nt etc. The story is found in the Vilkina Saga, and was one
of the most popular of middle age myths. (See Grimm's Mythology.) Sir
Walter Scott, in his novel of Kenilworth, has made use of this legend in
introducing the episode of Wayland Smith.

[EN#29]--Vidar[FN#1] the Silent.

"Vidar is the name of the silent Asa. He has a very thick shoe, and he
is the strongest next to Thor. From him the gods have much help in all
hard tasks."--The Younger Edda (Anderson's translation).

[FN#1] The word Vidar means forest.

[EN#30]--Loki.

"Loki, in nature, is the corrupting element in air, fire, and water. In
the bowels of the earth he is the volcanic flame, in the sea he appears
as a fierce serpent, and in the lower world we recognize him as pale
death. Like Odin, he pervades all nature. He symbolizes sin, shrewdness,
deceitfulness, treachery, malice etc."--Anderson's Mythology, p. 372.

He corresponds to the Ahriman of the Persians, to the Satan of the
Christians, and remotely to the Prometheus of the Greeks.

[EN#31]--The Quarrel of the Queens.

In the ancient versions, the culmination of this quarrel occurred while
the queens were bathing in the river: in the Nibelungen Lied it happened
on the steps leading up to the door of the church.

[EN#32]--Hagen.

Hagen corresponds to the Hoder of the more ancient myth of Balder. In
the Sigurd Sagas he is called Hogni, and is a brother instead of an
uncle, of Gunther (Gunnar).

[EN#33]--The Death of Siegfried.

This story is related here essentially as found in the Nibelungen
Lied. It is quite differently told in the older versions. Siegfried's
invulnerability save in one spot reminds us of Achilles, who also was
made invulnerable by a bath, and who could be wounded only in the heel.

[EN#34]--The Burial of Siegfried.

The story of the burning of Siegfried's body upon a funeral-pile, as
related of Sigurd in the older myths, reminds us of the burning of
Balder upon the ship "Ringhorn." (See p. 162.) The Nibelungen Lied
represents him as being buried in accordance with the rites of the
Roman-Catholic Church. This version of the story must, of course, have
been made after the conversion of the Germans to Christianity. "When
the Emperor Frederick III. (1440-93) visited Worms after his Netherlands
campaign," says Forestier, "he undertook to have the mighty hero's bones
disinterred, probably in view of proving the truth of the marvellous
story then sung