Norse Mythology Tales: Loki | For Sleep

Stories about the legendary trickster giant known as Loki. The tales capture the essence of the life and demise of Loki, as well stories about his family of giants over the calming sound of nature, meant for relaxation and/or sleep.

Transcript

Tales of Norse Mythology Loki the Trickster Besides the hideous Utgard-Loki,

The personification of mischief and evil,

Whom Thor and his companions visited in Jotunheim,

The ancient northern nations had another type of sin,

Whom they called Loki also,

And whom we have already seen of the many different aspects.

In the beginning,

Loki was merely the personification of the hearthfire and of the spirit of life.

At first a god,

He gradually becomes god and devil combined,

And ends in being held in general detestation as an exact counterpart of the medieval Lucifer,

The Prince of Lies,

The originator of deceit,

And the backbiter of the Æsir.

By some authorities,

Loki was said to be the brother of Odin,

But others assert that the two were not related,

But had merely gone through the form of swearing blood brotherhood common in the north.

Odin,

Thus thou remember,

When we in early days blended our blood together,

When to taste beer thou didst constantly refuse,

Unless to both was offered.

While Thor is the embodiment of northern activity,

Loki represents recreation,

And the close companionship early established between these two gods shows very plainly how soon our ancestors realized that both were necessary to the welfare of mankind.

Thor is ever busy,

And ever in earnest,

But Loki makes fun of everything,

Until at last his love of mischief lets him entirely astray,

And he loses all love for goodness and becomes utterly selfish and malevolent.

He represents evil in the seductive and seemingly beautiful form in which it parades through the world.

Because of this deceptive appearance,

The gods did not at first avoid him,

But treated him as one of themselves in all good fellowship,

Taking him with them wherever they went,

And admitting him not only to their merry-makings,

But also to their council hall,

Where,

Unfortunately,

They too often listened to his advice.

As we have already seen,

Loki played a prominent part in the creation of man,

Endowing him with the power of motion,

And causing the blood to circulate freely through his veins,

Whereby he was inspired with passions.

As personification of fire,

As well as mischief,

Loki,

Symbolizing lightning,

Is often seen with Thor,

Symbolizing thunder,

Whom he accompanies to Jotunheim to recover his hammer,

To Uthgard-Loki's castle,

And to Gaither-Ritt's house.

It is he who steals Freya's necklace and Sif's hair,

And betrays Aethern into the power of Thjartse,

And although he sometimes gives the gods good advice,

And affords them real help,

It is only to extricate them from some predicament into which he has rashly unveiled them.

Some authorities declare that instead of making part of the creative trilogy Odin,

Hrnir,

And Lodur or Loki,

This god originally belonged to a pre-Odinic race of deities,

And was the son of the great giant Ymir,

His brothers being Kari,

Symbolizing air,

And Hler,

Symbolizing water,

And his sister Ran,

The terrible goddess of the sea.

Other mythologies,

However,

Make him the son of the giant Farbaute,

Who has been identified with Bergelmir,

The sole survivor of the Deluge,

And of Laufeyja,

Or Nal,

His mother,

Thus stating that his connection with Odin was only that of the Northern Oath of Goodfellowship.

Loki,

Symbolizing fire,

First married Glut,

Symbolizing glow,

Who bore him two daughters,

Aesar,

Symbolizing embers,

And Aenmedia,

Symbolizing ashes.

It is therefore very evident that Norsemen consider him emblematic of the hearthfire,

And when the flaming wood crackles on the hearth of the goodwives in the north,

Are still wont to say that Loki is beating his children.

Besides this wife,

Loki is also said to have wedded the giantess Angrboda,

The anguished Bodin,

Who dwelt in Jotunheim,

And who,

As we have already seen,

Bore him three monsters,

Hel,

Goddess of death,

And the Midgar snake,

Jormungandr,

And the grim wolf Fenrir.

Loki begat the wolf with Angrboda.

Loki's third marriage was with Sigyn,

Who proved the most loving and devoted wife,

And bore him two sons,

Narve and Vali,

The latter a namesake of the god who avenged Baldr.

