"'No,' says the Father of the Gods, 'you shall not have that; it is the
ring that gives the power to rule the world, and I will keep it.'

"' Very well, then,' say the giants, 'we will have no more to do with
you, and we will take the goddess back with us.'

"All the gods stand terrified and pale. Will their great father let the
Goddess of Love be taken from them again, and must they all grow old
and die, that he may keep this ring? Everything grows dark again, as
our fire here drops down; only there is that pale blue flame that gives
no light, away at the back of the hearth. And now, right in the pale
blue flame, rises the form of a woman out of the ground. It is the
Earth Goddess, the wisest woman in the world, who knows all that ever
was, all that is, and all that ever shall be. She speaks to the Father
of the Gods and tells him to give the ring to the giants, for the curse
that the dwarf has laid upon it will surely destroy him who keeps it.
Then she sinks out of sight, and the Father of the Gods takes from his
finger the ring, and gives it.

"And even while the giants are stowing the treasure in a sack to carry
it away, they fall to quarrelling about how it shall be divided, and
one of them strikes the other a terrible blow with his club which lays
him dead upon the ground. Then he strides away with the treasure,
leaving the gods filled with horror at the first fatal work done by the
curse of the ring.

"Yet only for a moment; their grand new castle is ready for them now.
High up upon a rock stands the Thunder God. He swings his hammer and
the black clouds roll around him. The thunder mutters, and lightning
flames flash out from the dark vapors. The fire flickers and blazes up