Chapter XXVIII: Afterword: To Brage’s Talk (3)

In the asa-faith we find various foreign elements introduced. Thus, for example, the vans did not originally belong to the Odinic system. As the Teutons came in contact with other races, the religious ideas of the latter were frequently adopted in some modified form. Especially do Finnish elements enter into the asa-system. The Finnish god of thunder was Ukko. He is supposed to have been confounded with our Thor, whence the latter got the name Öku-Thor (Ukko-Thor). The vans may be connected with the Finnish Wainamoinen, and in the same manner a number of Celtic elements have been mixed with Teutonic mythology. And this is not all. There must have flourished a religious system in the North before the arrival of Odin and his apostles. This was probably either Tshudic or Celtic, or a mixture of the two. The asa-doctrine superseded it, but there still remain traces in some of the oldest records of the North. Thus we have in the prehistoric sagas of Iceland an account of the finding of Norway, wherein it is related that Fornjot,[134] in Jotland, which is also called Finland or Quenland, east of the Gulf of Bothnia, had three sons: Hler, also called Æger, Loge and Kare.[135] Of Loge it is related that he was of giant descent, and, being very tall of stature, he was called Haloge, that is High Loge; and after him the northern part of Norway is called Halogaland (now Helgeland). He was married to Glod (a red-hot coal), and had with her two daughters, Eysa and Eimyrja; both words meaning glowing embers. Haloge had two jarls, Vifil (the one taking a vif = wife) and Vesete (the one who sits at the ve = the sanctuary, that is, the dweller by the hearth, the first sanctuary), who courted his daughters; the former addressing himself to Eimyrja, the latter to Eysa, but the king refusing to give his consent, they carried them away secretly. Vesete settled in Borgundarholm (Bornholm), and had a son, Bue (one who settles on a farm); Vifil sailed further east and settled on the island Vifilsey, on the coast of Sweden, and had a son, Viking (the pirate).

[Footnote 134: The word fornjot can be explained in two ways:
either as for-njot = the first enjoyer, possessor; or as forn-jot,
the ancient giant. He would then correspond to Ymer.]

[Footnote 135: Notice this trinity: Hler is the sea (comp. the
Welsh word _llyr_ = sea); Loge is fire (comp. the Welsh _llwg_),
he reminds us both by his name and his nature of Loke; Kare is the
wind.]

The third son, Kare, had a numerous offspring. He had one son by name Jokul (iceberg), another Froste (frost), and Froste’s son was named Sna (snow). He had a third son, by name Thorri (bare frost), after whom the mid-winter month, Thorra-month, was called; and his daughters hight Fonn (packed snow), Drifa (snow-drift), and Mjoll (meal, fine snow). All these correspond well to Kare’s name, which, as stated, means wind. Thorri had two sons, Nor and Gor, and a daughter, Goe. The story goes on to tell how Goe, the sister, was lost, and how the brothers went to search for her, until they finally found him who had robbed her. He was Hrolf, from the mountain, a son of the giant Svade, and a grandson of Asa-Thor. They settled their trouble, and thereupon Hrolf married Goe, and Nor married Hrolf’s sister, settled in the land and called it after his own name, Norvegr, that is, Norway. By this story we are reminded of Kadmos, who went to seek his lost sister Europa. In the Younger Edda the winds are called the sons of Fornjot, the sea is called the son of Fornjot, and the brother of the fire and of the winds, and Fornjot is named among the old giants. This makes it clear that Fornjot and his offspring are not historical persons, but cosmological impersonations. And additional proof of this is found by an examination of the beginning of the Saga of Thorstein, Viking’s Son. (See Viking Tales of the North, pp. 1 and 2).

THE FOOLING OF GYLFE.