hed me," faintly answered
the giant.

"Shake thyself!" cried Mimer.

Amilias did so, and, lo! he fell in two halves; for the sword had cut
sheer through the vaunted war coat, and cleft in twain the great body
incased within. Down tumbled the giant's head and his still folded
arms; and they rolled with thundering noise to the foot of the hill,
and fell with a fearful splash into the deep waters of the river; and
there, fathoms down, they may even now be seen, when the water is
clear, lying like gray rocks among the sand and gravel below. The rest
of the body, with the armor which incased it, still sat upright in its
place; and to this day travellers sailing down the river are shown on
moonlit evenings the luckless armor of Amilias on the high hilltop. In
the dim, uncertain light, one easily fancies it to be the ivy-covered
ruins of some old castle of feudal times.

The master, Mimer, sheathed his sword, and walked slowly down the
hillside to the plain, where his friends welcomed him with cheers and
shouts of joy. But the Burgundians, baffled, and feeling vexed, turned
silently homeward, nor cast a single look back to the scene of their
disappointment and their ill-fated champion's defeat.

Siegfried went again with the master and his fellows to the smoky
smithy, to his roaring bellows and ringing anvil, and to his coarse
fare, and rude, hard bed, and to a life of labor. And while all men
praised Mimer and his knowing skill, and the fiery edge of the sunbeam
blade, no one knew that it was the boy Siegfried who had wrought that
piece of workmanship.

IDUN AND HER APPLES

THE STORY TOLD IN AEGIR'S HALL

Idun is Bragi's wife. Very handsome is she; but the beauty of her face
is by no means greater than the goodness of her heart. Right attentive
is she to every duty, and her words and thoughts are always worthy and
wise. A long time ago the good Asa-folk who dwell in heaven-towering
Asgard, knowing how trustworthy Idun was, gave into her keeping a
treasure which they would not have placed in the hands of any other
person. This treasure was a box of apples, and Idun kept the golden
key safely fastened to her girdle. You ask me why these folk should
prize a box of apples so highly? I will tell you.

Old age, you know, spares none, not even Odin and his Asa-folk. They
all grow old and gray; and, if there were no cure for age, they would
become feeble, and toothless and blind, deaf, tottering, and
weak