Northern mythology

124 NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY.
dicate those powers of nature and natural phenomena^
which in the myths are represented as personal beings,
and to show^ the accordance between the mythic representation
and the agency of the natural powers. This mode
of illustration has been followed and developed by the
greater number of interpreters, and, on the whole, none
of the proposed systems has in its several parts been so
borne out as this. To the Northern mythology it, moreover,
presents itself so naturally, that its application is
almost unavoidable ;
for not only have the ancient \\Titers
themselves sometimes expressly declared the natural phenomenon
intended by this or that myth, as the rainbow,
an earthquake, etc., but some myths, as that of the w^olf
Fenrir, the Midgard^s serpent and others, contain so evident
a representation of a natural agency, that it is hardly
possible to err as to their signification.
In the case, therefore,
of every obscure myth, it is advisable first to ascertain
whether it is or is not a natural myth, before making
any attempt to explain it in some other way. But because
this mode of explanation is the simplest, most natural,
and most accordant with the notions of antiquity,
it does not follow that it can be applied in all cases, or
that it is always applied rightly. An explanation may be
right in its idea, without necessarily being so in its several
parts. The idea may be seized, but the application
missed.
But the idea itself may also be a misconception,
wdien no real agreement is found between the myth and
the natural object to which it is applied ; when the resemblance
is, as it were, put into it, but does not of itself
spring from it.
An example or two may serve to explain
this, to which the reader may easily add others. An interpretation
fails, when it is made up of that which is only
the poetic garb of the thought. The Yalkyriur are, for
instance, sent forth by Odin, to choose the heroes that are
to fall in a battle : they hover over the conflicting bands.