
Aesir-like manner. 

After the wolf was gone Freyja looked up again, 
and when Tyr was seated once more, Odin began. 
He told them of everything that he had seen, and 
done, and suffered ; and, at last, of Heimdall, that 
strange white Van, who sat upon the heavenly 
hills, and spoke of Bifrost, and Urda, and the 
Norns. The Aesir were very silent whilst Odin 
spoke to them, and were deeply and strangely 
moved by this conclusion to his discourse. 

"The Norns," repeated Frigga, "the Fountain 
of Urd, the golden threads of time ! Let us go, 
my children," she said, rising from the table, " let 
us go and look at these things." 

But Odin advised that they should wait until the 
next day, as the journey to Bifrost and back again 
could easily be accomplished in a single morning 

Accordingly, the next day the Aesir  and Disir all 
rose with the sun, and prepared to set forth. Niord 
came from Noatun, the mild sea-coast, which he had 
made his home, and with continual gentle puffings 
out of his wide, breezy mouth, he made their 
journey to Bifrost so easy and pleasant, that they 
all felt a little sorry when they caught the first 
glitter of Heimdall's golden teeth. But Heimdall 
was glad to see them ; glad, at least, for their 
sakes. He thought it would he so good for them 
to go and see the Norns. As far as he himself 
was concerned he never felt dull alone. On the top 
of those bright hills how many meditations he had ! 
Looking far and wide over the earth, how much he 
saw and heard ! 

"Come already!" said Heimdall to the Aesir, 
stretching out his long, white hands to welcome 
them; " come already ! Ah! this is Niord's doing. 
How do you do, nephew ? " said he ; for Niord aud 
Heimdall were distantly related. 

" How sweet and fresh it is up here ! " remarked 
Frigga, looking all round, and feeling that it would 

be polite to say something. "You are very happy, 
Sir," continued she, "in having always such fine 
scenery about you, and in being the guardian of 
such a bridge." 

And in truth Frigga might well say " such a 
bridge ; " for the like of it was never seen on the 
ground. Trembling and glittering it swung across 
the sky, up from the top of the mountain to 
the clouds, and down again to the distant sea. 

" Bifrost ! Bifrost ! " exclaimed the Aesir, wonder- 
ingly ; and Heimdall was pleased at their surprise. 

" At the arch's highest point," said he, pointing 
upward, " rises that fountain of which I spoke. 
Do you wish to see it to-day?" 

" That do we, indeed," cried all the Aesir in a 
breath. " Quick, Heimdall, and unlock the bridge's 
golden gate." 

Then Heimdall took all his keys out, and fitted 
them into the diamond lock till he found the right 
one, and the gate flew open, with a sound at the 
same time sad and cheerful, like the dripping 
of leaves after a thunder-shower. 

The Aesir pressed in ; but, as they passed him, 
Heimdall laid his hand upon Thor's shoulder, and 
said, "I am very sorry, Thor; but it cannot be 
helped. You must go to the fountain alone by 
another way; for you are so strong and heavy, 
that if you were to put your foot on Bifrost, either 
it would tremble in pieces beneath your weight, 
or take fire from the friction of your iron heels. 
Yonder, however, are two river-clouds, called Kormt 
and Ermt, through which you can wade to the 
Sacred Urd, and you will assuredly reach it in 
time, though the waters of the clouds are strong 
and deep." 

At the words of Heimdall Thor fell back from 
the bridge's head, vexed and sorrowful. " Am I 
to be sent away, then, and have to do disagreeable 
things," said he, "just because I am so strong? 
After all, what are Urda and the Norns to me, 
and Kormt and Ermt ? I will go back to Asgard 
again." 

"Nay, Thor," said Odin, "I pray you, do not 
anything so foolish. Think again, I beseech you,

what it is that we are going to see and hear. 
Kormt and Ermt lie before you, as Bifrost before 
us. It is yonder, above both, that we go. Neither 
can it much matter, Thor, whether we reach 
the Fountain of Urd over Bifrost or through the 
cloud." 

Then Thor blushed with shame at his own 
weakness, which had made him regret his strength ; 
and, without any more grumbling or hanging 
back, he plunged into the dreadful river-clouds, 
whose dark vapours closed round him and co- 
vered him. He was hidden from sight, and 
the Msiv went on their way over the glittering 
bridge, 

Daintily and airily they trod over it ; they swung 
themselves up the swinging arch ; they reached its 
summit on a pale, bright cloud. Thor was there 
already waiting for them, drenched and weary, 
but cheerful and bold. Then, altogether, they 
knocked at the door of the pale, bright cloud ; it 
blew open, and they passed in. Oh ! then what 
did they see ! Looking up to an infinite height 

through the purple air, they saw towering above 
thern Yggdrasil's fairest branches, leafy and of 
a tender green, which also stretched far and wide ; 
but, though they looked long, the Aesir could dis- 
tinguish no topmost bough, and it almost seemed 
to them that, from somewhere up above, this mighty 
earth-tree must draw another root, so firmly and 
so tall it grew. On one side stood the Palace of 
the Noras, which was so bright that it almost 
blinded them to look at it, and on the other the 
Urda fountain plashed its cool waters — rising, fall- 
ing, glittering, as nothing ever glitters on this side 
the clouds. Two ancient swans swam under the 
fount, and around it sat Three. Ah ! how shall I 
describe them — Urd, Verdandi, Skuld. They were 
mighty, they were wilful, and one was veiled. 
Sitting upon the Doomstead, they watched the 
water as it rose and fell, and passed golden threads 
from one to another. Verdandi plucked them 
with busy fingers from Skuld's reluctant hand, 
and wove them in and out quickly, almost care- 
lessly ; for some she tore and blemished, and 


some she cruelly spoiled. Then Urd took the 
woof away from her, smoothed its rough places, 
and covered up some of the torn, gaping holes ; 
but she hid away many of the bright parts, too, 
and then rolled it all round her great roller, 
Oblivion, which grew thicker and heavier every 
moment. And so they went on, Yerdandi draw- 
ing from Skuld, and Urd from Verdandi; but 
whence Skuld drew her separate bright threads 
no one could see. She never seemed to reach 
the end of them, and neither of the sisters ever 
stopped or grew weary of her work. 

The Esir stood apart watching, and it was a 
great sight. They looked in the face of Urd, 
and fed on wisdom; they studied the countenance 
of Verdandi, and drank bitter strength; they 
glanced through the veil of Skuld, and tasted 
hope. At length, with full hearts, they stole away 
silently, one by one, out by the pale, open door, 
re-crossed the bridge, and stood once more by 
the side of Heimdall on the heavenly hills ; then 
they went home again. Nobody spoke as they 
went; but ever afterwards it was an understood 

thing that the Aesir should fare to the Doornstead 
of the Nornir once in every day. 



William. — " Is that all there is about Odin?" 

Aunt Margaret. — " No. As he is the father 
and head of the Aesir, you will hear more or less 
of hirn in every tale." 

Ethel. — " I am glad of that, for I like what 
I have heard. There are many wonderful things 
in your story, Aunt Margaret ; I should like you 
to explain them to us." 

Aunt M. — " Should you? I am not very fond 
of explaining, as you know of old. Solve the 
riddle for yourself if you can. If not, keep it 
in your mind, and some day the casket will open, 
and you will find the jewel, and like it better than 
if I had found it for you." 

Harry. — " Some of the meaning I do see 

already. Hela is death, and she is the daughter 
of Loki, sin ; but Jormungand, the serpent, with 
his tail in his mouth, what does he mean?" 

William. — " A serpent with a tail in his mouth 
is the emblem of eternity. Is Jormungand a type 
of the effects of sin ? and does it mean to imply 
that they are eternal ? " 

Aunt M. — " I am not sure. I think he may be 
the expression of that thought." 

Uncle Alice. — " It is a pagan thought, and I 
am glad you have noticed it. We shall be con- 
stantly surprised at the wonderful truth shadowed 
forth in these fables ; but let us be careful to notice 
how far it can go. Evil, and sin, and death, and the 
combat between good and evil, our pagan fore- 
fathers knew ; but the victory over sin and death 
they could, at best, only dimly long for. That is 
the revelation of the Gospel ; the message of the 
life and death of Jesus Christ." 

Alice. — " I hope we shall hear more of Niord's 
children, Frey and Freyja, and of the little light 
elves." 


Aunt Helen. — " We must not talk of them to- 
night. The} T belong to Friday." 

Charlie. — " One thing I must ask. Why could 
not Thor go over the beautiful bridge ? I think, 
with him, it was too bad that, just because he 
was strong, he must go to the Doomstead in such 
an uncomfortable way." 

Aunt M. — " Perhaps it is to show us that great 
gifts are not always for the happiness of the 
possessor. The old Northmen knew well enough 
that people must often do painful things just be- 
cause they are strong." 

Aunt H. — " Think of Kormt and Ermt the 
next time you have anything difficult to do, and 
of what Odin says — that it matters little whether 
we reach the Fountain of Urd over Bifrost or 
through the flood." 

William. — " Are there any old customs or words 
to be explained by what we have heard to-night?" 

Uncle A. — " None remarkable enough to interest you. I think, however, that the old custom 
of bringing a boar's head to table on Christmas 

night may have originated from some recollection 
of the great boar, Saehrimnir, which formed the food 
of the gods in Valhalla, and which, killed at night, 
always came to life in the morning." 

Charlie. — " 0, Aunt Helen! don't yon re- 
member it says in ' Sintram ' that the custom of 
bringing a wild boar's head on the table, and pro- 
nouncing vows over it, was a relic of pagan manners?" 

Aunt H. — " Aunt Margaret has left out one 
little story about Odin that I think will please 
you. He had two ravens, who sat one on each 
shoulder. They were called Hugin and Munin, 
and he sent them out into Manheim every day 
to bring him word what passed among men. He 
used to say, according to the Voluspa — 

' Hugin and Munin 
Each dawn take their flight 
Earth's fields over. 
I fear me for Hugin 
Lest he come not back, 
But much more for Munin.' 

Hugin is supposed to mean thought, and Munin 
memory." 
Alfred. — " I wonder whether that has anything 
to do with the superstition that it is unlucky to see 
a raven, or with the saying, • a little bird told me.' " 

Aunt M. — "It may or may not ; but if we go on 
talking too long we shall begin to fancy that every- 
thing may be explained by Northern Mythology. 
Ah! that is the tea-bell." 



CHAPTER III. 

THURSDAY (THOR'S-DAY). 

"My strength is as the strength of ten." 

Sir Galahad. 

Charlie. — "Thursday means Thor's-day, of 
course. I think I have heard something of him." 

Harry. — "Of course you have; every one has 
heard of Thor, and of the giant's glove which he 
took for a house." 

Alice. — " Don't spoil the story by telling little 
bits of it." 

Uncle Alice. — "He had better not; and as it 
is rather a long story I shall begin at once." 
THOR. 
" Os humerosque Deo similis." 

Harry. — " Latin ! 0, Uncle Alick ! " 

Uncle A. — " If you interrupt me again it shall 
all be Latin, with, perhaps, a little Greek ; so take 
care. Never mind, Alice ; that was only the motto. 
Now I am beginning." 



HOW THOR WENT TO JOTUNHETM. 





PART I. 

FROM ASGARD TO UTGARD. 

There are a great many stories about Asa Thor. 
I shall not have time to tell you all of them, and 
so I have chosen one which begins with your 
favourite sentence, " Once on a time." 

Once on a time, then, Asa Thor and Loki set 
out on a journey from Asgard to Jotunheim. They 
travelled in Thor's chariot, drawn by two milk- 
white goats. It was a somewhat cumbrous iron 
chariot, and the wheels made a rumbling noise as 
it moved, which sometimes startled the Disir of 

Asgard, and made them tremble ; but Thor liked 
it, thought the noise sweeter than any music, and 
was never so happy as when he was journeying in 
it from one place to another. 

They travelled all day, and in the evening they 
came to a countryman's house. It was a poor, 
lonely place ; but Thor descended from his chariot, 
and determined to pass the night there. The 
countryman, however, had no food in his house to 
give these travellers ; and Thor, who liked to feast 
himself and make eveiy one feast with him, was 
obliged to kill his own two goats and serve them 
up for supper. He invited the countryman and 
his wife and children to sup with him ; but before 
they began to eat he made one request of them. 

"Do not, on any account," he said, "break or 
throw away any of the bones of the goats you are 
going to eat for supper." 

" I wonder why," said the peasant's son, Thialfl, 
to his sister Eoska. Roska could not think of 
any reason, and by-and-by Thialfl happened to 
have a very nice little bone given him with some 

marrow in it. " Certainly there can be no harm 
in my breaking just this one," he said to himself; 
"it would be such a pity to lose the marrow;" 
and as Asa Thor's head was turned another way, 
he slyly broke the bone in two, sucked the marrow, 
and then threw the pieces into the goats' skins, 
where Thor had desired that all the bones might 
be placed. I do not know whether Thialfi was 
uneasy during the night about what he had done; 
but in the morning he found out the reason of Asa 
Thor's command, and received a lesson on "wonder- 
ing why," which he never forgot all his life after. 

As soon as Asa Thor rose in the morning he 
took his hammer, Miolnir, in his hand, and held it 
over the goat-skins as they lay on the floor, whisper- 
ing runes the while. They were dead skins with 
dry bones on them when he began to speak ; but as 
he said the last word, Thialfi, who was looking 
curiously on, saw two live goats spring up and walk 
towards the chariot, as fresh and well as when they 
brought the chariot up to the door Thialfi hoped. 
But no ; one of the goats limped a little with his 

hind leg, and Asa Thor saw it. His brow grew 
dark as he looked, and for a minute Thialfi thought 
he would run far, far into the forest, and never 
come back again ; but one look more at Asa Thor's 
face, angry as it was, made him change his mind. 
He thought of a better thing to do than running 
away. He came forward, threw himself at the 
Asa's feet, and, confessing what he had done, begged 
pardon for his disobedience. Thor listened, and 
the displeased look passed away from his face. 

" You have done wrong, Thialfi," he said, raising 
him up ; " but as you have confessed your fault so 
bravely, instead of punishing you, I will take you 
with me on my journey, and teach you myself the 
lesson of obedience to the Aesir  which is, I see, 
wanted." 

Roska chose to go with her brother, and from 
that day Thor had two faithful servants, who fol- 
lowed him wherever he went. 

The chariot and goats were now left behind ; but, 
with Loki and his two new followers, Thor journeyed on to the end of Manheim, over the sea, and 
then on, on, on in the strange, barren, misty land of 
Jotunheim. Sometimes they crossed great moun- 
tains ; sometimes they had to make their way among 
torn and rugged rocks, which often, through the 
mist, appeared to them to wear the forms of men, 
and once for a whole day they traversed a thick and 
tangled forest. In the evening of that day, being 
very much tired, they saw with pleasure that they 
had come upon a spacious hall, of which the door, as 
broad as the house itself, stood wide open. 

" Here we may very comfortably lodge for the 
night," said Thor ; and they went in and looked 
about them. 

The house appeared to be perfectly empty ; there 
was a wide hall, and five smaller rooms opening into 
it. They were, however, too tired to examine it care- 
fully, and as no inhabitants made their appearance, 
they ate their supper in the hall, and lay down to 
sleep. But they had not rested long before they 
were disturbed by strange noises, groanings, mut- 
terings, and snortings, louder than any animal that 
they had ever seen in their lives could make. By- 

and-by the house began to shake from side to side, 
and it seemed as if the very earth trembled. Thor 
sprang up in haste, and ran to the open door ; but, 
though he looked earnestly into the starlit forest, 
there was no enemy to be seen anywhere. Loki 
and Thialfi, after groping about for a time, found 
a sheltered chamber to the right, where they 
thought they could finish their night's rest in safety; 
but Thor, with Miolnir in his hand, watched at 
the door of the house all night. As soon as the day 
dawned he went out into the forest, and there, 
stretched on the ground close by the house, he saw 
a strange, uncouth, gigantic shape of a man, out of 
whose nostrils came a breath which swayed the trees 
to their very tops. There was no need to wonder 
any longer what the disturbing noises had been. 
Thor fearlessly walked up to this strange monster 
to have a better look at him ; but at the sound of 
his footsteps the giant-shape rose slowly, stood up 
an immense height, and looked down upon Thor with 
two great misty eyes, like blue mountain-lakes. 
"Who are you?" said Thor, standing on tiptoe, 

and stretching his neck to look np ; " and why do 
you make such a noise as to prevent your neigh- 
bours from sleeping?" 

"My name is Skrymir," said the giant sternly ; 
" I need not ask yours. You are the little Asa 
Thor of Asgard ; but pray, now, what have you 
done with my glove ? " 

As he spoke he stooped down, and picked up 
the hall where Thor and his companions had 
passed the night, and which, in truth, was nothing 
more than his glove, the room where Loki and 
Thialfi had slept being the thumb. 

Thor rubbed his eyes, and felt as if he must 
be dreaming. Rousing himself, however, he raised 
Miolnir in his hand, and, trying to keep his eyes 
fixed on the giant's face, which seemed to be 
always changing, he said, " It is time that you 
should know, Skrymir, that I am come to Jotun- 
heim to fight and conquer such evil giants as 
you are, and, little as you think me, I am ready 
to try my strength against yours." 

" Try it, then," said the giant. 

And Thor, without another word, threw Miolnir 
at his head. 

" Ah ! Ah ! " said the giant ; " did a leaf touch me ? " 

Again Thor seized Miolnir, which always re- 
turned to his hand, however far he cast it from 
him, and threw it with all his force. 

The giant put up his hand to his forehead. " I 
think," he said, " that an acorn must have fallen 
on my head." 

A third time Thor struck a hlow, the heaviest 
that ever fell from the hand of an Asa; but this 
time the giant laughed out loud. 

" There is surely a bird on that tree," he said, 
" who has let a feather fall on my face." 

Then, without taking any further notice of Thor, 
he swung an immense wallet over his shoulder, and, 
turning his back upon him, struck into a path that 
led from the forest. When he had gone a little 
way he looked round, his immense face appearing 
less like a human countenance than some strange, 
uncouthly-shaped stone toppling on a mountain 
precipice. 

" Ving-Thor"* he said, " let me give you a piece 
of good advice before I go. When you get to 
Utgard don't make much of yourself. You think 
me a tall man, but you have taller still to see ; and 
you yourself are a very little mannikin. Turn back 
home whence you came, and be satisfied to have 
learned something of yourself by your journey to 
Jbtunheim." 

" Mannikin or not, that will I never do," shouted 
Asa Thor after the giant. " We will meet again, 
and something more will we learn, or teach each 
other." 

The giant, however, did not turn back to answer, 
and Thor and his companions, after looking for 
some time after him, resumed their journey. Before 
the sun was quite high in the heavens they came 
out of the forest, and at noon they found themselves 
on a vast barren plain, where stood a great city, 
whose walls of dark, rough stone were so high, 
that Thor had to bend his head quite far back to 
see the top of them. When they approached the 
entrance of this city they found that the gates were 
closed and barred ; but the space between the bars 
was so large that Thor passed through easily, and 
his companions followed him. The streets of the 
city were gloomy and still. They walked on for 
some time without meeting any one ; but at length 
they came to a very high building, of which the 
gates stood open. 

" Let us go in and see what is going on here," 
said Thor ; and they went. 

After crossing the threshold they found themselves 
in an immense banqueting-hall. A table stretched 
from one end to the other of it ; stone thrones stood 
round the table, and on every throne sat a giant, 
each one, as Thor glanced round, appearing more 
grim, and cold, and stony than the rest. One 
among them sat on a raised seat, and appeared to 
be the chief; so to him Thor approached, and paid 
his greetings. 

The giant chief just glanced at him, and, without 
rising, said, in a somewhat careless manner, "It 
is, I think, a foolish custom to tease tired travellers

with questions about their journey. I know with- 
out asking that you, little fellow, are Asa Thor. 
Perhaps, however, you may be in reality taller than 
you appear; and as it is a rule here that no one 
shall sit down to table till they have performed 
some wonderful feat, let us hear what you and your 
followers are famed for, and in what way you choose 
to prove yourselves worthy to sit down in the com- 
pany of giants." 

At this speech, Loki, who had entered the hall 
cautiously behind Thor, pushed himself forward. 

" The feat for which I am most famed," he said, 
" is eating, and it is one which I am just now 
inclined to perform with right good will. Put food 
before me, and let me see if any of your followers 
can despatch it as quickly as I can." 

" The feat you speak of is one by no means 
to be despised," said the King, " and there is one 
here who would be glad to try his powers against 
yours. Let Logi," he said to one of his followers, 
11 be summoned to the hall." 

At this, a tall, thin, yellow-faced man approached. 

and a large trough of meat having heen placed 
in the middle of the hall, Loki sat to work at 
one end, and Logi at the other, and they began to 
eat. I hope I shall never see any one eat as they 
ate; but the giants all turned their slow-moving 
eyes to watch them, and in a few minutes they 
met in the middle of the trough. It seemed, at 
first, as if they had both eaten exactly the same 
quantity ; but, when the thing came to be examined 
into, it was found that Loki had, indeed, eaten 
up all the meat, but that Logi had also eaten the 
bones and the trough. Then the giants nodded 
their huge heads, and determined that Loki was 
conquered. The King now turned to Thialfi, and 
asked what he could do. 

" I was thought swift of foot among the youth 
of my own country," answered Thialfi ; " and I will, 
if you please, try to run a race with any one here." 

" You have chosen a noble sport, indeed," said 
the King ; " but you must be a good runner if you 
could beat him with whom I shall match you." 

Then he called a slender lad, Hugi by name, and 

the whole company left the hall, and, going out by 
an opposite gate to that by which Thor had entered, 
they came out on to an open space, which made a 
noble race-ground. There the goal was fixed, and 
Thialfi and Hugi started off together. 

Thialfi ran fast — fast as the reindeer which hears 
the wolves howling behind ; but Hugi ran so much 
faster that, passing the goal, he turned round, and 
met Thialfi half-way in the course. 

" Try again, Thialfi," cried the King; and Thi- 
alfi, once more taking his place, flew along the 
course with feet scarcely touching the ground — 
swiftly as an eagle when, from his mountain-crag, he 
swoops on his prey in the valley ; but with all his 
running he was still a good bow-shot from the 
goal when Hugi reached it. 

" You are certainly a good runner," said the 
King ; " but if you mean to win you must do a 
little better still than this ; but perhaps you wish 
to surprise us all the more this third time." 

The third time, however, Thialfi was wearied, and 
though he did his best, Hugi, having reached the 
goal, turned and met him not far from the starting- 
point. 

The giants again looked at each other, and de- 
clared that there was no need of further trial, for 
that Thialfi was conquered. 

It was now Asa Thor's turn, and all the company- 
looked eagerly at him, while the Utgard King asked 
by what wonderful feat he chose to distinguish 
himself. 

" I will try a drinking-match with any of you," 
Thor said, shortly ; for, to tell the truth, he cared 
not to perform anything very worthy in the com- 
pany in which he found himself. 

King Utgard appeared pleased with this choice, 
and when the giants had resumed their seats in 
the hall, he ordered one of his servants to bring 
in his drinking-cup, called the " cup of penance," 
which it was his custom to make his guests drain 
at a draught, if they had broken any of the 
ancient rules of the society. 

" There ! " he said, handing it to Thor, " we 
call it well drunk if a person empties it at a single 
draught. Some, indeed, take two to it ; but the 
very puniest can manage it in three." 

Thor looked into the cup ; it appeared to him 
long, but not so very large after all, and being 
thirsty he put it to his lips, and thought to make 
short work of it, and empty it at one good, hearty 
pull. He drank, and put the cup down again; 
but, instead of being empty, it was now just so 
full that it could be moved without danger of 
spilling. 

" Ha ! ha ! You are keeping all your strength 
for the second pull I see," said Utgarda, looking 
in. Without answering, Thor lifted the cup again, 
and drank with all his might till his breath 
failed ; but, when he put down the cup, the liquor 
had only sunk down a little from the brim. 

" If you mean to take three draughts to it," said 
Utgarda, " you are really leaving yourself a very 
unfair share for the last time. Look to yourself, 
Ving-Thor ; for, if you do not acquit yourself better 
in other feats, we shall not think so much of you 
here as they say the Aesir  do in Asgard." 
At this speech Thor felt angry, and, seizing the 
cup again, he drank a third time, deeper and longer 
than he had yet done; but, when he looked into 
the cup, he saw that a very small part only of its 
contents had disappeared. Wearied and disap- 
pointed he put the cup down, and said he would 
try no more to empty it. 

"It is pretty plain," said the King, looking 
round on the company, "that Asa Thor is by no 
means the kind of man we always supposed him 
to be." 

" Nay," said Thor, "I am willing to try another 
feat, and you yourselves shall choose what it shall 
be." 

" Well," said the King, " there is a game at 
which our children are used to play. A short time 
ago I dare not have named it to Asa Thor ; but now 
I am curious to see how he will acquit himself 
in it. It is merely to lift my cat from the ground 
— a childish amusement truly." 

As he spoke a large, grey cat sprang into the 
hall, and Thor, stooping forward, put his hand 


under it to lift it up. He tried gently at first ; 
but by degrees he put forth all his strength, 
tugging and straining as he had never done before ; 
but the utmost he could do was to raise one of 
the cat's paws a little way from the ground. 

"It is just as I thought," said King Utgarda, 
looking round with a smile ; " but we all are will- 
ing to allow that the cat is large, and Thor but a 
little fellow." 

