Read Ebook: Norse mythology; or The religion of our forefathers containing all the myths of the Eddas systematized and interpreted by Anderson Rasmus Bj Rn

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 1988 lines and 192390 words, and 40 pages

INTRODUCTION.

WHAT IS MYTHOLOGY, AND WHAT IS NORSE MYTHOLOGY?

WHY CALL THIS MYTHOLOGY NORSE? OUGHT IT NOT RATHER TO BE CALLED GOTHIC OR TEUTONIC?

Introduction of Christianity--The Catholic priests--The Eddas--Mythology in its Germanic form--Thor not the same in Norway and Denmark--Norse mythology--Max M?ller, 41

NORSE MYTHOLOGY COMPARED WITH GREEK.

Norse and Greek mythology differ--Balder and Adonis--Greek gods free from decay--The Deluge--Not the same but a similar tradition--The hand stone weeps tears--The separate groups exquisite--Greek mythology an epic poem--Theoktony--The Norse yields the prize to the Greek--Depth of Norse and Christian thought--Naastrand--Outward nature influences the mythology--Visit Norseland--Norse scenery--Simple and martial religion--Sincerity and grace--Norse and Greek mythology, 51

ROMAN MYTHOLOGY.

Oxford and Cambridge--The Romans were robbers--We must not throw Latin wholly overboard--We must study English and Anglo-Saxon--English more terse than Latin--Greek preferable to Hebrew or Latin--Shakespeare--He who is not a son of Thor, 71

INTERPRETATION OF NORSE MYTHOLOGY.

Aberration from the true religion--Historical interpretation--Ethical interpretation--Physical interpretation--Odin, Thor, Argos, Io--Our ancestors not prosaic--The Romans again--Physical interpretation insufficient--Natural science--Historical prophecy--A complete mythology, 80

THE NORSE MYTHOLOGY FURNISHES ABUNDANT AND EXCELLENT MATERIAL FOR THE USE OF POETS, SCULPTORS AND PAINTERS.

How to educate the child--Ole Bull--Men frequently act like ants--Oelenschlaeger--Thor's fishing--The dwarfs--Ten stanzas in Danish--The brush and the chisel--Nude art--The germ of the faith--We Goths are a chaste race--Dr. John Bascom--We are growing too prosaic and ungodly, 94

THE SOURCES OF NORSE MYTHOLOGY AND INFLUENCE OF THE ASA-FAITH.

The Elder Edda--Icelandic poetry--Beowulf's Drapa and Niebelungen-Lied--Influence of the Norse mythology--Influence of the Asa-faith--Samuel Laing--Odinic rules of life--H?vam?l--The lay of Sigdrifa--Rudolph Keyser--The days of the week, 116

THE CREATION AND PRESERVATION OF THE WORLD.

THE CREATION.

Section i. The original condition of the world--Ginungagap. Section ii. The origin of the giants--Ymer. Section iii. The origin of the crow Audhumbla and the birth of the gods--Odin, Vile and Ve. Section iv. The Norse deluge and the origin of heaven and earth. Section v. The heavenly bodies, time, the wind, the rainbow--The sun and moon--Hrimfaxe and Skinfaxe--The seasons--The Elder Edda--Bil and Hjuke. Section vi. The Golden Age--The origin of the dwarfs--The creation of the first man and woman--The Elder Edda. Section vii. The gods and their abodes. Section viii. The divisions of the world, 171

THE PRESERVATION.

The ash Ygdrasil--Mimer's fountain--Urd's fountain--The norns or fates--Mimer and the Urdar-fountain--The norns, 188

EXEGETICAL REMARKS UPON THE CREATION AND PRESERVATION OF THE WORLD.

Pondus iners--The supreme god--The cow Audhumbla--Trinity--The Golden Age--Creation of man--The giants--The gods kill or marry the giants--Elves and hulders--Trolls--Nisses and necks--Merman and mermaid--Ygdrasil--Mimer's fountain--The norns, 192

THE LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF THE GODS.

ODIN.

Section i. Odin. Section ii. Odin's names. Section iii. Odin's outward appearance. Section iv. Odin's attributes. Section v. Odin's journeys. Section vi. Odin and Mimer. Section vii. Hlidskjalf. Section viii. The historical Odin. Section ix. Odin's wives. Section x. Frigg's maid-servants. Section xi. Gefjun--Eir. Section xii. Rind. Section xiii. Gunlad--The origin of poetry. Section xiv. Saga. Section xv. Odin as the inventor of runes. Section xvi. Valhal. Section xvii. The valkyries, 215

HERMOD, TYR, HEIMDAL, BRAGE AND IDUN.

