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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13007 ***
+
+Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+
+
+
+The Edda
+
+I
+
+The Divine Mythology of the North
+
+
+By
+
+Winifred Faraday, M.A.
+
+
+
+Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
+1902
+
+
+
+
+Author's Note
+
+Some explanation is needed of the form of spelling I have adopted
+in transcribing Norse proper names. The spirants thorn and eth
+are represented by _th_ and _d_, as being more familiar to readers
+unacquainted with the  original. Marks of vowel-length are in all cases
+omitted. The inflexional _-r_ of the nominative singular masculine
+is also omitted, whether it appears as _-r_ or is assimilated to a
+preceding consonant (as in Odinn, Eysteinn, Heindall, Egill) in the
+Norse form, with the single exception of the name Tyr, where I use
+the form which has become conventional in English.
+
+Manchester,
+December 1901.
+
+
+
+
+The Edda: I. The Divine Mythology of the North
+
+
+The Icelandic Eddas are the only vernacular record of Germanic
+heathendom as it developed during the four centuries which in England
+saw the destruction of nearly all traces of the heathen system. The
+so-called Elder Edda is a collection of some thirty poems, mythic and
+heroic in substance, interspersed with short pieces of prose, which
+survives in a thirteenth-century MS., known as the Codex Regius,
+discovered in Iceland in 1642; to these are added other poems of
+similar character from other sources. The Younger Edda is a prose
+paraphrase of, and commentary on, these poems and others which are
+lost, together with a treatise on metre, written by the historian
+Snorri Sturluson about 1220.
+
+This use of the word Edda is incorrect and unhistorical, though
+convenient and sanctioned by the use of several centuries. It was early
+used as a general term for the rules and materials for versemaking,
+and applied in this sense to Snorri's work. When the poems on which
+his paraphrase is founded were discovered, Icelandic scholars by a
+misunderstanding applied the name to them also; and as they attributed
+the collection quite arbitrarily to the historian Saemund (1056-1133),
+it was long known as Saemundar Edda, a name now generally discarded in
+favour of the less misleading titles of Elder or Poetic Edda. From its
+application to this collection, the word derives a more extended use,
+(1) as a general term for Norse mythology; (2) as a convenient name
+to distinguish the simpler style of these anonymous narrative poems
+from the elaborate formality of the Skalds.
+
+The poems of the Edda are certainly older than the MS., although
+the old opinion as to their high antiquity is untenable. The majority
+probably date from the tenth century in their present form; this dating
+does not necessitate the ascription of the shape in which the legends
+are presented, still less of their substance, to that period. With
+regard to the place of their composition opinions vary widely,
+Norway, the British Isles and Greenland having all found champions;
+but the evidence is rather questionable, and I incline to leave
+them to the country which has preserved them. They are possibly of
+popular origin; this, together with their epic or narrative character,
+would account for the striking absence from them of some of the chief
+characteristics of Skaldic poetry: the obscuring of the sense by the
+elaborate interlacing of sentences and the extensive use of kennings
+or mythological synonyms, and the complication of the metre by such
+expedients as the conjunction of end-rhyme with alliteration. Eddie
+verse is governed solely by the latter, and the strophic arrangement
+is simple, only two forms occurring: (1) couplets of alliterative
+short lines; (2) six-line strophes, consisting of a couplet followed
+by a single short line, the whole repeated.
+
+Roughly speaking, the first two-fifths of the MS. is mythological,
+the rest heroic. I propose to observe this distinction, and to
+deal in this study with the stories of the Gods. In this connexion,
+Snorri's Edda and the mythical Ynglinga Saga may also be considered,
+but as both were compiled a couple of centuries or more after the
+introduction of Christianity into Iceland, it is uncertain how much in
+them is literary explanation of tradition whose meaning was forgotten;
+some also, especially in Snorri, is probably pure invention, fairy
+tale rather than myth.
+
+Many attempts have been made to prove that the material of the Edda
+is largely borrowed. The strength and distinction of Icelandic poetry
+rest rather on the fact that it is original and national and, like
+that of Greece, owes little to foreign sources; and that it began in
+the heathen age, before Christian or Romantic influences had touched
+Iceland. Valuable as the early Christian poetry of England is, we look
+in vain there for the humour, the large-minded simplicity of motive,
+the suggestive character-drawing, the swift dramatic action, which
+are as conspicuous in many poems in the Edda as in many of the Sagas.
+
+Omitting the heroic poems, there are in Codex Regius the following: (1)
+Of a more or less comprehensive character, _Völuspa, Vafthrudnismal,
+Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Harbardsljod_; (2) dealing with episodes,
+_Hymiskvida, Thrymskvida, Skirnisför. Havamal_ is a collection
+of proverbs, but contains two interpolations from mythical
+poems; _Alvissmal_, which, in the form of a dialogue between
+Thor and a dwarf Alviss, gives a list of synonyms, is a kind of
+mythologico-poetical glossary. Several of these poems are found
+in another thirteenth-century vellum fragment, with an additional
+one, variously styled _Vegtamskvida_ or _Baldr's Dreams_; the great
+fourteenth-century codex Flateybook contains _Hyndluljod_, partly
+genealogical, partly an imitation of _Völuspa_; and one of the MSS. of
+Snorri's Edda gives us _Rigsthula_.
+
+_Völuspa_, though not one of the earliest poems, forms an appropriate
+opening. Metrical considerations forbid an earlier date than the
+first quarter of the eleventh century, and the last few lines are
+still later. The material is, however, older: the poem is an outline,
+in allusions often obscure to us, of traditions and beliefs familiar to
+its first hearers. The very bareness of the outline is sufficient proof
+that the material is not new. The framework is apparently imitated from
+that of the poem known as _Baldr's Dreams_, some lines from which are
+inserted in _Völuspa_. This older poem describes Odin's visit to the
+Sibyl in hell-gates to inquire into the future. He rides down to her
+tomb at the eastern door of Nifl-hell and chants spells, until she
+awakes and asks: "What man unknown to me is that, who has troubled me
+with this weary journey? Snow has snowed on me, rain has beaten me,
+dew has drenched me, I have long been dead." He gives the name Wegtam,
+or Way-wise, and then follow question and answer until she discovers
+his identity and will say no more. In _Völuspa_ there is no descriptive
+introduction, and no dialogue; the whole is spoken by the Sibyl,
+who plunges at once into her story, with only the explanatory words:
+"Thou, Valfather, wouldst have me tell the ancient histories of men as
+far as I remember." She describes the creation of the world and sky
+by Bor's sons; the building by the Gods of a citadel in Ida-plain,
+and their age of innocence till three giant-maids brought greed of
+gold; the creation of the dwarfs; the creation of the first man and
+woman out of two trees by Odin, Hoeni and Lodur; the world-ash and
+the spring beside it where dwell the three Norns who order the fates
+of men. Then follows an allusion to the war between the Aesir and the
+Vanir, the battle with the giants who had got possession of the goddess
+Freyja, and the breaking of bargains; an obscure reference to Mimi's
+spring where Odin left his eye as a pledge; and an enumeration of his
+war-maids or Valkyries. Turning to the future, the Sibyl prophesies
+the death of Baldr, the vengeance on his slayer, and the chaining of
+Loki, the doom of the Gods and the destruction of the world at the
+coming of the fire-giants and the release of Loki's children from
+captivity. The rest of the poem seems to be later; it tells how the
+earth shall rise again from the deep, and the Aesir dwell once more
+in Odin's halls, and there is a suggestion of Christian influence in
+it which is absent from the earlier part.
+
+Of the other general poems, the next four were probably composed before
+950; in each the setting is different. _Vafthrudnismal_, a riddle-poem,
+shows Odin in a favourite position, seeking in disguise for knowledge
+of the future. Under the name of Gangrad (Wanderer), he visits the
+wise giant Vafthrudni, and the two agree to test their wisdom: the one
+who fails to answer a question is to forfeit his head. In each case
+the questions deal first with the past. Vafthrudni asks about Day and
+Night, and the river which divides the Giants from the Gods, matters of
+common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future: "What is
+the plain where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?" Odin
+replies, and proceeds to question in his turn; first about the creation
+of Earth and Sky, the origin of Sun and Moon, Winter and Summer, the
+Giants and the Winds; the coming of Njörd the Wane to the Aesir as
+a hostage; the Einherjar, or chosen warriors of Valhalla. Then come
+prophetic questions on the destruction of the Sun by the wolf Fenri,
+the Gods who shall rule in the new world after Ragnarök, the end of
+Odin. The poem is brought to a close by Odin's putting the question
+which only himself can answer: "What did Odin say in his son's ear
+before he mounted the pyre?" and the giant's head is forfeit.
+
+In the third poem of this class, _Grimnismal_, a prose introduction
+relates that Odin and Frigg quarrelled over the merits of their
+respective foster-children. To settle the question, Odin goes
+disguised as Grimni, "the Hooded One," to visit his foster-son Geirröd;
+but Frigg, to justify her charge of inhospitality against Geirröd,
+sends her maiden Fulla to warn him against the coming stranger. Odin
+therefore meets with a harsh reception, and is bound between two fires
+in the hall. Geirröd's young son, Agnar, protests against this rude
+treatment, and gives wine to the guest, who then begins to instruct
+him in matters concerning the Gods. He names the halls of the Aesir,
+describes Valhalla and the ash Yggdrasil, the Valkyries, the creation
+of the world (two stanzas in common with _Vafthrudnismal_), and
+enumerates his own names. The poem ends with impressive abruptness
+by his turning to Geirröd:
+
+"Thou art drunk, Geirröd, thou hast drunk too deep; thou art bereft
+of much since thou hast lost my favour, the favour of Odin and all
+the Einherjar. I have told thee much, but thou hast minded little. Thy
+friends betray thee: I see my friend's sword lie drenched in blood. Now
+shall Odin have the sword-weary slain; I know thy life is ended,
+the Fates are ungracious. Now thou canst see Odin: come near me,
+if thou canst."
+
+[Prose.] "King Geirröd sat with his sword on his knee, half drawn. When
+he heard that Odin was there, he stood up and would have led Odin
+from the fires. The sword slipt from his hand; the hilt turned
+downwards. The king caught his foot and fell forwards, the sword
+standing towards him, and so he met his death. Then Odin went away,
+and Agnar was king there long afterwards."
+
+_Harbardsljod_ is a dialogue, and humorous. Thor on his return from
+the east comes to a channel, at the farther side of which stands Odin,
+disguised as a ferryman, Greybeard. He refuses to ferry Thor across,
+and they question each other as to their past feats, with occasional
+threats from Thor and taunts from Odin, until the former goes off
+vowing vengeance on the ferryman:
+
+_Thor_. "Thy skill in words would serve thee ill if I waded across
+the water; I think thou wouldst cry louder than the wolf, if thou
+shouldst get a blow from the hammer."
+
+_Odin_. "Sif has a lover at home, thou shouldst seek him. That is a
+task for thee to try, it is more proper for thee."
+
+_Thor_. "Thou speakest what thou knowest most displeasing to me;
+thou cowardly fellow, I think that thou liest."
+
+_Odin_. "I think I speak true; thou art slow on the road. Thou wouldst
+have got far, if thou hadst started at dawn."
+
+_Thor_. "Harbard, scoundrel, it is rather thou who hast delayed me."
+
+_Odin_. "I never thought a shepherd could so delay Asa-Thor's journey."
+
+_Thor_. "I will counsel thee: row thy boat hither. Let us cease
+quarrelling; come and meet Magni's father."
+
+_Odin_. "Leave thou the river; crossing shall be refused thee."
+
+_Thor_. "Show me the way, since thou wilt not ferry me."
+
+_Odin_. "That is a small thing to refuse. It is a long way to go: a
+while to the stock, and another to the stone, then keep to the left
+hand till thou reach Verland. There will Fjörgyn meet her son Thor,
+and she will tell him the highway to Odin's land."
+
+_Thor_. "Shall I get there to-day?"
+
+_Odin_. "With toil and trouble thou wilt get there about sunrise,
+as I think."
+
+_Thor_. "Our talk shall be short, since thou answerest with mockery. I
+will reward thee for refusing passage, if we two meet again."
+
+_Odin_. "Go thy way, where all the fiends may take thee."
+
+_Lokasenna_ also is in dialogue form. A prose introduction tells
+how the giant Oegi, or Gymi, gave a feast to the Aesir. Loki was
+turned out for killing a servant, but presently returned and began to
+revile the Gods and Goddesses, each one in turn trying to interfere,
+only to provoke a taunt from Loki. At last Thor, who had been absent
+on a journey, came in and threatened the slanderer with his hammer,
+whereupon Loki said, "I spoke to the Aesir and the sons of the Aesir
+what my mind told me; but for thee alone I will go away, for I know
+thou wilt strike." Some of the poem is rather pointless abuse, but
+much touches points already suggested in the other poems.
+
+_Hyndluljod_ is much later than the others, probably  not before
+1200. The style is late, and the form imitated from _Völuspa_. It
+describes a visit paid by Freyja to the Sibyl to learn the genealogy of
+her favourite Ottar. The larger part deals with heroic genealogies, but
+there are scanty allusions to Baldr, Frey, Heimdal, Loki's children,
+and Thor, and a Christian reference to a God who shall come after
+Ragnarök "when Odin shall meet the wolf." It tells nothing new.
+
+We have here then, omitting _Hyndluljod_, five poems (four of them
+belonging to the first half of the tenth century) which suggest a
+general outline of Norse mythology: there is a hierarchy of Gods, the
+Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin being the chief. Among
+them are several who are not Aesir by origin: Njörd and his son and
+daughter, Frey and Freyja, are Vanir; Loki is really an enemy and
+an agent in their fall; and there are one or two Goddesses of giant
+race. The giants are rivals and enemies to the Gods; the dwarfs are
+also antagonistic, but in bondage. The meeting-place of the Gods is
+by the World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of Gods
+and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake. The Gods have
+foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnarök, the great fight when they
+shall meet Loki's children, the Wolf and the Snake; both sides will
+fall and the world be destroyed. An episode in the story is the death
+of Baldr. This we may assume to be the religion of the Viking age
+(800-1000 A.D.), a compound of the beliefs of various ages and tribes.
+
+_The Aesir._--The number of the Aesir is not fixed. _Hyndluljod_
+says there were twelve ("there were eleven Aesir when Baldr went
+down into the howe"). Snorri gives a list of fourteen Aesir or Gods
+(Odin, Thor, Baldr, Njörd, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdal, Höd, Vidar, Vali,
+Ullr, Forseti, Loki), and adds Hoeni in another list, all the fifteen
+occurring in the poems; and sixteen Goddesses (Asynjor), the majority
+of whom are merely personified epithets, occurring nowhere else. Of
+the sixteen, Frigg, Gefion, Freyja and Saga (really an epithet only)
+are Goddesses in the poems, and Fulla is Frigg's handmaid. In another
+chapter, Snorri adds Idunn, Gerd, Sigyn and Nanna, of whom the latter
+does not appear in the Elder Edda, where Idunn, Gerd (a giantess)
+and Sigyn are the wives of Bragi, Frey and Loki; and two others,
+the giantess Skadi and Sif, are the wives of Njörd and Thor.
+
+A striking difference from classical mythology is that neither Tyr
+(who should etymologically be the Sky-god), nor Thor (the Thunder-god),
+takes the highest place. Tyr is the hero of one important episode,
+the chaining of the Wolf, through which he loses his right hand. This
+is told in full by Snorri and alluded to in _Lokasenna_, both in the
+prose preface ("Tyr also was there, with only one hand; the Fenris-wolf
+had bitten off the other, when he was bound") and in the poem itself:
+
+_Loki_. "I must remember that right hand which Fenri bit off thee."
+
+_Tyr_. "I am short of a hand, but thou of the famous wolf; to each
+the loss is ill-luck. Nor is the wolf in better plight, for he must
+wait in bonds till Ragnarök."
+
+Otherwise, he only appears in connexion with two more popular Gods:
+he speaks in Frey's defence in _Lokasenna_, and in _Hymiskvida_ he
+is Thor's companion in the search for a cauldron; the latter poem
+represents him as a giant's son.
+
+Thor, on the other hand, is second only to his father Odin; he is
+the strongest of the Gods and their champion against the giants,
+and his antagonist at Ragnarök is to be the World-Snake. Like Odin,
+he travels much, but while the chief God generally goes craftily and
+in disguise, to gain knowledge or test his wisdom, Thor's errands are
+warlike; in _Lokasenna_ he is absent on a journey, in _Harbardsljod_
+and _Alvissmal_ he is returning from one. His journeys are always
+to the east; so in _Harbardsljod_: "I was in the east, fighting
+the malevolent giant-brides.... I was in the east and guarding the
+river, when Svarang's sons attacked me." The Giants live in the
+east (_Hymiskvida_ 5); Thor threatened Loki: "I will fling thee up
+into the east, and no one shall see thee more" (_Lokasenna_ 59);
+the fire-giants at Ragnarök are to come from the east: "Hrym comes
+driving from the east, he lifts his shield before him.... A ship
+comes from the east, Muspell's sons will come sailing over the
+sea, and Loki steers" (_Völuspa_ 50, 51). It would not, perhaps,
+be overstraining the point to suggest that this is a reminiscence of
+early warfare between the Scandinavians and eastern nations, either
+Lapps and Finns or Slavonic tribes.
+
+Thor is the God of natural force, the son of Earth. Two of the
+episodical poems deal with his contests with the giants. _Thrymskvida_,
+the story of how Thor won back his hammer, Mjöllni, from the giant
+Thrym, is the finest and one of the oldest of the mythological poems;
+a translation is given in the appendix, as an example of Eddic poetry
+at its best. Loki appears as the willing helper of the Gods, and Thor's
+companion. The Thunderer's journey with Tyr in quest of a cauldron
+is related with much humour in _Hymiskvida_: Hymi's beautiful wife,
+who helps her guests to outwit her husband, is a figure familiar in
+fairy-tales as the Ogre's wife.
+
+The chief God of the Scandinavians is, it must be confessed, an
+unsympathetic character. He is the head of the Valhalla system;
+he is Val-father (Father of the Slain), and the Valkyries are his
+"Wishmaidens," as the Einherjar are his "Wishsons." He naturally takes
+a special interest in mortal heroes, from whom come the chosen hosts
+of Valhalla. But, in spite of the splendour of his surroundings, he
+is wanting in dignity. The chief of the Gods has neither the might and
+unthinking valour of Thor, nor the self-sacrificing courage of Tyr. He
+is a God who practises magic, and it is as Father of Spells that he is
+powerful. He is the wisest of the Gods in the sense that he remembers
+most about the past and foresees most about the future; yet he is
+powerless in difficulty without the craft of Loki and the hammer of
+Thor. He always wanders in disguise, and the stories told of him are
+chiefly love-adventures; this is true of all the deeds he mentions
+in _Harbardsljod_, and also of the two interpolations in _Havamal_,
+though one of the two had an object, the stealing of the mead of
+inspiration from the giant Suptung, whose daughter Gunnlöd guarded it.
+
+_Völuspa_ makes him one of three creative deities, the other two being
+Lodur (probably Loki) and Hoeni, of whom nothing else is known except
+the story that he was given as hostage to the Vanir in exchange for
+Njörd. The same three Gods (Odin, Loki and Hoeni) are connected with
+the legend of the Nibelung treasure; and it was another adventure of
+theirs, according to Snorri, which led to the loss of Idunn.
+
+Of the other Gods, Bragi is a later development; his name means
+simply king or chief, and his attributes, as God of eloquence and
+poetry, are apparently borrowed from Odin. Heimdal, the watchman and
+"far-seeing like the Vanir," who keeps guard on the rainbow bridge
+Bifröst, is represented in the curious poem _Rigsthula_ as founder of
+the different social orders. He wandered over the world under the name
+of Rig, and from his first journey sprang the race of thralls, swarthy,
+crooked and broad-backed, who busied themselves with fencing land and
+tending goats and swine; from his second, the churls, fine and ruddy,
+who broke oxen, built houses and ploughed the land; from his third,
+the earls, yellow-haired, rosy, and keen-eyed, who broke horses and
+strung bows, rode, swam, and hurled spears; and the youngest of the
+earls' race was Konung the king, who knew all mysteries, understood
+the speech of birds, could quench fire and heal wounds. Heimdal is
+said to be the son of nine mothers, and to have fought with Loki for
+Freyja's Brising-necklace. His horn is hidden under Yggdrasil, to be
+brought out at Ragnarök, when he will blow a warning blast. His origin
+is obscure. Still less is known of Vidar and Vali, two sons of Odin,
+one of whom is to avenge Baldr's death, the other to slay the wolf
+after it has swallowed up the chief God at Ragnarök. Thor's stepson
+Ullr (Glory) is probably, like his sons Modi and Magni (Wrath and
+Strength), a mere epithet.
+
+Frigg, Odin's wife and the chief Goddess, daughter of Earth,
+is not very distinctly characterised, and is often confused with
+Freyja. Gefion should be the sea-goddess, since that seems to be
+the meaning of her name, but her functions are apparently usurped by
+the Wane Njörd; according to Snorri, she is the patron of those who
+die unwedded.
+
+_Baldr_.--The story of Baldr is the most debated point in the Edda. The
+chief theories advanced are: (1) That it is the oldest part of Norse
+mythology, and of ritual origin; (2) that Baldr is really a hero
+transformed into a God; (3) that the legend is a solar myth with
+or without Christian colouring;  (4) that it is entirely borrowed
+from Mediæval Greek and Christian sources. This last theory is too
+ingenious to be credible; and with regard to the third, there is
+nothing essentially Christian in the chief features of the legend,
+while the solar idea leaves too much unexplained. The references to
+the myth in the Elder Edda are:
+
+(1) _Vegtamskvida_ (about 900 A.D.). Odin questions the Sibyl as to
+the meaning of Baldr's dreams:
+
+_Odin_. "For whom are the benches (in hell) strewn with rings, the
+halls fairly adorned with gold?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Here the mead, clear drink, stands brewed for Baldr; the
+shields are spread. The sons of the Aesir are too merry."
+
+_Odin_. "Who will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Höd bears thither the high branch of fame: he will be
+Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life."
+
+_Odin_. "Who will avenge the deed on Höd and bring Baldr's slayer to
+the funeral pyre?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Rind bears a son, Vali, in the halls of the west. He shall
+not wash his hands nor comb his hair till he bears Baldr's foe to
+the pyre."
+
+(2) In _Lokasenna_ Frigg says: "If I had a son like Baldr here in
+Oegi's halls, thou shouldst not pass out from the sons of the Aesir,
+but be slain here in thy anger"; to which Loki replies, "Wilt thou
+that I speak more ill words, Frigg? I am the cause that thou wilt
+never more see Baldr ride into the hall."
+
+(3) In _Vafthrudnismal_ the only reference is Odin's question,
+"What said Odin in his son's ear when he mounted the pyre?"
+
+(4) In _Völuspa_ the Sibyl prophesies, "I saw doom threatening Baldr,
+the bleeding victim, the son of Odin. Grown high above the meadows
+stood the mistletoe, slender and fair. From this stem, which looked
+so slender, grew a fatal and dangerous shaft. Höd shot it, and Frigg
+wept in Fenhall over Valhall's woe."  The following lines, on the
+chaining of Loki, suggest his complicity.
+
+(5) _Hyndluljod_ has one reference: "There were eleven Aesir by
+number when Baldr went down into the howe. Vali was his avenger and
+slew his brother's slayer."
+
+Besides these there is a fragment quoted by Snorri: "Thökk will weep
+dry tears at Baldr's funeral pyre. I had no good of the old man's
+son alive or dead; let Hel keep what she has." _Grimnismal_ assigns
+a hall to Baldr among the Gods.
+
+There are, in addition, two prose versions of the story by later
+writers: the Icelandic version of Snorri (1178-1241) with all the
+details familiar to every one; and the Latin one of the Dane Saxo
+Grammaticus (about thirty years earlier), which makes Baldr and Höd
+heroes instead of Gods, and completely alters the character of the
+legend by making a rivalry for Nanna's favour the centre of the plot
+and cause of the catastrophe. On the Eddic version and on Saxo's
+depend the theories of Golther, Detter, Niedner and other German
+scholars on the one hand, and Dr. Frazer on the other.
+
+It has often been pointed out that there is no trace of Baldr-worship
+in other Germanic nations, nor in any of the Icelandic sagas except
+the late Frithjofssaga. This, however, is true of other Gods, notably
+of Tyr, who is without question one of the oldest. The only deities
+named with any suggestion of sacrifice or worship in the Icelandic
+sagas proper are Odin, Thor, Frey, Njörd, Frigg and Freyja. The process
+of choice is as arbitrary in mythology as in other sciences. Again,
+it is more likely that the original version of the legend should have
+survived in Iceland than in Denmark, which, being on the mainland,
+was earlier subject to Christian and Romantic influences; and
+that a heathen God should, in the two or three centuries following
+the establishment of Christianity in the North, be turned into a
+mortal hero, than that the reverse process should have acted at a
+sufficiently late date to permit of both versions existing side by
+side in the thirteenth century. A similar gradual elimination of the
+supernatural may be found in the history of the Volsung myth. Snorri's
+version is merely an amplification of that in the Elder Edda, which,
+scanty as its account of Baldr is, leaves no doubt as to his divinity.
+
+The outline gathered from the poems is as follows: Baldr, Odin's son,
+is killed by his brother Höd through a mistletoe spray; Loki is in some
+way concerned in his death, which is an overwhelming misfortune to the
+Gods; but it is on Höd that his death is avenged. He is burnt on a pyre
+(Snorri says on his ship, a feature which must come from the Viking
+age; _Hyndluljod_ substitutes howe-burial). He will be absent from
+the great fight at Ragnarök, but _Völuspa_ adds that he will return
+afterwards. Nanna has nothing to do with the story. The connexion with
+the hierarchy of the Aesir seems external only, since Baldr has no
+apparent relation to the great catastrophe as have Odin, Thor, Frej,
+Tyr and Loki; this, then, would point to the independence of his myth.
+
+The genuineness of the myth seems to depend on whether the mistletoe
+is an original feature of it or not, and on this point there can
+be little real doubt. The German theory that Baldr could only be
+killed by his own sword, which was therefore disguised by enchantment
+and used against him, and that the Icelandic writers misunderstood
+this to mean a mistletoe sprig, is far-fetched and romantic, and
+crumbles at a touch. For if, as it is claimed, the Icelanders had no
+mistletoe, why should they introduce it into a story to which it did
+not belong? They might preserve it by tradition, but they would hardly
+invent it. Granting this, the mistletoe becomes the central point of
+the legend. The older mythologists, who only saw in it a sun-myth,
+overlooked the fact that since any weapon would have done to kill
+the God with, the mistletoe must have some special significance; and
+if it is a genuine part of the story, as we have no reason to doubt,
+it will be hard to overturn Dr. Frazer's theory that the Baldr-myth
+is a relic of tree-worship and the ritual sacrifice of the God,
+Baldr being a tree-spirit whose soul is contained in the mistletoe.
+
+The contradictions in the story, especially as told by Snorri
+(such as the confusion between the parts played by Höd and Loki,
+and the unsuspicious attitude of the Gods as Loki directs Höd's aim)
+are sometimes urged against its genuineness. They are rather proofs
+of antiquity. Apparent contradictions whose explanation is forgotten
+often survive in tradition; the inventor of a new story takes care to
+make it consistent. It is probable, however, that there were originally
+only two actors in the episode, the victim and the slayer, and that
+Loki's part is later than Höd's, for he really belongs to the Valhall
+and Ragnarök myth, and was only introduced here as a link. The incident
+of the oath extracted from everything on earth to protect Baldr, which
+occurs in Snorri and in a paper MS. of _Baldr's Dreams_, was probably
+invented to explain the choice of weapon, which would certainly need
+explanation to an Icelandic audience. If Dr. Frazer's theory be right,
+Vali, who slew the slayer, must also have been an original figure in
+the legend. His antiquity is supported by the fact that he plays the
+part of avenger in the poems; while in Snorri, where he is mentioned
+as a God, his absence from the account of Baldr's death is only a
+part of that literary development by which real responsibility for
+the murder was transferred from Höd to Loki.
+
+Snorri gives Baldr a son, Forseti (Judge), who is also named as a
+God in _Grimnismal_. He must have grown out of an epithet of Baldr's,
+of whom Snorri says that "no one can resist his sentence"; the sacred
+tree would naturally be the seat of judgment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Wanes._--Three of the Norse divinities, Njörd and his son and
+daughter, are not Aesir by descent. The following account is given
+of their presence in Asgard:
+
+(1) In _Vafthrudnismal_, Odin asks:
+
+"Whence came Njörd among the sons of the Aesir? for he was not born
+of the Aesir."
+
+_Vafthrudni_. "In Vanaheim wise powers ordained and gave him for a
+hostage to the Gods; at the doom of the world he shall come back,
+home to the wise Wanes."
+
+(2) There is an allusion in _Völuspa_ to the war which caused the
+giving of hostages:
+
+"Odin shot into the host: this was the first war in the world. Broken
+was the wall of the citadel of the Aesir, so that the Wanes could
+tread the fields of war."
+
+(3) Loki taunts Njörd with his position, in _Lokasenna_:
+
+"Thou wast sent from the east as a hostage to the Gods...."
+
+_Njörd_. "This is my comfort, though I was sent from far as a hostage
+to the Gods, yet I have a son whom no one hates, and he is thought
+the best of the Aesir."
+
+_Loki_. "Stay, Njörd, restrain thy pride; I will hide it no longer:
+thy son is thine own sister's son, and that is no worse than one
+would expect."
+
+_Tyr_. "Frey is the best of all the bold riders of Asgard."
+
+There is little doubt that Njörd was once a God of higher importance
+than he is in the Edda, where he is overshadowed by his son. Grimm's
+suggestion that he and the goddess Nerthus, mentioned by Tacitus,
+were brother and sister, is supported by the line in _Lokasenna_; it
+is an isolated reference, and the Goddess has left no other traces in
+Scandinavian mythology. They were the deities, probably agricultural,
+of an earlier age, whose adoption by the later Northmen was explained
+by the story of the compact between Aesir and Vanir. Then their places
+were usurped by Frey and Freyja, who were possibly created out of
+epithets originally applied to the older pair; Njörd was retained
+with lessened importance, Nerthus passed out altogether. The Edda
+gives Njörd a giant-bride, Skadi, who was admitted among the Gods in
+atonement for the slaying of her father Thiazi; she is little more
+than a name. Frey and Freyja have other marks of agricultural deities,
+besides their relationship. Nothing is said about Frey's changing
+shape, but Freyja possesses a hawk-dress which Loki borrows when
+he wishes to change his form; and, according to Snorri, Frey was
+sacrificed to for the crops. Njörd has an epithet, "the wealthy,"
+which may have survived from his earlier connexion with the soil. In
+that case, it would explain why, in Snorri and elsewhere, he is God of
+the sea and ships, once the province of the ocean-goddess Gefion; the
+transference is a natural one to an age whose wealth came from the sea.
+
+In spite of their origin, Frey and Freyja become to all intents
+and purposes Aesir. Frey is to be one of the chief combatants at
+Ragnarök, with the fire-giant Surt for his antagonist, and a story is
+told to explain his defeat: he fell in love with Gerd, a giant-maid,
+and sacrificed his sword to get her; hence he is weaponless at the
+last fight. Loki alludes to this episode in _Lokasenna_: "With gold
+didst thou buy Gymi's daughter, and gavest thy sword for her; but when
+Muspell's sons ride over Myrkwood, thou shalt not know with what to
+fight, unhappy one." The story is told in full in _Skirnisför_.
+
+Freyja is called by Snorri "the chief Goddess after Frigg," and the
+two are sometimes confused. Like her father and brother, she comes into
+connexion with the giants; she is the beautiful Goddess, and coveted by
+them. _Völuspa_ says that the Gods went into consultation to discuss
+"who had given the bride of Od (_i.e._, Freyja) to the giant race";
+_Thrymskvida_ relates how the giant Thrym bargained for Freyja as
+the ransom for Thor's hammer, which he had hidden, and how Loki and
+Thor outwitted him; and Snorri says the giants bargained for her as
+the price for building Valhalla, but were outwitted. Sir G.W. Dasent
+notices in the folk-tales the eagerness of trolls and giants to learn
+the details of the agricultural processes, and this is probably the
+clue to the desire of the Frost-Giants in the Edda for the possession
+of Freyja. Idunn, the wife of Bragi, and a purely Norse creation, seems
+to be a double of Freyja; she, too, according to Snorri, is carried
+away by the giants and rescued by Loki. The golden apples which she
+is to keep till Ragnarök remind us of those which Frey offered to
+Gerd; and the gift of eternal youth, of which they are the symbols,
+would be appropriate enough to Freyja as an agricultural deity.
+
+The great necklace Brising, stolen by Loki and won back in fight
+by Heimdal (according to the tenth-century Skalds Thjodulf and Ulf
+Uggason), is Freyja's property. On this ground, she has been identified
+with the heroine of _Svipdag and Menglad_, a poem undoubtedly old,
+though it has only come down in paper MSS. It is in two parts, the
+first telling how Svipdag aroused the Sibyl Groa, his mother, to
+give him spells to guard him on his journey; the second describing
+his crossing the wall of fire which surrounded his fated bride
+Menglad. If Menglad is really Freyja, the "Necklace-glad," it is a
+curious coincidence that one poem connects the waverlowe, or ring of
+fire, with Frey also; for his bride Gerd is protected in the same way,
+though his servant Skirni goes through it in his place:
+
+_Skirni_. "Give me the horse that will bear me through the dark magic
+waverlowe, and the sword that fights of itself against the giant-race."
+
+_Frey_. "I give thee the horse that will bear thee through the dark
+magic waverlowe, and the sword that will fight of itself if he is
+bold who bears it." (_Skirnisför_.)
+
+The connexion of both with the Midsummer fires, originally part of
+an agricultural ritual, can hardly be doubted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Loki_, or Lopt, is a strange figure. He is admitted among the Aesir,
+though not one of them by birth, and his whole relation to them
+points to his being an older elemental God. He is in alliance with
+them against the giants; he and Odin have sworn blood-brothership,
+according to _Lokasenna_, and he helps Thor to recover his hammer
+that Asgard may be defended against the giants. On the other hand,
+while in present alliance with the Gods, he is chief agent in their
+future destruction, and this they know. In Snorri, he is a mischievous
+spirit of the fairy-tale kind, exercising his ingenuity alternately in
+getting the Gods into difficulties, and in getting them out again. So
+he betrays Idunn to the giants, and delivers her; he makes the bargain
+by which Freyja is promised to the giant-builders of Valhalla,
+and invents the trick by which they are cheated of their prize;
+by killing the otter he endangers his own head, Odin's and Hoeni's,
+and he obtains the gold which buys their atonement. Hence, in the
+systematising of the Viking religion, the responsibility for Baldr's
+death also was transferred to him. At the coming of the fire-giants
+at Ragnarök, he is to steer the ship in which Muspell's sons sail
+(_Völuspa_), further evidence of his identity as a fire-spirit. Like
+his son the Wolf, he is chained by the Gods; the episode is related
+in a prose-piece affixed to _Lokasenna_:
+
+"After that Loki hid himself in Franangr's Foss in the form of
+a salmon. There the Aesir caught him. He was bound with the guts
+of his son Nari, but his son Narfi was changed into a wolf. Skadi
+took a poisonous snake and fastened it up over Loki's face, and the
+poison dropped down. Sigyn, Loki's wife, sat there and held a cup
+under the poison. But when it was full she poured the poison away,
+and meanwhile poison dropped on Loki, and he struggled so hard that
+all the earth shook; those are called earthquakes now."
+
+_Völuspa_ inserts lines corresponding to this passage after the
+Baldr episode, and Snorri makes it a consequence of Loki's share in
+that event.
+
+He is more especially agent of the doom through his children:
+at Ragnarök, Fenri the Wolf, bound long before by Tyr's help,
+will be freed, and swallow the sun (_Vafthrudnismal_) and Odin
+(_Vafthrudnismal_ and _Völuspa_); and Jörmungandr, the Giant-Snake,
+will rise from the sea where he lies curled round the world, to slay
+and be slain by Thor. The dragon's writhing in the waves is one
+of the tokens to herald Ragnarök, and his battle with Thor is the
+fiercest combat of that day. Only _Völuspa_ of our poems gives any
+account of it: "Then comes the glorious son of Hlodyn, Odin's son
+goes to meet the serpent; Midgard's guardian slays him in his rage,
+but scarcely can Earth's son reel back nine feet from the dragon."
+
+When Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymi, he terrifies his companion
+by dragging the snake's head out of the sea, but he does not slay it;
+it must wait there till Ragnarök:
+
+"The protector of men, the only slayer of the Serpent, baited his hook
+with the ox's head. The God-hated one who girds all lands from below
+swallowed the bait. Doughtily pulled mighty Thor the poison-streaked
+serpent up to the side; he struck down with his hammer the hideous
+head of the wolf's companion. The monster roared, the wilderness
+resounded, the old earth shuddered all through. The fish sank back
+into the sea. Gloomy was the giant when they rowed back, so that he
+spoke not a word."
+
+There is nothing to suggest that Jörmungandr, to whom the word
+World-Snake (Midgardsorm) always refers in the Edda, is the same as
+Nidhögg, the serpent that gnaws at Yggdrasil's roots; but both are
+relics of Snake-worship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The World-Ash_, generally called Yggdrasil's Ash, is one of the most
+interesting survivals of tree-worship. It is described by the Sibyl
+in _Völuspa_: "I know an ash called Yggdrasil, a high tree sprinkled
+with white moisture (thence come the dews that fall in the dales):
+it stands ever-green by Urd's spring. Thence come three maids,
+all-knowing, from the hall that stands under the tree"; and as a
+sign of the approaching doom she says: "Yggdrasil's ash trembles as
+it stands; the old tree groans." _Grimnismal_ says that the Gods go
+every day to hold judgment by the ash, and describes it further:
+
+"Three roots lie three ways under Yggdrasil's ash: Hel dwells under
+one, the frost-giants under the second, mortal men under the third. The
+squirrel is called Ratatosk who shall run over Yggdrasil's ash;
+he shall carry down the eagle's words, and tell them to Nidhögg
+below. There are four harts, with necks thrown back, who gnaw
+off the shoots.... More serpents lie under Yggdrasil's ash than
+any one knows. Ofni and Svafni I know will ever gnaw at the tree's
+twigs. Yggdrasil's ash suffers more hardships than men know: the hart
+bites above, the side decays, and Nidhögg gnaws below.... Yggdrasil's
+ash is the best of trees."
+
+The snake and the tree are familiar in other mythologies, though in
+most other cases the snake is the protector, while here he is the
+destroyer. Both Nidhögg and Jörmungandr are examples of the destroying
+dragon rather than the treasure-guardian. The Ash is the oracle: the
+judgment-place of the Gods, the dwelling of the Fates, the source of
+the spring of knowledge.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ragnarök_.--The Twilight of the Gods (or Doom of the Gods) is the
+central point of the Viking religion. The Regin (of which _Ragna_
+is genitive plural) are the ruling powers, often called Ginnregin
+(the great Gods), Uppregin (the high Gods), Thrymregin (the warrior
+Gods). The word is commonly used of the Aesir in _Völuspa_; in
+_Alvissmal_ the Regin seem to be distinguished from both Aesir and
+Vanir. The whole story of the Aesir is overshadowed by knowledge of
+this coming doom, the time when they shall meet foes more terrible
+than the giants, and fall before them; their constant effort is to
+learn what will happen then, and to gather their forces together
+to meet it. The coming Ragnarök is the reason for the existence of
+Valhalla with its hosts of slain warriors; and of all the Gods, Odin,
+Thor, Tyr and Loki are most closely connected with it. Two poems of
+the verse Edda describe it:
+
+(1) _Vafthrudnismal_:
+
+V. "What is the plain called where Surt and the blessed Gods shall
+meet in battle?"
+
+O. "Vigrid is the name of the place where Surt and the blessed Gods
+shall meet in battle. It is a hundred miles every way; it is their
+destined battle-field."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+O. "Whence shall the sun come on the smooth heaven when Fenri has
+destroyed this one?"
+
+V. "Before Fenri destroy her, the elf-beam shall bear a daughter:
+that maid shall ride along her mother's paths, when the Gods perish."
+
+O. "Which of the Aesir shall rule over the realms of the Gods, when
+Surt's fire is quenched?"
+
+V. "Vidar and Vali shall dwell in the sanctuary of the Gods when
+Surt's fire is quenched. Modi and Magni shall have Mjöllni at the
+end of Vingni's (_i.e._, Thor's) combat."
+
+O. "What shall be Odin's end, when the Gods perish?"
+
+V. "The Wolf will swallow the father of men; Vidar will avenge it. He
+will cleave the Wolf's cold jaws in the battle."
+
+(2) _Völuspa_:
+
+"A hag sits eastward in Ironwood and rears Fenri's children; one of
+them all, in troll's shape, shall be the sun's destroyer. He shall
+feed on the lives of death-doomed men; with red blood he shall redden
+the seat of the Gods. The sunshine shall grow black, all winds will
+be unfriendly in the after-summers.... I see further in the future
+the great Ragnarök of the Gods of Victory.... Heimdal blows loudly,
+the horn is on high; Yggdrasil's ash trembles as it stands, the old
+tree groans."
+
+The following lines tell of the fire-giants and the various combats,
+and the last section of the poem deals with a new world when Baldr,
+Höd and Hoeni are to come back to the dwelling-place of the Gods.
+
+The whole points to a belief in the early destruction of the world
+and the passing away of the old order of things. Whether the new
+world which _Vafthrudnismal_ and _Völuspa_ both prophesy belongs to
+the original idea or not is a disputed point. Probably it does not;
+at all events, none of the old Aesir, according to the poems, are
+to survive, for Modi and Magni are not really Gods at all, Baldr,
+Höd and Vali belong to another myth, Hoeni had passed out of the
+hierarchy by his exchange with Njörd, and Vidar's origin is obscure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Einherjar_, the great champions or chosen warriors, are intimately
+connected with Ragnarök. All warriors who fall in battle are taken
+to Odin's hall of the slain, Valhalla. According to _Grimnismal_,
+he "chooses every day men dead by the sword"; his Valkyries ride
+to battle to give the victory and bring in the fallen. Hence Odin
+is the giver of victory. Loki in _Lokasenna_ taunts him with giving
+victory to the wrong side: "Thou hast never known how to decide the
+battle among men. Thou hast often given victory to those to whom thou
+shouldst not give it, to the more cowardly"; this, no doubt, was in
+order to secure the best fighters for Valhalla. That the defeated
+side sometimes consoled themselves with this explanation of a notable
+warrior's fall is proved by the tenth-century dirge on Eirik Bloodaxe,
+where Sigmund the Volsung asks in Valhalla: "Why didst thou take the
+victory from him, if thou thoughtest him brave?" and Odin replies:
+"Because it is uncertain when the grey Wolf will come to the seat
+of the Gods." There are similar lines in Eyvind's dirge on Hakon
+the Good. In this way a host was collected ready for Ragnarök:
+for _Grimnismal_  says: "There are five hundred doors and eighty
+in Valhalla; eight hundred Einherjar will go out from each door,
+when they go to fight the wolf." Meanwhile they fight and feast:
+"All the Einherjar in Odin's courts fight every day: they choose
+the slain and ride from the battle, and sit then in peace together"
+(_Vafthrudnismal_,) and the Valkyries bear ale to them _(Grimnismal_).
+
+It is often too hastily assumed that the Norse Ragnarök with
+the dependant Valhalla system are in great part the outcome of
+Christian influence: of an imitation of the Christian Judgment Day
+and the Christian heaven respectively. Owing to the lateness of our
+material, it is, of course, impossible to decide how old the beliefs
+may be, but it is likely that the Valhalla idea only took form at
+the systematising of the mythology in the Viking age. The belief
+in another world for the dead is, however, by no means exclusively
+Christian, and a reference in _Grimnismal_ suggests the older system
+out of which, under the influence of the Ragnarök idea, Valhalla was
+developed. The lines, "The ninth hall is Folkvang, where Freyja rules
+the ordering of seats in the hall; half the slain she chooses every
+day, Odin has the other half," are an evident survival of a belief
+that all the dead went to live with the Gods, Odin having the men,
+and Freyja (or more probably Frigg) the women; the idea being here
+confused with the later system, under which only those who fell in
+battle were chosen by the Gods. Christian colouring appears in the
+last lines of _Völuspa_ and in Snorri, where men are divided into the
+"good and moral," who go after death to a hall of red gold, and the
+"perjurers and murderers," who are sent to a hall of snakes.
+
+For Ragnarök also a heathen origin is at least as probable as a
+Christian one. I would suggest as a possibility that the expectation of
+the Twilight of the Gods may have grown out of some ritual connected
+with the eclipse, such as is frequent among heathen races. Such
+ceremonies are a tacit acknowledgment of a doubt, and if they ever
+existed among the Scandinavians, the possibility, ever present to
+the savage mind, of a time when his efforts to help the light might
+be fruitless, and the darkness prove the stronger, would be the germ
+of his more civilised descendant's belief in Ragnarök.
+
+By turning to the surviving poems of the Skalds, whose dates can be
+approximately reckoned from the sagas, we can fix an inferior limit
+for certain of the legends given above, placing them definitely in the
+heathen time. Reference has already been made to the corroboration
+of the Valhalla belief supplied by the elegies on Eirik Bloodaxe
+and Hakon the Good. In the former (which is anonymous, but must have
+been written soon after 950, since it was composed, on Eirik's death,
+by his wife's orders), Odin commands the Einherjar and Valkyries to
+prepare for the reception of the slain Eirik and his host, since no
+one knows how soon the Gods will need to gather their forces together
+for the great contest. Eyvind's dirge on Hakon (who fell in 970) is an
+imitation of this: Odin sends two Valkyries to choose a king to enter
+his service in Valhalla; they find Hakon on the battle-field, and
+he is slain with many of his followers. Great preparation is made in
+Valhalla for his reception, and the poet ends by congratulating Hakon
+(who, though a Christian, having been educated in England, had not
+interfered with the heathen altars and sacrifices) on the toleration
+which has secured him such a welcome. A still earlier poet, Hornklofi,
+writing during the reign of Harald Fairhair (who died in 933), alludes
+to the slain as the property of "the one-eyed husband of Frigg."
+
+Several Skalds mention legends of Thor: his fishing for the World-Snake
+is told by Bragi (who from his place in genealogies must have written
+before 900), and by Ulf Uggason and Eystein Valdason, both in the
+second half of the tenth century; and Thjodulf and Eilif (the former
+about 960, the latter a little later) tell tales of his fights with
+the giants. Turning to the other Gods, Egil Skallagrimsson (about 970)
+names Frey and Njörd as the givers of wealth; Bragi tells the story
+of Gefion's dragging the island of Zealand out of Lake Wener into
+the sea; and Ulf Uggason speaks of Heimdal's wrestling with Loki.
+
+The legend of Idunn is told by Thjodulf much as Snorri tells it:
+Odin, Hoeni and Loki, while on a journey, kill and roast an ox. The
+giant Thiazi swoops down in eagle's shape and demands a share; Loki
+strikes the eagle, who flies off with him, releasing him only on
+condition that he will betray to the giants Idunn, "the care-healing
+maid who understands the renewal of youth." He does so, and the Gods,
+who grow old and withered for want of her apples, force him to go
+and bring her back to Asgard.
+
+The poet of _Eiriksmal_, quoted above, alludes to the Baldr myth:
+Bragi, hearing the approach of Eirik and his host, asks "What is
+that thundering and tramping, as if Baldr were coming back to Odin's
+hall?" The funeral pyre of Baldr is described by Ulf Uggason: he is
+burnt on his ship, which is launched by a giantess, in the presence
+of Frey, Heimdal, Odin and the Valkyries.
+
+Though heathen writers outside of Scandinavia are lacking, references
+to Germanic heathendom fortunately survive in several Continental
+Christian historians of earlier date than any of our Scandinavian
+sources. The evidence of these, though scanty, is corroborative,
+and the allusions are in striking agreement with the Edda stories in
+tone and character.
+
+Odin (Wodanus) is always identified by these writers with the
+Roman Mercurius (whom Tacitus named as the chief German God). This
+identification occurs in the eighth-century Paulus Diaconus, and in
+Jonas of Bobbio (first half of the seventh century), and probably rests
+on Odin's character as a wandering God (Mercury being diaktoros), his
+disguises, and his patronage of poetry and eloquence (as Mercury is
+logios). Odin is not himself in general the conductor of dead souls
+(psychopompos), like the Roman God, his attendant Valkyries performing
+the office for him. The equation is only comprehensible on the
+presumption of the independence of Germanic mythology, and cannot be
+explained by transmission. For if Odin were in any degree an imitation
+of the Roman deity, other notable attributes of the latter would have
+been assigned to him: whereas in the Edda the thieving God (kleptis)
+is not Odin but Loki, and the founder of civilisation is Heimdal.
+
+The legend of the origin of the Lombards given by Paulus Diaconus
+illustrates the relations of Odin and Frigg. The Vandals asked Wodan
+(Odin) to grant them victory over the Vinili; the latter made a similar
+prayer to Frea (Frigg), the wife of Wodan. She advised them to make
+their wives tie their hair round their faces like beards, and go with
+them to meet Wodan in the morning. They did so, and Wodan exclaimed,
+"Who are these _Long-beards_?" Then Frea said that having given the
+Vinili a name, he must give them the victory (as Helgi in the Edda
+claims a gift from Svava when she names him). As in _Grimnismal_,
+Odin and Frigg are represented as supporting rival claims, and Frigg
+gains the day for her favourites by superior cunning. This legend
+also shows Odin as the giver of victory.
+
+Few heathen legends are told however by these early Christian writers,
+and the Gods are seldom called by their German names. An exception is
+the Frisian Fosite mentioned by Alcuin (who died 804) and by later
+writers; he is to be identified with the Norse Forseti, the son of
+(probably at first an epithet of) Baldr, but no legend of him is
+told. It is disappointing that these writers should have said so
+little of any God except the chief one. A very characteristic touch
+survives in Gregory of Tours (died 594), when the Frank Chlodvig tells
+his Christian wife that the Christian God "cannot be proved to be
+of the race of the Gods," an idea entirely in keeping with the Eddic
+hierarchy. Before leaving the Continental historians, reference may be
+made to the abundant evidence of Germanic tree-worship to be gathered
+from them. The holy oak mentioned by Wilibald (before 786), the sacred
+pear-tree of Constantius (473), with numerous others, supply parallels
+to the World-Ash which is so important a feature of Norse mythology.
+
+A study of this subject would be incomplete without some reference to
+the mythology of Saxo Grammaticus. His testimony on the old religion
+is unwilling, and his effort to discredit it very evident. The
+bitterness of his attack on Frigg especially suggests that she
+was, among the Northmen, a formidable rival to the Virgin. When he
+repeats a legend of the Gods, he transforms them into mortal heroes,
+and when, as often happens, he refers to them accidentally as Gods,
+he invariably hastens to protest that he does so only because it had
+been the custom. He describes Thor and Odin as men versed in sorcery
+who claimed the rank of Gods; and in another passage he speaks of
+the latter as a king who had his seat at Upsala, and who was falsely
+credited with divinity throughout Europe. His description of Odin
+agrees with that in the Edda: an old man of great stature and mighty
+in battle, one-eyed, wearing a great cloak, and constantly wandering
+about in disguise. The story which Saxo tells of his driving into
+battle with Harald War-tooth, disguised as the latter's charioteer
+Brun, and turning the fight against him by revealing to his enemy Ring
+the order of battle which he had invented for Harald's advantage, is
+in thorough agreement with the traditional character of the God who
+betrayed Sigmund the Volsung and Helgi Hundingsbane. Saxo's version
+of the Baldr story has been mentioned already. Baldr's transformation
+into a hero (who could only be slain by a sword in the keeping of
+a wood-satyr) is almost complete. But Odin and Thor and all the
+Gods fight for him against his rival Hother, "so that it might be
+called a battle of Gods against men"; and Nanna's excuse to Baldr
+that "a God could not wed with a mortal," preserves a trace of his
+origin. The chained Loki appears in Saxo as Utgarda-Loki, lying bound
+in a cavern of snakes, and worshipped as a God by the Danish king
+Gorm Haraldsson. Dr. Eydberg sees the Freyja myth in Saxo's story of
+Syritha, who was carried away by the giants and delivered by her lover
+Othar (the Od of the Edda): an example, like _Svipdag and Menglad_,
+of the complete transformation of a divine into an heroic myth. In
+almost all cases Saxo vulgarises the stories in the telling, a common
+result when a mythical tale is retold by a Christian writer, though
+it is still more conspicuous in his versions of the heroic legends.
+
+
+
+
+
+Appendix
+
+
+_Thrymskvida_.
+
+1. Then Wing-Thor was angry when he awoke, and missed his hammer. He
+shook his beard, he tossed his hair, the son of Earth groped about
+for it.
+
+2. And first of all he spoke these words: "Hear now, Loki, what I
+tell thee, a thing that no one in earth or heaven above has heard:
+the Asa has been robbed of his hammer!"
+
+3. They went to the dwelling of fair Freyja, and these words he
+spoke first of all: "Wilt thou lend me, Freyja, thy feather dress,
+to see if I can find my hammer?"
+
+4. _Freyja_. "I would give it thee, though it were of gold; I would
+grant it, though it were of silver."
+
+5. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
+Asgard and into Jötunheim.
+
+6. Thrym, lord of the Giants, sat on a howe; he twisted golden bands
+for his greyhounds and trimmed his horses' manes.
+
+7. _Thrym_. "How is it with the Aesir? How is it with the Elves? Why
+art thou come alone into Jötunheim?"
+
+_Loki_. "It is ill with the Aesir, it is ill with the Elves; hast
+thou hidden the Thunderer's hammer?"
+
+8. _Thrym_. "I have hidden the Thunderer's hammer eight miles below the
+earth. No man shall bring it back, unless he bring me Freyja to wife."
+
+9. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
+Jötunheim and into Asgard. Thor met him in the middle of the court,
+and these words he spoke first:
+
+10. "Hast thou news in proportion to thy toil? Tell me from on high
+thy distant tidings, for a sitting man often breaks down in his story,
+and he who lies down falls into falsehood."
+
+11. _Loki_. "I bring news for my toil: Thrym, lord of the Giants,
+has thy hammer; no man shall bring it back, unless he take him Freyja
+as a bride."
+
+12. They went to see fair Freyja, spoke to her first of all these
+words: "Bind on the bridal veil, Freyja, we two must drive to
+Jötunheim."
+
+13. Angry then was Freyja; she panted, so that all the hall of the
+Aesir trembled, and the great Brising necklace fell: "Eager indeed
+for marriage wouldst thou think me, if I should drive with thee
+to Jötunheim."
+
+14. Then all the Aesir went into council, and all the Asynjor to
+consultation, and the mighty Gods discussed how they should recover
+the Thunderer's hammer.
+
+15. Then spoke Heimdal, whitest of the Aesir; he could see into the
+future like the Vanir: "Let us bind on Thor the bridal veil; let him
+have the great necklace Brising.
+
+16. "Let the keys jingle, and let women's weeds fall about his knees;
+let us put broad stones on his breast, and a hood dexterously on
+his head."
+
+17. Then spoke Thor, the mighty Asa: "Vile would the Aesir call me,
+if I let the bridal veil be bound on me."
+
+18. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: "Speak not such words, Thor! soon
+will the Giants dwell in Asgard, unless thou bring home thy hammer."
+
+19. Then they bound on Thor the bridal veil, and the great necklace
+Brising; they let the keys jingle and women's weeds fall about
+his knees, and they put broad stones on his breast, and the hood
+dexterously on his head.
+
+20. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: "I also will go with thee as thy
+maiden; we two will drive together to Jötunheim."
+
+21. Then the goats were driven out, urged forward in their harness;
+well must they run. Rocks were riven, the earth burned in name:
+Odin's son was driving into Jötunheim.
+
+22. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Stand up, giants, and
+strew the benches! They are bringing me now Freyja my bride, Njörd's
+daughter from Noatun.
+
+23. "Gold-horned kine run in the court, oxen all-black, the giant's
+delight. I have many treasures, I have many jewels, Freyja only
+is lacking."
+
+24. The guests assembled early in the evening, and ale was carried
+to the Giants. One ox did Sif's husband eat, and eight salmon, and
+all the dishes prepared for the women; three casks of mead he drank.
+
+25. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Who ever saw a bride eat
+so eagerly? I never saw a bride make such a hearty meal, nor a maid
+drink so deep of mead."
+
+26. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's
+words: "Eight nights has Freyja eaten nothing, so eager was she to
+be in Jötunheim."
+
+27. He looked under the veil, he longed to kiss the bride, but
+he started back the length of the hall: "Why are Freyja's eyes so
+terrible? Fire seems to burn from her eyes."
+
+28. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's
+speech: "Eight nights has Freyja had no sleep, so eager was she to
+be in Jötunheim."
+
+29. In came the Giants' wretched sister, she dared to ask for a bridal
+gift: "Take from thine arms the red rings, if thou wouldst gain my
+love, my love and all my favour."
+
+30. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Bring the hammer to hallow
+the bride. Lay Mjöllni on the maiden's knee, hallow us two in wedlock."
+
+31. The Thunderer's heart laughed in his breast, when the bold of
+soul felt the hammer. Thrym killed he first, the lord of the Giants,
+and all the race of the Giants he struck.
+
+32. He slew the Giants' aged sister, who had asked him for a bridal
+gift. She got a blow instead of shillings, and a stroke of the hammer
+for abundance of rings. So Odin's son got back his hammer.
+
+
+
+Bibliography
+
+
+I. Study in the Original.
+
+(1) _Poetic Edda_.--The classic edition, and on the whole the best,
+is Professor Bugge's (Christiania, 1867); the smaller editions of
+Hildebrand (_Die Lieder der Aelteren Edda_, Paderborn, 1876), and
+Finnur Jónsson (_Eddalieder_, Halle, 1888-90) are also good; the
+latter is in two parts, _Göttersage_ and _Heldensage_. The poems may
+also be found in the first volume of Vigfusson and Powell's _Corpus
+Poeticum Boreale_ (Oxford, 1883), accompanied by translations;	but in
+many cases they are cut up and rearranged, and they suffer metrically
+from the system adopted of printing two short lines as one long one,
+with no dividing point. There is an excellent palaeographic edition
+of the _Codex Regius of the Elder Edda_, by Wimmer and Finnur Jónsson
+(Copenhagen, 1891), with photographic reproductions interleaved with
+a literal transcription.
+
+(2) _Snorra Edda_.--The most recent edition of the whole is Dr. Finnur
+Jónsson's (Copenhagen, 1875). There is a useful edition of the
+mythological portions _(i.e., Gylfaginning, Bragaraedur_, and the
+narrative parts of _Skaldskaparmal_) by Ernst Wilken (_Die Prosäische
+Edda_, Paderborn, 1878).
