NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY. 67 
was celebrated on the 21st of December with many imposing ceremonies, 
one of which was accompanied by the sacrifice of a boar in honor of Freyr, 
the god of the sun. The other was the Novennial, which was the greatest 
festival of the nation, in the celebration of which all the inhabitants were 
required to join. 
It lasted nine days, during which time they sacrificed many animals, and 
each day a human being. The blood of the victims was offered as an atone- 
ment to the gods, and their bodies were hung upon the branches of the trees 
in the sacred grove. Kings and nations sent offerings and presents for this 
festival, to Upsala, the capital. 
2. GerMAN Myrnonoey. 
' The religion of the ancient Germans is much less known in its details 
than that of the more northern nations of Europe. There is no doubt that 
its general features were the same as those which characterize the religion 
of the Scandinavians. The same gods were worshipped, only under differ- 
ent names and with different ceremonies. 
It is probable that the primitive Germans paid divine honors to the earth, 
fire, and the celestial bodies. The St. John’s fire, which was kept up for a 
long time after the introduction of Christianity, and which is still to be met 
with in some sequestered spots of the country, is very likely a remnant of 
the old fire-worship. They did not, however, regard fire as a god, but only 
as a symbol of the Almighty Being, whom they adored with profound 
reverence without presuming to name him or worship him in temples. 
Before no visible being were they willing to bend the knee, for they 
acknowledged no one as master except the invisible Lord of the universe. 
Only at a later period, when the nation had been already divided into 
regular tribes, and had learned to look up to a superior of their own race, 
do we find the idea of a god with characteristics more within the scope of 
the human imagination, develop itself in the popular belief. This god and 
king, who was also considered the father of the nation, they called 7Awzsco, 
Teut, or Theut. But the race of gods of which he was the chief had to 
share the same fate with the ancient gods of Scandinavia. A new dynasty, 
the Asir, supplanted it, and established themselves under their leader, who 
was called in Germany Wodan, the same as Odin. He soon became the 
object of the most profound worship, and to him only were human sacrifices 
offered. He was regarded as the god of heaven, and the oak was sacred 
to him. Thor and Frigga appear also to have been worshipped as divine 
beings; and if we credit what the Romans said, they must have had 
besides these a number of other gods and goddesses. ut all that has been 
handed down to us on this subject is too obscure and of too doubtful a 
character to be accepted as matter of reliable information. The most 
authentic tradition is that which contains an account of the goddess Wirthus 
or Hertha (pl. 12, jig. 14). She was worshipped as the personification of 
the earth, the creator and preserver of all animate and inanimate beings of 
‘287 
