Northern mythology

NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY. 119
composed, could not have been produced by ignorant
monks.
The second opmion can only have arisen out of a blind
predilection for antiquity ; for when we abstract the religious
element which is common to all religions, and the
descriptions of the destruction of the world, which are
spread over the whole globe, we find in the Northern mythology
not one trace of that which constitutes the essential
in Christianity ; and the accidental resemblance vanishes
on every closer consideration. The old religion of
the inhabitants of the North is in fact neither a collection
of absurdities and insipid falsehoods, nor a fountain of
exalted wisdom ;
but is the ideas of an uncultivated people,
with reference to the relation between the
divine and the
worldly, expressed in images intelligible to the infant understanding.
The present time must not expect to find in
it
either a revelation of new ideas, or a guide to the way of
happiness ; even the poet of the present will fail to discover
in it a source of inspiration, except in so far as it may
•
supply him with a fitting dress for his own poetic images.
In fact, the Eddaic lore is important, chiefly because it
sheds light on the study of antiquity, on the development
of the human mind in general, and of that of our forefathers
in particular.
With respect to the interpretation itself, the expounders
of the Eddas are divided into two sects : one will impart
to us an illustration of what the ancients themselves
thought of these myths, the other will show what may be
thought of them. The first will seize the sense of a given
poem, the second will try to discover what may further
be imagined from it. The latter we shall at once dismiss;
for however beautiful and elevating their interpretations
may be, and however much poetic application may be
made of them, they will, nevei-theless, not conduct us to,
but from, antiquity, while it is precisely that which we