The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern MythsColum, Padraic
General
The Children of Odin: The Book of Northern Myths
Colum, Padraic
Mythology, Norse -- Juvenile literature
And now the riders of Muspelheim came down on the field. Bright and
gleaming were all their weapons. Before them and behind them went
wasting fires. Surtur cast fire upon the earth; the tree Ygdrassil took
fire and burned in all its great branches; the World Tree was wasted in
the blaze. But the fearful fire that Surtur brought on the earth
destroyed him and all his host.
The Wolf Hati caught up on Sol, the Sun; the Wolf Managarm seized on
Mani, the Moon; they devoured them; stars fell, and darkness came down
on the world.
The seas flowed over the burnt and wasted earth and the skies were dark
above the sea, for Sol and Mani were no more. But at last the seas drew
back and earth appeared again, green and beautiful. A new Sun and a new
Moon appeared in the heavens, one a daughter of Sol and the other a
daughter of Mani. No grim wolves kept them in pursuit.
Four of the younger Gods stood on the highest of the world's peaks; they
were Vidar and Vali, the sons of Odin, and Modi and Magni, the sons of
Thor. Modi and Magni found Miölnir, Thor's hammer, and with it they slew
the monsters that still raged through the world, the Hound Garm and the
Wolf Managarm.
Vidar and Vali found in the grass the golden tablets on which were
inscribed the runes of wisdom of the elder Gods. The runes told them of
a heaven that was above Asgard, of Gimli, that was untouched by Surtur's
fire. Vili and Ve, Will and Holiness, ruled in it. Baldur and Hödur came
from Hela's habitation, and the Gods sat on the peak together and held
speech with each other, calling to mind the secrets and the happenings
they had known before Ragnarök, the Twilight of the Gods.
Deep in a wood two of human kind were left; the fire of Surtur did not
touch them; they slept, and when they wakened the world was green and
beautiful again. These two fed on the dews of the morning; a woman and a
man they were. Lif and Lifthrasir. They walked abroad in the world, and
from them and from their children came the men and women who spread
themselves over the earth.
The End.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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