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4- BRONZE AGE (B.C. 1500500). ULL. 17
lake ate up the sacrifices, and the arms were treasured in
his hall.
Beside these deities, who belong to the Germanic tribes
in general, there is a less known god, who belongs more
distinctly to the north, and who was certainly widely wor
shipped. This is Ull, or Ullr, the Ollerus of Saxo, who
seems to have been a god of winter, or of winter sport. He
is a consummate archer, snow-shoe runner and skater, and
is also a very skilful magician. It is wise to invoke his
aid in a single combat. We may suppose him to have been
a god of the aboriginal population, whom, for convenience,
we call Finns in the old sense, or Lapps. His name, in
deed, like that of Frey, is Gothic, meaning glorious or
noble (ulthzis), an epithet which might be applied to any
divinity. It is interesting to note that the sacred places,
groves, altars and enclosures (ending in lund, or lunda,
harg, vi, etc.), in which the names of Frey and Ull occur,
are more numerous than those which are connected with
Thor, and much more numerous than those named from
Odin.15
This shows the persistence of old traditions in the
country and the greater antiquity of the worship of Frey
and Ull in Sweden.
15
See the evidence collected by M. F. Lundgren, and quoted
by Hans Hildebrand (Sv. Med., Book v., pp. 5 foil.). Names
like Froslunda, Frosvi occur twenty-five times ; Ullalund or
lunda and Ullavi, twenty times; Torsharg, Torslund or -a,
Torsvi, sixteen ; Odensharg, Odenslunda, Odensvi, only six.
Thus we have Ulceby (2), in Lincolnshire ; Ulleswater, West
morland ; Ullesthorp, Leicestershire ; Ulleskelf, Yorkshire ;
Thoresby (2), Thoresthorp, Thoresway, Thorrock, all in Lin
colnshire, and many others ; Frisby (2), Leicestershire, and
Friston, Suffolk and Sussex. There are, of course, many
places in England named from Woden, probably more than
from Ull or Frey. A collection of all such place-names in this
country is a desideratum.
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