soul-belief among all the Gothic-Germanic people, but Norns and Valkyrs represent a distinctly Northern development. The first word is found only among Norsemen, the other with Anglo-Saxons as well; on the other hand Wurd (Norse, Urth 'spinning woman'?) as a name for inexorable fate is found among all racially related people. In our fathers' belief there are many Norns, good and evil, who "wind fate-threads" and fix man's life from the cradle to the grave. Valkyrs are the "Norns of Battle," but among our people they have received their character from Odin faith and the teaching about Valhalla. They serve at table in Valhalla and they "choose the slain," the Val, at Odin's command, when as wellequipped shield-maidens they take part in the conflict and determine its course. A series of pretty myths about Odin's divine maids has arisen in Norwegian-Icelandic mythology and poetry. (The "Darrath Song" in Njal's Saga; Hakonarmal.) 1 1 Weaving Song of the twelve Valkyrs: a 'Battle' Song. The Valkyrs appear often with halfhuman nature, since they contract marriage with earthly heroes, until the battle nature suddenly awakens in them and drives them away from hearth and home into the tumult of conflict. As swan-maidens they fly far across the country. At times they lay off the swan form in order to bathe; but if this is stolen by a man, the maid must follow him and give him her love (cf. section on Hero-Sagas). 12. Witches. In the Eddic Song Havamal, Odin enumerates in a special section the magic songs he is able to use. In this it says: HAV. 155 This I know, the tenth, If I see witches 1 I so arrange that (they) go deprived of their own shape, of their own home. Our forefathers had then a widespread belief also in evil soul-beings, peculiar souls of the witches of the earth, who after death continue their evil dealings with men. Such evil spirits are designated by various Lit. Farm-riders. words, as troll, sprite, night-creature, evening-, darkness-, and farm-rider. 13. Nature-Demons.-Again, the belief in elves, dwarfs, and gnomes seems to have grown out of soul-worship. Originally these names designated only souls which had taken fixed abodes out in nature and were in possession of certain qualities and accomplishments in advance of men. In the later myths these beings play an important part and belief in them has been preserved a very long time among the common people. With these must also be classed such supernatural beings as goblins, river-sprites, mermen, and mermaids, which form a transition to the real naturedemons. Giants.-The common names for naturedemons are giants, frost and mountain giants. While elves and dwarfs especially bear the imprint of the calm, mild, and friendly in nature, giants are symbols of the forces of nature and the elements in their might and fury, the worst enemies of mankind, with which a hard struggle must be carried on in order to insure existence. Ordinarily giants are thought of, therefore, in wild and dismal forms, corresponding to the elements by which they are surrounded; but giant women may after all be very handsome, so that they even awaken love in the breasts of the gods. Njorth was married to the giant Thiazzi's daughter Skathi, and Frey's affection for Gerth, daughter of Gymir, is treated in one of the finest of the Eddic Songs. To what is told about giants in the first section, we will add some individual examples from the giant's world. 14. Aegir and Ran.-The foremost seagiant is Aegir or Hler, who, according to Snorri, has his dwelling on Hlesey.1 He is indeed a giant but he is on terms of hospitality with the gods, for whom he arranges great banquets. It was at one of these that Loki took occasion to pour out his venom upon the gods and goddesses. The billows are called Aegir's daughters. His wife is named Ran, and she catches shipwrecked men in her net, with which she 1 1 Island of Hler, now Laesö in the Kattegat. may cruelly pursue the seafarer. To Ran come all who suffer death upon the sea by accident; according to the testimony of a certain saga it is the sign of a good reception at the home of Ran, when the drowned man obtains leave to turn back to take part in the funeral feast which is held for him. Loki borrowed Ran's net to catch the dwarf Andvari, who in the form of a pike was darting around in a waterfall. Another more violent sea-giant is Hymir, at whose home Thor sought the great kettle of which we shall tell in a later paragraph. II. CHIEF GODS AND MYTHS OF THE GODS (THOR) 1. Worship of Odin and Thor.-Attention has already been called in the general introduction to the fact that Thor was the Norseman's real chief divinity from a very ancient time, and that his name "the Thunderer" designates only a single side of the God of Heaven; but he was later understood to be an independent, personal |