# The Younger Edda (tr. Anderson)/Notes

NOTES.
ENEA.
The Enea mentioned in the Foreword to Gylfe's Fooling refers to the settlement of western Europe, where Æneas is said to have founded a city on the Tiber. Bergmann, however, in his Fascination de Gulfi, page 28, refers it to the Thracian town Ainos.
HERIKON.
Herikon is undoubtedly a mutilated form for Erichthonios. The genealogy here given corresponds with the one given in the Iliad, Book 20, 215.
THE HISTORICAL ODIN.
The historical or anthropomorphized Odin, described in the Foreword to the Fooling of Gylfe, becomes interesting when we compare it with Snorre's account of that hero in Heimskringla, and then compare both accounts with the Roman traditions about Æneas. Of course the whole story is only a myth; but we should remember that in the minds and hearts of our ancestors it served every purpose of genuine history. Our fathers accepted it in as good faith as any christian ever believed in the gospel of Christ, and so it had a similar influence in moulding the social, religious, political and literary life of our ancestors. We become interested in this legend as ​much as if it were genuine history, on account of the influence it wielded upon the minds and hearts of a race destined to act so great a part in the social, religious and political drama of Europe. We look into this and other ancestral myths, and see mirrored in them all that we afterward find to be reliable history of the old Teutons. In the same manner we are interested in the story told about Romulus and Remus, about Mars and the wolf. This Roman myth is equally prophetic in reference to the future career of Rome. The warlike Mars, the rapacity of the wolf, and the fratricide Romulus, form a mirror in which we see reflected the whole historical development of the Romans; so that the story of Romulus is a vest-pocket edition of the history of Rome.
There are many points of resemblance between this old story of Odin and the account that Yirgil gives us of Æneas, the founder of the Latin race; and it is believed that, while Virgil imitated Homer, he based his poem upon a legend current among his countrymen. The Greeks in Yirgil' s poem are Pompey and the Romans in our Teutonic story. The Trojans correspond to Mithridates and his allies. Æneas and Odin are identical. Just as Odin, a heroic defender of Mithridates, after traversing various unknown countries, finally reaches the north of Europe, organizes the various Teutonic kingdoms, settles his sons upon the thrones of Germany, England, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and instructs his people to gather strength and courage, so as eventually to take revenge on the cursed Romans; so Æneas, one of the most valiant defenders of Troy, after many adventures in various lands, at length settles in Italy, ​and becomes the founder of a race that in course of time is to wreak vengeance upon the Greeks. The prophecy contained in the Roman legend was fulfilled by Metellus and Munmiius, in the years 147 and 146 before Christ, when the Romans became the conquerors of Greece. The prophecy contained in our Teutonic legend foreshadowed with no less unrelenting necessity the downfall of proud Rome, when the Teutonic commander Odoacer, in the year 476 after Christ, dethroned, not Romulus, brother of Remus, but Romulus Augustulus, son of Orestes. Thus history repeats itself. Roman history begins and ends with Romulus; and we fancy we can see some connection between Od-in and Od-oacer. "As the twig is bent the tree is inclined."
It might be interesting to institute a similar comparison between our Teutonic race-founder Odin and Ulysses, king of Ithaca, but the reader will have to do this for himself.
In one respect our heroes differ. The fall of Troy and the wanderings of Ulysses became the theme of two great epic poems among the Greeks. The wanderings and adventures of Æneas, son of Anchises, were fashioned into a lordly epic by Yirgil for the Romans. But the much-traveled man, the ἀνὴρ πολύθροπος, the weapons and the hero, Odin, who, driven by the norns, first came to Teutondom and to the Baltic shores, has not yet been sung. This wonderful expedition of our race-founder, which, by giving a historic cause to all the later hostilities and conflicts between the Teutons and the Romans, might, as suggested by Gibbon, supply the noble ground-work of an epic poem as thrilling as the Æneid of Yirgil, has not yet ​been woven into a song for our race, and we give our readers this full account of Odin from the Heimskringla in connection with the Foreword to Gylfe's Fooling, with the hope that among our readers there may be found some descendant of Odin, whose skaldic wings are but just fledged for the flights he hopes to take, who will take a draught, first from Mimer' s gushing fountain, then from Suttung' s mead, brought by Odin to Asgard, and consecrate himself and his talents to this legend with all the ardor of his soul. For, as William Morris so beautifully says of the Yolsung Saga, this is the great story of the Teutonic race, and should be to us what the tale of Troy was to the Greeks, and what the tale of Æneas was to the Romans, to all our race first and afterward, when the evolution of the world has made the Teutonic race nothing more than a name of what it has been; a story, too, then, should it be to the races that come after us, no less than the Iliad, and the Odyssey and the Æneid have been to us. We sincerely trust that we shall see Odin wrought into a Teutonic epic, that will present in grand outline the contrast between the Eoman and the Teuton. And now we are prepared to give the Heimskringla account of the historical Odin. We have adopted Samuel Laing's translation, with a few verbal alterations where such seemed necessary.
It is said that the earth's circle (Heimskringla), which the human race inhabits, is torn across into many bights, so that great seas run into the land from the out-ocean. Thus it is known that a great ​sea goes into Njorvasound, and up to the land of Jerusalem. From the same sea a long sea-bight stretches toward the northeast, and is called the Black Sea, and divides the three parts of the earth; of which the eastern part is called Asia, and the western is called by some Europe, by some Enea. Northward of the Black Sea lies Svithjod the Great, or the Cold. The Great Svithjod is reckoned by some not less than the Saracens' land, others compare it to the Great Blueland. The northern part of Svithjod lies uninhabited on account of frost and cold, as likewise the southern parts of Blueland are waste from the burning sun. In Svithjod are many great domains, and many wonderful races of men, and many kinds of languages. There are giants, and there are dwarfs, and there are also blue men. There are wild beasts and dreadfully large dragons. On the north side of the mountains, which lie outside of all inhabited lands, runs a river through Svithjod, which is properly called by the name of Tanais, but was formerly called Tanaquisl or Yanaquisl, and which falls into the ocean at ​the Black Sea. The country of the people on the Yanaquisl was called Yanaland or Yanaheim, and the river separates the three parts of the world, of which the easternmost is called Asia and the westernmost Europe.
The country east of the Tanaquisl in Asia was called Asaland or Asaheim, and the chief city in that land was called Asgard. In that city was a chief called Odin, and it was a great place for sacrifice. It was the custom there that twelve temple-priests should both direct the sacrifices and also judge the people. They were called priests or masters, and all the people served and obeyed them. Odin was a great and very far-traveled warrior, who conquered many kingdoms, and so successful was he that in every battle the victory was on his side. It was the belief of his people that victory belonged to him in every battle. It was his custom when he sent his men into battle, or on any expedition, that he first laid his hand upon their heads, and called down a blessing upon them; and then they believed their undertaking would be successful. ' His people also were accustomed, whenever they fell into danger by land or sea, to call upon his name; and they thought ​that always they got comfort and aid by it, for where he was they thought help was near. Often he went away so long that he passed many seasons on his journeys.
Odin had two brothers, the one hight Ve, the other Vile, and they governed the kingdom when he was absent. It happened once when Odin had gone to a great distance, and had been so long away that the people of Asia doubted if he would ever return home, that his two brothers took it upon themselves to divide his estate; but both of them took his wife Frigg to themselves. Odin soon after returned home, and took his wife back.
Odin went out with a great army against the Yanaland people; but they were well prepared, and defended their land, so that victory was changeable, and they ravaged the lands of each other and did great damage. They tired of this at last, and, on both sides appointing a meeting for establishing peace, made a truce and exchanged hostages. The Yanaland people sent their best men,—Njord the Ivich and his son Frey; the people of Asaland sent a man hight Hæner, as he was a stout and very handsome man, and with him they sent a man of great understanding, called Mimer; and on the other side the Yanaland people sent the wisest man in their community, who was called Quaser. Now when Hæner came to Yanaheim he was immediately made a chief, and Mimer came to him with good counsel on all occasions. But when Hæner stood in the Things, or other meetings, if Mimer was not near him, and any difficult matter was ​laid before him, he always answered in one way: Now let others give their advice; so that the Yanaland people got a suspicion that the Asaland people had deceived them in the exchange of men. They took Mimer, therefore, and beheaded him, and sent his head to the Asaland people. Odin took the head, smeared it with herbs, so that it should not rot, and sang incantations over it. Thereby he gave it the power that it spoke to him, and discovered to him many secrets. Odin placed Njord and Frey as priests of the sacrifices, and they became deities of the Asaland people. Njord' s daughter, Freyja, was priestess of the sacrifices, and first taught the Asaland people the magic art, as it was in use and fashion among the Yanaland people. While Njord was with the Yanaland people he had taken his own sister in marriage, for that was allowed by their law; and their children were Frey and Freyja. But among the Asaland people it was forbidden to come together in so near relationship.