Sigyn was always faithful to her husband,

Did not forsake him even after he had definitely been cast out of Asgard and confined in the bowels of the earth.

As Loki was the embodiment of evil in the minds of the northern races,

They entertained nothing but fear of him,

Built no temples to his honor,

Offered no sacrifices to him,

And designated the most noxious weeds by his name.

The quivering,

Overheated atmosphere of summer was supposed to betoken his presence,

For the people were then warned to remark that Loki was sowing his wild oats,

And when the sun appeared to be drawing water,

They said Loki was drinking.

The story of Loki is so inextricably woven with that of the other gods that most of his myths relating to him have already been told and there remain but two episodes of his life to relate.

One showing his better side before he had degenerated into the archdeceiver,

And the other illustrating how he finally induced the gods to defile their peasteads by willful murder.

A giant and a peasant were playing a game together one day,

Probably a game of chess,

Which was a favorite winter pastime with the northern Vikings.

They of course had determined to play for certain stakes,

And the giant being victorious won the peasant's only son,

Whom he said he would come and claim on the morrow unless the parents could hide him so cleverly that he could not be found.

Knowing that such a feat would be impossible for them to perform,

The parents fervently prayed to Odin to help them,

And in answer to their treaties the god came down to earth and changed the boy into a tiny grain of wheat,

Which he hid in an ear of grain in the midst of a large field,

Declaring that the giant would not be able to find him.

The giant's crimsler,

However,

Possessed wisdom far beyond what Odin imagined,

And failing to find the child at home,

He strode off immediately to the field with his sight,

Mowing the wheat he selected,

The particular ear where the boy was hidden.

Counting over the grains of wheat,

He was about to lay his hand upon the right one when Odin when Odin,

Hearing the child's cry of distress,

Snatched the kernel out of the giant's hand and restored the boy to his parents,

Telling them that he had done all in his power to help them.

But as the giant vowed he had been cheated and would again claim the boy on the morrow unless the parents could outwit him,

The unfortunate peasants now turned to Hoenir for aid.

The guard heard them graciously and changed the boy into a fluff of down,

Which he hid in the breast of a swan swimming in the pond close by.

Now,

When a few moments later,

His crimsler came up,

He guessed what had occurred,

And seizing the swan,

He bit off its neck,

And would have swallowed the down had not Hoenir wafted it away from his lips and out of reach,

Restoring the boy safe and sound to his parents,

But telling them that he could not further aid them.

His crimsler warned the parents that he would make a third attempt to secure the child,

Whereupon they applied in their despair to Loki,

Who carried the boy out to sea and concealed him as a tiny egg in the row of a flounder.

Returning from his expedition,

Loki encountered the giant near the shore,

And seeing that he was bent upon a fishing excursion,

He insisted upon accompanying him.

He felt somewhat uneasy,

Lest the terrible giant should have seen through his device,

And therefore thought it would be well for him to be on the spot in case of need.

Scrimsler baited his hook,

And was more or less successful in his angling,

When he suddenly drew up the identical flounder in which Loki had concealed his little charge.

Opening the fish upon his knee,

The giant proceeded to minutely examine the row until he found the egg which he was seeking.

The plight of the boy was certainly perilous,

But Loki,

Watching his chance,

Snatched the egg out of the giant's grasp,

Transforming it again into the child he instructed him secretly to run home,

Passing through the boathouse on his way,

And closing the door behind him.

The terrified boy did as he was told,

Immediately he found himself on land,

He found himself on land,

And the giant,

Quick to observe his flight,

Dashed after him into the boathouse.

Now Loki had cunningly placed a sharp spike in such a position that the great head of the giant ran full tilt against it,

And he sank to the ground with a groan,

Whereupon Loki,

Seeing him helpless,

Cut off one of his legs.

Imagine the god's dismay,

However,

When he saw the pieces join and immediately knit together.

