Pine Needles Part 8

"We shall get work enough ready for him by the time he comes. Well, go on with your Saxon mythology and be done with it. I do not think it is very interesting."

"Maggie and I are of a different opinion. But it was rather Norse mythology. Sweden and Norway and Denmark were all of one race and one faith. Nors.e.m.e.n carried it to Iceland, and it is odd enough that from Iceland we get our best accounts of it."

Maggie had mounted up with her knees in a chair and her elbows on the table, leaning over towards Meredith, and now begged he would tell about Thor.

"Thor was the thunderer."

"What do you mean?"

"The G.o.d of thunder and lightning. He was the son of Odin, or Woden. He is represented driving in a car drawn by two goats and with a great hammer in his hand. This hammer was forged by the dwarfs, Kobolds, I suppose, who dwelt in the centre of the earth."

"What did he want a hammer for?"

"To strike withal. And when Thor's hammer came down, that made the thunder, don't you see? and his stroke was the thunderbolt."

"I should think they would have been frightened to death in a thunder-storm."

"Not an expression those old Saxons knew anything about."

"Well, I should think they would have feared Thor."

"There is no doubt but they did. Those poor captives at the stone-houses were slaughtered in honour of Woden and Thor, don't you remember? But he was also the G.o.d of fire, and the G.o.d of the domestic hearth. Listen to this: 'Among the pagan Nors.e.m.e.n, Thor's hammer was held in as much reverence as Christ's cross among Christians. It was carved on their gravestones; and wrought of wood or iron, it was suspended in their temples.'"

"Thor's hammer!" repeated Maggie. "Poor people!"

"n.o.body worships Thor now," observed Esther scornfully.

"We call one of our days after him yet," said Meredith. "There is a relic of the old Thor worship. Indeed all our days are heathenish in name."

"All?" said Flora, looking up. "What is Monday?"

"Just the Moon's day, don't you see? Sunday is the Sun's day. Woden's day and Thor's day, you know. Then Friday is of course Freija's day--or Freyr's day--I don't know which. Freyr was the G.o.d of weather and fruits--another impersonation of Odin. He rode through the air on a wild boar, faster than any horse could catch him. An odd steed! And Tuesday is Tyr's day, or Zin's day--it comes to much the same thing. He was especially the 'G.o.d of war and of athletic sports.'"

"Then there is Sat.u.r.day left," said Maggie. "What is Sat.u.r.day?"

"I think it must have been Saturn's day--and so not Saxon, Maggie, but Roman. The names of our months are all Roman, you know?"

"Are they?"

"Yes, but wait. Here is something curious. The Saxon devil was called Loki. Now Loki had three children. Listen to this. 'One was the huge wolf Fenris, who at the last day shall hurry gaping to the scene of battle, with his lower jaw sc.r.a.ping the earth and his nose sc.r.a.ping the sky.'"

"What is curious in that?" asked Flora. "It is just like a children's fairy tale."

"But these are not children's fairy tales; and they mean something. How did these old Nors.e.m.e.n know there would be a scene of battle at the last day, and great destruction?"

"How do you know it?"

"The Bible."

"Does the Bible say so, Ditto?" said Maggie. "Where does it say so?"

"Many places."

"Tell us one, Ditto."

Meredith rose up and fetched a Bible and pushed his book of Norse mythology on one side. Then he opened at the nineteenth chapter of the Revelation.

"'And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of G.o.d. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty G.o.d. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

"'And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great G.o.d; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

"'And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.'"

"I do not understand all that, the least bit," said Flora.

"You understand there will be a war, and a battle?"

"But that's a figure."

"No, it's a fact. How should it be a figure?"

"What do you understand by a 'sword proceeding out of His mouth?'"

"That is in the description of Christ in the first chapter: 'And he had in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.'"

"Well, isn't that a figure? What does it mean?"

"Listen to the description of Christ that Isaiah gives: 'With righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.'"

"Well?"

"And in Thessalonians: 'Then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.' And in Ephesians: 'The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of G.o.d.'"

"Well," said Flora, "that is not a real sword, with a handle and an edge."

"The Bible says it has two edges."

"Nonsense! you know what I mean."

"I know. Certainly, Flora, the weapons of that battle may not be weapons of flesh and blood, or for flesh and blood; but the _battle_ is real, don't you see? and the awful overthrow and destruction, and what I am wondering about is, how those old Saxons knew there would be such a battle at the end? and how they knew that the mischief would in some sense come from the devil."

"_Did_ they know it?"

"The wolf Fenris was one of the devil's children, as they made it out.

And another was the serpent which Odin cast into the sea, where it grew and grew till it had wound up the whole earth in its folds. That is very curious!"

"What, Ditto?"