Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

148 THE LEGENDS.

Heroes go the way to Hel,

And heayen is rent in twain. ... All men abandon their homesteads When the warder of Midgard

In wrath slays the serpent.

The sun grows dark,

The earth sinks into the sea,

The bright stars

From heayen vanish ;

Fire rages,

Heat blazes,

And high flames play

> Gainst heaven itself.”

And what follow then? Ice and cold and winter. For although these things come first in the narrative of the Edda, yet we are told that “before these” things, to wit, the cold winters, there occurred the wickedness of the world, and the wolves and the serpent made their appearance. So that the events transpired in the order in which I have given them.

“First there is a winter called the Fimbul winter,” ‘The mighty, the great, the iron winter,” *

“When snow drives from all quarters, the frosts are so severe, the winds so keen, there is no joy in the sun. There are three such winters in succession, without any intervening summer.”

Here we have the Glacial period which followed the Drift. Three years of incessant wind, and snow, and intense cold.

The Elder Edda says, speaking of the Fenris-wolf :

“Tt feeds on the bodies Of men, when they die ;

The seats of the gods Tt stains with red blood.”

* “Norse Mythology,” p. 444.