one contained in the Eddas; and much more than the basis. The union which we have endeavoured to establish, will account for the elaborate, however heterogeneous, system of the Eddas. That system was, assuredly, not the work of one people, or, we may add, of one age. It was derived from people widely different in character, habits, opinions, and manners; and it was probably the work of centuries. The successors of the twelve original pontiffs effected, there is reason to think, much more than _they_ did, or than their predecessors had done. The elements were, indeed, strewed in Norway; but they could scarcely be fashioned into a whole; still less could they have assumed that stately form which they exhibited in the age of Sæmund and Snorro. They consisted of detached portions, composed at different periods, and probably not connected—not fashioned into a whole—until many centuries after Odin’s death. Nay, there is some reason for concluding, that the two Icelanders we have just mentioned were the first collectors of these scattered fragments, no less than of the comments on each by the recent Scalds of their own country, and the more ancient Scalds of Norway. Of the same opinion the reader will probably be, before he closes the present volume. Having now given a general view both of the Scandinavian universe and of its inhabitants, and shown the probable relation between its gods and its mortals, we proceed, in the following section, to examine these gods more in detail, and, where practicable, to explain their respective attributes by the physical phenomena on which they were so frequently based. ------------------ SECTION II. CHIEF MYTHOLOGICAL PERSONAGES OF SCANDINAVIA. ODIN, THOR, AND LOKE.—THEIR CHARACTERS PHYSICALLY INTERPRETED.—THEIR WIVES AND OFFSPRING.—THE THREE DEMON CHILDREN OF LOKE.—INFLUENCE OF THIS DEITY OVER THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE.—HE IS PRESENT IN EVERY GREAT MYTHOS.—RAPE OF IDUNA.—THOR’S VISITS TO JOTUNHEIM.—THOR AND THE GIANT HYMIR.—THOR AND THE GIANT THRYM.—NIVOD, FREYR, FREYA.—EXPEDITION OF SKIRNIR-ÆGIR AND RAN.—OTHER DEITIES.—BALDER.—PUNISHMENT OF LOKE.—RAGNAROK.—RECOGNITION OF A GREAT FIRST CAUSE BY THE PAGAN SCANDINAVIANS. ODIN, THOR, LOKE. The first two gods we place together, as well for the purpose of comparison as that of contrast; the last, because his agency is necessary to explain the other two. According to the Eddas, ODIN had several wives; the first was _Frea_, or _Frigga_, by whom he had five sons, Thor, Balder, Braga, Hermod, and Tyr: the second was _Skada_, by whom he had Semming; the third was _Grydur_, by whom he had Vidar; the fourth was _Rinda_, by whom he had Balder, or Bo.[52]