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LO pie: 
FLORAL RECORDS, 21 
serve to themselves and to men their favourite 
deity. 
His mother, Frigga, or Freya (whose wor- 
ship is still commemorated, in the name of 
the sixth day of our week), resolved to take 
an oath from all created things that they 
would not harm Baldur. 
The goddess-mother met with a ready 
assent from fire, water, iron, stones, earths, 
diseases, beasts, birds, insects, and poisons. 
One thing only escaped her spells. 
There grew on the eastern side of Val- 
halla, an ancient oak, attached to which, 
rooted on its gnarled branches, she perceived 
a tiny plant,—a soft, insignificant thing, with 
clear white berries. Its powerlessness to do 
harm caused her to pass it by. Alas! from 
all ages comes the warning, which teaches 
that wothing is insignificant. 
The mythology of ancient Scandinavia 
included a principle or power of evil, called 
Loki, whose chief aim was to do mischief, 
and to mar the happiness of the gods. Of all 
the deities, Loki, the dark spirit, hated the 



