78.
THE PLACES OF PUNISHMENT (continued).
LOKE'S CAVE OF PUNISHMENT.
GYLFAGINNING'S CONFOUNDING OF MUSPEL'S SONS WITH THE SONS OF
SUTTUNG.
Saxo (Hist. Dan., 429 ff.) relates that the experienced Captain Thorkil made, at the command of King Gorm, a second journey to the uttermost North, in order to complete the knowledge which was gained on the first journey. That part of the lower world where Loke (by Saxo called Ugartilocus) dwells had not then been seen. This now remained to be done. Like the first time, Thorkil sailed into that sea on which sun and stars never shine, and he kept cruising so long in its darkness that his supply of fuel gave out. The expedition was as a consequence on the point of failing, when a fire was suddenly seen in the distance. Thorkil then entered a boat with a few of his men and rowed thither. In order to find his way back to his ship in the darkness, he had placed in the mast-top a self-luminous precious stone, which he had taken with him on the journey. Guided by the light, Thorkil came to a strand-rock, in which there were narrow "gaps" (fauces), out of which the light came. There was also a door, and Thorkil entered, after requesting his men to remain outside.
THE PUNISHMENT OF LOKE
(From the painting by M. E. Winge)Loke, in Norse Mythology, was the god of destruction and of evil. His father was the giant Farbauti, and his mother was Laufey (Leafy Isle), so that he had two natures and was therefore both friend and enemy of the gods. For his many evil deeds he was finally seized and bound by the gods with chains in a loathsome cave. As a further punishment there was set above him a poisonous serpent that drooled venom upon his face that burned like fire. To save him from this torture his faithful wife, Sygn, shared his captivity and held a bowl to catch the dripping poison until Loke was freed at Ragnarok, when he and Heimdal fought and slew each other. He had the further distinction of being handsomest of the male deities.
Thorkil found a grotto. At the fire which was kindled stood two uncommonly tall men, who kept mending the fire. The grotto had an inner door or gate, and that which was seen inside that gate is described by Saxo in almost the same words as those of his former description of the hall at the Nastrands (obsoleti postes, ater situ paries, sordidum tectum, frequens anguibus pavimentum). Thorkil in reality sees the same hall again; he had simply come to it from another side, from the north, where the hall has its door opening toward the strand (nordr horfa dyrr - Völuspa), the pillars of which, according to Saxo's previous description, are covered with the soot of ages. The soot is now explained by the fire which is kindled in the grotto outside the hall, the grotto forming as it were a vestibule. The two gigantic persons who mend the fire are called by Saxo aquili.
In Marcianus Capella, who is Saxo's model in regard to style and vocabulary, persons of semi-divine rank (hemithei) are mentioned who are called aquili, and who inhabit the same regions as the souls of the dead (lares and larvœ - Marc. Cap., i., ii. Compare P. E, Müller, not., Hist. Dan., pp. 68, 69). Aquilus also has the signification, dark, swarthy, Icel. dökkr.
In the northern mythology a particular kind of elves are mentioned - black or swarthy elves, dökkálfar. They dwell under the farthest root of the world-tree, near the northern gate of the lower world (iormungrundar i iodyr nyrdra), and have as their neighbours the Thurses and the unhappy dead (náir - Forspjallsljod, 25). Gylfaginning also (ch. 17) knows of the swarthy elves, at least, that they "dwell down in the earth" (búa nidri í jördu). As to mythic rank, colour, and abode, they therefore correspond with the Roman aquili, and Saxo has forcibly and very correctly employed this Latin word in order to characterise them in an intelligible manner.
The two swarthy elves keeping watch outside of the hail of Nastrands ought naturally to have been astonished at seeing a living human being entering their grotto. Saxo makes them receive the unexpected guest in a friendly manner. They greet him, and, when they have learned the purpose of his visit, one of them reproaches him for the rash boldness of his undertaking, but gives him information in regard to the way to Loke, and gives him fire and fuel after he had tested Thorkil's understanding, and found him to be a wise man. The journey, says the swarthy elf, can be performed in four days' fast sailing. As appears from the context, the journey is to the east. The traveller then comes to a place where not a blade of grass grows, and over which an even denser darkness broods. The place includes several terrible rocky halls, and in one of them Loke dwells.
On the fourth day Thorkil, favoured by a good wind, comes to the goal of his journey. Through the darkness a mass of rock rising from the sea (scopulum inusitatœ molis) is with difficulty discerned, and Thorkil lays to by this rocky island. He and his men put on clothes of skin of a kind that protects against venom, and then walk along the beach at the foot of the rock until they find an entrance. Then they kindle a fire with flint stones, this being an excellent protection against demons; they light torches and crawl in through the narrow opening. Unfortunately Saxo gives but a scanty account of what they saw there. First they came to a cave of torture, which resembled the hall on the Nastrands, at least, in this particular, that there were many serpents and many iron seats or iron benches of the kind described above. A brook of sluggish water is crossed by wading. Another grotto which is not described was passed through, whereupon they entered Loke's awful prison. He lay there bound hands and feet with immense chains. His hair and beard resembled spears of horn, and had a terrible odour. Thorkil jerked out a hair of his beard to take with him as evidence of what he had seen. As he did this, there was diffused in the cave a pestilential stench; and after Thorkil's arrival home, it appeared that the beard-hair he had taken home was dangerous to life on account of its odour (Hist. Dan., 433). When Thorkil and his men had passed out of the interior jurisdiction of the rock, they were discovered by flying serpents which had their home on the island (cp. Völuspa - thar saug Nidhöggr, etc., No. 77). The skin clothes protected them against the venom vomited forth. But one of the men who bared his eyes became blind. Another, whose hand came outside of the protecting garments, got it cut off; and a third, who ventured to uncover his head, got the latter separated from his neck by the poison as by a sharp steel instrument.
The poem or saga which was Saxo's authority for this story must have described the rocky island where Loke was put in chains as inhabited by many condemned beings. There are at least three caves of torture, and in one of them there are many iron benches. This is confirmed, as we shall see, by Völuspa.
Saxo also says that there was a harbour. From Völuspa we learn that when Ygdrasil trembles at the approach of Ragnarok, the ship of the dead, Nagelfar, lies so that the liberated Loke can go aboard it. That it has long lain moored in its harbour is evident from the fact that, according to Völuspa, it then "becomes loose." Unknown hands are its builders. The material out of which it is constructed is the nail-parings of dead men (Gylfag., 51 - probably according to some popular tradition). The less regard for religion, the less respect for the dead. But from each person who is left unburied, or is put into his grave without being, when possible, washed, combed, cleaned as to hands and feet, and so cared for that his appearance may be a favourable evidence to the judges at the Thing of the dead in regard to his survivors - from each such person comes building material for the death-ship, which is to carry the hosts of world-destroyers to the great conflict. Much building material is accumulated in the last days - in the "dagger-and-axe age," when "men no longer respect each other" (Völuspa).
Nagelfar is the largest of all ships, larger than Skidbladner (Skidbladner er beztr skipanna . . . en Nagelfar er mest skip - Gylfag., 43). This very fact shows that it is to have a large number of persons on board when it departs from Loke's rocky island. Völuspa says:
| Str. 47, 8. Nagelfar losnar, Str. 48. Kioll fer austan, koma muno Muspellz um laug lydir, en Loki styrir; fara Fifls megir |
Nagelfar becomes loose, a ship comes from the east, the hosts of Muspel come o'er the main, Loke is pilot; all Fifel's descendants |
| med Freka allir, theim er brodir Byleipts i fór. |
come with Freke, Byleipt's brother travels with them. |
Here it is expressly stated that "the hosts of Muspel" are on board the ship, Nagelfar, guided by Loke, after it has been "freed from its moorings" and had set sail from the island where Loke and other damned ones were imprisoned.
How can this be harmonised with the doctrine based on the authority of Gylfaginning, that the sons of Muspel are inhabitants of the southernmost region of light and warmth, Gylfaginning's so-called Muspelheim? or with the doctrine that Surt is the protector of the borders of this realm? or that Muspel's sons proceed under his command to the Ragnarok conflict, and that they consequently must come from the South, which Völuspa also seems to corroborate with the words Surtr ferr sunnan med sviga lœfi?
The answer is that the one statement cannot be harmonised with the other, and the question then arises as to which of the two authorities is the authentic one, the heathen poem Völuspa or Gylfaginning, produced in the thirteenth century by a man who had a vague conception of the mythology of our ancestors. Even the most uncritical partisan of Gylfaginning would certainly unhesitatingly decide in favour of Völuspa, provided we had this poem handed down in its pure form from the heathen days. But this is clearly not the case. We therefore need a third witness to decide between the two. Such an one is also actually to be found.
In the Norse heathen records the word muspell occurs only twice, viz., in the above-mentioned Völuspa strophe and in Lokasenna, 42, where Frey, who has surrendered his sword of victory, is threatened by Loke with the prospect of defeat and death - er Muspellz synir rida Myrcvith yfir, "when Muspel's sons ride over Darkwood." The Myrkwood is mentioned in Volundarkvida (1) as a forest, through which the swan-maids coming from the South flew into the wintry Ulfdales, where one chases bears on skees (snow-shoes) to get food. This is evidently not a forest situated near the primeval fountains of heat and fire. The very arbitrary manner in which the names of the mythical geography is used in the heroic poems, where Myrkwood comes to the surface, does not indicate that this forest was conceived as situated south of Midgard, and there is, as shall be shown below, reason for assuming that Darkwood is another name for the Ironwood famous in mythology; the wood which, according to Völuspa, is situated in the East, and in which Angerboda fosters the children of Loke and Fenrer.
One of these, and one of the worst, is the monster Hate, the enemy of the moon mentioned in Völuspa as tungls tiugari, that makes excursions from the Ironwood and "stains the citadels of rulers with blood." In the Ragnarok conflict Hate takes part and contends with Tyr (Gylfag.), and, doubtless, not only he, but also the whole offspring of the Fenris-wolf fostered in the Ironwood, are on the battlefield in that division which is commanded by Loke their clan-chief. This is also, doubtless, the meaning of the following words in the Völuspa strophe quoted above: "Fifel's descendants all come with Freke (the wolf), and in company with them is Byleipt's (or Byleist's) brother." As Loke, Byleipt, and Helblinde are mentioned as brothers (Gylfag., 33), no one else can be meant with "Byleipt's brother" than Loke himself or Helblinde, and more probably the latter, since it has already been stated, that Loke is there as the commander of the forces. Thus it is Muspel's sons and Loke's kinsmen in the Ironwood who are gathered around him when the great conflict is at hand. Muspel's sons accompany the liberated Loke from his rocky isle, and are with him on board Nagelfar. Loke's first destination is the Ironwood, whither he goes to fetch Angerboda's children, and thence the journey proceeds "over Myrkwood" to the plain of Vigrid. The statements of Völuspa and Lokasenna illustrate and corroborate each other, and it follows that Völuspa's statement, claiming that Muspel's sons come from the East, is original and correct.
Gylfaginning treats Muspel as a place, a realm, the original home of fire and heat (Gylfag., 5). Still, there is a lack of positiveness, for the land in question is in the same work called Múspellsheimr (ch. 5) and Múspells heimr (ch. 8), whence we may presume that the author regarded Múspell as meaning both the land of the fire and the fire itself. The true etymology of Múspell was probably as little known in the thirteenth century, when Gylfaginning was written, as it is now. I shall not speak of the several attempts made at conjecturing the definition of the word. They may all be regarded as abortive, mainly, doubtless, for the reason that Gylfaginning's statements have credulously been assumed as the basis of the investigation. As a word inherited from heathen times, it occurs under the forms mutspelli and muspilli in the Old Saxon poem Heliand and in an Old High German poem on the final judgment, and there it has the meaning of the Lord's day, the doom of condemnation, or the condemnation. Concerning the meaning which the word had among the heathens of the North, before the time of the authors of Völuspa and Lokasenna, all that can be said with certainty is, that the word in the expression "Muspel's sons" has had a special reference to mythical beings who are to appear in Ragnarok fighting there as Loke's allies, that is, on the side of the evil against the good; that these beings were Loke's fellow-prisoners on the rocky isle where he was chained; and that they accompanied him from there on board Nagelfar to war against the gods. As Gylfaginning makes them accompany Surt coming from the South, this must be the result of a confounding of "Muspel's sons" with "Surt's (Suttung's) sons."
A closer examination ought to have shown that Gylfaginning's conception of "Muspel's sons" is immensely at variance with the mythical. Under the influence of Christian ideas they are transformed into a sort of angels of light, who appear in Ragnarok to contend under the command of Surt "to conquer all the idols" (sigra öll godin - Gylfag. 4) and carry out the punishment of the world. While Völuspa makes them come with Loke in the ship Nagelfar, that is, from the terrible rocky isle in the sea over which eternal darkness broods, and while Lokasenna makes them come across the Darkwood, whose name does not suggest any region in the realm of light, Gylfaginning tells us that they are celestial beings. Idols and giants contend with each other on Vigrid's plains; then the heavens are suddenly rent in twain, and out of it ride in shining squadrons "Muspel's sons" and Surt, with his flaming sword, at the head of the fylkings. Gylfaginning is careful to keep these noble riders far away from every contact with that mob which Loke leads to the field of battle. It therefore expressly states that they form a fylking by themselves (I thessum gny Klofnar himininn, ok ridu thadan Muspells synir; Surtr ridr fyrstr, etc. . . . enn Muspells synir hafa einir sér fylking, er sá björt mjök - ch. 56). Thus they do not come to assist Loke, but to put an end to both the idols and the mob of giants. The old giant, Surt, who, according to a heathen skald, Eyvind Skaldaspiller, dwells in sökkdalir, in mountain grottos deep under the earth (see about him, No. 89), is in Gylfaginning first made the keeper of the borders of "Muspelheim," and then the chief of celestial hosts. But this is not the end of his promotion. In the text found in the Upsala Codex, Gylfaginning makes him lord in Gimle, and likewise the king of eternal bliss. After Ragnarok it is said, "there are many good abodes and many bad"; best it is to be in Gimle with Surt (margar ero vistar gothar og margar illar, bezt er at vera a Gimle medr surtr). The name Surt means black. We find that his dark looks did not prevent his promotion, and this has been carried to such a point that a mythologist who honestly believed in Gylfaginning saw in him the Almighty who is to come after the regeneration to equalise and harmonise all discord, and to found holy laws to prevail for ever.
Under such circumstances, it may be suggested as a rule of critical caution not to accept unconditionally Gylfaginning's statement that the world of light and heat which existed before the creation of the world was called Muspel or Muspelheim. In all probability, this is a result of the author's own reflections. At all events, it is certain that no other record has any knowledge of that name. But that the mythology presumed the existence of such a world follows already from the fact that Urd's fountain, which gives the warmth of life to the world-tree, must have had its deepest fountain there, just as Hvergelmer has its in the world of primeval cold, and Mimer has his fountain in that wisdom which unites the opposites and makes them work together in a cosmic world.
Accordingly, we must distinguish between Múspells megir, Múspells synir, from Surt's clan-men, who are called Surts œtt, synir Suttunga, Suttungs synir (Skirnismal, 34; Alvissm., 35). We should also remember that Múspell in connection with the words synir and megir hardly can mean a land, a realm, a region. The figure by which the inhabitants of a country are called its sons or descendants never occurs, so far as I know, in the oldest Norse literature.
In regard to the names of the points of the compass in the poetic Edda, nordan and austan, it must not be forgotten that the same northern regions in the mythical geography to which various events are referred must have been regarded by the Icelanders as lying to the east from their own northern isle. The Bjarmia ulterior, in whose night-shrouded waters mythical adventurers sought the gates to the lower world, lay in the uttermost North, and might still, from an Icelandic and also from a Norwegian standpoint, be designated as a land in the East. According to the sagas preserved by Saxo, these adventurers sailed into the Arctic Ocean, past the Norwegian coast, and eastward to a mythical Bjarmia, more distant than the real Bjarmaland. They could thus come to the coast where a gate to the lower world was to be found, and to the Nastrands, and if they continued this same course to the East, they could finally get to the rocky isle where Loke lay chained.
We have seen that Loke is not alone with Sigyn on that isle where in chains he abides Ragnarok. There were unhappy beings in large numbers with him. As already stated, Saxo speaks of three connected caves of torture there, and the innermost one is Loke's. Of the one nearest to it, Saxo tells nothing else than that one has to wade across a brook or river in order to get there. Of the bound Fenrer, Loke's son, it is said that from his mouth runs froth which forms the river Von (Gylfag., 34). In Lokasenna (34) Frey says to the abusive Loke: "A wolf (that is, Fenrer) I see lying at the mouth of the river until the forces of the world come in conflict; if you do not hold your tongue, you, villain, will be chained next to him" (thví nœst - an expression which here should be taken in a local sense, as a definite place is mentioned in the preceding sentence). And as we learn from Völuspa, that Freke (the wolf) is with Loke on board Nagelfar, then these evidences go to show that Loke and his son are chained in the same place. The isle where Fenrer was chained is called in Gylfaginning Lyngvi, and the body of water in which the isle is situated is called Amsvartnir, a suitable name of the sea, over which eternal darkness broods. On the isle, the probably Icelandic author of Völuspa (or its translator or compiler) has imagined a "grove," whose trees consist of jets of water springing from hot fountains (hvera lundr). The isle is guarded by Garmr, a giant-dog, who is to bark with all its might when the chains of Loke and Fenrer threaten to burst asunder:
| Geyr Garmr mjök fyr Gnipahelli Festr man slitna, en Freki renna. |
According to Grimnersmal, Garm is the foremost of all dogs. The dogs which guard the beautiful Menglod's citadel are also called Garms (Fjölsvinnsmal). In Gylfaginning, the word is also used in regard to a wolf, Hate Managarm. Gnipahellir means the cave of the precipitous rock. The adventures which Thorkil and his men encountered with the flying serpents, in connection with the watching Hel-dog, show that Lyngvi is the scene of demons of the same kind as those which are found around the Na-gates of Nifelheim.
Bound hands and feet with the entrails of a "frost-cold son" (Lokasenna, 49), which, after being placed on his limbs, are transformed into iron chains (Gyfag., 54), Loke lies on a weapon (a hiorvi - Lokasenna, 49), and under him are three flat stones placed on edge, one under his shoulders, one under his loins, and one under his hams (Gylfag., 54). Over him Skade, who is to take revenge for the murder of her father, suspends a serpent in such a manner that the venom drops in the face of the nithing. Sigyn, faithful to her wicked husband, sits sorrowing by his side (Völuspa) and protects him as well as she is able against the venom of the serpent (Postscript to Lokasenna, Gylfag., 54). Fenrer is fettered by the soft, silk-like chain Gleipner, made by the subterranean artist, and brought from the lower world by Hermod. It is the only chain that can hold him, and that cannot be broken before Ragnarok. His jaws are kept wide open with a sword (Gylfag., 35).
79.
THE GREAT WORLD-MILL. ITS MISTAKEN IDENTITY WITH THE FRODE-MILL.
We have yet to mention a place in the lower world which is of importance to the naive but, at the same time, perspicuous and imaginative cosmology of Teutonic heathendom. The myth in regard to the place in question is lost, but it has left scattered traces and marks, with the aid of which it is possible to restore its chief outlines.
Poems, from the heathen time, speak of two wonderful mills, a larger and a smaller "Grotte"-mill.
The larger one is simply immense. The storms and showers which lash the sides of the mountains and cause their disintegration; the breakers of the sea which attack the rocks on the strands, make them hollow, and cast the substance thus scooped out along the coast in the form of sand-banks; the whirlpools and currents of the ocean, and the still more powerful forces that were fancied by antiquity, and which smouldered the more brittle layers of the earth's solid crust, and scattered them as sand and mould over "the stones of the hall," in order that the ground might "be overgrown with green herbs" - all this was symbolised by the larger Grotte-mill. And as all symbols, in the same manner as the lightning which becomes Thor's hammer, in the mythology become epic-pragmatic realities, so this symbol becomes to the imagination a real mill, which operates deep down in the sea and causes the phenomena which it symbolises.
This greater mill was also called Grœdir, since its grist is the mould in which vegetation grows. This name was gradually transferred by the poets of the Christian age from the mill, which was grinding beneath the sea, to the sea itself.
The lesser Grotte-mill is like the greater one of heathen origin - Egil Skallagrimson mentions it- but it plays a more accidental part, and really belongs to the heroic poems connected with the mythology. Meanwhile, it is akin to the greater. Its stones come from the lower world, and were cast up thence for amusement by young giant-maids to the surface of the earth. A being called Hengikjöptr (the feminine Hengikepta is the name of a giantess - Sn. Edda, i. 551; ii. 471) makes mill-stones out of these subterranean rocks, and presents the mill to King Frode Fridleifson. Fate brings about that the same young giantesses, having gone to Svithiod to help the king warring there, Guthorm (see Nos. 38, 39), are taken prisoners and sold as slaves to King Frode, who makes them turn his Grotte-mill, the stones of which they recognise from their childhood. The giantesses, whose names are Fenja and Menja, grind on the mill gold and safety for King Frode, peace and good-will among men for his kingdom. But when Frode, hardened by greed for gold, refuses them the necessary rest from their toils, they grind fire and death upon him, and give the mill so great speed that the mill-stone breaks into pieces, and the foundation is crushed under its weight.
After the introduction of Christianity, the details of the myth concerning the greater, the cosmological mill, were forgotten, and there remained only the memory of the existence of such a mill on the bottom of the sea. The recollection of the lesser Grotte-mill was, on the other hand, at least in part preserved as to its details in a song which continued to flourish, and which was recorded in Skaldskaparmal.
Both mills were now regarded as identical, and there sprang up a tradition which explained how they could be so.
Contrary to the statements of the song, the tradition narrates that the mill did not break into pieces, but stood whole and perfect, when the curse of the giant-maids on Frode was fulfilled.
The night following the day when they had begun to grind misfortune on Frode, there came a sea-king, Mysing, and slew Frode, and took, among other booty, also the Grotte-mill and both the female slaves, and carried them on board his ship. Mysing commanded them to grind salt, and this they continued to do until the following midnight. Then they asked if he had not got enough, but he commanded them to continue grinding, and so they did until the ship shortly afterwards sank. In this manner the tradition explained how the mill came to stand on the bottom of the sea, and there the mill that had belonged to Frode acquired the qualities which originally had belonged to the vast Grotte-mill of the mythology. Skaldskaparmal, which relates this tradition as well as the song, without taking any notice of the discrepancies between them, adds that after Frode's mill had sunk, "there was produced a whirlpool in the sea, caused by the waters running through the hole in the mill-stone, and from that time the sea is salt."
80.
THE WORLD-MILL (continued).
With distinct consciousness of its symbolic signification, the greater mill is mentioned in a strophe by the skald Snæbjorn (Skaldskap., ch. 25). The strophe appears to have belonged to a poem describing a voyage. "It is said," we read in this strophe, "that Eyludr's nine women violently turn the Grotte of the skerry dangerous to man out near the edge of the earth, and that these women long ground Amlode's lid-grist."
| Hvat kveda hræra Grotta hergrimmastan skerja ut fyrir jardar skauti Eyludrs níu brúdir: thær er . . . fyrir laungu lid-meld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Amloda mólu. |
To the epithet Eyludr, and to the meaning of lid- in lid-grist, I shall return below. The strophe says that the mill is in motion out on the edge of the earth, that nine giant-maids turn it (for the lesser Grotte-mill two were more than sufficient), that they had long ground with it, that it belongs to a skerry very dangerous to seafaring men, and that it produces a peculiar grist.
The same mill is suggested by an episode in Saxo, where he relates the saga about the Danish prince, Amlethus, who on account of circumstances in his home was compelled to pretend to be insane. Young courtiers, who accompanied him on a walk along the sea-strand, showed him a sand-bank and said that it was meal. The prince said he knew this to be so: he said it was "meal from the mill of the storms" (Hist. Dan., 141).
The myth concerning the cosmic Grotte-mill was intimately connected partly with the myth concerning the fate of Ymer and the other primeval giants, and partly with that concerning Hvergelmer's fountain. Vafthrudnersmal (21) and Grimnersmal (40) tell us that the earth was made out of Ymer's flesh, the rocks out of his bones, and the sea from his blood. With earth is here meant, as distinguished from rocks, the mould, the sand, which cover the solid ground. Vafthrudnersmal calls Ymer Aurgelmir, Clay-gelmir or Moldgelmer; and Fjölsvinnsmal gives him the epithet Leirbrimir, Clay-brimir, which suggests that his "flesh" was changed into the loose earth, while his bones became rocks. Ymer's descendants, the primeval giants, Thrudgelmir and Bergelmer perished with him, and the "flesh" of their bodies cast into the primeval sea also became mould. Of this we are assured, so far as Bergelmer is concerned, by strophe 35 in Vafthrudnersmal, which also informs us that Bergelmer was laid under the mill-stone. The mill which ground his "flesh" into mould can be none other than the one grinding under the sea, that is, the cosmic Grotte-mill.
When Odin asks the wise giant Vafthrudner how far back he can remember, and which is the oldest event of which he has any knowledge from personal experience, the giant answers: "Countless ages ere the earth was shapen Bergelmer was born. The first thing I remember is when he á var lúdr um lagidr."
This expression was misunderstood by the author of Gylfaginning himself, and the misunderstanding has continued to develop into the theory that Bergelmer was changed into a sort of Noah, who with his household saved himself in an ark when Bur's sons drowned the primeval giants in the blood of their progenitor. Of such a counterpart to the Biblical account of Noah and his ark our Teutonic mythical fragments have no knowledge whatever.
The word lúdr (with radical r) has two
meanings:
(1) a wind-instrument, a loor, a war-trumpet;
(2) the tier of beams, the underlying timbers of a mill, and, in
a wider sense, the mill itself.
