Ten Great Religions by James Freeman Clarke

J >> James Freeman Clarke >> Ten Great Religions

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45

"OF TYR.

"'There is Tyr, who is the most daring and intrepid of all the gods. 'T
is he who dispenses valor in war, hence warriors do well to invoke him.
It has become proverbial to say of a man who surpasses all others in
valor that he is _Tyr-strong_, or valiant as Tyr. A man noted for his
wisdom is also said to be "wise as Tyr." Let me give thee a proof of
his intrepidity. When the AEsir were trying to persuade the wolf,
Fenrir, to let himself be bound up with the chain, Gleipnir, he,
fearing that they would never afterwards unloose him, only consented on
the condition that while they were chaining him he should keep Tyr's
right hand between his jaws. Tyr did not hesitate to put his hand in
the monster's mouth, but when Fenrir perceived that the AEsir had no
intention to unchain him, he bit the hand off at that point, which has
ever since been called the wolf's joint (ulflidr). From that time Tyr
has had but one hand. He is not regarded as a peacemaker among men.'

"OF THE OTHER GODS.

"'There is another god,' continued Har, 'named Bragi, who is celebrated
for his wisdom, and more especially for his eloquence and correct forms
of speech. He is not only eminently skilled in poetry, but the art
itself is called from his name _Bragr_, which epithet is also applied
to denote a distinguished poet or poetess. His wife is named Iduna. She
keeps in a box the apples which the gods, when they feel old age
approaching, have only to taste of to become young again. It is in this
manner that they will be kept in renovated youth until Ragnaroek.....

"'One of the gods is Heimdall, called also the White God. He is the son
of nine virgins, who were sisters, and is a very sacred and powerful
deity. He also bears the appellation of the Gold-toothed, on account of
his teeth being of pure gold, and also that of Hallinskithi. His horse
is called Gulltopp, and he dwells in Himinbjoerg at the end of Bifroest.
He is the warder of the gods, and is therefore placed on the borders of
heaven, to prevent the giants from forcing their way over the bridge.
He requires less sleep than a bird, and sees by night, as well as by
day, a hundred miles around him. So acute is his ear that no sound
escapes him, for he can even hear the grass growing on the earth, and
the wool on a sheep's back. He has a horn called the Gjallar-horn,
which is heard throughout the universe.....

"'Among the AEsir,' continued Har,'we also reckon Hoedur, who is blind,
but extremely strong. Both gods and men would be very glad if they
never had occasion to pronounce his name, for they will long have cause
to remember the deed perpetrated by his hand.

"'Another god is Vidar, surnamed the Silent, who wears very thick
shoes. He is almost as strong as Thor himself, and the gods place great
reliance on him in all critical conjunctures.

"'Vali, another god, is the son of Odin and Rinda; he is bold in war,
and an excellent archer.

"'Another is called Ullur, who is the son of Sif, and stepson of Thor.
He is so well skilled in the use of the bow, and can go so fast on his
snow-skates, that in these arts no one can contend with him. He is also
very handsome in his person, and possesses every quality of a warrior,
wherefore it is befitting to invoke him in single combats.

"'The name of another god is Forseti, who is the son of Baldur and
Nanna, the daughter of Nef. He possesses the heavenly mansion called
Glitnir, and all disputants at law who bring their cases before him go
away perfectly reconciled.....'

"OF LOKI AND HIS PROGENY.

"'There is another deity,' continued Har, 'reckoned in the number of
the AEsir, whom some call the calumniator of the gods, the contriver of
all fraud and mischief, and the disgrace of gods and men. His name is
Loki or Loptur. He is the son of the giant Farbauti.....Loki is
handsome and well made, but of a very fickle mood, and most evil
disposition. He surpasses all beings in those arts called Cunning and
Perfidy. Many a time has he exposed the gods to very great perils, and
often extricated them again by his artifices.....

"'Loki,' continued Har, 'has likewise had three children by Angurbodi,
a giantess of Joetunheim. The first is the wolf Fenrir; the second
Jormungand, the Midgard serpent; the third Hela (Death). The gods were
not long ignorant that these monsters continued to be bred up in
Joetunheim, and, having had recourse to divination, became aware of all
the evils they would have to suffer from them; their being sprung from
such a mother was a bad presage, and from such a sire, one still worse.
All-father therefore deemed it advisable to send one of the gods to
bring them to him. When they came he threw the serpent into that deep
ocean by which the earth is engirdled. But the monster has grown to
such an enormous size that, holding his tail in his mouth, he encircles
the whole earth. Hela he cast into Niflheim, and gave her power over
nine worlds (regions), into which she distributes those who are sent to
her, that is to say, all who die through sickness or old age. Here she
possesses a habitation protected by exceedingly high walls and strongly
barred gates. Her hall is called Elvidnir; Hunger is her table;
Starvation, her knife; Delay, her man; Slowness, her maid; Precipice,
her threshold; Care, her bed; and Burning Anguish forms the hangings of
her apartments. The one half of her body is livid, the other half the
color of human flesh. She may therefore easily be recognized; the more
so, as she has a dreadfully stern and grim countenance.

