(Acknowledgment: has been created at, but no longer available)  http://www.northvegr.org/lore/grimmst/

 

PDF German editions at http://www.septentrionalia.net/etexts/

PDF English edition at http://dl.free.fr/tnbP4X1jv

Grimm's Teutonic

Mythology

 

 

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

 

 

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YK’s bibliographic notes

 

*** … *** : translated from the XXX language, XXX = French or Latin or Spanish or Old Norse or  several Germanic languages such as Old Dutch, Bavarian, etc.

 

Méon’s references. Grimm cites Méon’s 4 main editions: his “Roman de la Rose”, his “Roman de Renard” (only containing theFrench tract - thus very different from Goethe’s famous version “Reineke fuchs,” which is a rewriting of an old German translation of the Flemish tract), his “Recueil général et complet des fabliaux” and his re-edition of Barbazan’s “Fabliaux et contes des poètes françois.” The reference he provides for the first two works, name and line # are enough to find back what Grimm refers to.  

 

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From the westernmost shore of Asia, Christianity had turned at once to the opposite one of Europe. The wide soil of the continent which had given it birth could not supply it long with nourishment; neither did it strike deep root in the north of Africa. Europe soon became, and remained, its proper dwelling-place and home.

It is worthy of notice, that the direction in which the new faith worked its way, from South to North, is contrary to the current of migration which was then driving the nations from the East and North to the West and South. As spiritual light penetrated from the one quarter, life itself was to be reinvigorated from the other.

The worn out empire of the Romans saw both its interior convulsed, and its frontier overstepped. Yet, by the same mighty doctrine which had just overthrown her ancient gods, subjugated Rome was able to subdue her conquerors anew. By this means the flood-tide of invasion was gradually checked, the newly converted lands began to gather strength and to turn their arms against the heathen left in their rear.

Slowly, step by step, Heathendom gave way to Christendom. Five hundred years after Christ, but few nations of Europe believed in him; after a thousand years the majority did, and those the most important, yet not all (see Suppl.).

From Greece and Italy the Christian faith passed into Gaul first of all, in the second and third centuries. About the year 300, or soon after, we find here and there a christian among the Germans on the Rhine, especially the Alamanni; and about the same time or a little earlier (2) among the Goths. The Goths were the first Teutonic people amongst whom christianity gained a firm footing; this occurred in the course of the fourth century, the West-Goths leading the way and the East-Goths following; and after them the Vandals, Gepidæ and Rugii were converted. All these races held by the Arian doctrine. The Burgundians in Gaul became Catholic at the beginning of the fifth century, then Arian under their Visigoth rulers, and Catholic again at the commencement of the sixth century. The Suevi in Spain were at first Catholic, then Arian (about 469), until in the sixth century they, with all the West-Goths, went over likewise to the Catholic church. Not till the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth did christianity win the Franks, soon after that the Alamanni, and after them the Langobardi. The Bavarians were converted in the seventh and eighth centuries, the Frisians, Hessians and Thuringians in the eighth, the Saxons about the ninth.

Christianity had early found entrance into Britain, but was checked by the irruption of the heathen Anglo-Saxons. Towards the close of the sixth and in the course of the seventh century, they also went over to the new faith.

The Danes became christian in the tenth century, the Norwegians at the beginning of the eleventh, the Swedes not completely till the second half of the same century. About the same time christianity made its way to Iceland.

Of the Slavic nations the South Slavs were the first to adopt the christian faith: the Carentani, and under Heraclius (d. 640) the Croatians, then, 150 years after the former, the Moravians in the eighth and ninth centuries. Among the North Slavs, the Obotritæ in the ninth, Bohemians (3) and Poles in the tenth, Serbs in the eleventh, and Russians at the end of the tenth.

Then the Hungarians at the beginning of the eleventh, Livonians and Lettons in the twelfth, Esthonians and Finns in the twelfth and thirteenth, Lithuanians not even till the commencement of the fifteenth.

All these data are only to be taken as true in the main; they neither exclude some earlier conversions, nor a longer and later adherence to heathenism in limited areas. Remoteness and independence might protect the time-honored religion of a tribe. Apostates too would often attempt at least a partial reaction. Christianity would sometimes lead captive the minds of the rich and great, by whose example the common people were carried away; sometimes it affected first the poor and lowly.

When Chlodowig (Clovis) received baptism, and the Salian Franks followed his lead, individuals out of all the Frankish tribes had already set the example. Intercourse with Burgundians and West-Goths had inclined them to the Arian doctrine, while the Catholic found adherents in other parts of Gaul. Here the two came into collision. One sister of Chlodowig, Lanthild, had become an Arian christian before his conversion, the other, Albofled, had remained a heathen; the latter was now baptized with him, and the former was also won over to the Catholic communion. (4) But even in the sixth and seventh centuries heathenism was not yet uprooted in certain districts of the Frankish kingdom. Neustria had heathen inhabitants on the Loire and Seine, Burgundy in the Vosges, Austrasia in the Ardennes; and heathens seem still to have been living in the present Flanders, especially northwards towards Friesland. (5) Vestiges of heathenism lingered on among the Frisians into the ninth century, among the Saxons into the tenth, and in like manner among the Normans and Swedes into the eleventh and twelfth. (6) Here and there among the northern Slavs idolatry was not extinct in the twelfth century, and not universally so among the Finns and Lithuanians in the sixteenth and seventeenth (7); nay, the remotest Laplanders cling to it still.

Christianity was not popular. It came from abroad, it aimed at supplanting the time-honored indigenous gods whom the country revered and loved. These gods and their worship were part and parcel of the people's traditions, customs and constitution. Their names had their roots in the people's language, and were hallowed by antiquity; kings and princes traced their lineage back to individual gods; forests, mountains, lakes had received a living consecration from their presence. All this the people was not to renounce; and what is elsewhere commended as truth and loyalty was denounced and persecuted by the heralds of the new faith as a sin and a crime. The source and seat of all sacred lore was shifted away to far-off regions for ever, and only a fainter borrowed glory could henceforth be shed on places in one's native land.

The new faith came in escorted by a foreign language, which the missionaries imparted to their disciples and thus exalted into a sacred language, which excluded the slighted mother-tongue from almost all share in public worship. This does not apply to the Greek-speaking countries, which could follow the original text of the christian revelation, but it does to the far wider area over which the Latin church-language was spread, even among Romance populations, whose ordinary dialect was rapidly emancipating itself from the rules of ancient Latin. Still more violent was the contrast in the remaining kingdoms.

The converters of the heathen, sternly devout, abstemious, mortifying the flesh, occasionally peddling, headstrong, and in slavish subjection to distant Rome, could not fall in many ways to offend the national feeling. Not only the rude bloody sacrifices, but the sensuous pleasure-loving side of heathenism was to them an abomination (see Suppl.). And what their words or their wonder-working gifts could not effect, was often to be executed against obdurate pagans by placing fire and sword in the hands of christian proselytes.

The triumph of Christianity was that of a mild, simple, spiritual doctrine over sensuous, cruel, barbarizing Paganism. In exchange for peace of spirit and the promise of heaven, a man gave his earthly joys and the memory of his ancestors. Many followed the inner prompting of their spirit, others the example of the crowd, and not a few the pressure of irresistible force.

Although expiring heathenism is studiously thrown into the shade by the narrators, there breaks out at times a touching lament over the loss of the ancient gods, or an excusable protest against innovations imposed from without (8) (see Suppl.).

The missionaries did not disdain to work upon the senses of the heathen by anything that could impart a higher dignity to the Christian cults as compared with the pagan: by white robes for subjects of baptism, by curtains, peals of bells (see Suppl.), the lighting of tapers and the burning of incense. (9) It was also a wise or politic measure to preserve many heathen sites and temples by simply turning them, when suitable, into Christian ones, and assigning to them another and equally sacred meaning. The heathen gods even, though represented as feeble in comparison with the true God, were not always pictured as powerless in themselves; they were perverted into hostile malignant powers, into demons, sorcerers and giants, who had to be put down, but were nevertheless credited with a certain mischievous activity and influence. Here and there a heathen tradition or a superstitious custom lived on by merely changing the names, and applying to Christ, Mary and the saints what had formerly been related and believed of idols (see Suppl.). On the other hand, the piety of christian priests suppressed and destroyed a multitude of heathen monuments, poems and beliefs, whose annihilation history can hardly cease to lament, though the sentiment which deprived us of them is not to be blamed. The practice of a pure Christianity, the extinction of all trace of heathenism was of infinitely more concern than the advantage that might some day accrue to history from their longer preservation. Boniface and Willibrord, in felling the sacred oak, in polluting the sacred spring, and the image-breaking Calvinists long after them, thought only of the idolatry that was practiced by such means (see Suppl.). As those pioneers 'purged their floor' a first time, it is not to be denied that the Reformation eradicated after growths of heathenism, and loosing the burden of the Romish ban, rendered our faith at once freer, more inward and more domestic. God is near us everywhere, and consecrates for us every country, from which the fixing of our gaze beyond the Alps would alienate us.

Probably some sects and parties, non-conformity here and there among the heathen themselves, nay, in individual minds a precocious elevation of sentiment and morals, came half-way to meet the introduction of Christianity, as afterwards its purification (see Suppl.). It is remarkable that Old Norse legend occasionally mentions certain men who, turning away in utter disgust and doubt from the heathen faith, placed their reliance on their own strength and virtue. Thus in the Sôlar lioð 17 we read of Vêbogi and Râdey 'â sik þau trûðu,' in themselves they trusted; of king Hâkon (Fornm. sög. 1, 35) 'konûngr gerir sem allir aðrir, þeir sem trûa â mâtt sinn ok megin,' the king does like all others who trust in their own might and main; of Barðr (ibid. 2, 151) 'ek trûi ekki â skurðgoð eðr fiandr, hefi ek þvî lengi trûat â mâtt minn ok megin,' I trust not in idols and fiends, I have this long while, &c.; of Hiörleifr 'vildi aldri blôta,' would never sacrifice (Landn. 1, 57); of Hallr and Thôrir 'goðlauss vildu eigi blôta, ok trûda â mâtt sinn,' (Landn. 1, 11); of king Hrôlfr (Fornm. sög. 1, 98) 'ekki er þess getit at Hrôlfr konûngr ok kappar hans hafi nokkurn tîma blôtat goð, heldr trûðu â mâtt sinn ok megin,' it is not thought that king H. and his champions have at any time, &c.; of Örvaroddr (Fornald. sög. 2, 165; cf. 505) 'ekki vandist blôtum, þvî hann trûði â mâtt sinn ok megin'; of Finnbogi (p. 272) 'ek trûi â sialfan mik.' This is the mood that still finds utterance in a Danish folk-song (D.V. 4, 27), though without a reference to religion:

Först troer jeg mit gode svärd.

Og saa min gode hest,

Dernäst troer jeg mine dannesvenne,

Jeg troer mig self allerbedst;

and it is Christian sentiment besides, which strives to elevate and consecrate the inner man (see Suppl.).

We may assume, that, even if Paganism could have lived and luxuriated a while longer, and brought out in sharper relief and more spontaneously some characteristics of the nations that obeyed it, yet it bore within itself a germ of disorganization and disruption, which, even without the intervention of Christian teaching, would have shattered and dissolved it. (10) I liken heathenism to a strange plant whose brilliant fragrant blossom we regard with wonder; Christianity to the crop of nourishing grain that covers wide expanses. To the heathen too was germinating the true God, who to the Christians had matured into fruit.

At the time when Christianity began to press forward, many of the heathen seem to have entertained the notion, which the missionaries did all in their power to resist, of combining the new doctrine with their ancient faith, and even of fusing them into one. Of Norsemen as well as Anglo-Saxons we are told, that some believed at the same time in Christ and in heathen gods, or at least continued to invoke the latter in particular cases in which they had formerly proved helpful to them. So even by christians much later, the old deities seem to have been named and their aid invoked in enchantments and spells. Landnâmabôk 3,12 says of Helgi: 'hann trûði â Krist, en þô hêt hann â Thôr til sæfara ok harðræða ok alls þess, er honum þôtti mestu varða'; he believed in Christ, and yet he called upon Thor in voyages and difficulties, &c. Hence the poets too transferred heathen epithets to Christ. Bede 1, 15 relates of Redwald, an East-Anglian king in the beginning of the 7th century: ***  'rediens domum ab uxore sua, a quibusdam perversis doctoribus seductus est, atque a sincereitate fidei depravatus, habuit posteriora pejora prioribus, ita ut in morem antiquorum Samaritanorum, et Christo servire videretur et diis quibus antea serviebat, atque in eodem fano et altare habebat in sacrificium Christi et arulam ad victimas daemoniorum' (see Suppl.).[return the house to his wife, certain seduced by perverted teachers, and the sincere faith depraved, had become worse than ancestors, thus in the custom of old Samaritans, and Christ might be seen serving and who before was serving the light, and in to the same place for sanctuary and altar to Christ, was having sacrifice to the evil spirits]. ***  This helps to explain the relapses into paganism.

The history of heathen doctrines and ideas is easier to write, according as particular races remained longer outside the pale of baptism. Our more intimate acquaintance with the Greek and Roman religion rests upon writings which existed before the rise of Christianity; we are oftener at fault for information as to the altered shape which that religion had assumed among the common people in Greece and Italy during the first centuries of our era. Research has yet to penetrate, even deeper than it has done, into the old Celtic faith; we must not shrink from recognizing and examining Celtic monuments and customs on ground now occupied by Germans. Leo's important discovery on the real bearings of the Malberg glossary may lead to much. The religion of the Slavs and Lithuanians would be far more accurately known to us, if these nations, in the centuries immediately following their conversion, had more carefully preserved the memory of their antiquities; as it is, much scattered detail only wants collecting, and traditions still alive in many districts afford rich material. On the Finnish mythology we possess somewhat fuller information.

Germany holds a middle place, peculiar to herself and not unfavorable. While the conversion of Gaul and that of Slavland were each as a whole decided and finished in the course of a very few centuries, the Teutonic races forsook the faith of their fathers very gradually and slowly, from the 4th to the 11th century. Remains of their language too have been preserved more fully and from the successive periods. Besides which we possess in the works of Roman writers, and especially Tacitus, accounts of the earlier undisturbed time of Teutonic heathenism, which, though scanty and from a foreign source, are yet exceedingly important, nay invaluable.

The religion of the East and South German races, which were converted first, is more obscure to us than that of the Saxons; about the Saxons again we know incomparably less than about the Scandinavians. What a far different insight we should get into the character and contents of the suppressed doctrine, how vastly the picture we are able to form of it would gain in clearness, if some clerk at Fulda, Regensburg, Reichenau or St. Gall, or one at Bremen, Corvei or Magdeburg, had in the eighth, ninth or tenth century, hit upon the plan of collecting and setting before us, after the manner of Saxo Grammaticus, the still extant traditions of his tribe on the beliefs and superstitions of their forefathers! Let no one tell me, that by that time there was nothing more to be had; here and there a footmark plainly shows that such recollections could not really have died out. (11) And who will show me in Sweden, which clung to heathenism longer and more tenaciously, such a composition as actually appeared in Denmark during the twelfth century? But for this fact, would not the doubters declare such a thing impossible in Sweden? In truth, the first eight books of Saxo are to me the most welcome monument of the Norse mythology, not only for their intrinsic worth, but because they show in what an altered light the ancient faith of the people had to be placed before the recent converts. I especially remark, that Saxo suppresses all mention of some prominent gods; what right have we then to infer from the non-mention of many deities in the far scantier records of inland Germany, that they had never been heard of there?

Then, apart from Saxo, we find a purer authority for the Norse religion preserved for us in the remotest corner of the North, whither it had fled as it were for more perfect safety,

namely, in Iceland. It is preserved not only in the two Eddas, but in a multitude of Sagas of various shape, which, but for that emigration coming to the rescue, would probably have perished in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

To assail the genuineness of the Norse mythology is as much as to cast doubt on the genuineness and independence of the Norse language. That it has been handed down to us both in a clearer and an obscurer shape, through older and more modern authorities, makes it all the easier to study it from many sides and more historically.

Just as little can we fail to perceive the kinship and close connection of the Norse mythology with the rest of Teutonic mythology. I have undertaken to collect and set forth all that can now be known of German heathenism, and that exclusively of the complete system of Norse mythology. By such limitation I hope to gain clearness and space, and to sharpen our vision for a criticism of the Old German faith, so far as it stands opposed to the Norse, or aloof from it; so that we need only concern ourselves with the latter, where in substance or tendency it coincides with that of inland Germany.

The antiquity, originality and affinity of the German and Norse mythologies rest on the following grounds:

1. The undisputed and very close affinity of speech between the two races, and the now irrefutably demonstrated identity of form in their oldest poetry. It is impossible that nations speaking languages which had sprung from the same stock, whose songs all wore the badge of an alliteration either unknown or quite differently applied by their neighbors, should have differed materially in their religious belief. Alliteration seems to give place to christian rhyme, first in Upper Germany, and then in Saxony, precisely because it had been the characteristic of heathen songs then still existing. Without prejudice to their original affinity, it is quite true that the Germans and the Norse dialects and poetry have their peculiarities of form and finish; but it would seem incredible that the one race should have had gods and the other none, or that the chief divinities of the two should have been really different from one another. There were marked differences no doubt, but not otherwise than in their language; and as the Gothic, Anglo-Saxon and Old High German dialects have their several points of superiority over the Old Norse, so may the faith of inland Germany have in many points its claims to distinction and individuality.

2. The joint possession, by all Teutonic tongues, of many terms relating to religious worship. If we are able to produce a word used by the Goths in the 4th century, by the Alamanni in the 8th, in exactly the same form and sense as it continues to bear in the Norse authorities of the 12th or 13th century, the affinity of the German faith with the Norse, and the antiquity of the latter, are thereby vindicated.

3. The identity of mythic notions and nomenclature, which ever and anon breaks out: thus the agreement

of the O.H.G. muspilli, O. Sax. mudspelli, with the Eddic muspell;

of the O.H.G. itis, A. Sax. ides, with the Eddic dîs;

or of the A. Sax. brosinga mene with the Eddic brîsînga men,

affords perfectly conclusive evidence.

4. The precisely similar way in which both there and here the religious myth tacks itself on to the heroic legend. As the Gothic, Frankish and Norse genealogies all run into one another, we can scarcely deny the connection of the veiled myths also which stand in the background.

5. The mingling of the mythic element with names of plants and constellations. This is an un-effaced vestige of the primeval intimate union between religious worship and nature.

6. The gradual transformation of the gods into devils, of the wise women into witches, of the worship into superstitious customs. The names of the gods have found a last lurking-place in disguised ejaculations, oaths, curses, protestations. (12) There is some analogy between this and the transfer of heathen myths from goddesses and gods to Mary and the saints, from elves to angels. Heathen festivals and customs were transformed into christian, spots which heathenism had already consecrated were sometimes retained for churches and courts of justice. The popular religion of the Catholics, particularly in the adoration of saints, includes a good many and often graceful and pleasing relics of paganism (see Suppl.).

7. The evident deposit from god-myths, which is found to this day in various folk-tales, nursery-tales, games, saws, curses, ill-understood names of days and months, and idiomatic phrases.

8. The undeniable intermixture of the old religious doctrine with the system of law; for the latter, even after the adoption of the new faith, would not part with certain old forms and usage (see Suppl.).

In unraveling these complex relations, it appears indispensable not to overlook the mythologies of neighboring nations, especially of the Celts, Slavs, Lithuanians and Finns, wherever they afford confirmation or elucidation. This extension of our scope would find ample reason and justification in the mere contact (so fruitful in many ways) of the languages of those nationalities with Teutonic ones, particularly of the Celtic with Old Frankish, of the Finnish and Lithuanian with Gothic, and of the Slavic with High German. But also the myths and superstitions of these very nations are peculiarly adapted to throw light on the course taken by our domestic heathenism in its duration and decadence.

Against the error which has so frequently done damage to the study of the Norse and Greek mythologies, I mean the mania of foisting metaphysical or astronomical solutions on but half-discovered historical data, I am sufficiently guarded by the incompleteness and loose connection of all that has been preserved. My object is, faithfully and simply to collect what the distortions early introduced by the nations themselves, and afterwards the scorn and aversion of christians have left remaining of heathenism; and to enlist fellow-laborers in the slow task of securing a more solid store of facts, without which a general view of the substance and worth of our mythology is not to be attained (see Suppl.).

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1. In a book that deals so much with Heathenism, the meaning of the term ought not to be passed over. The Greeks and Romans had no special name for nations of another faith (for  were not used in that sense); but with the Jews and Christians of the N.T. are contrasted eqnoj, eqnea, eqnikoi, Lat. gentes, gentiles; Ulphilas uses the pl. thiudôs, and by preference in the gen. after a pronoun, thái thiudô, sumái thiudô (gramm. 4, 441, 457), while thiudiskôs translates eqnikwj Gal. 2, 14. As it was mainly the Greek religion that stood opposed to the Judæo-Christian, the word  also assumed the meaning , and we meet with , which the Goths would still have rendered , as he does render , John 7, 35. 12, 20. I Cor. 1, 24. 12, 13; only in I Cor. 1, 22 he prefers Krêkôs. This  = gentilis bears also the meaning of giant, which has developed itself out of more than one national name (Hun, Avar, Tchudi); so the Hellenic walls came to be heathenish, gigantic (see ch. XVIII). In Old High German, Notker still uses the pl. diete for gentiles (Graff 5, 128). In the meanwhile pagus had expanded its narrow meaning of  into the wider one of ager, campus, in which sense it still lives on in It. paese, French pays; while paganus began to push out gentilis, which was lapsing into the sense of nobilis. All the Romance languages have their pagano, payen, &c., nay, it has penetrated into Bohem. pohan, Pol. poganin, Lith. pagonas [but Russ. pogan = unclean]. The Gothic háithi campus early developed an adj. háithns agrestis, campestris = paganus (Ulph. in Mark 7, 26 renders egghnij by háithnô), the Old H.G. heida an adj. heidan, Mid. H.G. and Dutch heide heiden, A.S. hæð hæðin, Engl. heath heathen, Old Norse heiði heiðinn; Swed. and Dan. use hedning. The O.H.G. word retains its adj. nature, and forms its gen. pl. heidanêro. Our present heide, gen. heiden (for heiden, gen. heidens) is erroneous, but current ever since Luther. Full confirmation is afforded by Mid. Lat. agrestis = paganus, e.g. in the passage quoted in ch. IV from Vita S. Agili; and the 'wilde heiden' [wild heathens] in our Heldenbuch is an evident pleonasm (see Supplement).

                2. Waitz's Ulfila, p. 35.

                3. Fourteen Bohemian princes baptized 845; see Palacky 1, 110. The Middle North-slavs

Riaderi, Tolenzi, Kycini, Circipani still heathen in the latter half of the 11th century; see Helmold 1, 21. 23 (an. 1066). The Rugians not till 1168; Helm. 2, 12. 13.

                4.            *** baptizata est Albofledis [Albofledis is baptized]

                Lanthildis chrismata est, [Lanthildis  is annointed] *** Greg. Tur. 2, 31. So among the Goths, chrismation is administered to Sigibert's wife Brunechild (4, 27), and to Ingund's husband Herminichild (5, 38, who assumes the new name of Joannes. The Arians appear to have re-baptized converts from Catholicism; Ingund herself was compelled by her grandmother-mother in law Goisuintha 'ut rebaptizaretur'. Rebaptizare katholicos, Eugippii vita Severini, cap. 8.

                5. Authorities given in Ch. IV.

Conf. lex Frisionum, ed. Gaupp, p. xxiv, 19, 47. Heathenism lasted the longest between Laubach and the Weser.

                6. Fornmanna sögur 4, 116. 7, 151.

                7. Wedekind's notes 2, 275, 276. Rhesa dainos, p. 333. The Lithuanians proper converted 1387, the Samogits 1413.

                8. Fornmanna sögur 1, 31-35. Laxdæla, p. 170. Kralodworsky rukopis, 72, 74.

                9. Greg. Tur. 2, 31. Fornm. sög. 1, 260. 2, 200.

                10. Old Norse sagas and songs have remarkable passages in which the gods are coarsely derided. A good deal in Lokasenna and Harbard's song may pass for rough joking, which still leaves the holiest things unshaken (see Suppl.). But faith has certainly grown fainter, when a daring poet can compare Oðinn and Freyja to dogs (Fornm. sög. 2, 207. Islend. sög. 1, 11. ed. nov. 372. Nialss. 160); when another calls the gods rângeyg (squint-eyed, unfair) and rokindusta (Fornm. sög. 2, 154). When we come to Freyr, I shall quote a story manifestly tending to lessen the reverence for him; but here is a passage from Oswald 2913: *** 'dîn got der ist ein junger tôr (fool), ich wil glouben an den alten.'-[this god who is a young fool, I'll believe in the old ones]--*** If we had a list of old and favorite dogs'-names, I believe we should find that the destinations of several deities were bestowed upon the brute by way of degradation. Vilk. saga, cap. 230. 235, has handed down Thor (but cf. ed. nov., cap. 263) and Paron, one being the O.N., the other the Slav name in the Slovak form Parom = Perun ch. VIII. With the Saxon herdsmen or hunters Thunar was doubtless in use for dogs, as perhaps Donner is to this day. One sort of dog is called by the Poles Grzmilas (Linde 1, 779a. 2, 798), by the Bohemians Hrmiles (Jungm. 1, 759) = Thunder, Forest-thunder. In Helbling 4, 441 seq. I find a dog Wunsch (not Wünsch). Similar to this is the transference of national names to dogs: the Bohemian Bodrok is a dog's name, but signifies an Obotrite (Jungm. 1, 150); Sâmr in the Nialssaga seems to mean a Same, Sabme = Lapp; Helbling 4, 458 has a Frank (see Suppl.).

                11. As late as the tenth century the heroic tale of Walther and Hildegund was poetized in Latin at St. Gall, and a relic of heathen poetry was written down in German [deutlich, a misprint for deutsch? - No: it was clearly written (deutlich)], probably at Merseburg.

                12. Conf. our 'donner! hammer!' the Serv. 'lele! lado!' the Lat. 'pol! aedepol! me hercle! me castor! medius fidius,' &c.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 1, note) Paul. Diac. still uses heathen in the sense of rustici (Pertz, Archiv 7, 334). demo heidanin commane, Diut. 1, 504b. The abbrev. form heid occurs even before Luther: heide rhy. leide, G. Abent. 2, 67. dieser zeginer oder heit, Keller, Fastnachts-sp. p. 823 (like our christ for MHG. kristen, OHG. christani); yet the true genitive is retained in Chr. Weise's Erznarre 190: des jungen heidens los werden.

 Favorite epithets of the heathen are "wild, fierce, grim": wild heathen, wild men of the wild heath, Anegenge 23, 61. conf. Rabenschl. 1080. Neifen 14, 6. MsH. 1, 152a. die wuotendigen heiden, Kaiser-chr. 951. More freq. die übelen heiden, Diemer 158, 18. 162, 2. Morolt 376 seq. die bôsen h., Diemer 170, 24. 179, 17. der übele h., Pantal 1034. der vil arge h. 1847. den h. gramen, Servat. 148 (per contra, hypocrita is transl. dunni cristâni, Diut 1, 239b). Also "dogs," as in Judith 134, 39: þone haeðenan hund. Olaf Tryggv. saga, cap. 68: hund-heidinn. Svenske vis: hednings-hund. Mor. 418: den heidenschen hunt. In Willeh. 58, 16 the Sarrazin ride on dogs and hogs.

Gradually milder terms are used: dat domme heidine, Maerl. 3, 128. des gelouben gest (strangers to faith), Türl. Wh. 15a. heidinen die sunder êwe (without law) lebeten, Roth. 475. People do not like to be taken for heathens: sô bin ich niht ein heiden, MsH. 1, 42a. als ich waere ein heiden 45b. Yet there is pity for them: swie sie wâren heiden, och was zerbarmen umbe sie, Nib. Lament, 437; and Wolfram, like Walther, speaks of them quite humanely, Willeh. 450, 15: "Die nie toufes künde Enpfiengen, ist das sünde, Daz man die sluoc alsam ein vihe (a sin to slay the unbaptized)? Grôzer sünde ich drumbe gihe: Es ist gar Gotes hant-getât, Zwuo und sibenzec sprâche die er hât," they are God's handiwork, 72 languages wherein He speaks.

                pp. 2-4.) Heathens in Italy and at Rome as late as Theoderic, Edict. Theod. 108. Salvianus de gubern. Dei, about 450, contrasts the vices of christian Romans and Provincials with the virtues of heathen Saxons, Franks, Gepidæ and Huns, and of heretical Goths and Vandals; towards the end of bk. 7, he says: 'Gothorum gens perfida, sed pudica est, Alamannorum impudica, sed minus perfida. Franci mendaces, sed hospitales, Saxones crudelitate efferi, sed castitate mirandi;' and further on: 'Vandali castos etiam Romanos esse fecerunt;' conf. Papencordt 271-2. The Bavarian Ratolf is converted in 788: coepi Deum colere, MB. 28b, 7. In the times of Boniface and Sturmi we read: Populi gentis illius (in Noricum), licet essent christiani, ab antiquis tamen paganorum contagiis et perversis dogmatibus infecti, Pertz 2, 366. Alamanns, who appear in Italy 552-3, are still heathens in contrast to the christian Franks, Agathias 2, 1. 1, 7. Eginhard cap. 7 (Pertz 2, 446): Saxones cultui daemonum dediti; cultum daem. dimittere; abjecto daem. cultu, et relictis patriis caerimoniis. The author of Vita Mathildis (Pertz 12, 575) says of the Saxons and of Widukind's family: Stirps qui quondam daem. captus errore, praedicatorum pro inopia idola adorans, christianos constanter persequebatur.

                The Nialssaga cap. 101-6 relates the introduction of Christianity into Iceland in 995-1000. Yet at Nerike by Örebro, as late as the 17th cent., they sacrificed to Thor on certain rocks for toothache, Dybeck runa 1848 p. 26; and to this day old women sacrifice to rivers, and throw the branch on the stone 2, 3, 15. vit erum heiðin is said in Olaf the Saint's time in Gautland, Fornm. sög. 4, 187 and 12, 84. In the Norwegian districts of Serna and Idre, bordering on Dalarne, there were heathens in 1644, Samling (Christiania 1839) 6, 470-1. þa kunni enge maðr Paternoster i Straumi, Werlauff. grenzbest. 20. 37. In Sweden we hear of Oden'' followers in 1578, 1580 and 1601, Geyer Svearikes häfder 2, 329; in a folk-song a woman dreads the heathen that haunt the neighboring wood: 'locka till Thor i fjäll,' Arvidsson 3, 504. Thursday was holy in Sweden till 100 or 150 years ago (p. 191). Relapses into heathenism were frequent there, Hervarars. cap. 20 (Fornald. sög. 1, 512). The secret practice of it was called launblôt, Fornm. sög. 2, 243.

                The Slavs in Pomerania heathens till begin. of 12th century. A heathen festival near Pyritz, and that of Gerovit at Havelberg, Barthold's Gesch. v. Pomm. 2, 34. 76. Giesebrecht's Wend. gesch. 2, 265. 309. Heathen Rans, Barth. 2, 100-1. Pribizlaus of Mecklenburg baptized in 1164, Svantevit's temple destroyed 1168, Lisch's Meckl. jahrb. 11, 10. 97. -

The Slaves between Elbe and Oder were Christians for 70 years, then relapsed about 1013, Helmold 1, 16; adhuc enim (1147) Slavi immolabant daemoniis et non Deo 68. The Prussians still heathen after conversion of Russians 1, 1. -

Some Christians in Hungary in latter half of 10th century, Dümmler's Pilgrim von Passau 36 seq. Some heathens in Esthonia at the present day, Verhandl. 2, 36. The Lapps were still heathen in 1750, Castrén's Reise p. 69.

                Mixed marriages were not entirely forbidden, as Chlodowig's example shows. Such too was Kriemhilt's union with the heathen Etzel, but she takes care to have her son Ortliep baptized, Nibel. 1328.

                p. 5. ) Between heathen baptism (the vatni ausa, the dicare in nomine deorum, Greg. Tur. 2, 29) and christian baptism, stands the prîm-signaz, Egilss. p. 265, a mere signing with the cross. Thus, Gestr is 'prîmsigndr, eigi skîrðr,' Fornald. sög. 1, 314. The pains of hell were made to hang on being unbaptized (p. 918).

 

Whoever forsook paganica vetustas (Pertz. 2, 342), had to renounce the gods: den goten entfarn = get baptized, Türl. Wh. 130a. To abjure one's faith was abrenuntiare, abjurare, renegare, reneare, Ducange; French renier, Old Fr. renoier, MHG. sich vernoijieren, Nib. 1207, 1. Lament 494. vernoierten sich von den Kristen, Livl. reimchr. 5719. M. Neth. vernogerde, Karel. 2, 75. vernoyert, Pajin 2, 519. 831. vernoyert rh. verghiert. Maerl. 3, 140. OHG. antrunneo, ant-trunneo aba-trunneo = apostata, renegatus, Graff 5, 533. li cuivers renoié, Ducange; tornadie, tornadis = retrayant. Other phrases: den touf hin legen, Livl. r. 6129. lâzen varn krist 6385. What is meant by: 'eosque (Hessians at Amenaburg) a sacrilega idolorum censura, qua sub quodam christianitatis nomine male abusi sunt, evocavit' in the Vita Bonifacii, Pertz 2, 342? probably a christian heresy, as p. 344 says of Thuringians: 'sub nomine religionis falsi fratres maximam hereticae pravitatis introduxerunt sectam,' conf. Rettberg 2, 308. -

The Abrenuntiations declared the ancient gods by name to be devils and unholy. All heathen merrymaking, especially music and dancing, was considered diabolic, pp. 259. 618-9. 770. Feasts, games and customs connected with the old worship were now diaboli pompa, gelp inti zierida. Grieshaber's Serm. p. 48: da man singet und springet in des tievels dienste; conf. Aucassin in Méon's Fabl. 1, 385. Fauriel 3, 190.

                p. 5. ) The mental protest against christianity shows itself in the continuance of the rough heroic conception of Paradise (p. 819). The christian paradise was often rejected, as by Radbod the Frisian, who withdrew his foot from the sacred font, because he did not care to give up the fellowship of his forefathers in hell and sit with a little flock in heaven, Vita Bonif. (Pertz 2, 221). Melis Stoke, rymkron. 1, 24. Comp. the contrary behavior of Gudbrand (Maurer bekehrung 1, 537) and of Sighvatr at the baptism of Magnus, St. Olaf's saga c. 119. Waldemar likes hunting better than heaven, Thiele 1, 48. nit ze himelrîche sîn woldich vür dise reise, Roseng. 110. mir waere ie liep bî ir ze sîn dan bî Got in paradîs, MS. 1, 178a. möht aber mir ir hulde (her favour) werden, ich belibe (I would stay (say - believe?)) ûf der erden alhie, Got liez ich dort die werden (worthies), MS. 2, 16b. daz himelrîche liez ich sîn, und waere bî in iemer wol alsô, Dietr. drachenk. 131b. waz sol ein bezzer paradîs, ob er mac vrô belîben von wol gelopten wîben? MsH. 1, 82b. si waere getreton durch Flôren in die helle, Fl. 5784. si me vauroit miex un ris de vous qu'estre en paradis, Thib. de N. 69. kestre ne voudroie en paradis, se ele nestoit mie 75; conf. 113. The hered. sewer of Schlotheim: 'had you one foot in heaven and one on the Wartburg, you'd rather withdraw the first than the last,' Rommel's Gesch. von Hessen 2, 17. fall from heaven to earth, Schwein. 1, 95. come back from paradise, Chans. histor. 1, 43. --

Eyvindr, like christian martyrs, endures the utmost pains inflicted by Olaf Tryggvason, and will not apostatize, Fornm. sög. 2, 167. The Hist. S. Cuthberti says: quadam die cum Onalaf cum furore intrasset ecclesiam Cuthberti, astante episcopo Cuthheardo et tota congregatione, 'quid, inquit, in me potest homo iste mortuus Cuthbertus, cujus in me quotidie minae opponuntur? juro per deos meos potentes, Thor et Othan, quod ab die hac inimicissimus ero omnibus vobis,' Twysden 73-4. The heathenism smouldering in many hearts is perceptible even in Latin deeds of 1270, Seibertz no. 351.

                p. 5. ) A peal of bells was hateful to heathens, and therefore to giants, p. 950, to dwarfs, p. 459, to witches, p. 1085.

                p. 5. ) Even in christian times the heathen gods are credited with sundry powers. The idols speak, Pass. 307, 2 seq. Barl. 342, 8 or hold their peace, Pass. 306, 24. 34. The Livl. reimchr. 1433 seq. says:

                        Die Littouwen vuoren über sê,

                        daz ist genant daz Osterhap,

                        als ez Perkune ir abgot gap (when P. existed),

                        daz nimmer sô harte gevrôs (froze). Hence the quarrel between the old and new religion was often referred to an ordeal or miracle: 'probemus miraculis, quis sit majoris potentiae, vestri multi quos dicitis dii, an meus solus omnipotens dominus J. Chr.' cries the christian priest in Vita Ansgarii (Pertz 2, 702); and the rain falls in torrents on the heathen Swedes despite their praying, while not a drop touches him. In Greg. Tur. mirac. 1 cap. 81, the ordeal of water decides whether the Arian or Catholic faith be the right one. In the legend of Silvester, the Jew sorcerer first kills a bull in the name of his God, and Silvester brings it to life again by calling upon Christ, W. Grimm's Silv. xv.

xx.

p. 6. ) The Romans too had felled sacred trees: 'et robora numinis instar Barbarici nostrae feriant impune bipennes,' Claudian de laud. Stilich. 1, 230. In the same way the Irminsul is destroyed, and Columban breaks the god's images and throws them in the lake (p. 116. 109). Charles has the four captured Saracen idols smashed, and the golden fragments divided among his heroes, Aspremont 11b. 45b-48b. Idols are broken in Barl. and Georg. It is remarkable in Beda 2, 13, that the Coifi himself destroys the heathen temple (p. 92 n.). It was a sign of good feeling at least to build the old images into the church walls.

                p. 6. ) Heathens, that knew not the true God's name, are not always 'wild, doggish, silly,' but sometimes 'die werden heiden,' Titur. 55, 4, die wîsen heiden, Servat. 19. his sylfes (God's) naman, þone yldo bearn aer ne cûðon, frôd fædera cyn þeáh hie fela wiston, Cædm. 179, 15.

                p. 7. ) Trust in one's own strength is either opposed to trust in gods, or combined with it. In the Faereyînga-s. cap. 23, p. 101: 'ek trûi â mâtt minn ok megin' and also 'ek treystumsk hamîngju (genius) minni ok sigr-saeli, ok hefir mer þat vel dugat'; conf. 'trûa magni,' Fornald. sög. 1, 438. The OHG. sô mir ih! (Graff 6, 13) must mean 'so help me I myself.' MHG. has milder formulas: sam mir Got and mîn selbes lîp!¨ Tristan 215, 2. als in (them) Got und ir ellen gebôt, Ernst 1711. als im sîn manlîch ellen jach, Parz. 89, 22. ich gelove God ind mime swerde, Karlmeinet 122, 34. M. Beheim 266, 22 says: si wolten ûf in (them) selber stân; and Gotthelf's Erzähl. 1, 146 makes a strong peasant in Switz. worship 'money and strength.' A giant loses his strength by baptism, Rääf 39. Doubts of God are expressed by Wolfram: ist Got wîse? ....... hât er sîn alt gemüete, Willeh. 66, 18. 20. hât Got getriwe sinne, Parz. 109, 30. Resisting his will is 'ze himele klimmen und Got enterben,' En. 3500. --

On men who pretend to be gods, see p. 385 n.

                p. 7 n. ) God is threatened and scolded, p. 20. With the mockery of Jupiter in Plaut. Trin. iv. 2, 100 agrees the changing of his golden garment for a woollen, and robbing Æsculapius of his golden beard, Cic. de Nat. D. 3, 34. Friðþiofr said: 'enda virði ek meira hylli Ingibiargar enn reiði Baldrs,' Fornald. sög. 2, 59; and pulled B.'s statue by the ring, so that it fell in the fire 86. King Hrôlfr already considers Oðin an evil spirit, illr andi, 1, 95. -

Dogs were named after gods by the Greeks also; Pollux, Onom. 5, 5 cites Korax, Arpuia, Carwn, Lukittaj. A dog named Locke, Sv. folks. 1, 135. Helbling's Wunsch is supported by a Wille in Hadamar v. Laber 289 and Altswert 126, 23. Sturm in Helbl. 4, 459 may have meant Thunder. The lime-bitch is called Heila, Hela, Döbel 1, 86. Nemnich 720. Alke is Hakelberend's dog, Zeitschr. des Osn. ver. 3, 406. A Ruland about 1420, and Willebreht, Ls. 1, 297-8, are exactly like men's names. Many names express the qualities and uses of the animal, such as Wacker, still in use, and leading up to old Norse, Saxon, Skirian and Suevic names, Grimm's D. Sag. 468; its dimin., Wäckerlein, Weckherlin, Wickerlein, Fischart's Spiele 246. 491. Is Wasser, the common name of peasants' dogs in the Mark (Schmidt v. Wern. 253), a corrup. of Wacker? Wackerlos, Vernim, dogs in Froschmeus. Bbb. 5b, Hüterlin in Keisersb. bilg. 140-4-5. Fondling names are Harm, Ls. 2, 411. Holle im Crane p. 30, Bärlin, Garg. 258b, Zuckerl. Jucundiss 54. To the Pol. gromi-zwierz, bait-hound, Linde 1, 779a answers our Hetzebolt, Nic. v. Jeroschin 30, 12. Bello, Greif, Pack-an, Pack-auf (Medic. maulaffe 647), Suoche, Fichard 3, 245, explain themselves; also the Boh. greyhound Do-let, fly-to; O. Norse Hopp and Hoi, Hrolfkr. saga, Hopf in Eulensp., Estula (es-tu-la?), Méon 3, 394-5. Ren. 25355. Not so clear is Strom in Fritz Reuter's Journ. to Belligen 2, 98; is it 'striped'? or conn. with Striun in Helbl. 4, 456 from striunen, to roam? Smutz in Laber 358 must be conn. with schmötzen, to counterfeit the hare's cry, Schmeller 3, 479. Trogen, Sv. äfvent. 1, 51 is our Fidel, trusty. Gramr, Fornald. sög. 1, 87. Gîfr, Geri, two dogs in Fiölsvinns-mâl. Snati, Markusson 174a. Guldtand Norske event. 2, 92. Yrsa, Fornald. sög. 1, 22, Ursa in Saxo. Bettelmann in Bürger 474a and Stallmeister in Tieck's Zerbino express social rank, conf. Malvoisin, Ren. 1664. It were too bold to conn. Leppisch in Pauli Sch. u. ernst 77, with Sâmr = Lapp, in Nialss. 71, or Goth, Goz with the nation so called (Michel's hist. des races maudites 1, 355. D. Sag. 454); more likely that the Silesian sheepdog's name Sachs (Weinhold) meant Saxon; conf. Boh. Bodrok, an Obodrite. King Arthur's dog Cabul, Nenn. 78. Cipriân, dog's name in MsH. 3, 305a.

                p. 8. ) Christ and the old gods are often worshipped together. People got baptized and believed in Christ, en hêto â Thôr til allra storræða. Widukind (Pertz 5, 462) tells, an. 965, of an 'altercatio super cultura deorum in convivio, Danis affirmantibus Christum quidem esse deum, sed alios ei fore majores deos, qui potiora mortalibus signa et prodigia per se ostentabant.' Æthelbert of Kent let heathen idols stand beside christian altars, conf. Lappenb. Engl. gesch. 1, 140. The converted Slavs clung to their old superstitions. Dietmar (Pertz 5, 735) says of the sacred lake Glomuzi: 'hunc omnis incola plus quam ecclesias veneratur et timet;' and at Stettin a heathen priest was for raising an altar to the god of the christians side by side with the old gods, to secure the favour of both, Giesebr. Wend. gesch. 2, 301. -

It is only playfully, and with no serious intention, that the Minne-song links the name of God with heathen deities:

                Ich hân Got und die minneclîchen Minne (love)

                gebeten flêlîche nu vil manic jâr,

                daz ich schier nâch unser drîer sinne

                vinde ein reine wîp.         MS. 1. 184a.

                        Venus, vil edeliu künegîn,

                iuch hât Got, vrowe, her gesant

                ze freuden uns in ditze lant.        Frauend. 233, 26. The longer duration of heathenism, especially of Wôden worship, among the Saxons, is perceptible in the legend of the Wild Host, in many curses and the name of Wednesday. There also the custom of Need-fire was more firmly rooted. The Lohengrin p. 150 still rebukes the unbelief of the wild Saxons.

                p. 11. ) Where there was worship of springs, the Church took the caput aquæ into her department, Rudorff 15, 226-7. In that spell where Mary calls to Jesus, 'zeuch ab dein wat (pull off thy coat), und deck es dem armen man über die sat (over the poor man's crop),' Mone anz. 6, 473, a heathen god is really invoked to shield the cornfield from hail. Quite heathenish sounds the nursery rhyme, 'Liebe frau, mach's türl auf (open your door), lass den regen 'nein, lass 'raus den sonnenschein,' Schmeller 2, 196. Spots in the field that are not to be cultivated indicate their sacredness in heathen times, conf. gudeman's croft in Scotland, the Tothills in England, Hone's Yearb. 873-4. To the disguised exclamations in the note, add w Damater! and the Armoric tan, fire! Villemarqué's Barzas breiz, 1, 76; conf. Pott 1, lvii.

                p. 12. ) To these old customs re-acting on the constitution, to the pelting of idols at Hildesheim and Halberstadt on Lætare-day (p. 190. 783), add this of Paderborn: 'In the cathedral close at P., just where the idol Jodute is said to have stood, something in the shape of an image was fixed on a pole every Lætare Sunday down to the 16th century, and shied at with cudgels by the highest in the land, till it fell to the ground. The ancient noble family of Stapel had the first throw, which they reckoned an especial honour and heirloom. When the image was down, children made game of it, and the nobility held a banquet. When the Stapels died out, the ancient custom was dropped.'

Continu. of M. Klockner's Paderb. chron. The Stapel family were among the four pillars of the see of Paderborn; the last Stapel died in 1545, Erh. u. Gehrk. Zeitschr. f. vaterl. gesch. 7, 379. Compare also the sawing of the old woman (p. 782), the gelding of the devil, the expulsion of Death (p. 767), the yearly smashing of a wooden image of the devil, and the 'riding the black lad' in Hone's Yearb. 1108, Dayb. 2, 467.

                p. 12. ) The Introduction ought to be followed by a general chapter on the contents and character of our Mythology, including parts of Chaps. XIV. and XV., especially the explanation of how gods become men, and men gods.

 

 

CHAPTER II

GOD

 

In all Teutonic tongues the Supreme Being has always with one consent been called by the general name God. The dialectic varieties are: Goth. guð, A.S., O.S.,Old Fris. god, O.H.G. cot, O. Norse goð; Swed. Dan. gud, M.H.G. god; and here there is a grammatical remark to make. Though all the dialects, even the Norse, use the word as masculine (hence in O.H.G. the acc. sing. cotan; I do not know of a M.H.G. goten), yet in Gothic and O. Norse it lacks the nom. sing. termination (-s, -r) of a masc. noun, and the Gothic gen. sing. is formed guðs without the connecting vowel i, agreeing therein with the three irreg. genitives mans, fadrs, brôðrs. Now, as O.H.G. has the same three genitives irreg., man, fatar, pruodar, we should have expected the gen. cot to bear them company, and I do not doubt its having existed, though I have nowhere met with it, only with the reg. cotes, as indeed mannes and fateres also occur. It is more likely that the sanctity of the name had preserved the oldest form inviolate, than that frequent use had worn it down. (1) The same reason preserved the O.H.G. spelling cot (Gramm. 1, 180), the M. Dut. god (1, 486), and perhaps the Lat. vocative deus (1, 1071). (2) Moreover, God and other names of divine beings reject every article (4, 383. 394, 404. 424. 432); they are too firmly established as proper nouns to need any such distinction. The der got in MS. 2, 260a. is said of a heathen deity.

On the radical meaning of the word God we have not yet arrived at certainty; (3) it is not immediately connected with the adj. good, Goth. gôds, O.N., gôðr, A.S. gôd, O.H.G. cuot, M.H.G., guot, as the difference of vowel shows; we should first have to show an intermediacy of the graduations gida gad, and gada gôd, which does take place in some other cases; and certainly God is called the Good. (4) It is still farther removed from the national name of the Goths, who called themselves Gutans (O.H.G. Kuzan, O.N. Gotar), and who must be distinguished from O.N. Gautar (A.S. Geátas, O.H.G. Kôzâ; Goth. Gautôs?).

The word God has long been compared with the Pers. Khodâ (Bopp, comp. gram., p. 35). If the latter be, as has been supposed, a violent contraction of the Zend qvadâta *** (a se datus, increatus [given to oneself, elected], *** Sanskr. svadâta, conf. Dêvadatta Qeodotoj, Mitradatta Hlisdotoj, Sridatta), then our Teutonic word must have been originally a compound, and one with a very apt meaning, as the Servians also address God as samozazdâni bôzhe ! self-created God; Vuk 741.

The O.H.G. cot forms the first half of many proper names, as Cotadio, Cotascalh, Cotafrit, Cotahram, Cotakisal, Cotaperaht, Cotalint, but not so that we can infer anything as to its meaning; they are formed like Irmandio, Hiltiscalh, Sikufrit, and may just as well carry the general notion of the Divine Being as a more definite one. When cot forms the last syllable, the compound can only stand for a god, not a man, as in Irmincot, Hellicot.

In derivatives Ulphilas exchanges the TH for a D, which explains the tenuis in O.H.G. ; thus guda-faurhts (god-fearing) Luke 2, 25, gagudei (godliness) Tit. 1, 1; though the dat. sing. is invariably guða. (5) Likewise in speaking of many gods, which to Christians would mean idols, he spells guda, using it as a neuter, John 10, 34-5. The A.S. god has a neut. pl. godu, when idols are meant (cod. exon. 250, 2. 254, 9. 278, 16.). In like manner the O.H.G. and M.H.G. compound apcot, aptcot (false god) is commonly neuter, and forms its pl. apcotir; whether the M.H.G. 'der aptgot' in Geo. 3254. 3302 can be correct, is questionable; we have taken to using abgott as a masc. throughout, yet our pl. götter itself can only be explained as originally neuter, since the true God is one, and can have no plural; and the O.H.G. cotâ, M.H.G. gote contain so far a contradiction. In Ulph. afguds is only an adj., and denotes *** impius [faithless] *** Sk. 44, 22; afgudei impietas, Rom. 11, 26; eidwla he translates by galiuga *** (figmenta [fetters])***, 1 Cor. 5, 10. 10, 20. 28, or by galiugaguda, 1 Cor 10, 20; and eidwleiou by galiugê staðs, 1 Cor. 8, 10. Another N.H.G. expression götze I have discussed, Gramm. 3, 694; Luther has in Deut. 12, 3 'die götzen ihrer götter, making *** götze = idolum [spirit, ghost].***  In Er. Alberus fab. 23, the götz is a demigod (6) (see Supple.). The O.N. language distinguished the neut. goð *** idolum [spirit, ghost] *** from the masc. guð *** deus.[god] ***  Snorri 119 says of Sif 'it hârfagra goð,' the fairhaired god; I do not know if a heathen would have said it.

In curses and exclamations, our people, from fear of desecrating the name of God, resort to some alteration of it: (7) potz wetter! potz tausend! or, kotz tausend! kotz wunder! instead of Gottes; but I cannot trace the custom back to our ancient speech. The similar change of theFrench dieu into bieu, bleu, guieu (8) seems to be older (see Suppl.).

Some remarkable uses of the word God in our older speech and that of the common people may also have a connexion with heathen notions.

Thus it is thrown in, as it were, to intensify a personal pronoun (see Suppl.). Poems in M.H.G. have, by way of giving a hearty welcome: gote unde mir willekomen; Trist. 504. Frib. Trist. 497. gote sult ir willekomen sin, iurem lande unde mir (ye shall be welcome to God, your country, and me); Trist. 5186. got alrêst, dar nâch mir, west willekomen; Parz. 305, 27. wis willekomen mir und got; Frauend. 128, 13. sit mir gote wilkomen (9) ; Eilh. Trist. 248. rehte got wilkomen mir; Dietr. 5200. Nu sit ouch mir got wilkomen; Dietr. 5803. sit willekomen got und ouch mir; Dietr. 4619. nu wis mir got wolkomen; Oswalt 208, 406. 1163. 1268. 1393. 2189. du solt grôz willekomen sin dem richen got unde mir; Lanz. 1082. wis mir unde ouch got wilkomen; Ls. 1, 514. Occasionally gote stands alone: diu naht si gote willekomen; Iw. 7400, explained in the note, p. 413, as 'devoted to God,' though it only means 'to-night be (thou) welcome'. Upper Germany has to this day retained the greeting 'gottwilche, gottwillkem, gottikum, skolkuom' (Stald. 1, 467. Schm. 2, 84). I do not find it in Romance poems; but the Saxon-Latin song of the 10th century on Otto I. and his brother Heinrich has: sid wilicomo bêhiu goda ende mi. The Supreme Being is conceived as omnipresent, and is expected, as much as the host himself, to take the new-comer under his protection; so the Sloveny say to the arriving guest 'bôgh té vsprimî, God receive you!' (10) and we to the parting guest 'God guide, keep, bless you!' We call it commending or committing one to God, M.H.G. gote ergeben, Er. 3598. I compare with these the Hail! called out to one who arrives or departs (heill ver þu! Sæm. 67, 86), with which are also associated the names of helpful gods: heill þu farir, heill þu âsyniom sêr! fare thou well, be thou well by (the aid of) the Asynior; Sæm. 31. heill scaltu Agnarr, allz þic heilan biðr vera týr vera! Sæm. 40.

In the same way the name of the omniscient God emphasizes an assurance of knowledge or ignorance: *** daz weiz got unde ich; [that know God and I] Trist. 4151. den shatz weiz nu nieman wan (except) got unde mîn; [the treasure (?) knows nobody except God and me] ***  Nib. 2308, 3. (11) This comfortable combination of I with God has for its counterpart the opprobrious one of a thou with devil, ch. XXXIII. Here too the got alone is enough: ingen vet min sorg utan gud; Svenska visor 2, 7. That we are fully justified in referring these modes of speech so far back as to the heathen time, is shown by a remarkable passage in Fornald. sög. 1, 380: ek hugða engan kunna nema mik ok Oðinn. By secrets which none can know save Oðinn and to whomsoever he has whispered them, his divinity is at once revealed, Sæm. 38, 95, Fornald. sög. 1, 487. Not quite parallel are phrases such as: daz geloube gote unde mir; Amis 989. iu unde gote von himile klage ich unser leit; Nib. 1889, 3. ik klage gode unde iu; Richsteig landr. 11. 16. 37. ***  sanc die messe beide got u. in [sung the mass God and him] *** ; Parz. 378, 25. Wh. 289, 5. neic si im unde gote; Iw. 6013. Also in Old Fr., jel to pardoins de diu et de mi; Mones untersuch. 245. Sometimes the Evil One is named by the side of the Deity: got noch den tiuvel loben; Iw. 1273. *** in beschirmet der tiuvel noch got [him protected by Devil nor by God];*** Iw. 4635, i.e. no one protects him.

Poems of the Middle Ages attribute human passions to God; especially is He often pictured in a state of complacency and joy (see Suppl.), and again in the contrary state of wrath and vengeance. The former is favourable to the creation of eminent and happily endowed men; got was an einer suezen zuht, do'r Parzivâlen worhte (God was in amiable trim form, training when he made Percival); Parz. 148, 26. got der was vil senftes muotes, dô er geshuof sô reine ein wip; MS. 1, 17. got der was in fröiden, dô er dich als ebene maz (so evenly meted); MS. 1, 22. got in grossen freuden was, dô er dich schuof (i.e., created wine);  Altd. bl. 1, 413.  got der was in hôhem werde (12) do er geschuof die reinen fruht, wan ime was gar wol ze muote; MS. 1, 24. got si zer werlde brâhte, dô ze freuden stuont sin muot; Wigal. 9282. got der was vil wol gemuot, dô er schuof sô reinem wibe tugent, wünne, schæne an libe; MS. 1, 201. got was gezierde milte, der si beide schuof nâch lobe; Troj. 19922. got selb in rîchen freuden was, dô er ir lip als ebene maz; Misc. 2, 186. ich weiz daz got in fröiden was, dô er niht, frouwe, an dir vergaz waz man ze lobe sol schouwen. Ls. 1, 35. *** So a troubadour sings: belha domna, de cor y entendia Dieus, quan formet vostre cors amoros [beautiful dame, of body expert was God, when shaped your body amorous];***  Rayn. 1, 117(13) It is an equally heathen sentiment, that imputes to God a propensity to gaze at human beauty, or to do whatever men do: got möhte selbe gerne sehen die selben juncfrouwen; Fragm. 22. gott möht in (him, i.e. the musician) gerne hæren in sinen himelkæren; Trist. 7649. den slac scolte got selbe haben gesehen (should have seen that stroke); Rol. 198, 18. Karl 72. got selbe möht ez gerne sehen; Trist. 6869. ein puneiz (diadem), daz in got selber möhte sehen; Frauend. 84, 16. gestriten dazz d'engel möhten hæren in den niun kæren; Willeh. 230, 27. si möhte nâch betwingen mite (might nigh compel withal) eines engels dedanc, daz er vil lihte einen wanc durch si von himele tæte (fail from heaven for her); Iw. 6500 (imitated by Ottocar 166). ich weiz daz wol, daz sin got nicht verdrüzze; MS. 2, 127. ir hâr gelich dem golde, als ez got wünschen solde; MS. 2, 62. sin swert dat geine (ging, went) an siner hant, dat got selve vrâchde mêre (would ask to know),*** we der ritter wêre? [who the rider was?] dey engele muosten lachen [the engels must laugh], *** dat hey is sus kunde machen; Haupts zeitschr. 3, 24. This hilarity of the attendant guardian-angels (ch. XXVIII) or valkürs must be thought of in connexion with the laughing of ghosts (ch. XXXI). In Hartmann's Erec, when Enite's white hands groomed (begiengen) a horse, it says 355: und wære, daz got hien erde rite, ich wæn, in genuocte da mite, ob er solhen marstaller hæte. This view of a sympathizing, blithe and gracious god, is particularly expressed in the subst. huldi, O.N. *** hylli [grace] : Oðins hylli [Odin's grace];***  Sæm. 47. Ullar hylli ok allra goða; Sæm. 45.

On the other hand, of the primitive sensuous representation of an angry avenging deity (see Suppl.), the most striking example will be treated of presently in ch. VIII, under Donar, thunder. (14)The idea recurs several times in the Edda and elsewhere: reiðr er þer Oðinn, reiðr er þer Asabragr; Sæm. 85. Oðinn ofreiðr; Sæm. 228. *** reið varð þâ Freyja oc fnasaði; Sæm 71.- wroth was Freyja and snorted (or panted) -  as the angry wolf, in Reinh. XLII spirtles out his beard. guðin reið ordin; Fornm. sög. 2, 29. 231. goða gremi (deorum ira [anger of the Gods]) is announced; Egilss. 352. at gremia goð (offendere deos [to give offence to God])*** ; Fornald. sög. 2, 69.

was imo god âbolgan; Hel. 157, 19. than wirdid iu waldand gram, mahtig môdag; Hel. 41, 16 (elsewhere: diu Sælde, or the world, earth, is gram). ein zornec got in daz gebôt (bade them), daz uns hie suohten mit ir her; Parz. 43, 28. hie ist geschehen gotes râche; Reinh. 975. got wil vervüeren sinen zorn; Osw. 717. ich wæne daz got ræche da selbe sinen anden (wreak his vengeance); Gudr. 845, 4. daz riuwe got! (God rue it); Trist. 12131. daz ez got immer riuwe! Trist. 11704. The Lex Bajuv. 6, 2, in forbidding Sunday labour, says: *** quia talis causa vitanda est, quae Deum ad iracundiam provocat, et exinde flagellamur in frugibus et penuriam patimur. [because we have to avoid the cause, which provokes God's wrath,  and thence we are floged in our crops and we suffer need]***  How coarse were the expressions still used in the 17th century! "An abuse that putteth God on his mettle, and maketh him to hold strict and pitiless inquisition, that verily he shall, for saving of his honour, smite thereinto with his fists"; and again: "to run upon the spears of an offended jealous God".(15) A wicked man was in the Mid. Ages called gote leide, loathed by God. One form of imprecation was to consign a man to God's hatred: ûz in gotes haz! Trist. 5449. ûz strichet (sheer off) balde in gotes haz! Trist. 14579. nu vart den gotes haz alsom ein bæswiht von mir hin! Frauend. 109, 12. mich hât der gotes haz bestanden; Kl. 518. iuch hât rehte gotes haz (al. foul weather, the devil, &c) daher gesendet beide; Iw. 6104. sô müeze ich haben gotes haz; Altd. w. 3, 212. varet hen an godes haz! Wiggert 2, 47. nu mueze er gewinnen gotes haz; Roth 611. In like manner the MLG. godsat hebbe! Huyd. op St. 2, 350. Reinaert 3196. (16) But, what deserves particular notice, this formula 'in gotes haz,' or in acc. without prepos. 'gotes haz varn, strichen' has a perfect parallel in another which substitutes for God the sun, and so heightens the heathenish colouring; ir sult farn der sunnen haz! Parz. 247, 26. var der sunnen haz! Unprinted poems of Rüediger 46. hebe dich der sunnen haz! Er. 93. nu ziuhe in von mir der sunnen haz! Helmbr. 1799. si hiezen in strichen in der sunnen haz; Eracl. 1100. hiez in der sunnen haz hin varn; Frauend. 375, 26. A man so cursed does not deserve to have the sun shine on him kindly. The Vandal Gizerich steps into his ship, and leaves it to the winds where they shall drive it to, or among what people he shall fall that God is angry with, . Procop. de bello Vand. 1, 5.

Such hostile attitude breeds now and then a rebellious spirit in men, which breaks out in promethean defiance and threats, or even takes a violent practical turn (see Suppl.). Herodotus 4, 94 says of the Thracians: .- If the god denied the assistance prayed for, his statue was flung into the river by the people, immersed in water, or beaten. -In the Carolignian romances we repeatedly come upon the incident of Charles threatening the Deity, that if he deny his aid, he will throw down his altars, and make the churches with all their priests to cease from the land of the Franks; e.g. Ferabr. 1211, 1428, &c. So dame Breide too threatens to uncover the altar and break the holy relics; Orendel 2395; and Marsilies actually, after losing the battle, has the houses of his gods pulled down; Rol. 246, 30. If the vintage failed, the statue of Urban was thrown into a bath or the river. (17)The Arcadians would scourge their Pan with squills (skillaij), when they returned bootless from the chase (Theocr. 7, 106). The Greeks imputed to their gods not only anger and hate, but envy, love of mischief, nemesij.

 

EPITHETS OF GOD (see Suppl.). In our modern speech: der liebe, liebste, gnädige, (18) grosse, gute, allmächtige. In our older tongue: hêrre got der guote: Reinh. 1296. Gute frau, 276. hêrro the gôdo; Hel. 78, 3. 90, 6. frô min the gôdo; 143, 7. gnædeger trehtin; Reinh. 1309.

Freg. the rich God: thie rîkeo Christ; Hel. 1, 2. rîki god; Hel. 195, 9. rîki drohtin; Hel. 114, 22. der rîche got von himele; Roth. 4971. got der rîche; Nib. 1793, 3. Trist. 2492. durch den rîchen got von himel, Morolt 3526. der rîche got mich ie gesach; V.d. wibe list 114. (19)

Cot almahtico, cot heilac; Wessobrunn. Gebet. mahtig drohtin; Hel. 2, 2. freá ælmihtig; Cædm. 1, 9. 10, 1. se ælmihtiga wealdend; Thorpe's anal. 83. mannô miltisto *** (largissimus [the largest]);***  Wessobr. Geb. vil milter Christ; Cod. pal. 350, 56.

The AS. has freq.: êce dryhten, æternus; Cædm. 246, 11. Beow. 3382. 3555. 4655. Also: *** witig god, sapiens [knowledgeable God] ***; Beow. 1364, 2105. Cædm. 182, 24. witig dryhten; Beow. 3101. 3679. Cædm. 179, 8. witig wuldoreyning; Cædm. 242, 30.

Waltant got; Hild. waldindinger got; Roth. 213. 523. 1009. 2332. 4031. waltant Krist: OV. 25, 91. Gudr. 2243. (AS.) wealdend; Cædm. 17, 15. þeoda wealdend. fæder alwealda; Beow. 630. (OS.) waldand; Hel. 4,5. 6, 6. waldand god 3, 17. waldand drohtin 1, 19. alowaldo 4, 8. 5, 20. 8, 2. 69, 23. This epithet is not found in the Edda. The notion of 'wielding', *** dominari [to be master], regere [to rule],*** is further applied to the Supreme Being in the phrase es walten, Parz. 568, 1. En. 7299. 10165. 13225. So our gottwalt's! M. Dut. godwods! Huyd. op St. 2, 548. Our acc. in 'das walt Gott!' is a blunder; Agricola 596. Praet. weltb. 2, 50.

God is occasionally called the Old: der alte Gott lebt noch, i.e. the same as ever. A.S. eald metod. MGH. hât got sîn alt gemüete; Wh. 66, 20. der alde got; Roth. 4401. popul. 'der alte Vater'. In a Servian song (Vuk 2, 244. Montenegro 101), bôgh is named 'stari krvnik', the old bloodshedder, killer; and in Frauenlob MS. 2, 214 der alte friedel (sweetheart). The 13th century poets sometimes use the Lat. epithet *** altissimus [the oldest],*** Wh. 216, 5. 434, 23. Geo. 90, 401; with which may be compared the MHG. diu hôhste hant, Parz. 484, 6. 487, 20. 568, 8. Wh. 134, 7. 150, 14. and the OHG. zi waltanteru henti, OV. 25, 91.

The 'all-wielding' God is at the same time the all-seeing, all-knowing, all-remembering; hence it is said of fortunate men, that God saw them, and of unfortunate, that God forgot them: (OHG.) *** kesah tih kot! = O te felicem![O you happy one!] *** [N. Boeth. 145. (MHG.) gesach in got! = happy he! Altd. bl. 1, 347. sô mir got ergaz; Troj. kr. 14072. sô hât got min vergezzen; Nib. 2256, 3. wie gar iuwer got vergaz (how utterly God forgot you); Iw. 6254. got min vergaz; Ecke 209. got hæte sin vergezzen; Trist. 9243. genædelicher trehtin, wie vergæze dû ie mîn sô? Trist. 12483. For other examples, see Gramm. 4, 175.

God, by regarding, guards: daz si got iemer shouwe! Iw. 794. O. Engl. God you see! God keep you in his sight!

Among substantive epithets are several which God has in common with earthly rulers (see Suppl.):

Gothic fráuja OS. frôho, frô, AS. freâ; which name I shall treat of more fully by and by.  OHG. truhtîn, MHG. trehtîn, OS. drohtin, AS. dryhten, ON. drôttinn.

OHG. hêriro, MHG. hêrre, which however, when used of God, is never contracted into her, any more than Dominus into the Romance domnus, don.

Conspicuous above all is the name Father (see Suppl.). In the Edda, alföðr. (Sæm. 46 88 154. Sn. 3. 11. 17), herfaðir, herja faðir, valfaðir are applied to Oðinn as the father of all gods, men and created things. Such compounds are not found in other dialects, they may have sounded heathenish; though the AS. could use fæder alwealda, Beow. 630, *** [in the modern accounting, this expression is found in verse 316: "fæder alwalda / mid arstafum   eowic gehealde" = Father Almighty / in grace and mercy guard you well] *** and the idea of God as Father became more familiar to the christians than to heathens. The OHG. altfatar = grandfather, O. i. 3, 6. AS. ealdfæder, Beow. 743. 1883, I have nowhere seen applied to God. As the Greeks coupled together Zeuj pathr, esp. in the voc. Zeu pater, and the Romans Jupiter, Diespiter, Dispiter, Mars *** pater [father],*** (20)as well as Dhmthr, Damathr,*** Terra mater [Earth mother] ,*** so the Lettons bestow on almost every goddess the epithet *** mahte, mahmina = mater, matercula [mother, beloved mother] *** (Büttner 244. Bergmann 142), on which we shall have more to say hereafter. To all appearance, father Goth. fadr is connected with faþs lord, as pater pathr is with potij, posij , Lith. pats.

The AS. meotod, metod, Cædn. 233, 14. eald metod, Beow. 1883. sóð metod, Beow. 3222. OS. metod, Hel. 4, 13. 15, 17. 66, 19, an expression which likewise appears in the Edda, miötuðr Sæm. 226 241, seems to signify Creator, as verbally it bears the sense of *** mensor, moderator, finitor [surveyor, governor, limitator].*** The full meaning of metod will not be disclosed, till we have a more exact knowledge of the relation between the Goth. mitan (to mete) and máitan (to cut), the OHG. mëzan and meizan; in the Lat. *** metiri and metere [to measure and to be able to measure],*** besides there being no shifting of consonant (d for t), the quantity is inverted. The ON. miötuðr appears to be also *** sector, messor [cutter, reaper];***  in Snorri 104. 105, the wolf's head with which Heimdall was killed is called ***'miötuðr Heimðallar,' [Heimdal's reaper]*** and the sword is 'mans miötuðr'; so in Fornald. sög. p. 441, 'manna miötuðr' (see Suppl.). In MHG. too, the poets use mezzan of exquisite symmetry in creating: dô sin (Wunsch's) gewalt ir bilde maz; Troj. 19626. got selb in richen fröuden was, dô er ir lip als ebene maz; Misc. 2, 186. er sol ze rehte lange mezzen, der an si sô ebene maz, daz er au si zer werlte nie nâch vollem wunsche weder des noch des vergaz; MS. 1, 154. got der was in fröiden, dô er dich als ebene maz; MS. 1, 22 wer kunde in sô gemezzen, Tit. 130. 1. anders denne got uns maz, dô er ze werke über mich gesaz, Parz. 518, 21. 'ein bilde mezzen' is therefore the same thing as *** 'ein bild schaffen' [to make an image, a symbol]*** to create (Troj. 19805), or giezen to cast, mould (Walth. 45, 25. MS. 1, 195. 2, 226); and in Suchenwirt 24, 154 it says: 'got het gegozzen ûf ir vel, ir mündel rôt und wiz ir kel'; which throws a significant light on the Gothic tribal name Gáuts, A.S. Geát OHG. Kôz (see Suppl.).

AS. scippend, creator, OHG. scefo, scephio, MHG. schepfære, Wh. 1, 3. NHG. shöpfer.

Some of these names can be strung together, or they can be intensified by composition: drohtin god, Hel. 2. 13. waldand frô min, Hel. 148, 14. 153, 8. *** freá dryhten, [I did not find it. However, the genitive "freadrihtnes" = of the lordly Lord, is used speaking of Beowulf in verse 796] *** Beow. 62. 186. lîf-freá, Cædm. 2, 9. 108, 18. 195, 3. 240, 33. Beow. 4. The earthly cunning with a prefix can be used of God: wuldorcyning, king of glory, Cædm. 10, 32. hevancuning, Hel. 3, 12, 18. 4, 14. 5, 11. and synonymously with these, rodora weard, Cædm. 11, 2. or the epic amplification, irminögot obana ab hevane, Hild. got von himele, Nib. 2090, 4. 2114, 1. 2132, 1. 2136, 1.

Of such epic formulas (see Suppl.), beautiful specimens, all of one tenour, can be cited from the poets, especially the Romance: they are mostly borrowed from God's dwelling-place, his creative power, his omnipotence, omniscience and truth:

Dios aquel, que esta en alto, Cid 800. 2352. 2465. qui la amont el seint cel maint (abides), Ren. 26018. qui maint el firmament, Berte 129. 149. der hôho sizet unde nideriu sihet, N. ps. 112, 5. *** qui haut siet et de loing mire [who high sits and far watches], Ren. 11687. qui haut siet et loins voit, [who high sits and far sees], *** Berte 44, 181. Guitecl. 2, 139. der über der blauen decke sitzt, Melander Jocoseria 1, 439. cot almahtico, dû himil inti erda gaworahtôs (wroughtest heaven and earth), Wessobr. Geb. cel senhor, qui lo mon a creat,*** [the sire who the world created] *** Ferabr. 775. *** qui tot le mont forma,[who all the world formed] *** Berte 143. que fezit mueyt e dia, Ferabr. 3997. per aycel senhor que fetz cel e rozada (sky and dew), Ferabr. 2994. 4412. *** qui fist ciel et rousee, [who did sky and dew] *** Berte 28. 66. 111. 139. 171. 188. Aimon 876. *** qui feis mer salee [who did sea salted] ,***  Berte 67. *** qui fist et mer et onde [who did sea and water], Méon 3, 460. des hant daz mer gesalzen hât, Parz. 514, 15. qui fait courre la nue [who makes run the clouds], Berte 136. 183 (nefelhgereta Zeuj). par celui qui fait toner, [by whom makes thunder]  Ren. 16658. 17780. par qui li soleus raie, [by whom the sun shines] *** Berte 13. 81. der himel und erde gebôt und die mergriezen zelt (counts the sea-sands, or pebbles), Mar. 18. det der sterne zal weiz, Wh. 466, 30. der die sterne hât gezalt, Parz. 629, 20. der uns gap des mânen (moon's) schîn, Wh. 476, 1.***  qui fait croitre et les vins et les blez,[who makes grow wines and corns] *** Ferabr. 163. der mir ze lebene geriet (planned), Nib. 2091, 4. Kl. 484. der mir ze lebene gebôt, Mar. 24. (M. Dut) bi den here die mi ghebôt (Gramm. 4, 134), die mi ghewrochte, Elegast 345. 451. 996. *** qui tot a a baillier (oversee) who has everything given, Berte 35. qui tot a a garder [who has everything to keep], Berte 7. que totz nos a jutgier [who all us has judged] , Ferabr. 308. 694 1727. the mancunnies forwardôt, Hel. 152, 5. qui sor tos homes puet et vaut [who on all men can and measures], *** Méon 4, 5. dominus qui omnia potest [god who all may], Docum. of 1264 in Wenk 3, no. 151. wider den nieman vermac, A. Heinr. 1355. der aller wunder hât gewalt, Parz. 43, 9. der git unde nimt (gives and takes), Parz. 7 9. der weinen und lachen geschuof, Wh. 258, 19. der beidiu krump unde sleht gescuof (both crooked and plain), Parz. 264, 25. der ane sihet alle getougen (secrets), Diut. 3, 52. der durch elliu herzen siht, Frid. 355. der in diu herze siht, Wh. 30, 29. der ie daz guote geriet (aye the good devised), Greg. 2993. their suntilôso man (sinless), O. iii, 21, 4. dem nie voller genâden zeran (tear, waste), Er. 2490. ** qui onques ne menti (nunquam mentitus [who never lied]), Berte 82. 96. 120. 146. Méon 3, 8. icil dieu qui ne ment, et qui fist tot quanque mer serre,[wrong citation from the ci du vilain mire, « Sire, por Dieu qui ne menti, Si m’aït Diex, je vous dis bien … » Majesty, for God who never lied, If God hears me, I tell you sincerely … » ?] *** Ren. 19338. er mik skôp ok öllu ræðr, Fornm. sög. 1, 3. sâ er öllu ræðr, ibid. 8, 107. er sôlina hefði skapat, ibid. 1, 242. hêt â þann sem sôlina skapaði, Landn. p. 139.

If, in some of the preceding names, epithets and phrases descriptive of God, unmistakable traces of Heathenism predominate, while others have barely an inkling of it, the following expressions are still more indisputably connected with the heathen way of thinking.

In the Norse mythology, the notion of a Deus, Divus, if not of the uppermost and eldest, yet of a secondary rank, which succeeded to power later, is expressed by the word âs, pl. æsir (see Suppl.). Landâs ) Egilss. pp. 365-6) is patrium numen, and by it Thor, the chief god of the North, is designated, though âs is given to Oðinn (Landn. 4, 7). âsmegin is divine power: tha vex honum âsmegin halfu, Sn. 26. færaz î âsmegin, Sn. 65. But the name must at one time have been universal, extending over Upper Germany and Saxony, under such forms as: Goth. OHG. ans, pl. anseis, ensî, AS. ôs, pl. ês (conf. our gans, with ON. gâs, pl. gæss, AS. gôs, pl. gês; and hôse = hansa). It continued to form a part of proper names: Goth. Ansila, OHG. Anso; the OHG. Anshelm, Anshilt, Anspald, Ansnôt correspond in sense to Cotahelm, Catahilt, &c.; AS. Osweald, Oslâf, Osdæg, Osrêd; ON. Asbiörn, (21)Asdîs, Asgautr, Aslaug, Asmundr, &c.

Now in Ulphilas Lu. 2, 41-2, ans denotes a beam, dokoj, which is also one meaning of the ON, âs, whether because the mighty gods were thought of as joist, rafter and ceiling of the sky, or that the notions of jugum and mountain-ridge were associated with them, for âs is especially used of jugum terræ, mountain-ridge, Dan. bierg-aas (dettiâs = sliding beam, portcullis, Landn. 3, 17). But here we have some other together 'êsa gescot' and 'ylfa gescot,' the shots of anses and of elves, jaculum divorum et geniorum, [the javelin of gods and of the guardian spirits] just as the Edda does æsir and âlfar, Sæm. 8. 71. 82, 83. Jornandes says, cap. 13: Tum Gothi, magna potiti per loca victoria, jam proceres suos quasi qui fortuna vincebant, non puros homines, sed semideos, id est anses (which would be anseis) vocavere [then the Goths, get large possessions by means of victory, now those who by chance were conquering, not as pure men, but as demigods, this how they have been called]. What can be plainer? The Norse æsir in like manner merge into the race of heroes, and at much the same distance from an elder dynasty of gods whom they have dethroned. And here the well-known statement of Suetonius and Hesychius, (22) that the Etruscans called the gods æsares or æsi, may fairly be called to mind, without actually maintaining the affinity of the Etruscan or Tyrrhenian race with the ancient German, striking as is the likeness between turrhnoj, turshoj and the ON, þurs, OHG, durs. (23)

The significance of this analogy, however, is heightened, when we observe that the Etruscan religion, and perhaps also the Roman and the Greek, supposed a circle of twelve superior beings closely bound together and known by the name of dii consentes or complices (see Suppl.), exactly as the Edda uses the expressions höpt and bönd, literally meaning vincula [chains], for those high numina [divine wills](Sæm. 24 89. Sn. 176. 204), and also the sing. hapt and band for an individual god (Sæm. 93). Though haptbandun in the Merseburg poem cannot with certainty be taken to mean the same thing (the compound seems here to denote mere bodily chains), it is possible that deus dioj and dew I bind; that same 'ans' a yoke, is the same thing as the 'brace and band' of all things; neither can we disregard the fact that twelve is likewise the number of the Norse æsir; conf. Sæm. 3: 'æsir or Því liði' of the set, kindred.

Some other appellations may be added in support. In the earliest period of our language, the neut. ragin meant consilium. Now the plural of this, as used in the Edda, denotes in a special manner the plurality of the gods (see Suppl.) Regin are the powers that consult together, and direct the world; and the expressions blið regin, (24) holl regin (kind, merciful gods), uppregin, ginregin (superæ potestates [supreme powers]) have entirely this technical meaning. Ragnaröker (Goth. raginê reqvis? dimness, darkness of gods) signifies the end of the world, the setting of the divine luminaries. Sæm. 89 has "rögnir ok regin" coupled together, rögnir (cf. 196) being used to distinguish the individual ragineis (raguneis?), masc. These ON. regin would be Goth. ragina, as the höpt and bönd are Gothic hafta and banda, all neut.

The same heathen conception peeps out in the OS. regangiscapu, reganogiscapu, Hel. 79, 13. 103, 3, equivalent to fatum, destiny, the decree and counsel of the gods, and synonymous with wurdgiscapu, Hel. 103, 7, from wurd, fatum [fate]. And again in metodogiscapu, Hel. 66, 19. 147, 11. We have seen that metod likewise is a name for the Supreme Being, which the christian poet of the Heliand has ventured to retain from the heathen poetry. But these gen. plurals regano, metodo again point to the plurality of the binding gods.

The collection of Augustine's letters contains (cap. 178), in the altercatio with Pascentius, a Gothic or perhaps a Vandal formula sihora armen, the meaning of which is simply kurie elehson. (25) Even if it be an interpolation, and written in the fifth or sixth century, instead of at the end of the fourth, it is nevertheless remarkable that sihora should be employed in it for God and Lord. Ulphilas would have said: fráuja armái. The inf. armên, if not a mistake for armê, might do duty as an imperative; at the same time there is a Finn. and Esth. word armo signifying gratia, misericordia [love, pity]. But sihora, it seems, can only be explained as Teutonic, and must have been already in heathen times an epithet of God derived from his victorious might (see Suppl.) Goth. sigris, ON. Sigr, OHG. sigu, AS. sige victoria, triumphus [victory, victory parade]. Oðinn is styled sigrgoð, sigtýr, sigföður; and the Christian poets transfer to God sigidrohtîn, Hel. 47, 13. 114, 19. 125, 6. sigidryhtem, Cædm. 33, 21. 48, 20. sigmetod, Beow. 3544. vîgsigor, Beow. 3108. (26) elsewhere sigoradryhten, sigorafreá, sigorawealdend, sigoragod, sigoracyning. It is even possible that from that ancient sihora sprang the title sira, sire still current in Teutonic and Romance languages. (27)

The gods being represented as superi and uppregin, as dwelling on high, in the sky, uphimin, up on the mountain height (âs, ans), it was natural that individual gods should have certain particular mountains and abodes assigned them.

Thus, from a mere consideration of the general names for God and gods, we have obtained results which compel us to accept an intimate connexion between expressions in our language and conceptions proper to our heathenism. The 'me and God,' the gracious and the angry God, the frôho (lord) and the father, the beholding, creating, measuring, casting, the images of ans, fastening, band, and ragin, all lead both individually, and with all the more weight collectively, into the path to be trod. I shall take up all the threads again, but I wish first to determine the nature and bearings of the cultus.

________________________

1. The drift of these remarks seems to be this: The word, though used as a masc., has a neut. form, is this an archaism, pointing to a time when the word was really neuter; or a mere irregularity due to abrition, the word having always been masc.? --TRANS.

2. Saxo does not inflect Thor; Uhland p. 108.

                3. The Slav. bôgh is connected with the Sanskr. bhâga felicitas, bhakta devotus, and bhaj colere; perhaps also with the obscure bahts in the Goth. and bahts minister, cultor; conf. p. 20, note on boghât, dives. Of qeoj , deus we shall have to speak in ch. IX.

                4. oudeij agaqos ei mh eis o qeoj, Mark 10, 18, Luke 18, 19, which in Gothic is rendered 'ni hvashun þiuðeigs alja ains Guð,' but in A.S. 'nis nân man gôd buton God âna'. God is the giver of all good, and himself the highest good, summum bonum. Thus Plate names him to agaqon.

                5. In Gothic the rule is to change TH into D before a vowel in inflection, as, faðs. fadis, fada, fað; haubið, -dis, -da, -ð. The peculiarity of guð is that it retains TH throughout the sing. guð, guðs, guða, guð; though in pl. and in derivatives it falls under rule again. TRANS.

                6. Writers of the 16-17th centuries use ölgötze for statue (Stieler says, from an allegorical representation of the apostles asleep on the Mount of Olives, öl = oil). Hans Sachs frequently has 'den ölgötzen tragen' for doing house drudgery, I. 5, 418 528. III. 3, 24 49. IV. 3, 37 99. The OHG. coz, simpuvium Numae (Juvenal 6, 343) which Graff 4, 154 would identify with götze, was a vessel, and belongs to giozan = fundere.

                7. Such a fear may arise from two causes: a holy name must not be abused, or an unholy dreaded name, e.g., that of the devil, has to be softened down by modifying its form; see Chap. XXXIII, how the people call formidable animals by another name, and for Donner prefer to say donnerwetter (Dan. tordenveir for Thursday), donnerwettstein (wetterstein or wetzstein?), donnerkeil, donnerwäsche, dummer. In Fornm. sög. 10, 283 we have Oddiner for Oðinn; perhaps Wuotansheer (Woden's host) was purposely changed into Mutesheer; whether Phol into Fâlant, is worth considering.

                8. Sangbieu (sang de Dieu) [blood of God], corbieu (corps de D.) [body of God]  vertubleu (vertu de D.) [virtue (= power) of God], morbleu (mort de D.) [death of God], parbleu (par. D) [by God], vertuguien, vertugoi (vertu de D.) [virtue of God], morguoi (mort [death] de D.) &c. As early as Renart 18177, por la char bien. So the Engl. cock's bones, od's wounds, 'zounds, &c. Conf. Weber metr. rom. 3, 284.

                9. The omission of and between the two datives is archaic, conf. Zeitschr. f. d. a. 2, 190.

                10. Buge was primi, gralva Venus! Frauend. 192, 20; conf. 177, 14.

                11. hie hært uns anders nieman dan got unde diu waltvogellîn, das mac wol getriuwe sîn; Walth. 40, 15. Birds play the spy on men's privacy.

                12. The Gothic gavairthi = peace.

                13. To the creative God rejoicing in his work, the MHG. poets, especially attribute diligence and zeal: an den henden lac der gotes fliz; Parz. 88, 15. jach, er trüege den gotes flîs; Parz. 140, 5. got het sinen fliz gar ze wunsche wol an si geleit: Wigal. 4130. ich waen got selbe worhte dich mit sîner gotlicher hant; Wigal. 9723. zwáre got der hât geleit sîne kunst und sine kraft, sînen flîz und sîne meisterschaft an disen loblîchen lip; Iw. 1685. So in Chrestien: ja la fist Dex de sa main nue, por nature fere muser, tout le mont i porroit user, s'ele la voloit contrefere, que ja nen porroit a chief trere; no Dex, s'il sen voloit pener, mi porroit, ce cuit, assener, que ja une telle feist, por peine que il i meist (see Suppl.).

                14. Piacula iræ deûm, Liv. 22, 9. deos iratos habeam! dii immortales hominibus irasci et succensere consueverunt, Cic. pro Rosc. 16. And Tacitus on this very subject of the Germans: propitiine an irati dii, Germ. 5. ira dei, Hist. 4, 26. infensi Batavis dii, Hist. 5, 25. And in the Mid. Ages: tu odium Dei omniumque sanctorum habeas! Vita Meinwerci, cap. 13 § 95. crebrescentibus jam jamque cottidie Dei justo judicio in populo diversis calamitatibus et flagellis........quid esset in quo Deus offensus esset, vel quibus placari posset operibus; Pertz 2, 547.

                15. Hartmann on benedictions, Nürnb. 1680, p. 158, 180.

                16. Serious illness or distress is habitually called 'der gotes slac,' stroke.

                17. When lightning strikes, our people say: If God can burn, we can build again; Ettners hebamme, p. 16.

                18. Where God is, there is grace and peace; of a solemn spot it is said: Here dwells der liebe Gott! And, to drive den lieben Gott from a person's room (Lessing 1, 243), means to disturb a solitary in his sanctum.

                19. OHG. rîhhi dives, potens, also beatus; and dives is near akin to Divus, as Dis, Ditis springs out of divit. From the Slav. bôgh is derived boghât (dives), Lith. bagotas; compare ops, in-ops (Russ. u-bôghiy), opulentus with Ops, the Bona Dea. Conf. Diefenb. celt. 1, 196.

                20. Jane pater! Cato 134: but what can Dissunapiter mean in the remarkable conjuring spell, Cato 160?

                21. Ursus divinus, Asbirna (ursa divina), for which the Waltharius has the hybrid Ospirn, prop. Anspirn ; conf.Reinh. fuchs p. ccxcv. For Asketill, Oscytel, see end of ch. III.

                22. Suet. Octavian. cap. 97. futurumque, ut inter deos referretur, quod æsar, id est reliqua pars e Cæsaris nomine, Etrusca lingua deus vocaretur. Hesych. s.v. aisoi. qeoi upo twn Turrhnwn. Conf. Lanzi 2, 483-4; also Dio Cass. 56, 29.

                23. Unfortunately þurs means a giant, and durs a demon, which, if they have anything to do with the turshnoi, would rather imply that there were a hostile and dreaded people. TRANS.

                24. The blithe, happy gods: when people stepped along in stately gorgeous attire, men thought that gods had appeared: menn hugðu at æsir væri þar komnir,' Landn. 3, 10. The Völs. saga c. 26 says of Sigurð: 'þat hygg ec at her fari einn af goðunum,' I think that here rides one of the gods. So in Parz. 36, 18: 'alda wîp und man verjach, si ne gesachen nie helt sô wünneclîch, ir gote im solten sín gelích' (declared, they saw never a hero so winsome, their gods must be like him). The more reason is there for my note on Siegfried (ch. XV), of whom the Nib. 84, 4 says: der dort sô hêrlîchen gât' (see Suppl.).

                25. The Tcheremisses also pray 'juma sirlaga,' and the Tchuvashes 'tora sirlag,' i.e., God have mercy; G. J. Müllers saml. russ. gesch. 2, 359. The Morduins say when it thunders 'pashangui Proguini pas,' have mercy, god Porguini; Georgi description I. 64.

                26. den sig hât got in sîner hant, MS. 2, 16.

                27. Gott. anz. 1833, pp. 471-2. Diez however raises doubles, Roman. gram, 1, 41.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 13-15. ) The word god is peculiar to the Germanic languages. Guitecl. 1, 31: terre ou lon claime Dieu got. On goddess see beginning of Ch. XIII. diu gotheit occurs already in Fundgr. 2, 91. In the Venetian Alps, God is often called der got with the Art., Schmeller's Cimbr. Wtb. 125. Is the Ital. iddio from il dio, which does not account for iddia goddess, or is it abbreviated from domen-ed-dio, which, like Old French domnedeu, damledeu, damredeu, comes from the Lat. voc. domine deus? Conf. Diez, Altrom. Sprachdenkm. p. 62.

                Got is not the same word as guot, though the attempt to identify them is as old as OHG. (yet conf. the Pref. to E. Schulze's Gothic Glossary, xviii.): 'got unde guot plurivoca sint. taz (what) mit kote wirt, taz wirt mit kuote,' Notker's Boeth. 172. Almost as obscure as the radical meaning of god is that of the Slav. bogh, some connecting it with Sanskr. b'agas, sun, Höfer's Zeitschr. 1, 150. In the Old-Persian cuneiform writing 4, 61 occurs bagâha, dei, from the stem baga, Bopp's Comp. Gram. 452; Sanskr. bhagavat is adorandus. Hesychius has bagaioj, Zeuj frugioj (conf. Spiegel's Cuneif. inscr. 210. Windischmann 19. 20. Bopp, Comp. Gr. 452. 581. Miklosich 3). Boh. buze, bozatko, Pol. boze, bozatko, godkin, also genius, child of luck. Boh. buzek, Pol. bozek, idol.

                Beside guda, gods, John 10, 34-5, we have guþa, Gal. 4, 8. The change of þ to d in derivation is supported by afgudei impietas, gudalaus impius, gudisks divinus. Neuter is daz apgot, Mos. 33, 19. abgote sibeniu, Ksrchr. 65. appitgot, Myst. 1, 229. Yet, beside the neut. abcotir, stands appetgöte (rh. kröte), Troj. kr. 27273, and abgote, Maria 149, 42; also masc. in Kristes büchelîn of 1278 (cod. giss. no. 876): 'bette an den appitgot.' abgotgobide in Haupt 5, 458 is for abgotgiuobida. In the Gothic þô galiuga-guda for eidwla, 1 Cor. 10, 19. 20, where the Greek has no article, we may perceive a side-glance at Gothic mythology; conf. Löbe gloss. 76b. The ON. goð is not always idolum merely, but sometimes numen, as goð öll, omnia numina, Sæm. 67b. siti Hâkon með heiðin goð, Hâkonarm. 21. gauð, usually latratus, is a contemptuous term for a numen ethnicorum; conf. geyja, to bark, said of Freyja, p. 7 note.

                Our götze occurs in the Fastn. Sp. 1181. 1332, where the carved 'goezen' of the painter at Würzburg are spoken of. Gods' images are of wood, are split up and burnt, Fornm. sög. 2, 163. v. d. Hagen's Narrenbuch, 314. Platers leben, 37. So Diagoras burns his wooden Hercules (Melander Jocos. 329), and cooks with it; conf. Suppl. to p. 108 n. Agricola no. 186 explains ölgötz as 'a stick, a log, painted, drenched with oil,' Low Germ. oligötze; but it might be an earthen lamp or other vessel with an image of the god, Pröhle xxxvi. In Thuringia ölgötze means a baking.

                p. 15. ) To the distortions of God's name may be added: gots hingender gans! Geo. v. Ehingen, p. 9. potz verden angstiger schwininer wunden! Manuel, Fastn. sp. 81. Er. Alberus uses 'bocks angst,' H. Sachs 'botz angst.' Is potz, botz from bocks (p. 995)? Similar adaptations of Dieu, Raynouard sub v. deus; culbieu, Méon. 4, 462. Ital. sapristi for sacristi.

                p. 15. ) The addition of a Possess. Pron. to the name of God recalls the belief in a guardian spirit of each individual man (p. 875). The expressions not yet obsolete, 'my God! I thank my God, you may thank your God, he praised his God, etc.,' in Gotthelf's Erzähl. 1, 167 are also found much earlier: hevet ghesworen bi sinen Gode, Reinaert 526. ganc dînem Gote bevolen, Mor. 3740. er lobte sînen Got, Greg. 26, 52. durch meinen Gott, Ecke (Hagen) 48. saget iuwem Gote lop, Eilh. 2714. daz in mîn Trehtîn lône, Kolocz. 186. gesegen dich Got mîn Trehtîn, Ls. 3, 10. je le feré en Mondieu croire, *** I will in Mygod believe ***Renart 3553. 28465. Méon 2, 388 [false ref. means ***his devil *** ] son deable, Ren. 278. 390. Conf. Junonem meam iratam habeam,' Hartung, genius.

                The ‘God grant, God knows’ often prefixed to an interrogative, Gram. 3, 74, commits the decision of the doubtful to a higher power; conf. 'wëre Got, Gott behüte,' Gram. 3, 243-4. Got sich des wol versinnen kan, Parz. 369, 3; conf. 'sit cura deum.' daz sol Got niht en-wellen, Er. 6411. daz enwelle Got von himele, Nib. 2275, 1. nu ne welle Got, En. 64, 36.

Other wishes: sô sol daz Got gebieten, Nib. 2136, 4. hilf Got, Parz. 121, 2. nu hilf mir, hilferîcher Got 122, 26; conf. 'ita me deus adjuvet, ita me dii ament, amabunt,' Ter. Heaut. iv. 2, 8. 4, 1. Got hüete dîn, Parz. 124, 17, etc. Got halde iuch 138, 27. Got lôn dir 156, 15. Got troeste iuch des vater mîn 11, 2. Got grüeze iuch, Iw. 5997. The freq. formulas 'God bless thee, greet thee,' addressed espec. to wine. Often in MHG., 'be it God who': Got sî der daz wende; der in ner' (heal); der uns gelücke gebe, Er. 8350. 6900. Hartm. Erst. b. 1068.

 (Many new examples of 'wilkomen Got und mir'ð are here omitted.) sît mir in Gote wilkomen, Pass. 34, 92. im und den göten (gods) willekomen, Troj. kr. 23105. God alone: Got willekume here von Berne, Dietr. Drachenk. 60a. Me and my wife: willekomen mir und ouch der frouwen mîn, MS. 1, 57b. bien venuz mîner frouwen unde mir, Parz. 76, 12.

                The Supreme Being is drawn into other formulas: dankent ir und Gote, Lanz. 4702. des danke ich dir unde Gote, Flore 5915. Got und iu ze minnen (for the love of), Greg. 3819. nû lâz ich alle mîne dinc an Godes genâde unde dîn, Roth. 2252. To intensify an assertion: ich fergihe (avow) Got unde iu, Griesh. pred. 2, 71. nein ich und Got, Ls. 2, 257; like the heathenish 'Oden och jag.' daz er sich noch Got erkennet, Walth. 30, 7. Got und ouch die liute, Greg. 271. Got und reht diu riten dô în ze heile, Trist. (Massm.) 176, 26. 177, 2. We still speak of complaining to God and the world. One could not but love her, 'da half kein gott und kein teufel,' Höfer, Lorelei 234. So, 'to her and love': ich hân gesungen der vil lieben und der Minne, Neifen 13, 37. frou Minne und ir, vil sælic wîp 20, 33. ich wil dir und deinem gaul zusaufen, Garg. 240b.

                p. 17. ) God has human attributes: par les iaus Dieu, *** by God’s eyes? ***  Ren. 505; so, Freyr lîtr eigi vinar augum til þîn, Fornm. s. 2, 74. par les pies quide Diu tenir, *** she has feet similar to God’s ***  Méon Fabl. 1, 351 [ in : li miracle  du Chevalier qui aimoit une Dame]. wan dô Got hiez werden ander wîp, dô geschuof er iuwern lîp selbe mit sîner hant, Flore 2, 259. The Finns speak of God's beard. He wears a helmet, when he is wrapt in clouds? conf. helot-helm, p. 463, Grîmnir pileatus, p. 146, and Mercury's hat; den Gotes helm verbinden, MsH. 3, 354b; conf. the proper name Gotahelm, Zeuss trad. Wizemb. 76, like Siguhelm, Friduhelm. As Plato makes God a shepherd, Wolfram makes him a judge, Parz. 10, 27. God keeps watch, as 'Mars vigilat,' Petron. 77; conf. Mars vigila, Hennil vigila (p. 749). He creates some men himself: Got selbe worht ir süezen lîp, Parz. 130, 23; gets honour by it: ir schöenes lîbes hât Got iemer êre, MS. 1, 143a; shapes beauty by moonlight: Diex qui la fist en plaine lune, Dinaux's Trouveres Artésiens 261; feels pleasure: dar wart ein wuof, daz ez vor Got ze himel was genaeme, Lohengr. 71. in (to them) wurde Got noch (nor) diu werlt iemer holt, Dietr. Drach. 119a. So in O. Norse: Yggr var þeim lîðr, Sæm. 251a; conf. 'unus tibi hic dum propitius sit Jupiter, tu istos minutos deos flocci feceris,' and the cuneif. inscr. 'Auramazdá thuvám dushta biya,' Oromasdes tibi amicus fiat.

                p. 17-8 n. ) God's diligence: examples like those in Text.

                p. 18. ) Many new examples of God's 'anger, hatred, etc.' are here omitted.

 Unser gote sint sô guot, daz si dînen tumben muot niht râchen mit einer donre-strâle, Barl. 207, 13. 'Got haz den lesten!' sprâchen die dâ vluhen hin (God hate the hindmost, cried the fugitives), Ottoc. 76a. sô in Got iemer hazze, MsH. 3, 195b. daz in Got gehoene, dishonour, Lanz. 3862. er bat, daz Got sînen slac über in vil schiere slüege, very soon smite, Turl. krone 92; conf. qeoblabhj, Herod. 1, 127. Got velle si beide, make them fall, Iw. 6752. ich wil daz mich Got velle und mir schende den lîp, Flore 1314. Got si schende, MsH. 3, 187a. fort mit dir zu Gottes boden, Weise comöd. 39. Got rech' ez über sîn kragen, Ottoc. 352a. so muoze mig Got wuorgen, Karlm. 368. nû brennet mich der Gotes zan (tooth) in dem fiur, Tôdes gehugde 679. sô entwîche mir Got, Flore 5277. Got ist an mir verzaget, Parz. 10,30. ist Got an sîner helfe blint, oder ist er dran betoubet (deaved, daft), 10, 20. die göte gar entsliefen, Albr. Tit. 2924.

                p. 20. ) The irrisio deorum, ON. goð-gâ (Pref. liii. and p. 7n.) reaches the height of insult in Laxdæla-s. 180. Kristni-s. cap. 9; OHG. kot-scelta blasphemia, MHG. gotes schelter. Conf. the abusive language of Kamchadales to their highest god Kutka, Klemm 2, 318. nû schilte ich mîniu abgot, scold my false gods, Lament 481. sînen zorn huob er hin ze Gote: 'rîcher Got unguoter!' Greg. 2436-42. sô wil ich iemer wesen gram den goten, En. 7985. The saints scold (as well as coax) God, Keisersb. omeis 12d. wâfen schrîen über (cried shame upon) Gotes gewalt, Wigal. 11558. Got, dâ bistu eine schuldec an (alone to blame), Iw. 1384. Charles threatens him: Karles tença a Dieu, si confust son voisin, 'jamais en France n'orra messe à matin,' Aspr. 35a. hé, saint Denis de France, tu somoilles et dorz, quant fauz tes homes liges tiens en est li gran torz, Guitecl. 2, 156. nemt iuwer gote an ein seil und trenket si, drench them, Wh. 1, 83a. tröwet (believes) als dann S. Urban auch, wenn er niht schafft gut wein, werd' man ihn nach den alten brauch werffen in bach hinein, Garg. pref. 10. In the Ksrchr. 14737 Charles threatens St. Peter: und ne mache dû den blinden hiute niht gesunden, dîn hûs ich dir zestôre, dînen widemen ich dir zevuore. God is defied or cheated: biss Gott selbst kompt (to punish us), haben wir vogel und nest weggeraumbt, Garg. 202a.

p. 20-1. ) More epithets of God. He is hardly ever addressed as dear; but we find: an sînen lieben abgoten, Pass. 306, 20. ir lieben gote 38, 41. der zarte Got, Ls. 2, 285-6. Griesh. 22 (5. 9. 17 of Christ). der süeze Got von himel, Griesh., etc. in svasugoð, Sæm. 33a. tugenhafter Got, Wh. 49, 16. Got der gewâre, Fundgr. ii. 90, 41. hêre is said of heathen gods, angels, emperors: ein Venus hêre, MS. 1, 55a. hâlig dryhten, Beow. 1366.

God sees, tends, blesses, loves, rewards, honours, pities, forgets: Got der müeze dîn pflegen, Herb. 6160. Got gesegene uns immer mêre 7732. Got segen iuch, Got lône dir 8092. Got minne dich, Eracl. 644. Got müeze mich êren, MsH. 1, 59b. daz mohte Got erbarmen, Wigal. 5342. als im Got ergaz, forgot, Herb. 15669. sô mîn Got ergaz, Troj. kr. 14072. des (him) hât Got vergezzen, der tivel hât in besezzen, Warnung 343. Our God-forgotten, God-forsaken.

The poor are Godes volk, Diut. 1, 438; sîne aerme, Maerl. 2, 230; daz Gotes her (host), Gute frau 1492; hence proper names like Godesman, Trad. Corb. 291, Godasmannus, Pol. Irmin. 93b, Kotesman, Trad. Juvav. 131.

The Gen. Gotes intensifies the adjs. poor, wretched, ignorant, pure: owê mich Gotes armen, Nib. 2090. ich vil Gotes armiu, Gudr. 1209, 1. ich Gotes arme maget, Dietr. Drach. die Gotes ellenden, Ernst 3176. der Gotes tumbe, Helmbr. 85. der Gotes reine, Marienleg. 189, 428.

                p. 22. ) Earthly titles given to God: der edel keiser himelbaere, Tit. 3382. That of the king of birds: Gott der hohe edle adler von himmel, Berthold 331. The M. Lat. domnus is not used of God, who is always Dominus, but of popes, kings, etc., Ducange sub v. Old French dame dieu, dame dê, Roquef. sub v.; Prov. dami drieu, damri deu, domini dieus, Raynouard 3, 68; on dame conf. op. 299 n. Wallach. dumnedeu for God, domn for sir, lord. Slav knez, kniaz, prince, is applied to God in Wiggert's psalms, conf. kneze granitsa in Lisch urk. 1, 9. So anax, anassa are used of kings and gods, espec. anakej of the Dioscuri, and the Voc. ana of gods only.

                p. 22. ) God is called Father in that beautiful passage: þonne forstes bend Fæder onlaeteð, Beow. 3218. Brahma is called avus paternus, Bopp's gloss. 217a, and Pitamaha, great father, Holtzm. 3, 141. 153; conf. Donar as father, p. 167. In the Märchen, God becomes godfather to particular children: in KM. no. 126 he appears as a beggar, and gives his godson a horse, in the Wallach. märchen 14 a cow. The fays, as godmothers, give gifts. The grandmother travels all over the earth, Klemm 2, 160; conf. anel, baba (p. 641), zloto-baba, gold-grandmother; mother (p. 254).

                p. 22. ) The Saxon metod, ON. miötudr may be conn. with Sanskr. mâtar, meter and creator, Bopp's Comp. Gr. 1134, and mátâ, mother, creatress; conf. tamiaj Zeuj.

                p. 23. ) In Homer too, God is he that pours: Zeus creates, begets mankind, Od. 20, 202. But Zeus ceei udwr, Il. 16, 385. ciona, Il. 12, 281. Poseidon ceen aclun, Il. 20, 321. Athena hera ceue, Od. 7, 15. upnon 2, 395. kalloj, 23, 156. carin 2, 12, etc. Conf. p. 330, and 'Athena hke komaj,' let her hair stream, Od. 23, 156. God is he, 'der alle bilde giuzet,' Diut. 2, 241; der schepfet alle zît niuwe sêl (souls), di' er giuzet unde gît in menschen, Freid. 16, 25. the angel 'giuzet dem menschen die sêle în,' Berth. 209. God is 'der Smit von Oberlande, der elliu bilde wol würken kan,' MsH. 2, 247a. He fits together: das füege Got, Rab. 554. Got füege mir'z ze guote, Frauend. 422, 22. dô bat si Got vil dicke füegen ir den rât, Nib. 1187, 1, like our eingeben, suggest. sigehafte hende (victorious hands) füege in Got der guote, Dietr. 8082. dô fuogt in (to them) Got einen wint, Rab. 619; conf. Gevuoge, p. 311 n. The Minne also fits, and Sælde (fortune): dir füeget sælde daz beste, Tit. 3375; our 'fügung Gottes,' providence. God destines, verhenget, MS. 1, 74a (the bridle to the horse); OHG. firhengan (even hengan alone), concedere, consentire. He carries, guides: Got truoc uns zu dir in das lant (so: the devil brings you), Dietr. and Ges. 656. mich hât selber gewîset her Got von himel, Keller's Erzähl. 648, 11. We say 'go with God,' safely, sun qew baineij, Babr. 92, 6.

                p. 23. ) Though Berthold laughs at the notion of God sitting in the sky, and his legs reaching down to the earth, as a Jewish one, there are plenty of similar sensuous representations to be gleaned out of early poems, both Romance and German: 'Deo chi maent sus en ciel,' Eulalia; etc. alwaltintir Got, der mir zi lebine gibôt, Diemer 122, 24. wanti Got al mag und al guot wil 99, 18. God is eternal: qui fu et iest et iert, Ogier 4102.

                P. 24. ) To explain the Ases we must compare ahura-mazdas (p. 984 n.) and Sanskr. asura spiritual, living. Svâ lâti âss þik heilan î haugi, Fornald. sög. 1, 437. Rîn âs-kunn, Sæm. 248a. nornir âskungar 188a. A friðla is called âsa blôð, Fornm. sög. 9, 322, fair as if sprung from Ases? þâ vex mer âsmegin, iafnhâtt up sem himinn, Sn. 114. âsmegir, Sæm. 94b. âsmôðr opp. to jötunmôðr, Sn. 109. âsa bragr stands for Thôr, Sæm. 85b. Sometimes âs seems to mean genius, fairy: in Nials-s. p. 190 a Svinfells-âs or Snæfells-âs changes a man that lives with him into a woman every ninth night; the man is called 'brûðr Svinfells-âs, amica genii Svinfelliani. Here also mark the connexion of âs with a mountain (fell for fiall?). The Saxon form of the word is also seen in the names of places, Osene-dred, Kemble no. 1010 (5, 51), and Osna-brugga (conf. As-brû, rainbow, p. 732). Note the OHG. Kêr-ans, spear-god, Folch-ans, Haupt's Zeitschr. 7, 529. That Ansivarii can be interpreted 'a diis oriundi' is very doubtful. Haupt's Ztschr. 5, 409 has 'des bomes as,' prob. for 'ast' bough, which may indeed be conn. with 'âs' beam, for it also means gable, rooftree, firmament, erma, fulcrum. Varro says the Lat. ara was once asa, ansa, sacred god's-seat, v. Forcellini. Pott 1, 244, Gr. D. Sag. p. 114. The Gr. aisa (p. 414) seems unconnected. Bopp 43d connects îsvara dominus with an Irish aesfhear aesar, deus, from Pictet p. 20; but this contains fear, vir.

                p. 26. ) 'Hos consentes et complices Etrusci aiunt et nominant, quod una oriantur et occidant una' says Arnobius adv. gentes lib. 3; does he mean constellations? conf. Gerhard's Etr. gotth. p. 22-3. Does âttûnga brautir, Sæm. 80b, mean the same as âsa, cognatorum?

                p. 26. ) As consulting ragin appear the gods in Sanskr. râganas and Etrusc. rasena. The Homeric Zeus too is counsellor, mhstwr, mhtieta. 'consilio deorum immortalium, consuesse does immort.' says Cæsar B. Gall. 1, 12. 14. The pl. regin occurs further in Sæm. 32b. 34a nyt regin. 36a vîs regin. Hâkonar-m. 18 râð öll ok regin. Sæm. 248b dôlg-rögnir. Also rögn: höpt, bönd, rögn, Sn. 176. 'wer gesaz bî Gote an dem râte dâ diu guote mir wart widerteilet?' allotted, Ms. 2, 180a. Just as impersonal as the Gen. pl. in OS. regano-giscapu sounds another in Haupt's Ztschr. 2, 208, where Mary is styled 'kuneginne aller magene,' virtutum.

                p. 26n. ) The appearing of gods is discussed at p. 336. Saxo, ed. Müller 118, speaks of sacra deûm agmina. The gods live happy: deorum vitam apti sumus, Ter. Heaut. iv. 1, 15. deus sum, sic hoc ita est, Hecyra v. 4, 3. The beautiful and blithe are comp. to them; þyckir oss Oðinn vera, Hâk.-m. 15; conf. Asa-blôð above. gê her für als ein götinne, Renn. 12277. ên wîf ghelîc ere godinnen, Maerl. 2, 233. alse ochter God selve comen soude, Lanc. 31321. Conf. the beauty of elves and angels, p. 449. The I. of Cos seemed to produce gods, the people were so handsome, Athen. 1, 56. Paul and Barnabas taken for Mercury and Jupiter, Acts 14, 12.

                p. 27. ) On sihora armen conf. Massm. in Haupt's Ztschr. 1, 386 and Holtzm. in Germania 2, 448, who gives variants; sihora may have been equiv. to frauja. Sigora-freá in Cod. Exon. 166, 35. 264, 8 is liter. triumphorum dominus. A warlike way of addressing God in Nib. Lament 1672 is, himelischer degen!

                p. 28. ) At the end of this Chap. it ought to be observed, that some deities are limited to particular lands and places, while others, like Zeuj panellhnioj, are common to whole races. Also that the Greeks and Romans (not Teutons) often speak indefinitely of 'some god': kai tij qeoj hgemoneuen, Od. 9, 142. 10, 141. tij me qewn olofurato 10, 157. aqanatwn oj tij 15, 35. tij qeoj essi 16, 183. tij sqin tod eeipe qewn 16, 356. h mala tij qeoj endon 19, 40. kai tij qeoj auton eneikoi 21, 196. 24, 182. 373. Solemnis formula, qua dii tutelares urbium evocabantur e civitatibus oppugnatione cinctis ambiguo nomine si deus, si dea, ne videlicet alium pro alio nominando aut sexum confundendo falsa religione populum alligarent, conf. Macrob. Sat. 3, 9. Nam consuestis in precibus 'sive tu deus es sive dea' dicere, Arnob. 3, 8. Hac formula utebantur Romani in precibus, quando sive terra movisset, sive aliud quid accidissent, de quo ambigebatur qua causa cujusque dei vi ac numine effectum sit, conf. Gellius 2, 20 ibique Gronovius.

 

 

CHAPTER III.

WORSHIP

 

 

The simplest actions by which man expressed his reverence (1) for the gods (see Suppl.), and kept up a permanent connexion with them, were Prayer and Sacrifice. Sacrifice is a prayer offered up with gifts. And wherever there was occasion for prayer, there was also for sacrifice (see Suppl.).

 

PRAYER

 

 

When we consider the word employed by Ulphilas to express adoration, we at once come upon a correspondence with the Norse phraseology again. For proskunew the Goth. equivalent is inveita, inváit, invitum, Matt. 8, 2. 9, 18. Mk. 5, 6. 15, 19. Lu. 4, 7-8. John 9, 38. 12, 20. 1 Cor. 14, 25; and once for aspazomai, Mk. 9, 15 (see Suppl.). Whether in using this word the exact sense of proskunhsij was caught, may be doubted, if only because it is invariably followed by an acc., instead of the Greek dat. In Mod. Greek popular songs, proskuneiu is used of a vanquished enemy's act of falling to the ground in token of surrender. We do not know by what gesture inveitan was accompanied, whether a bowing of the head, a motion of the hand, or a bending of the knee. As we read, 1 Cor. 14, 25: driusands ana andavleizn (=antlitz), inveitið guð; a suppliant prostration like proskunhsij is not at variance with the sense of the word. An OS. giwîtan, AS. gewîtan, means abire; could inveitan also have signified merely going up to, approaching? Paul. Diac. 1, 8 twice uses accedere. Fraveitan is vindicare. Now let us compare the ON. vîta inclinare,  (2) which Biörn quotes under veit, and spells, erroneously, I think, vita. From it is derived veita (Goth. váitjan ?); veita heiðr, honorem peragere; veita tiðir, sacra peragere; veitsla, epulum, Goth. váitislô?  (3) The Goth. bida preces, bidjan precari, rogare, orare, are used both in a secular and a spiritual sense. The same with OHG. pëta is derived a pëtôn adorare, construed with acc. of the person whom: O.i. 17, 62. ii. 14, 63. nidarfallan joh mih bëtôn, O. ii, 4, 86-9. 97. iii. 11, 25. T. 46, 2. 60, 1. pëtôta inan, Diut. 1, 512. But bëtôn can also express a spiritual orare, T. 34, 1, 2, 3. bëto-man cultores, O. II. 14, 68. In MHG. I find bëten always followed by the prep. an (see Suppl.): bëten an diu abgot, Barl. 72, 4. an ein bilde bëten, ibid. 98, 15. sô muoz si iemer mê nâch gote sîn mîn anebët, she must after God be my (object of) adoration, Ben. 146. Our bitten ask, beten pray, anbeten adore, are distinct from one another, as bitte request is from gebet prayer. The OS bëdôn is not followed by acc., but by prep. te: bëdôn to minun barma, Hel. 33, 7. 8; and this of itself would suggest what I conjectured in my Gramm. 2, 25, that bidjan originally contained the physical notion of jacere, prosterni, which again is the only explanation of Goth. badi klinidion a bed, and also of the old badu, AS beado = cædes, strages. (4)

The AS New Test. translates adorare by ge-eáð-mêdan, i.e., to humble oneself. The MHG flêhen, when it signifies supplicare, governs the dat.: gote flêhen, Aegid. 30. den goten vlêhen, Parz. 21, 6. Wh. 126, 30. Türl. Wh. 71; but in the sense of demulcere, solari, the acc., Parz. 119, 23. 421, 25. Nib. 499, 8 (see Suppl.). (5) It is the Goth þláihan, fovere, consolari. An OHG. flêhôn vovere I only know from N. cap. 8, Bth. 178, and he spells it fléhôn: ten (acc. quem) wir flehoton. We say 'zu gott flehen,' but 'gott anflehen'.

The Goth. aíhtrôn prosenesqai, prosaitein expresses begging rather than asking or praying. The OHG. diccan, OS., thiggian, is both precari and impetrare, while AS. þicgan, ON., þiggja, is invariably impetrare, accipere, so that asking has passed over into effectual asking, getting (see Suppl.)

Another expression for prayer is peculiar to the Norse and AS. dialects, and foreign to all the rest: ON. bôn or bæn, Swed. Dan. bön, AS bên, gen. bêne f., Cædm. 152, 26, in Chaucer bone, Engl. boon; from it, bêna supplex, bênsian supplicare. Lastly the Icel. Swed. dyrka, Dan. dyrke, which like the Lat. colere is used alike of worship and of tillage, seems to be a recent upstart, unknown to the ON. language.

On the form and manner of heathen prayer we lack information; I merely conjecture that it was accompanied by a looking up to heaven, bending of the body (of which bidjan gave a hint), folding of hands, bowing of knees, uncovering of the head. These gestures grow out of a crude childlike notion of antiquity, that the human supplicant presents and submits himself to the mighty god, his conqueror, as a defenceless victim (see Suppl.). Precari deos cælumque suspicere is attested by Tacitus himself, Germ. 10. Genuflectere is in Gothic knussjan, the supplicare of the Roman was flexo corpore adorare. Falling down and bowing were customs of the christians too; thus in Hel. 47, 6. 48, 16. 144, 24 we have: te bedu hnîgan. 58, 12: te drohtine hnígan. 176, 8: te bedu fallan. 145, 3: gihnêg an kniobeda. In the Sôlarlioð is the remarkable expression: henni ec laut, to her (the sun) I bowed, Sæm. 126; from lûta inclinare. falla â knê ok lûta, Vilk. saga cap. 6. nu strauk kongsdôttir sinn legg, ok mælti, ok sêr i loptið upp, (stroked her leg, and spoke, and looks up to the sky), Vilk. saga cap 61. So the saga of St. Olaf tells how the men bowed before the statue of Thor, lutu þvî skrimsli, Fornm. sög. 4, 247. fell til iardar fyrir lîkneski (fell to earth before the likeness). Fornm. sög. 2, 108. The Langobards are stated in the Dial. Gregorii M. 3, 28 to have adored submissis cervicibus a divinely honoured goat's head. In the Middle Ages people continued to bow to lifeless objects, by way of blessing them, such as a loved country, the road they had traversed, or the day (6). Latin writers of the time, as Lambert, express urgent entreaty by pedibus provolvi: the attitude was used not only to God, but to all whom one wished to honour: neig im ûf den fuoz Morolt 41. hie viel sie ûf sinen vuoz, Iw. 8130. ouch nîge ich ir unz ûf den fuoz, MS. 1, 155. valle für si (fall before her), und nîge ûf ir fuoz, MS. 1, 54. buten sich (bowed) weinende ûf sînen vuoz, Greg. 355. neig im nider ûf die hant, Dietr. 55. These passages show that people fell before the feet, and at the feet, of him who was to be reverenced: wilt fallan te mínun fôtun, bedôs te mînun barma, Hel. 33, 7. sich bôt ze tal (bowed to the ground) gein sînen füezen nieder, Wh. 463, 2. (7) An O. Boh. song has: 'sie klanieti bohu,' to bow before God, Königinh. hs. 72; but the same has also the un-Teutonic 'se biti w celo prede bohy,' to beat one's brow before God. (8) Uncovering the head (see Suppl.) certainly was from of old a token of respect with our ancestors, which, like bowing, was shown to deity as well as to kings and chiefs. perhaps the priests, at least those of the Goths, formed an exception to this, as their name pileati is thus accounted for by Jornandes, quia opertis capitibus tiaris litabant, while the rest of the people stood uncovered. In a survival of heathenish harvest-customs we shall find this uncovering further established, ch. VII. In Nicolai Magni de Göw registrum superstitionum (of 1415) it is said: Insuper hodie inveniuntur homines, qui cum novilunium primo viderint flexis genibus adorant vel deposito caputio vel pileo, inclinato capite honorant alloquendo et suscipiendo.

(9)   An AS. legend of Cuðberht relates how that saint was wont to go down to the sea at night, and standing up to his neck in the briny breakers, to sing his prayers, and afterwards to kneel down on the shingles, with palms stretched out to the firmament. (10) Lifting up and folding of the hands (see Suppl.) was also practised to a master, particularly to a feudal lord. In Ls. 3, 78 we have 'bat mit zertânen armen,' prayed with outspread arms. The Old Bavarian stapfsakên (denial of indebtedness) was accompanied by elevation of the hands, RA. 927 (see Suppl.). It is not impossible that the christian converts retained some heathen customs in praying. In a manuscript, probably of the 12th century, the prayers are to be accompanied by some curious actions: sô miz (measure) den ubir dín herza in modum crucis, unde von dem brustleffile zuo demo nabile, unde miz denne von eime rippe unz an daz andire, unde sprich alsus. Again: sô miz denne die rehtun hant von deme lengistin vingire unz an daz resti (wrist), unde miz denne von deme dûmin zuo deme minnisten vingire. One prayer was called 'der vane (flag) des almehtigin gotis'; nine women are to read it nine Sundays, 'sô ez morginet'; the ninth has to read the psalm Domini est terra, in such a posture 'daz ir líb niet ruore die erde, wan die ellebogin unde diu chnie,' that her body touch not the ground, except at the elbows and knees; the others are all to stand till the lighted candle has burnt out; Diut. 2, 292-3.

We cannot now attach any definite meaning to the Gothic aviliudôn eucaristein; it is formed from aviliud carij, which resembles an O. Sax. alat, olat gratiae; does it contain liuð cantus, and was there moreover something heathenish about it? (See Suppl.). The old forms of prayer deserve more careful collecting; the Norse, which invoke the help of the gods, mostly contain the verb duga with the sense propitium esse: bið ec Ottari öll goð duga (I Ot. pray all, &c.), Sæm. 120. biðja þâ dîsir duga, Sæm. 195. Duga means to help, conf. Gramm. 4, 687. There is beauty in the ON. prayer: biðjom herjaföðr î hugom sitja (rogemus deum in animis sedere nostris), Sæm. 113, just as Christians pray the Holy Ghost to descend: in herzen unsén sâzi, O. iv. 5, 30 (see Suppl.).

Christians at prayer or confession looked toward the East, and lifted up their arms (Bingham lib. xi. cap. 7, ed. hal. 3, 273); and so we read in the Kristinbalkr of the old Gulathing law: 'ver skulum lúta austr, oc biðja til ens helga Krists ârs ok friðar,' we must bow east, and pray the holy Christ for plenty and peace (conf. Svntagma de baptismo p. 65); in the Waltharius 1159: contra orientalem prostratus corpore partem precatur; in AS. formulas: eástweard ic stande; and in Troj. 9298. 9642: kêret iuch gên ôrient. The heathens, on the contrary, in praying and sacrificing, looked Northwards: horfa (turn) î norðr, Fornm. sög. 11, 134. leit (looked) î norðr, Sæm. 94. beten gegen mitternacht, Keisersperg omeiss 49. And the North was looked upon by the christians as the unblessed heathen quarter, on which I have given details in RA. 808; it was unlucky to make a throw toward the north, RA. 57; in the Lombard boundary treaties the northern tract is styled 'nulla ora,' RA. 544. These opposite views must serve to explain a passage in the Roman de Renart, where the fox prays christianity, and the wolf heathenly, Reinh. fuchs p. xli. (11).

As the expressions for asking and for obtaining, pp. 30, 31, are identical, a prayer was thought to be the more effectual, the more people it was uttered by:

got enwolde so manegem munde

sîn genâde niht versagen. Wigal. 4458.

die juncvrouwen bâten alle got,

nu ist er sô gnædec unt sô guot

unt sô reine gemuot,

daz er niemer kunde

sô manegem süezen munde

betelichiu dinc versagen. Iw. 5351.

in (to the nuns) wâren de mûnde sô royt,

so wes si god bâden,

of syt mit vlîze dâden,

he id in nummer inkûnde

dem rôsenrôten mûnde

bedelicher dinge versagen.

Ged. von der vrouwen sperwere, Cod. berol. 184, 54. Hence: helfen singen, MS. 1, 57. 2, 42. Conf. cento novelle 61. (12)

 

SACRIFICE

 

 

The word opfer, a sacrifice, was introduced into German by christianity, being derived from the Lat. offero, offerre. (13) The AS. very properly has only the verb offrian and its derivative offrung (oblatio). In OHG., from opfarðn, opforðn there proceeded also a subst. opfar, MHG. ophern and opher; (14) and from Germany the expression seems to have spread to neighbouring nations, ON. offr, Swed. Dan. offer, Lith. appiera, Lett. uppuris, Esth. ohwer, Fin. uhri, Boh. ofera, Pol. ofiara, Sloven. ofer. Everywhere the original heathen terms disappeared (see Suppl.).

The oldest term, and one universally spread, for the notion 'to worship (God) by sacrifice,' was blôtan (we do not know if the Goth. pret. was báiblôt or blôtáida); I incline to attach to it the full sense of the Gk. quein (15) (see Suppl.). Ulphilas saw as yet no objection to translating by it sebesqai and latreuein, Mk 7, 7. Lu. 2, 37; he construes it with an acc. of the person: blôtan fráujan is to him simply Deum colere, with apparently no thought of a bloody sacrifice. For latreia Rom. 12, 1, he puts blótinassus, and for qeosebhj John 9, 31 guðblôstreis. The latter presupposes a subst. blôstr (cultus, oblatio), of which the S is explained in Gramm. 2, 208. Usblôteins (paraklhsij) 2 Cor. 8, 4 implies a verb usblôtjan to implore. Cædmon uses the AS. blôtan pret. blêot, onblôtan pret. onbléot, of the Jewish sacrifice, and follows them up with acc. of thing and dat. of person: blôtan sunu (filium sacrificare) 173, 5. onblêot þæt lâc Gode (obtulit hostiam Deo) 177, 21. In Ælfred's Orosius we have the same blôtan pret. blôtte. I derive from it blêtsian, later blessian, to bless. The OHG. pluozan, pret. pliez and pluozta, appears only in glosses, and renders libare, litare, victimare, immolare, Gl. Hrab. 959 960 966 968. Diut. 1, 245, 258. No case-construction is found, but an acc. of the thing may be inferred from partic. kaplôzaniu immolata. A subst. pluostar sacrificium, bluostar, Is. 382. Gl. emm. 411. Gl. jun. 209. T. 56, 4. 95, 102 (16); pluostarhûs idolium, Gl. emm. 402. ploazhûs fanum, pluostrari sacrificator, ibid. 405. It is plain that here the word has more of a heathen look, and was not at that time used of christian worship; with the thing, the words for it soon die out. But its universal use in Norse heathendom leaves no doubt remaining, that it was equally in vogue among Goths, Alamanni, Saxons, before their conversion to christianity. The ON. verb blôta, pret. blêt and blôtaði, takes, like the Gothic, an acc. of the object worshipped; thus, Grâgâs 2, 170, in the formula of the trygdamâl: svâ viða sem (as widely as) kristnir menn kirkior sækia, heiðnir menn hof blôta (fana colunt); and in the Edda: Thôr blôta, blôtaði Oðin. Sæm. 111, 113, 141, 165 (17); always the meaning is sacrificio venerari. So that in Goth. and ON. the verb brings out more the idea of the person, in OHG. and AS. more that of the thing. But even the O. Dan. version of the OT. uses blothe immolare, blodhmadh libarmina, blotesä holocaustum, Molbech's ed. pp. 171. 182. 215. 249. Also the O. Swed. Uplandslag, at the very beginning of the churchbalkr has: ængin skal affguðum blotæ, with dat. of person, implying an acc. of the thing

The true derivation of the word I do not know. (18) At all events it is not to be looked for in blôð sanguis, as the disagreeing consonants of the two Gothic words plainly show; equally divergent are the OHG. pluozan and pluot from one another; besides, the worship so designated was not necessarily bloody. A remarkable passage in the Livonian rhyming chronicle 4683 tells of the Sameits (Schamaits, Samogits):

ir bluotekirl der warf zuo hant

sin lôz nâch ir alden site,

zuo hant er bluotete alles mite

ein quek.

Here, no doubt, an animal is sacrificed. I fancy the poet retained a term which had penetrated from Scandinavia to Lithuania without understanding it himself; for bluotkirl is merely the O. Swed. blôtkarl, heathen priest; the term is foreign to the Lithuanian language. (19)

A few more of these general terms for sacrifice must be added (see Suppl.).

OHG. antheiz (hostia, victima), Diut. 1, 240. 246, 258. 278; and as verbs, both antheizôn and inheizan (immolare), Diut. 1, 246. 258.

OHG. insakên (litare), Gl. Hrab. 968, insakêt pim (delibor), ibid. 959 960, to which add the Bavarian stapfsakên, RA. 927; just so the AS. onsecgan, Cod. exon. 171, 32. 257, 23. onsecgan tô tibre (devote as sacrifice), Cædm. 172, 30. tiber onsægde, 90, 29. 108, 17. tifer onsecge, Ps. 65, 12. lâc onsecge Cod. exon 254, 19. 257, 29; lâc onsægde, Cædm. 107, 21. 113, 15. Cod. exon. 168, 28. gild onsægde, Cædm. 172, 11. and onsægdnes (oblatio).

As inheizan and onsecgan are formed with the prefix and-, so is apparently the OHG. ineihan pim (delibor), Hrab. 960, which would yield a Goth. andáikan; it is from this OHG. ineihhan, which I think Graff 1, 128 has misread ireihan, that a later neihhan immolare, libare Graff (2, 1015) seems to have risen by aphæresis (Gramm. 2, 810), as nëben from inëben; conf. eichôn (dicare, vindicare), Graff 1, 127. To this place also belongs the OHG. pifëlahan (libare, immolare), Diut. 1, 245. 248.

All this strictly denotes only the 'on-saying,' dedication, consecration of the offering; and it follows from the terminology at least that particular objects were selected beforehand for sacrifice. (20) Thus antheiz is elsewhere simply a vow, votum, solem promise, intheizan vovere; hence also the AS. onsecgan has determinative substantives added to it.

In the same sense biudan (offerre) seems to have been in use very early, AS. lâc bebeodan, Cædm. 173, 9. ON. bodn (oblatio). From this biudan I derive biuds (mensa), ON. bioðr (discus), AS. beod (mensa, lanx), OHG. piot, from its having originally signified the holy table of offerings, the altar.

The Goth. fullafahjan (with dat. of pers.) prop. to please, give satisfaction, is used for latreuein, Lu. 4, 8 (see Suppl.).

In Mk. 1, 44. Lu. 5, 14 atbairan adferre, prosferein, is used of sacrifice; and in AS. the subst. bring by itself means oblatio; so Wolfram in Parz. 45, 1 says: si brâhten opfer vil ir goten, and Fundgr. II. 25: ein lam zopphere brâhte.

It is remarkable that the Goth. saljan, which elsewhere is intransitive and means divertere, manere [put up, lodge, John 1, 39. 40] is in Lu. 1, 9. Mk. 14, 12. 1 Cor. 10, 20. 28 used transitively for qumian and quein, and hunsla saljan, John 16, 2 stands for latreian prosferin, which brings it up to the meaning of OHG. and AS. sellan, ON. selja, tradere, to hand over, possibly because the solemn presentation included a personal approach. The OHG. pigangan (obire) is occasionally applied to worship: piganc (ritus), Diut. 1, 272. afgoda begangan, Lacomblet 1, 11.

Gildan, këltan, among its many meanings, has also to do with worship and sacrifice; it was from the old sacrificial banquets that our guilds took their name. OS. waldandes (God's) gëld, Hel. 3, 11. 6, 1. that gëld lêstian, Hel. 16, 5. AS. brynegield, holocaustum, Cædm. 175, 6, 177, 18. gild onsecgan, 172, 11. Abel's offering is a gield, 60, 5. deofolgield, idololatria, Beda 3, 30. Cod. exon. 245, 29. 251, 24. hæðengield, Cod. exon. 243, 23. OHG. heidankëlt sacrilegium: gote ir gelt bringent, Warn. 2906. offeruncghëlstar, sacrificium, Is. 395. dhiu blôstar iro ghëlstro, Is. 382.

Peculiar to the AS. dialect is the general term lác, neut., often rendered more definite by verbs containing the notion of sacrifice: onbléot þæt lác gode, Cædm. 177, 26. dryhtne lác brohton, 60, 2. lác bebeodan, 173, 9. lác onsægde, 107, 21. 113, 15. ongan lác, 90, 19 (see Suppl.). The word seems to be of the same root as the Goth. masc. láiks (saltatio), OHG, leih (ludus, modus), ON. leikr, and to have signified at first the dance and play that accompanied a sacrifice, then gradually the gift itself. (21) That there was playing and singing at sacrifices is shown by the passage quoted further on, from Gregory's dialogues and Adam of Bremen.

The following expressions I regard as more definite (see Supple.). Ulph. in Rom. 11, 16 renders aparch, the offering of firstfruits at a sacrifice, delibatio, by ufarskafts, which I derive not from skapan, but from skaban (shave) radere, since aparcai were the first clippings of hair off the victim's forehead, Odyss. 14, 422. 3, 446. If we explain it from skapan, this word must have passed from its meaning of creare into that of facere, immolare.

The Goth. vitôd is lex, the OHG. wizôt (Graff 1, 1112. Fundrg. 1, 398) both lex and eucharistia, the Fris. vitat invariably the latter alone; just as zakón in Serv. has both meanings [but in Russ. only that of lex].

Ulph. translates qusia by Goth. hunsl, Matt 9, 13. Mk. 9, 49. Lu. 2, 24; then again latreian prosferein in John 16, 2 by hunsla saljan, where the reference is expressly to killing. And qusiasthrion is called hunslastaðs, Matt. 5, 23-4. Lu. 1, 11. But the corresponding AS hûsel, Engl. housel, allows of being applied to a Christian sacrament, and denotes the eucharist, hûselgong the partaking of it, hûselfæt the sacred vessel of sacrifice; conf. Cædm. 260, 5 hûselfatu hâlegu for the sacred vessels of Jerusalem. Likewise the ON. hûsl in the Norw. and Swed. laws is used in a christian, never in a heathen sense. No hunsal is found in OHG.; neither can I guess the root of the word.

Twice, however, Ulph. renders qusia by sáuðs, pl. sáudeis, Mk. 12, 33. Rom. 12, 1. I suppose he thought of the sacrifice as that of an animal slaughtered and boiled; the root seems to be siuðan to seethe, and the ON. has sauðr a ram, probably because its flesh is boiled. (22) In Eph. 5, 2 we have 'hunsl jah sáuð' side by side, for prosforan kai qusian, and in Skeir. 37, 8 gasaljands sik hunsl jah sáuð.

The OHG. zëpar is also a sacrifice in the sense of hostia, victima, Hymn. 10, 2. 12, 2. 21, 5. Gl. Hrab. 965 Diut. 240 272 (see Suppl.). We could match it with a Goth. tibr, if we might venture on such an emendation of the unique áibr dwron, Matt. 5, 23 (conf. Gramm. 1, 63). My conjecture that our German ungeziefer (vermin), formerly ungeziber, (23) and the Old French atoivre also belong to this root, has good reasons in its favour. To this day in Franconia and Thuringia, ziefer, geziefer (insects) not only designate poultry, but sometimes include even goats and swine (Reinwald henneb. id. 1, 49. 2, 52, conf. Schm. 4, 228). What seems to make against my view is, that the A.S. tiber cannot even be restricted to animals at all, Cædm. 90, 29. 108, 5. 172, 31. 175, 3. 204, 6. 301, 1. sigetiber, 203, 12. sigortifer, Cod. exon. 257, 30; on the contrary, in 60, 9 it is Cain's offering of grain that is called tiber, in distinction from Abel's gield; and in Ælfr. gl. 62 we find wîntifer, libatio. But this might be a later confusion; or our ungeziefer may have extended to weeds, and consequently zëpar itself would include anything fit for sacrifice in plants and trees. (24) Meanwhile there is also to be considered the ON. tafn, victima and esca ferarum.

Lastly, I will mention a term peculiar to the ON. language, and certainly heathen: fôrn, fem. victima, hostia, fôrna, immolare, or instead of it fôrnfæra, conf. Fornm. sög. 1, 97 2, 76. this fôrna at the same time, according to Biörn, meaning elevare, tollere. AS. fôrn porcus, porcaster (?). If the ô did not hinder, we could identify it with the adj. forn vetus, forn sorcerer, fornæskia sorcery, and the OHG. furnie antiquus, priscus, canus (Graff 3, 628); and in particular, use the same glosses for the illustration of baccha pluostar. Forn would then be the term applied by the christians to heathen sacrifices of the former olden time, and that would easily glide into sorcery, nay there would be an actual kinship conceivable between zëpar and zoupar (zanber, magic), and so an additional link between the notions of sacrifice and sorcery, knowing as we do that the verbs garawan, wîhan and perhaps zouwan [AS. gearwian to prepare, Goth. veihan to consecrate, and taujan to bring about] are applicable to both, though our OHG, karo karawi victima, Graff 4, 241 (Germ. gar, AS. gearw, yare) expresses no more than what is made ready, made holy, consecrated. (25) We shall besides have to separate more exactly the ideas vow and sacrifice, Mid. Lat. votum and census, closely as they border on one another: the vow is, as it were, a private sacrifice.

Here then our ancient language had a variety of words at its command, and it may be supposed that they stood for different things; but the difficulty is, to unravel what the differences in the matter were.

Sacrifice rested on the supposition that human food is agreeable to the gods, that intercourse takes place between gods and men. The god is invited to eat his share of the sacrifice, and he really enjoys it. Not till later is a separate divine food placed before him (see Suppl.). The motive of sacrifices was everywhere the same: either to render thanks to the gods for their kindnesses, or to appease their anger; the gods were to be kept gracious, or to be made gracious again. Hence the two main kinds of sacrifice: thank-offerings and sin-offerings. (26) When a meal was eaten, a head of game killed, the enemy conquered (see Suppl.), a firstling of the cattle born, or grain harvested, the gift-bestowing god had a first right to a part of the food, drink, produce, the spoils of war or of the chase (the same idea on which tithes to the church were afterwards grounded). If on the contrary a famine, a failure of crops, a pestilence had set in among a people, they hastened to present propitiatory gifts (see Suppl.). These sin-offerings have by their nature an occasional and fitful character, while those performed to the propitious deity readily pass into periodically recurring festivals. There is a third species of sacrifice, by which one seeks to know the issue of an enterprise, and to secure the aid of the god to who it is presented (see Suppl.). Divination however could also be practised without sacrifices. Besides these three, there were special sacrifices for particular occasions, such as coronations, births, weddings and funerals, which were also for the most part coupled with solemn banquets.

As the gods show favour more than anger, and as men are oftener cheerful than oppressed by their sins and errors, thank-offerings were the earliest and commonest, sin-offerings the more rare and impressive. Whatever in the world of plants can be laid before the gods is gay, innocent, but also less imposing and effective than an animal sacrifice. The streaming blood, the life spilt out seems to have a stronger binding and atoning power. Animal sacrifices are natural to the warrior, the hunter, the herdsman, while the husbandman will offer up grain and flowers.

The great anniversaries of the heathen coincide with popular assemblies and assizes (27) In the Ynglînga saga cap. 8 they are specified thus: þâ skyldi blôta î môti vetri (towards winter) til ârs, enn at miðjum vetri blôta til grôðrar, it þriðja at sumri, þat var sigrblôt (for victory). In the Olafs helga saga cap. 104 (Fornm. sög. 4, 237). en þat er siðr þeirra (it is their custom) at hafa blôt â haustum (autumn) ok fagna þa vetri, annat blôt hafa þeir at miðjum vetri, en hit þriðja at sumri, þa fagna þeir sumari; conf. ed. holm. cap. 115 (see Suppl.). The Autumn sacrifice was offered to welcome the winter, and til ârs (pro annonae ubertate); the Midwinter sacrifice til grôðrar (pro feracitate); the Summer one to welcome the summer, and til sigrs (pro victoria). Halfdan the Old held a great midwinter sacrifice for the long duration of his life and kingdom, Sn. 190. But the great general blôt held at Upsal every winter included sacrifices 'til ârs ok friðar ok sigrs,' Fornm. sög. 4, 154. The formula sometimes runs 'til ârbôtar' (year's increase), or 'til friðar ok vetrarfars gôðs (good wintertime). In a striking passage of the Gutalagh, p. 108, the great national sacrifices are distinguished from the smaller offerings of cattle, food and drink: 'firi þann tima oc lengi eptir siþan troþu menn â hult oc â hauga, vi ok staf-garþa, oc â haiþin guþ blôtaþu þair synum oc dydrum sinum, oc fileþi miþ mati oc mundgati, þat gierþu þair eptir vantro sinni. Land alt hafþi sir hoystu blôtan miþ fulki, ellar hafþi huer þriþiungr sir. En smêri þing hafþu mindri blôtan med, fileþi mati oc mungati, sum haita suþnaustar: þi et þair suþu allir saman.'

Easter-fires, Mayday-fires, Midsummer-fires, with their numerous ceremonies, carry us back to heathen sacrifices; especially such customs as rubbing the sacred flame, running through the glowing embers, throwing flowers into the fire, baking and distributing large loaves or cakes, and the circular dance. Dances passed into plays and dramatic representations (see ch. XIII, drawing the ship, ch. XXIII, and the witch-dances, ch. XXXIV). Afzelius 1, 3 describes a sacrificial play still performed in parts of Gothland, acted by young fellows in disguise, who blacken and rouge their faces (see ch. XVII, sub fine). One, wrapt in fur, sits in a chair as the victim, holding in his mouth a bunch of straw-stalks cut fine, which reach as far as his ears and have the appearance of sow-bristles: by this is meant the boar sacrificed at Yule, which in England is decked with laurel and rosemary (ch. X), just as the devil's offering is with rue, rosemary and orange (ch. XXXIII).

The great sacrificial feast of the ancient Saxons was on Oct. 1, and is traced to a victory gained over the Thuringians in 534 (see ch. VI); in documents of the Mid. Ages this high festival still bears the name of the gemeinwoche or common week (see ch. XIII, Zisa), Würdtwein dipl. magunt. 1 praef. III-V. Scheffers Haltaus p. 142. conf. Höfers östr. wb. 1, 306. Another chronicle places it on Sept. 25 (Ecc.French or. 1, 59); Zisa's day was celebrated on Sept. 29, St. Michael's on the 28th; so that the holding of a harvest-offering must be intended all through.

In addition to the great festivals, they also sacrificed on special occasions, particularly when famine or disease was rife; sometimes for long life: 'blôta til lânglifi,' Landn. 3, 4; or for favour (thockasaeld) with the people: 'Grimr, er blôtinn var dauðr (sacrificed when dead) für thokkasaeld, ok kallaðr kamban', Landn. 1, 14. 3, 16. This epithet kamban must refer to the sacrifice of the dead man's body; I connect it with the OHG. pichimpida funus, Mid. Dut. kimban comere, Diut. 2, 207. conf. note to Andr. 4.

Human Sacrifices are from their nature and origin expiative; some great disaster, some heinous crime can only be purged and blotted out by human blood. With all nations of antiquity they were an old-established custom (28); the following evidences place it beyond a doubt for Germany (see Suppl.). Tac. Germ. 9: Deorum maxime Mercurium colunt, cui certis diebus humanis quoque hostiis litare fas habent. Germ. 39: stato tempore in silvam coeunt, caesoque publice (in the people's name) homine celebrant barbari ritus horrenda primordia. Tac. Ann. 1, 61: lucis propinquis barbarae arae, apud quas tribunos ac primorum ordinum centuriones mactaverant. Tac. Ann. 13, 57: sed bellum Hermunduris prosperum, Cattis exitiosius fuit, quia victores diversam aciem Marti ac Mercurio sacravere, quo voto equi, viri, cuncta victa occidioni dantur. Isidori chron. Goth. aera 446: quorum (regum Gothicorum) unus Radagaisus ..Italiam belli feritate aggreditur, promittens sanguinem Christianorum diis suis litare, si vinceret. Jornandes cap. 5: quem Martem Gothi semper asperrima placavere cultura, nam victimae ejus mortes fuere captorum, opinantes bellorum praesulem aptius humani sanguinis effusione bellorum praesulem aptius humani sanguinis effusione placandum. Orosius 7, 37 of Radagaisus, whom he calls a Scythian, but makes him lead Goths to Italy: qui (ut mos est barbaris hujusmodi generis) sanguinem diis suis propinare devoverat. Procopius de bello Goth. 2, 15 of the Thulites, i.e. Scandinavians: quousi de endelecestata iereia panta kai enagizousi. twn de iereiwn sfisi to kalliston anqrwpoj, onper an dorialwton poihsainto prwton. touton gar tw Arei quousin, epei qeon auton nomizousi megiston einai. Ibid. 2, 14, of the Heruli: polun tina nomizontej qewn omilon, onj dh kai anqrwpwn qusiaij ilaskesqai osion autoij edokei einai. Ibid. 2, 25, of the already converted Franks at their passage of the Po: epilabomenoi de thj gefuraj oi Fraggoi, paidaj te kai gunaikaj twn Gotqwn, oujper entauqa eupon iereuon te kai autwn ta swmata ej ton potamon akroqinia tou polemou erriptoun. oi barbaroi gar outoi, Cristianoi gegonotej, ta polla thj palaiaj doxhj fulassousi, qusiaij te crwmenoi anqrwpwn kai alla ouc osia iereuontej, tauth te taj manteiaj poionmenoi. Sidonius Apollinaris 8, 6 of the Saxons: mos est remeaturis decimum quemque captorum per aequales et cruciarias poenas, plus ob hoc tristi quod superstitioso ritu necare. Capitul. de partib. Saxon. 9: si quis hominem diabolo sacrificaverit et in hostiam, more paganorum, daemonibus obtulerit. Lex Frisionum, additio sap. tit. 42: qui fanum effregerit immolatur diis, quorum templa violavit; the law affected only the Frisians 'trans Laubachi,' who remained heathens longer. What Strabo relates of the Cimbri, and Dietmar of the Northmen, will be cited later. Epist. Bonif. 25 (ed. Würdtw.): hoc quoque inter alia crimina agi in partibus illis dixisti, quod quidam ex fidelibus ad immolandum paganis sua venundent mancipia; masters were allowed to sell slaves, and christians sold them to heathens for sacrifice. The captive prince Graecus Avar de (a) Suevis pecudis more litatus (ch. XIII, the goddess Zisa). (29) For evidences of human sacrifice among the Norse, see Müller's sagabibl. 2, 560. 3, 93. As a rule, the victims were captive enemies, purchased slaves or great criminals; the sacrifice of women and children by the Franks on crossing a river reminds of the Greek diabathria; (30) the first fruits of war, the first prisoner taken, was supposed to bring luck. In folk-tales we find traces of the immolation of children; they are killed as a cure for leprosy, they are walled up in basements (ch. XXXV. XXXVI, end); and a feature that particularly points to a primitive sacrificial rite is, that toys and victuals are handed in to the child, while the roofing-in is completed. Among the Greeks and Romans likewise the victims fell amid noise and flute playing, that their cries might be drowned, and the tears of children are stifled with caresses, 'ne flebilis hostia immoletur'. Extraordinary events might demand the death of kings' sons and daughters, nay, of kings themselves. Thoro offers up his son to the gods; Worm mon. dan. 285. King Oen the Old sacrificed nine sons one after the other to Oðin for his long life; Yngl. saga cap. 29. And the Swedes in a grievous famine, when other great sacrifices proved unavailing, offered up their own king Dômaldi; ibid. cap. 18.

Animal sacrifices were mainly thank-offerings, but sometimes also expiatory, and as such they are not seldom, by way of mitigation, took the place of a previous human sacrifice. I will now quote the evidences (see Suppl.). Herculem et Martem concessis animalibus placant, Tac. Germ. 9; i.e., with animals suitable for the purpose (Hist. 5, 4), 'concessum' meaning sacrum as against profanum; and only those animals were suitable, whose flesh could be eaten by men. It would have been unbecoming to offer food to the god, which the sacrificer himself would have disdained. At the same time these sacrifices appear to be also banquets; an appointed portion of the slaughtered beast is placed before the god, the rest is cut up, distributed and consumed in the assembly. The people thus became partakers in the holy offering, and the god is regarded as feasting with them at their meal (see Suppl.). At great sacrifices the kings were expected to taste each kind of food, and down to late times the house-spirits and dwarfs had their portion set aside for them by the superstitious people.

Quadraginta rustici a Langobardis capti carnes immolatitias comedere compellebantur, Greg. M. dial. 3, 27; which means no more than that the heathen Langobards permitted or expected the captive christians to share their sacrificial feast. (31) These 'immolatitiae carnes' and 'hostiae immolatitiae, quas stulti homines juxta ecclesias ritu pagano faciunt' are also mentioned in Bonifacii epist. 25 and 55, ed. Würdtw.

In the earliest period, the Horse seems to have been the favourite animal for sacrifice; there is no doubt that before the introduction of Christianity its flesh was universally eaten. There was nothing in the ways of the heathen so offensive to the new converts, as their not giving up the slaughter of horses (hrossa-slâtr) and the eating of horseflesh; conf. Nialss. cap. 106. The Christian Northmen reviled the Swedes as hross-æturnar; Fornm. sög. 2, 309. Fagrsk. p. 63. King Hâkon, whom his subjects suspected of Christianity, was called upon 'at hinn skyldi eta hrossaslâtr;' Saga Hâk. gôða cap. 18. From Tac. Ann. 13, 57 we learn that the Hermunduri sacrificed the horses of the defeated Catti. As late as the time of Boniface (Epist. ed. Würdtw. 25. 87 Serr. 121. 142), (32) the Thuringians are strictly enjoined to abstain from horseflesh. Agathias bears witness to the practice of the Alamanni: ippouj te kai boaj, kai alla atta muria karatomountej (beheading), epiqeiazousi, ed. bonn. 28, 5.

Here we must not overlook the cutting off of the head, which was not consumed with the rest, but consecrated by way of eminence to the god. When Cæcina, on approaching the scene of Varus's overthrow, saw horses' heads fastened to the stems of trees (equorum artus, simul truncis arborum antefixa ora, Tac. ann. 1, 61), these were no other than the Roman horses, which the Germans had seized in the battle and offered up to their gods (33) (see Suppl.). A similar 'immolati diis equi abscissum caput' meets us in Saxo gram. p. 75; in the North they fixed it on the neidstange (niðstöng, stake of envy) which gave the power to bewitch an enemy, Egilss. p. 389. In a Hessian kindermärchen (no. 89) we have surviving, but no longer understood, a reminiscence of the mysterious meaning of a suspended horse's head. (34)

But on horse-sacrifices among the heathen Norse we have further information of peculiar value. The St. Olaf's saga, cap. 113 (ed. holm. 2, 181), says: þat fylgði ok þeirri sögn, at þar væri drepit naut ok hross til ârbôtar (followed the saying that there were slain neat and horse for harvest-boot). A tail-piece at the very end of the Hervararsaga mentions a similar sacrifice offered by the apostate Swedes at the election of king Svein (second half of 11th century): var þâ framleidt hross eitt â þingit, ok höggvit î sundr, ok skipt til âts, en rioþuðu blôðinu blôttrê; köstuðu þâ allir Sviar kristni ok hôfust blôt; then was led forward a horse into the Thing, and hewed in sunder, and divided for eating, and they reddened with the blood the blôt-tree, &c. Fornald. sög. 1, 512. Dietmar of Merseburg's description of the great Norse (strictly Danish) sacrificial rite, which however was extinct a hundred years before his time, evidently contains circumstances exaggerated legendwise and distorted; he says 1, 9: Sed quia ego de hostiis (Northmannorum) mira audivi, haec indiscussa praeterire nolo. est unus in his partibus locus, caput istius regni, Lederun nomine, in pago qui Selon (35) dicitur, ubi post novem annos mense Januario, post hoc tempus quo nos theophaniam domini celebramus, omnes convenerunt, et ibi diis suisment lxxx, et ix. homines, et totidem equos, cum canibus et gallis pro accipitribus oblatis, immolant, pro certo, ut praedixi, putantes hos eisdem erga inferos servituros, et commissa crimina apud eosdem placaturos. quam bene rex noster (Heinrich I. an. 931) fecit, qui eos a tam execrando retu prohibuit!

A grand festive sacrifice, coming once in nine years, and costing a considerable number of animals

in this there is nothing incredible. Just as the name hecatomb lived on, when there was nothing like that number sacrificed, so here the legend was likely to keep to a high sounding number; the horror of the human victims perhaps it threw in bodily. But the reason alleged for the animal sacrifice is evidently wide of the mark; it mixes up what was done at funerals (36) with what was done for expiation. It was only the bodies of nobles and rich men that were followed in death by bondsmen and by domestic and hunting animals, so that they might have their services in the other world. Suppose 99 men, we will say prisoners of war, to have been sacrificed to the gods, the animals specified cannot have been intended to escort those enemies, nor yet for the use of the gods, to whom no one ever set apart and slaughtered horses or any beasts of the chase with a view to their making use of them. So whether the ambiguous eisdem refers to homines or diis (as eosdem just after stands for the latter), either way there is something inadmissible asserted. At the new year's festival I believe that of all the victims named the horses alone were sacrificed; men, hounds and cocks the legend has added on. (37) How Dietmar's story looks by the side of Adam of Bremen's on the Upsal sacrifice, shall be considered on p. 53.

Among all animal sacrifices, that of the horse was preeminent and most solemn. Our ancestors have this in common with several Slavic and Finnish nations, with Persians and Indians: with all of them the horse passed for a specially sacred animal. (38)

Sacrifice of Oxen (see Suppl.). The passage from Agathias (ippouj te kai boaj) proves the Alamannic custom, and that from the Olafssaga (naut ok hross) the Norse. A letter to Saint Boniface (Epist. 82, Würdtw.) speaks of ungodly priests 'qui tauros et hircos diis paganorum immolabant.' And one from Gregory the Great ad Mellitum (Epist. 10, 76 and in Beda's hist. eccl. 1, 30) affirms of the Angles: boves solent in sacrificio daemonum multos occidere. The black ox and black cow, which are not to be killed for the household (Superst. 887),

were they sacred sacrificial beasts? Val. Suplit, a free peasant on the Samland coast (Samogitia or Semigalia), sacrificed a black bull with strange ceremonies. (39) I will add a few examples from the Norse. During a famine in Sweden under king Dômaldi: þâ eflðo (instituted) Svîar blôt stôr at Uppsölum, it fyrsta haust (autumn) blôtuðu þeir yxnum; and the oxen proving insufficient, they gradually went up to higher and higher kinds; Yngl. saga, c. 18. þâ gekk hann til hofs (temple) Freyss, ok leiddi þagat uxan gamlan (an old ox), ok mælti svâ: 'Freyr, nû gef ek þer uxa þenna'; en uxanum brâ svâ við, at hann qvað við, ok fêll niðr dauðr (dealt the ox such a blow, that he gave a groan and fell down dead); Islend. sög. 2, 348. conf. Vigaglumssaga, cap. 9. At a formal duel the victor slew a bull with the same weapons that had vanquished his foe: þâ var leiddr fram grâðûngr mikill ok gamall, var þat kallat blôtnaut, þat skyldi sâ höggva er sigr hefði (then was led forth a bull mickle and old, it was called blôt-neat, that should he hew who victory had), Egilss. p. 506. conf. Kormakssaga p. 214-8.

Sacrifice of Cows, Sæm. 141. Fornm. sög. 2, 138.

The Greek ekatombh (as the name shows, 100 oxen) consisted at first of a large number of neat, but very soon of other beasts also. The Indians too had sacrifices of a hundred; Holzmann 3, 193. (40)

Boars, Pigs (see Suppl.). In the Salic Law, tit. 2, a higher composition is set on the majalis sacrivus or votivus than on any other. This seems a relic of the ancient sacrifices of the heathen Franks; else why the term sacrivus? True, there is no vast difference between 700 and 600 den. (17 and 15 sol.); but of animals so set apart for holy use there must have been a great number in heathen times, so that the price per head did not need to be high. Probably they were selected immediately after birth, and marked, and then reared with the rest till the time of sacrificing.

In Frankish and Alamannic documents there often occurs the word friscing, usually for porcellus, but sometimes for agnus, occasionally in the more limited sense of porcinus and agninus; the word may by its origin express recens natus, new-born, (41) but it now lives only in the sense of porcellus (frischling). How are we to explain then that this OHG. friscing in several writers translates precisely the Lat. hostia, victima, holocaustum (Notker cap. 8, ps. 15, 4. 26, 6. 33, 1. 39, 8. 41, 10. 43, 12. 22. 50, 21. 115, 17. ôsterfriscing, ps. 20, 3. lamp unkawemmit kakepan erdu friscing, i.e. lamb unblemished given to earth a sacrifice, Hymn 7, 10), except as a reminiscence of heathenism? The Jewish paschal lamb would not suggest it, for in friscing the idea of porcellus was predominant.

In the North, the expiatory boar, sônargöltr, offered to Freyr, was a periodical sacrifice; and Sweden has continued down to modern times the practice of baking loaves and cakes on Yule-eve in the shape of a boar. This golden-bristled boar has left his track in inland Germany too. According to popular belief in Thuringia, (42) whoever on Christmas eve abstains from all food till suppertime, will get sight of a young golden pig, i.e. in olden times it was brought up last at the evening banquet. A Lauterbach ordinance (weisthum) of 1589 decreed (3, 369), that unto a court holden the day of the Three-kings, therefore in Yule time, the holders of farm-steads (hübner) should furnish a clean goldferch (gold-hog) gelded while yet under milk; it was led round the benches, and no doubt slaughtered afterwards. (43) So among the Welsh, the swine offered to the gods became one destined for the King's table. It is the 'swîn ealgylden, eofor îrenheard' of the Anglo-Saxons, and of its exact relation to the worship of Frôho (Freyr) we have to treat more in detail by and by. The Greeks sacrificed swine to Dêmêtêr (Ceres), who as Nerthus stands very near to Niörðr, Freyr and Freyja.

Rams, Goats (see Suppl.).

As friscing came to mean victima, so conversely a name for animal sacrifice, Goth. sáuðr = wether. This species of sacrifice was therefore not rare, though it is seldom expressly mentioned, probably as being of small value. Only the saga Hâkonar gôða cap. 16 informs us: þar var oc drepinn (killed) allskonar smali, ok svâ hross. Smali (mhla) denotes principally sheep, also more generally the small beasts of the flock as opposed to oxen and horses, and as 'alls konar (omnis generis)' is here aded, it seems to include goats. The sacrifice of he-goats (hircos) is spoken of in the above-quoted Epist. Bonif. 82. In the Swedish superstition, the water-sprite, before it will teach any one to play the harp, requires the sacrifice of a black lamb; Svenska folkv. 2, 128. Gregory the Great speaks once of she-goats being sacrificed; he says the Langobards offer to the devil, i.e., to one of their gods, caput caprae, hoc ei, per circuitum currentes, carmine nefando dedicantes; Dial. 3, 28. This head of a she-goat (or he-goat?) was reared aloft, and the people bowed before it. The hallowing of a he-goat among the ancient Prussians is well known. (Luc. David 1, 87, 98). The Slavonian god Triglav is represented with three goats' heads (Hanka's zbjrka 23). If that Langobardic 'carmen nefandum' had been preserved, we could judge more exactly of the rite than from the report of the holy father, who viewed it with hostile eyes.

About other sacrificial beasts we cannot be certain, for of Dietmar's dogs and hawks and cocks, hardly any but the last are to be depended on (see Suppl.). But even then, what of domestic poultry, fowls, geese, pigeons? The dove was a Jewish and christian sacrifice, the Greeks offered cocks to Asklepios, and in Touraine a white cock used to be sacrificed to St. Christopher for the cure of a bad finger (Henri Estienne cap. 38, 6). Of game, doubtless only those fit to eat were fit to sacrifice, stages, roes, wild boars, but never bears, wolves or foxes, who themselves possess a ghostly being, and receive a kind of worship. Yet one might suppose that for expiation uneatable beasts, equally with men, might be offered, just as slaves and also hounds and falcons followed the burnt body of their master. Here we must first of all place Adam of Bremen's description (4, 27) of the great sacrifice at Upsala by the side of Dietmar's account of that at Hlethra (see p. 48):

Solet quoque post novem annos communis omnium Sveoniae provinciarum solennitas celebrari, ad quam nulli praestatur immunitas; reges et populi, omnes et singuli sua dona ad Ubsolam transmittunt, et, quod omni poena crudelius est, illi qui jam induerunt christianitatem ab illis ceremoniis se redimunt. Sacrificium itaque tale est: ex omni animante quod masculinum est. Corpora autem suspenduntur in lucum qui proximus est templo. Is enim lucus tam sacer est gentilibus, ut singulae arbores ejus ex morte vel tabo immolatorum divinae credantur. Ibi etiam canes, qui pendent cum hominibus, quorum corpora mixtim suspensa narravit mihi quidam christianorum se septuaginta duo vidisse. Ceterum naeniae, quae in ejusmodi ritibus libatoriis fieri solent, multiplices sunt et inhonestae, ideoque melius reticendae.

The number nine is prominent in this Swedish sacrificial feast, exactly as in the Danish; but here also all is conceived in the spirit of legend. First, the heads of victims seem the essential thing again, as among the Franks and Langobards; then the dogs come in support of those Hlethra 'hounds and hawks,' but at the same time remind us of the old judicial custom of hanging up wolves or dogs by the side of criminals (RA. 685-6). That only the male sex of every living creature is here to be sacrificed, is in striking accord with an episode in the Reinardus, which was composed less than a century after Adam, and in its groundwork might well be contemporary with him. At the wedding of a king, the males of all quadrupeds and birds were to have been slaughtered, but the cock and gander had made their escape. It looks to me like a legend of the olden time, which still circulated in the 11-12th centuries, and which even a nursery-tale (No. 27, the Town musicians) knows something of. (44) Anyhow, in heathen times male animals seem to be in special demand for sacrifice. (45) As for killing one of every species (and even Agathias's kai alla atta muria does not come up to that), it would be such a stupendous affair, that its actual execution could never have been conceivable; it can only have existed in popular tradition. It is something like the old Mirror of Saxony and that of Swabia assuring us that every living creature present at a deed of rapine, whether oxen, horses, cats, dogs, fowl, geese, swine or men, had to be beheaded, as well as the actual delingquent (in real fact, only when they were his property); (46) or like the Edda relating how oaths were exacted of all animals and plants, and all beings were required to weep. The creatures belonging to a man, his domestic animals, have to suffer with him in case of cremation, sacrifice or punishment.

Next to the kind, stress was undoubtedly laid on the colour of the animal, white being considered the most favourable. White horses are often spoken of (Tac. Germ. 10. Weisth. 3, 30l. 311. 831), even so far back as the Persians (Herod. 1, 189). The friscing of sacrifice was probably of a spotless white; and in later law records snow-white pigs are pronounced inviolable. (47) The Votiaks sacrificed a red stallion, the Tcheremisses a white. When under the old German law dun or pied cattle were often required in payment of fines and tithes, this might have some connexion with sacrifices (48); for witchcraft also, animals of a particular hue were requisite. The water-sprite demanded a black lamb, and the huldres have a black lamb and black cat offered up to them (Asb. 1. 159). Saxo Gram. p. 16 says; rem divinam facere furvis hostiis; does that mean black beasts?

We may suppose that cattle were garlanded and adorned for sacrifice. A passage in the Edda requires gold-horned cows, Sæm. 141; and in the village of Fienstädt in Mansfeld a coal-black ox with a white star and white feet, and a he-goat with gilded horns were imposed as dues. (49) There are indications that the animals, before being slaughtered, were led round within the circle of the assembly

that is how I explain the leading round the benches, and per circuitum currere, pp. 51, 52

perhaps, as among the Greeks and Romans, to give them the appearance of going voluntarily to death (50) (see Suppl.). Probably care had to be taken also that the victim should not have been used in the service of man, e.g., that the ox had never drawn plough or waggon. For such colts and bullocks are required in our ancient law-records at a formal transfer of land, or the ploughing to death of removers of landmarks.

On the actual procedure in a sacrifice, we have scarcely any information except from Norse authorities. While the animal laid down its life on the sacrificial stone, all the streaming blood (ON. hlaut) was caught either in a hollow dug for the purpose, or in vessels. With this gore they smeared the sacred vessels and utensils, and sprinkled the participants. (51) Apparently divination was performed by means of the blood, perhaps a part of it was mixed with ale or mead, and drunk. In the North the bloodbowls (hlautbollar, blôtbollar) do not seem to have been large; some nations had big cauldrons made for the purpose (see Suppl.). The Swedes were taunted by Olafr Tryggvason with sitting at home and licking their sacrificial pots, 'at sitja heima ok sleikja blôtbolla sîna,' Fornm. sög. 2, 309. A cauldron of the Cimbri is noticed in Strabo 7, 2: eqoj de ti twn Kimbrwn dihgountai toiouton, oti taij gunaixin autwn sustrateuousaij parhkolouqoun promanteij iereiai poliotricej, leuceimonej, karpasinaj efaptidaj epipeporphmeiai, zwsma calkoun ecousai, gumnopodej. toij oun alcmalwtoij dia tou stratopedou sunhntwn xifhreij. katasteyasai dautouj hgon epi krathra calkoun, oson amforewn eikosi. eicon de anabaqran, hn anabasa (h mantij) iperpethj tou lebhtoj elaimotomei ekaston metewrisqenta. ek de tou proceomenou aimatoj eij ton krathra, manteian tina epoiounto. (52) Another cauldron of the Suevi, in the Life of St. Columban: Sunt etenim inibri vicinæ nationes Suevorum; quo cum moraretur, et inter habitarores illius loci progrederetur, reperit eos sacrificium profanum litare velle, vasque magnum, quod vulgo eupam vocant, quod viginti et sex modios amplius minusve capiebat, cerevisia plenum in medio habebant positum. Ad quod vir Dei accessit et sciscitatur, quid de illo fieri vellent? Illi aiunt: deo suo Wodano, quem Mercurium vocant alii, se velle litare. Jonas Bobbiensis, vita Columb. (from the first half of the 7th cent. Mabillon ann. Bened. 2, 26). Here we are expressly told that the cauldron was filled with ale, and not that the blood of a victim was mixe with it; unless the narrative is incomplete, it may have meant only a drink-offering.

Usually the cauldron served to cook, i.e., boil, the victim's flesh; it never was roasted. Thus Herodotus 4, 61 describes a boiling (eyein) of the sacrifice in the great cauldron of the Scythians. From this seething, according to my conjecture, the ram was called sauþs, and those who took part in the sacrifice suðnautar (partakers of the sodden), Gutalag p. 108; the boilings, the cauldrons and pots of witches in later times may be connected with this. (53) The distribution of the pieces among the people was probably undertaken by a priest; on great holidays the feast (54) was held there and then in the assembly, on other occasions each person might doubtless take his share home with him. That priests and people really ate the food, appears from a number of passages (conf. above, p. 46). The Capitularies 7, 405 adopt the statement in Epist. Bonif. cap. 25 (an. 732) of a Christian 'presbyter Jovi mactans, et immolatitias carnes vescens.' We may suppose that private persons were allowed to offer small gifts to the gods on particular occasions, and consume a part of them; this the Christians called 'more gentilium offerre, et ad honorem daemonum comedere,' Capit. de part. Sax. 20. It is likely also, that certain nobler parts of the animal were assigned to the gods, the head, liver, heart, tongue. (55) The head and skin of slaughtered game were suspended on trees in honour of them (see Suppl.).

Whole burntofferings, where the animal was converted into ashes on the pile of wood, do not seem to have been in use. The Goth. allbrunsts Mk 12, 33 is made merely to translate the Gk. olokautwma, so the OHG. albrandopher, N. ps. 64, 2; and the AS. brynegield onhreáð rommes blôðe, Cædm. 175, 6. 177, 18 is meant to express purely a burntoffering in the Jewish sense. (56)

Neither were incense-offerings used; the sweet incense of the christians was a new thing to the heathen. Ulphilas retains the Gk. thymiama Lu. 1, 10. 11; and our weih-rauch (holy-reek), O. Sax. wirôc Hel. 3, 22, and the ON. reykelsi, Dan. rögelse are formed according to christian notions (see Suppl.).

While the sacrifice of a slain animal is more sociable, more universal, and is usually offered by the collective nation or community; fruit or flowers, milk or honey is what any household, or even an individual may give. These Fruit-offerings are therefore more solitary and paltry; history scarcely mentions them, but they have lingered the longer and more steadfastly in popular customs (see Suppl.).

When the husbandman cuts his corn, he leaves a clump of ears standing for the god who blessed the harvest, and he adorns it with ribbons. To this day, at a fruit-gathering in Holstein, five or six apples are left hanging on each tree, and then the next crop will thrive. More striking examples of this custom will be given later, in treating of individual gods. But, just as tame and eatable animals were especially available for sacrifice, so are fruit-trees (frugiferae arbores, Tac Germ. 10), and grains; and at a formal transfer of land, boughs covered with leaves, apples or nuts are used as earnest of the bargain. The MHG. poet (Fundgr. II, 25) describes Cain's sacrifice in the words: 'eine garb er nam, er wolte sie oppheren mit eheren joch mit agemen,' a sheaf he took, he would offer it with ears and eke with spikes: a formula expressing at once the upper part or beard (arista), and the whole ear and stalk (spica) as well. Under this head we also put the crowning of the divine image, of a sacred tree or a sacrificial animal with foliage or flowers; not the faintest trace of this appears in the Norse sagas, and as little in our oldest documents. From later times and surviving folk-tales I can bring forward a few things. On Ascension day the girls in more than one part of Germany twine garlands of white and red flowers, and hang them up inthe dwellingroom or over the cattle in the stable, where they remain till replaced by fresh ones the next year. (57) At the village of Questenberg in the Harz, on the third day in Whitsuntide, the lads carry an oak up the castle-hill which overlooks the whole district, and, when they have set it upright, fasten to it a large garland of branches of trees plaited together, and as big as a cartwheel. They all shout 'the queste (i.e. garland) hangs,' and then they dance round the tree on the hill top; both trees and garland are renewed every year.(58) Not far from the Meisner mountain in Hesse stands a high precipice with a cavern opening under it, which goes by the name of the Hollow Stone. Into this cavern every Easter Monday the youths and maidens of the neighbouring villages carry nosegays, and then draw some cooling water. No one will venture down, unless he has flowers with him. (59) The lands in some Hessian townships have to pay a bunch of mayflowers (lilies of the valley) every year for rent. (60) In all these examples, which can easily be multiplied, a heathen practice seems to have been transferred to christian festivals and offerings. (61).

As it was a primitive and widespread custom at a banquet to set aside a part of the food for the household gods, and particularly to place a dish of broth before Berhta and Hulda, the gods were also invited to share the festive drink. The drinker, before taking any himself, would pour some out of his vessel for the god or housesprite, as the Lithuanians, when they drank beer, spilt some of it on the ground for their earth-goddess Zemynele. (62) Compare with this the Norwegian sagas of Thor, who appears at weddings when invited, and takes up and empties huge casks of ale.

I will now turn once more to that account of the Suevic ale-tub (cupa) in Jonas (see p. 56), and use it to explain the heathen practice of minne-drinking, which is far from being extinct under christianity. Here also both name and custom appear common to all the Teutonic races.

The Gothic man (pl. munum. pret. munda) signified I think; gaman (pl. gamunum, pret. gamunda) I bethink me, I remember. From the same verb is derived the OHG. minna = minia amor, minnôn = miniôn amare, to remember a loved one. In the ON. language we have the same man, munum, and also minni memoria, minna recordari, but the secondary meaning of amor was never developed.

It was customary to honour an absent or deceased one by making mention of him at the assembly or the banquet and draining a goblet to his memory: this goblet, this draught was called in ON. erfi dryckja, or again minni (erfi = funeral feast).

At grand sacrifices and banquets the god or the gods were remembered, and their minni drunk: minnis-öl (ale), Sæm. 119 (opposed to ôminnis öl), minnis-horn, minnis-full (cupfull). fôro minni mörg, ok skyldi horn dreckia î minni hvert (they gave many a m., and each had to drink a horn to the m.) um gôlf gânga at minnom 0llum, Egilss. 206. 253. minniöl signôð âsom, Olafs helga saga (ed holm.) 113. signa is the German segnen to bless, consecrate. signa full Oðni, Thôr. Oðins full, Niarðar full, Freys full drecka, Saga Hâkonar gôða cap. 16. 18. In the Herrauðs-saga cap. 11, Thôr's, Oðin's and Freya's minne is drunk. At the burial of a king there was brought up a goblet called Bragafull (funeral toast cup), before which every one stood up, took a solemn vow, and emptied it, Yngl. saga cap. 40; other passages have bragarfull, Sæm. 146. Fornald. sög. 1, 345. 417. 515. The goblet was also called minnisveig (swig, draught), Sæm. 193. After conversion they did not give up the custom, but drank the minne of Christ, Mary, and the saints: Krists minni, Michaêls minni, Fornm. sög. 1, 162. 7, 148. In the Fornm. sög. 10, 1781, St. Martin demands of Olaf that his minni be proposed instead of those of Thôr, Oðin, and the other âses.

The other races were just as little weaned from the practice; only where the term minne had changed its meaning, it is translated by the Lat. amor instead of memoria; (63) notably as early as in Liutprand, hist. 6, 7 (Muratori II. 1, 473), and Liutpr. hist. Ott. 12: diaboli in amorem vinum bibere. Liutpr. antapod. 2, 70: amoris salutisque mei causa bibito. Liutpr. leg. 65: potas in amore beati Johannis præcursoris. Here the Baptist is meant, not the Evangelist; but in the Fel. Faber evagat. 1, 148 it is distinctly the latter. In Eckehard casus S. Galli, Pertz 2, 84: amoreque, ut moris est, osculato et epoto, laetabundi discendunt. In the Rudlieb 2, 162:

post poscit vinum Gerdrudis amore, quod haustum

participat nos tres, postremo basia fingens,

quando vale dixit post nos gemit et benedixit.

In the so-called Liber occultus, according to the München MS., at the description of a scuffle:

hujus ad dictum nullus plus percutit ictum,

sed per clamorem poscunt Gertrudis amorem.

In the Peregrinus, a 13th cent. Latin poem, v. 335 (Leyser 2114):

et rogat ut potent sanctae Gertrudis amore,

ut possent omni prosperitate frui.

At Erek's departure: der wirt neig im an den fuoz, ze hand truog er im dô ze heiles gewinne sant Gêrtrûde minne, Er. 4015. The armed champion 'tranc sant Johannes segen,' Er. 8651. Hagene, while killing Etzel's child, says, Nib. 1897, 3:

nu trinken wir die minne unde gelten sküneges win,

iz mac anders niht gesin

want trinkt und geltet Ezeln wîn; Helbl. 6, 160. 14. 86.

Here the very word gelten recalls the meaning it had acquired in connexion with sacrificing; conf. Schm. 2, 40. si dô zucten di suert unde scancten eine minne (drew their swords and poured out a m.), Herz. Ernst in Hoffm. fundgr. 1, 230, 35. minne schenken, Berthold 276-7. sant Johannis minne geben, Oswald 611. 1127. 1225 (see Suppl.). No doubt the same thing that was afterwards called 'einen ehrenwein shenken'; for even in our older speech êra, êre denoted verehrung, reverence shown to higher and loved beings.

In the Mid. Ages then, it was two saints in particular that had minne drunk in honour of them, John the evangalist and Gertrude. John is said to have drunk poisoned wine without hurt, hence a drink consecrated to him prevented all danger of poisoning. Gertrude revered John above all saints, and therefore her memory seems to have been linked with his. But she was also esteemed as a peacemaker, and in the Latinarius metricus of a certain Andreas rector scholarum she is invoked:

O pia Gerdrudis, quae pacis commoda cudis

bellaque concludis, nos caeli mergito ludis!

A clerk prayed her daily, 'dass sie ihm schueffe herberg guot,' to find him lodging good; and in a MS. of the 15th cent. we are informed: aliqui dicunt, quod quando anima egressa est, tunc prima nocte pernoctabit cum beata Gerdrude, secunda nocte cum archangelis, sed tertia nocte vadit sicut diffinitum est de ea. This remarkable statement will be found further on to apply to Freya, of whom, as well as of Hulda and Berhta, Gertrude reminds us the more, as she was representing spinning. Both John's and Gertrude's minne used especially to be drunk by parting friends, travellers and lovers of peace, as the passages quoted have shown. I know of no older testimony to Gertrude's minne (which presupposes John's) than that in Rudlieb; in later centuries we find plenty of them: der brâhte mir sant Johans segen, La. 3, 336. sant Johans segen trinken, Ls 2, 262. ich dâht an sant Johans minne, Ls. 2, 264. varn (to fare) mit sant Gêrtrûde minne, Amgb. 33. setz sant Johans ze burgen mir, daz du komst gesunt herwider shier, Hätzl. 191. sant Johannes namen trinken, Altd. bl. 413. sant Gêrtrûde minne, Cod. kolocz. 72. trinken sant Johannes segen und scheiden von dem lande, Morolt. 3103. diz ist sancte Johans minne, Cod. pal. 364, 158. S. Johans segen trinken, Anshelm 3, 416. Johans segen, Fischart gesch. kl. 99. Simpliciss. 2, 262. (64)

Those Suevi then, whom Columban was approaching, were probably drinking Wuotan's minne; Jonas relates how the saint blew the whole vessel to pieces and spoilt their pleasure: manifesto datur intelligi, diabolum in eo vase fuisse occultatum, qui per profanum litatorem caperet animas sacrificantium. So by Liutprand's devil, whose minne is drunk, we may suppose a heathen god to have been meant. gefa þriggja sâlda öl Oðni (give three tuns of ale to Oðinn), Fornm. sög. 2, 16. gefa Thôr ok Oðni öl, ok signa full âsum, ibid. 1, 280. drecka minni Thôrs ok Oðins, ibid. 3, 191. As the North made the sign of Thor's hammer, christians used the cross for the blessing (segnung) of the cup; conf. poculum signare, Walthar. 225, precisely the Norse signa full.

