[Transcriber's Note: Italic text is represented by _underscores_.
Small capitals in the original have been converted to all capitals.
Footnotes have been moved to the end.]
Religions Ancient and Modern
THE RELIGION OF
ANCIENT SCANDINAVIA
RELIGIONS: ANCIENT AND MODERN.
ANIMISM.
By EDWARD CLODD, Author of _The Story of Creation_.
PANTHEISM.
By JAMES ALLANSON PICTON, Author of _The Religion of the Universe_.
THE RELIGIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA.
By Professor GILES, LL.D., Professor of Chinese in the University
of Cambridge.
THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT GREECE.
By JANE HARRISON, Lecturer at Newnham College, Cambridge, Author of
_Prolegomena to Study of Greek Religion_.
ISLAM.
By AMEER ALI SYED, M.A., C.I.E., late of H.M.'s High Court of
Judicature in Bengal, Author of _The Spirit of Islam_ and _The
Ethics of Islam_.
MAGIC AND FETISHISM.
By Dr. A. C. HADDON, F.R.S., Lecturer on Ethnology at Cambridge
University.
THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
By Professor W. M. FLINDERS PETRIE, F.R.S.
THE RELIGION OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.
By THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, late of the British Museum.
EARLY BUDDHISM.
By Professor RHYS DAVIDS, LL.D., late Secretary of The Royal
Asiatic Society.
HINDUISM.
By Dr. L. D. BARNETT, of the Department of Oriental Printed Books
and MSS., British Museum.
SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION.
By WILLIAM A. CRAIGIE, Joint Editor of the _Oxford English
Dictionary_.
CELTIC RELIGION.
By Professor ANWYL, Professor of Welsh at University College,
Aberystwyth.
THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
By CHARLES SQUIRE, Author of _The Mythology of the British Islands_.
JUDAISM.
By ISRAEL ABRAHAMS, Lecturer in Talmudic Literature in Cambridge
University, Author of _Jewish Life in the Middle Ages_.
THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME.
By CYRIL BAILEY, M.A.
SHINTO, THE ANCIENT RELIGION OF JAPAN.
By W. G. ASTON, C.M.G.
THE MYTHOLOGIES OF ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU.
By LEWIS SPENCE, M.A.
EARLY CHRISTIANITY.
By S. B. SLACK, Professor at McGill University.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ORIGIN AND NATURE OF RELIGION.
By Professor J. H. LEUBA.
THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT PALESTINE.
By STANLEY A. COOK.
THE
RELIGION OF ANCIENT
SCANDINAVIA
By
W. A. CRAIGIE, M.A.
TAYLORIAN LECTURER IN THE SCANDINAVIAN
LANGUAGES, OXFORD. AUTHOR OF
'SCANDINAVIAN FOLK-LORE'
LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD
10 ORANGE STREET LEICESTER SQUARE
1914
FOREWORD
The native religion of the ancient Scandinavians was in its main
features only a special form of that common to all the Germanic
peoples, and this again was only a particular development of primitive
beliefs and practices characteristic of the whole Aryan race. It
is impossible to say how far back in time the special Germanic and
Scandinavian developments of this religion may go, and of their earlier
stages we have absolutely no knowledge beyond what may be doubtfully
reached by the methods of comparison and inference. Even of the later
stages our information is much more scanty than might be expected.
Among the Goths, the southern Germans, and the Anglo-Saxons in Britain,
paganism gave way to Christianity at so early a period, that very few
details relating to it have been recorded by the civil or religious
historians of these peoples; they were indeed more inclined to suppress
than perpetuate any lingering knowledge of this kind. The absence
of such information is a great bar to the proper understanding of
many points in Scandinavian religion, which, instead of being thus
illuminated from without, has continually been forced to throw light on
the heathen worship of the other Teutonic peoples.