Section i. Hermod. Section ii. Tyr. Section iii. Heimdal. Section iv. Brage and Idun. Section v. Idun and her apples, 270

BALDER AND NANNA, HODER, VALE AND FORSETE.

Section i. Balder. Section ii. The death of Balder the Good. Section iii. Forsete, 279

THOR, HIS WIFE SIF AND SON ULLER.

Section i. General synopsis--Thor, Sit and Uller. Section ii. Thor and Hrungner. Section iii. Thor and Geirrod. Section iv. Thor and Skrymer. Section v. Thor and the Midgard-serpent . Section vi. Thor and Thrym, 298

VIDAR, 337

THE VANS.

Section i. Njord and Skade. Section ii. AEger and Ran. Section iii. Frey. Section iv. Frey and Gerd. Section v. Worship of Frey. Section vi. Freyja. Section vii. A brief review, 341

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EVIL, LOKE AND HIS OFFSPRING.

Section i. Loke. Section ii. Loke's children--The Fenriswolf. Section iii. Jormungander or the Midgard-serpent. Section iv. Hel. Section v. The Norsemen's idea of death. Section vi. Loke's punishment. Section vii. The iron post. Section viii. A brief review, 371

RAGNAROK AND REGENERATION.

RAGNAROK, 413

REGENERATION, 428

Vocabulary, 439

Index, 462

INTRODUCTION.

The word mythology is of Greek origin, and our vernacular tongue has become so adulterated with Latin and Greek words; we have studied Latin and Greek in place of English, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Gothic so long that we are always in a quandary , always tongue-tied when we attempt to speak of something outside or above the daily returning cares of life. Our own good old English words have been crowded out by foreign ones; this is our besetting sin. But, as the venerable Professor George Stephens remarks in his elaborate work on Runic Monuments, we have watered our mother tongue long enough with bastard Latin; let us now brace and steel it with the life-water of our own sweet and soft and rich and shining and clear-ringing and manly and world-ranging, ever-dearest ENGLISH.

Mythology is a system of myths; a collection of popular legends, fables, tales, or stories, relating to the gods, heroes, demons or other beings whose names have been preserved in popular belief. Such tales are not found in the traditions of the ancient Greeks, Hindoos and Egyptians, only, but every nation has had its system of mythology; and that of the ancient Norsemen is more simple, earnest, miraculous, stupendous and divine than any other mythological system of which we have record.

The myth is the oldest form of truth; and mythology is the knowledge which the ancients had of the Divine. The object of mythology is to find God and come to him. Without a written revelation this may be done in two ways: either by studying the intellectual, moral and physical nature of man, for evidence of the existence of God may be found in the proper study of man; or by studying nature in the outward world in its general structure, adaptations and dependencies; and truthfully it may be said that God manifests himself in nature.

Our Norse forefathers had no clearly-defined knowledge of any god outside of themselves and nature. Like the ancient Greeks, they had only a somewhat vague idea about a supreme God, whom the rhapsodist or skald in the Elder Edda dare not name, and whom few, it is said, ever look far enough to see. In the language of the Elder Edda:

Then one is born Greater than all; He becomes strong With the strengths of earth; The mightiest king Men call him, Fast knit in peace With all powers.

Odin goes to meet the Fenriswolf in Ragnarok ; but now let the reader compare the above passage from the Elder Edda with the following passage from the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles:

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill and said: Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious; for as I passed by and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

It is a noticeable fact that long before Christianity was introduced or had even been heard of in Iceland, it is recorded that Ingemund the Old, a heathen Norseman, bleeding and dying, prayed God to forgive Rolleif, his murderer.

Harald Fairfax , the first sovereign of Norway, the king that united Norway under his scepter in the year 872, is another remarkable example in this respect. He was accustomed to assist at the public offerings made by his people in honor of their gods. As no better or more pure religion was known in those days, he acted with prudence in not betraying either contempt or disregard for the prevailing worship of the country, lest his subjects, stimulated by such example, might become indifferent, not only to their sacred, but also to their political, duties. Yet he rejected from his heart these profane ceremonies, and believed in the existence of a more powerful god, whom he secretly adored. I swear, he once said, never to make my offerings to an idol, but to that God alone whose omnipotence has formed the world and stamped man with his own image. It would be an act of folly in me to expect help from him whose power and empire arises from the accidental hollow of a tree or the peculiar form of a stone.

Such examples illustrate how near the educated and reflecting Norse heathen was in sympathy with Christianity, and also go far toward proving that the object of mythology is to find God and come to him.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet