All this is vividly and sublimely presented in the Elder Edda, thus: East of Midgard in the Ironwood The old hag[82] sat, Fenrer’s terrible Race she fostered. One[83] of them Shall at last In the guise of a troll Devour the moon. It feeds on the bodies Of men, when they die: The seats of the gods It stains with red blood: The sunshine blackens In the summers thereafter And the weather grows bad— Know ye now more or not? The hag’s watcher, The glad Edger, Sat on the hill-top And played his harp; Near him crowed In the bird-wood A fair-red cock Which Fjalar hight. Among the gods crowed The gold-combed cock, He who wakes in Valhal The hosts of heroes; Beneath the earth Crows another, The root-red cock, In the halls of Hel. Loud barks Garm At Gnipa-cave; The fetters are severed, The wolf is set free,— Vale knows the future. More does she see Of the victorious gods Terrible fall. The wolf referred to in the first strophe is Maanegarm (the moon-devourer), of whom we have made notice before. The hag in the Ironwood is Angerboda (anguish-boding), with whom Loke begat children. Evil is being developed. The gods become through Loke united with the giants. The wood is of iron, hard and barren; the children are ravenous wolves. On the hill-top sits Egder (an eagle), a storm-eagle, the howling wind that rushes through the wood, and howling wind is the music produced upon his harp. The cock is a symbol of fire, and it is even to this day a common expression among the Norsemen, when a fire breaks out, that _the red cock is crowing over the roof of the house_. There are three cocks, one in the bird-wood, one in heaven, and one in the lower regions with Hel. The idea then is, that the cock as a symbol of fire announces the coming of Ragnarok in all the regions of the world. The vala continues: