Halfdan, blushing deeply, hastened to doff his iron gauntlet, and the two men, severed so long, forgot their enmity and pledged abiding faith with friendly grasp.
"And as the last deep accents
Of reconcilement sounded,
Lo! Ingeborg sudden enters, rich adorn'd,
And to her brother's heart she trembling sinketh.
He with his sister's fears
Deep-moved, her hand all tenderly in Frithiof's linketh,
His burden soft transferring to the Hero's breast."
Chapter XXV
How the End of All Things Came About
This is the tale the Northmen tell of how
the End of All Things Came About.
hen the Asa folk had banished wicked Loki to earth, and bound him fast in his gloomy cavern, they thought they had heard and seen the last of his evil ways.
But this was not to be the case. Finding he could not free himself, but must endure his bonds till the end of All Things, Loki tried to divert himself by enticing the earth people to him and teaching them to do every manner of evil. And so fast did knowledge of this evil spread, that the whole world soon became full of wickedness. Brothers fought and killed each other, men were for ever at war with other men, no one had time or room in his heart for pity or for kindliness.