nishment
inflicted by the gods upon the culprits is not unlike, for while
Loki is bound with adamantine chains underground, and tortured by
the continuous dropping of venom from the fangs of a snake fastened
above his head, Prometheus is similarly fettered to Caucasus, and a
ravenous vulture continually preys upon his liver. Loki's punishment
has another counterpart in that of Tityus, bound in Hades, and in
that of Enceladus, chained beneath Mount AEtna, where his writhing
produced earthquakes, and his imprecations caused sudden eruptions
of the volcano. Loki, further, resembles Neptune in that he, too,
assumed an equine form and was the parent of a wonderful steed,
for Sleipnir rivals Arion both in speed and endurance.

The Fimbul-winter has been compared to the long preliminary fight under
the walls of Troy, and Ragnarok, the grand closing drama of Northern
mythology, to the burning of that famous city. "Thor is Hector;
the Fenris wolf, Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, who slew Priam (Odin);
and Vidar, who survives in Ragnarok, is AEneas." The destruction of
Priam's palace is the type of the ruin of the gods' golden halls;
and the devouring wolves Hati, Skoell, and Managarm, the fiends of
darkness, are prototypes of Paris and all the other demons of darkness,
who bear away or devour the sun-maiden Helen.

Ragnarok and the Deluge

According to another interpretation, however, Ragnarok and the
consequent submersion of the world is but a Northern version of the
Deluge. The survivors, Lif and Lifthrasir, like Deucalion and Pyrrha,
were destined to repeople the world; and just as the shrine of Delphi
alone resisted the destructive power of the great cataclysm, so Gimli
stood radiant to receive the surviving gods.

Giants and Titans

We have already seen how closely the Northern giants resembled the
Titans. It only remains to mention that while the Greeks imagined
that Atlas was changed into a mountain, so the Northmen believed that
the Riesengebirge, in Germany, were formed from giants, and that the
avalanches which descended from their lofty heights were the burdens
of snow which these giants impatiently shook from their crests as
they changed their cramped positions. The apparition, in the shape of
a bull, of one of the water giants, who came to woo the queen of the
Franks, has its parallel in the story of Jupiter's wooing of Europa,
and Meroveus is evidently the exact counterpart of Sarpedon. A faint
resemblance