Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

RAGNAROK, 14)

CHAPTER IV. RAGNAROK.

Tuere is in the legends of the Seandinayians a marvelous record of the coming of the Comet. It has been repeated generation after generation, translated into alt languages, commented on, criticised, but never understood. It has been regarded as a wild, unmeaning rhapsody of words, or as a premonition of some future earthcatastrophe. But look at it!

The very name is significant. According to Professor Anderson’s etymology of the word, it means “the darkness of the gods”; from regin, gods, and rékr, darkness ; but it may, more properly, be derived from the Icelandic, Danish, and Swedish regn, a rain, and rk, smoke, or dust ; and it may mean the rain of dust, for the clay came first as dust ; it is described in some Indian legends as ashes.

First, there is, as in the tradition of the Druids, page 135, ante, the story of an age of crime.

The Vala looks upon the world, and, as the “ Elder Edda ” tells us—

“There saw she wade In the heavy streams, Men—foul murderers And perjurers, And them who others’ wives Seduce to sin. Brothers slay brothers ;

Sisters’ children Shed each other’s blood.