+
+(3) _Dictionaries and Grammars_.--For the study of the Poetic Edda,
+Gering's _Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda_ (Paderborn, 1896) will
+be found most useful; it is complete and trustworthy, and in small
+compass. A similar service has been performed for _Snorra Edda_ in
+Wilken's _Glossar_ (Paderborn, 1883), which forms a second volume to
+his edition, mentioned above. Both are, of course, in German. The only
+English dictionary is the lexicon of Cleasby and Vigfusson (Oxford).
+
+Of Grammars, the best are German; those of Noreen (_Altnordische
+Grammatik_, Halle, 1892), of which there is an abbreviated edition,
+and Kahle (_Altisländisches Elementarbuch_, Heidelberg, 1896) being
+better suited for advanced students; the English grammars included
+in Vigfusson and Powell's _Icelandic Reader_ (Oxford) and Sweet's
+_Icelandic Primer_ (Oxford) are more elementary, and therefore hardly
+adequate for the study of the verse literature.
+
+
+II. Translations.
+
+There are English translations of the Elder Edda by Anderson (Chicago,
+1879) and Thorpe (1866), as well as the translations in the _Corpus
+Poeticum_, which are, of course, liable to the same objection as
+the text. The most accurate German translation is Gering's (Leipzig,
+1893); in Simrock's (_Aeltere und Jüngere Edda_, Stuttgart, 1882), the
+translations of the verse Edda are based on an uncritical text. Snorra
+Edda was translated into English by Dasent (Stockholm, 1842); also
+by Anderson (Chicago, 1880).
+
+
+III. Modern Authorities.
+
+To the works on Northern mythology mentioned below in the note on
+the Baldr theories, must be added Dr. Rydberg's _Teutonic Mythology_
+(English version by R.B. Anderson, London, 1889), which devotes
+special attention to Saxo.
+
+
+
+Notes
+
+_Home of the Edda_. (Page 2.)
+
+The chief apologists for the British theory are Professor Bugge
+(_Studien über die Entstehung der nordischen Götter- und Heldensagen_,
+München, 1889), and the editors of the _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_ (see
+the Introduction to that  work, and also the Prolegomena prefixed to
+their edition of the _Sturlunga Saga_, Oxford). The case for Norway
+and Greenland is argued by Dr. Finnur Jónsson (_Den oldnorsk og
+oldislandske Literaturs-Historie,_ Copenhagen). The cases for both
+British and Norwegian origin are based chiefly on rather fanciful
+arguments from supposed local colour. The theory of the _Corpus
+Poeticum_ editors that many of the poems were composed in the Scottish
+isles is discredited by the absence of Gaelic words or traces of Gaelic
+legend. Professor Bugge's North of England theory is slightly stronger,
+being supported by several Old English expressions in the poems,
+but these are not enough to prove that they were composed in England,
+since most Icelanders travelled east at some time of their lives.
+
+(Page 3.)
+
+A later study will deal with the Heroic legends.
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_. (Page 3.)
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_ is prefixed to the Lives of the Kings in the collection
+known as _Heimskringla_ (edited by Unger, Christiania, 1868, and by
+Finnur Jónsson, Christiania, 1893); there is an English translation
+in Laing's _Lives of the Kings of Norway_ (London, 1889).
+
+_Völuspa_. (Page 4.)
+
+A poem of similar form occurs among the heroic poems. _Gripisspa_,
+a prophetic outline of Sigurd's life, introduces the Volsung poems,
+as _Völuspa_ does the Asgard cycle.
+
+_Riddle-poems_. (Page 6.)
+
+So many of the mythological poems are in this form that they suggest
+the question, did the asking of riddles form any part of Scandinavian
+ritual?
+
+_The Aesir_. (Page 11.)
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_ says that Odin and the Aesir came to Norway from Asia;
+a statement due, of course, to a false etymology, though theories as
+to the origin of Norse mythology have been based on it.
+
+_Tyr_. (Page 12.)
+
+Tyr is etymologically identical with Zeus, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus
+(Sky-God).
+
+_Baldr_. (Pages 16 to 22.)
+
+The Baldr theories are stated in the following authorities:
+
+(1) Ritual origin: Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, vol. 3.
+
+(2) Heroic origin: Golther, _Handbuch der Germanischen Mythologie_
+(Leipzig, 1895); Niedner, _Eddische Fragen_ (_Zeitschrift
+für deutsches Altertum_, new series, 29), _Zur Lieder-Edda_
+(_Zeitschr. f. d. Alt_. vol. 36).
+
+(3) Solar myth: Sir G.W. Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_
+(London, 1870); Max Müller, _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol. 4.
+
+(4) Borrowed: Bugge, _Studien über die Entstchung der nordischen
+Götter- und Heldensagen_ (transl. Brenner, München, 1889).
+
+_Vegtamskvida_. (Page 17.)
+
+The word _hrodhrbadhm_ (which I have given as "branch of fame")
+would perhaps be more accurately translated "tree of fame," which
+Gering explains as a kenning for Baldr. But there are no kennings of
+the same sort in the poem, and the line would have no meaning. If it
+refers to the mistletoe, as most commentators agree, it merely shows
+that the poet was ignorant of the nature of the plant, which would
+be in favour of its antiquity, rather than the reverse.
+
+
+_Saxo Grammaticus_. (Page 18.)
+
+English translation by Professor Elton (London, D. Nutt, 1894). As
+Saxo's references to the old Gods are made in much the same sympathetic
+tone as that adopted by Old Testament writers towards heathen deities,
+his testimony on mythological questions is of the less value.
+
+
+_The Mistletoe_. (Page 20.)
+
+It seems incredible that any writers should turn to the travesty of
+the Baldr story given in the almost worthless saga of Hromund Gripsson
+in support of a theory. In it "Bildr" is killed by Hromund, who has
+the sword Mistilteinn. It must be patent to any one that this is a
+perverted version of a story which the narrator no longer understood.
+
+
+_Loki_. (Page 26.)
+
+It is hardly necessary to point out the parallel between Loki and
+Prometheus, also both helper and enemy of the Gods, and agent in their
+threatened fall, though in the meantime a prisoner. In character
+Loki has more in common with the mischievous spirit described by
+Hesiod, than with the heroic figure of Aeschylus. The struggles of
+Loki (p. 28) find a parallel in those of the fire-serpent Typhon,
+to which the Greeks attributed earthquakes.
+
+
+_Eclipse Ritual_. (Page 35.)
+
+Mr. Lang, in _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, (London, 1887)  gives
+examples of eclipse ritual. Grimm, in the _Teutonic Mythology_,
+vol. 2, quotes Finnish and Lithuanian myths about sun-devouring beasts,
+very similar to the Fenri myth.
+
+
+_The Skalds_. (Page 35.)
+
+All the Skaldic verses will be found, with translations, in the
+_Corpus Poeticum_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 1, by Winifred Faraday
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13007 ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 1, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 1
+       The Divine Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+       Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+       
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13007]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 1 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+
+
+
+The Edda
+
+I
+
+The Divine Mythology of the North
+
+
+By
+
+Winifred Faraday, M.A.
+
+
+
+Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
+1902
+
+
+
+
+Author's Note
+
+Some explanation is needed of the form of spelling I have adopted
+in transcribing Norse proper names. The spirants thorn and eth
+are represented by _th_ and _d_, as being more familiar to readers
+unacquainted with the  original. Marks of vowel-length are in all cases
+omitted. The inflexional _-r_ of the nominative singular masculine
+is also omitted, whether it appears as _-r_ or is assimilated to a
+preceding consonant (as in Odinn, Eysteinn, Heindall, Egill) in the
+Norse form, with the single exception of the name Tyr, where I use
+the form which has become conventional in English.
+
+Manchester,
+December 1901.
+
+
+
+
+The Edda: I. The Divine Mythology of the North
+
+
+The Icelandic Eddas are the only vernacular record of Germanic
+heathendom as it developed during the four centuries which in England
+saw the destruction of nearly all traces of the heathen system. The
+so-called Elder Edda is a collection of some thirty poems, mythic and
+heroic in substance, interspersed with short pieces of prose, which
+survives in a thirteenth-century MS., known as the Codex Regius,
+discovered in Iceland in 1642; to these are added other poems of
+similar character from other sources. The Younger Edda is a prose
+paraphrase of, and commentary on, these poems and others which are
+lost, together with a treatise on metre, written by the historian
+Snorri Sturluson about 1220.
+
+This use of the word Edda is incorrect and unhistorical, though
+convenient and sanctioned by the use of several centuries. It was early
+used as a general term for the rules and materials for versemaking,
+and applied in this sense to Snorri's work. When the poems on which
+his paraphrase is founded were discovered, Icelandic scholars by a
+misunderstanding applied the name to them also; and as they attributed
+the collection quite arbitrarily to the historian Saemund (1056-1133),
+it was long known as Saemundar Edda, a name now generally discarded in
+favour of the less misleading titles of Elder or Poetic Edda. From its
+application to this collection, the word derives a more extended use,
+(1) as a general term for Norse mythology; (2) as a convenient name
+to distinguish the simpler style of these anonymous narrative poems
+from the elaborate formality of the Skalds.
+
+The poems of the Edda are certainly older than the MS., although
+the old opinion as to their high antiquity is untenable. The majority
+probably date from the tenth century in their present form; this dating
+does not necessitate the ascription of the shape in which the legends
+are presented, still less of their substance, to that period. With
+regard to the place of their composition opinions vary widely,
+Norway, the British Isles and Greenland having all found champions;
+but the evidence is rather questionable, and I incline to leave
+them to the country which has preserved them. They are possibly of
+popular origin; this, together with their epic or narrative character,
+would account for the striking absence from them of some of the chief
+characteristics of Skaldic poetry: the obscuring of the sense by the
+elaborate interlacing of sentences and the extensive use of kennings
+or mythological synonyms, and the complication of the metre by such
+expedients as the conjunction of end-rhyme with alliteration. Eddie
+verse is governed solely by the latter, and the strophic arrangement
+is simple, only two forms occurring: (1) couplets of alliterative
+short lines; (2) six-line strophes, consisting of a couplet followed
+by a single short line, the whole repeated.
+
+Roughly speaking, the first two-fifths of the MS. is mythological,
+the rest heroic. I propose to observe this distinction, and to
+deal in this study with the stories of the Gods. In this connexion,
+Snorri's Edda and the mythical Ynglinga Saga may also be considered,
+but as both were compiled a couple of centuries or more after the
+introduction of Christianity into Iceland, it is uncertain how much in
+them is literary explanation of tradition whose meaning was forgotten;
+some also, especially in Snorri, is probably pure invention, fairy
+tale rather than myth.
+
+Many attempts have been made to prove that the material of the Edda
+is largely borrowed. The strength and distinction of Icelandic poetry
+rest rather on the fact that it is original and national and, like
+that of Greece, owes little to foreign sources; and that it began in
+the heathen age, before Christian or Romantic influences had touched
+Iceland. Valuable as the early Christian poetry of England is, we look
+in vain there for the humour, the large-minded simplicity of motive,
+the suggestive character-drawing, the swift dramatic action, which
+are as conspicuous in many poems in the Edda as in many of the Sagas.
+
+Omitting the heroic poems, there are in Codex Regius the following: (1)
+Of a more or less comprehensive character, _Völuspa, Vafthrudnismal,
+Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Harbardsljod_; (2) dealing with episodes,
+_Hymiskvida, Thrymskvida, Skirnisför. Havamal_ is a collection
+of proverbs, but contains two interpolations from mythical
+poems; _Alvissmal_, which, in the form of a dialogue between
+Thor and a dwarf Alviss, gives a list of synonyms, is a kind of
+mythologico-poetical glossary. Several of these poems are found
+in another thirteenth-century vellum fragment, with an additional
+one, variously styled _Vegtamskvida_ or _Baldr's Dreams_; the great
+fourteenth-century codex Flateybook contains _Hyndluljod_, partly
+genealogical, partly an imitation of _Völuspa_; and one of the MSS. of
+Snorri's Edda gives us _Rigsthula_.
+
+_Völuspa_, though not one of the earliest poems, forms an appropriate
+opening. Metrical considerations forbid an earlier date than the
+first quarter of the eleventh century, and the last few lines are
+still later. The material is, however, older: the poem is an outline,
+in allusions often obscure to us, of traditions and beliefs familiar to
+its first hearers. The very bareness of the outline is sufficient proof
+that the material is not new. The framework is apparently imitated from
+that of the poem known as _Baldr's Dreams_, some lines from which are
+inserted in _Völuspa_. This older poem describes Odin's visit to the
+Sibyl in hell-gates to inquire into the future. He rides down to her
+tomb at the eastern door of Nifl-hell and chants spells, until she
+awakes and asks: "What man unknown to me is that, who has troubled me
+with this weary journey? Snow has snowed on me, rain has beaten me,
+dew has drenched me, I have long been dead." He gives the name Wegtam,
+or Way-wise, and then follow question and answer until she discovers
+his identity and will say no more. In _Völuspa_ there is no descriptive
+introduction, and no dialogue; the whole is spoken by the Sibyl,
+who plunges at once into her story, with only the explanatory words:
+"Thou, Valfather, wouldst have me tell the ancient histories of men as
+far as I remember." She describes the creation of the world and sky
+by Bor's sons; the building by the Gods of a citadel in Ida-plain,
+and their age of innocence till three giant-maids brought greed of
+gold; the creation of the dwarfs; the creation of the first man and
+woman out of two trees by Odin, Hoeni and Lodur; the world-ash and
+the spring beside it where dwell the three Norns who order the fates
+of men. Then follows an allusion to the war between the Aesir and the
+Vanir, the battle with the giants who had got possession of the goddess
+Freyja, and the breaking of bargains; an obscure reference to Mimi's
+spring where Odin left his eye as a pledge; and an enumeration of his
+war-maids or Valkyries. Turning to the future, the Sibyl prophesies
+the death of Baldr, the vengeance on his slayer, and the chaining of
+Loki, the doom of the Gods and the destruction of the world at the
+coming of the fire-giants and the release of Loki's children from
+captivity. The rest of the poem seems to be later; it tells how the
+earth shall rise again from the deep, and the Aesir dwell once more
+in Odin's halls, and there is a suggestion of Christian influence in
+it which is absent from the earlier part.
+
+Of the other general poems, the next four were probably composed before
+950; in each the setting is different. _Vafthrudnismal_, a riddle-poem,
+shows Odin in a favourite position, seeking in disguise for knowledge
+of the future. Under the name of Gangrad (Wanderer), he visits the
+wise giant Vafthrudni, and the two agree to test their wisdom: the one
+who fails to answer a question is to forfeit his head. In each case
+the questions deal first with the past. Vafthrudni asks about Day and
+Night, and the river which divides the Giants from the Gods, matters of
+common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future: "What is
+the plain where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?" Odin
+replies, and proceeds to question in his turn; first about the creation
+of Earth and Sky, the origin of Sun and Moon, Winter and Summer, the
+Giants and the Winds; the coming of Njörd the Wane to the Aesir as
+a hostage; the Einherjar, or chosen warriors of Valhalla. Then come
+prophetic questions on the destruction of the Sun by the wolf Fenri,
+the Gods who shall rule in the new world after Ragnarök, the end of
+Odin. The poem is brought to a close by Odin's putting the question
+which only himself can answer: "What did Odin say in his son's ear
+before he mounted the pyre?" and the giant's head is forfeit.
+
+In the third poem of this class, _Grimnismal_, a prose introduction
+relates that Odin and Frigg quarrelled over the merits of their
+respective foster-children. To settle the question, Odin goes
+disguised as Grimni, "the Hooded One," to visit his foster-son Geirröd;
+but Frigg, to justify her charge of inhospitality against Geirröd,
+sends her maiden Fulla to warn him against the coming stranger. Odin
+therefore meets with a harsh reception, and is bound between two fires
+in the hall. Geirröd's young son, Agnar, protests against this rude
+treatment, and gives wine to the guest, who then begins to instruct
+him in matters concerning the Gods. He names the halls of the Aesir,
+describes Valhalla and the ash Yggdrasil, the Valkyries, the creation
+of the world (two stanzas in common with _Vafthrudnismal_), and
+enumerates his own names. The poem ends with impressive abruptness
+by his turning to Geirröd:
+
+"Thou art drunk, Geirröd, thou hast drunk too deep; thou art bereft
+of much since thou hast lost my favour, the favour of Odin and all
+the Einherjar. I have told thee much, but thou hast minded little. Thy
+friends betray thee: I see my friend's sword lie drenched in blood. Now
+shall Odin have the sword-weary slain; I know thy life is ended,
+the Fates are ungracious. Now thou canst see Odin: come near me,
+if thou canst."
+
+[Prose.] "King Geirröd sat with his sword on his knee, half drawn. When
+he heard that Odin was there, he stood up and would have led Odin
+from the fires. The sword slipt from his hand; the hilt turned
+downwards. The king caught his foot and fell forwards, the sword
+standing towards him, and so he met his death. Then Odin went away,
+and Agnar was king there long afterwards."
+
+_Harbardsljod_ is a dialogue, and humorous. Thor on his return from
+the east comes to a channel, at the farther side of which stands Odin,
+disguised as a ferryman, Greybeard. He refuses to ferry Thor across,
+and they question each other as to their past feats, with occasional
+threats from Thor and taunts from Odin, until the former goes off
+vowing vengeance on the ferryman:
+
+_Thor_. "Thy skill in words would serve thee ill if I waded across
+the water; I think thou wouldst cry louder than the wolf, if thou
+shouldst get a blow from the hammer."
+
+_Odin_. "Sif has a lover at home, thou shouldst seek him. That is a
+task for thee to try, it is more proper for thee."
+
+_Thor_. "Thou speakest what thou knowest most displeasing to me;
+thou cowardly fellow, I think that thou liest."
+
+_Odin_. "I think I speak true; thou art slow on the road. Thou wouldst
+have got far, if thou hadst started at dawn."
+
+_Thor_. "Harbard, scoundrel, it is rather thou who hast delayed me."
+
+_Odin_. "I never thought a shepherd could so delay Asa-Thor's journey."
+
+_Thor_. "I will counsel thee: row thy boat hither. Let us cease
+quarrelling; come and meet Magni's father."
+
+_Odin_. "Leave thou the river; crossing shall be refused thee."
+
+_Thor_. "Show me the way, since thou wilt not ferry me."
+
+_Odin_. "That is a small thing to refuse. It is a long way to go: a
+while to the stock, and another to the stone, then keep to the left
+hand till thou reach Verland. There will Fjörgyn meet her son Thor,
+and she will tell him the highway to Odin's land."
+
+_Thor_. "Shall I get there to-day?"
+
+_Odin_. "With toil and trouble thou wilt get there about sunrise,
+as I think."
+
+_Thor_. "Our talk shall be short, since thou answerest with mockery. I
+will reward thee for refusing passage, if we two meet again."
+
+_Odin_. "Go thy way, where all the fiends may take thee."
+
+_Lokasenna_ also is in dialogue form. A prose introduction tells
+how the giant Oegi, or Gymi, gave a feast to the Aesir. Loki was
+turned out for killing a servant, but presently returned and began to
+revile the Gods and Goddesses, each one in turn trying to interfere,
+only to provoke a taunt from Loki. At last Thor, who had been absent
+on a journey, came in and threatened the slanderer with his hammer,
+whereupon Loki said, "I spoke to the Aesir and the sons of the Aesir
+what my mind told me; but for thee alone I will go away, for I know
+thou wilt strike." Some of the poem is rather pointless abuse, but
+much touches points already suggested in the other poems.
+
+_Hyndluljod_ is much later than the others, probably  not before
+1200. The style is late, and the form imitated from _Völuspa_. It
+describes a visit paid by Freyja to the Sibyl to learn the genealogy of
+her favourite Ottar. The larger part deals with heroic genealogies, but
+there are scanty allusions to Baldr, Frey, Heimdal, Loki's children,
+and Thor, and a Christian reference to a God who shall come after
+Ragnarök "when Odin shall meet the wolf." It tells nothing new.
+
+We have here then, omitting _Hyndluljod_, five poems (four of them
+belonging to the first half of the tenth century) which suggest a
+general outline of Norse mythology: there is a hierarchy of Gods, the
+Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin being the chief. Among
+them are several who are not Aesir by origin: Njörd and his son and
+daughter, Frey and Freyja, are Vanir; Loki is really an enemy and
+an agent in their fall; and there are one or two Goddesses of giant
+race. The giants are rivals and enemies to the Gods; the dwarfs are
+also antagonistic, but in bondage. The meeting-place of the Gods is
+by the World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of Gods
+and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake. The Gods have
+foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnarök, the great fight when they
+shall meet Loki's children, the Wolf and the Snake; both sides will
+fall and the world be destroyed. An episode in the story is the death
+of Baldr. This we may assume to be the religion of the Viking age
+(800-1000 A.D.), a compound of the beliefs of various ages and tribes.
+
+_The Aesir._--The number of the Aesir is not fixed. _Hyndluljod_
+says there were twelve ("there were eleven Aesir when Baldr went
+down into the howe"). Snorri gives a list of fourteen Aesir or Gods
+(Odin, Thor, Baldr, Njörd, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdal, Höd, Vidar, Vali,
+Ullr, Forseti, Loki), and adds Hoeni in another list, all the fifteen
+occurring in the poems; and sixteen Goddesses (Asynjor), the majority
+of whom are merely personified epithets, occurring nowhere else. Of
+the sixteen, Frigg, Gefion, Freyja and Saga (really an epithet only)
+are Goddesses in the poems, and Fulla is Frigg's handmaid. In another
+chapter, Snorri adds Idunn, Gerd, Sigyn and Nanna, of whom the latter
+does not appear in the Elder Edda, where Idunn, Gerd (a giantess)
+and Sigyn are the wives of Bragi, Frey and Loki; and two others,
+the giantess Skadi and Sif, are the wives of Njörd and Thor.
+
+A striking difference from classical mythology is that neither Tyr
+(who should etymologically be the Sky-god), nor Thor (the Thunder-god),
+takes the highest place. Tyr is the hero of one important episode,
+the chaining of the Wolf, through which he loses his right hand. This
+is told in full by Snorri and alluded to in _Lokasenna_, both in the
+prose preface ("Tyr also was there, with only one hand; the Fenris-wolf
+had bitten off the other, when he was bound") and in the poem itself:
+
+_Loki_. "I must remember that right hand which Fenri bit off thee."
+
+_Tyr_. "I am short of a hand, but thou of the famous wolf; to each
+the loss is ill-luck. Nor is the wolf in better plight, for he must
+wait in bonds till Ragnarök."
+
+Otherwise, he only appears in connexion with two more popular Gods:
+he speaks in Frey's defence in _Lokasenna_, and in _Hymiskvida_ he
+is Thor's companion in the search for a cauldron; the latter poem
+represents him as a giant's son.
+
+Thor, on the other hand, is second only to his father Odin; he is
+the strongest of the Gods and their champion against the giants,
+and his antagonist at Ragnarök is to be the World-Snake. Like Odin,
+he travels much, but while the chief God generally goes craftily and
+in disguise, to gain knowledge or test his wisdom, Thor's errands are
+warlike; in _Lokasenna_ he is absent on a journey, in _Harbardsljod_
+and _Alvissmal_ he is returning from one. His journeys are always
+to the east; so in _Harbardsljod_: "I was in the east, fighting
+the malevolent giant-brides.... I was in the east and guarding the
+river, when Svarang's sons attacked me." The Giants live in the
+east (_Hymiskvida_ 5); Thor threatened Loki: "I will fling thee up
+into the east, and no one shall see thee more" (_Lokasenna_ 59);
+the fire-giants at Ragnarök are to come from the east: "Hrym comes
+driving from the east, he lifts his shield before him.... A ship
+comes from the east, Muspell's sons will come sailing over the
+sea, and Loki steers" (_Völuspa_ 50, 51). It would not, perhaps,
+be overstraining the point to suggest that this is a reminiscence of
+early warfare between the Scandinavians and eastern nations, either
+Lapps and Finns or Slavonic tribes.
+
+Thor is the God of natural force, the son of Earth. Two of the
+episodical poems deal with his contests with the giants. _Thrymskvida_,
+the story of how Thor won back his hammer, Mjöllni, from the giant
+Thrym, is the finest and one of the oldest of the mythological poems;
+a translation is given in the appendix, as an example of Eddic poetry
+at its best. Loki appears as the willing helper of the Gods, and Thor's
+companion. The Thunderer's journey with Tyr in quest of a cauldron
+is related with much humour in _Hymiskvida_: Hymi's beautiful wife,
+who helps her guests to outwit her husband, is a figure familiar in
+fairy-tales as the Ogre's wife.
+
+The chief God of the Scandinavians is, it must be confessed, an
+unsympathetic character. He is the head of the Valhalla system;
+he is Val-father (Father of the Slain), and the Valkyries are his
+"Wishmaidens," as the Einherjar are his "Wishsons." He naturally takes
+a special interest in mortal heroes, from whom come the chosen hosts
+of Valhalla. But, in spite of the splendour of his surroundings, he
+is wanting in dignity. The chief of the Gods has neither the might and
+unthinking valour of Thor, nor the self-sacrificing courage of Tyr. He
+is a God who practises magic, and it is as Father of Spells that he is
+powerful. He is the wisest of the Gods in the sense that he remembers
+most about the past and foresees most about the future; yet he is
+powerless in difficulty without the craft of Loki and the hammer of
+Thor. He always wanders in disguise, and the stories told of him are
+chiefly love-adventures; this is true of all the deeds he mentions
+in _Harbardsljod_, and also of the two interpolations in _Havamal_,
+though one of the two had an object, the stealing of the mead of
+inspiration from the giant Suptung, whose daughter Gunnlöd guarded it.
+
+_Völuspa_ makes him one of three creative deities, the other two being
+Lodur (probably Loki) and Hoeni, of whom nothing else is known except
+the story that he was given as hostage to the Vanir in exchange for
+Njörd. The same three Gods (Odin, Loki and Hoeni) are connected with
+the legend of the Nibelung treasure; and it was another adventure of
+theirs, according to Snorri, which led to the loss of Idunn.
+
+Of the other Gods, Bragi is a later development; his name means
+simply king or chief, and his attributes, as God of eloquence and
+poetry, are apparently borrowed from Odin. Heimdal, the watchman and
+"far-seeing like the Vanir," who keeps guard on the rainbow bridge
+Bifröst, is represented in the curious poem _Rigsthula_ as founder of
+the different social orders. He wandered over the world under the name
+of Rig, and from his first journey sprang the race of thralls, swarthy,
+crooked and broad-backed, who busied themselves with fencing land and
+tending goats and swine; from his second, the churls, fine and ruddy,
+who broke oxen, built houses and ploughed the land; from his third,
+the earls, yellow-haired, rosy, and keen-eyed, who broke horses and
+strung bows, rode, swam, and hurled spears; and the youngest of the
+earls' race was Konung the king, who knew all mysteries, understood
+the speech of birds, could quench fire and heal wounds. Heimdal is
+said to be the son of nine mothers, and to have fought with Loki for
+Freyja's Brising-necklace. His horn is hidden under Yggdrasil, to be
+brought out at Ragnarök, when he will blow a warning blast. His origin
+is obscure. Still less is known of Vidar and Vali, two sons of Odin,
+one of whom is to avenge Baldr's death, the other to slay the wolf
+after it has swallowed up the chief God at Ragnarök. Thor's stepson
+Ullr (Glory) is probably, like his sons Modi and Magni (Wrath and
+Strength), a mere epithet.
+
+Frigg, Odin's wife and the chief Goddess, daughter of Earth,
+is not very distinctly characterised, and is often confused with
+Freyja. Gefion should be the sea-goddess, since that seems to be
+the meaning of her name, but her functions are apparently usurped by
+the Wane Njörd; according to Snorri, she is the patron of those who
+die unwedded.
+
+_Baldr_.--The story of Baldr is the most debated point in the Edda. The
+chief theories advanced are: (1) That it is the oldest part of Norse
+mythology, and of ritual origin; (2) that Baldr is really a hero
+transformed into a God; (3) that the legend is a solar myth with
+or without Christian colouring;  (4) that it is entirely borrowed
+from Mediæval Greek and Christian sources. This last theory is too
+ingenious to be credible; and with regard to the third, there is
+nothing essentially Christian in the chief features of the legend,
+while the solar idea leaves too much unexplained. The references to
+the myth in the Elder Edda are:
+
+(1) _Vegtamskvida_ (about 900 A.D.). Odin questions the Sibyl as to
+the meaning of Baldr's dreams:
+
+_Odin_. "For whom are the benches (in hell) strewn with rings, the
+halls fairly adorned with gold?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Here the mead, clear drink, stands brewed for Baldr; the
+shields are spread. The sons of the Aesir are too merry."
+
+_Odin_. "Who will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Höd bears thither the high branch of fame: he will be
+Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life."
+
+_Odin_. "Who will avenge the deed on Höd and bring Baldr's slayer to
+the funeral pyre?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Rind bears a son, Vali, in the halls of the west. He shall
+not wash his hands nor comb his hair till he bears Baldr's foe to
+the pyre."
+
+(2) In _Lokasenna_ Frigg says: "If I had a son like Baldr here in
+Oegi's halls, thou shouldst not pass out from the sons of the Aesir,
+but be slain here in thy anger"; to which Loki replies, "Wilt thou
+that I speak more ill words, Frigg? I am the cause that thou wilt
+never more see Baldr ride into the hall."
+
+(3) In _Vafthrudnismal_ the only reference is Odin's question,
+"What said Odin in his son's ear when he mounted the pyre?"
+
+(4) In _Völuspa_ the Sibyl prophesies, "I saw doom threatening Baldr,
+the bleeding victim, the son of Odin. Grown high above the meadows
+stood the mistletoe, slender and fair. From this stem, which looked
+so slender, grew a fatal and dangerous shaft. Höd shot it, and Frigg
+wept in Fenhall over Valhall's woe."  The following lines, on the
+chaining of Loki, suggest his complicity.
+
+(5) _Hyndluljod_ has one reference: "There were eleven Aesir by
+number when Baldr went down into the howe. Vali was his avenger and
+slew his brother's slayer."
+
+Besides these there is a fragment quoted by Snorri: "Thökk will weep
+dry tears at Baldr's funeral pyre. I had no good of the old man's
+son alive or dead; let Hel keep what she has." _Grimnismal_ assigns
+a hall to Baldr among the Gods.
+
+There are, in addition, two prose versions of the story by later
+writers: the Icelandic version of Snorri (1178-1241) with all the
+details familiar to every one; and the Latin one of the Dane Saxo
+Grammaticus (about thirty years earlier), which makes Baldr and Höd
+heroes instead of Gods, and completely alters the character of the
+legend by making a rivalry for Nanna's favour the centre of the plot
+and cause of the catastrophe. On the Eddic version and on Saxo's
+depend the theories of Golther, Detter, Niedner and other German
+scholars on the one hand, and Dr. Frazer on the other.
+
+It has often been pointed out that there is no trace of Baldr-worship
+in other Germanic nations, nor in any of the Icelandic sagas except
+the late Frithjofssaga. This, however, is true of other Gods, notably
+of Tyr, who is without question one of the oldest. The only deities
+named with any suggestion of sacrifice or worship in the Icelandic
+sagas proper are Odin, Thor, Frey, Njörd, Frigg and Freyja. The process
+of choice is as arbitrary in mythology as in other sciences. Again,
+it is more likely that the original version of the legend should have
+survived in Iceland than in Denmark, which, being on the mainland,
+was earlier subject to Christian and Romantic influences; and
+that a heathen God should, in the two or three centuries following
+the establishment of Christianity in the North, be turned into a
+mortal hero, than that the reverse process should have acted at a
+sufficiently late date to permit of both versions existing side by
+side in the thirteenth century. A similar gradual elimination of the
+supernatural may be found in the history of the Volsung myth. Snorri's
+version is merely an amplification of that in the Elder Edda, which,
+scanty as its account of Baldr is, leaves no doubt as to his divinity.
+
+The outline gathered from the poems is as follows: Baldr, Odin's son,
+is killed by his brother Höd through a mistletoe spray; Loki is in some
+way concerned in his death, which is an overwhelming misfortune to the
+Gods; but it is on Höd that his death is avenged. He is burnt on a pyre
+(Snorri says on his ship, a feature which must come from the Viking
+age; _Hyndluljod_ substitutes howe-burial). He will be absent from
+the great fight at Ragnarök, but _Völuspa_ adds that he will return
+afterwards. Nanna has nothing to do with the story. The connexion with
+the hierarchy of the Aesir seems external only, since Baldr has no
+apparent relation to the great catastrophe as have Odin, Thor, Frej,
+Tyr and Loki; this, then, would point to the independence of his myth.
+
+The genuineness of the myth seems to depend on whether the mistletoe
+is an original feature of it or not, and on this point there can
+be little real doubt. The German theory that Baldr could only be
+killed by his own sword, which was therefore disguised by enchantment
+and used against him, and that the Icelandic writers misunderstood
+this to mean a mistletoe sprig, is far-fetched and romantic, and
+crumbles at a touch. For if, as it is claimed, the Icelanders had no
+mistletoe, why should they introduce it into a story to which it did
+not belong? They might preserve it by tradition, but they would hardly
+invent it. Granting this, the mistletoe becomes the central point of
+the legend. The older mythologists, who only saw in it a sun-myth,
+overlooked the fact that since any weapon would have done to kill
+the God with, the mistletoe must have some special significance; and
+if it is a genuine part of the story, as we have no reason to doubt,
+it will be hard to overturn Dr. Frazer's theory that the Baldr-myth
+is a relic of tree-worship and the ritual sacrifice of the God,
+Baldr being a tree-spirit whose soul is contained in the mistletoe.
+
+The contradictions in the story, especially as told by Snorri
+(such as the confusion between the parts played by Höd and Loki,
+and the unsuspicious attitude of the Gods as Loki directs Höd's aim)
+are sometimes urged against its genuineness. They are rather proofs
+of antiquity. Apparent contradictions whose explanation is forgotten
+often survive in tradition; the inventor of a new story takes care to
+make it consistent. It is probable, however, that there were originally
+only two actors in the episode, the victim and the slayer, and that
+Loki's part is later than Höd's, for he really belongs to the Valhall
+and Ragnarök myth, and was only introduced here as a link. The incident
+of the oath extracted from everything on earth to protect Baldr, which
+occurs in Snorri and in a paper MS. of _Baldr's Dreams_, was probably
+invented to explain the choice of weapon, which would certainly need
+explanation to an Icelandic audience. If Dr. Frazer's theory be right,
+Vali, who slew the slayer, must also have been an original figure in
+the legend. His antiquity is supported by the fact that he plays the
+part of avenger in the poems; while in Snorri, where he is mentioned
+as a God, his absence from the account of Baldr's death is only a
+part of that literary development by which real responsibility for
+the murder was transferred from Höd to Loki.
+
+Snorri gives Baldr a son, Forseti (Judge), who is also named as a
+God in _Grimnismal_. He must have grown out of an epithet of Baldr's,
+of whom Snorri says that "no one can resist his sentence"; the sacred
+tree would naturally be the seat of judgment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Wanes._--Three of the Norse divinities, Njörd and his son and
+daughter, are not Aesir by descent. The following account is given
+of their presence in Asgard:
+
+(1) In _Vafthrudnismal_, Odin asks:
+
+"Whence came Njörd among the sons of the Aesir? for he was not born
+of the Aesir."
+
+_Vafthrudni_. "In Vanaheim wise powers ordained and gave him for a
+hostage to the Gods; at the doom of the world he shall come back,
+home to the wise Wanes."
+
+(2) There is an allusion in _Völuspa_ to the war which caused the
+giving of hostages:
+
+"Odin shot into the host: this was the first war in the world. Broken
+was the wall of the citadel of the Aesir, so that the Wanes could
+tread the fields of war."
+
+(3) Loki taunts Njörd with his position, in _Lokasenna_:
+
+"Thou wast sent from the east as a hostage to the Gods...."
+
+_Njörd_. "This is my comfort, though I was sent from far as a hostage
+to the Gods, yet I have a son whom no one hates, and he is thought
+the best of the Aesir."
+
+_Loki_. "Stay, Njörd, restrain thy pride; I will hide it no longer:
+thy son is thine own sister's son, and that is no worse than one
+would expect."
+
+_Tyr_. "Frey is the best of all the bold riders of Asgard."
+
+There is little doubt that Njörd was once a God of higher importance
+than he is in the Edda, where he is overshadowed by his son. Grimm's
+suggestion that he and the goddess Nerthus, mentioned by Tacitus,
+were brother and sister, is supported by the line in _Lokasenna_; it
+is an isolated reference, and the Goddess has left no other traces in
+Scandinavian mythology. They were the deities, probably agricultural,
+of an earlier age, whose adoption by the later Northmen was explained
+by the story of the compact between Aesir and Vanir. Then their places
+were usurped by Frey and Freyja, who were possibly created out of
+epithets originally applied to the older pair; Njörd was retained
+with lessened importance, Nerthus passed out altogether. The Edda
+gives Njörd a giant-bride, Skadi, who was admitted among the Gods in
+atonement for the slaying of her father Thiazi; she is little more
+than a name. Frey and Freyja have other marks of agricultural deities,
+besides their relationship. Nothing is said about Frey's changing
+shape, but Freyja possesses a hawk-dress which Loki borrows when
+he wishes to change his form; and, according to Snorri, Frey was
+sacrificed to for the crops. Njörd has an epithet, "the wealthy,"
+which may have survived from his earlier connexion with the soil. In
+that case, it would explain why, in Snorri and elsewhere, he is God of
+the sea and ships, once the province of the ocean-goddess Gefion; the
+transference is a natural one to an age whose wealth came from the sea.
+
+In spite of their origin, Frey and Freyja become to all intents
+and purposes Aesir. Frey is to be one of the chief combatants at
+Ragnarök, with the fire-giant Surt for his antagonist, and a story is
+told to explain his defeat: he fell in love with Gerd, a giant-maid,
+and sacrificed his sword to get her; hence he is weaponless at the
+last fight. Loki alludes to this episode in _Lokasenna_: "With gold
+didst thou buy Gymi's daughter, and gavest thy sword for her; but when
+Muspell's sons ride over Myrkwood, thou shalt not know with what to
+fight, unhappy one." The story is told in full in _Skirnisför_.
+
+Freyja is called by Snorri "the chief Goddess after Frigg," and the
+two are sometimes confused. Like her father and brother, she comes into
+connexion with the giants; she is the beautiful Goddess, and coveted by
+them. _Völuspa_ says that the Gods went into consultation to discuss
+"who had given the bride of Od (_i.e._, Freyja) to the giant race";
+_Thrymskvida_ relates how the giant Thrym bargained for Freyja as
+the ransom for Thor's hammer, which he had hidden, and how Loki and
+Thor outwitted him; and Snorri says the giants bargained for her as
+the price for building Valhalla, but were outwitted. Sir G.W. Dasent
+notices in the folk-tales the eagerness of trolls and giants to learn
+the details of the agricultural processes, and this is probably the
+clue to the desire of the Frost-Giants in the Edda for the possession
+of Freyja. Idunn, the wife of Bragi, and a purely Norse creation, seems
+to be a double of Freyja; she, too, according to Snorri, is carried
+away by the giants and rescued by Loki. The golden apples which she
+is to keep till Ragnarök remind us of those which Frey offered to
+Gerd; and the gift of eternal youth, of which they are the symbols,
+would be appropriate enough to Freyja as an agricultural deity.
+
+The great necklace Brising, stolen by Loki and won back in fight
+by Heimdal (according to the tenth-century Skalds Thjodulf and Ulf
+Uggason), is Freyja's property. On this ground, she has been identified
+with the heroine of _Svipdag and Menglad_, a poem undoubtedly old,
+though it has only come down in paper MSS. It is in two parts, the
+first telling how Svipdag aroused the Sibyl Groa, his mother, to
+give him spells to guard him on his journey; the second describing
+his crossing the wall of fire which surrounded his fated bride
+Menglad. If Menglad is really Freyja, the "Necklace-glad," it is a
+curious coincidence that one poem connects the waverlowe, or ring of
+fire, with Frey also; for his bride Gerd is protected in the same way,
+though his servant Skirni goes through it in his place:
+
+_Skirni_. "Give me the horse that will bear me through the dark magic
+waverlowe, and the sword that fights of itself against the giant-race."
+
+_Frey_. "I give thee the horse that will bear thee through the dark
+magic waverlowe, and the sword that will fight of itself if he is
+bold who bears it." (_Skirnisför_.)
+
+The connexion of both with the Midsummer fires, originally part of
+an agricultural ritual, can hardly be doubted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Loki_, or Lopt, is a strange figure. He is admitted among the Aesir,
+though not one of them by birth, and his whole relation to them
+points to his being an older elemental God. He is in alliance with
+them against the giants; he and Odin have sworn blood-brothership,
+according to _Lokasenna_, and he helps Thor to recover his hammer
+that Asgard may be defended against the giants. On the other hand,
+while in present alliance with the Gods, he is chief agent in their
+future destruction, and this they know. In Snorri, he is a mischievous
+spirit of the fairy-tale kind, exercising his ingenuity alternately in
+getting the Gods into difficulties, and in getting them out again. So
+he betrays Idunn to the giants, and delivers her; he makes the bargain
+by which Freyja is promised to the giant-builders of Valhalla,
+and invents the trick by which they are cheated of their prize;
+by killing the otter he endangers his own head, Odin's and Hoeni's,
+and he obtains the gold which buys their atonement. Hence, in the
+systematising of the Viking religion, the responsibility for Baldr's
+death also was transferred to him. At the coming of the fire-giants
+at Ragnarök, he is to steer the ship in which Muspell's sons sail
+(_Völuspa_), further evidence of his identity as a fire-spirit. Like
+his son the Wolf, he is chained by the Gods; the episode is related
+in a prose-piece affixed to _Lokasenna_:
+
+"After that Loki hid himself in Franangr's Foss in the form of
+a salmon. There the Aesir caught him. He was bound with the guts
+of his son Nari, but his son Narfi was changed into a wolf. Skadi
+took a poisonous snake and fastened it up over Loki's face, and the
+poison dropped down. Sigyn, Loki's wife, sat there and held a cup
+under the poison. But when it was full she poured the poison away,
+and meanwhile poison dropped on Loki, and he struggled so hard that
+all the earth shook; those are called earthquakes now."
+
+_Völuspa_ inserts lines corresponding to this passage after the
+Baldr episode, and Snorri makes it a consequence of Loki's share in
+that event.
+
+He is more especially agent of the doom through his children:
+at Ragnarök, Fenri the Wolf, bound long before by Tyr's help,
+will be freed, and swallow the sun (_Vafthrudnismal_) and Odin
+(_Vafthrudnismal_ and _Völuspa_); and Jörmungandr, the Giant-Snake,
+will rise from the sea where he lies curled round the world, to slay
+and be slain by Thor. The dragon's writhing in the waves is one
+of the tokens to herald Ragnarök, and his battle with Thor is the
+fiercest combat of that day. Only _Völuspa_ of our poems gives any
+account of it: "Then comes the glorious son of Hlodyn, Odin's son
+goes to meet the serpent; Midgard's guardian slays him in his rage,
+but scarcely can Earth's son reel back nine feet from the dragon."
+
+When Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymi, he terrifies his companion
+by dragging the snake's head out of the sea, but he does not slay it;
+it must wait there till Ragnarök:
+
+"The protector of men, the only slayer of the Serpent, baited his hook
+with the ox's head. The God-hated one who girds all lands from below
+swallowed the bait. Doughtily pulled mighty Thor the poison-streaked
+serpent up to the side; he struck down with his hammer the hideous
+head of the wolf's companion. The monster roared, the wilderness
+resounded, the old earth shuddered all through. The fish sank back
+into the sea. Gloomy was the giant when they rowed back, so that he
+spoke not a word."
+
+There is nothing to suggest that Jörmungandr, to whom the word
+World-Snake (Midgardsorm) always refers in the Edda, is the same as
+Nidhögg, the serpent that gnaws at Yggdrasil's roots; but both are
+relics of Snake-worship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The World-Ash_, generally called Yggdrasil's Ash, is one of the most
+interesting survivals of tree-worship. It is described by the Sibyl
+in _Völuspa_: "I know an ash called Yggdrasil, a high tree sprinkled
+with white moisture (thence come the dews that fall in the dales):
+it stands ever-green by Urd's spring. Thence come three maids,
+all-knowing, from the hall that stands under the tree"; and as a
+sign of the approaching doom she says: "Yggdrasil's ash trembles as
+it stands; the old tree groans." _Grimnismal_ says that the Gods go
+every day to hold judgment by the ash, and describes it further:
+
+"Three roots lie three ways under Yggdrasil's ash: Hel dwells under
+one, the frost-giants under the second, mortal men under the third. The
+squirrel is called Ratatosk who shall run over Yggdrasil's ash;
+he shall carry down the eagle's words, and tell them to Nidhögg
+below. There are four harts, with necks thrown back, who gnaw
+off the shoots.... More serpents lie under Yggdrasil's ash than
+any one knows. Ofni and Svafni I know will ever gnaw at the tree's
+twigs. Yggdrasil's ash suffers more hardships than men know: the hart
+bites above, the side decays, and Nidhögg gnaws below.... Yggdrasil's
+ash is the best of trees."
+
+The snake and the tree are familiar in other mythologies, though in
+most other cases the snake is the protector, while here he is the
+destroyer. Both Nidhögg and Jörmungandr are examples of the destroying
+dragon rather than the treasure-guardian. The Ash is the oracle: the
+judgment-place of the Gods, the dwelling of the Fates, the source of
+the spring of knowledge.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ragnarök_.--The Twilight of the Gods (or Doom of the Gods) is the
+central point of the Viking religion. The Regin (of which _Ragna_
+is genitive plural) are the ruling powers, often called Ginnregin
+(the great Gods), Uppregin (the high Gods), Thrymregin (the warrior
+Gods). The word is commonly used of the Aesir in _Völuspa_; in
+_Alvissmal_ the Regin seem to be distinguished from both Aesir and
+Vanir. The whole story of the Aesir is overshadowed by knowledge of
+this coming doom, the time when they shall meet foes more terrible
+than the giants, and fall before them; their constant effort is to
+learn what will happen then, and to gather their forces together
+to meet it. The coming Ragnarök is the reason for the existence of
+Valhalla with its hosts of slain warriors; and of all the Gods, Odin,
+Thor, Tyr and Loki are most closely connected with it. Two poems of
+the verse Edda describe it:
+
+(1) _Vafthrudnismal_:
+
+V. "What is the plain called where Surt and the blessed Gods shall
+meet in battle?"
+
+O. "Vigrid is the name of the place where Surt and the blessed Gods
+shall meet in battle. It is a hundred miles every way; it is their
+destined battle-field."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+O. "Whence shall the sun come on the smooth heaven when Fenri has
+destroyed this one?"
+
+V. "Before Fenri destroy her, the elf-beam shall bear a daughter:
+that maid shall ride along her mother's paths, when the Gods perish."
+
+O. "Which of the Aesir shall rule over the realms of the Gods, when
+Surt's fire is quenched?"
+
+V. "Vidar and Vali shall dwell in the sanctuary of the Gods when
+Surt's fire is quenched. Modi and Magni shall have Mjöllni at the
+end of Vingni's (_i.e._, Thor's) combat."
+
+O. "What shall be Odin's end, when the Gods perish?"
+
+V. "The Wolf will swallow the father of men; Vidar will avenge it. He
+will cleave the Wolf's cold jaws in the battle."
+
+(2) _Völuspa_:
+
+"A hag sits eastward in Ironwood and rears Fenri's children; one of
+them all, in troll's shape, shall be the sun's destroyer. He shall
+feed on the lives of death-doomed men; with red blood he shall redden
+the seat of the Gods. The sunshine shall grow black, all winds will
+be unfriendly in the after-summers.... I see further in the future
+the great Ragnarök of the Gods of Victory.... Heimdal blows loudly,
+the horn is on high; Yggdrasil's ash trembles as it stands, the old
+tree groans."
+
+The following lines tell of the fire-giants and the various combats,
+and the last section of the poem deals with a new world when Baldr,
+Höd and Hoeni are to come back to the dwelling-place of the Gods.
+
+The whole points to a belief in the early destruction of the world
+and the passing away of the old order of things. Whether the new
+world which _Vafthrudnismal_ and _Völuspa_ both prophesy belongs to
+the original idea or not is a disputed point. Probably it does not;
+at all events, none of the old Aesir, according to the poems, are
+to survive, for Modi and Magni are not really Gods at all, Baldr,
+Höd and Vali belong to another myth, Hoeni had passed out of the
+hierarchy by his exchange with Njörd, and Vidar's origin is obscure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Einherjar_, the great champions or chosen warriors, are intimately
+connected with Ragnarök. All warriors who fall in battle are taken
+to Odin's hall of the slain, Valhalla. According to _Grimnismal_,
+he "chooses every day men dead by the sword"; his Valkyries ride
+to battle to give the victory and bring in the fallen. Hence Odin
+is the giver of victory. Loki in _Lokasenna_ taunts him with giving
+victory to the wrong side: "Thou hast never known how to decide the
+battle among men. Thou hast often given victory to those to whom thou
+shouldst not give it, to the more cowardly"; this, no doubt, was in
+order to secure the best fighters for Valhalla. That the defeated
+side sometimes consoled themselves with this explanation of a notable
+warrior's fall is proved by the tenth-century dirge on Eirik Bloodaxe,
+where Sigmund the Volsung asks in Valhalla: "Why didst thou take the
+victory from him, if thou thoughtest him brave?" and Odin replies:
+"Because it is uncertain when the grey Wolf will come to the seat
+of the Gods." There are similar lines in Eyvind's dirge on Hakon
+the Good. In this way a host was collected ready for Ragnarök:
+for _Grimnismal_  says: "There are five hundred doors and eighty
+in Valhalla; eight hundred Einherjar will go out from each door,
+when they go to fight the wolf." Meanwhile they fight and feast:
+"All the Einherjar in Odin's courts fight every day: they choose
+the slain and ride from the battle, and sit then in peace together"
+(_Vafthrudnismal_,) and the Valkyries bear ale to them _(Grimnismal_).
+
+It is often too hastily assumed that the Norse Ragnarök with
+the dependant Valhalla system are in great part the outcome of
+Christian influence: of an imitation of the Christian Judgment Day
+and the Christian heaven respectively. Owing to the lateness of our
+material, it is, of course, impossible to decide how old the beliefs
+may be, but it is likely that the Valhalla idea only took form at
+the systematising of the mythology in the Viking age. The belief
+in another world for the dead is, however, by no means exclusively
+Christian, and a reference in _Grimnismal_ suggests the older system
+out of which, under the influence of the Ragnarök idea, Valhalla was
+developed. The lines, "The ninth hall is Folkvang, where Freyja rules
+the ordering of seats in the hall; half the slain she chooses every
+day, Odin has the other half," are an evident survival of a belief
+that all the dead went to live with the Gods, Odin having the men,
+and Freyja (or more probably Frigg) the women; the idea being here
+confused with the later system, under which only those who fell in
+battle were chosen by the Gods. Christian colouring appears in the
+last lines of _Völuspa_ and in Snorri, where men are divided into the
+"good and moral," who go after death to a hall of red gold, and the
+"perjurers and murderers," who are sent to a hall of snakes.
+
+For Ragnarök also a heathen origin is at least as probable as a
+Christian one. I would suggest as a possibility that the expectation of
+the Twilight of the Gods may have grown out of some ritual connected
+with the eclipse, such as is frequent among heathen races. Such
+ceremonies are a tacit acknowledgment of a doubt, and if they ever
+existed among the Scandinavians, the possibility, ever present to
+the savage mind, of a time when his efforts to help the light might
+be fruitless, and the darkness prove the stronger, would be the germ
+of his more civilised descendant's belief in Ragnarök.
+
+By turning to the surviving poems of the Skalds, whose dates can be
+approximately reckoned from the sagas, we can fix an inferior limit
+for certain of the legends given above, placing them definitely in the
+heathen time. Reference has already been made to the corroboration
+of the Valhalla belief supplied by the elegies on Eirik Bloodaxe
+and Hakon the Good. In the former (which is anonymous, but must have
+been written soon after 950, since it was composed, on Eirik's death,
+by his wife's orders), Odin commands the Einherjar and Valkyries to
+prepare for the reception of the slain Eirik and his host, since no
+one knows how soon the Gods will need to gather their forces together
+for the great contest. Eyvind's dirge on Hakon (who fell in 970) is an
+imitation of this: Odin sends two Valkyries to choose a king to enter
+his service in Valhalla; they find Hakon on the battle-field, and
+he is slain with many of his followers. Great preparation is made in
+Valhalla for his reception, and the poet ends by congratulating Hakon
+(who, though a Christian, having been educated in England, had not
+interfered with the heathen altars and sacrifices) on the toleration
+which has secured him such a welcome. A still earlier poet, Hornklofi,
+writing during the reign of Harald Fairhair (who died in 933), alludes
+to the slain as the property of "the one-eyed husband of Frigg."
+
+Several Skalds mention legends of Thor: his fishing for the World-Snake
+is told by Bragi (who from his place in genealogies must have written
+before 900), and by Ulf Uggason and Eystein Valdason, both in the
+second half of the tenth century; and Thjodulf and Eilif (the former
+about 960, the latter a little later) tell tales of his fights with
+the giants. Turning to the other Gods, Egil Skallagrimsson (about 970)
+names Frey and Njörd as the givers of wealth; Bragi tells the story
+of Gefion's dragging the island of Zealand out of Lake Wener into
+the sea; and Ulf Uggason speaks of Heimdal's wrestling with Loki.
+
+The legend of Idunn is told by Thjodulf much as Snorri tells it:
+Odin, Hoeni and Loki, while on a journey, kill and roast an ox. The
+giant Thiazi swoops down in eagle's shape and demands a share; Loki
+strikes the eagle, who flies off with him, releasing him only on
+condition that he will betray to the giants Idunn, "the care-healing
+maid who understands the renewal of youth." He does so, and the Gods,
+who grow old and withered for want of her apples, force him to go
+and bring her back to Asgard.
+
+The poet of _Eiriksmal_, quoted above, alludes to the Baldr myth:
+Bragi, hearing the approach of Eirik and his host, asks "What is
+that thundering and tramping, as if Baldr were coming back to Odin's
+hall?" The funeral pyre of Baldr is described by Ulf Uggason: he is
+burnt on his ship, which is launched by a giantess, in the presence
+of Frey, Heimdal, Odin and the Valkyries.
+
+Though heathen writers outside of Scandinavia are lacking, references
+to Germanic heathendom fortunately survive in several Continental
+Christian historians of earlier date than any of our Scandinavian
+sources. The evidence of these, though scanty, is corroborative,
+and the allusions are in striking agreement with the Edda stories in
+tone and character.
+
+Odin (Wodanus) is always identified by these writers with the
+Roman Mercurius (whom Tacitus named as the chief German God). This
+identification occurs in the eighth-century Paulus Diaconus, and in
+Jonas of Bobbio (first half of the seventh century), and probably rests
+on Odin's character as a wandering God (Mercury being diaktoros), his
+disguises, and his patronage of poetry and eloquence (as Mercury is
+logios). Odin is not himself in general the conductor of dead souls
+(psychopompos), like the Roman God, his attendant Valkyries performing
+the office for him. The equation is only comprehensible on the
+presumption of the independence of Germanic mythology, and cannot be
+explained by transmission. For if Odin were in any degree an imitation
+of the Roman deity, other notable attributes of the latter would have
+been assigned to him: whereas in the Edda the thieving God (kleptis)
+is not Odin but Loki, and the founder of civilisation is Heimdal.
+
+The legend of the origin of the Lombards given by Paulus Diaconus
+illustrates the relations of Odin and Frigg. The Vandals asked Wodan
+(Odin) to grant them victory over the Vinili; the latter made a similar
+prayer to Frea (Frigg), the wife of Wodan. She advised them to make
+their wives tie their hair round their faces like beards, and go with
+them to meet Wodan in the morning. They did so, and Wodan exclaimed,
+"Who are these _Long-beards_?" Then Frea said that having given the
+Vinili a name, he must give them the victory (as Helgi in the Edda
+claims a gift from Svava when she names him). As in _Grimnismal_,
+Odin and Frigg are represented as supporting rival claims, and Frigg
+gains the day for her favourites by superior cunning. This legend
+also shows Odin as the giver of victory.
+
+Few heathen legends are told however by these early Christian writers,
+and the Gods are seldom called by their German names. An exception is
+the Frisian Fosite mentioned by Alcuin (who died 804) and by later
+writers; he is to be identified with the Norse Forseti, the son of
+(probably at first an epithet of) Baldr, but no legend of him is
+told. It is disappointing that these writers should have said so
+little of any God except the chief one. A very characteristic touch
+survives in Gregory of Tours (died 594), when the Frank Chlodvig tells
+his Christian wife that the Christian God "cannot be proved to be
+of the race of the Gods," an idea entirely in keeping with the Eddic
+hierarchy. Before leaving the Continental historians, reference may be
+made to the abundant evidence of Germanic tree-worship to be gathered
+from them. The holy oak mentioned by Wilibald (before 786), the sacred
+pear-tree of Constantius (473), with numerous others, supply parallels
+to the World-Ash which is so important a feature of Norse mythology.
+
+A study of this subject would be incomplete without some reference to
+the mythology of Saxo Grammaticus. His testimony on the old religion
+is unwilling, and his effort to discredit it very evident. The
+bitterness of his attack on Frigg especially suggests that she
+was, among the Northmen, a formidable rival to the Virgin. When he
+repeats a legend of the Gods, he transforms them into mortal heroes,
+and when, as often happens, he refers to them accidentally as Gods,
+he invariably hastens to protest that he does so only because it had
+been the custom. He describes Thor and Odin as men versed in sorcery
+who claimed the rank of Gods; and in another passage he speaks of
+the latter as a king who had his seat at Upsala, and who was falsely
+credited with divinity throughout Europe. His description of Odin
+agrees with that in the Edda: an old man of great stature and mighty
+in battle, one-eyed, wearing a great cloak, and constantly wandering
+about in disguise. The story which Saxo tells of his driving into
+battle with Harald War-tooth, disguised as the latter's charioteer
+Brun, and turning the fight against him by revealing to his enemy Ring
+the order of battle which he had invented for Harald's advantage, is
+in thorough agreement with the traditional character of the God who
+betrayed Sigmund the Volsung and Helgi Hundingsbane. Saxo's version
+of the Baldr story has been mentioned already. Baldr's transformation
+into a hero (who could only be slain by a sword in the keeping of
+a wood-satyr) is almost complete. But Odin and Thor and all the
+Gods fight for him against his rival Hother, "so that it might be
+called a battle of Gods against men"; and Nanna's excuse to Baldr
+that "a God could not wed with a mortal," preserves a trace of his
+origin. The chained Loki appears in Saxo as Utgarda-Loki, lying bound
+in a cavern of snakes, and worshipped as a God by the Danish king
+Gorm Haraldsson. Dr. Eydberg sees the Freyja myth in Saxo's story of
+Syritha, who was carried away by the giants and delivered by her lover
+Othar (the Od of the Edda): an example, like _Svipdag and Menglad_,
+of the complete transformation of a divine into an heroic myth. In
+almost all cases Saxo vulgarises the stories in the telling, a common
+result when a mythical tale is retold by a Christian writer, though
+it is still more conspicuous in his versions of the heroic legends.
