It is to me very heathen, grimly
archaic, and with the strong stamp of an original. Its resemblance to
the Norse is striking. Either the Norsemen told it to the Eskimo and
the Indians, or the latter to the Norsemen. None know, after all, what
was going on for ages in the early time, up about Jotunheim, in the
North Atlantic! Vessels came to Newfoundland to fish for cod since
unknown antiquity, and, returning, reported that they had been to
Tartary.
It may be assumed at once that this Indian Last Battle of the Giants,
or of the good hero giants against the Evil, led by the Malsum-Fenris
Wolf, was not derived from the Canadian French. The influence of, the
latter is to be found even among the Chippewas, but they never dealt in
myths like this.
It is very remarkable indeed that the one great principle of the Norse
mythology is identical with that of the Indian. So long as man shall
make war and heroism his standard, just so long his hero god exists.
But there will come a day when mankind can war no more,--when higher
civilization must prevail. Then there will be a great final war, and
death of the heroes, and death of their foes, and after all a new
world.
"Then shall another come
yet mightier,
although I dare not
his name declare.
Few may see
further forth
than when Odin
meets the Wolf."
(Hyndluloid, 42.
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