; N AVIAN MTTHOLOOV. 



SCANDINAVIAN MYTHOLOGY. 



3.' I 



belief in the Valhalla. The Uboun of the rly missionaries in the 

 Vth and l"th centuries produced very little effort; the people con- 

 tinued to be almost entirely pagan, and Bread TrMkiSB, the uooessor 

 of Harald, renounced Christianity, and did all be could to rUblUh 

 the wonhip uf the ancient idols ; nor WM it until after the aeoeaaion 

 of Canute the Ureat (1014), that Christianity became the national 

 religion, and churches and convent* began to be built. Fur several 

 rear, afterward*, however, little improvement took place in the intel- 

 lectual condition of the people. Literature can hardly be said to have 

 been cultivated at all Its eole monument i* the history (written in 

 Latin) by Saxo Onunmatkus, who died in 1208. In Germany, aa well 

 a* in England and Scotland, where thi. literature and mythology were 

 onoe predominant, bnth faded away more quickly under the inHu. mo 

 ilnation. Odin, or, a he wa called by those nutions, Woden, 

 WM forgotten, but the popular talee and fiction* remained. The ballad 

 poetry of Scotland reUin* many a lay identical almost with thoeo of 

 the Scald* ; while Pun in Boot*. Blue Beard, the Pig who would not 

 go over the style, and Jack the Giant-killer, have their Scandinavian 

 original*. Howitt'o ' Literature and Itomance of Northern Europe;' 

 and Da*ent' ' Talee from the None,' contain much that is interesting 

 on the subject. 



Ut Uic mudern literature of the Scandinavian nations, Iceland, Sweden, 

 Norway, and Denmark, notices will be found in the BioiiKArmcAi. 

 DIVISION, under the names of the more eminent authors. 



. ND1XAVIAN MYTHOLOGY. The genuine and older Scan- 

 dinavian mythology, which, in regard to wild imagination, sublime con- 

 ception*, a rough vigour, and a naive simplicity sometimes approaching 

 the ludicrous, will bear comparison with those of the Hindus, the 

 Greeks, or Roman*; and which, from the extensive influence it ha* 

 exercised on all nations of Gothic and Teutonic descent, has a peculiar 

 interest for them, U to be found in the Edda,a word meaning great grand- 

 mother, or rather ancestress, probably used to indicate that the cycle 

 of poems, to which the name is given, had a more remote origin. A.- 

 we have stated in the preceding article [SCANDINAVIAN LITERATI HK], 

 tiie Edda consists of two parts the elder Edda, a cycle of poems, and 

 the younger or prose Edda, which is chiefly a compendium of the 

 eider, with occasional extracts from it. 



The Scandinavian mythology comes to us, not in the shape of a 

 religious system, so much as the poetical expression of some of the 

 worshipper*. It does not approach a system even so much as Hesiod's 

 Theogony; for it has to be gathered from various poems or frag- 

 ments of poems, of which some are manifestly of much greater anti- 

 quity than others. Some, no doubt, are of a period anterior to the 

 Christian era ; but as all were collected at a long subsequent period, it 

 is probable that the belief in the destruction of the world and its 

 renovation may have been derived from Christian sources. Thus the 

 Edda presents in the very beginning the germs of one all-destroying 

 catastrophe, of a creation which by necessity involves the final destruc- 

 tion of the universe, with a promise of a resurrection and a happier 

 existence. This destruction has been long foretold. 



The history of the Creation by the Asar has little resemblance to 

 that of Christianity. In every creation by the heathen gods, the mate- 

 rial stuff is always in existence. In the Asar creation, the world 

 becomes a living organism. Nature is not a rude mass, she is not 

 dead, but an organised whole, that is ever penetrated by a super- 

 human life. When this idea, which approaches to the pantheistic, is 

 expressed in a poetically-material manner, we may compare it with 

 other mythologies, in which, like it, giants, Titans, Cyclops, the original 

 dwellers in Chaos, embody the unrestrained force of the elements till 

 subjected to the might of a higher and regulating power. There is 

 also the peculiarity of accepting the principle of evil as the first exist- 

 ence, to counteract which the principle of good was formed, or rather 

 descended, for Odin's mother was a daughter of the giants. 



In the beginning was a chaos. On the north was Niflheim, cold, dark, 

 and foggy ; on the south, Muspelheim, warm and light ; betwixt these 

 two wan Ginnunga-gap, in which contended the ice and frost of 

 Niflheim, the light and heat of Muspelheim, and into which flowed 

 twelve Ktreams called Elivagar, which were poisonous, issuing from the 

 fountain Hvergelmir. This water, hardened by the frost, by degrees 

 filled the gap ; was again gradually melted by the warmer south ; and 

 the beat thus imparted at length produced Ymir, a being of enormous 

 use and malignant disposition. Ymir fell asleep, and under his left 

 arm grew a male and female; from his right hand and foot a nix- 

 headeti giant. These were the progenitors of the race of giants. The 

 ice continued to melt, and a cow, Audhumbla, was produced, by whom 

 Yinir was nourished from it* four milk-streams (the four elements). 

 The cow, Audhumbla, licked the icy salt stones, and on the evening of 

 the first day arose the hair of a man, on the second his head, and on 

 the third the complete man, handsome, large, and strong. He was 

 Hamed Buri, and had a *on (no mother is mentioned) called Bor, who 

 took to wife a daughter of the giant Bolthom. and had by her Odin (or 

 Odbin, the Woden of the Saxons), Voli, and V tli- first <>t thr Asar. 

