TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

188 THUNAR.
far inn i austervcg at berja troll, Sn. 46. And this again points to
the ancient and at that time still imforgotten connexion of the
Teutonic nations with Asia ; this faring east-ways is told of
other heroes too, Sn. 190. 363 ; e.g., the race of the Skilfingar is
expressly placed in that eastern region (su kynsloS
er i austrve-
gum), Sn. 193 ; and lotunheim, the world of the giants, was there
situated.
Thorr was considered, next to OSinn, the mightiest and strongest
of all the gods ; the Edda makes him OSin s son, therein differing
entirely from the Roman view, which takes Jupiter to be Mercury s
father ;
in pedigrees, it is true, Thorr does appear as an ancestor of
Oftinn. Thorr is usually named immediately after Oftiim, some
times before him, possibly he was feared more than Oolnn (see
Suppl.). In Saxo Gramm., Eegner confesses : Se, Thor deo excepto,
nullam monstrigenae virtutis potentiam expavere, cujus (sc. Thor)
virium magnitudini nihil humanarum divinarumque rerum digna
possit aequalitate conferri. He is the true national god of the
Norwegians, landds (patrium numen), Egilss. p. 365-6, and when
dss stands alone, it means especially him, e.g., Seem. V0 a , as indeed
the very meaning of ans (jugum mentis) agrees with that of Fai r-
guneis. His temples and statues were the most numerous in
Norway and Sweden, and dsmegin, divine strength, is understood
chiefly of him. Hence the heathen religion in general
is so
frequently expressed by the simple Thdr biota, Seem. 113 b , het
(called) d Thor, Landn. 1, 12, trAffi (believed) d Thor, Landn. 2, 12.
He assigns to emigrants their new place of abode : Thorr visaffi
honum (shewed him), Landn. 3, 7 3, 12. From the Landnamabok
we could quote many things about the worship of Thorr :
J?ar
stendr enn Thors steinn, 2, 12. ganga til fretta vi<5 Thor, 3, 12.
Thorr is worshipped most, and Freyr next, which agrees with the
names Thorviffr and Freyvidr occurring in one family line 2, 6 ;
vi5r is wood, does it here mean tree, and imply a priestly function?
OSinviSr does not occur, but Tyviftr is the name of a plant, ch.
XXXVII. It is Thor s hammer that hallows a mark, a marriage,
and the runes, as we find plainly stated on the stones. I show in
ch. XXXIII how Thorr under various aspects passed into the
devil of the Christians, and it is not surprising if he acquired
some of the clumsy boorish nature of the giant in the process, for
the giants likewise were turned into fiends. The foe and pursuer