There goes a great mountain barrier from northeast to southwest, which divides the Great Svithjod from other kingdoms. South of this mountain ridge is not ​far to Turkland, where Odin had great possessions. But Odin, having foreknowledge and magic-sight, knew that his posterity would come to settle and dwell in the northern half of the world. In those times the Eoman chiefs went wide around the world, subduing to themselves all people; and on this account many chiefs fled from their domains. Odin set his brothers ​Vile and Ye over Asgard, and he himself, with all the gods and a great many other people, wandered out, first westward to Gardarike (Eussia), and then south to Saxland (Germany). He had many sons, and ​after having subdued an extensive kingdom in Saxland lie set his sons to defend the country. He himself v^ent northward to the sea, and took up his abode in an island which is called Odinse (see note below), in Funen. Then he sent Gefjun across the sound to the north to discover new countries, and she came to King Gylfe, who gave her a ploughland. Then she went to Jotunheim and bore four sons to a giant, and transformed them into a yoke of oxen, and yoked them to a plough and broke out the land into the ocean, right opposite to Odinse, which was called Seeland, where she afterward settled and dwelt. Skjold, a son of Odin, married her, and they dwelt at Leidre. Where the ploughed land was, is a lake or sea called Laage. In the Swedish land the fjords of Laage correspond to the nesses of Seeland. Brage the old sings thus of it:
Gefjun glad Drew from Gylfe The excellent land, Denmark's increase, So that it reeked From the running beasts. Four heads and eight eyes Bore the oxen. As they went before the wide Robbed land of the grassy isle.
Now when Odin heard that things were in a prosperous condition in the land to the east beside Gylfe, ​he went thither, and Gylfe made a peace with him, for Gylfe thought he had no strength to oppose the people of Asaland. Odin and Gylfe had many tricks and enchantments against each other; but the Asaland people had always the superiority. Odin took up his residence at the Malar lake, at the place now called Sigtun. There he erected a large temple, where there were sacrifices according to the customs of the Asaland people. He appropriated to himself the whole of that district of country, and called it Sigtun. To the temple gods he gave also domains. Njord dwelt in IsToatun, Frey in Upsal, Heimdal in Himinbjorg, Thor in Thrudvang, Balder in Breidablik; to all of them he gave good domains.
When Odin of Asaland came to the north, and the gods with him, he began to exercise and to teach others the arts which the people long afterward have practiced. Odin was the cleverest of all, and from him all others learned their magic arts; and he knew them first, and knew many more than other people. But now, to tell why he is held in such high respect, we must mention various causes that contributed to it. When sitting among his friends his countenance was so beautiful and friendly, that the spirits of all were exhilarated by it; but when he was in war, he appeared fierce and dreadful. This arose from his being able to ​change his color and form in any way he liked. Another cause was, that he conversed so cleverly and smoothly, that all who heard were persuaded. He spoke everything in rhyme, such as is now composed, and which we call skald-craft. He and his temple gods were called song-smiths, for from them came that art of song into the northern countries. Odin could make his enemies in battle blind or deaf, or terror-struck, and their weapons so blunt that they could no more cut than a willow-twig; on the other hand, his men rushed forward without armor, were as mad as dogs or wolves, bit their shields, and were strong as bears or wild bulls, and killed people at a blow, and neither fire nor iron told upon them. These were called berserks.
Odin could transform his shape; his body would lie as if dead or asleep, but then he would be in the shape of a fish, or worm, or bird, or beast, and be off ​in a twinkling to distant lands upon his own or other peoples' business. With words alone he could quench fire, still the ocean in tempest, and turn the wind to any quarter he pleased. Odin had a ship, which he called Skidbladner, in which he sailed over wide seas, and which he could roll up like a cloth. Odin carried with him Mimer' s head, which told him all the news of other countries. Sometimes even he called the dead out of the earth, or set himself beside the burial-mounds; whence he was called the ghostsovereign, and the lord of the mounds. He had two ravens, to whom he had taught ^he speech of man; and they flew far and wide through the land, and brought him the news. In all such things he was preeminently wise. He taught all these arts in runes and songs, which are called incantations, and therefore the Asaland people are called incantation-smiths. Odin also understood the art in which the greatest power is lodged, and which he himself practiced, namely, what is called magic. By means of this he could know beforehand the predestined fate of men, or their not yet completed lot, and also bring on the death, ill-luck or bad health of people, or take away the strength or wit from one person and give it to another. But after such witchcraft followed such ​weakness and anxiety, that it was not thoiiglit respectable for men to practice it; and therefore the priestesses were brought up in this art. Odin knew definitely where all missing cattle were concealed under the earth, and understood the songs by which the earth, the hills, the stones and mounds were opened to him; and lie bound those who dwell in them by the power of his word, and went in and took what he pleased. From these arts he became very celebrated. His enemies dreaded him; his friends put their trust in him, and relied on his power and on himself. He taught the most of his arts to his priests of the sacrifices, and they came nearest to himself in all wisdom and witch-knowledge. Many others, however, occupied themselves much with it; and from that time witchcraft spread far and wide, and continued long. People sacrificed to Odin, and the twelve chiefs of Asaland,—called them their gods, and believed in them long after. From Odin's name came the name Audun, which people gave to his sons; and from Thor's name came Thorer, also Thorarinn; and it was also sometimes augmented by other additions, as Steinthor, Hafthor, and many kinds of alterations.
Odin established the same law in his land that had been before in Asaland. Thus he established by law that all dead men should be burned, and their property laid with them upon the pile, and the ashes be cast into the sea or buried in the earth. Thus, said he, everyone will come to Yalhal with the riches he had with him upon the pile; and he would also enjoy whatever he himself had buried in the earth. For men of consequence a mound should be raised to their memory, and for all other warriors who had been ​distinguished for manhood, a standing stone; which custom remained long after Odin's time. Toward winter there should be a blood-sacrifice for a good year, and in the middle of winter for a good crop; and the third sacrifice should be in summer, for victory in battle. Over all Svithjod the people paid Odin a scatt, or tax,—so much on each head; but he had to defend the country from enemy or disturbance, and pay the expense of the sacrifice-feasts toward winter for a good year.
y^ Ifjord took a wife liight Skade; but she would not live with him, but married afterward Odin, and had many sons by him, of whom one was called Saming, and of this Ey vind Skaldespiller sings thus:
To Asason Queen Skade bore Saming, who dyed his shiekl in gore, — The giant queen of rock and snow Who loves to dwell on earth below, The iron pine-tree's daughter she, Sprung from the rocks that rib the sea, To Odin bore full many a son, — Heroes of many a battle won.
To Saming Jarl Hakon the Great reckoned up his pedigree. This Svithjod (Sweden) they call Mannheim, but the great Svithjod they call Godheim, and of Godlieim great wonders and novelties were related.
Odin died in his bed in Sweden; and when he was near his death he made himself be marked with the point of a spear, and said he was going to Godheim, ​and would give a welcome there to all his friends, and all brave warriors should be dedicated to him; and the Swedes believed that he was gone to the ancient Asgard, and would live there eternally. Then began the belief in Odin, and the calling upon him. The Swedes believed that he often showed himself to them before any great battle. To some he gave victory, others he invited to himself; and they reckoned both of these to be well off in their fate. Odin was burnt, and at his pile there was great splendor. It was their faith that the higher the smoke arose in the air, the higher would he be raised whose pile it was; and the richer he would be the more property that was consumed with him.
Njord of ISToatun was then the sole sovereign of the Swedes; and he continued the sacrifices, and was called the drot, or sovereign, by the Swedes, and he received scatt and gifts from them. In his days were peace and plenty, and such good years in all respects that the Swedes believed Njord ruled over the growth of seasons and the prosperity of the people. In his time all the diars, or gods, died, and blood-sacrifices were made for them. Njord died on a bed of sickness, and before he died made himself be marked for Odin with the spear-point. The Swedes burned him, and all wept over his grave-mound.
Frey took the kingdom after Njord, and was called drot by the Swedes, and they paid taxes to him. He was like his father, fortunate in friends and in good seasons. Frey built a great temple at Upsala, made it his chief seat, and gave it all his taxes, his land and goods. Then began the Upsala domains, which have remained ever since. Then began in his day the ​Frode-peace; and then there were good seasons in all the land, which the Swedes ascribed to Frej, so that he was more worshiped than the other gods, as the people became much richer in his days by reason of the peace and good seasons. His wife was called Gerd, daughter of Gymer, and their son was called Fjolner. Frey was called by another name, Yngve; and this name Yngve was considered long after in his race as a name of honor, so that his descendants have since been called Ynglings {i. e. Yngvelings). Frey fell into a sickness, and as his illness took the upper hand, his men took the plan of letting few approach him. In the meantime they raised a great mound, in which they placed a door with three holes in it. Now when Frey died they bore him secretly into the mound, but told the Swedes he was alive, and they kept watch over him for three years. They brought all the taxes into the mound, and through the one hole they put in the gold, through the other the silver, and through the third the copper money that was paid. Peace and good seasons continued.
Freyja alone remained of the gods, and she became on this account so celebrated that all women of distinction were called by her name, whence they now have the title Frue (Germ. Frat so that every woman is called frue (that is, mistress) over her property, and the wife is called the house-frue. Freyja continued the blood-sacrifices. Freyja had also many other names. Her husband was called Oder, and her daughters Hnos and Gersame. They were so very beautiful that afterward the most precious jewels were called by their names. ​When it became known to the Swedes that Frey was dead, and yet peace and good seasons continued, they believed that it must be so as long as Frey remained in Sweden, and therefore they would not burn his remains, but called hirh the god of this world, and afterward offered continually blood-sacrifices to him, principally for peace and good seasons.
FORNJOT AND THE SETTLEMENT OF NORWAY.
