Et nunc ille ubi sit qui uulgo dicitur Othin
armipotens, uno semper contentus ocello,
dic mihi, Ruta, precor, usquam si conspicis illum.
* * * * * * *
si potero horrendum Frigge spectare maritum,
quantumcunque albo clypeo sit tectus et altum
flectat equum, Lethra nequaquam sospes abibit.
fas est belligerum bello prosternere diuum.
[594] Cf. Adam of Bremen, IV 26: colunt et deos ex hominibus factos, etc. (with reference to the passage from the Vita Anscharii quoted on p. 255 f.). It is not clear whether Grímr Kambann, the great-great-grandfather of Thórsteinn Sölmundarson who settled in Iceland (cf. Landnámabók, I 14), was deified; but the worship paid to him is evidently regarded as something exceptional. Some scholars hold that Bragi, the god of poetry, is no other than the poet Bragi Boddason.
[595] Proue(n); cf. Helmoldus, Chron. Slavorum, I 53, 70, 84.
[596] I have discussed this subject (also Niörðr and Freyia) in detail in The Origin of the English Nation, chapters IX-XI.
[597] I do not think that Aethelweard's substitution of Balder for Baeldaeg (the first part of which is certainly bǣl-) in the genealogy of King Aethelwulf (III 3) can be held to prove the existence of the cult of Balder in England. The theory that the word baldor, 'prince,' arose out of the god's name is open to still more serious question.
[598] Cf. Olrik, Gefion (Danske Studier, 1910), p. 21 ff.
[599] There is no reason for supposing that the cult of Thórgerðr was first introduced by Earl Haakon. In the Flateyiarbók, p. 408, it is stated that she had been worshipped by successive rulers of the land. Her cult too was not unknown in Iceland; according to Harðar Saga, cap. 19, Grímkell, the son of a settler from Orkadal (to the south of Trondhjem), had a temple dedicated to her.
[600] The Cult of Othin, p. 75 ff. Cf. R. M. Meyer, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, p. 474 ff.
[601] Irminsul ... quod Latine dicitur uniuersalis columna, quasi sustinens omnia, Mon. Germ., II 676.