is omitted which does not provide material for artistic
treatment. The so-called Northern Mythology, therefore, may be regarded
as a precious relic of the beginning of Northern poetry, rather than
as a representation of the religious beliefs of the Scandinavians,
and these literary fragments bear many signs of the transitional stage
wherein the confusion of the old and new faiths is easily apparent.

But notwithstanding the limitations imposed by long neglect it is
possible to reconstruct in part a plan of the ancient Norse beliefs,
and the general reader will derive much profit from Carlyle's
illuminating study in "Heroes and Hero-worship." "A bewildering,
inextricable jungle of delusions, confusions, falsehoods and
absurdities, covering the whole field of Life!" he calls them,
with all good reason. But he goes on to show, with equal truth,
that at the soul of this crude worship of distorted nature was a
spiritual force seeking expression. What we probe without reverence
they viewed with awe, and not understanding it, straightway deified
it, as all children have been apt to do in all stages of the world's
history. Truly they were hero-worshippers after Carlyle's own heart,
and scepticism had no place in their simple philosophy.

It was the infancy of thought gazing upon a universe filled with
divinity, and believing heartily with all sincerity. A large-hearted
people reaching out in the dark towards ideals which were better than
they knew. Ragnarok was to undo their gods because they had stumbled
from their higher standards.

We have to thank a curious phenomenon for the preservation of so much
of the old lore as we still possess. While foreign influences were
corrupting the Norse language, it remained practically unaltered in
Iceland, which had been colonised from the mainland by the Norsemen
who had fled thither to escape the oppression of Harold Fairhair after
his crushing victory of Hafrsfirth. These people brought with them the
poetic genius which had already manifested itself, and it took fresh
root in that barren soil. Many of the old Norse poets were natives
of Iceland, and in the early part of the Christian era, a supreme
service was rendered to Norse literature by the Christian priest,
Saemund, who industriously brought together a large amount of pagan
poetry in a collection known as the Elder Edda, which is the chief
foundation of our present knowledge of the religion of our Norse
ancestors. Icelandic li