Minne-drinking, even as a religious rite, apparently exists to this day in some parts of Germany. At Othergen a village of Hildesheim, on Dec. 27 every year a chalice of wine is hallowed by the priest, and handed to the congregation in the church to drink as Johannis segen (blessing); it is not done in any of the neighbouring places. In Sweden and Norway we find at Candlemas a dricka eldborgs skål, drinking a toast (see Superst. k, Swed. 122).

Now that Suevic cupa filled with beer (p. 75) was a hallowed sacrificial cauldron, like that which the Cimbri sent to the emperor Augustus. (65) Of the Scythian cauldron we have already spoken, p. 75; and we know what part the cauldron plays in the Hýmisqviða and at the god's judgment on the seizure of the cauldron (by Thor afrom giant Hymir). Nor ought we to overlook the ON. proper names Asketill, Thôrketill (abbrev. Thorkel) AS. Oscytel (Kemble 2, 302); they point to kettles consecrated to the âs and to Thor.

Our knowledge of heathen antiquities will gain both by the study of these drinking usages which have lasted into later times, and also of the shapes given to baked meats, which either retained the actual forms of ancient idols, or were accompanied by sacrificial observances. A history of German cakes and bread-rolls might contain some unexpected disclosures. Thus the Indicul. superstit. 26 names simulacra de consparsa farina. Baked figures of animals seem to have represented animals that were reverenced, or the attributes of a god. (66) From a striking passage in the Fridthiofssaga (fornald. sög. 2, 86) it appears that the heathen at a disa blôt baked images of gods and smeared them with oil: 'sâtu konur við eldinn ok bökuðu goðin, en sumar smurðu ok þerðu með dûkum,' women sat by the fire and baked the gods, while some anointed them with cloths. By Friðþiof's fault a baked Baldr falls into the fire, the fat blazes up, and the house is burnt down. According to Voetius de superstit. 3, 122 on the day of Paul's conversion they placed a figure of straw before the hearth on which they were baking, and if it brought a fine bright day, they anointed it with butter; otherwise they kicked it from the hearth, smeared it with dirt, and threw it in the water.

Much therefore that is not easy to explain in popular offerings and rites, as the colour of animals (p. 54), leading the boar round (p. 51), flowers (p. 58), minne-drinking (p. 59), even the shape of cakes, is a reminiscence of the sacrifices of heathenism (see Suppl.).

Beside prayers and sacrifices, one essential feature of the heathen cultus remains to be brought out: the solemn carrying about of divine images. The divinity was not to remain rooted to one spot, but at various times to bestow its presence on the entire compass of the land (see ch. XIV). So Nerthus rode in state (invehebatur populis), and Berecynthia (ch. XIII), so Frô traveled out in spring, so the sacred ship, the sacred plough was carried round (ch. XIII Isis). The figure of the unknown Gothic god rode in its wagon (ch. VI). Fetching-in the Summer or May, carrying-out Winter and Death, are founded on a similar view. Holda, Berhta and the like beings all make their circuit at stated seasons, to the heathen's joy and the christian's terror; even the march of Wuotan's host may be so interpreted (conf. ch. XXXI. Frau Gauden). When Frô had ceased to appear, Dietrich with the ber (boar) and Dietrich Bern still showed themselves (ch. X. XXXI), or the sônargöltr (atonement-boar) was conveyed to the heroes' banquet (ch. X), and the boar led round the benches (p. 51). Among public legal observances, the progress of a newly elected king along the highways, the solemn lustration of roads, the beating of bounds, at which in olden times gods' images and priests can hardly have been wanting, are all the same kind of thing. After the conversion, the church permanently sanctioned such processions, except that the Madonna and saints' images were carried, particularly when drought, bad crops, pestilence or war had set in, so as to bring back rain (ch. XX), fertility of soil, healing and victory; sacred images were even carried to help in putting out a fire. The Indicul. paganiar. XXVIII tells 'de simulacro quod per campos portant,' on which Eccard 1, 437 gives an important passage from the manuscript Vita Marcsvidis (not Maresvidis): statuimus ut annuatim secunda feria pentecostes patronum ecclesiae in parochiis vestris longo ambitu circumferentes et domos vestras lustrantes, et pro gentilitio ambarvali in lacrymis et varia devotione vos ipsos mactetis et ad refectionem pauperum eleemosynam comportetis, et in hac curti pernoctantes super reliquias vigiliis et cantibus solennisetis, ut praedicto mane determinatum a vobis amitum pia lustratione complentes ad monasterium cum honore debito reportetis. Confido autem de partoni hujus misericordia, quod sic ab ea gyrade terrae semina uberius proveniant, et variae aëris inclementiae cessent. The Roman ambarvalia were purifications of fields, and sacrifices were offered at the terminus publicus; the May procession and the riding of bounds and roads during the period of German heathenism must have been very similar to them. On the Gabel-heath in Mecklenburg the Wends as late as the 15th century walked round the budding corn with loud cries; Giesebrecht 1, 87.

______________________

1. Verehrung, OHG éra, Goth. prob. áiza. The OHG êrôn is not merely our ehren, to honor, but also verehren, revereri (as reverentia is adoration, cultus); AS weorðian, OS giwerthôn. All that comes from the gods or concerns them is holy, for which the oldest Teutonic word is Goth. veihs. OHG wîh; but only a few of the OHG documents use this word, the rest preferring heilae, OS has only hélag, AS hâlig, ON heilagr. On the connection of wîh with the subst. wih, more hereafter. Frôn denotes holy in the sense of dominicus.

                2. Cleasby-Vigfusson gives no meaning like inclinare, either under vîta 'to fine,' or under vita 'to wit.'

TRANS.

                3. Bopp, Comp. gram. p. 128, identifies inveita with the Zend nivaêdhayêmi invoco.

                4. What was the physical meaning of the Slav. moliti rogare, molitise orare, Boh. modliti se, Pol. modlié sie? The Sloven. moliti still means porrigere, conf. Lith. meldziu rogo, inf. melsti, and malda oratio. Pruss. madla, conf. Goth. maþljan loqui. maþleins loquela, which is next door to oratio.

                5. Iw. 3315 vlêgete got; but in the oldest MS. vlêhete gote.

                6. Dem stíge nîgen, Iw. 5837. dem wege nîgen, Parz. 375, 26. dem lande nîgen, Trist. 11532. nîgen in daz lant, Wigal. 4018. nîgen in elliu lant, Iw. 7755. in die werlt nîgen, Frauend. 163, 10. den stîgen und wegen segen tuon, Iw. 357 (see Suppl.)

                7. Fial in sine fuazi, O. III. 10, 27. an sîne füeze, Karl 14. The Christians in the Mid. Ages called it venie fallen. Parz. 460, 10. Karl 104. Berth. 173. Ksrchr. 2958. 3055. Kneeling and kissing the ground, to obtain absolution: dâ er ût siner venie lac (lay), Barl. 366, 21. den ariger maz mit der langen venie, Frib. Trist. 2095. venien suochen, MS. 1, 23. Morolt. 28. Troj. 9300. terrae osculationibus, quas venias appellant, Pez. bibl. ascet. 8, 440. gie ze kirchen und banekte (prostrated ?) ze gote sîniu glider mit venien und gebet, Cod. koloez. 180.

                8. The tchelo-bîtnaya, beating of the forehead in presenting a petition, was prohibited in Russia by Catherine II. Conf. pronis vultibus adorare, Helmold 1, 38.

                9. What else I have collected about this practice, may be inserted here: elevato a capite pileo alloquitur seniorem, Dietm. Merseb. p. 824 (an. 1012). sublata eydare surgens inclinat honeste. Ruodlieb 2, 93. Odofredus in I. secundo loco digest. de postulando: Or signori, hic colligimus argumentum, quod aliquis quando veniet coram magistratu debet ei revereri, quod est contra Ferrarienses, qui, si essent coram Deo, non extraherent sibi capellum vel birretum de capite, nec flexis genibus postularent. Pilleus in capite est, Isengrimus 1139. oster la chape (in saluting), Mêon 4, 261. gelüpfet den huot, Ms H. 3, 330. sînen huot er abenam, hiemit êret er in also, Wigal. 1436. er zôch durch sîn hübscheit den huot gezogenlichen abe, Troj. 1775. dô stuont er ûf geswinde gnuoe, ein schapel daz er ûf truoc von gimmen und von golde fin, daz nam er ab dem houpte sin, Troj. 18635. er zucket im sîn keppalt, Ls. 3, 35. er was gereit. daz er von dem houbt den huot liez vliegen und sprach, Kolocz. 101. Festus explains: lucem facere dicuntur Saturno sacrificantes, id est capita detegere; again: Saturno fit sacrificium capite aperto; conf. Macrob. Sat. 1, 8. Serv. in Virg. 3, 407.

                10. Wæs gewunod þæt he wolde gân on niht tô sæ, and standan on þam sealtum brimme, oð his swuran, singende his gebedu, and siððan his eneowu on þam ceosle gebygde, astrehtum handbredum tô heofenlicum rodere; Thorpe's analecta, pp. 76-7. homil. 2. 138. [I have thought it but fair to rescue the saint from a perilous position in which the German had inadvertently placed him by making him "wade into the sea up to his neck, and kneel down to sing his prayers".

TRANS.]

In the Old French jeu de saint Nicolas, Tervagant has to be approached on bare elbows and knees; Legrand fabl. 1, 343.

                11. At the abrenuntiatio one had to face the sunset, with wrinkled brow (fronte caperata), expressing anger and hatred; but at the confession of faith, to face the sunrise, with eyes and hands raised to heaven; Bingham lib. xi. cap. 7. 9. 13. 14. Conf. Joh. Olavii synt. de baptismo, pp. 64-5.

                12. Mock-piety, hypocrisy, was branded in the Mid. Ages likewise, by strong phraseology: er wil gote die füeze abezzen (eat the feet off), Ls. 3, 421. Fragm. 28. Mones anz. 3, 22. unserm Herrgott die füess abbeissen wollen (bite off), Schmeller 2, 231. den heiligen die füss abbeten wollen (pray the saints' feet off them), Simplic. 1. 4, 17. herrgottbeisser, Höfer 2, 48. herrgottfisler (füszler), Schmid I, 93. heiligenfresserin, 10 ehen, p. 62. So the Ital. mangiaparadiso,French mangeur de crucefix, Boh. Pol. liciobrazek (licker of saints). A sham saint is indifferently termed kapeltrete, tempeltrete, tempelrinne, Mones schausp. p. 123, 137 (see Suppl.).

                13. Not from operari, which in that sense was unknown to the church, the Romance languages likewise using It. offerire, Sp. ofrecer,French offrir, never operare, obrar, ouvrer; the same technical sense adheres to offerta, ofrenda, offrande. From oblata come the Sp. oblea,French oublie, and perhaps the MHG. oblei, unless it is from eulogia, oblagia. From offre and offerta are formed the Wel. offryd, Ir. oifrion, aifrion, offrail. Lastly, the derivation from ferre, offerre, is confirmed by the German phrase 'ein opfer bringen, darbringen.'

                14. Ophar, opfer could hardly be the Goth. áibr dwron, in which neither the vowel nor the consonant agrees. The Wel. abert, Gael. iobairt, Ir. iodbairt, (sacrificium) probably belong also to offerta.

                15. When Sozomen hist. eccl. 6, 37 in a narrative of Athanaric uses proskunein kai quein, the Gothic would be inveitan jah blôtan.

                16. The Gl. Hrab. 954: bacha, plôstar, is incomplete; in Gl. Ker. 45. Diut. 1, 166 it stands: bacha sacrificat, ploastar ploazit, or zepar plôzit; so that it is meant to translate only the Lat. verb, not the subst. bacha (bakch). Or perhaps a better reading is 'bachat' for bacchatur, and the meaning is 'non sacrificat'.

                17. Landn. 1, 2: blôtaði hrafna þria, worshipped three ravens, who were going to show him the road; so, in Sæm. 141, a bird demands that cows be sacrificed to him; the victim itself is ON. blôt, and we are told occasionally: feck at blôti, ak blôti miklu, offered a sacrifice, a great sacrifice, Landn. 2, 29.

                18. Letter for letter it agrees with floidow I light up, burn, which is also expressed in qnw and the Lat. suffio; but, if the idea of burnt-offering was originally contained in blôtan, it must have got obscured very early.

                19. Even in MHG. the word seems to have already become extinct; it may survive still in terms referring to place, as blotzgraben, blotzgarten in Hessen, conf. the phrase 'blotzen müssen,' to have to fork out (sacrifice) money. An old knife or sword also is called blotz (see Suppl.).

                20. So the O. Boh. obiecati obiet (Königinh. hs. 72) is strictly opfer verheissen, to promise or devote an offering.

                21. Serv. prilóg offering, what is laid before, prilozhiti to offer; Sloven. dar, darina, daritva = dwron. [Russ. darü sviatüye = dwra iera means the eucharist.] The Sloven aldov, bloodless offering, seems not to be Slavic, it resembles Hung. aldozat. Qusia is rendered in O. Slav. by zhrtva (Kopitar's Glagol. 72), in Russ. by zhertva [fr. zh'ariti to roast, burn ? or zháriti devour, zhëra glutton?].

                22. Rom. 12, 1. 'present your bodies a living sáuð' was scarcely a happy combination, if sáuðs conveyed the notion of something boiled! Can nothing be made of sôðjan satiare soothe (Milton's 'the soothest shepherd' = sweetest, Goth. sûtista)? Grimm's law of change in mutes has many exceptions: pater father fæder vater (4 stages instead of 3, so mater); sessel a settle, and sattel a saddle, both from sit sat; treu true, but trinken drink, &c.

TRANS.

                23. Titur. 5198, ungezibere stands for monster; but what can ungezibele mean in Lanz. 5028 vor grôzem ungezibele? nibele?

                24. Cædm. 9, 2: þa seo tid gewât ofer tiber sceacan middangeardes. This passage, whose meaning Thorpe himself did not rightly seize, I understand thus: As time passed over (God's) gift of this earth. The inf. sceacan (elabi) depends on gewât; so in Judith anal. 140, 5: gewiton on fleám sceacan, began to flee; and still more freq. gewiton gangan.

                25. The Skr. kratu sacrifice, or accord. to Benfey 2, 307 process, comes from kri facere, and in Latin, facere (agnis, vitula, Virg. ecl. 3, 77) and operari were used of the sacred act of sacrifice; so in Grk, rezein = erdein, Bæot. reddein of offering the hecatomb, and erdein is ergein, our wirken, work, epirrezein Od. 17, 211. quein, rezein, dran, Athenæus 5, 403, as drai for quein, so drasij = qusia. The Catholic priest also uses conficere, perficere for consecrare (Cæsar. heisterbac. 9, 27); compare the 'aliquid plus novi facere' in Burcard of Worms 10, 16 and p. 193. The Lat. agere signified the slaughtering of the victim.

                26. Sühn-opfer, strictly, conciliatory offerings; but as these were generally identical with Sünd-opfer, sin-offerings, I have used the latter expression, as short and familiar.

TRANS.

                27. RA. 245. 745. 821-5.

                28. Lasaulx die stihnopfer der Griechen u. Römer, Würzburg 1841. pp. 8--13.

                29. Adam of Bremen de situ Daniae cap. 24, of the Lithuanians: dracones adorant cum volucribus, quibus etiam vivos litant homines, quos a mercatoribus emunt, diligenter omnino probatos, ne maculam in corpore habeant.

                30. Hence in our own folk-tales, the first to cross the bridge, the first to enter the new building or the country, pays with his life, which meant, falls a sacrifice. Jornandes (Jordanes) cap. 25, of the Huns: ad Scythiam properant, et quantoscunque prius in ingressu Scytharum habuere, litavere Victoriae.

                31. I do not know how compellere can be softened down to 'permitting or expecting'. TRANS.

                32. Inter cetera agrestem caballum aliquantos comedere adjunxisti, plerosque et domesticum. hoc nequaquqam fieri deinceps sinae. And imprimis de volatilibus, id est graculis et corniculis atque ciconiis, quae omnino cavendae sunt ab esu christianorum. etiam et fibri et lepores et equi silvatici multo amplius vitandi. Again, Hieronymus adv. Jov. lib. 2 (ed. basil. 1553. 2, 75) Sarmatae, Quadi, Vandali et innumerabiles aliae gentes equorum et vulpium carnibus delectantur. Otto frising. 6, 10. audiat, quod Pecenati (the wild Peschenære, Nib. 1280, 2) et hi qui Falones vocantur (the Valwen, Nob. 1279, 2. Tit. 4097), crudis et immundis carnibus, utpote equinis et catinis usque hodie vescuntur. Rol. 98, 20 of the heathen: sie ezzent diu ros. Witches also are charged with eating horseflesh (see Suppl.).

                33. Also in that passage of Jornandes about Mars: huic truncis suspendebantur exuviae.

                34. Gregory the Great (epist. 7, 5) admonishes Brunichild to take precautions with her Franks, 'ut de animalium capitibus sacrificia sacrilega non exhibeant.'

                35. Sêlon for Sêlond, ON. Sælundr. afterwards Sioland, Seeland, i.e., Zealand. Lêderûn, the Sax. dat. of Lêdera, ON. Hleiðra, afterwards Lêthra, Leire; conf. Goth. hleiþra tabernaculum.

                36. With Sigurðr servants and hawks are burnt, Sæm. 225; elsewhere horses and dogs as well, conf. RA. 344. Asvitus, morbo consumptus, cum cane et equo terreno mandatur antro; Saxo gram. p. 91, who misinterprets, as though the dead man fed upon them: nec contentus equi vel canis esu, p. 92. 

                37. 'Pro accipitribus' means, that in default of hawks, cocks were used. Some have taken it, as though dogs and cocks were sacrificed to deified birds of prey. But the 'pro' is unmistakable.

                38. Conf. Bopp's Nalas and Damajanti, p. 42, 268. The Hyperboreans sacrificed asses to Apollo; Pindar Pyth. 10. Callimach.French 187. Anton. Liberal. metam. 20. The same was done at Delphi; Böckh corp. inscr. I, 807, 809. In a Mod. Greek poem Gadaron, lukon kai alwponj dihghsij vv. 429-434, a similar offering seems to be spoken of; and Hagek's böhm. chron. p. 62 gives an instance among the Slavs. That, I suppose, is why the Silesians are called ass-eaters (Zeitvertreiber 1668, p. 153); and if the Göttingers receive the same nickname, these popular jokes must be very old in Germany itself (see Suppl.).

                39. Berlin. monatschr. 1802. 8, 225. conf. Lucas David 1, 118-122.

                40. In many districts of Germany and France, the butchers at a set time of the year lead through the streets a fatted ox decked with flowers and ribbons, accompanied by drum and fife, and collect drink-money. In Holland they call the ox belder, and hang gilded apples on his horns, while a butcher walks in front with the axe (beil). All this seems a relic of some old sacrificial rite.

                41. Ducange sub v. Eccard French or. 2, 677. Dorows denkm. I. 2, 55. Lacom blet 1, 327. Graff 3, 833. Schmeller wtb. 1, 619.

                42. Gutgesells beitr. zur gesch. des deutschen alterthums, Meiningen 1834, p. 138.

                43. This passage from the Lauterb. ordin. I can now match by another from those of Vinkbuch in the Alamann country. It says 1, 436: the provost shall pick out in the convent a swine worth 7 schilling pfennig, and as soon as harvest begins, let it into the convent crew yard, where it must be allowed generous fare and free access to the corn; there it is left till the Thursday after St. Adolf's day, when it is slaughtered and divided, half to the farm-bailiff, half to the parish.

The price of seven shillings tallies with the seven and a half fixed by the Lauterb. ordin., and is a high one, far exceeding the ordinary value (conf. Gött. anz. 1827, pp. 336-7); it was an arrangement long continued and often employed in these ordinances, and one well suited to a best selected for sacrifice. The Lauterbach goldferch, like that of Vinkbuch, is doled out and consumed at a festive meal; the assize itself is named after it (3, 370); at Vinkbuch the heathenish name only has been forgotten or suppressed. Assuredly such assize-feasts were held in other parts of Germany too. St. Adolf was a bishop of Strasburg, his day falls on August 29 or 30 (Conr. v. Dankr. namenb. p. 117), and the assize therefore in the beginning of September. Swine are slaughtered for the household when winter sets in, in Nov. or Dec.; and as both of these by turns are called schlachtmonat, there might linger in this also a reference to a heathen sacrifice; an AS. name for Nov. is expressly blôtmoneð. The common man at his yearly slaughtering gets up a feast, and sends meat and sausages to his neighbors (conf. mäuchli, Stalder 2, 525), which may be a survival of the common sacrifice and distribution of flesh. It is remarkable that in Servia (Serbia?) too, at the solemn burning of the badnyak, which is exactly like the yule-log (ch. XX, Fires), a whole swine is roasted, and often a sucking pig along with it; Vuk's Montenegro, pp. 103-4.

                44. Or will any one trace this incident in the Reynard to the words of the Vulgate in Matt. 22, 4: tauri mei et altilia occisa sunt, venite ad nuptias; which merely describe the preparations for the wedding-feast? Any hint about males is just what the passage lacks.

                45. The Greeks offered male animals to gods, female to goddesses, Il. 3, 103: a white male lamb to Helios (sun), a black ewe lamb to Gê (earth). The Lithuanians sacrificed to their earth god Zemiennik utriusque sexus domestica animalia; Haupt's zeitschr. 1, 141.

                46. Reyscher and Wilda zeitschr. für deutsches recht 5, 17, 18.

                47. RA. 261. 594. Weisth. 3, 41. 46. 69. conf. Virg. Aen. 8, 82: candida cum fætu concolor albo sus; and the Umbrian: trif apruf rufru ute peiu (tres apros rubros aut piceos), Aufrecht und Kirchh. umbr. sprachd. 2, 278-9.

                48. RA. 587. 667. Weisth. 1, 498. 3, 430. White animals hateful to the gods; Tettan and Temme preuss. sag. 42.

                49. Neue mitth. des thür. sächs. vereins V. 2, 131, conf. II. 10, 292. Od. 3, 382: soi d au egw boun hnin, eurumetwpon, admhthn, hn oupw upo zugon hgagen anhr. thn toi egw rexw, cruson kerasin periceuaj.

                50. Oc eingu skyldi tortýna hvarki fê ne mönnum, nema sialft gengi î burt. Eyrb. saga, p. 10. And none should they kill (tortima?) neither beast nor man, unless of itself it ran a-tilt.

                51. Saga Hâkonar gôða, cap. 16. Eyrb. saga p. 10. rauð hörgin, reddened the (stone) altar, Fornald. sög. 1, 413. stalla lâta rioða blôði, 1, 454. 527. Sæm. 114 rioðuðu blôðinu blôttrê, Fornald. sög. 1, 512. the Grk aima tw bwmw periceein.conf. Exod. 24, 8.

                52. 'They say the Cimbri had this custom, that their women marching with them were accompanied by priestess-prophetesses, gray-haired, white-robed, with a linen scarf buckled over the shoulder, wearing a brazen girdle, and bare-footed; these met the prisoners in the camp, sword in hand, and having crowned them, led them to a brass basin as large as 30 amphoræ (180 gals); and they had a ladder, which the priestess mounted, and standing over the basin, cut the throat of each as he was handed up. With the blood that gushed into the basin, they made a prophecy.'

                53. The trolds (trolls?) too, a kind of elves, have a copper kettle in the Norw. saga, Faye 11; the christians long believed in a Saturni dolium, and in a large cauldron in hell (chaudière, Méon 3, 284-5) [in : De Saint Pierre et du jougleur, “En la chaudiere furent mis.” *** In the boiler they were put. ***]  .

.

                54. They also ate the strong broth and the fat swimming at the top. The heathen offer their king Hâkon, on his refusing the flesh, drecka soðit and eta flotit; Saga Hâkonar gôða cap. 18. conf. Fornm. sög. 10, 381.

                55. glwssa kai koilia (tongue and entrails) iereiou diapepragmenou, Plutarch, Phoc. 1. glwssaj tamnein and en puri ballein, Od. 3, 332. 341. conf. De linguæ usu in sacrificiis, Nitzsch ad Hom. Od. I, 207. In the folk-tales, whoever has to kill a man or beast, is told to bring in proof the tongue or heart, apparently as being eminent portions.

                56. Slav. pàliti obièt, to kindle an offering, Königinh. hs. 98.

                57. Bragur VI, 1, 126.

                58. Otmars vokssagen, pp. 128-9. What is told of the origin of the custom seems to be fiction.

                59. Wigands archiv 6, 317.

                60. Wigands archiv 6, 318. Casselsches wochenbl. 1815, p. 928.

                61. Beside cattle and grain, other valuables were offered to particular gods and in special cases, as even in christian times voyagers at sea e.g., would vow a silver ship to their church as a votive gift; in Swedish folk-songs, offra en gryta af malm (vessel of metal). Arvidss. 2, 116; en gryta af blankaste malm (of silver) Ahlqvists Öland II. 1, 214; also articles of clothing, e.g. red shoes.

                62. In the Teut. languages I know of no technical term like the Gk. spendw, leibw. Lat. libo, for drink-offerings (see Suppl.).

                63. The 12th cent. poem Von dem gelouben 1001 says of the institution of the Lord's Supper, whose cup is also a drink of rememberance to Christians: den cof nam er mit dem wine, unde segente darinne ein vil guote minne. Conf. loving cup, Thom's Anecd. 82.

                64. Thomasius de poculo S. Johannis vulgo Johannistrunk, Lips. 1675. Scheffers Haltaus p. 165. Oberlin s. vb. Johannis minn und trunk. Schmeller 2, 593. Hannov. mag. 1830, 171-6. Ledeburs archiv 2, 189. On Gertrude espec., Huyd. op St. 2, 343-5. Clignett's bidr. 392-411. Hoffm. horae belg. 2, 41-8. Antiqvariske annaler 1, 313. Hanka's Bohem. glosses 79 132 render Johannis amor by swatá mina (holy m.). And in that Slovenic document, the Freysinger MS. (Kopitar's Glagolita xxxvii, conf. xliii) is the combination: da klanyamse, i modlimse, im i tchesti ich piyem, i obieti nashe im nesem (ut genuflectamus et precemur eis et honores eorum bibamus et obligationes nostras illis feramus); tchest is honor, timh, cultus, our old êra; but I also find slava (fame, glory) used in the sense of minne, and in a Servian song (Vuk, 1 no. 94) wine is drunk 'za slave bozhye' to the glory of God. In the Finnish mythology is mentioned an Ukkon malja, bowl of Ukko; malja = Swed. skål, strictly scutella, potatio in memoriam vel sanitatem.

                65. epemyan tw Sebastw dwron ton ierwtaton par autoij lebhra, the most sacred cauldron they had, Strabo VII. 2.

                66. Baking in the shape of a boar must have been much more widely spread than in the North alone, see below, Frô's boar; even in France they baked cochelins for New Year's day, Mem. de l'ac. celt. 4, 429.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 29. ) For veneration of a deity the AS. has both weorðscipe reverentia, dignitas, and weorðung; the Engl. worship, strictly a noun, has become also a verb = weorðian. The christian teachers represented the old worship as diobules gelp inti zierida (pompa). In Isidore 21, 21. 55, 5 aerlôs stands for impius. Beside the honouring of God, we find 'das Meien êre,' Ms. 2, 32b, and 'duvels êre, Rose 11200. D. Sag. 71. Gote dienen, Nib. 787, 1. er forchte (feared) den Heilant, Roth 4415. Heartfelt devotion is expr. by 'mit inneclîchen muote,' Barl. 187, 16. andachtlîche 187, 36. 14. mit dem inneren gebete. die andâht fuor zum gibel aus, Wolkenst. p. 24.

                p. 29. ) Among most nations, the Chinese being an exception worship finds utterance in prayer and sacrifice, in solemn transactions that give rise to festivals and high tides, which ought to be more fully described further on. Prayer and sacrifice do not always go together: betra er ôbedit enn se ofblôtit (al. ôblôtit), Sæm. 28b. The Chinese do not pray, and certainly, if God has no body and no speech, we cannot attribute an ear or hearing to him, conseq. no hearing of prayer. Besides, an almighty God must understand thoughts as easily as words. Prayers, the utterance of petition, gratitude and joy, arose in heathenism, and presuppose a divine form that hears. Odysseus prays to Athena: kluqi meu, nun dh per men akouson, epei paroj oupot akousaj raiomenou, Od. 6, 325. 13, 356. kluqi, anax 5, 445. Il. 16, 514; Poseidon and Apollo are addressed with the same formula. Gods are greeted through other gods: Veneri dicito multam meis verbis salutem, Plaut. Pœn. i. 2, 195. But, besides praying aloud, we also read of soft muttering, as in speaking a spell, Lasicz 48. qrhskeuein is supposed to mean praying half aloud, Creuzer 2, 285. Latin precari (conf. procus), Umbr. persnî (Aufrecht and Kirchhoff 2, 28. 167) answers to OHG. fergôn poscere, precari, N. Cap. 153, Sanskr. prach, Zend. perec. 'tases persnimu,' tacitus precare, pray silently, 'kutef persnimu,' caute precare, A. and K. 2, 168-9. 170. Sanskr. jap = submissa voce dicere, praesertim preces, Bopp. 135a; conf. jalp loqui, Lith. kalbu: faveas mihi, murmure dixit, Ov. Met. 6, 327 (p. 1224). ''ebete käuen,' chewing prayers, occurs in Bronner's Life 1, 475; 'stille gebete thauen,' distil, in Gessner's Works (Zurich 1770) 2, 133. 'gebet vrumen,' put forth, Gudr. 1133, 1. beten und himelspreken, Gefken beil. 116. daz gebet ist ein süezer bote (messenger) ze himele, Ernst 20. Or, prayer resounds: daz dîn bete erklinge, Walth. 7, 35. precibus deum pulsare opimis, Ermold. Nigell. 2, 273. Prayer gushes out, is poured out: alse daz gebet irgie, Ksrchr. 2172. M. Neth. gebed utstorten, Soester fehde p. 597; now, bede storten, preces fundere, like tranen st., lacrimas fundere. gepet ausgiessen, MB. 27, 353.

                p. 29. ) Other words for praying: Grk. deomai I need, I ask, iketeuw and lissomai beseech. ON. heita â einn, vovere sub conditione contingenti: hêt â Thôr, vowed, Oldn. läseb. 7 (conf. giving oneself to a partic. god, Oðinn, p. 1018-9). OHG. harên clamare, anaharên invocare, N. Boëth. 146. OS. grôtian God, Hel. 144, 24. 145, 5. Does proskunew come from kunew I kiss (as adoro from os oris, whence osculum), and is it conn. with the hand-kissing with which the Greeks worshipped the sun; thn ceira kusantej, Lucian 5, 133; or from kuwn? conf. proskunej, fawning flatterers, Athen. 6, 259, see Pott's Zählmeth. 255. Aspazesqai is also used of dogs fawning upon a master.

                p. 30. ) A suppliant is not only bëtoman in OHG., but beteman in MHG. Hartm. büchl. 1, 263. Prayer, our gebet, is a fem. bete: mîne flêhe und mîne bete, die wil ich êrste senden mit herzen und mit henden, Trist. 123, 22 (praying with hands, folded?). The MHG. bëten is always joined with an, as prepos. or prefix: an welchen got er baete, Servat. 1347. ein kreftige stat, dô man diu apgot anebat, Karl 10a. Is it used only of false gods? conf. Pfeiffer's Barl. p. 446.

                p. 30.) The MHG. flêhen supplicare takes the Dative: deme heiligin Geiste vlên, Wernh. v. Nioder-rh. 37, 17, etc. But with the Accus.: den tôren flêhen, Freid. 83, 3. alle herren flêhen, Walther 28, 33. fleha ze himele frumen, N. Boeth. 271; conf. 'gebet vrumen' above. Eucesqai also takes a Dat.: Dii, Od. 20, 97. Aqhnh 2, 261. Poseidawni 3, 43. epeucesqai Artemidi 20, 60; conf. euch (or en eucaij, en logoij) presbeuein, froimiazomai Æsch. Eum. 1. 20. 21.

                p. 31.) Can Goth. aíhtrôn and OHG. eiscôn be from the aigan, and mean wish to have? OHG. diccan occurs in MHG. too: digete gein Gote, Altd. bl. 2, 149. an in gediget, prays, Kdh. Jesu 91, 4. underdige supplicatio, Serv. 3445.

                p. 31.) Postures in prayer. Standing: diu stêt an ir gebete in der kapellen hie bî, Iw. 5886. an daz gebet stân, Zappert p. 23. Bowing: diofo ginigen, bend low, O. iii. 3, 28. sîn nîgen er gein himel gap, made his bow, Parz. 392, 30. Hagen bows to the merwomen, Nib. 1479, 1. As the road is kindly saluted, so contrariwise: ich wil dem wege iemer-mêre sîn vîent swâ dû hin gâst, be foe to every way thou goest, Amur 2347. The Finnic kumarran, bending, worship, is done to the road (tielle), moon (kuulle), sun (päiwällä), Kalew. 8, 103. 123. 145. diu bein biegen = pray, Cod. Vind. 159 no. 35. On kneeling, bending, conf. Zapp. p. 39. ze gebete gevie, Ksrchr. 6051. ze Gote er sîn gebete lac, Pantal. 1582. er viel an sîn gebet, Troj. kr. 27224. viel in die bede, int gebede, Maerl. 2, 209. 3, 247. dô hup er ane zu veniende: wo ime daz houbit lac, dô satzte her di fuze hin, Myst. 1, 218. legde hleor on eorðan, Cædm. 140, 32. Swed. bönfalla, to kneel in prayer. During a sacrifice they fell to the ground riptontej ej wdaj, Athen. p. 511. The Ests crawl bareheaded to the altar, Estn. verh. 2, 40. Other customs: the Indians danced to the Sun, Lucian, ed. Lehm. 5, 130. Roman women, barefoot, with dishevelled hair, prayed Jupiter for rain. The hands of gods are kissed, conf. proskunein. In contrast with looking up to the gods, anw bleyaj, Moschus epigr., the eyes are turned away from sacred objects. Odysseus, after landing, is to throw back into the sea, with averted look, the krhdemnon lent to him by Ino, aponosfi trapesqai, Od. 5, 350. tarbhsaj d eterwse bal ommata, mh qeoj eih, 16, 179.

                p. 32.) Uncovering the head: huic capite velato, illi sacrificandum est nudo, Arnob. 3, 43. pilleis capitibus inclinarent detractis, Eckehardus A.D. 890 (Pertz 2, 84). tuot ûwere kugelen abe, und bitit Got, Myst. 1, 83, 25. son chapel oste, Ren. 9873; conf.'s chäppli lüpfe, Hebel 213. helme und ouch diu hüetelîn diu wurden schiere ab genomen, Lanz. 6838. sînen helm er abe bant (unbound), und sturzt' in ûf des schildes rant; des hüetels wart sîn houbet blôz, wan sîn zuht war vil grôz, Er. 8963. In 1 Cor. 11, 4. 5, a man is to pray and prophesy with covered head, a woman with uncovered, see Vater's note. Penance is done standing naked in water, G. Ab. 1, 7; conf. Pref. lxx. The monk at early morn goes to the Danube to draw water, wash and pray, Vuk ii. 7, beg. of Naod Simeun. The Greeks went to the seashore to pray: Thlemacoj d apaneuqe kiwn epi qina qalasshj, Od. 2, 260. bh d akewn para qina  .... apaneuqe kiwn hraq o geraioj Apollwni anakti, Il. i. 34.

                p. 33. ) Arsenius prays with uplifted hands from sunset to sunrise, Maerl. 3, 197. in crucis modum coram altari se sternere, Pertz 8, 258; conf. ordeal of cross. Praying 'mit zertânen armen, zertrenten armen, Zellw. urk. no. 1029. 775. Hands are washed before praying: ceiraj viyamenoj polihj aloj, in the hoary sea, Od. 2, 261. 12, 336. Helgafell, þângat skyldi engi maðr ôþveginn (unwashen) lîta, Landn. 2, 12.

                p. 33. ) Carij, gratia, is also translated anst. Goth. anstái audahafta, gratia plena! OHG. fol Gotes ensti, O. i. 5, 18. enstio fol, Hel. 8, 8; conf. 'gebôno fullu' in Tat., and AS. mid gife gefylled. For ginâda Otfried uses a word peculiar to himself, êragrehti, Graff 2, 412. The cuneif. inscr. have constantly: 'Auramazdâ miya upastám abara,' Oromasdes mihi opem ferebat; 'vashnâ Auramazdaha,' gratiâ Oromasdis.

                p. 34. ) Other ON. expressions for prayer: blôtaði Oðinn, ok biðr hann lîta â sitt mâl, Hervar. saga. c. 15. ôreiðom augom lîtið ockr þinnig, ok gefit sitjondom sigr, Sæm. 194a. mâl ok mannvit gefit ockr maerom tveim, ok laeknis-hendur meðan lifom, ibid.

As the purpose of prayer and sacrifice is twofold, so is divine grace either mere favour to the guiltless, or forgiveness of sin, remission of punishment. Observe in Hel. 3, 18: thiggean Herron is huldi, that sie Hevan-cuning lêdes âlêti (ut Deus malum averteret, remitteret), though Luke 1, 10 has merely orare, and O. i. 4, 14 only ginâda beitôta. He is asked to spare, to pity: ilhqi, Od. 3, 380. 16, 184. feideo d hmewn 16, 185. su de ilewj genou, Lucian 5, 292. 'taivu ainomen Tapir,' be entreated, Kalev. 7, 243; conf. tode moi krhhnon eeldwr, Il. 1, 41. Od. 17, 242. (Kl. schr. 2, 458.)

                The Hindu also looks to the East at early morning prayer, hence he calls the South daxa, daxima, the right. In praying to Odin one looks east, to Ulf west, Sv. forns. 1, 69. solem respiciens is said of Boiocalus, Tac. ann. 13, 55. Prayer is directed to the sun, N. pr. bl. 1, 300, and there is no sacrificing after sunset, Geo. 2281. On the other hand, 'Norðr horfa dyr' occurs in Sæm. 7b. Jötunheimr lies to the North, Rask afh. 1, 83. 94. D. Sag. 981-2.

                p. 35n. ) Mock-piety: wolt ir den heiligen die zehen (toes) abbeissen? Bronner 1, 295. alle heiligen fressen wollen, Elis. v. Orl. 251. götze-schlecker, Stald. 1, 467. In thieves' lingo a Catholic is tolefresser, bilderfresser, Thiele 317a. magliavutts, götzenfresser, Carisch 182b. Whence comes Ital. bachettone? conf. bigot, Sp. beato. die alte tempeltrete, Spil v. d. 10 jungfr. in Steph. 175. du rechte renne umme id olter, you regular Run-round-the-altar, Mone schausp. 2, 99. frömmchen, as early as Er. Alberus Praec. vitae ac mor. 1562, p. 90a.

                p. 35. ) On Sacrifice, conf. Creuzer symb. 1, 171. 'opphir = vota,' Gl. Sletst. 6, 672. Gifts = sacrifices, p. 58. si brâhten ir obfer und antheiz, Diemer 179, 25. In Latin the most general phrase is rem divinam facere = sacrificare; we also find commovere, obmovere, Aufr. u. Kirchh. 2, 165. Victima, the greater sacrifice, is opposed to hostia, the less, Fronto p. 286. To 'oblationes für allen gebilden (before the statues and shrines), ut tenor est fundationis, cedens pastori' (found. at Rüden, Westph. 1421, Seibertz Quellen d. Westf. gesch. 1, 232) answers the Germ. wîsunga visitatio, oblatio, Graff 1, 1068, from wîsôn, visitare. wîsod = oblei, visitatio, Schmeller 4, 180. The Swiss now say wîsen for praying at the tombs of the dead, Stald. 2, 455.

                p. 35. ) On blôt, blôstr see Bopp's Comp. Gr. 1146. Goth. Guþ blôtan, Deum colere, 1 Tim. 2, 10. In ON., beside gods' sacrifices, there are âlfa blôt, p. 448, dîsa blôt, p. 402 (and we may add the blôt-risi on p. 557). blôt-haug and stôrblôt, Fornm. sög. 5, 164-5. sleikja blôt-bolla, Fagrsk. p. 63. A proper name Blôtmâr, acc. Blôtmâ (-mew, the bird), Landn. 3, 11 seems to mean larus sacrificator, = the remarkable epithet blotevogel, A.D. 1465, Osnabr. ver. 2, 223; or is it simply 'naked bird'? conf. spottvogel, speivogel, wehvogel (gallows-bird, etc.). ON. blôtvargr = prone to curse, for blôta is not only consecrate, but execrate.

                p. 37n. ) Mit der blotzen haun, H. Sachs iii. 3, 58c. eine breite blötze, Chr. Weise, Drei erzn. 194. der weidplotz, hunting knife, plötzer, Vilmar in Hess. Ztschr. 4, 86. die bluote, old knife, Woeste.

                p. 37. ) Antheiz a vow, but also a vowed sacrifice, as when the Germans promised to sacrifice if they conquered, Tac. Ann. 13, 57, or as the Romans used to vow a ver sacrum, all the births of that spring, the cattle being sacrificed 20 years after, and the youth sent abroad, Nieb. 1, 102. ir obfer unde antheiz, Diemer 179, 25. gehêton wîg-weorðunga, Beow. 350. aerþon hine deáð onsægde, priusquam mors eum sacrificaret, Cod. Exon. 171, 32; conf. MHG. iuwer lîp ist ungeseit, afatoj, Neidh. 47, 17. What means OHG. frêhtan? (frêhan? frech, freak?). N. Boeth. 226 says of Iphigenia: dia Chalchas in friskinges wîs frêhta (Graff 3, 818); conf. ON. frêtt vaticinium, divinatio (Suppl. to p. 94), and AS. 'on blôte oððe on fyrhte,' Schmid 272, 368, where fear or fright is out of the question.

p. 38. ) AS. cweman, also with Dat., comes near fullafahjan: 'onsecgan and godum cweman,' diis satisfacere, Cod. Exon. 257, 25. Criste cweman leofran lâce 120, 25. Like AS. bring is OHG. antfangida, victima, Diut. 1, 240. What is offered and accepted lies: Theocr. epigr. 1, 2 uses keisqai of consecrated gifts.

                p. 39. ) To AS. lâc add lâcan offerre, conf. placare. lâc onsecgan, Cod. Exon. 257, 30. lâc xenium, donum, lâcdaed munificentia, Haupt's Ztschr. 9, 496a.

                p. 39. ) On aparcai conf. Pausan. 1, 31. Callimach. hy. in Del. 279. Another definite term for sacrifice seems to be the obscure Goth. daigs, massa, Rom. 11, 16 (is it not dought, teig, a lit. transl. of furama?) Wizôt survived in MHG. too: frône wizôt, Servat. 3337. Massmann derives hunsl from hinþan; Kuhn in Berl. Jb. 10, 192-5, 285 from hu to pour, which = quein acc. to Bopp 401. hunsljada spendomai 2 Tim. 4, 6. unhunslags aspondoj 3, 3. ufsneiþan = quien, kill, Luke xv. 23-7. 30, and ufsniþans immolatus, 1 Cor. 5, 7 plainly refer to cutting up the victim. Hunsaloa in the Ecbasis may be either hunsal-aha (-water) or huns-alah (-temple), Lat. ged. p. 289. 290.

                O. Slav. treba = libatio, res immolata, templum; trebishche bwmoj. 'qui idolothyta, quod trebo dicitur, vel obtulerit aut manducaverit,' Amann Cod. mss. Frib. fasc. 2, p. 64. O. Boh. treba, Russ. treba, sacrifice. O. Sl. trebiti, Pol. trzebic, Serv. triebiti, purify; conf. the place-name Trebbin, Jungm. 4, 625b. Pol. trzeba, potrzeba, oportet, it is needful. Serv. potreba, Boh. potreba, need; conf. Lith. Potrimpus and Antrimp, Atrimp, Hanusch 216-7. D. Sag. 328. Sacrifice is in Lett. sobars, Bergm. 142; in Hung. aldomás, Ipolyi 341.

                p. 40. ) The right to emend áibr into tibr is disputed by Weigand 1997; conf. Diefenbach's Goth. wtb. 1, 12. On tefra see my Kl. Schr. 2, 223; Umbr. tefro n. is some unknown part of the victim, Aufrecht u. K. 2, 294. 373. May we connect the Lett. sobars, plague-offering? Some would bring in the LG. zefer (= käfer), see Campe under 'ziefer,' and Schmell. 4, 228; conf. OHG. arzibôr, Graff 5, 578, and ceepurhuc, n. prop. in Karajan. Keisersb., brös. 80b, speaks of ungesuber; we also find unzuter vermin, conf. unâz, uneatable, i.e. vermin, Mone 8, 409. The Grail tolerates no ungezibere in the forest, Tit. 5198. The wolf is euphemistically called ungeziefer, Rockenphil. 2, 28. The geziefer in the pastures of Tyrol are sheep and goats, Hammerle p. 4.

                With OHG. wîhan, to sacrifice, conf. the AS. wig-weorðung above, and Lith. weikiu, ago, facio, Finn. waikutan.

                p. 41. ) The diversity of sacrifices is proved by Pertz 2, 243, diversos sacrificandi ritus incoluerunt; and even by Tac. Germ. 9: deorum maxime Mercurium colunt, cui certis diebus humanis quoque hostiis litare fas habent. Herculem ac Martem concessis animalibus placant. pars Suevorum et Isidi sacrificat.

                To a sacrifice the god is invited, is asked to join: kaleei ton qeon, Herod. 1, 132. epikaleei t. q. 4, 60. epikalesantej t. q. sfazousi 2, 39. The gods are present at it, Athen. 3, 340-1. Why bones are offered to the gods, Hes. theog. 557. primitiae ciborum deo offerenda, Athen. 2, 213. The rising smoke and steam are pleasing to gods, Lucian's Prometh. 19. ek de qumatwn Hfaistoj ouk elampe, Soph. Antig. 1007. Men strengthen the gods by sacrifice, Haupt's Ztschr. 6, 125. They sacrifice to Wêda (Wodan), crying: 'Wedki taeri!' dear Weda, consume! accept our offering, Schl.-Holst. landeskunde 4, 246. The god gives a sign that he accepts: þâ kômu þar hrafnar fljugandi ok gullu hâtt, as a sign 'at Oðinn mundi þegit hafa blôtit,' Fornm. sög. 1, 131.

                p. 42. ) Part of the spoils of war given to the God of the Christians, Livl. Reimchr. 2670-73. 3398 to 3401. 6089. 4696. 11785. 11915. 'brünien, pfert und rische man' are to be burnt in case of victory 4700. 4711. If victima is from vinco, it must have been orig. a sacrifice for victory. ON. sigur-giöf, victim. The ehren-gang in Müllenh. Schl.-Holst. s., p. 108 was once prob. the same.

                p. 42. ) In expiatory offerings the idea is, that the wrath of God falls on the victim: clearly so in the scapegoat, Levit. 16. 20. Griesh. pred. 2, 119; conf. Grimm on the A. Heinr. p. 160. Also in the plague-offering at Massilia, Petron. c. 141.

                p. 42. ) Forecasting the future by sacrifice: ante pugnam miserabiliter idolis immolavit (Decius), Jorn. c. 18.

                p. 42. ) Sacrif. til ârs also in Fornm. sög. 10, 212: sîðan gerði uaran mikit ok hallaeri, var þâ þat râð tekit at þeir blôtuðu Olaf konung til ârs ser. With Hâlfdan's sacrifice conf. the ekatomfonia offered by him who had slain 100 foes, Pausan. iv. 19, 2.

                p. 44. ) Human Sacrifice seems to have been an ancient practice in most nations, as well as the burning of live men with the dead. On the other hand, capital punishments were unknown or rare. Hercules, ad quem Poeni omnibus annis humana sacrificaverunt victima, Pliny 36, 5. Men were sacrif. to Artemis, Paus. 7, 19; to the playing of flutes, Aufr. u. K.'s Umbr. Sprachd. 2, 377. In lieu of it, youths were touched on the forehead with a bloody knife, O. Jahn on Lycoreus 427; conf. the red string on the neck in the 'Amicus and Amelius.' God, as Death, as old blood-shedder (p. 21), asks human victims. Hence they are promised in sickness and danger, for the gods will only accept a life for life, Gesta Trevir. cap. 17, from Cæs. B. Gall. 6, 16. For sacrificing a man on horseback, see Lindenbl. 68. Adam of Bremen (Pertz. 9, 374) says of the Ests: 'dracones adorant cum volucribes, quibus etiam vivos litant homines, quos a mercatoribus emunt, diligenter omnino probatos ne maculam in corpore habeant, pro qua refutari dicuntur a draconibus.' While a slave-caravan crosses a river, the Abyssinians, like the Old Franks, make the gods a thank and sin offering of the prettiest girl, Klöden's Beitr. 49. In spring a live child is sacrificed on the funeral pile, Dybeck's Runa 1844, 5: î þann tîma kom hallaeri mikit â Reiðgotaland. enn svâ gêck frêttin, at aldri mundi âr fyrri koma, enn þeim sveini vaeri blôtat, er aeðstr vaeri þar î landi, Hervar. saga p. 452, conf. 454. On the two Gallehus horns is pictured a man holding a child-victim. Saxo, ed. Müller 121, says of Frö at Upsala: 'humani generis hostias mactare aggressus, foeda superis libamenta persolvit;' he changed the veterem libationis morem. To the 'sacrare aciem' in Tac. Ann. 13, 57 (p. 1046n.) answers the ON. val fela, Hervar. s. 454. Traces of Child-sacrifice especially in witch-stories (p. 1081), such as tearing out and eating the heart. Bones collected and offered up, conf. the tale of the good Lubbe p. 526, and the villa of Opferbein now Opferbaum near Würzburg, see Lang's reg. 3, 101 (year 1257). 4, 291 (year 1285).

                p. 46. ) An animal sacrifice was expiatory when offered to the invading plague, p. 610. 1142. Only edible beasts sacrificed: 'cur non eis et canes, ursos et vulpes mactatis? quia rebus ex his deos par est honorare coelestes, quibus ipsi alimur, et quas nobis ad victum sui numinis benignitate dignati sunt,' Arnob. 7, 16. On dog-sacrifice see p. 53. The colour and sex of an animal were important (p. 54), conf. Arnob. 7, 18-20; and in a female, whether she was breeding 7, 22; whether it had hair or bristles (p. 75), conf. 'dem junker, der sich auf dem fronhof lagert, soll man geben als off der hube gewassen (grown) ist mit federn, mit borsten,' Weisth. 3, 478. In buying it, one must not bargain, Athen. 3, 102. The skin was hung up and shot at, p. 650.

                p. 46. ) The people by eating became partakers in the sacrifice, conf. 1, Cor. 10, 18: ouci oi esqiontej taj qusiaj koinwnoi tou qusiasthriou eisi; p. 41.

                p. 47. ) On sacrificing Horses (p. 664) and its origin, see Bopp's Gl. 24a, asvamêdha; conf. Feifalik on the Königinh. MS. 103. Tyndareus made Helen's wooers swear on the sacrif. horse, and then bury it, Paus. iii. 20, 9. Horses sacrif. by Greeks to Helios ib. 5, Ov. Fasti 1, 385; by Massagetæ to the Sun, Herod. 1, 216. White horses thrown into the Strymon 7, 113. Illi (Moesi) statim ante aciem immolato equo concepere votum, ut caesorum extis ducum et litarent et vescerentur, Florus 116, 21. May the Goth. aíhvatundi, batoj, refer to sacrifice? and was the horse burnt with thorn-bushes, or was the fire kindled by rubbing with them?

                The ora in the passage from Tacitus might mean men's heads, yet conf. p. 659. It has yet to be determined how far the bodies, horses and arms of the conquered were offered to gods. To dedicate the wîcges-erwe, spoils (Diemer 179, 27), seems Biblical. Shields and swords offered up to Mars, Ksrchr. 3730. The Serbs presented the weapons of slain enemies, Vuk Kralodw. 88.

                p. 47 n. ) Horseflesh eaten by witches (p. 1049); by giants, Müllenh. 444. Foals eaten, Ettn. unw. doctor 338-40. The Wild Hunter throws down legs of horse, Schwartz p. 11. Plica Polonica attributed to eating horseflesh, Cichocki p. 7.

                p. 49 n.) Asses sacrificed by the Slavs, Büsching 101-2. Cosmas speaks of an ass being cut into small pieces; see Vuk's pref. to Kralodw. 9. Ass-eaters, Rochholz 2, 267. 271. Those of Oudenaerde are called kickefreters, chicken-munchers, Belg. Mus. 5, 440.

                p. 49. ) Oxen were favourite victims among the Greeks and Romans: toi d epi qini qalasshj iera rezon taurouj pammelanaj Enosicqoni kuanocaith, Od. 3, 5; namely, nine bulls before each of the nine seats 3, 7. Twelve bulls sacrificed to Poseidon 13, 182. To Athena rexw boun hnin eurumetwpon admhthn, hn oupw upo zugon hgagen anhr. thn toi egw rexw, cruson kerasin periceuaj 3, 382; conf. 426. 437, auratis cornibus hostiae immolatae, Pliny 33. 3, 12. Perseus offers on three altars an ox, cow and calf, Ov. Met. 4, 755. bovem album Marti immolare et centum fulvos, Pliny 22, 5. niveos tauros immolare, Arnob. 2, 68. At the 'holmgang' the victor kills the sacrificial bull, Egils-s. 506-8. rauð hann î nýju nauta blôði, Sæm. 114b. The wise bird demands 'hof, hörga marga, ok gullhyrndar kýr' 141a. In Sweden they still have God's cows; does that mean victims, or priestly dues? A loaf in the shape of a calf is julkuse, Cavallius voc. verl. 28b. 37b. A sacrificial calf, Keller's Altd. erz. 547. The names Farrenberg, Bublemons seem derived from bovine sacrifices, Mone's Anz. 6, 236-7. A cow and calf sacrif. to the plague, p. 610; a black ox with white feet and star, Sommer 150; conf. the cow's head, Wolf's Märch. no. 222. A red cow, kravicu buinu, Königsh. MS. 100; conf. rôte kalbela âne mâl, Griesh. 2, 118 (from Numb. 19, 2). diu róten rinder, Fundgr. 2, 152. Mone in Anz. 6, 237 remarks justly enough, that agricultural nations lean more to bovine sacrifices, warlike nations to equine. Traces of bull-sacrifice, D. Sag. 128-9. 32.

                p. 50. ) To majalis sacrivus answers in the Welsh Laws 'sus coenalis quae servatur ad coenam regis,' Leo Malb. Gl. 1, 83. Varro thinks, 'ab suillo genere pecoris immolandi initium primum sumtum videtur,' Re Rust. 2, 4. porci duo menses a mamma non dijunguntur. porci sacres, puri ad sacrificium ut immolentur. porci lactentes, sacres, delici, nefrendes 2, 4. (Claudius) cum regibus foedus in foro icit, porca caesa, ac vetere fecialium praefatione adhibita, Suet. c. 25. duo victimae porcinae, Seibertz no. 30 (1074). A frischling at five schillings shall stand tied to a pillar, Krotzenb. w., yr 1415 (Weisth. 3, 513). The gras-frischling in Urbar. Aug., yr 1316, seems to mean a sheep, MB. 34b, 365. frischig, frischling, a wether, Stald. 1, 399. opferen als einen friskinc, Mos. 19, 8. ein friskinc (ram) dâ bî gie, Diemer 19, 19. With friscing as recens natus conf. sfagai veoqhlou botou, Æsch. Eum. 428. King Heiðrekr has a göltr reared, with 12 judges to look after it, Hervar. saga c. 14 (Fornald. sög. 1, 463); conf. the giafgoltr, Norw. ges. 2, 127.

p. 52. ) Arna melainan exenegkate, Aristoph. Ran. 847. Men sacrif. a ram, and sleep on its hide, Paus. iii. 34, 3. Goats sacrif. to Juno: aigofagoj Hrh 15, 7. Nunc et in umbrosis Fauno decet immolare lucis, seu poscet agno, sive malit haedo, Hor. Od. i. 4, 12; conf. bidental, Suppl. to p. 174. A boy of nine kills a black goat with white legs and star, over the treasure, and sprinkles himself with the blood, Sommer's Sag. p. 140; a goat with golden horns 150-1. 179. 'diu ôsterwîche gêt über dehein geiz' says Helbl. 8, 299; does it mean that only lambs, not goats, are eaten at Easter? A black sheep sacrif. to the devil, Firmenich 1, 206b; a sheep to the dwarf of the Baumann's cave, Gödeke 2, 240. The Prussian goat-hallowing is described by Simon Grunau in 1526, Nesselm. x. Lasicz 54; conf. Tettau and Temme 261. A he-goat sacrif. with strange rites in Esthonia on St. Thomas's day, Possart 172.

                p. 52. ) Dogs sacrif. in Greece, Paus. iii. 14, 9; in Umbria, Auf. und K. 2, 379. To the nickelman a black cock is yearly thrown into the Bode, Haupt 5, 378. Samogits sacrif. cocks to Kirnos, Lasicz 47. When Ests sacrif. a cock, the blood spirts into the fire, the feathers, head, feet and entrails are thrown into the same, the rest is boiled and eaten, Estn. ver. 2, 39. skumnouj pammelanaj skulakwn trissouj iereusaj, Orph. Argon. 962. The bodies or skins of victims hung on trees, p. 75-9. 650. in alta pinu votivi cornua cervi, Ov. Met. 12, 266. incipiam captare feras et reddere pinu cornua, Prop. iii. 2, 19.

                p. 55. ) That the victim should be led round was essential to every kind of lustration, Aufr. u. K.'s Umbr. spr. 2, 263. khrukej d ana astu qewn ierhn ekatombhn hgon, Od. 20. 276.

                p. 55. ) Small sacrificial vessels, which participants brought with them, are indic. in Hâk. goda saga c. 16, conf. 'ask ne eski,' ibid. An altar with a large cauldron found in a grave-mound near Peccatel, Mecklenb., Lisch 11, 369. On the Cimbrian cauldron in Strabo, see Lisch 25, 218. Out of the cavern near Velmede a brewing-cauldron was lent when asked for, Firmenich 1, 334b (so Mother Ludlam's cauldron, now in Frensham Church); old copper kettles of the giants were preserved, Faye 9.

                p. 57. ) Former sacrifices are indicated by the banquets at assizes and after riding the bounds. A victim's flesh was boiled, not roasted, though roasting and boiling are spoken of at the feast of Bacchus, Troj. kr. 16201-99. For distribution among the people the victim was cut up small: the ass, p. 49; the gädda into eight pieces, Sv. folks. 1, 90. 94; Osiris into fourteen pieces, Buns. 1, 508. Before Thor's image in the Guðbrands-dalr were laid every day four loaves of bread and slâtr (killed meat), Fornm. sög. 4, 245-6; conf. Olafssaga, ed. Christ. 26. Gruel and fish are offered to Percht on her day (p. 273); meat and drink to Souls (p. 913n.); the milk of a cow set on the Brownies' stone every Sunday, Hone's Yrbk. 1532.

                p. 57. ) Smoke-offerings were known to the heathen: incense and bones offered to gods, Athen. 2, 73. thus et merum, Arnob. 7, 26. Irish tusga, usga, AS. stôr, thus, stêran, thurificare, Haupt's Ztschr. 9, 513b. At each altar they set 'eine risten flahses, ein wahs-kerzelîn und wîrouches korn,' Diut. 1, 384. Also candles alone seem to have been offered: candles lighted to the devil and river-sprites (p. 1010. 584). Men in distress vow to the saints a taper the size of their body, then of their shin, lastly of their finger, Wall. märch. p. 288; conf. 'Helena (in templo) sacravit calicem ex electro mammae suae mensura,' Pliny 33. 4, 23. The shipwrecked vow a candle as big as the mast, Hist. de la Bastille 4, 315; so in Schimpf u. Ernst c. 403; otherwise a navicula cerea, or an argentea anchora, Pertz 6, 783-4; a 'wechsîn haus' against fire, h. Ludwig 84, 19; or the building of a chapel. Silver ploughs and ships offered (p. 59n. 264n.), D. Sag. 59. Pirates offer a tenth part of their booty, p. 231; conf. entauqa tw naw trihrouj avakeitai calkoun embolon, Paus. i. 40, 4. Stones are carried or thrown on to a grave (otherw. branches, Klemm 3, 294): on Bremund's grave by pilgrims, Karlm. 138. To sacrifice by stone throwing, Wolf, Ztschr. 2, 61; to lay a stone on the herma, Preller 1, 250; a heap of stones lies round the herma, Babr. 48. O. Müller, Arch. §66, thinks these ermaia were raised partly to clear the road. Darius on his Scythian expedition has a cairn raised on the R. Atiscus, every soldier bringing a stone, Herod. 4, 92. Each pilgrim contributes a stone towards building the church, M. Koch, reise p. 422. J. Barrington, Personal Sketches 1, 17-8, tells of an Irish custom: By an ancient custom of everybody throwing a stone on the spot where any celebrated murder had been committed, on a certain day every year, it is wonderful what mounds were raised in numerous places, which no person, but such as were familiar with the customs of the poor creatures, would ever be able to account for. Strips of cloth are hung on the sacred tree, F. Faber 2, 410. 420; the passer-by throws a twig or a rag on the stone, Dybeck 1845, p. 6. 4, 31; or nålar 4, 35; the common folk also put pennies in the stone, 3, 29, and throw bread, money and eggshells into springs 1844, 22. si het ir opfergoldes noch wol tûsent marc, si teilt ez sîner seele, ir vil lieben man, Nib. 1221, 2 (p. 913 n.).

                p. 57. ) Herdsmen offer bloody victims, husbandmen fruits of the earth, D. Sag. 20. 21. ears left standing for Wôdan (p. 154 seq.); a bundle of flax, Wolf's Ndrl. sag. p. 269; for the little woodwife flax-stems or a tiny hut of stalks of flax, Schönw. 2, 360-9. sheaves of straw made for the gods, Garg. 129b. The Greeks offered stalks and ears, Callim. 4, 283; hic placatus erat, seu quis libaverat uvam, seu dederat sanctae spicea serta comae, Tib. i. 10, 21; tender oak-leaves in default of barley, Od. 12, 357. The Indians had grass-offerings, Kuhn rec. d. Rigv. p. 102, as the pixies received a bunch of grass or needles. Firstfruits, qalusia, to Artemis, Il. 9, 534. The flower-offering too is ancient, being one of the Indian five, viz. reading the Vedas, sprinkling water, burning butter, strewing flowers and sprays, hospitality, Holtzm. 3, 123. The Sanskr. sêsa = reliquiae, flores qui deo vel idolo oblati sunt, deinde alicui traduntur; conf. the flower-offering of Sarasvati, Somad. 1, 120-1, and 'Hallows an offering to the clouds, Of kutaja the fairest blossoms,' Meghadûta 4. For Greece, see Theocr. epigr. 1. The offering to 'Venus' is bluomen und vingerlîn, Ksrchr. 3746. In Germany they danced round the first violet, p. 762. The people call a stone in the forest, three miles from Marburg, 'opfer-stein,' and still lay flowers and corn upon it. A rock is crowned with flowers on Mayday, Pröhle's Unterharz no. 347. 263. The country folk on the Lippe, like those about the Meisner, go into the Hollow Stone on Easter-day, Firm. 1, 334; they think of Veleda, as the Hessians do of Holda. The same day the villagers of Waake, Landolfshausen and Mackenrode troop to the Schweckhäuser hills, where an idol formerly stood, Harrys i. no. 4.

                p. 59 n. ) Leibon d aqanatoisi qeoij, Od. 2, 432. oinon ekceon, hd euconto qeoij, Il. 3, 296. Before drinking, they poured some on the ground to the gods 7, 480; whereas the Scythians spilt no wine (Lucian Toxar. 45), and the German heroes drank minne without spilling any, D. Sag. 236-7. poculis aureis memoriae defunctorum commilitonum vino mero libant, Apul. Met. 4 p.m. 131.

                p. 61. ) St. John's and St. Gertrude's minne: later examples in Gödeke's Weim. Jb. 6, 28-9, and Scheller 2, 593. postea dominis amor S. Johannis ministretur, MB. 35a, 138. potum caritatis propinare, Lacomblet 487 (yr. 1183). dar truoc man im sand Johanns minne, Ottoc. 838b. Johannes liebe, J. minne trinken, Weisth. 1, 562-4. trag uns her sant Johans min, Keller erz. 32. si trinkent alsamt sant Hans min 34. In Belgium they said: 'Sinct Jans gelei ende Sinct Gertrous minne sy met u!' Men pray to St. Gertrude for good lodging, Eschenb. denkm. p. 240. In Wolkenstein 114, minne sanct Johans means the parting kiss. A wife says at parting: setz sant Johans ze bürgen (surety) mir, daz wir froelich und schier (soon) zuo einander komen, Ls. 3, 313; conf. drinking the scheidel-kanne, Lüntzel Hildsh. stiftsfehde 80. In ON. 'bad þâ drecka velfarar minni sitt,' Egilss. p. 213. People give each other John's blessing at Christmas, Weisth. 1, 241-3. The two Johns are confounded, not only by Liutpr. (Pertz 3, 363), but in the Lay of Heriger: Johannes baptista pincerna (cupbearer), Lat. ged. des MA. p. 336.

                p. 63. ) On the shapes given to pastry, see p. 501 n. The forms or names of ôster-flade (-pancake), pfadelat (patellata), ôster-stuopha (-scone), p. 781, furiwiz (Graff 1, 1104), are worth studying. Günther 647: 'before this sacred fire thy image now is brought,' reminds one of Voetius's straw figure set before the hearth.

                The Carrying-about of divine images was known to the ancients: Syriam deam per vicos agrosque circumferre, Lucian de dea Syria 49. Lucius cap. 36. circumgestare deam, Apul. p.m. 194-6. The Northmen of Guðbrands-dalr carry Thor's image out of his house into the Thing, set it up, and bow to it, St. Olaf's s., ed. Christ. 23-6. The men of Delbruck carried about a false godHilgerio on a long pole, Weisth. 3, 101 n. May Ulrich of Lichtenstein's progress as Dame Venus be explained as a custom dating from the time of heathen progressions? That also was 'at Pentecost,' from April 25 to May 26, 1227; Whitsunday fell on May 30.

                Here ought to be mentioned the sacred festivals, whose names and dates are discussed in D. Sag. 71-2. 'Festa ea Germanis nox (it was sideribus inlustris, i.e. illunis, new-moon), et solemnibus epulis ludicra,' Tac. Ann. 1, 50; conf. Germ. 24, where the sword-dance is called ludicrum. Beside feasting and games, it was a part of the festival to bathe the goddesses, p. 255.

 

 

CHAPTER IV

TEMPLES

 

 

 

In our inquiries on the sacred dwelling-places of the gods, it will be safest to begin, as before, with expressions which preceded the christian terms temple and church, and were supplanted by them.

The Gothic alhs fem. translates the Jewish-Christian notions of naoj (Matt. 27. 5. 51. Mk. 14, 58. 15, 29. Lu. 1, 9. 21. 2 Cor. 6, 16) and ieron (Mk. 11, 11. 16. 27. 12, 35. 14, 49. Lu. 2, 27. 46. 4, 9. 18, 10. 19, 45. John 7, 14. 28. 8, 20. 59. 10, 23). To the Goth it would be a time-hollowed word, for it shares the anomaly of several such nouns, forming its gen. alhs, dat. alh, instead of alháis, alhái. Once only, John 18, 20, gudhus stands for ieron; the simple hus never has the sense of domus, which is rendered razn. Why should Ulphilas disdain to apply the heathen name to the christian thing, when the equally hethen templum and naoj were found quite offensive for christian use?

Possibly the same word appears even earlier; namely in Tacitus, Germ. 43: apud Naharvalos antiquae religionis lucus ostenditur; praesidet sacerdos muliebri ornatu, sed deos interpretatione romana Castorem Pollucemque memorant. Ea vis numini, nomen Alcis; nulla simulacra, nullum peregrinae superstitionis vestigium. Ut fratres tamen, ut juvenes venerantur.

This alcis is either itself the nom., or a gen. of alx (as falcis of falx), which perfectly corresponds to the Gothic alhs. A pair of heroic brothers was worshipped, without any statues, in a sacred grove; the name can hardly be ascribed to them, (1) it is the abode of the divinity that is called alx. Numen is here the sacred wood, or even some notable tree in it. (2)

Four or five centuries after Ulphilas, to the tribes of Upper Germany their word alah must have had an old-fashioned heathenish sound, but we know it was still there, preserved in composition with proper names of places and persons (see Suppl.): Alaholf, Alahtac, Alahhilt, Alahgund, Alahtrût; Alahstat in pago Hassorum (AD. 834), Schannat trad. fuld. no 404. Alahdorp in Mulshgôwe (AD 856A), ibid. no. 476. The names Alahstat, Alahdorf may have been born by many places where a heathen temple, a hallowed place of justice, or a house of the king stood. For, not only the fanum, but the folk-mote, and the royal residence were regarded as consecrated, or, in the language of the Mid. Ages, as frôno (set apart to the frô, lord). Alstidi, a king's pfalz (palatium) in Thuringia often mentioned in Dietmar of Merseburg, was in OHG. alahsteti, nom. alahstat. Among the Saxons, who were converted later, the word kept itself alive longer. The poet of the Heliand uses alah masc. exactly as Ulphilas does alhs (3, 20. 22. 6, 2. 14, 9. 32, 14. 115, 9. 15. 129, 22. 130, 19. 157, 16), seldomer godes hûs 155, 8. 130, 18, or, that hêlaga hûs 3, 19. Cædm. 202, 22 alhn (I. alh hâligne = holy temple); 258, 11 ealhstede (palatium, aedes regia). In Andr. 1642 I would read 'ealde ealhstedas' (delubra) for 'eolhstedas', conf. the proper names Ealhstân in Kemble 1, 288. 296 and Ealhheard 1, 292 quasi stone-hard, rock-hard, which possibly leads us to the primary meaning of the word. (3) The word is wanting in ON. documents, else it must have had the form alr, gen. als.

Of another primitive word the Gothic Fragments furnish no example, the OHG. with (nemus), Diut. 1, 492; O. Sax. with masc. (templum), Hel. 3, 15. 17. 19. 14, 8. 115, 4. 119, 17. 127, 10. 129, 23. 130, 17. 154, 22. 169, 1; friduwih, Hel. 15, 19; AS. wih wiges, or weoh weos, also masc: wiges (idoli), Cædm. 228, 12. þisne wig wurðigean (hoc idolum colere), Cædm. 228, 24. conf. wigweorðing (cultus idolorum), Beow. 350. weohweorðing Cod. exon. 253, 14. wihgild (cultus idol.), Cædm. 227, 5. weobedd (ara), for weohbedd, wihbedd, Cædm. 127, 8. weos (idola), for weohas, Cod. exon. 341, 28.

The alternation of i and eo in the AS. indicates a short vowel; and in spite of the reasons I have urged in Gramm. 1, 462, the same seems to be true of the ON. ve, which in the sing., as Ve, denotes one particular god; but has a double pl., namely, a masc vear dii, idola, and a neut. ve loca sacra. Gutalag 6, 108. 111: haita â hult eþa hauga, â vi eþa stafgarþa (invocare lucos aut tumulos, idola aut loca palis circumsepta); trûa â hult, â hauga, vi oc stafgarþa; han standr î vi (stat in loco sacro). In that case we have here, as in alah, a term alternating between nemus, templum, fanum, idolum, numen, its root being doubtless the Gothic veiha (I hallow), váih, váihum, OHG. wîhu, weih, wihum, from which also comes the adj. veihs sacer, OHG. wîh: and we saw on p. 41 that wîhan was applied to sacrifices and worship. In Lappish, vi is said to mean silva.

Still more decisive is a third heathen word, which becomes specially important to our course of inquiry. The OHG. haruc masc., pl. harugâ, stands in the glosses both for fanum, Hrab. 963. for delubrum, Hrab. 959. for lucus, Hrab. 969, Jun. 212. Diut. 1, 495, and for nemus, Diut. 1, 492. The last gloss, in full, runs thus: 'nemus plantavit = forst flanzôta, edo (or) haruc, edo wih.' So that haruc, like wih, includes on the one hand the notion of templum, fanum, and on the other that of wood, grove, lucus. (4) It is remarkable that the Lex Ripuar. has preserved, evidently from heathen times, harahus to designate a place of judgment, which was originally a wood (RA. 794. 903). AS. hearg masc., pl. heargas (fanum), Beda 2, 13. 3, 30. Orosius 3, 9, p. 109. heargtræf (fani tabulatum), Beow. 349. æt hearge, Kemble, 1, 282. ON. hörgr masc., pl. hörgar (delubrum, at times idolum, simulacrum), Sæm. 36 42, 91, 114, 141; especially worth notice is Sæm. 114: hörgr hlaðinn steinom, griot at gleri orðit, roðit î nyio nauta bloði (h. paven with stones, grit made smooth, reddened anew with neat's blood). Sometimes hörgr is coupled with hof (fanum, tectum), 36 141, in which the former is the holy place amidst woods and rocks, the built temple, aula; conf. 'hamarr ok hörgr,' Fornm. sög. 5, 239. To both expressions belongs the notion of the place as well as that of the numen and the image itself (see Suppl.). Haruc seems unconnected with the O. Lat. haruga, aruga, bull of sacrifice, whence haruspex, aruspex. The Gk temenoj however also means the sacred grove, II. 8, 48. 23, 148. temenoj tamon, II. 20, 184.

Lastly, synonymous with haruc is the OHG. paro, gen. parawes, AS. bearo, gen. bearwes, which betoken lucus (5) and arbor, a sacred grove or a tree; æt bearwe, Kemble. 1, 255. ON. barr (arbor), Sæm. 109; barri (nemus) 86, 87. qui ad aras sacrificat = de za demo parawe (al. za themo we) ploazit, Diut. 1, 150; ara, or rather the pl. arae, here stands for templum (see Suppl.).

Temple then means also wood. What we figure to ourselves as a built and walled house, resolves itself, the farther back we go, into a holy place untouched by human hand, embowered and shut in by self-grown trees. There dwells the deity, veiling his form in rustling foliage of the boughs; there is the spot where the hunter has to present to him the game he has killed, and the herdsmen his horses and oxen and rams.

What a writer of the second century says on the cultus of the Celts, will hold good of the Teutonic and all the kindred nations: Keltoi sebousi men Dioj keltikon iyhlh drij, Maximus Tyrisu (diss. 8, ed. Reiske 1, 142). Compare Lasicz. 46: deos nemora incolere persuasum habent (Samogitae). Habitarunt dî quoque sylvas (Haupts zeitschr. 1, 138).

I am not maintaining that this forest-worship exhausts all the conceptions our ancestors had formed of deity and its dwellingplace; it was only the principal one. Here and there a god may haunt a mountain top, a cave of the rock, a river; but the grand general worship of the people had its seat in the grove. And nowhere cold it have found a worthier (see Suppl.).

At a time when rude beginnings were all that there was of the builder's art, the human mind must have been roused to a higher devotion by the sight of lofty trees under an open sky, than it could feel inside the stunted structures reared by unskillful hands. When long afterwards the architecture peculiar to the Teutons reached its perfection, did it not in its boldest creations still aim at reproducing the soaring trees of the forest? Would not the abortion of miserably carved or chiselled images lag far behind the form of the god which the youthful imagination of antiquity pictured to itself, throned on the bowery summit of a sacred tree? In the sweep and under the shade (6) of primeval forests, the soul of man found itself filled with the nearness of sovran deities. The mighty influence that a forest life had from the first on the whole being of our nation, is attested by the 'march-fellowships;' marka, the word from which they took their name, denoted first a forest, and afterwards a boundary.

The earliest testimonies to the forest-cultus of the Germans are furnished by Tacitus. Germ. 9: ceterum nec cohibere parietibus deos, neque in ullam humani oris speciem adsimulare ex magnitudine coelestium arbitrantur. Lucos ac nemora consecrant, deorumque nominibus adpellant secretum illud quod sola reverentia vident. (7) Germ. 39, of the Semnones; Stato tempore in silvam auguriis patrum et prisca formidine sacram (8) omnes ejusdem sanguinis populi legationibus coëunt. est et alia luco reverentia. nemo nisi vinculo ligatus ingreditur, ut minor et protestatem numinis prae se ferens. si forte prolapsus est, attolli et insurgere haud licitum: per humum evolvuntur. (9) cap. 40: est in insula oceani castum nemus, dicatumque in eo vehiculum veste contectum. cap. 43: apud Naharvalos antiquae religionis lucus astenditur ...numini nomen Alcis, nulla simulacra. cap. 7: effigies et signa (i.e., effigiata signa) quaedam detractae lucis in proelium ferunt; with which connect a passage in Hist. 4, 22: inde depromptæ silvis lucisque ferarum imagines, ut cuique genti inire proelium mos est. Ann. 2, 12: Caesar transgressus Visurgim indicio perfugae cognoscit delectum ab Arminio locum pugnae, convenisse et alias nationes in silvam Herculi sacram. Ann. 4, 73: mox conpertum a transfugis, nongentos Romanorum apud lucum, quem Baduhennae vocant, pugna in posterum extracta confectos; though it does not appear that this grove was a consecrated one. (10) Ann. 1, 61: lucis propinquis barbarae arae, apud quas tribunos mactaverant; conf. 2, 25: propinquo luco defossam Varianae legionis aquilam modico praesidio servari. Hist. 4, 14: Civilis primores gentis ..sacrum in nemus vocatos. These expression can be matched by others from Claudian three centuries later, Cons. Stilich. 1, 288:

Ut procul Hercyniae per vasta silentia silvae

venari tuto liceat, lucosque vetusta

religione truces, et robora numinis instar

barbarici nostrae feriant impune bipennes.

De bello Get. 545:

Hortantes his adde deos. Non somnia nobis,

nec volucres, sed clara palam vox edita luco est:

'rumpe omnes, Alarice, moras!'

It is not pure nature-worship that we are told of here; but Tacitus could have had no eye for the 'mores Germanorum,' if their most essential features had escaped him. Gods dwell in these groves; no images (simulacra, in human form) are mentioned by name as being set up, no temple walls are reared. (11) But sacred vessels and altars stand in the forest, heads of animals (ferarum imagines) hang on the boughs of trees. There divine worship is performed and sacrifice offered, there is the folk-mote and the assize, everywhere a sacred awe and reminiscence of antiquity. Have notwe here alah, wih, paro, haruc faithfully portrayed? How could such technical terms, unless they described an organized national worship presided over by priests, have sprung up in the language, and lived?

During many centuries, down to the introduction of christianity, this custom endured, of venerating deity in sacred woods and trees.

I will here insert the detailed narrative given by Wilibald (786) in the Vita Bonifacii (Canisius II. 1, 242. Pertz 2, 343) of the holy oak of Geismar (on the Edder, near Fritzlar in Hesse). (12) The event falls between the years 725 and 731. Is autem (Bonifacius).......ad obsessas ante ea Hessorum metas cum consensu Carli ducis (i.e. of Charles Martel) rediit. tum vero Hessorum jam multi catholica fide subditi ac septiformis spiritus gratia confirmati manus impositionem acceperunt, et alii quidem, nondum animo confortati, intemeratae fidei documenta integre percipere renuerunt, alii etiam linguis et faucibus clanculo, alii vero aperte sacrificabant, alii vero auspicia et divinationes, praestigia atque incantationes occulte, alii quidem manifeste exercebant, alii quippe auspicia et auguria intendebant, diversosque sacrificandi ritus incoluerunt, alii etiam, quibus mens sanior inerat, omni abjecta gentilitatis prophanatione nihil horum commiserunt. quorum consultu atque consilio arborem quandam mirae magnitudinis, quae prisco Paganorum vocabulo appellatur robur Jovis, in loco, qui dicitur Gaesmere, servis Dei secum astantibus, succidere tentavit. cumque mentis constantia confortatus arborem succidisset, magna quippe aderat copia Paganorum, qui et inimicum deorum suorum intra se diligentissime devotabant, sed ad modicum quidem arbore praecisa confestim immensa roboris moles, divino desuper flatu exagitata, palmitum confracto culmine, corruit, et quasi superi nutus solatio in quatuor etiam partes disrupta est, et quatuor ingentis magnitudinis aequali longitudine trunci, absque fratrum labore astantium apparuerunt. quo viso prius devotantes Pagani etiam versa vice benedictionem Domino, pristina abjecta maledictione, credentes reddiderunt. Tunc autem summae sanctitatis antistes consilio inito cum fratribus ex supradictae arboris materia (13) oratorium construxit, illudque in honore S. Petri apostoli dedicavit. From that time christianity had in this place a seat in Hesse; hard by was the ancient capital of the nation, 'Mattium (Marburg), id genti caput,' Tac. Ann. 1, 56; which continued in the Mid. Ages to be the chief seat of government. According to Landan, the oak and the church built out of it stood on the site of St. Peter's church at Fritzlar. The whole region is well wooded (see Suppl.).

Not unsimilar are some passages contained in the Vita S. Amandi (674), on the wood and tree worship of the northern Franks: Acta Bened. sec. 2. p. 714, 715, 718: Amandus audivit pagum esse, cui vocabulum Gandavum, cujus loci habitatores inquitas diaboli eo circumquaque laqueis vehementer irretivit, ut incolae terrae illius, relicto deo, arbores et ligna pro deo colerent, atque fana vel idola adorarent.

Ubi fana destruebantur, statim monasteria aut ecclesias construebat.

Amandus in pago belvacense verbum domini dum praedicaret, pervenit ad quendam locum, cui vocabulum est Rossonto juxta Aronnam fluvium........respondit illa, quod non ob aliam causam ei ipsa coecitas evenisset, nisi quod auguria vel idola semper coluerat. insuper ostendit ei locum, in quo praedictum idolum adorare consueverat, scilicet arborem, quae erat daemoni dedicata........'nunc igitur accipe securim et hanc nefandam arboreim quantocius succidere festina.'

Among the Saxons and Frisians the veneration of groves lasted much longer. At the beginning of the 11th century, bishop Unwan of Bremen (conf. Adam. Brem. 2, 33) had all such woods cut down among the remoter inhabitants of his diocese: lucos in episcopatu suo, in quibus paludicolae regionis illius errore veteri cum professione falso christianitatis immolabant, succidit; Vita Meinwerci, cap. 22. Of the holy tree in the Old Saxon Irminsûl I will treat in ch. VI. Several districts of Lower Saxony and Westphalia have until quite recent times preserved vestiges of holy oaks, to which the people paid a half heathen half christian homage. Thus, in the principality of Minden, on Easter Sunday, the young people of both sexes used with loud cries of joy to dance a reigen (rig, circular dance) round an old oak. (14) In a thicket near the village of Wormeln, Paderborn, stands a holy oak, to which the inhabitants of Wormeln and Calenberg still make a solemn procession every year. (15)

I am inclined to trace back to heathenism the proper name of Holy Wood so common in nearly all parts of Germany. It is not likely that from a christian church situated in a wood, the wood itself would be named holy; and in such forests, as a rule, there is not a church to be found. Still less can the name be explained by the royal ban-forests of the Mid. Ages; on the contrary, these forests themselves appear to have sprung out of heathen groves, and the king's right seems to have taken the place of the cultus which first withdrew the holy wood from the common use of the people. In such forests too there used to be sanctuaries for criminals, RA. 886-9.

An old account of a battle between Franks and Saxons at Notteln in the year 779 (Pertz 2, 377) informs us, that a badly wounded Saxon had himself secretly conveyed from his castle into a holy wood: Hic vero (Luibertus) magno cum merore se in castrum recepit. Ex quo post aliquot dies mulier egrotum humeris clam in sylvam Sytheri, quae fuit thegathon sacra, nocte portavit. Vulnera ibidem lavans, exterrita clamore effugit. Ubi multa lamentatione animam expiravit. The strange expression thegathon is explained by t' agaqou (the good), a name for the highest divinity (summus et princeps omnium deorum), which the chronicler borrowed from Macrobius's somn. Scip. 1, 2, and may have chosen purposely, to avoid naming a well-known heathen god (see Suppl.). Sytheri, the name of the wood, seems to be the same as Sunderi (southern), a name given to forests in more than one district, e.g. a Sunderhart in Franconia (Höfers urk. p. 308). Did this heathen hope for healing on the sacred soil? or did he wish to die there?

The forest called Dat hillige holt is mentioned by a document in Kindlinger's Münst. beitr. 3, 638. In the country of Hoya there stood a Heiligen-loh (Pertz. 2, 362). A long list of Alsatian documents in Schöpflin allude to the holy forest near Hagenau; no. 218 (A.D. 1065): cum foresto heiligenforst nominato in comitatu Gerhardi comitis in pago Nortcowe. no. 238 (1106): in sylva heiligeforst. no. 273 (1143): praedium Loubach in sacro nemore situm. no. 297 (1158): utantur pascuis in sacra silva. no. 317 (1175): in silva sacra. no. 402 (1215): in sacra silva. no. 800 (1292): conventum in königesbrüken in heiligenforst. no. 829 (1304): nemus nostrum et imperii dictum heiligvorst. no. 851 (1310): pecora in foresta nostra, quae dicitur der heilige forst, pascere et tenere. no. 1076 (1356): porcos tempore glandium nutriendos in silva sacra. The alternating words 'forst, silva, nemus,' are enough to show the significance of the term. The name of the well-known Dreieich (Drieichahi) is probably to be explained by the heathen worship of three oaks; a royal ban-forest existed there a long time and its charter (I, 498) is one of the most primitive.

The express allusion to Thuringia and Saxony is remarkable in the following lines of a poem that seems to have been composed soon after the year 1200, Reinh. F. 302; the wolf sees a goat on a tree, and exclaims:

ich sihe ein obez hangen,

 I see a fruit hanging,

ez habe hâr ode borst;

That it has hair or bristles;

in einem heiligen vorste

 In any holy forest.

ze Düringen noch ze Sachsen

Of Thuringia nor of Saxony

enkunde niht gewahsen

There could not grow

bezzer obez ûf rîse.

Better fruit on bough.

The allusion is surely to sacrificed animals, or firstfruits of the chase, hung up on the trees of a sacred wood? Either the story is based on a more ancient original, or may not the poet have heard tell from somewhere of heathenish doings going on in his own day among Saxons and Thuringians? (see Suppl.).

And in other poems of the Mid. Ages the sacredness of the ancient forests still exerts an after-influence. In Alex. 5193 we read 'der edele walt frône'; and we have inklings now and again, if not of sacrifices offered to sacred trees, yet of a lasting indestructable awe, and the fancy that ghostly beings haunt particular trees. Thus, in Ls. 2, 575, misfortune, like a demon, sat on a tree; and in Altd. w. 3, 161 it is said of a hollow tree:

dâ sint heiligen inne, There are saints in there,

die hærent aller liute bet. (16) That hear all people's prayers (see Suppl.).

Still more unmistakably does this forest cultus prevail in the North, protected by the longer duration of heathenism. The great sacrifice at Lêdera described by Dietmar (see p. 48) was performed in the island which, from its even now magnificent beech-woods, bore the name of Sælundr, sea-grove, and was the finest grove in all Scandinavia. The Swedes in like manner solemnized their festival of sacrifice in a grove near Upsala; Adam of Bremen says of the animals sacrificed: Corpora suspenduntur in lucum qui proximus est templo; is enim lucus tam sacer est gentibus, ut singulae arbores ejus ex morte vel tabo immolatorum divinae credantur. Of Hlöðr Heiðreksson we are told in the Hervararsaga cap. 16 (fornald. sög. 1, 491), that he was born with arms and horse in the holy wood (â mörk hinni helgu). In the grove Glasislundr a bird sits on the boughs and demands sacrifices, a temple and gold-horned cows, Sæm. 140-1. The sacred trees of the Edda, Yggdrasil and Mîmameiðr, Sæm. 109, hardly need reminding of.

Lastly, the agreement of the Slav, Prussian, Finnish and Celtic paganisms throws light upon our own, and tends to confirm it. Dietmar of Merseburg (Pertz 5, 812) affirms of the heathen temple at Riedegost: quam undique sylva ab incolis intacta et venerabilis circumdat magna; (ibid. 816) he relates how his ancestor Wibert about the year 1008 rooted up a grove of the Slavs: lucum Zutibure dictum, ab accolis ut deum in omnibus honoratum, et ab aevo antiquo nunquam violatum, radicitus eruens, sancto martyri Romani in eo ecclesiam construxit. Zutibure is for Sveti bor = holy forest, from bor (fir), pine-barren; a Merseburg document of 1012 already mentions an 'ecclesia in Scutibure,' Zeitschr. f. archivkunde, 1, 162. An ON saga (Fornm. sög. 11, 382) names a blótlundr (sacrificial grove) at Stræla, called Böku. Helmold 1, 1 says of the Slavs: usque hodie profecto inter illos, cum cetera omnia communiaa sint cum nostris, solus prohibetur accessus lucorum ac fontium, quos autumant pollui christianorum accessu. A song in the Königinhof MS. p. 72 speaks of the grove (hain, Boh. hai, hag, Pol. gay, Sloven. gaj; conf. gaius, gahajus, Lex Roth. 324, Kaheius, Lex Bajuv. 21, 6) from which the christians scared away the holy sparrow.(17) The Esth. sallo, Finn. salo means a holy wood, especially a meadow with thick underwood;

the national god Tharapila is described by Henry the Letton (ad. ann. 1219): in confinio Wironiae erat mons et silva pulcherrima, in quo dicebant indigenae magnum deum Osiliensium natum qui Tharapila (18) vocatur, et de loco illo in Osiliam volasse, in the form of a bird? (see Suppl.). To the Old Prussians, Romove was the most sacred spot in the land, and a seat of the gods; there stood their images on a holy oak hung with cloths. No unconsecrated person was allowed to set foot in the forest, no tree to be felled, not a bough to be injured, not a beast to be slain. There were many such sacred groves in other parts of Prussia and Lithuania. (19)

The Vita S. Germani Autisiodorensis (b. 378, d. 448) written by Constantius as early as 473 contains a striking narrative of a peartree which stood in the middle of Auxerre and was honored by the heathen. (20) As the Burgundians did not enter Gaul til the beginning of the 5th century, there is not likely to be a mixture in it of German tradition. But even if the story is purely Celtic, it deserves a place here, because it shows how widely the custom prevailed of hanging the heads of sacrificial beasts on trees. (21) Eo tempore (before 1400) territorium Autisiodorensis urbis visitatione propria gubernabat Germanus. Cui mos erat tirunculorum potius industriis indulgere, quam christianae religioni operam dare. is ergo assidue venatui invigilans ferarum copiam insidiis atque artis strenuitate frequentissime capiebat. Erat autem arbor pirus in urbe media, amænitate gratissima: ad cujus ramusculos ferarum ab eo deprehensarum capita pro admiratione venationis nimiae dependebant. Quem celebris ejusdem civitatis Amator episcopus his frequens compellebat eloquiis: 'desine, quaeso, vir honoratorum splendidissime, haec jocularia, quae Christianis offensa, Paganis vero imitanda sunt, exercere. hoc opus idololatriae cultura est, non christianæ elegantissimae disciplinae.' Et licet hoc indesinenter vir deo dignus perageret, ille tamen nullo modo admonenti se adquiescere voluit aut obedire. vir autem domini iterum atque iterum eum hortabatur, ut non solum a consuetudine male arrepta discederet, verum etiam et ipsam arborem, ne Christianis offendiculum esset, radicitus exstirparet. sed ille nullatenus aurem placidam applicare voluit admonenti. In hujus ergo persuasionis tempore quodam die Germanus ex urbe in praedia sui juris discessit. tunc beatus Amator opportunitatem opperiens sacrilegam arborem cum caudicibus abscidit, et ne aliqua ejus incredulis esset memoria igni concremandam illico deputavit. oscilla (22) vero, quae tanquam trophaea cujusdam certaminis umbram dependentia ostentabant, longius a civitatis terminis projici praecipit. Protinus vero fama gressus suos ad aures Germani retorquens, dictis animum incendit, atque iram suis suasionibus exaggerans ferocem effecit, ita ut oblitus sanctae religionis, cujus jam fuerat ritu atque munere insignitus, mortem beatissimo viro minitaret.

A poem of Herricus composed about 876 gives a fuller description of the idolatrous peartree:

altoque et lato stabat gratissima quondam

urbe pirus media, populo spectabilis omni;

non quia pendentum flavebat honore pirorum,

nec quia perpetuae vernabat munere frondis:

sed deprensarum passim capita alta ferarum

arboris obsoenae patulis haerentia ramis

praebebant vano plausum spectacula vulgo.

horrebant illic trepidi ramalia cervi

et dirum frendentis apri, fera spicula, dentes,

acribus exitium meditantes forte molossis.

tunc quoque sic variis arbos induta tropaeis

fundebat rudibus lascivi semina risus.

It was not the laughter of the multitude that offended the christian priests; they saw in the practice a performance, however degenerate and dimmed, of heathen sacrifices. (23)

Thus far we have dwelt on the evidences which go to prove that the oldest worship of our ancestors was connected with sacred forests and trees.

At the same time it cannot be doubted, that even in the earliest times there were temples built for single deities, and perhaps rude images set up inside them. In the lapse of centuries the old forest worship may have declined and been superseded by the structure of temples, more with some populations and less with others. In fact, we come across a good many statements so indefinite or incomplete, that it is impossible to gather from them with any certainty whether the expressions used betoken the ancient cultus or one departing from it.

The most weighty and significant passages relating to this part of the subject seem to be the following (see Suppl.):

Tac. Germ. 40 describes the sacred grove and the worship of Mother Earth; when the priest in festival time has carried the goddess round among the people, he restores her to her sanctuary: satiatam conversatione mortalium deam templo reddit.

Tac. ann. 1, 51:

Cæsar avidas legiones, quo latior populatio foret, quatuor in cuneos dispertit, quinquaginta millium spatium ferro flammisque pervastat; non sexus, non aetas miserationem attulit: profana simul et sacra, et celeberrimum illis gentibus templum, quod Tanfanae (24) vocabant, solo aequantur.

The nation to which this temple belonged were the Marsi and perhaps some neighbouring ones (see Suppl.).

Vita S. Eugendi abbatis Jurensis (d. circ. 510), auctore monacho Condatescensi ipsius discipulo (in Actis sanctor. Bolland. Jan. 1, p. 50, and in Mabillon, acta Ben. sec. 1, p. 570):

Sancta igitur famulus Christi Eugendus, sicut beatorum patrum Romani et Lupicini in religione discipulus, ita etiam natalibus ac provincia extitit indigena atque concivis. ortus nempe est haud longe a vico cui vetusta paganitas ob celebritatem clausuramque fortissimam superstitiosissimi templi Gallica lingua Isarnodori, id est, ferrei ostii indidit nomen: quo nunc quoque in loco, delubris ex parte jam dirutis, sacratissime micant coelestis regni culmina dicata Christicolis; atque inibi pater sanctissimae prolis judicio pontificali plebisque testimonio extitit in presbyterii dignitate sacerdos.

If Eugendus was born about the middle of the 5th century, and his father already was a priest of the christian church which had been erected on the site of the heathen temple, heathenism can at the latest have lingered there only in the earlier half of that century, at whose commencement the West Goths passed through Italy into Gaul. Gallica lingua here seems to be the German spoken by the invading nations, in contradistinction to the Romana; the name of the place is almost pure Gothic, eisarnadaúri, still more exactly it might be Burgundian, îsarnodori. (25) Had either West Goths or Burgundians, or perhaps even some Alamanns that had penetrated so far, founded the temple in the fastnesses and defiles of the Jura? (26) The name is well suited to the strength of the position and of the building, which the christians in part retained (see Suppl.).

A Constitutio Childeberti I of about 554 (Pertz 3, 1) contains the following:

Praecipientes, ut quicunque admoniti de agro suo, ubicumque fuerint simulacra constructa vel idola daemoni dedicata ab hominibus, factum non statim abjecerint vel sacerdotibus haec destruentibus prohibuerint, datis fidejussoribus non aliter discedant nisi in nostris obtutibus praesententur.

Vita S. Radegundis (d. 587) the wife of Clotaire, composed by a contemporary nun Baudonivia (acta Bened. sec. 1, p. 327): Dum iter ageret (Radegundis) seculari pompa se comitante, interjecta longinquitate terrae ac spatio, fanum quod a Francis colebatur in itinere beatae reginae quantum miliario uno proximum erat. hoc illa audiens jussit famulis fanum igne comburi, iniquum judicans Deum coeli contemni et diabolica machinamenta venerari. Hoc audientes Franci universa multitudo cum gladiis et fustibus vel omni fremitu conabantur defendere. sancta vero regina immobilis preseverans et Christum in pectore gestans, equum quem sedebat in antea (i.e. ulterius) non movit antequam et fanum perureretur et ipsa orante inter se populi pacem firmarent. The situation of the temple she destroyed I do not venture to determine; Radegund was journeying from Thuringia to France, and somewhere on that line, not far from the Rhine, the fanum may be looked for.

Greg. Tur. vitae patrum 6: Eunte rege (Theoderico) in Agrippinam urbem, et ipse (S. Gallus) simul abiit. erat autem ibi fanum quoddam diversis ornamentis refertum, in quo barbaris (l. Barbarus) opima libamina exhibens usque ad vomitum cibo potuque replebatur. ibi et simulacra ut deum adorans, membra, secundum quod unumquemque dolor attigisset, sculpebat in ligno. quod ubi S. Gallus audivit, statim illuc cum uno tantum clerico properat, accensoque igne, cum nullus ex stultis Paganis adesset, ad fanum applicat et succendit. at illi videntes fumum delubri ad coelum usque conscendere, auctorem incendii quaerunt, inventumque evaginatis gladiis prosequuntur; ille vero in fugam versus aulae se regiae condidit. verum postquam rex quae acta fuerant Paganis minantibus recognovit, blandis eos sermonibus lenivit. This Gallus is distinct from the one who appears in Alamannia half a century later; he died about 553, and by the king is meant Theoderic I of Austrasia.

Vita S. Lupi Senonensis (Duchesne 1, 562. Bouquet 3, 491): Rex Chlotarius virum Dei Lupum episcopum retrusit in pago quodam Neustriae nuncupante Vinemaco (le Vimeu), traditum duci pagano (i.e. duci terrae), nomine Bosoni Landegisilo (no doubt a Frank) quem ille direxit in villa quae dicitur Andesagina super fluvium Auciam, ubi erant templa fanatica a decurionibus culta. (A.D. 614) Andesagina is Ausenne, Aucia was afterwards called la Bresle, Briselle.

Beda, hist. eccl. 2, 13, relates how the Northumbrian king Eadwine, baptized 627, slain 633, resolved after mature consultation with men of understanding to adopt christianity, and was especially made to waver in his ancient faith by Coifi (Cæfi) his chief heathen priest himself: Cumque a praefato pontiface sacrorum suorum quaereret, quis aras et fana idolorum cum septis quibus erant circumdata primus profanare deberet? respondit: ego. quis enim ea, quae per stultitiam colui, nunc ad exemplum omnium aptius quam ipse per sapientiam mihi a Deo vero donatam destruam? .Accinctus ergo gladio accepit lanceam in manu et ascendens emissarium regis (all three unlawful and improper things for a heathen priest), pergebat ad idola. quod aspiciens vulgus aestimabat eum insanire. nec distulit ille. mox ut appropinquabat ad fanum, profanare illud, injecta in eo lancea quam tenebat, multumque gavisus de agnitione veri Dei cultus, jussit sociis destruere ac succendere fanum cum omnibus septis suis. Ostenditur autem locus ille quondam idolorum non longe ab Eboraco ad orientem ultra amnem Dorowentionem et vocatur hodie Godmundinga hâm, ubi pontifex ipse, inspirante Deo vero, polluit ac destruxit eas, quas ipse sacraverat, aras. (27)

Vita S. Bertuffi Bobbiensis (d. 640) in Acta Bened. sec. 2, p. 164: Ad quandam villam Iriae fluvio adjacentem accessit, ubi fanum quoddam arboribus consitum videns allatum ignem ei admovit, congestis in modum pirae lignis. Id vero cernentes fani cultores Meroveum apprehensum diuque fustibus caesum et ictibus contusum in fluvium illud demergere conantur.

The Iria runs into the Po; the event occurs among Lombards.

Walafridi Strabonis vita S. Galli (d. 640) in actis Bened. sec. 2 p. 219, 220: Venerunt (S. Columbanus et Gallus) infra partes Alemanniae ad fluvium, qui Lindimacus vocatur, juxta quem ad superiora tendentes pervenerunt Turicinum. cumque per littus ambulantes venissent ad caput lacus ipsius, in locum qui Tucconia dicitur, placuit illis loci qualitas ad inhabitandum. porro homines ibidem commanentes crudeles erant et impii, simulacra colentes, idola sacrificiis venerantes, observantes auguria et divinationes et multa quae contraria sunt cultui divino superstitiosa sectantes. Sancti igitur homines cum coepissent inter illos habitare, docebant eos adorare Patrem et Filium et Spiritum sanctum, et custodire fidei veritatem. Beatus quoque Gallus sancti viri discipulus zelo pietatis armatus fana, in quibus daemoniis sacrificabant, igni succendit et quaecumque invenit oblata demersit in lacum.

Here follows an important passage which will be quoted further onæ it says expressly: cumque ejusdem templi solemnitas ageretur.

Jonae Bobbiensis vita S. Columbani (d. 615) cap. 17. in act. Bened. 2, 12. 13: Cumque jam multorum monachorum societate densaretur, coepit cogitare, ut potiorem locum in eadem eremo (i.e. Vosago saltu) quaereret, quo monasterium construeret. inventique castrum firmissimo munimine olim fuisse cultum, a supra dicto loco distans plus minus octo millibus, quem prisca tempora Luxovium nuncupabant, ibique aquae calidae cultu eximio constructae habebantur. ibi imaginum lapidearum densitas vicina saltus densabat, (28) quas cultu miserabili rituque profano vetusta Paganorum tempora honorabant.

This Burgundian place then (Luxeuil in Franche Comtè, near Vesoul) contained old Roman thermae adorned with statues. Had the Burgundian settlers connected their own worship with these? The same castrum is spoken of in the....

Vita S. Agili Resbacensis (d. 650), in Acta Ben. sec. 2, p. 317: Castrum namque intra vasta eremi septa, quae Vosagus dicitur, fuerat fanaticorum cultui olim dedicatum, sed tunc ad solum usque dirutum, quod hujus saltus incolae, quamquam ignoto praesagio, Luxovium [qu. lux ovium?] nominavere. A church is then built on the heathen site: ut, ubi olim prophano ritu veteres coluerunt fana, ibi Christi figerentur arae et erigerentur vexilla, habitaculum Deo militantium, quo adversus aërias potestates dimicarent superni Regis tirones. p. 319: Ingressique (Agilus cum Eustasio) hujus itineris viam, juvante Christo, Warascos praedicatori accelerant, qui agrestium fanis decepti, quos vulgi faunos vocant, gentilium quoque errore seducti, in perfidiam devenerant, Fotini seu Bonosi virus infecti, quos, errore depulso, matri ecclesiae reconiliatos veros Christi fecere servos.

Vita S. Willibrordi (d. 789), in Acta Bened. sec. 3, p. 609: Pervenit in confinio Fresonum et Danorum ad quandam insulam, quae a quodam deo suo Fosite ab accolis terrae Fositesland appellatur, quia in ea ejusdem dei fana fuere constructa. Qui locus a paganis tanta veneratione habebatur, ut nil in eo vel animalium ibi pascentium vel aliarum quarumlibet rerum gentilium quisquam tangere audebat, nec etiam a fonte qui ibi ebulliebat aquam haurire nisi tacens praesumebat.

Vita S. Willehadi (d. 793), in Pertz 2, 381: Unde contigit, ut quidam discipulorum ejus, divino cumpuncti ardore, fana in morem gentilium circumquaque erecta coepissent evertere et ad nihilum, prout poterant, redigere; quo facto barbari, qui adhuc forte perstiterant, furore nimio succensi, irruerunt super eos repente cum impetu, volentes eos funditus interimere, ibique Dei famulum fustibus caesum multis admodum plagis affecere.

This happened in the Frisian pagus Thrianta (Drente) before 779.

Vita Ludgeri (beginning of the 9th cent.) 1, 8: (In Frisia) Paganos asperrimos ..mitigavit, ut sua iilum delubra destruere coram oculis paterentur. Inventum in fanis aurum et argentum plurimum Albricus in aerarium regis intulit, accipiens et ipse praecipiente Carlo portionem ex illo.

Conf. the passage cited p. 45 from the Lex Frisionum.

Folcuini gesta abb. Lobiensium (circ. 980), in Pertz 6, 55: Est locus intra termino pagi, quem veteres, a loco ubi superstitiosa gentilitas fanum marti sacraverat, Fanum Martinse dixeruut. This is famars in Hainault, not far from Valenciennes.

In all probability the sanctuary of Tanfana which Germanicus demolished in A.D. 14 was not a mere grove, but a real building, otherwise Tacitus would hardly have called the destruction of it a 'levelling to the ground'. During the next three or four centuries we are without any notices of heathen temples in Germany. In the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries, as I have shown, we come upon castra, templa, fana among Burgundians, Franks, Lombards, Alamanns, Anglo-Saxons, and Frisians. By fanum (whence fanaticus) seems often to have been understood a building of smaller extent, and by templum one of larger; the Indiculus supersit. xxxi. 4 has: 'de casulis (huts), i.e. fanis' (see Suppl.). I admit that some of the authorities cited leave it doubtful whether German heathen temples be intended, they might be Roman ones which had been left standing; in which case there is room for a twofold hypothesis: that the dominant German nation had allowed certain communities in their midst to keep up the Roman-Gallic cultus, or that they themselves had taken possession of Roman buildings for the exercise of their own religion (29) (see Suppl.) No thorough investigation has yet been made of the state of religion among the Gauls immediately before and after the irruption of the Germans; side by side with the converts there was still, no doubt, some heathen Gauls; it is difficult therefore to pronounce for either hypothesis, cases of both kinds may have co-existed. So much for the doubtful authorities; but it is not all of them that leave us in any doubt. If the Tanfana temple could be built by Germans, we can suppose the same of the Alamann, the Saxon and the Frisian temples; and what was done in the first century, is still more likely to have been done in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.

Built Temples must in early times have been named in a variety of ways (see Suppl.): AS. OS. ON. hof, aula, atrium; (30)

OGH. halla, templum (Hymn. 24, 8), AS. heal, ON. höll (conf. hallr, lapis, Goth, hallus);

OHG. sal, ON. salr, AS. sele, OS. seli, aula;

AS. reced, domus, basilica (Cædm. 145, 11. 150, 16. 219, 23), OS rakud (Hel. 114, 17. 130, 20. 144, 4. 155, 20), an obscure word not found in the other dialects;

OHG. pëtapûr, delubrum (Diut. 1, 195) (31);

to which were afterwards added pëtahûs, minores ecclesiae (Gl. sletst. 21, 32) and chirihhâ, AS. eyrice. The MHG. poets like to use bëtehûs of a heathen temple as opposed to a christian church (En. 2695. Barl. 339, 11. 28. 342, 6. Athis D 93. Herb. 952. Wigal. 8308. Pass. 356, 73. Tit. 3329), so in M. Nethl. bedehûs (Maerl. 1, 326. 3, 125), much as the Catholics in their own countries do not allow to Protestants a church, but only a bathaus, praying-house (see Suppl.). O. iv. 33, 33 has the periphrase gotes hûs, and ii. 4, 52 druhtînes hûs. Notker cap. 17 makes no scruple of translating the Lat. fanis by chîlechon, just as bishop does duty for heathen priest as well. In the earliest times temple was retained, Is. 382. 395. T. 15, 4. 193, 2. 209, 1. Diut. 1, 195.

The hut which we are to picture to ourselves under the term fanum or pûr (A.S. bûr, bower) was most likely constructed of logs and twigs round the sacred tree; a wooden temple of the goddess Zisa will find a place in ch. XIII. With halla and some other names we are compelled to think rather of a stone building.

We see all the christian teachers eager to lay the axe to the sacred trees of the heathen, and fire under their temples. It would almost seem that the poor people's consent was never asked, and the rising smoke was the first thing that announced to them the broken power of their gods. But on a closer study of the details in the less high-flown narratives, it comes out that the heathen were not so tame and simple, nor the christians so reckless. Boniface resolved on hewing down the Thunder-oak after taking counsel with the already converted Hessians, and in their presence. So too the Thuringian princess might not have dared to sit so immovable on her palfrey and give the order to fire the Frankish temple, had not her escort been numerous enough to make head against the heathen. That these did make an armed resistance, appears from Radegund's request, after the fane was burnt down, ut inter se populi pacem firmarent.

In most of the cases it is expressly stated that a church was erected on the site of the heathen tree or temple. (32) In this way the people's habits of thinking were consulted, and they could believe that the old sacredness had not departed from the place, but henceforth flowed from the presence of the true God (see Suppl.).

At the same time we here perceive the reason of the almost entire absence of heathen monuments or their remains, not only in Germany proper, but in the North, where certainly such temples existed, and more plentifully; conf. in chaps. VI. X. XVI. the temple at Sigtûn, baer î Baldrshaga, and the Nornas' temple. Either these were levelled with the ground to make room for a christian church, or their walls and halls were worked into the new building. We may be slow to form any high opinion of the building art among the heathen Germans, yet they must have understood how to arrange considerable masses of stone, and bind them firmly together. We have evidence of this in the grave-mounds and places of sacrifice still preserved in Scandinavia, partly also in Friesland and Saxony, from which some important inferences might be drawn with regard to the old heathen services, but these I exclude from my present investigation.

The results are these: the earliest seat of heathen worship was in groves, whether on mountain or in pleasant mead; there the first temples were afterwards built, and there also were the tribunals of the nation.

______________________

1. Unless it were dat. pl. of alcus [or alca alkh]. A Wendicholz, Bohem. holec, which has been adduced, is not to the point, for it means strictly a bald naked wretch, a beggar boy, Pol. golec, Russ. gholiak. besides, the Naharvali and the other Lygian nations can scarcely have been Slavs.

                2. I am not convinced that numen can refer to the place. The plain sense seems to be; 'the divinity has that virtue (which the Gemini have), and the name Alcis,' or 'of Alx,' or if dat. pl., 'the Alcae, Alci'. May not Alcis be conn. with alkh strength, safeguard, and the dat. alki pointing to a nom. alx; *alkw I defend; or even Caesar's alces and Pausanias's alkai elks?

TRANS.

                3. There is however a noun Hard, the name of many landing-places in the south of England, as Cracknor Hard, &c.

TRANS.

                4. And in one place haragâ = arae. Elsewhere the heathen term for altar, Gk. bwmoj, was Goth. biurds, OHG. piot, AS. beod, strictly a table (p. 38); likewise the Goth. badi, OHG. petti, AS. bed, bedd (lectus, p. 30) gets to mean ara, areola, fanum, conf. AS. wihbed, weohbed, weobed, afterwards distorted into weofed (ara, altare), OHG. kotapetti (gods'-bed, lectus, pulvinar templi), Graff 3, 51; with which compare Brunhild's bed and the like, also the Lat. lectisternium. 'Ad altare S. Kiliani, quod vulgo lectus dicitur,' Lang reg. 1, 239. 255 (A.D. 1160-5); (see Suppl.).

                5. To the Lat. lucus would correspond a Goth. láuhs, and this is confirmed by the OHG. lôh, AS. leáh. The Engl. lea, ley has acquired the meaning of meadow, field; also the Slav. lug, Boh. lutz, is at once grove, glade, and meadow. Not only the wood, but wooded meadows were sacred to gods (see Suppl.).

                6. Waldes hleo, hlea (umbra, umbraculum). Hel. 33, 22. 73, 23. AS. hleo, ON. hlie, OHG. liwa, Graff 2, 296, MHG. lie, liewe.

                7. Ruodolf of Fuld (863) has incorporated the whole passage, with a few alterations, in his treatise De translatione Alexandri (Pertz 2, 675), perhaps from some intermediate source. Tacitus's words must be taken as they stand. In his day Germany possessed no masters who could build temples or chisel statues; so the grove was the dwelling of the gods, and a sacred symbol did instead of a statue. Möser 30 takes the passage to mean, that the divinity common to the whole nation was worshipped unseen, so as not to give one district the advantage of possessing the temple; but that separate gods did have their images made. The view is too political, and also ill-suited to the isolation of tribes in those times. No doubt, a region which included a god's hill would acquire the more renown and sacredness, as spots like Rhetra and Loreto did from containing the Slavic sanctuary or a Madonna: that did not prevent the same worship from obtaining seats elsewhere. With the words of Tacitus compare what he says in Hist. 2, 78: est Judaem inter Syriamque Carmelus, ita vocant montem deumque, nec simulacrum deo aut templum, sic tradidere majores, ara tantum et reverentia; and in Dial. de Orat. 12: nemora vero et luci et secretum ipsum. In Tacitus secretum = secessus, seclusion, not arcanum.

                8. This hexameter is not a quotation, it is the author's own.

                9. Whoever is engaged in a holy office, and stands in the presence and precincts of the god, must not stumble, and if he falls to the ground, he forfeits his privilege. So he who in holy combat sinks to the earth, may not set himself on his legs, but must finish the fight on his knees, Danske viser 1, 115; so in certain places a stranger's carriage, if overturned, must not be set upright again, RA. 554. What is fabled of an idol called Sompar at Görlitz (neue lausitz. monatsschr. 1805, p. 1-18) has evidently been spun out of this passage in Tac.; the Semnones are placed in the Lausitz country, as they had been previously by Aventin (Frankf. 1580, p. 27), who only puts a king Schwab in the place of Sompar.

                10. Baduhenna, perhaps the name of a place, like Arduenna. Müllenhoff adds Badvinna, Patunna (Haupts zeitschr. 9, 241).

                11. Brissonius de reguo Pers. 2, 28; 'Persae diis suis nulla templa vel altaria constituunt, nulla simulacra': after Herodot. 1, 131.

                12. A shorter account of the same in the annalist Saxo, p. 133.

                13. Other MS. have 'mole' or 'metallo'. A brazen image on the oak is not to be thought of, as such a thing would have been alluded to in what precedes or follows. 

                14. Weddigen's westphal. mag. 3, 712.

                15. Spilckers beiträge 2, 121.

                16. From the notion of a forest temple the transition is easy to paying divine honours to a single tree. Festus has: delubrum fustis delibratus (staff with bark peeled off) quem venerabantur pro deo. Names given to particular trees are at the same time names of goddesses, e.g. ON. Hlin, Gnâ. It is worthy of notice, that the heathen idea of divine figures on trees has crept into christian legends, so deeply rooted was tree worship among the people. I refer doubters to the story of the Tyrolese image of grace, which grew up in a forest tree (Deutsche sagen, no. 348). In Carinthia you find Madonna figures fixed on the trees in gloomy groves (Sartoris reise 2, 165). Of like import seems to be the descriptions of wonderful maidens sitting inside hollow trees, or perched on the boughs (Marienkind, hausmächen no. 3. Romance de la infantina, see ch. XVI.). Madonna in the wood, Mar. legend. 177. Many oaks with Madonna in Normandy, Bosquet 196-7.

                17. Brzetislav burnt down the heathen groves and trees of the Bohemians in 1093, Pelzel 1, 76. The Poles called a sacred grove rok and uroczysko, conf. Russ. róshtcha, grove [root rek rok = fari, fatum; róshtcha is from rostí, rastí = grow]. On threat of hostile invasion, they cut rods (wicie) from the grove, and sent them round to summon their neighbours. Mickiewicz 1, 56.

                18. Conf. Turupid in Fornm. sög. 11, 385; but on Slav nations conf. Schiefner on Castrén 329.

                19. Joh. Voigts gesch. Preussens 1, 595-597.

                20. Acta sanctor. Bolland. July 31. p. 202; conf. Legenda aurea, cap. 102.

                21. Huic (Marti) praedae primordia vovebantur, huic truncis suspendebantur exuviae, Jornandes cap. 5.

                22. Virg. Georg. 2, 388: tibique (Bacche) oscilla ex alta suspendunt mollia pinu. In the story, however, it is not masks that are hung up, but real heads of beasts; are the ferarum imagines in Tac. Hist. 4, 22 necessarily images? Does oscilla mean capita oscillantia? It appears that when they hung up the heads, they propped open the mouth with a stick, conf. Isengr. 645. Reinardus 3, 293 (see Suppl.). Nailing birds of prey to the gate of a burg or barn is well known, and is practised to this day. Hanging up horses' heads was mentioned on p. 47. The Grîmnismâl 10 tells us, in Oðin's mansion there hung a wolf outside the door, and over than an eagle; were these mere simulacra and insignia? Witechind says, the Saxons, when sacrificing, set up an eagle over the gate: Ad orientalem portam ponunt aquilam, aramque Victoriae construents; this eagle seems to have been her emblem. A dog hung up over the threshold is also mentioned. Lex Alam. 102.

                23. St. Benedict found at Montecassino vetustissimum fanum, in quo ex antiquo more gentilium a stulto rusticano populo Apollo colebatur, circumquaque enim in cultum daemoniorum luci succreverant, in quibus adhuc eodem tempore infidelium insana multitudo sacrificiis sacrilegis insudabat. Greg. Mag. dialogi 2, 8. These were not German heathens, but it proves the custom to have been the more universal.

                24. An inscription found in Neapolitan territory, but supposed by Orelli 2053 to have been made by Ligorius, has 'Tamfanae sacrum' (Gudii inscript. antiq. p. lv. 11, de Wal p. 188); the word is certainly German, and formed like Hludana, Sigana (Sequana), Liutana (Lugdunum), Râbana (Ravenna) &c.

                25. Yet the Celtic forms also are not far removed, Ir. iaran, Wel. haiarn, Armor. uarn (ferrum); Ir. doras, Wel. dor (porta): haearndor = iron gate, quoted in Davie's Brit. Mythol. pp. 120, 560.

                26. Frontier mountains held sacred and made places of sacrifice by some nations; Ritters erdkunde 1, aufl. 2, 79. vol. 2, p. 903.

                27. The A.S. translation renders arae by wigbed (see p. 67), fana by heargas, idola by deofolgild, septa once by hegas (hedges), and the other time by getymbro. The spear hurled at the hearg gave the signal for its destruction.

                28. The multitude of statues made the adjoining wood thicker? Must we not supply an acc. copiam or speciem after imag. lapid.? [vicina saltus densabat evidently means crowded the adjoining part of the wood. So in Ovid: densae foliis buxi.

TRANS.]

                29. As the vulgar took Roman fortifications for devil's dikes, it was natural to associate with Roman castella the notion of idolitry. Rupertus Tuitiensis (d. 1135) in his account of the fire of 1128 that leveled such a castellum at Deuz, which had been adapted to christian worship, informs us that some thought it was built by Julius Caesar, others by Constantius and Constantine. In the emperor Otto's time, St. Mary appears by night to archbishop Heribert: 'surge, et Tuitiense castrum petens, locum in eodem mundari praecipe, ibique monasterium Deo mihique et omnibus sanctis constitue, ut, ubi quondam habitavit precatum et cultus daemonum, ibi justitia regnet et memoria sanctorum,' with more of the like, in the Vita Heriberti cap. 15. Conf. the fanum at Cologne above, p. 81.

                30. The asylum that atrium and temple offered within their precincts is in ON. griðastaðr, OHG. frîdhof, OS. vrîthob, Hel. 151, 2, 9. MHG. vrône vrîthof, Nib. 1795, 2; not at all our friedhof [but conn. with frei, free], conf. Goth. freidjan, OS. fridôn (parcere). That the constitution of the Old German sanctuaries was still for the most part heathenish, is discussed in RA. 886-92.

                31. Actum in illo betapûre (the church at Fulda) publice, Trad. Fuld. ed. Schannat no. 193. in bedebur, Lacombl. no 412 (A.D. 1162). in bedebure, Erhard p. 148 (A.D. 1121). betbur, Meyer Zürch. ortsn. 917.

                32. Sulp. Severus (ed. Amst. 1665), p. 458: Nam ubi fana destruxerat (Martinus), statim ibi aut ecclesias aut monasteria construebat. Dietmar of Merseb. 7, 52, p. 859 (speaking of Bishop Reinbern on Slav. territory, A.D. 1015): Fana idolorum destruens incendit, et mare daemonibus cultum immissis quatuor lapidibus sacro chrismate perunctis, et aqua purgans benedicta, novam Domino  .plantationem eduxit.

On the conversion of the Pantheon into a church, see Massmann's Eradius 476.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 67. ) For names compounded with alah, see Förstemann. Halazes-stat in Ratenzgowe (Hallstadt by Bamberg), MB. 28, 98 (yr. 889) seems a misreading for Halahes-stat; and Halazzes-stat 28, 192 (yr. 923) for Halahhes-stat. For the chap. in Baluze 1, 755 has Halax-stat, where Pertz 3, 133 has again Halaz-stat, but Bened. more correctly Alaga-stat. But even Pertz 3, 302 has Halax-stat. Dare we bring in the AS. ealgrian (tueri) and the Lat. arcere, arx? D. Sag. 319. Pictet in Origines 1, 227 connects alhs with Sanskr. alka. What means 'alle gassen und alhen' in the Limbg. chron. p.m. 5? With the Alcis in Tacitus conf. the Scythian korakoi, filioi daimonej = Orestes and Pylades, Lucian's Toxar. 7. D. Sag. 118.

                AS. weoh, templum: weoh gesôhte, Cod. Exon. 244, 6. Donerswe in Oldenburg seems to mean D.'s temple; and Esch-wege in Hesse may be a corrup. of Esch-weh, though acc. to Förstem 2, 111 it was already in the 10th cent. Eskine-wag, -weg; conf. Wôdenes-wege, p. 152 and Oðins-ve, p. 159. Even in OHG. we find we for wih: za themo we (al. parawe) ploazit, Gl. Ker. 27. In ON. Vandils-ve, Sæm. 166a. Frös-vi, Dipl. Suecan. no. 1777; Götä-wi (Göte-vi) 1776. It is said of the gods: valda veom, Sæm. 41b. Skaði says: frâ mînom veom oc vöngom, 67a. Valhallar til, ok vess heilags 113a; does vess belong to ve, or stand for vers? In Sæm. 23b (F. Magn. p. 255n.) 'alda ve iarðar,' populorum habitaculum, is opp. to ûtve = ûtgarða, gigantum habitacula. The Goth. veihs, sacer, OHG. wîh, is wanting in OS., AS., and ON. Cote-wîh, nomen monasterii (Pertz. 7, 460), is afterw. Göttweih; conf. Ketweig, Beham 335, 31. Chetewic in Gerbert (Diemer's Pref. xxi.).

                p. 68n. ) Ara = asa, ansa, is a god's seat, as the Goth. badi, OHG. petti, AS. bed mean both ara and fanum, D. Sag. p. 115. beod-gereordu (n. pl.), epulae, Cædm. 91, 27. ad apicem gemeinen gunbet, MB. 29a, 143 (yr. 1059). gumpette, Hess. Ztschr. 3, 70; conf. Gombetten in Hesse. Does the OHG. ebanslihti (Graff 6, 789) mean ara or area? O. Slav. kumir, ara, idolum; conf. Finn. kumarran, adoro, inclino me. On other Teut. words for altar, such as ON. stalli and the plur. hörgar, see D. Sag. 114-5.

                p. 69. ) OHG. haruc seems preserved in Harahes-heim, Cod. Lauresh. 3, 187, and in Hargenstein, Panzer's Beitr. 1, 1; conf. Hercynius. AS. Besinga-hearh, Kemble no. 994. ON. hâtimbroðom hörgi roeðr, Sæm. 42a. hof mun ek kiosa, ok hörga marga 141a. Thors-argh, -aerg, -harg, now Thors-hälla, Hildebr. iii. D. Sag. 115. The hof sometimes coupled with hörgr occurs even in MHG. in the sense of temple, temple-yard: ze hofe geben (in atrium templi), Mar. 168, 42. ze hove giengen (atrium) 169, 30. den hof rûmen (temple) 172, 5; conf. ON. hofland, temple-land, Munch om Skiringssal 106-7. D. Sag. 116-7. Likewise garte, tûn, pl. tûnir, wiese, aue (p. 225) are used for holy places, Gr. alsoj.

                p. 69. ) OHG. paro, AS. bearo, are supported by kiparida = nemorosa, which Graff 3, 151 assoc. with kipârida; by AS. bearewas, saltus, Haupt's Ztschr. 9, 454b, and 'bearo sette, weobedd worhte,' Cædm. 172, 7. Lactantius's antistes nemorum, luci sacerdos' is rendered 'bearwes bigenga, wudubearwes weard' 207, 27. 208, 7. Names of places: Parawa, Neugart. Cod. dipl. no. 30 (yr. 760); Barwithsyssel, Müllenh. Nordalb. stud. 1, 138; ON. Barey. The OHG. za themo parawe, Diut. 1, 150 is glossed on the margin by 'to deme hoen althere, to demo siden althere,' Goslarer bergg. 343.

                p. 69 n.) OHG. luoc, specus, cubile, delubrum, Graff 2, 129. in luakirum, delubris, Diut. 1, 530a. lôh, lucus, Graff 2, 128. In Rudolf's Weltchr. occurs betelôch, lucus, pl. beteloecher. Notker's Cap. 143 distinguishes the kinds of woods as walden, forsten, lôhen. The Vocab. optim. p. 47a has: silva wilder walt, nemus schoener walt, lucus dicker walt, saltus hoher walt. Mommsen, Unterital. dial. 141, derives lucus from luere, hallow. There are hursts named after divine beings: Freckenhorst, Givekanhorst (conf. Freckastein, Givekanstên. ok þâr stendr enn Thôrsteinn, Landn. ii. 12). It comes of forest-worship that the gods are attended by wild beasts, Wuotan by wolf and raven, Froho by a boar.

                p. 69. ) Worshipping in the still and shady grove was practised by many nations. 'Thou hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree' complains Jeremiah 3, 13. kluton alsoj iron Aqhnaihj, Od. 6, 321. en alsei dendrhenti foibou Apollwnoj 9, 200. alsea Persefonaihj 10, 509. alsoj upo skieron ekathbolou Apollwnoj 20, 278. Athenæus 4, 371-2, celebrates the cool of the sacred grove. inhorruit atrum majestate nemus, Claudian in Pr. et Olybr. 125 (on nemus, see p. 648). in tuo luco et fano, Plaut. Aulul. iv. 2, 8. lucus sacer, ubi Hesperidum horti, Pliny 5, 5. itur in antiquam silvam, stabula alta ferarum, Æn.6, 179. nunc et in umbrosis Fauno decet immolare lucis, Hor. Od. i. 4, 11. nec magis auro fulgentia atque ebore, quam lucos et in iis silentia ipsa adoramus, Pliny 12, 1. proceritas silvae et secretum loci et admiratio umbrae fidem numinis facit, Seneca ep. 41. As the wood is open above, a hole is left in the top of a temple, conf. the Greek hypæthral temples: Terminus quo loco colebatur, super eum foramen patebat in tecto, quod nefas esse putarent Terminum intra tectum consistere, Festus sub v.; conf. Ov. Fasti 2, 671. Servius in Æn. 9, 448. The Celts unroofed their temples once a year (apostegaz.), Strabo 4, p. 198. A grove in Sarmatia was called alieuma qeou, piscatura dei, Ptol. 3, 5. The Abasgi in the Caucasus venerated groves and woods (alsh kai mlaj), and counted trees among their gods, Procop. 2, 471; conf. the prophetic rustle of the cypresses in Armenia (p. 1110). Even in the Latin poems of the MA. we find: Amoris nemus Paradisus, Carm. bur. 162. circa silvae medium locus est occultus, ubi viget maxime suus deo cultus 163. In Eckhart 186, 32 the Samaritan woman says, 'our fathers worshipped under the trees on the mountain.' In Troj. kr. 890: si wolden gerne hûsen ze walde ûf wilden riuten. Walther v. Rh. 64b: in einen schoenen grüenen walt, dar diu heidensche diet mit ir abgöten geriet (ruled?). In stories of the Devil, he appears in the forest gloom, e.g. Ls. 3, 256, perhaps because men still thought of the old gods as living there. Observe too the relation of home-sprites and wood-wives to trees, p. 509.

                Worshipping on mountains is old and widely spread; conf. âs, ans (p. 25), and the Wuotans-bergs, Donners-bergs. Three days and nights the Devil is invoked on a mountain, Müllenh. no. 227. Mountain worship is Biblical: 'on this mountain (Gerizium),' John 4, 20; see Raumer's Palest. p. 113.

                p. 73. ) Like the Donar's oak of Geismar is a large holy oak, said to have stood near Mülhausen in Thuringia; of its wood was made a chest, still shown in the church of Eichenried village, Grasshof's Mülh. p. 10.

                p. 74. ) On thegathon, see Hpt's Ztschr. 9, 192, and Wilmaus' essay, Münst. 1857. summum et principem omn. deorum, qui apud gentes thegaton nuncupatur, Wilkens biogr. of St. Gerburgis; conf. Wigand's arch. 2, 206. tagaton discussed in Ritter's christl. phil. 3, 308. It is Socrate's daimonion, Plato's to agaqon, the same in Apul. apolog. p. m. 278. Can thegatho be for theodo, as Tehota is for Thiuda? Förstem. 1, 1148.

p. 75. ) The holy wood by Hagenau is named in Chmel reg. Ruperti 1071, D. Sag. 497. fronwald, Weisth. 1, 423. On the word bannwald conf. Lanz. 731: diu tier (beasts) bannen. Among holy groves was doubtless the Fridewald, and perh. the Spiess, both in Hesse, Ztschr. f. Hess. gesch. 2, 163. Friðesleáh, Kemble no. 187. 285; Ôswudu 1, 69 is a man's name, but must have been that of a place first. The divine grove Glasir with golden foliage, Sn. 130, stands outside Valhöll; Sæm. 140b says Hiörvarð's abode was named Glasis lundr.

                p. 75. ) The adoration of the oak is proved by Velthem's Sp. hist. 4, 57 (ed. Le Long, fol. 287): Van ere eyken, die men anebede.

                        In desen tiden was ganginge mede

                        tusschen Zichgen ende Diest ter stede

                        rechte bi-na te-midden werde,

                        daer dede menich ere bedeverde

                        tot ere eyken (dat si u cont),

                        die alse een cruse gewassen stont,

                        met twee rayen gaende ut,

                        daer menich quam overluut,

                        die daer-ane hinc scerpe ende staf,

                        en seide, dat hi genesen wer daer-af.

                        Som liepense onder den bôm, etc.

Here is a Christian pilgrimage of sick people to a cross-shaped tree between Sicken and Diest in Brabant, and the hanging thereon of bandage and staff upon recovery, as at p. 1167. 1179; conf. the heathen oscilla (p. 78). The date can be ascertained from Le Long's Velthem.

                p. 77. ) 'Deos nemora incolere persuasum habent (Samogitae)  . credebat deos intra arbores et cortices latere' says Lasicz, Hpt's Ztschr. 1, 138. The Ostiaks have holy woods, Klemm 3, 121. The Finnic 'Tharapita' should be Tharapila. Castrén 215 thinks –pila is bild, but Renvall says tharapilla = horned owl, Esth. torropil, Verhandl. 2, 92. Juslen 284 has pöllö bubo, and 373 tarhapöllö bubo. With this, and the ON. bird in Glasis lundr, conf. a curious statement in Pliny 10, 47: in Hercynio Germaniae saltú invisitata genera alitum accepimus, quarum plumae ignium modo colluceant noctibus; conf. Stephan's Stoflief. 116.

                p. 78 n.) Oscilla are usu. dolls, puppets, OHG. tocchun, Graff 5, 365. They might even be crutches hung up on the holy tree by the healed (Suppl. to 75). But the prop. meaning must be images. On church walls also were hung offerings, votive gifts, rarities: si hiezen diu weppe hâhen in die kirchen an die mûre, Servat. 2890.

                p. 79. ) A Celtic grove descr. in Lucan's Phars. 3, 399; a Norse temple in Eyrbyggja-s. c. 4.

                p. 80. ) Giefers (Erh. u. Rosenkr. Ztschr. f. gesch. 8, 261-285) supposes that the templum Tanfanae belonged at once to the Cherusci, Chatti and Marsi; that Tanfana may come from tanfo, truncus (?), and be the name of a grove occupying the site of Eresburg, now Ober-Marsberg; that one of its trunci, which had escaped destruction by the Romans (solo aequare he makes burning of the grove), was the Irmensul, which stood on the Osning between Castrum Eresburg and the Carls-schanze on the Brunsberg, some 4 or 5 leagues from Marsberg, and a few leagues from the Buller-born by Altenbeke, the spring that rose by miracle, D. Sag. 118.

                p. 80. ) To the isarno-dori in the Jura corresp. Trajan's Iron Gate, Turk. Demir kapa, in a pass of Dacia. Another Temir kapa in Cilicia, Koch Anabas. 32. Müller lex. Sal. p. 36. Clausura is a narrow pass, like Qermopulai, or pulai alone; conf. Schott's Deutschen in Piemont p. 229.

                p. 85. ) As castrum was used for templum, so is the Boh. kostel, Pol. kosciel for church. Conversely, templum seems at times to mean palatium; conf. 'exustem est palatium in Thornburg' with 'exustum est famosum templum in Thornburg,' Pertz. 5, 62-3, also 'Thornburg castellum et palatium Ottonis' 5, 755. The OS. rakud is both templum and palatium. Beside 'casulae' = fana, we hear of a cella antefana (ante fana?), Mone Anz. 6, 228.

                p. 85.) Veniens (Chrocus Alamann. rex) Arvernos, delubrum illud quod Gallica lingua vassogalate vocant, diruit atque subvertit; miro enim opere factum fuit, Greg. Tur. 1, 32. The statement is important, as proving a difference of religion between Celts and Germans: Chrocus would not destroy a building sacred to his own religion. Or was it, so early as that, a christian temple? conf. cap. 39.

                p. 85. ) Expressions for a built temple: 'hof âtti hann î tûninu, sêr þess enn merki, þat er nu kallat tröllaskeið' Laxd. 66. sal, Graff sub v.; der sal, Diemer 326, 7. AS. reced, OS. rakud, seems conn. with racha, usu. = res, caussa, but 'zimborôn thia racha,' O. iv. 19, 38; conf. wih and wiht. Later words: pluoz-hûs, blôz-hûs, Graff 4, 1053. abgot-hûs fanum 1054. The Lausitz Mag. 7, 166 derives chirihhâ, AS. cyrice, from circus. O. Sl. tzerky, Dobr. 178; Croat. czirkva, Carniol. zirkva, Serv. tzrkva, O. Boh. cjerkew, Pol. cerkiew (conf. Gramm. 3, 156. Pref. to Schultze xi. Graff 4, 481). The sanctuary, ON. griðastaðr, is not to be trodden, Fornm. sög. 4, 186; beasts nor man might there be harmed, no intercourse should men with women have (engi viðskipti skyldu karlar við konur ega þar, Fornald. sög. 2, 63.)

                p. 86. ) Heathen places of worship, even after the conversion, were still royal manors or sees and other benefices endowed with the estate of the old temple, like Herbede on the Ruhr, which belonged to Kaufungen, D. Sag. 589. Mannh. Ztschr. 3, 147. Many manors (also glebe-lands acc. to the Weisthümer) had to maintain 'eisernes vieh, fasel-vieh,' bulls for breeding (p. 93). In Christian as in heathen times, holy places were revealed by signs and wonders. A red-hot harrow is let down from heaven (Sommer), like the burning plough in the Scyth. tale (Herod. 4, 5), D. Sag. 58-9. Legends about the building of churches often have the incident, that, on the destined spot in the wood, lights were seen at night, so arranged as to show the ground plan of the future edifice. They appear to a subulcus in the story of Gandersheim, Pertz 6, 309-10; to another, Frickio by name, in the story of Freckenhorst, where St. Peter as carpenter designs the figure of the holy house, Dorow. i. 1, 32-3; conf. the story at p. 54 and that of Wessobrunn, MB. 7, 372. Falling snow indicates the spot, Müllenh. 113; conf. Hille-snee, Holda's snow, p. 268 n. 304. Where the falcon stoops, a convent is built, Wigand's Corv. güterb. 105. The spot is suggested by cows in a Swed. story, Wieselgren 408; by resting animals in a beautiful AS. one, Kemble no. 581 (yr 974).

                p. 87. ) On almost all our German mountains are to be seen footmarks of gods and heroes, indicating places of ancient worship, e.g. of Brunhild on the Taunus, of Gibich and Dietrich on the Hartz. The Allerhätenberg in Hesse, the 'grandfather-hills' elsewhere, are worth noting.

 

 

CHAPTER V.

PRIESTS

 

 

 

The most general term for one who is called to the immediate service of deity (minister deorum, Tac. Germ. 10) is one derived from the name of deity itself. From the Goth. guð (deus) is formed the adj. gaguds (godly, pius, eusebhj), then gagudei (pietas, eusebeia). In OHG. and MHG., I find pius translated erhaft, strictly reverens, but also used for venerandus; our fromm has only lately acquired this meaning, the MHG. vrum being simply able, excellent. The God-serving, pious man is in Goth. gudja (iereuj Matt. 8,4, 27, 1. 63. Mk. 10, 34. 11, 27. 14, 61. Lu. 1, 5. 20, 1. Jo. 18, 19. 22. 19, 6. ufargudja (arciereuj) Mk 10, 33. gudjinôn (ierateuein), Lu. 1, 8. gudjinassus (ierateia) Lu. 1, 9. (see Suppl.)

That these were heathen expressions follows from the accordance of the ON. goði (pontifex), hofs goði (fani antistes), Egilss. 754. Freys goði, Nialss. cap. 96. 117. Fornm. sög. 2, 206. goðord (sacerdotium). An additional argument is found in the disappearance of the word from the other dialects, just as our alah disappeared, though the Goths had found alhs unobjectionable. Only a faint vestige appears in the OHG. cotinc by which tribunus is glossed, Diut. 1, 187 (Goth. gudiggs?).

Now as Ulphilas (1) associates gudja and sinista (presbuteroj, elder, man of standing, priest), a remarkable sentence in Amm. Marcell. 28, 5 informs us, that the high priest of the Burgundians was called sinisto: Nam sacerdos omnium maximus apud Burgundios vocatur sinistus, et est perpetuus, (2) obnoxius discriminibus nullis ut reges. The connexion of priests with the nobility I have discussed in RA. 267-8 (see Suppl.).

More decidedly heathen are the OHG. names for a priest harugari, Diut. 1, 514, (3) and parawari, Diut. 1, 150, (being derived from haruc and paro, the words for temple given on p. 68-9, and confirming what I have maintained, that these two terms were synonymous). They can hardly have been coined by the glossist to interpret the Lat. aruspex, they must have existed in our ancient speech.

A priest who sacrificed was named pluostrari (see p. 36).

The fact that cotinc could bear the sense of tribunus shows the close connexion between the offices of priest and judge, which comes out still more clearly in a term peculiar to the High Germ. dialect: êwa, êa signified not only the secular, but the divine law, these being closely connected in the olden times, and equally sacred; hence êowart, êwart law-ward, administrator of law, nomikoj, AS. æ-gleaw, æ-láreow, Goth. vitôdafasteis, one learned in the law, K. 55 56,. Gl. Hrab. 974. N. ps. 50, 9. êwarto of the weak decl. in O.I. 4, 2. 18. 72. gotes êwarto I. 4, 23. and as late as the 12th century êwarte, Mar. 21. and, without the least reference to the Jewish office, but quite synonymous with priest: der heilige êwarte, Reinh. 1705. der bâruc und die êwarten sin, Parz. 13, 25. Wh. 217, 23 of Saracen priests (see Suppl.). The very similar êosago, êsago stood for judex, legislator, RA. 781.

The poetof the Heliand uses the expression wihes ward (templi custos) 150, 24; to avoid the heathen as well as a foreign term, he adopts periphrases: the giêrôdo man (geehrte, honoured), 3, 19. the frôdo man (frôt, fruot, prudens) 3, 21. 7, 7. frôdgumo (gumo, homo) 5, 23. 6, 2. godcund gumo 6, 12, which sounds like gudja above, but may convey the peculiar sense in which Wolfram uses 'der guote man'. (4) In the Romance expressions prudens homo, bonus homo (prudhomme, bonhomme) there lurks a reference to the ancient jurisprudence.

Once Ulphilas renders arciereuj by aúhumists veiha, John 18, 13, but never iereuj by veiha.

With christianity there came in foreign words (see Suppl.). The Anglo-Saxons adopted the Lat. sacerdos in abbreviated from: sacerd, pl. sacerdas; and Ælfred translates Beda's pontifex and summus pontificum (both of them heathen), 2, 13 by biscop and caldorbiscop. T. and O. use in the same sense bisgof, biscof (from episcopus), O. I. 4, 4. 27. 47; and the Hel. 150, 24 biscop. Later on, priester (from presbyter, following the idea of elder and superior), and pfaffe (papa) came to be the names most generally used; AS. preost, Engl. priest,French prestre, prêtre; in Veldek, prêster rhymes with mêster, En. 9002.

When Cæsar, bell. Gall. 6, 21, says of the Germans: Neque druides habent qui rebus divinis praesint, neque sacrificiis student,

the statement need not be set down as a mistake, or as contradicting what Tacitus tells us of the German priests and sacrifices. Cæsar is all along drawing a contrast between them and the Gauls. He had described the latter 6, 16 as excessively addicted to sacrifices; and his 'non studere sacrificiis' must in the connexion mean no more than to make a sparing use of sacrifices. As little did there prevail among the Germans the elaborately finished Druid-system of the Gauls; but they did not want for priests or sacrifices of their own.

The German priests, as we have already gathered from a cursory review of their titles, were employed in the worship of the gods and in judging the people. In campaigns, discipline is entrusted to them alone, not to the generals, the whole war being carried on as it were in the presence of the deity: Ceterum neque animadvertere neque vincire nec verberare quidem nisi sacerdotibus permissum, non quasi in poenam, nec ducis jussu, sed velut deo imperante, quem adesse bellantibus credunt, Germ. 7 (see Suppl.). The succeeding words must also refer to the priests, it is they that take the 'effigies et signa' from the sacred grove and carry them into battle. We learn from cap. 10, that the sacerdos civitatis superintends the divination by rods, whenever it is done for the nation. If the occasion be not a public one, the paterfamilias himself can direct the matter, and the priest need not be called in:

a remarkable limitation of the priestly power, and a sign how far the rights of the freeman extended in strictly private life; on the same principle, I suppose, that in very early times covenant transactions could be settled between the parties, without the intervention of the judge (RA. 201). Again, when the divination was by the neighing of the white steeds maintained by the state, priests accompanied the sacred car, and accredited the transaction. The priest alone may touch the car of Nerthus, by him her approaching presence is perceived, he attends her full of reverence, and leads her back at last toher sanctuary, cap. 40. Segimund, the son of Segestes, whom Tac. Ann. 1, 57 calls sacerdos, had been not a German but a Roman priest (apud aram Ubiorum), and after tearing up the alien chaplet (vittas ruperat), had fled to his home.

These few incidental notices of priests give us anything but a complete view of their functions (see Suppl.). On them doubtless devolved also th performance of public prayers, the slaying of victims, the consecration of the kings and of corpses, perhaps of marriages too, the admimistering of oaths, and many other duties. Of their attire, their isignia and gradations, we hear nothing at all; once Tacitus cap. 43 speaks of a sacerdos muliebri ornatu, but gives no details. No doubt the priests formed a separate, possibly a hereditary order, though not so powerful and influential as in Gaul. Probably, beside that sacerdos civitatis, there were higher and lower ones. Only one is cited by name, the Cattian, i.e. Hessian, Libes in Strabo (Aibhj twn Cattwn iereuj), who with other German prisoners was dragged to Rome in the pompa of Germanicus. Of him Tacitus (so far as we still have him) is silent. (5) Jornandes's statement is worthy of notice, that the Gothic priests were termed pileati in distinction from the rest of the people, the capillati, and that during sacrifice they had the head covered with a hat; conf. RA. 271 (see Suppl.). Oðinn is called Siðhöttr, broadhat.

The succeeding period, down to the introduction of christianity, scarcely yields any information on the condition of the priesthood in continental Germany; their existence we infer from that of temples and sacrifices. A fact of some importance has been preserved by Beda, Hist. eccl. 2, 13: a heathen priest of the Anglo-Saxons was forbidden to carry arms or to ride a male horse: Non enim licuerat, pontificem sacrorum vel arma ferre, vel praeterquam in equa equitare. Can this have any connexion with the regulation which, it is true, can be equally explained from the Bible, that christian clergymen, when riding about the country, should be mounted on asses and colts, not horses (RA. 86-88) ? Festus also remarks; Equo vehi flamini diali non licebat, ne, si longius digrederetur, sacra neglegerentur (see Suppl.). The transmission of such customs, which have impressed themselves on the habits of life, would seem to have been quite admissible. I shall try elsewhere to show in detail, how a good deal in the gestures and attitudes prescribed for certain legal transactions savours of priestly ceremony at sacrifice and prayer (see Suppl.). It is not unlikely, as heathen sacred places were turned into christian ones, that it was also thought desirable amongst a newly converted people to attract their former priests to the service of the new religion. They were the most cultivated portion of the people, the most capable of comprehending the christian doctrine and recommending it to their countrymen. From the ranks of the heathen priesthood would therefore proceed both the bitterest foes and the warmest partizans of innovation. (6) The collection of the Letters of Boniface has a passage lamenting the confusion of christian and heathen rites, into which foolish or reckless and guilty priests had suffered themselves to fall. (7) This might have been done in blameless ignorance or from deliberate purpose, but scarcely by any men except such as were previously familiar with heathenism.

Even the Norse priesthood is but very imperfectly delineated in the Eddas and sagas. A noteworthy passage in the Ynglingasaga cap. 2 which regards the Ases altogether as colonists from Asia, and their residence Asgard as a great place of sacrifice, makes the twelve principle Ases sacrificial priests (hofgoðar): skyldu þeir râða fyrir blôtum ok dômum manna î milli (they had to advise about sacrifices and dooms); and it adds, that they had been named dîar (divi) and drôttnar (domini). This representation, though it be but a conjecture of Snorri's, shows the high estimation in which the priestly order stood, so that gods themselves were placed at the head of sacrifices and judgments. But we need not therefore confound dîar and drôttnar with real human priests.

I must draw attention to the fact, that certain men who stood nearer to the gods by services and veneration, and priests first of all, are entitled friends of the gods (8) (see Suppl.) Hence such names as Freysvinr, AS. Freáwine, Bregowine for heroes and kings (see ch. X, Frôwin). According to Eyrbygg, pp. 6, 8, 16, 26, Rôlfr was a Thôrs vinr; he had a hof of that god on a meadow, and was therefore named Thôrrôlfr, he dedicated to him his son Steinn and named him Thôrsteinn, who again dedicated his son Grimr to the god and named him Thôrgrîmr; by this dedicating (gefa), was meant the appointing to the office of goði or priest. And (according to Landn. 2, 23) Hallstein gave his son as goði to Thôrr. Here we see the priestly office running on through several generations (see Suppl.). However, Odysseus is also called Aioloj filoj aqanatoisi qeoisi, Od. 10, 2; but then in Od. 10, 21 he is tamihj anemwn, director of winds, therefore a priest.

How deeply the priestly office in the North encroached on the administration of justice, need not be insisted on here; in their judicial character the priests seem to have exercised a good deal of control over the people, whereas little is said of their political influence at the courts of kings; on this point it is enough to read the Nialssaga. In Iceland, even under christianity, the judges retained the name and several of the functions of heathen goðar, Grâgâs 1, 109-113. 130. 165. Convents, and at the same time state-farmers, especially occupiers of old sanctuaries (see p. 85, note) apparently continue in the Mid. Ages to have peculiar privileges, on which I shall enlarge in treating of weisthümer. They have the keeping of the country cauldron, or weights and measures, and above all, the brood-animals, to which great favour is shown everywhere (see Suppl.)

The goði is also called a blôtmaðr (sacrificulus), bliotr (Egilssaga p. 209), but all blôtmenn need not be priests; the word denoted rather any participant in sacrifices, and afterwards, among christians, the heathen in general. It tallies with the passage in Tacitus about the paterfamilias, that any iarl or hersir (baron) might perform sacrifice, though he was not a priest. Saxo Gramm. p. 176 relates of Harald after his baptism: Delubra diruit, victimarios proscripsit, flaminium abrogavit. By victimarii he must mean blôtmenn, by flamens the priests. He tells us on p. 104, that at the great Upsala sacrifices plausus, ac mollia nolarum crepitacula; Greek antiquity has also something to tell of choruses and dances of priests.

On the clothing of the Norse priests, I have not come across any information. Was there a connexion between them and the poets? Bragi the god of song has nothing to do with sacrifices; yet the poetic art was thought a sacred hallowed thing: Oðinn spoke in verse, he and his hofgoðar are styled lioðasmiðir (song-smiths), Yngl. saga cap. 6. Can Skáld (poeta, but neut.) be the same as the rare OHG. sgalto (sacer)? Diut. 1, 183. Gl. ker. 69, scaldo. Even of christian minstrels soon after the conversion one thing and another is told, that has also come down to us about heathen skâlds.

Poetry borders so closely on divination, the Roman vates is alike songster and soothsayer, and soothsaying was certainly a priestly function. Amm. Marcell. 14, 9 mentions Alamannian auspices, and Agathias 2, 6 manteij or crhsmologoi Alamannikoi.

Ulphilas avoids using a Gothic word for the frequently occuring profhthj, he invariably puts praufêtus, and for the fem. profhtij praúfêteis, Lu. 2, 36; why not veitaga and veitagô? The OHG. and AS. versions are bolder for once, and give wîzago, wîtega. (9) Was the priest, when conducting auguries and auspices, a veitaga? conf. inveitan, p. 29. The ON. term is spâmaðr (spae-man), and for prophetess spâkona (spae-woman, A.S. witegestre). Such diviners were Mîmir and Grîpir. *** In old French poems they are devin (divini, divinatores) [seers (the same in Latin - should be divinatoris?)] , which occasionally comes to mean poets: uns devins, qui de voir dire est esprovez, [the seers, whose truthfulness is confirmed]  Méon 4, 145. ce dient li devin [this say the seers], Ren. 7383; so Tristr. 1229: li contor dient (the tale-tellers say] (see Suppl.). ***

We have now to speak of the prophetesses and priestesses of antiquity.

The mundium (wardship) in which a daughter, a sister, a wife stood, apears in old heathen time not to have excluded them from holy offices, such as sacrificing (see Suppl.), or from a good deal of influence over the people. Tacitus, after telling us how mightily the German women wrought upon the valour of their warriors, and that the Romans for greater security demanded noble maidens from particular nations, adds: Inesse quin etiam sanctum et providum (feminis) putant (10), nec aut consilia earum aspernantur, aut responsa negligunt. And before that, Caesar 1. 50: Quod apud Germanos ea consuetudo esset, ut matres fam. eorum sortibus et vaticinationibus declararent, utrum proelium committi ex usu esset, necne; eas ita dicere: non esse fas Germanos superare, si ante novam lunam proelio contendissent (see Suppl.).

While history has not preserved the name of one German vates, it has those of several prophetesses. Tac. Germ. 8: Vidimus sub divo Vespasiano Veledam (as a prisoner in his triumph) diu apud plerosque numinis loco habitam. Hist. 4, 61: Ea virgo nationis Bructerae, late imperitabat, vetere apud Germanos more, quo plearasque feminarum fatidicas, et augescente superstitione arbitrantur deas. Tuncque Veledae auctoritas adolevit; nam 'prosperas Germanis res et excidium legionum' praedixerat. In 4, 65, when the people of Cologne were making an alliance with the Tencteri they made the offer: Arbitrum habebimus Civilem et Veledam apud quos pacta sancientur. Sic lenitis Tencteris, legati ad Civilem et Veledam missi cum donis, cuncta ex voluntate Agrippinensium perpetravere. Sed coram adire, alloquique Veledam negatum. Arcebantur aspectu, quo venerationis plus inesset. Ipsa edita in turre; delectus e propinquis consulta responsaque ut internuntius numinis portabat. 5, 22: Praetoriam triremen flumine Luppia donum Veledae traxere. 5, 25; Veledam propinquosque monebat. Her captivity was probably related in the lost chapters of the fifth book. (11) This Veleda had been preceded by others: Sed et olim Auriniam (hardly a translation of any Teutonic name, such as the ON. Gullveig, gold-cup; some have guessed Aliruna, Ölrûn, Albruna) et complures alias venerati sunt, non adulatione nec tamquam facerent deas, Germ. 8. A later one, named Ganna, is cited by Dio Cassius, 67, 5; (12) and in the year 577 Guntheramnus consulted a woman 'habentem spiritum phitonis, ut ei quae erant eventura narraret,' Greg. Tur. 5, 14 (in Aimoin 3, 22 she is mulier phytonissa, i.e. puqwnissa). One much later still, Thiota, who had come to Mentz out of Alamannia, is noticed in the Annals of Fulda, anno 847 (Pertz 1, 365). (13) As Cassandra foretold the fall of Troy, our prophetesses predict the end of the world (v. infra); and Tacitus Ann. 14, 32 speaks of British druidesses in these words: Feminae in furore turbatae adesse exitium canebant; conf. 14, 30. But we have the sublimest example before us in the Völuspâ (see Suppl.).

Those grayhaired, barefooted Cimbrian priestesses in Strabo (v. supra, p. 55) in white robe and linen doublet, begirt with brazen clasps, slaughtering the prisoners of war and prophesying from their blood in the sacrificial cauldron, appear as frightful witches by the side of the Bructerian Maid; together with divination they exercise the priestly office. Their minutely described apparel, we may suppose, resembled that of the priests.

While in Tac. Germ. 40 it is a priest that attends the goddess, and guides the team of kine in her car; in the North conversely, we have handmaids waiting upon gods. From a remarkable story in the Olaf Tryggv. saga (Fornm. sög. 2, 73 seq.), which the christian composer evidently presents in an odious light, we at all events gather that in Sweden a virgin attended the car of Freyr on its travels among the people; Frey var fengin til þionosto kona ung ok frið (into Frey's service was taken a woman young and fair), and she is called kona Freys. Otherwise a priestess is called gyðja, hofgyðja, corresponding to goði, hofgoði; (14) see Turiðr hofgyðja, Islend. sög. 1, 205. þorlaug gyðja, Landn. 1, 21. Steinvör and Fridgerðr, Sagabibl. 1, 99. 3, 268.

But the Norse authorities likewise dwell less on the priestly functions of women, than on their higher gift, as it seems, of divination: Perita augurii femina, Saxo Gramm. 121. Valdamarr konûngr âtti môður miök gamla ok örvasa, svâ at hun lâ î rekkju, en þo var hun framsýn af Fîtons anda, sem margir heiðnir menn (King V. had a mother very old and feeble, so that she lay in bed, and there was she seized by a spirit of Python, like many heathen folk), Fornm. sög. 1, 76. Of like import seems to be a term which borders on the notion of a higher and supernatural being, as in the case of Veleda; and that is dîs (nympha, numen). It may be not accidental, that the spâkona in several instances bears the proper name Thôrdîs (Vatnsd. p. 186 seq. Fornm. sög. 1, 255. Islend. sög. 1, 140. Kormakkss. p. 204 seq.); dîs however, a very early word, which I at one time connected with the Gothic filudeisei (astutia, dolus), appears to be no other than our OHG. itis, OS. idis, AS. ides (femina, nympha).

As famous and as widely spread was the term völva, (15) which first denotes any magic-wielding soothsayeress (Vatnsd. p. 44. Fornm. sög. 3, 214. Fornald. sög. 2, 165-6. 506), and is afterwards attached to a particular mythic Völva, of whom one of the oldest Eddic songs, the Völuspâ, treats. Either völu stands here for völvu, or the claim of the older form Vala may be asserted; to each of them would correspond an OHG. Walawa or Wala, which suggests the Walada above, being only derived in a different way. In the saga Eiriks rauða we come upon Thorbiörg, the little Vala (Edda Sæm. Hafn. 3, 4).

Heiðr is the name not only of the völva in the Edda (Sæm. 4, conf. 118) but also of the one in the Orvarodssaga (conf. Sagabibl. 3, 155).

Hyndla (canicula) is a prophetess that rides on wolves, and dwells in a cave.

I guess also that the virgins Thorgerðr and Irpa (Fornm. sög. 2, 108. 3, 100. 11, 134-7. 142. 172), to whom all but divine honours were paid, and the title of hörgabrûðr (nympha lucorum) and even the name of guð (numen) was accorded, Nialss. cap. 89, are not to be excluded from this circle. So in the valkyrs, beside their godhood, there resides somewhat of the priestly, e.g. their virginity (see ch. XVI and Suppl.).

We shall return to these 'gleg' and 'wise' women (and they have other names besides), who, in accordance with a deeply marked feature of our mythology, trespass on the superhuman. Here we had to set forth their connexion with sacrifice, divination and the priesthood.

________________

1. Strictly the Evangelist; the translator had no choice. Trans.

                2. For the sense of perpetuity attaching to sin- in composition, see Gramm. 2, 554-5.

                3. If haruc meant wood or rock, and harugari priest, they are very like the Ir. and Gael. carn, cairn, and cairneac priest. O'Brien 77.

                4. Parz. 457, 2. 458, 25. 460, 19. 476, 23. 487, 23. The gôdo gumo, Hel. 4, 16 is said of John; ther guato man, O. ii. 12, 21. 49 of Nicodemus; in Ulrich's Lanzelot, an abbot is styled der guote man, 4613. 4639. conf. 3857, 4620 êwarte, 4626 priester. But with this is connected diu guote frouwe (v. infra), i.e. originally bona socia, so that in the good man also there peeps out something heathenish, heretical. In the great Apologue, the cricket is a clergyman, and is called (Ren. 8125) preudoms and Frobert = Fruotbert (see Suppl.)

                5. Libes might be Leip, Lêb, O.N. Leifr, Goth. Láibs? A var. lect. has Aibuj.

                6. Just as the Catholic clergy furnished as well the props as the opponents of the Reformation. The notable example of a heathen priest abjuring his ancient faith, and even putting forth his hand to destroy the temple he had once held sacred, has been quoted from Beda on p. 82. This priest was an English, not a British one, though Beda, evidently for the mere purpose of more exactly marking his station, designates him by a Gaelic word Coifi (choibi, choibhidh, cuimhi, see Jamieson, supplement sub. v. coivie, archdruid). Coifi is not a proper name, even in Gaelic; and it is incredible that Eadwine king of Northumbria should have adopted the British religion, and maintained a British priest.

                7. Ed. Würdtw. 82. Serr. 140: Pro sacrilegis itaque presbyteris, ut scripsisti, qui tauros et hircos diis paganorum immolabant, manducantes sacrificia mortuorum ........modo vero incognitum esse, utrum baptizantes trinitatem dixissent an non, &c.

Connect with this the presbyter Jovi mactans, Ep. 25.

                8. The MHG. poets still bestow on hermits and monks the epithets gotes friunt, gotes degen (þegn, warrior). In the Renner 24587, St. Jost is called heiliger gotes kneht (chiht, servant). [See however 'servus dei, famulus dei' passim in the lives of saints].

                9. This î is become ei in our weissager, MHG. wissage for wîzege; equally erroneous is our verb weissagen, MHG. wîssagen, Iw. 3097 (OHG. wizagôn, AS. wîtegian).

                10. A wild force of phantasy, and the state called clairvoyance, have shown themselves preeminently in women.

                11. Statius silv. I. 4, 90: Captivaeque preces Veledae; he scans the first two syllables as short, which seems more correct than Dio's Belhda. Zeuss 436 thinks Beleda, Belida = Vilida. Graff has a n. prop. Wallodu 1, 800. I would suggest the Gothic fem. name Valadamarca in Jornandes cap. 48, and the Thuringian name of a place Walada in Pertz I. 308.

                12. Ganna (al. Gauna) parwenoj meta thn belhdan en th Keltikh Qeiazousa. conf. the masc. name Gannascus in Ann. 11, 18. 19; the fem. Ganna, dat. Gannane, in a Lothr. urk., as late as 709, Don Calmet, ed. 1728, tom. 1. preuves p. 265.

                13. Traditions, which Hubertus Thomas of Lüttich, private secretary to the Elector Palatine, according to his book De Tungris et Eburonibus 1541, professes to have received from an antiquary Joan. Berger out of an old book (libello vetustissimis characteribus descripto), and which he gives in his treatise De Heidelbergae antiquitatibus, relate as follows: Quo tempore Velleda virgo in Bruchteris imperitabat, vetula quaedam, cui nomen Jettha, eum collem, ubi nunc est arx Heidelbergensis et Jetthae collis etiam nunc nomen habet, inhabitabat, vetustissimumque phanum incolebat, cujus fragmenta adhuc nuper vidimus, dum comes palatinus Fridericus factus elector egregiam domum construxit, quam novam aulam appellant. Haec mulier valiciniis inclyta, et quo venerabilior foret, raro in conspectum hominum prodiens, volentibus consilium ab ea petre, de fenestra, non prodeunte vultu, respondebat. Et inter cetera praedixit, ut inconditis versibus canebat, suo colli a fatis essu datum, ut futuris temporibus regiis viris, quos nominatim recensebat, inhabitaretur et templis celeberrimis ornaretur. Sed ut tandem fabulosae antiquitati valedicamus, lubet adscribere quae is liber de infelici morte ipsius Jetthae continebat. Egressa quondam amoenissimo tempore phanum, ut deambulatione recrearetur, progrediebatur juxta montes, donec pervenit in locum, quo montes intra convallem declinant et multis locis scaturiebant pulcherrimi fontes, quibus vehementer illa coepit delectari, et assidens ex illis bibebat, cum ecce lupa famelica cum catulis e silva prorupit, quae conspectam mulierem nequicquam divos invocantem dilaniat et frustatim discerpsit, quae casu suo fonti nomen dedit, vocaturque quippe in hodiernum diem fons luporum ob amoenitatem loci omnibus notus. It is scarcely worth while trying to settle how much in this may be genuine tradition, and how much the erudition of the 16th century foisted in, to the glorification of the new palace at Heidelberg (= Heidberg); the very window on the hill would seem to have been copied from Veleda's tower, though Brynhild too resides upon her rock, and has a high tower (Völs. saga, cap. 20, 24, 25; conf. Menglöð, OHG. Maniklata?) on the rock, with nine virgins at her knees (Sæm. 110. 111). If the enchantress's name were Heida instead of Jettha, it would suit the locality better, and perhaps be an echo of the ON. Heidðr.

                14. Can our götte, goth for godmother (taufpathin, susceptrix e sacro fonte) be the survival of an old heathen term? Morolt 3184 has gode of the baptized virgin.

                15. The Slavic volkhv magus. Trans.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 88. ) Religion is in Greek eusebeia and qrhskeia (conf. qrhskeuw , p. 107). kat eusebeian = pie, Lucian 5, 277. Religio = iterata lectio, conf. intelligere, Lobeck's Rhematicon p. 65. It is rendered in OHG. glosses by heit, Hattemer 1, 423; gote-dehti devotio, cote-dehtigi devout, anadaht intentio, attentio, Graff 5, 163. Pietas, peculiarly, by 'heim-minna unde mâg-minna,' Hatt. 1, 423. Crêdischeit, Servat. 762, is sham-piety, conf. p. 35n. 'Dîs fretus' in Plaut. Cas. 2, 5 = Gote forahtac, O. i. 15, 3.

                p. 88. ) Gudja, goði, seems to be preserved in the AS. proper name, Goda. Kemble 1, 242. For arciereuj, Ulph. has auhumists gudja, Matt. 27, 62. Mk. 8, 31; but auhumists veiha, Joh. 18, 13. The priest hallows and is hallowed (p. 93), conf. the consecration and baptism of witches. Göndul consecrates: nû vîgi ek þik undir öll þau atkvaeði ok skildaga, sem Oðinn fyrimaelti, Fornald. sög. 1, 402. The words in Lactant. Phoenix, 'antistes nemorum, luci veneranda sacerdos,' are rendered by the AS. poet: bearwes bigenga, wudubearwes weard 207, 27. 208, 7. The priest stands before God, enanti tou qeou, Luke 1, 8: giangi furi Got, O. i. 4, 11. The monks form 'daz Gotes her,' army, Reinh. F. 1023. The Zendic âthrava, priest, Bopp Comp. Gram. 42. Spiegel's Avesta 2, vi. means fire-server, from âtars fire, Dat. âthrê. Pol. xiadz priest, prop. prince or sacrificer, Linde 2, 1164b; conf. Sansk. xi govern, kill, xaja dominans.

                p. 89. ) Ewart priest: ein êwart der abgote, Barl. 200, 22. Pass. 329, 56, etc. êwarde, En. 244, 14. prêster und ir êwe mêster 243, 20.

                p. 89n. ) Zacharias is a fruod gomo, Hel. 2, 24. Our kluger mann, kluge frau, still signify one acquainted with secret powers of nature; so the Swed. 'de klokar,' Fries udfl. 108.

The phrase 'der guote man' denotes espec. a sacred calling: that of a priest, Marienleg. 60, 40, a bishop, Pass. 336, 78, a pilgrim, Uolr. 91. Nuns are guote frowen, Eracl. 735. klôster und guote liute, Nib. 1001, 2, etc. die goede man, the hermit in Lanc. 4153-71. 16911-8, etc. So the Scot. 'gudeman's croft' above; but the name Gutmans-hausen was once Wôtenes-hûsen (Suppl. to 154). Bons-hommes are heretics, the Manichæans condemned at the Council of Cambery 1165; buonuomini, Macchiav. Flor. 1, 97. 158. The shepherds in O. i. 12, 17 are guotê man. Engl. goodman is both householder and our biedermann. Grôa is addressed as gôð kona, Sæm. 97a; in conjuring: Alrûn, du vil guote (p. 1202 n.).

                p. 89. ) Christian also, though of Germ. origin, seems the OHG. heit-haft sacerdos, from heit = ordo; hence, in ordinem sacrum receptus. MHG. heithafte liute, sacerdotes, Fundgr. 1, 94; conf. eithafte herren, Ksrchr. 11895. AS. geþungen, reverend, and espec. religiosus, Homil. p. 344.

                p. 90.) Agathias 2, 6 expressly attributes to the heathen Alamanns of the 6th cent. diviners (manteij and crhsmologoi) (1), who dissuade from battle; and princes in the Mid. Ages still take clergymen into the field with them as counsellors: abbates pii, scioli bene consiliarii, Rudl. 2, 253. Ordeals are placed under priestly authority, Sæm. 237-8. In the popular assembly the priests enjoin silence and attention: silentium per sacerdotes, quibus tum et coërcendi jus est, imperatur, Germ. 11. In addition to what is coll. in Haupt's Ztschr. 9, 127 on 'lust and unlust,' consider the tacitus precari of the Umbr. spell, and the opening of the Fastnachts-spiele.

                p. 91. ) The Goth. þrôþjan, ûsþrôþjan transl. muein initiare, and gumnazein, exercere GDS. 819; may it not refer to some sacred function of heathen priests, and be connected with the Gallic druid (p. 1036 n.), or rather with þrûðr (p. 423)? Was heilac said of priests and priestesses? conf. 'heilac huat,' cydaris, Graff 4, 874; Heilacflât, Cod. Lauresh. 1, 578; Heilacbrunno, p. 587; Heiligbär, p. 667-8. Priests take part in the sacrificial feast, they consecrate the cauldron: sentu at Saxa Sunnmanna gram, hann kann helga hver vellanda, Sæm. 238a; so Peter was head-cook of heaven, Lat. ged. des MA. p. 336. 344. Priests maintain the sacred beasts, horses and boars, Herv.-s. cap. 14; conf. RA. 592. In beating the bounds they seem to have gone before and pointed out the sacred stones, as the churchwardens did afterwards; they rode especially round old churches, in whose vaults an idol was supposed to lie. Priests know the art of quickening the dead, Holtzm. 3, 145. They have also the gifts of healing and divination: iatromantij, Æsch. Suppl. 263.

                p. 91. ) In many Aryan nations the priestly garment is white. Graecus augur pallio candido velatus, Umber et Romanus trabea purpurea amictus, Grotef. inscr. Umbr. 6, 13. Roman priests and magistrates have white robes; see the picture of the flamen dialis in Hartung 1, 193. Schwenck 27; amictus veste alba sevir et praetor, Petron. 65. The Cimbrian priestesses in Strabo are leuceimonej (p. 55-6), and the Gothic priests in Jorn. cap. 10 appear in candidis vestibus. The Gallic druids are arrayed in white (p. 1206), the priest of Gerovit in snow-white, Sefridi v. Ottonis p. 128 (Giesebr. Wend. gesch. 1, 90). In the Mid. Ages too white robes belong to holy women, nuns. die goede man met witten clederen, Lanc. 22662-70.

                The Gothic pileati (Kl. schr. 3, 227. GDS. 124) remind us of the 'tria genera pileorum, quibus sacerdotes utuntur: apex, tutulus, galerus' in Suetonii fragm. p. m. 335. The picture of a bearded man in Stälin 1, 161-2, is perhaps meant for a priest. The shaven hair of Christian and Buddhist monks and nuns is probably a badge of servitude to God; GDS. 822.

                p. 91. ) Snorri goði, like the AS. coifi, rides on a mare, Eyrbygg. s. 34; and the flamen dialis must not mount any kind of horse, Klausen Æn. 1077. Hartung 1, 194. Possibly even the heathen priests were not allowed to eat things with blood, but only herbs. Trevrizent digs up roots, and hangs them on bushes, Parz. 485, 21; in a similar way do Wilhelm the saint and Waltharius eke out thier lives, Lat. ged. d. MA. p. 112.

                p. 92. ) Among gestures traceable to priestly rites, I reckon especially this, that in the vindicatio of a beast the man had to lift up his right hand or lay it on, while his left grasped the animal's right ear. The posture at hammer-throwing seems to be another case in point, RA. 65-6. GDS. 124-5. -

Kemble 1, 278 thinks coifi is the AS. ceofa, diaconus.

                p. 93. ) Christian priests also are called 'God's man, child, kneht, scalc, deo, diu, wine, trut,' or 'dear to God,' conf. Mannhardt in Wolf's Ztschr. 3, 143. Gotes man (Suppl. to p. 20-1). Gotes kint = priest, Greg. 1355. Reinh. 714; or = pilgrim, as opp. to welt-kind (worldling), Trist. 2625. der edle Gotes kneht, said of Zacharias and John, Pass. 346, 24. 349, 23. 60; of the pilgrim, Trist. 2638. Gotes rîter, Greg. 1362. ein wârer Gotis scalc, Ksrchr. 6071. OHG. Gota-deo, Gotes-deo, fem. –diu (conf. ceile De, culde, servant of God, Ir. sag. 2, 476). der Gotes trût, Pass. 250, 91. Among the Greek priests were agciqeoi, Lucian dea Syr. 31; conf. the conscii deorum, Tac. Germ. 10. Amphiaraus is beloved of Zeus and Apollo, i.e. he is mantij. On his death Apollo appoints another of the same family, Od. 15, 245. 253.

                p. 93. ) If priesthood could be hereditary, the Norse goði must have been free to marry, like the episcopus and diaconus of the early Christians (1 Tim. 3, 2. 12) and the Hindu Brahmin. Not so the Pruss. waidlot or waidler, Nesselm. p. xv. and p. 141. To appoint to the priesthood is in ON. signa goðom, or gefa, though the latter seems not always to imply the priestly office: þeir voro gumnar goðum signaðir, Sæm. 117b. gefinn Oðni, Fornm. sög. 2, 168. enn gaf hann (Brandr) guðunum, ok var hann kallaðr Guð-branar, Fornald. sög. 2, 6; his son is Guðmundr, and his son again Guðbrandr (= OHG. Gota-beraht) 2, 7. Does this account for divination being also hereditary (p. 1107)?

                p. 93. ) The god had part of the spoils of war and hunting (p. 42), priest and temple were paid their dues, whence tithes arose: hof-tollr is the toll due to a temple, Fornm. s. 1, 268. On priestly dwellings see GDS. 125.

                p. 94. ) German divination seems to have been in request even at Rome: haruspex ex Germania missus (Domitiano), Suet. Domit. 16. Soothsayers, whom the people consulted in particular cases even after the conversion, were a remnant of heathen priests and priestesses. The Lex Visig. vi. 2, 1: 'ariolos, aruspices, vaticinantes consulere,' and 5: 'execrabiles divinorum pronuntiationes intendere, salutis aut aegritudinis responsa poscere.' Liutpr. 6, 30: 'ad ariolos vel ariolas pro responsis accipiendis ambulare,' and 31: 'in loco ubi arioli vel ariolae fuerint.'

                The ON. spâ-maðr is called râð-spakr, Sæm. 175a, or fram-vîss like the prophet Grîpir 172a. þû fram um sêr 175a,b. farit er þaz ek forvissac 175a. þû öll um sêr orlög for 176b. Grîpir lýgr eigi 177b. Gevarus rex, divinandi doctissimus, industria praesagiorum excultus, Saxo Gram. p. 115. (conf. p. 1034. 1106). The notion of oraculum (what is asked and obtained of the gods), vaticinium, divinatio, is expr. by ON. frêtt: frêttir sögðu, Sæm. 93a. frêtta beiddi, oracula poposci 94a. geck til frêttar, Yngl. 21 (Grk. crasqai tw qew, inquire of the god). Conf. frêhtan, Suppl. to p. 37; OHG. freht meritum, frehtîc meritus, sacer; AS. fyrht in Leg. Canuti, Thorpe p. 162.

                p. 95. ) German women seem to have taken part in sacrifices (p. 56n.); women perform sacrifice before the army of the Thracian Spartacus (B.C. 67), who had Germans under him, Plutarch Crass. c. 11. The Romans excluded women, so do the Cheremisses, p. 1235-6, the Lapps and the Boriâts, Klemm 3, 87. 111-3.

                p. 95-6. ) A druias Gallicana vaticinans is mentioned by Vopiscus in Aurel. 44, in Numer. 13-4; by Lampridius in Alex. Sev. 60. Drusus is met by a species barbarae mulieris humana amplior, Suet. Claud. c. 1. Dio Cass. 55, 1. Chatta mulier vaticinans Suet. Vitel. c. 14. Veleda receives gifts: Mumius Lupercus inter dona missus Veledae, Tac. Hist. 4, 61. A modern folktale brings her in as a goddess, Firmenich 1, 334-5. On Albruna conf. Hpt's Ztschr. 9, 240. Of Jettha it is told in the Palatinate, that she sought out and hewed a stone in the wood: whoever sets foot on the fairy stone, becomes a fixture, he cannot get away, Nadler p. 125. 292. Like Pallas, she is a founder of cities. Brynhild, like Veleda, has her hall on a mountain, and sits in her tower, Völs. s. cap. 25. Hother visits prophetesses in the waste wood, and then enlightens the folk in edito montis vertice, Saxo Gram. p. 122. The white lady of princely houses appears on a tower of the castle. The witte Dorte lives in the tower, Mullenh. p. 344. When misfortune threatens the Pedaseans, their priestess gets a long beard, Herod. 1, 175. 8, 104. Women carve and read runes: Kostbera kunni skil rûna, Sæm. 252a, reist rûna 252b. Orný reist rûnar â kefli, Fornm. s. 3, 109. 110 (she was born dumb, p. 388). In the Mid. Ages also women are particularly clever at writing and reading. RA. 583.

                p. 98. ) To the Norse prophetesses add Grôa völva, Sn. 110, and Göndul, a valkyr, Fornald. s. 1, 398. 402, named appar. from gandr, p. 1054. 420. Thorgerðr and Irpa are called both hörga-brûðr, temple-maid, and Hölga-brûðr after their father Hölgi, p. 114. 637. A Slav pythonissa carries her sieve in front of the army, p. 1111-2; others in Saxo Gram. 827; conf. O. Pruss. waidlinne, Nesselm. pref. 15.

 

Notes:

 

1. The mantij interprets dreams, entrails, flights of birds, but is no speaker of oracles, crhsmologoj, Paus. i. 34, 3. (In Plato's Timæus 72B, mantij (fr. mainomai) is the inspired speaker of oracles. )

 

 

CHAPTER 6

GODS

 

 

Now, I think, we are fully prepared for the inquiry, whether real gods can be claimed for Germany in the oldest time. All the branches of our language have the same general name for deity and have retained it to the present day; all, or at any rate most of them, so far as the deficiency of documents allows the chain of evidence to be completed, show the same or but slightly varying terms for the heathen notions of worship, sacrifice, temples and priesthood. Above all there shines forth an unmistakable analogy between the Old Norse terminology and the remains, many centuries older, of the other dialects: the Norse æsir, blôta, hörgr, goði were known long before, and with the same meanings, to the Goths, Alamanns, Franks and Saxons. And this identity or similarity extends beyond the words to the customs themselves: in sacred groves the earliest human and animal victims were offered, priests conducted sacrifices and divinations, 'wise women' enjoyed all but divine authority.

The proof furnished by the sameness of language is of itself sufficient and decisive. When the several divisions of a nation speak one and the same language, then, so long as they are left to their own nature and are not exposed to violent influences from without, they always have the same kind of belief and worship.

The Teutonic race lies midway between Celts, Slavs, Lithuanians, Finns, all of them populations that acknowledge gods, and practise a settled worship. The Slav nations, spread over widely distant regions, have their principal gods in common; how should it be otherwise in Teutondom?

As for demanding proofs of the genuineness of Norse mythology, we have really got past that now. All criticism cripples and annihilates itself, that sets out with denying or doubting what is treasured up in song and story born alive and propagated amongst an entire people, and which lies before our eyes. Criticism can but collect and arrange it, and unfold the materials in their historical sequence.

Then the only question that can fairly be raised, is: Whether the gods of the North, no longer disputable, hold good for the rest of Teutondom? To say yea to the question as a whole, seems, from the foregoing results of our inquiry, altogether reasonable and almost necessary.

