The arts and the artistic manufactures of Denmark

Front matter

OF WALES fffjtOKG.

mmmi

.

Chapter II

Danish Sculpture and Painting— Notices Descriptive and Critical of the Works of Sculptors and Painters of the Modern Danish School : with a Special Notice of the Works of Thorvaldsen, as a great Source of Inspiration to the living Artists of Denmark, and an inexhaustible Treasury of Subjects for every variety of Artistic Decoration . 14

Chapter III

Danish Jewellery — The Treatment of the Precious Metals by the Goldsmiths of the Denmark of to-day, considered in connection with existing Relics of Ancient Scandinavian Art, and also with reference to the Tastes and the Requirements of the Time now present 65

Chapter IV

Danish Terra Cotta — Its special Qualities, Varieties, Treatment, and Artistic Character . 91

b

X

Contents.

Chapter V

Danish Porcelain and Biscuit — Their Varieties, and distinctive and characteristic Features

CHAPTER VE

Supplementary — Containing Descriptive and Critical Notices of Paintings of the highest Class, executed in Enamel upon Vases and Plaques of Fayence and Biscuit, exclusively for the Royal Danish Galleries

CHAPTER VII. Conclusion page 1 16

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

NO. PAGE

1. Ostrich Feather Badge of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, and Armorial Shields of St.

George and of the Dannebrog.

2. Ostrich Feather Badge of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.

3. Armorial Shield of T.R.H. the Prince and Princess of Wales.

4. Bas-relief from the “ Triumph of Alexander,” by Thorvaldsen ...... x

5. Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog ........... 1

6. Hebe. Statue by Thorvaldsen ............ 9

7. A Valkyrie. Statue by Bissen 9

8. Danish Gold Brooch x3

9. Genius and Art. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 14

10. Portrait of Thorvaldsen, after Horace Vernet 21

11. Ganymede and the Eagle. Group by Thorvaldsen 31

12. Cupid and Psyche. Group by Thorvaldsen 33

13. Cupid Triumphant. Statue by Thorvaldsen 33

14. Venus, with Cupid stung by a Bee. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 34

13. Bacchus carried by Mercury to Ino. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 35

16. The Triumph of Alexander. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen . 37

17. Bathers Surprised. Group by Jerichau 43

18. The Nest of Loves. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 64

19. Vulcan’s Forge. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 65

20 — 23. Plate I. Gold Necklet and Pendants, Gold Brooch with Pendant, and Gold Crosses 71

24 — 28. Plate II. Gold Bracelets 73

29 — 34. Plate III. Gold Brooches, and Gold Brooches with Pendants 75

35 — 3g. Plate IV. Gold Brooches, and Gold Brooch with Pendant 77

40. The Dagmar Cross, showing both its sides 83

List of Illustrations.

xii

NO. PAGE

41. Priam and Achilles. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 90

42. Hydria, with Flaxman’s “ Triumph of Neptune ” 91

43. Olpe. (Outline) 99

44. Kantharos. (Outline) gg

45. Lekythos. (Outline) gg

46. Krater. (Outline) gg

47. Olpe, in Danish Terra Cotta 100

48. Amphora, Black, with flowers 101

49. Amphora, with Thorvaldsen’s “ Autumn ” 103

50. Lekythos, with Thorvaldsen’s “ Jason ” 104

51. Lepaste, with Thorvaldsen’s “ Ages of Love ” 105

52 — 60. Plate V. Models in Danish Terra Cotta of ancient Norse Vases 107

61. Venus. Statue by Thorvaldsen iog

62. Hope. Statue by Thorvaldsen iog

63. Psyche. Statue by Thorvaldsen 109

64 — 67. Plate VI. Danish Statuettes of Nisser hi

68. Nisse Academician at work no

6g. Terra Cotta Flower Stand, with Statuette of Nisse 113

70. Terra Cotta Water Cooler and Stand, with Thorvaldsen’s “ Dawn ” 114

71. Terra Cotta Card Tazza 115

72. The Ages of Love. Bas-relief by Thorvaldsen 1x6

73. Plaque. Designed, and painted in enamel, by Goutard Leonce 126

74. 75. Plaques. Designed, and painted in enamel, by Pierre Mallet 132

76. Plaque. Designed, and painted in enamel, by Goutard Leonce 133

77, 78. Plaques. With Bacchanalian subjects, painted in enamel after Rubens . . . 135

