Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/306

 294 '^he Ancient Teutonic Priesthood.

under the supposition that these would give him pleasure. After a long lapse of time robbers broke into the howe and took out the wooden figures. They were then overcome with fear and fled. The Swedes kept one of the figures and sent the other to Throndhjem. Both were called Fro and worshipped.^ This story seems to show that the cult of Fro was believed to have been imported into Norway from Sweden.

There is no evidence that Fro was ever worshipped in Denmark. He is mentioned, however, by Saxo five times. Two of these passages, referring to him as the ancestor of Swedish heroes at Bravalla, have already been quoted. The other passages are: i., p. 49 f., which states that Hadingus, having killed an unknown sea-monster, offered a sacrifice to Fro, in order to propitiate the deities. He ordained this sacrifice to be a permanent institution, recur- ring regularly as the years rolled by It is called Froblod by the Swedes. Again, iii., p. 120 : Fro, the satrap of the gods, took up his abode near Upsala, and instituted a new method of sacrifice to the gods by offering human vic- tims. Lastly, vi., p. 278 : Starcatherus stays seven years in Sweden with the sons of Fro, until the pro- ceedings at Upsala, at the time of the sacrifices, drive him away in disgust. This seems to have been during the days of the Yngling dynasty. In every passage therefore Saxo seems to regard Fro as an essentially Swedish god. Froblod is probably the name of the great Upsala festival.

All accounts then point to Sweden, and especially Upsala, as the home of the cult. The story of the howe-burial, and the belief that the preservation of Frij's body would entail a continuance of the blessings which had been enjoyed during his lifetime, is an illustration of the common Northern belief that the spirits of the dead continued their existence in the family howe, and were able to confer blessings upon their surviving kinsfolk and descendants. We may compare the burial of Halfdan the Black, father of Haraldr Harfagri. On account of his popularity the four regions of his kingdom disputed for the possession of his body. The dispute was settled by cutting the body up into

' Olafss. Tryggv. (Flat.). 323.