lled to light
his candle-end at Olaf's command, dies as it sputters and burns out.

Hebe and the Valkyrs were the cupbearers of Olympus and Asgard. They
were all personifications of youth; and while Hebe married the great
hero and demigod Hercules when she ceased to fulfil her office, the
Valkyrs were relieved from their duties when united to heroes like
Helgi, Hakon, Voelund, or Sigurd.

The Cretan labyrinth has its counterpart in the Icelandic Voelundarhaus,
and Voelund and Daedalus both effect their escape from a maze by a
cleverly devised pair of wings, which enable them to fly in safety
over land and sea and escape from the tyranny of their respective
masters, Nidud and Minos. Voelund resembles Vulcan, also, in that
he is a clever smith and makes use of his talents to work out his
revenge. Vulcan, lamed by a fall from Olympus, and neglected by Juno,
whom he had tried to befriend, sends her a golden throne, which is
provided with cunning springs to seize and hold her fast. Voelund,
hamstrung by the suggestion of Nidud's queen, secretly murders her
sons, and out of their eyes fashions marvellous jewels, which she
unsuspectingly wears upon her breast until he reveals their origin.

Myths of the Sea

Just as the Greeks fancied that the tempests were the effect of
Neptune's wrath, so the Northern races attributed them either to the
writhings of Ioermungandr, the Midgard snake, or to the anger of AEgir,
who, crowned with seaweed like Neptune, often sent his children,
the wave maidens (the counterpart of the Nereides and Oceanides),
to play on the tossing billows. Neptune had his dwelling in the coral
caves near the Island of Euboea, while AEgir lived in a similar palace
near the Cattegat. Here he was surrounded by the nixies, undines,
and mermaids, the counterpart of the Greek water nymphs, and by the
river-gods of the Rhine, Elbe, and Neckar, who remind us of Alpheus
and Peneus, the river-gods of the Greeks.

The frequency of shipwrecks on the Northern coasts made the people
think of Ran (the equivalent of the Greek sea-goddess Amphitrite) as
greedy and avaricious, and they described her as armed with a strong
net, with which she drew all things down into the deep. The Greek
Sirens had their parallel in the Northern Lorelei, who possessed the
same gift of song, and also lured mariners to their death; while
Princess Ilse, who was turned into a fountain, reminds us of the
nymph Arethusa, who underwent a similar