to the Hero's breast."

CHAPTER XXV

How the End of All Things Came About

_This is the tale the Northmen tell of how
the End of All Things Came About._

When the Asa folk had banished wicked Loki to earth, and bound him
fast in his gloomy cavern, they thought they had heard and seen the
last of his evil ways.

But this was not to be the case. Finding he could not free himself,
but must endure his bonds till the end of All Things, Loki tried to
divert himself by enticing the earth people to him and teaching them
to do every manner of evil. And so fast did knowledge of this evil
spread, that the whole world soon became full of wickedness. Brothers
fought and killed each other, men were for ever at war with other men,
no one had time or room in his heart for pity or for kindliness.

Sol and Mani, who were wont to drive radiant through the sky in their
golden chariots, grew pale with dismay, for they knew that these
things portended their end, when those hungry wolves, who were ever
pursuing them, would overtake and devour them utterly.

And they ceased to smile upon the land, wherefore the earth grew cold
and dark, and a long, long winter began. From North, South, East, and
West great snowstorms blew over the world, the Frost Giants waved
their great wings and breathed an icy blast, and a thick layer of ice
spread over the whole surface of the earth.

For six seasons this terrible winter held the world in its grip, and
during all that time the earth people grew more wicked, until all
traces of goodness disappeared. Meantime, deep down in the dark shades
of the Ironwood, an evil Frost Giantess fed the pursuing wolves, so
that they gained strength each day, and at length they were able to
overtake Sol and Mani in their head-long course, and to devour them.

Now when that dreadful thing had happened, the whole earth shook to
its foundations, and Loki, the Fenris Wolf, and the Sea-serpent,
making one last tremendous effort, broke their bonds and rushed to
wreak revenge upon their captors.

At that moment the dragon that lies at the root of the Tree of Life
gnawed it through, so that it quivered and shook to its very top. The
red cock who stood perched above the halls of Valhalla gave a shrill
crow of alarm, and this was taken up by the white cock who roosts upon
the tallest tree on the earth, and echoed by Hela's blood-red bird in
the depths of the Mist Home.

Heimdall knew the meaning of these sounds, a