r deity,' continued Har, 'reckoned in the number of
the AEsir, whom some call the calumniator of the gods, the contriver of
all fraud and mischief, and the disgrace of gods and men. His name is
Loki or Loptur. He is the son of the giant Farbauti.....Loki is
handsome and well made, but of a very fickle mood, and most evil
disposition. He surpasses all beings in those arts called Cunning and
Perfidy. Many a time has he exposed the gods to very great perils, and
often extricated them again by his artifices.....

"'Loki,' continued Har, 'has likewise had three children by Angurbodi,
a giantess of Joetunheim. The first is the wolf Fenrir; the second
Jormungand, the Midgard serpent; the third Hela (Death). The gods were
not long ignorant that these monsters continued to be bred up in
Joetunheim, and, having had recourse to divination, became aware of all
the evils they would have to suffer from them; their being sprung from
such a mother was a bad presage, and from such a sire, one still worse.
All-father therefore deemed it advisable to send one of the gods to
bring them to him. When they came he threw the serpent into that deep
ocean by which the earth is engirdled. But the monster has grown to
such an enormous size that, holding his tail in his mouth, he encircles
the whole earth. Hela he cast into Niflheim, and gave her power over
nine worlds (regions), into which she distributes those who are sent to
her, that is to say, all who die through sickness or old age. Here she
possesses a habitation protected by exceedingly high walls and strongly
barred gates. Her hall is called Elvidnir; Hunger is her table;
Starvation, her knife; Delay, her man; Slowness, her maid; Precipice,
her threshold; Care, her bed; and Burning Anguish forms the hangings of
her apartments. The one half of her body is livid, the other half the
color of human flesh. She may therefore easily be recognized; the more
so, as she has a dreadfully stern and grim countenance.

"'The wolf Fenrir was bred up among the gods; but Tyr alone had the
daring to go and feed him. Nevertheless, when the gods perceived that
he every day increased prodigiously in size, and that the oracles
warned them that he would one day become fatal to them, they determined
to make a very strong iron fetter for him, which they called Laeding.
Taking this fetter to the wolf, they bade him