The Legendary Sagas

Drink deep and strong, all ye, of wisdom's welland shout the songs of gods and heroes old,tales bestowed us by our kin and kind,now shall I impart our father's lore.'Fore aught came to be 'twas Ginnungagap,neither land, nor sea, nor sky to be found,and o'er all reigned unbroken night and frost,timeless age followed timeless age all still.Hark! From that yawning void burst forth great spark,first light blazed out to banish wretched shade,o'er all began His reign, great Aldlogi,sun wreathed in sacred fire, unbegot.All was suffuse with His radiant glow,though yet not one star shone in heaven high,the bitter dark of the hungering void,spat forth Óreiðuorma to quench new kindled flame.The great wyrm, foul beast of the endless dark, with seven mouths she hungered godflesh,with pitch black fangs she dripped her venoms eight,for Aldlogi's heart she did swiftly lunge!Alas! Those wretched teeth sunk fast and deep,but there strayed far their true intended course,those gnashing jaws found fast a common cause,and rent the flesh of Aldlogi's shield arm!Cruel fate that gold blood and venom foul,should find a common course there to mingle,But lo! Aldlogi stiffened with resolve,and so produced His secret weapon: Gullvöndr!Then striking forth He clasped the gleaming shaft,and with a fixed purpose He aimed Gullvöndr low,thence thrust into Óreiðuorma's nethermost maw,that shining God pierced the great wyrm's belly!Óreiðuorma writhed and then from that deadly gash,poured forth the ancient waters of the deep,and Ginnungagap swelled with heaven's brine,the writhing wyrm lay still in her defeat.Oh woe! The poison at last reached his heart,Aldlogi stumbled forth nine paces thence,then to his knees he fell and there expired,once more was cold and still across the void. Weep all you, light had gone, that noble God,for nine nights and days after there he lay, and from his ravaged body's cool embers,arose Eisudís, death was mistress o'er all.But hark well! As spent timbers oft give way,and blackened kindling spits forth flame anew,there from the ashes of the fallen god,blazed forth a new fire yet brighter still!Oh Joy! The luminous God did arise,and cruel death no longer held her sway, the cinders of the once-fallen God,thenceforth were known to all as Öskulönd, Neath the vast expanse of that hallowed ashwhere e'en His most sacred light there falls not,lies the frozen maw whose depths are Djúpfryst, there the wicked lie in black winter's bonds.That shining God proclaimed in mighty voice,"From now henceforth I shalt be called Hálogi,for o'er all things I am the lord most high,and all creation shall bear me homage."