Loder also gave at the same time another gift, _litr goda_. To understand this expression (hitherto translated with "good complexion"), we must bear in mind that the Teutons, like the Hellenes and Romans, conceived the gods in human form, and that the image which characterises man was borne by the gods alone before man's creation, and originally belonged to the gods. To the hierologists and the skalds of the Teutons, as to those of the Greeks and Romans, man was created _in effigiem deorum_ and had in his nature a divine image in the real sense of this word, a _litr goda_. Nor was this _litr goda_ a mere abstraction to the Teutons, or an empty form, but a created _efni_ dwelling in man and giving shape and character to the earthly body which is visible to the eye. The common meaning of the word _litr_ is something presenting itself to the eye without being actually tangible to the hands. The Gothic form of the word is _wlits_, which Ulfilas uses in translating the Greek _prosopon_--look, appearance, expression. Certain persons were regarded as able to separate their _litr_ from its union with the other factors of their being, and to lend it, at least for a short time, to some other person in exchange for his. This was called to _skipta litum_, _vixla litum_. It was done by Sigurd and Gunnar in the song of Sigurd Fafnersbane (i. 37-42). That factor in Gunnar's being which causes his earthly body to present itself in a peculiar individual manner to the eyes of others is transmitted to Sigurd, whose exterior, affected by Gunnar's _litr_, accommodates itself to the latter, while the spiritual kernel in Sigurd's personality suffers no change.
Lit hefir thu Gunnars oc læti hans, mælsco thina oc meginhyggior (Sig., i. 39).
Thus man has within him an inner body made in the image of the gods and consisting of a finer material, a body which is his _litr_, by virtue of which his coarser tabernacle, formed from the earth, receives that form by which it impresses itself on the minds of others. The recollection of the belief in this inner body has been preserved in a more or less distorted form in traditions handed down even to our days (see for example, Hyltén-Cavallius, _Värend och Virdarne_, i. 343-360; Rääf in Småland, _Beskr. öfver Ydre_, p. 84).