Page:Northern Antiquities 2.djvu/276

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characters so wonderful, that the man immediately descends and converses with me.”


By the operation of these Characters, and at other times by Verses, Odin had frequently raised the dead. There is a very ancient Ode preserved to us by Bartholin[1], wherein this Deity causes a Prophetess, whom he wanted to consult, to rise from her tomb. The beginning of this Ode may serve to give us an idea what kind of Magic Poetry it was, which ‘the northern[2]’ nations were heretofore possessed of.


ODIN, the sovereign of men arises: he saddles his horse Sleipner; he mounts, and is conveyed to the subterraneous abode of Hela (i. e. Death.)


“The Dog who guards the gates of Death meets him. His breast and his jaws are stained with blood; he opens his voracious mouth to bite, and barks a long time at the father of Magic.


  1. Lib. III. cap. 2. p. 632.——The original in Bartholin consists of Fourteen Stanzas, of which M. Mallet has here produced only five. In the following Version, the Latin of Bartholin has been consulted. T.
  2. Tous les Peuples Celtes.