79. Plaque. Original composition, painted in enamel 137

80. Plaque. With Bacchanalian group, painted in enamel after Rubens 138

Preface

HE Works of Art and the Artistic Manufactures of Denmark, of which descriptive and critical sketches are given in this Volume, are fully and faithfully exemplified, under thoroughly practical conditions, in the Institution established in London at No. 142, New Bond Street, and entitled The Royal Danish Galleries. During the few years which have passed since its establishment, this Institution has both confirmed the favourable impression produced by it in the first instance, and also has gradually secured a firm position in the high estimation of the more intellectual classes of the public in this country. The title “ Danish,” when found to be strictly just and consistent, would be certain to command friendly predispositions here in England, and, accordingly, the “ Royal Danish Galleries ” were opened in London having brought their own welcome with them. The new Institution speedily vindicated the justice of such anticipations, by demonstrating the worthiness of the productions of Denmark to be admired and esteemed and valued from their intrinsic merits.

From the first, it was the purpose of the proprietors of these Danish Galleries in the English Metropolis, on the one hand, to include in their collections only works of the highest order ; while, on the other hand, they determined to associate the productions of certain classes of Artistic

XIV

Preface.

Manufactures with objects that claim to be specially distinguished as “Works of Art.” At the present time, the Galleries contain works that may be classified in the following groups, every work being produced by Danes, and very many also being strictly Danish, as well in design as in execution. I. Pictures. — These are original works in both oil and water colours, by the most eminent Artists of Denmark, and they are painted expressly for the Danish Galleries in London. As will be seen from the following pages, Marine Subjects, which are specially popular in Denmark, and enjoy a corresponding popularity among ourselves, take the lead in the department of Danish paintings in oil. II. SCULPTURE. — The works in this group necessarily consist rather of reproductions of the famous statues and bas-reliefs of Thorvaldsen and one or two other renowned Sculptors of Denmark, than of original productions, whether in marble or in any other material. Original works, however, by Danish Sculptors, may always be seen, in the midst of numerous reproductions in the form of Statuettes, Medallions, Plaques, &c., in these Galleries. III. Terra Cotta. — The various productions in this beautiful group are described so fully in my “ Chapter IV.,” that it would be superfluous to do more here than merely to allude to them as constituting one group or collection second to none in interest and attractiveness. IV. Porcelain and Biscuit : and V. Goldsmiths’ Work. — A group composed of objects modelled after ancient Scandinavian examples, discovered as the results of archaeological researches and investigations in Denmark. It is by numerous and diversified collections of productions in each of these five groups that the “Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark” are exemplified, with characteristic significance, in the Royal Danish Galleries in London.

Since the “Introductory Chapter” of this Volume was in type, I have heard more than a few expressions of regret that my notice of Norse mythology, and of the mythic legends of the Scandinavians of the olden time, should have been so brief and concise. I readily admit that I should gladly have considerably extended this section of my work, had I not

Preface.

xv considered that more than the slightest of sketches would have been out of place in these pages. I venture to add that, possibly, at no distant time, I may hope to have more to say on the mythology and myths of the north, guided by the master-spirit of Danish legendary lore, Oehlenschlager. Meanwhile, I gladly refer English readers to “A Manual of Scandinavian Mythology,” by Grenville Pigott, published in London in the year 1839, by William Pickering : it tells —

“A tale well worth to hear,

and the tale is well rendered, without the presence of a single “ Rune,” but with ample stores of the mysterious, in pleasant English, which is made particularly pleasant to readers by Aldine type.

The new edition, just published, of the “ Manual of Mythologies,” Norse Mythology included in the group, I have not yet seen ; but the opinion of it already expressed in the Academy is more than sufficient to assure me of its excellence and value.

C. B.

London,

Cross of the Order of the Dannebroc.

Chapter I. Introductory

“ Let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark ! ” — Hamlet.

“ Art never dies 1 Her ancient reign,

As years roll on, revives again.

Like Nature’s self, with gentle sway,

In far off-ages and to-day,

Art lives and rules and aids to bind,

In one true brotherhood, mankind.”

