Studia Islandica - 01.06.1958, Page 27

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máttki áss invoked in the oath-formula was, in reality,
Óðinn, although others have argued that this is Þórr.
The author considers this problem in the light of re-
cent researches, and espeacially those of J. de Vries and
G. Dumézil, for whom Óðinn is the chief and highest
of the gods in the Germanic world. He suggests that,
in fact, Óðinn is foreign to western Scandinavia and to
Iceland, whose traditions were based upon strict ob-
servance of the law and on family ties. He suggests fur-
ther that Óðinn represents lawlessness and that he is
the god of champions and especially of the upstart kings
of Norway and their followers, who stood in close
relationship with Denmark and the south. He thus sees
the cult of Óðinn as a direct antithesis to the tradi-
tional, aristocratic civilization of western Norway, and
suggests that its introduction partly accounted for the
emigration to Iceland and other western lands in the
ninth century.