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DECtlNE OB- TfiE ASA-SAITfi;. 32l
believed their idols to find sustenance in bloodysacrifices,
even of human beings, there were many,
on the other hand, who lived - without God and
thoughtlessly jput their whole trust in their own
power and strength. There were some, indeed, who
thought more deeply. They rejected a plurality of
Gods and. put their trust in one only Supreme
Being, " in Him who created the Sun and all things
that have a being." In this Supreme Being the
first sovereign king of Norway, Harald Harfagri,
professed to believe.* The Icelandic chieftain
Thorkel Mdni in his last sickness requested to be
carried into the rays of the Sun, where he commended
his soul to the God who created the Sun.
"And he had led as virtuous a life as the best
Christian,"f The Icelander Thorstein Ingemunds-
son said to his brothers,- that their departed father
would certainly enjoy a blissful reward for his piety
" with Him wbo created the Sun and all the world,
whoever He may be ;" and this same Being, whom
he regarded as " the Mightiest," he called upon to
deliver his brothers from the Berserksgang.:]; The
Asa doctrine itself, with its not indistinct presentiments
of a Being higher than all ^sir, might
awaken such conceptions in the pious and contem-
plative mind who felt disgusted with the gross
superstition of the times, and yet was not willing to
give up every consolation of Eeligion. But these
few individuals could not contribute anything to
' » Snor. : Har. Hirf. S. 4.
f
Landmnb. I. 9.
i Vfttnsd. a 23, SI, 46.