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The Edda, forming the mythological history of the ancient people of the
North, is a complete receptacle of poetry no less than of history: and
forms of itself a work of great interest.
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The most important of the gods of Scandinavia is Odin, who was in all
probability one of their kings, and whose amours, as numerous as those of
Jupiter, are perpetuated in a thousand legends. Like Jupiter too, he
married his sister Frea, and in the sacred books of the priesthood, he is
known by upwards of a hundred names, all of them high sounding and
magnificent. {279}
His adventures, which are numberless, are interwoven with the whole of the
Scandinavian history.
Frigga or Frea, his wife, was the most powerful of the goddesses, and by
many supposed to be identical with Ceres, or the Earth; the future was as
familiar to her as to Odin, with whom she is seated upon his throne, and
whose government of the remaining deities she shared.
When the warriors of the land seek glory in battle, she sends an inferior
goddess to watch over the safety of those whom she favours, while they who
fall, are honoured by the mighty mother Frigga, herself mourning over their
fate, not indeed for their sake, but for the sake of the country they would
have adorned and the land for which they fought.
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One of the children of Frigga and Odin, by name Thor, presided over the
works of creation, and over the variations of the atmosphere. The tempests
and the apparent strife of nature, is caused by the struggle which Thor
constantly has with a famous serpent, whose vast folds embrace the whole
circumference of the earth.
Balder, another son of Odin and Frigga, is described as the finest and the
best of their race. He was distinguished no less for his {280} eloquence
than for his kindness and wisdom. It was his doom to meet with a premature
death. Aware, from her knowledge of the future, of the destiny which
awaited him, Frigga yet sought to avert it: and administered an oath to all
the objects of nature, not to injure her beautiful and beloved Balder. The
stones, the trees, the fish, the very diseases were sworn to respect his
life.
No sooner had this been done, than his brothers determined to see, if
indeed, he had a charmed life, and essayed successively the various means
of death on the unhappy Balder, who fell a victim to their folly; aided by
the cunning of Loke, who, through a stratagem which proved successful,
showed how impossible it is to avert destiny.[1]
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His body was placed upon a funeral pile, and his wife was burned with him.
No sooner was the funeral terminated, than a fellow-god, leading a fleet
steed, went to demand the body of Balder from the {281} dark goddess Hel,
who replied that he should be returned if all created beings would shed a
tear for him. One only refused, and Balder was doomed, to the great grief
of his mother, to rest in the infernal regions.
Among the amusements of Odin, hunting forms a very important and prominent
part; when the bows, arrows, and javelins were prepared by one deity; while
another gilded the heavens with stars; a third protected and guided the
steps of the hunters in the sacred wood; and the most successful of them
received from Odin the gift of immortality.
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Each of the three superior deities had their respective priests, who
exercised absolute authority over all that was connected with their
religion, as well as presided over their sacrifices. Nor was it unusual to
blend the priestly and the princely character, as in the case of Odin.
Frigga was attended upon by king's daughters, who were entitled goddesses
and prophetesses. They uttered oracles, devoted themselves to a lasting
virginity, and like the vestals of the Greek and Roman mythology, kept a
perpetual fire in the temple of their goddess.
"The power of inflicting pains and penalties," says Mr. Howitt, "of
striking and binding a criminal, was vested in the priests alone; {282} and
men so haughty that they thought themselves dishonoured if they did not
revenge the slightest offence, would tremblingly submit to blows, and even
death itself, from the hand of a pontiff, whom they took for the instrument
of an angry deity."
The councils of the divinities were held beneath the branches of an ancient
oak, whose roots spread below over a fountain of water, remarkable for the
number of serpents which it harboured.
[Illustration]
Teutates, the most celebrated of their minor deities, was the vital and
acting principle of the world; to whom was attributed many of the functions
which were supposed to belong to Mars, to Hercules, and to Mercury. They
worshipped him under the form of a dart, when they sought his aid in
battle, and under that of an oak, when they endeavoured to inspire
themselves with his advice; and his fetes were kept at the hour of night,
in high places, or in solemn forests, by the rays of the moon, and the
flashing of torches. The field where his holy ceremonies had been
celebrated, was sown with stones, and from thenceforth doomed to know no
more the voice of the sower, the song of the reaper, or the gladness of
harvest time.
