io8 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



lasting war and feasting. They believed, because Odin 

 himself had assured them, that whatever was buried or con- 

 sumed with the dead, accompanied them to his palace. 

 And another reason why the horse was buried with them was, 

 that they durst not approach the palace of Odin on foot.' 

 Probably this was a wise feature introduced into their re- 

 ligion, to impress upon them the value of cavalry, and a 

 high regard for the services of the horse. At the funerals 

 of Harold Hildetand and Skalagrim, horses were sacrificed 

 to accompany these doughty warriors. 



Balder, the beautiful and youthful god of eloquence 

 and just decision, the innocent who appears brilliant as the 

 lily, and in honour of whom the whitest flower received 

 the name of Baldrian, was slain with a spear of the misletoe 

 by the blind god Hoder, whose violent deeds the gods 

 never forget, but whose name they never hear pronounced. 

 The Prose Edda thus refers to his funeral ; ' Balder's body 

 was then borne to the funeral pile on board the ship, and 

 this ceremony had such an effect on Nana, the daughter 

 of Nep, that her heart broke with grief, and her body was 



burnt on the same pile as her husband's Balder's 



horse was led to the pile fully caparisoned, and consumed 

 in the same flames with the body of his master.' Long- 

 fellow has beautifully described this scene : 



' They laid him in his ship 

 With horse and harness. 

 As on a funeral pyre. 

 Odin placed 

 A ring upon his finger. 

 And whisper' d in his ear. 



' Mallet. Northern Antiquities. 1847. 



I 



