THE WONDERFUL ASH TREE.

The people who used to live in the northern parts of Europe were not very pleasant people, if we are to believe all the blood-thirsty stories we have heard about them, but they had a religion, although it was rather a queer one. There is one thing, however, to be said of their gods and goddesses, which is very much in their favor. They were generally honest, and tolerably strong-minded, which is much more than we can say about some of the gods of ancient Greece and Rome. Mercury, you know, was a great thief, and even Jupiter was none too good.

THE GOD YMER.

The Scandinavians believed that Ymer was the very first god of all, and he made his appearance in the following manner. Before the world was created heavy mists filled all the dark space. This space must have beenhave been very cold, for the frosty air condensed the mists, and out of this compressed fog, the god Ymer came into existence.

But his brain does not seem to have been at all foggy; for, after a short time, becoming tired of being alone, he set his wits to work to find out how he could have the company of other beings like himself. He made a very good guess as to how he had taken shape; and, gathering the mists around him into foggy masses, he shaped them into forms like his own; and then waited to see what would happen. Soon the cold winds came and congealed the mists, and behold! a number of gigantic companions for the lonely god! He took good care, however, to make them smaller than himself; for, although they were twice the height of the tallest mountains on our earth, yet Ymer himself, when he laid down (if he ever did lie down) required about half the world for his bed.

Ymer was so much pleased with his success that he concluded he would make some more things out of the mists. He spread some of it out in great smooth surfaces, some he collected in small piles, and some he heaped up in great masses of many curious shapes. And that is the way the valleys, mountains, and hills were created.

The foggy material that was left fell down to an immense depth, and became the ocean.

Ymer made nothing more, for he did not know how to work in anything but mists, and they were all gone.

What he and his companions did in the way of employment or amusement I cannot say. Let us hope they took comfort in striding around the world—a walk of an hour or so—and in talking with each other. They could not see anything except by occasional gleams of lightning, for there was no light anywhere.

Monstrous creatures, such as dragons, hydras, griffins, and the like, now made their appearance in the world, but there is no account of their creation, and they must have come of their own accord.

One day a marvelous thing happened. Ymer and his giants saw a pink flush spreading over the black sky. This grew brighter, and brighter, until the whole firmament was a brilliant flame color. And, while they were wondering what this could mean, whizz! came in sight a great ball of fire! This was nothing less than a new god, named Odin. Where he came from nobody knew, but there he was. He descended upon the mountains, and took possession of Ymer’s world.

He brought with him the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. He told the Sun to light up the world, and to warm up things generally, and to be sure to melt the ice that covered a great part of the earth. The Moon and the Stars were to take care of the earth during the night.

Odin brought with him also, a large number of followers; and, according to the invariable rule of all discoverers of new countries, he proceeded to kill all the original inhabitants; beginning with great Ymer himself, and ending with the land and sea monsters. That is, he intended to kill them all, and he thought he had. But one of the giants escaped, and also a wolf, named Fenris (a terrible creature that made nothing of crushing a mountain with his teeth). And the great sea-serpent Iormungandur was not slain.

The warmth of the sun soon called into life the grasses, the flowers, and the trees; springs welled up in the woods; and brooks and rivers flowed through the plains to the sea; and a great variety of animals took possession of the world, now so beautiful.

Odin was charmed with all this, but not quite satisfied. He wanted some beings on the earth that should be less than gods, and yet of a finer intelligence than the beasts. Thinking about this one day, as he walked by the sea-shore, his eyes chanced to fall upon a large branch that had blown off a tree into the water. This put a bright idea into his mind. He drew the wood towards him; and, splitting it in two, made a man and a woman out of the two parts. From this couple,according to the Scandinavian legends, all the people in the world are descended.

People increased so fast, and were so rude and savage, and quarrelled and fought so much, that Odin found he had his hands too full of business, and he thought it was about time for his lazy followers to help him. So he set them all to work.

Forseti was to make peace among men. Vali was to teach them the use of the bow, not for the purpose of killing each other, but for slaughtering game for food. Uller was to teach skating. The goddess Gefione taught men to labor, and how to break up the earth for seed, and to raise crops. I think you will agree with me that she was one of the very best of all the Scandinavian gods, and goddesses.

THE GOD EGIR.