The first meaning, that of war-trumpet, is not found in the songs of the Elder Edda, and upon the whole does not occur in the Old Norse poetry. Heimdal's war-trumpet is not called lúdr, but horn or hljód. Lúdr in this sense makes its first appearance in the sagas of Christian times, but is never used by the skalds. In spite of this fact the signification may date back to heathen times. But however this may be, lúdr in Vafthrudnersmal does not mean a war-trumpet. The poem can never have meant that Bergelmer was laid on a musical instrument.
The other meaning remains to be discussed. Lúdr, partly in its more limited sense of the timbers or beams under the mill, partly in the sense of the subterranean mill in its entirety, and the place where it is found, occurs several times in the poems: in the Grotte-song, in Helge Hund. (ii. 2), and in the above-quoted strophe by Snæbjörn, and also in Grogalder and in Fjölsvinnsmal. If this signification is applied to the passage in Vafthrudnersmall: á var lúdr um lagidr, we get the meaning that Bergelmer was "laid on a mill," and in fact no other meaning of the passage is possible, unless an entirely new signification is to be arbitrarily invented.
But however conspicuous this signification is, and however clear it is that it is the only one applicable in this poem, still it has been overlooked or thrust aside by the mythologists, and for this Gylfaginning is to blame. So far as I know, Vigfusson is the only one who (in his Dictionary, p. 399) makes the passage á lúdr lagidr mean what it actually means, and he remarks that the words must "refer to some ancient lost myth."
The confusion begins, as stated, in Gylfaginning. Its author has had no other authority for his statement than the Vafthrudnersmal strophe in question, which he also cites to corroborate his own words; and we have here one of the many examples found in Gylfaginning showing that its author has neglected to pay much attention to what the passages quoted contain. When Gylfaginning has stated that the frost-giants were drowned in Ymer's blood, then comes its interpretation of the Vafthrudnersmal strophe, which is as follows: "One escaped with his household: him the giants call Bergelmer. He with his wife betook himself upon his lúdr and remained there, and from them the races of giants are descended" (nema einn komst undan med sinu hyski: thann kalla jötnar Bergelmi; hann fór upp á lúdr sinn ok kona hans, ok helzt thar, ok eru af theim komnar), etc.
What Gylfaginning's author has conceived by the lúdr which he mentions it is difficult to say. That he did not have a boat in mind is in the meantime evident from the expression: hann fór upp á lúdr sinn. It is more reasonable to suppose that his idea was, that Bergelmer himself owned an immense mill, upon whose high timbers he and his household climbed to save themselves from the flood. That the original text says that Bergelmer was laid on the timbers of the mill Gylfaginning pays no attention to. To go upon something and to be laid on something are, however, very different notions.
An argument in favour of the wrong interpretation was furnished by the Resenian edition of the Younger Edda (Copenhagen, 1665). There we find the expression fór upp á lúdr sinn "amended" to fór á bát sinn. Thus Bergelmer had secured a boat to sail in; and although more reliable editions of the Younger Edda have been published since from which the boat disappeared, still the mythologists have not had the heart to take the boat away from Bergelmer. On the contrary, they have allowed the boat to grow into a ship, an ark.
As already pointed out, Vafthrudnersmal tells us expressly that Bergelmer, Aurgelmer's grandson, was "laid on a mill" or "on the supporting timbers of a mill." We may be sure that the myth would not have laid Bergelmer on "a mill" if the intention was not that he was to be ground. The kind of meal thus produced has already been explained. It is the mould and sand which the sea since time's earliest dawn has cast upon the shores of Midgard, and with which the bays and strands have been filled, to become sooner or later green fields. From Ymer's flesh the gods created the oldest layer of soil, that which covered the earth the first time the sun shone thereon, and in which the first herbs grew. Ever since the same activity which then took place still continues. After the great mill of the gods transformed the oldest frost-giant into the dust of earth, it has continued to grind the bodies of his descendants between the same stones into the same kind of mould. This is the meaning of Vafthrudner's words when he says that his memory reaches back to the time when Bergelmer was laid on the mill to be ground. Ymer he does not remember, nor Thrudgelmer, nor the days when these were changed to earth. Of them he knows only by hearsay. But he remembers when the turn came for Bergelmer's limbs to be subjected to the same fate.
"The glorious Midgard" could not be created before its foundations raised by the gods out of the sea were changed to bjód (Völuspa). This is the word (originally bjódr) with which the author of Völuspa chose to express the quality of the fields and the fields themselves, which were raised out of the sea by Bor's sons, when the great mill had changed the "flesh" of Ymer into mould. Bjód does not mean a bare field or ground, but one that can supply food. Thus it is used in Haustlaung (af breidu bjódi, the place for a spread feast - Skaldskaparmal, ch. 22), and its other meanings (perhaps the more original ones) are that of a board and of a table for food to lie on. When the fields were raised out of Ymer's blood they were covered with mould, so that, when they got light and warmth from the sun, then the grund became gróin grœnum lauki. The very word mould comes from the Teutonic word mala, to grind (cp. Eng. meal, Latin molere). The development of language and the development of mythology have here, as in so many other instances, gone hand in hand.
That the "flesh" of the primeval giants could be ground into fertile mould refers us to the primeval cow Audhumbla by whose milk Ymer was nourished and his flesh formed (Gylfaginning). Thus the cow in the Teutonic mythology is the same as she is in the Iranian, the primeval source of fertility. The mould, out of which the harvests grow, has by transformations developed out of her nourishing liquids.
Here, then, we have the explanation of the lidmeldr which the great mill grinds, according to Snæbjorn. Lidmeldr means limb-grist. It is the limbs and joints of the primeval giants, which on Amlode's mill are transformed into meal.
In its character as an institution for the promotion of fertility, and for rendering the fields fit for habitation, the mill is under the care and protection of the Vans. After Njord's son, Frey, had been fostered in Asgard and had acquired the dignity of lord of the harvests, he was the one who became the master of the great Grotte. It is attended on his behalf by one of his servants, who in the mythology is called Bygver, a name related both to byggja, settle, cultivate, and to bygg, barley, a kind of grain, and by his kinswoman and helpmate Beyla. So important is the calling of Bygver and Beyla that they are permitted to attend the feasts of the gods with their master (Frey). Consequently they are present at the banquet to which Ægir, according to Lokasenna, invited the gods. When Loke uninvited made his appearance there to mix harm in the mead of the gods, and to embitter their pleasure, and when he there taunts Frey, Bygver becomes wroth on his master's behalf and says:
| Str. 43. | Veiztu, ef ec öthli ettac sem Ingunar-Freyr oc sva sælict setr, mergi smæra maul tha ec thá meincráco oc lemtha alla i litho. |
Had I the ancestry of Ingunar Frey and so honoured a seat, know I would grind you finer than marrow, you evil crow, and crush you limb by limb. |
Loke answers:
| Str. 44. | Hvat er that ith litla er ec that lauggra sec oc snapvist snapir; att eyrom Freys mundu æ vera oc und kvernom klaka. |
What little boy is that whom I see wag his tail and eat like a parasite? Near Frey's ears Always you are And clatter 'neath the mill-stone. |
Bygver:
| Str. 45. | Beyggvir ec heiti, enn mic brathan kveda god aull oc gumar: thvi em ec hrodugr, at drecca Hroptz megir allir aul saman. |
Bygver is my name, All gods and men call me the nimble, and here it is my pride that Odin's sons each and all drink ale. |
Loke:
| Str. 46. | thegi thu, Beyggvir! thu kunnir aldregi deila meth mönnom mat. |
Be silent, Bygver! Ne'er were you able food to divide among men. |
Beyla, too, gets her share of Loke's abuse. The least disgraceful thing he says of her is that she is a deigia (a slave, who has to work at the mill and in the kitchen), and that she is covered with traces of her occupation in dust and dirt.
As we see, Loke characterises Bygver as a servant taking charge of the mill under Frey, and Bygver characterises himself as one who grinds, and is able to crush an "evil crow" limb by limb with his mill-stones. As the one who with his mill makes vegetation, and so also bread and malt, possible, he boasts of it as his honour that the gods are able to drink ale at a banquet. Loke blames him because he is not able to divide the food among men. The reproach implies that the distribution of food is in his hands. The mould which comes from the great mill gives different degrees of fertility to different fields, and rewards abundantly or niggardly the toil of the farmer. Loke doubtless alludes to this unequal distribution, else it would be impossible to find any sense in his words.
In the poetic Edda we still have another reminiscence of the great mill which is located under the sea, and at the same time in the lower world (see below), and which "grinds mould into food." It is in a poem, whose skald says that he has seen it on his journey in the lower world. In his description of the "home of torture" in Hades, Solarljod's Christian author has taken all his materials from the heathen mythological conceptions of the worlds of punishment, though the author treats these materials in accordance with the Christian purpose of his song. When the skald dies, he enters the Hades gate, crosses bloody streams, sits for nine days á norna stóli, is thereupon seated on a horse, and is permitted to make a journey through Mimer's domain, first to the regions of the happy and then to those of the damned. In Mimer's realm he sees the "stag of the sun" and Nide's (Mimer's) sons, who "quaff the pure mead from Baugregin's well." When he approached the borders of the world of the damned, he heard a terrible din, which silenced the winds and stopped the flow of the waters. The mighty din came from a mill. Its stones were wet with blood, but the grist produced was mould, which was to be food. Fickle-wise (svipvisar, heathen) women of dark complexion turned the mill. Their bloody and tortured hearts hung outside of their breasts. The mould which they ground was to feed their husbands.
This mill, situated at the entrance of hell, is here represented as one of the agents of torture in the lower world. To a certain extent this is correct even from a heathen standpoint. It was the lot of slave-women to turn the hand-mill. In the heroic poem the giant-maids Fenja and Menja, taken prisoners and made slaves, have to turn Frode's Grotte. In the mythology "Eylud's nine women," thurs-maids, were compelled to keep this vast mechanism in motion, and that this was regarded as a heavy and compulsory task may be assumed without the risk of being mistaken.
According to Solarljod, the mill-stones are stained with blood. In the mythology they crush the bodies of the first giants and revolve in Ymer's blood. It is also in perfect harmony with the mythology that the meal becomes mould, and that the mould serves as food. But the cosmic signification is obliterated in Solarljod, and it seems to be the author's idea that men who have died in their heathen belief are to eat the mould which women who have died in heathendom industriously grind as food for them.
The myth about the greater Grotte, as already indicated, has also been connected with the Hvergelmer myth. Solarljod has correctly stated the location of the mill on the border of the realm of torture. The mythology has located Hvergelmer's fountain there (see No. 59); and as this vast fountain is the mother of the ocean and of all waters, and the ever open connection between the waters of heaven, of the earth, and of the lower world, then this furnishes the explanation of the apparently conflicting statements, that the mill is situated both in the lower world and at the same time on the bottom of the sea. Of the mill it is said that it is dangerous to men, dangerous to fleets and to crews, and that it causes the maelstrom (svelgr) when the water of the ocean rushes down through the eye of the mill-stone. The same was said of Hvergelmer, that causes ebb and flood and maelstrom, when the water of the world alternately flows into and out of this great source. To judge from all this, the mill has been conceived as so made that its foundation timbers stood on solid ground in the lower world, and thence rose up into the sea, in which the stones resting on this substructure were located. The revolving "eye" of the mill-stone was directly above Hvergelmer, and served as the channel through which the water flowed to and from the great fountain of the world's waters.
81.
THE WORLD-MILL (continued).
THE WORLD-MILL MAKES THE CONSTELLATIONS REVOLVE.
MUNDILFÖRI.
But the colossal mill in the ocean has also served other purposes than that of grinding the nourishing mould from the limbs of the primeval giants.
The Teutons, like all people of antiquity, and like most men of the present time, regarded the earth as stationary. And so, too, the lower world (jormungrundr - Forspjallsljod) on which the foundations of the earth rested. Stationary was also that heaven in which the Asas had their citadels, surrounded by a common wall, for the Asgard-bridge, Bifrost, had a solid bridge-head on the southern and another on the northern edge of the lower world, and could not change position in its relation to them. All this part of creation was held together by the immovable roots of the world-tree, or rested on its invisible branches. Sol and Mane had their fixed paths, the points of departure and arrival of which were the "horse-doors" (jódyrr), which were hung on the eastern and western mountain-walls of the lower world. The god Mane and the goddess Sol were thought to traverse these paths in shining chariots, and their daily journeys across the heavens did not to our ancestors imply that any part of the world-structure itself was in motion. Mane's course lay below Asgard. When Thor in his thunder-chariot descends to Jotunheim the path of Mane thunders under him (en dundi Mána vegr und Meila bródur - Haustl., 1). No definite statement in our mythical records informs us whether the way of the sun was over or under Asgard.
But high above Asgard is the starry vault of heaven, and to the Teutons as well as to other people that sky was not only an optical but a real vault, which daily revolved around a stationary point. Sol and Mane might be conceived as traversing their appointed courses independently, and not as coming in contact with vaults, which by their motions from east to west produced the progress of sun and moon. The very circumstance that they continually changed position in their relation to each other and to the stars seemed to prove that they proceeded independently in their own courses. With the countless stars the case was different. They always keep at the same distance and always present the same figures on the canopy of the nocturnal heavens. They looked like glistening heads of nails driven into a movable ceiling. Hence the starlit sky was thought to be in motion. The sailors and shepherds of the Teutons very well knew that this revolving was round a fixed point, the polar star, and it is probable that veraldar nagli, the world-nail, the world-spike, an expression preserved in Eddubrott, ii., designates the north star.
Thus the starry sky was the movable part of the universe. And this motion is not of the same kind as that of the winds, whose coming and direction no man can predict or calculate. The motion of the starry firmament is defined, always the same, always in the same direction, and keeps equal step with the march of time itself. It does not, therefore, depend on the accidental pleasure of gods or other powers. On the other hand, it seems to be caused by a mechanism operating evenly and regularly.
The mill was for a long time the only kind of mechanism on a large scale known to the Teutons. Its motion was a rotating one. The movable mill-stone was turned by a handle or sweep which was called möndull. The mill-stones and the möndull might be conceived as large as you please. Fancy knew no other limits than those of the universe.
There was another natural phenomenon, which also was regular, and which was well known to the seamen of the North and to those Teutons who lived on the shores of the North Sea, namely, the rising and falling of the tide. Did one and the same force produce both these great phenomena? Did the same cause produce the motion of the starry vault and the ebb and flood of the sea? In regard to the latter phenomenon, we already know the naive explanation given in the myth concerning Hvergelmer and the Grotte-mill. And the same explanation sufficed for the former. There was no need of another mechanism to make the heavens revolve, as there was already one at hand, the influence of which could be traced throughout that ocean in which Midgard was simply an isle, and which around this island extends its surface even to the brink of heaven (Gylfaginning).
The mythology knew a person by name Mundilföri (Vafthr., 23, Gylfag.). The word mundill is related to möndull, and is presumably only another form of the same word. The name or epithet Mundilfore refers to a being that has had something to do with a great mythical möndull and with the movements of the mechanism which this möndull kept in motion. Now the word möndull is never used in the old Norse literature about any other object than the sweep or handle with which the movable mill-stone is turned. (In this sense the word occurs in the Grotte-song and in Helge Hund. ii, 3, 4). Thus Mundilfore has had some part to play in regard to the great giant-mill of the ocean and of the lower world.
Of Mundilfore we learn, on the other hand, that he is the father of the personal Sol and the personal Mane (Vafthr. 23). This, again, shows that the mythology conceived him as intimately associated with the heavens and with the heavenly bodies. Vigfusson (Dict., 437) has, therefore, with good reason remarked that mundill in Mundilfore refers to the veering round or the revolution of the heavens. As the father of Sol and Mane, Mundilfore was a being of divine rank, and as such belonged to the powers of the lower world, where Sol and Mane have their abodes and resting-places. The latter part of the name, föri, refers to the verb fœra, to conduct, to move. Thus he is that power who has to take charge of the revolutions of the starry vault of heaven, and these must be produced by the great möndull, the mill-handle or mill-sweep, since he is called Mundilföri.
The regular motion of the starry firmament and of the sea is, accordingly, produced by the same vast mechanism, the Grotte-mill, the meginverk of the heathen fancy (Grotte-song, 11; cp. Egil Skallagrimson's way of using the word, Arinbj.-Drapa, 26). The handle extends to the edge of the world, and the nine giantesses, who are compelled to turn the mill, pushing the sweep before them, march along the outer edge of the universe. Thus we get an intelligible idea of what Snæbjorn means when he says that Eylud's nine women turn the Grotte "along the edge of the earth" (hrœra Grotta at fyrir jardar skauti).
Mundilfore and Bygver thus each has his task to perform in connection with the same vast machinery. The one attends to the regular motion of the möndull, the other looks after the mill-stones and the grist.
In the name Eylud the first part is ey, and the second part is ludr. The name means the "island-mill." Eylud's nine women are the "nine women of the island-mill." The mill is in the same strophe called skerja Grotti, the Grotte of the skerries. These expressions refer to each other and designate with different words the same idea - the mill that grinds islands and skerries.
The fate which, according to the Grotte-song, happened to King Frode's mill has its origin in the myth concerning the greater mill. The stooping position of the starry heavens and the sloping path of the stars in relation to the horizontal line was a problem which in its way the mythology wanted to solve. The phenomenon was put in connection with the mythic traditions in regard to the terrible winter which visited the earth after the gods and the sons of Alvalde (Ivalde) had become enemies. Fenja and Menja were kinswomen of Alvalde's sons. For they were brothers (half-brothers) of those mountain giants who were Fenja's and Menja's fathers (the Grotte-song). Before the feud broke out between their kin and the gods, both the giant-maids had worked in the service of the latter and for the good of the world, grinding the blessings of the golden age on the world-mill. Their activity in connection with the great mechanism, mondul, which they pushed, amid the singing of bliss-bringing songs of sorcery, was a counterpart of the activity of the sons of Alvalde, who made for the gods the treasures of vegetation. When the conflict broke out the giant-maids joined the cause of their kinsmen. They gave the world-mill so rapid a motion that the foundations of the earth trembled, pieces of the mill-stones were broken loose and thrown up into space, and the sub-structure of the mill was damaged. This could not happen without harm to the starry canopy of heaven which rested thereon. The memory of this mythic event comes to the surface in Rimbegla, which states that toward the close of King Frode's reign there arose a terrible disorder in nature - a storm with mighty thundering passed over the country, the earth quaked and cast up large stones. In the Grotte-song the same event is mentioned as a "game" played by Fenja and Menja, in which they cast up from the deep upon the earth those stones which afterwards became the mill-stones in the Grotte-mill. After that "game" the giant-maids betook themselves to the earth and took part in the first world-war on the side hostile to Odin (see No. 39). It is worthy of notice that the mythology has connected the fimbul-winter and the great emigrations from the North with an earthquake and a damage to the world-mill which makes the starry heavens revolve.
THE WORLD-MILL (continued).
THE ORIGIN OF THE SACRED FIRE THROUGH MUNDILFORE.
HEIMDAL THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE SACRED FIRE.
HIS IDENTITY WITH RIGVEDA'S AGNI. HIS ANTITHESIS, LOKE, ALSO A
FIRE-BEING.
Among the tasks to be performed by the world-mill there is yet another of the greatest importance. According to a belief which originated in ancient Aryan times, a fire is to be judged as to purity and holiness by its origin. There are different kinds of fire more or less pure and holy, and a fire which is holy as to its origin may become corrupted by contact with improper elements. The purest fire, that which was originally kindled by the gods and was afterwards given to man as an invaluable blessing, as a bond of union between the higher world and mankind, was a fire which was produced by rubbing two objects together (friction). In hundreds of passages this is corroborated in Rigveda, and the belief still exists among the common people of various Teutonic peoples. The great mill which revolves the starry heavens was also the mighty rubbing machine (friction machine) from which the sacred fire naturally ought to proceed, and really was regarded as having proceeded, as shall be shown below.
The word möndull, with which the handle of the mill is designated, is found among our ancient Aryan ancestors. It can be traced back to the ancient Teutonic manthula, a swing-tree (Fick, Wörterb. d. ind.-germ. Spr., iii. 232), related to Sanskrit Manthati, to swing, twist, bore, from the root manth, which occurs in numerous passages in Rigveda, and in its direct application always refers to the production of fire by friction (Bergaigne, Rel. ved., iii. 7).
In Rigveda, the sacred fire is personified by the "pure," upright," "benevolent" god Agni, whose very name, related to the Latin ignis, designates the god of fire. According to Rigveda, there was a time when Agni lived concealed from both gods and men, as the element of light and warmth found in all beings and things. Then there was a time when he dwelt in person among the gods, but not yet among men; and, finally, there was a time when Mâtaricvan, a sacred being and Agni's father in a literal or symbolic sense, brought it about that Agni came to our fathers (Rigv., i. 60, 1). The generation of men then living was the race of Bhriguians, so-called after an ancient patriarch Bhrigu. This Bhrigu, and with him Manu (Manus), was the first person who, in his sacrifices to the gods, used the fire obtained through Agni (Rigv., i. 31, 17, and other passages).
When, at the instigation of Mâtaricvan, Agni arrived among mankind, he came from a far-off region (Rigv., i. 128, 2). The Bhriguians who did not yet possess the fire, but were longing for it and were seeking for it (Rigv., x. 40, 2), found the newly-arrived Agni "at the confluence of the waters." In a direct sense, "the confluence of the waters" cannot mean anything else than the ocean, into which all waters flow. Thus Agni came from the distance across a sea to the coast of the country where that people dwelt who were named after the patriarch Bhrigu. When they met this messenger of the gods (Rigv., viii. 19, 21), they adopted him and cared for him at "the place of the water" (Rigv., ii. 4, 2). Mâtaricvan, by whose directions Agni, "the one born on the other side of the atmosphere" (x. 187, 5) was brought to mankind, becomes in the classical Sanskrit language a designation for the wind. Thus everything tends to show that Agni has traversed a wide ocean, and has been brought by the wind when he arrives at the coast where the Bhriguians dwell. He is very young, and hence bears the epithet yavishtha.
We are now to see why the gods sent him to men, and what be does among them. He remains among those who care for him, and dwells among them "an immortal among mortals" (Rigv., viii. 60, 11; iii. 5, 3), a guest among men, a companion of mortals (iv. 1, 9). He who came with the inestimable gift of fire long remains personally among men, in order that "a wise one among the ignorant" may educate them. He who "knows all wisdom and all sciences" (Rigv., iii. 1, 17; x. 21, 5) "came to be asked questions" (i. 60, 20) by men; he teaches them and "they listen to him as to a father" (i. 68, 9). He becomes their first patriarch (ii. 10, 1) and their first priest (v. 9, 4; x. 80, 4). Before that time they had lived a nomadic life, but he taught them to establish fixed homes around the hearths, on which the fire he had brought now was burning (iii. 1, 17). He visited them in these fixed dwellings (iv. 1, 19), where the Bhriguians now let the fire blaze (x. 122, 5); he became "the husband of wives" (i. 66, 4) and the progenitor of human descendants (i. 96, 2), through whom he is the founder of the classes or "races" of men (vi. 48, 8). He established order in all human affairs (iv. 1, 2), taught religion, instructed men in praying and sacrificing (vi. 1, 1, and many other passages), initiated them in the art of poetry and gave them inspiration (iii. 10, 5; x. 11, 6).
This is related of Agni when he came to the earth and dwelt among men. As to his divine nature, he is the pure, white god (iv. 1, 7; iii. 7, 1), young, strong, and shining with golden teeth (v. 2, 2), and searching eyes (iv. 2, 12) which can see far (vii. 1, 1), penetrate the darkness of night (i. 94, 7), and watch the acts of demons (x. 87, 12). He, the guard of order (i. 11, 8), is always attentive (i. 31, 12), and protects the world by day and by night from dangers (i. 98, 1). On a circular path he observes all beings (vii. 13, 3), and sees and knows them all (x. 187, 4). He perceives everything, being able to penetrate the herbs, and diffuse himself into plants and animals (vii. 9, 3; viii. 43, 9; x. 1, 2). He hears all who pray to him, and can make himself heard as if he had the voice of thunder, so that both the halves of the world re-echo his voice (x. 8, 1). His horses are like himself white (vi. 6, 4). His symbol among the animals is the bull (i. 31, 5; i. 146, 2).
In regard to Agni's birth, it is characteristic of him that he is said to have several mothers, although their number varies according to the point from which the process of birth is regarded.
When it is only to be a figurative expression for the origin of the friction-fire, the singer of the hymn can say that Agni had ten mothers or two mothers. In the case of the former, it is the ten fingers of the person producing the friction-fire that are meant. Sometimes this is stated outright (Rigveda, iii. 23, 3); then again the fingers are paraphrased by "the twice five sisters dwelling together" (iv. 6, 8), "the work-master's ten untiring maids" (i. 95, 1). In the case of the latter - that is, when two mothers are mentioned - the two pieces of wood rubbed together are meant (viii. 49, 15). In a more real sense he is said to have three places of nativity: one in the atmospheric sea, one in heaven, and one in the waters (i. 95, 3), and that his "great, wise, divine nature proceeded from the laps of many active mothers" (i. 95, 4), such as the waters, the stones, the trees, the herbs (ii. 1, 1). In Rigveda (x. 45, 2) nine maternal wombs or births are indicated; his "triple powers were sown in triplets in heaven, among us, and in the waters." In Rigveda (i. 141, 2) three places of nativity and three births are ascribed to him, and in such a way that he had seven mothers in his second birth. In Rigveda (x. 20, 7) he is called the son of the rock.
