Unit 6 L9

Unit 6

Lesson 9

In time, the gods found out what Loki had
done They learned that it was Loki who had
visited Frigga in disguise and found out
about the mistletoe It was Loki who had
made the arrow and convinced blind Hod to
shoot it at Balder It was Loki, disguised as an
old woman, who had refused to weep for
Balder and kept him from returning to the
land of the living Loki had been in trouble
many times before He had done all sorts of
bad things But he had never done anything
quite so evil The gods had lost all patience
with him Even Odin, who had defended Loki
so many times in the past, refused to speak
for him The gods vowed to hunt him down
and punish him Loki disguised himself as a
salmon He swam in the rivers The gods tried
to catch him but Loki leaped out of their nets
and escaped At last, Thor caught him He
grabbed him in midair Loki struggled, but
Thor held him tight with his powerful hands.

The gods took Loki, who was no longer disguised as
a salmon, to a cavern deep underground They
chained him to the rocks They took a serpent,
whose mouth dripped with poison, and fastened it to
the roof Drops of poison fell out of the serpent’s
mouth and landed on Loki Loki was in terrible pain
The poison dripped all night and all day and each
drop stung like a knife wound Loki, the giant who
had lived in Asgard with the gods, writhed in agony
on the floor of the cave Loki went on suffering until
his wife Siguna heard about his troubles Loki had
treated Siguna badly, but she still loved him She left
Asgard and went to live with Loki in the cavern She
stood next to her husband, with a cup in her hand
She caught the drops of poison in the cup to keep
them from falling on Loki Loki still suffered,
especially when Siguna had to empty the cup, but
his suffering was much reduced.

As Loki lay in the cavern, Siguna
whispered to him and soothed him
She reminded him of prophecies they
both knew, prophecies about
Ragnarok [rog-no-rok] and the fall of
the gods “For the moment, we are
beaten,” she said “The gods in Asgard
rejoice at their triumph over you But
they know that the day is coming They
have heard the prophecies They know
as well as you and I that the final
battle, the battle of Ragnarok, is
coming ” Siguna paused to toss a cup
of poison away Loki writhed in pain as
two drops of poison fell on him Siguna
soothed him and began again

“When Ragnarok comes, Yggdrassil
[eeg-drosil], the tree that holds up the world,
will tremble The giants will rise and fight
against the gods A great eagle with a white
beak will shriek in the sky Your son, Fenrir the
Wolf, whom they keep chained in a cavern
like this one, will break his chains and attack
the gods themselves He will swallow up Odin
himself Meanwhile, Jormungand
[yor-mun-gond], the mighty serpent whose
body encircles the earth, will do battle with
Thor—and Thor will not escape his fate None
of the gods will escape! All of them will die!
The sun will turn black Earth will sink into the
sea The stars will vanish The world will be
destroyed!”