In all this advancement, King Oscar took a lively initiative, and that his policy will be continued by his successor, who has been so short a time on the throne, is not to be doubted, since the reins of government were in his hands practically long before the death of his father, who for several years suffered ill health.  To say the least, Sweden, in the nineteenth century, played an important part in the strengthening of the great Scandinavian amalgamation, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, which greets the twentieth century,[c]

CHAPTER IV

THE RELIGION OF THE NORTHMEN

The religion of the ancient Norwegians was of the same origin as that of all other Germanic nations, and, as it is the basis of their national life, a brief outline of it will be necessary in these pages.

In the beginning of time there were two worlds:  in the South was Muspelheim, luminous and flaming, with Surt as a ruler; in the North was Niflheim, cold and dark, with the spring Hvergelmer, where the dragon Nidhugger dwells.  Between these worlds was the yawning abyss Ginungagap.  From the spring Hvergelmer ran icy streams into the Ginungagap.  The hoarfrost from these streams was met by sparks from Muspelheim, and by the power of the heat the vapors were given life in the form of the Yotun or giant Ymer and the cow Audhumbla, on whose milk he lives.  From Ymer descends the evil race of Yotuns or frost-giants.  As the cow licked the briny hoarfrost, the large, handsome and powerful Bure came into being.  His son was Bur, who married a daughter of a Yotun and became the father of Odin, Vile, and Ve.  Odin became the father of the kind and fair Aesir, the gods who rule heaven and earth.

Bur’s sons killed Ymer, and in his blood the whole race of Yotuns drowned except one couple, from whom new races of Yotuns or giants descended.  Bur’s sons dragged the body of Ymer into the middle of Ginungagap.  Out of the trunk of the body they made the earth, and of his blood the sea.  His bones became mountains, and of his hair they made trees.  From the skull they made the heavens, which they elevated high above the earth and decorated with sparks from Muspelheim.  But his brain was scattered in the air and became clouds.  Around the earth they let the deep waters flow, and on the distant shores the escaped Yotuns took up their abode in Yotunheim and in Utgard.  For protection against them the kind gods made from Ymer’s eyebrows the fortification Midgard as a defense for the inner earth.  But from heaven to earth they suspended the quivering bridge called Bifrost, or the rainbow.

The Yotun woman Night, black and dark as her race, met Delling (the Dawn) of the Aesir race, and with him became the mother of Day, who was bright and fair as his father.  Odin placed mother and son in the heavens, and bade them each in turn ride over the earth.  Night rides ahead with her horse Hrimfaxe, from whose foaming bit the earth is every morning covered with dew.  Day follows with his horse Skinfaxe, whose radiant mane spreads light and air over the earth.