Northern mythology

—
90 NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY.
:
blood, which Nidung imagined to be the blood of Velint
he, however, flew to his father^s abode in Seeland.
Shortly
after these events Nidung died, and Velint was reconciled
with his son Otwin, and married his sister, who had
already borne him a son named Vidga'.
Of Thorgerd Horgabrud (Porger^r Horgabru^r,
OR Holgabru^r) and Irpa.— Objects of worship among
the people of Halgoland, in Norway, were Thorgerd Horgabrud
and her sister Irpa. Who these were will appear
from the following extract :
" The Halgolanders had their local deities, who were
but rarely worshiped by the other Scandinavians. One of
these was Halogi (high flame), or Helgi (holy), from
whom the whole district, of which he was king, derived its
name of Haloga-land, or Holga-land^. He was probably
identical with the Logi and Loki (fire, flame) formerly
worshiped by the Fins. His daughters were Thorgerd
Horgabrud, or Holgabrud, and Irpa, of whom the former
w^as an object of especial veneration with Hakon Jarl, and
to propitiate whom, we are informed, he sacrificed his son
Erling, a child of seven
years, when engaged in a doubtful
battle with the pirates of Jomsborg.
She consequently
appeared in a raging hail-storm from the north, and the
pirates imagined that they saw both her and her sister
Irpa on board of the jarFs ship ;
an arrow flew from each
of her fingers, and every arrow carried a man's death^.
In Gudbrandsdal she and Irpa together with Thor were
worshiped in a temple, which Hakon Jarl and the chieftain
Gudbrand possessed in common'*. In western Nor-
^
The AViulga mentioned in The Scop or Scald's Song (Cod. Exon. 326),
the Vidnk Verlandson of the Danisli Kja^mpeviser. For the several extracts
relating to these personages, from German and Northern sources,
see W. Grimm's Deutsche Heldensage passim.
2 See p. 27.
3 Jomsv. S. edit. 1824, c. 14. Fornm. S. xi. p. 134. Olaf Trygg^-. S.
in Fornm. S. p. 90.
» Njalss. p. 89.