The Younger Edda; Also called Snorre's Edda, or The Prose Edda
[Footnote 118: Ancient Norse writers connect this event with
Mithridates and Pompey the Great. They tell how Odin was a heroic
prince who, with his twelve peers or apostles, dwelt in the Black
Sea region. He became straightened for room, and so led the asas
out of Asia into eastern Europe. Then they go on to tell how the
Roman empire had arrived at its highest point of power, and saw
all the then known world--the orbis terrarum--subject to its laws,
when an unforeseen event raised up enemies against it from the
very heart of the forests of Scythia, and on the banks of the Don
river. The leader was Mithridates the Great, against whom the
Romans waged three wars, and the Romans looked upon him as the
most formidable enemy the empire had ever had to contend with.
Cicero delivered his famous oration, Pro lege Manilia, and
succeeded in getting Pompey appointed commander of the third war
against Mithridates. The latter, by flying, had drawn Pompey after
him into the wilds of Scythia. Here the king of Pontus sought
refuge and new means of vengeance. He hoped to arm against the
ambition of Rome all his neighboring nations whose liberties she
threatened. He was successful at first, but all those Scythian
peoples, ill-united as allies, ill-armed as soldiers, and still
worse disciplined, were at length forced to yield to the genius of
the great general Pompey. And here traditions tell us that Odin
and the other asas were among the allies of Mithridates. Odin had
been one of the gallant defenders of Troy, and at the same time,
with Æneas and Anchises, he had taken flight out of the burning
and falling city. Now he was obliged to withdraw a second time by
flight, but this time it was not from the Greeks, but from the
Romans, whom he had offended by assisting Mithridates. He was now
compelled to go and seek, in lands unknown to his enemies, that
safety which he could no longer find in the Scythian forests. He
then proceeded to the north of Europe, and laid the foundations of
the Teutonic nations. As fast as he subdued the countries in the
west and north of Europe he gave them to one or another of his
sons to govern. Thus it comes to pass that so many sovereign
families throughout Teutondom are said to be descended from Odin.
Hengist and Horsa, the chiefs of those Saxons who conquered
Britain in the fifth century, counted Odin in the number of their
ancestors. The traditions go on to tell how he conquered Denmark,
founded Odinse (Odinsve = Odin’s Sanctuary; comp. _ve_ with the
German _Wei_ in _Weinacht_), and gave the kingdom to his son
Skjold (shield); how he conquered Sweden, founded the Sigtuna
temple, and gave the country to his son Yngve; how finally Norway
had to submit to him, and be ruled by a third son of Odin, Saming.
It has been seriously contended,--and it would form an important
element in an epic based on the historical Odin,--that a desire of
being revenged on the Romans was one of the ruling principles of
Odin’s whole conduct. Driven by those foes of universal liberty
from his former home in the east, his resentment was the more
violent, since the Teutons thought it a sacred duty to revenge all
injuries, especially those offered to kinsmen or country. Odin had
no other view in traversing so many distant lands, and in
establishing with so much zeal his doctrines of valor, than to
arouse all Teutonic nations, and unite them against so formidable
and odious a race as the Romans. And we, who live in the light of
the nineteenth century, and with the records before us, can read
the history of the convulsions of Europe during the decline of the
Roman empire; we can understand how that leaven, which Odin left
in the bosoms of the believers in the asa-faith, first fermented a
long time in secret; but we can also see how in the fullness of
time, the signal given, the descendants of Odin fell like a swarm
of locusts upon this unhappy empire, and, after giving it many
terrible shocks, eventually overturned it, thus completely
avenging the insult offered so many centuries before by Pompey to
their founder Odin. We can understand how it became possible for
“those vast multitudes, which the populous north poured from her
frozen loins, to pass the Rhine and the Danube, and come like a
deluge on the south, and spread beneath Gibraltar and the Libyan
sands;” how it were possible, we say, for them so largely to
remodel and invigorate a considerable part of Europe, nay, how
they could succeed in overrunning and overturning “the rich but
rotten, the mighty but marrowless, the disciplined but diseased,
Roman empire; that gigantic and heartless and merciless usurpation
of soulless materialism and abject superstition of universal
despotism, of systemized and relentless plunder, and of depravity
deep as hell.” In connection with this subject we would refer our
readers to Mallet’s Northern Antiquities, pp. 79-83, where
substantially the same account is given; to Norse Mythology, pp.
232-236; to George Stephen’s Runic Monuments, Vol. I; and to
Charles Kingsley’s The Roman and the Teuton.]
[Footnote 119: Compare this version of the myth with the one given
in the first chapter of The Fooling of Gylfe. Many explain the
myth to mean the breaking through of the Baltic between Sweden and
Denmark.]
[Footnote 120: Leidre or Leire, at the end of Isefjord, in the
county of Lithraborg, is considered the oldest royal seat in
Denmark.]
[Footnote 121: Laage is a general name for lakes and rivers. It
here stands for Lake Malar, in Sweden.]
[Footnote 122: The grassy isle is Seeland.]