But Loki was a master of guile,

And recognizing this as the work of magic,

He cut off the other leg,

Promptly throwing flint and steel between the severed limb and trunk,

And thereby hindering any further sorcery.

The peasants were immensely relieved to find that their enemy was slain,

And ever after they considered Loki the mightiest of all the heavenly council,

For he had delivered them effectually from their foe,

While the other gods had lent only temporary aid.

Notwithstanding their wonderful bridge by Fröst,

The tremulous way and the watchfulness of Heimdall,

The gods could not feel entirely secure in Asgard,

And were often fearful lest the frost giants should make their way into Asgard.

To obviate this possibility,

They finally decided to build an impregnable fortress,

And while they were planning how this could be done,

An unknown architect came with an offer to undertake the construction,

Provided the gods would give him sun,

Moon,

And Freyja,

Goddess of youth and beauty,

As reward.

The gods were wroth at so presumptuous an offer,

But when they would have indignantly driven the stranger from the presence,

Loki urged them to make a bargain,

Which it would be impossible for the stranger to keep.

And so they finally told the architect that the garden should be his,

Provided the fortress were finished in the course of a single winter,

And that he accomplished the work with no other assistance than that of his horse Svarilfar.

To Asgard came an architect,

And castle offered to erect,

A castle high which should defy the pjotengail and giant wraith,

And this most wildly compact maid,

Fair Freyja with the moon and sun,

Espriced the fortress being done.

The unknown architect agreed to these seemingly impossible conditions,

And immediately set to work,

Hauling ponderous blocks of stone by night,

Building during the day,

And progressing so rapidly that the gods began to feel somewhat anxious.

Ere long they noticed that more than half the labor was accomplished by the wonderful steed Svarilfar,

And when they saw,

Near the end of winter,

That the work was finished save only one portal,

Which they knew the architect could easily erect during the night.

Horror and fear the gods beset,

Finished almost the castle stood,

In three days more the work be over,

Then must they make their contract good,

And pay the awful debt.

Terrified lest they should be called upon to part not only with the sun and moon,

But also with Freyja,

The personification of the youth and beauty of the world,

The gods turned upon Loki,

And threatened to kill him,

Unless he devised some means of hindering the architect from finishing the work within their specified time.

Loki's cunning proved once more equal to the situation.

He waited until nightfall of the final day,

When as Svarilfar passed the fringe of a forest,

Painfully dragging one of the great blocks of stone required for termination of the work.

He rushed out from a dark glade in the guise of a mare,

And neighed so invitingly that,

In a trice,

The horse kicked himself free of his harness and ran after the mare.

Closely pursued by his angry master,

The mare galloped swiftly on,

Artfully luring horse and master deeper and deeper in the forest shades,

Until the night was nearly gone,

And it was no longer possible to finish the work.

The architect was none other than a redoubtable Hrimthyrs in disguise,

And now he returned to Asgard in a towering rage at the fraud which had been practiced upon him.

Assuming his wanted proportions,

He would have annihilated the gods,

Had not Thor suddenly returned from a journey,

And slain him with his magic hammer Mjölnir,

Which he held with terrific force,

Full in his face.

The gods had saved themselves on this occasion only by fraud and by the violent deed of Thor,

And these were destined to bring great sorrow upon them and eventually secure their downfall.

And to Hasten the coming of Ragnarök.

Loki,

However,

Felt no remorse for his part,

And in due time,

It is said he became the parent of an eight-footed steed called Sleipnir,

Which was,

As we have seen,

Was Odin's favorite mount.

Loki's last crime,

And the one which filled his measure with iniquity,

Was to induce Hóðr to throw the fatal mistletoe at Baldr,

Whom he hated merely on account of his immaculate purity.

Perhaps even this crime might have been condoned had it not been for his obtrusy when in disguise of the old woman Thokk,

He was called upon to shed a tear for Baldr.

His action on the occasion convinced the gods that nothing but evil remained within him,

And they pronounced unanimously upon the sentence of perpetual banishment from Asgard.

