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THEdET OF CREATION. 113
By the creation the Elements are separated
— ;
"fmir's body is parceled out—r-and organic life begins.
But the chaotic powers, though conquered, are not
destroyed,—a Jotun escapes, and from him come
forth new Jotun races. Disturbing and deadly in-
fluences are perceptible everywhere in Nature.
They are the manifestations of the hostile disposi-
tion of the Jotuns toward the ^sir, and of their
struggles to destroy the work of the latter. The
Jotuns have been forced to fly to the outermost
deserts around the surface of the earth—to "0tgar8,
the Oviter Wa/rd or inclosure—and here they have
their proper home—Jotunheim; but they manage
also to sneak in within the barrier which the -^sir
made as a defense for the earth, and they get into
Mi8gar5.* They dwell here in the rugged moun-
tains, in the ice-clad Jokulls, and in the barren des-
erts, everywhere where any unfrmtfulness prevails.
Their agency is perceptible in the devastating
storms, caused by the wing-strokes of the Jotun-
eagle in the Northjf it is felt in winter's cold, in
the Old-Germanic Languages (Deut. Myth. p. 22). It is probably
oogn. with vesa, an older form of vera, to be, and originally signi-
fied Being, aa a distinctive appellation of the Gods.
* MiSgarSr, the Middle-Ward; corresponds with G^oi/j. midjun-
gards; Old Germ, mittilgart; A.-S. middangeard, middeweard.
The Norse mi8r is oogn. with the Ooth. midums, midia ; Qerm,
mitte, mittel; A.-S. midd, midlen; Engl, middle, middling, mean;
.Sansk. madhyam, medhi; Zend meias; Pers. mijan; Ch. itlp's,
&e. Gar, gard, garBr, and cognate words in the Indo-European
languages, signified an inclosure, fence; hence the English words:
girth, to gird, garden, guard, ward, yard, court, &o.
f This Storm-eagle's name Hrsesvelgr, signifies: the Swallower
of the Dead ; from hrse ; A.-S. hrseow ; a corpse ; and svelgja
Dan. svselge ; A.-S. swelgan ; to swallow, gorge,