+
+
+
+
+
+Appendix
+
+
+_Thrymskvida_.
+
+1. Then Wing-Thor was angry when he awoke, and missed his hammer. He
+shook his beard, he tossed his hair, the son of Earth groped about
+for it.
+
+2. And first of all he spoke these words: "Hear now, Loki, what I
+tell thee, a thing that no one in earth or heaven above has heard:
+the Asa has been robbed of his hammer!"
+
+3. They went to the dwelling of fair Freyja, and these words he
+spoke first of all: "Wilt thou lend me, Freyja, thy feather dress,
+to see if I can find my hammer?"
+
+4. _Freyja_. "I would give it thee, though it were of gold; I would
+grant it, though it were of silver."
+
+5. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
+Asgard and into Jötunheim.
+
+6. Thrym, lord of the Giants, sat on a howe; he twisted golden bands
+for his greyhounds and trimmed his horses' manes.
+
+7. _Thrym_. "How is it with the Aesir? How is it with the Elves? Why
+art thou come alone into Jötunheim?"
+
+_Loki_. "It is ill with the Aesir, it is ill with the Elves; hast
+thou hidden the Thunderer's hammer?"
+
+8. _Thrym_. "I have hidden the Thunderer's hammer eight miles below the
+earth. No man shall bring it back, unless he bring me Freyja to wife."
+
+9. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
+Jötunheim and into Asgard. Thor met him in the middle of the court,
+and these words he spoke first:
+
+10. "Hast thou news in proportion to thy toil? Tell me from on high
+thy distant tidings, for a sitting man often breaks down in his story,
+and he who lies down falls into falsehood."
+
+11. _Loki_. "I bring news for my toil: Thrym, lord of the Giants,
+has thy hammer; no man shall bring it back, unless he take him Freyja
+as a bride."
+
+12. They went to see fair Freyja, spoke to her first of all these
+words: "Bind on the bridal veil, Freyja, we two must drive to
+Jötunheim."
+
+13. Angry then was Freyja; she panted, so that all the hall of the
+Aesir trembled, and the great Brising necklace fell: "Eager indeed
+for marriage wouldst thou think me, if I should drive with thee
+to Jötunheim."
+
+14. Then all the Aesir went into council, and all the Asynjor to
+consultation, and the mighty Gods discussed how they should recover
+the Thunderer's hammer.
+
+15. Then spoke Heimdal, whitest of the Aesir; he could see into the
+future like the Vanir: "Let us bind on Thor the bridal veil; let him
+have the great necklace Brising.
+
+16. "Let the keys jingle, and let women's weeds fall about his knees;
+let us put broad stones on his breast, and a hood dexterously on
+his head."
+
+17. Then spoke Thor, the mighty Asa: "Vile would the Aesir call me,
+if I let the bridal veil be bound on me."
+
+18. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: "Speak not such words, Thor! soon
+will the Giants dwell in Asgard, unless thou bring home thy hammer."
+
+19. Then they bound on Thor the bridal veil, and the great necklace
+Brising; they let the keys jingle and women's weeds fall about
+his knees, and they put broad stones on his breast, and the hood
+dexterously on his head.
+
+20. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: "I also will go with thee as thy
+maiden; we two will drive together to Jötunheim."
+
+21. Then the goats were driven out, urged forward in their harness;
+well must they run. Rocks were riven, the earth burned in name:
+Odin's son was driving into Jötunheim.
+
+22. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Stand up, giants, and
+strew the benches! They are bringing me now Freyja my bride, Njörd's
+daughter from Noatun.
+
+23. "Gold-horned kine run in the court, oxen all-black, the giant's
+delight. I have many treasures, I have many jewels, Freyja only
+is lacking."
+
+24. The guests assembled early in the evening, and ale was carried
+to the Giants. One ox did Sif's husband eat, and eight salmon, and
+all the dishes prepared for the women; three casks of mead he drank.
+
+25. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Who ever saw a bride eat
+so eagerly? I never saw a bride make such a hearty meal, nor a maid
+drink so deep of mead."
+
+26. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's
+words: "Eight nights has Freyja eaten nothing, so eager was she to
+be in Jötunheim."
+
+27. He looked under the veil, he longed to kiss the bride, but
+he started back the length of the hall: "Why are Freyja's eyes so
+terrible? Fire seems to burn from her eyes."
+
+28. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's
+speech: "Eight nights has Freyja had no sleep, so eager was she to
+be in Jötunheim."
+
+29. In came the Giants' wretched sister, she dared to ask for a bridal
+gift: "Take from thine arms the red rings, if thou wouldst gain my
+love, my love and all my favour."
+
+30. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Bring the hammer to hallow
+the bride. Lay Mjöllni on the maiden's knee, hallow us two in wedlock."
+
+31. The Thunderer's heart laughed in his breast, when the bold of
+soul felt the hammer. Thrym killed he first, the lord of the Giants,
+and all the race of the Giants he struck.
+
+32. He slew the Giants' aged sister, who had asked him for a bridal
+gift. She got a blow instead of shillings, and a stroke of the hammer
+for abundance of rings. So Odin's son got back his hammer.
+
+
+
+Bibliography
+
+
+I. Study in the Original.
+
+(1) _Poetic Edda_.--The classic edition, and on the whole the best,
+is Professor Bugge's (Christiania, 1867); the smaller editions of
+Hildebrand (_Die Lieder der Aelteren Edda_, Paderborn, 1876), and
+Finnur Jónsson (_Eddalieder_, Halle, 1888-90) are also good; the
+latter is in two parts, _Göttersage_ and _Heldensage_. The poems may
+also be found in the first volume of Vigfusson and Powell's _Corpus
+Poeticum Boreale_ (Oxford, 1883), accompanied by translations;	but in
+many cases they are cut up and rearranged, and they suffer metrically
+from the system adopted of printing two short lines as one long one,
+with no dividing point. There is an excellent palaeographic edition
+of the _Codex Regius of the Elder Edda_, by Wimmer and Finnur Jónsson
+(Copenhagen, 1891), with photographic reproductions interleaved with
+a literal transcription.
+
+(2) _Snorra Edda_.--The most recent edition of the whole is Dr. Finnur
+Jónsson's (Copenhagen, 1875). There is a useful edition of the
+mythological portions _(i.e., Gylfaginning, Bragaraedur_, and the
+narrative parts of _Skaldskaparmal_) by Ernst Wilken (_Die Prosäische
+Edda_, Paderborn, 1878).
+
+(3) _Dictionaries and Grammars_.--For the study of the Poetic Edda,
+Gering's _Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda_ (Paderborn, 1896) will
+be found most useful; it is complete and trustworthy, and in small
+compass. A similar service has been performed for _Snorra Edda_ in
+Wilken's _Glossar_ (Paderborn, 1883), which forms a second volume to
+his edition, mentioned above. Both are, of course, in German. The only
+English dictionary is the lexicon of Cleasby and Vigfusson (Oxford).
+
+Of Grammars, the best are German; those of Noreen (_Altnordische
+Grammatik_, Halle, 1892), of which there is an abbreviated edition,
+and Kahle (_Altisländisches Elementarbuch_, Heidelberg, 1896) being
+better suited for advanced students; the English grammars included
+in Vigfusson and Powell's _Icelandic Reader_ (Oxford) and Sweet's
+_Icelandic Primer_ (Oxford) are more elementary, and therefore hardly
+adequate for the study of the verse literature.
+
+
+II. Translations.
+
+There are English translations of the Elder Edda by Anderson (Chicago,
+1879) and Thorpe (1866), as well as the translations in the _Corpus
+Poeticum_, which are, of course, liable to the same objection as
+the text. The most accurate German translation is Gering's (Leipzig,
+1893); in Simrock's (_Aeltere und Jüngere Edda_, Stuttgart, 1882), the
+translations of the verse Edda are based on an uncritical text. Snorra
+Edda was translated into English by Dasent (Stockholm, 1842); also
+by Anderson (Chicago, 1880).
+
+
+III. Modern Authorities.
+
+To the works on Northern mythology mentioned below in the note on
+the Baldr theories, must be added Dr. Rydberg's _Teutonic Mythology_
+(English version by R.B. Anderson, London, 1889), which devotes
+special attention to Saxo.
+
+
+
+Notes
+
+_Home of the Edda_. (Page 2.)
+
+The chief apologists for the British theory are Professor Bugge
+(_Studien über die Entstehung der nordischen Götter- und Heldensagen_,
+München, 1889), and the editors of the _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_ (see
+the Introduction to that  work, and also the Prolegomena prefixed to
+their edition of the _Sturlunga Saga_, Oxford). The case for Norway
+and Greenland is argued by Dr. Finnur Jónsson (_Den oldnorsk og
+oldislandske Literaturs-Historie,_ Copenhagen). The cases for both
+British and Norwegian origin are based chiefly on rather fanciful
+arguments from supposed local colour. The theory of the _Corpus
+Poeticum_ editors that many of the poems were composed in the Scottish
+isles is discredited by the absence of Gaelic words or traces of Gaelic
+legend. Professor Bugge's North of England theory is slightly stronger,
+being supported by several Old English expressions in the poems,
+but these are not enough to prove that they were composed in England,
+since most Icelanders travelled east at some time of their lives.
+
+(Page 3.)
+
+A later study will deal with the Heroic legends.
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_. (Page 3.)
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_ is prefixed to the Lives of the Kings in the collection
+known as _Heimskringla_ (edited by Unger, Christiania, 1868, and by
+Finnur Jónsson, Christiania, 1893); there is an English translation
+in Laing's _Lives of the Kings of Norway_ (London, 1889).
+
+_Völuspa_. (Page 4.)
+
+A poem of similar form occurs among the heroic poems. _Gripisspa_,
+a prophetic outline of Sigurd's life, introduces the Volsung poems,
+as _Völuspa_ does the Asgard cycle.
+
+_Riddle-poems_. (Page 6.)
+
+So many of the mythological poems are in this form that they suggest
+the question, did the asking of riddles form any part of Scandinavian
+ritual?
+
+_The Aesir_. (Page 11.)
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_ says that Odin and the Aesir came to Norway from Asia;
+a statement due, of course, to a false etymology, though theories as
+to the origin of Norse mythology have been based on it.
+
+_Tyr_. (Page 12.)
+
+Tyr is etymologically identical with Zeus, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus
+(Sky-God).
+
+_Baldr_. (Pages 16 to 22.)
+
+The Baldr theories are stated in the following authorities:
+
+(1) Ritual origin: Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, vol. 3.
+
+(2) Heroic origin: Golther, _Handbuch der Germanischen Mythologie_
+(Leipzig, 1895); Niedner, _Eddische Fragen_ (_Zeitschrift
+für deutsches Altertum_, new series, 29), _Zur Lieder-Edda_
+(_Zeitschr. f. d. Alt_. vol. 36).
+
+(3) Solar myth: Sir G.W. Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_
+(London, 1870); Max Müller, _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol. 4.
+
+(4) Borrowed: Bugge, _Studien über die Entstchung der nordischen
+Götter- und Heldensagen_ (transl. Brenner, München, 1889).
+
+_Vegtamskvida_. (Page 17.)
+
+The word _hrodhrbadhm_ (which I have given as "branch of fame")
+would perhaps be more accurately translated "tree of fame," which
+Gering explains as a kenning for Baldr. But there are no kennings of
+the same sort in the poem, and the line would have no meaning. If it
+refers to the mistletoe, as most commentators agree, it merely shows
+that the poet was ignorant of the nature of the plant, which would
+be in favour of its antiquity, rather than the reverse.
+
+
+_Saxo Grammaticus_. (Page 18.)
+
+English translation by Professor Elton (London, D. Nutt, 1894). As
+Saxo's references to the old Gods are made in much the same sympathetic
+tone as that adopted by Old Testament writers towards heathen deities,
+his testimony on mythological questions is of the less value.
+
+
+_The Mistletoe_. (Page 20.)
+
+It seems incredible that any writers should turn to the travesty of
+the Baldr story given in the almost worthless saga of Hromund Gripsson
+in support of a theory. In it "Bildr" is killed by Hromund, who has
+the sword Mistilteinn. It must be patent to any one that this is a
+perverted version of a story which the narrator no longer understood.
+
+
+_Loki_. (Page 26.)
+
+It is hardly necessary to point out the parallel between Loki and
+Prometheus, also both helper and enemy of the Gods, and agent in their
+threatened fall, though in the meantime a prisoner. In character
+Loki has more in common with the mischievous spirit described by
+Hesiod, than with the heroic figure of Aeschylus. The struggles of
+Loki (p. 28) find a parallel in those of the fire-serpent Typhon,
+to which the Greeks attributed earthquakes.
+
+
+_Eclipse Ritual_. (Page 35.)
+
+Mr. Lang, in _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, (London, 1887)  gives
+examples of eclipse ritual. Grimm, in the _Teutonic Mythology_,
+vol. 2, quotes Finnish and Lithuanian myths about sun-devouring beasts,
+very similar to the Fenri myth.
+
+
+_The Skalds_. (Page 35.)
+
+All the Skaldic verses will be found, with translations, in the
+_Corpus Poeticum_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 1, by Winifred Faraday
+
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+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 1
+       The Divine Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+              Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+              
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13007]
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+
+<h1 class="docTitle">The Edda</h1><br><h1 class="docTitle">I</h1><br><h1 class="docTitle">The Divine Mythology of the North</h1>
+<h2 class="byline">By
+<br>
+<span class="docAuthor">Winifred Faraday, M.A.</span></h2>
+<h2 class="docImprint">Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Ph&#339;nix, Long Acre, London<br id="d0e81">
+1902
+</h2><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e83"></a></span><a id="d0e84"></a><h1>Author's Note</h1>
+<p id="d0e87">Some explanation is needed of the form of spelling I have adopted in transcribing Norse proper names. The spirants <i>&thorn;</i> and <i>&eth;</i> are represented by <i>th</i> and <i>d</i>, as being more familiar to readers unacquainted with the  original. Marks of vowel-length are in all cases omitted. The inflexional
+<i>-r</i> of the nominative singular masculine is also omitted, whether it appears as <i>-r</i> or is assimilated to a preceding consonant (as in Odinn, Eysteinn, Heindall, Egill) in the Norse form, with the single exception
+of the name Tyr, where I use the form which has become conventional in English.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e107"><span class="smallcaps">Manchester</span>, <br id="d0e111">
+<i>December</i> 1901.
+
+</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e117"></a>Page 1</span><a id="d0e119"></a><h1>The Divine Mythology of the North</h1>
+<p id="d0e122">The Icelandic Eddas are the only vernacular record of Germanic heathendom as it developed during the four centuries which
+in England saw the destruction of nearly all traces of the heathen system. The so-called Elder Edda is a collection of some
+thirty poems, mythic and heroic in substance, interspersed with short pieces of prose, which survives in a thirteenth-century
+MS., known as the Codex Regius, discovered in Iceland in 1642; to these are added other poems of similar character from other
+sources. The Younger Edda is a prose paraphrase of, and commentary on, these poems and others which are lost, together with
+a treatise on metre, written by the historian Snorri Sturluson about 1220.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e124">This use of the word Edda is incorrect and unhistorical, though convenient and sanctioned by the use of several centuries.
+It was early used as a general term for the rules and materials for versemaking, and applied in this sense to Snorri's <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e126"></a>Page 2</span>work. When the poems on which his paraphrase is founded were discovered, Icelandic scholars by a misunderstanding applied
+the name to them also; and as they attributed the collection quite arbitrarily to the historian Saemund (1056&#8211;1133), it was
+long known as Saemundar Edda, a name now generally discarded in favour of the less misleading titles of Elder or Poetic Edda.
+From its application to this collection, the word derives a more extended use, (1) as a general term for Norse mythology;
+(2) as a convenient name to distinguish the simpler style of these anonymous narrative poems from the elaborate formality
+of the Skalds.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e128">The poems of the Edda are certainly older than the MS., although the old opinion as to their high antiquity is untenable.
+The majority probably date from the tenth century in their present form; this dating does not necessitate the ascription of
+the shape in which the legends are presented, still less of their substance, to that period. With regard to the place of their
+composition opinions vary widely, Norway, the British Isles and Greenland having all found champions; but the evidence is
+rather questionable, and I incline to leave them to the country which has preserved them. They are possibly of popular origin;
+this, together with their epic or narrative character, would account for the striking absence from them of some of the chief
+characteristics of Skaldic poetry: the obscuring of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e130"></a>Page 3</span>the sense by the elaborate interlacing of sentences and the extensive use of kennings or mythological synonyms, and the complication
+of the metre by such expedients as the conjunction of end-rhyme with alliteration. Eddie verse is governed solely by the latter,
+and the strophic arrangement is simple, only two forms occurring: (1) couplets of alliterative short lines; (2) six-line strophes,
+consisting of a couplet followed by a single short line, the whole repeated.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e132">Roughly speaking, the first two-fifths of the MS. is mythological, the rest heroic. I propose to observe this distinction,
+and to deal in this study with the stories of the Gods. In this connexion, Snorri's Edda and the mythical Ynglinga Saga may
+also be considered, but as both were compiled a couple of centuries or more after the introduction of Christianity into Iceland,
+it is uncertain how much in them is literary explanation of tradition whose meaning was forgotten; some also, especially in
+Snorri, is probably pure invention, fairy tale rather than myth.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e134">Many attempts have been made to prove that the material of the Edda is largely borrowed. The strength and distinction of Icelandic
+poetry rest rather on the fact that it is original and national and, like that of Greece, owes little to foreign sources;
+and that it began in the heathen age, before Christian or Romantic influences had touched Iceland. Valuable as the early Christian
+poetry <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e136"></a>Page 4</span>of England is, we look in vain there for the humour, the large-minded simplicity of motive, the suggestive character-drawing,
+the swift dramatic action, which are as conspicuous in many poems in the Edda as in many of the Sagas.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e138">Omitting the heroic poems, there are in Codex Regius the following: (1) Of a more or less comprehensive character, <i>V&ouml;luspa, Vafthrudnismal, Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Harbardsljod</i>; (2) dealing with episodes, <i>Hymiskvida, Thrymskvida, Skirnisf&ouml;r. Havamal</i> is a collection of proverbs, but contains two interpolations from mythical poems; <i>Alvissmal</i>, which, in the form of a dialogue between Thor and a dwarf Alviss, gives a list of synonyms, is a kind of mythologico-poetical
+glossary. Several of these poems are found in another thirteenth-century vellum fragment, with an additional one, variously
+styled <i>Vegtamskvida</i> or <i>Baldr's Dreams</i>; the great fourteenth-century codex Flateybook contains <i>Hyndluljod</i>, partly genealogical, partly an imitation of <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>; and one of the MSS. of Snorri's Edda gives us <i>Rigsthula</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e164"><i>V&ouml;luspa</i>, though not one of the earliest poems, forms an appropriate opening. Metrical considerations forbid an earlier date than
+the first quarter of the eleventh century, and the last few lines are still later. The material is, however, older: the poem
+is an outline, in allusions often obscure to us, of traditions and beliefs familiar to its first hearers. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e168"></a>Page 5</span>The very bareness of the outline is sufficient proof that the material is not new. The framework is apparently imitated from
+that of the poem known as <i>Baldr's Dreams</i>, some lines from which are inserted in <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>. This older poem describes Odin's visit to the Sibyl in hell-gates to inquire into the future. He rides down to her tomb
+at the eastern door of Nifl-hell and chants spells, until she awakes and asks: &#8220;What man unknown to me is that, who has troubled
+me with this weary journey? Snow has snowed on me, rain has beaten me, dew has drenched me, I have long been dead.&#8221; He gives
+the name Wegtam, or Way-wise, and then follow question and answer until she discovers his identity and will say no more. In
+<i>V&ouml;luspa</i> there is no descriptive introduction, and no dialogue; the whole is spoken by the Sibyl, who plunges at once into her story,
+with only the explanatory words: &#8220;Thou, Valfather, wouldst have me tell the ancient histories of men as far as I remember.&#8221;
+She describes the creation of the world and sky by Bor's sons; the building by the Gods of a citadel in Ida-plain, and their
+age of innocence till three giant-maids brought greed of gold; the creation of the dwarfs; the creation of the first man and
+woman out of two trees by Odin, Hoeni and Lodur; the world-ash and the spring beside it where dwell the three Norns who order
+the fates of men. Then follows an allusion to the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e179"></a>Page 6</span>war between the Aesir and the Vanir, the battle with the giants who had got possession of the goddess Freyja, and the breaking
+of bargains; an obscure reference to Mimi's spring where Odin left his eye as a pledge; and an enumeration of his war-maids
+or Valkyries. Turning to the future, the Sibyl prophesies the death of Baldr, the vengeance on his slayer, and the chaining
+of Loki, the doom of the Gods and the destruction of the world at the coming of the fire-giants and the release of Loki's
+children from captivity. The rest of the poem seems to be later; it tells how the earth shall rise again from the deep, and
+the Aesir dwell once more in Odin's halls, and there is a suggestion of Christian influence in it which is absent from the
+earlier part.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e181">Of the other general poems, the next four were probably composed before 950; in each the setting is different. <i>Vafthrudnismal</i>, a riddle-poem, shows Odin in a favourite position, seeking in disguise for knowledge of the future. Under the name of Gangrad
+(Wanderer), he visits the wise giant Vafthrudni, and the two agree to test their wisdom: the one who fails to answer a question
+is to forfeit his head. In each case the questions deal first with the past. Vafthrudni asks about Day and Night, and the
+river which divides the Giants from the Gods, matters of common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future: &#8220;What
+is the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e186"></a>Page 7</span>plain where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?&#8221; Odin replies, and proceeds to question in his turn; first about
+the creation of Earth and Sky, the origin of Sun and Moon, Winter and Summer, the Giants and the Winds; the coming of Nj&ouml;rd
+the Wane to the Aesir as a hostage; the Einherjar, or chosen warriors of Valhalla. Then come prophetic questions on the destruction
+of the Sun by the wolf Fenri, the Gods who shall rule in the new world after Ragnar&ouml;k, the end of Odin. The poem is brought
+to a close by Odin's putting the question which only himself can answer: &#8220;What did Odin say in his son's ear before he mounted
+the pyre?&#8221; and the giant's head is forfeit.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e188">In the third poem of this class, <i>Grimnismal</i>, a prose introduction relates that Odin and Frigg quarrelled over the merits of their respective foster-children. To settle
+the question, Odin goes disguised as Grimni, &#8220;the Hooded One,&#8221; to visit his foster-son Geirr&ouml;d; but Frigg, to justify her
+charge of inhospitality against Geirr&ouml;d, sends her maiden Fulla to warn him against the coming stranger. Odin therefore meets
+with a harsh reception, and is bound between two fires in the hall. Geirr&ouml;d's young son, Agnar, protests against this rude
+treatment, and gives wine to the guest, who then begins to instruct him in matters concerning the Gods. He names the halls
+of the Aesir, describes Valhalla and the ash Yggdrasil, the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e193"></a>Page 8</span>Valkyries, the creation of the world (two stanzas in common with <i>Vafthrudnismal</i>), and enumerates his own names. The poem ends with impressive abruptness by his turning to Geirr&ouml;d:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e199">&#8220;Thou art drunk, Geirr&ouml;d, thou hast drunk too deep; thou art bereft of much since thou hast lost my favour, the favour of
+Odin and all the Einherjar. I have told thee much, but thou hast minded little. Thy friends betray thee: I see my friend's
+sword lie drenched in blood. Now shall Odin have the sword-weary slain; I know thy life is ended, the Fates are ungracious.
+Now thou canst see Odin: come near me, if thou canst.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e201">[Prose.] &#8220;King Geirr&ouml;d sat with his sword on his knee, half drawn. When he heard that Odin was there, he stood up and would
+have led Odin from the fires. The sword slipt from his hand; the hilt turned downwards. The king caught his foot and fell
+forwards, the sword standing towards him, and so he met his death. Then Odin went away, and Agnar was king there long afterwards.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e204"><i>Harbardsljod</i> is a dialogue, and humorous. Thor on his return from the east comes to a channel, at the farther side of which stands Odin,
+disguised as a ferryman, Greybeard. He refuses to ferry Thor across, and they question each other as to their past feats,
+with occasional threats from Thor and taunts from Odin, until the former goes off vowing vengeance on the ferryman:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e209"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Thy skill in words would serve thee ill if I waded across the water; I think thou wouldst cry <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e213"></a>Page 9</span>louder than the wolf, if thou shouldst get a blow from the hammer.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e215"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;Sif has a lover at home, thou shouldst seek him. That is a task for thee to try, it is more proper for thee.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e219"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Thou speakest what thou knowest most displeasing to me; thou cowardly fellow, I think that thou liest.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e223"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;I think I speak true; thou art slow on the road. Thou wouldst have got far, if thou hadst started at dawn.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e227"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Harbard, scoundrel, it is rather thou who hast delayed me.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e231"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;I never thought a shepherd could so delay Asa-Thor's journey.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e235"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;I will counsel thee: row thy boat hither. Let us cease quarrelling; come and meet Magni's father.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e239"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;Leave thou the river; crossing shall be refused thee.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e243"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Show me the way, since thou wilt not ferry me.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e247"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;That is a small thing to refuse. It is a long way to go: a while to the stock, and another to the stone, then keep to the
+left hand till thou reach Verland. There will Fj&ouml;rgyn meet her son Thor, and she will tell him the highway to Odin's land.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e251"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Shall I get there to-day?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e255"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;With toil and trouble thou wilt get there about sunrise, as I think.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e259"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Our talk shall be short, since thou answerest with mockery. I will reward thee for refusing passage, if we two meet again.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e263"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;Go thy way, where all the fiends may take thee.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e268"></a>Page 10</span></p>
+<p id="d0e269"><i>Lokasenna</i> also is in dialogue form. A prose introduction tells how the giant Oegi, or Gymi, gave a feast to the Aesir. Loki was turned
+out for killing a servant, but presently returned and began to revile the Gods and Goddesses, each one in turn trying to interfere,
+only to provoke a taunt from Loki. At last Thor, who had been absent on a journey, came in and threatened the slanderer with
+his hammer, whereupon Loki said, &#8220;I spoke to the Aesir and the sons of the Aesir what my mind told me; but for thee alone
+I will go away, for I know thou wilt strike.&#8221; Some of the poem is rather pointless abuse, but much touches points already
+suggested in the other poems.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e273"><i>Hyndluljod</i> is much later than the others, probably  not before 1200. The style is late, and the form imitated from <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>. It describes a visit paid by Freyja to the Sibyl to learn the genealogy of her favourite Ottar. The larger part deals with
+heroic genealogies, but there are scanty allusions to Baldr, Frey, Heimdal, Loki's children, and Thor, and a Christian reference
+to a God who shall come after Ragnar&ouml;k &#8220;when Odin shall meet the wolf.&#8221; It tells nothing new.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e280">We have here then, omitting <i>Hyndluljod</i>, five poems (four of them belonging to the first half of the tenth century) which suggest a general outline of Norse mythology:
+there is a hierarchy of Gods, the Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e285"></a>Page 11</span>being the chief. Among them are several who are not Aesir by origin: Nj&ouml;rd and his son and daughter, Frey and Freyja, are
+Vanir; Loki is really an enemy and an agent in their fall; and there are one or two Goddesses of giant race. The giants are
+rivals and enemies to the Gods; the dwarfs are also antagonistic, but in bondage. The meeting-place of the Gods is by the
+World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of Gods and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake. The Gods have
+foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnar&ouml;k, the great fight when they shall meet Loki's children, the Wolf and the Snake; both
+sides will fall and the world be destroyed. An episode in the story is the death of Baldr. This we may assume to be the religion
+of the Viking age (800&#8211;1000 A.D.), a compound of the beliefs of various ages and tribes.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e287"><b>The Aesir.</b>&#8212;The number of the Aesir is not fixed. <i>Hyndluljod</i> says there were twelve (&#8220;there were eleven Aesir when Baldr went down into the howe&#8221;). Snorri gives a list of fourteen Aesir
+or Gods (Odin, Thor, Baldr, Nj&ouml;rd, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdal, H&ouml;d, Vidar, Vali, Ullr, Forseti, Loki), and adds Hoeni in another
+list, all the fifteen occurring in the poems; and sixteen Goddesses (Asynjor), the majority of whom are merely personified
+epithets, occurring nowhere else. Of the sixteen, Frigg, Gefion, Freyja and Saga (really an <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e294"></a>Page 12</span>epithet only) are Goddesses in the poems, and Fulla is Frigg's handmaid. In another chapter, Snorri adds Idunn, Gerd, Sigyn
+and Nanna, of whom the latter does not appear in the Elder Edda, where Idunn, Gerd (a giantess) and Sigyn are the wives of
+Bragi, Frey and Loki; and two others, the giantess Skadi and Sif, are the wives of Nj&ouml;rd and Thor.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e296">A striking difference from classical mythology is that neither Tyr (who should etymologically be the Sky-god), nor Thor (the
+Thunder-god), takes the highest place. Tyr is the hero of one important episode, the chaining of the Wolf, through which he
+loses his right hand. This is told in full by Snorri and alluded to in <i>Lokasenna</i>, both in the prose preface (&#8220;Tyr also was there, with only one hand; the Fenris-wolf had bitten off the other, when he was
+bound&#8221;) and in the poem itself:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e302"><span class="smallcaps">Loki</span>. &#8220;I must remember that right hand which Fenri bit off thee.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e306"><span class="smallcaps">Tyr</span>. &#8220;I am short of a hand, but thou of the famous wolf; to each the loss is ill-luck. Nor is the wolf in better plight, for
+he must wait in bonds till Ragnar&ouml;k.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e311">Otherwise, he only appears in connexion with two more popular Gods: he speaks in Frey's defence in <i>Lokasenna</i>, and in <i>Hymiskvida</i> he is Thor's companion in the search for a cauldron; the latter poem represents him as a giant's son.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e319">Thor, on the other hand, is second only to his <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e321"></a>Page 13</span>father Odin; he is the strongest of the Gods and their champion against the giants, and his antagonist at Ragnar&ouml;k is to be
+the World-Snake. Like Odin, he travels much, but while the chief God generally goes craftily and in disguise, to gain knowledge
+or test his wisdom, Thor's errands are warlike; in <i>Lokasenna</i> he is absent on a journey, in <i>Harbardsljod</i>  and <i>Alvissmal</i> he is returning from one. His journeys are always to the east; so in <i>Harbardsljod</i>: &#8220;I was in the east, fighting the malevolent giant-brides.... I was in the east and guarding the river, when Svarang's sons
+attacked me.&#8221; The Giants live in the east (<i>Hymiskvida</i> 5); Thor threatened Loki: &#8220;I will fling thee up into the east, and no one shall see thee more&#8221; (<i>Lokasenna</i> 59); the fire-giants at Ragnar&ouml;k are to come from the east: &#8220;Hrym comes driving from the east, he lifts his shield before
+him.... A ship comes from the east, Muspell's sons will come sailing over the sea, and Loki steers&#8221; (<i>V&ouml;luspa</i> 50, 51). It would not, perhaps, be overstraining the point to suggest that this is a reminiscence of early warfare between
+the Scandinavians and eastern nations, either Lapps and Finns or Slavonic tribes.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e344">Thor is the God of natural force, the son of Earth. Two of the episodical poems deal with his contests with the giants. <i>Thrymskvida</i>, the story of how Thor won back his hammer, Mj&ouml;llni, from the giant Thrym, is the finest and one of the oldest <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e349"></a>Page 14</span>of the mythological poems; a translation is given in the appendix, as an example of Eddic poetry at its best. Loki appears
+as the willing helper of the Gods, and Thor's companion. The Thunderer's journey with Tyr in quest of a cauldron is related
+with much humour in <i>Hymiskvida</i>: Hymi's beautiful wife, who helps her guests to outwit her husband, is a figure familiar in fairy-tales as the Ogre's wife.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e354">The chief God of the Scandinavians is, it must be confessed, an unsympathetic character. He is the head of the Valhalla system;
+he is Val-father (Father of the Slain), and the Valkyries are his &#8220;Wishmaidens,&#8221; as the Einherjar are his &#8220;Wishsons.&#8221; He naturally
+takes a special interest in mortal heroes, from whom come the chosen hosts of Valhalla. But, in spite of the splendour of
+his surroundings, he is wanting in dignity. The chief of the Gods has neither the might and unthinking valour of Thor, nor
+the self-sacrificing courage of Tyr. He is a God who practises magic, and it is as Father of Spells that he is powerful. He
+is the wisest of the Gods in the sense that he remembers most about the past and foresees most about the future; yet he is
+powerless in difficulty without the craft of Loki and the hammer of Thor. He always wanders in disguise, and the stories told
+of him are chiefly love-adventures; this is true of all the deeds he mentions in <i>Harbardsljod</i>, and also of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e359"></a>Page 15</span>the two interpolations in <i>Havamal</i>, though one of the two had an object, the stealing of the mead of inspiration from the giant Suptung, whose daughter Gunnl&ouml;d
+guarded it.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e364"><i>V&ouml;luspa</i> makes him one of three creative deities, the other two being Lodur (probably Loki) and Hoeni, of whom nothing else is known
+except the story that he was given as hostage to the Vanir in exchange for Nj&ouml;rd. The same three Gods (Odin, Loki and Hoeni)
+are connected with the legend of the Nibelung treasure; and it was another adventure of theirs, according to Snorri, which
+led to the loss of Idunn.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e368">Of the other Gods, Bragi is a later development; his name means simply king or chief, and his attributes, as God of eloquence
+and poetry, are apparently borrowed from Odin. Heimdal, the watchman and &#8220;far-seeing like the Vanir,&#8221; who keeps guard on the
+rainbow bridge Bifr&ouml;st, is represented in the curious poem <i>Rigsthula</i> as founder of the different social orders. He wandered over the world under the name of Rig, and from his first journey sprang
+the race of thralls, swarthy, crooked and broad-backed, who busied themselves with fencing land and tending goats and swine;
+from his second, the churls, fine and ruddy, who broke oxen, built houses and ploughed the land; from his third, the earls,
+yellow-haired, rosy, and keen-eyed, who broke horses and strung bows, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e373"></a>Page 16</span>rode, swam, and hurled spears; and the youngest of the earls' race was Konung the king, who knew all mysteries, understood
+the speech of birds, could quench fire and heal wounds. Heimdal is said to be the son of nine mothers, and to have fought
+with Loki for Freyja's Brising-necklace. His horn is hidden under Yggdrasil, to be brought out at Ragnar&ouml;k, when he will blow
+a warning blast. His origin is obscure. Still less is known of Vidar and Vali, two sons of Odin, one of whom is to avenge
+Baldr's death, the other to slay the wolf after it has swallowed up the chief God at Ragnar&ouml;k. Thor's stepson Ullr (Glory)
+is probably, like his sons Modi and Magni (Wrath and Strength), a mere epithet.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e375">Frigg, Odin's wife and the chief Goddess, daughter of Earth, is not very distinctly characterised, and is often confused with
+Freyja. Gefion should be the sea-goddess, since that seems to be the meaning of her name, but her functions are apparently
+usurped by the Wane Nj&ouml;rd; according to Snorri, she is the patron of those who die unwedded.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e377"><b>Baldr</b>.&#8212;The story of Baldr is the most debated point in the Edda. The chief theories advanced are: (1) That it is the oldest part
+of Norse mythology, and of ritual origin; (2) that Baldr is really a hero transformed into a God; (3) that the legend <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e381"></a>Page 17</span>is a solar myth with or without Christian colouring;  (4) that it is entirely borrowed from Medi&aelig;val Greek and Christian sources.
+This last theory is too ingenious to be credible; and with regard to the third, there is nothing essentially Christian in
+the chief features of the legend, while the solar idea leaves too much unexplained. The references to the myth in the Elder
+Edda are:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e383">(1) <i>Vegtamskvida</i> (about 900 A.D.). Odin questions the Sibyl as to the meaning of Baldr's dreams:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e389"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;For whom are the benches (in hell) strewn with rings, the halls fairly adorned with gold?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e393"><span class="smallcaps">Sibyl</span>. &#8220;Here the mead, clear drink, stands brewed for Baldr; the shields are spread. The sons of the Aesir are too merry.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e397"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;Who will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e401"><span class="smallcaps">Sibyl</span>. &#8220;H&ouml;d bears thither the high branch of fame: he will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e405"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;Who will avenge the deed on H&ouml;d and bring Baldr's slayer to the funeral pyre?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e409"><span class="smallcaps">Sibyl</span>. &#8220;Rind bears a son, Vali, in the halls of the west. He shall not wash his hands nor comb his hair till he bears Baldr's foe
+to the pyre.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e414">(2) In <i>Lokasenna</i> Frigg says: &#8220;If I had a son like Baldr here in Oegi's halls, thou shouldst not pass out from the sons of the Aesir, but be
+slain here in thy anger&#8221;; to which Loki replies, &#8220;Wilt thou that I speak more ill words, Frigg? I am <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e419"></a>Page 18</span>the cause that thou wilt never more see Baldr ride into the hall.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e421">(3) In <i>Vafthrudnismal</i> the only reference is Odin's question, &#8220;What said Odin in his son's ear when he mounted the pyre?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e426">(4) In <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> the Sibyl prophesies, &#8220;I saw doom threatening Baldr, the bleeding victim, the son of Odin. Grown high above the meadows stood
+the mistletoe, slender and fair. From this stem, which looked so slender, grew a fatal and dangerous shaft. H&ouml;d shot it, and
+Frigg wept in Fenhall over Valhall's woe.&#8221;  The following lines, on the chaining of Loki, suggest his complicity.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e431">(5) <i>Hyndluljod</i> has one reference: &#8220;There were eleven Aesir by number when Baldr went down into the howe. Vali was his avenger and slew his
+brother's slayer.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e436">Besides these there is a fragment quoted by Snorri: &#8220;Th&ouml;kk will weep dry tears at Baldr's funeral pyre. I had no good of the
+old man's son alive or dead; let Hel keep what she has.&#8221; <i>Grimnismal</i> assigns a hall to Baldr among the Gods.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e441">There are, in addition, two prose versions of the story by later writers: the Icelandic version of Snorri (1178&#8211;1241) with
+all the details familiar to every one; and the Latin one of the Dane Saxo Grammaticus (about thirty years earlier), which
+makes Baldr and H&ouml;d heroes instead of Gods, and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e443"></a>Page 19</span>completely alters the character of the legend by making a rivalry for Nanna's favour the centre of the plot and cause of the
+catastrophe. On the Eddic version and on Saxo's depend the theories of Golther, Detter, Niedner and other German scholars
+on the one hand, and Dr. Frazer on the other.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e445">It has often been pointed out that there is no trace of Baldr-worship in other Germanic nations, nor in any of the Icelandic
+sagas except the late Frithjofssaga. This, however, is true of other Gods, notably of Tyr, who is without question one of
+the oldest. The only deities named with any suggestion of sacrifice or worship in the Icelandic sagas proper are Odin, Thor,
+Frey, Nj&ouml;rd, Frigg and Freyja. The process of choice is as arbitrary in mythology as in other sciences. Again, it is more
+likely that the original version of the legend should have survived in Iceland than in Denmark, which, being on the mainland,
+was earlier subject to Christian and Romantic influences; and that a heathen God should, in the two or three centuries following
+the establishment of Christianity in the North, be turned into a mortal hero, than that the reverse process should have acted
+at a sufficiently late date to permit of both versions existing side by side in the thirteenth century. A similar gradual
+elimination of the supernatural may be found in the history of the Volsung myth. Snorri's version is merely an amplification
+of that in the Elder <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e447"></a>Page 20</span>Edda, which, scanty as its account of Baldr is, leaves no doubt as to his divinity.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e449">The outline gathered from the poems is as follows: Baldr, Odin's son, is killed by his brother H&ouml;d through a mistletoe spray;
+Loki is in some way concerned in his death, which is an overwhelming misfortune to the Gods; but it is on H&ouml;d that his death
+is avenged. He is burnt on a pyre (Snorri says on his ship, a feature which must come from the Viking age; <i>Hyndluljod</i> substitutes howe-burial). He will be absent from the great fight at Ragnar&ouml;k, but <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> adds that he will return afterwards. Nanna has nothing to do with the story. The connexion with the hierarchy of the Aesir
+seems external only, since Baldr has no apparent relation to the great catastrophe as have Odin, Thor, Frej, Tyr and Loki;
+this, then, would point to the independence of his myth.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e457">The genuineness of the myth seems to depend on whether the mistletoe is an original feature of it or not, and on this point
+there can be little real doubt. The German theory that Baldr could only be killed by his own sword, which was therefore disguised
+by enchantment and used against him, and that the Icelandic writers misunderstood this to mean a mistletoe sprig, is far-fetched
+and romantic, and crumbles at a touch. For if, as it is claimed, the Icelanders had no mistletoe, why should they introduce
+it into a story to which it did not belong? <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e459"></a>Page 21</span>They might preserve it by tradition, but they would hardly invent it. Granting this, the mistletoe becomes the central point
+of the legend. The older mythologists, who only saw in it a sun-myth, overlooked the fact that since any weapon would have
+done to kill the God with, the mistletoe must have some special significance; and if it is a genuine part of the story, as
+we have no reason to doubt, it will be hard to overturn Dr. Frazer's theory that the Baldr-myth is a relic of tree-worship
+and the ritual sacrifice of the God, Baldr being a tree-spirit whose soul is contained in the mistletoe.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e461">The contradictions in the story, especially as told by Snorri (such as the confusion between the parts played by H&ouml;d and Loki,
+and the unsuspicious attitude of the Gods as Loki directs H&ouml;d's aim) are sometimes urged against its genuineness. They are
+rather proofs of antiquity. Apparent contradictions whose explanation is forgotten often survive in tradition; the inventor
+of a new story takes care to make it consistent. It is probable, however, that there were originally only two actors in the
+episode, the victim and the slayer, and that Loki's part is later than H&ouml;d's, for he really belongs to the Valhall and Ragnar&ouml;k
+myth, and was only introduced here as a link. The incident of the oath extracted from everything on earth to protect Baldr,
+which occurs in Snorri and in a paper MS. of <i>Baldr's Dreams</i>, was probably invented to <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e466"></a>Page 22</span>explain the choice of weapon, which would certainly need explanation to an Icelandic audience. If Dr. Frazer's theory be right,
+Vali, who slew the slayer, must also have been an original figure in the legend. His antiquity is supported by the fact that
+he plays the part of avenger in the poems; while in Snorri, where he is mentioned as a God, his absence from the account of
+Baldr's death is only a part of that literary development by which real responsibility for the murder was transferred from
+H&ouml;d to Loki.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e468">Snorri gives Baldr a son, Forseti (Judge), who is also named as a God in <i>Grimnismal</i>. He must have grown out of an epithet of Baldr's, of whom Snorri says that &#8220;no one can resist his sentence&#8221;; the sacred tree
+would naturally be the seat of judgment.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e473"><b>The Wanes.</b>&#8212;Three of the Norse divinities, Nj&ouml;rd and his son and daughter, are not Aesir by descent. The following account is given of
+their presence in Asgard:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e477">(1) In <i>Vafthrudnismal</i>, Odin asks:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e483">&#8220;Whence came Nj&ouml;rd among the sons of the Aesir? for he was not born of the Aesir.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e485"><span class="smallcaps">Vafthrudni</span>. &#8220;In Vanaheim wise powers ordained and gave him for a hostage to the Gods; at the doom of the world he shall come back, home
+to the wise Wanes.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e490"></a>Page 23</span></p>
+<p id="d0e491">(2) There is an allusion in <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> to the war which caused the giving of hostages:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e497">&#8220;Odin shot into the host: this was the first war in the world. Broken was the wall of the citadel of the Aesir, so that the
+Wanes could tread the fields of war.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e500">(3) Loki taunts Nj&ouml;rd with his position, in <i>Lokasenna</i>:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e506">&#8220;Thou wast sent from the east as a hostage to the Gods....&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e508"><span class="smallcaps">Nj&ouml;rd</span>. &#8220;This is my comfort, though I was sent from far as a hostage to the Gods, yet I have a son whom no one hates, and he is
+thought the best of the Aesir.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e512"><span class="smallcaps">Loki</span>. &#8220;Stay, Nj&ouml;rd, restrain thy pride; I will hide it no longer: thy son is thine own sister's son, and that is no worse than
+one would expect.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e516"><span class="smallcaps">Tyr</span>. &#8220;Frey is the best of all the bold riders of Asgard.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e521">There is little doubt that Nj&ouml;rd was once a God of higher importance than he is in the Edda, where he is overshadowed by his
+son. Grimm's suggestion that he and the goddess Nerthus, mentioned by Tacitus, were brother and sister, is supported by the
+line in <i>Lokasenna</i>; it is an isolated reference, and the Goddess has left no other traces in Scandinavian mythology. They were the deities,
+probably agricultural, of an earlier age, whose adoption by the later Northmen was explained by the story of the compact between
+Aesir and Vanir. Then <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e526"></a>Page 24</span>their places were usurped by Frey and Freyja, who were possibly created out of epithets originally applied to the older pair;
+Nj&ouml;rd was retained with lessened importance, Nerthus passed out altogether. The Edda gives Nj&ouml;rd a giant-bride, Skadi, who
+was admitted among the Gods in atonement for the slaying of her father Thiazi; she is little more than a name. Frey and Freyja
+have other marks of agricultural deities, besides their relationship. Nothing is said about Frey's changing shape, but Freyja
+possesses a hawk-dress which Loki borrows when he wishes to change his form; and, according to Snorri, Frey was sacrificed
+to for the crops. Nj&ouml;rd has an epithet, &#8220;the wealthy,&#8221; which may have survived from his earlier connexion with the soil. In
+that case, it would explain why, in Snorri and elsewhere, he is God of the sea and ships, once the province of the ocean-goddess
+Gefion; the transference is a natural one to an age whose wealth came from the sea.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e528">In spite of their origin, Frey and Freyja become to all intents and purposes Aesir. Frey is to be one of the chief combatants
+at Ragnar&ouml;k, with the fire-giant Surt for his antagonist, and a story is told to explain his defeat: he fell in love with
+Gerd, a giant-maid, and sacrificed his sword to get her; hence he is weaponless at the last fight. Loki alludes to this episode
+in <i>Lokasenna</i>: &#8220;With gold didst thou buy Gymi's daughter, and gavest <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e533"></a>Page 25</span>thy sword for her; but when Muspell's sons ride over Myrkwood, thou shalt not know with what to fight, unhappy one.&#8221; The story
+is told in full in <i>Skirnisf&ouml;r</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e538">Freyja is called by Snorri &#8220;the chief Goddess after Frigg,&#8221; and the two are sometimes confused. Like her father and brother,
+she comes into connexion with the giants; she is the beautiful Goddess, and coveted by them. <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> says that the Gods went into consultation to discuss &#8220;who had given the bride of Od (<i>i.e.</i>, Freyja) to the giant race&#8221;; <i>Thrymskvida</i> relates how the giant Thrym bargained for Freyja as the ransom for Thor's hammer, which he had hidden, and how Loki and Thor
+outwitted him; and Snorri says the giants bargained for her as the price for building Valhalla, but were outwitted. Sir G.W.
+Dasent notices in the folk-tales the eagerness of trolls and giants to learn the details of the agricultural processes, and
+this is probably the clue to the desire of the Frost-Giants in the Edda for the possession of Freyja. Idunn, the wife of Bragi,
+and a purely Norse creation, seems to be a double of Freyja; she, too, according to Snorri, is carried away by the giants
+and rescued by Loki. The golden apples which she is to keep till Ragnar&ouml;k remind us of those which Frey offered to Gerd; and
+the gift of eternal youth, of which they are the symbols, would be appropriate enough to Freyja as an agricultural deity.
+
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e549"></a>Page 26</span></p>
+<p id="d0e550">The great necklace Brising, stolen by Loki and won back in fight by Heimdal (according to the tenth-century Skalds Thjodulf
+and Ulf Uggason), is Freyja's property. On this ground, she has been identified with the heroine of <i>Svipdag and Menglad</i>, a poem undoubtedly old, though it has only come down in paper MSS. It is in two parts, the first telling how Svipdag aroused
+the Sibyl Groa, his mother, to give him spells to guard him on his journey; the second describing his crossing the wall of
+fire which surrounded his fated bride Menglad. If Menglad is really Freyja, the &#8220;Necklace-glad,&#8221; it is a curious coincidence
+that one poem connects the waverlowe, or ring of fire, with Frey also; for his bride Gerd is protected in the same way, though
+his servant Skirni goes through it in his place:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e556"><span class="smallcaps">Skirni</span>. &#8220;Give me the horse that will bear me through the dark magic waverlowe, and the sword that fights of itself against the giant-race.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e560"><span class="smallcaps">Frey</span>. &#8220;I give thee the horse that will bear thee through the dark magic waverlowe, and the sword that will fight of itself if
+he is bold who bears it.&#8221; (<i>Skirnisf&ouml;r</i>.)
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e568">The connexion of both with the Midsummer fires, originally part of an agricultural ritual, can hardly be doubted.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e570"><b>Loki</b>, or Lopt, is a strange figure. He is admitted among the Aesir, though not one of them <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e574"></a>Page 27</span>by birth, and his whole relation to them points to his being an older elemental God. He is in alliance with them against the
+giants; he and Odin have sworn blood-brothership, according to <i>Lokasenna</i>, and he helps Thor to recover his hammer that Asgard may be defended against the giants. On the other hand, while in present
+alliance with the Gods, he is chief agent in their future destruction, and this they know. In Snorri, he is a mischievous
+spirit of the fairy-tale kind, exercising his ingenuity alternately in getting the Gods into difficulties, and in getting
+them out again. So he betrays Idunn to the giants, and delivers her; he makes the bargain by which Freyja is promised to the
+giant-builders of Valhalla, and invents the trick by which they are cheated of their prize; by killing the otter he endangers
+his own head, Odin's and Hoeni's, and he obtains the gold which buys their atonement. Hence, in the systematising of the Viking
+religion, the responsibility for Baldr's death also was transferred to him. At the coming of the fire-giants at Ragnar&ouml;k,
+he is to steer the ship in which Muspell's sons sail (<i>V&ouml;luspa</i>), further evidence of his identity as a fire-spirit. Like his son the Wolf, he is chained by the Gods; the episode is related
+in a prose-piece affixed to <i>Lokasenna</i>:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e586">&#8220;After that Loki hid himself in Franangr's Foss in the form of a salmon. There the Aesir caught him. He was bound with the
+guts of his son Nari, but his <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e588"></a>Page 28</span>son Narfi was changed into a wolf. Skadi took a poisonous snake and fastened it up over Loki's face, and the poison dropped
+down. Sigyn, Loki's wife, sat there and held a cup under the poison. But when it was full she poured the poison away, and
+meanwhile poison dropped on Loki, and he struggled so hard that all the earth shook; those are called earthquakes now.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e591"><i>V&ouml;luspa</i> inserts lines corresponding to this passage after the Baldr episode, and Snorri makes it a consequence of Loki's share in
+that event.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e595">He is more especially agent of the doom through his children: at Ragnar&ouml;k, Fenri the Wolf, bound long before by Tyr's help,
+will be freed, and swallow the sun (<i>Vafthrudnismal</i>) and Odin (<i>Vafthrudnismal</i> and <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>); and J&ouml;rmungandr, the Giant-Snake, will rise from the sea where he lies curled round the world, to slay and be slain by
+Thor. The dragon's writhing in the waves is one of the tokens to herald Ragnar&ouml;k, and his battle with Thor is the fiercest
+combat of that day. Only <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> of our poems gives any account of it: &#8220;Then comes the glorious son of Hlodyn, Odin's son goes to meet the serpent; Midgard's
+guardian slays him in his rage, but scarcely can Earth's son reel back nine feet from the dragon.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e609">When Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymi, he terrifies his companion by dragging the snake's head out of the sea, but he
+does not slay it; it must wait there till Ragnar&ouml;k:
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e611"></a>Page 29</span>
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e614">&#8220;The protector of men, the only slayer of the Serpent, baited his hook with the ox's head. The God-hated one who girds all
+lands from below swallowed the bait. Doughtily pulled mighty Thor the poison-streaked serpent up to the side; he struck down
+with his hammer the hideous head of the wolf's companion. The monster roared, the wilderness resounded, the old earth shuddered
+all through. The fish sank back into the sea. Gloomy was the giant when they rowed back, so that he spoke not a word.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e617">There is nothing to suggest that J&ouml;rmungandr, to whom the word World-Snake (Midgardsorm) always refers in the Edda, is the
+same as Nidh&ouml;gg, the serpent that gnaws at Yggdrasil's roots; but both are relics of Snake-worship.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e619"><b>The World-Ash</b>, generally called Yggdrasil's Ash, is one of the most interesting survivals of tree-worship. It is described by the Sibyl
+in <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>: &#8220;I know an ash called Yggdrasil, a high tree sprinkled with white moisture (thence come the dews that fall in the dales):
+it stands ever-green by Urd's spring. Thence come three maids, all-knowing, from the hall that stands under the tree&#8221;; and
+as a sign of the approaching doom she says: &#8220;Yggdrasil's ash trembles as it stands; the old tree groans.&#8221; <i>Grimnismal</i> says that the Gods go every day to hold judgment by the ash, and describes it further:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e630">&#8220;Three roots lie three ways under Yggdrasil's ash: Hel dwells under one, the frost-giants under the second, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e632"></a>Page 30</span>mortal men under the third. The squirrel is called Ratatosk who shall run over Yggdrasil's ash; he shall carry down the eagle's
+words, and tell them to Nidh&ouml;gg below. There are four harts, with necks thrown back, who gnaw off the shoots.... More serpents
+lie under Yggdrasil's ash than any one knows. Ofni and Svafni I know will ever gnaw at the tree's twigs. Yggdrasil's ash suffers
+more hardships than men know: the hart bites above, the side decays, and Nidh&ouml;gg gnaws below.... Yggdrasil's ash is the best
+of trees.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e635">The snake and the tree are familiar in other mythologies, though in most other cases the snake is the protector, while here
+he is the destroyer. Both Nidh&ouml;gg and J&ouml;rmungandr are examples of the destroying dragon rather than the treasure-guardian.
+The Ash is the oracle: the judgment-place of the Gods, the dwelling of the Fates, the source of the spring of knowledge.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e637"><b>Ragnar&ouml;k</b>.&#8212;The Twilight of the Gods (or Doom of the Gods) is the central point of the Viking religion. The Regin (of which <i>Ragna</i> is genitive plural) are the ruling powers, often called Ginnregin (the great Gods), Uppregin (the high Gods), Thrymregin
+(the warrior Gods). The word is commonly used of the Aesir in <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>; in <i>Alvissmal</i> the Regin seem to be distinguished from both Aesir and Vanir. The whole story of the Aesir is overshadowed by knowledge of
+this coming doom, the time when they shall meet foes more terrible than the giants, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e650"></a>Page 31</span>and fall before them; their constant effort is to learn what will happen then, and to gather their forces together to meet
+it. The coming Ragnar&ouml;k is the reason for the existence of Valhalla with its hosts of slain warriors; and of all the Gods,
+Odin, Thor, Tyr and Loki are most closely connected with it. Two poems of the verse Edda describe it:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e653">(1) <i>Vafthrudnismal</i>:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e658">V. &#8220;What is the plain called where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e660">O. &#8220;Vigrid is the name of the place where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle. It is a hundred miles every way;
+it is their destined battle-field.&#8221;
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e662">O. &#8220;Whence shall the sun come on the smooth heaven when Fenri has destroyed this one?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e664">V. &#8220;Before Fenri destroy her, the elf-beam shall bear a daughter: that maid shall ride along her mother's paths, when the
+Gods perish.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e666">O. &#8220;Which of the Aesir shall rule over the realms of the Gods, when Surt's fire is quenched?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e668">V. &#8220;Vidar and Vali shall dwell in the sanctuary of the Gods when Surt's fire is quenched. Modi and Magni shall have Mj&ouml;llni
+at the end of Vingni's (<i>i.e.</i>, Thor's) combat.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e673">O. &#8220;What shall be Odin's end, when the Gods perish?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e675">V. &#8220;The Wolf will swallow the father of men; Vidar will avenge it. He will cleave the Wolf's cold jaws in the battle.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e677">(2) <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e682">&#8220;A hag sits eastward in Ironwood and rears Fenri's children; one of them all, in troll's shape, shall be the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e684"></a>Page 32</span>sun's destroyer. He shall feed on the lives of death-doomed men; with red blood he shall redden the seat of the Gods. The
+sunshine shall grow black, all winds will be unfriendly in the after-summers.... I see further in the future the great Ragnar&ouml;k
+of the Gods of Victory.... Heimdal blows loudly, the horn is on high; Yggdrasil's ash trembles as it stands, the old tree
+groans.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e687">The following lines tell of the fire-giants and the various combats, and the last section of the poem deals with a new world
+when Baldr, H&ouml;d and Hoeni are to come back to the dwelling-place of the Gods.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e689">The whole points to a belief in the early destruction of the world and the passing away of the old order of things. Whether
+the new world which <i>Vafthrudnismal</i> and <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> both prophesy belongs to the original idea or not is a disputed point. Probably it does not; at all events, none of the old
+Aesir, according to the poems, are to survive, for Modi and Magni are not really Gods at all, Baldr, H&ouml;d and Vali belong to
+another myth, Hoeni had passed out of the hierarchy by his exchange with Nj&ouml;rd, and Vidar's origin is obscure.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e697"><b>The Einherjar</b>, the great champions or chosen warriors, are intimately connected with Ragnar&ouml;k. All warriors who fall in battle are taken
+to Odin's hall of the slain, Valhalla. According to <i>Grimnismal</i>, he &#8220;chooses every day men dead by the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e704"></a>Page 33</span>sword&#8221;; his Valkyries ride to battle to give the victory and bring in the fallen. Hence Odin is the giver of victory. Loki
+in <i>Lokasenna</i> taunts him with giving victory to the wrong side: &#8220;Thou hast never known how to decide the battle among men. Thou hast often
+given victory to those to whom thou shouldst not give it, to the more cowardly&#8221;; this, no doubt, was in order to secure the
+best fighters for Valhalla. That the defeated side sometimes consoled themselves with this explanation of a notable warrior's
+fall is proved by the tenth-century dirge on Eirik Bloodaxe, where Sigmund the Volsung asks in Valhalla: &#8220;Why didst thou take
+the victory from him, if thou thoughtest him brave?&#8221; and Odin replies: &#8220;Because it is uncertain when the grey Wolf will come
+to the seat of the Gods.&#8221; There are similar lines in Eyvind's dirge on Hakon the Good. In this way a host was collected ready
+for Ragnar&ouml;k: for <i>Grimnismal</i>  says: &#8220;There are five hundred doors and eighty in Valhalla; eight hundred Einherjar will go out from each door, when they
+go to fight the wolf.&#8221; Meanwhile they fight and feast: &#8220;All the Einherjar in Odin's courts fight every day: they choose the
+slain and ride from the battle, and sit then in peace together&#8221; (<i>Vafthrudnismal</i>,) and the Valkyries bear ale to them <i>(Grimnismal</i>).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e718">It is often too hastily assumed that the Norse Ragnar&ouml;k with the dependant Valhalla system are <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e720"></a>Page 34</span>in great part the outcome of Christian influence: of an imitation of the Christian Judgment Day and the Christian heaven respectively.
