in a twinkling to distant lands upon his own or other peoples' business. With words alone he could quench fire, still the ocean in tempest, and turn the wind to any quarter he pleased. Odin had a ship, which he called Skidbladner,[1] in which he sailed over wide seas, and which he could roll up like a cloth. Odin carried with him Mimer' s head, which told him all the news of other countries. Sometimes even he called the dead out of the earth, or set himself beside the burial-mounds; whence he was called the ghostsovereign, and the lord of the mounds. He had two ravens,[2] to whom he had taught ^he speech of man; and they flew far and wide through the land, and brought him the news. In all such things he was preeminently wise. He taught all these arts in runes and songs, which are called incantations, and therefore the Asaland people are called incantation-smiths. Odin also understood the art in which the greatest power is lodged, and which he himself practiced, namely, what is called magic. By means of this he could know beforehand the predestined fate[3] of men, or their not yet completed lot, and also bring on the death, ill-luck or bad health of people, or take away the strength or wit from one person and give it to another. But after such witchcraft followed such
- ↑ In the mythology this ship belongs to Frey, having been made for him by the dwarfs.
- ↑ Hugin and Munin.
- ↑ The old Norse word is orlog, which is plural, (from or = Ger. iir, and log, laics,) and means the primal law, fate, weird, doom; the Greek p.oTpa. The idea of predestination was a salient feature in the Odinic religion. The word orlog, 0. H. G. ttrlac, M. H. G. urlone, Dutch orlog, had special reference to a man's fate in war. Hence Orlogschiffe in German means a naval fleet. The Danish orlog means warfare at sea.
