The Demon of Cold has a habitat, naturally, in every
Northern region. He is the Ke-mung of China, who--man-shaped,
dragon-headed--haunts the Chang river, and causes rain-storms. [47] In
Greenland it is Erleursortok, who suffers perpetual agues, and leaps
on souls at death to satisfy his hunger. The Chenoos (demons) of the
Mimacs of Nova Scotia present certain features of the race-demons,
but are fearfully cold. The Chenoo weapon is a dragon's horn, his
yell is fatal to the hearer, his heart is a block of ice. This heart
must be destroyed if the demon is to be slain, but it can only be
done by melting in the fire: the chief precaution required is that
one is not drowned in the flood so caused. The icy demon survived
long in Scotland. Sir James Melville, in his 'Memoirs,' says 'the
spirit or devil that helped the Scottish witches to raise a storm
in the sea of Norway was cold as ice and his body hard as iron;
his face was terrible, his nose like the beak of an eagle, great
burning eyes, his hands and legs hairy, with claws on his nails like
a griffin.' Dr. Fian was burnt for raising this demon to oppose James
I. on his stormy passage from Denmark.
This type of demon haunted people's minds in Scandinavia, where,
though traditions of a flame demon (Loki) and the end of the world
by fire were imported, the popular belief seems to have been mainly
occupied with Frost giants, and the formidable Oegir, god of the
bleak sea east winds, preserved in our word awe (Anglo-Saxon ege),
and more directly in the name of our familiar demon, the Ogre,
so often slain in the child's Gladsheim. Loki (fire) was, indeed,
speedily relegated by the Æsir (gods) to a hidden subterraneous
realm, where his existence could only be known by the earthquakes,
geysers, and Hecla eruptions which he occasioned. Yet he was to come
forth at Ragnarök, the Twilight of the Gods. We can see a singular
blending of tropical and frigid zones--the one traditional, the other
native--in the Prose Edda. Thus:--'What will remain,' said Gangler,
'after heaven and earth and the whole universe shall be consumed,
and after all the gods and the homes of Valhalla and all mankind
shall have perished?' 'There will be many abodes,' replied Thridi,
'some good, some bad. The best place of all to be in will be Gimil,
in heaven; and all who delight in quaffing good drink will find a
great store in the hall called Brimir, which is also in heaven in the
region Okolni. There is also a fair hall of ruddy gold, (for) Sindri,
which stands on the mountains of Nida. In those halls righteous and
well-minded men shall abide. In Ná-strönd there is a vast and direful
structure with doors that face the north. It is formed entirely of the
backs of serpents, wattled together like wicker-work. But the serpents'
heads are turned towards the inside of the hall, and continually vomit
forth floods of venom, in which wade all those who commit murder or
who forswear themselves. As it is said in the Völuspá:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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