neighboring countries. By the rivers they penetrated far into the countries, burning and destroying
what they could not carry away with them. When autumn came, they returned home, loaded with
spoil, and they spent the winter round the open hearth, devouring their prey. But in course of time,
the swarms congregated and formed large armies, and the robber-campaigns became organized
expeditions for conquest; kingdoms were founded in Russia, England, France, and Sicily. In their
new homes, however, the Northern vikings soon forgot both their native language and their old
gods, and became the strong bearers of new departures of civilization and the valiant knights of
Christianity.
In the Scandinavian mythology, there were not a few ideas which the Christian missionary
could use as connecting links. It was not absolutely necessary for him to begin with a mere negation;
here, too, there was an "unknown God" and many traits indicate that, during the eighth and ninth
centuries, people throughout Scandinavia became more and more anxious to hear something about
him. When a man died, he went to Walhall, if he had been brave, and to Niflheim, if he had been
a coward. In Walhall he lived together with the gods, in great brightness and joy, fighting all the
day, feasting all the night. In Niflheim he sat alone, a shadow, surrounded with everything disgusting
and degrading. But Walhall and Niflheim were not to last forever. A deep darkness, Ragnarokr,
shall fall over the universe; Walhall and Niflheim shall be destroyed by fire; the gods, the heroes,
the shadows, shall perish. Then a new heaven and a new earth shall be created by the All-Father,
and he shall judge men not according as they have been brave or cowardly, but according as they
have been good or bad. From the Eddas themseIves, it appears that, throughout Scandinavian
heathendom, there now and then arose characters who, though they would not cease to be brave,
longed to be good. The representative of this goodness, this dim fore-shadowing of the Christian
idea of holiness, was Baldur, the young god standing on the rainbow and watching the worlds, and
he was also the link which held together the whole chain of the Walhall gods; when he died,
Ragnarokr came.
A transition from the myth of Baldur to the gospel of Christ cannot have been very difficult
to the Scandinavian imagination; and, indeed, it is apparent that the first ideas which the Scandinavian
heathens formed of the "White Christ" were influenced by their ideas of Baldur. It is a question,
however, not yet settled, whether certain parts of the Scandinavian mythology, as, for instance, the
above myths of Ragnarokr and Baldur, are not a reflex of Christian ideas; and it is quite probable
that when the Scandinavians in the ninth century began to look at Christ under the image of Baldur,
they had long before unconsciously remodeled their idea of Baldur after the image of Christ.
Another point, of considerable importance to the Christian missionary, was that, in
Scandinavian heathendom, he had no priesthood to encounter. Scandinavian paganism never became
an institution. There were temples, or at least altars, at Leire, near Roeskilde, in Denmark; at Sigtuna,
near Upsall, in Sweden, and at Moere, near Drontheim, in Norway; and huge sacrifices of ninety-nine
horses, ninety-nine cocks, and ninety-nine slaves were offered up there every Juul-time. But every
man was his own priest. At the time when Christianity first appeared in Scandinavia, the old religion
was evidently losing its hold on the individuals and for the very reason, that it had never succeeded
in laying hold on the nation. People continued to swear by the gods, and drink in their honor; but
they ceased to pray to them. They continued to sacrifice before taking the field or after the victory,
and to make the sign of the cross, meaning Thor’s hammer, over a child when it was named; but
there was really nothing in their life, national or individual, public or private, which demanded
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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