hat the well-nigh
insatiable monsters were never stinted for food. They daily gained
strength to pursue Sol and Mani, and finally overtook and devoured
them, deluging the earth with blood from their dripping jaws.

"In the east she was seated, that aged woman, in Jarnrid,
And there she nourished the posterity of Fenrir;
He will be the most formidable of all, he
Who, under the form of a monster, will swallow up the moon."

Voluspa (Pfeiffer's tr.).

At this terrible calamity the whole earth trembled and shook, the
stars, affrighted, fell from their places, and Loki, Fenris, and Garm,
renewing their efforts, rent their chains asunder and rushed forth to
take their revenge. At the same moment the dragon Nidhug gnawed through
the root of the ash Yggdrasil, which quivered to its topmost bough;
the red cock Fialar, perched above Valhalla, loudly crowed an alarm,
which was immediately echoed by Gullin-kambi, the rooster in Midgard,
and by Hel's dark-red bird in Nifl-heim.

"The gold-combed cock
The gods in Valhal loudly crowed to arms;
The blood-red cock as shrilly summons all
On earth and down beneath it."

Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).

Heimdall Gives the Alarm

Heimdall, noting these ominous portents and hearing the cock's
shrill cry, immediately put the Giallar-horn to his lips and blew the
long-expected blast, which was heard throughout the world. At the first
sound of this rally AEsir and Einheriar sprang from their golden couches
and sallied bravely out of the great hall, armed for the coming fray,
and, mounting their impatient steeds, they galloped over the quivering
rainbow bridge to the spacious field of Vigrid, where, as Vafthrudnir
had predicted long before, the last battle was to take place.

The Terrors of the Sea

The terrible Midgard snake Ioermungandr had been aroused by the general
disturbance, and with immense writhings and commotion, whereby the
seas were lashed into huge waves such as had never before disturbed
the deeps of ocean, he crawled out upon the land, and hastened to
join the dread fray, in which he was to play a prominent part.

"In giant wrath the Serpent tossed
In ocean depths, till, free from chain,
He rose upon the foaming main;
Beneath the lashings of his tail,
Seas, mountain high, swelled on the land;
Then, darting mad the waves acrost,
Pouring forth