illustrates the relations of Odin and Frigg. The Vandals asked Wodan
(Odin) to grant them victory over the Vinili; the latter made a similar
prayer to Frea (Frigg), the wife of Wodan. She advised them to make
their wives tie their hair round their faces like beards, and go with
them to meet Wodan in the morning. They did so, and Wodan exclaimed,
"Who are these _Long-beards_?" Then Frea said that having given the
Vinili a name, he must give them the victory (as Helgi in the Edda
claims a gift from Svava when she names him). As in _Grimnismal_,
Odin and Frigg are represented as supporting rival claims, and Frigg
gains the day for her favourites by superior cunning. This legend
also shows Odin as the giver of victory.

Few heathen legends are told however by these early Christian writers,
and the Gods are seldom called by their German names. An exception is
the Frisian Fosite mentioned by Alcuin (who died 804) and by later
writers; he is to be identified with the Norse Forseti, the son of
(probably at first an epithet of) Baldr, but no legend of him is
told. It is disappointing that these writers should have said so
little of any God except the chief one. A very characteristic touch
survives in Gregory of Tours (died 594), when the Frank Chlodvig tells
his Christian wife that the Christian God "cannot be proved to be
of the race of the Gods," an idea entirely in keeping with the Eddic
hierarchy. Before leaving the Continental historians, reference may be
made to the abundant evidence of Germanic tree-worship to be gathered
from them. The holy oak mentioned by Wilibald (before 786), the sacred
pear-tree of Constantius (473), with numerous others, supply parallels
to the World-Ash which is so important a feature of Norse mythology.

A study of this subject would be incomplete without some reference to
the mythology of Saxo Grammaticus. His testimony on the old religion