Chapter XI: Front Matter (11)

The misfortune which happened first to Balder and then to Balder's horse must be counted among the warnings which foreboded the death of the son of Odin. There are also other passages which indicate that Balder's horse must have had a conspicuous signification in the mythology, and the tradition concerning Balder as rider is preserved not only in northern sources (Lokasenna, Gylfaginning), and in the Merseburg formula, but also in the German poetry of the middle ages. That there was some witchcraft connected with this misfortune which happened to Balder's horse is evident from the fact that the magic songs sung by the goddesses accompanying him availed nothing. According to the Norse ancient records, the women particularly exercise the healing art of witchcraft (compare Groa and Sigrdrifva), but still Odin has the profoundest knowledge of the secrets of this art; he is _galdrs fadir_ (Veg., 3). And so Odin comes in this instance, and is successful after the goddesses have tried in vain. We must fancy that the goddesses make haste to render assistance in the order in which they ride in relation to Balder, for the event would lose its seriousness if we should conceive Odin as being very near to Balder from the beginning, but postponing his activity in order to shine afterwards with all the greater magic power, which nobody disputed.

The goddesses constitute two pairs of sisters: Sinhtgunt and her sister Sunna, and Frigg and her sister Fulla. According to the Norse sources, Frigg is Balder's mother. According to the same records, Fulla is always near Frigg, enjoys her whole confidence, and wears a diadem as a token of her high rank among the goddesses. An explanation of this is furnished by the Merseburg formula, which informs us that Fulla is Frigg's sister, and so a sister of Balder's mother. And as Odin is Balder's father, we find in the Merseburg formula the Balder of the Norse records, surrounded by the kindred assigned to him in these records.

Under such circumstances it would be strange, indeed, if Sinhtgunt and the sun-dis, Sunna, did not also belong to the kin of the sun-god, Balder, as they not only take part in this excursion of the Balder family, but are also described as those nearest to him, and as the first who give him assistance.

The Norse records have given to Balder as wife Nanna, daughter of that divinity which under Odin's supremacy is the ward of the atmosphere and the owner of the moon-ship. If the continental Teutons in their mythological conceptions also gave Balder a wife devoted and faithful as Nanna, then it would be in the highest degree improbable that the Merseburg formula should not let her be one of those who, as a body-guard, attend Balder on his expedition to the forest. Besides Frigg and Fulla, there are two goddesses who accompany Balder. One of them is a sun-dis, as is evident from the name Sunna; the other, Sinhtgunt, is, according to Bugge's discriminating interpretation of this epithet, the dis "who night after night has to battle her way." A goddess who is the sister of the sun-dis, but who not in the daytime but in the night has to battle on her journey across the sky, must be a goddess of the moon, a moon-dis. This moon-goddess is the one who is nearest at hand to bring assistance to Balder. Hence she can be none else than Nanna, who we know is the daughter of the owner of the moon-ship. The fact that she has to battle her way across the sky is explained by the Norse mythic statement, according to which the wolf-giant Hate is greedy to capture the moon, and finally secures it as his prey (Völuspa, Gylfaginning). In the poem about Helge Hjorvardson, which is merely a free reproduction of the materials in the Balder-myth (which shall be demonstrated in the second part of this work), the giant Hate is conquered by the hero of the poem, a Balder figure, whose wife is a dis, who, "white" herself, has a shining horse (str. 25, 28), controls weather and harvests (str. 28), and makes _nightly_ journeys on her steed, and "inspects the harbours" (str. 25).

The name Nanna (from the verb _nenna_; cp. Vigfusson, _Lex._) means "the brave one." With her husband she has fought the battles of light, and in the Norse, as in the Teutonic, mythology, she was with all her tenderness a heroine.

The Merseburg formula makes the sun-dis and the moon-dis sisters. The Norse variation of the Teutonic myth has done the same. Vafthrudnersmal and Gylfaginning (ch. 11) inform us that the divinities which govern the chariots of the sun and moon were brother and sister, but from the masculine form _Máni_ Gylfaginning has drawn the false conclusion that the one who governed the car of the moon was not a sister but a brother of the sun. In the mythology a masculine divinity _Máni_ was certainly known, but he was the father of the sun-dis and moon-dis, and identical with _Gevarr-Nökkvi-Nefr_, the owner of the moon-ship. The god _Máni_ is the father of the sun-dis for the same reason as Nat is the mother of Dag.