It scarcely needs to be pointed out that all that is here told about Agni corresponds point by point with the Teutonic myth about Heimdal. Here, as in many other instances, we find a similarity between the Teutonic and the Aryan-Asiatic myths, which is surprising, when we consider that the difference between the Rigveda and Zend languages on the one hand, and the oldest Teutonic linguistic monuments on the other, appear in connection with other circumstances to indicate that the old Aryan unity of language and religion lies ages back in antiquity. Agni's birth "beyond the atmosphere," his journey across the sea to original man in the savage state, his vocation as the sower of the blessings of culture among men, his appearance as the teacher of wisdom and "the sciences," his visit to the farms established by him, where he becomes "the husband of wives," father of human sons, and the founder of "the races" (the classes among the Teutons), - all this we rediscover completely in the Heimdal myth, as if it were a copy of the Aryan-Asiatic saga concerning the divine founder of culture; a copy fresh from the master's brush without the effects of time, and without any retouchings. The very names of the ancient Aryan patriarchs, Bhrigu and Manu are recognisable in the Teutonic patriarch names Berchter and Mann (Mannus-Halfdan). In the case of Manu and Mann no explanation is necessary. Here the identity of sound agrees with the identity of origin. The descendants of Bhrigu and of his contemporary Bhriguians, are called Bhargavans, which corroborates the conclusion that Bhrigu is derived from bharg "to shine," whence is derived the ancient Teutonic berhta, "bright," "clear," "light," the Old Saxon berht, the Anglo-Saxon beorht, which reoccurs in the Teutonic patriarch Berchter, which again is actually (not linguistically) identical with the Norse Borgarr. By Bhrigu's side stands Manu, just as Mann (Halfdan) is co-ordinate with Borgar.
Point by point the descriptions of Agni and Heimdal also correspond in regard to their divine natures and attributes. Agni is the great holy white god; Heimdal is mikill and heilagr, and is called hviti áss (Younger Edda) or "the whitest of the Asas" (Thrymskv., 15). While Agni as the fire-god has golden teeth, Heimdal certainly for the same reason bears the epithet gullintanni, "the one with the golden teeth." Agni has white horses. In Ulf Uggason's poem about the work of art in Hjardarholt, Heimdal rides his horse Gulltoppr, whose name reflects its splendour. While Agni's searching eyes can see in the distance and can penetrate the gloom of night, it is said of Heimdal that hann sér jafnt nótt sem dag hundrad rasta frá sér. While Agni perceives everything, even the inaudible motions in the growing of herbs and animals; while he penetrates and diffuses himself in plants and animals, it is said of Heimdal that he heyrir ok that, er gras vex á jordu eda ull á saudum. While Agni - it is not stated by what means - is able to produce a noise like thunder which re-echoes through both the world-halves, Heimdal has the horn, whose sound all the world shall hear, when Ragnarok is at hand. On a "circular path," Agni observes the beings in the world. Heimdal looks out upon the world from Bifrost. Agni keeps his eye on the deeds of the demons, is perpetually on the look-out, and protects the world by day and by night from dangers; Heimdal is the watchman of the gods, vördr goda (Grimnersmal), needs in his vocation as watchman less sleep than a bird, and faithfully guards the Asa-bridge against the giants. Agni is born of several mothers; Heimdal has mothers nine. Agni is "the fast traveller," who, in the human abodes he visits, opens a way for prayer and sacrifice (Rigv., vii. 13, 3); in Rigsthula, Heimdal has the same epithet, "the fast traveller," röskr Stigandi, as he goes from house to house and teaches men the "runes of eternity" and "the runes of time."
The only discrepancy is in the animal symbols by which Agni and Heimdal are designated. The bull is Agni's symbol, the ram is Heimdal's. Both symbols are chosen from the domestic animals armed with horns, and the difference is linguistically of such a kind, that it to some extent may be said to corroborate the evidence in regard to Agni's and Heimdal's identity. In the old Norse poetry, Vedr (wether, ram), Heimdali and the Heimdal epithet Hallinskidi, are synonymous. The word vedr, according to Fick (Wörterb., iii. 307), can be traced to an ancient Teutonic vethru, the real meaning of which is "yearling," a young domestic animal in general, and it is related to the Latin vitulus and the Sanskrit vatsala, "calf." If this is correct, then we also see the lines along which one originally common symbol of a domestic animal developed into two and among the Rigveda Aryans settled on the "yearling" of the cow, and among the Teutons on that of the sheep. It should here be remarked that according to Ammianus Marcellinus (xix. 1) the tiara of the Persian kings was ornamented with a golden ram's-head. That Agni's span of horses were transformed into Heimdal's riding horse was also a result of time and circumstances. In Rigveda, riding and cavalry are unknown; there the horses of the gods draw the divine chariots. In the Teutonic mythology the draught horses are changed into riding horses, and chariots occur only exceptionally.
We have reason to be surprised at finding that the Aryan-Asiatic myths and the Teutonic have so broad surfaces of contact, on which not only the main outlines but even the details completely resemble each other. But the fact is not inexplicable. The hymns, the songs of the divine worship and of the sacrifices of the Rigveda Aryans, have been preserved, but the epic-mythological poems are lost, so that there remains the difficult task of reconstructing out of the former a clear and concise mythology, freed from "dissolving views" in which their mythic characters now blend into each other. The Teutonic mythology has had an opposite fate: here the genuine religious songs, the hymns of divine worship and of sacrifices, are lost, and there remain fragments of the mighty divine epic of the Teutons. But thus we have also been robbed of the opportunity of studying those very songs which in a higher degree than the epic are able to preserve through countless centuries ancient mythical traits; for the hymns belong to the divine worship, popular customs are long-lived, and the sacred customs are more conservative and more enduring than all others, if they are not disturbed by revolutions in the domain of faith. If an epithet of a god, e.g., "the fast traveller," has once become fixed by hymns and been repeated in the divine service year after year, then, in spite of the gradual transformation of the languages and the types of the race, it may be preserved through hundreds and thousands of years. Details of this kind may in this manner survive the ravages of time just as well as the great outlines of the mythology, and if there be a gradual change as to signification, then this is caused by the change of language, which may make an old expression unintelligible or give it another meaning based on the association of ideas.
From all this I am forced to draw the conclusion that Heimdal, like several other Teutonic gods - for example, Odin (Wodan, Rigveda's Vata) - belongs to the ancient Aryan age, and retained, even to the decay of the Teutonic heathendom his ancient character as the personal representative of the sacred fire, the fire produced by friction, and, in this connection, as the representative of the oldest culture connected with the introduction of fire.
This also explains Heimdal's epithet Vindler, in Cod. Reg. of the Younger Edda (i. 266, 608). The name is a subform of vindill and comes from vinda, to twist or turn, wind, to turn anything around rapidly. As the epithet "the turner" is given to that god who brought friction-fire (bore-fire) to man, and who is himself the personification of this fire, then it must be synonymous with "the borer."
A synonym of Heimdal's epithet Stigandi, "the traveller," is Rate, "the traveller," from rata, "to travel," "to move about." Very strangely, this verb (originally vrata, Goth. vrâton, to travel, make a journey) can be traced to an ancient Germanic word which meant to turn or twist, or something of the sort (Fick, Wörterb., iii. 294).
And, so far as the noun Rate is concerned, this signification has continued to flourish in the domain of mythology after it long seems to have been extinct in the domain of language. Havamál (106), Grimnersmal (32), and Bragarædur testify each in its own way that the mythical name Rate was connected with a boring activity. In Havamál "Rate's mouth" gnaws the tunnel through which Odin, in the guise of an eagle, flies away with the mead-treasure concealed in the "deep dales" at Fjalar's under the roots of the world-tree. In the allegorical Grimnersmal strophe it is "Rate's tooth" (Ratatoskr) who lets the mead-drinking foe of the gods near the root of the world-tree find out what the eagle in the top of the world-tree (Odin) resolves and carries out in regard to the same treasure. In Bragarædur the name is given to the gimlet itself which produced the connection between Odin's world and Fjalar's halls. The gimlet has here received the name of the boring "traveller," of him who is furnished with "golden teeth." Hence there are good reasons for assuming that in the epic of the myth it was Heimdal-Gullintanne himself whose fire-gimlet helped Odin to fly away with his precious booty. In Rigveda Agni plays the same part. The "tongue of Agni" has the same task there as "Rate's mouth" in our Norse records. The sacred mead of the liquids of nourishment was concealed in the womb of the mountain with the Dasyus, hostile to the world; but Agni split the mountain open with his tongue, his ray of light penetrated into the darkness where the liquids of nourishment were preserved, and through him they were brought to the light of day, after Trita (in some passages of Rigveda identical with Vata) had slain a giant monster and found the "cows of the son of the work-master" (cp. Rigveda, v. 14, 4; viii. 61, 4-8; x. 8, 6-9). "The cows of the son of the work-master" is a paraphrase for the saps of nourishiment. In the Teutonic mythology there is also "a son of the work-master," who is robbed of the mead. Fjalar is a son of Surt, whose character as an ancient artist is evident from what is stated in Nos. 53 and 89.
By friction Mâtaricvan brought Agni out of the maternal wombs in which he was concealed as an embryo of light and warmth. Heimdal was born to life in a similar manner. His very place of nativity indicates this. His mothers have their abodes vid jardar thraum (Hyndl., 35) near the edge of the earth, on the outer rim of the earth, and that is where they gave him life (báru thann man vid jardar thraum). His mothers are giaintesses (iotna meyjar), and nine in number. We have already found giantesses, nine in number, mentioned as having their activity on the outer edge of the earth - namely, those who with the möndull, the handle, turn the vast friction-mechanism, the world-mill of Mundilfore. They are the níu brúdir of Eyludr, "the Isle-grinder," mentioned by Snæbjorn (see above). These nine giant-maids, who along the outer zone of the earth (fyrir jardar skauti) push the mill's sweep before themselves and grind the coasts of the islands, are the same nine giant-maids who on the outer zone of the earth gave birth to Heimdal, the god of the friction-fire. Hence one of Heimdal's mothers is called Angeyja, "she who makes the islands closer," and another one is called Eyrgjafa, "she who gives sandbanks." Mundilföri, who is the father of Sol and Mane, and has the care of the motions of the starry heavens is accordingly also, though in another sense, the father of Heimdal the pure, holy fire to whom the glittering objects in the skies must naturally be regarded as akin.
In Hyndluljod (37) Heimdal's nine giant-mothers are named: Gjálp, Greip, Eistla, Eyrgjafa, Ulfrun, Angeyja, Imdr, Atla, Járnsaxa. The first two are daughters of the fire-giant Geirrod (Younger Edda, i. 288). To fire refers also Imdr, from ím, embers. Two of the names, Angeyja and Eyrgjafa, as already shown, indicate the occupation of these giantesses in connection with the world-mill. This is presumably also the case with Járnsaxa, "she who crushes the iron." The iron which our heathen fathers worked was produced from the sea- and swamp-iron mixed with sand and clay, and could therefore properly be regarded as a grist of the world-mill.
Heimdal's antithesis in all respects, and therefore also his constant opponent in the mythological epic, is Loke, he too a fire-being, but representing another side of this element. Natural agents such as fire, water, wind, cold, heat, and thunder have in the Teutonic mythology a double aspect. When they work in harmony, each within the limits which are fixed by the welfare of the world and the happiness of man, then they are sacred forces and are represented by the gods. But when these limits are transgressed, giants are at work, and the turbulent elements are represented by beings of giant-race.
This is also true of thunder, although it is the common view among mythologists that it was regarded exclusively as a product of Thor's activity. The genuine mythical conception was, however, that the thunder which purifies the atmosphere and fertilises the thirsty earth with showers of rain, or strikes down the foes of Midgard, came from Thor; while that which splinters the sacred trees, sets fire to the woods and houses, and kills men that have not offended the gods, came from the foes of the world. The blaze-element (see No. 35) was not only in the possession of the gods, but also in that of the giants (Skirnersmal), and the lightning did not proceed alone from Mjolner, but was also found in Hrungner's hein and in Geirrod's glowing javelin. The conflicts between Thor and the giants were not only on terra firma, as when Thor made an expedition on foot to Jotunheim, but also in the air. There were giant-horses that were able to wade with force and speed through the atmosphere, as, for instance, Hrungner's Gullfaxi (Younger Edda, i. 270), and these giant-horses with their shining manes, doubtless, were expected to carry their riders to the lightning-conflict in space against the lightning-hurler, Thor. The thunderstorm was frequently a víg thrimu, a conflict between thundering beings, in which the lightnings hurled by the ward of Midgard, the son of Hlodyn, crossed the lightnings hurled by the foes of Midgard.
Loke and his brothers Helblindi and Byl-eistr are the children of a giant of this kind, of a giant representing the hurricane and thunder. The rain-torrents and waterspouts of the hurricane, which directly or indirectly became wedded to the sea through the swollen streams, gave birth to Helblinde, who, accordingly, received Rán as his "maid" (Yngl., 51). The whirlwind in the hurricane received as his ward Byleistr, whose name is composed of bylr, "whirlwind," and eistr, "the one dwelling in the east" (the north), a paraphrase for "giant." A thunderbolt from the hurricane gave birth to Loke. His father is called Fárbauti, "the one inflicting harm," and his mother is Laufey, "the leaf-isle," a paraphrase for the tree-crown (Younger Edda, 104, 268). Thus Loke is the son of the burning and destructive lightning, the son of him who particularly inflicts damaging blows on the sacred oaks (see No. 36) and sets fire to the groves. But the violence of the father does not appear externally in the son's character. He long prepares the conflagration of the world in secret, and not until he is put in chains does he exhibit, by the earthquakes he produces, the wild passion of his giant nature. As a fire-being, he was conceived as handsome and youthful. From an ethical point of view, the impurity of the flame which he represents is manifested by his unrestrained sensuousness. After he had been for ever exiled from the society of the gods and had been fettered in his cave of torture, his exterior, which was in the beginning beautiful, became transformed into an expression of his intrinsic wickedness, and his hair grew out in the form of horny spears (see above). In this too he reveals himself as a counterpart of Heimdal, whose helmet is ornamented with a glittering ram's horn.
MUNDILFORE'S IDENTITY WITH LODUR.
The position which we have found Mundilfore to occupy indicates that, although not belonging to the powers dwelling in Asgard, he is one of the chief gods of the Teutonic mythology. All natural phenomena, which appear to depend on a fixed mechanical law and not on the initiative of any mighty will momentarily influencing the events of the world, seem to have been referred to his care. The mythology of the Teutons, like that of the Rigveda-Aryans, has had gods of both kinds - gods who particularly represent that order in the physical and moral world which became fixed in creation, and which, under normal conditions, remain entirely uniform, and gods who particularly represent the powerful temporary interference for the purpose of restoring this order when it has been disturbed, and for the purpose of giving protection and defence to their worshippers in times of trouble and danger. The latter are in their very nature war-gods always ready for battle, such as Vita and Indra in Rigveda, Odin and Thor-Indridi in the Eddas; and they have their proper abode in a group of fortified celestial citadels like Asgard, whence they have their out-look upon the world they have to protect - the atmosphere and Midgard. The former, on the other hand, have their natural abode in Jormungrund's outer zone and in the lower world, whence the world-tree grew, and where the fountains are found whose liquids penetrate creation, and where that wisdom had its source of which Odin only, by self-sacrifice, secured a part. Down there dwell, accordingly, Urd and Mimer, Nat and Dag, Mundilfore with the dises of the sun and the moon, Delling, the genius of the glow of dawn, and Billing, the genius of the blushing sunset. There dwell the smiths of antiquity who made the chariots of the sun and moon and smithied the treasures of vegetation. There dwell the nidjar who represent the moon's waxing and waning; there the seven sons of Mimer who represent the changing seasons (see No. 87). Mundilfore is the lord of the regular revolutions of the starry firmament, and of the regular rising and sinking of the sea in its ebb and flood. He is the father of the dises of the sun and moon, who make their celestial journeys according to established laws; and, finally, he is the origin of the holy fire; he is father of Heimdal, who introduced among men a systematic life in homes fixed and governed by laws. As the father of Heimdal, the Vana-god, Mundilfore is himself a Vana-god, belonging to the oldest branch of this race, and in all probability one of those "wise rulers" who, according to Vafthrudnersmal, "created Njord in Vanaheim and sent him as a hostage to the gods (the Asas)."
Whence came the clans of the Vans and the Elves? It should not have escaped the notice of the mythologists that the Teutonic theogony, as far as it is known, mentions only two progenitors of the mythological races - Ymer and Bure. From Ymer develop the two very different races of giants, the offspring of his arms and that of his feet (see No. 86) - in other words, the noble race to which the norns, Mimer and Beistla belong, and the ignoble, which begins with Thrudgelmer. Bure gives birth to Burr (Bor), and the latter has three sons - Odinn, Vei (Vé), and Vili (Vilir). Unless Bure had more sons, the Van- and Elf-clans have no other theogonic source than the same as the Asa-clan, namely, Burr. That the hierologists of the Teutonic mythology did not leave the origin of these clans unexplained we are assured by the very existence of a Teutonic theogony, together with the circumstance that the more thoroughly our mythology is studied the more clearly we see that this mythology has desired to answer every question which could reasonably be asked of it, and in the course of ages it developed into a systematic and epic whole with clear outlines sharply drawn in all details. To this must be added the important observation that Vei and Vili, though brothers of Odin, are never counted among the Asas proper, and had no abode in Asgard. It is manifest that Odin himself with his sons founds the Asa-race, that, in other words, he is a clan-founder in which this race has its chieftain, and that his brothers, for this very reason, could not be included in his clan. There is every reason to assume that they, like him, were clan-founders; and as we find besides the Asa-clan two other races of gods, this of itself makes it probable that Odin's two brothers were their progenitors and clan-chieftains.
Odin's brothers, like himself, had many names. When Völuspa says that Odin, in the creation of man, was assisted by Honer and Loder, and when the Younger Edda (i. 52) says that, on this occasion, he was attended by his brothers, who just before (i. 46) are called Ve and Vile, then these are only different names of the same powers. Honer and Loder are Ve and Vile. It is a mistake to believe that Odin's brothers were mythical ghosts without characteristic qualities, and without prominent parts in the mythological events after the creation of the world and of man, in which we know they took an active part (Völuspa 4, 16, 17). The assumption that this was the case depends simply upon the fact that they have not been found mentioned among the Asas, and that our records, when not investigated with proper thoroughness, and when the mythological synonymies have not been carefully examined, seem to have so little to say concerning them.
Danish genealogies, Saxo's included, which desire to go further back in the genealogy of the Skjoldungs than to Skjold, the eponym of the race, mention before him a King Lotherus. There is no doubt that Lotherus, like his descendants, Skjold, Halfdan, and Hadding, is taken from the mythology. But in our mythic records there is only one name of which Lotherus can be a Latinised form, and this name is, as Müller (Notœ ulterior ad Saxonis Hist.) has already pointed out, Lodurr.
It has above been demonstrated (see Nos. 20, 21, 22) that the anthropomorphous Vana-god Heimdal was by Vana-gods sent as a child to the primeval Teutonic country, to give to the descendants of Ask and Embla the holy fire, tools, and implements, the runes, the laws of society, and the rules for religious worship. It has been demonstrated that, as an anthropomorphous god and first patriarch, he is identical with Scef-Rig, the Scyld of the Beowulf poem, that he becomes the father of the other original patriarch Skjold, and the grandfather of Halfdan. It has likewise been demonstrated (No. 82) that Heimdal, the personified sacred fire, is the son of the fire-producer (by friction) Mundilfore, in the same manner as Agni is the son of Matariçvan. From all this it follows that when the authors of mythic genealogies related as history wish to get further back in the Skjoldung genealogy than to the Beowulf Skjold, that is to say, further back than to the original patriarch Heimdal, then they must go to that mythic person who is Heimdal's father, that is to say, to Mundilfore, the fire-producer. Mundilfore is the one who appears in the Latinised name Lotherus. In other words, Mundilfore, the fire-producer, is Lodurr. For the name Lodurr there is no other rational explanation than that which Jacob Grimm, without knowing his position in the epic of mythology, has given, comparing the name with the verb lodern, "to blaze." Lodurr is active in its signification, "he who causes or produces the blaze," and thus refers to the origin of fire, particularly of the friction-fire and of the bore-fire.
Further on (Nos. 90, 91, 92, 121, 123) I shall give an account of the ward of the atmosphere, Gevarr (Nökkvi, Nœfr), and demonstrate that he is identical with Mundilfore, the revolver of the starry firmament. All that Saxo tells about Lotherus is explained by the character of the latter as the chieftain of a Vana-clan, and by his identity with Mundilföri-Gevarr. As a chieftain of the Vans he was their leader when the war broke out between the Asas on the one side, and the Vans and Elves on the other. The banishment of Odin and the Asas by the Vans causes Saxo to say that Lotherus banished from the realm persons who were his equals in noble birth (nobilitate pares), and whom he regarded as competitors in regard to the government. It is also stated that he took the power from an elder brother, but spared his life, although he robbed him of the sceptre. The brother here referred to is not, however, Odin, but Hœnir (Vei). The character of the one deposed is gentle and without any greed for rule like that by which Honer is known. Saxo says of him that he so patiently bore the injustice done him that he seemed to be pleased therewith as with a kindness received (ceterum injuriœ tam patiens fuit, ut honoris damno tanquam beneficio gratulari crederetur). The reason why Honer, at the outbreak of the war with the Asas, is deposed from his dignity as the ruler of Vanaheim and is succeeded by Loder, is explained by the fact that he, like Mimer, remained devoted to the cause of Odin. In spite of the confused manner in which the troubles between the Asas and Vans are presented in Heimskringla, it still appears that, before the war between the Asas amid Vans, Honer was the chief of the latter on account of an old agreement between the two god-clans; that he then always submitted to the counsels of the wise Mimer, Odin's friend; that Mimer lost his life in the service of Odin, and that the Vans sent his head to Odin; and, finally, that, at the outbreak of the feud with the Asas and after the death of Mimer, they looked upon Honer as unqualified to be their judge and leader.
Thus Loder becomes after Honer the ruler of Vanaheim and the chieftain of the Vans, while the Vans Njord, Frey, and the Elf Ull, who had already been adopted in Asgard, administer the affairs of the rest of the world. To the mythical circumstance, that Honer lost his throne and his power points also Völuspa, the poem restoring to the gentle and patient Vana-god, after the regeneration, the rights of which he had been robbed, thá kná Hœnir hlautvid kjosa (str. 64). "Then Honer becomes able to choose the lot-wood," that is to say, he is permitted to determine and indicate the fortunes of those consulting the oracle; in other words, then he is again able to exercise the rights of a god. In the Eddas, Honer appears as Odin's companion on excursions from Asgard. Skaldskaparmal, which does not seem to be aware that Honer was Odin's brother, still is conscious that he was intimately connected with him and calls him his sessi, sinni, and máli (Younger Edda, i. 266). During the war between Asas and Vans, Frigg espoused the cause of the Vans (see No. 36); hence Loke's insulting words to her (Lokasenna, 26), and the tradition in Heimskringla (Yngl., 3), that Vilir and Vei took Frigg to themselves once when Odin was far away from Asgard.
Saxo makes Lotherus fall at the hands of conspirators. The explanation of this statement is to be sought in Mundilföri-Gevarr's fate, of which, see Nos. 91, 123.
Mundilfore's character seems at least in one respect to be the opposite of Honer's. Gylfaginning speaks of his ofdrambi, his pride, founded, according to this record, on the beauty of his children. Saxo mentions the insolentia of Lotherus, and one of his surnames was Dulsi, the proud. See No. 89, where a strophe is quoted, in which the founder of the Swedish Skilfing race (the Ynglings) is called Dulsa konr, Dulsi's descendant. As was shown above in the account of the myth about Scef, the Skjoldungs, too, are Skilfings. Both these branches of the race have a common origin; and as the genealogy of the Skjoldungs can be traced back to Heimdal, and beyond him to Mundilfore, it must be this personality who is mentioned for his ofdrambi, that bears the surname Dulsi.
With Odin, Vei-Höner and Vile-Lodurr-Mundilföri have participated in the shaping of the world as well as in the creation of man. Of the part they took in the latter act, and of the importance they thereby acquired in the mythical anthropology, and especially in the conceptions concerning the continued creation of man by generation and birth, see No. 95.
84.
NAT, THE MOTHER OF THE GODS.
It has already been shown above that Nat, the mother of the gods, has her hall in the northern part of Mimer's realm, below the southern slopes of the Nida mountains.
There has been, and still is, an interpretation of the myths as symbols. Light is regarded as the symbol of moral goodness, and darkness as that of moral evil. That there is something psychologically correct in this cannot be denied; but in regard to the Aryan religions the assumption would lead to a great error, if, as we might be tempted to do, we should make night identical with darkness, and should refer her to the world of evil. In the mythologies of the Rigveda-Aryans and of the Teutons, Nat is an awe-inspiring, adorable, noble, and beneficent being. Night is said in Rigveda "to have a fair face, to increase riches, and to be one of the mothers of order." None of the phenomena of nature seemed to the Teutons evil per se; only when they transgressed what was thought to be their lawful limits, and thus produced injury and harm, were giant-powers believed to be active therein. Although the Teutonic gods are in a constant; more or less violent conflict with the powers of frost, still winter, when it observes its limits of time, is not an evil but a good divinity, and the cold liquids of Hvergelmer mixed with those of Urd's and Mimer's fountains are necessary to the world-tree. Still less could night be referred to the domain of demons. Mother Nat never transgresses the borders of her power; she never defies the sacred laws, which are established for the order of the universe. According to the seasons of the year, she divides in an unvarying manner the twenty-four hours between herself and day. Work and rest must alternate with each other. Rich in blessing, night comes with solace to the weary, and seeks if possible to sooth the sufferer with a potion of slumber. Though sombre in appearance (Gylfy., 10), still she is the friend of light. She decorates herself with lunar effulgence and with starry splendour, with winning twilight in midsummer, and with the light of snow and of northern aurora in the winter. The following lines in Sigrdrifumal (str., 3, 4) sound like a reverberation from the lost liturgic hymns of our heathendom.
| Heill Dagr, heilir Dags synir, heil Nott ok Nipt! Oreithom augom litith ocr thinig oc gefit sitiondom règr! Heilir æsir, heilar asynjor, heil sia in fiolnyta fold! |
Hail Dag, Hail Dag's sons, Hail Nat and Nipt! Look down upon us With benevolent eyes And give victory to the sitting! Hail Asas, Hail Asynjes, Hail bounteous earth! |
Of the Germans in the first century after Christ, Tacitus writes (Germ., 3): "They do not, as we, compute time by days but by nights, night seems to lead the day" (nec dierum numerum, ut nos, sed noctium computant: nox ducere diem videtur). This was applicable to the Scandinavians as far down as a thousand years later. Time was computed by nights not by days, and in the phrases from heathen times, nótt ok dagr, nótt med degi, bœdi um nœtr ok um daga, night is named before day. Linguistic usage and mythology are here intimately associated with each other. According to Vafthrudnersmal (25) and Gylfaginning (10), Nat bore with Delling the son Dag, with whom she divided the administration of the twenty-four hours. Delling is the elf of the morning red (see No. 35). The symbolism of nature is here distinct as in all theogonies.
