It was told from olden days, and written in the books of Snorri
Sturlason, that the Asa or Ansa folk came from the land of Tanais
to the North. They soon became overlords; from the high hall they
raised at Upsala their power spread, until even the German tribes
drew chieftains and learning from them. For they were good masters,
who brought their new people not only wealth but knowledge. They
gave to the North crafts of both peace and war, such as the building
of longships and the breeding of fine horses, the writing of runes
and the mustering of armies, foreign trade and foreign travel, much
leechcraft and many wise laws. By all this the folk were strengthened
and helped, so that they lifted themselves from rude forest dwellers
to mighty nations who finally overthrew the Roman power and peopled
Europe afresh, in the time of the Wanderings. Above all did they
shape the country called England, and there they kept much of the old
freedom-shielding law that the Asa men first brought.
Every king in the North reckoned descent from the Asa lords, who
themselves came to be worshiped as gods after they died. The first Asa
king was called Odin, and he was the chief of the gods.