Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/304

 292 The Ancient Teutonic Priesthood.

kings of Halogaland/' When his ancestors migrated to the south, they must have brought their family cult with them. The persistent nature of family worship is shown by the fact that we find the family settled in the neighbour- hood of the Throndhjem Fjord at least a century before Hakon acquired the government of Norway.'*^

There is reason for believing that the cult of Fro is another, and more important, example of the same class. Fro was one of the great gods of the North, and his cult deserves close attention. It has been generally assumed by modern mythologists that he was a god of the sky or sun, but for this theory there is no ground beyond an isolated passage in Gylfaginning {c. 24). The mythological poems throw little light on his character and need not be discussed here. But the allusions to his cult, which are fairly frequent in historical and quasi-historical works, will, I think, when carefully considered, place beyond doubt that it was originally of a local or tribal character.

According to Adam of Bremen (iv., 26) the temple at Upsala contained three figures, representing the gods Thor, Othin, and 'Fricco,' respectively. Of 'Fricco,' by which he certainly means Fro, he says that he was regarded as the dispenser of peace and pleasure to mortals, that his repre- sentation was phallic, and that he was invoked especially at marriages. Elsewhere Fro is represented as the giver of fertility in general. In Sweden his image was carried round the country, apparently in autumn, in a cart drawn by oxen, and accompanied by a young woman who attended to his sanctuary, and was regarded as the god's wife.^ His cult was known also in Norway, especially in Inner Throndhjem,* and from Norway was carried to Iceland, where it seems to have been connected especially with the harvest festival.^

' It is curious that in Eyvindr's poem {HdLygiatal), of which only some fragments remain, Hakon's genealogy is traced, not to Holgi and Thorgerdr, but to Othin and Skadi. The introduction of Othin's name may be due in part to the influence of Ynglingatal. but it is probable also that Hakon may have wished to conciliate popular opinion by tracing his descent from the generally accepted deities. Skadi, a goddess of Lappish character but accepted in the Northern pantheon, has been cleverly substituted for the hated Thorgerdr.

2 Haralds s. HarJ. 7.

» Olafs s. Tryggv. (Flat.), 277.

« Olafs s. Tiyggv. (Flat.), 322 f.

' Cf. Gisla s. Surssonar, i., p. 27.