Prologue to Old Play

T is an essential, and it is also a distinctive, characteristic of the Royal Danish Galleries established in London, that in direct and close association with Works of Art of the highest order in Painting and Sculpture, they contain various classes of objects — all of them of the same high character — in the production of which Art and Manufacture act in harmonious alliance. Thus, while the more poetic and imaginative creations of Art maintain the exalted dignity of their proper position and vindicate their intrinsic supremacy, true and truly noble Art at the same time significantly declares the versatility of her powers, and demonstrates the infinite value of her refining influence with whatever works of man’s hands may contribute as well to the convenience and comfort as to the adornment of human

B life. Here, in these Galleries, side by side with Pictures on canvas and Works of Sculpture, are productions of the Goldsmith, the Potter, and the Enameller ; and they all combine both to establish and to illustrate the fact, that all alike, and each in their own degree and under conditions consistent with their own character, are expressions of that one great Principle which we entitle Art.

For Art, the faithful and loving Disciple of Nature, is ever ready to follow the example and the guidance of Nature herself, and to sympathise with Nature’s own invariable system of action, in bestowing becoming care and regard upon those productions of human workers in which utility has a decided precedence, so that they, as well as the more ambitious of man’s works, may be endowed with the perennial delight of consistent beauty. When thus in alliance with Manufacture, Art is no less true to herself than when she rises to her loftiest aspirations ; and, in like manner, then may the highest works of Art the most confidently rely upon just and worthy appreciation, when the taste and the judgment are trained and disciplined by the influence of Art, acting through her presence in all the familiar appliances and associations of every-day life. So long, indeed, as a rigid dividing-line is considered to be drawn between Art and Manufacture, so long is grave injustice done to both the one and the other ; while, at the same time, by this very act of restricting the range of Art and humiliating the condition of Manufacture, the faculty of forming a true estimate of Art herself is very seriously affected. Happily, the last few years have witnessed a change, equally wonderful and gratifying, in the public feeling in respect to the artistic decoration of Manufactures, so that already in the production of many classes of manufactured objects, Art is expected to have taken an active part. And this expectation on the part of the public, for whom Manufactures are produced, has necessarily had its true effect upon producers, in leading them to understand that most serious shortcomings must be inseparable from the exercise of even a marvellous manipulative skill and dexterity, unless accompanied by adequate thought and imagination and reasoning.

The present greatly improved condition of Manufactures in England in

Influences of Archceology.

no slight degree owes its existence to that wide-spread delight in Archaeological inquiries and researches, from which it also has received both its happiest and its most powerful impulse. The productions of the workers of past ages, long; buried out of sight and absolutely unknown as well as altogether forgotten, but at length brought to light by the zealous and enterprising archaeological spirit of our own times, have done much more than add fresh chapters to History, while also correcting many passages already written in either ignorance or error. Foremost in the ranks of the Chroniclers of the past, Archaeology is the master-teacher for the present. As it enables us to judge rightly of races and generations who flourished before the dawn of written History, and traces out before us with graphic fidelity the rise and the development of early civilization, so Archaeology reveals to us the wonders of both artistic and scientific culture that existed and prevailed in the midst of much that was barbarous and rude : and, thus teaching us that the workers of far distant times, and among their number our own predecessors in the occupancy of these then remote regions of the West and the North, worked as well with head and heart as with hand, the head and heart element in their work having always the precedence, — Archaeology teaches us to follow their example in our own working, if we would have our works attain to excellence equal to theirs. Acting in accordance with the spirit of this teaching, startling as it is in itself, and strange and severe indeed in its rebuke of much in the pretensions of modern advancement, it has become an established and recognised usage faithfully to reproduce ancient and early works for modern requirements, and also to cause strictly modern works in both design and treatment to assimilate themselves to ancient and early models. It is true, that this practical application of the Archaeological spirit at times induces a singular apparent forgetfulness of their own era on the part of living workers, who permit themselves to be so absorbed by their sympathising association with the fine relics of the past, that they seem almost to imagine themselves and their contemporaries to have their existence in certain centuries that came to a close long ago. But these are exceptional cases — cases,

Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark.