Vafthrudnersmal informs us that the father of the managers of the sun- and moon-cars was called _Mundilföri_. We are already familiar with this mythic personality (see Nos. 81-83) as the one who is appointed to superintend the mechanism of the world, by whose _Möndull_ the starry firmament is revolved. It is not probable that the power governing the motion of the stars is any other than the one who under Odin's supremacy is ruler of the sun and moon, and ward of all the visible phenomena in space, among which are also the stars. As, by comparison of the old records, we have thus reached the conclusion that the managers of the sun and moon are daughters of the ward of the atmosphere, and as we have also learned that they are daughters of him who superintends the motion of the constellations, we are unable to see anything but harmony in these statements. _Mundilföri_ and _Gevarr-Nökkvi-Nefr_ are the same person.

It should be added that the moon-goddess, like her father, could be called _Máni_ without there being any obstacle in the masculine form of the word. The name of the goddess _Skadi_ is also masculine in form, and is inflected as a masculine noun (oblique case, _Skada_--Younger Edda, 212, 268).

93.

COSMOGRAPHIC REVIEW.

In the preceding pages various scattered contributions have been made to Teutonic cosmography, and particularly to the topography of the lower world. It may not be out of the way to gather and complete these fragments.

The world-tree's three roots, which divide themselves in the lower world and penetrate through the three lower-world fountains into the foundations of the world-structure and hold it together, stand in a direction from north to south--the northernmost over the Hvergelmer fountain, with its cold waters; the middle one over Mimer's well, which is the fountain of spiritual forces; and the third over Urd's well, whose liquids give warmth to Ygdrasil (see No. 63).

In a north and south direction stands likewise the bridge _Bifröst_, also called _Bilröst_, _Ásbru_ (Grimnersmal, 29), and in a bold paraphrase, hitherto not understood, _thiodvitnis fiscr_, "the fish of the folk-wolf." The paraphrase occurs in Grimnersmal (21) in its description of Valhal and other abodes of the gods:

thytr thund,
unir thiódvitnis
fiscr flódi i
árstraumr thickir
ofmicil
valglaumi at vatha.

"Thund (the air-river) roars. The fish of the folk-wolf stands secure in the stream. To the noisy crowd of sword-fallen men the current seems too strong to wade through."

It has already been shown (No. 65) that those fallen by the sword ride with their psychopomps on Bifrost up to Valhal, and do not proceed thither through space, but have a solid foundation for the hoofs of their steeds. Here, as in Fafnersmal (15), the air is compared with a river, in which the horses are compelled to wade or swim if the bridge leading to Asgard is not used, and the current in this roaring stream is said to be very strong; while, on the other hand, "the fish" stands safe and inviting therein. That the author of Grimnersmal called the bridge a fish must seem strange, but has its natural explanation in Icelandic usage, which called every bridge-end or bridge-head a _spordr_, that is, a fish-tail. Compare Sigrdrifumal (16), which informs us that runes were risted on "the fish-tail" of the great mythic bridge (_á bruar spordi_), and the expression _brúarspordr_ (bridge-head, bridge-"fish-tail") in Njala (246) and _Biskupas_ (1, 17). As a bridge-pier could be called a fish-tail, it was perfectly logical for the poem to make the bridge a fish. On the zenith of the bridge stands Valhal, that secures those fallen in battle, and whose entrance is decorated with images of the wolf and of the eagle (Grimnersmal, 10), animals that satisfy their hunger on the field of battle. This explains why the fish is called that of the folk-wolf or great wolf. The meaning of the paraphrase is simply "the Valhal bridge." That the bow of Bifrost stands north and south follows from the fact that the gods pass over one end of the bridge on their way to Urd's fountain, situated in the south of the lower world, while the other end is outside of Nifelhel, situated in the north. From the south the gods come to their judgment-seats in the realm of the dis of fate and death. From the north came, according to Vegtamskvida, Odin when he rode through Nifelhel to that hall which awaited Balder. Why the Asa-father on that occasion chose that route Vegtamskvida does not inform us. But from Saxo (_Hist. Dan._, 126), who knew an old heathen song about Odin's visit in the lower world on account of Balder's death, we get light on this point. According to this song[17] it was Rostiophus Phinnicus who told Odin that a son of the latter and Rind was to avenge Balder's death. Rostiophus is, as P. E. Müller has already remarked, the rimthurs _Hrossthiófr_ mentioned in Hyndluljod as a son of _Hrimnir_ and brother of the sorceress _Heidr_, the vala and witch well known from Völuspa and other sources. Nifelhel is, as shown above (No. 60), the abode of the rimthurses transferred to the lower world. Where his father _Hrimnir_ (Bergelmer) and his progenitor _Hrimgrimnir_ (Thrudgelmer) dwell in the thurs-hall mentioned in Skirnersmal, there we also find _Hrossthiófr_, and Odin must there seek him. Vegtamskvida makes Odin seek his sister.