In the asa-faith we find various foreign elements introduced. Thus, for example, the vans did not originally belong to the Odinic system. As the Teutons came in contact with other races, the religious ideas of the latter were frequently adopted in some modified form. Especially do Finnish elements enter into the asa-system. The Finnish god of thunder was Ukko. He is supposed to have been confounded with our Thor, whence the latter got the name Oku-Thor (Ukko-ThorV The vans may be connected with the Finnish Wainamoinen, and in the same manner a number of Celtic elements have been mixed with Teutonic mythology. And this is not all. There must have flourished a religious system in the North before the arrival of Odin and ​his apostles. This was probably either Tslmdic or Celtic, or a mixture of the two. The asa-doctrine superseded it, but there still remain traces in some of the oldest records of the North. Thus we have in the prehistoric sagas of Iceland an account of the finding of Norway, wherein it is related that Fornjot, in Jotland, which is also called Finland or Quenland, east of the Gulf of Bothnia, had three sons: Hler. also called Æger, Loge and Kare. Of Loge it is related that he was of giant descent, and, being very tall of stature, he was called Haloge, that is, High Loge; and after him the northern part of Norway is called Hålogaland (now Helgeland). He was married to Glod (a red-hot coal), and had with her two daughters, Eysa and Eimyrja; both words meaning glowing embers. Haloge had two jarls, Yifil (the one taking a vif=wife) and Yesete (the one who sits at the've—the sanctuary, that is, the dweller by the hearth, the first sanctuary), who courted his daughters; the former addressing himself to Eimyrja, the latter to Eysa, but the king refusing to give his consent, they carried them away secretly. Vesete settled in Borgundarholm (Bornholm), and had a son. Bue (one who settles on a farm); Yifil sailed further east and settled on the island Yifilsey, on the coast of Sweden, and had a son, Yiking (the pirate).
The third son. Kare, had a numerous ofispring. He had one son by name Jokul (iceberg), another Froste ​(frost), and Froste's son was named Sna (snow). He had a third son, by name Thorri (bare frost), after whom the mid-winter month, Thorra-month, was called; and his daughters hight Fonn (packed snow), Drifa (snow-drift), and Mjoll (meal, fine snow). All these correspond well to Kare's name, which, as stated, means wind. Thorri had two sons, IS^or and Gor, and a daughter, Goe. The story goes on to tell how Goe, the sister, was lost, and how the brothers went to search for her, until they finally found him who had robbed her. He was Hrolf, from the mountain, a son of the giant Svade, and a grandson of Asa-Tlior. They settled their trouble, and thereupon Hrolf married Goe, and Nor married Hrolf 's sister, settled in the land and called it after his own name, Norvegr, that is, Norway. By this story we are reminded of Kadmos, who went to seek his lost sister Europa. In the Younger Edda the winds are called the sons of Fornjot, the sea is called the son of Fornjot, and the brother of the fire and of the winds, and Fornjot is named among the old giants. This makes it clear that Fornjot and his offspring are not historical persons, but cosmological impersonations. And additional proof of this is found by an examination of the beginning of the Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son. (See Yiking Tales of the North, pp. 1 and 2).
THE FOOLING OF GYLFE.
CHAPTER I.
This story about the ploughing of Gylfe reminds us of the legend told in the first book of Yirgil's Æneid, about the founding of Carthage by Dido, who bought from the Libyan king as much ground as she could cover with a bull's hide. Elsewhere it is related that she cut the bull's hide into narrow strips and encircled therewith all the ground upon which Carthage was afterward built. Thus Dido deceived the Libyan king nearly as eiFectually as Gef jun deluded King Gylfe. The story is also told by Snorre in Heimskringla, see p. 231.
The passage in verse, which has given translators so much trouble in a transposed form, would read as follows: Gef jun glad drew that excellent land (djuprodul = the deep sun = gold; o6la = udal = property; djuprodul o^la = the golden property), Denmark's increase (Seeland), so that it reeked (steamed) from the running oxen. The oxen bore four heads and eight eyes, as they went before the wide piece of robbed land of the isle so rich in grass.
CHAPTER II.
It is to the delusion or eye-deceit mentioned in this chapter that Snorre Sturlasson refers in his Heimskringla, in Chapter YI of Ynglingla Saga.
Thjodolf of Hvin was a celebrated skald at the court of Harald Fairhair.
Thinking thatchers, etc. Literally transposed, this passage would read: Reflecting men let shields (literally Svafner's, that is Odin's roof-trees,) glisten on the back. They were smitten with stones. To let shields glisten on the back, is said of men who throw their shields on their backs to protect themselves against those who pursue the flying host.
Har means the High One, Jafnhar the Equally High One, and Thride the Third One. By these three may be meant the three chief gods of the IS^orth: Odin, Thor and Frey; or they may be simply an expression of the Eddie trinity. This trinity is represented in a number of ways: by Odin, Vile and Ve in the creation of the world, and by Odin, Hæner and Loder in the creation of Ask and Embla, the first human pair. The number three figures extensively in all mythological systems. In the pre-chaotic state we have Muspelheim, Niflheim and Ginungagap. Fornjot had three sons: Hler, Loge and Kare. There are three norns: Urd, Verdande and Skuld. There are three fountains: Hvergelmer, Urd's and Mimer's; etc. (See ISTorse Mythology, pp. 183, 195, 196.)
Har being Odin, Har's Hall will be Yalhal. You will not come out from this hall unless you are wiser. In the lay of Yafthrudner, of the Elder Edda, we ​have a similar challenge, where Yafthrudner sajs to Odin:
Out will you not come From our halls Unless I find you to be wiser (than I am).
CHAPTER III.
This chapter gives twelve names of Odin. In the Eddas and in the skaldic lays he has in all nearly two hundred names. His most common name is Odin (in Anglo-Saxon and in Old High German Wodan), and this is thought by many to be of the same origin as our word god. The other Old Norse word for god, tivi, is identical in root with Lat. divus * Sansk. dwaH Gr. ^16q {Ztuq)-^ and this is again connected with Tyi the Tivisco in the Germania of Tacitus. (See Max Miiller's Lectures on the Science of Language, 2d series, p. 425). Paulus Diakonus states that Wodan, or Gwodan, was worshiped by all branches of the Teutons. Odin has also been sought and found in the Scythian Zalmoxis^ in the Indian Buddha^ in the Celtic Budd, and in the Mexican Yotan. Zalmoxis, derived from the Gr. Zalfibq^ helmet, reminds us of Odin as the helmet-bearer (Grimm, Gesch. der Deutschen Sprache). According to Humboldt, a race in Guatemala, Mexico, claim to be descended from Yotan (Yues des Cordilléres, 1817, I, 208). This suggests the question whether Odin's name may not have been brought to America by the Norse discoverers in the 10th and 11th centuries, and adopted by some of the native races. In the Lay of Grimner (Elder Edda) the following names of Odin are enumerated:
Grim is my name And Ganglere, Herj an and Helmet-bearer, Thekk and Thride, Thud and Ud, Helblmde and Har,
Sad and Svipal, And Sanngetal, Herteit and Hnikar, Bileyg and Baleyg, Bolverk, Fjolner, Grim and Grimner, Glapsvid and Fjolsvid,
Sidhot, Sidskeg-, Sigfather, Hnikud, Alfather, Vaifather, Atrid and Farmatyr. With one name Was I never named When 1 fared 'mong the peoples,
Grimner they called me Here at Geirrod's, But Jalk at Asmund 's. And Kjalar the time When sleds (kjalka) I drew, And Thror at the Thing, Vidur on the battle-field, Oske and Ome, Jafnhar and Biflinde, Gondler and Harbard 'mong the gods.
Svidur and Svidre Hight I at Sokmimer's, And fooled the ancient giant When I alone Midvitne's, The mighty son's. Bane had become.
​Odin I now am called, Ygg was my name before, Before that 1 hight Thund, Vak and Skilfing, Vafud and Hroptatyr, Got and Jalk 'mong the gods, Ofner and Svafner. All these names, 1 trow, Have to me alone been given.
'V What the etymology of all these names is, it is not yf easy to tell. The most of them are clearly Norse words, and express the various activities of their owner. It is worthy of notice that it is added when and where Odin bore this or that name (his name was Grim at Geirrod's, Jalk at Asmund' s, etc.), and that the words sometimes indicate a progressive development, as Thund, then Ygg, and then Odin. First he was a mere sound in the air (Thund), then he took to thinking (Ygg), and at last he became the inspiring soul of the universe. Although we are unable to define all these names, they certainly each have a distinct meaning, and our ancestors certainly understood them perfectly. Har = the High One; Jafnhar = the Equally High One; Thride = the Third {Zebq akXuq and Tpiroq); Alfather probably contracted from AldcddÅhev = the Father of the Ages and the Creations; Yeratyr—the Lord of Beings; Kogner = the Ruler (from regin); Got (Gautr, from gjota^ to cast)—the Creator, Lat. Instillator; Mjotud = the Creator, the word being allied to Anglo-Saxon meotod^ metod^ Germ. Messe7 and means originally cutter; but to cut and to make are synonymous. Such names as these have reference to Odin's divinity as creator, arranger and ruler of gods and men. Svid and Fjol​svid = the swift, the wise; Ganglere, Gangrad and Vegtam = the wanderer, the waywont; Vidrer = the weather-ruler, together with serpent-names like Ofner, Svafner, etc., refer to Odin's knowledge, his journeys, the various shapes he assumes. Permeating all nature, he appears in all its forms. Names like Sidhot—the slouchy hat; Sidskeg = the long-beard; Baleyg = the burning-eye; Grimner = the masked; Jalk (Jack) = the youth, etc., express the various forms in which he was thought to appear,—to his slouchy hat, his long beard, or his age, etc. Such names as Sanngetal = the true investigator; Farmatyr = the cargo-god, etc., refer to his various occupations as inventor, discoverer of runes, protector of trade and commerce, etc. C Finally, all such names as Herfather = father of hosts; Herjan = the devastator; Sigfather = the father of victory; Sigtyr = god of victory; Skilling = producing trembling; Hnikar = the breaker, etc., represent Odin as the god of war and victory. Oske = wish, is thus called because he gratifies our desires. Gimle, as will be seen later, is the abode of the blessed after Ragnarok. Vingolf (Yin and golf) means friends' floor, and is the hall of the goddesses. Hel is the goddess of death, and from her name our word hell is derived. Our ancestors divided the universe into nine worlds: the uppermost was Muspelheim (the world of light); the lowest was Niflheim (the world of darkness). Compare the Greek word vzipily = mist. (See Norse Mythology, p. 187.) (^^ "^
GiNUNGAGAP. Ginn means wide, large, far-reaching, perhaps also void (compare the Anglo-Saxon gin = gaping, open, spacious; ginian = to gap; and gin​nung = a yawning). Ginungagap thus means the yawning gap or abyss, and represents empty space. The poets use ginnung in the sense of a fish and of a hawk, and in geographical saga-fragments it is used as the name of the Polar Sea.
