ne the dew and
hoarfrost dropped down upon the earth.

"Hrim-faxi is the sable steed,
From the east who brings the night,
Fraught with the showering joys of love:
As he champs the foamy bit,
Drops of dew are scattered round
To adorn the vales of earth."

Vafthrudni's-mal (W. Taylor's tr.).

The goddess of night had thrice been married, and by her first husband,
Naglfari, she had had a son named Aud; by her second, Annar, a daughter
Joerd (earth); and by her third, the god Dellinger (dawn), another son,
of radiant beauty, was now born to her, and he was given the name of
Dag (day).

As soon as the gods became aware of this beautiful being's existence
they provided a chariot for him also, drawn by the resplendent white
steed Skin-faxi (shining mane), from whose mane bright beams of
light shone forth in every direction, illuminating all the world,
and bringing light and gladness to all.

"Forth from the east, up the ascent of heaven,
Day drove his courser with the shining mane."

Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).

The Wolves Skoell and Hati

But as evil always treads close upon the footsteps of good, hoping to
destroy it, the ancient inhabitants of the Northern regions imagined
that both Sun and Moon were incessantly pursued by the fierce wolves
Skoell (repulsion) and Hati (hatred), whose sole aim was to overtake
and swallow the brilliant objects before them, so that the world
might again be enveloped in its primeval darkness.

"Skoell the wolf is named
That the fair-faced goddess
To the ocean chases;
Another Hati hight
He is Hrodvitnir's son;
He the bright maid of heaven shall precede."

Saemuna's Edda (Thorpe's tr.).

At times, they said, the wolves overtook and tried to swallow their
prey, thus producing an eclipse of the radiant orbs. Then the terrified
people raised such a deafening clamour that the wolves, frightened by
the noise, hastily dropped them. Thus rescued, Sun and Moon resumed
their course, fleeing more rapidly than before, the hungry monsters
rushing along in their wake, lusting for the time when their efforts
would prevail and the end of the world would come. For the Northern
nations believed that as their gods had sprung from an alliance between
the divine element (Boerr) and the mortal (Bestla), they were finite,
and doomed to perish with the world they had made.

"But even in