"The asas" (the godlike men) "and the einherjes" (the heroes) "arm themselves and speed forth to the battlefield. Odin rides first; with his golden helmet, resplendent {p. 147} byrnie, and his spear Gungner, he advances against the Fenris-wolf" (the first comet). "Thor stands by his side, but can give him no assistance, for he has his hands full in his struggle with the Midgard-serpent" (the second comet). "Frey encounters Surt, and heavy blows are exchanged ere Frey falls. The cause of his death is that he has not that good sword which he gave to Skirner. Even the dog Garm," (another comet), "that was bound before the Gnipa-cave, gets loose. He is the greatest plague. He contends with Tyr, and they kill each other. Thor gets great renown by slaying the Midgard-serpent, but retreats only nine paces when he falls to the earth dead, _poisoned by the venom that the serpent blows upon him_." He has breathed the carbureted-hydrogen gas! "The wolf swallows Odin, and thus causes his death; but Vidar immediately turns and rushes at the wolf, placing one foot on his nether jaw. ["On this foot he has the shoe, for which materials have been gathering through all ages, namely, the strips of leather which men cut off from the toes and heels of shoes; wherefore he who wishes to render assistance to the asas must cast these strips away."] This last paragraph, like that concerning the ship Naglfar, is probably the interpolation of some later age. The narrative continues: "With one hand Vidar seizes the upper jaw of the wolf, and thus rends asunder his mouth. Thus the wolf perishes. Loke fights with Heimdal, and they kill each other. _Thereupon Surt flings fire over the earth, and burns up all the world_." This narrative is from the Younger Edda. The Elder Edda is to the same purpose, but there are more allusions to the effect of the catastrophe on the earth The eagle screams, _And with pale beak tears corpses_. . . . Mountains dash together, {p. 148} Heroes go the way to Hel, And heaven is rent in twain. . . . _All men abandon their homesteads_ When the warder of Midgard In wrath slays the serpent. _The sun grows dark, The earth sinks into the sea_, The bright stars From heaven vanish; _Fire rages, Heat blazes, And high flames play 'Gainst heaven itself_" And what follow then? Ice and cold and winter. For although these things come first in the narrative of the Edda, yet we are told that "_before these_" things, to wit, the cold winters, there occurred the wickedness of the world, and the wolves and the serpent made their appearance. So that the events transpired in the order in which I have given them. "First there is a winter called the Fimbul winter," "The mighty, the great, the iron winter,"[1]