ited by the absence of Gaelic words or traces of Gaelic
legend. Professor Bugge's North of England theory is slightly stronger,
being supported by several Old English expressions in the poems,
but these are not enough to prove that they were composed in England,
since most Icelanders travelled east at some time of their lives.

(Page 3.)

A later study will deal with the Heroic legends.

_Ynglinga Saga_. (Page 3.)

_Ynglinga Saga_ is prefixed to the Lives of the Kings in the collection
known as _Heimskringla_ (edited by Unger, Christiania, 1868, and by
Finnur Jonsson, Christiania, 1893); there is an English translation
in Laing's _Lives of the Kings of Norway_ (London, 1889).

_Voeluspa_. (Page 4.)

A poem of similar form occurs among the heroic poems. _Gripisspa_,
a prophetic outline of Sigurd's life, introduces the Volsung poems,
as _Voeluspa_ does the Asgard cycle.

_Riddle-poems_. (Page 6.)

So many of the mythological poems are in this form that they suggest
the question, did the asking of riddles form any part of Scandinavian
ritual?

_The Aesir_. (Page 11.)

_Ynglinga Saga_ says that Odin and the Aesir came to Norway from Asia;
a statement due, of course, to a false etymology, though theories as
to the origin of Norse mythology have been based on it.

_Tyr_. (Page 12.)

Tyr is etymologically identical with Zeus, and with the Sanskrit Dyaus
(Sky-God).

_Baldr_. (Pages 16 to 22.)

The Baldr theories are stated in the following authorities:

(1) Ritual origin: Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, vol. 3.

(2) Heroic origin: Golther, _Handbuch der Germanischen Mythologie_
(Leipzig, 1895); Niedner, _Eddische Fragen_ (_Zeitschrift
fuer deutsches Altertum_, new series, 29), _Zur Lieder-Edda_
(_Zeitschr. f. d. Alt_. vol. 36).

(3) Solar myth: Sir G.W. Cox, _Mythology of the Aryan Nations_
(London, 1870); Max Mueller, _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol. 4.

(4) Borrowed: Bugge, _Studien ueber die Entstchung der nordischen
Goetter- und Heldensagen_ (transl. Brenner, Muenchen, 1889).

_Vegtamskvida_. (Page 17.)

The word _hrodhrbadhm_ (which I have given as "branch of fame")
would perhaps be more accurately translated "tree of fame," which
Gering explains as a kenning for Baldr. But there are no kennings of
the same sort in the poem, and the line would have no meaning. If it
refers to the mistletoe, as most commentators agree, it merely shows
that the poet was ignorant of the nature of the plant, which wo