Asgard and the Gods
The Tales and Traditions of Our Northern Ancestors
PART THIRTEENTH
LOKI'S CONDEMNATION
The time of the flax harvest had come. The Ases were about to celebrate the festival in Ögir's crystal halls. They were still sorrowing for the loss of Baldur, and hoped to forget their grief for a time in the flowing bowls of mead offered them by the god of the ocean.
Odin was there with his golden helmet on his head, and Frigg, the Queen of Heaven, with her circlet of stars, Freya wearing the beautiful necklace Brisingamen, golden-haired Sif, Bragi, Niörder and Skadi, Freyer, Heimdal, Widar and other Ases. Strong Thor alone was absent; he had gone to help his peasants till the ground and slay any giants or other monsters who made themselves obnoxious.
Sly Loki glided into the hall with his soft, cat-like step, hoping to enjoy the golden mead that Ögir had provided for his guests. As he was advancing, however, he was stopped by Funafeng, who had been stationed at the door to guard the entrance.
"No seat is prepared for thee in Ögir's halls," he said, "go, seek a place for thyself in the house of Angurboda, Fenris's mother."
Loki was very angry when he heard these words, more especially as the Ases all joined in praising Funafeng for what he had said. He struck the man so that he fell down dead on the spot. A great uproar ensued, for murder had been committed in a sacred place. The Ases seized their weapons and would have rushed upon Loki, but he had hidden himself in a wood that was close to the palace.
Quiet was at last re-established. Beyggwir, and Beyla, the housekeeper, served the guests. This task was made much easier for them because the cans from which they poured the mead were so cunningly devised that they refilled themselves as fast as they were emptied.
Meanwhile Loki returned. He found Eldir guarding the door, and spoke to him as if nothing had happened. He asked what the gods of victory were talking about.
"Of arms and brave deeds," replied Eldir, "but they have not a single good word for thee."
"Very well then, I will go and join them," said the villain; "I will so cover them with shame and guilt that none of them will have a word to say in answer."
With these words he thrust Eldir aside and entered the ball. Suddenly all conversation ceased and was succeeded by a deathlike silence. Every eye was fixed on him who had sullied the sanctuary with murder. But Loki asked boldly if they were going to refuse him, an Ase and their equal, a seat at the banquet and a cup of mead. And Bragi answered that they would never again consent to receive such a villain as one of themselves.
Then Loki turned to Odin, and thus addressed him:
"Hast thou forgotten how we in the olden time mixed our blood, swore brotherhood, and promised never to drink a refreshing draught that was not offered to the other?"
He did not speak in vain; Allfather remembered how he had long ago entered into the bond of brotherhood with Loki. So although his former friend was perjured and forsworn, he desired Widar to make room for him and give him a bowl of mead. This was done, and Loki emptied the goblet, saying
"All hail, holy gods and noble goddesses, but confusion to Bragi, who denied me drink when I was thirsty."
The Prince of Song was silent for a few minutes, and then he said that he would give his sword, horse and ring to ensure that Loki did no more harm. And Loki answered that Bragi was not rich in treasures, and that his sword was of little use to him, and that he only required his horse to escape from danger. Bragi challenged the blasphemer to instant combat; but Loki went on quietly with his accusations, overwhelming all, gods and goddesses alike, with his aspersions. Even Odin and Frigg did not escape, and the latter exclaimed
"Oh that my son Baldur were here, he would soon have silenced thy slanderous tongue."
"All well, great goddess," Loki went on, with a malicious sneer, "shall I tell thee yet more of my misdeeds? Dost thou know that it was I who gave the mistletoe bough to blind Hödur, that he might send thy darling Baldur down to Hel's domain?"
The Queen of the Ases shrieked, and the gods caught up their weapons. But before they had time to do more, a terrible clap of thunder shook the house, and Thor stood before them swinging Miölnir. The blasphemer turned upon him and sneered at him for having hidden away in the thumb of Skrymir's glove. And when Hlorridi (heat bringer) threatened him with his hammer, he cried:
"I sang to the glory of the Ases in Ögir's halls, and that glory will soon pass away when once the flames of destruction are seen. They have drunk of cool mead here for the last time, for Ragnarök is coming. I shall now hide myself from the fury of strong Thor, who would willingly strike me down."
And immediately he took the form of a salmon and swam away into the rushing waters that surrounded the crystal palace of Ögir.
The Ases sought everywhere for Loki. They went through Asgard and Midgard, they searched in Jotunheim and in the Home of the Black-Elves, but he was nowhere to be found. They were miserable at the thought that the author of evil might escape their vengeance.
Odin seated himself on his throne Hlidskialf and looked down upon the nine worlds; he saw a lonely house situated on the other side of a high mountain, and in this house was he whom they sought. So Allfather descended from his throne, and calling the Ases about him, told them where they would find Loki.
