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and in the air. Har added, And there it is that the palace of Odin is fituated, called Lidfkialf, or the Terror of the Nations. When ODIN is there feated on his lofty throne, he thence discovers every country, he fees all the actions of men, and comprehends whatever he beholds. This wife is FRIGGA, the daughter of Fiorgun. The iffue of that marriage is what we call the family of the ASES, that is, of the Gods; a race intirely divine, and which hath built the ancient ASGARD. Wherefore Odin is justly called the UNIVERSAL FATHER; for he is the parent of Gods, and men; and all things have been produced by his power. The Earth is his daughter and wife (c). On her hath he begotten AfaThor (or the God THOR) his first-born. Strength and Valour are the attendants on this God, and therefore he triumphs over every thing that hath life,

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proper and naturalelement. We fhall fee, by the fequel, that the great aim of these warlike Theologians was to infpire courage, and to remove all pretences and grounds for fear. Ake, in the Gothic language, fignifies an ASH-TREE, and Emla, an ELM. I fhall leave to others to find out the reason why the preference hath been given to these two trees; and what relation there could be between the two fexes, and these two different forts of wood.

(B) Where dwell "the Gods and their fa"milies."] ASGARD is literally the Court of the Gods. Some manufcripts add, that ASGARD is Troy; but this can be no other than the marginal note of fome copyift, crept by mistake into the text. The Gods, being continually threatned with attacks by the Giants, built in the middle a large inclosure, named MIDGARD, or the MiddleAbode, one of the ftrongeft of citadels. This is the Olympus of Homer; as the Giants are his Titans. I fhall once for all

obferve, that the Gothic and' Celtic nations, as well as the Greeks, derived all thefe fables from the inexhaustible fource of eaftern traditions. But the people of the north preserved them nearly the fame as they received them, for above two thoufand years; whereas the fame fables found in Greece fo favourable a foil, that in a fhort time they multiplied a hundred fold.

(c) The EARTH is his daughter and wife, " &c."] This fable proves that the ancient Scalds understood by the name Frigga, the spouse of the Supreme God; and that, at the fame time, this Frigga was the Earth. This doctrine is of very great antiquity, and hath been in general received by all the Gothic and Celtic nations. Their philofophers taught, that the Supreme God, Teut, or Wodan, was the active principle, the foul of the world, which uniting itfelf with matter, had thereby put it into a condition to produce the Intelligences, or Inferior

Gods,

Gods, and Men, and all other creatures. This is what the poets exprefs figuratively, when they fay that Odin efpoufed Frigga, or Frea, that is, the LADY, by way of eminence. One cannot doubt, after having read this paffage of the EDDA, but it was this fame Goddefs, to whom the Germans, according to Tacitus, confecrated one of the Danish islands, worshipping her under the name of Herthus, or the Earth : (the English word Earth, as well as the German Erde, being evidently the fame with that, to which Tacitus has only given a Latin termination.) As to the worship that was paid her, fee it defcribed by Pelloutier, in his Hift. des Celtes, Vol. II. c. 8.

Though it was by the concurrence of the Supreme God and Matter, that this Universe was produced; yet the anci

ent philofophers of the • north*' allowed a great difference between these two principles: the Supreme God was eternal, whereas Matter was his

work, and of courfe had a beginning: all this, in the language of the ancients, was expreffed by this phrafe; "Earth is

the daughter and wife "of the Univerfal Fa"ther."

Laftly, from this myftical marriage, was born the God THOR. AfaThor means THE LORD THOR. He was the firstborn of the Supreme God, and the greatest and most powerful of all the inferior divinities, or intelligences that were born

from the union of the two principles. One cannot doubt but it was he, who had the charge of lanching the thunder. In the languages of the north, the name given to this God is still that of the Thunder. When they adopted the Roman Calendar, that day which was confecrated to Jupiter, or the Mafter of the Thunder, was affigned to Thor; and is called this day Thorsdag, THURSDAY, or the day of THOR. (See Vol. L. pag. 96.) To conclude, Adam of Bremen, an au

at

* Fr. Les Celtes

thor

thor of the eleventh century, and a miffionary in thofe countries, infinuates that this was the idea which the Scandinavians had formed of him. "Thor cum fceptro Jovem

exprimere videtur, &c." Hift. Ecclef. c. 223. There is not the leaft doubt, but it was the Jupi

ter of the Gauls who had, according to Cæfar," the "empire of things ce"leftial;" as also the Taran, whom Lucan represents as having been adored by the fame people, Pharfal. 1. I. v. 444Taran, fignifies "Thun"der," in the Welf language at this day.

THE

THE SIXTH FABLE.

Of the Giant Nor.

HE Giant Nor was the first whơ

T inhabited the country of Jotunheim

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(A), or Giants-Land.' He had a daughter, named NIGHT; who is of a dark complexion, as are all her family. She was at firft married to a man called Naglefara, and had by him a fon, named Auder. Then she efpoused Onar; and the daughter of this marriage was the Earth. At laft fhe was wedded to Daglingar, who is of the family of the Gods. Between them they produced DAY, a child beautiful and fhining, as are all his father's family (B).

Then the Univerfal Father took NIGHT and DAY, and placed them in heaven; and gave them two horfes and two cars, that they might travel fucceffively, one after the other, round the world. NIGHT goes firft, upon her horfe, named Rimfaxe (or Frofty-mane) who, every morning when he VOL. II.

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begins

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