Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

150 THE LEGENDS.

The ice and rime to the north represent the age of ice and snow. Muspelheim was the torrid country of the south, over which the clouds could not yet form in consequence of the heat—Africa.

But it can not last forever. The clouds disappear ; the floods find their way back to the ocean ; nature begins to decorate once more the scarred and crushed face of the world. But where is the human race? The “ Younger Edda” tells us :

“During the conflagration caused by Surt’s fire, a woman by the name of Lif and a man named Lifthraser lie concealed in Hodmimer’s hold, or forest. The dew of the dawn serves them for food, and so great a race shall spring from them, that their descendants shall soon spread over the whole earth.” *

The “ Elder Edda” says :

“Tif and Lifthraser Will lie hid In Hodmimer’s-holt ; The morning dew They have tor food. From them are the races descended.”

Holt is a grove, or forest, or hold ; it was probably a cave. We shall see that nearly all the legends refer to the caves in which mankind escaped from destruction.

This statement,

“From them are the races descended,” shows that this is not prophecy, but history ; it refers to the past, not to the future; it describes not a Day of Judgment to come, but one that has already fallen on

the human family. Two others, of the godlike race, also escaped in some

* “Norse Mythology,” p. 429.