Page:Northern Antiquities 1.djvu/190

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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

  1. 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.