red their descriptions of the end of the world and
the regeneration of the earth. It was perhaps this vague knowledge,
also, which induced them to add to the Edda a verse, which is generally
supposed to have been an interpolation, proclaiming that another God,
too mighty to name, would arise to bear rule over Gimli. From his
heavenly seat he would judge mankind, and separate the bad from the
good. The former would be banished to the horrors of Nastrond, while
the good would be transported to the blissful halls of Gimli the fair.

"Then comes another,
Yet more mighty.
But Him I dare not
Venture to name.
Few farther may look
Than to where Odin
To meet the wolf goes."

Literature and Romance of Northern Europe (Howitt).

There were two other heavenly mansions, however, one reserved for
the dwarfs and the other for the giants; for as these creatures
had no free will, and but blindly executed the decrees of fate,
they were not thought to be responsible for any harm done by them,
and were therefore held to be undeserving of punishment.

The dwarfs, ruled by Sindri, were said to occupy a hall in the Nida
mountains, where they drank the sparkling mead, while the giants took
their pleasure in the hall Brimer, situated in the region Okolnur
(not cool), for the power of cold was entirely annihilated, and there
was no more ice.

Various mythologists have, of course, attempted to explain these myths,
and some, as we have already stated, see in the story of Ragnarok the
influence of Christian teachings, and esteem it only a barbaric version
of the end of the world and the coming judgment day, when a new heaven
and earth shall arise, and all the good shall enjoy eternal bliss.

CHAPTER XXIX: GREEK AND NORTHERN MYTHOLOGIES

Comparative Mythology

During the past fifty years learned men of many nations have
investigated philology and comparative mythology so thoroughly that
they have ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt "that English,
together with all the Teutonic dialects of the Continent, belongs to
that large family of speech which comprises, besides the Teutonic,
Latin, Greek, Slavonic, and Celtic, the Oriental languages of India
and Persia." "It has also been proved that the various tribes who
started from the central home to discover Europe in the north,
and India in the south, carried away with them, not only a common
language, but a common faith and a com