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THE STATE OF BEING AFTER DEATH. 149
it from the body and raised it up to the ranks of the
real Einherjar, still found an abode in Heaven—in
Yalhalla, in Vingolf, or in Polkvangar. The heathen
Skald, Thjodolf of Hvin, makes King Yanlandi
go to Odin, although Hel tortured him,* and
the Asa worshiper, Egil Skallagrimsson, doubts not
that Odin has received his drowned eon in God-
heim.f The souls of noble women were also be-
lieved to go to Heaven after death ; there they
found an abode with Freyja, and the spirits of maid-
ens with Gefjon. When it is sai^d that Freyja some-
times shares the slain with Odin, it is meant, per-
haps, that the slain, who in life had loved wives,
were imited to them again with Freyja.
On the other hand it was as certainly believed
that blasphemy and baseness might shut out even
the bravest fl:om Valhalla. Thus the Saga has the
zealous Asa worshiper, Hakon Jarl, to say of the
bold but wicked Hrapp who had seduced his benefactor's
daughter and burned a temple: "The man
who did this shall be banished from YalhaUa and
never come thither." ^
The strict construction of the Asa doctrine appears,
therefore, to be this, that although man was
divided between Odin and Hel, yet each one's share
of his being after death was greater or less, accord-
ing to the life he had lived. The spirit of the Yir-
tuous and the Brave had the power to bear up to
Heaven with it after death the better part of its
* Suorri :
f Egils Saga, 80,
i Mais Saga, 89.
Ynlinga Saga, 16,