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the bees make their honey. These three virgins always keep under the ash; and it is they who dispense the days and ages of men. Every man hath a Destiny appropriated to himself, who determines the duration and events of his life. But the three Destinies of more especial note are Urd (the past), Werandi (the present), and Sculde (the future).
Such were the principal deities, formerly worshipped in the north of Europe. Or rather these were the ideas which the poets gave of them to that credulous people. It is easy to discover their handy-work in these fictions, sometimes ingenious, but more frequently puerile, with which they thought to set off the simplicity of the antient religion; and we ought not to believe, as we shall prove hereafter, that such of them as were men of sense and discernment ever considered them in any other light. But after having shewn the names and attributes of their principal Deities, let us proceed to set forth after the Edda and the poem named Voluspa[1], the other Doctrines of their Religion.
- ↑ It is believed, that Sæmond, surnamed the learned, compiled a very extensive Mythology, of which at present we have only an abridgment.