however, they are, which carry with them the salutary admonition that, instead of leading by a retrograde action to attempt the revival of a prevalent condition of things that has long passed away, our Archaeology ought to be the agency for imparting to our own times, and for infusing into the conditions of modern life, whatever of wisdom and of refinement we may gather from the wise and the refined of our distant predecessors in the world’s history. It may be well, as, in fact, it is proved to be necessary for us to reproduce — that is, to copy — what other men have thought out and wrought ; still, this is not to imply, as decidedly it does not maintain, that we are to be content always to remain reproducers and copyists, and without the faculty of independent thought and action. Very far from producing any such effect, it is the true function of our Archaeology to impress ourselves with such esteem and admiration for ancient and early workers, as must inspire us eventually to secure for our own works — as true Works of Art and Works of our own true Art — intrinsic qualities at least as estimable and admirable in their beauty and their nobleness, as those that adorn and dignify the most perfect of the productions of Antiquity and the Middle Ages known now to be in existence.

Not very many years ago, the early history of the civilization of the races who successively took a part in peopling these Islands and the circumjacent regions of the Continent of Europe might have been written in a single brief chapter ; and even that one chapter must have contained more of conjecture than of well-ascertained fact. Now, thanks to the revelations already achieved by Archaeology, this same history has expanded to goodly proportions ; and it is lucid, comprehensive, and far advanced towards completeness. The ancient inhabitants of the countries along the western and northern sea-board of Europe and of the British Islands — unconsciously to themselves, indeed, but the value of the bequest is enhanced by its very unconsciousness— in the works which they produced for their own use have bequeathed to us a chronicle at once truthful, significant, and suggestive, which we study with ever-increasing delight. In Denmark those unconscious

Influences of Arcliceology .

Chroniclers of the past worked, from century to century, with peculiar diligence and resolutely sustained energy ; and their works have come down to us, for the most part preserved (as in countries further to the south and the east) beneath the surface of the earth, in so rich and so varied an abundance, that they enable us to trace back with remarkable distinctness the successive stages in the early history of the races who, gradually blending one with another, may alike claim to be entitled Danes. The rude implements of stone used by them in life, and the still ruder stone cromlechs in which they rested after death, are the only remains of the aborigines, nomadic tribes of apparently unknown origin, who settled along the coast-line of Denmark, while yet the country itself for the most part was one vast forest, in which the primaeval vegetation of the alder and the oak had yielded to the luxuriant growth of the beech, to this day in Danish landscape the graceful tree of most frequent occurrence. Those first settlers on Danish soil — the first, certainly, of whose existence and occupancy any traces now are visible — disappeared, and, as it Avould seem from the abundance of the earliest relics of their successors found in Denmark, disappeared suddenly before the irruption of a new and more powerful race, the Goths, who, with a comparative civilization, brought with them bronze and gold, and both skill and taste in using them. In the early history of Denmark, these Scandinavian Goths stand in a position corresponding with that occupied at the same period by the Celts in England ; and the influence exercised by them over the civilization of the North was no less powerful and important, than were the results effected through Celtic agency upon the civilization of Western Europe. As time advanced, in the seventh century, or perhaps in the sixth, the uses of iron and silver found their way into Denmark ; and, in the ninth century, CHRISTIANITY upon Danish ground superseded the old Norse Mythology, when the three principal Scandinavian tribes, Danish Goths, Swedes, and Norwegians, each under its own King, formed three maritime Kingdoms— SWEDEN, intermediate in position and transitional in character, between the mountain regions of Norway and the fertile plains of DENMARK. Mean-

Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark.

while Art, readily acclimatized from the East in Denmark, continually grew stronger and became more thoroughly Danish, as the growth of civilization among the Danes advanced towards maturity. And thus, year by year and century by century, Denmark herself became more and more richly stored with those works of her sons, endowed during the lapse of other centuries with the venerable character of Danish national Antiquities, which the Danes of to-day, encouraged by them in their endeavours to combine the fervour and energy of the past with the skill and ability of the present, rightly prize so highly and love so well.

The strong affection felt by the Danes for the antiquities of their native country, in itself so good a sign of their inherent patriotism, is happily sustained in the consistent nationality of thought and feeling which emphatically expresses itself throughout the entire range of modern Danish Art. The same sentiment also is beautifully exhibited in that intense delight in the works of the greatest of the modern Artists of Denmark, Thorvaldsen, which pervades the entire people — a significant sign of the wide-spread existence among the Danes of the faculty of appreciating the noblest Art, while cherishing with becoming love and honour the memory of their illustrious fellow-countryman.