+Owing to the lateness of our material, it is, of course, impossible to decide how old the beliefs may be, but it is likely
+that the Valhalla idea only took form at the systematising of the mythology in the Viking age. The belief in another world
+for the dead is, however, by no means exclusively Christian, and a reference in <i>Grimnismal</i> suggests the older system out of which, under the influence of the Ragnar&ouml;k idea, Valhalla was developed. The lines, &#8220;The
+ninth hall is Folkvang, where Freyja rules the ordering of seats in the hall; half the slain she chooses every day, Odin has
+the other half,&#8221; are an evident survival of a belief that all the dead went to live with the Gods, Odin having the men, and
+Freyja (or more probably Frigg) the women; the idea being here confused with the later system, under which only those who
+fell in battle were chosen by the Gods. Christian colouring appears in the last lines of <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> and in Snorri, where men are divided into the &#8220;good and moral,&#8221; who go after death to a hall of red gold, and the &#8220;perjurers
+and murderers,&#8221; who are sent to a hall of snakes.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e728">For Ragnar&ouml;k also a heathen origin is at least as probable as a Christian one. I would suggest as a possibility that the expectation
+of the Twilight of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e730"></a>Page 35</span>the Gods may have grown out of some ritual connected with the eclipse, such as is frequent among heathen races. Such ceremonies
+are a tacit acknowledgment of a doubt, and if they ever existed among the Scandinavians, the possibility, ever present to
+the savage mind, of a time when his efforts to help the light might be fruitless, and the darkness prove the stronger, would
+be the germ of his more civilised descendant's belief in Ragnar&ouml;k.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e732">By turning to the surviving poems of the Skalds, whose dates can be approximately reckoned from the sagas, we can fix an inferior
+limit for certain of the legends given above, placing them definitely in the heathen time. Reference has already been made
+to the corroboration of the Valhalla belief supplied by the elegies on Eirik Bloodaxe and Hakon the Good. In the former (which
+is anonymous, but must have been written soon after 950, since it was composed, on Eirik's death, by his wife's orders), Odin
+commands the Einherjar and Valkyries to prepare for the reception of the slain Eirik and his host, since no one knows how
+soon the Gods will need to gather their forces together for the great contest. Eyvind's dirge on Hakon (who fell in 970) is
+an imitation of this: Odin sends two Valkyries to choose a king to enter his service in Valhalla; they find Hakon on the battle-field,
+and he is slain with many of his followers. Great <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e734"></a>Page 36</span>preparation is made in Valhalla for his reception, and the poet ends by congratulating Hakon (who, though a Christian, having
+been educated in England, had not interfered with the heathen altars and sacrifices) on the toleration which has secured him
+such a welcome. A still earlier poet, Hornklofi, writing during the reign of Harald Fairhair (who died in 933), alludes to
+the slain as the property of &#8220;the one-eyed husband of Frigg.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e736">Several Skalds mention legends of Thor: his fishing for the World-Snake is told by Bragi (who from his place in genealogies
+must have written before 900), and by Ulf Uggason and Eystein Valdason, both in the second half of the tenth century; and
+Thjodulf and Eilif (the former about 960, the latter a little later) tell tales of his fights with the giants. Turning to
+the other Gods, Egil Skallagrimsson (about 970) names Frey and Nj&ouml;rd as the givers of wealth; Bragi tells the story of Gefion's
+dragging the island of Zealand out of Lake Wener into the sea; and Ulf Uggason speaks of Heimdal's wrestling with Loki.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e738">The legend of Idunn is told by Thjodulf much as Snorri tells it: Odin, Hoeni and Loki, while on a journey, kill and roast
+an ox. The giant Thiazi swoops down in eagle's shape and demands a share; Loki strikes the eagle, who flies off with him,
+releasing him only on condition that he will betray to the giants Idunn, &#8220;the care-healing maid who <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e740"></a>Page 37</span>understands the renewal of youth.&#8221; He does so, and the Gods, who grow old and withered for want of her apples, force him to
+go and bring her back to Asgard.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e742">The poet of <i>Eiriksmal</i>, quoted above, alludes to the Baldr myth: Bragi, hearing the approach of Eirik and his host, asks &#8220;What is that thundering
+and tramping, as if Baldr were coming back to Odin's hall?&#8221; The funeral pyre of Baldr is described by Ulf Uggason: he is burnt
+on his ship, which is launched by a giantess, in the presence of Frey, Heimdal, Odin and the Valkyries.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e747">Though heathen writers outside of Scandinavia are lacking, references to Germanic heathendom fortunately survive in several
+Continental Christian historians of earlier date than any of our Scandinavian sources. The evidence of these, though scanty,
+is corroborative, and the allusions are in striking agreement with the Edda stories in tone and character.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e749">Odin (Wodanus) is always identified by these writers with the Roman Mercurius (whom Tacitus named as the chief German God).
+This identification occurs in the eighth-century Paulus Diaconus, and in Jonas of Bobbio (first half of the seventh century),
+and probably rests on Odin's character as a wandering God (Mercury being <span class="Greek">&#948;&#953;&#8049;&#954;&#964;&#959;&#961;&#959;&#962;</span>), his disguises, and his patronage of poetry and eloquence (as Mercury is <span class="Greek">&#955;&#8057;&#947;&#953;&#959;&#962;</span>). Odin <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e757"></a>Page 38</span>is not himself in general the conductor of dead souls (<span class="Greek">&#968;&#965;&#967;&#959;&#960;&#959;&#956;&#960;&#8057;&#962;</span>), like the Roman God, his attendant Valkyries performing the office for him. The equation is only comprehensible on the presumption
+of the independence of Germanic mythology, and cannot be explained by transmission. For if Odin were in any degree an imitation
+of the Roman deity, other notable attributes of the latter would have been assigned to him: whereas in the Edda the thieving
+God (<span class="Greek">&#954;&#955;&#8051;&#960;&#964;&#951;&#962;</span>) is not Odin but Loki, and the founder of civilisation is Heimdal.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e765">The legend of the origin of the Lombards given by Paulus Diaconus illustrates the relations of Odin and Frigg. The Vandals
+asked Wodan (Odin) to grant them victory over the Vinili; the latter made a similar prayer to Frea (Frigg), the wife of Wodan.
+She advised them to make their wives tie their hair round their faces like beards, and go with them to meet Wodan in the morning.
+They did so, and Wodan exclaimed, &#8220;Who are these <i>Long-beards</i>?&#8221; Then Frea said that having given the Vinili a name, he must give them the victory (as Helgi in the Edda claims a gift from
+Svava when she names him). As in <i>Grimnismal</i>, Odin and Frigg are represented as supporting rival claims, and Frigg gains the day for her favourites by superior cunning.
+This legend also shows Odin as the giver of victory.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e773">Few heathen legends are told however by these <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e775"></a>Page 39</span>early Christian writers, and the Gods are seldom called by their German names. An exception is the Frisian Fosite mentioned
+by Alcuin (who died 804) and by later writers; he is to be identified with the Norse Forseti, the son of (probably at first
+an epithet of) Baldr, but no legend of him is told. It is disappointing that these writers should have said so little of any
+God except the chief one. A very characteristic touch survives in Gregory of Tours (died 594), when the Frank Chlodvig tells
+his Christian wife that the Christian God &#8220;cannot be proved to be of the race of the Gods,&#8221; an idea entirely in keeping with
+the Eddic hierarchy. Before leaving the Continental historians, reference may be made to the abundant evidence of Germanic
+tree-worship to be gathered from them. The holy oak mentioned by Wilibald (before 786), the sacred pear-tree of Constantius
+(473), with numerous others, supply parallels to the World-Ash which is so important a feature of Norse mythology.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e777">A study of this subject would be incomplete without some reference to the mythology of Saxo Grammaticus. His testimony on
+the old religion is unwilling, and his effort to discredit it very evident. The bitterness of his attack on Frigg especially
+suggests that she was, among the Northmen, a formidable rival to the Virgin. When he repeats a legend of the Gods, he transforms
+them into <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e779"></a>Page 40</span>mortal heroes, and when, as often happens, he refers to them accidentally as Gods, he invariably hastens to protest that he
+does so only because it had been the custom. He describes Thor and Odin as men versed in sorcery who claimed the rank of Gods;
+and in another passage he speaks of the latter as a king who had his seat at Upsala, and who was falsely credited with divinity
+throughout Europe. His description of Odin agrees with that in the Edda: an old man of great stature and mighty in battle,
+one-eyed, wearing a great cloak, and constantly wandering about in disguise. The story which Saxo tells of his driving into
+battle with Harald War-tooth, disguised as the latter's charioteer Brun, and turning the fight against him by revealing to
+his enemy Ring the order of battle which he had invented for Harald's advantage, is in thorough agreement with the traditional
+character of the God who betrayed Sigmund the Volsung and Helgi Hundingsbane. Saxo's version of the Baldr story has been mentioned
+already. Baldr's transformation into a hero (who could only be slain by a sword in the keeping of a wood-satyr) is almost
+complete. But Odin and Thor and all the Gods fight for him against his rival Hother, &#8220;so that it might be called a battle
+of Gods against men&#8221;; and Nanna's excuse to Baldr that &#8220;a God could not wed with a mortal,&#8221; preserves a trace of his origin.
+The chained Loki appears in Saxo as <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e781"></a>Page 41</span>Utgarda-Loki, lying bound in a cavern of snakes, and worshipped as a God by the Danish king Gorm Haraldsson. Dr. Eydberg sees
+the Freyja myth in Saxo's story of Syritha, who was carried away by the giants and delivered by her lover Othar (the Od of
+the Edda): an example, like <i>Svipdag and Menglad</i>, of the complete transformation of a divine into an heroic myth. In almost all cases Saxo vulgarises the stories in the telling,
+a common result when a mythical tale is retold by a Christian writer, though it is still more conspicuous in his versions
+of the heroic legends.
+
+</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e786"></a>Page 42</span><a id="d0e788"></a><h1>Appendix</h1>
+<p id="d0e791"><span class="smallcaps">Thrymskvida</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e795">1. Then Wing-Thor was angry when he awoke, and missed his hammer. He shook his beard, he tossed his hair, the son of Earth
+groped about for it.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e797">2. And first of all he spoke these words: &#8220;Hear now, Loki, what I tell thee, a thing that no one in earth or heaven above
+has heard: the Asa has been robbed of his hammer!&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e799">3. They went to the dwelling of fair Freyja, and these words he spoke first of all: &#8220;Wilt thou lend me, Freyja, thy feather
+dress, to see if I can find my hammer?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e801">4. <span class="smallcaps">Freyja</span>. &#8220;I would give it thee, though it were of gold; I would grant it, though it were of silver.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e806">5. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of Asgard and into J&ouml;tunheim.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e808">6. Thrym, lord of the Giants, sat on a howe; he twisted golden bands for his greyhounds and trimmed his horses' manes.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e810">7. <span class="smallcaps">Thrym</span>. &#8220;How is it with the Aesir? How is it with the Elves? Why art thou come alone into J&ouml;tunheim?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e815"><span class="smallcaps">Loki</span>. &#8220;It is ill with the Aesir, it is ill with the Elves; hast thou hidden the Thunderer's hammer?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e819">8. <span class="smallcaps">Thrym</span>. &#8220;I have hidden the Thunderer's hammer eight miles below the earth. No man shall bring it back, unless he bring me Freyja
+to wife.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e824">9. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of J&ouml;tunheim and into Asgard. Thor met <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e826"></a>Page 43</span>him in the middle of the court, and these words he spoke first:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e828">10. &#8220;Hast thou news in proportion to thy toil? Tell me from on high thy distant tidings, for a sitting man often breaks down
+in his story, and he who lies down falls into falsehood.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e830">11. <span class="smallcaps">Loki</span>. &#8220;I bring news for my toil: Thrym, lord of the Giants, has thy hammer; no man shall bring it back, unless he take him Freyja
+as a bride.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e835">12. They went to see fair Freyja, spoke to her first of all these words: &#8220;Bind on the bridal veil, Freyja, we two must drive
+to J&ouml;tunheim.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e837">13. Angry then was Freyja; she panted, so that all the hall of the Aesir trembled, and the great Brising necklace fell: &#8220;Eager
+indeed for marriage wouldst thou think me, if I should drive with thee to J&ouml;tunheim.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e839">14. Then all the Aesir went into council, and all the Asynjor to consultation, and the mighty Gods discussed how they should
+recover the Thunderer's hammer.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e841">15. Then spoke Heimdal, whitest of the Aesir; he could see into the future like the Vanir: &#8220;Let us bind on Thor the bridal
+veil; let him have the great necklace Brising.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e843">16. &#8220;Let the keys jingle, and let women's weeds fall about his knees; let us put broad stones on his breast, and a hood dexterously
+on his head.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e845">17. Then spoke Thor, the mighty Asa: &#8220;Vile would the Aesir call me, if I let the bridal veil be bound on me.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e847">18. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: &#8220;Speak not such words, Thor! soon will the Giants dwell in Asgard, unless thou bring home
+thy hammer.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e849">19. Then they bound on Thor the bridal veil, and the great necklace Brising; they let the keys jingle and women's weeds fall
+about his knees, and they put broad <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e851"></a>Page 44</span>stones on his breast, and the hood dexterously on his head.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e853">20. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: &#8220;I also will go with thee as thy maiden; we two will drive together to J&ouml;tunheim.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e855">21. Then the goats were driven out, urged forward in their harness; well must they run. Rocks were riven, the earth burned
+in name: Odin's son was driving into J&ouml;tunheim.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e857">22. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: &#8220;Stand up, giants, and strew the benches! They are bringing me now Freyja my bride,
+Nj&ouml;rd's daughter from Noatun.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e859">23. &#8220;Gold-horned kine run in the court, oxen all-black, the giant's delight. I have many treasures, I have many jewels, Freyja
+only is lacking.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e861">24. The guests assembled early in the evening, and ale was carried to the Giants. One ox did Sif's husband eat, and eight
+salmon, and all the dishes prepared for the women; three casks of mead he drank.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e863">25. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: &#8220;Who ever saw a bride eat so eagerly? I never saw a bride make such a hearty meal,
+nor a maid drink so deep of mead.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e865">26. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's words: &#8220;Eight nights has Freyja eaten nothing, so eager
+was she to be in J&ouml;tunheim.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e867">27. He looked under the veil, he longed to kiss the bride, but he started back the length of the hall: &#8220;Why are Freyja's eyes
+so terrible? Fire seems to burn from her eyes.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e869">28. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's speech: &#8220;Eight nights has Freyja had no sleep, so eager
+was she to be in J&ouml;tunheim.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e871">29. In came the Giants' wretched sister, she dared to ask for a bridal gift: &#8220;Take from thine arms the red rings, if thou
+wouldst gain my love, my love and all my favour.&#8221;
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e873"></a>Page 45</span></p>
+<p id="d0e874">30. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: &#8220;Bring the hammer to hallow the bride. Lay Mj&ouml;llni on the maiden's knee, hallow
+us two in wedlock.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e876">31. The Thunderer's heart laughed in his breast, when the bold of soul felt the hammer. Thrym killed he first, the lord of
+the Giants, and all the race of the Giants he struck.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e878">32. He slew the Giants' aged sister, who had asked him for a bridal gift. She got a blow instead of shillings, and a stroke
+of the hammer for abundance of rings. So Odin's son got back his hammer.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e880"></a>Page 46</span></p><a id="d0e881"></a><h1>Bibliography</h1><a id="d0e884"></a><h2>I. Study in the Original.</h2>
+<p id="d0e887">(1) <i>Poetic Edda</i>.&#8212;The classic edition, and on the whole the best, is Professor Bugge's (Christiania, 1867); the smaller editions of Hildebrand
+(<i>Die Lieder der Aelteren Edda</i>, Paderborn, 1876), and Finnur J&oacute;nsson (<i>Eddalieder</i>, Halle, 1888&#8211;90) are also good; the latter is in two parts, <i>G&ouml;ttersage</i> and <i>Heldensage</i>. The poems may also be found in the first volume of Vigfusson and Powell's <i>Corpus Poeticum Boreale</i> (Oxford, 1883), accompanied by translations;  but in many cases they are cut up and rearranged, and they suffer metrically
+from the system adopted of printing two short lines as one long one, with no dividing point. There is an excellent palaeographic
+edition of the <i>Codex Regius of the Elder Edda</i>, by Wimmer and Finnur J&oacute;nsson (Copenhagen, 1891), with photographic reproductions interleaved with a literal transcription.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e910">(2) <i>Snorra Edda</i>.&#8212;The most recent edition of the whole is Dr. Finnur J&oacute;nsson's (Copenhagen, 1875). There is a useful edition of the mythological
+portions <i>(i.e., Gylfaginning, Bragaraedur</i>, and the narrative parts of <i>Skaldskaparmal</i>) by Ernst Wilken (<i>Die Pros&auml;ische Edda</i>, Paderborn, 1878).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e924">(3) <i>Dictionaries and Grammars</i>.&#8212;For the study of the Poetic Edda, Gering's <i>Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda</i> (Paderborn, 1896) will be found most useful; it is complete <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e932"></a>Page 47</span>and trustworthy, and in small compass. A similar service has been performed for <i>Snorra Edda</i> in Wilken's <i>Glossar</i> (Paderborn, 1883), which forms a second volume to his edition, mentioned above. Both are, of course, in German. The only
+English dictionary is the lexicon of Cleasby and Vigfusson (Oxford).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e940">Of Grammars, the best are German; those of Noreen (<i>Altnordische Grammatik</i>, Halle, 1892), of which there is an abbreviated edition, and Kahle (<i>Altisl&auml;ndisches Elementarbuch</i>, Heidelberg, 1896) being better suited for advanced students; the English grammars included in Vigfusson and Powell's <i>Icelandic Reader</i> (Oxford) and Sweet's <i>Icelandic Primer</i> (Oxford) are more elementary, and therefore hardly adequate for the study of the verse literature.
+
+</p><a id="d0e954"></a><h2>II. Translations.</h2>
+<p id="d0e957">There are English translations of the Elder Edda by Anderson (Chicago, 1879) and Thorpe (1866), as well as the translations
+in the <i>Corpus Poeticum</i>, which are, of course, liable to the same objection as the text. The most accurate German translation is Gering's (Leipzig,
+1893); in Simrock's (<i>Aeltere und J&uuml;ngere Edda</i>, Stuttgart, 1882), the translations of the verse Edda are based on an uncritical text. Snorra Edda was translated into English
+by Dasent (Stockholm, 1842); also by Anderson (Chicago, 1880).
+
+</p><a id="d0e965"></a><h2>III. Modern Authorities.</h2>
+<p id="d0e968">To the works on Northern mythology mentioned below in the note on the Baldr theories, must be added Dr. Rydberg's <i>Teutonic Mythology</i> (English version by R.B. Anderson, London, 1889), which devotes special attention to Saxo.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e973"></a>Page 48</span></p><a id="d0e974"></a><h1>Notes</h1>
+<p id="d0e977"><span class="smallcaps">Home of the Edda</span>. (Page <a id="d0e981" href="#d0e126">2</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e984">The chief apologists for the British theory are Professor Bugge (<i>Studien &uuml;ber die Entstehung der nordischen G&ouml;tter- und Heldensagen</i>, M&uuml;nchen, 1889), and the editors of the <i>Corpus Poeticum Boreale</i> (see the Introduction to that  work, and also the Prolegomena prefixed to their edition of the <i>Sturlunga Saga</i>, Oxford). The case for Norway and Greenland is argued by Dr. Finnur J&oacute;nsson (<i>Den oldnorsk og oldislandske Literaturs-Historie,</i> Copenhagen). The cases for both British and Norwegian origin are based chiefly on rather fanciful arguments from supposed
+local colour. The theory of the <i>Corpus Poeticum</i> editors that many of the poems were composed in the Scottish isles is discredited by the absence of Gaelic words or traces
+of Gaelic legend. Professor Bugge's North of England theory is slightly stronger, being supported by several Old English expressions
+in the poems, but these are not enough to prove that they were composed in England, since most Icelanders travelled east at
+some time of their lives.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1001">(Page <a id="d0e1003" href="#d0e130">3</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1006">A later study will deal with the Heroic legends. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1008"></a>Page 49</span>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1010"><span class="smallcaps">Ynglinga Saga</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1014" href="#d0e130">3</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1017"><i>Ynglinga Saga</i> is prefixed to the Lives of the Kings in the collection known as <i>Heimskringla</i> (edited by Unger, Christiania, 1868, and by Finnur J&oacute;nsson, Christiania, 1893); there is an English translation in Laing's
+<i>Lives of the Kings of Norway</i> (London, 1889).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1027"><span class="smallcaps">V&ouml;luspa</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1031" href="#d0e136">4</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1034">A poem of similar form occurs among the heroic poems. <i>Gripisspa</i>, a prophetic outline of Sigurd's life, introduces the Volsung poems, as <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> does the Asgard cycle.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1042"><span class="smallcaps">Riddle-poems</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1046" href="#d0e179">6</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1049">So many of the mythological poems are in this form that they suggest the question, did the asking of riddles form any part
+of Scandinavian ritual?
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1051"><span class="smallcaps">The Aesir</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1055" href="#d0e285">11</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1058"><i>Ynglinga Saga</i> says that Odin and the Aesir came to Norway from Asia; a statement due, of course, to a false etymology, though theories
+as to the origin of Norse mythology have been based on it.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1062"><span class="smallcaps">Tyr</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1066" href="#d0e294">12</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1069">Tyr is etymologically identical with Zeus, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus (Sky-God).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1071"><span class="smallcaps">Baldr</span>. (Pages <a id="d0e1075" href="#d0e373">16</a> to <a id="d0e1078" href="#d0e466">22</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1081">The Baldr theories are stated in the following authorities:
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1083"></a>Page 50</span></p>
+<p id="d0e1084">(1) Ritual origin: Frazer, <i>The Golden Bough</i>, vol. 3.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1089">(2) Heroic origin: Golther, <i>Handbuch der Germanischen Mythologie</i> (Leipzig, 1895); Niedner, <i>Eddische Fragen</i> (<i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r deutsches Altertum</i>, new series, 29), <i>Zur Lieder-Edda</i> (<i>Zeitschr. f. d. Alt</i>. vol. 36).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1106">(3) Solar myth: Sir G.W. Cox, <i>Mythology of the Aryan Nations</i> (London, 1870); Max M&uuml;ller, <i>Chips from a German Workshop</i>, vol. 4.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1114">(4) Borrowed: Bugge, <i>Studien &uuml;ber die Entstchung der nordischen G&ouml;tter- und Heldensagen</i> (transl. Brenner, M&uuml;nchen, 1889).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1119"><span class="smallcaps">Vegtamskvida</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1123" href="#d0e381">17</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1126">The word <i>hro&eth;rba&eth;m</i> (which I have given as &#8220;branch of fame&#8221;) would perhaps be more accurately translated &#8220;tree of fame,&#8221; which Gering explains
+as a kenning for Baldr. But there are no kennings of the same sort in the poem, and the line would have no meaning. If it
+refers to the mistletoe, as most commentators agree, it merely shows that the poet was ignorant of the nature of the plant,
+which would be in favour of its antiquity, rather than the reverse.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1131"><span class="smallcaps">Saxo Grammaticus</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1135" href="#d0e419">18</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1138">English translation by Professor Elton (London, D. Nutt, 1894). As Saxo's references to the old Gods are made in much the
+same sympathetic tone as that adopted by Old Testament writers towards heathen deities, his testimony on mythological questions
+is of the less value.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1140"><span class="smallcaps">The Mistletoe</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1144" href="#d0e447">20</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1147">It seems incredible that any writers should turn to the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1149"></a>Page 51</span>travesty of the Baldr story given in the almost worthless saga of Hromund Gripsson in support of a theory. In it &#8220;Bildr&#8221; is
+killed by Hromund, who has the sword Mistilteinn. It must be patent to any one that this is a perverted version of a story
+which the narrator no longer understood.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1151"><span class="smallcaps">Loki</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1155" href="#d0e549">26</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1158">It is hardly necessary to point out the parallel between Loki and Prometheus, also both helper and enemy of the Gods, and
+agent in their threatened fall, though in the meantime a prisoner. In character Loki has more in common with the mischievous
+spirit described by Hesiod, than with the heroic figure of Aeschylus. The struggles of Loki (p. 28) find a parallel in those
+of the fire-serpent Typhon, to which the Greeks attributed earthquakes.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1160"><span class="smallcaps">Eclipse Ritual</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1164" href="#d0e730">35</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1167">Mr. Lang, in <i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i>, (London, 1887)  gives examples of eclipse ritual. Grimm, in the <i>Teutonic Mythology</i>, vol. 2, quotes Finnish and Lithuanian myths about sun-devouring beasts, very similar to the Fenri myth.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1175"><span class="smallcaps">The Skalds</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1179" href="#d0e730">35</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1182">All the Skaldic verses will be found, with translations, in the <i>Corpus Poeticum</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1187">Printed by <span class="smallcaps">Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co</span>. <br id="d0e1192">
+London &amp; Edinburgh
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 1, by Winifred Faraday
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/13007.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 1, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 1
+       The Divine Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+       Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13007]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 1 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+
+
+
+The Edda
+
+I
+
+The Divine Mythology of the North
+
+
+By
+
+Winifred Faraday, M.A.
+
+
+
+Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
+1902
+
+
+
+
+Author's Note
+
+Some explanation is needed of the form of spelling I have adopted
+in transcribing Norse proper names. The spirants thorn and eth
+are represented by _th_ and _d_, as being more familiar to readers
+unacquainted with the  original. Marks of vowel-length are in all cases
+omitted. The inflexional _-r_ of the nominative singular masculine
+is also omitted, whether it appears as _-r_ or is assimilated to a
+preceding consonant (as in Odinn, Eysteinn, Heindall, Egill) in the
+Norse form, with the single exception of the name Tyr, where I use
+the form which has become conventional in English.
+
+Manchester,
+December 1901.
+
+
+
+
+The Edda: I. The Divine Mythology of the North
+
+
+The Icelandic Eddas are the only vernacular record of Germanic
+heathendom as it developed during the four centuries which in England
+saw the destruction of nearly all traces of the heathen system. The
+so-called Elder Edda is a collection of some thirty poems, mythic and
+heroic in substance, interspersed with short pieces of prose, which
+survives in a thirteenth-century MS., known as the Codex Regius,
+discovered in Iceland in 1642; to these are added other poems of
+similar character from other sources. The Younger Edda is a prose
+paraphrase of, and commentary on, these poems and others which are
+lost, together with a treatise on metre, written by the historian
+Snorri Sturluson about 1220.
+
+This use of the word Edda is incorrect and unhistorical, though
+convenient and sanctioned by the use of several centuries. It was early
+used as a general term for the rules and materials for versemaking,
+and applied in this sense to Snorri's work. When the poems on which
+his paraphrase is founded were discovered, Icelandic scholars by a
+misunderstanding applied the name to them also; and as they attributed
+the collection quite arbitrarily to the historian Saemund (1056-1133),
+it was long known as Saemundar Edda, a name now generally discarded in
+favour of the less misleading titles of Elder or Poetic Edda. From its
+application to this collection, the word derives a more extended use,
+(1) as a general term for Norse mythology; (2) as a convenient name
+to distinguish the simpler style of these anonymous narrative poems
+from the elaborate formality of the Skalds.
+
+The poems of the Edda are certainly older than the MS., although
+the old opinion as to their high antiquity is untenable. The majority
+probably date from the tenth century in their present form; this dating
+does not necessitate the ascription of the shape in which the legends
+are presented, still less of their substance, to that period. With
+regard to the place of their composition opinions vary widely,
+Norway, the British Isles and Greenland having all found champions;
+but the evidence is rather questionable, and I incline to leave
+them to the country which has preserved them. They are possibly of
+popular origin; this, together with their epic or narrative character,
+would account for the striking absence from them of some of the chief
+characteristics of Skaldic poetry: the obscuring of the sense by the
+elaborate interlacing of sentences and the extensive use of kennings
+or mythological synonyms, and the complication of the metre by such
+expedients as the conjunction of end-rhyme with alliteration. Eddie
+verse is governed solely by the latter, and the strophic arrangement
+is simple, only two forms occurring: (1) couplets of alliterative
+short lines; (2) six-line strophes, consisting of a couplet followed
+by a single short line, the whole repeated.
+
+Roughly speaking, the first two-fifths of the MS. is mythological,
+the rest heroic. I propose to observe this distinction, and to
+deal in this study with the stories of the Gods. In this connexion,
+Snorri's Edda and the mythical Ynglinga Saga may also be considered,
+but as both were compiled a couple of centuries or more after the
+introduction of Christianity into Iceland, it is uncertain how much in
+them is literary explanation of tradition whose meaning was forgotten;
+some also, especially in Snorri, is probably pure invention, fairy
+tale rather than myth.
+
+Many attempts have been made to prove that the material of the Edda
+is largely borrowed. The strength and distinction of Icelandic poetry
+rest rather on the fact that it is original and national and, like
+that of Greece, owes little to foreign sources; and that it began in
+the heathen age, before Christian or Romantic influences had touched
+Iceland. Valuable as the early Christian poetry of England is, we look
+in vain there for the humour, the large-minded simplicity of motive,
+the suggestive character-drawing, the swift dramatic action, which
+are as conspicuous in many poems in the Edda as in many of the Sagas.
+
+Omitting the heroic poems, there are in Codex Regius the following: (1)
+Of a more or less comprehensive character, _Voeluspa, Vafthrudnismal,
+Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Harbardsljod_; (2) dealing with episodes,
+_Hymiskvida, Thrymskvida, Skirnisfoer. Havamal_ is a collection
+of proverbs, but contains two interpolations from mythical
+poems; _Alvissmal_, which, in the form of a dialogue between
+Thor and a dwarf Alviss, gives a list of synonyms, is a kind of
+mythologico-poetical glossary. Several of these poems are found
+in another thirteenth-century vellum fragment, with an additional
+one, variously styled _Vegtamskvida_ or _Baldr's Dreams_; the great
+fourteenth-century codex Flateybook contains _Hyndluljod_, partly
+genealogical, partly an imitation of _Voeluspa_; and one of the MSS. of
+Snorri's Edda gives us _Rigsthula_.
+
+_Voeluspa_, though not one of the earliest poems, forms an appropriate
+opening. Metrical considerations forbid an earlier date than the
+first quarter of the eleventh century, and the last few lines are
+still later. The material is, however, older: the poem is an outline,
+in allusions often obscure to us, of traditions and beliefs familiar to
+its first hearers. The very bareness of the outline is sufficient proof
+that the material is not new. The framework is apparently imitated from
+that of the poem known as _Baldr's Dreams_, some lines from which are
+inserted in _Voeluspa_. This older poem describes Odin's visit to the
+Sibyl in hell-gates to inquire into the future. He rides down to her
+tomb at the eastern door of Nifl-hell and chants spells, until she
+awakes and asks: "What man unknown to me is that, who has troubled me
+with this weary journey? Snow has snowed on me, rain has beaten me,
+dew has drenched me, I have long been dead." He gives the name Wegtam,
+or Way-wise, and then follow question and answer until she discovers
+his identity and will say no more. In _Voeluspa_ there is no descriptive
+introduction, and no dialogue; the whole is spoken by the Sibyl,
+who plunges at once into her story, with only the explanatory words:
+"Thou, Valfather, wouldst have me tell the ancient histories of men as
+far as I remember." She describes the creation of the world and sky
+by Bor's sons; the building by the Gods of a citadel in Ida-plain,
+and their age of innocence till three giant-maids brought greed of
+gold; the creation of the dwarfs; the creation of the first man and
+woman out of two trees by Odin, Hoeni and Lodur; the world-ash and
+the spring beside it where dwell the three Norns who order the fates
+of men. Then follows an allusion to the war between the Aesir and the
+Vanir, the battle with the giants who had got possession of the goddess
+Freyja, and the breaking of bargains; an obscure reference to Mimi's
+spring where Odin left his eye as a pledge; and an enumeration of his
+war-maids or Valkyries. Turning to the future, the Sibyl prophesies
+the death of Baldr, the vengeance on his slayer, and the chaining of
+Loki, the doom of the Gods and the destruction of the world at the
+coming of the fire-giants and the release of Loki's children from
+captivity. The rest of the poem seems to be later; it tells how the
+earth shall rise again from the deep, and the Aesir dwell once more
+in Odin's halls, and there is a suggestion of Christian influence in
+it which is absent from the earlier part.
+
+Of the other general poems, the next four were probably composed before
+950; in each the setting is different. _Vafthrudnismal_, a riddle-poem,
+shows Odin in a favourite position, seeking in disguise for knowledge
+of the future. Under the name of Gangrad (Wanderer), he visits the
+wise giant Vafthrudni, and the two agree to test their wisdom: the one
+who fails to answer a question is to forfeit his head. In each case
+the questions deal first with the past. Vafthrudni asks about Day and
+Night, and the river which divides the Giants from the Gods, matters of
+common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future: "What is
+the plain where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?" Odin
+replies, and proceeds to question in his turn; first about the creation
+of Earth and Sky, the origin of Sun and Moon, Winter and Summer, the
+Giants and the Winds; the coming of Njoerd the Wane to the Aesir as
+a hostage; the Einherjar, or chosen warriors of Valhalla. Then come
+prophetic questions on the destruction of the Sun by the wolf Fenri,
+the Gods who shall rule in the new world after Ragnaroek, the end of
+Odin. The poem is brought to a close by Odin's putting the question
+which only himself can answer: "What did Odin say in his son's ear
+before he mounted the pyre?" and the giant's head is forfeit.
+
+In the third poem of this class, _Grimnismal_, a prose introduction
+relates that Odin and Frigg quarrelled over the merits of their
+respective foster-children. To settle the question, Odin goes
+disguised as Grimni, "the Hooded One," to visit his foster-son Geirroed;
+but Frigg, to justify her charge of inhospitality against Geirroed,
+sends her maiden Fulla to warn him against the coming stranger. Odin
+therefore meets with a harsh reception, and is bound between two fires
+in the hall. Geirroed's young son, Agnar, protests against this rude
+treatment, and gives wine to the guest, who then begins to instruct
+him in matters concerning the Gods. He names the halls of the Aesir,
+describes Valhalla and the ash Yggdrasil, the Valkyries, the creation
+of the world (two stanzas in common with _Vafthrudnismal_), and
+enumerates his own names. The poem ends with impressive abruptness
+by his turning to Geirroed:
+
+"Thou art drunk, Geirroed, thou hast drunk too deep; thou art bereft
+of much since thou hast lost my favour, the favour of Odin and all
+the Einherjar. I have told thee much, but thou hast minded little. Thy
+friends betray thee: I see my friend's sword lie drenched in blood. Now
+shall Odin have the sword-weary slain; I know thy life is ended,
+the Fates are ungracious. Now thou canst see Odin: come near me,
+if thou canst."
+
+[Prose.] "King Geirroed sat with his sword on his knee, half drawn. When
+he heard that Odin was there, he stood up and would have led Odin
+from the fires. The sword slipt from his hand; the hilt turned
+downwards. The king caught his foot and fell forwards, the sword
+standing towards him, and so he met his death. Then Odin went away,
+and Agnar was king there long afterwards."
+
+_Harbardsljod_ is a dialogue, and humorous. Thor on his return from
+the east comes to a channel, at the farther side of which stands Odin,
+disguised as a ferryman, Greybeard. He refuses to ferry Thor across,
+and they question each other as to their past feats, with occasional
+threats from Thor and taunts from Odin, until the former goes off
+vowing vengeance on the ferryman:
+
+_Thor_. "Thy skill in words would serve thee ill if I waded across
+the water; I think thou wouldst cry louder than the wolf, if thou
+shouldst get a blow from the hammer."
+
+_Odin_. "Sif has a lover at home, thou shouldst seek him. That is a
+task for thee to try, it is more proper for thee."
+
+_Thor_. "Thou speakest what thou knowest most displeasing to me;
+thou cowardly fellow, I think that thou liest."
+
+_Odin_. "I think I speak true; thou art slow on the road. Thou wouldst
+have got far, if thou hadst started at dawn."
+
+_Thor_. "Harbard, scoundrel, it is rather thou who hast delayed me."
+
+_Odin_. "I never thought a shepherd could so delay Asa-Thor's journey."
+
+_Thor_. "I will counsel thee: row thy boat hither. Let us cease
+quarrelling; come and meet Magni's father."
+
+_Odin_. "Leave thou the river; crossing shall be refused thee."
+
+_Thor_. "Show me the way, since thou wilt not ferry me."
+
+_Odin_. "That is a small thing to refuse. It is a long way to go: a
+while to the stock, and another to the stone, then keep to the left
+hand till thou reach Verland. There will Fjoergyn meet her son Thor,
+and she will tell him the highway to Odin's land."
+
+_Thor_. "Shall I get there to-day?"
+
+_Odin_. "With toil and trouble thou wilt get there about sunrise,
+as I think."
+
+_Thor_. "Our talk shall be short, since thou answerest with mockery. I
+will reward thee for refusing passage, if we two meet again."
+
+_Odin_. "Go thy way, where all the fiends may take thee."
+
+_Lokasenna_ also is in dialogue form. A prose introduction tells
+how the giant Oegi, or Gymi, gave a feast to the Aesir. Loki was
+turned out for killing a servant, but presently returned and began to
+revile the Gods and Goddesses, each one in turn trying to interfere,
+only to provoke a taunt from Loki. At last Thor, who had been absent
+on a journey, came in and threatened the slanderer with his hammer,
+whereupon Loki said, "I spoke to the Aesir and the sons of the Aesir
+what my mind told me; but for thee alone I will go away, for I know
+thou wilt strike." Some of the poem is rather pointless abuse, but
+much touches points already suggested in the other poems.
+
+_Hyndluljod_ is much later than the others, probably  not before
+1200. The style is late, and the form imitated from _Voeluspa_. It
+describes a visit paid by Freyja to the Sibyl to learn the genealogy of
+her favourite Ottar. The larger part deals with heroic genealogies, but
+there are scanty allusions to Baldr, Frey, Heimdal, Loki's children,
+and Thor, and a Christian reference to a God who shall come after
+Ragnaroek "when Odin shall meet the wolf." It tells nothing new.
+
+We have here then, omitting _Hyndluljod_, five poems (four of them
+belonging to the first half of the tenth century) which suggest a
+general outline of Norse mythology: there is a hierarchy of Gods, the
+Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin being the chief. Among
+them are several who are not Aesir by origin: Njoerd and his son and
+daughter, Frey and Freyja, are Vanir; Loki is really an enemy and
+an agent in their fall; and there are one or two Goddesses of giant
+race. The giants are rivals and enemies to the Gods; the dwarfs are
+also antagonistic, but in bondage. The meeting-place of the Gods is
+by the World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of Gods
+and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake. The Gods have
+foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnaroek, the great fight when they
+shall meet Loki's children, the Wolf and the Snake; both sides will
+fall and the world be destroyed. An episode in the story is the death
+of Baldr. This we may assume to be the religion of the Viking age
+(800-1000 A.D.), a compound of the beliefs of various ages and tribes.
+
+_The Aesir._--The number of the Aesir is not fixed. _Hyndluljod_
+says there were twelve ("there were eleven Aesir when Baldr went
+down into the howe"). Snorri gives a list of fourteen Aesir or Gods
+(Odin, Thor, Baldr, Njoerd, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdal, Hoed, Vidar, Vali,
+Ullr, Forseti, Loki), and adds Hoeni in another list, all the fifteen
+occurring in the poems; and sixteen Goddesses (Asynjor), the majority
+of whom are merely personified epithets, occurring nowhere else. Of
+the sixteen, Frigg, Gefion, Freyja and Saga (really an epithet only)
+are Goddesses in the poems, and Fulla is Frigg's handmaid. In another
+chapter, Snorri adds Idunn, Gerd, Sigyn and Nanna, of whom the latter
+does not appear in the Elder Edda, where Idunn, Gerd (a giantess)
+and Sigyn are the wives of Bragi, Frey and Loki; and two others,
+the giantess Skadi and Sif, are the wives of Njoerd and Thor.
+
+A striking difference from classical mythology is that neither Tyr
+(who should etymologically be the Sky-god), nor Thor (the Thunder-god),
+takes the highest place. Tyr is the hero of one important episode,
+the chaining of the Wolf, through which he loses his right hand. This
+is told in full by Snorri and alluded to in _Lokasenna_, both in the
+prose preface ("Tyr also was there, with only one hand; the Fenris-wolf
+had bitten off the other, when he was bound") and in the poem itself:
+
+_Loki_. "I must remember that right hand which Fenri bit off thee."
+
+_Tyr_. "I am short of a hand, but thou of the famous wolf; to each
+the loss is ill-luck. Nor is the wolf in better plight, for he must
+wait in bonds till Ragnaroek."
+
+Otherwise, he only appears in connexion with two more popular Gods:
+he speaks in Frey's defence in _Lokasenna_, and in _Hymiskvida_ he
+is Thor's companion in the search for a cauldron; the latter poem
+represents him as a giant's son.
+
+Thor, on the other hand, is second only to his father Odin; he is
+the strongest of the Gods and their champion against the giants,
+and his antagonist at Ragnaroek is to be the World-Snake. Like Odin,
+he travels much, but while the chief God generally goes craftily and
+in disguise, to gain knowledge or test his wisdom, Thor's errands are
+warlike; in _Lokasenna_ he is absent on a journey, in _Harbardsljod_
+and _Alvissmal_ he is returning from one. His journeys are always
+to the east; so in _Harbardsljod_: "I was in the east, fighting
+the malevolent giant-brides.... I was in the east and guarding the
+river, when Svarang's sons attacked me." The Giants live in the
+east (_Hymiskvida_ 5); Thor threatened Loki: "I will fling thee up
+into the east, and no one shall see thee more" (_Lokasenna_ 59);
+the fire-giants at Ragnaroek are to come from the east: "Hrym comes
+driving from the east, he lifts his shield before him.... A ship
+comes from the east, Muspell's sons will come sailing over the
+sea, and Loki steers" (_Voeluspa_ 50, 51). It would not, perhaps,
+be overstraining the point to suggest that this is a reminiscence of
+early warfare between the Scandinavians and eastern nations, either
+Lapps and Finns or Slavonic tribes.
+
+Thor is the God of natural force, the son of Earth. Two of the
+episodical poems deal with his contests with the giants. _Thrymskvida_,
+the story of how Thor won back his hammer, Mjoellni, from the giant
+Thrym, is the finest and one of the oldest of the mythological poems;
+a translation is given in the appendix, as an example of Eddic poetry
+at its best. Loki appears as the willing helper of the Gods, and Thor's
+companion. The Thunderer's journey with Tyr in quest of a cauldron
+is related with much humour in _Hymiskvida_: Hymi's beautiful wife,
+who helps her guests to outwit her husband, is a figure familiar in
+fairy-tales as the Ogre's wife.
+
+The chief God of the Scandinavians is, it must be confessed, an
+unsympathetic character. He is the head of the Valhalla system;
+he is Val-father (Father of the Slain), and the Valkyries are his
+"Wishmaidens," as the Einherjar are his "Wishsons." He naturally takes
+a special interest in mortal heroes, from whom come the chosen hosts
+of Valhalla. But, in spite of the splendour of his surroundings, he
+is wanting in dignity. The chief of the Gods has neither the might and
+unthinking valour of Thor, nor the self-sacrificing courage of Tyr. He
+is a God who practises magic, and it is as Father of Spells that he is
+powerful. He is the wisest of the Gods in the sense that he remembers
+most about the past and foresees most about the future; yet he is
+powerless in difficulty without the craft of Loki and the hammer of
+Thor. He always wanders in disguise, and the stories told of him are
+chiefly love-adventures; this is true of all the deeds he mentions
+in _Harbardsljod_, and also of the two interpolations in _Havamal_,
+though one of the two had an object, the stealing of the mead of
+inspiration from the giant Suptung, whose daughter Gunnloed guarded it.
+
+_Voeluspa_ makes him one of three creative deities, the other two being
+Lodur (probably Loki) and Hoeni, of whom nothing else is known except
+the story that he was given as hostage to the Vanir in exchange for
+Njoerd. The same three Gods (Odin, Loki and Hoeni) are connected with
+the legend of the Nibelung treasure; and it was another adventure of
+theirs, according to Snorri, which led to the loss of Idunn.
+
+Of the other Gods, Bragi is a later development; his name means
+simply king or chief, and his attributes, as God of eloquence and
+poetry, are apparently borrowed from Odin. Heimdal, the watchman and
+"far-seeing like the Vanir," who keeps guard on the rainbow bridge
+Bifroest, is represented in the curious poem _Rigsthula_ as founder of
+the different social orders. He wandered over the world under the name
+of Rig, and from his first journey sprang the race of thralls, swarthy,
+crooked and broad-backed, who busied themselves with fencing land and
+tending goats and swine; from his second, the churls, fine and ruddy,
+who broke oxen, built houses and ploughed the land; from his third,
+the earls, yellow-haired, rosy, and keen-eyed, who broke horses and
+strung bows, rode, swam, and hurled spears; and the youngest of the
+earls' race was Konung the king, who knew all mysteries, understood
+the speech of birds, could quench fire and heal wounds. Heimdal is
+said to be the son of nine mothers, and to have fought with Loki for
+Freyja's Brising-necklace. His horn is hidden under Yggdrasil, to be
+brought out at Ragnaroek, when he will blow a warning blast. His origin
+is obscure. Still less is known of Vidar and Vali, two sons of Odin,
+one of whom is to avenge Baldr's death, the other to slay the wolf
+after it has swallowed up the chief God at Ragnaroek. Thor's stepson
+Ullr (Glory) is probably, like his sons Modi and Magni (Wrath and
+Strength), a mere epithet.
+
+Frigg, Odin's wife and the chief Goddess, daughter of Earth,
+is not very distinctly characterised, and is often confused with
+Freyja. Gefion should be the sea-goddess, since that seems to be
+the meaning of her name, but her functions are apparently usurped by
+the Wane Njoerd; according to Snorri, she is the patron of those who
+die unwedded.
+
+_Baldr_.--The story of Baldr is the most debated point in the Edda. The
+chief theories advanced are: (1) That it is the oldest part of Norse
+mythology, and of ritual origin; (2) that Baldr is really a hero
+transformed into a God; (3) that the legend is a solar myth with
+or without Christian colouring;  (4) that it is entirely borrowed
+from Mediaeval Greek and Christian sources. This last theory is too
+ingenious to be credible; and with regard to the third, there is
+nothing essentially Christian in the chief features of the legend,
+while the solar idea leaves too much unexplained. The references to
+the myth in the Elder Edda are:
+
+(1) _Vegtamskvida_ (about 900 A.D.). Odin questions the Sibyl as to
+the meaning of Baldr's dreams:
+
+_Odin_. "For whom are the benches (in hell) strewn with rings, the
+halls fairly adorned with gold?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Here the mead, clear drink, stands brewed for Baldr; the
+shields are spread. The sons of the Aesir are too merry."
+
+_Odin_. "Who will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Hoed bears thither the high branch of fame: he will be
+Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life."
+
+_Odin_. "Who will avenge the deed on Hoed and bring Baldr's slayer to
+the funeral pyre?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Rind bears a son, Vali, in the halls of the west. He shall
+not wash his hands nor comb his hair till he bears Baldr's foe to
+the pyre."
+
+(2) In _Lokasenna_ Frigg says: "If I had a son like Baldr here in
+Oegi's halls, thou shouldst not pass out from the sons of the Aesir,
+but be slain here in thy anger"; to which Loki replies, "Wilt thou
+that I speak more ill words, Frigg? I am the cause that thou wilt
+never more see Baldr ride into the hall."
+
+(3) In _Vafthrudnismal_ the only reference is Odin's question,
+"What said Odin in his son's ear when he mounted the pyre?"
+
+(4) In _Voeluspa_ the Sibyl prophesies, "I saw doom threatening Baldr,
+the bleeding victim, the son of Odin. Grown high above the meadows
+stood the mistletoe, slender and fair. From this stem, which looked
+so slender, grew a fatal and dangerous shaft. Hoed shot it, and Frigg
+wept in Fenhall over Valhall's woe."  The following lines, on the
+chaining of Loki, suggest his complicity.
+
+(5) _Hyndluljod_ has one reference: "There were eleven Aesir by
+number when Baldr went down into the howe. Vali was his avenger and
+slew his brother's slayer."
+
+Besides these there is a fragment quoted by Snorri: "Thoekk will weep
+dry tears at Baldr's funeral pyre. I had no good of the old man's
+son alive or dead; let Hel keep what she has." _Grimnismal_ assigns
+a hall to Baldr among the Gods.
+
+There are, in addition, two prose versions of the story by later
+writers: the Icelandic version of Snorri (1178-1241) with all the
+details familiar to every one; and the Latin one of the Dane Saxo
+Grammaticus (about thirty years earlier), which makes Baldr and Hoed
+heroes instead of Gods, and completely alters the character of the
+legend by making a rivalry for Nanna's favour the centre of the plot
+and cause of the catastrophe. On the Eddic version and on Saxo's
+depend the theories of Golther, Detter, Niedner and other German
+scholars on the one hand, and Dr. Frazer on the other.
+
+It has often been pointed out that there is no trace of Baldr-worship
+in other Germanic nations, nor in any of the Icelandic sagas except
+the late Frithjofssaga. This, however, is true of other Gods, notably
+of Tyr, who is without question one of the oldest. The only deities
+named with any suggestion of sacrifice or worship in the Icelandic
+sagas proper are Odin, Thor, Frey, Njoerd, Frigg and Freyja. The process
+of choice is as arbitrary in mythology as in other sciences. Again,
+it is more likely that the original version of the legend should have
+survived in Iceland than in Denmark, which, being on the mainland,
+was earlier subject to Christian and Romantic influences; and
+that a heathen God should, in the two or three centuries following
+the establishment of Christianity in the North, be turned into a
+mortal hero, than that the reverse process should have acted at a
+sufficiently late date to permit of both versions existing side by
+side in the thirteenth century. A similar gradual elimination of the
+supernatural may be found in the history of the Volsung myth. Snorri's
+version is merely an amplification of that in the Elder Edda, which,
+scanty as its account of Baldr is, leaves no doubt as to his divinity.
+
+The outline gathered from the poems is as follows: Baldr, Odin's son,
+is killed by his brother Hoed through a mistletoe spray; Loki is in some
+way concerned in his death, which is an overwhelming misfortune to the
+Gods; but it is on Hoed that his death is avenged. He is burnt on a pyre
+(Snorri says on his ship, a feature which must come from the Viking
+age; _Hyndluljod_ substitutes howe-burial). He will be absent from
+the great fight at Ragnaroek, but _Voeluspa_ adds that he will return
+afterwards. Nanna has nothing to do with the story. The connexion with
+the hierarchy of the Aesir seems external only, since Baldr has no
+apparent relation to the great catastrophe as have Odin, Thor, Frej,
+Tyr and Loki; this, then, would point to the independence of his myth.
+
+The genuineness of the myth seems to depend on whether the mistletoe
+is an original feature of it or not, and on this point there can
+be little real doubt. The German theory that Baldr could only be
+killed by his own sword, which was therefore disguised by enchantment
+and used against him, and that the Icelandic writers misunderstood
+this to mean a mistletoe sprig, is far-fetched and romantic, and
+crumbles at a touch. For if, as it is claimed, the Icelanders had no
+mistletoe, why should they introduce it into a story to which it did
+not belong? They might preserve it by tradition, but they would hardly
+invent it. Granting this, the mistletoe becomes the central point of
+the legend. The older mythologists, who only saw in it a sun-myth,
+overlooked the fact that since any weapon would have done to kill
+the God with, the mistletoe must have some special significance; and
+if it is a genuine part of the story, as we have no reason to doubt,
+it will be hard to overturn Dr. Frazer's theory that the Baldr-myth
+is a relic of tree-worship and the ritual sacrifice of the God,
+Baldr being a tree-spirit whose soul is contained in the mistletoe.
+
+The contradictions in the story, especially as told by Snorri
+(such as the confusion between the parts played by Hoed and Loki,
+and the unsuspicious attitude of the Gods as Loki directs Hoed's aim)
+are sometimes urged against its genuineness. They are rather proofs
+of antiquity. Apparent contradictions whose explanation is forgotten
+often survive in tradition; the inventor of a new story takes care to
+make it consistent. It is probable, however, that there were originally
+only two actors in the episode, the victim and the slayer, and that
+Loki's part is later than Hoed's, for he really belongs to the Valhall
+and Ragnaroek myth, and was only introduced here as a link. The incident
+of the oath extracted from everything on earth to protect Baldr, which
+occurs in Snorri and in a paper MS. of _Baldr's Dreams_, was probably
+invented to explain the choice of weapon, which would certainly need
+explanation to an Icelandic audience. If Dr. Frazer's theory be right,
+Vali, who slew the slayer, must also have been an original figure in
+the legend. His antiquity is supported by the fact that he plays the
+part of avenger in the poems; while in Snorri, where he is mentioned
+as a God, his absence from the account of Baldr's death is only a
+part of that literary development by which real responsibility for
+the murder was transferred from Hoed to Loki.
+
+Snorri gives Baldr a son, Forseti (Judge), who is also named as a
+God in _Grimnismal_. He must have grown out of an epithet of Baldr's,
+of whom Snorri says that "no one can resist his sentence"; the sacred
+tree would naturally be the seat of judgment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Wanes._--Three of the Norse divinities, Njoerd and his son and
+daughter, are not Aesir by descent. The following account is given
+of their presence in Asgard:
+
+(1) In _Vafthrudnismal_, Odin asks:
+
+"Whence came Njoerd among the sons of the Aesir? for he was not born
+of the Aesir."
+
+_Vafthrudni_. "In Vanaheim wise powers ordained and gave him for a
+hostage to the Gods; at the doom of the world he shall come back,
+home to the wise Wanes."
+
+(2) There is an allusion in _Voeluspa_ to the war which caused the
+giving of hostages:
+
+"Odin shot into the host: this was the first war in the world. Broken
+was the wall of the citadel of the Aesir, so that the Wanes could
+tread the fields of war."
+
+(3) Loki taunts Njoerd with his position, in _Lokasenna_:
+
+"Thou wast sent from the east as a hostage to the Gods...."
+
+_Njoerd_. "This is my comfort, though I was sent from far as a hostage
+to the Gods, yet I have a son whom no one hates, and he is thought
+the best of the Aesir."
+
+_Loki_. "Stay, Njoerd, restrain thy pride; I will hide it no longer:
+thy son is thine own sister's son, and that is no worse than one
+would expect."
+
+_Tyr_. "Frey is the best of all the bold riders of Asgard."
+
+There is little doubt that Njoerd was once a God of higher importance
+than he is in the Edda, where he is overshadowed by his son. Grimm's
+suggestion that he and the goddess Nerthus, mentioned by Tacitus,
+were brother and sister, is supported by the line in _Lokasenna_; it
+is an isolated reference, and the Goddess has left no other traces in
+Scandinavian mythology. They were the deities, probably agricultural,
+of an earlier age, whose adoption by the later Northmen was explained
+by the story of the compact between Aesir and Vanir. Then their places
+were usurped by Frey and Freyja, who were possibly created out of
+epithets originally applied to the older pair; Njoerd was retained
+with lessened importance, Nerthus passed out altogether. The Edda
+gives Njoerd a giant-bride, Skadi, who was admitted among the Gods in
+atonement for the slaying of her father Thiazi; she is little more
+than a name. Frey and Freyja have other marks of agricultural deities,
+besides their relationship. Nothing is said about Frey's changing
+shape, but Freyja possesses a hawk-dress which Loki borrows when
+he wishes to change his form; and, according to Snorri, Frey was
+sacrificed to for the crops. Njoerd has an epithet, "the wealthy,"
+which may have survived from his earlier connexion with the soil. In
+that case, it would explain why, in Snorri and elsewhere, he is God of
+the sea and ships, once the province of the ocean-goddess Gefion; the
+transference is a natural one to an age whose wealth came from the sea.
+
+In spite of their origin, Frey and Freyja become to all intents
+and purposes Aesir. Frey is to be one of the chief combatants at
+Ragnaroek, with the fire-giant Surt for his antagonist, and a story is
+told to explain his defeat: he fell in love with Gerd, a giant-maid,
+and sacrificed his sword to get her; hence he is weaponless at the
+last fight. Loki alludes to this episode in _Lokasenna_: "With gold
+didst thou buy Gymi's daughter, and gavest thy sword for her; but when
+Muspell's sons ride over Myrkwood, thou shalt not know with what to
+fight, unhappy one." The story is told in full in _Skirnisfoer_.
+
+Freyja is called by Snorri "the chief Goddess after Frigg," and the
+two are sometimes confused. Like her father and brother, she comes into
+connexion with the giants; she is the beautiful Goddess, and coveted by
+them. _Voeluspa_ says that the Gods went into consultation to discuss
+"who had given the bride of Od (_i.e._, Freyja) to the giant race";
+_Thrymskvida_ relates how the giant Thrym bargained for Freyja as
+the ransom for Thor's hammer, which he had hidden, and how Loki and
+Thor outwitted him; and Snorri says the giants bargained for her as
+the price for building Valhalla, but were outwitted. Sir G.W. Dasent
+notices in the folk-tales the eagerness of trolls and giants to learn
+the details of the agricultural processes, and this is probably the
+clue to the desire of the Frost-Giants in the Edda for the possession
+of Freyja. Idunn, the wife of Bragi, and a purely Norse creation, seems
+to be a double of Freyja; she, too, according to Snorri, is carried
+away by the giants and rescued by Loki. The golden apples which she
+is to keep till Ragnaroek remind us of those which Frey offered to
+Gerd; and the gift of eternal youth, of which they are the symbols,
+would be appropriate enough to Freyja as an agricultural deity.
+
+The great necklace Brising, stolen by Loki and won back in fight
+by Heimdal (according to the tenth-century Skalds Thjodulf and Ulf
+Uggason), is Freyja's property. On this ground, she has been identified
+with the heroine of _Svipdag and Menglad_, a poem undoubtedly old,
+though it has only come down in paper MSS. It is in two parts, the
+first telling how Svipdag aroused the Sibyl Groa, his mother, to
+give him spells to guard him on his journey; the second describing
+his crossing the wall of fire which surrounded his fated bride
+Menglad. If Menglad is really Freyja, the "Necklace-glad," it is a
+curious coincidence that one poem connects the waverlowe, or ring of
+fire, with Frey also; for his bride Gerd is protected in the same way,
+though his servant Skirni goes through it in his place:
+
+_Skirni_. "Give me the horse that will bear me through the dark magic
+waverlowe, and the sword that fights of itself against the giant-race."
