WALHALLA, 
179 
soul? But in that iron clime, amid such awful asso¬ 
ciations, the conflict going on was too terrible—the 
contending powers too visibly in presence of each other, 
for the practical, conscientious Norse mind to be con¬ 
tent with the puny godships of a Homan Olympus. 
Nectar, Sensuality, and Inextinguishable Laughter were 
elements of felicity too mean for the nobler atmosphere 
of their Walhalla; and to those active temperaments 
and healthy minds,—invigorated and solemnized by the 
massive mould of the scenery around them,—Strength, 
Courage, Endurance, and above all Self-sacrifice— 
naturally seemed more essential attributes of divinity 
than mere elegance and beauty. And we must re¬ 
member that whilst the vigorous imagination of the 
north was delighting itself in creating a stately dream¬ 
land, where it strove to blend, in a grand world picture 
—always harmonious, though not always consistent— 
the influences which sustained both the physical and 
moral system of its uniyerse, an undercurrent of sober 
Gothic common sense, induced it—as a kind of protest 
against the too material interpretation of the symbolism 
it had employed—to wind up its religious scheme by 
sweeping into the chaos of oblivion all the glorious 
N 2 
