Page:The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.djvu/230

198 BOOK II. Laughed Hlorridi's When the fiercehearted He first slew Thrym And the Jotuns ran And so got Odin's son Soul in her breast, His hammer recognised. The Thursar's lord, All crushed, His hammer back. ' Relations of Fro to Freya.

In the oldest Teutonic mythology we find a god Fro or Friuja,^ which is worshipped as the lord of all created things. If we may judge from the name, the conception of this deity was probably far above the ideas formed of any of the Vedic or Olympian gods. If the word is connected with the modern German froh, it expresses an idea which is the very opposite of the Hebrew tendency to worship mere strength and power. For Fro is no harsh taskmaster, but the merciful and eternal God. He is, in short, the beneficence and long- suffering of nature. Fro is thus the power which imparts to human life all its strength and sweetness, and which consecrates all righteous efforts and sanctions all righteous motives. Nor can we doubt that Freya stands to Fro in precisely the relation of Liber and Libera in the cultus of Ceres, the connexion between these deities being precisely that of Fro and Freya with the goddess whom Tacitus call Nerthus, the Teutonic Niordr. In this aspect Freya is the bringer of rain and sunshine for the fruits of the earth, while the worship of Fro runs parallel with that of Priapos. To this deity belongs the wonderful ship Skidbladnir, which can be folded up like a cloth, — in fact, a vessel much like the magic barks of the Phaiakians. But though this ship could carry all the yEsir, yet these beings do not belong to their exalted race. They are Vanir, whose abode is in Vanaheim, as the Alfar or Elves live in Alfheim or Elfland and the Jotnar in Jotunheim. The L rd '^^^ Hellenic Iris is represented by Heimdall in the mythology of Himin- of northern Europe. This deity, who like Baldur is a white or light- '°^^' giving god, is the guardian of the bridge ^ which joins heaven and

- » Lay of Thrym, 16, 17, 31, 32. Thorpe's Translation of Sumiotifs Edda.

Stallybrass, i. 300. The Slavonic counterpart of Freya is Lada, the god- dess of the spring and of love, Lado answering to Fro. — Ralston, Sotigs of the Russian Penile, 105.
 * Grimm, Teutonic Mytholof^y,

' In the Teutonic mythology no moral significance seems to be attached to this bridge. In the Zoroastrian system it becomes the Bridge of the Judge, which the righteous only can cross by the aid of a beautiful maiden, in whom is embodied the holiness after which they had been striving in life, and who in answer to their question