"'The wolf Fenrir was bred up among the gods; but Tyr alone had the
daring to go and feed him. Nevertheless, when the gods perceived that
he every day increased prodigiously in size, and that the oracles
warned them that he would one day become fatal to them, they determined
to make a very strong iron fetter for him, which they called Laeding.
Taking this fetter to the wolf, they bade him try his strength on it.
Fenrir, perceiving that the enterprise would not be very difficult for
him, let them do what they pleased, and then, by great muscular
exertion, burst the chain, and set himself at liberty. The gods, having
seen this, made another fetter, half as strong again as the former,
which they called Dromi, and prevailed on the wolf to put it on,
assuring him that, by breaking this, he would give an undeniable proof
of his vigor.

"'The wolf saw well enough that it would not be so easy to break this
fetter, but finding at the same time that his strength had increased
since he broke Laeding, and thinking that he could never become famous
without running some risk, voluntarily submitted to be chained. When
the gods told him that they had finished their task, Fenrir shook
himself violently, stretched his limbs, rolled on the ground, and at
last burst his chains, which flew in pieces all around him. He thus
freed himself from Dromi, which gave rise to the proverb "_at leysa or
laeethingi eetha at drepa or droma_" (to get loose out of Laeding, or to
dash out of Dromi), when anything is to be accomplished by strong
efforts.'

"'After this, the gods despaired of ever being able to bind the wolf;
wherefore All-father sent Skirnir, the messenger of Frey, into the
country of the Dark Elves (Svartalfaheim) to engage certain dwarfs to
make the fetter called Gleipnir. It was fashioned out of six things; to
wit, the noise made by the footfall of a cat; the beards of women; the
roots of stones; the sinews of bears; the breath of fish; and the
spittle of birds. Though thou mayest not have heard of these things
before, thou mayest easily convince thyself that we have not been
telling thee lies. Thou must have seen that women have no beards, that
cats make no noise when they run, and that there are no roots under
stones. Now I know what has been told thee to be equally true, although
there may be some things thou art not able to furnish a proof of.'

"'I believe what thou hast told me to be true,' replied Gangler, 'for
what thou hast adduced in corroboratiou of thy statement is
conceivable. But how was the fetter smithied?'

"'This I can tell thee,' replied Har, 'that the fetter was as smooth
and soft as a silken string, and yet, as thou wilt presently hear, of
very great strength. When it was brought to the gods they were profuse
in their thanks to the messenger for the trouble he had given himself;
and taking the wolf with them to the island called Lyngvi, in the Lake
Amsvartnir, they showed him the cord, and expressed their wish that he
would try to break it, assuring him at the same time that it was
somewhat stronger than its thinness would warrant a person in supposing
it to be. They took it themselves, one after another, in their hands,
and after attempting in vain to break it, said, "Thou alone, Fenrir,
art able to accomplish such a feat."

"'"Methinks," replied the wolf, "that I shall acquire no fame in
breaking such a slender cord; but if any artifice has been employed in
making it, slender though it seems, it shall never come on my feet."

"'The gods assured him that he would easily break a limber silken cord,
since he had already burst asunder iron fetters of the most solid
construction. "But if thou shouldst not succeed in breaking it," they
added, "thou wilt show that thou art too weak to cause the gods any
fear, and we will not hesitate to set thee at liberty without delay."

"'"I fear me much," replied the wolf, "that if ye once bind me so fast
that I shall be unable to free myself by my own efforts, ye will be in
no haste to unloose me. Loath am I, therefore, to have this cord wound
round me; but in order that ye may not doubt my courage, I will
consent, provided one of you put his hand into my mouth as a pledge
that ye intend me no deceit."

"'The gods wistfully looked at each other, and found that they had only
the choice of two evils, until Tyr stepped forward and intrepidly put
his right hand between the monster's jaws. Hereupon the gods, having
tied up the wolf, he forcibly stretched himself, as he had formerly
done, and used all his might to disengage himself, but the more efforts
he made, the tighter became the cord, until all the gods, except Tyr,
who lost his hand, burst into laughter at the sight.

