1 06 Norway and the Norwegians 



cup, over which men (being then half drunk) vowed to 

 perform deeds which, in the cooler morning, they were 

 often loath to set about. But Bragi is really only 

 another name of Odin. Hermodhr (Battle-fury) also 

 appears as one of the gods of Gods-burg (As-gaard). 

 His name, too, is only another of Odin's names. 



There is Skirnir (the Shiner), Frey's messenger, who 

 is really his double. There is ffiger, the god of the sea, 

 from which is derived the word ' eager,' which is some- 

 times "iven to that tidal wave otherwise called the 

 ' bore.' There is Niordhr, also a god of the sea. And 

 more interesting than any of these there is Heimdal 

 (Homedale), whose other name is Eigh. He is a kind 

 of universal ancestor, and appears as the fashioner of 

 humankind. His second name Eigh seems to be Celtic, 

 not Scandinavian. 



Then there are the goddesses. Frigg, the wife of 

 Odin, is the chief of these. The name, compared to 

 that of Frey, or Fricco, shows her to be really the 

 feminine counterpart of that god — that is to say, a 

 goddess of springtime, of peace and pleasure. There 

 is, moreover, another being Freyja, who is called the 

 sister of Frey. It is obvious that Frigg and Freyja are 

 really one and the same. There is Nanna, the wife of 

 Balder, who has scarcely any individuality ; and Idun, 

 a goddess of perpetual youth (the Hebe of the North). 

 She, too, is probably identical with Freyja and Frigg. 



Stranger than all of these is the devil-god, the 

 mysterious inhabitant of the gods-burg, Loki. He, as 

 we saw, ' ceases not to work evil among the ^sir.' Some 

 writers of authority think him no more than an 

 adaptation from the Lucifer of the Christians. 



