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INFLTJENCE OF THE ASA-FAITH. 309
character. In this we can perceive an active recip--
rocating influence between the religion and the
popular life, analogous to that operating between
the soul and the body.
When we find, for instance, that the doctrine of
the Asa-faith concerning Odin as Val-father, Val-
halla, and the Einherjar, contains a strong incentive
to warlike deeds, we must not, therefore, imagine
that the warlike spirit which displayed itself so
powerfully among the Germanic tribes in general,
and the Norrsena in particular, had its origin in this
doctrine precisely, or that this doctrine consequent-
ly forms any part of the real basis of the religion.
Kather may we conceive that the inherent physical
power of these tribes, set in activity by casual outward
circumstances, by hostile conflicts with other
tribes and intestine quarrels among themselves,
called forth the warlike spirit from the beginning
that this spirit in turn stamped itself upon the reli-
gious doctrines, and finally, that the religion, after
having received this characteristic impress, again
reacted to sustain and still further inflame that war-
like spirit.
The influence of the Asa-faith upon the popular
spirit of the Northmen must be i-egarded from
quite another point of view than that of Christianity
at a later period. The Asa-faith was, so to speak,
inborn with this particular class of people and this
particular nation, as it had developed itself from
certain germs and taken form with the popular life
itself, almost unknown to it. Christianity, on the
contrary, was imparted to the people as a religious
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