She grew very angry at such deeds.
The poem Muspilli (the world fire) shews the old northern feeling for Nature; still more the few existing words of the Wessobrunner Prayer:
This I heard as the greatest marvel among men,
That once there was no earth nor heaven above,
The bright stars gave no light, the sun shone not,
Nor the moon, nor the glorious sea.
How plainly 'the bright stars' and the 'glorious sea' shew joy in the beauty of the world!
In the oldest Scandinavian poems the inflexible character of the Northerner and the northern landscape is reflected; the descriptions are short and scanty; it is not mountain, rock, and sea which count as beautiful, but pleasant, and, above all, fruitful scenery. The imagery is bold: (Kenninger) the wind is the wolf of wood or sail, the sea the pathway of the whale, the bath of the diving bird, etc.
The Anglo-Saxon was especially distinguished by his forcible images and epithets. In Rynerwulf we have 'night falls like a helmet, dark brown covers the mountains.' 'The sky is the fortress of the storm, the sun the torch of the world, the jewel of splendour.' 'Fire is eager, wild, blind, and raging; the sea is the gray sea, and the sparkling splendid sea; waves are graves of the dead,' etc.
Vivid feeling for Nature is not among the characteristic features of either Scandinavian or old German poetry.