A negative answer, if it knew what it was about, would try to maintain, that the circle of Norse gods, in substance, were formerly common to all Germany, but by the earlier conversion were extinguished and annihilated here. But a multitude of exceptions and surviving vestiges would greatly limit the assertion, and materially alter what might be made out of the remainder.

In the meanwhile a denial has been attempted of quite another kind, and the opinion upheld, that those divinities have never existed at all in Germany proper, and that its earliest inhabitants knew nothing better than a gross worship of nature without gods.

This view, drawing a fundamental distinction between German and Scandinavian heathenism, and misapprehending all the clues which discover themselves to unprejudiced inquiry as infallible evidence of the unity of two branches of a nation, lays special stress upon a few statements on the nature of the heathen faith, dating from about the sixth century and onwards. These for the most part proceed from the lips of zealous christians, who did not at all concern themselves to understand or faithfully portray the paganism they were assailing, whose purpose was rather to set up a warning against the grosser manifestations of its cultus as a detestable abomination. It will be desirable to glance over the principal passages in their uniformity and one-sidedness.

Agathias (d. before 582), himself a newly converted Greek, who could only know from christianity coloured reports what he had heard about the distant Alamanns, thus exhibits the Alamannic worship as opposed to the Frankish: dendra te gur tina iluskontai kai reiqra potumwn kai lofouj kai toutoij wsper osia drwntej 28, 4. Then follow the words quoted on p. 47 about their equine sacrifices.

But his contrast to the Franks breaks down at once, when we hear almost exactly the same account of them from the lips of their first historian Gregory: Sed haec generatio fanaticis semper cultibus visa est obsequium praebuisse, nec prorsus agnovere Deum, sibique silvarum atque aquarum, avium bestiarumque et aliorum quoque elementorum finxere formas, ipsasque ut deum colere eisque sacrificia delibare consueti. Greg. Tur. 2, 10. Similarly, Einhard (Æginhard) in Vita Caroli cap. 7, about the Saxons: Sicut omnes fere Germaniam incolentes nationes et natura feroces et cultui daemonum dediti, nostraeque religioni contrarii.

Ruodolf of Fuld, after quoting Tacitus and Einhard, adds (Pertz 2, 676): Nam et frondosis arboribus fontibusque venerationem exhibebant; (1) and then mentions the Irminsûl, which I shall deal with hereafter (see Suppl.).

Lastly, Helmold 1, 47 affirms of the Holsteiners:

Nihil de religione nisi nomen tantum christianitatis habentes; nam lucorum et fontium ceterarumque superstitionum multiplex error apud eos habetur Vicelinus..lucos et omnes ritus sacrilegos destruens, &c.'

Conceived in exactly the same spirit are the prohibitions of heathenish and idolatrous rites in decrees of councils and in laws. Concil. Autissiod. anno 586, can. 3: Non licet inter sentes aut ad arbores sacrivos vel ad fontes vota exsolvere; conf. Concil. Turon. II. anno 566, can. 22.

Leges Liutpr. 6, 30: Simili modo et qui ad arborem, quam rustici sanguinum (al. sanctivam, sacrivam) vocant, atque ad fontanas adoraverit.

Capit. de partibus Sax. 20: Si quis ad fontes aut arbores vel lucos votum fecerit, aut aliquid more gentilium obtulerit et ad honorem daemonum comederit. And the converters, the christian clergy, had for centuries to pour out their wrath against the almost ineradicable folly.

It is sufficient merely to allude to the sermons of Caesarius episcopus Arelatensis (d. 542) 'Contra sacrilegos et aruspices, contra kalendarum quoque paganissimos ritus, contraque augures lignicolas, fonticolas,' Acta Bened. sec. 1, p. 668.

All these passages contain, not an untruth, yet not the whole truth. That German heathenism was destitute of gods, they cannot possibly prove, for one thing, because they all date from periods when heathenism no longer had free and undisturbed sway, but had been hotly assailed by the new doctrine, and was wellnigh overmastered. The general exercise of it had ceased, isolated partizans cherished it timidly in usages kept up by stealth; at the same time there were christians who in simplicity or error continued to practise superstitious ceremonies by the side of christian ones. Such doings, not yet extinct here and there among the common people, but withdrawn from all regulating guidance by heathen priests, could not fail soon to become vulgarized, and to appear as the mere dregs of an older faith, which faith we have no right to measure by them. As we do not fail to recognise in the devils and witches of more modern times the higher purer fancies of antiquity disguised, just as little ought we to feel any scruple about tracing back the pagan practices in question to the untroubled fountainhead of the olden time. Prohibitions and preachings kept strictly to the practical side of the matter, and their very purpose was to put down these last hateful remnants of the false religion. A sentence in Cnut's AS. laws (Schmid 1, 50) shows, that fountain and tree worship does not exclude adoration of the gods themselves: Hæðenscipe bið, þæt man deofolgild weorðige, þæt is, þæt man weorðige hæðene godas, and sunnan oððe mônan, fýre oððe flôðwæter, wyllas oððe stânas oððe æniges cynnes wudutreowa; conf. Homil. 1, 366. Just so it is said of Olaf the Saint, Fornm sög. 5, 239, that he abolished the heathen sacrifices and gods: Ok mörg önnur (many other) blôtskapar skrîmsl, bæði hamra ok hörga, skôga, vötn ok trê ok öll önnur blôt, bæði meiri ok minni.

But we can conceive of another reason too, why on such occasions the heathen gods, perhaps still unforgotten, are passed over in silence: christian priests avoided uttering their names or describing their worship minutely. It was thought advisable to include them all under the general title of demons or devils, and utterly uproot their influence by laying an interdict on whatever yet remained of their worship. The Merseburg poems show how, by way of exception, the names of certain gods were still able to transmit themselves in formulas of conjuring.

Pictures of heathenism in its debasement and decay have no right to be placed on a level with the report of it given by Tacitus from five to eight centuries before, when it was yet in the fulness of its strength. If the adoration of trees and rivers still lingering in the habits of the people no longer bears witness to the existence of gods, is it not loudly enough proclaimed in those imperfect and defective sketches by a Roman stranger? When he expressly tells us a deus terra editus, of heroes and descendents of the god (plures deo ortos), of the god who rules in war (velut deo imperante), of the names of gods (deorum nominibus) which the people transferred to sacred groves, of the priest who cannot begin a divination without invoking the gods (precatus deos) and who regards himself as a servant of the gods (ministros deorum), of a regnator omnium deus, of the gods of Germany (Germaniae deos in aspectu, Hist. 5, 17), of the diis patriis to whom the captured signa Romana were hung up (Ann. 1, 59); when he distinguishes between penetrales Germaniae deos or dii penates (Ann. 2, 10. 11, 16), communes dii (Hist. 4, 64), and conjugales dii (Germ. 18); when he even distinguishes individual gods, and tries to suit them with Roman names, and actually names (interpretatione Romana) a Mars, Mercurius, Hercules, Castor and Pollux, Isis, nay, has preserved the German appellations of the deus terra editus and of his son, and a goddess, the terra mater; how is it possible to deny that at that time the Germans worshipped veritable gods? How is it possible, when we take into account all the rest that we know of the language, the liberty, the manners, and virtues of the Germani, to maintain the notion that, sunk in a stolid fetishism, they cast themselves down before logs and puddles, and paid to them their simple adoration?

The opinion of Cæsar, (2) who knew the Germans more superficially than Tacitus a hundred and fifty years later, cannot be allowed to derogate from the truth. He wants to contrast our ancestors with the Gauls, with whom he had had more familiar converse; but the personifications of the sun, fire, and the moon, to which he limits the sum total of their gods, will hardly bear even a forced 'interpretatio Romana'. If in the place of sun and moon we put Apollo and Diana, they at once contradict that deeply rooted peculiarity of the Teutonic way of thinking, which conceives of the sun as a female, and of the moon as a male being, which could not have escaped the observation of the Roman, if it had penetrated deeper. And Vulcan, similar to the Norse Loki, but one of those divinities of whom there is least trace to be found in the rest of Teutondom, had certainly less foundation than the equally visible and helpful deities of the nourishing earth, and of the quickening, fish-teeming, ship-sustaining water. I can only look upon Cæsar's statements as a half-true and roughcast opinion, which, in the face of the more detailed testimony of Tacitus, hardly avails to cast a doubt on other gods, much less to prove a bare worship of elements among the Germans.

All the accounts that vouch for the early existence of individual gods, necessarily testify at the same time to their great number and their mutual relationship. When Procopius ascribes a poluj qewn omiloj to the Heruli, this 'great host' must also be good for the Goths, just those of whom we know the fewest particulars, and for all the Germans together. Jornandes would have us believe that Diceneus was the first to make the Goths acquainted with gods, cap. 11: Elegit ex eis tunc nobilissimos prudentiores viros, quos theologiam instruens numina quaedam et sacella venerari suasit; here evidently we see the ruler who promoted the service of particular gods. But that Jornandes himself credited his Goths with unmistakably native gods, is plain from cap. 10: Unde et sacerdotes Gothorum aliqui, illi qui pii vocabantur, subito patefactis portis cum citharis et vestibus candidis obviam sunt egressi paternis diis, ut sibi propitii Macedones repellerent voce supplici modulantes. The fact here mentioned may even have been totally alien to the real Goths, but anyhow we gather from it the opinion of Jornandes. And if we also want evidence about a race lying quite at the opposite extremity of Germany, one that clung with great fidelity to their old-established faith, we have it in the Lex Frisionum, addit. tit. 13, where the subject is the penalty on temple-breakers: Immolatur diis quorum templa violavit.

We have now arrived at the following result. In the first century of our era the religion of the Germans rested mainly upon gods; a thousand or twelve hundred years later, among the northern section of the race, which was the last to exchange the faith of its fathers for a new one, the old system of gods is preserved the most perfectly. Linked by language and unbroken tradition to either extremity of heathenism, both its first appearance in history and its fall, stands central Germany from the fifth to the ninth century. During this period the figures of the heathen gods, in the feeble and hostile light thrown upon them by the reports of recent converts, come before us faded and indistinct, but still always as gods.

I must here repeat, that Tacitus knows no simulacrum of German gods, no image (3) moulded in human shape; what he had stated generally in cap. 9, he asserts of a particular case in cap. 43, and we have no ground for disbelieving his assertion. the existence of real statues at that time in Germany, at least in the parts best known to them, would hardly have escaped the researches of the Romans. He knows of nothing but signa and formas, apparently carved and coloured, which were used in worship as symbols, and on certain occasions carried about; probably they contained some reference to the nature and attributes of the several deities. The model of a boat, signum in modum liburnae figuratum (cap. 9), betokened the god of sailing, the formae aprorum (cap. 45) the god to whom the boar was consecrated; and in the like sense are to be taken the ferarum imagines on trees and at certain sacrifices (see Suppl.). The vehiculum veste contectum of the goddess Earth will be discussed further on.

The absence of statues and temples, considering the impotence of all artistic skill at the period, is a favourable feature of the German cultus, and pleasing to contemplate. But it by no means follows that in the people's fancy the gods were destitute of a form like the human; without this, gods invested with all human attributes, and brought into daily contact with man, would be simply inconceivable. If there was any German poetry then in existence, which I would sooner assert than deny, how should the poets have depicted their god but with a human aspect?

Attempts to fashion images of gods, and if not to carve them out of wood or stone, at least to draw and paint them, or quite roughly to bake them of dought (p. 63), might nevertheless be made at any period, even the earliest; it is possible too, that the interior parts of Germany, less accessible to the Romans, concealed here and there temples, statues and pictures. In the succeeding centuries, however, when temples were multiplied, images also, to fill their spaces, may with the greatest probability be assumed.

The terminology, except where the words simulacra, imagines, which leave no room for doubt, are employed, makes use of several terms whose meaning varies, passing from that of temple to that of image, just as we saw the meaning of grove mixed up with that of numen. If, as is possible, that word alah originally meant rock or stone (p. 67), it might easily, like haruc and wih, melt into the sense of altar and statue, of ara, fanum, idolum. In this way the OHG. abcut, abcuti (Abgott, false god) does signify both fana and idola or statuae, Diut. 1, 497 513 515 533, just as our götze is at once the false god and his image and his temple (see above, p. 15. Gramm. 3, 694). Idolum must have had a similar ambiguity, where it is not expressly distinguished from delubrum, fanum and templum. In general phrases such as idola colere, odola adorare, idola destruere, we cannot be sure that images are meant, for just as often and with the same meaning we have adorare fana, destruere fana. Look at the following phrases taken from OHG. glosses: abcuti wîhero stetio, fana excelsorum, Diut. 1, 515. abcut in heilagêm stetim, fana in excelsis, Diut. 1, 213. steinînu zeihan inti abcuti, titulos et statuas et lucos, Diut. 1, 513. afgoda begangana, Lacombl. arch. 1, 11.

Saxo Gram. often uses simulacra for idols, pp. 249, 320-1-5-7. The statement in Aribonis vita S. Emmerammi (Acta sanct. Sept. 6, 483): 'tradidero te genti Saxonum, quae tot idolorum cultor existit' is undeniable evidence that the heathen Saxons in the 8th century served many false gods (Aribo, bishop of Freisingen in the years 764-783). The vita Lebuini, written by Hucbald between 918-976, says of the ancient numinibus suis vota solvens ac sacrificia ...simulacra quae deos esse putatis, quosque venerando colitis. Here, no doubt, statues must be meant (see Suppl.).

In a few instancs we find the nobler designation deus still employed, as it had been by Tacitus: Cumque idem rex (Eadwine in 625) gratias ageret diis suis pro nata sibi filia, Beda. 2, 9.

The following passages testify to visible representations of gods; they do not condescend to describe them, and we are content to pick up hints by the way.

The very earliest evidence takes us already into the latter half of the 4th century, but it is one of the most remarkable. Sozomen, Hist. eccl. 6, 37, mentions the manifold dangers that beset Ulphilas among the heathen Goths: While the barbarians were yet heathens (eti twn barbarwn ellhnikwj qrhskeuontwn)

ellhnikwj here means in heathen fashion, and qrhskeuein (to worship) is presently described more minutely, when the persecution of the Christians by Athanaric is related

Athanaric, having set the statue (evidently of the Gothic deity) on a waggon (xoanon ef armamaxhj estwj), ordered it to be carried round to the dwellings of those suspected of christianity; if they refused to fall down and sacrifice (proskunein kai quein), their houses were to be fired over their heads. By armamaxa is understood a covered carriage; is not this exactly the vehiculum veste contectum, in which the goddess, herself unseen, was carried about (Tac. Germ. 40)? Is it not the vagn in which Freyr and his priestess sat, when in holy days he journeyed round among the Swedish people (Fornm. sög. 2, 74-5)? The people used to carry about covered images of gods over the fields, by which fertility was bestowed upon them. (4) Even the karrâschen in our poems of the Mid. Ages, with Saracen gods in them, and the carroccio of the Lombard cities (RA. 263-5) seem to be nothing but a late reminiscence of these primitive gods'-waggons of heathenism. The Roman, Greek and Indian gods too were not without such carriages.

What Gregory of Tours tells us (2, 29-31) of the baptism of Chlodovich (Clovis) and the events that preceded it, is evidently touched up, and the speeches of the queen especially I take to be fictitious; yet he would hardly have put them in her mouth, if it were generally known that the Franks had no gods or statues at all. Chrothild (Clotilda) speaks thus to her husband, whom she is trying to prepossess in favour of baptism: Nihil sunt dii quos colitis, qui neque sibi neque aliis poterunt subvenire; sunt enim aut ex lapide aut ex ligno aut ex metallo aliquo sculpti, nomina vero, quae eis indidistis, homines fuere, non dii. Here she brings up Saturnus and Jupiter, with arguments drawn from classical mythology; and then: Quid Mars Mercuriusque potuere ? qui potius sunt magicis artibus praediti quam divini numinis potentiam habuere. Sed ille magis coli debet qui coelum et terram, mare et omnia quae in eis sunt, verbo ex non extantibus procreavit, &c. Sed cum haec regina diceret, nullatenus ad credendum regis animus movebatur, sed dicebat: Deorum nostrorum jussione cuncta creantur ac prodeunt; deus vero vester nihil posse manifestatur, et quod magis est, nec de deorum genere esse probatur (that sounds German enough!). When their little boy dies soon after receiving christian baptism, Chlodovich remarks: Si in nomine deorum meorum puer fuisset dicatus, vixisset utique; nunc autem, quia in nomine dei vestri baptizatus est, vivere omnino non potuit.

So detailed a report of Chlodovich's heathenism, scarcely a hundred years after the event, and from the mouth of a well instructed priest, would be absurd, if there were no truth at the bottom of it. When once Gregory had put his Latin names of gods in the place of the Frankish (in which he simply followed the views and fashion of his time), he would as a matter of course go on to surround those names with th appropriate Latin myths; and it is not to be overlooked , that the four deities named are all gods of the days of the week, the very kind which it was quite customary to identify with native gods. I think myself entitled therefore, to quote the passage as proving at least the existence of images of gods among the Franks (see Suppl.).

The narrative of an incident from the early part of the 7th century concerns Alamannia. Columban and St. Gallus in 612 came upon a seat of idolatry at Bregenz on the Lake of Constance: Tres ergo imagines aereas et deauratas superstitiosa gentilitas ibi colebat, quibus magis quam Creatori mundi vota reddenda credebat. So says the Vita S. Galli (Pertz 2, 7) written in the course of the next (8th) century. A more detailed account is given by Walafrid Strabo in his Vita S. Galli (acta Bened. sec. 2. p. 233)> Egressi de navicula oratorium in honore S. Aureliae constructum adierunt........Post orationem, cum per gyrum oculis cuncta lustrassent, placuit illis qualitas et situs locorum, deinde oratione praemissa circa oratorium mansiunculas sibi fecerunt. Repererunt autem in templo ires imagines aereas deauratas parieti affixas, (5) quas populus, dimisso altaris sacri cultu, adorabat, et oblatis sacrificiis dicere consuevit: isti sunt dii veteres et antiqui hujus loci tutores, quorum solatio et not et nostra perdurant usque in praesens.......Cumque ejusdem templi solemnitas ageretur, venit multitudo non minima promiscui sexus et aetatis, non tantum propter festivitatis honorem, verum etiam ad videndos peregrinos, quos cognoverant advenisse .Jussu venerandi abbatis (Columbani) Gallus coepit viam veritatis ostendere populo est in conspectu omnium arripiens simulacra, et lapidibus in frusta comminuens projecit in lacum. His visis nonnulli conversi sunt ad dominum.

Here is a strange jumble of heathen and christian worship. In an oratory built in honour of St. Aurelia, three heathen statues still stand against the wall, to which the people continue to sacrifice, without going near the christian altar: to them, these are still their old tutelary deities. After the evangelist has knocked the images to pieces and thrown them into the Lake Constance, a part of these heathen turn to Christianity. Probably in more places than one the earliest christian communities degenerated in like manner, owing to the preponderance of the heathen multitude and the supineness of the clergy. A doubt may be raised, however, as to whether by these heathen gods are to be understood Alamannish, or possibly Roman gods? Roman paganism in a district of the old Helvetia is quite conceivable, and dii tutores loci sounds almost like the very thing. On the other hand it must be remembered, that Alamanns had been settled here for three centuries, and any other worship than theirs could hardly be at that time the popular one. That sacrifice to Woden on the neighbouring Lake of Zurich (6) (supra, p. 56) mentioned by Jonas in his older biography of the two saints, was altogether German. Lastly, the association of three divinities to be jointly worshipped stands out a prominent feature in our domestic heathenism; when the Romans dedicated a temple to several deities, their images were not placed side by side, but in separate callea (chapels).

Ratpert (Casus S. Galli, Pertz 2, 61) seems to have confounded the two events, that on L. Zurick, and the subsequent one at Bregenz: Tucconiam (to Tuggen) advenerunt, quae est ad caput lacus Turicini, ubi cum consistere vellent, populumque ab errore demonum revocare (nam adhuc idolis immolabant). Gallo idola vana confringente et in lacum vicinum demergente, populus in iram conversus........sanctos exinde pepulerunt. Inde iter agentes pervenerunt ad castrum quod Arbona nuncupatur, juxta lacum potamicum, ibique a Willimaro presbytero honorifice suscepti, septem dies cum gaudio permanserunt. Qui a sanctis interrogatus, si sciret locum in solitudine illorum proposito congruum, ostendit eis locum jocundissimum ad inhabitandum nomine Grigantium. Ibique reperientes templum olim christianae religioni dedicatum, nunc autem demonum imaginibus pollutum, mundando et consecrando in pristinum restituerunt statum, atque pro statuis quas ejecerunt, sanctae Aureliae reliquias ibidem collocaverunt.

By this account also the temple is first of all christian, and afterwards occupied by the heathen (Alamanns), therefore not an old Roman one. That Woden's statue was one of those idola vana that were broken to pieces, may almost be inferred from Jona's account of the beer-sacrifice offered to him. Ratpert's contilena S. Galli has only the vague words: Castra de Turegum adnavigant Tucconium, Docent fidem gentem, Jovem linquunt ardentem. This Jupiter on fire, from whom the people apostatized, may very well be Donar (Thunar, Thor), but his statue is not alluded to. According to Arx (on Pertz 2, 61), Eckehardus IV. quotes 'Jovis et Neptuni idola,' but I cannot find the passage; conf. p. 122 Ermoldus Nigellus on Neptune. It is plain that the three statues have to do with the idolatry on L. Constance, not with that on L. Zurich; and if Mercury, Jupiter and Neptune stood there together, the first two at all events may be easily applied to German deities. In ch. VII, I will impart my conjecture about Neptune. But I think we may conclude from all this, that our tres imagines have a better claim to a German origin, than those imagines lapideae of the Luxovian forest, cited on p. 83. (7)

The chief authority for images of gods among the Saxons is the famous passage in Widekind of Corvei (1, 12), where he relates their victory over the Thuringians on the R. Unstrut (circ. 530), 'ut majorum memoria prodit' : Mane autem facto, ad orientalem portam (of castle Schidungen) ponunt aquilam, aramque victoriae construentes, secundum errorem paternum, sacra sua propria veneratione venerati sunt, nomine Martem, effgie columnarum imitantes Herculem, loco Solem quem Graeci appellant Appollinem. This important witness will have to be called up again in more than one connexion.

To the Corvei annals, at year 1145, where the Eresburg is spoken of, the following is added by a 12th century hand (Pertz 5, 8 note): Hec eadem Eresburg est corrupto vocabulo dicta, quam et Julius Cesar Romano imperio subegit, quando et Arispolis nomen habuit ab eo qui Aris Greca designatione ac Mars ipse dictus est Latino famine. Duobus siquidem idolis hec dedita fuit, id est Aris, qui urbis meniis insertus, quasi dominator dominantium, et Ermis, qui et Mercurius mercimoniis insistentibus colebatur in forensibus.

According to this, a statue of Mars seems to have stood on the town-wall.

That the Frisian temples contained images of gods, there seems to be sufficient evidence. It is true, the passage about Fosite (p. 84) mentions only fana dei; we are told that Wilibrord laid violent hands on the sacred fountain, not that he demolished any image. On the other hand, the Vita Bonifacii (Pertz. 2, 339), in describing the heathen reaction under King Rêdbod (circ. 716), uses this language: Jam pars ecclesiarum Christi, quae Francorum prius subjecta erat imperio, vastata erat ac destructa, idolorum quoque cultura exstructis delubrorum fanis lugubriter renovata. And if it should be thought that idolorum here is equivalent to deorum, the Vita Willehadi (Pertz. 2, 380) says more definitely: Insanum esse et vanum a lapidibus auxilium petere et a simulacris mutis et surdis subsidii sperare solatium. Quo audito, gens fera et idololatriis nimium dedita stridebant dentibus in eum, dicentes, non debere profanum longius vivere, imo reum esse mortis, qui tam sacrilegia contra deos suos invictissimos proferre praesumsisset eloquia. The event belongs to the middle of the 8th century, and the narrator Anskar (died 865) comes a hundred years later; still we are not warranted in looking upon his words as mere flourishes. And I am not sure that we have a right to take for empty phrases, what is said in a Vita S. Goari (died 649), which was not written till 839: Coepit gentilibus per circuitum (i.e. in Ripuaria), simulacrorum cultui deditis et vana idolorum superstitionis deceptis, verbum salutis annuntiare (Acta Bened. sec. 2, p. 282). Such biographies are usually based on older memorials.

The Frisians are in every sense the point of transition to the Scandinavians; considering the multifarious intercourse between these two adjoining nations, nothing can be more natural than to suppose that the Frisians also had in common with their neighbours the habit of temple and image worship. Even Fosete's temple in Heligoland I can hardly imagine destitute of images.

Some facility in carving figures out of wood or chiselling them out of stone is no more than we should have expected from those signa and effigies in Tacitus, and the art might go on improving up to a certain stage. Stone weapons and other implements that we find in barrows testify to a not unskilful handling of difficult materials. That not a single image of a Teutonic god has escaped the destructive hand of time and the zeal of the christians, need surprise us less than the total disappearance of the heathen temples. Why, even in the North, where the number of images was greater, and their destruction occured much later, there is not one preservedæ all the Lethrian, all the Upsalian idols are clean gone. The technical term in the Norse was Skurdgoð (Fornm. sög. 2, 73-5), from skëra (sculpere), skurd (sculptura)æ in the two passages referred to, it is likeneski af Freyr. Biörn gives skûrgoð, idolum, sculptile, from skûr, subgrundium (penthouse), because it had to be placed under cover, in sheds as it were; with which the OHG. skûrguta (Graff 6, 536) seems to agree. But there is no distinct proof of an ON. skûrgoð.

Dietmar's account is silent about the gods' images at Lethra (8); in Adam of Bremen's description of those at Upsal (cap. 233), the most remarkable thing is, that three statues are specified, as they were in that temple of the Alamanns: Nunc de superstitione Sveonum pauca dicemus. Nobilissimum illa gens templum habet, quod Ubsola dicitur, non longe positum a Sictona civitate (Sigtûn) vel Birka. In hoc templo, quod totum ex auro paratum est, statuas trium deorum veneratur populus, ita ut potentissimus eorum Thor in medio solium habeat triclinio. Hinc et inde locum possident Wodan et Fricco. The further description we have nothing to do with here, but there occurs in it also the term sculpere; as the whole temple was ex auro paratum, i.e., decorated with gold, he might doubtless have described the figures of the gods above all as gilded, just as those in Alamannia were aereae et deauratae.

Saxo p. 13 tells of a golden statue of Othin; Cujus numen Septentrionis reges propensiore cultu prosequi cupientes, effigiem ipsius aureo complexi simulacro, statuam suae dignationis indicem maxima cum religionis simulatione Byzantium transmiserunt, cujus etiam brachiorum lineamenta confertissimo armillarum pondere perstringebant. The whole passage, with its continuation, is not only unhistorical, but contrary to the genuine myths; we can only see in it the view of the gods taken by Saxo and his period, and inasmuch as golden and bedizened images of gods were consonant with such view, we may infer that there still lived in his time a recollection of such figures (see Suppl.). Ermoldus Nigellus, in describing Herold's (Harald's) interview with King Charles, mentions 4, 444 seq. (Pertz. 2, 509-10) the gods' images (sculpta) of the heathen, and that he was said to have had ploughshares, kettles and water-buckets forged of that metal. According to the Nialssaga cap. 89, in a Norwegian temple (goðahûs) there were to be seen three figures again, those of Thor and the two half-goddesses Thorgerðr and Irpa, of human size, and adorned with armlets; probably Thor sat in the middle on his car. Altogether the portraitures of Thor seem to have been those most in vogue, at least in Norway. (9) One temple in which many skurdgoð were worshipped, but Thor most of all, is described in Fornm. sög. 2, 153 and 159, and his statue 1, 295. 302-6; in 2, 44 we read: Thôrr sat î midðju ok var mêst tignaðr, hann var mikill ok allr gulli bûinn ok silfri (ex auro et argento confectus); conf. Olafs helga saga, ed. Holm. cap. 118-9, where a large standing figure of Thor is described; and Fornm. sög. 4, 245, ed. Christ. p. 26. Freyr giörr af silfri, Isl. sög. 1, 134. Landn. 3, 2. One man carried a statuette of Thor carved in whalebone (lîkneski Thôrs af tönn gert) in his pocket, so as to worship him secretly, when living among christians, Fornm. sög. 2, 57. Thôr's figure was carved on the öndvegis-pillars, Eyrbygg. p. 8. Landnamab. 2, 12; and on the prows of ships, Fornm. sög. 2, 234. A figure of Thorgerðr hölgabrûðr, with rings of gold round the arm, to which people kneel, Fornm. sög. 2, 108. (10) Frey's statue of silver, (Freyr markaðr af silfri), Vatnsd. p. 44. 50; carried about in a wagon in Sweden, Fornm. sög. 2, 73-7. The Jomsvikîngasaga tells of a temple on Gautland (I. of Gothland), in which were a hundred gods, Fornm. sög. 11, 40; truly a 'densitas imaginum,' as Jonas has it (see p. 83). Saxo Gram. 327 mentions a simulacrum quercu factum, carved in oak? or an oaktree worshipped as divine? (see Suppl.)

Not only three, but occasionally two figures side by side are mentioned, particularly those of Wuotan and Donar or of Mars and Mercurius, as we see from the passages cited. Figures of Freyr and Thor together, and of Frigg and Freyja, occur in Müller's sagabibl. 1, 92. Names of places also often indicate such joint worship of two divinities, e.g. in Hesse the Donnerseiche (Thor's oak) stood close by the Wodansberg; and explorers would do well to attend to the point.

But neither the alleged number of the statues, nor their descriptions in the sagas can pass for historical; what they do prove is, that statues there were. They appear mostly to have been hewn out of wood, some perhaps were painted, clothed, and overlaid with silver or gold; but no doubt stone images were also to be met with, and smaller ones of copper or ivory. (11)

I have put off until now the mention of a peculiar term for statue, with which some striking accounts of heathen idols connect themselves.

OHG. glosses have the word irmansûlî, pyramides, Mons. 360. avarûn, irmansûlî, pyramides, Doc. 203. irmansûl, colossus, altissima columna, Florent. 987, Blas. 86. colossus est irminsûl, Gl. Schletst. 18, 1. 28, 1. The literal meaning seems to be statue, to judge by the synonym avarâ, which in Gl. jun. 226 is used for statua and imago. It was not yet extinct in the 12th century, as appears from two places in the Kaiserchronik, near the beginning of the poem, and very likely there are more of them; it is said of Mercury (Massmann 129):

 

ûf einir yrmensûle Upon an yrmensûl

stuont ein abgot ungehiure, Stood an idol huge,

den hiezen sie ir koufman. Him they called their merchant.

Again of Julius Cæsar (Massm. 624):

 

Rômaere in ungetrûwelîche sluogen, Romans him untruly slew,

ûf einir yrmensûl sie in begruoben. On an yrm, they buried him.

And of Simon Magus 24 (Massm. 4432):

 

ûf eine yrmensûl er steic, On an yrmensul he climbed,

daz lantvolc im allesamt neic. The land-folk to him all bowed.

That is, worshipped him as a god. Nay, in Wolfram's Titurel, last chapter, where the great pillars of the (christian) temple of the Grail are described, instead of 'inneren seul' of the printed text (Hahn 6151), the Hanover MS. more correctly reads irmensûl.

Further, in the Frankish annals ad ann. 772 it is repeatedly stated, that Charles the Great in his conquest of the Saxons destroyed a chief seat of their heathen superstition, not far from Heresburg (12) in Westphalia, and that it was called Irminsûl. Ann Petav.: Domnus rex Karolus perrexit in Saxoniam et conquisivit Erisburgo, et pervenit ad locum qui dicitur Ermensul, et succendit ea loca (Pertz. 1, 16). Ann. Lauresh.: Fuit rex Carlus hostiliter in Saxonia, et destruxit fanum eorum quod vocatur Irminsul (Pertz. 1, 30). The same in the Chron. Moissiac., except the spelling Hirminsul (Pertz. 1, 295), and in Ann. Quedlinb., &c. (Pertz. 5, 37). Ann. Juvavenses: Karolus idolum Saxonorum combussit, quod dicebant Irminsul (Pertz 1, 88). Einhardi Fuld. annales: Karolus Saxoniam bello aggressus, Eresburgum castrum cepit, et idolum Saxonum quod vocabatur Irminsul destruit (Pertz 1, 348). Ann. Ratisbon.: Carolus in Saxonia conquesivit Eresburc et Irminsul (Pertz. 1, 92). Ann. Lauriss.: Karlus in Saxonia castrum Aeresburg expugnat, fanum et lucum eorum famosum Irminsul subertit (Pertz. 1, 117). Ann. Lauriss.: Et inde perrexit partibus Saxoniae prima vice, Aeresburgum castrum cepit, ad Ermensul usque pervenit, et ipsum fanum destruxit, et aurum et argentum quod ibi repperit abstulit. Et fuit siccitas magna, ita ut aqua deficeret in supradicto loco ubi Ermensul stabat, &c. (Pertz. 1, 150). Einhardi Ann: Ferro et igni cuncta depopulatus, Aeresburgum castrum cepit, idolum quod Irminsul a Saxonibus vocabatur evertit (Pertz 1, 151); repeated in Ann. Tilian., and Chron. Regin., with spelling Ormensul (Pertz 1, 220, 557) (13) And Dietmar of Merseburg (Pertz. 5, 744) further tells us, in connexion with later events: Sed exercitus capta urbe (Eresburch) ingressus, juvenem praefatum usque in ecclesiam S. Petri, ubi prius ab antiquis Irminsul colebatur, bello defatigatum depulit. Taking all these passages together, Irminsûl passes through the very same gradations of meaning we unfolded in ch. IV, and signifies now fanum, now lucus, now idolum itself. It can scarcely be doubted, that vast woodlands extended over that region: what if Osning, (14) th name of the mountain-forest in which the pillar stood, betokened a holy-wood? The gold and silver hoard, which Charles was supposed to have seized there, may well be legendary embellishment. (15) Ruodolf of Fuld goes more into detail about the Irminsûl; after his general statement on the heathen Saxons, that 'frondosis arboribus fontibusque venerationem exhibebant' (p. 101), he goes on: Truncum quoque ligni non parvae magnitudinis in altum erectum sub divo colebant, patria eum lingua Irminsul appellantes, quod Latine dicitur universalis columna, quasi sustinens omnia (Pertz. 2, 676), (see Suppl.). Here was a great wooden pillar erected, and worshipped under the open sky, its name signifies universal all-sustaining pillar. This interpretation appears faultless, when we take with it other words in which the meaning is intensified by composition with irmin. In the Hildebrands lied, irmingot is the supreme god, the god of all, not a peculiar one, agreeing in sense with thiodgod, the (whole) people's god, formed by another strengthening prefix, Hel. 33, 18. 52, 12. 99, 6. irminman, an elevated expression for man, Hel. 38, 24. 107, 13. 152, 11. irminthiod, the human race, Hel. 87, 13 and in Hildebr. (16) In the same way I explain proper names compounded with irman, irmin (Gramm. 2, 448). And irmansûl, irminsûl is the great, high, divinely honoured statue; that it was dedicated to any one god, is not to be found in the term itself.

In like manner the AS. has eormencyn (genus humanum), Beow. 309. Cod. Exon. 333, 3. eormengrund (terra), Beow. 1711. (and singularly in an adj. form: ofer ealne yrmenne grund, Cod. Exon. 243, 13). eormenstrýnd (progenies).

ON. iörmungrund (terra), iörmungandr (anguis maximus), iörmunrekr (taurus maximus). From all this may be gathered the high mythic antiquity of the Teutonic race; for neither to the Goths can they have been strange, as their famous king's name Ermanaricus (Aírmanareiks, ON. Iörmunrekr) shows; and beyond a doubt the Hermunduri are properly Ermunduri (Gramm. 2, 175), the H being often prefixed to all such forms.

Now whatever may be the probable meaning of the word irman, iörmun, eormen, to which I shall return in due time, one thing is evident, that the Irman-pillar had some connexion, which continued to be felt down to a late period (p. 116), with Mercury or hermes, to whom Greek antiquity raised similar posts and pillars, which where themselves called Hermae, a name which suggests our Teutonic one.

The Saxons may have known more about this; the Franks, in Upper Germany, from the 8th to the 13th century, connected with irmansûl, irminsûl the general notion of a heathen image set up on a pillar. Probably Ruodolf associated with his truncus ligni the thought of a choice and hallowed tree-stem (with, or without, a god's image?), rather than a pillar hewn into shape by the hand of man; this fits in too with the worshipping sub divo, with the word lucus used by some of the chroniclers, and with the simplicity of the earliest forest-worship. As the image melts into the notion of tree, so does the tree pass into that of image; and our Westphalian Irmen-pillar most naturally suggests the idea of that Thor's-oak in Hesse; the evangelists converted both of them into churches of St. Peter. I suspect an intimate connexion between the Irman-pillars and the Roland-pillars erected in the later Mid. Ages, especially in North Germany; there were in Sweden Thor's-pillars, and among the Anglo-Saxons Æthelstân-pillars (Lappenberg 1, 376). There yet remains to be given an account of a sacred post in Neustria, as contained in the Vita Walarici abbatis Leuconensis (d. 622), said to have been composed in the 8th century: Et juxta ripan ipsius fluminis stips erat magnus, diversis imaginibus figuratus, atque ibi in terram magna virtute immissus, qui nimio cultu morem gentilium a rusticis colebatur. Walaricus causes the log to be thrown down: et his quidem rusticis habitantibus in locis non parvum tam moerorem quam et stuporem omnibus praebuit. Sed undique illis certatim concurrentibus cum armis et fustibus, indigne hoc ferentes invicem, ut injuriam dei sui vindicarent (Acta Bened. sec. 2, pp. 84-5). The place was called Augusta (bourg d' Augst, near the town of Eu), and a church was built on the spot.

I think I have now shown, that in ancient Germany there were gods and statues. It will further be needful to consider, how antiquity went to work in identifying foreign names of gods with German, and conversely German with foreign.

The Romans in their descriptions cared a great deal more to make themselves partially understood by a free translation, than, by preserving barbarous vocables, to do a service to posterity. At the same time they did not go arbitrarily to work, but evidently with care.

Caesar's Sol, Luna and Vulcan are perhaps what satisfies us least; but Tacitus seems never to use the names of Roman deities, except advisedly and with reflection. Of the gods, he names only Mercury and Mars (Germ. 9. Ann. 13, 57. Hist. 4, 64); of deified heroes. Hercules, Castor and Pollux (Germ. 9, 43); of goddesses, Isis (Germ. 9), the terra mater by her German name (Germ. 40), and the mater deum (Germ. 45). Incompatible deities, such as Apollo or Bacchus, are never compared. What strikes us most, is the absence of Jupiter, and the distinction given to Mercury, who was but a deity of the second rank with the Romans, a mere god of merchants, but here stands out the foremost of all: Deorum maxime Mercurium colunt: to him alone do human sacrifices fall, while Mars and Hercules content themselves with beasts. This prominence of Mercury is probably to be explained by the fact, that this god was worshipped by the Gauls likewise as their chief divinity, and was the most frequently portrayed (deum maxime Mercurium colunt, hujus sunt plurima simulacra, Caes. B. Gall. 6, 17); (17) and that the looks of the Romans, when directed towards Germany, still saw Gaul in the foreground; besides, it may have been Galic informants that set the German divinity before them in this light. Observe too the Gaulish juxtaposition of ars and Mercurius in statues (p. 111), precisely as Tacitus names the German ones together (Ann. 13, 57). The omission of Jupiter is obviously accounted for, by his worship yielding the precedence to that of Mercury in those nations which Tacitus knew best: we shall see, as we go on, that the northern and remoter branches on the contrary reserved their highest veneration for the thunder god. On Isis and Hercules I shall express my views further on. Whom we are to understand by the Dioscuri, is hard to guess; most likely two sons of Woden, and if we go by the statements of the Edda, the brothers Baldr and Hermôðr would be the most fitting.

This adaptation of classical names to German gods became universally spread, and is preserved with strict unanimity by the Latin writers of the succeeding centuries; once set in circulation, it remained current and intelligible for long ages.

The Gothic historian names but one god after the Roman fashion, and that is Mars: Quem Gothi semper asperrima placavere cultura (Jornandes cap. 5), with which the Scythian Ares, so early as in Herodotus 4, 62-3, may be compared.

Paulus Diaconus winds up his account of Wodan with the express announcement (1, 9): Wodan sane, quem adjecta litera Gwodan dixerunt, ipse est qui apud Romanos Mercurius dicitur, et ab universis Germanise gentibus ut deus adoratur. Just so his older countryman Jonas of Bobbio, in that account of the sacrificing Alamanns, declares: Illi aiunt, deo suo Vodano, quem Mercurium vocant alii, se velle litare; upon which, a gloss inserted by another hand says less correctly: Qui apud eos Vuotant vocatur, Latini autem Martem illum appellant; though otherwise Woden greatly resembles Mars (v. infra).

Gregory of Tours (supra. p. 107) makes Saturn and Jupiter, and again Mars Mercuriusque the gods whom the heathen Chlodovich adored. In 1, 34 he expresses himself in more general terms: Privatus, Gabalitanae urbis episcopus ..daemoniis immolare compellitur a Chroco Alamannorum rege (in the third cent.) Widekind of Corvei names Mars and Hercules as gods of the Saxons (see p. 111); and that little addition to the Corvei Annals (see p. 111) couples together the Greek and Latin denominations Aris and Mars, Ermis and Mercurius.

The Indiculus paganiarum reckons up, under 8: De sacris Mercurii vel Jovis (18); under 20: De feriis quae faciunt Jovi vel Mercurio. So that the thunder-god, of whom Tacitus is silent, is in other quarters unforgotten; and now we can understand Wilibald's narrative of the robur Jovis (see p. 72), and in Bonifac. epist. 25 (A.D. 723) the presbyter Jovi mactans (see Suppl.).

In the Additamenta operum Matthaei Paris. ed. W. Watts, Paris 1644, pp. 25-6, there is an old account of some books which are said to have been discovered in laying the foundation of a church at Verlamacestre (St. Albans) in the tenth century, and to have been burnt. One of them contained 'invocationes et ritus idololatrarum civium Varlamacestrensium, in quibus comperit, quod specialiter Phoebum deum solis invocarunt et coluerunt, secundario vero Mercurium, Voden anglice appellatum, deum videlicet mercatorum, quia cives et compatriotae ..fere omnes negotiatores et institores fuerunt.' Evidently the narrator has added somewhat out of his own erudition; the invocations and rites themselves would have given us far more welcome information.

Passages which appear to speak of a German goddess by the name of Diana, will be given later. Neptune is mentioned a few times (supra, p. 110).

Saxo Grammaticus, though he writes in Latin, avoids applying the Roman names of gods, he uses Othinus or Othin, never Mercurius instead; yet once, instead of his usual Thor (pp. 41, 103), he has Jupiter, p. 236, and malleus Jovialis; Mars on p. 36 seems to stand for Othin, not for Tyr, who is never alluded to in Saxo. Ernoldus Nigellus, citing the idols of the Normanni, says 4, 9 (Pertz 2, 501), that for God (the Father) they worshipped Neptune, and for Christ Jupiter; I suppose Neptune must here mean Oðin, and Jupiter Thor; the same names recur 4, 69. 100. 453-5.

Melis-Stoke, as late as the beginning of the 14th century, still remembers that the heathen Frisians worshipped Mercury (1, 16. 17); I cannot indicate the Latin authority from which no doubt he drew this. (19)

If the supposition be allowed, and it seems both a justifiable and almost a necessary one, that, from the first century and during the six or eight succeeding ones, there went on an uninterrupted transfer of the above-mentioned and a few similar Latin names of gods to domestic deities of Gaul and Germany, and was familiar to all the educated; we obtain by this alone the solution of a remarkable phenomenon that has never yet been satisfactorily explained: the early diffusion over half Europe of the heathen nomenclature of the days of the week.

These names are a piece of evidence favourable to German heathenism, and not to be disregarded.

The matter seems to me to stand thus. (20)

From Egypt, through the Alexandrians, the week of seven days (ebdomaj), which in Western Asia was very ancient, came into vogue among the Romans, but he planetary nomenclature of the days of the week apparently not till later. Under Julius Caesar occurs the earliest mention of 'dies Saturni' in connection with the Jewish sabbath, Tibull. 1, 3, 18. Then hliou hmera in Justin Mart. apolog. 1, 67. 'Ermou and Afrodithj hmera in Clem. Alex. strom. 7, 12. The institution fully carried out, not long before Dio Cassius 37, 18, about the close of the 2nd century. (21) The Romans had previously had a week of nine days, nundinae = novendinae. Christianity had adopted from the Jews the hebdomas, and now it could not easily guard the church against the idolatrous names of days either (see Suppl.)

But these names, together with the institution of the week, had passed on from Rome to Gaul and Germany, sooner than the christian religion did. In all the Romance countries the planetary names have lasted to this day (mostly in a very abridged form), except for the first day and the seventh: instead of dies solis they chose dies dominica (Lord's day). It. domenica, Sp. domingo,French dimanche; and for dies Saturni they kept the Jewish sabbatum, It. sabbato, Sp. sabado,French samedi (=sabdedi, sabbati dies). But the heathen names of even these two days continued in popular use long after: Ecce enim dies solis adest, sic enim barbaries vocitare diem dominicum consueta est, Greg. Tur. 3, 15.

Unhappily a knowledge of the Gothic names of days is denied us. The sabbatê dags, sabbatô dags, which alone occurs in Ulphilas, of the remaining six or five days. A sunnôns dags, a mênins dag may be guessed; the other four, for us the most important, I do not venture to suggest. Their preservation would have been of the very highest value to our inquiry.

Old High Germ.

I. sunnûn dag, O. v. 5, 22. Gl. blas. 76. Lacombl. arch. 1, 6.

II. mânin tac (without authority, for mânitag, mânotag in Graff 2, 795. 5, 358 have no reference; mânetag in Notker, ps. 47, 1).

III. dies Martis, prob. Ziuwes tac among Alamanns; in the 11th cent. Cies dac, Gl. blas. 76; (22) prob. different among Bavarians and Lombards.

IV. dies Mercurii, perhaps still Wuotanes tac? our abstract term, diu mittawecha already in N. ps. 93, and mittwocha, Gl. blas. 76.

V. dies Jovis, Donares tac, Toniris tac, N. ps. 80, 1. donrestac, Gl. blas. 76. Burcard von Worms 195: quintam feriam in honorem Jovis honorati.

VI. dies Veneris, Fria dag, O. v. 4, 6. Frije tag, T. 211, 1.

VII. at last, like the Romance and Gothic, avoiding the heathenish dies Saturni, sambaztag, T. 68, 1. N. 91, 1. (23) samiztag, N. 88, 40. sunnûn âband, our sonnabend, already in O. v. 4, 9, prob. abbreviation of sunnûndages âband, feria ante dominicam, for vespera solis cannot have been meant [conf. Engl. Whitsun-eve]; and occasionally, corresponding to the Romance dies dominica, frôntag, N. ps 23.

Mid. High Germ.

Would any one believe, that the names of the days of the week are not easily to be picked out of the abundant remains of our MHG literature? It is true, sunnen tac (suntac in Berth. 118) and mântac (Parz. 452, 16. mæntac 498, 22. Amis 1648) (24) admit of no doubt. either do Donrestac (Donerstag, Uolrich 73. Dunrestac, Berth. 128), spelt Duristag in a Semi-Low Germ. urk. of 1300 in Höfer p. 57), and Dornstag in one of 1495, Useners femgerichten p. 131; nor Frîtac (Parz. 448, 7. 470, 1. Walth. 36, 31. Berth. 134), Vriegtag, Uolrich 73; nor yet samztac (Parz. 439, 2. Berth. 138), sunnen âbent (Trist. 3880).

But uncertainty hangs about the third and fourth days. The former, by a remarkable variation, was in Bavaria named Eritac, Erctac (th true form not quite certain, eritag in Adelung's vat. hss. 2, 189. ergetag in Berth. 122; see examples collected from urkunden, Schm. 1, 96-7), in Swabia on the contrary Ziestac, for Ziewestac. Both of these forms, which have nothing to do with each other, live to this day in the speech of the common people: Bav. ierte, Austr. iärta, irita, Vicentino-Germ. eörtä, Alem. ziestag, zinstag, ziestig, zistig, zienstig, zinstag. The insertion of the liquid has corrupted the word, and brought in quite irrelevant notions. In central Germany the form diestag, ticstag seems to predominate (diestik in the Rhön), whence our dienstag (less correctly dinstag, there is good reason for the ie); the spelling dingstag, as if from ding, thing, judicium, is false; dinstag occurs in Gaupps magdeb. recht p. 272. The fourth day I have never seen named after the god, either in MHG. or in our modern dialects unless indeed the gwontig cited in the note can be justified as standing for Gwuotenstag, Wuotenstag; everywhere that abstraction 'midweek' has carried all before it, but it has itself become almost unintelligible by being changed into a masculine mittwoch, mittich, Berth. 24, mäktig, Stald. 2, 194, conf. the Gothl. mäjkädag, Almqv. 442), 'an der mitkun,' fem., is found in the Cod. zaringobad. no. 140 (A.D. 1261). So even for the fifth day, the numeric name phinztac (Berth. 128. Otoc. 144. Grätzer urk. of 1338. Schwabenspiegel, p. 196. Schm. 1, 322), or phingstag, has made its way into some districts of Upper Germany through Græco-Slavic influences, pempth, petek, piatek, patek, though by these the Slavs mean Friday (see. Suppl.).

New High Germ.

I. sonntag. II. montag. III. Dienstag. IV. mittwoch. V. Donnerstag. VI. Freitag. VII. samstag, sonnabend.

Old Saxon. The OS. names are wanting, but must have differed in some essential points from the OHG., as the derived dialects prove. We may pretty safely assume Wôdanes dag for the fourth day of the week, for in Westphalia it is still called Godenstag, Gonstag, Gaunstag, Gunstag, at Aix Gouesdag, in Lower Rhen. urkunden Gudestag, Günther, 3, 585. 611 (A.D. 1380-7), Gudenstag, Kindlinger hörigk. p. 577-8 (A.D. 1448).

The third day was probably Tiwesdag, the fifth Thunaresdag, the sixth Frîundag. The most unlike would doubtless be the seventh, was it formed after dies Saturni, Sâteresdag? conf. the Westph. Saterstag, Saiterstaig, Günter 3, 502 (A.D. 1365). In Sachsensp. 2, 66 one MS. reads for sunavend Satersdach (see Suppl.).

Mid. Dutch.

I. sondach, Maerl. 2, 159. II. manendach, Huyd. op St. 3, 389. maendach, Maerl. 2, 139. III. Disendach, Maerl. 2, 140. al. Dicendach, Dissendach, Cannaert strafrecht, pp. 124, 481 apparently corrupted from Tisdach. IV. Woensdach, Maerl. 2, 143. V. Donresdach, Maerl. 2, 144. VI. Vrîdach, Maerl. 2, 159. gen. Vrîndaghes, Maerl. 2, 144. VI. Vrîdach, Maerl. 2, 159. gen. Vrîndaghes, Maerl. 2, 143. 157. VII. Saterdach, Maerl. 2, 114. 120-3. 157-9. 276. 3, 197. 343. also sonnacht, Maerl. 2, 164. 3, 240. (see Suppl.).

New Dutch.

I. zondag. II. mândag. III. dingsdag, formerly dinsdag, Dissendag. IV. Woensdag, Belg. Goensdag. V. Donderdag. VI. Vrîdag. VII. Zaterdag.

Old Frisian.

I. somnadei. II. monadei. III. Tysdei. IV. Wernsdei. V. Thunresdei, Tornsdei. VI. Frigendei, Fredei. VII. Saterdei (references for all these forms in Richthofen).

New Frisian.

I. sneyn, abbrev. from sinnedey, sendei, senned (conf. Frêd); the final n in sneyn, no doubt, as in OFris. Frigendei, a relic of the old gen. sing. in the weak decl. II. moandey. III. Tyesdey. IV. Wânsdey. V. Tongersdey. VI. Frêd, abbrev. from Frêdey. VII. sniuwn, snioun, abbrv. from sinnejuwn = Sun(day)-even. Conf. tegenwoordige staat van Friesland 1, 121. Wassenbergh's bidraghen 2, 56. Halbertsma naoogst p. 281-2 (see Suppl.).

North Frisian.

I. sennedei. II. monnendei. III. Tirsdei. IV. Winsdei. V. Türsdei. VI. Fridei. VII. sennin (in = even).

Anglo-Saxon.

I. sonnan dæg. II. monan dæg. III. Tiwes dæg. IV. Wôdenes or Wôdnes dæg. V. Thunores dæg. VI. Frige dæg. VII. Sætres or Sæternes dæg.

Old Norse.

I. sunnudagr. (25) II. mânadagr. III. Tyrsdagr, Tysdagr. IV. Oðinsdagr. V. Thôrsdagr. VI. Friadagr, Freyjudagr. VII. laugardagr.

Swedish.

I. söndag. II. måndag. III. Tisdag, whence even Finn. tystai. IV. Onsdag. V. Thorsdag. VI. Fredag. VII. lördag.

Danish.

I. söndag. II. mandag. III. Tirsdag. IV. Onsdag. V. Torsdag. VI. Fredag. VII. löverdag (see Suppl.).

We see, it is only in the seventh day that the Scandinavian depart from the Saxon, Frisian and Dutch: laugardagr means bath-day because people bathed at the end of the week. Yet even here there may be some connexion; a Latin poem of the 9th century on the battle of Fontenay (Bouquet 7, 304) has the singular verse: Sabbatum non illud fuit, sed Saturni dolium; a devil's bath? conf. ch. XII, Saturn. [The Germ. for carnage is blutbad, blood-bath.]

Even if the Germans from the earliest times knew the week of seven days from the four phases of the lunar change, (26) yet the naming of the days and the order in which they stand is manifestly an importation from abroad. On the contrary supposition, there would have been variation in details; and Saturn, for whom no Teutonic god seems prepared to stand sponsor, would have been left out in the cold.

But it would be no less absurd to attribute the introduction of the week and the names of the days to the Christians. As they came into vogue among the heathen Romans, they could just as well among heathen Gauls and Germans; nay, considering the lively intercourse between the three nations, a rapid diffusion is altogether natural. (27) Christianity had the Jewish week, and it tolerated names which were a frequent offenct to it, but were already too deeply rooted, and could only be partially dislodged. Those words of Gregory reveal the utter aversion of the clergy, which comes out still more plainly in the language (publ. in Syntagma de baptismo, p. 190) of an Icelandic bishop in 1107, who actually did away with them in Iceland, and replaced them by mere numeric names. How should the christian teachers ever have suffered hateful names of idols to be handed over to their recent converts for daily use, unless they had already been long established among the people? And in Germany, how should the Latin gods have been allowed to get translated into German ones, as if on purpose to put them within easy reach of the people, had they not already been familiar with them for centuries?

Again, the high antiquity of these translations is fully established by their exact accordance with the terminology used in the first centuries, as soon as people came to turn German gods into Roman. In my opinion, the introduction of the seven days' names amongst us must be placed at latest in the fourth or fifth century; it may not have taken place simultaneously in all parts of Teutondom.

Our forefathers, caught in a natural delusion, began early to ascribe the origin of the seven days' names to the native gods of their fatherland.

William of Malmesbury, relating the arrival of the Saxons in Britian, says of Hengist and Horsa, that they were sprung from the noblest ancestry: Erant enim abnepotes illus antiquissimi Voden, de quo omnium pene barbarum gentium regium genus lineam trahit, quemque gentes Anglorum deum esse delirantes, ei quartum diem septimanae, et sextum uxori ejus Freae perpetua ad hoc tempus consecraverunt sacrilegio (Savile 1601. p. 9).

More circumstantially, Geoffrey of Monmouth (lib. 6. ed. 1587, p. 43) makes Hengist say to Vortigern: Ingressi sumus maria, regnum tuum duce Mercurio petivimus. Ad nomen itaque Mercurii erecto vultu rex inquirit cujusmodi religionem haberent? cui Hengistus: deos patrios Saturnum, atque ceteros, qui mundum gubernant, colimus, maxime Mercurium (as in Tac. 9), quem Woden lingua nostra appellamus. Huic veteres nostri dicaverunt quartam septimanae feriam, quae usque in hodiernum diem nomen Wodenesdai de nomini ipsius sortita est. Post illum colimus deam inter ceteras potentissimam, cui et dicaverunt sextam feriam, quam de nomine ejus Fredai vocamus.

As Matthew of Westminster (Flores, ed. 1601, p. 82) varies in some details, his words may also be inserted here: Cumque tandem in praesentia regis (Vortigerni) essaent constituti, quaesivit ab eis, quam fidem, quam religionem patres eorum coluissent? cui Hengistus: deos patrios, scilicet Saturnum, Jovem atque ceteros, qui mundum gubernant, colimus, maxime autem Mercurium, quem lingua nostra Voden appellamus. Huic patres nostri veteres dedicaverunt quartam feriam septimanae, quae in hunc hodiernum diem Vodenesday appellatur. Post illum colimus deam inter ceteras potentissimam, vocabulo Fream, cujus vocabulo Friday appellamus. Frea ut volunt quidam idem est quod Venus, et dicitur Frea, quasi Froa a frodos [A-frod-ite = from froth?] quod est spuma maris, de qua nata est Venus secundum fabulas, unde idem dies appellatur dies Veneris.

Anglo-Saxon legend then, unconcerned at the jumbling of foreign and homespun fable, has no doubt at all about the high antiquity of the names among its people.

Saxo Grammaticus, more critical, expresses his opinion (p. 103) of the Norse nomenclature, that it is derived from the native gods, but that these are not the same as the Latin. This he proves by Othin and Thor, after whom the fourth and fifth days of the week are named, as in Latin after Mercury and Jupiter. For Thor, being Othin's son, cannot possibly be identified with Jupiter, who is Mercury's father, with the Roman Mercury, who is Jupiter's son. The discrepancy is certainly strong, but all that it can prove is, that at the time when Othin and Mercury was thought of as a Celtic divinity, probably with attributes differing widely from his classical namesake. Saxo is quite right in what he means, and his remark confirms the early heathen origin of these names of days; (28) yet upon occasion, as we saw on p. 122, he lets himself be carried away after all by the overpowering identity of Thor and Jupiter (see Suppl.).

The variations too in the names of the seven days among the various Teutonic races deserve all attention; we perceive that they were not adopted altogether cut-and-dry, nor so retained, but that national ideas still exercised some control over them. The later heathenism of Friesland and Saxony caused the old names of Wednesday and Saturday to live on, while in Upper Germany they soon sank into oblivion. But what is especially significant to us, is the deviation of the Alamanns and Bavarians when we come to the third day; how could it have arisen at a later (christian) time, when the idea of the heathen god that does duty for Mars had already become indistinct? how came the christian clergy, supposing that from them the naming had proceeded, ever to sanction such a divergence?

The nations that lie behind us, the Slavs, the Lithuanians, do not know the planetary names of days, they simply count like the Greeks, (29) not because they were converted later, but because they became acquainted with Latin culture later. The Finns and Lapps do not count, while the Esthonians again mostly do (see Suppl.). Even the christianizing influences of Byzantium decided nothin on this point; Byzantium had no influence over Lithuanians and Finns, and had it over a part only of the Slavs. These in their counting begin with Monday, as the first day after rest., consequently Tuesday is their second, and Thursday their fourth, (30) altogether deviating from the Latin and Icelandic reckoning, which makes Monday second and Thursday fifth. Hence the Slavic piatek (fifth) means Friday, and that Up. Germ. pfinztag (fifth) Thursday. Wednesday they call middle, sreda, sereda, srida (whence Lith. serrada), which may have acted upon our High German nomenclature; the Finns too have keskiwijcko ( half-week, from keski medium). It would be well worth finding out, when and for what reason the High German and the Slav first introduced the abstract names mittewoche and sreda (Boh. streda), while the Low German and the Romance have kept to Woden and Mercury. Alone of the Slavs, the Wends in Lüneburg show a trace of naming after a god; dies Jovis was with them Perendan, from Peren, Perun, thunder-god: apparently a mere imitation of the German, as in all the other days they agree with the rest of the Slavs. (31)

The nett result of these considerations is, that, in Latin records dealing with Germany and her gods, we are warranted in interpreting, with the greatest probability, Mercurius as Wuotan, Jupiter as Donar, and Mars as Ziu. The gods of the days of the week translated into German are an experiment on Tacitus's 'interpretatio Romana'.

__________________

                1. Adam of Bremen again copies Ruodolf, Pertz 9, 286.

                2. Deorum numero eos solos ducunt, quos cernunt, et quorum opibus aperte juvantur, Solem et Vulcanum et Lunam; reliquos ne fama quidem acceperunt B.G. 6, 21. Compare with this B.G. 4, 7 where the Usipetes and Tenchtheri say to Cæsar: Sese unis Suevis concedere, quibus ne dii quidem immortales pares esse possint.

                3. Grk. agalma, signum, statue; Goth. manleika, OHG. manalîhho, ON. lîkneski (see Suppl.); can the Sloven. malik, idol, have sprung from manleika? Bohem. malik, the little finger, also Thumbkin, Tom Thumb? which may have to do with idol. [In the Slavic languages, mâl = little, s-mall]. Other OHG. terms are avarâ; piladi, pilidi (bild) effigies or imago in general; in the Mid. Ages they said, for making or forming (p. 23), ein bilde giezen, eine schæne juncfrouwen ergiezen, Cod. Vindob. 428, num. 211, without any reference to metal-casting; ein bilde mezzen, Troj. 19626, mezzen, Misc. 2, 186. On the Lith. balwonas, idolum, statua, conf. Pott de ling. Litth. 2, 51. Ruiss. bolvâny; Russ. kumîr, idol, both lit. and fig. (object of affection).

                4. De simulacro quod per campos portant (Indic. superstit. cap. 28); one vita S. Martini cap. 9 (Surius 6, 252): Quia esset haec Gallorum rusticis consuetudo, simulacra daemonum, candido tecta velamine, misera per agros suos circumferre dementia.

                5. So then, in a church really christian, these old heathen gods' images had been let into the wall, probably to conciliate the people, who were still attached to them? There are several later instances of this practice, conf. Ledebur's archiv. 14, 363. 378. Thür. mitth. VI. 2, 13 (see Suppl.).

                6. Curiously, Mone (Gesch. des heid. 1, 171-5) tries to put this Woden worship at Tuggen upon the Heruli, who had never been heard of there, instead of the Alamanns, because Jonus says: Sunt inibi vicinae nationes Suevorum. But this means simply those settled thereabouts; there was no occasion to speak of distant ones. Columban was staying in a place not agreeable to himself, in order to convert the heathen inhabitants; and by Walafrid's description too, the district lies infra partes Alamanniae, where intra would do just as well.

                7. Two narratives by Gregory of Tours on statues of Diana in the Treves country, and of Mercury and Mars in the south of Gaul, though they exclude all thought of German deities, yet offer striking comparisons. Hist. 8, 15: Deinde territorium Trevericae urbis expetii, et in quo nunc estis monte habitaculum, quod cernitis, proprio labore construxi; reperi tamen hic Dianae simulacrum, quod populus hic incredulus quasi deum adorabat. columnam etiam statui, in qua cum grandi cruciatu sine ullo pedum stabam tegmine.......Verum ubi ad me multitudo vicinarum civitatum confluere coepit, praedicabam jugiter, nihil esse Dianam, nihil simulacra, nihilque quae eis videbatur exerceri cultura: indigna etiam esse ipsa, quae inter pocula luxuriasque profluas contica proferebant, sed potius deo omnipotenti, qui coelum fecit ac terram, dignum sit sacrificium laudis impendere. orabam etiam saepius, ut simulacro dominus diruto dignaretur populum ab hoc errore discutere. Flexit domini misericordia mentem rusticam, ut inclinaret aurem suam in verba oris mei, ut scilicet relictis idolis dominum sequeretur, (et) tunc convocatis quibusdam ex eis simulacrum hoc immensum, quod elidere propria virtute non poteram, cum eorum adjutorio possem eruere; jam enim reliqua sigillorum (the smaller figures) quae faciliora erant, ipse confregeram. Convenientibus autem multis ad hanc Dianae statuam, missis funibus trahere coeperunt, sed nihil labor eorum proficere poterat. Then came prayers; egressusque post orationem ad operarios veni, adprehensumque funem ut primo ictu trahere coepimus, protinus simulacrum ruit in terram, confractumque cum malleis ferreis in pulverem redegi. So images went to the ground, whose contemplation we should think very instructive now. This Diana was probably a mixture of Roman and Gallic worship; there are inscriptions of a Diana arduinna (Bouquet 2, 319). The second passage stands in Mirac. 2, 5: Erat autem haud procul a cellula, quam sepulchrum, martyris (Juliani Arvernensis) haec matrona construxerat (in vico Brivatensi), grande delubrum, ubi in columna altissima simulachrum Martis Mercuriique colebatur. Cumque delubri illius festa a gentilibus agerentur ac mortui mortuis thura deferrent, medio e vulgo commoventur pueri duo in scandalum, nudatoque unus gladio alterum appetit trucidandum. The boy runs to the saint's cell, and is saved. Quarta autem die, cum gentilitas vellet iterum diis exhibere libamina, the christian priests offer a fervent prayer to the martyr, a violent thunderstorm arises, the heathens are terrified: Recedente autem tempestate, gentiles baptizati, statuas quas coluerant confringentes, in lacum vico amnique proximum projecerunt.

Soon after this, the Burgundians settled in the district. The statues broken down, crushed to powder, and flung into the lake, every bit the same as in that story of Ratpert's.

                8. On recently discovered figures of 'Othin,' v. infra, Wôdan.

                9. Finn Magnusen, bidrag til nordisk archaeologie, pp. 113-159.

                10. There is another thing to notice in this pasage. The figure of Thorgerðr bent its hand up, when some one tried to snatch a ring off its arm, and the goddess was not disposed to let him have it. The same man then brought a lot of money, laid it at the figure's feet, fell on his knees and shed tears, then rose up and once more grasped at the ring, which now the figure let go. The same is told in the Færeyîngasaga, cap. 23, p. 103. I regard it as a genuine trait of heathen antiquity, like others which afterwards passed into christian folk-tales of the Mid. Ages (see Suppl.). Or more than one image of grace we are told that it dropt a ring off its finger or a shoe off its foot as a gift to those who prayed before it. A figure of Christ gave its shoes to a poor man (Nicolai abbatis peregrinatio, ed. Werlauff p. 20), and a saint's image its gold slippers (Mones anz. 7, 584. Archiv. des Henneb. vereins, pp. 70, 71). A figure of Mary accepts a ring that is presented to it, and bends her finger as a sign that she will keep it (Méon nouv. recueil 2, 296-7. Maerl. 2, 214). The two Virgin stories in Méon and Maerlant, though one at bottom, have very different turns given them. In the latter, a young man at a game of ball pulls the ring off his finger, and puts it on the hand of a Madonna; in th former, the youth is boxing in the Colosseum at Rome, and puts his ring on the finger of a heathen statue, which bends the finger. Both figures now hold the man to his engagement. But theOld French poem makes the afflicted youth bring an image of Mary to bear on the heathen one, the Mary takes the ring off the other figure, and restores it to the youth. Conf. Kaiserchr. 13142. 13265. 13323. Forduni Scoti chronicon 1, 407 (W. Scott's ministr. 2, 136), relates this fable as an event of the 11th century: a nobleman playing at ball slips his ring on the finger of a broken statue of Venus, and only gets it back with the help of a priest Palumbus who understands magic. We see the story had spread at an early time, but it is old Teutonic in its origin ['undeutsch,' evid. a slip for urdeutsch]. Even in a painting of Mary, the infant in her lap hands her a casket to give to a suppliant, Cod. pal. 341 fol. 63). Similarly, statues turn the face away, stretch out the arms to protect, they speak, laugh, weep, eat and walk; thus a figure of Christ turns itself away (Ls. 3, 78. 262), another begins to eat and grow bigger (Kinderm. legenden no. 9), to weep, to beckon, to run away (Deutsche sagen, no. 347. Tettaus, preuss. sagen, pp. 211-5-8). In Reinbot's Georg the idol Apollo is flogged with rods by a child, and forced to walk away (3258-69), which reminds one of the god Perûn, whom, according to monk Nestor, Vladîmir the Apostolic caused to be scourged with rods. In an Indian story I find a statue that eats the food set before it, Polier 2, 302-3. Antiquity then did not regard these images altogether as lumps of dead matter, but as penetrated by the life of the divinity. The Greeks too have stories of statues that move, shake the lance, fall on their knees, close their eyes (katamuseij), bleed and sweat, which may have been suggested by the attitudes of ancient images; but of a statue making a movement of the hand, bending a finger, I have nowhere read, significant as the position of the arms in images of gods was held to be. That the gods themselves ceira uperecousin over those whom they wish to protect, occurs as early as in Homer. 

                11. Finn Magnusen ibid. 132-7.

                12. Now Stadtbergen, conf. the extract from Dietmar; but strong reasons incline us to push the pillar (seule) some 15 miles deeper into the Osning forest; Clostermeier Eggesterstein, pp. 26-7: Eresburg, Horohus in pago Hessi Saxonico Saracho 735. 350. Conf. Massmann's Eggesterst. p. 34.

                13. Poeta Saxo 1, 65 (Bouquet 5, 137): Gens eadem coluit simulacrum quod vocitabant Irminsûl, cujus factura simulque columna Non operis parvi fuerat, pariterque decoris.

                14. ôs is the Sax. form for ans (p. 25), which denoted a god, and also a mountain; in High G. the name would be Ansninc, Ensninc. But, beside this mons Osnengi near Theotmelli, i.e. Detmold (Pertz 2, 447), there stood also a silva Osning not far from Osnabrück (Möser urk. no 2), and a third in Ripuaria on the Lower Rhine (Lacomblet no 310. 343. 354), which seems to have extended towards the Ardennes as far as Aachen (Aix la Chap.), mentioned in Vilkinasaga cap. 40; and according to Bärsch on Schannat's Eiflia, illustr. 1, 110, and Hattemer 3, 602, the Ardennes itself was called Osninka, Oseninch. By the Osnabrück charter above, the forest there appears even to have been modelled on the Osning of Aachen (ad similitudinem foresti Aquisgranum pertinentis). That Osning is met with in several places, speaks for a more general meaning [than that of a mere proper name]; like âs, ans, and faírguni, it is the sacred mountain and forest. Ledebur takes the Teutoburgiensis saltus to be sning. Osnabrück, Asnebruggi (bridge of the âses) seems nearly related. 

                15. Is this Ermen-pillar hoard an allusion to the legend of Ermenrich's hoard? (Saxo Gram. 156. Reinh. fuchs CLII.)

                16. The Slav. ramo, Bohem. ramenso, is with transposition the Lat. armus, OHG. aram, and means both arm and shoulder; in the Sloven. compound ramen-velik, valde magnus, it intensifies exactly like irman; does this point to an affinity between irman and arm? Arminius too is worth considering; conf. Schaffarik 1, 427.

                17. Schöpflin, Als. ill. 1, 435-60; esp. on a fanum of Mercury at Ebermünster 1, 58. Conf. Hummel, bibl. deutsch. alterth. p. 229. Creuzer, altröm. cultur am Oberrhein, pp. 48, 98.

                18. Had these been Roman gods, Jupiter would certainly have been named first, and Mercury after.

                19. Our MHG. poets impart no such information; they only trouble their heads about Saracen gods, among whom it is true Jupiter and Apollo make their appearance too. In Rol. 97, 7 are named Mars, Jovinus, Saturnus.

                20. I can here use only the beginning, not the conclusion, which would be more useful for my investigation, of a learned paper by Julius Hare on the names of the days of the week (Philolog. Mus., Nov. 1831). Conf. Idelers handb. der chronol. 2, 177-180, and Letronne, observations sur les représentations zodiacales, p. 99.

                21. An old hexameter at the end of the editions of Ausonius: Ungues Mercurio, barbam Jove, Cypride crines (nails on Wednesday, beard on Thursday, hair on Friday).

                22. Cies for Zies, as the same glossist 86 writes gicimbere and cinnum.

                23. Sambazolus n. prop. in Karajan.

                24. Zuemtig for Monday, Stald. 2, 470 ought perhaps to be zue mentig, ze mântage; yet 1, 490 he has guenti, güenti, Tobler 248 has gwontig, guentig, and Zellwegers urk. 1, 19 guonti, for which Urk. no. 146 has 'an gutem tag,' which seems to be supported by Haltaus jahrzeitb. Or is only this particular Monday after Lent called so? In the Cod. pal. 372, 103 (ann. 1382) we have 'guotem tag.' The resemblance of this good day to the Westphalian Gudensdag (Woden's day) is purely accidental.

                25. This ON. sunnudagr is noticeable, as in other cases sôl is used rather than sunna; sunnudagr seems to have been formed by the christian teachers in imitation of the other Teutonic languages. The Swed. and Dan. söndag (instead of soldag) must have been taken bodily from a Plattdeutsch form.

                26. To the Lat. word vix, gen. vicis (change, turn) corresponds, without the usual consonant-change, the Gothic vikô, OHG. wëchâ and wëhsal, both referable to the verb veika, váik, OHG. wîchu (I give way), because change is a giving way [in German, 'der weschel ist ein weichen']. Ulph. has vikô only once, Lu. 1, 8, where en th taxei thj efhmeriaj is translated 'in vikôn kunjis'; it is evidently something more than taxij here, it expresses at the same time a part of the gen. efhmeriaj, therefore lit. 'in vice generis', which the Vulg. renders by 'in ordine vicis'. Now whether vikô expressed to the Goths the alternation of the moon's quarters, we do not know for certain; I incline to believe it, as the OHG. wëhâ, wochâ, AS. wice, wuce, ON. vika, Swed. vecka, Dan. uge, are all limited to the one meaning of septimana. The very absence of consonant-change points to a high antiquity in the word. It is remarkable that the Javanese vuku means a section of time, the year falling into 30 vukus (Humb. Kawispr. 1, 196). The Finn. wijkko is more likely to have been borrowed from the Norse than from so far back as the Gothic. I remark further, than an observance by the Germani of sections of tim must be inferred from the mere fact that certi dies were fixed for the sacrifices to Mercury, Tac. Germ. 9.

                27. Jos. fuchs, gesch. von Mainz 2, 27 seq. (Kupfert 4, no 7) describes a Roman round altar, prob. of the 3rd or 4th century, on which are carved the seven gods of the week (1 Saturn, 2 Apollo, 3 Diana, 4 Mars, 5 Mercury, 6 Jupiter, 7 Venus), and in an 8th place a genius.

                28. Conf. Pet. Er. Müller om Saxo, p. 79.

                29. The Indian nations also name their days of the week after planets; and it seems worth remarking here, that Wednesday is in Sanskrit Budhuvaras, Tamil Budhunküramei, because some have identified Buddha with Woden. In reality Budhas, the ruler of Mercury and son of the moon, is quite distinct from the prophet Buddhas (Schlegel's ind. bibl. 2. 177).

                30. E.g. in Russian: 1, voskresénie, resurrection (but O. Sl. ne-délia, no-doing). 2, po-nedél'nik, day after-no-work. 3, vtórnik, second day. 4, seredá, middle. 5, chetvérg, fourth day. 6, piátnitsa, fifth day. 7, subbóta, sabbath. Trans.

                31. It is striking, that in O. Bohem. glossaries (Hanka 54. 165) Mercury, Venus and Saturn are quoted in the order of their days of the week; and that any Slav deities that have been identified with Latin ones are almost sure to be of the number of those that preside over the week. And whilst of the Slav gods, Svatovit answers to Mars (Ziu), Radigast to Mercury (Wuotan), Perun to Jupiter (Donar), Lada (golden dame, zolota baba, in Hanusch 241, 35) to Venus (Frîa), and perhaps Sitivrat to Saturn; the names of the planets are construed quite otherwise, Mars by Smrto-nos (letifer), Mercury by Dobro-pan (good lord, or rather bonorum dator), Jupiter by Krale-moc (rex potens), Venus by Ctitel (cupitor? venerandus?), Saturn by Hlado-let (famelicus, or annonae caritatem afferens). Respecting Sitivrat I give details at the end of ch. XII.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 104 n.) The Goth. manleika, OHG. mannalîhho (conf. andriajFrench anhr man), lasts in MHG. wehsîne manlîch, Fundgr. 2, 123. guldîn manlîch, Servat. 2581. 'apud manlîcha,' where the image stands, Notizenbl. 6, 168.

                p. 105. ) Though Tacitus mentions no image in human shape, but only signa and formae (effigiesque et signa quaedam detracta lucis in proelium ferunt, Germ. 7, conf. vargr hângir fyr vestan dyr, ok drûpir örn yfir, Sæm. 41b);

yet the expression 'numen ipsum, si credere velis,' used of the divine Mother in her bath, cap. 40, does seem to point to a statue.

                p. 106. ) In the oldest time fetishes

stones and logs

are regarded as gods' images, Gerh. Metron. p. 26. Gr. to bretaj in the Tragic poets is a god's image of wood (conf. eikwn), though Benfey 1, 511 says 'of clay;' xoanon, prop. graven imageFrench xew I scrape, often means a small image worn on the person, e.g. the Cleo in Paus. iii. 14, 4; agalma, orig. ornament, then statue; zwdion, liter. little-animal 15, 8. Statues were made of particular kinds of wood: xoanon agnou, of the vitex agnus-castus 14, 7 (conf. ramos de nobilissimo agno casto, Evag. Fel. Fabri 1, 156-7), as rosaries of mistletoe were preferred. cum paupere culta stabat in exigua ligneus aede deus, Tib. i. 10, 20. Irish dealbh, deilbh, deilbhin, deilbhog, imago, statua, figura. Beside the Boh. modla, idolum (fr. model? orFrench modliti, to pray?), we find balwan, block, log, idol, Pol. balwan, Miklos. bal'van', Wall. balavanu, big stone (p. 105 n.), which Garnett, Proceed. 1, 148, connects with Armoric 'peulvan, a long stone erected, a rough unwrought column.' OHG. avara (p. 115-6) stands for imago, statua, pyramis (irmansûl), pyra, ignis, Graff 1, 181; conf. Criaches-avara (p. 297); OS. avaro filius, proles, AS. eafora. The idea of idolum is never clearly defined in the Mid. Ages: the anti-pope Burdinus (A.D. 1118-9) is called so, Pertz 8, 254-5. Even Beda's 'idolis servire' 2, 9 is doubtful, when set by the side of 'daemonicis cultibus servire' 2, 5.

                p. 107. ) On Athanaric's worship of idols, conf. Waitz's Ulfila p. 43. 62. Claudian de B. Getico 528 makes even Alaric (A.D. 402) exclaim: Non ita dî Getici faxint manesque parentum! Compare the gods' waggon with sacer currus in Tac. Germ. 10 and Suppl. to 328-9 below. Chariots of metal have been found in tombs, Lisch Meckl. jb. 9, 373-4. 11, 373.

                p. 108. ) That the Franks in Clovis's time had images of gods, is proved further by Remigius's epitaph on him: Contempsit credere mille Numina, quae variis horrent portenta figuris. On the other hand, Gregory of Tours's account (1, 34) of the Alamann king Chrocus in the 3rd century compelling St. Privatus in Gaul to sacrifice to idols, is vaguely worded: Daemoniis immolare compellitur, quod spurcum ille tam exsecrans quam refutans; on Chrocus conf. Stälin 1, 118.

                p. 108n. ) Old idols in churches were placed behind the organ (Melissantes orogr. p. 437-9) in Duval's Eichsfeld 341. 'An idols' chamber was in the old choir,' Leipz. avant. 1, 89-91; 'the angels out of the firewood room,' Weinhold's Schles. wtb. 17b; fires lighted with idols, conf. Suppl. to p. 13-15. Giants' ribs or hammers hung outside the church-gate, p. 555n.; urns and inverted pots built into church-walls, Thür. mitth. i. 2, 112-5. Steph. Stoflief. p. 189, 190. A heathen stone with the hoof-mark is let into Gudensberg churchyard wall, p. 938.

                p. 113. ) The warming (baka), anointing and drying of gods' images is told in Friðþiofs-s. cap. 9 (p. 63). But the divine snake of the Lombards was of gold, and was made into a plate and chalice (p. 684). The statua ad humanos tactus vocalis, Saxo p. 42, reminds of Memnon's statue. Some trace of a Donar's image may be seen in the brazen dorper, p. 535. On the armrings in gods' images conf. the note in Müller's Saxo p. 42. Even H. Sachs 1, 224b says of a yellow ringlet: 'du nähmst es Gott von füssen 'rab,' off God's feet; and ii. 4, 6d: ihr thet es Got von füssen nemmen. Four-headed figures, adorned with half-moons, in Jaumann's Sumlocenne p. 192-4. On nimbi, rays about the head, conf. p. 323 and Festus: capita deorum appellabantur fasciculi facti ex verbenis. Animals were carved on such figures, as on helmets; and when Alb. of Halberstadt 456a transl. Ovid's 'Illa mihi niveo factum de marmore signum Ostendit juvenile, gerens in vertice picum,' Met. 14, 318, by 'truoc einen speht ûf sîner ahseln,' he probably had floating in his mind Wôdan with the raven on his shoulder. Even in Fragm. 40a we still find: swuor bî allen gotes-bilden.

                p. 114n. ) Gods' images are instinct with divine life, and can move. Many examples of figures turning round in Bötticher's Hell. Temp. p. 126. One such in Athenaeus 4, 439; one that turns its face, Dio Cass. 79, 10: sacra retorserunt oculos, Ov. Met. 10, 696; one that walks, Dio Cass. 48, 43. idrwei ta xoana kai kineetai, Lucian ed. Bip. 9, 92. 120. 378; deorum sudasse simulacra, Cic. de divin. 2, 27. simulacrum Apollinis Cumani quatriduo flevit, Augustin. Civ. Dei 3, 11; Lanuvii simulacrum Junonis sospitae lacrimasse, Livy 40, 19; lapidum fletus = statuarum lacrimae, Claudian in Eutrop. 2, 43. simulacrum Jovis cachinnum repente edidit, Suet. Calig. 57. Flames burst out from head and breast, Herod. 6, 82. An Artemis drops her shield, Paus. iv. 13, 1. Not only are they spoken to (interdiu cum Capitolino Jove secreto fabulabatur, modo insusurrans ac praebens invicem aurem, modo clarius, nec sine jurgiis, Suet. Calig. 22), but they answer. Being asked, 'visne ire Romam, Juno?' she nods and says yea, Livy 5, 22.

                The same in Teutonic heathenism. Thôr's image walks and talks, Fornm. s. 1, 302. As Thorgerð's image bends its hand to keep the gold ring on, Mary's does the same, see above, and Ksrchr. 13142-265-323. Vinc. Bellov. 25, 29 foll. by Heinr. de Hervord ad an. 1049. A Virgin sets the Child down, and kneels to it, Marienleg. 228; the Child is taken from her, Pass. 144, conf. Ges. Ab. 3, 584. A Mary receives a shot, and saves the man it was aimed at, Maerl. 2, 202. A Crucifix embraces a worshipper, Keisersb. seel. par. 75d; bows to one who has forgiven his mortal foe, Sch. u. Ernst 1522 cap. 628; 'dat cruce losede den voet, unde stotte ene,' kicked him, Detm. 1, 7. An image bites the perjurer's hand off, Sch. u. Ernst c. 249; speaks, Alexius 444. 490. Maerl. 2, 201; and turns round, KM. 1 (ed. 2) xlix. The stone visitant in Don Juan nods and walks. Gods' images fall from heaven acc. to the Scythian legend; so does the figure of Athena, Paus. i. 26, 7. Or they are stolen from abroad, dii evocati, e.g. a Juno (Gerh. Etrusker p. 31), and Artemis from Tauris, Schol. to Theocr.; conf. Meiners 1, 420-3. So, in the Mid. Ages, relics were stolen. Again, idols are washed, bathed, Schol. to Theocr.; conf. the Alraun, p. 1203. They were even solemnly burnt; thus in the Bœotian dædals, every 60 years, 14 oaken images of Hera were consigned to the flames, E. Jacobi's Hdwtb. d. Gr. u. Rom. mythol. 394.

                p. 115. ) The numbers three and four in conn. with gods' images occur even later still. At Aign on the Inn near Rottalmünster, next the Malching post-house, a St. Leonard's pilgrimage is made to five brazen idols, the biggest of which is called the Worthy. The peasants say none, but the worthy man can lift it. If a youth after his first confession fails to lift the figure, he goes to confession again, and comes back strengthened. The festival is called The three golden Saturday nights in September. A girl proves her virginity (also by lifting?). The Austrians have a Leonard's chapel too, yet they pilgrim to Aign, and say 'he is the one, the Bavarians have the right one,' conf. Panzer's Beitr. 2, 32-4. A nursery tale (Ernst Meier no. 6, p. 38) describes a wooden sculpture in the shape of a horse with four heads, three of which belong to Donner, Blitz and Wetter, evidently Donar, Zio and Wuotan.

                p. 118. ) Similar to the irmen-pillar with Mercury's image in the Krschr., is a statue at Trier which represented Mercury flying, Pertz 10, 132. The Lorsch Annals makes Charles find gold and silver in the Irmenseule. There are also stories of mice and rats living inside statues, Lucian somn. 24; in Slavic idols, says Saxo; the Thor that is thrown down swarms with large mice, adders and worms, Maurer bek. 1, 536. What Rudolf of Fulda says of the Irminsul is repeated by Adam of Bremen (Pertz 9, 286). 'irmesuwel der cristenheit,' Germania 1, 451, conf. 444. The Roman de Challemaine (Cod. 7188, p. 69) describes the war of the Franks with the Saxons:

                        En leur chemin trouverent un moustier

                        que li Saisne orent fet pieca edifier.

                        une idole y avait, que les Saisnes proier

                        venoient come dieu touz et gloirefier.

                        quar leur creance estoit selonc leur fol cuidier

                        quele les puist bien sauver jousticier.

                        Neptusnus ot à non en lonneur de la mer. One is reminded of the lofty Irminsul by the story of an idol Lug or Heillug, 60 cubits high, in the Wetterau, Ph. Dieffenbach 291 (heiliger lôh?).

                p. 121. ) On Caesar's 'Sol et Vulcanus et Luna,' see GDS. 766. The Indiculus comes immediately after the Abrenuntiatio, in which Thuner, Wôden and Saxnôt have been named; its Mercury and Jupiter therefore stand for German gods, as indeed several German words are used in it: nod-fyr, nimidas, frias, dadsisas. The Abrenuntiatio requires you to give up the trilogy Thuner, Wôden, Saxnôt, and all the unholies that are their fellows; so there were three heathen gods, and more. On the trilogy conf. Pref. li. liv., and in Verelius, sub v. blotskap, the passage out of the Trojamanna-s. p. 34, where Brutus invokes Thôr, Oðin and Gefjon.

                p. 122. ) Saxo's way of looking at the Norse gods is noticed p. 384-5. The thunder god, who is Thoro at p. 41, and Thor at p. 103, he once names Jupiter. Besides, he has Pluto and Dis = Othinus as Valföðr 36. 140-7; and Proserpina = Hel, 43.

                p. 123. ) Lepsius, Einl. p. 131, says the Egyptian week had not 7, but 10 days. 'Nine days' time' is a common reckoning among savages, Klemm 2, 149. To nundinae corresponds eunhmar, yet Nieb. 1, 308, and O. Müller Etr. 2, 324 think the Romans had a week of 8 days. The seven-day week is Semitic, was unknown to Greeks or Romans, and rests on a belief in the sacredness of the number 7; conf. Nesselm. on the origin of the week (Königsb. deutsche gesellsch., May 22, 1845). Titurel 2753:

                Die sieben stern sieben tugende haltent,

                Die muozen alle mensche haben, die dâ zît der tage waltent.

                The Provençal names of days in Raynouard sub v. dia. Old French de-mierkes for mercre-di, de-venres for vendre-di; conf. Roquef. suppl. v. kalandre.

                p. 125. ) MHG.

I. Sunnentac, MS. 2, 190b. Amur 1578. 1609-21. Griesh. 114. 141. suntac, Pass. 299, 68. 81. -

II. mântac, Frauend. 32, 11. maentags 82, 1. -

III. aftermaentag, Hätzl. lxviiia. aftermontag, Uhl. volksl. p. 728. zistag and zinstag, Wackern. Bas. hss. 54-7; also Schweiz. geschichtsfr. 1. 82-3. 161. 4, 149. cinstag, Weisth. 1, 759. zinstag, Dietr. drach. 320b. Justinger 59, Keisersp. zistig, Tobler 458. eritag, Fundgr. 1, 75. MB. 27, 89a (1317). 132a (1345). Lang reg. 4, 711a (1300). Grätzer urk. of 1319, etc.; but ibid. erchtag, 1310. Schwabe tintenf. 19. 56. erctag in Hartlieb, Superst. H., cap. 31-2. erichtag, Beheim, 76, 16. H. Sachs 1, 206d. Hutten 3, 358. eretag in Guben, 48, 32. -

IV. mitwoche, Bas. hss. 57. mittoche, Diemer, 357, 5. von dem mitechen, Tund. 44, 27. des mittichen, MB. 27, 90 (1317). 27, 98 (1321). der midechen, Grätzer urk. of 1320, mitich, mitichen, 1338. midechon, Griesh. 2, 48. 'an dem nehsten guctemtag (!), Schreiber 1, 486 (see p. 124n). -

V. Records of the 14th cent. waver between donresdag and donredag. Dunrstac, Pass. 57, 87, etc. dünderstag, dunderstag alw. in Conr. of Weinsbg. dorstage, Schweiz. geschichtsfr. 3, 260 (1396). Dunredagh, Maltzan 2, 6. Hpt Ztschr. 5, 406. donredagh, Maltzan 2, 45.

VI. phincztag, Beheim 78, 8. MB. 27, 131a (1343). vrîtach, Griesh. 2, 48. frehtag, Grätzer urk. of 1310. des vriegtages, S. Uolrich, 1488.

                p. 125. ) OS.

These have to be guessed from the following later forms: I. sundach, Ssp. sondag, Pom. 1486. Klempin 488.

II. mandag, ibid.

III. dinsdag, Cöln. urk. of 1261. Höfer no. 5. dinstag, 1316, ib. p. 112; dynsdais, p. 277. dincedagh, Pom. urk. of 1306, p. 354. dinscdag, Magdeb. urk. of 1320, p. 142. dinstagh, Quedl. of 1325, p. 179. dingstdag, Ravnsbg. urk. of 1332, p. 258. dynstag, Siebertz no. 652. 688 (1315-43). dinxtdag, Ditm. landr. of 1447 ed. Michels. p. 32. dynsthedach, Detmar 2, 287. dinschedach 2, 34. dinghestedaghes, dingsted., dynsted., dyngesd. 2, 179. 210. 207. 142. dinxstedages, Hpt's Ztschr. 5, 405-406. dingstedag, Hammerbröker recht. Did any Low German district in the Mid. Ages retain Tisdag? Scarcely: all seem to have forms beginning with din, agreeing with Nethl. dinsdag, and corrup. from the older disendach; hence our present dienstag. Dinstag appears as early as 1316 at Schleusingen, 1320-2 at Erfurt (Höfer p. 120. 146. 153). dingesdag, Klempin 488.

IV. gudinsdag, gudensdag, Höfer no. 6. 7. (1261-2). des mitwekens, Maltzan 2, 88. in deme mitwekene 2, 113. des mydweken, Hpt Ztschr. 5, 406. des middewekenes, Höfer 166 (in 1323 at Halberstadt). mitdwekenes 370 (in 1331). medewekes 360 (in 1324). middeweke, Klempin.

V. dunresdach, Ssp. donredag, Klempin. dunredagh, urk. of Maltzan, 2, 6. Hpt 5, 406. donredagh, Maltzan 2, 45. -

VI. vridach, Ssp. frigdag, Klempin. -

VII. sunavent, Ssp. 2, 66 (one MS. satersdach). sonnavend, Klempin. saterdag is Nethl. and Westph., not Saxon. saterstag, Seibertz 724a (1352). satirsdach, Marienlieder. Hpt 10, 80-1. saterstag, Spinnr. evang., Cöln 1538, title. In Freidank 169, 15, one MS. changes 'suones tac' into satersdach. soterdag, Firmenich 1, 301b; sorreschteg 1, 495 at Eupen.

                M. Nethl. -

I. sondach, Decker's Lekensp. 1, 38. --

II. maendach, Decker ib. -

III. dinxdach, Decker. disdag desdag, Coremans p. 49. disendaighes, Hedu p. 443. De klerk 1, 804. disendach, Uhl. 1, 415. --

IV. woonsdach, Decker. -

V. donredach, Decker. donderdach, Lanc. 13970. -

VI. vridach, Decker. den vrindach, Lanc. 25310. sfrîndaghes, Maerl. 3, 284. sfrindaechs, De klerk 1, 708 in 1303.

VII. saterdach, Decker. In the Leven van Jezus p. 27-8. 74-5. 234 the Jewish notion of Sabbath is lamely rendered by saterdach.

                p. 126. ) Fris. -

III. tihsdi, tisdey, Hpt Ztschr. 1, 107. --

VII. A fuller form 'sn-avend' occurs in the Gen. snavendes, Anhalt urk. of 1332, Höfer 163.

                North-Fris. forms in Outzen, p. 38. -

IV. Weadansdai, Landeskunde 4, 248. Winjsday in Silt, Müllenh. 167. --

V. Türsdei and Tüsdei. --

VII. in = evening, eve, as in 'gude e'en to ye,' Shaksp. good-en.

                AS. --

IV. Mercoris die, hoc est Wôdnesdag, Kemble 5, 94 (in 844).

                OE. -

III. tweisdaie. IV. wensdaie, Garner, Procdgs. p. 232.

                ON. in Gulaþ. p. 9.

III. Tysdagr. IV. Oðensdagr. V. Þorsdagr. VI. Freadagr. VII. þvatðagr.

                Swed.

I. sunnundaghr, östg. (conf. p. 126 n.). VII. löghurdagh, östg.

                Norw. -

IV. mekedag. VI. Freadag, Dipl. Norv. vol. 3, no. 787 (in 1445).

                Jut. -

IV. Voensdag, woinsdau, Molb. dial. 653. VI. Freia. VII. Luora, Foersom, p. 12.

                Angl. -

IV. Vonsdaw.

                p. 127 n. ) On the Roman altar in Swabia, see Stälin, 1, 111. One the circle of planetary gods, Lersch in Jb. d. Rheinlande iv. 183. v. 298-314. The 8 figures on the altar may signify the gods of nundinae. Ther Germ. week has Odin in the middle, his sons Tyr and Thor next to him: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter.

                p. 129. ) Snorri too, in his Formâli, has interpretations and comparisons with the Bible and classical mythology. Freyr he identifies with Saturn (p. 217).

                p. 130. ) The Ests, Finns and Lapps name the days thus:

 

                Est. -

I. pühhapääw, holy day. II. esmaspääw, first day. III. teisipääw, second day. IV. kesknäddel, (1) mid-week. V. nelyapääw, fourth day. VI. rede (redi), fast-day? VII. laupääw; poolpääw, half-day.

                Finn. -

I. sunnuntai. II. maanan. III. tiistai. IV. keskiwiycko. V. tuorstai. VI. peryandai; is this Perun's day displaced (conf. Perendan below)? or, as the Finns have no F, a corrup. of Fredag? (Prob. the latter, conf. Peryedag; and the Finns are fond of adding an N. ). VII. lauwandai.

                Swed. Lapp. --

I. ailek. II. manodag. III. tisdag. IV. kaska wakko. V. tuoresdag. VI. peryedag. VII. lawodag.

                Norw. Lapp. -

I. sodno beive. II. vuosarg. III. mangebarg. IV. guskvokko. VI. fastobeive fast-day, and peryedag.

 

Notes:

 

                          1. The Slavic nedélia, orig. Sunday, now means week.

               

 

 

 

CHAPTER VII

WUOTAN, WODAN (OÐINN)

 

 

 

The highest, the supreme divinity, universally honoured, as we have a right to assume, among all Teutonic races, would in the Gothic dialect have been called Vôdans; he was called in OHG. Wuotan, a word which also appears, though rarely, as the name of a man: Wuotan, Trad. Fuld. 1, 149. 2, 101-5-8. 128. 158. 161. Woatan 2, 146, 152. The Longobards spelt it Wôdan or Guôdan, the Old Saxons Wuodan, Wôdan, but in Westphalia again with the g prefixed, Guôdan, Gudan, the Anglo-Saxons Wôdan, the Frisians Wêda from the propensity of their dialect to drop a final n, and to modify ô even when not followed by an i. (1) The Norse form is Oðinn, in Saxo Othinus, in the Faröe isles Ouvin, gen Ouvans, acc. Ouvan. Up in the Grisons country

and from this we may infer the extent to which the name was diffused in Upper Germany

the Romance dialect has caught the term Vut from Alamanns or Burgundians of a very early time, and retained it to this day in the sense of idol, false god, 1 Cor. 8, 4. (2) (See Suppl.)

It can scarcely be doubted that the word is immediately derived from the verb OHG. watan wuot, ON. vaða, ôð, signifying meare, transmeare, cum impetu ferri, but not identical with Lat. vadere, as the latter has the a long, and is more likly connected with OS. gavîtan, AS. gewîtan. From watan comes the subst. wuot (our wuth, fury), as menoj and animus properly mean mens, ingenium, and then also impetuosity, wildness; the ON. öðr has kept to the one meaning of mens or sensus. (3) According to this, Wuotan, Oðinn would be the all-powerful, all-penetrating being, qui omnia permeat; as Lucan says of Jupiter: Est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris, the spirit-god (4); conf. Virg. Georg. 4, 221: Deum ire per omnes terras, and Ecl. 3, 60: Jovis omnia plena. In the popular language of Bavaria, wueteln is to bestir oneself, to swarm, grow luxuriantly, thrive, Schm. 4, 203 (see Suppl.)

How early this original meaning may have got obscured or extinguished, it is impossible to say. Together with the meaning of wise and mighty god, that of the wild, restless, vehement, must also have prevailed, even in the heathen time. The christians were the better pleased, that they could bring the bad sense into prominence out of the name itself. In the oldest glosses, wôtan is put for tyrannus, herus malus, Diut. 1, 276. gl. Ker. 270; so wüeterich, wüterich (Gramm. 2, 516) is used later on, and down to the present day, conf. ein ungestüemer wüeterich, Ben. 431; as in Mar. 217. Herod's messengers of murder are wüeteriche, O.i. 19, 18 names the king himself gotewuoto. The form wuotunc seems not to differ in sense; an unprinted poem of the 13th century says 'Wüetunges her' apparently for the 'wütende heer', (5) the host led as it were by Wuotan; and Wuotunc is likewise a man's name in OHG., Wôdunc, Trad. patav. no. 19. The former divinity was degraded into an evil, fiendish, bloodthirsty being, and appears to live yet as a form of protestation or cursing in exclamations of the Low German people, as in Westphalia: O Woudan, Woudan! Firmenich 1, 257, 260; and in Mecklenburg: Wod, Wod! (see Suppl.).

Proofs of the general extension of Woden's worship present themselves, for the one thing, in the passages collected in the proceeding chapter on Mercurius, and again in the testimonies of Jonas of Bobbio (pp 56 and 121) and Paulus Diaconus, and in the Abrenuntiatio, which deserves to be studied more closely, and lastly in the concurrence of a number of isolated facts, which I believe have hitherto been overlooked.

If we are to sum up in brief the attributes of this god, he is the all-pervading creative and formative power, who bestows shape and beauty on men and all things, from whom proceeds the gift of song and the management of war and victory, on whom at the same time depends the fertility of the soil, nay wishing, and all highest gifts and blessings, Sæm. 113.

To the heathen fancy Wuotan is not only the world-ruling, wise, ingenious god, he is above all the arranger of wars and battles. (6) Adam of Bremen cap. 233, ed. 1595 says of the Norse god: Wôdan, id est fortior, bella gerit, hominique ministrat virtutem contra inimicos.Wôdanem sculpunt (Sveones) armatum, sicut nostri Martem sculpere solent. To the fortior, fortis, would answer his ON. name of Svîðr, i.e. the strong, masterful, swift (OS. suîth): but fortior is, no doubt, a false reading, all the MSS. (conf. Pertz 3, 379) read 'Wôdan, id est furor,' which agrees with the conclusion arrived at above. To him, says the Edda, belong all the nobles who fall in battle (Sæm. 77), and to Thôr the common folk, but this seems added merely to depreciate the latter; in another passage (Sæm. 42), Freya shares the fallen with Oðinn; he is named valfaðir and herfaðir (val, choice; her, host). Oðinn vildi þiggja mann at hlutfalli at hânga or herinom, Fornald. sög. 3, 31. Eidem prostratorum manes muneris loco dedicaturum se pollicetur (Haraldus), Saxo p. 146. Othinus armipotens, p. 37, auctor aciei corniculatae, ordinandi agminis disciplinae traditor et repertor, pp. 138-9, 146. When old, he teaches arraying of battle, p. 17, the hamalt at fylkja, svînfylkja, Fornald. sög. 1, 380; he teaches how to bring down with pebbles those whom sword will not wound, ibid. p. 157 (see Suppl.).

We need not be surprised then to find him confounded with Ziu or Tyr, the special god of war, or Mercurius coupled with Mars (pp. 107, 111), or a gloss on Jonas of Bobbio, who had rightly identified him with Mercury (p. 121), correcting him thus: Qui apud eos (Alamannos) Vuotant (part. pres. of wuotan) vocatur, Latini autem Martem illum appellant. Are Adam's words also, 'sicut nostri Martem sculpere solent,' to be so taken that nostri should mean Saxones? He, it is true, may have meant those acquainted with Roman mythology.

Especially does the remarkable legend preserved by Paulus Diaconus 1, 8 show that it is Wodan who dispenses victory, to whom therefore, above all other gods, that antique name sihora (p. 27) rightfully belongs, as well as in the Eddas the epithets Sigtýr (god of victory), Sæm. 248, Sn. 94, Sigföðr (father of victory), Sæm. 68; AS. vîgsigor (victor in battle), Beow. 3107, sigmetod (creator of victory), Beow. 3554 (see Suppl.):

Refert hoc loco antiquitas ridiculam fabulam, quod accedentes Wandali ad Wodan, victoriam de Winilis postulaverint, illeque responderit, se illis victoriam daturum, quos primum oriente sole conspexisset. Tunc accessisse Gambaram ad Fream, uxorem Wodan, et Winilis victoriam postulasse, Freamque consilium dedisse, Winilorum mulieres solutos crines erga faciem ad barbae similitudineum componerent maneque primo cum viris adessent, seseque a Wodan videndas pariter e regione, qua ille per fenestram orientem versus erat solitus adspicere, collocarent; atque ita factum fuisse. Quas cum Wodan conspiceret oriente sole, dixisse: qui sunt isti Langobardi ? tunc Fream subjunxisse, ut quibus nomen tribuerat, victoriam condonaret, sicque Winilis Wodan victoriam concessisse. Here deacon Paul, as a good christian, drops the remark: Haec risu digna sunt, et pro nihilo habenda: victoria enim non potestati est adtributa hominum, sed e coelo potius ministratur; and then adds a more exact interpretation of the name Longobard: Certum tamen est Longobardos ab intactae ferro barbae longitudine, cum primitus Winili dicti fuerint, ita postmodum apellatos. Nam juxta illorum linguam lang longam, bart barbam significat. Wodan sane, quem adjecta litera Gwodan dixerunt, et ab universis Germaniae gentibus ut deus adoratur, qui non circa haec tempora, sed longe anterius, nec in Germania, sed in Graecia fuisse perhibetur. (7)

The whole fable bears the stamp of high antiquity; it has even been related by others before Paul, and with variations, as in the Hist. Francor. epitomata, which has for its author, though not Fredegar, yet some writer of the seventh century. Here Chuni (Huns) are named instead of Vandals:

Cum a Chunis (Langobardi) Danubium transeuntes fuissent comperti, eis bellum conati sunt inferre. Interrogati a Chunis, quare gens eorum terminos introire praesumeret ? At illi mulieribus suis praecipiunt, comam capitis ad maxillas et mentum ligare, quo potius virorum habitum simulantes plurimam multitudinem hostium ostenderent, eo quod erant mulierum comae circa maxillas et mentum ad instar barbae valde longae: fertur desuper utraeque phalangae vox dixisse: 'hi sunt Langobardi!' quod ab his gentibus fertur eorum deum fuisse locutum, quem fanatici nominant Wodanum (al. Wisodano, a mere copyist's or reader's error for Wuodano). Tunc Langobardi cum clamassent, qui instituerat nomen, concederet victoriam, in hoc praelio Chunos superant. (Bouquet 2, 406; according to Pertz., all the MSS. read Wodano.) In this account, Frea and her advice are nowhere; the voice of the god, giving the name, is heard up in th air.

It was the custom for any one who bestowed a name, to follow it up with a gift. (8) Wodan felt himself bound to confer the victory on those for whom he had found a new national name. In this consisted the favour of fortune, for the people, in dressing up their wives as men, had thought nothing but swelling the apparent numbers of their warriors. I need scarcely remind the reader, that this mythical interpretation of the Lombard name is a false one, for all the credit it found in the Mid. Ages. (9)

There is one more feature in the legend that must not escape our notice. Wodan from his heavenly dwelling looks down ont he earth through a window, which exactly agrees with ON. descriptions. Oðinn has a throne named Hliðskialf, sitting on which he can survey the whole world, and hear all that goes on among men: þar er einn staðr er Hliðscialf heitir, oc þaer Oðinn settiz þar i hâsæti, oc þâ sâ hann of alla heima, oc vissi alla luti, þâ er hann sâ (there is a stead that H. hight, and when O. sat there on high-seat, then saw he over all countries, and wist, &c.), Sn. 10. oc þâ er Allföðr sitr î þvî sæti, þâ ser hann of allan heim, Sn. 21. hlustar (listens) Oðinn Hliðscialfo î, Sæm. 89. When Loki wanted to hide, it was from this seat that Oðinn espied his whereabouts, Sn. 69. Sometimes also Frigg, his consort, is imagined sitting by his side, and then she enjoys the same prospect: Oðinn ok Frigg sâto î Hliðscialfo, ok sâ um heima alla, Sæm. 39. The proem to the Grimnismâl bears a strong resemblance to the legend in Paul; for, just as Frea pulls her favourites the Winili through, in opposition to Wodan's own resolve, so Frigg brings to grief Geirröðr whom Oðinn favoured.

Sensuous paganism, however, makes the god-like attribute of overseeing all things depend on the position or structure of a particular chair, and as the gift forsakes the god when he does not occupy the seat, others can enjoy the privilege by taking his place. This was the case when Freyr spied the beautiful Gerðr away down in Iötunheim; Freyr hafði setsc î Hliðskialf, oc sâ um heima alia, Sæm. 81. Sn. 39. The word hliðscialf seems to mean literally door-bench, from hlið (ostium, conf. Engl. lid), and skialf (scamnum), AS. scylfe, Cædm. 79, 4. Engl. shelf (see Suppl.). Mark the language in which the OS. poet describes the Ascension of Christ: sôhta imo thena hêlagon stôl, sitit imo thar an thea suîdron (right) half Godes, endi thanan all gisihit (seeth) waldandeo Crist, sô huat sô (whatso) thius werold behabêt, Hel. 176, 4- 7, conf. Cædm. 265, 16.

This idea of a seat in the sky, from which God looks on the earth, is not yet extinct among our people. The sitting on the right hand is in the Bible, but not the looking down. The formulas 'qui haut siet et de loing mire, qui haut siet et loins voit' (supra, p. 23) are not cases in point, for men everywhere have thought of the Deity as throned as high and seeing far around. Zeus also sits on Ida, and looks on at mortal men; he rules from Ida's top, ' Idhqen medewn, even as Helios, the eye of the sun, surveys and discerns all things, Il. 3, 277. But a widely-circulated märchen tells us of a mortal man, whom St. Peter admitted into heaven, and who, led on by curiosity, ended by climbing into the chair of the Lord, from which one can look down and see all that is done on the whole earth. He sees a washerwoman steal two lady's veils, and in his anger seizes the footstool of the Lord, which stands before the chair (al. a chair's leg), and hurls it down at the thief. (10) To such lengths has the ancient fable travelled. Can it be alluded to in the MHG. poem, Amgb. 3 ?

Der nû den himel hat erkorn,

der geiselt uns bi unser habe;

ich vürhte sêre, unt wirt im zorn,

den slegel wirft er uns her abe. (11)

In a Servian song (Vuk 4, 9) the angels descend to earth out of God's window (od Bózhieg prozóra; pro-zor (out-look, hence window) reminds one of zora (dawn), prozorie (morning twilight), and of Wodan at early morn looking toward the sunrise. The dawn is, so to speak, the opening in heaven, through which God looks into the world.

Also, what Paulus Diac. 1, 20 tells of the anger of the Lord (supra, p. 18), whereby the Herulian warriors were smitten before their enemies, I am inclined to trace up to Wuotan: Tanta super eos coelitus ira respexit; and again: Vae tibi, misera Herulia, quae coelestis Domini flecteris ira! Conf. Egilssaga p. 365: reiðr sê rögn ok Oðinn! wrathful see the gods and O.; and Fornald. sög. 1, 501: gramr er yðr Oðinn, angry is O. with you.

Victory was in the eyes of our forefathers the first and highest of gifts, but they regarded Wuotan not merely as dispenser of victory; I have to show next, that in the widest of sense he represented to them the god to whose bounty man has to look for every other distinction, who has the giving of all superior blessings; and in this sense also Hermes (Mercury) was to the Greeks pre-eminently dwtwr eawn, giver of good things, and I have ventured to guess that the name Gibika, Kipicho originally signified the same to us. (12)

The sum total of well-being and blessedness, the fulness of all graces, seems in our ancient language to have been expressed by a single word, whose meaning has since been narrowed down; it was named wunsch (wish). This word is probably derived from wunja, wunnja, our wonne, bliss; wunisc, wunsc, perfection in whatever kind, what we should call the Ideal. Thus, Er. 1699 'der wunsch was an ir garwe,' wish was in her complete; Iw. 3991 'daz mir des wunsches night gebrast,' nought of wish was wanting; Iw. 6468 'der rât, des der wunsch an wîbe gert,' such store as wish can crave in wife; Gerh. 1754 'an der got wunsches niht vergaz,' in whom God nought of wish forgot (left out); Parz. 742, 15 'der wunsch wirt in beiden'; Trist. 3710 'dir ist der wunsch gegeben'; Frauend. 87 'der wunsch von edlem obze,' the pick of noble fruit; Parz. 250, 25 'erden wunsches rîche,' rich in all gifts of the earth; 235, 24, 'erden wunsches überwal'; Trist. 4696. 4746 'der wunsch von worten, von bluomen'; Trist. 1374 'in dem wunsche sweben,' i.e., in perfect satisfaction. And the magic wand, by whose impact treasures are acquired, was a wunschligigerta, wishing-rod; conf. Parz. 235, 22 'wurzel unde rîs des wunsches,' root and spray of wish. The (secondary) meaning of 'desiring and longing for' these perfections would seem to have but accidentally attached itself to the wunsc, ON. ôsk (see Suppl.).

Among other Eddic names of Oðinn, appears Osci, Sæm. 46. Sn. 3, 24, i.e. he who makes men partakers of wunsch, of the highest gift. Osk, gen. Oskar, a woman's name, Fornm. sög. 1, 246. Eyrbyggja saga cap. 7. Laxd. p. 12.

Another thing seems to me to be connected with this, and therefore to be a relic of the heathen religion: the fact that our poets of the 13th century personify wunsch, and represent it as a mighty creative being. Instances in proof of this are found chiefly in Hartmann, Rudolf and Conrad:

Got erloubte dem Wunsche über in,

About him, God gave to Wish full leave,

daz er lîb unde sin

that he body and mind

meistert nach sîm werde.

fashioned according to his worth.

swâ von ouch ûf der erde

Of whatsoever upon earth,

deheinem man ze loben geschiht,

to any man, praiseworthy falls,

desn gebrast im niht; t

hereof lacked him nought;

der Wunsch het in gemeistert sô

Wish had him fashioned so,

daz er sîn was ze kinde vrô,

that he was glad of him for child,

wande er nights an im vergaz:

for he nought in him forgot:

er hetn geschaffet, kunder, baz.

he had him shapen, if he could, better.

Greg. 1091- 1100

 

man sagt daz nie kint gewan

They say that never a child won

ein lîp sô gar dem Wunsche glîch.

a body so wholly equal to Wish (or, exactly like Wish).

Ex. 330

 

alsôwas ez (daz phert) gestalt,

So was it wrought (the horse),

und ob er (der werltwîse man)

that if he (the wright) had had

danne den gewalt

 

von dem Wunsche hæte,

the command from Wish,

daz ez belibe stæte

that (his work) should be left unaltered,

swes er darzuo gedæhte,

whatever he attempted thereon,

und swenne erz volbræhte,

and when he had completed it,

daz erz für sich stalte

that he should set it before Him,

und er von sînem gwalte

and He at his discretion

dar abe næme t

herefrom should take away

swaz daran im missezæme,

whatever therein misliked him,

 

alsô was ez volkomen

so perfect was it

daz er dar abe nigt hete genomen

that he therefrom nought would have taken

alse grôz als umb ein hâr.

so great as a hair.

Er. 7375-87.

 

 

Als ez der Wunsch gebôt (bade). Er. 8213.

was ein Wunschkint (was a child of wish). Ex. 8277

Enîte was des Wunsches kint,

der an ir nihtes vergaz. Er. 8934.

dâ was ir hâr und ir lîch (lyke, lych, body)

so gar dem Wunsche gelîch (like). Iw. 1222.

diz was an ir (zuht, schæne, jugent) und gar der rât (all the store)

des der Wunsch (or wunsch?) an wîbe gert (desires.) Iw. 6468.

wande sie nie gesâhen (for they never had seen)

zwêne riter gestalt (two knights fashioned)

sô gar in Wunsches gewalt

an dem lîbe und an den siten (manners). Iw. 6913.

der Wunsch vluochet (curses) im sô. Iw. 7066.

mir hât der Wunsch gevluochet. Hartm. büchl. 2, 113.

er was schæne und wol gevar (for gefarwet, coloured),

rehte, als in der Wunsch erkôs (chose). Gerh. 771.

mîn herze in (ihnen, to them) des begunde jehen (acknowledge),

in wære des Wunsches flîz (zeal, care) bereit. Gerh. 1599.

an der der Wunsch mit kiusche bar

sîne süeze lebende fruht. Gerh.. 1660.

daz ich ir shæne kræne

ob allen frouwen schône

mit des Wunsches krône. Gerh. 1668.

ein regen ûz dem wolken vlôz

der ûf des Wunsches ouwe gôz

sô heizen regen (?). Gerh. 2307.

an lobe (praise) des Wunsches krône. Gerh. 2526.

swes ich begunde daz geschach (was accomplished),

der Wunsch ie mînen werken jach (ever to my works said yea)

des wunsches als ich wolte

und als ich wünschen solte. Gerh. 2945.

nach des Wunsches lêre (lore). Gerh. 4500.

der Wunsch mit sîner hende

vor wandel (change, fault) hete si getwagen (cleansed). Troj. 1212.

der Wunsch hât âne laugen (without lying, undeniably)

erzeiget an ir sîne kraft,

und sîner künste meisterschaft

mit vlîze an ir bewert (carefully evinced in her). Troj. 7569.

der Wunsch hât in gemachet wandels vrî (free of fault). Troj. 3154.

der Wunsch der hete an si geleit (gelegt, laid out, spent)

mê flîzes denne ûf elliu wip (more pains than on any woman). Troj. 19620.

sô daz er niemer wîbes leben

für sie geshepfen wolde baz (better);

dô leit (legte) er an sie manec model. Troj. 19627

und hæte sîn der Wunsch gesworn,

er wolde bilden ein shæner wîp,

und shepfen alsô klâren lîp

als Hêlenâ mîn frouwe treit (trägt, bears)

er müeste brechen sînen eit (eid, oath)

wan er kunde niemer (for he could never),

und solte bilden iemer (were he to shape for ever),

geshepfen wünneclîcher fruht. Troj. 19526-32.

ez hât ze sînem teile der Wunsch vergezzen niender. Engelh. 579.

daz haete an si der Wunsch geleit. Engelh. 4703.

der Wunsch der hete niht gespart

an ir die sîne meistershaft,

er hete sîne beste kraft

mit ganzem flîz an sie geleit. Der werlde lôn. 84.

Other poets personify too (not, however, Wolfram nor Gotfried):

der zweier kurtêsîe

sich ze dem Wunsche het geweten,

si wâre neinder ûz getreten. Wigal. 9246.

an ir shæne was wol schîn,

daz ir der Wunsch gedâhte. Wigal. 9281.

der Wunsch het sich geneiget in ir gewalt. ibid. 904.

in was der Wunsch bereit. ib. 10592.

des Wunsches amîe. ib. 7906. 8735.

wen mohte dâ erlangen,

dâ der Wunsch inne was. ib. 10612.

der Wunsch het si gemachet sô,

und ist ir ze kinde vrô. Amûr 1338. (Pf. 1343).

des Wunsches ougenweide (food for the eye)

sit ir und mîner sælden spil (are ye, and the play of my delight). Wigal. 8760. Amûr 1068. (Pf. 1072).

si schepfet ûz des Wunsches heilawâge (holy water). Martina, 259.

(diu hant) ist im grôz, lanc unde wiz,

zuo der het sich der Wunsch gesellet. Turl. Wh. 38.

hie stuont (here stood) der Wunsch. ib. 137.

dar an lît (therein lieth) wol des Wunsches vlîz. Tyrol E, 3.

si ist des Wunsches hôstez zil (highest mark or aim). Ms. 1, 84.

sie ist der Wunsch ûf erde. Ms. 2, 100.

sie ist des WUnsches ingesinde (one of W.'s household). Ms. 1, 6.

von ir scheitel ûf ir zêhen (from her crown to her toes)

sô ist niht an minneclîchen wîden wan (save, but) des Wunsches blic. MsH. 3, 493.

des Wunsches blüete sint entsprungen in mîne herzen. Fragm. 45.

si trage des Wunsches bilde. Ms. 1, 191.

des Wunsches krône tragen. Docen misc. 2, 186.

sie hât des Wunsches gewalt. Amgb. 31.

er was sô gar des Wunsches kint,

daz alle man gein (against, before) sîner schæne wâren blint,

und doch menlich gestalt bî clârem velle (complexion);

der Wunsch im niht gebrechen liez (let nought be lacking)

dâ von man's Wunsches kint den stolzen hiez (should call the stately one). Lohengr. ed. Rückert str. 625.

The following is outside the bounds of MHG.:

an yr yst Wensches vlyt geleit. Haupts seitschr. 3, 221. Mid. Dutch poems have no personifcation Wensch; nor is there a Wunsch in the Nibelungen or Gudrun; but in Wolfdietrich 970: des Wunsches ein amîe! There must be many more instances; but the earliest one I know of is found in the Entekrist from the 12th century (Hoffm. fundgr. 2, 107):

mit Wunschis gewalte With Wish's might

segniti sie der alte. The old man blessed her.

We see Wish provided with hands, power, looks, diligence, art, blossom, fruit; he creates, shapes, produces master-pieces, thinks, bows, swears, curses, is glad and angry, adopts as child, handmaid, friend: all such pretty-well stock phrases would scarcely have sprung up and lived in a poetry, in a language, if they did not unconsciously relate to a higher being, of whom earlier times had a livelier image; on such a basis indeed nearly all the personifcations made use of by MHG. poets seem to me to rest. In the majority of our examples we might fairly put the name of God in the place of Wish, or that of Wish in the phrases quoted on pp. 17-8, which describe the joyous or the angry God: freudenvoll hât sie Got gegozzen, MS. 1, 226; der Wunsch maz ir bilde, as mezzen is said of God, p. 23; and gebieten, to command, is just as technically applied to the one as to the other, p. 24. The 'gramr er yðr Oðinn,' p. 137, might be rendered in MHG 'der Wunsch zürnet iu, fluochet iu,' meaning, the world is sick of you. At times the poet seems to be in doubt, whether to say God or Wish: in the first passage from Gregor, Wish is subordinated, as a being of the second rank, so to speak, as a servant or messenger, to the superior god; the latter has to give him leave to assume his creative function, which in other cases he does of his own might. Again, when body, figure, hair are said to be 'like Wish,' it exactly reminds us of Homer's komai Caritessin omoiai, Il. 17, 51; and Caritej, the Gratiae, creatresses of grace and beauty, play precisely the part of our Wish, even down to the circumstance, that in addition to the personal meaning, there is an abstract Carij, gratia, as there is a wish. (13) Püterich of Reicherzhausen (Haupts zeitschr. 6, 48) speaks of 'die wuntsches füesse' of a princess; the older phrase would have been 'ir füeze wâren dem Wunsche gelîch'. It is a genuine bit of German heathenism to make this creative faculty reside in a god, and not, after the Greek fashion, in a female personage. And there are other features too, that point back to our native heathen eld. Wish's aue and heilwâc can be matched by Phol's ouwa and brunno, or the meads and holywells of other gods; Wish's crown by that worn by gods and kings. And, most remarkable of all, Wish rejoices in his creature as in a child; here Woden's self comes upon the scene as patriarch or paterfamilias, before whom created men make their appearance like children, friends, domestics; and 'wunschkint' is also used in the sense of an adopted, i.e. wished for, child. (14) Herbort 13330 makes Hecuba exclaim: ich hân einen sun verlorn, er gezæme gote ze kinde (would suit God as a child); which does not mean in a christian sense, 'God has doubtless been pleased to take him to Himself,' but in a heathen sense, 'he was so lovely, he might be called Wish's child'. For the Norse Oðinn too has these marvellous children and wish-maidens in his train (see Suppl.) (15)

To the ON. Oski ought by rights to correspond to OHG. Wunsco, Wunscjo, (weak decl.), which I am not able to produce even as a man's name (see Suppl.). (16) A MHG. Wunsche cannot be proved from Troj. 3154. 7569. 19620. 19726 (Straszb. MS.), both the metre and the strong gen. in -es forbidding. But the whole idea may in the earliest times have taken far stronger root in South Germany than in Scandinavia, since the Edda tells next to nothing of Oski, while our poetry as late as the 15th century has so much to say of Wunsch. That it was not foreign to the North either, is plainly proved by the Oskmeyjar = Wünschelfrauen, wish-woman; by the Oskasteinn, a philosopher's stone connected with our Wünschelrute, wishing-rod, and Mercury's staff; by Oskabyrr, MHG. Wunschwint, fair wind; by Oskabiörn, wish-bear, a sea-monster; all of which will be discussed more fully by and by. A fem. proper name Osk occurs in a few places; what if the unaccountable skopnir, Sæm. 188, were really to be explained as Osk-opnir? Opnir, Ofnir, we know, are epithets of Oðinn. Both word and meaning seem to grow in relevancy to our mythology, it is a stumbling-block indeed, that the AS. remains furnish no contribution, even the simple wûsc (optio, votum) seeming to be rare, and only wýscan (optare) in common use; yet among the mythic heroes of Deira we meet with a Wûscfreá, lord of Wish as it were; and to the Anglo-Saxons too this being may have merely become extinct, though previously well known (see Suppl.).

But to make up for it, their oldest poetry is still dimly conscious of another name of Wuotan, which again the Edda only mentions cursorily, though in Sæm. 46 it speaks of Oski and Omi in a breath, and in 91 uses Omi once more for Oðinn. Now this Omi stands related to ômr, sonus, fragor, as the AS. wôma to wôm, clamor, sonitus; I have quoted instances in Andr. and El. pp. xxx, xxxi, to which may now be added from the Cod. exon.: heofonwôma 52, 18. 62, 10; dægredwôma 179, 24; hildewôma 250, 32. 282, 15; wîges wôma 277, 5; wintres wôma 292, 22: in the last, the meaning of hiemis impetus, fragor, furor, is self-evident, and we see ourselves led up to the thought which antiquity connected with Wuotan himself: out of this living god were evolved the obstractions wuot (furor), wunsch (ideal), wôma (impetus, fragor). The gracious and grace-bestowing god was at other times called the stormful, the terror-striking, who sends a thrill through nature; even so the ON. has both an Yggr standing for Oðinn, and an yggr for terror. The AS. wôma is no longer found as Wôma; in OHG. wuomo and Wuomo are alike unknown. Thorpe renders the 'heofonwôman' above in a local sense by 'heaven's corners,' I doubt if correctly; in both the passages coeli fragores are meant. We may however imagine Omi, Wôma as an air-god, like the Hindu Indras, whose rush is heard in the sky at break of day, in the din of battle, and the tramp of the 'furious host' (see Suppl.).

Precisely as the souls of slain warriors arrive at Indra's heaven, (17) the victory- dispensing god of our ancestors takes up the heroes that fall in fight, into his fellowship, into his army, into his heavenly dwelling. Probably it has been the belief of all good men, that after death they would be admitted to a closer communion with diety. Dying is therefore, even according to the christian view, called going to God, turning home to God: in AS. metodscaft seon, Beow. 2360. Cædm. 104, 31. Or seeking, visiting God: OS. god suokian, Hel. 174, 26; fadar suokion, Hel. 143, 23; upôdashêm, lioht ôdar, sinlîf, godes rîki suokians, Hel. 85, 21. 17, 17. 63, 14. 137, 16. 176, 5. In a like sense the Thracians, acc. to Herodotus 4, 94, said ienai para Zulmoxin (Gebeleizin) daimona, which Zalmoxis or Zamolxes is held by Jornandes to be a deified king of the Goths (Getae). In th North, faring to Oðinn, being guest with Oðinn, visiting Oðinn, meant simply to die, Fornald. sög. 1, 118. 422-3, 2, 366. and was synonymous with faring to Valhöll, being guest at Valhöll, ib. 1, 106. Among the christians, these were turned into curses: far þû til Oðins! Oðins eigi þik! may Oðin's have thee (see Suppl.). Here is shown the inversion of the kindly being, with whom one fain would dwell, into an evil one, (18) whose abode inspires fear and dread. Further on, we shall exhibit more in detail the way in which Wuotan was pictured driving through the air at the head of the 'furious (wütende) host' named after him. Valhöll (aula optionis) and Valkyrja obviously express the notion of wish and choice (Germ. wahl, Scotch wale).

Of the peculiarities of figure and outward appearance of this god, which are brought out in such bold relief in the northern myths, I have found but few traces left among us in Germany. The Norse Oðinn is one-eyed, he wears a broad hat and wide mantle: Grimnir î feldi blâm, blue cloak, Sæm. 40. î heklu grænni ok blâm brôkum, green cloak and blue breeks, Fornald. sög. 1, 324. heklumaðr, cloaked man, 1, 325. When he desired to drink of Mîmi's fountain, he was obliged to leave one of his eyes in pawn, Sæm. 4, Sn. 15. (19) In Saxo, p. 12, he appears as grandaevus, altero orbus oculo; p. 37, armipotens, uno semper contentus ocello; p. 138, senex orbus oculis, hispido amictu. So in the Sagas: kom þar maðr gamall, miök orðspakr, einsýnn ok augdapr, ok hafði hatt sîðan; there came an old man, very word-wise, one-eyed and sad-eyed, and had a wide hat, Fornm. sög. 2, 138. hann hafir heklu flekkôtta ytir ser, sâ maðr var berfættr ok hafði knýtt lînbrôkum at beini, hann var hâr miök (very high), ok eldiligr ok einsýnn, Fornald. sög. 1, 120. þa kom maðr î bardagann með sîðann hatt ok heklu blâ (20) hann hafði eitt auga, ok geir (spear) î hendi, ib. 1, 145. þetta mun Oðinn gamli verit hafa, ok at vîsu var maðrinn einsýnn, ib. 1, 95. sâ hann mann mikinn með sîðun hetti, ib. 5, 250. með hetti Hângatýss gânga, cum cidari Odiniana incedere, Vigagl. saga, p. 168. Othinus, os pileo, ne cultu proderetur, obnubens, Saxo Gram. 44. An Eddic song already names him Sîðhöttr, broad-hatted, Sæm. 46, and one saga merely Höttr, hatted, Fornald. sög. 2, 25-6; conf. Müller sagabibl. 3, 142. Were it not for the name given him in the Grîmnismâl, I should have supposed it was the intention of the christians to degrade the old god by mean clothing, or else that, wrapt in his mantle, he was trying to conceal himself from christians. Have we a right here to bring in the pileati of Jornandes? A saga in Saxo, p. 12, tells prettily, how the blind old god takes up a protégé in his cloak, and carries him through the air, but Hading, peeping through a hole in the garment, observes that the horse is stepping over the sea-waves. As for that heklumaðr of the hat with its rim turned up, he is our Hakolberend at the head of the wild host, who can at once be turned into a Gothic Hakulabaírands, now that hakula for felonhj is found in 2 Tim. iv. 13.

Swedish folk-tales picture Odin as bald-headed, Iduna 10, 231. In the ancient poetry he is Harbarðr, Sîðgrani, Sîðskeggr, all in allusion to his thick growth of hair and beard. The name Redbeard I have elsewhere understood of Thor, but in Fornald. sög. 2, 239--257 the Grani and Rauðgrani are expressly Oðinn (see Suppl.).

The Norse myth arms Oðinn with a wonderful spear (geir), Gûngnir by name, Sæm. 196. Sn. 72; which I put on a par with the lance or sword of Mars, not the staff of Mercury. Sigmund's sword breaks, when he hacks at Oðinn's spear, Völs. saga cap. 11. He lends this spear to heroes to win victories with, Sæm. 165. A remarkable passage in the Fornm. sög. 5, 250 says: seldi honum reyrspiôta (gave him the reeden spear) î hönd, ok bað hann skiôta honum yfir lið Styrbiarnar, ok þat skyldi hann mæla: Oðin â yðr alla! All the enemies over whom the spear he shoots shall fly, are doomed to death, and the shooter obtains the victory. So too the Eyrbyggja saga p. 228: þâ skaut Steinþôrr at fornom sið til heilla ser yfir flock Snorra; where, it is true, nothing is said of the spear launched over the enemy being the god's. Sæm. 5, of Oðinn himself: fleigði ok î fôlk um skaut (see Suppl.).

To the god of victory are attached two wolves and two ravens, which, as combative courageous animals, follow the fight, and pounce upon the fallen corpses, Andr. and El. xxvi. xxvii. The wolves are named Geri and Freki, Sn. 42; and so late as the Hans Sachs (i. 5, 499), we read in a schwank, that the Lord God has chosen wolves for his hounds, that they are his cattle. The two ravens are Huginn and Muninn, from hugr (animus, cogitatio) and munr (mens); they are not only brave, but cunning and wise, they sit on the shoulders of Oðinn, and whisper in his ear whatever they see and hear, Sæm. 42, 88. Sn. 42. 56. 322. To the Greek Apollo too the wolf and raven were sacred; (21) his messenger the raven informed him when Korônis was unfaithful, and Aristeas accompanied him as a raven, Herod. 4, 15; a raven is perched aloft on the mantle of Mithras the sun-god. The Gospels represent the Holy Ghost as a dove descending upon Christ at his baptism, Lu. 3, 22, and resting upon him, emeinen ep auton, mansit, super eum, John 1, 32: 'in Krist er sih gisidalta,' says O. i. 25, 24; but Hel. 30, 1 of the dove: sat im uppan ûses drohtines ahslu (our Lord's shoulder). Is this an echo of heathen thoughts? None of the Fathers have this circumstance, but in the Mid. Ages there is talk enough about doves resting on shoulders; (22) and the dove, though frequently contrasted with the raven (which, like the wolf, the christians applied to the Evil one), may nevertheless be put in the place of it. OSwald's raven flies to his shoulder and arm, 749. 942. Oswald talks to it, 95-6, and kneels before it, 854. Conf. Zingerle, Oswalt p. 67 (see Suppl.). (23)

Now under that figure of the bearded old man, Wuotan is apparently to be regarded as a water-sprite or water-god, answering well to the Latin name of Neptunus which some of the earlier writers put upon him (p. 122). In ON. he is Hnikar, Hnikuðr, Nikarr, Nikuz, and the hesitation between the two forms which in Sn. 3 are expressly made optional

 'Nikarr eða (or) Nikuz'--may arise from the diversity of old dialects. Nikarr corresponds to the AS. Nicor, and Nikuz to OHG. Nichus, the initial Hn seems to be ON. alone. On these I shall have more to say, when treating of water-sprites (see Suppl.)

Another epithet of Oðinn is equally noticeable for its double form: Bifliði eða Biflindi, Sn. 3; Sæm. 46 has Biblindi. As bif (Germ. beben) signifies motus, aer, aqua, the quaking element, and the AS. lîðe is lenis, OHG. lindi, ON. linr (for linur); an AS. Bifliðe, Beofliðe, OHG. Pëpalindi, might be suggested by the soft movement of the air, a very apt name for the all- penetrating god; but these forms, if they gave rise to the Norse term, are no longer found in AS. or OHG. Wuotan's dominion both over the air and over the water explains, how it is that he walks on the waves, and comes rushing on the gale.

It is Oðinn that sends wind to the ships, Fornm. sög. 2, 16, hence a good sailing wind is called ôskabyrr, Sæm. 165, i.e., Oskabyrr; byrr is from byrja, OHG. purran, to rise, be lifted up. It is in striking accord with this, that the MHG. poets use wunschwint in the same sense; Hartmann says, Greg. 615:

Dô sande in (to them) der süeze Krist

den vil rehten wunschwint (see Suppl.)

But other attributes of Wuotan point more to Hermes and Apollo. He resembles the latter, in as much as from him proceed contagious diseases and their cure; any severe illness is the stroke of God, and Apollo's arrows scatter pestilence. The Guals also imagined that Apollo drove away diseases (Apollinem morbos depellere, Caes. B. G. 6, 17); and Wôdan's magic alone can cure Balder's lamed horse. The raven on the god's shoulder exactly fits Apollo, and still more plainly the circumstance that Oðinn invented the poetic art, and Saga is his divine daughter, just as the Greek Muses, though daughters of Zeus, are under Apollo's protection, and in his train.

On the other hand, writing and the alphabet were not invented by Apollo, but by Hermes. The Egyptian priests placed Hermes at the head of all inventions (Iamblick. de myst. Aegypt. 8,1), and Theuth or Thoth is said to have first discovered letters (Plato's Phaedr. 1, 96, Bekker), while, acc. to Hygin. fab. 143, Hermes learnt them by watching the flight of cranes. In the AS. dialogue between Saturn and Solomon, we read (Thorpe's anal. p. 100): 'saga me, hwâ ærôst bôcstasfas sette?' 'ic the secge, Mercurius se gygand'. Another dialogue, entitled Adrian and Epictus (MS. Brit. mus. Arund. no. 351. fol. 39) asks: 'quis primus fecit literas?' and answers 'Seith, which is either a corruption of Theuth, or the Seth of the Bible. Just so the Eddic Rûnatals þâttr seems to ascribe the first teaching of runes to Oðinn, if we may so interpret the words: nam ec upp rûnar, Sæm. 28. þær ofrêð, þær freist, þær ofhungði Hroptr, i.e., then Oðinn read out, cut out, thought out, Sæm. 195. Also Snorri, Yngl. cap. 7: allar þessar îdrôttir kendi hann með rûnum ok liôðum. Hincmar of Rheims attributes to Mercury the invention of dice-playing: sicut isti qui de denariis quasi jocari dicuntur, quod omnino diabolicum est, et, sicut legimus, primum diabolus hoc per Mercurium prodidit, unde et Mercurius inventor illius dicitur, 1, 656. Conf. Schol. to Odyss. 23, 198, and MS. 2, 124: der tiuvel schuof das würfelspil. Our folk-tales know something about this, they always make the devil play at cards, and entice others to play (see Suppl.) (24). When to this we add, that the wishing-rod, i.e., Wish's staff, recals Mercury's caduceus, and the wish-wives, i.e., oskmeyjar, valkyrior, the occupation of the Psychopompos; we may fairly recognise an echo of the Gallic (25) or Germanic Mercury in the epithet Trismegistos (Lactantius i. 6, 3. vi. 25, 10. ter maximus Hermes in Ausonius), which later poets, Romance and German, in the 12th and 13th centuries (26) transferred to a Saracen deity Termagan, (27) Tervagan, Tervigant, Terviant. Moreover, when Hermes and Mercury are described as dator bonorum, and the Slavs again call the same god Dobro- pan (p. 130, note), as if mercis dommus; it is worth noticing, that the Misnere Amgb. 42, in enumerating all the planets, singles out Mercury to invoke in the words: Nu hilf mir, daz mir sælde wache! schin er mir ze gelücke, noch sô kum ich wider ûf der sælden phat (pfad). Just so I find Odin invoked in Swedish popular songs: Hielp nu, Oden Asagrim! Svenska fornsägor 1, 11. hielp mig Othin! 1, 69. To this god first and foremost the people turned when in distress; I suppose he is called Asagrim, because among the Ases he bore the name of Grîmnir?

It is therefore not without significance, that also the wanderings of the Herald of gods among men, in whose hovels he now and then takes up his lodging, are parallelled especially by those of Oðinn and Hænir, or, in christian guise, of God and St. Peter.

Our olden times tell of Wuotan's wanderings, his waggon, his way, his retinue (duce Mercurio, p. 128).

We know that in the very earliest ages the seven stars forming the Bear in the northern sky were thought of as a four-wheeled waggon, its pole being formed by the three stars that hang downwards:

Apkton q , hn kai a m a x a n epiklhsin kaleousin. Il. 18, 487. Od. 5, 273. So in OHG. glosses: ursa wagen, Jun. 304; in MHG. himelwagen, Walth. 54, 3. (28) herwagen Wackern. Ib. 1. 772, 26. The clearest explanation is given by Notker cap. 64: Selbiu ursa ist pî demo norde mannelîchemo zeichenhaftiu fone dien siben glatên sternôn, die allêr der liut wagen heizet, unde nâh einemo gloccun joche (29) gescaffen sint, unde ebenmichel sint, âne (except) des mittelôsten. The Anglo-Saxons called the constellation wænes þîsl (waggon's thill, pole), or simply þîsl, but carles wæn also is quoted in Lye, the Engl. charles wain, Dan. karlsrogn, Swed. karlwagn. Is carl here equivalent to lord, as we have herrenwagen in the same sense? or is it a transference to the famous king of christian legend? But, what concerns us here, the constellation appears to have borne in heathen times the full name of Wuotanes wagan, after the highest god of heaven. The Dutch language has evidence of this in a MS. of as late as 1470: ende de poeten in heure fablen heetend (the constell.) ourse, dat is te segghene Woenswaghen. And elsewhere: dar dit teekin Arcturus, dat wy heeten Woonswaghen, up staet; het sevenstarre ofde Woenswaghen; conf. Huydec. proeven 1, 24. I have nowhere met with plaustrum Mercurii, nor with an ON. Oðins vagn; only vagn â himnum.

It is a question, whether the great open highway of heaven

to which people long attached a peculiar sense of sacredness, and perhaps allowed this to eclipse the older fancy of a 'milky way' (caer Gwydion, p. 150)

was not in some districts called Wuotanes wec or strâza (way or street). Wôdenesweg, as the name of a place, stood its ground in Lower Saxony, in the case of a village near Magdeburg, Ch. ad ann. 973 in Zeitschr. für archivk. 2, 349; an older doc. of 937 is said to have Watanesweg (conf. Wiggert in the Neu. mitth. des thür. vereins VI. 2, 22). praedium in Wôdeneswege, Dietm. Merseb. 2, 14 p. 750. Annal. Saxo 272. Johannes de Wdenswege, Heinricus de Wôdensweghe (Lenz.) Brandenb. urk. p. 74 (anno 1273), 161 (anno 1303). later, Wutenswege, Godenschwege, Gutenswegen, conf. Ledebur n. arch. 2, 165, 170. Gero ex familia Wodenswegiorum, Ann. Magdeb. in chron. Marienthal. Meibom 3, 263. I would mention here the lustration der koninges strate, RA. 69; in the Uplandslag vidherb. balkr 23, 7 the highway is called karlsveg, like the heavenly wain above. But we shall have to raise a doubt by and by, whether the notion of way, via, is contained at all in Wodensweg.

Plainer, and more to the purpose, appear the names of certain mountains, which in heathen times were sacred to the service of the god. At Sigtýs bergi, Sæm. 248. Othensberg, now Onsberg, on the Danish I. of Samsöe; Odensberg in Schonen. Godesberg near Bonn, in docs. of Mid. Ages Gudenesberg, Günther 1, 211 (anno 1131), 1, 274 (anno 1143), 2, 345 (anno 1265); and before that, Wôdenesberg, Lacomblet 97. 117, annis 947, 974. So early as in Caesarius heisterb. 8, 46 the two forms are put together: Gudinsberg vel, ut alii dicunt, Wudinsberg. Near the holy oak in Hesse, which Boniface brought down, there stood a Wuodenesberg, still so named in a doc. of 1154 (Schminke beschr von Cassel, p. 30, conf. Wenk 3, 79), later Vdenesberg, Gudensberg; this hill is not to be confounded with Gudensberg by Erkshausen, district Rotenburg (Niederhess. wochenbl. 1830, p. 1296), nor with a Gudenberg by Oberelsungen and Zierenberg (ib. p. 1219. Rommel 2, 64. Gudenburg by Landau, p. 212); so that three mountains of this name occur in Lower Hesse alone; conf. 'montem Vodinberg, cum silva eidem monti attinente,' doc. of 1265 in Wenk II, no. 174. In a different neighbourhood, a Henricus comes de Wôdenesberg is named in a doc. of 1130, Wedekind's notes 1, 367; a curtis Wôdenesberg in a doc. of 973, Falke tradit. corb. 534. Gotansberg (anno 1275), Langs reg. 3, 471: vineas duas gotansberge vocatas. Mabillon's acta Bened. sec. 5, p. 208 contain the following: 'in loco ubi mons quem dicunt Wonesberth (l. Wônesberch = Wôdanesberg) a radicibus astra petit,' said to be situate in pagus Gandavensis, but more correctly Mt. Ardenghen between Boulogne and St. Omer. Comes Wadanimontis, aft. Vaudemont in Lorraine (Don Calmet, tome 2, preuves XLVIII. L. ), seems to be the same, and to mean Wodanimons. (30) A Wôdnes beorg in the Sax. Chron. (Ingram pp. 27. 62), later Wodnesborough, Wansborough in Wiltshire; the corruption already in Ethelwerd p. 835: 'facta ruina magna ex utraque parte in loco qui dicitur Wodnesbyrg' for Wodnesberg; but Florence, ed. 1592, p. 225, has 'Wodnesbeorh, id est mons Wodeni'. (31) A Wôdnesbeorg in Lappenberg's map near the Bearucwudu, conf. Wodnesbury, Wodnesdyke, Wôdanesfeld in Lappenb. engl. gesch. 1, 131. 258. 354. To this we must add, that about the Hessian Gudensberg the story goes that King Charles lies prisoned in it, that he there won a victory over the Saxons, and opened a well in the wood for his thirsting army, but he will yet come forth of the mountain, he and his host, at the appointed time. The mythus of a victorious army pining for water is already applied to King Carl by the Frankish annalists (Pertz 1, 150. 348), at the very moment when they bring out the destruction of the Irminsûl; but beyond a doubt it is older and heathen: Saxo Gram. 42 has it of the victorious Balder. The agreement of such legends with fixed points in the ancient cultus cannot but heighten and confirm their significance. A people whose faith is falling to pieces, will save here and there a fragment of it, by fixing it on a new and unpersecuted object of veneration. After such numerous instances of ancient Woden-hills, one need not be afraid to claim a mons Mercurii when mentioned in Latin annalists, such as Fredegar.

Other names occur, besides those of mountains. The breviarium Lulli, in Wenk II. no 12, names a place in Thuringia: ' in Wudaneshusum,' and again Woteneshusun (conf. Schannat no. 84. 105); in Oldenburg there is a Wodensholt, now Godensholt, cited in a land-book of 1428, Ehrentraut Fries. arch. 1, 445: 'to Wodensholte Tideke Tammen gut x schillings'; Wothenower (Wôdenôver?), seat of a Brandenburg family, Höfers urk. p. 270, anno 1334; not far from Bergen op Zoom and the Scheldt, towards Antwerp, stands to this day a Woensdrecht, as if Wodani trajectum. Woensel = Wodenssele, Wodani aula, lies near Eindhoven on the Dommel in N. Brabant; a remarkable passage on it in Gramaye's Taxandria, p. 23, was pointed out to me by J. W. Wolf: Imo amplius supersunt aperte Cymbricorum dorum pagis aliquot, ubi forte culti erant, indita nomina, nominatim Mercurii in Woensel, honoris in Eersel, Martis in Roysel. Uti enim Woen Mercurium eis dictum alias docui, et eer honorem esse omnes sciunt, ita Roy Martem a colore sanguineo cognominatum ostendunt illi qui tertiam hebdomadis feriam Roydach indigitant. In due time I shall speak of Eersel and Roysel, which lie in the neighbourhood of Woensel, and all of them in the N. Brabant district of Oirschot. This Woensel is like the Oðinssalr, Othänsäle, Onsala named on p. 158. Wunstorp, Wunsdorf, a convent and small town in Lower Saxony, stands unmutilated as Wodenstorp in a doc. of 1179, Falke tradit. corb. 770. Near Windbergen in the Ditmar country, an open space in a wood bears the name of Wodenslag, Wonslag. Near Hadersleben in Schleswig are the villages of Wonsbeke, Wonslei, Woyens formerly Wodensyen. An AS. doc. of 862 (Kemble 2, 73) contains in a boundary-settlement the name Wônstoc = Wôdenesstoc, Wodani stipes, and at the same  ime betrays the influence of the god on ancient delimitation. Wuotan, Hermes, Mercury, all seem to be divinities of measurement and demarcation; conf. Woedensspanne, Woenslet, p. 160 (see Suppl.).

As these names, denoting the waggon and the mountain of the old gods, have survived chiefly in Lower Germany, where heathenism maintained itself longest; a remarkable custom of the people in Lower Saxony at harvest-time points the same way. It is usual to leave a clump of standing corn in a field to Woden for his horse. Oðinn in the Edda rides the eight-footed steed Sleipnir, the best of all horses, Sæm. 46 93. Sn. 18. 45. 65. Sleipnis verðr (food) is a poetic name for hay, Yngl. saga cap. 21: other sagas speak of a tall white horse, by which the god of victory might be recognised in battles (see Suppl.). Christianity has not entirely rooted out the harmless practice for the Norse any more than for the Saxon peasant. In Schonen and Blekingen it continued for a long time to be the custom for reapers to leave on the field a gift for Oden's horses. (32) The usage in Mecklenburg is thus described by Gryse: Ja, im heidendom hebben tor tid der arne (at harvest-tide) de meiers (mowers) dem afgade Woden umme god korn angeropen (invoked for good corn), denn wenn de roggenarne geendet, heft men up den lesten platz eins idern (each) veldes einen kleinen ord unde humpel korns unafgemeiet stan laten, datsülve baven (b' oben, a-b' ove) an den aren drevoldigen to samende geschörtet, unde besprenget (ears festooned together three times, and sprinkled). Alle meiers sin darumme her getreden, ere höde (their hats) vam koppe genamen (v. supra, p. 32), unde ere seisen (scythes) na der sülven wode [mode?] unde geschrenke (encircling) dem kornbusche upgerichet, und hebben den Wodendüvel dremal semplik lud averall also angeropen unde gebeden:

Wode, hale (fetch) dinem rosse nu voder,

nu distil unde dorn,

tom andern jar beter korn!

welker afgödischer gebruk im Pawestom gebleven. Daher denn ok noch an dissen orden dar heiden gewanet, bi etliken ackerlüden (-leuten, men) soker avergelövischer gebruk in anropinge des Woden tor tid der arne gespöret werd, und ok oft desülve helsche jeger (the same hellish hunter), sonderliken im winter, des nachtes up dem velde mit sinen jagethunden sik hören let. (33)

David Franck (Meklenb. 1, 56-7), who has heard the same from old people, quotes the rhyme thus:

Wode, Wode,

hal dinen rosse nu voder,

nu distel un dorn,

ächter jar beter korn!

He adds, that at the squires' mansions, when the rye is all cut, there is Wodel-beer served out to the mowers; no one weeds flax on a Wodenstag, lest Woden's horse should trample the seeds; from Christmas to Twelfth-day they will not spin, nor leave any flax on the distaff, and to the question why? they answer, Wode is galloping across. We are expressly told, this wild hunter Wode rides a white horse. (34) Near Sätuna in Vestergötland are some fine meadows called Onsängarne (Odens ängar, ings), in which the god's horses are said to have grazed, Afzelius 1, 4. In S. Germany they tell of the lord of the castle's grazing gray (or white), Mone anz. 3, 259; v. infra, the 'wütende heer'. I have been told, that in the neighbourhood of Kloppenburg in Oldenburg, the harvesters leave a bunch of corn-stalks uncut on the field, and dance round it. There may be a rhyme sung over it still, no doubt there was formerly.

A custom in Schaumburg I find thus described: (35) the people go out to mow in parties of twelve, sixteen or twenty scythes, but it is so managed, that on the last day of harvest they are all finished at the same time, or some leave a strip standing which they can cut down at a stroke the last thing, or they merely pass their scythes over the stubble, pretending there is still some left to mow. At the last stroke of the scythe they raise their implements aloft, plant them upright, and beat the blades three times with the strop. Each spills on the field a little of the drink he has, whether beer, brandy, or milk, then drinks himself, while they wave their hats, beat their scythes three times, and cry aloud Wôld, Wôld, Wôld! and the women knock all the crumbs out of their baskets on the stubble. They march home shouting and singing. Fifty years ago a song was in use, which has now died out, but whose first strophe ran thus:

Wôld, Wôld, Wôld!

hävenhüne weit wat schüt,

jümm hei dal van häven süt.

Vulle kruken un sangen hät hei,

upen holte wässt (grows) manigerlei:

hei is nig barn un wert nig old.

Wôld, Wôld, Wôld!

If the ceremony be omitted, the next year will bring bad crops of hay and corn.

Probably, beside the libation, there was corn left standing for the venerated being, as the fourth line gives us to understand: 'full crocks and shocks hath he'; and the second strophe may have brought in his horse. 'Heaven's giant knows what happens, ever he down from heaven sees,' accords with the old belief in Wuotan's chair (p. 135); the sixth line touches off the god that ‘ne'er is born and ne'er grows old’ almost too theosophically. Wôld, though excused by the rhyme, seems a corruption of Wôd, Wôde, (36) rather than a contraction from waldand (v. supra. p. 21). A Schaumburg man pronounced the name to me as Wauden, and related as follows: On the lake of Steinhude, the lads from the village of Steinhude go every autumn after harvest, to a hill named Heidenhügel, light a fire on it, and when it blazes high, wave their hats and cry Wauden, Wauden! (see Suppl.).

Such customs reveal to us the generosity of the olden time. Man has no wish to keep all his increase to himself; he gratefully leaves a portion to the gods, who will in future also protect his crops. Avarice increased when sacrificing ceased. Ears of corn are set apart and offered here to Wuotan, as elsewhere to kind spirits and elves, e.g., to the brownies of Scotland (see Suppl. to Elves, pixy-hoarding).

It was not Wuotan exclusively that bestowed fertility on the fields; Donar, and his mother the Earth, stood in still closer connexion with agriculture. We shall see that goddess put in the place of Wuotan in exacly similar harvest-ceremonies.

In what countries the worship of the god endured the longest, may be learnt from the names of places which are compounded with his name, because the site was sacred to him. It is very unlikely that they should be due to men bearing the same name as the god, instead of to the god himself; Wuotan, Oðinn, as a man's name, does occur, but not often; and the meaning of the second half of the compounds, and their reappearance in various regions, are altogether in favour of their being attributable to the god. From Lower Germany and Hesse, I have cited (p. 151) Wôdenesweg, Wôdenesberg, Wôdenesholt, Wôdeneshûsun, and on the Jutish border Wonsild; from the Netherlands Woensdrecht; in Upper Germany such names hardly show themselves at all. (37) In England we find: Woodnesboro in Kent, near Sandwich: Wednesbury and Wednesfield in Staffordshire; Wednesham in Cheshire, called Wodnesfield in Ethelwerd p. 848. (38) But their number is more considerable in Scandinavia, where heathenism was preserved longer: and if in Denmark and the Gothland portion of Sweden they occur more frequently than in Norway and Sweden proper, I infer from this a preponderance of Odin-worship in South Scandinavia. The chief town in the I. of Funen (Fion) was named Odinsve (Fornm. sög. 11, 266. 281) from ve, a sanctuary; sometimes also Oðinsey (ib. 230. 352) from ey, island, meadow; and later again Odense, and in Waldemar's Liber censualis (39) 530. 542 Othänsö. In Lower Norway, close to Frederikstad, a second Oðinsey (Heimskr. ed. Havn. 4, 348. 398), aft. called Onsö. In Jutland, Othänsäle (-saal, hall, ib. 533), now Onsala (Tuneld's geogr. 2, 492. 504); as well as in Old Norway an Odhinssalr (conf. Woensel in Brabant, Woenssele ?). In Schonen, Othänshäret (Wald. lib. cens. 528); Othenshärat (Bring 2, 62. 138. 142), (40) now Onsjö (Tuneld 2, 397); Onslunda (-grove, Tuneld 2, 449); Othensvara (Bring 2, 46-7, Othenvara 39); Othenströö (Bring 2, 48), from vara, foedus, and tro, fides? In Småland, Odensvalahult (Tuneld 2, 146) and Odenskälla (2, 264), a medicinal spring; Odensåker (-acre, field, 2, 204. 253). In Westmanland, Odensvi (1, 266. conf. Grau, p. 427), (41) like the Odinsve of Fünen; and our Lower Saxon Wodeneswegs may have to do with this ve (not with weg, via), and be explained by the old wig, wih, templum (see p. 67). This becomes the more credible, as there occurs in the Cod. exon. 341, 28 the remarkable sentence:

Wôden worhte weos, wuldor alwealda rûme roderas;

i.e., Wôden construxit, creavit fana (idols), Deus omnipotens amples coelos; the christian writer had in his recollection the heathen sanctuaries assigned to Wôden, and contrasts with them the greater creations of God. The plur. weos is easily justified, as ih is resolved into weoh, and weohas contracted into weos: so that an AS. Wôdenesweoh would exactly fit the OS. Wôdanesweg = Wôdaneswih, and the ON. Oðinsve. Also in Westmanland, an Odensjö (Grau p. 502). In Upland, Odensala (Tuneld 1, 56); Odensfors (1, 144); Onsike (1, 144). In Nerike, Odensbacke (1, 240), (see Suppl.).

It seemed needful here to group the most important of these names together, and no doubt there are many others which have escaped me; (42) in their very multitude, as well as the similarity or identity of their structure, lies the full proof of their significance. Few, or isolated, they might have been suspected, and explained otherwise; taken together, they are incontestable evidence of the wide diffusion of Odin's worship.

Herbs and plants do not seem to have been named after this god. In Brun's beitr., p. 54, wodesterne is given as the name of a plant, but we ought first to see it in a distincter form. The Icelanders and Danes however call a small waterfowl (tringa minima, inquieta, lacustris et natans) Oðinshani, Odenshane, Odens fugl, which fits in with the belief, brought out on p. 147, in birds consecrated to him. An OHG. gloss (Haupts altd. bl. 2, 212) supplies a doubtful-looking vtinswalwwe, fulica (see Suppl.).

Even a part of the human body was named after the god: the space between the thumb and the forefinger when stretched out, which the Greeks name licaj, was called in the Netherlands Woedensspanne, Woedenspanne, Woenslet. The thumb was sacred, and even worshipped as thumbkin and Pollux = pollex; Wodan was the god of play, and lucky men were said to have the game running on their thumb. We must await further disclosures about the name, its purport, and the superstition lying at the bottom of it (see Suppl.).

I started with assuming that the worship of this divinity was common to all the Teutonic races, and foreign to none, just because we must recognise him as the most universal and the supreme one. Wuotan

so far as we have succeeded in gleaning from the relics of the old religion an idea of his being

Wuotan is the most intellectual god of our antiquity, he shines out above all other gods; and therefore the Latin writers, when they speak of the German cultus, are always prompted to make mention first of Mercury.

We know that not only the Norsemen, but the Saxons, Thuringians, Alamanns and Langobards worshipped this deity; why should Franks, Goths, and the rest be excluded from his service?

At the same time there are plain indications that his worship was not always and everywhere the dominant one. In the South of Germany, although the personification of Wish maintained its ground, Wuotan became extinct sooner than in the North; neither names of places, nor that of the fourth day of the week, have preserved him there. Among the Scandinavians, the Swedes and Norwegians seem to have been less devoted to him than the Gotlanders and Danes. The ON. sagas several times mention images of Thor, never one of Oðinn; only Saxo Gram. does so in an altogether mythical way (p. 113); Adam of Bremen, though he names Wodan among the Upsala gods, assigns but the second place to him, and the first to Thor. Later still, the worship of Freyr seems to have predominated in Sweden.

An addition to the St. Olaf saga, though made at a later time, furnishes a striking statement about the heathen gods whom the introduction of christianity overthrew. I will quote it here, intending to return to it from time to time: 'Olafr konûngr kristnaði þetta rîki allt, öll blôt braut hann niðr ok öll goð, sem Thôr Engilsmanna goð, ok Oðin Saxa goð, ok Skiöld Skânûnga goð, ok Frey Svîa goð, ok Goðorm Dana goð' ; i.e. king O. christened all this kingdom, broke down all sacrifices and all gods, as Thor the Englishmen's god, Oðin the Saxons' god, &c., Fornm. sög. 5, 239.

This need not be taken too strictly, but it seems to me to express the still abiding recollections of the old national gods: as the Swedes preferred Freyr, so probably did the Saxons Wôden, to all other deities. Why, I wonder, did the writer, doubtless a Norwegian, omit the favourite god of his own countrymen? To them he ought to have given Thor, instead of the English, who, like other Saxons, were votaries of Wôden.

Meanwhile it must not be overlooked, that in the Abrenuntiatio, an 8th century document, not purely Saxon, yet Low German,Old Frankish and perhaps Ripuarian, Thunar is named before Vuodan, and Saxnôt occupies the third place. From this it follows at all events, that the worship of Thunar also prevailed in those regions; may we still vindicate Wuodan's claims to the highest place by supposing that the three gods are here named in the order in which their statues were placed side by side? that Wuodan, as the greatest of them, stood in the middle ? as, according to Adam of Bremen, Thor did at Upsala, with Wodan and Fricco on each side of him.

In the ON. sagas, when two of these gods are named together, Thôrr usually precedes Oðinn. The Laxdælasaga, p. 174, says of Kiartan: At hann þykist eiga meira traust undir afli sinu ok vâpnum (put more trust in his strength and weapons, conf. pp. 6, 7) heldr enn þar sem er Thôrr ok Oðinn. The same passage is repeated in Fornm. sög. 2, 34. Again, Eyvindr relates how his parents made a vow before his birth: At sâ maðr skal alt til dauðadags þiona Thôr ok Oðni (this man shall until death-day serve, &c.), Fornm. sög. 2, 161. (43) But it does not follow from this, that Thôrr was thought the greatest, for Eyvindr was actually dedicated to Oðinn. In Fornm. sög. 5, 249, Styrbiörn sacrifices to Thôrr, and Eirekr to Oðinn, but the former is beaten. Thôrr tôk jolaveizlu frâ Haraldi, enn Oðinn tôk frâ Hâlfdâni, Fornm. sög. 10, 178. In the popular assembly at Thrândheim, the first cup is drunk to Oðinn, the second to Thôrr, ibid. 1, 35. In the famous Bravalla fight, Othin under the name of Bruno acts as charioteer to the Danish king Harald, and to the latter's destruction; on the Swedish side there fight descendents of Freyr, Saxo Gram. 144-7. Yet the Eddic Harbarzlioð seems to place Oðinn above Thôrr. A contrast between Oðinn and Thôrr is brought out strongly in the Gautrekssaga quoted below, ch. XXVIII. But, since Thôrr is represented as Oðin's son, as a rejuvenescence of him, the two must often resolve into one another. (44)

If the three mightiest gods are named, I find Oðinn foremost: Oðinn, Thôr, Freyr, Sn. edda 131. According to Fornm. sög. 1, 16, voyagers vow money and three casks of ale to Freyr, if a fair wind shall carry them to Sweden, but to Thôrr or Oðinn, if it bring them home to Iceland (see Suppl.).

It is a different thing, when Oðinn in ON. documents is styled Thridi, the third; (45) in that case he appears not by the side of Thôrr and Freyr, but by the side of Hâr and Iafnhâr (the high and the even-high or co-equal, OHG. epan hôh) as the Third High (46) (see Suppl.), Sn. 7. Yngl. saga 52. Sæm. 46. As we might imagine, the grade varies: at other times he is Tveggi (duplex or secundus). Again, in a different relation he appears with his brothers Vili and Ve, Sn. 7; with Hænir and Loðr, Sæm. 3, or with Hænir and Loki Sæm. 180. Sn. 135; all this rests upon older myths, which, as peculiar to the North, we leave on one side. Yet, with respect to the trilogy Oðinn, Vili, Ve, we must not omit to mention here that the OHG. willo expresses not only voluntas, but votum, impetus and spiritus, (47) and the Gothic viljan, velle, is closely connected with valjan, eligere; whence it is easy to conceive and believe, how Wuotan, Wish and Will should touch one another (see Suppl.). With the largitor opum may also be connected the AS. wela, OS. welo, OHG. wolo, welo = opes, felicitas [weal, wealth], and Wela comes up several times almost as a personification (conf. Gramm. 4, 752), like the Lat. goddess Ops (conf. infra Sælde, note); there is also a Vali among the Norse gods. In the case of Ve, gen. vea, the sense may waver between wiho, sanctus (Goth. Ahma sa veiha, Holy Ghost), and wih, idolum. In Sæm. 63, Loki casts the teeth of Frigg her intrigues with Ve and Vili; this refers to the story in Yngl. saga cap. 3, from which we clearly gather the identity of the three brothers, so that Frigg could be considered the wife of any one of them. (48)

Lastly, a principal proof of the deeply-rooted worship of this divinity is furnished by Wôdan's being interwoven with the old Saxon genealogies, which I shall examine minutely in the Appendix. (49)

Here we see Wôdan invariably in the centre. To him are traced up all the races of heroes and kings; among his sons and his ancestors, several have divine honours paid them. In particular, there appear as sons, Balder and that Saxnôt who in the 8th century was not yet rooted out of N.W. Germany; and in the line of his progenitors, Heremôd and Geât, the latter expressly pronounced a god, or the son of a god, in these legends, while Wôdan himself is regarded more as the head of all noble races. But we easily come to see, that from a higher point of view both Geát and Wôdan merge into one being, as in fact Oðinn is called 'alda Gautr,' Sæm. 93 95; conf. infra Goz, Koz.

In these genealogies, which in more than one direction are visibly interwoven with the oldest epic poetry of our nation, the gods, heroes and kings are mixed up together. As heroes become deified, so can gods also come up again as heroes; amid such reappearances , the order of succession of the individual links varies [in different tables].

Each pedigree ends with real historical kings: but to reckon back from these, and by the number of human generations to get at the date of mythical heroes and gods, is preposterous. The earliest Anglo-Saxon kings that are historically certain fall into the fifth, sixth or seventh century; count four, eight or twelve generations up to Wôden, you cannot push him back farther than the third or fourth century. Such calculations can do nothing to shake our assumption of his far earlier existence. The adoration of Wôden must reach up to immemorial times, a long way beyond the first notices given us by the Romans of Mercury's worship in Germania.

There is one more reflection to which the high place assigned to by the Germans to their Wuotan may fairly lead us. Monotheism is a thing so necessary, so natural, that almost all heathens, admidst their motley throng of deites, have consciously or unconsciously ended by acknowledging a supreme god, who has already in him the attributes of all the rest, so that these are only to be regarded as emanations from him, renovations, rejuvenescences of him. This explains how certain characteristics come to be assigned, now to this, now to that particular god, and why one or another of them, according to the difference of nation, comes to be invested with supreme power. Thus our Wuotan resembles Hermes and Mercury, but he stands higher than these two; contrariwise, the German Donar (Thunor, Thôrr) is a weaker Zeus or Jupiter; what was added to the one, had to be subtracted from the other; as for Ziu (Tiw, Tyr), he hardly does more than administer one of Wuotan's offices, yet is identical in name with the first and highest god of the Greeks and Romans: and so all these god-phenomena keep meeting and crossing one another. The Hellenic Hermes is pictured as a youth, the Teutonic Wuotan as a patriarch: Oðinn hinn gamli (the old), Yngl. saga cap. 15, like 'the old god' on p. 21. Ziu and Froho are mere emanations of Wuotan (see Suppl.).

GENEALOGIES OF ANGLO-SAXON KINGS.

                Descending Series.

Kent.

 Eastanglia.

    Essex

 Mercia

Wôden

Wôden

 Wôden

 Wôden

Wecta

  Câsere

 Saxneát

    Wihlæg

Witta

    Titmon

 Gesecg

 Wærmund

Wihtgils

Trigel

   Andsecg

Offa

Hengest (d.489)

 Hrôthmund

    Sweppa

    Angeltheow

Eoric (Oesc)

 Hrippa

 Sigefugel

   Eomær

Octa

    Quichelm

 Bedeca

 Icel

Eormenrîc

Uffa

Offa

 Cnebba 

  Æthelbeorht (567)

 Tidel

    Æscwine (527)

  Cynewald

 

Rædwald (d. 617)

Sledda

 Creoda

 

Eorpwald (632)

    Sæbeorht (604)

  Wibba

 

 

  Penda (d. 656)

 

Deira

 Bernicia

 Wessex

 Lindesfaran

Wôden

   Wôden

 Wôden

 Wôden

Wægdæg

Bældæg

 Bældæg

 Winta

Sigegâr

 Brand

  Brand

Cretta

Swæfdæg

Beonoc

 Fridhogâr

 Queldgils

Sigegeát

 Aloc

 Freáwine

Ceadbed

Sæbald

   Angenwit

 Wig

 Bubba

Sæfugel

   Ingwi

   Gewis

  Bedeca

Westerfalcna

   Esa

Esla

 Biscop

Wilgisl

 Eoppa

  Elesa

    Eanferth

Uscfreá

    Ida (d. 560)

  Cerdic (d. 534)

Eatta

Yffe

 

Cynrîc

  Ealdfrith

Ælle (d. 588)

 

   Ceawlin

 

 

According to this, Wôden had seven sons (Bældæg being common to two royal lines); elsewhere he has only three, e.g. Wil. Malm. p. 17: tres filii, Weldegius, Withlegius et Beldegius, from whom the Kentish kings, the Mercian kings, and the West Saxon and Northumbrian kings respectively were descended.

Ascending Series

Ascending Series

Wôden

    Finn

 Beaw

 Hathra (Itermôd)

Fridhuwald   

 Godwulf (Folcwald)  

 Sceldwa

 Hwala(Hathra)

Freáwine (Freálâf)

Geát

Heremôd (Sceáf)

Bedwig(Hwala)

Fridhuwulf 

 Tætwa

 Itermon (Heremôd)   

  Sceáf (Bedwig)

 

Some accounts contain only four links, others eight, others sixteen, stopping either at Fridhuwulf, at Geát, or at Sceáf. Sceáf is the oldest heathen name; but after the conversion the line was connected with Noah, and so with Adam!

_________________

                1. A Frisian god Warns has simply been invented from the gen. in the compound Warnsdei, Wernsdei (Richth. p. 1142), where Werns plainly stands for Wedens, Wodens, an r being put for d to avoid collision with the succeeding sd; it will be hard to find anywhere a nom. Wern. And the present West Frisians say Wansdey, the North Frisians Winsdei, without such r. 

                2. Conradis Wörterb. 263. Christmann, pp. 30-32.

                3. A word that has never been fully explained, Goth. vôþis dulcis, 2 Cor. 2, 15, OHG wuodi, Diut. 2, 304, OS. wuothi, Hel. 36, 3. 140, 7, AS. wêðe, must either be regarded as wholly unconnected, or its meaning be harmonized.

                4. Finn Magnusen comes to the same conclusion, Lex. myth. 621. 636.

                5. The belief, so common in the Mid. Ages, in a 'furious host' or 'wild hunt,' is described in ch. XXXI.  Trans.

                6. Got waldes an der sige kür! Wh. 425, 24. sigehafte hende füege in got! Dietr. 84. Oðinn, when he sent the people forth to war, laid his hands on their heads and blessed, acc. to Yngl. cap. 2, gaf þeim bianac; Ir. beannact, beannugad, beandacht, Gael. beannachd, Wel. bianoch (Villemarqué, essai LIX) = benedictio, prob. all from the lat. word? conf.French bênir, Ir. beannaigim.

                7. Godfrey of Viterbo (in Pistorius, ed. Struve 2, 305) has the legend out of Paul Diac. with the names corrupted, Godam for Wodan, Feria for Frea. Godam or Votam sets him thinking of the Germ. word got (deus). The unheard-of 'Toclacus historiographus' has evidently sprung out of 'hoc loco' in Paul.

                8. Lâta fylgja nafni, Sæm. 142. 150. Fornm. sög. 3, 182. 203. gefa at nafnfesti (name- feast), Sn. 151. Fornm. sög. 2, 51. 3, 133. 203. Islend. sög. 2, 143. 194. Vocabuli largitionem muneris additione commendare, Saxo Gram. 71.

                9. Longobardi a longis barbis vocitati, Otto fris. de gest. Frid. 2, 13. But Oðinn himself was named Lângbarðr.

                10. Kindermärchen no. 35. First in Bebel, ed. 1, Tub. 1506, p. 6. Frey's gartengesellschaft cap. 109, ed. 1556 p. 106, ed 1590 p. 85. Rollwagenbüchlein 1590, pp. 98-9 (here a golden settle). Mösers vermischte schriften 1, 332. 2, 235. ed. 1842, 4, 5, 39. H. Sachs (1563) v. 381. According to Greek and O. Norse notions, the gods have a throne or chair: thâ gengêngo regin öll â rökstôla ginheilög goð, Sæm. 1. Compare in the Bible: heaven is God's throne, the earth his footstool, Matt. 5, 34-5; and Hel. 45, 11. 12 (see Suppl.).

                11. Also NS. 2, 254: ze hûs wirf ich den slegel dir. MS. 2, 6: mit einem slegel er zuo dem kinde warf. This cudgel-throwing resembles, what meant so much to our ancestors, the hammer's throw, and the OHG. slaga is malleus, sledge-hammer (Graff 6, 773). The cudgel thrown from heaven can hardly be other than a thunderbolt; and the obscure proverb, 'swer irre rite daz der den slegel fünde,' whose astray should ride, that he s. might find, Parz. 180, 10, may refer to a thunder-stone (see ch. VIII, Donar) which points to hidden treasure and brings deliverance, and which only those can light upon, who have accidentally lost their way in a wood; for which reason Wolfram calls trunks of trees, from under which peeps out the stone of luck, 'slegel urkünde und zil,' slegel's document and mark (aim).

                12. Haupts zeitschr. 1, 573. Lasicz. 47 names a Datanus donator bonorum.

                13. In many places it is doubtful, whether the poet means wish or Wish. In Wolfram and Gottfried, who abstain from distinct personfication, I always prefer the abstract interpretation, while Hartmann admits of both by turns. When we read in Parz. 102, 30; si was gar ob dem wunsches zil (over wish's goal, beyond all that one could wish), the phrase borders close upon the above quoted, 'si ist des Wunsches hôstez zil (the highest that Wish ever created)'; and it is but a step from 'mînes wunsches paradis,' MS. 2, 126, to 'des Wunsches paradis' or 'ouwe'. So, 'dâ ist wunsch, und niender breste (here is one's wish, and nothing wanting),' MS. 1, 88 = 'der Wunsch liez im niht gebrechen,' W. left him nothing lacking (see Suppl.).

                14. The Germ. an-wünschen verbally translates the Lat. ad-opto.

Trans.

                15. That Wish was personified, and very boldly, by the christian poets, is abundantly proved. That he was ever believed in as a person, even in heathen times, is, to my thinking, far from clear. I believe some German scholars regard the notion as little better than a mare's nest. Trans.

                16. The name does occur later: Johannes dictus de (=der) Wunsch, Ch. ann. 1324 (Neue mitth. des thür. vereins I. 4, 65). In the Oberhess. wochenblatt, Marburg 1830, p. 420, I read of a Joh. Wunsch who is probably alive at this moment.

                17. Bopp's Nalas, p. 264

                18. So Wuotan's name of itself degenerates into the sense of fury (wut) and anger; the Edda has instances of it. In revenge he pricked Brynhild with the sleeping-thorn, Sæm. 194, and she says: Oðinn þvi veldr, er ek eigi mâttak bregða blunnstöfom. He breeds enmity and strife: einn veldr Oðinn öllu bölvi, þviat með sifjungom sakrûnar bar, Sæm. 165. inimicitias Othinus serit, Saxo gram. p. 142, as christians say of the devil, that he sows the seeds of discord. gremi Oðins, Sæm. 151 (see Suppl.).

                19. Conf. Tritas in the fountain, Kuhn in Höfer 1, 290. Acc. to the popular religion, you must not look into running water, because you look into God's eye, Tobler's Appenzel, p. 369; neither must you point at the stars with your fingers, for fear of sticking them into the angel's eyes.

                20. There is a Swed. märchen of Greymantle (grakappan), Molbech 14, who, like Mary in German tales, takes one up to heaven and forbids the opening of a lock, Kinderm. 3, 407.

                21. In Marc. Cap. 1, 11, the words: 'augurales vero alites ante currum Delio constiterunt,' are transl. by Notker 37: tô wâren garo ze Apollinis reito sîne wîzegfogela, rabena unde albisze. To Oðinn hawks are sometimes given instead of ravens: Oðins haukar Sæm. 167.

                22. Grego. Nyssen. encom. Ephraemi relates, that when Basil the Great was preaching, Ephraem saw on his right shoulder a white dove, which put words of wisdom in his mouth. Of Gregory the Great we read in Paul. Diac., vita p. 14, that when he was expounding the last vision of Ezekiel, a white dove sat upon his head, and now and then put its beak in his mouth, at which times he, the writer, got nothing for his stylus to put down; conf. the narrative of a poet of the 12th cent., Hoffm. fundgr. 2, 229; also Myst. 1. p. 226-7. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas are portrayed with a white dove perched on their shoulders or hovering over their heads. A nursery-tale (Iinderm. no. 33) makes two doves settle on the pope's shoulder, and tell him in his ear all that he has to do. A white dove descends singing on the head of St. Devy, and instructs him, Buhez santez Nonn. Paris 1837, p. 117. And on other occasions the dove flies down to make known the will of heaven. No one will trace the story of Wuotan's ravens to these doves, still the coincidence is striking (see Suppl.).

                23. There are said to have been found lately, in Denmark and Sweden, representations of Odin, which, if some rather strange reports are well-founded, ought to be made known without delay. A ploughman at Boeslund in Zealand turned up two golden urns filled with ashes; on the lids is carved Odin, standing up, with two ravens on his shoulders, and the two wolves at his feet; Kunstbl. 1843, no. 19, p. 80. Gold coins also were discovered near the village of Gömminga in Oeland, one of which represents Odin with the ravens on his shoulder; the reverse has runes; Kunstbl. 1844, no. 13, p. 52.

                24. Reusch, sagen des preuss. Samlands, no. 11. 29.

                25. In the Old British mythology there appears a Gwydion ab Don, G. son of Don, whom Davies (Celtic researchers pp. 168, 174. Brit. myth. p. 118, 204, 263ö4, 353, 429, 504, 541) identifies with Hermes; he invented writing, practised magic, and built the rainbow; the milky way was named caer Gwydion, G.'s castle (Owen, sub v.). The British antiquaries say nothing of Wôden, yet Gwydion seems near of kin to the above Gwodan = Wodan. So the Irish name for dies Mercurii, dia Geden, whether modelled on the Engl. Wednesday or not, leads us to the form Goden, Gwoden (see Suppl.).

                26. Even nursery-tales of the present time speak of a groszmächtige Mercurius, Kinderm. no. 99. 2, 86.

                27. This Termagan, Termagant occurs especially in O. Engl. poems, and may have to do with the Irish tormac augmentum, tormacaim augere.

                28. Septentrion, que nos char el ciel apelon; Roman de Rou.

                29. Crossbeam, such as bells (glocken) are suspended on; conf. ans, âs, p. 125.

                30. We know of Graisivaudan, a valley near Grenoble in Dauphiné, for which the Titurel has Graswaldane; but there is no ground for connecting it with the god.

                31. Our present -borough, -bury, stands both correctly for burh, byrig, castle, town (Germ. burg), and incorrectly for the lost beorg, beorh, mountain (Germ. berg). Trans.

                32. Geyers schwed. gesch. 1, 110. orig. 1, 123. In the Högrumssocken, Oeland, are some large stones named Odins flisor, Odini lamellae, of which the story is told, that Odin, in turning his horse out to graze, took the bit off him and laid it on a huge block of stone; the weight of the bit split the stone into two pieces, which were set upright as a memorial. Another story is, that Oden was about to fight an adversary, and knew not, where to tie his horse up. In the hurry he ran to the stone, pierced it with his sword, and tied his horse fast through the hole. But the horse broke loose, the stone burst in pieces and rolled away, and from this arose the deep bog named Högrumsträsk; people have tied poles together, but never could reach the bottom. Abrah. Ahlquist, Oelands historia, Calmar 1822. 1, 37. 2, 212. There is a picture of the stones in Liliengren och Brunius, no. xviii. In the Högbysocken of Oeland is also a smooth block of granite named Odinssten, on which, acc. to the folk-tale, the warriors of old , when marching to battle, used to whet their swords; Ahlquist 2, 79. These legends confirm the special importance of Odin's horse in his mythus. Verelii notae on the Gautrekssaga p. 40 quote from the Clavis computi runici: 'Odin beter hesta sina i belg burden,' which I do not quite understand. In the Fornm. sög. 9, 55-6 Oðinn has his horse shod at a blacksmith's, and rides away by enormous leaps to Sweden, where a war breaks out (see Suppl.).

