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north, and even many among the moderns, Scandinavia was peopled only with giants in those remote ages, which precede the epoque of history. The Icelandic mythology, which I shall have more than once occasion to quote, relates very exactly all the engagements, which the giants had with those Scythians, whom Odin brought with him out of Asia.
They pretend that this monstrous race subsisted for a long time in the mountains and forests of Norway, where they continued even down to the ninth century; that they fled from the open day, and renounced all commerce with men, living only with those of their own species in the solitudes and cliffs of the rocks; that they fed on human flesh, and clothed themselves in the raw skins of wild beasts; that they were so skilled in magic, as to be able to fascinate the eyes of men, and prevent them from seeing the objects before them; yet were at the same time such religious observers of their word, that their fidelity hath passed into a proverb[1]; that in process of time, they intermixed with the women of our species, and produced demi-giants, who approaching nearer and nearer to the human race, at length became mere men, like
- ↑ Trollorum Fides.
