and mischief. The fear of death is no restraint when life has no comfort. What evidently proves the unhappiness of those nations who live in such a state as this, is the facility with which they throw their lives away. The pleasure arising from property, from sentiment and knowledge, the fruits of industry, laws and arts, by softening life and endearing it to us, can alone give us a relish for peace and justice.

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE EXTERIOR WORSHIP AND RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES OF THE NORTHERN NATIONS.

IN laying open the principal doctrines of the ancient Scandinavians, I have already had frequent occasion to remark their conformity with those of the other Teutonic nations of Europe. The same conformity is observable in the worship which they paid the Deity; and one may presume that it would appear still greater if it were easy to pursue with exactness the history of that religion through its several stages of purity and alteration. Thus, for instance, it is easy to comprehend why the ancient Scandinavians made use of temples; although, on the other hand, it would appear that the use of them was proscribed by the primitive religion, which taught that it was offensive to the gods to pretend to inclose them within the circuit of walls; and that men thereby checked and restrained their action, which is to penetrate all creatures freely in order to support them in being. There was doubtless a time, when the Scandinavians, admitting the same doctrine, worshipped their divinities only in the open air, and either knew not or approved not of the use of temples. Although we want the greatest part of the monuments which might instruct us concerning that stage of their religion, the traces of it are not yet entirely destroyed. We find at this day here and there, in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, in the middle of a plain, or upon some little hill, altars, around which they assembled to offer sacrifices and to assist at other religious ceremonies. The greatest part of these altars are raised upon a little hill, either natural or artificial. Three long pieces of rock set upright serve for a basis to a great flat stone, which forms the

table of the altar. There is commonly a pretty large cavity under this altar, which might be intended to receive the blood of the victims; and they never fail to find stones for striking fire scattered round it; for no other fire, but such as was struck forth with a flint, was pure enough for so holy a purpose. Sometimes these rural altars are constructed in a more magnificent manner; a double range of enormous stones surround the altar and the little hill on which it is erected. In Zealand we see one of this kind †; which is formed of stones of a prodigious magnitude. Men would even now be afraid to undertake such a work, notwithstanding all the assistance of the mechanical powers which in those times they wanted. What redoubles the astonishment is, that stones of that size are rarely to be seen throughout the island, and that they must have been brought from a great distance. What labour and time then must have been bestowed upon these vast rude monuments, which are unhappily more durable than those of the fine arts! But men in all ages have been persuaded that they could not pay greater honour to the Deity, than by making for him (if I may so express it) a kind of strong bulwarks; in executing prodigies of labour; in consecrating to him immense riches. The sacrifice of whatever is vicious in our passions, which he only requires of us for our own happiness, is always the last thing that is thought of to offer to him, because it is perhaps what is after all the most difficult. At Ephesus they displayed their devotion by laying out upon one single temple all the treasures of Greece and Asia. The Goths, whose bodily strength was all their riches, showed their zeal by rolling enormous rocks to the summits of hills.

In some places of Norway are found grottoes, which have also been employed for religious uses. Some of them have

Our author who, throughout his work, places too great a value on the somewhat Utopian account which Tacitus has left us of the ancient Germans, fancies that these rude monuments were the altars that served for what he is pleased to term "the primitive worship of mankind." (See Chap. IV.) Without entering into a discussion of an hypothesis which we deem to be perfectly gratuitous, we will merely observe that places where such circles of upright stones are found, were, generally speaking, Thingsteads, that is to say, the places where the Things or legislative and judicial assemblies were held, and where the kings were also elected.-ED.

† Vide Olai Wormii Monum. Danic.

been cut with incredible pains in the hardest rocks; others are formed of prodigious stones brought near and combined together with a force no less surprising *.

By degrees, as the Scandinavians formed new intercourses and connections with the other nations of Europe, whether by the expeditions they undertook, or by the foreign colonies which came to establish themselves among them, their religion, changing by degrees, tolerated insensibly temples and idols, and at length adopted them without reserve. The three principal nations of Scandinaviat vied with each other in erecting temples, but none were more famous than that of Upsal in Sweden. It glittered on all sides with gold. A chain of the same metal (or at least gilded) ran round the roof, although the circumference was not less than nine hundred ells. Hakon, earl of Norway, had built one near Drontheim, which was not inferior to that of Upsal. When Olaf Tryggvason, king of Norway, introduced the Christian faith into that country, he caused this temple to be razed to the ground, and broke to pieces the idols it contained. They found there great riches, and particularly a ring of gold of great value. Iceland had also its temples, and the chronicles of that country speak with admiration of two especially, one situate in the north of the island, the other in the south. In each of these temples "there was," says an author of that country," a private chapel, which was regarded as a holy place there they placed the idols upon a kind of altar, around which they ranged the victims that were to be offered up. Another altar stood opposite to it, plated with iron, in order that the fire which was to burn there perpetually should not damage it. Upon this altar was placed a vase of brass, in which they received the blood of the victims. Beside it stood a brush which they made use of to sprinkle the blood upon the bystanders. There hung up likewise a great silver ring, which they stained with blood, and which whoever took an oath on any occasion was required to hold in his hand. In one of these temples, there was also near the chapel a deep pit or well, into which they cast the victims."

