Mythology; elucidated by new fragments of traditionary verse. A work
constructed really with great ingenuity, native talent, what one might call
unconscious art; altogether a perspicuous clear work, pleasant reading
still: this is the _Younger_ or Prose _Edda_. By these and the numerous
other _Sagas_, mostly Icelandic, with the commentaries, Icelandic or not,
which go on zealously in the North to this day, it is possible to gain some
direct insight even yet; and see that old Norse system of Belief, as it
were, face to face. Let us forget that it is erroneous Religion; let us
look at it as old Thought, and try if we cannot sympathize with it
somewhat.

The primary characteristic of this old Northland Mythology I find to be
Impersonation of the visible workings of Nature. Earnest simple
recognition of the workings of Physical Nature, as a thing wholly
miraculous, stupendous and divine. What we now lecture of as Science, they
wondered at, and fell down in awe before, as Religion The dark hostile
Powers of Nature they figure to themselves as "_Jotuns_," Giants, huge
shaggy beings of a demonic character. Frost, Fire, Sea-tempest; these are
Jotuns. The friendly Powers again, as Summer-heat, the Sun, are Gods. The
empire of this Universe is divided between these two; they dwell apart, in
perennial internecine feud. The Gods dwell above in Asgard, the Garden of
the Asen, or Divinities; Jotunheim, a distant dark chaotic land, is the
home of the Jotuns.

Curious all this; and not idle or inane, if we will look at the foundation
of it! The power of _Fire_, or _Flame_, for instance, which we designate
by some trivial chemical name, thereby hiding from ourselves the essential
character of wonder that dwells in it as in all things, is with these old
Northmen, Loke, a most swift subtle _Demon_, of the brood of the Jotuns.
The savages of the Ladrones Islands too (say some Spanish voyagers) thought