nd water,--all things, living and
lifeless, joined in weeping for the lost Balder.

But, as the heralds were on their way back to Asgard, they met a
giantess named Thok, and they asked her to join in the universal grief.
And she answered, "What good thing did Balder ever do for Thok? What
gladness did he ever bring her? If she should weep for him, it would be
with dry tears. Let Hela keep him in her halls."[EN#23]

"And yet the day shall come," added the story-teller, "when the words of
the weird woman to Odin shall prove true; and Balder shall come again to
rule over a newborn world in which there shall be no wrong-doing and no
more death."

Adventure XIV. How Gunther Outwitted Brunhild.

While still the festivities were at their height, an old man of noble
mien, and with snow-white beard and hair, came into the great hall, and
sang for the gay company. And some whispered that this must be Bragi,
for surely such rare music could not be made by any other. But he sang
not of spring, as Bragi does, nor yet of youth nor of beauty, nor like
one whose home is with the song-birds, and who lives beside the babbling
brooks and the leaping waterfalls. His song was a sorrowful one,--of
dying flowers, and falling leaves, and the wailing winds of autumn, of
forgotten joys, of blasted hopes, of a crushed ambition, of gray hairs,
of uttering footsteps, of old age, of a lonely grave. And, as he sang,
all were moved to tears by the mournful melody and the sad, sad words.

"Good friend," said Siegfried, "thy music agrees not well with this time
and place; for, where nothing but mirth and joy are welcome, thou hast
brought sorrowful thoughts and gloomy forebodings. Come, now, and undo
the harm thou hast done, by singing a song which shall tell only of
mirth and gladness."

The old man shook his head, and answered, "Were I Bragi; as some think
I am, or were I even a strolling harper, I might do as you ask. But I am
neither, and I know no gladsome songs. Men have called me a messenger of
ill omen; and such, indeed, I have sometimes been, although through no
wish of my own. I come as a herald from a far-off land, and I bear a
message to all the kings and the noblest chiefs of Rhineland. If King
Gunther will allow me, I will now make that message known."

"Let the herald speak on," said Gunther graciously.

"Far over the sea," said the herald, "there lies a dreamy land called
Isenland; and in that land there is a glorious