was. And when he came before her it was his, and not her head that was
bowed down.

For she knew now that the World of Men was paying a bitter price for the
strength that Asgard would have in the last battle. The bravest and
noblest were being taken from Midgard to fill up the ranks of Odin's
Champions. And Brynhild's heart was full of anger against the rulers of
Asgard, and she cared no more to be of them.

Odin looked on his unflinching battle-maiden, and he said, "Is there
aught thou wouldst have me bestow on thee in thy mortal life, Brynhild?"

"Naught save this," Brynhild answered, "that in my mortal life no one
but a man without fear, the bravest hero in the world, may claim me for
wife."

All-Father bowed his head in thought. "It shall be as thou hast asked,"
he said. "Only he who is without fear shall come near thee."

Then on the top of the mountain that is called Hindfell he had a Hall
built that faced the south. Ten Dwarfs built it of black stone. And when
the Hall was built he put round it a wall of mounting and circling fire.

More did Odin All-Father: he took a thorn of the Tree of Sleep and he
put it into the flesh of the battle-maiden. Then, with her helmet on her
head and the breast-mail of the Valkyrie upon her, he lifted Brynhild in
his arms and carried her through the wall of mounting and circling fire.
He laid her upon the couch that was within the Hall. There she would lie
in slumber until the hero who was without fear should ride through the
flame and waken her to the life of a mortal woman.

He took farewell of her and he rode back to Asgard on Sleipner. He might
not foresee what fate would be hers as a mortal woman. But the fire he
had left went mounting and circling around the Hall that the Dwarfs had
built. For ages that fire would be a fence around where Brynhild, once a
Valkyrie, lay in sleep.

[Illustration]

THE CHILDREN OF LOKI

The children of Loki and the witch Angerboda were not as the children of
men: they were formless as water, or air, or fire is formless, but it
was given to each of them to take on the form that was most like to
their own greed.

Now the Dwellers in Asgard knew that these powers of evil had been born
into the world and they thought it well that they should take on forms
and appear before them in Asgard. So they sent one to Jarnvid, the Iron
Wood, bidding Loki bring before the Gods the powers born of him and the
witch Angerboda. So Loki came in