MADRAS 



LITERATURE 



JOURNAL 



OF 



AND SCIENCE. 



No. 15.— April, 1837. 



Traditions concerning the Migration of Buddhists into Europe, 

 By the Reverend B. Schmid. 



The Icelandic historians, to whom we owe our knowledge of the 

 most ancient history of the north, and amongst whom Snorro Sturlesen 

 is the chief, state that Odin or Wodan was the first conqueror and legis- 

 lator of the north of Europe. In their writings the following notices 

 are scattered. 



About sixty years before the Christian era, when the Romans sub- 

 dued the world, Odin, in order to remain independent, left his country, 

 named Tyrkland, on the Caspian sea, between the Borysthenes and the 

 Tanais, and came with his followers to the shores of the German ocean, 

 where the nations, astonished at his wisdom and splendour, took him and 

 his companions for messengers from the gods, and submitted willingly to 

 their rule and instructions, because they acted with mildness and be- 

 nignity. Odin united those tribes under one form of government, and 

 made his sons their leaders. 



Odin being informed that there were fine meadows in Sw T eden, went 

 thither and built a town which he called Sigtun,* either after himself 

 for he was also called Sigge, or after one of his sons. But the 

 Swedes named that town, Asegarth, i. e. the habitation (city) of the? 

 Asiatics. 



Odin established the worship of the god Thor and the belief in im- 

 mortality in Walhalla. A temple of Thor, near old Upsala, built by 

 him, is said to exist still and to serve as a village church. 



* Sieg, in German, means Victory; Siglun, therefore, may mean the town of Victory, 

 or the town of the Victor. 



