DIVINE EPOS: VIKINGS [Hardcover + PDF]

E. M. Wilmot-Buxton

Told by the Northmen

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 til 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 his 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.