olding his mighty strength in check. Hoary and gray, he sits
alone in Nature's temple, and communes with Nature's self, waiting for
the day when Nature's silent but resistless forces shall be quickened
into dread action. His head is crowned with sear and yellow leaves,
and long white moss hangs pendent from his brows and cheeks, and his
garments are rusted with age. On his feet are iron shoes, with soles
made thick with the scraps of leather gathered through centuries past;
and with these, it is said, he shall, in the last great twilight of the
mid-world, rend the jaws of the Fenris-wolf.[EN#29]

"Who is this Fenris-wolf?" asked one of the Nibelungens as they rode
through the solemn shadows of the wood.

And Siegfried thereupon related how that fierce creature had been
brought up and cared for by the Asa-folk; and how, when he grew large
and strong, they sought to keep him from doing harm by binding him with
an iron chain called Leding. But the strength of the monster was so
great, that he burst the chain asunder, and escaped. Then the Asas made
another chain twice as strong, which they called Drome. And they called
to the wolf, and besought him to allow them to bind him again, so that,
in bursting the second chain, he might clear up all doubts in regard to
his strength. Flattered by the words of the Asas, the wolf complied;
and they chained him with Drome, and fastened him to a great rock. But
Fenris stretched his legs, and shook himself, and the great chain was
snapped in pieces. Then the Asas knew that there was no safety for them
so long as a monster so huge and terrible was unbound; and they besought
the swarthy elves to forge them another and a stronger chain. This the
elves did. They made a most wondrous chain, smooth as silk, and soft as
down, yet firmer than granite, and stronger than steel. They called it
Gleipner; and it was made of the sinews of a bear, the footsteps of a
cat, the beard of a woman, the breath of a fish, the sweat of a bird,
and the roots of a mountain. When the Asas had obtained this chain, they
lured the Fenris-wolf to the rocky Island of Lyngve, and by flattery
persuaded him to be bound again. But this he would not agree to do until
Tyr placed his hand in his mouth as a pledge of good faith. Then they
tied him as before, and laughingly bade him break the silken cord. The
huge creature stretched himself as before, and tried with all his might
to burst away; but Gleipner held him fast, and t