HvERGELMEK. Tliis word is usually explained as a transposition for Hvergemler, which would then be derived from Hver and gamall (old) = the old kettle; but Petersen shows that gelniir must be taken from galm, which is still found in the Jutland dialect, and means a gale (compare Golmstead = a windy place, and (/olme = to roar, blow). Gelmer is then the one producing galm, and Hvergelmer thus means the roaring kettle. The twelve rivers proceeding from Hvergelmer are called the Elivogs (Élivågar) in the next chapter. Eli-vagar means, according to Vigfusson, ice-waves. The most of the names occur in the long list of river names given in the Lay of Grimner, of the Elder Edda. Svol = the cool; Gunnthro = the battle-trough. Slid is also mentioned in the Yala's Prophecy, where it is represented as being full of mud and swords. Sylg (from svelgja = to swallow) = the devourer; Ylg (from yla = to roar) = the roaring one; Leipt = the glowing, is also mentioned in the Lay of Helge Hunding's Bane, where it is stated that they swore by it (compare Styx); Gjoil (from gjalla — to glisten and clang) = the shining, clanging one. The meaning of the other words is not clear, but they doubtless all, like those explained, express cold, violent motion, etc. The most noteworthy of these rivers are Leipt and Gjoll. In the Lay of Grimner they are said to flow nearest to the abode of man, and fall thence into Hel's realm. Over Gjoll was ​the bridge which Hermod, after the death of Balder, crossed on his way to HeL It is said to be thatched with shining gold, and a maid by name Modgud watches it. In the song of Sturle Thordson, on the death of Skule Jarl, it is said that "the king's kinsman went over the Gjoll-bridge." The farther part of the horizon, which often appears like a broad bright stream, may have suggested this river.
SuRT means the swarthy or black one. Many have regarded him as the unknown (dark) god, but this is probably an error. But there was some one in Muspelheim who sent the heat, and gave life to the frozen drops of rime. The latter, and not Surt, who is a giant, is the eternal god, the mighty one, whom the skald in the Lay of Hyndla dare not name. It is interesting to notice that our ancestors divided the evolution of the world into three distinct periods: (1) a pre-chaotic condition (Niflheim, Muspelheim and Ginungagap); (2) a chaotic condition (Ymer and the cow Audhumbla); (3) and finally the three gods, Odin (spirit). Vile (will) and Ye (sanctity), transformed chaos into cosmos. And away back in this pre-chaotic state of the world we find this mighty being who sends the heat. It is not definitely stated, but it can be inferred from other passages, that just as the good principle existed from everlasting in Muspelheim, so the evil principle existed co-eternally with it in Hvergelmer in Niflheim. Hvergelmer is the source out of which all matter first proceeded, and the dragon or devil Nidhug, who dwells in Hvergelmer, is, in our opinion, the evil principle who is from eternity. The good principle shall continue forever, but the evil shall cease to exist after Kaa'narok.
​Ymer is the noisy one, and his name is derived from ymja—to howl (compare also the Finnish deity Jumo, after whom the town Umea takes its name, like Odinse).
AuRGELMER, Thrudgelmer and Bergelmer express the gradual development from aur (clay) to thrud (that which is compressed), and finally to berg (rock).
YiDOLF, Yilmeide and Svarthofde are mentioned nowhere else in the mythology.
BuRE and Bor mean the bearing and the born; that is, father and son.
BoLTHORN means the miserable one, from bol = evil; and Bestla may mean that which is best. The idea then is that Bor united himself with that which was best of the miserable material at hand.
That the flood caused by the slaying of Ymer reminds us of Noah and his ark, and of the Greek flood, needs only to be suggested.
CHAPTER IV.
Ask means an ash-tree, and Embla an elm-tree.
While the etymology of the names in the myths are very obscure, the myths themselves are clear enough. Similar myths abound in Greek mythology. The story about Bil and Hjuke is our old English rhyme about Jack and Gill, who went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.
CHAPTER V.
In reference to the golden age, see Norse Mythology, pp. 182 and 197.
In the appendix to the German so-called HeroBook we are told that the dwarfs were first created ​to cultivate the desert lands and the mountains; thereupon the giants, to subdue the wild beasts; and finally the heroes, to assist the dwarfs against the treacherous giants. While the giants are always hostile to the gods, the dwarfs are usually friendly to them.
Dwarfs. Both giants and dwarfs shun the light. If surprised by the breaking forth of day, they become changed to stone. In one of the poems of the Elder Edda (the Alvismal), Thor amuses the dwarf Alvis with various questions till daylight, and then cooly says to him: With great artifices, I tell you, you have been deceived; you are surprised here, dwarf, by daylight! The sun now shines in the hall. In the Helgakvida Atle says to the giantess Hrimgerd: It is now day, Hrimgerd! But Atle has detained you, to your life's perdition. It will appear a laughable harbor-mark, where you stand as a stoneimage.
In the German tales the dwarfs are described as deformed and diminutive, coarsely clad and of dusky hue: *' a little black man," a little gray man. They are sometimes of the height of a child of four years, sometimes as two spans high, a thumb high (hence, Tom Thumb). The old Danish ballad of Eline of Yillenwood mentions a troll not bigger than an ant. Dvergmål (the speech of the dwarfs) is the Old Norse expression for the echo in the mountains.
In the later popular belief, the dwarfs are generally called the subterraneans, the brown men in the moor, etc. They make themselves invisible by a hat or hood. The women spin and weave, the men are smiths. In Norway rock-crystal is called dwarf-stone. Certain ​stones are in Denmark called dwarf-hammers. Thej borrow things and seek advice from peo])le, and beg aid for their wives when in labor, all which services they reward. But they also lame cattle, are thievish, and will carry off damsels. There have been instances of dwarf females having married and had children with men. (Thorpe's IN^orthern Mythology.)
Wak. It was the first warfare in the world, says the Elder Edda, when they pierced Gullveig (goldthirst) through with a spear, and burned her in Odin's hall. Thrice they burned her, thrice she was born anew: again and again, but still she lives. When she comes to a house they call her Heide (the bright, the welcome), and regard her as a propitious vala or prophetess. She can tame wolves, understands witchcraft, and delights wicked women. Hereupon the gods consulted together whether they should punish this misdeed, or accept a blood -fine, when Odin cast forth a spear among mankind, and now began war and slaughter in the world. The defenses of the burgh of the asas was broken down. The vans anticipated war, and hastened over the field. The Valkyries came from afar, ready to ride to the gods' people: Skuld with the shield. Skogul, Gunn, Hild, Gondul and Geirr Skogul. (Quoted by Thorpe. )
CHAPTER VI.
In reference to Ygdrasil, we refer our readers to Norse Mythology, pp. 205-211, and to Thomas Carlyle's Heroes and Hero-worship.
A connection between the norns Urd, Yerdande and Skuld and the weird sisters in Shakspeare's Macbeth has long since been recognized; but new light has ​recently been thrown upon the subject by the philosopher Karl Blind, who has contributed valuable articles on the subject in the German periodical "Die Gegenwart " and in the " London Academy." We take the liberty of reproducing here an abstract of his article in the "Academy":
The fact itself of these Witches being simply transfigurations, or later disguises, of the Teutonic Norns is fully established—as may be seen from Grimm or Simrock. In delineating these hags, Shakspeare has practically drawn upon old Germanic sources, perhaps upon current folk-lore of his time.
It has always struck me as noteworthy that in the greater part of the scene between the Weird Sisters, Macbeth and Banquo, and wherever the Witches come in, Shakspeare uses the staff- rime in a remarkable manner. Not only does this add powerfully to the archaic impressiveness and awe, but it also seems to bring the form and figure of the Sisters of Fate more closely within the circle of the Teutonic idea. I have pointed out this striking use of the alliterative system in Macbeth in an article on "An old German Poem and a Vedic Hymn," which appeared in Fraser in June, 1877, and in which the derivation of the Weird Sisters from the Germanic Norns is mentioned.
The very first scene in the first act of Macbeth opens strongly with the staff- rime:
1st Witch. When shall we three meet again — In thunder, lightning or in rair.?
^d Witch. When the hurly-burly' s done, When the battle's lost and won.
Sd Witch. That will be ere set of sun.
1st Witch. Where the place?
2d Witch. Upon the heath.
3d Witch. There to meet with Macbeth.
1st Witch. I come, Graymalkin I
All. Paddock calls. Anon. Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Not less marked is the adoption of the fullest staff-rime—together (as above) with the end-rime—in the third scene, when the Weird Sisters speak. Again, there is the staff-rime when Banquo addresses them. Again, the strongest alliteration, combined with the ​end-rime, runs all through the Witches' spell-song in Act iv, scene 1. This feature in Shakspeare appears to me to merit closer investigation; all the more so because a less regular alliteration, but still a marked one, is found in not a few passages of a number of his plays. Only one further instance of the systematic employment of alliteration may here be noted in passing. It is in Ariel's songs in the Tempest, Act i, scene 2. Schlegel and Tieck evidently did not observe this alliterative peculiarity. Their otherwise excellent translation does not render it, except so far as the obvious similarity of certain English and German words involuntarily made them do so. But in the notes to their version of Macbeth the character of the Weird Sisters is also misunderstood, though Warburton is referred to, who had already suggested their derivations from the Valkyrs or Norns.