To divert the gods' sadness and make them for a short time forget the treachery of Loki and the loss of Baldr,

Aegir,

God of the sea,

Invited them to partake of a banquet in his coral caves at the bottom of the sea.

Now to assuage the high gods' grief and bring the mourning some relief from coral caves neath ocean waves,

Mighty king Aegir invited the asset to a festival in Hlessi's hall that though for Baldr's every guest was grieving it,

He might forget a while his woe in friendly feast.

The gods gladly accepted the invitation and clad in the richest garb and with festive smiles,

They appeared in the coral caves at the appointed time.

None were absent save the radiant Baldr,

For whom many a regretful sigh was heaved,

And the evil Loki whom none could forget.

In the course of the feast,

However,

This last named god appeared in their midst like a dark shadow,

And when bidden to depart,

He gave vent to his evil passions in a torrent of invective against the gods.

Of the Æsir and the Ælfar that are here within,

Not one has a friendly word for thee.

Then,

Jealous of the praises which Funfeng,

Aegir's servant,

Had won for the dexterity with which he waited upon his master's guests,

Loki suddenly turned upon him and slew him.

At this wanton crime,

The gods in fierce wrath drove Loki away once more,

Threatening him with Scarcely had the Æsir recovered from this disagreeable interruption to their feast,

And resumed their places at the board when Loki came creeping in once more,

Resuming his slanders with venomous tongue and taunting the gods with their weaknesses or shortcomings.

In vain the gods tried to stem his abuse,

His voice rose louder and louder,

And he was just giving utterance to some baselander about Sif when he was suddenly cut off.

The gods were not pleased with Loki's actions,

And the Æsir and the Ælfar were not at peace.

The gods were not pleased with Loki's actions,

And the Æsir and the Ælfar were not at peace.

Utterance to some baselander about Sif when he was suddenly cut short by the sight of Thor's hammer,

Angrily brandishing by an arm whose power he knew full well and fled incontinently.

Silence thou,

Impure being!

My mighty hammer Mjölnir shall stop thy prating.

I will thy head from thy neck strike,

Then will thy life be ended.

Knowing that he could now have no hope of being admitted into Asgard again,

And that sooner or later the gods,

Seeing the effect of his evil deeds,

Would regret having permitted him to roam the world,

And would try either to bind him or slay him.

Loki withdrew to the mountains where he built himself a hut with four doors which he always left wide open to permit of a hasty escape.

Carefully laying his plans,

He decided that if the gods should come in search of him,

He would rush down to the neighboring cataract,

According to tradition of Franangr,

Force or stream,

And,

Changing himself into a salmon,

Would thus evade his pursuers.

He reasoned,

However,

That although he could easily avoid any hook,

It might be difficult for him to effect his escape if the gods should fashion a net like that of the sea goddess Rann.

Haunted by this fear,

He decided to test the possibility of making such a mesh,

And started to make one out of twine.

He was still engaged upon the task when Odin,

Kvasir,

And Thor suddenly appeared in the distance,

And knowing that they had discovered his retreat,

Loki threw his half-finished net into the fire.

And rushing through one of his ever-open doors,

He leaped into the waterfall where,

In the shape of a salmon,

He hid among some stones in the bed of the stream.

The gods finding the hut empty were about to depart when Kvasir perceived the remains of the burnt net on the hearth.

After some thought,

An inspiration came to him,

And he advised the gods to weave a similar implement and use it in search for their foe in the neighboring stream,

Since it would be like Loki to choose such a method of baffling their pursuit.

This device seemed good and was immediately followed,

And the net finished,

The gods proceeded to drag the stream.

Loki eluded the net at its first cast by hiding at the bottom of the river between two stones,

And when the gods weighted the mesh and tried a second time,

He effected his escape by jumping upstream.

A third attempt to secure him proved successful,

However for,

As he once more tried to get away by a sudden leap,

Thor caught him in mid-air and held him so fast he could not escape.

The salmon,

Whose slipperiness is proverbial in the north,

Is noted for its remarkably slim tail,

And Norsemen attribute this to Thor's tight grasp upon his foe.

