in towering wrath shall him unwind
and move the Outer Sea profound,
till all is loosed that once was bound.
Unloosed at last shall then set forth
the ship of shadow from the North;
the host of Hel shall cross the sea
and Loki shall from chain be free,
and with the wolf shall monsters all
upon the world then ravening fall.
Then Surtur from the South shall fare
and tree-devouring fire shall bear
that bright as sun on swords shall shine
in battle of the hosts divine;
the hills of stone shall bend their head;
all men the paths of death shall tread.
Then darkened shall the sunlight be,
and Earth shall founder under sea,
and from the cloven heavens all
the gleaming stars shall flee and fall;
the steam shall rise in roaring spires
and heaven’s roof be licked with fires.
*
A house there is that sees no sun,
dark-builded on the beaches dun
where cold waves wash the Deadly Shore,
and northward looks its shadowy door;
the louver poisoned rain lets fall,
of woven serpents in the wall.
Laden in heavy streams there wade
men perjured, men who have betrayed
the trust of friend; and there the coward
and wolvish murderer is devoured:
the dragon who yet Yggdrasil
gnaws at the roots there takes his fill.
Dim-flying shall that dragon haste
over the beaches dark and waste,
up from the Nether-fells shall spring
bearing those corpses under wing,
then plunge, and sea close o’er his head
for ever, o’er the doomed and dead.
*
At last once more uprising slow
the Earth from Ocean green shall grow,
and falls of water shimmering pour
from her high shoulders to the shore;
the eagle there with lonely cry
shall hunt the fish on mountains high.
The younger gods again shall meet
in Idavellir’s pastures sweet,
and tales shall tell of ancient doom,
the Serpent and the fire and gloom,
and that old king of Gods recall
his might and wisdom ere the fall.
There marvellous shall again be found
cast in the grass upon the ground
the golden chess wherewith they played
when Asgard long ago was made,
when all their courts were filled with gold
in the first merriment of old.
A house I see that standeth there
bright-builded, than the Sun more fair:
