“A new earth, fairer and more verdant than the other, will arise out of the sea; from which the grain will shoot forth of itself. Vidar and Vale will survive the general destruction, and dwell upon the plain Ida, where Asgard lay before. Thither also will repair Magne and Mode, the sons of Thor, taking Miölner with them. Balder and Hoder will return from Hela, and these gods will sit together, and talk over the events of past times. ‘The Aser will meet On Ida’s plain, And talk of the mighty Earth-surrounder[123]: There they will call to mind Great deeds of olden-time, And the lofty gods’ Ancient learning.’[124]—_Voluspa_. “During the conflagration caused by Surtur, a man and a woman, Lif and Livthraser, will lie concealed in a place called Homimer’s Holt, and there nourish themselves with the morning-dew. From them is to spring the second race of men.”[125] The Voluspa also refers to the second and more blissful world:— A hall I see More brilliant than the sun, Roofed with gold, On the summit of Gimlè; There shall dwell A virtuous race, And enjoy blessedness To time eternal. Thither cometh the mighty one To the council of the gods, In his strength from above; He who thinketh for all. He issueth judgments, He causeth strife to cease, And establisheth peace To endure for ever. This is to finish the visible universe, with its physical gods. But the immortality of the human soul is a doctrine strongly inculcated by the religion of the North. The souls of the gods, indeed, are, with two or three exceptions, to perish; and for this reason,—that they are physical gods merely,—mythologic creations to denote the powers and functions of nature. In this circumstance there is something pleasing to contemplate. The _physical_ Alfader (Odin) has passed into annihilation; but the eternal Alfadur (Almighty God) remains to govern the world, and to reward the good whom he has admitted to Gimlè. Thus even in the darkest systems (and few are darker than the Scandinavian) sages have attempted to vindicate the ways of Providence. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ SECTION III.[126] INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO DENMARK AND SWEDEN.