As to the Scandinavian peoples themselves, it is only from a
comparatively late period in the history of Europe that we have any
real knowledge of them. They first became notorious at the close
of the eighth century, when their unexpected piratical descents on
Britain and France alarmed Western Christendom. Early in the ninth
century the Saxon monk Ansgar ventured upon missionary enterprises
into Scandinavia, at that time entirely a heathen region, and on two
occasions reached the court of the Swedish king. About the middle of
the same century Christianity began to make way in Denmark, which in
another fifty years or so had become in the main a Christian land.
During the tenth century the new faith began to make itself felt
in Norway, but did not finally overcome the old religion until the
beginning of the eleventh: in Iceland, which had been colonised from
Norway, the adoption of Christianity took place somewhat suddenly in
the year 1000. Sweden for the most part still remained heathen, and
did not fully accept the new religion until the twelfth century.
During these three centuries we have very little outside evidence as
to the character of the religion professed by any of the Scandinavian
peoples, and our knowledge of the beliefs and practices of northern
heathenism is for the most part derived from native sources of a
later date. These, while in some respects copious enough, by no means
give all the information that could be desired, and on some important
points their evidence is either scanty or very unsatisfactory. The
deficiencies are to a large extent disguised, at first sight, by
the fact that we possess abundant information as to Scandinavian
_mythology_. Not only do the poems of the skalds (from the close of
the ninth century onwards) abound in mythological allusions, but
there also exists a systematic account of the subject in the work
of Snorri Sturluson, commonly known as the 'Prose Edda,' written in
Iceland about the year 1220. For the facts relating to the actual
_religion_, on the other hand, we have to depend on the few pieces of
outside evidence, and on fairly numerous, but not always reliable,
statements in the biographical and historical prose writings commonly
grouped together under the name of 'Sagas.' These works, based on
oral tradition of a very full and often very accurate nature, were
written in Iceland during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and
most of them are separated by more than a century and a half from the
period of time to which they relate. As the authors were in every case
Christians, and many of them were ecclesiastics, it is obvious that
the late evidence thus afforded us is not to be absolutely relied
upon. On the other hand, the tenacity of Icelandic tradition, the
continuous interest in the poetic mythology, and the absence of any
fanatical hatred of the old heathenism, make it possible to accept,
with due reservations, many of the statements made in these writings.
It is unfortunate, however, that Iceland alone of all the Scandinavian
countries developed a literature of this kind. The result is that the
information thus preserved relates for the most part only to Iceland
itself and its mother-country, Norway. The heathen period in Denmark
was so remote, and Sweden itself so slightly connected with Iceland,
that comparatively little is recorded of either, although Sweden was
still heathen when Icelandic literature began. This is the more to be
regretted, as a fuller knowledge of the precise form which the old
religion had in Denmark and Sweden would in all probability solve some
problems which are now obscure.
In the following account of the ancient Scandinavian religion, an
attempt has been made to exhibit what is really known of the religious
beliefs and practices of the people as distinct from the mythological
fancies of the poets. With the evidence which we possess, it is
impossible to determine how far the latter ever formed any part of a
real popular religion: in some respects there seems to be a decided
opposition between the two. The mythology, as it is found in the old
poems and in the Prose Edda, has been the subject of much learned
speculation, and various theories as to the original functions of the
different gods and goddesses have from time to time been advanced, and
have met with more or less acceptance. Much has also been written on
the question how far the original conceptions had been modified under
classic and Christian influences even before Christianity was finally
accepted in the north. All discussion of these matters is here omitted
in favour of a more direct investigation into the purely religious
aspect of the old faith, so far as the existing materials admit of
this.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
FOREWORD, v
I. THE GREAT GODS: THOR AND ODIN, 1
II. THE REMAINING GODS AND OTHER OBJECTS OF WORSHIP, 24
III. TEMPLES AND IMAGES, 39
IV. CEREMONIES AND MINISTERS OF RELIGION, 53
SELECTED WORKS, 71
THE ANCIENT SCANDINAVIAN RELIGION
CHAPTER I
THE GREAT GODS: THOR AND ODIN
In common with the other Aryan races, the ancient Scandinavians
recognised, as the basis of their religion, certain supernatural,
usually unseen, powers ruling the world and exercising an influence on
the affairs of mankind. In the ideas which prevailed as to the nature
of these powers certain correspondences can be clearly traced in the
various Aryan religions, in spite of the fact that our knowledge of
them dates from widely different periods of history. Even the Romans,
when they came into contact with the Germanic races, noticed some
of the similarities, and applied the names of several of their own
deities to the corresponding figures among the barbarian gods. When
closer intercourse between Roman and German had established itself, the
result of these equations was made prominent in the names adopted by
the latter for the days of the week, several of which, in most of the
Germanic tongues, still bear witness to the old religion of the race.