"Little as you think me," cried Thor, "who 
is there who will dare to wrestle with me in my 
anger ? " 

" In truth," said the King, " I don't think 
there is any one here who would choose to wrestle 
with you ; but, if wrestle you must, I will call 
in that old crone Elli. She has, in her time, 
laid low many a better man than Asa Thor has 
shown himself to be." 

The crone came. She was old, withered, and 
toothless, and Thor shrank from the thought of 
wrestling with her; but he had no choice. She 
threw her arms round him, and drew him towards 

the ground, and the harder he tried to free himself, 
the tighter grew her grasp. They struggled long. 
Thor strove bravely, but a strange feeling of weak- 
ness and weariness came over him, and at length 
he tottered and fell down on one knee before her. 
At this sight all the giants laughed aloud, and 
Utgarda coming up, desired the old woman to 
leave the hall, and proclaimed that the trials were 
over. No one of Iris followers would now contend 
with Asa Thor, he said, and night was approaching. 
He then invited Thor and his companions to sit 
down at the table, and spend the night with him 
as his guests. Thor, though feeling somewhat 
perplexed and mortified, accepted his invitation 
courteously, and showed, by his agreeable behaviour 
during the evening, that he knew how to bear 
being conquered with a good grace. 

In the morning, when Thor and his companions 
were leaving the city, the King himself accom- 
panied them without the gates ; and Thor, looking 
steadily at him when he turned to bid him farewell, 
perceived, for the first time, that he was the very 

same Giant Skrymir with whom he had met in 
the forest. 

" Come, now, Asa Thor," said the giant, with 
a strange sort of smile on his face, " tell me truly, 
before you go, how you think your journey has 
turned out, and whether or not I was right in 
saying that you would meet with better men 
than yourself in Jotunheim." 

"I confess freely," answered Asa Thor, looking 
up without any false shame on his face, " that I 
have acquitted myself but humbly, and it grieves 
me ; for I know that in Jotunheim henceforward 
it will be said that I am a man of little worth." 
"By my troth! no," cried the giant, heartily. 
" Never should you have come into my city if 
I had known what a mighty man of valour you 
really are ; and, now that you are safely out of 
it, I will, for once, tell the truth to you, Thor. 
All this time I have been deceiving you by my 
enchantments. When you met me in the forest, 
and hurled Miolnir at my head, I should have 
been crushed by the weight of your blows 

had I not skilfully placed a mountain between 
myself and you, on which the strokes of your 
hammer fell, ' and where you cleft three deep 
ravines, which shall henceforth become verdant 
valleys. In the same manuer I deceived you 
about the contests in which you engaged last night. 
When Loki and Logi sat down before the trough, 
Loki, indeed, eat like hunger itself ; but Logi 
is fire, who, with eager, consuming tongue, licked 
up both bones and trough. Thialfi is the swiftest 
of mortal runners ; but the slender lad, Hugi, 
was my thought ; and what speed can ever equal 
his ? So it was in your own trials. When you 
took such deep draughts from the horn, you little 
knew what a wonderful feat you were performing. 
The other end of that horn reached the ocean, 
and when you come to the shore you will see 
how far its waters have fallen away, and how 
much the deep sea itself has been diminished by 
your draught. Hereafter, men watching the going 
out of the tide will call it the ebb, or draught 
of Thor. Scarcely less wonderful was the prowess 

you displayed in the second trial. What appeared 
to you to he a cat, was, in reality, the Midgard 
serpent, which encircles the world. When we saw 
you succeed in moving it we trembled lest the very 
foundations of earth and sea should he shaken by 
your strength. Nor need you he ashamed of having 
been overthrown by the old woman Elli, for she 
is old age ; and there never has, arid never will 
be, one whom she has not the power to lay low. 
We must now part, and you had better not come 
here again, or attempt anything further against 
my city ; for I shall always defend it by fresh 
enchantments, and you will never be able to do 
anything against me." 

At these words Thor raised Miolnir, and was 
about to challenge the giant to a fresh trial of 
strength ; but, before he could speak, Utgarda 
vanished from his sight; and, turning round to 
look for the city, he found that it, too, had dis- 
appeared, and that he was standing alone on a 
smooth, green, empty plain. 

" What a fool I have been," said Asa Thor, aloud, 


" to allow myself to be deceived by a mountain 
giant ! " 

" Ah," answered a voice from above, " I told 
you, you would learn to know yourself better by 
your journey to Jotunheim. It is the great use 
of travelling." 

Thor turned quickly round again, thiDking to 
see Skrymir behind him; but, after looking on 
every side, he could perceive nothing, but that 
a high, cloud-capped mountain, which he had noticed 
on the horizon, appeared to have advanced to the 
edge of the plain. 




PART II. 

THE SERPENT AND THE KETTLE. 

Thor turned away from Giant-land, and on the 
road homeward he passed through the Sea- King's 
dominions. There he found that Aegir the Old 
was giving a banquet to all the Aesir in his wide 
coral-caves. At a little distance Thor stood still 
to listen and to look. It was a fair sight : cave 
within cave stretched out before him decked with 
choicest shells, whilst far inward lay the banquet- 
ing-hall, lighted with shining gold ; white and red 
coral-pillars stood at uneven distances ; the bright- 
browed Aesir reclined at the board on soft water- 
couches; Aegir's daughters — the fair-haired waves 
— murmured sweet music as they waited on their 


guests; and little baby-ripples ran about laughing 
in all the corners. Thor walked through the caves 
and entered the hall. As he did so Odin looked 
up from his place at Aegir's right hand, and said, — 

"Good evening, son Thor; how has it fared 
with you in Jotunheim?" 

Thor's face grew a little cloudy at this question, 
and he only answered, — 

"Not as it ought to have done, father." Then 
he placed himself amongst Aegir 's guests. 

" In my dominions," said King Mgir, looking 
all round, "an extraordinary thing has happened." 

"And what may that be, brother?" asked Niord. 

"From the shores of Jotunheim," answered 
Aegir, " the sea has run back a quarter of a mile, 
drawing itself away as if a giant were drinking 
it in." 

"Is that all you have got to say, father?" said 
a tall Wave, as she swept her hair over the Sea- 
King's shoulder, and peeped up from behind him ; 
"is that all you know of the wonders which are 
going on in your deep home? Listen." 

Then Aegir bent forward on his seat ; the Aesir 
all ceased speaking, and drew in their breath ; the 
waves raised their arched necks, and were still, 
listening. From a great way off came the sound 
of a sullen swell. 

"Who is that speaking?" asked Odin. 

11 That is Jormungand speaking," said Thor. 

" And what does he say, Thor?" 

" He says that I could not conquer him." 

" Pass round the foaming mead," cried Aegir, 
who saw that it was time to turn the conversa- 
tion. 

But, alas ! Aegir's mead-kettle was so small, that 
before it had gone half down the table it stood 
empty before Tyr. 

" There is a giant called Hymir," remarked 
Tyr, " who lives far over the stormy waves to east- 
ward, at the end of heaven." 

The Aesir all looked up. 

" He has a kettle," Tyr went on to say, " which 
is a mile deep, and which would certainly hold 
mead enough for all this company." 


" If Hymir would lend it to us," said Aegir , " we 
could finish our supper ; but who would go to the 
end of heaven to borrow a kettle ? " 

Then Thor rose from the table, and began to 
tighten round him his belt of power ; he put on his 
iron gloves, and took Miolnir in his hand. 

"What! off again to Giant-land, Ving-Thor?" 
cried Jgir. 

"Didn't you say you wanted Mile-deep?" said 
Thor. " I am going to borrow it of Hymir for you. 
Will you come with me, Tyr ? " 

Tyr sprang up joyfully, and the two brothers 
started on their journey. When they arrived 
at Hymir' s dwelling, which was a roughly-hewn 
cavern on the shore of a frozen sea, the first 
person they met was a wonderful giantess with 
nine hundred heads, in which glittered fiery eyes, 
and which grew out from all parts of her body, so 
that it was impossible to tell whether she was 
walking upon her head or her heels. As Thor and 
Tyr were looking at her, trying to discover this, 
a woman came out of the giant's home quite as

lovely as the giantess was hideous. She greeted 
them on the threshold. Her golden hair fell thick 
upon her shoulders ; her mild eyes shone upon 
them ; and with words of welcome she held out 
her hands, and led them into the cavern. There 
she offered them meat and drink, and bade them 
rest until her husband, Hymir, should come home. 
As the darkness came on, however, and the time 
of his expected return drew near, she became silent 
and anxious ; and at last she said, " I am very much 
afraid that my husband will be angry if he sees 
strangers here when he comes in. Take my advice, 
now, Asa Thor and Asa Tyr, and hide behind one 
of those pillars in the rock. My lord, I assure you, 
is surly sometimes, and not nearly so hospitable 
as I could wish." 

" We are not accustomed to hide ourselves," 
remarked Thor. 

" But you shall come forth when I call you," 
answered the woman. 

So the -Esir did as she desired. By-and-by 
they heard heavy footsteps far off, over the frozen

sea, coming nearer and nearer every moment. The 
distant icebergs resounded, and at last Hymir 
burst open the door of his cavern, and stalked 
angrily in. He had been unsuccessful that day 
in the chase, his hands were frost-bitten, and a 
"hard-frozen wood stood upon his cheek." 

As soon as the fair-browed woman saw what mood 
he was in she went gently towards him, placed her 
hand in his, and told him of the arrival of the 
guests ; then, with a sweet smile and voice, she 
entreated him to receive the strangers kindly, and 
entertain them hospitably. 

Hymir made no answer; but, at one glance of 
his eye towards the place where the Aesir  were 
hidden, the pillar burst asunder, and the cross- 
beam which it supported fell with a crash to the 
ground. Eight ponderous kettles had been hang- 
ing on the beam, and all but one were shivered 
to atoms. 

Thor and Tyr then stepped forth into the middle 
of the hall, and Hymir received them civilly, after 
which he turned his attention to supper; and, having 

cooked three whole oxen, he invited the Aesir to 
eat with him. Thor fell to work with great relish, 
and when he had eaten the whole of one ox, pre- 
pared to cut a slice out of another. 

"You eat a great deal," said Hymir, sulkily; 
hut Thor was still very hungry, and went on with 
his supper until he had eaten two entire oxen. 
Then said Hyrnir, "Another night, Ving-Thor, 
you must provide your own supper; for I can't 
undertake to keep so expensive a guest." 

Accordingly, early the next morning, Hymir 
prepared to go out fishing, and offered Thor a 
place in his boat. On their way to the shore 
they passed a herd of oxen feeding. 

" Have you provided a bait for me?" said Thor 
to the giant. 

" You must get one for yourself," answered 
Hymir, surlily. 

So Thor was obliged to cut off the head of one 
of the oxen for a bait. 

" You 'll never be able to carry that head," said 
Hymir ; for, in truth, the ox to which it had 

belonged was an enormous animal, called " Heaven 
Breaking." 

But Thor made nothing of the head, slung it 
over his shoulder, and carried it down to the boat. 
As they got under weigh, Thor and Hymir each 
took an oar; but Thor pulled so fast, and with 
such mighty strokes, that the giant was obliged 
to stop for breath, and beg that they might go no 
further. 

"We have already reached the spot," he said, 
" where I always catch the finest whales." 

" But I want to go further out to sea," said 
Thor. 

" That will be dangerous, Ving-Thor," said 
Hymir; "for if we row any further we shall come 
to the waters under which Jormungand lies." 

Thor laughed, and rowed on. At last he stopped, 
baited his hook with the ox's head, and cast the 
line out into the sea, whilst Hymir leant over the 
other side of the boat, and caught two whales. 

Now, when the great Jormungand smelt Thor's 
bait he opened wide his monstrous jaws, and eagerly 

sucked in both head, and hook, and line ; but no 
sooner did he feel the pain than he struggled so 
fiercely, and plunged so wildly, that Thor's hands 
were in an instant dashed against the sides of the 
boat. Still Thor did not lose his hold, but went 
on pulling with such wondrous force that his 
feet burst through the boat, and rested on the 
slippery rocks beneath. At last the venomous 
monster's mountain-high head was hauled above 
the waves, and then, indeed, it was a dreadful 
sight to see Thor, in all the power of his god-like 
strength, casting his fiery looks on the serpent, 
and the serpent glaring upon him, and spitting 
forth poisoned venom. Even Hymir's sun-burnt 
cheek ' changed colour as he beheld beneath his 
feet the sinking boat, and at his side the deadliest 
monster of the deep. At last, in the wildness of 
his fear, he rushed before Thor, and cut his line 
in sunder. Immediately the serpent's head began 
to sink ; but Thor hurled Miolnir with fearful force 
after it into the waters. 

Then did the rocks burst ; it thundered through 



98 . 

the caverns ; old mother earth all shrank ; even the 
fishes sought the bottom of the ocean ; but the 
serpent sank back, with a long, dull sound, be- 
neath the waves, a deep wound in his head, and 
smothered vengeance in his heart. 

Ill at ease and silent, Hymir then turned to go 
home, and Thor followed him, carrying boat and 
oars, and everything else, on his shoulders. Now, 
every fresh sight of Thor increased the giant's 
envy and rage ; for he could not bear to think 
that he had shown so little courage before his 
brave guest, and, besides, losing his boat and get- 
ting so desperately wet in his feet by wading 
home through the sea, did not by any means 
improve his temper. When they got home, there- 
fore, and were supping together, he began jeering 
and taunting Thor. 

" No doubt, Asa Thor," he said, " you think 
yourself a good rower and a fine fisher, though 
you did not catch anything to-day; but can you 
break that drinking- cup before you, do you think ? " 

Thor seized the cup, and dashed it against an 



. 99 

upright stone. But, lo ! the stone was shattered in pieces, and the cup unbroken. Again, with 

greater strength, he hurled the cup against the 

pillars in the rock : it was still without a crack. 

Now, it happened that the beautiful woman was 

sitting spinning at her wheel just behind where 

Thor was standing. From time to time she chanted 

snatches of old runes and sagas in soft tones ; and 

now, when Thor stood astonished that the cup was 

not broken, the woman's voice fell on his ear, 

singing low the following words : — 

" Hard the pillar, hard the stone, 
Harder yet the giant's bone. 
Stones shall break and pillars fall ; 
Hymir's forehead breaks them all." 

Then Thor once more took the cup, and hurled 
it against the giant's forehead. The cup was this 
time shivered to pieces ; but Hyrnir himself was 
unhurt, and cried out, " Well done at last, Ving- 
Thor ; but can you carry that mile -deep kettle 
out of my hall, think you?" 

Tyr tried to lift it, and could not even raise the 
handle. 

Then Thor grasped it by the rim, and, as he 
did so, his feet pressed through the floor. With 
a mighty effort he lifted it ; he placed it on his 
head, while the rings rang at his feet ; and so in 
triumph he bore off the kettle, and set out again 
for Aegir's Hall. 

After journeying a little way he chanced to look 
round, and then he saw that a host of many-headed 
giants, with Hymir for their leader, were thronging 
after him. From every cavern, and iceberg, and 
jagged peak some hideous monster grinned and 
leered as a great wild beast waiting for his prey. 
" Treachery ! " cried Thor, as he raised Miolnir 
above his head, and hurled it three times among 
the giants. 

In an instant they stood stiff, and cold, and 
dead, in rugged groups along the shore ; one with 
his arm raised ; another with his head stretched 
out ; some upright, some crouching ; each in the 
position he had last assumed. And there still 
they stand, petrified by ages into giant rocks ; and, 
still pointing their stony fingers at each other, they 

tell the mighty tale of Thor's achievements, and 
the wondrous story of their fate. 

" Pass round the foaming mead," cried King 
Aegir, as Thor placed " Mile-deep " on the table ; 
and this time it happened that there was enough 
for every one. 



Charlie. — " Uncle Alick, do you remember our 
going to see the great iron hammer at Crewe, that 
could either crack a nut or break a bar of iron 
in pieces '? I thought of it when you were talking 
of Miolnir." 

Harry. — " So did I. It ought to be called 
Miolnir; it is quite as wonderful. How very odd 
it is that there should really be such a thing ! 
I remember Aunt Helen saying at the time some- 
thing about a fairy tale come true. I did not 
know then what she was thinking of." 

Aunt Margaret, — 
" ' The fairy tales of science and the long results of time.'" 

Aunt Helen. — " ' The long results of time ? ' 
Yes ; the thought translated into fact." 

William. — " But, Aunt Helen, you don't mean 
that the man who invented that Crewe hammer 
thought of Miolnir?" 

Aunt H. — " I don't know whether he did or 
not ; but, William, the people who so long ago 
talked of Miolnir had the same desire in their 
minds of seeing matter subdued by the strength 
of man, which the inventor of that Crewe hammer 
has partly realised." 

Aunt M. — " I wonder why the fact is so much 
less attractive than the fiction ; why Thor and 
Miolnir are poetry, and Crewe and the workshop 
prose." 

Aunt H. — " But I can't allow that it is so." 

Charlie. — " Have any other fairy-tale wonders 
been realised? I am afraid not; most of them 
are too impossible — shoes of swiftness, for in- 
stance." 

Aunt H. — " Nay, that is quite an old story 
now. What else are railroads, pray?" 

Harry. — " At all events we have not got For- 
tunatus's purse, or the cap of invisibility yet." 

Uncle A. — " A chance for you, boys. Philip 
has not conquered the whole world ; there is 
something left for Alexander to do." 

William. — " But I want to ask you about 
Thor and the mountain-giant. Is it anything but 
an amusing story? Is there any meaning in it?" 

Uncle A. — " Can't you guess what Thor is a 
type of? His name will help you to it." 

Charlie. — " I can ; he is thunder. You said 
the wheels of his chariot made a rumbling noise." 

Uncle A. — "True; everything that we read 
about Thor in the Edda helps us to that ex- 
planation. His home was called Dense Gloom ; his 
hall Bright Space ; his goats had strange, hard- 
sounding names, that are supposed to have re- 
ference to the sound of thunder ; and the name of 
his mallet — Miolnir — means the crusher. It 
evidently represents the thunder-bolt. Tliialfi, the 
swift runner, is said to be typical of the fast-falling 
thunder-shower." 

Aunt M. — " I call that a meagre, unsatisfactory 
explanation. It puts all the moral out of the story." 

Uncle A. — "I can't help that; I can only 
explain the stories as I understand them." 

William. — "What do the mountain-giant's en- 
chantments mean ? " 

Uncle A. — " I don't know." 

Aunt M. — " Let me see if I can't bring them 
into my explanation. Thor is, I think, a per- 
sonification of strength and courage. His constant 
warfare with frost and mountain-giants is typical 
of the hard toil, the actual battle with difficulties 
and apparent impossibilities in which men must 
engage, in order to subdue the earth, and win 
for themselves the gifts which God has ordained 
shall only be yielded up to toil and effort. Think 
of the hard, unkind soil with which the old North- 
men had to deal — the dark, long winters — the 
frost and storms, which must have seemed to fight 
against them like living enemies, and you will 
see that Thor's contest with the giants was a very 
fair picture of their own battle of life." 

Harry. — "But the enchantments?" 

Aunt M. — " I think they typify the optical 
delusions which the inhabitants of the misty 
northern countries must have so often observed. 
You have read of them in books of northern travel ; 
of mountains appearing and disappearing ; of double 
suns in the heavens ; of armies ; of ships appearing 
in the air ; of natural, well-known objects assuming, 
at times, strange, threatening shapes. Kemember 
that it was a misty mountain-giant who played all 
those tricks, and that Jotunheim is always repre- 
sented as a dark, frozen land, wrapped in clouds 
and mists." 

William. — " I thought that Jotunheim and the 
giants were types of moral evil, and that the mist 
and darkness meant error and sin." 

Aunt M. — " So they do ; but surely the thoughts 
are not so far apart but that the same type may 
picture them both. I think, indeed, that there 
is no end to the meaning of these northern em- 
blems ; and the more we think of them the deeper 
the lessons we shall learn." 


Uncle A. — " If that is your idea, it is as well 
for our patience, perhaps, that we have only one 
week to tell the stories in." 

Haeey. — "Aunt Helen, is the word thunder 
derived from Thor ? " 

Aunt H. — "You lazy fellow! Get the glossary 
and look for yourself. I am not going to tell you 
everything." 

Haeey. — " Ah ! I see you have forgotten to 
look yourself, Aunt Helen." 





CHAPTER IV. 



FRIDAY (FREY'S-DAY). 

" And on the tawny sands and shelves 
Trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves." 

COMUS. 

Alice. — " I am glad it is Friday ; for I am 
anxious to hear something more of Niord's children, 
and of the little elves." 

Alfred. — "Is Friday called after Frey or 
Freyja?" 

Aunt Margaret. — " I don't know ; they were 
both very important personages. We will say 
Freyja, because, as the other days are called after 
heroes, we will hope that the Northmen had the  

politeness to name one after a heroine, and the 
Queen of Beauty, too." 

Willtam. — "The Queen of Beauty! She was 
something like Veuus or Aphrodite, then?" 

Uncle Alice. — " Not at all like ; and you ought 
to know that Venus and Aphrodite are as unlike 
each other as Freyja is different from both." 

Aunt Helen. — " With all due deference to 
Freyja and beauty, I think that Friday is Frey's 
namesake ; and so, if you please, you shall hear 
of him first." 



PART I. 

ON TIPTOE IN AIR THRONE. 

I told you, some time ago, how Van Frey went 
away into Alfheim with the light elves, of whom 
Odin made him king and schoolmaster. 

You have heard what Frey was like, and the 
kind of lessons he promised to teach his pupils, 
so you can imagine what pleasant times they had 
of it in Alfheim. 

Wherever Frey came there was summer and 
sunshine. Flowers sprang up under his foot- 
steps, and bright-winged insects, like flying flowers, 


hovered round his head. His warm breath ripened 
the fruit on the trees, and gave a bright yellow 
colour to the corn, and purple bloom to the 
grapes, as he passed through fields and vineyards. 

When he rode along in his car, drawn by the 
stately boar, Golden Bristles, soft winds blew before 
him, filling the air with fragrance, and spreading 
abroad the news, "VanFrey is coming!" and every 
half-closed flower burst into perfect beauty, and 
forest, and field, and hill, flushed their richest 
colours to greet his presence. 

Under Frey's care and instruction the pretty 
little light elves forgot their idle ways, and learned 
all the pleasant tasks he had promised to teach 
them. It was the prettiest possible sight to see 
them in the evening filling their tiny buckets, and 
running about among the woods and meadows to 
hang the dew-drops deftly on the slender tips of 
the grass-blades, or to drop them into the half- 
closed cups of the sleepy flowers. When this last 
of their day's tasks was over they used to cluster 
round their summer -king, like bees about the 

queen, while he told them stories about the wars 
between the Aesir and the giants, or of the old 
time when he lived alone with his father, Niord, 
in Noatun, and listened to the waves singing songs 
of far-distant lands. So pleasantly did they spend 
their time in Alfheim. 

But in the midst of all this work and play 
Frey had a wish in his mind, of which he could 
not help often talking to his clear-minded mes- 
senger and friend Skirnir. " I have seen many 
things," he used to say, " and travelled through 
many lands; but to see all the world at once, as 
Asa Odin does from Air Throne, that must be a 
splendid sight." 

"Only Father Odin may sit on Air Throne," 
Skirnir would say; and it seemed to Frey that 
this answer was not so much to the purpose as 
his friend's sayings generally were. 

At length, one very clear summer evening, when 
Odin was feasting with the other ttsiv in Valhalla, 
Frey could restrain his curiosity no longer. He 
left Alfheim, where all the little elves were fast 

asleep, and, without asking any one's advice, 
climbed into Air Throne, and stood on tiptoe in 
Odin's very seat. It was a clear evening, and I 
had, perhaps, better not even try to tell you what 
Frey saw. 

He looked first all round him over Manheim, 
where the rosy light of the set sun still lingered, 
and where men, and birds, and flowers were gather- 
ing themselves up for the night's repose ; then he 
glanced towards the heavenly hills where Bifrost 
rested, and then towards the shadowy land which 
deepened down into Niflheim. At length he turned 
his eyes northward to the misty land of Jotun- 
heim. There the shades of evening had already 
fallen ; but from his high place Frey could still 
see distinct shapes moving about through the 
gloom. Strange and monstrous shapes they were, 
and Frey stood a little higher, on tiptoe, that he 
might look further after them. In this position 
he could just descry a tall house standing on a hill 
in the very middle of Jotunheim. While he looked 
at it a maiden came and lifted up her arms to 

undo the latch of the door. It was dusk in 
Jotunheim; but, when this maiden lifted up her 
white arms, such a dazzling reflection came from 
them, that Jotunheim, and the sky, and all the 
sea were flooded with clear light. For a moment 
everything could be distinctly seen; but Frey saw 
nothing but the face of the maiden with the up- 
lifted arms ; and when she had entered the house 
and shut the door after her, and darkness fell again 
on earth, and sky, and sea — darkness fell, too, 
upon Frey's heart. 



PART II. 



THE GIFT. 
The next morning, when the little elves awoke 
up with the dawn, and came thronging round 
their king to receive his commands, they were 
surprised to see that he had changed since they 
last saw him, 

" He has grown up in the night," they whispered 
one to another sorrowfully. 

And iu truth he was no longer so fit a teacher 
and playfellow for the merry little people as he 
had been a few hours before. 

It was to no purpose that the sweet winds blew, 
and the flowers opened, when Frey came forth 
from his chamber. A bright white light still 

danced before him, and nothing now seemed to him 
worth looking at. That evening when the sun had 
set, and work was over, there were no stories for 
the light elves. 

" Be still," Frey said, when they pressed round. 
"If you will he still and listen, there are stories 
enough to be heard better than mine." 

I do not know whether the elves heard any- 
thing; but to Frey it seemed that flowers, and 
birds, and winds, and the whispering rivers, united 
that day in singing one song, which he never 
wearied of hearing. 

" We are fair," they said ; " but there is nothing 
in the whole world so fair as Gerda, the giant- 
maiden whom you saw last night iu Jotunheim." 

" Frey has dew-drops in his eyes," the little 
elves said to each other in whispers as they sat 
round looking up at him, and they felt very much 
surprised ; for only to men and the .SCsir is it 
permitted to be sorrowful and weep. 

Soon, however, wiser people noticed the change 
that had come over the summer-king, and his 

good-natured father, Niord, sent Skirnir one day 
into Alfheim to inquire into the cause of Frey's 
sorrow. 

He found him walking alone in a shady place, 
and Frey was glad enough to tell his trouble to 
his wise friend. 

When he had related the whole story, he said, — 

" And now you will see that there is no use in 
asking me to be merry as I used to be ; for how 
can I ever be happy in Alfheim, and enjoy the 
summer and sunshine, while my dear Gerd, whom 
I love, is living in a dark, cold land, among 
cruel giants ? " 

" If she be really as beautiful and beloved as 
you say," answered Skirnir, "she must be sadly out 
of place in Jotunheim. Why do not you ask her 
to be your wife, and live with you in Alfheim?" 

"That would I only too gladly do," answered 

Frey; "but if I were to leave Alfheim only for 

a few hours, the cruel giant, Byrne,* would rush 

in to take my place; all the labours of the year 

* Eyme— the Frost Giant. 

would be undone in a night, and the poor, toiling 
men, who are watching for the harvest, would 
wake some morning to find their corn-fields and 
orchards buried in snow." 

"Well," said Skirnir, thoughtfully, "I am neither 
so strong nor so beautiful as you, Frey; but, if 
you will give me the sword that hangs by your 
side, I will undertake the journey to Jotunheim; 
and I will speak in such a way of you, and of 
Alfheim, to the lovely Gerd, that she will gladly 
leave her land and the house of her giant-father 
to come to you." 

Now, Frey's sword was a gift, and he knew 
well enough that he ought not to part with it, 
or trust it in any hands but his own ; and yet 
how could he expect Skirnir to risk all the 
dangers of Jiitunheim for any less recompense' 
than an enchanted sword ? and what other hope 
had he of ever seeing his dear Gerda again? 

He did not allow himself a moment to think of 
the choice he was making. He unbuckled his sword 
from his side and put ' it into Skirnir's hands ; 



and then he turned rather pettishly away, and 
threw himself down on a mossy bank under a tree. 

"You will be many days in travelling to Jotun- 
heim," he said, "and all that time I shall be 
miserable." 

Skirnir was too sensible to think this speech 
worth answering. He took a hasty farewell of 
Frey, and prepared to set off on his journey; 
but, before he left the hill, he chanced to see 
the reflection of Frey's face in a little pool of 
water that lay near. In spite of its sorrow- 
ful expression, it was as beautiful as the woods 
are in full summer, and a clever thought came 
into Skirnir 's mind. He stooped down, without 
Frey's seeing him, and, with cunning touch, stole 
the picture out of the water ; then he fastened 
it up carefully in his silver drinking-horn, and, 
hiding it in his mantle, he mounted his horse 
and rode towards Jotunheim, secure of succeeding 
in his mission, since he carried a matchless sword 
to conquer the giant, and a matchless picture to 
win the maiden 



PART III. 



FAIREST GERD. 



I told you that the house of Gymir, Gerda's 
father, stood in the middle of Jotunheim, so it will 
not be difficult for you to imagine -what a toilsome 
and wondrous journey Skirnir had. He was a 
brave hero, and he rode a brave horse ; but, 
when they came to the barrier of murky flame 
that surrounds Jotunheim, a shudder came over 
both. 

" Dark it is without," said Skirnir to his horse, 
" and you and I must leap through flame, and 
go over hoar mountains among Giant Folk. The 
giants will take us both, or we shall return 
victorious together." 


Then he patted his horse's neck, and touched 
him with his armed heel, and with one bound he 
cleared the barrier, and his hoofs rang on the 
frozen land. 

Their first day's journey was through the land 
of the Frost Giants, whose prickly touch kills, and 
whose breath is sharper than swords. Then they 
passed through the dwellings of the horse-headed 
and vulture-headed giants, — monsters terrible to 
see. Skimir hid his face, and the horse flew 
along swifter than the wind. 

On the evening of the third day they reached 
Gymir's house. Skirnir rode round it nine times ; 
but, though there were twenty doors, he could find 
no entrance; for fierce three-headed dogs guarded 
every doorway. 

At length he saw a herdsman pass near, and 
he rode up and asked him how it was possible for a 
stranger to enter Gymir's house, or get a sight of 
his fair daughter Gerd. 

" Are you doomed to death, or are you already 
a dead man," answered the herdsman, "that you 


talk of seeing Gymir's fair daughter, or entering 
a house from which no one ever returns ? " 

" My death is fixed for one day," said Skirnir, 
in answer, and his voice, the voice of an Asa, 
sounded loud and clear through the misty air 
of Jotunheim. It reached the ears of the 
fair Gerd as she sat in her chamber with her 
maidens. 

" What is that noise of noises," she said, " that 
I hear ? The earth shakes with it, and all Gymir's 
halls tremble." 

Then one of the maidens got up, and peeped 
out of the window. 

"I see a man," she said ; "he has dismounted 
from his horse, and he is fearlessly letting it graze 
before the door." 

" Go out and bring him in stealthily, then," 
said Gerda ; "I must again hear him speak ; 
for his voice is sweeter than the ringing of 
bells." 

So the maiden rose, and opened the house-door 
softly, lest the grim giant, Gymir, who was drink- 

ing mead in the banquet-hall with seven other 
giants, should hear and come forth. 

Skirnir heard the door open, and understanding 
the maiden's sign, he entered with stealthy steps, 
and followed her to Gerda's chamber. As soon as 
he entered the doorway the light from her face 
shone upon him, and he no longer wondered that 
Frey had given up his sword. 

"Are you the son of an Asa, or an Alf, or 
of a wise Van?" asked Gerda; "and why have 
you come through flame and snow to visit our 
halls?" 

Then Skirnir came forward and knelt at Gerda's 
feet, and gave his message, and spoke as he had 
promised to speak of Van Frey and of Alfheim. 

Gerda listened; and it was pleasant enough to 
talk to her, looking into her bright face ; but she 
did not seem to understand much of what he 
said. 

He promised to give her eleven golden apples 
from Iduna's grove if she would go with him, and 
that she should have the magic ring Draupnir, from 

which every day a still fairer jewel fell. But he 
found there was no use in talking of beautiful 
things to one who had never in all her life seen 
anything beautiful. 

Gerda smiled at him as a child smiles at a 
fairy tale. 

At length he grew angry. " If you are so 
childish, maiden," he said, " that yoa can believe 
only what you have seen, and have no thought of 
Aesirland or the Aesir, then sorrow and utter 
darkness shall fall upon you; you shall live alone 
on the Eagle Mount turned towards Hel. Terrors 
shall beset you; weeping shall be your lot. Men 
and sir will hate you, and you shall be doomed 
to live for ever with the Frost Giant, Byrne, in 
whose cold arms you will wither away like a thistle 
on a house-top." 

"Gently," said Gerd, turning away her bright 
head, and sighing. "How am I to blame? you 
make such a talk of your Aesir and your Aesir ; 
but how can I know about it, when all my life 
long I have lived with giants?" 

At these words, Skirnir rose as if he would 
have departed, but Gerda called him back. 

"You must drink a cup of mead," she said, 
"in return for your sweet-sounding words." 

Skirnir heard this gladly, for now he knew 
what he would do. He took the cup from her 
hand, drank off the mead, and, before he re- 
turned it, he contrived cleverly to pour in, the 
water from his drinking-horn, on which Frey's 
image was painted; then he put the cup into 
Gerda's hand, and bade her look. 

She smiled as she looked; and the longer she 
looked, the sweeter grew her smile ; for she looked 
for the first time on a face that loved her, 
and many things became clear to her that 
she had never understood before. Skirnir's 
words were no longer like fairy tales. She could 
now believe in Aesirland, and in all beautiful 
things 

" Go back to your master," she said, at last, 
" and tell him that in nine days I will meet 
him in the warm wood Barri." 

After hearing these joyful words, Skirnir made 
haste to take leave, for every moment that he 
lingered in the giant's house he was in danger. 
One of Gerda's maidens conducted him to the 
door, and he mounted his horse again, and rode 
from Jotunheim with a glad heart. 


PART IV. 


THE WOOD BARRI. 

When Skirnir got back to Alfheirn, and told 
Gerd's answer to Frey, he was disappointed to 
find that his master did not immediately look as 
bright and happy as he expected. 

" Nine days ! " he said ; " but how can I wait 
nine days? One day is long, and three days 
are very long, but ' nine days ' might as well 
be a whole year." 

I have heard children say such things when 
one tells them to wait for a new toy. 

Skirnir and old Xiord only laughed at it; but 
Freyja and all the ladies of Asgard made a 
journey to Alfheim, when they heard the story, 

to comfort Frey, and hear all the news about 
the wedding. 

"Dear Frey," they said, "it will never do to 
lie still here, sighing under a tree. You are 
quite mistaken about the time being long; it is 
hardly long enough to prepare the marriage pre- 
sents, and talk over the wedding. You have no 
idea how busy we are going to be ; everything 
in Alfheim will have to be altered a little." 

At these words Frey really did lift up his 
head, and wake up from his musings. He looked, 
in truth, a little frightened at the thought ; but, 
when all the Asgard ladies were ready to work 
for his wedding, how could he make any ob- 
jection ? He was not allowed to have much share 
in the business himself; but he had little time, 
during the nine days, to indulge in private 
thought, for never before was there such a com- 
motion in Alfheim. The ladies found so many 
things that wanted overlooking, and the little 
light elves were not of the slightest use to 
any one. They forgot all their usual tasks, and 


went running about through groves and fields, 
and by the sedgy banks of rivers, peering into 
earth-holes, and creeping down into flower-cups 
and empty snail-shells, every one hoping to find 
a gift for Gerda. 

Some stole the light from glow-worms' tails, 
and wove it into a necklace, and others pulled 
the ruby spots from cowslip leaves, to set with 
jewels the acorn cups that Gerda was to drink 
from ; while the swiftest runners chased the 
butterflies, and pulled feathers from their wings, 
to make fans and bonnet-plumes. 

All the work was scarcely finished when the 
ninth day came, and Frey set out from Alfheim, 
with all his elves, to the warm wood Barri. 

The Aesir and the Disir joined him on the 
way, and they made, together, something like a 
wedding procession. First came Frey in his 
chariot, drawn by Golden Bristles, and carrying in 
his hand the wedding-ring, which was none other 
than Draupnir, the magic ring of which so many 
stories are told. 

Odin and Frigga followed with their wedding- 
gift, the ship Skidbladnir, in which all the 
Aesir could sit and sail, though it could after- 
wards be folded up so small, that you might 
carry it in your hand. 

Then came Iduna, with eleven golden apples 
in a basket on her fair head, and then two and 
two all the heroes and ladies with their gifts. 

All round them flocked the elves, toiling under 
the weight of their offerings. It took twenty 
little people to carry one gift, and yet there was 
not one so large as a baby's finger. Laughing, 
and singing, and dancing, they entered the warm 
wood, and every summer flower sent a sweet 
breath after them. Everything on earth smiled 
on the wedding-day of Frey and Gerda, only — 
when it was all over, and every one had gone 
home, and the moon shone cold into the wood 
— it seemed as if the Vanir spoke to one 
another. 

"Odin," said one voice, "gave his eye for 
wisdom, and we have seen that it was well done." 

" Frey," answered the other, " has given his sword 
for happiness. It may be well to be unarmed 
while the sun shines and the bright days last; but, 
when Ragnarok has come, and the sons of Muspel 
ride down to the last fight, will not Frey regret 
his sword ? " 



Charlie. — " What do you mean by that hard 
word Ragnarok?" 

Aunt Helen. — " That you will hear by-and-by." 

Alfred. — "We must not talk long about this 
tale if there is another coming." 

Aunt H. — " No ; but there is one remark I must 
make. I have referred twice in this tale to the 
Frost Giant, Ryme. It is from his name that 
the word rime frost comes. You have used it 
often, I daresay, without knowing that a tale hung 
upon it. Next time you talk of a rime frost you 
will think of Jotunheim, and of the grim giant 
blowing cold out of his mouth." 

Charlie. — "Let nie think. That makes me 
understand the tale better. Frey is Summer, and 
he is afraid of leaving Alfheim even for a day, 
because, if he goes away, Eyme, or Winter, must 
come in his place." 

Aunt H. — " If you are determined to have ex- 
planations as well as stories I will tell you a little 
more. Gerda is supposed by many people to be 
the earth ; her marriage with Frey is the turning 
of the earth towards the sun in You 
know Skirnir says, that if she will not come to 
Frey she will have to live for ever with Ryme, the 
Frost Giant." 

Aunt Margaret. — " She is certainly paying him 
a visit just now. Put a little more coal on the 
fire, for I feel Ryme blowing at me through that 
crevice in the shutter." 

Harry. — " Ah, Aunt Margaret is in a hurry to 
begin her own story; and I wish she would, for 
I think explanations spoil the tales. I like Frey 
and Gerd better than summer and the earth." 

Aunt H. — " To confess the truth, so do I ; but 


I shall give you one more explanation, because I 
think it is pretty. Gerda's arms — so white, that 
when she lifts them up the reflection lights up 
the sky and all the sea — are supposed to be typical 
of the Northern Light which plays in the heavens 
through the long, dark winter. Some say that 
Gerda herself is the Northern Light ; but that does 
not explain the tale at all to my mind." 

Uncle A. — " Nor to mine ; for what would be 
the meaning of her coming to Frey — Summer ? " 

Ethel. — " Why was Frey's chariot drawn by 
a boar? I never heard before of a boar being a 
beast of burden." 

Aunt H. — " I suppose, because the boar was 
sacred to Frey." 

Aunt M. — " I have heard grandmamma say she 
can remember, when she was a child, that it was 
the custom among the country -people in York- 
shire, on one particular day in the year, to make 
and eat cakes in the shape of a wild boar. They 
were, she says, as particular about it as we are 
about mince-pies on Christmas-day. I have often 



135 

thought that this strange custom must be a rem- 
nant of the old worship of Frey." 

Alice. — " Shall we hear anything more of the 
wonderful ship you mention?" 

Aunt H. — " Yes ; you will hear of one voyage 

which the Aesir took in it. It is said to have been 

made by four dwarfs in the beginning of time. 

There is a line about it in a very old poem : — 

' The ash Yggdrasil 
Is the first of trees ; 
As Skidhlaclnir of ships, 
Odin of Aesir, 
Sleipnir of steeds, 
Bifrost of bridges, 
Bragi of bards, 
Habrok of hawks, 
And Garm of hounds is.' " 

William. — " Can you understand what is meant 
by Frey's giving away his sword, and then wanting 
it afterwards ?" 

Aunt H. — " Not when I think of summer and 
the earth ; but when I return to the story of Frey 
and Gerda I think I see a deep moral meaning. 
It teaches that people have great gifts entrusted to 

them to use for the good of others, not to sell, 
in order to attain wishes of their own; and that, 
however pleased they may he with the bargain at 
first, they will find their mistake in the end, and 
that the gift given them was what they really 
wanted." 

Uncle Alice. — " I think there is much mean- 
ing, too, in Frey's seeing Gerda from Odin's throne. 
It is only when he puts himself in a higher place 
than he has a right to that he sees what he cannot 
attain without selling his gift." 

Aunt M. — "We see ambition leading to co- 
vetousness, and covetousness to " 

Aunt H. — " Now, come, you are making Frey 
a monster, and I think he is a very pretty spoilt 
child. It is time for you to begin your own 
story." 



 


FREYJA. 



PART I. 

THE NECKLACE BRISINGAMEN. 

Now, though Frey was made king and school- 
master of the light elves, and spent the greater 
part of his time with them in Alfheim, his 
sister Freyja remained in the city of Asgard, and 
had a palace built for her named Folkvang. In 
this palace there was one v*ery beautiful hall, 
Sessrymnir — the " Roomy Seated " — where Freyja 
entertained her guests, and she had always plenty 
of them ; for every one liked to look at her 
beautiful face, and listen to her enchanting music, 

which was quite superior to anybody else's. She 
had, moreover, a wonderful husband named Odur, 
who was one of the sons of the Immortals, and 
had come from a long way off on purpose to 
marry her. Freyja was a little proud of this, 
and used often to speak of it to Frigga and 
the other ladies of Asgard. Some of them said 
she was a very fortunate person ; but some were a 
little jealous of her, whilst Frigga always gravely 
warned her not to be vain on account of her 
happiness, lest sorrow should overtake her un- 
awares. 

Everything went on quite smoothly, however, 
for a long time, Freyja leading a very gay and 
beautiful life in the sunshine of her happiness, 
and herself a very radiant joy to every one around 
her. But one day, one unlucky day, Freyja, this 
fair and sunshiny young Vana, went out alone 
from Asgard to take a walk in Alfheim. She 
hoped to meet somewhere thereabouts her dear 
brother Frey, whom she had not seen for a long 
time, and of whom she wanted to ask a very 

particular favour. The occasion for it was this : — 
Heiindall and Aegir were expected to dine at 
Valhalla the next day, and Freyja and her husband 
were invited to meet them. All the Disir and 
Aesir of Asgard were to be there. Niord, too, 
was coming, with his new wife, Skadi, the daughter 
of a giant. 

"Every one will be beautifully dressed," said 
Freyja, " and I have not a single ornament to 
wear." 

" But you are more beautiful than any one, 
Freyja," said her husband ; " for you were born 
in the spacious Wind-Home." 

" All are not so high-minded as you, Odur," 
answered his wife; "and if I go to Valhalla with- 
out an ornament of any kind, I shall certainly 
be looked down upon." 

So saying, Freyja set off, as I told you, to 
Alfheim, determined to ask of her good-natured 
brother a garland of flowers at least. But 
somehow or other she could not find Frey any- 
where. She tried to keep in Alfheim — she 



142  

thought she was there ; but all the time she was 
thinking of her dress and her ornaments, planning 
what she should wear, and her steps went down- 
ward, downward, away from Alf heim to the cavern 
of four dwarfs. 

"Where am I?" said Freyja to herself, as she 
at last lost the light of day, and went down, wan- 
dering on deeper and deeper between the high 
walls, and under the firm roof of rock. " Why, 
surely this must be Svartheim; and yet it is not 
unpleasant, nor quite dark here, though the sun 
is not shining." 

And in truth it was not dark ; for, far on before 
her, winding in and out through the cavern's inner- 
most recesses, were groups of little men, who had 
each a lantern in his cap and a pickaxe in his 
hand ; and they were working hard, digging for 
diamonds, which they piled up the walls, and hung 
across the roof in white and rose-coloured coronets, 
marvellously glittering. 

Four clever little dwarf-chiefs were there directing 
the labours of the rest ; but, as soon as they caught 



 143 

sight of Freyja, they sat down in the centre of 
the cavern, and began to work diligently at some- 
thing which they held between them, bending over 
it with strange chattering and grimaces. Freyja 
felt very curious to see what it was; but her eyes 
were so dazzled with the blaze of diamonds and 
lanterns, that she was obliged to go nearer in 
order to distinguish it clearly. Accordingly, she 
walked on to where the four dwarfs were sitting, 
and peeped over their shoulders. Oh ! brilliant ! 
exquisitely worked ! bewildering ! 

Freyja drew back again with almost blinded 
eyes ; for she had looked upon the necklace Bri- 
siugamen, and at the same moment a passionate 
wish burst forth in her heart to have it for her 
own, to wear it in Valhalla, to wear it always 
round her own fair neck. " Life to me," said 
Freyja, " is no longer worth having without Bri- 
singamen." Then the dwarfs held it out to her, 
but also looked cunningly at one another as they 
did so, and burst into a laugh so loud that it 
rang through the vaulted caverns, echoed and 



144  

echoed back again from side to side, from dwarf 
to dwarf, from depth to depth. 

Freyja, however, only turned her head a little 
on one side, stretched out her hand, grasped the 
necklace with her small ringers, and then ran out 
of the cavern as quickly as ever she could, up 
again to the green hill-side. There she sat down and 
fitted the brilliant ornament about her neck, after 
which she looked a little shyly at the reflection 
of herself in a still pool that was near, and turned 
homewards with an exulting heart. She felt cer- 
tain that all was well with her; nevertheless, all 
was not well, but very miserable indeed. When 
Freyja was come back to Asgarcl again, and to her 
palace of Folkvang, she sought her own private 
apartments, that she might see Odur alone, and 
make him admire her necklace Brisingamen. But 
Odur was not there. She searched in every 
room, hither and thither ; but, alas ! he was not 
to be found in any room or any hall in all the 
palace of Folkvang. Freyja searched for him in 
every place ; she walked restlessly about, in and 



 145 

out, among the places of the " Roomy Seated." 
She peered wistfully, with sad eyes, in the face 
of every guest ; but the only face she cared to see, 
she never saw. 

Odur was gone, gone back for ever to the home 
of the Immortals. Brisingamen and Odur could 
not live together in the palace of Folkvang. But 
Freyja did not know this ; she did not know why 
Odur was gone, nor where he was gone ; she only 
saw he was not there, and she wrung her hands 
sadly, and watered her jewels with salt, warm 
tears. 

As she sat thus and mourned in the entrance 
of her palace, all the ladies of Asgard passed 
by on their way to Valhalla, and looked at her. 
Some said one thing, some another ; but no one 
said anything at all encouraging, or much to the 
purpose. Frigga passed by last of all, and she 
raised her head with a little severe shake, saying 
something about beauty, and pride, and punish- 
ment, which sank down so deeply into the heart of 
the sorrow-stricken young Vana, that she got up  

with a desperate resolution, and, presenting herself 
before the throne of Asa Odin, spoke to him thus : 
" Father of Aesir, listen to my weeping, and do 
not turn away from me with a cruel frown. I 
have searched through my palace of Folkvang, and 
all through the city of Asgard, hut nowhere is Odur 
the Immortal to he found. Let me go, Father Odin, 
I beseech you, and seek him far and near, across 
the earth, through the air, over the sea, even to the 
borders of Jotunheim." 

And Odin answered, " Go, Fre}ja, and good 
fortune go with you." 

Then Freyja sprang into her swift, softly-rolling 
chariot, which was drawn by two cats, waved her 
hand as she rose over the city, and was gone. 



TBE WANDERINGS OF FRETJA. 147 



PART II. 

LOKI THE IRON WOOD — A BOUNDLESS WASTE. 

The cats champed their bright bits, and skimmed 
alike over earth and air with swift, clinging steps, 
eager and noiseless. The chariot rolled on, and 
Freyja was carried away up and down into every 
part of the world, weeping golden tears wherever 
she went ; they fell down from her pale cheeks, 
and rippled away behind her in little sunshiny 
rivers, that carried beauty and weeping to every 
land. She came to the greatest city in the 
world, and drove down its wide streets. 

" But none of the houses here are good enough 
for Odur," said Freyja to herself ; " I will not 
ask for him at such doors as these." 



148  

So she went straight on to the palace of the 
king. 

"Is Odur in this palace?" she asked of the 
gate-keeper. "Is Odur, the Immortal, living with 
the king?" 

But the gate-keeper shook his head, and assured 
her that his master had never even heard of such 
a person. 

" Then Freyja turned away, and knocked at 
many other stately doors, asking for Odur; hut 
no one in all that great city so much as knew 
her husband's name. 

Then Freyja went into the long, narrow lanes 
and shabby streets, where the poor people lived, 
but there it was all the same; every one said 
only, " No — not here," and stared at her. 

In the night-time Freyja went quite away from 
the city, and the lanes, and the cottages, far 
off to the side of a lake, where she lay down 
and looked over into the water. 

By -and -by the moon came and looked there 
too, and the Queen of Night saw a calm face in 

the water, serene and high ; but the Queen of 
Beauty saw a troubled face, frail and fair. 

Brisingamen was reflected in the water too, 
and its rare colours flashed from the little waves. 
Freyja was pleased at the sight of her favourite 
ornament, and smiled even in the midst of her 
tears ; but as for the moon, instead of Bri- 
singamen, the deep sky and the stars were 
around her. 

At last Freyja slept by the side of the lake, 
and then a dark shape crept up the bank on 
which she was lying, sat down beside her, and 
took her fair head between its hands. It was 
Loki, and he began to whisper into Freyja's ear 
as she slept. 

" You were quite right, Freyja," he said, "to go 
out and try to get something for yourself in 
Svartheim, instead of staying at home with your 
husband. It was very wise of you to care more 
for your dress and your beauty than for Odur. You 
went down into Svartheim, and found Brisingamen. 
Then the Immortal went away ; but is not Bri- 

singamen better than he? Why do you cry, 
Freyja ? Why do you start so ? " 

Freyja turned, moaning, and tried to lift her 
head from between his hands; but she could not, 
and it seemed in her dream as if a terrible night- 
mare brooded over her. 

