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278 EELIGION OF THE UOETHMEN.
imrnd himself, bloody and bearing bis head in his
hand; he stood a good while upon the fl"oor and
then left the room. Thrond now rose up groaning
with fatigue, and declared himself to be convinced
by the vision that Sigmund's companions were
drowned, but that he himself had reached the land
and there met with a violent death.*
It was believed that sorcerers Could obtain great
assistance from certain animals. Thus we find fre-
quent mention of the art of interpreting the voice of
birds, as a means of important discoveries. The
crow was in this respect a bird of great significance,
and that the raven was so, is to be inferred from the
myth of Odin's news-bringing ravens. The ca't is
also mentioned as an animal specially loved by
sorcerers. The magic-skilled Icelander Thorolf
Skeggi, of Vatnsdal, is said to have had no less than
twenty large black cats, that bravely defended their
master when he was attacked by the Sons of Ingemund
of Hof, and gave eighteen men enough to
do.f
Although people were not wanting among the
Northmen who, by a more than ordinary knowledge
of the powers of nature, made their superstitious
contemporaries believe that they were skilled in
magic, yet the Finns were even in a remote
antiquity looked upon as the chief masters in
sorcery, with whom even the Norsemen, who
wished to perfect themselves more fully in the art,
* Feereyfnga S. 40.
t Vatned. S. 28.