d Loki in the Giants' City 102

6. How Thor and Loki Befooled Thrym the
Giant 116

7. AEgir's Feast: How Thor Triumphed 124

8. The Dwarf's Hoard, and the Curse that
It Brought 136

PART III _The Witch's Heart_

1. Foreboding in Asgard 151

2. Loki the Betrayer 155

3. Loki Against the AEsir 164

4. The Valkyrie 169

5. The Children of Loki 174

6. Baldur's Doom 180

7. Loki's Punishment 193

PART IV _The Sword of the Volsungs and the
Twilight of the Gods_

1. Sigurd's Youth 199

2. The Sword Gram and the Dragon Fafnir 208

3. The Dragon's Blood 215

4. The Story of Sigmund and Signy 223

5. The Story of Sigmund and Sinfiotli 233

6. The Story of the Vengeance of the
Volsungs and of the Death of Sinfiotli 239

7. Brynhild in the House of Flame 245

8. Sigurd at the House of the Nibelungs 250

9. How Brynhild Was Won for Gunnar 255

10. The Death of Sigurd 260

11. The Twilight of the Gods 265

PART I

THE DWELLERS IN ASGARD

[Illustration]

FAR AWAY AND LONG AGO

Once there was another Sun and another Moon; a different Sun and a
different Moon from the ones we see now. Sol was the name of that Sun
and Mani was the name of that Moon. But always behind Sol and Mani
wolves went, a wolf behind each. The wolves caught on them at last and
they devoured Sol and Mani. And then the world was in darkness and cold.

In those times the Gods lived, Odin and Thor, Hoedur and Baldur, Tyr and
Heimdall, Vidar and Vali, as well as Loki, the doer of good and the doer
of evil. And the beautiful Goddesses were living then, Frigga, Freya,
Nanna, Iduna, and Sif. But in the days when the Sun and Moon were
destroyed the Gods were destroyed too--all the Gods except Baldur who
had died before that time, Vidar and Vali, the sons of Odin, and Modi
and Magni, the sons of Thor.

At that time, too, there were men and women in the world. But before the
Sun and the Moon were devoured and before the Gods were destroyed,
terrible things happened in the world. Snow fell on the four co