                33. Spegel des antichristischen pawestdoms (popery), dorch Nicolaum Grysen, predigern in Rostock, Rost. 1593. 4, sheet E iiii. With the verses cited by him, conf. the formula in weisthümer: Let it lie fallow one year, and bear thistle and thorn the next.

                34. Mussäus meklenb. volkssagen no. 5; in Lisch meklenb. jahrb. 2, 133 it is spelt Waud, and a note is made, that on the Elbe they say fruh Wod, i.e. frôho, lord; conf. infra, fru Gaue and fru Gauden in the 'wütende heer'.

                35. By Münchhausen in Bragur VI. 1, 21-34.

                36. Conf. Dutch oud, goud for old, gold; so Woude, which approximates the form Wôde. Have we the latter in 'Theodericus de Wodestede?' Scheidt's mantissa p. 433 anno 1205.

                37. An Odensberg in the Mark of Bibelheim (now Biebesheim below Gernsheim in Darmstadt) is named in a doc. of 1403. Chmels reg. Ruperti p. 204; the form Wodensberg would look more trustworthy.

                38. If numbers be an object, I fancy the English contribution might be swelled by looking- up in a gazetteer the names beginning with Wans-, Wens-, Wadden-, Weddin-, Wad-, Wood-, Wam-, Wem-, Wom-. Trans.

                39. Langebek script. tom 7.

                40 Sven Bring, monumenta Scanensia, vol 2, Lond. goth. 1748. 

                41. Olof Grau, beskrifning öfver Wästmanland. Wästeras 1754. conf. Dybeck runa I. 3, 41.

                42. There are some in Finn Magnusen's lex. myth. 648; but I do not agree with him in including the H. Germ. names Odenwald, Odenheim, which lack the HG. form Wuotan and the -s of the genitive; nor the Finn. Odenpä, which means rather bear's head.

                43. So in an AS. homily De temporibus Antichristi, in Wheloc's Beda p. 495, are enumerated 'Thor and Eoðwen, þe hæðene men heriað swiðe' ; and before that, 'Erculus se ent (Hercules gigas) and Apollinis (Apollo), þe hi mærne god lêton'. The preacher was thinking of the Greek and the Norse deities, not of the Saxon, or he would have said Thunor and Wôden. And in other cases, where distinctly Norse gods are meant, AS. writers use the Norse form of name. F. Magnusens lex. p. 919.

                44. When Oðinn is called Thundr in the songs of the Edda, Sæm. 28 47, this may be derived from a lost þynja = AS. þunian, tonare, and so be equivalent to Donar; it is true, they explain þundr as loricatus, from þund lorica. But Wuotan, as Vôma, is the noise of the rushing air, and we saw him hurl the cudgel, as Thôrr does the hammer.

                45. As Zeus also is tritoj from which Tritogeneia is more easily explained than by her birth from his head (see Suppl.).

                46. Ælfric's glosses 56, Altanus: Wôden. Altanus, like Summanus, an epithet of Jove, the Altissimus; else Altanus, as the name of a wind, might also have to do with the storm of the 'wütende heer'. 

                47. The Greek menoj would be well adapted to unite the meanings of courage, fury (mut, wut), wish, will, thought.

                48. According to this story, Oðinn was abroad a long time, during which his brothers act for him; it is worthy of note, that Saxo also makes Othin travel to foreign lands, and Mithothin fill his place, p. 13; this Mithothin's position throws light on that of Vili and Ve. But Saxo, p. 45, represents Othin as once more an exile, and puts Oller in his place (see Suppl.). The distant journeys of the god are implied in the Norse by-names Gângrâðr, Gângleri, Vegtamr, and Viðförull, and in Saxo 45 viator indefessus. It is not to be overlooked, that even Paulus Diac. 1, 9 knows of Wodan's residence in Greece (qui non circa haec tempora

of the war between Langobards and Vandals

sed longe anterius, nec in Germania, sed in Graecia fuisse perhibetur; while Saxo removes him to Byzantium, and Snorri to Tyrkland). In the passage in Paul. Diac.: 'Wodan sane, quem adjecta litera Gwodan dixerunt, ipse est qui apud Romanos Mercurius dicitur, et ab universis Germaniae gentibus ut deus adoratur, qui non circa haec tempora, sed longe anterius, nec in Germania, sed in Graecia fuisse perhibetur'

it has been proposed to refer the second 'qui' to Mercurius instead of Wodan (Ad. Schmidt zeitschr. 1, 264), and then the harmony of this account with Snorri and Saxo would disappear. But Paul is dealing with the absurdity of the Langobardic legend related in 1, 8, whose unhistoric basis he lays bare, by pointing out that Wodan at the time of the occurrence between the Wandali and Winili, had not ruled in Germany, but in Greece; which is the main point here. The notion that Mercury should be confined to Greece, has wider bearings, and would shock the heathen faith not only of the Germans but of the Romans. The heathen gods were supposed to be omnipresent, as may be seen by the mere fact that Woden-hills were admitted to exist in various spots all over the country; so that the community of this god to Germans, Greeks and Romans raised no difficulty.

                49. This Appendix forms part of the third volume. In the meanwhile readers may be glad to see for themselves the substance of these pedigrees, which I have extracted from the Appendix, and placed at the end of this chapter. Trans.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 131. ) The name of the highest god, whom the other gods serve as children their father (Sn. 23), often occurs in OHG., like Herrgott much later, as a man's name: Wotan, Schannat 312, Woatan 318, Wuotan 342. 386-9. Langobardic glosses have Odan and Godan, Hpt Ztschr. 1, 557; conf. Godán 5, 1. 2. In the Abren. we find Woden; perh. Wedan too is OS. (Suppl. to 154); on Wodan conf. Lisch Meckl. Jb. 20, 143. AS., beside Wôden, has Othan (Sup. to 5); Oðon, Sal. and Sat. 83; Eowðen (p. 161 n.). Nth Fris. Wede, Wedke, Müllenh. 167. Wedki taeri! Landesk. 4, 246. For Norse Oðinn, once Oddiner, conf. Munch on Odd's Ol. Tr. 94. Audon, Yngl. c. 7, Does Audun in Norw. docs. stand for Oðin? Oden in Östögtl. = hin onde, Almqvist 371a. In the Stockh. Adress-calender för 1842, p. 142, are actually two men named Odin. Rask, Afh. 1, 377-8, takes the Lett. Vidvut for the Vodan of the Vides (Lettons), while Vogt 1, 141 makes Widewud, Waidewud a Prussian king. With Vut in the Grisons, conf. Vuodan in the Valais, of whom M. C. Vulliemin relates in his La reine Berte et son temps, Laus. 1843, p. 3: 'Un jour on avait vu Wuodan descrendre le Rhône, telle était du moins la croyance populaire, l'épée nue dans une main, un globe d'or dans l'autre, et criant rigou haiouassou (fleuve soulève toi) ! et le fleuve s'élevant avait détruit une partie de la ville.' On my inquiring (through Troyon) if the name in the story was really Wuodan, the answer was distinctly Yes, and the town destroyed was Martigny. Carisch 182b has vutt idol, which some derive from vultus, voult, face, or portrait, others from votum; conf. magliavutts (Sup. to 35n.).

                p. 132. ) Wuotan from watan, like qeoj from qeein, Sansk. vâdanas, Schleicher in Kuhn's Ztschr. 4, 399. He stands closely conn. with weather, OHG. wetar, aër, aether, and wind (Sup. to 115); he is storm, byr, furia, wild hunter, uma, Ymir, Jumala, spirit; he is also called Ofnir, Vafuðr, Vafþrûðnir. But why in Sæm. 3b does Oðinn give önd, and Hoenir ôð, when surely Oðinn should give ôð? The Bav. wueteln is known to H. Sachs: das es aufwudlet grün in grün (of herbs) v. 377d. wudelt das kraut auf, v. 378c; conf. Wuotilgôz, Wôdelgeát, p. 367 n., and Wôden's relation to Geát, p. 164-5. We can put him on a par with Zeus, Indra, Loptr: ahr, on au tij onomaseie kai Dia, Meineke's Fragm. com. 4, 31. Æschylus in Eum. 650 says of Zeus: ta d alla pant anw te kai katw strefwn tiqhsin, ouden asqmainwn menei. Zeus merely touches, breathes upon Io, and she conceives Epaphos (the touched), Æsch. Prom. 849-851. ex epafhj kux epipnoiaj Dioj, Æsch. Suppl. 18. 45. efaptwr 312. qeiaij epipnoiaij pauetai 576. Ducange sub v. Altanus has a peculiar gl. Aelfrici: Altanus Voden, quae vox saxonice Wodanum seu Mercurium sonat (conf. p. 162 n.). In Wright 17b 'Altanus þoden,' otherw þoden is turbo; altanus auster is a wind. On Woldan see Hpt Ztschr. 5, 494.

                p. 132. ) With Otfried's gotewuoto conf. a Schlettst. gl. of the 9th century: 'sub tyranno, under themo godowôden.' Der wüeterîch, Servat. 2853. ein tobender w., Barl. 254, 21; conf. gwyth, p. 150 n. In the Eifel the wild host is called Wodes-heer, and a savage monster of a man Wuodes-woor, Schmitz 1, 233. In the Wetterau band of robbers was one Werner Wuttwuttwutt, Schwenker 574. Pfister 1, 157. 162.

                p. 133. ) It is not Svîðr, gen. Svinns, but Sviður ok Sviðrir, gen. Sviðurs, in Sæm. 46b. Sn. 3. 24. 195. -

Beside valfaðir, herfaðir (p. 817), Oðinn bears the names Herjann, Herteitr, Gunnarr, Lex. myth. 641a; conf. Herjans dîs, Sæm. 213b. fleygði O. ok î folk umskaut 5a. valr lâ þar â sandi vitinn enum eineygja Friggjar faðmbyggvi (ibi caesi in arena jacuere, dedicati unoculo qui Friggae amplexibus delectatur), Sn. 1848, 236.

                        Non humile obscurumve genus, non funera plebis

                        Pluto rapit vilesque animas, sed fata potentum

                        Implicat, et claris complet Phlegethonta figuris, Saxo Gram. 36.

The boar's head in the Alamann order of battle is expressly acknowledged by Agathias 2, 8 (Stälin 1, 160).

                p. 134. ) With Paul the Deacon's account conf. the older setting in the Prol. leg. Rotharis in Hpt Ztschr. 5, 1. There Wodan and Frea remind you altogether of Oðinn and Frigg in the Grîmnismâl. O. is called Sigr-höfundr, Egilss. 640, and his dwelling Sigtûnir, Yngl. 5. Sn. 15.

                p. 136. ) On name-giving, ON. nafn-festi, see GDS. 153-4. With Hliðsciâlf conf. Valaskiâlf, p. 817n. Does OHG. Bughenscelp belong here? Cod. Lauresh. no. 2597. The Gl. Sletst. 15, 7 have scelb fornice, also those in Hpt Ztschr. 5, 196. scelp fornix, Graff 6, 479. biscilbit in clida, Diut. 1, 342; and clida belongs to hlið, OHG. hlit, operculum. The Lex. myth. 434 explains Hliðskiâlf as porta coeli tremens.

                p. 136-7 n. ) God's chair means also the rainbow (p. 733); God's little chair, among the Lausitz Wends, the corpse-bird (p. 1134). The German märchen of the Tailor who climbs the Lord's chair, of iron-booted Ferdinand, of faithful John and strong Francis, who arrive at a heaven with many doors (conf. Wolf's Deut. mär. u. sagen no. 5, KM. no. 3, 35, Müllenh. mär. no. xii.), resemble the Greek notion of Zeus's throne and the several doors through which he attends to the prayers, vows and offerings of men, Lucian's Icaromenippus, c. 25-6.

                p. 138. ) Wunsch, wish, seems akin to Sansk. vângksh, vânch opto, desidero, Bopp Gl. 315a. Pott 1, 235, which Bopp thinks identical with Welsh gwanc, desire. Wish in Old Fr. is souhait (p. 951n.) and avel, pl. aviaux, *** souhait: wish; avel: whim; aviaux: whims ***Ren. 25131, 26828. plus bel lui nestuest souhaidier, *** better to him is not wished *** Ogier 1, 140. Wunsch is god of bliss and love, who wishes, wills and brings good to men. We still speak of God as the giver of all good, all gifts, Kl. Schr. 2, 327-9. Wünschen is to romance, exaggerate, imagine: sam ez gewünschet waere, Rab. 240. ob ieman wünschen solde, Nib. 281, 3. 780, 1. und der nu w. solde, Ecke 202 (Hagen). Also to wish into being, create, Wigal. 327. 887. 5772. so viel nur immer Gott Vater w. kann, Zingerle 2, 64. mit wunsch, by divine power, Tit. 347; and conversely verwünschen to annihilate. wünschen lernen, to learn conjuring, Müllenh. 395. 402. (Of wunsch as the Ideal, a page and a half of examples is here omitted.)

                p. 141. ) Wish personified appears most freq. in Hartmann, which is the more remarkable, as he got no prompting from his French original. The last line on p. 138:

                der Wunsch het in gemeistert sô, Greg. 1097. Er. 2740. only reminds us partially of a French poet, Thib. de N. 95:

                beneet soit le maistre

                qui tele la fist naistre; while Chrestien's Erec has nothing similar, either here, or in describing the horse (Hartm. Er. 7375), or the palace and twenty ladies (8213-77); and where Hartm. boasts of his Enite:

                man sagt daz nie kint gewan

                ein lîp sô gar dem Wunsche glîch, Er. 330, Chrestien's Erec 407 has merely:

                que tote i avoit mis s'entente

                nature, qui faite l'avoit (conf. vv. 415. 425). Presently, however, in his:

                ich waene Got sînen vlîz

                an si hâte geleit

                von schoene und von saelekeit, Er. 338, where Chrestian had said, v. 429:

                onques Dex ne sot faire miauz

                le nes, la bouche, ne les iauz, Hartm. draws nearer to his prototype again. His Wunsches gewalt often occurs in later writers:

                beschoenen mit Wunsches gewalte, Flore 6927.

                ir lîp aller wolgestalt

                gar in des Wunsches gewalt, Meleranz. 8768.

                Wunsches gewalt hân, Berth. 239. 240.

                hie Wunsches gewalt, hie liep âne leit

                in immerwerender sicherheit, Heinr. Suso in Die ewige weisheit. But the phrase becomes more and more impersonal:

                si hât an ir wunsch gewalt, Altsw. 98.

                an im lît der wunschgewalt, Dietr. drach. 41b.

                drîer wünsche gewalt, MS. 2, 145b (KM.-3- 3, 146-7).

                geben mit alles wunsches gewalt, Pass. 298, 1.

                aller wünsche gewalt, Uhl. volksl. 1, 21. conf. exousiaj tucein para tou Dioj aithsasqai otou epiqumei, Athen. 3, 24. (Another page and a half of examples is here omitted.)

                p. 143 n. ) Even Wolfram in Wh. 15, 7 has 'des Wunsches zil'; and des Wunsches paradîs actually occurs in Barl. 52, 8 and in the Rudolf. Vilmar p. 64.

                p. 143. ) Wish is the meting, moulding, casting, giving, creating (p. 22, 104n. 139), figuring, imaging, thinking, faculty, hence also imagination, idea, image, figure. There is about Wish something inward, uttered from within: der Wunsch tihtet, Troj. 3096, ûz tiefer sinne grunde erwünschet mit dem munde 2960. Apart from the passage in the Iliad, carij answers to wunsch, not only in Lucian's Pro Imag. c. 26 p. 52: komhn taij carisin apeikase, but, as God imparts wishing, it is said of Hermes: oj ra te pantwn anqrwpwn ergoisi carin kai kudoj opazei, Od. 15, 319. Beside des Wunsches aue and heilwâc, we have also a wunschsee and wunschbrunne, Pröhle's Unterharz. s., no. 345; a Wünschberg in Panzer's Beitr. 1, 116, Wenschenborch in Hpt Ztschr. 1, 258, Wunschilburg in Henricus Pauper 115, Wünschelburg a village near Glatz. 'Joannes Wunschelberg doctor vixit circa an. 1400,' Flacius cat. test. verit. 782, in Zarncke's Univ. Leipzig 764 an. 1427, 888 an. 1438. A Wünschmichelbach, Baader's Sagen no. 345; a Wünschensuhl near Marksuhl, Thuringia; a 'super Wünsche' and Wunscheidorf, Rauch 2, 198. 200.

                p. 143-4. ) Förstemann has no name Wunsc, Wunscio, which would mean wisher, adopter, but Karajan quotes Wensco and Sigiwunh (for Sigiwunsc, conf. Sigtýr), and Sigewnses-holz about Eichstadt (for Sigiwunsces-holz), MB. 31, 363, year 1080.

The Oskmeyjar are called nunnor Herjans, Oðins meyjar, Sn. 212a. Oskopnir might be connected with it and explained as 'stragem, campum electionis aperiens' from opna aperire, of which the Völs. saga c. 18 makes uskaptr. Beside the Wûscfreá of Deira, a later one is mentioned by Beda 138, 19. 153, 5.

                p. 145. ) As Wuotan sends wind and weather, and stills the stormy sea, it is said of the christian God: daz er uns alle tage dienet mit weter ioch mit wint, Diemer 89, 18. In Parzival, Feirefiz ascribes it to Juno that she daz weter fuocte, fitted 750, 5; dem Juno ie gap segels luft 757, 7; segelweter fuogte 767, 3. -

If yggr be terror, yggdrasill means the horse of dread, the storm-courser, perhaps the rushing god himself, as we know that Oðinn bears the surname Yggr, and is always figured as the rider in the air, the furious hunter. In that case Yggdrasils askr (Pref. li.) is the stormful god's ash. Oðinn is also Hrôptr, alte clamans, conf. OHG. hruoft, clamor, Graff 4, 1137: Hrôptr glaðr, Hpt Ztschr. 3, 154; Hrôptatýr, p. 196. And the surname Farma-týr, Farma-guð may not be out of place here, as deus vecturarum nauticarum, from farmr, onus nauticum. Mefîngr, Sæm. 272a is perh. conn. with mafr, seamew. Other by-names are Fengr, Sæm. 184a. Völs. saga c. 17, p. 157; Svâfnir, Sæm. 93a; Fiölnir, Sæm. 10a. 46b. 184a. Völs. saga c. 17, p. 157 and conf. 136. 193. 200. 323. He is 'inn reginkunngi baldur î brynjo,' Sæm. 272b.

                p. 145. ) Similar expressions for dying are: AS. Dryhten sêcean, Beow. 373. ON. kenna einom âttûnga brautir til Oðins landa, Sæm. 80b. far till Oden, Geyer 1, 123; conf. gefa Oðni, Landn. 5, 10. The miser collecting treasures is said in Sweden to tjena Oden, Geyer 1, 123. Kl. schr. 3, 197.

                p. 145n. ) The conception of Oðinn as an evil being is clear in the ON. 'hvaða Oðins lâtum?' quid hoc mali est? shortened to 'hvaða lâtum,' quid hoc rei est? Wormius mon. dan. p. 11; lât is amissio, mors; conf. our 'was des teufels?' Fornm. sög. 3, 179 has 'ôfögnuðr sendr af Oðni,' mischief sent from O.; Oðinndœll 11, 151 periculosus, insociabilis, difficilis, is interpr. 'illr viðfângs' 12, 430; Oðinndœla 6, 374 periculum, infortunium, interpr. 'vandraeði, vandamâl, naudsyn' 12, 430. Dæll itself is mansuetus, affabilis.

                p. 147. ) Oðin's outward appearance is alluded to in many other places; hinn eineygji Friggjar faðm-byggvir, Sn. 1848 p. 236. He is Hengikiaptr, labeo, cui pendet maxilla, Sn. 146 (p. 1075 n.); Harbarðr, Flaxbeard, from hör, linum; to Sigurðr appears the Longbeard, and helps him to choose Grani, Völs. c. 13. GDS. 688-9. To Saxo's 'Othinus os pileo obnubens' answers his surname Grîmnir larvatus, from grîma. As 'Grîmnir' he shows himself to men in the guise of a beggar to try them, e.g. to Geirröðr; as 'Gestr blindi' to Heiðrekr, as 'Gângrâðr' to Vafþrûðnir. Compare the German märchen of the old Beggar woman, KM. 150, whose clothes begin to burn, as Grîmni's did. In the case of Heiðrekr, Gestr guesses riddles for another, as the miller or shepherd does for the abbot, Schmidt 85-9. Again Oðinn appears as the one-eyed bôndi Hrani, and bestows gifts, Hrolf Kr. saga c. 39. 46 (Fornald. s. 1, 77. 94). The Fornm. s. 5, 171-2 says: 'hann var stuttklaeddr, ok hafði sîdan hatt niðr fyrir andlitit, ok sâ ôgerla âsjonu hans; skeggjaðr var hann;' conf. the blind (one-eyed?) Hatt, Sv. äfventyr 1, 363. GDS. 578. Swed. legend gives Oðinn a pointed hat, uddehatt, which agrees with the peculiar shape of certain tombstones, wedge-shaped, like a man-trap. But he is called hauga-drôttin, Vitterh. acad. handl. 14, 73. Now uddehatt is usu. a dwarf's hood or cape of darkness; hence also he appears as 'lord of dwarfs.' At the same time the hat is a wishing hat and Mercury's hat. He appears as an old man, or as a hunter on high horse with three hounds which he gives away to a youth; and a Småland story expressly names him Oden, Sv. folkv. 1, 212. Gammal gråman gives advice, but may not stay beyond cock crow, Arvidsson, 3, 3. Similar is the one-eyed witch, Norske event. 141-2. --

In Germany too we can now find many traces of this divine apparition. A Graymantle, a Broadhat often turns up in nursery tales, see Haltrich p. 10. 39. 44; an old man fetches the children, p. 4. He appears as Old One-eye 45. 55, as Stone-goat 44, Wild-cat 63. God comes in the guise of an old beggar, stands godfather, and gives gifts, KM. no. 26; or as a grey-bearded mannikin, Frommann's Munda. 4, 328; conf. the old beggar woman, KM. no. 150; as One-eyed Flap-hat, Alsatia 1856 p. 131. A grey smith heals, Hpt Ztschr. 1, 103. In St. Martin's cloak and hood Simrock sees Wuotan's wishing cloak, Martinsl. xvii.

p. 147. ) When Oðinn hurled the spear, then, says the Völuspâ, was the first war in the world. He is geira drôttinn, Egilss. 639. geiri undaðr oc gefinn Oðni, Sæm. 27b. marka sik Oðni, p. 1077. Under Otto III. a man in a dream, after taking a pious vow, was transfixed by two lances of the martyrs Crispin and Crispinian, Pertz 5, 787. The giant Oden in Sv. äfvent. 453 (some versions omit the name) possesses costly things, as the god does his spear. Out of such notions sprang the OHG. names Kêrans, Folchans, Hpt Ztschr. 7, 529. Is this spear more like Apollo's destructive dart, or the sceptre of Zeus (p. 680)? Is the name of the Lombard royal line of Gunginge conn. with Gûngnir? GDS. 687-8.

                p. 148 n. ) In Herod. 4, 15 Aristeas is called Apollo's raven, i.e. priest, as Porphyry tells us the Magians called the priests of the Sun-god ravens. Three ravens fly with St. Benedict, Paul. Diac. 1, 26. In Goethe's Faust 12, 127 the witch asks Mephistopheles: But where are your two ravens? -

Doves sit on Gold Mariken's shoulders, Müllenh. 403. A dove sits on the head and shoulder of a boy at Trier, Greg. Tur. 10, 29; one perches three times on the head of St. Severus, Myst. 1, 226-7, another settles on St. Gregory's shoulder 1, 104.

                p. 148. ) Flugu hrafnar tveir of Hnikars öxlum, Huginn til hauga, enn â hrae Muninn, Sn. 322. The ravens daily sent out return at dögurðarmâli 42; conf. F. Magnusen's Dagens tider p. 42. fara Viðris grey valgiörn um ey, Sæm. 154a. hrafnar tveir flugu með þeim alla leið, Nialss. 80. On Odens foglar, Odens svalar, see Sup. to 159.

                p. 148. ) Oðin-Neptunus resembles both Poseidon and Zeus, who rise out of the sea as bulls. Oðinn shows himself to Olaf as a boatman, nökkva maðr, Fornm. s. 2, 180; and, as the man in the boat, fetches Sinfiötli's body, Völs. c. 10. Like him are the divine steersman in the Andreas (Pref. xxiv. xxv.), and the thirteenth man who steers the twelve Frisians, who has the axe on his shoulder, throws it at a well-spring, and teaches them justice, Richth. 439. 440. Yet we also come upon Oðinn Hnikar as a karl af biargi, Sæm. 183-4.

                p. 149. ) Byr, Burr is Oðin's father, p. 348-9. gefr hann (O.) byri brögnom, Sæm. 113b. A fair wind, ON. ôska-byrr, is in the Swed. rhyming chron. önsko bör. Even the German may very likely have had a wunsch-bür as well as wunsch-wint, for we find in Pass. 379, 19: in kam von winde ein ebene bür, die in die segele dâ sluoc. 201, 29: dô quam ein alsô gelîche bür. 380, 78: daz in wart ein guote bür. On the other hand: sô er den wint ze wunsche hât, Er. 7795. wunsches weter, Urstende 125, 85. Got schuof im sanften süezen wint, Ernst 5, 238 (Sup. to 145). The himmlische kind makes guten wind, Osw. 960-5. 1220; but also the storm wind 1137. 2731. To the Greeks it was Zeus espec. that sent a fair wind: Dioj ouroj, Od. 15, 297. Zeuj ouron iallen 15, 475. Zeuj euanemoj, Paus. iii. 13, 5. Also a Ermhj aerioj is named 'inter deos qui ad pluviam eliciendam a mago advocantur,' Cass. Dio. 71, 19; and Hermes or Theuth was the Egyptians' rain-god 71, 8 (Sup. to 175).

                p. 150. ) With the AS. dialogue between Sat. and Sal., conf. Kemble's Salomon p. 323: Mercurius gigas. In Altd. Bl. 2, 190 the other dialogue is entitled 'Adrian and Ritheus,' and contains the words: 'saga me, hwâ wrât bôcstafas aerest? ic þe secge, Mercurius se gigant.' In Småland there rides a man resembling Oðinn, with fiery breath, and a rune staff in his mouth, Hpt Ztschr. 4, 509. -

Theuth not only invented letters, but dice: petteiaj, kubeiaj as well as grammata, Plato's Phædr. 274. And Oðinn is not only the finder of runes, but lord of dice-throwing. An ON. dicer's prayer is (Sup. to 1234): at þû Fiölnir falla lâtir, þat er ek kasta kann! F. Magn. lex. myth. 646 (Fiölnir = Oðinn, Sup. to 145). And there was a proverb: þû ert ecki einn î leik, ef Oðinn styðr þik. On the Devil as dicer, conf. p. 1007. Players invoked Thôrr and Oðinn, Frigg and Freyja together with Enoch and Elias, Christ and Mary, F. Magn. lex. myth. 646.

                p. 150 n. ) On Gwydion and Don see Villemarqué's Bardes bretons 388. The milky way was also called 'Arian rod merch Don,' Davie's Mythol. 205. Leo in Hpt Ztschr. 3, 224 derives Gwydion from gwyd, mens, menoj (p. 162n.), like Oðinn from ON ôðr, mens. The Irish dia Geden, Gael. di ciadain, ciadaoin may indeed be expl. as ceud aoine, first fast; but see O'Brien 168a.

                The sentence in the Prol. legis Salicæ: 'Mercurius Trismegistus primus leges Ægyptiis tradidit,' comes from Isid. orig. 5, 3. Tervagan, Tervigant may have to do with Trebeta, Gesta Trev. (Pertz 10, 131).

                p. 154. ) On Wodenes-berg, -husen, -wege conf. Förstem. 2, 1566. in Wodeneswego Pertz 8, 604; de Wodeneswege 8, 676. Vudenesvege, Lisch, Örzen 2b, 161; Gudenswege, 2b, 136. Again, Wodonesberg, Lacomb. 1, no. 97. 117. Witanes-berc (Wuotanes?), Cod. dipl. Juvav. 95 (an. 861). Mons Mercurii, Fredegar c. 55. Then, Wôdensbeorg, Kemble 5, 78. 137. Woddanbeorg 3, 457. Wônhlinc 3, 415. 5, 112. 291. Wôncumb 5, 78. 137. Wôdnesdene 5, 238. Wôdnesdîc 3, 403. 413. 452-5-6. 460-4-6. 5, 215. 238. Wônlond 5, 235. 6, 355. Wôddes geat 5, 78. 137. Wônstoc 3, 227 (Kl. Schr. 2, 57). Wônâc, quercus Jovis 3, 458. Wôn-alre (-alder) 4, 459. But how are Wonred, Wonreding, Beow. 5925-38 to be explained? OS. Wetanspeckia for Wêdanesspeckia (-bridge, wooden bridge), Lünzel 12. 53. Nth Fris. Wedes-hoog, Wens-hog, Winis-hog, Müllenh. 167. Other names in Nordalb. stud. 1, 138. Weadanask, Jb. f. Schlesw. –holst. landesk. 4, 248. Wonsfleth in Holstein, OS. Wôdenstorp, now Wunstorf (Kl. schr. 2, 58), can acc. to Förstem. 2, 1578 be traced back to Wungeresdorf. Wuninsdorp, Cæs. Heisterb. 9, 18. Wôtenes-hûsen, Trad. Fuld. Dronke 38, 221. Cod. Fuld. no. 610 p. 274, now Gutmanns-hausen (Dronke 237a). A Wons-husen in Weimar, and one near Nidda, Landau's Wetterau 218. Wonsaz, Bamb. verein 10, 108. A Wonsees between Baireut and Bamberg; yet conf. 'in der wonsass,' MB. 27, 141, and wonsassen, Schm. 4, 80. Kl. schr. 2, 58. A Sigeboto de Wuonten-geseze (Wuotanes?) in MB. 11, 167. About the Fichtelgebirge lie also Wunsiedel (Wotanes-sedal?), Wonsgehai, Wonsgehäu, Wondsgehäu, Wohnsgehaig, a village on the Neunberg by Mistelgau, Baireut, Panzer's Beitr. 2, 101. 'flumen quod vulgo Wotinprunno dicitur,' Sinnacher, 2, 635. Watan-brunnon, Lacomblet 1, no. 103.

                p. 154. ) Oðinn is a rider; hence called Atriði, he who rides up? (as Thôrr is Hlôrriði, p. 167 n.); conf. also Yggdrasils askr and the story of the World-tree, p. 960. The Hervarar-saga (Fornald. s. 1, 486) has a riddle on Oðinn and Sleipnir. On a rune-stone in Gothland is supposed to be carved 'Oden and his eight-legged Sleipnir,' Dybeck 1845, 91. The horse is often mentioned with him: 'om Oden och hans häster' they say in Upland and Gothland; in Småland they speak of 'Odens stall och krubba,' Rääf; conf. the 'hunter on high horse,' Sup. to 147. A horse with six legs in Haltrich 35-6; with eight 49; an eight-legged talking sun-steed 101.

                p. 155 n. ) 'Odinus pascit equos suos in follem inclusus,' Pâll Vidalin 610; conf. 'i bâlg binda,' Vestg. lag. p.m. 48. veit ec at ec hêck vindga meiði â naetur allar nîo, geiri undaðr ok gefinn Oðni sialfr sialfum mer, Sæm. 27b (see note on KM. no. 146). Charles also splits a stone before the battle, Wächter's Heidn. denkm. 42-3; conf. the story of the Swedish general 45, and that of Hoier, Benecke's Wigal. 452. In Irish legend too the divine hero Fin Barre has his horse shod by a mortal smith, and juggles the fourth leg in, Ir. sagen 2, 85; conf. Kl. schr. 2, 450.

                p. 157. ) In the district of Beilngries, Bavaria, the bunch of ears is left for the Waudl-gaul, and beer, milk and bread for the Waudl-hunde, who come the third night and eat it up. If you leave nothing, the beaver (bilmer-schnitt) will pass through your fields. In the last cent. they still kept up a harvest-feast called Waudls-mähe, setting out fodder for the black steeds of Waude, while they drank and sang:

 

                        O heilige sanct Mäha,

                        beschere übers jahr meha,

                        so viel köppla, so viel schöckla,

                        so viel ährla, so viel tausend gute gährla. If the reapers forgot, they were told: 'Seids net so geizig, und lasst dem heilgen S. Mäha auch was steha, und macht ihm sein städala voll;' conf. the less complete account of Panzer's Beitr. 2, 216-7. Three stalks are left for Oswald, three ears tied three times with flowers, viz. the cornflower (centaurea, blue), the blotze (red poppy, papaver rhœas), and camomile. The red poppy is also called Miedel-magn (Mary's mohn), Panzer 2, 214-5-6. Schm. 2, 555. 608; in Swabia, Her-got's kitele or mäntele. The Russians leave a sheaf standing for Volos (Veles), 'toward Volos's beard (borod).'

                p. 159. ) Oðins-ve occurs (988) in 'episcopatus Othenes-wigensis,' Lappenb. Hamb. urk. no. 5. On-sjö, Oden-sjö in Skåne, Röstanga-socken, lies over a submerged castle named Odinsgård (see the story in Sup. to 946), Dybeck's Runa 1844, 32-3. In Ons-källa were washed to old men that threw themselves down the cliff, Geyer 1, 115. Onsänger in Småland. Odens-brunn in Upland, Wendel-socken, Dyb. Runa 1844, 90. With Wôden worhte weos, conf. Woldan hewing his church-door, Wolf's Ztschr. 1, 69. Oðinn, unlike Thôrr, hardly ever occurs in names of men: Rääf 235-7 gives Odhankarl, Odhinkarl.

                p. 159. ) On the plant-name Woden-tungel, -star, see K. Schiller's Ndrd. pflanzenn. 32; conf. Ermou baij, Mercurii surculus, filix, and Ermou botanion, herba mercurialis, Diosc. 4, 183-8. --

Several birds were sacred to Oðinn: 'korpar, kråkar, skatar bör man icke skjuta, emedan de äro Odens foglar, dem han vid Olofsmässan har hos sig i åtta dagar, då han plocker och tager en stor del af dem. Ardea nigra, en temligen stor fogel af häger-slägtet, kallas Odens svala,' Rääf; see Sup. to p. 148.

                p. 160. ) Wœns-let suggests ûlf-liðr, p. 207. Kl. schr. 2, 58. Who off a thief has cut the thumbs, To him good luck in throwing comes, Garg. 192a. Do they say anywhere in Scandinavia Odensfinger, Onsfinger? Acc. to F. Magn. lex. myth. 639 the lungs were sacred to Oðinn and Mercury; conf. the Tables of Blood-letting.

                p. 162. ) Oðinn, Thôrr, Freyr in Snorri's Edda 131 answers to Oðinn, Asabragr, Freyr in Sæm. 85b; and invocations in Swed. folk-songs give him the first place; 'hjälp mig Othin, thu kan bäst! hjälp me Ulf och Asmer Gry!' Arvidss. 1, 69. The same in Danish: 'hielp mig Othin, du kan best! hielp mig Ulf og Asmer Grib!' Syv 48. Asmer Gri = Asa-grim; conf. 'hielp nu Oden Asagrim!' Arvidss. 1, 11.

                p. 162 n. ) On Zeus tritoj and Tritogeneia, conf. Welcker's Trilogie 101-2. At banquets the third goblet was drunk to Zeus: to triton tw Swthri, Passow s.v. swthr. Athena trith, Babr. 59, 1.

                p. 162. ) Oðinn = Hâr, Sæm. 46a; = Iafnhâr 46b; = Þriði 46a. But where do we find Tveggi outside of F. Magn. lex. myth. 644? conf. Egilss. 610, where we can scarcely read Thriggi for Tveggi. On the Sansk. Ekatas, Dvitas, Tritas see Kuhn in Höfer 1, 279. 281-9. Zend. Thraetaono, Thrita, Spiegel's Zendav. 7. 66. Thraetaono = Feridun, = the three-quivered, says Leo 3, 192-5 (1st ed.).

                p. 163. ) ON. Vili (weak decl., gen. Vilja) would be Goth. Vilja, OHG. Willo. The strong gen. in 'brôðr Vilis,' Egilss. 610 is evid. a slip for Vilja, though we do find the strong nom. Vilir in Yngl. saga c. 3. May we conn. Vili with the Finn. veli, Lap välja, Alban. bela, frater? GDS. 271.

                p. 163n. ) Munch 1, 217 thinks Mithothin arose from misunderstanding metod; to me it is plainly Fellow-Othin, like our mit-regent, etc. Saxo's Ollerus is the Eddic Ullr, as is clear from his using a bone for a ship, Saxo p. 46. Yet Ullr seems a jumble of Saxo's Ollerus and Snorro's Vilir, Yngl. c. 3 (Kl. schr. 5, 425): skip Ullar, Sn. Hafn. 420 = skiöldr; askr Ullar 426. Ydalir, his hall, Sæm. 40b. Uller sagr, F. Magn. lex. 766. Ullar hylli, Sæm. 45b; hrîngr U. 248a; U. sefi = Baldr 93a. Ullr is Thôr's stepson, Sn. 31. 101-5; boga-, veiði-, öndr-, skialdar-âs 105.

                p. 165. ) I might have spoken here of Oðin's relation to his wife Frigg, p. 299, and to Skaði, whom the Yngl. saga c. 9 calls his wife.

 

 

CHAPTER VIII.

DONAR, THUNAR, (THORR)

 

 

 

The god who rules over clouds and rain, who makes himself known in the lightning's flash and the rolling thunder, whose bolt cleaves the sky and alights on the earth with deadly aim, was designated in our ancient speech by the word Donar itself, OS. Thunar, AS. Thunor, ON. Thôrr. (1) The natural phenomenon is called in ON. þruma, or duna, both fem. like the GOthic þeihvô, which was perhaps adopted from a Finnic language. To the god the Goths would, I suppose, give the name Thunrs. The Swed. tordön, Dan. torden (tonitru), which in Harpestreng still keeps the form thordyn, thordun, is compounded of the god's name and that same duna, ON. Thôrduna? (see Suppl.) In exactly the same way the Swed. term åsikkia, (2) has arisen out of âsaka, the god's waggon or driving, from âs, deus, divus, and aka, vehere, vehi, Swed. åka. In Gothland they say for thunder Thorsåkan, Thor's driving; and the ON. reið signifies not only vehiculum, but tonitru, and reiðarslag, reiðarþruma, are thunderclap and lightning. For, a waggon rumbling over a vaulted space comes as near as possible to the rattling and crashing of thunder. The comparison is so natural, that we find it spread among many nations: dokei ochma tou Dioj h bponth einai, Hesychius sub. v. elasibponta. In Carniola the rolling of thunder is to this day gottes fahren. [To the Russian peasant it is the prophet Iliâ driving his chariot, or else grinding his corn.] Thôrr in the Edda, beside his appellation of Asaþôrr, is more minutely described by Ökuþôrr, i.e. Waggon-thôrr (sn. 25); his waggon is drawn by two he-goats (Sn. 26). Other gods have their waggons too, especially Oðinn and Freyr (see pp. 107, 151), but Thôrr is distinctively thought of as the god who drives; he never appears riding, like Oðinn, nor is he supposed to own a horse: either he drives, or he walks on foot. We are expressly told: 'Thôrr gengr til dômsins, ok veðr âr,' walks to judgment, and wades the rivers (Sn. 18). (3) The people in Sweden still say, when it thunders: godgubben åkar, goffar kör, the gaffer, good father, drives (see Suppl.). They no longer liked to utter the god's real name, or they wished to extol his fatherly goodness (v. supra, p. 21, the old god, Dan. vor gamle fader). The Norwegian calls the lightning Thorsvarme, -warmth, Faye p. 6.

Thunder, lightning and rain, above all other natural phenomena, proceed directly from God, are looked upon as his doing, his business (see Suppl.). (4) When a great noise and racket is kept up, a common expression is: you could not hear the Lord thunder for the uproar; in France:

le bruit est si fort, qu'on n'entend pas Dieu tonner.

As early as the Roman de Renart 11898:

Font une noise si grant

quen ni oist pas Dieu tonant.

29143: Et commenca un duel si grant,

que len ni oist Dieu tonant.

Ogier 10915:

Lor poins deterdent, lor paumes vont batant,

ni oissiez nis ame Dieu tomant.

Garin 2, 38:

Nes Dieu tomnant in possiez oir.

And in the Roman de Maugis (Lyon 1599, p. 64):

De la noyse quils faisoyent neust lon pas ouy Dieu tonner.

But thunder is especially ascribed to an angry and avenging god; and in this attribute of anger and punishment again Donar resembles Wuotan (pp. 18, 142). In a thunderstorm the people say to their children: the gracious God is angry; in Westphalia: use hergot kift (chides, Strodtm. osnabr. 104); in Franconia: God is out there scolding; in Bavaria: der himmeltatl (-daddy) greint (Schm. 1, 462). In Eckstrom's poem in honour of the county of Honstein 1592, cii, it is said:

Gott der herr muss warlich from sein (must be really kind),

dass er nicht mit donner schlegt drein. (5)

The same sentiment appears among the Letton and Finn nations. Lettic: wezzajs kahjâs, wezzajs tehws barrahs (the old father has started to his feet, he chides), Stender lett. gramm. 150. With dievas (god) and dievaitis (godkin, dear god) the Lithuanians associate chiefly the idea of the thunderer: dievaitis grauja! dievaitis ji numusse. Esthonian: wanna issa hüab, wanna essä wäljan, mürrisep (the old father growls), Rosenplänters beitr. 8, 116. 'The Lord scolds,' 'heaven wages war,' Joh. Christ. Petris Ehstland 2, 108 (see Suppl.).

Now with this Donar of the Germani fits in significantly the Gallic Taranis whose name is handed down to us in Lucan 1, 440; all the Celtic tongues retain the word taran for thunder, Irish toran, with which one may directly connect the ON. form Thôrr, if one thinks an assimilation from rn the more likely. But an old inscription gives us also Tanarus (Forcellini sub v.) = Taranis. The Irish name for Thursday, dia Tordain (dia ordain, diardaoin) was perhaps borrowed from a Teutonic one (see Suppl.).

So in the Latin Jupiter (literally, God father, Diespiter) there predominates the idea of the thunderer; in the poets Tonans is equivalent to Jupiter (e.g., Martial vi. 10, 9. 13, 7. Ovid Heroid. 9, 7. Fasti 2, 69. Metam. 1, 170. Claudian's Stilicho 2, 439); and Latin poets of the Mid. Ages are not at all unwilling to apply the name to the christian God (e.g., Dracontius de deo 1,1. satisfact. 149. Ven. Fortunat. p. 212-9. 258). And expressions in the lingua vulgaris coincide ith this: celui qui fait toner, qui fait courre la nue (p. 23-4). An inscription, Jovi tonanti, in Gruter 21, 6. The Greek Zeus who sends thunder and lighting (keraunoj) is styled kerauneioj. Zeuj ektupe, Il. 8, 75. 170. 17, 595. Dioj ktupoj, Il. 15, 379. (6) And because he sends them down from the height of heaven, he also bears the name akrioj, and is pictured dwelling on the mountain-top (akrij). Zeus is enthroned on Olympus, on Athos, Lycaeus, Casius, and other mountains of Greece and Asia Minor.

And here I must lay stress on the fact, that the thundering god is conceived as emphatically a fatherly one, as Jupiter and Diespiter, as far and tatl. For it is in close connexion with this, that the mountains sacred to him also received in many parts such names as Etzel, Altvater, Grossvater. (7) Thôrr himself was likewise called Atli, i.e. grandfather.

A high mountain, along which, from the earliest times, the main road to Italy has lain, in the chain between the Graian and Pennine Alps, what we now call the St. Bernard, was in the early Mid. Ages named mons Jovis. This name occurs frequently in the Frankish annals (Pertz 1, 150. 295. 453. 498. 512. 570. 606. 2, 82), in Otto fris. de gest. Frid. 2, 24, in Radevicus 1, 25, who designates it via Julii Caesaris, modo mons Jovis; in AS. writers munt Jofes (Lye sub. v.), in Ælfr. Boët. p. 150 muntgiow; in our Kaiserchronik 88 monte job.

The name and the worship carry us back to the time of the Romans; the inhabitants of the Alps worshipped a Peninus deus, or a Penina dea: Neque montibus his ab transitu Poenorum ullo Veragri, incolae jugi ejus norunt nomen inditum, sed ab eo (al. deo) quem in summo sacratum vertice peninum montani adpellant; Livy 31, 38. Quamvis legatur a poenina dea quae ibi colitur Alpes ipsas vocari; Servius on Virg. Aen. 10, 13. An inscription found on the St Bernard (Jac. Spon miscellanea antiq. Lugd. 1685, p. 85) says expressly: Lucius Lucilius deo Penino opt. max. donum dedit; from which it follows, that this god was understood to be no other than Jupiter. Conf. Jupiter apenninus, Micali storia 131-5. Zeuj kapaioj occurs in Hesych. [kara means head, and so does the Celtic pen, ben]. The classic writers never use mons Jovis, and the tabula Antonini names only the summus Penninus and the Penni lucus; but between the 4th and 7th centuries Jovis mons seems to have taken the place of these, perhaps with reference [not so much to the old Roman, as] to the Gallic or even German sense which had then come to be attached to the god's name. Remember that German îsarnodori on the Jura mountains not far off (p. 80). (8)

Such names of mountains in Germany itself we may with perfect safety ascribe to the worship of the native deity. Every one knows the Donnersberg (mont Tonnerre) in the Rhine palatinate on the borders of the old country of Falkenstein, between Worms, Kaiserslautern and Kreuznach; it stands as Thoneresberg in a doc. of 869, Schannat hist. wormat. probat. p. 9. Another Thuneresberg situate on the Diemel, in Westphalia, not far from Warburg, and surrounded by the villages of Wormeln, Germete and Welda, is first mentioned in a doc. of 1100, Schaten mon. paderb. 1, 649; in the Mid. Ages it was still the seat of a great popular assize, originally due, no doubt, to the sacredness of the spot: 'comes ad Thuneresberhc' (anno 1123), Wigands feme 222. comitia de Dunrisberg (1105), Wigands arch. I. 1, 56. a judicio nostro Thonresberch (1239), ib. 58. Precisely in the vicinity of this mountain stands the holy oak mentioned on p. 72-4, just as the robur Jovis by Geismar in Hesse is near a Wuotansberg, p. 152. To all appearance the two deities could be worshipped close to one another. The Knüllgebirge in Hesse includes a Donnerkaute. In the Bernerland is a Donnerbühel (doc. of 1303, Joh. Müller 1, 619), called Tonrbül in Justingers Berner chron. p. 50. Probably more Donnersbergs are to be found in other parts of Germany. One in the Regensburg country is given in a doc. of 882 under the name of Tuniesberg, Ried, cod. dipl. num. 60. A sifridus marschalcus de Donnersperch is named in a doc. of 1300, MB. 33, pars 1, p. 289; an Otto de Donersperg, MB. 4, 94 (in 1194), but Duonesberc, 4, 528 (in 1153), and Tunniesberg 11, 432. In the Thüringer wald, between Steinbach and Oberhof, at the 'rennsteig' is a Donershauk (see Suppl.).

A Donares eih, a robur Jovis, was a tree specially sacred to the god of lightning, and of these there grew an endless abundance in the German forests.

Neither does Scandinavia lack mountains and rocks bearing the name of Thôrr: Thors klint in East Gothland (conf. Wildegren's Östergötland 1, 17); Thorsborg in Gothland, Molbech tidskr. 4, 189. From Norway, where this god was pre-eminently honoured, I have nevertheless heard of none. The peasant in Vermland calls the south-west corner of the sky, whence the summer tempests mostly rise, Thorshåla (-hole, cave, Geijer's Svearikes häfder 1, 268).

And the Thunder-mountains of the Slavs are not to be overlooked. Near Milleschau in Bohemia stands a Hromolan, from hrom, thunder, in other dialects grom. One of the steepest mountains in the Styrian Alps (see Suppl.) is Grimming, i.e., Sl. germnik, OSl. gr''mnik, thunder-hill (Sloven. gr'mi, it thunders. Serv. grmi, Russ. grom gremit, quasi bromoj bremei); and not far from it is a rivulet named Donnersbach. (9) The Slavs then have two different words to express the phenomenon and the god: the latter is in OSl. Perûn, Pol. Piorun, Boh. Peraun; (10) among the Southern Slavs it seems to have died out at an earlier time, though it is still found in derivatives and names of places. Dobrowsky (inst. 289) traces the word to the verb peru, ferio, quatio [general meaning rather pello, to push], and this tolerably apt signification may have contributed to twist the word out of its genuine form. (11) I think it has dropt a k: the Lithuanian, Lettish and OPrussian thundergod is Perkunas, Pehrkons, Perkunos, and a great many names of places are compounded with it. Lith., Perkunas grauja (P. thunders), Perkunas musza (P. strikes, ferit); Lett., Pehrkons sperr (the lightning strikes, see Suppl.). The Slav. perun is now seldom applied personally, it is used chiefly of the lightning's flash. Procopius (de Bello Goth. 3, 14) says of the Sclaveni and Antes: qeon men gar ena ton thj a s t p r a o h j dhmiourgon apantwn kurion monon auton nomizousin einai, kai quousin autw boaj te kai iereia opanta. Again, the oak was consecrated to Perun, and old documents define boundaries by it (do perunova duba, as far as P.'s oak); and the Romans called the acorn juglans, i.e., joviglans, Jovis glans, the fruit of the fatherly god. Lightning is supposed to strike oaks by preference (see Suppl.).

Now Perkun suggests that thundergod of the Morduins, Porguini (p. 27), and, what is more worthy of note, a Gothic word also, which (I grant), as used by Ulphilas, was already stript of all personification. The neut. noun faírguni (Gramm. 2, 175. 453) means oroj, mountain. (12) What if it were once especially the Thunder-mountain, and a lost Faírguns the name of the god (see Suppl.)? Or, starting with faírguni with its simple meaning of mons unaltered, may we not put into that masc. Faírguns or Faírguneis, and consequently into Perkunas, the sense of the above mentioned akrioj, he of the mountain top? a fitting surname for the thundergod. Fergunna, ending like Patunna, p. 71, signifies in the Chron. moissiac. anno 805 (Pertz 1, 308) not any particular spot, but the metal-mountains (erzgebirge); and Virgunnia (Virgundia, Virgunda, conf. Zeuss p. 10) the tract of wooded mountains between Ansbach and Ellwangen. Wolfram, Wh. 390, 2, says of his walt-swenden (wood-wasting?): der Swarzwalt und Virgunt müesen dâ von œde ligen, Black Forest and V. must lie waste thereby. In the compounds, without which it would have perished altogether, the OHG. virgun, AS firgen may either bear the simple sense of mountainous, woody, or conceal the name of a god.

Be that as it may, we find faírguni, virgun, firgen connected with divinely-honoured beings, as appears plainly from the ON. Fiörgyn, gen. Fiörgynjar, which in the Edda means Thôr's mother, the goddess Earth: Thôrr Jarðar burr, Sæm. 70 68. Oðins son, Sæm. 73 74. And beside her, a male Fiörgynn, gen. Fiörgyns, Fiörgvins, appears as the father of Oðin's wife Frigg, Sn. 10, 118. Sæm. 63. In all these words we must take faírg, firg, fiörg as the root, and not divide them as faír-guni, fir-gun, fiör-gyn. Now it is true that all the Anzeis, all the Aesir are enthroned on mountains (p. 25), and Firgun might have been used of more than one of them; but that we have a right to claim it specially for Donar and his mother, is shewn by Perun, Perkun, and will be confirmed presently by the meaning of mount and rock which lies in the word hamar. As Zeus is called enakrioj, so is his daughter Pallas akria, and his mother Ga, mater autou Dioj (Sophocl. Philoct. 389); the myth transfers from him to his mother and daughter. Of Donar's mother our very märchen have things to tell (Pentam. 5, 4); and beyond a doubt, the stories of the devil and his bath and his grandmother are but a vulgarization of heathen notions about the thundergod. Lasicz 47 tells us: Percuna tete mater est fulminis atque tonitrui quae solem fessum ac pulverolentum balneo excipit, deinde lotum et mitidum postera die emittit. It is just matertera, and not the mater, that is meant by teta elsewhere.

Christian mythology among the Slav and certain Asiatic nations has handed over the thunderer's business to the prophet Elijah, who drives to heaven in the tempest, whom a chariot and horse of fire receive, 2 Kings 2, 1l. In the Servian songs 2, 1. 2, 2 he is expressly called gromovnik Iliya (13) lightning and thunder (munya and grom) are given into his hand, and to sinful men he shuts up the clouds of heaven, so that they let no rain fall on the earth (see Suppl.). This last agrees with the O.T. too, 1 Kings 17, 1. 18, 41-5, conf. Lu. 4, 25, Jam. 5, 17; and the same view is taken in the OHG. poem, O. iii. 12, 13:

Quedent sum giwâro, Helias sîs ther mâro,

ther thiz lant sô tharta, then himil sô bisparta,

ther iu ni liaz in nôtin regonon then liutin,

thuangta si giwâro harto filu suâro. (14)

But what we have to note especially is, that in the story of Anti-christ's appearance a little before the end of the world, which was current throughout the Mid. Ages (and whose striking points of agreement with the ON. mythus of Surtr and Muspellsheim I shall speak of later), Helias again occupies the place of the northern thundergod. Thôrr overcomes the great serpent, but he has scarcely moved nine paces from it, when he is touched by its venomous breath, and sinks to the ground dead, Sn. 73. In the OHG. poem of Muspilli 48--54, Antichrist and the devil do indeed fall, but Elias also is grievously wounded in the fight:

Doh wanit des vilu gotmanno (15)

daz Elias in demo wîge arwartit:

sâr sô daz Eliases pluot

in erda kitriufit,

sô inprinnant die perga;

his blood dripping on the earth sets the mountains on fire, and the Judgment-day is heralded by other signs as well. Without knowing in their completeness the notions of the devil, Antichrist, Elias and Enoch, which were current about the 7th or 8th century, (16) we cannot fully appreciate this analogy between Elias and the Donar of the heathens. There was nothing in christian tradition to warrant the supposition of Elias receiving a wound, and that a deadly one. The comparison becomes still more suggestive by the fact that the even half-christian races in the Caucasus worship Elias as a god of thunder. The Ossetes think a man lucky who is struck by lightning, they believe Ilia has taken him to himself; survivors raise a cry of joy, and sing and dance around the body, the people flock together; form a ring for dancing, and sing: O Ellai, Ellai, eldaer tchoppei! (O Elias, Elias, lord of the rocky summits). By the cairn over the grave they set up a long pole supporting a skin of a black he-goat, which is their usual manner of sacrificing to Elias (see Suppl.). They implore Elias to make their fields fruitful, and keep the hail away from them. (17) Olearius already had put it upon record, that the Circassians on the Caspian sacrificed a goat on Elias's day, and stretched the skin on a pole with prayers. (18) Even the Muhammadans, in praying that a thunderstorm may be averted, name the name of Ilya. (19)

Now, the Servian songs put by the side of Elias the Virgin Mary; and it was she especially that in the Mid. Ages was invoked for rain. The chroniclers mention a rain-procession in the Liège country about the year 1240 or 1244; (20) three times did priests and people march round (nudis pedibus et in laneis), but all in vain, because in calling upon all the saints they had forgotten the Mother of God; so, when the saintly choir laid the petition before God, Mary opposed. In a new procession a solemn 'salve regina' was sung: Et cum serenum tempus ante fuisset, tanta inundatio pluviae facta est, ut fere omnes qui in processione aderant, hac illacque dispergerentur. With the Lithuanians, the holy goddes (dievaite sventa) is a rain-goddess. Heathendom probably addressed the petition for rain to the thundergod, instead of to Elias and Mary. (21) Yet I cannot call to mind a single passage, even in ON. legend, where Thôrr is said to have bestowed rain when it was asked for; we are only told that he sends stormy weather when he is angry, Olafs Tryggv. saga 1, 302-6 (see Suppl.). But we may fairly take into account his general resemblance to Zeus and Jupiter (who are expressly uetioj, pluvius, Il. 12, 25: ue Zeuj sunecej), and the prevalence of votis imbrem vocare among all the neighbouring nations (see Suppl.).

A description by Petronius cap. 44, of a Roman procession for rain, agrees closely with that given above from the Mid. Ages: Antea stolatae ibant nudis pedibus in clivum, passis capillis, mentionbus puris, et Jovem aquam exorbant; itaque statim uncreatim (in bucketfalls) pluebat, aut tunc aut nunquam, et emnes ridebant, uvidi tanquam mures. M. Antoninus (eij eauton 5, 7) has preserved the beautifully simple prayer of the Athenians for rain: euch Aqhnaiwn, uson, uson, w file Zeu, kata thj apoupaj thj Aqhnaiwn kai twn pediwn (see Suppl.). According to Lasicz, the Lithuanian prayer ran thus: Percune devaite niemuski und mana dirvu (se I emend dievu), melsu tavi, palti miessu. Cohibe te, Percune, neve in meum agrum calamitatem immittas (more simply, strike not), ego vero tibi hanc succidiam dabo. The Old Prussian formula is said to have been: Dievas Perkunos, absolo mus! spare us, = Lith. apsaugok mus! To all this I will add a more extended petition in Esthonian, as Gutslaff (22) heard an old peasant say it as late as the 17th century: 'Dear Thunder (woda Picker), we offer to thee an ox that hath two horns and four cloven hoofs, we would pray thee for our ploughing and sowing, that our straw be copper-red, our grain be golden-yellow. Push elsewhither all the thick black clouds, over great fens, high forests, and wildernesses. But unto us ploughers and sowers give a fruitful season and sweet rain. Holy Thunder (pöha Picken), guard our seedfield, that it bear good straw below, good ears above, and good grain within.' Picker or Picken would in modern Esthonian be called Pitkne, which comes near the Finnic pitkäinen = thunder, perhaps even Thunder; Hüpel's esth. Dict. however gives both pikkenne and pikne simply as thunder (impersonal). The Finns usually give their thundergod the name Ukko only, the Esthonians that of Turris as well, evidently from the Norse Thôrr (see Suppl.). (23)

As the fertility of the land depends on thunderstorms and rains, Pitkäinen and Zeus appear as the oldest divinity of agricultural nations, to whose bounty they look for the thriving of their cornfields and fruits (see Suppl.). Adam of Bremen too attributes thunder and lightning to Thor expressly in connexion with dominion over weather and fruits: Thor, inquiunt, praesidet in aëre, qui tonitrua et fulmina, ventos imbresque, serena et fruges gubernat. Here then the worship of Thor coincides with that of Wuotan, to whom likewise the reapers paid homage (pp. 154-7), as on the other hand Thor as well as Oðinn guides the events of war, and receives his share of the spoils (p. 133). To the Norse mind indeed, Thor's victories and his battle with the giants have thrown his peaceful office quite into the shade. Nevertheless to Wuotan's mightiest son, whose mother is Earth herself, and who is also named Perkunos, we must, if only for his lineage sake, allow a direct relation to Agriculture. (24) He clears up the atmosphere, he sends fertilizing showers, and his sacred tree supplies the nutritious acorn. Thôr's minni was drunk to the prosperity of cornfields.

The German thundergod was no doubt represented, like Zeus and Jupiter, with a long beard. A Dnish rhyme still calls him 'Thor med sit lange skiäg' (F. Magnusen's lex. 957). But the ON. sagas everywhere define him more narrowly as red-bearded, of course in allusion to the fiery phenomenon of lightning: when the god is angry, he blows in his red beard, and thunder peals through the clouds. In the Fornm. sög. 2, 182 and 10, 329 he is a tall handsome, red-bearded youth: Mikill vexti (in growth), ok ûngligr, friðr sýnum (fair to see), ok rauðskeggjaðr; in 5, 249 maðr rauðskeggjaðr. Men in distress invoked his red beard: Landsmenn tôko þat râð (adopted the plan) at heita þetta hit rauða skegg, 2, 183. When in wrath, he shakes his beard: Reiðr var þâ, scegg nam at hrîsta, scör nam at dýja (wroth was he then, beard he took to bristling, hair to tossing), Sæ. 70. More general is the phrase: lêt sîga brýnnar ofan fyrir augun (let sink the brows over his eyes), Sn. 50. His divine rage (âsmôðr) is often mentioned: Thôrr varð reiðr, Sn. 52. Especially interesting is the story of Thôr's meeting with King Olaf 1, 303; his power seems half broken by this time, giving way to the new doctrine; when the christians approach, a follow of Thôrr exhorts him to a brave resistance: þeyt þû î mot þeim skeggrödd þîna (raise thou against them thy beard's voice). þâ gengu þeir ût, ok blês Thôrr fast î kampana, ok þeytti skeggraustina (then went they out, and Th. blew hard into his beard, and raised his beard's voice). kom þâ þegar andviðri môti konûngi svâ styrkt, at ekki mâtti við halda (immediately there came ill-weather against the king so strong, that he might not hold out, i.e. at sea).

This red beard of the thunderer is still remembered in curses, and that among the Frisian folk, without any visible connexion with Norse ideas: 'diis raudhiiret donner regiir!' (let red-haired thunder see to that) is to this day an exclamation of the North Frisians. (25) And when the Icelanders call a fox holta þôrr, Thôrr of the holt, (26) it is probably in allusion to his red fur (see Suppl.).

The ancient languages distinguish three acts in the natural phenomenon: the flash, fulgur, astraph, the sound, tonitrus, bronth, and the stroke, fulmen, keraunoj (see Suppl.).

The lightning's flash, which we name blitz, was expressed in our older speech both by the simple plih, Graff 3, 244, MHG. blic, Iw. 649. Wigal. 7284, and by plechazunga (coruscatio), derived from plechazan, (27) a frequentative of plechên (fulgere), Diut. 1, 222-4; they also used plechunga, Diut. 1, 222. Pleccateshêm, Pertz 2, 383, the name of a place, now Blexen; the MHG. has blikze (fulgur) die blikzen und die donerslege sint mit gewalte in sîner pflege, MS 2, 166.

Again lôhazan (micare, coruscare), Goth. láuhatjan, presupposes a lôhên, Goth. láuhan. From the same root the Goth. forms his láuhmuni (astraph), while the Saxon from blic made a blicsmo (fulgur). AS. leoma (jubar, fulgur), ON. liomi, Swed. ljungeld, Dan. lyn.

A Prussian folk-tale has an expressive phrase for the lightning: 'He with the blue whip chases the devil,' i.e. the giants; for a blue flame was held specially sacred, and people swear by it, North Fris. 'donners blöskên (blue sheen) help!' in Hansent geizhals p. 123; and Schärtlin's curse was blau feuer! (see Suppl).

Beside donar, the OHG. would have at its command caprëh (fragor) from prëhhan (frangere), Gl. hrab. 963, for which the MHG. often has klac, Troj. 12231. 14693, and krach from krachen, (crepare): mit krache gap der doner duz, Parz. 104, 5; and as krachen is synonymous with rîzen (strictly to burst with a crash) we also find wolkenrîz fem. for thunder, Parz. 378, 11. Wh. 389, 18; gegenrîz, Wartb. kr. jen..57; reht als der wilde dunrslac von himel kam gerizzen, Ecke 105. der chlafondo doner, N. Cap. 114; der chlafleih heizet toner; der doner stet gespannen, Apollon. 879. I connect the Gothic þeihvô fem. with the Finnic teuhaan (strepo), teuhaus (strepitus, tumultus), so that it would mean the noisy, uproarious. Som L. Germ. dialects call thunder grummel, Strodtm. Osnabr. 77, agreeing with the Slav. grom, hrom (see Suppl.).

For the notion of fulmen we possess only compounds, except when the simple donner is used in that sense: sluoc alse ein doner, Roth. 1747. hiure hât der schâr (shower, storm) erslagen, MS. 3, 233; commonly donnerschlag, blitzschlag. OHG. blit-scuz (-shot, fulgurum jactus), N. cap. 13; MHG. blickeschoz, Barl. 2, 26. 253, 27, and blicshoz, Martina 205; fiurin donerstrâle, Parz. 104, 1; donreslac, Iw. 651; ter scuz tero fiurentûn donerstrâlo (ardentis fulminis), erscozen mit tien donerstrâlon, N. Bth. 18. 175; MHG. wetterstrahl, blitzstrahl, donnerstrahl. MHG. wilder donerslac, Geo. 751, as lightning is called wild fire, Rab. 412, Schm. 1, 553, and so in ON. villi-eldr, Sn. 60 (see Suppl.).

So then, as the god who lightens has red hair ascribed to him, and he who thunders a waggon, he who smites has some weapon that he shoots. But here I judge that the notion of arrows being shot (wilder pfîl der ûz dem donre snellet, Troj. 7673. doners pfîle, Turnei von Nantheiz 35. 150) was merely imitated from the khla Dioj, tela Jovis; the true Teutonic Donar throws wedge-shaped stones from the sky: 'ez wart nie stein geworfen dar er enkæme von der schûre,' there was never stone thrown there (into the castle high), unless it came from the storm, Ecke 203. ein vlins (flint) von donrestrâlen, Wolfram 9, 32. ein herze daz von vlinse ime donre gewahsen wære (a heart made of the flint in thunder), Wh. 12, 16. schûrestein, Bit. 10332. schawerstein, Suchenw. 33, 83. sô slahe mich ein donerstein! Ms. h. 3, 202. We now call it donnerkeil, Swed. åsk-vigg (-wedge); and in popular belief, there darts out of the cloud together with the flash a black wedge, which buries itself in the earth as deep as the highest church-tower is high. (28) But every time it thunders again, it begins to rise nearer to the surface, and after seven years you may find it above ground. Any house in which it is preserved, is proof against damage by lightning; when a thunder-storm is coming on, it begins to sweat. (29) Such stones are also called donneräxte (-axes) donnersteine, donnerhammer, albschosse (elfshots), strahlsteine, teufelsfinger, Engl. Thunder-bolts, Swed. Thors vigge, Dan. tordenkile, tordenstraale (v. infra, ch. XXXVII), (30) and stone hammers and knives found in ancient tombs bear the same name. Saxo Gram. p. 236:

Inusitati ponderis malleos, quos Joviales vocabant.prisca virorum religione cultos;.cupiens enim antiquitas tonitruorum causas unsitata rerum similitudine comprehendere, malleos, quibus coeli fragores cieri credebat, ingenti aere complexa fuerat (see Suppl.). To Jupiter too the silex (flins) was sacred, and it was held by those taking an oath. From the mention of 'elf-shots' above, I would infer a connexion of the elf-sprites with the thundergod, in whose service they seem to be employed.

The Norse mythology provides Thôrr with a wonderful hammer named Miölnir (mauler, tudes, contundens), which he hurls at the giants, Sæm. 57 67 68; it is also called þruðhamar, strong hammer, Sæm. 67 68, and has the property of returning into the god's hand of itself, after being thrown, Sn. 132. As this hammer flies through the air (er hann kemr â lopt, Sn. 16), the giants know it, lightning and thunder precede the throwing of it: þvî næst sâ hann (next saw he, giant Hrûngnir) eldîngar oc heyrði þrumur stôrar, sâ hann þâ Thôr î âsmôði, fôr hann âkaflega, oc reiddi hamarin oc kastaði, Sn. 109. This is obviously the crushing thunderbolt, which descends after lightning and thunder, which was nevertheless regarded as the god's permanent weapon; hence perhaps that rising of the bolt out of the earth. Saxo, p. 41, represents it as a club (clava) without a handle, but informs us that Hother in a battle with Thor had knocked off the manubium clavae; this agrees with the Eddic narrative of the manufacture of the hammer, when it was accounted a fault in it that the handle was too short (at forskeptit var heldr skamt), Sn. 131. It was forged by cunning dwarfs, (31) and in spite of that defect, it was their masterpiece. In Saxo p. 163, Thor is armed with a torrida chalybs. (32) It is noticeable, how Frauenlob MS. 2, 214 expresses himself about God the Father: der smit ûz Oberlande warf sînen hamer in mîne schôz. The hammer, as a divine tool, was considered sacred, brides and the bodies of the dead were consecrated with it, Sæm. 74. Sn. 49. 66; men blessed with the sign of the hammer, (33) as christians did with the sign of the cross, and a stroke of lightning was long regarded in the Mid. Ages as a happy initiatory omen to any undertaking. Thôrr with his hammer hallows dead bones, and makes them alive again, Sn. 49 (see Suppl.).

But most important of all, as vouching for the wide extension of one and the same heathen faith, appears to me that beautiful poem in the Edda, the Hamars heimt (hammer's homing, mallei recuperatio), (34) whose action is motivated by Thôr's hammer being stolen by a giant, and buried eight miles underground: 'ek hefi Hlôrriða hamar umfîlginn âtta röstom for iörd nedan,' Sæm. 71. This unmistakably hangs together with the popular belief I have quoted, that the thunderbolt dives into the earth and takes seven or nine years to get up to the surface again, mounting as it were a mile every year. At bottom Thrymr, þursa drôttinn, lord of the durses or giants, who has only got his own hammer back again, seems identical with Thôrr, being an older nature-god, in whose keeping the thunder had been before the coming of the âses; this is shown by his name, which must be derived from þruma, tonitru. The compound þrumketill (which Biörn explains as aes tinniens) is in the same case as the better-known þôrketill (see Suppl.).

Another proof that this myth of the thundergod is a joint possession of Scandinavia and the rest of Teutondom, is supplied by the word hammar itself. Hamar means in the first place a hard stone or rock, (35) and secondly the tool fashioned out of it; the ON. hamarr still keeps both meanings, rupes and malleus (and sahs, seax again is a stone knife, the lat. saxum). Such a name is particularly well-suited for an instrument with which the mountain-god Donar, our 'Faírguneis,' achieves all his deeds. Now as the god's hammer strikes dead, and the curses 'thunder strike you' and 'hammer strike you' meant the same thing, there sprang up in some parts, especially of Lower Germany, after the fall of the god Donar, a personification of the word Hamar in the sense of Death or Devil: 'dat die de Hamer! i vor den Hamer! de Hamer sla!' are phrases still current among the people, in which you can exchange Hamer for Düvel, but which, one and all, can only be traced back to the god that strikes with the hammer. In the same way: 'dat is en Hamer, en hamersken kerl,' a rascally impudent cheat. (36) de Hamer kennt se all! the devil may know them all, Schütze 2, 96. Hemmerlein, meister Hämmerlein, signified the evil spirit. Consider also the curses which couple the two names; donner und teufel! both of which stood for the ancient god. By gammel Thor, old Thor, the common people in Denmark mean the devil; in Sweden they long protested by Thore gud. The Lithuanians worshipped an enormous hammer, Seb. Frankes weltbuch 55 (see Suppl.).

It must have been at an earlier stage that certain attributes and titles of the Saviour, and some Judeo-christian legends, were transferred to the heathen god, and particularly the myth of Leviathan to Iörmungandr. As Christ by his death overmastered the monster serpent (Barl. 78, 39 to 79, 14), so Thôrr overcomes the miðgarðsorm (-worm, snake that encircles the world), and similar epithets are given to both. (37) Taking into account the resemblance between the sign of the cross and that of the hammer, it need not seem surprising that the newly converted Germans should under the name of Christ still have the lord of thunder and the giver of rain present to their minds; and so a connexion with Mary the Mother of God (p. 174) could be the more easily established. The earliest troubadour (Diez p. 15. Raynouard 4, 83) actually names Christ still as the lord of thunder, Jhesus del tro.

A Neapolitan fairy-tale in the Pentamerone 5, 4 personifies thunder and lightning (truone e lampe) as a beautiful youth, brother of seven spinning virgins, and son of a wicked old mother who knows no higher oath than 'pe truone e lampe'. Without asserting any external connexion between this tradition and the German one, (38) we discover in it the same idea of a kind and beneficent, not a hostile and fiendish god of thunder.

The large beetle, which we call stag-beetle or fire-beetle, lucanus cervus, taurus (ch. XXI, beetles), is in some districts of South Germany named donnergueg, donnerguge, donnerpuppe (gueg, guegi, beetle), perhaps because he likes to live in oak trees, the tree sacred to thunder. For he also bears the name eichochs, Swed. ekoxe (oak-ox); but then again feuerschröter, fürböter (fire beeter, i.e. kindler), (39) börner or haus-brenner (-burner), which indicates his relation to thunder and lightning. It is a saying, that on his horns he carries redhot coals into a roof, and sets it alight; more definite is the belief mentioned in Aberglaube, p. xcvi, that lightning will strike a house into which this beetle is carried. In Swed. a beetle is still named horntroll (see Suppl.).

Among herbs and plants, the following are to be specially noted: the donnerbart, stonecrop or houseleek, sempervivum tectorum, which, planted on the roof, protects from the lightning's stroke: (40) barba Jovis vulgari more vocatur (Macer Floridus 741),French Joubarbe (conf. Append. p. lviii);

the donnerbesen (-besom), a shaggy tangled nest-like growth on boughs, of which superstition ascribes the generation to lightning; otherwise called alpruthe;

the donnerkraut, sedum;

the donnerflug, fumaria bulbosa;

the donnerdistel, eryngium campestre;

the Dan. tordenskreppe, burdock.

The South Slavs call the iris perunik, Perun's flower, while the Lettons call our hederich (ground-ivy? hedge-mustard?) pehrkones; Perunika is also, like Iris, a woman's name. The oak above all trees was dedicated to the Thunderer (pp. 67, 72): quercus Jovi placuit, Phaedr. 3, 17; magna Jovis antiquo robore quercus, Virg. Georg. 3, 332. At Dodona stood the druj uyikomoj Dioj, Od. 14, 327. 19, 297, but at Troy the beech often named in the Illiad: fhgoj uyhlh Dioj aigiocoio, 5, 693. 7, 60. A particular kind of oak is in Servian grm, and grmik is quercetum, no doubt in close connexion with grom (tonitrus), grmiti or grmlieti (tonare). The acorn is spoken of above, p. 177.

Apparently some names of the snipe (scolopax gallinago) have to do with this subject: donnerziege (-goat), donnerstagspferd (Thursday horse), himmelsziege (capella coelestis); because he seems to bleat or whinny in the sky? But he is also the weatherbird, stormbird, rainbird, and his flight betokens an approaching thunderstorm. Dan. myrehest, Swed. horsgjök, Icel. hrossagaukr, horsegowk or cuckoo, from his neighing; the first time he is heard in the year, he prognosticates to men their fate (Biörn sub v.); evidently superstitious fancies cling to the bird. His Lettish name pehrkona kasa, pehrkona ahsis (thunder's she-goat and he-goat) agrees exactly with the German. In Lithuanian too, Mielcke 1, 294. 2, 271 gives Perkuno ozhys as heaven's goat, for which another name is tikkutis.

Kannes, pantheum p. 439, thinks the name donnerstagspferd belongs to the goat itself, not to the bird; this would be welcome, if it can be made good. Some confirmation is found in the AS. firgengæt (ibex, rupicapra, chamois), and firginbucca (capricornus), to which would correspond an OHG. virgungeiz, virgunpocch; so that in these the analogy of faírguni to Donar holds good. The wild creature that leaps over rocks would better become the god of rocks than the tame goat. In the Edda, Thôrr has he-goats yoked to his thunder-car: between these, and the weather-fowl described by turns as goats and horse (always a car-drawing beast), there might exist some half-obscured link of connexion (see Suppl.). It is significant also, that the devil, the modern representative of the thunder god, has the credit of having created goats, both he and she; and as Thôrr puts away the bones of his goats after they have been picked, that he may bring them to life again (Sn. 49. 50), (41) so the Swiss shepherds believe that the goat has something of the devil in her, she was made by him, and her feet especially smack of their origin, and are not eaten, Tobler 214. Did the German thundergod in particular have he-goats and she-goats sacrificed to him (supra, p. 52)? The Old Roman or Etruscan bidental (from bidens, lamb) signifies the place where lightning had struck and killed a man: there a lamb had to be sacrificed to Jupiter, and the man's body was not burned, but buried (Plin. 2, 54). If the Ossetes and Circassians in exactly the same way offer a goat over the body killed by lightning, and elevate the hide on a pole (supra, p. 174), it becomes the more likely by a great deal that the goat-offering of the Langobards was intended for no other than Donar. For hanging up hides was a Langobardish rite, and was practised on other occasions also, as will presently be shown. In Carinthia, cattle struck by lightning are considered sacred to God; no one, not even the poorest, dares to eat of them (Sartoris reise 2, 158).

Other names of places compounded with that of the thundergod, besides the numerous Donnersbergs already cited, are forthcoming in Germany. Near Oldenburg lies a village named Donnerschwee, formerly Donnerswe, (42) Donnerswehe, Donnerswede (Kohli handb. von Oldenb. 2, 55), which reminds us of Oðinsve, Wodeneswege (p. 151), and leaves us equally in doubt whether to understand wih a temple, or weg a way. Th Norwegian folk-tale tells us of an actual Thors vej (way, Faye p. 5). A village Donnersreut is to be found in Franconia towards Bohemia, a Donnersted in Thedinghausen bailiwick, Brunswick, a Thunresfeld [Thurfield] in AS. documents, Kemble 2, 115. 195. 272, &c. &c.

Many in Scandinavia, e.g., in Denmark, Torslunde (Thôrs lundr, grove), Tosingo (Thôrs engi, ing); (43) several in Sweden, Tors måse (gurges) in a boundary-deed of Östergötland, Broocman 1, 15, Thorsborg in Gothland, Gutalag p. 107. 260. Thôrsbiörg (mountain) and Thôrshöfn (haven) in Norway, Fornm. sög. 4, 12. 343; Thôrsmörk (wood, a holy one?), Nialss. cap. 149. 150. (44) Thôrs nes (nose, cape), Sæm. 155 and Eyrb. saga cap. 4 (see Suppl.). Thors bro (Thôrs brû, bridge) in Schonen, like the Norwegian Thor's-way, leads us to that prevalent belief in devil's bridges and other buildings, which is the popular way of accounting for peculiarly shaped rocks, precipices and steep mountain paths: only God or the devil could have burst them so.

As a man's name, Donar in its simple form is rarely found; one noble family on the Rhine was named Donner von Lorheim, Siebmach. 5, 144. Its derivatives and compounds are not common in any High Germ. dialect; a Carolingian doc. in the Cod. lauresh. no. 464 has Donarad, which I take to be the ON. Thôrâlfr inverted. Such name-formations are far more frequent in the North, where the service of the god prevailed so long: Thôrarr (OHG. Donarari?), Thôrir, Thôrðr, Thôrhallr, Thôrôlfr (OS. Thunerulf in Calend. merseb. Septemb.), Thôroddr, and the feminines Thôra, Thôrun, Thôrarna (formed like diorna, Gramm. 2, 336), Thôrkatla, Thôrhildr, Thôrdîs, &c. I cannot see why the editors of the Fornmanna sögur deprive such proper names as Thôrgeirr, Thôrbiörn, Thôrsteinn, Thôrketill, Thôrvaldr, Thôrfinnr, Thôrgerðr, &c. of their long vowel; it is not the abstract þor, audacia, that they are compounded with, and the Nialssaga, e.g. cap. 65, spells Thôrgeirr, Thôrkatla.

The frequent name Thôrketill, abbrev. Thôrkell, Dan. Torkild, AS. Turketulus, Thurkytel (Kemble 2, 286, 349. v. supra, p. 63), ifit signifies a kettle, a vessel, of the thundergod, resembles Wuotan's sacrificial cauldron (p. 56). The Hymisqviða sings of Thôrr fetching a huge cauldron for the âses to brew ale with, and wearing it on his head, Sæm. 57; which is very like the strong man Hans (ans, âs?) in the nursery-tale clapping the church bell on his head for a cap.

The coupling of Alp (elf) with Donar in Albthonar and Thôrâlfr is worthy of notice, for alpgeschoss (elf-shot) is a synonym for the thunderbolt, and Alpruthe (elf-rod) for the donnerkraut [donnerbesen? see p. 183]. An intimate relation must subsist between the gods and the elves (p. 180), though on the part of the latter a subordinate one (see Suppl.). (45)

It is observable that in different lays of the Edda Thôrr goes by different names. In Lokaglepsa and Harbardslioð he is 'Thôrr, Asaþôrr,' but in Hamarsheimt 'Vingþôrr, Hlôrriði' (yet Thôrr as well), in Alvismâl always 'Vingþôrr,' in Hymisqviða 'Veorr, Hlôrriði,' not to mention the periphrases vagna verr (curruum dominus), Sifjar verr, Oðins sonr. Hlôrriði was touched upon in p. 167, notes. Vîngthôrr they derive from vængr, ala; as if Wing-thunder, the winged one, aëra quatiens? This appears to be far from certain, as he is elsewhere called fôstri Vîngnis, Sn. 101, and in the genealogies this Vîngnir appears by the side of him. Especially important is Veorr, which outside of Hymisqviða is only found once, Sæm. 9, and never except in the nom. sing.; it belongs doubtless to ve, wih, and so betokens a holy consecrated being, distinct from the Ve, gen. Vea on p. 163; the OHG. form must have been Wihor, Wihar? (see Suppl.).

As Oðinn represented journeying abroad, to the Eastern land (p. 163), so is Thôrr engaged in eastward travels: Thôrr var î austrvegi, Sæm. 59, â austrvega 68; fôr or austrvegi, 75; ec var austr, 78; austrförom þînom scaltu aldregi segja seggjom frâ, 68. In these journeys he fought with and slew the giants: var hann farinn î austerveg at berja tröll, Sn. 46. And this again points to the ancient and at that time still unforgotten connexion of the Teutonic nations with Asia; this 'faring east-ways' is told of other heroes too, Sn. 190. 363; e.g., the race of the Skilfingar is expressly placed in that eastern region (sû kynslôð er î austrvegum), Sn. 193; and Iötunheim, the world of the giants, was there situated.

Thôrr was considered, next to Oðinn, the mightiest and strongest of all the gods; the Edda makes him Oðin's son, therein differing entirely from the Roman view, which takes Jupiter to be Mercury's father; in pedigrees, it is true, Thôrr does appear as an ancestor of Oðinn. Thôrr is usually named immediately after Oðinn, sometimes before him, possibly he was feared more than Oðinn (see Suppl.). In Saxo Gramm., Regner confesses: Se, Thor deo excepto, nullam monstrigenae virtutis potentiam expavere, cujus (sc. Thor) virium magnitudini nihil humanarum divinarumque rerum digna possit aequalitate conferri. he is the true national god of the Norwegians, landâs (patrium numen), Egilss. p. 365-6, nd when âss stands alone, it means especially him, e.g., Sæm. 70, as indeed the very meaning of ans (jugum montis) agrees with that of Faírguneis. His temples and statues were the most numerous in Norway and Sweden, and âsmegin, divine strength, is understood chiefly of him. Hence the heathen religion in general is so frequently expressed by the simple Thôr blôta, Sæm. 113, hêt (called) â Thôr, Landn. 1, 12, trûði (believed) â Thôr, Landn. 2, 12. He assigns to emigrants their new place of abode: Thôrr vîsaði honum (shewed him), Land. 3, 7. 3, 12. From the Landnâmabôk we could quote many things about the worship of Thôrr: þar stendr enn Thôrs steinn, 2, 12. gânga til frêtta við Thôr, 3, 12. Thôrr is worshipped most, and Freyr next, which agrees with the names Thôrviðr and Freyviðr occuring in one family line 2, 6; viðr is wood, does it here mean tree, and imply a priestly function? Oðinviðr does not occur, but Týviðr is the name of a plant, ch. XXXVII. It is Thôr's hammer that hallows a mark, a marriage, and the runes, as we find plainly stated on the stones. I show in ch. XXXIII how Thôrr under various aspects passed into the devil of the christians, and it is not surprising if he acquired some of the clumsy boorish nature of the giant in the process, for the giants likewise were turned into fiends. The foe and pursuer of all giants in the time of the Ases, he himself appeared a lubber to the christians; he throws stones for a wager with giants (conf. ch. XVIII). But even in the Eddic Thrymsqviða, he eats and drinks immoderately like a giant, and the Norwegian folk-tale makes him take up cask after cask of ale at the wedding, Faye p. 4; conf. the proverb: mundi enginn Asathôr afdrecka (outdrink). Conversely, the good-natured old giant Thrymr is by his very name a Donar (conf. ch. XVIII). The delightful story of the hobergsgubble (old man of the mountain, giant) was known far and wide in the North: a poor man invites him to stand godfather to his child, but he refuses to come on hearing that Thor or Tordenveir is also a bidden guest (conf. ch. XVIII); he sends however a handsome present (conf. Afzelius 2, 158. Molbech's eventyr no. 62, F. Magn. p. 935). In spite of all divergences, there appears in the structure of this fable a certain similarity to that of Gossip Death, ch. XXVII, for death also is a devil, and consequently a giant; conf. Müllenhoff, schl. holst. p. 289. That is why some of the old tales which still stood their ground in the christian times try to saddle him with all that is odious, and make him out a diabolic being of a worse kind than Oðinn; conf. Gautrekssaga p. 13. Finnr drags the statue of Thôrr to King Olafr, splits and burns it up, then mixes the ashes in furmety and gives it to dogs to devour: 'tis meet that hounds eat Thôrr, who his own sons did eat,' Fornm. sög. 2, 163. This is a calumny, the Edda knows of no such thing, it relates on the contrary that Môði and Magni outlived their father (see Suppl.). Several revived sagas, like that of the creation of wolves and goats, transform Wuotan into the good God, and Donar into the devil.

From the time they became aquainted with the Roman theogony, the writers identify the German thundergod with Jupiter. Not only is dies Jovis called in AS. Thunresdæg, but Latona Jovis mater is Thunres môdur, and capitolium is translated Thôrshof by the Icelanders. Conversely, Saxo Gram. p. 236 means by his 'Jupiter' the Teutonic Thor, the Jupiter ardens above (p. 110); did that mean Donar? As for that Thôrr devouring his children, it seems [a mere importation, aggravated by]a downright confusion of Jupiter with his father Saturn, just as the Norse genealogy made Thôrr an ancestor of Oðinn. The 'presbyter Jovi mactans,' and the 'sacra' and 'feriae Jovis' (in Indicul. pagan.) have been dealt with above, p. 121.

Letzner (hist. Caroli magni, Hildesh. 1603, cap. 18 end) relates: The Saturday after Laetare, year by year cometh to the little cathedral-close of Hildesheim a farmer therunto specially appointed, and bringeth two logs of a fathom long, and therewith two lesser logs pointed in the manner of skittles. The two greater he planteth in the ground one against the other, and a-top of them the skittles. Soon there come hastily together all manner of lads and youth of the meaner sort, and with stones or staves do pelt the skittles down from the logs; other do set the same up again, and the pelting beginneth a-new. By these skittles are to be understood the devilish gods of the heathen, that were thrown-down by the Saxon-folk when they became christian.

Here the names of the gods are suppressed, (46) but one of them must have been Jupiter then, as we find it was afterwards. (47) Among the farmer's dues at Hildesheim there occurs down to our own times a Jupitergeld. Under this name the village of Grossen-Algermissen had to pay 12 g. grosch. 4 pfen. yearly to the sexton of the cathedral; an Algermissen farmer had every year to bring to the cathedral close an eight-cornered log, a foot thick and four feet long, hidden in a sack. The schoolboys dressed it in a cloak and crown, and attacked the Jupiter as they then called it, by throwing stones first from one side, then from the other, and at last they burned it. This popular festivity was often attended with disorder, and was more than once interdicted, prickets were set to carry the prohibition into effect; at length the royal treasury remitted the Jupiter's geld. Possibly the village of Algermissen had incurred the penalty of the due at the introduction of Christianity, by its attachment to the old religion. (48) Was the pelting of the logs to express contempt? In Switzerland the well-known throwing of stones on the water is called Heiden werfen, heathen-pelting; otherwise: 'den Herrgott lösen, vater und mutter lösen,' releasing, ransoming? Tobler 174 (see Suppl.).

I do not pretend to think it at all established, that this Jupiter can be traced back to the Thunar of the Old Saxons. The custom is only vouched for by protocols of the last century, and clear evidence of it before that time is not forthcoming; but even Letzner's account, differing as it does, suggests a very primitive practice of the people, which is worth noting, even if Jupiter has nothing to do with it. The definite date 'laetare' reminds one of the custom universal in Germany of 'driving out Death,' of which I shall treat hereafter, and in which Death is likewise set up to be pelted. Did the skittle represent the sacred hammer?

An unmistakeable relic of the worship paid to the thunder-god is the special observance of Thursday, which was not extinct among the people till quite recent times. It is spoken of in quite early documents of the Mid. Ages: 'nullus diem Jovis in otio observet,' Aberglaube p. xxx. 'de feriis quae faciunt Jovi vel Mercurio,' p. xxxii. quintam feriam in honorem Jovis honorasti, p. xxxvii. On Thursday evening one must neither spin nor hew; Superst., Swed. 55. 110. and Germ. 517. 703. The Esthonians think Thursday holier than Sunday. (49) What punishment overtook the transgressor, may be gathered from another superstition, which, it is true, substituted the hallowed day of Christ for that of Donar: He that shall work on Trinity Sunday (the next after Pentecost), or shall wear anything sewed or knitted (on that day), shall be stricken by thunder; Scheffer's Haltaus, p. 225 (see Suppl.).

If Jupiter had these honours paid him in the 8th century, if the Capitulare of 743 thought it needful expressly to enjoin an 'ec forsacho Thunare,' and much that related to his service remained uneradicated a long time after; it cannot well be doubted, that at a still earlier time he was held by our forefathers to be a real god and one of their greatest.

If we compare him with Wuotan, though the latter is more intellectual and elevated, Donar has the advantage of a sturdy material strength, which was the very thing to recommend him to the peculiar veneration of certain races; prayers, oaths, curses retained his memory oftener and longer than that of any other god. But only a part of the Greek Zeus is included in him.

_______________________

                1. So even in High German dialects, durstag for donrstag, Engl. Thursday, and Bav. doren, daren for donnern (Schm. 1, 390). In Thôrr it is not RR, but only the first R (the second being flectional), that is an abbrev. of NR.; i.e. N suffers syncope before R, much as in the M. Dut. ere, mire, for ênre mînre.

                2. Conf. Onsike (Odin´s drive?) supra, p. 159.

                3. Scarcely contradicted by his surname Hlôrriði; this riði probably points to reið, a waggon; Hlôrriði seems to me to come by assimilation from hlôðriði, conf. ch. XIII, the goddes Hlôðyn.

                4. A peasant, being requested to kneel at a procession of the Host, said: I don't believe the Lord can be there, 'twas only yesterday I heard him thunder up in heaven; Weidners apophthegmata, Amst. 1643, p. 277.

                5. In a poem made up of the first lines of hymns and songs: Ach gott vom himmel sieh darein, und werfe einen donnerstein, es ist gewislich an der zeit, dass schwelgerei und üppigkeit zerschmettert werden mausetodt! sonst schrein wir bald aus tiefer noth.

                6. One might be tempted to connect the Etruscan Tina = Jupiter with Tonans and Donar; it belongs more immediately to Zhn (v. infra, Zio).

                7. Zeitschr. des hess. vereins 2, 139-142. Altd. blätt. 1, 288. Haupts zeitschr. 1, 26. Finnish: isäinen panee (Renval. 118), the father thunders. To the Finns ukko signifies proavus, senex, and is a surname of the gods Wäinäsnöinen and Ilmarinen. But also Ukko of itself denotes the thundergod (v. infra). Among the Swedish Lapps aija i both avus and tonitrus (see Suppl.).

                8. This mons Jovis must be distinguished from mons gaudii, by which the Mid. Ages meant a height near Rome: Otto frising 1. c. 2, 22; the Kaiserchr. 88 translates it verbally mendelberc. In Romance poems of the 12-13th centuries, monjoie is the French battle-cry, generally with the addition of St Denis, e.g. monjoya, monjoya sant Denis! Ferabas 365. monjoie enseigne S. Denis! Garin 108. Ducange in his 11th dissertation on Joinville declares monjoie inadmissible as a mere diminutive of mont, since in other passages (Roquefort 2, 207) it denotes any place of joy and bliss, a paradise, so that we can fairly keep to the literal sense; and there must have been mountains of this name in more than one region. It is quite possible that monjoie itself came from an earlier monjove (mons Jovis), that with the god's hill there associated itself the idea of a mansion of bliss (see Suppl.).

                9. Kindermann, abriss von Steiermark pp. 66, 67, 70, 81.

                10. The Slovaks say Parom, and paromova strela (P.'s bolt) for perunova; phrases about Parom, from Kollar, in Hanusch 259, 260.

                11. Might perun be connected with keraunoj = peraunoj ? Still nearer to Perun would seem to be the Sansk. Parjanyas, a name borne by ndra as Jupiter pluvius, literally, fertilizing rain, thunder-cloud, thunder. A hymn to this rain-god in Rosen's Vedae specimen p. 23. Conf. Hitzig Philist. 296, and Holtzmann 1, 112, 118.

                12. Matt. 8, 1. Mk 5, 5. 11. 9, 2. 11, 1. Lu. 3, 5. 4, 29. 9, 37. 19, 29. 37. I Cor. 13, 2. Baírgahei (h oreinh) in Lu. 1, 39, 65; never the simple baírgs.

                13. Udrí gromom, gromovit Iliya! smite with thunder, thunderer Elias, 1, 77.

                14. Greg. tur., pref. to bk 2: Meminerit (lector) sub Heliae tempore, qui pluvias cum voluit abstulit, et cum libuit arentibus terris infudit, &c.

                15. Gotman, a divine, a priest? Conf. supra, pp. 88-9.

                16. The Rabbinical legend likewise assumes that Elias will return and slay the malignant Sammael; Eisenmenger 2, 696. 851.

                17. Klaproth's travels in the Caucasus 2, 606. 601.

                18. Erman's archiv für Russland 1841, 429.

                19. Ad. Olearius reiseschr. 1647, pp. 522-3.

                20. Aegidius aureae vallis cap. 135 (Chapeauville 2, 267-8). Chron. belg. magn. ad ann. 1244 (Pistorius 3, 263).

                21. Other saints also grant rain in answer to prayer, as St Mansuetus in Pertz, 6, 512. 513; the body of St Lupus carried about at Sens in 1097, Pertz 1, 106-7. Conf. infra, Rain-making.

                22. Joh. Gutslaff, kurzer bericht und unterricht von der falsch heilig genandten bäche in Liefland Wöhhanda. Dorpt. 1644, pp. 362-4. Even in his time the language of the prayer was hard to understand; it is given, corrected in Peterson's Finn. mythol. p. 17, and Rosenplänter's beitr., heft 5, p. 157.

                23. Ukko is, next to Yumala (whom I connect with Wuotan), the highest Finnish god. Pitkäinen literally means the long, tall, high one.

                24. Uhland in his essay on Thôrr, has penetrated to the heart of the ON. myths, and ingeniously worked out the thought, that the very conflict of the summer-god with the winter-giants, itself signifies the business of bringing, land under cultivation, that the crushing rock-splitting force of the thunderbolt prepares the hard stony soil. This is most happily expounded of the Hrûngnir and Örvandill sagas; in some of the others it seems not to answer so well.

                25. Der geizhalz auf Silt, Flensburg 1809, p. 123; 2nd. ed. Sonderburg 1833, p. 113.

                26. Nucleus lat. in usum scholae schalholtinae. Hafniae 1738, p. 2088.

                27. While writing plechazan, I remember pleckan, plahta (paters, nudari; bleak), MHG. blecken, blacte, Wigal. 4890; which, when used of the sky, means: the clouds open, heaven opens, as we still say of forked and sheet lightning; conf. Lohengr. p. 125: reht alsam des himmels bliz von doner sich erblecket. If this plechan is akin to plih (fulgur), we must suppose two verbs plîhhan pleih, and plëhhan plah, the second derived from the first. Slav. blesk, blisk, but Boh. bozhi posel, god's messenger, lightning-flash. Russ. molniya, Serv. munya, fem. (see Supple.).

                28. This depth is variously expressed in curses, &c. e.g. May the thunder strike you into the earth as far as a hare can run in a hundred years!

                29. Weddigens westfäl. mag. 3, 713. Wigands archiv 2, 320, has nine years instead of seven.

                30. The Grk name for the stone is belemnithj a missile.

                31. As Zeus's lightning was by the Curetes or Cyclopes.

                32. That in ancient statues of the thundergod the hammer had not been forgotten, seems to be proved by pretty late evidence, e.g. the statue of a dorper mentioned in connexion with the giants (Ch. XVIII, quotation from Fergût). And in the AS. Solomon and Saturn, Thunor wields a fiery axe (ch. XXV, Muspilli).

                33. In the Old Germ. law, the throwing of a hammer ratifies the acquisition of property.

                34. No other lay of the Edda shows itself so intergrown with the people's poetry of the North; its plot survives in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian songs, which bear the same relation to that in the Edda as our folk-song of Hildebrand and Alebrand does to our ancient poetry. Thor no longer appears as a god, but as Thorkar (Thorkarl) or Thord af Hafsgaard, who is robbed of his golden hammer, conf. Iduna 8, 122. Nyerups udvalg 2, 188. Arvidsson 1, 3. Schade's beskrivelse over öen Mors, Aalborg 1811, p. 93. Also the remarkable legend of Thor með tungum hamri in Faye's norske sagn. Arendal 1833, p. 5, where also he loses and seeks his hammer.

                35. Slav. kamen gen. kamnia, stone; Lith. akm°u gen. akmens; kam = ham. 

                36. Brem. wtb. 2, 575. dat di de hamer sla! Strodtm. p. 80, conf. Schm. 2, 192. the hammer, or a great hammer strike you! Abeles künstl. unordn. 4, 3. Gerichtsh. 1, 673. 2, 79. 299. 382. verhamert dür, kolt, Schütze 2, 96 = verdonnert, verteufelt, blasted, cursed &c. How deeply the worship of the god had taken root among the people, is proved by these almost ineradicable curses, once solemn protestations: donner! donnerwetter! heiliges gewitter (holy thunderstorm)! And, adding the christian symbol: kreuz donnerwetter! Then, euphemistically disguised: bim (by the) dummer, potz dummer! dummer auch! Slutz 1, 123. 2, 161-2. 3, 56. bim dummer hammer 3, 51. bim dumstig, dunnstig! as in Hesse: donnerstag! bim hamer! In Flanders: bi Vids morkel hamer! Willem's vloeken, p. 12.

                37. Finn Magnusen lex. 484-5.

                38. How comes the Ital. to have a trono (Neap. truono, Span. trueno) by the side of tuono? and the Provencal a trons with the same meaning? Has the R slipt in from our donar, or still better from the Goth. drunjus, sonus, Rom. 10, 18 (conf. drönen, 'cymbal's droning sound' of Dryden)? or did the Lat. thronus pass into the sense of sky and thunder? 'förchst nicht, wanns tonnert, ein tron werd vom himmel fallen?' Garg. 181. The troubadour's 'Jhesus del tro' might then simply mean lord of the firmament.

                39. 'I wol don sacrifice, and fyres beete,' Chaucer. Hence beetle itself? AS. bytel.

Trans.

                40. A Provencal troubadour, quoted by Raynouard sub v. barbajol, says: e daquel erba tenon pro li vilan sobra lur maiso. Beside this hauswurz (hauswurzel, Superst. 60), the hawthorn, albaspina, is a safeguard against lightning (Mém. de l' acad. celt. 2, 212), as the laurel was among the ancient Romans, or the white vine planted round a house; conf. brennessel (Superst. 336); 'palm branches laid upon coals, lighted candles, a fire made on the hearth, are good for a thunderstorm,' Braunschw. anz. 1760, p. 1392. The crossbill too is a protector (Superst. 335); because his beak forms the sign of the cross or hammer? but the nest-making redbreast or redstart appears to attract lightning (ch. XXI, redbreast; Superst. 629. 704); was he, because of his red plumage, sacred to the redbearded god? (see Suppl.).

                41. The myth of the slaughtered goats brought to life again by hammer-consecration, and of the boar Sæhrîmnir (Sn. 42) being boiled and eaten every day and coming whole again every evening, seems to re-appear in more than one shape. In Wolf's Wodana, p. xxviii, the following passage on witches in Ferrara is quoted from Barthol. de Spina (d. 1546), quaestio de strigibus: Dicunt etiam, quod postquam comederunt aliquem pinguem bovem vel aliquam vegetem, vino vel arcam seu cophinum panibus evacuarunt et consumpserunt ea vorantes, domina illa percutit aurea virga quam manu gestat ea vasa vel loca, et statim ut prius plena sunt vini vel panis ac si nihil inde fuisset assumptum. Similiter congeri jubet ossa mortui bovis super corium ejus extensum, ipsumque per quatuor partes super ossa revolvens virgaque percutiens, vivum bovem reddit ut prius, ac reducendum jubet ad locum suum. The diabolical witches' meal very well matches that of the thundergod. But we are also told in legends, that the saint, after eating up a cock, reanimated it out of the bones; and so early as parson Amis, we find the belief made use of in playing-off a deception (I. 969 seq.). Folk-tales relate how a magician, after a fish had been eaten, threw the bones into water, and the fish came alive again. As with these eatable creatures, so in other tales there occurs the reanimation of persons who have been cut to pieces: in the märchen vom Machandelbom (juniper tree); in the myth of Zeus and Tantalus, where the shoulder of Pelops being devoured by Demeter (Ovid 6, 406) reminds us of the he-goat's leg bones being split for the marrow, and remaining lame after he came to life again; in the myth of Osiris and St. Adalbert (Temme p. 33); conf. DS. no. 62, and Ezekiel 37. Then in the eighth Finnish rune, Lemminkäimen's mother gathers all the limbs of his dismembered body, and makes them live again. The fastening of heads that have been chopped off to their trunks, in Waltharius 1157 (conf. p. 93) seems to imply a belief in their reanimation, and agrees with a circumstance in Norske eventyr pp. 199, 201.

                42. 'to Donerswe, dar heft de herscup den tegenden (teind, tithe),' Land register of 1428.

                43. Others specified in Suhm, krit. hist. 2, 651.

                44. The settlers of Iceland, when they consecrated a district to Thôrr, named it Thôrsmörk, Land. 5, 2. ed. nova p. 343. From Donnersmark (Zschötör tökely) in the Hungarian county of Zips, comes the Silesian family of Henkel von Donnersmark. Walach. manura: die Donnersmarkt.

                45. To the Boriât Mongols beyond L. Baikal, fairy-rings in grass are "where the sons of the lightning have danced." Trans.

                46. In the Corbei chron., Hamb. 1590, cap. 18, Letzner thinks it was the god of the Irmensûl. He refers to MS. accounts by Con. Fontanus, a Helmershaus Benedictine of the 13th century.

                47. A Hildesheim register drawn up at the end of the 14th century or beginn. of the 15th cent. says: 'De abgotter (idols), so sunnabends vor laetare (Letzn. 'sonnab. nach laet.') von einem hausmann von Algermissen gesetzet, davor (for which) ihm eine hofe (hufe, hide) landes gehört zur sankmeisterie (chantry?), und wie solches von dem hausmann nicht gesetzt worden, gehort Cantori de hove landes.' Hannoversche landesblätter 1833, p. 30.

                48. Lüntzel on farmer's burdens in Hildesheim 1830, p. 205. Hannov. mag. 1833, p. 693. Protocols of 1742-3 in an article 'On the Stoning of Jupiter,' Hannov. landesbl., ubi supra.

49. Etwas über die Ehsten, pp. 13-4.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 166. ) Donar stands related to donen extendere, expansion of the air (Hpt Ztschr. 5, 182), as tonoj to teinw, yet tonare is in Sansk. stan, resembling stentwr, stonoj and our stöhnen, Kl. schr. 2, 412. In AS., beside Thunor, of whom there is a legend (p. 812-3), we have also Dhôr, Sal. and Sat. 51. So the rubric over John 5, 17 has þunres-dæg, while that over John 5, 30 has þurs-dæg; and the Norman Dudo calls him Thur, Wormius mon. 24. The Abren. has Thuner, dat. Thunare. MHG. still dunre, Pass. 227, 81. Dietr. drach. 110b. des dunres sun (Boanerges), Pass. 227, 59 (Kl. schr. 2, 427). For the compound Swed. tordön, Dan. torden, the Norw. has thordaan, Faye 5, the Jemtl. torn, Almqv. 297, Westgötl. thorn and tånn. In the Dan. märchen Torden-vejr means Thor, as Donner-wetter in Germ. curses stands for Donar. The Swed. Lapps call the thunder-god Tiermes, Klemm 3, 86-7, Ostiaks Toruim 3, 117, Chuvashes Tóra, Tór, Yakuts Tanara, Voguls Tórom, Rask's Afh. 1, 44. 33.

                p. 167. ) ON. reið is not only vehiculum, but tonitru: lystir reið (al. þruma), Gulaþ. Hafn. 498. Norw. Thorsreia tonitru, Faye 5. Danish critics regard Ökuþôrr as a different being from Asaþôrr, and as belonging to an older time; yet Sn. 25 places them side by side, and looks upon Thor too as Ökuþôrr, conf. 78. He drives a chariot; conf. the Schonen superst. about Thor, Nilsson 4, 40-1. (1) In Östgötl. the åska is called goa; when it thunders, they say 'goa går,' Kalen 11a; goffar kör, Almqv. 347, but also gomor går 384, and kornbonden går 385. In Holland: 'onze lieve Heer reed (drove) door de lucht.' Father God is rolling d'brenta (milk-vessels) up and down the cellar steps, Wolf's Ztschr. 2, 54. Can the old kittel-kar (kettle-car?) of the giant with two goats refer to Donar's chariot? Müllenh. 447; conf. Kl. schr. 2, 422. Thôrr carries a basket on his back: meis, iarnmeis, Sæm. 75a. Sn. 111. OHG. meisa, Graff 2, 874.

                p. 167. ) God thunders: die blikzen und die donrelege sint mit gewalte in sîner pflege, MS. 2, 166b. Zeus raises tempest: ote te Zeuj lailapa teinh, Il. 16, 365; 'what doth Zeus?' meant how's the weather? O. Müller's Gr. gesch. 1, 24. Jupiter, alles weters gewalt het er, Ksrchr. 1152 (p. 630). In France: ni oistau nes Damledeu tonant, Aspremont 22b. nes Deu tonant ni poistau oir, Mort de Gar. 145-9. noissiez Deu tonant, Garins 3, 205; conf. 'si gran romore facevano, che i tuoni non si sarieno potuti udire,' Decam. 2, 1. When a thunderstorm comes on, men say: 'schmeckste paar öchsel? merkste e scheindl?' Weinh. schles. wtb. 82; 'ecce ubi iterum diabolus ascendit!' Cæs. Heist. 4, 21. The Russians shout words of insult after the retreating tempest, Asbjörnsen's Hjemmet 193.

                p. 168. ) Thunder is God (or the angels) playing at bowls: uns Herr speelt kegeln, Schütze 4, 164. die engel kegeln, Müllenh. 358; conf. the skittle-playing in the Odenberg, p. 953. Or is it anger, and the thunder-bolt his rod, Pol. bozy praten.

                p. 168. ) The same Taranis is in the Vedas a surname of Indra the thunder-god, he that passes through, from taran = trans; and so Perun may be conn. with pera (but see p. 171, and Kl. schr. 2, 420). Welsh taran thunder, Gael. tairneach, tairneanach, also torrunn. Taranucnus, Mone's Bad. urgesch. 2, 184. In Burgundy a town Tarnodurum, whose later name Tonnerre and 'le Tonnerrois,' Jos. Garnier 51, prove that the notion of thunder lay in the old name; conf. Kl. schr. 2, 412.

                p. 169 n. ) Thôrr heitir Atli oc âsabragr, Sn. 211a, conf. Atli 208a. The Lapps call their Tiermes aiyeke, and his deputy yunkare, stor-yunkare, Klemm 3, 86, the Ests their Pikker wana essa, old father, Verh. 2, 36-7; and the American Indians their Supreme Being the grandfather, Klemm 2, 153. With the mountains Etzel, Altvater we may perh. associate a high mountain Oetschan, Helbl. 7, 1087 (now Öftscher), from Sl. otets, voc. otche, father; conf. Kl. schr. 2, 421.

                p. 170n. ) The St. Bernard or Great Bernard is called Montijoux, A.D. 1132. On the jugum Penninum, deus Penninus, see Zeuss 34. 99. Dieffenb. Celt. 1, 170. Several inscriptions 'Jovi Pœnino, Penino' in De Wal no. 211-227. A Mount of joy in Meghaduta 61; in Moravia the Radost, joy. Finn. ilo-kivi, stone of joy, Kalev. 3, 471.

                p. 171. ) Comes ad Thuneresberhc (yr. 1123), Erh. 150; apud Thuneresberg 133. Sifrit de Tonresberc (1173), MB. 33a, 44. Sifridus de Donresberch (1241-58) 33a, 68. 90. Of a dragon it is said: er hete wol drî kiele verslunden (swallowed) und den Dunresberc, Dietr. drach. 262b (str. 834). vom Donresberge, Hpt Ztschr. 1, 438. A Donnersberg by Etteln, S. of Paderborn. AS. Ðunresleá, Kemble 3, 443. 4, 105. 5, 84. Ðunresfeld 3, 394. 5, 131, conf. 6, 342. Doneresbrunno, Ztschr. f. Hess. gesch. 1, 244.

                p. 171. ) With Slav. grom, hrom (Kl. schr. 2, 418) put our LG. grummeln of distant thunder, Ir. crom, cruim thunder,French grommeler growl; also Lith. grauja it thunders, growimmas thunder.

                p. 171. ) To Lith. Perkunas musza, Nesselm. 411b, and P. grauja, grumena 286a, add the phrases: Perkuns twyksterejo (has crashed), P. uzdege (has kindled); Perkuno szowimmas (stroke), P. growimmas (peal), P. zaibas (flash); perkunija thunderstorm. The Livl. reimchr. 1435 says of him: als ez Perkune ir abgot gap, daz nimmer sô harte gevrôs. Near Battenhof in Courland is a Perkunstein with legends about it, Kruse's Urgesch. 187. 49; a Perkuhnen near Libau. Pehrkones is hedge-mustard. The Lapps have an evil god or devil perkel, pergalak, Finn. perkele, Kalev. 10, 118. 141. 207. 327 (sup. to 987).

                p. 172. ) In Finn. the oak (tammi) is called God's tree, puu Yumalan, Kalev. 24, 98. 105-7. 115-7; conf. Zeus's oak p. 184, robur Jovis p. 170. Ju-glans, Dioj balanoj = castanea, Theophr. 3, 8. 10. Diosc. 1, 145. The oak being sacred to Thôrr, he slays the giants that take refuge under it; under the beech he has no power over them. It has been remarked, that lightning penetrates twenty times as far into the oak as into the beech, Fries bot. udfl. 1, 110.

                p. 172. ) A Swed. folksong (Arvidss. 3, 504) makes Thôrr live in the mountain: locka till Thor î fjäll. Beside Fi0rgvin's daughter Frigg, another daughter Iörð is called Oðin's wife, and is mother of Thôrr. But if Thôrr be = Faírguni, he is by turns Oðin's father and Oðin's son; and he, as well as Frigg, is a child of earth (iörð), Kl. schr. 2, 415. GDS. 119.

                p. 173. ) Of Enoch and Elias, who are likewise named together in the ON. dicer's prayer (Sup. to 150), we read in Fundgr. 2, 112:

                        sie hânt och die wal (option),

                        daz sie den regin behabin betalle (keep back rain)

                        swenne in gevalle (when they please),

                        unt in abir lâzin vliezen (again let flow);

                        ir zungin megin den himel besliezen (shut up)

                        unt widir ûftuon (open),

                        sô si sich wellint muon. The Lithuanians call Lady-day Elyiôs diena, Ilyios diena, on which it begins or ceases to rain. They derive it from ilyia, it sets in (to rain); is it not rather Elias's day? Elias legends of Wallachia and Bukowina in Schott. 375. Wolf Ztschr. 1, 180. On his battle with Antichrist conf. Griesh. 2, 149.

                p. 174. ) Hominem fulgure ictum cremari nefas; terra condi religio tradidit, Pliny 2, 54. Places struck by lightning were sacred with the Greeks, and were called hlusia, enhlusia, because the descending deity had visited them. They were not to be trampled: hoc modo contacta loca nec intueri nec calcari debere fulgurales pronuntiant libri, Amm. Marcell. 23, 5. One peculiar rite was thoroughly Etruscan: such a spot was called bidental, because a two-year old sheep was sacrif. there, Festus sub vv. bidental, ambidens. O. Müller's Etr. 2, 171; the railing round it was puteal, and may be compared to the Ossetic skinpole: bidental locus fulmine tactus et expiatus ove, Fronto 277. Cattle struck dead by lightning are not to be eaten, Westendorp 525.

                p. 175. ) uetoj, Umbr. savitu, Aufr. u. Kirchh. 2, 268. ue d ara Zeuj pannucoj, Od. 14, 457. Athen. 4, 73. ton Di alhqwj wmhn dia koskinou ourein, Aristoph. Clouds 373; conf. imbrem in cribrum gerere, Plaut. Ps. i. 1, 100. Dioj ombroj, Od. 9, 111. 358. oute Peloponnhsioij usen o qeoj, Paus. ii. 29, 6. An Egypt. magian conjures the air-god Hermes (ton aerion) for rain, Cass. Dio 71, 8. Indra, who has the thunderbolt, is also god of rain; when he disappeared, it rained no more, Holtzm. 3, 140. 1, 15. In Dalecarl. skaurman åk, the shower-man rides = it thunders, Almqv. 258; conf. Goth. skura vindis = lailay, OHG. scûr tempestas, grando, AS. scûr procella, nimbus, ON. skûr nimbus (Kl. schr. 2, 425).

                p. 175. ) Another rain-procession in 1415, Lindenbl. 301. Petronius's 'uvidi tanquam mures' is like our MHG. in Eracl. 142b: sô sît ir naz als eine mûs (from Enenkel), wet as a drowned rat. A prayer of the legio tonans, likewise under M. Antonine, brings on torrents, Cass. Dio 71, 8. A Hungarian prayer for rain, Ungarn in parab. 90; others in Klemm 2, 160 (Kl. schr. 2, 439-458).

                p. 176. ) Pikker, Kalewipoeg 3, 16. 23. 358. 16, 855. pikkertaati 20, 730. On pikker and pikne see Estn. Verh. 2, 36-7. He is the avenging thrice-nine god, that appears in the lightning, and with red-hot iron rod (raudwits) chastises evn the lesser gods, who flee before him, like the giants before Thor, to human hearths 2, 36-38. Pikne seems an abbrev. of pitkäinen, tonitru, which occurs in the Finnic form of the Esth. prayer for rain, Suomi 9, 91, and comes from pitkä longus; pitkäikäinen longaevus, the Old = Ukko, says Castrén myth. 39, or perhaps the long streak of the lightning. On Toro, Toor, Torropel see Estn. Verh. 2, 92.

                p. 176. ) Ukko blesses the corn, Peterson 106. In a waste field on the coast of Bretagne St. Sezny throws his hammer, and in one night the corn grows up into full ripe ears around it, Bret. Volkss. by Aug. Stöber, prob. after Souvestre.

                p. 177. ) The Thunder-god must be meant in the story of the red-bearded giant and the carriage with the golden he-goat, Wolf Ztschr. 2, 185-6. With the N. American Indians both Pahmioniqua and Jhächinchiä (red thunder) are men's names, Catlin tr. by Bergh. 136. 190-1.

                p. 178. ) The three phenomena of lightning are described as simultaneous in Hes. Theog. 691: keraunoi iktar ama bronth te kai asteroph poteonto. Distinct from fulgur is a fourth notion, fulguratio (sine ictu).

                p. 178. ) Fulgur is called bliks, as late as Justinger. Blixberg, now the ruined castle of Plixburg (Plickhs-perckh in old docs.), stands in the Münster valley near Colmar, oppos. a dwarf's mountain, Schöplfin Als. dipl. no. 1336. des snellen blickes tuc, Freid. 375. himelblicke, Servat. 397. 1651. Roth. 3536. In Styria, himlatzen to lighten, weterblicke fulgura, Hpt Ztschr. 8, 137. wetterleich, Stalder 2, 447. hab dir das plab feuer! H. Sachs ii. 4, 19a. blue light in thunderstorms, Schwab's Alb. 229. Lightning strikes or 'touches': mit blitz gerührt, Felsenb. 1, 7. It arises when sparks are struck with the fiery axe, p. 180a. 813; af þeim liomom leiptrir qvômo, Sæm. 151a. Koonidhj afiei yoloenta keraunon, Od. 24, 539. arghti keraunw 5, 128. 131. trisulcum fulgur, Festus, Varro ap. Non. 6, 2. Sen. Thyest. 1089. ignes trisulci, Ov. Met. 2, 848. Ibis 471. tela trisulca, Claudian iii. Cons. Hon. 14. genera fulminum tria esse ait Caecina, consiliarium, auctoritatis et status, Am. Marc. 23, 5; conf. O. Müll. Etr. 2, 170. The Etruscans had nine fulgurating gods 2, 84. In Romanic, lightning is camêg, form. also calaverna, chalávera; straglüsch, sagietta, saetta lightn. that pierces, also lütscherna (lucerna?). Lith. zaibas lightn., Perkuno zaibas streak of lightn., from zibeti to shine, Nesselm. 345. Mere fulguratio, summer-lightn., distant, feeble, that does not strike, the Finns call Kalevan tulet, K. valkiat, i.e. Calevae ignes, bruta fulmina autumnalia, or kapeen tulet, genii ignes. Lightning is named pur Dioj, Hebr. fire of God.

                p. 178 n.) Blecken, plechazan, heaven opening, reminds of the Bastarnae, who thought, when it lightened, the sky was falling on them, Livy 40, 58; conf. Duncker p. 84. In Servain songs munya is the vila's daughter, grom her brother. Mèsets, moon, marries Munya, Vuk 1, 154n. 229-231.

                p. 178. ) Tonitrus is toniris chlaccha, Hattem. 3, 598b. tonnerklapf, Justinger 383. 'thunderclap words,'French Simpl. 1, 231. dôzes klac, Parz. 379, 11. Troj. 12231. 14693. donrescal, Fundgr. 2, 116. tonnerbotz, Garg. 270b. 219b, from donerbôz. ON. skrugga tonitru, conf. skröggr fulminans. Dan. tordenskrald, tordenbrag. LG. grummel-wier, -schuur, -taaren (-cloud), Lyra 103. 117, see Sup. to 171. We say thunder rollt, grollt (if distant, grommelt). As lightn. is a bird's glance, thunder is the flapping of its wings, Klemm. 2, 155. Zeus's eagle holds his lightnings, and an eagle raises the storm-wind, p. 633; conf. the bird of Dawn.

                p. 179. ) Fulmen is OHG. donarstrâla, Graff 6, 752 and laucmedili, Gl. Jun. 191. Graff 2, 707. blic-schôz mit (or, an) dunr-slegen, Pass. 89, 49. 336, 9. des donres schuz, Freid. 128, 8. donrestrâl der niht enschiuzet, Turl. Wh. 11a. dornstrâl, Griesh. 151. die donerblicke, Fundgr. 1, 73. donresblicke, Freid. 123, 26. des donrisslac, Fundgr. 2, 125. 'ob der doner z'aller frist slüege, swann ez blekzend ist,' if it struck every time it lightens, W. gast 203. swaz er der heiden ane quam, die sluoc er alse ein doner sân, Rother 2734. dô sluog er alsô der thoner, for dem sich nieman mac bewarn, Diemer 218, 8. schûrslac, Helbl. 8, 888. wolkenschôz, Lanz. 1483. weterwegen, Pass. 336, 10. 2. OHG. drôa, drewa is both minae, oraculum, and fulmen, ictus, Graff 5, 246; because lightn. is a bodeful phenomenon? Old French es foldres du ciel, Ogier 1, 146. foudre qi art, Guiteclin 2, 137. Le tonnerre a sept différentes formes pour se manifester aux Polognotis. Il tombe en fer, alors il brise tout; en feu, il brûle; en souffre, il empoisonne; en genwille, il étouffe; en poudre, il étourdit; en pierre, il balaye ce quíl environne; en bois, il s'enfonce où il tombe, Mém. Celt. 2, 211.

p. 180. ) On thunderbolts see the 9th Bamb. Bericht p. 111. Beside donnerstein, we have wetterstein, krottenstein. Again: Herre Got, und liezt du vallen her ze tal ein stein, der mir derslüege, Suchenw. 78, 175. A fragment of thunderbolt healed over in the hand imparts to it enormous strength, Hpt Ztschr. 3, 366. A donnerstral of 2 ½ cwt. hangs in Ensheim church, Garg. 216a. Vestgötl. Thors-käjl (-wedge), Swed. Thor-viggar (-wedges), Sjöborg's Nomencl. f. nordiska fornlemningar 100. Indra's bolt and flash are svarus, from svar, sky, sun, Benfey 1, 457; conf. hlusia, Sup. to 174. Like elf-shot is the Sansk. 'vitulum veluti mater, ita fulmen Marutes sequitur,' Bopp Gl. 364a; conf. mugientis instar vaccae fulmen sonat 262a. Athena alone knows the keys to the thunderbolt chamber, Æsch. Eum. 727, like Mary in the nursery-tale of the forbidden chamber in heaven. Lith. 'Perkuno kulka,' P.'s ball. Serv. strèlitsa, arrow.

                p. 181. ) Miölnir reminds of Sl. m'lniya, molnia astraph, which Miklos. 50 derives from mlèti, conterere. The hammer is the simple, world-old implement, indispensable to nearly every trade, and adopted by not a few as a symbol. At boundaries the hamarsmark was deeply graven, a cross with hooked limbs; afterwards a crossed oak served for a landmark, Kl. schr. 2, 43. 55. In blessing the cup (signa full) the sign of the hammer was made: hann gerði hamarsmark yfir, Hâk. gôða saga c. 18. Thor með tungum hamrum is also in Landstad 14. Thor's image has a great hammer in its hand, Ol. helga s. ed. Christ. 26. Fornm. sög. 4, 245. That the hammer was portrayed and held sacred, is shown by the passage in Saxo, ed. Müll. 630: Magnus, inter cetera traeophorum suorum insignia, inusitati ponderis malleos quos Joviales vocabant, apud insularum quandam prisca virorum religione cultos, in patriam deportandos curavit. That was between 1105 and 1135. In Germany, perh. earlier, there were hammers and clubs as emblems of Donar on the church wall, or built into the town-gate; to which was linked a barbarous superstition and a legend of the cudgel, Hpt Ztschr. 5, 72. To the same cycle belong the tales of the devil's hammer, which is also called donnerkuhl, hammerkuhl, Müllenh. 268. 601; conf. p. 999. Pikne carries lightn. as an iron rod, see Sup. to 176.

                p. 181. ) Thôrr a foe to giants, p. 531. As Wôdan pursues the subterraneans, so he the giants. They will not come to the feast where Tordenveir appears, p. 189. 537. In Schonen, when it lightens, it is Thor flogging the trolls, Nilss. 4, 40. der (tievel) wider unsih vihtet mit viuren (viurînen, fiery) strâlen, Diemer 337, 9.

                p. 181. ) Hamer sla bamer, sla busseman dot! Müllenh. 603; conf. Hermen sla dermen, p. 355. bim hammer! Corrodi Professer 16. 58. Vikari 11. tummer und hammer, Prof. 96. 'May heaven's forked lightn. bury you 10,000 fathoms underground!' du widertuo ez balde, oder dir nimet der donner in drîn tagen den lîp, Wolfd. 331, 3. 4 (Hpt Ztschr. 4). A Danish oath is 'ney Thore gud!' Warmii Mon. Dan. 13. dass dich der Donnerstag (Thursday = Thor), Ph. v. Sittew. 2, 680. donnstig! du donnstigs bub! Gotthelf's Erz. 2, 195-6. The Lithuanians, says Æn. Sylvius, ascribe to Percunnos a great hammer, by means of which the sun is rescued from captivity, Æn. Sylv. in den Kurländ. send. 2, 6. N. Preuss. prov. bl. 2, 99; conf. Tettau u. Temme 28. Lith. 'kad Perkuns pakiles deszimt klafterin tave i zeme itrenktu!" may P. arise and strike thee 10 fathoms into the earth, Schleicher ber. der Wiener acad. 11, 108. 110. The Etruscans ascribed the hammer to Mantus, Gerh. 17.

                Beside the hammer Thôrr had his megin-giarðar, fortitudinis, roboris cingula, and iarn-greipr, chirotecas ferreas, Sn. 112-3. er hann spennir þeim (megingiörðum) um sik, þâ vex honum âs-megn hâlfu, Sn. 26. þâ spenti hann megingiörðum 114. This belt of might reminds us of Laurîn 906. 890. 1928: zebrechent sîn gürtelîn, dô hât er von zwelf man kraft. A girdle imparts strength and wisdom, Wigal. 332, and shows the right road, 22-3. A girdle that stills hunger, Fierabras 209; conf. the hunger-belt. A victoriae zona in Saxo ed. Müll. 124. Like Thôr's girdle is the blue band in Norske folkev. no. 60, p. 365. 374-6. Müllenh. schl. –holst. mär. 11. Moe's introd. xlvi.

                p. 183. ) In the Alps the salamander, whose appearance betokens a storm, is called wetter-giogo, Schott's Germans in Piedmont 300. 346. A female stag-beetle carries red hot coals into houses (Odenwald).

                p. 183 n.) The barba Jovis is held to have healing power, Caes. Heisterb. 7, 15. Jovis herba, hus-loek, Mone's Quellen 289a. hûs-louch, Mone 8, 403. donder-loek, crassula major, Mone's Qu. 283b. dundar-lök, Dybeck 1845 p. 61. Jovis caulis, sempervivum magn., Diosc. 4, 88. AS. þunor-wyrt, barba J.; house leek planted on cottage roofs, Hone's Yrbk. 1552; conf. p. 1214. The Swiss call the donnerbesen hexenbesen, witch's broom, Stald. 2, 42. Nemnich calls glecoma hederacea donnerrebe, gundrebe. The donnernessel, urtica dioica, resists thunder. Finn. Ukontuhnio, fungus, fomes; U. nauris, rapa; U. lummet, caltha palustris; Ukkon-lehti, folium (lappa). Jovis colus, Dioj hlakath, clinopodium, verbena, Diosc. 3, 99. 4, 61. Jovis madius, catanance, herba filicula 4, 132. iera tou qeou fhgoj at Dodona Paus. 1, 17. Jovis arbor, Ov. Met. 1, 104. A thunder tree in Tyrol, Wolf Ztschr. While redbreast and beetle attract lightning, the wannenweihe repels it, p. 674. It was a universal practice to ring the church bells to drive the thunder away, i.e. the heathen god, for bells are Christian. With the Thracians shooting was a safeguard against thunder and lightning (p. 20), as elsewhere against an eclipse, p. 707.

                p. 184. ) Note the Henneberg superstition about the habergeiss or himmelsziege, phalangium opilio, a spider (Maler Müller), in Brückner's Henneb. 11. By horsgök was formerly meant a real horse, Runa 3, 14-5. The heaven's-goat is in Finn. taivaan vuohi; she hovers between heaven and hell, bleating in the air, Schiefn. Finn. wtb. 612. Another Lith. name for it is dangaus ozys, Nesselm. 31, and Lett. Pehrkon ohsols, Possart's Kurl. 228.

                The Hýmisqviða calls Thôrr hafra drôttinn; his goats are tann-gniostr and tann-grisnir, dente frendens, as Lat. nefrendes = arietes (or porci) nondum frendentes, that have no teeth yet. Tanngniostr (tooth-gnasher) is also a man's by-name, Kormaks. 54. 134-6.

                p. 186. ) Donerswe, Ehrentraut's Fries. arch. 1, 435. Hpt Ztschr. 11, 378. de Donrspah, Notizenbl. 6, 306. It seems Thuris-lô in Trad. Corb. is not Thonares-lô, but giant's wood, p. 521; yet AS. Thunresleá, Kemble 3, 443. 4, 105. 5, 84. 243. Scand. Thörsleff, Molb. dipl. 1, 173; why not Thors-? In Sweden are Thorsby, Thorshälla, Thorslunda, Thorstuna, Thorsvi, Thorsåker, Thorsång, Thorsås, Thorsö. On Thorstuna, -åker, conf. Schlyter Sv. indeln. 32. Thorseng in Funen, Thorshöi in Schleswig, Müllenh. 584. In Norway Thôrsey, Thôrsnes, Thôrshof, Munch om Sk. 107. Thorsnes, Landn. 2, 12, took its name from a pillar with Thôr's image being drifted thither. Thorsharg = Thorshälla, Hildebr. tom. 3. Thorsborg, Gutal. 94, a limestone mountain 317. Thorshafn in Färöe.

                p. 187. ) To the few German proper names compounded with Donar, add Donarpreht, Hpt Ztschr. 7, 529. Albdonar is conn. with the plant albdona. In Kemble no. 337, for 'Thoneulf' read Thonerulf. The Sax. Chron., yr. 920, has Ðurcytel. An O. Irish name Tordealbhach (= Thoro similis, says O'Brien) is worth noting. Thorhalli in the Heidarvîgasaga. King Toril, whose lightning scorches the sea, burns up forests and devours the city (Hpt Ztschr. 4, 507-8), is apparently Thor himself; perhaps Torkil? for Thorild is fem.; conf. Thorkarl, p. 181 n.

                p. 187. ) Thôr's by-name of Vîngthôrr, Sæm. 70a; Eindriði, Sup. to 167, foot-note. He is hard-hugaðr, Sæm. 74b, as the iötun is hardraðr, p. 528. Again, fôstri Vîngnis ok Hlôru = fôstri Hlôrriða, Sup. to 167. Iarðar burr, earth's son, Sæm. 70a. 68a. 157; Fiörgynjar burr, Hlôðynjar burr, Yggs barn 52a. Is Veorr the same as verr, vir? conf. AS. weor, but the ON. modification would be viörr.

                p. 188. ) Thôrr, imagined as a son (in the Edda he is either a youth or in the prime of manhood), does not accord well with the 'old great-grandfather.' In Sæm. 54b he is a sveinn, but in 85b Asabragr. Are we to suppose two Donars, then? That in the North he may have been feared even more than Oðin seems to follow from the fact that so many names of men and women contain his name, and so few of Odin.

                p. 189. ) His sons by Iarnsaxa are Magni and Môði, Sn. 110 (conf. p. 823), he himself being endowed with âs-megin and âs-môðr. Iarnsaxa is elsewhere the name of a giantess. He calls himself Magna faðir, Sæm. 76a. His daughter becomes the bride of Alvîs 48a,b; is she Thrûðr, robur, whom he had by Sif? Sn. 101-9. He is himself called þrûðugr âss, Sæm. 72b. þrûðvaldr goða 76a; and his hammer þrûðhamarr 67b.

                p. 191. ) Neither the log-pelting at Hildesheim (with which conf. 'sawing the old woman,' p. 781-2) nor the wheel-rolling near Trier (Hocker's Mosel-ld. 1852, p. 415) can be connected with Jupiter. The latter ceremony, mentioned first in 1550 and last in 1779, took place thus. On the Thursday in Shrove-week an oak was set up on the Marxberg (Donnersb., Dummersb.), also a wheel. On Invocavit Sunday the tree was cut down, the wheel set on fire and rolled into the Moselle. A wheel, especially a flaming one, is the symbol of thunder, of Donar; hence the lords of Donnersberg, burg-vassals to Cochheim, bear it on their coat-of-arms, Hontheim 2, 5, tab. v., likewise those of Roll (thunder), while those of Hammerstein have three hammers in theirs. The signum of German legions, the 14th and 22nd, was the rota: there is a tile with 'Leg. xxii.' and a six-spoked wheel stamped on it. Mainz and Osnabrück have such a wheel on their scutcheon, Mainz as escutcheon of the legions (Fuchs's Mainz 2, 94. 106). Krodo in Bothe's Sassenchr. carries a wheel (p. 206n.). Has that heraldic wheel anything to do with the term rädels-führer, ringleader?

                p. 191. ) On keeping Thursday holy, see especially Nilsson 4, 44-5. tre Thorsdags-qvällar, Dyb. Runa 4, 37. 43. Cavallius 1, 404. In Swedish fairy-tales spirits appear on thorsdags-natt, and bewitch. If you do any work on Trinity Sunday, the lightning will strike it; hence women are unwilling to do needlework that day, Hpt Ztschr. 3, 360. Similar desecration of holidays by weaving, spinning or knitting is often mentioned; Servat. 2880:

                        wir sâzen unde wâben,

                        dô die lantliute êrten disen tac......

                        schiere runnen diu weppe von bluote,

                        daz ez uns des werkes erwante. A poor girl spins on our Lady's day, the thread sticks to her tongue and lips, Maerl. 2, 219. Of women spinning on Saturday, see Müllenh. 168; they that spool flax in church-time on Sunday, turn into stone, Reusch no. 30. Spinning was forbidden on Gertrude's day and Berchta's day, p. 270-3; among the Greeks on Bacchus's day, p. 911. Nevertheless the yarn spun on such holy days has peculiar virtues, p. 1099; conf. the teig-talgen, dough-kneading on Holy Saturday night, Superst. G, v. 194. Yet again: Si quis die Dominico boves junxerit et cum carro ambulaverit, dexterum bovem perdat, Lex Bajuv. vi. 2, 1.

 

Notes:

 

                          1. The surnames Hlôrriði, Sæm. 211a, and Eindriði need not conflict with the statement that Thôrr walks or else drives (p. 167n.). In Sn. 101 he is called fôstri Vingnis ok Hlôru (p. 187. 257). In Sn. Formâli 12 Loride is called Thôr's son, and Loricus Thôrs fôstri, who has a wife Glora.

 

 

CHAPTER IX

ZIO, (TIW, TYR)

 

 

The ON. name for dies Martis, Týsdagr, has the name of the Eddic god Týr (gen. Týs, acc. Tý) to account for it. The AS. Tiwesdæg and OHG. Ziestac scarcely have the simple name of the god left to keep them company, but it may be safely inferred from them: it must have been in AS. Tiw (1) in OHG. Zio. The runic letter T î, Ziu, will be discussed further on. The Gothic name for the day of the week is nowhere to be found; according to all analogy it would be Tivisdags, and then the god himself can only have been called Tius. These forms, Tiu-s, Tiw, Tý-r, Zio make a series like the similar þiu-s, þeow (þiw), þý-r, dio = puer, servus.

If the idea of our thundergod had somewhat narrow limits, that of Zio lands us in a measureless expanse. The non-Teutonic cognate [Aryan] languages confront us with a multitude of terms belonging to the root div, which, while enabling us to make up a fuller formula div, tiv, zio, yield the meanings 'brightness, sky, day, god'. Of Sanskrit words, dyaus (coelum) stands the closest to the Greek and German gods' names Zeuj, Tius.

 

 

SANSKRIT

GREEK

GOTHIC

Nom.  

dyaus

Zeuj

Tius

Voc. 

dyaus

Zeu

Tiu

Acc. 

divam

D…#a , D…a

Tiu

Gen.

divas

Di#Òj , DiÒj

Tivis

Dat.  

divê

Di#… , Di

Tiva

 

To the digammated and older form of the Greek oblique cases there corresponds also the Latin Jovem, Jovis, Jovi, for which we must assume a nom. Ju, Jus, though it has survived only in the compound Jupiter = Jus pater, ZeÝj pat»r. For, the initial in Jus, Jovis [pronounce j as y] seems to be a mere softening of the fuller dj in Djus, Djovis, which has preserved itself in Dijovis, just as DeÚj which was actually preserved in the Æolic dialect. These Greek and Latin words likewise contain the idea of the heavenly god, i.e., a personification of the sky. Dium, divum is the vault of heaven, and Zeus is the son of heaven, OÙranoà uƒÒj, oÙr£nioj, ZeÝj a„qšri na…wn (see Suppl.).

But apart from 'dyaus, Zeus and Jupiter,' the three common nouns dêvas (Sansk.), qeÒj and deus express the general notion of a divinity; they are related to the first three, yet distinct from them. The Lat. deus might seem to come nearest to our Tius, Zio; but its u, like the o in qeÒj, belongs to the flexion, not to the root, and therefore answers to the a in dêvas. (2) Nevertheless deus too must have sprung from devus, and qeÒj from qe#Òj, because the very q instead of d in the Greek word is accounted for by the reaction of the digamma on the initial. In the shortness of their e they both differe from dêvas, whose ê (=ai) grew by guna out of i, so that the Lith. dievas comes nearer to it. (3) But the adjectives d‹oj (not from d… oj, but rather for d…#oj) and dîvus correspond to dêvas as dîves dîvitis (p. 20) to dêvatas (deus). This approximation between dîvus and deus serves to confirm the origin of deus out of devus or divus with short i (see Suppl.)(4) Still more helpful to us is the fact that the Edda has a plur. tîvar meaning gods or heroes, Sæm. 30ª 41ª; rîkir tîvar (conf. rich god, p. 20), Sæm. 72ª 93ª; valtîvar, 52ª; sigtîvar, 189ª 248ª; the sing. is not in use. This tîvar, though not immediately related to Týr, yet seems related to it as d‹oj, qeÒj, qe‹oj are to ZeÚj; its î is established by the fact that the ON. dialect contracts a short iv into y; thus we obtain by the side of tiv a tîv, in Sanskrit by the side of a div a dêv, and in Latin by the side of deus a dîvus, these being strengthened or guna forms of the root div, tiv (splendere). (5) If the earthborn Tuisco, the ancestral god of our nation, stands (as Zeuss p. 72 has acutely suggested) for Tivisco, Tiusco, it shews on its very face the meaning of a divine heavenly being, leaving it an open question whether we will choose to understand it of Wuotan or any other god, barring always Tius himself, from whom it is derived (see Suppl.).

The light of day is a notion that borders on that of heaven, and it was likewise honoured with personification as a god: Lucetium Jovem appellabant, quod eum lucis esse causam credebant; Festus sub v. To begin with, dies (conf. interdiu, dio) is itself connected with deus and divus; Jupiter was called Diespiter, i.e., diei pater, for the old gen. was dies. Then the word in the sing. fluctuates between the masc. and fem. genders; and as the masc. Ju, Dju with the suffix n, is shaped into the fem. forms Jûno for Jovino, Djovino, and Diana, just so the Lith. name for day, diena, is fem., while the Slav. den dzien, dan, is masc. The Teutonic tongues have no word for sky or day taken from this root, but we can point to one in Greek: Cretenses D…a t¾n ¹mšran vocant (call the day Zeus), ipsi quoque Romani Diespitrem appellant, ut diei patrem; Macrob. Sat. 1, 15. The poetic and Doric forms ZÁna, ZhnÒj, Zhn…, and Z©na, ZanÒj, Zan…, for D…a, DiÒj, Di , correspond to the above formations; (6) and the Etruscans called Jupiter Tina, i.e. Dina; O. Müller 2, 43 (see Suppl.).

A derivative from the same root with another suffix seems to present itself in the ON. tîvor (deus?),(7) Sæm. 6

AS. tîr, gen. tîres (tiir, Cod. exon. 331, 18 gloria, splendor), and OS. tîr, gen. tîras, tîreas; with which I connect the OHG. ziori, ziari, zieri (splendidus), and the Lat. decus, decor, decorus. The AS. poets use the word tîr only to intensify other words: tîrmetod (deus gloriae, summus deus), Cædm. 143, 7; æsctîr wera (hasta gloriosa virorum), 124, 27; æsca tîr, 127, 10; tîrwine, Boëth. metr. 25, 41; tîrfruma, Cod. exon. 13, 21; tîrmeahtig (potentissimus), 72, 1; tîreádig (felicissimus), Cædm. 189, 13. 192, 16; tîrfæst (firmissimus), 64, 2. 189, 19; much in the same way as the AS. cormen, OHG. irman is prefixed. Now when a similar prefix tý meets us in the ON. writings, e.g. týhraustr (fortissimus), týspâkr (sapientissimus), Sn. 29, it confirms the affinity between tîr and Tý-r.

These intricate etymologies were not to be avoided: they entitle us to claim a sphere for the Teutonic god Zio, Tiw, Týr, which places him on a level with the loftiest deities of antiquity. Represented in the Edda as Oðin's son, he may seem inferior to him in power and moment; but the two really fall into one, inasmuch as both are directors of war and battle, and the fame of victory proceeds from each of them alike. For the olden time resolved all glory into military glory, and not content with Wuotan and Zio, it felt the need of a third war-god Hadu; the finer distinctions in their cultus are hidden from us now.

It is not to be overlooked, that Oðinn is often named Sigtýr, Hrôptatýr, Gautatýr, Hâgatýr, farmatýr (Sæm. 30. 47. 248ª. Sn. 94-6), bödvartýr, quasi pugnae deus, geirtýr (Fornm. sög. 9, 515-8); and that even Thôrr, to whom Jupiter's lightning has been handed over, appears as Reiðartýr, Reiditýr (Sn. 94), i.e. god of the waggon. (8) In all these poetical terms, we see that týr bears that more general sense which makes it suitable for all divinities, especially the higher ones. Týr has a perfect right to a name identical with Zeus. Add moreover, that the epithet of father was in a special degree accorded, not only to Jupiter, Diespiter, but to victory's patron Marspiter. (9)

Further, this lofty position is claimed for Zio by the oldest accounts that have reached us. Mars is singled out as a chief god of all the Germanic nations, and mentioned side by side with Mercury. The evidence is collected on p. 44. (10) Tacitus, in Hist. 4, 64, makes the Tencteri say right out: Communibus deis, et praecipuo deorum Marti grates agimus; we have no occasion to apply the passage to Wuotan, to whom the highest place usually belongs, as particular races may have assigned that to Zio. The still clearer testimony of Procopius 12, 15 to the worship of Ares among the dwellers of the North, (11) which says expressly: “epei qeÕn aÙtÕn nom…zousi mšgiston e nai,” ought to be compared with the statements of Jornandes on the Gothic Mars; in both places human sacrifices are the subject, and therefore Zeuss, p. 22, is for understanding it of Wuotan again, because to him Tacitus says that men were sacrificed; but he does not say to him alone, on the contrary, anent the Hermundurian offering, Ann. 13, 57, where 'viri' were also slain, Mars stands mentioned before Mercury. And Jornandes, who identifies the 'Gradivus pater' of the Getae in Virg. Aen. 3, 35 with the Mars of the Goths, must have been thinking of the special god of war, not of a higher and more general one, intimately as they interpenetrate one another in name and nature. All in favour of this view are the Scythian and Alanic legends of the war-sword, which will be examined by and by: if the Getic, Scythian and Gothic traditions meet anywhere, it is on this of Mars-worship. Neither can we disregard Widukind's representation at a later time (Pertz 5, 423) of the Saxon Mars set up on high. Donar and Wuotan, with whom at other times he is combined in a signficant trilogy, appear, like Jupiter and Mercury, to retire before him. But it is quite conceivable how the glossist quoted on p. 133 could render Wuotan by Mars, and Widukind glide easily from Mars to Hermes, i.e., Wodan, particularly if he had in his mind the analogy of those prefixes irman- (of which he is speaking) and tîr-. The ON. writers, while they recognise Oðin's influence on war and victory, speak no less distinctly of Týr, who is emphatically their Vîgaguð (deus proeliorum), Sn. 105, and again: hann er diarfastr ok best hugaðr, ok hann ræðr miöc sigri î orostom, Sn. 29 (see Suppl.).

No doubt there were there were mountains hallowed to Zio, as well as to Wuotan and Donar; the only difficulty is, to know which god, Wuotan or Zio, was meant by a particular name. May we place to his credit the name of the abbey of Siegburg in the Lower Rhine, which was founded in 1064 on a mountain where the ancient assize of the people was held? From that time the mountain was to have been called Mons sancti Michaelis after the christian conqueror, but the heathen Sigeberg could not be dislodged, it was only distorted into Siegburg; (12) or are we to explain the name by the river Sieg, which flows through the district? The ON. Sigtýsberg (OS. Sigu-tiwis-berag?), Sæm. 348ª might belong to Oðinn or to Týr. The Weimar map has in section 38 a Tisdorf, and in section 48 a Ziesberg, both in Lower Saxon districts on the Elbe. A place in Zealand, about which there are folk-tales, is Tybierg (Thiele 2, 20); also in Zealand are Tisvelde (Ti's well), Tysting; in Jutland, Tystathe, Tiislunde. In Sweden: Tistad, Tisby, Tisjö, Tyved. Zierberg in Bavaria (Cirberg, Zirberc, MB. 11, 71-3-5-6) and Zierenberg in Lower Hesse may be derived from the collateral form (see Suppl.). The mons Martis at Paris (Montmartre), of which even Abbo de bell. Par. 2, 196 makes mention, has to do with the Gallic Mars, whom some take to be Belus, others Hesus. With far better right than the Parisian mons Martis (yet conf. Waitz's Salic law, p. 52), we may assign to Zio the fanum Martis, now Famars in Hainault (p. 84), according to Herm. Müller the Old Frankish 'Disbargum (or Disbargus) in termino Toringorum' of Greg. tur. 2, 9, Chlodio's castellum. Dis- would be a Latinized form of Tis = Tives, perhaps recalling Dispiter, Diespiter; there is no Gallic word like it looking towards Mars, and the district is thoroughly Frankish, with Liphtinae close by, where we have Saxnôt named by the side of Thunar and Wôdan. As for Eresberg and Mersberg (3 or 4 pp. on), I have compared the oldest documents in Seibertz: no. 11 (anno 962) gives us Eresburg; no. 51 (1150) mons Eresberg; no. 70 (1176) mons Eresberch; no. 85 (1184) Heresburg; no. 115 (1201) mons Martis; no. 153 (1219) Mersberch; no. 167 (1222) Eresberch; no. 179 (1228) mons Martis; no. 186 (1229) mons Heresberg; no. 189 (1230) mons Martis and Mersberg. Mons Martis was the learned name, Mersberg the popular, and Eresberg the oldest. As mons and castellum are used by turns, berg and burg are equally right. Widukind 2, 11 and Dietmar 2, 1 spell Heresburg and Eresburch, when they describe the taking of the place in 938. According to the Ann. Corb. (Pertz 5, 8), they are sacred to both Ares and Hermes (Mars and Mercury).

The names of plants also confess the god: ON. Týsfiola, I daresay after the Lat. viola Martis, march-violet; Týrhialm (aconitum), otherwise Thorhialm, Thorhat (helmet, hat), conf. Germ. sturmhut, eisenhut, Dan. troldhat, a herb endowed with magic power, whose helmet-like shape might suggest either of those warlike gods Týr and Thôrr; Týviðr, Tý's wood, Dan. Tyved, Tysved (daphne mezereum), in the Helsing. dial. tis, tistbast, the mezereon, a beautiful poison- flower (see Suppl.).

While these names of places and plants sufficiently vouch for the wide-spread worship of the god, we must lay particular stress on one thing, that the name for the third day of the week, which is what we started with, bears living witness to him at this moment, not only in Scandinavia and England (ON. Tysdagr, Swed. Tisdag, Dan. Tirsdag, AS. Tiwesdæg), but among the common people in Swabia and Switzerland (Ziestag, Tiestag, diestik, beside our universal Dienstag); Schm. 4, 214 brings all the forms together. And there is yet one more testimony to the high antiquity of Zio-worship in Swabia, which we may gather from an old Wessobrunn gloss 'Cyuvari = Suâpa,' MB. 7, 375 and Diut. 2, 370; which I take to be not Teutonoari, as Zeuss does, pp. 146-9, but Ziowari Martem colentes, warian expressing, like Lat. colere, both habitare and qerapeÚein, so that the Suevi are “Gr. qer£pontej "Arhoj”.

But that is not all: further and weighty disclosures on the name and nature of the war-god await us at the hands of the Runic alphabet.

It is known that each separate rune has a name to itself, and these names vary more or less according to the nations that use them, but they are mostly very ancient words. The OHG. runes having to bestow the name dorn on D, and tac on T, require for their aspirate Z which closes the alphabet the name of Zio. In the ON. and AS. alphabets, dag stood for D, Týr and Tiw for T, þorn for þ, being the same three words, only in different places; occasionally the Anglo-Saxons wrote Tir or Tis. Whenever a list of runes keeps thorn for Th, and dag for D, it is sure to have Ti for T (as the Cod. Isidori paris. and bruxell.); so it is in the St Gall cod. 260 and the Brussels 9565, except that dorn is improperly put for thorn, and tag for dag, but Ti stands correctly opposite T. The Paris cod. 5239 has dhron (dhorn), tac, Ziu, that of Salzburg dhorn, Ti, daeg: everywhere the form Ziu shows the High Germ. acceptation, and the form Ti (once, in Cod. Vatic. Christinae 338, spelt Tu, perh. Tii) the Low Germ., the Saxon. The u in Ziu seems to be more archaic than the o of Zio, which has kept pace with the regular progress of the OHG. dialect, and follows the analogy of dio, servus; this relation between u and o may perhaps be seen still more in its true light, as we go on. But what is very remarkable, is that in the Vienna cod. 140 the name Tyz is given to T in an alphabet which uses the Gothic letters, for Tyz comes very near to our conjectural Goth. Tius. As well the retention as the unavoidable alterations of this divine name in the runes of the various races, may be taken as proofs of the antiquity and extent of Zio-worship.

How comes it that no rune has taken its name from Wuotan or Oðinn, the inventor of writing itself? 'R = reið, râd,' i.e., waggon, may indirectly at least be referred to the god of the Thunder- car; and F according to one interpretation signifies Freyr. Anyhow, 'T = Tyr' appears to have been a supremely honoured symbol, and the name of this god to have been specially sacred: in scratching the runes of victory on the sword, the name of Týr had to be twice inserted, Sæm. 194. The shape of the rune t has an obvious resemblence to the old-established symbol of the planet Mars when set upright m, and an AS. poem on the runes expressly says: tîr bið tâcna sum (tîr is one of the tokens, is a certain sign); where again the derivative form tîr is employed to explain the simple Tiw or Tî. Occasionally the poets speak of 'tîre tâcnian,' to mark with tîr (El. 753. Jud. 137, 18), and 'tîres to tâcne,' as mark of tîr (Beow. 3306); we may expound it as 'gloria, decore insignire, in gloriae signum,' and still think of the heathen symbol of the god, pretty much as we saw it done at the solemn blessing of the ale-cups (see Suppl.). (13)

Thus far we have dealt with the runic name Týr, Tiw, Zio, and no other. But here the same alphabets come out with a sharp connection between two names of the selfsame god. First, in the AS. lists, in adition to t Tir, we come upon a similar arrow with two barbs added q and the name Ear attached to it.(14) Then the OHG. alphabets, after using t for tac, find a use for that very symbol q the two names Tir and Ear, though Tir had already been given to t. It is evident then, that Tir and Ear Zio and Eo, Eor were two names for one god, and both must have been current among the several races, both Low German and High.

Evidence as regards Low Germany is found both in the rune Ear occuring in Anglo-Saxon, and in the remarkable name of Eresburg, Aeresburg being given to a notable seat of pagan worship in a district of Westphalia, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Irmansûl (v. supra, p. 116). That it was strictly Eresberg (as Siegburg was originally Sigberg, p. 198), follows both from the Latin rendering mons Martis, and from its later name Mersberg, (15) whose initial M could be explained by the contraction of the words 'in dem Eresberge, Aresberge,' (16) or it may be an imitation of the Latin name. There was a downright Marsberg in another district of Westphalia. (17) This Eresberc then is a Ziesberc, a Sig-tiwes-berg, and yet more closely an Areopagus, Mars' hill, AreiÒpagoj, pštra p£goj t' "Areioj (Aeschyl. Eum. 690).

Still more plainly are High German races, especially the Bavarian (Marcomannic) pointed to by that singular name for the third day of the week, Ertag, Iertag, Iertag, Irtag, Eritag, Erchtag, Erichtag, which answers to the rune Eor, and up to this moment lives to part off the Bavarians, Austrians and Tyrolese from the Swabians and Swiss (who, as former Ziowari, stick to Ziestag); along the boundaryline of these races must also have run formerly the frontier between Eor- worship and Zio-worship. True, the compound Ertac lacks the genetive ending -s which is preserved in Ziestac, and I have not been so fortunate as to hunt up an Erestac (18) in the older records of the 13-14 centuries; nevertheless the coincidence of the double names for the day and for the rune should be conclusive here, and we must suppose an OHG. Erestac, to match the Eresberg. One might be led to imagine that in Ertag the Earth (Erde according to the forms given at the beginning of ch. XIII) was meant. But the ancient way of thinking placed the earth in the centre of the world, not among the planets; she cannot therefore have given name to a day of the week, and there is no such day found in any nation, unless we turn Venus and Freyja into the earth.

To bear this Ertag company, there is that name of a place Eersel, quoted p. 154 from Gramaye, in which neither êra honor, nor its personification Era (ch. XVI, XXIX) is to be thought of, but solely a god of the week. It is worth noticing, that Ertac and Erdag occur as men's names; also, that the Taxandrian Eersel was but a little way off the Tisberg or Fanmars in Hainault (see Suppl.).

Now comes something far more important. As Zio is identical with Zeus as directors of wars, we see at a glance that Eor, Er, Ear, is one with "Arhj the son of Zeus; and as the Germans had given the rank of Zeus to their Wuotan, Týr and consequently Eor appears as the son of the highest god. Have we any means now left of getting at the sense of this obscure root Eor?

The description of the rune in the AS. poem gives only a slight hint, it runs thus:

Ear bið egle eorla gehwilcum,

þonne fæstlîce flæsc onginneð

hræw côlian, hrusan ceosan

blâc tô gebeddan. blæda gedreosað,

wynna gewîtað, wera geswîcað;

i.e., Ear fit importunus hominum cuicumque, quum caro incipit refrigescere, pallidumque corpus terram eligere conjugem. tunc enim gloriae dilabuntur, gaudia evanescunt, foedera cessant.

The description is of death coming on, and earthly joys dropping off; but who can that be, that at such a time is burdensome (egle, ail-some) to men? The ordinary meaning of ear, spica, arista, can be of no use here; I suppose that approaching dissolution, a personified death is to be understood, from which a transition to the destructive god of battles, the brotoluigÒj, miaifÒnoj "Arhj is easy to conceive. (19) "Arhj itself is used abstractly by the Greeks for destruction, murder, pestilence, just as our Wuotan is for furor and belli impetus, (20) and the Latin Mars for bellum, exitus pugnae, furor bellicus, conf. 'Mars = cafeht,' gefecht, fight, in Gl. Hrab. 969ª; as conversely the OHG. wîg pugna, bellum (Graff 1, 740) seems occasionally to denote the personal god of war. 'Wicgch quoque Mars est' says Ermoldus Nigellus (Pertz 2, 468), and he is said to farneman, AS. forniman, carry off, as Hild (Bellona) does elsewhere: dat inan wîc fornam, Hildebr. lied; in AS.: wîg ealle fornam, Beow. 2155; wîg fornom, Cod. exon. 291, 11. Do we not still say, war or battle snatched them all away? A remarkable gloss in the old Cod. sangall. 913, p. 193, has 'turbines = ziu' (we have no business to write zui), which may mean the storm of war, the Mars trux, saevus, or possibly the literal whirlwind, on which mythical names are sometimes bestowed; so it is either Zio himself, or a synonymous female personfication Ziu, bearing the same relation to Zio as diu (ancilla) to dio (servus).

Here comes in another string of explanations, overbold as some of them may seem. As Eresburg is just as often spelt Heresburg by the Frankish annalists, we may fairly bring in the Goth. haírus, AS. heor, OS. heru, ON. hiörr, ensis, cardo, although the names of the rune and the day of the week always appear without the aspirate. For in Greek we already have the two unaspirated words "Arnj and ¥or, sword, weapon, to compare with one another, and these point to a god of the sword. Then again the famous Abrenuntiatio names three heathen gods, Thunar, Wôden, Saxnôt, of whom the third can have been but little inferior to the other two in power and holiness. Sahsnôt is word for word gladii consors, ensifer [Germ. genoss, sharer]; who else but Zio or Eor and the Greek Ares? (21) The AS. genealogies preserve the name of Saxneát as the son of Wôden, and it is in perfect accordance with it, that Týr was the son of Oðinn, and Ares the son of Zeus (see Suppl.). But further, as the Saxons were so called, either because they wielded the sword of stone (saxum), or placed this god at the head of their race, so I think the Cheruscans of Tacitus, a people synonymous, nay identical with them, were named after Cheru, Heru = Eor, from whom their name can be derived. (22) After this weighty consonance of facts, which opens to us the meaning of the old national name, and at the same time teaches that 'heru' was first of all pronounced 'cheru,' and last of all 'eru, er,' I think we may also bring in the Gallic war-god Hesus or Esus (Lucan 1, 440), and state, that the metal iron is indicated by the planetary sign of Mars, the AS. 'tîres tâcen,' and consequently that the rune of Zio and Eor may be the picture of a sword with its handle , or of a spear. (23) The Scythian and Alanic legends dwell still more emphatically on the god's sword, and their agreement with Teutonic ways of thinking may safely be assumed, as Mars was equally prominent in the faith of the Scythians and that of the Goths.

The impressive personification of the sword matches well with that of the hammer, and to my thinking each confirms the other. Both idea and name of two of the greatest gods pass over into the instrument by which they display their might.

Herodotus 4, 62 informs us, that the Scythians worshipped Ares under the semblance or symbol of an ancient iron sword (akin£khj), which was elevated on an enormous stack of brushwood ['three furlongs in length and breadth, but less in height']: ™pˆ toÚtonnn d¾ toà Ôgkou ¢kin£khj sidhpeoj †drutai ¢rca‹oj ˜k£stoisi: kaˆ toàt' œsti toà "Arhoj tÕ ¥galma. Ammianus Marcellinus 31, 2 says of the Alani: Nec templum apud eos visitur aut delubrum, ne tugurium quidem culmo tectum cerni usquam potest, sed gladius barbarico ritu humi figitur nudus, eumque ut Martem, regionum quas circumcircant praesulem, verecundius colunt. And he had previously asserted of the Quadi also, a decidedly German people, 17, 12 (AD 358): Eductis mucronibus, quos pro numinibus colunt, juravere se permansuros in fide. Perhaps all the Teutonic nations swore by thier weapons, with a touching of the weapon, (24) just as the Scythians and Romans did per Martis frameam, Juvenal 13, 79. So Arnobius 6, 11: Ridetis temporibus priscis coluisse acinacem Scythiae nationes, .......pro Marte Romanos hastam, ut Varronis indicant Musae; this framea and hasta of the Romans is altogether like the Scythian sword. (25) Jornandes, following Priscus 201, 17, tells of the Scythian sword, how it came into the hands of Attila, cap. 35: Qui (Attila), quamvis hujus esset naturae ut semper confideret, addebat ei tamen confidentiam gladius Martis inventus, apud Scytharum reges semper habitus. Quem Priscus historicus tali refert occasione detectum, quum pastor, inquiens, quidam gregis unam buculam conspiceret claudicantem (noticed one heifer walking lame), nec causam tanti vulneris inveniret, sollicitus vestigia cruoris insequitur, tandemque venit ad gladium, quem depascens herbas bucula incaute calcaverat, effossumque protinus ad Attilam defert. Quo ille munere gratulatus, ut erat magnanimus, arbitratur se totius mundi principem constitutum, et per Martis gladium potestatem sibi concessam esse bellorum.

But the sword degenerated into an unlucky one, like some far-famed northern swords. Lambert relates, that a queen, Solomon of Hungary's mother, made a present of it to Otto, duke of Bavaria, that from this Otto's hands it came by way of loan to the younger Dedi, margrave Dedi's son, then to Henry IV., and lastly to Lupold of Mersburg, who, being thrown by his horse, and by the same sword transpierced, was buried at Mertenefeld. It is a question whether these local names Mersburg and Mertenefeld can have any reference to the sword of Mars. A great while after, the duke of Alba is said to have dug it out of the earth again after the battle of Mühlberg (Deutsche heldensage p. 311). We see through what lengthened periods popular tradition could go on nourishing itself on this world-old worship (see Suppl.).

With the word "Arhj the Lat. Mars appears to have nothing to do, being a contraction of Mavors, and the indispensable initial being even reduplicated in Mamers; so the fancied connexion between Eresburg and Marsberg will not hold.

In the Old Roman worship of Mars a prominent place is given to the legend of Picus, a son of Saturn, a wood-spirit who helped to nurse the babes Remus and Romulus; certain features in our antiquities seem to recall him, as will be shown later. Romulus consecrated the third month of the year to Mars, his progenitor; our ancestors also named it after a deity who may perhaps be identified with Mars. That is to say, the Anglo-Saxons called March Hrêðemônað, which Beda without hesitation traces to a goddess Hrêðe; possibly other races might explain it by a god Hrêða? These names would come from hrôð gloria, fama, ON. hrôðr, OHG. hruod, OFrank. chrôd, which helped to form many ancient words, e.g. OHG. Hruodgang, Hruodhilt, OFrank. Chrôdogang, Chrôdhild; did Hruodo, Chrôdo express to certain races the shining god of fame? (26) The Edda knows of no such epithet for Týr as Hrôðr or Hrœði (see Suppl.).

To these discoveries or conjectures we have been guided simply by the several surviving names of one of the greatest gods of our olden time, to whose attributes and surroundings we may have scarcely any other clue left. But now we may fairly apply to him in the main, what the poetry of other nations supplies. Zio is sure to have been valiant and fond of war, like Aries, lavish of glory, but stern and bloodthirsty (a†matoj asai "Arha, Il. 5, 289. 20, 78. 22, 267); he raves and rages like Zeus and Wuotan, he is that 'old blood-shedder' of the Servian song, he gladdens the hearts of ravens and wolves, who follow him to fields of battle, although these creatures again must be assigned more to Wuotan (p. 147); the Greek phrase makes them o„wno… and kÚnes (birds and dogs), and the fields of the slain, where the hounds hold revel, are called kunîn mšlphqra, Il. 13, 233. 17, 255. 18, 179. Battle-songs were also sure to be tuned to the praises of Zio, and perhaps war-dances executed (mšlpesqai "Arh , Il. 7, 241), from which I derive the persistent and widely prevalent custom of the solemn sword-dance, exactly the thing for the god of the sword. The Edda nowhere lays particular stress on the sword of war, it knows nothing of Sahsnôt, indeed its sverðâs is another god, Heimðallr; (27) but it sets Týr before us as one-handed, because the wolf, within whose jaws he laid his right hand as a pledge, bit it off at the joint, whence the writst was called ûlfliðr, wolf-lith, Sæm. 65ª. Sn. 35-6. This incident must have been well-known and characteristic of him, for the ON. exposition of the runes likewise says, under letter T: Týr er einhendr Asa; conf. Sn. 105. The rest of Teutonic legend has no trace of it, (28) unless we are to look for it in Walther's onehandedness, and find in his name the mighty 'wielder of hosts'. I prefer to adopt the happy explanation, (29) that the reason why Týr appears one-handed is, because hecan only give victory to one part of the combatants, as Hadu, another god who dispenses the fortune of war, and Plutos and Fortuna among the Greeks and Romans, are painted blind, because they deal out thier gifts at random (see Suppl.). Now, as victory was esteemed the highest of all fortune, the god of victory shares to the full the prominent characteristics of luck in general, partiality and fickleness. And a remoter period of our nation may have used names which bore upon this. (30)

Amongst the train of Ares and Mars there appear certain mythic beings who personify the notions of fear and horror. De‹moj and FÒboj (Il. 4, 440. 11, 317. 15, 119) answer to the Latin Pallor and Pavor; it is the two former that harness the steeds of Ares, FÒboj is called his son (13, 299), and in Aeschylus he is provided with a dwelling (mšlaqron tectum), out of which he suddenly leaps. So in the old Bohemian songs, Tras (tremor) and Strakh (terror) burst out of forest shades on the enemy's bands, chase them, press on their necks and squeeze out of their throats a loud cry. (Königinh. hs. 84. 104); they are ghostly and spectral. This borders upon Vôma, Omi and Yggr (pp. 119, 120), terms which designate the god himself, not his companions, sons or servants, yet they again bear witness to the community there was between Wuotan and Zio. Thôrr was called ôtti iötna, terror gigantum. When in our modern phraseology fear 'surprises, seizes, shakes, deprives of sense,' personfication is not far off; in the Iliad also 17, 67 clwrÕn dšoj (neut.) aƒre‹, pale fear seizes; but masculine embodiments like de‹moj, fÒboj, pallor, pavor, tras, strakh, bring it more vividly before us, and pavor was weakened by passing into the fem. paura, peur of the Romance. AS. þâ hine se brôga ongeat (terror eum invasit), Beow. 2583. OHG. forhta cham mih ana, N. ps. 54, 5; forhta anafiel ubar inan, T. 2, 4; conf. MHG. diu sorge im was sô verre entriten, sie möhte erreichen niht ein sper, fear was fled so far from him, a spear could not reach it, Wh. 280, 10 (see Suppl.). But further on, we shall get acquainted with a female Hilta, comparable to the Lat. Bellona and the Gr. Enyo and Eris, who is really one with war and the war-god.

Týr is described in Sn. 105 as a son of Oðinn, but in the Hymisqviða as a kinsman of the giants. His mother, whose name is not found, but whose beauty is indicated by the epithet all- gullin, all-golden, Sæm. 53ª, must have been a giant's daughter, who bore to Oðinn this immortal son (see Suppl.).

________________________

                1. It might have been Teow, from the analogy of þeow to þýr. Lye quotes, without references: Tiig, Mars, Tiiges- vel Tiis-dæg, dies Martis. The Epinal glosses brought to light by Mone actually furnish, no. 520 (Anzeiger 1838, p. 145), Tiig, Mars; also Oehler p. 351. The change of letters is like that of briig, jusculum, for brîw; and we may at least infer from it, that the vowel is long, Tîg. 

                2. Kuhn, in Zeitschr. f. d. alt. 2, 231, has rightly pointed out, that Zio can be immediately related only to dyaus and ZeÚj, not to deus and qeÒj; but he ought to have admitted that mediately it must be related to these last also. That div was the root of Zeus, had already been shown by O. Müller in Gött. anz. 1834, pp. 795-6.

                3. Conf. piemu poimh, and kiemas kèmh háims.

                4. If, as hinted on p. 26, d‹oj deus were conn. with dšw, the notion of binding must have arisen first out of the divine band, which is hardly conceivable.

                5. Sometimes, though rarely, we find another ON. dîar, Sæm. 91ª. Sn. 176. Yngl. saga cap. 2; it agrees with qeÒj more than with d‹oj.

                6. We know to what shifts Socrates is driven in trying to explain the forms ZÁna and D…a (Plato's Cratylus p. 29, Bekker); qeÒj he derives from qe‹n, currere (p. 32).

                7. Or must we read it tivor, and connect it with the AS. tifer, tiber, OHG. zepar?

                8. I do not reckon Angatýr among this set of words. It occurs frequently, both in the Hervararsaga and in Sæm. 114ª 119 9ª; this last passage calls Oðinn 'Friggjar ângantýr'. The true form is doubtless Anganþýr, as appears from the OHG. Angandeo (Trad. fuld. 1, 57), and the AS. Ongenþeow, Ongenþio (Beow. 4770. 4945-67. 5843-97. 5917-67); - týr would have been in AS. -teow, in OHG. -zio. Graff gives an Angandeo 1, 132. 5,87, which seems to be a misspelling, though the Trad. wizenb. no. 20 have a woman's name Agathiu (for Anganthiu), to which add the acc. Agathien, Agacien (Walthar. 629). The meaning of angan, ongen, is doubtful; 'ângan illrar brûdhar' is said to be 'deliciae malae mulieris,' but Biörn interprets it pedisequa, and Oðinn might fitly be called Friggae pedisequus. That some proper names in the Edda are corrupt, is plain from Hamdir, which ought everywhere to be Hamþýr, OHG. Hamadio, Hamideo (Schannat no. 576.Cod. lauresh. 2529), MHG. Hamdie (MsH 3, 213). This much I am sure of, that neither Anganþýr nor Hamþýr can contain a týr, which is almost always compounded with genitives in a figurative sense.

                9. Gellius 5, 12.

                10. A passage in Florus 2, 4: 'mox Ariovisto duce vovere de nostrorum militum praeda Marti suo torquem: intercepit Jupiter votum, nam de torquibus eorum aureum tropaem Jovi Flaminius erexit, speaks of the Insubrian Gauls, who were beaten in the consulship of Flaminius B.C. 225. But these Galli are both in other respects very like Germani, and the name of their leader is that of the Suevic (Swabian) king in Caesar.

                11. Qoul‹tai (men of Thule) is their generic name, but he expressly includes among them the GÒtqoi, whom he rightly regards as a different people from the GÒtqoi, conf. Gött. anz. 1828, p. 553.

                12. Docum. in Lacomblet, no. 203-4.

                13. Conf. note to Elene 155-6.

                14. In one poem, Cod. exon. 481, 18, the rune contains simply the vowel sound ea.

                15. This Eresburg or Mersberg stands in the pagus Hessi saxonicus (registr. Sarachonis p. 42, 735); conf. Wigands archiv I. 1, 36-7. II. 143. 268.

                16. So: Motgers = in dem Otgêrs hove [and, the nonce = then once, &c.].

                17. In the pagus Marstem, Marshem, Marsem (close to the Weser, near Marklô), reg Sarachonis 42, 727.

                18. In a passage from Keisersberg quoted by Schm. 1, 97, it is spelt Eristag, apparently to favour the derivation from 'dies aeris.'

                19. Or, without the need of any transition, Ear might at once be Ares: 'war is burdensome in old age'.

Trans.

                20. The notions of raving (wüten) and insanire are suitable to the blustering stormful god of war. Homer calls Ares qoàroj the wild, and ¨frwn the insensate, Öj oÜtina o de qšmista, Il. 5, 761. But ma…netai is said of other gods too, particularly Zeus (8, 360) and Dionysos or Bacchus (6, 132).

                21. One might think of Frô, Freyr (ch. X), but of course glittering swords were attributed to more than one god; thus Poseidon (Neptune) wields a deinÕn ¥or, Il. 14, 385, and Apollo is called crus£oroj, 5, 509. 15. 256.

                22. The suffix -sk would hardly fit with the material sense of heru, far better with a personal Heru.

                23. Does the author overlook, or deliberately reject, the ON. ör, gen. 0rvar, AS. arwe, arrow? Among the forms for Tuesday occur Erigtag, Ergetag; erge is to arwe, as sorge to sorwe, morgen to morwen, &c. Trans.

                24. Conf. RA. 896; and so late as Wigal. 6517: 'Swert, ûf dînem knopfe ich des swer,' Sword, on thy pommel I swear it.

                25. Juro per Dianam et Martem, Plaut. Mil. glor. 5, 21.

                26. In this connexion one might try to rescue the supicious and discredited legend of a Saxon divinity Krodo; there is authority for it in the 15th century, none whatever in the earlier Mid. Ages. Bothe's Sassenchronik (Leibn. 3, 286) relates under the year 780, that King Charles, during his conquest of the East Saxons, overthrew on the Hartesburg an idol similar to Saturn, which the people called Krodo. If such an event had really happened, it would most likely have been mentioned by the annalists, like the overthrow of the Irmansûl. For all that, the tradition need not be groundless, if other things would only correspond. Unfortunately the form Crôdo for Chrôdo, Hrôdo, Rôdo [like Catti, afterw. Chatti, Hatti, Hessen] is rather too ancient, and I can find no support for it in the Saxon speech. A doc. of 1284 (Langs reg. 4, 247) has a Waltherus dictus Krode, and a song in Nithart's MsH. 3, 20 a Krotolf, which however has no business to remind us of Hruodolf, Ruodolf, being not a proper name, but a nickname, and so to be derived from krote, a toad, to which must be referred many names of places, Krotenpful, &c., which have been mistakenly ascribed to the idol. The true form for Upper Germany would not tolerate a Kr, but only Hr or R (see Suppl.).

                27. Conf. Apollo crus£oroj above, p. 203, note.

                28. Cod. Pal. 361, 65ª tells of Julian, that he was forced to put his hand into the mouth of Mercury's statue: Die hant stiez er im in den munt dar, darinne uobte sich der vâlant (devil), er clemmete im die hant, und gehabete sie im sô vaste, daz er sich niht irlôsen mohte (could not get loose). Besides, the wolf's limb has a likeness to the Wuotan's limb, Woens-let, p. 160.

                29. Wackernagel's in the Schweiz. mus. 1, 107.

                30. The Greek epos expresses the changefulness of victory (n…kh ˜teralkhj, Il. 8, 171. 16, 362; n…kh ™pame…betai ¥ndraj, 6, 339) by an epithet of Ares, 'AlloprÒsalloj 5, 831. 889. A certain many-shaped and all-transforming being, with a name almost exactly the same, Vilanders (Ls. 1, 369-92), Baldanderst, Baldander (H. Sachs 1, 537. Simpliciss. bk 6, c. 9), has indeed no visible connexion with the god of war, but it may have been the name of a god. The similiarity of this Vilanders to the name of a place in the Tyrol, Villanders near Brixen (Velunutris, Vulunuturusa, acc. to Steub. p. 79. 178) is merely accidental.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 194. ) In Umbrian the nom. was still Juv. dat. Juve, voc. Jupater, Aufr. u. Kuhn Ztschr. 1, 128: Juveis luvfreis, Jupiter liber, Mommsen 139. What of Finn. taivas, coelum? or even Qouroj, the Assyrian mars (Suidas)? A divergent form, 'vater Zi' in Müllenh. nr. 410. -

Dyaus is not only coelum, but a Vasu-god, who for stealing the cow Nandini has to go through a human life, Holtzm. 3, 101-6. Parallel with the ideas belonging to the root div, are those developed out of Sansk. sur, splendeo: sura deus, sûrja sol, svar coelum.

                p. 194. ) Spiegel, Zendav. 6, connects qeoj with dhâ. Lith. dievas god, deive goddess, dievaitiz (godkin) thunderer, dievaite (goddesskin) rain-goddess; conf. Pott's Etym. forsch. 1st ed. 56-7. Benfrey's Orient 1, 510.

                p. 195. ) Wackernagel in Hpt Ztschr. 6, 19 retains Tuisco = duplex, and explains it as zwitter, two sexed, just as Lachm. makes tuisc = bimus, two years old; and Müllenhoff agrees with them 9, 261. In that case Tuisco would have nothing to do with Ziu, and Tacitus must have indicated the marvellous hermaphrodite nature. It is a question whether Zio, Tio have not perpetuated himself in the alarm and battle cries zieter, zeter, tiodute, tianut! and in ziu dar nâher, Parz. 651, 11; see Gramm. 3, 303. RA. 877. Leo in Hpt Ztschr. 5, 513. Again, did zie, tie (assembly) originally mean divum, as in 'sub divo, dio'? The Prov. troubadours have sotz dieu = sub divo, under the open sky, Diez's Leb. d. Troub. 166-7; yet it may mean sub Deo.

                p. 195. ) From div splendeo (Lith. zibeti) come div, diva coelum, and divan, divasa, divana, contr. dina, dies, Bopp Gl. 168. In Caes. B. Gall. 6, 18 Diespiter is called Dîspater, abl. Dite patre, O. Müll. Etr. 2, 67; conf. Dissunapiter, p. 225. The Etruscan panels have sometimes Tinia for Tina.

                p. 198. ) The Germani sacrificed to their Mars for victory: vestita spoliis donabere quercu (Mavors), Claudian in Ruf. 1, 339. huic praedae primordia vovebantur, huic truncis suspendebantur exuviae, Jorn. 5. hostiles suspendit in arbore cristas, Cl. in Ruf. 1, 346. Kuhn finds many points of comparison between Wuotan and the Roman Mars, whom he takes to have been originally a god of spring. Mârs = Mârutas is a by-name of Indra, Hpt Ztschr. 5, 491-2. To Týr Vîga-guð corresponds to 'Mars des wîge got' in En. 5591. Troj. 8140. 8241. Ms. 2, 198b: Mars strîtes got. Christian writers suppose an angel of victory marching in the front of battle: coram eo (Ottone imperatore) angelus penes quem victoria. Mars is a mere abstraction in Erm. Nig. 2, 2: straverat adversos Marsque Deusque viros, and Pertz 8, 228: jam per ordinatas omni parte acies Mars cruentus cepisset frendere; conf. p. 203.

                p. 198. ) Ziesburc, Augsburg, Hpt Ztschr. 8, 587. Diuspurch, Lacomb. 83 (yr. 904), Tusburg 205 (1065), Diusburg, all = Duisburg, Thietm. 5, 3. 9. Duseburg, Weisth. 4, 775. A Doesburgh in Gelders; Tussberg, Tyssenberg, Wolf Ztschr. 1, 337. Desberg near Vlotho, Redecker 59. Desenberg, Diesenberg; Tistede, Hamb. liber actor. 331-2. Tiisvad, Tiiswath, in Jutl., Molb. dipl. 1, 9. Zirelberg near Schwatz in Tyrol, H. Sachs i. 3, 251a; conf. p. 298, Zisa, Zisenburg, GDS. 541.

                p. 199. ) Add Tived, Tisved, Tivebark, Dyb. 1845, 50-9. MHG. zidelbast, Gervinus 2, 233; conf. Zigelinta, p. 1193.

                p. 200. ) The very old symbol of the planet Mars stood apparently for the war-god's shield and spear. Here Týr reminds us of Oðinn and his Gûngnir, p. 147. With tîre tâcnian conf. tîrfœst tâcen, Cod. Exon. 236, 13; sigortâcen 169, 3. sigorestâcen, friðotâcen circumcision, note on Elene 156. Cædm. 142, 29.

                p. 202. ) Judges often held their court on Ertag, see Kaltenb. 1, 563a, b. 580a; and judgment may mean war, decision, RA. 818-9. Was a sword set up in the court? On Famars, Fanmars see GDS. 529. 619.

                p. 204. ) The trinity of the Abrenunt. requires a god, not a mere hero; for that reason if no other, Sahsnôt must be Mars, or at lowest the Freyr of the Upsal trinity. With Saxneát compare Iarnsaxa, Thor's wife, Sn. 110. In Pomerania they still swear by 'doner sexen,' in Bavaria 'meiner sechsen,' Schm. 3, 193-4; conf. 'mein six!'

                p. 205. ) On the divine Cheru see GDS 612. Lucian supplies additional proofs of the Scythian worship of the sword; Toxaris 38: ou ma gar ton Avemon kai ton Akinakhn. Scytha 4: alla proj Akinakou kai Zamolxidoj, twn patrwwn hmin qewn. Jupiter Trag. 42: Skuqai Akinakh quontej kai Qrakej Zamolxidi. Conf. Clem. Alex. admon. 42. GDS. 231. Priscus, quoted in Jorn. c. 5, ed. Bonn. 201, 17. 224, remarks on the sword: Areoj xifoj oper on ieron kai para twn Skuqikwn basilewn timwmenon, oia dh tw eforw twn polemwn anakeimenon, en toij palai afanisqhnai cronoij, eita dia booj eureqhnai. The Mars of the Alans is mentioned by Lucan 8, 223: duros aeterni Martis Alanos. The worship of lance and sword among the Romans is attested by Justin 43, 3: Nam et ab origine rerum pro diis immortalibus veteres hastas coluere, ob cujus religionis memoriam adhuc deorum simulacris hastae adduntur; and Suet. Calig. 24: tres gladios in necem suam praeparatos Marti ultori addito elogio consecravit. Caesar's sword, preserved in Mars's temple at Cologne, was presented to Vitellius on his election, Mascou 1, 117. Later they knelt before the sword at a court martial, Ambraser liederb. 370; conf. Osw. 2969:

                        dô viel er nider ûf sîniu knie,

                        daz swert er an sîn hant gevie,

                        und zôch ez ûz der scheide,

                        der helt des niht vermeit,

                        daz ort (point) liez er nider. To Svantevit, Saxo ed. Müll. 824 gives a conspicuae granditatis ensis. The Indian Thugs worship on their knees an axe or bill, which is mysteriously forged, Ramasiana (Calcutta 1836).