It is an error to say that the Witches in Macbeth "are never called witches" (compare Act i, scene 3: "'Give me!' quoth I. 'A-roint thee, witch! ' the rump-fed ronyon cries "). However, their designation as Weird Sisters fully settles the case of their Germanic origin.
This name "Weird" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon Norn Wyrd (Sax. Wurth; 0. H. Ger. Wurd; Norse, Urd), who represents the Past, as her very name shows. Wurd is die Gewordene — the "Has Been," or rather the "Has Become," if one could say so in English.
In Shakspeare the Witches are three in number—even as in Norse, German, as well as in Keltic and other mythologies. Urd, properly speaking, is the Past. Skuld is the Future, or "That Which shall Be." Verdandi, usually translated as the Present, has an even deeper meaning. Her name is not to be derived from vera (to be), but from verda (Ger. icerden). This verb, which has a mixed meaning of "to be," "to become," or to "grow," has been lost in English. Verdandi is, therefore, not merely a representative of present Being, but of the process of Growing, or of Evolution—which gives her figure a profounder aspect. Indeed, there is generally more significance in mythological tales than those imagine who look upon them chiefly as a barren play of fancy.
Incidentally it may be remarked that, though Shakspeare's Weird Sisters are three in number—corresponding to Urd, Verdandi and Skuld—German and Northern mythology and folk-lore occasionally speak of twelve or seven of them. In the German tale of Dorn​roschen, or the Sleeping Beauty, there are twelve good fays; and a thirteenth, who works the evil spell. Once, in German folk-lore, we meet with but two Sisters of Fate—one of them called Kann, the other Muss. Perhaps these are representatives of man's measure of free will (that which he " can "), and of that which is his inevitable fate—or, that which he " must " do.
Though the word " Norn " has been lost in England and Germany, it is possibly preserved in a German folk-lore ditty, which speaks of three Sisters of Fate as "Nuns." Altogether, German folk-lore is still full of rimes about three Weird Sisters. They are sometimes called Wild Women, or Wise Women, or the Measurers {Metten)—namely, of Fate; or, euphemistically, like the Eumenides, the Advisers of Welfare {Heil-Rdthinnen), reminding us of the counsels given to Macbeth in the apparition scene; or the Quick Judges {Gach-Schepfen). Even as in the Edda, these German fays weave and twist threads or ropes, and attach them to distant parts, thus fixing the weft of Fate. One of these fays is sometimes called Held, and described as black, or as half dark half white—like Hel, the Mistress of the Nether World. That German fay is also called Rachel, clearly a contraction of Rach-Hel, i. e. the Avengeress Hel.
Now, in Macbeth also the Weird Sisters are described as "black."
The coming up of Hekate-with them in the cave-scene might not unfitly be looked upon as a parallel with the German Held, or RachHel, and the Norse Hel; these Teutonic deities being originally Goddesses of Nocturnal Darkness, and of the Nether World, even as Hekate.
In German folk-lore, three Sisters of Fate bear the names of Wilbet, Worbet and Ainbet. Etymologically these names seem to refer to the well-disposed nature of a fay representing the Past; to the warring or v/orrying troubles of the Present; and to the terrors {Ain = Agin) of the Future. All over southern Germany, from Austria to Alsace and Rhenish Hesse, the three fays are known under various names besides Wilbet, Worbet, and Ainbet—for instance, as Mechtild, Ottilia, and Gertraud; as Irmina, Adela, and Chlothildis, and so forth. The fay in the middle of this trio is always a good fay, a white fay—but blind. Her treasure (the very names of Ottilia and Adela point to a treasure) is continually being taken from her by the third fay, a dark and evil one, as well as by the first. This myth has been interpreted as meaning that the Present, being blinded as to its own existence, is continually being encroached upon, robbed as it were, by the dark Future and the Past. ​Of this particular trait there is no vestige in Shakspeare's Weird Sisters. They, like the Norns, "go hand in hand." But there is another point which claims attention: Shakspeare's Witches are bearded. ("You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so." Act i, scene 3.)
It need scarcely be brought to recollection that a commingling of the female and male character occurs in the divine and semi- divine figures of various mythological systems—including the Bearded Venus. Of decisive importance is, however, the fact of a bearded Weird Sister having apparently been believed m by our heathen German forefathers.
Near Wessobrunn, m Upper Bavaria, where the semi-heathen fragment of a cosmogonic lay, known as "Wessobrunn Prayer," was discovered, there has also been found, of late, a rudely-sculptured three-headed image. It is looked upon as an ancient effigy of the German Norns. The Cloister of the three Holy Bournes, or Fountains, which stands close by the place of discovery, is supposed to have been set up on ground that had once served for pagan worship. Probably the later monkish establishment of the Three Holy Bournes had taken the place of a similarly named heathen sanctuary where the three Sisters of Fate were once adored. Indeed, the name of all the corresponding fays in yet current German folk-lore is connected with holy wells. This quite fits in with the three Eddie Bournes near the great Tree of Existence, at one of which—apparently at the oldest, which is the very Source of Being — the Norns live, " the maidens that over the Sea of Age travel in deep foreknowledge, ' ' and of whom it is said that:
They laid the lots; they ruled the life To the sons of men, their fate foretelling.
Now, curiously enough, the central head of the slab found near Wessobrunn, in the neighborhood of the Cloister of the Three Holy Bournes, is bearded. This has puzzled our archæologists. Some of them fancied that what appears to be a beard might after all be the hair of one of the fays or Norns, tied round the chm. By the light of the description of the Weird Sisters in Shakspeare's Macbeth we, however, see at once the true connection.
In every respect, therefore, his "Witches" are an echo from the ancient Germanic creed—an echo, moreover, coming to us in the oldest Teutonic verse-form; that is, in the stafF-rime.
Karl Blind.
​Elves. The elves of later times seem a sort of middle thing between the light and dark elves. They are fair and lively, but also bad and mischievous. In some parts of JSTorway the peasants describe them as diminutive naked boys with hats on. Traces of their dance are sometimes to be seen on the wet grass, especially on the banks of rivers. Their exhalation is injurious, and is called alfgust or eJfhlæst^ causing a swelling, which is easily contracted by too nearly approaching places where they have spat, etc. They have a j^redilection for certain spots, but particularly for large trees, which on that account the owners do not venture to meddle with, but look on them as something sacred, on which the weal or woe of the place depends. Certain diseases among their cattle are attributed to the elves, and are, therefore, called elf-iire or elf-shot. The dark elves are often confounded with the dwarfs, with whom they, indeed, seem identical, although they are distinguished in Odin's Raven's Song. The ISTorwegians also make a distinction between dwarfs and elves, believing the former to live solitary and in quiet, while the latter love music and dancing. (Faye, p. 48; quoted by Thorpe.)
The fairies of Scotland are precisely identical with the above. They are described as a diminutive race of beings of a mixed or rather dubious nature, capricious in their dispositions and mischievous in their resentment. They inhabit the interior of green hills, chiefly those of a conical form, in Gaelic termed Sighan^ on which they lead their dances by moonlight; impressing upon the surface the marks of circles, which sometimes appear yellow and blasted, ​sometimes of a deep green hue, and within which it is dangerous to sleep, or to be found after sunset. Cattle which are suddenly seized with the cramp, or some similar disorder, are said to be elf -shot. (Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border; quoted by Thorpe. )
Of the Swedish elves, Arndt gives the following sketch: Of giants, of dwarfs, of the alp, of dragons, that keep watch over treasures, they have the usual stories; nor are the kmdly elves forgotten. How often has my postillion, when he observed a circular mark in the dewy grass, exclaimed: See! there the elves have been dancing. These elf-dances play a great part in the spinning-room. To those who at midnight haj)pen to enter one of these circles, the elves become visible, and may then play all kinds of pranks with them; though in general they are little, merry, harmless beings, both male and female. They often sit in small stones, that are hollowed out in circular form, and which are called elf-querns or mill-stones. Their voice is said to be soft like the air. If a loud cry is heard in the forest, it is that of the Skogsrå (spirit of the wood), which should be answered only by a He! when it can do no harm. (Reise durch Sweden; quoted by Thorpe. )
The elf-shot was known in England in very remote times, as appears from the Anglo-Saxon incantation, printed by Grimm in his Deutsche Mythologie, and in the appendix to Kemble's Saxons in England: Gif hit woere esa gescot oS6e hit wære ylfa gescot; that is, if it were an asa-shot or an elf-shot. On this subject Grimm says: It is a very old belief that dangerous arrows were shot by the elves from the air. The thunder-bolt is also called elf-shot, and in Scot​land a hard, sharp, wedge-shaped stone is known by the name of elf-arrow, elf-iiint, elf-bolt, which, it is supposed, has been sent by the spirits. (Quoted by Thorpe.)
CHAPTER VII.