Thus the counterpart of the Roman _Mars_ was found in the god _Tiw_,
and consequently _dies Martis_ was rendered by forms now represented in
English by _Tuesday_. In the same way the Roman _Mercurius_, _Jupiter_,
and _Venus_ were identified with the Germanic gods called by the
English _Wóden_, _Thunor_, and _Fríg_, whence the names of _Wednesday_,
_Thursday_, and _Friday_. In making these equations, of course, neither
German nor Roman did more than consider the most obvious points of
resemblance between the deities; how close the correspondence actually
was in each case it is impossible to say, as we know so little of the
precise form which the native religion had among the southern Germans.
It is only to a certain extent that the details suggested by these
translations of the Roman names are supported by the evidence from the
Scandinavian side, but it is extremely probable that some of the more
striking discrepancies are due to difference in time as well as in
place and people.
The three gods and the goddess whose names are thus commemorated in
the days of the week hold also a prominent place among the Scandinavian
deities, where they appear under the names of Ty (_Týr_), Odin
(_Óðinn_), Thor (_þórr_), and Frigg. But while Odin and Thor actually
hold the place which they might be expected to occupy as objects of
worship, the warlike deity Ty has apparently become of secondary
importance. This is indicated not only by the native Scandinavian
evidence, but also by what can be gleaned from external sources. In an
Old English sermon[1] by the Abbot Ælfric, about the year 1000, the
mention of some of the Roman deities leads the preacher to introduce
the corresponding Danish names. Jove or Jupiter, he says, 'was called
Thor among some peoples, and him the Danes love most of all.' Mercury,
too, 'was honoured among all the heathens, and he is otherwise called
Othon in Danish.' Of Ty there is no mention, although Mars is one of
the Roman deities specified by name. In another homily by Ælfric there
is the same identification of Thor and Odin, along with 'the foul
goddess Venus, whom men call Frigg,' but here also Ty is ignored.
More than merely negative evidence, however, is supplied by another
outside source, which is the leading contemporary account of
Scandinavian religion, viz. that given by the German historian, Adam of
Bremen (about the year 1075), in his description of the great temple of
the Swedes at Upsala, and of the gods worshipped there. Here he writes,
'the people venerate the statues of three gods, so placed that the
most powerful of them, Thor, has his seat in the middle of the bench.
On either side of him Wodan and Fricco have their places. Of these the
significations are as follows. Thor, they say, presides in the air,
and governs thunder and lightning, winds and rains, fair weather and
crops. The next, Wodan, that is "Fury," carries on wars and gives men
valour against their enemies. The third is Fricco, bestowing peace and
pleasure upon mortals.' The image of Wodan, he adds, resembled that
of the Roman Mars; that of Thor suggested Jupiter, while Fricco was
represented in a form resembling the minor deity Priapus.
The god here called Fricco was known to the Scandinavians themselves
by the name of Frey (_Freyr_), and that the triad thus specified by
Adam were in fact the chief deities worshipped in the later stages of
Scandinavian religion is abundantly proved by the native evidence.
