ancient giant named Vafþrúðnir. There, with their heads wagered over the outcome, the two engage in a wisdom contest about how the world was created, who inhabits it, and what will come of it when the gods and giants battle one last time at the world-ending Ragnarok. The qualities that popular imagination sees in the Vikings - bravery, courage, and cunning - are the very qualities that the two adversaries display in their deadly game. By the time the game ends, and the poem with it, the reader has witnessed a vista not only of the terror and mystery of medieval Scandinavia but of its beauty as well.

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