Our ancestors divided the universe into nine worlds, and these again into three groups:
1. Over the earth. Muspelheim, Ljosalfaheim and Asaheim.
2. On the earth. Jotunheim, Midgard and Yanheim.
3. Below the earth. Svartalfaheim, Mflheim and mflhel.
The gods had twelve abodes:
1. Thrudheim. The abode of Thor. His realm is Thrudvang, and his palace is Bilskirner.
2. Ydaler. Uller's abode.
3. Yalaskjalf. Odin's hall.
4. SoKVABEK. The abode of Saga.
5. Gladsheim, where there are twelve seats for the gods, besides the throne occupied by Alfather.
6. Thrymheim, Skade' s abode,
7. Breid ABLiK. Balder' s abode.
8. HiMMiNBjoRa. Heimdal' s abode.
9. FoLKVANG. Freyja's abode.
10. GrLiTNER. Forsete' s abode.
11. E'oATUN. Njord' s abode
12. Land VIDE. Yidar's abode.
According to the Lay of Grimner, the gods had twelve horses, but the owner of each horse is not given:
(1) Sleipner (Odin's), (2) Goldtop (Heimdal' s), ​(3) Glad, (4) Gyller, (5) Gler, (6) Skeidbrimer, (Y) Silvertop, (8) Siner, (9) Gisl, (10) Falliofner, (11) Lightfoot, (12) Blodughofdi (Frey's).
The owners of nine of them are not given, and, moreover, it is stated that Thor had no horse, but always either went on foot or drove his goats.
The favorite numbers are three, nine and twelve. Monotheism was recognized in the unknown god, who is from everlasting to everlasting. A number of trinities were established, and the nine worlds were classified into three groups. The week had nine days, and originally there were probably but nine gods, that is, before the vans were united with the asas. The number nine occurs where Heimdal is said to have nine mothers, Menglad is said to have nine maid-servants, Æger had nine daughters, etc. When the vans were united with the asas, the number rose to twelve:
(1) Odin, (2) Thor, (3) Tyr, (4) Balder, (5) Hoder, (6) Heimdal, (7) Hermod, (8) Njord, (9) Frey, (10) Uller, (11) Yidar, (12) Forsete.
If we add to this list Brage, Yale and Loke, we get fifteen; but the Eddas everywhere declare that there are twelve gods, who were entitled to divine worship.
The number of the goddesses is usually given as twenty-six.
CHAPTER VIII.
Loke and his offspring are so fully treated in our!N"orse Mythology, that we content ourselves by referring our readers to that work.
CHAPTER IX.
Frejja's ornament Brising. In the saga of Olaf Trjggvason, there is a rather awkward story of the manner in which Freyja became possessed of her ornament. Frejja, it is told, was a mistress of Odin. JS^ot far from the palace dwelt four dwarfs, whose names were Alfrig, Dvalin, Berling and Grer; they were skillful smiths. Looking one da}^ into their stony dwelling, Freyja saw them at work on a beautiful golden necklace, or collar, which she offered to buy, but which they refused to part with, except on conditions quite incompatible with the fidelity she owed to Odin, but to which she, nevertheless, was tempted to accede. Thus the ornament became hers. By some means this transaction came to the knowledge of Loke, who told it to Odin. Odin commanded him to get possession of the ornament. This was no easy task, for no one could enter Freyja' s bower without her consent. lie went away whimpering, but most were glad on seeing him in such tribulation. When he came to the locked bower, he could nowhere find an entrance, and, it being cold weather, he began to shiver. He then transformed himself into a fly and tried every opening, but in vain; there was nowhere air enough to make him to get through [Loke (fire) requires air]. At length he found a hole in the roof, but not bigger than the prick of a needle. Through this he slipt. On his entrance he looked around to see if anyone were awake, but all were buried in sleep. He peeped in at Freyja' s bed, and saw that she had the ornament round her neck, but that the lock was on the side she lay on. He then ​transformed himself to a Ilea, placed himself on Freyja's cheek, and stung her so that she awoke, but only turned herself round and slept again. He then laid aside his assumed form, cautiously took the ornament, unlocked the bower, and took his prize to Odin. In the morning, on waking, Freyja seeing the door open, without having been forced, and that her ornament was gone, instantly understood the whole affair. Having dressed herself, she repaired to Odin's hall, and upbraided him with having stolen her ornament, and insisted on its restoration, v/hich she finally obtained. (Quoted by Thorpe.)
Mention is also made of the Brosinga-men in the Beowulf (verse 2394). Here it is represented as belonging to Hermanric, but the legend concerning it has never been found.
CHAPTER X.
This myth about Frey and Gerd is the subject of one of the most fascinating poems in the Elder Edda, the Journey of Skirner. It is, as Auber Forestier, in Echoes from Mistland, says, the germ of the l^iblung story. Frey is Sigurd or Sigfrid, and Gerd is Brynhild. The myth is also found in another poem of the Elder Edda, the Lay of Fjolsvin, in which the god himself—there called Svipday (the hastener of the day)—undertakes the journey to arouse from the winter sleep the cold giant nature of the maiden Menglad (the sun-radiant daughter), who is identical with Freyja (the goddess of spring, promise, or of love between man and woman, and who can easily be compared with Gerd). Before the bonds which enchain the maiden can in either case be broken, Bele (the ​giant of spring storms, corresponding to the dragon Fafner in the JN'ibhmg story,) must be conquered, and Wafurloge (the wall of bickering flames that surrounded the castle) must be penetrated. The fanes symbolize the funeral pyre, for whoever enters the nether world must scorn the fear of death. (Auber Forestier's Echoes from Mistland; Introduction, xliii, xliv.) We also find this story repeated again and again, in numberless variations, in Teutonic folk-lore; for instance, in The Maiden on the Glass Mountain, where the glass mountain takes the place of the bickering flame.
CHAPTER XI.
The tree Lerad (furnishing protection) must be regarded as a branch of Ygdrasil.
CHAPTER XII.
In Heimskringla Skidbladner is called Odin's ship. This is correct. All that belonged to the gods was his also.
CHAPTER XIII.
For a thorough analysis of Thor as a spring god, as the god who dwells in the clouds, as the god of thunder and lightning, as the god of agriculture, in short, as the god of culture, we can do no better than to refer our readers to Der Mythus von Thor, nach Nordischen Quellen, von Ludwig Uhland, Stuttgart, 1836; and to Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie, mit Einschluss der ]Srordischen, von Karl Simrock, Yierte Auflage, Bonn, 1874.
CHAPTER XIV.
The death of Balder is justly regarded as the most beautiful myth in Teutonic mythology. It is connected with the Lay of Yegtam in the Elder Edda. Like so many other myths (Frey and Gerd, The Robbing of Idun, etc.) the myth symbolizes originally the end of summer and return of spring. Thus Balder dies every year and goes to Hel. But in the following spring he returns to the asas, and gladdens all things living and dead with his pure shining light. Gradually, however, the myth was changed from a symbol of the departing and returning summer, and applied to the departing and returning of the world year, and thus the death of Balder prepares the way for Ragnarok and Regeneration. Balder goes to Hei and does not return to this world. Thokk refuses to weep for him. His return is promised after Ragnarok. The next spring does not bring him back, but the rejuvenated earth. Thus the death of Balder becomes the central thought in the drama of the fate of the gods and of the world. It is inseparably connected with the punishment of Loke and the twilight of the gods. The winter following the death of Balder is not an ordinary winter, but the Fimbul-winter, which is followed by no summer, but by the destruction of the world. The central idea in the Odinic religion, the destruction and regeneration of the world, has taken this beautiful sun-myth, of Balder into its service. Balder is then no more merely the pure holy light of heaven; he symbolizes at the same time the purity and innocence of the gods; he is changed from a physical to an ethical myth. He impersonated al ​that was good and holy in the life of the gods; and so it came to pass that wlien the golden age had ceased, when thirst for gold (Gulveigj, when sin and crime had come into the world, he was too good to live in it. As in Genesis fratricide (Cain and Abel) followed upon the eating of the forbidden fruit, and the loss of paradise; so, when the golden age (paradise) had ended among the asas, Loke (the serpent) brought fratricide (Hoder and Balder) among the gods; themselves and our ancestors regarded fratricide as the lowest depth of moral depravity. After the death of Balder
Brothers slay brothers, Sisters' children Shed each other's blood, Hard grows the world. Sensual sin waxes huge.
There are sword-ages, ax-ages — Shields are cleft in twain, — Storm-ages, murder-ages, Till the world falls dead. And men no longer spare Or pity one another.
Upon the whole we may say that a sun-myth first represents the death of the day at sunset, when the sky is radiant as if dyed in blood. In the flushing morn light wins its victory again. Then this same myth becomes transferred to the death and birth of summer. Once more it is lifted into a higher sphere, while still holding on to its physical interpretation, and is applied to the world year. Finally, it is clothed with ethical attributes, becomes thoroughly anthropomorphized, and typifies the good and the evil, the virtues and vices (light and darkness), in the character and life of gods ​and of men. Thus we get four stages in the development of the myth.
CHAPTER XV.
Ragnarok. The word is found written in two ways, Ragnarok and ragnarokr. Ragna is genitive phiral, from the word regin (god), and means of the gods. Rok means reason, ground, origin, a wonder, sign, marvel. It is allied to the O. H. G. rahha = sentence, judgment. Ragnarok would then mean the history of the gods^ and applied to the dissolution of the world, might be translated the last judgment^ doomsday^ weird of gods and the world, Rokr means twilight^ and Ragnarokr, as the Younger Edda has it, thus means the twilight of the gods^ and the latter is adopted by nearly all modern writers, although Gudbr. Yigfusson declares that Ragnarok (doomsday) is no doubt the correct form. And this is also to be said in favor of doomsday, that Ragnarok does not involve only the twilight^ but the whole night of the gods and the world.
THE NIFLUNGS AND GJUKUNGS.
