Sweden, from Niord (the _adopted_ son, perhaps, of Odin) to Olaf, A.D. 630, are twenty-three generations. In Norway, the succession of kings from the same Niord, to Harald Harfager, the first _monarch_ of that country, A.D. 934, are twenty-eight. We think that these genealogical series, so carefully, so minutely particularised, afford a presumption, at least, that the pontiff king of the north both lived and reigned at a period not very far distant from our Saviour’s birth. Not that the subject is without its difficulties. The events ascribed to Odin’s times have, by many writers, been deemed inapplicable to any century within the known history of the world. Hence, some have removed him to the age immediately following the flood; some, to the seventh century after that event; some, to the age of Darius Hystaspes; others, to that of Philip, king of Macedon; others, to less than two centuries before Christ; while another party contends that he was more recent still, and that Ariovistus, whom Cæsar conquered, was one of his sons. Where so much contradiction, so much absurdity abound, our only guide, in the absence of positive evidence, is reason; and this confirms the generally received opinion, that this personage is of far less antiquity than was formerly supposed. Not that many of his rites, many of his notions, many, perhaps, of his alleged actions, are not more ancient. There is, indeed, some reason to infer that they were known in Asiatic Scythia, a thousand years before his time. But this fate is not peculiar to Odin; it has been that of all celebrated men. Whoever has entered profoundly into the history of tradition, must be aware that legends which were formerly applicable to the most ancient characters, were applied to comparatively modern ones, when the latter had been dead long enough to permit the imagination to invest them with new attributes. Thus, many which have been related of Charlemagne’s heroes,—of Charlemagne himself,—of the crusaders, especially of our Cœur de Lion’s age, were once the glory of pagans, and were derived from a northern or an oriental source, before Normans, Franks, or Angles were known.[32]