Northern mythology

—
194 NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY.
dar^s essence ?
This great nature was familiar to Antiquity,
which dwelt, as it were, in her lap; and we must feel
veneration for the ancients, who neglected not to conceive
and ennoble the idea of her infinite creative power, even
without any view to man. The blooming fields they glorified
in Fulla, the whole cultivated earth in Frigg, the
grass-grown mountain in Sif ^ ; the boundless woods must
also have their divinity. Around the dwellings of men
Frey and his elves hold sway. He is mild and beneficent,
he loves the earth and its swelling seed ; but Vidar is silent
and still ; after Thor he is the strongest ; he moves not
among men, he is rarely named among the gods, but he
survives the destruction of the world, of the gods,
and of
mankind. With Earth Odin begat Thor; with Frigg,
Baldur ; with Rind, Vali ; but with a giantess, Vidar, the
connection between the eternal creative power of matter
and spirit. These gods and these men shall pass away,
but neither the creative power in nature, Vidar, nor in
man, Hoenir, shall ever have an end.
Illustration.—The name of Vidar is formed from
vi^r, a wood, forest. His abode, Landvidi, is thus described
:
Begl•o^^^l -with branches
and with high grass
is Vidar's dwelhng".
His leathern or iron shoe has been already described^, and
in the Sagas leather is mentioned as a protection against
fire.
Hence we find him unscathed presenting the drinking-horn
to Loki at Oegir^s
banquef*; nor does the wolf
Fenrir harm him, but he seizes it and rends its jaws
asunder^.
All this pronounces him lord of the iron wood.
According to Finn Magnusen's interpretation of this
myth, Vidar is neither more nor less than the phenomenon
1
Pages 31, 34, 35. - Grimnism. Str. 17.
•'
Page 29. ^ Loka-glepsa, Str. 10. ^ Pages 79, 82.