It is Bifrost's north bridge-head which particularly requires the vigilance of Heimdal, the ward of the gods, since the rimthurses and the damned are its neighbours. Heimdal is therefore "widely known" among the inhabitants of Nifelhel (Skirnersmal, 28), and Loke reproaches Heimdal that his vocation as watchman always compels him to expose his back to the torrents of an unfavourable sky (Lokas., 48). In the night which constantly broods over this northern zone shine the forms of the "white" god and of his gold-beaming horse _Gulltoppr_, when he makes spying expeditions there. His eye penetrates the darkness of a hundred "rasts," and his ear catches the faintest sound (Gylfag., 27). Near Bifrost, presumably at the very bridge-head, mythology has given him a fortified citadel, _Himinbjorg_, "the ward of heaven," with a comfortable hall well supplied with "the good mead" (Grimn., 13; Gylfag., 27).

The lower world is more extensive in all directions than the surface of the earth above it. Bifrost would not be able to pass outside and below the crust of the earth to rest with its bridge-heads on the domain of the three world-fountains if this were not the case. The lower world is therefore called _Jormungrund_, "the great ground or foundation" (Forspjallsljod, 25), and its uttermost zone, _jadarr Jormungrundar_, "the domain of the great ground," is open to the celestial canopy, and the under side of the earth is not its roof. From _Hlidskjalf_, the outlook of the gods in Asgard (Forspjallsljod, the prose texts in Skirnersmal and in Grimnersmal), the view is open to Midgard, to the sea, and to the giant-world situated beyond the Elivagar rivers (see the texts mentioned), and should accordingly also be so to the broad zone of Jormungrund, excepting its northernmost part, which always is shrouded in night. From _Hlidskjalf_ the eye cannot discern what is done there. But Heimdal keeps watch there, and when anything unusual is perceived Odin sends the raven _Huginn_ (_Hugr_) thither to spy it out (Forspjallsljod, 10, 3, which strophes belong together). But from Hlidskjalf as the point of observation the earth conceals all that part of Jormungrund below it; and as it is important to Odin that he should know all that happens there, _Huginn_ and _Muninn_ fly daily over these subterranean regions: _Huginn oc Muninn fljuga hverjan dag iormungrund yfir_ (Grimnersmal, 20). The expeditions of the ravens over Nifelhel in the north and over Surt's "deep dales" in the south expose them to dangers: Odin expresses his fear that some misfortune may befall them on these excursions (Grimnersmal, 20).

In the western and eastern parts of _jadarr Jormungrundar_ dwell the two divine clans the Vans and Elves, and the former rule over the whole zone ever since "the gods in time's morning," gave Frey, Njord's bounteous son, Alfheim as a tooth-gift (Grimners., 5). Delling is to be regarded as clan-chief of the Elves (light-Elves), since in the very theogony he is ranked with the most ancient powers. With Mimer's daughter Nat he becomes the father of Dag and the progenitor of _Dag's synir_ (the light-Elves). It has already been emphasised (see No. 53) that he is the lord of the rosy-dawn, and that outside of his doors the song of awakening is sung every morning over the world: "Power to the Asas, success to the Elves, and wisdom to Hroptatyr" (Havamál, 100). The glow of dawn blazes up from his domain beyond the eastern horizon. Where this clan-chieftain of the Elves dwells, thither the mythology has referred the original home of his clan. _Alfheimr_ occupies the eastern part of Jormungrund's zone. It is in the eastern part that Dag, Delling's son, and Sol, his kinswoman, mount their chariots to make their journey around the earth in the sky. Here is also the Hel-gate through which all the dead must pass in the lower world (No. 68).

