Teutonic Mythology, Volume 2

CHAPTER XVII.

7 ■^^9 S'

Apart from deified and semi-divine natures there stands a whole order of other beings distinguished mainly by the fact thatj while those have issued from men or seek human fellowship, these form a separate community, one might say a kingdom of their own, and are only induced by accident or stress of circumstances to have dealings with men. They have in them some admixture of the superhuman, which approximates them to gods ; they have power to hurt man and to help him, at the same time they stand in awe of him, being no match for him in bodil}'' strength. Their figure is much below the stature of man, or else mis-shapen. They almost all have the faculty of making themselves invisible.^ And here again the females are of a broader and nobler cast, with attributes resembling those of goddesses and wise-women ; the male spirits are more distinctly marked off, both from gods and from heroes.^

The two most general designations for them form the title of this chapter; they are what we should call spirits nowadays. But the word spirit (geist, ghost),^ like the Greek Saificov, is too comprehensive ; it would include, for instance, the halfgoddesses discussed in the preceding chapter. The Lat. genius would more nearly hit the mark (see Suppl.).

The term ivlJit seems remarkable in more than one respect, for its variable gender and for the abstract meanings developed from

' But so bavf! tlio yoiVi (p ^'^")i fl'^'^'IP'i'if''' (F '^'''") '^'''"^ rrr<:a.^^Q^u^m^ Ci-i. 410).

• Celtic tradition, which ruus partieuhirly rich on this subject, I draw from the foUowiup; works : Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, by Croftou Croker, Lond. 1825; 2nd ed., parts 1, 2, 3, Lond. 1828. The Fairy Mythology, by Th. Kcightley, vols. 1, 2, Lond. 1828. Barzas-Breiz, chants populaires dc la Bretagne, par Th. de la Villemarque, 2e ed., 2 vol., Paris 18-10.

=♦ OHG. kcifit, AS. ijdst, OS. gest (see root in Gramm. 2, 4()) ; Goth, ahma, OHG. atu7H for ahadum, conn, with Goth, aha (mens), ahjan (luemiuisse, cogitare), as man (homo), manniska, and manni, miiini belong to muuan, minuen (pp. 59. Ui. 433).

VOL. II. ^9 B

it. The Gothic vaihts, gen. vaihfdis, is feminine, and Ulphilas hardly ever uses it in a concrete sense ; in Luke 1, 1 he translates by it 7rpdy/xa, and much oftener, when combined with a negative, ovBev (Gramm. 3, 8. 734). This, however, does not exclude the possibility of vaihts having at other times denoted to the Goths a spirit regarded as female; and in 1 Thess. 5, 22 the sentence ciTTo Travro'i et'Sou? 'Trovrjpov airkyeaQe is rendered : af allamma vaihte ubilaizu afhabai}? izvis, where the Vulg. has : ab omni specie mala abstinete vos ; the use o£ the pi. ^ vaihteis ubilos ' of itself suggests the notion of spirits. The other Teutonic tongues equally use the word to intensify and make a substantive of the negative, and even let it swallow up at last the proper particle of negation ; ^ but in all of them it retains its personal meaning too. The OHG. writers waver between the neut. and masc. ; the Gothic fern, is unknown to them. Otfried has a neut. wiht, with the collective pi. ivihtir,~ and likewise a neut. pi. wUiti, which implies a sing, wihti ; thus, armu wihtir, iv. 6, 23 ; armu wihti, ii. IG, 117; krumbu wihti, iii. 9, 5; meaning 'poor, crooked creatures,^ so that wiht (derivable from wihan facere, creare) seems altogether synonymous with being, creature, person, and can be used of men or spirits : ' in demo mere sint wunderlichiu vjihtir, diu heizent sirenae,^ Hofifm. Fundgr. 19, 17. In MHG. sometimes neut.: unreinez wiJit, Diut. 1, 13; Athis H. 28; trligehaftez iviht, Barl. 367, 11; vil tumbez wiht, 11, 21; sometimes masc: bceser wiht, Barl. 220, 15; unrehter hoesewiht, MS. 2, 147% Geo. 3508; kleiner wiht, Altd. bl. 1, 254; der wiht, Geo. 3513-36; der tumbe ^viht, Fragm. 42""; and often of indeterminable gender: boese wiht, Trist. 8417; helle wiht, Geo. 3531 ; but either way as much applicable to men as to spirits. Ghostly wights are the ' minuti dii ' of the Romans (Plaut. Casina, ii. 5, 24). In Mod. Germ, we make wicht masc, and use it slightingly of a pitiful hapless being, fellow, often with a qualifying epithet: ' elender wicht, bosewicht (villain).^ If the diminutive form be added, which intensifies the notion of littleness, it can only be used of spirits : wichtlein, wichtelmami ; ^

^ Auglit = a-wiht, any wight or -whit ; naught = n'a-wiht, no wight, no whit. — Trans.

• So : thiu diufilir, iii. 14, 53, by the side of ther diufal, iii. 14, 108.

' In Hesse wichtelmanner is the expression in vogue, except on the Diemel in Saxon Hesse, where they say ' gute holden. '

WIGHTS. 441

MHG. diu wUitel^ MS. 1, 157''' ; boesez ivihtel, Elfentn. cxviii. ; kleinez wiJtteliii, Ls. 1, 378, 380, Wolfdietr. 788, 799; OHG. wihteUn penates ; wihtelen vel helbe {i.e. elbe), lemures, djemones, Gl. Floriau. The dernea wiliti, occulti genii, in Hel. 31, 20. 92, 2 are deceitful demonic beings, as ' thie derno ' 164, 19 means the devil himself; Jctha wihti, 76. 15; wreda ivihti 76, 1. In Lower Saxony ivlcht is said, quite in a good sense, of little children : in the Miinster country ' dat luicld ' holds especially of girls, about Osnabriick the sing, luicJd only of girls, the pi. wichter of girls and boys ; ' innocent tuichte ' are spoken of in Sastrow, 1, 351. The Mid. Nethl. has a neut. loicht like the H. German: quade ivlcht, clene wicht (child). Huyd. op St. 3, 6. 370; ai-em tviJit, Reinh. 1027; so the Mod. Dutch wicht, pi. wichteren : arm wicht, aardig wicht, in a kindly sense. The AS. language agrees with the Gothic as to the fem. gender : wiht, gen. wihte, nom. pi. wihta; later tvuht, wuhte, wuhta; seo iviht, Cod. Exon. 418, 8. 419, 3. 5. 420, 4. 10. The meaning can be either concrete: yfel iviJit (phantasma), leas iviht (diabolus), Cffidm. 310, 16; scBwiht (animal marinum), Beda, 1, 1; or entirely abstract = thing, affair. The Engl, ivlght has the sense of our wicht. The ON, vcett and vcettr, which are likewise fern., have preserved in its integrity the notion of a demonic spiritual being (Saem. 145'') : allar vcettir, genii quicunque, Sasm. 93^; hollar vcettir, genii benigni, Ssem. 240^ ; ragvcettir or meinvcettir, genii noxii,^ landvcettir, genii tutelares, Fornm. sog. 3, 105. Isl. sog. 1, 198, etc. In the Faroes they say: 'fear tii tear til mainvittis (go to the devil) ! ' Lyugbye, p. 548. The Danish vette is a female spirit^ a wood-nymph, meinvette an evil spirit.

^ Swer weiz unci doch nilit wizzen wil, WTioso knows, yet will not know, der sla3t sich mit sin selbes hant ; Smites himself with his own hand ;

des wisheit aht ich zeime spil. His wisdom lvalue no more than a play

daz man diu wihtel hat genannt : That they call ' the little wights' :

er lat uns schouwen wunders vil, He lets us witness much of wonder,

der ir da waltet. Who governs them.

The passage shows that in the 13th cent, there was a kind of i^uppet-show in which ghostly beings were set before the eyes of spectators. 'Der ir waltet,' he that wields them, means the showman who puts the figures in motion, A full confirmation in the Wachtelmiire, line 40 : ' rihtet zu mit den snileren (strings) die tatermanne ! ' Another passage on the xcihtel-npil in Haupt's Zeitschr. 2, 60 : 'spilt mit dem wihteUn uf dem tisch umb guoteu win.'

2 Biiirn supposes a masc. (fem. ?) mcinvcetlr and a neut. meinvcetti ; no doubt viein is noxa, malum ; nevertheless I call attention to the Zendic iiMinyus, da>mou, and agramainyus, dicmon malus.

Thiele 3, 98. The Swedish tongue, in addition to vdtt (genius) and a synonymous neut. vattr, has a wikt formed after the German, Ihre, p. 1075. Neither is the abstract sense wanting in any of these dialects.

This transition of the meaning of luigld into that of thing on the one hand, and of devil on the other, agrees with some other phenomena of language. We also address little children as ' thing/ and the child in the marchen (No. 105) cries to the lizard : ' ding, eat the crumbs too ! ' Wicht, ding, wint, teufel, valant (Gramm. 3, 73 l. 736) all help to clinch a denial. 0. French males choses, mali genii, Ren. 30085. Mid. Latin honce ?-es = boni genii. Vine. Bellov. iii. 3, 27 (see Suppl.).

We at once perceive a more decided colouring in the OHG. and MHG. alp (genius), AS. celf, ON. alfr ; a Goth, cdhs may safely be conjectured. Together with this masc, the OHG. may also have had a neut. alp, pi. elpir, as we know the MHG. had a pi. elher ; and from the MHG. dat. fem. elhe (MS. 1, 50'') we must certainly infer a nom. diu elhe, OHG. alpia, elpia, Goth. alhi, gen. albjos, for otherwise such a derivative could not occur. Formed by a still commoner suffix, there was no doubt an OHG. elplnna, MHG. elhlnne, the form selected by Albrecht of Halberstadt, and still appearing in his poem as remodelled by Wikram;^ AS. el fen, gen. elfenne. Of the nom. pi. masc. I can only feel

i sure in the ON., where it is dlfar, and would imply a Goth.

I albus, OHG. alpa, MHG. albe, AS. gelfas; on the other hand an OHG. eljn (Goth, albeis) is suggested by the MHG. pi. elbe (Amgb. 2'', unless this comes from the fem. elbe above) and by

/ the AS. pi. ijlfe, gen. pi. ylfa (Beow. 223) .2 The Engl, forms

1 Wikram 1, 9. 6, 9 fed. 1631, p. 11» 199b). The first passage, in all the editions I have compared (ed. 1545, p. 3*), has a faulty reading : ' auch viel ewinneu und freyen,' rhyming with ' zweyen.' Albrecht surely wrote ' vil elbinnen uud feien.' I can make nothing of ' freien ' but at best a very daring allusion to Frigg and Frea (p. 301) ; and ' froie ' = fraulein, as the weasel is called in Eeiuh. clxsii., can have nothing to say here.

2 Taking AS. y [as a modified n, ce, ea,'] as in yldra, ylfet, yrfe, OHG. eldiro, elpiz, erpi. At the same time, as y can also be a modified o (orf, yrfe = pecus), or a modified u (wulf, wylfen), I will not pass over a MHG. idf, pi. i'dve, which seems to mean much the same as alp, and may be akin to an AS. ylf : 'von den i'llven entbunden werden,' MS. 1, 81* ; ' ulfheit ein sulit ob alien siihten,' MS. 2, 135* ; ' der sich iilfet in der jugent,' Helbi. 2, 426 ; and conf. the dip quoted from H. Sachs. Shakspeare occasionally couples elves and goblins with similar beings called ouphes (Nares sub v.). It speaks for the identity of the two forms, that one Swedish folk-song (Arwidsson 2, 278) has Ulfver where another (2, 276) has Elfver.

ELVES. 443

elf, elves, the Swed. elf, pi. masc. elfvar (fem. elfvor), tlie Dan. elv, pi. elve, are quite in rule ; the Dan. compounds ellefulk, ellehoner, ellesluuU, ellevikl have undergone assimilation. With us the word alp still survives in the sense of night- hag^ night-mare^ in addition to which our writers of the last century introduced the Engl, elf, a form untrue to our dialect ; before that, we find everywhere the correct pi. elhe or elben.^ H. Sachs uses dip : ' du olp ! du dolp ! ' (i. 5, 525''), and olperisch (iv. 3, OS*") ; conf. olpern and olpetrutsch, alberdriitsch, drelpetriitsch (Schm. 1, 48) ; elpentrotsch and tolpentrotsch, trilpentrisch (Schmidts Swab. diet. 162) ; and in Hersfeld, hilpentrisch. The words mean an awkward pilly fellow, one whom the elves have been at, and the same thing is expressed by the simple elbisch, Fundgr. 365. In Gloss. Jun. 340 we read elvesce tveJde, elvish wights.