                The war-god has also a helmet, witness the plant named Areoj kunh, Týr-hialm, p. 199.

                p. 206. ) Hrêð-cyninges, Cod. Exon. 319, 4, said of the wicked Eormanric, and therefore probably from hrêð, hrêðe, crudelis (p. 290); while Hrêðgotum 322, 3 answers to ON. Reiðgotum. 'Red red brengt raed raed,' where the Walloon has 'Mars, Mars,' Coreman's Année de l'anc. Belg. 16; conf. Ret-monat, p. 290. We are not warranted in referring Hrôðrs (or hrôðrs) andscoti, Hýmisq. 11, to Týr.

                p. 206 n. ) Zeuss 23 believes in Krodo, and thinks Reto in Letzner is the same. Crodio, Cod. Lauresh. 1634; Crodico 1342. Crôda, Kemble 1, 143; Crêda 1, 159. 177. Krode duvel, p. 248. I am not sure but that Nithart's Krotolf (Hpt 117) has after all a mythical sound, and it is followed by a similar compliment Üetelgôz, p. 367 n. Krathabothl in Lüntzel's Hildesh. 51. Kreetpfuhl, Kreetkind, DS. 1, 415. A 'rivus Krodenbek,' Falke's Trad. Corb. 612. Krottorf in Halberstadt country, conf. Krottenstein for Donnerstein.

                p. 207. ) Simrock thinks Týr is one-handed because a sword has only one edge. Does a trace of the myth linger in 'swâ ich weiz des wolves zant (tooth), dâ wil ich hüeten (take care of) mîner hant,' Freid. 137, 23? or in the proverb 'brant stant as dem dode (Tio?) sîne rechte hant,' Wolf Ztschr. 1, 337 ? Conf. the Latin phrases: pugnare aequo, pari, certo, ancipite, dubio, vario, proprio, suo Marte. Widukind has coeco Marte 1, 6, like coeco furore 1, 9. When fighters see the battle going against them, they leave off, and acknowledge wj proj ton qeon sfisin o agwn genoito, Procop. 2, 641. The fickleness of victory is known to the Od. 22, 236: oupw pagcu didou eteralkea nikhn (conf. 'ein Hie-und-dort,' Geo. 5748). Victory and luck are coupled together: sig und saelden geben, Albr. Tit. 2920-33. an sig u. saelden verderben 2929.

                p. 208. ) Companions of Mars: circumque atrae Formidinis ora, Iraeque Insidiaeque, die comitatus, aguntur, Aen. 12, 335. Luctus comitatur euntem (Tisiphonen), Et Pavor et Terror, trepidoque Insania vultu, Ov. Met. 4, 485. Bellona, Pavor, Formido, Claud. in Ruf. 1, 342; Metus cum fratre Pavore, De laud. Stil.; Impetus horribilisque Metus, In Pr. et Olybr. 78. deimata panika, Procop. 2, 350. panicus terror, Forcell. sub vv. pan, panicus. A panic foliage-rustling fright, Garg. 256b. So the Wend. volksl. 2, 266a make Triakh, Strakh dwell in a dismal haunted spot; Sl. triakh, trias, tremor, is perh. the Goth. þlahs. The Finn. kammo = genius horroris, horror. There is an ON. saying: Ôttar er fremst î flocki þâ flýa skal'; is that from ôtti, timor? conf. the Ôttar in Hyndlulioð. 'Thâ skaut (shot) þeim skelk î brîngu'  .. 'skaut skelk î brîngu ok ôtta,' where skelk and ôtta are accusatives of skelkr and ôtti, timor. Goth. agis disdraus ina, awe fell upon him, Luke 1, 12; conf. AS. Brôga and Egesa, Andr. xxxii. and diu naht-egese, Diemer 266, 23. OHG. gefieng thô allê forhta, fear took hold of, T. 49, 5. There is personification also in the Romance 'negus neu pot ir, si nos torna espavers, Albig. 4087. A different yet lively description is, 'so that the cat ran up their backs,' Garg. 256b. 218a. Beside Hilda-Bellona (p. 422) appears a male Hildôfr, Sæm. 75b, like Berhtolt beside Berhta.

                p. 208. ) Týr, who in the Hymisqviða accompanies Thor to the abode of Hymir, calls the latter his father, and Hymi's concubine his mother; he is therefore of giant extraction; conf. Uhland's Thor 162-3. Is this Týr not the god, as Simrock supposes him to be (Edda, ed. 2, 404)?

 

 

CHAPTER X

FRO, (FREYR)

 

 

 

The god that stands next in power and glory, is in the Norse mythology Freyr (Landn. 4, 7); with the Swedes he seems even to have occupied the third place. His name of itself proclaims how widely his worship prevailed among the other Teutonic races, a name sacred enough to be given to the Supreme Being even in christian times. There must have been a broad pregnant sense underlying the word, which made it equally fit for the individuality of one god, and for the comprehensive notion of dominion, whether sacred or secular: to some nations it signified the particular god, to others the soverain deity in general, pretty much as we found, connected with the proper names Zio, Zeus, the more general term deus, qeÒj. While the names of other heathen gods became an abomination to the christians, and a Gothic Vôdans or Thunrs would have grated harshly on the ear; this one expression, like the primitive guþ itself, could remain yet a long time without offence, and signify by turns the heavenly lord and an earthly one.

It is true, the names do not correspond quite exactly. The ON. Freyr gen. Freys, which Saxo gives quite correctly in its Danish form as Frö gen. Frös (whence Frösö, Fro's island), the Swed. likewise Frö, ought to be in Gothic Fráus or Fravis, (1) instead of which, every page of Ulphilas shows fráuja gen. fráujins, translating kurioj; on the other hand, the ON. dialect lacks both the weak form (Freyi, Freyja), and the meaning of lord. The remaining languages all hold with the Gothic. In OHG. the full form frouwo was already lost, the writers preferring truhtîn; it is only in the form of address 'frô mîn!' (O. i. 5, 35. ii. 14, 27. v. 7, 35. Ludw. lied) that the word for a divine or earthly lord was preserved, just as that antique sihora and sire (p. 27) lasted longest in addresses. In the Heliand too, when the word is used in addressing, it is always in the shortened form frô mîn! 123, 13. 140, 23. frô mîn the gôdo! 131, 6. 134, 15. 138, 1. 7. waldand frô mîn! 153, 8. drohtîn frô mîn! 15, 3; but in other cases we do find the complete frôho gen. frôhon 3, 24; frâho 119, 14, gen. frâhon 122, 9, frâon 3, 24. 5, 23; frôio 93, 1. 107, 21. Still the OS. poet uses the word seldomer than the synonyms drohtîn and hêrro, and he always puts a possessive with it, never an adjective (like mâri drohtîn, rîki drohtîn, craftag drohtîn, liob hêrro): all symptoms that the word was freezing up. The AS. freá gen. freán (for freâan, freâwan) has a wider sweep, it not only admits adjectives (freá ælmihtig, Cædm. 1, 9. 10, 1), but also forms compounds: âgendfreá, Cædm. 135, 4. aldorfreá 218, 29. folcfreá 111, 7; and even combines with dryhten: freádryhten, Cædm. 54, 29, gen. freahdrihtnes, Beow. 1585, dat. freodryhtne 5150.

But now by the side of our OHG. frô there is found a rigid (indecl.) frôno, which, placed before or after substantives, imparts the notion of lordly, high and holy; out of this was gradually developed a more flexible adj. of like meaning frôn, and again an adj. frônisc (pulcher, mundus, inclytus, arcanus), OS. frônisk, frânisk. In MHG. and even modern German we have a good many compounds with vrôn, as also the adj. in the above sense, while frohnen, fröhnen is to do service to one's lord, to dedicate. The Frisian dialect contributes a frân, dominicus, and frâna, minister publicus. The added -n in all these derivatives can be explained by the Gothic fráujinon dominari, though there was probably no Gothic fráujinisks, as frônisc seems not to have been formed till after the contraction frô and frôno had set in.

But even the Gothic fráuja does not present to us the simple stem, I look for it in a lost adj. fravis (like navis nekrÒj, Rom. 7,2), the same as the OHG. frô gen. frouwes, OS. fra gen. frahes, MHG. vrô, and our froh [fröhlich, frolic, &c.], and signifying mitis, laetus, blandus; whence the same dialects derive frouwî, gaudium, frouwan, laetum reddere, frouwida, laetitia, &c. (see Suppl.).

I do not mean to assert that a god Fráuja, Frouwo, Fraho was as distinctly worshipped by the Goths, Alamanns, Franks and Saxons in the first centuries of our era, as Freyr was long after in Scandinavia, it is even possible that the form fráuja already harboured a generalization of the more vividly concrete Fravis = Freyr, and therefore seemed less offensive to the christians. But in both words, the reference to a higher being is unmistakable, and in the Mid. ages there still seems to hang about the compounds with vrôn something weird, unearthly, a sense of old sacredness; this may account for the rare occurrence and the early disapearance of the OHG. frô, and even for the grammatical immobility of frôno; it is as though an echo of heathenism could still be detected in them.

A worship of Frô may be inferred even from the use of certain proper names and poetic epithets, especially by the Anglo-Saxons. The Goths even of later times use Fráuja as a man's name, to which we can hardly attribute the sense of lord simply: an envoy from king Hadafus to Charles the Great is called Froia (Pertz 1, 184. 2, 223), perhaps Froila (Fráujila); an OHG. Frewilo occurs in a document in Neugart no. 162. The AS. genealogies contain Wûscfreá; the name is often found elsewhere (Beda 138, 19. 153, 5), and seems suitable to Wôden the god or lord of wishing (p. 144). Equally to the point is the poetic freáwine (freáwine folca) in Beow. 4708. 4853. 4871, where it is a mere epithet of divine or god-loved heroes and kings. But the Wessex pedigree can produce its Freáwine, whom Saxo Gram. calls Frowinus (better Fröwinus); OHG. documents likewise have the proper name Frôwin (Trad. juvav. p. 302, Cod. lauresh. 712, but Friowini 722), and in several noble families, e.g., the distinguished one of the Von Huttens, it has kept up till modern times. What is remarkable, the Edda uses of a hero Freys vinr (Sæm. 219b), like the AS. freáwine, only uncompounded: Sigurðr is Frey's friend and protégé, or perhaps his votary and servant, in the way shown on p. 93. Here again freá, frô, freyr, cannot have merely the general meaning of lord, any lord. The Swedish heroes in the Bravalla fight, who boast their descent from Frö, are in Saxo, p. 144, called Frö dei necessarii, which is exactly our Freys vinar. In the same way the AS. and ON. poetries, and consequently the myths, have in common the expression freá Ingwina (gen. pl.), Beow. 2638, Ingvinar (gen. sing.) freyr, Ingunnar freyr, Sæm. 65b, Ingifreyr (Thorlac. obs. bor. spec. 6, p. 43), by which is to be understood a hero or god, not 'junior dominus,' as Thorlacius, p. 68, supposes. Yngvifreyr is called Oðin's son, Sn. 211ª. I shall come back to this mysterious combination of two mythical names, when I come to speak of the hero Ingo. The ON. skalds append this freyr to other names and to common nouns, e.g., in Kormakssaga, pp. 104. 122, 'fiörnis freyr, myrðifreyr' means no more than hero or man in the heightened general sense which we noticed in the words irmin, tîr and týr. In the same way the fem. freyja means frau, woman, lady, Kormakss. p. 317.

All that I have made out thus far on the name and idea of the god, will receive new light and confirmation when we come to examine his divine sister Freyja. The brother and sister are made alike in all their attributes, and each can stand for the other.

Frô does not appear in the series of gods of the week, because there was no room for him there; if we must translate him by a Roman name, it can scarcely be any other than that of Liber, whose association with Libera is extremely like that to Frô with Frôwa (Freyr with Freyja). As Liber and Libera are devoted to the service of Ceres or Dêmêtêr, Frô and Frôwa stand in close union with Nerthus. Frô's godhead seems to hold a middle place between the notion of the supreme lord and that of a being who brings about love and fruitfulness. He has Wuotan's creative quality, but performs no deeds of war; horse and sword he gives away, when consumed with longing for the fair Gerðr, as is sung in one of the most glorious lays of the Edda. Snorri says, rain and sunshine are in the gift of Freyr (as elsewhere Wuotan and Donar, pp. 157. 175); he is invoked for fertility of the soil and for peace (til ârs oc friðar, Sn. 28; conf. Yngl. saga cap. 12). The Swedes revered him as one of their chief gods, and Adam of Bremen says that at Upsal his statue stood by those of Thôr and Wôdan (see Suppl.). Also in Sæm. 85b he is named next to Oðinn and Thôrr (âsabragr) as the third god. Adam calls him Fricco, (2) which is precisely parallel to the frequent confusion of the two goddesses Freyja and Frigg, which I shall deal with at a future time. But he paints him as a god of peace and love: Tertius est Fricco, pacem voluptatemque largiens mortalibus, cujus etiam simulachrum fingunt ingenti priapo; (3) si nuptiae celebrandae sunt, (sacrificia offerunt) Fricconi. Then there is the story, harmonizing with this, though related from the christian point of view and to the heathen god's detriment of Frey's statue being carried round the country in a waggon, and of this beautiful young priestess, Fornm. sög. 2, 73-8. This progress takes place, 'þâ er hann skal gera mönnum ârbôt,' when he shall make for men year's boot; the people flock to meet the car, and bring their offerings, then the weather clears up and men look for a fruitful year. The offerings are those which Saxo, p. 15, names Fröblôt; live animals were presented, particularly oxen (Vigagl. saga, p. 56. Islend. sög. 2, 348), which seems to explain why Freyr is reckoned among the poetic names for an ox, Sn. 221ª; in like manner, horses were consecrated to him, such a one was called Freyfaxi and accounted holy, Vatnsd. p. 140; and human victims fell to him in Sweden, Saxo Gram. 42. Freyr possessed a boar named Gullinbursti, whose 'golden bristles' lighted up the night like day, who ran with the speed of a horse and drew the deity's car, Sn. 66. 132. It is therefore in Frey's worship that the atonement-boar is sacrificed (p. 51); (4) in Sweden cakes in the shape of a boar are baked on Yule-eve.

And here we come upon a good many relics of the service once done to the god, even outside of Scandinavia. We hear of the clean gold-hog (-ferch, whence dimin. farrow) in the popular customs of the Wetterau and Thuringia (p. 51). In the Mid. Dutch poem of Lantslôt ende Sandrîn, v. 374, a knight says to his maiden: 'ic heb u liever dan ên everswîn, al waert van finen goude ghewracht,' I hold you dearer than a boarswine, all were it of fine gold y-wrought; were they still in the habit of making gold jewels in the shape of boars? at least the rememberance of such a thing was not yet lost. Frô and his boar may have had a hand in a superstition of Gelderland, which however puts a famous hero in the place of the god: Derk met den beer (Theoderic, Derrick with the boar) goes his round on Christmas-eve night, and people are careful to get all implements of husbandry within doors, else the boar will trample them about, and make them unfit for use. (5) In the same Christmas season, dame Holda or Berhta sallied out, and looked after the ploughs and spindles, motherly goddesses instead of the god, Frouwa instead of Frô. With this again are connected the formae aprorum worn as charms by the remote Aestyans, who yet have the 'ritus habitusque Suevorum'. Tacitus Germ. 45 says, these figures represent the worship of the 'mater deûm,' of a female Frô, i.e., of Freyja; and what is conclusive on this point, the Edda (Sæm. 114ª) assigns the Gullinbursti to Freyja, though elsewhere he belongs to Freyr (see Suppl.).

Anglo-Saxon poetry, above all, makes mention of these boar-badges, these gold swine. When Constantine sees a vision in his sleep, he is said to be eoforcumble beþeaht (apri signo tectus) El. 76; it must have fastened as an auspicious omen over the head of the bed. Afterwards again, in the description of Eleue's stately progress to the east: þær wæs on eorle êðgesýne grîmhelm manig, œnlîc eoforcumbul (tunc in duce apparuit horrida cassis, excellens apri forma), El. 260. The poet is describing a decoration of the old heathen time, cumbul is the helmet's crest, and the king's helmet appears to be adorned with the image of a boar. Several passages in Beowulf place the matter beyond a doubt: eoforlîc scionon ofer hleor beran gehroden golde, fâh and fýrheard ferhwearde heold (apri formam videbantur supra genas gerere auro comptam, quae varia igneque durata vitam tuebatur), 605; hêt þa inberan eofor heáfodsegn, heaðosteápne helm (jussit afferri aprum, capitis signum, galeam in pugna prominentem), 4300; swîn ofer helme (sus supra galea), 2574; swîn ealgylden, eofor îrenheard (sus aureus, aper instar ferri durus), 2216, i.e., a helmet placed on the funeral pile as a costly jewel; helm befongen Freáwrâsnum (=OHG. Frôreisanum), swâ hine fyrndagum worhte wæpna smið, besette swînlîcum, þæt hine siðþan no brond ne beadoinêcas bîtan ne meahtan (galea ornata Frohonis signis, sicut eam olim fabricaverat armorum faber, circumdederat eam apri formis, ne gladius ensesve laedere eam possent), 2905; as a sacred divine symbol, it was to protect in battle and affright the foe. (6) The OHG. proper name Epurhelm, Eparhelm (eber, eofor, aper), placed by the side of Frôhelm (both occur in the Trad. patav. no 20; MB. 28b, 18) acquires thus a special and appropriate meaning. Such boar-crests might still serve as ornaments even to christian heroes, after the memory of Frô was obliterated, and long continue to be wrought simply as jewels (see Suppl.).

Some other traces of boar consecration have lasted still later, especially in England. The custom of the boar-vow I have explained in RA. 900-1. As even at the present day on festive occasions a wild boar's head is seen among the other dishes as a show-dish, they used in the Mid. Ages to serve it up at banquets, garnished with laurel and rosemary, to carry it about and lay all manner of pranks with it: 'Where stood a boar's head garnished with bayes and rosemarye,' says one ballad about Arthur's Table; when three strokes have been given with a rod over it, it is only the knife of a virtuous man that can carve the first slice. At other times, even a live boar makes its appearance in the hall, and a bold hero chops its head off. At Oxford they exhibit a boar's head on Christmas day, carry it solemnly round, singing: Caput apri defero, Reddens laudes Domino (see Suppl.). Those Aestyans may prove a link of fellowship between the Germanic nations and the Finnish and Asiatic; it is well worth noticing, that the Tcherkass (Circassians) worship a god of woods and hunting, Mesitch by name, who rides a wild boar with golden bristles. (7) To most of the other gods tame animals are sacred, to Frô the daring dauntless boar, as well befits a god of the chase. Perhaps also a huge boar with white tusks, (8) who in Slavic legend rises foaming out of a lake, is that of a kindred deity.

The Edda attributes to Freyr a sword of surpassing virtue, which could put itself into motion against the brood of giants, Sæm. 82. His giving it away when in straits, proved his ruin afterwards; it was held to be the cause of his death, when at the Ragnarökr he had to stand single combat with Surtr (swart), and missed his trusty blade. Sn. 73. There appear to have been other traditions also afloat about this sword; (9) and it would not seem far-fetched, if on the strength of it we placed the well-known trilogy of 'Thunar, Wôdan, Saxnôt' beside Adam of Bremen's 'Wodan, Thor, and Fricco' or the Eddic 'Oðinn, Asabragr, Freyr,' (10) that is to say, if we took Freyr, Fricco = Frô to be the same as Sahsnôt the sword-possessor. Add to this, that the Edda never mentions the sword of Týr. Nevertheless there are stronger reasons in favour of Sahsnôz being Zio: this for one, that he was a son of Wuotan, whereas Freyr comes of Niörðr, though some genealogies to be presently mentioned bring him into connexion with Wôden.

For the brilliant Freyr, the beneficent son of Niörðr, the dwarfs had constructed a wonderful ship Skiðblaðnir, which could fold up like a cloth, Sæm. 45b. Sn. 48. Yngl. saga cap. 7 (see Suppl.) (11)

Besides the Swedes, the Thrændir in Norway were devoted to Freyr above all other gods, Fornm. sög. 10, 312. Occasionally priests of his are named, as Thorðr Freys goði (of the 10thcentury), Landn. 4, 10 and Nialss. cap. 96; Flosi appears to have succeeded his father in the office; other Freysgyðlîngar are cited in Land. 4, 13. The Vigaglumssaga cap. 19 mentions Freys hof at Upsala, and cap. 26 his statue at Thverâ in Iceland, though only in a nightvision: he is pictured sitting on a chair, giving short and surly (stutt ok reðuliga) answers to his supplicants, so that Glûmr, who in cap. 9 had sacrificed an old ox to him, now on awaking from his dream neglected his service. In the Landn. 3, 2 and Vatnsd. pp. 44. 50 we are told of a Freyr giörr af silfri (made of silver), which was used in drawing lots; conf. Verlauff's note, p. 362. In the Landn. 4, 7 is preserved the usual formula for an oath: Hiâlpi mer svâ Freyr ok Niörðr ok hinn almâttki âs (so help me F. and N. and that almighty âs)! by which last is to be understood Thôrr rather than Oðinn, for in the Egilssaga p. 365, Freyr, Niörðr and the landâs (Thôrr) are likewise mentioned together. In the same Egilss. p. 672, Freyr ok Niörðr are again placed side by side. The story of the Brîsînga-men (-monile; append. to Sn. 354)says, Oðinn had appointed both Freyr and Niörðr to be sacrificial gods. Hallfreðr sang (Fornm. sög. 2, 53, conf. 12, 49):

Mer skyli Freyr oc Freyja, fiarð læt ek aðul Niarðar,

lîknist gröm við Grimni gramr ok Thôrr enn rammi!

That Freyr in these passages should be brought forward with Freyja and Niörðr, is easy to understand (see Suppl.).

Of Niörðr our German mythology would have nothing to tell, any more than Saxo Gram. ever mentions him by that name, had not Tacitus put in for us that happy touch of a goddess Nerthus, whose identity with the god is as abvious as that of Frô with Frouwa. The Gothic form Naírþus would do for either or even for both sexes; possibly Fráuja was considered the son of the goddess Naírþus, as Freyr is the god Niörðr, and in the circuit which the goddess makes in her car, publishing peace and fertility to mortals, we can recognise that of Freyr or of his father Niörðr. According to Yngl. saga cap. 11, these very blessings were believed to proceed from Niörðr also: 'auðigr sem Niörðr' (rich as N.) was a proverbial saying for a wealthy man, Vatnsd. p. 202. Snorri, in Formâli 10, identifies him with Saturn, for he instructed mankind in vine-dressing and husbandry; it would be nearer the mark to think of him and Freyr in connexion with Dionysus or Liber, or even with Noah, if any stress is to be laid on Niörð's abode being in Nôatûn. As 'freyr' was affixed to other names of heroes (p. 211-2), I find geirniörðr used for a hero in general, Sæm. 266b; conf. geirmîmir, geirniflûngr, &c. The name itself is hard to explain; is it akin to north, AS. norð, ON. norðr, Goth. naúrþs? In Sæm. 109b there is niarðlâs for sera firma, or pensilis? I have met with no Nirdu, Nerd, Nird among OHG. proper names, nor with a Neorð in the AS. writings. Irminon's polyptych 222ª has Narthildis (see Suppl.).

Niörðr appears to have been greatly honoured: hofum oc hörgum hann ræðr hundmörgum, Sæm. 36ª; especially, no doubt, among people that lived on the sea coast. The Edda makes him rule over wind, sea and fire, he loves waters and lakes, as Nerthus in Tacitus bathes in the lake (Sn. 27); from the mountains of the midland he longs to be away where the swans sing on the cool shore; a water-plant, the spongia marina, bears the name of Niarðar vöttr, Niörð's glove, which elsewhere was very likely passed on to his daughter Freyja, and so to Mary, for some kinds of orchis too, from their hand-shaped root, are called Mary's hand, lady-hand, god's hand (Dan. gudshaand).

As Dionysus stands outside the ring of the twelve Olympian gods, so Niörðr, Freyr and Freyja seem by rights not to have been reckoned among the Ases, though they are marshalled among them in Sn. 27-8. They were Vanir, and therefore, according to the view of the elder Edda, different from Ases; as these dwelt in Asgarð, so did the Vanir in Vanaheim, the Alfar in Alfheim, the Iötnar in Iötunheim. Freyr is called Vanîngi, Sæm. 86b. The Vanir were regarded as intelligent and wise, Sæm. 36ª; and they entered into intimate fellowship with the Ases, while the Alfs and Iötuns always remained opposed to them. Some have fancied that the Alfs and Iötuns stand for Celtic races, and the Vanir for Slav; and building chiefly on an attempt in Yngl. saga cap. 1 to find the name of the Tanais in Tanaqvîsl (or Vanaqvîsl !), they have drawn by inference an actual boundary-line between Aesir and Vanir = Germani and Slavi in the regions formerly occupied by them (see Suppl.). And sure enough a Russian is to this day called in Finnish Wenäiläinen, in Esth. Wennelane; even the name of the Wends might be dragged in, though the Vandili of Tacitus point the other way. Granting that there may be some foundation for these views, still to my mind the conceptions of Aesir, Vanir, Alfar in the Edda are sketched on a ground altogether too mythical for any historical meaning to be got out of them; as regards the contraxt between Ases and Vanir, I am aware of no essential difference in the cultus of the several gods; and, whatever stress it may be right to lay on the fact that Frouwa, Freyja answers to a Slavic goddess Priye, it does not at all follow that Frô, Frouwa and Nerthus were in a less degree Germanic deities than the rest. Tacitus is silent on the German Liber, as he is on our Jupiter, yet we are entitled to assume a universal veneration of Donar, even though the Gothic faírguni is better represented in Perkunas or Perûn; so also, to judge by what clues we have, Fráuja, Frô, Freyr appears so firmly established, that, considering the scanty information we have about our antiquities, no German race can be denied a share in him, though some nations may have worshipped him more than others; and even that is not easy to ascertain, except in Scandinavia. (12).

It is worthy of notice, that the AS. and ON. genealogies bring Freá into kinship with Wôden; some of them insert two more links, Friðuwulf and Friðuwald, so that the complete pedigree stands thus: Finn, Friðuwulf, Freálâf, Friðuwald, Wôden (or, in the place of Freálâf, our old acquaintance Freáwine). Here evidently Friðuwulf, Freálâf, Friðuwald are all the same thing, a mere expansion of the simple Freá. This follows even from a quite different ON. genealogy, Fornald. sög. 2, 12, which makes Burr (= Finn; conf. Rask, afh. 1, 107-8) the immediate progenitor of Oðinn, and him of Freyr, Niörðr and a second Freyr. The double Freyr corresponds to the AS. Friðuwulf and Friðuwald, as the words here expressing glad, free and fair are near of kin to one another. Lastly, when the same AS. genealogies by turns call Finn's father Godwulf and Folcwald, this last name is supported by the 'Fin Folcwalding' (-ing = son) of Cod. exon. 320, 10 and of Beow. 2172, where again the reference must be to Freá and his race, for the Edda (Sæm. 87ª, conf. 10ª) designates Freyr 'folcvaldi (al. folcvaldr) goða'. Now this folkvaldi means no other than dominator, princeps, i.e. the same as freá, frô, and seems, like it, to pass into a proper name. On the linking of Freyr and Niörðr with Oðinn, there will be more to say in ch. XV (see Suppl.). If Snorri's comparison of Niörðr with Kronos (Saturn) have any justification, evidently Poseidôn (Neptune) the son of Kronos would come nearer to our Teutonic sea-god; and Poseidîn might be referred to pÒsij (lord, Lith. pats, Sansk. patis, Goth. faþs), which means the same as Frô. Only then both Frô and Nirdu would again belong to the eldest race of gods.

_____________________

                1. Frey = Fravi, as hey = havi (hay), mey = (maid), ey = avi (isle), &c.

                2. Which occurs elsewhere as a man's name, e.g., Friccheo in Schannat, Trad. fuld. 386.

                3. With priapus pr…apoj I would identify the ON. friof semen, friofr foecundus; conf. Goth. fráiv, seed. The statement of Adamus Bremensis looks better, since Wolf in his Wodana xxi. xxii. xxiii brought to light the festivals and images of Priapus or Ters at a late period in the Netherlands. This ters is the AS. teors, OHG. zers, and Herbort 4054 is shy of uttering the name Xerses. Phallus-worship, so widely spread among the nations of antiquity, must have arisen out of an innocent veneration of the generative principle, which a later age, conscious of its sins, prudishly avoided. After all is said, there is an inkling of the same in Phol too and the avoidance of his name (ch. XI), though I do not venture exactly to identify him with fallÒj.

                4. Not only Demeter, but Zeus received boar-offerings, Il. 19, 197. 251.

                5. Staring, in the journal Mnemosyne, Leyden 1829. 1, 323; quoted thence in Westendorp's Noordsche mythologie, Dordrecht 1830. p. 495.

                6. On this point again, the statement of Tacitus about the Aestyans agrees so exactly, that it seems worth quoting in full: Aestyorum gentes quibus ritus habitusque Suevorum.......Matrem deûm venerantur: insigne superstitionis, formas aprorum gestant; id pro armis omniumque tutela securum deae cultorem etiam inter hostes praestat.

Trans.

                7. Erman's archiv für wissenschaftl. kunde Russlands 1842, heft 1, p. 118.

                8. LeukÕn odÒnta, Il. 11, 416. sàj leukù ÑdÒnti, Od. 19. 465.

                9. In old French poetry I find a famous sword wrought by Galant himself (Wielant, Wayland), and named Froberge or Floberge (Garin 1, 263. 2, 30-8); the latter reading has no discoverable sense, though our later Flamberge seems to have sprung from it. Froberge might very well be either a mere frô-bergende (lord-protecting) weapon, or a reminiscence of the god Frô's sword; conf. the word-formations quoted in my Gramm. 2, 486. There are townships called in OHG. Helidberga, Marahaberga (horse-stable). The ON. has no Freybiörg that I know of, though it has Thôrbiörg fem., and Thôrbergr masc.

                10. Also in Sn. 131, Oðinn, Thôrr, Freyr are speakers of doom.

                11. Pliny N. H. 5, 9 mentions Ethiopian 'naves plicatiles humeris translatas.'

                12. Wh. Müller, Nibelungensage pp. 136-148, wishes to extend the Vanir gods only to the Sueves and Goths, not to the western Germans, and to draw a distinction between the worship of Freyr and that of Wuotan, which to me looks very doubtful. As little can I give up the point, that Niörðr and Nerthus were brother and sister, and joint parents of Freyr and Freyja; this is grounded not only on a later representation of Snorri in the Yngl. saga cap. 4, where yet the female Niörð is nowher named, as Tacitus conversely knows only a female Nerthus and no god of that name; but also on Sæm. 65ª: 'við systor thinni gaztu slîkan mög,' with thy sister begattest thou such brood, though here again the sister is left unnamed.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 210. ) The Yngl. 13. calls Freyr veraldar god, Saxo calls Frö deorum satrapa. Goth. fráuja stands not only for kurioj, but for qeoj. The Monachus Sangall. says (Pertz 2, 733): tunc ille verba, quibus eo tempore superiores ab inferioribus honorari demulcerique vel adulari solebant, hoc modo labravit: 'laete vir domine, laetifice rex!' which is surely 'frô herro!' OS., beside frô, etc., has the form fruoho, Hel. 153, 1; if it had a god's name Frô, that would account for Frôs-â, i.e. Frô's aha, ouwa, ea. AS. has other compounds, freábeorht (freahbeort) limpidus, Lye and Hpt Ztschr. 9, 408a; freátorht limpidus 9, 511a, conf. Donarperht; freáraede expeditus (freahræde, Lye); freádrêman jubilare, freábodian nuntiare; a fem name Freáware, Beow. 4048. In Lohengr. 150, zuo dem frôn = to the holy place. ON. has also a frânn nitidus, coruscus. From Fris. frâna may we infer a frâ dominus? Bopp (Gl. 229b) conject. that fráuja may have been frabuja, and be conn. with Skr. prabhu, dominus excelsus; yet prauj, mild, seems to lie near (Slav. prav rectus, aequus, praviti regere, would conn. the meanings of probus, pra#oj, and fráuja).

                p. 212. ) Freyr oc Freyja, Sæm. 59. He resembles Bacchus Liber, Dionusoj o Eleuqerioj, Paus. i. 29, 2, and Jovis lufreis, liber. From his marriage with Gerðr (p. 309) sprang Fiölnir, Yngl. 12, 14. Saxo ed. M. 120 likewise mentions his temple at Upsal: Frö quoque, deorum satrapa, sedem haud procul Upsala cepit. Fröi gives food to men, Faye 10. The god travelling through the country in his car resembles Alber, who with larded feet visits the upland pastures (alpe) in spring, Wolf Ztschr. 2, 62; conf. Carm. Burana 131a: 'redit ab exilio Ver coma rutilante,' and the converse: 'Aestas in exilium jam peregrinatur,' ibid. (like Summer, p. 759); 'serato Ver carcere exit,' ib. 135.

                p. 213 n. ) On the phallus carried about in honour of Dionysos or Liber by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, see Herod. 2, 48. Hartung 2, 140. falloi estasi en toisi propulaioisi duo karta megaloi, Lucian De dea Syra 16, where more is told about phalli, conf. 28-9. An 'idolum priapi ex auro fabrefactum' in Pertz 5, 481. Phalli hung up in churches at Toulouse and Bordeaux, Westendp. 116. The O. Boh. for Priapus was Pripekal, Jungm. sub v., or Pripegala, Mone 2, 270 out of Adelgar in Martene 1, 626. Slovèn. kurenet, kurent, Serv. kurat.

                p. 214. ) Gullinbursti, conf. gulli byrstum, Sn. 104. There is a plant gullborst, which in German too is eberwurz, boarwort, p. 1208. The Herv. saga c. 14 (p. 463. 531) in one passage assigns the boar to Freyr, in the other (agreeing with Sæm. 114a) to Freyja. Perhaps the enormous boar in the OHG. song, Hattem. 3, 578, and the one that met Olaf, Fornm. sög. 5, 165, were the boar of Freyr. In thrashing they make a pig of straw, Schm. 2, 502, to represent the boar that 'walks in the corn' when the ears ripple in the breeze, conf. AS. gârsecg, ON. lagastafr; 'the wild sow in the corn,' Meier schw. 149. Rocholtz 2, 187; 'de willen swîne lâpet drupe,' Schambach 118b.

                p. 215. ) On eoforcumbul conf. Andr. and El. 28-9. Tristan has a boar shield, 4940. 6618. Frib. 1944; 'hevedes of wildbare (boars) ich-on to present brought,' Thom. Tristem 1, 75. Wrâsn, wraesen (Andr. 97) in Freá-wrâsnum is vinculum, and Freyr 'leysir or höptom (bonds) hvern,' Sæm. 65a (conf. p. 1231). A helmet in Hrolf Kr. saga is named Hildisvîn and Hildigöltr. Does 'Helmnôt Eleuther' in Walthar. 1008-17 conceal a divine Fro and Liber?

                p. 215. ) On the boar's head served up at Christmas, see Hone's Tab. –bk 1, 85 and Everyday-bk 1, 1619-20. guldsvin som lyser, Asbjö. 386; the giant's jul-galt, Cavallius 26; jul-hös, sinciput verrinum, Caval. Vóc. Verland. 28b.

                p. 216. ) Skîðblaðnir is from skîð, skîði, asser, tabula; Rask, Afh. 1, 365, sees in it a light Finl. vessel. Later stories about it in Müllenh. 453. The Yngl. saga gives the ship to Oðinn, but in Sæm. 45b and Sn. 48. 132 it is Frey's.

                p. 217. ) Freyr is the son of Niörðr and Skaði, who calls him 'enn frôði afi,' Sæm. 81a. She is a giant's, Þiazi's, daughter, as Gerðr is Gymi's; so that father and son have wedded giantesses. The story is lost of Freyr and Beli, whom Freyr, for want of his sword, slays with a buck's horn or his fist, Sn. 41; hence he is called bani Belja, Sæm. 9a. Freyr, at his teething, receives Alfheim, Sæm. 40b.

                Many places in Scand. preserve the memory of Freyr: Frösö, Norw. dipl.; conf. Frôsâ, Sup. to 210. Fröjrak (Freyraker), Dipl. norv. 1, 542. Fröslund, Dipl. suec. 2160; Fröswi 1777; Frösberg 2066. Frösåker in Vestmanl., Dyb. i. 3, 15. Schlyter Sv. indeln. 34. Fröslöff in Zealand, Molb. dipl. 1, 144 (yr 1402). Fröskog in Sweden, Runa 1844, 88. Frösunda, Frösved, Frösön, Frötuna, Frölunda, Fröjeslunda, all in Sweden. Frotunum, Dipl. suec. 228. Fryeled, in Jönköpings-län is styled in a doc. of 1313 (Dipl. suec. no. 1902) Fröle or Fröale; a Fröel in the I. of Gothland appears to be the same name, in which Wieselgr. 409 finds led = leið, way; may it not be eled, eld, fire? Niarðarhof ok Freyshof, Munch om Sk. 147. Vrôinlô, now Vronen in West Friesl., Böhmer reg. 28. Müllenh. Nordalb. stud. 138. A man's name Freysteinn is formed like Thôrsteinn.

                p. 217. ) Niörðr is called meins vani, innocuus, Sæm. 42a. Sæm. 130a speaks of 'Niarðar dœtur niu;' nine muses or waves? conf. Heimdall's 9 mothers. Niörðr lives at Nôatûn on the sea, and Weinhold in Hpt Ztschr. 6, 40, derives the name from Sansk. nîra aqua, nîradhi oceanus; add Nereus and Mod. Gr. neron. Schaffarik 1, 167 on the contrary connects Niörðr and Niörunn with Slav. nur terra. Or we might think of Finn. nuori juvenis, nuorus juventus, nuortua juvenesco, Esth. noor young, fresh, noordus youth; Lap. nuor young. Or of Celtic neart strength, Wel. nerth, Hpt Ztschr. 3, 226; Sabine Nero = fortis et strenuus, Lepsius Inscr. Umbr. 205. Coptic neter god and goddess, Buns. Egy. 1, 577. Basque nartea north, and Swed. Lap. nuort borealis, not Norw. nor Finn. That he ws thought of in conn. with the North, appears from 'inn norðri Niörðr,' Fornm. sög. 6, 258. 12, 151, where Fagrsk. 123 has nerðri. -

Places named after him: Niarðey, Landn. 2, 19. Niarðvîk 4, 2. 4. Laxd. 364. Niarðarlögr, Ol. Tr. c. 102. Fornm. s. 2, 252 (see 12, 324). Munch's Biörgyn 121; al. Marða-lög, Iarðar-lög. Is the Swed. Närtuna for Närd-tuna? and dare we bring in our Nörten by Göttingen? Thorlacius vii. 91 thinks niarð-lâs in Sæm. 109b means sera adstricta, as niarð-giörð is arctum cingulum (niarð = tight, fast, or simply intensive). What means the proverb 'galli er â giöf Niarðar' ? Niörðûngr ? Gl. Edd. Hafn. 1, 632b.

                p. 218. ) Rask also (Saml. afh. 2, 282-3) takes the Vanir for Slavs, and conn. Heimdall with Bielbogh. I would rather suppose a Vanic cult among the Goths and other (subseq. High German) tribes, and an Asic in Lower Germany and Scandinavia, Kl. schr. 5, 423 seq. 436 seq. 'Over hondert milen henen, Daer wetic (wot I) enen wilden Wenen,' Walew. 5938; appar. an elf, a smith, conf. Jonckbloet 284.

                p. 219. ) Oðin's connection with Freyr and Niörðr, pointed out on p. 348, becomes yet closer through the following circumstances. Oðinn, like Freyr, is a god of fertility. Both are said to own Skîðblaðnir (Sup. to 216), both Gerðr, p. 309. Fiölnir, son of Freyr and Gerðr, is another name of Oðinn, Sæm. 46b (p. 348). Skaði, Niörð's wife and Frey's mother, is afterwards Oðin's spouse.

 

 

 

CHAPTER XI

PALTAR (BALDER)

 

 

 

The myth of Balder, one of the most ingenious and beautiful in the Edda, has happily for us been also handed down in a later form with variations: and there is no better example of fluctuations in a god-myth. The Edda sets forth, how the pure blameless deity is struck with Mistiltein by the blind Höðr, and must go down to the nether world, bewailed by all; nothing can fetch him back, and Nanna the true wife follows him in death. In Saxo, all is pitched in a lower key: Balder and Hother are rival suitors, both wooing Nanna, and Hother, the favoured one manages to procure a magic sword, by which alone his enemy is vulnerable; when the fortune of war has wavered long between them, Hother is at last victorious and slays the demigod, to whom Hel, glad at the near prospect of possessing him, shews herself beforehand. But here the grand funeral pile is prepared for Gelder, a companion of Balder, of whom the account in the Edda knows nothing whatever. The worship of the god is attested chiefly by the Friðþiofssaga, v. Fornald. sög. 2, 63 seq. (see Suppl.).

Baldr, gen. Baldrs, reappears in the OHG. proper name Paltar (in Meichelbeck no. 450. 460. 611); (1) and in the AS. bealdor, baldor, signifying a lord, prince, king, and seemingly used only with a gen. pl. before it: gumena baldor, Cædm. 163, 4. wigena baldor, Jud. 132, 47. sinca bealdor, Beow. 4852. winia bealdor 5130. It is remarkable that in the Cod. exon 276, 18 mæða bealdor (virginum princeps) is said even of a maiden. I know of only a few examples in the ON.: baldur î brynju, Sæm. 272b, and herbaldr 218b are used for a hero in general; atgeirs baldr (lanceae vir), Fornm. sög. 5, 307. This conversion from a proper name to a noun appellative exactly reminds us of fráuja, frô, freá, and the ON. týr. As bealdor is already extinct in AS. prose, our proper name Paltar seems likewise to have died out early; heathens songs in OHG may have known a paltar = princeps. Such Gothic forms as Baldrs, gen. Baldris, and baldrs (princeps), may fairly be assumed. (2)

This Baldrs would in strictness appear to have no connexion with the Goth. balþs (bold, audax), nor Paltar with the OHG. pald, nor Baldr with the ON. ballr. As a rule, the Gothic ld is represented by ON. ld and OHG. lt: the Gothic lþ by ON. ll and OHG. ld. (3) But the OS. and AS. have ld in both cases, and even in GOthic, ON. and OHG. a root will sometimes appear in both forms in the same language; (4) so that a close connexion between balþs and Baldrs, (5) pald and Paltar, is possible after all. On mythological grounds it is even probable: Balder's wife Nanna is also the bold one, from nenna to dare; in Gothic she would have been Nanþô from nanþjan, in OHG. Nandâ from gi-nendan. The Baldr of the Edda may not distinguish himself by bold deeds, but in Saxo he fights most valiantly; and neither of these narratives pretends to give a complete account of his life. Perhaps the Gothic Balthae (Jornandes 5, 29) traced their origin to a divine Balþ or Baldrs (see Suppl.).

Yet even this meaning of the 'bold' god or hero might be a later one: the Lith. baltas and Lett. balts signify the white, the good; and by the doctrine of consonant-change, baltas exactly answers to the Goth. balþs and OHG. pald. Add to this, that the AS. genealogies call Wôden's son not Bealdor, Baldor, but Bældæg, Beldeg, which would lead us to expect an OHG. Paltac, a form that I confess I have nowhere read. But both dialects have plenty of other proper names compounded with dæg and tac: OHG. Adaltac, Alptac, Ingatac, Kêrtac, Helmtac, Hruodtac, Regintac, Sigitac; OS. Alacdag, Alfdag (Albdag, Pertz 1, 286), Hildidag, Liuddag, Osdag, Wulfdag; AS. Wegdæg, Swefdæg; even the On. has the name Svipdagr. Now, either Bældæg simply stands for Bealdor, and is synonymous with it (as e.g., Regintac with Reginari Sigitac with Sigar, Sigheri) (6); or else we must recognise in the word dæg, dag, tac itself a personification, such as we found another root undergoing (p. 194-5) in the words div, divan, dina, dies; and both alike would express a shining one, a white one, a god. Prefixing to this the Slavic bièl, bèl, we have no need to take Bældæg as standing for Bealdor or anything else, Bæl-dæg itself is white-god, light-god, he that shines as sky and light and day, the kindly Bièlbôgh, Bèlbôgh of the Slav system (see Suppl.). It is in perfect accord with this explanation of Bæl-dæg, that the AS. tale of ancestry assigns to him a son Brond, of whom the Edda is silent, brond, brand, ON. brandr, signifying jubar, fax, titio. Bældæg therefore, as regards his name, would agree with Berhta, the bright goddess.

We have to consider a few more circumstances bearing on this point. Baldr's beauty is thus described in Sn. 26: 'Hann er svâ fagr âlitum ok biartr svâ at lysir af honum, oc eitt gras er svâ hvitt, at iafnat er til Baldrs brâr, þat er allra grasa hvîtast oc þar eptir mâttu marka hans fegurð bæði â hâri ok lîki'; he is so fair of countenance and bright that he shines of himself, there is a grass so white that it is evened with Baldr's brows, it is of all grasses whitest, and thereby mayest thou mark his fairness both in hair and body. This plant, named Baldrsbrâ after the god's white eyebrow, (7) is either the anthemis cotula, still called Barbro in Sweden, Balsenbro, Ballensbra in Schonen, and Barbrogräs in Denmark, or the matricaria maritima inodora, which retains the original name in Iceland (see Suppl.). (8) In Skåne there is a Baldursberg, in the Öttingen country a Baldern, and in the Vorarlberg, east of Bregenz, Balderschwang; such names of places demand caution, as they may be taken from men, Baldar or Baldheri, I therefore withhold the mention of several more. But the heavenly abode of the god was called Breiðablik, nom. pl. (Sæm. 41b, Sn. 21-7), i.e. broad splendors, which may have reference to the streaks of the milky way; a place near Lethra, not far from Roeskild, is said to have borne the name of Bredeblick. (9) This very expression re-appears in a poem of the twelfth century, though not in reference to a dwelling- place, but to a host of snow-white steeds and heroes advancing over the battlefield: Dô brâhte Dietherîches vane zvencik dûsint lossam in breither blickin uber lant, Roth. 2635. In Wh. 381, 16: 'daz bluot über die blicke flôz, si wurdn almeistic rôtgevar,' did the blood flow over the paths of the field, or over the shining silks?

If Bældæg and Brond reveal to us that the worship of Balder had a definite form of its own even outside of Scandinavia, we may conclude from the general diffusion of all the most essential proper names entering into the main plot of the myth there, that this myth as a whole was known to all Teutons. The goddess Hel, as will be more fully shown in ch. XIII, answers to the Gothic impersonal noun halja, OHG. hella. Höðr (acc. Höð, gen. Haðar, dat. Heði), pictured as a blind god of tremendous strength (Sn. 31), who without malice discharges the fatal arrow at Baldr, is called Hotherus in Saxo, and implies a Goth. Haþus, AS. Heaðo, OHG. Hadu, OFrank. Chado, of which we have still undoubted traces in proper names and poetic compounds. OHG. Hadupraht, Hadufuns, Hadupald, Hadufrid, Hadumâr, Hadupurc, Hadulint, Haduwîc (Hedwig), &c., forms which abut close on the Catumêrus in Tacitus Hadumâr, Hadamâr). In AS. poetry are still found the terms heaðorinc (vir egregius, nobilis), Cædm. 193, 4. Beow. 737. 4927; heaðowelm (belli impetus, fervor), Cædm. 21, 14. 147, 8. Beow. 164. 5633; heaðoswât (sudor bellicus), Beow. 2919. 3211. 3334; heaðowæd (vestis bellica), Beow. 78; heaðubyrne (lorica bellica), Cod. exon. 297, 7; heaðosigel and heaðogleám (egregium jubar), Cod. exon. 486, 17 and 438, 6; heaðolâc (pugnae ludus), Beow. 1862. 3943; heaðogrim (atrocissimus), Beow. 1090. 5378; heaðosioc (pugna vulneratus), Beow. 5504; heaðosteáp (celsus), Beow. 2490. 4301. In these words, except where the meaning is merely intensified, the prevailing idea is plainly that of battle and strife, and the god or hero must have been thought of and honoured as a warrior. Therefore Haþus, Höðr, as well as Wuotan and Zio, expressed phenomena of war; and he was imagined blind, because he dealt out at random good hap and ill (p. 207).

Then, beside Höðr, we have Hermôðr interweaving himself in the thread of Balder's history; he is dispatched to Hel, to demand his beloved brother back from the underworld. In Saxo he is already forgotten; the AS. genealogy places its Heremôð among Wôden's ancestors, and names as his son either Sceldwa or the Sceáf renowned in story, whereas in the North he and Balder alike are the offspring of Oðinn; in the same way we saw (p. 219) Freyr taken for the father as well as the son of Niörðr. A later Heremôd appears in Beow. 1795. 3417, but still in kinship with the old races; he is perhaps that hero, named by the side of Sigmundr in Sæm. 113ª, to whom Oðinn lends helm and hauberk. AS. title-deeds also contain the name Kemb. 1, 232. 141; and in OHG. Herimuot, Herimaot, occurs very often (Graff 2, 699 anno 782, from MB. 7, 373. Neugart no. 179. 214. 244. 260. annis 809-22-30-34. Ried. no. 21 anno 821), but neither song nor story has a tale to tell of him (see Suppl.).

So much the more valuable are the revelations of the Merseburg discovery; not only are we fully assured now of a divine Balder in Germany, but there emerges again a long-forgotten mythus, and with it a new name unknown even to the North.

When, says the lay, Phol (Balder) and Wodan were one day riding in the forest, one foot of Balder's foal, 'demo Balderes volon,' was wretched out of joint, whereupon the heavenly habitants bestowed their best pains on setting it right again, but neither Sinngund and Sunna, nor yet Frûa and Folla could do any good, only Wodan the wizard himself could conjure and heal the limb (see Suppl.).

The whole incident is as little known to the Edda as to other Norse legends. Yet what was told in a heathen spell in Thuringia before the tenth century is still in its substance found lurking in conjuring formulas known to the country folk of Scotland and Denmark (conf. ch. XXXIII, Dislocation), except that they apply to Jesus what the heathens believed of Balder and Wodan. It is somewhat odd, that Cato (De re rust. 160) should give, likewise for a dislocated limb, an Old Roman or perhaps Sabine form of spell, which is unintelligible to us, but in which a god is evidently invoked: Luxum si quod est, hac cantione sanum fiet. Harundinem prende tibi viridem pedes IV aut V longam, mediam diffinde, et duo homines teneant ad coxendices. Incipe cantare in alio S.F. motas vaeta daries dardaries astataries Dissunapiter! usque dum coeant. What follows is nothing to our purpose.

The horse of Balder, lamed and checked on his journey, acquired a full meaning the moment we think of him as the god of light or day, whose stoppage and detention must give rise to serious mischief on the earth. Probably the story in its context could have informed us of this; it was foreign to the purpose of the conjuring spell.

The names of the four goddesses will be discussed in their proper place; what concerns us here is, that Balder is called a second and hitherto unheard-of name, Phol. The eye for our antiquities often merely wants opening: a noticing of the unnoticed has resulted in clear footprints of such a god being brought to our hand, in several names of places.

In Bavaria there was a Pholesauwa, Pholesouwa, ten or twelve miles from Passau, which the Traditiones patavienses first mention in a document drawn up between 774 and 788 (MB. vol 28, pars 2, p. 21, no. 23), and afterwards many later ones of the same district: it is the present village of Pfalsau. Its composition with aue quite fits in with the suppostion of an old heathen worship. The gods were worshipped not only on mountains, but on 'eas' inclosed by brooks and rivers, where fertile meadow yielded pasture, and forest shade. Such was the castum nemus of Nerthus in an insula Oceani, such Fosetesland with its willows and well-springs, of which more presently. Baldrshagi (Balderi pascuum), mentioned in the Friðþiofssaga, was an enclosed sanctuary (griðastaðr), which none might damage. I find also that convents, for which time-hallowed venerable sites were preferred, were often situated in 'eas'; and of one nunnery the very word used: 'in der megde ouwe,' in the maids' ea (Diut. 1, 357). (10) The ON. mythology supplies us with several eas named after the loftiest gods: Oðinsey (Odensee) in Fünen, another    Oðinsey (Onsöe) in Norway, Fornm. sög. 12, 33, and Thôrsey, 7, 234. 9, 17; Hlêssey (Lässöe) in    the Kattegat, &c., &c. We do not know any OHG. Wuotanesouwa, Donarsouwa, but    Pholesouwa is equally to the point.

Very similar must have been Pholespiunt (MB. 9, 404 circ. 1138. Pfalspiunt, 5, 399 anno 1290),    now Pfalzpoint on the Altmühl, between Eichstädt and Kipfenberg, in a considerable forest.    Piunt means an enclosed field or garden; (11) and if an ea could be consecrated to a god, so    could a field. Graff 3, 342 has a place called Frawûnpiunt, which, to judge by the circumstances,    may with like reason be assigned to the goddess Frouwa; no doubt it also belongs to Bavaria    (see Suppl.).

In the Fulda Traditions (Schannat p. 291, no. 85) occurs this remarkable passage: Widerolt    comes tradidit sancto Bonifacio quicquid proprietatis habuit in Pholesbrunnen in provincia    Thuringiae. To this Pholesbrunno, the village of Phulsborn has the first claim, lying not far from    the Saale, equidistant from the towns Apolda, Dornburg and Sulza, and spelt in Mid. Age    documents Phulsborn and Pfolczborn; there is however another village, Falsbrunn or    Falsbronn, on the Rauhe Eberach in the Franconian Steigerwald. Now Pfolesbrunno all the more    plainly suggests a divinity (and that, Balder), as there are also Baldersbrunnen: a Baldebrunno    has been produced from the Eifel mts, and from the Rhine Palatinate, (12) and it has been shown    that the form ought to be corrected into Baldersbrunno as well as the modern Baldenhain to    Baldershain (Zeitschr. f. d. alt. 2, 256); and Bellstadt in the Klingen district of    Schwarzburg-Sondershausen was formerly Baldersteti, Schannat dioec. Fuld. p. 244, anno 977    (see Suppl.). From the Norse mythus of Balder, as given by Saxo, we learn that Balder in the    heat of battle opened a fountain for his languishing army: Victor Balderus, ut afflictum siti    militem opportuni liquoris beneficio recrearet, novos humi latices terram altius rimatus aperuit,    quorum erumpentes scatebras sitibundum agmen hianti passim ore captabat. Eorundem vestigia    sempiterna firmata vocabulo, quamquam pristina admodum scaturigo desierit, nondum prorsus    exolevisse creduntur. This spot is the present Baldersbrönd near Roeskild (note to Müller's    Saxo, p. 120). But the legend may be the same as old German legends, which at a later time    placed to king Charle's account (p. 117, and infra, Furious host) that which heathendom had told    of Balder; in that case the still surviving name has itself proved a fountain, whence the myth of    Balder emerges anew. (13)

But the name of Phol is established more firmly still. A Heinricus de Pholing frequently appears    in the Altach records of the 13th century, MB. part 11, a Rapoto de Pholingen, Phaling, in MB. 

12, 56. 60; this place is on the left bank of the Danube below Straubingen, between the two    convents of Altach. I doubt if the Polling in other records (and there are several Pollings in the    Ammer country) can be the same word, as the aspirate is wanting and the liquid doubled.    Pfullendorf or Follendorf near Gotha is in docs. of the 14th century Phulsdorf. A Pholenheim in    Schannat, Vind. lit. coll. 1, 48. 53. Not far from Scharzfeld, between the Harz mts and Thuringia,    is an old village named Pölde, called in early records and writings Polidi, Palidi, Palithi, Pholidi    (Gramm. 2, 248), the seat of a well-known convent, which again may have been founded on the    site of a heathen sanctuary. If a connexion with the god can be established in this case, we at    the same time gather from it the true value of the varying consonant in his name.

Of Phol so many interpretations crowd upon us, that we should be puzzled if they could all be    made good. The Chaldaic bel or bal seems to have been a mere title pertaining to several gods:    bel = Uranus, bel = Jupiter, bel = Mars. The Finnish palo means fire, the ON. bâl, AS. bael rogus,    and the Slav. páliti to burn, with which connect Lat. Pales and the Palilia. Of phallus we have    already spoken. We must first make sure of the sounds in our native names for a divinity of    whom as yet we know nothing but the base name (see Suppl.). On the question as to the sense    of the word itself, I set aside the notion one might stumble on, that it is merely a fondling form    of Paltar, Balder, for such forms invariably preserve the initial of the complete name; we should    expect Palzo, Balzo, but not Phol. (14) Nor does the OHG. Ph seem here to be equivalent to the    ordinary F which corresponds to the Saxon F, but rather to be an aspirate which, answering to    the Saxon tenuis P, represents an Old-Aryan media B. But we know that a Saxon initial P = OHG.    Ph is found almost exclusively in foreign words (15) (porta, phorta; putti, phuzi; pêda, pheit); it    follows that for Phol, in case the Sax. form Pol is really made out, we must either look for such a    foreign P, or as a rare exception, in which the law of consonant-change does assert itself, an    Old- Aryan B. I incline to this last hypothesis and connect Phol and Pol (whose o may very well    have sprung from a) with the Celtic Beal, Beul, Bel, Belenus, a divinity of light or fire, the Slav.    Bièlbôgh, Bèlbôgh (white-god), the adj. bièl, bèl (albus), Lith. baltas, which last with its    extension I makes it probable that Bældæg and Baldr are of the same root, but have not    undergone consonant-change. Phol and Paltar therefore are in their beginning one, but reveal to    us two divergent historical developments of the same word, and a not unimportant difference in    the mythology of the several Teutonic races. (16)

So far as we can see, the god was worshipped under the name of Phol chiefly by the    Thuringians and Bavarians, i.e. according to ancient nomenclature the Hermunduri and    Marcomanni, yet they seem tohave also known his other name Paltar or Balder, while Baldag,    Bældæg prevailed among the Saxons and Westphalians, and the AS. bealdor had passed into a    common noun. Now as the Bavarian Eor stood opposed to the Alamannic Zio, we ought to find    out whether Phol was in like manner unknown to the Alamanns and the races most akin to them.    (17)

Lastly, from eastern Germany we are transported to the northwest by a name appertaining    closely to the Balder cultus, and again linking itself with the Edda. The Edda cites among the    Ases a son of Balder and Nanna, Forseti, who like his father dwelt in a shining hall Glitnir (glit,    nitor, splendor, OHG. kliz) built of gold and silver, and who (as Baldr himself had been called the    wisest, most eloquent and mildest god, whose verdicts are final, Sn. 27) passed among gods    and men for the wisest of judges; he settled all disputed matters (Sæm. 42ª. Sn. 31. 103), and we    are told no more about him (see Suppl.).

This Forseti is well entitled to be compared with the Frisian god Fosite, concerning whom some    biographies composed in the ninth century gives us valuable information. The vita sancti    Wilibrordi (d. 739), written by the famous Alcuin (d. 804), relates as follows, cap. 10: Cum ergo    pius verbi Dei praedicator iter agebat, pervenit in confinio Fresonum et Danorum ad quamdam    insulam, quae a quodam deo suo Fosite ab accolis terrae Fositesland appellatur, quia in ea    ejusdem dei fana fuere constructa. qui locus a paganis in tanta veneratione habebatur, ut nil in    ea, vel animalium ibi pascentium, vel aliarum quarumlibet rerum, gentilium quisquam tangere    audebat, nec etiam a fonte qui ibi ebulliebat aquam haurire nisi tacens praesumebat. Quo cum vir    Dei tempestate jactatus est, mansit ibidem aliquot dies, quousque sepositis tempestatibus    opportunum navigandi tempus adveniret. sed parvipendens stultam loci illius religionem, vel    ferocissimum regis animum, qui violatores sacrorum illius atrocissima morte damnare solebat;    tres homines in eo fonte cum invocatione sanctae Trinitatis baptizavit. sed et animalia in ea terra    pascentia in cibaria suis mactare praecepit. Quod pagani intuentes, arbitrabantur eos vel in    furorem verti, vel etiam veloci morte perire; quos cum nil mali cernebant pati, stupore perterriti,    regi tamen Radbodo quod viderant factum retulerunt. Qui nimio furore succensus in sacerdotem    Dei vivi suorum injurias deorum ulcisci cogitabat, et per tres dies semper tribus vicibus sortes    suo more mittebat, et nunquam damnatorum sors, Deo vero defendente suos, super servum Dei    aut aliquem ex suis cadere potuit; nec nisi unus tantum ex sociis sorte monstratus martyrio    coronatus est.

 Radbod feared king Pippin the Frank, and let the evangelist go unhurt. (18)    What Wilibrord had left unfinished, was accomplished some time after by another priest, as the    vita sancti Liudgeri, composed by Altfrid (d. 849), tells of the year 785: Ipse vero    (Liudgerus)......studuit fana destruere, et omnes erroris pristini abluere sordes. curavit quoque    ulterius doctrinae derivare flumina, et consilio ab imperatore accepto, transfretavit in confinio    Fresonum atque Danorum ad quandam insulam, quae a nomine dei sui falsi Fosete Foseteslant    est appellata........Pervenientes autem ad eandem insulam, destruxerunt omnia ejusdem Fosetis    fana, quae illic fuere constructa, et pro eis Christi fabicaverunt ecclesias, cumque habitatores    terrae illius fide Christi imbueret, baptizavit eos cum invocatione sanctae Trinitatis in fonte, qui    ibi ebulliebat, in quo sanctus Willibrordus prius homines tres baptizaverat, a quo etiam fonte    nemo prius haurire aquam nisi tacens praesumebat (Pertz 2, 410).

Altfrid evidently had the    work of Alcuin by him. From that time the island took the name of hélegland, Helgoland, which    it bears to this day; here also the evangelists were careful to conserve, in the interest of    christianity, the sense of sacredness already attaching to the site. Adam of Bremen, in his    treatise De situ Daniae (Pertz 9, 369), describes the island thus: Ordinavit (archiepiscopus    episcopum) in Finne (Fühnen) Eilbertum, quem tradunt conversum (l. captum) a piratis Farriam    insulam, quae in ostio fluminis Albiae longo secessu latet in oceano, primum reperisse    constructoque monasterio in ea fecisse habitabilem. haec insula contra Hadeloam sita est. cujus    longitudo vix VIII milliaria panditur, latitudo quatuor; homines stramine fragmentisque navium    pro igne utuntur. Sermo est piratas, si quando praedam inde vel minimam tulerint, aut max    perisse naufragio, aut occisos ab aliquo, nullum redisse indempnem; quapropter solent    heremitis ibi viventibus decimas praedarum offerre cum magna devotione. est enim feracissima    frugum, ditissima volucrum et pecudum nutrix, collem habet unicum, arborem nullam, scopulis    includitur asperrimis, nullo aditu nisi uno, ubi et aqua dulcis (the spring whence they drew water    in silence), locus venerabilis omnibus nautis, praecipue vero piratis, unde nomen accepit ut    Heiligeland dicatur. hanc in vita sancti Willebrordi Fosetisland appellari dicimus, quae sita est in    confinio Danorum et Fresonum. sunt et aliae insulae contra Fresiam et Daniam, sed nulla earum    tam memorabilis. The name Farria, appearing here for the first time, either arose from    confounding the isle of Föhr with Helgoland, or we must emend the passage, and read 'a piratis    Farrianis.' By the customs of these mariners and vikings even of christian times, we may assure    ourselves how holy the place was accounted in the heathen time (see Suppl.).

In an island lying between Denmark, Friesland and Saxony, we might expect to find a heathen    god who was common to all three. It would be strange if the Frisian Fosite were unknown to the    Norsemen; and stranger still if the Eddic Forseti were a totally different god. It is true, one    would have expected a mention of this deity in particular from Saxo Gram., who is quite silent    about it; but then he omits many others, and in his day Fosite's name may have died out    amongst the Frisians.

There is some discrepancy between the two names, as was natural in the case of two nations:    ON. Forseti gen. forseta, Fris. Fosite gen. Fosites. The simplest suppostion is, that from Forsite    arose by assimilation Fossite, Fosite, or that the R dropt out, as in OHG. mosar for morsar, Low    Germ. mösar; so in the Frisian Angeln, according to Hagerup p. 20, föst, föste = förste, primus.    Besides, there is hardly any other way of explaining Fosite. In ON. forseti is praeses, princeps,    apparently translatable into OHG. forasizo, a fitting name for the god who presides over    judgment, and arranges all disputes. The Gothic faúragaggja bears almost the same sense,    which I also find, even in much later writings, attached to our word vorgänger (now =    predecessor). More complete AS. genealogies would perhaps name a Forseta or Forsete as    Bældæg's son. (19)

Forseti, Fosite are a proof of the extent of Balder's worship. If we may infer from Pholesouwa    and Baldrshagi that the god loved isles and 'eas,' Helgoland is a case in point, where the flocks    of his son grazed; and so is perhaps the worship of the Hercules-pillars, which, following    Tacitus, we might fix on some other island near it. (20)

______________________

                1. Graff 1, 432 thinks this name stands for Paltaro, and is a compound of aro (aar, aquila), but    this is unsupported by analogy; in the ninth and tenth centuries, weak forms are not yet    curtailed, and we always find Epuraro (eberaar, boar-eagle), never Epurar.

                2. Baldrs, Paltar, must be kept distinct from the compound Baldheri (Schannat no. 420. 448),    Paldheri (Trad. patav. no 35), AS. Baldhere. This Paldheri is the same as Paldachar (Trad. patav.    no. 18).

                3.            Goth.  kalds \ /vilþeis         hulþs      gulþ.

                               ON.         kaldr | but | villr-

-hollr      gull.

                               OHG. chalt / \ wildi             -hold     kold.

                4. Conf. Gothic alþan and alþs aldis, also aldrs; Goth. falþan and OHG. faldan, afterwards faltan.    As þ degenerates into d, and d into t, any d put for þ, or t for d, marks a later form: the Goth. fadr    stands for faþr, as we see by pater [the AS. 'fæder, módor,' after a usurpation of 1000 years,    must have given place to the truer 'father, mother' again]. In the ON. valda pret. olli, we must    regard the ll as older than the ld, in spite of the Goth. valdan and OHG. waltan [some would    prefer to call valda an archaism].

                5. Baldr may be related to balþ, as tîr to tý, and zior to zio.

                6. The cases are hardly analogous: Bæld-æg and Regin-tac. Trans.

                7. Homer emphasizes the dark brows of Zeus and Hera, ÑfrÝj kuanša. Conf. leukÒfruj and    Artemis leukofrÚnh, white-browed Diana.

                8. Germ. names of the camomile: kuhauge, rindsauge, ochsenauge (ox-eye. Dalecarl. hvitet-oja    (white eye), in Båhuslän hvita-piga (white girl).

                9. Suhm. crit. hist. 2, 63. 

                10. So the Old Bavarian convent of Chiemsee was called ouwa (MB. 28ª, 103 an. 890), and    afterwards the monastery there 'der herren werd,' and the nunnery 'der nunnen werd'. Stat 'zo    gottes ouwe' in Lisch. mekl. jb. 7, 227, from a fragment belonging to Bertholds Crane. Demantin    242.

                11. A Salzburg doc. of the tenth cent., in Kleinmayrn p. 196: Curtilem locum cum duobus pratis,    quod piunti dicimus.

                12. Conf. Schöpflin's Alsat. dipl. no. 748, anno 1285: in villa Baldeburne. A Westphal. doc. of    1203 (Falke trad. corb. p. 566) names a place Balderbroc, which might mean palus, campus    Balderi.

                13. Greek tradition tells of Herakles and Zeus: fasˆ tÕn `Hraklša d…yei pot katacšta eÜxasqai tÕ    D ˆ patrˆ ™pide‹xai aÙtù mikran lib£da. Ð d mh qšlwn aÝtÕn katatrÚcesqai, ·…yaj    keraunÕn ¢nšdwke mikran lib£da, ¼n qeas£menoj Ð \HraklÁj kaˆ sk£yaj eˆj tÕ plousièteron    ™po…hse fšresqai (Scholia in Il. 20, 74). This spring was Scamander, and the libaj    'HraklÁoj may be set by the side of Pfolesbrunno as well as Pfolesouwa, lib£dion being both    mead and ea; and does not the Grecian demigod's pyre kindled on Oeta suggest that of Balder?

                14. So I explain the proper name Folz from Folbreht, Folrât, Folmâr, and the like; it therefore    stands apart from Phol. [The Suppl. qualifies the sweeping assertion in the text; it also takes    notice of several other solutions, as Apollo, Pollox, foal, &c.]

                15. That is, really borrowed words, as port, paternal, palace, in which the Low Germ. makes no    change (like that in firth, father), and therefore the High Germ. stands only one stage instead of    two in advance of Latin: Pforte, Pfalz, &c. Such words stand outside the rule of    consonant-change. Trans.

                16. I have thus far gone on the assumption that Phol and Balder in the Merseberg spell    designate one and the same divine being, which is strongly supported by the analogy I have    pointed out between Pholesouwa and Baldrshagi, Pholesbrunno and Baldrsbrunnr; and his    cultus must have been very familiar to the people, for the poem to be able to name him by    different names in succession, without fear of being misunderstood. Else one might suppose by    the names, that Phol and Balder were two different gods, and there would be plenty of room left    for the question, who can possibly be meant by Phol? If PH could here represent V = W, which    is contrary to all analogy, and is almost put out of court by the persistent PH, PF in all those    names of places; then we might try the ON. Ullr, Ollerus in Saxo, p. 45, which (like ull, OHG.    wolla, wool) would be in OHG. Wol, so that 'Wol endi Wôdan (Ullr ok Oðinn)' made a perfect    alliteration. And Ullr was connected with Baldr, who in Sæm. 93ª is called 'Ullar sefi,' sib to U.,    Ulli cognatus (see Suppl.). But the gen. would have to be Wolles, and that is contradicted by    the invariably single L in Pholes. The same reason is conclusive against Wackernagel's    proposal to take Fol for the god of fulness and plenty, by the side of the goddess Follâ; I think    the weak form Follo would be demanded for it by an OHG. Pilnitis; v. Haupts zeitschr. 2, 190.    Still more does the internal consistency of the song itself require the identity of Phol and    Balder; it would be odd for Phol to be named at the beginning, and no further notice to be taken    of him.

                17. The inquiry, how far these names reach back into antiquity, is far from exhausted yet. I have    called attention to the Pfolgraben (-ditch), the Pfalhecke (-hedge, -fence), for which devil's dyke    is elsewhere used; then the raising of the whirlwind is ascribed in some parts to the devil, in    others to Herodias [meaning H.'s daughter the dancer], in others again to Pfol. Eastern Hesse on    the Werra has a 'very queer' name for the whirlwind, beginning with Bull- or Boil-; and in the    neighbouring Eichsfeld Pulloineke is pronounced with shyness and reluctance (Münchner gel.    anz. 1842, p. 762). A Niddawitz ordinance of the same district (3, 327) contains the family name    Boylsperg (Polesberc?), Pfoylsperg. The spelling Bull, Boil, would agree with the conjecture    hazarded above, but I do not connect with this the idol Biel in the Harz, for Bielstein leads back    to bîlstein, i.e. beilstein. Schmid's westerw. id. 145 has pollecker, bollecker for spectre, bugbear    (see Suppl.).

                18. Acta sanctor. Bened., sec. 3. pars 1, p. 609.

                19. Later writers have turned Fosete into a goddess Foseta, Phoseta, Fosta, to approximate her    to the Roman Vesta; maps of Helgoland, in which are found marked a 'templum Fostae vel    Phosetae' of the year 768, and a 'templum Vestae' of 692, were made up in Major's Cimbrien    (Plön, 1692), conf. Wiebel's programm über Helgoland, Hamb. 1842. The god Foste and    Fosteland could easily find their way into the spurious Vita Suiberti cap. 7.

                20. Another thought has struck my mind about Fosete. In the appendix to the Heldenbuch,    Ecke, Vasat, Abentrot are styled brothers. The form Fasat instead of the usual Fasolt need not    be a mistake; there are several OHG. men's names in -at, and OS. in -ad, -id, so that Fasat and    Fasolt can hold their ground side by side. Now Fasolt (conf. ch. XX. Storm) and Ecke were    known as god-giants of wind and water, Abentrot as a dæmon of light. As Ecke-Oegir was    worshipped on the Eider and in Lässöe, so might Fosite be in Helgoland. The connexion with    Forseti must not be let go, but its meaning as For-seti, Fora-sizo becomes dubious, and I feel    inclined to explain it as Fors-eti from for [a whirling stream, 'force' in Cumbld], Dan. fos, and to    assume a dæmon of the whirlpool, a Fossegrimm (conf. ch. XVII. Nichus), with which Fosite's    sacred spring would tally. Again, the Heldenbuch gives those three brothers a father Nentigêr    (for so we must read for Mentiger) = OHG. Nandgêr; and does not he suggest Forseti's mother    Nanna = Nandâ?

               

Supplements

 

                p. 220. ) Acc. to Saxo, ed. M. 124, Hotherus is son to Hothbrodus rex Sueciae, and brother to Atlislus (the Aðils of Yngl. s.); Nanna is daughter to Gevarus (OHG. Këpaheri), and no goddess, indeed she rejects on that ground the suit of the divine Balder. Balder seems almost to live in Saxony or Lower Germany; the Saxon Gelderus is his ally and Hother's enemy, and shares Balder's overthrow. Balder has come to Zealand, apparently from Saxony; he never was in Sweden. Saxo makes Nanna fall to the lot, not of Balder, but of Hother, who takes her with him to Sweden. Balder, mortally wounded by Hother, dies the third day. The tale of king Bolder's fight with king Hother is told in Schleswig too, but it makes Bolder the victor, Müllenh. 373; conf. the tale of Balder and Rune 606.

                p. 221. ) Paltar also in MB. 9, 23 (year 837). 'Baldor servus,' Polypt. de S. Remig. 55a. Baaldaich, Neugart no. 289. Lith. baltas = white, good (conf. Baldr inn gôði, Sn. 64), baltorus a pale man; and the notion white and quick often meet, as in Gr. argoj, Passow sub v.

                p. 222. ) A god Baldach is named in the legend of St. Bartholomew (Leg. aur. c. 118), also in the Passional 290, 28; but in the Mid. Ages they said Baldach for Bagdad, and Baldewins for Bedouins. Svipdagr, Menglöð's lover, is the son of Sôlbiört (sun-bright) and Grôa. To the proper names add Ostertac, which answers best of all to Bældæg = dies ignis. Conf. also the Celtic Bel, Belenus, p. 613.

                p. 222. ) Baldr's beaming beauty is expr. in the saying: fâtt er liott â Baldri; but what means the Icel. saw: logið hefir Baldr at Baldri, Fornm. sög. 6, 257 ? From his white eyebrow

a feature ascr. also to Bödvildr, 'meyna brâ-hvîto,' Sæm. 139b, and to Artemis leukofrunh

 the anthemis cotula is called Ballerbro, Fries, udfl. 1, 86; conf. Dyb. 1845, p. 74. He gives name to Balderes lêge, Kemble, 5, 117 (863), and Balteres eih, oak.

                On Breiðablik, conf. p. 795; add 'in manigen breiten blicken,' Tr. kr. 42475. Midsummer was sacred to Balder, and the Christians seem to have put St. John in his place. The mistletoe, with which he was slain, has to be cut at that time, Dyb. Runa 1844, 21-2. Do the fires of John commemorate the burning of Balder's body? In Tegner's Frithiofss. xiii., Baldersbål is lighted at Midsummer.

'Hvat maelti (spake) Oðinn, aðr â bâl stigi, sialf î eyra syni (in his son's ear)?' Sæm. 38a; otherw. 'î eyra Baldri, aðr hann var â bâl borinn?' Fornald. sög. 1, 487. Conf. Plaut. Trinum. i. 2, 170: 'sciunt id quod in aurem rex reginae dixerit, sciunt quod Juno fabulata est cum Jove,' i.e. the greatest secrets.

                p. 224. ) Höðr is called Baldurs bani, B. andskoti, Sæm. 95a,b; he is brought and laid on the funeral pile (â bâl) by his slayer the newborn Vali, ibid. The Edda does not make him out as a god of war, nor does the ON. höðr mean pugna; but the AS. heaðo does (Kemb. Beow. vol. 1, and in heaðolâf, Beow. 914), so does the ir. cath. In Saxo, Hotherus is a Swed. hero, and not blind, but skilled in the bow and harp (ed. M. 111: citharoedus 123); he is favoured by wood-nymphs, and gifted with wound-proof raiment and an irresistible sword. Is the Swed. tale of Blind Hatt, Cavall. 363, to be conn. with him? Consider Hadolâva, Hadeln, Hatheleria, Hadersleben; and Hothers-nes (now Horsens?) in Jutland is supposed to be named after him, Saxo 122. An AS. Heaðobeard, like Longbeard.

                Hermôðr is in Sögubrot (Fornald. s. 1, 373) called 'bazt hugaðr,' and 'like Helgi,' i.e. comparable to Helgi. In Beow. 1795 he is named immed. after Sigemund; he falls into the power of the Eotens, and brings trouble on his people; again in 3417 he is blamed. Does Hermôðr mean militandi fessus? OHG. Herimuot, Herimaot (never Herimuodi), is against it. Hermôdes þorn in Kemb. Chart. 3, 387; 'terra quae Anglice Hermodesodes nuncupatur,' Chartol. mon. S. Trinitatis (Guérard S. Bertin 455).

                p. 224. ) The spell is given p. 1231-2. On Phol, see Kl. schr. 2, 12-17. F. Wachter in the Hall. Encycl. 1845, art. Pferd, pronounces phol the plur. of a strong neut. noun phol, a foal. Thus: 'foals and Wôdan fared in the wood.' But the poem itself uses for foal the weak (the only correct) form volo; and what poet would think of naming the god's horse or horses beside, and even before, the god himself? Again, was ever a running horse said to fahren?

                p. 226. ) Pfalsau is called Pfoals-owa, MB. 4, 519 (circ. 1126); Phols-hou 4, 229; and Phols-u 4, 219. 222-3. Phuls-ouua, Notizenbl. 6, 141. Phols-owe, Bair. quellen, 1, 279. To the 'eas' enumer. in Hpt. Ztschr. 2, 254, add 'des Wunsches ouwe,' Gerh. 2308; 'der juncfrouwen wert,' Iw. 6326 (Guest 196b, lille at pusceles); Gotis-werder in Prussia, Lindenbl. 31. 150. With Pholes-piunt conf. other names of places also compounded with the gen. case: Ebures-piunt, Tutilis-p., Heibistes-bunta (Fin. Wirceb.).

                p. 226. ) Pfahlbronn by Lorch, Stälin 1, 85. Pohlborn on the Devil's Dike, Wetterau, p. 1022-3. Johannes de Paleborne, yr 1300 (Thür. mitth. iv. 2, 48); is this our Paderborn? and may that town, called in L. German Padelborn, Palborn, Balborn, be one of Balder's burns? Balborn in the Palatinate, Weisth. 1, 778-9. Balde-burnen, -borne, Böhmer's Reg. 231-2, yr 1302. Heinrich von Pfols-prundt, surgeon, brother of the Teut. Order about 1460. Polborn, a family name at Berlin. In H. of Fritzlar, January or February is Volborne, conf. the man's name Vollborn, Fülleborn, also Faulborn, GDS. 798. (Plenty of Ful-burns, -becks, brooks, -meres, -hams, etc. in Engl.) A Pal-gunse (and Kirch-gunse) in the Wetterau, Arnsb. urk. no. 439; de phalgunse, p. 267; palgunse, p. 298. Fulesbutle, Lappenb. urk. no. 805. 812, yr 1283-4, now Fulhsbüttel. Balderslee in Schleswig is supposed to contain hlie refugium, and appar. answers to the place named Balderi fuga in Saxo, ed. M. 119.

                p. 227. ) That Phol (Kl. schr. 2, 12) is a fondling form of Balder, Paltar, seems after all extr. probable; the differ. of initial does not matter, as Liudolf becomes Dudo.

Beside the Celtic Bel, we might conn. Phol with Apollo, as an A is often prefixed in Grk. Or with pol in 'Pol; edepol!' by Pollux. Or with phol, ful = boar, p. 996, seeing that eburespiunt answ. to pholespiunt, Sup. to 226. In Gramm. 3, 682 I have expl. volencel, faunus, Gl. Bern., Diut. 2, 214b, by fol, fou, stultus. A hero Pholus in Ov. Met. 12, 306. On the Ethiop king Phol, see Hpt Ztschr. 5, 69.

                p. 228n. ) On Ullr = OHG. Wol, see Hpt Ztschr. 7, 393; better to conn. it with Goth. Vulþus 8, 201; yet see Sup. to 163 n.

                p. 229n. ) The whirlwind is called Pulhoidchen, Pulhaud, Schamb. 161; conf. infra, p. 285n. 632-6. Beside Boylsperg, we find Boylborn, Mitth. Thür. Ver. v. 4, 60. Fold, see p. 992n. In Reinwald's Henneb. Id. 1, 37 we find the phrase 'to have (or take) something for your foll' means 'to lie on the bed you have made.' Acc. to the Achen mundart 56, the weavers of Aix call cloth made of yarn that they have cabbaged follche, füllchen (filch? Goth. filhan, to hide). In Kammerforst, the old ban-forest near Trier, which none might tread with gesteppten leimeln (nailed shoes), dwells a spirit who chastises wood-spoilers and scoffers: his name is Pulch, still a family name in Trier. And the hill outside the city, down which the wheel used to be rolled into the Moselle (Sup. to 191), is Pulsberg. Near Waldweiler is a Pohlfels, and in Prüm circuit a Pohlbach.

                p. 229. ) Foresta-lund (-grove) in Norway, Munch's Beskriv. 483.

                p. 231. ) Villa Forsazi in pago Lisgau (Förste near Osterode?) in a charter of Otto III., yr 990, Harenberg's Gandersheim 625. Falke 483. Walterus de Forsaten (Förste by Alfeld), Falke 890, yr 1197. In Saxonia, in pago qui vocatur Firihsazi, Einhard's Ann., yr 823 (Pertz, 1, 211) with the variants: firihsati, fiuhsazi, frihsazi strihsazi, firichsare, virsedi; in Ann. Fuld. (Pertz 1, 358) Firihsazi. The deriv. conjectured at p. 232n., from fors, cataract, seems the safest, GDS. 757.

                p. 232. ) Later stories of fishermen and sailors at Helgoland, and the carrying about of an image of St. Giet, are in Müllenh. no. 117. 181. 535; conf. p. 597. Similar names, often confounded with it (see Fornm. sög. 12, 298), are: Hâlogaland, now Helgeland, in the north of Norway, and the Swedish (once Danish) province of Halland, called in Ælfred's Periplus Halgoland. Ought we to write Hâlgoland? conf. Heli, p. 388.

 

 

Chapter 12

Other Gods

 

 

                In addition to the gods treated of thus far, who could with perfect distinctness be pointed out in all or most of the Teutonic races, the Norse mythology enumerates a series of others, whose track will be harder to pursue, if it does not die out altogether. To a great extent they are those of whom the North itself has little of nothing to tell in later times.

 

                 1. (HEIMDALL)

 

                Heimðallr, or in the later spelling Heimdallr, though no longer mentioned in Saxo, is, like Baldr, a bright and gracious god: hvîtastr âsa (whitest of âses, Sæm. 72ª), (1) sverðâs hvîta, Sæm. 90ª, hvîta âs, Sn. 104; he guards the heavenly bridge (the rainbow), and dwells in Himinbiörg (the heavenly hills). The heim in the first part of his name agrees in sound with himinn; þallr seems akin to þöll, gen. þallar (pinus), Swed. tall, Swiss däle, Engl. deal (Stald. 1, 259, conf. Schm. 2, 603-4 on mantala), but þöll also means a river, Sn. 43, and Freyja bears the by-name of Mardöll, gen Mardallar, Sn. 37. 154. All this remains dark to us. No proper name in the other Teutonic answers to Heimðallr; but with Himinbiörg (Sæm. 41b 91b) or the common noun himinfiöll (Sæm. 148ª Yngl. saga cap. 39), we can connect the names of other hills: a Himilînberg (mons coelius) haunted by spirits, in the vita S. Gali, Pertz 2, 10; Himelberc in Lichtenstein's frauend. 199, 10; a Himilesberg in the Fulda country, Schannat Buchon. vet. 336; several in Hesse (Kuchenb. anal. 11, 137) near Iba and Waldkappel (Niederh. wochengl. 1834 pp. 106, 2183); a Himmelsberg in Vestgötland, and one, alleged to be Heimdall's, in Halland. At the same time, Himinvângar, Sæm. 150ª, the OS. hebanwang, hebeneswang, a paradise (v. ch. XXV), the AS. Heofenfeld coelestis campus, Beda p. 158, and the like names, some individuals, some general, deserve to be studied, but yield as yet no safe conclusion about the god.

                Other points about him savour almost of the fairy-tale: he is made out to be the son of nine mothers, giantesses, Sæm. 118ª,b. Sn. 106. Laxd. p. 392; he wants less sleep than a bird, sees a hundred miles off by night or day, and hears the grass grow on the ground and the wool on the sheep's back (Sn. 30). (2) His horse is Gulltoppr, gold-tuft, and he himself has golden teeth, (3) hence the by-names Gullintanni and Hallinskîði, 'tennur Hallinskiða,' Fornm. sög. 1, 52. It is worthy of remark, that Hallinskîði and Heimdali are quoted among the names for the ram. Sn. 221.

                As watchman and warder of the gods (vörðr goða, Sæm. 41), Heimdall winds a powerful horn, Giallarhorn, which is kept under a sacred tree, Sæpm. 5b 8ª. Sn. 72-3. What the Völusâ imparts, must be of a high antiquity (see Suppl.).

                Now at the very outset of that poem, all created beings great and small are called megir Heimðallar, sons or children of the god; he appears therefore to have had a hand in the creation of the world, and of men, and to have played a more exalted part than is assigned to him afterwards. As, in addition to Wuotan, Zio presided over war, and Frô over fruitfulness, so the creative faculty seems to have been divided between Oðinn and Heimðallr.

                A song of suggestive design in the Edda makes the first arrangement of mankind in classes proceed from the same Heimðallr, who traverses the world under the name of Rîgr (see Suppl.). There is a much later German tradition, very prevalent in the last few centuries, which I have ventured to trace to this heathen one, its origin being difficult to explain otherwise. (4) As for the name Rîgr, it seems to me to have sprung, like dîs from idis, by aphæresis from an older form, which I cannot precisely determine, but would connect with the MHG. Irinc, as in ON. an n before g or k often drops out (conf.stinga stack, þacka þanki), and, as will be shown later, Iringes strâza, Iringes wec answers to a Swedish Eriksgata. (5) The shining galaxy would suit extremely well the god who descends from heaven to earth, and whose habitation borders on Bifröst.

                Norwegian names of places bear witness to his cultus: Heimdallarvattn, a lake in Guldbrandsdalen (Guðbrandsdalr), and Heimdallshoug, a hill in Nummedalen (Naumudalr); neither is mentioned in the ON. sagas.

 

                   2. (BRAGI, BREGO.)

 

                Above any other god, one would like to see a more general veneration of the ON. Bragi revived, in whom was vested the gift of poetry and eloquence. He is called the best of all skalds, Sæm. 46ª. Sn. 45, frumsmiðr bragar (auctor poeseos), and poetry itself is bragr. (6) In honour of him the Bragafull or bragarfull was given (p. 60); the form appears to waver between bragi gen. braga, and bragr gen. bragar, at all events the latter stands in the phrase 'bragr karla' = vir facundus, praestans, in 'âsa bragr' deorum princeps = Thôrr (Sæm. 85b. Sn. 211ª, but Bragi 211b), and even 'bragr qvenna' femina praestantissima (Sæm. 218ª). (7)

                Then a poet and king of old renown, distinct from the god, himself bore the name of Bragi hinn gamli, and his descendants were styled Bragnîngar. A minstrel was pictured to the mind as old and long-bearded, sîðskeggi and skeggbragi, Sn. 105, which recalls Oðinn with his long beard, the inventor of poetry (p. 146), and Bragi is even said to be Oðin's son, Sn. 105 (see Suppl.).

                In the AS. poems there occurs, always in the nom. sing., the term brego or breogo, in the sense of rex or princeps: bregostôl in Beow. 4387 and Andr. 209 is thronus regius; bregoweard in Cædm. 140, 26. 166, 13 is princeps. (8) Now, as gen. plurals are attached to it: brego engla, Cædm. 12, 7. 60, 4. 62, 3; brego Dena, Beow. 848; hæleða brego, Beow. 3905; gumena brego, Andr. 61; beorna brego, Andr. 305 (conf. brego moncynnes, Cod. exon. 457, 3); there grows up an instructive analogy to the above-mentioned 'bragr karla,' and to the genitives similarly connected with the divine names Týr, Freá and Bealdor (pp. 196, 211, 220). The AS. brego equally seems to point to a veiled divinity, though the forms and vowel-relations do not exactly harmonize. (9)

                Their disagreement rather provokes one to hunt up the root under which they could be reconciled: a verb briga brag would suit the purpose. The Saxon and Frisian languages, but not the Scandinavian or High German, possess an unexplained term for cerebrum: AS. brëgen (like rëgen pluvia, therefore, better written so than brægen), Engl. brain, Fris. brein, Low Sax. bregen; I think it answers to the notions 'understanding, cleverness, eloquence, imitation,' and is connected with frhn, frenÒj, -frwn, -fronoj. Now the ON. bragr, beside poesis, means also mos, gestus, and 'braga eftir einum' referre aliquem gestu, imitari. OHG. has nothing like it, nor any such proper name as Prako, Brago, Brëgo.

                But, as we detected among the Saxons a faint trace of the god or god's son, we may lay some stress on the fact that in an OS. document of 1006 Burnacker occurs as the name of a place, v. Lünzel's Hildesheim, p. 124, conf. pref. v. (see Suppl.). Now Bragi and his wife Iðunn dwelt in Brunnakr, Sn. 121ª, and she is called 'Brunnakrs beckjar gerðr,' Brunnakerinae sedis ornatrix, as Sk. Thorlacius interprets it (Spec. 6, pp. 65-6). A well or spring, for more than one reason, suits a god of poetry; at the same time a name like 'springfield' is so natural that it might arise without any reference to gods.

Bragi appears to have stood in some pretty close relation to Oegir, and if an analogy   between them could be established, which however is unsupported hitherto on other   grounds, then by the side of 'briga brag' the root 'braga brôg' would present itself, and the   AS. brôga (terror), OHG. pruoko, bruogo, be akin to it. The connexion of Bragi with Oegir   may be seen by Bragi appearing prominently in the poem Oegisdrecka, and by his sitting   next to Oegir in Sn. 80, so that in intimate converse with him he brings out stories of the   gods, which are thence called Bragaræður, speeches of Bragi. It is with great propriety, no   doubt, that these narratives, during which Oegir often interrupts him with questions (Sn.   93), as Ganglêri does Hâr when holding forth in the first part of the Edda, were put in the   mouth of the patron of poetry. 

 

3. AKI, UOKI (OEGIR, HLÊR). FÎFEL, GEOFON 

 

This Oegir, an older god of the giant kind, not ranked among the Ases, but holding   peacable intercourse with them, bears the name of the terrible, the awful. The root 'aga ôg'   had given birth to plenty of derivatives in our ancient speech: Goth. agis fÒbrj, ôg   fobšomai, OHG. akiso, egiso, AS. egesa horror, OHG. akî, ekî, AS. ege (êge? awe) terror, ON.   œgja terrori esse, which can only be spelt with œ, not æ. To the proper name Oegir would   correspond a Goth. Ôgeis, AS. Êge, OHG. Uogi, instead of which I can only lay my hand on   the weak form Uogo, Oago. But œgir also signifies the sea itself: sôl gengr î œginn, the sun   goes into the sea, sets; œgi-siôr pelagus is like the Goth. mari-sáivs; the AS. eagor and êgor   (mare) is related to êge, as sigor to sige. I attach weight to the agreement of the Greek   çkeanÒj, 'WkeanÒj and 'Wghn, whence the Lat. oceanus, Oceanus was borrowed, but   aequor (mare placidum) seems not cognate, being related to aequus, not to aqua and Goth.   ahva (see Suppl.). (10)

The boisterous element awakened awe, and the sense of a god's immediate presence.   As Wôden was also called Wôma (p. 144), and Oðinn Omi and Yggr, so the AS. poets use   the terms wôma, swêg, brôga and egesa almost synonymously for ghostly and divine   phenomena (Andr. and El. pp. xxx--xxxii). Oegir was therefore a highly appropriate name, and   is in keeping with the notions of fear and horror developed on p. 207-8.

This interpretation is strikingly confirmed by other mythical conceptions. The Edda tells   us of a fear-inspiring helmet, whose name is Oegishialmr: er öll qvikvendi brœðast at siâ, Sn.   137; such a one did Hreiðmar wear, and then Fafnir when he lay on the gold and seemed the   more terrible to all that looked upon him, Sæm. 188ª; vera (to be) under Oegishialmi, bera   Oegishialm yfir einum, means to inspire with fear or reverence, Laxd. saga, p. 130. Islend.   sög. 2, 155; ek bar Oegishialm yfir alla folki, Fornald. sög. 1, 162; hafa Oegishialm î augum,   ibid. 1, 406, denotes that terrible piercing look of the eyes, which others cannot stand, and   the famous basilisk-glance, ormur î auga, was something similar. (11) Now I find a clear trace   of this Norse helmet in the OHG. man's name Egihelm (Trad. fuld. 1, 97; in Schannat no. 126,   p. 286 Eggihelm), i.e. Agihelm, identical with the strengthened-vowel form Uogihelm, which   I am unable to produce. But in the Eckenlied itself Ecke's costly magic helmet, and   elsewhere even Ortnit's and Dietrich's, are called Hildegrîm, Hildegrîn; and the ON. grîma   mask or helmet (in Sæm. 51ª a name for night) has now turned up in a Fulda gloss, Dronke p.   15: 'scenici = crîmûn' presupposes a sing. krîmâ larva, persona, galea; so we can now   understand Krîmhilt (Gramm. 1, 188) the name of a Walkurie armed with the helmet of terror,   and also why 'daemon' in another gloss is rendered by egisgrîmolt. The AS. egesgrîme is   equally a mask, and in El. 260 the helmet that frightens by its figure of a boar is called a   grîmhelm. I venture to guess, that the wolf in our ancient apologue was imagined wearing   such a helmet of dread, and hence his name of Isangrîm, iron-mask, Reinh. ccxlii (see   Suppl.). Nor have we yet come to the end of fancies variously playing into one another: as   the god's or hero's helmet awakened terror, so must his shield and sword; and it looks   significant, that a terrific sword fashioned by dwarfs should likewise be named in the two   forms, viz. in the Vilkinasaga Eckisax, in Veldek's Eneit Uokesahs (not a letter may we alter),   in the Eckenlied Ecken sahs, as Hildegrîn was Ecken helm, Eckes helm. In the Greek a„g…j I   do not look for any verbal affinity, but this shield of ZeÝj a„g…ocoj (Il. 15, 310. 17, 593),   wielded at times by Athena (2, 447. 5, 738) and Apollo (15, 229. 318. 361. 24, 20), spreads   dismay around, like Oegishialmr, Hildegrîm and Eckisahs; Pluto's helmet too, which   rendered invisible, may be called to mind. That ancient god of sea, Oceanus and Oegir   (see Suppl.), whose hall glittered with gold, Sæm. 59, (12) would of all others wear the   glittering helmet which takes its name from him. From all we can find, his name in OHG. must   have been Aki or Uoki; and it requires no great boldness to suppose that in the Ecke of our   heroic legend, a giant all over, we see a precipitate of the heathen god. Ecke's mythical   nature is confirmed by that of his brother Fasolt and Abentrôt, of whom more hereafter. As   the Greek Okeanos has rivers given him for sons and daughters, the Norse Oegir has by   Rân nine daughters, whose names the Edda applies to waters and waves. We might expect   to find that similar relations to the seagod were of old ascribed to our own rivers also, most   of which were conceived of as female [and still bear feminine names].

And there is one such local name in which he may be clearly recognised. The Eider, a   river which divides the Saxons from the Northmen, is called by the Frankish annalists in the   eighth and ninth centuries Egidora, Agadora, Aegidora (Pertz 1, 355-70-86. 2, 620-31);   Helmold 1, 12. 50 spells Egdora. The ON. writers more plainly write Oegisdyr (Fornm. sög.   11, 28. 31, conf. Georg. of a Northman, ed. by Werlauff p. 15), i.e., ocean's door, sea-outlet,   ostium, perhaps even here with a collateral sense of the awful. Again, a place called   Oegisdyr is mentioned in Iceland, Landn. 5, 2, where we also find 3, 1 an Oegissîða, latus   oceani. Further, it comes out that by the AS. name Fîfeldor in Cod. exon. 321, 8 and by the   Wieglesdor in Dietmar of Merseb. ad ann. 975, p. 760 is meant the Eider again, still the   aforesaid Oegisdyr; while a various reading in Dietmar agrees with the annalist Saxo ad ann.   975 in giving Heggedor = Eggedor, Egidor. Now, seeing that elsewhere the AS. poems use   Fifelstreám, Fîflwæg (Boeth. 26, 51. El. 237) for the ocean, and Fîfelcynnes eard (Beow. 208)   for the land of the ocean-sprites, we may suppose Fîfel and its corruption Wiegel to be   another an an obsolete name of Oegir.

The same may hold good of the AS. Geofon, OS. Geban, a being whose godhead is   sufficiently manifest from the ON. Gefjun, who is reckoned among the Asynior, though she   bore sons to a giant. The Saxon Gëban however was a god; the Heliand shows only the   compound Gebenesstrôm 90, 7. 131, 22, but the AS. poets, in addition to Geofenes begang,   Beow. 721, Geofenes stað, Cædm. 215, 8, and the less personal geofonhûs (navis), Cædm.   79, 34, geofonflôd, Cod. exon. 193, 21, have also a Geofon standing independently in the   nom., Cædm. 206, 6, and gifen geotende, Beow. 3378. An OHG. Këpan is nowhere found,   even in proper names, though Stählin 1, 598 gives a Gebeneswîlare. I know not whether to   take for the root the verb giban to give, in which case Gibika (p. 137) and Wuotan's relation   to Neptune (pp. 122, 148) would come in here; or to look away to the Greek cièn fem. [ci#èn,   hib-ernus?] and the notion of snow and ice giants.

And the North itself furnishes some names which are synonymous with Oegir. In the   Fundinn Noregr (Sn. 369. Fornald. sög. 2, 17) we read: Forniotr âtti 3 syni, hêtt einn Hlêr, er   ver köllum Oegi (one hight Hler, whom we call Oegir), annarr Logi, þridji Kari (Rask, afh. 1,   95: Kâri). Hlêr, gen. Hlês, appears from this to have been the older name, in use among the   giants, by which Oegir is spoken of in Sn. 79, and after which his dwelling-place was named   Hlês-ey (Sæm. 78b 159b 243b), now Lässöe in the Cattegat.

 

4. (FORNIOTR)

 

Of this Hlêr I have nothing more to tell (see Suppl.), but his father Forniotr has left a   notable trace of himself behind; he belongs even less than Oegir to the circle of Ases, being   one of the older demonic giants, and proving that even these demigods or personified   powers of nature must also have borne sway among the Teutonic races outside of   Scandinavia. Forniotr is to be explained, not as for-niotr primus occupans, but rather as   forn-iotr, the ancient Iotr (Rask, afhand. 1, 78), a particularly apt expression for those giants,   and closely connected with iötunn itself, AS. eoton, as will be shown further on. Now in the   AS. Liber medicinalis, from which Wanley, pp. 176-80 gives insufficient extracts, there is   according to Lye's dictionary a plant of healing virtue spoken of (twice apparently, from the   various spelling) by the name of Forneotes folme, Fornetes folme (i.e. Forneoti manus). As   none of the ON. writings allude to this herb, its name must be a remnant of the Saxon   people's own mythology. In OHG. the giant may have been called Firnëz, and the plant   Firnëzes folma. We remember how, in Beow. 1662, Grendel has torn off the hand of a   water-sprite, and presents it as tâcen of his victory, just as Tristan chops off the giant   Urgan's hand, and takes it with him to certify the deed, 16055-65-85. The amputation of the   huge giant-hand seems therefore part of an ancient myth, and to have been fitly retained in   the name of a broad-leaved vegetable; there is also a plant called devil's-hand, and in more   than one legend the Evil one leaves the print of his hand on rocks and walls.

If these last allusions have led us away from the beneficent deities rather to hurtful   demons and malignant spirits, we have here an easy transit to the only god whom the   teaching of the Edda represents as wicked and malevolent, though it still reckons him   among the Ases.

 

 

5. (LOKI, GRENDEL), SATURN

 

Logi, as we have seen, was a second son of Forniotr, and the three brothers Hlêr, Logi,   Kari on the whole seem to represent water, fire and air as elements. Now a striking narrative   (Sn. 54. 60) places Logi by the side of Loki, a being from the giant province beside a   kinsman and companion of the gods. This is no mere play upon the words, the two really   signify the same thing from different points of view, Logi the natural force of fire, and Loki,   with a shifting of the sound, a shifting of the senseÆ of the burly giant has been made a sly   seducing villian. The two may be compared to the Prometheus and the Hephæstus (Vulcan)   of the Greeksæ Okeanos was a friend and kinsman of the former. But the two get mixed up.   In Loki, sâ er flestu ill ræðr (Sn. 46), who devises the most of ill, we see also the giant demon   who, like Hephæstus sets the gods a-laughing; his limping reminds us of Hephæstus and   the lame fire (N. Cap. 76), his chaining of Prometheus's, for Loki is put in chains like his son   Fenrir. As Hephæstus forges the net for Ares and Aphrodite, Loki too prepares a net (Sn.   69), in which he is caught himself. Most salient of all is the analogy between Hephæstus   being hurled down from Olympus by Zeus (Il. 1, 591-3) and the devil being cast out of   heaven into hell by God (ch. XXXIII, Devil), though the Edda neither relates such a fall of   Loki, nor sets him forth as a cunning smith and master of dwarfs, probably the stories of   Loki and Logi were much fuller once. Loki's former fellowship with Oðinn is clearly seen,   both from Sæm. 61b, and from the juxtaposition of three creative deities on their travels,   Oðinn, Hœnir, Loðr, Sæm. 3ª, instead of which we have also Oðinn, Hœnir, Loki, Sæm. 180,   or in a different order Oðinn, Loki, Hœnir, Sn. 80. 135 (conf. supra, p. 162). This trilogy I do   not venture to identify with that of Hlêr, Logi, Kari above, strikingly as Oðinn corresponds   to the ij anemoio; and though from the creating Oðinn proceed breath and spirit (önd), as   from Loðr (blaze, glow) come blood and colour (lâ ok litr), the connexion of Hœnir, who   imparts sense (ôð), with water is not so clear: this Hœnir is one of the most unmanageable   phenomena of the Norse mythology, and with us in Germany he has vanished without   leaving a trace. But the fire-god too, who according to that gradation of sounds ought   either to be in Goth. Laúha and OHG. Loho, or in Goth. Luka and OHG. Locho, seems with   the loss of his name to have come up again purely in the character of the later devil. He   lasted longer in Scandinavia, and myths everywhere show how nearly Loki the âs   approaches Logi the giant. Thorlacius (spec. 7, 43) has proved that in the phrase 'Loki fer   yfir akra' (passes over the fields), and in the Danish 'Locke dricker vand' (drinks water), fire   and the burning sun are meant, just as we say the sun is drawing water, when he shines   through in bright streaks between two clouds. Loka daun (Lokii odor) is Icelandic for the   ignis fatuus exhaling brimstone (ibid. 44); Lokabrenna (Lokii incendium) for Sirius; Loka   spœnir are chips for firing. In the north of Jutland, a weed very noxious to cattle   (polytrichum comm.) is called Lokkena havre, and there is a proverb 'Nu saaer Lokken sin   havre,' now Locke sows his oats, i.e., the devil his tares; the Danish lexicon translates   Lokeshavre avena fatua, others make it the rhinanthus crista galli. When the fire crackles,   they say 'Lokje smacks his children,' Faye p. 6. Molbech's Dial. lex. p. 330 says, the Jutland   phrase 'Lokke saaer havre idag (to-day),' or what is equivalent 'Lokke driver idag med sine   geder (drives out his goats),' is spoken of vapours that hang about the ground in the heat   of the sun. When birds drop their feathers in moulting time, people say that 'gaae i Lokkis   arri (pass under L.'s harrow?)'; 'at höre paa Lockens eventyr (adventures)' means to listen to   lies or idle tales (P. Syv's gamle danske ordsprog 2, 72), According to Sjöborg's   Nomenklatur, there is in Vestergötland a giant's grave named Lokehall. All of them   conceptions well deserving notice, which linger to this day among the common people, and   in which Loki is by turns taken for a beneficent and for a hurtful being, for sun, fire, giant or   devil. Exactly the same sort of harm is in Germany ascribed to the devil, and the kindly god   of light is thought of as a devastating flame (see Suppl.).

On this identity between Logi and Loki rests another vestige of the Norse dæmon,   which is found among the other Teutonic races. If Logi comes from liuhan (lucere), Loki will   apparently fall to the root lukan (claudere, conf. claudus lame); the ON. lok means finis,   consummatio, and loka repagulum, because a bolt or bar closes. In Beowulf we come upon   an odious devilish spirit, a thyrs (Beow. 846) named Grendel, and his mother, Grendeles   môdor (4232-74), a veritable devil's mother and giant's mother. An AS document of 931 in   Kemble 2, 172 mentions a place called Grendles mêre (Grendeli palus). Now the AS. grindel,   OHG. krintil, MHG. grintel is precisely repagulum, pessulus; so the name Grendel seems   related to grindel (obex) in the same way as Loki to loka; the ON. grind is a grating, which   shuts one in like bolt and bar. Gervase of Tilbury (in Leibn. 1, 980) tells of an English   fire-demon named Grant. It is very remarkable, that we Germans have still in use a third   synonymous expression with 'hell'; höllriegel vectis infernalis, hell-bar, a hell-brand, devil or   the devil's own; a shrewish old hag is styled höllriegel or the devil's grandmother; and   Hugo von Langenstein (Martina 4b) already used this hellerigel as a term of abuse. Now   hell was imagined as being tightly bolted and barred; when Christ, says Fundgr. 1, 178,   went down to Hades in the strength of a lion, he made 'die grintel brechen'. Lastly, we may   even connect the OHG. dremil (pessulus, Graff 5, 531) with the ON. trami or tremill, which   mean both cacodaemon and also, it seems, clathri, cancelli: 'tramar gneypa þrami, with which   our dremil would more exactly accord. Thus from several sides we see the mythical notions   that prevailed on this subject joining hands, and the merging of Logi into Loki must be of   high antiquity. Foersom (on Jutl. superstit. p. 32) alleges, that the devil is conceived of in   the form of a lässeträ, i.e., the pole with which a load is tied down.

Beside Loki the âs, Snorri sets another before us in the Edda, Utgarðaloki, as a king   whose arts and power deceive even godlike Thôrr; it was one of his household that outdid   the other Loki himself, Sn. 54 seq. (13) Saxo, who in the whole of his work never once names   the Eddic Loki, tells wonderful things of this 'Ugarthilocus,' pp. 163-6: he paints him as a   gigantic semi-divine monster, who dwells in a distant land, is invoked in a storm like other   gods, and grants his aid. A valiant hero, named Thorkill, brooks the adventurous journey to   Ugarthilocus: all this is but legendary variation of the visit which, in Snorri, Thôrr pays to   Utgarðaloki. Still it is worth noticing, that Thorkill plucks out one of Ugarthilocus's huge   spear-like hairs, and takes it home with him (Saxo 165-6). The utgarðar were the uttermost   borders of the habitable world, where antiquity fixed the abode of giants and monsters, i.e.,   hell; and here also may have been present that notion of the bar, closing up as it were the   entrance to that inaccessible region of ghosts and demons. Whether in very early times there was also a Saxon Loko and an Alamannic Lohho, or   only a Grendil and Krentil; what is of capital importance is the agreement in the myths   themselves. To what was cited above, I will here add something more. Our nursery-tales   have made us familiar with the incident of the hair plucked off the devil as he lay asleep in   his grandmother's lap (Kinderm. 29). The corresponding Norwegian tale makes three   feathers be pulled out of the dragon's tale, not while he sleeps, but after he is dead.

Loki, in punishment of his misdeeds, is put in chains, like Prometheus who brought fire   to men; but he is to be released again at the end of the world. One of his children, Fenrir,   (14) i.e., himself in a second birth, pursues the moon in the shape of a wolf, and threatens to   swallow her. According to Sn. 12. 13, an old giantess in the forest gave birth to these giants   in wolfskin girdles, the mightiest of them being Mânagarmr (lunae canis) who is to devour   the moon; but in another place, while Sköll chases the sun, Hati, Hrôðvitnis sonr (Sæm. 45ª)   dogs the moon. Probably there were fuller legends about them all, which were never written   down; an old Scotch story is still remembered about 'the tayl of the wolfe and the warldis   end' (see Suppl.). But the popular belief seems to have extended generally, and that from the   earliest times, all over Germany, and beyond it. We still say, when baneful and perilous   disturbances arise,' the devil is broke loose,' as in the North they used to say 'Loki er or   böndum' (ch. XXIII). In the Life of Göz von Berlichingen, p. 201: 'the devil was everywhere   at large'; in Detmar's chronik 1, 298: 'do was de duvel los geworden,' i.e., disorder and   violence prevailed. Of any one who threatened from a safe distance, the folk in Burgundy   used the ironical phrase: 'Dieu garde la lune des loups!' (15) meaning, such threats would   not be fulfilled till the end of the world; in the same way the French popular song on Henry   IV. expresses the far end of the future as the time when the wolf's teeth shall get at the   moon: jusqu' à ce que l'on prenne la lune avec les dents. (16) Fischart in several places   speaks of this 'wolf des mons,' and most fully in his Aller practik grossmutter: 'derhalben   dörft ihr nicht mehr für ihn betten, dass ihn Gott vor den wölfen wölle behüten, denn sie   werden ihn diss jahr nicht erhaschen' (need not pray for the moon, they won't get her this   year). (17) In several places there circulate among the people rhymes about the twelve   hours, the last two being thus distinguished: 'umm elfe kommen die wölfe, um zwölfe bricht   das gewölbe,' at 11 come the wolves, at 12 bursts the vault, i.e., death out of the vault. Can   there be an echo in this of the old belief in the appearing of the wolf or wolves at the   destruction of the world and the bursting of heaven's vault? In a lighted candle, if a piece of   the wick gets half detached and makes it burn away too fast, they say 'a wolf (as well as a   thief) is in the candle;' this too is like the wolf devouring the sun or moon. Eclipses of sun   or moon have been a terror to many heathen nations; the incipient and increasing   obscuration of the luminous orb marks for them the moment when the gaping jaws of the   wolf and the ultimate enlargement of Loki from his chains, who at the end of time of the   Ragnarökr will war against and overcome the gods, is in striking accord with the release of   the chained Prometheus, by whom Zeus is then to be overthrown. The formula, 'unz Loki   verðr lausa' (= unz riufaz regin, till the gods be destroyed), answers exactly to the Greek prin   an ek desmwn calasqh Promhqenj (Aesch. Prom. 176. 770. 991); the writhings of the fettered   Loki make the earth to quake (Sæm. 69. Sn. 70), just as cqwn sesaleutai in the case of   Prometheus (Aesch. 1081). Only the Greek Titan excites our noblest sympathy, while the   Edda presents Loki as a hateful monster.

Loki was fair in form, evil in disposition; his father, a giant, was named Farbauti   (boatman?), his mother Laufey (leaf-ea) and Nâl (needle; thin and insinuating, miô ok   auðþreiflig, 355), all of them words easy to translate into OHG. as Farpôzo (remex),   Loupouwa, Nâdala, though such names are nowhere found. He is never called Farbauta   sonr, but always after his mother, Loki Laufeyjar sonr (Sæm. 67ª 72b 73ª), which had its   origin in alliteration, but held its ground even in prose (Sn. 64) and in the Locke Löje, Loke   Lovmand, Loke Lejemand of the later folk-songs. This Laufey (Swed. Löfö) is first of all the   name of a place, which was personified, and here again there is doubtless reference to an   element. By his wife Sigyn Loki had a son Nari or Narvi, and by a giantess Angrboða three   children, the aforesaid Fenrir, the serpent Iörmungandr and a daughter Hel. It is worthy of   notice, that he himself is also called Loptr (aërius), and one of his brothers Helblindi, which   is likewise a name of Oðinn. I just throw out these names, mostly foreign to our German   mythology, in the hope of enlisting for them future inquiry.

Once again we must turn our attention to a name already brought forward among the   gods of the week (pp. 125-6), for which a rare concurrence of isolated facts seems almost to   secure a place in our native antiquities. The High German week leaves two days, one in the   middle and one at the end, not named after gods. But sambaztag for Sunday, as well as   mittwoch for Wuotanstag, was a sheer innovation, which the church had achieved or gladly   accepted for those two days at all events. The first six days were called after the sun, the   moon, Zio, Wuotan, Donar and Fria; what god was entitled to have the naming of the   seventh day? Four German deities were available for Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, but   how was Saturn to be put into German? The Mid. Ages went on explaining the seventh day   by the Roman god: our Kaiserchronik, which even for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days   names no German gods, but only Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, expresses itself thus   clumsily:

An dem sameztage sâ

Then on the Saturday

einez heizet rotundâ

Is a thing named rotunda

daz was ein hêrez betehûs

That was a lofty temple,

der got hiez Saturnûs

The god was named Saturnus,

darnâch was iz aller tiuvel êre

Thereafter was it to all devils' honour. 

Here the worship of Saturn is connected with the pantheon built in honour of all the   gods or devils, which Boniface converted into a church of St. Mary. The Anglo-Saxons,   English, Frisians, Dutch and Low Saxons have left to the 'dies Saturni' the god's very name:   Sæteresday or Sæternesdæg, Saturday, Saterdei, Saterdach, Satersdag, and even the Irish   have adopted dia Satuirn or Satarn; whereas the French samedi, Span. sabado, Ital, sabato,   agrees with our High Germ. samstag. here is identity, not only of idea, as in the case of the   other gods, but of name, and the absence of consonant-change seems to betray downright   borrowing: or may the resemblence have been accidental, and a genuine German name have   been modified in imitation of the foreign one? In OHG neither a Sâtarnes- nor a Sâzarnestac   can be found; but in AS. sætere means insidiator (OHG. sâzari, conf. sâza, MHG. sâze   insidiae, a sitting in wait, as lâga, lâga is lying in wait); and what is still more remarkable, a   document of Edward the Confessor (chart. antiq. rot. M. no. 1. Kemble 4, 157) supplies us   with the name of a place Sæteresbyrig, quite on a par with Wôdnesbyrig; further, the plant   gallicrus, our hahnenfuss, Engl. crowfoot, was in the AS. sâtorlâðe Saturni taedium as it   were (-loathing, ON, leiði, OHG. leidi). (18) I call to mind, that even the ancient Franks spoke   of Saturnus (p. 88) as a heathen god, and of Saturni dolium, though that may have referred   to the mere planetary god (see Suppl.).

The last name for the 'sabbath' brings us to the ON. laugardagr, Swed. lögerdag, Dan.   löverdag, by which in later times no doubt washing or bathing day was meant, as the   equivalent þvottdagr shows; but originally Logadagr, Lokadagr may have been in use, (19)   and Logi, Loki might answer to the Latin Saturnus, (20) as the idea of devil which lay in Loki   was popularly transferred to the Jewish Satan and [what seemed to be the same thing] the   heathen Saturn, and Locki in ON. is likewise seducer, tempter, trapper. We might even take   into consideration a by-name of Oðinn in Sæm. 46ª, Saðr or perhaps Sâðr, though I prefer to   take the first form as equivalent to Sannr (true) and Sanngetall. But that AS. Sæteresbyrig from the middle of the 11th century irresistibly recalls the   'burg' on the Harz mts, built (according to our hitherto despised accounts of the 15th   century in Bothe's Sachsenchronik) to the idol Saturn, which Saturn, it is added, the   common people called Krodo; to this we may add the name touched upon in p. 206 (Hrêðe,   Hrêðemônað), for which an older Hruodo, Chrôdo was conjectured. (21) We are told of an   image of this Saturn or Krodo, which represented the idol as a man standing on a great fish,   holding a pot of flowers in his right hand, and a wheel erect in his left; the Roman Saturn   was furnished with the sickle, not a wheel (see Suppl.). (22)

Here some Slav conceptions appear to overlap. Widukind (Pertz 5, 463) mentions a   brazen simulacrum Saturni among the Slavs of the tenth century, without at all describing it;   but Old Bohemian glosses in Hanka 14ª and 17ª carry us farther. In the first, Mercurius is   called 'Radihost vnuk Kirtov' (Radigast grandson of Kirt), in the second, Picus Saturni filius   is glossed 'ztracec Sitivratov zin' (woodpecker, Sitivrat's son); and in a third 20ª, Saturn is   again called Sitivrat. Who does not see that Sitivrat is the Slavic name for Saturn, which   leads us to the first glance to sit = satur? Radigast = Mercury (p. 130n.) is the son of Stracec   = Picus; and in fact Greek myths treat Picus (Pikoj) as Zeus, making him give up the   kingdom to his son Hermes. Picus is Jupiter, son of Saturn; but beside Sitivrat we have   learnt another name for Saturn, namely Kirt, which certainly seems to be our Krodo and   Hruodo. Sitivrat and Kirt confirm Saturn and Krodo; I do not know whether the Slavic word   is to be connected with the Boh. krt, Pol. kret, Russ. krot, i.e., the mole. (23) I should prefer   to put into the other name Sitivrat the subordinate meaning of sito-vrat, sieve-turner, so   that it would be almost the same as kolo-vrat, wheel-turner, and afford a solution of that   wheel in Krodo's hand; both wheel (kolo) and sieve (sito) move round, and an ancient spell   rested on sieve-turning. Slav mythologists have identified Sitivrat with the Hindu   Satyâvrata, who in a great deluge is saved by Vishnu in the form of a fish. Krodo stands on   a fish; and Vishnu is represented wearing wreaths of flowers about his neck, and holding a   wheel (chakra) in his fourth hand. (24) All these coincidences are still meagre and insecure;   but they suffice to establish the high antiquity of a Slavo-Teutonic myth, which starts up   thus from more than one quarter.

 

ENDNOTES:

 

                1. When this passage says further, 'vissi hann vel fram, sem Vanir aðrir,' liter. 'he foreknew well, like other Vanir,' his wisdom is merely likened to that of the Vanir (Gramm. 4, 456 on ander), it is not meant that he was one of them, a thing never asserted anywhere [so in Homer, 'Greeks and other Trojans' means 'and Trojans as well']. The Fornald. sög. 1, 373 calls him, I know not why, 'heimskastr allra âsa,' heimskr usually signifying ignorant, a greenhorn, what the MHG. poets mean by tump.

                2. Conf. KM. 3, 125.

                3. Li diente d' oro, Pentam. 3, 1. Of a certain Haraldr: tennr voru miklor ok gulls litr â. Fornald. sög. 1, 366.  4. Zeitschrift f. d. alt. 2, 257-267. Conf. ch. XIX.

                5. Der gammel Erik, gamel Erke (old E.), has now come to mean old Nick in Swedish; conf. supra p. 124, on Erchtag.

                6. Sæm. 113b, of Oðinn: gefr hann brag skâldom (dat carmen poetis).  7. Does not the Engl. Brag, Germ. prahlen (gloriari) explain everything? Showy high-flown speech would apply equally to boasting and to poetry. Then, for the other meaning, 'the boast, glory, master-piece (of men, gods, women, angels, bears),' we can either go back to the more primitive sense (gloria) in prangen, prunk, pracht, bright, or still keep to brag. 'Beauty is nature's brag, and must be shewn,' says Comus.

Trans.

                8. In Beda 4, 23 (Stevens. p. 304) a woman's name Bregosuid, Bregoswið; in Kemble 5, 48 (anno 749) Bregenswiðestân, and 1, 133-4 (anno 762), 5, 46 (anno 747), 5, 59 (anno 798) a man's name Bregowine. In Beow. 3847 bregorôf is clarissimus.

                9. The Irish breitheam, brethemb (judex) is said to be pronounced almost as 'brehon,' Trans. of Irish acad. 14, 167.

                10. Oegir is also called Gymir, Sæm. 59. Gûmir, Sn. 125. 183 possibly epulator? but I know no   other meaning of the ON. gaumr than cura, attentio, though the OHG. gouma, OS. gôma   means both cura and epulae, the AS. gýming both cura and nuptiae.

                11. Fornm. sög. 9, 513: gekk alvaldr und Ýgishialmi. The spelling with ý goes to confirm our   œ, and refute æ, as an ý can only stand for the former, not for the latter; conf. môr and the   deriv. mýri = mœri, Gramm. 1, 473.

                12. In the great feast which he gave to the gods, the ale come up of itself (sialft barsc þar öll,   Sæm. 59), as Hephæstus's tripods ran aÝtom£toi in and out of the qe‹on ¢gîna, Il. 18, 376.   Even so Freyr had a sword er sialft vegiz (that swings itself), Sæm. 82ª, and Thôr's Miölnir   comes back of itself everytime it is thrown.

                13. 'Thorlacius's theory, of an older nature-worship supplanted by the Ases, rest mainly on   the antithesis of an Ökuþôrr to Asaþôrr of Logi to Loki, and probably of Hlêr to Oegir, each   pair respectively standing for thunder, fire, water. To the elder series must be added Sif =   earth, and the miðgarðsormr (world-snake). But what nature-god can Oðinn have taken the   place of ? None? And was his being not one of the primeval ones?' &c. [Quoted from   Suppl., vol. iii]

                14. Goth. Fanareis ? OHG. Fanari, Feniri ? can it be our fahnenträger, pannifer ? But the early   Norse does not seem to have the word answering to the Goth. fana, OHG. fano (flag). [Has   the fox holding up his tail as a standard, in the unrighteous war of beasts against birds,   anything to do with this ?]

                15. Lamonnaye, glossaire to the noei bourguignon, Dijon 1776, p. 242.

                16. Conf. Ps. 72, 7: donec auferetur luna.

                17. May we in this connexion think of the fable of the wolf who goes down the well to eat up   the moon, which he takes for a cheese?

                18. In the AS. are preserved various dialogues between Saturn and Solomon, similar to   those between Solomon and Marculf in continental Germany, but more antique and, apart   from their christian setting or dressing up, not unlike the questions and discourses carried   on in the Edda between Oðinn and Vafþrûðnir, between Vîngþôrr and Alviss, between Hâr   and Gângleri. Here also the name Saturn seems to make for my point, and to designate a god   of Teutonic paganism.

                19. Conf. Finn Magnusen, lex. pp. 1041-2, dagens tider p. 7.

                20. I suppose the author had in his mind Homer's constant epithet, Kronoj agkulomhthj wily,   crooked-counselled Kronos.

Trans.

                21. To Hrôdo might now be referred those names Roysel (later spelling Reusel) and   Roydach in Gramaye, who understands them of Mars; ancient documents must first place it   beyond doubt, which day of the week is meant. There is an actual Hruodtac, a man's name in   OHG. (Graff 5, 362), and an OS. Hrôddag is found in Trad. corb. § 424, ed. Wigand; these   may be related to Hruodo, Hrôdo as Baldag to Balder, and the contraction Roydag, Rodag   would be like Roswith for Hrôdsuith. If Roydag should turn out to be the seventh day of the   week, it would be a strong testimony to the worship of Chrodo; if it remain the third, we   have to add, that the third month also was sacred to Mars, and was called Hréðemonað by   the Anglo-Saxons.

                22. 'The Kaiserchr. 3750 says, to Saturn we offer quicksilver; whereas now Saturn's symbol   signifies lead. In Megenberg, Saturn is called Satjâr. The Saxon Saturn is supported by   Hengest's reference to that god'. (Extracted from Suppl., vol. iii.)

 

Supplements

 

                p. 234. ) Heimðallr is expl. by Leo, vorl. 131, as heim-dolde, world-tree. If d instead of ð were correct, it might contain the AS. deal, dealles (note to Andr. 126). Heimðall við kunnari enn vörðr með goðum, Sæm. 85a, the sverd-âs in Himinbiörg, reminds of the angel guarding Paradise with a sword, El. 755, &c. His blowing a horn when Surtr approaches recalls "the last trump" (þut-haurn, Ulph. ), 1 Cor. 15, 52.

A Himiles-berc in Mone's Anz. 6, 228; a Heofen-feld in Northumb., Lye sub v. -

Heimðallr is called Vindler, Sn. 105, Vindlere in Resen.

Of Finnish gods, Ahti or Lemminkäinen has the sharpest ears, Kalev. 17, 7 (Anshelm 3, 64 speaks of hearing the grass grow). --

H. is son of Oðinn by 9 mothers, Sn. 211a. Laxd. saga p. 392; does it mean his father had 9 wives? The Romans called their Liber bi-mater; conf. the name Quatremère.

                p. 234. ) Rîgr is stîgandi, gângandi, Sæm. 100a. 105a. In Yngl. p. 20 he is the first Danish king; his son Danpr has a daughter Drôtt, the mother of Dyggvi, and a son Dagr. Sæm. 106b names 'Danr ok Danpr' together; conf. F. Magn. lex. p. 670.

                p. 235. ) Bragi is beckskrautuðr, scamnorum decus, Sæm. 61b; brother of Dagr and Sigrûn 164; pl. bragnar dat. brögnum, simply viri 152a.

                p. 236. ) A Burnacker in Förstem. 2, 4; brunnacker in H. Meyer's Zürch. ortsn. 523. Weisth. 1, 119; hence prob. the man's name Brünacker in Konr. v. Weinsb. 3, 4.

                p. 237. ) The eager on the Trent, Carlyle's Hero-Worship. AS. eagor; in Bailey's Dict. eager = flood-tide. The Finnish sea-god, with beard of grass, sitting on a water lily, is Ahto, Ahti, gen. Ahin, Kalev. 22, 301. 29, 13. 15; conf. my Kl. schr. 3, 122.

                p. 238. ) Like Oegi's helm is the Exhelmer stein on a hill in the Kellergebirge, Hess. Ztschr. 1, 245. On Grîmr ægir, see p. 1017. In the helmet 'lît ein hiltegrîn,' Dietr. drachenk. 11; galeae minaci, Claudian in Prob. et Olybr. 92; terribilem galeam, Virg. Aen. 8, 620.

                p. 238. ) Oegir is a iötunn, Hým. 3; a bergbûi 2. The ON. ôgn, f., = terror and ocean; ôgnar liomi = gold, Sæm. 152a; ôgorlig Oegisdottor153a; ölsmiðr = Oegir, Egills. 618. What means Oegis-heimr, Sæm. 124-5? Egisleiba, Agistadium, Hpt's Ztschr. 8, 588; Agasûl on L. Zurich 2, 536, formed like Agadora (Eider, p. 239?) oegisandr, sea-sand, Barl. 26, 20.

                p. 240. ) Hlês dættr â vîð blêsu. her er sjor kallaðr Hlêr, þvî at hann hlýr allra minnz, Sn. 332; hlýr = egelidus, tepidus, OHG. lâo, lâwer, Graff 2, 294; Ir. lir, Conan 33-4-9. 93. 192-3. Diarmid 87. 112-4-6; also lear, Learthonn, T. 7.

                p. 242. ) As Logi, the 'villi-eldr,' Sn. 60, is son to giant Forniotr, so is Loki a son of giant Farbauti. The eating-match between Loki and Logi is like that of Herakles and Lepreus, Athenæ. p. 412. Paus. 5, 5. Prometheus is chained to the rock by Hephæstus, Loki by Logi. -

Loki, 'sâ er flestu illu raeðr,' is hateful to the gods: er öll regin œgja, Thorl. sp. 6, 38; sâ inn laevîsi Loki, Sæm. 67b; in folksongs 'Loke leve,' Wieselgr. 384-5, in Danish 'Loke lejemand,' conf. the name Liuuiso, Liuiso, Trad. fuld. 2, 32-43; in Norweg. 'hin onde,' Hallager, as Oden is in 1. 828; for Lokkens havre we have 'den ondes hafre, Dybeck runa 1847, 30-1.

There is a saying: 'leingi geingr Loki ok Thôrr (= lightning and thunder), lêttir ei hrîðum,' the storm lasts. -

Rask thinks the name akin to Finn. lokki, wolf; some may think it an abbrev. of Lucifer! Uhland takes Loki to be the locker-up, concluder of all things, as Heimdall is originator. To Logi conf. Hâlogi for Hölgi, Sn. 128. 154. F. Magn. lex. p. 981.

                p. 243. ) 'Ik bede di grindel an deser helle,' Upstandinge 553, seems almost to mean a personal devil.

                p. 243n. ) It is true, another race of rulers beside the Ases is imagined, one of whom, Gylfi king of Sweden, sets out as gangleri (pilgrim) to spy out the Ases (Sn. 1. 2. 2, &c. ), but is cheated by them. But this is an imitation of Eddic lays, which make Oðinn as gangleri and gangrâðr travel to the giants, and talk with them. Sæm. 31-2; conf. Aegir'' journey to Asgard, and his dialogue with Bragi, Sn. 79, &c.

                p. 245. ) In Sæm. 37a Fenrir pursues Alf-röðull, which must mean the moon, the 'sun of the elves'; conf. 'festr mun slitna enn Frecki renna,' Sæm. 7-8. 'man ôbundinn Fenris-ûlfr fara,' Hakonarm. 23. 'Loki lîðr or böndum,' Sæm. 96a (conf. iötunn losnar 8a; is this Loki or Surtr? Loki is lægiarnlîki âþeckr, monstro similis 7a). -

Loki is caught by Þiazi, Sn. 81, and expressively chained 70 (conf. Sæm. 7a); so is Fenrir 33-4-5; conf. the chained giant (Suppl. to 544), chained devil (p. 1011), chained Kronos (p. 832n.). -

Loki's daughter Hel esp. makes it likely that he too was common to all Teut. nations.

                p. 247. ) AS. sâtor-lâðe, panicum crusgalli, is a grass like the agrwstij sown by Kronos (Suppl. to 1192). One is reminded of Saturni dolium by 'Lucifer sedens in dolio,' Upstandinge p. 41, and 'des tiuvels vaz,' Hpt's Ztschr. 7, 327. What means the ON. scâturnir, Sn. 222b?

                p. 248-9. ) Delius pp. 41. 50 cites krodenduvel, kroden-heuker, kroden-kind; is the first out of Botho? In a Hildesheim MS. of the 16th cent., Frosch-meus, we read: 'pravi spiritus, id est, de kroden duvels' in contrast with the good holdes. In Hh. VIIIa: 'misshapen as they paint the kroden teuffel.'

Jornandes de regn. succ. p.m. 2 has the pedigree 'Saturnus, Picus, Faunus, Latinus'; conf. p. 673 and GDS. 120.

 

 

Chapter 13

Goddesses

 

 

                In treating of gods, the course of our inquiry could aim at separating the several personalities; the goddesses (1) it seems advisable to take by themselves and all at one view, because there is a common idea underlying them, which will come out more clearly by that method. They are thought of chiefly as divine mothers who travel round and visit houses, from whom the human race learns the occupations and arts of housekeeping and husbandry: spinning, weaving, tending the hearth, sowing and reaping. These labours bring with them peace and quiet in the land, and the memory of them abides in charming traditions even more lastingly than that of wars and battles, from which most goddesses as well as women hold themselves aloof.

                But as some goddesses also take kindly to war, so do gods on the other hand favour peace and agriculture; and there arises an interchange of names or offices between the sexes.

 

                   1. ERDA, NIRDU, GAUE, FIRGUNIA, HLUODANA

 

                In almost all languages the Earth is regarded as female, and (in contrast to the father sky encircling her) as the breeding, teeming fruit-bearing mother: Goth. aírþa, OHG. ërda, AS. eorðe, ON. iörð, Gr. era (inferred from eraze); Lat. terra, tellus, humus = Slav. zeme, ziemia, zemlia, Lith. zieme, Gr. camh (? whence camaze), aia, gaia, gh: the 'mother' subjoined in Dhmhthr, Zema mate, indicates the goddess. The form aírþa, ërda (also herda) is itself a derivative; the simpler OHG. ero (in the Wessobr. prayer: ero noh ûfhimil, earth nor heaven) and hero (in a gloss, for solum, Graff 4, 999) might be masc. (like herd = solum, Graff 4, 1026) or fem. still. (2) The Goth. mulda, OHG, molta, AS. molde, ON. mold, contain only the material sense of soil, dust; equally impersonal is the OS. folda, AS. folde, ON. fold, conf, feld, field, Finn. peldo (campus), Hung, föld (terra). But the ON. Iörð appears in the flesh, at once wife and daughter of Oðinn, and mother of Thôrr (Sn. 11. 39. 123), who is often called Iarðar burr. Distinct from her was Rindr, another wife of Oðinn, and mother of Vali (Sæm. 91ª 95ª 97b), called Rinda in Saxo, and more coarsely painted; her name is the OHG. rinta, AS. rind = cortex, hence crusta soli vel terrae, and to crusta the AS. hruse (terra) is closely related. As this literal sense is not found in the North, neither is the mythical meaning in Germany (see Suppl.).

                But neither in Iörð nor in Rindr has the Edda brought out in clear relief her specially maternal character; nowhere is this more purely and simply expressed than in the very oldest account we possess of the goddess. It is not to all the Germani that Tacitus imputes the worship of Nerthus, only to the Langobardi (?), Reudigni, Aviones, Angli, Varini, Eudoses, Suardones and Vuithones (Germ. 40): Nec quicquam notabile in singulis, nisi quod in commune Nerthum, (3) id est Terram matrem colunt, eamque intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis, arbitrantur. Est in insula oceani castum nemus, dicatumque in eo vehiculum, veste contectum, attingere uni sacerdoti concessum. Is adesse penetrali deam intelligit, vectamque bubus feminis multa cum veneratione prosequitur. Laeti tunc dies, festa loca, quaecunque adventu hospitioque dignatur. Non bella ineunt, non arma sumunt; clausum omne ferrum: pax et quies tunc tantum nota, tunc tantum amata: donec idem sacerdos satiatam conversatione mortalium deam templo reddat. Mox vehiculum et vestes, et, si credere velis, numen ipsum secreto lacu abluitur. Servi ministrant, quos statim idem lacus haurit. (4) Arcanus hinc terror sanctaque ignoratia, quid sit illud, quod tantum perituri vident (see Suppl.). (5)

                This beautiful description agrees with what we find in other notices of the worship of a godhead to whom peace and fruitfulness were attributed. In Sweden it was Freyr, son of Niörðr, whose curtained car went round the country in spring, with the people all praying and holding feasts (p. 213); but Freyr is altogether like his father, and he again like his namesake the goddess Nerthus. The spring-truces, harvest-truces, plough-truces, fixed for certain seasons and implements of husbandry, have struck deep roots in our German law and land-usages. Wuotan and Donar also make their appearance in their wains, and are invoked for increase to the crops and kindly rain; on p. 107, anent the car of a Gothic god whose name Sozomen withholds, I have hinted at Nerthus.

                The interchange of male and female deities is, luckily for us here, set in a clear light, by the prayers and rhymes to Wuotan as god of harvest, which we have quoted above (p. 155 seq.), being in other Low German districts handed over straight to a goddess. When the cottagers, we are told, are mowing rye, they let some of the stalks stand, tie flowers among them, and when they have finished work, assemble round the clump left standing, take hold of the ears of rye, and shout three times over:

Fru Gaue, haltet ju fauer,

Lady Gaue, keep you some fodder,

düt jar up den wagen,

This year on the waggon,

dat ander jar up der kare! (6)

Next year on the wheelbarrow

Whereas Wode had better fodder promised him for the next year, Dame Gaue seems to receive notice of a falling off in the quantity of the gift presented. In both cases I see the shyness of the christians at retaining a heathen sacrifice: as far as words go, the old gods are to think no great things of themselves in the future.

                In the district about Hameln, it was the custom, when a reaper in binding sheaves passed one over, or left anything standing in the field, to jeer at him by calling out: 'scholl düt gaue frue (or de fru Gauen) hebben (is that for dame G.)?' (7)

                In the Prignitz they say fru Gode, and call the bunch of ears left standing in each field vergodendeelsstrûss, i.e., dame Gode's portion bunch. (8) Ver is a common contraction for frau [as in junger]; but a dialect which says fauer instead of foer, foder, will equally have Gaue for Gode, Guode. This Guode can be no other than Gwode, Wode; and, explaining fru by the older fro, fro Woden or fro Gaue (conf. Gaunsdag for Wonsdag, p. 125) will denote a lord and god, not a goddess, so that the form of prayer completely coincides with those addressed to Wuotan, and the fruh Wod subjoined in the note on p. 156 (see Suppl). If one prefer the notion of a female divinity, which, later at all events, was undoubtedly attached to the term fru, we might perhaps bring in the ON. Gôi (Sn. 358. Fornald. sög. 2, 17), a mythic maiden, after whom February was named. The Greek Gaia or Gh is, I consider, out of the question here.

                In an AS. formulary for restoring fertility to fields that have been bewitched, there occur two remarkable addresses; the first is 'erce, erce, erce, eorþan môdor!' by which not the earth herself, but her mother seems to be meant; however, the expression is still enigmatical. Can there lie disguised in erce a proper name Erce gen. Ercan, connected with the OHG. adj. ërchan, simplex, genuinus, germanus? it would surely be more correct to write Eorce? ought it to suggest the lady Erche, Herkja, Herche, Helche renowned in our heroic legend? The distinct traces in Low Saxon districts of a divine dame, Herke or Harke by name, are significant. In Jessen, a little town on the Elster, not far from Wittenberg, they relate of frau Herke what in other places, as will be shown, holds good of Freke, Berhta and Holda. In the Mark she is called frau Harke, and is said to fly through the country between Christmas and Twelfth-day, dispensing earthly goods in abundance; by Epiphany the maids have to finish spinning their flax, else frau Harke gives them a good scratching or soils their distaff (see Suppl.). (9) In earlier times a simpler form of the name was current; we find in Gobelinus Persona (Meibom 1, 235) the following account, which therefore reaches back beyond 1418: Quod autem Hera colebatur a Saxonibus, videtur ex eo quod quidam vulgares recitant se audivisse ab antiquis, prout et ego audivi, quod inter festum nativitatis Christi ad festum epiphaniae Domini domina Hera volat per aëra, quoniam apud gentiles Junoni aër deputabatur. Et quod Juno quandoque Hera appellabatur et depingebatur cum tintinnabulis et alis, dicebant vulgares praedicto tempore: vrowe Hera seu corrupto nomine vro Here de vlughet, et credebant illam sibi conferre rerum temporalium abundantiam. Have we here still extant the old Ero, Era, Hero meaning earth? and does Hra belong to it? If the AS. Erce also contains the same, then even the diminutive form Herke must be of high antiquity.

The second address in the same AS. ritual is a call to the earth: 'hâl wes thu folde, fira   môdor!' hale (whole) be thou earth, mother of men; which agrees with the expression terra   mater in Tacitus.

The widely extended worship of the teeming nourishing earth would no doubt give rise   to a variety of names among our forefathers, just as the service of Gaia and her daughter   Rhea mixed itself up with that of Ops mater, Ceres and Cybele. (10) To me the resemblance   between the cultus of Nerthus and that of the Phrygian mother of gods appears well worthy   of notice. Lucretius 2, 597

641 describes the peregrination of the magna deûm mater in her   lion-drawn car through the lands of the earth:

Quo nunc insigni per magnas praedita terras

horrifice fertur divinae matris imago

Ergo quom primum magnas invecta per urbeis

munificat tacita mortaleis muta salute,

aere atque argento sternunt iter omne viarum,

largifica stipe ditantes, ninguntque rosarum

floribus, umbrantes matrem comitumque catervam.

The Romans called the VI. kal. Apr. lavatio matris deûm, and kept it as a feast, Ovid. fast.   4, 337:

Est locus, in Tiberin qua lubricus influit Almo,

et nomen magno perdit ab amne minor;

illic purpurea canus cum veste sacerdos

Almonis dominam sacraque lavit aquis.

Ammian. Marcell. 23, 3 (Paris 1681, p. 355): Ad Callinicum,

ubi anti diem sextum kal. quo   Romae matri deorum pompae celebrantur annales, et carpentum quo vehitur simulacrum   Almonis undis ablui perhibetur. Conf. Prudentius, hymn. 10, 154:

Nudare plantas ante carpentum scio

proceres togatos matris Idaeae sacris.

Lapis nigellus evehendus essedo

muliebris oris clausus argento sedet,

quem dum ad lavacrum praeundo ducitis

pedes remotis atterentes calceis

Almonis usque pervenitis rivulum.

Exactly in the same way Nerthus, after she has travelled round the country, is bathed in   the sacred lake in her waggon; and I find it noted, that the Indian Bhavani, wife of Shiva, is   likewise driven round on her feast-day, and bathed in a secret lake by the Brahmans (see   Suppl.) (11)

Nerthus's 'island in the ocean' has been supposed to mean Rügen, in the middle of   which there is actually a lake, called the Schwarze see, or Burgsee. What is told as a legend,   that there in ancient times the devil was adored, that a maiden was maintained in his service,   and that when he was weary of her, she was drowned in the black lake, (12) must have   arisen, gross as the perversion may be, out of the account in Tacitus, who makes the   goddess, when satiated with the converse of men, disappear in the lake with her attendants.   But there are no other local features to turn the scale in its favor; (13) and the Danish   islands in the Baltic have at least as good a claim to have been erewhile the sacred seat of   the goddess.

We have yet more names for the earth-goddess, that demand investigation: partly Old   Norse, partly to be gathered from the Romans. In the Skâldskaparmâl, p. 178, she is named   both Fiörgyn and Hlôðyn.

Of Fiörgyn I have treated already, p. 172; if by the side of this goddess there could   stand a god Fiörgynn and a neuter common noun faírguni, if the idea of Thôr's mother at   the same time passes into that of the thundergod, it exactly parallels and confirms a female   Nerthus (Goth. Naírþus, gen. Naírþáus) by the side of the masculine Niörðr (Nerthus), just   as Freyja goes with Freyr. If it was not wrong to infer from Perkunas a mountain-god   Faírguneis, Lithuanian mythology has equally a goddes Perkunatele.

Hlôðyn is derived in the same way as Fiörgyn, so that we may safely infer a Goth.   Hlôðynjar,' which is son of earth again; and Fornald. sög. 1, 469 says: î Hlôðynjar skaut. In   the ON. language hlôð is a hearth, (14) the goddess's name therefore means protectress of   the fireplace; and our OHG. hërd (p. 251), beside solum or terra, also denotes precisely   focus, arula, fornacula, the hearth being to us the very basis of a human habitation, a   paternal Lar, so to speak, corresponding to the mother earth. The Romans also worshipped   a goddess of earth and of fire under the common name of Fornax, dea fornacalis. (15) But   what is still more important to us, there was discovered on Low Rhenish ground a stone,   first kept at Cleve and afterwards at Xanten, with the remarkable inscription: DEAE   HLUDANAE SACRVM C. TIBERIVS VERVS. Hludana is neither a Roman nor a Celtic   goddess, but her name answers perfectly to that of the Norse divinity, and Sk. Thorlacius   has the merit of having recognised and learnedly proved the identity of the two. (16) In this   inscription I see striking evidence of the oneness of Norse and German mythology.   Thorlacius, not without reason, compares the name with Lhtw and Latona. Might not   Hlôrriði, an epithet of Thôrr the son of Hlôðyn, be explained as Hlôðriði?

 

2. TANFANA. NEHALENNIA. 

 

Another goddess stands wrapt in thicker darkness, whom Tacitus calls Tanfana, and a   stone inscription Tamfana (TAMFANAE SACRUM, p. 80). We are sure of her name, and   the termination -ana is the same as in Hludana and other fem. proper names, Bertana,   Rapana, Madana. The sense of the word, and with it any sure insight into the significance   of her being, are locked up from us.

We must also allude briefly to the Belgian or Frisian dea Nehalennia, about whose name   several inscriptions of like import (17) remove all doubt; but the word has also given rise to   forced and unsatisfying interpretations. In other inscriptions found on the lower part of the   Rhine there occurs compounds, whose termination (-nehis, -nehabus, dat. plurals fem.)   seems to contain the same word that forms the first half of Nehalennia; their plural number   appears to indicate nymphs rather than a goddess, yet there also hangs about them the   notion of a mother (see ch. XVI, the Walachuriun).

 

 

3. (ISIS). 

 

The account in Tacitus of the goddess Isis carries us much farther, because it can be   linked with living traditions of a cultus that still lingered in the Mid. Ages. Immediately after   mentioning the worship of Mercurius, Hercules, and Mars, he adds (cap. 9): Pars Suevorum   et Isidi sacrificat. Unde causa et origo peregrino sacro, parum comperi, nisi quod signum   ipsum, in modum liburnae figuratum, docet advectam religionem. The importation from   abroad can hardly consist in the name Isis, seeing that Mercury, Mars, Hercules, names   that must have sounded equally un-German, raised no difficulty; what looked foreign was   the symbol, the figure of a ship, reminding the writer of the Roman navigium Isidis.

When spring had set in, and the sea, untraversed during winter, was once more   navigable, the Greeks and Romans used to hold a solemn procession, and present a ship to   Isis. This was done on the fifth of March (III non. Mart.), and the day is marked in the   Kalendarium rusticum as Isidis navigium. (18) The principal evidence is found in Apuleius   and Lactantius, (19) two writers who are later than Tacitus, but the custom must have   reached back to a much older date. On Alexandrian coins Isis appears walking by the side   of Pharus, unfurling a sail.

Say that from Egypt the worship if Isis had penetrated to Greece, to Rome, how are we   to imagine, that in the first century, or before, it had got itself conveyed to one particular   race inhabiting the heart of Germany? It must have been a similar cultus, not the same, and   perhaps long established amongst other Germans as well.

I will here draw attention to a strange custom of a much later time, which appears to me   to be connected with this. About the year 1133, in a forest near India (in Ripuaria), a ship   was built, set upon wheels, and drawn about the country by men who were yoked to it, first   to Aachen (Aix), then to Maestricht, where mast and sail were added, and up the river to   Tongres, Looz and so on, everywhere with crowds of people assembling and escorting it.   Whereever it halted, there were joyful shouts, songs of triumph and dancing round the ship   kept up till far into the night. The approach of the ship was notified to the towns, which   opened their gates and went out to meet it.

We have a detailed, yet not complete report of it in Rodulfi chronicon abbatiae S.   Trudonis, lib. xi., which on the account of its importance I will here insert, from Pertz 12, 309   seq.:

Est genus mercenariorum, quorum officium est ex lino et lana texere telas, hoc procax et   superbum super alios mercenarios vulgo reputatur, ad quorum procacitatem et superbiam   humiliandam et propriam injuriam de eis ulciscendam pauper quidam rusticus ex villa nomine   Inda (20) hanc diabolicam excogitavit technam. Accepta a judicibus fiducia et a levibus   hominibus auxilio, qui gaudent jocis et novitatibus, in proxima silva navem composuit, et   eam rotis suppositis affigens vehibilem super terram effecit, obtinuit quoque a potestatibus,   ut injectis funibus textorum humeris ex Inda Aquisgranum traheretur. (21) Aquis suscepta   cum utriusque sexus grandi hominum processione: nihilominus a textoribus Trajectum   [Maestricht] est provecta, ibi emendata, malo veloque insignita Tungris [Tongres] est   inducta, de Tungris Los [Looz]. Audiens abbas (sancti Trudonis) (22) Rodulfus navim illam   infausto omine compactam malaque solutam alite cum hujusmodi gentilitatis studio nostro   oppido adventare, praesago spiritu hominibus praedicabat, ut ejus susceptione abstinerent,   quia maligni spiritus sub hac ludificatione in ea traherentur, in proximoque seditio per eam   moveretur, unde caedes, incendia rapinaeque fierent, et humanus sanguis multus   funderetur. Quem ista declamantem omnibus diebus, quibus malignorum spirituum illud   simulacrum loci morabatur, oppidani nostri audire noluerunt, sed eo studio et gaudio   excipientes, quo perituri Trojani fatalem equum in medio fori sui dedicaverunt, statimque   proscriptionis sententiam accipiunt villae textores, qui ad profanas hujus simulacri excubias   venirent tardiores. Pape! Quis vidit unquam tantam (ut ita liceat latinisare) in rationalibus   animalibus brutitatem? quis tantam in renatis in Christo gentilitatem? Cogebant sententia   proscriptionis textores, nocte et die navim stipare omni armaturae genere, solicitasque ei   excubias nocte et die continuare. Mirumque fuit, quod non cogebant eos ante navim   Neptuno hostias immolare, de cujus naves esse solent regione, sed Neptunus eas Marti   reservabat, quod postea multipliciter factum est.

Textores interim occulto sed praecordiali gemitu Deum justum judicem super eos   vindicem invocabant, qui ad hanc ignominiam eos detrudebant, cum juxta rectam vitam   antiquorum Christianorum et apostolicorum virorum manuum suarum laboribus viverent,   nocte et die operantes, unde alerentur et vestirentur, liberisque suis idipsum providerent.   Quaerebant et conquerebantur ad invicem lacrymabiliter, unde illis magis quam aliis   mercenariis haec ignominia et vis contumeliosa, cum inter Christianos alia plura essent   officia suo multum aspernabiliora, cum tamen nullum dicerent aspernabile, de quo   Christianus posset se sine peccato conducere, illudque solum esset vitabile et ignobile   quod immunditiam peccati contraheret animae, meliorque sit rusticus textor et pauper, quam   exactor orphanorum et spoliator viduarum urbanus et nobilis judex. Cumque haec et eorum   similia secum, ut dixi, lacrymabiliter conquererentur, concrepabant ante illud, nescio cujus   potius dicam, Bacchi an Veneris, Neptuni sive Martis, sed ut verius dicam ante omnium   malignorum spirituum execrabile domicilium genera diversorum musicorum, turpia contica et   religioni Christianae indigna concinentium. Sancitum quoque erat a judicibus, ut praeter   textores, quicumque ad tactum navi appropinquarent, pignus de collo eorum ereptum   textoribus relinquerent, nisi se ad libitum redimerent. Sed quid faciam? loquarne an sileam?   utinam spiritus mendacii stillaret de labiis meis: sub fugitiva adhuc luce diei imminente luna   matronarum catervae abjecto femineo pudore audientes strepitum hujus vanitatis, passis   capillis de stratis suis exiliebant, aliae seminudae, aliae simplice tantum calmide circumdatae,   chorosque ducentibus circa navim impudenter irrumpendo se admiscebant. Videres ibi   aliquando mille hominum animas sexus utriusque prodigiosum et infaustum celeusma usque   ad noctis medium celebrare. Quando vero execrabilis illa chorea rumpebatur, emisso ingenti   clamore vocum inconditarum sexus uterque hac illacque bacchando ferebatur; quae tunc   videres agere, nostrum est tacere et deflere, quibus modo contingit graviter luere. Istis tam   nefandis factis plus quam duodecim diebus supradicto ritu celebratis, conferebant simul   appidani quid agerent amodo de deducenda a se novi.

Qui sanioris erant consilii, et qui eam susceptam fuisse dolebant, timentes Deum pro his   quae facta viderant et audierant, et sibi pro his futura conjiciebant, hortabantur ut   comburatur (combureretur) aut isto vel illo modo de medio tolleretur; sed stulta quorundam   coecitas huic salubri consilio contumeliose renitebatur. Nam maligni spiritus, qui in illa   ferebantur, disseminaverant in populo, quod locus ille et inhabitantes probroso nomine   amplius notarentur, apud quos remansisse inveniretur. Deducendam igitur eam ad villam,   quae juxta nos est, Leugues decreverunt. Interea Lovaniensis dominus audiens de   daemonioso navis illius ridiculo, instructusque a religiosis viris terrae suae de illo vitando et   terrae suae arcendo monstro, gratiam suam et amicitiam mandat oppidanis nostris,   commonefaciens eos humiliter, ut pacem illam quae inter illos et se erat reformata et   sacramentis confirmata non infringerent, et inde praecipue illud diaboli ludibrium viciniae   suae inferrent; quod si ludum esse dicerent, quaererent alium cum quo inde luderent. Quod   si ultra hoc mandatum committerent, pacem praedictam in eum infringerent et ipse vindictam   in eos ferro et igne exsequeretur. Id ipsum mandaverat Durachiensibus dominis, qui et   homines ejus fuerant manuatim, et interpositis sacramentis et obsidibus datis sibi   confoederati. Hoc cum jam tertio fecisset, spretus est tam ab oppidanis nostris quam   Durachiensibus dominis. Nam propter peccata inhabitantium volebat Dominus mittere super   locum nostrum ignem et arma Lovaniensium. Ad hanc igitur plebeiam fatuitatem adjunxit se   dominus Gislebertus (advocatus abbatiae S. Trudonis) contra generis sui nobilitatem,   trahendamque decrevit navem illam terream usque Leugues ultra Durachiensem villam, quod   et fecit malo nostro omine cum omni oppidanorum nostrorum multitudine et ingenti   debacchantium vociferatione. Leuguenses, oppidanis nostris prudentiores et Lovaniensis   domini mandatis obsequentes, portas suas clauserunt clauserunt et infausti ominis   monstrum intrare non permiserunt. Lovaniensis autem dominus precum suarum et mandatorum contemptum nolens esse   inultum, diem constituit comitibus tanquam suis hominibus, qui neque ad primum, neque ad   secundum, sed nec ad tertium venire voluerunt. Eduxit ergo contra eos et contra nos   multorum multitundinis exercitum armatorum tam peditum quam militum. Nostro igitur   oppido seposito, tanquam firmius munito et bellicosorum hominum pleno, primum impetum   in Durachienses fecit, quibus viriliter resistentibus castellum, nescio quare, cum posset non   obsedit, sed inter Leugues et Durachium pernoctavit. Cumque sequenti die exercitum   applicare disponeret et ex quatuor partibus assultum faceret, habebat enim ingentem   multitudinem, supervenit AdelberoMetensium primicerius filiorum Lovaniensis domini   avunculus, cujus interventu, quia comitissa Durachiensis erat soror ejus, et Durachiense   erat castellum sancti Lamberti, Lovaniensis dominus ab impugnatione cessavit et ab   obsidione se amovit, promisso ei quod Durachienses paulo post ei ad justitiam suam   educerentur. Et cum ista et alia de dominis et inter dominos tractarentur, pedites et milites   per omnia nostra circumjacentia se diffuderunt, villas nostras, ecclesians, molendina et   quaecumque occurrebant combustioni et perditioni tradentes, recedentes vero quae longe a   nobis fuerant prout cuique adjacebant inter se diviserunt.

Obviously, throughout the narrative everything is put in an odious light; but the   proceeding derives its full significance from this very fact, that it was so utterly repugnant   to the clergy, and that they tried in every way to suppress it as a sinful and heathenish   piece of work. On the other hand, the secular power had authorized the procession, and was   protecting it; it rested with the several townships, whether to grant admission to the   approaching ship, and the popular feeling seems to have ruled that it would be shabby not   to forward it on its way.

Mere dancing and singing, common as they must have been on all sorts of occasions   with the people of that time, could not have so exasperated the clergy. They call the ship   'malignorum spirituum simulacrum' and 'diaboli ludibrium,' take for granted it was knocked   together 'infausto omine' and 'gentilitatis studio,' that 'maligni spiritus' travel inside it, nay,   that it may well be called a ship of Neptune or Mars, of Bacchus or Venus; they must burn   it, or make away with it somehow.

Probably among the common people of that region there still survived some   recollections of an ancient heathen worship, which, though checked and circumscribed for   centuries, had never yet been entirely uprooted. I consider this ship, travelling about the   country, welcomed by streaming multitudes, and honoured with festive song and dance, to   be the car of the god, or rather of that goddess whom Tacitus identifies with Isis, and who   (like Nerthus) brought peace and fertility to motals. As the car was covered up, so entrance   to the interior of the ship seems to have been denied to men; there need not have been an   image of the divinity inside. Her name the people had long ago forgotten, it was only the   learned monks that still fancied something about Neptune or Mars, Bacchus or Venus: but   to the externals of the old festivity the people's appetite kept returning from time to time.   How should that 'pauper rusticus' in the wood at Inden have lighted on the thought of   building a ship, had there not been floating in his mind recollections of former processions,   perhaps of some in neighbouring districts?

It is worthy of note, that the weavers, a numerous and arrogant craft in the Netherlands,   but hateful to the common herd, were compelled to draw the ship by ropes tied to their   shoulders, and to guard it; in return, they could keep the rest of the people from coming too   near it, and fine or take pledges from those who did so. (23)

Rodulf does not say what became at last of the 'terrea navis,' after it had made that   circuit; it is enough for him to relate, how, on a reception being demanded for it and refused,   heats and quarrels arose, which could only be cooled in open war. This proves the warm   interest taken by contemporaries, fanned as it was to a flame for or against the festival by   the secular and the clerical party.

There are traces to be found of similar ship-processions at the beginning of spring in   other parts of Germany, especially in Swabia, which had then became the seat of those very   Suevi of Tacitus (see Suppl.). A minute of the town-council of Ulm, dated St. Nicholas' eve   1530, contains this prohibition: 'Item, there shall none, by day nor night, trick or disguise   him, nor put on any carnival raiment, moreover shall keep him from the going about of the   plough and with ships on pain of 1 gulden'. (24) The custom of drawing the plough about   seems to have been the more widely spread, having originally no doubt been performed in   honour of the divinity from whom a fruitful year and the thriving of crops was looked for.   Like the ship-procession, it was accompanied by dances and bonfires. Sebast. Frank, p. 51ª   of his Weltbuch: 'On the Rhine, Franconia and divers other places, the young men do   gather all the dance-maidens and put them in a plough, and draw their piper, who sitteth on   the plough, piping, into the water; inother parts they draw a fiery plough kindled with a fire   very artificial made thereon, until it fall to wrack.' Enoch Wiedemann's chronik von Hof tells   how 'On Shrove-Tuesday evil-minded lads drove a plough about, yoking to it such damsels   as did not pay ransom; others went behind them sprinkling chopped straw and sawdust.'   (Sächs. provinz. bl. 8, 347.) Pfeiffer, chron. lib. 2, § 53: 'Mos erat antiquitus Lipsiae, ut   liberalibus (feast of Liber or Bacchus, i.e., carnival) personati juvenes per vicos oppidi   aratrum circum ducerent, puellas obvias per lasciviam ad illius jugum accedere etiam   repugnantes cogerent, hoc veluti ludicro poenam expetentes ab iis quae innuptae ad eum   usque diem mansissent'. (25) On these and similar processions, more details will be given   hereafter; I only wish at present to shew that the driving of the plough and that of the ship   over the country seem both to rest on the same old heathen idea, which after the   dislodgement of the gods by christianity could only maintain itself in unintelligible customs   of the people, and so by degrees evaporate: namely, on the visible manifestation of a   beneficent benign divinity among men, who everywhere approached it with demonstrations   of joy, when in springtime the soil was loose again and the rivers released from ice, so that   agriculture and navigation could begin anew. (26) In this way the Sueves of Tacitus's time   must have done honour to their goddess by carrying her ship about. The forcing of   unmarried young women to take part in the festival is like the constraint put upon the   weavers in Rupuaria, and seems to indicate that the divine mother in her progress at once   looked kindly on the bond of love and wedlock, and punished the backward; in this sense   she might fairly stand for Dame Venus, Holda and Frecke.

The Greeks dedicated a ship not only to Isis, but to Athene. At the Panathenæa her   sacred peplos was conveyed by ship to the Acropolis: the ship, to whose mast it was   suspended as a sail, was built on the Kerameikos, and moved on dry land by an   underground mechanism, first to the temple of Demeter and all round it, past the Pelasgian   to the Pythian, and lastly to the citadel. The people followed in solemnly ordered   procession. (27)

We must not omit to mention, that Aventin, after transforming the Tacitean Isis into a   frau Eisen, and making iron (eisen) take its name from her, expands the account of her   worship, and in addition to the little ship, states further, that on the death of her father   (Hercules) she travelled through all countries, came to the German king Schwab, and staid   for a time with him; that she taught him the forging of iron, the sowing of seed, reaping,   grinding, kneading and baking, the cultivation of flax and hemp, spinning, weaving and   needlework, and that the people esteemed her a holy woman. (28) We shall in due time   investigate a goddess Zisa, and her claims to a connexion with Isis.

 

 

4. HOLDA, HOLLE. 

 

Can the name under which the Suevi worshipped that goddess whom the Romans   identified with Isis

may not at least one of her secondary names have been Holda? The   name has a purely Teutonic meaning, and is firmly grounded in the living traditions of our   people to this day.

Holdâ is the kind, benignant, merciful goddes or lady, from hold (propitius), Goth. hulþs   (Luke 18, 13; root, hilþan halþ hulþan, to bend, bow), ON. hollr; the Gothic form of it would   be Hulþô. For the opposite notion of a malignant diabolic being, Ulphilas employs both the   fem. unhulþô and the masc. unhulþa, from which I infer a hulþa by the side of hulþô: one   more confirmation of the double sex running through the idea of these divinities. It is true,   such a by-name could be shared by several gods or spirits. Notker in the Capella 81 renders   verus genius by 'mîn wâre holdo'. And in MHG. parlance, holde (fem. and masc.) must have   been known and commonly used for ghostly beings. Albrecht of Halberstadt, in translating   Ovid's Metamorphoses, uses wazzerholde (gen. -en) for nymph; rhyme has protected the   exact words from corruption in Wikram's poetic paraphrase. (29) In the largely expanded   Low German version of the Ship of Fools (Narragonia, Rostock 1519; 96ª) we find the   following passage which is wanting in the HG. text: 'Mannich narre lövet (believeth) an   vogelgeschrei, und der guden hollen (bonorum geniorum) gunst'. Of more frequent   occurence is the MHG. unholde (fem.), our modern unhold (masc.), in the sense of a dark,   malign, yet mighty being.

The earliest example of the more restricted use of the name Holda is furnished by   Burchard, bp. of Worms, p. 194ª: (30)  Credidisti ut aliqua femina sit, quae hoc facere possit,   quod quaedam a diabolo deceptae se affirmant necessario et ex praecepto facere debere, id   est cum daemonum turba in similitudinem mulierum transformata, quam vulgaris stultitia   Holdam (al. unholdam) vocat, certis noctibus equitare debere super quasdam bestias, et in   eorum se consortio annumeratam esse.  ((It was believed that somehow it was possible for some female to do this, who had been deceived by the Devil, and who confessed herself compelled to do it by a spell; that is, by a demon changed into the form of a woman whom vulgar stupidity calls Holda (or Unholda), being forced on certain nights to ride upon certain beasts, and to be numbered among their company."

 

Comments: The parenthetical remark (or Unholda) is a pun on the name of the goddess. Holda means "kind" so this bishop, who is convinced she is a demon, remarks that she is really "unkind" i.e. diabolical.)) The remarkable varia lectio 'unholda' is taken from   the Cod. vindob. univ. 633. Burchard has here put the German word in the place of the more   usual 'Diana paganorum dea,' who in other passages is named in a like sense and in the   same connexion. [A still earlier notice of Holda is found in Walafrid Strabo, see Suppl.]

In popular legends and nursery-tales, frau Holda (Hulda, Holle, (31) Hulle, frau Holl)   appears as a superior being, who manifests a kind and helpful disposition towards men, and   is never cross except when she notices disorder in household affairs. None of the German   races appear to have cherished these oral traditions so extensively as the Hessians and   Thuringians (that Worms bishop was a native of Hesse). At the same time, dame Holle is   found as far as the Voigtland, (32) past the Rhön mts in northern Franconia, (33) in the   Wetterau up to the Westerwald, (34) and from Thuringia she crosses the frontier of Lower   Saxony. Swabia, Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, North Saxony and Friesland do not know her   by that name.

From what traditions has still preserved for us, (35) we gather the following   characteristics. Frau Holle is represented as a being of the sky, begirdling the earth: when it   snows, she is making her bed, and the feathers of it fly. (36) She stirs up snow, as Donar   does rain: the Greeks ascribe the production of snow and rain to their Zeus: Dioj omboj, Il.   5, 91. 11, 493 as well as nifadej Dioj, Il. 19, 357; so that Holda comes before us a goddess of   no mean rank. (37) The comparison of snowflakes to feathers is very old; the Scythians   pronounced the regions north of them inaccessible, because they were filled with feathers   (Herod. 4, 7. conf. 31). Holda then must be able to move through the air, like dame Herke.

She loves to haunt the lake and fountain; at the hour of noon she may be seen, a fair   white lady, bathing in the flood and disappearing; a trait in which she resembles Nerthus.   Mortals, to reach her dwelling, pass through the well; conf. the name wazzerholde. (38)

Another point of resemblance is, that she drives about in a waggon. She has a linchpin   put in it by a peasant whom she met; when he picked up the chips, they were gold. (39) Her   annual progress, which like those of Herke and Berhta, is made to fall between Christmas   and Twelfth-day, when the supernatural has sway, (40) and wild beasts like the wolf are not   mentioned by their names, brings fertility to the land. Not otherwise does 'Derk with the   boar,' that Freyr of the Netherlands (p. 214), appear to go his rounds and look after the   ploughs. At the same time Holda, like Wuotan, can also ride on the winds, clothed in terror,   and she, like the god, belongs to the 'wutende heer.' From this arose the fancy, that witches   ride in Holla's company (ch. XXXIV, snowwives); it was already known to Burchard, and   now in Upper Hesse and the Westerwald, Holle-riding, to ride with Holle, is equivalent to a   witches' ride. (41) Into the same 'furious host,' according to a wide-spread popular belief,   were adopted the souls of infants dying unbaptized; not having been christain'd, they   remained heathen, and fell to heathen gods, to Wuotan or to Hulda.

The next step is, that Hulda, instead of her divine shape, assumes the appearance of an   ugly old woman, long-nosed, big-toothed, with bristling and thick-matted hair. 'He's had a   jaunt with Holle,' they say of a man whose hair sticks up in tangled disorder; so children   frightened with her or her equally hideous train: (42) 'hush, there's Hulle-betz (-bruin),   Hulle-popel (-bogie) coming.' Holle-peter, as well as Hersche, Harsche, Hescheklas,   Ruprecht, Rupper (ch. XVII, house-sprites) is among the names given to the muffled   servitor who goes about in Holle's train at the time of the winter solstice. In a nursery-tale   (Märchen no. 24) she is depicted as an old witch with long teeth; according to the   difference of story, her kind and gracious aspect is exchanged for a dark and dreadful one.

Again, Holla is set before us as a spinning-wife; the cultivation of flax is assigned to   her. Industrious maids she presents with spindles, and spins with reels full for them over   night; a slothful spinner's distaff she sets on fire, or soils it. (43) The girl whose spindle   dropt into her fountain, she rewarded bountifully. When she enters the land at Christmas,   all the distaffs are well stocked, and left standing for her; by Carnival, when she turns   homeward, all spinning must be finished off, and the staffs are now kept out of her sight   (Superst. 683); if she finds everything as it should be, she pronounces her blessing, and   contrariwise her curse; the formulas 'so many hairs, so many good years!' and 'so many   hairs, so many bad years!' have an oldworld sound. Apparently two things have been run   into one, when we are also told, that during the 'twelve-nights' no flax must be left in the   diesse , or dame Holla will come. (44) The concealment of the implements shows at the same   time the sacredness of her holiday, which ought to be a time of rest. (45) In the Rhön mts,   they do no farm-work on Hulla's Saturday, neither hoe, nor manure, nor 'drive the team   afield'. In the North too, from Yule-day to New-year's day, neither wheel nor windlass must   go round (see Superst., Danish, 134; Suppl.).

This superintendence of agriculture and of strict order in the household marks exactly   the office of a motherly deity, such as we got acquainted with in Nerthus and Isis. Then her   special care of flax and spinning (the main business of German housewives, who are named   after spindle and distaff, (46) as men are after sword and spear), leads us directly to the ON.   Frigg, Oðin's wife, whose being melts into the notion of an earth-goddess, and after whom a   constellation in the sky, Orion's belt, is called Friggjar rockr, Friggae colus. Though   Icelandic writings do not contain this name, it has remained in use among the Swedish   country-folk (Ihre, sub v. Friggerock). The constellation is however called Mariärock, Dan.   Marirock (Magnusen, gloss. 361. 376), the christians having passed the same old idea on to   Mary the heavenly mother. The Greeks put spindle and distaff in the hands of several   goddesses, especially Artemis (crusnlakatoj, Il. 20, 70) and her mother Leto, but also   Athene, Amphitrite and the Nereids. All this fits in with Holda, who is a goddess of the   chase (the wild host), and of water-springs.

One might be tempted to derive dame Holda from a character in the Old Testament. In 2   Kings 22, 14 and 2 Chron. 34, 22 we read of a prophetess hdlh Huleddah, Huldah, for which   Luther puts Hulda; the Septuagint has Olda, the Vulgate Olda, but the Lat. Bible Viteb. 1529   (and probably others since) Hulda, following Luther, who, with the German Holda in his   mind, thus domesticated the Jewish prophetess among his countrymen. Several times in his   writings he brings up the old heathen life; we had an instance a page or two back. (47) I do   not know if any one before him had put the two names together; but certainly the whole   conception of a dame Holda was not first drawn from the 'Olda' of the Vulgate, which stands   there without any special significance; this is proved by the deep-rootedness of the name   in our language, by its general application [as adj. and com. noun] to several kinds of   spirits, and by the very ancient negative unholda. Were it only for the kinship of the Norse traditions with our own, we should bid adieu   to such a notion as that. True, the Eddic mythology has not a Holla answering to our   Holda; but Snorri (Yngl. saga c. 16. 17) speaks of a wise woman (völva, seiðkona) named   Huldr, and a later Icelandic saga composed in the 14th century gives a circumstantial   account of the enchantress Hulda, beloved of Oðinn, and mother of the well-known   half-goddess Thorgerðr and Irpa. (48) Of still more weight perhaps are the Norwegian and   Danish folk-tales about a wood or mountain wife Hulla, Huldra, Huldre, whom they set   forth, now as young and lovely, then again as old and gloomy. In a blue garment and white   veil she visits the pasture-grounds of herdsmen, and mingles in the dances of men; but her   shape is disfigured by a tail, which she takes great pains to conceal. Some accounts make   her beautiful in front and ugly behind. She loves music and song, her lay has a doleful   melody and is called huldreslaat. In the forests you see Huldra as an old woman clothed in   gray, marching at the head of her flock, milkpail in hand. She is said to carry off people's   unchristened infants from them. Often she appears, not alone, but as mistress or queen of   the mountain-sprites, who are called huldrefolk. (49) In Iceland too they know of this   Huldufôlk, of the Huldumenn; and here we find another point of agreement with the popular   faith of Germany, namely, that by the side of our dame Holde there are also holden, i.e.,   friendly spirits, a silent subterranean people, of whom dame Holde, so to speak, is the   princess (see Suppl.). For this reason, if no other, it must be more correct to explain the   Norse name Hulla, Huldra from the ON. hollr (fidus, fidelis, propitius) which is huld in Dan.   and Swed., and not from the ON. hulda (obscuritas) as referring to the subterranean abode   of the mountain-sprites. In Swedish folk-songs I find 'huldmoder, hulda moder' said of one's   real mother in the same sense as kära (dear) mother (Sv. vis. 1, 2, 9); so that huld must have   quite the meaning of our German word. It is likely that the term huldufôlk was imported into   the Icelandic tongue from the Danish or Norwegian. It is harder to explain the R inserted in   the forms Huldra, Huldre; did it spring out of the plural form hulder (boni genii, hollar   vættir)? or result from composition?

The German Holda presides over spinning and agriculture, the Norse Hulle over   cattle-grazing and milking.

 

ADDENDUM Holda Folklore

 

The Gift of Flax   from Myths of the Norsemen by H.A. Guerber

 

There was once a peasant who daily left his wife and children in the valley to take his sheep up the mountain to pasture; and as he watched his flock grazing on the mountain-side, he often had opportunity to use his cross bow and bring down a chamois, whose flesh would furnish his larder with food for many a day.

 

While pursuing a fine animal one day he saw it disappear behind a boulder, and when he came to the spot, he was amazed to see a doorway in the neighbouring glacier, for in the excitement of the pursuit he had climbed higher and higher, until he was now on top of the mountain, where glittered the everlasting snow.

 

The shepherd boldly passed through the open door and soon found himself in a wonderful jeweled cave hung with stalactites, in the centre of which stood a beautiful woman clad in slivery robes, and attended by a host of lovely maidens crowned with Alpine roses. In his surprise, the shepherd sank to his knees, and as in a dream heard the queenly central figure bid him choose anything he saw to carry away with him. Although dazzled by the glow of the precious stones around him, the shepherd's eyes constantly reverted to a little nosegay of blue flowers which the gracious apparition held in her hand, and he now timidly proffered a request that it might become his. Smiling with pleasure, Holda, for it was she, gave it to him, telling him he had chosen wisely and would live as long as the flowers did not droop and fade. Then, giving the shepherd a measure of seed which she told him to sow in his field, the goddess bade him begone; and as the thunder pealed and the earth shook, the poor man found himself out upon the mountain-side once more, and slowly wended his way home to his wife, to whom he told his adventure and showed the lovely blue flowers and the measure of seed.

 

The woman reproached her husband bitterly for not having brought some of the precious stones which he so glowingly described, instead of the blossoms and seed; nevertheless the man proceeded to sow the latter, and found to his surprise that the measure supplied seed enough for several acres.

 

Soon the little green shoots began to appear, and one moonlight night, while the peasant was gazing upon them, as was his wont, for he felt a curious attraction to the field which he had sown, and often lingered there wondering what kind of grain would be produced, he saw a misty form hover above the field, with hands outstretched as if in blessing. At last the field blossomed, and countless little blue flowers opened their calyxes to the golden sun. When the flowers had withered and the seed was ripe, Holda came once more to teach the peasant and wife how to harvest the flax--for such it was--and from it to spin, weave, and bleach linen. As the people of the neighbourhood willingly purchased both linen and flax-seed, the peasant and his wife soon grew very rich indeed, and while he ploughed, sowed, and harvested, she spun, wove, and bleached the linen. The man lived to a good old age, and saw his grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up around him. All this time his carefully treasured bouquet had remained fresh as when he first brought it home, but one day he saw that during the night the flowers had drooped and were dying.

 

Knowing what this portended, and that he too must die, the peasant climbed the mountain once more to the glacier, and found again the doorway for which he had often vainly searched. He entered the icy portal, and was never seen or heard of again, for, according to the legend, the goddess took him under her care, and bade him live in her cave, where his every wish was gratified.

 

Mother Holle  from The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

Translated by Jack Zipes

 

A widow had two daughters, one was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy. But she was fonder of the ugly and lazy one because she was her own daughter. The other had to do all the housework and carry out the ashes like a cinderella. Every day the poor maiden had to sit near a well by the road and spin and spin until her fingers bled.

 

Now, one day it happened that the reel became quite bloody, and when the maiden leaned over the well to rinse it, it slipped out of her hand and fell to the bottom. She burst into tears, ran to her stepmother, and told her about the accident. But the stepmother gave her a terrible scolding and was very cruel. "If you've let the reel fall in," she said, "then you'd better get it out again."

 

The maiden went back to the well but did not know where to begin. She was so distraught that she jumped into the well to fetch the reel, but she lost consciousness. When she awoke and regained her senses, she was in a beautiful meadow where the sun was shining and thousands of flowers were growing. She walked across the meadow and soon she came to a baker's oven full of bread, but the bread was yelling, "Take me out! Take me out, or else I'll burn, I've been baking long enough!" She went up to the oven and took out all the loaves one by one with the baker's peel. After that she moved on and came to a tree full of apples.

