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26 I. THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE.
But it is not probable that runes were introduced from
the Vistula. It is more likely that they came by the Elbe.
As far as I know no early runic stones are found in the
islands, though there are gold bracteates with runes of
a later date. The earliest rune-stone is from Bohuslan,
and others are from neighbouring central provinces, and
not from Skane.
The third element of social progress which we assign to
the same period is the worship of Odin, who is always con
nected in poetry with the runes, as Thor with the hammer.
He is especially called the Goth (Gauti or Gautr). Prob
ably, like the runes, his worship came from the South
Germanic races (cp. Craigie :
Religion of A. S., 20 foil.).
As Grimm says, the Swedes and Norwegians seem to have
been less devoted to Odin than Gothlanders and Danes (D.
M., vol. i, p. 160, E. T.). Names of places connected with
Odin are more frequent in England, Germany and Den
mark than in Sweden. Our own Wiltshire has some
remarkable ones, such as Wansdyke and Wansborough,
and Somerset has its Wanstrow probably a place of
sacrifice, and there is a Wansborough in Mells parish, and
a number of others. As regards the characteristics of
this divinity, he is god not only of craft and cunning
and human strength, but of wisdom and poetry, and in
spiration, and of a later and more courtly civilization. To
quote a recent English writer, who contrasts Odin and
Thor in an effective manner: "
Odin was the god of the
warrior, the poet, and the friend of kings, while Thor
retained his former place in the hearts of those who still
followed the old way of life in. the secluded valleys of
Norway and Iceland. Something of this distinctly
appears in the figures of the two gods. Odin bears
all the stamp of the new life and culture about him, while
Thor is rather a sturdy yeoman of the old unpolished type.
Odin is a ruler in whom knowledge and power are equally
combined; Thor has little more to rely upon than his
bodily strength. Even in small matters the contrast is
marked. Odin lives by wine alone, while Thor eats the
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