But
women cared for the images of the gods in the temple; they warmed
them at the fire, anointed them with oil, and dried them with
cloths.
Whatever may be thought of an historical kernel underlying a
mythical husk in the legend of Balder, the details of the story
suggest that it belongs to that class of myths which have been
dramatised an ritual, or, to put it otherwise, which have been
performed as magical ceremonies for the sake of producing those
natural effects which they describe in figurative language. A myth
is never so graphic and precise in its details as when it is, so to
speak, the book of the words which are spoken and acted by the
performers of the sacred rite. That the Norse story of Balder was a
myth of this sort will become probable if we can prove that
ceremonies resembling the incidents in the tale have been performed
by Norsemen and other European peoples. Now the main incidents in
the tale are two--first, the pulling of the mistletoe, and second,
the death and burning of the god; and both of them may perhaps be
found to have had their counterparts in yearly rites observed,
whether separately or conjointly, by people in various parts of
Europe.
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