The identification of Odin with Mars in place of Mercury is also in
full accordance with the later beliefs: in other words, Odin has taken
the place of Ty as the chief war-god. Whether this was the main reason
for the admission of Frey as third member of the supreme triad is
uncertain, the earlier position of this god being altogether unknown.
Thor, it will be noticed, still retains his place as the counterpart
of the Roman Jupiter, and stands between the other two gods, as being
the most powerful. The precise relationship, however, between Thor and
Odin is not by any means so simple as this statement would suggest, and
forms indeed one of the most difficult questions connected with the
subject. This will be most clearly brought out by a detailed account of
the relative place assigned to each of them in religious practice on
the one hand, and in mythological accounts on the other; and the most
correct impression of the facts will probably be obtained by dealing
first with Thor.
The pre-eminence assigned to this god by Ælfric and Adam of Bremen is
quite in accordance with what can fairly be inferred from the native
historical sources. A considerable number of passages in the sagas
yield combined proof that by the people at large Thor was regarded
as the chief deity, at least in Norway and Iceland: for Sweden and
Denmark the evidence is less conclusive, but seems to point in the
same direction. It is of great significance, for example, that in all
the Scandinavian countries the name of Thor is the one which is most
frequently used as a formative element in the names of persons (such
as Thor-kell, Stein-thor), and these were evidently quite as common
in Sweden and Denmark as in Norway and Iceland. On the other hand,
the name of Odin is scarcely ever employed, only one or two instances
being found among the Danes and Swedes. Names with Frey- as their
first element are more frequent, but are in small proportion compared
with those in Thor-. In Danish and Swedish place-names, too, the
predominance of Thor is very marked, although Odin and Frey are better
represented here than in the case of the personal names. In Norway and
Iceland place-names of this kind are rare, but Thorsness and Thorsmark
occur in the latter country. The frequency with which Thor's hammer
(see below) is represented on Danish and Swedish runic monuments, and
the occurrence on ancient Danish stones of the formula 'May Thor hallow
this monument' (or 'these runes'), also indicate that the position of
this deity was much the same among all branches of the Scandinavian
people. In Denmark, too, there are distinct traces of a tendency to
hold local assemblies on the day named after the god; in Iceland this
was the day on which the famous _Al-thing_ (the legal and legislative
assembly of the whole people) began every year, ten weeks after the
first day of summer, and in Norway the great law-assembly of the
western districts also began its meetings on a Thursday.
For Norway and Iceland there is a considerable amount of more direct
evidence than this. In several of the Icelandic historical writings it
is expressly stated that some of the leading colonists had a special
regard for Thor and his worship. Of one who came from the island of
Mostr, on the south-western coast of Norway, it is told that he had
the custody of Thor's temple there, and was a 'great friend' of the
god, on which account he was called Thorolf (=_Thor-wolf_). This
Thorolf fell out with King Harald, and went to inquire of Thor, 'his
loving friend,' whether he should make terms with the king or leave
the country. The oracle directed him to go to Iceland. He pulled down
the temple, and took with him most of the timber, as well as the earth
from under the pedestal on which Thor had been seated. On coming near
Iceland, he threw overboard the two chief pillars of the temple, on
one of which the image of Thor was carved, and declared he would settle
wherever Thor made these come ashore. After landing on the south side
of Broadfirth, they found that Thor had come ashore with the pillars
on a headland, to which they then gave the name of Thor's-ness, while
a river in the neighbourhood was also named after the god. When this
Thorolf had a son in his old age, he gave him to his friend Thor, and
called him Thorstein. Thorstein also gave his own son to Thor, 'and
said he should be a temple-priest, and called him Thorgrim.' Another
son of Thorolf's sacrificed to Thor, that he might send him pillars for
his house, 'and gave his son for this,' which probably means that he
also dedicated his son to the god, though one account appears to imply
that he actually offered him in sacrifice.
