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in the underworld of Muspelheim, Loki was the most honored of the Aesir, next to
myself. Handsome, valiant, cunning, and learned, he was second only to me among
the Aesir. But Loki, the greatest scientist of my people, longed for power. His
experiments endangered us all, time and again. Finally, against my orders, Loki
brought catastrophe on our great and lovely underworld."
"Then Loki was the scientist you told me of!" I exclaimed. "He kindled the
atomic fires of Muspelheim and nearly destroyed you!"
Odin nodded. "Loki was that rash scientist of whom I spoke. Seeking to kindle a
radiation that would keep us ever young, he touched off atomic fires that engulfed
Muspelheim and forced us to flee to this upper world. I should have punished Loki
then for his reckless disobedience. But I did not, because the flood of radiation
would keep us almost immortal in this land. Instead I warned him that nobody must
tamper further with the raving atomic fires below.
"Loki agreed to tamper no more with those awful forces. But his promise was
worth nothing. Secretly, here in Asgard, he traveled back into fiery Muspelheim, and
began experimenting again. He hoped to forge such tremendous weapons from
those forces that he could displace me as ruler of the Aesir and conquer all Earth.
My son Baldur discovered Loki's forbidden researches in deep Muspelheim. To
prevent Baldur from exposing him, Loki slew him. But he had already exposed
himself.
"Loki fled from Asgard. Taking with him his two hideous pets, the wolf Fenris
and the Midgard snake, he fled to dark Jotunheim. There he allied himself with the
brutal Jotuns. He knew they hated the Aesir, so he incited them to attack us,
promising that with his scientific powers, he would help them conquer and sack
Asgard.
"That was the time of which I told you, Jarl Keith, when surprise and treachery
almost enabled the Jotuns to conquer us. The Jotuns, led by Loki and aided by the
hellish forces his science devised, would have overcome us had I not used my own
scientific powers to defeat Loki's and had we not all fought valiantly. We repelled
the Jotuns with great slaughter."
Thor grinned and nodded, but his giant face reddened with hatred as Odin
continued.
"Defeated, Loki fled with his wolf and serpent into the labyrinth of caves in
Midgard. We followed him to the cave in which he hid, but Loki, in his extremity,
bargained cunningly for his life. Loki called out to us: 'I have an instrument which
can destroy all Asgard and the Aesir, by loosing the sea upon the atomic fires of
Muspelheim. Unless you agree to spare my life, I will use that secret and you will all
perish with me.'"
"'We agree then to spare your life, Loki,' I answered. 'You have our pledge, if
you surrender that deadly instrument.' Loki surrendered the instrument to me. And
then I told him: 'We agreed to spare your life, Loki but that is all! Though you
shall remain alive, you will no longer be a menace to us, for we shall prison you
eternally in this cave to which you fled.'
"And we did that to Loki, Jarl Keith. We cast him into a state of suspended
animation by filling his cave with a gas whose scientific secret I had discovered.
That gas paralyzed the functions of the body by freezing, but left the mind
conscious as ever. Into that waking, frozen sleep we cast Loki and his two hideous
pets. Then we closed that cave forever with a door that was not of metal or stone,
but of invulnerable force.
"That wall of energy was a screen of vibrations controlled by the generator inside
a tiny projector. You, Jarl Keith, have that projector the rune key! Only the rune
key can unlock the door of Loki's cave-prison. Until it is unlocked, Loki must lie
there with his two dreadful familiars in suspended animation.
"But though Loki's body lies frozen, his mind is awake and active, and he seeks
by mental forces to free himself. We had given the wardership of the rune key to
Odur, husband of Freya, one of our greatest jarls. Loki's mind worked from afar
upon Odur by telepathic command, attempting to force the keeper of the key to
release Loki.
"Fearing that Loki's telepathic orders might some day succeed, I commanded
Odur to take the rune key and travel to the great ocean far outside icy Niffleheim,
and fling it into the deepest sea. Then, I thought, Loki would not be able to bring the
key back into Asgard, and would never manage to escape his doom. Odur took the
rune key and went beyond the ice of Niffleheim, and flung the key into the ocean as I
bade.
"But before he could return across the ice, Odur and his wife Freya and their
party were lost. I think now that they reached the lands of your outer world, and that
their tales of the Aesir and Asgard started the myths you mentioned, Jarl Keith. But
we thought ourselves safe, with the rune key resting in the ocean deeps far outside
Asgard.
"For even did a stranger chance to find the key in some future day, the runes upon
it would warn him. In case he could not read the runes, the key was constructed to
telepath a constant thought message. He would receive a constant mental warning to
get rid of the key."
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