CHAPTER XX. 



RELIGION. WORSHIP, SACRIFICES, ETC. 



Odin's religion Sun worship The Three Annual Sacrifices The Atone- 

 ment Boar and Bragi Toast The Victory Sacrifice Temple Priests- 

 Animals for Sacrifices Sacrificial ceremonies Divination Chips 

 Drawing of lots Consecration of laud and property Worship of Thor 

 Sign of the Hammer The Svastica Story of Framnr. 



THE earlier Edcla or Sasras which relate to us the traditions 



o 



about Odin and the Asar do not give any description of the 

 sacred ceremonies or rites they performed. 



From the Ynglinga Saga we learn that the hero Odin of the 

 North sacrificed after the manner of the Asar. and that the 

 sacrifices made by him, Njord, Frey, and Freyja, were to a 

 power worshipped by them, but we are not told who the god 

 or power was. It probably was in some instances the sun, 

 represented perhaps by the eye of the earlier and mythical 

 Odin of the Voluspa who, as we have seen, pledged his eye 

 for a drink from the well of Urd ; we know that the worship 

 of the sun was widely spread at one period in the history of 

 the world. 1 How the change from the worship of this unknown 

 power to the worship of Odin and the other gods took place 

 we are not told ; but it may, we think, be taken for granted 

 that many of the ceremonies and beliefs mentioned in the 

 Sagas were of very ancient origin. 



It is only by a studv of all the Sajms that we gain a know- 



J / O 



ledge of the beliefs, religious ceremonies, mode of worship 

 and superstitions of the people of the North, which are often 

 minutely described. It is somewhat difficult for the present 



1 According to Herodotus, i. 212, 

 Tninyres, queen of the Massagetae, whose 

 son had been taken prisoner by Cyrus, 

 ifiuls to him the following message: 

 ' Kc'store my son; depart out of the 



country, unpunished But if you 



In not do this, I swear by the sun, the 

 Lord of the Massagetse, that insatiable as 

 you are, I will glut you with blood." 



