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TOLD BY THE NORTHMEN:
Stories from the Eddas and Sagas
E. M. WILMOT-BUXTON
George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., London
1908
* * * * *
Contents
Hakon's Lay ix
CHAPTER
I. How All Things Began 1
II. How All-Father Odin Became Wise 6
III. How the Queen of the Sky Gave Gifts to Men 14
IV. How a Giant Built a Fortress for the Asas 17
V. The Magic Mead 22
VI. How Loki Made a Wager with the Dwarfs 29
VII. The Apples of Youth 34
VIII. How the Fenris Wolf was Chained 41
IX. How the Pride of Thor was Brought Low 46
X. How Thor's Hammer was Lost and Found 56
XI. The Giant's Daughters 64
XII. The Story of Balder the Beautiful 69
XIII. How Hermod Made a Journey to the Underworld 78
XIV. How Loki was Punished at Last 83
XV. The Story of the Magic Sword 87
XVI. How Sigmund Fought His Last Battle 96
XVII. The Story of the Magic Gold 101
XVIII. How Sigurd Slew the Dragon 107
XIX. How Sigurd Won the Hand of Brunhild 114
XX. How the Curse of the Gold is Fulfilled 116
XXI. The Boyhood of Frithiof the Bold 123
XXII. Frithiof and Ingeborg 127
XXIII. Frithiof Braves the Storm 131
XXIV. Balder Forgives 134
XXV. How the End of All Things Came About 140
Pronouncing Index of Proper Names 145
* * * * *
Hakon's Lay
_By James Russell Lowell_
"O Skald, sing now an olden song,
Such as our fathers heard who led great lives;
And, as the bravest on a shield is borne
Along the waving host that shouts him king,
So rode their thrones upon the thronging seas!"
Then the old man arose: white-haired he stood,
White-bearded, and with eyes that looked afar
From their still region of perpetual snow,
Over the little smokes and stirs of men:
His head was bowed with gathered flakes of years,
As winter bends the sea-foreboding pine,
But something triumphed in his brow and eye,
Which whoso saw it, could not see and crouch:
Loud rang the emptied beakers as he mused,
Brooding his eyried thoughts; then, as an eagle
Circles smooth-winged above the wind-vexed woods,
So wheeled his soul into the air of song
High o'er the stormy hall; and thus he sang:
"The fletcher for his arrow-shaft picks out
Wood closest-grained, long-seasoned, straight as light;
And, from a quiver full of such as these,
The wary bow-man, matched against his peers,
Long doubting, singles yet once more the best.
Who is it that can make such shafts as Fate?
What archer of his arrows is so choice,
Or hits the white so surely? They are men,
The chosen of her quiver; nor for her
Will every reed suffice, or cross-grained stick
At random from life's vulgar fagot plucked:
Such answer household ends; but she will have
Souls straight and clear, of toughest fibre, sound
Down to the heart of heat; from these she strips
All needless stuff, all sapwood; hardens them,
From circumstance untoward feathers plucks
Crumpled and cheap, and barbs with iron will:
The hour that passes is her quiver-boy;
When she draws bow, 'tis not across the wind,
Nor 'gainst the sun, her haste-snatched arrow sings,
For sun and wind have plighted faith to her:
Ere men have heard the sinew twang, behold,
In the butt's heart her trembling messenger!
"The song is old and simple that I sing:
Good were the days of yore, when men were tried
By ring of shields, as now by ring of gold;
But, while the gods are left, and hearts of men,
And the free ocean, still the days are good;
Through the broad Earth roams Opportunity
And knocks at every door of hut or hall,
Until she finds the brave soul that she wants."
He ceased, and instantly the frothy tide
Of interrupted wassail roared along.
TOLD BY THE NORTHMEN:
CHAPTER I
How All Things Began
_This is the tale which the Northmen tell
concerning the Beginning of Things._
Once upon a time, before ever this world was made, there was neither
earth nor sea, nor air, nor light, but only a great yawning gulf, full
of twilight, where these things should be.
To the north of this gulf lay the Home of Mist, a dark and dreary
land, out of which flowed a river of water from a spring that never
ran dry. As the water in its onward course met the bitter blasts of
wind from the yawning gulf, it hardened into great blocks of ice,
which rolled far down into the abyss with a thunderous roar and piled
themselves one on another until they formed mountains of glistening
ice.
South of this gulf lay the Home of Fire, a land of burning heat,
guarded by a giant with a flaming sword which, as he flashed it to and
fro before the entrance, sent forth showers of sparks. And these
sparks fell upon the ice-blocks and partly melted them, so that they
sent up clouds of steam; and these again were frozen into hoar-frost,
which filled all the space that was left in the midst of the mountains
of ice.