Now when Odin heard that things were in a prosperous condition in the
land to the east beside Gylfe, he went thither, and Gylfe made a peace
with him, for Gylfe thought he had no strength to oppose the people of
Asaland. Odin and Gylfe had many tricks and enchantments against each
other; but the Asaland people had always the superiority. Odin took up
his residence at the Malar lake, at the place now called Sigtun.[123]
There he erected a large temple, where there were sacrifices according
to the customs of the Asaland people. He appropriated to himself the
whole of that district of country, and called it Sigtun. To the temple
gods he gave also domains. Njord dwelt in Noatun, Frey in Upsal, Heimdal
in Himinbjorg, Thor in Thrudvang, Balder in Breidablik;[124] to all of
them he gave good domains.
[Footnote 123: Sigtun. _Sige_, Ger. Sieg, (comp. Sigfrid,) means
victory, and is one of Odin’s names; _tun_ means an inclosure, and
is the same word as our modern English _town_. Thus Sigtun would,
in modern English, be called Odinstown; like our Johnstown,
Williamstown, etc.]
[Footnote 124: Noatun, Thrudvang, Breidablik and Himinbjorg are
purely mythological names, and for their significance the reader
is referred to The Fooling of Gylfe. Snorre follows the lay of
Grimner in the Elder Edda.]
When Odin of Asaland came to the north, and the gods with him, he began
to exercise and to teach others the arts which the people long afterward
have practiced. Odin was the cleverest of all, and from him all others
learned their magic arts; and he knew them first, and knew many more
than other people. But now, to tell why he is held in such high respect,
we must mention various causes that contributed to it. When sitting
among his friends his countenance was so beautiful and friendly, that
the spirits of all were exhilarated by it; but when he was in war, he
appeared fierce and dreadful. This arose from his being able to change
his color and form in any way he liked. Another cause was, that he
conversed so cleverly and smoothly, that all who heard were persuaded.
He spoke everything in rhyme, such as is now composed, and which we call
skald-craft. He and his temple gods were called song-smiths, for from
them came that art of song into the northern countries. Odin could make
his enemies in battle blind or deaf, or terror-struck, and their weapons
so blunt that they could no more cut than a willow-twig; on the other
hand, his men rushed forward without armor, were as mad as dogs or
wolves, bit their shields, and were strong as bears or wild bulls, and
killed people at a blow, and neither fire nor iron told upon them. These
were called berserks.[125]
[Footnote 125: Berserk. The etymology of this word has been much
contested. Some, upon the authority of Snorre in the above quoted
passage, derive it from berr (_bare_) and serkr (comp. _sark_,
Scotch for shirt); but this etymology is inadmissible, because
serkr is a substantive, not an adjective. Others derive it from
berr (Germ. _Bär_ = _ursus_), which is greatly to be preferred,
for in olden ages athletes and champions used to wear hides of
bears, wolves and reindeer (as skins of lions in the south), hence
the names Bjalfe, Bjarnhedinn, Ulfhedinn (hedinn, _pellis_),--
“pellibus aut parvis rhenonum tegimentis utuntur.” Cæsar, Bell.
Gall. VI, 22. Even the old poets understood the name so, as may be
seen in the poem of Hornklofi (beginning of the 10th century),
a dialogue between a valkyrie and a raven, where the valkyrie says
at berserkja reiðu vil ek þik spyrja, to which the raven replies,
Ulfhednar heita, _they are called wolf coats_. In battle the
berserks were subject to fits of frenzy, called _berserksgangr_
(_furor bersercicus_), when they howled like wild beasts, foamed at
the mouth, and gnawed the iron rim of their shields. During these
fits they were, according to a popular belief, proof against steel
and fire, and made great havoc in the ranks of the enemy. But when
the fever abated they were weak and tame. Vigfusson Cleasby’s
Icelandic-English Dictionary, _sub voce_.]
Odin could transform his shape; his body would lie as if dead or asleep,
but then he would be in the shape of a fish, or worm, or bird, or beast,
and be off in a twinkling to distant lands upon his own or other
peoples’ business. With words alone he could quench fire, still the
ocean in tempest, and turn the wind to any quarter he pleased. Odin had
a ship, which he called Skidbladner,[126] in which he sailed over wide
seas, and which he could roll up like a cloth. Odin carried with him
Mimer’s head, which told him all the news of other countries. Sometimes
even he called the dead out of the earth, or set himself beside the
burial-mounds; whence he was called the ghost-sovereign, and the lord of
the mounds. He had two ravens,[127] to whom he had taught the speech of
man; and they flew far and wide through the land, and brought him the
news. In all such things he was preëminently wise. He taught all these
arts in runes and songs, which are called incantations, and therefore
the Asaland people are called incantation-smiths. Odin also understood
the art in which the greatest power is lodged, and which he himself
practiced, namely, what is called magic. By means of this he could know
beforehand the predestined fate[128] of men, or their not yet completed
lot, and also bring on the death, ill-luck or bad health of people, or
take away the strength or wit from one person and give it to another.
But after such witchcraft followed such weakness and anxiety, that it
was not thought respectable for men to practice it; and therefore the
priestesses were brought up in this art. Odin knew definitely where all
missing cattle were concealed under the earth, and understood the songs