[130.] Odin.
[131.] Norway was given to Saming by Odin.
[132.] He gave himself nine wounds in the form of the head of a spear, or Thor’s hammer; that is, he marked himself with the sign of the cross, an ancient heathen custom.
[133.] Here ends Snorre’s account of the asas in Heimskringla. The reader will, of course, compare the account here given of Odin, Njord, Frey, Freyja, etc., with the purely mythological description of them in the Younger Edda, and with that in Norse Mythology. Upon the whole, Snorre has striven to accommodate his sketch to the Eddas, while he has had to clothe mythical beings with the characteristics of human kings. Like Saxo-Grammaticus, Snorre has striven to show that the deities, which we now recognize as personified forces and phenomena of nature, were extraordinary and enterprising persons, who formerly ruled in the North, and inaugurated the customs, government and religion of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, England, and the other Teutonic lands.
[134.] The word fornjot can be explained in two ways: either as for-njot = the first enjoyer, possessor; or as forn-jot, the ancient giant. He would then correspond to Ymer.
[135.] Notice this trinity: Hler is the sea (comp. the Welsh word llyr = sea); Loge is fire (comp. the Welsh llwg), he reminds us both by his name and his nature of Loke; Kare is the wind.
[A.] Transcriber’s Footnote: Zalmoxis or Salmoxis was a Thracian deity. The word Ζαλμός is defined by Liddell and Scott—a dictionary available to the author—as Thracian for “a skin”.