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308 KELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN.
CHAPTEE XXVII.-
DSTFLUENOE OF THE ASA-FAITH UPON THE NATIONAL
SPIRIT OF THE NORTHMEN.
That the Asa-faith exercised a mighty influence
over the character of aU the nations who were its
adherents, is manifest. As to the Northmen, it is
only necessary, in confirmation hereof, to take a com-
parative view of the doctrines of that faith and of
the popular life in heathendom, as portrayed by the
Sagas. By this, however, we would not say that
the popular character, individually and collectively,
was created by that faith; that the virtues and
vices of the people originated in it alone. In that
case we might fancy that the Germanic nations, and
especially the Norrsena branch, had received the
Asa-faith as a comparatively finished system of re-
ligion. But this would certainly be an incorrect
view of the subject. This people, at its separation
from a larger whole, took with it only the germs of
that faith which afterward became developed in a
peculiar direction, under the influence of the popular
life and the action of external circumstances upon
that life, but which also reacted upon that life with
a power which increased in proportion as the system
acquired by development a more decided