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had the virtue to renew his strength as often as was needful. It was with these formidable arms that he overthrew to the ground the monsters and giants, when the Gods sent him to oppose their enemies.
The three deities, whom we have mentioned, composed the court or supreme council of the gods, and were the principal objects of the worship and veneration of all the Scandinavians: but they were not all agreed among themselves about the preference which was due to each of them in particular. The Danes seem to have paid the highest honours to Odin. The inhabitants of Norway and Iceland appear to have been under the immediate protection of Thor: and the Swedes had chosen for their tutelar deity Freya, or rather Frey, an inferior divinity, who, according to the Edda, presided over the seasons of the year, and bestowed peace, fertility and riches. The number and employment of these deities of the second order, it is not very easy to determine, and the matter besides being of no great consequence, I shall point out some of the most material. The Edda[1] reckons up twelve gods and as many goddesses, to whom divine honours were
- ↑ Edda, Mythol. 18.