 

"Shake me! Shake me!" The tree exclaimed. "My apples are all ripe."

 

She shook the tree till the apples fell down like raindrops, and she kept shaking until they had all come down. After she had gathered them and stacked them in a pile, she moved on. At last she came to a small cottage where an old woman was looking out of a window. She had such big teeth that the maiden was scared and wanted to run away. But the woman cried after her, "Why are you afraid, my dear child? Stay with me, and if you do all the housework properly, everything will turn out well for you. Only you must make my bed nicely and carefully and give it a good shaking so the feathers fly. Then it will snow on earth, for I am Mother Holle." [Whenever it snowed in olden days, people in Hessia used to say Mother Holle is making her bed.]

 

Since the old woman had spoken so kindly to her, the maiden plucked up her courage and agreed to enter her service. She took care of everything to the old woman's satisfaction and always shook the bed so hard that the feathers flew about like snowflakes. In return, the woman treated her well: she never said an unkind word to the maiden, and she gave her roasted or boiled meat every day. After the maiden had spent a long time with Mother Holle, she became sad. At first she did not know what was bothering her, but finally she realised that she was homesick. Even though everything was a thousand times better there than at home, she still had a desire to return. At last she said to Mother Holle, "I've got a tremendous longing to return home, and even though everything is wonderful down here, I've got to return to my people."

 

"I'm pleased that you want to return home," Mother Holle responded," and since you've served me so faithfully, I myself shall bring you up there again."

 

She took the maiden by the hand and led her to a large door. When it was opened and the maiden was standing right beneath the doorway, and enormous shower of gold came pouring down, and all the gold stuck to her so that she became completely covered with it.

 

"I want you to have this because you've been so industrious," said Mother Holle, and she gave her back the reel that had fallen into the well. Suddenly the door closed, and the maiden found herself back up on earth, not far from her mother's house. When she entered the yard, the cock was sitting on the well and crowed:

 

"Cock-a-doodle-do! My golden maiden, what's new with you?"

 

She went inside to her mother, and since she was covered with so much gold, her mother and sister gave her a warm welcome. Then she told them all about what had happened to her, and when her mother heard how she had obtained so much wealth, she wanted to arrange it so her ugly and lazy daughter could have the same good fortune. Therefore, her daughter had to sit near the well and spin, and she made the reel bloody by sticking her fingers into a thornbush and pricking them. After that she threw the reel down into the well and jumped in after it. Just like her sister, and she reached the beautiful meadow and walked along the same path. When she came to the oven, the bread cried out again, "Take me out! Take me out, or else I'll burn! I've been baking long enough!"

 

But the lazy maiden answered, "I've no desire to get myself dirty!"

 

She moved on, and soon she came to the apple tree that cried out, "Shake me! Shake me! My apples are all ripe."

 

However, the lazy maiden replied, "Are you serious? One of the apples could fall and hit me on my head."

 

Thus she went on, and when she came to Mother Holle's cottage, she was not afraid because she had already heard of the old woman's big teeth, and she hired herself out to her right away. On the first day she made an effort to work hard and obey Mother Holle when the old woman told her what to do, for the thought of gold was on her mind. On the second day she started loafing, and on the third day she loafed even more. Indeed, she did not want to get out of bed in the morning, nor did she make Mother Holle's bed as she should have, and she certainly did not shake it so the feathers flew. Soon Mother Holle became tired of this and dismissed the maiden from her service. The lazy maiden was quite happy to go and expected that now the shower of gold would come. Mother Holle led her to the door, but as the maiden was standing in the doorway, a big kettle of pitch came pouring down over her instead of gold.

 

"That's a reward for your services," Mother Holle said, and shut the door. The lazy maiden went home covered in pitch, and when the cock on the well saw her, it crowed:

 

"Cock-a-doodle-do! My dirty maiden, what's new with you?"

 

The pitch did not come off the maiden and remained on her as long as she lived.

 

5. PERAHTA, BERCHTE

 

A being similar to Holda, or the same under another name, makes her appearance   precisely in those Upper German regions where Holda leaves off, in Swabia, in Alsace, in   Switzerland, in bavaria and Austria. (50) She is called frau Berchte, i.e., in OHG. Perahta, the   bright, (51) luminous, glorious (as Holda produces the glittering snow): by the very   meaning of the word a benign and gladdening influence, yet she is now rarely represented   as such; as a rule, the awe-inspiring side is brought into prominence, and she appears as a   grim bugbear to frighten children with. In the stories of dame Berchta the bad meaning   predominates, as the good one does in those of dame Holda; that is to say, the popular   christian view had degraded Berchta lower than Holda. But she too is evidently one with   Herke, Freke, and some others (see Suppl.).

Where their identity comes out most plainly is in the fact that they all go their rounds at   the same time, in the so-called 'twelfths' between Christmas and New-year. Berchta however   has a particular day assigned her at the end of that period, which I never find named after   Holda. And no less similar are their functions.

Berchta, like Holda, has the oversight of spinners; whatever spinning she finds   unfinished the last day of the year, she spoils (Superst. 512). Her festival has to be kept   with a certain traditional food, gruel and fish. Thôrr says he has had sîldr ok hafra (herrings   and oats) for supper, Sæm. 75ª; our white lady has prescribed the country folk a dish of fish   and oat-grits for evermore, and is angry whenever it is omitted (Deutsche sagen, no. 267).   The Thuringians in the Saalfeld country wind up the last day of the year with dumplings   and herrings. Fish and farinaceous food were considered by christians the proper thing for   a fast. (52)

The revenge taken by the wrathful Berchta, when she misses the fish and dumplings,   has a quaint and primitive sound: whoever has partaken of other food on her day, she cuts   his belly open, fills it with chopped straw, and sews up the gash with a ploughshare for a   needle and an iron chain by way of thread (Superst. 525). (53) And the same threat is held   out in other districts also (see Suppl.).

Börner's Folk-tales of the Orlagau (between the Saale and the Orle) furnish abundant   details. At p. 153: The night before Twelfthday, Perchtha always examines the   spinning-rooms of the whole neighbourhood, she brings the spinners empty reels, with   directions to spin them full within a brief time, and if all she demands cannot be delivered,   she punishes them by tangling and befouling the flax. On the same occasion she cuts open   any one's body, that has not eaten zemmede (54) that day, takes out any other food he has   had, and fills the empty space with hay or straw wisps and bricks, and at last sews his body   up again, using a ploughshare for a needle, and for thread a röhm chain.

P. 159: At   Oppurg, the same night of the year, Perchtha found the spinning-room full of merrymaking   guests, and in a towering rage she handed in through the window twelve empty reels,   which were to be spun full to the rim within an hour, when she would come back; one   quarter of an hour had passed after another in fearful expectation, when a saucy girl ran up   to the garret, reached down a roll of tow, and wrapped it round the empty reels, then they   spun two or three thicknesses of thread over the tow, so the reels looked full. Perchtha   came, they handed over to her their finished work, and she walked off with it, shaking her   head. (Conf. the similar story of the white manikin in Bader, p. 369).

P. 167: At   Langendembach lived an old spinning-wife, who swiftly wound the thread all the winter   through, and did not so much as leave off on Twelfth-eve, though son and daughter-in-law   warned her: 'If Perchtha comes, it will go hard with you'. 'Heyday!' was her answer, 'Perchtha   brings me no shirts, I must spin them myself.' After a while the window is pushed open,   Perchtha looks into the room, and throws some empty spools to her, which she must have   back, spun full, in an hour's time. The spinner took heart of grace, spun a few rounds on   each spool for dear life, and threw them, one and all, into the brook that ran past the house   (and by that, Perchtha seems to have been appeased).

P. 173: As a miner was returning   from Bucha to Könitz on Perchtha's night, she came up to him at the cross-roads and   demanded with threats, that he should put a wedge in her waggon. He took his knife, cut   the wedge as well as he could, and fitted it into Perchtha's waggon, who made him a present   of the fallen chips. He picked them up, and at home he drew gold out of every pocket in   which he had put Perchtha's gifts.

P. 182: Two peasants of Jüdewein, after stopping at the   alehouse in Köstriz till late on Perchtha's eve, had gone but a little way, when Perchtha   came driving in a waggon, and called to them to put a peg in the pole of her waggon. One of   the men had a knife, and Perchtha supplied him with wood, the peg was let in, and the   handy man caried home several pieces of money in his shoe as a reward.

P. 113: Between   Bucha and Wilhelmsdorf in the fruitful vale of the Saale, Perchtha queen of the heimchen   had her dwelling of old; at her command the heimchen had to water the fields of men, while   she worked underground with her plough. At last the people fell out with her, and she   determined to quit the country; on Perchtha's eve the ferryman at Altar village received   notice to be ready late in the night, and when he came to the Saale bank, his eyes beheld a   tall stately dame surrounded by weeping children and demanding to be ferried over. She   stept into the craft, the little ones dragged a plough and a number of other tools in, loudly   lamenting that they had to leave that lovely region. Arrived at the other side, Perchtha bade   the boatman cross once more and fetch the heimchen that had been left behind, which   under compulsion he did. She in the meantime had been mending the plough, she pointed   to the chips, and said to the ferryman, 'There, take that to reward thy trouble.' Grumbling, he   pocketed three of the chips, and at home flung them on the window-shelf, and himself, ill at   ease, into bed. In the morning, three gold-pieces lay where he had thrown the chips. The   memory of Perchtha's passage is also reserved at Kaulsdorf on the Saale, and at Köstriz on   the Elster, not far from Gera.

P. 126: Late one night, the master wheelwright at Colba was   coming home from Opurg, where he had been to work; it was the eve of the Three-kings   (Twelfthday), and on the bank of the rivulet Orla he came upon Perchtha, her broken plough   surrounded by weeping heimchen. 'Hast thou a hatchet with thee, so help me mend!' she   cried to the terrified traveller. He gave what help he could, but the fallen chips offered him   for wages we would not touch: 'I have plenty of them at home,' says he. When he got home,   he told what had happened to him, and while his people shook their heads incredulously,   he pulled off one of his shoes, which something had got into, that hurt his foot, and out   rolled a bright new gold-piece. A twelvemonth passed, and one of his men, who had heard   him tell the tale, set out on Perchtha's night, and waited by the Orla, just where his master   had met Perchtha; in a little while, on she came with her infant train: 'What seekest thou   here at this hour?' she cried in anger, and when he stammered out an answer, she   continued: 'I am better provided with tools this time, so take thou thy due!' and with those   words she dug her hatchet into the fellow's shoulder. The same story is repeated near   Kaulsdorf at a part of the brook which is called the water over the way, at Presswitz near the   Saal-house, and on the sandhill between Pössneck and the forester's lodge of Reichenbach.   Below the Gleitsch, a curiously shaped rock near Tischdorf, the story varies in so far, that   there Perchthu along with the heimchen was driving a waggon, and had just broken the axle   when she fell in with a countryman, who helped her out with a makeshift axle, and was paid   in chips, which however he disdained, and only carried a piece home in his shoe.

P. 133: A   spinning-girl walked over from the Neidenberg during that night, she had done every bit of   her spinning, and was in high spirits, when Perchtha came marching up the hill towards her,   with a great troop of the heimchen-folk, all children of one sort and size, one set of them   toiling to push a heavy plough, another party loaded with farming-tools; they loudly   complained that they had no longer a home. At this singular procession the spinner began   to laugh out loud, Perchtha enraged stept up to the giddy thing, blew upon her, and struck   her blind on the spot. The poor girl had a trouble to find her way into the village, she led a   wretched life, could no longer work, but sat mournful by the wayside begging. When the   year was past and Perchtha visited Altar again, the blind one, not knowing one from   another, asked an alms of the high dame as she swept by; Perchtha spoke graciously: 'Here   last year I blew a pair of lights out, this year I will blow them in again'. With these words she   blew into the maid's eyes, which immediately began to see again. The same legend is found   in the so-called Sorge, near Neustadt on the Orla. Touching stories of all weeping children,   who tramp along in Perchtha's great troop, will be given when we come to treat minutely of   the 'wütende heer'. (see Suppl.).

 

To these significant traditions of Thuringia, others can be added from Bavaria and   Austria. In the mountain district about Trauenstein (Up. Bavaria, opposite Salzburg) they   tell the children on the eve of Epiphany, that if they are naughty, Berche will come and cut   their bellies open. Greasy cakes are baked that day, and the workmen say you must grease   your stomach well with them, so that dame Bercha's knife may glance off (Schm. 1, 194). Is   this the reason why she is called wild Bertha, iron Bertha? Crusius, Ann. Suev. p. 2, lib. 8,   cap. 7, p. 266, relates, as his explanation of the origin of the name, that Henry IV. bestowed   privileges on the city of Padua: Inde, in signa libertatis, armato carrocio uti coeperunt in   bello, Bertha nominato. Hinc dictum ortum puto, quo terrentur inquieti pueri, 'Schweig, oder   die eiserne Bertha kommt!' (55) In other places, Franconian and Swabian, she is named   Hildaberta (apparently a combination of the two names Holda and Berta), and Bildaberta;   with hair all shaggy she walks round the houses at night, and tears the bad boys to pieces   (see Suppl.). (56)

Dame Precht with the long nose is what Vintler calls her: and even a MHG. poem, which   in one MS. is entitled 'daz mære von der Stempen,' has in another the heading 'von Berchten   mit der langen nas' (Haupt's Altd. bl. 1, 105). It is only from the former (with corrected   spelling) that I am able to extract what has a bearing on our subject:

nu merket reht waz (ich) iu sage:

Now mark aright what I you tell:

nâch wîhennaht am zwelften tage,

after Christmas the twelfth day,

nâch dem heilgen ebenwîhe (57)

after the holy New-year's day

(gotgeb, daz er uns gedîhe),

(God grant we prosper in it),

dô man ezzen solt ze nahte,

when they should eat supper

und man ze tische brâhte

and had to table brought

allez daz man ezzen solde,

all that they should eat,

swaz der wirt geben wolde

whatso the master would give,

dô sprach er zem gesinde

then spake he to his men

und zuo sîn selbes kinde:

and to his own child:

'ezzet hînte fast durch mîn bete,

'eat fast (hard) to night, I pray,

daz iuch die Stempe niht entrete.'

that the Stempe tread you not.'

daz kintlîn dô von forhten az,

 The child then ate from fear,

er sprach: 'veterlîn, waz ist daz,

-he said: 'father, what is this

daz du die Stempen nennest?

 that thou the Stempe callest?

sag mir, ob dus erkennest.'tell me,

 if thou it knowest.'

der vater sprach: 'daz sag ich dir,

The father said: 'this tell I thee,

du solt ez wol gelouben mir,

thou mayest well believe me,

ez ist so griuwelîch getân,

there is a thing so gruesome done,

daz ich dirz niht gesagen kan:

that I cannot tell it thee:

wan swer des vergizzet,

for whoso forgets this,

daz er nicht fast izzet,

so that he eats not fast,

ûf den kumt ez und trit in.'

on him it comes, and treads him.'

Here also children and servants are warned by the master of the house to eat up clean all   that is brought on the table, and are threatened with a trampling from Stempe. This   cognomen of Berchte must have come from stamping (step, tap, thump, &c.), and perhaps it   ought to be spelt Stempfe (German stampfen, to stamp); but in Bavaria there is a proper   name Stempo (MB. 2, 280, anno 1130), not Stempho, and both stampen and stampfen seem   to be correct for trampling and squeezing, Ital. stampare: she is the night hag, similar to alp   and schrat [old scratch?]. Add to this, that in the Nordgau of Franconia, dame Holda is   called the Trempe (Döderlein, Antiq. nordg. 41), i.e., the trampling racketing one; Stalder   defines trämpeln as walking with short, measured steps (tripping), and the Drut   (night-goblin) approaches with soft footfall; at the same time, trampel, trampelthier, is a   heavy clumsy woman. Now, as S is occasionally added before an initial T, it is surely not   going too far, to connect Stempe with the more ancient Tamfana, Tanfana, p. 257 (see   Suppl.).

Martin of Amberg (58) calls her Percht mit der eisnen nasen (with iron nose), and says   that people leave meat and drink standing for her; which means a downright sacrifice.

In the mountains of Salzburg there is kept up to this day, in honour of the terrible   Perchtel, a so called Perchta-running, Perchta-leaping at the time of the rauchnächte   [incense-nights?] (59) In the Pinzgau, from 100 to 300 young fellows (styled the Berchten)   will roam about in broad daylight in the oddest disguises, carrying cows' bells, and cracking   whips. (60) In the gastein valley the procession, headed by from 50 or 100 to 300 stout   fellows, goes hopping and skipping from village to village, from house to house, all through   the valley (Muchar, Gastein pp. 145-7). In the north of Switzerland, where in addition to   Berchtli the softened form Bechtli or Bechteli is in use, Bechteli's day is the 2nd (or, if   New-year's day falls on a Saturday, the 3rd) of January, and is honoured by the young   people in general with social merrymakings; they call the practice berchteln, bechteln. In the   16th century it was still the custom at Zürich, for men to intercept and press one another to   take wine; this was called 'conducting to Berchtold.' (Stald. 1, 150-6). There was thus a   masculine Bercht or Berchtolt, related to Wuotan, as Berhta was to Freke; and from this   again there arose in Swabia a new feminine, Brechtölterin, Prechtölterin (Schmid, Schwäb.   wtb. 93). In Alsace the bechten was performed by prentices and journeymen running from   one house or room to another and keeping up a racket (see passages in Oberlin, sub. v.   Bechten). Cunrat of Dankrozheim says in his Namenbuch, composed 1435: (61)

darnauch so komet die milde Behte, die noch hat ein gar gross geslehte (great kindred).

He describes her as the mild, gracious to men, not as terrible. Berchtolt however is in   Swabian legend the white mannikin, who brings spools to be filled with spinning (Mone's   anz. 8, 179), exactly like Berchta, p. 274 (see Suppl.).

And as a kind benevolent being she appears in many other descriptions, which   undoubtedly reach far back into the Mid. Ages. The white lady, by her very name, has   altogether the same meaning, for peraht, berht or brecht, signifies bright, light, white. This   white lady usually attaches herself to particular families, but even then she keeps the name   of Berta, e.g., Berta of Rosenberg. In snow-white garments she shows herself by night in   princely houses, she rocks or dandles the babies, while their nurses sleep: she acts the old   grandmother or ancestress of the family (see Suppl.). There is a good deal in the fact, that several women of that name, who are famed in our   national traditions, stand connected with the ghostly Berhta; they have been adopted out   of the divine legend into the heroic legend. In Italy and France, a far distant past is   expressed by the phrase: 'nel tempo ove Berta filava,' when B. Span (Pentamerone. Liebrecht   2, 259), 'au tems que la reine Berthe filait:' the same idea still, of the spinning matron. (62)   Berta, the daughter of king Flower and of Whiteflower, afterwards the wife of king Pippin   and mother of the great hero Charles, she who in the MLG. poem of Flos is called both   Vredeling and Brehte (1555. 7825), does not belie her mythic origin. (63) She is called Berhte   mit dem fuoze (foot), Flore 309; in French, Bertha au grand pied; and acc. to the Reali di   Franza 6, 1: 'Berta del gran pie, perche ella aveva un pie un poco maggior dell altro, e quello   era il pie destro,' had the right foot larger. The French poet Adenez tries apparently to   extenuate the deformity by making both her feet large, he calls her 'Berte as grans pies'   (Paris ed. LII. 78. 104); so the Mid. Dutch, 'Baerte met ten breden voeten,' Florîs 3966. But   the one big foot is more genuine, as may be seen by the far more ancient tradition of a 'reine   Pédauque, regina pede aucae,' whoe figure stands carved in stone on old churches. (64) It is   apparently a swan-maiden's foot, which as a mark of her higher nature she cannot lay aside   (any more than Huldra her tail, or the devil his horse hoof); and at the same time the   spinning-woman's splayfoot that worked the treadle, and that of the trampling dame Stempe   or Trempe. If we had older and minuter descriptions of 'frau Berhta' in Germany, perhaps   this foot would also be mentioned in them (see Suppl.).

It still remains for us to explain her precise connexion with a particular day of the year. It   is either on Dec. 25 (dies natalis), or twelve days after Christmas, on Jan. 6, when the star   appeared to the Three Kings (magi), that the christian church celebrates the feast of the   manifestation of Christ under the name of epiphania (v. Ducange, sub v.), bethphania or   theophania (Old French tiephaine, tiphagne). In an OHG. gloss (Emm. 394), theophania is   rendered giperahta naht, the bright night of the heavenly vision that appeared to the   shepherds in the field. (65) Documents of the Mid. Ages give dates in the dative case:   'perchtentag, perhtennaht' (for OHG. zi demo perahtin taga, zi deru Perahtûn naht); again,   'an der berechtnaht,' M. Beham (Mone, anz. 4, 451); 'ze perhnahten,' MB. 8, 540 (an. 1302);   'unze an den ahtodin tac nâh der Perhtage,' till the eighth day after the Perht's (fem.) day,   Fundgr. 110, 22; 'von dem nehsten Berhtag,' MB. 9, 138 (an. 1317); 'an dem Prehentag,' MB.   7, 256 (an. 1349); these and other contracted forms are cited with references in Scheffer's   Haltaus p. 75, and Schm. 1, 194. (66) Now from this there might very easily grow up a   personification, Perchtentac, Perchtennaht, the bright day becoming Bright's, i.e., dame   Bright's, day. (Conrad of Dankrotsheim, p. 123, puts his milde Behte down a week earlier, on   Dec. 30.) (67)

Two hypotheses present themselves. Either the entire fabulous existence of a Perhta   first arose accidentally and by misunderstanding, out of such personification; or the   analogy of the 'bright' day was tacked on to a previously existing Perhta. Now it is true we   cannot point out a dame Perhta before the 15th or 14th century, or at earliest the 13th; but the   first supposition need not break down, even if we did manage to hunt up her personal name   in older authorities: even in the 9th century the expression 'perahtûn naht' might have   developed into 'Perahtûn naht'. Still the characteristics we have specified of a mythical   Berta, and above all, her identity with Holda, seem to me to decide the matter the other way.   If, independently of the christian calendar, there was a Holda, then neither can Perahta be   purely a product of it; on the contrary, both of these adjective names lead up to a heathen   deity, who made her peregrination at that very season of yule, and whom therefore the   christians readily connected with the sacredness of Christmas and New-year.

I will here group together the features which unmistakably make Holda and Bertha   appear in this light. They drive about in waggons, like mother Earth, and promote agriculture   and navigation among men; a plough, from which there fall chips of gold, is their sacred   implement. This too is like the gods, that they appear suddenly, and Berhta especially   hands her gifts in at the window. Both have spinning and weaving at heart, they insist on   diligence and the keeping of festivals holy, on the transgressor grim penalties are executed.   The souls of infant children are found in their host, as they likewise rule over elves and   dwarfs, but night-hags and enchantresses also follow in their train: all this savours of   heathenism.

It is very remarkable, that the Italians too have a mis-shapen fairy Befana, a terror to   children, who has sprung out of epiphania (befania): on that day the women and children   set a doll made of old rags in the window; she is black and ugly, and brings presents. Some   say, she is Herod's daughter; Ranke's hist. zeitschr. 1, 717. 'La Befania' (Pulci's Morg. 5, 42).   Berni says: 'il di di Befania vo porla per Befana alla fenestra, perche qualcum le dia d' una   ballestra'. (68) It would be astonishing, if twice over, in two different nations, a name in the   calendar had caused the invention of a supernatural being; it is more likely that, both in   Italy, and among us, older traditions of the people have sought to blend themselves with   the christian name of the day.

 

 

6. (HERODIAS. DIANA. ABUNDIA)

 

Herodias, of whom we have just been reminded by Befana, will illustrate this even better.   The story of Herod's daughter, whose dancing brought about the beheading of John the   Baptist, must have produced a peculiarly deep impression in the early part of the Mid.   Ages, and in more than one way got mixed up with fables. Religious poets treat the subject   in full, and with relish (Hel. 83-5); Otfried seems to leave it out designedly. t was imagined,   that on account of her thoughtless rather than malicious act (for the proposal came from her   revengeful mother), Herodias (the daughter) was condemned to roam about in company   with evil and devilish spirits. She is placed at the head of the 'furious host' or of witches'   nightly expeditions, together with Diana, with Holda and Perahta, or in their stead. In   Burcard of Worms 10, 1 we read: Illud etiam non omittendum, quod quaedam sceleratae   muliers retro post Satanam conversae, daemonum illusionibus et phantasmatibus seductae,   credunt se et profitentur nocturnis horis cum Diana paganorum dea vel cum Herodiade et   innumera multitudine mulierum equitare super quasdam bestias, et multa terrarum spatia   intempestae noctis silentio pertransire, ejusque jussionibus velut dominae obedire, et certis   noctibus ad ejus servitium evocari.

Joh. Salisberiensis (d. 1182) in Polycr. 2, 17: Quale est,   quod noctilucam quandam, vel Herodiadem vel praesidem noctis dominam, concilia et   conventus de nocte asserunt convocare, varia celebrari convivia, &c.

Angerius,   episcopus Conseranus (an. 1280): Nulla mulier de nocturnis equitare cum Diana dea   paganorum vel cum Herodiade seu Bensozia (69) et innumera mulierum multitudine   profiteatur.

Similar statements have passed into later writings, such as those of Martin   von Amberg, and Vintler. It is worth noticing, that to the worship of this Herodias, one third   of the whole world is ceded, and so a most respectable diffusion allowed. Ratherius (bishop   of Verona, but a Frank, b. at Lobi near Cambray, d. 974) in his Praeloquia (Martene and   Durand 9, 798. Opp. edit. Ballerini pp. 20. 21): Quis enim eorum, qui hodie in talibus usque   ad perditionem animae in tantum decipiunter, ut etiam eis, quas (Ball. de quibus) ait Gen.   (70), Herodiam illam baptistae Christi interfectricem, quasi reginam imo deam propanant;   asserentes, tertiam totius mundi partem illi traditam: quasi haec merces fuerit prophetae   occisi, cum potius sint daemones, talibus praestigiis infelices mulierculas, hisque multum   vituperabiliores viros, quia perditissimos, decipientes.

A full and remarkable account of   the medieval tradition, that was tacked on to Herodias, is contained in the Reinardus 1,   1139-1164:

Praecipue sidus celebrant, ope cujus, ubi omnes

defuerant testes, est data Roma Petro,

traditaque injusto Pharaildis virgo labori;

sed sanctifaciunt qualiacunque volunt.

Hac famosus erat felixque fuisset Herodes

prole, sed infelix hanc quoque laesit amor:

haec virgo, thalamos Baptistae solius ardens,

voverat hoc demto nullius esse viri.

Offensus genitor, comperto prolis amore,

insontem sanctum decapitavit atrox.

Postulat afferri virgo sibi tristis, et affert

regius in disco tempora trunca cliens.

Mollibus allatum stringens caput illa lacertis

perfundit lacrimis, osculaque addere avet;

oscula captantem caput aufugit atque resufflat,

illa per impluvium turbine flantis abit.

Ex illo nimium memor ira Johannis eandem

per vacuum coeli flabilis urget iter:

mortuus infestat miseram, nec vivus amarat,

non tamen hanc penitus fata perisse sinunt.

Lenit honor luctum, minuit reverentia poenam,

pars hominum moestae tertia servit herae.

Quercubus et corylis a noctis parte secunda

usque nigri ad galli carmina prima sedet.

Nunc ea nomen habet Pharaildis, Herodias ante

saltria, nec subiens nec subeunda pari. 

Conf. Aelfrici homiliae 1, 486. Here we have Herodias described as moesta hera cui pars   tertia hominum servit, the reverential homage she receives assuages her bitter lot; only from   midnight till first cockcrow she sits on oaks and hazel-trees, the rest of her time she floats   through the empty air. She was inflamed by love for John, which he did not return; when his   head is brought in on a charger, she would fain have covered it with tears and kisses, but it   draws back, and begins to blow hard at her; the hapless maid is whirled into empty space,   and there she hangs for ever. (71) Why she was afterwards (in the twelfth century) called   Pharaildis, is not explained by the life of a saint of that name in Flanders (Acta sanct. 4   Jan.); nor does anything that the church tells of John the Baptist and Herodias (Acta sanct.   24 Jun.) at all resemble the contents of the above story: Herodias is Herod's wife, and the   daughter is named Salome. Pharaildis on the contrary, M. Dutch Verelde, (72) leads us to   ver Elde = frau Hilde or frau Hulde, as in a doc. of 1213 (Bodmanns Rheing. alterth. p. 94)   there occurs a 'miles dictus Verhildeburg,' and in a Frisian doc. of the 14th century a   Ferhildema, evidently referring to the mythic Hildburg. Still more remarkable seems a M.   Dutch name for the milky way, Vroneldenstraet = frauen Hilde or Hulde strasse (street,   highway). So that the poet of the Reinardus is entirely in the right, when Herodias sets him   thinking of Pharaildis, and she again of the milky way, the sidus in his first line.

There is no doubt whatever, that quite early in the Mid. Ages the christian mythus of   Herodias got mixed up with our native heathen fables: those notions about dame Holda and   the 'furious host' and the nightly jaunts of sorceresses were grafted on it, the Jewish king's   daughter had the part of a heathen goddess assigned her (Ratherius says expressly: into   dea), and her worship found numerous adherents. In the same circle moves Diana, the lunar   deity of night, the wild huntress; Diana, Herodias and Holde stand for one another, or side   by side. Diana is denounced by Eligius (Superst. A); the passage in the decrees of councils   (Superst. C) has found its way into many later writings (Superst. D, G): like Herodias, she   appears as domina and hera. The life of St. Caesarius Arelatensis mentions a 'daemonium,   quod rustici Dianam vocant,' so that the name was familiar to the common people; that   statue of Diana in Greg. Tur. 8, 15 I have spoken of on p. 110. But the strongest testimony   to the wide diffusion of Diana's cultus seems to be a passage in the life of St. Kilian, the   apostle of the East Franks (d. 689): Gozbertus dux Franciae....volens crebra apud se tractare   inquisitione, utrum Ejus quem (Kilianus) praedicabet, vel Dianae potius cultus praeferendus   esset. Diana namque apud illum in summa veneratione habebatur (Surius 4, 133; Acta sanct.   Bolland. 8 Jul. (p. 616). As it is principally in Thuringia, Franconia and Hesse that frau Holda   survives, it is not incredible that by Diana in the neighbourhood of Würzburg, so far as the 7th century, was meant no other than she.

Lastly, the retrospective connexion of this Herodias or Diana with personages in the   native paganism, whether of Celtic or Teutonic nations, receives a welcome confirmation   from the legend of a domina Abundia or dame Habonde Ages [C’est le nom d’une Fée en qui le peuple avoit eu autrefois beaucoup de confiance: ce nom lui avoit été donné à cause de l’abondance qu’elle procuroit aux maisons où elle se retiroit, in notes Roman de la Rose ed. Méon, 1814], supplied by French authorities of the Mid. Ages. A bishop of Paris, Guilielmus Alvernus (Guillaume d' Auvergne), who died   1248, speaks thus of nymphs and lamiae (opera, Par. 1674, fol. I. 1036): ' Nominationes daemonum ex malignitatis operibus eorundem sumptae sint; … *** sic et daemon, qui   praetextu mulieris, cum aliis de nocte domos et cellaria dicitur frequentare, et vocant eam Satiam a satietate, et dominam Abundiam pro abundantia, (73) quam eam praestare dicunt domibus, quas frequentaverit  (and so (I call) demon, these so-called women whom it is said that, with others, they hang about the houses and the cellars, and call on Satia for satiety, and Lady Abundatia for plentiness, of wgom they say they take the better on the houses they dwell in … ***) : hujusmodi etiam daemones, quas dominus vocant vetulae,   penes quas error iste remansit, et a quibus solis creditur et somniatur. *** Dicunt has dominas   edere et bibere de escis et potibus, quos in domibus inveniunt (They say that these ladies that they eat and drink foods and drinks they prepare themselves in these houses …)***, nec tamen consumptionem   aut imminutionem eas facere escarum et potuum, maxime si vasa escarum sint discooperta et   vasa poculorum non obstructa eis in nocte relinquantur. Si vero operta vel clausa inveniunt   seu obstructa, inde nec comedunt nec bibunt, propter quod infaustas et infortunatas   relinquunt, nec satietatem nec abundantiam eis praestantes.' The like is repeated on p. 1068,   but on p. 1066 we read: 'Sunt et aliae ludificationes malignorum spirituum, quas faciunt   interdum in nemoribus et locis amoenis et frondosis arboribus, ubi apparent in similitudine   puellarum aut matronarum ornatu muliebri et candido, interdum etiam in stabulis, cum   luminaribus cereis, ex quibus apparent distillationes in comis et collis equorum, et comae   ipsorum diligenter tricatae, et audies eos, qui talia se vidisse fatentur, dicentes veram ceram   esse, quae de luminaribus hujusmodi stillaverat. (74) De illis vero substantiis, quae apparent   in domibus, quas dominas nocturnas, et principem earum vocant dominam Abundiam, pro   eo quod domibus, quas frequentant, abundantiam bonorum temporalium praestare putantur,   non aliter tibi sentiendum est, neque aliter quam quemadmodum de illis audivisti.   Quapropter eo usque invaluit stultitia hominum et insania vetularum, ut vasa vini et   receptacula ciborum discooperta relinquant, et omnino nec obstruant neque claudant eis   noctibus, quibus ad domos suas eas credunt adventuras, ea de causa videlicet, ut cibos et   potus quasi paratos inveniant et eos absque difficultate apparitionis pro beneplacito   sumant. The Roman de la rose (Méon 18622 seq.) informs us: *** [I added a few significant verses to this citation and corrected a (very) few mispellings]

Et tout portent dedens lor teste

qui les cinc sens ainsinc deçoit

par les fantosmes, quil reçoit,

dont maintes gens par lor folie

cuident estre par muit estries

errans auecques dame Habonde,

et dient, que par tout le monde

li tiers enfant de nacion

sunt de ceste condicion.

qu'il vont trois fois en la semaine.

si cum destinee les maine,

et par tous ces ostex se boutent,

ne clés ne barres ne redoutent,

ains sen entrent par les fendaces,

par chatieres et par crevaces,

et se partent des cors les ames

et vont avec les bonnes Dames

par leus forains et par maisons,

et le pruevent par tiex raisons:

que les diversités veuës

ne sunt pas en lor liz venuës,

ains sunt lor ames qui laborent

et par le monde ainsinc sen corent, …

Si cum il font as gens acroire

Qui leur cors bestorné (détruit) auroit,

Jamès l’ame entrer n’i sauroit.

…

Car cors humains est chose morte

Sitost cum l’ame en soi ne porte ;

Donques est-ce chose certaine

Que cil trois fois par semaine

Cest maniere d’oirre suvent,

Trois fois muirent, trois fois revivent

Dautre part, que li tiers du monde

aille ainsinc avec dame Habonde,

si cum foles vielles le pruevent

par les visions que truevent,

dont convient-il sans nule faille

que trestous li mondes i aille.

 

Ils portent dans leur tête ce

qui trompe ainis les cinq sens

par les fantômes qu’il accepte

dont maintes gens par leur folie

croient être par la nuit des sorcières (ou des chouettes)

errant avec dame Habonde,

et disent, que dans le monde entier,

le tires des enfants du pays

sont de cette même condition.

qu’ils vont trois fois par semaine

si comme la destinée les mène,

et par tous ces armées se poussent,

ni clés ni barres ne redoutent,

ainsi s’en entrent par les fentes,

par les chatières et les crevasses,

et se séparent des corps les âmes

et vont avec les bonnes Dames

par les extérieurs et par les maisons,

et l’éprouvent par telles raisons :

que les diversités vues

ne sont pas en leur lit venues,

ainsi sont leurs âmes qui travaillent

et par le monde ainsi s’en courent, …

Si comme ils font aux gens croire

qui son corps détruit aurait,

jamais l’âme entrer n’y saurait.

…

Car corps humains sont choses mortes

sitôt comme l’âme en soi ne porte plus,

donc est-ce chose certaine

que celui-là trois fois par semaine

cette manière de voyage souvent,

trois fois meurent, trois fois revivient.

D’autre part, que le tiers du monde

Aille ainsi avec dame Habonde,

Si comme folles vieilles l’éprouvent

par les visions qu’elles trouvent

dont convient-il sans nulle faille

qu’absolument tout le monde y aille.

As Ratherius and the Reindardus represent a third part of the world as given up to the   service of Herodias, the same statement is here applied to dame Habonde; Herodias and   Abundia are therefore one. A connexion between Abundia and our native Folla, Fulla   (fulness) will presently be made apparent. The term enfans may refer either to the   unchristened babes above, or to the great multitude of heathen, who remained shut out of   the christian community. It had long been the custom to divide the known world into three   parts. (75) The domina clothed in white reminds one of Perahta the bright, the bona domina   or bona socia (76) of Holda the gracious, and Herodias haunting the oaks by night of the   Old German tree-worship. They are originally benignant beings all, whose presence brings   prosperity and plenty to mankind; hence to them, as to friendly spirits or gods, meat and   drink are set for a sacrifice in the night season. Holda, Berhta and Werra seem to love a   particular kind of food, and look for it on their feast day.

 

7. HRUODA (HREDE). OSTARA (EASTRE).

 

Thus far we have got acquainted with the names and worship of several goddesses,   who were honoured under different names by particular tribes of Teutondom (Nerdu,   Hludana, Tanfana, Holda, Berhta), and other resembling them have only become known to   us under foreign appellations (Isis, Diana, Herodias, Abundia): of all these (so long as I   consider still doubtful the connexion of 'Erce' with our Herke) not one is to be found among   the Anglo-Saxons.

On the other hand. the Anglo-Saxon historian tells us the names of two beings, whom   he expressly calls ancient goddesses of his people, but of whose existence not a trace is left   amongst other Germans. A clear proof, that here as well as there, heathenism was crowded   with divinities of various shape and varying name, but who in their characteristics and   cultus corresponded to one another. Why this multiplicity of form should prevail more in   the case of the female deities than of the male, can be fairly explained, I think, by the greater   respect paid to the chief masculine divinities: they were too famous and too highly thought   of, for their principal names not to have penetrated all branches of the nation.

The two goddesses, whom Beda (De temporum ratione cap. 13) cites very briefly,   without any description, merely to explain the months named after them, are Hrede and   Eástre, March taking its name from the first, and April from the second: 'Rhedmonath a dea   illorum Rheda, cui in illo sacrificabant, nominatur.'

'Antiqui Anglorum populi, gens   mea ...apud eos Aprilis Esturmonath, qui nunc paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam   a dea illorum, quae Eostra vocabatur et cui in illo festa celebrantur (?), nomen habuit; a   cujus nomine nunc paschale tempus cognominant, consueto antiquae observationis   vocabulo gaudia novae solennitatis vocantes.' (77)

It would be uncritical to saddle this father of the church, who everywhere keeps   heathenism at a distance, and tell us less of it than he knows, with the invention of these   goddesses. There is nothing improbable in them, nay the first of them is justified by clear   traces in the vocabularies of other German tribes. March is in OHG. lenzinmânôt, named for   the season lenzo, lengizo [lengthening of days]; (78) but it may have borne other names as   well. Oberlin quotes, from Chorion's Ehrenkranz der teutschen sprach, Strassb. 1644, p. 91,   Retmonat for March; and a doc. of 1404 (Weisth. 1, 175) has Redtmonet, it is not clear for   what month. When we find in the Appenzeller reimchronik p. 174:

In dem Redimonet

die puren kamen donet,

do der merzenmonat gieng herzu

an ainem morgen fru

do zundentz Rorschach an;

here Redimonet seems, by the displacement so common in the names of months, to be   the month before March, as Chorion uses his Retmonat for February as well. Von Arx   explains the word quite differently, and I think untenably, by a mountain. Apart from the   Swiss term altogether, I believe the AS. name was really Hrêð or Hrêðe = OHG. Hruod or   Hruodâ, and derived, as I said on p. 206, from hruod gloria, fama; so that we get the   meaning of a shining and renownful goddess. The Trad. fuld. 2, 196, furnish a female name   Hruadâ, gen. Hruadûn, and in 1, 42. 2, 26, another nom. Hruadun, this last apparently formed   like ON. Fiörgyn and Hlôdyn. The AS. adj. hrêð or hrêðe means crudelis (Cædm. 136, 21.   198, 2), perhaps victoriosus? I am in doubt about hrêð, sigehrêð, Beow. 5146. 974. 1631;   they waver between an adj. and a subst. sense, and in the last passage, 'Beowulfe wearð   guðhrêð gifeðe,' victoria is evidently meant. When the AS. Menologue, line 70, translates   Martius by reðe, this may stand for hrêðe.

We Germans to this day call April ostermonat, and ôstarmânoth is found as early as   Eginhart (temp. Car. Mag.). The great christian festival, which usually falls in April or the   end of March, bears in the oldest of OHG. remains the name ôstarâ gen. -ûn; (79) it is mostly   found in the plural, because two days (ôstartagâ, aostortagâ, Diut. 1, 266ª) were kept at   Easter. This Ostarâ, like the AS. Eástre, must in the heathen religion have denoted a higher   being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the christian teachers tolerated the name,   and applied it to one of thier own grandest anniversaries. (80) All the nations bordering on   us have retained the Biblical 'pascha'; even Ulphilas writes paska, not áustrô, though he   must have known the word; (81) the Norse tongue also has imported its pâskir, Swed. påsk,   Dan. paaske. The OHG. adv. ôstar expresses movement toward the rising sun (Gramm. 3,   205), likewise the ON. austr, and probably an AS. eástor and Goth. áustr. In Latin the   identical auster has been pushed round to the noonday quarter, the South. In the Edda a   male being, a spirit of light, bears the name of Austri, so a female one might have been   called Austra; the High German and Saxon tribes seem on the contrary to have formed only   an Ostarâ, Eástre (fem.), not Ostaro, Eástra (masc.).(82) And that may be the reason why the   Norsemen said pâskir and not austrur: they had never worshipped a goddess Austra, or her   cultus was already extinct.

Ostara, Eástre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of   upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, (83) whose meaning could be   easily adapted to the resurrection-day of the christian's God. Bonfires were lighted at   Easter, and according to a popular belief of long standing, the moment the sun rises on   Easter Sunday morning, he gives three joyful leaps, he dances for joy (Superst. 813). Water   drawn on the Easter morning, is like that at Christmas, holy and healing (Superst. 775. 804);   here also heathen notions seem to have grafted themselves on great christian festivals.   Maidens clothed in white, who at Easter, at the season of returning spring, show   themselves in clefts of the rock and mountains, are suggestive of the ancient goddess (see   Suppl.).

 

8. ZISA. 

 

Beda's account of Hrede and Eástre (84) shall be followed now by a statement reaching   back to the 11th century, and deserving attention if only for its great age, concerning a   goddess Zisa worshipped at Augsburg in the heathen times.

The Cod. Monach. Lat. 2 (of 1135), and the Cod. Emmeran. F. IX fol. 4ª (of 12-13th cent.)   contain identic 'Excerpta ex Gallica historia'. (85)

'Dum hec circa renum geruntur, in noricorum (interlined bawariorum, Cod. Vind. CII.   pauwariorum) finibus grave vulnus romanus populus accepit. quippe germanorum gentes   (interlined suevi), que retias occupaverant, non longe ab alpibus tractu pari patentibus   campis, ubi duo rapidissimi amnes [interlined licus et werthaha (CII vuerdaha)] inter se   confluunt, in ipsis noricis finibus (interlined terminis bawariorum et suevorum) civitatem   non quidem muro sed vallo fossaque cinxerant, quam appellabant zizarim (CII. cizarim) ex   nomine dee cize, (86) quam religiosissime colebant. cujus templum quoque ex lignis   barbarico ritu constrictum, postquam eo (87) colonia romana deducta est, inviolatum   permansit, ac vetustate collapsum nomen (88) colli servavit. hanc urbem titus annius pretor   ad arcendas barbarorum excursiones kal. sextilibus (interlined exacta jam estate) exercitu   circumvenit. ad meridianam oppidi partem, que sola a continenti (interlined littoribus) erat,   pretor ipse cum legione martia castra operosissime communivit. ad occidentem vero, qua   barbarorum adventus erat, ávar, bôgudis regis filius, cum equitatu omni et auxiliaribus   macedonum copiis inter flumen et vallum loco castris parum amplo infelici temeritate extra   flumen (interlined werthaha) consedit. pulchra indoles, non minus romanis quam grecis   disciplinis instructa. igitur quinquagesimo nono die, qua eo ventum est, cum is dies dee cize   (CII. dee cize) apud barboros celeberrimus, ludum et lasciviam magis quam formidinem   ostentaret, immanis barbarorum (interlined suevorum, CII. svivorum) multitudo, ex proximis   silvis repente erumpens ex improviso castra irrupit, equitatum omnem, et quod miserius erat,   auxilia sociorum delevit. avar, (89) cum in hostium potestatem regio habitu vivus venisset,   [sed que apud barbaros reverentia ?] more pecudis ibidem mactatur. (90) oppidani vero non   minori fortuna sed maiori virtute pretorem in auxilium sociis properantem adoriuntur. romani   haud seguiter resistunt. duo principes oppidanorum habino (91) et caccus (92) in primis   pugnantes cadunt. et inclinata jam res oppidanorum esset, ni maturassent auxilium ferre   socii in altera ripa jam victoria potiti. denique coadunatis viribus castra irrumpunt, pretorem,   qui paulo altiorem tumulum (interlined perleih) frustra ceperat, romana vi resistentem   obtruncant. legionem (93) divinam (interlined martiam), ut ne nuncius cladis superesset,   funditus delent. Verres solus tribunus militum amne transmisso in proximis paludibus se   occultans (94) honestam mortem subterfugit. nec multo post sicilie proconsul immani   avaricia turpem mortem promeruit. nam cum se magistratu abdicaret, judicio civium   damnatus est.'

The same fragment, only without the interlined words and without marginal additions,   stands in Goldast's Rerum suev. script. aliquot veteres, Ulm 1727 fol. p. 3 under the rubric:   'Velleii Galli fragmentum de victoria Suevorum contra Romanos' (conf. Haupts zeitschr. 10,   291). It has the readings 'dea Cisa' and 'Cisara,' and for Caccus 'Cacus,' but agrees in the   other names. Further, for loco parum amplo, I find the better reading apto. The parenthesis   'sed--reverentia' is wanting, so is the concluding sentence 'nam--damnatus est'. I should   believe that Goldast had borrowed it all from Wolfg. Lazius's Reip. Rom. libri xii. Francof.   1591 p. 52, if this copy had not some variations too; the heading runs: 'Velleii excerpta ex   Gallica historia'; it has Cisara, but Cize, also 'Habbino, Caccus, amplo,' and concludes with   promeruit. Lazius says: 'quam nos historiam in pervetusto codice membrau. literis   antiquissimis scriptam reperimus'; that would be the sixth MS. known hitherto, and copies   must have been pretty numerous in the 11-12th centuries. The one that Goldast had before   him may probably been the oldest.

Either one or the other of them, both Otto von Freisingen and the author (or   continuator) of the Auersberg chronicle seem to have had before them. The former tries to   connect the story with Quintilius Varus (instead of Verres), and after relating his overthrow,   adds (chron. 3, 4): 'Tradunt Augustenses hanc caedem ibi factam, ostenduntque in   argumentum collem ex ossibus mortuorum compactum, quem in vulgari perleich (Mone, anz.   1, 256), eo quod legio ibi perierit, usque hodie vocant, vicumque ex nomine Vari appellatum   monstrant'. The Auersberg chronicler's account, though he almost verbally adopts the older   fragment, I hold it needful to insert here, because the marginal glosses are curiously   interwoven with the text, and referred to 'discovered-inscriptions on stone'. (95)

De Augusta Vindelicorum vel Rhetiae. sicut ex scriptis veterum colligitur haec civitas   tria nomina accepit. Germanorum quippe gentes primum considentes in partibus Rhetiae,   quae nunc est pars Sueviae, non longe ab alpibus in planitie, loco tamen munito propter   concursum duorum rapidorum fluminum, hanc urbem construxerunt, et non muris sed   fossatis eam firmaverunt, et ex nomine deae Zizae, quam religiosissime colebant, Zizerim eam   nominabant. hujus quoque deae templum ex lignis barbarico ritu constructum, etiam   postquam Romani eam incolere coeperunt, inviolatum permansit. at vetustate collapsum   nomen colli servavit, in quo postmodum in lapide exsculpti hi versus sunt reperti:

quem male polluerat cultura nefaria dudum

gallus monticulum hunc tibi Ziza tulit. unde usque in praesens ab incolis idem monticulus Zizenberg nominatur. apud hanc   urbem Romani deleti sunt magna caede. nam Titus Annius praetor ad arcendas barbarorum   excursiones cum exercitu in kal. Augusti eam circundedit, ipseque ad meridianam oppidi   partem, quae sola patebat, castra sua cum legione Martia operosissime communivit. ad   occidentum vero ultra fluvium, ubi Suevis aut barbaris aditus patebat, Avar Bogudis regis   filius cum omni equitatu et auxilio macedonico consedit. igitur quinquagesimo nono die,   quam eo ventum est, cum is dies deae Zize apud barbaros celeberrimus esset, ludum et   lasciviam magis quam formidinem cives ostentarunt. tunc etiam immanis barbarorum   multitudo, quae de partibus Sueviae illuc convenerat, de proximis silvis repente erumpens ex   improviso castra irrupit et Avaris exercitum delevit. ipsum quoque Avar regio habitu   indutum vivum comprehendentes crudeliter in modum pecoris mactaverunt. a quo in loco,   ubi mactatus est, vicus usque hodie appellatus est Criechesaveron, in quo hi versus reperti   sunt:

his nomen terris Borgudis dat regia proles Graecus Avar, pecudis de Suevis more litatus.

oppidani vero non minori fortuna sed majori virtute praetorem in auxilium sociis   prosperantem invadunt, quibus Romani haud segniter resistunt. in quo conflictu duo   principes oppidanorum Habino et Caccus in primis pugnantes cadunt, et inclinata jam res   esset oppidanorum, ni maturassent auxilium ferre Suevi in altera ripa victoria jam potiti. de   nominibus autem illorum principum interfectorum exstant adhuc loca denominata, nam   rustici de Habinone vocant monticulum Habinoberg, in quo hi versus reperti sunt:

praefectus Habino se victum atque sepultum perpetuo montis nomine notificat.

a Cacco vero dicunt Gegginem denominari. denique coadunatis Suevis et oppidanis   castra irrumpunt, et praetorem, qui paulo altiorem tumulum frustra ceperat, romani vi   resistentem obtruncant, legionemque divinam, ut nec nuncius cladis superesset, funditus   delent. de hac perdita legione adhuc perlaich, quasi perdita legio, nominatur, ubi   postmodum hi versus sunt reperti: indicat hic collis romanam nomine cladem, martia quo legio tota simul periit. solus Verres tribunus militum amne transmisso in proximus paludibus se occultans   honestam mortem subterfugit, lacui Vernse hucusque nomen dedit. versus: das nomen lacui Verres quo tu latuisti. hic tamen non multo post Siciliae proconsul effectus turpem mortem promeruit. nam cum   se magistratu abdicaret judicio civium damnatus est. propter hunc Verrem tradunt   Augustenses hanc caedem fuisse eandem, quam sub Augusto factam quidam describunt,   sed Varum illum nominant his verbis: ea tempestate Varus, romano more, superbe et avare   erga subditos se gerens a Germanis deletus est.

Some later writers also mention the tradition. About 1373

91, an ecclesiastic, Küchlin,   composed in rhyme a history of Augsburg (96) for the burgomaster Peter Egen the Young,   who wished to have his house painted with illustrations from it. Cap. 2, fol. 99 says of the   Swabians:

Sie bawten einen tempel gross darein

They built over that a large temple

zu eren (in honour of) Zise der abgöttin,

In honor of Zise the high goddess

die sie nach heidnischen sitten (after heathen ways)

Who, after heathen customs

anbetten zu denselben zeiten (adored in those days).

They adored in these times.

Die stat ward genennt (city got name) auch Zisaris

The town was named also Zisaris

nach der abgöttin (after the goddess), das was der pris.

After the high goddess,

Der tempel als lang stund unversert (stood uninjured),

The temple for long stood

bis im von alter was der val bescert (its fall decreed),

until from old age its fall was decreed

und da er von alter abgieng (as from age it passed away),

and there from old age went away

der berg namen von im empfieng (the hill took name),

The mountain name from it received

daruf gestanden was (whereon had stood) das werck,  O

on it was standing the work

und haist noch hüt (hight still to-day) der Zisenberck. 

and named still to-day the Zisenberg.

 

Conf. Keller's Fastn. sp., p. 1361. Sigism. Meisterlin, in his Augsburg chronicle (97)   (which is in print from the 8th chap. of bk 1), treats of this Cisa in chaps. 5-6 of bk 2. In the   unprinted chap. 4 of bk 1, he unmistakably refers to Küchlin, and again at the end of chap.   7: 'das er auch melt (tells) von der göttin Cisa, die auch genent wird Cizais, das sy geert   habend (they honoured her) die doch aus Asia warend; dawider seind die andern, die von   Cysa schreibent, die sprechent, das sy die Vindelici habend nach schwebischen sitten   angebettet. von der göttin wirst du hernach mer haben, ob got wil (buch 3. cap. 5. 6).' (see   Suppl.)

Hopeless contradictions lie on the face of that fragment. Bogud, a Punic ship's-captain,   who lived in the year 494 of Rome or 260 BC, (98) is here turned into a Macedonian king;   and his son Avar is made contemporary with the Ciceronian Verres of 200 years after, or   even of the still later Varus. Yet Bogudes and Varus do occur as contemporaries of Pompey   in Dio Cassius 41, 42. What Titus Annius was meant by the 'praetor,' I cannot guess; there   is a consul of that name A.U.C. 601 and 626, or BC 153, 128. Velleius Paterculus can never   have written this sort of thing. (99)

But all the rubbish it contains does not destroy the value of the remarkable story to us.   The comparatively pure Latinity is enough to show that it was not composed so late as the   twelfth century; Lazius and Velser (100) are inclined to place it in the Carolingian period,   and it looks like the work of a foreigner, to whom the Germans are heathens and barbarians.   The glosses confirm the local connexion of the whole tradition with Augsburg and its   neighbourhood; and not only the Latin verses, but the German forms werthaha (R.   Wertach), cizûnberc, habino, habinonberc, look too old for the 12th century. Habino   (Hepino), Habinolf, is an authentic OHG. man's name: Cacus is unknown to me, Cacan,   Cagan would seem more vernacular, and the derived local name Geginen leads up to it.   Some of the names quoted are preserved to this day: the eminence in the middle of the city,   next the senatehouse, is still called Perlach, on which the monastery and church of St. Peter   were founded in 1064; so the verse 'subdidit hunc (collem) Romae praepes victoria Petro'   was composed after that? The name perleih, which the legend derives from periens or   perdita legio, suggests the OHG. eikileihi, aigilaihi (phalanx), Gl. ker. 124. Diut. 1, 223; and in   other compounds we find leih in a variety of senses. (101) Zisenberg and Havenenberg are   names no longer heard, while Pfersen (Veris-sê) MB. 33b, 108 an. 1343, and Kriegshaber are   well known villages. Whatever may be the explanation of the older and correcter form   Criechesaveron, it is very plain that the name of the place Criahhes (graeci) avarâ (imago,   conf. pp. 86, 95, yet also avaro proles) first suggested 'Graecus Avar,' as well as   Habinonberc the her 'Habino'. The Auersberg chronicler's statement, that the Latin verses   were found carved in all those places, must be rejected. We find then, that tradition, true to her wont, has mixed up fact and fiction; the great   point is, that she brings us tidings of a Suevic goddess. Cisa seems the older and better   spelling, and Ciza would be harder to explain. Now from this name of the goddess we can   hardly derive that of the town Cisara, supposing it to be a purely German derivative; names   of places are never formed with such a termination from male or female proper names. It   seems more likely that Cisara = Cisae ara, from the altar and temple of the goddess: and later   writers might corrupt Cisaram into Zizarim, Zizerim. We read that she was most devoutly   (religiosissime) honoured by the Suevi, her anniversary is a grand festival devoted to   games and merrymaking, the day is precisely defined as the fifty-ninth after Aug. 1, it fell   therefore on Sept. 28. At such a season might be held a feast of the divinity who had   prospered the harvest just gathered in. On Sept. 29 the christians kept one of their grandest   days, that of St. Michael, who often had to replace a heathen god of war and victory. It   seems worthy of notice, that the Saxons had their great feast of victory about the same time,   viz., the beginning of October; Widukind pp. 423-4. With the first Sunday after Michaelmas   the holy common-week was considered in the Mid. Ages to begin; Scheffer's Haltaus, pp.   141-2. na der hilligen meinweken, Weisth. 3, 240. In the handing down of a precise and   doubtless genuine date, I feel the credibility of the story confirmed.

Now who is Cisa? One naturally thinks first of that Suevic Isis (p. 257) in Tacitus,   whose name even is not unlike Cisa, Zisa, if we make allowance for the mere dropping of the   initial, an omission which the Roman might be prompted to make by the similarity of the Isis   that he knew. But even if Zisa be totally different from Isis, she can with all the better right   be placed by the side of our Zio, in whom also was displayed a thoroughly Swabian deity   (p. 199); nay, together with our supposed feminine Ziu (p. 203) there may have been a   collateral form Zisâ, so that her Zisûnberg would exactly correspond to the god's   Ziewesberg, Zisberg (see Suppl.). Shall I bring forward a reason for this guess, which shall   be anything but far-fetched? The Mid. Dutch name for the third day of the week had the   curious form Disendach (p. 125), which being of course a corruption of Tisendach brings us   at once to Tise = Zisa. It is a matter for further researchers to demonstrate, (102) but that   three divinities, Zio, Zisa and Isis, are assigned to the Suevi, is already abundantly clear.

 

8. FRIKKA (FRIGG). FROUWA (FREYJA).

 

Our inquiry turns at length to the goddesses of the Norse religous system, of whom   unequivocal traces are forthcoming in the rest of Teutondom.

Foremost of these are Frig the wife of Oðinn, and Freyja the sister of Freyr, a pair easy   to confound and often confounded because of the their similar names. I mean to try if a   stricter etymology can part them and keep them asunder.

The name of Freyja seems the easier: it is motivated no doubt by the masculine Freyr   (Gramm. 3, 335). Now as we recognised Freyr in the Gothic fráuja (p. 209), Freyja leads us to   expect a Gothic fráujô, gen. fráujons, both in the general sense of domina mistress, and in   the special one of a proper name Fráujô. The notion of mistress, lady, never occurs in   Ulphilas. To make up for it, our OHG. remains express it very frequently, by fruwâ, frôwâ;   the MHG. frouwe, frou and our modern frau have preserved themselves purely as common   nouns, while the masc. frô has vanished altogether. In meaning, frouwe and frau   correspond exactly to hêrre, herr, and are used like it both in addressing and otherwise.   (103) Our minnesängers are divided as to the respective superiority of frouwe (domina) and   wîp (femina), (104) wîp expressing more the sex, and frouwe the dignity; to this day we feel   frau to be nobler than weib, though the French femme includes a good deal of what is in our   frau. It seems worthy of notice, that the poets harp on the connexion of frau with froh glad   (fro-lic) and freude joy; conf. Fridank 106, 5-8. Tit. 15, 35.

The AS. and OS. languages have done the very reverse: while their masc. freá, fraho is   used far more freely than the OHG. frouwo, they have developed no fem. by its side. The M.   Dutch dialect has vrauwe, vrouwe in addressing and as title (Huyd. op St. 1, 52. 356. Rein.   297. 731. 803. 1365. 1655. 2129. 2288. 2510-32-57-64, &c.), seldomer in other positions, Rein   2291; the modern vrouw has extended its meaning even beyond the limits of our frau.

All the above languages apear to lack the fem. proper name in contrast to the ON. which   possesses Freyja almost solely as the goddess's name, and no freyja = hera. Yet we find   hûsfreyja housewife, Sæm. 212b, and Snorri is still able to say that freyja is a tignarnafn   (name of honour) derived from the goddess, (105) that grand ladies, rîkiskonur, are freyjur,   Sn. 29. Yngl. saga c. 13. The readings frûr, fruvor here are corrupt, for the Icel. form frû has   evidently slipped in from the Dan. frue, Swed. fru, and these from Germany. The goddess   should be in Swed. Fröa, Dan. Fröe, which I have never met with; the Swed. folk-song of   Thor's hammer calls Freyja Froijenborg (the Dan. Fridlefsborg), a Danish one has already   the foreign Fru. Saxo is silent about this goddess and her father altogether; he would no   doubt have named her Fröa. Our Merseburg poem has now at last presented us with Frûâ =   Frôwâ, as the proper name of the goddess. (106)

Frigg gen. Friggjar, daughter of Fiörgynn and wife of Oðinn, is kept strictly apart from   Freyja, gen. Freyju: in the Vafþrudnismâl and the beginning of the Grîmnismâl, Oðinn and   Frigg are plainly presented as husband and wife; and as Hroptr and Svâfnir are also names   of Oðinn, 'Hroptr ok Frigg, Svâfnir ok Frigg' in Sæm. 91b 93ª express the same relation. Saxo   Gram, p. 13, has correctly 'Frigga Othini conjux'. In prayers the two goddesses even stand   side by side: 'sva hialpi ther hollar vættir, Frigg ok Freyja, ok fleiri goð (more gods), sem þû   feldir mer fâr af höndom!' Sæm. 240b. So they do at the burning of Baldr's body, Sn. 66, conf.   37. And that Danish folk-song has likewise 'Frigge, Fru og Thor'.

The ON. usually has gg where the AS. has cg and OHG. cc or kk, namely, where a suffix   i had stood after g or k: thus, ON. egg (acies), AS. ecg, OHG. ekki; ON. bryggja (pons), AS.   brycge, OHG. prukkâ; ON. hryggr (dorsum), AS. hrycg, OHG. hrukki. In the same way we   get an AS. Fricg, OHG. Frikka, Frikkia, even farther away from Frouwâ than Frigg from   Freyja.

It is the confounding of these two beings that will explain how Adam of Bremen came to   put Fricco instead of Frô for Freyr (supra, p. 212); he would equally have said Fricca for   Freyja. Fricco, Friccho, Friccolf were in use as proper names in OHG.

And now it seems possible to explain, what is otherwise unaccountable, why the sixth   day of the week, dies Veneris, should be called in ON. both Freyjudagr and also Frîadagr in   OHG. never Frouwûntac, but Frîatac, Frîgetac, now Freitag, in AS. Frigedæg (for Fricgedæg   ?), v. supra, pp. 123-6, and in Faröese Frujggjadeâ (Lyngbye 532).

Among these forms the AS. presents no difficulty: in the OHG. and ON. names we are   puzzled by the absence of the gutteral. I believe a solution is offered by that most important   passage in Paulus Diac. 1, 8 where Wodan's consort is named Frea, which can only mean   Frigg, not Freyja, as Saxo Gram. too, while expressly grounding on Paulus, makes use of the   form Frig: 'Paulo teste auctore Frig dea.' (107)

This Langob. Frea accords with the OHG. Frîa, I take it to be not only identical with   Frigg, but the original form of the name; it has less to do with Freyja and the AS. masc. freá.   As an ON. brû (pons) stands related to bryggja, so will frî to frigg. The Langob. Frea is =   Frëa, Fria, Frija, Frêa. Its root is suggested by such words as: Goth. freis, frijis (liber), OHG.   frî; Goth. frijôn (amare), OHG. frîôn; especially may we take into account the OS. neut. frî   (mulier), Hel. 9, 21. 13, 16. 171, 21. 172, 1, the AS. freo (mulier), Cædm. 29, 28. freolîc cwên   (pulera femina), Beow. 1275. freolîcu meowle, Cod. exon. 479, 2. freolîc wîf, Beow. 1222.   freolîc fæmne, Cædm. 12, 12. 54, 28. (108) Now, as frî (mulier formosa) and ON. friðr   (formosus), friðr (pax) seem to be all related, even the adjectival forms betray the shifting   sense of the substantival. (109)

We gather from all this, that the forms and even the meanings of the two names border   closely on one another. Freyja means the gladsome, gladdening, sweet, gracious goddess,   Frigg the free, beautiful, loveable; to the former attaches the general notion of frau   (mistress), to the latter that of frî (woman). Holda, from hold (sweet, kind) and Berhta from   berht (bright, beautiful) resemble them both. The Swedish folk-song, in naming Froijenborg,   calls her 'den väna solen,' the beautiful sun. Hence the mingling of their myths becomes the more conceivable. Saxo, p. 13, relates   how Frigga, to obtain gold for her ornaments, violated conjugal fidelity; more minutely told,   and differing much in the details, the tale about Freyja in Sn. 356 appears to be the same   adventure. On quite another ground however the like offence is imputed to Frigg too (Sæm.   63. Yngl. saga. cap. 3). In Sn. 81 the valshamr of Freyja is spoken of, but in 113-9 that of   Frigg; the former is supported by Sæm. 70.

Hence the variations in the name for the day of the week. The OHG. Frîatac ought   clearly to be Friggjardagr in ON., and the ON. Freyjudagr should be Frouwûntac in OHG.   Hence too the uncertainty in the naming of a constellation and of several plants. Orion's   belt, elsewhere named Jacob's staff and also spindle (colus hlakath), is called by the   Swedish people Friggerock (colus Friggae, Ihre, p. 663) or Frejerock (Finn Magnusen 361ª),   as we noticed before, or Fröjas rock (Wieselgren. 383). The orchis odoratissima, satyrium   albidum, a plant from which love-potions are brewed, Icel. Friggjargras, otherwise hionagras   (herba conjugalis); the later christian way of thinking has substituted Mary for the heathen   goddess. And the labouring man in Zealand speaks of the above constellation also by the   name of Mariärok, Marirok. Several kinds of fern, adiantum, polypodium, asplenium, are   named lady's hair, maidenhair, Mariengras, capillus Veneris, Icel. Freyjuhâr, Dan. Fruehaar,   Venusstraa, Venusgräs, Norweg. Marigras, &c. Even if the Norse names here have sprung   out of Latin ones, they show how Venus was translated both by Frigg and Freyja and   Mary. As for Mary, not only was the highest conception of beauty carried over to her, (frîo,   scôniôsta, idiso scôniôst, Hel. 61, 13. 62, 1), but she was pre-eminently our lady, frau,   domina, donna. Conf. infra frauachueli, ladycow, Marienkälblein. In the nursery-tales she   sets the girls sewing and spinning like Holda and Berhta, and Holda's snow appears to   mean the same as Mary's snow (p. 268).

Before so close a contact of the two names I pause, doubting with which of them to   connect the strong and incontestable similarity of certain divine names in the non-Teutonic   [Aryan] languages. First of all, an OBoh. gloss gives Priye for Aphrodite; taking into   account the Goth. frijôn, the OHG. friudil (lover), MHG. vriedel, and the Slav. priyátel   (friend), Boh. prjtel, Pol. przyiáciel, it must have meant either Freyja the goddess of love and   fruitfulness, or Frigg the divine mother and patroness of marriage. In Sanskrit also prî is to   love, priyas a friend, Ramâpriya dear-to-Lakshmi = lotus, Yamapriya pleasing-to-Yama =   ficus indica, priya in names of gods = husband or wife, Pott's forsch. 2, 424-7. Then prithivî   is the earth, and mâtâ Prithvî Terra mater, from whom comes fruit and increase (conf. Wel.   pridd terra, Bopp's gloss. 223b); and the word, though next of king to prithus (platuj latus),   the earth being named the broad and wide, seems nevertheless connected with Fria, Frigg   and fridu.

Frigg the daughter of Fiörgynn (p. 172), as consort of the highest god, (110) takes rank   above all other goddesses: she knows the fates of men (Sæm. 63b. Sn. 23. 64), is consulted   by Oðinn (Sæm. 31ª), administers oaths, handmaids fulfil her hest, she presides over   marriages, and her aid is implored by the childless (Fornald. sög. 1, 117); hence hionagras is   also Friggjargras. We may remember those maidens yet unmarried (p. 264) being yoked to   the plough of the goddess who commands they had too long defied. In some parts of   northern England, in Yorkshire, especially Hallamshire, popular customs show remnants of   the worship of Fricg. In the neighbourhood of Dent, at certain seasons of the year,   especially autumn, the country folk hold a procession and perform old dances, one called   the giant's dance: the leading giant they name Woden, and his wife Frigga, the principal   action of the play consisting in two swords being swung and clashed together about the   neck of a boy without hurting him. (111) Still more remarkable is the clear vestige of the   goddess in Lower Saxony, where to the common people she is fru Freke, (112) and plays the   very parts which we saw assigned to frau Holle (pp. 267-8): a strong argument, by the way,   for the divine nature of this latter. Then in Westphalia, legend may derive the name of the   old convent Freckenhorst, Frickenhorst, from a shepherd Frickio, to whom a light appeared   in the night (like the fall of snow by night at Hildesheim, p. 268) on the spot where the   church was to be built; the name really points to a sacred hurst or grove of Frecka fem., or   of Fricko masc., whose site christianty was perhaps eager to appropriate; conf.   Frœcinghyrst, Kemble 1, 248. 2, 265. There is a Vrekeleve, Fricksleben, not far from   Magdeburg (see Suppl.).

Freya is the goddess most honoured after or along with Frigg; her worship seems to   have been even the more prevalent and important of the two, she is styled 'agætuz af   Asynjum,' Sn. 28, and 'blôtgyðja,' Yngl. saga cap. 4, to whom frequent sacrifices were   offered. Heiðrekr sacrificed a boar to her, as elsewhere to Freyr, and honoured her above all   other gods. (113) She was wedded to a man (not a god, at least not an As), named Oðr, but   he forsook her, and she sought him all over the world, among strange peoples, shedding   tears. Her name Sýr (Sn. 37) would perhaps be Saúrs in Gothic: Wilh. Müller has detected   the very same in the Syritha of Saxo Gram. p. 125, who likewise goes in search of Othar.   Freyja's tears were golden, gold is named after them, and she herself is 'grâtfagr,' fair in   greeting (weeping), Sn. 37. 119. 133; in our nursery-tales pearls and flowers are wept or   laughed out, and dame Holla bestows the gift of weeping such tears. But the oldest   authorities make her warlike also; in a waggon drawn by two cats (as Thôrr drives two   goats) (114) she rides to the battlefield, 'riðr til vîgs,' and goes shares with Oðinn in the slain   (supra p. 133, conf Sæm. 42ª. Sn. 28. 57). She is called 'eigandi valfalls' (quae sortitur caesos   in pugna), Sn. 119; valfreyja, mistress of the chosen, Nialss. p. 118, and of the valkyrs in   general; this seems to be in striking accord with Holda or Berhta (as well as Wuotan)   adopting the babes that die unchristened into their host, heathen goddesses the heathen   souls. Freyja's dwelling is named Fôlkvângr or Fôlkvângar, the plains on which the (dead?)   folk troop together; this imparts new credibility to the connexion of St. Gertrude, whose   minne is drunk, with Frowa, for the souls of the departed were supposed to lodge with   Gertrude the first night (p. 61). Freyja's hall is Sessrymnir, the seat-roomy, capacious of   much folk; dying women expect to find themselves in her company after death. Thôrgerðr in   the Egilss., p. 103, refuses earthly nourishment, she thinks to feast with Freyja soon: 'ok   engan (nâttverð) mun ek fyrr enn at Freyju'. Yet love-songs please her too, and lovers do   well to call upon her: 'henni lîkaði vel mansöngr, â hana er gott at heita til âsta,' Sn. 29. That   the cat was sacred to her, as the wolf to Wuotan, will perhaps explain why this creature is   given to night-hags and witches, and is called donneraas, wetteraas (-carrion). When a   bride goes to the wedding in fine weather, they say 'she has fed the cat well,' not offended   the favourite of the love-goddess. The meaning of a phrase in Walther 82, 17 is dark to me:   'weder rîtest gerner eine guldîn katze, ald einen wunderlîchen Gêrhart Atzen?' In Westphalia,   however, the weasel was named froie, Reinh. clxxii, which I suppose means frau, fräulein   (froiken), as that ghostly creature was elsewhere called mühmlein (aunty), fräulein, donna,   donnola, titles sure to be connected with myths, and these would doubtless point in the   first place to our goddess and her worship. The Greeks said Galinthias was turned into a   weasel or cat (galeh), Ovid. metam. 9, 306 (see Suppl.).

In so far as such comparisons are allowable, Frigg would stand on a line with Here or   Juno, especially the pronuba, Jupiter's spouse; and Freyja with Venus, (115) but also with   Isis who seeks Osiris. Freyr and his sister Freyja are suggestive of Liber and Libera   (Dionysus and Proserpina, or even her mother Demeter; of sun and moon). Mary could   replace the divine mother and the goddess of beauty; verbally Frigg agrees better with   Librera, and Adam of Bremen's Fricco, if he was god of love, answers in name to Liber, in   character to Freyr.

The passage quoted from Paul Diac. is one of the clearest and most convincing   testimonies to the harmony between the German and Norse mythologies. An author of   Charles the Great's time tells us that the Langobards named Woden's wife Frea, and she is   called Frigg in the Edda. He cannot have drawn this from Norse tradition, much less can his   narrative through Saxo's intermediacy have become the source of the northern faith.

But in favour of Freyja too we possess a weighty piece of external evidence. The Edda   makes her the owner of a costly necklace named Brîsînga men (Brisingorum monile); she is   called 'eigandi Brîsîngamens,' Sn. 37. 119. How she acquired this jewel from the dwarfs, how   it was cunningly stolen from her by Loki, is fully narrated in a tale by itself, Sn. 354-357. In   the poets therefore Loki is Brîsîngs þiofr (Thorl. obs. 6, 41. 63); a lost lay of the Edda related   how Heimdallr fought with Loki for this ornament, Sn. 105. When Freyja pants with rage, the   necklace starts from her breast (stauk þat it micla men Brîsînga), Sæm. 71b. When Thôrr, to   get his hammer back, dresses up in Freyja's garments, he does not forget to put her famous   necklace on: 'hati hann (have he) it mikla men Brîsînga!' Sæm. 72.

Now this very trinket is   evidently known to the AS. poet of Beowulf 2399, he names it Brosinga mene, without any   allusion to the goddess; I would read 'Brîsinga mene,' and derive the word in general from a   verb which is in MHG. brîsen, breis (nodare, nodis constringere, Gr. kentein to pierce),   namely, it was a chain strung together of bored links. Yet conf. ch. XX, brising St. John's   fire: perhaps the dwarfs that forged it were called Brîsîngar? The jewel is so closely   interwoven with the myth of Freyja, that from its mention in AS. poetry we may safely infer   the familiarity of the Saxon race with the story itself; and if the Goths worshipped a goddess   Fráujô, they too would doubtless know of a Breisiggê mani. (116) Conf. ch. XX, Iarðar men,   Earth's necklace, i.e., turf in the ON legal language. We cannot but feel it significant, that where the gospel simply speaks of to agion   sacrum (Matt. 7, 6), the OS. poet makes it a hêlag halsmeni (holy necklace), Hel. 52, 7; an old   heathen reminiscence came over him, as once before about doves perching on shoulders (p.   148). At the same time, as he names only the swine, not the dogs, it is possible that he   meant halsmeni to be a mere amplification of 'merigrioton,' pearls.

But this legend of the goddess's necklace gains yet more in importance, when we place   it by the side of Greek myths. Brîsînga men is no other than Aphrodite's ormoj (Hymn to   Venus 88), and the chain is her girdle, the kestoj imaj poikiloj which she wears on her   bosom, and whose witchery subdues all gods and mortals. How she loosens it off her neck   (apo sthqesfin) and lends it to Here to charm her Zeus with, is told in a lay that teams with   world-old myths, Il. 14, 214-8. As the imaj is worn in turn by Here and by Aphrodite, the   Norse fable gives the jewel now to Frigg and now to Freyja, for that 'gold of Frigg' in Saxo is   the same as Brîsînga men. Then there is another similarity: the same narrative makes Freyja   possess a beautiful chamber, so strong that, when the door is locked, no one can enter   against her will: 'hun âtti ser eina skemmu, er var bæði fögr ok sterk, avâ at þat segja menn,   ef hurðin var læst, at eingi mâtti komast î skemmuna ân (without) vilja Freyju,' Sn. 354. We   are told the trick by which Loki after all got in, and robbed her of the necklace; (117) Homer   says nothing about that, but (Il. 14, 165-8) he knows of Here's qalamoj, ton oi filoj uioj   eteuxen Hfaistoj, pukinaj de quraj staqmoisin ephrse klhidi krupth, thn d ou qeoj alloj   anwgen. What can be more exactly in accordance with that inaccessible apartment of   Freyja, especially as the imaj is spoken of directly after? Hephaistos (Vulcan), who built his   mother the curiously contrived bedchamber, answers to the dwarfs who forged the necklace   for Freyja. The identity of Frigg and Freyja with Here and Aphrodite must after this mythus   be as plain as day.

 

10. FOLLA. SINDGUND.

 

Another thing that betrays the confusion of Frigg with Freyja is, that the goddess Follâ,   now proved by the Merseburg poem to belong to our German mythology, is according to it   a sister of Frûâ, while the ON. Fulla again is handmaid to Frigg, though she takes rank and   order among the Asynjor themselves (Sn. 36-7)(118). Her office and duties are sufficiently   expressed in her name; she justifies our reception of the above-mentioned Abundia or dame   Habonde into German mythology, and corresponds to the masculine god of plenty Plinitis,   Pilnitus, whom the Lettons and Prussians adored. Like dame Herke on p. 253, she bestowed   prosperity and abundance on mortals, to her keeping was intrusted the divine mother's   chest (eski), out of which gifts were showered upon them.

It may be, that Fullâ or Follâ was at the same time thought of as the full-moon (Goth.   Fulliþs, Lith. Pilnatis, masc.), as another heavenly body, Orion, was referred to Frigg or   Freyja: in the Merseburg MS. she is immediately followed by Sunnâ with a sister Sindgund,   whose name again suggests the path of a constellation. The Eddic Sôl ranks with the   Asynjor, but Sindgund (ON. Sinngunnr?) is unknown to the Edda. In ch. XXII, on the   constellations I shall come back to these divinities (see Suppl.).

 

11. GART. SIPPIA. SUNIA. WARA. SAGA. NANDA. 

 

From surviving proper names or even impersonal terms, more rarely from extant myths,   we may gather that several more goddesses of the North were in earlier times common to   the rest of Teutondom.

Frey's beloved, afterwards his wife, was named Gerðr, she came of the giant breed, yet   in Sn. 79 she is reckoned among the Asynjor. The Edda paints her beauty by a charming   trait: when Freyr looked from heaven, he saw her go into a house and close the door, and   then air and water shone with the brightness of her arms (Sæm. 81. Sn. 39). His wooing was   much thwarted, and was only brought to a happy issue by the dexterity of his faithful   servant Skîrnir. The form of her name Gerðr, gen. Gerðar, acc. Gerði (Sæm. 117b), points to a   Goth. Gardi or Gardja, gen. Gardijôs, acc. Gardja, and an OHG. Gart or Garta, which often   occurs in the compounds Hildigart, Irmingart, Liutkart, &c., but no longer alone. The Latin   forms Hildegardis, Liudgardis have better preserved the terminal i, which must have worked   the vowel-change in Gerðr, Thôrgerðr, Valgerðr, Hrîmgerðr. The meaning seems to be   cingens, muniens [Gurth?], Lat. Cinxia as a name of Juno (see Suppl.).

The Goth. sibja, OHG. sippia, sippa, AS. sib gen. sibbe, denote peace, friendship,   kindred; from these I infer a divinity Sibja, Sippia, Sib, corresponding to the ON. Sif gen.   Sifjar, the wife of Thôrr, for the ON. too has a pl. sifjar meaning cognatio, sifi amicus (OHG.   sippio, sippo), sift genus, cognatio. By this sense of the word, Sif would appear to be, like   Frigg and Freyja, a goddess of loveliness and love; as attributes of Oðinn and Thôr agree,   their wives Frigg and Sif have also a common signification. Sif in the Edda is called the   fair-haired, 'it hârfagra goð,' and gold is Sifjar haddr (Sifae peplum), because, when Loki cut   off her hair, a new and finer crop was afterwards forged of gold (Sn. 119. 130). Also a herb,   polytrichum aureum, bears the name haddr Sifjar. Expositors see in this the golden fruits of   the Earth burnt up by fire and growing up again, they liken Sif to Ceres, the xanqh Dhmhthr   (Il. 5, 500); and with it agrees the fact that the O Slav. Siva is a gloss on 'Ceres dea frumenti'   (Hanka's glosses 5ª 6ª,b); only the S in the word seems to be the Slav. zhivète = Zh, and V   does not answer to the Teut. F, B, P. The earth was Thôr's mother, not his wife, yet in Sn.   220 we find the simple Sif standing for earth. To decide, we ought to have fuller details   about Sif, and these are wholly wanting in our mythology. Nowhere amongst us is the   mystic relation of seed-corn to Demeter, whose poignant grief for her daughter threatens to   bring famine on mankind (Hymn to Cer. 305

315), nor anything like it, recorded.

The Gothic language draws a subtle distinction between sunja (veritas) and sunjô   (defensio, probatio veritatis); in OHG. law, sunna, sunnis means excusatio and   impedimentum. The ON. law likewise has this syn gen. synjar, for excusatio, defensio,   negatio, impedimentum, but the Edda at the same time exhibits a personified Syn, who was   to the heathen a goddess of truth and justice, and protected the accused (Sn. 38). To the   same class belongs Vor gen. Varar, goddess of plighted faith and covenants, a dea foederis   (Sn. 37-8), just as the Romans deified Tutela. The phrase 'vigja saman Varar hendi,'

consecrare Tutelae manu (Sæm. 74b), is like the passages about Wish's hands, p. 140.   As in addition to the abstract wish we saw a Wish endowed with life, so by the side of the   OHG. wara foedus there may have been a goddess Wara, and beside sunia a Suniâ (see   Suppl.).

In the same way or sage (saw, tale) is intensified into a heathen goddess Sagâ, daughter   of Wuotan; like Zeus's daughter the Muse, she instructs mankind in that divine art which   Wuotan himself invented. I have argued in a separate treatise (Kleine schr. 1, 83-112), that   the frou Aventiure of the Mid. Ages is a relic of the same.

Nanna the wife of Baldr would be in Goth. Nanþô, OHG. Nandâ, AS. Nôðe, the bold,   courageous (p. 221), but except in ON., the simple female name is lost; Procopius 1, 8 has   Gothic Qeudenanqa, ON. Thioðnanna (see Suppl.).

Inferences like these, from dying words to dead divinities, could be multiplied; to   attempt them is not unprofitable, for they sharpen the eye to look in fresh quarters [for   confirmation or confutation]. The discovery from legend or elsewhere of a harmony   between myths may raise our guesses into demonstrations. (119)

 

12. RAHANA (RAN). HELLIA (HEL).

 

My survey of the gods closed with Oegir and Loki; and the goddesses akin to these   shall be the last mentioned here.

To correspond to the ON. Gefjon the Old Saxons had, as far as we know, not a female   but a male being, Geban, Geofon (sea, p. 239). With four giant oxen, according to Sn. 1,   Gefjon ploughs Zealand out of the Swedish soil, and a lake arises, whose inward bend   exactly fits the projecting coast of Zealand. She is described as a virgin, and all maidens   who die virgins wait upon her, Sn. 36. Her name is called upon when oaths are taken: sver   ek við Gefjon, F. Magn. lex. 386 (see Suppl.). Gefn, a name of Freyja (Sn. 37 and Vigglumss.   cap. 27) reminds one of Gefjon.

Rân was the wife of the seagod Oegir, they had nine daughters who are cited by name   in the Edda, and called Rânar (or Oegis) dætr. (120) Men who are drowned fall to the shares   of Rân, which of itself attests her divinity: fara til Rânar is to get drowned at sea, Fornald.   sög. 2, 78; and sitja at Rânar to be drowned, Fornm. sög. 6, 376. Those who were drowned   she drew to her in a net, and carried them off, whence the explanation of her name: rân neut.   is rapina, ræna rapere, spoliare (see Suppl.).

On the discovery of the rare word rahanen (spoliare) in the Hildebr. lied 57, I build the   supposition that other Teutonic lands had also a subst. rahan (rapina, spolium) and a   goddess Rahana (conf. Tanfana, Hluodana), as well as an Uogi = Oegir. (121)

As we pass from Oegir (through Forniot and Logi) to Loki, so we may from Rân to Hel,   who is no other than Loki's daughter, and like him a dreadful divinity. Rân receives the   souls that die by water, Hel those on land, and Freyja those that fall in battle.

The ON. Hel gen. Heljar shows itself in the other Teutonic tongues even less doubtfully   than Frigg and Freyja or any of the above-mentioned goddesses: Goth. Halja gen. Haljôs,   OHG. Hellia, Hella gen. Hellia, Hella, AS. Hell gen. Helle; only, the personal notion has dropt   away, and reduced itself to the local one of halja, hellia, hell, the nether world and place of   punishment. Originally Hellia is not death nor any evil being, she neither kills nor torments;   she takes the souls of the departed and holds them with inexorable grip. The idea of a place   evolved itself, as that of

œgir oceanus out of Oegir, and that of gëban mare from Gëban; the converted heathen   without any ado applied it to the christian underworld, the abode of the damned; all   Teutonic nations have done this, from the first baptized Goths down to the Northmen,   because that local notion already existed under heathenism, perhaps also because the   church was not sorry to associate lost spirits with a heathen and fiendish divinity. (122)   Thus hellia can be explained from Hellia even more readily than ôstara from Ostara.

In the Edda, Hel is Loki's daughter by a giantess, she is sister to the wolf Fenrir and to a   monstrous snake. She is half black and half of human colour (blâ hâlf, en hâlf með hörundar   lit), Sn. 33, after the manner of the pied people of the Mid. Ages; in other passages her   blackness alone is made a subject of comparison: blâr sem Hel, Nialss. 117. Fornm. sög. 3,   188; conf. Heljarskinn for complexion of deathly hue, Landnâmab. 2, 19. Nialss. cap. 96.   Fornald. sög. 2, 59. 60; (123) death is black and gloomy. Her dwelling is deep down in the   darkness of the ground, under a root of the tree Yggdrasill, in Niflheim, the innermost part   of which is therefore called Niflhel, there is her court (rann), there her halls, Sæm. 6b 44ª 94ª.   Sn. 4. Her platter is named hûngr, her knife sultr, synonymous terms to denote her insatiable   greed. The dead go down to her, fara til Heljar, strictly those only that have died of sickness   or old age, not those fallen in fight, who people Valhalla. Her personality has pretty well   disapeared in such phrases as î hel slâ, drepa, berja î hel, to smite into hell, send to Hades; î   helju vera, be in Hades, be dead, Fornald. sög. 1, 233. Out of this has arisen in the modern   dialects and altogether impersonal and distorted term, Swed. ihjäl, Dan. ihiel, to death. (124)   These languages now express the notion of the nether world only by a compound, Swed.   helvete, Dan. helvede, i.e., the ON. helvîti (supplicium infernale), OHG. hellawîzi, MHG.   hellewîze. One who is drawing his last breath is said in ON. liggja milli heims oc heljar (to lie   betwixt home and hell), to be on his way from this world to the other. The unpitying nature   of the Eddic Hel is expressly emphasized; what she once has, she never gives back: haldi   Hel þvî er hefir, Sn. 68, hefir nu Hel, Sæm. 257ª, like the wolf in the apologue (Reinhart xxxvi),   for she is of wolfish nature and extraction; to the wolf on the other hand a hellish throat is   attributed (see Suppl.).

Two lays in the Edda describe the way to the lower world, the Helreið Brynhildar and   the Vegtamsqviða; in the latter, Oðin's ride on Sleipnir for Baldr's sake seems to prefigure   that which hermôðr afterwards undertakes on the same steed in Sn. 65-7. But the incidents   in the poem are more thrilling, and the dialogue between Vegtamr (125) and the vala, who   says of herself:

var ek snifin sniofi (by snow), ok slegin regni,

ok drifin döggo (be dew), dauð (dead) var ek leingi,

is among the sublimest things the Edda has to shew. This vala must stand in close   relationship to Hel herself.

Saxo Gram. p. 43 very aptly uses for Hel the Latin Proserpina, he makes her give notice   of Balder's death. In the Danish popular belief Hel is a three-legged horse, that goes round   the country, a harbinger of plague and pestilence; of this I shall treat further on. Originally it   was no other than the steed on which the goddess posted over land, picking up the dead   that were her due; there is also a waggon ascribed to her, in which she made her journeys.

A passage in Beowulf shows how the Anglo-Saxons retained perfectly the old meaning   of the word. It says of the expiring Grendel 1698: 'feorh âlegde, hæðene sâwle (vitam   deposuit, animam geutilem), þær hine Hel onfêng,' the old-heathen goddess took   possession of him.

In Germany too the Mid. Ages still cherished the conception of a voracious, hungry,   insatiable Hell, an Orcus esuriens, i.e., the man-devouring ogre: 'diu Helle ferslindet at daz   ter lebet, si ne wirdet niomer sat,' N. Cap. 72. 'diu Helle und der arge wân werdent niemer sat,'   Welsch. gast. It sounds still more personal, when she has gaping yawning jaws ascribed to   her, like the wolf; picture in the MS. of Cædmon represent her simply by a wide open mouth.

Der tobende wuoterîch

The raging tyrant

der was der Hellen gelîch,

he was like the Hell

diu daz abgrunde

who the chasm (steep descent)

begenit mit ir munde

be-yawneth with her mouth

unde den himel zuo der erden.

from heaven down (126) to earth.

unde ir doch niht ne mac werden,

And yet to her it cannot hap

daz si imer werde vol;

that she ever become full;

si ist daz ungesatlîche hol,

she is the insatiable cavern,

daz weder nu noch nie ne sprah:

that neither now nor ever said

'diz ist des ih niht ne mac.

'this is what I cannot (manage).'

Lampr. Alex 6671-80. Old poems have frequent allusions to the abgrund (chasm, abyss)   and the doors of hell: helligruoba, hellagrunt, helliporta, &c. Gramm. 2, 458; der abgrunde   tunc, der tiefen helle tunc (the deep hell's dinge, darkness), Mart. 88b 99c.

Of course there are Bible texts that would in the first instance suggest much of this, e.g.,   about the insatiablness of hell, Prov. 27, 20. 30, 16 (conf. Freidank lxxiv), her being   uncovered, Job 26, 6, her opening her mouth, Isaiah 5, 14. But we are to bear in mind, that all   these have the masc. adhj or infernus, with which the idea of the Latin Orcus also agrees,   and to observe how the German language, true to its idiosyncrasy, was obliged to make use   of a feminine word. The images of a door, abyss, wide gaping throat, strength and   invincibility (fortis tanquam orcus, Petron. cap. 62), appear so natural and necessary to the   notion of a nether world, that they will keep recurring in a similar way among different   nations. (see Suppl.).

The essential thing is, the image of a greedy, unrestoring, female deity. (127)

But the higher we are allowed to penetrate into our antiquities, the less hellish and the   more godlike may Halja appear. Of this we have a particularly strong guarantee in her   affinity to the Indian Bhavani, who travels about and bathes like Nerthus and Holda (p.   268), but is likewise called Kâlî or Mahakâlî, the great black goddess. In the underworld she   is supposed to sit in judgment on souls. This office, the similar name and the black hue   (kâla niger, conf. caligo and kelainoj) make her exceedingly like Halja. And Halja is one of the oldest and commonest conceptions of our heathenism.

 

ENDNOTES:

 

                1. OHG. in Notker has only the strong form gutin gen. gutinno, MHG gotinne, Trist. 4807. 15812. Barl. 246-7. seldomer gütinne, MS. 2, 65b; AS. gyden pl. gydena, but also weak gydene pl. gydenan, Mones gl. 4185 Proserpinam = to gidenan (l. tôgydenan, additional goddess); ON. gyðja (which might be dea or sacerdos fem.), better âsynja (see Suppl.).

                2. The two forms ero and hero remind one of the name Eor, Cheru, attributed to Mars (supra, pp. 203-4).

                3. The MSS. collated have this reading, one has nehertum (Massmann in Aufsess and Mones anzeiger, 1834, p. 216); I should prefer Nertus to Nerthus, because no other German words in Tacitus have TH, except Gothini and Vuithones. As for the conjectural Herthus, though the aspirate in herda might seem to plead for it, the termination -us is against it, the Gothic having aírþa, not aírþus. Besides, Aventin already (Frankf. 1580, p. 19ª) spells Nerth.

                4. The lake swallows the slaves who had assisted at the secret bathing. More than once this incident turns up, of putting to death the servants employed in any secret work; as those who dug the river out of its bed for Alaric's funeral (Jornand. cap. 29), or those who have hidden a treasure, Landn. 5, 12 (see Suppl.).

                5. Speaking of Nerthus, we ought to notice Ptolemy's Nertereans, though he places them in a very different locality from that occupied by the races who revere Nerthus in Tacitus.

                6. Braunschw. anz. 1751, p. 900. Hannov. gel. anz. 1751, p. 662 [is not 'haltet' a mistake for 'hal' and something else?] In the Altenburg country they call this harvest-custom building a barn. Arch. des henneb. vereins 2, 91.

                7. Hannov. gel. anz. 1751, p. 726. More pleasing to the ear is the short prayer of the heathen Lithuanians, to their earth-goddess, when in drinking they spilt some of the ale on the ground: Zemenyle ziedekle, pakylek musu ranku darbus! blooming Earth, bless the work of our hands.

                8. Adalb. Kuhns märkische sagen, pp. 337. 372, pref. p. vii. Conf. in ch. XXII the cry of the dwarfs: 'de gaue fru is nu dot (dead)'

                9. Adalb. Kuhn in the Märkische forschungen 1, 123-4, and Märk. sagen pp. 371-2; conf. Singularia magdeburg. 1740. 12, 768.

                10. Ops mater = terra mater; Ceres = Geres, quod gerit fruges, antiquis enim C quod nunc G;   Varro de ling. lat., ed. O. Müller p. 25. Her Greek appelation Dhmhthr seems also to lead to   gh mhthr (see Suppl.).

                11. Gregor. Turon. de glor. conf. cap. 77 compares or confounds with the Phrygian Cybele   some Gallic goddess, whose worship he describes as follows:

'Ferunt etiam in hac urbe   (Augustoduno) simulachrum fuisse Berecynthiae, sicut sancti martyris Symphoriani   passionis declarat historia. Hanc cum in carpento, pro salvatione agrorum et vinearum   suarum, misero gentilitatis more deferrent, adfuit supradictus Simplicius episcopus, haud   procul adspiciens cantantes atque psallentes ante hoc simulachrum, gemitumque pro   stultitia plebis ad Deum emittens ait: illumina quaeso, Domine, oculos hujus populi, ut   cognoscat, quia simulachrum Berecynthiae nihil est! et facto signo crucis contra protinus   simulachrum in terram ruit. Ac defixa solo animalia, quae plaustrum hoc quo vehebatur   trahebant, moveri non poterant. Stupet vulgus innumerum, et deam laesam omnis caterva   conclamat; immolantur victimae, animalia verberantur, sed moveri non possunt. Tunc   quadringenti de illa stulta multitudine viri conjuncti simul ajunt ad invicem: si virtus est ulla   deitatis, erigatur sponte, jubeatque boves, qui telluri sunt stabiliti, procedere; certe si moveri   nequit, nihil est deitatis in ea. Tunc accedentes, et immolantes unum de pecoribus, cum   viderent deam suam nullatenus posse moveri, relicto gentilitatis errore, inquisitoque antistite   loci, conversi ad unitatem ecclesiae cognoscentes veri Dei magnitudinem, sancto sunt   baptismate consecrati.' Compare the Legenda aurea cap. 117, where a festum Veneris is   mentioned.

                12. Deutsche sagen. num. 132.

                13. Of Hertha a proverb is said to be current in Pomerania: 'de Hertha gift gras, und füllt   schün und fass (barn and vessel),' Hall. allg. lit. z. 1823, p. 375). But the un-Saxon rhyme of   gras with fass (for fat) sufficiently betrays the workmanship. It is clumsily made up after the   well-known rule of the farmer: 'Mai kühl und nass füllt scheunen und fass' (see Suppl.).

                14. Liter. strues, ara, from hlaðan hlóð, struere, Gramm. 2, 10, num. 83.

                15. Ovid. fast. 2, 513.

                16. Antiq. bor. spec. 3, Hafn. 1782. Conf. Fiedler, gesch. und alt. des untern Germaniens, 1,   226. Steiner's cod. inscr. Rheni no. 632. Gotfr. Schütze, in his essay De dea Hludana, Lips.   1748, perceived the value of the stone, but could not discern the bearings of the matter.  

                17. Montfaucon ant. expl. 2, 433. Vredii hist. Flandr. 1, xliv. Mém. de Pacad. celt. 1, 199-245.   Mone, heidenth. 2, 346.

                18. Gesner, script. rei rust., ed. Lips. 1773. 1, 886; so also in the Clend. vallense, and in the   Cal. lambec. (Graevii thes. 8, 98).

                19. Apuleii met. lib. 11 (Ruhnken p. 764-5): Diem, qui dies ex ista nocte nascetur, aeterna mihi   nuncupavit religio; quo sedatis hibernis tempestatibus et lentis maris procellosis fluctibus,   navigabili jam pelago rudem dedicantes carinam primitias commeatus libant mei sacerdotes.   Id sacrum sollicita nec profana mente debebis operiri; nam meo monitu sacerdos in ipso   procinctu pompae roseam manu dextra sistro (Egyptian timbrel) cohaerentem gestabit   coronam. Incontanter ergo dimotis tuirbulis alacer continuare pompam meam, volentia   fretus; et de proximo dementer velut manum sacerdotis deosculabundus rosis decerptis,   pessimae mihique destestabilis dudum belluae istius corio te protinus exue. Lactantius,   instit. 1, 27: Certus dies habetur in fastis, quo Isidis navigium celebratur, quae res docet illam   non tranasse, sed navigasse.

                20. Inden in the Jülich country, afterwards Cornelimünster, not far from Aix; conf. Pertz 1,   394. 488. 514. 592. 2, 299. 489.

                21. This of ships being built in a wood and carried on men's shoulders reminds one of Saxo   Gram. p. 93, and of the 'Argo humeris travecta Alpes' (Pliny N.H. 3, 18; their being set on   wheels, of Nestor's story about Oleg; conf. the ship of Fro above. [An inadvertence on the   author's part: the ship is not 'carried,' but 'drawn by ropes thrown over the weavers   shoulders.']

                22. St. Tron between Liège and Louvain.

                23. Does the author imply that the favour of the peasantry, as opposed to artizans, makes it   likely that this was a relic of the worship of Earth? Supposing even that the procession was   that of the German Isis; Tacitus nowhere tells us what the functions of this Isis were, or that   she 'brought peace and fertility'.

Trans.

                24. Carl Jäger, Schwäb. städtewesen des MA. (Mid. Ages), 1, 525

                25. Scheffer's Haltaus, 202. Hans Sachs also relates I. 5, 508ª, how the maids who had not   taken men, were forced into the plough (see Suppl.).

                26. To this day, in the churches of some villages of Holstein, largely inhabited by seamen,   there hang little ships, which in springtime, when navigation re-opens, are decorated with   ribbons and flowers: quite the Roman custom in the case of Isis (p. 258). We also find at   times silver ships hung up in churches, which voyagers in stress of weather have vowed in   case of a safe arrival home; an old instance of this I will borrow from the Vita Godehardi   Hildesiensis: Fuit tunc temporis in Trajectensi episcopatu vir quidam arti mercateriae   deditus, qui frequenter mare transiret; hic quodam tempore maxima tempestate in medio mari   deprehenditur, ab omnibus conclamatur, et nil nisi ultimus vitae terminus timetur. Tandem   finito aliquanto tempore auxilium beati Godehardi implorabant, et argenteam navim   delaturos, si evaderent, devoverunt. Hos in ecclesia nostra navim argenteam deferentes   postea vidimus (in King Lothair's time). In a storm at sea, sailors take vows: E chi dice, una   nave vo far fare, e poi portarla in Vienna al gran barone; Buovo d'Antona 5, 32. The Lapps at   yule-tide offer to their jauloherra small ships smeared with reindeer's blood, and hang them   on trees; Högström, efterrentninger om Lapland, p. 511. These votive gifts to saints fill the   place of older ones of the heathen time to gods, as the voyagers to Helgoland continued   long to respect Fosete's sanctuary (p. 231). Now, as silver ploughs too were placed   inchurches, and later in the Mid. Ages were even demanded as dues, these ships and   ploughs together lend a welcome support to the ancient worship of a maternal deity (see   Suppl.).

                27. Philostr. de vitis sophist. lib. 2 cap. 1, ed. Paris. 1608, p. 549.

                28. *** So Jean le Maire de Belges in his Illustrations de Gaulle, Paris, 1548, bk. 3 p. xxviii: 'Au temps duquel (Hercules Allemannus) la deesse Isis, royne d'Egypte, veint en Allemaigne et montra au rude peuple Fusaige de mouldre la farine et faire du pain; [At this time (Hercules Allemannus) the goddess Isis, queen of Egypt, came in Germany and has shown to the crude Fusaige people how to grind wheat and do bread.] *** J. le Maire finished his   work in 1512, Aventin not till 1522; did they both borrow from the spurious Berosus that   came out in the 15th century? Hunibald makes a queen Cambra, who may be compared with   the Langobardic Gambara, introduce the arts of building, sowing and weaving (see Suppl.).  

                29. Frankf. 1631; 4, 171ª von einer wazzerholden, rh. solden; 176ª wazzerholde, rh. solde.  

                30. If, in the inscription 'deae Hludanae' quoted p. 257, we might by a slight transposition   substitute Huldanae, this would be even more welcome than the analogy to ON. Hlôðyn, it   would be the most ancient evidence for Hulda, supported as she already is by the Goth.   unhulþô and the OHG. female name Holda, a rare one, yet forthcoming in Schannat, trad.   fuld. no. 445; also Holdasind in Graff 4, 915. Schütze's treatise De dea Hludana first appeared   Lips. 1741; and when Wolf (in Wodana, p. 50) mentions a Dutch one De dea Huldea, Trajecti   1746, if that be really the title, this can be no other than a very tempting conjecture by   Cannegieter found on our 'Hulda' which occurs in Escard. A Latin dative Huldanae would   mean our weak form, OHG. Holdûn, AS. Holdan, just as Berta, Hildegarda are in Latin docs.   inflected Bertanae, Hildegardanae; though there may also have sprung up a nom. Bertana,   Huldana. So the dat. Tanfanae too would lead us to at all events a German nom. Tanfa, and   cut short all the attempts to make out of -fana a Celtic word or the Latin fanum. Tanfa   suggests an ON. man's name Danpr, or the OHG root damph; granted a change of F into CH   or TH [f has become ch in sachte, nichte, achter, ruchtbar, &c.], there would arise yet further   possibilities, e.g. a female name Tancha (grata) would correspond to the OHG. masc.   Dancho (gratus) Graff 5, 169; conf. Dankrât = Gibicho, Haupt's zeitschr. 1, 573.

I am not   convinced of Huldana, and confess that Hludana may also maintain itself, and be explained   as Hlûda (clara, praeclara); the weight of other arguments must turn the scale. Among these   however, the use of gute holden and hollar vættir (Sæm. 240b) for spirits, and of holl regin   (Sæm. 60ª) for gods, is especially worthy of notice. In ON. the adj. hollr had undergone   assimilation (Goth. hulþs, OHG. hold), while the proper name Huldr retained the old form; for   to me the explanation huldr = occultus, celatus, looks very dubious.

                31. Holle from Hulda, as Folle from Fulda.

                32. Jul. Schmidt's Reichenfels p. 152.

                33. Reinwald, Henneb. id. 1, 68. 2, 62. Schmeller 2, 174.

                34. Schmidt's Westerwäld. idiot. 73. 341.

                35. Kinderm. no. 24. Deutsche sagen, nos. 4-8. Falkenstein's Thur. chronica 1, 165-6 (see   Suppl.).

                36. Dame Holle shakes her bed, Modejourn. 1816, p. 283. They say in Scotland, when the   first flakes fell: The men o' the East are pyking their geese, and sending their feathers here   awa'. In Prussian Samland, when it snows: The angels shake their little bed; the flakes are   the downfeathers, but many drop past, and get down to our earth.

                37. As other attributes of Holda have passed to Mary, we may here also bring into   comparison the Maria ad nives, notre dame aux neiges, whose feast was held on Aug. 5; on   that day the lace-makers of Brussels pray to her, that their work may keep as white as snow.   In a folk-song of Bretagne: Notre dame Marie, sur votre trône de neige! (Barzas breiz 1, 27).   May not the otherwise unintelligible Hildesheim legend of Hillesnee (DS. no. 456) have   arisen out of a Holde snê?

                38. If the name brunnenhold in the Märchenbuch of Alb. Ludw. Grimm 1, 221 is a genuine   piece of tradition, it signifies a fountain-sprite. [Newborn babes are fetched by the nurse out   of dame Holle's pond; Suppl.]

                39. A similar legend in Jul. Schmidt's Reichenfels p. 152.

                40. This must be a purely heathen view. I suppose the christian sentiment was that   expressed by Marcellus in Hamlet i. 1: 'no spirit dares stir abroad, the nights are wholesome,   &c.'.  Trans.

                41. Estor's oberh. idiot., sub. v.

                42. Erasm. Alberus, fable 16: 'Es kamen auch zu diesem heer Viel weiber die sich forchten   sehr (were sore afraid), Und trugen sicheln in der hand, Fraw Hulda hat sie ausgesandt.'   Luther's Expos. of the Epistles, Basel 1522 fol. 69ª: 'Here cometh up dame Hulde with the   snout (potznase, botch-nose), to with, nature, and goeth about to gainsay her God and give   him the lie, hangeth her old ragfair about her, the straw-harness (stroharnss); then fals to   work, and scrapes it featly on her fiddle.' He compares nature rebelling against God to the   heathenish Hulda with the frightful nose (Oberlin, sub v. potzmännchen), as she enters,   muffled up in straw and frippery, to the fiddle's playing.

                43. Brückner, Contrib. to the Henneberg idioticom, p. 9, mentions a popular belief in that part   of Franconia: 'On the high day comes the Hollefrau (Hollefra, Hullefra), and throws in reels;   whosoever does not spin them full, she breaks their necks,' (conf. infra Berhta and Berhtolt   and the Devil). 'On the high day she is burnt,' which reminds one of 'Carrying Death out' in   Teutonic and Slav countries, and 'Sawing the old woman' in Italy and Spain. By the addition   of -frau after the name (conf. gaue fru, p. 253) we perceive its originaly adjective character.   Cod. pal. 355b: 'ich wen, kain schusel in kaim rocken wart nie als hesslich als du bist,' I ween   no scarecrow on a distaff was ever as ugly as thou.

                44. Braunschw. anz. 1760, no. 86; the diesse is the bundle of flax on the dis-staff.

                45. This makes one think of Gertrude. The peasants' almanacks in Carniola represent that   saint by two little mice nibbling at the thread on a spindle (vretenò), as a sign that there   ought to be no spinning on her day. The same holds good of the Russian piatnitsa, Friday   (Kopitars rec. von Strahls gel. Russland).

                46. RA. 163-8. 470. Women are called in AS. friðowebban, peace-weavers.

                47. I believe Luther followed the Hebrew, merely dropping the final h, as he does in Jehova,   Juda, &c.  Trans.

                48. Müller's sagabibl. 1, 363-6.

                49. Details to be found in Müller's sagab. 1, 367-8. Hallager p. 48. Faye pp. 39-43 and 10. 15.   25. 26. 36. Frigge, nytaarsgave for 1813, p. 85. Ström's Söndmör 1, 538-59. Vilses Spydeberg   2, 419. Villes Sillejord. p. 230. Asbiörnsen, passim.

                50. A portion of Franconia and Thuringia knows both Berchta and Holda, there at all events   is the boundary between the two. Matthesius, in his Expostion of the gospels for feastdays,   p. 22, names dame Hulda and old Berchte side by side.

                51. Among the celebrated maidens of Menglöð is a Biört (Sæm. 111ª), Menglöð herself is   called 'sû in sôlbiarta' (111b), and the father of her betrothed Svipdagr Sôlbiartr (sun-bright,   112ª). A Menglöð in a later story appears to some one in a dream (Fornm. sög. 3, 222-3), and   leaves him a marvellous pair of gloves.

                52. The Braunschw. anz. 1760, p. 1392, says no leguminous plants are to be eaten when   dame Holla is going round in the 'twelve-nights'. Either a mistake, or to be understood of   particular kinds of pulse.

                53. Almost the same is told in the Voigtland of the Werre or dame Holle. The Werre, on the   holy eve of the high New-year, holds a strict inquiry whether all the distaffs are spun off; if   they are not, she defiles the flax. And on that evening you must eat polse, a thick pap of   flour and water prepared in a peculiar way; if any one omits it, she rips his body open, Jul.   Schmidt, Reichenfels, p. 152. The name Werra (from her 'gewirrt,' tangled shaggy hair?) is   found in Thom. Reinesius, Lect. var., Altenbg 1640, p. 579 (in the critical notes on   Rhyakinus's , i.e. Andr. Rivinus or Bachmann's Liber Kiranidum Kirani, Lips. 1638):   Nostrates hodieque petulantioribus et refractariis manducum aliquem cum ore hiante   frendentem dentibus, aut furibundam silvescente coma, facie lurida, et cetero habitu   terribilem cum comitatu maenadum Werram interminantur. Reinesius (1587-1667) came from   Gotha, but lived at Hof in the Voigtland. A werre is also a noisome chirping insect of the   cricket kind (Popowitsch. 620). In MHG.: 'sæjet diu Werre (Discordia) ir sâmen dar,' sows her   seed, Ms. 2, 251b, conf. Troj. 385 (see Suppl.); and in Selphartes regel (Wackernagel's lb.   903), there is exhibited, together with bruoder Zornli and bruoder Ergerli, a bruoder Werra,   'der sîn herze mit weltlichen dingen also beworren hat (has so entangled his heart with   wordly things), daz da niht mê in mag'. And that notion of tangled thread and hair, which   prevails about Bertha and Holda, may after all be akin to this. On L. Zurich she is called de   Chlungere, because she puts chlungel (knots, lumps) in the unfinished yarn of slothful   maidens, Alb. Schott, Deutsche colonien in Piedmont, p. 282. In Bavaria and German   Bohemia, Berhta is often represented by St. Lucia, though her day comes on Dec. 13. Frau   Lutz cuts the belly open, Schmeller 2, 532. Jos. Rank, Böhmerwald, p. 137. Conf. the Lusse in   Sweden, Wieselgren. 386-7.

                54. Made of flour and milk or water, and baked in a pan: fasting fare, evidently.

                55. Conf. Crusius p. 1, lib. 12, cap. 6, p. 329, where Bertha the mother of Charles is meant.   The Lombards called a carrocium Berta and Berteciola (Ducange sub v.), perhaps the   carriage of the travelling goddess or queen?

                56. Joach. Camerarius, chronol. Nicephori, p. 129.

                57. Even-holy, equally-holy day, Scheffer's Haltaus, p. 68.

                58. His Gewissensspiegel (mid. of 14th cent.) is in two MSS. at Vienna (Hoffm. pp. 335-6);   conf. Schm. 4, 188. 216, and the Jahrb. der Berliner gesellsch. für deutsche spr. 2, 63-65.

                59. This Perchtenspringen is like the hexentusch in the Böhmerwald, which, Jos. Rank p.   76-7 says, is performed at Whitsuntide, when young men and boys provide themselves with   loud cracking whips, and chase all the witches out of houses, stables and barns.

                60. Journey through Upper Germany, p. 243. Schm. 1, 195.

                61. Ad. Walt. Strobel's beitr., Strasb. 1827, p. 123.

                62. I can produce another spinning Bertha. The Vita S. Berthae Avennacensis in diœcesi   Remensi (conf. Flodoardus 4, 47) sas (Acta Sanctor., Maii p. 114b): Quae dum lustraret situs   loci illius, pervenit ad quendam hortum, in quo erat fons mirae pulcritudinis. Quem ut vidit   Deo devota femina, minime concupivit, sed possessoribus ipsius praedii sic locuta est: O   fratres, hunc fontem praedii vestri vendite mihi, et accepta digna pecunia cedite usibus   nostris. Cui sic aiunt: En praesto sumus, si tamen detur pretium a nobis taxatum. Sancta   autem, videntibus qui aderant, libram unam denariorum posuit super lapidem qui erat super   os ejusdem fontis, domini vero ac venditores receperunt aes. Tunc sancta mater, Deo plena,   colo quam manu tenebat coepit terram fodere, et in modum sulci rigam facere, orans ac   dicens: Ostende nobis, Domine, misericordiam tuam, et salutare tuum da nobis! Revertens   namque monasterium, colum eadem post se trahebat, tantaque abundantia aquae eam   sequebatur, ut ad usus omnes hominibus pertinentes sufficeret, sicut usque hodie apparet.   Nomen quoque sancta mater fluviolo ipsi composuit dicens: Libra vocaberis, quia una libra   pro emptione tua data est.

                63. How firmly she is rooted, may be seen by her being the link that joins the Carolingian   legend to the Langobardic: she is mother of Carl, wife of Pippin the son of Rother (4789),   and daughter of Flore and Blancheflor, whose name again contains the notion of whiteness.  

                64. Altd. w. 3, 47-8; Paris too connects this Pédauque wit Berte, iii. iv. 198; reine Pedauque,   Michelet hist. de France 1, 496-8. 2, 152.

                65. Luke 2, 9. O. i. 12, 3. 4. Hel. 12, 8. Maria 182.

                66. The OHG. 'pherintac = parasceve' (Graff 5, 360) is Good Friday, and distinct from   Prehentag, Perchtentag.

                67. Dec. 28 is Innocents', 29 St. Thomas's, 31 St. Silvester's.

                68. Franc. Berni, rime 105. Crusca sub v. befana.

                69. Ducange sub v. Diana spells Benzoria, but has the true meaning under Bensozia itself; it   seems to mean bona socia, friendly propitious being. Bona dea, Dio Cass. 37, 35. 45. Conf.   ch. XXVIII, dobra sretia, bona Fortuna; ch. XVI, good wife, under Wood-women.

                70. Ballerini cannot understand this Gen.; is it Gennadius (Massiliensis), a writer at the end   of the fifth century?

                71. This reference to the turbo (the whirlwind of his blast), looks mythical and of high   antiquity. Not only did Ziu or Zio, once a deity, become with the christians a name for the   whirlwind, p. 203 (and Pulloineken too may have to do with Phol, p. 229); but to this day   such a wind is accounted for in Lower Saxony (about Celle) by the dancing Herodias   whirling about in the air. Elsewhere the raising of it is ascribed to the devil, and offensive   epithets are hurled at him, as in the Saalfeld country: 'Schweinezahl fähret,' there goes   swine-tail (Praetorius, Rübezahl 3, 120), and on the Rhön mts.: 'Säuzagel,' sow-tail (Schm. 4,   110), to shew contempt for the demon, and abate his fury (see Suppl.). I shall bring in some   other stories, when treating of the wind-sprites.

                72. Canneart, strafrecht 153-5. Belg. mus. 6, 319. Conf. Vergode for frau Gaude.

                73. The Romans also personified Abundantia as a superior being, but she only appears on   coins, she had neither temple nor altars.

                74. Conf. Deutsche sagaen, no. 122.

                75. Agitur pars tertia mundi, Ovid met. 5, 372; tertia pars mundi fumans perit Africa flammis,   Coripp. 1, 47: tertia pars orbis Europa vocatur, Walthar. 1.

                76. Is the name socia connected with the Satia in Guilielmus Alvernus?

                77. One MS. (Kolmesen opusc. p. 287; this ref. given in Rathlef's Hoya and Diepholz 3, 16)   reads: Veteres Anglicani populi vocant Estormonath paschalem mensem, idque a dea   quadam cui Teutonici populi in paganismo sacrificia fecerunt mensis Aprilis, quae Eostra est   appellata.

                78. Gramm. 2, 510. Langez. Diut. 3, 88.

                79. T. 157, 1. 3. 5. O. i. 22, 8. iii. 6, 16. iv. 9, 8. Hymn. 21, 4. Fragm. theol. xiv. 17.

                80. Conf. Ideler's chronologie 1, 516.

                81. For oriens he chooses urruns, for occidens sagqs, i.e., rising and sinking of the sun, not   that he did not know vistr (versus occidentem), root vis (repose, stillness, evening).

                82. Composite proper names: Ostroberht, Austroberta, Austregisil, Ostrogotha (like   Visigotha, Vistrimund, Westeralap, Sundarolt, Nordberaht, &c. &c.)

                83. In the Basque language ostara means May, the budding leafing time, from ostoa, leaf,   foliage: a mere accidental resemblance.

                84. I might introduce into the text an AS. Ricen, if I knew any more about her than what   Lye's glossary quotes from Cod. Cot. 65, 87: Ricenne Diana. It is formed like þinen (ancilla),   wylpen (bellona), &c.

                85. I owe their communication to Schmeller's kindness. The same piece is found at Vienna in   two forms: in the Cod. Lat. CII (olim hist. prof. 652) sec. xi. ineuntis fol. 79. 80; and in the   Cod. CCXXVI (olim univ 237) sec. xii. In both it stands between Jorn. De reb. get. and De   regn. succ. CII has interlinear glosses and marginal notes (exactly like the Munich MSS.) by   a scarcely later hand, which also writes the heading 'Excerptum ex Gallica historia'. CCXXVI   adopts the interlinears into the text, but otherwise agrees.

                86. On margin: 'Quem male polluerat cultura nefaria dudum gallus monticulum hunc tibi ciza   tulit'.

                87. On margin: 'post conditam urbem augustam a romanis'.

                88. Marg. note: 'ut usque hodie ab incolis cizunberc nominetur.'

                89. Marg. note: 'ex cujus vocabulo, quia ibi mactatus et tumulatus est chrikesaveron (CII   chrekasaver) nomen accepit. grecus enim erat'.

                90. On margin: 'Hoc nomen terris bogudis dat regia proles grecavar (CII grecus auar),   pecudis de suevis more litatus.'

                91. On margin: 'Prefectus habeno se victum hicque sepultum perpetuo montis nomine   notificat. qui juxta montem occisus et supultus nomen monti habenonberch dedit, quem   rustici havenenberch (CII havenonperch) dicunt.'

                92. CII: 'a cujus nomine putamus iekingen nominari.'

                93. On margin: 'de hac ibi perdita legione adhuc perleich nominatur.' Then in smaller but   contemporaneous writing: 'Indicat hic collis romanam nomine cladem martia quo legio tota   simul periit. subdidit hunc rome prepes victoria petro, hoc sibemet templum qui modo   constituit.'

                94. On margin: 'hic quia in paludibus adjacentibus latuit, lacui uerisse huc usque nomen   dedit'.

                95. Chron. Conradi ursperg. Argent. 1532, p. 308. ed. 1609, p. 225.

                96. Cod. Monach. Lat. 61; likewise sent me by Schmeller.

                97. Augsb. 1522 fol. Meisterlin wrote it in 1456, and died about 1484.

                98. Niebuhr's Rom. Hist. 3, 677.

                99. G. Jo. Vossius, De hist. Lat. 1, 24.

                100. Marci Velseri rer. Augustanar. libri 8. 1594 fol. p. 45.

                101. Henisch p. 293 explains 'berlach' at Augsburg 'ab ursis in publica cavea ibi altis.' a thing   which was done in other towns, e.g. Bern. On the Perlach tower there was fixed a figure of   St. Michael, which came into view every time the clock struck on Michaelmas-day; in earlier   times a wooden temple of Isis (p. 294, ex lignis) is said to have stood on the spot; Fischart's   geschichtkl. 30b: 'der amazonischen Augspurger japetisch fraw Eysen'.

                102. Down in the Riess between the rivers Lech and Wertach, in the midst of Sueves, at a   time supposed to be before even the Romans settled in the region, no Slav gods need be   looked for; neither does the Slav mythology know anything at all certain about a Ziza,   alleged to be Ceres mammosa (Boh. cic, cec, Pol. cyc, Russ. titi, mamma), in support of whom   forsooth our Cisa must be wronged; see Hanusch 278. It were better to think of the MHG.   name for the zeisig (zeis-chen, siskin) diu zîse, ein kleiniu zîse. Ms. 1, 191b. Wh. 275, 30;   which can scarcely have arisen from cicindela (glow-worm, Graff 5, 711); however, no   connexion has come to light between the goddess and the form of a bird, though some little   birds, the woodpecker, the titmouse, were held sacred.

                103. Like our frô, the OFrench dame (dominus) is now lost; dame (domina) remains, like our frau.   The Span. keeps both don and doña, the Ital. only donna. The Romance tongues express   the masc. notion by two other words, sire, sieur (p. 27) and seigneur, signore, señor, i.e.,   senior, out of which an Ital. signora, a Span. señora have sprouted, but noFrench feminine.

                104. Walth. 48-9. 57. Amgb. 45b 46ª. Ms. 2, 182b 216ª. Docen misc. 2, 278-9. frouwe unde wîp,   Parz. 302, 7 (see Suppl.).

                105. As fráujô from Fráujô, and freyja from Freyja, a song of Frauenlob's, Ettm. p. 112 makes   wîp come from a Frankish king Wippeo. Is this an echo of a mythical Wippo, Wibba (geneal.   of Mercia, end of ch. VII)? The explanation is as false as when the Edda derives vîf from   vefa, for all a woman's being practically a weaver and a peace-weaver; we should have to   assume two roots viban and veiban, side by side. The ON. proper name Vefreyja is also   worthy of note, Fornald. sög. 2, 459. 3, 250. 594.

                106. The reasons why we may not take frûa here for a mere title (and so a noun com.) are set   forth in the Zeitschr. f. d. a. 2, 189. As for the u in the MS., it looks to me quite plain, else   Wackernagel's proposal to read Friia = Frija, Friga, Frîa, would be acceptable (friiu does   occur in T. 93, 3). Frûa and Frîa are alike welcome and suitable for my explanation.

                107. The AS. chroniclers (p. 128) borrow Frea from Paulus. With Frea we must above all   connect the frea of the Laws of Liutprand 6, 40 and 67, and this means uxor, domina, not   libera, ingenua. Paulus therefore, in assigning Frea to Wodan as his wife, has put her in the   place of the Norse Frigg. The substitution is often made: thus when Fornald. sög. 2, 25-6   has 'heita â Freyju ok â Hött (Oðinn),' it is Frigg that should have been associated with   Oðinn, as is done in the Grîmnismâl (see Suppl.)

                108. Conf. the MHG. wîplîch wîp, Parz. 10, 17. MS. 1, 50ª 202ª. 2, 42b 182b 258ª. wîbîn wîp,   MsH. 1, 359b; similarly qnlutepai gunaikej, Od. 11, 386, 434. 15, 422. Hesoid scut. 4.

                109. We might connect Venus with the Goth. qinô, qêns, as venire with qiman; the Wel.   gwen would answer to Gvenus for Venus; the Ir. dia beine, Friday, from bean, ben (lady) =   Venus = AS. cwên.

                110. Some of the AS. genealogies have 'Wôden et Freálâf ejus uzor,' so that Frigg = Freálâf   (OHG. Frôleip ?) which fits in with that Fridlefsborg in the Danish song, p. 300; others make   Freálâf Wôdens father. But in lieu of him we have also Friðulâf and Friðuwulf, a fresh   confrimation of the connexion between frið and the goddess's name.

                111. Communicated by J.M. Kemble, from the mouth of an 'old Yorkshireman'. I account for   the sword by the ancient use of that weapon at weddings; conf. RA. 426-7. 431; esp. the old   Frisian custom pp. 167-8, conf. Heimreich's Nordfries. chron. 1, 53-4. In Swabia, as late as the   18th century, the bridesmen carried large swords with fluttering ribbons before the bride;   and there is a striking similarity in the Esthonian custom (Superst. M. 13).

                112. Eccard de orig. Germ. p. 398: Celebratur in plebe Saxonica fru Freke, cui eadem munia   tribuuntur, quae superiores Saxones Holdae suae adscribunt. Fru Freke has just been   unearthed again by Ad. Kuhn, namely in the Ukermark, where she is called Fruike, and   answers to fru Harke in the Mittelmark and fru Gode in the Prignitz.

                113. Hervararsaga, ed. Verel. p. 138, ed. 1785 p. 124. By the editors of the Fornald. sög. 1, 463   the passage is banished into the notes as an unsupported reading.

                114. Freyja has a waggon like Nerthus (mother of Freyr?), like Holda and Freyr himself,   Wuotan and Donar (pp. 105-7, 251-2-4, 275); the kingly waggon is proper only to great   exalted deities.

                115. In the Tanhäuser, as sung in Switzerland (Aufsess. anz. 1832, 240-2; Uhland's volksl. p.   771), instead of the usual dame Venus we find precisely frau Frene, and acc. to Stald. 1, 395   frein is there a collateral form of frei free. A woman's name Vreneli is known from Hebel.   Vrene may be Verena the martyr, or Veronica, v. Vrêne, Ben. 328.

                116. Just as from Freyja proceeded the general notion of a freyja frouwá, so   necklace-wearing serves to describe a beautiful wife or maiden. In Sæm. 97ª menglöð (monili   laeta, rejoicing in a necklace) means simply femina, but in 108ª 111ª Menglöð is a proper   name (see p. 272 note); in 222ª menskögul is used of Brynhildr. Women are commonly   named from their ornaments of gold or precious stones, Sn. 128 (see Suppl.).

                117. He bore a hole and crept through as a fly, then as a flea, he stung the sleeping goddess   till she shook off the ornament: an incident still retained in nursery-tales. Conf. the stinging   fly at the forging, Sn. 131.

                118. If we read Frîa for Frûa, then Folla would stand nearer to her as in the Norse, whether as   aattendant goddess or as sister. Yet, considering the instability of those goddesses' names,   she may keep her place by Frouwa too.

                119. It seems almost as if the MHG. poets recognised a female personage frô Fuoge or   Gefuoge (fitness), similar in plastic power to the masc. Wish, a personified compages or   armonia. Lachmann directs me to instances in point. Er. 7534-40 (conf. Iwein, p. 400):

 

So hete des meisters sin

So had the master's thought

geprüevet ditz gereite

turned out this riding-gear

mit grôzer wîsheite;-

with great wisdom;

er gap dem helfenbeine

he gave the ivory

und dâ bî dem gesteine

and withal the jewelry

sîn gevellige stat,

each its proper place,

als in diu Gevuoge bat.-

as him dame Fitness bade.

(Conf. Er. 1246: als in mîn wâre schulde bat).-- Parz. 121, 11:

Wer in den zwein landen wirt,

Whoso in the two lands thrives,

Gefuoge ein wunder an im birt;-

Fitness a wonder in him bears;

he is a miraculous birth of Fitness, her child, her darling. Conversely, Walther 64, 38

:

 

Frô Unfuoge, ir habt gesiget

Dame Unfitness, thou hast triumphed.

And 65, 25:

Swer Ungefuoge swîgen stieze!

-and hurled her from her strongholds.

It is true, the prefixes ge-, un-, argue a later and colder allegory. And the weak fem. form  (acc. in -en) would be preferable, OHG. Fuogâ, gen. Fuogûn, as in N. cap. 135 hifuogûn,  sotigenam (see Suppl.).

                120. Sæm. 79b 144ª 153b 180. Sn. 124-9. 185. Eyrbygg. saga p. 274, and index sub v. Rân.

                Egilssaga p. 616.

                121. The Trad. patav. pp. 60-2 assure us of a man's name Raan, Rhaan (Rahan?). An OHG  Rahana rests on a very slender foundation.

                122. Hel has no affinity at all with ON. hella petra, hellir antrum, as the Goth. hallus petra   shows (from hillan sonare, because a rock resounds): a likelier connexion is that with our   höle antrum, OHG. holî, more frequent in neut. hol. for which we should expect a Gothic hul,   as in fact a fem. hulundi is caverna, for a cave covers, and so does the nether world (both   therefore from hilan celare). Only, the vowels in höle (=huli) and hölle (=halja) do not agree.  

                123. The ancients also painted Demeter, as the wrathful earth-goddess, black (Paus. 8, 42. O.   Müller's Eumenides 168, conf. Archæol. p. 509 the black Demeter at Phigalia), and sometimes   even her daughter Persephone, the fair maid doomed to the underworld: 'furva Proserpina,'   Hor. Od. 2, 13 (Censorin. De die nat. c. 17). Black Aphrodite (Melanis) is spoken of by   Pausanias 2, 2. 8, 6. 9, 27 and by Athenæus bk. 13; we know the black Diana of Ephesus, and   that in the Mid. Ages black Madonnas were both painted and carved, the Holy Virgin   appearing then as a sorrowing goddess of earth or night; such at Loretto, Naples,   Einsiedeln, Würzburg (Altd. W. 2, 209. 286), at Oettingen (Goethe's Corresp. with a child 2,   184), at Puy (Büsching's Nachr. 2, 312-333). Marseilles and elsewhere. I think it specially   significant, that the Erinnys or Furia dwelling in Tartarus is also represented both as black   and as half white half black.

                124. O. Swed. has more correctly ihæl, i.e., ihäl (Fred. af Normandie 1299. 1356. 1400. 1414). In   Östgötalagen p. 8, one reading has already ihiæll for ihæl; they no longer grasped the   meaning of the term.

                125. Oðinn calls himself Vegtamr (way-tame, broke-in to the road, gnarus viae). son of   Valtamr (assuetus caedibus), as in other places gângtamr (itineri assuetus) is used of the   horse, Sæm. 265b, but Oðinn himself is Gângrâðr or Gângleri. Vegtamr reminds one of the   holy priest and minstrel Wechtam in Hunibald.

                126. I have supposed that 'unde den' is a slip for 'abe dem'.

Trans.

                127. In the south of Holland, where the Meuse falls into the sea, is a place named   Helvoetsluis. I do not know if any forms in old documents confirm the idea contained in the   name, of Hell-foot, foot of Hell. The Romans have a Helium here: Inter Helium ac Flevum, ita   appellantur ostia, in quae effusus Rhenus, ab septentrione in lacus, ab occidente in amnem   Mosam se spargit, medio inter haec ore modicum nomine suo custodiens alveum, Plin. 4, 29.   Tac. also says 2, 6: immenso ore. Conf. supra p. 198 on Oegisdyr (see Suppl.).

 

Supplements

 

                p. 250n. ) The MHG. gotinne is in Sæm. 115a gyðja, yet in 114b ey trûði Ottar â âsynjor, and 61a heilir aesir, heilar âsynjor! conf. pantej te qeoi pasai te qeainai, Il. 8, 5. 19, 101. Od. 8, 341. This word goddess acquired a lower sense, being used by the people for fair dames and pretty lasses, Liudpr. antap. 4, 13. 'Ermegart Himel-gotin,' Rückert's Ludwig 97. What is the götin in Nithart MSH. 3, 288a, who goes 'unter dem fanen ûz dem vorst, wol geammet,' and is led out on the green under blue sky (baldachin), apparently by peasants at an old harvest-festival? conf. fee, Suppl. to 410.

                p. 251. ) OHG. ero, earth, answers to Ssk. irâ, Ir. ire, GDS. 55. Tellus might be for terulus, as puella for puerula, but the gen. is telluris, conf. Ssk. tala, fundus. Humus is Ssk. xamâ. Iaia, called prwtomantij in Æsch. Eum. 2, corresponds to Ssk. gaus, gô, cow (p. 665), the cow being mother of the world (p. 559): w gh kai qeoi, a frequent Attic invocation. ON. fold is unpersonal, yet is greeted in Sæm. 194a: heil sû hin fiolnýta fold! GDS. 60 (p. 254). -

Iörð, earth, is called Ionakr's tree-green, oak-green daughter: dottur Onars viði-groen, Sn. 123; eikigroent Onars flioð, Fornm. sög. 1, 29. 12, 27. She is daughter of night in Sæm. 194a: heil nôtt ok nipt! but who is eorðan brôðor, Cod. Exon. 490, 23? Iörð is also mother of Meili, Thor's brother, Sæm. 76a; Iörð = Fiörgyn 80b (p. 172). -

Of Rindr and her relation to Oðin: 'seid Yggr til Rindr,' Y. amores Rindae incantamentis sibi conciliavit, Sn. 1848. 1, 236. Is AS. hruse (terra) contained in grusebank, turf-bench, Schm. von Wern. 114?

                p. 251n. ) At Attila's grave too the servants are killed: 'et ut tot et tantis divitiis humana curiositas arceretur, operi deputatos trucidarunt, emersitque momentanea mors sepelientibus cum sepulto,' Jorn. cap. 49. The Dacian king Decebalus buries his treasure under the bed of the Sargetia, Cass. Dio 68, 14. Giesebrecht supposes the Wends had the same custom, Balt. stud. 11, 28-9.

                p. 252. ) Nerthus is the only true reading, says Müllenhoff, Hpt's Ztschr. 9, 256; Erthus is admissible, think Zeuss and Bessel. Nerthus answers to Ssk. Nritus, terra, Bopp 202b; conf. C. Hofmann in Ztschr. der morgenl. ges. 1847. A thesis by Pyl, Medea, Berol. 1850 p. 96 derives itFrench LG. nerder, nerdrig, conf. nerteroj. Her island can hardly be Rügen (p. 255-6), but perhaps Femern or Alsen, says Müllenh., Nordalb. stud. 1, 128-9. Her car stood in the grove (templum) under a tree, Giefers. 'Nerthus, id est, Terra mater' strongly reminds of Pliny's mater deum 18, 4: quo anno m. d. advecta Romam est, majorem ea aestate messem quam antecedentibus annis decem factam esse tradunt.

                p. 253. ) Though the people now imagine fru Gode, Goden, Gauden as a frau, there appears now and then a de koen (king) instead, Hpt's Ztschr. 4, 385. Legends of fru Gauden in Lisch, Meckl. jrb. 8, 203, &c. Niederhöffer 2, 91 (conf. p. 925-6-7). Harvest home still called vergodensdêl in Lüneburg, conf. Kuhn and Schwartz p. 394-5. The Vermlanders call Thor's wife godmor, good mother. Rask, Afh. 1, 94 derives ON. GôiFrench Finn. koi (aurora). GDS. 53. 93.

                p. 254. ) Priscus calls Attila's wife Kreka 179, 9, Rekan 207, 17, which easily becomes Herka. Frau Harke a giantess, Kuhn 146. 371. Fru Harke, Arke, Harfe, Harre, Hpt's Ztschr. 4, 386, 5, 377. Sommer 11. 167-8. 147 (conf. frau Motte, 12. 168. 147). A witch's daughter Harka, Wolf's Ztschr. 2, 255. Haksche, like Godsche for Gode, Hpt's Ztschr. 5, 377. Harke flies through the air in the shape of a dove, makes the fields fruitful, carries a stool to sit on, so as not to touch the ground, Sommer p. 12; this is like Herodias (p. 285) and the wandering woman (p. 632. 1058).

                p. 254n. ) Mommsen 133 derives Ceres, Oscan Kerres, from creare; Hitzig Philist. 232 connects it with Çrîs = Srî; I with cera and cresco. For Demeter the Slavs have zeme mate, mother earth; a dear mother, like (puroj) filhj Dhmhtroj, Æsop (Corais 212. de Furia 367). Babr. 131; conf. Dhmhteroj akth, Il. 13, 323, and 'das liebe korn, getreidelein,' Gram. 3, 665. GDS. 53. The Earth's lap is like a mother's: foldan sceát (= schoosz), Cod. Exon. 428, 22. eorðan sceáta eardian 496, 23. eorðan sceátas hweorfan 309, 22. grund-bedd 493, 3.

                p. 255. ) On the goddess's progress see Suppl. to 252. With her bath conf. the purifying bath of Rhea (Preller 1, 409), whose name Pott would explain by eureia = Ssk. urvîFrench urú = varú, Kuhn's Ztschr. 5, 285. The lavatio Berecynthiae is described by Augustine, Civ. Dei 2, 4; conf. Vita Martini cap. 9 (W. Müller p. 48). The image of Artemis was washed in seven rivers flowing out of one spring, Pref. to Theocritus; the alraun and alirumna were bathed.

                p. 256n. ) The LG. farmer's maxim, 'Mai-mând kold un nat Füllt schünen un fat, is in Swedish 'Mai kall Fyller bondens lador all,' Runa 1844, 6. A similar saw in Bretagne about St. Anne, Lausitzer mag. 8, 51; how is it worded in French?

                p. 257. ) On Tanfana see my Kl. Schr. 5, 415, etc. GDS 231-2. 336. 622.

                p. 263. ) From Rodulf's account was probably taken the 16th cent. notice in Reiffenberg's Phil. Mouskes, tome 1. Brux. 1838 app. p. 721: 'Sub Alexandro, qui fuit sex annis episcopus (Leodiensis) et depositus in Conc. Pisae an. 1135, fuit quaedam prodigiosa seu demoniaca navis, quae innixa rotis et magice agitata malignis spiritubsattractu funium fuit Tungris inducta Loscastrum. Ad quam omnis sexus appropinquans tripudiare et saltare cogebatur etiam nudo corpore. Ad eam feminae de mane stratis exilientes accurrebant, dum dicta navis citharae et aliorum instrumentorum sonitu resonaret.'

Weavers, whom Rodulf makes prominent in hauling, and guarding the ship, have something to do with navigation: in their trade they ply the schiff (shuttle), and that is why they were called marner, Jäger's Ulm. p. 636-7. About carrying ships on shoulders Pliny has another passage 5, 9: 'ibi Aethiopicae conveniunt naves; namque eas plicatiles humeris transferunt quoties ad catarractas ventum est.' Also Justin 32, 3: 'Istri naves suas humeris per juga montium usque ad littus Adriatici maris transtulerunt.'

                Additional traces of German ship-processions and festivals. In Antwerp and Brabant, near the scene of that old procession, there was about 1400 'eine gilde in der blauwer scuten,' Hpt's Ztschr. 1, 266-7. At Shrovetide sailors drag a ship about, Kuhn's Nordd. sagen p. 369. At the Schönbart running in Nürnberg, men in motley used at Shrovetide to carry Hell round, including a ship and the Venus Mount; see Hist. of Schönb.-run. at N., by the Germ. Soc. of Altdorf 1761. Another ship procession in Hone's Everyday book 2, 851. In the 'Mauritius und Beamunt,' vv. 627-894, a ship on wheels, with knights and music on board, is drawn by concealed horses through the same Rhine and Meuse country to a tournament at Cologne; it is afterwards divided among the garzuns (pages), v. 1040. Is the idea of the Ship of fools travellingFrench land to land akin to this? especially as Dame Venus 'mit dem ströwn ars' (conf. Hulda's stroharnss, p. 269n.) rides in it, ed. Strobel p. 107; 'frau Fenus mit dem stroem loch,' Fastn.-sp. p. 263. Consider too the cloud-ship of Magonia (p. 639), and the enchanted ship with the great band of music, Müllenh. p. 220. The 'wilde gjaid' comes along in a sledge shaped like a ship, drawn by naughty maidservants, who get whipped, Wolf's Ztschr. 2, 32-3. Nursery tales tell of a ship that crosses land and water, Meier 31. Schambach 18. Pröhle's Märchen nos. 46-7. Wolf's Beitr. 1, 152, &c. Finn. märch. 2, 1b. Berchta is often ferried over, and of Oðinn the Sôlarlioð 77 (Sæm. 130a) says: Oðins qvon rær â iarðar skipi.

                p. 264n. ) At Shrovetide a plough was drawn through the streets by maskers, Büsching's Wöch. nachr. 1, 124,French Tenzel. H. Sachs says, on Ash Wednesday the maids who had not taken men were yoked in a plough; so Fastn.-sp. 247, 6-7; 'pulling the fools' plough' 233. 10. Kuhn conn. pfluoc, plôgr, Lith. plugas with the root plu, flu, so that plough orig. meant boat, Ssk. plava, Gr. ploion.

                p. 265n. ) Drinking-bowls in ship shape; argentea navis, Pertz 10, 577. A nef d'or on the king's table, Garin 2, 16-7; later examples in Schweinichen 1, 158. 187. An oracle spoke of a silver ploughshare, Thucyd. 5, 16.

                p. 265n. 2.) Annius Viterb., ed. ascensiana 1512, fol. 171ab: 'ergo venit (Isis) in Italiam et docuit frumentariam, molendinariam et panificam, cum ante glande vescerentur ....... Viterbi primi panes ab Iside confecti sunt. item Vetuloniae celebravit Jasius nuptias, et panes obtulit primos Isis, ut in V. antiquitatum Berosus asserit. porro, ut probant superiores quaestiones, Vetulonia est Viterbum.' The Lith. Krumine wanders all over the world to find her daughter, and teaches men agriculture, Hanusch 245. The year will be fruitful if there is a rustling in the air during the twelves, Sommer p. 12 (Suppl. to 254).

                p. 267. ) Goth. hulþs propitius isFrench hilþan, halþ, hulþun, to bow (s. Löbe). Holle, Holda is a cow's name in Carinthia. In Dietr. drachenk., str. 517-8, &c. there is a giant called Hulle, but in str. 993: 'sprancten für frowen Hullen der edelen juncfrowen fîn.' In Thuringia frau Wolle, Rolle, Sommer 10-1. Holda in Cod. Fuld. no. 523. Frau Holla in Rhenish Franconia, Frommann 3, 270. 'Die Holl kommt' they say at Giessen, 'die Hulla' also beyond the Main about Würzburg, Kestler's Beschr. v. Ochsenfurt, Wrzb. 1845, p. 29. Frau Holle also in Silesia. n Up. Sax. she was called frau Helle, B. vom abergl. 2, 66-7; frau Holt in Wolf's Ztschr. 1, 273.

The very earliest mention of Holda is in Walafrid Strabo's eulogy of Judith, wife of Louis the Pious:

                        Organa dulcisono percussit pectine Judith;

                        O si Sappho loquax vel nos inviseret Holda, etc.

                p. 267n. ) With Kinderm. 24 conf. the variant in KM. 3, 40 seq., Svenska äfv. 1, 123 and Pentam. 4, 7. Much the same said of the dialas, Schreiber's Taschenb. 4, 310 (Suppl. to 410).

                p. 270. ) When fog rests on the mountain: 'Dame H. has lit her fire in the hill.' In Alsace when it snows; 'd' engele han 's bed gemacht, d' fedre fliege runder;' in Gegenbach 427: 'heaven's feathers fly'; in Nassau: 'Dame H. shakes up her bed,' Kehrein's Nassau p. 280. Nurses fetch babies out of frau Hollen teich. In Transylvania are fields named Frau-holdegraben, Progr. on Carrying out Death 1861, p. 3. She washes her veil, Pröhle 198. Like Berthe, she is queen or leader of elves and holdes (p. 456), conf. Titania and Dame Venus. 'Fraue Bercht, fraue Holt' occur in the Landskranna (?) Himelstrasz, printed 1484, Gefken's Beil. 112. In the neighbourhood of the Meisner, Dame H. carried off a rock on her thumb, Hess. Ztschr. 4, 108; a cave is there called Kitz-Kammer, perhaps because cats were sacred to her as to Freya (p. 305). On the Main, between Hassloch and Grünenwörth, may be seen 'fra Hulle' on the Fra Hullenstein, combing her locks. Whoever sees her loses his eyesight or his reason. Dame Holle rides in her coach, makes a whirlwind, pursues the hunter, Pröhle 156. 278. 173, like Pharaildis, Verild (357n.). Legends of Hulle in Herrlein's Spessart-sag. 179-184. A frau Hollen-spiel (-game) in Thuringia, Hess. Ztschr. 4, 109. The Haule-mutter (mother H.) in the Harz, an old crone, makes herself great or little, Harrys 2, no. 6. Pröhle 278; conf. Haule-männerchen (dwarfs) in KM. no. 13. She is a humpbacked little woman, Sommer p. 9; walks with a crutch about Haxthausen, Westph. -

Again, queen Holle appears as housekeeper and henchwoman to Frederick Barbarossa in Kifhäuser, exactly as Dame Venus travels in Wuotan's retinue, Sommer p. 6. In Up. Hesse 'meätt der Holle färn' means, to have tumbled hair or tangled distaff, prob. also night-walking: the Holle at Wartburg looks like a witch, Woeste's Mitth. p. 289 no. 24; conf. 'verheuletes haar,' Corrodi professer 59, and a man with shaggy hair is called holle-kopf.

With her stroharnss conf. ströwen-ars, Suppl. to 263. Careless spinners are threatened with the verwunschene frau, Panzer's Beitr. 1, 84: she who does not get her spinning over by Sunday will have Holle in her distaff to tangle it; conf. the Kuga (p. 1188-9).

                p. 272. ) The Huldarsaga, tale of the sorceress Huldr, is told by Sturle; conf. the extractFrench Sturlunga in Oldn. läseb. p. 40. Huldre-web in Norway means a soft vegetable material like flannel; and in Faye 42 Huldra is clothed in green. The hulder in Asb. 1, 48. 78. 199 has a cow's tail; here it is not so much one hulder, as many huldren that appear singly. So in the M. Nethl. Rose 5679: 'hulden, die daer singhen' ; are these mermaids? In Sweden they have a hylle-fru and a Hildi-moder, Geyer 1, 27; conf. Dybeck 1845, 56.

                p. 273. ) The name of Perahta, the bright, answers to Selene, Lucina, Luna, therefore Artemis, Diana. Hence she takes part in the Wild Hunt, accompanied by hounds, like Hecate; hence also, in the LG. Valentin und Namelos, Berta has become Clarina (conf. St. Lucy, frau Lutz, p. 274n.). -

The Lith. Lauma is very like Berhta and Holda: she is goddess of earth and of weaving. She appears in a house, helps the girls to weave, and gets through a piece of linen in no time; but then the girl has to guess her name. If she guesses right, she keeps the linen; if not, the laume takes it away. One girl said to the laume: 'Laume Sore peczin auda duna pelnydama,' 1. S. weaves with her arm, earning bread. Her name was Sore, so the girl kept the linen, N. Preuss. prov. bl. 2, 380. Schleicher in Wien. ber. 11, 104 seq. says, the laume is a malignant alp (nightmare) who steals children, is voracious, yet bathes on the beach, helps, and brings linen: a distinct being (11, 96-7)French the laima spoken of on p. 416n. Nesselm. 353b.

                p. 273n. ) Werre is akin to Wandel-muot, Ls. 3, 88. 1, 205-8: frô Wandelmuot sendet ir scheid-sâmen (seeds of division) 2, 157. in dirre wîten werlde kreizen hat irre-sâmen (seeds of error) uns gesât ein frouwe ist Wendelmuot geheizen, MS. 2, 198b; conf. the seed sown by death (p. 848) and the devil (p. 1012). frou Wendelmuot hie liebe maet mit der vürwitz segens abe (dame Ficklemind here mows down love with curiosity's keen sithe), Turl. Wh. 128a.

                p. 274. ) The meal set ready for Bertha resembles the food offered to Hecate on the 30th of the month, Athen. 3, 194; certain fish are Ekathj brwtata 3, 146-7. 323. Filling the belly with chopped straw: conf. the hrîsmagi, Laxd. saga 226. As the white lady prescribes a diet for the country folk (Morgenbl. 1847, nos. 50-52), they tell of a dame Borggabe (loan), who gave or lent money and corn to needy men, if they went to her cave and cried 'Gracious dame B.'; conf. OHG. chorn-gëpâ Ceres, sâmo-këpa saticena, Gibicho; wîn-gebe, MB. 13, 42. oti-geba (890n.). Nycolaus von dem crumen-ghebe, an. 1334, Henneb. urk. ii. 13, 30.

                p. 277. ) Berta, like Holda, is called mother in the Swed. märchen p. 366, gamla B., trollkäring. In one Swed. tale a fair lady walks attended by many dwarfs; the room she enters is filled with them, Wieselgr. 454. -

Like the Thuringian Perchta, the devil blows out eyes, Müllenh. p. 202; care breathes upon Faust, and blinds him; conf. the curse, 'Your eyes are mine,' N. Preuss. prov. bl. 1, 395, and 'spältle zustreichen aufstreichen (stroke them shut, stroke them open),' Meier's Schwäb. sag. 136. --

After the lapse of a year the woman gets her child back, Müllenh. no. 472; so does the man in the wild hunt get rid of his hump (Suppl. to 930); conf. Steub's Vorarlberg p. 83, Bader's Sagen no. 424, and the Cheese-mannikin in Panzer 2, 40. On Berhta's share in the Furious Hunt, see p. 932.

                p. 277. ) In S. Germany, beside Bertha, Berche, we find 'frau Bert, Bertel, Panzer's Beitr. 1, 247-8. The wild Berta wipes her

with the unspun flax. At Holzberndorf in Up. Franconia, a lad acts Eisen-berta, clad in cow's hide, bell in hand; to good children he gives nuts and apples, to bad ones the rod 2, 117.

                p. 278. ) To the Bavar. name Stempo we can add that of the Strasburger Stampho, an. 1277, Böhmer's Reg. Rudolfi no. 322; conf. stempfel, hangman, MS. 2, 2b. 3a. In Schm. 3, 638 stampulanz = bugbear, 2, 248 stempen-har = flax; conf. Von d. Hagen's G. Abent. 3, 13-4. --

Beside Trempe, there seems to be a Temper, Wolf's Ztschr. 2, 181, perhaps sprung out of Quatember in the same way as frau Faste (p. 782n.), ibid. 1, 292. tolle trompe (trampel?), Rocken-phil. 2, 16-7. In favour of S having been added before T is Schperchta for Perchta, Mannh. Ztschr. 4. 388. As Stempe treads like the alp, she seems ident. with the alp-crushing Muraue.

p. 279. ) In Salzburg country the Christmas tree is called Bechl-boschen, Weim. jrb. 2, 133. 'in loco qui dicitur Bertenwisun,' Salzb. urk. of 10th cent., Arch. f. östr. gesch. 22, 299. 304. Outside Remshard near Günzburg, Bav., is a wood 'zu der dirne (girl).' The dirne-weibl used to be there in a red frock with a basket of fine apples, which she gave away and changed into money. If people did not go with her, she returned weeping into the wood. 'Hence comes the dirne-weibl' said children, to frighten each other. Seb. Brant p. m. 195 knows about Bächten farn, B.'s fern.

                Berchtolt is a common name in Swabia, Bit. 10, 306. 770; conf. Berchtols-gaden (now Berchtes-g.), Prechtles-boden-alpe, Seidl's Almer 2, 73. The white mannikin is also described by Bader no. 417.

                p. 280. ) When Malesherbes was talking to Louis XVI. of the fate in store for him, the king said: 'On m'a souvent raconté dans mon enfance, que toutes les fois qu'un roi de la maison des Bourbons devait mourir, on voyait à minuit se promener dans les galeries du château une grande femme vêtue de blanc,' Mém. de Bésenval; conf. 'de witte un swarte Dorte,' Müllenh. p. 343-4; and the Klag-mutter p. 1135. The same is told of the Ir. bansighe, pl. mnasighe, O'Brien sub. vv. sithbhrog, gruagach.

                p. 281. ) The image of reine Pédauque, Prov. Pedauca (Rayn. sub v. auca), stands under the church-doors at Dijon, Nesle, Nevers, St. Pourcin and Toulouse. The last was known to Rabelais: 'qu'elles étaient largement pattues, comme sont les oies et jadis à Toulouse la reine Pedauque.' This statue held a spindle, and spun, and men swore 'par la quenouille de la reine P.,' Paris p. 4. So queen Goose-foot was a spinner; yet her goose-foot did not come of spinning, for the spinning-wheel was not invented till the 15th cent., Hpt's Ztschr. 6, 135. Berhta cum magno pede, Massm. Eracl. 385. Heinricus Gense-fuz, MB. 8, 172. cagots with goose-foot or duck's-foot ears,French Michel's Races maud. 2, 126-9. 136. 144-7. 152. M. C. Vulliemin's La reine Berte et son temps makes out that Berte la fileuse was wife to Rudolf of Little Burgundy, daughter to the Alamann duke Burchard, and mother to Adelheid who married Otto I.; this Berta died at Payerne about 970. To the white damsel is given a little white lamb, Müllen. p. 347.

                p. 285n. ) The whirlwind is called sau-arsch, mucken-arsch, Schmidt's Westerwäld. id. 116; in Up. Bavaria sau-wede. When it whirls up hay or corn, the people in Passau and Straubing cry to it: 'sau-dreck! du schwarz farkel (pig)!' Sew-zagel, a term of abuse, H. Sachs v., 347b; conf. pp. 632. 996. In an old Langobard treaty the devil is porcorum possessor.

                p. 291. ) Ostara is akin to Ssk. vasta daylight, vasas day, ushas aurora, vastar at early morn; conf. Zend. ushastara eastern, Benfey 1, 28. Lith. auszta it dawns, auszrinne aurora; Ausca (r. Ausra), dea occumbentis vel ascendentis solis (Lasicz). Many places in Germany were sacred to her, esp. hills: Austerkopp, Osterk. in Waldeck, Firmen. 1, 324b, conf. Astenberg 325a; Osterstube, a cave, Panz. Beitr. 1, 115. 280; Osterbrunne, a christian name: 'ich O., ein edelknecht von Ror,' an. 1352, Schmid's Tübingen 180. --

Her feast was a time of great rejoicing, hence the metaphors: '(thou art) mîner freuden ôster-tac (-day),' Iw. 8120. mînes herzens ôstertac, MS. 2, 223a. 1, 37b. der gernden ôstertac, Amgb. 3a; conf. Meien-tag. It is a surname in the Zoller country: dictus der Ostertag, Mon. Zoll. no. 252-7. Frideriches saligen son des Ostertages, no. 306.

                The antithesis of east and west seems to demand a Westara as goddess of evening or sundown, as Mone suggests, Anz. 5, 493; consider westergibel, westermâne, perh. westerhemde, westerbarn, the Slav. Vesnà, even the Lat. Vespera, Vesperugo.

                p. 296. ) On the goddess Zisa, conf. the history of the origin of Augsburg in Keller's Fastn. sp. p. 1361. About as fabulous as the account of the Augsburg Zisa, sounds the followingFrench Ladisl. Suntheim's Chronica, Cod. Stuttg. hist., fol. 250: 'Die selb zeit sasz ain haidnischer hertzog von Swaben da auf dem slos Hillomondt, ob Vertica (Kempten) der stat gelegen, mit namen Esnerius, der wonet noch seinen (adhered to his) haidnischen sitten auf Hillomondt; zu dem komen die vertriben waren aus Vertica und in der gegent darumb, und patten in (begged him), das er sie durch (for the sake of) sein götin, Zysa genannt, mit veld begabet und aufnam (endow and befriend) ....... Da sprach hertzog Esnerius: wann ir mir swerdt pei den göttern Edelpoll und Hercules und pei meiner göttin Zisa, so will ich euch veldt geben, &c.'

                p. 298. ) With Cisa may be conn. Cise, a place in the Grisons, Bergm. Vorarlb. p. 43, and 'swester Zeise,' Bamb. ver. 10, 143-4; Zaissen-perig, Zeisl-perg, Archiv. i. 5, 74. 48. Akin to Cisara seems Cizuris (Zitgers), a place in Rhætia, Pertz 6, 748a; Zeizurisperga, Zeiszaris-p., Heizzeris-p., Zeizaris-pergan, Zeizanes-perge, Notizenbl. 6, 116. 143. 165. 138. 259. How stands it finally with Desenberg, which Lambert calls Tesenb.? Pertz 7, 178. Conf. other names in Mone's Anz. 6, 235, and Disibodo, Disibodenberg, Disenb., Weisth. 2, 168.

                p. 299n. ) Frouwe heizt von tugenden ein wîp (called a frauFrench her virtues), Ulr. v. Lichenst. 3, 17:

                        als ein vrou ir werden lîp (her precious body)

                        tiuret (cherishes) sô daz sie ein wîp

                        geheizen mac mit reinen siten,

                        der (for her) mac ein man vil gerne biten (sue); Kolocz. 129.

                p. 301n. ) A Swed. folksong, not old, in Arvidss. 3, 250 has: 'Fröja, du berömde fru, Till hopa bind oss ungetu!' Fröja often = Venus in Bellm. 3, 129. 132-5. M. Neth. vraei, pulcher. vrî = vrô, Pass. 299, 74.

                p. 304. ) On the etym. of Freya and Frigg, see my Kl. schr. 3, 118. 127. In a Norweg. tale, stor Frigge goes with the cattle of the elves, Asb. Huldr. 1, 201; conf. 206. Vreke is found in Belgium too, says Coremans 114-5. 158; a Vrekeberg 126. Frekenteve, Pertz 8, 776. Fricconhorst, an. 1090, Erh. p. 131. For Fruike in Hpt's Ztschr. 5, 373 Kuhn writes Fuik, which may mean whirlwind, ON. fiuka.

                p. 306. ) Freya and Freyr are both present at Oegi's banquet, but neither his Gerðr nor her Oðr, Sæm. 59; yet she is called Oðs mey 5b, and Hnoss and Gersemi (p. 886) may be her children with Oðr. When Sn. 354 calls her Oðins friðla, he prob. confounds her with Frigg (p. 302); or is Oðinn Mars here, and Freya Venus? On the distinctness, yet orig. unity, of the two goddesses, see my Kl. schr. 5, 421-5; was Oðr the Vanic name of Oðinn? 426-7. -

To her byname Syr the Norw. plants Siurguld (Syr-gull?), anthemis, and Sirildrot prob. owe their names, F. Magn. lex. myth. p. 361; while Saxo's Syritha is rather Sigrîðr, conf. Sygrutha, Saxo 329. GDS. 526. --

Freya's hall is Sessrýmnir, Sessvarnir, Sn. 28; as the cat was sacred to her, we may perh. count the Kitzkammer on the Meisner (Suppl. to 270) among her or Holda's dwellings; conf. cat-feeding (p. 1097).

                p. 307n. ) Mani, men is akin to Lat. monile, Dor. manoj, mannoj, Pers. maniakhj, maniakon, Ssk: mani, Pott 1, 89. As menglöð expresses a woman's gladness over her jewel, a Swiss woman calls her girdle 'die freude,' Stald. 2, 515-6.

                p. 309. ) On Fulla, Sunna, Sindgund, see Kl. schr. 2, 17 seq. GDS. 86. 102. Fulla wore a gold headband, for gold is called höfuðband Fullu, Sn. 128. -

Sôl is daughter of Mundilföri (p. 703), wife of Glenr (al. Glornir), Sn. 12. 126, or Dagr, Fornald. sög. 2, 7. Fru Sole, fru Soletopp occurs in pop. games, Arvidss. 3, 389. 432. --

Skaði, daughter of Þiazi, wife of Niörðr and mother of Freyr (gen. Skaða, Sn. 82. Kl. schr. 3, 407), aft. wife of Oðinn and mother of Sæmîngr, Yngl. c. 9.

                p. 309. ) In Sn. 119 Gerðr is Oðin's wife or mistress, rival to Frigg. There is a Thôrgerðr hörgabrûðr. A Frögertha, come of heroic race, Saxo Gram. b. 6. Similar, if not so effective as Gerð's radiant beauty, is the splendour of other ladies in Asb. Huldr. 1, 47: saa deilig at det skinnede af hende; in Garg. 76b: her 'rosen-blüsame' cheeks lit up the ambient air more brightly than the rainbow; in Wirnt die welt:

                        ir schoene gap sô liehten schîn

                        und alsô wunneclîchen glast,

                        daz der selbe pallast

                        von ir lîbe (body) erliuhtet wart.

                p. 310. ) On Syn and Vör, conf. F. Magn. lex. 358-9. Then the compds. Hervör, Gunnvör; OHG. Cundwara, Hasalwara, Graff 1, 907; AS. Freá-waru, Beow., 4048. I ought to have mentioned the ON. goddess Ilmr, fem., though ilmr, sauvis odor, is masc.

                p. 310. ) Nanna in the Edda is 'Neps dôttir,' Sn. 31. 66, and Nepr was Oðin's son 211. Saxo makes her a daughter of Gevar (Kepaheri), see Suppl. to 220. Sæm. 116a speaks of another Nanna, 'Nökkva dôttir.' Is 'nönnor Herjans,' the epithet of the valkyrs, Sæm. 4b, conn. with Nanna?

                p. 311n. ) Fuoge and Unfuoge are supported by the following: er was aller tugende vol, die in diu Vuoge lêrte (virtues that decency taught him), Pass. 165, 2. diu Füegel, Füeglerin, Ls. 1, 200-8. wann kompt Hans Fug, so sehe und lug (look), Garg. 236b. daz in Unfuoge niht erslüege (slew him not), Walth. 82, 8. Unfuoge den palas vlôch, Parz. 809, 19. nu lât (leave ye) der Unfuoge ir strît 171, 16; conf. fügen (Suppl. to 23). -

Quite unpersonal are; zuht unde fuoge, Greg. 1070. ungevuoge, Er. 9517. 6527. swelch fürsten sô von lande varn, daz zimt ouch irn fuogen sô, daz si sint irs heiles vrô, Ernst 1800.

                p. 311. ) Gefjon appears in Lokasenna; conf. p. 861n. Does hör-gefn mean lini datrix? Sæm. 192a; or is it akin to Gefn, Gefjon?

                p. 312. ) Snöriz ramliga Rân or hendi giâlfr dýr konûngs. Sæm. 153b. miök hefir Rân ryskt um mik, Egilss. p. 616. Rân lends Loki her net, to catch Andvari with, Sæm. 180. Fornald. sög. 1, 152. In the same way watersprites draw souls to them (p. 846). Later she is called hafs-fruu: 'h., som råder öfver alla hvilka omkomma på sjön (perish at sea),' Sv. folks. 1, 126. 'Blef sjö-tagen, och kom til hafsfruu' 132.

                        ez ist ein geloub der alten wîp,

                        swer in dem wazzer verliust den lîp (loses his life),

                        daz der sî von Got vertriben. Karajan on Teichner 41.

                p. 313. ) Slôu î hel, Vilk. s. 515. î hel drepa, Sæm. 78a. bita fyl til hälia (bite a foal dead), Östgota-lag 213. höfut þitt leysto heljo or, Sæm. 181a. Hel is a person in Sæm. 188b: 'er þik Hel hafi!' in Egilss. 643: 'Niörva nipt (Hel) â nesi stendr.' -

The fara til Heljar was German too (conf. p. 801-2): Adam vuor zuo der helle, und sîne afterkumen alle, Ksr-chr. 9225. ze helle varn, Warn. 2447. 3220. 3310. ze helle varn die hellevart, Barl. 323, 28. faren zuo der hell = die, Seb. Brant's Narr. 57, 9. ze helle varn, Ring 55d, 27; nu var du in die hell hinab, das ist din haus 30; ir muost nu reuschen in die hell 20. ich wolte mich versloffen hân zuo der helle (Helle), Troj. kr. 23352. von der hell wider komen (come backFrench hades), Brant's Narr. p. m. 207. in der hell ist ein frau ân liebe (without love), Fastn. 558, 13; spoken of Hellia? or of a dead woman? Helle speaks, answers the devil, Anegenge 39, 23. dô sprach diu Helle, Grieshaber 2, 147-8. Bavarian stories of Held in Panzer's Beitr. 1, 60. 275. 297. Observe in Heliand 103, 9: 'an thene suarton hel' ; conf. p. 804.

                p. 315. ) Sic erimus cuncti postquam nos auferet orcus, Petron. c. 34. rapacis Orci aula divitem manet herum, Hor. Od. ii. 18, 30. at vobis male sit, malae tenebrae orci, quae omnia bella devoratis, Cat. 3, 13. versperre uns (bar us out) vor der helle munt, Karajan 44, 1. der hellisch rachen steht offen, H. Sachs i. 3, 343c. diu Helle gar ûf tet (opens wide) ir munt, Alb. v. Halb. 171b. nu kan daz verfluochte loch nieman erfullen noch (that cursed hole no man can fill), der wirt ist sô gîtic (greedy), Martina 160, 17; conf. 'daz verworhte hol' 172, 41. Yet MsH. 3, 233b has: davon sô ist diu helle vol. -

O. v. 23, 265:

                        then tôd then habet funtan Hell has found Death,

                        thiu hella, ioh firsluntan. And swallowed him up. Did Otfrid model this on 1 Cor. 15, 54-5: 'Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where thy victory?' Observe the Gothic version: 'ufsaggquiþs varþ dauþus in sigis. hvar ist gazds þeins, dauþu? hvar ist sigis þeins, halja?' It is a Christian view, that death is swallowed up; but most of the Greek MSS. have qanate both times, the Vulgate both times mors, whilst Ulphilas divides them into dauþu and halja, and Otfrid makes hell find and swallow death. To the heathens halja was receiver and receptacle of the dead, she swallowed the dead, but not death. One Greek MS. however has qanate and adh (suggested by Hosea 13, 14? 'Ero mors tua, O Mors! morsus tuus ero, Inferne!'), Massm. 63bb; and adhj, infernus, in Matt. 11, 23. Luke 10, 15. 16, 23 is in AS. rendered helle. So in Irish the two words in the Epistle are bais (death), uaimh (pit); in Gael. bais and uaigh (grave). The Serv. smrti and pakle, Lith. smertie and pékla, smack of the Germ. death and hell; conf. Höfer's Ztschr. 1, 122. -

Westerg. in Bouterwek, Cædm. 2, 160, sub v. hel, identifies it with Ssk. kâla, time, death, death-goddess, and Kâlî, death-goddess.

                p. 315n. ) Hellevôt is a n. prop. in Soester's Daniel p. 173. The following statement fits Helvoetsluis, the Rom. Helium: Huglâci ossa in Rheni fluminis insula ubi in oceanum prorumpit, reservata sunt,' Hpt's Ztschr. 5, 10.

 

 

Chapter 14

Condition of the Gods

 

 

 

                Now that we have collected all that could be found concerning the several divinities of our distant past, I will endeavour to survey their nature as a whole; in doing which however, we must be allowed to take more frequent notice of foreign and especially Greek mythology, than we have done in other sections of this work: it is the only way we can find connecting points for many a thread that otherwise hangs loose.

                All nations have clothed their gods in human shape, and only by way of exception in those of animals; on this fact are founded both their appearances to men, or incarnation, their twofold sex, their intermarrying with mankind, and also the deification of certain men, i.e., their adoption into the circle of the gods. It follows moreover, that gods are begotten and born, experience pain and sorrow, are subject to sleep, sickness and even death, that like men they speak a language, feel passions, transact affairs, are clothed and armed, possess dwellings and utensils. The only difference is, that to these attributes and states there is attached a higher scale than the human, that all the advantages of the gods are more perfect and abiding, all their ills more slight or transient.

                This appears to me a fundamental feature in the faith of the heathen, that they allowed to their gods not an unlimited and unconditional duration, but only a term of life far exceeding that of men. All that is born must also die, and as the omnipotence of gods is checked by a fate standing higher than even they, so their eternal dominion is liable at last to termination. And this reveals itself not only by single incidents in the lives of gods, but in the general notion of a coming and inevitable ruin, which the Edda expresses quite distinctly, and which the Greek system has in the background: the day will come when Zeus's reign shall end. But this opinion, firmly held even by the Stoics, (1) finds utterance only now and then, particularly in the story of Prometheus, which I have compared to the Norse ragnarökr, p. 245-6.

                In the common way of thinking, the gods are supposed to be immortal and eternal. They are called qeoi aien eontej, Il. 1, 290. 494, aieigenetai 2, 400, aqanatoi 2, 814, aqanatoj Zeuj 14, 434; and therefore makarej 1, 339. 599 in contrast to mortal man. They have a special right to the name ambrotoi immortales, while men are brotoi mortales; ambrotoj is explained by the Sansk. amrita immortalis, the negative of mrita mortalis (conf. Pers. merd, homo mortalis); in fact both amrita and ambrosioj, next neighbour to ambrotoj, contain a reference to the food, by partaking of which the gods keep up their immortality. They taste not the fruits of the earth, whereby the brotoj live, oi arourhj karpon edousin, Il. 6, 142. With brotoj again is connected brotoj thick mortal blood, whereas in the veins of the gods flow icwr (Il. 5, 340. 416), a light thin liquid, in virtue of which they seem to be called abrotoi = ambrotoi.

                Indian legend gives a full account of the way amrita, the elixer of immortality, was brewed out of water clear of milk, the juice of herbs, liquid gold and dissolved precious-stones; (2) no Greek poem tells us the ingredients of ambrosia, but it was an ambrosih trofh (food), and there was a divine drink besides, gluku nektar, Il. 1, 598, of a red colour 19, 38, its name being derived from nh and ktasqai, or better from nek-tar necem avertens. Where men take bread and wine, the gods take ambrosia and nectar, Od. 5, 195, and hence comes the

                ambroton aima qeoio, icwr, oioj per te reei makaressi qeoisin ou gar siton edous, ou pinous aiqopa oinon tounek anaimonej eisi kai aqanatoi kaleontai.

Il. 5, 339.

                Theirs is no thick glutinous aima (conf. our seim, ON. seimr, slime), nor according to the Indians do they sweat; and this anaimwn (bloodless) agrees with the above explanation of abrotoj. The adjectives abrotoj, ambrotoj, ambrosioj, nektareoj are passed on from the food to other divine things (3) (see Suppl.). Plainly then the gods were not immortal by their nature, they only acquired and secured this quality by abstaining from the food and drink of men, and feasting on heavenly fare. And hence the idea of death is not always nor as a matter of course kept at a distance from them; Kronos used to kill his new born children, no doubt before nectar and ambrosia had been given them, (4) and Zeus alone could be saved from him by being brought up secretly. Another way in which the mortality of certain gods is expressed is, that they fall a prey to Hades, whose meaning borders on that of death, e.g., Persephone.

                If a belief in the eternity of the gods is the dominant one among the Greeks, and only scattered hints are introduced of their final overthrow; with our ancestors on the contrary, the thought of the gods being immortal seems to retire into the background. The Edda never calls them eylifir or ôdauðligir, and their death is spoken of without disguise: þâ er regin deyja, Sæm. 37ª, or more frequently: regin riufaz (solvuntur), 36b 40ª 108b. One of the finest and oldest myths describes the death of Balder, the burning of his body, and his entrance into the lower world, like that of Proserpine; Oðin's destined fall is mentioned in the Völuspâ 9ª, Oðins bani (bane), Sn. 73, where also Thôrr falls dead on the ground; Hrûngnir, a giant, threatens to slay all the gods (drepa guð öll), Sn. 107. Yet at the same time we can point to clear traces of that prolongation of life by particular kinds of food and drink. While the einherjar admitted into Valhöll feast on the boiled flesh of a boar, we are nowhere told of the Ases sharing in such diets (Sæm. 36. 42. Sn. 42); it is even said expressly, that Oðinn needs no food (önga vist þarf hann), and only drinks wine (vîn er honum bæði dryckr ok matr, both meat and drink); with the viands set before him he feeds his two wolves Geri and Freki. Við vîn eitt vâpngöfugr Oðinn æ lifir (vino solo armipotens semper vivit), Sæm. 42b; æ lifir can be rendered 'semper vescitur, nutritur,' or 'immortalitatem nanciscitur,' and then the cause of his immortality would be found in his partaking of the wine. Evidently this wine of the Norse gods is to the beer and ale (ölr) of men, what the nectar of the Greek gods was to the wine of mortals. Other passages are not so particular about their language; (5) in Sæm. 59 the gods at Oegir's hall have ale set before them, conf. öl giöra, 68b; Heimdall gladly drinks the good mead, 41b; verðar nema oc sumbl (cibum capere et symposium) 52, leaves the exact nature of the food undefined, but earthly fare is often ascribed to the gods in so many words. (6) But may not the costly Oðhrœris dreckr, compounded of the divine Qvâsir's blood and honey, be likened to amrita and ambrosia? (7) Dwarfs and giants get hold of it first, as amrita fell into the hands of the giants; at last the gods take possession of both. Oðhrœris dreckr confers the gift of poetry, and by that very fact immortality: Oðinn and Saga, goddess of poetic art, have surely drunk it out of golden goblets, gladly and evermore (um alla daga, Sæm. 41ª). We must also take into account the creation of the wise Qvâsir (conf. Slav. kvas, convivium, potus); that at the making of a covenant between Aesir and Vanir, he was formed out of their spittle (hraki); the refining of his blood into a drink for gods seems a very ancient and far- reaching myth. But beside this drink, we have also notices of a special food for gods: Iðunn has in her keeping certain apples, by eating of which the aging gods make themselves young again (er goðin skulo âbîta, þâ er þau eldaz, oc verða þâ allir ungir, Sn. 30ª). This reminds one of the apples of Paradise and the Hesperides, of the guarded golden apples in the Kindermärchen no. 57, of the apples in the stories of the Fortunatus and of Merlin, on the eating or biting of which depend life, death and metamorphosis, as elsewhere on a draught of holy water. According to the Eddic view, the gods have a means, it is true, of preserving perpetual freshness and youth, but, for all that, they are regarded as subject to the encroachments of age, so that there are always some young and some old gods; in particular, Odinn or Wuotan is pictured everywhere as an old greybeard (conf. the old god, p. 21), Thôrr as in the full strength of manhood, Balder as a blooming youth. The gods grow hârir ok gamlir (hoar and old), Sn. 81. Freyr has 'at tannfê' (tooth-fee) presented him at his teething, he is therefore imagined as growing up. In the like manner Uranos and Kronos appear as old, Zeus (like our Donar) and Poseidon as middle aged, Apollo, Hermes and Ares as in the bloom of youth. Growth and age, the increase and decline of a power, exclude the notion of a strictly eternal, immutable, immortal being; and mortality, the termination, however long delayed, of gods with such attributes, is a necessity (see Suppl.).

Epithets expressing the power, the omnipotence, of the reigning gods have been specified, pp. 21-2. A term peculiar to ON. poetry is ginregin, Sæm. 28ª 50ª 51ª 52b, ginheilög goð 1ª; it is of the same root as gîna, OHG. kînan, hiare, and denotes numina ampla, late dominantia, conf. AS. ginne grund, Beow. 3101. Jud. 131. 2. ginne rîce, Cædm. 15, 8. ginfæst, firmissimus 176, 29. ginfæsten god, terrae dominus 211, 10. gârsecges gin, oceani amplitudo 205, 3.

The Homeric reia (=radiwj, Goth. raþizô) beautifully expresses the power of the gods; whatever they do or undertake comes easy to them, their life glides along free from toil, while mortal men labour and are heavy laden: qeoi reia zwontej, Il. 6, 138. Od. 4, 805. 5, 122. When Aphrodite wishes to remove her favourite Alexander from the perils of battle, ton d exhrpax Afrodith reia mal, wste qeoj, Il. 3, 381; the same words are applied to Apollo, when he snatches Hector away from Achilles 20, 443. The wall so laboriously built by the Greeks he overturns reia mala, as a boy at play would a sand-heap 15, 362. With a mere breath (pnoih), blowing a little (hka mala yuxasa), Athene turns away from Achilles the spear that Hector had thrown 20, 440 (see Suppl.). Berhta also blows (p. 276), and the elves breathe (ch. XVII), on people.

The sons of men grow up slowly and gradually, gods attain their full size and strength directly after birth. No sooner had Themis presented nectar and ambrosia (ambrosihn erateinhn) to the newborn Apollo, than he leapt, katebrwj ambroton, out of his swathings, sat down among the goddesses, began to speak, and, unshorn as he was, to roam through the country (Hymn. in Ap. Del. 123-133). Not unlike Vali, whom Rindr bore to Oðinn; when only one night old (einnættr), unwashen and unkempt, he sallies forth to avenge Baldr's death on Höðr, Sæm. 6b 95b. Here the coincidence of adersekomhj with the Edda's 'ne höfuð kembr' is not to be disregarded. Hermes, born at early morn, plays the lute at mid-day, and at eve drives oxen away (Hymn. in Merc. 17 seq.). And Zeus, who is often exhibited as a child among the Kuretes, grew up rapidly (karpalimwj menoj kai faidima guia huxeto toio anaktoj), and in his first years had strength enough to enter the lists with Kronos (Hes. theog. 492). The Norse mythology offers another example in Magni, Thôr's son by the giantess Iarnsaxa: when three nights old (þtînættr), he flung the giant Hrûngni's enormous foot, under whose weight Thôrr lay on the ground, off his father, and said he would have beaten the said giant dead with his fist, Sn. 110 (see Suppl.).

The shape of the gods is like the human (p. 105), only vaster, often exceeding even the gigantic. When Ares is felled to the ground by the stone which Athene flings, his body covers seven roods of land (epta d epesce peleqra peswn, Il. 21, 407), a size that with a slight addition the Od. 11, 577 puts upon the titan Tityos. When Here takes a solemn oath, she grasps the earth with one hand and the sea with the other (Il. 14, 272). A cry that breaks from Poseidon's breast sounds like that of nine or even ten thousand warriors in battle (14, 147), and the same is said of Ares when he roars (5, 859); Here contents herself with the voice of Stentor, which only equals those of fifty men (5, 786). By the side of this we may put some features in the Edda, which have to do with Thôrr especially: he devours at a wedding one ox and eight salmon, and drinks three casks of mead, Sæm. 73b; another time, through a horn, the end of which reaches to the sea, he drinks a good portion of this, he lifts the snake that encircles the whole world off one of its feet, and with his hammer he strikes three deep valleys in the rocky mountains, Sn. 59, 60. Again, Teutonic mythology agrees with the Greek in never imputing to the gods the deformity of many heads, arms or legs; they are only bestowed on a few heroes and animals, as some of the Greek giants are ekatogceirej. Vishnu is represented with four arms, Brahma with four heads, Svantovit the same, while Porevit has five heads and Rugevit seven faces. Yet Hecate too is said to have been three-headed, as the Roman Janus was two-faced, and a Lacedæmonian Apollo four-armed. (8) Khuvera, the Indian god of wealth, is a hideous figure with three legs and eight teeth. Some of the Norse gods, on the contrary, have not a superfluity, but a deficiency of members: Oðinn is one-eyed, Týr one-handed, Höðr blind, and Logi or Loki was perhaps portrayed as lame or limping, like Hephæstus and the devil. Hel alone has a dreadful shape, black and white; the rest of the gods and goddesses, not excepting Loki, are to be imagined as of beautiful and noble figure (see Suppl.).

