Produced by David Widger MYTHS OF THE RHINE Translated from the French of X. B. Saintine By Prof. M. Schele De Vere, LL. D. Illustrated by Gustave Doré Scribner, Armstrong, and Company 1874 DESCRIPTIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS. I. Primitive Times.--The First Settlers on the Rhine.--Masters going to School.--Sanskrit and Breton.--An Idle God.--Microscopic Deities.--Tree Worship.--Birth-Trees and Death-Trees.....001 II. The Druids and their Creed.--Esus.--The Holy Oak.--The Pforzheim Lime Tree.--A Rival Plant.--The Mistletoe and the Anguinufh.--The Oracle at Do-dona.--Immaculate Horses.--The Druidesses.--A late Elector.--Philanthropic Institution of Human Sacrifices.--Second Druidical. Epoch.....025 III. A Visit to the Land of our Forefathers.--The Two Banks of the Rhine.--Druid Stones.--Weddings and Burials.--Night Service.--A Demigod Glacier.--Social Duels.--A Countrywoman of Aspasia.--Boudoir of a Celtic Lady.--The Bard’s Story.--Teutons and Titans.--Earthquake.....053 IV. The Roman Gods invade Germany.--Drusus and the Dru-idess.--Ogmius, the Hercules of Gaul.--Great Philological Discovery concerning Tentâtes.--Transformations of every kind.--Irmensul.--The Rhine deified.--The Gods cross the River.--Druids of the Third Epoch.....089 V. The World before and since Odin.--Birth of Ymer.--The Giants of the Frost.--A Log split in Two.--The First Man and the First Woman.--The Ash Ygdrasil and its Menagerie.--Thor’s Three Jewels.--Freyr’s Enchanted Sword.--A Souvenir of the National Guard of Belleville.--The Story of Kvasir and the Two Dwarfs.--Honey and Blood.--Invocation.....119 VI. Short Biographies.--A Clairvoyant among the Gods.--A Bright God.--Tyr and the Wolf Fenris.--The Hospital at the Walhalla.--Why was Odin one-eyed.--The Three Norns.--Mimer the Sage.--A Goddess the Mother of Four Oxen.--The Love Affairs of Heimdall--The God with the Golden Teeth.....151 VII. Heaven and Hell.--The Valkyrias.--Amusements in Walhalla.--Pork and Wild Boar.--A Frozen Hell.--Balder’s Death.--Frigg’s Devotion.--The Iron Tree Forest.--The Twilight of the Gods.--Iduna’s Apples.--The Fall of Heaven and the End of the World.--Reflections on that Event.--The Little Fellow still alive.....17 VIII. How the Gods of India live only for a Kalpa, that is, for the Time between one World and another.--How the God Vishnu was One-eyed.--How Celts and Scandinavians believed in Metempsychosis, like the Indians.--How Odin, with his Emanations, came forth from the God Buddha.--About Mahabarata and Ramavana.--Chronology.--The World’s Age.--Comparative Tables.--Quotations.--Supporting Evidence.--A Cenotaph.....209 IX.