This chapter of Skaldkajparmal contains much valuable material for a correct understanding of the Nibelungen-Lied, especially as to the origin of the Niblung hoard, and the true character of Brynhild. The material given here, and in the Icelandic Yolsunga Saga, has been used by Wm. Morris in his Sigurd the Yolsung and the Fall of the Mblungs. In the Mbelungen-Lied, as transposed by Auber Forestier, in Echoes from Mist-Land, we have a perfect gem of literature from the middle high German ​period, but its author had lost sight of the divine and mythical origin of the material that he wove into his poem. It is only by combining the German Nibelungen-Lied with the mythical materials found in Norseland that our national Teutonic epic can be restored to us. Wagner has done this for us in his famous drama; Jordan has done it in his Sigfrid's saga; Morris has done it in the work mentioned above; but will not Auber Forestier gather up all the scattered fragments relating to Sigurd and Brynhild, and weave them together into a prose narrative, that shall delight the young and the old of this great land?
We are glad to welcome at this time a new book in the field of Niblung literature. We refer to Geibel's Brunhild, translated, with introduction and notes, by Prof. G. Theo. Dippold, and recently published in Boston.
MENJA AND FENJA.
This is usually called the peace of Frode, which corresponds to the golden age in the life of the asas. Avarice is the root of crime, and all other evils. Avarice is at the bottom of all the endless woes of the ]Sriblung story. The myth explaining why the sea is salt is told in a variety of forms in different countries. In Germany there are several folk-lore stories and traditions in regard to it. In N'orway, where folk-lore tales are so abundant, we find the myth about Menja and Fenja recurring in the following form:
WHY THE SEA IS SALT.
Long, long ago there were two brothers, the one was rich and. the other was poor. On Christmas eve the poor one had not a morsel of bread or meat in his house, and so he went to his brother and asked him for mercy's sake to give him something for Christmas. It was not the first time the brother had had to give him, and he was not very much pleased to see him this time either.
"If you will do what I ask of you, I will give you a whole ham of pork," said he.
The poor man promised immediately, and was very thankful besides.
"There you have it, now go to hell, ' ' said the rich one, and threw the ham at him.
"What I have promised, I suppose, I must keep," said the other. He took the ham and started. He walked and walked the whole day, and at twilight he came to a place where everything looked so bright and splendid.
"This must be the place," thought the man with the ham.
Out in the wood-shed stood an old man with a long white beard, cutting wood for Christmas.
"Good evening," said the man with the ham.
"Good evening, sir. Where are you going so late? " said the man.
"I am on my way to hell, if I am on the right road," said the poor man.
"Yes, you have taken the right road; it is here," said the old man. "Now when you get in, they will all want to buy your ham, for pork is rare food in ​hell; but you must not sell it, unless you get the hand-mill that stands back of the door for it. When you come out again I will show you how to regulate it. You will find it useful in more than one respect."
The man with the ham thanked the old man for this valuable information, and rapped at the devil's door.
When he came in it happened as the old man had said. All the devils, both the large ones and the small ones, crowded around him like ants around a worm, and the one bid higher than the other for the ham.
"It is true my wife and I were to have it for our Christmas dinner, but, seeing that you are so eager for it, I suppose I will have to let you have it," said the man. "But if I am to sell it, I want that handmill that stands behind the door there for it."
The devil did not like to spare it, and kept dickering and bantering with the man, but he insisted, and so the devil had to give him the hand-mill. When the man came out in the yard he asked the old woodchopper how he should regulate the mill; and when he had learned how to do it, he said "thank you," and made for home as fast as he could. But still he did not reach home before twelve o'clock in the night Christmas eve.
"Why, where in the world have you been? " said the woman. "Here I have been sitting hour after hour waiting and waiting, and I haven't as much as two sticks to put on the fire so as to cook the Christmas porridge."
" Oh, I could not come any sooner. I had several errands to do, and I had a long way to go too. But ​now I will sliow you," said the man. He set the mill on the table, and had it first grind light, then a table-cloth, then food and ale and all sorts of good things for Christmas, and as he commanded the mill ground. The woman expressed her great astonishment again and again, and wanted to know w^here her husband had gotten the mill, but this he would not tell.
"It makes no difference where I have gotten it; you see the mill is a good one, and that the water does not freeze,'- said the man.
Then he ground food and drink, and all good things, for the whole Christmas week, and on the third day he invited his friends: he was going to have a party. When the rich brother saw all the nice and good things at the j^arty, he became very wroth, for he could not bear to see his brother have anything.
"Christmas eve he was so needy that he came to me and asked me for mercy's sake to give him a little food, and now he gives a feast as though he were both count and king," said he to the others.
" But where in hell have you gotten all your riches from? " said he to his brother.
"Behind the door," answered he who owned the mill. He did not care to give any definite account, but later in the evening, when he began to get a little tipsy, he could not help himself and brought out the mill.
"There you see the one that has given me all the riches." said he, and then he let the mill grind both one thing and another. When the brother saw this he was bound to have the mill, and after a long ​bantering about it, he finally was to have it; but he was to pay three hundred dollars for it, and his brother was to keep it until harvest.
"When I keep it until then, I shall have ground food enough to last many years," thought he.
Of coarse the mill got no chance to grow rusty during the next six months, and when harvest-time came, the rich brother got it; but the other man had taken good care not to show him how to regulate it. It was in the evening that the rich man brought the mill home, and in the morning he bade his wife go and spread the hay after the mowers,—he would get dinner ready, he said. Toward dinner he put the mill on the table.
"Grind fish and gruel: Grind both well and fast!" said the man, and the mill began to grind fish and gruel. It first filled all the dishes and tubs full, and after that it covered the whole floor with fish and gruel. The man kept puttering and tinkering, and tried to get the mill to stop; but no matter how he turned it and fingered at it, the mill kept on, and before long the gruel got so deep in the room that the man was on the point of drowning. Then he opened the door to the sitting-room, but before long that room was filled too, and the man had all he could do to get hold of the door-latch down in this flood of gruel. When he got the door open he did not remain long in the room. He ran out as fast as he could, and there was a perfect flood of fish gruel behind, deluging the yard and his fields.
The wife, who was in the meadow making hay, began to think that it took a long time to get dinner ready.
​"Even if husband does not call us, we will have to go anyway. 1 suppose he does not know much about making gruel; I will have to go and help him," said the woman to the mowers.
They went homeward, but on coming up the hill they met the flood of fish and gruel and bread, the one mixed up with the other, and the man came running ahead of the flood.
"Would that each one of you had an hundred stomachs, but have a care that you do not drown in the gruel flood," cried the husband. He ran by them as though the devil had been after him, and hastened down to his brother. He begged him in the name of everything sacred to come and take the mill away immediately.
"If it grinds another hour the whole settlement will perish in fish and gruel," said he.
But the brother would not take it unless he got three hundred dollars, and this money had to be paid to him.
Now the poor brother had both money and the mill, and so it did not take long before he got himself a farm, and a much nicer one than his brother's. With his mill he ground out so much gold that he covered his house all over with sheets of gold. The house stood down by the sea-shore, and it glistened far out upon the sea. All who sailed past had to go ashore and visit the rich man in the golden house, and all wanted to see the wonderful mill, for its fame spread far and wide, and there was none who had not heard speak of it.
After a long time there came a sea-captain who ​wished to see the mill. He asked whether it could grind salt.
"Yes, it can grind salt," said he who owned the mill; and when the captain heard this, he was bound to have it, let it cost what it will. For if he liad that, thought he, he would not have to sail far oif over dangerous waters after cargoes of salt. At first the man did not wish to sell it, but the captain teased and begged and finally the man sold it, and got many thousand dollars for it. When the captain had gotten the mill on his back, he did not stay there long, for he was afraid the man might reconsider the bargain and back out again. He had no time to ask how to regulate it; he went to his ship as fast as he could, and when he had gotten some distance out upon the sea, he got his mill out.
"Grind salt both fast and well," said the captain. The mill began to grind salt, and that with all its might. When the captain had gotten the ship full he wanted to stop the mill; but no matter how he worked, and no matter how he handled it, the mill kept grinding as fast as ever, and the heap of salt kept growing larger and larger, and at last the ship sank. The mill stands on the bottom of the sea grinding this very day, and so it comes that the sea is salt.
* ↑ Quoted from memory.
* ↑ Njorvasound, the Straits of Gibraltar; so called from the first Norseman who sailed through them. His name was Njorve. See Ann. for nordisk Oldkyndighed, Vol. I, p. 58.
* ↑ See note, page 221.
* ↑ Svithjod the Great, or the Cold, is the ancient Sarmatia and Scythia Magna, and formed the great part of the present European Russia. In the mythological sagas it is also called Godheim; that is, the home of Odin and the other gods. Svithjod the Less is Sweden proper, and is called Mannheim; that is, the home of the kings, the descendants of the gods.
* ↑ The Saracens' land (Serkland) means North Africa and Spain, and the Saracen countries in Asia; that is, Persia, Assyria, etc.
* ↑ Blueland, the country of the blacks in Africa, the country south of Serkland, the modern Ethiopia.
* ↑ Tartareans.
* ↑ Kalmuks.
* ↑ Mongolians.
* ↑ The Tanais is the present Don river, which empties into the Sea of Asov.
* ↑ Asgard is supposed, by those who look for historical fact in mythological tales, to be the present Assor; others, that it is Chasgar in the Caucasian ridge, called by Strabo Aspargum the Asburg, or castle of the asas. We still have in the Norse tongue the word Aas, meaning a ridge of high land. The word asas is not derived from Asia, as Snorre supposed. It is the 0. H. Ger. ans; Anglo-Sax. OS = a hero. The word also means a pillar; and in this latter sense the gods are the pillars of the universe. Connected with the word is undoubtedly Aas, a mountain-ridge, as supporter of the skies; and this reminds us of Atlas, as bearer of the world.