There are many proofs that the giant settlement with the Ironwood or Myrkwood was conceived as extending from the north over large portions of the east (Völuspa, 39, 48, &c.). These regions of Alfheim constitute the southern coasts of the Elivagar, and are the scenes of important events in the epic of the mythology (see the treatise on the Ivalde race).

_Vanaheimr_ is situated in the western half of the zone. At the banquet in _Ægir's_ hall described in Lokasenna, Loke says to Njord:

thu vast austr hedan
gisl um sendr godum--

"From here you were sent out east as a hostage to the gods."

Ægir's hall is far out in the depths of the sea. The ocean known by the Teutons was the North Sea. The author has manifestly conceived Ægir's hall as situated in the same direction from Asgard as Vanaheim, and not far from the native home of the Vans. This lies in the word _hedan_ (from here). According to Vafthrudnersmal (str. 39), Njord was "created in Vanaheim by wise _regin_." When he was sent as a hostage to the gods to Asgard he had to journey eastward (_austr_). The western location of Vanaheim is thereby demonstrated.

In the "western halls" of Vanaheim dwells Billing, Rind's father, the father of the Asa-god, Vale's mother (_Rindr berr Vala i væstrsölum_--Vegt., 11). His name has been preserved in both the German and the Anglo-Saxon mythic records. An Old German document mentions together Billunc and Nidunc, that is, Billing and Mimer (see No. 87). In the mythology Mimer's domain is bounded on the west by Billing's realm, and on the east by Delling's. Delling is Mimer's son-in-law. According to Völuspa, 13 (Codex Hauk.), Billing is a being which in time's morning, on the resolve of the gods, was created by _Modsognir_-Mimer and _Durinn_. Mimer's neighbours in the east and in the west were therefore intimately connected with him. An Anglo-Saxon record (Codex Exoniensis, 320, 7) makes Billing the race-hero of the kinsmen and neighbours of the Angles, the Varnians (_Billing veold Vernum_). This too has a mythological foundation, as appears in Grimnersmal (39) and in the saga of Helge Hjorvardson, which, as before stated, is composed of mythic fragments. When Sol and Mane leave Delling's domain and begin their march across the heavens, their journey is not without danger. From the Ironwood (cp. Völuspa, 39) come the wolf-giants _Skoll_ and _Hate_ and pursue them. _Skoll_ does not desist from the pursuit before the car of the bright-faced goddess has descended toward the western halls and reached _Varna vidr_ (_Scaull heitir ulfr, er fylgir eno scirleita godi til Varna vidar_--Grimnersmal, 39). _Varna vidr_ is the forest of the mythic Varnians or Varinians. Varnians, Varinians, means "defenders," and the protection here referred to can be none other than that given to the journeying divinities of light when they have reached the western horizon. According to Helge Hjorvardson's saga, Hate, who pursues the moon, is slain near Varin's Bay. _Varinn_, the "defender," "protector," is the singular form of the same word as reappears in the genitive plural _Varna_. These expressions--_Billing veold Vernum_, _Varna vidr_, and _Varins vik_--are to be considered as belonging together. So also the local names borrowed from the mythology, _Varinsfjördr_ and _Varinsey_, in Helge Hjorvardson's saga, where several names reappear, _e.g._, _Svarinn_, _Móinn_, _Álfr_, and _Yngvi_, which in connection with that of Billing occur in the list of the beings created by Mimer and _Durinn_. It is manifest that _Varna vidr_, where the wolf _Skoll_ is obliged to turn back from his pursuit of Sol, and that _Varins vik_, where the moon's pursuer Hate is conquered, were conceived in the mythology as situated in the western horizon, since the sun and the moon making their journey from the east to west on the heavens are pursued and are not safe before they reach the western halls. And now as Billing dwells in the western halls and is remembered in the Anglo-Saxon mythic fragments as the prince of the Varnians or Varinians, and as, furthermore, _Varinsfjördr_ and _Varinsey_ are connected with adventures in which there occur several names of mythic persons belonging to Billing's clan, then this proves absolutely an original mythic connection between Billing and his western halls and those western halls in whose regions _Varna vidr_ and _Varinsvik_ are situated, and where the divinities of light, their journey athwart the sky accomplished, find defenders and can take their rest. And when we add to this that Delling, Mimer's kinsman and eastern neighbour, is the lord of morning and the rosy dawn, and that Billing is Mimer's kinsman and western neighbour, then it follows that Billing, from the standpoint of a symbol of nature, represents the evening and the glow of twilight, and that in the epic he is ruler of those regions of the world where the divinities of light find rest and peace. The description which the Havamál strophes (97-101) give us of life in Billing's halls corresponds most perfectly with this view. Through the epic presentation there gleams, as it seems, a conscious symbolising of nature, which paints to the fancy the play of colours in the west when the sun is set. When eventide comes Billing's lass, "the sun-glittering one," sleeps on her bed (_Billing's mey ec fann bedjum á solhvita sofa_--str. 97). In his halls Billing has a body-guard of warriors, his _saldrótt_, _vigdrótt_ (str. 100, 101), in whom we must recognise those Varnians who protect the divinities of light that come to his dwelling, and these warriors watch far into the night, "with burning lights and with torches in their hands," over the slumbering "sun-white" maiden. But when day breaks their services are no longer necessary. Then they in their turn go to sleep (_Oc nær morni ... thá var saldrott um sofin_--str. 101).

