Freyja, whom the gods had promised the giant, was Oder’s wife. Footnote 37: Jack the Giant-killer. Footnote 38: The vala, or prophetess. Footnote 39: Odin. Footnote 40: Odin. Footnote 41: See Vocabulary under the word _Mimer_. Footnote 42: He who hardens the hide. Footnote 43: Fence-breaker. Footnote 44: Compare with this myth Dido and the founding of Carthage. Footnote 45: Rind was daughter of Billing. Footnote 46: The goddess of the sea. Footnote 47: Suttung. Footnote 48: Ygdrasil. Footnote 49: Roots of trees were especially fitted for hurtful trolldom (witchcraft). They produced mortal wounds. Footnote 50: The old heathen Norsemen sprinkled their children with water when they named them. Footnote 51: The waker of the people. Footnote 52: Odin. Footnote 53: If the _North American Review_, or anybody else, thinks this is proof of barbarism, we can refer them to the monks in Trier, who preserved the skull of Saint Theodulf and gave sick people drink from it; and we know several other such instances. Our Norse ancestors were not, then, in this respect any more savage than the Christian bishops and monks. See _North American Review_, January, 1875, p. 195. Footnote 54: See Thomas Carlyle’s _Heroes and Hero-worship_. CHAPTER II. HERMOD, TYR, HEIMDAL, BRAGE, AND IDUN. SECTION I. HERMOD. Odin’s sons are emanations of his own being. As the god of war, warlike valor is one of his servants, and honor another. He invents the art of poetry, but the execution of it he leaves to his son Brage. He does not meddle with thunder, having left this work of a lower order to his son Thor. He is the father of light and darkness, and he leaves the beneficent light to diffuse itself and struggle with darkness independently (Balder and Hoder). Nor does he himself watch the rainbow, but let the watchful Heimdal take care of it. Hermod (the valiant in combat) was the son of Odin and messenger of the gods. Odin himself gave him helmet and corselet, the means by which to display his warlike character, and he is sent on all dangerous missions. Of his many exploits the most important one is when he was sent on Sleipner to Hel to bring Balder back. It was Hermod and Brage who were sent to bid Hakon, the king, welcome, when he arrived at Valhal. SECTION II. TYR.