of Balder; she answered in verses to this effect, "Thok will weep with dry eyes the funeral of Balder: "Let all things living or dead weep if they will: But "let Hela keep her prey." It was conjectured, that this cursed witch must have been LOKE himself, who never ceased to do evil to the other Gods. He was the cause that Balder was slain; he was also the cause that he could not be restored to life.

REMARK ON THE TWENTY-NINTH FABLE.

Balder, not having the good fortune to be slain in battle, was obliged to go, like all those that died of diseases, to the abode of DEATH. Saxo, Grammaticus relates the same adventure, with some different circumstances, (L. III. p. 43.) Which seems to prove that there had passed among the deified Asiatics, some event, out of which the poets had composed the Fable we have been reading. LOKE and HELA play their part here very well. It is a custom, not yet laid aside among the people of the Duchy of Sleswick, if we will believe Arnkiel, to per

1.

sonify DEATH, and to give her the name of Hell, or Hela. Thus, when they would say that a contagion rages in any place, they say, that Hela walks there, or Hela is come there; and that a man hath made up the matter with Hela, when he is relieved from a distemper which was judged to be mortal.

From the same word is derived the present name for the Infernal Region in all the languages of Germany and the north *. Vide Arnkiel in Cimbria, c. 9. § 2. p. 55. Keysl. Antiq. p. 180.

In all the other Teutonic dialects, as well as in our English, the name for it is HELL, or some word derived from the same root. And indeed Goranson has generally rendered the name Hela, throughout this EDDA, not, as our French author does, by the word Mort, or DEATH, but by Infernum, HELL.

T.

THE

THE THIRTIETH FABLE.

A

The Flight of Loke.

T length the Gods being exasperated against LOKE, he was obliged to fly and hide himself in the mountains: there he built him a house open on four sides, whence he could see every thing that passed throughout the world. Often in the day time, he concealed himself, in the shape of a salmon, within the waters of a river, where he employed himself in foreseeing and preventing whatever stratagems the Gods might employ to catch him there. One day, as he was in his house, he took thread, or twine, and made nets of it, like those which fishermen have since invented. In the mean time, Odin having discovered, from the height of his all-commanding throne, the place whither Loke had retired, repaired thither with the other Gods. But Loke being aware of their approach, threw his net with all speed into the fire, and ran to conceal himself in the river. As soon as the Gods got there, Kuaser, who was the most distinguished among them all for his quickness and penetration, traced out, in the hot embers, the vestiges and remains of the net which had been burnt, and by that means found out Loke's invention. Having made all the other Gods remark the same thing, they set themselves to weave a net after the model which they saw imprinted in the ashes. This net, when finished, they threw into the water of the river in which Loke had hid himself. Thor held one end of the net, and all VOL. II. the

P

the Gods together laid hold of the other, thus jointly drawing it along the stream. Nevertheless, Loke concealing himself between two stones, the net passed over him without taking him; and the Gods only perceived that some diving thing had touched the meshes. They cast it in a second time, after having tied so great a weight to it, that it every where raked the bottom of the stream. But Loke saved himself by suddenly mounting up to the top of the water, and then plunging in again, in a place where the river formed a cataract. The Gods betook themselves afresh towards that place, and divided into two bands; Thor walking in the water followed the net, which they dragged thus to the very margin of the sea. Then Loke perceived the danger that threatened him, whether he saved himself in the sea; or whether he got back over the net. However, he chose the latter, and leaped with all his might over the net: but Thor running after him, caught him in his hand; but for alt this, being extremely slippery, he had doubtless escaped, had not Thor held him fast by the tail; and this is the reason why Salmons have had their tails ever since so fine and thin.

THE

THE THIRTY FIRST FABLE.

L

The Punishment of Loke.

OKE being thus taken, they dragged him without mercy into a cavern. The Gods also seized his children, Vali and Nari: the first being changed by the Gods into a savage beast, tore his brother in pieces and devoured him. The Gods made of his intestines cords for Loke, tying him down to three sharp stones; one of which pressed his shoulder, the other his loins, and the third his hams. These cords were afterwards changed into chains of iron. Besides this, Skada suspended over his head a serpent, whose venom falls upon his face, drop by drop. At the same time, his wife, Siguna, sits by his side, and receives the drops as they fall, into a bason, which she empties as often as it is filled. But while this is doing, the venom falls upon Loke, which makes him howl with horror, and twist his body about with such violence, that all the earth is shaken with it; and this produces what men call Earthquakes. There will Loke remain in irons till the last day of the darkness of the Gods.

REMARKS

REMARKS ON THE THIRTY-FIRST FABLE.