Through other divinities, Nagelfar and Ónarr (Anarr, Aunarr), Nat is the mother with the former of Unnr (Udr), also called Audr, with the latter of the goddess ord, Odin's wife. Unnr means water, Audr means rich. It has above been shown that Unnr-Audr is identical with Njord, the lord of wealth and commerce, who in the latter capacity became the protectors of navigators, and to whom sacrifices were offered for a prosperous voyage. Gods of all clans - Asas, Vans, and Elves - are thus akin to Nat, and are descended from her.
85.
NARFI, NAT'S FATHER, IDENTICAL WITH MIMER. A PSEUDO-NARFI IN THE YOUNGER EDDA.
Nat herself is the daughter of a being whose name has many forms.
| Naurr, Nörr | (dative Naurvi, Nörvi, Nott var Naurvi borin - Vafthrudnersmal, 25; Nott. Naurvi kenda - Alvism., 29). |
| Narfi, Narvi | (niderfi Narfa - Egill Skallagr., 56, 2; Gylfag., 10). |
| Norvi, Nörvi | (Gylfag., 10; kund Nörva - Forspjallsl., 7). |
| Njörfi, Njörvi | (Gylfag., 10; Njörva nipt - Sonatorr.). |
| Nori | (Gylfag., 10). |
| Nari | (Höfudl., 10). |
| Neri | (Helge Hund., 1). |
All these variations are derived from the same original appellation, related to the Old Norse verb njörva, the Old English nearwian, meaning "the one that binds," "the one who puts on tight-fitting bonds."
Simply the circumstance that Narve is Nat's father proves that he must have occupied one of the most conspicuous positions in the Teutonic cosmogony. In all cosmogonies and theogonies night is one of the oldest beings, older than light, without which it cannot be conceived. Light is kindled in the darkness, thus foreboding an important epoch in the development of the world out of chaos. The being which is Night's father must therefore be counted among the oldest in the cosmogony. The personified representatives of water and earth, like the day, are the children of his daughter.
What Gylfaginning tells of Narve is that he was of giant birth, and the first one who inhabited Jotunheim (Norvi eda Narfi hét jötun, er bygdi fyrst Jotunheima - Gylfag., 10). In regard to this we must remember that, in Gylfaginning and in the traditions of the Icelandic sagas, the lower world is embraced in the term Jtunheim, and this for mythical reasons, since Nifelheim is inhabited by rimthurses and giants (see No. 60), and since the regions of bliss are governed by Mimer and by the norns, who also are of giant descent. As the father of the lower-world dis, Nat, Narve himself belongs to that group of powers, with which the mythology peopled the lower world. The upper Jotunheim did not exist before in a later epoch of the cosmogonic development. It was created simultaneously with Midgard by Odin and his brothers (Gylfaginning).
In a strophe by Egil Skallagrimson (ch. 56), poetry, or the source of poetry, is called niderfi Narfa, "the inheritance left by Narve to his descendants." As is well known, Mimer's fountain is the source of poetry. The expression indicates that the first inhabitant of the lower world, Narve, also presided over the precious fountain of wisdom and inspiration, and that he died and left it to his descendants as an inheritance.
Finally, we learn that Narve was a near kinsman to Urd and her sisters. This appears from the following passages:
(a) Helge Hundingsbane (1, 3, ff.). When Helge was born norns came in the night to the abode of his parents, twisted the threads of his fate, stretched them from east to west, and fastened them beneath the hall of the moon. One of the threads nipt Nera cast to the north and bade it hold for ever. It is manifest that by Neri's (Narve's) kinswoman is meant one of the norns present.
(b) Sonatorr. (str. 24). The skald Egil Skallagrimson, weary of life, closes his poem by saying that he sees the dis of death standing on the ness (Digraness) near the grave-mound which conceals the dust of his father and of his sons, and is soon to receive him:
| Tveggja bága Njörva nipt a nesi stendr. Skal ek thó gladr med gódan vilja ok úhryggr Heljar bida. |
The kinswoman of Njorve (the
binder) of Odin's (Tvegge's) foes stands on the ness. Then shall I be glad, with a good will, and without remorse, wait for Hel. |
It goes without saying that the skald means a dis of death, Urd or one of her messengers, with the words, "the kinswoman of Njorve (the binder) of Odin's foes," whom he with the eye of presentiment sees standing on the family grave-mound on Digraness. She is not to stop there, but she is to continue her way to his hall, to bring him to the grave-mound. He awaits her coming with gladness, and as the last line shows, she whose arrival he awaits is Hel, the goddess of death or fate. It has already been demonstrated that Hel in the heathen records is always identical with Urd.
Njorve is here used both as a proper and a common noun. "The kinswoman of the Njorve of Odin's foes" means "the kinswoman of the binder of Odin's foes." Odin's foe Fenrer was bound with an excellent chain smithied in the lower world (dwarfs in Svartalfheimr - Gylfag., 37), and as shall be shown later, there are more than one of Odin's foes who are bound with Narve's chains (see No. 87).
(c) Hofudlausn (str. 10). Egil Skallagrimson celebrates in song a victory won by Erik Blood-axe, and says of the battle-field that there trad nipt Nara náttverd ara ("Nari's kinswoman trampled upon the supper of the eagles," that is to say, upon the dead bodies of the fallen). The psychopomps of disease, of age, and of misfortunes have nothing to do on a battle-field. Thither come valkyries to fetch the elect. Nipt Nara must therefore be a valkyrie, whose horse tramples upon the heaps of dead bodies; and as Egil names only one shield-maid of that kind, he doubtless has had the most representative, the most important one in mind. That one is Skuld, Urd's sister, and thus a nipt Nara like Urd herself.
(d) Ynglingatal (Ynglingasaga, ch. 20). Of King Dygve, who died from disease, it is said that jódis Nara chose him. The right to choose those who die from disease belongs to the norns alone (see No. 69). Jódis, a word doubtless produced by a vowel change from the Old Germanic idis, has already in olden times been interpreted partly as horse-dis (from jór, horse), partly as the dis of one's kin (from jod, child, offspring). In this case the skald has taken advantage of both significations. He calls the death-dis ulfs ok Narva jódis, the wolf's horse-dis, Narve's kin-dis. In regard to the former signification, it should be remembered that the wolf is horse for all giantesses, the honoured norns not excepted. Cp. grey norna as a paraphrase for wolf.
Thus what our mythic records tell us about Narve is:
(a) He is one of the oldest beings of theogony, older than the upper part of the world constructed by Bur's sons.
(b) He is of giant descent.
(c) He is father of Nat, father-in-law of Nagelfar, Onar, and of Delling, the elf of the rosy dawn; and he is the father of Dag's mother, of Unnr, and of the goddess Jord, who becomes Odin's wife and Thor's mother. Bonds of kinship thus connect him with the Asas and with gods of other ranks.
(d) He is near akin to the dis of fate and death, Urd and her sisters. The word nipt, with which Urd's relation to him is indicated, may mean sister, daughter, and sister's daughter, and consequently does not state which particular one of these it is. It seems upon the whole to have been applied well-nigh exclusively in regard to mythic persons, and particularly in regard to Urd and her sisters (cp. above: Njörva nipt, nipt Nara, nipt Nera), so that it almost acquired the meaning of dis or norn. This is evident from Skaldskaparmal, ch. 75: Nornir heita thœr er naud skapa; Nipt ok Dis nú eru taldar, and from the expression Heil Nótt ok Nipt in the above-cited strophe from Sigrdrifumal. There is every reason for assuming that the Nipt, which is here used as a proper noun, in this sense means the dis of fate and as an appellation of kinship, a kinswoman of Nat. The common interpretation of heil Nótt ok Nipt is "hail Nat and her daughter," and by her daughter is then meant the goddess Jord; but this interpretation is, as Bugge has shown, less probable, for the goddess Jord immediately below gets her special greeting in the words: heil sia in fiolnyta Fold! ("hail the bounteous earth!")
(e) As the father of Nat, living in Mimer's realm, and kinsman of Urd, who with Mimer divides the dominion over the lower world, Narve is himself a being of the lower world, and the oldest subterranean being: the first one who inhabited Jotunheim.
(f) He presided over the subterranean fountain of wisdom and inspiration, that is to say, Mimer's fountain.
(g) He was Odin's friend and the binder of Odin's foes.
(h) He died and left his fountain as a heritage to his descendants.
As our investigation progresses it will be found that all these facts concerning Narve apply to Mimer, that "he who thinks" (Mimer) and "he who binds" (Narve) are the same person.
GEFION AND KING GYLPHI
(From an etching by Lorenz Frölich)It is told that once when Gylphi, King of Sweden and Denmark, was sorely distressed, Gefion, "the giver," appeared before him in the form of a charming maiden and so delighted the king with a song, accompanied with dulcet notes of her harp, that Gylphi offered to bestow upon her any guerdon she might ask. To this proffer the divine Gefion replied, that if she had found so much favor in the eyes of her sovereign as to merit so great a reward, she asked that as much land might be given her as could be ploughed around by her four bulls in a day and night. Surprised at the modesty of her request Gylphi immediately granted it. Thereupon Gefion brought four wonderful bulls which she harnessed to a plow that had a hundred shares and ploughed the sea day and night, raising earth out of the water until the island of Zealand was formed, upon which she built a castle and established a kingdom. By her magic spells she transformed the four bulls into as many youths, who were indeed her sons by a giant. Soon afterwards she married Skjöld and became mother of a long line of kings.
Already the circumstances that Narve was an ancient being of giant descent, that he dwelt in the lower world and was the possessor of the fountain of wisdom there, that he was Odin's friend, and that he died and left his fountain as an inheritance (cp. Mims synir), point definitely to Narve's and Mimer's identity. Thus the Teutonic theogony has made Thought the older kinsman of Fate, who through Nat bears Dag to the world. The people of antiquity made their first steps toward a philosophical view of the world in their theogony.
The Old English language has preserved and transferred to the Christian Paradise a name which originally belonged to the subterranean region of bliss of heathendom - Neorxenavang. Vang means a meadow, plain, field. The mysterious Neorxena looks like a gentive plural. Grein, in his Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, and before him Weinhold, refers neorxena to Narve, Nare, and this without a suspicion that Narve was an epithet of Mimer and referred to the king of the heathen regions of bliss. I consider this an evidence that Grein's assumption is as correct as it is necessary, if upon the whole we are to look for an etymological explanation of the word. The plural genitive, then, means those who inhabit Narve's regions of bliss, and receive their appellation from this circumstance. The opposite Old Norse appellation is njarir, a word which I shall discuss below.
To judge from certain passages in Christian writings of the thirteenth century, Mimer was not alone about the name Narve, Nare. One or two of Loke's sons are supposed to have had the same name. The statements in this regard demand investigation, and, as I think, this will furnish another instructive contribution to the chapter on the confusion of the mythic traditions, and on the part that the Younger Edda plays in this respect. The passages are:
(a) The prosaic afterword to Lokasenna: "He (Loke) was bound with the entrails of his son Nari, but his son Narfi was turned into a wolf."
(b) Gylfaginning, ch. 33. (1) Most of the codices: "His (Loke's) wife is hight Sigyn; their son is Nari or Narvi."
(2) Codex Hypnonesiensis: "His (Loke's) wife is hight Sigyn; his sons are hight Nari or Narvi and Vali".
(c) Gylfaginning, ch. 50. (1) Most of the codices: "Then were taken Loke's sons Vali and Nari or Narfi. The Asas changed Vali into a wolf, and the latter tore into pieces his brother Narfi. Then the Asas took his entrails and therewith bound Loke."
(2) Codex Upsalensis: "Then were taken Loke's sons Vali and Nari. The Asas changed Vali into a wolf, and the latter tore into pieces his brother Nari."
(d) Skaldskaparmal, ch. 16. (1) "Loke is the father of the wolf Fenrer, the Midgard-serpent, and Hel, 'and also of Nari and Ali'."
(2) Codex Wormianus and Codex Hypnonesiensis: "Loke is father of the Fenris-wolf, of the Midgard-serpent, and of Hel, 'and also of Nari and Vali'."
The mythology has stated that Loke was bound with chains which were originally entrails, and that he who contributed the materials of these chains was his own son, who was torn into pieces by his brother in wolf guise. It is possible that there is something symbolic in this myth - that it originated in the thought that the forces created by evil contend with each other and destroy their own parent. There is at least no reason for doubting that this account is a genuine myth, that is to say, that it comes from a heathen source and from some heathen poem.
But, in regard to the names of Loke's two sons here in question, we have a perfect right to doubt.
We discover at once the contradictions betrayed by the records in regard to them. The discrepancy of the statements can best be shown by the following comparisons. Besides Fenrer, the Midgard-serpent, and Hel, Loke has, according to:
| Gylfaginning, 33: | the son Nari, also called Narfi. | No other son is named; |
| The Prose added to Lokasenna: | the son Nari, | and the son Narfi |
| Codex Hypnon. (Gylfag., 33): | the son Nari, also called Narvi, | and the son Vali; |
| Gylfaginning, ch. 50: | the son Nari, also called Narfi, | and the son Vali; |
| Skaldskaparmal, ch. 16: | the son Nari, | and the son Ali; |
| The Prose added to Lokasenna: | Nari is torn into pieces by | Narfi; |
| Gylfaginning: | Nari-Narfi is torn into pieces by | Vali. |
The discrepancy shows that the author of these statements did not have any mythic song or mythic tradition as the source of all these names of Loke's sons.
The matter becomes even more suspicious when we find -
That the variations Nari and Narve, both of which belong to one of the foremost and noblest of mythic beings, namely, to Mimer, are here applied in such a manner that they either are given to two sons of Loke or are attributed to one and the same Loke-son, while in the latter case it happens -
That the names Vale and Ale, which both belong to the same Asa-god and son of Odin who avenged the death of his brother Balder, are both attributed to the other son of Loke. Compare Gylfaginning, ch. 30: Vali eda Ali heitir einn (Assin), sonr Odins ok Rindar.
How shall we explain this? Such an application of these names must necessarily produce the suspicion of some serious mistake; but we cannot assume that it was made wilfully. The cause must be found somewhere.
It has already been demonstrated that, in the mythology, Urd, the dis of fate, was also the dis of death and the ruler of the lower world, and that the functions belonging to her in this capacity were, in Christian times, transferred to Loke's daughter, who, together with her functions, usurped her name Hel. Loke's daughter and Hel became to the Christian mythographers identical.
An inevitable result was that such expressions as nipt Nara, jódis Narfa, nipt Njörva, had to change meaning. The nipt Njörva, whom the aged Egil saw standing near the grave-mound on Digraness, and whose arrival he awaited "with gladness and good-will," was no longer the death-dis Urd, but became to the Christian interpreters the abominable daughter of Loke who came to fetch the old heathen. The nipt Nara, whose horse trampled on the battlefield where Erik Blood-axe defeated the Scots, was no longer Urd's sister, the valkyrie Skuld, but became Loke's daughter, although, even according to the Christian mythographers, the latter had nothing to do on a battle-field. The jódis Narfa, who chose King Dygve, was confounded with Loka mœr, who had him leikinn (see No. 67), but who, according to the heathen conception, was a maid-servant of fate, without the right of choosing. To the heathens nipt Nara, nipt Njörva, jódis Narfa, meant "Nari-Mimer's kinswoman Urd." To the mythographers of the thirteenth century it must, for the reason stated, have meant the Loke-daughter as sister of a certain Nari or Narve. It follows that this Nari or Narve ought to be a son of Loke, since his sister was Loke's daughter. It was known that Loke, besides Fenrer and the Midgard-serpent, had two other sons, of which the one in the guise of a wolf tore the other into pieces. In Nari, Narve, the name of one or the names of both these Loke-sons were thought to have been found.
The latter assumption was made by the author of the prose in Lokasenna. He conceived Nari to be the one brother and Narve the other. The author of Gylfaginning, on the other hand, rightly regarded Nari and Narve as simply variations of the same name, and accordingly let them designate the same son of Loke. When he wrote chapter 33, he did not know what name to give to the other, and consequently omitted him entirely. But when he got to the 50th chapter, a light had risen for him in regard to the name of the other. And the light doubtless came from the following half strophe in Völuspa:
| tha kna vala vigbond snua, helldi voru hardgior hoft or thormum. |
This half strophe says that those were strong chains (for Loke) that were made of entrails, and these fetters were "twisted" from "Vale's vígbönd." Vig as a legal term means a murder, slaughter. Vala vig was interpreted as a murder comitted by Vale; and Vala vígbönd as the bonds or fetters obtained by the slaughter committed by Vale. It was known that Loke was chained with the entrails of his son, and here it was thought to appear that this son was slain by a certain Vale. And as he was slain by a brother according to the myth, then Vale must be the brother of the slain son of Loke. Accordingly chapter 50 of Gylfaginning could tell us what chapter 33 did not yet know, namely, that the two sons of Loke were named Vale and Nari or Narve, and that Vale changed to a wolf, tore the brother "Nari or Narve" into pieces.
The next step was taken by Skaldskaparmal, or more probably by one of the transcribers of Skaldskaparmal. As Vale and Ale in the mythology designated the same person (viz., Balder's avenger, the son of Odin), the son of Loke, changed into a wolf, "Vale" received as a gift the name "Ale." It is by no means impossible that the transcriber regarded Balder's avenger, Vale, and the son of Loke as identical. The oldest manuscript we have of Skaldskaparmal is the Upsala Codex, which is no older than the beginning of the fourteenth century. The mythic traditions were then in the continuation of that rapid decay which had begun in the eleventh century, and not long thereafter the Icelandic saga writings saw Valhal peopled by giants and all sorts of monsters, which were called einherjes, and Thor himself transferred to the places of torture where he drank venom from "the auroch's horn," presented to him by the daughter of Loke.
In the interpretation of the above-cited half strophe of Völuspa, we must therefore leave out the supposed son of Loke, Vale. The Teutonic mythology, like the other Aryan mythologies, applied many names and epithets to the same person, but it seldom gave two or more persons one and the same name, unless the latter was a patronymic or, in other respects, of a general character. There was not more than one Odin, one Thor, one Njord, one Heimdal, one Loke, and there is no reason for assuming that there was more than one Vale, namely, the divine son of this name. Of Balder's brother Vale we know that he was born to avenge the slaying of Balder. His impatience to do that which he was called to perform is expressed in the mythology by the statement, that he liberated himself from the womb of his mother before the usual time (Baldrs brodir var af borinn snemma - Völuspa), and only one night old he went to slay Hödr. The bonds which confine the impatient one in his mother's womb were his vigbönd, the bonds which hindered him from combat, and these bonds were in the most literal sense of the word ór thörmum. As Loke's bonds are made of the same material and destined to hinder him from combat with the gods until Ragnarok, and as his prison is in the womb of the earth, as Vale's was in that of the earth-goddess Rind's, then Vala vigbönd as a designation of Loke's chains is both logically and poetically a satisfactory paraphrase, and the more in order as it occurs in connection with the description of the impending Ragnarok, when Loke by an earthquake is to sever his fetters and hasten to the conflict.
86.
THE TWO GIANT CLANS DESCENDED FROM YMER.
In Havamál (140, ff.), Odin says that he in his youth obtained nine fimbul-songs and a drink of the precious mead dipped out of Odreirer from Beyzla's father, Bölthorn's famous son:
| Fimbulliód nio nam ec af enom fregja syni Baulthorns, Beyzlu faudur oc ce dryc of gat ens dyra miadar ausinn Odreri. |
The mythologists have assumed, for reasons that cannot be doubted, that Bolthorn's famous son, Beistla's brother, is identical with Mimer. No one else than he presided at that time over the drink dipped out of Odreirer, the fountain which conceals "wisdom and man's sense," and Sigrdrifumal (13, 14) corroborates that it was from Mimer, and through a drink from "Hodrofner's horn," that Odin obtained wonderful runes and "true sayings."
Accordingly Mimer had a sister by name Beyzla (variations: Bestla, Besla, Bezla). A strophe by Einar Skalaglam (Skaldskaparmal, ch. 2; cp. Gylfag., ch. 6) informs us that Beistla is Odin's mother. Mimer's disciple, the clan-chieftain of the gods, is accordingly his sister's son. Herein we have one more reason for the faithful friendship which Mimer always showed to Odin.
The Mimer epithet Narfi, Narve, means, as shown above, "the one who binds." His daughter Nat is called draumnjörun, the dream-binder (Alvism., 31). His kinswomen, the norns, spin and bind the threads and bonds, which, extended throughout the world, weave together the web of events. Such threads and bonds are called örlogthœttir (Helge Hund., i. 3), and Urdar lokur (Grogaldr., 7). As the nearest kinswomen of Beistla all have epithets or tasks which refer to the idea of binding, and when we add to this that Beistla's sons and descendants as gods have the epithet höpt and bönd, her own name might most properly be referred to the old word beizl, beisl (cp. betsel, bridle), which has a similar meaning.
As Mimer and Beistla are of giant descent, and in the theogony belong to the same stage of development as Bur (Burr), Odin's father, then, as the mythologists also have assumed, Bolthorn can be none else than Ymer.
Mimer, Beistla, the norns, and Nat thus form a group of kindred beings, which belong to the oldest giant race, but still they are most definitely separated from the other descendants of Ymer, as a higher race of giants from a lower, a noble giant race friendly to the gods and fostering the gods, from that race of deformed beings which bear children in the strangest manner, which are hostile to the gods and to the world, and which are represented by the rimthurses Thrudgelmer and Bergelmer and their offspring.
It now lies near at hand to inquire whether the mythology which attributed the same father to Mimer and Thrudgelmer was unable to conceive in this connection the idea of a nobler origin for the former than the latter. The remedy nearest at hand would have been to have given them mothers of different characters. But the mythology did not resort to this expedient. It is expressly stated that Ymer bore children without the pleasure of woman (gygiar gaman - Vafthrudnersmal, 32; cp. No. 60). Neither Mimer nor Thrudgelmer had a mother. Under such circumstances there is another expedient to which the sister of the Teutonic mythology, the Rigveda mythology, has resorted, and which is explained in the 90th hymn of book x. of Rigveda. The hymn informs us in regard to a primeval giant Parusha, and this myth is so similar to the Teutonic in regard to Ymer that it must here be considered.
The primeval being Parusha was a giant monster as large as the whole world, and even larger (lines 1-5). The gods resolved to sacrifice him, that is to say, to slay him for sacred purposes (1. 6), and from his limbs was created the present world. From his navel was made the atmosphere, from his head the canopy of heaven, from his two feet the earth, from his heart the moon, from his eye the sun, from his breath the wind, etc. His mouth became the brahma (the priest), his arms became the rajanya (the warrior), his thighs became the vaisya (the third free caste), and from his feet arose the sudra (the thrall, line 12).
The two fundamental ideas of the myth concerning Parusha are:
(1) There was a primeval being who was not divine. The gods slew him and created the material world out of his limbs.
(2) This primeval being gave rise to other beings of different ranks, and their rank corresponded with the position of the giant's limbs from which they were created.
Both these fundamental ideas reappear in the Teutonic myth concerning Ymer. In regard to the former idea we need only to quote what Vafthrudnersmal says in strophe 21:
| Or Ymis holdi var iord um scaupud, en or beinom bjorg, himinn or hausi ins hrimkalda iotuns, enn or sveita sior. |
Of Ymer's flesh the world was shapen, from the bones the rocks, the heavens from the head of the ice-cold giant, from his blood the sea. |
In regard to the second fundamental idea, it is evident from the Rigveda account that it is not there found in its oldest form, but that, after the rise of four castes among the Rigveda Aryans, it was changed, in order to furnish an explanation of the origin of these castes and make them at least as old as the present material world. Far more original, and perfectly free from the influence of social ideas, it appears in the Teutonic mythology, where the 33rd strophe of Vafthrudnersmal testifies concerning its character:
| Undir hendi vaxa quatho hrimthursi mey oc maug saman; fotr vid fóti gat ins froda iotuns serhaufdathan son. |
A son and a daughter are said to have been born together under the rimthurse's arm; foot begat with foot the strange-headed son of the wise giant. |
In perfect harmony with this Gylfaginning narrates: "Under Ymer's left arm grew forth a man and a woman, and his one foot begat with the other a son. Thence come (different) races."
The different races have this in common, that they are giant races, since they spring from Ymer; but these giant races must at the same time have been widely different intellectually and physically, since the mythology gives them different origins from different limbs of the progenitor. And here, as in Rigveda, it is clear that the lowest race was conceived as proceeding from the feet of the primeval giant. This is stated with sufficient distinctness in Vafthrudnersmal, where we read that a "strangely-headed" monster (Thrudgelmer - see No. 60) was born by them, while "man and maid" were born under the arm of the giant. "The man" and "the maid" must therefore represent a noble race sprung from Ymer, and they can only be Mimer and his sister, Odin's mother. Mimer and his clan constitute a group of ancient powers, who watch over the fountains of the life of the world and care for the perpetuation of the world-tree.
