Northern mythology

NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY. 125
they mingle in the hostile ranks^ they take the fallen in
their embrace^ and ride with them on their heavenly
horses to Valhall. Here is only a beautiful poetic expression
of the thought, that V^alfather Odin decides the result
of the battle, that his will decrees who shall fall, and that
this kind of death is a blessing, through which the hero is
taken into his abode : while by explaining the Valkyriur
as bright aerial meteors, balls of fire, and the like, which^
by the way, could not make their appearance on every
battle-field, we impair all
the poetic beauty, by conceiving
to be physical that which is purely imaginary. When the
signification of Skirnir^s journey^ is thus explained: that
Frey is the sun, Gerd the northern light, her father, Gymir,
the frozen ocean, and that Frey and Gerd's love produce
spring or summer, we find in this explanation many
and striking resemblances with the several contents of the
poem ; though these appear to be purely accidental, because
a principal resemblance is wanting, because for Gerd,
as the northern light, it can be no very formidable threat,
that she shall always continue barren, and live united with
a Frost-giant, which is, in fact, her constant lot; and
Frey^s fructifying embrace—for without fruit it cannot be,
whatever we may take Frey to be, since it takes place in
the wood of buds—has on a being like the northern light
no effect, which is, and continues to be, unfruitful. The
explanation must, therefore, of itself pass over to the fruitfulness
of the earth, effected by the summer sun, but
thereby, at the same time, abandons its first direction.
Here the idea, which really forms the ground-work of the
poem, is in fact comprehended, viz. the earth rendered
fertile by Frey ;
but when put aside by other similitudes,
it is almost lost in another idea—the beauty of the northern
light.
If,
\vith some commentators, we take the god Vidar for
1 See p. 46.