(115)
the Gods awake and assemble; the great Ash-tree shakes its branches; heaven and earth are full of horror and affright. The Gods fly to arms; the heroes place themselves in battle-array. Odin appears armed in his golden casque and his resplendant cuirass; his vaft fcimetar is in his hands. He attacks the Wolf Fenris; he is devoured by him, and Fenris perishes at the same instant. Thor is suffocated in the floods of venom which the Dragon breathes forth as he expires. Loke and Heimdal mutually kill each other[1]. The fire consumes every
- ↑ It is very difficult to
comprehend why the
Scandinavians make their
Gods to die thus,
without ever returning again
to life: For after the
defeat of the three principal
divinities, we see an
all-powerful Deity appear
upon the stage, who seems
to have nothing in
common with Odin. The
Stoics had probably the
same ideas: there is at
least a very remarkable
passage of Seneca the
tragedian on this subject. It
is where he describes that
conflagration which is to
put an end to this world.
Jam jam legibus obrutis
Mundo cum veniet dies
Australis polus obruet
Quicquid per Lybiam jacet, &c.
Arctous polus obruet
Quicquid subjacet axibus.
Amissum trepidus polo
Titan excutiet diem.
