le with their cunning; and of his catching the
Midgard serpent which surrounds the world at the bottom of the sea.
Being a god of storm, he forms a connection with agriculture, and
thus gains a more sedate aspect; he has also to do with marriage, and
a hammer is used symbolically at Icelandic weddings. Thor is only
half-brother to the other sons of Odin; his mother was Fioergyn, the
earth; the worships of Odin and Thor, originally distinct, seem to
have been united at an early period.

The god Tyr, son of Odin by a giantess, is the Eddic figure of the
German Tiw or Ziu, etymologically equivalent to Zeus or Jupiter, but
identified by the Romans with Mars. His greatness belongs to early
times; he was then a sword-god, and had an extensive worship in
various parts of Europe. In the Eddas he has scarcely any character,
and seldom takes a prominent part in the legend. Loki, by etymology a
fire-god (Germ. _Loehe_, Scot. _Lowe_),[8] is in one account the
brother of Odin, in another his son by a giantess. His character is
fitful; sometimes he acts a brotherly part by the gods and helps them
out of their difficulties by clever devices, and sometimes he
provides entertainment for them; but for the most part he is an
embodiment of cunning and mischief; his course is downwards, he tends
to become a being purely evil, setting himself heartlessly against
the wishes of the other gods, and acting so as to imperil them and
their world till they are obliged to cast him out of heaven. He is
thus a kind of Lucifer or Satan, and like the Christian devil, his
ultimate fate is to be bound till the end of the world shall arrive.
Baldur, the son of Odin and Frigga, is the best and brightest of the
gods. Like Apollo, he has to do with light, and no pollution can come
near him; he has also to do with the administration of justice, and
pronounces sentences which can never be reversed. Heimdall also is a
light and gracious god; he is the warder of the Aesir, and stays near
the bridge Bifroest. Of him it is told that he wants less sleep than a
bird, sees a hundred miles off by night or day, and hears the grass
grow on the ground and the wool on the sheep's back. Bragi is the god
of poetry and eloquence, the best of all skalds.

[Footnote 8: The etymology is not perhaps correct, but it suggested
itself and influenced the view taken of this god, in very early
times.]

Of the goddesses, Frigga, wife of Odin, stands first, an august
matron of myster