xii.
not, therefore, suppose that all the fables of the Edda were equally known to the Gothic nations of every age or tribe. As truth is uniform and simple, so error is most irregular and various; and it is very possible, that different fables and different observances might prevail among the same people in different times and countries. This, possibly, may account for the dissimilar relations concerning the same facts, which are found in the Edda of Sæmund and that of Snorro.
From the imperfect knowledge of the divine attributes, all pagan nations are extremely apt to intermix something local with the idea of the divinity, to suppose peculiar Deities presiding over certain districts, and to worship this or that God with particular rites, which were only to be observed in one certain spot. Hence, to inattentive foreigners, there