Then one day, when the gulf was full to the very top, this great mass
of frosty rime, warmed by the flames from the Home of Fire and frozen
by the cold airs from the Home of Mist, came to life and became the
Giant Ymir, with a living, moving body and cruel heart of ice.
Now there was as yet no tree, nor grass, nor anything that would serve
for food, in this gloomy abyss. But when the Giant Ymir began to grope
around for something to satisfy his hunger, he heard a sound as of
some animal chewing the cud; and there among the ice-hills he saw a
gigantic cow, from whose udder flowed four great streams of milk, and
with this his craving was easily stilled.
But the cow was hungry also, and began to lick the salt off the blocks
of ice by which she was surrounded. And presently, as she went on
licking with her strong, rough tongue, a head of hair pushed itself
through the melting ice. Still the cow went on licking, until she had
at last melted all the icy covering and there stood fully revealed the
frame of a mighty man.
Ymir looked with eyes of hatred at this being, born of snow and ice,
for somehow he knew that his heart was warm and kind, and that he and
his sons would always be the enemies of the evil race of the Frost
Giants.
So, indeed, it came to pass. For from the sons of Ymir came a race of
giants whose pleasure was to work evil on the earth; and from the Sons
of the Iceman sprang the race of the gods, chief of whom was Odin,
Father of All Things that ever were made; and Odin and his brothers
began at once to war against the wicked Frost Giants, and most of all
against the cold-hearted Ymir, whom in the end they slew.
Now when, after a hard fight, the Giant Ymir was slain, such a river
of blood flowed forth from his wounds that it drowned all the rest of
the Frost Giants save one, who escaped in a boat, with only his wife
on board, and sailed away to the edge of the world. And from him
sprang all the new race of Frost Giants, who at every opportunity
issued from their land of twilight and desolation to harm the gods in
their abode of bliss.
Now when the giants had been thus driven out, All-Father Odin set to
work with his brothers to make the earth, the sea, and the sky; and
these they fashioned out of the great body of the Giant Ymir.
Out of his flesh they formed Midgard, the earth, which lay in the
centre of the gulf; and all round it they planted his eyebrows to make
a high fence which should defend it from the race of giants.
With his bones they made the lofty hills, with his teeth the cliffs,
and his thick curly hair took root and became trees, bushes, and the
green grass.
With his blood they made the ocean, and his great skull, poised aloft,
became the arching sky. Just below this they scattered his brains, and
made of them the heavy grey clouds that lie between earth and heaven.
The sky itself was held in place by four strong dwarfs, who support it
on their broad shoulders as they stand east and west and south and
north.
The next thing was to give light to the new-made world. So the gods
caught sparks from the Home of Fire and set them in the sky for stars;
and they took the living flame and made of it the sun and moon, which
they placed in chariots of gold, and harnessed to them beautiful
horses, with flowing manes of gold and silver. Before the horses of
the sun, they placed a mighty shield to protect them from its hot
rays; but the swift moon steeds needed no such protection from its
gentle heat.
And now all was ready save that there was no one to drive the horses
of the sun and moon. This task was given to Mani and Sol, the
beautiful son and daughter of a giant; and these fair charioteers
drive their fleet steeds along the paths marked out by the gods, and
not only give light to the earth but mark out months and days for the
sons of men.
Then All-Father Odin called forth Night, the gloomy daughter of the
cold-hearted giant folk, and set her to drive the dark chariot drawn
by the black horse, Frosty-Mane, from whose long wavy hair the drops
of dew and hoar-frost fall upon the earth below. After her drove her
radiant son, Day, with his white steed Shining-Mane, from whom the
bright beams of daylight shine forth to gladden the hearts of men.
But the wicked giants were very angry when they saw all these good
things; and they set in the sky two hungry wolves, that the fierce,
grey creatures might for ever pursue the sun and moon, and devour
them, and so bring all things to an end. Sometimes, indeed, or so say
the men of the North, the grey wolves almost succeed in swallowing sun
or moon; and then the earth children make such an uproar that the
fierce beasts drop their prey in fear. And the sun and moon flee more
rapidly than before, still pursued by the hungry monsters.
One day, so runs the tale, as Mani, the Man in the Moon, was hastening
on his course, he gazed upon the earth and saw two beautiful little
children, a boy and a girl, carrying between them a pail of water.
They looked very tired and sleepy, and indeed they were, for a cruel
giant made them fetch and carry water all night long, when they should
have been in bed. So Mani put out a long, long arm and snatched up
the children and set them in the moon, pail and all; and there you can
see them on any moonlit night for yourself.
But that happened a long time after the beginning of things; for as
yet there was no man or woman or child upon the earth.