" Brisingamen is dragging me down," she cried 
in her sleep, and laid her little hand upon the 
clasp without knowing what she was doing. 

Then a great laugh burst forth in Svartheim, 
and came shuddering up through the vaulted 
caverns until it shook the ground upon which she 
lay. Loki started up, and was gone before 
Freyja had time to open her eyes. 

It was morning, and the young Vana prepared 
to set out on her journey. 

" Brisingamen is fair," she said, as she bade 
farewell to her image in the lake. " Brisingamen 
is fair; but I find it heavy sometimes." 

After this, Freyja went to many cities, and 
towns, and villages, asking everywhere for Odur; 
but there was not any one in all the world who 

 151 

could tell her where be was gone, and at last 
her chariot rolled eastward and northward to the 
very borders of Jotunheim. There Freyja stopped; 
for before her lay Jamvid, the Iron Wood, which 
was one road from earth to the abode of the giants, 
and whose tall trees, black and hard, were trying 

to pull down the sky with their iron claws. In 

the entrance sat an Iron Witch, with her back 

to the forest and her face towards the Vana. 

Jarnvid was full of the sons and daughters of this 

Iron Witch ; they were wolves, and bears, and 

foxes, and many-headed ravenous birds. 

" Eastward," croaked a raven as Freyja drew 

near — 

" Eastward in the Iron Wood 
The old one sitteth ;" 

and there she did sit, talking in quarrelsome tones 
to her wolf-sons and vulture-daughters, who an- 
swered from the wood behind her, howling, screech- 
ing, and screaming all at the same time. There 
was a horrible din, and Freyja began to fear that 
her low voice would never be heard. She was 



152  

obliged to get out of her chariot, and walk close 
up to the old witch, so that she might whisper 
in her ear. 

" Can you tell me, old mother," she said, "where 
Odur is? Have you seen him pass this way?" 

" I don't understand one word of what you are 
saying," answered the iron woman; " and if I did, 
I have no time to waste in answering foolish 
questions." 

Now, the witch's words struck like daggers into 
Freyja's heart, and she was not strong enough to 
pull them out again ; so she stood there a long 
time, not knowing what she should do. 

" You had better go," said the crone to her at 
last; "there's no use in standing there crying." 
•For this was the grandmother of strong-minded 
women, and she hated tears. 

Then Freyja got into her chariot again, and 
went westward a long way to the wide, boundless 
land where impenetrable forests were growing, and 
undying nature reigned in silence. She knew that 
the silent Yidar was living there ; for, not finding 



 153 

any pleasure in the gay society of Asgard, he had 
obtained permission from Father Odin to retire 
to this place. " He is one of the Aesir, and per- 
haps he will be able to help me," said the sad- 
hearted young Vana, as her chariot rolled on through 
empty moor-lands and forests, always in twilight. 
Her ear heard no sound, her eye saw no living 
shape ; but still she went on with a trembling 
hope till she came to the spot 

"Begrown with branches 
And high grass, 
Which was Yidar's dwelling." 

Vidar was sitting there firm as an oak, and as 
silent as night. Long grass grew up through 
his long hair, and the branches of trees crossed 
each other over his eyes ; his ears were covered 
with moss, and dew-drops glistened upon his 
beard. 

"It is almost impossible to get to him," sighed 
Freyja, " through all these wet leaves, and I am 
afraid his moss-covered ears are very deaf." But 
she threw herself down on the ground before him, 



154  

and said, " Tell me, Vidar, does Odur hide among 
thick trees ? or is he wandering over the broad 
west lands?" 

Vidar did not answer her — only a pale gleam shot 
over his face, as if reflected from that of Freyja, 
like sunshine breaking through a wood. 

" He does not hear me," said Freyja to herself, 
and she crushed nearer to him through the 
branches. " Only tell me, Vidar," she said, " is 
Odur here ? " But Vidar said nothing, for he had 
no voice. 

Then Freyja hid her face in her lap, and wept 
bitterly for a long time. " An Asa," she said, at 
last, looking up, "is no better to one than an 
Iron Witch when one is really in trouble ; " and 
then she gathered her disordered dress about her, 
threw back her long bright hair, and, springing 
into her chariot, once again went wearily on her 
way. 



 155 



PART III. 

THE KING OF THE SEA AND HIS DAUGHTERS. 

At last she came to the wide sea-coast, and 
there everything was gloriously beautiful. It was 
evening, and the western sky looked like a broad 
crimson flower. No wind stirred the ocean, but 
the small waves rippled in rose-coloured froth on 
the shore, like the smiles of a giant at play. 

Aegir , the old sea-king, supported himself on 
the sand, whilst the cool waters were laving his 
breast, and his ears drank their sweet murmur ; for 
nine waves were his beautiful daughters, and they 
and their father were talking together. Now, 
though Aegir looked so stormy and old, he was 
really as gentle as a child, and no mischief would 



156  

ever have happened in his kingdom if he had 
been left to himself. But he had a cruel wife, 
called Ran, who was the daughter of a giant, 
and so eagerly fond of fishing that, whenever 
any of the rough winds came to call upon her 
husband, she used to steal out of the deep sea- 
caves where she lived, and follow ships for miles 
under the water, dragging her net after her, so 
that she might catch any one who fell over- 
board. 

Freyja wandered along the shore towards the 
place where the Sea King was lying, and as she 
went she heard him speaking to his daughters. 

"What is the history of Freyja?" he asked. 

And the first wave answered, — 

" Freyja is a fair young Yana, who once was 
happy in Asgard." 

Then the second wave said, — 

" But she left her fair palace there, and Odur, 
her Immortal Love." 

Third wave, — 

" She went down to the cavern of dwarfs." 

Fourth wave, — 

" She found Brisingamen there, and carried it 
away with her." 

Fifth wave, — 

" But when she got back to Folkvang she found 
that Odur was gone." 

Sixth wave, — 

" Because the Vana had loved herself more 
than Immortal Love." 

Seventh wave, — 

" Freyja will never be happy again, for Odur 
will never come back." 

Eighth wave, — 

" Odur will never come back as long as the 
world shall last." 

Ninth wave, — 

" Odur will never return, nor Freyja forget 
to weep." 

Freyja stood still, spell -bound, listening, and 
when she heard the last words, that Odur would 
never come back, she wrung her hands, and 
cried, — 

"O, Father Aegir ! trouble comes, comes surging 
up from a wide sea, wave over wave, into my soul." 
And in truth it seemed as if her words had power 
to change the whole surface of the ocean — wave 
over wave rose higher and spoke louder — Kan 
was seen dragging her net in the distance — old 
Aegir shouted, and dashed into the deep — sea 
and sky mixed in confusion, and night fell upon 
the storm. Then Freyja sank down exhausted 
on the sand, where she lay until her kind daughter, 
the sleepy little Siofna, came and earned her home 
again in her arms. After this the beautiful Vana 
lived in her palace of Folkvang, with friends and 
sisters, Aesir and Disir ; but Odur did not return, 
nor Freyja forget to weep. 



Charlie. — " Aunt Margaret, I have been want- 
ing to make a remark for a long time." 

Aunt Makgaret. — " So I saw; you were nearly 
interrupting me in the second chapter." 



Charlie. — " It is about the chariot drawn by- 
two cats. Do you remember in Fouque's " Sea- 
sons," when the little man is talking to Sintram 
in the garden, there is something said about Venus 
coming by in a chariot drawn by cats ? I have 
often wondered about that chariot. I suppose now 
it is meant for Freyja's." 

Aunt M. — " Yes, as Fouque is telling a Northern 
stoiy, he makes his heroes think and talk as North- 
men, with the old, half-remembered stories in their 
minds, would do. He puts Venus into Freyja's 
chariot for the same reason that he makes Paris 
a knight, and Menelaus a count, and Troy a 
castle." 

Charlie. — " I am glad of anything that makes 
me understand even a sentence of those stories 
better. I wish I had them to read now for the 
first time." 

Aunt Helen. — "Well, I advise you to read 
them over again, if it is for the twentieth time. 
Perhaps you will find that there are some more 
passages that you can now better understand." 



Aunt M. — " As you have got to Fouque, far 
away from Freyja, I suppose that you quite under- 
stand my story, and don't want to ask any questions. 
It is as well, for there is the tea-bell." 

Harry. — " Oh ! yes ; indeed I do. What does 
Svartheim mean ? " 

Aunt M. — " Svartheim means Dwarf Home. 
Don't you recollect that, a long time ago, Father 
Odin sent all the dwarfs to live under-ground in 
holes and caverns ? Those places were called 
Svartheim." 



CHAPTER V. 



SATURDAY. 

" There eternal summer dwells, 
And west winds with musky wing 
About the cedar alleys fling 
Nard and cassia's balmy smells." 

COMUS. 

Ethel. — " To-day you are going to tell us about 
Surtur, I think you said?" 

Aunt Helen. — ' : I hope I did not say so; for 
I find it will not do to tell you anything about 
Surtur to-day, though it is Surtur's-day. There 
is, in fact, very little to tell, and that little must 
come in the last tale, or I shall spoil the interest 
of all the intermediate ones." 


William. — "But you don't mean to cheat us 
out of a story?" 

Aunt H. — " No ; I have a very nice tale to tell 
you, which, as it does not belong to any particular 
day, may as well come now. J will tell you to- 
night about Iduna and her apples. I daresay you 
have heard the name, at least, before." 

William. — "The apples of immortality? Yes; 
they are often referred to in books, and I have 
twenty times meant to ask some one about them, 
but I have always forgotten." 

Aunt H. — -"Now, then, vou shall hear." 




IDUNA'S APPLES. 

PART I. 

REFLECTIONS IN THE WATER. 

Of all the groves and gardens round the city of 
Asgard — and they were many and beautiful — there 
was none so beautiful as the one where Iduna, 
the wife of Bragi, lived. It stood on the south 
side of the hill, not far from Gladsheim, and it was 
called " Always Young," because nothing that grew 
there could ever decay, or become the least bit 
older than it was on the day when Iduna entered 
it. The trees wore always a tender, light green 
colour, as the hedges do in spriug. The flowers 

were mostly half-opened, and every blade of grass 
bore always a trembling, glittering drop of early 
dew. Brisk little winds wandered about the grove, 
making the leaves dance from morning till night, 
and swaying backwards and forwards the heads of 
the flowers. 

" Blow away! " said the leaves to the wind, " for 
we shall never be tired." 

"And you will never be old," said the winds 
in answer. And then the birds took up the chorus 
and sang, — 

" Never tired and never old." 

Iduna, the mistress of the grove, was fit to live 
among young birds, and tender leaves, and spring 
flowers. She was so fair that when she bent over 
the river to entice her swans to come to her, even 
the stupid fish stood still in the water, afraid to 
destroy so beautiful an image by swimming over 
it; and when she held out her hand with bread 
for the swans to eat, you would not have known 
it from a water-lily — it was so wonderfully white. 

Iduna never left her grove even to pay a visit 

to her nearest neighbour, and yet she did not 
lead by any means a dull life ; for, besides having 
the company of her husband, Bragi, who must have 
been an entertaining person to live with ; for he 
is said to have known a story which never came 
to an end, and yet which never grew wearisome. 
All the heroes of Asgard made a point of coming 
to call upon her every day. It was natural enough 
that they should like to visit so beautiful a grove 
and so fair a lady; and yet, to confess the truth, 
it was not quite to see either the grove or Iduna 
that they came. 

Iduna herself was well aware of this, and 
when her visitors had chatted a short time with 
her, she never failed to bring out from the 
innermost recess of her bower a certain golden 
casket, and to request, as a favour, that her 
guests would not think of going away till they 
had tasted her apples, which, she flattered her- 
self, had a better flavour than any other fruit in 
the world. 

It would have been quite unlike a hero of 

Asgard to have refused such courtesy; and, be- 
sides, Iduna was not as far wrong about her 
apples as hostesses generally are, when they 
boast of the good things on their tables. 

There is no doubt her apples had a peculiar 
flavour; and if any one of the heroes happened 
to be a little tired, or a little out of spirits, 
or a little cross, when he came into the bower, 
it always followed that, as soon as he had 
eaten one apple, he found himself as fresh, and 
vigorous, and happy as he had ever been in 
his life. 

So fond were the heroes of these apples, and 
so necessary did they think them to their daily 
comfort, that they never went on a journey with- 
out requesting Iduna to give them one or two, 
to fortify them against the fatigues of the way. 

Iduna had no difficulty in complying with this 
request ; she had no fear of her store ever failing, 
for as surely as she took an apple from her 
casket another fell in; but where it came from 
Iduna could never discover. She never saw it 

till it was close to the bottom of the casket ; but 
she always heard the sweet, tinkling sound it 
made when it touched the golden rim. It was 
as good as play to Iduna to stand by her casket, 
taking the apples out, and watching the fresh 
rosy ones come tumbling in, without knowing 
who threw them. 

One spring morning Iduna was very busy taking 
apples out of her casket ; for several of the heroes 
were taking advantage of the fine weather to journey 
out into the world. Bragi was going from home 
for a time ; perhaps he was tired of telling his 
story only to Iduna, and perhaps she was beginning 
to know it by heart ; and Odin, Loki, and Hoenir 
had agreed to take a little tour in the direction 
of Jotunheim, just to see if any entertaining ad- 
venture would befall them. When they had all 
received their apples, and taken a tender farewell 
of Iduna, the grove — green and fair as it was 
— looked, perhaps, a little solitary. 

Iduna stood by her fountain, watching the bright 
water as it danced up into the air and quivered,  

and turned, and fell back, making a hundred 
little flashing circles in the river ; and then she 
grew tired, for once, of the light and the noise, 
and wandered down to a still place, where the 
river was shaded by low bushes on each side, and 
reflected clearly the blue sky overhead. 

Iduna sat down and looked into the deep water. 
Besides her own fair face there were little, wander- 
ing, white clouds to be seen reflected there. She 
counted them as they sailed past. At length a 
strange form was reflected up to her from the 
water — large, dark, lowering wings, pointed claws, 
a head with fierce eyes — looking at her. 

Iduna started and raised her head. It was above 
as well as below ; the same wings — the same eyes 
— the same head — looking down from the blue 
sky, as well as up from the water. Such a sight 
had never been seen near Asgard before ; and, 
while Iduna looked, the thing waved its wings, 
and went up, up, up, till it lessened to a dark spot 
in the clouds and on the river. 

It was no longer terrible to look at; but, as it 
shook its wiDgs, a number of little black feathers 
fell from them, and flew down towards the grove. 
As they neared the trees, they no longer looked 
like feathers — each had two independent wings and 
a head of its own ; they were, in fact, a swarm of 
Nervous Apprehensions; troublesome little insects 
enough, and well-known elsewhere, but which now, 
for the first time, found their way into the grove. 
Iduna ran away from them ; she shook them 
off; she fought quite bravely against them; but 
they are by no means easy to get rid of; and 
when, at last, one crept within the folds of her 
dress, and twisted itself down to her heart, a new, 
strange feeling thrilled there — a feeling never yet 
known to any dweller in Asgard. Iduna did not 
know what to make of it. 



PART II. 



THE WINGED-GIANT. 



In the meantime Odin, Loki, and Hoenir pro- 
ceeded on their journey. They were not bound 
on any particular quest. They strayed hither and 
thither that Odin might see that things were going 
on well in the world, and his subjects comporting 
themselves in a becoming manner. Every now 
and then they halted while Odin inspected the 
thatching of a barn, or stood at the smithy to see 
how the smith wielded his hammer, or in a furrow 
to observe if the ploughman guided his plough- 
share evenly through the soil. "Well done," he 
said, if the workman was working with all his 
might; and he turned away, leaving something 

behind him — a straw in the barn, a piece of old 
iron at the forge-door, a grain in the furrow — nothing 
to look at ; but ever after the barn was always full, 
the forge-fire never went out, the field yielded 
bountifully. 

Towards noon the Aesir reached a shady valley, 
and, feeling tired and hungry, Odin proposed to 
sit down under a tree, and while he rested and 
studied a book of runes which he had with him, 
he requested Loki and Hoenir to prepare some 
dinner. 

"I will undertake the meat and the fire," said 
Hoenir ; " you, Loki, will like nothing better than 
foraging about for what good things you can pick up." 

" That is precisely what I mean to do," said 
Loki. " There is a farm-house near here, from 
which I can perceive a savoury smell. It will be 
strange, with my cunning, if I do not contrive to 
have the best of all the dishes under tins tree 
before your fire is burnt up." 

As Loki spoke he turned a stone in his hand, 
and immediately he assumed the shape of a large 

black cat. In this form lie stole in at the kitchen- 
window of a farm-house, where a busy housewife 
was intent on taking pies and cakes from a deep 
oven, and ranging them on a dresser under the 
window. Loki watched his opportunity, and when- 
ever the mistress's back was turned he whisked a 
cake or a pie out of the window. 

" One, two, three. Why, there are fewer every 
time I bring a fresh one from the oven ! " cried 
the bewildered housewife. " It 's that thieving 
cat. I see the end of her tail on the window-sill." 
Out of the window leant the housewife to throw 
a stone at the cat, but she could see nothing but 
a thin cow trespassing in her garden; and when 
she ran out with a stick to drive away the cow; 
it, too, had vanished, and an old raven, with six 
young ones, was flying over the garden-hedge. 

The raven was Loki, the little ones were the 
pies ; and when he reached the valley, and changed 
himself and them into their proper shapes, he had 
a hearty laugh at his own cleverness, and at the 
old woman's dismay. 

"Well done, Loki, king of thieves." said a chorus 
of foxes, who peeped out of their holes to see the 
only one of the Aesir whose conduct they could 
appreciate; but Odin, when he heard of it, was 
very far from thinking it well done. He was 
extremely displeased with Loki for having dis- 
graced himself by such mean tricks. 

"It is true," he said, "that my subjects may 
well be glad to furnish me with all I require, but 
it should be done knowingly. Return to the farm- 
house, and place these three black stones on the 
table from whence you stole the provisions." 

Loki — unwilling as he was to do anything he 
believed likely to bring good to others — was obliged 
to obey. He made himself into the shape of a 
white owl, flew once more through the window, 
and dropped the stones out of his beak ; they 
sank deep into the table, and looked like three 
black stains on the white deal-board. 

From that time the housewife led an easy life ; 
there was no need for her to grind corn, or 
mix dough, or prepare meat. Let her enter her 

kitchen at what time of day she would, stores 
of provisions stood smoking hot on the table. She 
kept her own counsel about it, and enjoyed the 
reputation of being the most economical house- 
keeper in the whole country-side ; but one thing 
disturbed her mind, and prevented her thoroughly 
enjoying the envy and wonder of the neighbouring 
wives. All the rubbing, and brushing, and clean- 
ing in the world would not remove the three 
black stains from her kitchen table, and as she 
had no cooking to do, she spent the greater part 
of her time in looking at them. 

" If they were but gone," she said, a hundred 
times every day, "I should be content; but how 
is one to enjoy one's life when one cannot rub 
the stains off one's own table?" 

Perhaps Loki foresaw how the good wife would 
use her gift ; for he came back from the farm- 
house in the best spirits. " We will now, with 
Father Odin's permission, sit down to dinner," 
he said ; "for surely, brother Hoenir, while I have 
been making so many journeys to and fro, you 



 177 

have been doing something with that fire which 
I see blazing so fiercely, and with that old iron 
pot smoking over it." 

" The meat will be by this time ready, no 
doubt," said Hoenir. " I killed a wild ox while 
you were away, and part of it has been now for 
some time stewing in the pot." 

The Aesir now seated themselves near the fire, 
and Hoenir lifted up the lid of the pot. A thick 
steam rose up from it ; but when he took out 
the meat it was as red and uncooked as when 
he first put it into the pot. 

"Patience," said Hoenir; and Odin again took 
out his book of runes. Another hour passed, and 
Hoenir again took off the lid, and looked at the meat ; 
but it was in precisely the same state as before. 
This happened several times, and even the cun- 
ning Loki was puzzled ; when, suddenly, a strange 
noise was heard coming from a tree near, and, look- 
ing up, they saw an enormous human-headed eagle 
seated on one of the branches, and looking at them 
with two fierce eyes. While they looked it spoke. 



178  

" Give me my share of the feast," it said, "and 
the meat shall presently be done." 

" Come down and take it — it lies before you," 
said Loki, while Odin looked on with thoughtful 
eyes ; for he saw plainly that it was no mortal 
bird who had the boldness to claim a share in 
the Aesir's food. 

Undaunted by Odin's majestic looks, the eagle 
flew down, and, seizing a large piece of meat, was 
going to fly away with it, when Loki, thinking 
he had now got the bird in his power, took up a 
stick that lay near, and struck a hard blow on the 
eagle's back. The stick made a ringing sound as 
it fell; but, when Loki tried to draw it back, he 
found that it stuck with extraordinary force to the 
eagle's back; neither could he withdraw his own 
hands from the other end. 

Something like a laugh came from the creature's 
half- human, half- bird -like mouth; and then it 
spread its dark wings and rose up into the air, 
dragging Loki after. 

"It is as I thought," said Odin, as he saw the

le's enormous bulk brought out against the 
sky ; "it is Thiasse, the strongest giant in Jotun- 
heini, who has presumed to show himself in our 
presence. Loki has only received the reward of 
his treachery, and it would ill-become us to inter- 
fere in his behalf; but, as the monster is near, 
it will be well for us to return to Asgard, lest any 
misfortune should befall the city in our absence.' 1 
While Odin spoke, the winged creature had 
risen up so high as to be invisible even to the 
eyes of the Aesir; and, during their return to 
Asgard, he did not again appear before them ; but, 
as they approached the gates of the city, they were 
surprised to see Loki coming to meet them. He 
had a crest-fallen and bewildered look ; and when 
they questioned him as to what had happened to 
him since they parted in such a strange way, he 
declared himself to be quite unable to give any 
further account of his adventures than that he 
had been carried rapidly through the air by the 
giant, and, at last, thrown down from a great 
height near the place where the Aesir met him. 


Odin looked steadfastly at him as he spoke, 
but he forbore to question him further; for he 
knew well that there was no hope of hearing the 
truth from Loki, and he kept within his own 
mind the conviction he felt that some disastrous 
result must follow a meeting between two such 
evil-doers as Loki and the giant Thiasse. 

That evening, when the Esir were all feasting 
and telling stories to each other in the great hall 
of. Valhalla, Loki stole out from Gladsheim, and 
went alone to visit Iduna-in her grove. It was 
a still, bright evening. The leaves of the trees 
moved softly up and down, whispering sweet words 
to each other ; the flowers, with half-shut eyes, 
uodded sleepily to their own reflections in the 
water, and Iduna sat by the fountain, with her 
head resting on one hand, thinking of pleasant 
things. 

"It is all very well," thought Loki; "but I 
am not the happier because people can here live 
such pleasant lives. It does not do me any good, 
or cure the pain I have had so long in my heart." 



 181 

Lola's long shadow — for the sun was setting — 
fell on the water as he approached, and made 
Iduna start. She remembered the sight that had 
disturbed her so much in the morning ; but when 
she saw only Loki, she looked up and smiled 
kindly ; for he had often accompanied the other 
sir in their visits to her grove. 

"I am wearied with a long journey," said Loki, 
abruptly, " and I would eat one of your apples 
to refresh me after my fatigue." The casket stood 
by Iduna's side, and she immediately put in her 
hand and gave Loki an apple. To her surprise, 
instead of thanking her warmly, or beginning to 
eat it, he turned it round and round in his hand 
with a contemptuous air. 

" It is true, then," he said, after looking in- 
tently at the apple for some time, " your apples 
are but small and withered in comparison. I was 
unwilling to believe it at first, but now I can 
doubt no longer." 

"Small and withered!" said Iduna, rising 
hastily. " Nay, Asa Odin himself, who has tra- 



182  

versed the whole world, assures me that he has 
never seen any to be compared to them." 

" That will never be said again," returned 
Loki ; "for this very afternoon I have discovered 
a tree, in a grove not far from Asgard, on which 
grow apples so beautiful that no one who has 
seen them will ever care again for yours." 

" I do not wish to see or hear of them," said 
Iduna, trying to turn away with an indifferent 
air ; but Loki followed her, and continued to 
speak more and more strongly of the beauty of 
this new fruit, hinting that Iduna would be sorry 
that she had refused to listen when she found 
all her guests deserting her for the new grove, 
and when even Bragi began to think lightly of her 
and of her gifts. At this Iduna sighed, and Loki 
came up close to her, and whispered in her ear, — 

"It is but a short way from Asgard, and the 
sun has not yet set. Come out with me, and, be- 
fore any one else has seen the apples, you shall 
gather them, and put them in your casket, and 
no woman shall ever have it in her power to 
boast that she can feast the Aesir more sumptuously 
than Idun." 

Now, Iduna had often been cautioned by her 
husband never to let anything tempt her to leave 
the grove, and she had always been so happy 
there, that she thought there was no use in 
his telling her the same thing so often over; but 
now her mind was so full of the wonderfully beau- 
tiful fruit, and she felt such a burning wish to 
get it for herself, that she quite forgot her hus- 
band's commands. 