"'When the gods saw that the wolf was effectually bound, they took the
chain called Gelgja, which was fixed to the fetter, and drew it through
the middle of a large rock named Gjoell, which they sank very deep into
the earth; afterwards, to make it still more secure, they fastened the
end of the cord to a massive stone called Thviti, which they sank still
deeper. The wolf made in vain the most violent efforts to break loose,
and, opening his tremendous jaws, endeavored to bite them. The gods,
seeing this, thrust a sword into his mouth, which pierced his under jaw
up to the hilt, so that the point touched the palate. He then began to
howl horribly, and since that time the foam flows continually from his
mouth in such abundance that it forms the river called Von. There will
he remain until Ragnaroek.'"

There are also goddesses in the Valhalla, of whom the Edda mentions
Frigga, Saga, and many others.

Sec. 5. Resemblance of the Scandinavian Mythology to that of Zoroaster.

These are the main points of the Scandinavian mythology, the resemblance
of which to that of Zoroaster has been often remarked. Each is a dualism,
having its good and evil gods, its worlds of light and darkness, in
opposition to each other. Each has behind this dualism a dim presence, a
vague monotheism, a supreme God, infinite and eternal. In each the evil
powers are for the present conquered and bound in some subterranean
prisons, but are hereafter to break out, to battle with the gods and
overcome them, but to be destroyed themselves at the same time. Each
system speaks of a great conflagration, in which all things will be
destroyed; to be followed by the creation of a new earth, more beautiful
than the other, to be the abode of peace and joy. The duty of man in each
system is war, though this war in the Avesta is viewed rather as moral
conflict, while in the Edda it is taken more grossly for physical
struggle. The tone of the theology of Zoroaster is throughout higher and
more moral than that of the Scandinavians. Its doctrine of creation is not
a mere development by a dark, unintelligent process, nor, on the other
hand, is it a Hindoo or Gnostic system of emanation. It is neither pure
materialism on the one hand nor pantheism on the other; but a true
doctrine of creation, for an intelligent and moral purpose, by the
conscious and free act of the Creator. But in many of the details, again,
we find a singular correspondence between these two systems. Odin
corresponds to Ormazd, Loki to Ahriman, the AEsir to the Amschaspands, the
giants of Jotunheim to the Daevas. So too the ox (Adudab) is the
equivalent of the giant Ymir, and the creation of the man and woman,
Meshia and Meshiane, is correlated to Ask and Embla. Baldur resembles the
Redeemer Sosiosh. The bridge, Bifrost, which goes up to heaven, is the
bridge Chinevat, which goes from the top of Albordj to heaven. The dog
Sirius (Sura), the watchman who keeps guard over the abyss, seems also to
correspond to Surtur, the watchman of the luminous world at the South. The
earth, in the Avesta, is called Hethra, and by the ancient Germans and
Scandinavians, Hertha,--the name given by Tacitus to this goddess,
signifying the earth, in all the Teutonic languages. In like manner, the
German name for heaven, Himmel, is derived from the Sanskrit word
"Himmala," the name of the Himmalah Mountains in Central Asia, believed by
the ancient inhabitants of Asia to be the residence of their gods[330].

Sec. 6. Scandinavian Worship.

The religious ceremonies of the Scandinavians were simple. Their worship,
like that of the followers of Zoroaster, was at first held in the open
air; but in later times they erected temples, some of which were quite
splendid. There were three great festivals in the year. The first was at
the winter solstice, and on the longest night of the year, which was
called the Mother Night, as that which produced the rest. This great feast
was called Yul, whence comes the English Yule, the old name for Christmas,
which festival took its place when the Scandinavians became Christians.
Their festival was in honor of the sun, and was held with sacrifices,
feasting, and great mirth. The second festival was in spring, in honor of
the earth, to supplicate fruitful crops. The third was also in the spring,
in honor of Odin. The sacrifices were of fruits, afterward animals, and
occasionally, in later times, human beings. The people believed in divine
interposition, and also in a fixed destiny, but especially in themselves,
in their own force and courage. Some of them laughed at the gods, some
challenged them to fight with them, and professed to believe in nothing
but their own might and main. One warrior calls for Odin, as a foeman
alone worthy of his steel, and it was considered lawful to fight the gods.
The quicken-tree, or mountain-ash, was believed to possess great virtues,
on account of the aid it afforded to Thor on one occasion.

