REMARKS ON THE TENTH FABLE... (A)" As children do their father."] I am obliged to return again to Odin. There is nothing in all Pagan antiquity more express than this paffage, with regard to the fupremacy of ONE GOD. The name of As, or LORD, is again ascribed to him in this place. The Gauls, in like manner, called him alfo Es, or with a Latin termination Efus: for feveral manuscript copies of Lucan, who fpeak of this God, give the word Efus, without the afpirate +. I have faid elsewhere, that Suetonius pofitively afferts the fame thing of the Etrufcans. The Roman authors have often called him the Mars of the Celtic people; because, as the EDDA clearly fhows here, he was the fame with the God of War. Wherefore, (although the learned Abbé Banier has maintained the contrary) this Efus, whose name Vid. Key. Antiq. p. 139, &c. 187.-The paffage referred to in Lucan, is this. Et quibus immitis placatur fanguine cæfo Pharfal, L. I. T. . modi modifications and diftinctions are found out to clear up the difficulty. But there was no great need of any here; for the • Goths and' Celtes regarded war as a very facred occupation. It furnished, according to them, opportunities for difplaying courage; and of fulfilling the views of providence; which was to place us here as in a field of battle; and only to grant its favours as the peculiar rewards of fortitude and valour. (B) "It was the great "variety of languages."] This reasoning upon the names of Odin, may contain fomething of truth in it. The text recounts a great number of these names, which I have fuppreffed, out of regard to those ears which are not accustomed to to Gothic founds. 'Tis certain that almost all the names a fcribed to the Supreme Deity, are either epithets taken from the qualities attributed to him, or the places where he was worfiped, or from the actions he had performed, &c. This diverfity of names hath often misled thofe of the learned, who have applied themselves to the ftudy of the Celtic religion, juft in the fame manner as hath happened to those, who applied themselves to the Greek or Roman mythology. In the ancient Icelandic poetry, we find the Supreme God denominated in more than a hundred and twenty-fix different phrafes. They are all enumerated in the Scalda, or Poetic Dictionary. It would therefore (as Gangler obferves) require fome application, to give the reafons of all these different denominations, many of which allude to particular events. THE THE ELEVENTH FABLE. Of the God Thor, the Son of Odin. H EREUPON Gangler demanded, What are the names of the other Gods? What are their functions, and what have they done for the advancement of their glory? Har fays to him, The most illuftrious among them is THOR. He is called Afa-Thor, or the Lord Thor; and Ake-Thor, or the Active Thor. He is the ftrongest and braveft of Gods and Men (A). His kingdom is named Thrudwanger. He poffeffes there a palace, in which are five hundred and forty Halls. It is the largest houfe that is known; according as we find mentioned in the poem of Grimnis. "There t are five hundred and forty Halls in the Winding Palace of the God Thor; and "I believe there is no where a greater fathan this of the eldest of fons." r bric, The Chariot of Thor is drawn by two He-Goats. It is in that Chariot that he goes into the country of the Giants; and VOL. II. F thence thence they call him the rapid Thor. He likewife poffeffes three very precious things. The first is a Mace, or Club, called Miolner, which the Giants of the Froft, and those of the Mountains, know to their coft, when they see it hurled against them in the air and no wonder; for with that Mace has this God often bruifed the heads of their fathers and kindred. The fecond jewel he poffeffes, is called the Belt of Prowess; when he puts it on, he becomes as ftrong again as he was before. The third, which is alfo very precious, are his Gauntlets, or Gloves of Iron, which he always wears when he would lay hold of the handle of his Mace. There is no perfon of fo much learning, as to be able to relate all his marvellous exploits; I myself could tell you fo many, that day would end much fooner, than the recital of what immediately occur to me. Then fays Gangler to him, I would rather hear fomething about the other Sons of Odin. To this Har anfwered in these words: of the northern nations *. The function ascribed to him of launching the thunder, made him pafs for the most warlike and formidable of all the Gods. It was alfo Thor who reigned in the air, diftributed the feafons, and raised or allayed tempests. "THOR, fays Adam of Bremen, is "the God who, accord ing to these people, governs the thunder, "the winds, the rains, "the fair weather, and "harvest." (See Hift. Ecclef.) This Mace or Club, which he hurled against the Giants, and with which he crushed their heads, is doubtless the Thunder, which moft frequently falls upon elevated places. He was in general regarded as a divinity favourable to mankind; as he who guarded them from the attacks of Giants and wicked Genii; whom he never ceafed to encounter and perfue. The name of his palace fignifies, in Gothic, "The place of re"fuge from Terrour." As he was the firft-born of the Supreme God; or to speak in the language of the EDDA, "The "Eldeft of Sons;" the firft and principal intelligence proceeding from the union of the Deity with Matter; they have made him a middle divinity, a mediator between God and Men. It is probable that a great many people venerated him alfo, as the intelligence who animated the Sun and Fire. The worship of the Perfians had in this refpect, as in a great many others, the most exact refemblance to that of this people. The Perfians held, that the most illuftrious of all created intelligences was what they paid homage to under the fymbol of Fire or the Sun, wherein the intelligence refided. They called it Mithr-as, or the Mediator Lord. (The word As ftill fignifies Lord, in Perfian.) They, as well as the Scandinavians, kept a perpetual and facred fire, in confequence of this perfuafion. The Scythians, according to Herodotus and He |