340 
men, all different in life and manners : that Heaven had allotted 
each its time, which was limited by the circuit of the great year.”* * * § 
It is evident, therefore, that the Etruscansf were well 
acquainted with a great kosmical period, which, in all proba- 
bility, was estimated at 12,000 years, a term whose origin was, 
of course, subsequent to the development of a regular system 
of astronomy, and which nevertheless may be an idea of very 
remote antiquity, both on account of its wide-spread prevalence, 
and also since even the Akkadians, for instance, used the same 
zodiacal signs as ourselves. J With respect to the doctrine of 
the destined end of the world, it is not, I believe, asserted in 
any quarter that either Persian or Teuton borrowed the theory 
from Biblical sources. § Winter appears at the close of the 
kosmical period as at the end of the ordinary year, and just 
as Hrym and the Frost-giants, with the Midhgardhsormr, are 
great opponents of the gods; so Angromainyush is stated to 
have made in opposition to the first creation of Ahuramazda 
(c a mighty serpent and frost.” || 
17. The Regeneration. 
But in the grand Norse creed the scheme of existence is 
not to end with a vast catastrophe ; Bagnarok is to be followed 
by a re-creation, a new heaven and earth wherein dwelleth 
righteousness. The potencies and principles of renewal have 
survived the conflagration ; Thorr and Odhinn have passed 
away for ever, but Thorr's offspring, Magni, “ Might,” and 
Modi, “ Courage,” with Yidhr, a greater Odhinn, remain un- 
injured. The wise and gentle Baldr, erst slain by the dark- 
ness, shall return in immortal splendour ; Vali, the “ Vigorous,” 
will beam again upon a happier world, for lo, the sun, although 
wolf-devoured, has left a daughter more beauteous than herself, 
as it is written, “ A daughter shall the sun bring forth ere 
Fenrir destroys her. The maid shall ride on her mother's 
track when the gods are dead.”^[ Nor is man forgotten ; in a 
mysterious grove called Hoddmimir's Holt, were concealed 
unhurt during the Bagnarok contest and the ensuing con- 
flagration a man and a woman, Lifthrasir,** “ Life-raiser,” and 
* Life of Sulla. f Yide Appendix D. 
X Yide Records of the Past , i. 64. It is quite possible that the zodiacal 
signs, and the use of a great kosmical period not unconnected with them, 
may hereafter appear as a link between Etruria and Akkad. 
§ “ In the present state of our knowledge on this subject, it is quite un- 
necessary to bring forward detailed proofs of the autochthonic origin of this 
conception of the ancient Teutons ” (Bunsen, God in History, ii. 492). 
|| Vendidad, i. 5F Gylfaginning, 53. 
[ “ Force vitale ” (Darmesteter). 
