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character that would make even a man abhorred, according to the Edda[1], “liveth and governeth during the ages, he directeth every thing which is high, and every thing which is low, whatever is great and whatever is small; he hath made the heaven, the air, and man, who is to live for ever: and before the heaven and the earth existed, this God lived already with the giants.” The principal strokes of this picture are found many times repeated in the same work. They have been frequently used by other northern poets. Nor were they peculiar to the inhabitants of Scandinavia. Many ancient people, the Scythians, and the Germans for example, attributed in like manner to the supreme God a superintendance over war. They drew their gods by their own character, who loved nothing so much themselves, as to display their strength and power in battle, and to signalize their vengeance upon their enemies by slaughter and desolation. Without doubt, this idea had taken deep root in the minds of the ancient Danes before the arrival of Odin. The expedition of the Cimbri plainly shows, that war was already in those early times become their ruling passion, and most
- ↑ See Mythol. 3.