Egir was a very important god. He showed men how to buildships, and how to manage the sails, and the rudder. And not only did he do this, but, he very obligingly, blew the vessels along with his powerful breath, so that men were not afraid to trust themselves on the rivers in these frail-looking crafts, but even boldly launched out upon the ocean.

Widar taught people a most excellent thing—when to hold their tongues. This he did by his example, for he was dumb, and could not talk at all.

Balder was called the Bright God. He was the most beloved of them all. He put good thoughts into the hearts of men, and encouraged them to be loving and patient with each other. A beautiful silvery light always shone around him.

Now, where do you suppose all these gods lived? You would probably answer that they dwelt up in the sky, or on the tops of high mountains. No. They lived in an ash tree!

This wonderful tree bore the name of Ygdrasil. Its branches overshadowed the whole world; its top supported the sky, and its roots went so far down that no one could find the end. This tree was the home of Odin and his gods, and there they stayed, except when business called them elsewhere.

This is the way the gods found out what was going on in the world, while they were having a good time in Ygdrasil. Two ravens were always flying to and fro through the Universe, and, once a day, they would perch on Odin’s shoulders and tell him the news. A little squirrel darted swiftly up and down the tree, and picked up all the scraps of gossip it could. Near the top of the tree a great eagle kept perpetual watch, and on the very topmost branch perched a vulture; and these birds, which could see to the horizon on every side cried out, and flapped their wings when any strange thing happened.

Besides all these there was the watch-god, Heimdall. His sight and hearing were marvelous. He could hear the grass grow in thefields, and hear the wool grow on the backs of the sheep. He could not only watch a fly from the one end of the world to the other, but could count the spots on its wings, and the joints in its little legs, if it was at the opposite side of the universe from himself. He could see the smallest atom that moved at the bottom of the ocean. And, what was the most astonishing of all, he could see in the darkest night as well as in the brightest day.

It is a pity this god is not living now, for he could describe to us the bottom of the ocean, and tell us if there is an open sea at the North Pole, and an icy continent at the South Pole, and a great many things we want very much to know, and have not been able to find out.

THE YOUNG GOD JARL.

This Heimdall had golden teeth. He had also a son, named Jarl, who was a very famous god. When he was only a child he could give heavy blows with a great club, and swim like a fish, and ride on horseback as swiftly as the wind. And he understood the language of birds and beasts, and could converse with them.

There were some very queer things about these gods. We might suppose these powerful beings would be perfectly formed, but they were not. Heimdall, as we have seen, had false teeth; Tyr had but one hand; Widar was dumb; Hoder was blind; and the great Odin himself had but one eye. And it seems, too, that they did not know everything there was to be known, as the following story will show you.

There lived in the world, in those days, a very wise man, named Kvasir. He noticed how much trouble men had in expressing their thoughts in any way but speech. If one wanted to send a message to another he could only make a rude drawing on a piece of stone to represent what he wanted to say, or paint it in certain colors that stood for certain things. There was not much of this done, for not only was this process troublesome, but it was easy to misunderstand these messages; and they caused a great deal of confusion, and many quarrels, and much fighting. Kvasir wanted to remedy this; and, after a great deal of hard study, and many experiments he invented the art of writing. He also invented poetry. He called his versesrunes, and he wrote them on beech bark, which he made into tablets.

The gods had never thought of doing anything like this.

There is no knowing how much Kvasir would have done if he had lived longer. Perhaps he would have invented printing and paper; which, as matters turned out, nobody thought of doing until many hundred years later.

But this wise and good man was killed by two wicked dwarfs. They did this in order to steal from him this treasure of poetry, and the art of writing. You may wonder how they were going to get at the treasure, for, after they had killed him, there could be no more poetry; and they could not pick it out of his brain as a thief takes a pocket-book out of the pocket. But these dwarfs were magicians, and such people, you know, have a pretty good idea what they areabout. They collected his blood, and mixed it with honey in three separate proportions. These they put into three jars which they closely sealed, and buried in a cave which had never been seen either by gods or men.

These three compounds were Logic, Eloquence, and Poetry. We shall never know what the dwarfs were going to do with them, for I am happy to say that they were not allowed to keep them.

THE THREE PRECIOUS JARS.

