Bragi (Nature's musician). When storm-clouds loomed up from
the horizon and darkened the sky, and thunder rolled
overhead, and lightning flashed on every hand, they talked
about the mighty Thor riding over the clouds in his goat-
drawn chariot, and battling with the giants of the air. When
the mountain-meadows were green with long grass, and the
corn was yellow for the sickles of the reapers, they spoke
of Sif, the golden-haired wife of Thor, the queen of the
pastures and the fields. When the seasons were mild, and the
harvests were plentiful, and peace and gladness prevailed,
they blessed Frey, the giver of good gifts to men.

To them the blue sky-dome which everywhere hung over them
like an arched roof was but the protecting mantle which the
All-Father had suspended above the earth. The rainbow was
the shimmering bridge which stretches from earth to heaven.
The sun and the moon were the children of a giant, whom two
wolves chased forever around the earth. The stars were
sparks from the fire-land of the south, set in the heavens
by the gods. Night was a giantess, dark and swarthy, who
rode in a car drawn by a steed the foam from whose bits
sometimes covered the earth with dew. And Day was the son of
Night; and the steed which he rode lighted all the sky and
the earth with the beams which glistened from his mane.


It was thus that men in the earlier ages of the world looked
upon and spoke of the workings of Nature; and it was in this
manner that many myths, or poetical fables, were formed. By
and by, as the world grew older, and mankind became less