+
+_Frey_. "I give thee the horse that will bear thee through the dark
+magic waverlowe, and the sword that will fight of itself if he is
+bold who bears it." (_Skirnisfoer_.)
+
+The connexion of both with the Midsummer fires, originally part of
+an agricultural ritual, can hardly be doubted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Loki_, or Lopt, is a strange figure. He is admitted among the Aesir,
+though not one of them by birth, and his whole relation to them
+points to his being an older elemental God. He is in alliance with
+them against the giants; he and Odin have sworn blood-brothership,
+according to _Lokasenna_, and he helps Thor to recover his hammer
+that Asgard may be defended against the giants. On the other hand,
+while in present alliance with the Gods, he is chief agent in their
+future destruction, and this they know. In Snorri, he is a mischievous
+spirit of the fairy-tale kind, exercising his ingenuity alternately in
+getting the Gods into difficulties, and in getting them out again. So
+he betrays Idunn to the giants, and delivers her; he makes the bargain
+by which Freyja is promised to the giant-builders of Valhalla,
+and invents the trick by which they are cheated of their prize;
+by killing the otter he endangers his own head, Odin's and Hoeni's,
+and he obtains the gold which buys their atonement. Hence, in the
+systematising of the Viking religion, the responsibility for Baldr's
+death also was transferred to him. At the coming of the fire-giants
+at Ragnaroek, he is to steer the ship in which Muspell's sons sail
+(_Voeluspa_), further evidence of his identity as a fire-spirit. Like
+his son the Wolf, he is chained by the Gods; the episode is related
+in a prose-piece affixed to _Lokasenna_:
+
+"After that Loki hid himself in Franangr's Foss in the form of
+a salmon. There the Aesir caught him. He was bound with the guts
+of his son Nari, but his son Narfi was changed into a wolf. Skadi
+took a poisonous snake and fastened it up over Loki's face, and the
+poison dropped down. Sigyn, Loki's wife, sat there and held a cup
+under the poison. But when it was full she poured the poison away,
+and meanwhile poison dropped on Loki, and he struggled so hard that
+all the earth shook; those are called earthquakes now."
+
+_Voeluspa_ inserts lines corresponding to this passage after the
+Baldr episode, and Snorri makes it a consequence of Loki's share in
+that event.
+
+He is more especially agent of the doom through his children:
+at Ragnaroek, Fenri the Wolf, bound long before by Tyr's help,
+will be freed, and swallow the sun (_Vafthrudnismal_) and Odin
+(_Vafthrudnismal_ and _Voeluspa_); and Joermungandr, the Giant-Snake,
+will rise from the sea where he lies curled round the world, to slay
+and be slain by Thor. The dragon's writhing in the waves is one
+of the tokens to herald Ragnaroek, and his battle with Thor is the
+fiercest combat of that day. Only _Voeluspa_ of our poems gives any
+account of it: "Then comes the glorious son of Hlodyn, Odin's son
+goes to meet the serpent; Midgard's guardian slays him in his rage,
+but scarcely can Earth's son reel back nine feet from the dragon."
+
+When Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymi, he terrifies his companion
+by dragging the snake's head out of the sea, but he does not slay it;
+it must wait there till Ragnaroek:
+
+"The protector of men, the only slayer of the Serpent, baited his hook
+with the ox's head. The God-hated one who girds all lands from below
+swallowed the bait. Doughtily pulled mighty Thor the poison-streaked
+serpent up to the side; he struck down with his hammer the hideous
+head of the wolf's companion. The monster roared, the wilderness
+resounded, the old earth shuddered all through. The fish sank back
+into the sea. Gloomy was the giant when they rowed back, so that he
+spoke not a word."
+
+There is nothing to suggest that Joermungandr, to whom the word
+World-Snake (Midgardsorm) always refers in the Edda, is the same as
+Nidhoegg, the serpent that gnaws at Yggdrasil's roots; but both are
+relics of Snake-worship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The World-Ash_, generally called Yggdrasil's Ash, is one of the most
+interesting survivals of tree-worship. It is described by the Sibyl
+in _Voeluspa_: "I know an ash called Yggdrasil, a high tree sprinkled
+with white moisture (thence come the dews that fall in the dales):
+it stands ever-green by Urd's spring. Thence come three maids,
+all-knowing, from the hall that stands under the tree"; and as a
+sign of the approaching doom she says: "Yggdrasil's ash trembles as
+it stands; the old tree groans." _Grimnismal_ says that the Gods go
+every day to hold judgment by the ash, and describes it further:
+
+"Three roots lie three ways under Yggdrasil's ash: Hel dwells under
+one, the frost-giants under the second, mortal men under the third. The
+squirrel is called Ratatosk who shall run over Yggdrasil's ash;
+he shall carry down the eagle's words, and tell them to Nidhoegg
+below. There are four harts, with necks thrown back, who gnaw
+off the shoots.... More serpents lie under Yggdrasil's ash than
+any one knows. Ofni and Svafni I know will ever gnaw at the tree's
+twigs. Yggdrasil's ash suffers more hardships than men know: the hart
+bites above, the side decays, and Nidhoegg gnaws below.... Yggdrasil's
+ash is the best of trees."
+
+The snake and the tree are familiar in other mythologies, though in
+most other cases the snake is the protector, while here he is the
+destroyer. Both Nidhoegg and Joermungandr are examples of the destroying
+dragon rather than the treasure-guardian. The Ash is the oracle: the
+judgment-place of the Gods, the dwelling of the Fates, the source of
+the spring of knowledge.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ragnaroek_.--The Twilight of the Gods (or Doom of the Gods) is the
+central point of the Viking religion. The Regin (of which _Ragna_
+is genitive plural) are the ruling powers, often called Ginnregin
+(the great Gods), Uppregin (the high Gods), Thrymregin (the warrior
+Gods). The word is commonly used of the Aesir in _Voeluspa_; in
+_Alvissmal_ the Regin seem to be distinguished from both Aesir and
+Vanir. The whole story of the Aesir is overshadowed by knowledge of
+this coming doom, the time when they shall meet foes more terrible
+than the giants, and fall before them; their constant effort is to
+learn what will happen then, and to gather their forces together
+to meet it. The coming Ragnaroek is the reason for the existence of
+Valhalla with its hosts of slain warriors; and of all the Gods, Odin,
+Thor, Tyr and Loki are most closely connected with it. Two poems of
+the verse Edda describe it:
+
+(1) _Vafthrudnismal_:
+
+V. "What is the plain called where Surt and the blessed Gods shall
+meet in battle?"
+
+O. "Vigrid is the name of the place where Surt and the blessed Gods
+shall meet in battle. It is a hundred miles every way; it is their
+destined battle-field."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+O. "Whence shall the sun come on the smooth heaven when Fenri has
+destroyed this one?"
+
+V. "Before Fenri destroy her, the elf-beam shall bear a daughter:
+that maid shall ride along her mother's paths, when the Gods perish."
+
+O. "Which of the Aesir shall rule over the realms of the Gods, when
+Surt's fire is quenched?"
+
+V. "Vidar and Vali shall dwell in the sanctuary of the Gods when
+Surt's fire is quenched. Modi and Magni shall have Mjoellni at the
+end of Vingni's (_i.e._, Thor's) combat."
+
+O. "What shall be Odin's end, when the Gods perish?"
+
+V. "The Wolf will swallow the father of men; Vidar will avenge it. He
+will cleave the Wolf's cold jaws in the battle."
+
+(2) _Voeluspa_:
+
+"A hag sits eastward in Ironwood and rears Fenri's children; one of
+them all, in troll's shape, shall be the sun's destroyer. He shall
+feed on the lives of death-doomed men; with red blood he shall redden
+the seat of the Gods. The sunshine shall grow black, all winds will
+be unfriendly in the after-summers.... I see further in the future
+the great Ragnaroek of the Gods of Victory.... Heimdal blows loudly,
+the horn is on high; Yggdrasil's ash trembles as it stands, the old
+tree groans."
+
+The following lines tell of the fire-giants and the various combats,
+and the last section of the poem deals with a new world when Baldr,
+Hoed and Hoeni are to come back to the dwelling-place of the Gods.
+
+The whole points to a belief in the early destruction of the world
+and the passing away of the old order of things. Whether the new
+world which _Vafthrudnismal_ and _Voeluspa_ both prophesy belongs to
+the original idea or not is a disputed point. Probably it does not;
+at all events, none of the old Aesir, according to the poems, are
+to survive, for Modi and Magni are not really Gods at all, Baldr,
+Hoed and Vali belong to another myth, Hoeni had passed out of the
+hierarchy by his exchange with Njoerd, and Vidar's origin is obscure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Einherjar_, the great champions or chosen warriors, are intimately
+connected with Ragnaroek. All warriors who fall in battle are taken
+to Odin's hall of the slain, Valhalla. According to _Grimnismal_,
+he "chooses every day men dead by the sword"; his Valkyries ride
+to battle to give the victory and bring in the fallen. Hence Odin
+is the giver of victory. Loki in _Lokasenna_ taunts him with giving
+victory to the wrong side: "Thou hast never known how to decide the
+battle among men. Thou hast often given victory to those to whom thou
+shouldst not give it, to the more cowardly"; this, no doubt, was in
+order to secure the best fighters for Valhalla. That the defeated
+side sometimes consoled themselves with this explanation of a notable
+warrior's fall is proved by the tenth-century dirge on Eirik Bloodaxe,
+where Sigmund the Volsung asks in Valhalla: "Why didst thou take the
+victory from him, if thou thoughtest him brave?" and Odin replies:
+"Because it is uncertain when the grey Wolf will come to the seat
+of the Gods." There are similar lines in Eyvind's dirge on Hakon
+the Good. In this way a host was collected ready for Ragnaroek:
+for _Grimnismal_  says: "There are five hundred doors and eighty
+in Valhalla; eight hundred Einherjar will go out from each door,
+when they go to fight the wolf." Meanwhile they fight and feast:
+"All the Einherjar in Odin's courts fight every day: they choose
+the slain and ride from the battle, and sit then in peace together"
+(_Vafthrudnismal_,) and the Valkyries bear ale to them _(Grimnismal_).
+
+It is often too hastily assumed that the Norse Ragnaroek with
+the dependant Valhalla system are in great part the outcome of
+Christian influence: of an imitation of the Christian Judgment Day
+and the Christian heaven respectively. Owing to the lateness of our
+material, it is, of course, impossible to decide how old the beliefs
+may be, but it is likely that the Valhalla idea only took form at
+the systematising of the mythology in the Viking age. The belief
+in another world for the dead is, however, by no means exclusively
+Christian, and a reference in _Grimnismal_ suggests the older system
+out of which, under the influence of the Ragnaroek idea, Valhalla was
+developed. The lines, "The ninth hall is Folkvang, where Freyja rules
+the ordering of seats in the hall; half the slain she chooses every
+day, Odin has the other half," are an evident survival of a belief
+that all the dead went to live with the Gods, Odin having the men,
+and Freyja (or more probably Frigg) the women; the idea being here
+confused with the later system, under which only those who fell in
+battle were chosen by the Gods. Christian colouring appears in the
+last lines of _Voeluspa_ and in Snorri, where men are divided into the
+"good and moral," who go after death to a hall of red gold, and the
+"perjurers and murderers," who are sent to a hall of snakes.
+
+For Ragnaroek also a heathen origin is at least as probable as a
+Christian one. I would suggest as a possibility that the expectation of
+the Twilight of the Gods may have grown out of some ritual connected
+with the eclipse, such as is frequent among heathen races. Such
+ceremonies are a tacit acknowledgment of a doubt, and if they ever
+existed among the Scandinavians, the possibility, ever present to
+the savage mind, of a time when his efforts to help the light might
+be fruitless, and the darkness prove the stronger, would be the germ
+of his more civilised descendant's belief in Ragnaroek.
+
+By turning to the surviving poems of the Skalds, whose dates can be
+approximately reckoned from the sagas, we can fix an inferior limit
+for certain of the legends given above, placing them definitely in the
+heathen time. Reference has already been made to the corroboration
+of the Valhalla belief supplied by the elegies on Eirik Bloodaxe
+and Hakon the Good. In the former (which is anonymous, but must have
+been written soon after 950, since it was composed, on Eirik's death,
+by his wife's orders), Odin commands the Einherjar and Valkyries to
+prepare for the reception of the slain Eirik and his host, since no
+one knows how soon the Gods will need to gather their forces together
+for the great contest. Eyvind's dirge on Hakon (who fell in 970) is an
+imitation of this: Odin sends two Valkyries to choose a king to enter
+his service in Valhalla; they find Hakon on the battle-field, and
+he is slain with many of his followers. Great preparation is made in
+Valhalla for his reception, and the poet ends by congratulating Hakon
+(who, though a Christian, having been educated in England, had not
+interfered with the heathen altars and sacrifices) on the toleration
+which has secured him such a welcome. A still earlier poet, Hornklofi,
+writing during the reign of Harald Fairhair (who died in 933), alludes
+to the slain as the property of "the one-eyed husband of Frigg."
+
+Several Skalds mention legends of Thor: his fishing for the World-Snake
+is told by Bragi (who from his place in genealogies must have written
+before 900), and by Ulf Uggason and Eystein Valdason, both in the
+second half of the tenth century; and Thjodulf and Eilif (the former
+about 960, the latter a little later) tell tales of his fights with
+the giants. Turning to the other Gods, Egil Skallagrimsson (about 970)
+names Frey and Njoerd as the givers of wealth; Bragi tells the story
+of Gefion's dragging the island of Zealand out of Lake Wener into
+the sea; and Ulf Uggason speaks of Heimdal's wrestling with Loki.
+
+The legend of Idunn is told by Thjodulf much as Snorri tells it:
+Odin, Hoeni and Loki, while on a journey, kill and roast an ox. The
+giant Thiazi swoops down in eagle's shape and demands a share; Loki
+strikes the eagle, who flies off with him, releasing him only on
+condition that he will betray to the giants Idunn, "the care-healing
+maid who understands the renewal of youth." He does so, and the Gods,
+who grow old and withered for want of her apples, force him to go
+and bring her back to Asgard.
+
+The poet of _Eiriksmal_, quoted above, alludes to the Baldr myth:
+Bragi, hearing the approach of Eirik and his host, asks "What is
+that thundering and tramping, as if Baldr were coming back to Odin's
+hall?" The funeral pyre of Baldr is described by Ulf Uggason: he is
+burnt on his ship, which is launched by a giantess, in the presence
+of Frey, Heimdal, Odin and the Valkyries.
+
+Though heathen writers outside of Scandinavia are lacking, references
+to Germanic heathendom fortunately survive in several Continental
+Christian historians of earlier date than any of our Scandinavian
+sources. The evidence of these, though scanty, is corroborative,
+and the allusions are in striking agreement with the Edda stories in
+tone and character.
+
+Odin (Wodanus) is always identified by these writers with the
+Roman Mercurius (whom Tacitus named as the chief German God). This
+identification occurs in the eighth-century Paulus Diaconus, and in
+Jonas of Bobbio (first half of the seventh century), and probably rests
+on Odin's character as a wandering God (Mercury being diaktoros), his
+disguises, and his patronage of poetry and eloquence (as Mercury is
+logios). Odin is not himself in general the conductor of dead souls
+(psychopompos), like the Roman God, his attendant Valkyries performing
+the office for him. The equation is only comprehensible on the
+presumption of the independence of Germanic mythology, and cannot be
+explained by transmission. For if Odin were in any degree an imitation
+of the Roman deity, other notable attributes of the latter would have
+been assigned to him: whereas in the Edda the thieving God (kleptis)
+is not Odin but Loki, and the founder of civilisation is Heimdal.
+
+The legend of the origin of the Lombards given by Paulus Diaconus
+illustrates the relations of Odin and Frigg. The Vandals asked Wodan
+(Odin) to grant them victory over the Vinili; the latter made a similar
+prayer to Frea (Frigg), the wife of Wodan. She advised them to make
+their wives tie their hair round their faces like beards, and go with
+them to meet Wodan in the morning. They did so, and Wodan exclaimed,
+"Who are these _Long-beards_?" Then Frea said that having given the
+Vinili a name, he must give them the victory (as Helgi in the Edda
+claims a gift from Svava when she names him). As in _Grimnismal_,
+Odin and Frigg are represented as supporting rival claims, and Frigg
+gains the day for her favourites by superior cunning. This legend
+also shows Odin as the giver of victory.
+
+Few heathen legends are told however by these early Christian writers,
+and the Gods are seldom called by their German names. An exception is
+the Frisian Fosite mentioned by Alcuin (who died 804) and by later
+writers; he is to be identified with the Norse Forseti, the son of
+(probably at first an epithet of) Baldr, but no legend of him is
+told. It is disappointing that these writers should have said so
+little of any God except the chief one. A very characteristic touch
+survives in Gregory of Tours (died 594), when the Frank Chlodvig tells
+his Christian wife that the Christian God "cannot be proved to be
+of the race of the Gods," an idea entirely in keeping with the Eddic
+hierarchy. Before leaving the Continental historians, reference may be
+made to the abundant evidence of Germanic tree-worship to be gathered
+from them. The holy oak mentioned by Wilibald (before 786), the sacred
+pear-tree of Constantius (473), with numerous others, supply parallels
+to the World-Ash which is so important a feature of Norse mythology.
+
+A study of this subject would be incomplete without some reference to
+the mythology of Saxo Grammaticus. His testimony on the old religion
+is unwilling, and his effort to discredit it very evident. The
+bitterness of his attack on Frigg especially suggests that she
+was, among the Northmen, a formidable rival to the Virgin. When he
+repeats a legend of the Gods, he transforms them into mortal heroes,
+and when, as often happens, he refers to them accidentally as Gods,
+he invariably hastens to protest that he does so only because it had
+been the custom. He describes Thor and Odin as men versed in sorcery
+who claimed the rank of Gods; and in another passage he speaks of
+the latter as a king who had his seat at Upsala, and who was falsely
+credited with divinity throughout Europe. His description of Odin
+agrees with that in the Edda: an old man of great stature and mighty
+in battle, one-eyed, wearing a great cloak, and constantly wandering
+about in disguise. The story which Saxo tells of his driving into
+battle with Harald War-tooth, disguised as the latter's charioteer
+Brun, and turning the fight against him by revealing to his enemy Ring
+the order of battle which he had invented for Harald's advantage, is
+in thorough agreement with the traditional character of the God who
+betrayed Sigmund the Volsung and Helgi Hundingsbane. Saxo's version
+of the Baldr story has been mentioned already. Baldr's transformation
+into a hero (who could only be slain by a sword in the keeping of
+a wood-satyr) is almost complete. But Odin and Thor and all the
+Gods fight for him against his rival Hother, "so that it might be
+called a battle of Gods against men"; and Nanna's excuse to Baldr
+that "a God could not wed with a mortal," preserves a trace of his
+origin. The chained Loki appears in Saxo as Utgarda-Loki, lying bound
+in a cavern of snakes, and worshipped as a God by the Danish king
+Gorm Haraldsson. Dr. Eydberg sees the Freyja myth in Saxo's story of
+Syritha, who was carried away by the giants and delivered by her lover
+Othar (the Od of the Edda): an example, like _Svipdag and Menglad_,
+of the complete transformation of a divine into an heroic myth. In
+almost all cases Saxo vulgarises the stories in the telling, a common
+result when a mythical tale is retold by a Christian writer, though
+it is still more conspicuous in his versions of the heroic legends.
+
+
+
+
+
+Appendix
+
+
+_Thrymskvida_.
+
+1. Then Wing-Thor was angry when he awoke, and missed his hammer. He
+shook his beard, he tossed his hair, the son of Earth groped about
+for it.
+
+2. And first of all he spoke these words: "Hear now, Loki, what I
+tell thee, a thing that no one in earth or heaven above has heard:
+the Asa has been robbed of his hammer!"
+
+3. They went to the dwelling of fair Freyja, and these words he
+spoke first of all: "Wilt thou lend me, Freyja, thy feather dress,
+to see if I can find my hammer?"
+
+4. _Freyja_. "I would give it thee, though it were of gold; I would
+grant it, though it were of silver."
+
+5. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
+Asgard and into Joetunheim.
+
+6. Thrym, lord of the Giants, sat on a howe; he twisted golden bands
+for his greyhounds and trimmed his horses' manes.
+
+7. _Thrym_. "How is it with the Aesir? How is it with the Elves? Why
+art thou come alone into Joetunheim?"
+
+_Loki_. "It is ill with the Aesir, it is ill with the Elves; hast
+thou hidden the Thunderer's hammer?"
+
+8. _Thrym_. "I have hidden the Thunderer's hammer eight miles below the
+earth. No man shall bring it back, unless he bring me Freyja to wife."
+
+9. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
+Joetunheim and into Asgard. Thor met him in the middle of the court,
+and these words he spoke first:
+
+10. "Hast thou news in proportion to thy toil? Tell me from on high
+thy distant tidings, for a sitting man often breaks down in his story,
+and he who lies down falls into falsehood."
+
+11. _Loki_. "I bring news for my toil: Thrym, lord of the Giants,
+has thy hammer; no man shall bring it back, unless he take him Freyja
+as a bride."
+
+12. They went to see fair Freyja, spoke to her first of all these
+words: "Bind on the bridal veil, Freyja, we two must drive to
+Joetunheim."
+
+13. Angry then was Freyja; she panted, so that all the hall of the
+Aesir trembled, and the great Brising necklace fell: "Eager indeed
+for marriage wouldst thou think me, if I should drive with thee
+to Joetunheim."
+
+14. Then all the Aesir went into council, and all the Asynjor to
+consultation, and the mighty Gods discussed how they should recover
+the Thunderer's hammer.
+
+15. Then spoke Heimdal, whitest of the Aesir; he could see into the
+future like the Vanir: "Let us bind on Thor the bridal veil; let him
+have the great necklace Brising.
+
+16. "Let the keys jingle, and let women's weeds fall about his knees;
+let us put broad stones on his breast, and a hood dexterously on
+his head."
+
+17. Then spoke Thor, the mighty Asa: "Vile would the Aesir call me,
+if I let the bridal veil be bound on me."
+
+18. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: "Speak not such words, Thor! soon
+will the Giants dwell in Asgard, unless thou bring home thy hammer."
+
+19. Then they bound on Thor the bridal veil, and the great necklace
+Brising; they let the keys jingle and women's weeds fall about
+his knees, and they put broad stones on his breast, and the hood
+dexterously on his head.
+
+20. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: "I also will go with thee as thy
+maiden; we two will drive together to Joetunheim."
+
+21. Then the goats were driven out, urged forward in their harness;
+well must they run. Rocks were riven, the earth burned in name:
+Odin's son was driving into Joetunheim.
+
+22. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Stand up, giants, and
+strew the benches! They are bringing me now Freyja my bride, Njoerd's
+daughter from Noatun.
+
+23. "Gold-horned kine run in the court, oxen all-black, the giant's
+delight. I have many treasures, I have many jewels, Freyja only
+is lacking."
+
+24. The guests assembled early in the evening, and ale was carried
+to the Giants. One ox did Sif's husband eat, and eight salmon, and
+all the dishes prepared for the women; three casks of mead he drank.
+
+25. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Who ever saw a bride eat
+so eagerly? I never saw a bride make such a hearty meal, nor a maid
+drink so deep of mead."
+
+26. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's
+words: "Eight nights has Freyja eaten nothing, so eager was she to
+be in Joetunheim."
+
+27. He looked under the veil, he longed to kiss the bride, but
+he started back the length of the hall: "Why are Freyja's eyes so
+terrible? Fire seems to burn from her eyes."
+
+28. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's
+speech: "Eight nights has Freyja had no sleep, so eager was she to
+be in Joetunheim."
+
+29. In came the Giants' wretched sister, she dared to ask for a bridal
+gift: "Take from thine arms the red rings, if thou wouldst gain my
+love, my love and all my favour."
+
+30. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Bring the hammer to hallow
+the bride. Lay Mjoellni on the maiden's knee, hallow us two in wedlock."
+
+31. The Thunderer's heart laughed in his breast, when the bold of
+soul felt the hammer. Thrym killed he first, the lord of the Giants,
+and all the race of the Giants he struck.
+
+32. He slew the Giants' aged sister, who had asked him for a bridal
+gift. She got a blow instead of shillings, and a stroke of the hammer
+for abundance of rings. So Odin's son got back his hammer.
+
+
+
+Bibliography
+
+
+I. Study in the Original.
+
+(1) _Poetic Edda_.--The classic edition, and on the whole the best,
+is Professor Bugge's (Christiania, 1867); the smaller editions of
+Hildebrand (_Die Lieder der Aelteren Edda_, Paderborn, 1876), and
+Finnur Jonsson (_Eddalieder_, Halle, 1888-90) are also good; the
+latter is in two parts, _Goettersage_ and _Heldensage_. The poems may
+also be found in the first volume of Vigfusson and Powell's _Corpus
+Poeticum Boreale_ (Oxford, 1883), accompanied by translations;	but in
+many cases they are cut up and rearranged, and they suffer metrically
+from the system adopted of printing two short lines as one long one,
+with no dividing point. There is an excellent palaeographic edition
+of the _Codex Regius of the Elder Edda_, by Wimmer and Finnur Jonsson
+(Copenhagen, 1891), with photographic reproductions interleaved with
+a literal transcription.
+
+(2) _Snorra Edda_.--The most recent edition of the whole is Dr. Finnur
+Jonsson's (Copenhagen, 1875). There is a useful edition of the
+mythological portions _(i.e., Gylfaginning, Bragaraedur_, and the
+narrative parts of _Skaldskaparmal_) by Ernst Wilken (_Die Prosaeische
+Edda_, Paderborn, 1878).
+
+(3) _Dictionaries and Grammars_.--For the study of the Poetic Edda,
+Gering's _Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda_ (Paderborn, 1896) will
+be found most useful; it is complete and trustworthy, and in small
+compass. A similar service has been performed for _Snorra Edda_ in
+Wilken's _Glossar_ (Paderborn, 1883), which forms a second volume to
+his edition, mentioned above. Both are, of course, in German. The only
+English dictionary is the lexicon of Cleasby and Vigfusson (Oxford).
+
+Of Grammars, the best are German; those of Noreen (_Altnordische
+Grammatik_, Halle, 1892), of which there is an abbreviated edition,
+and Kahle (_Altislaendisches Elementarbuch_, Heidelberg, 1896) being
+better suited for advanced students; the English grammars included
+in Vigfusson and Powell's _Icelandic Reader_ (Oxford) and Sweet's
+_Icelandic Primer_ (Oxford) are more elementary, and therefore hardly
+adequate for the study of the verse literature.
+
+
+II. Translations.
+
+There are English translations of the Elder Edda by Anderson (Chicago,
+1879) and Thorpe (1866), as well as the translations in the _Corpus
+Poeticum_, which are, of course, liable to the same objection as
+the text. The most accurate German translation is Gering's (Leipzig,
+1893); in Simrock's (_Aeltere und Juengere Edda_, Stuttgart, 1882), the
+translations of the verse Edda are based on an uncritical text. Snorra
+Edda was translated into English by Dasent (Stockholm, 1842); also
+by Anderson (Chicago, 1880).
+
+
+III. Modern Authorities.
+
+To the works on Northern mythology mentioned below in the note on
+the Baldr theories, must be added Dr. Rydberg's _Teutonic Mythology_
+(English version by R.B. Anderson, London, 1889), which devotes
+special attention to Saxo.
+
+
+
+Notes
+
+_Home of the Edda_. (Page 2.)
+
+The chief apologists for the British theory are Professor Bugge
+(_Studien ueber die Entstehung der nordischen Goetter- und Heldensagen_,
+Muenchen, 1889), and the editors of the _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_ (see
+the Introduction to that  work, and also the Prolegomena prefixed to
+their edition of the _Sturlunga Saga_, Oxford). The case for Norway
+and Greenland is argued by Dr. Finnur Jonsson (_Den oldnorsk og
+oldislandske Literaturs-Historie,_ Copenhagen). The cases for both
+British and Norwegian origin are based chiefly on rather fanciful
+arguments from supposed local colour. The theory of the _Corpus
+Poeticum_ editors that many of the poems were composed in the Scottish
+isles is discredited by the absence of Gaelic words or traces of Gaelic
+legend. Professor Bugge's North of England theory is slightly stronger,
+being supported by several Old English expressions in the poems,
+but these are not enough to prove that they were composed in England,
+since most Icelanders travelled east at some time of their lives.
+
+(Page 3.)
+
+A later study will deal with the Heroic legends.
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_. (Page 3.)
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_ is prefixed to the Lives of the Kings in the collection
+known as _Heimskringla_ (edited by Unger, Christiania, 1868, and by
+Finnur Jonsson, Christiania, 1893); there is an English translation
+in Laing's _Lives of the Kings of Norway_ (London, 1889).
+
+_Voeluspa_. (Page 4.)
+
+A poem of similar form occurs among the heroic poems. _Gripisspa_,
+a prophetic outline of Sigurd's life, introduces the Volsung poems,
+as _Voeluspa_ does the Asgard cycle.
+
+_Riddle-poems_. (Page 6.)
+
+So many of the mythological poems are in this form that they suggest
+the question, did the asking of riddles form any part of Scandinavian
+ritual?
+
+_The Aesir_. (Page 11.)
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_ says that Odin and the Aesir came to Norway from Asia;
+a statement due, of course, to a false etymology, though theories as
+to the origin of Norse mythology have been based on it.
+
+_Tyr_. (Page 12.)
+
+Tyr is etymologically identical with Zeus, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus
+(Sky-God).
+
+_Baldr_. (Pages 16 to 22.)
+
+The Baldr theories are stated in the following authorities:
+
+(1) Ritual origin: Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, vol. 3.
+
+(2) Heroic origin: Golther, _Handbuch der Germanischen Mythologie_
+(Leipzig, 1895); Niedner, _Eddische Fragen_ (_Zeitschrift
+fuer deutsches Altertum_, new series, 29), _Zur Lieder-Edda_
+(_Zeitschr. f. d. Alt_. vol. 36).
+
+(3) Solar myth: Sir G.W. Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_
+(London, 1870); Max Mueller, _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol. 4.
+
+(4) Borrowed: Bugge, _Studien ueber die Entstchung der nordischen
+Goetter- und Heldensagen_ (transl. Brenner, Muenchen, 1889).
+
+_Vegtamskvida_. (Page 17.)
+
+The word _hrodhrbadhm_ (which I have given as "branch of fame")
+would perhaps be more accurately translated "tree of fame," which
+Gering explains as a kenning for Baldr. But there are no kennings of
+the same sort in the poem, and the line would have no meaning. If it
+refers to the mistletoe, as most commentators agree, it merely shows
+that the poet was ignorant of the nature of the plant, which would
+be in favour of its antiquity, rather than the reverse.
+
+
+_Saxo Grammaticus_. (Page 18.)
+
+English translation by Professor Elton (London, D. Nutt, 1894). As
+Saxo's references to the old Gods are made in much the same sympathetic
+tone as that adopted by Old Testament writers towards heathen deities,
+his testimony on mythological questions is of the less value.
+
+
+_The Mistletoe_. (Page 20.)
+
+It seems incredible that any writers should turn to the travesty of
+the Baldr story given in the almost worthless saga of Hromund Gripsson
+in support of a theory. In it "Bildr" is killed by Hromund, who has
+the sword Mistilteinn. It must be patent to any one that this is a
+perverted version of a story which the narrator no longer understood.
+
+
+_Loki_. (Page 26.)
+
+It is hardly necessary to point out the parallel between Loki and
+Prometheus, also both helper and enemy of the Gods, and agent in their
+threatened fall, though in the meantime a prisoner. In character
+Loki has more in common with the mischievous spirit described by
+Hesiod, than with the heroic figure of Aeschylus. The struggles of
+Loki (p. 28) find a parallel in those of the fire-serpent Typhon,
+to which the Greeks attributed earthquakes.
+
+
+_Eclipse Ritual_. (Page 35.)
+
+Mr. Lang, in _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, (London, 1887)  gives
+examples of eclipse ritual. Grimm, in the _Teutonic Mythology_,
+vol. 2, quotes Finnish and Lithuanian myths about sun-devouring beasts,
+very similar to the Fenri myth.
+
+
+_The Skalds_. (Page 35.)
+
+All the Skaldic verses will be found, with translations, in the
+_Corpus Poeticum_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 1, by Winifred Faraday
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 1, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 1
+       The Divine Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+       Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+       
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13007]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 1 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+
+
+
+The Edda
+
+I
+
+The Divine Mythology of the North
+
+
+By
+
+Winifred Faraday, M.A.
+
+
+
+Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
+1902
+
+
+
+
+Author's Note
+
+Some explanation is needed of the form of spelling I have adopted
+in transcribing Norse proper names. The spirants thorn and eth
+are represented by _th_ and _d_, as being more familiar to readers
+unacquainted with the  original. Marks of vowel-length are in all cases
+omitted. The inflexional _-r_ of the nominative singular masculine
+is also omitted, whether it appears as _-r_ or is assimilated to a
+preceding consonant (as in Odinn, Eysteinn, Heindall, Egill) in the
+Norse form, with the single exception of the name Tyr, where I use
+the form which has become conventional in English.
+
+Manchester,
+December 1901.
+
+
+
+
+The Edda: I. The Divine Mythology of the North
+
+
+The Icelandic Eddas are the only vernacular record of Germanic
+heathendom as it developed during the four centuries which in England
+saw the destruction of nearly all traces of the heathen system. The
+so-called Elder Edda is a collection of some thirty poems, mythic and
+heroic in substance, interspersed with short pieces of prose, which
+survives in a thirteenth-century MS., known as the Codex Regius,
+discovered in Iceland in 1642; to these are added other poems of
+similar character from other sources. The Younger Edda is a prose
+paraphrase of, and commentary on, these poems and others which are
+lost, together with a treatise on metre, written by the historian
+Snorri Sturluson about 1220.
+
+This use of the word Edda is incorrect and unhistorical, though
+convenient and sanctioned by the use of several centuries. It was early
+used as a general term for the rules and materials for versemaking,
+and applied in this sense to Snorri's work. When the poems on which
+his paraphrase is founded were discovered, Icelandic scholars by a
+misunderstanding applied the name to them also; and as they attributed
+the collection quite arbitrarily to the historian Saemund (1056-1133),
+it was long known as Saemundar Edda, a name now generally discarded in
+favour of the less misleading titles of Elder or Poetic Edda. From its
+application to this collection, the word derives a more extended use,
+(1) as a general term for Norse mythology; (2) as a convenient name
+to distinguish the simpler style of these anonymous narrative poems
+from the elaborate formality of the Skalds.
+
+The poems of the Edda are certainly older than the MS., although
+the old opinion as to their high antiquity is untenable. The majority
+probably date from the tenth century in their present form; this dating
+does not necessitate the ascription of the shape in which the legends
+are presented, still less of their substance, to that period. With
+regard to the place of their composition opinions vary widely,
+Norway, the British Isles and Greenland having all found champions;
+but the evidence is rather questionable, and I incline to leave
+them to the country which has preserved them. They are possibly of
+popular origin; this, together with their epic or narrative character,
+would account for the striking absence from them of some of the chief
+characteristics of Skaldic poetry: the obscuring of the sense by the
+elaborate interlacing of sentences and the extensive use of kennings
+or mythological synonyms, and the complication of the metre by such
+expedients as the conjunction of end-rhyme with alliteration. Eddie
+verse is governed solely by the latter, and the strophic arrangement
+is simple, only two forms occurring: (1) couplets of alliterative
+short lines; (2) six-line strophes, consisting of a couplet followed
+by a single short line, the whole repeated.
+
+Roughly speaking, the first two-fifths of the MS. is mythological,
+the rest heroic. I propose to observe this distinction, and to
+deal in this study with the stories of the Gods. In this connexion,
+Snorri's Edda and the mythical Ynglinga Saga may also be considered,
+but as both were compiled a couple of centuries or more after the
+introduction of Christianity into Iceland, it is uncertain how much in
+them is literary explanation of tradition whose meaning was forgotten;
+some also, especially in Snorri, is probably pure invention, fairy
+tale rather than myth.
+
+Many attempts have been made to prove that the material of the Edda
+is largely borrowed. The strength and distinction of Icelandic poetry
+rest rather on the fact that it is original and national and, like
+that of Greece, owes little to foreign sources; and that it began in
+the heathen age, before Christian or Romantic influences had touched
+Iceland. Valuable as the early Christian poetry of England is, we look
+in vain there for the humour, the large-minded simplicity of motive,
+the suggestive character-drawing, the swift dramatic action, which
+are as conspicuous in many poems in the Edda as in many of the Sagas.
+
+Omitting the heroic poems, there are in Codex Regius the following: (1)
+Of a more or less comprehensive character, _Völuspa, Vafthrudnismal,
+Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Harbardsljod_; (2) dealing with episodes,
+_Hymiskvida, Thrymskvida, Skirnisför. Havamal_ is a collection
+of proverbs, but contains two interpolations from mythical
+poems; _Alvissmal_, which, in the form of a dialogue between
+Thor and a dwarf Alviss, gives a list of synonyms, is a kind of
+mythologico-poetical glossary. Several of these poems are found
+in another thirteenth-century vellum fragment, with an additional
+one, variously styled _Vegtamskvida_ or _Baldr's Dreams_; the great
+fourteenth-century codex Flateybook contains _Hyndluljod_, partly
+genealogical, partly an imitation of _Völuspa_; and one of the MSS. of
+Snorri's Edda gives us _Rigsthula_.
+
+_Völuspa_, though not one of the earliest poems, forms an appropriate
+opening. Metrical considerations forbid an earlier date than the
+first quarter of the eleventh century, and the last few lines are
+still later. The material is, however, older: the poem is an outline,
+in allusions often obscure to us, of traditions and beliefs familiar to
+its first hearers. The very bareness of the outline is sufficient proof
+that the material is not new. The framework is apparently imitated from
+that of the poem known as _Baldr's Dreams_, some lines from which are
+inserted in _Völuspa_. This older poem describes Odin's visit to the
+Sibyl in hell-gates to inquire into the future. He rides down to her
+tomb at the eastern door of Nifl-hell and chants spells, until she
+awakes and asks: "What man unknown to me is that, who has troubled me
+with this weary journey? Snow has snowed on me, rain has beaten me,
+dew has drenched me, I have long been dead." He gives the name Wegtam,
+or Way-wise, and then follow question and answer until she discovers
+his identity and will say no more. In _Völuspa_ there is no descriptive
+introduction, and no dialogue; the whole is spoken by the Sibyl,
+who plunges at once into her story, with only the explanatory words:
+"Thou, Valfather, wouldst have me tell the ancient histories of men as
+far as I remember." She describes the creation of the world and sky
+by Bor's sons; the building by the Gods of a citadel in Ida-plain,
+and their age of innocence till three giant-maids brought greed of
+gold; the creation of the dwarfs; the creation of the first man and
+woman out of two trees by Odin, Hoeni and Lodur; the world-ash and
+the spring beside it where dwell the three Norns who order the fates
+of men. Then follows an allusion to the war between the Aesir and the
+Vanir, the battle with the giants who had got possession of the goddess
+Freyja, and the breaking of bargains; an obscure reference to Mimi's
+spring where Odin left his eye as a pledge; and an enumeration of his
+war-maids or Valkyries. Turning to the future, the Sibyl prophesies
+the death of Baldr, the vengeance on his slayer, and the chaining of
+Loki, the doom of the Gods and the destruction of the world at the
+coming of the fire-giants and the release of Loki's children from
+captivity. The rest of the poem seems to be later; it tells how the
+earth shall rise again from the deep, and the Aesir dwell once more
+in Odin's halls, and there is a suggestion of Christian influence in
+it which is absent from the earlier part.
+
+Of the other general poems, the next four were probably composed before
+950; in each the setting is different. _Vafthrudnismal_, a riddle-poem,
+shows Odin in a favourite position, seeking in disguise for knowledge
+of the future. Under the name of Gangrad (Wanderer), he visits the
+wise giant Vafthrudni, and the two agree to test their wisdom: the one
+who fails to answer a question is to forfeit his head. In each case
+the questions deal first with the past. Vafthrudni asks about Day and
+Night, and the river which divides the Giants from the Gods, matters of
+common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future: "What is
+the plain where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?" Odin
+replies, and proceeds to question in his turn; first about the creation
+of Earth and Sky, the origin of Sun and Moon, Winter and Summer, the
+Giants and the Winds; the coming of Njörd the Wane to the Aesir as
+a hostage; the Einherjar, or chosen warriors of Valhalla. Then come
+prophetic questions on the destruction of the Sun by the wolf Fenri,
+the Gods who shall rule in the new world after Ragnarök, the end of
+Odin. The poem is brought to a close by Odin's putting the question
+which only himself can answer: "What did Odin say in his son's ear
+before he mounted the pyre?" and the giant's head is forfeit.
+
+In the third poem of this class, _Grimnismal_, a prose introduction
+relates that Odin and Frigg quarrelled over the merits of their
+respective foster-children. To settle the question, Odin goes
+disguised as Grimni, "the Hooded One," to visit his foster-son Geirröd;
+but Frigg, to justify her charge of inhospitality against Geirröd,
+sends her maiden Fulla to warn him against the coming stranger. Odin
+therefore meets with a harsh reception, and is bound between two fires
+in the hall. Geirröd's young son, Agnar, protests against this rude
+treatment, and gives wine to the guest, who then begins to instruct
+him in matters concerning the Gods. He names the halls of the Aesir,
+describes Valhalla and the ash Yggdrasil, the Valkyries, the creation
+of the world (two stanzas in common with _Vafthrudnismal_), and
+enumerates his own names. The poem ends with impressive abruptness
+by his turning to Geirröd:
+
+"Thou art drunk, Geirröd, thou hast drunk too deep; thou art bereft
+of much since thou hast lost my favour, the favour of Odin and all
+the Einherjar. I have told thee much, but thou hast minded little. Thy
+friends betray thee: I see my friend's sword lie drenched in blood. Now
+shall Odin have the sword-weary slain; I know thy life is ended,
+the Fates are ungracious. Now thou canst see Odin: come near me,
+if thou canst."
+
+[Prose.] "King Geirröd sat with his sword on his knee, half drawn. When
+he heard that Odin was there, he stood up and would have led Odin
+from the fires. The sword slipt from his hand; the hilt turned
+downwards. The king caught his foot and fell forwards, the sword
+standing towards him, and so he met his death. Then Odin went away,
+and Agnar was king there long afterwards."
+
+_Harbardsljod_ is a dialogue, and humorous. Thor on his return from
+the east comes to a channel, at the farther side of which stands Odin,
+disguised as a ferryman, Greybeard. He refuses to ferry Thor across,
+and they question each other as to their past feats, with occasional
+threats from Thor and taunts from Odin, until the former goes off
+vowing vengeance on the ferryman:
+
+_Thor_. "Thy skill in words would serve thee ill if I waded across
+the water; I think thou wouldst cry louder than the wolf, if thou
+shouldst get a blow from the hammer."
+
+_Odin_. "Sif has a lover at home, thou shouldst seek him. That is a
+task for thee to try, it is more proper for thee."
+
+_Thor_. "Thou speakest what thou knowest most displeasing to me;
+thou cowardly fellow, I think that thou liest."
+
+_Odin_. "I think I speak true; thou art slow on the road. Thou wouldst
+have got far, if thou hadst started at dawn."
+
+_Thor_. "Harbard, scoundrel, it is rather thou who hast delayed me."
+
+_Odin_. "I never thought a shepherd could so delay Asa-Thor's journey."
+
+_Thor_. "I will counsel thee: row thy boat hither. Let us cease
+quarrelling; come and meet Magni's father."
+
+_Odin_. "Leave thou the river; crossing shall be refused thee."
+
+_Thor_. "Show me the way, since thou wilt not ferry me."
+
+_Odin_. "That is a small thing to refuse. It is a long way to go: a
+while to the stock, and another to the stone, then keep to the left
+hand till thou reach Verland. There will Fjörgyn meet her son Thor,
+and she will tell him the highway to Odin's land."
+
+_Thor_. "Shall I get there to-day?"
+
+_Odin_. "With toil and trouble thou wilt get there about sunrise,
+as I think."
+
+_Thor_. "Our talk shall be short, since thou answerest with mockery. I
+will reward thee for refusing passage, if we two meet again."
+
+_Odin_. "Go thy way, where all the fiends may take thee."
+
+_Lokasenna_ also is in dialogue form. A prose introduction tells
+how the giant Oegi, or Gymi, gave a feast to the Aesir. Loki was
+turned out for killing a servant, but presently returned and began to
+revile the Gods and Goddesses, each one in turn trying to interfere,
+only to provoke a taunt from Loki. At last Thor, who had been absent
+on a journey, came in and threatened the slanderer with his hammer,
+whereupon Loki said, "I spoke to the Aesir and the sons of the Aesir
+what my mind told me; but for thee alone I will go away, for I know
+thou wilt strike." Some of the poem is rather pointless abuse, but
+much touches points already suggested in the other poems.
+
+_Hyndluljod_ is much later than the others, probably  not before
+1200. The style is late, and the form imitated from _Völuspa_. It
+describes a visit paid by Freyja to the Sibyl to learn the genealogy of
+her favourite Ottar. The larger part deals with heroic genealogies, but
+there are scanty allusions to Baldr, Frey, Heimdal, Loki's children,
+and Thor, and a Christian reference to a God who shall come after
+Ragnarök "when Odin shall meet the wolf." It tells nothing new.
+
+We have here then, omitting _Hyndluljod_, five poems (four of them
+belonging to the first half of the tenth century) which suggest a
+general outline of Norse mythology: there is a hierarchy of Gods, the
+Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin being the chief. Among
+them are several who are not Aesir by origin: Njörd and his son and
+daughter, Frey and Freyja, are Vanir; Loki is really an enemy and
+an agent in their fall; and there are one or two Goddesses of giant
+race. The giants are rivals and enemies to the Gods; the dwarfs are
+also antagonistic, but in bondage. The meeting-place of the Gods is
+by the World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of Gods
+and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake. The Gods have
+foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnarök, the great fight when they
+shall meet Loki's children, the Wolf and the Snake; both sides will
+fall and the world be destroyed. An episode in the story is the death
+of Baldr. This we may assume to be the religion of the Viking age
+(800-1000 A.D.), a compound of the beliefs of various ages and tribes.
+
+_The Aesir._--The number of the Aesir is not fixed. _Hyndluljod_
+says there were twelve ("there were eleven Aesir when Baldr went
+down into the howe"). Snorri gives a list of fourteen Aesir or Gods
+(Odin, Thor, Baldr, Njörd, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdal, Höd, Vidar, Vali,
+Ullr, Forseti, Loki), and adds Hoeni in another list, all the fifteen
+occurring in the poems; and sixteen Goddesses (Asynjor), the majority
+of whom are merely personified epithets, occurring nowhere else. Of
+the sixteen, Frigg, Gefion, Freyja and Saga (really an epithet only)
+are Goddesses in the poems, and Fulla is Frigg's handmaid. In another
+chapter, Snorri adds Idunn, Gerd, Sigyn and Nanna, of whom the latter
+does not appear in the Elder Edda, where Idunn, Gerd (a giantess)
+and Sigyn are the wives of Bragi, Frey and Loki; and two others,
+the giantess Skadi and Sif, are the wives of Njörd and Thor.
+
+A striking difference from classical mythology is that neither Tyr
+(who should etymologically be the Sky-god), nor Thor (the Thunder-god),
+takes the highest place. Tyr is the hero of one important episode,
+the chaining of the Wolf, through which he loses his right hand. This
+is told in full by Snorri and alluded to in _Lokasenna_, both in the
+prose preface ("Tyr also was there, with only one hand; the Fenris-wolf
+had bitten off the other, when he was bound") and in the poem itself:
+
+_Loki_. "I must remember that right hand which Fenri bit off thee."
+
+_Tyr_. "I am short of a hand, but thou of the famous wolf; to each
+the loss is ill-luck. Nor is the wolf in better plight, for he must
+wait in bonds till Ragnarök."
+
+Otherwise, he only appears in connexion with two more popular Gods:
+he speaks in Frey's defence in _Lokasenna_, and in _Hymiskvida_ he
+is Thor's companion in the search for a cauldron; the latter poem
+represents him as a giant's son.
+
+Thor, on the other hand, is second only to his father Odin; he is
+the strongest of the Gods and their champion against the giants,
+and his antagonist at Ragnarök is to be the World-Snake. Like Odin,
+he travels much, but while the chief God generally goes craftily and
+in disguise, to gain knowledge or test his wisdom, Thor's errands are
+warlike; in _Lokasenna_ he is absent on a journey, in _Harbardsljod_
+and _Alvissmal_ he is returning from one. His journeys are always
+to the east; so in _Harbardsljod_: "I was in the east, fighting
+the malevolent giant-brides.... I was in the east and guarding the
+river, when Svarang's sons attacked me." The Giants live in the
+east (_Hymiskvida_ 5); Thor threatened Loki: "I will fling thee up
+into the east, and no one shall see thee more" (_Lokasenna_ 59);
+the fire-giants at Ragnarök are to come from the east: "Hrym comes
+driving from the east, he lifts his shield before him.... A ship
+comes from the east, Muspell's sons will come sailing over the
+sea, and Loki steers" (_Völuspa_ 50, 51). It would not, perhaps,
+be overstraining the point to suggest that this is a reminiscence of
+early warfare between the Scandinavians and eastern nations, either
+Lapps and Finns or Slavonic tribes.
+
+Thor is the God of natural force, the son of Earth. Two of the
+episodical poems deal with his contests with the giants. _Thrymskvida_,
+the story of how Thor won back his hammer, Mjöllni, from the giant
+Thrym, is the finest and one of the oldest of the mythological poems;
+a translation is given in the appendix, as an example of Eddic poetry
+at its best. Loki appears as the willing helper of the Gods, and Thor's
+companion. The Thunderer's journey with Tyr in quest of a cauldron
+is related with much humour in _Hymiskvida_: Hymi's beautiful wife,
+who helps her guests to outwit her husband, is a figure familiar in
+fairy-tales as the Ogre's wife.
+
+The chief God of the Scandinavians is, it must be confessed, an
+unsympathetic character. He is the head of the Valhalla system;
+he is Val-father (Father of the Slain), and the Valkyries are his
+"Wishmaidens," as the Einherjar are his "Wishsons." He naturally takes
+a special interest in mortal heroes, from whom come the chosen hosts
+of Valhalla. But, in spite of the splendour of his surroundings, he
+is wanting in dignity. The chief of the Gods has neither the might and
+unthinking valour of Thor, nor the self-sacrificing courage of Tyr. He
+is a God who practises magic, and it is as Father of Spells that he is
+powerful. He is the wisest of the Gods in the sense that he remembers
+most about the past and foresees most about the future; yet he is
+powerless in difficulty without the craft of Loki and the hammer of
+Thor. He always wanders in disguise, and the stories told of him are
+chiefly love-adventures; this is true of all the deeds he mentions
+in _Harbardsljod_, and also of the two interpolations in _Havamal_,
+though one of the two had an object, the stealing of the mead of
+inspiration from the giant Suptung, whose daughter Gunnlöd guarded it.
+
+_Völuspa_ makes him one of three creative deities, the other two being
+Lodur (probably Loki) and Hoeni, of whom nothing else is known except
+the story that he was given as hostage to the Vanir in exchange for
+Njörd. The same three Gods (Odin, Loki and Hoeni) are connected with
+the legend of the Nibelung treasure; and it was another adventure of
+theirs, according to Snorri, which led to the loss of Idunn.
+
+Of the other Gods, Bragi is a later development; his name means
+simply king or chief, and his attributes, as God of eloquence and
+poetry, are apparently borrowed from Odin. Heimdal, the watchman and
+"far-seeing like the Vanir," who keeps guard on the rainbow bridge
+Bifröst, is represented in the curious poem _Rigsthula_ as founder of
+the different social orders. He wandered over the world under the name
+of Rig, and from his first journey sprang the race of thralls, swarthy,
+crooked and broad-backed, who busied themselves with fencing land and
+tending goats and swine; from his second, the churls, fine and ruddy,
+who broke oxen, built houses and ploughed the land; from his third,
+the earls, yellow-haired, rosy, and keen-eyed, who broke horses and
+strung bows, rode, swam, and hurled spears; and the youngest of the
+earls' race was Konung the king, who knew all mysteries, understood
+the speech of birds, could quench fire and heal wounds. Heimdal is
+said to be the son of nine mothers, and to have fought with Loki for
+Freyja's Brising-necklace. His horn is hidden under Yggdrasil, to be
+brought out at Ragnarök, when he will blow a warning blast. His origin
+is obscure. Still less is known of Vidar and Vali, two sons of Odin,
+one of whom is to avenge Baldr's death, the other to slay the wolf
+after it has swallowed up the chief God at Ragnarök. Thor's stepson
+Ullr (Glory) is probably, like his sons Modi and Magni (Wrath and
+Strength), a mere epithet.
+
+Frigg, Odin's wife and the chief Goddess, daughter of Earth,
+is not very distinctly characterised, and is often confused with
+Freyja. Gefion should be the sea-goddess, since that seems to be
+the meaning of her name, but her functions are apparently usurped by
+the Wane Njörd; according to Snorri, she is the patron of those who
+die unwedded.
+
+_Baldr_.--The story of Baldr is the most debated point in the Edda. The
+chief theories advanced are: (1) That it is the oldest part of Norse
+mythology, and of ritual origin; (2) that Baldr is really a hero
+transformed into a God; (3) that the legend is a solar myth with
+or without Christian colouring;  (4) that it is entirely borrowed
+from Mediæval Greek and Christian sources. This last theory is too
+ingenious to be credible; and with regard to the third, there is
+nothing essentially Christian in the chief features of the legend,
+while the solar idea leaves too much unexplained. The references to
+the myth in the Elder Edda are:
+
+(1) _Vegtamskvida_ (about 900 A.D.). Odin questions the Sibyl as to
+the meaning of Baldr's dreams:
+
+_Odin_. "For whom are the benches (in hell) strewn with rings, the
+halls fairly adorned with gold?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Here the mead, clear drink, stands brewed for Baldr; the
+shields are spread. The sons of the Aesir are too merry."
+
+_Odin_. "Who will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Höd bears thither the high branch of fame: he will be
+Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life."
+
+_Odin_. "Who will avenge the deed on Höd and bring Baldr's slayer to
+the funeral pyre?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Rind bears a son, Vali, in the halls of the west. He shall
+not wash his hands nor comb his hair till he bears Baldr's foe to
+the pyre."
+
+(2) In _Lokasenna_ Frigg says: "If I had a son like Baldr here in
+Oegi's halls, thou shouldst not pass out from the sons of the Aesir,
+but be slain here in thy anger"; to which Loki replies, "Wilt thou
+that I speak more ill words, Frigg? I am the cause that thou wilt
+never more see Baldr ride into the hall."
+
+(3) In _Vafthrudnismal_ the only reference is Odin's question,
+"What said Odin in his son's ear when he mounted the pyre?"
+
+(4) In _Völuspa_ the Sibyl prophesies, "I saw doom threatening Baldr,
+the bleeding victim, the son of Odin. Grown high above the meadows
+stood the mistletoe, slender and fair. From this stem, which looked
+so slender, grew a fatal and dangerous shaft. Höd shot it, and Frigg
+wept in Fenhall over Valhall's woe."  The following lines, on the
+chaining of Loki, suggest his complicity.
+
+(5) _Hyndluljod_ has one reference: "There were eleven Aesir by
+number when Baldr went down into the howe. Vali was his avenger and
+slew his brother's slayer."
+
+Besides these there is a fragment quoted by Snorri: "Thökk will weep
+dry tears at Baldr's funeral pyre. I had no good of the old man's
+son alive or dead; let Hel keep what she has." _Grimnismal_ assigns
+a hall to Baldr among the Gods.
+
+There are, in addition, two prose versions of the story by later
+writers: the Icelandic version of Snorri (1178-1241) with all the
+details familiar to every one; and the Latin one of the Dane Saxo
+Grammaticus (about thirty years earlier), which makes Baldr and Höd
+heroes instead of Gods, and completely alters the character of the
+legend by making a rivalry for Nanna's favour the centre of the plot
+and cause of the catastrophe. On the Eddic version and on Saxo's
+depend the theories of Golther, Detter, Niedner and other German
+scholars on the one hand, and Dr. Frazer on the other.
+
+It has often been pointed out that there is no trace of Baldr-worship
+in other Germanic nations, nor in any of the Icelandic sagas except
+the late Frithjofssaga. This, however, is true of other Gods, notably
+of Tyr, who is without question one of the oldest. The only deities
+named with any suggestion of sacrifice or worship in the Icelandic
+sagas proper are Odin, Thor, Frey, Njörd, Frigg and Freyja. The process
+of choice is as arbitrary in mythology as in other sciences. Again,
+it is more likely that the original version of the legend should have
+survived in Iceland than in Denmark, which, being on the mainland,
+was earlier subject to Christian and Romantic influences; and
+that a heathen God should, in the two or three centuries following
+the establishment of Christianity in the North, be turned into a
+mortal hero, than that the reverse process should have acted at a
+sufficiently late date to permit of both versions existing side by
+side in the thirteenth century. A similar gradual elimination of the
+supernatural may be found in the history of the Volsung myth. Snorri's
+version is merely an amplification of that in the Elder Edda, which,
+scanty as its account of Baldr is, leaves no doubt as to his divinity.
+
+The outline gathered from the poems is as follows: Baldr, Odin's son,
+is killed by his brother Höd through a mistletoe spray; Loki is in some
+way concerned in his death, which is an overwhelming misfortune to the
+Gods; but it is on Höd that his death is avenged. He is burnt on a pyre
+(Snorri says on his ship, a feature which must come from the Viking
+age; _Hyndluljod_ substitutes howe-burial). He will be absent from
+the great fight at Ragnarök, but _Völuspa_ adds that he will return
+afterwards. Nanna has nothing to do with the story. The connexion with
+the hierarchy of the Aesir seems external only, since Baldr has no
+apparent relation to the great catastrophe as have Odin, Thor, Frej,
+Tyr and Loki; this, then, would point to the independence of his myth.
+
+The genuineness of the myth seems to depend on whether the mistletoe
+is an original feature of it or not, and on this point there can
+be little real doubt. The German theory that Baldr could only be
+killed by his own sword, which was therefore disguised by enchantment
+and used against him, and that the Icelandic writers misunderstood
+this to mean a mistletoe sprig, is far-fetched and romantic, and
+crumbles at a touch. For if, as it is claimed, the Icelanders had no
+mistletoe, why should they introduce it into a story to which it did
+not belong? They might preserve it by tradition, but they would hardly
+invent it. Granting this, the mistletoe becomes the central point of
+the legend. The older mythologists, who only saw in it a sun-myth,
+overlooked the fact that since any weapon would have done to kill
+the God with, the mistletoe must have some special significance; and
+if it is a genuine part of the story, as we have no reason to doubt,
+it will be hard to overturn Dr. Frazer's theory that the Baldr-myth
+is a relic of tree-worship and the ritual sacrifice of the God,
+Baldr being a tree-spirit whose soul is contained in the mistletoe.
