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INTEODUCTION. 49
passages of experience, &c., inwo-^en with mytholo-
gical episodes.* The connection of the several
parts is very loose, yet the whole may be divided
into four principal sections.
The first, of a purely ethical character, emhrapes
a variety of rules of life, full of patriarchal simplicity
and truth, such as instructions for the host and
traveler (stroph. 1 to 35) and precepts for domestic
life and the household (36-104:). The second part
forms an episode relating how Odin obtained the
poetic mead from Suttung (106-111). The third,
L65fafnismal (112-140) appears to be the instruc-
tions of a father to his son L68fafnir, which mostly
consist of warnings against evil company and vice,
and exhortations to hospitality. The Eunic Chapter—Kuna
Kapituli or Bunatals J)attr OSins—forms
the conclusion, and contains, as the name implies,
instruction in runic lore.
15. The Rigsmal is a mythic-ethnologic poem,
which with antique simplicity gives the origin of
three distinct Castes in Society—the thralls, the
middle classes, and the nobles. The God Heim-
dall, the "Warder of Heaven, wanders over the
earth, when but a few of the immediate offspring of
the first pair are yet scattered over its surface. He
is hospitably entertained first by an humble pair
called Ai and Edda (Great Grandfather and Great
Grandmother); then by Afi and Amma (Grand-
father and Grandmother), who are in better circum-
stances; and lastly by FaSir and Ho5ir (Eather
• Sep Chap. 27, Infr»,