_The Waverlowe_. (Page 51.)

Dr. Frazer (_Golden Bough_) gives instances of ritual marriages
connected with the midsummer fires. For _Svipdag and Menglad_, see
Study No. 12 of this series. If Rydberg, as seems very probable, is
right in identifying Menglad and Svipdag with Freyja and the mortal
lover who wins her and whom she afterwards loses, the story would
be a parallel to those of Venus and Adonis, Ishtar and Tammuz, &c.,
which Frazer derives from the ritual marriage of human sacrifices to
the Goddess of fertility. The reason given in the Edda for Brynhild's
sleep, and her connexion with Odin, are secondary, arising from the
Valhalla myth.




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