Loki now suddenly resumed his wanted shape,

And his captives dragged him down into a cavern,

Where they made him past using as bonds the entrails of his son Narve,

Who had been torn to pieces by Bali,

His brother,

Whom the gods had changed into a wolf for the purpose.

One of these fetters was passed under Loki's shoulders and one under his loins,

Thereby securing him firmly hand and foot,

But the gods,

Not feeling quite satisfied that the strips,

Tough and enduring though they were,

Would not give way,

Changed him into adamant or iron.

Thee,

On a rock's point,

With the entrails of thy ice-cold son,

The gods will bind.

Skadi the giantess,

A personification of the cold mountain stream,

Who had joyfully watched the fettering of her foe,

Subterranean fire,

Now fastened a serpent directly over his head,

So that its venom would fall drop by drop upon his upturned face.

But Sigyn,

Loki's fateful wife,

Hurried with a cup to his side,

And until the day of Ragnarök,

She remained by him,

Catching the drops as they fell,

And never leaving her post,

Except when her vessel was full and she was obliged to empty it.

Only during her short absences could the drops of venom fall upon Loki's face,

And then they caused such intense pain that he writhed with anguish,

His efforts to get free shaking the earth and producing the earthquakes which so frighten mortals.

Ere they left him in his anguish,

Oh his treacherous brow,

Ungrateful,

Skadi hung a serpent hateful,

Venom drops for eye distilling,

Every nerve with torment filling.

Thus shall he in horror languish,

By him still unwearied kneeling,

Sigyn at his tortured side,

Fatal wife with beaker stealing,

Drops of venom as they fall,

Agonizing poison all.

Sleepless,

Changeless,

Ever dealing,

Comfort will she still abide,

Only when the cups overflowing,

Must fresh pain and smarting cause,

Swift to void,

The beaker going,

Shall she in her watching pause.

Then doth Loki loudly cry,

Shrieks of terror,

Groans of horror,

Breaking forth in thunder peals,

When his writhing scared earth reels,

Trembling and quaking,

In high heaven shaking,

So wears he out his awful tomb,

Until Dren Ragnarök become.

In this painful position,

Loki was destined to remain until the twilight of the gods,

When his bonds would be loosed and he would take part in the fatal conflict on the battlefield of Vigrid,

Falling at last by the hand of Heimdall,

Who would be slain at the same time.

As we have seen,

The venom dropping snake in this myth is the cold mountain stream,

Whose waters falling from time to time upon subterranean fire evaporate in steam which escapes through fissures and causes earthquakes and geysers,

Phenomena with which the inhabitants of Iceland for instance were very familiar.

As opposed to the notion that Loki was Odin's brother,

It is more in folk belief that he was part of the race of giants known as the Jötnar.

As we have already seen,

The northern races imagine that giants were the first creatures who came to life among the icebergs which filled the vast abyss of Ginnungagap.

These giants were from the very beginning the opponents and rivals of the gods,

As the latter were the personification of all that is good and lovely,

The former were representative of all that was ugly and evil.

He comes,

He comes,

The frost spirit comes on the rushing northern blast,

And the dark Norwegian pines have bowed as his fearful breath went past.

With an unscorched wing he has hurried on where the fires of Hekla glow on the darkly beautiful sky above,

In the ancient ice below.

When Ymir,

The first giant,

Fell lifeless on the ice,

Slain by the gods,

His progeny were drowned in his blood.

One couple only,

Bergelmir and his wife,

Effected their escape to Jotunheim,

Where they took up their abode and became the parents of all the giant race.

In the north,

The giants were called by various names,

Each having a particular meaning.

Jotun,

For instance,

Meant the great eater,

For the giants were noted for their enormous appetites,

As well as their uncommon size.

They were fond of drinking as well as of eating,

Wherefore they were also called Thurses,

A word which some writers claim had the same meaning as thirst,

But others think they owed this name to the high towers,

Thurses,

Which they were supposed to have built.

