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shewed their zeal by rolling enormous rocks to the summits of hills.

In some places of Norway, are found grottos, which have also been employed for religious uses. Some of them have 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 surprizing[1].

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 Scandinavia[2] 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. Hacon earl of Norway had built one near Drontheim, which was not inferior to that of Upsal. When Olaus

  1. Worm. Monum. Danic. lib. i. p. 6.
  2. Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.