The old Norsemen had many beautiful ideas in connection with death. Thus in the lay of Atle it is said of him who dies that he goes to the other light. That the dead in the mounds were a state of consciousness is illustrated by the following passages from Fridthiof’s Saga: Now, children, lay us in two lofty graves Down by the sea-shore, near the deep-blue waves: Their sounds shall to our souls be music sweet, Singing our dirge as on the strand they beat. When round the hills the pale moonlight is thrown And midnight dews fall on the Bautn-stone, We’ll sit, O Thorsten, in one rounded graves And speak together o’er the gentle waves. Finally, it is a beautiful thought that there was a sympathetic union between the dead and the living. As the Persians believed that the rivers of the lower world grew by the tears of the living and interfered with the happiness of the departed, so the Norse peasant still believes that when a daughter weeps for the death of her father she must take care that no tear falls on his corpse, for thereby the peace of the deceased would be disturbed. We find this same thought expressed in the Elder Edda, where Helge says to Sigrun: Thou alone causest, Sigrun From Sevafjeld, That Helge is bathed In sorrow’s dew. Thou weepest, gold-adorned, Sunbright woman! Cruel tears, Before thou goest to sleep. Every bloody tear Fell on the king’s breast, Ice-cold and swelling With sorrow. Thus also in the old song of Aage and Else: Whenever thou grievest, My coffin is within As livid blood: Whenever thou rejoicest, My coffin is within Filled with fragrant roses. SECTION VI. LOKE’S PUNISHMENT. Loke and Balder struggled for the government of the world. Loke gradually grew victorious in his terrible children, while Balder, defenseless and innocent, had nothing but his shining purity with which to oppose Loke’s baseness. Loke’s wickedness reached its culminating point in the death of Balder and in the hag Thok, who with arid tears would wail Balder from Hel.