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eSploeing The FtmiEE. ^f9
CHAPTEK XXY.
EXPLOKmO THE FUTTJEE ; DIVINATION.
The investigation of tlie Future was most inti-
mately connected with Sorcery.
The heathen Northmen believed that there were
means by which man could prevail on the Gods to
make known their wiU, or to reveal things which
otherwise, in the order of Nature, must remain hidden
'from the human understanding. This kind of
inquiry was named, sometimes, fr6tt—an interrogation,
investigation— (from fretta, to ask), and to undertake
it was " at ganga til frettar," to consult the
oracle ; and sometimes it was termed sp4, or plural,
spdr— prophecy, divination^—and to make application
to it was "at spyrja spa," to inquire out the
prophecy'—or " at lySa spam," to listen to prophe-
cies.
Concerning the mode in which this kind of
inquiry into the Future took place, our old manu-
scripts give no special information. It appears to
have been most usual for the explorer of the Future,
while _ invoking or sacrificing to a deity, either to
demand as a response some signal which he left to
the God himself to decide upon, and which he