Odin’s two ravens had witnessed the whole performance of the dwarfs, and the sensible birds concluded this must be a great treasure, or it would not be worth so much trouble. So they flew straight to Odin, and told him all about it. Odin sent the squirrel up the treeYgdrasil with an order for the eagle to leave his post, to fly to the cave, and to bring the jars to him.

This the eagle accomplished in a very short space of time, and Odin immediately opened each jar, and tasted the contents. He at once commenced reasoning eloquently in the most ravishing strains of poetry. His daughter Saga, and his son Bragi, were with their father; and, seeing how he enjoyed these new dishes, they wanted some too. Odin politely offered the first jar to Saga, but it probably did not taste pleasantly, as she declined to do more than just touch its contents to her lips. But Bragi drank up all his father had left, and immediately began to sing a magnificent chant. From that time he was called the god of poetry.

Bragi was not stingy with his treasure, but gave some of it to men, and thus the invention of the good Kvasir was used as he would have used it had he lived; and men learned to write, and to sing.

The greatest of the gods, next to Odin, was his son Thor. He was the god of tempests. He held thunderbolts shut up in his fists, and flung lightning from his fingers’ ends. He had a mighty hammer with which he reconstructed the world after Ymer had been killed. He splintered up the mountains, and made them all over again, and he knocked away at the crust of the earth, and made valleys and caves, and sometimes he amused himself by splitting open the earth, and tumbling a mountain or two into the abyss. And that was the way earthquakes came about. He made holes in some of the mountains, and let the imprisoned fire out of them.

Odin gave Thor three wonderful gifts. The first was his great hammer. It would go out of his hand to do his bidding, and then return of its own accord. The second was a pair of iron gloves. He had only to put these on, and his spear would come back into his hand after having destroyed his victim. The third was a war belt, which made him stronger than any other being while he wore it.

It is no great wonder that with all these things to help him Thor succeeded in killing off Ymer, and his race of giants, for he did most of this work.

THE GOD THOR.

But, you remember, in the account given of the destruction of the giants, and the land and sea monsters, that one giant escaped, and the wolf Fenris, and the great sea-serpent, Iormungandur. And, by thesethree, after a great number of years, Odin and his gods came to grief.

The gods all understood that their fates depended upon the god of love, the bright and beautiful Balder. If he died they must die. Think then how troubled they must have been, when, one day, they heard a great cry ringing through the earth, and up to the very top of the ash tree, where was placed their highest heaven, called Walhalla. This piercing cry was: “Balder, fair Balder is going to die!” They had never thought before that their beloved Balder could die, but now they were sore afraid, not only for him, but for themselves. They were told by some wise woman that Balder would surely die unless all substances that could inflict death were made powerless. Upon hearing this his mother, Frigg, travelled over the whole world, and asked the rocks, and the pebbles, frost and rain, and wood and iron; everything, in short, to spare her son. And they all promised not to hurt him.

There was great joy among the gods when Frigg returned with this good news. So Balder was not to die, after all. And there was a great feast held in Walhalla to celebrate the glad tiding. In the midst of the merriment it was proposed to try some of these things that had promised not to hurt Balder, to see how they would avoid injuring him. One of the gods threw a clod of earth at Balder, and it broke into a cloud of dust before it reached him. Another poured a pitcher of water over him, and the water formed a cascade over him without wetting his clothes. Then they tried more dangerous weapons; a rock; a club; a sword; and Vali shot an arrow at him. All passed by him, or fell harmless. Even Thor’s mighty hammer refused to hit Balder.

At last a brother of Balder’s approached, holding in his hand a small bunch of leaves. All laughed at the sight of this harmless weapon. But alas! when the leaves struck Balder’s breast he fell,and died instantly. They were mistletoe leaves, and when Frigg had asked the oak tree to spare her son, she forgot to ask the mistletoe, which grows upon the oak. So the mistletoe had given no promise; and now Balder was dead. The brother who had thrown the leaves was greatly distressed, and all Walhalla was filled with mourning.

Balder being dead, the other gods must die. The giant, who had escaped Thor’s hammer, killed some of them, and others died in various ways. Finally Thor was killed by the sea-serpent; and the great Odin was torn in pieces by the wolf Fenris.

And that was the end of the Scandinavian gods.

Then the Druid priests brought their religion into the country; and, after many years, the Romans came, and taught the Scandinavians the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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