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178 RELIGION OF THE NOETHMEN.
the Queen of King Alfrek of HorSaland, invoked
the aid of Freyja when she was going to vie with
the king's other wife, Geirhild, in ale-brewing. It
seems that the king had to get rid of one of them
on account of their irreconcilable enmity toward
each other, so he declared that he would retain the
one who brewed the best ale. Signj, however, was
foiled by her rival, for the latter had called upon
Odin, who revealed himself to her in advance, in
the form of a certain Hott ; and as he gave her his
spittle for yest, Geirhild's ale became the best.*
Friga and Freyja, as the highest among the
Asynjur, were, without doubt, the most especially
worshiped. In a teinple in Iceland their statues
are said to have been seated upon a throne opposite
those of Thor and Frey. When the Icelander
Hjalti Skeggjason, newly, converted to Christianity,
wished to express his contempt for the heathen
Gods, he, in a ditty, called Freyja a bitch, and Hall-
fred VandrseSaskald,- in a verse that he made at
Olaf Tryggvason's request^ in order to display his
Christian disposition, names Freyja among the
Gods whom he had forsaken for Christf
»H&lfsS.l.
t 0]. Tr. S. in Forntn. S. ill, 170.