+
+The contradictions in the story, especially as told by Snorri
+(such as the confusion between the parts played by Höd and Loki,
+and the unsuspicious attitude of the Gods as Loki directs Höd's aim)
+are sometimes urged against its genuineness. They are rather proofs
+of antiquity. Apparent contradictions whose explanation is forgotten
+often survive in tradition; the inventor of a new story takes care to
+make it consistent. It is probable, however, that there were originally
+only two actors in the episode, the victim and the slayer, and that
+Loki's part is later than Höd's, for he really belongs to the Valhall
+and Ragnarök myth, and was only introduced here as a link. The incident
+of the oath extracted from everything on earth to protect Baldr, which
+occurs in Snorri and in a paper MS. of _Baldr's Dreams_, was probably
+invented to explain the choice of weapon, which would certainly need
+explanation to an Icelandic audience. If Dr. Frazer's theory be right,
+Vali, who slew the slayer, must also have been an original figure in
+the legend. His antiquity is supported by the fact that he plays the
+part of avenger in the poems; while in Snorri, where he is mentioned
+as a God, his absence from the account of Baldr's death is only a
+part of that literary development by which real responsibility for
+the murder was transferred from Höd to Loki.
+
+Snorri gives Baldr a son, Forseti (Judge), who is also named as a
+God in _Grimnismal_. He must have grown out of an epithet of Baldr's,
+of whom Snorri says that "no one can resist his sentence"; the sacred
+tree would naturally be the seat of judgment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Wanes._--Three of the Norse divinities, Njörd and his son and
+daughter, are not Aesir by descent. The following account is given
+of their presence in Asgard:
+
+(1) In _Vafthrudnismal_, Odin asks:
+
+"Whence came Njörd among the sons of the Aesir? for he was not born
+of the Aesir."
+
+_Vafthrudni_. "In Vanaheim wise powers ordained and gave him for a
+hostage to the Gods; at the doom of the world he shall come back,
+home to the wise Wanes."
+
+(2) There is an allusion in _Völuspa_ to the war which caused the
+giving of hostages:
+
+"Odin shot into the host: this was the first war in the world. Broken
+was the wall of the citadel of the Aesir, so that the Wanes could
+tread the fields of war."
+
+(3) Loki taunts Njörd with his position, in _Lokasenna_:
+
+"Thou wast sent from the east as a hostage to the Gods...."
+
+_Njörd_. "This is my comfort, though I was sent from far as a hostage
+to the Gods, yet I have a son whom no one hates, and he is thought
+the best of the Aesir."
+
+_Loki_. "Stay, Njörd, restrain thy pride; I will hide it no longer:
+thy son is thine own sister's son, and that is no worse than one
+would expect."
+
+_Tyr_. "Frey is the best of all the bold riders of Asgard."
+
+There is little doubt that Njörd was once a God of higher importance
+than he is in the Edda, where he is overshadowed by his son. Grimm's
+suggestion that he and the goddess Nerthus, mentioned by Tacitus,
+were brother and sister, is supported by the line in _Lokasenna_; it
+is an isolated reference, and the Goddess has left no other traces in
+Scandinavian mythology. They were the deities, probably agricultural,
+of an earlier age, whose adoption by the later Northmen was explained
+by the story of the compact between Aesir and Vanir. Then their places
+were usurped by Frey and Freyja, who were possibly created out of
+epithets originally applied to the older pair; Njörd was retained
+with lessened importance, Nerthus passed out altogether. The Edda
+gives Njörd a giant-bride, Skadi, who was admitted among the Gods in
+atonement for the slaying of her father Thiazi; she is little more
+than a name. Frey and Freyja have other marks of agricultural deities,
+besides their relationship. Nothing is said about Frey's changing
+shape, but Freyja possesses a hawk-dress which Loki borrows when
+he wishes to change his form; and, according to Snorri, Frey was
+sacrificed to for the crops. Njörd has an epithet, "the wealthy,"
+which may have survived from his earlier connexion with the soil. In
+that case, it would explain why, in Snorri and elsewhere, he is God of
+the sea and ships, once the province of the ocean-goddess Gefion; the
+transference is a natural one to an age whose wealth came from the sea.
+
+In spite of their origin, Frey and Freyja become to all intents
+and purposes Aesir. Frey is to be one of the chief combatants at
+Ragnarök, with the fire-giant Surt for his antagonist, and a story is
+told to explain his defeat: he fell in love with Gerd, a giant-maid,
+and sacrificed his sword to get her; hence he is weaponless at the
+last fight. Loki alludes to this episode in _Lokasenna_: "With gold
+didst thou buy Gymi's daughter, and gavest thy sword for her; but when
+Muspell's sons ride over Myrkwood, thou shalt not know with what to
+fight, unhappy one." The story is told in full in _Skirnisför_.
+
+Freyja is called by Snorri "the chief Goddess after Frigg," and the
+two are sometimes confused. Like her father and brother, she comes into
+connexion with the giants; she is the beautiful Goddess, and coveted by
+them. _Völuspa_ says that the Gods went into consultation to discuss
+"who had given the bride of Od (_i.e._, Freyja) to the giant race";
+_Thrymskvida_ relates how the giant Thrym bargained for Freyja as
+the ransom for Thor's hammer, which he had hidden, and how Loki and
+Thor outwitted him; and Snorri says the giants bargained for her as
+the price for building Valhalla, but were outwitted. Sir G.W. Dasent
+notices in the folk-tales the eagerness of trolls and giants to learn
+the details of the agricultural processes, and this is probably the
+clue to the desire of the Frost-Giants in the Edda for the possession
+of Freyja. Idunn, the wife of Bragi, and a purely Norse creation, seems
+to be a double of Freyja; she, too, according to Snorri, is carried
+away by the giants and rescued by Loki. The golden apples which she
+is to keep till Ragnarök remind us of those which Frey offered to
+Gerd; and the gift of eternal youth, of which they are the symbols,
+would be appropriate enough to Freyja as an agricultural deity.
+
+The great necklace Brising, stolen by Loki and won back in fight
+by Heimdal (according to the tenth-century Skalds Thjodulf and Ulf
+Uggason), is Freyja's property. On this ground, she has been identified
+with the heroine of _Svipdag and Menglad_, a poem undoubtedly old,
+though it has only come down in paper MSS. It is in two parts, the
+first telling how Svipdag aroused the Sibyl Groa, his mother, to
+give him spells to guard him on his journey; the second describing
+his crossing the wall of fire which surrounded his fated bride
+Menglad. If Menglad is really Freyja, the "Necklace-glad," it is a
+curious coincidence that one poem connects the waverlowe, or ring of
+fire, with Frey also; for his bride Gerd is protected in the same way,
+though his servant Skirni goes through it in his place:
+
+_Skirni_. "Give me the horse that will bear me through the dark magic
+waverlowe, and the sword that fights of itself against the giant-race."
+
+_Frey_. "I give thee the horse that will bear thee through the dark
+magic waverlowe, and the sword that will fight of itself if he is
+bold who bears it." (_Skirnisför_.)
+
+The connexion of both with the Midsummer fires, originally part of
+an agricultural ritual, can hardly be doubted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Loki_, or Lopt, is a strange figure. He is admitted among the Aesir,
+though not one of them by birth, and his whole relation to them
+points to his being an older elemental God. He is in alliance with
+them against the giants; he and Odin have sworn blood-brothership,
+according to _Lokasenna_, and he helps Thor to recover his hammer
+that Asgard may be defended against the giants. On the other hand,
+while in present alliance with the Gods, he is chief agent in their
+future destruction, and this they know. In Snorri, he is a mischievous
+spirit of the fairy-tale kind, exercising his ingenuity alternately in
+getting the Gods into difficulties, and in getting them out again. So
+he betrays Idunn to the giants, and delivers her; he makes the bargain
+by which Freyja is promised to the giant-builders of Valhalla,
+and invents the trick by which they are cheated of their prize;
+by killing the otter he endangers his own head, Odin's and Hoeni's,
+and he obtains the gold which buys their atonement. Hence, in the
+systematising of the Viking religion, the responsibility for Baldr's
+death also was transferred to him. At the coming of the fire-giants
+at Ragnarök, he is to steer the ship in which Muspell's sons sail
+(_Völuspa_), further evidence of his identity as a fire-spirit. Like
+his son the Wolf, he is chained by the Gods; the episode is related
+in a prose-piece affixed to _Lokasenna_:
+
+"After that Loki hid himself in Franangr's Foss in the form of
+a salmon. There the Aesir caught him. He was bound with the guts
+of his son Nari, but his son Narfi was changed into a wolf. Skadi
+took a poisonous snake and fastened it up over Loki's face, and the
+poison dropped down. Sigyn, Loki's wife, sat there and held a cup
+under the poison. But when it was full she poured the poison away,
+and meanwhile poison dropped on Loki, and he struggled so hard that
+all the earth shook; those are called earthquakes now."
+
+_Völuspa_ inserts lines corresponding to this passage after the
+Baldr episode, and Snorri makes it a consequence of Loki's share in
+that event.
+
+He is more especially agent of the doom through his children:
+at Ragnarök, Fenri the Wolf, bound long before by Tyr's help,
+will be freed, and swallow the sun (_Vafthrudnismal_) and Odin
+(_Vafthrudnismal_ and _Völuspa_); and Jörmungandr, the Giant-Snake,
+will rise from the sea where he lies curled round the world, to slay
+and be slain by Thor. The dragon's writhing in the waves is one
+of the tokens to herald Ragnarök, and his battle with Thor is the
+fiercest combat of that day. Only _Völuspa_ of our poems gives any
+account of it: "Then comes the glorious son of Hlodyn, Odin's son
+goes to meet the serpent; Midgard's guardian slays him in his rage,
+but scarcely can Earth's son reel back nine feet from the dragon."
+
+When Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymi, he terrifies his companion
+by dragging the snake's head out of the sea, but he does not slay it;
+it must wait there till Ragnarök:
+
+"The protector of men, the only slayer of the Serpent, baited his hook
+with the ox's head. The God-hated one who girds all lands from below
+swallowed the bait. Doughtily pulled mighty Thor the poison-streaked
+serpent up to the side; he struck down with his hammer the hideous
+head of the wolf's companion. The monster roared, the wilderness
+resounded, the old earth shuddered all through. The fish sank back
+into the sea. Gloomy was the giant when they rowed back, so that he
+spoke not a word."
+
+There is nothing to suggest that Jörmungandr, to whom the word
+World-Snake (Midgardsorm) always refers in the Edda, is the same as
+Nidhögg, the serpent that gnaws at Yggdrasil's roots; but both are
+relics of Snake-worship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The World-Ash_, generally called Yggdrasil's Ash, is one of the most
+interesting survivals of tree-worship. It is described by the Sibyl
+in _Völuspa_: "I know an ash called Yggdrasil, a high tree sprinkled
+with white moisture (thence come the dews that fall in the dales):
+it stands ever-green by Urd's spring. Thence come three maids,
+all-knowing, from the hall that stands under the tree"; and as a
+sign of the approaching doom she says: "Yggdrasil's ash trembles as
+it stands; the old tree groans." _Grimnismal_ says that the Gods go
+every day to hold judgment by the ash, and describes it further:
+
+"Three roots lie three ways under Yggdrasil's ash: Hel dwells under
+one, the frost-giants under the second, mortal men under the third. The
+squirrel is called Ratatosk who shall run over Yggdrasil's ash;
+he shall carry down the eagle's words, and tell them to Nidhögg
+below. There are four harts, with necks thrown back, who gnaw
+off the shoots.... More serpents lie under Yggdrasil's ash than
+any one knows. Ofni and Svafni I know will ever gnaw at the tree's
+twigs. Yggdrasil's ash suffers more hardships than men know: the hart
+bites above, the side decays, and Nidhögg gnaws below.... Yggdrasil's
+ash is the best of trees."
+
+The snake and the tree are familiar in other mythologies, though in
+most other cases the snake is the protector, while here he is the
+destroyer. Both Nidhögg and Jörmungandr are examples of the destroying
+dragon rather than the treasure-guardian. The Ash is the oracle: the
+judgment-place of the Gods, the dwelling of the Fates, the source of
+the spring of knowledge.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ragnarök_.--The Twilight of the Gods (or Doom of the Gods) is the
+central point of the Viking religion. The Regin (of which _Ragna_
+is genitive plural) are the ruling powers, often called Ginnregin
+(the great Gods), Uppregin (the high Gods), Thrymregin (the warrior
+Gods). The word is commonly used of the Aesir in _Völuspa_; in
+_Alvissmal_ the Regin seem to be distinguished from both Aesir and
+Vanir. The whole story of the Aesir is overshadowed by knowledge of
+this coming doom, the time when they shall meet foes more terrible
+than the giants, and fall before them; their constant effort is to
+learn what will happen then, and to gather their forces together
+to meet it. The coming Ragnarök is the reason for the existence of
+Valhalla with its hosts of slain warriors; and of all the Gods, Odin,
+Thor, Tyr and Loki are most closely connected with it. Two poems of
+the verse Edda describe it:
+
+(1) _Vafthrudnismal_:
+
+V. "What is the plain called where Surt and the blessed Gods shall
+meet in battle?"
+
+O. "Vigrid is the name of the place where Surt and the blessed Gods
+shall meet in battle. It is a hundred miles every way; it is their
+destined battle-field."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+O. "Whence shall the sun come on the smooth heaven when Fenri has
+destroyed this one?"
+
+V. "Before Fenri destroy her, the elf-beam shall bear a daughter:
+that maid shall ride along her mother's paths, when the Gods perish."
+
+O. "Which of the Aesir shall rule over the realms of the Gods, when
+Surt's fire is quenched?"
+
+V. "Vidar and Vali shall dwell in the sanctuary of the Gods when
+Surt's fire is quenched. Modi and Magni shall have Mjöllni at the
+end of Vingni's (_i.e._, Thor's) combat."
+
+O. "What shall be Odin's end, when the Gods perish?"
+
+V. "The Wolf will swallow the father of men; Vidar will avenge it. He
+will cleave the Wolf's cold jaws in the battle."
+
+(2) _Völuspa_:
+
+"A hag sits eastward in Ironwood and rears Fenri's children; one of
+them all, in troll's shape, shall be the sun's destroyer. He shall
+feed on the lives of death-doomed men; with red blood he shall redden
+the seat of the Gods. The sunshine shall grow black, all winds will
+be unfriendly in the after-summers.... I see further in the future
+the great Ragnarök of the Gods of Victory.... Heimdal blows loudly,
+the horn is on high; Yggdrasil's ash trembles as it stands, the old
+tree groans."
+
+The following lines tell of the fire-giants and the various combats,
+and the last section of the poem deals with a new world when Baldr,
+Höd and Hoeni are to come back to the dwelling-place of the Gods.
+
+The whole points to a belief in the early destruction of the world
+and the passing away of the old order of things. Whether the new
+world which _Vafthrudnismal_ and _Völuspa_ both prophesy belongs to
+the original idea or not is a disputed point. Probably it does not;
+at all events, none of the old Aesir, according to the poems, are
+to survive, for Modi and Magni are not really Gods at all, Baldr,
+Höd and Vali belong to another myth, Hoeni had passed out of the
+hierarchy by his exchange with Njörd, and Vidar's origin is obscure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Einherjar_, the great champions or chosen warriors, are intimately
+connected with Ragnarök. All warriors who fall in battle are taken
+to Odin's hall of the slain, Valhalla. According to _Grimnismal_,
+he "chooses every day men dead by the sword"; his Valkyries ride
+to battle to give the victory and bring in the fallen. Hence Odin
+is the giver of victory. Loki in _Lokasenna_ taunts him with giving
+victory to the wrong side: "Thou hast never known how to decide the
+battle among men. Thou hast often given victory to those to whom thou
+shouldst not give it, to the more cowardly"; this, no doubt, was in
+order to secure the best fighters for Valhalla. That the defeated
+side sometimes consoled themselves with this explanation of a notable
+warrior's fall is proved by the tenth-century dirge on Eirik Bloodaxe,
+where Sigmund the Volsung asks in Valhalla: "Why didst thou take the
+victory from him, if thou thoughtest him brave?" and Odin replies:
+"Because it is uncertain when the grey Wolf will come to the seat
+of the Gods." There are similar lines in Eyvind's dirge on Hakon
+the Good. In this way a host was collected ready for Ragnarök:
+for _Grimnismal_  says: "There are five hundred doors and eighty
+in Valhalla; eight hundred Einherjar will go out from each door,
+when they go to fight the wolf." Meanwhile they fight and feast:
+"All the Einherjar in Odin's courts fight every day: they choose
+the slain and ride from the battle, and sit then in peace together"
+(_Vafthrudnismal_,) and the Valkyries bear ale to them _(Grimnismal_).
+
+It is often too hastily assumed that the Norse Ragnarök with
+the dependant Valhalla system are in great part the outcome of
+Christian influence: of an imitation of the Christian Judgment Day
+and the Christian heaven respectively. Owing to the lateness of our
+material, it is, of course, impossible to decide how old the beliefs
+may be, but it is likely that the Valhalla idea only took form at
+the systematising of the mythology in the Viking age. The belief
+in another world for the dead is, however, by no means exclusively
+Christian, and a reference in _Grimnismal_ suggests the older system
+out of which, under the influence of the Ragnarök idea, Valhalla was
+developed. The lines, "The ninth hall is Folkvang, where Freyja rules
+the ordering of seats in the hall; half the slain she chooses every
+day, Odin has the other half," are an evident survival of a belief
+that all the dead went to live with the Gods, Odin having the men,
+and Freyja (or more probably Frigg) the women; the idea being here
+confused with the later system, under which only those who fell in
+battle were chosen by the Gods. Christian colouring appears in the
+last lines of _Völuspa_ and in Snorri, where men are divided into the
+"good and moral," who go after death to a hall of red gold, and the
+"perjurers and murderers," who are sent to a hall of snakes.
+
+For Ragnarök also a heathen origin is at least as probable as a
+Christian one. I would suggest as a possibility that the expectation of
+the Twilight of the Gods may have grown out of some ritual connected
+with the eclipse, such as is frequent among heathen races. Such
+ceremonies are a tacit acknowledgment of a doubt, and if they ever
+existed among the Scandinavians, the possibility, ever present to
+the savage mind, of a time when his efforts to help the light might
+be fruitless, and the darkness prove the stronger, would be the germ
+of his more civilised descendant's belief in Ragnarök.
+
+By turning to the surviving poems of the Skalds, whose dates can be
+approximately reckoned from the sagas, we can fix an inferior limit
+for certain of the legends given above, placing them definitely in the
+heathen time. Reference has already been made to the corroboration
+of the Valhalla belief supplied by the elegies on Eirik Bloodaxe
+and Hakon the Good. In the former (which is anonymous, but must have
+been written soon after 950, since it was composed, on Eirik's death,
+by his wife's orders), Odin commands the Einherjar and Valkyries to
+prepare for the reception of the slain Eirik and his host, since no
+one knows how soon the Gods will need to gather their forces together
+for the great contest. Eyvind's dirge on Hakon (who fell in 970) is an
+imitation of this: Odin sends two Valkyries to choose a king to enter
+his service in Valhalla; they find Hakon on the battle-field, and
+he is slain with many of his followers. Great preparation is made in
+Valhalla for his reception, and the poet ends by congratulating Hakon
+(who, though a Christian, having been educated in England, had not
+interfered with the heathen altars and sacrifices) on the toleration
+which has secured him such a welcome. A still earlier poet, Hornklofi,
+writing during the reign of Harald Fairhair (who died in 933), alludes
+to the slain as the property of "the one-eyed husband of Frigg."
+
+Several Skalds mention legends of Thor: his fishing for the World-Snake
+is told by Bragi (who from his place in genealogies must have written
+before 900), and by Ulf Uggason and Eystein Valdason, both in the
+second half of the tenth century; and Thjodulf and Eilif (the former
+about 960, the latter a little later) tell tales of his fights with
+the giants. Turning to the other Gods, Egil Skallagrimsson (about 970)
+names Frey and Njörd as the givers of wealth; Bragi tells the story
+of Gefion's dragging the island of Zealand out of Lake Wener into
+the sea; and Ulf Uggason speaks of Heimdal's wrestling with Loki.
+
+The legend of Idunn is told by Thjodulf much as Snorri tells it:
+Odin, Hoeni and Loki, while on a journey, kill and roast an ox. The
+giant Thiazi swoops down in eagle's shape and demands a share; Loki
+strikes the eagle, who flies off with him, releasing him only on
+condition that he will betray to the giants Idunn, "the care-healing
+maid who understands the renewal of youth." He does so, and the Gods,
+who grow old and withered for want of her apples, force him to go
+and bring her back to Asgard.
+
+The poet of _Eiriksmal_, quoted above, alludes to the Baldr myth:
+Bragi, hearing the approach of Eirik and his host, asks "What is
+that thundering and tramping, as if Baldr were coming back to Odin's
+hall?" The funeral pyre of Baldr is described by Ulf Uggason: he is
+burnt on his ship, which is launched by a giantess, in the presence
+of Frey, Heimdal, Odin and the Valkyries.
+
+Though heathen writers outside of Scandinavia are lacking, references
+to Germanic heathendom fortunately survive in several Continental
+Christian historians of earlier date than any of our Scandinavian
+sources. The evidence of these, though scanty, is corroborative,
+and the allusions are in striking agreement with the Edda stories in
+tone and character.
+
+Odin (Wodanus) is always identified by these writers with the
+Roman Mercurius (whom Tacitus named as the chief German God). This
+identification occurs in the eighth-century Paulus Diaconus, and in
+Jonas of Bobbio (first half of the seventh century), and probably rests
+on Odin's character as a wandering God (Mercury being diaktoros), his
+disguises, and his patronage of poetry and eloquence (as Mercury is
+logios). Odin is not himself in general the conductor of dead souls
+(psychopompos), like the Roman God, his attendant Valkyries performing
+the office for him. The equation is only comprehensible on the
+presumption of the independence of Germanic mythology, and cannot be
+explained by transmission. For if Odin were in any degree an imitation
+of the Roman deity, other notable attributes of the latter would have
+been assigned to him: whereas in the Edda the thieving God (kleptis)
+is not Odin but Loki, and the founder of civilisation is Heimdal.
+
+The legend of the origin of the Lombards given by Paulus Diaconus
+illustrates the relations of Odin and Frigg. The Vandals asked Wodan
+(Odin) to grant them victory over the Vinili; the latter made a similar
+prayer to Frea (Frigg), the wife of Wodan. She advised them to make
+their wives tie their hair round their faces like beards, and go with
+them to meet Wodan in the morning. They did so, and Wodan exclaimed,
+"Who are these _Long-beards_?" Then Frea said that having given the
+Vinili a name, he must give them the victory (as Helgi in the Edda
+claims a gift from Svava when she names him). As in _Grimnismal_,
+Odin and Frigg are represented as supporting rival claims, and Frigg
+gains the day for her favourites by superior cunning. This legend
+also shows Odin as the giver of victory.
+
+Few heathen legends are told however by these early Christian writers,
+and the Gods are seldom called by their German names. An exception is
+the Frisian Fosite mentioned by Alcuin (who died 804) and by later
+writers; he is to be identified with the Norse Forseti, the son of
+(probably at first an epithet of) Baldr, but no legend of him is
+told. It is disappointing that these writers should have said so
+little of any God except the chief one. A very characteristic touch
+survives in Gregory of Tours (died 594), when the Frank Chlodvig tells
+his Christian wife that the Christian God "cannot be proved to be
+of the race of the Gods," an idea entirely in keeping with the Eddic
+hierarchy. Before leaving the Continental historians, reference may be
+made to the abundant evidence of Germanic tree-worship to be gathered
+from them. The holy oak mentioned by Wilibald (before 786), the sacred
+pear-tree of Constantius (473), with numerous others, supply parallels
+to the World-Ash which is so important a feature of Norse mythology.
+
+A study of this subject would be incomplete without some reference to
+the mythology of Saxo Grammaticus. His testimony on the old religion
+is unwilling, and his effort to discredit it very evident. The
+bitterness of his attack on Frigg especially suggests that she
+was, among the Northmen, a formidable rival to the Virgin. When he
+repeats a legend of the Gods, he transforms them into mortal heroes,
+and when, as often happens, he refers to them accidentally as Gods,
+he invariably hastens to protest that he does so only because it had
+been the custom. He describes Thor and Odin as men versed in sorcery
+who claimed the rank of Gods; and in another passage he speaks of
+the latter as a king who had his seat at Upsala, and who was falsely
+credited with divinity throughout Europe. His description of Odin
+agrees with that in the Edda: an old man of great stature and mighty
+in battle, one-eyed, wearing a great cloak, and constantly wandering
+about in disguise. The story which Saxo tells of his driving into
+battle with Harald War-tooth, disguised as the latter's charioteer
+Brun, and turning the fight against him by revealing to his enemy Ring
+the order of battle which he had invented for Harald's advantage, is
+in thorough agreement with the traditional character of the God who
+betrayed Sigmund the Volsung and Helgi Hundingsbane. Saxo's version
+of the Baldr story has been mentioned already. Baldr's transformation
+into a hero (who could only be slain by a sword in the keeping of
+a wood-satyr) is almost complete. But Odin and Thor and all the
+Gods fight for him against his rival Hother, "so that it might be
+called a battle of Gods against men"; and Nanna's excuse to Baldr
+that "a God could not wed with a mortal," preserves a trace of his
+origin. The chained Loki appears in Saxo as Utgarda-Loki, lying bound
+in a cavern of snakes, and worshipped as a God by the Danish king
+Gorm Haraldsson. Dr. Eydberg sees the Freyja myth in Saxo's story of
+Syritha, who was carried away by the giants and delivered by her lover
+Othar (the Od of the Edda): an example, like _Svipdag and Menglad_,
+of the complete transformation of a divine into an heroic myth. In
+almost all cases Saxo vulgarises the stories in the telling, a common
+result when a mythical tale is retold by a Christian writer, though
+it is still more conspicuous in his versions of the heroic legends.
+
+
+
+
+
+Appendix
+
+
+_Thrymskvida_.
+
+1. Then Wing-Thor was angry when he awoke, and missed his hammer. He
+shook his beard, he tossed his hair, the son of Earth groped about
+for it.
+
+2. And first of all he spoke these words: "Hear now, Loki, what I
+tell thee, a thing that no one in earth or heaven above has heard:
+the Asa has been robbed of his hammer!"
+
+3. They went to the dwelling of fair Freyja, and these words he
+spoke first of all: "Wilt thou lend me, Freyja, thy feather dress,
+to see if I can find my hammer?"
+
+4. _Freyja_. "I would give it thee, though it were of gold; I would
+grant it, though it were of silver."
+
+5. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
+Asgard and into Jötunheim.
+
+6. Thrym, lord of the Giants, sat on a howe; he twisted golden bands
+for his greyhounds and trimmed his horses' manes.
+
+7. _Thrym_. "How is it with the Aesir? How is it with the Elves? Why
+art thou come alone into Jötunheim?"
+
+_Loki_. "It is ill with the Aesir, it is ill with the Elves; hast
+thou hidden the Thunderer's hammer?"
+
+8. _Thrym_. "I have hidden the Thunderer's hammer eight miles below the
+earth. No man shall bring it back, unless he bring me Freyja to wife."
+
+9. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
+Jötunheim and into Asgard. Thor met him in the middle of the court,
+and these words he spoke first:
+
+10. "Hast thou news in proportion to thy toil? Tell me from on high
+thy distant tidings, for a sitting man often breaks down in his story,
+and he who lies down falls into falsehood."
+
+11. _Loki_. "I bring news for my toil: Thrym, lord of the Giants,
+has thy hammer; no man shall bring it back, unless he take him Freyja
+as a bride."
+
+12. They went to see fair Freyja, spoke to her first of all these
+words: "Bind on the bridal veil, Freyja, we two must drive to
+Jötunheim."
+
+13. Angry then was Freyja; she panted, so that all the hall of the
+Aesir trembled, and the great Brising necklace fell: "Eager indeed
+for marriage wouldst thou think me, if I should drive with thee
+to Jötunheim."
+
+14. Then all the Aesir went into council, and all the Asynjor to
+consultation, and the mighty Gods discussed how they should recover
+the Thunderer's hammer.
+
+15. Then spoke Heimdal, whitest of the Aesir; he could see into the
+future like the Vanir: "Let us bind on Thor the bridal veil; let him
+have the great necklace Brising.
+
+16. "Let the keys jingle, and let women's weeds fall about his knees;
+let us put broad stones on his breast, and a hood dexterously on
+his head."
+
+17. Then spoke Thor, the mighty Asa: "Vile would the Aesir call me,
+if I let the bridal veil be bound on me."
+
+18. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: "Speak not such words, Thor! soon
+will the Giants dwell in Asgard, unless thou bring home thy hammer."
+
+19. Then they bound on Thor the bridal veil, and the great necklace
+Brising; they let the keys jingle and women's weeds fall about
+his knees, and they put broad stones on his breast, and the hood
+dexterously on his head.
+
+20. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: "I also will go with thee as thy
+maiden; we two will drive together to Jötunheim."
+
+21. Then the goats were driven out, urged forward in their harness;
+well must they run. Rocks were riven, the earth burned in name:
+Odin's son was driving into Jötunheim.
+
+22. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Stand up, giants, and
+strew the benches! They are bringing me now Freyja my bride, Njörd's
+daughter from Noatun.
+
+23. "Gold-horned kine run in the court, oxen all-black, the giant's
+delight. I have many treasures, I have many jewels, Freyja only
+is lacking."
+
+24. The guests assembled early in the evening, and ale was carried
+to the Giants. One ox did Sif's husband eat, and eight salmon, and
+all the dishes prepared for the women; three casks of mead he drank.
+
+25. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Who ever saw a bride eat
+so eagerly? I never saw a bride make such a hearty meal, nor a maid
+drink so deep of mead."
+
+26. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's
+words: "Eight nights has Freyja eaten nothing, so eager was she to
+be in Jötunheim."
+
+27. He looked under the veil, he longed to kiss the bride, but
+he started back the length of the hall: "Why are Freyja's eyes so
+terrible? Fire seems to burn from her eyes."
+
+28. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's
+speech: "Eight nights has Freyja had no sleep, so eager was she to
+be in Jötunheim."
+
+29. In came the Giants' wretched sister, she dared to ask for a bridal
+gift: "Take from thine arms the red rings, if thou wouldst gain my
+love, my love and all my favour."
+
+30. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Bring the hammer to hallow
+the bride. Lay Mjöllni on the maiden's knee, hallow us two in wedlock."
+
+31. The Thunderer's heart laughed in his breast, when the bold of
+soul felt the hammer. Thrym killed he first, the lord of the Giants,
+and all the race of the Giants he struck.
+
+32. He slew the Giants' aged sister, who had asked him for a bridal
+gift. She got a blow instead of shillings, and a stroke of the hammer
+for abundance of rings. So Odin's son got back his hammer.
+
+
+
+Bibliography
+
+
+I. Study in the Original.
+
+(1) _Poetic Edda_.--The classic edition, and on the whole the best,
+is Professor Bugge's (Christiania, 1867); the smaller editions of
+Hildebrand (_Die Lieder der Aelteren Edda_, Paderborn, 1876), and
+Finnur Jónsson (_Eddalieder_, Halle, 1888-90) are also good; the
+latter is in two parts, _Göttersage_ and _Heldensage_. The poems may
+also be found in the first volume of Vigfusson and Powell's _Corpus
+Poeticum Boreale_ (Oxford, 1883), accompanied by translations;	but in
+many cases they are cut up and rearranged, and they suffer metrically
+from the system adopted of printing two short lines as one long one,
+with no dividing point. There is an excellent palaeographic edition
+of the _Codex Regius of the Elder Edda_, by Wimmer and Finnur Jónsson
+(Copenhagen, 1891), with photographic reproductions interleaved with
+a literal transcription.
+
+(2) _Snorra Edda_.--The most recent edition of the whole is Dr. Finnur
+Jónsson's (Copenhagen, 1875). There is a useful edition of the
+mythological portions _(i.e., Gylfaginning, Bragaraedur_, and the
+narrative parts of _Skaldskaparmal_) by Ernst Wilken (_Die Prosäische
+Edda_, Paderborn, 1878).
+
+(3) _Dictionaries and Grammars_.--For the study of the Poetic Edda,
+Gering's _Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda_ (Paderborn, 1896) will
+be found most useful; it is complete and trustworthy, and in small
+compass. A similar service has been performed for _Snorra Edda_ in
+Wilken's _Glossar_ (Paderborn, 1883), which forms a second volume to
+his edition, mentioned above. Both are, of course, in German. The only
+English dictionary is the lexicon of Cleasby and Vigfusson (Oxford).
+
+Of Grammars, the best are German; those of Noreen (_Altnordische
+Grammatik_, Halle, 1892), of which there is an abbreviated edition,
+and Kahle (_Altisländisches Elementarbuch_, Heidelberg, 1896) being
+better suited for advanced students; the English grammars included
+in Vigfusson and Powell's _Icelandic Reader_ (Oxford) and Sweet's
+_Icelandic Primer_ (Oxford) are more elementary, and therefore hardly
+adequate for the study of the verse literature.
+
+
+II. Translations.
+
+There are English translations of the Elder Edda by Anderson (Chicago,
+1879) and Thorpe (1866), as well as the translations in the _Corpus
+Poeticum_, which are, of course, liable to the same objection as
+the text. The most accurate German translation is Gering's (Leipzig,
+1893); in Simrock's (_Aeltere und Jüngere Edda_, Stuttgart, 1882), the
+translations of the verse Edda are based on an uncritical text. Snorra
+Edda was translated into English by Dasent (Stockholm, 1842); also
+by Anderson (Chicago, 1880).
+
+
+III. Modern Authorities.
+
+To the works on Northern mythology mentioned below in the note on
+the Baldr theories, must be added Dr. Rydberg's _Teutonic Mythology_
+(English version by R.B. Anderson, London, 1889), which devotes
+special attention to Saxo.
+
+
+
+Notes
+
+_Home of the Edda_. (Page 2.)
+
+The chief apologists for the British theory are Professor Bugge
+(_Studien über die Entstehung der nordischen Götter- und Heldensagen_,
+München, 1889), and the editors of the _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_ (see
+the Introduction to that  work, and also the Prolegomena prefixed to
+their edition of the _Sturlunga Saga_, Oxford). The case for Norway
+and Greenland is argued by Dr. Finnur Jónsson (_Den oldnorsk og
+oldislandske Literaturs-Historie,_ Copenhagen). The cases for both
+British and Norwegian origin are based chiefly on rather fanciful
+arguments from supposed local colour. The theory of the _Corpus
+Poeticum_ editors that many of the poems were composed in the Scottish
+isles is discredited by the absence of Gaelic words or traces of Gaelic
+legend. Professor Bugge's North of England theory is slightly stronger,
+being supported by several Old English expressions in the poems,
+but these are not enough to prove that they were composed in England,
+since most Icelanders travelled east at some time of their lives.
+
+(Page 3.)
+
+A later study will deal with the Heroic legends.
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_. (Page 3.)
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_ is prefixed to the Lives of the Kings in the collection
+known as _Heimskringla_ (edited by Unger, Christiania, 1868, and by
+Finnur Jónsson, Christiania, 1893); there is an English translation
+in Laing's _Lives of the Kings of Norway_ (London, 1889).
+
+_Völuspa_. (Page 4.)
+
+A poem of similar form occurs among the heroic poems. _Gripisspa_,
+a prophetic outline of Sigurd's life, introduces the Volsung poems,
+as _Völuspa_ does the Asgard cycle.
+
+_Riddle-poems_. (Page 6.)
+
+So many of the mythological poems are in this form that they suggest
+the question, did the asking of riddles form any part of Scandinavian
+ritual?
+
+_The Aesir_. (Page 11.)
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_ says that Odin and the Aesir came to Norway from Asia;
+a statement due, of course, to a false etymology, though theories as
+to the origin of Norse mythology have been based on it.
+
+_Tyr_. (Page 12.)
+
+Tyr is etymologically identical with Zeus, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus
+(Sky-God).
+
+_Baldr_. (Pages 16 to 22.)
+
+The Baldr theories are stated in the following authorities:
+
+(1) Ritual origin: Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, vol. 3.
+
+(2) Heroic origin: Golther, _Handbuch der Germanischen Mythologie_
+(Leipzig, 1895); Niedner, _Eddische Fragen_ (_Zeitschrift
+für deutsches Altertum_, new series, 29), _Zur Lieder-Edda_
+(_Zeitschr. f. d. Alt_. vol. 36).
+
+(3) Solar myth: Sir G.W. Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_
+(London, 1870); Max Müller, _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol. 4.
+
+(4) Borrowed: Bugge, _Studien über die Entstchung der nordischen
+Götter- und Heldensagen_ (transl. Brenner, München, 1889).
+
+_Vegtamskvida_. (Page 17.)
+
+The word _hrodhrbadhm_ (which I have given as "branch of fame")
+would perhaps be more accurately translated "tree of fame," which
+Gering explains as a kenning for Baldr. But there are no kennings of
+the same sort in the poem, and the line would have no meaning. If it
+refers to the mistletoe, as most commentators agree, it merely shows
+that the poet was ignorant of the nature of the plant, which would
+be in favour of its antiquity, rather than the reverse.
+
+
+_Saxo Grammaticus_. (Page 18.)
+
+English translation by Professor Elton (London, D. Nutt, 1894). As
+Saxo's references to the old Gods are made in much the same sympathetic
+tone as that adopted by Old Testament writers towards heathen deities,
+his testimony on mythological questions is of the less value.
+
+
+_The Mistletoe_. (Page 20.)
+
+It seems incredible that any writers should turn to the travesty of
+the Baldr story given in the almost worthless saga of Hromund Gripsson
+in support of a theory. In it "Bildr" is killed by Hromund, who has
+the sword Mistilteinn. It must be patent to any one that this is a
+perverted version of a story which the narrator no longer understood.
+
+
+_Loki_. (Page 26.)
+
+It is hardly necessary to point out the parallel between Loki and
+Prometheus, also both helper and enemy of the Gods, and agent in their
+threatened fall, though in the meantime a prisoner. In character
+Loki has more in common with the mischievous spirit described by
+Hesiod, than with the heroic figure of Aeschylus. The struggles of
+Loki (p. 28) find a parallel in those of the fire-serpent Typhon,
+to which the Greeks attributed earthquakes.
+
+
+_Eclipse Ritual_. (Page 35.)
+
+Mr. Lang, in _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, (London, 1887)  gives
+examples of eclipse ritual. Grimm, in the _Teutonic Mythology_,
+vol. 2, quotes Finnish and Lithuanian myths about sun-devouring beasts,
+very similar to the Fenri myth.
+
+
+_The Skalds_. (Page 35.)
+
+All the Skaldic verses will be found, with translations, in the
+_Corpus Poeticum_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 1, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 1
+       The Divine Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+              Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+              
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13007]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 1 ***
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+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
+
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+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<h1 class="docTitle">The Edda</h1><br><h1 class="docTitle">I</h1><br><h1 class="docTitle">The Divine Mythology of the North</h1>
+<h2 class="byline">By
+<br>
+<span class="docAuthor">Winifred Faraday, M.A.</span></h2>
+<h2 class="docImprint">Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Ph&#339;nix, Long Acre, London<br id="d0e81">
+1902
+</h2><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e83"></a></span><a id="d0e84"></a><h1>Author's Note</h1>
+<p id="d0e87">Some explanation is needed of the form of spelling I have adopted in transcribing Norse proper names. The spirants <i>&thorn;</i> and <i>&eth;</i> are represented by <i>th</i> and <i>d</i>, as being more familiar to readers unacquainted with the  original. Marks of vowel-length are in all cases omitted. The inflexional
+<i>-r</i> of the nominative singular masculine is also omitted, whether it appears as <i>-r</i> or is assimilated to a preceding consonant (as in Odinn, Eysteinn, Heindall, Egill) in the Norse form, with the single exception
+of the name Tyr, where I use the form which has become conventional in English.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e107"><span class="smallcaps">Manchester</span>, <br id="d0e111">
+<i>December</i> 1901.
+
+</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e117"></a>Page 1</span><a id="d0e119"></a><h1>The Divine Mythology of the North</h1>
+<p id="d0e122">The Icelandic Eddas are the only vernacular record of Germanic heathendom as it developed during the four centuries which
+in England saw the destruction of nearly all traces of the heathen system. The so-called Elder Edda is a collection of some
+thirty poems, mythic and heroic in substance, interspersed with short pieces of prose, which survives in a thirteenth-century
+MS., known as the Codex Regius, discovered in Iceland in 1642; to these are added other poems of similar character from other
+sources. The Younger Edda is a prose paraphrase of, and commentary on, these poems and others which are lost, together with
+a treatise on metre, written by the historian Snorri Sturluson about 1220.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e124">This use of the word Edda is incorrect and unhistorical, though convenient and sanctioned by the use of several centuries.
+It was early used as a general term for the rules and materials for versemaking, and applied in this sense to Snorri's <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e126"></a>Page 2</span>work. When the poems on which his paraphrase is founded were discovered, Icelandic scholars by a misunderstanding applied
+the name to them also; and as they attributed the collection quite arbitrarily to the historian Saemund (1056&#8211;1133), it was
+long known as Saemundar Edda, a name now generally discarded in favour of the less misleading titles of Elder or Poetic Edda.
+From its application to this collection, the word derives a more extended use, (1) as a general term for Norse mythology;
+(2) as a convenient name to distinguish the simpler style of these anonymous narrative poems from the elaborate formality
+of the Skalds.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e128">The poems of the Edda are certainly older than the MS., although the old opinion as to their high antiquity is untenable.
+The majority probably date from the tenth century in their present form; this dating does not necessitate the ascription of
+the shape in which the legends are presented, still less of their substance, to that period. With regard to the place of their
+composition opinions vary widely, Norway, the British Isles and Greenland having all found champions; but the evidence is
+rather questionable, and I incline to leave them to the country which has preserved them. They are possibly of popular origin;
+this, together with their epic or narrative character, would account for the striking absence from them of some of the chief
+characteristics of Skaldic poetry: the obscuring of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e130"></a>Page 3</span>the sense by the elaborate interlacing of sentences and the extensive use of kennings or mythological synonyms, and the complication
+of the metre by such expedients as the conjunction of end-rhyme with alliteration. Eddie verse is governed solely by the latter,
+and the strophic arrangement is simple, only two forms occurring: (1) couplets of alliterative short lines; (2) six-line strophes,
+consisting of a couplet followed by a single short line, the whole repeated.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e132">Roughly speaking, the first two-fifths of the MS. is mythological, the rest heroic. I propose to observe this distinction,
+and to deal in this study with the stories of the Gods. In this connexion, Snorri's Edda and the mythical Ynglinga Saga may
+also be considered, but as both were compiled a couple of centuries or more after the introduction of Christianity into Iceland,
+it is uncertain how much in them is literary explanation of tradition whose meaning was forgotten; some also, especially in
+Snorri, is probably pure invention, fairy tale rather than myth.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e134">Many attempts have been made to prove that the material of the Edda is largely borrowed. The strength and distinction of Icelandic
+poetry rest rather on the fact that it is original and national and, like that of Greece, owes little to foreign sources;
+and that it began in the heathen age, before Christian or Romantic influences had touched Iceland. Valuable as the early Christian
+poetry <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e136"></a>Page 4</span>of England is, we look in vain there for the humour, the large-minded simplicity of motive, the suggestive character-drawing,
+the swift dramatic action, which are as conspicuous in many poems in the Edda as in many of the Sagas.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e138">Omitting the heroic poems, there are in Codex Regius the following: (1) Of a more or less comprehensive character, <i>V&ouml;luspa, Vafthrudnismal, Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Harbardsljod</i>; (2) dealing with episodes, <i>Hymiskvida, Thrymskvida, Skirnisf&ouml;r. Havamal</i> is a collection of proverbs, but contains two interpolations from mythical poems; <i>Alvissmal</i>, which, in the form of a dialogue between Thor and a dwarf Alviss, gives a list of synonyms, is a kind of mythologico-poetical
+glossary. Several of these poems are found in another thirteenth-century vellum fragment, with an additional one, variously
+styled <i>Vegtamskvida</i> or <i>Baldr's Dreams</i>; the great fourteenth-century codex Flateybook contains <i>Hyndluljod</i>, partly genealogical, partly an imitation of <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>; and one of the MSS. of Snorri's Edda gives us <i>Rigsthula</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e164"><i>V&ouml;luspa</i>, though not one of the earliest poems, forms an appropriate opening. Metrical considerations forbid an earlier date than
+the first quarter of the eleventh century, and the last few lines are still later. The material is, however, older: the poem
+is an outline, in allusions often obscure to us, of traditions and beliefs familiar to its first hearers. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e168"></a>Page 5</span>The very bareness of the outline is sufficient proof that the material is not new. The framework is apparently imitated from
+that of the poem known as <i>Baldr's Dreams</i>, some lines from which are inserted in <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>. This older poem describes Odin's visit to the Sibyl in hell-gates to inquire into the future. He rides down to her tomb
+at the eastern door of Nifl-hell and chants spells, until she awakes and asks: &#8220;What man unknown to me is that, who has troubled
+me with this weary journey? Snow has snowed on me, rain has beaten me, dew has drenched me, I have long been dead.&#8221; He gives
+the name Wegtam, or Way-wise, and then follow question and answer until she discovers his identity and will say no more. In
+<i>V&ouml;luspa</i> there is no descriptive introduction, and no dialogue; the whole is spoken by the Sibyl, who plunges at once into her story,
+with only the explanatory words: &#8220;Thou, Valfather, wouldst have me tell the ancient histories of men as far as I remember.&#8221;
+She describes the creation of the world and sky by Bor's sons; the building by the Gods of a citadel in Ida-plain, and their
+age of innocence till three giant-maids brought greed of gold; the creation of the dwarfs; the creation of the first man and
+woman out of two trees by Odin, Hoeni and Lodur; the world-ash and the spring beside it where dwell the three Norns who order
+the fates of men. Then follows an allusion to the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e179"></a>Page 6</span>war between the Aesir and the Vanir, the battle with the giants who had got possession of the goddess Freyja, and the breaking
+of bargains; an obscure reference to Mimi's spring where Odin left his eye as a pledge; and an enumeration of his war-maids
+or Valkyries. Turning to the future, the Sibyl prophesies the death of Baldr, the vengeance on his slayer, and the chaining
+of Loki, the doom of the Gods and the destruction of the world at the coming of the fire-giants and the release of Loki's
+children from captivity. The rest of the poem seems to be later; it tells how the earth shall rise again from the deep, and
+the Aesir dwell once more in Odin's halls, and there is a suggestion of Christian influence in it which is absent from the
+earlier part.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e181">Of the other general poems, the next four were probably composed before 950; in each the setting is different. <i>Vafthrudnismal</i>, a riddle-poem, shows Odin in a favourite position, seeking in disguise for knowledge of the future. Under the name of Gangrad
+(Wanderer), he visits the wise giant Vafthrudni, and the two agree to test their wisdom: the one who fails to answer a question
+is to forfeit his head. In each case the questions deal first with the past. Vafthrudni asks about Day and Night, and the
+river which divides the Giants from the Gods, matters of common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future: &#8220;What
+is the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e186"></a>Page 7</span>plain where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?&#8221; Odin replies, and proceeds to question in his turn; first about
+the creation of Earth and Sky, the origin of Sun and Moon, Winter and Summer, the Giants and the Winds; the coming of Nj&ouml;rd
+the Wane to the Aesir as a hostage; the Einherjar, or chosen warriors of Valhalla. Then come prophetic questions on the destruction
+of the Sun by the wolf Fenri, the Gods who shall rule in the new world after Ragnar&ouml;k, the end of Odin. The poem is brought
+to a close by Odin's putting the question which only himself can answer: &#8220;What did Odin say in his son's ear before he mounted
+the pyre?&#8221; and the giant's head is forfeit.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e188">In the third poem of this class, <i>Grimnismal</i>, a prose introduction relates that Odin and Frigg quarrelled over the merits of their respective foster-children. To settle
+the question, Odin goes disguised as Grimni, &#8220;the Hooded One,&#8221; to visit his foster-son Geirr&ouml;d; but Frigg, to justify her
+charge of inhospitality against Geirr&ouml;d, sends her maiden Fulla to warn him against the coming stranger. Odin therefore meets
+with a harsh reception, and is bound between two fires in the hall. Geirr&ouml;d's young son, Agnar, protests against this rude
+treatment, and gives wine to the guest, who then begins to instruct him in matters concerning the Gods. He names the halls
+of the Aesir, describes Valhalla and the ash Yggdrasil, the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e193"></a>Page 8</span>Valkyries, the creation of the world (two stanzas in common with <i>Vafthrudnismal</i>), and enumerates his own names. The poem ends with impressive abruptness by his turning to Geirr&ouml;d:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e199">&#8220;Thou art drunk, Geirr&ouml;d, thou hast drunk too deep; thou art bereft of much since thou hast lost my favour, the favour of
+Odin and all the Einherjar. I have told thee much, but thou hast minded little. Thy friends betray thee: I see my friend's
+sword lie drenched in blood. Now shall Odin have the sword-weary slain; I know thy life is ended, the Fates are ungracious.
+Now thou canst see Odin: come near me, if thou canst.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e201">[Prose.] &#8220;King Geirr&ouml;d sat with his sword on his knee, half drawn. When he heard that Odin was there, he stood up and would
+have led Odin from the fires. The sword slipt from his hand; the hilt turned downwards. The king caught his foot and fell
+forwards, the sword standing towards him, and so he met his death. Then Odin went away, and Agnar was king there long afterwards.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e204"><i>Harbardsljod</i> is a dialogue, and humorous. Thor on his return from the east comes to a channel, at the farther side of which stands Odin,
+disguised as a ferryman, Greybeard. He refuses to ferry Thor across, and they question each other as to their past feats,
+with occasional threats from Thor and taunts from Odin, until the former goes off vowing vengeance on the ferryman:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e209"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Thy skill in words would serve thee ill if I waded across the water; I think thou wouldst cry <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e213"></a>Page 9</span>louder than the wolf, if thou shouldst get a blow from the hammer.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e215"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;Sif has a lover at home, thou shouldst seek him. That is a task for thee to try, it is more proper for thee.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e219"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Thou speakest what thou knowest most displeasing to me; thou cowardly fellow, I think that thou liest.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e223"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;I think I speak true; thou art slow on the road. Thou wouldst have got far, if thou hadst started at dawn.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e227"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Harbard, scoundrel, it is rather thou who hast delayed me.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e231"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;I never thought a shepherd could so delay Asa-Thor's journey.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e235"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;I will counsel thee: row thy boat hither. Let us cease quarrelling; come and meet Magni's father.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e239"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;Leave thou the river; crossing shall be refused thee.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e243"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Show me the way, since thou wilt not ferry me.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e247"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;That is a small thing to refuse. It is a long way to go: a while to the stock, and another to the stone, then keep to the
+left hand till thou reach Verland. There will Fj&ouml;rgyn meet her son Thor, and she will tell him the highway to Odin's land.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e251"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Shall I get there to-day?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e255"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;With toil and trouble thou wilt get there about sunrise, as I think.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e259"><span class="smallcaps">Thor</span>. &#8220;Our talk shall be short, since thou answerest with mockery. I will reward thee for refusing passage, if we two meet again.&#8221;
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e263"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;Go thy way, where all the fiends may take thee.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e268"></a>Page 10</span></p>
+<p id="d0e269"><i>Lokasenna</i> also is in dialogue form. A prose introduction tells how the giant Oegi, or Gymi, gave a feast to the Aesir. Loki was turned
+out for killing a servant, but presently returned and began to revile the Gods and Goddesses, each one in turn trying to interfere,
+only to provoke a taunt from Loki. At last Thor, who had been absent on a journey, came in and threatened the slanderer with
+his hammer, whereupon Loki said, &#8220;I spoke to the Aesir and the sons of the Aesir what my mind told me; but for thee alone
+I will go away, for I know thou wilt strike.&#8221; Some of the poem is rather pointless abuse, but much touches points already
+suggested in the other poems.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e273"><i>Hyndluljod</i> is much later than the others, probably  not before 1200. The style is late, and the form imitated from <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>. It describes a visit paid by Freyja to the Sibyl to learn the genealogy of her favourite Ottar. The larger part deals with
+heroic genealogies, but there are scanty allusions to Baldr, Frey, Heimdal, Loki's children, and Thor, and a Christian reference
+to a God who shall come after Ragnar&ouml;k &#8220;when Odin shall meet the wolf.&#8221; It tells nothing new.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e280">We have here then, omitting <i>Hyndluljod</i>, five poems (four of them belonging to the first half of the tenth century) which suggest a general outline of Norse mythology:
+there is a hierarchy of Gods, the Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e285"></a>Page 11</span>being the chief. Among them are several who are not Aesir by origin: Nj&ouml;rd and his son and daughter, Frey and Freyja, are
+Vanir; Loki is really an enemy and an agent in their fall; and there are one or two Goddesses of giant race. The giants are
+rivals and enemies to the Gods; the dwarfs are also antagonistic, but in bondage. The meeting-place of the Gods is by the
+World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of Gods and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake. The Gods have
+foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnar&ouml;k, the great fight when they shall meet Loki's children, the Wolf and the Snake; both
+sides will fall and the world be destroyed. An episode in the story is the death of Baldr. This we may assume to be the religion
+of the Viking age (800&#8211;1000 A.D.), a compound of the beliefs of various ages and tribes.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e287"><b>The Aesir.</b>&#8212;The number of the Aesir is not fixed. <i>Hyndluljod</i> says there were twelve (&#8220;there were eleven Aesir when Baldr went down into the howe&#8221;). Snorri gives a list of fourteen Aesir
+or Gods (Odin, Thor, Baldr, Nj&ouml;rd, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdal, H&ouml;d, Vidar, Vali, Ullr, Forseti, Loki), and adds Hoeni in another
+list, all the fifteen occurring in the poems; and sixteen Goddesses (Asynjor), the majority of whom are merely personified
+epithets, occurring nowhere else. Of the sixteen, Frigg, Gefion, Freyja and Saga (really an <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e294"></a>Page 12</span>epithet only) are Goddesses in the poems, and Fulla is Frigg's handmaid. In another chapter, Snorri adds Idunn, Gerd, Sigyn
+and Nanna, of whom the latter does not appear in the Elder Edda, where Idunn, Gerd (a giantess) and Sigyn are the wives of
+Bragi, Frey and Loki; and two others, the giantess Skadi and Sif, are the wives of Nj&ouml;rd and Thor.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e296">A striking difference from classical mythology is that neither Tyr (who should etymologically be the Sky-god), nor Thor (the
+Thunder-god), takes the highest place. Tyr is the hero of one important episode, the chaining of the Wolf, through which he
+loses his right hand. This is told in full by Snorri and alluded to in <i>Lokasenna</i>, both in the prose preface (&#8220;Tyr also was there, with only one hand; the Fenris-wolf had bitten off the other, when he was
+bound&#8221;) and in the poem itself:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e302"><span class="smallcaps">Loki</span>. &#8220;I must remember that right hand which Fenri bit off thee.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e306"><span class="smallcaps">Tyr</span>. &#8220;I am short of a hand, but thou of the famous wolf; to each the loss is ill-luck. Nor is the wolf in better plight, for
+he must wait in bonds till Ragnar&ouml;k.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e311">Otherwise, he only appears in connexion with two more popular Gods: he speaks in Frey's defence in <i>Lokasenna</i>, and in <i>Hymiskvida</i> he is Thor's companion in the search for a cauldron; the latter poem represents him as a giant's son.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e319">Thor, on the other hand, is second only to his <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e321"></a>Page 13</span>father Odin; he is the strongest of the Gods and their champion against the giants, and his antagonist at Ragnar&ouml;k is to be
+the World-Snake. Like Odin, he travels much, but while the chief God generally goes craftily and in disguise, to gain knowledge
+or test his wisdom, Thor's errands are warlike; in <i>Lokasenna</i> he is absent on a journey, in <i>Harbardsljod</i>  and <i>Alvissmal</i> he is returning from one. His journeys are always to the east; so in <i>Harbardsljod</i>: &#8220;I was in the east, fighting the malevolent giant-brides.... I was in the east and guarding the river, when Svarang's sons
+attacked me.&#8221; The Giants live in the east (<i>Hymiskvida</i> 5); Thor threatened Loki: &#8220;I will fling thee up into the east, and no one shall see thee more&#8221; (<i>Lokasenna</i> 59); the fire-giants at Ragnar&ouml;k are to come from the east: &#8220;Hrym comes driving from the east, he lifts his shield before
+him.... A ship comes from the east, Muspell's sons will come sailing over the sea, and Loki steers&#8221; (<i>V&ouml;luspa</i> 50, 51). It would not, perhaps, be overstraining the point to suggest that this is a reminiscence of early warfare between
+the Scandinavians and eastern nations, either Lapps and Finns or Slavonic tribes.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e344">Thor is the God of natural force, the son of Earth. Two of the episodical poems deal with his contests with the giants. <i>Thrymskvida</i>, the story of how Thor won back his hammer, Mj&ouml;llni, from the giant Thrym, is the finest and one of the oldest <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e349"></a>Page 14</span>of the mythological poems; a translation is given in the appendix, as an example of Eddic poetry at its best. Loki appears
+as the willing helper of the Gods, and Thor's companion. The Thunderer's journey with Tyr in quest of a cauldron is related
+with much humour in <i>Hymiskvida</i>: Hymi's beautiful wife, who helps her guests to outwit her husband, is a figure familiar in fairy-tales as the Ogre's wife.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e354">The chief God of the Scandinavians is, it must be confessed, an unsympathetic character. He is the head of the Valhalla system;
+he is Val-father (Father of the Slain), and the Valkyries are his &#8220;Wishmaidens,&#8221; as the Einherjar are his &#8220;Wishsons.&#8221; He naturally
+takes a special interest in mortal heroes, from whom come the chosen hosts of Valhalla. But, in spite of the splendour of
+his surroundings, he is wanting in dignity. The chief of the Gods has neither the might and unthinking valour of Thor, nor
+the self-sacrificing courage of Tyr. He is a God who practises magic, and it is as Father of Spells that he is powerful. He
+is the wisest of the Gods in the sense that he remembers most about the past and foresees most about the future; yet he is
+powerless in difficulty without the craft of Loki and the hammer of Thor. He always wanders in disguise, and the stories told
+of him are chiefly love-adventures; this is true of all the deeds he mentions in <i>Harbardsljod</i>, and also of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e359"></a>Page 15</span>the two interpolations in <i>Havamal</i>, though one of the two had an object, the stealing of the mead of inspiration from the giant Suptung, whose daughter Gunnl&ouml;d
+guarded it.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e364"><i>V&ouml;luspa</i> makes him one of three creative deities, the other two being Lodur (probably Loki) and Hoeni, of whom nothing else is known
+except the story that he was given as hostage to the Vanir in exchange for Nj&ouml;rd. The same three Gods (Odin, Loki and Hoeni)
+are connected with the legend of the Nibelung treasure; and it was another adventure of theirs, according to Snorri, which
+led to the loss of Idunn.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e368">Of the other Gods, Bragi is a later development; his name means simply king or chief, and his attributes, as God of eloquence
+and poetry, are apparently borrowed from Odin. Heimdal, the watchman and &#8220;far-seeing like the Vanir,&#8221; who keeps guard on the
+rainbow bridge Bifr&ouml;st, is represented in the curious poem <i>Rigsthula</i> as founder of the different social orders. He wandered over the world under the name of Rig, and from his first journey sprang
+the race of thralls, swarthy, crooked and broad-backed, who busied themselves with fencing land and tending goats and swine;
+from his second, the churls, fine and ruddy, who broke oxen, built houses and ploughed the land; from his third, the earls,
+yellow-haired, rosy, and keen-eyed, who broke horses and strung bows, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e373"></a>Page 16</span>rode, swam, and hurled spears; and the youngest of the earls' race was Konung the king, who knew all mysteries, understood
+the speech of birds, could quench fire and heal wounds. Heimdal is said to be the son of nine mothers, and to have fought
+with Loki for Freyja's Brising-necklace. His horn is hidden under Yggdrasil, to be brought out at Ragnar&ouml;k, when he will blow
+a warning blast. His origin is obscure. Still less is known of Vidar and Vali, two sons of Odin, one of whom is to avenge
+Baldr's death, the other to slay the wolf after it has swallowed up the chief God at Ragnar&ouml;k. Thor's stepson Ullr (Glory)
+is probably, like his sons Modi and Magni (Wrath and Strength), a mere epithet.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e375">Frigg, Odin's wife and the chief Goddess, daughter of Earth, is not very distinctly characterised, and is often confused with
+Freyja. Gefion should be the sea-goddess, since that seems to be the meaning of her name, but her functions are apparently
+usurped by the Wane Nj&ouml;rd; according to Snorri, she is the patron of those who die unwedded.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e377"><b>Baldr</b>.&#8212;The story of Baldr is the most debated point in the Edda. The chief theories advanced are: (1) That it is the oldest part
+of Norse mythology, and of ritual origin; (2) that Baldr is really a hero transformed into a God; (3) that the legend <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e381"></a>Page 17</span>is a solar myth with or without Christian colouring;  (4) that it is entirely borrowed from Medi&aelig;val Greek and Christian sources.
