, would have overwhelmed all with the
venom he was ready to pour forth. But Thor sprang forward and crushed
him with a stroke of his hammer Mioelnir. Then Thor stepped back nine
paces. But the serpent blew his venom over him, and blinded and choked
and burnt, Thor, the World's Defender, perished.

Loki sprang from his ship and strove with Heimdall, the Warder of the
Rainbow Bridge and the Watcher for the Gods. Loki slew Heimdall and was
slain by him.

Bravely fought Tyr, the God who had sacrificed his swordhand for the
binding of the Wolf. Bravely he fought, and many of the powers of evil
perished by his strong left hand. But Garm, the hound with bloody jaws,
slew Tyr.

And now the riders of Muspelheim came down on the field. Bright and
gleaming were all their weapons. Before them and behind them went
wasting fires. Surtur cast fire upon the earth; the tree Ygdrassil took
fire and burned in all its great branches; the World Tree was wasted in
the blaze. But the fearful fire that Surtur brought on the earth
destroyed him and all his host.

The Wolf Hati caught up on Sol, the Sun; the Wolf Managarm seized on
Mani, the Moon; they devoured them; stars fell, and darkness came down
on the world.

The seas flowed over the burnt and wasted earth and the skies were dark
above the sea, for Sol and Mani were no more. But at last the seas drew
back and earth appeared again, green and beautiful. A new Sun and a new
Moon appeared in the heavens, one a daughter of Sol and the other a
daughter of Mani. No grim wolves kept them in pursuit.

Four of the younger Gods stood on the highest of the world's peaks; they
were Vidar and Vali, the sons of Odin, and Modi and Magni, the sons of
Thor. Modi and Magni found Mioelnir, Thor's hammer, and with it they slew
the monsters that still raged through the world, the Hound Garm and the
Wolf Managarm.

Vidar and Vali found in the grass the golden tablets on which were
inscribed the runes of wisdom of the elder Gods. The runes told them of
a heaven that was above Asgard, of Gimli, that was untouched by Surtur's
fire. Vili and Ve, Will and Holiness, ruled in it. Baldur and Hoedur came
from Hela's habitation, and the Gods sat on the peak together and held
speech with each other, calling to mind the secrets and the happenings
they had known before Ragnaroek, the Twilight of the Gods.

Deep in a wood two of human kind were left; the fire of Surtur did not
touch them; they slept, and when they