When the Asas--all on horseback excepting Thor--on their daily journey to the thingstead near Urd's fountain, have reached the southern rune-risted bridge-head of Bifrost, they turn to the north and ride through a southern Hel-gate into the lower world proper. Here, in the south, and far below Jormungrund's southern zone, we must conceive those "deep dales" where the fire-giant Surt dwells with his race, Suttung's sons (not Muspel's sons). The idea presented in Gylfaginning's cosmogony, according to which there was a world of fire in the south and a world of cold in the north of that Ginungagap in which the world was formed, is certainly a genuine myth, resting on a view of nature which the very geographical position forced upon the Teutons. Both these border realms afterwards find their representatives in the organised world: the fire-world in _Surt's Sökkdalir_, and the frost-world in the Nifelhel incorporated with the eschatological places; and as the latter constitutes the northern part of the realm of death, we may in analogy herewith refer the dales of Surt and Suttung's sons to the south, and we may do this without fear of error, for Völuspa (50) states positively that Surt and his descendants come from the south to the Ragnarok conflict (_Surtr fer sunan med sviga læfi_). While the northern bridge-head of Bifrost is threatened by the rimthurses, the southern is exposed to attacks from Suttung's sons. In Ragnarok the gods have to meet storms from both quarters, and we must conceive the conflict as extending along Jormungrund's outer zone and especially near both ends of the Bifrost bridge. The plain around the south end of Bifrost where the gods are to "mix the liquor of the sword with Surt" is called _Oskópnir_ in a part of a heathen poem incorporated with Fafnersmal. Here Frey with his hosts of einherjes meets Surt and Suttung's sons, and falls by the sword which once was his, after the arch of Bifrost on this side is already broken under the weight of the hosts of riders (Fafnersmal, 14, 15; Völuspa, 51). _Oskópnir's_ plain must therefore be referred to the south end of Bifrost and outside of the southern Hel-gate of the lower world. The plain is also called _Vigridr_ (Vafthrudnersmal, 18), and is said to be one hundred rasts long each way. As the gods who here appear in the conflict are called _in svaso god_, "the sweet," and as Frey falls in the battle, those who here go to meet Surt and his people seem to be particularly Vana-gods and Vans, while those who contend with the giants and with Loke's progeny are chiefly Asas.

