he most ancient of the Romans called
Jove and Mercury, nor those to whom Greece and Latium paid idolatrous
homage. For the days, called among our countrymen Thors-day or
Odins-day, the ancients termed severally the holy day of Jove or of
Mercury. If, therefore, according to the distinction implied in the
interpretation I have quoted, we take it that Thor is Jove and Odin
Mercury, it follows that Jove was the son of Mercury; that is, if the
assertion of our countrymen holds, among whom it is told as a matter
of common belief, that Thor was Odin's son. Therefore, when the Latins,
believing to the contrary effect, declare that Mercury was sprung from
Jove, then, if their declaration is to stand, we are driven to consider
that Thor was not the same as Jove, and that Odin was also different
from Mercury. Some say that the gods, whom our countrymen worshipped,
shared only the title with those honoured by Greece or Latium, but that,
being in a manner nearly equal to them in dignity, they borrowed from
them the worship as well as the name. This must be sufficient discourse
upon the deities of Danish antiquity. I have expounded this briefly for
the general profit, that my readers may know clearly to what worship in
its heathen superstition our country has bowed the knee. Now I will go
back to my subject where I left it.

Ancient tradition says that Starkad, whom I mentioned above, offered the
first-fruits of his deeds to the favour of the gods by slaying Wikar,
the king of the Norwegians. The affair, according to the version of some
people, happened as follows:--

Odin once wished to slay Wikar by a grievous death; but, loth to do
the deed openly, he graced Starkad, who was already remarkable for his
extraordinary size, not only with bravery, but also with skill in the
composing of spells, that he might the more readily use his services to
accomplish the destruction of the king. For that was how he hoped that
Starkad would show himself grateful for the honour he paid him. For the
same reason he also endowed him with three spans of mortal life, that
he might be able to commit in them as many abominable deeds. So Odin
resolved that Starkad's days should be prolonged by the following crime:
Starkad presently went to Wikar and dwelt awhile in his company, hiding
treachery under homage. At last he went with him sea-roving. And in a
certain place they were troubled with prolonged and bitter storms; and
when the winds checked their vo