in anger, and said:

"Well I know you Asas! For if you bind me so fast that I cannot get
loose you will skulk away, and it will be long before I get any help
from you; and therefore am I loth to let this band be laid upon me."

But still the Asas continued to persuade him and to twit him with
cowardice, until at length the Fenris Wolf said, with a sullen growl:

"Have it your own way then. But, as a pledge that this is done without
deceit, let one of you lay his hand in my mouth while you are binding
me, and afterwards while I try to break the bonds."

Then the Asa folk looked at one another in dismay, for they knew very
well what this would mean.

And while they consulted together the wolf stood gnashing his teeth at
them with a horrid grin.

At length Tyr the Brave hesitated no longer. Boldly he stalked up to
the wolf and thrust his arm into his enormous mouth, bidding the Asas
bind fast the beast. Scarce had they done so when the wolf began to
strain and pull, but the more he did so the tighter and suffer the
rope became.

The gods shouted and laughed with glee when they saw how all his
efforts were in vain. But Tyr did not join in their mirth, for the
wolf in his rage snapped his great teeth together and bit off his hand
at the wrist.

Now when the Asas discovered that the animal was fast bound, they took
the chain which was fixed to the rope and drew it through a huge
rock, and fastened this rock deep down in the earth, so that it could
never be moved. And this they fastened to another great rock which was
driven still deeper into the ground.

When the Fenris Wolf found that he had been thus secured he opened his
mouth terribly wide, and twisted himself right and left, and tried his
best to bite the Asa folk. He uttered, moreover, such terrible howls
that at length the gods could bear it no longer. So they took a sword
and thrust it into his mouth, so that the hilt rested on his lower,
and the point against his upper jaw. And there he was doomed to remain
until the end of All Things shall come, when he

"Freed from the Chain
Shall range the Earth."

CHAPTER IX

How the Pride of Thor was Brought low

_This is the tale the Northmen tell of how the
Pride of Thor was once brought low._

From the sunny heights of Asgard the Asa folk were wont to look upon
the earth and to take pleasure in its welfare and in the happiness of
its people. But all too often they saw with dismay that the F