ifroest was broken, the AEsir and the Vanir, the Asyniur and the
Vana, the Einherjar and the Valkyries rode downward to Vigard through
the waters of Thund. Odin rode at the head of his Champions. His helmet
was of gold and in his hand was his spear Gungnir. Thor and Tyr were in
his company.

In Mirkvid, the Dark Forest, the Vanir stood against the host of
Muspelheim. From the broken end of the Rainbow Bridge the riders came,
all flashing and flaming, with fire before them and after them. Nioerd
was there with Skadi, his Giant wife, fierce in her war-dress; Freya was
there also, and Frey had Gerda beside him as a battle-maiden. Terribly
bright flashed Surtur's sword. No sword ever owned was as bright as his
except the sword that Frey had given to Skirnir. Frey and Surtur fought;
he perished, Frey perished in that battle, but he would not have
perished if he had had in his hand his own magic sword.

And now, for the third time, Garm, the hound with blood upon his jaws,
barked. He had broken loose on the world, and with fierce bounds he
rushed toward Vigard Plain, where the Gods had assembled their powers.
Loud barked Garm. The Eagle Hraesvelgur screamed on the edge of heaven.
Then the skies were cloven, and the tree Ygdrassil was shaken in all its
roots.

To the place where the Gods had drawn up their ranks came the ship of
Joetunheim and the ship of Hel, came the riders of Muspelheim, and Garm,
the hound with blood upon his jaws. And out of the sea that now
surrounded the plain of Vigard the serpent Joermungand came.

What said Odin to the Gods and to the Champions who surrounded him? "We
will give our lives and let our world be destroyed, but we will battle
so that these evil powers will not live after us." Out of Hel's ship
sprang Fenrir the Wolf. His mouth gaped; his lower jaw hung against the
earth, and his upper jaw scraped the sky. Against the Wolf Odin
All-Father fought. Thor might not aid him, for Thor had now to encounter
Joermungand, the monstrous serpent.

By Fenrir the Wolf Odin was slain. But the younger Gods were now
advancing to the battle; and Vidar, the Silent God, came face to face
with Fenrir. He laid his foot on the Wolf's lower jaw, that foot that
had on the sandal made of all the scraps of leather that shoemakers had
laid by for him, and with his hands he seized the upper jaw and tore his
gullet. Thus died Fenrir, the fiercest of all the enemies of the Gods.

Joermungand, the monstrous serpent