I02 Norivay and the Norewgians 



to shed a tear, an old crone named Thokk, who 



sang- 



Thokk will wail with dry tears 



Over Balder's bale ; 

 Nor quick nor dead for the carl's son care I, 



Let Hel hold her own. 



And the old crone, it was thought, was none other but 

 Loki in disguise ; ' for Loki never ceased to work evil 

 among the gods.' Such is the story of Balder's death. 

 But we must not assume that this is a pure product of 

 northern mythology ; though evidently there has been a 

 lay about it which is now lost, and therefore the story 

 has as much a right to be considered ancient as any 

 other in the poetic Edda. But all the Edda — all the 

 northern mythology, almost — has in it a touch of 

 Christianity ; and in this story of Balder we have the 

 strongest element of all. 



It remains now to speak of the most important god 

 of all, of Odin. 



Odin was not a national god in the sense that Thor 

 was a god of the Norsemen and of the Danes, and that 

 Frey was especially a god of the Swedes. He has been 

 sometimes spoken of as the god of the Vikings ; but we 

 must really consider him as the god of all the Teutonic 

 nationalities, for we know that he was worshipped by 

 our Anglo-Saxon ancestors ; his name occurs in the 

 genealogies of their kings, and there are a certain 

 number of places in England which contain his name. 

 In England he was called Woden. Among the conti- 

 nental Germans he was Wodan or Wuotan. He may 

 have at one time been a sort of god of the heavens or 

 of the sky. We know that he was called Allfather; and 

 that is an epithet which religions very generally apply 