Of another settler, Helgi the Lean, who was brought up in Ireland, it
is stated that when he came in sight of Iceland, he inquired of Thor
where he should land; the oracle directed him to Eyafirth, and would
allow him to go nowhere else. Before they came in sight of the firth,
Helgi's son asked him whether he would have obeyed Thor's directions
if he had sent him to winter in the Arctic Ocean. Yet Helgi was not
absolutely devoted to Thor, as he also believed in Christ, and even
called his Icelandic homestead by the name of Christness. It was to
Thor, however, that he turned for aid in sea-faring and difficult
enterprises, and in all matters that he considered to be of most
importance.
Thorolf and Helgi were not the only settlers who allowed Thor to fix
the place of their habitation in Iceland, and one in the south of the
island also consecrated all his land to Thor and called it Thor's-mark.
The tendency to appeal to Thor for help in time of need is further
illustrated by an incident recorded as having taken place during the
Wineland expedition of 1007-8. The explorers were in great straits for
want of food, and had prayed for help, which seemed long in coming.
One of the party, named Thorhall, was found by the others on the peak
of a cliff, looking up to the sky, and muttering something, besides
making strange gestures of which he would give no explanation. Shortly
afterwards a whale came ashore, and Thorhall said, 'The red-bearded one
was stronger now than your Christ. I have got this for my poetry that I
made about Thor. He has seldom failed me.'
This contrasting of Thor with Christ is a trait which appears in other
narratives, and is significant of the place which the god held in
the old religion. In the struggle between heathenism and Christianity
in the Scandinavian countries it is usually Thor, the red-bearded
one, who is the champion of the primitive faith and its most powerful
representative. The cases in which Odin takes this place have a much
more legendary character, and are more likely to be due to later
invention. It was Thor whom the believers in the old faith expressly
put forward as a rival to the God of the Christians. In the early part
of the eleventh century, when King Olaf Haraldsson was doing his utmost
to christianise Norway, the following words are represented as having
been spoken by a powerful chief named Gudbrand: 'There is come hither
a man named Olaf to offer us another faith than the one we had, and to
break all our gods in pieces, and he says that he has a greater and
mightier god. It is a marvel that the earth does not open under him
when he dares to say such things, and that our gods let him go any
further. I expect, if we carry Thor out of our temple where he stands,
and where he has always stood by us, that as soon as he looks on Olaf
and his men, then _his_ god and himself and his men will melt away and
come to nought.' So also when Thangbrand the priest went to Iceland
on his missionary enterprise in 997, he met a woman who preached
heathendom to him at great length, and asked him, 'Have you not heard
that Thor challenged Christ to single combat, and He dared not fight
with Thor?' When Thangbrand's ship was destroyed by a violent storm, it
was to Thor that the credit of the accident was assigned.
The firm hold which Thor had upon the minds of his worshippers is also
illustrated by the way in which some of the converts to Christianity
felt uneasy at abandoning him. Thorgils of Flói, in the south-west of
Iceland, was one of the first to accept the new faith, and more than
once he dreamed that Thor came to him with reproaches and threats for
this desertion. Thorgils was firm, and defied the angry god, but his
later perils at sea were believed by his companions to be the work of
Thor, and some of them even wished to sacrifice to him for a fair wind,
saying that people had fared much better when they made offerings to
him.
The prominent place held by the worship of Thor in the old religion is
also indicated by the frequent mention of images of the god in various
temples (as will appear in a later chapter); this fact acquires special
significance when contrasted with the lack of similar statements
regarding Odin. It is also extremely probable that it was Thor, and
not Odin, to whom the vague names of 'Land-god' (_Land-áss_) and 'The
Almighty God' were given; the latter was used, coupled with the names
of Frey and Njörd, in an old oath-formula.
