conviction that their mission had been quite
successful, they found an old hag named Thaukt sitting in a cavern,
and begged her to weep Baldur out of Hel.

"It was strongly suspected that this hag was no other than Loki
himself who never ceased to work evil among the AEsir."

THE FLIGHT AND PUNISHMENT OF LOKI.

61. "Evil are the deeds of Loki truly," said Gangler; "first of all
in his having caused Baldur to be slain, and then preventing him from
being delivered out of Hel. But was he not punished for these crimes?"

"Ay," replied Har, "and in such a manner that he will long repent
having committed them. When he perceived how exasperated the gods
were, he fled and hid himself in the mountains. There he built him a
dwelling with four doors, so that he could see everything that passed
around him. Often in the daytime he assumed the likeness of a salmon,
and concealed himself under the waters of a cascade called
Franangursfors, where he employed himself in divining and
circumventing whatever stratagems the AEsir might have recourse to in
order to catch him. One day, as he sat in his dwelling, he took flax
and yarn, and worked them into meshes in the manner that nets have
since been made by fishermen. Odin, however, had descried his retreat
out of Hlidskjalf, and Loki becoming aware that the gods were
approaching, threw his net into the fire, and ran to conceal himself
in the river. When the gods entered the house, Kvasir, who was the
most distinguished among them all for his quickness and penetration,
traced out in the hot embers the vestiges of the net which had been
burnt, and told Odin that it must be an invention to catch fish.
Whereupon they set to work and wove a net after the model they saw
imprinted in the ashes. This net, when finished, they threw into the
river in which Loki had hidden himself. Thor held one end of the net,
and all the other gods laid hold of the other end, thus jointly
drawing it along the stream. Notwithstanding all their precautions the
net passed over Loki, who had crept between two stones, and the gods
only perceived that some living thing had touched the meshes. They
therefore cast their net a second time, hanging so great a weight to
it that it everywhere raked the bed of the river. But Loki, perceiving
that he had but a short distance from the sea, swam onwards and leapt
over the net into the waterfall. The AEsir instantly followed him, and
divided themselves into two bands. Thor