When the gods have ridden through the southern Hel-gate, there lie before them magnificent regions over which Urd in particular rules, and which together with Mimer's domain constitute the realms of bliss in the lower world with abodes for departed children and women, and for men who were not chosen on the field of battle. Rivers flowing from Hvergelmer flow through Urd's domain after they have traversed Mimer's realm. The way leads the gods to the fountain of the norns, which waters the southern root of the world-tree, and over which Ygdrasil's lower branches spread their ever-green leaves, shading the gold-clad fountain, where swans swim and whose waters give the whitest colour to everything that comes in contact therewith. In the vicinity of this fountain are the thingstead with judgment-seats, a tribunal, and benches for the hosts of people who daily arrive to be blessed or damned.

These hosts enter through the Hel-gate of the east. They traverse deep and dark valleys, and come to a thorn-grown plain against whose pricks Hel-shoes protect those who were merciful in their life on earth, and thence to the river mixed with blood, which in its eddies whirls weapons and must be waded over by the wicked, but can be crossed by the good on the drift-wood which floats on the river. When this river is crossed the way of the dead leads southward to the thingstead of the gods.

Further up there is a golden bridge across the river to the glorious realm where _Mimer's holt_ and the glittering halls are situated, in which Balder and the _ásmegir_ await the regeneration. Many streams come from Hvergelmer, among them _Leiptr_, on whose waters holy oaths are taken, and cast their coils around these protected places, whence sorrow, aging, and death are banished. The halls are situated in the eastern part of Mimer's realm in the domain of the elf of the rosy dawn, for he is their watchman.

Further down in Mimer's land and under the middle root of the world-tree is the well of creative force and of inspiration, and near it are Mimer's own golden halls.

Through this middle part of the lower world goes from west to east the road which Nat, Dag, Sol, and Mane travel from Billing's domain to Delling's. When the mother Nat whose car is drawn by _Hrimfaxi_ makes her entrance through the western Hel-gate, darkness is diffused along her course over the regions of bliss and accompanies her chariot to the north, where the hall of Sindre, the great artist, is located, and toward the Nida mountains, at whose southern foot Nat takes her rest in her own home. Then those who dwell in the northern regions of Jormungrund retire to rest (Forspjallsljod, 25); but on the outer rim of Midgard there is life and activity, for there Dag's and Sol's cars then diffuse light and splendour on land and sea. The hall of Sindre's race has a special peculiarity. It is, as shall be shown below, the prototype of "the sleeping castle" mentioned in the sagas of the middle ages.

Over the Nida mountains and the lands beyond them we find Ygdrasil's third root, watered by the Hvergelmer fountain, the mother of all waters. The Nida mountains constitute Jormungrund's great watershed, from which rivers rush down to the south and to the north. In Hvergelmer's fountain and above it the world-mill is built through whose mill-stone eye water rushes up and down, causing the maelstrom and ebb and flood tide, and scattering the meal of the mill over the bottom of the sea. Nine giantesses march along the outer edge of the world pushing the mill-handle before them, while the mill and the starry heavens at the same time are revolved.

Where the Elivagar rivers rise out of Hvergelmer, and on the southern strand of the mythic Gandvik, is found a region which, after one of its inhabitants, is called _Ide's_ pasture (_setr_--Younger Edda, i. 292). Here dwell warriors of mixed elf and giant blood (see the treatise on the Ivalde race), who received from the gods the task of being a guard of protection against the neighbouring giant-world.

Farther toward the north rise the Nida mountains and form the steep wall which constitutes Nifelhel's southern boundary. In this wall are the Na-gates, through which the damned when they have died their second death are brought into the realm of torture, whose ruler is _Leikinn_. Nifelheim is inhabited by the spirits of the primeval giants, by the spirits of disease, and by giants who have fallen in conflict with the gods. Under Nifelhel extend the enormous caves in which the various kinds of criminals are tortured. In one of these caves is the torture hall of the Nastrands. Outside of its northern door is a grotto guarded by swarthy elves. The door opens to Armsvartner's sea, over which eternal darkness broods. In this sea lies the Lyngve-holm, within whose jurisdiction Loke, Fenrer, and "Muspel's sons" are fettered. Somewhere in the same region Bifrost descends to its well fortified northern bridge-head. The citadel is called _Himinbjörg_, "the defence or rampart of heaven." Its chieftain is Heimdal.

