Monstrous creatures, such as dragons, hydras, griffins, and the like, now made their appearance in the world, but there is no account of their creation, and they must have come of their own accord. One day a marvelous thing happened. Ymer and his giants saw a pink flush spreading over the black sky. This grew brighter, and brighter, until the whole firmament was a brilliant flame color. And, while they were wondering what this could mean, whizz! came in sight a great ball of fire! This was nothing less than a new god, named Odin. Where he came from nobody knew, but there he was. He descended upon the mountains, and took possession of Ymer’s world. He brought with him the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. He told the Sun to light up the world, and to warm up things generally, and to be sure to melt the ice that covered a great part of the earth. The Moon and the Stars were to take care of the earth during the night. Odin brought with him also, a large number of followers; and, according to the invariable rule of all discoverers of new countries, he proceeded to kill all the original inhabitants; beginning with great Ymer himself, and ending with the land and sea monsters. That is, he intended to kill them all, and he thought he had. But one of the giants escaped, and also a wolf, named Fenris (a terrible creature that made nothing of crushing a mountain with his teeth). And the great sea-serpent Iormungandur was not slain. The warmth of the sun soon called into life the grasses, the flowers, and the trees; springs welled up in the woods; and brooks and rivers flowed through the plains to the sea; and a great variety of animals took possession of the world, now so beautiful. Odin was charmed with all this, but not quite satisfied. He wanted some beings on the earth that should be less than gods, and yet of a finer intelligence than the beasts. Thinking about this one day, as he walked by the sea-shore, his eyes chanced to fall upon a large branch that had blown off a tree into the water. This put a bright idea into his mind. He drew the wood towards him; and, splitting it in two, made a man and a woman out of the two parts. From this couple, according to the Scandinavian legends, all the people in the world are descended. People increased so fast, and were so rude and savage, and quarrelled and fought so much, that Odin found he had his hands too full of business, and he thought it was about time for his lazy followers to help him. So he set them all to work. Forseti was to make peace among men. Vali was to teach them the use of the bow, not for the purpose of killing each other, but for slaughtering game for food. Uller was to teach skating. The goddess Gefione taught men to labor, and how to break up the earth for seed, and to raise crops. I think you will agree with me that she was one of the very best of all the Scandinavian gods, and goddesses. [Illustration: THE GOD EGIR.]