THE PUNISHMENT OF LOKE.
(From the painting by M. E. Winge.)
Loke, in Norse Mythology, was the god of destruction and of evil. His father was the giant Farbauti, and his mother was Laufey (Leafy Isle), so that he had two natures and was therefore both friend and enemy of the gods. For his many evil deeds he was finally seized and bound by the gods with chains in a loathsome cave. As a further punishment there was set above him a poisonous serpent that drooled venom upon his face that burned like fire. To save him from this torture his faithful wife, Sygn, shared his captivity and held a bowl to catch the dripping poison until Loke was freed at Ragnarok, when he and Heimdal fought and slew each other. He had the further distinction of being handsomest of the male deities.
Thorkil found a grotto. At the fire which was kindled stood two uncommonly tall men, who kept mending the fire. The grotto had an inner door or gate, and that which was seen inside that gate is described by Saxo in almost the same words as those of his former description of the hall at the Nastrands (obsoleti posies, ater situ paries, sordidum tectum, frequens anguibus pavimentum). Thorkil in reality sees the same hall again; he had simply come to it from another side, from the north, where the hall has its door opening toward the strand (nordr horfa dyrr—Völuspa), the pillars of which, according to Saxo's previous description, are covered with the soot of ages. The soot is now explained by the fire which is kindled in the grotto outside the hall, the grotto forming as it were a vestibule. The two gigantic persons who mend the fire are called by Saxo aquili.
In Marcianus Capella, who is Saxo's model in regard to style and vocabulary, persons of semi-divine rank (hemithei) are mentioned who are called aquili, and who inhabit the same regions as the souls of the dead (lares and larvæ—Marc. Cap., i., ii. Compare P. E. Müller, not., Hist. Dan., pp. 68, 69). Aquilus also has the signification, dark, swarthy, Icel. dökkr.
In the northern mythology a particular kind of elves are mentioned—black or swarthy elves, dökkálfar. They dwell under the farthest root of the world-tree, near the northern gate of the lower world (iormungrundar i iodyr nyrdra), and have as their neighbours the Thurses and the unhappy dead (náir—Forspjallsljod, 25). Gylfaginning also (ch. 17) knows of the swarthy elves, at least, that they "dwell down in the earth" (búa nidri í jördu). As to mythic rank, colour, and abode, they therefore correspond with the Roman aquili, and Saxo has forcibly and very correctly employed this Latin word in order to characterise them in an intelligible manner.
The two swarthy elves keeping watch outside of the hall of Nastrands ought naturally to have been astonished at seeing a living human being entering their grotto. Saxo makes them receive the unexpected guest in a friendly manner. They greet him, and, when they have learned the purpose of his visit, one of them reproaches him for the rash boldness of his undertaking, but gives him information in regard to the way to Loke, and gives him fire and fuel after he had tested Thorkil's understanding, and found him to be a wise man. The journey, says the swarthy elf, can be performed in four days' fast sailing. As appears from the context, the journey is to the east. The traveller then comes to a place where not a blade of grass grows, and over which an even denser darkness broods. The place includes several terrible rocky halls, and in one of them Loke dwells.
On the fourth day Thorkil, favoured by a good wind, comes to the goal of his journey. Through the darkness a mass of rock rising from the sea (scopulum inusitatæ molis) is with difficulty discerned, and Thorkil lays to by this rocky island. He and his men put on clothes of skin of a kind that protects against venom, and then walk along the beach at the foot of the rock until they find an entrance. Then they kindle a fire with flint stones, this being an excellent protection against demons; they light torches and crawl in through the narrow opening. Unfortunately, Saxo gives but a scanty account of what they saw there. First they came to a cave of torture, which resembled the hall on the Nastrands, at least, in this particular, that there were many serpents and many iron seats or iron benches of the kind described above. A brook of sluggish water is crossed by wading. Another grotto which is not described was passed through, whereupon they entered Loke's awful prison. He lay there bound hands and feet with immense chains. His hair and beard resembled spears of horn, and had a terrible odour. Thorkil jerked out a hair of his beard to take with him as evidence of what he had seen. As he did this, there was diffused in the cave a pestilential stench; and after Thorkil's arrival home, it appeared that the beard-hair he had taken home was dangerous to life on account of its odour (Hist. Dan., 433). When Thorkil and his men had passed out of the interior jurisdiction of the rock, they were discovered by flying serpents which had their home on the island (cp. Völuspa—thar saug Nidhöggr, &c., No. 77). The skin clothes protected them against the venom vomited forth. But one of the men who bared his eyes became blind. Another, whose hand came outside of the protecting garments, got it cut off; and a third, who ventured to uncover his head, got the latter separated from his neck by the poison as by a sharp steel instrument.
The poem or saga which was Saxo's authority for this story must have described the rocky island where Loke was put in chains as inhabited by many condemned beings. There are at least three caves of torture, and in one of them there are many iron benches. This is confirmed, as we shall see, by Völuspa.
Saxo also says that there was a harbour. From Völuspa we learn that when Ygdrasil trembles at the approach of Ragnarok, the ship of the dead, Nagelfar, lies so that the liberated Loke can go aboard it. That it has long lain moored in its harbour is evident from the fact that, according to Völuspa, it then "becomes loose." Unknown hands are its builders. The material out of which it is constructed is the nail-parings of dead men (Gylfag., 51—probably according to some popular tradition). The less regard for religion, the less respect for the dead. But from each person who is left unburied, or is put into his grave without being, when possible, washed, combed, cleaned as to hands and feet, and so cared for that his appearance may be a favorable evidence to the judges at the Thing of the dead in regard to his survivors—from each such person comes building material for the death-ship, which is to carry the hosts of world-destroyers to the great conflict. Much building material is accumulated in the last days—in the "dagger-and-axe age," when "men no longer respect each other" (Völuspa).