Benjamin Thorpe 
Northern Mythology 
Comprising the Principal, Popular Traditions and Superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and the Netherlands

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The question that naturally first presents itself to us, on hearing these wondrous stories, is: What can have given birth to, and indelibly imprinted and quickened in the imagination of the people a superstition, which is the more remarkable, as Similar opinions are found among the majority of the people in the north of Europe? It is probable that unacquaintance with nature and her powers, combined with the innate desire of finding a reason for and explaining the various natural phenomena, that must daily and hourly attract the attention of mankind, has led them to see the causes of these phenomena in the power of the beings who, as they supposed, had produced them, and afterwards frequented and busied themselves with and in their own productions. These phenomena were too numerous and various to allow the ascribing of them to a Single being, and therefore a number of super natural beings were imagined, whose dangerous influence and pernicious wrath it was sought to avert by sacrifices and other means.