Students of Icelandic literature agree that the Norse deities stand out as rude and as massive as the Scandinavian mountains. They exhibit "a spirit of victory, superior to brute force, superior to mere matter, a spirit that fights and overcomes." "The Norsemen have given their gods a noble, upright, great spirit, and placed them upon a high level that is all their own." "It is a greatness not of mere body and gigantic bulk, but a rude greatness of soul." It was in the infancy of thought gazing upon a universe filled with divinity, and believing heartily with all sincerity that a large-hearted people reached out in the dark towards ideals which were better than they knew. But, Ragnarok was to undo their gods because they had stumbled from their higher standards. The weighty words of William Morris regarding the Volsunga Saga may also be fitly quoted as an introduction to this collection of "Myths of the Norsemen": "This is the great story of the North, which should be to all our...

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