tree-worship and the ritual sacrifice of the God,
Baldr being a tree-spirit whose soul is contained in the mistletoe.

The contradictions in the story, especially as told by Snorri
(such as the confusion between the parts played by Hoed and Loki,
and the unsuspicious attitude of the Gods as Loki directs Hoed's aim)
are sometimes urged against its genuineness. They are rather proofs
of antiquity. Apparent contradictions whose explanation is forgotten
often survive in tradition; the inventor of a new story takes care to
make it consistent. It is probable, however, that there were originally
only two actors in the episode, the victim and the slayer, and that
Loki's part is later than Hoed's, for he really belongs to the Valhall
and Ragnaroek myth, and was only introduced here as a link. The incident
of the oath extracted from everything on earth to protect Baldr, which
occurs in Snorri and in a paper MS. of _Baldr's Dreams_, was probably
invented to explain the choice of weapon, which would certainly need
explanation to an Icelandic audience. If Dr. Frazer's theory be right,
Vali, who slew the slayer, must also have been an original figure in
the legend. His antiquity is supported by the fact that he plays the
part of avenger in the poems; while in Snorri, where he is mentioned
as a God, his absence from the account of Baldr's death is only a
part of that literary development by which real responsibility for
the murder was transferred from Hoed to Loki.

Snorri gives Baldr a son, Forseti (Judge), who is also named as a
God in _Grimnismal_. He must have grown out of an epithet of Baldr's,
of whom Snorri says that "no one can resist his sentence"; the sacred
tree would naturally be the seat of judgment.

* * * * *

_The Wanes._--Three of the Norse divinities, Njoerd and his son and
daughter, are not Aesir by descent. The following account is given
of their presence in Asgard:

(1) In _Vafthrudnismal_, Odin asks:

"Whence came Njoerd among the sons of the Aesir? for he was not born
of the Aesir."

_Vafthrudni_. "In Vanaheim wise powers ordained and gave him for a
hostage to the Gods; at the doom of the world he shall come back,
home to the wise Wanes."

(2) There is an allusion in _Voeluspa_ to the war which caused the
giving of hostages:

"Odin shot into the host: this was the first war in the world. Broken
was the wall of the citadel of the Aesir, so that the Wanes could
tread the