On the nature of Elves I resort for advice to the ON. authorities, before all others. It has been remarked already (p. 25), that the Elder Edda several times couples cesir and dlfar together, as though they were a compendium of all higher beings, and that the AS. es and ylfe stand together in exactly the same way. This apparently concedes more of divinity to elves than to men. Sometimes there come in, "as^^r third member, the vanir (Seem. 83"^), a race distinct from the gesir, but admitted to certain relations with them by marriage and by covenants. The Hrafuagaldr opens with the words : AlfoSr orkar (works), alfar skilja, vanir vita,^^ Seem. SS''' ; Allfather, i.e. the as, has power, alfar have skill (understanding), and vanir knowledge. The Alvismal enumerates the dissimilar names given to heavenly bodies, elements and plants by various languages (supra, p. 332) ; in doing so, it mentions cesir, dlfar, vanir, and in addition also go&, menn, ginregin, iotnar, dvergar and denizens of liel (hades) . Here the most remarkable point for us is, that dJfar and dvergar (dwarfs) ai'e two different things. The same distinction is made between dtfar and dvergar, Sa)m. 8'' ; between dvergar and doclcdlfar, Stem. 92**; between three kinds of norns, the as-kungar, alf-kuugar and doetr Dvalins, Sa3m. 188% namely, those descended from ases, from elves and from dwarfs ; and our MHGr. poets, as we see by Wikram's Albrecht, 6, 0, continued to separate clbc

1 Cesold. sub v. ilbe ; Ettncr's Hebamnie, p. 010, aljH'it or dben.

from cjetwcrc} Some kinship however seems to exist between them, if only because among proper names of dwarfs we find an Alfr and a Vinddlfr, Ssem. 2. 3. Loki, elsewhere called an as, and reckoned among ases, but really of iotun origin, is nevertheless addressed as dlfr, Saem. 110'' ; nay, Volundr, a godlike hero, is called ' difa lio^i,' alforum socius, and ' visi dlfa,' alforum princeps, Ssem. 135*' ''■ T explain this not historically (by a Finnish descent), but mythically : German legend likewise makes Wielant king Elberich's companion and fellow smith in Mount Gloggensachsen (otherwise Gougelsahs, Caucasus ?). Thus we see the word dlfr shrink and stretch by turns.

Now what is the true meaning of the word alhs, alp = genius ? One is tempted indeed to compare the Lat. alhus, which according to Festus the Sabines called alpus ; d(f)6^ (vitiligo, leprosy) agrees still better with the law of consonant-change. Probably then alhs meant first of all a light-coloured, white, good spirit,^ so that, when dlfa7- and dcergar are contrasted, the one signifies the white spirits, the other the black. This exactly agrees with the great beauty and brightness of lilfar. But the two classes of creatures getting, as we shall see, a good deal mixed up and confounded, recourse was had to composition, and the elves proper were named liosdlfar.^

The above-named ddckdtjar (genii obscuri) require a counterpart, which is not found in the Eddie songs, but it is in Snorri^s prose. He says, p. 21 : 'In Alfheim dwells the nation of the liosdJfar (light elves), down in the earth dwell the dockdlfar (dark elves), the two unlike one another in their look and their powers, liosdJfar brighter than the sun, dockdlfar blacker than pitch. ^ The liosdlfar occupy the third space of heaven, Sn. 22. Another name which never occurs in the lays, and which at first sight seems synonymous with dockalfar, is svartdlfar (black

1 In Norway popular belief keeps alfer and dverge apart, Faye p. 49.

" The word appears in the name of the suowclad mountains {alpes, see Suppl.), and that of the clear river [Albis, Elbe), while the ON. elf elfa, Swed. elf, Dan. *Zr = fluvius, is still merely appellative ; the ghostly elvish swan (OHG. alpiz, MHG. elbez, AS. slfet, ON. alpt, p. 429) can be explained both by its colour and its watery abode ; likewise the Slav, labud, lebed, from Labe.

^ Vanir also may contain the notion of white, bright ; consider the ON. vcenn (pulcher), the Ir. bail (albus), ben, bean (femina), Lat. Venus, Goth, qiiio, AS. cioen. To this add, that the Ir. banshi, ban-sighe denotes an elvish being usually regarded as female, a fay. The same is expressed by sia, sighe alone, which is said to mean properly the twilight, the hour of spirits (see Suppl.).

ELVES. 445

elves) ; ^ and these Snorri evidently takes to be the same as dvergar, for his dvergar dwell in Svartalfaheim, (Sn. 34. 130. 136). This is^ for one thing, at variance with the separation of dlfar and dvergar in the lays, and more particularly with the difference implied between doclcdlfar and dvergar in Sasm. 92^ 188"'. That language of poetry, which everywhere else imparts such precise information about the old faith, I am not inclined to set aside here as vague and general. Nor, in connexion with this, ought we to overlook the ndir, the deadly pale or dead ghosts named by the side of the dvergar, Sa3m. 92'', though again among the dvergar tliemsMves-eccur the proper names Nar and Nainn.

Some have seen, in this antithesis of light and black elves, the same Dualism that other mythologies set up between spirits good and bad, friendly and hostile, heavenly and hellish, between angels of light and of darkness. But ought we not rather to assume three kinds of Norse genii, liosdlfar, ddcJcdJfar, svartdJfar ? No doubt I am thereby pronouncing Snorri's statement fallacious : ' dockulfar eru svartari en bik (pitch)/ D'uchr- seems tome not so much downright black, as dim, dingy ; not niger, but obscurus, fuscus, aquilus. In ON. the adj. iarpr, AS. eorp, fuscus, seems to be used of dwarfs, Haupt's Zeitschr, 3, 152 ; and the female name Irpa (p. 98) is akin to it. In that case the identity of dwarfs and hlacJc elves would hold good, and at the same time the Old Eddie distinction between dwarfs and dai^k elves be justified.

Such a Trilogy still wants decisive proof ; but some facts can be brought in support of it. Pomeranian legend, to begin with, seems positively to divide subterraneans into wJiife, brown, and hlaeh ; ^ elsewhere popular belief contents itself with picturing dwarfs in gray clothing, in gray or hroivn cap-of-darkness ; Scotch tradition in particular has its brownies, spirits of brown hue, i.e. dockCdfar rather than svartfilfar (see SuppL). But here 1 have yet another name to bring in, which, as applied to such spirits, is not in extensive use. I have not met with it outside

' Thorlac. spec. 7, p. lOT', gives tlio liosalfar another name hvUdlfar (white elves) ; I have not found the vrord in the old writings.

• Conf. OHG. tunchal, MUG. tunkel (our dunkol), Nethl. donkcr.

3 E. M. Arndt's Miirchen und .Jugeuduriunerungen, Berl. 1818, p. l.?,). In Phil, von Steinau's Volkssagen, Zeitz 1838, pp. 291-3, the same traditions are given, but only white and black (not brown) dwarfs are distinguished.

of the Vogtland and a part of East Thuringia. There the small elvish beings that travel especially in the train of Berchta, are called the heimchen (supra, p. 276) ; and the name is considered finer and noBler than querx or erdmannchen (Borner p. 52). It is hardly to be explained by any resemblance to chirping crickets, which are also called heimchen, OHG. heimili (Graff 4, 953) ; still less by heim (domus), for these wights are not home-sprites (domestici) ; besides, the correct spelling seems to be heinchen (Variscia 2, 101), so that one may connect it with ^Friend Hein,^ the name for death, and the Low Sax. heinenMeed (winding-sheet, Strodtmann p. 84).^ This notion of departed spirits, who appear in the ' furious host ' in the retinue of former gods, and continue to lead a life of their own, may go to support those 7id{r of the Edda; the 2^<^l0 ^^^ i^^J belong to them, y 1^ and the gray, brown, black to the coarser but otherwise similar dwarfs. Such is my conjecture. In a hero-lay founded on thoroughly German legend, that of Morolt, there appear precisely three troops of spirits, who take charge of the fallen in battle and of their souls : a ivhite, a pa7e, and a hlacJc troop (p. 28''), which is explained to mean ' angels, kinsmen of the combatants coming up from hades, and devils.'' No such warlike part is ever played by the Norse alfar, not they, but the valkyrs have to do with battles ; but the traditions may long have become tangled together, and the offices confounded.^ The lioscdfar and svartdJfar are in themselves sufficiently like the christian angels and devils ; the pale troop ' vz der helle ' are the dockcdfar that dwell ' ni&ri i iord'a,' nay, the very same that in the Alvismal are not expressly named, but designated by the words 'i heljo.' Or I can put it in this Avay : liosfilfar live in Jieaven, dockalfar (and nair ?) in hel, the heathen hades, svartalfar in 8vartdlfaheim, which is never used in the same sense as hel (see Suppl.). The dusky elves are souls of dead men, as the younger poet supposed, or are we to separate dockalfar and nair ? Both have tlieir abode in the realms of hades, as the light ones have in those of heaven. Of no other elves has the Edda so much to tell as of the black,

' ' HeinenMeed is not conn, with Friend Hein, but means a hunenkleed (eh. XVIII.) ; couf. also the hiinuerskes, and perhaps the haunken, or aunkeu in the Westph. sgonaunken.' — Extr. from Suppl.

• The different races of elves contending for a corpse (Ir. Elfenm. C8).

ELVES, DWARFS. 447

who have more dealings with mankind ; svartalfar are named in abundance^ liosalfar and dockalfar but fitfully.

One thing we must not let go : the identity of svartalfar and dvergar.

Dvergr, Goth, dvairgs ? AS. dweorg, OHG. tnerc, MHG. tverc, our ziverg,^ answer to the Lat. nanus, Gr. vdvvo<; (dwarf, puppet), Ital. nano, Span, enano, Portug. anao, Prov. nan, nant, Fr. nain. Mid. Nethl. also naen, Ferg. 2243-46-53-82. 3146-50, and nane, 3086-97; or Gr. irvyfjialo^. Beside the masc. forms just given, OHG. and MHG. frequently use the neut. form gituerc, getwerc, Nib. 98, 1. 335, 3. MS. 2, 15^ Wigal. 6080. 6591. Trist. 14242. 14515. daz wilde getiverc, Ecke 81. 82. Wh. 57, 25. Getwerc is used as a masc. in Eilhart 2881-7, Altd.bl. 1, 253-6-8; der twerk in HofFm. fundgr. 237. Can Oeovpyo'; (performing miraculous deeds, what the MHG. would call wunderasre) have anything to do with it ? As to meaning, the dwarfs resemble the Id^ean Dactyls of the ancients, the Cabeiri and Trarat/cot .• all or most of the dvergar in the Edda are cunning smiths (Sn, 34. 48. 130. 354). This seems the simplest explanation of their hlach sooty appearance, like that of the cyclopes. Their forges are placed in caves and mountains : Svartdlfaheimr must therefore lie in a mountainous region, not in the abyss of hell. And our German folk-tales everywhere speak of the djyjirfs-Jis_-/br^LUi(/ in the mountains: 'von golde wirkent si diu spcehen iverc' says the Wartburg War of the getwerc Sinnels in Palakers, whereas elves and elfins have rather the business of iveaving atti-ibuted to them. Thus, while dwarfs border on the smith-heroes and smithgods (Wielant, Vulcan), the functions of elves approach those of fays and good-wives (see Suppl.).-

If there be any truth in this view of the matter, one can easily conceive how it might get altered and confused in the popular belief of a later time, when the new christian notions of angel and devil had been introduced. At bottom all elves, even the light ones, have some devil-like qualities, e.g. their loving to

' In Lausitz and E. Tburinpia querx, in Thiiringerwalcl qucrlich. Jac. von Kduigsbofeu, p. 89, has querclt. lu Lower Saxony sometimes twdnii, for twarg.^

• In Bretagne the korr, pL korrcd answers to our elf, the korrigan to our elfin ; and she too is described like a fay : she sits by the fountain, combing her hair, _and whoever catches her doing so, must marry her at once, or die in three days (Villemarquc 1, 17). The Welsh caicr means a giant.

teaze meu ; but they are not therefore devils^ not even the black ones, but often good-natured beings. It appears even that to these black elves in particular, i.e. mountain spirits, who in various wa3's came into contact with man, a distinct reverence was paid, a species of ivorship, traces of which lasted down to recent times. The clearest evidence of this is found in the Kormakssaga pp. 216-8. The hill of the elves, like the altar of a god, is to be reddened with the blood of a slaughtered bull, and of the animal's flesh a feast prepared for the elves : ' Hull einn er he^an skamt i brott, er dlfar bita % (cave that elves dwell in) ; gra^ung |jann, er Kormakr drap (bull that K. slew), skaltu fa, ok riftSa blo^ gra^iingsins a hulinn utan, en gera alfum veizlu (make the elves a feast) af slatrinu, ok mun ]?er batna.'' An actual dlfahlot. With this I connect the superstitious custom of cooking food for angels, and setting it for them (Superst. no. 896). So there is a table covered and a pot of food "placed for home-smiths jfC^ and kobolds (Deut. sagen, no. 37. 38. 71) j meat and drink for domina Abundia (supra, p. 286) ; money or bread deposited in the caves of subterraneans, in going past (Neocorus 1, 262. 560).' There are plants named after elves as well as after gods : alpranlte, alpfranke, alfsranke, alpkraut (lonicera periclymen., solanum dulcam.), otherwise called geissblatt, in Denmark troldbar, in Sweden trullbar; dweorges dwosle, pulegium (Lye), Moneys authorities spell dwostle, 322^^ ; dvergeriis, ace. to Molbech's Dial. Lex. p. 86, the spartium scoparium. A latrina was called dlfrek, lit. genios fugans, Eyrb. saga, cap. 4 (see Suppl.).