As the giants were antagonistic to the gods,

The latter always strove to force them to remain in Jotunheim,

Which was situated in the cold regions of the pole.

The giants were almost invariably worsted in their encounters with the gods,

For they were heavy and slow-witted and had nothing but stone weapons to oppose the Aesir's bronze.

In spite of this inequality,

However,

They were sometimes greatly envied by the gods,

For they were thoroughly conversant with all knowledge relating to the past.

Even Odin was envious of this attribute,

And no sooner had he secured it by draft from Mimir Spring than he hastened to Jotunheim to measure himself against Váthrytnir,

The most learned of the giant brood.

But he might never have succeeded in defeating his antagonists in this strange encounter had he not ceased inquiring about the past and propounded a question relating to the future.

Of all the gods,

Thor was the most feared by Jötuns,

For he was continually waging war against the frost and mountain giants,

Who would fain have bound the earth forever in their rigid bands,

Thus preventing men from tiling the soil.

In fighting against them,

Thor,

As we have already seen,

Generally had recourse to his terrible hammer Mjölnir.

According to German legends,

The uneven surface of the earth was due to the giants who marred its smoothness by trading upon it while it was still soft and newly created,

While streams were formed from the copious tears shed by the giantess upon seeing the valleys made by their husband's huge footprints.

As such was the Teutonic belief that people imagined that the giants,

Who personified the mountains to them,

Were huge uncouth creatures who could only move about in the darkness or fog and were petrified as soon as the rays of sunlight pierced through the gloom and scattered the clouds.

This belief led them to name one of their principal mountain chains the Risengebirge,

Giant mountains.

The Scandinavians also shared this belief,

And to this day the Icelanders designate their highest mountain peaks by the name of Jökul,

A modification of the word Jötun.

In Switzerland,

Where the everlasting snows rest upon the lofty mountain tops,

The people still relate old stories of the time when the giants roamed abroad and when an avalanche came crashing down the mountainside.

They say the giants have restlessly shaken off the icy burden from their brows and shoulders.

As the giants were also personification of snow,

Ice,

Cold stone,

And subterranean fire,

They were said to be descended from the primitive Fornjötnir whom some authorities identify with Ymir.

According to this version of the myth,

Fornjötnir had three sons,

Hler,

The sea,

Kari,

The air,

And Loki,

Fire.

These three divinities,

The first gods,

Formed the oldest trinity and their respective descendants were the sea giants Mimir,

Gimir,

And Grendel,

The stone giants Thjartse,

Thrym,

And Beli,

And the giants of fire and death such as the Fenris,

Wolf,

And Hel.

As all the royal dynasties claim descent from some mythical being,

The Merovingians asserted that their first progenitor was a sea giant who rose out of waves in the form of an ox and surprised the queen while she was walking alone on the seashore compelling her to become his wife.

She gave birth to a son named Merovos,

The founder of the first dynasty of Frankish kings.

Many stories have already been told about the most important giants.

They reappear in many of the later myths and fairy tales and manifest after the introduction of Christianity a peculiar dislike to the sound of church bells and the singing of monks and nuns.

The Scandinavians relate in this connection that in the days of Olaf the saint,

A giant called Senyamand dwelt on the island of Senyen,

And he was greatly incensed because a nun on the island of Grypto daily sang a mourning hymn.

This giant fell in love with a beautiful maiden called Euternaesta,

And it was long ere he could find courage to propose to her.

When at last he made his halting request,

The fair damsel scornfully rejected him,

Declaring that he was far too old and ugly for her taste.

Miserable Jensemand,

Ugly and grey,

Thou win'd the maid of Kvetfjord,

No,

A churl thou art and shalt ever remain.

In his anger at being thus scornfully refused,

The giant swore vengeance,

And soon after he shot great flint arrow from his bow at the maiden,

Who dwelt eighty miles away.

Another lover,

Torke,

Also a giant,

Seeing her peril and wishing to protect her,

Flung his hat at the speeding arrow.