One circumstance of supreme interest, inseparable from the investigation of early Danish History, guided by the relics of early Danish Art and Manufacture, claims a special notice in these pages. This is the fact, that in a signal degree the Antiquities of Denmark and Britain mutually illustrate each other. In both alike may be clearly traced the concurrent development of primitive civilization, attended with the actual possession of an artistic taste and a manipulative skill that command from ourselves a wondering admiration. Both alike show how a far less immature civilization, extending its influences northward and westward from Byzantium and Rome, acted upon the more remote and simpler civilization of the Goths and Celts, which in its turn and in accordance with its powers may be assumed to have affected the pre-Gothic and pre-Celtic races. And both are agreed in

Glance at Scandinavian Mythology.

occasionally suggesting, and at times in distinctly indicating, a direct connection between ancient Greco-Phcenician Art in the East, and Art as in the course of time it assimilated with the traditions and the conditions of life in the North and West, and there flourished as Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon. The Antiquities, again, of Denmark and Britain attest the early intercourse between the inhabitants of the two countries — an intercourse that may fairly be considered, at any rate in some degree, to have connected the peaceful negotiations of commerce with predatory enterprises and warlike exploits. In his Preface to the English edition of his “ Primaeval Antiquities of Denmark,” the eminent Danish Antiquary, Worsaae, remarks — “ In order to determine with any degree of certainty the differences between the antiquities of different people, and particularly in order to determine what remains are not Roman, it will evidently be serviceable to British antiquaries to look to the national antiquities of countries that were never conquered by the Romans, and whose national remains are therefore unmixed. In that respect, the primaeval antiquities of Denmark are peculiarly important. Denmark was peopled at a very early age ; it lay beyond the pale of Roman conquest ; and there the ante-Roman civilization was kept up to a much later period than in the South and West of Europe. The close connection which in the old time existed between Denmark and the British Islands renders it natural that British antiquaries should turn with interest to the antiquities of Denmark, and compare them with those of their own country.” Equally natural, and equally interesting and satisfactory also, are the corresponding results to Danes of their study of those antiquarian remains which so copiously illustrate the early condition of Art and Manufacture in Britain. It is scarcely necessary to add that the presence now in England of faithful reproductions of early Danish relics, in themselves beautiful objects and happily consistent with the existing state of taste and feeling, cannot fail to be regarded with cordial gratification both by the Danes and by ourselves.

It may be well here, in concluding this brief introductory chapter, in a

Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark.

few words to bring before English readers certain of the more exalted personages, with some of the more popular incidents in ancient Norse Mythology, that in modern Danish Art stand side by side with the more familiar divinities and heroes and legends of the classic Mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome. In no inconsiderable numbers the works assembled in the Royal Danish Galleries in London are creations and impersonations from Norse Mythology ; and, consequently, upon some familiarity with that Mythology they altogether rely, in order to their being understood and appreciated.

It is indeed true, that the mythical systems of the tribes which in early ages occupied the regions of Northern Europe are in essence and substance the same as the system of the Greeks, so well known throughout the educated world from its identification with Greek literature. All these systems, faintly enlightened by illumination reflected from a higher source, have their germ in words or phrases which describe the sights and sounds of the material world, or which symbolize as well the aspirations and imaginings as the actual passions and emotions of mankind. But, in every country, the myths that arose from a common fountain-head such as this, like the various races of men, all of them offshoots from a single common parentage, became modified by the equally subtle and potent influences of soil and climate. Thus the Mythology of the North of necessity assumed a character of gloomy grandeur. Instinct with a true poetic spirit essentially its own, and yet constantly suggestive of parallel legends in the mythic systems of the South, the Norse Mythology ever harmonizes with the stern physical features of the North and with the bold hardihood of the Northmen. In mystic supremacy, the NORNER, the Fates of Scandinavia, for ever keeping their all-searching watch, sit under the dim shadow of Ygdrasil, the sacred ash-tree that flourishes throughout space. Like the corresponding “ Mcerae ” and the “ Parcae ” of the Greeks and Romans, three in number, the dread Sisters of the North, URD, WERDAND, and SKULD, arbitresses of the Past, the Present, and the Future, are endowed with sombre but touching beauty.

Glance at Scandinavian Mythology.

