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THE ^SIE AS OBJECTS OF WOESHIP. 173
fathers busied Iheinselves so nmcli, and it is said of
liim, in one of the Old Eddaic poems, that " he rules
over temples and places of sacrifice innumer-
able."* Ej6r8 and his son Frey are named in the
heathen oath-formula of the Northmen ;f they are
called upon, in a poem of Egil Skallagrimsson, to
banish Eirik Blood-axe and Queen Gunhilda from
Norway ;:]: they are represented by the same skald,
in his Armbja/rnar Dr&pa as "Bestowers of
Eiches,"§ and the extremely rich are said to be
"rich as NjorS."
Still more numerous are the traces m our ancient
Sagas of the widely-extended worship of Frey
the God of Fruitfulness—among the Northmen, In
Throndheira there was a temple in Olaf Tryggva-
son's days, in which Frey was zealously worshiped.
"Wlien the King, after he had overthrown the statue
of the God, upbraided the landsmen for their stupid
idolatry, and asked them wherein Frey had evinced
his power, they answered, " Frey often talked with
us, foretold us the future, and granted us good sea-
sons and peace.."!
The Norse chieftain Ingemund, Thorsteinsson,
who in the days of Harald Harfagri settled at
Vatnsdal in Iceland, built near his homestead a
temple which appears to have been specially dedi-
cated to Frey, who had in a manner poiated out a
* The O. Edda :
f Landnmb. IV. 7.
X Egils S. 68, 865.
§ EgUs S. 80.
Vafjjriieniamil, 88.
01. Tr. S. Skalh. II. 49, 60.
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