It seems as if the men of this warrior had dragged his ship ashore, placed the corpse therein with all his weapons and one or more horses, and had adorned it and hung their shields on its sides, hoisted the sails, and then let the flame consume the whole. The bones were then gathered and placed in the urn, and the twelve shield-bosses placed over it, provisions placed at its side, and the whole covered with a mound. But right over the urn the bridle had been placed, so as to be near at hand; then his weapons and the remains of the ship’s chest, and then the two layers of other remains from the pyre. [Illustration: Fig. 772. ] [Illustration: Fig. 773. Bronze figure representing a man; with inscription. Found with a bronze kettle containing burnt bones, a double-edged sword bent, several spear-heads, a shield boss, melted pieces of glass, &c.; earlier iron age. Norway. ] CHAPTER XX. RELIGION.—WORSHIP, SACRIFICES, ETC. Odin’s religion—Sun worship—The Three Annual Sacrifices—The Atonement Boar and Bragi Toast—The Victory Sacrifice—Temple Priests—Animals for Sacrifices—Sacrificial ceremonies—Divination—Chips—Drawing of lots—Consecration of land and property—Worship of Thor—Sign of the Hammer—The Svastica—Story of Framar. The earlier Edda or Sagas which relate to us the traditions about Odin and the Asar do not give any description of the sacred ceremonies or rites they performed. From the Ynglinga Saga we learn that the hero Odin of the North sacrificed after the manner of the Asar, and that the sacrifices made by him, Njörd, Frey, and Freyja, were to a power worshipped by them, but we are not told who the god or power was. It probably was in some instances the sun, represented perhaps by the eye of the earlier and mythical Odin of the Völuspa—who, as we have seen, pledged his eye for a drink from the well of Urd; we know that the worship of the sun was widely spread at one period in the history of the world.[217] How the change from the worship of this unknown power to the worship of Odin and the other gods took place we are not told; but it may, we think, be taken for granted that many of the ceremonies and beliefs mentioned in the Sagas were of very ancient origin. It is only by a study of all the Sagas that we gain a knowledge of the beliefs, religious ceremonies, mode of worship and superstitions of the people of the North, which are often minutely described. It is somewhat difficult for the present generation of English people, living in Great Britain and other countries, to realise that no more than eight centuries ago many of their forefathers believed and practised the rites we are going to describe, and that so slow was the march of Christianity, that six or seven hundred years ago the provinces of North-Eastern Prussia, Vindland, Pomerania, &c., whose inhabitants are among the finest in Europe, were still heathen.