From them proceeded the oldest, fairest, and most enduring parts of the creation. For the lower world was put in order and had its sacred fountains and guardians before Bur's sons created Midgard and Asgard. Among them the world-tree grew up from its roots, whose source no one knows (Havamál, 138). Among them those forces are active which make the starry firmament revolve on its axis, and from them come the seasons and the divisions of time, for Nat and nidjar, Mane and Sol, belong to Mimer's clan, and were in the morning of creation named by the oldest "high holy gods," and endowed with the vocation árom at telja (Völuspa). From Mimer comes the first culture, for in his fountain inspiration, spiritual power, man's wit and wisdom, have their source, and around him as chief stand gathered the artists of antiquity by whose hands all things can be smithied into living and wonderful things. Such a giant clan demands another origin than that of the frost-giants and their offspring. As we learn from Vafthrudnersmal that two giant races proceeded from Ymer, the one from a part of his body which in a symbolic sense is more noble than that from which the other race sprang, and that the race born of his feet was the ignoble one hostile to the gods, then the conclusion follows of necessity that "the man and maid" who were born as twins under Ymer's arm became the founders of that noble group of giants who are friendly to the gods, and which confront us in the mythology of our fathers. It has already been shown above (see No. 54) that Jima (Yama) in the Asiatic-Aryan mythology corresponds to Mimer in the Teutonic. Jima is an epithet which means twin. The one with whom Jima was born together was a maid, Yami. The words in the quoted Vafthrudnersmal strophe, undir hendi hrimthursi vaxa mey ok maug saman, are evidence that the Germans also considered Mimer and his sister as twins.
87.
THE IDENTITY OF MIMER AND NIDHAD OF THE VOLUND SAGA.
The condition in which the traditions of the great Volund (Wayland) have come down to our time is one of the many examples illustrating how, under the influences of a change of faith, a myth disrobes itself of its purely mythical character and becomes a heroic saga. The nature of the mythic traditions and songs is not at once obliterated in the time of transition; there remain marks of their original nature in some or other of the details as proof of what they have been. Thus that fragment of a Volund saga, turned into an epic, which the Old Norse literature has preserved for us in Volundarkvida, shows us that the artist who is the hero of the song was originally conceived not as a son of man, but as a member of the mythic race of elves which in Völuspa is mentioned in connection with the Asas (hvat er med asom, hvat er med alfom? - str. 49). Volund is an elf-prince (alfa visi, alfa ljothi - Volund., str. 10, 13), and, as shall be shown below, when we come to consider the Volund myth exhaustively, he and his brothers and their mistresses have played parts of the very greatest importance in the epic of Teutonic mythology. Under such circumstances it follows that the other persons appearing in Volundarkvida also were originally mythical characters.
One of these is called Nidadr (Nidudr), king of Njares, and I am now to investigate who this Nidadr was in the mythology.
When Volund for the first time appears by this name in the Elder Edda, he is sojourning in a distant country, to which it is impossible to come without traversing the Myrkwood forest famous in the mythology (see No. 78). It is a snow-clad country, the home of bears and wolves. Volund gets his subsistence by hunting on skees. The Old English poem, "Deor the Scald's Complaint," confirms that this region was regarded as very cold (cp. vintercealde vrœce). In Volundarkvida it is called Wolfdales.
Volund stays here many years in company with his two brothers and with three swan-maids, their mistresses or wives, but finally alone. Volund passes the time in smithying, until he is suddenly attacked by Nidadr (Nidudr), "the Njara-king" (Volundarkv., 6), who puts him in chains and robs him of two extraordinary treasures - a sword and an arm-ring. Seven hundred arm-rings hung in a string in Volund's hall; but this one alone seemed to be worth more than all the rest, and it alone was desired by Nidadr (str. 7, 8, 17).
Before Volund went to the Wolfdales, he had lived with his people a happy life in a land abounding in gold (str. 14). Not voluntarily, but from dire necessity he had exchanged his home for the distant wilderness of the Wolfdales. "Deor the Scald's Complaint" says he was an exile (Veland him be vurman vreces cannade). A German saga of the middle ages, "Anhang des Heldenbuchs," confirms this statement. Wieland (Volund), it is there said, "was a duke who was banished by two giants, who took his land from him," whereupon "he was stricken with poverty," and "became a smith." The Volundarkvida does not have much to say about the reason for his sojourn in the Wolfdales, but strophe 28 informs us that, previous to his arrival there, he had suffered an injustice, of which he speaks as the worst and the most revenge-demanding which he, the unhappy and revengeful man, ever experienced. But he has had no opportunity of demanding satisfaction, when he finally succeeds in getting free from Nidadr's chains. Who those mythic persons are that have so cruelly insulted him and filled his heart with unquenchable thirst for revenge is not mentioned; but in the very nature of the case those persons from whose persecutions he has fled must have been mightier than he, and as he himself is a chief in the godlike clan of elves, his foes are naturally to be looked for among the more powerful races of gods.
And as Volundarkvida pictures him as boundlessly and recklessly revengeful, and makes him resort to his extraordinary skill as a smith - a skill famous among all Teutonic tribes - in the satisfaction which he demands of Nidudr, there is no room for doubt that, during the many years he spent in Wolfdales, he brooded on plans of revenge against those who had most deeply insulted him, and that he made use of his art to secure instruments for the carrying out of these plans. Of the glittering sword of which Nidadr robbed him, Volund says (str. 18) that he had applied his greatest skill in making it hard and keen. The sword must, therefore, have been one of the most excellent ones mentioned in the songs of Teutonic heathendom. Far down in the middle ages, the songs and sagas were fond of attributing the best and most famous swords wielded by their heroes to the skill of Volund.
In the myths turned by Saxo into history, there has been mentioned a sword of a most remarkable kind, of untold value (ingens prœmium), and attended by success in battle (belli fortuna comitaretur). A hero whose name Saxo Latinised into Hotherus (see Hist. Dan., p. 110) got into enmity with the Asa-gods, and the only means with which he can hope to cope with them is the possession of this sword. He also knows where to secure it, and with its aid he succeeds in putting Thor himself and other gods to flight.
In order to get possession of this sword, Hotherus had to make a journey which reminds us of the adventurous expeditions already described to Gudmund-Mimer's domain, but with this difference, that he does not need to go by sea along the coast of Norway in order to get there, which circumstance is sufficiently explained by the fact that, according to Saxo, Hotherus has his home in Sweden. The regions which Hotherus has to traverse are pathless, full of obstacles, and for the greater part continually in the cold embrace of the severest frost.
They are traversed by mountain-ridges on which the cold is terrible, and therefore they must be crossed as rapidly as possible with the aid of "yoke-stags." The sword is kept concealed in a specus, a subterranean cave, and "mortals" can scarcely cross its threshold (haud facile mortalibus patere posse). The being which is the ward of the sword in this cave is by Saxo called Mimingus.
The question now is, whether the sword smithied by Volund and the one fetched by Hotherus are identical or not. The former is smithied in a winter-cold country beyond Myrkwood, where the mythic Nidadr suddenly appears, takes possession of it, and the purpose for which it was made, judging from all circumstances, was that Volund with its aid was to conquer the hated powers which, stronger than he, the chief of elves, had compelled him to take refuge to the Wolfdales. If these powers were Asas or Vans, then it follows that Volund must have thought himself able to give to his sword qualities that could render it dangerous to the world of gods, although the latter had Thor's hammer and other subterranean weapons at their disposal. The sword captured by Hotherus is said to possess those very qualities which we might look for in the Volund weapon, and the regions he has to traverse in order to get possession of it refer, by their cold and remoteness, to a land similar to that where Nidadr surprises Volund, and takes from him the dangerous sword.
As already stated, Nidhad at the same time captured an armring of an extraordinary kind. If the saga about Volund and his sword was connected with the saga-fragment turned into history by Saxo concerning Hotherus and the sword, whose owner he becomes, then we might reasonably expect that the precious arm-ring, too, should appear in the latter saga. And we do find it there. Mimingus, who guards the sword of victory, also guards a wonderful arm-ring, and through Saxo we learn what quality makes this particular arm-ring so precious, that Nidhad does not seem to care about the other seven hundred which he finds in Volund's workshop. Saxo says: Eidem (Mimingo) quoque armillam esse mira quadam arcanaque virtute possessoris opes augere solitam. "In the arm-ring there dwells a wonderful and mysterious power, which increases the wealth of its possessor." In other words, it is a smith's work, the rival of the ring Draupner, from which eight similar rings drop every ninth night. This explains why Volund's smithy contains so many rings, that Nidad expresses his suspicious wonderment (str. 13).
There are therefore strong reasons for assuming that the sword and the ring, which Hotherus takes from Mimingus, are the same sword and ring as Nidad before took from Volund, and that the saga, having deprived Volund of the opportunity of testing the quality of the weapon himself in conflict with the gods, wanted to indicate what it really amounted to in a contest with Thor and his hammer by letting the sword come into the hands of Hotherus, another foe of the Asas. As we now find such articles as those captured by Nidad reappearing in the hands of a certain Mimingus, the question arises whether Mimingus is Nidad himself or some one of Nidad's subjects; for that they either are identical, or are in some way connected with each other, seems to follow from the fact that the one is said to possess what the other is said to have captured. Mimingus is a Latinising of Mimingr, Mimungr, son or descendant of Mimer.
Nidadr, Nidudr (both variations are found in Volundarkvida), has, on the other hand, his counterpart in the Anglo-Saxon Nidhâd. The king who in "Deor the Scald's Complaint" fetters Volund bears this name, and his daughter is called Beadohild, in Volundarkvida Bodvild. Previous investigators have already remarked that Beadohild is a more original form than Bodvild, and Nidhad than Nidudr, Nidadr. The name Nidhad is composed of nid (neuter gender), the lower world, Hades, and had, a being, person, forma, species. Nidhad literally means the lower world being, the Hades being. Herewith we also have his mythical character determined. A mythical king, who is characterised as the being of the lower world, must be a subterranean king. The mythic records extant speak of the subterranean king Mimer (the middle-age saga's Gudmund, king of the Glittering Fields; see Nos. 45, 46), who rules over the realm of the well of wisdom and has the dis of fate as his kinswoman, the princess of the realm of Urd's fountain and of the whole realm of death. While we thus find, on the one hand, that it is a subterranean king who captures Volund's sword and arm-ring, we find, on the other hand, that when Hotherus is about to secure the irresistible sword and the wealth-producing ring, he has to betake himself to the same winter-cold country, where all the traditions here discussed (see Nos. 45-49) locate the descent to Mimer's realm, and that he, through an entrance "scarcely approachable for mortals," must proceed into the bosom of the earth after he has subdued a Mimingus, a son of Mimer. Mimer being the one who took possession of the treasure, it is perfectly natural that his son should be its keeper.
This also explains why Nidadr in Volundarkvida is called the king of the Njares. A people called Njares existed in the mythology, but not in reality. The only explanation of the word is to be found in the Mimer epithet, which we discovered in the variations Narve, Njorve, Nare, Nere, which means "he who binds." They are called Njares, because they belong to the clan of Njorve-Nare.
Volundarkvida (str. 19, with the following prose addition) makes Nidad's queen command Volund's knee-sinews to be cut. Of such a cruelty the older poem, "Deor the Scald's Complaint," knows nothing. This poem relates, on the other hand, that Nidad bound Volund with a fetter made from a strong sinew:
| siththan hinne Nidhad on nede legde sveoncre seono-bende. |
Though Volund is in the highest degree skilful, he is not able to free himself from these bonds. They are of magic kind, and resemble those örlogthœttir which are tied by Mimer's kinswoman Urd. Nidad accordingly here appears in Mimer-Njorve's character as "binder." With this fetter of sinew we must compare the one with which Loke was bound, and that tough and elastic one which was made in the lower world and which holds Fenrer bound until Ragnarok. And as Volund - a circumstance already made probable, and one that shall be fully proved below - actually regards himself as insulted by the gods, and has planned a terrible revenge against them, then it is an enemy of Odin that Nidhad here binds, and the above-cited paraphrase for the death-dis, Urd, employed by Egil Skallagrimson, "the kinswoman of the binder (Njorva) of Odin's foes" (see No. 85), also becomes applicable here.
The tradition concerning Nidhad's original identity with Mimer flourished for a long time in the German middle-age sagas, and passed thence into the Vilkinasaga, where the banished Volund became Mimer's smith. The author of Vilkinasaga, compiling both from German and from Norse sources, saw Volund in the German records as a smith in Mimer's employ, and in the Norse sagas he found him as Nidhad's smith, and from the two synonyms he made two persons.
The Norse form of the name most nearly corresponding to the Old English Nidhad is Nidi, "the subterranean," and that Mimer also among the Norsemen was known by this epithet is plain both from the Solarljod and from Völuspa. The skald of the Sun-song sees in the lower world "Nide's sons, seven together, drinking the clear mead from the well of ring-Regin." The well of the lower world with the "clear mead" is Mimer's fountain, and the paraphrase ring-Regin is well suited to Mimer, who possessed among other treasures the wonderful ring of Hotherus. Völuspa speaks of Nide's mountain, the Hvergelmer mountain, from which the subterranean dragon Nidhog flies (see No. 75), and of Nide's plains where Sindre's race have their golden hall. Sindre is, as we know, one of the most celebrated primeval smiths of mythology, and he smithied Thor's lightning hammer, Frey's golden boar, and Odin's spear Gungnir (Gylfaginning). Dwelling with his kinsmen in Mimer's realm, he is one of the artists whom the ruler of the lower world kept around him (cp. No. 53). Several of the wonderful things made by these artists, as for instance the harvest-god's Skidbladner, and golden boar, and Sif's golden locks, are manifestly symbols of growth or vegetation. The same is therefore true of the original Teutonic primeval smiths as of the Ribhuians, the ancient smiths of Rigveda, that they make not only implements and weapons, but also grass and herbs. Out of the lower world grows the world-tree, and is kept continually fresh by the liquids of the sacred fountains. In the abyss of the lower world and in the sea is ground that mould which makes the fertility of Midgard possible (see No. 80); in the lower world "are smithied" those flowers and those harvests which grow out of this mould, and from the manes of the subterranean horses, and from their foaming bridles, falls on the fields and meadows that honey-dew "which gives harvests to men."
Finally, it must be pointed out that when Nidhad binds Volund, the foe of the gods, this is in harmony with Mimer's activity throughout the epic of the myths as the friend of the Asa-gods, and as the helper of Odin, his sister's son, in word and deed.
Further evidences of Mimer's identity with Nidhad are to be found in the Svipdag myth, which I shall discuss further on.
Vafthrudnersmal states in strophe 25 that "beneficent regin (makers) created Ny and Nid to count times for men," this being said in connection with what it states about Narve, Nat, and Dag. In the Völuspa dwarf-list we find that the chief of these regin was Modsogner, whose identity with Mimer has been shown (see No. 53). Modsogner-Mimer created among other "dwarfs" also Ny and Nedan (Völuspa, 11). These are, therefore, his sons at least in the sense that they are indebted to him for their origin. The expressions to create and to beget are very closely related in the mythology. Of Njord Vafthrudner also says (str. 39) that "wise regin created him" in Vanaheim.
As sons of Nide-Mimer the changes of the moon have been called after his name Nidi, and collectively they have been called by the plural Nidgar, in a later time Nidar. And as Nat's brothers they are enumerated along with her as a stereotyped alliteration. In Vafthrudnersmal Odin asks the wise giant whether he knows whence Nat and Nidjar (Nott med Nithom) came, and Völuspa (6) relates that in the dawn of time the high holy gods (regin) seated themselves on their judgment-seats and gave names to Nat and Nidjar (Nott ok Nithiom). The giving of a name was in heathen times a sacred act, which implied an adoption in the name-giver's family or circle of friends.
Nidjar also appears to have had his signification of moon-changes in regard to the changes of months. According to Saxo (see No. 46), King Gorm saw in the lower world twelve sons of Gudmund-Mimer, all "of noble appearance." Again, Solarljod's skald says that the sons of Nide, whom he saw in the lower world, were "seven together." From the standpoint of a nature-symbol the difference in these statements is explained by the fact that the months of the year were counted as twelve, but in regard to seasons and occupations there were seven divisions: gor-mánudr, frer-m., hrut-m., ein-m., sol-m., sel-m., kornskurdar-mánudr. Seven is the epic-mythological number of these Nidjar. To the saga in regard to these I shall return in No. 94.
88.
A GENERAL REVIEW OF MIMER'S NAMES AND EPITHETS.
The names, epithets, and paraphrases with which the king of the lower world, the ward of the fountain of wisdom, was designated, according to the statements hitherto made, are the following:
(1) Mimir (Hodd-mímir, Mímr, Mími, Mime der alte).
(2) Narfi (Narvi, Njorvi, Nörr, Nari, Neri).
(3) Nidi (Nidhad, Nidadr, Nidudr, Nidungr).
These three names, which mean the Thinker, the Binder, the Subterranean, are presumably all ancient.
(4) Modsognir, "the mead-drinker."
(5) Hoddrofnir, presumably "the one bounteous in treasures."
(6) Gauta spjalli, "the one with whom Gauti (Odin) counsels."
(7) Baug-regin, Ring-reginn.
(8) Godmundr, the name by which Mimer appears in Christian middle-age sagas of Norse origin. To these names may still be added:
(9) Fimbulthulr, "the great teacher" (the lecturer). Havamál (str. 142; cp. str. 80) says that Fimbulthulr drew (fadi) the runes, that ginn-regin "made" (gordo) them, that is to say, in the older sense of the word, prepared them for use, and that Odin (hroptr raugna) carved (reist) them. In the stropbes immediately preceding, it is said that Odin, by self-sacrifice, begot runes out of the deep and fimbul-songs from Beistla's brother. These statements, joined with those which mention how the runes given by Mimer were spread over the world, and were taught by various clan-chiefs to different clans (see No. 53), make it evident that a perfect myth had been developed in regard to the origin of the runes and the spreading of runic knowledge. Mimer, as the possessor of the well of wisdom, was the inventor or source of the runes. When Sigrdrifumal (str. 13) says that they dropped out of Hoddropnir's horn, this is, figuratively speaking, the same as Havamál tells, when it states that Fimbulthul carved them. The oldest powers (ginnregin) and Odin afterwards developed and spread them.
At the time of Tacitus, and probably one or two centuries earlier, the art of writing was known among the Teutons. The runic inscriptions that have come down to our time bear evidence of a Greek-Roman origin.
By this we do not mean to deny that there were runes - at least, non-phonetic ones - before them. The many kinds of magic runes of which our mythic records speak are perhaps reminiscences of them. At all events we must distinguish the latter from the common runes for writing, and also from the many kinds of cypher-runes, the keys of which are to be sought in the common phonetic rune-row.
(10) Brimir. By the side of the golden hall of Sindre, Völuspa (str. 36) mentions the giant Brimer's "bjór" hall, which is in Okólnir. Bjórr is a synonym for mead and ale (Alvism., 34). Okólnir means "the place where cold is not found." The reference is to a giant dwelling in the lower world who presides over mead, and whose hall is situated in a domain to which cold cannot penetrate. The myth has put this giant in connection with Ymer, who in relative opposition to him is called Leirbrimir, clay-Brimer (Fjölsvinnsmal). These circumstances refer to Mimer. So also Sigrdrifumal (str. 14), where it is said that "Odin stood on the mountain with Brimer's sword" (Brimis eggiar), when Mimer's head for the first time talked with him. The expression "Brimer's sword" is ambiguous. As a head was once used as a weapon against Heimdal, a sword and a head can, according to Skaldskaparmal, be employed as paraphrases for each other, whence "Brimer's sword" may be the same as "Mimer's head" (see Skaldskaparmal, 69; Cod. H.; cp. Skaldskaparmal, 8, and Gylfag., 27).
Sigrdrifumal certainly also employs the phrase in its literal sense of a famous mythological sword, for, in the case in question, it represents Odin as fully armed, with helmet on his head; and the most excellent mythological sword, according to an added line in strophe 54 of Grimnersmal (Cod. A.), bore Brimer's name, just as the same sword in the German saga has the name Miminc (Biterolf, v. 176, in Vilkinasaga changed to Mimmung), doubtless because it at one time was in Mimer-Nidhad's possession; for the German saga (Biterolf, 157; cp. Vilkinasaga, ch. 23) remembers that a sword called by Mimer's name was the same celebrated weapon as that made by Volund (Weiland in Biterolf; Velint in Vilkinasaga), and hence the same work of art as that which, according to Vilkinasaga, Nidhad captured from him during his stay in Wolfdales.
89.
THE MEAD MYTH.
We have seen (Nos. 72, 73) that the mead which was brewed from the three subterranean liquids destroys the effects of death and gives new vitality to the departed, and that the same liquid is absorbed by the roots of the world-tree, and in its trunk is distilled into that sap which gives the tree eternal life. From the stem the mead rises into the foliage of the crown, whose leaves nourish the fair giver of "the sparkling drink," in Grimnersmal symbolised as Heidrun, from the streams of whose teats the mead-horns in Asgard are filled for the einherjes. The morning dew which falls from Ygdrasil down into the dales of the lower world contains the same elements. From the bridle of Rimfaxe and from the horses of the valkyries some of the same dew also falls in the valleys of Midgard (see No. 74). The flowers receive it in their chalices, where the bees extract it, and thus is produced the earthly honey which man uses, and from which he brews his mead (cp. Gylfag., ch. 16). Thus the latter too contains some of the strength of Mimer's and Urd's fountains (veigar - see Nos. 72, 73), and thus it happens that it is able to stimulate the mind and inspire poetry and song - nay, used with prudence, it may suggest excellent expedients in important emergencies (cp. Tacitus, Germania).
Thus the world-tree is among the Teutons, as it is among their kinsmen the Iranians (see below), a mead-tree. And so it was called by the latter, possibly also by the former. The name miötvidr, with which the world-tree is mentioned in Völuspa (2) and whose origin and meaning have been so much discussed, is from a mythological standpoint satisfactorily explained if we assume that an older word, miödvidr, the mead-tree, passed into the word similar in sound, miötvidr, the tree of fate (from miöt, measure; cp. mjötudr in the sense of fate, the power which gives measure, and the Anglo-Saxon metod, Old Saxon metod, the giver of measure, fate, providence).
The sap of the world-tree and the veigar of the horn of the lower world are not, however, precisely the same mead as the pure and undefiled liquid from Mimer's fountain, that which Odin in his youth, through self-sacrifice, was permitted to taste, nor is it precisely the same as that concerning the possession of which the powers of mythology long contended, before it finally, through Odin's adventures at Suttung's, came to Asgard. The episodes of this conflict concerning the mead will be given as my investigation progresses, so far as they can be discovered. Here we must first examine what the heathen records have preserved in regard to the closing episode in which the conflict was ended in favour of Asgard. What the Younger Edda (Bragarædur) tells about it I must for the present leave entirely unnoticed, lest the investigation should go astray and become entirely abortive.
The chief sources are the Havamál strophes 104-110, and strophes 13 and 14. Subordinate sources are Grimnersmal (50) and Ynglingatal (15). To this must be added half a strophe by Eyvind Skaldaspiller (Skaldskaparmal, ch. 2).
The statements of the chief source have, strange to say, been almost wholly unobserved, while the mythologists have confined their attention to the later presentation in Bragaræduur, which cannot be reconciled with the earlier accounts, and which from a mythological standpoint is worse than worthless. In 1877 justice was for the first time done to Havamál in the excellent analysis of the strophes in question made by Prof. M. B. Richert, in his "Attempts at explaining the obscure passages not hitherto understood in the poetic Edda."
From Havamál alone we get directly or indirectly the following:
The giant Suttung, also called Fjalar, has acquired possession of the precious mead for which Odin longs. The Asa-father resolves to capture it by cunning.
There is a feast at Fjalar's. Guests belonging to the clan of rimthurses are gathered in his halls (Havamál, 110). Besides these we must imagine that Suttung-Fjalar's own nearest kith and kin are present. The mythology speaks of a separate clan entirely distinct from the rimthurses, known as Suttungs synir (Alvismal, Skirnersmal; see No. 78), whose chief must be Suttung-Fjalar, as his very name indicates. The Suttung kin and the rimthurses are accordingly gathered at the banquet on the day in question.
An honoured guest is expected, and a golden high-seat prepared for him awaits his arrival. From the continuation of the story we learn that the expected guest is the wooer or betrothed of Suttung-Fjalar's daughter, Gunlad. On that night the wedding of the giant's daughter is to be celebrated.
Odin arrives, but in disguise. He is received as the guest of honour, and is conducted to the golden high-seat. It follows of necessity that the guise assumed by Odin, when he descends to the mortal foes of the gods and of himself, is that of the expected lover. Who the latter was Havamál does not state, unless strophe 110, 5, like so many other passages, is purposely ambiguous and contains his name, a question which I shall consider later.
After the adventure has ended happily, Odin looks back with pleasure upon the success with which he assumed the guise of the stranger and played his part (str. 107).
el keyptz litar hefi ec vel notith: "From the well changed exterior I reaped great advantage." In regard to the mythological meaning of litr, see No. 95. The expression keyptr litr, which literally means "purchased appearance," may seem strange, but kaupa means not only to "buy," but also to "change," "exchange"; kaupa klœdum vid einn means "to change clothes with some one." Of a queen who exchanged her son with a slave woman, it is said that she keyptr um sonu vid ambátt. But the cause of Odin's joy is not that he successfully carried out a cunning trick, but that he in this way accomplished a deed of inestimable value for Asgard and for man (str. 107, 4-6), and he is sorry that poor Gunlad's trust in him was betrayed (str. 105). This is a characterisation of Odin's personality.
