The other explanation is that the cults of Othin and Thor belonged to two different classes of the community, the former to princely families and their retinues, the latter to the country people, more especially the (non-official) landowners. This explanation seems to be in complete accordance with the facts. There is no evidence for the worship of Othin either in early or late times except by princes or persons attached to their courts, while there are very few instances of the worship of Thor by such persons. Further we may note that while names compounded with Thór- (e.g. Thórkell, Thórolfr) are about the commonest type of all among the ordinary free population, both in Norway and Iceland—and such names are significant since they denote that the persons who bore them were dedicated to the god—they are practically unknown in royal families It will be convenient now to give a short sketch of the two deities and their cults.
Thor is represented as a middle-aged man of immense bodily strength. He is well disposed towards the human race and looked upon as their protector against harmful demons, to whom he is an implacable foe. In the poems Thrymskviða and Hýmiskviða and in a number of prose stories we have descriptions of Thor's adventures with giants, in which he is generally represented as breaking their skulls with his hammer. He uses no weapon except the hammer, and when he travels he either walks or drives in a car drawn by goats. When he comes to the assembly of the gods he is said to wade through certain rivers on the way. His escort never consists of more than three persons; very often he goes alone. The picture which the stories give us is clearly that of an idealised Norwegian countryman of primitive times. There are scarcely any traces of his original connection with the thunder, though in Sweden it was clearly remembered.
The portraiture of Othin offers the greatest possible contrast to that of Thor. He is represented as an old man, generally with one eye, and he gains his ends not by bravery or physical strength but by wisdom and cunning. Sometimes we find him coming, usually in disguise, to giants or witches, in order to gain from them some magical power or knowledge of the future; sometimes he imparts his knowledge, again generally magical, to men. He presents his favourites with weapons and instructs them in the art of war. Above all he is the god who gives victory in battle.
Othin's chief dwelling is called Valhöll (the 'hall of the slain'), and all persons who fall in battle were believed to go to him there. Hence we find such expressions as 'to go to lodge with Othin' or 'to go to Valhalla' used as euphemisms for 'to be killed.' Before joining battle it is said to have been customary to throw a javelin over the enemy with the words 'Othin has you all.' After a battle prisoners were commonly sacrificed to Othin, and on such occasions, and indeed at all human sacrifices, the formula regularly used was: 'I give thee to Othin.' The usual method of sacrifice was by hanging or stabbing or a combination of both. With this practice we may probably connect a somewhat obscure myth recorded in Hávamál, str. 138, according to which Othin was sacrificed to himself, by hanging and stabbing, on the world-tree. Certainly it is to be noted that the sacrifices to Othin seem to have been invariably human. They were clearly rites of quite a different character from the sacrificial feasts frequently mentioned in the sagas, where the victims consisted of horses, oxen and other edible animals, part of which was offered to the gods, while the rest was consumed by the worshippers. We do sometimes hear of horses being sacrificed with men, but on such occasions dogs and hawks are also mentioned, and there is no evidence that any of the victims were eaten. There are very few records of human sacrifices to any god except Othin.
The picture of Valhalla presented to us in the poems is a glorified copy of a military king's court[587]. The vast number of slain warriors assembled there in Othin's service spend their days in single combats and their evenings in feasting. Beside them we find the Valkyriur ('choosers of the slain'), Othin's adopted daughters, who distribute ale to the feasters. These also are sent out by Othin to decide the issue of battles and to select warriors for Valhalla. It is noteworthy that the term Valkyriur seems to be applied both to supernatural beings—what may perhaps be called minor divinities—and also to living women endowed with supernatural powers, such as that of flying. Thus both Brynhildr and Sigrún, the wife of Helgi Hundingsbani, are called Valkyries; and it was for deciding a fight contrary to Othin's command that the former was punished with perpetual sleep.