Beside the priests, the Northern nations had their soothsayers. They also
believed that by the power of runes the dead could be made to speak. These
runes were called galder, and another kind of magic, mostly practised by
women, was called seid. It was thought that these wise women possessed the
power of raising and allaying storms, and of hardening the body so that
the sword could not cut it. Some charms could give preternatural strength,
others the power of crossing the sea without a ship, of creating and
destroying love, of assuming different forms, of becoming invisible, of
giving the evil eye. Garments could be charmed to protect or to destroy
the wearer. A horse's head, set on a stake, with certain imprecations,
produced fearful mischief to a foe.[331]

Very few remains of temples have been found in the North. But (as Laing
remarks in his "Sea-Kings of Norway") the most permanent remains of the
religion of Odin are found in the usages and languages of the descendants
of those who worshipped him. These descendants all retain, in the names of
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the recollections of the chief gods of
this mythology. Mara (the nightmare) still torments the sleep of the
English-speaking people; and the Evil One, Nokke (so says Laing), is the
ancestor of Old Nick.

Every ninth year solemn sacrifices were held in the great temple at Upsal
in Sweden. The king and all citizens of importance must appear in person
and bring offerings. Crowds came together on these occasions, and no one
was excluded, except for some base or cowardly action. Nine human beings
were sacrificed, usually captives or slaves, but in times of great
calamity even a king was made a victim. Earl Hakon, of Norway, offered his
son in sacrifice to obtain a victory over some pirates. The bodies were
buried in groves, which thence were regarded as very sacred. One, called
Odin's grove, near the temple of Upsal, was sacred in every twig and leaf.

Sec. 7. Social Character, Maritime Discoveries, and Political Institutions of
the Scandinavians.

Of the manners, customs, and habits of the Scandinavians, we cannot speak
at length. Society among them was divided into two classes,--the
landholder or bondsmen, and the thralls or slaves. The duty of the last
was to perform domestic service and till the ground, and they consisted of
prisoners taken in war and their children. The business of the landholder
or bondsman was war, and his chief virtue courage. His maxim was, to
conquer a single opponent, to attack two, not to yield to three, and only
to give way to four. To die in battle was their high ambition; then they
believed that they should pass to the halls of Odin. King Ragnar died
singing the pleasure of receiving death in battle, saying, "The hours of
my life have passed away; I shall die laughing." Saxo, describing a duel,
said that one of the champions fell, laughed, and died. Rather than die in
their bed, some, when sick, leaped from a rock into the sea. Others, when
dying, would be carried into a field of battle. Others induced their
friends to kill them. The Icelandic Sagas are filled with stories of
single combats, or _holm-gangs_. When not fighting they were fond of
feasting; and the man who could drink the most beer was counted the best.
The custom of drinking toasts came from the North. As the English give the
Queen, and we the President, as the first health on public occasions, so
they begin with a cup, first to Odin, and afterward to other deities, and
then to the memory of the dead, in what was called grave-beer. Their
institutions were patriarchal; the head of the family was the chief of the
tribe and also its priest. But all the freemen in a neighborhood met in
the Thing, where they decided disputes, laid down social regulations, and
determined on public measures. The Thing was, therefore, legislature,
court of justice, and executive council in one; and once a year, in some
central place, there was held a similar meeting to settle the affairs of
the whole country, called the Land-Thing or All-Thing. At this the king
was chosen for the whole community, who sometimes appointed subordinate
officers called Yarls, or earls, to preside over large districts. Respect
for women was a marked trait among the Scandinavians, as Tacitus has
noticed of their congeners, the Germans. They were admired for their
modesty, sense, and force of character, rather than for the fascinations
which the nations of the South prefer. When Thor described his battle with
the sorceress, the answer was, "Shame, Thor! to strike a woman!" The wife
was expected to be industrious and domestic. She carried the keys of the
house; and the Sagas frequently mention wives who divorced their husbands
for some offence, and took back their dowry. The Skalds, or Bards, had a
high place and great distinction among this people. Their songs
constituted the literature and history of the Scandinavians, and the
people listened, not as to the inspiration of an individual mind, but to
the pulsation of its own past life. Their praises were desired, their
satire feared, by the greatest heroes and kings. Their style was
figurative, sometimes bombastic, often obscure.