Nor does Havamál tell us what hinders the real lover from putting in his appearance and thwarting Odin's plan, while the latter is acting his part; but of this we learn something from another source, which we shall consider below.
The adventure undertaken by Odin is extremely dangerous, and he ran the risk of losing his head (str. 106, 6). For this reason he has, before entering Suttung-Fjalar's halls, secured an egress, through which he must be able to fly, and, if possible, with the skaldic mead as his booty. There is no admittance for everybody to the rocky abode where the mead-treasure so much desired by all powers is kept. The dwelling is, as Eyvind tells us, situated in an abyss, and the door is, as another record tells us, watched. But Odin has let Rate bore ("gnaw") a tunnel through the mountain large enough to give him room to retire secretly (str. 106). In regard to Rate, see No. 82.
When the pretended lover has seated himself in the golden high-seat, a conversation begins around the banquet table. It is necessary for Odin to guard well his words, for he represents another person, well known there, and if he is not cautious he may be discovered. It is also necessary to be eloquent and winning, so that he may charm Gunlad and secure her devotion, for without her knowledge he cannot gain his end, that of carrying away the supply of inspiration-mead kept at Suttung's. Odin also boasts (str. 103, 104) that on this occasion he proved himself minnigr and málugr and margfrodr and eloquent for the realisation of his plan.
During the progress of the feast the guest had his glass filled to his honour with the precious mead he desired to obtain. "Gunlad gave me on the golden seat the drink of the precious mead" (str. 105).
Then the marriage ceremony was performed, and on the holy ring Gunlad took to Odin the oath of faithfulness (str. 110).
It would have been best for the Asa-father if the banquet had ended here, and the bridegroom and the bride had been permitted to betake themselves to the bridal chamber. But the jolly feast is continued and the horns are frequently filled and emptied. Havamál does not state that the part played by Odin required him to be continually drinking; but we shall show that Gunlad's wooer was the champion drinker of all mythology, and in the sagas he has many epithets referring to this quality. Odin became on his own confession "drunk, very drunk, at Fjalar's." "The hern of forgetfulness which steals one's wit and understanding hovers over his drink" (str. 13, 15).
In this condition he let drop words which were not those of caution-words which sowed the seed of suspicion in the minds of some of his hearers who were less drunk. He dropped words which were not spelt with letters of intelligence and good sense - words which did not suit the part he was playing.
At last the banquet comes to an end, and the bridegroom is permitted to be alone with the bride in that rocky ball which is their bed-chamber. There is no doubt that Odin won Gunlad's heart, "the heart of that good woman whom I took in my embrace" (str. 108). With her help he sees his purpose attained and the mead in his possession. But the suspicions which his reckless words had sown bear fruit in the night, and things happen which Havamál does not give a full account of, but of a kind which would have prevented Odin from getting out of the giant-gard, had he not had Gunlad's assistance (str. 108). Odin was obliged to fight and rob Gunlad of a kinsman (str. 110 - hann lèt grœtta Gunnlödu; see Rich., p. 17). Taking the supply of mead with him, he takes flight by the way Rate had opened for him - a dangerous way, for "above and below me were the paths of the giants" (str. 106).
It seems to have been the custom that the wedding guests on the morning of the next day went to the door of the bridal-chamber to hear how the newly-married man was getting on in his new capacity of husband. According to Havamál, Suttung's guests, the rimthurses, observe this custom; but the events of the night change their inquiries into the question whether Odin had succeeded in escaping to the gods or had been slain by Suttung (str. 109, 110).
Thus far Havamál. We must now examine Grimnersmal (150) and Ynglingatal (15), whose connection with the myth concerning Odin's exploit in the home of Suttung-Fjalar has not hitherto been noticed.
Odin says in Grimnersmal:
| Svitharr oc Svithrir er ec het at Sauccmimis, oc dultha ec thann inn aldna iotun, tha er ec Mithvitnis varc ins mæra burar ordinn einbani. |
"Svidur and Svidrir I was called at Sokmimer's, and I presented myself to the ancient giant, at the time when I alone became the slayer of Midvitnir's famous son."
Ynglingatal (15) reads:
| En Dagskjarr Durnis nidja salvördudr Svegdi velti, tha er i stein hinn stórgedi Dulsa konr ept dvergi hljóp |
| ok sal bjartr theirra Sökkmimis jotunbyggdr vid jofri gein. |
"The day-shy hall-guard of Durnir's descendants deceived Svegdir when he, the dauntless son of Dulsi, ran after the dwarf into the rock, and when the shining giant-inhabited hall of Sökkmimir's kinsmen yawned against the chief." (In regard to Dulsi, see No. 83.)
What attracts attention in a comparison of these two strophes is that the epithet Sökkmimir is common to both of them, while this name does not occur elsewhere in the whole Old Norse literature.
In both the strophes Sökkmimir is a giant. Grimnersmal calls him inn aldna iotun, "the ancient giant," with which we may compare Odin's words in Havamál (104): enn aldna iotun ec sotta, "the ancient giant I sought," when he visited that giant-chief, to whose clan Suttung-Fjalar, the possessor of the skald-mead, belonged.
In both the strophes the giant Sökkmimir is the lord and chief of those giants to whom, according to Grimnersmal, Odin comes, and outside of whose hall-door, according to Ynglingatal, a certain Svegdir is deceived by the ward of the hall. This position of Sökkmimir in relation to his surroundings already appears, so far as Grimnersmal is concerned, from the expression at Sauccmimis, which means not only "with Sokmimer," but also "at Sokmimer's," that is to say, with that group of kinsmen and in that abode where Sokmimer is chief and ruler. It is with this giant-chief, and in his rocky hall, that Midvitnir and his son sojourns when Odin visits him, presents himself to him, and by the name Svidur (Svidrir) acts the part of another person, and in this connection causes Midvitnir's death. The same quality of Sokmimer as clan-chief and lord appears in the Ynglingatal strophe, in the form that the hall, outside of whose door Svegder was deceived, is theirra Sökkmimis, that is to say, is the abode of Sokmimer's kinsmen and household, "is their giant-home." Thus all the giants who dwell there take their clan-name from Sokmimer.
The appellation Sökkmimir is manifestly not a name in the strictest sense, but one of the epithets by which this ancient giant-chief could be recognised in connection with mythological circumstances. We shall point out these mythological circumstances further on.
The Ynglingatal strophe gives us, in fact, another epithet for the same mythic person. What the latter half of the strophe calls the hall of Sokmimer's kinsmen and household, the former half of the same strophe calls the hall of Durnir's descendants. Thus Sokmimer and Durnir are the same person.
Durnir, on the other hand, is a variation of Durinn (cp. the parallel variations Dvalnir and Dvalinn). Of Durinn we already know (see No. 53) that he is one of the ancient beings of mythology who in time's morning, together with Modsognir-Mimer and in accordance with the resolve of the high-holy powers, created clans of artists. One of the artists created by Durin, and whose father he in this sense became, is, according to Völuspa (11), Mjödvitnir. Rask and Egilsson have for philological reasons assumed that Midvitnir and Mjödvitnir are variations of the same name, and designate the same person (mjödr, in the dative midi). It here appears that the facts confirm this assumption. Durinn and Mjödvitnir in Völuspa correspond to Durnir and Midvitnir in the strophes concerning Sökkmimir.
Mjödvitnir means the mead-wolf, he who captured the mead celebrated in mythology. As Odin, having assumed the name of another, visits the abode of the descendants of Durner-Sokmimer, he accordingly visits that rocky home, where that giant dwells who has secured and possesses the mead desired by Odin.
Ynglingatal reports, as we have seen, that a certain Svegdir was deceived, when he was outside of the door of the hall of the kinsmen of Durner-Sokmimer. He who deceived him was the doorkeeper of the hall. The door appeared to be already open, and the "giant-inhabited" hall "yawned" festively illuminated (bjartr) toward Svegder. If we may believe Ynglingatal's commentary on the strophe, the hall-ward had called to him and said that Odin was inside. The strophe represents Svegder as running after the hall-ward, that is to say, toward the door in the rock, eager to get in. What afterwards happened Ynglingatal does not state; but that Svegder did not gain the point he desired, but fell into some snare laid by the doorkeeper, follows from the expression that he was deceived by him, and that this caused his death follows from the fact that the purpose of the strophe is to tell how his life ended. Ynglingasaga says that he got into the rock, but never out of it.
The rest that this saga has to say of Svegder - that he was on a journey to the old Asgard in "Tyrkland," to find "Odin the old," Gylfaginning's King Priam - has nothing to do with the mythology and with Ynglingatal, but is of course important in regard to the Euhemeristic hypothesis in regard to the descent of the Asas from Tyrkland (Troy), on which the author of Ynglingatal, like that of Gylfaginning, bases his work.
The variations Svegdir, Svigdir, and Sveigdir are used interchangeably in regard to the same person (cp. Ynglingatal, 14, 15; Fornald., ii. 2; Fornm., i. 29; and Egilsson, 796, 801). Svigdir seems to be the oldest of these forms. The words means the great drinker (Egilsson, 801). Svigdir was one of the most popular heroes of mythology (see the treatise on the "Ivalde race"), and was already in heathen times regarded as a race-hero of the Swedes. In Ynglingatal (14) Svithiod is called geiri Svigdis, "Svigder's domain." At the same time, Svegdir is an epithet of Odin. But it should be borne in mind that several of the names by which Odin is designated belong to him only in a secondary and transferred sense, and he has assumed them on occasions when he did not want to be recognised, and wanted to represent some one else (cp. Grimnersm., 49) whose name he then assumed.
When Odin visits the abode of Durinn-Sökkmimir, where the precious mead is preserved, he calls himself, according to Grimnersmal, Svidurr, Svidrir. Now it is the case with this name as with Svigdir, that it was connected with Svithiod. Skaldskaparmal (65) says that Svithiod var kallat af nafni Svidurs, "Svithiod was named after the name of Svidur."
Hence (1) the name Svidurr, like Svegdir-Svigdir, belongs to Odin, but only in a secondary sense, as one assumed or borrowed from another person; (2) Svidurr, like Svegdir-Svigdir, was originally a mythic person, whom tradition connected as a race hero with Svithiod.
From all this it appears that the names, facts, and the chain of events connect partly the strophes of Grimnersmal and Ynglingatal with each other, and partly both of these with Havamál's account of Odin's adventure to secure the mead, and this connection furnishes indubitable evidence that they concern the same episode in the mythological epic.
In the mythic fragments handed down to our time are found other epithets, which, like Svigdir, refer to some mythical person who played the part of a champion drinker, and was connected with the myth concerning mead and brewing. These epithets are Olvalde, Ölmódr, and Sumbl finnakonungr, Sumblus phinnorum rex in Saxo. Sumbl, as a common noun, means ale, feast. In the "Finn-king" Sumbl these ideas are personified, just as the soma-drink in the Veda songs is personified in King Soma. In my treatise on the Ivalde race, I shall revert to the person who had these epithets, in order to make his mythological position clear. Here I shall simply point out the following: Havamál (110) makes one of the rimthurses, Suttung's guests, say:
| Baugeith Odinn hygg ec at unnit hafi; |
| hvat scal hans trygdom trua? Suttung svikinn han let sumbli fra oc grætta Gunnlaudo. |
The strophe makes the one who says this blame Odin for breaking the oath he took on the ring, and thus showing himself unworthy of being trusted in the promises and oaths he might give in the future, whereupon it is stated that he left Suttung deceitfully robbed of sumbl (Sumbl), and Gunlad in tears over a lost kinsman.
The expression that Suttung was deceitfully robbed of sumbl, to be intelligible, requires no other interpretation than the one which lies near at hand, that Suttung was treacherously deprived of the mead. But as the skald might have designated the drink lost by Suttung in a more definite manner than with the word sumbl, and as he still chose this word, which to his hearers, familiar with the mythology, must have called to mind the personal Sumbl (Ölvaldi Svigdir), it is not only possible, but, as it seems to me, even probable, that he purposely chose an ambiguous word, and wanted thereby to refer at the same time to the deceitfully captured mead, and to the intended son-in-law deceitfully lost; and this seems to me to be corroborated by the juxtaposition of Suttung's and Gunlad's loss. The common noun sumbl's double meaning as mead and "drink-feast" has also led M. B. Richert (page 14 in his treatise mentioned above) to assume that "the expression was purposely chosen in such a manner that the meaning should not be entirely limited and definite," and he adds: "A similar indefiniteness of statement, which may give rise to ambiguity and play of words, is frequently found in the old songs." Meanwhile, I do not include this probability in my evidence, and do not present it as the basis of any conclusions.
The name Suttung shows in its very form that it is a patronymic, and although we can furnish no linguistic evidence that the original form was Surtungr and characterised its possessor as son of Surtr, still there are other facts which prove that such was actually the case. The very circumstance that the skaldic drink which came into Suttung's possession is paraphrased with the expression sylgr Surt's œttar, "the drink of Surt's race" (Fornmanna, iii. 3), points that way, and the question is settled completely by the half-strophe quoted in the Younger Edda (i. 242), and composed by Eyvind Skaldaspiller, where the skaldic potion is called -
| hinn er Surts or sökkdölum farmagnudr fljugandi bar. |
When Odin had come safely out of Fjalar-Suttung's deep rocky halls, and, on eagle-pinions, was flying with the precious mead to Asgard, it was accordingly that deep, in which Surtr dwells, which he left below him, and the giant race who had been drinking the mead before that time, while it was still in Suttung's possession, was Surt's race. From this it follows that "the ancient giant," whom Odin visited for the purpose of robbing his circle of kinsmen of the skaldic mead, is none other than that being so well known in the mythology, Surtr, and that Surtr is identical with Durinn (Durnir), and Sökkmimir.
This also explains the epithet Sökkmimir, "the Mimer of the deep." Sökk- in Sökk-Mímir refers to Sökk- in Sökkdalir, Surt's domain, and that Surt could be associated with Mimer is, from the standpoint of Old Norse poetics, perfectly justifiable from the fact that he appears in time's morning as a co-worker with Mimer, and operating with him as one of the forces of creation in the service of the oldest high-holy powers (see No. 53). Consequently Mimer and Sokmimer (Surtr-Durinn) created the clans of artists.
Surtr, Durinn, Durnir, Sökkmimir, are, therefore, synonyms, and designate the same person. He has a son who is designated by the synonyms Suttungr, Fjalarr, Mjödvitnir (Midvitnir). Suttung has a son slain by Odin, when the latter robs him of the mead of inspiration, and a daughter, Gunlad. The giant maid, deceived and deplored by Odin, is consequently the daughter of Surt's son.
Light is thus shed on the myth concerning the giant who reappears in Ragnarok, and there wields the sword which fells Frey and hurls the flames which consume the world. It is found to be connected with the myth concerning the oldest events of mythology. In time's morning we find the fire-being Surt - the representative of subterranean fire - as a creative force by the side of Mimer, who is a friend of the gods, and whose kinsman he must be as a descendant of Ymer. Both work together in peace for similar purposes and under the direction of the gods (Völuspa 9, 10). But then something occurs which interrupts the amicable relations. Mimer and Surt no longer work together. The fountain of creative force, the mead of wisdom and inspiration, is in the exclusive possession of Mimer, and he and Urd are together the ruling powers in the lower world. The fire-giant, the primeval artist, is then with his race relegated to the "deep dales," situated to the southward (Völuspa, 52), difficult of access, and dangerous for the gods to visit, and presumably conceived as located deeper down than the lower world governed by Mimer and Urd. That he tried to get possession of a part of "Odrœrir" follows from the position he afterwards occupies in the myth concerning the mead. When daylight again falls on him from the mythic fragments extant, his son has captured and is in possession of a supply of mead, which must originally have come from Mimer's fountain, and been chiefly composed of its liquid, for it is skaldic mead, it too, and can also be designated as Odrœrir (Havamál, 107), while the son is called "the mead-wolf," the one who has robbed and conceals the precious drink. Odin captures his mead by cunning, the grandson of the fire-giant is slain, the devoted love of the son's daughter is betrayed, and the husband selected for her is deceived and removed. All this, though done for purposes to benefit gods and men, demands and receives in the mythology its terrible retribution. It is a trait peculiar to the whole Teutonic mythology that evil deeds, with a good purpose, even when the object is attained, produce evil results, which develop and finally smother the fruits of the good purpose. Thus Surt has a reason for appearing in Ragnarok as the annihilator of the world of the Asas, when the latter is to make room for a realm of justice. The flames of revenge are hurled upon creation.
I have already above (No. 87) had occasion to speak of the choicest sword of mythology, the one which Volund smithied and Mimer captured, and which was fetched from the lower world by a hero whose name Saxo Latinised into Hotherus. In my treatise on "the Ivalde race" it shall be demonstrated who this Hotherus was in mythology, and that the sword was delivered by him to Frey. Lokasenna (42; cp. Gylfag., 37), informs us that the lovesick Frey gave the sword to the giant Gymer for his bride. After coming into the hands of the giants it is preserved and watched over until Ragnarok by Egther (an epithet meaning sword-watcher), who in the Ironwood is the shepherd of the monster herd of Loke's progeny, which in the last days shall harry the world and fight in Ragnarok (Völuspa, 39-41). When Ragnarok is at hand a giant comes to this sword-watcher in the guise of the red cock, the symbol of the destructive fire. This giant is Fjalar (Völuspa, 41), and that the purpose of his visit is to secure the sword follows from the fact that the best sword of mythology is shortly afterwards in the hands of his father Surt (Völuspa, 50) when the latter comes from the south with his band (the sons of Suttung, not of Muspel) to take part in the last conflict and destroy with fire that part of the world that can be destroyed. Frey is slain by the sword which was once his own.
In this manner the myth about the mead and that about the Volund sword are knit together.
Thor, too, ventured to visit Fjalar's abode. In regard to this visit we have a few words in strophe 26 of Harbardsljod. Harbardr accuses Thor, no doubt unjustly, of having exhibited fear. Of this matter we have no reliable details in the records from heathendom, but a comparison of the above strophe of Harbardsljod with Gylfaginning shows that the account compiled in Gylfaginning from various mythic fragments concerning Thor's journey to Utgarda-Loke and his adventures there contains reminiscences of what the original myths have had to say about his experiences on his expedition to Fjalar's. The fire-giant natures of Surt and of his son Fjalar gleam forth in the narrative: the ruler of Utgard can produce earthquakes, and Loge (the flame) is his servant. It is also doubtlessly correct, from a mythical standpoint, that he is represented as exceedingly skilful in "deluding," in giving things the appearance of something else than they really are (see No. 39). When Odin assumed the guise of Fjalar's son-in-law, he defeated Surt's race with their own weapons.
Eyvind Skaldaspiller states, as we have seen, that Surt's abode is in dales down in the deep. From an expression in Ynglingasaga's strophe we must draw the conclusion that its author, in harmony herewith, conceived the abyss where Surt's race dwelt as regions to which the light of day never comes. Sokmimer's doorkeeper, one of whose tasks it was to take notice of the wayfarers who approached, is a day-shy dwarf (dagskjarr salvordudr; in regard to dwarfs that shun the light of day, see Alvissmal). Darkness therefore broods over this region, but in the abode of the fire-giant it is light (the hall is bjartr).
I now return to the episodes in the mead-myth under discussion to recapitulate in brief the proofs and results. If we for a moment should assume that the main source, namely, the Havamál strophes, together with Eyvind's half strophe, were lost, and that the only remaining evidences were Grimnersmal (50) and Ynglingatal (15), together with the prose text in Ynglingasaga, then an analysis of these would lead to the following result:
(1) Grimnersmal (50) and Ynglingatal (15) should be compared with each other. The reasons for assuming them to be intrinsically connected are the following:
(a) Both contain the epithet Sökkmimir, which occurs nowhere else.
(b) Both describe a primeval giant, who is designated by this epithet as chief and lord of a giant race gathered around him.
(c) Both refer the events described to the same locality: the one tells what occurred in the halls of Sökkmimir; the other narrates an episode which occurred outside of the door of Sökkmimir's giant abode.
(d) The one shows that Sökkmimir is identical with Durnir (Durinn); the other mentions Midvitnir as one of Sökkmimir's subjects. Midvitnir (Mjódvitnir), according to Völuspa, was created by Durinn.
(e) Both describe events occurring while Odin is inside at Sokmimer's.
(f) The one mentions Svidurr, the other Svegder. Mythologically, the two names refer to each other.
(2) To the giant group which Odin visits in the abode of Sökkmimir belongs the giant who captured the famous mead which Odin is anxious to secure. This appears from the epithet which the author of the Grimnersmal strophe chose in order to designate him in such a manner that he could be recognised, namely, Midvitnir, "the mead-wolf," an epithet which explains why the mead-thirsty Odin made his journey to this race hostile to the gods.
(3) That Odin did not venture, or did not think it desirable in connection with the purpose of his visit, to appear in his own name and in a guise easily recognised, is evident from the fact that he "disguised" himself, "acted the hypocrite" (dulda), in the presence of the giant, and appeared as another mythic person, Svidurr.
This mythic person has been handed down in the traditions as the one who gave the name to Svithiod, and as a race-hero of the Swedes. Svíthiód var kallat af nafni Svidurs.
(4) While Odin, in the guise of this race-hero, plays his part in the mountain in the abode of Sokmimer, a person arrives at the entrance of the halls of this giant. This person, Svegdir (Svigdir), is in the sagas called the race-hero of the Swedes, and after him they have called Svithiod geiri Svigdis. Odin, who acted Svidurr's part, has also been called Svigdir, Svegdir.
Svigdir is an epithet, and means "the champion drinker" (Anglo-Saxon swig: to drink deep draughts). "The champion drinker" is accordingly on his way to the "Mead-wolf," while Odin is in his abode. All goes to show that the event belongs to the domain of the mead-myth.
Accordingly, the situation is this: A pretended race-hero and namer of Svithiod is in the abode of Sokmimer, while a person who, from a mythological standpoint, is the real race-hero and namer of Svithiod is on his way to Sokmimer's abode and about to enter. The myth could not have conceived the matter in this way, unless the pretended race-hero was believed to act the part of the real one. The arrival of the real one makes Odin's position, which was already full of peril, still more dangerous, and threatens him with discovery and its consequences.
(5) If Odin appeared in the part of a "champion drinker," he was compelled to drink much in Sokmimer's halls in order to maintain his part, and this, too, must have added to the danger of his position.
(6) Still the prudent Asa-father seems to have observed some degree of caution, in order that his plans might not be frustrated by the real Svigdir. That which happens gives the strongest support to this supposition, which in itself is very probable. Sokmimer's doorkeeper keeps watch in the darkness outside. When he discovers the approach of Svigdir, he goes to meet him and informs him that Odin is inside. Consequently the doorkeeper knows that Svidurr is Odin, who is unknown to all those within excepting to Odin himself. This and what follows seems to show positively that the wise Odin and the cunning dwarf act upon a settled plan. It may be delusion or reality, but Svigdir sees the mountain door open to the illuminated giant-hall, and the information that Odin is within (the dwarf may or may not have added that Odin pretends to be Svigdir) causes him, the "proud one," "of noble race," the kinsman of Dulsi (epithet of Mundilfore, see No. 83), to rush with all his might after the dwarf against the real or apparent door, and the result is that the dwarf succeeded in "deceiving" him (he velti Svigder), so that he never more was seen.
This is what we learn from the strophes in Grimnersmal and Ynglingatal, with the prose text of the latter. If we now compare this with what Havamál and Eyvind relate, we get the following parallels:
| Havamál and Eyvind. | The strophes about Sökkmimir. |
| Odin visits inn aldna iotun (Surtr and his race). | Odin visits inn aldna iotun (Sökmimir and his race). |
| Odin's purpose is to deceive the old giant. In his abode is found a kinsman, who is in possession of the skaldic mead (Suttung-Fjalar). | Odin's purpose is to deceive the old giant. In his abode is found a kinsman who is in possession of the skaldic mead (Midvitnir). |
| Odin appears in the guise of Gunlad's wooer, who, if he is named, is called Sumbli (sumbl = a drink, a feast). | Odin appears as Svidurr-Svigder. Svigder means the champion drinker. |
| Odin became drunk. | Odin must have drunk much, since he appears among the giants as one acting the part of a "champion drinker." |
| A catastrophe occurs causing Gunlad to bewail the death of a kinsman. | A catastrophe occurs causing Odin to slay Midvitnir's son. |
To this is finally to be added that Eyvind's statement, that the event occurred in Surt's Sökkdalir, helps to throw light on Surt's epithet Sökkmimir, and particularly that Ynglingatal's account of the arrival and fate of the real Svegder fills a gap in Havamál's narrative, and shows how Odin, appearing in the guise of another person who was expected, could do so without fear of being surprised by the latter.
