proper to invoke him in duels, or fingle combats. FORSETE is the name of the twelfth God: he is the fon of Balder. He hath a palace in heaven, named Glitner. All who refer to him the decifion of their controverfies, return from his tribunal mutually fatisfied. It is the most excellent tribunal that is found among Gods or Men, according to these verses. "Glitner is the "name of a palace, which is upheld by pillars of gold, and covered with a roof "of filver. There it is that Forfete re"fides the greatest part of his time, who "reconciles and appeases all forts of "rels." 66 quar REMARKS ON THE FIFTEENTH FABLE. I have no remark to offer upon this fable, but what every reader may make as well as myfelf. Most of the divinities, mentioned here, are only known to us by the EDDA. Perhaps fome of them were unknown to the other Gothic and' Celtic nations, and are only to be confidered as companions of the great northern conqueror, who were deified in fubfequent ages. THE THE SIXTEENTH FABLE. Of Lake. OME reckon LOKE in the number of the Gods; others call him, "The "calumniator of the Gods," "The arti"ficer of fraud," "The difgrace of Gods " and Men.” His name is Loke. He is the fon of the Giant Farbautes and of Laufeya. His two brothers are Bileipter and Helblinde, or Blind Death. As to his body, Loke is handfome and very well made; but his foul is evil, light, and inconftant. He furpaffes all beings' in that science which is called Cunning and Perfidy. Many a time hath he exposed the Gods to very great perils (A), and hath often extricated them again by his artifices. His wife is called Siguna. He hath had by her Nare, and fome other children. By the Giantess Angerbode, or Meffenger of Ill, he hath likewife had three children. One is the wolf Fenris, the fecond is the great Serpent of Midgard, and the third is Hela, or Death. The G 3 The Gods were not ignorant, that thofe children were breeding up in the country of the Giants; they were apprized by many oracles, of all the evils they must suffer from them; their being fprung from fuch a mother was but a bad presage; and from fuch a Sire was ftill worse. Wherefore the Univerfal Father difpatched certain of the Gods to bring thofe children to him. When they were come, he threw the Serpent down into the bottom of the ocean. But there the monfter waxed fo large, that he wound himself around the whole globe of the earth; and that fo intirely, that at plea fure he can with his mouth lay hold of the end of his tail. Hela was precipitated into Niflheim, or hell; there he had the government of nine worlds given her, into which the diftributes thofe who are fent her; that is, all who die through sickness or old age (B). Here the poffeffes vaft apartments, ftrongly built, and fenced with large grates. Her hall is GRIEF; FAMINE is her table; HUNGER, her knife; DELAY, her valet; SLACKNESS, her maid; PRECIPICE, her gate; FAINTNESS, her porch; SICKNESS and PAIN, her bed; and her tent, CURSING and HowLING. The one half of her body is blue; the other half covered with skin, and of the colour * Or perhaps, her curtains, &c. of 1 of human flesh. She hath a dreadful terri fying look, and by this alone it were eafy to know her. REMARKS ON THE SIXTEENTH FABLE. (A)" He hath expof❝ed the Gods to very "great perils."] I fhould be inclined to call LOKE, the Momus of the northern Deities; did not the tricks he plays them often exceed the bounds of raillery. Befides, the monfters he hath engendered, and who are along with their father, in the latter ages, to make rude affaults upon the Gods, plainly indicates a fyftem little different from that of the Evil Principle. Notwithstanding hath been advanced by fome learned men, this opinion was not unknown either to the Perfians, • Goths,' or Celtes: perhaps indeed we ought thus far only to agree with them, that it did not belong to the ancient religion of either of these people. But the hazardous and labouring condition in which they believed all nature to be, and the aflaults which it what was to fuftain at the laft day, led them infenfibly to imagine that there was a power who was at enmity with Gods and Men, and who wrought all the evils which defolate the universe. This was the occupation of Arimanes among the Perfians, and of Loke among the Scandinavians. Loke produces the great ferpent, which intirely encircles the world. This ferpent, by fome of the characteristics of it in this fame Mythology, feems to have been intended as an emblem of corruption or fin. alfo gives birth to Hela, or Death, that queen of the infernal regions, of whom the EDDA gives us here fo remarkable a portrait And lastly, to the wolf Fenris, that monfter who is to encounter the Gods, and deftroy the world. How could the Evil Principle have been more ftrongly characterized? G4 He, (B) "All 1 (B) "All who die "through fickness or old "age."] Cimbri & Celtiberi in acie exultabant, tanquam gloriosè & feliciter vitâ exceffuri. Lamenta bantur in morbo, quafi turpiter & miferabiliter perituri. Val. Max. c. 6. "The Cimbri and Celtiberi leaped with joy in marching to battle, as being to quit this i life in a manner equal"ly happy and glorious; 66 but bewailed themselves "when confined by dif "tempers, alarmed at "the thought of dying a fhameful and miferable "death." Here we have a proof, that this doctrine of the EDDA was that pre alfo' of all the Celtic nations; and here we fee what an impreffion it made upon their minds. I could accumulate ancient authorities ftill further in confirmation of it, but refer the reader to the ceding volume. (See Vol. 1. p. 206, &c.) Let us obferve, however, that the infernal region here defcribed, where a punishment, rather difagreeable than cruel, is referved for those who have died without their arms in their hands, is not an eternal Hell, but only an intermediate abode, or, if you will, a Prifon, whence those who are confined, will come forth at the laft day, to be judged upon other principles; and to be condemned or abfolved for more real virtues and vices. To this intermediate Hell was oppofed an Elyfium of the fame duration; viz. Valhalla, or Valhall, of which we fhall presently have ample mention. One fees with furprize, in attentively reading this Mythology, that the whole is better connected and the parts more dependant on one another, than in any other work of the fame kind, that hath come to our knowledge. The inferior Gods, created along with this world, and united to it by their nature, and the conformity of their destiny, had every thing to fear at the last day from the enemies of nature. In order therefore to be the better able to refift them, they called home to them all the warriors, who had given proof of their valour by hedding their blood in battle. |