Whereas man grows but slowly, not attaining his full stature till after his fifteenth year, and then living seventy years, and a giant can be as old as the hills ; the dwarf is already grown up in the third year of his life, and a greybeard in the seventh ; ^ the Elf-king is commonly described as old and white-bearded.

1 The Old Pruss. and Lith. parstnk (thumbkin) also has food placed for him, couf. Lasicz 54. The Lett, hehrstuhki is said to mean a child's doll, Bergm. 145.

" Emp. Ludwig the Bavarian (1347) writes contemptuously to Markgraf Carl of Moravia : ' Eecollige, quia nondum venit hora, ut pigmei de Judea (1. India) statura cubiea evolantes fortitudine guauica (1. gnanica, i.e. nanica) terras gygantivrm detrahere debeant in ruinas, et ut pigmei, id est homines bicubitales, qui in anno tercio crescunt ad perfectam quantitatem et in septimo anno senescunt et moriuntur, imperent gygantibus.' Pelzel's Carl IV. 1 urk. p. 40. Conf. Bohmer's Font. 1, 227. 2, 570. Yet this description does not look to me quite German ; the more the dwarfs are regarded as elves, there is accorded to them, and especially to elfins (as to the Greek oreads), a hiriher and semi-divine age ; conf. the stories of changelings quoted further on. Laurin, ace. to the poems, was more than 400 years old.

ELVES, DWARFS. . 449

Accounts of the creation of dwarfs will be presented in chap. XIX. ; but they only seem to refer to the earthly form of the black elves, not of the light.

The leading features of elvish nature seem to be the following :—

Man's body holds a medium between those of the giant and the elf ; an elf comes as much short of human size as a giant towers above it. All elves are imagined as small and tiny, but the light ones as well-formed and symmetrical, the hlach as ugly and misshapen. The former are radiant with exquisite beauty, and wear shining garments: the AS. celfseiene, Cifidm. 109, 23. 165, 11, sheen as an elf, bright as angels, the ON. ' fiiS sem dlfJiona/ fair as elfin, express the height of female loveliness. In Rudlieb xvii. 27 a dwarf, on being caught, calls his wife out of the cave, she immediately appears, ' parva, 7iimis pulchra, sed et auro vesteque compta.' Fornald. sog. 1, 387 has : ' )^at er kunnigt i oUum fornum frasognum um J'at folk, er dJfar hetu, at J>at var miklu friSara enu onuur mankind.'' The Engl, elves are slender and puny: FalstafF (1 Henry IV. i. 4) calls Prince Henry ' you starveling, you elf skin ! ' ^ The dwarf adds to his repulsive hue an ill-shaped body, a humped back, and coarse clothing ; when elves and dwarfs came to be mixed up together, the graceful figure of the one was transferred to the other, yet sometimes the dwarfs expressly retain the hlaclc or grey complexion: ' svart i synen,' p. 457; 'a little black mannikin,' Kinderm. no. 92; ' greij manuikiu,' Biisching's Woch. nachr. 1, 98. Their very height is occasionally specified : now they attain the stature of a four years' child,- now they appear a great deal smaltei'7 fobe measured by the span or thumb: ' kiinie drier spannen lane, gar eislich getdn/ Elfeum. cxvi. ; two spans high, Deut. sag. no. 42 ; a little wight, ' relit als ein dumelle lane,' a thumb long, Altd. bl. 2, 151; 'ein kleinez weglin (1. wiht/i^)

' In Denmark popular belief pictures the ellekone as young and captivating to look at in front, but hollow at the back like a kneading-trough (Thiele 1, 118) ; which reminds one of Dame Werlt in MHG. poems.

2 Whether the OHG. pusiUn is said of a dwarf as Graff supposes (3, 352 ; conf. Swed. pi/ssliiin), or merely of a child, like the Lat. pusus, pusio, is a question. The Mid. Age gave to its nuficls these small dimensions of elves and dwarfs : ' Ein iegelich eiigcl schinet also gestalter als ein kint in jdren viercn (years -1) in der jugende,' Tit. 5895 (Hahn) ; 'juncliche gemalet als ein kint daz d;l viiiif jar (5 year) alt ist,' Berth. 184. Lanrin is taken for the aiic/el Micliael; Elberich (Otnit, Ettm. 24) and Autilois (Ulr. Alex.) are compared to a'child of fom-.

V

dumeln lane/ Ls. 1^ 378. In one Danish lay, the smallest trold is no bigger than an ant, D.V. 1, 176. Hence in fairy tales ddumling (thumbling, petit poucet) indicates a dwarfish figure ; "the^a/cTi/Xo? TSa609 is to be derived from SaKrvXo^ (finger) ; TTvyjiaio'; pigmteus from rrv^yiy] (fist) ; the 0. Pruss. j)arshicl, perstiich, a dwarf, from Lith. pirsztas, Slav, perst, prst (finger) ; and a Bohem. name for a dwarf, ^yV/tmz^zj'Z: = span-mannikin, from pjd' (span).^ In Sansk. hdJak]i.ilya = gemoYu.xn. genus, pollicis magnitudinem aequans, sixty thousand of them sprang out of Brahma's hair, Bopp's Gloss. Skr. p. 122* (ed. 2, p. 238'^) j bala, balaka = puer, parvulus, the 'ilya' I do not understand. There are curious stories told about the deformity of dwarfs' feet, which are said to be like those of geese or ducJcs ; ^ conf. queen Berhta,

1 When we read in a passage quoted by Jungmann 4, 652 : 'mezi pjdimnzjky kraluge trpasljk ' (among thiimblings a dwarf is king), it is jilain that a trpasJjk is moi-e than a pjdimuzJk. Can this trp- (Slovak. krjDec, krpatec) be conn, with our knirps, knips, krips, gribs (v. infra), which means one of small stature, not quite a dwarf? Finn, peukalo, a thumbling, Kalew. 13, 67 ; mies peni, pikku mies, little

man three fingers high 13, 63-8. 24, 144. For dwarf the MHGr. has also ' der

kurze man,'' Wigal. 6593. 6685. 6710 ; ' der ivenige man,'' Er. 7442. Ulr. Alex, (in Wackern.'s Bas. Ms., p. 29'j), in contrast with the ' michel man' or giant. One old name for a dwarf was cJiurzibolt, Pertz 2, 104, which otherwise means a short coat, Hoff. Gl. 36, 13. Koth. 4576. Conf. urkinde (nanus), Gramm. 2, 789.

• Deutsche Sagen, no. 149 ; I here give a more faithful version, for which I am

indebted to Hr. Hieron. Hagebuch of Aarau. Vo de lidrdmandlena uf der Eams-

flue. Hinder der Arlisbacher egg, zwiischenem doriie Hard und dem alte Lorenzekapallele, stoht im ene thjile so gauz eleigge e griisle vertraite flue, se sagere dRamsflue. uf der hiudere site isch se hohl, und dliole het numme e chline igang. Do sind denn emol, me weiss nid axact i wele johrgange, so rarige ladndle gsi, die sind i die hohle us und i gauge, hand ganz e so es eiges labe gefiiehrt, und en apartige hushaltig, und sind ganz bsunderig derhar cho, so warklich gestaltet, und mit elm wort, es isch halt kei monsch usene ch*, wer se denn au seige, wohar se cho seige, und was se tribe, jimel gekochet hand se niit, und wiirzle und beeri ggjisse. unde a der flue lauft es bachle, und i dem bachle hand die mandle im summer badet, xv'ie tiihJe, aber eis vonene het immer wacht gha, und het pfiffe, wenn opper derhar cho isch, \l dem fuesswag : denn sind se ame gsprunge, was gisch was hesch, der biirg uf, dass ene kei haas noh cho wer, und wie der sehwick in ehre h'dhle gschloffe. dernabe hand se kem monsch niit zleid tho, im gagetheil, gfalligkaite, wenn se hiind chonne. Einisch het der Hardpur es fiiederle riswalle glade, und wil er elei gsi isch, het ers au fast nid mtige. E sones mandle gsehts vo der flue obenabe, und chuut der durab zhopperle iiber driese, und hilft dem pur, was es het mcige. wo se do der bindbaum wiind ufe thue, so isch das mandle ufem wage gsi, und het grichtet, und der pur het viberunde azoge a de bindchneble. do het das mandle sseil nid racht ume gliret,und wo der pur azieht, schnellt der baum los und trift smandle ane finger iind hets wiirst blessiert ; do foht der pur a jommere und seit ' o heie, o heie, wenns numenau mer begegnet wer ! ' do seit das mandle ' abba, das macht niit, salben tho, siilben gha.'* mit dene worte springts vom wage nabe, het es chriitle abbroche, hets verschaflet und uf das bluetig fin-

• Swab. ' sell thaun, sell haun,' Schmid p. 628. More neatly in MHG., ' selbe tffite, selbe habe,' MS. 1, 10^ 89^

ELVES, DWARFS. 451

p, 280_, and the swan-maidens, p, 429. One is also reminded of the blateviieze, Eother 1871. Ernst 3828; conf. Haupt's Zeitschr. 7, 289.