NOTE. - The account in the Younger Edda about Odin's visit to Suttung seems to be based on some satire produced long after the introduction of Christianity. With a free use of the confused mythic traditions then extant, and without paying any heed to Havamál's statement, this satire was produced to show in a semi-allegorical way how good and bad poetry originated. The author of this satire either did not know or did not care about the fact that Havamál identifies Suttung and Fjalar. To him they are different persons, of whom the one receives the skaldic mead as a ransom from the other. While in Havamál the rimthurses give Odin the name Bölverkr, "the evil-doer," and this very properly from their standpoint, the Younger Edda makes Odin give himself this name when he is to appear incognito, though such a name was not calculated to inspire confidence. While in Havamál Odin, in the guise of another, enters Suttung's halls, is conducted to a golden high-seat, and takes a lively part in the banquet and in the conversation, the Younger Edda makes him steal into the mountain through a small gimlet-hole and get down into Gunlad's chamber in this manner, where he remains the whole time without seeing anyone else of the people living there, and where, with Gunlad's consent, he empties to the bottom the giant's three mead-vessels, Ódrœrir, Bodn, and Són. These three names belong, as we have seen, in the real mythology to the three subterranean fountains which nourish the roots of the world-tree. Havamál contents itself with using a poetic-rhetorical phrase and calling the skaldic mead, captured by Odin, Ódrœrir, "the giver of inspiration," "the inspiring nectar." The author of the satire avails himself of this reason for using the names of the two other fountains Bodn and Són, and for applying them to two other "vessels and kettles" in which Suttung is said to have kept the mead. That he called one of the vessels a kettle is explained by the fact that the third lower world fountain is Hvergelmir, "the roaring kettle." In order that Odin and Gunlad may be able to discuss and resolve in perfect secrecy in regard to the mead, Odin must come secretly down into the mountain, hence the satire makes him use the bored hole to get in. From the whole description in Havamál, it appears, on the contrary, that Odin entered the giant's hall in the usual manner through the door, while he avails himself of the tunnel made by Rate to get out. Havamál first states that Odin seeks the giant, and then tells how he enters into conversation and develops his eloquence in Suttung's halls, and how, while he sits in the golden high-seat (probably opposite the host, as Richter has assumed), Gunlad hands him the precious mead. Then is mentioned for the first time the way made for him by Rate, and this on the one hand in connection with the "evil compensation" Gunlad received from him, she the loving and devoted woman whom he had embraced, and on the other hand in connection with the fact that his flight from the mountain was successful, so that he could take the mead with him though his life was in danger, and there were giants' ways both above and below that secret path by which he escaped. That Odin took the oath of faithfulness on the holy ring, that there was a regular wedding feast with the questions on the next morning in regard to the well-being of the newly-married couple - all this the satire does not mention, nor does its premises permit it to do so.
90.
THE MEAD-MYTH (continued). THE MOON AND THE MEAD.
PROOFS THAT NANNA'S FATHER IS THE WARD OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND GOD
OF THE MOON.
Before the skaldic mead came into the possession of Suttung-Fjalar, it had passed through various adventures. In one of these enters Máni, the god of the moon, who by the names Nökkvi (variation Nökkver), Nefr (variation Nepr), and Gevarr (Gœvarr) occupies a very conspicuons position in our mythology, not least in the capacity of Nanna's father.
I shall here present the proofs which lie near at hand, and can be furnished without entering into too elaborate investigations, that the moon-god and Nanna's father are identical, and this will give me an opportunity of referring to that episode of the mead-myth, in which he appears as one of the actors.
The identity of Nökkvi, Nefr, and Gevarr appears from the following passages:
(1) Hyndluljod, 20: "Nanna was, in the next place, Nökkvi's daughter" (Nanna var nœst thar, Nauckua dottir).
(2) Gylfaginning, 32: "The son of Balder and of Nanna, daughter of Nef, was called Forsete" (Forsete heiter sonr Baldrs ok Nönnu Nefsdóttur). Gylfaginning, 49: "His (Balder's) wife Nanna, daughter of Nef" (Kona hans Nanna Nefsdóttir).
(3) Saxo, Hist. Dan., iii.: "Gevarr's daughter Nanna" (Gevari filia Nanna). That Saxo means the mythological Nanna follows from the fact that Balder appears in the story as her wooer. That the Norse form of the name, which Saxo Latinised into Gevarus, was Gevarr, not Gefr, as a prominent linguist has assumed, follows from the rules adopted by Saxo in Latinising Norse names.
NOTE. - Names of the class to which Gefr would belong, providing such a name existed, would be Latinised in the following manner:
(a) Askr Ascerus, Baldr Balderus, Geldr Gelderus, Glaumr Glomerus, Hödr, Hadr, Ódr, Hötherus, Hatherus, Hotherus, Svipdagr Svipdagerus, Ullr Ollerus, Yggr Uggerus, Vigr Vigerus.
(b) Ásmundr Asmundus, Amundr Amundus, Arngrimr Arngrimus, Bildr Bildus, Knútr Canutus, Fridleifr Fridlevus, Gautrekr Gotricus, Gódmundr Guthmundus, Haddingr Hadingus, Haraldr Haraldus.
Names ending in -arr are Latinised in the following manner:
(a) Borgarr Borcarus, Einarr Enarus, Gunnarr Gunnarus, Hjörvarr Hjartvarus, Ingimarr Ingimarus, Ingvarr Ingvarus, Ísmarr Ismarus, Ívarr Ivarus, Óttarr Otharus, Rostarr Rostarus, Sigarr Sigarus, Sivarr Sivarus, Valdimarr Valdemarus.
(b) Agnarr Agnerus, Ragnarr Regnerus.
With the ending -arus occurs also in a single instance a Norse name in -i, namely, Eylimi Olimarus. Herewith we might perhaps include Liotarus, the Norse form of which Saxo may have had in Ljóti from Ljótr. Otherwise Ljótr is a single exception from the rules followed by Saxo, and methodology forbids our building anything on a single exception, which moreover is uncertain.
Some monosyllabic names ending in -r are sometimes unlatinised, as Alf, Ulf, Sten, Ring, Rolf, and sometimes Latinised with -o, as Alvo, Ulvo, Steno, Ringo, Rolvo. Álfr is also found Latinised as Alverus.
From the above lists of names it follows that Saxo's rules for Latinising Norse names ending with the nominative -r after a consonant were these:
(1) Monosyllabic names (seldom a dissyllabic one, as Svipdagr) are Latinised with the ending -erus or the ending -o.
(2) Names of two or more syllables which do not end in -arr (rarely a name of one syllable, as Bildr) are Latinised with the ending -us.
(3) Names ending in -arr are Latinised with -arus; in a few cases (and then on account of the Danish pronunciation) with -erus.
From the above rules it follows (1) that Gefr, if such a name existed, would have been Latinised by Saxo either into Geverus, Geferus, or into Gevo, Gefo; (2) that Gevarr is the regular Norse for Gevarus.
The only possible meaning of the name Gevarr, considered as a common noun is "the ward of the atmosphere" from ge (gœ; see Younger Edda, ii. 486, and Egilsson, 227) and -varr. I cite this definition not for the purpose of drawing any conclusions therefrom, but simply because it agrees with the result reached in another way.
The other name of Nanna's father is, as we have seen, Nökkvi, Nökkver. This word means the ship-owner, ship-captain. If we compare these two names, Gevarr and Nökkver, with each other, then it follows from the comparison that Nanna's father was a mythic person who operated in the atmosphere or had some connection with certain phenomena in the air, and particularly in connection with a phenomenon there of such a kind that the mythic fancy could imagine a ship. The result of the comparison should be examined in connection with a strophe by Thorbjorn Hornklofve, which I shall now consider.
Thorbjorn was the court-skald of Harald Fairfax, and he described many of the king's deeds and adventures. Harald had at one time caused to be built for himself and his body-guard a large and stately ship, with a beautiful figure-head in the form of a serpent. On board this ship he was overtaken by a severe gale, which Hornklofve (Harald Harfager's saga, ch. 9) describes in the following words:
| Ut á mar mætir mannskædr lagar tanna ræsinadr til rausnar rak vebrautar Nökkva. |
In prose order: Lagar tanna mannskœdr mœtir út á mar rak rausnar rœsinadr til Nökkva vebrautar. ("The assailants of the skerry (the teeth of the sea), dangerous to man, flung out upon the sea the splendid serpent of the vessel's stem to the holy path of Nokve").
All interpreters agree that by "the skerry's assailants, dangerous to man," is meant the waves which are produced by the storm and rush against the skerries in breakers dangerous to seamen. It is also evident that Hornklofve wanted to depict the violence of the sea when be says that the billows which rise to assail thie skerry toss the ship, so that the figure-head of the stem reaches "the holy path of Nokve." Poems of different literatures resemble each other in their descriptions of a storm raging at sea. They make the billows rise to "the clouds," to "the stars," or to "the moon." Quanti montes volvuntur aquarum! Jam, jam tacturos sidera summa putes, Ovid sings (Trist., i. 18, 19) and Virgil has it: Procella fluctus ad sidera tollit (Æn., i. 107). One of their brother skalds in the North, quoted in Skaldskaparmal (ch. 61), depicts a storm with the following words:
| Hraud i himin upp glódum hafs, gekk sær af afli, bör hygg ek at sky skordi, skaut Ránar vegr mána. |
The skald makes the phosphorescence of the sea splash against heaven; he makes the ship split the clouds, and the way of Ran, the giantess of the sea, cut the path of the moon.
The question now is, whether Hornklofve by "Nokve's holy path" did not mean the path of the moon in space, and whether it is not to this path the figure-head of the ship seems to pitch when it is lifted on high by the towering billows. It is certain that this holy way toward which the heaven-high billows lift the ship is situated in the atmosphere above the sea, and that Nokve has been conceived as travelling this way in a ship, since Nokve means the ship-captain. From this it follows that Nokve's craft must have been a phenomenon in space resembling a ship which was supposed to have its course marked out there. We must therefore choose between the sun, the moon, and the stars; and as it is the moon which, when it is not full, has the form of a ship sailing in space, it is more probable that by Nokve's ship is meant the moon than that any other celestial body is referred to.
This probability becomes a certainty by the following proofs. In Sonatorrek (str. 2, 3) Egil Skallagrimson sings that when heavy sorrow oppresses him (who has lost his favourite son) then the song does not easily well forth from his breast:
| Thagna fundr thriggia nidja ár borinn or Jötunheimum |
| lastalauss er lifnadi á Nökkvers nökkva Bragi. |
The skaldic song is here compared with a fountain which does not easily gush forth from a sorrowful heart, and the liquid of the fountain is compared with the "Thrigge's kinsmen's find, the one kept secret, which in times past was carried from Jotunheim into Nokve's ship, where Brage, unharmed, refreshed himself (secured the vigour of life)."
It is plain that Egil here refers to a mythic event that formed an episode in the myth concerning the skaldic mead. Somewhere in Jotunheim a fountain containing the same precious liquid as that in Mimer's well has burst forth. The vein of the fountain was discovered by kinsmen of Thrigge, but the precious find eagerly desired by all powers is kept secret, presumably in order that they who made the discovery might enjoy it undivided and in safety. But something happens which causes the treasure which the fountain gave its discoverers to be carried from Jotunheim to Nokve's ship, and there the drink is accessible to the gods. It is especially mentioned that Brage, the god of poetry, is there permitted to partake of it and thus refresh his powers.
Thus the ship of Nanna's father here reappears, and we learn that on its holy way in space in bygone times it bore a supply of skaldic mead, of which Brage in the days of his innocence drank the strength of life.
With this we must compare a mythic fragment preserved in Gylfaginning (ch. 11). There a fountain called Byrgir is mentioned. Two children, a lass by name Bil and a lad by name Hjuke, whose father was named Vidfinnr, had come with a pail to this fountain to fetch water. The allegory in which the tradition is incorporated calls the pail Sœgr, "the one seething over its brinks," and calls the pole on which the pail is carried Simul (according to one manuscript Sumul; cp. Suml, brewing ale, mead). Bil, one of the two children is put in connection with the drink of poetry. The skalds pray that she may be gracious to them. Ef unna itr vildi Bil Skáldi, "if the noble Bil will favour the skald," is a wish expressed in a strophe in the Younger Edda, ii. 363. Byrgir is manifestly a fountain of the same kind as the one referred to by Egil, and containing the skaldic mead. Byrgir's fountain must have been kept secret, it must have been a "concealed find," for it is in the night, while the moon is up, that Vidfin's children are engaged in filling their pail from it. This is evident from the fact that Máni sees the children. When they have filled the pail, they are about to depart, presumably to their home, and to their father Vidfin. But they do not get home. While they carry the pail with the pole on their shoulders Máni takes them unto himself, and they remain with him, together with their precious burden. From other mythic traditions which I shall consider later (see the treatise on the Ivalde race), we learn that the moon-god adopts them as his children, and Bil afterwards appears as an asynje (Younger Edda, i. 118, 556).
If we now compare Egil's statements with the mythic fragment about Bil and Hjuke, we find in both a fountain mentioned which contains the liquid of inspiration found in Mimer's fountain, without being Mimer's well-guarded or unapproachable "well." In Egil the find is "kept secret." In Gylfaginning the children visit it in the night. Egil says the liquid was carried from Jotunheim; Gylfaginning says that Bil and Hjuke carried it in a pail. Egil makes the liquid transferred from Jotunheim to Nokve's ship; Gylfaginning makes the liquid and its bearer's be taken aloft by the moon-god to the moon, where we still, says Gylfaginning, can see Bil and Hjuke (in the moon-spots).
There can therefore be no doubt that Nokve's ship is the silvery craft of the moon, sailing in space over sea and land on a course marked out for it, and that Nokve is the moon-god. As in Rigveda, so in the Teutonic mythology, the ship of the moon was for a time the place where the liquid of inspiration, the life- and strength-giving mead, was concealed. The myth has ancient Aryan roots.
On the myth concerning the mead-carrying ship, to which the Asas come to drink, rests the paraphrase for composing, for making a song, which Einar Skalaglam once used (Skaldskaparmal, 1). To make songs he calls "to dip liquid out of Her-Tyr's wind-ship" (ausa Hértys víngnodar austr; see further No. 121, about Odin's visit in Nokve's ship).
The name Nefr (variation Nepr), the third name of Nanna's father mentioned above, occurs nowhere in the Norse sources excepting in the Younger Edda. It is, however, undoubtedly correct that Nokve-Gevar was also called Nef.
Among all the Teutonic myths there is scarcely one other with which so many heroic songs composed in heathen times have been connected as with the myth concerning the moon-god and his descendants. As shall be shown further on, the Niflungs are descendants of Nef's adopted son Hjuke, and they are originally named after their adopted race-progenitor Nefr. A more correct and an older form is perhaps Hnefr and Hniflungar, and the latter form is also found in the Icelandic literature. In Old English the moon-god appears changed into a prehistoric king, Hnäf, also called Hoce (see Beowulf, 2142, and Gleeman's Tale). Hoce is the same name as the Norse Hjuki. Thus while Hnäf and Hoce are identical in the Old English poem "Beowulf," we find in the Norse source that the lad taken aloft by Mane is called by one of the names of his foster-father. In the Norse account the moon-god (Nefr) captures, as we have seen, the children of one Vidfinnr, and at the same time he robs Vidfinnr of the priceless mead of inspiration found in the fountain Byrgir. In the Old English saga Hnäf has a son-in-law and vassal, whose name is Finn (Fin Folcvalding), who becomes his bitterest foe, contends with him, is conquered and pardoned, but attacks him again, and, in company with one Gudere (Gunnr), burns him. According to Saxo, Nanna's father Gevarr has the same fate. He is attacked by a vassal and burnt. The vassal is called Gunno (Gunnr, Gudere). Thus we have in the Old English tradition the names Hnäf, Hoce, Fin, and Gudere; and in the Norse tradition the corresponding names Nefr, Hjuki, Vidfinnr, and Gunnr (Gunnar).
The relation of the moon-god (Nefr) to Vidfinr is the mythological basis of Fin's enmity to Hnäf. The burning is common to both the Old English and the Norse sources. Later in this work I shall consider these circumstances more minutely. What I have stated is sufficient to show that the Old English tradition is in this point connected with the Norse in a manner, which confirms Nefr-Gevarr's identity with Máni, who takes aloft Hjuki and robs Vidfinr of the skaldic mead.
The tradition of Gevarr-Nefr's identity with Máni reappears in Iceland once more as late as in Hromund Greipson's saga. There a person called Máni Karl shows where the hero of the saga is to find the sword Mistilteinn. In Saxo, Nanna's father Gevarr shows the before-mentioned Hotherus where he is to find the weapon which is to slay Balder. Thus Máni in Hromund's saga assumes the same position as Gevarr, Nanna's father, occupies in Saxo's narrative.
All these circumstances form together a positive proof of the moon-god's identity with Nanna's father. Further on, when the investigation has progressed to the proper point, we shall give reasons for assuming that Vidfinr of the Edda, the Fin of the English heroic poem, is the same person whom we have heretofore mentioned by the name Sumbl Finnakonungr and Svigdir, and that the myth concerning the taking of the mead aloft to the moon accordingly has an epic connection with the myth concerning Odin's visit to the giant Fjalar, and concerning the fate which then befell Nokve's slayer.
91.
THE MYTH CONCERNING THE MOON-GOD (continued).
The moon-god, like Nat, Dag, and Sol, is by birth and abode a lower-world divinity. As such, he too had his importance in the Teutonic eschatology. The god who on his journeys on "Nokve's holy way" serves auldom at ártali (Vafthrudnersmal, 23) by measuring out to men time in phases of the moon, in months, and in years has, in the mythology also, received a certain influence in inflicting suffering and punishment on sinners. He is lord of the heiptir, the Teutonic Erinnyes (see No. 75), and keeps those limar (bundles of thorns) with which the former are armed, and in this capacity he has borne the epithet Eylimi, which reappears in the heroic songs in a manner which removes all doubt that Nanna's father was originally meant. (See in Saxo and in Helge Hjorvardson's saga. To the latter I shall return in the second part of this work, and I shall there present evidence that the saga is based on episodes taken from the Balder myth, and that Helge Hjorvardson is himself an imitation of Balder). In his capacity of lord of the Heiptir the moon-god is the power to whom prayers are to be addressed by those who desire to be spared from those sufferings which the Heiptir represent (Heithtom scal mána qvedja - Havamál, 137). His quality as the one who keeps the thorn-rods of the heiptir still survives in a great part of the Teutonic world in the scattered traditions about "the man in the moon," who carries bundles of thorns on his back (J. Grimm, Myth., 680; see No. 123).
92.
THE MOON-DIS NANNA. THE MERSEBURG FORMULA. BALDER'S NAME FALR.
Thus Nanna is the daughter of the ruler of the moon, of "the ward of the atmosphere." This alone indicates that she herself was mythologically connected with the phenomena which pertain to her father's domain of activity, and in all probability was a moon-dis (goddess). This assumption is fully confirmed by a contribution to Teutonic mythology rescued in Germany, the so-called Merseburg formula, which begins as follows:
| Phol ende Uodan vuoron zi holza dû vart demo Balderes volon sin vous birenkit. thû biguolon Sinhtgunt. Sunna era svister, thû biguolen Friia, Volla era svister, thû biguolen Uodan sô hê wola conda. |
Falr and Odin went to the wood, then was the foot sprained on Balder's foal. Then sang over him Sinhtgunt, Sunna her sister, then sang over him Frigg, Fulla her sister, then sang over him Odin as best he could. |
Of the names occurring in this strophe Uodan-Odin, Balder, Sunna (synonym of Sol - Alvissm., 17; Younger Edda, i. 472, 593), Friia-Frigg, and Volla-Fulla are well known in the Icelandic mythic records. Only Phol and Sinhtgunt are strangers to our mythologists, though Phol-Falr surely ought not to be so.
In regard to the German form Phol, we find that it has by its side the form Fal in German names of places connected with fountains. Jacob Grimm has pointed out a "Pholes" fountain in Thuringia, a "Fals" fountain in the Frankish Steigerwald, and in this connection a "Balder" well in Reinphaltz. In the Danish popular traditions Balder's horse had the ability to produce fountains by tramping on the ground, and Balder's fountain in Seeland is said to have originnated in this manner (cp. P. E. Müller on Saxo, Hist., 120). In Saxo, too, Balder gives rise to wells (Victor Balderus, ut afflictum siti militem opportuni liquoris beneficio recrearet, novos humi latices terram altius rimatus operuit - p. 120).
This very circumstance seems to indicate that Phol, Fal, was a common epithet or surname of Balder in Germany, and it must be admitted that this meaning must have appeared to the German mythologists to be confirmed by the Merseburg formula; for in this way alone could it be explained in a simple and natural manner, that Balder is not named in the first line as Odin's companion, although he actually attends Odin, and although the misfortune that befals "Balder's foal" is the chief subject of the narrative, while Phol on the other hand is not mentioned again in the whole formula, although he is named in the first line as Odin's companion.
This simple and incontrovertible conclusion, that Phol amid Balder in the Merseburg formula are identical is put beyond all doubt by a more thorough examination of the Norse records. In these it is demonstrated that the name Falr was also known in the North as an epithet of Balder.
The first books of Saxo are based exclusively on the myths concerning gods and heroes. There is not a single person, not a single name, which Saxo did not borrow from the mythic traditions. Among them is also a certain Fjallerus, who is mentioned in bk. i. 160. In the question in regard to the Norse form which was Latinised into Fjallerus, we must remember that Saxo writes Hjallus (Hist., pp. 371, 672) for Hjali (cp. P. 370), and alternately Colo, Collo, and Collerus (Hist., pp. 56, 136, 181), and that he uses the broken form Bjarbi for Barri (Hist., p. 153). In accordance with this the Latin form Fjallerus must correspond to the Norse Falr, and there is, in fact, in the whole Old Norse literature, not a single name to be found corresponding to this excepting Falr, for the name Fjalarr, the only other one to be thought of in this connection, should, according to the rules followed by Saxo, be Latinised into Fjallarus or Fjalarus, but not into Fjallerus.
Of this Fjallerus Saxo relates that he was banished by an enemy, and the report says that Fjallerus betook himself to the place which is unknown to our populations, and which is called Odáins-akr (quem ad locum, cui Undensakre nomen est, nostris ignotum populis concessisse est fama - p. 160).
The mythology mentions only a single person who by an enemy was transferred to Odáinsakr, and that is Balder. (Of Odáinsakr and Balder's abode there, see Nos. 44-53.).
The enemy who transfers Falr to the realm of immortality is, according to Saxo, a son of Horvendillus, that is to say, a son of the mythological Orvandell, Groa's husband and Svipdag's father (see Nos. 108, 109). Svipdag has already once before been mistaken by Saxo for Hotherus (see No. 101). Hotherus is, again, the Latin form for Hödr. Hence it is Balder's banishment by Hödr to the subterranean realms of immortality of which we here read in Saxo where the latter speaks of Fal's banishment to Odáinsakr by a son of Orvandel.
When Balder dies by a flaug hurled by Hödr he stands in the midst of a rain of javelins. He is the centre of a mannhringr, where all throw or shoot at him: sumir skjóta á hann, sumir höggva til, sumir berja grjóti (Gylfaginning). In this lies the mythical explanation of the paraphrase Fal's rain, which occurs in the last strophe of a poem attributed to the skald Gisle Surson. In Gisle's saga we read that he was banished on account of manslaughter, but by the aid of his faithful wife he was able for thirteen years to endure a life of persecutions and conflicts, until he finally was surprised and fell by the weapons of his foes. Surrounded by his assailants, he is said to have sung the strophe in question, in which he says that "the beloved, beautiful, brave Fulla of his hall," that is to say, his wife, "is to enquire for him, her friend," for whose sake "Fal's rain" now "falls thick and fast," while "keen edges bite him." In a foregoing strophe Gisle has been compared with a "Balder of the shield," and this shield-Balder now, as in the Balder of the myth, is the focus of javelins and swords, while he, like Balder, has a beautiful and faithful wife, who, like Nanna, is to take his death to heart. If the name Nanna, as has been assumed by Vigfusson and others, is connected with the verb nenna, and means "the brave one," then rekkilát Fulla, "the brave Fulla of Gisle's hall," is an all the more appropriate reference to Nanna, since Fulla and she are intimately connected in the mythology, and are described as the warmest of friends (Gylfaginning). Briefly stated: in the poem Gisle is compared with Balder, his wife with Nanna, his death with Balder's death, and the rain of weapons by which he falls with Fal's rain.
In a strophe composed by Refr (Younger Edda, i. 240) the skald offers thanks to Odin, the giver of the skaldic art. The Asa-father is here called Fals hrannvala brautar fannar salar valdi ("The ruler of the hall of the drift of the way of the billow-falcons of Fal"). This long paraphrase means, as has also been assumed by others, the ruler of heaven. Thus heaven is designated as "the hall of the drift of the way of the billow-falcons of Fal." The "drift" which belongs to heaven, and not to the earth, is the cloud. The heavens are "the hall of the cloud." But in order that the word "drift" might be applied in this manner it had to be united with an appropriate word, showing that the heavens were meant. This is done by the adjective phrase "of the way of the billow-falcons of Fal." Standing alone, "the drift of the way of the billow-falcons" could not possibly mean anything else than the billow white with foam, since "billow-falcons" is a paraphrase for ships, and the "way of the billow-falcons" is a paraphrase for the sea. By adding the name Falr the meaning is changed from "sea" to "sky." By Fal's "billow-falcons" must therefore be meant objects whose course is through the air, just as the course of the ships is on the sea, and which traverse the drift of the sky, the cloud, just as the ships plough through the drift of the sea, the white-crested billow. Such a paraphrase could not possibly avoid drawing the fancy of the hearers and readers to the atmosphere strewn with clouds and penetrated by sunbeams, that is, to Odin's hall. Balder is a sun-god, as his myth, taken as a whole, plainly shows, and as is manifested by his epithet: raudbrikar rikr rœkir (see No. 53). Thus Fal, like Balder, is a divinity of the sun, a being which sends the sunbeams down through the drifts of the clouds. As he, furthermore, like Balder, stood in a rain of weapons under circumstances sufficiently familiar for such a rain to be recognised when designated as Fal's, and as be, finally, like Balder, was sent by an opponent to the realm of immortality in the lower world, then Falr and Balder must be identical.
