Ocean-stream, beyond which is, (6) Jotunheim,* * * § the abode of 
the Giants, the rude chaotic powers of nature who oppose the 
kosmic gods. Below the earth-plain is (7) Svartalfaheim, “ the 
world of the dark Elves” ; below which is (8) Helheim, the 
world of the dead, abode of the goddess Helf, “ Darkness.” 
The lowest deep is (9) Niflheim, “ the mist-world,” where 
dwells the serpent Nidhoggr, which constantly gnaws the third 
root of Yggdrasil, “ the Bearer-of-the-deep-thinker,” ( i.e ., the 
Alfadir), the mighty mundane ash-tree, which spreads through 
all worlds except the highest. 
A certain obscurity as to how Mind began to act pervades 
the commencement of this kosmogonv : but we read that the 
melted drops quickened into life “by the might of him who 
sent the heat” J ; so that Mr. Martineau's canon is satisfied, — 
“ Mind is first, and reigns for ever.” In the Younger Edda 
the Supreme God, or Alfadir, is said to live for ever, to govern 
and direct all things, great and small, to have formed heaven, 
earth, and air ; to have made man, and given him a spirit that 
shall live after the body has perished, and to have prepared a 
place called Gimli, where ultimately the just shall dwell with 
him. And this Being is clearly distinct from the Odhinn of 
the formal and completed Pantheon. It is quite possible that 
these statements may all be genuine and original ; but we must 
remember that the compilers of both Eddas were Christians ; 
and it seems to me that we have here some touches from a 
Christian hand dexterously interwoven into the original fabric. 
In the Elder Edda there are also two passages which should 
be considered in this connection : — 
“ Then shall another come 
Yet mightier, 
Although I dare not 
His name declare. 
Few may see 
Further forth 
Than where Odhinn 
Meets the wolf.”§ 
And in the Voluspa we read 
Ragnarok ; — 
“ Then comes the Mighty One 
To the great judgment, 
The powerful from above, 
Who rules o'er all. 
that in the happy times after 
He shall dooms pronounce. 
And strifes allay, 
Holy peace establish, 
Which shall ever be.”|| 
* The Giants are called Jotunn, “ eaters, voracious.” Cf. Ang.-Sax. eoten, 
Lat. edo , etc. 
t Cf. Sk. Kali, “ the Black ” ; Ang.-Sax. Hel-an, to cover over,” etc. 
+ “ He who sent forth the heat is not Surt, who is only the guardian of 
Muspelheim, but a supreme ineffable being ” (Thorpe, Northern Mythology, 
i. 1, 3, note 5). 
§ I.e. in the Ragnarok-contest {Lay of Hyndla, 42). |j Voluspa , 64. 