The Mid. Nethl. poem of Brandaen, but no other version of the same legend^ contains a very remarkable feature.^ Brandan met a man on the sea, who was a tlmmh long, BindL floated on a leaf, holding a little bowl in his right hand and a pointer in his left : the pointer he kept dipping into the sea and letting water drip from it into the bowl ; when the bowl was full, he emptied it out, and began filling again : it was his doom to be measuring the sea until the Judgment-day (see Suppl.). This liliputian floating on the leaf reminds us of ancient, especially Indian myths.^

The fdfar are a people, as the Edda expressly says (Sn. 21), and

gerle gleit, und das het alles ewag puzt. do springts wider ufe wage, und bet zuiu pur gseit, er soil sseil nume wider ume ge. Mangiscb, weun riichtscbafne Hit durn tag gbeuet oder bunde biind und se sind nit fertig worde bis zobe, und sbet cippe welle cbo rague, so sind die hiirdmriiidle cbo, und hand gescbaffet und gewiirnet di-uf iue, bis alles im scbiirme gsi iscb. oder wenns durt duacbt iscb cbo wiittere, hand se sbeu und scborn, wo dusse gliige iscb, de liite zum tenn zue triiit, und am morge het halt alles gross auge gmacht, und se band nid gwiisst, wers tho het. deu biind erst no die mdnclle kei dank begehrt, numenau dass me se gem biit. Amenim winter, wenn alles stei und bei gfrore gsi iscb, sind die mandlc is oberst bus cbo zArlispach : se band sbalt gar guet ebonnen mit dene liite, wo dert gwohnt biind, und sind ame durt dnacht ufem ofe gliige, und am morge vortag band se se wieder drus gmacht. was aber gar gsjiiissig gsi iscb, si hand ehrc Jiiessle nie viire glo. Mind es charlachroths mdntele trait, vom hals bis ufe bode nabe. jetzt bets im dorf so gwunderige meitle und buebe gha, die sind einisch znacbt vor das bus go gen iische streue, dass se gsiiche, was die Mrdvuindle fiir fiiessle hebe. und was hiindse gfunde ? siscb frile wunderle : ante und peissfiiess sind in der asche abdiiickt gsi. Aber vo siilber stund a iscb keis mandie meh cbo, und se sind au niimme uf der Eamsflue bbebe, i dkracbehand se se verschlnjf'e, tief id geissfiue hindere, und biind keis zeiche me von ene ge, und chomme niimme, so lang dixit eso boshaft sind

(see Suppl.). [Substance of the above. Earth-mannikins on the Eamsflue P"^

lived in a cave with a narrow entrance ; cooked nothing, ate roots and hemes ; / bathed in a br^k like doves, set one to watch, and if he whistled, were up the liills | faster than hares, tind'sTipt into their cave. Never hurt men, often helped : the farmer at Hard was alone loading, a dwarf came down, helped to finish, got on the waggon, did not properly run the rope over the bind-pole, it slipped oft, the pole 1 flew up and hurt him badly. Farmer : ' I wish it had happened to mo. ' Dwarf : ' Not so ; self do, self have.' Got down, picked a herb, and cyreiibe wound instantly. OTtenrwTienTiohest folk cut bay or tied corn, dwarfs helpedthem to finish and get it under shelter ; or in the night, if rain came on, they brought in what was lying cut, and didn't the people stare in the morning ! One severe winter I they came every night to a bouse at Arlisbacb, slept on the oven, departed before t dawn; wore scarlet cloaks reachin(ito the ground, sotliai~tiuLU^f^^M:ereuevcr-&e£n; but some prying people sprinkled aslies before the Tiouse, on which were seen the j next morning marks of duck's and goose's feet. They never showed themselves I \J again, and never will, wliilc^ hk tt :iic so spiteful.] —————————— J /

— +-inuiiimaerrs"TTucTvlariiisrl,, j^MliclTteiil, 118". 2, 26».

• Brahma, sitting on a lotus, floats musing across the abysses of tho sea. "Vishnu, when after ih-abma's death the waters have covered all the worlds, sits in the shape of a tiny infant on a leaf of the pipala (fig-tree), and floats on the seaof milk, sucking the toe of his right foot. (Asiat. Ees. 1, 345.)

as the Alvismal implies by putting alfar, dyergar, and helbuar (if I may use the word), by the side of men, giants, gods, ases and vanir, each as a separate class of beings, with a language of its own. Hence too the expressions ' das stille volk ; the good people (p. 456) ; huldu-/o//i; ; ' in Lausitz ludki, little folk (Wend. voTksl. 2, 268), from lud, liud (nation), OHG. liut. Boh. lid; and in Welsh y teulu (the family), y tylwyth teg (the fair fam-ily, the pretty little folk, conf. Owen sub v. tylwyth, and DiefenbacVs Celtica ii. 102. Whether we are to understand by this a historical realm situate in a particular region, I leave undecided here. Dvergmdl (sermo nanorum) is the ON. term for the echo : a very expressive one, as their calls and cries resound in the hills, and when man speaks loud, the dwarf replies, as it were, from the mountain. Herrau'bssaga, cap. 11, p. 50: ' Sigur'Sr stilti sva hatt horpuna, at dvergmdl qva^ i hollunni,^ he played so loud on the harp, that dwarf's voice spoke in the hall. When heroes dealt loud blows, ' dvorgamdl sang uj qvorjun hamri,' echo sang in every rock (Lyngbye, p. 464, 470) ; when hard they hewed, 'dvorgamdl sang uj fiodlun,' echo sang in the mountains (ibid. 468). ON. ' qved'r vid' i klettunum,' reboant rupes. Can grceti dlfa (ploratus nanorum) in the obscure Introduction to the Hamdismal (Stem. 269'') mean something similar ? Even our German heroic poetry seems to have retained the same image :

Dem fehten allez nach erhal. To the fighting everything

resounded, do beide berg und ouch diu tal then both hill and also dale gaben ir slegen stimme. gave voice to their blows.

(Ecke, ed. Hagen, 161.)

Daz da beide berg und tal

vor ir slegen wilde wider einander allez hal. (ibid. 171.)

The hills not only rang again with the sword-strokes of the / heroes, but uttered voice and answer, i.e. the dwarfs residing in them did.^

This nation of elves or dwarfs has over it a king. In Norse legend, it is true, I remember no instance of it among alfar or dvergar; yet Huldra is queen of the huldrefolk (p. 272), as

' The Irish for echo is similax, though less beautiful : muc alia, swine of the rock.

ELVES, DWAEFS. 453

Berchta is of the heinchen (p. 276), and English tradition tells of an elf-queen, Chaucer's C. T. 6442 (the fairy queen, Percy 3, 207 seq.) ; I suppose, because Gallic tradition likewise made female fairies (fees) the more prominent. The OFr. fable of Huon of Bordeaux knows' of a roi Oberon, i.e. Auberon for Alberon, an alb by his very name : the kingdom of the fays (royaume de la feerj^e) is his. Our poem of Orendel cites a dwarf Allan by name. In Otnit a leading part is played by hunec Alherich, ETBrich, to whom are subject ''manec berg und tal;^' the Nib. liedlnakes him not a king, but a vassal of the kiugs Schilbiuig and Nibelung ; a nameless Jmig of_dwaifs appears in the poem of Ecke 80 ; and elsewhere Unq Goldemar (Dent, heldensage p. 174. Haupt's Zeitschr. 6, 522-3), king Sinnels and Laurin (MS. 2, lb"") ; ' der getwerge kium. Bilet/ Ev. 2086. The~TTerman folk-tales also give the dwarf nation a king (no. 152); king of erdmannchen (Kinderm. 3, 167). Giihich (Gibika, p. 137) is in the Harz legends a dwarf-king. Heiling is lyrince of the dwarfs (no. 151).^ These are all kings of black elves, except Oberon, whom I take to be a light alb. It appears that human heroes, by subduing the sovereign of the elves, at once obtain dominion over the spirits ; it may be in this sense that Volundr is called visi difa (p. 444), and Siegfried after conquering Elberich would have the like pretensions (see Suppl.) .

The ON. writings have preserved plenty of dwarfs' names which are of importance to the study of mythology (loc. princ. Saem. 2^ 3"'). I pick out the rhyming forms Vitr and Lib; Fill and Kili, Fialarr and Galarr, Skirvir and Virvir, Anar and Ojiar, Finnr and Ginnr, as well as the absonant Bivor and Bnvor. iVar and Nfdnn are manifestly synonymous (mortuus), and so are Thrcir and Thrdinn (contumax, or rancidus ?) . With Ndinn agrees Bdinn (mortuus again) ; with Ohm (timidus) Moinn ; Dvalinn, DurinUj Thorinii, Fundinn, shew at least the same

' A curious cry of grief keeps recurring in several dwarf-stories : ' the king is dead I Urban is dead ! old motlwr Pmiipe is dead ! ' (Biisching's Wiich. uachr. 1, 99. 101); the old schimpe is (Teadl (Tjcgeud of Bonikau), MHG. sclminpfo, Fragm. 36'=; conf. Bange's TLiir. cliron. -ly", where again they say ' kiiig Knoblauch (garlic) is dead ! ' Taking into account the saying in Saxony, ' de paitc fni ist uu al dot! ' with evident allusion to the motherly goddess (p. 253), and the similar phrase in Scandinavia, ' nu eru dauSar allar disir!' (p. 402); all these exclamations seem to give vent to a grief, dating from the oldest times, for the death of some superior being (see Suppl.) .

participial ending. Alfr, Gandalfr, and Vinddlfr place the connexion of elves and dwarfs Beyoifd'aoubt. Ai occurs twice, and seems to mean avus, as in Saem. 100* ; Finn]' and Billhig^r are like the heroes' names discussed on pp. 373, 380. -ZV^-, and NiiSi, Nyr and NyrdcFr have reference to phases of the moon's light; a few other names will be touched upon later. In Saem. 45'' and Sn. 48. 130 all dwarfs are said to be ' Ivalda synir,' sons of Ivaldi, and he seems identical with the elvish Ivaldr, father of I^uiTn, Seem. 89% just as Folkvaldr and Folkvaldi (AS. Folcwealda), Domvaldr and Domvaldi = Domaldi, are used indifferently. Ivaldr answers to the Dan. Evald and our Ewald, a rai'e name in the older documents : we know the two St. Ewalds (niger et albus) who were martyred in the elder Pipin's time (695) and buried at Cologne, but were of English origin. Beda 5, 10 spells it Hewald, and the AS. transl. Hedwold (see SuppL).

Of the dwellings of light elves in heaven the folk-tales have no longer anything to tell ; the more frequently do they describe those of dwarfs in the rifts and caves of the mountains. Hence the AS. names bergcelfen, duncelfen, muntcelfen. ON. ' by ec for iorff neSan, a ec 7mdr steini sta'S/ I dwell underneath the earth, I have under stone ray stead, Seem. 48*. 'dvergr sat undir steininum,' Yngl. saga, cap. 15. ^dvergar bua i i'drd'u oc i steinum/ Sn. 15. Ulbenstein, Elphinstone, are names of noble families, see Elwenstein, Weisth. 1, 4. In the Netherlands the hills containing sepulchral urns are vulgarly denominated \alfenhercjen (Belg. mus. 5, 64). Treasures lie hidden in graves as they do in the abodes of elves, and the dead are subterraneans as these are. And that is why dwarfs are called erdmdnnlein, erdmanneken, in Switzerland lidrdmdndle, sometimes even unterirdische, Dan. under jordishe} They scamper over moss and fell, and are not exhausted by climbing steep precipices : Men wilden

^ I cannot yet make out the name ancefigers, by wliich the earth-men are called up in Kindorm. 2, 163-4. [erd-wihte? v. ar- for erd-, p. 467, 1. 3 ; and we^lin, p. 449] . The ON. drvakr is hardly the same (see SuppL). In Pruss. Samogitia ' de underhordschkes ' ; the tales about them carefully collected by Eeusch, no. 48-59. The Wends of Liineburf; called subterranean spirits gorzoni (hill-manuikins, fr. gora, hill), and the hills they haunted are still shown. When they wished to borrow baking utensils of men, they gave a sign without being seen, and people placed them outside the door for them. In the evening they brought them back, knocking at the window and adding a loaf by way of thanks (Jugler's Worterb.). The Esthonian mythology also has its subterraneans {ma allused, under ground).

ELVES, DWAEFS. 455

getwergen waere ze stigen da genuoc/ enough climbing for wild dwarfs, says Wli. 57, 25, speaking of a rocky region.^ The popular beliefs in Denmark about the hiergmand, hiergfolli, hiergtroJd, are collected in Molbech's Dial. lex. p. 35-6. The biergmand's wife is a hiergekone. These traditions about earth-men and mountain-sprites all agree together. Slipping " into cracks and crevices of the hills, they seem to vanish suddenly, Hike ther schwick,^ as the Swiss tale has it, and as suddenly they come up from the ground : in all the places they haunt, there are shown such dwarf's holes, querlich's holes. So the ludJci in Lausitz make their appearance out of underground passages like mouseholes ; a Breton folk-song speaks of the Jiorred's^ grotto (Villemarque 1, 36). In such caves they pursue their occupations, collecting treasures, forging weapons curiously wrought ; their kings fashion for themselves magnificent chambers underground, Elberich, Laurin dwell in these wonderful mountains, men and heroes at times are tempted down, loaded with gifts, and let go, or held fast (see Suppl.). Dietrich von Bern at the close of his life is fetched away by a dwarf, Deut. heldens. p. 300 ; of Etzel, says the Nibelungs' Lament 2167, one knows not ' ob er sich verslilffe in locher der steinwende/ whether he have slipped away into holes of the rocks ^ : meaning probably, that, like Taunhiiuser and faithful Eckart, he has got into the mount wherein Dame Venus dwells. Of this Dame Venus's mount we have no accounts before the 15-16th centuries; one would like to know Avhat earlier notions lie at the bottom of it : has Dame Venus been put in the place of a subterranean elf-queen, or of a goddess, such as Dame Holda or Frikka? Heinrich von Morunge sings of his beloved, MS. 1, 65''^ :

Und dunket mich, wie si ge zuo mir diir ganze muren,

ir trust und ir helfe luzent mich niht triiren ;

swenne si wil, so viieret sie mich himien

mit ir wizen hant hohe ilber die zinnen.

icli waene sie ist ein Venus here.

1 Other instances are collectctl in Ir. Elfenm. Ixxvi. ' den here bfitcn irihliu getwerc,' wild dwarfs inliabitcd the hill, Sigeuot 118.

2 Sliefeit is said of them as of the fox in lieinh. xxxi. ; our subst. schlucht stands for sluft (beschwichtigen, lucht, kracht.for swiften, luft, kraft), hence a hole to slip into.

• Conf. Deutsche sagcn, uo. 38J, on Theoderic's soul, how it is conveyed into Vulcan's abyss.

VOL. ir. c

(Methinks slie comes to me through solid walls, Her help, her comfort lets me nothing fear ; And when she will she wafteth me from here With her white hand high o'er the pinnacles. I ween she is a Venus high.) He compares her then to a Venus or Holda, with the elvish power to penetrate through walls and carry you away over roof and tower (see chap. XXXI., Tannhiiuser; and Suppl.). Accordingly, when a Hessian nurserytale (no. 13) makes three haule-mannerclien appear, these are henchmen of Holle, elves in her retinue, and what seems especially worthy of notice is their being three, and endowing with gifts : it is a rare thing to see male beings occupy the place of the fortune-telling wives. Elsewhere it is rather the little earthwives that appear; in Hebel (ed. 5, p. 268) Eveli says to the wood-wife : ' God bless you, and if you're the earih-mannildn' s wife, I won't be afraid of you.' ^

There is another point of connexion with Holda : the expressions 'die gotten JioJden' (p. 266), ' giiedeholden' penates (Teutonista), or Jwldichen, holdehen, holderchen seem perfectly synonymous with Hhe good elves ; ' holdo is literally a kind, favourably disposed being, and in Iceland linfitngar (darlings) and huldufolk, huldumenn (p. 272) are used for alfar. The form of the Dan. hyldemdnd is misleading, it suggests the extraneous notion of hyld (sambucus, elder-tree), and makes Dame Holda come out as a hyldemoer or hyldeqvind, viz., a dryad incorporated with that tree (Thiele 1, 132) ; but its real connexion with the huldre is none the less evident. Thus far, then, the elves are good-natured helpful beings ; they are called, as quoted on p. 452, the stille volk (Deut. sagen. No. 30-1), the good people, good neigliboxirs, peaceful folic (Gael, daoine shi, Ir. daoine maith, Wei. dynion mad). When left undisturbed in their quiet goings on, they maintain peace with men, and do them services when they can, in the way of smith-work, weaving and baking. Many a time have they given to people of their neiu-haked bread or cahes (Mone's Anz. 7, 475). They too in their turn require man's advice and assistance in certain predicaments, among which are i

A 1 One winter Hadding was eating Ms supper, when suddenly an earth-wife

u TpusheAhei' head vp throvgh the floor by the flreside, and offered him green vege-

*' tables. Saxo,p. 16, calls her cicutarvm gerula, and makes her take Hadding into

the subterranean land, where are meadows covered with grass, as in our nursery-

tiles which describe Dame Holla's underground realm. This grass- wife resembles

a little eaiih-wife.

ELVES, DWARFS. 457

to be reckoned three cases in particular. In tlie first place, tliey fetch goodwives, midwives, to assist she-dwarfs in labour ; ^ next, men of understanding to divide a treasure, to settle a dispute;^ thirdly, they borrow a hall to hold their weddings in ; ^ but they requite eveiy favour by bestowing jewels which bring luck to the man's house and to his descendants. They themselves, however, have much knowledge of occult healing virtues in plants and stones.* In Rudlieb xvii. 18, the captured dwarf retorts the taunt of treachery in the following speech :

^ Eanzan, Alvensleben, Hahn. (Deut. sag. no. 41, 68-9) ; Miillenb. Schlesw. hoist, sag. no. 443-4. Asbiora Norw. s. 1, 18. Irish legends and fau'y tales 1, 245-250. Mone's Auz. 7, 475 ; conf. Thiele 1, 36.— Hiilpher's Samlingen cm

Jamtland (Westeras 1775, p. 210) has the following Swedish story: 'ar 1660, di

jag tillika med min hustru var gdngen til faboderne, som ligga J mil ifran Kaguuda prastegird, och der sent om qvallen suttit och talt en stund, kom en liten man ingaende geuom diiren, och bad min hustru, det ville hon hjelpa bans hustrit, som da lag och qvaldes vied barn, karlen var eljest liten til vaxten, svart i synen, och med gamla gra klader forsedd. Jag och min hustru sutto en stund och undrade pa denne manuen, emedan vi understodo, at ban var et troll, och hort beriittas, det sidane, af bondfolk vettar kallade, sig altid i fiibodarne uppehalla, sedan folket om hosten sig derifrdn begifvit. Men som ban 4 a 5 ganger siu begaran payrkade, och man derhos betaukte, hvad skada boudfolket beriitta sig ibland af vettarne lidit, da de antingeu svurit pa dem, eller eljest vist dem med vranga ord til helvetet ; ty fattade jag da til det radet, at jag liistc ofver min hustru nagre boner, viilsignade henne, och bad henne i Gruds namn foljamed honom. Hon tog sa i hastighet nagre gamla linklader med sig, och fdlgde honom at, men jag blef qvar sittaude. Sedan nar hon mig vid aterkomsten berattat, at da hon gatt med mannen utom porteu, tykte hon sig liksom foras udi vadret en stund, och kom sa uti en stuga, hvarest bredevid var en liten miirk kammare, das bans hustru lag och vandades med barn i en siing, min hustru bar si stigit til henne, och efter en liten stund hjelpt henne, da hon fodde barnet, och det med lika atborder, som andra menniskor plaga hafva. Karlen bar sedan tilbudit henne mat, men som hon dertil nekade, ty tackade ban henne och folgde henne dt, hvarefter hon iter likasom farit i vacb'et, och kom efter en stund til porteu igen vid passklockan 10. Emedlertid voro en hoper (jamla silfverskedar lagde pi en hylla i stugan, och fann min hustru dem, da hon andra dagen stcikade i vriarne : kunuandes forsta, at de af vcttret voro dit lagde. At sd i Banning ar skedt, vituar jag med mitt namns undersiittande. Eagunda, d. 12

april, 1671. Pet. Eahm.' [Substance of the foregoing: 1, the undersigned, and

my wife were accosted by a little man with black fac- and old gray clothes, who begged my wife to come and aid his wife then in labour. Seeing he was a troll, such as the peasantry call vettar (wights), I prayed over my wife, blessed her, and bade her go. She seemed for a time to be borne along by the wind, found his wife in a little dark room, and helped, etc. Eefused food, was^carried home in the same way ; found next day a heap of old silver vessels brought by the vettr.\

In Finland the vulgar opinion holds, that under the altars of churches there live small mis-shapen beings called kirkonwiiki (church-folk) ; that when their women have difficult labour, they can be relieved by a Christian woman visiting them and laying her hand on them. Such service they reward liberally with gold and silver. Mnemosyne, Abo 1821, p. 313.

2 Pref. p. XXX. Neocorus 1, 542. Kinderm. 2, 43. 3, 172. 225. Nib. 92, 3. Bit. 7819. Conf. Deutsche heldeusagen, p. 78.

3 Hoia (Deut. sagen, no. 35). Bonikau (Elisabeth von Orleans, Strassb. 1789, p. 133 ; Leipzig 1820, p. 450-1). Biisching's ^Yocbentl. nacbr. 1. 98 ; conf. 101.

1 The wounded hJirdniaudle, p. 450-1. Here are two Swedish st>)ries given in Odmau's Bahusliin pp. 191, 224: Bioru Marteusson, accompanied by an archer,

Absit ut inter nos unquam regnaverit haec fraus ! non tarn longaevi tunc essemus neque sani. Inter vos nemo loquitur nisi corde doloso, hinc neque ad aetatem maturam pervenietis : pro cujusque fide sunt ejus tempora vitae. Non aliter loquimur nisi sicut corde tenemus, neque cibos varios edimus morbos generantes, longius incolumes hinc nos durahimus ac vos.

j Thus already in the 10th century the dwarf complains of the (faithlessness of mankind^ and partly accounts thereby for the shortness of human life, while dwarfs, because they are honest and feed on simple viands, have long and healthy lives. More intimately acquainted with the secret powers of natui-e, they can with greater certainty avoid unwholesome food. This remarkable passage justifies the opinion of the longevity of dwarfs ; and their avoidance of human food, which "hastens death, agrees with the distinction drawn out on p. 318 between men and gods (see SuppL). "^ """^ ~^

went hunting iu the high woods of Ornekulla ; there they found a hergsmed

, (mouutaiu-sniith) asleep, and the huntsman ordered the archer to seize him, but

/ he dechued : ' Pray God shield you ! the bergsmith will fling you down the hill.'

But the huntsman was so daring, he went up and laid hands on the sleeper ; the

bergsmith cried out, and begged they would let him go, he had a wife and seven

I little ones, and he would forge them anything they liked, they had only to put the

I iron and steel on the cliff, and they'd presently find the work lying finished in the

I same place. Biorn asked him, whom he worked for? 'For my fellows,' he

\ replied. As Biorn would not release him, he said: 'Had I my cap-of-darkness

\ (uddehat, p. 463), you should not carry me away ; but if you don't let me go, none

I of your posterity will attain the greatness you enjoy, but will go from bad to worse.'

\ Wliich afterwards came true. Biorn secured the bergsmith, and had him put in

\ prison at Bohus, but on the third day he had disappeared.

\ At Mykleby lived Swen, who went out hunting one Sunday morning, and on the hill near Tyfweholan he s^^ied a fine buck with a ring about his neck ; at the same ipstant a cry came out of the hill : ' Look, the man is shooting our ring-buck ! ' f Nay,' cried another voice, ' he had better not, he has not washed this morning ' (i.e., been sprinkled with holy water in church). When Swen heard that, he

immediately ■ , washed himself in haste, and shot the ring-buck. Then

arose a great screaming and noise iu the hill, and one said : ' See, the man has taken his belt-flask and washed himself, but I will pay him out.' Another answered : ' You had better let it be, the icJtite buck will stand by him.' A tremendous upioar followed, and a host of trolls filled the wood all round. Swen threw himself on the ground, and crept under a mass of roots ; then came into his mind what the troll had said, that the white buck, as he contemptuously called the church, would stand by him. So he made a vow, that if God would help him out of the danger, he would hand over the buck's ring to Mykleby church, the horns to Torp, and the hide to Langeland. Having got home uninjured, he performed all this: the ring, down to the year 1732, has been the knocker on Mykleby church door, and is of some unknown metal, like iron ore ; the buck's horn was preserved iu Torp church, and the skin in Langeland church.

ELVES, DWAKFS. 459

Whilst in tliis and other ways the dwarfs do at times have dealings with mankind, yet on the whole they seem to shrink from man ; they give the impression of a downtrodden afflicted race, which is on the point of abandoning its ancient home to new and more powerful invaders. There is stamped on their character something shy and something heathenish, which estranges them from intercourse with christians. They chafe at human faithlessness, which no doubt would primarily mean the apostacy from heathenism. In the poems of the Mid. Ages, Laurin is expressly set before us as a heathen. It goes sorely against the dwarfs to see churches built, hell-ringing (supra, p. 5) disturbs their ancient privacy ; they also hate the clearing of forests, agriculture, new fangled pounding-machinery for ore.'-

^ More fully treated of in Ir. Elfenm. xciv. xcv. ; coDf. Tliiele 1, 42. 2, 2. Faye p. 17, 18. Heinchen driven away by grazing herds and tinkling sheepbells, Variscia 2, 101. Hessian tales of ivichtelmdnnerchen, Kinderm. no. 39, to wliich I add the

following one: On the Schwalm near Uttershausen stands the Dosenberg; close

to the river's bank are two apertui'es, once the exit and entrance holes of the wichtelmdnner. The grandfather of farmer Tobi of Siuglis often had a little wichtelmann come to him in a friendly manner in his field. One day, when the farmer was cutting corn, the wichtel asked him if he would undertake a carting job across the river that night for a handsome price in gold. The farmer said yes, and in the evening the wichtel brought a sack of wheat to the farmhouse as earnest ; so four horses were harnessed, and the farmer drove to the foot of the Dosenberg. Out of the holes the wichtel brought heavy invisible loads to the waggon, which the farmer took through the water to the other side. So he went backwards and forwards from ten in the evening till four in the morning, and his horses at last got tired. Then said the wichtel : ' That will do, now you shall see what you have been carrying.' He bid the farmer look over his right shoulder, who then saw the whole wide field full of little ivichtelmeH. Said the wichtel : ' For a thousand years we have dwelt in the Dosenberg, our time is up now, we must away to another country ; but there is money enough left iu the mountain to content the whole neighbourhood.' He then loaded Tobi's waggou full of money, and went his way. The farmer with much trouble got his treasure home, and was now a rich man ; his descendants are still well-to-do people, but the wichtelmen have vanished from the land for ever. On the top of the Dosenberg is a bare place where nothing will grow, it was bewitched by the wiclitel holding their trgsts upon it. Every seven years, generally on a Friday, you may see a liigli blue flame over it, covering a larger space of ground than a big cahh'on. People call it the geldfeuer, tliey have brushed it away with their feet (for it holds no lieat), in hopes of finding treasure, but in vain : the devil had always some new hocuspocus to make some little word pop out of their mouths.

Then, lastly, a Low Saxon story of the Allcr country : Tau Offensen bin

Kloster Wicnhusen was on groton buern, Hiivermann uenne ho sick, die harro ok en schi]) up der AUer. Einsdages komt 2 Hie tau jiim un segget, he schiillc sc over dat water schippen. Tweimal fiiuort hei over dc Aller, jedesmal na deu groton rume, den se AUoru heiteu dauet, dat is ne grote unininschliche wische lang un breit, dat man se kums afkiken kann. Ans de buer taun twcitenmale over efiiuert is, segt ein von don tirarvien to ome : ' Wut du nu ne summo geldes hebben, oder wut du na koptal betalt sin? ' ' Ick will Iciver ne summe geld ncmen ' sfi de buer. Do nimt de eine von don liltjen lilen sinen haut af, un settet den dem schipper up : ' Du herrst dik doch beter estan, wenn du na koptal efodert herrst ' segt de twarni ;

Breton legend informs us : A man liad dug a treasure out of a dwarf's hole, and then cautiously covered his floor with ashes and glowing embers ; so when the dwarfs came at midnight to get their property back, they burnt their feet so badly, that they set up a loud wail (supra, p. 413) and fled in haste, but they smashed all his crockery. Villemarque 1, 42 (see Suppl.).

From this dependence of the elves on man in some things, and their mental superiority in others, there naturally follows a hostile relation between the two. Men disregard elves, elves do mischief to men and teaze them. It was a very old belief, that dangerous arrows were shot down from the air by elves; this evidently means light elves, it is never mentioned in stories of dwarfs, and the AS. formula couples together ' esagescot and ylf ages cot,' these elves being apparently armed with weapons like those of the gods themselves ; ^ the divine thunderbot is even called an albscJioss (pp. 179, 187), and in Scotland the elf-arroiv, eJf-jiint, elf-holt is a hard pointed wedge believed to have been discharged by spirits ; the turf cut out of the ground by lightning is supposed to be thrown up by them.^ Oa p. 187 I have already inferred, that there must have been some closer connexion, now lost to us, between elves and the Thundergod : if it be that his bolts vf ere forged for him by elves, that points rather to the black elves.

Their touch, their breath may bring sickness or death on man and beast ; ^ one whom their stroke has fallen on, is lost or incapable (Danske viser 1, 328) : lamed cattle, bewitched by them,

un de buer, de vorher niclits nich seien harre, un den et so lichte in schii^p vorkomen was, ans of he nichts inne herre, slit de ganze Allero von luter liitjen minschen krimmeln un whnmeln. Dat sind de twarrne west, dei wier trokken sind. Von der tit heft Hovermanus noch immer vull geld ehat, dat se nich kennen deen, averst nu sind se sau ein nan annern ut estorven, un de hof is verkoft. ' Wann ist deun das gewesen ? ' Vor oleu tien, ans de twarme noch sau in der welt wesen sind, nu gift et er wol keine mehr, vor driittig, virzig jaren. [Substance of the foregoing :

Hovermann, a large farmer at Ofi'ensen, had also a ship on the E. Aller. Two

little men asked him to ferry them over. He did so twice, each time to a large open space called Allero. Dwarf : ' WUl you have a lump sum, or be paid so much a head ? ' Farmer : ' A lump sum.' Dwarf : ' You'd better have asked so much a head.' He put his own hat on the farmer's head, who then saw the whole Allero swarming with little vicn, who had been ferried across. The Hovermanns grew rich, have now all died out, farm sold. ' When did that happen ? ' Ages ago, in the olden time, when dwarfs were in the world, 30 or 40 years ago.]

' Arrows of the Servian vila, p. 436. The Norw. dli-skudt, elf-shotten, is said of sick cattle, Sommerfelt Saltdalens prastegield, p. 119. Scot, elfshot.

• Irish Elf- stories xlv. xlvi. cii.

2 Ibid. ciii.

/

ELVES, DWARFS. 461

are said in Norway to be dverg-dagen (Hallager p. 20) ; the term elbentrotsch for silly halfwitted men, whom their avenging hand has touched, was mentioned on p. 443. One who is seduced by elves is called in Danish ellevild, and this ellevlldelse in reference to women is thus described: 'at elven legede med dem/ Blowing puffing beings language itself shews them to be from of old : as spiritus comes from spirare, so does geist, ghost from the old verb gisan (flari, cum impetu ferri) ; the ON. gustr, Engl, gust, is flatus, and there is a dwarf named Gustr (Ssem. 18P) ; ^ other dwarfs, Austri, Vestri, Nor&ri, Suffri (Sasm. 2'\ Sn. 9. 15. 16) betoken the four winds, while Vinddlfr, still a dwarFs name, explains itself.^ Beside the breathing, the mere look of an elf has magic power : this our ancient idiom denominates mtsehan (torve intueri, Gramm. 2,810), MHG. entsehen : ' ich ban in gesegent (blessed), er was entsehen/ Eracl. 3239 ; 'von der elbe wirt entsehen vil maneger man,' MS. 1, 50'' (see Suppl.). The knot-holes in wood are popularly ascribed to elves. In Smiiland a tale is told about the ancestress of a family whose name is given, that she was an elfmaid, that she came into the house through a knot-hole in the wall loith the sunbeams ; she was married to the son, bore him four children, then vanished the same way as she had come. Afzelius 2, 145. Thiele 2, 18. And not only is it believed that they themselves can creep through, but that whoever looks through can see things otherwise hidden from him ; the same thing happens if you look through the hole made in the skin of a beast by an elf's arrow. In Scotland a knot-hole is called elf bore, says Jamieson : ' a hole in a piece of wood, out of which a knot has dropped or been driven : viewed as the operation of the fairies.' They also say aawisbore, Jutish 'ausbor (Molbech's Dial. lex. p. 22. 94). If on the hill inhabited by elves the following rhyme be uttered 15 times :

iillkuon, iillkuon, est du her inn, saa ska du herud paa 15 iegepiuu !

(elf- woman, art thou in here, so shalt thou come out through 15

' Norweg. alvgust, an illness caused by Laving been breathed upon by elves, Hallager 4''.

• Old French legend has an elf called Ziphyr ; there is a German home-sprite Blaserle, Moue's Anzeiger 1834, p. 260.

^02 WIGHTS AND ELVES.

oak knot-holes, egepind), the elfin is bound to make her appearanee_, Molb. Dial. 99 (see Suppl.).

In name, and still more in idea, the elf is connected with the ghostlike butterfly, the product of repeated changes of form. An OHG. gloss (Graff 1, 243) says : brucus, locusta quae nondum volavit, quam vulgo alham vocant. The alp is supposed often to assume the shape of a butterfly, and in the witch-trials the name of elh is given by turns to the caterpillar, to the chrysalis, and to the insect that issues from it. And these shai*e even the names of gufe holden and hose dinger (evil things) with the spirits themselves.

These light airy sprites have an advantage over slow unwieldy man in their godlike power (p. 325) of vanishing or making themselves invisible^ No sooner do they appear, than they are snatched away from our eyes. Only he that wears the ring can get a sight of Elberich, Ortn. 2, 68. 70. 86. 3, 27. With the light elves it is a matter of course, but neither have the black ones forfeited the privilege. The invisibility of dwarfs is usually lodged in a particular part of their dress, a liat or a cloak, and when that is accidentally dropt or cast aside, they suddenly become visible. The dwarf-tales tell of nebelkappen (Deut. sag. nos. 152-3-5), of gra.y coats and red caps (Thiele 1, 122. 135), of scarlet cloals (supra, p. 451n.).- Earlier centuries used the words lielhappe, helheplein, helhleit (Altd. bl. 1, 256), nehelTcappe (MS. 2, 156\ 258'^; Morolt 2922. 3932) and tarnhappe. By Alberich^s and afterwards Sigfrit's tarnlxappe (Nib. 98, 3. 336, 1. 442, 2. 1060, 2) or simply Imppe (335, 1) we must understand not a mere covering for the head, but an entire cloak ; for in 337, 1 we have also tarnlmt, the protecting skin, and the

1 ' Hujus tempore principis (Heinrici ducis Karinthiae) in montanis suae ditionis gens gnaua in eavernis montium habitavit, cum liominibus vescebantur, ludebant, bibebant, choreas ducebant, sed invisihiUter. Literas scribebant, rempublicam inter se gerebant, legem habentes et principem, iidem catholicam pro- Uteutes, domicilia hominum laUnter iutrantes, bominibus consedentes et arridentes. . . . Principe subducto, nihil de eis amplius est auditum. Dicitur quod [lemmas gestant, quae eos reddunt invisibiles, quia deformitatem et parvitatevi corporum erubescuut.' Anon. Leobiens. ad ann. 1335 (Pez 1, 940'').

^ Oh Wormius's pref. to Clausson's Dan. transl. of Suorre, Copenh. 1633 : ' derfor sigis de (dverger) at hafve hcitte paa, huormid kunde giore sig usynlig.' Other proofs are collected in Ir. Elfenm. Isxiv. Ixxv. A schretel wears a rotez keppel on him (not on his head), ibid. cxvi. KoUenhagen's ' bergmiinnlein ' wear little white shirts and pointed caps, Froschmeuseler xx. v'\ Maugis, the Carolingian sorcerer, is called ' lerres (latro) o le noir chaperon.'

ELVES, DWARFS. 463

schretePs ^rotez heppel' becomes in H. Saclis 1,280'* a 'mantel scharlach rot des zwergleins/ Beside invisibility, this cloak imparts superior strength, and likewise control over the dwarf nation and their hoard. In other instances the cap alone is meant: a Norwegian folk-tale in Faye p. 30 calls it luldehat (pointed hat ?), and a home-sprite at Hildesheim bears the name of Hodelten from the felt hat he wore. Probably the OHG. helothelm (latibulum), Gl. Hrab. 969% the OS. helith-helm, Hel. 164, 29, AS. heoWhelm, Cod. Exon. 362, 31, hmWielm, Caedm. 29, 2, ON. hialmr huliz (an Eddie word for cloud), Ssem. 50%^ and the AS. grimhelm, Ceedm. 188, 27. 198, 20. Beow. 66Q, all have a similar meaning, though the simple helm and grime (p. 238) already contain the notion of a covering and a mask ; for helm is from helan (celare) as huot, hood, or hat, from huotan (tegere). No doubt other superior beings, beside elves and dwarfs, wore the invisible-making garment ; I need only mention OSin's hat with turned-up brim (p. 146), Mercury's petasus, Wish's hat, which our fairy-tales still call wishing -hat, ^ and Pluto's or Orcus's helmet i^'Mho^ Kvvir], II. 5, 845. Hesiod, Scut. 227). The dwarfs may have stood in some peculiar, though now obscured, relation to O^iun, as the hat- wearing pataeci, cabiri and Dioscuri did to Jupiter (see Suppl.).

From such ability to conceal their form, and from their teazing character in general, there will arise all manner of deception and disappointment (conf. Suppl. to p. 331), to which man is exposed in dealing with elves and dwarfs. We read : der alp triuget (cheats), Fundgr. 327, 18 ; den triuget, weiz Got, nicht der alp, not even the elf can trick him, Diut. 2, 34; Silvester 5199 ; die mag triegen wol der alj), Suchenwirt xxxi. 12 ; ein getroc daz mich in dem slafe triuget, Ben. 429 ; dicli triegen die elhln (1. elbe, rhyme selbe), Altd. bl. 1, 261 ; elhe triegent, Amgb. 2''; diu elber triegent, Herbort 5'^ ; in beduhte daz in triige ein alp, Ir. elfenm. Ivii. ; alfs ghedroch, Elcgast 51, 775. Reinh. 5367, conf. Horao Belg. 6, 218-9; alfsche droch, Reinaert (prose Ixxii.''). In our

1 Fornm. sog. 2, 141 says of Eyviiulr the sorcerer : ' gior'Si >cim hnlithhialm,' made for them a mist, darkness, luilinhidhnr, Foruald. sog. 3, 21'j ; kujfshoftr 1, 9. 2, 20. See llafn's Index sub v. dvilgerfi.

2 A weighty addition to the arguments for the identity of Wuotan and Mercury; conf. p. -iiy on the wishing-rod.

elder speech gitroc, getroc, dgetroc, ahegetroc, denotes trickery especially diabolic, proceeding from evil spirits (Grainm. 2, 709. 740-1). 1 To the same effect are some other disparaging epithets applied to elves : elhischez getwds, elhischez els, elhischez ungehiure, as the devil himself is called a getwas (fantasma) and a monster. So, of the morbid oppression felt in sleep and dreaming, it is said quite indifferently, either : ' the devil has shaken thee, ridden thee,' ' hinaht riiert dich satauas (Satan shakes thee to-night),' Fundgr. 1, 170; or else the elf, the nightmare^ : 'dich hat geriten der mar,' ^ein alp zoumet dich (bridles thee).' And as Dame Holle entangles one's spinning or hair (p. 269), as she herself has tangled hair,-'^ and as stubbly hair is called Ho^Zeuzop/;* so the nightelf, the nightmare, rolls up the hair of men or the manes and tails of horses, in knots, or chews them through: alpzopf, dridenzQipf, wich.telzopf, weichsehopf (of wbich more hereafter), in Lower Saxony mahrenlocke, elfhlatte (Brem. worth. 1, 302), Dan. marelok, Engl, eljiochs (Nares sub v.), elvish knots, and in Shakspeare to elf means to mat: 'elf all my hair in knots,' K. Lear ii. 3. Here will come in those ' comae equorum diligenter tricatae,' when the white women make their midnight rounds (supra, p. 287). The Lithuanian elf named aitwaras likewise mats the hair : aitwars yo plaukus suzindo, suwele (has drawn his hair together). Lasicz 51 has : aitivaros, incubus qui post sepes habitat (from twora sepes, and ais pone). Some parts of Lower Saxony give to the wichtelzopf (plica polouica) the name of selkensteert, selkin's tail (Brem. worth. 4, 749), sellentost (Hufeland's Journal 11. 43), which I take to mean tuft of the goodfellow, homesprite

1 Daz analutte des sih pergenten trugetievcles, N. Bth. 44; (/(rfrogr pbantasma, 0. iii. 8, 24; gedrog, Bel. 89, 22 ; tievels qctroc, Kail 62"; ' ne clragu ic enic drugi thing,' Hel. 8, 10. The dwarf Elberich (Ortn. 3, 27. 5, 105) is called ' eiu trilgew'lz ' ; conf. infra, bilwiz.

' Our nachtmar I cannot produce either in OHG. or MHG. Lye gives AS. ' vi(e7-e ffficce ' incubus, ephialtes, but I do not understand isecce. Nearly akin is the Pol. mora, Boh. mura, elf and evening butterfly, sphinx. In the Mark they say both alb and mahre, Adalb. Kuhn, p. 374. French caucheviare, cochemar, also chaitcheville, chauchi vieilli (Mem. des Antiq. 4. 399 ; J. J. ChampoUion Figeac patois, p. 125) ; Ital. pe&aruole, Span, pesadilla, O.Fr. appesart; these from caucher (calcare), and pesar (to weigh down).

3 In Kinderm. 3, 44, Holle gets her terrible hair combed out, which had not been combed for a year. A girl, whom she has gifted, combs pearls and precious stones out of her own hair.

■* Hess. Hollezaul (for -zagel, i&il), Holle zopp, Schmidt's Westerw. idiot. 341. Adelung has : ' hbllenzopf, plica polonica, Pol. koltun, Boh. koltauu.'

ELVES, DWARFS. 465

(gesellchen).! In Thuringia saellocke.'PriBtorms's Welfcbesclir. 1, 40. 293 (see SuppL).

The Edda nowhere represents either alfar or dvergar as mounted, whilst our poems of the Mid. Ages make both Elberich and Lamin come riding. Heinrich von Ofterdingen bestows on them a steed *als ein geiz (goat)/ and Ulrich's Alexander gives the dwarf king Antilois a pony the size of a roe,^ while Altd. bl. 2, 151 without more ado mounts the wihtel on a ifjhite roe. Antilois is richly dressed, bells tinkle on his bridle-reins ; he is angry with Alexander for spoiling his flower-garden, as Laurin is with Dietrich and Wittich. The Welsh stories also in Crofton Croker 3, 306 say : ' they were very diminutive persons riding four abreast, and mounted on small white horses no bigger than dogs ' (see SuppL).

All dwarfs and elves are thievish. Among Eddie names of dwarfs is an A/piofr, Sjsm. 2'' ; Alpris, more correctly Alfrikr dvergr, in Vilk. saga cap. 16, 40. is called ' hinn mildi stelari^ ; and in the Titurel 27, 288 (Halm 4105), a notorious thief, who can steal the eggs from under birds, is Elbegast (corrupted into Elegast, Algast). In our Low German legends they lay their

plans especially against the pea~Jields.^ Other thefts of dwarfs

•

1 Ogonczyk Zakrzewski, in his Hist, of plica polonica (Vienna, 1830), observes, that its cure also is accomplished with superstitious ceremonies. In Potllachia the elftuft is solemnly cut oii' at Easter time and buried. In the Skawiua district about Cracow, it is partially cropped with redhot sh€ars, a piece of copper money tied \ip in it, and thrown into the ruins of an old castle in which evil spirits lodge ; but whoever does this must not look round, but hasten home as fast as he can. Superstitious formulas for the cure of plica are given by Zakrzewski, p. 20, out of an Old Boh. MS. of 1325.

2 Wackernagel's Basel MSS. p. 28.

•* Deut. sagen, nos 152, 155 ; to which I will here add two communicated by Hr.

Sehambach. The first is from Jiihnde, near Gottingen : Vor nich lauger tid gaf

et to Jiine noch twarge. Diise plegten up et feld to gan, un den liien de arften (leuten die erbsen) weg to stelen, wat se iim sau lichter konnen, da se unsichtbar wiiren dor (durch) ene kappe, dei se uppen koppe barren (hatten). Sau woreu nu <il{ de twarge euen manne iininier i;p sin grat arftenstiicke egau, un richtcden one velen schaen damp an. Diit duerde sau lange, bet hei up den infal kam, de twarge to fengeu. Hei tog alsau an helleu middage en eel (sell) rings iim dat feld. As nu de twarge unner den sel dorkrupen wollen, felleu iinen de kapj)cn af, se seiten nu alle in blaten ktippen, un woren sichtbar. De twarge, dei sau efongen woren, geiwen one vele gaue wore, dat he dat sel wegniimen mogde, un versjirokcn ene mette (niicthe) geld davor to gewen, hei solle mant vor suiiniuupiiaiiucvieev (wicder) an diise stee komen. En ander man segde one awer, hei mogde nich gcgcn sunuenupganp, sundern schon iim twolwe hengan, denu da wore de dag ok schon anegan. Diit de he, und richtig woren de twarge da met ener mette geld. Davon heiten de liie, dei dei mette geld ekregen harren, Mettens. [Epitome : — Dwarfs at Jiihnde preyed on the pea-fields ; wore caps which made them invisible. One man at high noon stretched a cord round his field. Dwaifs, creeping under it, brushed

are collected in Elfenm. xcii. xciii., and their longing for children and blooming maids is treated of, p. civ. cv. Dwarf-kings run away ivith maidens to their mountains : Laurin with the fair Similt (Sindhilt?), Goldemar or Volmar with a king^s daughter (Deut. heldensag. 174, Haupt^s Zeitschr. 6, 522-3) ; the Swed. folk-lay ' Den hergtagna' (-taken) tells of a virgin, who spends eight years with a mountain-king, and brings him seven sons and a daughter, before she sees her home again.^ The following

their caps off, became visible and were caught ; promised him money, if he came there again before sunrise. A friend advised him to go as early as 12, for even then the day (of the dwarfs?) was begun. He did so, and got his meed.]

The second story is from Dorste in Osterode bailiwick : En buere harre arften

buten stan, dei woren one iimmer utefreten. Da word den bueren esegt, hei soUe hengan un slaen met weenrauen (weidenruten) drupe riim, sau sleugde gewis einen de kaj^pe af. Da geng he ok hen met sinnen ganzen liieu, un funk ok enen twarg, dei sie (sagte) tau cine, wenn he one wier las Ian (wieder los lassen) wolle, sau wolle one enn wagen vul geld gewen, hei moste awer vor sunnenupgange komen. Da leit ne de buere las, un de twarg sie one, wo sine hiile wore. Do ging de buere heun un frang enn, wunnir dat denn die sunne upginge? Dei sie tau one, dei ginge glocke twolwe up. Da spanne ok sinen wagen an, un tug hen. Asse (as he) vor de hiilen kam, do juchen se drinue un sungen :

Dat ist gaut, dat de biierken dat nich weit, dat de sunne iim twolwe up geit !

Asse sek awer melle, wesden se one en afgefillet perd, dat solle mee (mit) nomen, wier (weiter) konuen se one nits gewen. Da was de buere argerlich, awer hei wolle doch fleisch vor sine hunne mee nomen, da haude en grat stiicke af, un laud et upen wagen. Asser*mee na hus kam, da was alles schire gold. Da woUet andere noch nae langen, awer da was hiile un perd verswunnen. [Epitome : — A farmer, finding his peas eaten, was advised to beat all round with willow twigs, sure to knock a dwarf's cap off. Caught a dwarf, who promised a waggon full of money if he'd come to his cave before sunrise. Asked a man when sunrise was ? ' At twelve.' Went to the cave, heard shouting and singing : ' ' Tis well the poor peasant but little knows that twelve is the time when the sun up goes ! ' Is shown a skinned horse, he may take that ! Gets angry, yet cuts a great piece off for his dogs. When he got home, it was all sheer gold. Went for the rest ; cave and horse were gone.]

The remarkable trysting-time before sunrise seems to be explained by the dwarfkind's shyness of daylight, which appears even in the Edda, Ssem. 51b ; they avoid the sun, they have in their caves a different light and different time from those of men. In Norse legends re-appears the trick of engaging a trold in conversation till the sun is risen : when he looks round and sees the sun, he splits in two ; Asbiornsen and Moe, p. 186. [The marchen of Rumpelstilzchen includes the dwarfs' song, ' 'Tis well,' etc., the splitting in two, and the kidnapping presently to be mentioned.]