Having thus made the position of Thor among the Scandinavian gods
as clear as the evidence admits of, it remains to show what manner
of god his worshippers supposed him to be. On this point there is
unfortunately less direct evidence than could be wished. In origin Thor
was the thunder-god, and it is therefore natural to find him spoken of
as 'the strongest of all the gods.' His weapon, the thunderbolt, was
imagined as a hammer, mythologically known by the name of _Mjölnir_,
and was especially used by him to protect the gods and men against
giants and other evil monsters. To grasp it with he had iron gloves,
and he was also possessed of a girdle of might which increased his
strength twofold. In his journeys, of which the mythological writers
have a good deal to say, he sometimes rode in a chariot drawn by two
goats. Of these details there is very little trace in historical
sources, although one passage (of doubtful value) speaks of an image
of Thor seated in his chariot. The hammer, however, was certainly the
distinctive symbol of the god, and representations of it were evidently
in common use as sacred and protective marks. Not only is it frequently
cut on stone monuments, but small figures of it were apparently used as
amulets, of which a number have been found in Denmark and Sweden. When
the Danish prince Magnus returned from an expedition into the heathen
districts of Sweden in 1123, he brought back with him as trophies
some Thor's hammers of metal. It is not clear how far such models of
the hammer were used in religious ceremonies; that it was employed at
weddings 'to hallow the bride' appears to be highly probable, but there
is no direct historical evidence to prove it.
The form in which the hammer was commonly represented easily led to its
association with the Christian mark of the cross. At a festival held in
Norway in 952, Earl Sigurd dedicated the first toast to Odin, and after
drinking from the horn handed it to King Hákon, who was a Christian.
When the king took it, he made the mark of the cross over it. The
heathens present protested against this, and Earl Sigurd attempted to
satisfy them by saying, 'The king does like all those who trust to
their own might and strength, and consecrate their toast to Thor. He
made the mark of the hammer over it before he drank.'
The relationship of Thor to Odin, and the precise position of
the latter among the Scandinavian gods, must now be more closely
considered. In the sermon by Ælfric already cited there is an
interesting remark bearing on this, in these words: 'Now the Danes
in their delusion say that Jove, whom they call Thor, was the son of
Mercury, whom they call Odin, but they are not right in this' (_i.e._
according to Roman mythology).[2] Ælfric's statement is in perfect
accordance with the old Scandinavian myths, which represent Thor as the
son of Odin and Earth, a relationship also attested by various poetical
designations of the god. This is not at all what the historical
evidence would lead us to expect, but the mythological account of
Odin presents a still more striking contrast to what has been brought
forward above as to the position of Thor. 'Odin,' says Snorri, 'is the
highest and eldest of the gods; he rules over all things, and for as
mighty as the other gods are, they all serve him as children do their
father.... Odin is called All-father, because he is the father of all
the gods.'
It is indeed quite clear that the whole mythological system expounded
by Snorri, and implied in all the old Scandinavian poetry, centres on
the idea of Odin as the supreme god. As such he has two important sides
to his nature. On the one hand he is a war-god, who assigns victory or
defeat to men, and who takes the slain warriors to live with himself
in Valhall; 'he is also called Val-father, because all those who fall
in battle are his chosen sons: to them he gives places in Valhall
and Vingolf,' says Snorri. On the other hand he is a god of wisdom
and cunning, knowing all things, and a god of poetry whom the skalds
regard as the author of their art. So far as the historical evidence
is strong enough to prove anything regarding Odin, it indicates that a
belief in both of those aspects was really a part of the old religion.
We have already seen that Adam of Bremen describes Odin as the war-god
among the Swedes, and Snorri also says that the Swedes thought he
often appeared to them before great battles; 'to some he gave victory,
and some he invited to himself, and either lot was thought good.'
This association of Odin with war, and the assignation to him of all
those who were slain in battle, are very prominent in the mythical
sagas, which may be accepted as representing a genuine tradition in
this respect, however much the details may be due to later invention.
In these sagas one also finds the connection of Odin with death by
hanging, which appears in some of his poetic names, and must be
regarded as a real belief.