In Ynglinga Saga, cap. 8, Othin is said to have ordained "that all dead men should be burnt and brought on to the pyre with their property. He said that every dead man should come to Valhöll with such property as he had on the pyre.... But the ashes were to be cast out into the sea or buried down in the earth." Valhalla seems to be represented as a spirit world somewhat far away and not connected at all with the burial place. This observation brings us to another remarkable discrepancy between the traditions and the customs which we find actually prevailing in the North. We know both from descriptions in the sagas and from discoveries made in modern times that in the last few centuries before the adoption of Christianity it was customary to bury the dead in their ships or in elaborately constructed wooden chambers—the whole being covered with a barrow of considerable size. In the Prologue to Snorri's Heimskringla this custom is said to be of later date than the one attributed to Othin; first was the age of burning, then the age of barrows. Now there is evidence both from the discoveries and from the sagas themselves that the barrows were regarded as sacred and that the spirits of the dead were believed to dwell either within them or in the immediate neighbourhood. Not unfrequently we hear of persons coming to a barrow to consult the spirit. Sometimes the ghost, embodied in the corpse, even defends his property against grave-robbers. The activities of the dead are often represented as injurious; but this is by no means always the case. On one occasion we hear of a dispute between several different districts for the possession of the body of a king whose reign had been distinguished by great prosperity.
On the whole then it is clear that the cult of the dead was practised in the North very much as in most other parts of the world. Yet modern discoveries have brought to light abundant evidence for cremation in the early iron age—sometimes in spots which are marked by no external monument—so that the statements of Ynglinga Saga may be regarded as based on good tradition. We are driven to conclude therefore that in their conception of immortality, as in their theology, the inhabitants of the North held two wholly inconsistent views—or, perhaps it would be more correct to say, two entirely opposite views as to the desirability of retaining the souls of the dead. In Iceland the practice of cremation seems to have been extremely rare, but when it was resorted to the object is said to have been to get rid of a troublesome ghost. The one view of immortality was by no means so closely bound up with the cult of Thor as the other was with that of Othin. But it certainly prevailed among Thor's worshippers.
The next most important deity after Othin and Thor was Frey. His cult was widely spread in Norway and Iceland; yet according to tradition its true home was Sweden[588]. The Swedish royal family and nobility traced their descent from Frey, and Upsala, their capital and the chief sanctuary of the North, was believed to have been founded by him. In Ynglinga Saga, cap. 12 f., we have an account of him which is worth quoting as an illustration of Northern manes-worship. Frey is here represented as a prince whose reign was characterised by unparalleled prosperity. His death was concealed for three years. But when it became known, the Swedes would not burn him; for they believed that prosperity and peace would last as long as Frey was in Sweden. They made a great barrow for him therefore and poured into it the tribute which they had been wont to pay him; and they worshipped him for prosperity and peace ever afterwards. A very similar account is given of the Danish king Fróði the Peaceful—from which we may infer that in Frey we have to deal not with a deified man but with a mythical character—a 'king of the golden age.' His name originally seems to have meant 'prince' or 'lord' (Ang.-Sax. frea, cf. ἄναξ); very probably it was at one time a title of the Swedish kings[589].
Frey appears to be regarded as a youthful god. The blessings for which he was worshipped were peace and fertility, both of the crops and livestock, as well as of the human race. His power of controlling the weather may be accounted for by his association with the Swedish kings (cf. p. [367]); but it is clear that his character contains elements drawn from more than one source. His father Niörðr, who is sometimes associated with him, possesses much the same characteristics, though he appears to be more particularly connected with the sea. There can be little doubt however that both he and his son have inherited the attributes of an ancient earth-goddess. Although there has been a change of sex, Niörðr's name is identical with that of Nerthus (id est Terra Mater), a deity who according to Tacitus, Germ. 40, was worshipped on 'an island in the ocean'—in all probability Sjælland. Niörðr also has a daughter called Freyia (i.e. ἄνασσα, Δέσποινα), who is represented as a female counterpart of Frey. It is worth noting that she is sometimes associated with the next world. According to Grímnismál, str. 14, she shares the slain equally with Othin.
The deities with which we have just been dealing were collectively known as Vanir. They were held to be of a quite different stock from the Aesir, to whom Othin and Thor belonged, and according to the mythology had been given to the latter as hostages. Of the other deities those who figure most prominently in mythical stories are Frigg (Othin's wife), Ullr, Hoenir, Týr, Heimdallr, Iðun, Gefion and Balder; but we seldom hear of worship paid to any of these.