2 FARTHEST NORTH 



knowledge of the human mind, till they made a stand in 

 the north at the threshold of Nature s great Ice Temple 

 of the polar regions with their endless silence. 



Up to this point no insuperable obstacles had op- 

 posed the progress of the advancing hosts, which con- 

 fidently proceeded on their way. But here the ram- 

 parts of ice and the long darkness of winter brought 

 them to bay. Host after host marched on tow'ards the 

 north, only to suffer defeat. Fresh ranks stood ever 

 ready to advance over the bodies of their predecessors. 

 Shrouded in fog lay the mythic land of Nivlheim, where 

 the " Rimturser " * carried on their wild gambols. 



Why did we continually return to the attack t There 

 in the darkness and cold stood Helheim, where the 

 death -goddess held her sway; there lay Nastrand, the 

 shore of corpses. Thither, where no living being could 

 draw breath, thither troop after troop made its way. 

 To what end 1 Was it to bring home the dead, as did 

 Hermod when he rode after Baldur? No! It was 

 simply to satisfy man's thirst for knowledge. Nowhere, 

 in truth, has knowledge been purchased at greater cost 

 of privation and suffering. But the spirit of mankind 

 will never rest till every spot of these regions has been 

 trodden by the foot of man, till every enigma has been 

 solved. 



Minute by minute, degree by degree, we have stolen 



* Frost-giants. 



