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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

XIV. THE NORTHMEN AND THE NORMANS TO 1066 A.D.

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

Scandinavia and the Northmen   * The Viking Age   * Scandinavian Heathenism   * The Northmen in the West   * The Northmen in the East   * Conquest of England by the Danes; Alfred the Great   * Norman Conquest of England; William the Conqueror   * Results of the Norman Conquest   * Norman Conquest of Southern Italy and Sicily   * The Normans in European History

Page 8

"TWILIGHT OF THE GODS"

Disasters followed Balder's death. An immense fire burned up the world and the human race. The giants invaded Asgard and slaughtered its inhabitants. Odin fell a victim to the mighty wolf Fenris. Thor, having killed the Midgard serpent, was suffocated with the venom which the dying monster cast over him. The end of all things arrived. This was the catastrophe which had been predicted of old—the "Twilight of the Gods."

VALHALLA

Besides the conception of Hel, the Northmen also framed the idea of Valhalla, [6] the abode to which Odin received the souls of those who had died, not ingloriously in their beds, but on the field of battle. A troop of divine maidens, the Valkyries, [7] rode through the air on Odin's service to determine the issue of battles and to select brave warriors for Valhalla. There on the broad plains they fought with one another by day, but at evening the slayer and the slain returned to Odin's hall to feast mightily on boar's flesh and drink deep draughts of mead.

[6] "Hall of the slain."

[7] "Choosers of the slain."

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy