Page:Norse mythology or, the religion of our forefathers, containing all the myths of the Eddas, systematized and interpreted with an introduction, vocabulary and index.djvu/173

 from the Cæsarian thraldom of Rome, in which it had so long been chained; to show what marvels self-government and free institutions can accomplish, and thus hand down to us, their descendants, a glorious heritage of imperishable principles, which we must study and in a great measure be guided by.

We retain in the days of the week the remembrance of this religion, which was brought to England more than fourteen hundred years ago by the Goths, who came to give that country a new name and a new fate in the world. The Goths taught the people of Britain to divide tho week into their Sun-day, Moon-day, Tys-day, Odin's-day, Thor's-day, and Frey's or Freyja's-day. The name of Saturday the English owe to the Roman god Saturnus; but the last day of the week was known among the early Norsemen, and is still known among them, as Laugar-dag, Lör-dag, that is Washing-day. It is possible, as E. C. Otté quaintly remarks, that our Anglo-Saxon forefathers may have wished to change this name when, in later times, they had ceased to have only one washing-day out of the seven, like their northers ancestors.

We are now prepared to present the Norse mythology, and we shall divide it into three divisions:, and. These three divisions we dedicate respectively to, , and , the three norns, , , and, which uphold the world's structure and preside over the destinies of gods and men.