And now that this pleasant Midgard was made, the gods determined to
satisfy their desire for an abode where they might rest and enjoy
themselves in their hours of ease.
They chose a suitable place far above the earth, on the other side of
the great river which flowed from the Home of Mist where the giants
dwelt, and here they made for their abode Asgard, wherein they dwelt
in peace and happiness, and from whence they could look down upon the
sons of men.
From Asgard to Midgard they built a beautiful bridge of many colours,
to which men gave the name of Rainbow Bridge, and up and down which
the gods could pass on their journeys to and from the earth.
Here in Asgard stood the mighty forge where the gods fashioned their
weapons wherewith they fought the giants, and the tools wherewith they
built their palaces of gold and silver.
Meantime, no human creature lived upon the earth, and the giants dared
not cross its borders for fear of the gods. But one of them, clad in
eagles' plumes, always sat at the north side of Midgard, and, whenever
he raised his arms and let them fall again, an icy blast rushed forth
from the Mist Home and nipped all the pleasant things of earth with
its cruel breath. In due time the earth was no longer without life,
for the ground brought forth thousands of tiny creatures, which
crawled about and showed signs of great intelligence. And when the
gods examined these little people closely, they found that they were
of two kinds.
Some were ugly, misshapen, and cunning-faced, with great heads, small
bodies, long arms and feet. These they called Trolls or Dwarfs or
Gnomes, and sent them to live underground, threatening to turn them
into stone should they appear in the daytime. And this is why the
trolls spend all their time in the hidden parts of the earth, digging
for gold and silver and precious stones, and hiding their spoil away
in secret holes and corners. Sometimes they blow their tiny fires and
set to work to make all kinds of wonderful things from this buried
treasure; and that is what they are doing when, if one listens very
hard on the mountains and hills of the Northland, a sound of
tap-tap-tapping is heard far underneath the ground.
The other small earth creatures were very fair and light and slender,
kindly of heart, and full of goodwill. These the gods called Fairies
or Elves, and gave to them a charming place called Elfland in which to
dwell. Elfland lies between Asgard and Midgard, and since all fairies
have wings they can easily flit down to the earth to play with the
butterflies, teach the young birds to sing, water the flowers, or
dance in the moonlight round a fairy ring.
Last of all, the gods made a man and woman to dwell in fair Midgard;
and this is the manner of their creation.
All-Father Odin was walking with his brothers in Midgard where, by the
seashore, they found growing two trees, an ash and an elm. Odin took
these trees and breathed on them, whereupon a wonderful transformation
took place. Where the trees had stood, there were a living man and
woman, but they were stupid, pale, and speechless, until Hoenir, the
god of Light, touched their fore-heads and gave them sense and wisdom;
and Loki, the Fire-god, smoothed their faces, giving them bright
colour and warm blood, and the power to speak and see and hear. It
only remained that they should be named, and they were called Ask and
Embla, the names of the trees from which they had been formed. From
these two people sprang all the race of men which lives upon this
earth.
And now All-Father Odin completed his work by planting the Tree of
Life.
This immense tree had its roots in Asgard and Midgard and the Mist
Land; and it grew to such a marvellous height that the highest bough,
the Bough of Peace, hung over the Hall of Odin on the heights of
Asgard; and the other branches overshadowed both Midgard and the Mist
Land. On the top of the Peace Bough was perched a mighty eagle, and
ever a falcon sat between his eyes, and kept watch on all that
happened in the world below, that he might tell to Odin what he saw.
Heidrun, the goat of Odin, who supplied the heavenly mead, browsed on
the leaves of this wonderful tree, and from them fed also the four
mighty stags from whose horns honey-dew dropped on to the earth
beneath and supplied water for all the rivers of Midgard.
The leaves of the Tree of Life were ever green and fair, despite the
dragon which, aided by countless serpents, gnawed perpetually at its
roots, in order that they might kill the Tree of Life and thus bring
about the destruction of the gods.
Up and down the branches of the tree scampered the squirrel, Ratatosk,
a malicious little creature, whose one amusement it was to make
mischief by repeating to the eagle the rude remarks of the dragon, and
to the dragon those of the eagle, in the hope that one day he might
see them in actual conflict.
Near the roots of the Tree of life is a sacred well of sweet water
from which the three Weird Sisters, who know all that shall come to
pass, sprinkle the tree and keep it fresh and green. And the water, as
it trickles down from the leaves, falls as drops of honey on the
earth, and the bees take it for their food.
Close to this sacred well is the Council Hall of the gods, to which
every morning they rode, over the Rainbow Bridge, to hold converse
together.
And this is the end of the tale of How All Things began.