NORSE MYTHOLOGY
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NORSE MYTHOLOGY
gospel of Christ, the Icelanders enjoyed civil liberty, had a democratic form of government, and accepted the new religion by the vote of their representatives in the Althint/, or Parliament, which convened at Thingvolls in the summer of 1000; and in this way we are able to account for all the heathen and vernacular literature that was put into writing and preserved for us by that remarkable people, who inhabited the island of the icy sea. In studying the mythology of the Norsemen, we have for our guidance not only a large collection of rhapsodies, or religious lays, composed in heathen times (before the year 1000), but also a complete system of t/ieof/oiiy and cosmof/ony, written down, it is true, after the introduction of Christianity, but still abounding in internal evidence of having been written without any intermixture of Christian ideas.
2. The religions lays or rhapsodies are found chiefly in a collection well known by the name of the " Elder ^'' or "Scenmnd's Fdda." This work was evidently col- lected from the mouths of the people in the same man- ner as Homer's Iliad, and there exists a similar uncer- tainty as to the person who reduced it to writing. It has generally been supposed that the songs of this Elder Edda were collected by Sajmund Frode (the Wise), who was born in Iceland in the year 1056, and died in 1133 ; but all tlie most eminent Icelandic scholars now agree that the book cannot have been written earlier than the year 1240. In the Elder Edda there are thirty-nine poems; these are in no special connection one with the other, but may be divided into three classes: 1, purely mythological poems; 2, mythological didactic poems; 3, mythological historical poems. The Elder Edda pre- sents the Norse cosmogony, the doctrines of the Odinic mythology, and the lives and deeds of the gods ; but it also contains a cycle of poems on the demigods, and mystical heroes and heroines of prehistoric times. It gives us as complete a view of the Norsemen's mytholog- ical world as Homer and Hesiod give us of the Greek mythology, but it gives it to us, not as Homer does, worked up into one great poem, but rather as the rhap- sodists of Greece presented to Homer's hands the mate- rials for that great poem in the various hymns and bal- lads of the fall of Troy, wliich they sung all over Greece. Norseland never had a Homer to mould all these poems into one lordly epic: but the poems of the Elder Edda show us what the myths of Greece would have been without a Homer.
The system oj'theof/ony and cosmogony is found in the so-called Younger Edda, or as it is also called, Snorre's Edda, a work that was written by Iceland's great his- torian, Snorre Sturleson, who was born in the year 1178, and died in the year 1241. The Younger Edda is mostly prose, and may be regarded as a sort of commentary upon the Elder Edda. Both the Eddas complement each other, and a careful study of both is necessary for the scholar who desires to understand fully the religion of our Northern ancestors in the heathen period. The Younger Edda consists of two parts : Gylfaginning (the deluding of Gylfe) and Bragarjedur, or Skaldskaparmal (the conversations of Brage, the god of poetry, or the treatise on poetry). Gylfaginning tells how the Swed- ish king (iylfe makes a journey to Asgard, the abode of the gods, where Odin instructs him in the old faith, and gradually unfolds to him the myths of the Norse- men. Tlie Younger Edda is a ])rose synopsis of the whole asa-faith, with here and tliere a (piotation from the Elder Edda, by way of jiroof and elucidation. It shows a great deal of ingenuity and talent on the part of its author, an<l is the most perspicuous and intelli- gible presentation of Norse mythology that has come down to us from those dark days of the Middle Ages.
3. The following is a brief synopsis of the Norse heathen faith : In llie beginning there were two worlds. Far to the north was Nitlheim (the nebulous world), which was cold and dark, and in the midst of it was the well Hvergelmer, where the dragon Nidhogg dwells. Far to the south was JIuspelheira (the lire world), which
was bright and flaming, and in the midst of its intense light and burning heat sat Surt, guarding its borders with a flaming sword in his hand. Between these two worlds was Ginnunga-gap (the jawiung abyss), which was as calm as wind-still air. From the well Hocrgel- mer flowed twelve ice-cold streams, the rivers Elivogs. When these rivers had flowed far into Ginnunga-gap, the venom which flowed with them hardened and be- came ice ; and when the ice stood still, the vapor ari^-ing from the venom gathered over it and froze to rime ; and in this manner were formed in the yawning gap many layers of congealed vapor. That part of Ginnunga-gap that lay towards the north was thus fllled with thick and heavy ice and rime, and everywhere within were fogs and gusts. But the south side of Ginnunga-gap was lighted by sparks that flew out of Muspelheim. Thus while freezing cold and gathering gloom proceeded from Niflheim, that part of Ginnunga-gap which looked to- wards jMuspelheim was hot and bright ; and when the heated blasts met the frozen vapor, it melted into drops, and by the might of him (the supreme God) who sent tlie heat, these drops quickened into life, and were shaped into the likeness of a man. His name was Ymer; he was a giant, and he became the father of a race of frost giants and mountain giants. Together with the giant Ymer, there also sprang into being a cow named Aud- humbla, by whose milk Ymer was nourished. This cow licked rime-stones, which were salt ; and the first day that she licked the stones there came at evening out of the stones a man's hair, the second day a man's head, and the third day the whole man was there. His name was Bure. He was fair of face, great and mighty. He begat a son, by name Bor. Bor took for his wife a woman whose name was Bestla, a daughter of the giant Bolthorn, and they had three sons: Odin, Yile, and Ye. Odin became the father of the bright and fair asas, the rulers of heaven and earth, and he is, says the Younger Edda, the greatest and lordliest of all the gods. Odin, Yile, and Ye slew the giant Ymer; and when he fell, so much blood flowed out of his wounds that in it was drowned all the race of giants save one, who with his wife escaped in a skiff, and from him descended new races of giants. The sons of Bor dragged the body of Ymer into the middle of Ginnunga-gap, and of it they formed the earth. Of his blood they made the ocean ; of his flesh, the land ; of his bones, the mountains ; of his hair, the forests; ami of his teeth and jaws, together with some bits of broken bones, they made the stones and pebbles. Of his skull they formed the vaulted heavens, which they placed far above the earth, and decorated with red-hot flakes from Wuspelhcim to light up the world ; but his brains they scattered in the air, and made of them the melancholy clouds. Round about the disk of the earth they let the deep ocean flow, the outward shores of which were assigned as dwellings of the giants, and were called Jotunheim and Utgard. As a protection against the giants, the creative powers made of Ymer's eyebrows a bulwark, called Miiigard (the middle J'ard), round about the earth; but from heaven to earth the sons of Bor made the bridge called Bifrost, which we now recognise as the rainbow.