The fugitive had made himself a peculiar dwelling in a cliff overhanging a wild mountain torrent. This dwelling consisted of one large room with four doors, all of which were kept open. There he sat day and night gazing out at the four quarters of the heavens to see whether his pursuers were on his track. He felt no remorse, no pricks of conscience - he had long conquered all such weaknesses - he only feared the vengeance that he had called down upon himself.
LOKI IN CHAINS
He often swam about in the stream in the form of a salmon, comforting himself with the thought that none could recognise him. And yet his fears gave him no rest; he trusted no one, not even his wife Sigyn, who loved him in spite of all his sins.
For whole days he sat in his airy dwelling, keeping a sharp lookout in every direction, while he busied himself in making all sorts of useful things, and amongst others, a fishing-net, which until then was absolutely unknown. He grew so interested in making this net that he quite forgot the danger that threatened him. Suddenly the flames of the fire on his hearth rose in a column, as though to call his attention to something that was going on. He looked up and saw the Ases marching towards him. He threw the net into the fire, and hastened to the water-fall, where he hid himself.
Cunning and treachery are often caught in their own net. The Ases did not find the slanderer in his airy dwelling. The fire had burnt out. But the place where it had been was still warm, and showed that some one had been there lately. One of the gods, who was learned in wisdom and in the runes, examined the ashes, and discovered what no human eye could have seen, the form and use of the net.
"Found!" he exclaimed; "the wily enchanter's thoughts have been full of the idea of fish and fishing. He has been making a net, then he burnt it, and is now hiding in the stream in the form of a fish."
Gefion looked at the net, and soon found out how it was made, and, with the help of the others, got a second net ready in a very short time. This they dipped into the water just under the fall. Thor held one side and the rest of the Ases held the other, so that the net stretched across the stream. After dragging the water for some distance, a gigantic salmon was discovered and caught with infinite difficulty. Thor held on by the fish's tail in spite of its struggles. A blow, a knock with a stone, would have killed it; but it suddenly changed its form, and the blasphemer, the instigator of murder, false Loki, was in the hands of Hlorridi.
The Ases rejoiced to have their enemy in their power. They bound the arch-fiend's legs and arms together and dragged him away to a cave in the mountain. There they prepared for him the bed of misery that had been foretold for him. Three sharp-pointed masses of rock were placed, one between his shoulders, the second under his loins, and the third under his knees. Then his two sons, Wali and Narwi, were brought to him, followed by their weeping mother, Sigyn. Wali was changed into a fierce wolf, and he immediately tore his brother in pieces. The Ases now bound the guilty father to the rock with the sinews of his murdered son, and when this was done the bonds were converted into heavy iron chains.
Skadi carried out the last part of the judgment that had been pronounced upon Loki by fastening a poisonous adder over the head of the evil-doer in such a way that the poison exuding from its jaws should drop upon his face, and this caused him unspeakable torment. After this was done, the Ases returned to Asgard, which was no longer the green home it used to be, for eternal spring reigned there no more, and the mark of change was upon everything.
One creature alone had compassion on the sinner, and that was Sigyn, the wife he had so often treated with cruelty and contempt. She would not desert him, but remained by his side, and, holding a dish above his head, caught the poison as it dropped from the adder. When the dish was full, and she had to remove it to empty it, the horrible slime fell upon Loki's face, and made him howl with agony, and turn and twist himself, till Mother Earth shook to her foundations. That is what ignorant men call an earthquake.
The crime was now punished, and the gods, who here showed themselves as moral powers, carried out the sentence pronounced upon the criminal. But they themselves were not unsullied by sin. Many of the accusations, with which the blasphemer had overwhelmed them, were well-founded, and every sin brings down its own punishment in heaven and on earth. And so the day of destruction drew near, when the tempter, who was at the same time the author of evil, should be freed from his bonds and the world should come to an end.
In this myth Loki appears as the cause of all evil. He is the tempter who makes the innocent fall into sin, although he knows that he thereby destroys them. If in primeval times he had been the sworn brother of Odin and the god of the domestic fire, he was now a consummate villain and threw the brand into the house in which he was to be burnt together with the guilty and the innocent. The principle of vengeance for bloodshed was deeply rooted in ancient Scandinavia. "He who has injured me must pay for it, even though I know that I shall perish with him," was the idea on which both noble and serf acted.
In this tale we have smoothed over a good many discrepancies that appear in the myth, but not all. We let Bragi and Iduna appear, although they dwelt in the depth of the earth. Perhaps they were allowed to rise once more that they might take part in the festival. But we have left out about Kwasir, who, according to the myth, discovered the net in the ashes, because his appearance was unnecessary. It is very curious that Loki, the fire-god, should have hidden in the water; but the belief that fire takes refuge in water is to be found amongst other nations, and is perhaps founded on the reflection of the sun, moon and stars, sunrise and sunset, that are to be seen in the water.