and of men. Thus we get four stages in the development of the myth.
CHAPTER XV.
Ragnarok. The word is found written in two ways, Ragnarok and ragnarokr. Ragna is genitive phiral, from the word regin (god), and means of the gods. Rok means reason, ground, origin, a wonder, sign, marvel. It is allied to the O. H. G. rahha = sentence, judgment. Ragnarok would then mean the history of the gods^ and applied to the dissolution of the world, might be translated the last judgment^ doomsday^ weird of gods and the world, Rokr means twilight^ and Ragnarokr, as the Younger Edda has it, thus means the twilight of the gods^ and the latter is adopted by nearly all modern writers, although Gudbr. Yigfusson declares that Ragnarok (doomsday) is no doubt the correct form. And this is also to be said in favor of doomsday, that Ragnarok does not involve only the twilight^ but the whole night of the gods and the world.
THE NIFLUNGS AND GJUKUNGS.
This chapter of Skaldkajparmal contains much valuable material for a correct understanding of the Nibelungen-Lied, especially as to the origin of the Niblung hoard, and the true character of Brynhild. The material given here, and in the Icelandic Yolsunga Saga, has been used by Wm. Morris in his Sigurd the Yolsung and the Fall of the Mblungs. In the Mbelungen-Lied, as transposed by Auber Forestier, in Echoes from Mist-Land, we have a perfect gem of literature from the middle high German
