<P> The belief in reincarnation may have been commonplace among the Norse since the annotator of the Poetic Edda wrote that people formerly used to believe in it: </P> <P> Sigrun was early dead of sorrow and grief . It was believed in olden times that people were born again, but that is now called old wives' folly . Of Helgi and Sigrun it is said that they were born again; he became Helgi Haddingjaskati, and she Kara the daughter of Halfdan, as is told in the Lay of Kara, and she was a Valkyrie . </P> <P> While reincarnation has been a matter of faith in some communities from an early date it has also frequently been argued for on principle, as Plato does when he argues that the number of souls must be finite because souls are indestructible, Benjamin Franklin held a similar view . Sometimes such convictions, as in Socrates' case, arise from a more general personal faith, at other times from anecdotal evidence such as Plato makes Socrates offer in the Myth of Er . </P> <P> During the Renaissance translations of Plato, the Hermetica and other works fostered new European interest in reincarnation . Marsilio Ficino argued that Plato's references to reincarnation were intended allegorically, Shakespeare made fun but Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by authorities after being found guilty of heresy by the Roman Inquisition for his teachings . But the Greek philosophical works remained available and, particularly in north Europe, were discussed by groups such as the Cambridge Platonists . </P>

What religion believes that brahman takes the form of three deities