 These three having slain Ymir, carried the body to Ginnunga-gap, and 

 with it therein formed the world : the blood became water ; the flesh, 

 earth; the bones, mountains; the teeth, pebbles; the hair, grass, 

 trees, and other vegetation; the skull, the firmament; the brains, 

 thrown into the air, became clouds ; and of the eyebrows were made a 

 wall of defence against the frovt-gialits. This round flat world was 



called Midgard, and was encircled by a deep ocean (sometimes typified 

 bv a vast serpent), outaide of which was Jotunheim, the abode of the 

 giant*. With sparks of hot cinders from Muspelheim were formed 

 sun, moon, stars, lightning, and meteors; and their courses were pre- 

 scribed, thus forming night and day, and the seasons. 



Asgard, the residence of the Asar, was apportioned into Vanheim, 

 the domain of the elementary deities ; Gladiheim, in which was Val- 

 halla, where dwelt Odin and the deities of hU family ; Muspelheim, 

 the district of celestial fire; and Licht Altheim u-lv.-s of light), thr 

 residence of the benevolent divarfs, or elf, in which also was situated 

 Ciinli. the place of future beatitude. 



Utgard was under the earth, deprived of the sun's light, and was 

 divided into Jotunheim, the country of the giants; Swart-Alfhriin, 

 that of the black dwarfs, or gnomes; Nillhi-ini. in whieh was Hel. the 

 residence of llcla, goddess of death ; and Nastrond, a horrible swamp, 

 inhabited by serpents, into which, at the end of the world, the wicked 

 are to lw thrown. 



According to the Yoluspd, the (three ?) gods in council next created 

 tlie dwarfs, who had been bred like maggots from the corrupt 

 Ymir's blood, and who were now endowed with human shape, though 

 often deformed; and they formed a counterpoise to the giant*. \vlio 

 are represented as stupid, while the dwarfs make up for their want of 

 size by their ingenuity, acuteness, and knowledge. They have dill, 

 however, to dwell in the earth or in rocks and caverns. The Vciluapa 

 and the prose Edda differ here, as the Voluspd says they were created 

 from Brimir's blood. They also differ as to the next creation, that of 

 mankind. The Voluspd says, after creating the dwarfs, 



" Then the three went, From this assembly, 

 Mi|(hty anil mild The Aar especially. 

 They found on the sea-coast, Powerless, 

 Ask and Emhla, Without fixed dentiny ; 



Possessing no soul, Having no tense, 



Neither blood nor motion, Nor yet blooming colour. 



Odhin gave soul, llunir gave sense, 



Lodur (Loki) gave blood and blooming colour." 



In the prose Edda, as the children of Bor wandered by the sea-shore 

 they found two trees, of which they formed the male and female. Ask 

 and Knibla : Odin bestowing on them life and spirit ; Veli, sense and 

 feeling ; and Ve, visage, speech, hearing, and sight; and from the 

 are descended the whole human race. Jacob Grimm remarks on this 

 (' Deutsche Mythologie ') that only dwarfs and men are created ; the 

 giants and the gods come into existence as if of themselves, from the 

 influence of merely natural forces ; they owe their being to the union 

 of fire and water, while mankind and the men-like dwarfs are made by 

 the formative activity of the gods themselves acting with a purpose. 



After the creation came the golden age of the Asar, till at length 

 three maidens of the race of giants surprised them. They took away 

 their gulden table, and left instead a desire for gold ; this led to a war 

 witli the Vanir, who had broken down the outer wall of Asgard ; but 

 a peace was at length concluded, when Hodur was given as a hostage on 

 one side, and Niord on the other, who received a seat and a dwelling 

 in Asgard. 



Ygdrassil, the tree of life, which forms so important a part of the 

 cosmogony, is first mentioned very abruptly in the ' Voluspa,' and 

 equally so in the ' Grimnismal ' (song of (Jrimui). This tree lias three 

 roots, one in heaven, one in the residence of the Frost-giants, and the 

 third in NiHheim or Hela. At each root was a fountain po>- 

 wonderful powers, and its branches spread around the whole uin 

 At the root in Niflheim lives the serpent Xithhogg, constantly 

 gnawing them, and in its topmost branches sits an eagle with a hawk 

 between his eyebrows. A squirrel, Katatoska, runs up and down, 

 exciting strife between the eagle and the serpent ; and on its br 

 browse four stags. The tree is an ash, and is the greatest and holiest 

 of all trees, uniting heaven, earth, and the lower regions. The 

 spriugs are also sacred. Round the heavenly Urdar-brunuen the Asar 

 assemble every day to pronounce judgments, assisted by the thn c 

 chief Nornen Urd, Verdaldi, and Skuld. There are, however, many 

 other Nornen, who decide on the length of life, and the good or ill- 

 fortune of every individual of the human race, some of whom are 

 descendants of the Aaor, some, of the races of elves, and some of the 

 race of the dwarfs. Every day the Nornen water the tree from the 

 fountain, to keep it in vigour, and from ita leaves falls the dew. Tin: 

 well of the giants is guarded by Mimir, an old and wine man, but 

 whether god, giant, or demi-god is uncertain, and in this well lie 

 hidden wisdom and knowledge. The third is Hvergelmir or the roaring 

 i'.-i-in. 



The chief gods, who were especially to be worshipped, are twelve ; 

 the goddesses are fourteen. The subordinate superhuman powers ore 

 iK-.-s. We only enumerate th> < hi. ;'. whii -h are 1 . ( Min, who 

 governs all things, and who is obeyed by the other deities, as a fit In T 

 by his children. Hence he is named Alfadir (All-father) and, with 

 numerous other names, Yalfadir, from having prepared Valhalla and 

 Vingolf for the reception of the Einheriar (his selected heroes) who 

 have fallen in battle. Near his seat in Hlithskialf are two wolves, 

 which he feeds with the viands set before him, as he needs no food ; and 

 on his shoulders sit two ravens, Hugin and Munin (Thought and Mindi 





