Literature and Romance of Northern Europe (Howitt).
One too mighty to name.
As the Norsemen who settled in Iceland, and through whom the most complete exposition of the Odinic faith has come down to us in the Eddas and Sagas, were not definitely converted until the eleventh century,—although they had come in contact with Christians during their viking raids, nearly six centuries before,—it is very probable that the Northern scalds gleaned some idea of the Christian doctrines, and that this knowledge influenced them to a certain extent, and colored their descriptions of the end of the world and the regeneration of the earth. It was perhaps this vague knowledge, also, which induced them to add to the Edda a verse, which is generally supposed to have been an interpolation, proclaiming that another God, too mighty to name, would rule over Gimli, judge all mankind, separate the bad from the good, banish the former to the horrors of Nastrond, and invite the latter to taste of endless bliss in the halls of Gimli the fair.
“Then comes another,
Yet more mighty.
But Him dare I not
Venture to name.
Few farther may look
Than to where Odin
To meet the wolf goes.”