Chapter I: Front Matter

NORSE MYTHOLOGY

NORSE MYTHOLOGY;

OR,

THE RELIGION OF OUR FOREFATHERS,

CONTAINING ALL THE

MYTHS OF THE EDDAS,

SYSTEMATIZED AND INTERPRETED.

WITH

AN INTRODUCTION, VOCABULARY AND INDEX.

BY

R. B. ANDERSON, A.M.,

PROFESSOR OF THE SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
WISCONSIN, AUTHOR OF “AMERICA NOT DISCOVERED BY
COLUMBUS,” “DEN NORSKE MAALSAG,” ETC.

SECOND EDITION.

CHICAGO:
S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY.
LONDON TRÜBNER & CO.
1876.

COPYRIGHT 1875.

BY S. C. GRIGGS AND COMPANY.

ELECTROTYPED BY ZEESE & CO.

TO

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW,

THE AMERICAN POET,

WHO HAS NOT ONLY REFRESHED HIMSELF AT THE CASTALIAN FOUNTAIN, BUT
ALSO COMMUNED WITH BRAGE, AND TAKEN DEEP DRAUGHTS
FROM THE WELLS OF URD AND MIMER,

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,

WITH THE GRATEFUL REVERENCE OF

THE AUTHOR.

I think Scandinavian Paganism, to us here, is more interesting than any other. It is, for one thing, the latest; it continued in these regions of Europe till the eleventh century: eight hundred years ago the Norwegians were still worshipers of Odin. It is interesting also as the creed of our fathers; the men whose blood still runs in our veins, whom doubtless we still resemble in so many ways. Strange: they did believe that, while we believe so differently. Let us look a little at this poor Norse creed, for many reasons. We have tolerable means to do it; for there is another point of interest in these Scandinavian mythologies: that they have been preserved so well.

Neither is there no use in _knowing_ something about this old Paganism of our fathers. Unconsciously, and combined with higher things, it is in _us_ yet, that old faith withal. To know it consciously brings us into closer and clearer relations with the past,—with our own possessions in the past. For the whole past, as I keep repeating, is the possession of the present. The past had always something _true_, and is a precious possession. In a different time, in a different place, it is always some other _side_ of our common human nature that has been developing itself.

—_Thomas Carlyle._