Northern mythology

78 NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY.
promptitude he tried the latter chance^ when Thor grasped
him, but he slipt in his hand, and it was by the tail
only that Thor could secure him. To this circumstance
it is owing that the salmon has so pointed a tail.
When the gods had thus captured Loki, they brought
him to a cave, raised up three fragments of rock, and
bored holes through them. They then took his sons,
Vali (Ali) and Narfi (Nari). Vali they transformed into
a wolf, and he tore his brother Narfi in pieces. With his
entrails they bound Loki over the three stones, one being
under his shoulders, another under his loins, the third
under his hams ; and the bands became iron. Skadi then
hung a venomous snake above his head, so that the poison
might drip on his face ;
but his wife Sigyn stands by him,
and holds a cup under the dripping venom. When the
cup is full, the poison falls on his face while she empties
it; and he shrinks from it, so that the whole earth trembles.
Thence come earthquakes. There will he lie bound
until Ragnarock^
Or Ragnarock, the Twilight of the Gods, or the
Destruction or the Gods and the World.—Loki lay
chained under the hot springes grove.
In the iron forest
east of Midgard the old giantess brought forth Fenrir^s
(the deep's) progeny; one of which, named Skoll, will
pursue the sun to the encircling ocean ; the other, Hati,
Hrodvitnir's son, called also ]Managarm, will run before
the sun, and will swallow up the moon. He will be sated
with the lives of the dying. On a height will sit the
giantess's watch, the dauntless Egdir (eagle), and strike
his harp ;
over him, in the Bird-wood, will crow the lightred
cock Fialar. Over the iEsir will crow the gold-combed
cock that wakens heroes in Odin's hall. But a soot-red
cock will crow beneath the earth in Hers abode.
Loudly
will howl the dog Garm in Gnipa's cave ; bonds will be
1
Gylf. 50. Lokaglepsa, conclusion. Yoluspa, Str. 39, 40.