Subject to their control, though high in rank in the celestial sisterhood, are IDUN, the goddess who has charge of the golden apples of perennial youth, the ambrosia of the Scandinavian immortals; and Freia, the Venus of the North, who holds the fatal distaff with which she spins the thread of the married life of the children of men. Odin, the Norse “Alfader,” the chief divinity, father of gods and men, as another Zeus upon his Olympus, with

No. 7. — A Valkyrie.

Statue by Thorvaldsen.

Statue by Bissen.

his consort Frigga — herself another Hera — by his side, is enthroned in Walhalla, the council-chamber of the gods, and their banquet-hall, in which with the souls of the brave who have fallen in battle, the gods continually hold high feasts. From their last battle-field those happy souls are conducted by the Valicyrier, the fair and faithful winged “ shield-maidens,” of whom one — invisible always to her charge till the moment of his fall —

Arts and Artistic Manufactures of Denmark.

watches vigilantly over the earthly career of each warrior of the North, and in the end — then visible to himself, as to all around him — she is for evermore his cup-bearer and ministering companion in the presence of Odin. By some chance — I know not how it befell — one Valkyrie once was seen by a living man here on earth, as she was in the act of filling for her hero his cup in Walhalla. That man immortalized his vision in marble. A Dane, among his fellow-men that man was known and honoured by his name, BlSSEN ; and it also was known of him that he had been a favourite pupil of THORVALDSEN, a Master in the Sculptor’s Art still more famous than himself. Bissen’s VALKYRIE, whose graceful attitude is expressive both of thoughtful attention and calm repose, is of heroic size ; but she has been modelled, with exact fidelity, to the scale of a small statuette, in which form her tutelary presence is never withdrawn from Bond Street. The sketch that accompanies this record of her existence will best show under what guise Bissen’s Valkyrie appeared to him, and, in like manner, the companion sketch will show how classic Hebe, Olympian cup-bearer to the immortals of the South, appeared to Thorvaldsen himself. As a beautiful statuette, Hebe has a home beside her northern Scandinavian sister ; and so the two sketches from the two great Danish Sculptors, the Master and the Pupil, here find places side by side.

Sometimes the supreme deities of the mysterious triad of the Northmen, ODIN, Vile, and Ve, are seated apart, absorbed in solemn and lofty meditation. Or, perhaps, below them may appear, standing on Byfrost, the rainbow-bridge that spans the void between Walhalla and the earth, HEINDAL the Vigilant, Odin’s warder, a cock on the crest of his helm, his drawn sword in his hand, and winding on his horn a shrill blast. Or, again, seated on his throne between his two tamed wolves and his two ravens — emblems the latter of the great twin faculties of Reflection and Imagination — Odin himself, grasping his invincible spear, may contemplate the conflict everraging between the Asir and the Jetter, the gods and the giants, the adverse principles of good and evil. In the midst of that fierce melee,

Gla,7ice at Scandinavian Mythology. \ i

supported by his brethren, Thor — representative of Ares or Mars — girded with his belt of strength, with Mjolnir his cross-formed hammer, short in the shaft, delivers crushing blows upon the club-brandishing and rock-wielding giants, — as in after years upon the earth more than one “ Martel ” or “ Malleus ” has smitten human antagonists. Once more, enthroned like her

lord, Frigga, queen of heaven, gazes in speechless grief upon the body of the best beloved of her sons, Baldur the Beautiful — the god of purity and wisdom and the gentler virtues — as he lies dead at her feet, where he fell pierced by an arrow of mistletoe unwittingly shot at him by Hudur, his blind brother ; or, as some legends tell, Baldur was killed with that mistletoeshaft by Lore, the melevolent demon, represented as an enormous serpent encircling the earth, who is the father of Hela, queen of Helheim, the region below the earth where dwell apart the spirits of those Scandinavians who had not died in battle. Suddenly, Frigga conceives the idea, if prompt action be taken, that it may be possible to recall her Baldur again to life. On the instant, therefore, she despatches Odin’s chief minister, Hermod, upon the good steed Sleipner, to confer with Hela. Awaiting the issue of Hermod’s momentous mission, around the prostrate form of their brother, Thor and Ydun, and the poet-god Brage stand mournfully motionless ; in the midst of them, Nanna, Baldur s wife, sinks on her knees and falls dead upon her dead husband.