character to be satisfied and pleased with the curse attached to the ring.[1]
SECTION II. LOKE'S CHILDREN. THE FENRIS-WOLF.
Loke's wife was Sigyn; their son was Nare or Narfe, and a brother of him was Ale (Ole) or Vale.
With the hag, Angerboda, Loke had three children. Angerbode was a giantess of Jotunheim, and her name means anguish-boding. The children's names are Fenrer or Fenris-wolf, the Midgard-serpent called Jormungander, and Hel. Tho gods were not long ignorant that these monsters continued to be bred up in Jotunheim, and, having had recourse to divination, became aware of all the evils they would have to suffer from them; that they were sprung from such a bad mother was a bad omen, and from such a father, one still worse. Allfather (Odin) therefore deemed it advisable to send the gods to bring them to him. When they came, he threw the serpent into that deep ocean by which the earth is encircled. But the monster has grown to such an enormous size, that holding his tail in his mouth he engirdles the whole earth. Hel he cast headlong into Niflheim, and gave her power over nine worlds (regions), into which she distributes those who are sent to her,—that is to say, all who die through sickness or old age. Here she possesses a habitation protested by exceedingly high walls and strongly-barred gates. Her hall is called Elvidner (place of storm); hunger is her table; starvation, her knife; delay, her man-servant; slowness, her maid-servant; precipice, her threshold; care, her bed; and burning anguish forms the hangings of her apartments. The
- ↑ To anyone who wishes to read this great epic of the North, we would recommend the Völsunga Saga translated by Eiríkr Magnússon and William Morris. London, 1872.