Of the maritime expeditions of the Northmen we have already spoken. For
many centuries they were the terror of Europe, North and South. The
sea-kings of Norway appeared before Constantinople in 866, and afterward a
body-guard of the emperors of the East was composed of these pirates, who
were called the Varangians. Even before the death of Charlemagne their
depredations brought tears to his eyes; and after his death they pillaged
and burnt the principal cities of France, and even his own palace at
Aix-la-Chapelle. They carried their arms into Spain, Italy, and Greece. In
844 a band of these sea-rovers sailed up the Guadalquiver and attacked
Seville, then in possession of the Moors, and took it, and afterward
fought a battle with the troops of Abderahman II. The followers of
Mohammed and the worshippers of Odin, the turbaned Moors and the
fair-haired Norwegians, here met, each far from his original home, each
having pursued a line of conquest, which thus came in contact at their
furthest extremes.

The Northmen in Italy sold their swords to different princes, and under
Count Rainalf built the city of Aversa in 1029[332]. In Sicily the
Northern knights defeated the Saracens, and enabled the Greek Emperor to
reconquer the island. Afterward they established themselves in Southern
Italy, and took possession of Apulia. A league formed against them by the
Greek and German Emperors and the Pope ended in the utter defeat of the
Papal and German army by three thousand Normans, and they afterward
received and held Apulia as a Papal fief. In 1060 Robert Guiscard became
Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and at last of the whole kingdom of Naples.
Sicily was conquered by his brother, Count Roger, who, with a few
Northmen, routed vast numbers of the Saracens and completed the subjection
of the island, after thirty years of war. Meantime his brother Robert
crossed the Adriatic and besieged and took Durazzo, after a fierce battle,
in which the Scandinavian soldiers of the Greek Emperor fought with the
Normans descended from the same Scandinavian ancestors.

Sec. 8. Relation of this System to Christianity.

The first German nation converted to Christianity was that of the Goths,
whose teacher was Ulphilas, born 318, consecrated a bishop in 348. Having
made many converts to Christianity among his people, a persecution arose
against them from the pagan Goths; and in 355, in consequence of this
persecution, he sought and obtained leave to settle his converts in
Maesia. He preached with fervor, studied the Scripture in Greek and Latin,
and made the first translation of the Bible into any German language.
Fragments of his Gothic version are preserved at Upsal. This copy, called
the "Codex Argenteus," was captured by the Swedes at Prague during the
Thirty Years' War. This manuscript is of the sixth century, and, together
with some palimpsests, is the only source of our knowledge of this ancient
version[333].

Ulphilas was an Arian, and died confessing his faith in that form of
Unitarianism. Neander says it is to the credit of the orthodox historians
that they do not on that account abate anything of their praise of
Ulphilas for his great labors as a missionary, confessor, and doctor. His
translation was, for a long time, used all over Europe by the various
tribes of German descent.

Ulphilas, therefore, led the way in that work which resulted in one of the
greatest events of modern history; namely, the conversion of the German
race to Christianity. It was by various families of this Teutonic
stem--Goths, Vandals, Saxons, Lombards, Burgundians, Franks--that the
Roman Empire was overthrown. If they had not been converted to
Christianity before and during these conquests, what would have been the
fate of European civilization? The only bond uniting the modern and
ancient world was the Christian faith, and this faith was so adapted to
the German character that it was everywhere accepted by them[334]. The
conversion of the Anglo-Saxons by Augustin (A.D. 597), of the Germans by
Boniface (A.D. 718-755), of the Saxons (A.D. 803), and the universal
downfall of German heathenism, was a condition _sine qua non_ of that
union of Latin and Greek culture with the German vitality, which was at
the root of modern European civilization. Previous to this the Visigoths
were converted, as we have seen; then the Ostrogoths; then the Vandals and
Gepidae,--all in the fourth century. The Franks became Christians in the
fifth century, the Alemanni and Lombards in the sixth. All of these tribes
were converted by Arian missionaries, except the Franks. But the records
of these missions have perished, for the historians were Catholics, "who,"
says Milman[335], "perhaps destroyed, or disdained to preserve, the fame
of Arian conquests to a common Christianity." "It was a surprising
spectacle," says he, "to behold the Teutonic nations melting gradually
into the general mass of Christian worshippers. In every other respect
they were still distinct races. The conquering Ostrogoth or Visigoth, the
Vandal, the Burgundian, the Frank, stood apart from the subjugated Roman
population, as an armed or territorial aristocracy. They maintain, in
great part at least, their laws, their language, their habits, their
character; in religion alone they are blended into one society, constitute
one church, worship at the same altar, and render allegiance to the same
hierarchy. This is the single bond of their common humanity."