t paid by Freyja to the Sibyl to learn the genealogy of
her favourite Ottar. The larger part deals with heroic genealogies, but
there are scanty allusions to Baldr, Frey, Heimdal, Loki's children,
and Thor, and a Christian reference to a God who shall come after
Ragnaroek "when Odin shall meet the wolf." It tells nothing new.

We have here then, omitting _Hyndluljod_, five poems (four of them
belonging to the first half of the tenth century) which suggest a
general outline of Norse mythology: there is a hierarchy of Gods, the
Aesir, who live together in a citadel, Odin being the chief. Among
them are several who are not Aesir by origin: Njoerd and his son and
daughter, Frey and Freyja, are Vanir; Loki is really an enemy and
an agent in their fall; and there are one or two Goddesses of giant
race. The giants are rivals and enemies to the Gods; the dwarfs are
also antagonistic, but in bondage. The meeting-place of the Gods is
by the World-Ash, Yggdrasil, on whose well-being the fate of Gods
and men depends; at its root lies the World-Snake. The Gods have
foreknowledge of their own doom, Ragnaroek, the great fight when they
shall meet Loki's children, the Wolf and the Snake; both sides will
fall and the world be destroyed. An episode in the story is the death
of Baldr. This we may assume to be the religion of the Viking age
(800-1000 A.D.), a compound of the beliefs of various ages and tribes.

_The Aesir._--The number of the Aesir is not fixed. _Hyndluljod_
says there were twelve ("there were eleven Aesir when Baldr went
down into the howe"). Snorri gives a list of fourteen Aesir or Gods
(Odin, Thor, Baldr, Njoerd, Frey, Tyr, Bragi, Heimdal, Hoed, Vidar, Vali,
Ullr, Forseti, Loki), and adds Hoeni in another list, all the fifteen
occurring in the poems; and sixteen Goddesses (Asynjor), the majority
of whom are merely personified epithets, occurring nowhere else. Of
the sixteen, Frigg, Gefion, Freyja and Saga (really an epithet only)
are Goddesses in the poems, and Fulla is Frigg's handmaid. In another
chapter, Snorri adds Idunn, Gerd, Sigyn and Nanna, of whom the latter
does not appear in the Elder Edda, where Idunn, Gerd (a giantess)
and Sigyn are the wives of Bragi, Frey and Loki; and two others,
the giantess Skadi and Sif, are the wives of Njoerd and Thor.

A striking difference from classical mythology is that neither Tyr
(who should etymologically be the Sky-god), nor Thor (the Thunder-god),
takes the highest place.