these people of a future state, I shall again
have recourse to the Edda and the Voluspa,
as translated ip the Northern Antiquities.
“ There will corne a time,” it is declared,
“ a barbarous age, an age of the sword,
when iniquity shall infest the earth, when
brothers shall stain themselves with brothers’
blood, when sons shall be the murderers of
their fathers, and fathers of their sons, when
incest and adultery shall be common, when
no man shall spare his friend. Immediately
shall succeed a desolating winter, the snow
shall fall from the four corners of the world,
the winds shall blow with fury, the whole
earth shall be hard bound in ice. Three
such winters shall pass away, without being
softened by one summer.- Then shall succeed
astonishing prodigies: then shall the monsters
break their chains and escape: the great
dragon shall roll himself in the ocean, and
with his motions the earth shall be overflowed
: the earth shall be shaken, the trees
shall be torn up by their roots : the rocks
shall be dashed against each other. The
wolf Fenris, broke loose from his chains,
shall open his enormous mouth, which reaches
INTRODUCTION* liii
from heaven to earth ; the fire shall flash out
from his eyes and nostrils; he shall devour
the sun ; and the dragon, who follows him,
shall vomit forth, upon the waters and in the
air, great torrents of venom. In this confusion,
the, stars shall fly from their places,
the heavens shall be cleft asunder, and the
army of evil genii and giants, conducted
by Sortur (the black), and followed by
Loke, shall break in to attack the gods. But
Heimdal, the door-keeper of the gods, rises
up; he sounds his clanging trumpet; 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 resplendent cuirass: his vast
scymitar in his hands. He attacks the wolf
Fenris, by whom he' is devoured, and his
antagonist 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. The fire consumes every thing,
and the flame reaches up to heaven. But,
presently after, a new earth springs forth