would drive away the darkness
and cold of winter.

Brides invariably wore red, Thor's favourite colour, which was
considered emblematical of love, and for the same reason betrothal
rings in the North were almost always set with a red stone.

Thor's temples and statues, like Odin's, were fashioned of wood,
and the greater number of them were destroyed during the reign of
King Olaf the Saint. According to ancient chronicles, this monarch
forcibly converted his subjects. He was specially incensed against
the inhabitants of a certain province, because they worshipped a
rude image of Thor, which they decked with golden ornaments, and
before which they set food every evening, declaring the god ate it,
as no trace of it was left in the morning.

The people, being called upon in 1030 to renounce this idol in favour
of the true God, promised to consent if the morrow were cloudy;
but when after a whole night spent by Olaf in ardent prayer, there
followed a cloudy day, the obstinate people declared they were not
yet convinced of his God's power, and would only believe if the sun
shone on the next day.

Once more Olaf spent the night in prayer, but at dawn, to his
great chagrin, the sky was overcast. Nevertheless, he assembled the
people near Thor's statue, and after secretly bidding his principal
attendant to smash the idol with his battle-axe if the people turned
their eyes away but for a moment, he began to address them. Suddenly,
while all were listening to him, Olaf pointed to the horizon, where
the sun was slowly breaking its way through the clouds, and exclaimed,
"Behold our God!" The people one and all turned to see what he meant,
and the attendant seized this opportunity for attacking the idol,
which yielded easily to his blows, and a host of mice and other vermin
scattered hastily from its hollow interior. Seeing now that the food
placed before their god had been devoured by noxious animals only,
the people ceased to revere Thor, and definitely accepted the faith
which King Olaf had so long and vainly pressed upon them.

CHAPTER V: TYR

The God of War

Tyr Tiu, or Ziu was the son of Odin, and, according to different
mythologists, his mother was Frigga, queen of the gods, or a beautiful
giantess whose name is unknown, but who was a personification of the
raging sea. He is the god of martial honour, and one of the twelve
principal deities of Asgard. Although he appears to have had no
special dwelling t