Under very important circumstances, it was by no means unusual to sacrifice
human victims to this god, which were accompanied by flashing eyes, wild
cries, and fierce gestures.
[Illustration: The Sacrifice to Teutates.]
{283} "But the general cause which regulated these sacrifices," says Mr.
Howitt, (again to quote from his admiral work on priestcraft) "was a
superstitious opinion, which made the Northern nations regard the number
three as sacred and peculiarly dear to the gods. Thus every ninth month
they renewed this bloody ceremony, which was to last nine days, and every
day they offered up nine victims, whether men or animals. But the most
solemn sacrifices were those which were offered at Upsal, in Sweden, every
ninth year. Then they chose from among the captives, in time of war, and
amongst the slaves in time of peace, nine persons to be sacrificed. The
choice was partly regulated by the opinion of bystanders, and partly by
lot. The wretches upon whom it fell were then treated with such honours by
all the assembly; they were so overwhelmed with caresses for the present,
and promises for the life to come, that they sometimes congratulated
themselves in their destiny. But they did not always sacrifice such mean
persons. In great calamities, in oppressive famine, for instance, if the
people thought they had a sure pretext to impute the cause of it to the
king, they sacrificed him without hesitation, as the highest price they
could pay for the divine favour. In this manner the first King of Vermland
was burned in honour of Odin, to put away a great dearth. The ancient
history of the North abounds in similar examples.
"These abominable sacrifices were accompanied with various ceremonies. When
the victim was chosen, they conducted him towards the altar on which the
sacred fire was kept burning night and day. It was surrounded by all sorts
of iron and brazen vessels. Among them was one distinguished by its
superior size; in this they received the blood of their victim.
"When they offered up animals, they speedily killed them at the foot of the
altar; then they opened their entrails, and drew auguries from them, as
among the Romans: but when they sacrificed men, those they pitched on were
laid upon a large stone, and quickly strangled or knocked on the head."
Irminsul was another, and not the least celebrated of the gods adored by
the Germans; he had a magnificent temple, and a statue, which represented
him in the figure of a warrior, was placed upon a column of marble. A great
number of priests of both sexes served in the temple. Women acted as
prophetesses, while the men employed themselves in sacrifices, and the
choice of victims. The priests of this God possessed great importance in
public affairs. During certain solemnities, armed warriors performed their
evolutions around the idol, and in his sanctuary was placed immense
treasure, both in arms and in precious stones.
The temple was however destroyed by Charlemagne, who broke {284} the
statue, and with poetical justice, slaughtered the priests on the threshold
of the very place which they had so often deluged with human blood.
One column however remained standing, which was to the eyes of the Saxons,
holier and dearer in its melancholy reminiscences, than if it had still
possessed the statue of the god, which the emperor threw in the depths of
the sea.
The sacrifices to these deities were sometimes varied; there was a deep
well in the neighbourhood of the temple at Upsal, where the chosen person
was thrown in headlong, in honour of the deity representing the earth. If
the body fell to the bottom, the goddess was supposed to accept it; if not,
she refused it, and it was hung up in a sacred place. Near this place was a
forest, named Odin's grove, every leaf of which was regarded as sacred, and
was filled with the bodies of those who had been sacrificed.
Occasionally the blood of their children was not spared even by the
monarchs of the land--Hacon of Norway, shed the blood of his son on the
altar to secure a viceroy; and Aune of Sweden, in an attempt to obtain a
continuance of life, sacrificed the lives of nine of his offspring;
examples which could not fail to produce an effect upon their people.
But not only did they delight in the sacrifices of human life, they also
gave way in their orgies to unbounded licentiousness. While at Uulel, at
the feast of Thor, the license was carried to such a pitch as to become
merely bacchanalian meetings, where, amidst shouts, dancing, and indecent
gestures, so many unseemly actions were committed, as to disgust the wiser
part of the community.
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