This hat was a thousand feet high and proportionately broad and thick.

Nevertheless,

The arrow pierced the headgear,

Falling short,

However,

Of its aim.

Senyamand,

Seeing that he had failed and fearing the wrath of Torke,

Mounted his steed and prepared to ride off as quickly as possible.

But the sun,

Rising just then above the horizon,

Turned him into a stone,

Together with the arrow and Torke's hat,

The huge pile being known as the Torkhaten mountain.

The people still point to an obelisk,

Which they say is the stone arrow,

To a hole in the mountain,

Two hundred eighty-nine feet high and eighty-eight feet wide,

Which they say is the aperture made by the arrow in its flight through the hat,

And to the horsemen on Senyan island,

Apparently riding a colossal steed,

Enjoying the falls of his wide cavalry cloak closely about him.

As for the nun,

Whose singing had so disturbed Senyamand,

She was petrified too,

And never troubled anyone with her psalmody again.

Another legend relates that one of the mountain giants,

Annoyed by the ringing of church bells more than fifty miles away,

Once cut up a huge rock which he hurled at the sacred building.

Fortunately,

It fell short and broken too.

Ever since then,

The peasants say that the trolls come on Christmas Eve to raise the largest piece of stone upon golden pillars and to dance and feast beneath it.

A lady,

Wishing to know whether this tale were true,

Once sent her groom to the place.

The trolls came forward and hospitably offered him a drink from a horn mounted in gold and ornamented with runes.

Seizing the horn,

The groom flung its contents away and dashed off with it at a mad gallop,

Closely pursued by the trolls,

From whom he escaped only by passing through a stubble field and overrunning water.

Some of their number visited the lady on the morrow to claim this horn,

And when she refused to part with it they laid a curse upon her,

Declaring that her castle would be burned down every time the horn should be removed.

This prediction has thrice been fulfilled and now the family guard the relic with superstitious care.

A similar drinking vessel,

Obtained in much the same fashion by the Oldenburg family,

Is exhibited in the collection of the King of Denmark.

The giants were not supposed to remain stationary,

But were said to move about in the darkness,

Sometimes transporting masses of earth and sand which they dropped here and there.

The sand hills in northern Germany and Denmark were supposed to have been thus formed.

A North Frisian tradition relates that the giants possessed a colossal ship called Manikvar.

Which constantly cruised about in the Atlantic Ocean.

Such was the size of this vessel that the captain was said to patrol the deck on horseback,

While the rigging was so extensive and the mass so high that the sailors who went up as youths came down as grey-haired men,

Having rested and refreshed themselves in rooms fashioned and provisioned for that purpose into huge blocks and pulleys.

By some mischance it happened that the pilot once directed the immense vessel in the North Sea and wishing to return to the Atlantic as soon as possible,

Yet not daring to turn in such a small space,

He steered into the English Channel.

Imagine the dismay of all on board when they saw the passage growing narrower and narrower the further they advanced.

When they came to the narrowest spot between Calais and Dover,

It seemed barely possible that the vessel,

Drifting along with the current,

Could force its way through.

The captain,

With laudable presence of mind,

Promptly bade his men soap the tyres of the ship and to lay an extra thick layer on the starboard where the rugged cliffs of Dover rose threateningly.

These orders were no sooner carried out than the vessel entered the narrow space and,

Thanks to the captain's precaution,

It slipped safely through.

The rocks of Dover scrapped off so much soap,

However,

That ever since they have been particularly white and the waves dashing against them still have an unusually foamy appearance.

This exciting experience was not the only one through which the mining foil passed,

For we are told that once,

Nobody knows how,

Penetrated into the Baltic Sea where,

The water not being deep enough to keep the vessel afloat,

The captain ordered all the ballast to be thrown overboard.

The material thus cast on either side of the vessel into the sea formed the two islands of Bornholm and Kristiansö.

Thank you for listening and enjoy the rest of your sleep.

Reviews

Amazing! I love your work and all of the Norse mythology you do! Please do more thanks 🙏