ormer sway. But as in a play, after the principals are slain and
the curtain has fallen, the audience still looks for the favourites
to appear and make their bow, so the ancient Northern races fancied
that, all evil having perished in Surtr's flames, from the general
ruin goodness would rise, to resume its sway over the earth, and that
some of the gods would return to dwell in heaven for ever.

"All evil
Dies there an endless death, while goodness riseth
From that great world-fire, purified at last,
To a life far higher, better, nobler than the past.

Viking Tales of the North (R. B. Anderson).

Regeneration

Our ancestors believed fully in regeneration, and held that after a
certain space of time the earth, purged by fire and purified by its
immersion in the sea, rose again in all its pristine beauty and was
illumined by the sun, whose chariot was driven by a daughter of Sol,
born before the wolf had devoured her mother. The new orb of day
was not imperfect, as the first sun had been, and its rays were no
longer so ardent that a shield had to be placed between it and the
earth. These more beneficent rays soon caused the earth to renew its
green mantle, and to bring forth flowers and fruit in abundance. Two
human beings, a woman, Lif, and a man, Lifthrasir, now emerged from the
depths of Hodmimir's (Mimir's) forest, whence they had fled for refuge
when Surtr set fire to the world. They had sunk into peaceful slumber
there, unconscious of the destruction around them, and had remained,
nurtured by the morning dew, until it was safe for them to wander
out once more, when they took possession of the regenerated earth,
which their descendants were to people and over which they were to
have full sway.

"We shall see emerge
From the bright Ocean at our feet an earth
More fresh, more verdant than the last, with fruits
Self-springing, and a seed of man preserved,
Who then shall live in peace, as then in war."

Balder Dead (Matthew Arnold).

A New Heaven

All the gods who represented the developing forces of Nature were
slain on the fatal field of Vigrid, but Vali and Vidar, the types of
the imperishable forces of Nature, returned to the field of Ida, where
they were met by Modi and Magni, Thor's sons, the personifications
of strength and energy, who rescued their father's sacred hammer from
the general destruction,