Page:Origin and Growth of Religion (Rhys).djvu/99

Rh by Vigfusson and Powell as follows: 'An ancient god is Heimdal, from whom the Amals spring. There are strange lost myths connected with him; his struggle with Loki for the Brisinga necklace; the fight in which they fought in the shape of seals. He is 'the gods' warder,' dwelling on the gods' path, the Rainbow. There he sits, 'the white god,' 'the wind-listening god,' whose ears are so sharp that he hears the grass grow in the fields and the wool on the sheep's backs, with his Blast-horn, whose trumpet-sound will ring through the nine worlds, for in the later legends he has some of the attributes of the Angel of the Last Trumpet. His teeth are of gold; hence he is 'stud-endowed.' Curious genealogical myths attach themselves to him. He is styled the son of nine mothers; and as Rig's father, or Rig himself, the 'walking or wandering god,' he is the father of men and the sire of kings, and of earls and ceorls and thralls alike. His own name is epithetic, perhaps the World-bow. The meaning of Hallinskiᵭi [another name of his] is obscure.' Such is a summary of the most important passages referring to Heimdal.

The classics picture Pluto holding in his hands the keys of the nether world, from whose bourne no mortal returns, and Heimdal survived to be transformed into St. Peter with the keys: previous to this, his last stage, he was the porter, watchman or warder of the gods, and as such Loki, the enfant terrible of Norse mythology, makes fun of him sitting in the rain; but this view of the northern gods living together and having occasion for a warder at their gates, is a comparatively late one. So it may be inferred