* ↑ The temple-priests performed the functions of priest and judge, and their office continued hereditary throughout the heathen period of Norse history.
* ↑ See Norse Mythology, page 174.
* ↑ See Brage's Talk, p. 160; and Norse Mythology, pp. 247 and 342.
* ↑ In the Vala's Prophecy of the Elder Edda it is said that Odin talks with the head of Mimer before the coming of Ragnarok. See Norse Mythology, p. 421.
* ↑ This shows that the vans must have belonged to the mythological system of some older race that, like the ancient Romans (Liber and Libera), recognized the propriety of marriage between brothers and sisters, at least among their gods. Such marriages were not allowed among our Odinic ancestors. Hence we see that when Njord, Frey and Freyja were admitted to Asgard, they entered into new marriage relations. Njord married Skade, Frey married Gerd, and Freyja married Oder. Our ancestors were never savages!
* ↑ Turkland was usually supposed to mean Moldau and Wallachia. Some, who regard the great mountain barrier as being the Ural Mountains, think Turkland is Turkistan in Asia. Asia Minor is also frequently styled Turkland.
* ↑ Ancient Norse writers connect this event with Mithridates and Pompey the Great. They tell how Odin was a heroic prince who, with his twelve peers or apostles, dwelt in the Black Sea region. He became straightened for room, and so led the asas out of Asia into eastern Europe. Then they go on to tell how the Roman empire had arrived at its highest point of power, and saw all the then known world—the orbis terrarum—subject to its laws, when an unforeseen event raised up enemies agamst it from the very heart of the forests of Scythia, and on the banks of the Don river. The leader was Mithridates the Great, against whom the Romans waged three wars, and the Romans looked upon him as the most formidable enemy the empire had ever had to contend with. Cicero delivered his famous oration. Pro lege Manilla, and succeeded in getting Pompey appointed commander of the third war against Mithridates. The latter, by flying, had drawn Pompey after him into the wilds of Scythia. Here the king of Pontus sought refuge and new means of vengeance. He hoped to arm against the ambition of Rome all his neighboring nations whose liberties she threatened. He was successful at first, but all those Scythian peoples, ill-united as allies, ill-armed as soldiers, and still worse disciplined, were at length forced to yield to the genius of the great general Pompey. And here traditions tell us that Odin and the other asas were among the allies of Mithridates. Odin had been one of the gallant defenders of Troy, and at the same time, with Æneas and Anchises, he had taken flight out of the burning and falling city. Now he was obliged to withdraw a second time by flight, but this time it was not from the Greeks, but from the Romans, whom he had offended by assisting Mithridates. He was now compelled to go and seek, in lands unknown to his enemies, that safety which he could no longer find in the Scythian forests. He then proceeded to the north of Europe, and laid the foundations of the Teutonic nations. As fast as he subdued the countries in the west and north of Europe he gave them to one or another of his sons to govern. Thus it comes to pass that so many sovereign families throughout Teutondom are said to be descended from Odin. Hengist and Horsa, the chiefs of those Saxons who conquered Britain in the fifth century, counted Odin in the number of their ancestors. The traditions go on to tell how he conquered Denmark, founded Odinse (Odinsve—Odin's Sanctuary; comp. ve with the German Wei in Weinacht), and gave the kingdom to his son Skjold (shield); how he conquered Sweden, founded the Sigtuna temple, and gave the country to his son Yngve; how finally Norway had to submit to him, and be ruled by a third son of Odin, Saming. It has been seriously contended,—and it would form an important element in an epic based on the historical Odin,—that a desire of being revenged on the Romans was one of the ruling principles of Odin's whole conduct. Driven by those foes of universal liberty from his former home in the east, his resentment was the more violent, since the Teutons thought it a sacred duty to revenge all injuries, especially those offered to kinsmen or country. Odin had no other view in traversing so many distant lands, and in establishing with so much zeal his doctrines of valor, than to arouse all Teutonic nations, and unite them against so formidable and odious a race as the Romans. And we, who live in the light of the nineteenth century, and with the records before us, can read the history of the convulsions of Europe during the decline of the Roman empire; we can understand how that leaven, which Odin left in the bosoms of the believers in the asa-faith, first fermented a long time in secret; but we can also see how in the fullness of time, the signal given, the descendants of Odin fell like a swarm of locusts upon this unhappy empire, and, after giving it many terrible shocks, eventually overturned it, thus completely avenging the insult offered so many centuries before by Pompey to their founder Odin. We can understand how it became possible for " those vast multitudes, which the populous north poured from her frozen loins, to pass the Rhine and the Danube, and come like a deluge on the south, and spread beneath Gibraltar and the Libyan sands;" how it were possible, we say, for them so largely to remodel and invigorate a considerable part of Europe, nay, how they could succeed in overrunning and overturning "the rich but rotten, the mighty but marrowless, the disciplined but diseased, Roman empire; that gigantic and heartless and merciless usurpation of soulless materialism and abject superstition of universal despotism, of systemized and relentless plunder, and of depravity deep as hell." In connection with this subject we would refer our readers to Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 79-83, where substantially the same account is given; to Norse Mythology, pp. 232-236; to George Stephen's Runic Monuments, Vol. I; and to Charles Kingsley's The Roman and the Teuton.
* ↑ Compare this version of the myth with the one given in the first chapter of The Fooling of Gylfe. Many explain the myth to mean the breaking through of the Baltic between Sweden and Denmark.
* ↑ Leidre or Leire, at the end of Isefjord, in the county of Lithraborg, is considered the oldest royal seat in Denmark.
* ↑ Laage is a general name for lakes and rivers. It here stands for Lake Malar, in Sweden.
* ↑ The grassy isle is Seeland.
* ↑ Sigtun. Sige, Ger. Sieg, (comp. Sigfrid,) means victory, and is one of Odin's names; ttm means an inclosure, and is the same word as our modern English town. Thus Sigtun would, in modern English, be called Odinstown; like our Johnstown, Williamstown, etc.
* ↑ Noatun, Thrudvang, Breidablik and Himinbjorg are purely mythological names, and for their sigrnificance the reader is referred to The Fooling of Gylfe. Snorre follows the lay of Grimner in the Elder Edda.
* ↑ Berserk. The etymology of this word has been much contested. Some, upon the authority of Snorre in the above quoted passage, derive it from berr (bare) and serkr (comp. sa)-k, Scotch for shirt); but this etymology is inadmissible, because serkr is a substantive, not an adjective. Others derive it from berr (Germ. Bar = iirsiis), w^hich is greatly to be preferred, for in olden ages athletes and champions used to wear hides of bears, wolves and reindeer (as skins of lions in the south), hence the names Bjalfe, Bjarnhedinn, Ulf hedinn (hedinn, pellis),—" pellibus aut parvis rhenonum tegimentis utuntur." Cæsar, Bell. Gall. VI, 22. Even the old poets understood the name so, as may be seen in the poem of Hornklofi (beginning of the 10th century), a dialogue between a valkyrie and a raven, where the valkyrie says at berserkja reiSu vil ek pik spyrja, to which the raven replies, tFlfhednar heita, the)/ are called ivolf coats. In battle the berserks were subject to fits of frenzy, called herserksgangr {furor bersercicus), when they howled like wild beasts, foamed at the mouth, and gnawed the iron rim of their shields. During these fits they were, according to a popular belief, proof against steel and fire, and made great havoc in the ranks of the enemy. But when the fever abated they were weak and tame. Vigfusson Cleasby's Icelandic-English Dictionary, sub voce.
* ↑ In the mythology this ship belongs to Frey, having been made for him by the dwarfs.
* ↑ Hugin and Munin.
* ↑ The old Norse word is orlog, which is plural, (from or = Ger. iir, and log, laics,) and means the primal law, fate, weird, doom; the Greek p.oTpa. The idea of predestination was a salient feature in the Odinic religion. The word orlog, 0. H. G. ttrlac, M. H. G. urlone, Dutch orlog, had special reference to a man's fate in war. Hence Orlogschiffe in German means a naval fleet. The Danish orlog means warfare at sea.
* ↑ Svithjod, which here means Sweden, is derived from Odin's name, Svidr and thjod = folk, people. Svithjod thus means Odin's people, and the country takes its name from the people.
* ↑ Odin.
* ↑ Norway was given to Saming by Odin.
* ↑ He gave himself nine wounds in the form of the head of a spear, or Thor's hammer; that is, he marked himself with the sign of the cross f an ancient heathen custom.
* ↑ Here ends Snorre's account of the asas in Heimskringla. The reader will, of course, compare the account here given of Odin, Njord, Frey, Freyja, etc., with the purely mythological description of them m the Younger Edda, and with that in Norse Mythology. Upon the whole, Snorre has striven to accommodate his sketch to the Eddas, while he has had to clothe mythical beings with the characteristics of human kings. Like Saxo-Grammaticus, Snorre has striven to show that the deities, which we now recognize as personified forces and phenomena of nature, were extraordinary and enterprising persons, who formerly ruled in the North, and inaugurated the <5ustoms, government and religion of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, England, and the other Teutonic lands.
* ↑ The word fornjot can be explained in two ways: either as fornjot = the first enjoyer, possessor; or as forn-jot, the ancient giant. He would then correspond to Ymer.
* ↑ Notice this trinity: Hler is the sea (comp. the Welsh word Ih/r = sea); Loge is fire (comp. the Welsh llwg), he reminds us both by his name and his nature of Loke; Kare is the wind.