That under the armhole of these twelve palaces, the twelve months or the zodiacal signs, are to be understood, there can be little doubt, though it has been controverted, and although we are unable to decide which month or sign the various palaces are meant to represent.
In Asgard the gods had placed their dwellings in the earliest times (rrzeit), and they will all perish in the general conflagration. But this conflagration, though destroying everything, is to give birth to a new creation, in which Asgard will re-appear with increased splendour, and the Asar will revive to resume their original powers. Odin and Thor only will disappear, and the late palace of Odin will become, after this terrific crisis, the abode of Baldur and Hoar. In the first poem, the Viduspd (the decision or judgment of the Veli or prophetess *), it LA said,— " The sun becomes Mack, The earth stinks in the sea, From heaven fall The bright stars, A fiery vortex rages round The all-nourishing world's tree, The hot flames Lick the skies." After which the Asar are to reassemble, to find fields that bear produce without sowing, whence everything evil has vanished; and "There ride the mighty To the council (or judgment) of the gods; The great above all, Who guides alt things. He decides disputes, Appeases quarrels, And ordains for ever Ills Institutions." W this "great above all," the ' (the eong of Ifyndlu) says, after having given a genealogy of the Asar : comes another, Mightier than he, Yet him to name I do not venture.
Few would wish Further to look • Than when Odin The wolf attacks." We shall not attempt to give any of the legends incorporated with this system, nor with the esoteric meaning. On the whole it. will be
seen that the deities are personifications of phyeical forces and of human passions, fashioned by a• northern imagination. J. Grimm, in his ' Deutsche Mythologie,' endeavours to prove that the northern deities are nearly identical with the Greek and Roman and the II iudu deities. There are, necessarily, points of resemblance, but sufficient differences to render the conceptions in each case original.
The flawarnal, or High Song, contains the ethics of the system ; there are many striking sayings in it, but we cannot do more than give a specimen :— " With his weapon No one should part , In the open field ; No one knows, Ilow soon on the way lie may need his spear." "Moderately wise Should a man be Itut not too wise; The heart of the wise Is seldom serene If it becomes too wise." For a fuller investigation we may refer to Jacob Grimm's 'Deutsche 3lythologie,' 1S54 ; Karl Simrock's ' Die Edda, die filter° and die jfingere; 1855 ; and ' 1)as 3lythologische I andbitch,' 1853 ; L. Uhland's Sagenforschungen. Der Mythus von Thor,' 1836; Berger's ' Nonlische Ittythologie,' 1834; Dr. J. C. Bauch 's Nordische Mythologie,' 1847 ; Rank's Snorra Edda, avant Skalds ogtharmeth fylgjundi Ilitgiorthurn,' Stockholm, 1818; various papers by Uhland, Dietrich, IiIiillenholf, • Grimm, and others, in ' Zeitschriften fur Geschichtswiesenschaft ;' Mennlutralt's 'llennanieche Mythen ;' W. G. Frye's ' Trois Clients do l'Ethia; Paris, 1S44; and Mallet's ' Northern Antiquities,' edited by I. A. Blackwell, 1847.