We have recounted how the Æsir tolerated the presence of evil, personated by Loki, in their midst how they weakly followed his advice, allowed him to involve them in all manner of difficulties from which they could be extricated only at the price of part of their virtue or peace, and finally permitted him to gain such ascendency over them that he did not scruple to rob them of their dearest possession, purity, or innocence, as personified by Balder the good. In the foregoing chapters, the gradual rise and decline of the gods have been carefully traced. The whole scheme of Northern mythology was therefore a drama, every step leading gradually to the climax or tragic end, when, with true poetic justice, punishment and reward were impartially meted out. The Æsir had had a beginning therefore, it was reasoned, they must have an end and as they were born from a mixture of the divine and giant elements, being thus imperfect, they bore within them the germ of death, and were, like men, doomed to suffer physical death in order to attain spiritual immortality. One of the distinctive features of Northern mythology is that the people always believed that their gods belonged to a finite race. Guerber available from Project Gutenberg. The following is taken from Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas by H.
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