The gods advance, led on by Odin,
who engages the wolf Fenris, but falls a victim to the monster,
who is, however, slain by Vidar, Odin's son. Thor gains great
renown by killing the Midgard serpent, but recoils and falls dead,
suffocated with the venom which the dying monster vomits over him.
Loki and Heimdall meet and fight till they are both slain. The
gods and their enemies having fallen in battle, Surtur, who has
killed Freyr, darts fire and flames over the world, and the whole
universe is burned up. The sun becomes dim, the earth sinks into
the ocean, the stars fall from heaven, and time is no more.
After this Alfadur (the Almighty) will cause a new heaven and a
new earth to arise out of the sea. The new earth filled with
abundant supplies will spontaneously produce its fruits without
labor or care. Wickedness and misery will no more be known, but
the gods and men will live happily together.
RUNIC LETTERS
One cannot travel far in Denmark, Norway, or Sweden without
meeting with great stones of different forms, engraven with
characters called Runic, which appear at first sight very
different from all we know. The letters consist almost invariably
of straight lines, in the shape of little sticks either singly or
put together. Such sticks were in early times used by the northern
nations for the purpose of ascertaining future events.
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