“They had two sons, Byleist and Loki.” Of a sudden it struck Hadding as odd that Loker’s name was so like this. He pushed the thought aside and went on. “Byleist was surly and hateful toward the newcomer. Little else have I heard about him. Loki was otherwise. He himself could have been a god, with the same height and handsomeness, his skin fair though hair and eyes were hell black. Lively and unruly, he had long found life wearisome in this flinty steading, this upland of loneliness and unending winter. Eagerly he listened to the tales and staves wherewith guest repaid host, the words raising before him a sight of Asgard shining at the end of the rainbow bridge.

“After a while Loki pleaded with his father and mother to be more forthcoming. He was fair to behold, ready of tongue, bewitching when he chose to be. Moreover, he whispered to them what it might mean to have one of their own kind among the gods.

“Therefore the elder jotuns, warlock and witch, yielded. They told Odin what they knew, that that which he quested after lay on the far side of death. None had ever dared seek yonder.

“He did, The way would be still more hard and strange than those he had already trodden. The thursir had some knowledge of it, gathered through the ages. Loki offered to go along as guide and helper. This Odin must needs agree to, with thanks.

“They bade farewell and went down the mountains, over the glaciers and scree-strewn wastes, across the broad holdings and past the huge garths of giants, to the sea. There Loki called a drow from his barrow and made him ferry them in his half a boat, which sailors see shortly before they drown. On the farther shore grew a wildwood where no one dwelt and nothing roamed but the beings of water, earth, and sky. Yet how manifold and wonderful these are! Nor did anything speak but the soughing in the leaves.

“Onward the wayfarers went, until they came to the Tree itself. Mighty beyond men’s knowing grows this ash, the worlds clustered at its roots, about its bole, high in its boughs. Great ill does it suffer; Nidhogg gnaws below, a hart grazes above, and rot attacks the wood. Along it races the red squirrel Ratatosk, chattering out ill words between the dragon in the depths and the eagle that perches aloft overlooking all things. Yet the Tree lives, for it is life, and it shall abide when the worlds go under.

“Aloft among the limbs went Odin and Loki, over their twisting, swaying lengths, through shadowy, whispery caverns of leaf, until they found the one that they sought.

“There did Odin lay a noose around his neck and leap off the bough. There did Loki, standing below, wound him with his own spear. There did Odin die.