"It is only a little way," she said to herself; 
" there can be no harm in going out just this 
once ; " and, as Loki went on urging her, she 
took up her casket from the ground hastily, and 
begged him to show her the way to this other 
grove. Loki walked very quickly, and I dun 
had not time to collect her thoughts before she 
found herself at the entrance of Always Young. 
At the gate she would gladly have stopped a 
minute to take breath ; but Loki took hold of her 
hand, and forced her to pass through, though, at 

the very moment of passing, she half drew back; 
for it seemed to her as if all the trees in the 
grove suddenly called out in alarm, " Come back, 
come back, Oh, come back, Iduna ! " She half drew 
back her hand, but it was too late; the gate fell 
behind her, and she and Loki stood together 
without the grove. 

The trees rose up between them and the setting 
sun, and cast a deep shadow on the place where 
they stood; a cold, night air blew on Iduna's 
cheek, and made her shiver. 

" Let us hasten on," she said to Loki ; "let 
us hasten on, and soon come back again." 

But Loki was not looking on, he was looking 
up. Idwia raised her eyes in the direction of his, 
and her heart died within her; for there, high up 
over her head, just as she had seen it in the 
morning, hung the lowering, dark wings — the sharp 
talons — the fierce head, looking at her. For one 
moment it stood still above her head, and then 
lower, lower, lower, the huge shadow fell ; and, be- 
fore Idun found breath to speak, the dark wings 

were folded round her, and she was borne high 
up in the air, northwards, towards the grey mist 
that haugs over Jotunheim. Loki watched till she 
was out of sight, and then returned to Asgard. 
The presence of the giant was no wonder to him ; 
for he had, in truth, purchased his own release 
by promising to deliver up Iduna and her casket 
into his power ; but, as he returned alone through 
the grove, a foreboding fear pressed on his mind. 

" If it should be true," he thought, " that 
Iduna's apples have the wonderful power Odin 
attributes to them! if I among the rest should 
suffer from the loss ! " 

Occupied with these thoughts, he passed quickly 
among the trees, keeping his eyes resolutely fixed 
on the ground. He dare not trust himself to look 
around ; for once, when he had raised his head, he 
fancied that, gliding through the brushwood, he 
had seen the dark robes and pale face of his 
daughter Hela. 





PART III. 



HELA. 

When it was known that Idun  had disappeared 
from her grove, there were many sorrowful faces 
in Asgard, and anxious voices were heard inquiring 
for her. Loki walked about with as grave a face, 
and asked as many questions, as any one else; 
but he had a secret fear that became stronger 
every day, that now, at last, the consequence of 
his evil ways would find him out. 

Days passed on, and the looks of care, instead 
of wearing away, deepened on the faces of the 
Aesir. They met, and looked at each other, and 
turned away sighing; each saw that some strange 
change was creeping over all the others, and none 
liked to be the first to speak of it. It came on 
very gradually — a little change every day, and 
no day ever passing without the change. The 
leaves of the trees in Iduna's grove deepened in 
colour. They first became a sombre green, then 
a glowing red, and, at last, a pale brown ; and 
when the brisk winds came and blew them about, 
they moved every day more languidly. 

"Let us alone," they said at length. "We are 
tired, tired, tired." 

The winds, surprised, carried the new sound to 
Gladsheim, and whispered it all round the banquet 
hall where the Aesir  sat, and then they rushed 
back again, and blew all through the grove. 

"We are tired," said the leaves again; "we are 
tired ; we are old ; we are going to die ; " and at 
the word they broke from the trees one by one, 
and fluttered to the ground, glad to rest anywhere ; 
and the winds, having nothing else to do, went 
back to Gladsheim with the last strange word they 
had learned. 

The Aesir were all assembled in Valhalla; but 

there were no stories told, and no songs sung. 
No one spoke much hut Loki, and he was that 
day in a talking humour. He moved from one 
to another, whispering an unwelcome word in 
every ear. 

"Have you noticed your mother Frigga?" he 
said to Baldur. " Do you see how white her hair 
is growing, and what a number of deep lines are 
printed on her face ? " 

Then he turned to Frey. " Look at your sister 
Freyja and your friend Baldur," he said, "as they 
sit opposite to us. What a change has come over 
them lately ! Who would think that that pale man 
and that faded woman were Baldur the beautiful 
and Freyja the fair?" 

" You are tired — you are old — you are going 
to die," moaned the winds, wandering all round 
the great halls, and coming in and out of the 
hundred doorways, and all the -3£sir looked up 
at the sad sound. Then they saw, for the first 
time, that a new guest had seated herself that 
day at the table of the Aesir. There could be no 

question of her fitness on the score of royalty, 
for a crown rested on her brow, and in her hand 
she held a sceptre ; but the fingers that grasped 
the sceptre were white and fleshless, and under 
the crown looked the threatening face of Hela, 
half corpse, half queen. 

A great fear fell on all the Aesir as they looked, 
and only Odin found voice to speak to her. 
" Dreadful daughter of Loki ! " he said, " by 
what warrant do you dare to leave the kingdom 
where I permit you to reign, and come to take 
your place among the Aesir, who are no mates 
for such as you?" 

Then Hela raised her bony finger, and pointed, 
one by one, to the guests that sat round. 
" White hair," she said, " wrinkled faces, weary 
liiiil»s, dull eyes — these are the warrants which 
have summoned me from the land of shadows 
to sit among the Aesir. I have come to claim 
you, by these signs, as my future guests, and to 
tell you that I am preparing places for you in 
my kingdom."

At every word she spoke, a gust of icy wind 
came from her mouth and froze the blood in the 
listeners' veins. If she had stayed a moment 
longer they would have stiffened into stone ; but 
when she had spoken thus, she rose and left the 
hall, and the sighing winds went out with her. 

Then, after a long silence, Bragi stood up and 
spoke. " Msir" he said, "we are to blame. It 
is now many months since Idun  was carried away 
from us ; we have mourned for her, but we have 
not yet avenged her loss. Since she left us a 
strange weariness and despair have come over us, 
and we sit looking on each other as if we had 
ceased to be warriors and Aesir. It is plain that, 
unless Idun  returns, we are lost. Let two of us 
journey to the Urda fount, which we have so long 
neglected to visit, and inquire of her from the 
Noms — for they know all things — and then, when 
we have learnt where she is, we will fight for her 
liberty, if need be, till we die ; for that will be 
an end more fitting for us than to sit here and 
wither away under the breath of Hela." 

At these words of Bragi the Aesir felt a revival 
of their old strength and courage. Odin approved 
of Bragi's proposal, and decreed that he and 
Baldur should undertake the journey to the dwell- 
ing-place of the Norns. That very evening they 
set forth ; for Hela's visit showed them that they 
had no time to lose. 

It was a weary time to the dwellers in Asgard 
while they were absent. Two new citizens had 
taken up their abode in the city, Age and Pain. 
They walked the streets hand -in -hand, and there 
was no use in shutting the doors against them ; for, 
however closely the entrance was barred, the 
dwellers in the houses felt them as they passed. . 


PART IV. 

THROUGH FLOOD AND FIRE. 

At length, Baldur and Bragi returned with the 
answer of the Norns, couched in mystic words, 
which Odin alone could understand. It revealed 
Loki's treacherous conduct to the Aesir, and de- 
clared that Idun  could only be brought back by 
Loki, who must go in search of her, clothed in 
Freyja's garments of falcon feathers. 

Loki was very unwilling to venture on such a 
search ; but Thor threatened him with instant death 
if he refused to obey Odin's commands, or failed 
to bring back Iduna ; and, for his own safety, he 
was obliged to allow Freyja to fasten the falcon 
wings to his shoulders, and to set off towards 

Thiasse's castle in Jotunbeim, where he well knew 
that Iduna was imprisoned. 

It was called a castle ; but it was, in reality, a 
hollow in a dark rock; the sea broke against two 
sides of it; and, above, the sea-birds clamoured 
day and night. 

There the giant had taken Iduna on the night 
on which she had left her grove ; and, fearing lest 
Odin should spy her from Air Throne, he had shut 
her up in a gloomy chamber, and strictly forbidden 
her ever to come out. It was hard to be shut 
up from the fresh air and sunshine ; and yet, 
perhaps, it was safer for Idun than if she had 
been allowed to wander about Jotunheim, and see 
the monstrous sights that would have met her 
there. 

She saw nothing but Thiasse himself and his 
servants, whom he had commanded to attend upon 
her; and they, being curious to see a stranger 
from a distant land, came in and out many times 
every day. 

They were fair, Iduna saw — fair and smiling; 

and, at first, it relieved her to see such pleasant 
faces round her, when she had expected something 
horrible. 

" Pity me ! " she used to say to them ; " pity 
me ! I have been torn away from my home and 
my husband, and I see no hope of ever getting 
back." And she looked earnestly at them ; but their 
pleasant faces never changed, and there was al- 
ways — however bitterly Idun might be weeping 
— the same smile on their lips. 

At length Idmia, looking more narrowly at 
them, saw, when they turned their backs to her, 
that they were hollow behind ; they were, in truth, 
Ellewomen, who have no hearts, and can never 
pity any one. 

After Iduna saw this she looked no more at 
their smiling faces, but turned away her head and 
wept silently. It is very sad to live among 
Ellewomen when one is in trouble. 

Every day the giant came and thundered at 
Iduna's door. " Have you made up your mind 
yet," he used to say, "to give me the apples? 

Something dreadful will happen to you if you 
take much longer to think of it." Jduna trembled 
very much every day, but still she had strength 
to say, "No;" for she knew that the most dreadful 
thing would be for her to give to a wicked giant 
the gifts that had been entrusted to her for the 
use of the Aesir. The giant would have taken 
the apples by force if he could ; but, whenever 
he put his hand into the casket, the fruit slipped 
from beneath his fingers, shrivelled into the size 
of a pea, and hid itself in crevices of the casket 
where his great fingers could not come — only when 
Iduna's little white hand touched it, it swelled 
again to its own size, and this she would never 
do while the giant was with her. So the days 
passed on, and Iduna would have died of grief 
among the smiling Ellewomen if it had not been 
for the moaning sound of the sea and the wild 
cry of the birds ; " for, however others may smile, 
these pity me," she used to say, and it was like 
music to her. 

One morning when she knew that the giant 

had gone out, and when the Ellewomen had left 
her alone, she stood for a long time at her window 
by the sea, watching the mermaids floating up 
and down on the waves, and looking at heaven 
with their sad blue eyes. She knew that they 
were mourning because they had no souls, and 
she thought within herself that even in prison it 
was better to belong to the Aesir than to be a 
mermaid or an Ellewoman, were they ever so free 
or happy. 

While she was still occupied with these thoughts 
she heard her name spoken, and a bird with large 
wings flew in at the window, and, smoothing its 
feathers, stood upright before her. It was Loki 
in Freyja's garment of feathers, and he made her 
understand in a moment that he had come to set 
her free, and that there was no time to lose. He 
told her to conceal her casket carefully in her 
bosom, and then he said a few words over her, 
and she found herself changed into a sparrow, with 
the casket fastened among the feathers of her 
breast. 


Theu Loki spread his -wings once more, and 
flew out of the window, and Idun followed him. 
The sea-wind blew cold and rough, and her little 
wings fluttered with fear; but she struck them 
bravely out into the air and flew like an arrow 
over the water. 

" This way lies Asgarcl," cried Loki, and 
the word gave her strength. But they had not 
gone far when a sound was heard above the sea, 
and the wind, and the call of the sea-birds. Thi- 
asse had put on his eagle plumage, and was flying 
after them. For five days and five nights the 
three flew over the water that divides Jotunheim 
from Asgard, and, at the end of every day, they 
were closer together, for the giant was gaining 
on the other two. 

All the five days the dwellers in Asgard stood 
on the walls of the city watching. On the sixth 
evening thej saw a falcon and a sparrow, closely 
pursued by an eagle, flying towards Asgard. 

" There will not be time," said Bragi, who had 
been calculating the speed at which they flew. 

" The eagle will reach them before they can get 
into the city." 

But Odin desired a fire to be lighted upon the 
walls ; and Thor and Tyr, with what strength 
remained to them, tore up the trees from the 
groves and gardens, and made a rampart of fire 
all round the city. The light of the fire showed 
Iduna her husband and her friends waiting for 
her. She made one last effort, and, rising high 
up in the air above the flames and smoke, she 
passed the walls, and dropped down safely at the 
foot of Odin's throne. The giant tried to follow ; 
but, wearied with his long flight, he was unable 
to raise his enormous bulk sufficiently high in 
the air. The flames scorched his wings as he 
flew through them, and he fell among the flaming 
piles of wood, and was burnt to death. 

How Idun feasted the Aesir on her apples, how 
they grew young and beautiful again, and how 
spring, and green leaves, and music came back to 
the grove, I must leave you to imagine, for I have 
made my stoiy long enough already ; and if I say 


any more you will fancy that it is Bragi who has 
come among you, and that he has entered on his 
endless story. 



Harry. — " But Bragi 's story was never to be- 
come tedious, whereas yours " 

Aunt Helen. — " Come, come, if you are tired, 
it is no fault of the story's ; it shows that, in- 
stead of going up to tea, you had better go to 
bed." 

William. — " Never mind him, Aunt Helen ; I 
am not tired ; I want to talk about the story. How 
strange it is that it should have a faint resem- 
blance to the history of Eve ! Do you think it 
could be a tradition?" 

Aunt II. — " I do not know ; I am afraid of 
giving an opinion on such difficult subjects ; but 
you know there are similar faint likenesses in 
other mythologies — Deucalion and the Flood, for 
instance." 

Alfred. — "The Apples of Immortality make 
one think of the fruit of the Tree of Life." 

Aunt H. — "Yes; and Idun, who is a type of 
innocence, keeps them. When she, with the fruit 
that can only be tasted from her hands, is car- 
ried away, pain, and weakness, and age enter, 
and death comes near." 

Aunt Margaret. — " I shall have the very same 
story to tell you more fully, under another form, 
by-and-by." 

Charlie. — " I don't understand why Loki is to 
fetch Iduna back again ; I don't see how he 
could." 

Uncle Alice. — "Nor do I, when I think of 
what Loki is the type ; but we must not think 
too much of the types ; they are not always 
strictly earned out. Loin's being sent for Iduna 
is meant, I suppose, to show that the person 
who commits a wrong ought to be made to re- 
pair it." 

Aunt H. — "At all events, you can see the 
meaning of Iduna re-entering Asgard through a 

rampart of fire — Innocence restored and perfected 
by Pain." 

Alice. — "But the flame scarcely touches Idun, 
and burns the giant to death." 

Aunt H. — "True. Suffering purifies or kills; 
and which, depends — does it not? — on the kind of 
person who passes through." 

Aunt M. — "And I hope, too, that you see the 
fitness of Innocence, with eternal youth in her 
keeping, being wedded to Bragi the poet." 

Uncle A. — " I think, however, that Aunt Helen 
ought to have told us that there is a simpler ex- 
planation of the story of Idun than the one she 
has given us. It is thought by many that Idun 
represents Spring, and that her falling into cap- 
tivity for a time to the giant Thiasse is typical 
of the fall of the leaf in autumn. There is 
another myth contained in Odin's raven-song, in 
which Iduna is represented as falling down from 
Yggdrasil's ash into the nether world. Odin 
sends Heimdall and Bragi to bring her up again, 
and to ascertain from her if she has been able to 

discover anything about the destruction and dura- 
tion of the world and heaven. Instead of an- 
swering, she bursts into tears. I think these two 
stories about going away and returning again 
look very like a representation of the destruction 
of verdure in winter, and its fresh, bright return 
in spring." 

Aunt H. — "Well, I maintain that you may 
find both my explanation and yours in the story ; 
but I think the first the best." 

William. — "What does it mean by Iduna 
weeping when Odin questioned her about the 
duration of the world ? " 

Aunt H. — " The book where I read the story 
says, that the whole is wrapped in dense obscurity ; 
but, though I know Uncle Alick will call me fan- 
ciful, I cannot resist making a guess. I think 
Idun , weeping in silence when Odin questions 
her about the future, is a touching picture of 
how much the old Northmen felt the impossibility 
of wringing from Nature alone an answer to the 
questions and longings that filled their hearts. 

Even the fresh, bright spring, so full of tender 
messages of hope and hints of immortality, could 
not give the full assurance for which they yearned. 
The same thought is, I imagine, expressed by the 
silence of Vidar, who is a type of impenetrable 
Nature." 

Alfred. — "You have said very little about 
Bragi, the husband." 

Aunt H. — " I ought to have treated him with 
more respect. He is the originator of poetry and 
his tongue was said to be inscribed with the most 
exquisite mind-runes. He was famed for elo- 
quence and gentleness. There is a story about 
his trying to bribe Loki to keep peace, by offering 
to give him a sword and a horse ; but Loki would 
not listen to him. You must put what meaning 
you can on this story. I see so much that I dare 
not begin talking about it so late in the evening." 
Aunt M. — " Don't forget about the Bragarfull. 
At feasts in old times it was the custom to 
drink four cups of mead ; one to Odin, for victory ; 
one to Frey, and one to Niord, for a good year 

and peace ; and the fourth to Bragi. It was called 
the 'Cup of Vows ; ' and the drinker vowed over 
it to perform some great deed worthy of the song 
of a skald." 

Uncle A. — "Before we go, let me ask you, 
Harry, if you think that the name of Bragi is 
like any English word you are fond of using." 

Harry. — "Bragi, Bragi, Brag; is that it?" 

Uncle A. — "Yes; I am afraid that elegant 
verb comes from Bragi, though we had rather not 
see how it comes to mean what it does, when it 
is derived from the name of our eloquent speaker 
and poet." 

Harry. — " I think it is clear enough ; so that 
is another of your words with a story to it." 

Uncle A. — "And a long one, too. Do you see 
what o'clock it is?" 



CHAPTER VI. 



MONDAY. 

" Tears 
Dim the sweet look that nature wears." 

LOXG FELLOW. 

William. — " This is Monday. What story be- 
longs to this evening? Does not Monday mean 
Moon's-day, Aunt Margaret?" 

Aunt Margaret. — " Yes ; but there is no story 
about the moon. The Edda only says that the 
moon is a car driven by a man called Mani, and 
that one day, seeing two children upon the earth 
carrying a bucket between them, Mani stole them, 
and carried them off to the moon." 


Alfred. — " We must mind what we are about, 
and not carry buckets between us." 

Aunt M. — " Certainly ; so Nurse Breame always 
used to say when you spilt water over the nursery 
floor." 

Alice. — "Is that all we are to have to-night?" 

Aunt M. — " Oh, dear, no ! Listen. Yesterday 
was the Sun's-day, but, of course, we had no story 
on that evening ; so I will tell you one to-night 
that would belong to Sunday better than to any 
other day, because the hero, though not the Sun- 
god, was very much like the sun, and his name 
means brightness." 

William. — " What does the Edda say about 
the sun?" 

Aunt M. — " Oh, only a foolish story, like the 
moon story, that it was a car driven by a girl 
called Sol. There, now I will begin." 


BALDUR. 



PART I. 



THE DREAM. 



Upon a summer's afternoon it happened that 
Baldur the Bright and Bold, beloved of men and 
Aesir, found himself alone in his palace of Broad- 
blink. Thor was walking low down among the 
valleys, his brow heavy with summer heat ; Frey 
and Gerda sported on still waters in their cloud- 
leaf ship ; Odin, for once, slept on the top of Air 
Throne ; a noon-day stillness pervaded the whole 
earth ; and Baldur in Broadblink, the wide-glancing, 
most sunlit of palaces, dreamed a dream. 

Now the dream of Baldur was troubled. He 
knew not whence nor why ; but when he awoke 
he found that a most new and weighty care was 
within him. It was so heavy that Baldur could 
scarcely carry it, and yet he pressed it closely 
to his heart, and said, " Lie there, and do not 
fall on any one but me." Then he rose up, 
and walked out from the expanded splendour of 
his hall, that he might seek his own mother, 
Frigga, and tell her what had happened to him. 
He found her in her crystal saloon, calm and 
cool, waiting to listen, and ready to sympathise ; 
so he walked up to her, his hands pressed 
closely on his heart, and lay down at her feet 
sighing. 

"What is the matter, dear Baldur?" asked 
Frigga, gently. 

"I do not know, mother," answered he. "I 
do not know what the matter is ; but I have a 
shadow in my heart." 

•' Take it out, then, my son, and let me look 
at it," replied Frigg. 

"But I fear, mother, that if I do it will cover 
the whole earth." 

Then Frigga laid her hand upon the heart of 
her son that she might feel the shadow's shape. 
Her brow became clouded as she felt it ; her parted 
lips grew pale, and she cried out, " Oh ! Baldur, 
my beloved son ! the shadow is the shadow of 
death ! " 

Then said Baldur, " I will die bravely, my 
mother." 

But Frigga answered, " You shall not die at 
all ; for I will not sleep to-night until everything 
on earth has sworn to me that it will neither 
kill nor harm you." 

So Frigga stood up, and called to her everything 
on earth that had power to hurt or slay. First 
she called all metals to her; and heavy iron-ore 
came lumbering up the hill into the crystal hall. 
brass and gold, copper, silver, lead, and steel, and 
stood before the Queen, who lifted her right-hand 
high in the air, saying, " Swear to me that you 
will not injure Baldur;" and they all swore, and 

went. Then she called to her all stones ; and 
huge granite came with crumbling sandstone, and 
white lime, and the round, smooth stones of the 
sea -shore, and Frigga raised her arm, saying, 
" Swear that you will not injure Baldur;" and 
they swore, and went. Then Frigga called to 
her the trees ; and wide-spreading oak-trees, with 
tall ash and sombre firs came rushing up the hill, 
with long branches, from which green leaves like 
flags were waving, and Frigga raised her hand, 
and said, "Swear that you will not hurt Baldur;" 
and they said, " We swear," and went. After this 
Frigga called to her the diseases, who came blown 
thitherward by poisonous winds on wings of pain, 
and to the sound of moaning. Frigga said to them, 
" Swear;" and they sighed, " We swear," then flew 
away. Then Frigga called to her all beasts, birds, 
and venomous snakes, who came to her and swore, 
and disappeared. After this she stretched out her 
hand to Baldur, whilst a smile spread over her 
face, saying, " And now, my son, you cannot die." 
But just then Odin came in, and when he had 


heard from Frigga the whole story, he looked even 
more mournful than she had doue ; neither did 
the cloud pass from his face when he was told of 
the oaths that had been taken. 

" Why do you still look so grave, my lord?" de- 
manded Frigg, at last. " Baldur cannot now die." 

But Odin asked very gravely, " Is the shadow 
gone out of our sons heart, or is it still there?" 

" It caunot be there," said Frigg, turning away 
her head resolutely, and folding her hands before 
her. 

But Odin looked at Baldur, and saw how it 
was. The hands pressed to the heavy heart, the 
beautiful brow grown dim. Then immediately he 
arose, saddled Sleipnir, his eight -footed steed, 
mounted him, and, turning to Frigga, said, " I 
know of a dead Vala,* Frigg, who, when she was 
alive, could tell what was going to happen ; her 
grave lies on the east side of Helheim, and I 
am going there to awake her, and ask whether any 
terrible grief is really coming upon us." 

So sayiu'g Odin shook the bridle in his hand, 
and the Eight-footed, with a bound, leapt forth, 
rushed like a whirlwind down the mountain of 
Asgard, and then dashed into a narrow defile 
between rocks. 

Sleipnir went on through the. defile a long 
way, until he came to a place where the earth 
opened her mouth. There Odin rode in and 
down a broad, steep, slanting road which led him 
to the cavern Gnipa, and the mouth of the cavern 
Gnipa yawned upon Niflheim. Then thought Odin 
to himself, "My journey is already done." But 
just as Sleipnir was about to leap through the 
jaws of the pit, Garm, the voracious dog who 
was chained to the rock, sprang forward, and 
tried to fasten himself upon Odin. Three times 
Odin shook him off, and still Garm, as fierce as 
ever, went on with the fight. At last Sleipnir 
leapt, and Odin thrust just at the same moment ; 
then horse and rider cleared the entrance, and 
turned eastward towards the dead Vala's grave, 
dripping blood along the road as they went ; while  

the beaten Garm stood baying in the cavern's 
mouth. 

When Odin came to the grave he got off his 
horse, and stood with his face northwards looking 
through barred enclosures into the city of Helheim 
itself. The servants of Hela were very busy there 
making preparations for some new guest — hanging 
gilded couches with curtains of anguish and splendid 
misery upon the walls. Then Odin's heart died 
within him. and he began to repeat mournful runes 
in a low tone to himself. 

The dead Vala turned heavily in her grave at 
the sound of his voice, and, as he went on, sat 
bolt upright. "What man is this," she asked, 
"who dares disturb my sleep?" 

Then Odin, for the first time in his life, said 
what was not true ; the shadow of Baldur dead 
fell upon his lips, and he made answer, " My name 
is Vegtam, the son of Valtam." 

And what do you want from me?" asked the 
Vala. 

"T want to know," replied Odin, "for whom 


Hela is making ready that guilded couch in 
Helheim?" 

" That is for Baldur the Beloved," answered 
the dead Vala. " Now go away, and let me sleep 
again, for my eyes are heavy." 

But Odin said, " Only one word more. Is Baldur 
going to Helheim ? " 

" Yes ; I 've told you that he is," answered the 
Vala. 

"Will he never come back to Asgard again?" 

" If everything on earth should weep for him," 
answered she, " he will go back ; if not, he will 
remain in Helheim." 

Then Odin covered his face with his hands and 
looked into darkness. 

" Do go away," said the Vala, " I 'm so sleepy ; 
I cannot keep my eyes open any longer." 

But Odin raised his head, and said again, " Only 
tell me this one thing. Just now, as I looked into 
darkness, it seemed to me as if I saw one on earth 
who would not weep for Baldur. Who was it?" 

At this the Vala grew very angry and said, 



 217 

"How couldst thou see in darkness? I know 
of one only who, by giving away his eye, gained 
light. No Vegtam art thou, but Odin, chief of 
men." 

At her angry words Odin became angry too, 
and called out as loudly as ever he could, " No 
Vala art thou, nor wise woman, but rather the 
mother of three giants." 

" Go, go ! " answered the Vala, falling back in 
her grave ; "no man shall waken me again until 
Loki have burst his chains and Ragnarok be 
come." After this Odin mounted the Eight-footed 
once more, and rode thoughtfully towards home. 



PART II. 



THE PEACESTEAD. 



When Odin came back to Asgard, Hermod took 
the bridle from his father's hand, and told him 
that the rest of the Aesir were gone to the Peace- 
stead — a broad, green plain which lay just outside 
the city. Now this was, in fact, the playground of 
the Aesir, where they practised trials of skill one 
with another, and held tournaments and sham fights. 
These last were always conducted in the gentlest 
and most honourable manner ; for the strongest law 
of the Peacestead was, that no angry blow should be 
struck, or spiteful word spoken, upon the sacred field ; 
and for this reason some have thought it might be 
well if children also had a Peacestead to play in. 


Odin was too much tired by his journey from 
Helheim to go to the Peacestead that afternoon; 
so he turned away, and shut himself up in his 
palace of Gladsheim. But when he was gone, 
Loki came into the city by another way, and hear- 
ing from Herrnod where the Esir were, set off 
to join them. 

When he got to the Peacestead, Loki found 
that the Aesir  were standing round in a circle 
shooting at something, and he peeped between 
the shoulders of two of them to find out what 
it was. To his surprise he saw Baldur standing 
in the midst, erect and calm, whilst his friends 
and brothers were aiming their weapons at him. 
Some hewed at him with their swords — others 
threw stones at him — some shot arrows pointed 
with steel, and Thor continually swung Miolnir 
at his head. " Well," said Loki to himself, " if 
this is the sport of Asgard, what must that of 
Jotimheim be? I wonder what Father Odin and 
Mother Frigg would say if they were here ?" But 
as Loki still looked, he became even more sur- 


prised, for the sport went on, and Baldur was 
not hurt. Arrows aimed at his very heart glanced 
back again untinged with blood. The stones fell 
down from his broad bright brow, and left lio 
bruises there. Swords clave, but did not wound 
him ; Miolnir struck him, and he was not crushed. 
At this Loki grew perfectly furious with envy 
and hatred. " And why is Baldur to be so 
honoured," said he, " that even steel and stone 
shall not hurt him?" Then Loki changed himself 
into a little, dark, bent, old woman, with a stick 
in his hand, and hobbled away from the Peacestead 
to Frigga's cool saloon. At the door he knocked 
with his stick. 

" Come in ! " said the kind voice of Frigg, and 
Loki lifted the latch. 

Now when Frigga saw, from the other end of 
the hall, a little, bent, crippled, old woman, come 
hobbling up her crystal floor, she got up with 
true queenliness, and met her half way, holding 
out her hand, and saying in the kindest manner, 
" Pray sit down, my poor old friend ; for it seems 
to me that you have come from a great way 
off." 

"That I have, indeed," answered Loki in a 
tremulous, squeaking voice. 

" And did you happen to see anything of the 
Aesir ," asked Frigg, "as you came?" 

" Just now I passed by the Peacestead, and 
saw them at play." 

"What were they doiug?" 

" Shooting at Baldur." 

Then Frigga bent over her work with a pleased 
smile on her face. "And nothing hurt him?" 
she said. 

" Nothing," answered Loki, looking keenly at 
her. 

" No, nothing," murmured Frigg, still looking 
down and speaking half musingly to herself; " for 
all things have sworn to me that they will not." 

"Sworn!" exclaimed Loki, eagerly; " what is 
that you say? Has everything sworn then?" 

" Everything," answered she, "excepting, indeed, 
the little shrub mistletoe, which grows, you know,  

on the west side of Valhal, and to which I said 
nothing, because I thought it was too young to 
swear." 

"Excellent!" thought Loki ; and then he got 
up. 

"You're not going yet, are you?" said Frigg, 
stretching out her hand and looking up at last 
into the eyes of the old woman. 

" I 'm quite rested now, thank you," answered 
Loki in his squeaky voice, and then he hobbled out 
at the door, which clapped after him, and sent a 
cold gust into the room. Frigga shuddered, and 
thought that a serpent was gliding down the back 
of her neck. 

When Loki had left the presence of Frigg, he 
changed himself back to his proper shape, and 
went straight to the west side of Valhal, where 
the mistletoe grew. Then he opened his knife, 
and cut off a large branch, saying these words, 
" Too young for Frigga 's oaths, but not too weak for 
Loki's work." After which he set off for the Peace- 
stead once more, the mistletoe in his hand. When

he got there he found that the Aesir were still 
at their sport, standing round, taking aim, and 
talking eagerly, and Baldur did not seem tired. 

But there was one who stood alone, leaning against 
a tree, and who took no part in what was going on. 
This was Hodur, Baldur s blind twin-brother; he 
stood with his head bent downwards, silent, whilst 
the others were speaking, doing nothing, when they 
were most eager ; and Loki thought that there 
was a discontented expression on his face, just as 
if he were saying to himself, " Nobody takes any 
notice of me." So Loki went up to him, and 
put his hand upon his shoulder. 

" And why are you standing here all alone, my 
brave friend?" said he. "Why don't you throw 
something at Baldur. Hew at him with a sword, 
or show him some attention of that sort." 

" I haven't got a sword," answered Hodur, with 
an impatient gesture ; " and you know as well as 
I do, Loki, that Father Odin does not approve 
of my wearing warlike weapons, or joining in sham 
fights, because I am blind." 

"Oh! is that it?" said Loki. "Well, I only 
know I shouldn't like to be left out of everything. 
However, I 've got a twig of mistletoe here which 
I '11 lend you if you like ; a harmless little twig 
enough, but I shall be happy to guide your 
arm if you would like to throw it, and Baldur 
might take it as a compliment from his twin- 
brother." 

"Let me feel it," said Hodur, stretching out 
his uncertain hands. 

" This way, this way, my dear friend," said Loki, 
giving him the twig. " Now, as hard as ever you 
can, to do him honour ; throw ! " 

Hodur threw — Baldur fell, and the shadow of 
death covered the whole earth. 





PART III. 



BALDUR DEAD. 


One after another they turned and left the Peace- 
stead, those friends and brothers of the slain. One 
after another they turned and went towards the 
city : crushed hearts, heavy footsteps, no word 
amongst them, a shadow upon all. The shadow 
was in Asgard, too, — had walked through Frigga's 
ball, and seated itself upon the threshold of Glad- 
sheim. Odin had just come out to look at it, 
and Frigg stood by in mute despair as the Aesir 
came up. 

" Loki did it ! Loki did it ! " they said at last 
in confused, hoarse whispers, and they looked from 
one to another, upon Odin, upon Frigg, upon the 

shadow which they saw before them, and which 
they felt within. " Loki did it! Loki, Loki!" 
they went on saying ; hut it was no use repeating 
the name of Loki over and over again when there 
was another name they were too sad to utter which 
yet filled all their hearts — Baldur. Frigga said 
it first, and then they all went to look at him 
lying down so peacefully on the grass — dead, 
dead. 

" Cany him to the funeral pyre ! " said Odin, at 
length; and four of the Aesir stooped down, and 
lifted their dead brother. 

With scarcely any sound they carried the body 
tenderly to the sea-shore, and laid it upon the 
deck of that majestic ship called Pdnghorn, which 
had been Ids. Then they stood round waiting to 
see who would come to the funeral. Odin came, 
and on his shoulders sat two ravens, whose croaking 
drew clouds down over the Asa's face, for their 
names were Thought and Memory. Frigga came — 
Frey, Gerda, Freyja, Thor, Hoenir, Bragi, and Idim. 
Heimdall came sweeping over the tops of the mountains on Golden Mane, his swift, bright steed. 
Aegir  the Old groaned from under the deep, and 
sent his daughters up to mourn around the dead. 
Frost-giants and mountain-giants came crowding 
round the rimy shores of Jotunheim to look across 
the sea upon the funeral of an Asa. Nanna came, 
Baldur's fair young wife ; but when she saw the 
dead body of her husband her own heart broke 
with grief, and the Aesir laid her beside him on 
the stately ship. After this Odin stepped forward, 
and placed a ring on the breast of his son, whisper- 
ing something at the same time in his ear; but 
when he and the rest of the Aesir tried to push 
Ringhorn into the sea before setting fire to it, 
they found that their hearts were so heavy they 
could lift nothing. So they beckoned to the 
giantess Hyirokin to come over from Jotunheim 
and help them. She, with a single push, set the 
ship floating, and then, whilst Thor stood up 
holding Miolnir high in the air, Odin lighted the 
funeral pile of Baldur and of Nanna. 

So Ringhorn went out floating towards the deep, 

and the funeral fire burnt on. Its broad red 
flame burst forth towards heaven ; but when the 
smoke would have gone upward too, the winds 
came sobbing and carried it away. 



PART IV. 

HELHEIM.


When at last the ship Ringhorn had floated out 
so far to sea that it looked like a dull, red lamp 
on the horizon, Frigga turned round and said, 
11 Does any one of you, my children, wish to per- 
form a noble action, and win my love for ever?" 

" I do," cried Hermod, before any one else had 
time to open his lips. 

11 Go, then, Hermod," answered Frigg, " saddle 
Sleipnir with all speed, and ride down to Helheim ; 
there seek out Hela, the stern mistress of the 
dead, and entreat her to send our beloved back 
to us once more." 

Hermod was gone in the twinkling of an eye, not in at the mouth of the earth and through the 
steep cavern down which Odin went to the dead 
Vala's grave ; he chose another way, though not 
a better one ; for, go to Helheim how you will, 
the best is but a downward road, and so Hermod 
found it — downward, slanting, slippery, dark, and 
very cold. At last he came to the Giallar Bru — 
that sounding river which flows between the living 
and the dead, and the bridge over which is paved 
with stones of glittering gold. Hermod was sur- 
prised to see gold in such a place ; but as he 
rode over the bridge, and looked down carefully 
at the stones, he saw that they were only tears 
which had been shed round the beds of the dying — 
only tears, and yet they made the way seem 
brighter. But when Hermod reached the other 
end of the bridge, he found the courageous woman 
who, for ages and ages, had been sitting there 
to watch the dead go by, and she stopped him 
saying,— 

" What a noise you make. Who are you ? 
Yesterday five troops of dead men went over the 

Giallar Bridge, and did not shake it so much as 
you have doue. Besides." she added, looking more 
closely at Herinod, " you are not a dead man at 
all. Your lips are neither cold nor blue. Why, 
then, do you ride on the way to Helheim?" 

" I seek Baldur," answered Hermod. " Tell 
me, have you seen him pass?" 

" Baldur," she said, " has ridden over the bridge; 
but there below, towards the north, lies the way 
to the Abodes of Death." 

So Hermod went on the way until he came to 
the barred gates of Helheim itself. There he 
alighted, tightened his saddle-girths, remounted, 
clapped both spurs to his horse, and cleared the 
gate by one tremendous leap. Then Hermod 
found himself in a place where no living man had 
ever been before — the City of the Dead. Perhaps 
you think there is a great silence there, but you 
are mistaken. Hermod thought he had never in 
his life heard so much noise ; for the echoes of all 
words were speaking together — words, some newly 
uttered and some ages old ; but the dead men did 

not hear who flitted up and down the dark streets, 
for their ears had been stunned and become cold 
long since. Hermod rode on through the city until 
he came to the palace of Hela, which stood in the 
midst. Precipice was its threshold, the entrance- 
hall, Wide Storm, and yet Hermod was not too 
much afraid to seek the innermost rooms ; so he 
went on to the banqueting-hall, where Hela sat 
at the head of her table, and served her newest 
guests. Baldur, alas ! sat at her right-hand, and 
on her left his pale young wife. When Hela saw 
Hermod coming up the hall she smiled grimly, 
but beckoned to him at the same time to sit down, 
and told him that he might sup that night with 
her. It was a strange supper for a living man to 
sit down to. Hunger was the table ; Starvation, 
Hela's knife ; Delay, her man ; Slowness, her 
maid ; and Burning Thirst, her wine. After sup- 
per Hela led the way to the sleeping apartments. 
"You see," she said, turning to Hermod, "I am 
very anxious about the comfort of my guests. Here 
are beds of unrest provided for all, hung with 

curtains of weariness, and look how all the walls 
are furnished with despair." 

So saying she strode away, leaving Herniod and 
Baldur together. The whole night they sat on 
those unquiet couches and talked. Hermod could 
speak of nothing but the past, and as he looked 
anxiously round the room his eyes became dim 
with tears. But Baldur seemed to see a light 
far off, and he spoke of what was to come. 

The next morning Hermod went to Hela, and 
entreated her to let Baldur return to Asgard. He 
even offered to take his place in Helheim if she 
pleased; but Hela only laughed at this, and said, 
"You talk a great deal about Baldur, and boast 
how much every one loves him ; I will prove now 
if what you have told me be true. Let everything 
on earth, living or dead, weep for Baldur, and he 
shall go home again ; but if one thing only refuse 
to weep, then let Helheim hold its own ; he shall 
not go." 

" Every one will weep willingly," said Hermod, 
as he mounted Sleipnir, and rode towards the 


entrance of the city. Baldur went with him as 
far as the gate, and began to send messages to all 
his friends in Asgard, but Hermod would not listen 
to many of them. 

" You will so soon come back to us," he said, 
" there is no use in sending messages." 

So Hermod darted homewards, and Baldur 
watched him through the bars of Helheim's gate- 
way as he flew along. 

"Not soon, not soon," said the dead Asa; but 
still he saw the light far off, and thought of what 
was to come. 


PART V. 

WEEPING. 

"Well, Hermod, what did she say?" asked the 
Aesir from the top of the hill, as they saw T him 
coming ; " make haste and tell us what she said." 
And Hermod came up. 

"Oh! is that all?" they cried, as soon as he 
had delivered his message. " Nothing can he 
more easy ; " and then they all hurried off to 
tell Frigga. She was weeping already, and in 
five minutes there was not a tearless eye in 
Asgard. 

" But this is not enough," said Odin ; " the 
whole earth must know of our grief that it may 
weep with us." 

Then the father of the ,Esir called to him his 
messenger maidens — the beautiful Valkyrior — and 
sent them out into all worlds with these three 
words on their lips, " Baldur is dead!" But the 
words were so dreadful that at first the messenger 
maidens could only whisper them in low tones 
as they went along, " Baldur is dead!" The 
dull, sad sounds flowed back on Asgard like a 
new river of grief, and it seemed to the J3sir as 
if they now wept for the first time — " Baldur is 
dead ! " 

" What is that the Valkyrior are saying? asked 
the men and women in all the country round, 
and when they heard rightly, men left their labour 
and lay down to weep — women dropped the buckets 
they were carrying to the well, and, leaning their 
faces over them, filled them with tears. The 
children crowded upon the doorsteps, or sat down 
at the corners of the streets, crying as if their 
own mothers were dead. 

The Valkyrior passed on. " Baldur is dead ! " 
they said to the empty fields ; and straightway 

the grass and the wild field -flowers shed tears. 
"Baldur is dead!" said the messenger maidens 
to the rocks and the stones ; and the very stones 
began to weep. " Baldur is dead ! " the Valkyrior 
cried; and even the old mammoth's bones, which 
had lam for centuries under the hills, burst into 
tears, so that small rivers gushed forth from every 
mountain's side. " Baldur is dead ! " said the mes- 
senger maidens as they swept over silent sands ; 
and all the shells wept pearls. ;( Baldur is dead ! " 
they cried to the sea, and to Jotunheim across 
the sea; and when the giants understood it, even 
they wept, whilst the sea rained spray to heaven. 
After this the Valkyrior stepped from one stone to 
another until they reached a rock that stood alone 
in the middle of the sea; then, altogether, they 
bent forward over the edge of it, stooped down, 
and peeped over, that they might tell the monsters 
of the deep. " Baldur is dead ! " they said ; and 
the sea monsters and the fish wept. Then the 
messenger maidens looked at one another, and 
said, "Surely our work is done." So they twined 

their arms round one another's waists, and set forth 
on the downward road to Helheim, there to claim 
Baldur from among the dead. 

Now after he had sent forth his messenger 
maidens, Odin had seated himself on the top of 
Air Throne that he might see how the earth re- 
ceived his message. At first he watched the 
Valkyrior as they stepped forth north and south, 
and east and west; but soon the whole earth's 
steaming tears rose up like a great cloud, and 
hid everything from him. Then he looked down 
through the cloud, and said, "Are you all weep- 
ing?" The Valkyrior heard the sound of his voice 
as they weut altogether down the slippery road, 
and they turned roimd, stretching out their arms 
towards Air Throne, their long hair falling back, 
whilst, with choked voices and streaming eyes, 
they answered, "The world weeps, Father Odin; 
the world and we." 

After this they went on their way until they 
came to the end of the cave Gnipa, where Garm 
was chained, and which yawned over Niflheim. 

" The world weeps," they said one to another by 
way of encouragement, for here the road was so 
dreadful ; but just as they were about to pass 
through the mouth of Gnipa they came upon a 
haggard witch named Thaukt, who sat in the 
entrance with her back to them, and her face to- 
wards the abyss. " Baldur is dead ! Weep, 
weep!" said the messenger maidens, as they tried 
to pass her ; but Thaukt made answer — 

" "What she doth hold, 

Let Hela keep; 

For naught care I, 

Though the world weep, 
O'er Baldur's bale. 
Live he or die 
With tearless eye, 

Old Thaukt shall wail." 

And with these words leaped into Niflheim with 
a yell of triumph. 

" Surely that cry was the cry of Loki," said 
one of the maidens; but another pointed towards 
tin' city of Ilelheim, and there they saw the stern 
face of Hela looking over the wall. 

" One has not wept," said the grim Queen, 

" and Helheini holds its own." So saying she 
motioned the maidens away with her long, cold 
hand. 

Then the Valkyrior turned and fled up the 
steep way to the foot of Odin's throne, like a 
pale snow-drift that flies before the storm. 

After this a strong child, called Vali, was born 
in the city of Asgard. He was the youngest of 
Odin's sons — strong and cold as the icy January 
blast ; but full, also, as it is of the hope of the new 
year. When only a day old he slew the blind 
Hodur by a single blow, and then spent the rest 
of his life in trying to lift the shadow of death 
from the face of the weeping earth. 



Alfred. — " And was it Loki, Aunt Margaret, 
was it Loki who looked like a witch, and would 
not weep ? " 

Aunt Margaret. — "I think so." 

Haeet. — "No wonder he would not weep, for 


he was deceitful and wicked, and Baldur was good 
— the beloved." 

William. — "Aunt Margaret, what does Baldur 
mean ? Is he a type of anything ? " 

Aunt M. — " I believe him to be the type of 
innocence. His name means 'white,' or 'bright,' 
and, according to another explanation, ' bold ' also. 
There is a flower which grows in Sweden, of the 
purest white, which is still called Balldursbra, 
or Baldur's brow. Whiteness generally signifies 
purity." 

Charlie. — " Does his death, then, mean that 
the world has lost innocence ? and does the falling 
of the shadow of death upon the earth imply that 
when sin entered death came?" 

Aunt M. — "No doubt the death of Baldur is 
a way of expressing the fall of man from his first 
innocence, and the sorrow of the whole world 
shows how suffering follows close upon the heels of 
sin ; but I must confess that that part about the 
shadow is a little addition of my own, and does 
not appear in the Edda. I thought, however, 

that it would help us to understand the true 
meaning of the myth." 

Alice. — "How pretty that is about everything 
weeping ! " 

Aunt M. — " I think so too, Alice." 
Alfred.— "It did no good, however." 
Harry. — " No, because Loki would not weep." 
Aunt M. — " Because evil still existed, and could 
not mourn the death of innocence, its eternal 
opposite; and evil, remember, is in every soul, 
as Loki was in the earth, fighting against it, 
holding back its penitent tears, forbidding it to 
weep, and so separating it from innocence, the 
lost, and yet beloved." 

Charlie. — " What does it mean by the blind 
brother, Hodur, throwing the mistletoe ? for though 
Loki guided his hand, he was very much to blame 
as well." 

Aunt M. — " Certainly he was ; and I think that 
the blind Hodur, standing apart from the sports 
of the Aesir, may be a type of that spirit of 
perverse blindness and ignorant distrust which 

caused our first parents to listen to the deceitful 
words of Satan, the accuser of the Eternal Father. 
And it is the same with ourselves : blindness, 
darkness, distrust, a spirit of separation — these 
make our hearts like empty rooms, ready to become 
the homes of devils." 

Uncle Alice. — " What Aunt Margaret says is 
true enough about ourselves; but I do not think 
it likely that such thoughts can be typified in a 
heathen mythology." 

William. — " Is there any other explanation, 
then, Uncle Alick?" 

Uncle A. — " Yes ; some suppose Baldur to mean 
the summer, and Hodur the dark winter, who slays 
him. Vali, or the Strong, who, when only a day 
old, revenged the murder of his dead brother by 
slaying Hodur, is sometimes supposed to be 
typical of the strong new year, which comes 
with longer days to chase away the darkness of 
winter." 

Alfred. — " Then we might call New Year's- 
day Vali-day?" 


Aunt M. — " We might. The Scandinavians 
and Saxons called it Yule-day, which, no doubt, 
comes from Vali; for in the Swedish Runic Calendar New Year's or Yule-day is denoted by a 
child in swaddling clothes with a crown on, and 
sometimes with a sword and bow." 

Haeey. — " Surely that child in swaddling clothes 
must mean Jesus Christ ?" 

Aunt M. — " No, Harry. Originally it meant 
Vali ; but, no doubt, after the introduction of 
Christianity, the strong infant Vali became con- 
fused with the Divine Child Jesus, and Christmas 
took the place of Yule, for it was celebrated at 
nearly the same time." 

William. — "How was Yule celebrated amongst 
the northern nations, Aunt Margaret, before they 
became Christian?" 

Aunt M. — "The merry month of Yule, or feast 
of the New Year, was the greatest of all their festi- 
vals ; it began from the first new moon of the new 
year, and lasted a whole month. During that 
time feasts were given in all rich houses, friends 

and kindred were invited, and the poor drank 
what was called ' social mead' together. Kings 
and Jarls, also, used to meet in some grand hall, 
and, after a great deal of feasting and mead drink- 
ing, a hog was generally brought in, well fattened 
and adorned. Over this hog they took solemn 
oaths, pledging themselves to have accomplished 
some great enterprise before the next Yule meet- 
ing, or new year." 

Harry. — " Why, Aunt Margaret, that is what 
old Biorn, of the fiery eyes, does in Sintram over 
the boar's head; but why did they take oaths 
over a boar ? " 

Aunt M. — " Because the hog or boar was, as you 
remember, sacred to Frey, the god of sunshine, and 
it was to him they looked forward with hope during 
the long winter months." 

Charlie. — " I wonder, though, why the boar uas 
sacred to Frey?" 

Aunt Helen. — " I believe, because the boar is 
supposed to have first taught mankind to plough 
the earth by tearing the ground with its tusks ; and 


Frey, you know, being the genius of clouds and 
sunshine, makes the earth fruitful." 

Alice. — "Can you tell us anything else?" 

Aunt M. — " Yes ; there is another old custom 
connected with the beginning of the year, to which 
I must call your attention. The Druids, who, you 
know, were the priests of the Britons, our Celtic 
forefathers, used to cut off a branch from the mis- 
tletoe at the commencement of the year, that it 
might not injure the coming No doubt 
they had heard something of Baldur in very distant 
times, when the Celtic and Scandinavian nations 
were neighbours in the far north." 

Alfred. — " How very curious ! Do you suppose, 
then, that the use of mistletoe at Christmas comes 
from that old custom ? " 

Aunt M. — "No doubt it does ; and it seems to 
me that we may, with a deep meaning, connect 
Christmas with the mistletoe ; for the shrub re- 
minds us of the death of Innocence, the fall of 
man ; and we adorn our houses with it at a time 
when we celebrate the birth of the Second Man — 


the Lord from Heaven, by whose righteousness 
the free gift comes upon all men." 

Charlie. — " Is there any meaning in the mis- 
tletoe being so young and small ? " 

Aunt H. — 

" ' 'T was but one little act of sin 
Which in the morning entered in, 
And lo ! at eventide the world was drowned.' " 

Alice. — " Aunt Margaret, it is so full of mean- 
ing that I get puzzled." 

William. — " Yes ; you have given us two quite 
different thoughts — the death of Innocence and 
the death of Upon the whole I think 
the first explanation the most complete." 

Aunt M. — " So do I ; but neither is complete 
without the other, and they are not so far apart 
after all ; for light, brightness, and warmth are to 
the outward world what goodness is to the in- 
ward." 

Charlie. — "True; and what, then, might Vali 
mean besides the new year?" 

Aunt M. — " The new Hope, Charlie — the 

strength to combat evil — the light that fights 
with darkness — the struggle between God's Spirit 
and the spirit of evil in every human soul. These 
old heathens knew something about this warfare; 
they knew of a weakness within them, and of a 
strength within them ; but they did not understand 
who gave them that strength, who was that strong 
One striving in their hearts. The feast of Christ- 
mas tells us that — shows us the holy One in whose 
strength we combat, in whose life we live." 

Harry. — " Yes ; and it is curious that we should 
celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ — the Light of 
the World — at nearly the same time when the 
old Saxons made merry over the birth of Vali — 
the new year — who was to chase away darkness." 

Aunt M. — " It is ; and you see how merry Yule 
and holy Christmas agree — how the rough strength 
of heathendom becomes mighty in the light of 
the Sun of Righteousness." 

Charlie. — " I like what you told us about the 
vows which the old Northmen took over the boar — 
to do something great before the next new year." 

Aunt M. — "I think it grand, Charlie, and I 
think, too, that we might, at the beginning of 
the year, not take vows, but make prayers, re- 
membering a holier sign — that we might pray 
for strength to fight bravely, under the banner of 
the Cross, against blindness and sin, until another 
Christmas find us either still fighting, or else — 
crowned." 


CHAPTER VII. 



TUESDAY (TYR'S-DAY). 

" Things manifold 
That have not yet heen wholly told." 

Longfellow. 

Harry. — " It is freezing gloriously this evening ; 
I hope we shall be able to skate to-morrow." 

Aunt Margaret. — " By-the-by, Helen, you for- 
got to tell us anything about Skadi and her snow- 
skates in your story of Idun . 

Harry. — "Snow-skates! Oh! let us hear." 

Aunt M. — " It is not much of a story ; but it 
is a sequel to the history of Idun , and I wonder 
Aunt Helen did not mention it." 

Aunt Helen. — " I left it for you." 
Aunt M. — "Then here it is. The giant 
Thiasse had a very tall daughter, called Skadi. 
When she found that her father never returned 
from his pursuit of Idun, she put on her armour 
(she must have been related to Freyja's iron 
witch), and set off to Asgard to revenge his death. 
The heroes , however, were not inclined to allow 
her the honour of a combat. They suggested to 
her that, perhaps, it would answer her purpose as 
well, if, instead of fighting them, she were to 
content herself with marrying one of their number, 
and it appeared to Skadi that this might possibly 
be revenge enough. The Aesir, however, could 
not make up their minds who should be the 
victim. It was agreed, at last, that they should 
all stand in some place of concealment where 
only their feet could be seen, and that Skadi 
should walk before them, and, by looking at the 
feet, choose her husband. Now, Skadi had privately 
made up her mind to many Baldur ; so, after 
looking carefully at all the feet, she stopped before 
a pair, which, from their beautiful shape, she 
thought could only belong to the handsome Sun- 
god. When, however, the figure belonging to the 
feet emerged from the hiding-place, it was dis- 
covered that she had chosen the bluff, gusty old 
Niord instead of the beautiful young Baldur ; and 
she was not particularly well pleased with her 
choice, though she was obliged to abide by it." 

Harry. — "But in all this there is nothing 
about skates." 

Aunt M. — " Patience ; my story is not like a 
novel — it is not obliged to end with the wedding ; 
I am going on. When Skadi and Niord were 
married they found, as persons do find who marry 
each other for the shape of their feet, and other 
such wise reasons, that it was not at all an easy 
thing to live happily together. They could not 
even agree about the place where they should 
live. Skadi was never happy out of Thrymheim — 
the home of noise in misty Jotunheim, and Niord 
could not forget pleasant Noatun, and the clear, 
sunny seas where he had dwelt in his youth. At 

last they agreed that they would spend three days 

in Noatun, and nine days in Thrymheim ; but one 

day, when Nidrd was returning to Ndatun, he 

could not help breaking out into the following 

song :— 

' Of mountains I am weary, 
Nine nights long and dreary, 
All up the misty hill, 
The wolf's long howl I heard. 
Methought it sounded strangely — 
Methought it sounded ill, 
To the song of the swan bird.' 

And Skadi immediately answered : — 

' Never can I sleep 
In my couch hy the strand, 
For the wild, restless waves 
Eolling over the sand, 
For the scream of the seagulls, 
For the mew as he cries, 
These sounds chase for ever 
Sweet sleep from mine eyes.' 

Then, putting on a pair of snow-skates, she set 
off more swiftly than the wind, and Nidrd never 
saw more of her. Ever afterwards, with her bow 
in her hand, she spent her time in chasing 
wild animals over the snow. She is the queen 
and patroness of all skaters. You will, perhaps, 
meet her to-morrow, Harry; but I don't think 
you need be afraid of her taking you for Baldur 
on account of your feet." 

Uncle Alice. — " I wonder what all this has to 
do with Tyr." 

Aunt H. — " So do I. I am waiting to .begin 
my story. It is called 'The Binding of Fenrir;' 
but Tyr is the hero of it, and this is Tuesday 
— Tyr's-day." 



THE BINDING OF FENRIR. 



PART I. 



THE MIGHT OF ASGARD. 

I hope you have not forgotten what I told you 
of Fenrir, Loki's fierce wolf- sou, whom Odin 
brought home with him to Asgard, and of whose 
reformation, uncouth and wolfish as he was, All- 
Father entertained some hope, thinking that the 
wholesome, bright air of Gladsheim, the sight of 
the fair faces of the Disir, and the hearing of the 
braye words which day by day fell from the lips 
of heroes, would, perhaps, have power to change 
the cruel nature he had inherited from his father, 

and make him worthy of his place as a dweller 
in the City of Lords. 

To Tyr, the brave and strong-handed, Odin 
assigned the task of feeding Fenrir, and watching 
him, lest, in his cruel strength, he should injure 
any who were unable to defend themselves. And 
truly it was a grand sight, and one that Asa Odin 
loved, to see the two together, when, in the 
evening after the feast was over in Valhalla, 
Fenrir came prowling to Tyr's feet to receive his 
food from the one hand strong enough to quell him. 

Tyr stood up in his calm strength like a tall, 
sheltering rock in which the timid sea-birds find 
a home ; and Fenrir roared and howled round him 
like the bitter, destroying wave that slowly un- 
dermines its base. 

Time passed on. Tyr had reached the prime of 
his strength ; but Fenrir went on growing, not 
so rapidly as to awaken fear, as his brother Jormun- 
gand had done, but slowly, surely, continually — a 
little stronger and a little fiercer every day. 

The Aesir and the Disir had become accustomed 
to his presence ; the gentlest lady in Asgard no 
longer turned away from the sight of his fierce 
mouth and fiery eye ; they talked to each other 
about the smallest things, and every daily event 
was commented on and wondered about ; but no 
one said anything of Fenrir, or noticed how gradu- 
ally he grew, or how the glad air and the strong 
food, which gave valour and strength to an Asa, 
could only develope with greater rapidity fierce- 
ness and cruelty in a wolf. And they would have 
gone on living securely together while the monster 
grew and grew, if it had not been that Asa Odin's 
one eye, enlightened as it was by the upspringing 
well of wisdom within, saw more clearly than the 
eyes of his brothers and children. 

<>ne evening, as he stood in the court of Val- 
halla watching Tyr as he gave Fenrir his evening 
meal, a sudden cloud of care fell on the placid 
face of All-Father, and when the wolf, having 
satisfied his hunger, crouched back to his lair, he 
called together a council of the heads of the Esir 
— Thor, Tyr, Bragi, Hoenir, Frey, and Niord; and, 

after pointing out to them the evil which they had 
allowed to grow up among them unnoticed, he 
asked their counsel as to the hest way of over- 
coming it before it became too strong to with- 
stand. 

Thor, always ready, was the first to answer. 
"One would think," he said, "to hear the grave 
way in which you speak, Father Odin, that there 
was no such a thing as a smithy near Asgard, or 
that I, Asa Thor, had no power to forge mighty 
weapons, and had never made my name known 
in Jotunheim as the conqueror and binder of 
monsters. Set your mind at rest. Before to- 
morrow evening at this time I will have forged 
a chain with which you shall bind Fenrir ; and, 
once bound in a chain of my workmanship, there 
will be nothing further to fear from him." 

The assembled Aesir applauded Thor's speech; 
but the cloud did not pass away from Odin's 
brow. 

" You have done many mighty deeds, Son Thor," 
he said ; " but, if I mistake not, this binding of 
Fenrir will prove a task too difficult even for 
you." 

Thor made no answer ; but lie seized Miolnir, 
and, with sounding steps, strode to the smithy. 
All night long the mighty blows of Miolnir rang 
on the anvil, and the roaring bellows breathed a 
hot blast over all the hill of Asgard. None of the 
Aesir slept that night ; but every now and then 
one or other of them came to cheer Thor at his 
work. Sometimes Frey brought his bright face 
into the dusky smithy ; sometimes Tyr entreated 
permission to strike a stout blow ; sometimes 
Bragi seated himself among the workers, and, 
with his eyes fixed on the glowing iron, poured 
forth a hero - song, to which the ringing blows 
kept time. 

There was also another guest, who, at intervals, 
made his presence known. By the light of the 
fire the evil form of Fenrir was seen prowling 
round in the darkness, and every now and then 
a fiendish, mocking laugh filled the pauses of the 
song, and the wind, and the ringing hammer. 

All that night and the next day Thor laboured 
and Fenrir watched, and, at the time of the 
evening meal, Thor strode triumphantly into 
Father Odin's presence, and laid before him Lse- 
ding, the strongest chain that had ever yet been 
forged on earth. The Aesir passed it from one to 
another, and wondered at its immense length, and 
at the ponderous moulding of its twisted links. 

"It is impossible for Fenrir to break through 
this," they said; and they were loud in their 
thanks to Thor and praises of his prowess ; only 
Father Odin kept a grave, sad silence. 

When Fenrir came into the court to receive 
his food from Tyr, it was agreed that Thor and 
Tyr were to seize and bind him. They held their 
weapons in readiness, for they expected a fierce 
struggle ; but, to their surprise, Fenrir quietly 
allowed the chain to be wound round him, and 
lay down at his ease, while Thor, with two strokes 
of Miolnir, riveted the last link into one of the 
strongest stones on which the court rested. Then, 
when the Aesir were about to congratulate each 

other on their victory, he slowly raised his pon- 
derous form, which seemed to dilate in the rising, 
with one bound forward snapped the chain like 
a silken thread, and walked leisurely to his lair, 
as if no unusual thing had befallen him. 

The Aesir , with downcast faces, stood looking 
at each other. Once more Thor was the first 
to speak. "He who breaks through Lseding," he 
said, " only brings upon himself the still harder 
bondage of Dromi." And having uttered these 
words, he again lifted Miolnir from the ground, 
and, weary as he was, returned to the smithy, 
and resumed his place at the anvil. 

For three days and nights Thor worked, and, 
when he once more appeared before Father Odin, 
he carried in his hand Dromi — the " Strong Bind- 
ing." This chain exceeded Laeding in strength 
by one half, and was so heavy that Asa Thor him- 
self staggered under its weight ; and yet Fenrir 
showed no fear of allowing himself to be bound 
by it, and it cost him very little more effort than 
on the first evening to free himself from its fetters. 

After this second failure Odin again called a 
council of Msir in Gladsheim, and Thor stood 
among the others, silent and shamefaced. 

It was now Frey who ventured first to offer 
an opinion. " Thor, Tyr, and other brave sons 
of the Msir" he said, "have passed their lives 
valiantly in fighting against giants and monsters, 
and, doubtless, much wise lore has come to them 
through these adventures. I, for the most part, 
have spent my time peacefully in woods and fields, 
watching how the seasons follow each other, and 
how the silent, dewy night ever leads up the 
brightly-smiling day; and, in this watching, many 
things have been made plain to me which have 
not, perhaps, been thought worthy of regard 
by my brother Lords. One thing that I have 
learned is, the wondrous strength that lies in 
little things, and that the labour carried on 
in darkness and silence ever brings forth the 
grandest birth. Thor and Miolnir have failed to 
forge a chain strong enough to bind Fenrir ; 
but, since we cannot be helped by the mighty 

and renowned, let us turn to the unknown and 
weak. 

" In the caverns and dim places of the earth 
live a tiny race of people, who are always working 
with unwearied, noiseless fingers. With Asa Odin's 
permission, I will send my messenger, Skirnir, and 
entreat aid of them; and we shall, perhaps, find 
that what passes the might of Asgard may be 
accomplished in the secret places of Svartheim." 

The face of Asa Odin brightened as Frey spoke, 
and, rising immediately from his seat, he broke 
up the council, and entreated Frey to lose no 
time in returning to Alfheim and despatching 
Skirnir on his mission. 



PART II. 

THE SECRET OF SVARTHEIM. 

In spite of the cloud that hung over Asgard all 
was fair and peaceful in Alfheim. Gerda, the 
radiant Alf Queen, made there perpetual sunshine 
with her bright face. The little elves loved her, 
and fluttered round her, keeping up a continual 
merry chatter, which sounded through the land 
like the sharp ripple of a brook over stony places ; 
and Gerda answered them in low, sweet tones, as 
the answering wind sounds among the trees. 

These must have been pleasant sounds to hear 
after the ringing of Miolnir and the howling of 
Fenrir ; but Frey hardly gave himself time to 
greet Gerd and his elves before he summoned 

Skirnir into his presence, and acquainted him with 
the danger that hung over Asgard, arid the im- 
portant mission which the Aesir had determined to 
trust to his sagacity. Skirnir listened, playing 
with the knot of his wondrous sword, as he was 
wont to do, in order to make known to every one 
that he possessed it; for, to confess the truth, it 
was somewhat too heavy for him to wield. 

" This is a far different mission," he said, " from 
that on which you once sent me — to woo fairest 
Gerd ; but, as the welfare of Asgard requires it, 
I will depart at once, though I have little liking 
for the dark caves and cunning people." 

Frey thanked him, and, putting a small key 
into his hand, which was, indeed, the key to the 
gate of Svartheim, he bade him farewell, and Skir- 
nir set out on his journey. 

The road from Alfheim to Svartheim is not 
so long as you would be apt to imagine. Indeed, 
it is possible for a careless person to wander from 
one region to another without being at once aware 
of it. Skirnir, having the key in his hand, took 

the direct way. The entrance-gate stands at the 
opening of a dim mountain -cave; Skirnir left 
his horse without, and entered ; the air was heavy, 
moist, and warm, and it required the keenest 
glances of Skirnir 's keen eyes to see his way. In- 
numerable narrow, winding paths, all leading down- 
wards, opened themselves before him. As he fol- 
lowed the widest, a faint clinking sound of ham- 
mers met his ear, and, looking round, he saw 
groups of little men at work on every side. Some 
were wheeling small wheelbarrows full of lumps 
of shining metal along the ledges of the rock ; 
some, with elfin pickaxes and spades, were digging 
ore from the mountain-side ; some, herded together 
in little caves, were busy kindling fires, or working 
with tiny hammers on small anvils. As he con- 
tinued his downward path the last remnant of 
daylight faded away ; but he was not in total dark- 
ness, for now he perceived that each \vorker carried 
on his head a lantern, in which burned a pale, 
dancing light. Skirnir knew that each light was 
a Will-o'-the-wisp, which the dwarf who carried it

had caught and imprisoned to light him in his 
work during the day, and which he must restore 
to the earth at night. 

For many miles Skirnir wandered on lower and 
lower. On every side of him lay countless heaps 
of treasure — gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, emeralds 
— which the cunning workers stowed away silently 
in their dark hiding-places. At length he came 
to the very middle of the mountain, where the 
rocky roof rose to an immense height, and where 
he found himself in a brilliantly-lighted palace. 
Here, in truth, were hung all the lights in the 
world, which, on dark, moonless nights, are carried 
out by dwarfs to deceive the eyes of men. Corpse- 
lights, Will-o'-the-wisps, the sparks from glow- 
worms' tails, the light in fire-flies' wings — these, 
carefully hung up in tiers round and round the 
hall, illuminated the palace with a cold blue light, 
and revealed to Skirnir's eyes the grotesque and 
hideous shapes of the tiny beings around him. 
Hump-backed, cunning-eyed, open-mouthed, they 
stood round, laughing, and whispering, and pointing 

with shrivelled fingers. One among them, a little 
taller than the rest, who sat on a golden seat 
thickly set with diamonds, appeared to he a kind 
of chief among them, and to him Skirnir addressed 
his message. 

Cunning and wicked as these dwarfs were, they 
entertained a wholesome fear of Odin, having never 
forgotten their one interview with him in Glad- 
sheim ; and, therefore, when they heard from whom 
Skirnir came, with many uncouth gesticulations 
they bowed low before him, and declared them- 
selves willing to obey All-Father's commands. 
They asked for two days and two nights in which 
to complete their task, and during that time 
Skirnir remained their guest in Svartheim. 

He wandered about, and saw strange sights. He 
saw the great earth central fire, and the swarthy, 
withered race, whose task it is ceaselessly to feed 
it with fuel ; he saw the diamond-makers, who 
change the ashes of the great fire into brilliants; 
and the dwarfs, whose business it is to fill the 
cracks in the mountain-sides with pure veins of 

silver and gold, and lead them up to places where 
they will one day meet the eyes of men. Nearer 
the surface he visited the workers in iron and the 
makers of salt-mines ; he drank of their strange- 
tasting mineral waters, and admired the splendour 
of their silver-roofed temples and dwellings of 
solid gold. 

At the end of two days Skirnir re-entered the 
audience -hall, and then the chief of the dwarfs 
put into his hand a slender chain. You can 
imagine what size it was when I tell you that the 
dwarf chief held it lightly balanced on his fore- 
finger ; and when it rested on Skirnir s hand it 
felt to him no heavier than a piece of thistle- 
down. 

The Svart King laughed loud when he saw the 
disappointment on Skirnir's face. " It seems to 
you a little thing," he said; "and yet I assure 
you that in making it we have used up all the 
materials in the whole world fit for the purpose. 
No such chain can ever be made again, neither 
will the least atom of the substances of which it 

is made be found more. It is fashioned out of 
six tilings. The noise made by the footfall of cats ; 
the beards of women; the roots of stones; the 
sinews of bears ; the breath of fish ; and the spittle 
of birds. Fear not with this to bind Fenrir; for 
no stronger chain will ever be made till the end 
of the world." 

Skirnir now looked with wonder at his chain, 
and, after having thanked the dwarfs, and promised 
to bring them a reward from Odin, he set forth 
on his road home, and, by the time of the evening 
meal, reached Valhalla, and gladdened the hearts 
of the Mail by the tidings of his success. 

PART III. 


HONOUR. 

Far away to the north of Asgard, surrounded by 
frowning mountains, the dark lake, Amsvartnir, 
lies, and, above the level of its troubled waters, 
burns Lyngvi, the island of sweet broom, flaming- 
like a jewel on the dark brow of Hela. In this 
lonely isle, to which no ship but Skidbladnir could 
sail, the Esir, with Fenrir in the midst, assem- 
bled to try the strength of the dwarfs' chain. 

Fenrir prowled round his old master, Tyr, with 
a look of savage triumph in his cruel eyes, 
now licking the hand that had so long fed him, 
and now shaking his great head, and howling 
defiantly. The Esir stood at the foot of Gioll, 

the sounding rock, and passed Gleipnir, the chain, 
from one to another, talking about it, while Fenrir 
listened. "It was much stronger than it looked," 
they said ; and Thor and Tyr vied with each other 
in their efforts to break it; while Bragi declared 
his belief that there was no one among Aesir or 
giants capable of performing so great a feat, 
"unless," he added, "it should be you, Fenrir." 

This speech roused the pride of Fenrir ; and, 
after looking long at the slender chain and the 
faces of the Aesir, he answered, " Loath am I to 
be bound by this chain ; but, lest you should 
doubt my courage, I will consent that you should 
bind me, provided one of you put his hand into 
my mouth as a pledge that no deceit is in- 
tended." 

There was a moment's silence among the Aesir 
when they heard this, and they looked at one 
another. Odin looked at Thor, and Thor looked 
at Bragi, and Frey fell behind, and put his hand 
to his side, where the all-conquering sword, which 
he alone could wield, no longer rested.  

At length Tyr stepped forward valiantly, and 
put his strong right hand, with which he had so 
often fed him, into the wolf's cruel jaws. 

At this signal the other Msiv threw the chain 
round the monster's neck, bound him securely with 
one end, and fastened the other to the great 
rock Gioll. When he was bound Fenrir rose, and 
shook himself, as he had done before ; but in 
vain he raised himself up, and bounded forward — 
the more he struggled the more firmly the slender 
chain bound him. 

At this sight the Msir set up a loud shout of 
joy ; for they saw their enemy conquered, and the 
danger that threatened Asgard averted. Only Tyr 
was silent, for in the struggle he had lost his hand. 

Then Thor thrust his sword into the mouth of 
Fenrir, and a foaming dark flood burst forth, roared 
down the rock and under the lake, and began its 
course through the country a turbid river. So 
it will roll on till Ragnarok be come. 

The sails of Skidbladnir now spread themselves 
out to the wind; and the Aesir, seated in the 

magic ship, floated over the lake silently in the 
silent moonlight; while, from the top of Bifrost, 
over the Urda fount and the dwelling of the Norns, 
a song floated down. " Who," asked one voice, " of 
all the Aesir has won the highest honour?" and, 
singing, another voice made answer, " Tyr has won 
the highest honour ; for, of all the Aesir, he has 
the most worthily employed his gift." 
" Frey gave his sword for fairest Gerd." 
" Odin bought for himself wisdom at the price 
of his right eye." 

" Tyr, not for himself, but for others, has sacri- 
ficed his strong right hand." 



William. — " I am glad to have heard the end 
of Fenrir." 

Uncle Alice. — "Not quite the end. Wait 
till Ragnarok has come." 

Charlie. — " Ragnarok again? When will you 
explain that to us ? " 

Aunt Margaret. — " I will to-morrow night." 

William. — " But now, Aunt Helen, what does 
Fenrir mean ? We know the meaning of Hela 
and Jormungand ; what is this third son of Loki?" 

Aunt Helen. — "I think he is the type of 
cruelty and rapacity — the wolfish nature into which 
we are transformed by sin." 

William. — "Was not Loki himself cruel?" 

Aunt H. — "Selfishly cruel to serve his own 
purposes ; but Fenrir is a grade lower still — 
brutally cruel for the sake of cruelty. Alas ! 
human nature can fall as low as that — into that 
deepest distance from God." 

Aunt M. — "You can understand now — can you 
not ? — what is meant by Fenrir, the type of savage 
and ferocious passion, being able to break through 
all the strong chains forged by the Thunderer, 
Thor, and only being bound at last by the silken 
thread woven by the small, noiseless fingers." 

Aunt H. — " It means, I suppose, that the 
gentleness of the weak has a greater restraining 
power than the force of the strong." 

Uncle A. — " The chain was made by the un- 
wearied, silent efforts of the weak ; but remember, 
the binding could only be effected by the self- 
sacrifice of the strong — the two must go together." 

Alfred. — " Are the dwarfs and the elves types 
of anything ?" 

Aunt H. — "Yes; I think they are types 
of the silent, unceasing work of Nature — of the 
constant building up and pulling down — which 
goes on without any eye being keen enough to 
see it." 

Aunt M. — " The dwarfs are always represented 
as great workers. The Northmen were not blind 
to the strength of small things, in spite of their 
great respect for heroic size and prowess." 

Charlie. — "At all events we are obliged to 
the dwarfs and elves for giving rise to all the 
fairy tales in the world, and that is something." 

Aunt M. — "Come now, I think the giants 
have their share in them. Asa Thor himself 
appears to me very like the original of our old 
friend Jack the Giant Killer." 

Uncle A. — "I cannot have you so disrespectful 
to Asa Thor, comparing kirn to a little, contemptible, 
tricky fellow, who excelled in nothing, that I can 
remember, but eating hasty-pudding. Fine atten- 
tion you must have paid to my first story ! I 
am very much inclined to put my second in my 
pocket, and not read it at all." 

Charlie. — "Oh, no! Uncle Alick; do begin 
to read it. We are all very attentive, and I am 
afraid it is getting late." 

Uncle A. — " It is not a very agreeable story ; 
but I think you ought to hear it, so I shall tell 
it you as shortly as I can. It is called the punishment of Loki

After the death of Baldur, Loki never again 
ventured to intrude himself into the presence of 
the Aesir. He knew well enough that he had 
now done what could never be forgiven him, and 
that, for the future, he must bend all his cunning 
and vigilance to the task of hiding himself for 
ever from the eyes of those whom he had so in- 

jured, and escaping the just punishment he had 
brought upon himself. 

" ' The world is large, and I am very cunning,' 
said Loki to himself, as he turned his back upon 
Asgard, and wandered out into Manheim ; ' there 
is no end to the thick woods, and no measure for 
the deep waters ; neither is there any possibility of 
counting the various forms under which I shall 
disguise myself. All-Father will never be able to 
find me ; I have no cause to fear.' But, though 
Loki repeated this over and over again to himself, 
he was afraid. 

" He wandered far into the thick woods, and 
covered himself with the deep waters; he climbed 
to the tops of misty hills, and crouched in the 
dark of hollow caves ; but above the wood, and 
through the water, and down into the darkness, a 
single ray of calm, clear light seemed always to 
follow him, and he knew that it came from the 
eye of All-Father, who was watching him from 
x\ir Throne. 

" Then he tried to escape the judging eye by 

disguising himself under various shapes. Some- 
times he was an eagle on a lonely mountain-crag ; 
sometimes he hid himself as one among a troop 
of timid reindeer ; sometimes he lay in the nest 
of a wood-pigeon ; sometimes he swam, a bright- 
spotted fish, in the sea ; but, wherever he 
was, among living creatures, or alone with dead 
nature, everything seemed to know him, and to 
find some voice in which to say to him, 
' You are Loki, and you have killed Baldur.' 
Air, earth, or water, there was no rest for him 
anywhere. 

" Tired at last of seeking what he could nowhere 
find, Loki built himself a house by the side of a 
narrow, glittering river, which, at a lower point, 
flashed down from a high rock into the sea below. 
He took care that his house should have four doors 
in it, that he might look out on every side, and catch 
the first glimpse of the JSsir when they came, as 
he knew they would come, to take him away. 
Here his wife, Siguna, and his two sons, Ali and 
Nari, came to live with him. 

" Siguna was a kind woman, far too good and 
kind for Loki. She felt sorry for hirn now that 
she saw he was in great fear, and that every living 
thing had turned against him, and she would have 
hidden him from the just anger of the Aesir if 
she could ; but the two sons cared little about their 
father's dread and danger ; they spent all their 
time in quarrelling with each other ; and their loud, 
angry voices, sounding above the waterfall, would 
speedily have betrayed the hiding-place, even if All- 
Father's piercing eye had not already discovered it. 
' If only the children would be quiet,' Siguna used 
to say anxiously every day ; but Loki said nothing ; 
he was beginning to know by experience that there 
was that about his children that could never be 
kept quiet or hidden away. 

" At last, one day when he was sitting in the 
middle of his house looking alternately out of all 
the four doors, and amusing himself as well as he 
could by making a fishing-net, he spied in the 
distance the whole company of the Aesir approach- 
ing his house. The sight of them coming all 

together — beautiful, and noble, and free — pierced 
Loki with a pang that was worse than death. He 
rose without daring to look again, threw his net 
on a fire that burned on the floor, and, rushing to 
the side of the little river, he turned himself into 
a salmon, swam down to the deepest, stillest pool 
at the bottom, and hid himself between two stones. 
The Aesir entered the house, and looked all round 
in vain for Loki, till Kvasir, one of Odin's sons, 
famous for his keen sight, spied out the remains 
of the fishing-net in the fire ; then Odin knew at 
once that there was a river near, and that it was 
there where Loki had hidden himself. He ordered 
his sons to make a fresh net, and to cast it into 
the water, and drag out whatever living thing they 
could find there. It was done as he desired. Thor 
held one end of the net, and all the rest of the 
Esir drew the other through the water. When 
they pulled it up the first time, however, it was 
empty, and they would have gone away disappointed, 
had not Kvasir, looking earnestly at the meshes 
of the net, discovered that something living had 

certainly touched them. They then added a weight 
to the net, and threw it with such force that it 
reached the bottom of the river, and dragged up 
the stones in the pool. 

" Loki now saw the danger he was in of being 
caught in the net, and, as there was no other way 
of escape, he rose to the surface, swam down the 
river as quickly as he could, and leaped over the 
net into the waterfall. He swam and leaped quickly 
as a flash of lightning, but not so quickly but that 
the Aesir saw him, knew him through his disguise, 
and resolved that he should no longer escape them. 
They divided into two bands. Thor waded down 
the river to the waterfall; the other Aesir stood 
in a group below. Loki swam backwards and 
forwards between them. Now he thought he would 
dart out into the sea, and now that he would spring 
over the net back again into the river. This last 
seemed the readiest way of escape, and, with the 
greatest speed, he attempted it. Thor, however, 
was watching for him, and, as soon as Loki leaped 
out of the water, he stretched out his hand, and 

caught him while he was yet turning in the air. 
Loki wriggled his slippery, slimy length through 
Thor's fingers ; hut the Thunderer grasped him 
tightly hy the tail, and, holding him in this manner 
in his hand, waded to the shore. There Father 
Odin and the other Aesir met him ; and, at Odin's 
first searching look, Loki was obliged to drop his 
disguise, and, cowering and frightened, to stand 
in his proper shape before the assembled Lords. 
One by one they turned their faces from him ; for, 
in looking at him, they seemed to see over again 
the death of Baldur the Beloved. 

" I told you that there were high rocks looking 
over the sea not far from Loki's house. One 
of these, higher than the rest, had midway four 
projecting stones, and to these the Aesir  resolved 
to bind Loki in such a manner that he should 
never again be able to torment the inhabitants 
of Manheim or Asgard by his evil-doings. Thor 
proposed to return to Asgard, to bring a chain 
with which to bind the prisoner ; but Odin assured 
him that he had no need to take such a journey. 


'■ Loki,' he said, ' has already forged for himself 
a chain stronger than any you can make. While 
we have been occupied in catching him, his two 
sons, Ali and Nari, transformed into wolves by 
their evil passions, have fought with, and destroyed, 
each other. With their sinews we must make a 
chain to bind their father, and from that he can 
never escape.' 

" It was done as Asa Odin said. A rope was 
made of the dead wolves' sinews, and, as soon as it 
touched Loki's body, it turned into bands of iron, 
and bound him immoveably to the rock. Secured 
in this manner the Aesir left him. 

" But his punishment did not end here. A 
snake, whose fangs dropped venom, glided to the 
top of the rock, and leaned his head over to peer 
at Loki. The eyes of the two met and fixed 
each other. The serpent could never move away 
afterwards ; but every moment a burning drop from 
his tongue fell down on Loki's shuddering face. 

" In all the world there was only one who 
pitied him. His kind wife ever afterwards stood 

beside him, and held a cup over his head to catch 
the poison. When the cup was full, she was 
obliged to turn away to empty it, and drops of 
poison fell again on Loki's face. He shuddered 
and shrank from it, and the whole earth trembled. 
So will he lie bound till Kagnarok be come." 

Alice. — " What a melancholy story ! One feels 
half inclined to be sorry for Loki." 

Uncle A. — "You must not forget that Loki 
is the personification of evil." 

William. — "Wliat does that serpent dropping 
poison mean ?" 

Aunt H. — " I think Remorse." 

Uncle A. — " You spoil the allegory when you say 
that. A person all evil could not feel remorse." 

Aunt H. — "True; but we must not expect 
complete consistency in an allegory." 

Uncle A. — " Loki being bound by a rope made 
from the sinews of his dead wolf-sons expresses 
very clearly the Northmen's conviction that punish- 
ment is the natural result of sin." 

Ethel. — " But why had Loki such a good 
wife?" 

Uncle A. — " I don't know. I suppose the 
skald who first told the story knew some bad 
men with good wives, employed as Loki's wife was, 
in intercepting poison. One recognises the truth 
of the picture without much difficulty even now." 

Ethel. — " Well, I don't like to think of that 
good woman standing always with a poison-cup in 
her hand." 

Alice. — " I would have held it, though, to keep 
the poison from falling on his face." 


CHAPTER VIII. 



CHRISTMAS EVE. 

" Ring out the false, ring in the true." 

In Memoriam. 

William. — " Aunt Helen, is the tree ready — our 
Yggdrasil ? " 

Aunt Helen. — " Yes ; but don't you remember 
you are to hear Ragnarok to-night ? " 

Harry. — " Certainly ; we will have the story 
first, and then the tree." 

Charlie. — " It is Aunt Margaret's turn. What 
kind of story is Ragnarok, Aunt Margaret?" 

Aunt Margaret. — " Not a long one, but full 
of storms." 

Alfred. — " That will make a grand finish." 
Aunt M. — " Nay, but it ends in sunshine." 
Charlie. — " So it ought on Christmas Eve." 
Alice. — " I wonder if we shall hear the bells 

this evening? Do Christmas bells chime in 

London, Aunt Helen?" 

William. — " You caa hear them from several 

churches now if you will only be silent and listen." 
Aunt H. — 

" ' Each voice four changes on the wind, 
That now dilate, and now decrease ; 
Peace and goodwill — goodwill and peace ; 
Peace and goodwill to all mankind ' " 

Ethel. — "Aunt Margaret is waiting, Aunt 
Helen, and so are we." 



"The old order changeth, yielding place to new, 
And God fulfils himself in many ways." 

Morte d' Arthur. 



Since the day that Baldur died no one had walked 
in the bright halls of Broadblink — no one had 
even stepped through the expanded gates. Instead 
of undimmed brightness, a soft, luminous mist now 
hung over the palace of the dead Asa, and the 
Disir whispered to one another that it was haunted 
by wild dreams. 

" I have seen them," Freyja used to say ; " I 
have seen them float in at sunset through the 
palace windows and the open doors ; every evening I 

can trace their slight forms through the rosy 
mist ; and I know that those dreams are wild and 
strange from the shuddering that I feel when I 
look at them, or if ever they glance at me." 

So the Disir never went into Broadblink, and 
though the Aesir did not think much ahout the 
dreams, they never went there either. 

But one day it happened that Odin stood in the 
opening of the palace gates at sunset. The evening- 
was clear and calm, and he stood watching 
the western sky until its crimson faded into soft 
blue grey ; then the colours of the flowers began 
to mix one with another — only the tall white and 
yellow blossoms stood out alone — the distance 
became more dim. It was twilight, aud there was 
silence over the earth whilst the night and the 
evening drew near to one another. Then a young 
dream came floating through the gates into Broad- 
blink. Her sisters were already there; but she had 
only just been born, and, as she passed Odin, she 
touched him with a light hand, and drew him along 
with her into the palace. She led him into the 

same hall in which Baldur had dreamed, and there 
Odin saw the night sky above him, and the broad 
branches of Yggdrasil swaying in the breeze. The 
Xorns stood under the great ash ; the golden threads 
had dropped from their fingers ; and Urd and Ver- 
dandi stood one on each side of Skuld, who was 
still veiled. For a long time the three stood 
motionless, but at length Urd and Verdandi raised 
each a cold hand, and lifted the veil slowly from 
Skuld's face. Odin looked breathlessly within the 
veil, and the eyes of Skuld dilated as he looked, 
grew larger and larger, melted into one another, 
and, at last, expanded into boundless space. 

In the midst of space lay the world, with its 
long shores, and vast oceans, ice mountains, and 
green plains ; Aesirland in the midst, with Man- 
heim all round it ; then the wide sea, and, far off, 
the frost-bound shores of Jotunheim. Sometimes 
there was night and sometimes day ; summer and 
winter gave place to one another; and Odin watched 
the seasons as they changed, rejoiced in the sun- 
shine, and looked calmly over the night. 


But at last, during one sunrise, a wolf came 
out of Jarnvid, and began to howl at the sun. 
The sun did not seem to heed him, but walked 
majestically up the sky to her mid-day point ; then 
the wolf began to run after her, and chased her 
down the sky again to the low west. There the 
sun opened her bright eye wide, and turned round 
at bay; but the wolf came close up to her, and 
opened his mouth, and swallowed her up. The 
earth shuddered, and the moon rose. Another 
wolf was waiting for the moon with wide jaws open, 
and, while yet pale and young, he, too, was devoured. 
The earth shuddered again; it was covered with 
cold and darkness, while frost and snow came 
driving from the four corners of heaven. Winter 
and night, winter and night, there was now 
nothing but winter. 

A dauntless eagle sat upon the height of the 
Giantess' Bock, and began to strike his harp. 
Then a light red cock crowed over the Bird Wood. 
A gold-combed cock crowed over Asgard, and over 
Helheim a cock of sooty red. From a long way 

underground Garm began to howl, and at last 
Fenrir broke loose from his rock-prison, and ran 
forth over the whole earth. Then brother con- 
tended with brother, and war had no bounds. A 
hard age was that. 

" An axe age, 

A sword age, 
Shields oft cleft in twain ; 

A storm age, 

A wolf age, 
Ere the earth met its doom." 

Confusion rioted in the darkness. At length 
Heimdall ran up Bifrost, and blew his Giallar 
horn, whose sound went out into all worlds, and 
Yggdrasil, the mighty ash, was shaken from its 
root to its summit. After this Odin saw himself 
ride forth from Asgard to consult Mimer at the 
Well of Wisdom. Whilst he was there Jormun- 
gand turned mightily in his place, and began to 
plough the ocean, which caused it to swell over 
every shore, so that the world was covered with 
water to the base of its high hills. Then the 
ship Naglfar was seen coming over the sea with  

its prow from the east, and the giant Kyme was 
the steersman. 

All Jotunheim resounded, and the dwarfs stood 
moaning before their stony doors. Then heaven 
was cleft in twain, and a flood of light streamed 
down upon the dark earth. The sons of Muspell, 
the sons of fire, rode through the breach, and at 
the head of them rode the flaming Surt, their 
leader, before and behind whom fire raged, and 
whose sword outshone the sun. He led his flaming 
bands from heaven to earth over Bifrost, and the 
tremulous bridge broke in pieces beneath their 
tread. Then the earth shuddered again ; even 
giantesses stumbled; and men trod the way to 
Helheim in such crowds that Garni was sated with 
their blood, broke loose, and came up to earth to 
look upon the living. Confusion rioted, and Odin 
saw himself, at the head of all the iEsLr, ride 
over the tops of the mountains to Vigrid, the 
high, wide battle-field, where the giants were already 
assembled, headed by Fenrir, Gaim, Jormungand, 
and Loki. Surtur was there, too, commanding the 

sons of fire, whom he had drawn up in several 
shining bands on a distant part of the plain. 

Then the great battle began in earnest. First, 
Odin went forth against Fenrir, who came on, 
opening his enormous mouth ; the lower jaw 
reached to the earth, the upper one to heaven, 
and would have reached further had there been 
space to admit of it. Odin and Fenrir fought for 
a little while only, and then Fenrir swallowed the 
Aesir 's Father ; but Vidar stepped forward, and, put- 
ting his foot on F emir's lower jaw, with his hand 
he seized the other, and rent the wolf in twain. 
In the meantime Tyr and Garni had been fighting 
until they had killed each other. Heimdall slew 
Loki, and Loki slew Heimdall. Frey, Belis 
radiant slayer, met Surtur in battle, and was killed 
by him. Many terrible blows were exchanged 
ere Frey fell ; but the Fire Kings sword out- 
shone the sun, and where was the sword of Frey ? 
Thor went forth against Jormungand ; the strong 
Thunderer raised his arm — he feared no evil — he 
flung Miolnir at the monster serpents head. Jormungand leaped up a great height in the air, and 
fell down to the earth again without life ; but a 
stream of venom poured forth from his nostrils as 
he died. Thor fell back nine paces from the 
strength of his own blow ; he bowed his head to 
the earth, and was choked in the poisonous flood ; 
so the monster serpent was killed by the strong 
Thunderer's hand ; but in death Jormungand slew 
his slayer. 

Then all mankind forsook the earth, and the 
earth itself sank down slowly into the ocean. 
Water swelled over the mountains, rivers gurgled 
through thick trees, deep currents swept down the 
valleys — nothing was to be seen on the earth but a 
wide flood. The stars fell from the sky, and flew 
about hither and thither. At last, smoky clouds 
drifted upward from the infinite deep, encircling 
the earth and the water ; fire burst forth from the 
midst of them, red flames wrapped the world, 
roared through the branches of Yggdrasil, and 
played against heaven itself. The flood swelled, the 
fire raged ; there was now nothing but flood and fire. 

" Then," said Odin, in his dream, " I see the end 
of all things. The end is like the beginning, and it 
will now be for ever as if nothing had ever been." 

But, as he spoke, the fire ceased suddenly ; the 
clouds rolled away ; a new and brighter sun looked 
out of heaven ; and he saw arise a second time 
the earth from ocean. It rose slowly as it had 
sunk. First, the waters fell back from the tops of 
new hills that rose up fresh and verdant ; rain- 
drops like pearls dripped from the freshly-budding 
trees, and fell into the sea with a sweet sound ; 
waterfalls splashed glittering from the high rocks ; 
eagles flew over the mountain streams ; earth arose 
spring-like ; unsown fields bore fruit ; there was no 
evil, and all nature smiled. Then from Memory's 
Forest came forth a new race of men, who spread 
over the whole earth, and who fed on the dew of 
the dawn. There was also a new city on Asgards 
Hill — a city of gems ; and Odin saw a new hall 
standing in it, fairer than the sun, and roofed 
with gold. Above all, the wide blue expanded, and 
into that fair city came Modi and Magni, Thor's 

two sons, holding Miolnir between them. Vali and 
Vidar came, and the deathless Hoenir ; Baldur 
came up from the deep, leading his blind brother 
Hodur peacefully by the hand ; there was no longer 
any strife between them. Two brothers' sons in- 
habited the spacious Wind-Home. 

Then Odin watched how the Msii sat on the 
green plain, and talked of many things. " Garm 
is dead," said Hod to Baldur, "and so are Loki, 
and Jormungand, and Fenrir, and the world re- 
joices ; but did our dead brothers rejoice who fell 
in slaying them ?" 

"They did, Hod," answered Baldur; "they 
gave their lives willingly for the life of the world ; " 
and, as he listened, Odin felt that this was true ; for, 
when he looked upon that beautiful and happy age, 
it gave him no pain to think that he must die before 
it came — that, though for many, it was not for him. 

By-and-by Hoenir came up to Hod and Baldur 
with something glittering in his hand — something 
that he had found in the grass ; and as he approached 
he said, " Behold the golden tablets, my brothers, 

which in the beginning of time were given to the 
Aesir's Father, and were lost in the Old World." 

Then they all looked eagerly at the tablets, and, 
as they bent over the wondrous words which were 
written on them, their faces became even brighter 
than before. 

"There is no longer any evil thing," said Odin; 
" not an evil sight, nor an evil sound." 

But as he spoke dusky wings rose out of 
Niflheim, and the dark-spotted serpent, Nidhogg, 
came flying from the abyss, bearing dead carcases 
on his wings — cold death, undying. 

Then the joy of Odin was drowned in the tears 
that brimmed his heart, and it was as if the 
eternal gnawer had entered into his soul. " Is there, 
then, no victory over sin?" he cried. "Is there 
no death to Death?" and with the cry he woke. 
His dream had faded from him. He stood in the 
palace gates alone with night, and the night was 
dying. Long since the rosy clasp of evening had 
dropped from her ; she had turned through darkness eastward, and looked earnestly towards dawn. 

It was twilight again, for the night and the morning 
drew near to one another. A star stood in the 
east — the morning star— and a coming brightness 
smote the heavens. Out of the light a still 
voice came advancing, swelling, widening, until it 
filled all space. " Look forth," it said, " upon 
the groaning earth, with all its cold, and pain, and 
cruelty, and death. Heroes and giants fight and 
kill each other ; now giants fall, and heroes 
triumph; now heroes fall, and giants rise; they 
can but combat, and the earth is full of pain. 
Look forth, and fear not; but when the worn-out 
faiths of nations shall totter like old men, turn 
eastward, and behold the light that lighteth every 
man ; for there is nothing dark it doth not lighten ; 
there is nothing hard it cannot melt; there is 
nothing lost it will not save." 

William. — " Aunt Margaret, does the Edda 
really say that Odin had that dream?" 

Aunt Margaret. — " No, the Edcla says nothing 
about a dream ; but it mentions all these strange 
events as if they were really to happen at some 
future time, called Ragnarok, or the Twilight of 
the Gods." 

Harry. — " That is mere singular still. The 
Scandinavians really believed, then, that there 
was to be an end of the world with wars, and 
flood, and fire, and that a new and better world 
was to rise." 

Charlie. — "Not a perfect world, though, be- 
cause the dark-spotted serpent was still flying 
about underneath, with dead bodies on his wings." 
Alfred. — " Aunt Margaret, how queer it is 
about the three cocks ! " 

Aunt M. — "The cock, you know, is a sign of 
wakefulness and watching. The crowing of the 
cocks, therefore, before the great troubles came 
over the world, may mean that the people were 
to watch." 

Alice. — "But why were there three cocks?" 
Aunt M. — "One, you know, crowed over the 

Bird Wood ; that cock warned all animals. One 
over Asgard; that was for living men. One over 
Helheim ; that was for the dead." 

Uncle Alice. — " Too fanciful, Aunt Margaret." 

Charlie. — " No, no; we like it." 

Alfred. — "It's capital, the wolf coming out of 
Jarnvid. I remember about the Iron Wood, and 
the old grandmother of wolves who was so un- 
kind to Freyja." 

Alice. — " Aunt Margaret, what was the name 
of the ship that came floating from the east ? " 

Auxt M. — " Naglfar. Nagl means a nail, and 
it was supposed to be made of the nails of dead 
men; for which reason the Scandinavians used to 
pare the nails of their friends after death, so 
that it might be a long time before Naglfar was 
completed." 

Charlie. — " Why is the giant Byrne the steers- 
man of Naglfar ? " 

Aunt M. — " His name, you know, means rime 
frost. In Ragnarok a general breakiug-up of the 
laws of Nature is described — a world-wide tempest. 

The sun and moon are eaten up ; there is winter 

all the year round ; there is no longer any daytime ; 

the sea flows over the land ; the frost rides over 

the water ; the heavens are divided, the rainbow 

broken ; the mighty world-tree is shaken ; fire 

and water contend with each other ; there is a 

second chaos."

Harry. — " That is one way of looking at it. 

Now for another." 

Aunt M. — " It may be a kind of symbol of the 

i 
contest between good and evil — a sort of climax 

in the battle. There are times in the history of 

the world when heroes are few, and when evil 

seems to be more than usually powerful. Such 

periods may be called the ' Twilight of the Gods.' " 

Alfred. — " Aunt Margaret, I don't like to think 
of Odin, and Thor, and Frey, and all those brilliant 
heroes being killed at the last, and just before the 
happy world sprang up, too." 

Aunt M. — " Bnt you must remember that their 
death secured the happiness of the world; for 
they fell in slaying its foes." 

Alfred. — "It was very bad for them, though; 
they had no heaven." 

Aunt M. — " Such a death would be heaven to 
a hero, Alfred." 

Alice. — " Why is Frey called Beli's radiant 
slayer ? " 

Aunt M. — " Beli was the name of a large stag 
which Frey slew. The myth about it is lost." 

William. — "Did not Surtur and his bright 
bands come from Muspellheim? and is not Mus- 
pellheim the region of light?" 

Aunt M. — " Yes." 

William. — " Well, does not light generally mean 
something good ? Why, then, did Surtur fight 
against the heroes ? " 

Aunt M. — " I think it may possibly mean that 
men are sometimes tried by suffering, purified by 
fire. You see it is curious that Frey only fights 
with Surtur, and that he TYas conquered by him 
because he had foolishly parted with his sword 
of strength — you remember how." 

William.—" Yes." 

Alice. — " Aunt Margaret, how beautiful the uew 
earth must have looked when it arose spring-like, 
fresh, and bright out of the water ! " 

Charlie. — " Yes ; and Baldur coming up out 
of Helheim means that innocence was restored to 
the world." 

Alfred. — " Who are the two brothers' sons in 
Wind-Home ? " 

Aunt M. — "I don't know. Possibly it may 
mean that there was friendliness among the Winds, 
and no longer any tempestuous weather." 

Alfred. — "But do cousins never quarrel?" 

Aunt 3-1. — "You know best." 

Harry. — " What are the golden tablets which 
belonged to the Aesir's Father?" 

Aont M. — •' Perhaps the law of God written in 
the heart of man." 

William. — " I think it is very odd that the 
old heathens should have imagined anything so 
beautiful as that new, beautiful world." 

Aunt M. — ' I think not. There is a love of 
goodness in every human heart. God put it there. There is also an earnest longing in every 
soul to see the curse of sin and pain removed 
from the earth, and a dim, deep-buried hope that 
some day it will be that a new and better state 
of things will exist, and all creation rise to a 
nobler life. God helps heathens to this hope 
by many things in the world around them. The 
rainbow after the storm, spring after winter, day 
after night, the butterfly rising from the worm. 
And you must remember that these old Northmen 
lived in a land of cold, and storms, and long 
winters, where the return of summer must have 
been something more inspiring and exquisite than 
we can imagine. God showed them many truths 
by ' the things that are made.' It was the ' light 
which lighteth every man ' that shone into their 
hearts ; the same light which, ever since the 
creation of the world, has taught men all they 
have ever known. I am not surprised, therefore, 
that our heathen forefathers had so many lofty 
thoughts, and such a heavenly hope." 

Harry.— "But, Aunt Margaret, even in their new world the dark-spotted serpent, Nidhogg, still 
lived ; and is not he a type of Death, the Destroyer ? " 

Aunt M. — " Yes ; and now you seem surprised 
that they did not imagine a still more beautiful 
world — a perfect one ; and yet how could they, 
Harry ? for, remember, that though the world was 
not left without a witness of God, and though 
the hearts of God's creatures were never utterly 
dark, still men could, at best, but dimly feel after 
their Eternal Father until the fuluess of time 
was accomplished, and 'the only - begotten Son 
came to declare Him.' I do not wonder, there- 
fore, that our heathen forefathers could not hope 
for the death of Death when they had never 
heard of a risen Saviour ; neither am I surprised 
that they did not guess the breadth, and length, 
and depth, and height of that love which passeth 
knowledge, when they had not seen the glory of 
God in the face of Jesus Christ." 

William. — " Aunt Margaret, we have seen it, 
and to-morrow is Christmas-day." 

Uncle A. (raising the window-blind). — " A stormy 
Christmas. See how the snow drives." 
Aunt Helen. — 

" ' It was the winter wild 

While the heaven-born Child, 
All meanly wrapp'd, in the rude manger lies ; 

Nature in awe to Him 

Had doff'd her gaudy trim, 
With her great Master so to sympathise.' "