Ragnarok : the Age of Fire and Gravel

that from this center one great ridge runs southward for some distance, and then, bifurcating, sends out one limb to the shores of Africa, and another t

the world; they were the pathways over which the migrations of races extended in the ancient days; they wound for thousands of miles, irregular, rocky, wave-washed, through the great ocean, here expanding into islands, there reduced to a narrow strip, or sinking into the sea; they reached from a cen

ime, they gradually

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the Bahama group; and these islands continued to be used, during later ages, as the stepping-stones for migrations and intercourse between the old and the new wo

ent," which was spared from utter destructi

the old way which wi

n out of time, whose foundatio

on to this "way," along which go the people who are on their journ

ccount of the migration of the Quiche race to America from some eastern land in a ver

ssage to make, through the sea, along the shingle and pebbles and drifted sand." And this long passage was through t

"Early Manki

.

abbé

cattered rocks, and these rocks were rolled on the sands. This is why they called the place 'ranged stones and tor

cting ridges which, the sea-soundings show us, str

Lanka to fight the demon Ravana, he built a bridge of stone, sixty mil

own a little" of the island on whi

o regard it as meaning, (as is stated in what are probably later interpolations,) the rainbow; but

ays, visited Asgard. He assumed the name of Ganglere, (the wal

'What is the path fr

urn surrounds Asgard; heaven is the land of the godlike race, Asgard. Ganglere therefore as

.

ve seen it. It may be that you call it the rainbow. It has three colors, is very strong, and is made with more craft and skill than other structures. Still, howe

convulsions that accompanied the comet. But how can Bi

e they could have done so if they had desired.' Then made answer Har: 'The gods are worthy of no blame for this structure. Bifro

s no effect on rainbows. They are the product of sunlight and fa

as a real structure. We read of the roots of the ash-tree Y

e Asas ride hither every day over Bifr

e the three roots of the tree Ygdrasil, the sacred tree of the mountain-t

.

Olympus; below it was hell, where the Asuras, the comets, dwelt; an

of this is that they perished in Ragnarok; they were mortal. They rode over t

rea

t and

e two

hall Th

ry

goes t

e Ygdra

e Asa-

all ab

y water

ong ridge, where it had gradually subsided into the sea. The Asa-bridge was, ver

s burning fire. The frost-giants and the mountain-giants would go up to heaven if Bifrost were passable for a

Asas, to wit, heaven, Asgard, was surrounded by the ocean, was therefore

da, "Grimner

.

eparated the island from the colonies of the ice-giants. And now we learn that, if this bridge were not defended by a divine defense, these troublesome ice-giants would go up to

ers of the heavenly land, and is describing its golden palaces, an

inbjorg, which stands at the end of heaven, wh

one of the gods who was sub

ds, and sits at the end of heaven, guarding the bridge against the mountain-giants. He needs less slee

and used telescopes. We know that gold filling has been found in the teeth of ancient

rrupted in places by water, reaching from Europe to some Atlantic island

.

f the Dover tunnel: they erected fortifications and built a castle, and in it they put a ruler, possibly a sub-king, Heimdal, who constantly, from a high lookout, possibly with a field-glass, watches the coming of the turbulent

es from a Norse word, still in use in Norway, Aas, meaning a ridge of high land.[1] Anderson thinks there is som

meeting-point of a number of ridges. Atlas was the king, or god, of Atlantis. In the ol

vomits fire and poison, and when Surt, and all the forces of Muspel, "ride over Bifrost, it breaks to pieces." That is to say,

Edda," Anderso

.

lantis, as received by Solon fro

the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from the isla

he islands of the half-submerged ridge, and from the islands to the continent of America. It would seem to mean mo

served in the Bagaveda-Gita, and other sacred books of the Hindoos. It refers very distinctly to the brid

of demons, Adima and Héva begin to wander,

at the extremity

e Bifrost was connected wit

nd apparently boundless country," (Europe?) "connected with their islan

n of the connecting ridge; it united

.

, it was rocky; it was the broken

ion of its destruction. We read that, after Ad

nished in an instant, amidst terrible clamor; the rocks by which they had crossed sank beneath the waves, a few sharp pea

of the advancing armies of Muspel; here we have "the earth" of Ovid "settling down a little" in the ocean; here we have the legends of the Cornishmen of the lost

the Indian Ocean, between the eastern point of India and the Island of Ceylon, as the remnants of the Bridge; and the reader will find them marked on our maps as" Adam's Bridge" (Palam Adima). The people even point out, to this day, a hi

.

eft their stamp eve

survives not only in our geo

from godlike men up to man-like gods; from

h; it is transported to the clouds; and there its gol

know of the material; we can imagine no musical instrument in the bands of the a

overty and paucity of our poor intellectual apparatus, which, like a mir

hen it is the imperfection of material nature, (which t

the ages, and dwelt upon and sung of until it moved upward from the waters of the Atlantic to the distant skies, and became a spiritual heaven. And the rid

inst

eve in this bridg

.

the penitent in his con

; in the coming of the resurrection of the latter body; in the steppi

he land are both

hes the bridge Es-Sirat, "finer than a h

e of the English nort

rig o

er than

across a long tree; it is scarcely practica

rings across the rivers, for the ghosts

s to the dwelling-place of the gods; th

er a stretched rope, until it reaches the abode of "t

radise on a great snake,

idge is a slip

Manacicas cross o

tribes, the Milky Way is th

nskrit Litera

.

no bridge; they pas

ossed the rapid waters, and show

to get through by hold

groes, believe that the land of souls

land, toward which they have to paddle in a canoe of white stone. On the way there arises a storm, and the wicked sou

he journey was long, they put boots into the coffin, (for it was made on foot,) and coins to pay the ferrying across a wide sea, even as the Greeks expe

ome, the heavenly land, beyond the water, the Norsemen actual

rrior, horses, weapons, and all. These boats are now

"Early Manki

and Kindred Literat

Ibi

.

ll a marvelous religio

ry beginning of human history. It was the great land of the world before the Drift; it continued to be the great land of the world betw

connected with the continents eas

are so connected yet with such ridges, although their crests are below the sea-level; and we know

es Pha?ton fell; on whose fields Adam lived; on whose plain Sodom and Gomorrah stood, and Odin and Thor and Citli died;

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