On another occasion Odin wandered off to earth, and was absent so long that no one ever expected to see him in Asgard again. His brothers Vili and Ve, who by some mythologists are considered as other personifications of himself, then usurped his power, occupied his throne, and even, we are told, married his wife Frigga.
“Be thou silent, Frigg!
Thou art Fiörgyn’s daughter
And ever hast been fond of men,
Since Ve and Vili, it is said,
Thou, Vidrir’s wife, didst
Both to thy bosom take.”
Sæmund’s Edda (Thorpe’s tr.).
May-day festivals.
But upon his return they vanished forever; and in commemoration of the disappearance of the false Odin, who had ruled seven months and had brought nothing but unhappiness to the world, and of the return of the benevolent deity, the heathen Northerners formerly celebrated yearly festivals and processions, which were long continued as May-day rejoicings. Until very lately there was always, on that day, a grand procession in Sweden, known as the May Ride, in which a flower-decked May king (Odin) pelted with blossoms the fur-enveloped Winter (his supplanter), until he put him to ignominious flight. In England the first of May was also a festive occasion, in which May-pole dances, May queens, Maid Marian, and Jack in the Green played prominent parts.