While Bifrost's arch stands in a direction from north to south, the way on which Mane and Sol travel across the heavens goes from east to west. Mane's way is below Asgard.

The movable starry heaven is not the only, nor is it the highest, canopy stretched over all that has been mentioned above. One can go so far to the north that even the horizon of the starry heavens is left in the rear. Outside, the heavens _Andlánger_ and _Vidblainn_ support their edges against Jormungrund (Gylfag., 17). All this creation is supported by the world-tree, on whose topmost bough the cock Vidofner glitters.

[17] Possibly the same as that of which a few strophes are preserved in _Baldrs draumar_, an old poetic fragment whose gaps have been filled in a very unsatisfactory manner in recent times with strophes which now are current as Vegtamskvida. That Odin, when he is about to proceed to the abode which in the subterranean realms of bliss is to receive Balder, chooses the route through Nifelhel is explained not by Vegtamskvida, where this fact is stated, but by the older poem mentioned by Saxo, which makes him seek the dweller in Nifelhel, the rimthurs _Hrossthiófr_, son of _Hrimnir_.

(_Continuation of Part IV in Volume III._)

INDEX OF PERSONS AND PLACES.

TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY.

Transcriber's Note: This index has been copied in from Volume III for the convenience of the reader (although it doesn't use the accented letters found in the rest of the text).

A

Achilles, 44, 192.

Achivians, 62.

Adalbert, 320.

Adam, 86, 132, 319, 338.

Adam of Bremen, 714.

Adriatic, 62.

Aeduans, 66.

Aegir, 43, 136, 235, 422, 575, 697, 813, 822, 967.

Aeneas, 44, 66, 81, 730.

African, 6.

Agelmund, 858.

Aggo, 104, 861, 893, 953, 1008.

Agni, 587, 605, 886.

Agrippa, 76, 86.

Ahriman, 817.

Ahura, 8.

Ahuramazda, 127, 381, 450.

Ai, 140.

Ajo, 100, 861, 992.

Alamannians, 53, 119, 708.

Alarik, 25.

Alba-Longa, 66.

Aldonus, 101.

Aldrian, 981, 991.

Alexander, 50, 55.

Alf, 167.

Alfather, 376, 220, 340.

Alfheim, 696, 865, 947.

Alfhild, 168.

Alfrandull, 1002.

Alfsol, 168.

Alps, 62.

Almveig, 1000.

Alvalde, 174, 584, 898, 953, 992.

Alveig, 173, 257, 263, 273.

Alveig-Signe, 793, 902.

Alvis, 437.

Alvism, 365, 376.

Alvismal, 436, 445.

Alvitr, 898.

Amala, 293.

Amalgort, 293.

Amalian, 147, 285, 293, 980.

Amazons, 168.

Ambri, 100.

Amelolt, 293.

Amelungs, 147, 293.

America, 940.

Amlethus, 317, 843.

Amlodi, 843, 568.

Amma, 140.

Ammianus, 58.

Amsvartner, 564.

Anarr, 157.

Anchises, 54, 112.

Andlanger, 706.

Andvare, a dwarf, 300, 977.

Angerboda, 226, 275, 558, 707, 809.

Angeyja, 597.

Angles, 55.

Anglo-Saxon, 86.

Angra-Mainyu, 127.

Angul, 89.

Animals, 23.

Anses, 738.

Ansgarius, 806.

Ansgis, 54, 112.

Antenor, 53, 62.

Anthaib, 101.

Anthropology, 729.

Anti-Christ, 722.

Anundus, 848, 884, 896, 932, 951.

Anus, 879.

Anzius, 147.

Apaosha, 970.

Apollo, 79.

Aquili, 553.

Are, 57, 425, 438.

Arinbjorn, 173, 464.

Aristarchus, 53.

Armenia, 3.

Arnulf, 54.

Artimis, 79.

Arvidson, 844.

Aryan, 3, 14, 30, 124, 188, 253, 380, 746.