+This last theory is too ingenious to be credible; and with regard to the third, there is nothing essentially Christian in
+the chief features of the legend, while the solar idea leaves too much unexplained. The references to the myth in the Elder
+Edda are:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e383">(1) <i>Vegtamskvida</i> (about 900 A.D.). Odin questions the Sibyl as to the meaning of Baldr's dreams:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e389"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;For whom are the benches (in hell) strewn with rings, the halls fairly adorned with gold?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e393"><span class="smallcaps">Sibyl</span>. &#8220;Here the mead, clear drink, stands brewed for Baldr; the shields are spread. The sons of the Aesir are too merry.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e397"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;Who will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e401"><span class="smallcaps">Sibyl</span>. &#8220;H&ouml;d bears thither the high branch of fame: he will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e405"><span class="smallcaps">Odin</span>. &#8220;Who will avenge the deed on H&ouml;d and bring Baldr's slayer to the funeral pyre?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e409"><span class="smallcaps">Sibyl</span>. &#8220;Rind bears a son, Vali, in the halls of the west. He shall not wash his hands nor comb his hair till he bears Baldr's foe
+to the pyre.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e414">(2) In <i>Lokasenna</i> Frigg says: &#8220;If I had a son like Baldr here in Oegi's halls, thou shouldst not pass out from the sons of the Aesir, but be
+slain here in thy anger&#8221;; to which Loki replies, &#8220;Wilt thou that I speak more ill words, Frigg? I am <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e419"></a>Page 18</span>the cause that thou wilt never more see Baldr ride into the hall.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e421">(3) In <i>Vafthrudnismal</i> the only reference is Odin's question, &#8220;What said Odin in his son's ear when he mounted the pyre?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e426">(4) In <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> the Sibyl prophesies, &#8220;I saw doom threatening Baldr, the bleeding victim, the son of Odin. Grown high above the meadows stood
+the mistletoe, slender and fair. From this stem, which looked so slender, grew a fatal and dangerous shaft. H&ouml;d shot it, and
+Frigg wept in Fenhall over Valhall's woe.&#8221;  The following lines, on the chaining of Loki, suggest his complicity.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e431">(5) <i>Hyndluljod</i> has one reference: &#8220;There were eleven Aesir by number when Baldr went down into the howe. Vali was his avenger and slew his
+brother's slayer.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e436">Besides these there is a fragment quoted by Snorri: &#8220;Th&ouml;kk will weep dry tears at Baldr's funeral pyre. I had no good of the
+old man's son alive or dead; let Hel keep what she has.&#8221; <i>Grimnismal</i> assigns a hall to Baldr among the Gods.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e441">There are, in addition, two prose versions of the story by later writers: the Icelandic version of Snorri (1178&#8211;1241) with
+all the details familiar to every one; and the Latin one of the Dane Saxo Grammaticus (about thirty years earlier), which
+makes Baldr and H&ouml;d heroes instead of Gods, and <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e443"></a>Page 19</span>completely alters the character of the legend by making a rivalry for Nanna's favour the centre of the plot and cause of the
+catastrophe. On the Eddic version and on Saxo's depend the theories of Golther, Detter, Niedner and other German scholars
+on the one hand, and Dr. Frazer on the other.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e445">It has often been pointed out that there is no trace of Baldr-worship in other Germanic nations, nor in any of the Icelandic
+sagas except the late Frithjofssaga. This, however, is true of other Gods, notably of Tyr, who is without question one of
+the oldest. The only deities named with any suggestion of sacrifice or worship in the Icelandic sagas proper are Odin, Thor,
+Frey, Nj&ouml;rd, Frigg and Freyja. The process of choice is as arbitrary in mythology as in other sciences. Again, it is more
+likely that the original version of the legend should have survived in Iceland than in Denmark, which, being on the mainland,
+was earlier subject to Christian and Romantic influences; and that a heathen God should, in the two or three centuries following
+the establishment of Christianity in the North, be turned into a mortal hero, than that the reverse process should have acted
+at a sufficiently late date to permit of both versions existing side by side in the thirteenth century. A similar gradual
+elimination of the supernatural may be found in the history of the Volsung myth. Snorri's version is merely an amplification
+of that in the Elder <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e447"></a>Page 20</span>Edda, which, scanty as its account of Baldr is, leaves no doubt as to his divinity.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e449">The outline gathered from the poems is as follows: Baldr, Odin's son, is killed by his brother H&ouml;d through a mistletoe spray;
+Loki is in some way concerned in his death, which is an overwhelming misfortune to the Gods; but it is on H&ouml;d that his death
+is avenged. He is burnt on a pyre (Snorri says on his ship, a feature which must come from the Viking age; <i>Hyndluljod</i> substitutes howe-burial). He will be absent from the great fight at Ragnar&ouml;k, but <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> adds that he will return afterwards. Nanna has nothing to do with the story. The connexion with the hierarchy of the Aesir
+seems external only, since Baldr has no apparent relation to the great catastrophe as have Odin, Thor, Frej, Tyr and Loki;
+this, then, would point to the independence of his myth.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e457">The genuineness of the myth seems to depend on whether the mistletoe is an original feature of it or not, and on this point
+there can be little real doubt. The German theory that Baldr could only be killed by his own sword, which was therefore disguised
+by enchantment and used against him, and that the Icelandic writers misunderstood this to mean a mistletoe sprig, is far-fetched
+and romantic, and crumbles at a touch. For if, as it is claimed, the Icelanders had no mistletoe, why should they introduce
+it into a story to which it did not belong? <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e459"></a>Page 21</span>They might preserve it by tradition, but they would hardly invent it. Granting this, the mistletoe becomes the central point
+of the legend. The older mythologists, who only saw in it a sun-myth, overlooked the fact that since any weapon would have
+done to kill the God with, the mistletoe must have some special significance; and if it is a genuine part of the story, as
+we have no reason to doubt, it will be hard to overturn Dr. Frazer's theory that the Baldr-myth is a relic of tree-worship
+and the ritual sacrifice of the God, Baldr being a tree-spirit whose soul is contained in the mistletoe.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e461">The contradictions in the story, especially as told by Snorri (such as the confusion between the parts played by H&ouml;d and Loki,
+and the unsuspicious attitude of the Gods as Loki directs H&ouml;d's aim) are sometimes urged against its genuineness. They are
+rather proofs of antiquity. Apparent contradictions whose explanation is forgotten often survive in tradition; the inventor
+of a new story takes care to make it consistent. It is probable, however, that there were originally only two actors in the
+episode, the victim and the slayer, and that Loki's part is later than H&ouml;d's, for he really belongs to the Valhall and Ragnar&ouml;k
+myth, and was only introduced here as a link. The incident of the oath extracted from everything on earth to protect Baldr,
+which occurs in Snorri and in a paper MS. of <i>Baldr's Dreams</i>, was probably invented to <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e466"></a>Page 22</span>explain the choice of weapon, which would certainly need explanation to an Icelandic audience. If Dr. Frazer's theory be right,
+Vali, who slew the slayer, must also have been an original figure in the legend. His antiquity is supported by the fact that
+he plays the part of avenger in the poems; while in Snorri, where he is mentioned as a God, his absence from the account of
+Baldr's death is only a part of that literary development by which real responsibility for the murder was transferred from
+H&ouml;d to Loki.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e468">Snorri gives Baldr a son, Forseti (Judge), who is also named as a God in <i>Grimnismal</i>. He must have grown out of an epithet of Baldr's, of whom Snorri says that &#8220;no one can resist his sentence&#8221;; the sacred tree
+would naturally be the seat of judgment.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e473"><b>The Wanes.</b>&#8212;Three of the Norse divinities, Nj&ouml;rd and his son and daughter, are not Aesir by descent. The following account is given of
+their presence in Asgard:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e477">(1) In <i>Vafthrudnismal</i>, Odin asks:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e483">&#8220;Whence came Nj&ouml;rd among the sons of the Aesir? for he was not born of the Aesir.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e485"><span class="smallcaps">Vafthrudni</span>. &#8220;In Vanaheim wise powers ordained and gave him for a hostage to the Gods; at the doom of the world he shall come back, home
+to the wise Wanes.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e490"></a>Page 23</span></p>
+<p id="d0e491">(2) There is an allusion in <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> to the war which caused the giving of hostages:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e497">&#8220;Odin shot into the host: this was the first war in the world. Broken was the wall of the citadel of the Aesir, so that the
+Wanes could tread the fields of war.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e500">(3) Loki taunts Nj&ouml;rd with his position, in <i>Lokasenna</i>:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e506">&#8220;Thou wast sent from the east as a hostage to the Gods....&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e508"><span class="smallcaps">Nj&ouml;rd</span>. &#8220;This is my comfort, though I was sent from far as a hostage to the Gods, yet I have a son whom no one hates, and he is
+thought the best of the Aesir.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e512"><span class="smallcaps">Loki</span>. &#8220;Stay, Nj&ouml;rd, restrain thy pride; I will hide it no longer: thy son is thine own sister's son, and that is no worse than
+one would expect.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e516"><span class="smallcaps">Tyr</span>. &#8220;Frey is the best of all the bold riders of Asgard.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e521">There is little doubt that Nj&ouml;rd was once a God of higher importance than he is in the Edda, where he is overshadowed by his
+son. Grimm's suggestion that he and the goddess Nerthus, mentioned by Tacitus, were brother and sister, is supported by the
+line in <i>Lokasenna</i>; it is an isolated reference, and the Goddess has left no other traces in Scandinavian mythology. They were the deities,
+probably agricultural, of an earlier age, whose adoption by the later Northmen was explained by the story of the compact between
+Aesir and Vanir. Then <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e526"></a>Page 24</span>their places were usurped by Frey and Freyja, who were possibly created out of epithets originally applied to the older pair;
+Nj&ouml;rd was retained with lessened importance, Nerthus passed out altogether. The Edda gives Nj&ouml;rd a giant-bride, Skadi, who
+was admitted among the Gods in atonement for the slaying of her father Thiazi; she is little more than a name. Frey and Freyja
+have other marks of agricultural deities, besides their relationship. Nothing is said about Frey's changing shape, but Freyja
+possesses a hawk-dress which Loki borrows when he wishes to change his form; and, according to Snorri, Frey was sacrificed
+to for the crops. Nj&ouml;rd has an epithet, &#8220;the wealthy,&#8221; which may have survived from his earlier connexion with the soil. In
+that case, it would explain why, in Snorri and elsewhere, he is God of the sea and ships, once the province of the ocean-goddess
+Gefion; the transference is a natural one to an age whose wealth came from the sea.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e528">In spite of their origin, Frey and Freyja become to all intents and purposes Aesir. Frey is to be one of the chief combatants
+at Ragnar&ouml;k, with the fire-giant Surt for his antagonist, and a story is told to explain his defeat: he fell in love with
+Gerd, a giant-maid, and sacrificed his sword to get her; hence he is weaponless at the last fight. Loki alludes to this episode
+in <i>Lokasenna</i>: &#8220;With gold didst thou buy Gymi's daughter, and gavest <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e533"></a>Page 25</span>thy sword for her; but when Muspell's sons ride over Myrkwood, thou shalt not know with what to fight, unhappy one.&#8221; The story
+is told in full in <i>Skirnisf&ouml;r</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e538">Freyja is called by Snorri &#8220;the chief Goddess after Frigg,&#8221; and the two are sometimes confused. Like her father and brother,
+she comes into connexion with the giants; she is the beautiful Goddess, and coveted by them. <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> says that the Gods went into consultation to discuss &#8220;who had given the bride of Od (<i>i.e.</i>, Freyja) to the giant race&#8221;; <i>Thrymskvida</i> relates how the giant Thrym bargained for Freyja as the ransom for Thor's hammer, which he had hidden, and how Loki and Thor
+outwitted him; and Snorri says the giants bargained for her as the price for building Valhalla, but were outwitted. Sir G.W.
+Dasent notices in the folk-tales the eagerness of trolls and giants to learn the details of the agricultural processes, and
+this is probably the clue to the desire of the Frost-Giants in the Edda for the possession of Freyja. Idunn, the wife of Bragi,
+and a purely Norse creation, seems to be a double of Freyja; she, too, according to Snorri, is carried away by the giants
+and rescued by Loki. The golden apples which she is to keep till Ragnar&ouml;k remind us of those which Frey offered to Gerd; and
+the gift of eternal youth, of which they are the symbols, would be appropriate enough to Freyja as an agricultural deity.
+
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e549"></a>Page 26</span></p>
+<p id="d0e550">The great necklace Brising, stolen by Loki and won back in fight by Heimdal (according to the tenth-century Skalds Thjodulf
+and Ulf Uggason), is Freyja's property. On this ground, she has been identified with the heroine of <i>Svipdag and Menglad</i>, a poem undoubtedly old, though it has only come down in paper MSS. It is in two parts, the first telling how Svipdag aroused
+the Sibyl Groa, his mother, to give him spells to guard him on his journey; the second describing his crossing the wall of
+fire which surrounded his fated bride Menglad. If Menglad is really Freyja, the &#8220;Necklace-glad,&#8221; it is a curious coincidence
+that one poem connects the waverlowe, or ring of fire, with Frey also; for his bride Gerd is protected in the same way, though
+his servant Skirni goes through it in his place:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e556"><span class="smallcaps">Skirni</span>. &#8220;Give me the horse that will bear me through the dark magic waverlowe, and the sword that fights of itself against the giant-race.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e560"><span class="smallcaps">Frey</span>. &#8220;I give thee the horse that will bear thee through the dark magic waverlowe, and the sword that will fight of itself if
+he is bold who bears it.&#8221; (<i>Skirnisf&ouml;r</i>.)
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e568">The connexion of both with the Midsummer fires, originally part of an agricultural ritual, can hardly be doubted.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e570"><b>Loki</b>, or Lopt, is a strange figure. He is admitted among the Aesir, though not one of them <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e574"></a>Page 27</span>by birth, and his whole relation to them points to his being an older elemental God. He is in alliance with them against the
+giants; he and Odin have sworn blood-brothership, according to <i>Lokasenna</i>, and he helps Thor to recover his hammer that Asgard may be defended against the giants. On the other hand, while in present
+alliance with the Gods, he is chief agent in their future destruction, and this they know. In Snorri, he is a mischievous
+spirit of the fairy-tale kind, exercising his ingenuity alternately in getting the Gods into difficulties, and in getting
+them out again. So he betrays Idunn to the giants, and delivers her; he makes the bargain by which Freyja is promised to the
+giant-builders of Valhalla, and invents the trick by which they are cheated of their prize; by killing the otter he endangers
+his own head, Odin's and Hoeni's, and he obtains the gold which buys their atonement. Hence, in the systematising of the Viking
+religion, the responsibility for Baldr's death also was transferred to him. At the coming of the fire-giants at Ragnar&ouml;k,
+he is to steer the ship in which Muspell's sons sail (<i>V&ouml;luspa</i>), further evidence of his identity as a fire-spirit. Like his son the Wolf, he is chained by the Gods; the episode is related
+in a prose-piece affixed to <i>Lokasenna</i>:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e586">&#8220;After that Loki hid himself in Franangr's Foss in the form of a salmon. There the Aesir caught him. He was bound with the
+guts of his son Nari, but his <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e588"></a>Page 28</span>son Narfi was changed into a wolf. Skadi took a poisonous snake and fastened it up over Loki's face, and the poison dropped
+down. Sigyn, Loki's wife, sat there and held a cup under the poison. But when it was full she poured the poison away, and
+meanwhile poison dropped on Loki, and he struggled so hard that all the earth shook; those are called earthquakes now.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e591"><i>V&ouml;luspa</i> inserts lines corresponding to this passage after the Baldr episode, and Snorri makes it a consequence of Loki's share in
+that event.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e595">He is more especially agent of the doom through his children: at Ragnar&ouml;k, Fenri the Wolf, bound long before by Tyr's help,
+will be freed, and swallow the sun (<i>Vafthrudnismal</i>) and Odin (<i>Vafthrudnismal</i> and <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>); and J&ouml;rmungandr, the Giant-Snake, will rise from the sea where he lies curled round the world, to slay and be slain by
+Thor. The dragon's writhing in the waves is one of the tokens to herald Ragnar&ouml;k, and his battle with Thor is the fiercest
+combat of that day. Only <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> of our poems gives any account of it: &#8220;Then comes the glorious son of Hlodyn, Odin's son goes to meet the serpent; Midgard's
+guardian slays him in his rage, but scarcely can Earth's son reel back nine feet from the dragon.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e609">When Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymi, he terrifies his companion by dragging the snake's head out of the sea, but he
+does not slay it; it must wait there till Ragnar&ouml;k:
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e611"></a>Page 29</span>
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e614">&#8220;The protector of men, the only slayer of the Serpent, baited his hook with the ox's head. The God-hated one who girds all
+lands from below swallowed the bait. Doughtily pulled mighty Thor the poison-streaked serpent up to the side; he struck down
+with his hammer the hideous head of the wolf's companion. The monster roared, the wilderness resounded, the old earth shuddered
+all through. The fish sank back into the sea. Gloomy was the giant when they rowed back, so that he spoke not a word.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e617">There is nothing to suggest that J&ouml;rmungandr, to whom the word World-Snake (Midgardsorm) always refers in the Edda, is the
+same as Nidh&ouml;gg, the serpent that gnaws at Yggdrasil's roots; but both are relics of Snake-worship.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e619"><b>The World-Ash</b>, generally called Yggdrasil's Ash, is one of the most interesting survivals of tree-worship. It is described by the Sibyl
+in <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>: &#8220;I know an ash called Yggdrasil, a high tree sprinkled with white moisture (thence come the dews that fall in the dales):
+it stands ever-green by Urd's spring. Thence come three maids, all-knowing, from the hall that stands under the tree&#8221;; and
+as a sign of the approaching doom she says: &#8220;Yggdrasil's ash trembles as it stands; the old tree groans.&#8221; <i>Grimnismal</i> says that the Gods go every day to hold judgment by the ash, and describes it further:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e630">&#8220;Three roots lie three ways under Yggdrasil's ash: Hel dwells under one, the frost-giants under the second, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e632"></a>Page 30</span>mortal men under the third. The squirrel is called Ratatosk who shall run over Yggdrasil's ash; he shall carry down the eagle's
+words, and tell them to Nidh&ouml;gg below. There are four harts, with necks thrown back, who gnaw off the shoots.... More serpents
+lie under Yggdrasil's ash than any one knows. Ofni and Svafni I know will ever gnaw at the tree's twigs. Yggdrasil's ash suffers
+more hardships than men know: the hart bites above, the side decays, and Nidh&ouml;gg gnaws below.... Yggdrasil's ash is the best
+of trees.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e635">The snake and the tree are familiar in other mythologies, though in most other cases the snake is the protector, while here
+he is the destroyer. Both Nidh&ouml;gg and J&ouml;rmungandr are examples of the destroying dragon rather than the treasure-guardian.
+The Ash is the oracle: the judgment-place of the Gods, the dwelling of the Fates, the source of the spring of knowledge.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e637"><b>Ragnar&ouml;k</b>.&#8212;The Twilight of the Gods (or Doom of the Gods) is the central point of the Viking religion. The Regin (of which <i>Ragna</i> is genitive plural) are the ruling powers, often called Ginnregin (the great Gods), Uppregin (the high Gods), Thrymregin
+(the warrior Gods). The word is commonly used of the Aesir in <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>; in <i>Alvissmal</i> the Regin seem to be distinguished from both Aesir and Vanir. The whole story of the Aesir is overshadowed by knowledge of
+this coming doom, the time when they shall meet foes more terrible than the giants, <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e650"></a>Page 31</span>and fall before them; their constant effort is to learn what will happen then, and to gather their forces together to meet
+it. The coming Ragnar&ouml;k is the reason for the existence of Valhalla with its hosts of slain warriors; and of all the Gods,
+Odin, Thor, Tyr and Loki are most closely connected with it. Two poems of the verse Edda describe it:
+
+</p>
+<div class="blockquote">
+<p id="d0e653">(1) <i>Vafthrudnismal</i>:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e658">V. &#8220;What is the plain called where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e660">O. &#8220;Vigrid is the name of the place where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle. It is a hundred miles every way;
+it is their destined battle-field.&#8221;
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e662">O. &#8220;Whence shall the sun come on the smooth heaven when Fenri has destroyed this one?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e664">V. &#8220;Before Fenri destroy her, the elf-beam shall bear a daughter: that maid shall ride along her mother's paths, when the
+Gods perish.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e666">O. &#8220;Which of the Aesir shall rule over the realms of the Gods, when Surt's fire is quenched?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e668">V. &#8220;Vidar and Vali shall dwell in the sanctuary of the Gods when Surt's fire is quenched. Modi and Magni shall have Mj&ouml;llni
+at the end of Vingni's (<i>i.e.</i>, Thor's) combat.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e673">O. &#8220;What shall be Odin's end, when the Gods perish?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e675">V. &#8220;The Wolf will swallow the father of men; Vidar will avenge it. He will cleave the Wolf's cold jaws in the battle.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e677">(2) <i>V&ouml;luspa</i>:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e682">&#8220;A hag sits eastward in Ironwood and rears Fenri's children; one of them all, in troll's shape, shall be the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e684"></a>Page 32</span>sun's destroyer. He shall feed on the lives of death-doomed men; with red blood he shall redden the seat of the Gods. The
+sunshine shall grow black, all winds will be unfriendly in the after-summers.... I see further in the future the great Ragnar&ouml;k
+of the Gods of Victory.... Heimdal blows loudly, the horn is on high; Yggdrasil's ash trembles as it stands, the old tree
+groans.&#8221;
+</p>
+</div><p>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e687">The following lines tell of the fire-giants and the various combats, and the last section of the poem deals with a new world
+when Baldr, H&ouml;d and Hoeni are to come back to the dwelling-place of the Gods.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e689">The whole points to a belief in the early destruction of the world and the passing away of the old order of things. Whether
+the new world which <i>Vafthrudnismal</i> and <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> both prophesy belongs to the original idea or not is a disputed point. Probably it does not; at all events, none of the old
+Aesir, according to the poems, are to survive, for Modi and Magni are not really Gods at all, Baldr, H&ouml;d and Vali belong to
+another myth, Hoeni had passed out of the hierarchy by his exchange with Nj&ouml;rd, and Vidar's origin is obscure.
+
+*       *       *       *       *
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e697"><b>The Einherjar</b>, the great champions or chosen warriors, are intimately connected with Ragnar&ouml;k. All warriors who fall in battle are taken
+to Odin's hall of the slain, Valhalla. According to <i>Grimnismal</i>, he &#8220;chooses every day men dead by the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e704"></a>Page 33</span>sword&#8221;; his Valkyries ride to battle to give the victory and bring in the fallen. Hence Odin is the giver of victory. Loki
+in <i>Lokasenna</i> taunts him with giving victory to the wrong side: &#8220;Thou hast never known how to decide the battle among men. Thou hast often
+given victory to those to whom thou shouldst not give it, to the more cowardly&#8221;; this, no doubt, was in order to secure the
+best fighters for Valhalla. That the defeated side sometimes consoled themselves with this explanation of a notable warrior's
+fall is proved by the tenth-century dirge on Eirik Bloodaxe, where Sigmund the Volsung asks in Valhalla: &#8220;Why didst thou take
+the victory from him, if thou thoughtest him brave?&#8221; and Odin replies: &#8220;Because it is uncertain when the grey Wolf will come
+to the seat of the Gods.&#8221; There are similar lines in Eyvind's dirge on Hakon the Good. In this way a host was collected ready
+for Ragnar&ouml;k: for <i>Grimnismal</i>  says: &#8220;There are five hundred doors and eighty in Valhalla; eight hundred Einherjar will go out from each door, when they
+go to fight the wolf.&#8221; Meanwhile they fight and feast: &#8220;All the Einherjar in Odin's courts fight every day: they choose the
+slain and ride from the battle, and sit then in peace together&#8221; (<i>Vafthrudnismal</i>,) and the Valkyries bear ale to them <i>(Grimnismal</i>).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e718">It is often too hastily assumed that the Norse Ragnar&ouml;k with the dependant Valhalla system are <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e720"></a>Page 34</span>in great part the outcome of Christian influence: of an imitation of the Christian Judgment Day and the Christian heaven respectively.
+Owing to the lateness of our material, it is, of course, impossible to decide how old the beliefs may be, but it is likely
+that the Valhalla idea only took form at the systematising of the mythology in the Viking age. The belief in another world
+for the dead is, however, by no means exclusively Christian, and a reference in <i>Grimnismal</i> suggests the older system out of which, under the influence of the Ragnar&ouml;k idea, Valhalla was developed. The lines, &#8220;The
+ninth hall is Folkvang, where Freyja rules the ordering of seats in the hall; half the slain she chooses every day, Odin has
+the other half,&#8221; are an evident survival of a belief that all the dead went to live with the Gods, Odin having the men, and
+Freyja (or more probably Frigg) the women; the idea being here confused with the later system, under which only those who
+fell in battle were chosen by the Gods. Christian colouring appears in the last lines of <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> and in Snorri, where men are divided into the &#8220;good and moral,&#8221; who go after death to a hall of red gold, and the &#8220;perjurers
+and murderers,&#8221; who are sent to a hall of snakes.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e728">For Ragnar&ouml;k also a heathen origin is at least as probable as a Christian one. I would suggest as a possibility that the expectation
+of the Twilight of <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e730"></a>Page 35</span>the Gods may have grown out of some ritual connected with the eclipse, such as is frequent among heathen races. Such ceremonies
+are a tacit acknowledgment of a doubt, and if they ever existed among the Scandinavians, the possibility, ever present to
+the savage mind, of a time when his efforts to help the light might be fruitless, and the darkness prove the stronger, would
+be the germ of his more civilised descendant's belief in Ragnar&ouml;k.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e732">By turning to the surviving poems of the Skalds, whose dates can be approximately reckoned from the sagas, we can fix an inferior
+limit for certain of the legends given above, placing them definitely in the heathen time. Reference has already been made
+to the corroboration of the Valhalla belief supplied by the elegies on Eirik Bloodaxe and Hakon the Good. In the former (which
+is anonymous, but must have been written soon after 950, since it was composed, on Eirik's death, by his wife's orders), Odin
+commands the Einherjar and Valkyries to prepare for the reception of the slain Eirik and his host, since no one knows how
+soon the Gods will need to gather their forces together for the great contest. Eyvind's dirge on Hakon (who fell in 970) is
+an imitation of this: Odin sends two Valkyries to choose a king to enter his service in Valhalla; they find Hakon on the battle-field,
+and he is slain with many of his followers. Great <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e734"></a>Page 36</span>preparation is made in Valhalla for his reception, and the poet ends by congratulating Hakon (who, though a Christian, having
+been educated in England, had not interfered with the heathen altars and sacrifices) on the toleration which has secured him
+such a welcome. A still earlier poet, Hornklofi, writing during the reign of Harald Fairhair (who died in 933), alludes to
+the slain as the property of &#8220;the one-eyed husband of Frigg.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e736">Several Skalds mention legends of Thor: his fishing for the World-Snake is told by Bragi (who from his place in genealogies
+must have written before 900), and by Ulf Uggason and Eystein Valdason, both in the second half of the tenth century; and
+Thjodulf and Eilif (the former about 960, the latter a little later) tell tales of his fights with the giants. Turning to
+the other Gods, Egil Skallagrimsson (about 970) names Frey and Nj&ouml;rd as the givers of wealth; Bragi tells the story of Gefion's
+dragging the island of Zealand out of Lake Wener into the sea; and Ulf Uggason speaks of Heimdal's wrestling with Loki.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e738">The legend of Idunn is told by Thjodulf much as Snorri tells it: Odin, Hoeni and Loki, while on a journey, kill and roast
+an ox. The giant Thiazi swoops down in eagle's shape and demands a share; Loki strikes the eagle, who flies off with him,
+releasing him only on condition that he will betray to the giants Idunn, &#8220;the care-healing maid who <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e740"></a>Page 37</span>understands the renewal of youth.&#8221; He does so, and the Gods, who grow old and withered for want of her apples, force him to
+go and bring her back to Asgard.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e742">The poet of <i>Eiriksmal</i>, quoted above, alludes to the Baldr myth: Bragi, hearing the approach of Eirik and his host, asks &#8220;What is that thundering
+and tramping, as if Baldr were coming back to Odin's hall?&#8221; The funeral pyre of Baldr is described by Ulf Uggason: he is burnt
+on his ship, which is launched by a giantess, in the presence of Frey, Heimdal, Odin and the Valkyries.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e747">Though heathen writers outside of Scandinavia are lacking, references to Germanic heathendom fortunately survive in several
+Continental Christian historians of earlier date than any of our Scandinavian sources. The evidence of these, though scanty,
+is corroborative, and the allusions are in striking agreement with the Edda stories in tone and character.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e749">Odin (Wodanus) is always identified by these writers with the Roman Mercurius (whom Tacitus named as the chief German God).
+This identification occurs in the eighth-century Paulus Diaconus, and in Jonas of Bobbio (first half of the seventh century),
+and probably rests on Odin's character as a wandering God (Mercury being <span class="Greek">&#948;&#953;&#8049;&#954;&#964;&#959;&#961;&#959;&#962;</span>), his disguises, and his patronage of poetry and eloquence (as Mercury is <span class="Greek">&#955;&#8057;&#947;&#953;&#959;&#962;</span>). Odin <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e757"></a>Page 38</span>is not himself in general the conductor of dead souls (<span class="Greek">&#968;&#965;&#967;&#959;&#960;&#959;&#956;&#960;&#8057;&#962;</span>), like the Roman God, his attendant Valkyries performing the office for him. The equation is only comprehensible on the presumption
+of the independence of Germanic mythology, and cannot be explained by transmission. For if Odin were in any degree an imitation
+of the Roman deity, other notable attributes of the latter would have been assigned to him: whereas in the Edda the thieving
+God (<span class="Greek">&#954;&#955;&#8051;&#960;&#964;&#951;&#962;</span>) is not Odin but Loki, and the founder of civilisation is Heimdal.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e765">The legend of the origin of the Lombards given by Paulus Diaconus illustrates the relations of Odin and Frigg. The Vandals
+asked Wodan (Odin) to grant them victory over the Vinili; the latter made a similar prayer to Frea (Frigg), the wife of Wodan.
+She advised them to make their wives tie their hair round their faces like beards, and go with them to meet Wodan in the morning.
+They did so, and Wodan exclaimed, &#8220;Who are these <i>Long-beards</i>?&#8221; Then Frea said that having given the Vinili a name, he must give them the victory (as Helgi in the Edda claims a gift from
+Svava when she names him). As in <i>Grimnismal</i>, Odin and Frigg are represented as supporting rival claims, and Frigg gains the day for her favourites by superior cunning.
+This legend also shows Odin as the giver of victory.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e773">Few heathen legends are told however by these <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e775"></a>Page 39</span>early Christian writers, and the Gods are seldom called by their German names. An exception is the Frisian Fosite mentioned
+by Alcuin (who died 804) and by later writers; he is to be identified with the Norse Forseti, the son of (probably at first
+an epithet of) Baldr, but no legend of him is told. It is disappointing that these writers should have said so little of any
+God except the chief one. A very characteristic touch survives in Gregory of Tours (died 594), when the Frank Chlodvig tells
+his Christian wife that the Christian God &#8220;cannot be proved to be of the race of the Gods,&#8221; an idea entirely in keeping with
+the Eddic hierarchy. Before leaving the Continental historians, reference may be made to the abundant evidence of Germanic
+tree-worship to be gathered from them. The holy oak mentioned by Wilibald (before 786), the sacred pear-tree of Constantius
+(473), with numerous others, supply parallels to the World-Ash which is so important a feature of Norse mythology.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e777">A study of this subject would be incomplete without some reference to the mythology of Saxo Grammaticus. His testimony on
+the old religion is unwilling, and his effort to discredit it very evident. The bitterness of his attack on Frigg especially
+suggests that she was, among the Northmen, a formidable rival to the Virgin. When he repeats a legend of the Gods, he transforms
+them into <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e779"></a>Page 40</span>mortal heroes, and when, as often happens, he refers to them accidentally as Gods, he invariably hastens to protest that he
+does so only because it had been the custom. He describes Thor and Odin as men versed in sorcery who claimed the rank of Gods;
+and in another passage he speaks of the latter as a king who had his seat at Upsala, and who was falsely credited with divinity
+throughout Europe. His description of Odin agrees with that in the Edda: an old man of great stature and mighty in battle,
+one-eyed, wearing a great cloak, and constantly wandering about in disguise. The story which Saxo tells of his driving into
+battle with Harald War-tooth, disguised as the latter's charioteer Brun, and turning the fight against him by revealing to
+his enemy Ring the order of battle which he had invented for Harald's advantage, is in thorough agreement with the traditional
+character of the God who betrayed Sigmund the Volsung and Helgi Hundingsbane. Saxo's version of the Baldr story has been mentioned
+already. Baldr's transformation into a hero (who could only be slain by a sword in the keeping of a wood-satyr) is almost
+complete. But Odin and Thor and all the Gods fight for him against his rival Hother, &#8220;so that it might be called a battle
+of Gods against men&#8221;; and Nanna's excuse to Baldr that &#8220;a God could not wed with a mortal,&#8221; preserves a trace of his origin.
+The chained Loki appears in Saxo as <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e781"></a>Page 41</span>Utgarda-Loki, lying bound in a cavern of snakes, and worshipped as a God by the Danish king Gorm Haraldsson. Dr. Eydberg sees
+the Freyja myth in Saxo's story of Syritha, who was carried away by the giants and delivered by her lover Othar (the Od of
+the Edda): an example, like <i>Svipdag and Menglad</i>, of the complete transformation of a divine into an heroic myth. In almost all cases Saxo vulgarises the stories in the telling,
+a common result when a mythical tale is retold by a Christian writer, though it is still more conspicuous in his versions
+of the heroic legends.
+
+</p><span class="pageno"><a id="d0e786"></a>Page 42</span><a id="d0e788"></a><h1>Appendix</h1>
+<p id="d0e791"><span class="smallcaps">Thrymskvida</span>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e795">1. Then Wing-Thor was angry when he awoke, and missed his hammer. He shook his beard, he tossed his hair, the son of Earth
+groped about for it.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e797">2. And first of all he spoke these words: &#8220;Hear now, Loki, what I tell thee, a thing that no one in earth or heaven above
+has heard: the Asa has been robbed of his hammer!&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e799">3. They went to the dwelling of fair Freyja, and these words he spoke first of all: &#8220;Wilt thou lend me, Freyja, thy feather
+dress, to see if I can find my hammer?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e801">4. <span class="smallcaps">Freyja</span>. &#8220;I would give it thee, though it were of gold; I would grant it, though it were of silver.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e806">5. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of Asgard and into J&ouml;tunheim.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e808">6. Thrym, lord of the Giants, sat on a howe; he twisted golden bands for his greyhounds and trimmed his horses' manes.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e810">7. <span class="smallcaps">Thrym</span>. &#8220;How is it with the Aesir? How is it with the Elves? Why art thou come alone into J&ouml;tunheim?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e815"><span class="smallcaps">Loki</span>. &#8220;It is ill with the Aesir, it is ill with the Elves; hast thou hidden the Thunderer's hammer?&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e819">8. <span class="smallcaps">Thrym</span>. &#8220;I have hidden the Thunderer's hammer eight miles below the earth. No man shall bring it back, unless he bring me Freyja
+to wife.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e824">9. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of J&ouml;tunheim and into Asgard. Thor met <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e826"></a>Page 43</span>him in the middle of the court, and these words he spoke first:
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e828">10. &#8220;Hast thou news in proportion to thy toil? Tell me from on high thy distant tidings, for a sitting man often breaks down
+in his story, and he who lies down falls into falsehood.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e830">11. <span class="smallcaps">Loki</span>. &#8220;I bring news for my toil: Thrym, lord of the Giants, has thy hammer; no man shall bring it back, unless he take him Freyja
+as a bride.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e835">12. They went to see fair Freyja, spoke to her first of all these words: &#8220;Bind on the bridal veil, Freyja, we two must drive
+to J&ouml;tunheim.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e837">13. Angry then was Freyja; she panted, so that all the hall of the Aesir trembled, and the great Brising necklace fell: &#8220;Eager
+indeed for marriage wouldst thou think me, if I should drive with thee to J&ouml;tunheim.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e839">14. Then all the Aesir went into council, and all the Asynjor to consultation, and the mighty Gods discussed how they should
+recover the Thunderer's hammer.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e841">15. Then spoke Heimdal, whitest of the Aesir; he could see into the future like the Vanir: &#8220;Let us bind on Thor the bridal
+veil; let him have the great necklace Brising.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e843">16. &#8220;Let the keys jingle, and let women's weeds fall about his knees; let us put broad stones on his breast, and a hood dexterously
+on his head.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e845">17. Then spoke Thor, the mighty Asa: &#8220;Vile would the Aesir call me, if I let the bridal veil be bound on me.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e847">18. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: &#8220;Speak not such words, Thor! soon will the Giants dwell in Asgard, unless thou bring home
+thy hammer.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e849">19. Then they bound on Thor the bridal veil, and the great necklace Brising; they let the keys jingle and women's weeds fall
+about his knees, and they put broad <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e851"></a>Page 44</span>stones on his breast, and the hood dexterously on his head.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e853">20. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: &#8220;I also will go with thee as thy maiden; we two will drive together to J&ouml;tunheim.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e855">21. Then the goats were driven out, urged forward in their harness; well must they run. Rocks were riven, the earth burned
+in name: Odin's son was driving into J&ouml;tunheim.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e857">22. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: &#8220;Stand up, giants, and strew the benches! They are bringing me now Freyja my bride,
+Nj&ouml;rd's daughter from Noatun.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e859">23. &#8220;Gold-horned kine run in the court, oxen all-black, the giant's delight. I have many treasures, I have many jewels, Freyja
+only is lacking.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e861">24. The guests assembled early in the evening, and ale was carried to the Giants. One ox did Sif's husband eat, and eight
+salmon, and all the dishes prepared for the women; three casks of mead he drank.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e863">25. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: &#8220;Who ever saw a bride eat so eagerly? I never saw a bride make such a hearty meal,
+nor a maid drink so deep of mead.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e865">26. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's words: &#8220;Eight nights has Freyja eaten nothing, so eager
+was she to be in J&ouml;tunheim.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e867">27. He looked under the veil, he longed to kiss the bride, but he started back the length of the hall: &#8220;Why are Freyja's eyes
+so terrible? Fire seems to burn from her eyes.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e869">28. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's speech: &#8220;Eight nights has Freyja had no sleep, so eager
+was she to be in J&ouml;tunheim.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e871">29. In came the Giants' wretched sister, she dared to ask for a bridal gift: &#8220;Take from thine arms the red rings, if thou
+wouldst gain my love, my love and all my favour.&#8221;
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e873"></a>Page 45</span></p>
+<p id="d0e874">30. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: &#8220;Bring the hammer to hallow the bride. Lay Mj&ouml;llni on the maiden's knee, hallow
+us two in wedlock.&#8221;
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e876">31. The Thunderer's heart laughed in his breast, when the bold of soul felt the hammer. Thrym killed he first, the lord of
+the Giants, and all the race of the Giants he struck.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e878">32. He slew the Giants' aged sister, who had asked him for a bridal gift. She got a blow instead of shillings, and a stroke
+of the hammer for abundance of rings. So Odin's son got back his hammer.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e880"></a>Page 46</span></p><a id="d0e881"></a><h1>Bibliography</h1><a id="d0e884"></a><h2>I. Study in the Original.</h2>
+<p id="d0e887">(1) <i>Poetic Edda</i>.&#8212;The classic edition, and on the whole the best, is Professor Bugge's (Christiania, 1867); the smaller editions of Hildebrand
+(<i>Die Lieder der Aelteren Edda</i>, Paderborn, 1876), and Finnur J&oacute;nsson (<i>Eddalieder</i>, Halle, 1888&#8211;90) are also good; the latter is in two parts, <i>G&ouml;ttersage</i> and <i>Heldensage</i>. The poems may also be found in the first volume of Vigfusson and Powell's <i>Corpus Poeticum Boreale</i> (Oxford, 1883), accompanied by translations;  but in many cases they are cut up and rearranged, and they suffer metrically
+from the system adopted of printing two short lines as one long one, with no dividing point. There is an excellent palaeographic
+edition of the <i>Codex Regius of the Elder Edda</i>, by Wimmer and Finnur J&oacute;nsson (Copenhagen, 1891), with photographic reproductions interleaved with a literal transcription.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e910">(2) <i>Snorra Edda</i>.&#8212;The most recent edition of the whole is Dr. Finnur J&oacute;nsson's (Copenhagen, 1875). There is a useful edition of the mythological
+portions <i>(i.e., Gylfaginning, Bragaraedur</i>, and the narrative parts of <i>Skaldskaparmal</i>) by Ernst Wilken (<i>Die Pros&auml;ische Edda</i>, Paderborn, 1878).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e924">(3) <i>Dictionaries and Grammars</i>.&#8212;For the study of the Poetic Edda, Gering's <i>Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda</i> (Paderborn, 1896) will be found most useful; it is complete <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e932"></a>Page 47</span>and trustworthy, and in small compass. A similar service has been performed for <i>Snorra Edda</i> in Wilken's <i>Glossar</i> (Paderborn, 1883), which forms a second volume to his edition, mentioned above. Both are, of course, in German. The only
+English dictionary is the lexicon of Cleasby and Vigfusson (Oxford).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e940">Of Grammars, the best are German; those of Noreen (<i>Altnordische Grammatik</i>, Halle, 1892), of which there is an abbreviated edition, and Kahle (<i>Altisl&auml;ndisches Elementarbuch</i>, Heidelberg, 1896) being better suited for advanced students; the English grammars included in Vigfusson and Powell's <i>Icelandic Reader</i> (Oxford) and Sweet's <i>Icelandic Primer</i> (Oxford) are more elementary, and therefore hardly adequate for the study of the verse literature.
+
+</p><a id="d0e954"></a><h2>II. Translations.</h2>
+<p id="d0e957">There are English translations of the Elder Edda by Anderson (Chicago, 1879) and Thorpe (1866), as well as the translations
+in the <i>Corpus Poeticum</i>, which are, of course, liable to the same objection as the text. The most accurate German translation is Gering's (Leipzig,
+1893); in Simrock's (<i>Aeltere und J&uuml;ngere Edda</i>, Stuttgart, 1882), the translations of the verse Edda are based on an uncritical text. Snorra Edda was translated into English
+by Dasent (Stockholm, 1842); also by Anderson (Chicago, 1880).
+
+</p><a id="d0e965"></a><h2>III. Modern Authorities.</h2>
+<p id="d0e968">To the works on Northern mythology mentioned below in the note on the Baldr theories, must be added Dr. Rydberg's <i>Teutonic Mythology</i> (English version by R.B. Anderson, London, 1889), which devotes special attention to Saxo.
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e973"></a>Page 48</span></p><a id="d0e974"></a><h1>Notes</h1>
+<p id="d0e977"><span class="smallcaps">Home of the Edda</span>. (Page <a id="d0e981" href="#d0e126">2</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e984">The chief apologists for the British theory are Professor Bugge (<i>Studien &uuml;ber die Entstehung der nordischen G&ouml;tter- und Heldensagen</i>, M&uuml;nchen, 1889), and the editors of the <i>Corpus Poeticum Boreale</i> (see the Introduction to that  work, and also the Prolegomena prefixed to their edition of the <i>Sturlunga Saga</i>, Oxford). The case for Norway and Greenland is argued by Dr. Finnur J&oacute;nsson (<i>Den oldnorsk og oldislandske Literaturs-Historie,</i> Copenhagen). The cases for both British and Norwegian origin are based chiefly on rather fanciful arguments from supposed
+local colour. The theory of the <i>Corpus Poeticum</i> editors that many of the poems were composed in the Scottish isles is discredited by the absence of Gaelic words or traces
+of Gaelic legend. Professor Bugge's North of England theory is slightly stronger, being supported by several Old English expressions
+in the poems, but these are not enough to prove that they were composed in England, since most Icelanders travelled east at
+some time of their lives.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1001">(Page <a id="d0e1003" href="#d0e130">3</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1006">A later study will deal with the Heroic legends. <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1008"></a>Page 49</span>
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1010"><span class="smallcaps">Ynglinga Saga</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1014" href="#d0e130">3</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1017"><i>Ynglinga Saga</i> is prefixed to the Lives of the Kings in the collection known as <i>Heimskringla</i> (edited by Unger, Christiania, 1868, and by Finnur J&oacute;nsson, Christiania, 1893); there is an English translation in Laing's
+<i>Lives of the Kings of Norway</i> (London, 1889).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1027"><span class="smallcaps">V&ouml;luspa</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1031" href="#d0e136">4</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1034">A poem of similar form occurs among the heroic poems. <i>Gripisspa</i>, a prophetic outline of Sigurd's life, introduces the Volsung poems, as <i>V&ouml;luspa</i> does the Asgard cycle.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1042"><span class="smallcaps">Riddle-poems</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1046" href="#d0e179">6</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1049">So many of the mythological poems are in this form that they suggest the question, did the asking of riddles form any part
+of Scandinavian ritual?
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1051"><span class="smallcaps">The Aesir</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1055" href="#d0e285">11</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1058"><i>Ynglinga Saga</i> says that Odin and the Aesir came to Norway from Asia; a statement due, of course, to a false etymology, though theories
+as to the origin of Norse mythology have been based on it.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1062"><span class="smallcaps">Tyr</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1066" href="#d0e294">12</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1069">Tyr is etymologically identical with Zeus, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus (Sky-God).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1071"><span class="smallcaps">Baldr</span>. (Pages <a id="d0e1075" href="#d0e373">16</a> to <a id="d0e1078" href="#d0e466">22</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1081">The Baldr theories are stated in the following authorities:
+<span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1083"></a>Page 50</span></p>
+<p id="d0e1084">(1) Ritual origin: Frazer, <i>The Golden Bough</i>, vol. 3.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1089">(2) Heroic origin: Golther, <i>Handbuch der Germanischen Mythologie</i> (Leipzig, 1895); Niedner, <i>Eddische Fragen</i> (<i>Zeitschrift f&uuml;r deutsches Altertum</i>, new series, 29), <i>Zur Lieder-Edda</i> (<i>Zeitschr. f. d. Alt</i>. vol. 36).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1106">(3) Solar myth: Sir G.W. Cox, <i>Mythology of the Aryan Nations</i> (London, 1870); Max M&uuml;ller, <i>Chips from a German Workshop</i>, vol. 4.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1114">(4) Borrowed: Bugge, <i>Studien &uuml;ber die Entstchung der nordischen G&ouml;tter- und Heldensagen</i> (transl. Brenner, M&uuml;nchen, 1889).
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1119"><span class="smallcaps">Vegtamskvida</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1123" href="#d0e381">17</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1126">The word <i>hro&eth;rba&eth;m</i> (which I have given as &#8220;branch of fame&#8221;) would perhaps be more accurately translated &#8220;tree of fame,&#8221; which Gering explains
+as a kenning for Baldr. But there are no kennings of the same sort in the poem, and the line would have no meaning. If it
+refers to the mistletoe, as most commentators agree, it merely shows that the poet was ignorant of the nature of the plant,
+which would be in favour of its antiquity, rather than the reverse.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1131"><span class="smallcaps">Saxo Grammaticus</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1135" href="#d0e419">18</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1138">English translation by Professor Elton (London, D. Nutt, 1894). As Saxo's references to the old Gods are made in much the
+same sympathetic tone as that adopted by Old Testament writers towards heathen deities, his testimony on mythological questions
+is of the less value.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1140"><span class="smallcaps">The Mistletoe</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1144" href="#d0e447">20</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1147">It seems incredible that any writers should turn to the <span class="pageno"><a id="d0e1149"></a>Page 51</span>travesty of the Baldr story given in the almost worthless saga of Hromund Gripsson in support of a theory. In it &#8220;Bildr&#8221; is
+killed by Hromund, who has the sword Mistilteinn. It must be patent to any one that this is a perverted version of a story
+which the narrator no longer understood.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1151"><span class="smallcaps">Loki</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1155" href="#d0e549">26</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1158">It is hardly necessary to point out the parallel between Loki and Prometheus, also both helper and enemy of the Gods, and
+agent in their threatened fall, though in the meantime a prisoner. In character Loki has more in common with the mischievous
+spirit described by Hesiod, than with the heroic figure of Aeschylus. The struggles of Loki (p. 28) find a parallel in those
+of the fire-serpent Typhon, to which the Greeks attributed earthquakes.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1160"><span class="smallcaps">Eclipse Ritual</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1164" href="#d0e730">35</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1167">Mr. Lang, in <i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i>, (London, 1887)  gives examples of eclipse ritual. Grimm, in the <i>Teutonic Mythology</i>, vol. 2, quotes Finnish and Lithuanian myths about sun-devouring beasts, very similar to the Fenri myth.
+
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1175"><span class="smallcaps">The Skalds</span>. (Page <a id="d0e1179" href="#d0e730">35</a>.)
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1182">All the Skaldic verses will be found, with translations, in the <i>Corpus Poeticum</i>.
+
+</p>
+<p id="d0e1187">Printed by <span class="smallcaps">Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co</span>. <br id="d0e1192">
+London &amp; Edinburgh
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 1, by Winifred Faraday
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Edda, Vol. 1
+       The Divine Mythology of the North, Popular Studies in Mythology,
+       Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+
+
+Author: Winifred Faraday
+
+Release Date: July 23, 2004 [EBook #13007]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EDDA, VOL. 1 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Distributed Proofreaders Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance, and Folklore, No. 12
+
+
+
+The Edda
+
+I
+
+The Divine Mythology of the North
+
+
+By
+
+Winifred Faraday, M.A.
+
+
+
+Published by David Nutt, at the Sign of the Phoenix, Long Acre, London
+1902
+
+
+
+
+Author's Note
+
+Some explanation is needed of the form of spelling I have adopted
+in transcribing Norse proper names. The spirants thorn and eth
+are represented by _th_ and _d_, as being more familiar to readers
+unacquainted with the  original. Marks of vowel-length are in all cases
+omitted. The inflexional _-r_ of the nominative singular masculine
+is also omitted, whether it appears as _-r_ or is assimilated to a
+preceding consonant (as in Odinn, Eysteinn, Heindall, Egill) in the
+Norse form, with the single exception of the name Tyr, where I use
+the form which has become conventional in English.
+
+Manchester,
+December 1901.
+
+
+
+
+The Edda: I. The Divine Mythology of the North
+
+
+The Icelandic Eddas are the only vernacular record of Germanic
+heathendom as it developed during the four centuries which in England
+saw the destruction of nearly all traces of the heathen system. The
+so-called Elder Edda is a collection of some thirty poems, mythic and
+heroic in substance, interspersed with short pieces of prose, which
+survives in a thirteenth-century MS., known as the Codex Regius,
+discovered in Iceland in 1642; to these are added other poems of
+similar character from other sources. The Younger Edda is a prose
+paraphrase of, and commentary on, these poems and others which are
+lost, together with a treatise on metre, written by the historian
+Snorri Sturluson about 1220.
+
+This use of the word Edda is incorrect and unhistorical, though
+convenient and sanctioned by the use of several centuries. It was early
+used as a general term for the rules and materials for versemaking,
+and applied in this sense to Snorri's work. When the poems on which
+his paraphrase is founded were discovered, Icelandic scholars by a
+misunderstanding applied the name to them also; and as they attributed
+the collection quite arbitrarily to the historian Saemund (1056-1133),
+it was long known as Saemundar Edda, a name now generally discarded in
+favour of the less misleading titles of Elder or Poetic Edda. From its
+application to this collection, the word derives a more extended use,
+(1) as a general term for Norse mythology; (2) as a convenient name
+to distinguish the simpler style of these anonymous narrative poems
+from the elaborate formality of the Skalds.
+
+The poems of the Edda are certainly older than the MS., although
+the old opinion as to their high antiquity is untenable. The majority
+probably date from the tenth century in their present form; this dating
+does not necessitate the ascription of the shape in which the legends
+are presented, still less of their substance, to that period. With
+regard to the place of their composition opinions vary widely,
+Norway, the British Isles and Greenland having all found champions;
+but the evidence is rather questionable, and I incline to leave
+them to the country which has preserved them. They are possibly of
+popular origin; this, together with their epic or narrative character,
+would account for the striking absence from them of some of the chief
+characteristics of Skaldic poetry: the obscuring of the sense by the
+elaborate interlacing of sentences and the extensive use of kennings
+or mythological synonyms, and the complication of the metre by such
+expedients as the conjunction of end-rhyme with alliteration. Eddie
+verse is governed solely by the latter, and the strophic arrangement
+is simple, only two forms occurring: (1) couplets of alliterative
+short lines; (2) six-line strophes, consisting of a couplet followed
+by a single short line, the whole repeated.
+
+Roughly speaking, the first two-fifths of the MS. is mythological,
+the rest heroic. I propose to observe this distinction, and to
+deal in this study with the stories of the Gods. In this connexion,
+Snorri's Edda and the mythical Ynglinga Saga may also be considered,
+but as both were compiled a couple of centuries or more after the
+introduction of Christianity into Iceland, it is uncertain how much in
+them is literary explanation of tradition whose meaning was forgotten;
+some also, especially in Snorri, is probably pure invention, fairy
+tale rather than myth.
+
+Many attempts have been made to prove that the material of the Edda
+is largely borrowed. The strength and distinction of Icelandic poetry
+rest rather on the fact that it is original and national and, like
+that of Greece, owes little to foreign sources; and that it began in
+the heathen age, before Christian or Romantic influences had touched
+Iceland. Valuable as the early Christian poetry of England is, we look
+in vain there for the humour, the large-minded simplicity of motive,
+the suggestive character-drawing, the swift dramatic action, which
+are as conspicuous in many poems in the Edda as in many of the Sagas.
+
+Omitting the heroic poems, there are in Codex Regius the following: (1)
+Of a more or less comprehensive character, _Voeluspa, Vafthrudnismal,
+Grimnismal, Lokasenna, Harbardsljod_; (2) dealing with episodes,
+_Hymiskvida, Thrymskvida, Skirnisfoer. Havamal_ is a collection
+of proverbs, but contains two interpolations from mythical
+poems; _Alvissmal_, which, in the form of a dialogue between
+Thor and a dwarf Alviss, gives a list of synonyms, is a kind of
+mythologico-poetical glossary. Several of these poems are found
+in another thirteenth-century vellum fragment, with an additional
+one, variously styled _Vegtamskvida_ or _Baldr's Dreams_; the great
+fourteenth-century codex Flateybook contains _Hyndluljod_, partly
+genealogical, partly an imitation of _Voeluspa_; and one of the MSS. of
+Snorri's Edda gives us _Rigsthula_.
+
+_Voeluspa_, though not one of the earliest poems, forms an appropriate
+opening. Metrical considerations forbid an earlier date than the
+first quarter of the eleventh century, and the last few lines are
+still later. The material is, however, older: the poem is an outline,
+in allusions often obscure to us, of traditions and beliefs familiar to
+its first hearers. The very bareness of the outline is sufficient proof
+that the material is not new. The framework is apparently imitated from
+that of the poem known as _Baldr's Dreams_, some lines from which are
+inserted in _Voeluspa_. This older poem describes Odin's visit to the
+Sibyl in hell-gates to inquire into the future. He rides down to her
+tomb at the eastern door of Nifl-hell and chants spells, until she
+awakes and asks: "What man unknown to me is that, who has troubled me
+with this weary journey? Snow has snowed on me, rain has beaten me,
+dew has drenched me, I have long been dead." He gives the name Wegtam,
+or Way-wise, and then follow question and answer until she discovers
+his identity and will say no more. In _Voeluspa_ there is no descriptive
+introduction, and no dialogue; the whole is spoken by the Sibyl,
+who plunges at once into her story, with only the explanatory words:
+"Thou, Valfather, wouldst have me tell the ancient histories of men as
+far as I remember." She describes the creation of the world and sky
+by Bor's sons; the building by the Gods of a citadel in Ida-plain,
+and their age of innocence till three giant-maids brought greed of
+gold; the creation of the dwarfs; the creation of the first man and
+woman out of two trees by Odin, Hoeni and Lodur; the world-ash and
+the spring beside it where dwell the three Norns who order the fates
+of men. Then follows an allusion to the war between the Aesir and the
+Vanir, the battle with the giants who had got possession of the goddess
+Freyja, and the breaking of bargains; an obscure reference to Mimi's
+spring where Odin left his eye as a pledge; and an enumeration of his
+war-maids or Valkyries. Turning to the future, the Sibyl prophesies
+the death of Baldr, the vengeance on his slayer, and the chaining of
+Loki, the doom of the Gods and the destruction of the world at the
+coming of the fire-giants and the release of Loki's children from
+captivity. The rest of the poem seems to be later; it tells how the
+earth shall rise again from the deep, and the Aesir dwell once more
+in Odin's halls, and there is a suggestion of Christian influence in
+it which is absent from the earlier part.
