Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/85

Rh Professor Bugge's conclusion that the principal text in the Hávamál is thoroughly Christian in character appears to come far short of demonstration. On the other hand we dissent from Mr. Magnússon's contention that "the ancient rite of sacrificing human beings to the god of war by means of hanging, or by other modes of execution, is not germane to the matter in question." It seems to us most material to explain why sacrifices were offered by hanging to Odin, if there be no connection between that mode of offering and the alleged sacrifice of Odin "himself unto himself" in the same manner. The dramatic nature of ritual is well established; and the most important act of ritual is in most cases the sacrifice. By this it is not suggested that the sacrifice was offered by hanging because Odin was hanged. According to the order of evolution the boot would probably be on the other leg: Odin would have been believed to have been hanged because hanging was the method of sacrificing to him. But even if so, the prevalence in pagan times of such sacrifices would render it highly probable that a story of the hanging of Odin was prevalent too; and then it could not have been a late post-Christian misunderstanding. In any case we cannot settle the details of the myths concerning any heathen divinity without taking into account the details of the ritual with which he was worshipped. No merely philological argument over the texts commemorating him can outweigh the known interdependence of myth and ritual.

But whether we accept Mr. Magnússon's theories or not, his paper is well worth reading for its ingenuity and boldness, and also for the important issues he has succeeded in raising on the texts of the poems and the meaning of the myths they enshrine.

those of us who have long been impressed with the importance of the scientific study of folklore as a means of throwing light on the evolution of human thought, it is gratifying to find the subject making its way step by step among scholars engaged in the actual business of education, especially among those whose