Chapters 44-95 - Germanic Mythology

go to show that Loki and his son are chained in the same place. The isle where Fenrir was
chained is called Lyngvi in Gylfaginning, and the body of water in which the isle is
situated is called Ámsvartnir, a suitable name of the sea, over which eternal darkness
broods. On the isle, the probably Icelandic author of Völuspá (or its translator or
compiler) has imagined a "grove," whose trees consist of jets of water springing from hot
fountains (hvera lundur). The isle is guarded by Garmur, a giant-dog, who is to bark with
all its might when the chains of Loki and Fenrir threaten to burst asunder:
Geyr Garmur mjög
fyr Gnipahelli,
festur mun slitna,
en Freki renna.
According to Grímnismál, Garm is the foremost of all dogs. The dogs which
guard the beautiful Menglod's citadel are also called Garms (Fjölsvinnsmál). In
Gylfaginning, the word is also used in regard to a wolf, Hati Managarm. Gnipahellir
means the cave of the precipitous rock. The adventures which Thorkil and his men
encountered with the flying serpents, in connection with the watching Hel-dog, show that
Lyngvi is the scene of demons of the same kind as those which are found around the Nagates
of Niflheim.
Bound hand and foot with the entrails of a "frost-cold son" (hrímkalda magar -
Lokasenna 49), which, after being placed on his limbs, are transformed into iron chains
(Gyfaginning 50), Loki lies on a weapon (á hjörvi - Lokasenna 49), and under him are
three flat stones placed on edge, one under his shoulders, one under his loins, and one
under his hams (Gylfaginning 50). Over him Skadi, who is to take revenge for the murder
of her father, suspends a serpent in such a manner that the venom drops in the face of the
nithing. Sigyn, faithful to her wicked husband, sits sorrowing by his side (Völuspá) and
protects him as well as she is able against the venom of the serpent (Postscript to
Lokasenna, Gylfaginning 50). Fenrir is fettered by the soft, silk-like chain Gleipnir, made
by the subterranean artist, and brought from the lower world by Hermod. It is the only
chain that can hold him, and that cannot be broken before Ragnarok. His jaws are kept
wide open with a sword (Gylfaginning 34).
79.
THE GREAT WORLD-MILL. ITS MISTAKEN IDENTITY WITH THE FRODI-MILL.
We have yet to mention a place in the lower world which is of importance to the
naive but, at the same time, perspicuous and imaginative cosmology of Germanic
heathendom. The myth in regard to the place in question is lost, but it has left scattered
traces and marks, with the aid of which it is possible to restore its chief outlines.
Poems, from the heathen time, speak of two wonderful mills, a larger and a
smaller "Grotti"-mill.
The larger one is simply immense. The storms and showers which lash the sides
of the mountains and cause their disintegration; the breakers of the sea which attack the