In the Homeric epos this ideally perfect human shape, to which Greek art also keeps true, is described in standing epithets for gods and especially goddesses, with which our ruder poetry has only a few to set in comparison, and yet the similarity of these is significant. Some epithets have to serve two or three divinities by turns, but most are confined to individuals, as characteristic of them. Thus Here is leukwlenoj or bowpij (the former used also of Helen, Il. 3, 121, (9) the latter of a Nereid 18, 40), Athene glaukwpij or nukomoj (which again does for Here), Thetis arguropeza, Iris aellopoj, podhnemoj, crusopteroj, Eos rododaktuloj, Demeter (Ceres) xanqh 5, 500, and kalliplokamoj 14, 326, just as Sif is hârfögr (p. 309), in allusion to the yellow colour of the waving corn. As the sea rolls its dark waves, Poseidon bears the name kuanocaitij, Il. 14, 390. 15, 174. 20, 144. Zeus could either be called the same, or kuanoqruj (a contrast to Baldr brâhvîtr, brow-white p. 222), because to him belong ambrosiai caitai Il. 1, 528, the hair and locks of Wish (p. 142), and because with his dark brows he makes signs. This confirmatory lowering of the brows or nodding with the head (neuein, kataneuein kuanehsin ep oqpusi Il. 1, 527. 17, 209) is the regular expression of Zeus's will: keqalh kataneusomai, aqanatoisi megiston tekmwr, Il. 1, 524. In refusing, he draws the head back (ananeuei). Thôr's indignant rage is shown by sinking the eyebrows over the eyes (sîga brýnnar ofan fyrir augun, Sn. 50), displaying gloomy brows and shaking the beard. Obviously the two gods, Zeus and Donar, have identical gestures ascribed to them for expressing favour or anger. They are the glowering deities, who have the avenging thunder at their command; this was shown of Donar, p. 177, and to Zeus is given the grim louring look (deina d ipodra idwn, Il. 15, 13), he above all is the meg ocqhsaj (1, 517. 4, 30), and next to him Poseidon of the dingy locks (8, 208. 15, 184). Zeus again is distinguished by beaming eyes (trepen osse qaeinw 13, 3. 7. 14, 236. 16, 645), which belong to none else save his own great-hearted daughted 21, 415; Aphrodite has ommata marmaironta, 3, 397, twinkling, shimmering eyes (see Suppl.).

Figures of Greek divinities show a circle of rays and a nimbus round the head; (10) on Indo- Grecian coins Mithras has commonly a circular nimbus with pointed rays, (11) in other representations the rays are wanting. Mao (deus Lunus) has a halfmoon behind his shoulders; Aesculapius too had rays about his head. In what century was the halo, the aureole, first put round the heads of christian saints? And we have also to take into account the crowns and diadems of kings. Ammian. Marc. 16, 12 mentions Chnodomarius, cujus vertici flammeus torulus aptabatur. N. Cap. 63 translates the honorati capitis radios of the Sol auratus by houbetskîmo (head-sheen), and to portray the sun's head surrounded with flames is extremely natural. In ON. I find the term rôða for caput radiatum sancti, which I suppose to be the OHG. ruota rod, since virga also goes off into the sense of flagellum, radius, ON. geisli. A likening of the gods to radiant luminaries of heaven would at once suggest such a nimbus, and blond locks do shine like rays. It is in connexion with the setting sun that Tac. Germ. 45 brings in formas deorum and radios capitis. Around Thôr's head was put, latterly at all events, a ring of stars (Stephanii not. ad Saxon. Gram. p. 139). According to a story told in the Galien restoré, a beam came out of Charles the Great's mouth and illumined his head. (12) What seems more to the purpose, among the Prilwitz figures, certain Slavic idols, especially Perun, Podaga and Nemis, have rays about their heads; and a head in Hagenow, fig. 6, 12 is encircled with rays, so is even the rune R when it stands for Radegast. Did rays originally express the highest conception of divine and lustrous beauty? There is nothing in the Homeric epos at all pointing that way (see Suppl.).

It is a part of that insouciance and light blood of the gods, that they are merry, and laugh. Hence they are called blîð regin (p. 26), as we find 'froh' in the sense of gracious applied to gods and kings, (13) and the spark of joy is conveyed from gods to men. Fráuja, lord, is next of king to froh glad (p. 210). It is said of the Ases, teitir vâro, Sæm. 2ª; and of Heimdall, dreckr glaðr hinn gôða miöð 41b. And 'in svâso guð' 33ª contains a similar notion. In this light the passages quoted (pp. 17-8) on the blithe and cheerful God gather a new importance: it is the old heathen notion still lurking in poetry. When Zeus in divine repose sits on Olympus and looks down on men, he is moved to mirth (orena teryomai, Il. 20, 23), then laughs the blessed heart of him (egelasse de oi qilon htor, 21, 389); which is exactly the Eddic 'hlô honum hugr î briosti, hlô Hlôrriða hugr î briosti,' laughed the mind in his breast: a fresh confirmation of the essential oneness of Zeus and Thôrr. But it is also said of heroes: 'hlô þâ Atla hugr î briosti,' Sæm. 238b. 'hlô þâ Brynhildr af öllum hug,' with all her heart 220ª. OS. 'hugi ward frômôd,' Hel. 109, 7. As. 'môd âhlôh,' Andr. 454. Later, in the Rudlieb 2, 174. 203. 3, 17 the king in his speech is said subridere; in the Nibel. 423, 2 of Brunhild: 'mit smielinden munde si über ahsel sah,' looked over her shoulder. Often in the song of the Cid: 'sonrisose de la boca,' and 'alegre era'. (14) Qumoj ianqh, Il. 23, 600; conf. qumon iainon, Hymn. in Cer. 435. Half in displeasure Here laughs with her lips, not her brows: egelasse ceilesin, oude metwpon ep oqrusi kuanehsin ianqh, Il. 15, 102; but Zeus feels joy in sending out his lightnings, he is called terpikeraunoj 2, 781. 8, 2. 773. 20, 144. So Artemis (Diana) is ioceaira, rejoicing in arrows, 6, 428. 21, 480. Od. 11, 198. At the limping of Hephæstus, the assembly of gods bursts into asbestoj gelwj, uncontrolled laughter, Il. 1, 599; but a gentle smile (meidan) is peculiar to Zeus, Here and Aphrodite. As Aphrodite's beauty is expressed by filommeidhj, smile-loving (Il. 4, 10. 5, 375), so is Freyja's on the contrary by 'grâtfögr,' fair in weeping (see Suppl.).

We have to consider next the manner in which the gods put themselves in motion and become visible to the eyes of mortals. We find that they have a gait and step like the human, only far mightier and swifter. The usual expressions are bh, bh imen, bh ienai, Il. 1, 44. 2, 14. 14, 188. 24, 347, bebnkei 1, 221, ebh 14, 224, bathn 5, 778, bhthn 14, 281, posi probibaj 13, 18, prosebhseto 2, 48. 14, 292, katebhseto 13, 17, apebhseto 2. 35; and in the Edda gengr, Sæm. 9ª, gêk 100ª, gêngo 70ª 71b, gengêngo 1ª 5ª, or else fôr Oðinn was even called Gángleri, Sæm. 32. Sn. 24, i.e., the walker, traveller; the AS. poets use gewât (evasit, abiit) or sîðôde of God returning to heaven, Andr. 118. 225. 977. El. 94-5. But how in the instance of Poseidon, who goes an immense distance in three steps, Il. 13, 20, or that of the Indian Vishnu, who in three paces traverses earth, air and sky. From such swiftness there follows next the sudden appearance and disappearance of the gods; for which our older speech seems to have used Goth. hvaírban, OHG. huerban, AS. hweorfan (verti, ferri, rotari): 'hwearf him tô heofenum hâlig dryhten' says Cædm. 16, 8; and 'Oðinn hvarf þâ,' vanished, Sæm. 47. Homer employs, to express the same thing, either the verb aixasa, Od. 1, 102. Il. 2, 167. 4, 74. 19, 114. 22, 187; Thetis, the dream, Athene, Here, all appear karpalimwj, Il. 1, 359. 2, 17. 168. 5, 868. 19, 115. Od. 2, 406; Poseidon and Here kraipva, kraipnwj, Il. 13, 18. 14. 292; even Zeus, when he rises from his throne to look on the earth, sth anaixaj 15, 6. So Holda and Berhta suddenly stand at the window (p. 274). Much in the same way I understand the expression used in Sæm. 53ª of Thôrr and Týr: fôro driugom (ibant tractim, raptim, elkhdon), for driugr is from driuga, Goth. driugan trahere, whence also Goth. draúhts, OHG. truht turba, agmen, ON. draugr larva, phantasma, OHG. gitroc fallacia, because a spectre appears and vanishes quickly in the air. At the same time it means the rush and din that betoken the god's approach, the wôma and ômi above, from which Oðinn took a name (p. 144-5). The rapid movement of descending gods is sometimes likened to a shooting star, or the flight of birds, Il. 4, 75. 15, 93. 237; hence they often take even the form of some bird, as Tharapila the Osilian god flew (p. 77). Athene flies away in the shape of a arph (falcon?), Il. 19, 350, an ornij bird, Od. 1, 320, or a fhnh osprey, 3, 372; as a swallow she perches (ezet anaixasa) on the house's melaqron 22, 239. The exchange of the human form for that of a bird, when the gods are departing and no longer need to conceal their wondrous being, tallies exactly with Oðin's taking his flight as a falcon, after he had in the shape of Gestr conversed and quarrelled with Heiðreckr: vîðbrast î vals lîki, Fornald. sög. 1, 487; but it is also retained in many stories of the devil, who assumes at departure the body of a raven or a fly (exit tanquam corvus, egressus est in muscae similitudine). At other times, and this is the prettier touch of the two, the gods allow the man to whom they have appeared as his equals, suddenly as they are going, to become aware of their divine proportions: heel, calf, neck or shoulder betrays the god. When Poseidon leaves the two Ajaxes, one of them says Il. 13, 71: icnia gar metopisqe podwn hde knhmawn rei egnwn apiontoj arignwtoi de qeoi per. So, when Venus leaves Aeneas, Virg. 1, 402: Dixit, et avertens rosea cervice refulsit et vera incessu patuit dea. Ille ubi matrem agnovit, tali fugientem est voce secutus. So, Il. 3, 396, Alexander recognises the qeaj perikallea deirhn, sthqea q imeroenta kai ommata marmaironta. And in ON. legend, Hallbiörn on awaking sees the shoulder of a figure in his dream before it vanishes: þýkist siâ â herðar honum, Fornald. sög. 3, 103; as is likewise said in Olaf the saint's saga cap. 199. ed. Holm., while the Fornm. sög. 5, 38 has it: siâ svip mannsins er â brutt gekk; conf. os humerosque deo similis, Aen. 1, 589. This also lingers in our devil-stories: at the Evil one's departure his cloven hoof suddenly becomes visible, the icnia of the ancient god.

As the incessus of Venus declared the goddess, the motion (iqma) of Here and Athene is likened to that of timorous doves, Il. 5, 778. But the gliding of the gods over such immense distances must have seemed from the first to last like flying, especially as their departure was expressly prepared for by the assumption of a bird's form. It is therefore easy to comprehend why two several deities, Hermes and Athene, are provided with peculiar sandals (pedila), whose motive power conveys them over sea and land with the speed of wind, Il. 24, 341. Od. 1, 97. 5, 45; we are expressly told that Hermes flew with them (peteto, Il. 24, 345. Od. 5, 49); plastic art represents them as winged shoes, and at a later time adds a pair of wings to the head of Hermes (15) These winged sandals then have a perfect right to be placed side by side with the feathershift (fiaðrhamr) which Freyja possessed, and which at Thôr's request she lent to Loki for his flight to Iötunheim, Sæm. 70ªb; but as Freyja is more than once confounded with Frigg (p. 302), other legends tell us that Loki flew off in the 'valsham Friggjar,' Sn. 113. I shall come back to these falcon or swan coats in another connexion, but their resemblance to the Greek pedila is unmistakable; as Loki is here sent as a messenger from the gods to the giants, he is so far one with Hermes, and Freyja's feather-shift suggests that sandals of Athene. Sn. 132-7: 'Loki âtti skûa, er hann rann â lopt ok lög,' had shoes in which he ran through air and fire. It was an easy matter, in a myth, for the investiture with winged hamr or sandals to glide insensibly into an actual assumption of a bird's form: Geirröðr catches the flying Loki as a veritable bird, Sn. 113, and when Athene starts to fly, she is a swallow (see Suppl.).

wings or sandals, but simple antiquity was not content with these: the human race used carriages and horses, and the gods cannot do without them either. On this point a sensible difference is to be found between the Greek and German mythologies.

All the higher divinities of the Greeks have a chariot and pair ascribed to them, as their kings and heroes in battle also fight in chariots. An ochma for the god of thunder would at once be suggested by the natural phenomenon itself; and the conception of the sun-chariot driven by Helios must also be very ancient. The car of Here, and how she harnesses her steeds to it, mounts it in company with Athene, and guides it, is gorgeously depicted in Il. 5, 720-76; so likewise Demeter and Kora appear seated in a carriage. Hermes is drawn by rams, (16) as the Norse Thôrr [by he-goats]. The Okeanides too have their vehicle, Aesch. Prom. 135. But never are Zeus, Apollo, Hermes or any of the most ancient gods imagined riding on horseback; it is Dionyso, belonging to a different order of deities, that rides a panther, as Silenus does the ass, and godlike heroes such as Perseus, Theseus, and above all the Dioscuri are mounted on horses. Okeanos bestrides a winged steed, Prom. 395. It seems worth remarking, that modern Greek legend represents even Charon as mounted.

In Teutonic mythology the riding of gods is a far commoner thing. In the Merseburg poem both Wuotan and Phol ride in the forest, which is not at all inconsistent with the word used, 'faran'; for it is neither conceivable that Wuotan drove while Balder rode, nor that Balder drove a one-horse carriage. Even Hartmann von Aue still imagines God riding a horse, and contented with Enit for his groom (p. 18). Among those that ride in the Edda are Oðinn (who saddles his Sleipnir for himself, Sæm. 93ª), Baldr and Hermôðr; in Sæm. 44ª and Sn. 18 are given the names of ten other horses as well, on which the Ases daily ride to council, one of them being Heimdall's Gulltoppr, Sn. 30. 66; the owners of the rest are not specified, it follows that each of those gods had his mount, except Thôrr, who is invariably introduced either driving or walking (p. 167), and when he gets Gullfaxi as spoil from Hrûngnir, gives him away to his son Magni, Sn. 110. Oðin's horse leaps a hedge seven ells high, Fornm. sög. 10, 56. 175. Even the women of the gods are mounted: the valkyrs, like Oðinn, ride through air and water, and witches are imagined riding a wolf, a he-goat or a cat. Night (fem.) had a steed Hrîmfaxi, rimy-mane, as Day (masc.) had Skînfaxi, shiny-mane.

At the Same time carriages are mentioned too, especially for goddesses (p. 107). The sacred car of Nerthus was drawn by cows, that of Freyja by cats, Holda and Berhta are commonly found driving waggons which they get mended, the fairies in our nursery tales travel throught he air in coaches, and Brynhildr drives in her waggon to the nether world, Sæm. 227. The image of a Gothic deity in a wagon was alluded to on p. 107; among the gods, Freyr is expressly described as mounted on his car, while Thôrr has a waggon drawn by he-goats: on Wôden's waggon, conf. p. 151 (see Suppl.). When we consider, that waggons were proper to the oldest kings also, especially the Frankish kings, and that their riding on horseback is nowhere mentioned; it seems probable that originally a similar equipage was alone deemed suitable to the gods, and their riding crept in only gradually in the coarser representations of later times. From heroes it was transferred to gods, though this must have been done pretty early too, as we may venture to allow a considerable antiquity to the story of Sleipnir and that of Balder's horse or foal. The Slavs also generally furnished their god Svantovit with a horse to ride on.

Some few divinities made use of a ship, as may be seen by the stories of Athene's ship and that of Isis, and Frey's Skîðblaðnir, the best of all ships, Sæm. 45b.

But whichever way the gods might move, on earth, through air or in water, their walk and tread, their riding and driving is represented as so vehement, that it produces a loud noise, and the din of the elements is explained by it. The driving of Zeus or Thôrr awakens thunder in the clouds; mountains and forests tremble beneath Poseidon's tread, Il. 13, 18; when Apollo lets himself down from the heights of Olympus, arrows and bow clatter (eklagxan) on his shoulder 1, 44, deinh de klaggh genet argureoio bioio, dreadful was the twang of his silver bow 1, 49. In the lays of the Edda this stirring up of nature is described in exactly the same way, while the AS. and OHG. writings, owing to the earlier extinction of the heathen notions, have preserved us no traces of it: 'framm reið Oðinn, foldvegr dundi,' forth rode O., earth's way thundered, Sæm. 94ª; 'biörg brotnoðo, brann iörð loga, ôk Oðins sonr î Iötunheima,' mountains crumbled, earth blazed, when rode, &c. 73ª; 'flô Loki, fiaðrhamr dundi,' the wing-coat whirred, 70ª 71ª; 'iörð bifaz (quaked) enn allir for sciâlfa garðar Gymis' when Skîrnir came riding 83ª. The rage and writhing of gods who were bound produced equally tremendous effects (p. 246).

On the other hand, delightful and salutary products of nature are also traced to the immediate influence of the gods. Flowers spring up where their feet have strayed; on the spot where Zeus clasped Here in his arms, shot up a thick growth of sweet herbs and flowers, and glittering dewdrops trickled down, Il. 14, 346-51. So, when the valkyrs rode through the air, their horses' manes shook fruitful dew on the deep vales below, Sæm. 145b; or it falls nightly from the bit of Hrîmfaxi's bridle 32b (see Suppl.).

Of one thing there is scarcely a trace in our mythology, though it occurs so often in the Greek: that the gods, to screen themselves from sight, shed a mist round themselves or their favourites who are to be withdrawn from the enemy's eye, Il. 3, 381. 5, 776. 18, 205. 21, 549. 597. It is called heri kaluptein, hera cein, aclun or nefoj stefein, and the contrary aclun skedazein to scatter, chase away, the mist. We might indeed take this into account, that the same valkyrs who, like the Servian vîly, favour and shield their beloved heroes in battle, were apble to produce clouds and hail in the air; or throw into reckoning our tarnkappes and helidhelms, whose effect was the same as that of the mist. And the Norse gods do take part with or against certain heroes, as much as the Greek gods before Ilion. In the battle of Brâvîk, Oðinn mingled with the combatants, and assumed the figure of a charioteer Brûni; Saxo Gram., p. 146. Fornald. sög. 1, 380. The Grîmnismâl makes Geirröðr the protégé (föstri) of Oðinn, Agnarr that of Frigg, and the two deities take counsel together concerning them, Sæm. 39; in the Völs. saga cap. 42, Oðinn suggest the plan for slaying the sons of Ionakr. The Greek gods also, when they drew night to counsel or defend, appeared in the form of a human warrior, a herald, an old man, or they made themselves known to their hero himself, but not to others. In such a case they stand before, beside or behind him (para 4, 129. egguqi, Od. 1, 120. agcou, Il. 2, 172. 3, 129. 4, 92. 5, 123. prosqen 4, 129. opiqen 1, 197); Athene leads by the hand through the battle, and wards the arrows off 4, 52; she throws the dreadful ægis round Achilles 18, 204; Aphrodite sheilds Aeneas by holding her veil before him 5, 315; and other heroes are removed from the midst of the fray by protecting deities (p. 320). Venus makes herself visible to Hippomenes alone, Ovid Met. 10, 650. Now they appear in friendly guise, Od. 7, 201 seq.; now clothed in terror: calepoi de qeoi fainesqai enargeij, Il. 20, 131 (see Suppl.).

The Illiad, 14, 286 seq., relates how gpnoj (sleep), sitting in the shape of a song-bird on the boughs of a fir-tree on Mt. Ida, overpowers the highest of all the gods; other passages show that the gods went to their beds every night, and partook like men of the benefit of sleep, Il. 1, 609. 2, 2. 24, 677. Still less can it be doubted of the Norse gods, that they too slept at night: Thôrr on his journeys looks out for night-lodging, Sn. 50; of Heimdall alone is it said, that he needs less sleep than a bird, Sn. 30. And from this sway of sleep over the gods follows again, what was maintained above, that of death: Death is the brother of Sleep. Besides, the gods fell a prey to diseases. Freyr was sick with love, and his great hugsôtt (mind-sickness) awakened the pity of all the gods. Oðinn, Niörðr and Freyr, according to the Yngl. saga 10. 11. 12, all sink under sicknesses (sôttdauðir). Aphrodite and Ares receive wounds, Il. 5, 330. 858; these are quickly healed [yet not without medical aid.]. A curious story tells how the Lord God, having fallen sick, descends from heaven to earth to get cured, and comes to Arras; there minstrels and merryandres receive commands to amuse him, and one manages so cleverly, that the Lord bursts out laughing and finds himself rid of his distemper. (17) This may be very ancient; for in the same way, sick daughters of kings in nurserytales are made to laugh by beggars and fiddlers, and so is the goddess Skaði in the Edda by Loki's juggling tricks, when mourning the death of her father, Sn. 82. Iambe cheered the sorrowing Demeter, and caused her, polla paraskwptousa, meidhsai gelasai te, kai ilaon qumon, Hymn. in Cer. 203 (see Suppl.).

Important above all are the similar accounts, given by Greek antiquity and by our own, of the language of the gods. Thus, passages in the Illiad and the Odyssey distinguish between the divine and human name for the same object: on briarewn kaleousi qeoi, andrej de te pantej Aigaiwn. Il. 1, 403. thn htoi andrej Batieian kikghskousin aqanatoi de te shma poluskarqmoio Murinhj. 2, 813. Calkida kikghskousi qeoi, andrej de kumindin. 14, 291. on Xanqon kaleousi qeoi, anorej de Skamandron. 20, 74 (18) mwlu de min kaleousi qeoi. Od. 10, 305.

A whole song in the Edda is taken up with comparing the languages, not only of gods and men, but of Vanir, elves, dwarfs, giants, and subterraneans, and that not in a few proper names and rare words, but in a whole string of names for the commonest objects. At the very onset it surprises us, that whil goð and æsir are treated as synonymous, a distinction is drawn between goð and ginregin. In 13 strophes are given 78 terms in all: on examining these, it soon appears that the variety of names (six) for each thing simply comes of the richness of the Teutonic tongue, and cannot possibly be ascribed to old remnants or later borrowings from any Finnic, Celtic or Slavic languages. They are synonyms or poetic names, which are distributed among six or eight orders of beings endowed with speech, according to the exigencies of alliteration, not from their belonging to the same class, such as poetical or prose. I will illustrate this by quoting the strophe on the names for a cloud: scý heitir með mönnom, en scûrvân með goðom, kalla vindflot Vanir, ûrvân iötnar, âlfar veðrmegin; kalla î heljo hiâlm huliz.

Everything here is Teutonic, and still the resources of our language are not exhausted by a long way, to say nothing of what it may have borrowed from others. The only simple word is ský, still used in the Scandinavian dialects, and connected with skuggi umbra, AS. scuwa, scua, OHG. scuwo. The rest are all appropriate and intelligble periphrases. Scûrvân [shower-weening] pluviae expectatio, from skûr imber, Germ. schauer; ûrvân just the same, from ûr pluvia, with which compare the literal meaning of Sanskr. abhra nubes, viz. aquam gerens. (19) Vindflot is apparently navigium venti, because the winds sail through the air on clouds. Veðrmegin transposed is exactly the OHG. maganwetar turbo; and hiâlmr huliz appears elsewhere as hulizhiâlmr, OS. helith-helm, a tarn-helmet, grîma, mask, which wraps one in like a mist or cloud. Of course the Teutonic tongue could offer several other words to stand for cloud, besides those six; e.g., nifl, OHG. nebal, Lat. nebula, Gr. nefelh; Goth. milhma, Swed. moln, Dan. mulm; Sansk. mêgha, Gr. omiclh, omiclh, Slav. megla; OHG. wolchan, AS. wolcen, which is to Slav. oblako as miluk, milk, to Slav. mleko; ON. þoka nebula, Dan. taage; M. Dut. swerk nubes, OS. gisuerc, caligo, nimbus; AS. hoðma nubes, Beow. 4911. And so it is with the other twelve objects whose names are discussed in the Alvismâl. Where simple words, like sôl and sunna, mâni and skîn, or iörd and fold, are named together, one might attempt to refer them to different dialects: the periphrases in themselves show no reason (unless mythology found one for them), why they should be assigned in particular to gods or men, giants or dwarfs. The whole poem brings before us an acceptable list of pretty synonyms, but throws no light on the primitive affinities of our language.

Plato in the Cratylus tries hard to understand that division of Greek words into divine and human. A duality of proper names like Briareos and Aigaion, reminds us of the double forms Hlêr and Oegir (p. 240), Ymir and Oergelmir, which last Sn. 6 attributes to the Hrîmþurses; Iðunn would seem by Sæm. 89ª to be an Elvish word, but we do not hear of any other names or the goddess. In the same way Xanthus and Skamander, Batieia and Myrina might be the different names of a thing in different dialects. More interesting are the double names for two birds, the calkij or kumindij (conf. Plin. 10, 10), and the aietoj and perknoj. Calkij is supposed to signify some bird of prey, a hawk or owl, which does not answer to the description opnij ligura (piping), and the myth requires a bird that in sweet and silvery tones sings one to sleep, like the nightingale. Perknoj means dark-coloured, which suits the eagle; to imagine it the bird of the thundergod Perkun, would be too daring. Poetic periphrases there are none among these Greek words.

The principal point seems to be, that the popular beliefs of Greek and Teutons agree in tracing obscure words and those departing from common usage to a distinction between divine and human speech. The Greek scholiasts suppose that the poet, holding converse with the Muses, is initiated into the language of gods, (20) and where he finds a twofold nomenclature, he ascribes the older, nobler, more euphonious (to kreitton, eufwnon, progenesteron onoma) to the gods, the later and meaner (to elatton, metagenesteron) to men. But the four or five instances in Homer are even less instructive than the more numerous ones of the Norse lay. Evidently the opinion was firmly held, that the gods, though of one and the same race with mortals, so far surpassed living men in age and dignity, that they still made use of words which had latterly died out or suffered change. As the line of a king's ancestors was traced up to a divine stock, so the language of gods was held to be of the same kind as that of men, but right feeling would assign to the former such words as had gradually disappeared among men. The Alvismâl, as we have seen, goes farther, and reserves particular words for yet other beings beside the gods; what I maintained on p. 218 about the impossibility of denying the Vanir a Teutonic origin, is confirmed by our present inquiry.

That any other nation, beside Greeks and Teutons, believed in a separate language of gods, is unknown to me, and the agreement of these two is the more significant. When Ovid in Met. 11, 640 says: Hunc Icelon superi, mortale Phobetora vulgus nominat, this is imitated from the Greeks, as the very names show (see Suppl.). The Indians trace nothing but their alphabet (dêvanâgarî, dêva-writing), as our forefathers did the mystery of runes (p. 149), to a divine origin, and the use of the symbol may be connected with that of the sound itself; with the earliest signs, why should not the purest and oldest expressions too be attributed to gods? Homer's epea pteroenta (winged words) belong to heroes and other men as well as to gods, else we might interpret them strictly of the ease and nimbleness with which the gods wield the gift of speech.

Beside language, the gods have customs in common with men. They love song and play, take delight in hunting, war and banquets, and the goddesses in ploughing, weaving, spinning; both of them keep servants and messengers. Zeus causes all the other gods to be summoned to the assembly (agorh, Il. 8, 2. 20, 4), just as the Ases attend to the þîng (Sæm. 93ª), on the rökstôla, and by the Yggdrasill (Sæm. 1b 2ª 44ª), to counsel and to judge. Hebe, youth, is cupbearer of the gods and handmaid to Here (Il. 5, 722), as Fulla is to Frigg (Sn. 36); the youth Ganymede is cupbearer too, and so is Beyla at the feast of the Ases (Sæm. 67ª); Skîrnir is Frey's shoemaker (81) and messenger, Beyggvir and Beyla are also called his servants (59). These services do no detriment to their own divine nature. Beside Hermes, the goddess Iris goes on errands for the Greek gods (see Suppl.).

Among the gods themselves there is a difference of rank. Three sons of Kronos have the world divided among them, the sky is allotted to Zeus, the sea to Poseidon, hell to Hades, and the earth they are supposed to share between them (Il. 15, 193). These three tower above all the rest, like Hâr, Iafnhâr and Thriði in the Norse religion, the triad spoken of on p. 162. This is not the same thing as 'Wuotan, Donar, Ziu,' if only because the last two are not brothers but sons of Wuotan, although these pass for the three mightiest gods. Then, together with this triad, we become aware of a circle of twelve (p. 26), a close circle from which some of the gods are excluded. Another division, that into old and new gods, does not by any means coincide with this: not only Oðinn and his Ases, but also Zeus and his colleagues, appear as upstarts (21) to have supplanted older gods of nature (see Suppl.).

All the divinities, Greek and Norse, have offices and functions assigned them, which define their dominion, and have had a marked influence on their pictorial representation. In Sn. 27-29 these offices are specified, each with the words: 'hann ræðr fyrir (he looks after),' or 'â hann skal heita til, er gott at heita til (to him you shall pray for, it is good to pray for)'. Now, as any remnants of Greek or Teutonic paganism in the Mid. Ages were sure to connect themselves with some christian saints, to whom the protection of certain classes or the healing of certain diseases was carried over, it is evident that a careful classification of these guardian saints according to the offices assigned them, on the strength of which they are good to pray to, (22) would be of advantage to our antiquities. And the animals dedicated to each deified saint (as once they were to gods) would have to be specified too.

The favourite residence of each god is particularly pointed out in the Grîmnismâl; mountains especially were consecrated to the Teutonic, as to the Greek deities: Sigtýsberg, Himinbiörg, &c. Olympus was peculiarly the house of Zeus (Dioj dwma), to which the other gods assembled (Il. 1, 494); on the highest peak of the range he would sit apart (ater allwn 1, 498. 5, 753), loving to take counsel alone (apaneuqe qewn 8, 10). He had another seat on Ida (11, 183. 336), whence he looked down to survey the doings of men, as Oðinn did from Hliðsciâlf. Poseidon sat on a height in the wooded range of Samos (13, 12). Valhöll and Bilskirnir, the dwellings of Oðinn and Thôrr, are renowned for their enormous size; the one is said to have 540 doors, through any one of which 800 einheriar can go out at once, and Bilskirnir has likewise 540 'golfe'[ON. gôlfr, floor] (see Suppl.).

If now we take in one view the relations of gods and men, we find they meet and touch at all points. As the created being is filled with a childlike sense of its dependence on the creator, and prayers and offerings implore his favour, so deity too delights in its creations, and takes in them a fatherly interest. Man's longing goes forth towards heaven; the gods fix their gaze on the earth, to watch and direct the doings of mortals. The blessed gods do commune with each other in their heavenly abodes, where feasts and revels go on as in earthly fashion; but they are more drawn to men, whose destinies enlist their liveliest sympathy. It is not true, what Mart. Cap. says 2, 9: ipsi dicuntur dii, et caelites alias perhibentur........nec admodum eos mortalium curarum vota sollicitant, apaqeij que perhibentur. Not content with making their will known by signs and messengers, they resolve to come down themselves and appear to men. Such appearance is in the Hindu mythology marked by a special name: avatâra, i.e., descensus. (23)

Under this head come first the solemn car-processions of deities heralding peace and fruitfulness or war and mischief, which for the most, part recur at stated seasons, and are associated with popular festivals; on the fall of heathenism, only motherly wise-women still go their rounds, and heroes ride through field or air. More rarely, and not at regular intervals, there take place journeys of gods through the world, singly or in twos or threes, to inspect the race of man, and punish the crimes they have noticed. Thus Mercury and Oðinn apeared on earth, or Heimdall to found the three orders, and Thôrr visited at weddings; Oðinn, Hœnir and Loki travelled in company; medieval legend makes God the Father seek a lodging, or the Saviour and St. Peter, or merely three angels (as the Servian song does, Vuk 4, no. 3). Most frequent however are the solitary appearances of gods, who, invoked or uninvoked, suddenly bring succour to their favoured ones in every time of need; the Greek epos is quite full of this. Athene, Poseidon, Ares, Aphrodite mingle with the warriors, warning, advising, covering; and just as often do Mary and saints from heaven appear in christian legends. The Lithuanian Perkunos also walks on earth (see Suppl.).

But when they descend, they are not always visible; you may hear the car of the god rush by, and not get sight of him bodily; like ghosts the blessed gods flit past the human eye unnoticed, till the obstructive mist be removed from it. Athene seizes Achilles by the hair, only by him and no other is she seen, Il. 1, 197; to take the succouring deities visible to Diomed, she has 'taken the mist from his eyes, that was on them before' 5, 127: aclun d au toi ap ofqalmwn elon h prin ephen, ofr en gignwskhj hmen qeon hde kai andra.

Just so Biarco, in Saxo Gram., p. 37, is unable to spy Othin riding a white steed and aiding the Swedes, till he peeps through the ring formed by the arm of a spirit-seeing woman: a medium that elsewhere makes the elfin race visible to the bleared eyes of man. In another way the gods, even when they showed themselves bodily, concealed their divine nature, by assuming the form of a human acquaintance, or of an animal. Poseidon stept into the host, disguised as Kalchas, Il. 13, 45, Hermes escorted Priam as a Myrmidon warrior 24, 397, and Athene the young Telemachus as Mentor. In the same way Othin appeared as the chariot-driver Bruno (p. 330), or as a one-eyed old man. Metamorphoses of gods into animals in Teutonic mythology take place only for a definite momentary purpose, to which the character of the animal supplies the key; e.g., Oðinn takes the shape of a snake, to slip through a hole he has bored (Sn. 86), and of an eagle, to fly away in haste (86), Loke that of a fly, in order to sting (131), or to creep through a keyhole (356); no larger designs are ever compassed by such means. So, when Athene flies away as a bird, it expresses the divinity of her nature and the suddenness of her departure. But the swan or bull, into which Zeus transformed himself, can only be explained on the supposition that Leda too, and Io and Europa, whom he was wooing, were thought of as swan-maidens or kine. The form of animal would then be determined by the mythus, and the egg-birth of the Dioscuri can be best understood in this way (see Suppl.).

In the Asiatic legends, it seems to me, the manifestations of deity are conceived deeply and purely in comparison, and nowhere more profoundly than in those of India. The god comes down and abides in the flesh for a season, for the salvation of mankind. Wherever the doctrine of metempsychosis prevailed, the bodies of animals even were eligible for avatâra; and of Vishnu's ten successive incarnations, the earlier ones are animal, it was in the later ones that he truly 'became man' (see Suppl.). The Greek and Teutonic mythologies steer clear of all such notions; in both of them the story of the gods was too sensuously conceived to have invested their transformation with the seriousness and duration of an avatâra, although a belief in such incarnation is in itself so nearly akin to that of the heroes being bodily descended from the gods.

I think that on all these lines of research, which could be extended to many other points as well, I have brought forward a series of undeniable resemblances between the Teutonic mythology and the Greek. Here, as in the relation between the Greek and Teutonic languages, there is no question of borrowing or choice, nothing but unconscious affinity, allowing room (and that inevitably) for considerable divergences. But who can fail to recognise, or who invalidate, the surprising similarity of opinions on the immortality of gods, their divine food, their growing up overnight, their journeyings and transformations, their epithets, their anger and their mirth, their suddenness in appearing and recognition at parting, their use of carriages and horses, their performance of all natural functions, their illnesses, their language, their servants and messengers, offices and dwellings? To conclude, I think I see a further analogy in the circumstance, that out of the names of living gods, as Týr, Freyr, Baldr, Bragi, Zeus, grew up the common nounds týr, fráuja, baldor, bragi, deus, or they bordered close upon them (see Suppl.).

 

 

ENDNOTES:

 

                1. Atque omnes pariter deos perdet mors aliqua et chaos. Seneca in Herc. 1014.

                2. Cleopatra had costly pearls melted in her wine, and it is said to be still a custom with Indian princes; conf. Sueton. Calig. 37.

                3. Both nectar and ambrosia, like the holy grail of the Mid. Ages, have miraculous powers: poured into the nose of a corpse, they prevent decay, Il. 19, 38; they ward off hunger, Il. 19, 347. 353.

                4. As human infants may only be exposed before milk and honey have moistened their lips, conf. RA. pp. 458-9. When Zeus first receives in the assembly of the gods the son whom Leto bore him, he hands him nectar in a golden bowl: by this act he recognised him for his child. 5. As Homer too makes Ganymede oinocoeuein, Il. 20, 234, and of Hebe it is even said, nektar ewnocoei 4, 3.

                6. Zeus goes to banquet (kata daita) with the Ethiopians, Il. 1, 423; otan proj daita kai epi qoinhn iwsi, Plato's Phædr. 247, as Thôrr does with the Norwegians; even when disguised as a bride, he does not refuse the giant's dishes, Sæm. 73b; and the Ases boiled an ox on their journey, Sn. 80.

                7. In Sanskrit, sudha nectar is distinguished from amrita ambrosia. Everywhere there is an eagle in the business: Garuda is called sudhâhara, or amritâharana, nectar-thief or ambrosia-thief (Pott, forsch. 2, 451); it is in the shape of an eagle that Oðinn carries off Oðhrœrir, and Zeus his cupbearer Ganymede (see ch. XXXV and XXX, Path-crossing and Poetry).

                8. O. Müller's archæol. p. 515.

                9. And Aphrodite throws her phcee leukw round Æneas.

Trans.

                10. O. Müller's archæol. p. 481.

                11. Götting. anz. 1838, 229.

                12. This beam from Charle's mouth is like the one that shines into his beloved's mouth and lights up the gold inside (see ch. XVI., Menni).

                13. Andreas and Elene p. xxxvii.

                14. Helbl. 7, 518: diu wârheit des erlachet, truth laughs at that.

                15. O. Müller's archæol. 559.

                16. O. Müller's archæol. 563.

                17. De la venue de Dieu a Arras, in Jubinal's Nouveau recueil de contes 2, 377-8.

                18. Perhaps we ought also to reckon aietoj and perknoj 24, 316, which is no mere epiklhsij as in 7, 138. 18, 487 (Od. 5, 273). 22, 29. 506, though Astuanax in this last passage happens to have Skamandrioj (6, 402) answering to it, as Xanqoj has Skamandroj.

                19. Bopp, gloss. sanskr. 16ª 209ª

                20. wj mousotrafhj kai taj para epistatai lexeij, oide thn twn qewn dialekton, olde ta twn qewn (onomata), wj upo mouswn katapneomenoj. qelwn o poihtnj deixai oti mousolhptoj estin, ou monon ta twn anqrwpwn onomata epaggelletai eidenai all wsper kai oi qeoi legousi.

                21. Aesch. Prom. 439 qeoisi toij neoij, 955 neon neoi krateite, 960 touj veouj qeouj. Eumen. 156. 748. 799 oi newteroi qeoi. Conf. Otîr. Müller, p. 181.

                22. Conf. Haupt's zeitschr. für d. alt. 1, 143-4.

                23. Bopp's gloss. sansk. 21ª.

 

Supplements

 

                p. 318. ) The heathen notion of the power of the gods is esp. seen in their being regarded as wonder-workers, who did not sink into sorcerers till Christian times; conf. p. 1031. GDS. 770. The giants on the other hand were looked upon, even by the heathen, as stupid, pp. 526-8-9. -

The longevity of gods (long-aevi, lanc-libôn, Notk. Cap. 144) depends on simple food and a soul free from care (p. 320-4). So thinks Terence, Andr. 5, 5: ego vitam deorum propterea sempiternam esse arbitror, quod voluptates eorum propriae sunt; and the dwarfs ascribe their long and healthy lives to their honesty and temperance (p. 458). -

Amrita (Somad. 1, 127) is derived by Bopp. Gl. 17a, from a priv. and mrita mortuus, hence immortal and conferring immortality; and a-mbrosia (279a)French a-mrosia, brotoj being for mrotoj. Various accounts of its manufacture in Rhode's Relig. bildung d. Hindus 1, 230. It arises from the churning of the ocean, says Holtzmann 3, 146-150, as ambrosia did from treading the wine press, K. F. Hermann's Gottesd. alth. p. 304. Doves carry ambrosia to Zeus, Od. 12, 63; conf. Athen. 4, 317. 321-5. Ambrosia and nectar are handed to goddess Calypso, while Odysseus partakes of earthly food beside her, Od. 5, 199. Moirai eat the sweet heavenly food of honey (p. 415n.). Even the horses of gods have in their manger ambrosia and nectar, Plato's Phædr. 247. Yet the gods eat white alfiton, meal (Athen. 1, 434), which Hermes buys for them in Lesbos. Ambrosial too is the odour shed around the steps of deity (Suppl. to 327 end), of which Plautus says in Pseud. iii. 2, 52:

                        ibi odos demissis pedibus in coelum volat;

                        eum odorem coenat Juppiter cotidie. What nectar is made of, we learn from Athen. 1, 147-8, conf. 166. zwroteron nektar, Lucian's Sat. 7. purpureo bibit ore nectar, Hor. Od. iii. 3, 12. Transl. in OHG. by stanch, stenche, Graff 6, 696; in some glosses by seim, and if seim be akin to aima, our honig-seim still shows the affinity of honey to blood (pp. 468. 902); consider the renovating virtue of honey as well as blood: der Saelden honic-seim, Engelh. 5138. -

The spittle of gods is of virtue in making blood and mead (p. 902), in brewing öl (ale): hann lagði fyri dregg hrâka sinn, Fornald. sög. 2, 26. Kvâsir is created out of spittle: so came Lakshmi out of the milk-sea, Holtzm. 1, 130, as Aphrodite from foam, Sri from milk and butter 3, 150.

                p. 320. ) The belief of the Greeks in the Immortality of their gods was not without exceptions. In Crete stood a tomb with the inscription: 'Zeus has long been dead (teqnewj palai), he thunders no more,' Lucian's Jup. tragoed. 45; conf. p. 453n. Frigga's death is told by Saxo, ed. M. 44; dead Baldr appears no more among the gods, Sæm. 63b; then Freyr falls in fight with Surtr, Týr with Garmr, Thôrr with miðgarðsormr; Oðinn is swallowed by the wolf, Loki and Heimðall slay each other. Duke Julius 302-3. 870 (in Nachtbüchlein, 883), says he has heard that the Lord God was dead (the Pope?). -

Oðinn and Saga drink, Sæm. 41a; Heimðall drinks mead 41b, and always 'gladly' : drecka glöð 41a. dreckr glaðr 41b (p. 324). Thôrr eats and drinks enormously, Sæm. 73b. Sn. 86, and a Norweg. tale of his being invited to a wedding.

                p. 321. ) Of a god it is said: rhidiwj eqelwn, Od. 16, 198. rhidion qeoisi 211; of Circe: reia parexelqousa, Od. 10, 573. Zeus can do the hardest things, ouden asqmainwn menei, Æsch. Eum. 651. In Sn. formâli 12, Thôrr attains his full strength at twelve years, and can lift ten bear's hides at once. Wäinämöinen, the day after his birth, walks to the smithy, and makes himself a horse.

                p. 322. )         Got ist noch liehter (brighter) denne der tac (day),

                        der antlitzes sich bewac (assumed a visage)

                        nâch menschen antlitze. Parz. 119, 19. It is a mark of the Indian gods, that they cast no shadow, never wink, glide without touching the ground, are without dust or sweat (their garments dustless), and their garlands never fade, Holtzm. 3, 13. 19; conf. Bopp's Nalus p. 31. Even men, going into a temple of Zeus, cast no shadow, Meiner's Gesch. d. re. 1, 427. -

Oðinn appears as a 'mikli maðr, herðimikill,' Fornm. sög. 2, 180-1. God has a beard: bien font a Dieu barbe de fuerre, *** well make to God a hay beard (Old French ‘fuerre’ means either hay or sheath, not ‘fer’)] Méon 1, 310. faire barbe de paille à Dieu, *** to make a hay beard to God *** Dict. comique 1, 86-7. Finn. to see God's beard = to be near him, Kal. 27, 200. Vishnu is chatur-bhuja, four-handed, Bopp's Gl. 118a; Siva three-eyed, ibid. p. 160-1. Zeus too was sometimes repres. with three eyes, Paus. ii. 24, 4; Artemis with three heads, Athen. 2, 152. The Teut. mythol. has none of these deformities in its gods; at most we hear of a Conradus Dri-heuptl, MB. 29b, 85 (an. 1254). Yama, the Indian death, is black, and is called kâla, niger, Bopp's Gl. 71b. Vishnu in one incarnation is called Krishna, ater, niger, violaceus, Slav. chernyi (Bopp 83a), so that Cherni-bôgh would correspond to Krishna. -

The beauty of the gods has already been noticed p. 26n.; that of the goddesses is sufficiently attested by giants and dwarfs suing for them: Þrymr wants Freyja, Þiassi Iðun, and the dwarfs demand the last favour of Freyja.

                p. 323. ) Numen, orig. a neuma, nutus, means the nod of deity, and deity itself, as Festus says (ed. O. Müller 173, 17): numen quasi nutus dei ac potestas dicitur. Athena also 'nods' with her eyebrows: ep ofrusi neuse, Od. 16, 164. Diu (frau Minne) winket mir nû, daz ich mit ir gê, Walth. 47, 10; and Egilss. p. 305-6 has a notable passage on letting the eyebrows fall. Les sorcils abessier, Aspr. 45b. sa (si a) les sorcils levez, Paris expt. p. 104. Thôrr shakes his beard, Sæm. 70a.

                The anger, hatred, vengeance of the gods was spoken of on p. 18-9. They punish misdeeds, boasting, presumption. Their envy, fqonoj, is discussed by Lehrs in Königsb. abh. iv. 1, 135 seq.; conf. qelgein (Suppl. to 331). twn tinoj fqonerwn daimonwn mhcanh gegone, Procop. 2, 358. thj tuchj o fqonoj 2, 178. ephreia daimonoj = tantalizing behaviour of a god, Lucian pro lapsu in salut. 1. Loki loves mischief when he brings about the death of Baldr. So the devil laughs to scorn: der tiuvel des lachet, Diut. 3, 52. smutz der tiuvel, welch ein rât! Helbl. 5, 89. des mac der tiuvel lachen 15, 448; conf. the laughing of ghosts (p. 945).

                p. 324. ) Radii capitis appear in pictures, Not. dign. orient. pp. 53. 116. Forcellini sub. v. radiatus. Ztschr. des Hess. ver. 3, 366-7. astraphn eiden eklamyasan apo tou paidoj, saw lightning flash out of his son (Asklepios), Paus. ii. 26, 4. dô quam unser vrôve zu ime, und gotlîche schîne gingen ûz irme antlitze (fr. Mary's face), D. myst. 1, 219.

                p. 325. ) The Homeric gods are without care, autoi de t akhdeej eisin, Il. 24, 526; they are blessed, serene, and rejoice in their splendour. Zeus sits on Olympus, kudei gaiwn (glad of his glory), terpi-keraunoj (delighting in thunder), and looks down at the smoking sacrifices of those he has spared. Ares too, and Briareus are kudei gaiontej. A god feels no pain: eiper qeoj gar estin, ouk aisqhsetai, Aristoph. Frogs 634. So Grîpir is 'glaðr konôngr,' Sæm. 172b. -

The gods laugh: gelwj d ep autw toij qeoij ekinhqh, Babr. 56, 5; risus Jovis = vernantis coeli temperies, Marc. Cap. (conf. giant Svâsuðr, p. 758). subrisit crudele pater (Gradivus), Claudian in Eutr. 2, 109. Callaecia risit floribus ...... per herbam fluxere rosae, Claud. laus Serenae 71. 89. riserunt floribus amnes, Claud. Fl. Mall. 273; conf. laughing or sneezing out roses, rings, etc. Athena too is said to meidan, Od. 13, 287.

                p. 327. ) For gods becoming visible Homer has a special word enarghj: calepoi de qeoi fainesqai enargeij, Il. 20, 131. qeoi fainontai enargeij, Od. 7, 201. 16, 161. enarghj hlqe 3, 420. enarghj suggenomenoj, Lucian's Sat. 10. -

Gods can appear and vanish as they please, without any outward means: dwarfs and men, to become invisible, need the tarn-hat or a miraculous herb. No one can see them against their will: tij an qeon ouk eqelonta ofqalmoisin idoit h enq h enqa kionta; Od. 10. 573. -

As a god can hear far off: kluei de kai proswqen wn qeoj, Æsch. Eum. 287. 375; as 'Got und sîn muoter sehent dur die steine,' MS. 2, 12a; so gods and spirits enter locked and guarded chambers unperceived, unhindered, Holtzm. 3, 11. 48. Dame Venus comes 'dur ganze mûren,' p. 455-6; the Minne conducts 'durch der kemenâten ganze want,' through the chamber's solid wall, Frib. Trist. 796. St. Thomas walks through a closed door, Pass. 248, 26-7. Athena's messenger eishlqe para klhidoj imanta, Od. 4, 802. para klhida liasqh 4, 838. Loki slips through the bora Sn. 356; and devils and witches get in at the keyhole.

                Examples of sudden appearance, p. 400; disappearance, p. 951-2. Oðinn, Höner, Loki in the Färöe poem, when invoked, immediately appear and help. Sudden appearing is expressed in ON. both by the verb hverfa: þâ hvarf Fiölnir, Völsungas. c. 17; and by the noun svipr, Fornald. sög. 1, 402. Sæm. 157a. der engel von himele sleif, Servat. 399. dô sih der rouh ûf bouch, der engel al damit flouch, Maria 158, 2. er fuor in die lüfte hin, die wolken in bedacten, Urstende 116, 75; conf. 'rîða lopt ok lög,' and p. 1070-1. der menschlîch schîn niht bleib lang, er fuor dahin, Ls. 3, 263. Homer uses anaissein of Ares and Aphrodite: anaixante, Od. 8. 361; and the adv. aiya as well as karpalimwj and kraipna, Il. 7, 272. When Ovid. Met. 2, 785 says of Minerva: 'haud plura locuta fugit, et impressa tellurem reppulit hasta,' her dinting the ground with her spear expr. the ease of her ascent. Their speed is that of wind: h d anemou wj pnoih epessuto (of Athena), Od. 6, 20. sic effata rapit coeli per inania cursum diva potens, unoque Padum translapsa volatu, castra sui rectoris adit, Claud. in Eutr. 1, 375. Eros is winged, Athen. 5, 29. Winged angels, pennati pueri (p. 505). Vishnu rides on Garuda, Bopp's Gl. 102a. Indra and Dharma as vulture and dove, Somadeva 1, 70. Holtzm. Ind. sagen 1, 81. Though Athena appears as a youth in Od. 13, 222, as a girl 13, 288, her favourite shape is that of a bird: ornij d wj anopaia dieptato 1, 320. As vultures, she and Apollo settle on a beech-tree, and look merrily on at men, Il. 7, 58. As a swallow, she sits on the rooftree amid the fighters, and thence (uyoqen ex orofhj) uplifts the ægis, Od. 22, 297; so Louhi sits a lark on the window of the smithy (Suppl. to 338), and the eagle in the dream ezet epi prouconti melaqrw, Od. 19, 544; conf. the vulture, who the moment he is named looks in at the door, Meinert's Kuhl. 165. Bellona flies away a bird, Claud. in Eutr. 2, 230; Gestr, i.e. Oðin, as a valr (falcon), and gets a cut in his tail, Fornald. sög. 1, 487-8. Athena sth de kat antiquron klisihj, Od. 16, 159; si mache sich schoen, und gê herfür als ein götinne zuo der tür, Renner 12227. When the unknown goddess steps inside the door, her stature reaches to the roofbeam, melaqrou kure karh, then in a moment she is recognized, Hymn to Aphrod. 174, to Ceres 189. A woman's spirit appears to a man in a dream: sîðan hvarf hun â brott; Olafr vaknaði, ok þôttist siâ svip konunnar, Laxd. 122. sîðan vaknaði Heðinn, ok sâ svipinn af Göndul, Fornald. sög. 1, 402. svipr einn var þar, Sæm. 157a.

                Fragrance and brightness emanate from a deity, Schimmelpfeng 100-1. Hymn to Ceres 276-281 (Suppl. to 318); a sweet smell fills the house of Zeus, Athen. 3, 503. So with the Hebrews a cloud, a mist, or the glory of the Lord fills the house of the Lord, 1 Kings 8, 10-1; 2 Chron. 5, 13. comarum (of Venus) gratus odor, Claud. de nupt. Heaven breathes an odor suavitatis, that nourishes like food, Greg. Tur. 7, 1. The bodies of saints, e.g. Servatius, exhale a delicious odour (p. 823); conf. the flowers that spring up under the tread of feet divine (p. 330). The hands and feet of gods leave their mark in the hard stone, so do the hoofs of their horses (Suppl. to 664). Gods appear in human form and disguise, Oðinn often as a one-eyed old man, a beggar, a peasant, to Hrolf as Hrani bôndi (Hrani is a hero's name in Hervararsaga, Rani in Saxo).

                p. 329. ) The Indian gods ride in chariots, like the Grk: Indra, Agni, Varuna, etc., Nalus 15-6; 7 steeds draw the car of Sûryas the god of day, Kuhn's Rec. d. Rigveda 99. 100; Râtri, night, Usa, aurora, are drawn by kine. Plato in Phædr. 246-7 speaks of the gods' horses, chariots, charioteers, of Zeus driving a winged car. Selene is appealed to: pot wkeanon trepe pwlouj, Theocr. 2, 163. asterej, eukhloio kat antuga Nuktoj opadoi 2, 166. --

The German gods occasionally drive in star-chariots, or the stars themselves have a chariot, pp. 151. 723n.; conf. the car-processions p. 336; the sun too drives a chariot: Sôl varp hendi inni hoegri um himiniódýr, Sæm. 1b (who is Vagnarunni in Egilss. 610, Oðinn or Thôrr?). But riding is the rule, though Loki says to Frigg: ec þvî rêð, er þû rîða sêrat sîðan Baldr at sölum, Sæm. 63b; even beasts ride in the Beast-apologue, Renart 10277-280-460-920.

p. 330. ) When Athena sits with Diomed in his war chariot, the axle groans with the weight: deinhn gar agen qeon andra t ariston, Il. 5, 888. When Ceres nods, the cornfields shake: annuit his, capitisque sui pulcherrima motu concussit gravidis oneratos messibus agros, Ovid Met. 8, 780.

                p. 331. ) The gods appear in mist or cloud: Jehovah to Moses in a pillar of fire, Deut. 31, 15. diva dimovit nebulam, juvenique apparuit ingens, Claud. in Eutr. 1, 390. (Tritonia) cava circumdata nube, Ov. Met. 5, 251. The merminne comes "mit eime dunste, als ein wint," Lanz. 181; in the legend of Fosete the god vanishes in a caligo tenebrosa, Pertz 2, 410. A cloud descends, and the angel steps out of it, Girard de Viane p. 153. --

Gods and dæmons are said to qelgein, hoodwink, delude (conf. p. 463-4 of elves, and Suppl. to 322): alla me daimwn qelgei, Od. 16, 195; of Hermes: andrwn ommata qelgei, Il. 24, 343: of Poseidon: qelxaj osse faeina, Il. 13, 435; of Athena: touj de Pallas Aqhnaih qelxei kai mhtieta Zeuj, Od. 16, 298; qea qelgei 1, 57; but also of Circe and the Sirens, Passow sub v. qelgw. Hera holds her hand over her protégé, uperceiria, Paus. iii. 13, 6. -

They take one by the hair: sth d opiqen, xanqhj de komhj ele Phleiwna, Il. 1, 197; by the ear: Kronoj proselqwn opisqen kai tou wtoj mou labomenoj, Lucian's Sat. 11.

                p. 331. ) The Grecian gods sleep, Athen. 2, 470; yet Ssk. deus = liber a somno, Bopp's Gl. 26a. A sick god is healed by incense, Walach. märchen p. 228. They are fond of play: filopaigmonej gar kai oi qeoi, Plato Cret. ed. bip. 3, 276. The kettledrums of gods resound from heaven, and flowers rain down, Nalus p. 181. 238 (conf. OHG. heaven is hung full of fiddles); 'it would please God in heaven (to hear that music),' Melander 2, no. 449. Got mohte wol lachen (at the tatermenlîn), Renn. 11526. Conf. the effects of music on mankind: when Salome is ill, there come 'zwêne spilman ûz Kriechen, die konden generen (heal) die siechen mit irem senften spil, des konden sie gar vil,' Morolf 1625; 'I have my fiddle by me, to make sick people well and rainy weather jolly,' Goethe 11, 11; the tinkle of bells a cure for care, Trist. 398, 24. 39. 411, 9; song birds cheer the tôt-riuwesære, Iwein 610. Aucassin's lay drives death away, Méon 1, 380. With the comforting of bereaved Skaði and Demeter conf. Wigal. 8475: 'sehs videlære, die wolden im sîne swære (heaviness) mit ir videlen vertrîben,' and Creuzer's Symb. 4, 466. Athen, 5, 334. It was a Lith. custom to get the bride to laugh, Nesselm. sub v. prajukinu. N. Preuss. prov. bl. 4, 312. A king's daughter, who has a fishbone in her throat, is made to laugh, Méon 3, 1 seq. The gods love to deal out largess, are datores, largitores, esp. Gibika (p. 137); conf. borg-geba (Suppl. to 274), oti-geba (p. 890n.); they are âr-gefnar, öl-gefnar, crop-givers, ale-givers, Höstlöng ii. 2, 11 (Thorl. sp. 6, 34. 42. 50. 68).

                p. 334. ) God's language and men's, Athen. 1, 335. Lobeck's Aglaoph. 854. 858-867. Heyne on the first passage quoted, Il. 1, 403: quae antiquiorem sermonem et servatas inde appellationes arguere videntur. Like ON., the Indians have many words for cloud, Bopp's Gl. 16a. 209a. 136b. 158b; but do not attribute a separate language to the gods. Yet Somaveda 1, 59. 64 names the four languages Sanskrit, Prakrit, Vernacular and Dæmonic. The Greek examples can be added to: Plagktaj d htoi taj ge qeoi makarej kaleousin, Od. 12, 61. qnhtoi Erwta, aqanatoi de Pterwta, Plato's Phædr. 252. thn d Afrodithn kiklhskousi qeoi te kai anerej, Hes. Theog. 197. The different expressions attrib. to men and gods in the Alvis-mâl, could no doubt be taken as belonging to different Teut. dialects, so that Menn should mean the Scandinavians, Goðar the Goths, and sôl for instance be actually the Norse word, sunna the Old Gothic, GDS. p. 768. Kl. schr. 3, 221.

                p. 335. ) The Norse gods are almost all married; of Greek goddesses the only real wife is Hera. Gods fighting with heroes are sometimes beaten, and put to flight, e.g. Ares in Homer; and he and Aphrodite are wounded besides. Now Othin, Thor and Balder are also beaten in the fight with Hother (Saxo ed. M. 118), nay, Balder is ridiculus fuga (119); but wounding is never mentioned, and of Balder it is expressly stated (113): sacram corporis ejus firmitatem ne ferro quidem cedere.

                p. 335. ) Apart from Brahma, Vishnu and Siva, the Indians reckoned thirteen minor gods, Bopp's Gl. 160a. The former were younger gods, who had displaced the more elemental powers, Kuhn's Rec. d. Rigv. p. 101. Holtzm. Ind. sag. 3, 126; conf. 'got ein junger tôr' (p. 7n. ). Young Zeus, old Kronos, Athen. 1, 473. cot crôni, deus recens, Graff 4, 299. The new year (p. 755). GDS. 765.

                p. 336. ) Mountain heights are haunts of the Malay gods also, Ausld. 1857, 604a. petra, daimonwn anastrofh, Æsch. Eum. 23. Olympus descr. in Od. 6, 42-46. To the rock caverns (at Ithaca) gods and men have separate entrances, those by the south gate, these by the north 13, 110-1-2. The Norse gods live in Asgard. Hreiðmarr cries to the Ases: haldit heim heðan, be off home from here! Sæm. 182b. -

They have separate dwellings, but near together; conf. the Donar's oak near Wuotan's mount (p. 170). þâr (î Baldurs-hage) voru mörg goð, Fornald. sög. 2, 63. Indian gods too have separate abodes: urbs Kuvêri, mons K. sedes, Bopp's Gl. 19b. 85b. Dioj aulh, Lucian's Pseud. 19. Significant is the ON. : hefir ser um gerva sali, Sæm. 40-1-2. -

The gods sit on thrones or chairs (p. 136), from which they are entreated to look down in pity and protection: Zeuj de gennhtwr idoi, Æsch. Suppl. 206. epidoi d Artemij agna 1031. lîta vinar augom. The gods' houses are marked by gates, Hpt's Ztschr. 2, 535.

                p. 337. ) The gods often have a golden staff, with which they touch and transform: cruseih rabdw epemassat Aqhnh, Od. 16, 172. 456. 13, 429; Circe strikes with her staff, Od. 10, 238; conf. Hermes' rod, the wishing-rod (p. 976) and other wishing gear. Shiva has a miraculous bow, so has Indra acc. to the Vedas. Apollo's bow carries plague; conf. Oðin's spear (p. 147). In Germ. märchen the fays, witches, sorcerers carry a transfiguring staff (p. 1084).

                Gods are regarded by men as fathers, goddesses as mothers (pp. 22. 145. 254). They delight in men, andrasi terpomenoi, Il. 7, 61; their kindly presence is expr. by the Homeric amfibainw: oj Crushn amfibebhkaj, Il. 1, 37. oj Ismaron amfibebhkei, Od. 9, 198. They love to come down to men; conf. Exod. 3, 8: katebhn, descendi, hwearf (p. 325); they stop their chariots, and descend to earth, Holtzm. 3, 8. Nalus p. 15. praesentes caelicolae, Cat. 64, 383. Like the Ind. avatâra is a qeou epidhmia (visitation), Lucian's Conviv. 7. Gods are not omnipresent, they are often absent, they depart, Athen. 2, 470. Jupiter says: summo delabor Olympo, et deus humana lustro sub imagine terras, Ov. Met. 1, 212. In the Faröe lay, Oðinn, Hoenir and Loki appear instantly. (Appearing to a man can be expr. by looking under his eyes, Etm. Orendel pp. 73. 45. 83. 102.) The passage: di liute wânden (weened) er waere Got von himel, Griesh. 2, 48, presupposes a belief in God's appearing (p. 26n). so ritestu heim als waer Got do, Dancrotsh. namenb. 128, and: if God came down from heaven and bade him do it, he would not, Thurneisser 2, 48. At Whitsun the street was hung with tapestry: als ochter God selve comen soude, Lanc. 31321. God (or his image) loves a place where he is made much of: Got möhte lieber niht gestên ûf der erden an deheiner stat, Helbl. 15, 584; 'here dwells der liebe Gott,' p. 20n. His return to heaven is expr. by: 'do vuor Got ze himele in deme gesuneclicheme bild,' Diemer 7, 19; conf. 'ego in coelum migro,' Plaut. Amph. v. 2, 13. --

Gods send messengers, angels, those of Greece Hermes, Iris, etc., who escort men (p. 875), and inspect and report the goings on of the world, says a pretty Servian song by Gavrai. It is worth noting in the prol. to Plaut. Rudens, that Arcturus shines in heaven at night, but walks the earth by day as messenger of Jove. Gods assist at christenings (Godfather Death), weddings, betrothals, Holtzm. 3, 8; and Mary too lifts a child out of the font, Wend. märch. 16. They hallow and bless men by laying on of hands: vîgit ocr saman Varar hendi, Sæm. 74b. Apollon und Tervigant, ir beider got, hât sîne hant den zwein geleit ûf daz houbet, daz si helfe unberoubet und gelückes (unrobbed of help and luck) solden sîn, mit götlîcher helfe schîn geschach daz ir, Turl. Wh. 112a; like a priest or father. --

Gods deal with men in their sleep: a rib is taken out of sleeping Adam, to make Eve; Athena sheds sweet sleep over Penelope, while she makes her taller and fairer, Od. 18, 188; Luck comes near the sleeper, gods raise up the fallen hero, Il. 7, 272. Their paltry-looking gifts turn out precious (Berhta's, Holda's, Rübezahl's): the leaves turn into gold, the more fittingly as Glasir the grove of the gods bears golden leafage.

                p. 338. ) Metamorphosis is expr. by den lîp verkêren, Barl. 250, 22. sich kêrte z'einem tiere 28. Oðinn viðbrast î vals lîki, when Heiðrekr and Tyrfîng attack him, Fornald. sög. 1, 487. Loki changes into a mare, and has a foal (Sleipnir) by Svaðilfari, Sn. 47. falsk Loki î lax lîki, Sæm. 68b. Sn. 69. Heimðallr ok Loki î sela lîkjum, Sn. 105. Loki sits in the window as a bird 113; conf. Athena as a swallow on the roof beam (p. 326). Louhi as a lark (leivonen) in the window (ikkuna), Kal. 27, 182-5-8. 205. 215 (conf. Egilss. p. 420), or as a dove (kyyhky) on the threshold (kynnys) 27, 225-8. 232. Berhta looks in, hands things in, through the window (p. 274); the snake looks in at window, Firmen. 2, 156. Louhi, pursuing Sampo, takes the shape of an eagle. denique ut (Jupiter) ad Trojæ tecta volarit avis, Prop. iii. 30, 30. Jupiter cycnus et candidorum procreator ovorum, Arnob. 1, 136 (pp. 666. 491). In märchens a bear, eagle, dolphin, carries off the princess.

                p. 338. ) Gods may become men as a punishment. Dyaus having stolen a cow, all the Vasu gods are doomed to be born men. Eight of them, as soon as born, return to the world of gods; the ninth, the real culprit, must go through a whole human life, Holtzm. Ind. sag. 3, 102-6.

                p. 339. ) Real names (not merely epithets) of gods often become abstract ideas in Sanskrit. Indra, at the end of a compound, is princeps, dominus, Bopp 40a; Srî is prefixed to other names reverentiae causa, as Srîganêsa, Srîmahabhârata 357a. In ON. one âs can stand for another, as Bragi for Oðinn in the saw, 'nioti bauga sem Bragi auga,' Egilss. 455. So Freya, Nanna, Týr, Baldr become abstract terms (p. 220-1): baldr brynþîngs, b. fetilstînga, Fornm. sög. 6, 257. 12, 151. enn norðri niörðr 6, 267. geirniörðr = heros, Sæm. 266b. Conf. Gotes intensive (p. 19).

 

 

Chapter 15

Heroes

 

 

 

Between God and man there is a step on which the one leads into the other, where we see the Divine Being brought nearer to things of earth, and human strength glorified. The older the epos, the more does it require gods visible in the flesh; even the younger cannot do without heroes, in whom a divine spark still burns, or who come to be partakers of it.

Heroism must not be made to consist in anything but battle and victory: a hero is a man that in fighting against evil achieves immortal deeds, and attains divine honours. As the gradation of ranks the noble stands between the king and the freeman, so does the hero between God and man. From nobles come forth kings, from heroes gods. nrwj estin ex anqrwpou ti kai qeou sunqeton, o mhte anqrwpoj esti, mhte qeoj, kai sunamfoteron esti (Lucian in Dial. mortuor. 3), yet so that the human predominates: 'ita tamen ut plus ab homine haveat,' says Servius on Aen. 1, 200. The hero succumbs to pains, wounds, death, from which even the gods, according to the view of antiquity, were not exempt (p. 318). In the hero, man attains the half of deity, becomes a demigod, semideus: hmiqewn genoj andrwn, Il. 12, 23; andrwn hrwwn qeion genoj, oi kaleontai hmiqeoi, Hes. erg. 159. Jornandes applies semidei to the anses (supra p. 25), as Saxo Gram. pronounces Balder a semideum, arcano superûm semine procreatum. Otherwise in ON. writings we meet with neither hâlfgoð nor hâlfâs; (1) but N. Cap. 141 renders hemithei heroesque by 'halbkota unde erdkota (earthgods)'.

Heroes are distinct from dæmonic beings, such as angels, elves, giants, who fill indeed the gap between God and man, but have not a human origin. Under paganism, messengers of the gods were gods themselves; (2) the Judeo-christian angel is a dæmon. Rather may the hero be compared to the christian saint, who through spiritual strife and sorrow earns a place in heaven (see Suppl.).

This human nature of heroes is implied in nearly all the titles given to them. For the definite notion of a divine glorified hero, the Latin language has borrowed heros from the Greek, though its own vir (=Goth. vaír ON. ver, (3) AS. OHG. wer, Lett. wihrs, Lith. wyras) in the sense of vir fortis (Tac. Germ. 3) so nearly comes up to the Sanskr. vîra heros. Heros, hrwj, which originally means a mere fighter, has been identified with rather too many things: herus, Hrh, Hraklhj, even Arhj and areth = virtus, so that the Goth. áirus, ON. âr, âri = nuntius, minister, might come in too, or the supposed digamma make a connexion with the aforesaid vîra look plausible. More undeniably, our held is a prolongation (4) of the simple ON. halr, AS. hæle vir: the name Halidegastes (like Leudogastes) is found so early as in Vopiscus; and a Goth. haliþs, OHG. halid, helid may be safely inferred from the proper names Helidperaht, Helidcrim, Helidgund, Helidniu, Helidberga, (5) though it is only from the 12th century that our memorials furnish an actual helit pl. helide; the MHG. helet, helt, pl. helde, occurs often enough. Of the AS. hæleð I remark that it makes its pl. both hæleðas and hæleð (e.g., Beow. 103), the latter archaic like the Goth. mênôþs, whence we may infer that the Gothic also had a pl. haliþs, and OHG. a pl. helid as well as helidâ, and this is confirmed by a MHG. pl. held, Wh. 44, 20. In OS. I find only the pl. helidôs, helithôs; in the Heliand, helithcunni, helithocunni mean simply genus humanum. M. Dut. has helet pl. helde. The ON. höldr pl. höldar (Sæm. 114b 115ª. Sn. 171) implies an older höluðr (like mânuðr = Goth. mênôþs); it appears to mean nothing but miles, vir, and höldborit (höld-born) in the first passage to be something lower than hersborit, the höldar being free peasants, bûendr. The Dan. helt, Swed. hjelte (OSwed. hälad) show an anomalous t instead of d, and are perhaps to be traced to the German rather than the ON. form. If we prefer to see both in halr and in haliþs the verb haljan occulere, defenders, tueri, the transition from tutor to vir and miles is easily made; even the Lat. celer is not far from celo to conceal.

Beside this principal term, the defining of which was not to be avoided here, there are several others to be considered. Notker, who singularly avoids heleda, supplies us in Cap. 141 with: 'heroes, taz chît, hertinga alde chueniga'. This hertinga suggests the AS. heardingas, Elene 25. 130, whether it be a particular line, or heroes in general that are meant by it; and we might put up with the derivation from herti, heard (hard), viri duri, fortes, exercitati, as hartunga in N. ps. 9, 1 means exercitatio. But as we actually find a Gothic line of heroes Azdingi, Astingi, and also an ON. of Haddîngjar, and as the Goth. zd, ON. dd, AS rd, OHG. rt correspond to one another, there is more to be said for the Gothic word having dropt an h in the course of transmission, and the forms hazdiggs, haddîngr, hearding, hartinc being all one word.(6) Now if the ON. haddr means a lock of hair (conf. p. 309), we may find in haddîngr, hazdiggs, &c. a meaning suitable enough for a freeman and hero, that of crinitus, capillatus, cincinnatus; and it would be remarkable that the meaning heros should be still surviving in the tenth century. No less valuable to us is the other term chucnig, which can hardly be connected with chuning rex, as N. always spells it; it seems rather to be = chuonig, derived either from chuoni audax, fortis (as fizusig from fizus callidus), or from its still unexplained root. (7) Other terms with a meaning immediately bordering on that of her are: OHG. dëgan (miles, minister); wîgant (pugil); chamfio, chempho (pugil), AS. cempa, ON. kappi; the ON. hetja (bellator), perhaps conn. with hatr odium, bellum; and skati, better skaði, AS. sceaða, scaða, properly nocivus, then prædator, latro, and passing from this meaning, honourable in ancient times, into that of heroes; even in the Mid. Ages, Landscado, scather of the land, was a man borne by noble families. That heri (exercitus), Goth harjis, also meant miles, is shown by OHG. glosses, Graff 4, 983, and by names of individual men compounded with heri; conf. ch. XXV, einheri. The OHG. urecchio, hrecchio, reccho, had also in a peculiar way grown out of the sense of exsul, profugus, advena, which predominates in the AS. wrecca, OS. wrekio, into that of a hero fighting far from home, and the MHG. recke, ON. reckr is simply a hero in general. (8) Similar developments of meaning can doubtless be shown in many other words; what we have to keep a firm hold of is, that the very simplest words for man (vir) and even for man (homo) adapted themselves to the notion of hero; as our mann does now, so the ON. halr, the OHG. gomo (homo), ON. gumi served to express the idea of heroes. In Diut. 2, 314b, heros is glossed by gomo, and gumnar in the Edda has the same force as skatnar (see Suppl.).

Now, what is the reason for this exaltation of human nature? Always in the first instance, as far as I can see, a relation of bodily kinship between a god and the race of man. The heroes are epigoni of the gods, their line is descended from the gods: ættir guma er frâ goðom kômo, Sæm. 114ª.

Greek mythology affords an abundance of proofs; it is by virtue of all heroes being directly or indirectly produced by gods and goddesses in conjuction with man, that the oldest kingly families connect themselves with heaven. But evidently most of these mixed births proceed from Zeus, who places himself at the head of gods and men, and to whom all the glories of ancestors are traced. Thus, by Leda he had Castor and Pollux, who were called after him Dios-curi, Hercules by Alcmena, Perseus by Danaë, Epaphus by Io, Pelasgus by Niobe, Minos and Sarpedon by Europa; other heroes touch him only through their forefathers: Agamemnon was the son of Atreus, he of Pelops, he of Tantalus, and he of Zeus; Ajax was sprung from Telamon, he from Aeacus, he from Zeus and Aegina. Next to Zeus, the most heroes seem to proceed from Ares, Hermes and Poseidon: Meleager, Diomedes and Cycnus were sons of Ares, Autolycus and Cephalus of Hermes, while Theseus was a son of Aegeus, and Nestor of Neleus, but both Aegeus and Neleus were Poseidon's children by Aethra and Tyro. Achilles was the son of Peleus and Thetis, Aeneas of Anchises and Venus. (9) These examples serve as a standard for the conditions of our own heroic legend (see Suppl.).

Tacitus, following ancient lays, places at the head of our race as its prime progenitor Tuisco, who is not a hero, but himself a god, as the author expressly names him 'deum terra editum'. Now, as Gaia of herself gave birth to Uranos and Pontos, that is to say, sky and sea sprang from the lap of earth, so Tuisco seems derivable from the word tiv, in which we found (pp. 193-4) the primary meaning to be sky; and Tuisco, i.e., Tvisco, could easily spring out of the fuller form Tivisco [as Tuesday from Tiwesdæg]. Tvisco may either mean coelestis, or the actual offspring of another divine being Tiv, whom we afterwards find appearing among the gods: Tiv and Tivisco to a certain degree are and signify one thing. Tvisco then is in sense and station Uranos, but in name Zeus, whom the Greek myth makes proceed from Uranos not directly, but through Kronos, pretty much as our Tiv or Zio is made a son of Wuotan, while another son Donar takes upon him the best part of the office that the Greeks assigned to Zeus. Donar too was son of Earth as well as Wuotan, even as Gaia brought forth the great mountain-ranges (ourea makra, Hes. theog. 129 = Goth. faírgunja mikila), and Donar himself was called mountain and faírguneis (pp. 169. 172), so that ouranoj sky stands connected with ouroj oroj mountain, the idea of deus with that of ans (pp. 25. 188). Gaia, Tellus, Terra come round again in our goddesses Fiörgyn, Iörð and Rindr (p. 251); so the names of gods and goddesses here cross one another, but in a similar direction.

This earth-born Tvisco's son was Mannus, and no name could sound more Teutonic, though Norse mythology has as little to say of him as of Tvisco (ON. Týski?). No doubt a deeper meaning once resided in the word; by the addition of the suffix -isk, as in Tiv Tivisco, there arose out of mann a mannisko = homo, the thinking self-conscious being (see p. 59); both forms, the simple and the derived, have (like tiv and tivisko) the same import, and may be set by the side of the Sanskr. Manus and manushya. Mannus however is the first hero, son of the god, and father of all men. Traditions of this forefather of the whole Teutonic race seem to have filtered down even to the latter end of the Mid. Ages: in a poem of meister Frauenlob (Ettm. p. 112), the same in which the mythical king Wippo is spoken of (see p. 300), we read:

Mennor der êrste was genant, Mennor the first man was named

dem diutische rede got tet to whom Dutch language Godbekant. made known.

This is not taken from Tacitus direct, as the proper name, though similar, is not the same (see Suppl.).

As all Teutons come of Tvisco and Mannus, so from the three (or by some accounts five) sons of Mannus are descended the three, five or seven main branches of the race. From the names of nations furnished by the Romans may be inferred those of their patriarchal progenitors.

 

1. INGUIO. ISCIO. IRMINO.

 

The threefold division of all the Germani into Ingaevones, Iscaevones and Herminones (10) is based on the names of three heroes, Ingo, Isco, Hermino, each of whom admits of being fixed on yet surer authroity. Ing, or Ingo, Inguio has kept his place longest in the memory of the Saxon and Scandinavian tribes. Runic alphabets in OHG. spell Inc, in AS. Ing, and an echo of his legend seems still to ring in the Lay of Runes:

Ing wæs ærest mid Eástdenum

gesewen secgum, oð he sîððan eást

ofer wæg gewât. wæn æfter ran.

þus Heardingas þone hæle nemdon.

Ing first dwelt with the East Danes (conf. Beow. 779. 1225. 1650),  then he went eastward over the sea, (11) his wain ran after. The wain is a distinctive mark of ancient gods, but also of heroes and kings; its being specially put forward here in connexion with a sea-voyage, appears to indicate some feature of the legend that is unknown to us (see Suppl.). Ing's residence in the east is strikingly in harmony with a pedigree of the Ynglings given in Islendîngabôk (Isl. sög. 1, 19). Here at the head of all stands 'Yngvi Tyrkja konungr,' immediately succeeded by divine beings, Niörðr, Freyr, Fiölnir (a byname of Oðinn), Svegdir, &c. In the same way Oðinn was called Tyrkja konungr (Sn. 368) from his residing at Byzantium (p. 163 note). (12) The Ynglînga saga on the other hand begins the line with Niörðr, after whom come Freyr, Fiölnir and the rest; but of Freyr, whom the wain would have suited exactly, it is stated that he had another name Yngvi or Yngvifreyr (p. 211-2), and the whole race of Ynglîngar were named after him. (13) Ingîngar or Ingvîngar would be more exact, as is shown by the OHG. and AS. spelling, and confirmed by a host of very ancient names compounded with Ing or Ingo: Inguiomêrus (Ingimârus, Ingumâr, or with asp. Hincmarus), Inguram, Ingimund, Ingiburc, Inginolt, &c. Even Saxo Gram. writes Ingo, Ingimarus. As for Ynglîngar, standing for Inglîngar, it may be formed from the prolongation Ingil in Ingelwin, Ingelram, Ingelberga and the Norse Ingellus, unless it is a mere confusion of the word with ýnglîngr juvenis, OHG. jungilinc, AS. geongling, from the root ûng, junc, geong, which has no business here at all (?).--The main point is, that the first genealogy puts Ingvi before Niörðr, so that he would be Frey's grandfather, while the other version makes him be born again as it were in Freyr, and even fuses his name with Frey's, of which there lurks a trace likewise in the AS. 'freá Ingwina' (p. 211). This Ingwina appears to be the gen. pl. of Ingwine, OHG. Inguwini, and 'dominus Ingwinorum' need not necessarily refer to the god, any hero might be so called. But with perfect right may an Ingvi, Inguio be the patriarch of a race that bears the name of Ingvîngar = Ynglîngar. And then, what the Norse genealogy is unable to carry farther up than to Ingvi, Tacitus kindly completes for us, by informing us that Inguio is the son of Mannus, and he of Tvisco; and his Ingaevones are one of two things, either the OHG. pl. Inguion (from sing. Inguio), or Ingwini after the AS. Ingwine. Thus pieced out, the line of gods and heroes would run: Tvisco, Mannus, Ingvio, Nerthus, Fravio (or whatever shape the Gothic Fráuja would have taken in the mouth of a Roman). The earth-born Tvisco's mother repeats herself after three intermediate links in Nerthus the god or hero, as a Norse Ingui stands now before Niörðr, now after; and those Vanir, who have been moved away to the east, and to whom Niörðr and his son Freyr were held mainly to belong (pp. 218-9), would have a claim to count as one and the same race with the Ingaevones, although this association with Mannus and Tvisco appears to vindicate their Teutonic character.

But these bonds draw themselves yet tighter. The AS. lay informed us, that Ing bore that name among the Heardings, had received it from them. This Heardingas must either mean heroes and men generally, as we saw on p. 342, or a particular people. Hartung is still remembered in our Heldenbuch as king of the Reussen (Rûs, Russians), the same probably as 'Hartnît' or 'Hertnît von Reussen'; in the Alphart he is one of the Wölfing heroes. (14) Hartunc and his father Immunc (Rudlieb 17, 8) remain dark to us. The Heardingas appear to be a nation situated east of the Danes and Swedes, among whom Ing is said to have lived for a time; and this his sojourn is helped out both by the Turkish king Yngui and the Russian Hartung. It has been shown that to Hartunc, Hearding, would correspond the ON. form Haddîngr. Now, whereas the Danish line of heroes beginning with Oðinn arrives at Frôði in no more than three generations, Oðinn being followed by Skiöldr, Friðleifr, Frôði; the series given in Saxo Gram. stands thus: Humbl, Dan, Lother, Skiold, Gram, Hading, Frotho. But Hading stands for Hadding, as is clear from the spelling of 'duo Haddingi' in Saxo p. 93, who are the Haddîngjar often mentioned in the Edda; it is said of him, p. 12: 'orientalium robore debellato, Suetiam reversus,' which orientals again are Rutheni; but what is most remarkable is, that Saxo p. 17-8 puts in the mouth of this Danish king and his wife Regnilda a song which in the Edda is sung by Niörðr and Skaði (Sn. 27-8). (15) We may accordingly take Hadding to be identical with Niörðr, i.e., a second birth of that god, which is further confirmed by Friðleifr (= Freálâf, whom we have already identified with the simple Freá, p. 219) appearing in the same line, exactly as Freyr is a son of Niörðr, and Saxo says expressly, p. 16, that Hadding offered a Fröblôt, a sacrifice in honour of Freyr. Whether in Frôði (OHG. Fruoto, MHG. Fruote), the hero of the Danish story, who makes himself into three, and whose rule is praised as peaceful and blissful, we are to look for Freyr over again, is another question.

In the god-hero of Tacitus then there lingers, still recognisable, a Norse god; and the links I have produced must, if I mistake not, set the final seal on the reading 'Nerthus'. If we will not admit the goddess into the ranks of a race which already has a Terra mater standing at its very head, it is at all events no great stretch to suppose that certain nations transferred her name to the god or hero who formed one of the succeeding links in the race.

There are more of these Norse myths which probably have to do with this subject, lights that skim the deep darkness of our olden time, but cannot light it up, and often die away in a dubious flicker. The Formâli of the Edda, p. 15, calls Oðinn father of Yngvi, and puts him at the head of the Ynglîngar: once again we see ourselves entitled to identify Oðinn with Mannus or Tvisco. Nay, with all this interlacing and interchange of members, we could almost bear to see Oðinn made the same as Niörðr, which is done in one manuscript. But the narrative 'frâ Fornioti ok haus ættmönnum' in Fornald. sög. 2, 12 carries us farther: at the top stands Burri, like the king of Tyrkland, followed by Burr, Oðinn, Freyr, Niörðr, Freyr, Fiölnir; here then is a double Freyr, the first one taking Yngvi's place, i.e., the Yngvifreyr we had before; but also a manifold Oðinn, Fiölnir being one of his names (Sæm. 10ª 46b 184ª. Sn. 3). Burri and Burr, names closely related to each other like Folkvaldi and Folkvaldr, and given in another list as Burri and Bors, seem clearly to be the Buri and Börr cited by Sn. 7. 8 as forefathers of the three brothers Oðinn, Vili, Ve (see p. 162). Now, Buri is that first man or human being, who was licked out of the rocks by the cow, hence the êristporo (erst-born), an OHG. Poro, Goth. Baúra; Börr might be OHG. Paru, Goth. Barus or whatever form we choose to adopt, anyhow it comes from baíran, a root evidently well chosen in a genealogical tale, to denote the first-born, first-created men. (16) Yet we may think of Byr too, the wish-wand (see Oskabyrr, p. 144). Must not Buri, Börr, Oðinn be parallel, though under other names, to Tvisco, Mannus, Inguio? Inguio has two brothers at his side, Iscio and Hermino, as Oðinn has Vili and Ve; we should then see the reason why the names Týski and Maðr (17) are absent from the Edda, because Buri and Börr are their substitutes; and several other things would become intelligible. Tvisco is 'terra editus,' and Buri is produced out of stone; when we see Oðinn heading the Ynglîngar as well as Inguio the Ingaevones, we may find in that a confirmation of the hypothesis that Saxons and Cheruscans, preeminently worshippers of Wôdan, formed the flower of the Ingaevones. These gods and demigods may appear to be all running into one another, but always there emerges from among the real supreme divinity, Wuotan.

I go on expounding Tacitus. Everything confirms me in the conjecture that Inguio's or Ingo's brother must have been named Iscio, Isco, and not Istio, Isto. There is not so much weight to be laid on the fact that sundry MSS. even of Tacitus actually read Iscaevones: we ought to examine more narrowly, whether the st in Pliny's Istaevones be everywhere a matter of certainty; and even that need not compel us to give up our sc; Iscaevo was perhaps liable to be corrupted by the Romans themselves into Istaevo, as Vistula crept in by the side of the truer Viscula (Weichsel). But what seem irrefragable proofs are the Escio and Hisicion (18) of Nennius, in a tradition of the Mid. Ages not adopted from Tacitus, and the Isiocon (19) in a Gaelic poem of the 11th century (see Suppl.). If this will not serve, let internal evidence speak: in Tuisco and Mannisco we have been giving the suffix -isc its due, and Tuisto, a spelling which likewise occurs, is proof against all attempt at explanation. now Isco, as the third name in the same genealogy, would agree with these two. For Tvisco and Mannus the Norse legend substitutes two other names, but Inguio it has preserved in Ingvi; ought not his brother Iscio to be discoverable too? I fancy I am on his track in the Eddic Askr, a name that is given to the first-created man again (Sæm. 3. Sn. 10), and means an ash-tree. It seems strange enough, that we also come across this ask (let interpretation understand it of the tree or not) among the Runic names, side by side with 'inc, ziu, er,' all heroes and gods; and among the ON. names for the earth is Eskja, Sn. 220b. And even the vowel- change in the two forms of name, Iscio and Askr, holds equally good of the suffix -isk, -ask.

Here let me give vent to a daring fancy. In our language the relation of lineal descent is mainly expressed by two suffixes, ING and ISK. Manning means a son the offspring of man, and mannisko almost the same. I do not say that the two divine ancestors were borrowed from the grammatical form, still less that the grammatical form originated in the heroes' names. I leave the vital connexion of the two things unexplained, I simply indicate it. But if the Ingaevones living 'proximi oceano' were Saxon races, which to this day are addicted to deriving with -ing, it may be remarked that Asciburg, a sacred seat of the Iscaevones who dwelt 'proximi Rheno,' stood on the Rhine. (20) Of Askr, and the relation of the name to the tree, I shall treat in ch. XIX; of the Iscaevones it remains to be added, that the Anglo-Saxons also knew a hero Oesc, and consequently Oescingas.

Zeuss, p. 73 gives the preference to the reading Istaevones, connecting them with the Astingi, Azdingi, whom I (p. 342) took for Hazdingi, and identified with the ON. Haddîngjar, AS. Heardingas, OHG. Hertingâ. The hypothesis of Istaevones = Izdaevones would require that the Goth. zd = AS. rd, OHG. rt, should in the time of Tacitus have prevailed even among the Rhine Germans; I have never yet heard of an OHG. Artingâ, Ertingâ, nor of an ON. Addîngar, Eddîngar. According to this conjecture, ingenious anyhow and worth examining further, the ancestral hero would be called Istio = Izdio, Izdvio, OHG. Erto, ON. Eddi, with which the celebrated term edda proavia would agree, its Gothic form being izdô, OHG. ertâ. Izdo, Izdio proavus would seem in itself an apt name for the founder of a race. The fluctuation between i and a would be common to both interpretations, 'Iscaevones = Askingâ' and 'Istaevones = Artingâ'.

The third son of Mannus will occupy us even longer than his brothers. Ermino's posterity completes the cycle of the three main races of Germany: Ingaevones, Iscaevones, Herminones. The order in which they stand seems immaterial, in Tacitus it merely follows their geographical position; the initial vowel common to them leads us to suppose an alliterative juxtaposition of the ancestral heroes in German songs. The aspirate given by the Romans to Herminones, as to Hermunduri, is strictly no part of the German word, but is also very commonly retained by Latin writers of the Mid. Ages in proper names compounded with Irmin. In the name of the historical Arminius Tacitus leaves it out.

As with Inguio and Iscio, we must assign to the hero's name the otherwise demonstratable weak form Irmino, (21) Ermino, Goth. Aírmana: it is supported by the derivative Herminones, and even by the corruptions 'Hisicion, Armenon, Negno' in Nennius (see Suppl.). Possibly the strong-formed Irman, Irmin, Armin may even be a seperate root. But what occurs far more frequently than the simple word, is a host of compounds with irman-, irmin-, not only proper names, but other expressions concrete and abstract: Goth. Ermanaricus (Aírmanareiks), OHG. Irmanrîh, AS. Eormenrîc, ON. Iörmunrekr, where the u agrees with that in the national name Hermundurus; OHG. Irmandegan, Irmandeo, Irmanperaht, Irmanfrit, Irminolt, Irmandrût, Irmangart, Irmansuint, &c. Attention is claimed by the names of certain animals and plants: the ON. Iörmungandr is a snake, and Iörmunrekr a bull, the AS. Eormenwyrt and Eormenleáf is said to be a mallow, which I also find written geormenwyrt, geormenleáf. Authorities for irmangot, irmandiot, OS. irminthiod, irminman, irmansûl, &c., &c., have been given above, p. 118. A villa Irmenlô, i.e., a wood (in illa silva scaras sexaginta) is named in a deed of 855, Bondam's charterbook, p. 32. silva Irminlô, Lacombl. 1, 31.

In these compounds, especially those last named, irman seems to have but a general intensifying power, without any distinct references to a god or hero (conf. Woeste, mittheil. p. 44); it is like some other words, especially got and diot, regin and megin, which we find used in exactly the same way. If it did contain such reference, Eormenleáf would be Eormenes leáf, like Forneotes folme, Wuotanes wec. Irmandeo then is much the same as Gotadeo, Irmanrîh as Diotrîh; and as irmangot means the great god, irmandiot the great people, iörmungrund the great wide earth, so irmansûl cannot mean more than the great pillar, the very sense caught by Rudolf in his translation universalis columna (p. 117).

This is all very true, but there is nothing to prevent Irmino or Irmin having had a personal preference in previous centuries: have we not seen, side by side with Zeus and Týr, the common noun deus and the prefix tý-, tîr- (p. 195-6)? conf. p. 339. If Sæteresdæg has got rubbed down to Saturday, Saterdach (p. 125), so may Eritac point to a former Erestac (p. 202), Eormenleáf to Eormenes leáf, Irmansûl to Irmanessûl; we also met with Donnerbühel for Donnersbühel (p. 170), Woenlet for Woenslet, and we say Frankfurt for Frankenfurt [Oxford for Oxenaford, &c.]. The more the sense of the name faded out, the more readily did the genitive form drop away; the OHG. godes hûs is more literal, the Goth. guþhûs more abstract, yet both are used, as the OS. regano giscapu and regangiscapu, metodo giscapu and metodgiscapu held their ground simultaneously. As for geormen = eormen, it suggests Germanus (Gramm. 1, 11).

It is true, Tacitus keeps the Hermino that lies latent inhis Herminones apart from Arminius with whom the Romans waged war; yet his famous 'canitur adhuc barbaras apud gentes,' applied to the destroyer of Varus, might easily arise through simply misinterpreting such accounts as reached the Roman ear of German songs about the mythical hero. Granted that irmansûl expressed word for word no more than 'huge pillar,' yet to the people that worshipped it it must have been a divine image, standing for a particular god. To discover who this was, we can only choose one of two ways: either he was one of the three great divinities, Wôdan, Thonar, Tiu, or some being distinct from them.

But here we must, above all things, ponder the passage partly quoted on p. 111 from Widukind, himself a Saxon; it says, a heathen god was worshipped, whose name suggested Mars, his pillar-statue Hercules, and the place where he was set up the sun or Apollo. After that, he continues: 'Ex hoc apparet, aestimationem illorum utcumque probilem, qui Saxones originem duxisse putant de Graecis, quia Hirmin vel Hermes graece Mars dicitur, quo vocabulo ad laudem vel ad vituperationem usque hodie etiam ignorantes utimur'. From this it follows, that the god to whom the Saxons sacrificed after their victory over the Thuringians was called Hirmin, Irmin, and in the 10th century the name was still affixed in praise or blame to very eminent or very desperate characters. (22) Apollo is brought in by the monk, because the altar was built ad orientalem portam, and Hercules, because his pillar called up that of the native god; no other idol can have been meant, than precisely the irminsûl (pp. 115-118), and the true form of this name must have been Irmines, Irmanes or Hirmines sûl. The Saxons had set up a pillar to their Irmin on the banks of the Unstrut, as they did in their own home.

The way Hirmin, Hermes and Mars are put together seems a perfect muddle, though Widukind sees in it a confirmation of the story about the Saxons being sprung from Alexander's army (Widuk. 1, 2 Sachsensp. 3, 45). We ought to remember, first, that Wôdan was occasionally translated Mars instead of Mercurius (pp. 121, 133), and had all the appearance of the Roman Mars given him (p. 133); then further, how easily Irmin or Hirmin in itself is connected with Eres- burg (p. 116). What the Corvei annalist kept distinct (p. 111), the two images of Ares and of Hermes, are confounded by Widukind. But now, which has the better claim to be Irmin, Mars or Mercury? On p. 197 I have pronounced rather in favour of Mars, as Mülenhoff too (Haupt 7, 384) identifies Irmin with Ziu; one might even be inclined to see in it the name of the war-god brought out on p. 202, 'Eru, Heru,' and to dissect Irman, Erman into Ir-man, Er-man, though, to judge by the forms Irmin, Eormen, Ermun, Iörmun, this is far from probable, the word being deprivative indeed, yet simple, not compound; we never find, in place of Ertag, dies Martis, any such form as Ermintac, Irminestac. On behalf of Mercury there would speak the accidental, (23) yet striking similarity of the name Irmansûl or Hirmensûl to Ermhj and erma = prop, stake, pole, pillar (p. 118), and that it was preciesely Herme's image or head that used to be set up on such ermata, and further, that the Mid. Ages referred the irmen-pillars to Mercury (p. 116). In Hirmin the Saxons appear to have worshipped a Wôdan imaged as a warrior.

If this view be well grounded, we have Wôdan wedging himself into the ancient line of heroes; but the question is, whether Irmin is not to be regarded as a second birth or son of the god, whether even an ancestral hero Irmino is not to be distinguished from this god Irmin, as Hermino in Tacitus is from Arminius? So from thiod, regin, were formed the names Thiodo, Regino. It would be harder to show any such relation between Ing and Ingo, Isc and Isco; but I think I can suggest another principle which will decide this point: when races name themselves after a famous ancestor, this may be a deified man, a demigod, but never a purely divine being. There are Ingaevones, Iscaevones, Herminones, Oescingas, Scilfingas, Ynglîngar (for Ingîngar), Völsûngar, Niflûngar, (24) as there were Heracleidae and Pelopidae, but no Wôdeningas or Thunoringas, though a Wôdening and a Kronides. The Anglo-Saxons, with Wôden always appearing at their head, would surely have borne the name of Wôdeningas, had it been customary to take name from the god himself. Nations do descend from the god, but through the medium of a demigod, and after him they name themselves. A national name taken from the highest god would have been impious arrogance, and alien to human feeling.

As Lower Saxony, especially Westphalia, was a chief seat of the Irmin-worship, we may put by the side of Widukind's account of Hirmin a few other traces of his name, which is not even yet entirely extinct in that part of Germany. Strodtmann has noted down the following phrases in Osnabrück: 'he ment, use herre gott heet Herm (he thinks our Lord is called H., i.e., is never angry); use herre gott heet nich Herm, he heet leve herre, un weet wal tôte gripen (knows how to lead death)'. Here there seems unconcealed a slight longing for the mild rule of the old heathen god, in contrast to the strictly judging and punishing christian God. In Saxon Hesse (on the Diemel), in the districts of Paderborn, Ravensberg and Münster, in the bishopric of Minden and the duchy of Westphalia, (25) the people have kept alive the rhyme:

Hermen, sla dermen,

Hermen, schlag’ die Sehnen,

Hermen, bat les cordes,

sla pipen, sla trummen,

schlag’ die Pfeifen, schlag’ die Trommeln

bat les flûtes, bat les tambours

de kaiser wil kummen

der Kaiser will kommen

l’empereur va venir

met hamer un stangen(26),

mit Hammern und Stangen

avec des marteaux et des bâtons

wil Hermen uphangen.

will Hermen aufhangen.

va pendre ‘haut’ Hermen.

 

Hermen is challenged, as it were, to strike up his war-music, to sound the catgut, pipe and drum; but the foe draws nigh with maces and staves, and will hang up Hermen (see Suppl.). It is not impossible that in these rude words, which have travelled down the long tradition of centuries, are preserved the fragments of a lay that was firstheard when Charles destroyed the Irmensûl. They cannot so well be interpreted of the elder Arminius and the Romans. (27) The striking and the staves (suggest the ceremony of carrying out the Summer [he translated twice austräge]) reminds of the Summer ceremonies.

In a part of Hesse that lies on the Werra, is a village named Ermschwerd, which in early documents is called Ermeswerder, Armeswerd, (28) Ermeneswerde (Drouke's trad. fuld. p. 123), = Irmineswerid, insula Irmini, as other gods have their isle or eas. This interpretation seems placed beyond a doubt by other such names of places.

Leibn. scr. 1, 9 and Eccard,French or. 1, 883, De orig. Germ. 397 gives Irmineswagen for the constellation arctus, plaustrum coeleste, I do not know on what authority: this wain would start beside Wuotanswagen, Donnerswagen, and even Ingswagen.

Some of the later AS. and several O. Engl. authorities, in specifying four great highways that traverse England, name amongst them Ermingestrete, running from south to north of the island. (29) But we may safely assume the pure AS. form to have been Eormenstræt or Eormenes-strœt, as another of the four ways, Wœtlingastrœt, occurs in the Saxon Chron. (Ingr. 190. Thorpe's anal. p. 38), and in the Treaty of Ælfred and Guthrun (Thorpe, p. 66), and 'andlang Waetlinga straet' in Kemble 2, 250 (an. 944). Lye has Irmingstrœt together with Irmingsûl, both without references. The conjectural Eormenstræt would lead to an OHG. Irmanstrâza, and Eormenesstræt to Irmanesstrâza, with the meanings via publica and via Irmani.

Now it is not unimportant to the course of our inquiry, that one of the four highways, Wætlingastræt, is at the same time translated to the sky, and gets to look quite mythical. A plain enough road, extending from Dover to Cardigan, is the milky way in the heavens, i.e., it is travelled by the car of some heathen god.

Chaucer (House of Fame 2, 427), describing that part of the sky, says:

Lo there, quod he, cast up thine eye,

se yondir, lo, the galaxie,

the whiche men clepe the milky way

for it is white, and some parfay

ycallin it han Wattlingestrete,

that onis was brente with the hete,

whan that the sunnis sonne the rede,

which hite Phaeton, wolde lede

algate his fathirs carte and gie.

In the Complaint of Scotland, p. 90, it is said of the comet: 'it aperis oft in the quhyt circle callit circulus lacteus, the quhilk the marynalis callis Vatlanstreit'. In Douglas's Virgil, p. 85:

Of every sterne the twynkling notis he that in the still hevin move cours we se, Arthurys house, and Hyades betaikning rane, Watlingestrete, the Horne and the Charlewane, the feirs Orion with his goldin glave.

Wætlinga is plainly a gen. pl.; who the Wætlings were, and how they came to give their name to an earthly and a heavenly street, we do not know. Chaucer perhaps could still have told us, but he prefers to harp at the Greek mythus. Phaëthon, also the son of a god, when he presumed to guide his father's sun-chariot, burnt a broad streak in the sky, and that is the track we call the milky way. The more common view was, that Here, indignant at the bantling Hermes or Herakles being put to her breast, spilt her milk along the sky, and hence the bright phenomenon. No doubt, among other nations also, fancy and fable have let the names of earthly and heavenly roads to run into one another. (30)

A remarkable instance of this is found in one of our national traditions; and that will bring us round to Irmin again, whom we almost seem to have lost sight of.

Widukind of Corvei is the first who gives us out of of old songs the beautiful and truly epic story of the Saxons' victory over the Thuringians, (31) which Ruodolf before him (Pertz 2, 674) had barely touched. Irmenfried, king of the Thuringians, being oppressed by Dieterich, king of the Franks, called the Saxons to his aid: they appeared, and fought valiantly. But he began to waver in his mind, he secretly negotiated a treaty with the Franks, and the two nations were about to unite against the formidable Saxon host. But the Saxons, becoming aware of the treachery, were beforehand; led by the aged Hathugât, they burst into the castle of the Thuringians, and slew them all; the Franks stood still, and applauded the warlike renown of the Saxons. Irmenfried fled, but, enticed by a stratagem, returned to Dieterich's camp. In this camp was staying Irmenfried's counsellor Iring, whose prudent plans had previously rendered him great services. When Irmenfried knelt before Dieterich, Iring stood by, and having been won by Dieterich, slew his own lord. After this deed of horror, the Frankish king banished him from his sight, but Iring said, 'Before I go, I will avenge my master,' drew his sword, stabbed Dieterich dead, laid his lord's body over that of the Frank, so that the vanquished in life might be the victor in death, opened a way for himself with the sword (viam ferro faciens), and escaped. 'Mirari tamen non possumus' adds Widukind, 'in tantum famam praevaluisse, ut Iringi nomine, quem ita vocitant, lacteus coeli circulus usque in praesens sit notatus.' Or, with the Auersberg chronicler: 'famam in tantum praevaluisse, ut lacteus coeli circulus Iringis nomine Iringesstrâza usque in praesens sit vocatus' (sit notatus in Pertz 8, 178).

In confirmation, AS. glosses collected by Junius (Symb. 372) give 'via secta: Iringes uuec,' from which Somner and Lye borrow their 'Iringes weg, via secta'. Conf. via sexta iringesuuec, Haupts zeitschr. 5, 195. Unpubl. glosses of the Amplonian libr. at Erfurt (10-11th cent. bl 14ª) have 'via secta: Iuuåringes uueg'; which Iuwaring agrees very remarkably with the later form Euring in Euringsstrass, Aventin 102b 103ª.

In the Nibelungenlied 1285. 1965-2009, these heroes appear again, they are the same, but differently conceived, and more akin to the H. German version in Goldast: (32) Iravrit of Düringen and Irinc of Tenemarke, one a landgraf, the other a markgraf, both vassals of Etzel (Attila). The Lied von der klage (threnody) adds, that they had fallen under the ban of the empire, and fled to Hunland; here we see a trace of the banishment that Dieterich pronounced on Iring. In the poems of the 13th century, however, Iring is not a counsellor, still less a traitor and a murderer of Irmenfried: the two are sworn friends, and both fall before the irresistible Hagene and Volker. Add to all this, that the Vilk. saga cap. 360, though silent on Irnfried, tells of Irung's last combat with Hogni, and makes him sink against a stone wall, which is still called Irûngs veggr in memory of the hero. The Norse redactor confounded vegr (via) with veggr (murus); his German source must have had Iringes vec, in allusion to the 'cutting his way' in Widukind.

So now the road is paved to the conclusions we desire to draw: German legend knew of an Iringes wec on earth and in heaven, so did AS. legend of a double Wætlinga-stræt, and so was the road to Rome and St. James set in the firmament as well. These fancies about ways and wains, we know, are pagan, and indicate god-myths. The Thuringian Irnvrit, originally Irmanfrit, it is reasonable to suppose, is the same as irman, Irmin (conf. Sigfrit, Sigmunt, Sigi), and the Hermunduri = Irman-duri are plainly connected with the Durings (Thuringians): so that Irman assumes a peculiar significance in Thuringian tradition. If this would but tell us of an Irmines wec, all would come right.

It does tell, however, in three or four places, of an Iringes wec. The names Irinc and Irmin, apart from the alliteration which doubtless operated in the ancient lay, have nothing in common; the first has a ling î, (33) and of themselves they cannot have represented one another. Now, either the legend has made the two friends change places, and transferred Irmin's way to Iring, or Iring (not uncommon as a man's name too, e.g., Trad. Fuld. 1, 79) is of himself a demigod grown dim, who had a way and wain of his own, as well as Irmin. Only, Irmin's worship seems to have had the deeper foundations, as the image of the Irmansûl sufficiently shows. As the name of a place I find Iringes purc (burg), MB. 7, 47. 157. 138. 231. Iringisperc (berg) 29, 58.

Up to this point I have refrained from mentioning some Norse traditions, which have a manifest reference to the earthly hero-path. It had been the custom from of old, for a new king, on assuming the government, to travel the great highway across the country, confirming the people in their privileges (RA. 237-8). This is called in the O. Swed. laws 'Eriksgatu ridha,' riding Eric's road. (34) Sweden numbers a host of kings named Erik (ON. Eirîkr), but they are all quite historical, and to none of them can be traced this custom of the Eriksgata. With the royal name of Erik the Swedes must from very early times have associated the idea of a god or deified king; the vita Anskarii written by his pupil Rimbert, has a remarkable passage on it (Pertz 2, 711). When the adoption of christianity was proposed to king Olef about 860, a man of heathen sentiments alleged, 'Se in conventu deorum, qui ipsam terram possidere credebantur, et ab eis missum, ut haec regi et populis nunciaret: Vos, inquam, (35) nos vobis propitios diu habuistis, et terram incolatus vestri cum multa abundantia nostro adjutorio in pace et prosperitate longo tempore tenuistis, vos quoque nobis sacrificia et vota debita persolvistis, grataque nobis vestra fuerunt obsequia. At nunc et sacrificia solita subtrahitis, et vota spoutanea segnius offertis, (36) et, quod magis nobis displicet, alienum deum super nos intro ducitis. Si itaque nos vobis propitios habere vultis, sacrificia omissa augete et vota majora persolvite, alterius quoque dei culturam, qui contraria nobis docet, ne apud vos recipiatis et ejus servitio ne intendatis. Porro, si etiam plures deos habere desideratis, et nos vobis non sufficimus, Ericum, quondam regem vestrum, nos unanimes in collegium nostrum asciscimus, (37) ut sit unus de numero deorum.'

I have transcribed the whole passage, because it aptly expresses the attitude of the pagan party, and the lukewarmness already revailing towards their religion: the heathen priests thought of adding a fresh hero to their throng of gods. (38) This seems to exclude all later Erics from any claim to the Eriksgata; probably there were mixed up even then, at least in Rimbert's mind, traditions of a divine Erik.

It can no longer remain doubtful now, what god or divine hero lies hidden in this Erik. I had at one time thought of Er (Mars), because the form Erctag is met with a few times for Ertag (p. 124), but the short vowel in Er, and the long one in Irinc, Eirîkr, are enough to warn us off. Instead of Eriksgata we also meet with Riksgata, and this points decidedly to Rîgr, the earthly name of the god Heimdallr, who in the Edda walks the green roads (grœnar brautir) of earth, to beget the three races of men. In the green earthly roads are mirrored the white and shining paths of heaven. (39) Then the problem started on p. 234, whether the ON. form Rîgr arose out of Irîngr by aphæresis and syncope, now finds a solution approaching to certainty. Heimdallr dwells in Himinbiörg on the quaking roost (Bifröst), the rainbow, which is the bridge or path by which the gods descend from heaven to earth. The rainbow is the celestial ring, as the galaxy is the celestial road, and Heimdalr keeper of that road, Heimdallr is Rîgr = Iring, walking the earth and translated to the skies; now we comprehend, why there lived among the nations many a various tale of Eriksgata, Iringeswec, Iringesstrâza, and was shifted now to one and now to the other celestial phenomenon. Iring, through Iuwaring, borders on Eburðrung the old name of Orion (see Suppl.). And if our heroic legend associates Irmenfrit, i.e., Irmin with Iring, and Irmin-street alternates with Iring-street, then in the god-myth also, there must have existed points of contact between Irmin = Oðinn and Iring = Heimdallr: well, Heimdallr was a son of Oðinn, and the Welsh milky way was actually named after Gwydion, i.e., Wôden. From the Irminsûl four roads branched out across the country, Eriksgata extended in four directions, four such highways are likewise known to English tradition, though it gives the name of Ermingestret to only one, and bestows other mythic titles on the rest. Of Irmin and of Iring, both the divine personality and the lapse into hero nature seem to be made out.

 

2. MARSO. GAMBARO. SUAPO.

 

Now that I have expounded the primeval triad of Germanic races, I have to offer some conjectures on the sevenfold division. Pliny's quintuple arrangement seems not so true to fact, his Vindili are Tacitus's Vandilii, his Peucini not referable to any founder of a race. But Tacitus to his first three adds four other leading races, the Marsi, Gambrivii, Suevi and Vandilii, in whose names there exists neither alliteration nor the weak form as a mark of derivation.

The Marsi between Rhine and Weser, an early race which soon disappears, in whose country the Tanfana sactuary stood, lead up to a hero Marso, whom we must not mix up with the Roman Mars gen. Martis, nor with Marsus the son of Circe (who in like manner gives name to an Italian people, Gellius 16, 11. Pliny 7, 2. Augustine in Ps. 57). The Marsigni = Marsingi, a Suevic people, acknowledged the same name and origin. The proper name Marso occurs in Mabillon no. 18, in a deed of 692, also in the polypt. Irminonis p. 158ª 163b, but seldom elsewhere. Mersiburg and Marseburg, Pertz 8, 537. 540, seem to belong here, while some other names given above, p. 201, are open to doubt; I do not know if a MHG. phrase, obscure in itself, is at all relevant: 'zuo allen marsen varn,' MS. 1, 25ª, which may signify, to go to all the devils, expose oneself to every danger; conf. 'einen marsen man,' Crane 2865. The Gothic marzjan (impedire, offendere) might seem allied to the root, but that would have been merrian, merran in OHG.

The name of the Gambrivii I assign to the root gambar, kambar strenuus, from which also is derived the name of Gambara, ancestress of the Langobards. There may have been likewise a hero Gambaro. And the forest of Gambreta (instead of Gabreta) is worth considering. Gambara's two sons are called Ibor = OHG. Epur, AS. Eofor, ON. Iöfur, i.e., aper, boar, and Ajo: all the three names appear to be corrupt in Saxo. Gram.

Ought we to assume for the Suevi, OHG. Suâpâ, an eponymous hero Suevo, Suâpo, and perhaps connect with him an old legend of a mountain? Pliny 4, 13 places in the land of the 'gens Ingaevonum, quae est prima Germaniae,' a certain 'Sevo mons immensus' reaching to the Sinus Codanus; and Solinus, following him, says 22, 1: 'Mons Sevo ipse ingens........initium Germaniae facit, hunc Inguaeones tennet;' but Isidor (Orig. 10, 2) makes out of it: 'dicti autem Suevi putantur a monte Suevo, qui ab ortu initium Germaniae facit'. From this evidently is taken the account of the immigrating Swâben in the Lay of Anno 284: 'si sluogen iri gecelte (pitched their tents) ane dem berge Suebo (so several read for Suedo), dannin wurdin si geheizin Suâbo'. (40) In the Low German psalms 57, 17 mons coagulatus is rendered 'berg sueuot,' which is perhaps to be explained by the legend of the lebirmer [liver-sea, Tacitus's mare pigrum? Germ. 45. Agr. 10]. It seems more to the point, that in Sæm. 164-8 the Sefa fiöll (fells, mountains, of the Sevs) are mentioned in those very Helga-songs, one of which sings of Svafaland, king Svafnir and the valkyr Svava. A v after s is frequenly dropped, and the readings Sevo, Suevo can thus be reconciled. Suâpo then would be a counterpart to Etzel and Faírguns (pp. 169, 172)? The AS. Sweppa, or rather Swæfdæg, can hardly be brought in here.

Tacitus's Vandilii and Pliny's Vindili stand in the same relation to each other as Arminius and irmin, Angrivarii and Inguiones; both forms come from winding and wending, out of which so many mythic meanings flow. Wuotan is described under several names as the wender, wanderer [Germ. wandeln ambulare, mutare].

On the slight foundation of these national names, Marsi, Gambrivii, Suevi and Vandilii, it is unsafe as yet to build. Tacitus connects these with Mannus, but the heroes themselves he does not even name, let alone giving any particulars of them.

 

3. (HERCULES). (ULYSSES). ALCIS

 

Clear and definite on the other hand are the historian's notices of another famous hero: Fuisse apud eos et Herculem memorant, primumque omnium virorum fortium ituri in proelia canunt, Germ. 3. Speaking of sacrifices in cap. 9, after mentioning Mercurius first, he immediately adds: Herculem ac Martem concessis animalibus placant, the demigod being purposely put before even Mars. Chapter 34 tells us of the ocean on the coast of the Frisians, then says: Et superesse adhuc Herculis columnas fama vulgavit, sive adiit Hercules, seu quidquid ubique magnificum est, in claritatem ejus referre consensimus. Nec defuit audentia Druso Germanico, sed obstitit oceanus in se simul atque in Herculem inquiri. Mox nemo tentavit, sanctiusque ac reverentius visum de actis deorum credere quam scire. The Annals 2, 12 name a 'silva Herculi sacra,' between the Weser and Elbe in the land of the Cheruscans; while the Peutinger Table puts a 'castra Herculis' near Noviomagus (Nimwegen). All this means something, it all points to some demigod who is identified, not unadvisedly, with that of the Romans. Hercules, whose deeds were accomplished in countries widely remote, is thought to have visited Germany also, in the Gaditanian pillars at one end of Europe have a counterpart in the Frisian coast on another side of it. In the German battle-song the praise of Hercules is sounded first, victims are slain to him as to the highest gods, to him a wood is consecrated. Of pillars, even Widukind still knows something, by his speaking of Hirmin's effigies columnarum (pl.) not columnae. Was the plural irmansûlî (p. 115) more exact than irmansûl, and had the image several pillars? Did the Roman in his Hermin and Herminones think of Herakles and Hercules, whose name bore plainly on its face the root, Hra, Hera? was that why he retained the aspirate in Herminones and Hermunduri, and not in Arminius? An approximation of sound in the names of the two heroes, Roman and German, may surely be presupposed. The position of Herculis silva and columnae does not indeed agree with that of the Herminones, but the worship of such a hero was sure to spread far and not to be confined to the particular race to which he gave his name. In the German Irman, Irmin, it seems correct for the aspirate to be wanting, as in Arminius; in Cherusci it is indispensible, and therefore the Romans never wrote Herusci.

If in this 'Hercules' we wish to see one of the great gods themselves, we must apparently exclude Mercury and Mars, from whom he is distinguished in cap. 9, i.e., Wuotan and Zio. And for supposing him to mean Donar, i.e., Jupiter (as Zeuss does, p. 25), I see no other ground than that the Norse Thôrr, like Hercules, performs innumerable heroic deeds, but these may equally be placed to the credit of Irmin, and Irmin and the thundergod have nothing else in common. Yet, in favour of 'Hercules' being Donar, we ought perhaps to weigh the AS. sentences quoted on p. 161, note; also, that Herakles was a son of Zeus, and a foe to giants.

I had thought at one time that Hercules might stand for Sahsnôt, Seaxneát, whom the formula of renunciation exalts by the side of Thunar and Wôdan; I thought so on the strength of 'Hercules Saxanus,' whose surname might be explained by saxum = sahs. But the inscriptions in which we meet with this Hercules Saxanus extend beyond the bounds of Germany, and belong rather to the Roman religion. Our Sahsnôt has with more justice been assigned to Zio (p. 203), with whom Hercules cannot be connected. I now think the claims of Irmin are better founded: as Hercules was Jupiter's son, Irmin seems to have been Wôdan's; and he must have been the subject of the battle-songs (ituri in proelia canunt), even of those which Tacitus understood of Arminius (canitur adhuc); though they would have suited Mars too, p. 207 (see Suppl.).

It is a harder matter to form an opinion about the 'Ulysses': Ceterum et Ulixem quidam opinantur longo illo et fabuloso errore in hunc oceanum delatum adisse Germaniae terras, Asciburgiumque, quod in ripa Rheni situm hodieque incolitur, ab illo constitutum nominatumque; aram quin etiam Ulixi consecratam, adjecto Laertae patris nomine, eodem loco olim repertam; Tac. Germ. 3. In Odysseus people have seen Oðinn, in Asciburg Asburg; but if Wôden stood for the god Mercury, it cannot here mean the hero, still less can Askiburg be traced to the âses, a purely Norse form, which in these regions would have been anses. When Tacitus makes Ulixes the founder of Asciburg, nothing is simpler than to suppose him to have been Isco, Escio, Asko (p. 350); and if it was Isco that set the Romans thinking of Ul-ixes, how it helps to establish the sc in Iscaevones! Mannus the father of Isco may have suggested Laertes, inasmuch as laoj people, and laoj stone, are mixed up in the creation of the first man (the origo gentis) out of stone or rock (see ch. XIX); in the same way Asco grew up out of the tree (ash), and oruj and petrh stand together in the mythus not without meaning. As liut from liotau, laoj seems to come from the same root as laoj, laaj. (41)

The interpretatio Romana went more upon analogies of sense than of sound; so, in dealing with Castor and Pollux, I will not take them for the brothers Hadu and Phol = Bladr (see Suppl.). These Gemini, however, are the very hardest to interpret; the passage about them was given on p. 66, and an attempt was made to show that alx referred to the place where the godlike twins were worshipped: I confess it does not satisfy me. Our antiquity has plenty of hero brothers to show, but no twins with a name like Alci, if this plural of Alcus is the true form. It occurs to me, that one of Oðin's names is Iâlkr (Sæm. 46b 47b), and jolk in the Vermland dialect means a boy. (42) This comes more home to us than the Samogitic Algir (angelus est summorum deorum, Lasicz, p. 47), towards which the dictionaries offer nothing but alga, reward. Utterly untrustworthy is any comparison with the Slav deities Lel and Polel, themselves as yet unsupported by authority (see Suppl.) (43)

 

BEOWULF, SIGFRIT, AMALO, ERMENRICH, DIETERICH, &c.

 

From the above specimens in Tacitus we may conclude that all the Teutonic races had a pretty fully developed Heroolgy; and if our ancient stores of native literature had been still accessible to us, we might have gained a much closer insight into its nature and its connextion as a whole. As it is, we are thrown upon dry genealogies, dating from many centuries after, and touching only certain races, namely the Goths, Langobards, Burgundians, but above all, the Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians. We may learn from them the connextion of the later kings with the ancient gods and heroes, but not the living details of their myths. Yet we could be content, if even such pedigrees had also been preserved of the Franks and other nations of continental Germany.

The Anglo-Saxon genealogoies seem the most important, and the Appendix gives them in full [but see above, p. 165]. All the families branch out from Wôden, as most of the Greek do from Zeus; it was a proud feeling to have one's root in the highest of all gods. Prominent among his sons are Saxneát and Bœldœg, who were themselves accounted divine; but several other names can claim a place among the earliest heroes, e.g., Sigegeát and Wôdelgeát (44) (both akin to the Gothic Gâuts), Freáwine, Wuscfreá, Sœfugel, Westerfalcna; and many are fallen dim to us. Câsere, which in other AS. writings is used for cyning, (45) seems to be a mere appellative, and to have acquired the character of a proper name after the analogy of the Roman cæsar (?). All these genealogies give us barely the names of the god's sons and grandsons, never those of their mothers or grandmothers; and the legend, which ought like the Greek ones to give life to the relationship, is the very thing we miss.

Some of the Norse traditions gain in value, by being taken with the genealogies. The Völsûngasaga sets out with Oðin's being the father of Sigi, but all particulars of the relationship are withheld; Rerir the son of Sigi is in the immediate keeping of the highest gods, and so on. Another time, on the contrary, we are informed, Sn. 84-86, how Oðinn under the name of Bölverkr (OHG. Palowurcho?) became servant to the giant Baugi, in order to get at the divine drink, which the giant's brother Suttûngr kept, guarded by his daughter Gunnlöð; between her and the god took place sundry passages of love, dimly hinted at by Sæmund also 12b 23ªb 24ª, but we are nowhere told what heroes were begotten in the three nights that Oðinn passed with the giant's daughter. Gunnlöð belongs to the race of giants, not of men, which is also the case with Gerðr whom Freyr wooed, and perhaps with others, who are not reckoned among the âsynjor. The Greeks also held that from the union of gods with titans' daughters might spring a hero, or even a god (like Týr, p. 208).--Only Saxo, p. 66, and no other authority, tells us of a Norwegian king and hero 'Frogerus, ut quidam ferunt, Othino patre natus,' to whom the gods gave to be invicinble in fight, unless his adversary could grasp the dust from under his feet, (46) which the Danish king Frotho by fraud contrived to do. Can this Froger be the AS. Freoðegâr, Freðegâr in the Wessex genealogy, who had Brond for father, Bældæg for grandfather, Wôden for great- grandfather? The ON. table of lineage seems to mix up Frioðegar with Froði, his adversary. (47) According to the Formâli of the Edda, p. 15, and the Yngl. saga c. 9, Norway traced her eldest line of kings to Sæmîngr, the son of Oðinn by Skaði, previously the wife of Niörðr; some write Semîngr, which means pacificator, and would lead to Frîðgeir again. Skaði was daughter to the iötunn Thiassi, and the Sigurðardrâpa (-killing) calls Sigurðr Laðaiarl 'afsprîngr Thiassa,' (Th. progenies).

The Herrauðssaga cap. 1 makes Hrîngr spring from Gauti, and him from Oðinn: this Gautr or Gauti (conf. Ing and Ingo, Irmin and Irmino), Goth. Gáuts, OHG. Kôz, AS. Geát, whether surname, son or ancestor of Oðinn, cannot belie his divinity (conf. p. 367); and his son Godwulf too, confounded by some with Folcwalda (p. 165, last table), looks mythical. It is from Gáuts that the Gáutôs (Kûzâ, Gautoi) professed to be descended, these being other than the Guþans (Tac. Gothones, Gotqoi), but related to them nevertheless, for the Gothic genealogy starts with the same Gáuts at the head of it.

Again, Sigrlami is called Oðin's son, Fornald. sög. 1, 413. But who can 'Bous (gen. Boi), Othini ex Rinda filius' be in Saxo Gram. 46? Possibly Biar, Biaf, Beav = Beowulf, to whom we are coming (see Suppl.). (48)

Another Oðinsson, Skiöldr, is the famed ancestral hero of the Danes, from whom are derived all the Skiöldûngar (Sn. 146); he may have been most nearly related to the people of Schonen, as in the Fornm. sög. 5, 239 he is expressly called Skânûnga goð (see p. 161), and was probably worshipped as a god. In Saxo Gram. he does not take the lead, but follows after Humblus, Dan (49) and Lother; Skiold himself has a son Gram, (50) from whom come Hadding and then Frotho; but the AS. genealogy places its Scild after Sceáf, and singularly makes them both ancestors of Oðinn. From Sceáf descends Sceldwa, from him consecutively Beaw, Tætwa, Geát, and after several more generations comes Wôden last. The ON. version of the lineage is in harmony with this; and even in the Gothic pedigree, which only begins with Gáuts, we may suppose a Skáufs, Skildva, Táitva to have preceded, to whom the OHG. names Scoup, Scilto, Zeizo would correspond.

None however is so interesting as Sceldwa's son, the Anglo-Saxon Beaw, called by the Scandinavians Biar, Biaf, but in the living AS. epos Beowulf. It is true, the remarkable poem of that name is about a second and younger Beowulf, in whom his forefather's name repeats itself; but fortunately the opening lines allude to the elder Beowulf, and call his father Scild (Goth. Skildus, agreeing with Skiöldr) a Scêfing, i.e., son of Sceáf. Beaw is a corruption of Beow, and Beow an abbreviation of Beowulf: it is the complete name that first opens to us a wider horizon. Beowulf signifies bee-wolf (OHG. Piawolf?), and that is a name for the woodpecker, a bird of gay plumage that hunts after bees, of whom antiquity has many a tale to tell. (51) Strange to say, the classical mythus (above, pp. 206, 249) makes this Picus a son of Saturn, inasmuch as it either identifies him with Zeus who is succeeded by a Hermes, or makes him nourisher of Mars's sons and father of Faunus. We see Picus (Picumnus) interwoven into the race of Kronos, Zeus, Hermes and Ares, the old Bohemian Stracec = picus into that of Sitivrat, Kirt and Radigost, as Beowulf is into that of Geát and Wôden. If the groups differ in the details of their combination, their agreement as wholes is the more trustworthy and less open to suspicion. And just as the footprints of Saturn were traceable from the Slavs to the Saxons and to England, but were less known to the Northmen, so those of the divine bird in Stracec and Beowulf seem to take the same course, and never properly to reach Scandinavia. The central Germans stood nearer to Roman legend, although no actual borrowing need have taken place.

What a deep hold this group of heroes had taken, is evidenced by another legend. Sceáf (i.e., manipulus frumenti) takes his name from the circumstance, that when a boy he was conveyed to the country he was destined to succour, while asleep (52) on a sheaf of corn in the boat. The poetry of the Lower Rhine and Netherlands in the Mid. Ages is full of a similar story of the sleeping youth whom a swan conducts in his ship to the afflicted land; and this swan-knight is pictured approaching out of paradise, from the grave, as Helias, whose divine origin is beyond question. Helias, Gerhart or Loherangrin of the thirteenth century is identical then with a Scôf or Scoup of the seventh and eighth, different as the surroundings may have been, for the song of Beowulf appears to have transferred to Scild what belonged of right to his father Sceáf. The beautiful story of the swan is founded on the miraculous origin of the swan-brothers, which I connect with that of the Welfs; both however seem to be antique lineage-legends of the Franks and Swabians, to which the proper names are mostly wanting. Had they been preserved, many another tie between the heroes and the gods would come to light. (53)

Further, to Sceldwa or Skiöldr belongs obviously the name Schiltune in the Tirol and Parzival, (54) as the name Schilbunc, Nib. 88, 3, points to a race of Scilpungâ, corresponding to the AS. Scilfingas, ON. Scilfîngar, of whom Skelfir, Scilfe, Scilpi is to be regarded as the ancestor. This Skelfir the Fornald. sög. 2, 9 makes the father of Skiöldr, so that the Skilfînga and Skiöldînga ætt fall into one. Either Scelf is here confounded with Scêf, or Scêf must be altered to Scelf, but the frequent occurrence of the form Sceáf, and its interpretation (from sheaf), seem alike to forbid this (see Suppl.).

As the Skiöldûngar descend from Skiöldr, so do the Giukûngar from Giuki = Gibika, Kipicho, with whom the Burgundian line begins: if not a god himself (p. 137), he is a divine hero that carries us back very near to Wuotan. The Gibichensteine (-stones) moreover bear witness to him, and it is to the two most eminent women of this race that Grimhildensteine, Brunhildensteine are allotted. (55) Fraue Uote however appears as ancestress of the stock. (56) It has not been so much noticed as it ought, that in the Lex Burg, Gislahari precedes Gundahari by a whole generation, whilst our epic (Nibelungen) makes Gîselhere Gunthere's younger brother, and the Edda never names him at all. The Law makes no mention of any brothers, and Gîselher the young has merely the name of his elder kinsman. Gêrnôt (from gér = gáis) and Gîselher seem to be identical (conf. Gramm. 2, 46). But the Norse Guttormr can hardly be a distortion of Godomar, for we meet with him outside of the legend, e.g., in Landn. 1, 18. 20, where the spelling Guðormr (Guntwurm) would lead us to identify him with Gunthere, and in Saxo. Gram. are found several Guthormi (see Suppl.). Then Hagano the one-eyed, named from hagan (spinosus, Waltharius 1421), is 'more than heroic'. (57)

Even deeper reaching roots must be allowed to the Welisungs, their name brings us to a divine Valis who has disappeared (conf. the ON. Vali, p. 163), but the mere continuance of an OHG. Welisunc is a proof of the immemorial diffusion of the Völsûngasaga itself (see Suppl.). How, beginning with Wuotan, it goes on to Sigi, Sigimunt, Sigifrit, Sintarfizilo, has been alluded to on p. 367, and has already been treated of elsewhere. (58) With Sigfri stands connected Helfrich, Chilpericus, ON. Hialprekr. It is worthy of note, that the AS. Beowulf calls Sigfrit Sigemund, and Sigmundr is a surname of Oðinn besides. (59) Such a flood of splendour falls on Siegfried in the poems, that we need not stick at trifles; his whole nature has evident traces of the superhuman brought up by an elf Regino, beloved by a valkyr Brunhild, instructed in his destiny by the wise man Grîpir, he wears the helmet of invisibility, is vulnerable only on one spot in his body, as Achilles was in the heel, and he achieves the rich hoard of the Nibelungs. His slaying of the dragon Fâfnir reminds us of Puqwn (60) whom Apollo overcame, and as Python guarded the Delphic aracle, the dying Fâfnir prophesies. (61) We must take into account Loðfâfnir Sæm. 24, 30. Sinfiötli, who, when a boy, kneads snakes into the dough, is comparable to the infant Hercules tested by serpents.

Through Siegfried the Frankish Welisungs get linked to the Burgundian Gibichungs, and then both are called Nibelungs. Among Gothic heroes we are attracted by the Ovida and Cnivida in Jornandes cap. 22, perhaps the same as Offa and Cnebba in the Mercian line. But of far more consequence is the great Gothic family of Amals or Amalungs, many of whose names in the Jornandean genealogy seem corrupt. The head of them all was Gapt, which I emend to Gaut (Gáuts), and so obtain an allusion to the divine office of casting [giessen, ein-guss, in-got] and meting (pp. 22. 142); he was a god, or son of a god (p. 164), and is even imported into the Saxon lines as Geát, Wôdelgeát, Sigegeát (p. 367). In this Gothic genealogy the weak forms Amala, Isarna, Ostrogotha, Ansila, confirm what we have observed in Tuisco, Inguio, Iscio, Irmino; but those best worth nothing are Amala, after whom the most powerful branch of the nation is named, Ermanaricus and Theodericus. Ermanaricus must be linked with Irmino and the Herminones, as there is altogether a closer tie between Goths and Saxons (Ingaevones and Herminones) as opposed to the Franks (Iscaevones), and this shows itself even in the later epics.

Amongst the Amalungs occur many names compounded with vulv, which reminds us of their side-branch, the Wülfings; if it be not too bold, I would even connect Isarna (Goth. Eisarna) with Isangrim. To me the four sons of Achiulf seem worthy of particular notice: Ansila, Ediulf, Vuldulf, and Hermenrich. Of the last we have just spoken, and Ansila means the divine; our present concern is with Ediulf and Vuldulf. I find that Jornandes, cap. 54, ascribes to the Scyrians also two heroes Edica and Vulf; the Rugian Odoacer has a father Eticho and a brother Aonulf; and the legend on the origin of the Welfs has the proper names Isenbart, Irmentrud, Welf and Etico constantly recurring. Now, welf is strictly catulus (Huelf, whelp, ON. hvelpr), and distinct from wolf; natural history tells us of several strong courageous animals that are brought into the world blind; the Langobardic and Swabian genealogies play upon dogs and wolves being exposed; and as Odoacer, Otacher (a thing that has never till now been accounted for) is in some versions called Sipicho, ON. Bicki, and this means dog (bitch), I suspect a similar meaning in Edica, Eticho, Ediulf, Odacar, which probably affords a solution of the fable about the 'blind Schwaben and Hessen': their lineage goes back to the blind Welfs. In the genealogy Ediulf is described as brother to Ermenrich, in later sagas Bicki is counsellor to Iörmunrekr; the Hildebrandslied has but too little to say of Otacher. Then Vuldulf also (perhaps Vuldr-ulf) will signify a glorious beaming wolf (see Suppl.).

As Siegfried eclipsed all other Welisungs, so did Dieterich all the Amalungs; and where the epos sets them one against the other, each stands in his might, unconquered, unapproachable. Dietrich's divine herohood comes out in more than one feature, e.g., his fiery breath, and his taking the place of Wuotan or Frô (p. 213-4) at the head of the wild host, as Dietrichbern or Bernhard. The fiery breath brings him nearer to Donar, with whom he can be compared in another point also: Dieterich is wounded in the forehead by an arrow, and a piece of it is left inside him, for which reason he is called the deathless; (62) not otherwise did the half of Hrûngnir's hein (stone wedge) remain in Thor's head, and as Grôa's magic could not loosen it, it sticks there still, and none shall aim withthe like stones, for it makes the piece in the god's forehead stir (Sn. 109-111). (63) This horn-like stone was very likely shown in images, and enhanced their godlike appearance.

 

The renowned race of the Billings or Billungs, whose mythic roots and relations are no longer discoverable, was still flourishing in North Germany in the 10-11th centuries. The first historically certain Billing died in 967, and another, above a hundred years older, is mentioned. (64) The Cod. Exon. 320, 7 says: 'Billing weold Wernum,' he belongs therefore to the stock of Werina, who were near of kin to the Angles. There was a Billinga hæð (heath) near Whalley, and London has to this day a Billingsgate. In OHG. we find a man's name Billunc (Ried nos. 14. 21-3, A.D. 808. 821-2). If we take into account, that a dwarf Billîngr occurs in the Edda, Sæm. 2ª 23ª, a hero Pillunc in Rol. 175, 1, and Billunc and Nîdunc coupled together in the Renner 14126-647, the name acquires a respectable degree of importance (see Suppl.). The derivative Billinc implies a simple bil or bili (lenitas, placiditas), from which directly [and not from our adj. billig, fair] are formed the OHG. names Pilidrût, Pilihilt, Pilikart, Pilihelm; to which add the almost personified Billich (equity) in Trist. 9374. 10062. 17887. 18027, and the ON. goddess Bil, Sn. 39; the ll in Billung could be explained through Biliung. Just as Oðinn in Sæm. 46b is called both Bileygr (mild-eye) and Baleygr (of baneful eye), so in Saxo Gram. 130 a Bilvisus (æquus) stands opposed to Bölvisus (iniquus).

 

5. ORENTIL. WIELANT. MIMI. TELL, &c.

 

In addition to the heroes ascertained thus far, who form part of the main pedigree of whole nations, and thence derive weight and durability, there is another class of more isolated heroes; I can only put forward a few of them here. We have still remaining a somewhat rude poem, certainly founded on very ancient material, about a king Orendel or Erentel, whom the appendix to the Heldenbuch pronounces the first of all heroes that were ever born. He suffers shipwreck on a voyage, takes shelter with a master fisherman Eisen, (65) earns the seamless coat of his master, and afterwards wins frau Breide, the fairest of women: king Eigel of Trier was his father's name. The whole tissue of the fable puts one in mind of the Odyssey: the shipwrecked man clings to the plank, digs himself a hole, holds a bough before him; even the seamless coat may be compared to Ino's veil, and the fisher to the swineherd, dame Breide's templars would be Penelope's suitors, and angels are sent often, like Zeus's messengers. Yet many things take a different turn, more in German fashion, and incidents are added, such as the laying of a naked sword between the newly married couple, which the Greek story knows nothing of. The hero's name is found even in OHG. documents: Orendil, Meichelb. 61; Trad. fuld. 2, 24. 2, 109 (Schannat 308); Orendil a Bavarian count (an. 843 in. Eccard'sFrench or. 2, 367); a village Orendelsal, now Orendensall, in Hohenlohe, v. Haupts zeitschr. 7, 558.

But the Edda has another myth, which was alluded to in speaking of the stone in Thôrr's head. Grôa is busy conning her magic spell, when Thôrr, to requite her for the approaching cure, imparts the welcome news, that in coming from Iötunheim in the North he has carried her husband th bold Örvandill in a basket on his back, and he is sure to be home soon; he adds by the way of token, that Örvandil's toe had stuck out of the basket and got frozen, he broke it off and flung it at the sky, and made a star of it, which is called Örvandils-tâ. But Grôa in her joy at the tidings forgot her spell, so the stone in the god's head never got loose, Sn. 110-1. Grôa, the growing, the grass-green, is equivalent to Breide, i.e., Berhta (p. 272) the bright, it is only another part of his history that is related here: Örvandill must have set out on his travels again, and on this second adventure forfeited the toe which Thôrr set in the sky, though what he had to do with the god we are not clearly told. Beyond a doubt, the name of the glittering star-group is referred to, when AS. glosses render 'jubar' by earendel, and a hymn to the virgin Mary in Cod. Exon. 7, 20 presents the following passage:

Eala Earendel, engla beorhtast,

ofer middangeard monnum sended,

and sôðfæsta sunnan leoma

torht ofer tunglas, þu tîda gehwane

of sylfum þe symle inlîhtes!

i.e., O jubar, angelorum splendidissime, super orbem terrarum hominibus misse, radie vere solis, supra stellas lucide, qui omni tempore ex te ipso luces!

Mary or Christ is here addressed under the heathen name of the constellation. I am only in doubt as to the right spelling and interpretation of the word; an OHG. ôrentil implies AS. eárendel, and the two demand ON. aurvendill, eyrvendill; but if we start with ON. örvendill, then AS. earendel, OHG. erentil would seem preferable. The latter part of the compound certainly contains entil = wentil. (66) The first part should be either ôra, eáre (auris), or else ON. ör, gen. örvar (sagitta). Now, as there occurs in a tale in Saxo Gram., p. 48, a Horvendilus filius Gervendili, and in OHG. a name Kêrwentil (Schm. 2, 334) and Gêrentil (Trad. fuld. 2, 106), and as geir (hasta) agrees better with ör than with eyra (auris), the second interpretation may command our assent;(67) a sight of the complete legend would explain the reason of the name. I think Orentil's father deserves attention too: Eigil is another old and obscure name, borne for instance by an abbot of Fulda who died in 822 (Pertz 1, 95. 356. 2, 366. Trad. fuld. 1, 77-8. 122). In the Rhine-Moselle country are the singular Eigelsteine, Weisth. 2, 744 (see Suppl.). (68) In AS. we find the names Aegles burg (Aylesbury), Aegles ford (Aylesford), Aegles þorp; but I shall come back to Eigil presently. Possibly Orentil was the thundergod's companion in expeditions against giants. Can the story of Orentil's wanderings possibly be so old amongst us, that in Orentil and Eigil of Trier we are to look for that Ulysses and Laertes whom Tacitus places on our Rhine (p. 365)? The names shew nothing in common. (69)

Far-famed heroes were Wicland and Wittich, (70) whose rich legend is second to none in age or celebrity. Vidigoia (Vidugáuja) of whom the Goths already sang, OHG. Witugouwo as well as Witicho, MHG. Witcgouwe and Witege, AS. Wudga, in either form silvicola, from the Goth. vidus, OHG. witu, AS. wudu (lignum, silva), leads us to suppose a being passing the bounds of human nature, a forest-god. Frau Wâchilt, a mermaid, is his ancestress, with whom he takes refuge in her lake. At the head of the whole race is placed king Vilkinus, named after Vulcanus as the Latin termination shews, a god or demigod, who must have had another and German name, and who begets with the merwoman a gigantic son Vadi, AS. Wada (Cod. Exon. 323, 1), OHG. Wato, so named I suppose because, like another Christopher, he waded with his child on his shoulder through the Grœnasund where it is nine yards deep (between Zealand, Falster and Moen); the Danish hero Wate in Gudrun is identical with him; the AS. Wada is placed toward Helsingen. Old English poetry had much to tell of him, that is now lost: Chaucer names 'Wades boot Guingelot,' and a place in Northumberland is called Wade's gap; Wætlingestrêt could only be brought into connexion with him, if such a spelling as Wædling could be made good.

Now, that son, whom Vadi carried through the sea to apprentice him to those cunning smiths the dwarfs, was Wielant, AS. Weland, Welond, ON. Völundr, but in the Vilk. saga Velint, master of all smiths, and wedded to a swan-maiden Hervör alvitr. The rightful owner of the boat, which English tradition ascribes to Wada, seems to have been Wieland; the Vilk. saga tells how he timbered a boat out of the trunk of a tree, and sailed over seas. Lamed in the sinews of his foot, he forged for himself a winged garment, and took his flight through the air. His skill is praised on all occasions, and his name coupled with every costly jewel, Vilk. saga cap. 24. Witeche, the son he had by Baduhilt, bore a hammer and tongs in his scutcheon in honour of his father; during the Mid. Ages his memory lasted among smiths, whose workshops were styled Wieland's houses, (71) and perhaps his likeness was set up or painted outside them; the ON. 'Völundar hûs' translates the Latin labyrinth; a host of similar associations must in olden times have been generally diffused, as we learn from the names of places: Welantes gruoba (pit), MB. 13, 59; Wielantes heim, MB. 28ª, 93 (an. 889); Wielantis dorf, MB. 29, 54 (an. 1246); Wielantes tanna (firs), MB. 28b, 188. 471 (an. 1280); Wielandes brunne, MB. 31, 41 (an. 817). The multiplication of such names during long centuries does not admit of their being derived from human inhabitants. The Dan. Velandsurt (-wort), Icel. Velantsurt, is the valerian, and according to Stald. 2, 450 Wielandbeere the daphne cneorum. Tradition would doubtless extend Wieland's dexterity to Wittich and to Wate, who also gets the credit of the boat, and in the Gudrun-lay of the healing art. In Sæm. 270ª, 'bœkur ofnar völundom' are stragula artificiose contexta, and any artist might be called a völundr or wielant. A gorgeous coat of mail (hrægel, OHG. hregil) is in Beow. 904 Welandes geweorc. Ælfred in Boëth. 2, 7 translates fidelis ossa Fabricii 'þæs wîsan goldsmiðes bân Welondes' (metrically: Welandes bân); evidently the idea of faber which lay in Fabricius brought to his mind the similar meaning of the Teutonic name, Weland being a cunning smith in general. For the name itself appears to contain the ON. vél = viel (ars, tecnh, OHG. list), Gramm. 1, 462, and smiðvélar meant artes fabriles; the AS. form is wîl, or better wil, Engl. wile,French guile; the OHG. wiol, wiel (with broken vowel) is no longer to be found. But further, we must pre-suppose a verb wielan, AS. wëlan (fabrefacere), whose pres. part. wielant, wëland, exactly forms our proper name, on a par with wîgant, werdant, druoant, &c. ; Graff 2, 234 commits the error of citing Wielant under the root lant, with which it has no more to do than heilant (healer, saviour). The OFr. Galans (Heldens. 42) seems to favour the ON. form Völundr [root val] since Veland would rather have led to aFrench Guilans, possibly even the ON. vala (nympha) is a kindred word? An OHG. name Wieldrûd seems the very thing for a wise-woman.

This development of an intrinsic significance in the hero's name finds an unexpected confirmation in the striking similarity of the Greek fables of Hephæstus, Erichthonius and Dædalus. As Weland offers violence to Beadohild (Völundr to Böðvildr), so Hephæstus lays a snare for Athene, when she comes to order weapons of him; both Hephæstus and Völundr are punished with lameness, Erichthonius too is lame, and therefore invents the four-horse chariot, as Völundr does the boat and wings. One with Erichthonius are the later Erechtheus and his descendant Dædalus, who invented various art, a ringdance, building, &c., and on whose wings his son Icarus was soaring when he fell from the clouds. But Daidaloj (72) is daidaloj, daidaleoj, cunningly wrought, daidalma (like agalma) a work of art, and daidallein the same as our lost wielan. As our list [like the Engl. cunning and craft] has degenerated from its original sense of scientia to that of calliditas and fraus, and vél has both meanings, it is not surprising that from the skill-endowed god and hero has proceeded a deformed deceitful devil (p. 241). The whole group of Wate, Wielant, Wittich are heroes, but also ghostly beings and demigods (see Suppl.).

The Vilkinasaga brings before us yet another smith, Mîmir, by whom not only is Velint instructed in his art, but Sigfrit is brought up

another smith's apprentice. He is occasionally mentioned in the later poem of Biterolf, as Mîme the old (Heldensage, pp. 146-8); an OHG. Mîmi must have grown even more deeply into our language as well as legend: it has formed a diminutive Mîmilo (MB. 28, 87-9, annis 983-5), and Mîmâ, Mîmidrût, Mîmihilt are women's names (Trad. fuld. 489. Cod. lauresh. 211); the old name of Münster in Westphalia was Mîmigardiford, Mîmigerneford (Indices to Pertz 1.2), conf. Mîmigerdeford in Richthofen 335; the Westphalian Minden was originally Mîmidun (Pertz. 1, 368), and Memleben on the Unstrut Mîmileba. The great number of these proper names indicates a mythic being, to which Memerolt (Morolt 111) may also be related.

The elder Norse tradition names him just as often, and in several different connexions. In one place, Saxo, p. 40, (73) interweaves a Mimingus, a 'silvarum satyrus' and possessor of a sword and jewels, into the myth of Balder and Hother, and this, to my thinking, throws fresh light on the vidugáuja (wood-god) above. The Edda however gives a higher position to its Mîmir: he has a fountain, in which wisdom and understanding lie hidden; drinking of it every morning, he is the wisest, most intelligent of men, and this again reminds us of 'Wielandes brunne'. To Mîmisbrunnr came Oðinn and desired a drink, but did not receive it till he had given one of his eyes in pledge, and hidden it in the fountain (Sæm. 4ª. Sn. 17); this accounts for Oðinn being one-eyed (p. 146). In the Yngl. saga cap. 4, the Ases send Mîmir, their wisest man, to the Vanir, who cut his head off and send it back to the Ases. But Oðinn spake his spells over the head, that it decayed not, nor ceased to utter speech; and Oðinn holds conversation with it, whenever he needs advice, conf. Yngl. saga cap. 7, and Sæm. 8ª 195b. I do not exactly know whom the Völuspâ means by Mîmis synir (sons), Sæm. 8ª; Mîmameidr 109ª implies a nom. Mîmi gen. Mîma, and may be distinct from Mîmir (conf. Bragr and Bragi, p. 235).

Mîmir is no As, but an exalted being with whom the Ases hold converse, of whom they make use, the sum-total of wisdom, possibly an older nature-god; later fables degraded him into a wood-sprite or clever smith. His oneness with heroes tends to throw a divine splendour on them. Swedish folk-song has not yet forgotten Mimes å (Arvidsson 2, 316-7), and in Konga härad and Tingås socken in Småland there lies a Mimes sjö, inhabited according to legend by neckar (nixies), ibid. p. 319. Perhaps some of the forms quoted have by rights a short i, as have indisputably the AS. mimor, meomor, gemimor (memoriter notus), mimerian (memoria tenere), our Low German mimeren (day-dreaming), Brem. wtb. 3, 161, and the Memerolt, Memleben above; so that we might assume a verb meima, máim, mimum. Then the analogy of the Latin memor and Gr. mimeomai allows us to bring in the giant and centaur Mimaj, i.e., the wood-sprite again (see Suppl.).

According to the Edda (Sæm. 133), Völundr had two brothers Slagfiðr and Egill, all three 'synir Finnakonûngs,ð sons of a Finnish king, whereas the saga transplanted to the North from Germany makes its Vilkinus a king of Vilkinaland. Or can Finna be taken as the gen. of Finni, and identified with that Finn Folcwaldansunu on p. 219? Slagfiðr might seem = Slagfinnr, but is better explained as Slagfiöðr (flap-wing, see ch. XVI, Walachuriun). All three brothers married valkyrs, and Egill, the one that chiefly concerns us here, took Ölrûn (Aliorûna). The Vilk. saga, cap. 27, likewise calls Velint's younger brother Eigill: 'ok þenna kalla menn Ölrûnar Eigil,' (74) but the bride is not otherwise alluded to; this form Eigil agrees with the OHG. Eigill would have been Eigli. Well, this Eigill was a famous archer; at Nidung's command he shot an apple off the head of his own little son, and when the king asked him what the other two arrows were for, replied that they were intended for him, in case the first had hit the child. The tale of this daring shot must have been extremely rife in our remotest antiquity, it turns up in so many places, and always with features of its own. As the Vilkinasaga was imported into Scandinavia in the 13th century, the story of Eigill was certianly diffused in Lower Germany before that date. But Saxo Grammaticus in Denmark knew it in the 12th century, as told of Toko and king Harald Gormsson, with the addition, wanting in Eigill, that Toko after the shot behaved like a hero in the sea-storm. The Icelanders too, particularly the Iomsvîkînga saga, relate the deeds of this Pâlnatôki, but not the shot from the bow, though they agree with Saxo in making Harald fall at last by Tôki's shaft. The king's death by the marksman's hand is historical (A.D. 992), the shot at the apple mythical, having gathered round the narrative out of an older tradition, which we must presume to have been in existence in the 10-11th centuries. To the Norwegian saga of Olaf the Saint (d. 1030), it has attached itself another way: Olaf wishing to convert a heathen man, Eindriði, essayed his skill against him in athletic arts, first swimming, then shooting; after a few successful shots, the king required that Eindriði's boy should be placed at the butts, and a writing-tablet be shot off his head without hurting the child. Eindriði declared himself willing, but also ready to avenge any injury. Olaf sped the first shaft, and narrowly missed the tablet, when Eindriði, at his mother's and sister's prayer, declined the shot (Fornm. sög. 2, 272). Just so king Haraldr Sigurðarson (Harðrâða, d. 1066) measured himself against an archer Hemîngr, and bade him shoot a hazelnut off his Biörn's head, and Hemîngr accomplished the feat (Müller's sagabibl. 3, 359. Thâttr af Hemingi cap. 6, ed. Reykjavik p. 55). Long afterwards, the legend was transferred to a Hemming Wolf, or von Wulfen, of Wewelsflet in the Wilstermarsch of Holstein, where the Elbe empties itself into the sea. Hemming Wolf had sided with count Gerhard in 1472, and was banished by king Christian. The folk-tale makes the king do the same as Harald, and Hemming as Toko; an old painting of Wewelsflet church represents the archer on a meadow with bow unbent, in the distance a boy with the apple on his head, the arrow passes through the middle of the apple, but the archer has a second between his teeth, and betwixt him and the boy stands a wolf, perhaps to express that Hemming after his bold answer was declared a wolf's head. (75) Most appropriately did the mythus rear its head on the emancipated soil of Switzerland: in 1307, it is said, Wilhelm Tell, compelled by Gessler, achieved the same old master-shot, and made the courageous speech; but the evidence of chroniclers does not begin till toward the 16th century, (76) shortly before the first printed edition of Saxo, 1514. Of the unhistorical character of the event there cannot be the slightest doubt. The mythic substratum of the Tell fable shews itself in an Upper Rhine legend of the 15th century (in Malleus malef. pars 2 cap. 16, de sagittariis maleficis) which immediately preceded the first written record of that of Tell: Fertur de ipso (Punchero), quod quidam de optimatibus, cum artis sue experientiam capere voluisset, eidem proprium filium parvulum ad metam poswit, et pro signo super birretum pueri denarium, sibique mandavit, ut denarium sine birreto per sagittam amoveret. Cum autem maleficus id se facturum sed cum difficultate assereret, libentius abstinere, ne per diabolum seduceretur in sui interitum; verbis tamen principis inductus, sagittam unam collari suo circa collum immisit, et alteram balistae supponens denarium a birreto pueri sine omni nocumento excussit. Quo viso, dum ille maleficum interrogasset, 'cur sagittam collari imposuisset?' respondit, 'si deceptus per diabolum puerum occidissem, cum me mori necesse fuisset, subito cum sagitta altera vos transfixissem, ut vel sic mortem meam vindicassem'. This shot must have taken place somewhere about 1420, and the story have got about in the middle part of the 15th century.

Beside the above-mentioned narratives, Norse and German, we have also an Old English one to shew in the Northumbrian ballad of the three merry men, Adam Bell, Clym of the Clough, and William of Cloudesle; this last, whose christian name, like the surname of the first, reminds one of Tell, offers in the king's presence to set an apple on the head of his son, seven years old, and cleft the apple. I suppose that Aegel's skill in archery would be known to the Anglo-Saxons; and if we may push Wada, Weland and Wudga far up into our heathen time, Aegel seems to have an equal claim. The whole myth shows signs of having deep and widely extended roots. It partly agrees even with what Eustathius on Il. 12, 292 tells us, that Sarpedon, a hero of the blood of Zeus, was made when a child to stand up and have a ring shot off his breast without injury to him, an action which entailed the acquisition of the Lycian kingdom (see Suppl.)(77)

With these specimens of particular heroes

crumbs from the richly furnished table of our antiquities

I will content myself, as there are still some reflections of a more general kind to be made.

I started with saying, that in the heroic is contained an exalting and refining of human nature into divine, originally however founded on the affinity of some god with the human race. Now as procreation is a repetition, and the son is a copy of the father (for which reason our language with a profound meaning has avarâ for image and avaro for child); so in every hero we may assume to a certain extent an incarnation of the god, and a revival of at least some of the qualities that distinguish the god. In this sense the hero appears as a sublimate of man in general, who, created after the image of God, cannot but be like him. But since the gods, even amongst one another, reproduce themselves, i.e., their plurality has radiated out of the primary force of a single One (p. 164), it follows, that the origin of heroes must be very similar to that of polytheism altogether, and it must be a difficult matter in any particular case to distinguish between the full-bred divinity and the half-blood. If heroes, viewed on one side, are deified men, they may on the other hand be also regarded as humanized gods; and it comes to the same thing, whether we say that the son or grandson begotten by the god has attained a semi-divine nature, or that the god born again in him retains but a part of his pristine power. We are entitled to see in individual heroes a precipitate of former gods, and a mere continued extension, in a wider circle, of the same divine essence which had already branched out into a number of gods (see Suppl.).

This proposition can the more readily be demonstrated from the popular faiths of Greece and Germany, which commit themselves to no systematic doctrine of emanation and avatâra, as in these religions the full-blooded animalism of herohood developed itself the more richly for that very reason. While the Indian heroes are in the end reabsorbed into the god, i.e., Krishna becomes Vishnu, there remains in Greek and German heroes an irreducible dross of humanism, which brings them more into harmony with the historical ingredients of their story. Our hero- legend has this long while had no consciouness remaining of such a thing as incarnation, but has very largely that of an apotheosis of human though god-descended virtue.

Herakles can never become one with Zeus, yet his deeds remind us of those of his divines sire. Some traits in Theseus allow of his being compared to Herakles, others to Apollo. Hermes was the son of Zeus by Maia, Amphion by Antiope, and the two brothers, the full and the half-bred, have something in common.

In Teutonic hero-legend, I think, echoes of the divine nature can be distinguished still more frequently; the Greek gods stood unshaken to the last, and heroes could be developed by the side of them. But when once the Teutonic deities encounted christianity, there remained only one of two ways open to the fading figures of the heathen faith, either to pass into evil diabolic beings, or dwindle into good ones conceived as human. The Greek heroes all belong to the flowering time of paganism; of the Teutonic a part at least might well seem a poverty-stricken attenuation and fainter reproduction of the former gods, such as could still dare to shew its face after the downfall of the heathen system. Christian opinion in the Mid. Ages guided matters into this channel; unable to credit the gods any longer with godhood, where it did not transform them into devils, it did into demigods. In the Edda the æsir are still veritable gods; Jornandes too, when he says, cap. 6: 'mortuum (Taunasem regem) Gothi inter numina populi sui coluerunt'

be this Taunasis Gothic or Getic

assumes that there were Gothic gods, but the anses he regards as only victorious heroes exatled into demigods; and in Saxo, following the same line of thought, we find that Balder (who exhibits some Heraklean features, v. supra p. 226-7), and Hother, and Othin himself, have sunk into mere heroes. (78) This capitis deminutio of the gods brought them nearer to heroes, while the heroes were cut off from absolute deification; how much the two must have got mixed up in the mist of legend! Yet in every case where bodily descent from the gods is alleged of a hero, his herohood is the more ancient, and really of heathen origin.

Among the heroes themselves there occur second births, of which a fuller account will be given further on, and which shew a certain resemblance to the incarnation of gods. As a god renews himself in a hero, so does an elder hero in a younger.

Beings of the giant brood, uniting themselves now to gods and now to heroes, bring about various approximations between these two.

We have seen how in the genealogy of Inguio, first Oðinn, then Niörðr and Freyr interweave themselves: Niörðr and Hadding seem identical, as do Heimdall and Rîgr, but in Niörðr and Heimdall the god is made prominent, in Hadding and Rîgr the hero. Irmin appears connected with Wuotan and Zio, just as Ares and Herakles approach each other, and Odysseus resembles Hermes. Baldr is conceived of as divine, Bældæg as heroic. In Siegfried is an echo of Baldr and Freyr, perhaps of Oðinn, in Dietrich of Thôrr and Freyr. Ecke oscillates between the giant and the hero. Even Charles and Roland are in some of their features to be regarded as new-births of Wuotan and Donar, or of Siegfried and Dietrich. As for Geát, Sceáf, Sceldwa, for lack of their legends, it is difficult to separate their divine nature from their heroic.

One badge of distinction I find in this, that the names of gods are in themselves descriptive, i.e,. indicating from the first their inmost nature; (79) to the names of half-gods and heroes this significance will often be wanting, even when the human original has carried his name over with him. Then, as a rule, the names of gods are simple, those of heroes often compound or visibly derived. Donar therefore is a god from the first, not a deified man: his appellation expresses also his character. The same reason is decisive against the notion of Wuotan having made his way out of the ranks of men into those of the gods.

Demigods have the advantage of a certain familiarness to the people: bred in the midst of us, admitted to our fellowship, it is they to whom reverence, prayers and oaths prefer to address themselves: they procure and facilitate intercourse with the higher-standing god. As it came natural to a Roman to swear 'mehercle! mecastor! ecastor! edepol!' the christians even in the Mid. Ages swore more habitually by particular saints than by God himself.

We are badly off for information as to the points in which the Hero-worship of our forefathers shaped itself differently from divine worship proper; even the Norse authorities have nothing on the subject. The Grecian sacrifices to heroes differed from those offered to gods: a god had only the viscera and fat of the beast presented to him, and was content with the mounting odour; a deified hero must have the very flesh and blood to consume. Thus the einherjar admitted into Valhöll feast on the boiled flesh of the boar Sæhrîmnir, and drink with the Ases; it is never said that the Ases shared in the food, Sæm. 36. 42. Sn. 42; conf. supra, p. 317. Are we to infer from this a difference int he sacrifices offered to gods and to demigods?

Else, in the other conditions of their existence, we can perceive many resemblances to that of the gods. Thus, their stature is enormous. As Ares covered seven roods, Herakles has also a body of gigantic mould. When the godlike Sigurðr strode through the full-grown field of corn, the dew- shoe (80) of his seven-span sword was even with the upright ears (Völs. saga cap. 22. Vilk. saga cap. 166); a hair out of his horse's tail was seven yards long (Nornag. saga cap. 8).

One thing hardly to be found in Teutonic gods, many-handedness, does occur in an ancient hero. Wudga and Hâma, Witege and heime, are always named together. This Heimo is said to have been by rights called Studas, like his father (whom some traditions however name Adelgêr, Madelgêr); not till he had slain the worm Heima, (81) did he adopt its name (Vilk. saga cap. 17). To him are expressly attributed three hands and four elbows, or else two hands with three elbow (Heldens. 257. Roseng. p. xx, conf. lxxiv); the extra limbs are no exaggeration (Heldens. 391), rather their omission is a toning down, of the original story. And Asprian comes out with four hands (Roseng. p. xii). Starkaðr, a famous godlike hero of the North, has three pairs of arms, and Thor cuts four of his hands off (Saxo Gram., p. 103); the Hervarasaga (Rafn p. 412, 513) bestows eight hands on him, and the ability to fight with four swords at once: âtta handa, Fornald. sög. 1, 412. 3, 37. In the Swedish folk-song of Alf, originally heathen, there is a hero Torgnejer (roaring like thunder?), 'han hade otta händer (Arvidss. 1, 12). (82) Such cumulation of limbs is also a mark of the giant race, and some of the heroes mentioned do overlap these; in the Servian songs I find a three headed hero Balatchko (Vuk 2, no. 6, line 608); Pégam too in the Carniolan lay has three heads (tri glave).

Deficiency of members is to be found in heroes as well as gods: Oðinn is one-eyed, Týr one-handed, Loki (= Hephæstus?) lame, Höðr blind, and Viðar dumb; (83) so is Hagano one-eyed, Walthari one-handed, Gunthari and Wielant lame, of blind and dumb heroes there are plenty.

One thing seems particular to heroes, that their early years should be clouded by some defect, and that out of this darkness the bright revelation, the reserved force as it were, should suddenly break forth. Under this head we may even place the blind birth of the Welfs, and the vulgar belief about Hessians and Swabians (p. 373). In Saxo Gram., p. 63, Uffo is dumb, and his father Vermund blind; to him corresponds the double Offa in the line of Mercia, and both of these Offas are lame and dumb and blind. According to the 'vita Offae primi, Varmundi filii,' he was of handsome figure, but continued blind till his seventh year, and dumb till his thirtieth; when the aged Varmund was threatened with war, all at once in the assembly Offa began to speak. The 'vita Offae secundi' says, (84) the hero was at first called Vinered (se we must emend Pineredus), and was blind, lame and deaf, but when he came into possession of all his senses, he was named Offa secundus. Exactly so, in Sæm. 142ª, Hiörvarðr and Sigurlinn have a tall handsome son, but 'hann var þögull, ecki nafn festiz við hann'. Only after a valkyrja has greeted him by the name of Helgi, does he begin to speak, and is content to answer to that name. Starkaðr too was þögull in his youth (Fornald. sög. 3, 36), and Halfdan was reckoned stupid (Saxo, p. 134); just as slow was the heroism of Dietleib in unfolding itself (Vilk. saga cap. 91), and that of Iliya in the Russian tales. Our nursery-tales take up the character as äscherling, aschenbrodel, askefis (cinderel): the hero-youth lives inactive and despised by the kitchen-hearth or in the cattle-stall, out of whose squalor he emerges when the right time comes. I do not recollect any instance in Greek mythology of this exceedingly favourite feature of our folk-lore. Unborn children, namely those that have been cut out of the womb, usually grow up heroes. Such was the famous Persian Rustem in Ferdusi, as well as Tristan according to the old story in Eilhart, or the Russian hero Dobrunä Nikititch, and the Scotch Macduff. But Völsûngr concerns us more, who spoke and made vows while yet unborn, who, after being cut out, had time to kiss his mother before she died (Völsûngas. cap. 2. 5). An obscure passage in Fâfnismâl (Sæm. 187ª) seems to designate Sigurðr also an ôborinn; and in one as difficult (Beow. 92), may not the 'umborwesende' which I took in a different sense on p. 370, stand for unbor-wesende, to intimate that Sceáf passed for an unborn? The Landnâmabôk 4, 4 has an Uni hinn ôborni (m.), and 1, 10 an Ulfrûn in ôborna (f.); for wise-woman, prophetesses, also come into the world the same way. (85) Our Mid. Ages tell of an unborn hero Hoyer (Benecke's Wigalois, p. 452); in Hesse, Reinhart of Dalwig was known as the unborn, being, after the cæsarian operation, brought to maturity in the stomachs of newly slaughtered swine. (86) As early as the tenth century, Eckhart of St. Gall informs us: Infans excisus et arvinae porci recens erutae, ubi incutesceret, involutus, bonae indolis cum in brevi apparuisset, baptizatur et Purchardus nominatur (Pertz. 2, 120); this is the Burchardus ingenitus, afterwards abbot of St. Gall. One Gebehardus, ex defunctae matris Dietpurgae utero excisus, is mentioned in the Chron. Petershus. p. 302, with the remark: De talibus excisis literae testantur quod, si vita comes fuerit, felices in mundo habeantur. To such the common standard cannot be applied, their extraordinary manner of coming into the world gives presage of a higher and mysterious destiny. Not unlike is the Greek myth of Metis and Tritogeneia: the virgin goddess springs out of the forehead of Zeus. The phrase about 'Hlöðr being born with helmet, sword and horse' (above, p. 76), is explained by the Hervararsaga, p. 490, to mean, that the arms and animals which accompany the hero were forged and born at the time of his birth. Schröter's Finnish Runes speak of a child that was born armed: this reminds us of the superstition about lucky children being born with hood and helmet (see ch. XXVIII). It was noticed about the gods (p. 321), that Balder's brother when scarcely born, when but one night old, rushed to vengeance, unwashed and uncombed. This is like the children born of liten Kerstin after long gestation: the newborn son gets up directly and combs his hair, the new born daughter knows at once how to sew silk. Another version makes her give birth to two sons, one of whom combs his yellow locks, the other draws his sword, both equipped for swift revenge (Svenska fornsånger 2, 254-6). Here combing and not combing seem to be the same characteristic. A new born child speaks; Norske eventyr 1, 139.

As the birth of beloved kings is announced to their people by joyful phenomena, and their death by terrible, the same holds good of heroes. Their generosity founds peace and prosperity in the land. Frôði's reign in Denmark was a period of bliss; in the year of Hakon's election the birds bred twice, and trees bore twice, about which beautiful songs may be gleaned out of his saga, cap. 24. On the night that Helgi was born, eagles cried, and holy waters streamed from the mountains, Sæm. 149ª. Sigurð's walk and manner of appearing was impetuous, like that of a god; when he first approached the burg of Brynhildr, 'iörð dûsaði ok opphimin,' earth shook and heaven, Sæm. 241b; and of Brynhild's laughing, as of that of the gods (p. 324), we are told: 'hlô, bœr allr dundi,' she laughed and all the castle dinned, Sæm. 208ª. A divine strength reveals itself in many deeds and movements of heroes. Dietrich's fiery breath may be suggestive of Donar, or perhaps only of a dragon: 'ob sîn âtem gæbe fiur als eines wilden trachen,' (Parz. 137, 18). A widely prevalent mark of the hero race is their being suckled by beasts, or fed by birds. A hind offers her milk to Sigurðr when exposed, Vilk. saga 142; a she-wolf gives suck to the infant Dieterich (like Romulus and Remus) together with her four blind whelps, hence his name of Wolfdieterich. The same fellowship with whelps seems imputed to the beginnings of the Goths and Swabians, as to those of the Romans (p. 373); but the woodpecker also, that Bee-wolf, brought food to the sons of Mars, and we have come to know the Swabians as special devotees of Zio (p. 199). The Servian hero Milosh Kobilitch was suckled by a mare (kobila), Vuk 2, 101; does that throw light on the OHG. term of abuse merihûnsun, zâgûnsun (RA. 643)? A like offensive meaning lurked in the Latin lupa. (87) But it is not only to sucklings that the god-sent animals appear; in distress and danger also, swans, ravens, wolves, stags, bears, lions will join the heroes, to render them assistance; and that is how animal figures in the scutcheons and helmet- insignia of heroes are in many cases to be accounted for, though they may arise from other causes too, e.g., the ability of certain heroes to transform themselves at will into wolf or swan.

The swan's wing, the swan's coat, betokens another supernatural quality which heroes share with the gods (p. 326), the power of flying. As Wieland ties on his swan-wings, the Greek Perseus has winged shoes, talaria, Ov. met. 4, 667. 729, and the Servian Relia is called krilát (winged), being in possession of krilo and akrilie (wing and wing-cover), Vuk 2, 88. 90. 100. A piece of the wing remaining, or in women a swan's foot, will at times betray the higher nature. The superhuman quality of heroes shines out of their eyes (luminum vibratus, oculorum micatus, Saxo Gram. 23): ormr î auga. The golden teeth of gods and heroes have been spoken of, p. 234. In the märchen sons are born with a star on the forehead, Kinderm. 96. Straparola 4, 3; or a golden star falls on the forehead, Pentam. 3, 10. The Dioscuri had a star or flame shining on their heads and helmets: this may have reference to the rays encircling the head (p. 323), or to constellations being set in the sky. In some cases the heroic form is disfigured by animal peculiarities, as Siegfried's by his horny skin, and others by a scaly; the märchen have heroes with hedgehog spikes. The legend of the Merovings, imperfectly handed down to us, must be founded on something of the kind. When Clodio the son of Faramund with his queen went down to the shore, to cool themselves from the sultry summer heat, there came up a monster (sea-hog?) out of the waves, which seized and overpowered the bathing queen. She then bore a son of singular appearance, who was therefore named Merovig, and his descendants, who inherited the peculiarity, Merovings. (88) Theophanes expressly declares, that the Merovings were called kristatai and tricoracatai, because all the kings of that house had bristles down the backbone (racij), like swine. We still find in Rol. 273, 29, where it is true they are enumerated among heathens, di helde von Meres; vil gewis sît ir des, daz niht kuoners mac sîn: an dem rucke tragent si borsten sam swîn.

The derivation of the name is altogether unknown. Can it possibly have some connexion with the boar-worship of Frô, which may have been especially prevalent among the Franks? Lampr. Alex. 5368 also has: sîn hût was ime bevangen al mit swînes bursten (see Suppl.). One principal mark to know heroes by, is their possessing intelligent horses, and conversing with them. A succeeding chapter will show more fully, how heathendom saw something sacred and divine in horses, and often endowed them with consciousness and sympathy with the destiny of men. But to heroes they were indispensable for riding or driving, and a necessary intimacy sprang up between the two, as appears by the mere fact of the horses having proper names given them. The touching conversation of Achilles with his Xanthos and Balios (Il. 19, 400-421) finds a complete parallel in the beautiful Karling legend of Bayard; compare also Wilhelm's dialogue with Puzzât (58, 21-59, 8), in the French original with Baucent (Garin 2, 230-1), and Begon's with the same Baucent (p. 230). In the Edda we have Skîrnir talking with his horse (Sæm. 82b); and Goðrûn, after Sigurð's murder, with Grani (231b):

hnipnaði Grani þâ, drap î gras höfði. Well might Grani mourn, for the hero had bestridden him ever since he led him out of Hialprek's stable (180), had ridden him through the flames (202ª), and carried off the great treasure. Swedish and Danish folk-songs bring in a sagacious steed Black, with whom conversation is carried on (Sv. vis. 2, 194. Sv. forns. 2, 257. Danske vis. 1, 323). In the poems on Artus the horses are less attractively painted; but how naively in the Servian, when Mila shoes the steed (Vuk 1, 5), or Marko before his death talks with his faithful Sharats (2, 243 seq. Danitza 1, 109). In Mod. Greek songs there is a dialogue of Liakos with his horse (Fauriel 1, 138), and similar ones in the Lithuanian dainos (Rhesa p. 224). The Persian Rustem's fairy steed is well-known (see Suppl.) (89)

If many heroes are carried off in the bloom of life, like Achilles or Siegfried, others attain a great age, beyond the limit of the human. Our native legend allows Hildebrand the years of Nestor with undiminished strength, and to the Scandinavian Starkaðr is measured out a life that runs through several generations; the divinely honoured Goðmundr is said to have numbered near five hundred years, Fornald. sög. 1, 411. 442. In the genealogies that have come down to us, great length of life is given to the first ancestors, as it is in the Bible also. Snaerr hinn gamli, sprung from Kâri and Jökull, is said to have attained 300 years, and Hâlfdan gamli as many, Fornald. sög. 2, 8. The MHG. poem of Dietrich's ancestors (1869-2506) gives Dietwart and Sigeher 400 years of life each, Wolfdieterich 503, Hugdieterich 450, and Dietmar 340; Dietrich of Bern is the first that reaches only the ordinary limit, Otnit the son of Sigeher was killed when young. (90) The Servian Marko was three hundred years old, almost like the giants of old. On the other hand, the life of heroes is enfeebled by union with goddesses and superhuman females. Examples will be given, when the valkyrs are discussed; the belief of the Greeks is expressed in a remarkable passage of the Hymn to Venus 190, where Anchises, after he has embraced Aphrodite, fears that he shall lead a stricken life (amenhnoj) among men:

epei ou bioqalmioj anhr gignetai, oste qeaij eunazetai aqanatmsi.

The goddess does not conceal, that age will come on him apace, and that Zeus's thunderbolt will maim him if he boast of her favours. The story of Staufenberger and the sea-fairy is founded on similar notions. Another thing in which the condition of heroes resembles that of gods is, that particular local haunts and dwellings are assigned them. Such abodes seem by preference to bear the name of stone, as Gibichenstein, Brunhildenstein, Kriemhildenstein, Eigelstein, Waskenstein; which points to sacred rocks uninhabited by men, and a primeval, firmly rooted worship. More rarely we find castle or hall connected with a hero (Iringes burc, Orendelsal), a few times ea and burn, oftener way or street; now, as the notion of a highway lies close to that of a conspicuous column to which the roads led up, we may well connect the 'Herculis columnae,' the Irmansuli, with the Roland-pillars, which we come upon just in those northern parts of Germany where heathenism prevailed latest. As king Charles occupies Wuotan's place in certain legends, especially that of the 'furious host,' Roland, the noblest hero of his court, who is to him almost exactly what Donar is to Wuotan, seems to replace the divine vanquisher of giants. Æthelstân-pillars have been mentioned, p. 119. It is worthy of note, that, while Scandinavia offers nothing else that can be likened to the Irmen-pillars, yet at Skeningen, a town of Östergötland, there stood erected in the marketplace, just where Roland-pillars do stand, the figure of a giant or hero, which the people called Thore lâng (Thuro longus), and at which idolatry was practised in former times. (91) This figure appears far more likely to belong to the heathen god than to any hero or king; and probably the column in the market place of Bavais in Hainault, from which seven roads branched off, and which is said to have been reared in honour of a king Bavo, had a similar meaning (see Suppl.).

According to a widely accepted popular belief, examined more minutely in ch. XXXII on Spiriting away, certain heroes have sunk from the rocks and fortresses they once inhabited, into clefts and caverns of the mountains, or into subterranean springs, and are there held wrapt in a seldom interrupted slumber, from which they issue in times of need, and bring deliverance to the land. That here again, not only Wuotan, Arminius, Dieterich and Siegfried, but such modern heroes as Charles, Frederick Barbarossa and even Tell are named, may assure us of the mystic light of myth which has settled on them. It was Norse custom, for aged heroes, dead to the world and dissatisfied with the new order of things, to shut themselves up in a hill: thus Herlaugr with twelve others goes into the haugr (Egilss. p. 7), and in like manner Eticho the Welf, accompanied by twelve nobles, retires into a mountain in the Scherenzerwald, where no one could find him again (Deutsche sagen, no. 518). Siegfried, Charles and Frederick, like King Arthur of the Britons, abide in mountains with their host. Be it be remarked lastly, that the heroic legend, like the divine, is fond of running into triads. Hence, as Oðin, Vili, Ve, or Hâr, Iafnhâr and Thriði stand together, there appear times without number three heroic brothers together, and then also it commonly happens, that to the third one is ascribed the greatest faculty of success. So in the Scythian story of the three brothers Leipoxais, Arpoxais and Kolaxais (Herod. 4, 5): a golden plough, yoke and sword having fallen from heaven, when the eldest son and the second tried to seize them, the gold burned, but the third carried them off. The same thing occurs in many märchen.

 

ENDNOTES:

 

                1.Hâlftröll, hâlfrisi are similar, and the OHG. halpdurinc, halpwalah, halpteni (ON. hâlfdan) as opposed to altdurinc, altwalah.

               2. At most, we might feel some doubt about Skîrnir, Frey's messenger and servant; but he seems more a bright angel than a hero.

               3. With this we should have to identify even the veorr used of Thôrr (p. 187) in so far as it stood for viörr.

                4. Fortbildung: thus staff, stack, stall, stem, stare, &c. may be called prolongations of the root sta.

Trans.

                5. In early docs. the town of Heldburg in Thuringia is already called Helidiberga, MB. 28ª 33.

                6. The polypt. Irminon 170b has a proper name Ardingus standing for Hardingus.

                7. Graff 4, 447 places chuoni, as well as chuninc and chunni, under the all-devouring root chan; but as kruoni, AS. grêne viridis, comes from kruoan, AS. grôwan, so may chuoni, AS. cêne, from a lost chuoan, AS. côwan pollere? vigere?

                8. Some Slavic expressions for hero are worthy of notice: Russ. vîtiaz, Serv. vitez; Russ. boghatyr, Pol. bohater, Boh. bohatyr, not conn. either with bôgh deus, or boghât dives, but the same as the Pers. behâdir, Turk. bahadyr, Mongol. baghâtor, Hung. bâtor, Manju bâtura, and derivable from b'adra lively, merry; Schott in Erman's zeitschr. 4, 531 [Mongol. baghâ is force, bia, and -tor, -tur an adj. suffix].

