n universal world-embracing
wrestle and duel; World-serpent against Thor, strength against strength;
mutually extinctive; and ruin, "twilight" sinking into darkness,
swallows the created Universe. The old Universe with its Gods is sunk;
but it is not final death: there is to be a new Heaven and a new Earth;
a higher supreme God, and Justice to reign among men. Curious: this law
of mutation, which also is a law written in man's inmost thought, had
been deciphered by these old earnest Thinkers in their rude style; and
how, though all dies, and even gods die, yet all death is but a phoenix
fire-death, and new-birth into the Greater and the Better! It is the
fundamental Law of Being for a creature made of Time, living in this
Place of Hope. All earnest men have seen into it; may still see into it.

And now, connected with this, let us glance at the _last_ mythus of the
appearance of Thor; and end there. I fancy it to be the latest in
date of all these fables; a sorrowing protest against the advance of
Christianity,--set forth reproachfully by some Conservative Pagan.
King Olaf has been harshly blamed for his over-zeal in introducing
Christianity; surely I should have blamed him far more for an under-zeal
in that! He paid dear enough for it; he died by the revolt of his
Pagan people, in battle, in the year 1033, at Stickelstad, near that
Drontheim, where the chief Cathedral of the North has now stood for
many centuries, dedicated gratefully to his memory as _Saint_ Olaf. The
mythus about Thor is to this effect. King Olaf, the Christian Reform
King, is sailing with fit escort along the shore of Norway, from haven
to haven; dispensing justice, or doing other royal work: on leaving a
certain haven, it is found that a stranger, of grave eyes and aspect,
red beard, of stately robust figure, has stept in. The courtiers address
him; his answers surprise by their pertinency and depth: at length he
is brought to the King. The stranger's conversation here is not less
remarkable, as they sail along the beautiful shore; but after some time,
he addresses King Olaf thus: "Yes, King Olaf, it is all beautiful, with
the sun shining on it there; green, fruitful, a right fair home for you;
and many a sore day had Thor, many a wild fight with the rock Jotuns,
before he could make it so. And now you seem minded to put away Thor.
King Olaf, have a care!" said the stranger, drawing down his brows;--and
when they looked again, he was nowhere to be f