Their identity is furthermore confirmed by the fact that Balder in early Christian times was made a historical king of Westphalia. The statement concerning this, taken from Anglo-Saxon or German sources, has entered into the foreword to Gylfaginning. Nearly all lands and peoples have, according to the belief of that time, received their names from ancient chiefs. The Franks were said to be named after one Francio, the East Goth after Ostrogotha, the Angles after Angul, Denmark after Dan, etc. The name Phalia, Westphalia, was explained in the same manner, and as Balder's name was Phol, Fal, this name of his gave rise to the name of the country in question. For the same reason the German poem Biterolf makes Balder (Paltram) into king ze Pülle. (Compare the local name Pölde, which, according to J. Grimm, is found in old manuscripts written Polidi and Pholidi.) In the one source Balder is made a king in Pholidi, since Phol is a name of Balder, and in the other source he is for the same reason made a king in Westphalia, since Phal is a variation of Phol, and likewise designated Balder. "Biterolf" has preserved the record of the fact that Balder was not only the stateliest hero to be found, but also the most pure in morals, and a man much praised. Along with Balder, Gylfaginning speaks of another son of Odin, Siggi, who is said to have become a king in Frankland. The same reason for which Fal-Balder was made a king in Westphalia also made the apocryphal Siggi in question the progenitor of Frankian kings. The Frankian branch to which the Merovingian kings belonged bore the name Sigambrians, and to explain this name the son Siggi was given to Odin, and he was made the progenitor and eponym of the Sigambrians.
After this investigation which is to be continued more elaborately in another volume, I now return to the Merseburg formula:
| "Fall and Odin Went to the wood, Then the foot was sprained Of Balder's foal." |
With what here is said about Balder's steed, we must compare what Saxo relates about Balder himself: Adeo in adversam corporis valetudinem incidit, ut ni pedibus quidem, incedere posset (Hist., 120).
The misfortune which happened first to Balder and then to Balder's horse must be counted among the warnings which foreboded the death of the son of Odin. There are also other passages which indicate that Balder's horse must have had a conspicuous signification in the mythology, and the tradition concerning Balder as rider is preserved not only in northern sources (Lokasenna, Gylfaginning), and in the Merseburg formula, but also in the German poetry of the middle ages. That there was some witchcraft connected with this misfortune which happened to Balder's horse is evident from the fact that the magic songs sung by the goddesses accompanying him availed nothing. According to the Norse ancient records, the women particularly exercise the healing art of witchcraft (compare Groa and Sigrdrifva), but still Odin has the profoundest knowledge of the secrets of this art; he is galdrs fadir (Veg., 3). And so Odin comes in this instance, and is successful after the goddesses have tried in vain. We must fancy that the goddesses make haste to render assistance in the order in which they ride in relation to Balder, for the event would lose its seriousness if we should conceive Odin as being very near to Balder from the beginning, but postponing his activity in order to shine afterwards with all the greater magic power, which nobody disputed.
The goddesses constitute two pairs of sisters: Sinhtgunt and her sister Sunna, and Frigg and her sister Fulla. According to the Norse sources, Frigg is Balder's mother. According to the same records, Fulla is always near Frigg, enjoys her whole confidence, and wears a diadem as a token of her high rank among the goddesses. An explanation of this is furnished by the Merseburg formula, which informs us that Fulla is Frigg's sister, and so a sister of Balder's mother. And as Odin is Balder's father, we find in the Merseburg formula the Balder of the Norse records, surrounded by the kindred assigned to him in these records.
Under such circumstances it would be strange, indeed, if Sinhtgunt and the sun-dis, Sunna, did not also belong to the kin of the sun-god, Balder, as they not only take part in this excursion of the Balder family, but are also described as those nearest to him, and as the first who give him assistance.
The Norse records have given to Balder as wife Nanna, daughter of that divinity which under Odin's supremacy is the ward of the atmosphere and the owner of the moon-ship. If the continental Teutons in their mythological conceptions also gave Balder a wife devoted and faithful as Nanna, then it would be in the highest degree improbable that the Merseburg formula should not let her be one of those who, as a body-guard, attend Balder on his expedition to the forest. Besides Frigg and Fulla, there are two goddesses who accompany Balder. One of them is a sun-dis, as is evident from the name Sunna; the other, Sinhtgunt, is, according to Bugge's discriminating interpretation of this epithet, the dis "who night after night has to battle her way." A goddess who is the sister of the sun-dis, but who not in the daytime but in the night has to battle on her journey across the sky, must be a goddess of the moon, a moon-dis. This moon-goddess is the one who is nearest at hand to bring assistance to Balder. Hence she can be none else than Nanna, who we know is the daughter of the owner of the moon-ship. The fact that she has to battle her way across the sky is explained by the Norse mythic statement, according to which the wolf-giant Hate is greedy to capture the moon, and finally secures it as his prey (Völuspa, Gylfaginning). In the poem about Helge Hjorvardson, which is merely a free reproduction of the materials in the Balder-myth (which shall be demonstrated in the second part of this work), the giant Hate is conquered by the hero of the poem, a Balder figure, whose wife is a dis, who, "white" herself, has a shining horse (str. 25, 28), controls weather and harvests (str. 28), and makes nightly journeys on her steed, and "inspects the harbours" (str. 25).
The name Nanna (from the verb nenna; cp. Vigfusson, Lex.) means "the brave one." With her husband she has fought the battles of light, and in the Norse, as in the Teutonic, mythology, she was with all her tenderness a heroine.
The Merseburg formula makes the sun-dis and the moon-dis sisters. The Norse variation of the Teutonic myth has done the same. Vafthrudnersmal and Gylfaginning (ch. 11) inform us that the divinities which govern the chariots of the sun and moon were brother and sister, but from the masculine form Máni Gylfaginning has drawn the false conclusion that the one who governed the car of the moon was not a sister but a brother of the sun. In the mythology a masculine divinity Máni was certainly known, but he was the father of the sun-dis and moon-dis, and identical with Gevarr-Nökkvi-Nefr, the owner of the moon-ship. The god Máni is the father of the sun-dis for the same reason as Nat is the mother of Dag.
Vafthrudnersmal informs us that the father of the managers of the sun- and moon-cars was called Mundilföri. We are already familiar with this mythic personality (see Nos. 81-83) as the one who is appointed to superintend the mechanism of the world, by whose Möndull the starry firmament is revolved. It is not probable that the power governing the motion of the stars is any other than the one who under Odin's supremacy is ruler of the sun and moon, and ward of all the visible phenomena in space, among which are also the stars. As, by comparison of the old records, we have thus reached the conclusion that the managers of the sun and moon are daughters of the ward of the atmosphere, and as we have also learned that they are daughters of him who superintends the motion of the constellations, we are unable to see anything but harmony in these statements. Mundilföri and Gevarr-Nökkvi-Nefr are the same person.
It should be added that the moon-goddess, like her father, could be called Máni without there being any obstacle in the masculine form of the word. The name of the goddess Skadi is also masculine in form, and is inflected as a masculine noun (oblique case, Skada - Younger Edda, 212, 268).
93.
COSMOGRAPHIC REVIEW.
In the preceding pages various scattered contributions have been made to Teutonic cosmography, and particularly to the topography of the lower world. It may not be out of the way to gather and complete these fragments.
The world-tree's three roots, which divide themselves in the lower world and penetrate through the three lower-world fountains into the foundations of the world-structure and hold it together, stand in a direction from north to south - the northernmost over the Hvergelmer fountain, with its cold waters; the middle one over Mimer's well, which is the fountain of spiritual forces; and the third over Urd's well, whose liquids give warmth to Ygdrasil (see No. 63).
In a north and south direction stands likewise the bridge Bifröst, also called Bilröst, Ásbru (Grimnersmal, 29), and in a bold paraphrase, hitherto not understood, thiodvitnis fiscr, "the fish of the folk-wolf." The paraphrase occurs in Grimnersmal (21) in its description of Valhal and other abodes of the gods:
| thytr thund, unir thiódvitnis fiscr flódi i árstraumr thickir ofmicil valglaumi at vatha. |
"Thund (the air-river) roars. The fish of the folk-wolf stands secure in the stream. To the noisy crowd of sword-fallen men the current seems too strong to wade through."
It has already been shown (No. 65) that those fallen by the sword ride with their psychopomps on Bifrost up to Valhal, and do not proceed thither through space, but have a solid foundation for the hoofs of their steeds. Here, as in Fafnersmal (15), the air is compared with a river, in which the horses are compelled to wade or swim if the bridge leading to Asgard is not used, and the current in this roaring stream is said to be very strong; while, on the other hand, "the fish" stands safe and inviting therein. That the author of Grimnersmal called the bridge a fish must seem strange, but has its natural explanation in Icelandic usage, which called every bridge-end or bridge-head a spordr, that is, a fish-tail. Compare Sigrdrifumal (16), which informs us that runes were risted on "the fish-tail" of the great mythic bridge (á bruar spordi), and the expression brúarspordr (bridge-head, bridge-"fish-tail") in Njala (246) and Biskupa, s. (1, 17). As a bridge-pier could be called a fish-tail, it was perfectly logical for the poem to make the bridge a fish. On the zenith of the bridge stands Valhal, that secures those fallen in battle, and whose entrance is decorated with images of the wolf and of the eagle (Grimnersmal, 10), animals that satisfy their hunger on the field of battle. This explains why the fish is called that of the folk-wolf or great wolf. The meaning of the paraphrase is simply "the Valhal bridge." That the bow of Bifrost stands north and south follows from the fact that the gods pass over one end of the bridge on their way to Urd's fountain, situated in the south of the lower world, while the other end is outside of Nifelhel, situated in the north. From the south the gods come to their judgment-seats in the realm of the dis of fate and death. From the north came, according to Vegtamskvida, Odin when he rode through Nifelhel to that hall which awaited Balder. Why the Asa-father on that occasion chose that route Vegtamskvida does not inform us. But from Saxo (Hist. Dan., 126), who knew an old heathen song* about Odin's visit in the lower world on account of Balder's death, we get light on this point. According to this song it was Rostiophus Phinnicus who told Odin that a son of the latter and Rind was to avenge Balder's death. Rostiophus is, as P. E. Müller has already remarked, the rimthurs Hrossthiófr mentioned in Hyndluljod (i.e. Völuspa in skamma 4) as a son of Hrimnir and brother of the sorceress Heidr, the vala and witch well known from Völuspa and other sources. Nifelhel is, as shown above (No. 60), the abode of the rimthurses transferred to the lower world. Where his father Hrimnir (Bergelmer) and his progenitor Hrimgrimnir (Thrudgelmer) dwell in the thurs-hall mentioned in Skirnersmal, there we also find Hrossthiófr, and Odin must there seek him. Vegtamskvida makes Odin seek his sister.
* Possibly the same as that of which a few strophes are preserved in Baldrs draumar, an old poetic fragment whose gaps have been filled in a very unsatisfactory manner in recent times with strophes which now are current as Vegtamskvida. That Odin, when he is about to proceed to the abode which in the subterranean realms of bliss is to receive Balder, chooses the route through Nifelhel is explained not by Vegtamskvida, where this fact is stated, but by the older poem mentioned by Saxo, which makes him seek the dweller in Nifelhel, the rimthurs Hrossthiófr, son of Hrimnir.
It is Bifrost's north bridge-head which particularly requires the vigilance of Heimdal, the ward of the gods, since the rimthurses and the damned are its neighbours. Heimdal is therefore "widely known" among the inhabitants of Nifelhel (Skirnersmal, 28), and Loke reproaches Heimdal that his vocation as watchman always compels him to expose his back to the torrents of an unfavourable sky (Lokas., 48). In the night which constantly broods over this northern zone shine the forms of the "white" god and of his gold-beaming horse Gulltoppr, when he makes spying expeditions there. His eye penetrates the darkness of a hundred "rasts," and his ear catches the faintest sound (Gylfag., 27). Near Bifrost, presumably at the very bridge-head, mythology has given him a fortified citadel, Himinbjorg, "the ward of heaven" with a comfortable hall well supplied with "the good mead" (Grimn., 13; Gylfag., 27).
The lower world is more extensive in all directions than the surface of the earth above it. Bifrost would not be able to pass outside and below the crust of the earth to rest with its bridge-heads on the domain of the three world-fountains if this were not the case. The lower world is therefore called Jormungrund, "the great ground or foundation" (Forspjallsljod, 25), and its uttermost zone, jadarr Jormungrundar, "the domain of the great ground," is open to the celestial canopy, and the under side of the earth is not its roof. From Hlidskjalf, the outlook of the gods in Asgard (Forspjallsljod, the prose texts in Skirnersmal and in Grimnersmal), the view is open to Midgard, to the sea, and to the giant-world situated beyond the Elivagar rivers (see the texts mentioned), and should accordingly also be so to the broad zone of Jormungrund, excepting its northernmost part, which always is shrouded in night. From Hlidskjalf the eye cannot discern what is done there. But Heimdal keeps watch there, and when anything unusual is perceived Odin sends the raven Huginn (Hugr) thither to spy it out (Forspjallsljod, 10, 3, which strophes belong together). But from Hlidskjálf as the point of observation the earth conceals all that part of Jormungrund below it; and as it is important to Odin that he should know all that happens there, Huginn and Muninn fly daily over these subterranean regions: Huginn oc Muninn fljuga hverjan dag iormungrund yfir (Grimnersmal, 20). The expeditions of the ravens over Nifelhel in the north and over Surt's "deep dales" in the south expose them to dangers: Odin expresses his fear that some misfortune may befall them on these excursions (Grimnersmal, 20).
In the western and eastern parts of jadarr Jormungrundar dwell the two divine clans the Vans and Elves, and the former rule over the whole zone ever since "the gods in time's morning" gave Frey, Njord's bounteous son, Alfheim as a tooth-gift (Grimners., 5). Delling is to be regarded as clan-chief of the Elves (light-Elves), since in the very theogony he is ranked with the most ancient powers. With Mimer's daughter Nat he becomes the father of Dag and the progenitor of Dag's synir (the light-Elves). It has already been emphasised (see No. 53) that he is the lord of the rosy dawn, and that outside of his doors the song of awakening is sung every morning over the world: "Power to the Asas, success to the Elves, and wisdom to Hroptatyr" (Havamál, 100). The glow of dawn blazes up from his domain beyond the eastern horizon. Where this clan-chieftain of the Elves dwells, thither the mythology has referred the original home of his clan. Alfheimr occupies the eastern part of Jormungrund's zone. It is in the eastern part that Dag, Delling's son, and Sol, his kinswoman, mount their chariots to make their journey around the earth in the sky. Here is also the Hel-gate through which all the dead must pass in the lower world (No. 68).
There are many proofs that the giant settlement with the Ironwood or Myrkwood was conceived as extending from the north over large portions of the east (Völuspa, 39, 48, etc.). These regions of Alfheim constitute the southern coasts of the Elivagar, and are the scenes of important events in the epic of the mythology (see the treatise on the Ivalde race).
Vanaheimr is situated in the western half of the zone. At the banquet in Ægir's hall, described in Lokasenna, Loke says to Njord:
| thu vast austr hedan gisl um sendr godum - |
"From here you were sent out east as a hostage to the gods."
Ægir's hall is far out in the depths of the sea. The ocean known by the Teutons was the North Sea. The author has manifestly conceived Ægir's hall as situated in the same direction from Asgard as Vanaheim, and not far from the native home of the Vans. This lies in the word hedan (from here). According to Vafthrudnersmal (str. 39), Njord was "created in Vanaheim by wise regin". When he was sent as a hostage to the gods to Asgard he had to journey eastward (austr). The western location of Vanaheim is thereby demonstrated.
In the "western halls" of Vanaheim dwells Billing, Rind's father, the father of the Asa-god, Vale's mother (Rindr berr Vala i vœstrsölum - Vegt., 11). His name has been preserved in both the German and the Anglo-Saxon mythic records. An Old German document mentions together Billunc and Nidunc, that is, Billing and Mimer (see No. 87). In the mythology Mimer's domain is bounded on the west by Billing's realm, and on the east by Delling's. Delling is Mimer's son-in-law. According to Völuspa, 13 (Codex Hauk.), Billing is a being which in time's morning, on the resolve of the gods, was created by Modsognir-Mimer and Durinn. Mimer's neighbours in the east and in the west were therefore intimately connected with him. An Anglo-Saxon record (Codex Exoniensis, 320, 7) makes Billing the race-hero of the kinsmen and neighbours of the Angles, the Varnians (Billing veold Vernum). This too has a mythological foundation, as appears in Grimnersmal (39) and in the saga of Helge Hjorvardson, which, as before stated, is composed of mythic fragments. When Sol and Mane leave Delling's domain and begin their march across the heavens, their journey is not without danger. From the Ironwood (cp. Völuspa, 39) come the wolf-giants Skoll and Hate and pursue them. Skoll does not desist from the pursuit before the car of the bright-faced goddess has descended toward the western halls and reached Varna vidr (Scaull heitir ulfr, er fylgir eno scirleita godi til Varna vidar - Grimnersmal, 39). Varna vidr is the forest of the mythic Varnians or Varinians. Varnians, Varinians, means "defenders," and the protection here referred to can be none other than that given to the journeying divinities of light when they have reached the western horizon. According to Helge Hjorvardson's saga, Hate, who pursues the moon, is slain near Varin's Bay. Varinn, the "defender," "protector," is the singular form of the same word as reappears in the genitive plural Varna. These expressions - Billing veold Vernum, Varna vidr, and Varins vik - are to be considered as belonging together. So also the local names borrowed from the mythology, Varinsfjördr and Varinsey, in Helge Hjorvardson's saga, where several names reappear, e.g., Svarinn, Móinn, Álfr, and Yngvi, which in connection with that of Billing occur in the list of the beings created by Mimer and Durinn. It is manifest that Varna vidr, where the wolf Skoll is obliged to turn back from his pursuit of Sol, and that Varins vik, where the moon's pursuer Hate is conquered, were conceived in the mythology as situated in the western horizon, since the sun and the moon making their journey from east to west on the heavens are pursued and are not safe before they reach the western halls. And now as Billing dwells in the western halls and is remembered in the Anglo-Saxon mythic fragments as the prince of the Varnians or Varinians, and as, furthermore, Varinsfjördr and Varinsey are connected with adventures in which there occur several names of mythic persons belonging to Billing's clan, then this proves absolutely an original mythic connection between Billing and his western halls and those western halls in whose regions Varna vidr and Varinsvik are situated, and where the divinities of light, their journey athwart the sky accomplished, find defenders and can take their rest. And when we add to this that Delling, Mimer's kinsman and eastern neighbour, is the lord of morning and the rosy dawn, and that Billing is Mimer's kinsman and western neighbour, then it follows that Billing, from the standpoint of a symbol of nature, represents the evening and the glow of twilight, and that in the epic he is ruler of those regions of the world where the divinities of light find rest and peace. The description which the Havamál strophes (97-101) give us of life in Billing's halls corresponds most perfectly with this view. Through the epic presentation there gleams, as it seems, a conscious symbolising of nature, which paints to the fancy the play of colours in the west when the sun is set. When eventide comes Billing's lass, "the sun-glittering one," sleeps on her bed (Billings mey ec fann bedjum á solhvita sofa - str. 97). In his halls Billing has a body-guard of warriors, his saldrótt, vigdrótt (str. 100, 101), in whom we must recognise those Varnians who protect the divinities of light that come to his dwelling, and these warriors watch far into the night, "with burning lights and with torches in their hands," over the slumbering "sun-white" maiden. But when day breaks their services are no longer necessary. Then they in their turn go to sleep (Oc nœr morni . . . thá var saldrott um sofin - str. 101).
When the Asas - all on horseback excepting Thor - on their daily journey to the thingstead near Urd's fountain, have reached the southern rune-risted bridge-head of Bifrost, they turn to the north and ride through a southern Hel-gate into the lower world proper. Here, in the south, and far below Jormungrund's southern zone, we must conceive those "deep dales" where the fire-giant Surt dwells with his race, Suttung's sons (not Muspel's sons). The idea presented in Gylfaginning's cosmogony, according to which there was a world of fire in the south and a world of cold in the north of that Ginungagap in which the world was formed, is certainly a genuine myth, resting on a view of nature which the very geographical position forced upon the Teutons. Both these border realms afterwards find their representatives in the organised world: the fire-world in Surt's Sökkdalir, and the frost-world in the Nifelhel incorporated with the eschatological places; and as the latter constitutes the northern part of the realm of death, we may in analogy herewith refer the dales of Surt and Suttung's sons to the south, and we may do this without fear of error, for Völuspa (50) states positively that Surt and his descendants come from the south to the Ragnarok conflict (Surtr fer sunan med sviga lœfi). While the northern bridge-head of Bifrost is threatened by the rimthurses, the southern is exposed to attacks from Suttung's sons. In Ragnarok the gods have to meet storms from both quarters, and we must conceive the conflict as extending along Jormungrund's outer zone and especially near both ends of the Bifrost bridge. The plain around the south end of Bifrost where the gods are to "mix the liquor of the sword with Surt" is called Oskópnir in a part of a heathen poem incorporated with Fafnersmal. Here Frey with his hosts of einherjes meets Surt and Suttung's sons, and falls by the sword which once was his, after the arch of Bifrost on this side is already broken under the weight of the hosts of riders (Fafnersmal, 14, 15; Völuspa, 51). Oskópnir's plain must therefore be referred to the south end of Bifrost and outside of the southern Hel-gate of the lower world. The plain is also called Vigridr (Vafthrudnersmal, 18), and is said to be one hundred rasts long each way. As the gods who here appear in the conflict are called in svaso god "the sweet," and as Frey falls in the battle, those who here go to meet Surt and his people seem to be particularly Vana-gods and Vans, while those who contend with the giants and with Loke's progeny are chiefly Asas.
When the gods have ridden through the southern Hel-gate, there lie before them magnificent regions over which Urd in particular rules, and which together with Mimer's domain constitute the realms of bliss in the lower world with abodes for departed children and women, and for men who were not chosen on the field of battle. Rivers flowing from Hvergelmer flow through Urd's domain after they have traversed Mimer's realm. The way leads the gods to the fountain of the norns, which waters the southern root of the world-tree, and over which Ygdrasil's lower branches spread their ever-green leaves, shading the gold-clad fountain, where swans swim and whose waters give the whitest colour to everything that comes in contact therewith. In the vicinity of this fountain are the thingstead with judgment-seats, a tribunal, and benches for the hosts of people who daily arrive to be blessed or damned.
These hosts enter through the Hel-gate of the east. They traverse deep and dark valleys, and come to a thorn-grown plain against whose pricks Hel-shoes protect those who were merciful in their life on earth, and thence to the river mixed with blood, which in its eddies whirls weapons and must be waded over by the wicked, but can be crossed by the good on the drift-wood which floats on the river. When this river is crossed the way of the dead leads southward to the thingstead of the gods.
Further up there is a golden bridge across the river to the glorious realm where Mimer's holt and the glittering halls are situated, in which Balder and the ásmegir await the regeneration. Many streams come from Hvergelmer, among them Leiptr, on whose waters holy oaths are taken, and cast their coils around these protected places, whence sorrow, aging, and death are banished. The halls are situated in the eastern part of Mimer's realm in the domain of the elf of the rosy dawn, for he is their watchman.
Further down in Mimer's land and under the middle root of the world-tree is the well of creative force and of inspiration, and near it are Mimer's own golden halls.
Through this middle part of the lower world goes from west to east the road which Nat, Dag, Sol, and Mane travel from Billing's domain to Delling's. When the mother Nat whose car is drawn by Hrimfaxi makes her entrance through the western Hel-gate, darkness is diffused along her course over the regions of bliss and accompanies her chariot to the north, where the hall of Sindre, the great artist, is located, and toward the Nida mountains, at whose southern foot Nat takes her rest in her own home. Then those who dwell in the northern regions of Jormungrund retire to rest (Forspjallsljod, 25); but on the outer rim of Midgard there is life and activity, for there Dag's and Sol's cars then diffuse light and splendour on land and sea. The hall of Sindre's race has a special peculiarity. It is, as shall be shown below, the prototype of "the sleeping castle" mentioned in the sagas of the middle ages.
Over the Nida mountains and the lands beyond them we find Ygdrasil's third root, watered by the Hvergelmer fountain, the mother of all waters. The Nida mountains constitute Jormungrund's great watershed, from which rivers rush down to the south and to the north. In Hvergelmer's fountain and above it the world-mill is built through whose mill-stone eye water rushes up and down, causing the maelstrom and ebb and flood tide, and scattering the meal of the mill over the bottom of the sea. Nine giantesses march along the outer edge of the world pushing the mill-handle before them, while the mill and the starry heavens at the same time are revolved.
Where the Elivagar rivers rise out of Hvergelmer, and on the southern strand of the mythic Gandvik, is found a region which, after one of its inhabitants, is called Ide's pasture (setr - Younger Edda, i. 292). Here dwell warriors of mixed elf and giant blood (see the treatise on the Ivalde race), who received from the gods the task of being a guard of protection against the neighbouring giant-world.
Farther toward the north rise the Nida mountains and form the steep wall which constitutes Nifelhel's southern boundary. In this wall are the Na-gates, through which the damned when they have died their second death are brought into the realm of torture, whose ruler is Leikinn. Nifelheim is inhabited by the spirits of the primeval giants, by the spirits of disease, and by giants who have fallen in conflict with the gods. Under Nifelhel extend the enormous caves in which the various kinds of criminals are tortured. In one of these caves is the torture hall of the Nastrands. Outside of its northern door is a grotto guarded by swarthy elves. The door opens to Amsvartnir's sea, over which eternal darkness broods. In this sea lies the Lyngve-holm, within whose jurisdiction Loke, Fenrer, and "Muspel's sons" are fettered. Somewhere in the same region Bifrost descends to its well fortified northern bridge-head. The citadel is called Himinbjörg, "the defence or rampart of heaven." Its chieftain is Heimdal.
While Bifrost's arch stands in a direction from north to south, the way on which Mane and Sol travel across the heavens goes from east to west. Mane's way is below Asgard.
The movable starry heaven is not the only, nor is it the highest, canopy stretched over all that has been mentioned above. One can go so far to the north that even the horizon of the starry heavens is left in the rear. Outside, the heavens Andlánger and Vidblainn support their edges against Jormungrund (Gylfag., 17). All this creation is supported by the world-tree, on whose topmost bough the cock Vidofner glitters.