reached above the
heavens. Under one of these roots was the abode of Hel, the goddess of
the dead, under another that of the frost giants, and under the third
was the dwelling of human beings.

Baldur dreamt evil dreams of threatened danger to his life. He related
them to the gods, who endeavoured to protect him from injury. Frigga
made fire, water, iron, and all metals, stones, earth, plants, beasts,
birds, serpents, poison, and all diseases, swear that they would not
hurt Baldur. Loki was displeased at this. He changed himself into the
form of an old woman, and, inquiring the cause of Baldur's
invulnerability, was told by Frigga that all things, animate and
inanimate, had sworn not to harm him, with the exception of one little
shrub, the misletoe. Loki, rejoicing at the information he had
received, procured this little shrub, and hastened with it to an
assembly of the gods, where he placed it in the hands of the blind
Hoder, the god of war, who cast it at Baldur, and pierced him to the
heart. Hermoder, the son of Odin, offered to proceed to Hel to release
Baldur; and Hel, on hearing the request made, consented to let him go,
on condition that all things would weep for Baldur. All men, all
living beings, and all things wept except the witch Thock, who refused
to mourn for the departed god. Baldur was therefore compelled to
remain in Hel, where he will be to the end of the world.

Loki was beautiful, and possessed of great knowledge and cunning. He
often brought the gods into trouble, from which, however, through his
craft he extricated them. Hence he was regarded as the Evil Spirit.
Sometimes he was called Asa-Loki, to distinguish him from
Utgarda-Loki, a king of the giants, whose kingdom lay at the uttermost
limits of the earth.

Hel, who dwelt under one of the three roots of the sacred ash
Yggdrasil, was the daughter of the wicked Loki. Hel, together with her
brother, the wolf Fenrir, and the serpent Jormundgand, was brought up
in the giants' home of Jotunheim, where she remained until, at the
request of the gods, Allfader sent for her and her brothers to destroy
them, as it was known that by their origin they would prove the
instruments of calamity. After casting the serpent that surrounded all
lands into the deep ocean, he hurled Hel into Niflheim, and gave her
authority over nine worlds, in which she was to assign places to all
who died of sickness and old age. Her abode was surrounded by a high
enclosure and