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                THE
          HEROES OF ASGARD

 _TALES FROM SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY_


 BY A. & E. KEARY

 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HUARD

 New York

 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

 LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.

 1909

 _All rights reserved_


 New edition September, 1906. Reprinted July, 1909.

 Norwood Press:

 Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.




PREFACE.


In preparing the Second Edition of this little volume of tales from
the Northern Mythology for the press, the Authors have thought it
advisable to omit the conversations at the beginning and end of the
chapters, which had been objected to as breaking the course of the
narrative. They have carefully revised the whole, corrected many
inaccuracies and added fresh information drawn from sources they had
not had an opportunity of consulting when the volume first appeared.
The writers to whose works the Authors have been most indebted, are
Simrock, Mallet, Laing, Thorpe, Howitt and Dasent.




CONTENTS.


                                                            PAGE

 INTRODUCTION,                                                 9


 CHAPTER I. THE AESIR.

 PART I.--A GIANT--A COW--AND A HERO,                         41
     II.--AIR THRONE, THE DWARFS, AND THE LIGHT ELVES,        51
    III.--NIFLHEIM,                                           59
     IV.--THE CHILDREN OF LOKI,                               67
      V.--BIFROeST, URDA, AND THE NORNS,                       72
     VI.--ODHAERIR,                                            81


 CHAPTER II. HOW THOR WENT TO JOeTUNHEIM.

 PART I.--FROM ASGARD TO UTGARD,                             109
     II.--THE SERPENT AND THE KETTLE,                        130


 CHAPTER III. FREY.

 PART I.--ON TIPTOE IN AIR THRONE,                           147
     II.--THE GIFT,                                          152
    III.--FAIREST GERD,                                      157
     IV.--THE WOOD BARRI,                                    163


 CHAPTER IV. THE WANDERINGS OF FREYJA.

 PART I.--THE NECKLACE BRISINGAMEN,                          169
     II.--LOKI--THE IRON WOOD--A BOUNDLESS WASTE,            177
    III.--THE KING OF THE SEA AND HIS DAUGHTERS,             185


 CHAPTER V. IDUNA'S APPLES.

 PART I.--REFLECTIONS IN THE WATER,                          191
     II.--THE WINGED-GIANT,                                  198
    III.--HELA,                                              212
     IV.--THROUGH FLOOD AND FIRE,                            218


 CHAPTER VI. BALDUR.

 PART I.--THE DREAM,                                         231
     II.--THE PEACESTEAD,                                    240
    III.--BALDUR DEAD,                                       247
     IV.--HELHEIM,                                           250
      V.--WEEPING,                                           256


 CHAPTER VII. THE BINDING OF FENRIR.

 PART I.--THE MIGHT OF ASGARD,                               263
     II.--THE SECRET OF SVARTHEIM,