Asa-Brage, 256, 801.

Asa-father, 746.

Asa-god, 147, 191, 210, 246, 740, 777, 793, 820.

Asaland, 33.

Asalfr, 926.

Asas, 34, 41, 83, 211, 235, 254, 275, 364, 376, 397, 436, 485,
580, 620, 720, 819, 838, 852, 875, 888, 946.

Asasynir (goddesses), 446.

Asbjorn, 245.

Asciburgium, 122, 839.

Asgard, 33, 41, 166, 218, 229, 245, 276, 376, 397, 423, 443,
467, 575, 601, 693, 724, 751, 772, 790, 806, 845, 865, 877,
909, 938, 959, 977, 989, 1004.

Asia-land, 45.

Asia Minor, 77.

Asiatic, 4, 14.

Ask, 127, 140, 604, 733.

Asmegir, 353, 436, 446, 827, 878.

Asmund, 265, 743.

Assi, 100.

Assyrians, 37.

Astrology, 71.

Asvid, 365, 743.

Asvinians, 880, 910.

Atlakvida, 512.

Atlantic, 87.

Atlas, 977.

Atle, 471, 915.

Attic, 53.

Attila, 286, 809, 983.

Audhumbla, 389, 574, 733, 433.

Augustus, 711.

Aurboda, 213, 242, 781, 815, 845, 962.

Aurgelner, 433, 570.

Aurnir, 899, 948, 992.

Austria, 28.

Ave, 140.

Avo, 848, 884, 896.

Avernians, 66.

Avesta, 8, 17, 30, 450, 878.

Azdingi, 159.

B

Baal, 37.

Babel, 37, 84.

Babylon, 37, 84.

Bacchus, 900.

Bactria, 9, 84.

Bærmagnis-Sogo, 310.

Bainaib, 101.

Balder, 36, 88, 191, 212, 248, 346, 368, 377, 400, 413, 436,
465, 622, 684, 726, 782, 796, 809, 833, 877, 888, 898, 963, 985.

Banings (destroyers), 297.

Barbarossa, 55.

Baugregin's Well, 577.

Beda, 55, 88.

Beistla, 624.

Bel, 836.

Beldegg, 40, 88.

Belgium, 28.

Beli, 836.

Benfey, 18.

Beowulf, 130, 191, 472, 605, 749, 811, 825, 844, 986, 1002.

Berchter, 591.

Berchtung, 146, 291.

Bergelmer, 434, 570, 626.

Bergio, 115.

Berggram, 848.

Berig, 116.

Berker, 146.

Bergtrollet, 844.

Berserks, 39.

Berther, 146.

Bessarabia, 25.

Bestla, 160, 389, 476.

Beyla, 575.

Bhrigu, 587.

Bifrost, 397, 415, 462, 534, 586, 693, 705, 758, 827, 989.

Bil, 676, 985, 1003.

Billing, 471, 698.

Birka, 806.

Biterolf, 359, 644, 977, 997.

Bjaef, 88.

Bjarmia, 563.

Bjorn, 245.

Bjorno, 884.

Bjort, 229, 756.

Blekingia, 104.

Blid, 229, 756.

Bodn, 331.

Bodvar, 530.

Boethius, 812.

Bolthorn, 361, 624.

Bor, 389, 434, 574, 603.

Borgar, 145, 255, 281, 293, 591, 847, 861, 976.

Bose Saga, 310.

Bosphorus, 48.

Bous, 787.

Bragarædur, 959.

Brage, 43, 468, 675, 824, 967, 986.

Bravalla, 283.

Breidablik, 36.

Brimer, 643.

Brisingamen, 272, 364, 725, 819, 829, 876.

Britain, 55.

Brok, 361, 718, 895.

Brunnakr, 898, 953.

Brunnie, 898, 953.

Brutus, 66.

Brynhild, 491, 979.

Buddhism, 732.

Budlungs, 189.

Bundehash, 126.

Bure, 389.

Burgarus, 145.

Burgundaib, 101, 113.

Byggvir, 575.

Byleipt, 559.

Byrgir, 676, 986, 1003.

Byzantium, 48.