The purely historical evidence is, however, very limited. Perhaps
the only mention of an actual offering to Odin is that found in the
account of Earl Hákon's doings after he had, under compulsion, accepted
Christianity in Denmark in 975. On leaving that country, he sailed
round to the east coast of Sweden, landed there, and made a great
sacrifice. 'Then two ravens came flying and croaked loudly, and the
earl thought it certain that Odin had accepted the sacrifice, and that
he would have success in fighting.' It is very probable, however, that
sacrifices to this god were more common among the Danes and Swedes
than among the Norwegians, and that this may account for the lack of
reference to them in the Icelandic writings.
That the belief in Valhall was a real one is clearly shown by one or
two passages in the sagas. King Hákon the Good had been a Christian,
though latterly he had not made his religion prominent, in order to
avoid offending his heathen subjects. When he was killed in battle in
961, he was laid in the grave-mound with all his weapons and best
array. 'They made such speeches at his burying as it was the custom
of heathen men to make, and sent him off on the way to Valhall.' A
poem on Hákon's death and his reception by Odin in Valhall, which was
composed at the time by one of his skalds, gives a very fine expression
to the belief, which is also the leading theme in an earlier poem on
the death of King Eirík in 954. Even some who had not been killed in
battle were apparently thought of as going to Odin in Valhall, if the
passage in the saga of Gísli may be relied upon, in which Thorgrím is
represented as saying, 'It is the custom to tie hell-shoes on men when
they shall go to Valhall, and I will do that with Véstein' (who had
been murdered in his bed). There is also a reference to the belief in
Njál's saga, in the words of Högni, 'I intend to take the halbert to my
father' (Gunnarr, who had been killed shortly before this), 'and let
him have it to Valhall and bear it there at the weapon-thing.' The same
saga also represents Earl Hákon in Norway, when he found his temple
burned down, as saying, 'The man who has done this will be driven away
from Valhall, and never get entrance there.' It is doubtful, however,
whether much weight can be given to these passages. The old practice
of beginning a battle by throwing a spear over the enemy is in some of
the mythical sagas explained as a dedication of them to Odin, and it is
possible that this idea may be correct.
It is remarkable that in the Icelandic sources there is no clear
evidence for a general worship of Odin in Norway or Iceland. In his
account of the old festivals Snorri states that the first toast which
went round was consecrated to Odin, and was drunk 'for victory and for
power to their king.' And he also says that at the festival at Hladir
in 952 Earl Sigurd 'consecrated the first toast to Odin.' The accuracy
of Snorri's account has been questioned, but even if it is correct, it
does not definitely establish Odin's position in popular belief. Among
the Icelanders themselves there is nothing like the same evidence to
show that Odin was generally held in esteem and veneration as there is
in the case of Thor; and it is noticeable that in the few cases where a
belief in, and reliance on, Odin are expressed, the speaker is usually
a poet. Thus Egil Skallagrímsson, when he had suffered at the hands of
King Eirík (about 934), expresses in a verse his wish that 'the gods
and Odin' may be angry with the king: in the second half of the verse
Frey and Njörd are also mentioned by name. The poet Hallfred, who
accepted Christianity in Norway in 996, makes several references in
his verses to his former worship of Odin, but in words which clearly
indicate that his capacity of skald had much to do with this. When he
was afterwards accused of being still a heathen, it was the possession
of 'an image of Thor' which formed one of the charges against him.
It is, however, stated that previous to their becoming Christians
Hallfred and his companions made a vow 'to give much money to Frey
if they reached Sweden, or to Thor and Odin if they got to Iceland.'
Kjartan Olafsson is also made to speak of Thor and Odin together, and
Odin (along with Freyja) is specified in the abusive verse by Hjalti
Skeggjason (999), which led to his prosecution for blasphemy against
the gods. On the other hand there is no mention in any saga of any
temple, image, or special priest of Odin in any part of Iceland.
That the attribution of the art of poetry to Odin, and his consequent
position as the special god of poets, was no mere conventional figment
of the skalds is best attested by Egil's poem on the loss of his sons.
