Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/228

Rh 210 from the fragmentary remains of ancient Scandinavian songs, first collected in Iceland in the llth century, and embodied in the 13th century with numerous other prose and poetic myths in a compilation now known to us as the Eddas. From these highly interesting but frequently obscure sources we are able to reproduce to a certain extent the image and conception of each of the JEsir, as they presented themselves to the imagination of their early northern worshippers. In Tkor, who seems to have been a god of that earlier Phoenician form of nature-worship which was superseded in Scandinavia and Northern Germany by the faith of Odin, we have the impersonation of the disturbing and destructive agencies in the universe. He is the son of heaven and earth of Odin, the All-father, and of Frigg or Fiorgvin, the vivifying and is the strongest of the ^Esir. From his hammer flashed the lightning, and his chariot wheels sent thunder rolling through the clouds as he went on his way, cleaving mountains, loosening the pent-up streams and fires, and slaying all giants and misshapen monsters. Ever busily engaged in these labours, he seldom tarried in Asgard with the other ^Esir, but dwelt in his mansion, Bilskirnir, in the densest gloom of the clouds. With his mallet he consecrated the newly- wedded, and hence the sign of the mallet or hammer was made by the Northmen when they took an oath and bound themselves by vows, whether of marriage or any other obligation. The early Christian missionaries of Norway, finding the faith in Thor too strong to be suddenly up rooted, tried to transfer many of his characteristics to their zealous royal convert, St Olaf, who was said to have re sembled the old northern god in his comeliness of person, his bright red beard, hot, angry temper, and personal strength; while some of the monks of a later period en deavoured to persuade the Northmen that in Thor their forefathers had worshipped the Christ, the strong and mighty Saviour of the oppressed, and that his mallet was the rude image of the cross. Slaves and all thralls killed in battle were believed to be under the protection of Thor, who, as god of the Finns before the spread of the As religion, was honoured as their special guardian against the tyranny of their new masters. In Baldur the Northmen honoured all that was beariti- ful, eloquent, wise, and good, and he was the spirit of activity, joy, and light; but his name signifies the strong in mind, and the earliest conception of Baldur is that of mental rather than physical or material perfection. His wife, Nanna, reflected these attributes in a less degree. On his life depended the activity and happiness of all the ^Esir, excepting only Loki, the earthly fire or incarnation of evil, and hence this As, from envy of the beauty and innocence of Baldur, brought about his death, and hindered his release from the power of Hel, the goddess of death. According to the myth, the yEsir, distressed at Baldur s presenti ment of his own approaching end, joined Ms mother, Frigg, in exacting an oath from animals, plants, and minerals, not to injure him. The mistletoe alone among plants had been forgotten, and when this was discovered by Loki he pulled a wand of it, and hastening to the assembly of the ^Esir, where all were engaged in the sport of shooting at Baldur, as he was supposed to be invulner able, he gave it to Hod, the blind god of brute strength, and directed him how to aim it. The mistletoe pierced Baldur through, and he fell dead to the ground in the presence of the JE&ir, who, foreseeing the evil that would befall them, since light and purity had been taken from them, gave way to sorrow and fear. When all their efforts to release Baldur from Hel had been thwarted by the machinations cf Loki, they resolved to avenge themselves. Having captnred their foe, they confined him within a mountain- care, and hung above his head a venomous snake, to drop its poison OH his face ; but his wife, Sigyn, stood by him, and caught the drops in a cup, and ft was only while she emptied the goblet that the venom touched him, when he shrank aside, and caused the earth to be shaken as with an earthquake. There Loki will remain till Rignaroch, the twilight of the world, when the ^Esir, the earth, and all dwellers therein, will be destroyed by the powers of evil, the rescuers and companions of Loki. Only Odin, the All-father, will survive, and gather around him on Ida s plain, where Asgard had once stood, the Msir, regenerate and purified by Surt s black fire, and then a new and better world will arise, in which Baldur will again come with his unconscious slayer, Hod, and all evil will cease, and light and darkness will dwell together in unity. Under one form of the myth of Baldur s death he is the bright god of day or summer, and Hod, the blind and the strong, is dark night or fiercely-raging winter, his pre ordained foe and destroyer. After that final purification by suffering or fire, and the regeneration to which the Northmen looked as the means of the ultimate adjustment of the disturbed balance between evil and good, and from which they did not exempt their gods, the influence of good was to prevail. Baldur would reappear, and Loki, the consuming power of evil, be no more heard of. Loki, in the beginning of time, under the name of Lodthur, flame, and as the foster-brother of the All-father, had united with him in imparting blessings to the universe, and had given blood and a fair colour to Ask and Embla, from which the first men were created. Afterwards he left the council of the yEsir, and like a fallen angel wan dered away into regions of space, desolating and consuming all things that came in contact with his fierce flame. Descending into the bowels of the earth, where his presence is made manifest by volcanic fires, he consorted with evil giantesses, by whom he became the father of Hel, pallid death ; of Augurboda, the announcer of sorrow ; and of the wolf Fenrir, and the serpent of Midgard, which are ever threatening the destruction of the world and the peace of the ^Esir. Loki can assume all forms. As sensuality he coiirses through the veins of men, and as heat and fire he pervades nature, causing death and destruction. After the introduction of Christianity, the attributes and mystic deeds of Loki were transferred to Satan by the people of Scandinavia, amongst whose descendants his name still retains its evil reputation. In Iceland an ignis fatuus is known as Loki s burning ; and in Jutland, when there is a dazzling light or a waving motion in the air which impedes the sight of distant objects, the peasants say, &quot; Loki is sowing his oats.&quot; Niord, supposed to be the Nerthus known to the Romans, and his children Frey or Fricco and Freyia, appear to have been honoured in the north before the time of Odin, and to have been worshipped by peoples powerful enough to have been admitted into friendly alliance with his followers. Niord is said to have -lived in Vanaheim, and to have ruled over the Vanir, or light elves, long before he became one of the ^Esir. He is god of the ocean, the ruler of winds and stiller of waves, and to him the seafarer and fisherman raise altars and make prayers. His attributes and powers seem to point to the existence of a superior knowledge of navigation among those ancient races of Scandinavia who have been idealised in the imagination of the Northmen as good, bright, and agiie elves and water-sprites the Lius Alfar or Vanir of their mythology. Niord s s(/i Frey is the god of rain, plenty, and fruit-fulness; and his worship, according to the early northern chronicler, Adam of Bremen, was accompanied with phallic rites. His sister and wife, Freyia, who holds a high place among the ^Esir, is the goddess of love; but her influence, unlike her hus band s, is not always beneficent, and varies with the form which she assumes in operating on the minds of men. Her chariot is drawn by cats, as emblematic of fondness and passion, and a hog attends upon her and upon Frey, whose name, like her own, implies fructification or enjoy ment. The Swedes paid especial honour to Frey, while the Norwegians worshipped Thor (who was in all respects his opposite) as their chief As. The latter must also have received divine honours amongst the Gemiaus, as his name is included in the form of objurgation used by the early Saxon missionaries ; but this fact and the German name of the fifth day of the week Donners-tag, the Thunderer s day are