*Worm. Monum. Danic. lib. i. p. 6.
+Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.
Vid. Arngrim, Jon. Crymogea.

When Denmark had embraced the Christian faith, they applied themselves with as much zeal to destroy these temples, as they had a little before to serve their false gods in them. In a short time they were all razed to the ground, and the very remembrance of the places where they stood was totally lost. But the altars that are very often found scattered upon the mountains and in the woods, testify at this day that the ancient Danes were not less attached to this mode of worship than the other northern nations. All the gods whose names I have enumerated, and many others of inferior note, were worshipped and invoked by the ancient Scandinavians, but not all in the same manner, nor on the same account. The great temple of Upsal seemed to be particularly consecrated to the three superior deities, and each of them was characterized by some particular symbol. Odin was represented holding a sword in his hand: Thor stood at the left hand of Odin, with a crown upon his head, a sceptre in one hand, and his mallet in the other. Sometimes they painted him on a chariot, drawn by two he-goats of wood, with a silver bridle, and his head surrounded with stars. Frey stood at the left hand of Thor, and was represented of both sexes, (as an hermaphrodite,) and with divers other attributes which characterized productiveness. I do not here enter into a minute account of the worship rendered to the other gods: that which was paid to the three superior deities consisted principally in sacritices, and deserves to be described more at large.

There were three great religious festivals in the year. The first was celebrated at the winter solstice. They called the night on which it was observed the Mother-night, as that which produced all the rest; and this epoch was rendered the more remarkable as they dated from thence the beginning of the year, which among the northern nations was computed from one winter solstice to another, as the month was from one new moon to the next. This feast, which was very considerable, was named Jul*, and was celebrated in honour of Frey, or the sun, in order to obtain a propitious year and fruitful seasons. Sacrifices, feasting, nocturnal assemblies, and all the demonstrations of a most dissolute joy, were then authorized by the general usage. These answered to the

* Hence is derived the word Yeol or Yule, the old name for Christmas. P.

Saturnalia of the Romans, and were in a great measure renewed afterwards among the people on occasion of the feast of Christinas. The second festival was instituted in honour of the earth, or of the goddess Goa, to request of her pleasures, fruitfulness, and victory; and it was fixed at the first quarter of the second moon of the year *. The third, which seems to have been the most considerable in ancient times, was instituted in honour of Odin; it was celebrated at the beginning of the spring, in order to welcome in that pleasant season, and especially to obtain of the god of battles happy success in their projected expeditions. There were also some feasts in honour of the other gods, and they were often multiplied on occasion of particular events.

In the earliest ages the offerings were simple, and such as shepherds and rustics could present. They loaded the altars of the gods with the first fruits of their crops, and the choicest products of the earth. Afterwards they sacrificed animals. When they had once laid it down as a principle that the effusion of the blood of these animals appeased the anger of the gods, and that their justice turned aside upon the victims those strokes which were destined for men, their great care then was for nothing more than to conciliate their favour by so easy a method. It is the nature of violent desires and excessive fear to know no bounds, and therefore when they would ask for any favour which they ardently wished for, or would deprecate some public calamity which they feared, the blood of animals was not deemed a price sufficient, but they began to shed that of men. It is probable that this barbarous practice was formerly almost universal, and that it is of a very remote antiquity. It was not entirely abolished among the northern nations till towards the ninth century, because before that time they had not received the light of the gospel, and

This was the chief festival of the Swedes, during which they held their Al-thing. Goa is not mentioned in the Edda, but is supposed to correspond to the nymph or goddess Saga, and the festival to have been in honour of all the Disir-beings, though of a different sex, corresponding in their attritutes to the Roman genii loci. In other parts of Scandinavia a festival took place at this period in honour of Freyja. It seems probable, in fact, that all the female deities, Asynior, Norns, Valkyrior, and Disir, were invoked at these vernal festivities.-See Finn Magnusen's Eddalæren, IV. 144.--ED.