Towards the end of this the poet expresses his resentment against 'the
lord of the spear,' in whom he had confidently trusted before he sent
this loss upon him, and so destroyed the friendship between them.
Now he has no pleasure in worshipping Odin, 'yet,' he adds, 'Mimir's
friend has given me recompense for my woes: he gave me an art' (that of
poetry) 'free from fault and stain.'
As the above will show, there is a real difficulty in reconciling
the historical statements as to the worship of Odin and Thor with
the relative positions assigned to them in the old mythology. The
explanation which seems to clear away this difficulty in the most
satisfactory manner is the suggestion that Thor and Odin really belong
to different stages in the development of Scandinavian religion. On
this view Thor was originally the chief god, and to a certain extent
continued to hold this position to the end. His supremacy, however, was
in the later period of heathenism seriously threatened by the growing
cult of Odin, which was at first foreign to the Scandinavian peoples,
and was received by them from the South Germanic races. This would
easily account for the seemingly greater popularity of Odin among the
Danes and Swedes than among the Norwegians and Icelanders, to whom
the new cult would be later in spreading. In this connection it may
be noted that some of the poetic names for Odin, such as 'the friend
of the Gauts,' 'Tyr of the Gauts' (as well as the simple _Gauti_ and
_Gautr_), appear to indicate that his worship was associated with the
people of that name in southern Sweden. It was in Gautland that the
poet Hallfred was nearly sacrificed to Odin in 997, and here also in
1018 the poet Sigvat was refused admission to a farm where a sacrifice
was taking place, because they 'were afraid of Odin's anger.' It may
even be significant that Earl Hákon's sacrifice already mentioned was
performed on the coast of Gautland.
The ninth and tenth centuries were a period of new development and
great changes within the Scandinavian countries. The Viking expeditions
brought a large part of the population into direct contact with war
and battle, while the former petty kings disappeared, or lost most of
their importance, before strong rulers like Gorm in Denmark or Harald
in Norway. In the courts of these new sovereigns there was a life and
splendour previously unknown in the north, and under the royal favour
the art of poetry flourished to a remarkable extent. It appears fairly
certain that in these surroundings the cult of Odin found most favour,
and that the conceptions of the god which meet us in the mythology
were developed among men who found a pleasure both in fighting and
in poetry, and who modelled their ideas of the warlike deity on the
monarch to whose court they attached themselves. Odin was thus the god
of the warrior, the poet, and the friend of kings, while Thor retained
his former place in the hearts of those who still followed the old
way of life in the secluded valleys of Norway or Iceland. Something
of this distinctly appears in the figures of the two gods as they are
presented in the old poems and legends. Odin bears all the stamp of the
new life and culture about him; Thor is rather a sturdy yeoman of the
old unpolished type. Odin is a ruler in whom knowledge and power are
equally combined; Thor has little more to rely upon than his bodily
strength. Even in small matters the contrast is marked: Odin lives
by wine alone, while Thor eats the flesh of his goats and drinks the
homely ale. Odin's weapon is the spear; Thor's is the more primitive
hammer. It is to Odin that all the warriors go after death; Thor gets
only the thralls. In some of the poems there is an obvious tendency
to assign to Thor an undignified and even ludicrous part, which is
strongly at variance with the veneration in which he was actually held,
as we have seen above. It would, perhaps, be unsafe to attach very
much importance to this, as it, is quite uncertain how far these poems
can be accepted as evidence for religious beliefs. It is perhaps more
significant that while writers like Snorri tell how Odin and various
other gods (such as Njörd and Frey) came from the south-east into
Denmark and Sweden, there is no similar account as regards Thor. In the
historical period, too, there were distinguished families in Sweden
and Norway whose genealogy was traced back to Odin and Frey, while no
one claimed descent from Thor. Both of these facts may reasonably be
regarded as supporting the view that Odin belongs to a later period
in the history of Scandinavia than Thor, and some such explanation
appears to be requisite to account for the striking differences in
the traditional statements regarding the two chief gods of the old
religion.