ioned, are described in later heroic poems. Besides Balmung
and Joyeuse, Sigmund's and Charlemagne's celebrated swords, he is
reported to have fashioned Miming for his son Heime, and many other
remarkable blades.

"It is the mate of Miming
Of all swerdes it is king,
And Weland it wrought,
Bitterfer it is hight."

Anglo-Saxon Poetry (Coneybeare's tr.).

There are countless other tales of swan maidens or Valkyrs, who are
said to have consorted with mortals; but the most popular of all is
that of Brunhild, the wife of Sigurd, a descendant of Sigmund and
the most renowned of Northern heroes.

William Morris, in "The Land East of the Sun and West of the Moon,"
gives a fascinating version of another of these Norse legends. The
story is amongst the most charming of the collection in "The Earthly
Paradise."

Brunhild

The story of Brunhild is to be found in many forms. Some versions
describe the heroine as the daughter of a king taken by Odin to serve
in his Valkyr band, others as chief of the Valkyrs and daughter of
Odin himself. In Richard Wagner's story, "The Ring of the Nibelung,"
the great musician presents a particularly attractive, albeit a more
modern conception of the chief Battle-Maiden, and her disobedience
to the command of Odin when sent to summon the youthful Siegmund from
the side of his beloved Sieglinde to the Halls of the Blessed.

CHAPTER XIX: HEL

Loki's Offspring

Hel, goddess of death, was the daughter of Loki, god of evil, and of
the giantess Angurboda, the portender of ill. She came into the world
in a dark cave in Joetun-heim together with the serpent Ioermungandr
and the terrible Fenris wolf, the trio being considered as the emblems
of pain, sin, and death.

"Now Loki comes, cause of all ill!
Men and AEsir curse him still.
Long shall the gods deplore,
Even till Time be o'er,
His base fraud on Asgard's hill.
While, deep in Jotunheim, most fell,
Are Fenrir, Serpent, and Dread Hel,
Pain, Sin, and Death, his children three,
Brought up and cherished; thro' them he
Tormentor of the world shall be."

Valhalla (J. C. Jones).

In due time Odin became aware of the terrible brood which Loki was
cherishing, and resolved, as we have already seen, to banish them from
the face of the earth. The serpent was therefore cast into the sea,
where his writhing was supposed to cause the most terri