                9. In the Roman legend, Romulus and Remus were connected through Silvia with Mars, and through Amulius with Venus; and Romulus was taken up to heaven. The later apotheosis of the emperors differs from the genuine heroic, almost as canonization does from primitive sainthood; yet even Augustus, being deified, passed in legend for a son of Apollo, whom the god in the shape of a dragon had by Atia; Sueton. Octav. 94.

                10. Proximi oceano Ingaevones, medii Herminones, ceteri Istaevones vocantur, Tac. Germ. 2.

                11. Cædm. 88, 8 says of the raven let out of Noah's ark: gewât ofer wonne wæg sîgan.

                12. Snorri sends him to Turkland, Saxo only as far as Byzantium.

Trans.

                13. As the ON. genealogies have Yngvi, Niörðr, Freyr, the Old Swedish tables in Geijer (häfder 118. 121. 475) give Inge, Neorch, Fro; some have Neoroch for Neorch, both being corruptions of Neorth. Now, was it by running Ingvi and Freyr into one, that the combination Ingvifreyr (transposed into AS. freá Ingwina) arose, or was he cut in two to make an additional link? The Skâldskaparmâl in Sn. 211ª calls Yngvifreyr Oðin's son, and from the enumeration of the twelve or thirteen Ases in Sn. 211b it cannot be doubted that Yngvifreyr was regarded as equivalent to the simple Freyr.

                14. Hernit = Harding in the Swedish tale of Dietrich (Iduna 10, 253-4. 284).

                15. So Wh. Müller (Haupt's zeitschr. 3, 48-9) has justly pointed out, that Skaði's choice of the muffled bridegroom, whose feet alone were visible (Sn. 82), agrees with Saxo's 'eligendi mariti liberatas curiosiore corporum attrectatione,' but here to find a ring that the flesh has healed over. Skaði and Ragnhild necessarily fall into one.

                16. So in the Rigsmâl 105ª, Burr is called the first, Barn the second, and Ioð (conf. AS. eáden) the third child of Faðir and Môðir.

                17. ON. for man: sing. maðr, mannis, manni, mann; pl. menn, manna, mönnun, menn.

                18. In Nennius §17, Stevenson and Sanmarte (pp. 39. 40) have adopted the very worst reading Hisitio.

                19. Pointed out by Leo in the zeitschr. f. d. alt. 2, 534.

                20. Conf. Askitûn (Ascha near Amberg), Askiprunno (Eschborn near Frankfort), Askipah (Eschbach, Eschenbach) in various parts; Ascarîh, a man's name (see Suppl.).

                21. Pertz 1, 200. 300. 2, 290. 463. 481; the abbas Irmino of Charles the Great's time is known well enough now; and a female name Iarmin is met with in deeds.

                22. Much as we say now: he is a regular devil, or in Lower Saxony hamer (p. 182). The prefix irmin- likewise intensifies in a good or bad sense; like 'irmingod, irminthiod,' there may have been an irminthiob = 'meginthiob, reginthiob'.

                23. To the Greek aspirate corresponds a Teutonic S, not H: o, h, sa, sô; epta sibun; alj salt. [There are exceptions: o, h, oi he, her, hig; oloj whole, hela; elw haul, holen].

                24. A patronymic suffix is not necessary: the Gântôs, Gevissi, Suâpâ take name from Gáuts, Gevis, Suâp, divine heroes.

                25. Rommel's Hessen. 1. p. 66 note. Westphalia (Minden 1830) i. 4, 52 The tune is given in Schumann's Musical. zeitung for 1836.

                26. Variants: mit stangen und prangen (which also means staves); mit hamer un tangen (tongs).

                27. This explanation has of course been tried: some have put Hermann for Hermen, others add a narrative verse, which I do not suppose is found in the people's mouth: 'un Hermen slaug dermen, slaug pipen, slaug trummen, de fürsten sind kummen met all eren mannen, hebt Varus uphangen'.

                28. The same vowel-change is seen in Ermensulen (deed of 1298 in Baring's Clavis dipl. p. 493 no. 15), a Westphalian village, now called Armenseul.

                29. IIII cheminii Waltingestrete, Fosse, Hickenildestrete, Ermingestrete (Thorpe's Anc. laws, p. 192); conf. Henry of Hunt. (Erningestreet), Rob. of Glouc., Oxf. 1742, p. 299 (also Erning., after the preceding). Ranulph Highden's Polychr., ed. Oxon. p. 196. Leland's Itinerary, Oxf. 1744. 6, 108-140. Gibson in App. chron. Sax. p. 47. Camden's Britannia, ed. Gibson, Lond. 1753, p. lxxix. In the map to Lappenberg's Hist. of Engl., the direction of the four roads is indicated.

                30. I limit myself to briefly quoting some other names for the milky way. In Arabic it is tarik al thibn (via straminis); Syriac schevil tevno (via paleae); Mod. Hebrew netibat theben (semita palea); Pers. rah kah keshan (via stramen trahentis); Copt. pimoit ende pitoh (via straminis); Ethiop. hasare zamanegade (stipula viae); Arab. again derb ettübenin (path of the chopped-straw carriers); Turk. saman ughrisi (paleam rapiens, paleae fur); Armen. hartacol or hartacogh (paleae fur); all these names run upon scattered chaff, which a thief dropt in his flight. More simple is the Arabic majerra (tractus), nahr al majerra (flumen tractus), and the Roman conception of path of the gods or to the gods; also Iroq. path of souls, Turk. hadjiler juli (pilgrims' path), hadji is a pilgrim to Mecca and Medina. Very similar is the christian term used in the Mid. Ages, 'galaxias via sancti Jacobi' already in John of Genoa's Catholicon (13th century); camino di Santiago, chemin de saint Jaques, Jacobsstrasse, Slov. zesta v' Rim (road to Rome), from the pilgrimages to Galicia or Rome, which led to heaven [was there no thought of Jacob's ladder?] This Jame's road too, or pilgrim's road, was at once on earth and in heaven; in Lacomblet, docs. 184 and 185 (an. 1051) name a Jacobswech together with the via regia. ON. vetrarbraut (winterway). Welsh caer Gwydion (p. 150), and Arianrod (silver street? which comes near Argentoratum). Finn. linnunrata (birdway), Lith. paukszcziû kielés, perhaps because souls and spirits flit in the shape of birds; Hung. Hadakuttya (via belli), because the Hungarians in migrating from Asia followed this constellation (see Suppl.). Vroneldenstraet (p. 285) and Pharaildis fit intelligibly enough with frau Holda and Herodias, whose airy voyages easily account for their giving a name to the milky way, the more so, as Wuotan, who joins Holda in the nightly hunt, shows himself here also in the Welsh appellation caer Gwydion. Even the fact of Diana being mixed up with that chase, and Juno with the milky way, is in keeping; and gods or spirits sweep along the heavenly road as well as in the heavenly hunt.

                31. Conf. the differing but likewise old version, from a H. German district, in Goldast's Script. rer. Suev. pp. 1-3, where Swabians take the place of the Saxons. The Auersberg chron. (ed. Argent. 1609, pp. 146-8) copies Widukind. Eckehard, in Pertz 8, 176-8.

                32. As already quoted, Deutsch. heldens. p. 117.

                33. Or iu, as some roots shift from the fourth to the fifth vowel-series (like hîrât and hiurât, now both heirat and heurat; or tir and týr, p. 196), so Iurinc (expanded into Iuwarinc, as the OHG. poss. pron. iur into iuwar); so in the 16-17th cent. Eiring alternates with Euring. A few

                MSS. read Hiring for Iring, like Hirmin for Irmin, but I have never seen a Heuring for Euring,

                or it might have suggested a Saxon hevenring, as the rainbow is called the ring of heaven.

                An old AS. name for Orion, Eburðrung, Ebirðring, seems somehow connected, especially

                with the Iuwaring above.

                34. The venerable custom still prevailed in the 15-16th cent. : 'statuta provincialium generose

                confirmavit et sigillavit in equitatu qui dicitur Eriksgata,' Diarium Vazstenense ad an. 1441

                (ed. Benzel, Ups. 1721) p. 86. 'Rex Christoferus Sueciae et Daciae equitatum fecit qui dicitur

                Eriksgata secundum leges patriae,' ibid. ad an. 1442. Even Gustavus Vasa rode his Eriksgata.

                35. For inquimus, as elsewhere inquit for inquiunt.

                36. Votum, what an individual offers, as opposed to the sacrificium presented publicly and

                jointly; conf. supra, p. 57.

                37. So king Hâkon is admitted into the society of gods, Hermôðr and Bragi go to meet him:

                'siti Hâkon með heiðin goð' (Hâkonarmâl).

                38. Dahlmann guesses it may be the Upsal Erik (d. 804).

                39. Altd. blätter 1, 372-3.

                40. Kaiserchr. 285: sîn gecelt hiez er slahen dô ûf einin berc der heizit Swero, von dem berge

                Swero sint sie alle geheizen Swâbo. For Swero read Swevo (see Suppl.).

                41. "Ulixes = Loki, Sn. 78. For Laertes, whose name Pott 1, 222 explains as protector of the

                people, conf. Ptolemy's Lakibourgtion." Extr. from Suppl., vol. iii.

                42. Almqvist, Svensk språklära, Stockh. 1840, p. 385ª.

                43. In Lith. lele is pupa, akies lele pupilla, leilas butterfly.

                44. OHG. Wuotilgôz (Zeitschr. f. d. alt. 1, 577), conf. wüeteln above, p. 132. and Wodel- beer,

                p. 156 (see Suppl.).

                45. In Boëth. 38, 1 Agamemnon is styled câsere, and Ulysses cyning [in the Pref., Rædgot,

                Ealleric, Theodric are cyningas, the emperor always câsere]; in a doc. in Kemble 2, 304

                Eádred is 'cyning and câsere'.

                46. A token of victory? as the vanquished had to present such dust (RA. 111-2).

                47. The AS. name Frôdheri stands yet farther away (Beda 2, 9 §113).

                48. Saxo 122 mentions one hero begotten by Thôrr: Haldanus Biarggrammus apud Sueones

                magni Thor filius existimatur. And I know of no other but this one.

                49. Dan, in Saxo's view the true ancestor of the Danes, is called in the Rîgsmâl Danr, and

                placed together with Danpr. Sæm. 106b.

                50. Elsewhere Gramr is the proper name of a particular sword, while the appellative gramr

                denotes a king.

                51. Can the name in Upper Germany for the turdus or oriolus galbula, Birolf, Pirolf, brother

                Pirolf (Frisch 1, 161), possibly stand for Biewolf (or Biterolf)? The Serbs call it Urosh, and

                curiously this again is a hero's name. Conf. the Finn. uros [with heros?], p. 341.

                52. Umborwesende? Beow. 92.

                53. The ship that brought Sceáf and the swan-knight carries them away again at last, but the

                reason is disclosed only in later legend: it was forbidden to inquire into their origin, Parz.

                825, 19. Conr., Schwanritter 1144-73.

                54. Zeitschr. für deut. alterth. 1, 7.

                55. Brudestein, lectulus Brunihilde, Kriemhiltenstein, Criemildespil (Heldensage p. 155);

                Krimhilte graben (Weisth. 1, 48); in loco Grimhiltaperg nominato (Juvavia p. 137); de

                Crimhilteperc, MB. 7. 498.

                56. Haupts zeitschr. 1, 21.

                57. Lachmann's examination of the whole Nibelung legend, p. 22.

                58. Haupts zeitschr. 1, 2-6.

                59. In the Copenh. ed. of the Edda, Sæm. 2, 889 Sigemon, and in Finn Magn. lex. 643 Segemon, is said to have been a name of the Celtic Mars; I suppose on the ground of the inscriptt. in Gruter lviii. 5: Marti Segomoni sacrum.......in civitate Sequanorum; and ii. 2: Diis deabus omnibus Veturius L.L. Securius (al. Segomanus) pro se quisque (see Suppl.).

                60. Almost the same, granting a change of th into f (as in qhr, fhr); of our â standing for Greek u there are more examples: fnâsu, blâsu = pneuw, fluw.

                61. The epithet sveinn (Sw. sven, Dan. svend) given to the Norse Sigurðr apears already in Fâfnir's address 'sveinn ok sveinn!' and in the headings to ch. 142-4 of the Vilk. saga. The same hero then is meant by the Sivard snaresvend (fortis puer) of the Danish folk-song, who, riding on Grani, accompanies to Askereia (see ch. XXXI), and by Svend Felding or Fälling of the Danish folk-tale (Thiele 2, 64-7. Müller's sagabibl. 2, 417-9). He drank out of a horn handed to him by elvish beings, and thereby acquired the strength of twelve men. Swedish songs call him Sven Färling or Fotling; Arvidsson 1, 129. 415.

                62. Simon Keza, chron. Hungaror. 1, 11. 12. Heinr. von Müglein (in Kovachich p. 8); conf. Deutsche heldensage p. 164.

                63. Hence the proverb: seint losnar hein! höfði Thôrs.

                64. Wedekind's Hermann duke of Saxony, Lüneb. 1817, p. 60. Conf. the miles Billinc, comes Billingus in docs. of 961-8 in Höfers zeitschr. 2, 239. 344, and the OHG. form Billungus in Zeuss, Trad. wizenb. pp. 274. 287. 305.

                65. Who is also found apparently in a version of the Lay of king Oswald.

                66. Whence did Matthesius (in Frisch 2, 439ª) get his "Pan is the heathens' Wendel and head bagpiper"? Can the word refer to the metamorphoses of the flute-playing demigod? In trials of witches, Wendel is a name for the devil, Mones anz. 8, 124.

                67. And so Uhland (On Thor, p. 47 seq.) expounds it: in Grôa he sees the growth of the crop, in Örvandill the sprouting of the blade. Even the tale in Saxo he brings in.

                68. The false spelling Eichelstein (acorn-stone) has given rise to spurious legends, Mones anz. 7, 368.

                69. I have hardly the face to mention, that some make the right shifty Ulysses father to Pan, our Wendel above.

                70. The still unprinted M. Dutch poem, De kinderen van Limburg, likewise mentions Wilant, Wedege and Mimminc.

                71. Juxta domum Welandi fabri, Ch. ad ann. 1262 in Lang's reg. 3, 181: conf. Haupts zeitschr. 2, 248. I find also Witigo faber, MB. 7, 122.

                72. A reduplication like paipaloj, paipaloeij tortus, arduus, paipallein torquere; conf. lailay, maimax, &c.

                73. P. E. Müller's ed., p. 114, following which I have set aside the reading Mimringus, in spite of the Danish song of Mimering tand.  merely guessed from the incidents of the story. Arrow is not öl, but ör; Orentil on the

                contrary, Eigil's son, does seem to have been named from the arrow.

                75. Schleswigholst. prov. berichte 1798, vol. 2, p. 39 seq. Müllenhof, Schleswigholst. sagen no. 66.

                76. I suspect the genuineness of the verse, alleged to be by Heinrich von Hünenberg of

                1315, which Carl Zay has made known in his book on Goldau, Zurich 1807, p. 41:

      Dum pater in puerum telum crudele coruscat

      Tellius ex jussu, saeve tyranne, tuo,

      pomum, non natum, figit fatalis arundo:

      altera mox ultrix te, periture, petet.

                H. von Hünenberg is the same who, before the battle of Morgarten, shot a warning billet  over to the Swiss on his arrow (Joh. Müller 2, 37), he was therefore a bowman himself.  Justinger and Johann von Winterthur are silent about Tell; Melchior Russ (d. 1499) and  Petermann Etterlin (completed 1507) were the first who commited the story to writing.  77. Similar legends seem to live in the East. In a MS. of the Cassel library containing a journey in Turkey, I saw the representation of an archer taking aim at a child with an apple on its head.

                78. In the AS. Ethelwerd p. 833 we read: 'Hengest et orsa, hi nepotes fuere Woddan regis barbarorum, quem post infanda dignitate ut deum honorantes, sacrificium obtulerunt pagani victoriae causa sive virtutis, ut humanitas saepe credit hoc quod videt'. Wm. of Malmesbury's similar words were quoted above, p. 128; he also says 'deum esse delirantes'. Albericus tr. font. 1, 23 (after A.D. 274) expresses himself thus: 'In hac generatione decima ab incarnatione Domini regnasse invenitur quidam Mercurius in Gottlandia insula, quae est inter Daciam et Russiam extra Romanum imperium, a quo Mercurio, qui Woden dictus est, descendit genealogia Anglorum et multorum aliorum'. Much in the same way Snorri in the Yngl. saga and Form. 13. 14 represents Oðinn as a höfðingi and hermaðr come from Asia, who by policy secured the worship of the nations; and Saxo p. 12 professes a like opinion: 'ea tempestate cum Othinus quidam, Europa tota, falso divinitatis titulo censeretur,' &c. conf. what he says p. 45. What other idea could orthodox christians at that time form of the false god of their forefathers? To idolatry they could not but impute wilful deceit or presumption, being unable to comprehend that something very different from falsified history lies at the bottom of heathenism. As little did there ever exist a real man and king Oðinn (let alone two or three), as a real Jupiter or Mercury.

But the affinity of the hero nature with the divine is clearly distinct from a deification arising out of human pride and deceit. Those heathen, who trusted mainly their inner strength (p. 6), like the Homeric heroes pepoiqotej bihfi (Il. 12, 256), were yet far from setting themselves up for gods. Similar to the stories of Nebucadnezar (er wolte selbe sîn ein got, would himself be god, Parz. 102, 7. Barl. 60, 35), of Kosroes (Massmann on Eracl. p. 502), of the Greek Salmoneus (conf. N. Cap. 146), and the Byzantine Eraclius, was our Mid. Age story of Imelôt aus wüester Babilônie, 'der wolde selve wesen got' (Rother 2568) = Nibelôt ze Barise 'der machet himele guldîn, selber wolt er got sin' (Bit. 299), just as Salmoneus imitated the lightning and thunder of Zeus. Imelôt and Nibelôt here seem to mean the same thing, as do elsewhere Imelunge and Nibelunge (Heldens. 162); I do not know what allusion there might be in it to a Nibelunc or Amelunc (see Suppl.).

                79. Something like the names of the characters in the Beast-apologue.

                80. Döggskôr, Sw. doppsko, the heel of the sword's sheath, which usually brushes the dew: so the Alamanns called a lame foot, that dragged through the dewy grass, toudregil. This ride through the corn has something in it highly mythic and suggestive of a god.

                81. Heimo appears to mean worm originally, though used elsewhere of the cricket or cicada (Reinh. cxxv), for which our present heimchen (little worm) is better suited. A renowned Karling hero was also named Heimo (Reinh. cciv). We find again, that Madelgêr is in Morolt 3921 a dwarf, son of a mermaid, and in Rol. 58, 17 a smith.

                82. In the prophecies of the North Frisian Hertje (A.D. 1400) the tradition of such monstrosities is applied to the future: 'Wehe den minschen, de den leven, wen de lüde 4 arme kriegen und 2 par schö över de vöte dragen und 2 höde up den kop hebben!' Heimreichs chron., Tondern 1819; 2, 341. It may however refer merely to costume.

                83. Goth. háihs, hanfs, halts, blinds, dumbs.

                84. These remarkable vitae Offae primi et secundi are printed after Watts's Matth. Paris, pp.

                8, 9.

                85. Heimreich's Nordfries. chr. 2, 341.

                86. Zeitschrift für Hess. gesch. 1, 97.

                87. Fils de truie; Garin 2, 229.

                88. Fredegar's epitome (Bouquet 2, 396), and Conradus Ursperg., Arg. 1609, p. 92. Per contra,

                Müllenhoff in Haupt's zeitschr. 6, 432.

                89. A Mongolian warrior's dying song has:

                My poor cream-coloured trotter, you will get home alive.

                Then tell my mother, pray: 'full fifteen wounds had he'.

                And tell my father, pray: 'shot through the back was he,' &c.

Trans.

                90. These are undoubtedly genuine myths, that lose themselves in the deeps of time,however distorted and misplaced they may be. Sigeher (OHG. Siguhari) is plainly the ON. Sigarr, from whom the Siglingar or Siklîngar take their name; Sigeher's daughter is called Sigelint, Sigar's daughter Signý, but the two are identical. Hugdieterich, who in woman's clothing woos Hildeburg, is one with Hagbarðr (Sw. Habor, Dan. Hafbur), who likewise succeeds in his suit for Signý (Sw. Signil, Dan. Signild), though here the story has a tragic end, and the names disagree; but hug and hag, both from one root, support each other. Sigeminne too, the wife of Wolfdieterich, who in the Heldenbuch is the son of Hugdieterich, comes near to Signý. The part about Hugdieterich in the Heldenbuch is throughout uncommonly sweet, and certainly very ancient.  

                91. Olaus Magnus 14, 15. Stjernhöök, De jure Sveon. vet., p. 326. Broocmans beskrifn. öfver Östergötland, Norrköping 1760. 1, 190 

 

Supplements

 

                p. 341. ) On demigods, great gods, dæmones, conf. Boeckh's Manetho, p. 488; semidei, heroes, Arnob. 2, 75. The hero has superhuman strength, ON. hann er eigi einhamr, Fornm. sög. 3, 205-7; einhamr, einhama signif. mere human strength. It is striking how the Usipetes and Tenchtheri glorify human heroes to Caesar, B. G. 4, 7: 'we yield to none but the Suevi, for whom the immortal gods are no match.'

                p. 343. ) To vir, OHG. wer, are prob. akin the Scyth. oior, Fin. uros, Kal. 13, 64. 21, 275. 290; conf. Serv. urosh (p. 369n.). GDS. 236. Aug. Civ. Dei 10, 21. K. F. Herm. Gottesd. alt. p. 69. M. Neth. hêlt as well as helet, Stoke 3, 4. Notker's hertinga, AS. heardingas, El. 25. 130, recall Boh. hrdina, Pol. hardzina (hero), conf. Boh. hrdý, Pol. hardy, Russ. górdyi (proud), Fr. hardi, G. hart, herti (hard). Arngrîm's eleventh and twelfth sons are called Haddîngjar, Fornald. sög. 1, 415-6-7. GDS. 448. 477. himelischer degen in the Kl. 1672. degenîn, heroine, Renn. 12291. With wîgant conf. the name Weriant freq. in Karajan. Jesus der Gotes wîgant, Mos. 68, 10. Kämpe may be used of a giant, Müllenh. 267. 277; beside cempa, the AS. has oretta, heros, pugil. Is not ON. hetja (bellator) strictly wrestler, fencer? conf. OHG. hezosun, palaestritae, Graff 4, 1073. GDS. 578. With OHG. wrecchio, AS. wrecca (whence, wretch, wretched), agrees best the description of the insignes in Tac. Germ. 31: Nulli domus aut ager aut aliqua cura; prout ad quemque venere, aluntur prodigi alieni, contemptores sui. Diomed is anhr aristoj, Il. 5, 839. Heroes are rôg-birtîngar, bright in battle, Haralda-mâl 16. Serv. yunák, hero, yunáshtvo, heroism; so MHG. die mîne jungelinge, Fundgr. 2, 91, conf. Nib. 1621, 2, and the heroic line of the Ynglîngar (p. 346). Ir. trean hero; also faolchu hero, strictly wild wolf, falcon, and Welsh gwalch, falcon, hero; conf. Serv. urosh (p. 369n.).

                p. 344. ) Heroes derive their lineage fr. the gods: Sigurðr ormr î auga is expressly Oðins aettar, Fornald. sög. 1, 258; the Scythian Idanthyrsus counts Zeus his ancestor, Herod. 4, 126; and Zeus does honour to Menelaus as his son-in-law, gambroj Dioj, 4, 569. They are friends of the gods: Zeus loves both champions, Hector and Ajax, Il. 7, 280; there are 'friends of Ares' and a 'Frey's vinr.' They can multiply the kindred of the gods. Jupiter's children are reckoned up in Barl. 251, 37 seq.; Alexander too is a son of Jupiter Ammon or Nectanebus by Olympias. 'Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatos praedicant; idque ab druidibus proditum dicunt,' Caes. 6, 18. Dietrich descends fr. a spirit, Otnit fr. Elberich, Högni fr. an elf, and Merlin fr. the devil.

                p. 345. ) As Teutonic tradition made Tuisco a 'terra editus,' the American Indians have a belief that the human race once lived inside the earth, Klemm 2, 159. Though Norse mythology has no Mannus son of Tuisco, yet it balances Goðheimr with a Mannheimr, GDS. 768, conf. Vestmanland, Södermanland, Rask on Ælfred's Periplus 70-1; and Snorri's Formâli 12 places a Munon or Mennon at the head of the tribes. He, with Priam's daughter Trôan, begets a son Trôr = Thôr, fr. whom descends Loritha = Hlôrriða, conf. Fornald. sög. 2, 13. GDS. 195. The American Indians have a first man and maker Manitu, Klemm 2, 155-7. On the mythic pedigree of Mannus and his three sons, see GDS. 824 seq.

                p. 346. ) Ingo was orig. called Ango, says Mannhdt's Ztschr. 3, 143-4. he is the hero of the Ingaevones, who included the Saxons and formerly the Cheruscans, consequently the Angles, Angern, Engern (GDS. 831. 629. 630), whose name is perhaps derived from his.

                p. 350. ) Did Dlugoss in his Hist. Polon. draw fr. Nennius? Jrb. d. Berl. spr. ges. 8, 20; conf. Pertz 10, 314.

                p. 350 n. ) Ascafna-burg, fr. the rivulet Ascafa = Ascaha, is likewise interpr. in Eckehardus' Uraug. as 'Asken-burg ab Ascanio conditore,' and is a castellum antiquissimum, Pertz 8, 259. 578. On Asc and Ascanius conf. p. 572.

                p. 351. ) The old Lay of Patricius 19, ed. Leo. p. 32-3 has Eirimoin (Erimon). Heremon in Diefenb. Celt. 2b, 387-9. 391.

                p. 355. ) A communication fr. Jülich country says, Herme is used as a not very harsh nickname for a strong but lubberly man. But they also say, 'he works like a Herme,' i.e. vigorously; and legend has much to tell of the giant strength of Herme; conf. Strong Hermel, KM. 3, 161. Herman, Hermanbock, Maaler 218b. Firmen. 1, 363b: 'to make believe our Lord is called Herm.' Lyra Osnabr. 104: 'du menst wual, use Hergott si 'n aulen Joost Hierm.' It is remarkable that as early as 1558, Lindner's Katziporus O, 3b says of a proud patrician, who comes home fuller of wine than wit: 'he carries it high and mighty, who but he? and thinks our Lord is called Herman.' On the rhyme 'Hermen, sla dermen,' suggestive of the similar 'Hamer, sla bamer, sla busseman doet' (p. 181-2), conf. Woeste pp. 34. 43. Firmen. 1, 258. 313. 360.

                p. 357 n. ) Other foreign names for the Milky Way. American Indian: the way of ashes, Klemm 2, 161. In Wallach. fairytales, pp. 285. 381, it comes of spilt straw that St. Venus (Vinire) has stolen from St. Peter. In Basque: ceruco esnebidea, simply via lactea, fr. eznea milk. Taj eij ouranou yucwn nomizomenaj odouj, Lucian's Encom. Demosth. 50. Lettic: putnu zel s ch, bird-path, Bergm. 66 (so poroj oiwnwn, aether, Æsch. Prom. 281); also Deeva yahsta, God's girdle 115, or is that the rainbow? (p. 733). Arianrod is also interpr. corona septentrionalis, though liter. silver-circle. For the many Hungar. names see Wolf's Ztschr. 2, 162-3.

                Other Teutonic names. East Frs. dat melkpath, and when unusually bright, harmswîth, Ehrentr. Fries. arch. 2, 73. With galaxia they seem to have conn. Galicia; hence to Charlemagne, at the beginning of the Turpin, appears James Street, leading from France to Galicia. In Switzld: der weg uf Rom, Stutz 1, 106. Westph.: mülenweg (Suppl. to 924), also wiärstrate, weather-street, Woeste p. 41; so in Jutland veirveien, Molb. Dial. lex 646, as well as arken 18. To ON. vetrarbraut, winter-way, corresp. the Swed. vintergatan; conf. Gothl. kaldgotu, Almqv. 432, unless this be for Karl's-gate. Do sunnûnpad, sterrôno strâza, wega wolkôno in Otfrid i. 5, 5 mean the galaxy? conf. the path of clouds, Somadeva 2, 153-7. 58. 61. Journ. to Himavan 1, 106. Heer-strasze (-gasse), viz. that of the 'wütende heer,' in Meier's Schwäb. sag. 137-9; herstrasz, Mone 8, 495; Up. Palat. hyrstrausz, heerweg, Bergm. 115-8. 124; helweg (p. 801-2). Most import. for mythol. are: frauen Hulden strasze, vron Hilden straet, Pharaïldis sidus (p. 284-5); also 'galaxa, in duutsche die Brunelstraet,' Naturk. von broeder Thomas (Clariss's Gheraert, p. 278).

                p. 361.        As we have Iuuåringes-weg and Eurings-strasz by the side of Iringewsweg, so in oldish records Eurasburg castle is called Iringesburg, Schm. 1, 96. Irinc is in the Nib. 1968 a young man, 1971-89 a markgraf and Hâwartes man, and in the Klage 201. 210 ze Lütringe geborn. On the meaning of the word conf. pp. 727. 1148. Kl. schr. 3, 234. F. Magnussen in his Pref. to Rîgsmâl connects (as I had done in my Irmenstrasse 1815, p. 49) the Ericus of Ansgar and the Berich of Jornandes with Rîgr, as also the Eriksgata; conf. the devil's name gammel Erich (p. 989). That Erich was a deified king is plain from a sentence in the Vita Anskarii cited above: 'nam et templum in honore supradicti regis dudum defuncti statuerunt, et ipsi tanquam deo vota et sacrificia offerre coeperunt.'

                p. 363n.) Suevi a monte Suevo, Chr. Salern., Pertz 5, 512. a Suevio monte, Hpt's Ztschr. 4, 493. GDS. 323.

                p. 365.) On the castra Herculis by Noviomagus, Ammian. Marc. 18, 2. With the giant bones of Hugleich at the Rhine mouth (Hpt's Ztschr. 5, 10) we may even conn. the Herculis columna which stood there (p. 394). On Herc. Saxanus, Mannhdt's Germ. mythen p. 230; on the inscriptions, Mythol. ed. 1, p. 203. Herculi in Petra, Gruter 49, 2. pedion liqwdej on the Rhone, Preller 2, 147. Wolfram's Wh. 357, 25. 386, 6. 437, 20.

                p. 366. )

                Like Castor and Pollux, there appear in Teut. tales two youths, angels, saints, in a battle, or putting out a fire (Suppl. to Pref. xliii. end): 'duo juvenes candidis circumamicti stolis, animam a corpore segregantes, vacuum ferentes per aërem,' Jonas Bobb. in Vita Burgundofarae (Mabillon 2, 421); conf. p. 836-7. duo juvenes in albis, putting out a fire, in Annal. Saxo p. 558. Chronogr. Saxo in Leibn. 122 fr. Einh. Ann., Pertz 1, 348. Again, the angel wiping the sword in Roth's Sermons p. 78, and the destroying angel. Lithuanian legends have a giant Alcis, Kurl. sendungen 1, 46-7. Jalg eða Jalkr, Sn. 3; jalkr = senex eviratus, says F. Magn.

                p. 367n.) Note, in the Pass. 64, 41: ein wuotegôz unreiner = Wuotilgôz: conf. 'wüetgusz oder groz wasser,' Weisth. 3, 702. and 'in wuetgussen, eisgussen und groszen stürmen, 3, 704. Also p. 164, and Wuetes, Wüetens, Schm. 4, 203. GDS. 440. 774-5.

                p. 368.) Sigi is Oðin's son, Sn. 211a. So is Hildôlfr, ibid., 'Harbarð's lord,' Sæm. 75b, OHG. Hiltwolf. So is Sigrlami, Fornald. sög. 1, 413, and has a son Svafrlami. So is Nefr or Nepr, Sn. 211a, Semîngr in Hervarars., Fornald. s. 1, 416; conf. Sâmr, Sâms-ey, Rask's Afh. 1, 108. The name of Gautr, Oðin's son or grandson, is conn. with giezen (pp. 23. 105n. 142. 164. 367); on Gautr, Sn. 195. Oðinn is called Her-gautr, Egilss. p. 624, alda gautr, Sæm. 95b. 93b; conf. Caozes-pah, -prunno (-beck, -burn), Hpt's Ztschr. 7, 530.

                p. 370. ) The accounts of Sceáf in AS. chronicles are given by Thorpe, Beow. p. 4. In the same way Beaflor sails alone in a ship, a bundle of straw under his head, Mai 35-9, arrives 51-3, sails away again 152; the ship gets home 180, 39. Horn also comes in a ship, and sends it home with greetings. A Polish legend says of Piast: qui primus appulerit in navicula, dominus vester erit, Procosius p. 47. As the Swan-children can lay aside the swan-ring, so can the Welfs the wolf-girdle or whelp-skin. Klemm 2, 157 has a remarkable story of beautiful children slipping off their dog-skin. 'Skilpunt' in Karajan's Salzb. urk. must be for Skilpunc. Oðinn is a Skilfîngr, Sæm. 47. Did the f and b in Scilfing, Scilbunc arises out of v in skildva? The Goth. skildus has its gen. pl. skildivê.

                p. 371. ) Kl. schr. 3, 197. To the Gibichen-steine enumer. in Hpt's Ztschr. 1, 573, and the Gebiches-borse in Weisth. 3, 344 (borse, Graff 3, 215), add Geveken-horst, Möser 8, 337. Dorow's Freckenh. 222, and AS. Gificancumb, Kemble no. 641 (yr. 984). The Nibel., which does not mention the Burgundian Gibeche, has a fürste or künec Gibeke at Etzel's court 1283, 4. 1292, 2. The Lex Burg. 3 says: apud regiae memoriae auctores nostros, id est, Gibicam, Godomarem, Gislaharium, Gundaharium. Greg. Tur. 2, 28: Gundeuchus rex Burgundionum; huic fuere quatuor filii, Gundobaldus, Godegisilus, Chilpericus, Godomarus.

                p. 371. ) The diffusion of the Völsûnga-saga among the Anglo-Sax. is evidenced by 'Välsing' and 'Välses eafera' in Beow. 1747-87. The Völsungs have the snake's eye (Suppl. to 392, mid.). The tale of Säufritz is told in Bader no. 435.

                p. 371n.) Mars segumon, vincius, Stälin 1, 112. Glück 150 says, segomo in nom. De Wal. no. 246 (1847). Can it be the same as hgemwn, dux?

                p. 373.)

                Oðinn himself is called helblindi, and Helblindi is the name of a wolf (p. 246). Beaflor is said to have give birth to a wolf, Mai 132, 9; conf. the story of the 12 babies named Wolf, Müllenh. p. 523, and that of the blind dogs, Pliny 8, 40.

                p. 374.) Pillung, MB. 9, 10 (yr. 769). Hermann Billing, Helmold 1, 10. Billung in the Sassen-chron., conf. Förstemann 1, 258. 2, 225. Oda, grandmother of Henry the Fowler, was the daughter of a Frankish noble Billung and Aeda, Pertz 6, 306. tome Billingis-huge, Gl. to the Ssp. 3, 29; conf. regulus Obotritorum nomine Billug, Helm. 1, 13. What means 'pillungs ein wênic verrenket' in the Hätzlerin 180, 37?

                p. 376.) In Eigls-perge, MB. 28, 2, 173 (Passau urbar.). Juxta portam quae de Eigeles (at Cologne), Lacomblet 318, yr. 1134.

                p. 378.) The Heldensage p. 288 has two sons of Wieland, (full) brothers: Wittich and Wittich von der aue; conf. Lat. Silvanus, a forest-god of secondary rank: Silvani lucus extra murum est avius crebro salicto oppletus, Plaut. Aul. iv. 6, 8. Ought we to read Viltinus for Vilkinus? Hpt's Ztschr. 6, 446. Schott conn. Wate with Wuotan, Introd. to Gudr. lvi. To things named after Wieland add the Wielandstein, Schwab's Alp. p. 136 seq.; after Galans a pratum Galandi, now Préjelan in Bourgogne, Garnier's Pagi Burg. p. 83. Dan. Velants-urt, also velamsrot, vendelsrot, Dyb. 1845, 49. 50. On Wielets-kinder conf. Schm. sub v. Valföður vél framtelja, patris artem (mysterium?) enarrare, Sæm. 1a. Another point of likeness betw. Wieland and Hephæstos is, that both are masters of forging dwarfs (p. 471-2). Their handiwork was famous: ergon Hfaistoio, Od. 4, 617. 15, 116. ouj Hfaistoj eteuxe 7, 92.

                p. 380.) 'Mime the old' in Bit. 138 seems to have a short i, and can hardly belong here. Karajan in Verbrüd. von S. Peter has Mimilo, Mimistein. To Mîmigernegord (conf. Ledebur's Bructeri p. 328), perhaps from an adj. mîmi-gern, and Mîmidun (Mîmidomensis = Mindensis, Lappbg no. 25; Mimende on Weser, Schrader's Dyn. 104), add a third Westph. locality Mimegersen, now Memsen in Hoya country, Lappbg no. 48. Again, Mimmelage near Osnabrück. Mimirberh, perhaps Mimisberh, Pertz 8, 776. The names Memeln-brun, -born, Memel-born, Memilsdorf, Henneb. urk. 2, nos. 153-6. 169. 1, 166. 125, and Memelen-born (Melborn by Eisenach), Thür. Ztschr. 4, 210 suggest the Mîmis brunnr of the Edda. With Mimingus, silvarum satyrus, agrees the sword's name in En. 5694; conf. Mumminc, Upstdge 137, (Muma in Thidrekss. 65). There are yet to be considered Söck-mîmir, Sæm. 46b; Hoddmîmir who dwells î holti 37; Mîmsvinr, Mîmisvinr, Egilss. 641. Like Mîmi's head is Virgil's head which prophesies, MSH. 4, 246. A head of brass prophesies in Val. et Ourson c. 25; enn spinnen-hoofd in the Dutch transl. arose perhaps from taking tête d'airain for t. d'araigne. Heads often speak in churches, F. Magn. Edda-laere 2, 264.

                p. 383.) On Tell conf. Böhmer's Reg. p. 197 and Sinner in the Solothurner Wtb. 1845, p. 198. Th. Platter 87 (abt 1532) names him Wilhelm Täll, and Garg. 180b Wilh. Dell, while Rabelais 1, 23 does not mention him. A picture of Tell in Schwzbg's Memorial 116a. Some stories make the son shoot the apple off the father's head. Schützeichel is at this day a family-name at Bonn, Simrock's Edda p. 396.

                Many single heroes remain to be considered, such as Poppo the strong, Hpt's Ztschr. 3, 239, conf. 8, 347; Hugleich 5, 10. Also lines of heroes: stirps Immidingorum (Saxon) et Erbonum (Bavar.), Pertz. 8, 226.

                p. 383.) The god must stand at the head of the line, because he passes for the father and grandfather of the men. Still there remains an enormous difference between gods and men; hence in Saxo, ed. M. 117, the (earthly) Nanna rejects the suit of Balder: nuptiis deum mortali sociari non posse, quod ingens naturae discrimen copulae commercium tollat ........ supernis terrestria non jugari.

                p. 385n.) Saxo calls Othin, Thor, etc. merely opinative, not naturaliter deos (ed. M. 118), and Balder a semideus (conf. p. 340); whereupon P. E. Müller om Saxo p. 54 remarks: Odin lived neither before nor after Christ. Old Conrad in his Troj. Kr. 858-911 is not quite of that opinion: 'si wâren liute als ir nu sît, wan daz (they were men like you, only) ir krefteclîch gewalt was michel unde manicvalt von kriutern und von steinen ........ ouch lepten gnuoge (lived plenty) bî der zît, die zouberaere wâren, und wunder in den jâren mit gougelwîse worhten (with jugglery wrought).' How the old gods were degraded into conjurors, is shown p. 1031.

----- Of the deification of men there are plenty of examples: 'daz kint waere mit den goten ein got,' Pass. 298, 27. The heathen adore Sigelôt as a god, Rol. 198, 21. Ipomidon will be a god himself, Tit. 3057. 4147-60. er wolde got hien erde sîn, Diemer 139, 24. als er iz waere got 131, 22. mîn wirde gelîch den goten steic, Turl. Wh. 66a. Of Caligula: 'wart hi so sot, dat hi wilde wesen god, ende hi seide openbare dat hi Jupiters broeder ware,' Maerl. 2, 236, conf. 333. 'Grambaut, roi de Baviere, se nommoit dieu en terre,' and called his castle Paradis, Belle Hellene p.m. 23. The Mongols practise the worship of ancestors, deific. of rulers, Klemm 3, 194-5; also veneration of saints and relics.

                p. 392.) The Greeks required beauty of form in heroes as well as gods, Lucian's Charid. 6. 7. Of Charlem. it is said: anges resemble du ciel ius devolé, Aspr. 21a. Heroes share the lofty stature of gods. Of Huglâcus the legend says: quem equus a duodecimo anno portare non potuit; cujus ossa in Rheni fluminis insula, ubi in oceanum prorumpit, reservata sunt, et de longinquo venientibus pro miraculo ostenduntur (Suppl. to 365).

----- Manyhandedness is often mentioned. Ancient men with four hands, four feet, and two faces, Plato symp. 189, four ears 190. ex gar ceirej ekastw ap wmwn aissonto, Orph. arg. 519. Men with 8 toes, 6 hands, Megenb. 490, 2. 30; conf. gods and giants (p. 527). From the three-handed and three or four-elbowed Heime (Germ. 4, 17) perh. the Heimenstein takes its name, about which there is a folk-tale, G. Schwab's Alb pp. 161-165. A story about 'so Heyne, so,' who helps to raise a treasure, in H. v. Herford, Potth. p. 93; conf. Brîsînga-men (p. 306). A three-headed figure on the Gallehus horn discov. 1734 (Henneb., plate 2).

----- Most akin to the gods seem those heroes who are favoured with a second birth. (p. 385). The fact of many heroes' names being repeated in their descendants may have to do with this belief, GDS. 441. But Helgi and Svava are genuine endrbornir, Sæm. 148. 169. 159b. As late as in MS. 1, 97b we read: 'sturbe ich nâch ir minne, und wurde ich danne lebende, sô wurbe ich aber umbe daz wîp (I would woo her again).' Contrariwise MS. 1, 69b: 'sô bin ich doch ûf anders niht geborn.' Solinus says Scipio was another of the Unborn, and was therefore called Cæsar, Maerl. 1, 401; conf. the Lay of Mimmering tand, Danske Vis. 1, 100.

----- Karna, son of the Sun, was born with earrings and a coat of mail, Holtzm. 2, 123-9. 136. wart ie man mit wâfen geborn, Krone 10534; conf. 'born with a fiddle.' To phenomena occurring at the birth of a hero, add the storm that attended Alexander's, Pseudocallisth. p.m. 12. Alcmena tests Hercules with snakes, which he kills lying in his cradle, as Sigmund does Sinfjötli by kneading the dough that had snakes in it, Völs. saga c. 7. Kullervo, when 3 nights old, tears up his swathings, Castrén 2, 45. In the Sv. folks. 1, 139. 140, the child walks and talks as soon as born. Of the grown-up hero's strength the examples are countless. Tied to an oak, he pulls it up, Sv. forns. 1, 44. Danske V. 1, 13; Beowulf has in his hand the strength of thirty, Beow. 756. They eat and drink enormously, like Thôrr (Suppl. to 320); so Hammer grå, Sv. forns. 1, 61-2, conf. the giant bride 1, 71-2. Syv. 49.

----- Heroes have beaming godlike eyes, snake's eyes, ormr î auga; so have kings, Saxo, ed. M. p. 70. Aslög's son (Sigurð's and Brynhild's grandson) is called Sigurðr ormr-î-auga, gen. Sigurðar orms-î-auga, Fornald. s. 1, 267. 273. 2, 10-4. Fornm. 1, 115. His step-brothers say: eigi er oss î augum ormr ne frânir snâkar, Fornald. 1, 268 (conf. orm frânn, Heimskr. 7, 238. Sæm. Hafn. 2, 13). Sigurðr Oðins aettar, þeim er ormr î auga, Fornald. 1, 258. Aslög prophesies of her unborn son: 'enn â þeim sveini mun vera þat mark, at svâ mun þikkja, sem ormr liggi um auga sveininum' ---- a false interpretation, for not the eyebrows coiling round, but the inner look (î auga) was meant, Fornald. 1, 257. In Sæm. 187a he is called 'inn frân-eygi sveinn.' brann Brynhildi eldr or augom (fire flashed from B.'s eyes) 215b. âmun (minaces) eru augu ormi þeim enum frâna (Völundr) 156a. hvöss eru augu î Hagals þýju (Helgi in disguise) 158b. We still say: something great shines out of his eyes. GDS. 126-7.

----- Other heroes show other marks: on Hagen's breast is a golden cross, Gudr. 143-7. 153; betw. Wolfdietrich's shoulders a red cross, Hugd. 139. 189. Valentin and Namelos have also a cross betw. the shoulders, like the mark of the lime-leaf on Siegfried's back, where alone he is vulnerable (as Achilles was in one heel), Nib. 845, 3. 4. Swan-children have a gold chain about the neck, the reali di Franza a niello on the right shoulder, Reali 6, 17. p.m. 344; conf. the wolfs-zagelchen betw. the shoulder-blades (Suppl. to 1097). Of the Frankish hero Sigurd, the Vilk. saga c. 319 says: 'hans horund var svâ hart sem sigg villigaltar; sigg may mean a bristly skin, and seems conn. with the legend of the bristled Merowings. (1) In cap. 146 we are told that Sigurd's skin grew hard as horn; and in Gudr. 101, that wild Hagen's skin hardened through drinking the monster's blood. No doubt the original meaning was, merely that he gained strength by it. The great, though not superhuman age of 110 years is attained by Hermanaricus, Jorn. c. 24. We read in Plaut. mil. glor. iv. 2, 86: meri bellatores gignuntur, quas hic praegnates fecit, et pueri annos octingentos vivunt. The gods bestow blessings, the heroes evils, Babr. 63.

                p. 392.) Strong Franz also holds converse with his knowing steed, Müllenh. p. 422. The hero talks with his sword as well as his horse, Sv. forns. 1, 65. Klage 847 seq. Wigal. 6514. Drachenk. 161a. Vilkinas. pp. 54. 160-1. The dying hero would fain annihilate his sword, e.g. the Servian Marko and Roland, Conr. Rol. 237, 3.

                p. 394.) Where a god, devil or hero sits, there is left a mark in the stone. Their hands and feet, nay, their horses' hoofs, leave marks behind (Suppl. to 664). ons heren spronc, Maerl. 2, 116. Stone remains wet with a hero's tears: hiute (to this day) ist der stein naz, dâ Karl uffe sâz, Ksrchr. 14937.

 

1.       Thorpe (ad Cod. Exon. p. 511) sees the Merowings in the North-Elbe Maurungani and AS. Myrgingas. Might not these Myrgingas be those of Mercia?

 

 

Chapter 16:

Wise Women

 

                The relation of women to the gods is very different from that of men, because men alone can found famous houses, while a woman's family dies with her. The tale of ancestry contains the names of heroes only; king's daughters are either not named in it at all, or disappear again as soon as they have been introduced as brides. For the same we hear of deified sons, but not of deified daughters; nay, the marriage of mortals with immortals issues almost always in the birth of sons. There are therefore no women to be placed by the side of the heroes, whom in the preceding chapter we have regarded as a mixture of the heavenly and earthly natures: the distaff establishes no claim to immortality, like the sword. To the woman and the bondman, idle in battle, busy in the house, the Anglo-Saxons very expressively assigned the occupation of weaving peace: heroic labours suited men. 

                But that which women forfeit here, is amply made up to them in another sphere. In lieu of that distinct individuality of parts given to heroes, which often falls without effect in the story, they have general duties assigned them of momentous and lasting influence. A long range of charming or awful half-goddesses mediates between men and deity: their authority is manifestly greater, their worship more impressive, than any reverence paid to heroes. There are not, strictly speaking, any heroines, but whatever among women answers to heroes appears more elevated and spiritual. Brunhild towers above Siegfried, and the swan-maid above the hero to whom she unites herself (see Suppl.). 

                In other mythologies also it is observable, that in the second rank of deities female beings predominate, while the first is reserved almost exclusively for the male, but the divine heroes we have spoken of come only in the third rank. I have on p. 250 partly accounted for the longer duration of the tradition of several goddesses by its having left more abiding, because more endearing, impressions on the mind of the people. 

                There is no harder problem in these investigations, than to distinguish between goddesses and half-godesses. Every god's wife must ipso facto pass for a real goddess; but then there are unmarried goddesses; e.g., Hel. One who cannot be shown to be either wife or daughter of a god, and who stands in a dependent relation to higher divinities, is a half-goddess. Yet such a test will not always serve, where a mythology has been imperfectly preserved; for the very reason that half-goddesses stand higher than half-gods, the boundary-line between them and the class of great gods is harder to hit. The line may be disturbed, by particular races promoting divine beings of lower rank, whose worship got the upper hand among them, to a higher; it is true the same thing seems to occur in hero-worship, but not so often. 

                The mission and function of half-goddesses then may be roughly defined thus: to the upper gods they are handmaids, to men revealers. 

                It is a significant feature in our heathenism, that women, not men, are selected for this office. Here the Jewish and christian view presents a contrast: prophets foretell, angels or saints from heaven announce and execute the commands of God; but Greek and Teutonic gods employ both male and female messengers. To the German way of thinking, the decrees of destiny assume a greater sacredness in the mouth of woman, soothsaying and sorcery in a good as well as bad sense is peculiarly a women's gift, and it may even be a part of the same thing, that our language personifies virtues and vices as females. If human nature in general shows a tendency to pay a higher resperct and deference to the female sex, this has always been specially characteristic of Teutonic nations. Men earn deification by their deeds, women by their wisdom: 'Fatidicae, augescente superstitione deae,' p. 95 (see Suppl.). 

                This Germanic reverence for woman, already emphasized by Tacitus, is markedly expressed in our old systems of law, especially the Alamannian and Bavarian, by doubling the composition for injury (RA. 404): the defenceless one thereby receives protection and consecration, nay, she is to forfeit the privilege the moment she takes up man's weapons. And not only does a worship of woman show itself in the minne-songs of our Mid. Ages, but in a remarkable formula of chivalry occuring both in folk-songs and in court-poems: 'durch aller frouwen êre,' by all women's honour, Wolfdiet. 104. Morolt 855. 888. 2834. Morolf 1542. Ecke 105. 117. 174. Roseng. 2037. MsH. 3, 200ª; 'durch reiner (pure) frouwen êre,' Ecke 112; 'durch willen (for the sake) aller frouwen;' thus one hero cries to another 'nu beite (stay), durch willen aller meide!' Rab. 922-4; 'durch willen schner wîbe,' Ecke 61; 'durch ander maget (other maids') êre,' Gudr. 4863; 'durch elliu wîp,' in the name of all women, Parz. 13, 16; 'êre an mir elliu wîp,' respect in me all women, Erec 957; 'êret an mir elliu wîp!' says a woman in Parz. 88, 27, to ensure attention to her prayer; 'allen meiden tuot ez ze êren (do it in honour of),' Gudr. 1214, 3; 'êre und minne elliu wîp!' is the injunction on giving a sword, Trist. 5032; 'tuon allez daz frouwen wille sî,' do all that may be woman's will, Bit. 7132; 'als liep iu alle frouwen sîn,' as all women are dear to you, Laurin 984. Their worship was placed on a par with that of God: 'êret Got und diu wîp,' Iw. 6054; 'durch Got und durch der wîbe lôn (guerdon)' Wh. 381, 21; 'wart sô mit riterschaft getân, dês Got sol danken und diu wîp,' may God and the ladies requite it, Wh. 370, 5; 'dienen Got und alle frouwen êren,' Ms. 2, 99b; of Parzivâl it is even said: 'er getrûwete wîben baz (better) dan Gote,' Parz. 370, 18. These modes of speech, this faith, can be traced up to a much earlier age, as in O. i. 5, 13: 'dô sprah er êrlîcho ubaral, sô man zi frowûn skal'; and v. 8, 58: 'ni sît irbolgan wîbe,' ye shall not bully a woman, Etzels hofhalt. 92-3; 'sprich wîben übel mit nihte' says the poem of the Stete ampten 286. The very word frau is the name of a goddess, conf. p. 299 on the meanings of frau and weib (see Suppl.). 

                But more than that, when the hero in stress of battle looked upon his love (OHG. trûtin, trûtinna, MHG. triutinne), thought of her, named her name, he increased thereby his strength, and was sure of the victory. We might even bring under this head the declaration of Tacitus: memoriae proditur, quasdam acies inclinatas jam et labantes a feminis restitutas constantia precum et objectu pectorum. From the poems of the 13th century I will quote the principal passages only: 

                und als er dar zuo an sach (on saw, looked at) 

                die schnen frowen Eniten, 

                daz half (holp) im vaste strîten (fight hard). Er. 933. 

                swenne mich der muot iwer ermant (the thought of you mans), 

                sô ist sigesælic (victorious) mîn hant: 

                wand (for) iwer guote minne 

                die sterkent mîne sinne (nerve my senses),  daz mir den vil langen tac (all the long day) 

                night wider gewesen mac (nought can vex). Er. 8367. 

                diu dâ gegenwurtic saz (who there present sat), 

                diu gehalf ir manne baz (she holp her man better).

                ob im dehein zwîvel (if ever a doubt) geschach, 

                swenn (whenever) er si danne wider (again) an sach, 

                ir schne gap im niwe kraft (strength), 

                sô daz er unzagehaft (undismayed) 

                sîne sterke wider gewan (his strength regained) 

                und vaht (fought) als ein geruowet (rested) man. Er. 9171.

                der gedanc (thinking) an sîn schne wîp 

                der kreftigete im den lîp (life, body). Er. 9229. 

                swenne im diu muoze (opportunity) geschach

                daz er die maget (maid) reht ersach, 

                daz gap ir gesellen (to her fellow, lover)

                Gâwâne manlîch ellen (élan). Parz. 409, 13. 410, 5.

                nu sach er daz si umb in was in sorgen (in fear for him), 

                alrêst er niuwe kraft enpfant (felt). Lohengr. p. 54-5. 

                den Heiden minne nie verdrôz (never wearied), 

                des (therefore) was sîn herze in strîte grôz. Parz. 740, 7.

ern welle (if he do not) an minne denken,  sone mag er niht entwenken (cannot escape). Parz. 740, 15. 

wes sûmest (wherefore delayest) du dich, Parzivâl,  daz du an die kiuschen liehtgemâl (pure one so bright)  niht denkest, ich mein dîn wîp,  wiltu behalten (save) hie den lîp? Parz. 742, 27.  der getoufte nam (the christian gained) an kreften zuo,  er dâht (thought), des was im niht ze fruo (none too soon),  an sîn wîo die küniginne  unt an ir werden (worthy) minne. Parz. 743, 23.  swâ ich sider (after) kom in nôt (difficulty),  ze hant sô ich (the moment I) an si dâhte,  ir minne helfe brâhte. Parz. 768, 27.  müede was ir bêder lîp (weary were both their bodies),  niuwan daz sie (had they not) dâhten an diu wîp  sie wæren bêdesamt gelegen (both together fallen). Alt. bl. 1, 340.  In the Carmen de Phyllide et Flora it is said 31, 4: 'Ille me commemorat inter ipsas caedes,' my beloved in the battle breathes my name, to issue therefrom victorious. (1) This sounds altogether heathen, for the gods too were at your side the moment you uttered their names. Snorri, in Yngl. saga cap. 2, says of Oðinn: 'svâ var oc um hans menn, hvar sem þeir urðu î nauðum staddir, â siâ eða â landi, þâ kölluðu þeir â nafn hans, oc þôttiz iafnan fâ af þvî frô,' so was it also with his men, wherever they were in trouble, on sea or on land, then called they on his name, and immediately were gladdened by it. When Hrûngnir became intolerable to the Ases, 'þâ nefna þeir Thôr þvî næst kom Thôrr î höllina,' Sn. 108. Kraka, a semi-divine being, admonished Erich: si suprema necessitatis violentia postularet, nominis sui nuncupatione remedium celerius esse quaerendum, affirmans se divina partim virtute subnixam et quasi consortem coelitus insitam numinis gestare potentiam, Saxo Gram., p. 72. So the Valkyrja comes to the rescue of her chosen hero, when he calls out her name; she is become his guardian, as if sent by the gods to bring him aid (see Suppl.).  The mission of such women then is to announce and prepare good or ill, victory or death to mortal men; and we have seen that the popular faith retained longest its connexion with fighting and victory. Their own being itself, like that of the heroes, rests on human nature, they seem for the most part to have sprung from kingly and heroic families, and probably an admixture of divine ancestors is to be presumed in their case too. But to perform their office, they must have wisdom and supernatural powers at their command: their wisdom spies out, nay, guides and arranges complications in our destiny, warns of danger, advises in difficulty. At the birth of man they show themselves predicting and endowing, in perils of war giving help and granting victory. Therefore they are called wise women, ON. spâkonor (conf. spâkr, OHG. spâhi, prudens), Scot. spae wife, MHG. wîsiu wîp, Nib. 1473. 3. 1483, 4 (see Suppl.).  

 

1. ITIS, IDES (DÎS) 

 

But I will first take an older word, which appears to me to yield exactly the meaning we have just unravelled, and in its generalness to comprehend all the particular beings to be studied more minutely by and by. The OHG. itis pl. itisî, OS. ides, pl. idisî, AS. ides, pl. idesa, denotes femina in general, and can be used of maids or matrons, rich or poor. (2) Yet, like the Greek numfh, it seems even in the earliest times to have been specially applied to superhuman beings, who, being considered lower than goddesses and higher than earthly women, occupy precisely that middle rank which is here in question. Tacitus informs us, that a famous battle-field on the Weser was called by the Cheruscans Idisiaviso (so I emend Idistaviso), i.e., nympharum pratum, women's meadow; it matters not whether the spot bore that name before the fight with the Romans, or only acquired it afterwards (v. Haupt's zeitschr. 9, 248). There at one time or another a victory was won under the lead of these exalted dames. The Merseburg poem sets the idisî before us in full action:   sumâ hapt heptidun, sumâ heri lezidun,  sumâ clûbôdun umbi cuniowidi;  Some put a check (on the fighting),  as we read in Renner 20132:  dez muoz (therefore must) ich heften einen haft  an dirre materie ân mînen danc (against my will),  wan ich fürhte (for I fear) sie werde ze lanc.  Others letted the host (hinder, make late, Goth. hari latidêdun); others again grasped (clawed) at chains or wreaths, i.e., withs and twigs with which to twist shackles, or to twine garlands for the victor. Here then their business was to bind and check, which is also demanded by the very object of the conjuring-spell; in striking harmony with this are the names of two Norse Valkyrs, mentioned together in Sæm. 45ª, Hlöck = OHG. Hlancha, i.e., catena, and Herfiötr = OHG. Herifezzara, exercitum vinciens. But it must have been as much in their power to set free and help on, as to shackle and hamper. Compounded with itis we have the female names Itispuruc (Meichelb. no. 87), and Itislant (Graff 1, 159); which, like Hiltipurc, Sigipurc, Sigilant (MB. 14, 362), are proper to such women of our olden time (see Suppl.). (3)   But we obtain much fuller information as to their nature from the Norse authorities. It has been overlooked hitherto, that the OHG. itis, AS. ides, is the same as the ON. dîs pl. dîsir; similar instances of aphæresis are the Rîgr for Iring on p. 234, and Sangrim, Singrim for Isangrim, Isingrim (Reinh. ccviii). Any remaining doubt disappears on comparing the Eddic 'dîs Skiöldûnga,' Sæm. 169ª 209ª with the AS. 'ides Scildinga,' Beow. 2337. The Norse dîsir likewise are sometimes kind protecting beings, sometimes hostile and hindering, Sæm. 185ª 195ª 254b 273ª. An instance of the latter sort is found in the story of Thiðrandi, whom dîsir destroyed, 'thann er sagt at dîsir vaegi,' quem deas interfecisse dicunt (Nialss. cap. 97), though the full narrative (Fornm. sög. 2, 195) calls them simply konur, women; so Spâdîsir, nymphae vaticinantes, Völs. saga cap. 19, means just the same as spâkonur; and the phrase 'ecki eru allar dîsir dauðar enn' in Alfs saga cap. 15, means in the most general sense, all good spirits are not dead, yet; 'yðr munu dauðar dîsir allar,' to you all spirits are dead, Fornald. sög. 2, 47. But the Norse people worshipped them, and offered them sacrifice: the mention of dîsablôt is very frequent, Egilss. cap. 44 p. 205; Vigagl. saga cap. 6 p. 30; 'blôta kumla dîsir,' deabus tumulatis sacrificare, Egilss. p. 207. This passage implies a connextion between dîsir and ghosts, departed spirits, whose reappearance portends something: 'konor hugðak dauðar koma î nôtt,' dead women, i.e., dîsir, come at night, Sæm. 254ª. Herjans dîs (Sæm. 213b) is nympha Odini, a maiden dwelling at Valhöll in the service of Oðinn; dîs Skiöldûnga (Sæm. 169ª 209ª), divine maid sprung from the Skiöldung stock, is an epithet both of Sigrûn and of Brynhild, conf. AS. ides Scyldinga, ides Helminga, Beow. 1234. But Freyja herself is called Vanadîs, nympha Vanorum, Sn. 37; and another goddess, Skaði öndurdîs (walking in wooden shoes), Sn. 28, which is equivalent to öndurguð. Several proper names of women are compounded with dîs: Thôrdîs, Hiördîs, Asdîs, Vigdîs, Halldîs, Freydîs (to which might have corresponded an OHG. Donaritis, &c.): they prove the pretty high antiquity of the monosyllabic form dîs, which even in the Edda invariably alliterates with D. With the original form idis the name of the goddess Idunn may possibly be connected (see Suppl.).  

 

2. VELEDA. GANNA. ALARÛN.

 

If, as I suppose, the generic term idis was already current in the time of Tacitus, he gives us other more specific appellations as mere proper names, though still a certain general meaning seems to belong to them too. His statements about Veleda, Ganna, and Aurinia I have already quoted in ch. V, where the connexion between prophetesses and the priestly office was pointed out. Veleda appears to be almost an appellative, and akin to the Norse Vala, Völva (p. 97-8), or even to the masc. Völundr (p. 378), perhaps also to the name valkyrja. (4) She lives on a tower, like Jetha (p. 96) and Brynhildr (Völs. saga cap. 24). Treaties were ratified in her presence; she not only prophesied, but had to settle disputes among the people, and carry out plans. In Sæm. 4b 5ª the Vala, after whom the famous lay Völuspâ is named, is also called Heiðr and Gullveig; and as our female names Adalheid, Alpheid, &c., are formed with -heid, Finn Magnusen p. 416b would derive Veleda from a supposed Valaheid, which however is nowhere found (see Suppl.). The description given of her is an attractive one: whereever in the land this vala velspâ (fatidica) came, she worked witchery, she was believed to travel about and make visitations to houses. This 'til hûsa koma' reminds us of the 'drepa â vett sem völur,' pulsare aedes sicut fatidicae, Sæm. 63ª, as in other cases also prophesying, inspiring and boon-bestowing women were always supposed to pass through the country, knocking at the houses of those whom they would bless.   Ganna (p. 95-6) could be explained with more certainty, if the real meaning of its root ginnan were disclosed to us: a MHG. ginnen is secare, the ON. ginna allicere, seducere; and in Sæm. 21ª we are warned not to trust the wheedling words of valas, 'völo vilmæli trûi engi maðr'; we shall see presently, how the AS. poets use similar expressions about Wyrd.  When Drusus had crossed the Weser and was nearing the Elbe, there met him in the land of the Cheruscans a superhuman female, tij meizwn h kata anqrwpou fusin, who forbade his farther advance, and foretold his approaching end (Dio Cass. 55, 1). Species barbarae mulieris, humana amplior, victorem tendere ultra, sermone Latino, prohibuit (Sueton. in Claudio 1). (5) There may have been German folk-tales about this, which became known to the Romans. Wise-women of the fatherland, as well as heroes, rose up in their country's need, and by their appearance terrified the foe.  Aurinia is said (p. 95) to have been famous in Germany before Veleda; copyists may easily have corrupted ali into 'au,' and runa into 'rinia': we should then have Aliruna, though it would be still more handy if Tacitus had written Alioruna. But anyhow we cannot fail to recognise the agreement (which many have noted) with Jornandes cap. 24, who, in accounting for the origin of the Huns, relates of the Gothic king Filimer: Repperit in populo suo quasdam magas mulieres, quas patrio sermone aliorumnas (al. alyrumnas, aliorunas, aliuruncas) is ipse cognominat, easque habens suspectas de medio sui proturbat, longeque ab exercitu suo fugatas in solitudine coegit errare. Quas silvestres homines, quos faunos ficarios vocant, per eremum vagantes dum vidissent, et earum se complexibus in coitu miscuissent, genus hoc ferocissimum edidere.' Many names of women are formed with -rûn, -rûna (Gramm. 2, 517), and OHG. documents even offer, though sparingly, Alarûn Alerûna, MB. 3, 416 (an. 1140); 'Gosprecht der Alraunyn sun,' MB. 27, 80 (an. 1309). I have never seen Elirûn, the form we should expect from ali-. (6) But it is significant, that the ON. name Ölrûn, Sæm. 133-4, belongs precisely to a wise-woman; and alrûna (Graff 2, 523), now alraun, from its old sense of a prophetic and diabolic spirit, has at length passed into that of the root (mandragora, mandrake) out of which he is cut. We not turn to some other names, about which the fountain of tradition flows more freely (see Suppl.).  

 

3. NORNI (FATAE).

 

The three Fates are the subject of an independent and profound myth in the Edda. Collectively they are called the nornir, and singly, Urðr, Verðandi, Skuld, Sæm. 4ª. Sn. 18. The term norn (parca) has not been discovered hitherto in any other dialect, (7) though undoubtedly it belongs to a genuine Teutonic root, and is formed like thorn, corn, horn, &c., and would have been in OHG. norn, pl. nornî; but even Swedish and Danish know it no longer (see Suppl.). In the three proper names it is impossible to mistake the forms of verbal nouns or adjectives: Urðr is taken from the pret. pl. of verða (varð, urðum), to become, Verðandi is the pres. part. of the same word, and Skuld the past part. of skula, shall, the auxiliary by which the future tense is formed. Hence we have what was, what is, and what shall be, or the past, present and future, very aptly designated, and a Fate presiding over each. (8) At the same time the very names prove that the doctrine of norns was originally not foreign to any of the Teutonic nations. A Gothic Vaúrþs, Vaírðandei, Skulds, an OHG. Wurt, Werdandi, Scult, and so on, must have been known once as personal beings; in the OS. and AS. poetry we are able to lay our finger on the personality of the first norn: 'thiu Wurdh is at handun' says the Heliand 146, 2, just as 'dôd is at hendi,' 92, 2: the Fate, or death, stands so near, that she can grasp with her hand (9) the man who is fallen due to her; we should say just as concretely 'is at hand, is at the door'. Again: 'thiu Wurth nâhida thuo,' drew nigh then, Hel. 163, 16. 'Wurth ina benam,' the death-goddess took him away 66, 18. 111, 4. Not so living is the term as used in the Hildebr. lied 48, 'wêwurt skihit,' or perhaps separately 'wê! wurt skihit,' because 'geschehen' to happen is used more of abstract inanimate things. An OHG. gloss also has wurt for fatum (Graff 1, 992). Far more vivid are the AS. phrases: 'me þæt Wyrd (10) gewâf,' parca hoc mihi texuit, Cod. exon. 355; 'Wyrd oft nereð unfægne eorl, þonne his ellen deáh,' parca saepe servat virum, donec virtus ejus viget (ellan taoc, Hildeb.), Beow. 1139; 'him wæs Wyrd ungemete neah, se þone gomelan grêtan sceolde, sêcean sâwlehord, sundur gedælan lîf wið lîce,' 4836 (so, 'deáð ungemete neah' 5453); 'swâ him Wyrd ne gescrâf,' ita ei fatum non ordinavit, decrevit, Beow. 5145. El. 1047. conf. Boëth. ed. Rawl. p. 151; 'ealle Wyrd forsweop,' (11) swept all away, Beow. 5624; 'hie seo Wyrd beswâc, forlêolc and forlærde,' eos parca decepit, allexit, seduxit, Andr. 613; 'us seo Wyrd sceðeð,' nos fatum laedit, Andr. 1561. The instances in Cædmon are less concrete, yet in 61, 12 the Wyrd is called 'wälgrim,' bloodthirsty.

Of the Wyrd then are predicted: grêtan (excitare, OHG. cruozan), scrîfan (ordinare, OHG. scrîpan), (12) wefan (texere, OHG. wepan), beswîcan (decipere, OHG. pisuîchan), forlæcan (fallere, OHG. farleichan), forlæran (seducere, male informare), sceðan (nocere). She is painted powerful, but often cruel and warlike (see Suppl.). We cannot in the same way point out a personal application of the other two names, though the third, Skuld, OHG. Scult, AS. Scyld, continued in constant use as an abstract fem. skuld, scult, scyld, in the sense of debitum, delictum. (13) When christianity had banished the heathen notions, one name alone was found sufficient, and soon even that died out, giving place to new fangled terms such as schicksal, verhängnis (destiny) and the like, far more cumbrous and unwieldy than the old simple words. The English and especially the Scotch dialect seems to have harboured the old word longest: we all know the weird-sisters in Macbeth, which Shakespeare took from Hollinshed; they are also in Douglas's Virgil 80, 48, and the Complaynt of Scotland (written 1548) mentions, among other fabulous stories, that 'of the thre weïrdsystirs,' (Leyden's ed. Edinb. 1801, p. 99); in Warner's Albions England (first printed 1616) we have 'the weirdelves,' probably meaning the Parcae of the ancients. More native apparently is 'the weïrd lady of the woods,' who, when asked for advice, prophesies out of her cave, Percy's Reliques 3, 220-2. (14)   Even in the North, Urðr must have been of more consequence than the other two, for the fountain by the sacred ash is named after her, Urðarbrunnr, (15) and beside it stands the hall from which the three norns issue; it is also 'Urðar orð,' word (Sæm. 112ª) that is chiefly spoken of, and once 'grimmar urðir' dira fata, is used impersonally, Sæm. 216b.

These three virgins allot to every man his term of life, 'skapa mönnum aldr; skôp î ârdaga (year days),' Sn. 18. Sæm. 181ª. I have elsewhere (RA. 750) shown the technical pertinence of the term skapa to the judicial office of the norns, (16) to whom for the same reason are ascribed dômr and qviðr, Sæm. 273b; 'liotar nornir skôpo oss lânga þrâ,' dirae parcae creaverunt nobis longum moerorem 217ª; 'nornir heita þær er nauð skapa, Skâldskaparmâl p. 212ª. In the same sense 'nornir vîsa,' Sæm. 88b, they give us to wit judgment, and are wise. Hence to them, as to judges, a seat is given: 'â norna stôli sat ek niu daga' 127ª. They approach every new born child, and utter his doom; at Helgi's birth, it is said in Sæm. 149: nôtt var î b, nornir qvâmo,  þr er öðlîngi aldr um skôpo:  þann bâðo fylki frgstan verða,  ok Buðlûnga beztan þyckja.  snero þr af afli örlögþâtto,  þâ er borgir braut î Brâlundi:  þr um greiddo gullinsîmo,  ok und mânasal miðjan festo.  þr austr ok vestr enda fâlo,  þar âtti lofðûngr land â milli:  brâ nipt Nera â norðrvega  einni festi. ey bað hon halda.  This important passage tells us, that norns entering the castle at night spun for the hero the threads of his fate, and stretched the golden cord (þâttr = dâht, docht, = sîmi) in the midst of heaven; one norn hid an end of the thread eastward, another westward, a third fastened it northward; this third one is called 'sister of Neri'. (17) Their number, though not expressly stated, is to be gathered from the threefold action. All the region between the eastern and western ends of the line was to fall to the young hero's lot; did the third norn diminish this gift, when she flung a band northward, and bade it hold for aye? (see Suppl.).  It seems the regular thing in tales of norns and fays, for the advantages promised in preceding benefactions to be partly neutralized by a succeeding one.  The Nornagestssaga cap. 11 says: There travelled about in the land 'völvur,' who are called 'spâkonur,' who foretold to men their fate, 'spâðu mönnum aldr' or 'örlög'. People invited them to their houses, gave them good cheer and gifts. One day the came to Nornagest's father, the babe lay in the cradle, and two tapers were burning over him. When the first two women had gifted him, and assured him of happiness beyond all others of his race, the third or youngest norn, 'hin yngsta nornin,' who in the crowd had been pushed off her seat and fallen to the ground, rose up in anger, and cried 'I cause that the child shall only live till the lighted taper beside him has burnt out'. The eldest völva quickly seized the taper, put it out, and gave it to the mother with the warning not to kindle it again till the last day of her son's life, who received from this the name of Norn's-guest. Here völva, spâkona and norn are perfectly synonymous; as we saw before (p. 403) that the völur passed through the land and knocked at the houses, (18) the nornir do the very same. A kind disposition is attributed to the first two norns, an evil one to the third. This third, consequently Skuld, is called 'the youngest,' they were of different ages therefore, Urðr being considered the oldest. Such tales of travelling gifting sorceresses were much in vogue all through the Mid. Ages (see Suppl.). (19)   The Edda expressly teaches that there are good and bad norns (gôðar ok illar, grimmar, liotar), and though it names only three, that there are more of them: some are descended from gods, others from elves, others from dwarfs, Sn. 18. 19. Sæm. 187-8. Why should the norns be furnished with dogs? grey norna, Sæm. 272ª.  We see, throughout this Eddic description, things and persons are kept clearly apart. Destiny itself is called örlög, or else nauðr (necessitas), aldr (aevum); the norns have to manage it, espy it, decree it, pronounce it (see Suppl.). And the other dialects too had possessed the same term: OHG. urlac, AS. orlg, MHG. ulouc (Gramm. 2, 7. 87. 789. 790), OS. orlag, orlegi, aldarlagu (Hel. 103, 8. 113, 11. 135, 15); (20) it was only when the heathen goddesses had been cast off, that the meanings of the words came to be confounded, and the old flesh-and-blood wurt, wurð, wyrd to pale into a mere impersonal urlac.  In the same relation as norn to örlög, stands parca to fatum (from fari, like qviðr from qveða qvað, quoth), and also aisa, moira to anagkh (nauðr) or eimarmenh. But when once the parcae had vanished from the people's imagination, the Romance language (by a process the reverse of that just noticed amongst us) formed out of the abstract noun a new and personal one, out of fatum an Ital. fata, Span. hada, Prov. fada (Rayn. sub v.),French féc. (21) I do not know if this was prompted by a faint remembrance of some female beings in the Celtic faith, or the influence of the Germanic norns. But these fays, so called at first from their announcing destiny, soon came to be ghostly wives in general, altogether the same as our idisî and völur. (22) How very early the name was current in Italy, is proved by Ausonius, who in his Gryphus ternarii numeri brings forward the 'tres Charites, tria Fata,' and by Procopius, who mentions (De bello Goth. 1, 25, ed. Bonn. 2, 122) a building in the Roman Forum called ta tria fata (supra p. 405, note) with the remark: outw gar Rwmaioi taj moiraj vevomikasi kalein. (23) At that time therefore still neuter; but everywhere the number three, in norns, moirai, parcae and fays (see Suppl.). (24)  About the Romance fays there is a multitude of stories, and they coincide with the popular beliefs of Germany. Folquet de Romans sings:   Aissim fadero tres serors  en aquella ora qu'ieu sui natz,  que totz temps fos enamoratz.  Guilhdei. Poitou:  Assi fuy de nueitz fadatz sobr'un puegau.  (so was I gifted by night on a mount).  Marcabrus:  Gentil fada  vos adastret, quan fas nada  d'una beutat esmerada.  Tre fate go past, laughing, and give good gifts, Pentam. 1, 10. 4, 4;  the first fate bestow blessings, the last one curses 2, 8; Pervonto builds a bower for three sleeping fate, and is then gifted 1, 3; tre fate live down in a rocky hollow, and dower the children who descend 2, 3. 3, 10; fate appear at the birth of children, and lay them on their breast 5, 5; Cervantes names 'los siete castillos de las siete fadas,' Don Quix. 4, 50; 'siete fadas me fadaron en brazos de una ama mia,' Rom. de la infantina; there are seven fays in the land, they are asked to stand godmothers, and seats of honour are prepared at the table: six take their places, but the seventh was forgotten, she now appears, and while the others endow with good things, she murmurs her malison (La belle au bois dormant); in the German kindermärchen (Dornröschen) it is twelve wise women, the thirteenth had been overlooked. So in the famed forest of Brezeliande, by the fontaine de Barendon, dames faées in white apparel show themselves, and begift a child, but one is spiteful and bestows calamity (San Marte, Leg. of Arthur p. 157-8. 160). At Olger's birth six wise women appear, and endow; the last is named Morgue. In the Children of Limburg (Mones anzeiger 1835, 169), when three wayfaring wives approach, and foretell the future. The OFr. romance of Guillaume au court nez describes how Renoart falls asleep in a boat, and three fays come and carry him off. In Burchard of Worms they are still spoken of as three sisters or parcae, for whom the people of the house spread the table with three plates and three knives; conf. the 'praeparare mensas cum lapidus vel epulis in domo'. In the watches of the night the fatuae come to children, wash them and lay them down by the fire (see Suppl.). In most of the tales there appear three fays, as well as three norns and three parcae; occasionally seven and thirteen; but they also come singly, like that 'weirdlady of the wood,' and with proper names of their own. (25) French tradition brings to light a close connexion between fays and our giant-maidens: the fays carry enormous blocks of stone on their heads or in their aprons, while the free hand plies the spindle; when the fay who was doing the building part had finished her task, she called out to her sisters not to bring any more, and these, though two miles off, heard the cry and dropped their stones, which buried themselves deep in the ground; when the fays were not spinning, they carried four stones at once. They were good-natured, and took special care of the children whose fates they foretold. They went in and out of the neighbours' houses by the chimney, so that one day the most careless one among them burnt herself, and uttered a loud wail, at which all the fays of the neighbourhood came running up. *** You never could deceive them: once, when a man put his wife's clothes on and nursed the baby, the fay walked in and said directly: 'non, tu n'es point la belle d'hier au soir, tu ne files, ni ne vogues, ni ton fuseau n'enveloppes'. [No you are not the beauty of yesterday night, you do not spin, nor you sail (?), nor you wrap your spindle] *** To punish him, she contented herself with making the apples that were baking on the hearth shrink into peas.  Of such stories there are plenty; but nowhere in Romance or German folk-tales do we meet, as far as I know, the the Norse conception of twining and fastening the cord, or the Greek one of spinning and cutting the thread of life. Only one poet of the Mid. Ages, Marner, has it 2, 173b:  zwô schepfer flâhten mir ein seil,  dâ bi diu dritte saz (the third sat by);  diu zerbrachz (broke it): daz was mîn unheil. (26)  But this seems borrowed from the Roman view of breaking off the thread (rumpat, p. 406, note). Ottokar makes the schepfeu (creating) impart all succes in good or evil. The 'banun festan' in Hild. lied is hardly to be explained by the fastening of a thread of death.  If we compare the Norse mythus with the Greek, each has taken shape in its own independent way. In Homer it is the personified Aisa (27) that spins the thread for the newborn:  assa oi Aisa geinomenw epenhse ginw, ote min teke mhthr. Il. 20, 127; 'what things Aisa span for him at birth with her thread'. But in Od. 7, 197 other spinners (two) are associated with her:  assa oi Aisa Kataklwqej te bareiai geinomenw nhsanto linw, ote min teke mhthr 'what Aisa and the Kataklothes unkind span'. Hesiod (asp. 258) makes three goddesses stand beside the combatants, Klwqw, Lacesij, Atropoj, the last small of stature, but eldest and most exalted of all. But in Theog. 218 he names them as  Klwqw te Lacesin te kai Atropon, aite brotoisin geinomenoisi didousin ecein argaqon te kakon te  'who give to mortals at birth to have both good and ill;'  and in almost the same words at 905. The most detailed description is given by Plato (De republ. 617 Steph. 508 Bekk.): The three moirai are daughters of Anagkh (necessity), on whose knees the spindle (atraktoj) turns; they sit clothed in white and garlanded, singing the destiny, Lachesis ta gegonota, Klotho ta onta, Atropos ta mellonta: just the same relation to past, present and future as the norns have, though the Greek proper names do not themselves express it. Klwqw (formed like Auxw, Qallw, Lhtw, Mormw, Gorgw), spins (from klwdw spin, twine), Lachesis allots (from lacein), Atropoj, the unturnable, cuts the thread. It must not be overlooked, that Hesoid sets up the last, Atropos, as the mightiest, while with us Wurt the eldest produces the most powerful impression. Latin writers distribute the offices of the parcae somewhat differently, as Apuleius (De mundo p. 280): Clotho praesentis temporis habet curam, quia quod torquetur in digits, momenti praesentis indicat spatia; Atropos praeteriti fatum est, quia quod in fuso perfectum est, praeteriti temporis habet speciem; Lachesis futuri, quod etiam illis quae futura sunt finem suum deus dederit (see Suppl.). Isidore's opinion was quoted on p. 405. (28) The Nornagestssaga bears a striking resemblance to that of Meleager, at whose birth three moirai tell his future: Atropos destines him to live only till the billet then burning on the hearth be burnt out; his mother Althaea plucks it out of the fire. (29) Our modern tales here exchange the norns or fates for death, Kinderm. no. 44. Another tale, that of the three spinners (no. 14), depicts them as ugly old women, who come to help, but no longer to predict; they desire to be bidden to the marriage and to be called cousins. Elsewhere three old women foretold, but do not spin. (30) A folk-tale (Deutsche sagen no. 9) introduces two maidens spinning in a cave of the mountain, and under their table is the Evil one (I suppose the third norn) chained up; again we are told of the roof-beam on which a spinning wife sits at midnight. (31) We must not forget the AS. term which describes a norn as weaving, 'Wyrd gewâf' (p. 406); and when it is said in Beow. 1386: 'ac him Dryhten forgeaf wîgspêda gewiofu' (ei Dominus largitus est successuum bellicorum texturas), this is quite heathen phraseology, only putting God in the place of Wyrd. Gottfried (Trist. 4698), in describing Blicker of Steinach's purity of mind, expresses himself thus:  iche wæne, daz in feinen  ze wunder haben gespunnen  und haben in in ir brunnen  geliutert und gereinet;  'I ween that fays spun him as a wonder, and cleansed him in their fountain'.  Saxo Gram. p. 102 uses the Latin words parca, nympha, but unmistakably he is describing norns: 'Mos erat antiquis, super futuris liberorum eventibus parcarum oracula consultare. Quo ritu Fridlevus Olavi filii fortunam exploraturus, nuncupatis solenniter votis, deorum aedes precabundus accedit, ubi introspecto sacello (32) ternas sedes totidem nymphis occupari cognoscit. Quarum prima indulgentioris animi liberalem puero formam, uberemque humani favoris copiam erogabat. Eidem secunda beneficii loco liberalitatis excellantiam condonavit. Tertia vero, protervioris ingenii invidentiorisque studii femina, sororum indulgentiorem aspernata consensum, ideoque earum donis officere cupiens, futuris pueri moribus parsimoniae crimen affixit.' Here they are called sisters, which I have found nowhere else in ON. authorities; and the third nymph is again the illnatured one, who lessens the boons of the first two. The only difference is, that the norns do not come to the infant, but the father seeks out their dwelling, their temple (see Suppl.). (33)  The weaving of the norns and the spindle of the fays give us to recognise domestic motherly divinities; and we have already remarked, that their appearing suddenly, their haunting of wells and springs accord with the notions of antiquity about frau Holda, Berhta and the like goddessses, who devote themselves to spinning, and bestow boons on babes and children. (34) Among Celts especially, the fatae seem apt to run into that sense of matres and matronae, (35) which among the Teutons we find attaching more to divine than to semi-divine beings. In this respect the fays have something higher in them than our idises and norns, who in lieu of it stand out more warlike. 

 

4. WALACHURIUN (VALKYRJOR).

 

Yet, as the fatae are closely bound up with fatum the pronouncing of destiny, vaticination, the kinship of the fays to the norns asserts itself all the same. Now there was no sort of destiny that stirred the spirit of antiquity more strongly than the issue of battles and wars: it is significant, that the same urlac, urlouc expresses both fatum and bellum also (Graff 2, 96. Gramm. 2, 790), and the idisî forward or hinder the fight. This their office we have to look into more narrowly.  From Caesar (De B. Gall. 1, 50) we already learn the practice of the Germani, 'ut matresfamilias eorum sortibus et vaticinationibus declararent, utrum proelium committi ex usu esset, necne'. Mistresses of families practised augury, perhaps women selected for the purpose, of superior and godlike repute like Veleda.  Let us bear in mind, which gods chiefly concerned themselves with the event of a battle: Oðinn and Freyja draw to themselves all those who fall in fight, and Oðinn admits them to his heavenly abode (pp. 133, 305). This hope, of becoming after death members of the divine community, pervades the religion of the heathen. Now the ON. valr, AS. wl, OHG. wal, denotes the carnage of the battle-field, the sum of the slain: to take possession of this val, to gather it in, was denominated kiosa, kiesen, to choose; this verb seems a general technical term for the acceptance of any sacrifice made to a higher being. (36) But Oðinn, who has the siges kür (choosing of victory, p. 133, note), is served in Valhöll by maidens, and then he sends out into every beattle, to choose the slain, Sn. 39; 'kiosa er liðnir ero,' Sæm. 164b; vildi þik kiosa, Sæm. 254ª.   Hence such a maiden, half divine, is called valkyrja; and it is another most welcome coincidence, that the AS. language has retained the very same term wlcyrie (wælcyrge, wælcyrre) to English such Latin words as bellona, erinnys, Alecto, Tisiphone, and employs it even for parca and venefica. The Cott. MS. Vitell. A. 15 has a gloss 'wælcyrigean eágan, gorgoneus': this is translating the Greek idea into an AS. one; did the eyes of the wælcyrigean instil horror like the Gorgons' heads? I am quite safe in assuming an OHG. walachuriâ (walachurrâ); valakusjô would be the Gothic form. At the end of the Langobardian genealogy we find a man's name Walcausus. (37) Another name of the valkyrijur is ON. valmeyjar (battle-maids), perhaps also the present Norw. valdöger, which Hallager 140b says is guardian-spirit. Again, they are called skialdmeyjar, hialmmeyjar, because they go forth armed, under shield and helmet (vera und hialmi, Sæm. 151ª 192b); nonnor Herjans, nuns of Oðinn 4b. The Edda bestows on the valkyrja the epithets: hvît 168b, hvît und hialmi (alba sub galea) 145b, biört 174b, sôlbiört, sunbright 167b, biartlituð 142ª, hialmvitr 157ª, gullvarið 167b, margullin mær 145ª, alvitr 164ª, all descriptive of beauty or helmet-ornaments. Helm and shield distinguish these helm and shield women as much as heroes, they ride on shield-service, under shield-roof, Sæm. 250b, and are called skialdmeyjar aldrstamar, or young shield-maidens of Atli's court. The legend of the Amazons (Herod. 4, 110-117. Jorn. cap. 6, 7, 8. Paul. Diac. 1, 15) seems to rest on similar yet different notions. A valkyr in Sæm. 167b is named suðrn (australis), apparently in the sense of biört, sôlbiört? Again at 151b, dîsir su'rnar (see Suppl.) (38)  One name is particularly attractive: ôskmeyjar, wish-maidens (Sæm. 212. Völs. saga cap. 2), given them, I think, because they are in Oðin's service, and Oðinn is called Oski, Wunsc. But there is something more: I find a confirmation of my opinion that Wuotan bore the name of Wunsc in his identity with Mercury, for Mercury carries the magic wand (caduceus), which is like our wishing rod, OHG. wunsciligerta (-yerde, yard). The likeness will come out more distinctly from a closer inspection of the two rods, which is yet to come; but if Wuotan and Wunsc, Oðinn and Oski are one, we may suppose that the thorn, the sleeping-thorn, which Oðinn put into the dress of the valkyrja Brynhildr (Sæm. 192ª), was likewise a wishing-thorn. It throws light on the nature of Brunhild and Chrimhild, that rocks are named after them, one called spilstein, Chriemhildespil (p. 370), which, does not find a meaning so well from spil (ludus) as from spille (spindle, fusus). For other stones have the name kunkel (distaff), and in French fairy-tales quenouille a la bonne dame; (39) Dornröschen (thorn-rosekin) pricked her finger with the spindle and fell into a deep sleep, as Brunhild did with the wishing-thorn. Spindles are an essential characteristic of all the wise-women of antiquity among Teutons, Celts and Greeks. (40) The walküre is a wunsch-kint, Wunsches kint, pp. 139, 142 (see Suppl.).  The name wünschelweib, which lasted down to a late time, shall be produced hereafter; here I call up from the poem of the Staufenberger a being by whom the connexion of valkyrs with fays is placed beyond doubt. To the knight there shows herself a maiden in white apparel (the hvît and biört above), sitting on a stone (line 224); she has watched over him in danger and war from his youth up, she was about him unseen (332-364); now she becomes his love, and is with him whenever he wishes for her (swenne du einest wünschest nâch mir, sô bin ich endelîchen bî dir 474). By superhuman power she moves swiftly whither she lists (wâr ich wil, dâ bin ich, den wunsch hât mir Got gegeben 497). Staufenberger, after being united to her in love, may do anything except take a wedded wife, else he will die in three days.  'er wünschte nâch der frouwen sîn,  bî im sô war diu schne fin.'  When he notwithstanding resolves on another marriage, she drives her foot through the floor, and he has to die (1016. 1066). According to this remarkable story, wunschweib or wünschelweib is one whose presence her lover can procure, by wishing it, whenever he longs for her,' names her name' as it were (p. 398): this is, though not a false, yet a later meaning substituted for the original one, which had reference to the god of wishing, the divine Wish. Old Norse legend will unfold to us more precisely the nature of these women.  In Valhöll the occupation of the ôskmeyjar or valkyrjur was to hand the drinking-horn to the gods and einherjar, and to furnish the table. Here comes out their peculiar relation to Freyja, who 'chooses val' like them, is called Valfreyja (p. 305), (41) and pours out at the banquet of the Ases (at gildi Asa), Sn. 108. Exactly in the same way did Göndul, sitting on a stôl î rioðrinu (in the niuriute, clearing), offer the comers drink out of a horn (Fornald. sög. 1, 398. 400); and with this agree the deep draughts of the modern folk-tale: a beautifully dressed and garlanded maiden from the Osenberg offers the count of Oldenburg a draught in a silver horn, while uttering predictions (Deutsche saga, no. 541). Svend Fälling drank out of the horn handed him by elf-women, and in doing so, spilt some on his horse, as in the preceding story (Thiele 2, 67); I have touched (p. 372) on the identity of Svend Fälling with Siegfried, whose relation to the valkyr Brunhild comes out clearly in the Danish story. In a Swedish folk-song in Arvidsson 2, 301, three mountain-maids hold out silver tankards in their white hands. Quite in harmony are some Norwegian traditions in Faye p. 26-8-9. 30; and additional Danish ones in Thiele 1, 49. 55. 3, 44 (see Suppl.).  Still more to the purpose is the office of the valkyrs in war. Not only 'kiosa val, kiosa feigð,' (42) but 'râða vîgum' or 'sigri,' therefore the deciding of battle and victory, is placed in their hands, Sn. 39. They are said to be 'görvar (alert) at rîða grund,' 'görvar at rîða til goðþioðar,' Sæm. 4b. Rooted in their being is an irresistible longing for this warlike occupation; hence the Edda expresses their most characteristic passion by the verb 'þrâ' (desiderant), Sæm. 88b, 'þrâðo' (desiderabant) or 'fýstoz' (cupiebant), 134ª: it is their own longing, striving and wishing that has swung itself round into that wishing for them. Usually nine valkyrjur ride out together, Sæm. 142, 162; their lances, helmets and shields glitter 151ª. This nineness is also found in the story of Thiðrandi (see p. 402), to whom nine dîsir appear first in white raiment, then nine others in black. Sæm. 44-5, and after him Sn. 39, enumerate thirteen of them: Hrist, Mist, Skeggöld, Skögul, Hildr, Thrûðr, Hlöck, Herfiötr, Göll, Geirahöð (al. Geirölul), Randgrîð, Râdgrîð, Reginleif; but Sæm. 4b only six: Skuld, Sk-gul, Gunnr, Hildr, Göndul, Geirskögul. (43) The prose of Sn. 39 distinguishes three as strictly val-choosers and mistresses of victory: Guðr, Rota and Skuld 'norn en ýngzta'. The celebrated battle-weaving song of the Nialssaga names the following: Hildr, Hiörþrimul, Sangrîðr (l. Rangrîðr), Svipul, Gunnr, Göndul; the Hâkonarmâl: Göndol, Skögol Geirskögol; the Krâkumâl (ed. Rafn, p. 121) only Hlöck and Hildr. Several of these names are of extraordinary and immediate value to our investigation, and not one of the remainder ought to be left out of sight in future study (see Suppl.).  Skuld, for instance: we gather from it the affinity of norns and valkyrs, and at the same time the distinction between them. A dîs can be both norn and valkyr, but the functions are seperate, and usually the persons. The norns have to pronounce the fatum, they sit on their chairs, or they roam through the country among mortals, fastening their threads. Nowhere is it said that they ride. The valkyrs ride to war, decide the issue of the fighting, and conduct the fallen to heaven; their riding is like that of heroes and gods (pp. 327. 392), mention is made of their horses: skalf Mistar marr (tremuit Mistae equuns), Sæm. 156ª; margullin mær (aureo equo vecta virgo), 145ª; when the steeds of the valkyrs shake themselves, dew drips from their manes into the valleys, and fertilizing hail falls on trees 145ª, b, with which compare the 'destillationes in comis et collis equorum' of the wise-women (p. 287); the name Mist, which elsewhere means mist, may have indicated a like phenomenon. Of the norns, none but Skuld the youngest (p. 405) can be a valkyrja too: were Urðr and Verðandi imagined as too aged or too dignified for the work of war? did the cutting, breaking, of the thread (if such an idea can be detected in the North) better become the maiden practised in arms?  Two other valkyrs, Hlöck and Herfiötr, have been claimed above (p. 401) as idisî, and interpreted as restrainers of the fight. In the Kormakssaga there also occurs Hlökk gen. Hlakkar, for bellona. Hildr, Gunnr, Thrûðr deserve to be studied the more closely, because their personality turns up in other Teutonic tongues as well, and the presence there of some walachurian argues that of the whole sisterhood. Even in ONorse, Hildr and Gunnr (=Guðr) got generalized into hildr and gunnr (pugna, proelium); of bellona was made bellum: 'hildr hefir þû oss verit,' bellona nobis fuisti, Sæm. 164b. Conversely, beside the AS. hild and gûð we still find a personal Hild and Gûð: gif mec Hild nime (if H. take me), Beow. 899. 2962; Gûð nimeð 5069; Gûð fornam (carried off) 2240; as elsewhere we have 'gif mec deáð nimeð,' Beow. 889, wîg ealle fornam 2154, gûðdeáð fornam 4494, Wyrd fornam 2411 (conf. OS. Wurd farnimid, Hel. 111, 11), swylt fornam 2872, Wyrd forsweop (supra p. 406); conf. 'Hilde grâp' 5009. And as other beings that do us good or harm are by turns aroused and quieted, it is said picturesquely: Hildi vekja (bellonam excitare), Sæm. 160ª 246ª; elsewhere merely vîg vekja (bellum excitare) 105ª. The valkyrs, like Oðinn (p. 147), are accompanied by eagles and ravens, who alight on the battlefield, (44) and the waging of war is poetically expressed as ala gögl gunna systra (aves alere sororum belli), Sæm. 160ª. The forms in OHG. were Hiltia and Gundia (Gûdea), both found in the Hild. lied 6. 60, though already as mere common nouns; composite proper names have -hilt, -gunt. (45) The legend of Hildr, who goes to the val at night, and by her magic wakes the fallen warriors into life again, is preserved both in the Edda (Sn. 164-5) and also in the OHG. poem of Gûdrûn, where she is called Hilde. (46)

Lastly, Thrûðr, which likewise sinks into a mere appellative þrûðr virgo, and in OHG. occurs in a great many female names (e.g. Alpdrûd [Ælfþryð, Elfrida], Wolchandrûd, Himildrûd, Plîddrût, Plihdrût = Plectrud, Kêrdrûd = Gertrude, Mîmidrûd, Sigidrûd, which naturally suggests ghostly beings), has assumed the general meaning of witch, sorceress, hobgoblin. (47) Hans Sachs several times uses 'alte trute' for old witch, and noisy children are quieted with the words: 'hush, the drut will come!' (48) so that here she exactly fills the place of frau Holla or Berhta, and can the more appropriately be the ancient valkyr. An AS. wood-maiden, named Dhryð, comes up in the Vita Offae secundi (supra, p. 388): she is from France, where she had been sentenced to death for her crimes, exposed in a ship, and cast on the shore of Mercia. Here Offa saw the maiden passing fair, and married her, but she soon committed new transgressions. She is called 9ª Drida, 9b Petronilla, 15b Qvendrida (i.e., cwên Thryð; conf. Kemble's preface to Beow. pp. xxxv. xxxvi, and Bäckström 1, 220 (see Suppl.).  Beside the valkyrs named, there must have been many others, and the second section of the Sæmundaredda names several as lovers or wives of heroes. Such are Svava, Sigrlinn, Kâra, Sigrûn, Sigrdrîfa, who are expressly called valkyrjur, Sæm. 142b 145b 157, 169. 194. It also comes out, that they were of human origin, being daughters of kings, Svava of Eylimi, Sigrlinn of Svafnir, Sigrûn of Högni, Kâra of Hâlfdan, Sigrdrîfa of Buðli; Svava was the lover of Helgi Hiörvarðsson, Sigrlinn of Hiörvarðr, Sigrûn of Helgi Hundîngsbani, Kâra of Helgi Haddîngskaði, and Sigrdrifa, who is no other than Brynhildr, of Sigurðr. Grîmhildr (helmet-maiden, p. 238), and above all Brynhildr, Prunhilt, whose very name betokens the mail-clad Hildr, is superhuman: her inaccessible hall stands on a mountain, like those of Veleda and Jetha (pp. 95-6); it was a schildburg (skialdborg), where she herself, bound by the spell, slept under her shield, till Sigurðr released her. Then she prophesied to him, Sæm. 194b, and before her death she prophesies again, 224, 226b. Her hall was encircled with flickering flame, 'oc var um sal hennar vafrlogi,' Sn. 139 (see Suppl.), as was also that of Menglöð (OHG. Maniklata, i.e., monili laetabunda), another valkyr: salr er slûnginn er vîsom vafrloga (Sæm. 110ª, conf. 107ª,b). Before this Menglöð, nine virgins kneel, sit and sing; sacrifice is offered to them all (111ª); conf. ch. XXXVI. Then Vebiörg skialdmr appears in Fornald. sög. 1, 384. And vrô Babehilt, whom Dietrich finds at a fountain, asleep (as Sigurd found Brynhild), and who gives him healing salves, and foretells his fate (Ecke 151-160), must also be reckoned among norns or valkyrs. The valkyrs bestowed on their favourites, as Staufenberger's lover did on him (p. 419), victory and protection in battle (Sigrûn hlîfði honom opt sîðan î orrostom, Sæm. 142b); this relation is technically expressed by verja (tueri 134ª); they hide their heroes' ships (Svava 145ª,b, Sigrûn 153b). The above-mentioned Hildr too, the daughter of king Högni (Hagene), was Heðin's betrothed. The memory of these shield maidens has filtered down even into modern folk-songs: in Arvidsson 1, 189, Kerstin sköldmö with her 8000 maids redeems her betrothed from captivity; at other times it is a sister that rescues her brother, by which is not meant a sister by birth, but a valkyr again, for these higher beings are everywhere called sisters, and fraternize with their protégés (Arvidsson 2, 120-1-2. Nyerup 4, 38-9). Now those women in our medieval poetry, the sight of whom nerves to victory, whose name need only be uttered to bring them to one's side as quickly as a wish can be formed and accomplished, are evidently shield-women of this kind (see Suppl.).  Oðinn then admitted into his band of valkyrs mortal maidens of kingly race, deified women standing by the side of the deified heroes; yet I do not suppose that all valkyrs were of such lineage, but that the oldest and most famous were, like the norns, descended from gods or elves. It is also worth noting, that Kâra and her Helgi were looked upon as a second birth of Svava and the elder Helgi, Sæm. 148b 169. In the Vöundarqviða three other valkyrs make their appearance together: Hlaðguðr svanhvît, Hervör alvitr, and Ölrûn, the first two being daughters of king Löðver, the third of Kiâr; they unite themselves to Slagfiðr, Völundr and Egill, live with them seven years, and then escape, 'at vitja vîga,' to pursue their old trade of war again. On the whole, it seems the union of these half-goddesses with heroes turned out detrimentally to both parties: the heroes came to an early death or other harm, as Staufenberger's example teaches; and 'Sigrûn varð skammlîf,' she grew scant of life, Sæm. 169ª. Perhaps we should be right in assuming that promotion to the valkyr's office took place under an obligation of virginity. (49) which again reminds one of the Amazons. At all events, when Oðinn was angry with Sigrdrifa for letting his favourite fall in battle, (50) he decreed that now she should be given in marriage, 'qvað hana giptaz scyldo,' Sæm. 194ª. Hlaðguðr, Hervör and Ölrûn had been carried off by the men forcibly and against their will (see Suppl.). (51) All these female names are descriptive. Ölrûn was discussed on p. 404. Hlaðguðr is literally bellona stragis; Hervör, like the kindred Gunnvör, alludes to hosts and battles, the adj. alvitr to the gift of prophecy, and svanhvît to the swan-shape. Saxo Gram. 22-23 names another Svanhvita, who has likewise much of the valkyr, is a seer of spirits, and presents a sword to Regner to seal their covenant. As for Slagfiðr (see p. 380), I prefer to explain it not as Slagfinnr, though he is called a son of the Finnakonûngr, but as Slagfiöðr = alatus, pennatus, which goes better with Svanhvît his lover, and is supported by the OHG. word slagifëdara, penna.   How little we are entitled to separate the norns and valkyrs totally from one another, is taught by the tale of these three maidens also. Not to mention the prevalence among valkyrs as well as norns of the number three and sisterly companionship, nor Hervör's having the epithet alvitr (omniscia), which better fits a norn than a valkyr; it is said of all three, that they sat on the sea-beach spinning costly flax, nay, of the same 'all-witting' one (who is repeatedly called ûnga, as Skuld is in other places), that she was about to 'örlög drÿgja,' to dree a weird, Sæm. 133ª 134ª. The award of battle is one part of destiny; not only norns, but valkyrs also were imagined spinning and weaving. This is placed in the clearest light by the fearfully exciting poem in cap. 158 of the Nialssaga. Through a crevice in the rock Dörruðr sees women sit singing over a web, at which human heads serve them for weights, entrails for warp and weft, swords for spools, and arrows for a comb: in their weird song they describe themselves as valkyrjur, and their web as intended for the spectator Dörruðr. (52) At length they tear up their work, mount their steeds, and six of them ride to the south, six to the north. Compare with this the weaving Wyrd of the AS. poet (p. 415). The parting of the maidens into two bands that ride in opposite directions, is like those nine in white and nine in black, who came riding up in succession (p. 421).  I have set norns and moirai side by side; with equal aptness a comparison can be drawn between valkyrs and khrej (without any verbal affinity, for no doubt the likeness is only an aparent one): the khr too might be seen on the battlefield in bloody garments, tending the wounded, dragging away the dead. A khr is allotted to the child as soon as it is born; Achilles had two khrej between whom he might choose, and Zeus put two in the balance, to decide the death of Hector or Achilles. (53) Hesiod (scut. 249-254) makes the dingy white-toothed khrej contend over the fallen warriors, each throws her talons round the wounded man, eager to drink his blood, just as he ascribes talons and a thirst for blood to the moirai (p. 414): a fresh confirmation of the identity of norns and valkyrs. The claws of the moirai and kêres, the wings of the thriai, point to their possession of a bird's shape. The later view [Hesiod's] brings into prominence the sinister side of the kêres. 

 

5. SWAN-MAIDENS

 

.  But we have now to make out a new aspect of the valkyrs. We are told that they travel through air and water, 'rîða lopt ok lög,' Sæm. 142b 159b; theirs is the power to fly and to swim, in other words, they can assume the body of a swan, they love to linger on the sea-shore; and the swan was considered a bird of augury. (54) The Völundarqviða relates: Three women sat on the shore, spinning flax, and had their âlptarhamir (swan-shifts) by them, so that any moment they could fly away again as swans: 'meyjar flugo,' and 'settuz at hvîlaz â sævarströnd'; one of them has even the surname of svanhvît (swanwhite), and wears a swan's feathers (svanfiaðrar drô). In the Hrômundarsaga (Fornald. sög. 2, 375-6), the same Kâra, who the Edda says was a second birth of Svava, appears as an enchantress in swan-shift, (fiölkýngiskona î âlftarham), and hovers above the hero, singing. (55) By her assistance elgi had always conquered, but it happened in one fight, that he swung his sword too high in the air, and hewed off his lover's foot, she fell to the ground, and his luck was spent. In Saxo Gram., p. 100, Fridlevus hears up in the air at night 'sonum trium olorum superne clangentium,' who prophesy to him, and drop a girdle with runes on it. Brynhildr is 'like the swan on the wave' (Fornald. sög. 1, 186): the simile betrays at the same time, that she had really the power of changing into the bird. Many tales of swan-wives still live among the Norse people. A young man saw three swans alight on the shore, lay their white bird-shifts in the grass, turn into beautiful maidens, and bathe in the water, then take their shifts again, and fly away in the shape of swans. He lay in wait for them another time, and abstracted the garment of the youngest; she fell on her knees before him, and begged for it, but he took her home with him, and married her. When seven years were gone by, he showed her the shift he had kept concealed; she no sooner had it in her hand, than she flew out as a swan through the open window, and the sorrowing husband died soon after. Afzelius 2, 143-5. On the other hand, the swan-hero forsakes his wife the moment she asks the forbidden question. A peasant had a field, in which whatever he set was trampled down every year on St. John's night. Two years in succession he set his two eldest sons to watch in the field; at midnight they heard a hurtling in the air, which sent them into a deep sleep. The next year the third son watched, and he saw three maidens come flying, who laid their wings aside, and then danced up and down the field. He jumped up, fetched the wings away, and laid them under the stone on which he sat. When the maidens had danced till they were tired, they came up to him, and asked for their wings; he declared, if one of them would stay and be his wife, the other two should have their wings back. From this point the story takes a turn, which is less within the province of the swan-wife myth; but it is worth noting, that one of the maidens offers her lover a drink of water out of a golden pitcher, exactly as elfins and wish-wives do elsewhere (pp. 420, 326). Molbech no. 49.  These lovely swan-maidens must have been long known to German tradition. When they bathe in the cooling flood, they lay down on the bank the swan-ring, the swan-shift; who takes it from them, has them in his power. (56) Though we are not expressly told so, yet the three prophetic merwomen whose garments Hagene took away, are precisely such; it is said (Nib. 1476, 1) by way of simile again:   sie swebten sam die vogele ûf der fluot.  It is true, our epic names only two of them (the Danish story only one), the wîsiu wîp, Hadburc and Sigelint, (57) but one of them begins to prophesy, and their garments are described as 'wunderlich,' 1478, 3. The myth of Völundr we meet with again in an OHG. poem, which puts doves in the place of swans: three doves fly to a fountain, but when they touch the ground they turn into maidens, Wielant removes their clothes, and will not give them up till one of them consents to take him for her husband. In other tales as widely diffused, young men throw the shift, ring or chain over them, which turns them into swans. (58) When the resumption of human shape cannot be effected completely, the hero retains a swan-wing; evidence of the high antiquity of this detail lies in its connextion with the heroic legend of Scoup or Sceáf (p. 370); and it has found its way into modern pedigrees. (59) Especially important, as placing in a clear light the exact relation of these swan-wives to the walküren, is a statement about them in Altd. bl. 1, 128: A nobleman hunting in a wild forest saw a maiden bathing in the river, he crept up and took away the gold chain on her hand, then she could not escape. There was peculiar virtue in this chain: 'dor ümme (on account of it) werden sülche frowen wünschelwybere genant'. He married her, and she had seven children at a birth, they all had gold rings about their necks, i.e., like their mother, the power of assuming swan-shape. Swan children then are wish-children. In Gudrun, the prophetic angel comes over the sea-wave in the shape of a wild bird singing, i.e., of a swan, and in Lohengrin a talking swan escorts the hero in his ship; in AS. poetry swanrâd (-road) passed current for the sea itself, and alpiz, ælfet, âlpt (oygnus) is akin to the name of the ghostly alp, ælf (see Suppl.).  We hear tell of a swan that swims on the lake in a hollow mountain, holding a ring in his bill: if he lets it fall, the earth comes to an end. (60) On the Ur'arbrunnr itself two swans are maintained (Sn. 20); another story of a soothsaying swan is communicated by Kuhn, p. 67, from the Mittelmark. A young man metamorphosed into a swan is implied in the familiar Westphalian nursery-rhyme:  swane, swane, pek up de nesen,  wannehr bistu krieger wesen (was a warrior)?  Another, of Achen, says:  krune krane, wisse schwane,  we wel met noh Engeland fahre?  And the name Sæfugel in the AS. genealogies seems to indicate a swan-hero.  The spinner Berhta, the goose-footed (61) queen, may fairly suggest swan-maidens (p. 280). (62) *** If those prophetic 'gallicenae'  were able to assume what animal shapes they pleased, why, then the Celts too seem to have known about swan-metamorphosis in very early times, so that in French fay-legends we may supply the omissions; e.g., in Méon 3, 412:

       en la fontaine se baignoient [in the fountain were bathing]

       trois puceles preuz et senées, [three virgins wise and (Old French sené became ‘sensé’) with good sense]

       qui de biaute sembloient fées: [who for the beauty seem to be fays]

       lor robes a tout lor chemises  [their dresses and all their garments]

       orent desoz un arbre mises [have under a tree laid]

       du bout de la fontaine en haut. [at the end of the fountain, above]

puceles senées [virgins with good sense]  3, 419. bien eurées [of good omen] 418. la plus mestre [the most important] 413-5.*** The shifts were stolen, and the maidens detained. In the Lai du Desiré the knight espies in the forest a swan-maiden without her wimple (sans guimple). The wimple of the white-robed fay answers to the swan-shift. 

 

6. WOOD-WIVES.

 

We have seen that the wish-wives appear on pools and lakes in the depth of the forest: it is because they are likewise wood-wives, and under this character they suggest further reflections. The old sacred forest seems their favourite abode: as the gods sat throned in the groves, on the trees, the wise-women of their train and escort would seek the same haunts. Did not the Gothic aliorunas dwell in the woodland among the wood-sprites? Was not Veleda's tower placed on a rock, that is, in the woods? The Völundarqviða opens with the words:  meyjar flugo sunnan Myrkvið igögnom,  maids flew from south through murky wood to the seashore, there they tarried seven years, till they grew homesick: meyjar fýstoz â myrkvan við,  they could resist no longer, and returned to the sombre wood. Almost all swan-maidens are met with in the forest. The seven years agree with those of the Swedish story on p. 427. (63)  As Sigrûn, Sigrdrîfa, Sigrlinn are names of valkyrs, and our epic still calls one of the wise-women Sigelint, I believe that the OHG. siguwîp, AS. sigewîf, ON. sigrvîf, was a general designation of all wise-women, for which I can produce an AS. spell communicated to me by Kemble:  sitte ge sigewîf, sîgað tô eorðan!  næfre ge wilde (l. wille) tô uruda fleogan!  beo ge swâ gemyndige mînes gôdes,  swâ bîð manna-gehwylc metes and êðeles. (64)  Like norns, they are invited to the house with the promise of gifts.  On this point we will consider a passage in Saxo, where he is unmistakably speaking of valkyrs, though, as his manner is, he avoids the vernacular term. In his account of Hother and Balder, which altogether differs so much from that of the Edda, he says, p. 39: Hotherus inter venandum errore nebulae perductus in quoddam silvestrium virginum conclave incidit, a quibus proprio nomine salutatus, 'quaenam essent' perquirit. Illae suis ductibus auspiciisque maxime bellorum fortunam gubernari testantur: saepe enim se nemini conspicuas proeliis interesse, clandestinisque subsidiis optatos amicis praebere successus: quippe conciliare prospera, adversa infligere posse pro libitu memorabant. After bestowing their advice on him, the maidens with their house (aedes, conclave) vanish before Hother's eyes (see Suppl.). Further on, p. 42: At Hotherus extrema locorum devia pervagatus, insuetumque mortalibus nemus emensus, ignotis forte virginibus habitatum reperit specum: easdem esse constabat, quae eum insecabili veste quondam donaverant. They now give him more counsel, and are called nymphae. (65)  This seems no modern distorted view, to imagine the maids of war, that dwelt in Oðin's heavenly company, that traversed air and flood, as likewise haunting the woodland cave; therefore Saxo was right to call them silvestres, and to place their chamber, their cave, in the forest.  The older stages of our language supply some similar expressions, in which I recognise the idea of wise wood-wives, not of mere elvish wood-sprites. They are called wildiu wîp, and the Trad. fuld., p. 544, speak of a place 'ad domum wildero wîbo'. Burcard of Worms, p. 198d, mentions 'agrestes feminas quas silvaticas vocant, et quando voluerint ostendunt se suis amatoribus, et cum eis dicunt se oblectasse, et item quando volurint abscondunt se et evanescunt'. This 'quando voluerint' seems to express the notion of wish-life. Meister Alexander, a poet of the 13th century, sings (str. 139, p. 143b): 'nû gênt si vür in (go they before him) über gras in wilder wîbe wæte (weeds)'. So: 'von einem wilden wîbe ist Wate arzet,' is (i.e., has learnt to be) physician, Gudr. 2117; 'das wilde fröuwelîn,' Ecke 189. In the Gl. monst. 335, wildaz wîp stands for lamia, and 333 wildiu wîp for ululae, funereal birds, death-boding wives, still called in later times klagefrauen, klagemütter, and resembling the prophetic Berhta (p. 280). In groves, on trees, there appeared dominae, matronae, puellae clothed in white (pp. 287-8), distinguishable from the more elvish tree-wife or dryad, whose life is bound up with that of the tree. The Vicentina Germans worship a wood-wife, chiefly between Christmas and Twelfthday: the women spin flax from the distaff, and throw it in the fire to propitiate her: (66) she is every bit like Holda and Berhta. As three branches of corn are left standing at harvest-time for Wuotan and frau Gaue, so to this day in the Frankenwald they leave three handfuls of flax lying on the field for the holzweibel (wood-wives, Jul. Schmidt's Reichenfels, p. 147), a remnant of older higher worship. Between Leidhecken and Dauernheim in the Wetterau stands the high mountain, and on it a stone, der welle fra gestoil (the wild woman's chairs); there is an impression on the rock, as of the limbs of human sitters. The people say the wild folk lived there 'wei di schtan noch mell warn,' while the stones were still soft; afterwards, being persecuted, the man ran away, the wife and child remained in custody at Dauernheim until they died. Folk-songs make the huntsman in the wood start a dark-brown maid, and hail her: 'whither away, wild beast?' (Wunderhorn 2, 154), but his mother did not take to the bride, just as in the tale of the swan-children. We find a more pleasing description in the Spanish ballad De la infantina (Silva p. 259): a huntsman stands under a lofty oak:  *** En una rama mas alta viera estar una infantina,  cabellos de su cabeza todo aquel roble cobrian:  'siete fadas (7 fays) me fadaron en brazos de una ama mia,  que andasse los siete anos sola en esta montina'. (from Helios De Rosario Martinez)

«At a higher branch he saw a young maid,

the hair of her head all that oak covered:

'seven fays fated me at the arms of my nurse,

to wander seven years alone at this mountain'.»

The two last verses are the speech of the "young maid" ("infantina"), who was enchanted by the fays (when she was just a baby, since she was "en brazos de una ama mía" - at the arms of a nurse). I have chosen the wording "seven fays _fated_ me" instead of the perhaps more correct expression "doomed me", because although "fate"

is rarely --if ever-- used in English as a verb, in the original verses the verb is evidently related to its agent: "siete _fadas_ me _fadaron_". The adjective "fated" has the form of a past participle of some verb "to fate", which I find perfectly fitting to this case. ***

But the knight wants first to take his mother's opinion, and she refuses her consent. When Wolfdieterich sits by a fire in the forest at night, rauhe Els comes up, the shaggy woman, and carries off the hero to her own country, (67) where she is a queen and lives on a high rock: at length, bathing in the jungbrunnen, she lays aside her hairy covering, and is named Sigeminne, 'the fairest above all lands'. (68)

Synonymous with 'wildaz wîp' the glosses have holzmuoja (lamia and ulula), she who wails or moos in the wood; holzfrowe meaning the same, but suggestive of that Gothic aliorumna, AS. burgrûne, and the ON. Sigrûn (see Suppl.). (69)  

 

7. MENNI, MERIMANNI.

 

One general name for such beings must from very early times have been menni, minni; it is connected with man (homo), and with the ON. man (virgo), but it occurs only in compounds: merimanni (neut.), pl. merimanniu, translates sirena or scylla (Reda umbe diu tier, in Hoffm. fundgr. 19, 18), meriminni, Gl. Doc. 225ª mons. 333. In the 13th century poets, merminne is equivalent to merwîp, merfrouwe, yet also to wildez wîp: 'diu wîse merminne,' Diut. 1, 38. 'gottinne oder merminne, die sterben niht enmohten (could not die),' Eneit. 8860. In the Wîgamûr 112. 200. 227 seq., there appears a wildez wîp, who dwells in a hollow rock of the sea, and is indifferently termed merwîp 168. 338, merfrouwe 134, and merminne 350. AS. merewîf, Beow. 3037. M. Dutch maerminne. Those three wîsiu wîp of the Nibelungen are also called merwîp 1475, 1. 1479, 1; they fortell and forewarn; their having individual names would of itself put them on a par with the Norse valkyrs: Hadburc, Sigelint. The third, whose name the poem omits (p. 428), is addressed by Hagne as 'aller wîseste wîp!' 1483, 4. Wittich's ancestress (p. 376) is named frouwe Wâchilt, as if Wave-Hilde, she is a merminne, and says sooth to the hero, Râb. 964-974. Morolt also has an aunt a merminne who lives in mount Elsabê and rules over dwarfs; her name is not given, but that of her son is Madelgêr, and she likewise gives wise advice to Morolt; Mor. 40b 41ª. The merminne in Ulrich's Lanzelet (lines 196 seq.) is said to be wîs (5751. 6182), she has under her 10,000 unmarried women (deru keiniu bekande man noch mannes gezoc), they dwell on a mountain by the sea, in an ever-blooming land. In the Apollonius, a benevolent merminne is queen of the sea (lines 5160. 5294); here the poet had in his mind a siren in the classical sense, but the Germans must have had a merminne before they ever heard of sirens. The Danish name is maremind (Danske viser 1, 118. 125). Norse legend has preserved for us a precisely corresponding male being, the taciturn prophetic marmennill (al. marmendill, marbendill), who is fished up out of the sea, and requires to be let go into it again; Hâlfssaga c. 7 (Fornald. sög. 2, 31-33), and Isl. sög. 1, 33 (Landn. 2, 5). (70) From him coral is named marmennils smîði, he cunningly wrought it in the sea. At a later time the word merfei was used in Germany: that lover of Staufenberger, whom he found in the forest, and the Fair Melusina (possibly a tradition of ancient Gaul), are precisely the fairy being that had previously been called merimenni. (71)

But, similar to the merminne, there was also a waltminne, which word equally stands for lamia in old glosses (Diut. 3, 276). Sigeminne, whether the baptized Rauch-els, Wolfdieterich's lover (p. 433), or the wife of Hugdieterich, (72) may with perfect right be regarded as waltminne or merminne. (73) In the Vilk. saga cap. 17 I find skona used of the woman who Vilkinus found in the wood, and who bore him Vadi. Saxo Gram., p. 15, speaks of a tugurium silvestris immanisque feminae (see Suppl.). By this array of authorities it is proved to satisfaction, that the wildaz wîp or menni, minni was thought of as a higher, superhuman being, such as cn be placed at the side of the Scandinavian norn and valkyr. But in the scanty remains of our tradition the names stand woefully bare, finer distinctions are inevitably lost, and in more than one place the boundary-lines between gods, demigods, elves and giants cross one another. Equally with norns and valkyrs (pp. 413-9. 425), we have goddesses spinning and weaving, as Holda, Berhta, Freyja, and even giantesses, as we shall see by and by.  Among the figures in the Greek and Teutonic mythologies, we have placed side by side the numfai and idisî, the moirai and nornir, the khres and valkyrior. But several isolated names might be compared in the same way, as for instance, Nikh or Victoria with some Sigrûn or Sigrdrîfa, Erij and Enuw or Bellona with a Hildr and Gunnr. Eris, like Iris, is sent forth on an errand by Zeus (Il. 11, 3), as Skögul or Göndul by Oðinn. I often find these Grecian figures in attendance on individual gods: in Il. 5, 333 ptoliporqoj Enuw goes with Athene; in 5, 592 potni Enuw with Ares; in 4, 440 and 5, 518 Erij amoton memauia with Ares, who is also followed by Deimoj and Foboj (p. 207-8). And lastly, the Charites are nearly allied; and there was supposed to be a special Charis of victory. Still nearer to our wood-elves stand particular classes of nymphs, especially those whom Theocritus 5, 17 names taj limnadaj numfaj, or those called numfai akoimhtoi, deinai qeai agroiwtaij 13, 44. The graceful myth of swan-wives appears indeed to be unknown to the Greeks and Romans, while we Teutons have it in common with the Celts; yet a trace of it remains in the story of Zeus and Leda (p. 338), and in the swan's prophetic song, as in the Indian Nalus too the gold-bedizened swan (hansa = anser, goose) finds human speech (Bopp's ed. pp. 6. 7).  The Slavs have not developed any idea of goddesses of fate. (74) The beautiful fiction of the vila is peculiar to Servian mythology: she is a being half fay, half elf, whose name even resembles that of the vala. The relation of valkyrs to christian heroes is suggested by the fraternal bond between the vila and Marko (Vuk 2, 98. 232. Danitza for 1826, p. 108), as also by the vilas appearing singly, having proper names, and prophesying. In some things they come nearer the German elfins of our next chapter: they live on hills, love the song and round dance (Ir. elfenm. lxxxii), they mount up in the air and discharge fatal arrows at men: 'ustrièlila ga vila,' the vila has shot him with her shaft. Their cry in the wood is like the sound of the woodpecker hacking, and is expressed by the word 'kliktati'. The vila has a right to the child whom his mother in heedless language (diavo ye odniyo!) has consigned to the devil (Vuk no. 394), as in similar cases the wolf or bear fetches him away. Vile te odnele! (vilae te auferant) is a curse (Vuks sprichw. p. 36); 'kad dot'u vile k otchim' (quando vilae ante oculos veniunt) signifies the moment of extreme distress and danger (ibid. 117). The vila rides a seven-year old stag, and bridles him with snakes, like the Norse enchantress (see Suppl.). (75)

 

Supplements

 

                P. 396.) Helen, as daughter of Zeus and Leda, as half-sister of the Dioscuri, is already half divine; but she is also deified for her beauty, as her brothers are for bravery, Lucian 9, 274. Flore says of Blancheflur, whom he supposes dead, 2272:

                iuch het Got ze einer gotinne

                gemacht in himelrîche

                harte wünneclîche. Women have the further advantage over the harder sex, of being kind and merciful, even giantesses and she-devils (Suppl. to 530).

                p. 397.) Soothsaying and magic are pre-eminently gifts of women (p. 95). Hence there are more witches than wizards: 'where we burn one man, we burn maybe ten women,' Keisersb. omeis 46b. A woman at Geppingen had foretold the great fire, Joh. Nider (d. 1440) in Formic. 2, 1.

                p. 398.) Woman-worship is expr. in the following turns of speech (Examples like those in Text are omitted). ich waen, Got niht sô guotes hât als ein guot wîp, Frauend. 1, 6. êrt altôs vrouwen ende joncfrouwen, Rose 2051. van vrowen comt ons alle ere, Walew. 3813; for one reason: wir wurden von frowen geborn, und manger bet gewert, Otn., cod. Dresd. 167. daz wir von den lieben frolîn fîn alsamen (zer werlte) komen sîn, M. Beheim 275, 19. Renn. 12268.

                p. 400.) The hero devotes himself to a lady's service, she will have him for her knight: ich wil in z' eime ritter hân, Parz. 352, 24. 'den ritter dienstes biten,' ask for his service 368, 17. dîns ritters 353, 29. mîn ritter und der dîn 358, 2. Schionatulander has to serve Sigune 'unter schiltlîchem dache,' under shield-roof, Tit. 71, 4, he was 'in ir helfe erborn' 72, 4; and this relationship is called her fellowship 73, 1.

                 do versuocht ich 'n, ob er kunde sîn

                 ein friunt, daz wart vil balde schîn.

                 er gap durch mich (for me) sîn harnas enwec ......

                 mange âventiure suoht' er blôz (bare, unarmed), Parz. 27, 13. The knights wore scutcheon or jewel, esp. a sleeve, or mouwe, stouche (parts of a sleeve), 'durch (in honour of) die frauen.' The lady is screen, shield and escort to the knight whose sword is in her hand, Parz. 370-1. 'ich wil in strîte bî iu sîn' says Obilôte to Gawan 371, 14. Captives must surrender to the conqueror's lady-love 394, 16. 395, 30. 396, 3; she is thus a warrior like Freya, a shield-maiden (p. 423-4). The sleeve he wears as favour on his shield has touched the maiden's naked arm, Parz. 375, 16. 390, 20. Er. 2292 seq. En. 12035 seq.; a shirt that has touched the fair one's form is the knightly hauberk's roof, Parz. 101, 10; conf. 'es gibt dir gleich, naizwan, ain kraft, wen du im an den rock rüerest (touchest his coat),' Keisersb.'s Spinnerin f. 3d. Schionatulander nerves him for the fight, and wins it, by thinking how Sigune showed herself to him unrobed; which she had done on purpose to safeguard him in danger, Tit. 1247-50. 1497. 2502. 4104. 4717.

                Sed in cordibus milites

                depingunt nostras facies,

                cum serico in palliis

                colore et in clipeis; Carm. Bur. 148b. Sîfrit gedâht an daz küssen daz ver Krîmhilt im hâte getân, dâ-von der degen küene (champion bold) ein niuwe kraft gewan, Roseng. 1866. Man sol vor êrste an Got gedenken in der nôt, Dar-nâch gedenke an die süezen mündel rôt, Und an ir edeln minne, diu verjagt den tôt, Kolm. MS. 73, 37. 42, 46. For 'thinking of,' see my Dict. sub. v. andacht (devotion).

----- The ladies too call out to their champion, or they wish: 'The little strength that I have, I would it were with you!' As you like it, i. 2.

----- Woman's beauty can split rocks: von ir schoene müese ein fels erkrachen, MsH. 3, 173a. It heals the sick: der sieche muose bî in genesen, Dietr. Drach. 350b. sol daz ein siecher ane sehn, vor fröide wurde er schier gesunt 310b. ir smieren und ir lachen, und solde ein sieche das ansehn, dem müeste sorge swachen 70a. A flight to the ladies saves a man: hie sal die zuht vore gân, nu he under den vrowin ist komin, 4626; conf. 4589. A lady's tread does not hurt flowers: ich waen swelhe trat diu künegîn, daz si niht verlôs ir liehten schîn, Turl. Wh. 97b. 152a.

                p. 400.) Sîn pflâgen (him tended) wîse frouwen, Gudr. 23, 3; they are called blessed maids in Steub's Tirol p. 319.

                p. 401.) The OHG. itis (Kl. Schr. 2, 4 seq.) is still found in MHG. In the Wigamur 1564 seq. a maiden is called îdîs (misprinted eydes, for it rhymes wîs, prîs 1654-90. 1972); she has a limetree with a fountain of youth. Again, Itisburg, Dronke 4, 22; Idislind, Trad. Wizenb. (printed Dislith), Pertz 2, 389. Dis in Förstem. 1, 335; is Gifaidis 1, 451 for Giafdîs? Curtius in Kuhn's Ztschr. connects itis with aqhnh, but where is the s? I prefer to see in it the shining one, fr. indh = lucere, êdha, êdhas = lignum (Kl. schr. 5, 435). AS. ides = freolicu meowle, Cod. Exon. 479, 2. Both meowle and mawi have likewise their place here; conf. Meuenloch, Panzer's Beitr. 1, no. 85. Kl. schr. 3, 108.

                p. 403.) ON. dîsir appear as parcae: 'vildu svâ dîsir,' so willed the fates, Höstl. (Thorl. 6, 6); tâlar dîsir standa þer â tvœr hliðar, ok vilja þik sâran siâ, Sæm. 185a. Sacrif. off. to them: dîsablôt, blêtuð dîsir, Egilss. 205-7. var at dîsa blôti, reið hesti um dîsar salinn, Yngl. 33. Of the suicide: heingdi sik î dîsarsal, Hervarars. p. 454; fôr ser î dîsar sal 527. iodðîs, Sn. 202. Grendel's mother is an ides, Beow. 2518. 2701. On Vanadîs and her identity with the Thracian moon-goddess Bendis, see Kl. schr. 5, 424. 430 seq.

                p. 403.) Brynhild's hall, whither men go to have their dreams interpreted, stands on a hill, Völs. c. 25; conf. hyfjaberg (p. 1149). völu leiði, divinatricis tumulus, Laxd. 328. An old fay has not been out of her tower for fifty years, Perrault p.m. 3.

------ Of Veleda and the Goth. Waladamarca in Jorn. c. 48 we are reminded by the wise horse Falada in the fairy-tale (p. 659), and by Velentin: valantinne, volantinne alternate in Hpt's Ztschr. 4, 437. The völur roam about: ek fôr î skôg völvu lîki, Fornald. s. 1, 135; þû var völvan 1, 139. Sæm. 154b. Other prophetesses in Nialss. p. 194-9: Sæunn kerlîng, hon var frôð at mörgu ok framsýn, en þâ var hon gömul miök; she wanted the weed removed, else it would cause a fire, which came true. In Fornm. s. 4, 46: vîsindakona, sû er sagði fyrir örlög manna ok lîf; conf. p. 408.

                p. 405.) Wackernagel in Hpt's Ztschr. 2, 539 thinks aliorunas = haliorunas = hellirûna. A cave of the Alraun in Panz. Beitr. 1, 78-80. mandragora alruna, Mone's Anz. 8, 397.

                p. 406.) My resolution of ON. norn into Goth. navairns, death-goddess (Kl. schr. 3, 113) is opposed by Müllenhof in Hpt's Ztschr. 9, 255. The 'Nahanarvali' may have been norn-worshippers, Navarna-hali, Goth. Navarnê-haleis, ON. Norna-halir, GDS. 715. 806. Perhaps we ought to look to the Swed. verb nyrna, warn, inform, Sv. folkv. 1, 182-3. In Faröe they say nodn, nodnar, for norn, nornir, as they do kodn, hodn, badn, for korn, horn, barn, Lyngbye 132; so Nodna-gjest 474. That Nürnberg contains norn is the less likely, as we find it spelt Nüern-berc, MSH. 3, 296b, Nüeren-berc, Walth. 84, 17. Nornborn seems a corrup. of Nordenborn, like Norndorf, Nornberg, also in Up. Germany. Conf. the Fris. Non, Ehrentr. Fries. arch. 2, 82; Nurnhari, Karajan 83, 6.

                p. 408.) Two Germ. truds, Muss and Kann, take their names, like the three Norns, from simple verbs, Panz. Beitr. 1, 88. OHG. wurt, fortuna, Gl. hrab. 964a; conf. giwurt, ungiwurt, Graff 1, 993-4, and perhaps Goth. gavairþi, n. AS. seo wyrd gewearð, Cædm. 168, 3. hie Wyrd forsweop, Beow. 949. With 'me þæt Wyrd gewœf (wove)' conf. 'wîgspêda gewiofu (webs),' Beow. 1347 (p. 415). In Kormakss. p. 267 comes Urðr at brunni; conf. Urðar lokur, Sæm. 98a. Urðr öðlînga 214a is like 'dîs Skiöldunga.'

----- The Norns shape our destiny, skapa: ömlig norn skôp oss î ârdaga 181a; in Faröe: tea heava mear nodnar skapt, Lyngbye 132. In Graff 6, 662, 'steffara = parca' is for sceffara; scepfarun = parcae, Gl. Schlettst. 6, 457; they 'sceppen 's menschen leven,' Limb. 3, 1275. Vintler v. 146 (see App. Superst. G) speaks of gach-schepfen, Pfeiffer's Germ. 1, 238; conf. Finn. luonnotar, virgo creatrix, esp. ferri, fr. luon to make: 'kolme neittä luonnotarta,' tres sunt virgines naturae creatrices.

------ Norns are of various lineage, Sæm. 188a:

                sundr-bornar miök hugg ek at nornir sê,

                eigoð þaer aett saman,

                sumar ero âs-kungar, sumar âlf-kungar,

                sumar doetr Dvalins (some, daughters of D., a dwarf).

                p. 409.) On nornir, völvur, spâkonur, blâkâpur conf. Maurer 284. tha thriu wüfer, Ehrentr. Fries. arch. 2, 82. die drei heilräthinnen, Panz. Beitr. 1, 56-7-9. 283. Slav. tri rojenice or sujenice, Valjavec 76-91. Boh. sudice, judges, fem. (p. 436). Nornir nâ-gönglar, nauð-gönglar, Sæm. 187b, conf. ed. Hafn. 173; note the töfra-norn (p. 1033).

------ The Norns travel: konur þaer fôru yfir land, er völvur voru kallaðr, ok sögðu mönnum forlög sîn, ârferð ok aðra hluti, þâ er menn vildu vîsir verða. þessi sveit kom til Virvils bônda, var völvunni þar vel fagnat, Fornm. s. 3, 212. völvan arma 3, 214. Norns, parcae, fays come to the infant's cradle, and bestow gifts; so does frau Saelde in Erc 9900. A gammal gumma prophesies at the birth of the prince, Sv. folks. 1, 195; three mör (maids) get bathed by the girl, and then give gifts 1, 130 (in our Germ. tale it is 3 haulemännchen).

                p. 410.)

                  Saeva Necessitas

                clavos trabales et cuneos manu

                gestans ahenea. Hor. Od. i. 35, 18.

                Si figit adamantinos

                summis vorticibus dira Necessitas

                clavos.

                Hor. Od. iii. 24, 5. diu grimme Nôt, Er. 837. merkja â nagli Nauð, Sæm. 194b. Rûnar ristnar: â Nornar nagli 196a (clavo, not fingernail); conf. Simplic. 1, 475 (Keller): when Needs-be rideth in at door and windows.

                p. 411.) Of Greek mythical beings Calypso comes nearest the fays, being goddess and nymph; and in MHG. the goddess Venus is 'diu feine diu ist entslâfen,' MS. 2, 198a, while a fay is often called goddess. 'götinne = fee,' Hpt's Ztschr. 2, 183. der götinne land, der g. hende, Frib. Trist. 4458. 4503.

------ In Petronius we already find a personal (though masc.) fatus: malus f. (illum perdidit) c. 42. hoc mihi dicit f. meus, c. 77. On the house of the tria fata in the Forum, conf. Gregorovius's City of Rome 1, 371-2-3. In the Engadin they are called fedas, feas, also nymphas and dialas: they help in loading corn, bring food and drink in silver vessels; three dialas come to the spinners, Schreiber's Taschenb. 4, 306-7.

                p. 412.) On the tria fata see Horkel's Abh. p. 298 seq., conf. the three maidens in F. v. Schwaben: twelve white maidens in Müllenh. p. 348. Fays, like elfins, are of unsurpassed beauty: schoener danne ein veine, Trist. 17481. plus blanche que fée, Orange 5, 3059. plus bele que fée ne lerine 5, 4725. pus bela que fada, Ferabr. 2767. de biauté resanbloit fée, Marie 1, 100. They hold feasts, like the witches (p. 1045-6). In an old poem(?) p. 104-5, three fays prophesy at the birth of Auberon, son of Jul. Cæsar and Morgue, when a fourth comes in, p. 106 (p. 32 of the prose). The fates are gifting a newborn child, when the last one hurries up, but unfortunately sprains her foot (sbotatose lo pede), and lets fall a curse, Pentam. 2, 8.

                p. 413n.) Fata Morgana is 'Fêmurgân diu rîche' in Lanc. 7185, Fâmorgân in Er. 5155. 5229, Feimurgân in Iwein 3422. The 'Marguel, ein feine' in Er. 1932 is the same, for she answers to the Fr. 'Morgain la fée.' She is called 'Morguein de elwinne,' Lanz. 13654. 19472. 23264; 'Femurga die kluoge,' Tit. 4376; while Wolfram treats the word as the name of a country (p. 820 n.). On the other hand, Trist. 397, 14: gotinne ûz Avelûn der feinen lant (fay's land); Er. 1930: der wert Avalôn, Fr. l'ile d'Avalon. Does this go back to an old Celtic belief? Michelet 2, 15 mentions holy maids who dispensed fair weather or shipwrecks to the Celts.

                p. 414n.) Aisa seem akin to isoj, eisoj and eidenai : isoj equally distributed, kata isa ex aequo, kat aisan convenienter, aeque.

                p. 415.) Instead of Kataklwqej in Od. 7, 197 Bekker reads:

                assa oi aisa kata klwqej te bareiai

                geinomenw nhsanto linw

------- joining kata to nhsanto. Lucian's Dial. mort. 19: h Moira kai to ex archj outwj epikeklwsqai. Conf. epiklwqw used of gods and daemons (Suppl. to 858). Atropos was supposed to be in the sun, Clotho in the moon, Lachesis on earth, Plut. 4, 1157. For a beautiful description of the three Parcae (parca, she who spares? Pott in Kuhn 5, 250) see Catullus 62, 302 – 321 with ever and anon the refrain: Currite, ducentes subtemina, currite, fusi! also vv. 381 – 385.

                 Nubila nascenti seu mihi parca fuit. Ov. Trist. v. 3, 14.

                 Scilicet hanc legem nentes fatalia parcae

                stamina bis genito bis cecinere tibi. v. 3, 25.

                 O duram Lachesin! quae tam grave sidus habenti

                fila dedit vitae non breviora meae. v. 10, 45.

                 Atque utinam primis animam me ponere cunis

                jussisset quaevis de tribus una soror! Propert. iii. 4, 28.

                 Tres parcae aurea pensa torquentes. Petron. c. 29.

                 Daz het in vrôwe Chlôtô sô erteilet;

                 ouch was vil gefuoc vrô Lachesis daran. Turl. Krone 7.

 

 Servian songs tell of a golden thread (zlatna shitza), that unwinds from heaven and twines about a man, Vuk 1, 54 (Wesely p. 68). 57-8.

                p. 416.) German legend is full of spinning and weaving women: kleit daz ein wildiu feine span, Troj. kr. 2895. ein feine worhte den mantel, Altd. bl. 2, 231; and fays weave mantles in Charlem. p. 105-6. paile que fist fere une fée, Auberi 37. in the cave sits an old spinster, Kuhn's Westph. 1, 72. Asbiörn. 1, 194; conf. the old webster, Rhesa dainos 198. Gelücke span im kleider an, Frauenl. 115, 15. There are usually three together: tres nymphae, Saxo p. 43 (ed. M. 123). drei puppen, Firm. 2, 34. die drei docken, H. Sachs i. 4, 457d. die drei Marien, Kindh. Jesu, Hahn 68. Uhland's Volksl. 756. lb. 1582, 332. three Marys protect from fire, Panz. Beitr. 1, 67. three spinning Marys, Uhl. Vksl. 744. three old wives on a three-legged horse, Müllenh. p. 342. the tras feyes, Alsatia 1853, p. 172-3. Many stories of three women in white or black, esp. in Panzer's Beitr. 1, 2. 11-4-6-8. 25-8. 35-6-8. 46-8; they stretch a line to dry the wash on 1, 1. 9. 11-7. 25. 59. 129 n. 271-8; sing at the birth of a child 1, 11; become visible at Sun-wend-tag (solstice), 1, 38-9. 75. 84. Near Lohndorf in Up. Franconia a lad saw three castle-maidens walking, two had kreuz-rocken (-distaffs) with nine spindles spun full, the third a stühles-rocken with nine empty ones; and the others said to her, 'Had you but covered your spindles once, tho' not spun them full, you would not be lost.' Panz. Beitr. 2, 136. A beautiful Moravian story tells of three maidens who marched, scythe in hand, mowing the people down; one, being lame, cannot keep up, and is laughed at by the other two. She in her anger lets men into the mystery of healing herbs. Kulda (d'Elv) 110.

                p. 418.) Jupiter sends out Victoria, as Oðinn does valkyrs, Aug. Civ. D. 4, 17 (p. 435-6). Their name has not been found yet in OHG., though Schannat, vind. 1, 72 (yr. 1119) has Walkarie, femina serva. With the skiald-meyar conf. schild-knecht, who keeps his lord's shield and hands it to him, as they to Oðinn. Maidens guarding shield and helmet occur in the M. Neth. Lanc. 16913. conf. 16678. 17038. Their other name, hialm-meyar is made clearer by hild und hialmi, Sæm. 228a, hialm geta ok ôskmey verða 242a. The valkyr is named folkvitr 192a. So, megetlîchiu wîp help Charles to conquer, Ksrchr. 14950 seq.; diu megede suln dir dîne êre widergewinnen 14954; der megede sigenunft 15029. Aurelian led in triumph ten captive Gothic amazons, Vopisc. in Aurel. 34. Lampr. Alex. 6320 calls the Amazons urlouges wîp. Paul Diaconus mentions a fight betw. Lamissio and the Amazons for the passage of a river. Adam of Bremen 4, 19 speaks of 'amazons and cynos-cephali;' conf. P. Diac. 1, 15. hunt-houbito in Graff. The Krone 17469 tells of 'der meide lant,' land of maids.

                p. 418n.) Hun var vitr kona ok vinsael ok skörûngr mikill, Fornm. 3, 90; hon var skorûngr mikill, virago insignis, Nialss. c. 96; and Glaumvör is skörûngr, Völs. c. 33 (Kl. schr. 3, 407), skarûngr, Vilk. c. 212; but in c. 129 skarûngr = hero. Conf. skör, f. = barba, scabellum, commissura; skar, m. = fungus, insolentia. OHG. scara = acies, agmen; scaraman, scario.

                p. 419.) Where is the garment mentioned, in which Oðinn hid the thorn for Brunhild? Sæm. 194a only says 'stack hana svefn-þorni;' Völs. c. 20 'stack mik svefn-þorni'; Sæm. 228b 'lauk hann mik skiöldom ok hvîtom.' On spindle-stones, see Michelet 1, 461.

                p. 420.) Brynhildr or Sigrdrîfa fills a goblet (fyldi eitt ker), and brings it to Sigurd, Sæm. 194b. Völs. c. 20. A white lady with silver goblet in M. Koch's Reise d. Oestr. p. 262. A maiden hands the horn, and is cut down, Wieselgren 455. Subterraneans offer similar drink, Müllenh. p. 576; and a jätte hands a horn, whose drops falling on the horse strip him of hair and hide, Runa 1844, 88.

                p. 421.) Nine, as the fav. number of the valkyrs, is confirmed by Sæm. 228a, where one of them speaks of âtta systra. To our surprise, a hero Granmar turns valkyrja in Asgard, and bears nine wolves to Sinfiötli, Sæm. 154b. Fornald. 1, 139; conf. AS. wylpen, wulpin = bellona.

                p. 423.) The valkyrs ride through the air (p. 641), like Venus (p. 892): a thing aft. imputed to witches (p. 1088, &c.). Twelve women in the wood, on red horses, Fornm. 3, 135. By the expression Hlackr för, Hlöck seems to have the task of conducting those fallen in battle to Oðinn or Freyja, Egilss. p. 226. Is Göndull akin to gand? Gl. Edd. tom. 1: 'göndull = nodulus'; so that Oðin's by-name Göndler , Sæm. 46b, would mean 'tricas nectens.' The Rota in prose Sn. 39 is Rotho in Saxo M. 316. An OHG. name Hilticomâ, ad pugnam veniens, Cod. Fuld. no. 153 (yr. 798), describes a valkyr; conf. Hruodicoma, no. 172; ON. Hildr und hialmi, Sæm. 228a; AS. hilde wôman, Cod. Exon. 250, 32. 282, 15. Thrûðr is likewise a daughter of Thôrr. Heilah-trûd, Trad. Fuld. 2, 46. trute, Pass. K. 395, 77. frau Trutte, Præt. weltb. 1, 23. the drut (p. 464).

                p. 423.) May we trace back to the walkürie what is said to Brunhild in Biter. 12617? 'ir wâret in iur alten site komen, des ir pflâget ê, daz ir sô gerne sehet strît,' you love so to see strife. Brynhildr is 'mestr skörûngr' (p. 418n.). In Vilk. p. 30 she is called 'hin rîka, hin fagra, hin mikillâta,' and her castle Sêgard. In the Nibel. she dwells at castle Isenstein on the sea; is called des tiufels wîp (or brût), and ungehiurez wîp, 417, 4. 426, 4; wears armour and shield, 407, 4, throws the stone running, and hurls the spear; is passing strong 425, 1. 509, 3. 517, 3, and ties up king Gunther on their wedding-night.

                p. 424.) Like the shield-maidens are Fenja and Menja, of whom the Grottasöngr str. 13 says: î folk stigum, brutum skiöldu  veittum gôðum Gothormi lið. Clarine dubs her Valentin knight, Staphorst 241. They strike up brotherhood with their protégés; so does stolts Signild, Arvidss. 2, 128 – 130; conf. the blessed (dead?) maiden, who marries a peasant, Steub's Tirol 319. The valkyrs too have swan-shifts, Sæm. 228a: lêt hami vâra hugfullr konûngr âtta systra und eik borit (born under oak); conf. Cod. Exon. 443, 10. 26: wunian under âc-treo; and Grottas. str. 11: vârum leikur, vetr niu alnar fyrir iörð neðan. The wish-wife's clothes are kept in the oaktree, Lisch 5, 84-5.

                p. 425.) Brynhildr first unites herself by oath to young Agnar, and helps him to conquer old Hialmgunnar, Sæm. 194; conf. 174b. 228a (Völs. c. 20), where it says 'eiða seldak' and 'gaf ec ungom sigr.' After that she chose Sigurd: svâ er ek kaus mer til manns, Völs. c. 25. Such a union commonly proved unlucky, the condition being often attached that the husband should never ask the celestial bride her name, else they must part; so with the elfin, with Melusina, with the swan-knight. Also with the goddess Ganga, who had married Santanu, but immediately threw the children she had by him into the river, Holtzm. Ind. sag. 3, 95-9. On the union of a hero with the ghostly víla, see GDS. 130-1.

                p. 429.) Valkyrs are to a certain extent gods stranded on the world in Indian fashion. They stay 7 years, then fly away to the battle: at vitja vîga, visere proelia, Sæm. 133; so in the prose, but in the poem örlög drýgja (p. 425). The wîsiu wîp in the Nibel. are also called merwîp, diu wilden merwîp 1514-20-28, and Hagen bows to them when they have prophesied.

                p. 431.) The hut of the forest-women in Saxo p. 39 vanishes with them, and Hother suddenly finds himself under the open sky, as in witch-tales (p. 1072). Gangleri heyrði dyni mikla hvern veg frâ ser, oc leit ût â hlið ser: oc þâ er hann sez meirr um, þâ stendr hann ûti â slêttum velli, ser þâ önga holt oc önga borg, Sn. 77. Such vanishings are called sion-hverfîngar, Sn. 2.

                p. 433.) Holz-wîp, Otn. Cod. Dresd. 277; conf. dryad, hama-dryad (p. 653). To cry like a wood-wife, Uhl. Volksl. 1, 149: schrê als ein wildez wîp owê! Lanz. 7892. The wild woman's born, gestühl (spring, stool), Wetterau. sag. 282; wilde fräulein, Wolf's Ztschr. 2, 59; daz wilde vrouwelîn, Ecke 172. In Schlüchtern wood stand the wild houses, wild table, often visited by the wild folk, Buchonia iv. 2, 94-5; a willemännches haus and tisch (table) near Brückenau, Panz. Beitr. 1, 186; conf. daz wilde getwerc (p. 447). Wood-wives are also called dirn-weibel (Suppl. to 279), and carry apples in their basket, like the matronae and Nehalenniae. At flax-picking in Franconia a bunch plaited into a pigtail is left for the holz-fräule (as part of a sacrifice was laid aside for nymphs, Suppl. to 433n.), and a rhyme is spoken over it, Panz. Beitr. 2, 160-1. witte wiwer in the forest-cave, Kuhn's Westf. sag. 1, 123. The rauhe (shaggy) woman appears in the wood at midnight, Wolfdietr. 307-8 (Hpt's Ztschr. 4); the mother of Fasolt and Ecke was a rauhes weib (p. 483). Zander's Tanh. pp. 7. 17 speaks of wald-schälklein Cupido. Does Widukind, a very uncommon name, mean wood-child? conf. Widukindes speckia, Lünzel 22. 25.

                p. 433n.) Weaving maids in Od. 13, 107. Fountain-nymphs, daughters of Zeus, are worshipped by Odysseus and in Ithaca 13, 356. 17, 240; a part of the sacrifice is laid by for them 14, 435. bwhoj numfawn 17, 210.

                p. 434n.) The reluctance of Proteus is also in Virg. Georg. 4, 388-342; the same of Vertumnus, Ov. Met. 14, 642 seq. Propert. iv. 2.

                p. 435.) Ez ne sint merminne niet, En. 240, 4. ein wîse merminne, Lanz. 193. 5767. 3585. 6195. als êne merminne singhen, Rose 7896. A captive merwoman prophesies ruin to the country as far inland as she is dragged, Firmen. 1, 23. Müllenh. p. 338. Queen Dagmar hears the prophecy of a hav-fru, D.V. 2, 83-85 (in which occurs the adage: vedst du det, saa vedst du mer). The mermaid of Padstow, exasperated by a shot, curses the harbour, and it is choked up with sand. For Melusine the common people say mere Lusine. Danish songs have maremind and mareqvinde. 'waltminne = lamia,' Gl. florian. Fundgr. 1, 396. waltminna = echo (p. 452), lamia,' Graff 2, 774. widuminna, Cassel ortsn. p. 22.

                p. 436.) The víla builds her castle in the clouds, her daughter Munya (lightning) plays with her brothers the two Thunders, Vuk nov. ed. 1, 151-2. She sits in ash-trees and on rocks, singing songs; talks with the stag in the forest; bestows gifts, and is a physician (p. 1148), Vuk 151. 149n., no. 114. 158. She resembles the devil too; holds night-dance on the hill (Vuk sub v. vrzino kolo), teaches pupils to lead clouds and make storms, detains the last man. The vilas are likest the white ladies (Suppl. to 968). With kliktati conf. Lith. 'ulbauya volunge,' the woodpecker whines, and MS. 2, 94b: 'ir klokent als umbe ein fûlen boum ein speht,' as woodpecker about a plumtree.

 

END OF VOL. I.

 

ENDNOTES:

 

                1. Philander of Sittewald 2, 727, Soldatenl. p. 241, still mentions the practice of time of danger 'of commending oneself' to the loved one's grace and favour'.

                2. Freolicu meowle = ides, Cod. exon. 479, 2. 'Weras and idesa,' or 'eorlas and idesa' are contrasted, ibid. 176, 5. 432, 2.

                3. Here the local meaning coincides with the personal; we may therefore compare Magadaburg with Idisaburg, Idisoburg, and Islant with Itislant, Itisolant. The Frankish Dispargum on the contrary seems not to be Idisberg, but Tiesberg, fanum Martis (Herm. Müller, Salic law, p. 33-4).

                4. I find Waladericus in Trad. corb. p. 364, § 213; a wild woman is called in Wolfdieterich 514 'die wilde waldin,' and 735 'diu übel walledein'; but this seems a corruption of vâlandinne, she-devil.

                5. A similar tale about Alexander Severus: Mulier Druias eunti exclamavit Gallico sermone, 'vadas, nec victoriam speres, nec to militi tuo credas!' Ael. Lampridius in Alex. Sev. cap. 60. And Attila at the passage of the Lech is said to have been scared away by a rune-maiden calling out three times 'back, Attila!' Paul of Stetten's Erl. aus der gesch. Augsburgs, p. 25. Of still more weight is the agreement of an ON. tradition in Saxo Gram. p. 15: 'Hadingum (our mythic Harding, Hartung) obvia femina hac voce compellat:  Seu pede rura teras, seu ponto carbasa tendas,  infestos patiere deos, totumque per orbem  propositis inimica tuis elementa videbis.

                6. It throws some light on the meaning of -rûn, that in AS. also burgrûna or burgrûnan stands for parcae and furiae (Lye sub v., and Gl. épinal. 617).

                7. Nürnberg (mons Noricus) has nothing to do with it, it is no very old town either (in Böhmers regest. first in 1050, no. 1607; conf. MB. 29, 102). In the fields of Dauernheim near Nidda is a well called Nörnborn, Nornborn, and its spring is said to flow only when there is war. But I should like to see the name authenticated by an old document. The AS. gen. pl. neorxena, which only occurs in 'neorxena wong' = paradisus, has been proposed, but the abbreviation would be something unheard of, and even the nom. sing. neorxe or neorxu at variance with norn; besides, the Parcae are nowhere found connected with paradise. May we trace norn to niosan (sternutare), whose past part. is in OHG. noran, MHG. norn, because of the prophetic virtue there is in sneezing (ch. XXXV)? But the special meaning in this verb [conn. with nose] seems older than any such general meaning, and its ON. form hniosa stands opposed.

                8. 'Fatum dicunt esse quicquid dii effantur. Fatum igitur dictum a fando, i.e., loquendo. Tria autem fata finguntur in colo, in fuso, digitisque fila ex lana torquentibus, propter trina tempora: praeteritum, quod in fuso jam netum atque involutum est, praesens, quod inter digitos nentis trahitur, futurum in lana quae colo implicata est, et quod adhuc per digitos nentis ad fusum tanquam praesens ad praeteritum trajiciendum est,' Isidori etym. 8, 11 § 92. a passage pretty extensively circulated in the Mid. Ages (v. Gl. Jun. 398), yet no proof of the Teutonic notion being borrowed from the classical. In § 93 Isidore adds: 'quas (parcas) tres esse voluerunt, unam quae vitam hominis ordiatur, alteram quae contexat, tertiam quae rumpat.'

                9. MHG. 'er hât den tôt an der hant,' Reinh. 1480. 1806. Nib. 1480, 4. Morolt. 29b. Dietr. 29ª. Pf. Chuonrât 3860. Karl 52ª.

                10. With D, not Th, because the pret. of weorðan is wearð, pl. wurdon, which supports the derivation I proposed; so the OHG. Wurt, because werdan has pret. pl. wurtum.

                11. So I read for the 'forsweof' of the editions, conf. forswâpen, Cædm. 25, 9.

                12. Conf. note to Elene p. 161, on a similar use of the MHG. schrîben, and Klausen in Zeitschr. für alterth. 1840 p. 226 on the Roman notion of the Parcae keeping a written record. N. Cap. 50. 55. renders parca by brievara, the recorder. Tertullian, De anima cap. 39, informs us that on the last day of the first week of a child's life they used to pray to the fata Scribunda. Fleming 479 calls the three Fates 'des verhängnis schreiberinnen'.

                13. Fornald. sög. 1, 32 Skuld, daughter of an âlfkona; also in Saxo Gram. p. 31, Sculda, n. prop.

                14. Conf. Jamieson sub v. weird (weerd, weard). Chaucer already substitutes fatal sustrin for weirdsysters (Troil. 3, 733. Leg. of gd. wom. 2619). In Engl. dictionaries we find wayward sisters explained by parcae and furiae; wardsisters would create no difficulty, but wayward means capricious, and was once waywarden, in which the warden suggests the Dan. vorren, vorn (Gramm. 2, 675). What AS. form can there be at the bottom of it? [wá = woe is the usual etym.]

                15. This brunnr deserves attention, for the wayfaring wives and fays of the Mid. Ages also appear habitually at fountains, as the muses and goddesses of song hanted the same, and particular goddesses, esp. Holda, loved wells and springs (p. 268). Altogether it is hard often to tell which dame Holda resembles more, an ancient goddess or a wise-woman.

                16. Conf. AS. wyrda gesceaft, Cædm. 224, 6. wyrda gesceapu, Cod. exon. 420, 25. OS. wurdhgiscapu (decreta fati), Hel. 113, 7; and the OHG. term scephentâ, MHG. schepfe (Ottoc. 119b) and schepfer; the poet, also a vates, was in OHG. scuof, OS. scôp, from the same root. The AS. word metten I connect with metod (creator, see p. 22). In Boëth. p. 101 (Rawlinson) a varia lectio has 'þâ graman mettena,' the unkind fates; the 'metodo giscapu' in Hel. 66, 19. 67, 11 answer to those 'wyrda gesceapu.' and the gen. plurals 'metodo, wyrda' imply that not one creator, but several are spoken of. Vintler calls them 'diernen, die dem menschen erteilen,' maids that dole out to man.

                17. Conf. nipt Nara, Egilssaga p. 440.

                18. I have elsewhere shown in detail, that the journeying house-visiting Muse dame Aventiure is an inspiring and prophetic norn, and agrees to a feature with the ancient conception; see my Kleine schriften 1, 102.

                19. Nigellus Wirekere, in his Speculum stultorum (comp. about 1200), relates a fable (exemplum):

                Ibant tres hominum curas relevare sorores,  quas nos fatales dicimus esse deas.  They travel through the land, to remedy the oversights of nature. Two of the sisters, soft-  hearted and impulsive, want to rush in and help at the first appearance of distress, but are  restrained by the third and more intelligent one, whom they address as domina, and revere  as a higher power. First they fall in with a beautiful noble maiden, who has all good things  at her command, and yet complains; she is not helped, for she can help herself. Then they  find in the forest a modest maid laid up in bed, because sore feet and hips hinder her from  walking; she too obtains no help from the goddesses; excellently endowed in mind and  body, she must bear her misfortune patiently. At last in the neighbourhood of a town the  sisters come upon a poor rough peasant lass:  Exiit in bivium ventrem purgare puella  rustica, nil reverens inverecunda deas,  vestibus elatis retro nimiumque rejectis,  poplite deflexo crure resedit humi,  una manus foenum, panis tenet altera frustum;  this one, at the suggestion of the third sister, when the first two have turned away, is  heaped with the gifts of fortune by the goddesses:  Haec mea multotiens genitrix narrow solebat,  cujus me certe non meminisse pudet.

                20. From legan (to lay down, constituere), like the AS. lage, ON. lög (lex); therefore urlac, fundamental law. The forms urlouc, urliuge have significantly been twisted round to the root liugan, louc (celare).

                21. Conf. nata, née; amata, aimée; lata, lée. Some MHG. poets say feie (Hartm. Wolfr.), sine feie, Haupt's zeitschr. 2, 182-3, others feine (Gotfr. Conr.).

                22. OFr. poems call them, in addition to fées, divesses (Marie deFrench 2, 385), duesses (Méon 4, 158. 165). duesse and fée (Wolf, lais 51); puceles bien eurées (Méon 3, 418), franches puceles senées (3, 419); sapaudes (wise-women, from sapere?), Marie de French 2, 385. Enchanting beauty is ascribed to them all: 'plus bela que fada,' Ferabras 2767; conf. 16434. A book of H. Schreiber (Die feen in Europa, Freib. 1842) throws much light on the antiquities of fay-worship. Houses, castles and hills of the fays remind us of the wise-women's towers, of the Venus-hill and Holla-hill, and of giant's houses. In Irish, siabrog, sighbrog, is first a fays' house, then the fay community.

                23. Accordingly I do not derive fata from fatij (speech), or fatoj spoken, though the Latin verb is of course the same word as fhmi. Conf. Ducange sub v. Fadus, and Lobeck's Aglaoph. 816. Fatuus and fatua are also connected.

                24. Lersch in the Bonner jb. 1843. 2, 129-131 seperates the three parcae from the three fata, because in sculptures they have different adjuncts: the Roman parcae are represented writing (p. 406), the Grecian moirai weaving, the tria fata simply as women with horns of plenty. But almost everything in the doctrine of fays points to a common nature with our idises and norns, and works of art fall into the background before the fulness of literature.

                25. La fata in Guerino meschino p. m. 223, 234-8; Morganda fatata, fata Morgana, Morghe la fee (Nouv. Renart 4810); 'diu frouwe de la rosche bîse (black rock), die gesach nieman, er schiede dan vrô, riche unde wîse,' whom none saw but he went away glad, rich and wise, Ben. 144. MsH. 1, 118ª. Monnier's Culte des esprits dans la Séquanie tells of a fée Arie in Franchecomté, who appears at country (esp. harvest) feasts, and rewards diligent spinners; she makes the fruit fall off the trees for good children, and distributes nuts and cakes to them at Christmas, just like Holda and Berhta. I believe her to be identical with the Welsh Arianrod, daughter of Don and sister of Gwydion (Woden), in Croker 3, 195; her name contains arian (argentum), so that she is a shining one, and it is also used of the milky way. A jeu composed in the latter half of the 13th century by Adam de la Halle of Arras (publ. in Théatre franc. au moyen âge. Paris 1839, p. 55 seq.) gives a pretty full account of dame Morgue et sa compaignie. They are beautiful women (beles dames parées), who at a fixed time of the year seek a night's lodging at a house, where dishes are set on the table for them; men that look on must not speak a word. *** Beside Morgue la sage [Morgue the (she) wise] there appear (p. 76-7) two other fays, Arsile and Maglore, and the last, on sitting down , notices that no knife has been laid for her, while the others praise the beauty of theirs. Maglore cries out in anger: 'Suije li pire? peu me prisa qui estavli, ni avisa que toute seule a coutel faille'. [Am I the worse? He little appreciates me, who decided ("estavli" translated as "establi") and did not recognized that me only misses a knife?]   Arsile tries to pacify her, and says, it is fitting that we give a present to those who have arranged this place so prettily. Morgue endows one with riches, Arsile with the poetic art, but Maglore says:

De mi certes naront il nient: [From me certainly will they get nothing: ]

bien doivent falir a don bel, [certainly must miss a favorable gift]

puisque jai fali a coutel  [since I missed a knife]

honni soit qui riens leur donra! [cursed be these that will give nothing!]

Morgue however insisting on a gift, Maglore bestows on one fellow a bald head, and on the other a calamitous journey:

ains comperront chier le coutel [rather they will pay dearly the knife]

qu'il ouvlierent chi a metre.  [that they forgot here to put.]

Then before daybreak the fays depart to a meadow, their place of meeting, for they shun to meet the eyes of men by day. Here we see plainly enought the close resemblance of these three fays to the three norns. The French editor wrongly understands coutel of a cloth spread for the fay; the passage in Burchard of Worms removes all doubt. If  Maglore be a corruption of Mandaglore, Mandagloire, as the mandragora is elsewhere  called, a close connexion may be established with Alrûne, Ölrûn. Morgue is shortened  from Morgan, which is the Breton for merwoman (from mor, the sea, and gwen, splendens femina (splendid woman]). One might be tempted to connect Morgan with that inexplicable 'norn,' as the ON. morni stands for morgni; but the norn has nothing to do with the morning or the sea

(see Suppl.).  

                26. H. Schreiber, Feen in Europa pp. 11. 12. 16. 17. Michelet 2, 17.

                27. I think aisa is the OHG. êra, our ehre, for which we should expect a Gothic áiza, áisa (as áistan is aestimare): êra = honor, decus, dignitas, what is fair and fitting, what is any one's due; kat aisan, ex dignitate, to each his meed. If this etymology holds, we understand why frau Ere was personified (see Suppl.).

                28. The Hymn to Mercury 550-561 names individually some other moirai, still three in number, winged maidens dwelling on Parnassus, their heads besprinkled with white meal, who prophesy when they have eaten fresh divine food (hdeian edwdhn) of honey. Otherwise they are called qriai.

                29. Apollodorus i. 8, 2.

                30. Altd. wh. 1, 107-8-9-10. Norske eventyr no. 13. Rob. Chambers p. 54-5. Müllenhoff's Schleswigh. s. p. 410. Pentamer. 4, 4.

                31. Jul. Schmidt, Reichenfels p. 140.

                32. They had a temple then, in which their oracle was consulted.

                33. The ettish Laima, at the birth of a child, lays the sheet under it, and determines its fortune. And on other occasions in life they say, 'taip Laima leme,' so Fate ordained it; no doubt Laima is closely connected with lemti (ordinare, disponere). She runs barefooted over the hills (see ch. XVII, Watersprites). There is also mentioned a Dehkla (nursing-mother, from deht to suckle). A trinity of parcae, and their spinning a thread, are unknown to the Lettons; conf. Stender's Gramm. p. 264. Rhesas dainos pp. 272. 309. 310.

The Lithuanians do know a Werpeya (spinner). The Ausland for 1839, no. 278 has a pretty Lithuanian legend: The dieves valditoyes were seven goddesses, the first one spun the lives of men out of a distaff given her by the highest god, the second set up the warp, the third wove in the woof, the fourth told tales to tempt the workers to leave off, for a cessation of labour spoilt the web, the fifth exhorted them to industry, and added length to the life, the sixth cut the threads, the seventh washed the garment and gave it to the most high god, and it became the man's winding-sheet. Of the seven, only three spin or weave.

                34. Not a few times have Holda and Berhta passed into Mary; and in the three Marys of a Swiss nursery-rhyme I think I can recognise the heathen norns or idisî:

rite, rite rösli,

ride, ride a-cock horse, 

ze Bade stot e schlössli,

 at Baden stands a little castle, 

ze Bade stot e güldi hus,

at Baden stands a golden house, 

es lüeged drei Mareie drus,

There look three Marys out of it: 

die eint spinnt side, 

 the one spins silk, 

die ander schnätzelt chride,

the other cards .

?  die drit schnit haberstrau. 

the third cuts oaten straw.

 bhüet mer Gott mis chindli au!

 God keep my childie too!

Schnätzeln is,

I suppose, to wind? [snast = wick? snood?

 

                In the märchen of the Goose-  maid, schnatzen is apparently to comb]. The seventh line sometimes runs: di dritte  schneidt den faden (cuts the thread). Conf. Vonbun p. 66. Firmenich 2, 665b.  Mannhardt pp. 388. 392. The nursery-song in the Wunderhorn p. 70-1 has three spinning  tocken, i.e., nymphs, fays.

                35. Lersch in the Bonn Annual 1843, pp. 124-7.

                36. Chief passage, Sæm. 141ª. Conf. Gramm. 4, 608, and AS. wîg curon, Cædm. 193, 9; MHG. sige kiesen, Iw. 7969, sig erkiesen, Wh. 355, 15. So, den tôt kiesen.

                37. Of valr, wal itself we might seek the root in velja, valjan (eligere), so that it should from the first have contained the notion of choosing, but being applied to strages, and its sense getting blurred, it had to be helped out by a second verb of the same meaning. Our Tit. 105, 4 has a striking juxtaposition: 'Sigûn din sigehaft ûf dem wal, da man welt magede kiusche und ir süeze'. It is only in Dietr. 91b and Rab. 536. 635. 811. 850. 923 that welrecke occurs; can it have any relationship to walküre?

                38. Oðinn has Frigg, the valkyrjur and the ravens in the waggon with him, Sn. 66. For valkyrja I also find the name skörûngr, derivable either from skar superbia, or skari agmen. Brynhildr is called in Völs. saga cap. 24 'mestr skörûngr' (see Suppl.).

                39. H. Schreiber pp. 20. 21.

                40. I like also Schreiber's derivation, pp. 65-67, of the name Nehaea, Nehalennia (supra p. 257) from the root nere, neza to spin.

                41. So, in a Faröese song, Valvfrygv 'Finn Magn. lex. p. 805).

                42. The taking possession of souls at the moment of death by Oðinn and Freyja, or by their messengers the valkyrs, appear to me so deep-rooted a feature of our heathenism, that we may well find it lingering even in christian traditions. Of this sort is the scramble of angels and devils for the soul, described in the poem Muspilli, which Schmeller has hunted up, Georg 1235-44. 6082-86, and Méon 1, 239. 4, 114-5; and a striking passage in the Morolt I shall quote in ch. XVII. Will any one think of tracing this idea to the Epistle of Jude 9, or the apocryphal Book of Enoch?

                43. Unpublished passages in the skâlds supply 29 or 30 names (Finn Magn. lex. p. 803).

                44. Andr. and El. p. xxvi. xxvii. Conf. Luke 17, 37: opou to swma, ekei sunacqhsontai kai oi aetoi.

                45. The Trad. fuld., in Schannat no. 443, have preserved the name, well suited to a valkyr, of Themarhilt (from dëmar, crepusculum).

                46. Deutsche heldensage p. 327 seq. Conf. supra p. 285, on Hilde and Hildburg.

                47. Some people think Gerdrut, Gerdraut, an unchristian name. Frau Trude (Kinderm. 43).

                48. Flögel, gesch. des groteskekom. p. 23.

                49. Pompon. Mela 3, 8: 'Oraculi numinis Gallici antistites, perpetua virginitate sanctae, numero novem esse traduntur. Gallicenas vocant, putantque ingeniis singularibus praeditas maria ac ventos concitare, seque in quae velint animalia vertere, sanare quae apud alios insanabilia sunt, scire ventura et praedicare, sed non nisi deditas navigantibus, et in id tantum ut se consulerent profectas [l. profectis ?]'. The similarity of these nine sooth-telling gallicenae is unmistakable. Some read Galli Cenas, others Barrigenas, conf. Tzschucke, Not. crit. pp. 159-163.

                50. N.B. against Oðin's will, who could therefore be outwitted: destiny stood above the god.

                51. On p. 406 we saw wise-women represented as acquainted with writing, and as actually writing; it will be for similar reasons that valkyrs embroider and paint. The Völs. saga cap. 24 says of Brynhild: 'hun sat î einni skemmu við meyjar sînar, hun kunni meira hagleik enn aðrar konur, hun lagði sinn borða með gulli, ok saumaði â þau stôrmerki, er Sigurðr hafði giört'. And in this chamber Sigurð comes to her. I place beside this the opening lines of a Swedish song:  Sven Färling han rider till jungfruns gård,  som stickade på silket det hvita.  And this hero is identical with Sigurð.

                52. So at least we may understand 'vindum, vindum vef Darraðar,' even if the name and the whole story first arose out of a 'vef darraðar,' web of the dart, conf. AS. deoreð (jaculum). We know that the Sturlûngasaga contains a very similar narrative.

                53. Il. 8, 70. 9, 411. 18, 535-540. 22, 210. 23, 79. 24, 82.

                54. Es schwant mir, it swans me = I have a boding. The reference to the bird seems undeniable, for we also say in the same sense: es wachsen (there grow) mir schwansfedern' (so already in Zesen's Simson). Conf. the Eddic 'svanfiaðrar drô (wore)'.

                55. Rafn has chosen the reading Lara.

                56. Musæus, Volksmärchen vol. 3: The stolen veil.

                57. There is a plant named, I suppose, from this Sigelint; Sumerl. 22, 28 (conf. 23, 19) has cigelinta fel draconis, and 53, 48 cigelinde; Graff 6, 145 has sigeline; see Sigel, Siglander in Schm. 3, 214.

                58. Kinderm. no. 49. Deutsche sagen 2, 292-5. Adalb. Kuhn p. 164, the swan-chain.

                59. Conf. Deutsche sagen no. 540: 'the Schwanrings of Plesse,' who carry a swan's wing and ring on their scutcheon. A doc. of 1441 (Wolf's Nörten no. 48) names a Johannes Swaneflügel, decretorum doctor, decanus ecclesiae majoris Hildesemensis. In a pamphlet of 1617 occurs the phrase: 'to tear the ring and mask off this pseudonym.'

                60. Gottschalk's Sagen, Halle 1814, p. 227.

                61. The pentagram was a Pythagorean symbol, but also a Druidic; as it goes by the name elf's foot, elf's cross, goblin-foot, and resembles a pair of goosefeet or swan-feet, semi-divine and elvish beings are again brought together in this emblem; the valkyr Thruð is next door to a swan-maiden, and Staufenberger's lover likewise had such a foot.

                62. The beautiful story of the Good Woman, publ. in Haupt's zeitschr. 2, 350, is very acceptable as shewing yet another way in which this fairy being got linked with the hero-legend of the Karlings. The two children born on one day at paske flourie, and brought up in mutual love (77-87), are clearly identical with Flore and Blanchefleur, for these also are not real names, but invented in fairy-tale fashion, to suit the name of their daughter Berhta, the bright, white. Berhta marries Pepin, and gives birth to Charlemagne; in the Garin le Loherain, Pepin's wife is said to be Blanchefleur of Moriane, but in the story now in question she is the unnamed daughter of count Ruprecht of Barria (Robert of Berry), spoken of simply as diu guote frouwe (162. 1130), diu guote (1575), la bone dame (3022), conf. bonadea. bonasocia, p. 283; her husband, who steps into the place of the childless last king (Merovingian), is Karelman (3020), and the only name that can suit herself is Berte, already contained in that of her father Ruodbert. The children of this pair are 'Pippîn der kleine (little)' and 'Karle der mêrre (greater)'. The events in the middle part of the story are quite other (more fully unfolded, if not more pleasing) than those told of Flore and Blanchefleur; but we plainly perceive how on the new Karling race in the freshness of its bloom were grafted older heathen myths of the swan-wife, of the good wife (p. 253), of the mild woman (p. 280), of the bona socia (p. 283), and of the bonne dame (p. 287); Conf. Sommer's pref. to Flore xxvi. xxvii. xxxii.

                63. In the Wallachian märchen 201, three wood-wives bathing have their crowns taken from them.

                64. Sedete bellonae, descendite ad terram, nolite in silvam volare! Tam memores estote fortunae meae, quam est hominum quilibet cibi atque patriae.

                65. Three other nymphs appear directly after, and prepare enchanted food for Balder with the spittle of snakes, p. 43. A 'femina silvestris et immanis' is also mentioned by Saxo p. 125.

                66. Deutsche sagen no. 150.

                67. Called Troje, conf. Ecke 81; and Elsentroje, Deutsche heldensaga 198. 211 (see Suppl.).

                68. In the Wolfdietr. (Dresd. MS. 290-7), twelve goddesses go to a mountain, fetch the hero to them, and tend him; the loveliest wants him for a husband. These beings are more wise-women than elfins.

                69. As the Caritej (Graces) and fays spin and weave, so do the wild women also: 'mit wilder wîbe henden geworht,' Ulr. Lanz. 4826; peploj on caritej lamon autai, Il. 5, 338 (see Suppl.).

                70. Marmennill is extremely like the Greek Proteus, who is also reluctant at first to prophesy, Od. 4, 385 seq. There may have been Proteus-like stories current of our Baldander and Vilander, p. 172 (see Suppl.).

                71. Yet merfeine occurs already in Diut. 1, 38; wazzerfeine (Oberl. sub v.), and even merfein, MS. 2, 63ª.

                72. Deutsche heldensage pp. 185. 200-1.

                73. A Leyden parchm. MS. of the 13th century contains the following legend of Charles the Great: Aquisgrani dicitur Ays (Aix), et dicitur eo quod Karolus tenebat ibi quandam mulierem fatatam, sive quandam fatam, que alio nomine nimpha vel dea vel adriades (l. dryas) appellatur, et ad hanc consuetudinem habebat et eam cognoscebat, et ita erat, quod ipso accedente ad eam vivebat ipsa, ipso Karolo recedente moriebatur. Contigit, dum quadam vice ad ipsam accessisset et cum ea delectaretur, radius solis intravit os ejus, et tunc Karolus vidit granum auri linguae ejus affixum, quod fecit absindi, et contingenti (l. in continenti) mortua est, nec postea revixit. The grain of gold, on which the spell hung, is evidently to explain the name of the city: later tradition (Petarcha epist. fam. 1, 3. Aretin's legend of Charlem. p. 89) has instead of it a ring, which archbishop Turpin removes from the mouth of the corpse, and throws into a lake near Aachen; this lake then attracts the king, and that is why he made the town his favourite residence. There is no further mention of the maiden's fairy existence. It was a popular belief (applied to the Frankish king and gradually distorted) about the union of a wild-woman or mermaid with a christian hero. Not very differently was Charles's ancestress Berhta, as we saw above (p. 430), made into a 'good woman,' i.e., a fay. [The similarity of names in the heroic line: Pepin of Herstal, Charles Martel, Pepin the Little, Charles the Great, seems to have made it doubtful whether Berhta was Charlemagne's mother or his great-grandmother.]

                74. The Bohem. sudice translates paraca, but it simply means judge (fem.): the Russians even adopt the word parka. We must at least notice the lichoplezi in Hanka's Glosses 21ª, who are said to be three, like the sirens and mermaids.

                75. The Bulgarian samodíva or samovíla corresponds to the Servian vila. When the wounded Pomák cries to his 'sister' samodíva, she comes and cures him. The samodívy carry off children; and mischief wrought by the elements, by storms, &c., is ascribed to them. Like the Fates, they begift the newborn: three samodívy visit the infant Jesus, one sews him a shirt, another knits him a band, and the third trims a cap for him. Some stories about them closely resemble those of the swan-maids. Stoyán finds three samodívy bathing, removes their clothes, restores those of the two eldest, but takes the youngest (Maríyka) home, and marries her. St. John christens her first child, and asks her to dance as do the samodívy. But she cannot without her 'samodívski drékhi,' Stoyán produces them, she flies away, bathes in the móminski fountain, and recovers her móminstvo (virginity).

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Chapter 17: