Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

THE CONSEQUENCES TO THE EARTH. 109

and on many others the convulsions of the earth have shaken down the rocky roofs of the caves—the few survivors come out, cr dig their way out, to look upon a changed and blasted world. No cloud is in the sky, no rivers or lakes are on the earth ; only the deep springs of the caverns are left; the sun, a ball of fire, glares in the bronze heavens. It is to this period that the Norse legend of Mimer’s well, where Odin gave an eye fora drink of water, refers.

But gradually the heat begins to dissipate. This is a signal for tremendous electrical action. Condensation commences. Neyer has the air held such incalculable masses of moisture; never has heayen’s artillery so rattled and roared since earth began! Condensation means clouds. We will find hereafter a whole body of legends about “the stealing of the clouds” and their restoration. The veil thickens. The sun’s rays are shut out. It grows colder ; more condensation follows. The heavens darken. Louder and louder bellows the thunder. We shall see the lightnings represented, in myth after myth, as the arrows of the rescuing demi-god who saves the world. The heat has carried up perhaps one fourth of all the water of the world into the air. Now it is condensed into cloud. We know how an ordinary storm darkens the heavens. In this case it is black night. A pall of dense cloud, many miles in thickness, enfolds the earth. No sun, no moon, no stars, can be seen. “ Darkness is on the face of the deep.” Day has ceased to be. Men stumble against each other. All this we shall find depicted in the legends. The overloaded atmosphere begins to discharge itself. The great work of restoring the waters of the ocean to the ocean begins. It grows colder—colder —colder. The pouring rain turns into snow, and settles on all the uplands and north countries; snow falls on