Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

THE CONFLAGRATION OF PHAETON. 161

placed her hand to her forehead, and, shaking all things with a vast trembling, she sank down a little and retired below the spot where she is wont to be.”

Here we are reminded of the bridge Bifrost, spoken of in the last chapter, which, as I have shown, was probably a prolongation of land reaching from Atlantis to Europe, and which the Norse legends tell us sank down under the feet of the forces of Muspelheim, in the day of Ragnarok :

“And thus she spoke with a parched voice: ‘O soyereign of the gods, if thou approvest of this, if I have deserved it, why do thy lightnings linger? Let me, if doomed to perish by the force of fire, perish by thy flames ; and alleviate my misfortune by being the author of it. With difficulty, indeed, do I open my mouth for these very words. Behold my scorched hair, and such a quantity of ashes over my eyes’ (the Drift-deposits), ‘so much, too, over my features. And dost thou give this as my recompense? This as the reward of my fertility and my duty, in that I endure wounds from the crooked plow and harrows, and am harassed all the year through, in that I supply green leaves for the cattle, and corn, a wholesome food, for mankind, and frankincense for yourselves. “*But still, suppose I am deserving of destruction, why have the waves deserved this ?. Why has thy brother’ (Neptune) ‘deserved it? Why do the seas delivered to him by lot decrease, and why do they recede still Jarther Jrom the sky? But if regard neither for thy brother nor myself influences thee, still have consideration for thy own skies ; look around on either side, see how each pole is smoking ; if the fire shall injure them, thy palace will Jul in ruins. See! Atlas himself is struggling, and hardly can he bear the glowing heavens on his shoulders. “*Tf the sea, if the earth, if the palace of heaven, perish, we are then jumbled into the old chaos again. Save it from the flames, if aught still survives, and provide for the Pang euon of the universe.’