Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

In the northern mythology a particular kind of elves are mentioned - black or
swarthy elves, dökkálfar. They dwell under the farthest root of the world-tree, near the
northern gate of the lower world (jörmungrundar í jódyr nyrðra), and have as their
neighbors the Thurses and the unhappy dead (náir - Hrafnagalður Óðins 25).
Gylfaginning also (ch. 17) knows of the swarthy elves, at least, that they "dwell down in
the earth" (búa niðri í jörðu). As to mythic rank, color, and abode, they therefore
correspond with the Roman aquili, and Saxo has forcibly and very correctly employed
this Latin word in order to characterize them in an intelligible manner.
The two swarthy elves keeping watch outside of the hall of Nastrands ought
naturally to have been astonished at seeing a living human being entering their grotto.
Saxo makes them receive the unexpected guest in a friendly manner. They greet him,
and, when they have learned the purpose of his visit, one of them reproaches him for the
rash boldness of his undertaking, but gives him information in regard to the way to Loki,
and gives him fire and fuel after he had tested Thorkil's understanding, and found him to
be a wise man. The journey, says the swarthy elf, can be performed in four days' fast
sailing. As appears from the context, the journey is to the east. The traveller then comes
to a place where not a blade of grass grows, and over which an even denser darkness
broods. The place includes several terrible rocky halls, and in one of them Loki dwells.
On the fourth day Thorkil, favored by a good wind, comes to the goal of his
journey. Through the darkness a mass of rock rising from the sea (scopulum inusitatæ
molis) is discerned with difficulty, and Thorkil lays to by this rocky island. He and his
men put on clothes of skin of a kind that protects against venom, and then walk along the
beach at the foot of the rock until they find an entrance. Then they kindle a fire with flint
stones, this being an excellent protection against demons; they light torches and crawl in
through the narrow opening. Unfortunately Saxo gives but a scanty account of what they
saw there. First they came to a cave of torture, which resembled the hall on the
Nastrands, at least, in this particular, that there were many serpents and many iron seats
or iron benches of the kind described above. A brook of sluggish water is crossed by
wading. Another grotto which is not described was passed through, whereupon they
entered Loki's awful prison. He lay there bound hands and feet with immense chains. His
hair and beard resembled spears of horn, and had a terrible odor. Thorkil jerked out a hair
of his beard to take with him as evidence of what he had seen. As he did this, there was a
pestilential stench diffused in the cave; and after Thorkil's arrival home, it appeared that
the beard-hair he had taken home was dangerous to life on account of its odor. When
Thorkil and his men had passed out of the interior jurisdiction of the rock, they were
discovered by flying serpents which had their home on the island (cp. Völuspá - þar saug
Niðhöggur, etc., No. 77). The skin clothes protected them against the venom vomited
forth. But one of the men who bared his eyes became blind. Another, whose hand came
outside of the protecting garments, got it cut off; and a third, who ventured to uncover his
head, got the latter separated from his neck by the poison as by a sharp steel instrument.
The poem or saga which was Saxo's authority for this story must have described
the rocky island where Loki was put in chains as inhabited by many condemned beings.