Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/283

 Reviews. 261

It is very noticeable that in the scheme of philosophy and ethics outlined in these two first volumes there is hardly any mention of the gods of northern mythology. If they appear at all it is rather as heroes, subject like other heroes to the immutable laws of cause and effect, than as controllers of those laws. And in the last volume of this series, in spite of its title, the supernatural beings themselves play an exceedingly small part. One is left in the end with the feeling that the creed of these hardy northerners, at least in the age with which Herr Gronbech deals, might be summed up in a paraphrase of a well-known saying as " Trust in the gods and keep your sword sharp," and that the trustfulness depended entirely upon the consciousness of success in sharpening the blade. There were temples, it is true ; sometimes, as in Icelandic remains, a large assembly-room with a smaller room beside it containing the stailr or stone upon which lay the arm- band of the chief and other sacred objects, and by standing upon which it was possible to establish communication with the higher powers. More often there was simply a small blot/ius, or house of dedication, adjoining the dwellinghouse in which the sacred feast was served. There were also sacred woods and wells which marked the meeting-place of certain clans for the periodic festivals at which they sought to renew their common life. But, though the names of some of the gods occur in the "healths" drunk on these occasions, their place being taken later by the names of Christ, the Holy Ghost, and various Christian saints, it does not appear that the success of the ceremony was held to depend in any way upon their goodwill. It was rather the power lying behind the gods themselves that was called into play, and this not as an act of grace but as the direct result of the successful performance of certain ceremonies by the assembled clan. These ceremonies consisted partly in games, — wrestling, horse-fighting, and other strenuous exploits of which the success was calculated largely by the amount of damage effected among the performers, — partly in the eating of a common meal, but mainly in the drinking of ale in accordance with very strictly defined rules. The ale was brewed with special care, served in a great bowl or skapker, and handed round in a sacred horn by the wife of the king or chief who presided at the feast. No man might refuse the horn, or drink