other hand, Niflheim (from the Icelandic
Nifl, evil, and Heim, home) is the first of
the abodes of misery, which was only to
exist till the renovation of the world; while
the second, named Nastrond (the shore of
the dead), was to continue for ever.
Such were the doctrines taught by the
religion of the early inhabitants of Iceland,
if we may give credit to the histories of
their mythology that are handed down to us.
I shall now say a few words of their places of
worship and of their religious ceremonies.
The former, called HofF, we are told by
Arngrim Jonas, were of great dimensions,
and, for such a country, of magnificent structure.
One of these, situated in the prefecture
of Watzdal, in the northern part of
the island, is spoken of as being one hundred
and twenty feet in length, and another,
at Kialarnes in the south, sixty feet long.
To each temple was annexed a small
building or chapel, which was esteemed
the most sacred place; for here the idols
were kept standing upon a pediment,
and around them were arranged the beasts
that were to be sacrificed. Xhe chief of
these idols was Thor, who was placed in the
centre of the minor deities *. Immediately
before the gods, also, stood an altar, cased
with iron, lest it should be destroyed by the
continual fires. Here also stood a large
brazen vessel, in which was poured the
blood of the victims; and here, too, were
the purifying instruments (lustrica) and the
brushes for sprinkling the congregation with
blood, together with a ring of silver, or
of brass, twenty inches long, which was
held by those who made oath-f. The victims
* What these deities were, or what was their
number, does not seem to be rightly known. Arngrim
Jonas mentions three, besides those who were invoked
during the time that the rite was celebrated, which
was always performed when a person made oath upon
the most solemn occasion. “ In veteri tamen juramenti
formulS,, tres pneterThorum nomine notantur: Freyr,
Niordur, As. ¡Quorum tertium, nempe As, existimo
esse Odinurn ilium famosum, inter divos ethnicos non
postremum habitum dictum As, quod is Asianorum hue
in septentrionem migrantium princeps fuerit: singu-
lariter nempe As, at multitudinis numero Aesar vel
Aeser dici coeperunt.” Tractatus de Islandia. p. 430.
f When any person was suspected of having spoken
falsely in an affair of importance, he was put to his
oath, and then his veracity was determined by making
him stand under an oblong piece of turf, placed in