replied that it should now
be discovered whether Baldur was so universally loved as was represented;
for that she would permit him to return to Asgard if all creatures and all
things, without exception, would weep for him. The gods then despatched
messengers through the world to beg all things to weep for Baldur, which
they immediately did. Then you might have seen, not only crocodiles but
the most ferocious beasts dissolved in tears. Fishes wept in the water,
and birds in the air. Stones and trees were covered with pellucid
dew-drops, and, for all we know, this general grief may have been the
occasion of some of the deluges reported by geology. The messengers
returned, thinking the work done, when they found an old hag sitting in a
cavern, and begged her to weep Baldur out of Hell. But she declared that
she could gain nothing by so doing, and that Baldur might stay where he
was, like other people as good as he; planting herself apparently on the
great but somewhat selfish principle of non-intervention. So Baldur
remains in the halls of Hela. But this old woman did not go unpunished.
She was shrewdly suspected to be Loki himself in disguise, and on inquiry
so it turned out. Whereupon a hot pursuit of Loki took place, who, after
changing himself into many forms, was caught, and chained under
sharp-pointed rocks below the earth.

The adventures of Thor are very numerous. The pleasantest, perhaps, is the
account of his journey to Jotunheim, to visit his enemies, the giants of
Cold and Darkness. On his way, being obliged to pass the night in the
forest, he came to a spacious hall, with an open door, reaching from one
side to the other. In this he went to sleep, but being aroused by an awful
earthquake, Thor and his companions crept into a chamber which opened out
of the hall. When day came they found, sleeping near them, an enormous
giant, so large, that, as it appeared, they had passed the night in the
thumb of his glove. They travelled with him all day; and the next night
Thor considered himself justified in killing this giant, who was one of
their enemies. Three times he launched his mallet with fearful force at
the giant's head, and three times the giant awoke to inquire whether it
was a leaf or an acorn which had fallen on his face. After taking leave of
their enormous and invulnerable companion, they arrived at the abodes of
Jotunheim, and the city of Utgard, and entered the city of the king,
Utgard Loki. This king in