+
+Of the other general poems, the next four were probably composed before
+950; in each the setting is different. _Vafthrudnismal_, a riddle-poem,
+shows Odin in a favourite position, seeking in disguise for knowledge
+of the future. Under the name of Gangrad (Wanderer), he visits the
+wise giant Vafthrudni, and the two agree to test their wisdom: the one
+who fails to answer a question is to forfeit his head. In each case
+the questions deal first with the past. Vafthrudni asks about Day and
+Night, and the river which divides the Giants from the Gods, matters of
+common knowledge; and then puts a question as to the future: "What is
+the plain where Surt and the blessed Gods shall meet in battle?" Odin
+replies, and proceeds to question in his turn; first about the creation
+of Earth and Sky, the origin of Sun and Moon, Winter and Summer, the
+Giants and the Winds; the coming of Njoerd the Wane to the Aesir as
+a hostage; the Einherjar, or chosen warriors of Valhalla. Then come
+prophetic questions on the destruction of the Sun by the wolf Fenri,
+the Gods who shall rule in the new world after Ragnaroek, the end of
+Odin. The poem is brought to a close by Odin's putting the question
+which only himself can answer: "What did Odin say in his son's ear
+before he mounted the pyre?" and the giant's head is forfeit.
+
+In the third poem of this class, _Grimnismal_, a prose introduction
+relates that Odin and Frigg quarrelled over the merits of their
+respective foster-children. To settle the question, Odin goes
+disguised as Grimni, "the Hooded One," to visit his foster-son Geirroed;
+but Frigg, to justify her charge of inhospitality against Geirroed,
+sends her maiden Fulla to warn him against the coming stranger. Odin
+therefore meets with a harsh reception, and is bound between two fires
+in the hall. Geirroed's young son, Agnar, protests against this rude
+treatment, and gives wine to the guest, who then begins to instruct
+him in matters concerning the Gods. He names the halls of the Aesir,
+describes Valhalla and the ash Yggdrasil, the Valkyries, the creation
+of the world (two stanzas in common with _Vafthrudnismal_), and
+enumerates his own names. The poem ends with impressive abruptness
+by his turning to Geirroed:
+
+"Thou art drunk, Geirroed, thou hast drunk too deep; thou art bereft
+of much since thou hast lost my favour, the favour of Odin and all
+the Einherjar. I have told thee much, but thou hast minded little. Thy
+friends betray thee: I see my friend's sword lie drenched in blood. Now
+shall Odin have the sword-weary slain; I know thy life is ended,
+the Fates are ungracious. Now thou canst see Odin: come near me,
+if thou canst."
+
+[Prose.] "King Geirroed sat with his sword on his knee, half drawn. When
+he heard that Odin was there, he stood up and would have led Odin
+from the fires. The sword slipt from his hand; the hilt turned
+downwards. The king caught his foot and fell forwards, the sword
+standing towards him, and so he met his death. Then Odin went away,
+and Agnar was king there long afterwards."
+
+_Harbardsljod_ is a dialogue, and humorous. Thor on his return from
+the east comes to a channel, at the farther side of which stands Odin,
+disguised as a ferryman, Greybeard. He refuses to ferry Thor across,
+and they question each other as to their past feats, with occasional
+threats from Thor and taunts from Odin, until the former goes off
+vowing vengeance on the ferryman:
+
+_Thor_. "Thy skill in words would serve thee ill if I waded across
+the water; I think thou wouldst cry louder than the wolf, if thou
+shouldst get a blow from the hammer."
+
+_Odin_. "Sif has a lover at home, thou shouldst seek him. That is a
+task for thee to try, it is more proper for thee."
+
+_Thor_. "Thou speakest what thou knowest most displeasing to me;
+thou cowardly fellow, I think that thou liest."
+
+_Odin_. "I think I speak true; thou art slow on the road. Thou wouldst
+have got far, if thou hadst started at dawn."
+
+_Thor_. "Harbard, scoundrel, it is rather thou who hast delayed me."
+
+_Odin_. "I never thought a shepherd could so delay Asa-Thor's journey."
+
+_Thor_. "I will counsel thee: row thy boat hither. Let us cease
+quarrelling; come and meet Magni's father."
+
+_Odin_. "Leave thou the river; crossing shall be refused thee."
+
+_Thor_. "Show me the way, since thou wilt not ferry me."
+
+_Odin_. "That is a small thing to refuse. It is a long way to go: a
+while to the stock, and another to the stone, then keep to the left
+hand till thou reach Verland. There will Fjoergyn meet her son Thor,
+and she will tell him the highway to Odin's land."
+
+_Thor_. "Shall I get there to-day?"
+
+_Odin_. "With toil and trouble thou wilt get there about sunrise,
+as I think."
+
+_Thor_. "Our talk shall be short, since thou answerest with mockery. I
+will reward thee for refusing passage, if we two meet again."
+
+_Odin_. "Go thy way, where all the fiends may take thee."
+
+_Lokasenna_ also is in dialogue form. A prose introduction tells
+how the giant Oegi, or Gymi, gave a feast to the Aesir. Loki was
+turned out for killing a servant, but presently returned and began to
+revile the Gods and Goddesses, each one in turn trying to interfere,
+only to provoke a taunt from Loki. At last Thor, who had been absent
+on a journey, came in and threatened the slanderer with his hammer,
+whereupon Loki said, "I spoke to the Aesir and the sons of the Aesir
+what my mind told me; but for thee alone I will go away, for I know
+thou wilt strike." Some of the poem is rather pointless abuse, but
+much touches points already suggested in the other poems.
+
+_Hyndluljod_ is much later than the others, probably  not before
+1200. The style is late, and the form imitated from _Voeluspa_. It
+describes a visit paid by Freyja to the Sibyl to learn the genealogy of
+her favourite Ottar. The larger part deals with heroic genealogies, but
+there are scanty allusions to Baldr, Frey, Heimdal, Loki's children,
+and Thor, and a Christian reference to a God who shall come after
+Ragnaroek "when Odin shall meet the wolf." It tells nothing new.
+
+We have here then, omitting _Hyndluljod_, five poems (four of them
+belonging to the first half of the tenth century) which suggest a
+general outline of Norse mythology: there is a hierarchy of Gods, the
+Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin being the chief. Among
+them are several who are not Aesir by origin: Njoerd and his son and
+daughter, Frey and Freyja, are Vanir; Loki is really an enemy and
+an agent in their fall; and there are one or two Goddesses of giant
+race. The giants are rivals and enemies to the Gods; the dwarfs are
+also antagonistic, but in bondage. The meeting-place of the Gods is
+by the World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of Gods
+and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake. The Gods have
+foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnaroek, the great fight when they
+shall meet Loki's children, the Wolf and the Snake; both sides will
+fall and the world be destroyed. An episode in the story is the death
+of Baldr. This we may assume to be the religion of the Viking age
+(800-1000 A.D.), a compound of the beliefs of various ages and tribes.
+
+_The Aesir._--The number of the Aesir is not fixed. _Hyndluljod_
+says there were twelve ("there were eleven Aesir when Baldr went
+down into the howe"). Snorri gives a list of fourteen Aesir or Gods
+(Odin, Thor, Baldr, Njoerd, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdal, Hoed, Vidar, Vali,
+Ullr, Forseti, Loki), and adds Hoeni in another list, all the fifteen
+occurring in the poems; and sixteen Goddesses (Asynjor), the majority
+of whom are merely personified epithets, occurring nowhere else. Of
+the sixteen, Frigg, Gefion, Freyja and Saga (really an epithet only)
+are Goddesses in the poems, and Fulla is Frigg's handmaid. In another
+chapter, Snorri adds Idunn, Gerd, Sigyn and Nanna, of whom the latter
+does not appear in the Elder Edda, where Idunn, Gerd (a giantess)
+and Sigyn are the wives of Bragi, Frey and Loki; and two others,
+the giantess Skadi and Sif, are the wives of Njoerd and Thor.
+
+A striking difference from classical mythology is that neither Tyr
+(who should etymologically be the Sky-god), nor Thor (the Thunder-god),
+takes the highest place. Tyr is the hero of one important episode,
+the chaining of the Wolf, through which he loses his right hand. This
+is told in full by Snorri and alluded to in _Lokasenna_, both in the
+prose preface ("Tyr also was there, with only one hand; the Fenris-wolf
+had bitten off the other, when he was bound") and in the poem itself:
+
+_Loki_. "I must remember that right hand which Fenri bit off thee."
+
+_Tyr_. "I am short of a hand, but thou of the famous wolf; to each
+the loss is ill-luck. Nor is the wolf in better plight, for he must
+wait in bonds till Ragnaroek."
+
+Otherwise, he only appears in connexion with two more popular Gods:
+he speaks in Frey's defence in _Lokasenna_, and in _Hymiskvida_ he
+is Thor's companion in the search for a cauldron; the latter poem
+represents him as a giant's son.
+
+Thor, on the other hand, is second only to his father Odin; he is
+the strongest of the Gods and their champion against the giants,
+and his antagonist at Ragnaroek is to be the World-Snake. Like Odin,
+he travels much, but while the chief God generally goes craftily and
+in disguise, to gain knowledge or test his wisdom, Thor's errands are
+warlike; in _Lokasenna_ he is absent on a journey, in _Harbardsljod_
+and _Alvissmal_ he is returning from one. His journeys are always
+to the east; so in _Harbardsljod_: "I was in the east, fighting
+the malevolent giant-brides.... I was in the east and guarding the
+river, when Svarang's sons attacked me." The Giants live in the
+east (_Hymiskvida_ 5); Thor threatened Loki: "I will fling thee up
+into the east, and no one shall see thee more" (_Lokasenna_ 59);
+the fire-giants at Ragnaroek are to come from the east: "Hrym comes
+driving from the east, he lifts his shield before him.... A ship
+comes from the east, Muspell's sons will come sailing over the
+sea, and Loki steers" (_Voeluspa_ 50, 51). It would not, perhaps,
+be overstraining the point to suggest that this is a reminiscence of
+early warfare between the Scandinavians and eastern nations, either
+Lapps and Finns or Slavonic tribes.
+
+Thor is the God of natural force, the son of Earth. Two of the
+episodical poems deal with his contests with the giants. _Thrymskvida_,
+the story of how Thor won back his hammer, Mjoellni, from the giant
+Thrym, is the finest and one of the oldest of the mythological poems;
+a translation is given in the appendix, as an example of Eddic poetry
+at its best. Loki appears as the willing helper of the Gods, and Thor's
+companion. The Thunderer's journey with Tyr in quest of a cauldron
+is related with much humour in _Hymiskvida_: Hymi's beautiful wife,
+who helps her guests to outwit her husband, is a figure familiar in
+fairy-tales as the Ogre's wife.
+
+The chief God of the Scandinavians is, it must be confessed, an
+unsympathetic character. He is the head of the Valhalla system;
+he is Val-father (Father of the Slain), and the Valkyries are his
+"Wishmaidens," as the Einherjar are his "Wishsons." He naturally takes
+a special interest in mortal heroes, from whom come the chosen hosts
+of Valhalla. But, in spite of the splendour of his surroundings, he
+is wanting in dignity. The chief of the Gods has neither the might and
+unthinking valour of Thor, nor the self-sacrificing courage of Tyr. He
+is a God who practises magic, and it is as Father of Spells that he is
+powerful. He is the wisest of the Gods in the sense that he remembers
+most about the past and foresees most about the future; yet he is
+powerless in difficulty without the craft of Loki and the hammer of
+Thor. He always wanders in disguise, and the stories told of him are
+chiefly love-adventures; this is true of all the deeds he mentions
+in _Harbardsljod_, and also of the two interpolations in _Havamal_,
+though one of the two had an object, the stealing of the mead of
+inspiration from the giant Suptung, whose daughter Gunnloed guarded it.
+
+_Voeluspa_ makes him one of three creative deities, the other two being
+Lodur (probably Loki) and Hoeni, of whom nothing else is known except
+the story that he was given as hostage to the Vanir in exchange for
+Njoerd. The same three Gods (Odin, Loki and Hoeni) are connected with
+the legend of the Nibelung treasure; and it was another adventure of
+theirs, according to Snorri, which led to the loss of Idunn.
+
+Of the other Gods, Bragi is a later development; his name means
+simply king or chief, and his attributes, as God of eloquence and
+poetry, are apparently borrowed from Odin. Heimdal, the watchman and
+"far-seeing like the Vanir," who keeps guard on the rainbow bridge
+Bifroest, is represented in the curious poem _Rigsthula_ as founder of
+the different social orders. He wandered over the world under the name
+of Rig, and from his first journey sprang the race of thralls, swarthy,
+crooked and broad-backed, who busied themselves with fencing land and
+tending goats and swine; from his second, the churls, fine and ruddy,
+who broke oxen, built houses and ploughed the land; from his third,
+the earls, yellow-haired, rosy, and keen-eyed, who broke horses and
+strung bows, rode, swam, and hurled spears; and the youngest of the
+earls' race was Konung the king, who knew all mysteries, understood
+the speech of birds, could quench fire and heal wounds. Heimdal is
+said to be the son of nine mothers, and to have fought with Loki for
+Freyja's Brising-necklace. His horn is hidden under Yggdrasil, to be
+brought out at Ragnaroek, when he will blow a warning blast. His origin
+is obscure. Still less is known of Vidar and Vali, two sons of Odin,
+one of whom is to avenge Baldr's death, the other to slay the wolf
+after it has swallowed up the chief God at Ragnaroek. Thor's stepson
+Ullr (Glory) is probably, like his sons Modi and Magni (Wrath and
+Strength), a mere epithet.
+
+Frigg, Odin's wife and the chief Goddess, daughter of Earth,
+is not very distinctly characterised, and is often confused with
+Freyja. Gefion should be the sea-goddess, since that seems to be
+the meaning of her name, but her functions are apparently usurped by
+the Wane Njoerd; according to Snorri, she is the patron of those who
+die unwedded.
+
+_Baldr_.--The story of Baldr is the most debated point in the Edda. The
+chief theories advanced are: (1) That it is the oldest part of Norse
+mythology, and of ritual origin; (2) that Baldr is really a hero
+transformed into a God; (3) that the legend is a solar myth with
+or without Christian colouring;  (4) that it is entirely borrowed
+from Mediaeval Greek and Christian sources. This last theory is too
+ingenious to be credible; and with regard to the third, there is
+nothing essentially Christian in the chief features of the legend,
+while the solar idea leaves too much unexplained. The references to
+the myth in the Elder Edda are:
+
+(1) _Vegtamskvida_ (about 900 A.D.). Odin questions the Sibyl as to
+the meaning of Baldr's dreams:
+
+_Odin_. "For whom are the benches (in hell) strewn with rings, the
+halls fairly adorned with gold?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Here the mead, clear drink, stands brewed for Baldr; the
+shields are spread. The sons of the Aesir are too merry."
+
+_Odin_. "Who will be Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Hoed bears thither the high branch of fame: he will be
+Baldr's slayer and rob Odin's son of life."
+
+_Odin_. "Who will avenge the deed on Hoed and bring Baldr's slayer to
+the funeral pyre?"
+
+_Sibyl_. "Rind bears a son, Vali, in the halls of the west. He shall
+not wash his hands nor comb his hair till he bears Baldr's foe to
+the pyre."
+
+(2) In _Lokasenna_ Frigg says: "If I had a son like Baldr here in
+Oegi's halls, thou shouldst not pass out from the sons of the Aesir,
+but be slain here in thy anger"; to which Loki replies, "Wilt thou
+that I speak more ill words, Frigg? I am the cause that thou wilt
+never more see Baldr ride into the hall."
+
+(3) In _Vafthrudnismal_ the only reference is Odin's question,
+"What said Odin in his son's ear when he mounted the pyre?"
+
+(4) In _Voeluspa_ the Sibyl prophesies, "I saw doom threatening Baldr,
+the bleeding victim, the son of Odin. Grown high above the meadows
+stood the mistletoe, slender and fair. From this stem, which looked
+so slender, grew a fatal and dangerous shaft. Hoed shot it, and Frigg
+wept in Fenhall over Valhall's woe."  The following lines, on the
+chaining of Loki, suggest his complicity.
+
+(5) _Hyndluljod_ has one reference: "There were eleven Aesir by
+number when Baldr went down into the howe. Vali was his avenger and
+slew his brother's slayer."
+
+Besides these there is a fragment quoted by Snorri: "Thoekk will weep
+dry tears at Baldr's funeral pyre. I had no good of the old man's
+son alive or dead; let Hel keep what she has." _Grimnismal_ assigns
+a hall to Baldr among the Gods.
+
+There are, in addition, two prose versions of the story by later
+writers: the Icelandic version of Snorri (1178-1241) with all the
+details familiar to every one; and the Latin one of the Dane Saxo
+Grammaticus (about thirty years earlier), which makes Baldr and Hoed
+heroes instead of Gods, and completely alters the character of the
+legend by making a rivalry for Nanna's favour the centre of the plot
+and cause of the catastrophe. On the Eddic version and on Saxo's
+depend the theories of Golther, Detter, Niedner and other German
+scholars on the one hand, and Dr. Frazer on the other.
+
+It has often been pointed out that there is no trace of Baldr-worship
+in other Germanic nations, nor in any of the Icelandic sagas except
+the late Frithjofssaga. This, however, is true of other Gods, notably
+of Tyr, who is without question one of the oldest. The only deities
+named with any suggestion of sacrifice or worship in the Icelandic
+sagas proper are Odin, Thor, Frey, Njoerd, Frigg and Freyja. The process
+of choice is as arbitrary in mythology as in other sciences. Again,
+it is more likely that the original version of the legend should have
+survived in Iceland than in Denmark, which, being on the mainland,
+was earlier subject to Christian and Romantic influences; and
+that a heathen God should, in the two or three centuries following
+the establishment of Christianity in the North, be turned into a
+mortal hero, than that the reverse process should have acted at a
+sufficiently late date to permit of both versions existing side by
+side in the thirteenth century. A similar gradual elimination of the
+supernatural may be found in the history of the Volsung myth. Snorri's
+version is merely an amplification of that in the Elder Edda, which,
+scanty as its account of Baldr is, leaves no doubt as to his divinity.
+
+The outline gathered from the poems is as follows: Baldr, Odin's son,
+is killed by his brother Hoed through a mistletoe spray; Loki is in some
+way concerned in his death, which is an overwhelming misfortune to the
+Gods; but it is on Hoed that his death is avenged. He is burnt on a pyre
+(Snorri says on his ship, a feature which must come from the Viking
+age; _Hyndluljod_ substitutes howe-burial). He will be absent from
+the great fight at Ragnaroek, but _Voeluspa_ adds that he will return
+afterwards. Nanna has nothing to do with the story. The connexion with
+the hierarchy of the Aesir seems external only, since Baldr has no
+apparent relation to the great catastrophe as have Odin, Thor, Frej,
+Tyr and Loki; this, then, would point to the independence of his myth.
+
+The genuineness of the myth seems to depend on whether the mistletoe
+is an original feature of it or not, and on this point there can
+be little real doubt. The German theory that Baldr could only be
+killed by his own sword, which was therefore disguised by enchantment
+and used against him, and that the Icelandic writers misunderstood
+this to mean a mistletoe sprig, is far-fetched and romantic, and
+crumbles at a touch. For if, as it is claimed, the Icelanders had no
+mistletoe, why should they introduce it into a story to which it did
+not belong? They might preserve it by tradition, but they would hardly
+invent it. Granting this, the mistletoe becomes the central point of
+the legend. The older mythologists, who only saw in it a sun-myth,
+overlooked the fact that since any weapon would have done to kill
+the God with, the mistletoe must have some special significance; and
+if it is a genuine part of the story, as we have no reason to doubt,
+it will be hard to overturn Dr. Frazer's theory that the Baldr-myth
+is a relic of tree-worship and the ritual sacrifice of the God,
+Baldr being a tree-spirit whose soul is contained in the mistletoe.
+
+The contradictions in the story, especially as told by Snorri
+(such as the confusion between the parts played by Hoed and Loki,
+and the unsuspicious attitude of the Gods as Loki directs Hoed's aim)
+are sometimes urged against its genuineness. They are rather proofs
+of antiquity. Apparent contradictions whose explanation is forgotten
+often survive in tradition; the inventor of a new story takes care to
+make it consistent. It is probable, however, that there were originally
+only two actors in the episode, the victim and the slayer, and that
+Loki's part is later than Hoed's, for he really belongs to the Valhall
+and Ragnaroek myth, and was only introduced here as a link. The incident
+of the oath extracted from everything on earth to protect Baldr, which
+occurs in Snorri and in a paper MS. of _Baldr's Dreams_, was probably
+invented to explain the choice of weapon, which would certainly need
+explanation to an Icelandic audience. If Dr. Frazer's theory be right,
+Vali, who slew the slayer, must also have been an original figure in
+the legend. His antiquity is supported by the fact that he plays the
+part of avenger in the poems; while in Snorri, where he is mentioned
+as a God, his absence from the account of Baldr's death is only a
+part of that literary development by which real responsibility for
+the murder was transferred from Hoed to Loki.
+
+Snorri gives Baldr a son, Forseti (Judge), who is also named as a
+God in _Grimnismal_. He must have grown out of an epithet of Baldr's,
+of whom Snorri says that "no one can resist his sentence"; the sacred
+tree would naturally be the seat of judgment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Wanes._--Three of the Norse divinities, Njoerd and his son and
+daughter, are not Aesir by descent. The following account is given
+of their presence in Asgard:
+
+(1) In _Vafthrudnismal_, Odin asks:
+
+"Whence came Njoerd among the sons of the Aesir? for he was not born
+of the Aesir."
+
+_Vafthrudni_. "In Vanaheim wise powers ordained and gave him for a
+hostage to the Gods; at the doom of the world he shall come back,
+home to the wise Wanes."
+
+(2) There is an allusion in _Voeluspa_ to the war which caused the
+giving of hostages:
+
+"Odin shot into the host: this was the first war in the world. Broken
+was the wall of the citadel of the Aesir, so that the Wanes could
+tread the fields of war."
+
+(3) Loki taunts Njoerd with his position, in _Lokasenna_:
+
+"Thou wast sent from the east as a hostage to the Gods...."
+
+_Njoerd_. "This is my comfort, though I was sent from far as a hostage
+to the Gods, yet I have a son whom no one hates, and he is thought
+the best of the Aesir."
+
+_Loki_. "Stay, Njoerd, restrain thy pride; I will hide it no longer:
+thy son is thine own sister's son, and that is no worse than one
+would expect."
+
+_Tyr_. "Frey is the best of all the bold riders of Asgard."
+
+There is little doubt that Njoerd was once a God of higher importance
+than he is in the Edda, where he is overshadowed by his son. Grimm's
+suggestion that he and the goddess Nerthus, mentioned by Tacitus,
+were brother and sister, is supported by the line in _Lokasenna_; it
+is an isolated reference, and the Goddess has left no other traces in
+Scandinavian mythology. They were the deities, probably agricultural,
+of an earlier age, whose adoption by the later Northmen was explained
+by the story of the compact between Aesir and Vanir. Then their places
+were usurped by Frey and Freyja, who were possibly created out of
+epithets originally applied to the older pair; Njoerd was retained
+with lessened importance, Nerthus passed out altogether. The Edda
+gives Njoerd a giant-bride, Skadi, who was admitted among the Gods in
+atonement for the slaying of her father Thiazi; she is little more
+than a name. Frey and Freyja have other marks of agricultural deities,
+besides their relationship. Nothing is said about Frey's changing
+shape, but Freyja possesses a hawk-dress which Loki borrows when
+he wishes to change his form; and, according to Snorri, Frey was
+sacrificed to for the crops. Njoerd has an epithet, "the wealthy,"
+which may have survived from his earlier connexion with the soil. In
+that case, it would explain why, in Snorri and elsewhere, he is God of
+the sea and ships, once the province of the ocean-goddess Gefion; the
+transference is a natural one to an age whose wealth came from the sea.
+
+In spite of their origin, Frey and Freyja become to all intents
+and purposes Aesir. Frey is to be one of the chief combatants at
+Ragnaroek, with the fire-giant Surt for his antagonist, and a story is
+told to explain his defeat: he fell in love with Gerd, a giant-maid,
+and sacrificed his sword to get her; hence he is weaponless at the
+last fight. Loki alludes to this episode in _Lokasenna_: "With gold
+didst thou buy Gymi's daughter, and gavest thy sword for her; but when
+Muspell's sons ride over Myrkwood, thou shalt not know with what to
+fight, unhappy one." The story is told in full in _Skirnisfoer_.
+
+Freyja is called by Snorri "the chief Goddess after Frigg," and the
+two are sometimes confused. Like her father and brother, she comes into
+connexion with the giants; she is the beautiful Goddess, and coveted by
+them. _Voeluspa_ says that the Gods went into consultation to discuss
+"who had given the bride of Od (_i.e._, Freyja) to the giant race";
+_Thrymskvida_ relates how the giant Thrym bargained for Freyja as
+the ransom for Thor's hammer, which he had hidden, and how Loki and
+Thor outwitted him; and Snorri says the giants bargained for her as
+the price for building Valhalla, but were outwitted. Sir G.W. Dasent
+notices in the folk-tales the eagerness of trolls and giants to learn
+the details of the agricultural processes, and this is probably the
+clue to the desire of the Frost-Giants in the Edda for the possession
+of Freyja. Idunn, the wife of Bragi, and a purely Norse creation, seems
+to be a double of Freyja; she, too, according to Snorri, is carried
+away by the giants and rescued by Loki. The golden apples which she
+is to keep till Ragnaroek remind us of those which Frey offered to
+Gerd; and the gift of eternal youth, of which they are the symbols,
+would be appropriate enough to Freyja as an agricultural deity.
+
+The great necklace Brising, stolen by Loki and won back in fight
+by Heimdal (according to the tenth-century Skalds Thjodulf and Ulf
+Uggason), is Freyja's property. On this ground, she has been identified
+with the heroine of _Svipdag and Menglad_, a poem undoubtedly old,
+though it has only come down in paper MSS. It is in two parts, the
+first telling how Svipdag aroused the Sibyl Groa, his mother, to
+give him spells to guard him on his journey; the second describing
+his crossing the wall of fire which surrounded his fated bride
+Menglad. If Menglad is really Freyja, the "Necklace-glad," it is a
+curious coincidence that one poem connects the waverlowe, or ring of
+fire, with Frey also; for his bride Gerd is protected in the same way,
+though his servant Skirni goes through it in his place:
+
+_Skirni_. "Give me the horse that will bear me through the dark magic
+waverlowe, and the sword that fights of itself against the giant-race."
+
+_Frey_. "I give thee the horse that will bear thee through the dark
+magic waverlowe, and the sword that will fight of itself if he is
+bold who bears it." (_Skirnisfoer_.)
+
+The connexion of both with the Midsummer fires, originally part of
+an agricultural ritual, can hardly be doubted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Loki_, or Lopt, is a strange figure. He is admitted among the Aesir,
+though not one of them by birth, and his whole relation to them
+points to his being an older elemental God. He is in alliance with
+them against the giants; he and Odin have sworn blood-brothership,
+according to _Lokasenna_, and he helps Thor to recover his hammer
+that Asgard may be defended against the giants. On the other hand,
+while in present alliance with the Gods, he is chief agent in their
+future destruction, and this they know. In Snorri, he is a mischievous
+spirit of the fairy-tale kind, exercising his ingenuity alternately in
+getting the Gods into difficulties, and in getting them out again. So
+he betrays Idunn to the giants, and delivers her; he makes the bargain
+by which Freyja is promised to the giant-builders of Valhalla,
+and invents the trick by which they are cheated of their prize;
+by killing the otter he endangers his own head, Odin's and Hoeni's,
+and he obtains the gold which buys their atonement. Hence, in the
+systematising of the Viking religion, the responsibility for Baldr's
+death also was transferred to him. At the coming of the fire-giants
+at Ragnaroek, he is to steer the ship in which Muspell's sons sail
+(_Voeluspa_), further evidence of his identity as a fire-spirit. Like
+his son the Wolf, he is chained by the Gods; the episode is related
+in a prose-piece affixed to _Lokasenna_:
+
+"After that Loki hid himself in Franangr's Foss in the form of
+a salmon. There the Aesir caught him. He was bound with the guts
+of his son Nari, but his son Narfi was changed into a wolf. Skadi
+took a poisonous snake and fastened it up over Loki's face, and the
+poison dropped down. Sigyn, Loki's wife, sat there and held a cup
+under the poison. But when it was full she poured the poison away,
+and meanwhile poison dropped on Loki, and he struggled so hard that
+all the earth shook; those are called earthquakes now."
+
+_Voeluspa_ inserts lines corresponding to this passage after the
+Baldr episode, and Snorri makes it a consequence of Loki's share in
+that event.
+
+He is more especially agent of the doom through his children:
+at Ragnaroek, Fenri the Wolf, bound long before by Tyr's help,
+will be freed, and swallow the sun (_Vafthrudnismal_) and Odin
+(_Vafthrudnismal_ and _Voeluspa_); and Joermungandr, the Giant-Snake,
+will rise from the sea where he lies curled round the world, to slay
+and be slain by Thor. The dragon's writhing in the waves is one
+of the tokens to herald Ragnaroek, and his battle with Thor is the
+fiercest combat of that day. Only _Voeluspa_ of our poems gives any
+account of it: "Then comes the glorious son of Hlodyn, Odin's son
+goes to meet the serpent; Midgard's guardian slays him in his rage,
+but scarcely can Earth's son reel back nine feet from the dragon."
+
+When Thor goes fishing with the giant Hymi, he terrifies his companion
+by dragging the snake's head out of the sea, but he does not slay it;
+it must wait there till Ragnaroek:
+
+"The protector of men, the only slayer of the Serpent, baited his hook
+with the ox's head. The God-hated one who girds all lands from below
+swallowed the bait. Doughtily pulled mighty Thor the poison-streaked
+serpent up to the side; he struck down with his hammer the hideous
+head of the wolf's companion. The monster roared, the wilderness
+resounded, the old earth shuddered all through. The fish sank back
+into the sea. Gloomy was the giant when they rowed back, so that he
+spoke not a word."
+
+There is nothing to suggest that Joermungandr, to whom the word
+World-Snake (Midgardsorm) always refers in the Edda, is the same as
+Nidhoegg, the serpent that gnaws at Yggdrasil's roots; but both are
+relics of Snake-worship.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The World-Ash_, generally called Yggdrasil's Ash, is one of the most
+interesting survivals of tree-worship. It is described by the Sibyl
+in _Voeluspa_: "I know an ash called Yggdrasil, a high tree sprinkled
+with white moisture (thence come the dews that fall in the dales):
+it stands ever-green by Urd's spring. Thence come three maids,
+all-knowing, from the hall that stands under the tree"; and as a
+sign of the approaching doom she says: "Yggdrasil's ash trembles as
+it stands; the old tree groans." _Grimnismal_ says that the Gods go
+every day to hold judgment by the ash, and describes it further:
+
+"Three roots lie three ways under Yggdrasil's ash: Hel dwells under
+one, the frost-giants under the second, mortal men under the third. The
+squirrel is called Ratatosk who shall run over Yggdrasil's ash;
+he shall carry down the eagle's words, and tell them to Nidhoegg
+below. There are four harts, with necks thrown back, who gnaw
+off the shoots.... More serpents lie under Yggdrasil's ash than
+any one knows. Ofni and Svafni I know will ever gnaw at the tree's
+twigs. Yggdrasil's ash suffers more hardships than men know: the hart
+bites above, the side decays, and Nidhoegg gnaws below.... Yggdrasil's
+ash is the best of trees."
+
+The snake and the tree are familiar in other mythologies, though in
+most other cases the snake is the protector, while here he is the
+destroyer. Both Nidhoegg and Joermungandr are examples of the destroying
+dragon rather than the treasure-guardian. The Ash is the oracle: the
+judgment-place of the Gods, the dwelling of the Fates, the source of
+the spring of knowledge.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Ragnaroek_.--The Twilight of the Gods (or Doom of the Gods) is the
+central point of the Viking religion. The Regin (of which _Ragna_
+is genitive plural) are the ruling powers, often called Ginnregin
+(the great Gods), Uppregin (the high Gods), Thrymregin (the warrior
+Gods). The word is commonly used of the Aesir in _Voeluspa_; in
+_Alvissmal_ the Regin seem to be distinguished from both Aesir and
+Vanir. The whole story of the Aesir is overshadowed by knowledge of
+this coming doom, the time when they shall meet foes more terrible
+than the giants, and fall before them; their constant effort is to
+learn what will happen then, and to gather their forces together
+to meet it. The coming Ragnaroek is the reason for the existence of
+Valhalla with its hosts of slain warriors; and of all the Gods, Odin,
+Thor, Tyr and Loki are most closely connected with it. Two poems of
+the verse Edda describe it:
+
+(1) _Vafthrudnismal_:
+
+V. "What is the plain called where Surt and the blessed Gods shall
+meet in battle?"
+
+O. "Vigrid is the name of the place where Surt and the blessed Gods
+shall meet in battle. It is a hundred miles every way; it is their
+destined battle-field."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+O. "Whence shall the sun come on the smooth heaven when Fenri has
+destroyed this one?"
+
+V. "Before Fenri destroy her, the elf-beam shall bear a daughter:
+that maid shall ride along her mother's paths, when the Gods perish."
+
+O. "Which of the Aesir shall rule over the realms of the Gods, when
+Surt's fire is quenched?"
+
+V. "Vidar and Vali shall dwell in the sanctuary of the Gods when
+Surt's fire is quenched. Modi and Magni shall have Mjoellni at the
+end of Vingni's (_i.e._, Thor's) combat."
+
+O. "What shall be Odin's end, when the Gods perish?"
+
+V. "The Wolf will swallow the father of men; Vidar will avenge it. He
+will cleave the Wolf's cold jaws in the battle."
+
+(2) _Voeluspa_:
+
+"A hag sits eastward in Ironwood and rears Fenri's children; one of
+them all, in troll's shape, shall be the sun's destroyer. He shall
+feed on the lives of death-doomed men; with red blood he shall redden
+the seat of the Gods. The sunshine shall grow black, all winds will
+be unfriendly in the after-summers.... I see further in the future
+the great Ragnaroek of the Gods of Victory.... Heimdal blows loudly,
+the horn is on high; Yggdrasil's ash trembles as it stands, the old
+tree groans."
+
+The following lines tell of the fire-giants and the various combats,
+and the last section of the poem deals with a new world when Baldr,
+Hoed and Hoeni are to come back to the dwelling-place of the Gods.
+
+The whole points to a belief in the early destruction of the world
+and the passing away of the old order of things. Whether the new
+world which _Vafthrudnismal_ and _Voeluspa_ both prophesy belongs to
+the original idea or not is a disputed point. Probably it does not;
+at all events, none of the old Aesir, according to the poems, are
+to survive, for Modi and Magni are not really Gods at all, Baldr,
+Hoed and Vali belong to another myth, Hoeni had passed out of the
+hierarchy by his exchange with Njoerd, and Vidar's origin is obscure.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_The Einherjar_, the great champions or chosen warriors, are intimately
+connected with Ragnaroek. All warriors who fall in battle are taken
+to Odin's hall of the slain, Valhalla. According to _Grimnismal_,
+he "chooses every day men dead by the sword"; his Valkyries ride
+to battle to give the victory and bring in the fallen. Hence Odin
+is the giver of victory. Loki in _Lokasenna_ taunts him with giving
+victory to the wrong side: "Thou hast never known how to decide the
+battle among men. Thou hast often given victory to those to whom thou
+shouldst not give it, to the more cowardly"; this, no doubt, was in
+order to secure the best fighters for Valhalla. That the defeated
+side sometimes consoled themselves with this explanation of a notable
+warrior's fall is proved by the tenth-century dirge on Eirik Bloodaxe,
+where Sigmund the Volsung asks in Valhalla: "Why didst thou take the
+victory from him, if thou thoughtest him brave?" and Odin replies:
+"Because it is uncertain when the grey Wolf will come to the seat
+of the Gods." There are similar lines in Eyvind's dirge on Hakon
+the Good. In this way a host was collected ready for Ragnaroek:
+for _Grimnismal_  says: "There are five hundred doors and eighty
+in Valhalla; eight hundred Einherjar will go out from each door,
+when they go to fight the wolf." Meanwhile they fight and feast:
+"All the Einherjar in Odin's courts fight every day: they choose
+the slain and ride from the battle, and sit then in peace together"
+(_Vafthrudnismal_,) and the Valkyries bear ale to them _(Grimnismal_).
+
+It is often too hastily assumed that the Norse Ragnaroek with
+the dependant Valhalla system are in great part the outcome of
+Christian influence: of an imitation of the Christian Judgment Day
+and the Christian heaven respectively. Owing to the lateness of our
+material, it is, of course, impossible to decide how old the beliefs
+may be, but it is likely that the Valhalla idea only took form at
+the systematising of the mythology in the Viking age. The belief
+in another world for the dead is, however, by no means exclusively
+Christian, and a reference in _Grimnismal_ suggests the older system
+out of which, under the influence of the Ragnaroek idea, Valhalla was
+developed. The lines, "The ninth hall is Folkvang, where Freyja rules
+the ordering of seats in the hall; half the slain she chooses every
+day, Odin has the other half," are an evident survival of a belief
+that all the dead went to live with the Gods, Odin having the men,
+and Freyja (or more probably Frigg) the women; the idea being here
+confused with the later system, under which only those who fell in
+battle were chosen by the Gods. Christian colouring appears in the
+last lines of _Voeluspa_ and in Snorri, where men are divided into the
+"good and moral," who go after death to a hall of red gold, and the
+"perjurers and murderers," who are sent to a hall of snakes.
+
+For Ragnaroek also a heathen origin is at least as probable as a
+Christian one. I would suggest as a possibility that the expectation of
+the Twilight of the Gods may have grown out of some ritual connected
+with the eclipse, such as is frequent among heathen races. Such
+ceremonies are a tacit acknowledgment of a doubt, and if they ever
+existed among the Scandinavians, the possibility, ever present to
+the savage mind, of a time when his efforts to help the light might
+be fruitless, and the darkness prove the stronger, would be the germ
+of his more civilised descendant's belief in Ragnaroek.
+
+By turning to the surviving poems of the Skalds, whose dates can be
+approximately reckoned from the sagas, we can fix an inferior limit
+for certain of the legends given above, placing them definitely in the
+heathen time. Reference has already been made to the corroboration
+of the Valhalla belief supplied by the elegies on Eirik Bloodaxe
+and Hakon the Good. In the former (which is anonymous, but must have
+been written soon after 950, since it was composed, on Eirik's death,
+by his wife's orders), Odin commands the Einherjar and Valkyries to
+prepare for the reception of the slain Eirik and his host, since no
+one knows how soon the Gods will need to gather their forces together
+for the great contest. Eyvind's dirge on Hakon (who fell in 970) is an
+imitation of this: Odin sends two Valkyries to choose a king to enter
+his service in Valhalla; they find Hakon on the battle-field, and
+he is slain with many of his followers. Great preparation is made in
+Valhalla for his reception, and the poet ends by congratulating Hakon
+(who, though a Christian, having been educated in England, had not
+interfered with the heathen altars and sacrifices) on the toleration
+which has secured him such a welcome. A still earlier poet, Hornklofi,
+writing during the reign of Harald Fairhair (who died in 933), alludes
+to the slain as the property of "the one-eyed husband of Frigg."
+
+Several Skalds mention legends of Thor: his fishing for the World-Snake
+is told by Bragi (who from his place in genealogies must have written
+before 900), and by Ulf Uggason and Eystein Valdason, both in the
+second half of the tenth century; and Thjodulf and Eilif (the former
+about 960, the latter a little later) tell tales of his fights with
+the giants. Turning to the other Gods, Egil Skallagrimsson (about 970)
+names Frey and Njoerd as the givers of wealth; Bragi tells the story
+of Gefion's dragging the island of Zealand out of Lake Wener into
+the sea; and Ulf Uggason speaks of Heimdal's wrestling with Loki.
+
+The legend of Idunn is told by Thjodulf much as Snorri tells it:
+Odin, Hoeni and Loki, while on a journey, kill and roast an ox. The
+giant Thiazi swoops down in eagle's shape and demands a share; Loki
+strikes the eagle, who flies off with him, releasing him only on
+condition that he will betray to the giants Idunn, "the care-healing
+maid who understands the renewal of youth." He does so, and the Gods,
+who grow old and withered for want of her apples, force him to go
+and bring her back to Asgard.
+
+The poet of _Eiriksmal_, quoted above, alludes to the Baldr myth:
+Bragi, hearing the approach of Eirik and his host, asks "What is
+that thundering and tramping, as if Baldr were coming back to Odin's
+hall?" The funeral pyre of Baldr is described by Ulf Uggason: he is
+burnt on his ship, which is launched by a giantess, in the presence
+of Frey, Heimdal, Odin and the Valkyries.
+
+Though heathen writers outside of Scandinavia are lacking, references
+to Germanic heathendom fortunately survive in several Continental
+Christian historians of earlier date than any of our Scandinavian
+sources. The evidence of these, though scanty, is corroborative,
+and the allusions are in striking agreement with the Edda stories in
+tone and character.
+
+Odin (Wodanus) is always identified by these writers with the
+Roman Mercurius (whom Tacitus named as the chief German God). This
+identification occurs in the eighth-century Paulus Diaconus, and in
+Jonas of Bobbio (first half of the seventh century), and probably rests
+on Odin's character as a wandering God (Mercury being diaktoros), his
+disguises, and his patronage of poetry and eloquence (as Mercury is
+logios). Odin is not himself in general the conductor of dead souls
+(psychopompos), like the Roman God, his attendant Valkyries performing
+the office for him. The equation is only comprehensible on the
+presumption of the independence of Germanic mythology, and cannot be
+explained by transmission. For if Odin were in any degree an imitation
+of the Roman deity, other notable attributes of the latter would have
+been assigned to him: whereas in the Edda the thieving God (kleptis)
+is not Odin but Loki, and the founder of civilisation is Heimdal.
+
+The legend of the origin of the Lombards given by Paulus Diaconus
+illustrates the relations of Odin and Frigg. The Vandals asked Wodan
+(Odin) to grant them victory over the Vinili; the latter made a similar
+prayer to Frea (Frigg), the wife of Wodan. She advised them to make
+their wives tie their hair round their faces like beards, and go with
+them to meet Wodan in the morning. They did so, and Wodan exclaimed,
+"Who are these _Long-beards_?" Then Frea said that having given the
+Vinili a name, he must give them the victory (as Helgi in the Edda
+claims a gift from Svava when she names him). As in _Grimnismal_,
+Odin and Frigg are represented as supporting rival claims, and Frigg
+gains the day for her favourites by superior cunning. This legend
+also shows Odin as the giver of victory.
+
+Few heathen legends are told however by these early Christian writers,
+and the Gods are seldom called by their German names. An exception is
+the Frisian Fosite mentioned by Alcuin (who died 804) and by later
+writers; he is to be identified with the Norse Forseti, the son of
+(probably at first an epithet of) Baldr, but no legend of him is
+told. It is disappointing that these writers should have said so
+little of any God except the chief one. A very characteristic touch
+survives in Gregory of Tours (died 594), when the Frank Chlodvig tells
+his Christian wife that the Christian God "cannot be proved to be
+of the race of the Gods," an idea entirely in keeping with the Eddic
+hierarchy. Before leaving the Continental historians, reference may be
+made to the abundant evidence of Germanic tree-worship to be gathered
+from them. The holy oak mentioned by Wilibald (before 786), the sacred
+pear-tree of Constantius (473), with numerous others, supply parallels
+to the World-Ash which is so important a feature of Norse mythology.
+
+A study of this subject would be incomplete without some reference to
+the mythology of Saxo Grammaticus. His testimony on the old religion
+is unwilling, and his effort to discredit it very evident. The
+bitterness of his attack on Frigg especially suggests that she
+was, among the Northmen, a formidable rival to the Virgin. When he
+repeats a legend of the Gods, he transforms them into mortal heroes,
+and when, as often happens, he refers to them accidentally as Gods,
+he invariably hastens to protest that he does so only because it had
+been the custom. He describes Thor and Odin as men versed in sorcery
+who claimed the rank of Gods; and in another passage he speaks of
+the latter as a king who had his seat at Upsala, and who was falsely
+credited with divinity throughout Europe. His description of Odin
+agrees with that in the Edda: an old man of great stature and mighty
+in battle, one-eyed, wearing a great cloak, and constantly wandering
+about in disguise. The story which Saxo tells of his driving into
+battle with Harald War-tooth, disguised as the latter's charioteer
+Brun, and turning the fight against him by revealing to his enemy Ring
+the order of battle which he had invented for Harald's advantage, is
+in thorough agreement with the traditional character of the God who
+betrayed Sigmund the Volsung and Helgi Hundingsbane. Saxo's version
+of the Baldr story has been mentioned already. Baldr's transformation
+into a hero (who could only be slain by a sword in the keeping of
+a wood-satyr) is almost complete. But Odin and Thor and all the
+Gods fight for him against his rival Hother, "so that it might be
+called a battle of Gods against men"; and Nanna's excuse to Baldr
+that "a God could not wed with a mortal," preserves a trace of his
+origin. The chained Loki appears in Saxo as Utgarda-Loki, lying bound
+in a cavern of snakes, and worshipped as a God by the Danish king
+Gorm Haraldsson. Dr. Eydberg sees the Freyja myth in Saxo's story of
+Syritha, who was carried away by the giants and delivered by her lover
+Othar (the Od of the Edda): an example, like _Svipdag and Menglad_,
+of the complete transformation of a divine into an heroic myth. In
+almost all cases Saxo vulgarises the stories in the telling, a common
+result when a mythical tale is retold by a Christian writer, though
+it is still more conspicuous in his versions of the heroic legends.
+
+
+
+
+
+Appendix
+
+
+_Thrymskvida_.
+
+1. Then Wing-Thor was angry when he awoke, and missed his hammer. He
+shook his beard, he tossed his hair, the son of Earth groped about
+for it.
+
+2. And first of all he spoke these words: "Hear now, Loki, what I
+tell thee, a thing that no one in earth or heaven above has heard:
+the Asa has been robbed of his hammer!"
+
+3. They went to the dwelling of fair Freyja, and these words he
+spoke first of all: "Wilt thou lend me, Freyja, thy feather dress,
+to see if I can find my hammer?"
+
+4. _Freyja_. "I would give it thee, though it were of gold; I would
+grant it, though it were of silver."
+
+5. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
+Asgard and into Joetunheim.
+
+6. Thrym, lord of the Giants, sat on a howe; he twisted golden bands
+for his greyhounds and trimmed his horses' manes.
+
+7. _Thrym_. "How is it with the Aesir? How is it with the Elves? Why
+art thou come alone into Joetunheim?"
+
+_Loki_. "It is ill with the Aesir, it is ill with the Elves; hast
+thou hidden the Thunderer's hammer?"
+
+8. _Thrym_. "I have hidden the Thunderer's hammer eight miles below the
+earth. No man shall bring it back, unless he bring me Freyja to wife."
+
+9. Then Loki flew, the feather-coat rustled, until he came out of
+Joetunheim and into Asgard. Thor met him in the middle of the court,
+and these words he spoke first:
+
+10. "Hast thou news in proportion to thy toil? Tell me from on high
+thy distant tidings, for a sitting man often breaks down in his story,
+and he who lies down falls into falsehood."
+
+11. _Loki_. "I bring news for my toil: Thrym, lord of the Giants,
+has thy hammer; no man shall bring it back, unless he take him Freyja
+as a bride."
+
+12. They went to see fair Freyja, spoke to her first of all these
+words: "Bind on the bridal veil, Freyja, we two must drive to
+Joetunheim."
+
+13. Angry then was Freyja; she panted, so that all the hall of the
+Aesir trembled, and the great Brising necklace fell: "Eager indeed
+for marriage wouldst thou think me, if I should drive with thee
+to Joetunheim."
+
+14. Then all the Aesir went into council, and all the Asynjor to
+consultation, and the mighty Gods discussed how they should recover
+the Thunderer's hammer.
+
+15. Then spoke Heimdal, whitest of the Aesir; he could see into the
+future like the Vanir: "Let us bind on Thor the bridal veil; let him
+have the great necklace Brising.
+
+16. "Let the keys jingle, and let women's weeds fall about his knees;
+let us put broad stones on his breast, and a hood dexterously on
+his head."
+
+17. Then spoke Thor, the mighty Asa: "Vile would the Aesir call me,
+if I let the bridal veil be bound on me."
+
+18. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: "Speak not such words, Thor! soon
+will the Giants dwell in Asgard, unless thou bring home thy hammer."
+
+19. Then they bound on Thor the bridal veil, and the great necklace
+Brising; they let the keys jingle and women's weeds fall about
+his knees, and they put broad stones on his breast, and the hood
+dexterously on his head.
+
+20. Then spoke Loki, Laufey's son: "I also will go with thee as thy
+maiden; we two will drive together to Joetunheim."
+
+21. Then the goats were driven out, urged forward in their harness;
+well must they run. Rocks were riven, the earth burned in name:
+Odin's son was driving into Joetunheim.
+
+22. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Stand up, giants, and
+strew the benches! They are bringing me now Freyja my bride, Njoerd's
+daughter from Noatun.
+
+23. "Gold-horned kine run in the court, oxen all-black, the giant's
+delight. I have many treasures, I have many jewels, Freyja only
+is lacking."
+
+24. The guests assembled early in the evening, and ale was carried
+to the Giants. One ox did Sif's husband eat, and eight salmon, and
+all the dishes prepared for the women; three casks of mead he drank.
+
+25. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Who ever saw a bride eat
+so eagerly? I never saw a bride make such a hearty meal, nor a maid
+drink so deep of mead."
+
+26. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's
+words: "Eight nights has Freyja eaten nothing, so eager was she to
+be in Joetunheim."
+
+27. He looked under the veil, he longed to kiss the bride, but
+he started back the length of the hall: "Why are Freyja's eyes so
+terrible? Fire seems to burn from her eyes."
+
+28. The prudent handmaid sat near, and she found answer to the Giant's
+speech: "Eight nights has Freyja had no sleep, so eager was she to
+be in Joetunheim."
+
+29. In came the Giants' wretched sister, she dared to ask for a bridal
+gift: "Take from thine arms the red rings, if thou wouldst gain my
+love, my love and all my favour."
+
+30. Then spoke Thrym, lord of the Giants: "Bring the hammer to hallow
+the bride. Lay Mjoellni on the maiden's knee, hallow us two in wedlock."
+
+31. The Thunderer's heart laughed in his breast, when the bold of
+soul felt the hammer. Thrym killed he first, the lord of the Giants,
+and all the race of the Giants he struck.
+
+32. He slew the Giants' aged sister, who had asked him for a bridal
+gift. She got a blow instead of shillings, and a stroke of the hammer
+for abundance of rings. So Odin's son got back his hammer.
+
+
+
+Bibliography
+
+
+I. Study in the Original.
+
+(1) _Poetic Edda_.--The classic edition, and on the whole the best,
+is Professor Bugge's (Christiania, 1867); the smaller editions of
+Hildebrand (_Die Lieder der Aelteren Edda_, Paderborn, 1876), and
+Finnur Jonsson (_Eddalieder_, Halle, 1888-90) are also good; the
+latter is in two parts, _Goettersage_ and _Heldensage_. The poems may
+also be found in the first volume of Vigfusson and Powell's _Corpus
+Poeticum Boreale_ (Oxford, 1883), accompanied by translations;	but in
+many cases they are cut up and rearranged, and they suffer metrically
+from the system adopted of printing two short lines as one long one,
+with no dividing point. There is an excellent palaeographic edition
+of the _Codex Regius of the Elder Edda_, by Wimmer and Finnur Jonsson
+(Copenhagen, 1891), with photographic reproductions interleaved with
+a literal transcription.
+
+(2) _Snorra Edda_.--The most recent edition of the whole is Dr. Finnur
+Jonsson's (Copenhagen, 1875). There is a useful edition of the
+mythological portions _(i.e., Gylfaginning, Bragaraedur_, and the
+narrative parts of _Skaldskaparmal_) by Ernst Wilken (_Die Prosaeische
+Edda_, Paderborn, 1878).
+
+(3) _Dictionaries and Grammars_.--For the study of the Poetic Edda,
+Gering's _Glossar zu den Liedern der Edda_ (Paderborn, 1896) will
+be found most useful; it is complete and trustworthy, and in small
+compass. A similar service has been performed for _Snorra Edda_ in
+Wilken's _Glossar_ (Paderborn, 1883), which forms a second volume to
+his edition, mentioned above. Both are, of course, in German. The only
+English dictionary is the lexicon of Cleasby and Vigfusson (Oxford).
+
+Of Grammars, the best are German; those of Noreen (_Altnordische
+Grammatik_, Halle, 1892), of which there is an abbreviated edition,
+and Kahle (_Altislaendisches Elementarbuch_, Heidelberg, 1896) being
+better suited for advanced students; the English grammars included
+in Vigfusson and Powell's _Icelandic Reader_ (Oxford) and Sweet's
+_Icelandic Primer_ (Oxford) are more elementary, and therefore hardly
+adequate for the study of the verse literature.
+
+
+II. Translations.
+
+There are English translations of the Elder Edda by Anderson (Chicago,
+1879) and Thorpe (1866), as well as the translations in the _Corpus
+Poeticum_, which are, of course, liable to the same objection as
+the text. The most accurate German translation is Gering's (Leipzig,
+1893); in Simrock's (_Aeltere und Juengere Edda_, Stuttgart, 1882), the
+translations of the verse Edda are based on an uncritical text. Snorra
+Edda was translated into English by Dasent (Stockholm, 1842); also
+by Anderson (Chicago, 1880).
+
+
+III. Modern Authorities.
+
+To the works on Northern mythology mentioned below in the note on
+the Baldr theories, must be added Dr. Rydberg's _Teutonic Mythology_
+(English version by R.B. Anderson, London, 1889), which devotes
+special attention to Saxo.
+
+
+
+Notes
+
+_Home of the Edda_. (Page 2.)
+
+The chief apologists for the British theory are Professor Bugge
+(_Studien ueber die Entstehung der nordischen Goetter- und Heldensagen_,
+Muenchen, 1889), and the editors of the _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_ (see
+the Introduction to that  work, and also the Prolegomena prefixed to
+their edition of the _Sturlunga Saga_, Oxford). The case for Norway
+and Greenland is argued by Dr. Finnur Jonsson (_Den oldnorsk og
+oldislandske Literaturs-Historie,_ Copenhagen). The cases for both
+British and Norwegian origin are based chiefly on rather fanciful
+arguments from supposed local colour. The theory of the _Corpus
+Poeticum_ editors that many of the poems were composed in the Scottish
+isles is discredited by the absence of Gaelic words or traces of Gaelic
+legend. Professor Bugge's North of England theory is slightly stronger,
+being supported by several Old English expressions in the poems,
+but these are not enough to prove that they were composed in England,
+since most Icelanders travelled east at some time of their lives.
+
+(Page 3.)
+
+A later study will deal with the Heroic legends.
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_. (Page 3.)
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_ is prefixed to the Lives of the Kings in the collection
+known as _Heimskringla_ (edited by Unger, Christiania, 1868, and by
+Finnur Jonsson, Christiania, 1893); there is an English translation
+in Laing's _Lives of the Kings of Norway_ (London, 1889).
+
+_Voeluspa_. (Page 4.)
+
+A poem of similar form occurs among the heroic poems. _Gripisspa_,
+a prophetic outline of Sigurd's life, introduces the Volsung poems,
+as _Voeluspa_ does the Asgard cycle.
+
+_Riddle-poems_. (Page 6.)
+
+So many of the mythological poems are in this form that they suggest
+the question, did the asking of riddles form any part of Scandinavian
+ritual?
+
+_The Aesir_. (Page 11.)
+
+_Ynglinga Saga_ says that Odin and the Aesir came to Norway from Asia;
+a statement due, of course, to a false etymology, though theories as
+to the origin of Norse mythology have been based on it.
+
+_Tyr_. (Page 12.)
+
+Tyr is etymologically identical with Zeus, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus
+(Sky-God).
+
+_Baldr_. (Pages 16 to 22.)
+
+The Baldr theories are stated in the following authorities:
+
+(1) Ritual origin: Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, vol. 3.
+
+(2) Heroic origin: Golther, _Handbuch der Germanischen Mythologie_
+(Leipzig, 1895); Niedner, _Eddische Fragen_ (_Zeitschrift
+fuer deutsches Altertum_, new series, 29), _Zur Lieder-Edda_
+(_Zeitschr. f. d. Alt_. vol. 36).
+
+(3) Solar myth: Sir G.W. Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_
+(London, 1870); Max Mueller, _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol. 4.
+
+(4) Borrowed: Bugge, _Studien ueber die Entstchung der nordischen
+Goetter- und Heldensagen_ (transl. Brenner, Muenchen, 1889).
+
+_Vegtamskvida_. (Page 17.)
+
+The word _hrodhrbadhm_ (which I have given as "branch of fame")
+would perhaps be more accurately translated "tree of fame," which
+Gering explains as a kenning for Baldr. But there are no kennings of
+the same sort in the poem, and the line would have no meaning. If it
+refers to the mistletoe, as most commentators agree, it merely shows
+that the poet was ignorant of the nature of the plant, which would
+be in favour of its antiquity, rather than the reverse.
+
+
+_Saxo Grammaticus_. (Page 18.)
+
+English translation by Professor Elton (London, D. Nutt, 1894). As
+Saxo's references to the old Gods are made in much the same sympathetic
+tone as that adopted by Old Testament writers towards heathen deities,
+his testimony on mythological questions is of the less value.
+
+
+_The Mistletoe_. (Page 20.)
+
+It seems incredible that any writers should turn to the travesty of
+the Baldr story given in the almost worthless saga of Hromund Gripsson
+in support of a theory. In it "Bildr" is killed by Hromund, who has
+the sword Mistilteinn. It must be patent to any one that this is a
+perverted version of a story which the narrator no longer understood.
+
+
+_Loki_. (Page 26.)
+
+It is hardly necessary to point out the parallel between Loki and
+Prometheus, also both helper and enemy of the Gods, and agent in their
+threatened fall, though in the meantime a prisoner. In character
+Loki has more in common with the mischievous spirit described by
+Hesiod, than with the heroic figure of Aeschylus. The struggles of
+Loki (p. 28) find a parallel in those of the fire-serpent Typhon,
+to which the Greeks attributed earthquakes.
+
+
+_Eclipse Ritual_. (Page 35.)
+
+Mr. Lang, in _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, (London, 1887)  gives
+examples of eclipse ritual. Grimm, in the _Teutonic Mythology_,
+vol. 2, quotes Finnish and Lithuanian myths about sun-devouring beasts,
+very similar to the Fenri myth.
+
+
+_The Skalds_. (Page 35.)
+
+All the Skaldic verses will be found, with translations, in the
+_Corpus Poeticum_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Edda, Vol. 1, by Winifred Faraday
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