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MUSPILLI. EAGNA-EOK. 813
between God and Antichrist, we are told, Thunder was threshing
with his fiery axe,
se Thunor hit ^rysceft mid )?8ere fyrenan cecxe,
by which is unmistakably meant Thor s Miolnir, the torrida
chalybs (p. 180), and the confluence of heathen beliefs, with
those about Antichrist is placed beyond the reach of doubt. The
devil too is called malleus, hammer, chap. XXXIII.
Whoever is inclined to refer the characteristics of our antiquity
as a whole to Roman and Christian tradition, could easily take
of the world s
advantage of this harmony between the two pictures
destruction, to maintain that the Eddie doctrine itself sprang out
of those traditions of Antichrist. This I should consider a gross
perversion.
The Norse narrative is simple, and of one piece with
all the rest of the Edda ; the myth of Antichrist is a jumble, nay
artificially pieced together. The two leading personages, Surtr
and Antichrist, have totally different characters. How should
the Scandinavians have foisted-in a number of significant acces
sories, notably this of muspell, and again a H. German poet
unconnected in time and place have tacked on the very same ?
What the Edda tells of Surtr and his combat with the Ases is
the winding-up of a fuller representation of the end of the world, 1
whose advent is named aldar rok (Seem. 36 a
), aldar lag, aldar rof
(37 b . 167 a 2 a b b b
), but more commonly ragna rok . (7 38 . 96 . 166 )
ragna rokr (65 a . Sn. 30. 36. 70. 88. 165), i.e. twilight, darkening,
of time and the sovran gods (supra p. 26). Rolf, and rokr both
mean darkness, rok rokra in Saem. 113 a is an intensified expres
sion for utter darkness ; Biorn renders rocJeur (neut.) crepus-
culum, rockva vesperascere.
riqizeins o-tcorewos, riqizjan (TKori^eo-Oai,, only
or
It is akin to the Goth, riqis O-/COTO?,
that is increased
by a suffix -is, and has its radical vowel alien from the Norse o,
which must be a modified a, so that rok stands for raku. This
is confirmed by the Jutish rag nebula, still more by the AS.
racu : ]?onne sweart racu stigan onginne^/ Caedm. 81, 34 must
be rendered cum atra caligo surgere incipit. Rokstolar (Saam.
l b
, conf. supra p. 136) are the chairs of mist whereon the gods sit
up in the clouds. To this rok, racu I refer the expression quoted
1 It is worth noting, that it is proclaimed by prophetesses, Vala, Hyndla ; and
later, Thiota (p. 96) announced consummationis seculi diem.
2 Rof ruptura ; as they said regin riufaz, dii rumpuntur, the world is going
to pieces.