1 But she-dwarfs also marry men ; Odman (Bahuslan, p. 78-9, conf. Afzelius 2, 157) relates quite seriously, and siDecifying the people's names : — ■ — Eeors fciraldrar i Hogen i Lurssockn, some bodde i Fuglekiirr i Svarteborgssockn ; hvars farfar var en skott, ok bodde vid et berg, ther fick han se mitt pa dagen sitjande en vacker piga pa en sten, ther med at fanga henne, kastade han stal emellan berget ok henve, hvarpa hennes far gasmade eller log in i berget, ok opnade bergets dorr, tilfragandes honom, om han vill ha hans dotter? Hvilket han med ja besvarade, ok efter hon var helt naken, tog han sina kliider ok holgde ofver henne, ok lat christna henne. Vid aftradet sade hennes far til honom : ' nar tu skalt ha brollup, skalt tu laga til 12 tunnor 61 ok baka en hop brod ok kiott efter 4 stutar, ok kiora til jordhUgen eller berget, ther jag haller til, ok niir brudskankeu skall utdelas, skall jag val ge min ' ;

ELVES, DWARFS. 467

legend from Dorste near Osterode, it will be seen, transfers to

Et was enmal en miiken int holt nan arberen egan, da keimen de twarge un neiment mee. Da se na orer liiilen keimen^ da verleifde sek de eine twarg in se, un da solle se one ok frien, awer iest (erst) wollen de twarge de andern twarge taur hoclitit bidden, underdes solle dat maken in liuse alles reine maken un taur hoclitit anreien. Awer dat miiken, dat woUe den twarg nich fi'ien, da Avollet weglopen, awer dat se't nich glik merken, tug et sin teug ut un tug dat ne strawisch an, un da sach et ne tunne vul hunig, da krup et rinder (hinein), un da sach et ok ne tunne vul feddern, un da krup et ok rinder, un da et wedder ruter kam, was et gans vul feddern, un da leip et weg un steig upn hoagen boam. Da keimen de twarge derbunder (darunter) vorbi, un da se^t seichen, meinen se, et wore en vugel, da reipen se't an un seen :

' Wohen, woher du schoane feddervugel ? ' ' Ek kome ut der twarges hide.' ' Wat maket de schoane junge brut ? ' *Dei steit metu bessen un keret dat hus/ ' Juchhei ! sau wil wie ok hen.'

TJnd da se hen keimen, seen se taur brut ' guen morgen,' un seen noch mehr dertau ; awer da se nich antwure, sleuchten se'r hinder de aren, un da fell se hen^ (see Suppl.).

hvilket ok skedde. Ty niir de andre gafvo, hjfte han vp tacket ok kastade en sa stor •penning eposse ther ifjeiwm, at biiukeu sd nar gddt af , ok sade tbervid : ' ther iir miu skauk ! ' ok sade ytterligare : • n;ir tu skal ha tiu hemmagifta, skaltu kiiira med 4 hastar hit til berget ok fii tiu andeh' Ta han sedermera efter bans begiirau kom tit, fik han kopparkattlar, then ene storre an then andre, tils then yttersta storste kiittelen blef upfyld med andra mindre ; item brandcreatur, som voro hielraeta, af livilkcn I'arg ok creaturslag, som iiro stora ok frodiga, the iin ha qvar pS rik, i Tamims glill beliiget. Thenne mannen lleors far i Foglekiirsten beuJimd, aHado en hop barn nicd thenna sin saledes fran berget afhiimtade hnstru, bland hvilka var nauinemannen Eeor pS Hogen ; so bar Ola Stcnson i stora llijk varit Keors syster- 60n, hvilkeu i forledit 3,r med dodeu afgik. [Epitome : — Keor's fathers dwelt, etc. One, an archer, lived near a hill, saw one day at noon ajine girl sitting on a stone ; to get her, he threic .steel Leticeen her and the hill. Her father opened the door of the hill, asked him if he wanted his daughter. He answered yes, and as she was naked, threw some of his clothes over her ; had her christened. Father : ' At thy wedding bring ale, bread and horseflesh to my /(///, and I will give thee a wedding gift.' This being done, he lifted their roof and threw in a great sum of money. ' Now for house-furniture, come here with four horses.' The man did so, and received copper kettles of all sizes, one inside the other, etc., etc. By this wife, thus fetched from the hill, he had many children; one was Eeor, whose nephew 0. S. died only last year.]

' Translation : — Once a girl had gone into the wood after strawberries, when the

They abstract well-shaped children from the cradle, and substitute their own ugly ones, or even themselves. These supposititious creatures are called changelings, camhiones (App., Superst. E.) ; OHG. wlhselinga (N, Ps. 17, 46. Cant. Deuteron. 5), our wechselhdlge ; Swed. bijfingar, Dan. bittinger ; also our hielh'opfe, dicl:hdpfe from their thick necks and heads. (Stories about them in Thiele 1, 47. 3, 1. Faye p. 20. Ir. Elfenm. xli.-xlv. cv. Deut. sag. nos. 81-2, 87-90.)^ So early as in the poem "Zeno^ (Bruns p. 27 seq.) it is the devil that fills the place of a stolen child. The motive of the exchange seems to be, that elves are anxious to improve their breed by means of the human child, which they design to keep among them, and for which they give up one of their own. A safeguai'd against such substitution is, to place a key, or one of the father's clothes, or

dwarfs came and carried her off. When they got to their cave, one dwarf fell in love with her, and she was to marry him ; but first the dwarfs were going to bid the other dwarfs to the wedding, in the meantime the girl was to make the house clean and prepare it for the wedding. But the girl, she did not want to marry the dwarf, so she would run away ; but that they might not notice it at once, she pulled her dress off and put it round a bundle of straw ; then she saw a tub full of honey and crept into it, and then she saw a tub full of feathers and crept into that also, and when she came out again, she was all over feathers ; then she ran away, and climbed up a high tree. Then the dwarfs came past under it, and when they saw her, they thought she was a bird, and called to her and said : ' Whither and whence, thou

pretty feathered bird ? ' ' I come out of the dwarf's hole' 'What does the

pretty young bride ? ' ' She stands with a besom and sweeps the house.'

' Hurra ! then we'll go there too.' And when they got there, they said to the

bride ' good morning,' and said other things too ; but as she never answered, they boxed her ears, and down she fell.

Assuredly the dwarfs in this story are genuine and of old date. Besides, it can be supplemented from Kinderm. 3, 75, where the returning dwarfs are preceded by foxes and bears, who also go past and question the 'Pitcher's fowl.' There the tub of honey in the dwarf's house is a cask of Mood, but both together agree wonderfully with the vessels which the dwarfs Fialar and Galar keep filled with Kvasi's precious blood and with honey. Sn. 8.3. 84.

' Dresd. saml. no. 15, of the ' miillers sun.' A foolish miller begs a girl to teach him the sweetness of love. She makes him lick honey all night, he empties a big jar, gets a stomach-ache, and fancies himself about to become a parent. She sends for a number of old women to assist him : ' da fragt er, war sein kind wer komen (what's come of the baby) ? sie sjDrachen : hastu nit vernommen ? ez was ain rehter ■wislonhalk (regular changeling), und tett als ein giioter schalk : da er erst von deinem leib kam (as soon as born), da fuer ez paid hin und entran hin uff zuo dem fiirst emjior. Der miiller sprach : paid hin uff daz spor ! vachent ez (catch him) !

pringeut ez mir herab ! ' They bring him a swallow in a covered pot. Again a

Hessian folk-tale : A woman was cutting corn on the Dosenberg, and her infant lay beside her. A u-ichtel-wife crept up, took the human child, and put her own in its place. When the woman looked for her darling babe, there was a frightful thickhead staring in her face. She screamed, and raised such a hue and cry, that at last the thief came back with the child ; but she would not give it uji till the woman had put the u-iclitelhahj to her breast, and nourished it for once with the generous milk of human kind.

ELVES, DWAEFS. 469

steel and needles in the cradle (App., Superst. Germ. 484. 744. Swed. 118) .1

One of the most striking instances of agreement that I know of anywhere occurs in connection with prescriptions for gefthiff rid of your changeling.

In Hesse, when the wichtelmann sees water boiled over the fire in eggshells, he cries out : ' Well, I am as old as the Westerivald, but I never saw anything boiled in eggshells ; ' Km. no. 39. In Denmark a pig stuffed with skin and hair is set before the changeling : * Now, I have seen the wood in Tiso young three times over, but never the like of this ' : Thiele 1, 48. Before an Irish changeling they also boil eggshells, till he says : ' IVe been in the world 1500 years, and never seen that'; Elfenm. p. 38. Before a Scotch one the mother puts twenty-four eggshells on the hearth, and listens for what he will say ; he says : ' I was seven before I came to my nurse, I have lived four years since, and never did I see so many milkpans ; ' Scott's Mintrelsy 2, 174. In the Breton folksong (Villemarque 1, 29) he sees the mother cooking for ten servantmen in one eggshell, and breaks out into the words : ' I have seen the egg before [it became] tJte white hen, and the acorn before the oak, seen it acorn and sapling and oak in Brezal wood, but never aught like this.' This story about the changeling is also applied to Dame Gauden's little dog, chap. XXXI. Villemarque 1, 32, quotes in addition a Welsh legend and a passage from Geoffrey of Monmouth, in which the Breton and Welsh formula for great age is already put into the mouth of Merlin the wild ; in each case an ancient forest is named. In all these stories the point was, by some out-of-theway proceeding, to get the changeling himself to confess his age, and consequently the exchange. Such traditions must have been widely spread in Europe from the earliest times; and it was evidently assumed, that elves and korred had a very diffei'ent terra of life assigned them from that of the human race (see Suppl.).

All elves have an irresistible fondness for music and dancing. By night you see them tread their round on the moonlit meadows,

' The Finns call a changeling luoti : monstrnm ncc uon infans matre dormiente a magis snjipositus, quales putant esse iufantcm rachitido laborantem (Renvall). A Breton story of the korrigan changing a child is in Villeuianiue 1, 25.

470 \^GHTS AND ELVES.

and at dawn perceive their track in the dew : Dan. dlledands, Swed. dlfdands, Engl, fairy rings, fairy green. The sight of mountain-spirits dancing on the meadows betokens to men a fruitful year (Deut. sag. no. 298). An Austrian folk-song in Schottky, p. 102, has : ' und duiirt drobn afm beai'gl, da ddnzn zwoa zweargl, de danzn so rar.' In Laurin's mountain, in Venus's mountain, there murmurs a gay seductive music, dances are trod in them (Laurin, 24) ; in the Ortnit (Ettm. 2, 17) there is ^ein smalez pfat getreten mit Meinen fiiezen,^ a small path trod by little feet. Songs of elfins allure young men up the mountain, and all is over with them (Svenska fornsanger 2, 305. Danske viser 1, 235-240).^ This performance is called eJffrus leJc, elfvelek. The ordinary fornyrSalag ^ bears among Icelandic poets the name liiifiingslag (carmen genii), Olafsen p. 56 ; in Norway that kind of sweet music is called liuldresldt (supra, p. 271). One unprinted poem in MHG. (Cod. pal. 341. 35 7*^) contains the remarkable passage : ' there sat fiddlers, and all fiddled the alhleicli (elf-lay) ' ; and another (Altd. bl. 2, 93) speaks of *^ seiten spil und des wihtels schal' : it must have been a sweet enchanting strain, whose invention was ascribed to the elves.^ Finn Magnusen derives the name of the dwarf Haugspori (Seem. 2'') from the footmarks printed on grass by an elf roaming over the hills at night. And a song in Villemarque 1, 39 makes the dwarfs dance themselves out of breath (see Suppl.).

This fondness of elves for melody and dance links them with higher beings, notably with half-goddesses and goddesses. In the ship (of Isis) songs of joy resound in the night, and a dancing multitude circles round it (p. 258). In Dame Holda's dwelling, in Dame Venus^s mountain, are the song and the dance. Celtic traditions picture the fays as dancing (Mem. de Pacad. celt. 5, 108) ; these fays stand midway between elfins and wise women.'* The Hymn to Aphrodite 260 says of the mountain-nymphs :

Srjpbv fxev ^ooovcn Kal cipb^poTov eiSap eSovat, Kai re fxer ddavuToiat koKov X'^P^^ ippwaavro.

^ Folk-tale of the Hanebierg in the Antiqvariske Annaler 1, 331-2.

2 Forn-yr'Sa-lag, ancient word-lay, the alliterative metre of narrative verse, in which the poems of the Elder Edda are written. — Teans.

3 Conf. Ir. Elfeum. Ixxxi.-lxxxiii., and the wihtel-show above, p. 441 note ; Ihre sub V. alfdans ; Arndt's Journey to Sweden 3, IG.

• Like the berviau vily, who hold theii' dance on mountain aud mead, p. 436.

ELVES, DWAEFS. 471

(On deathless food they feed, and live full long, And whirl with gods through graceful dance and song.) No wonder our sage elves and dwarfs are equally credited with having the gift of divination. As such the dwarf Andvari appears in the Edda (Seem. 18P), and still more Alvis (all- wise) ; dwarf Eugel (L. Germ. Ogel) prophesies to Siegfried (Hiirn. Sifr. 46, 4. 162, 1), so does Gripir in the Edda, whose father's name is Eylimi; in the OFr. Tristran, the nains (nanus) Frocin is a devins (divinator), he interprets the stars at the birth of children (11. 318-326. 632). When, in legends and fairy tales, dwarfs appear singly among men, they are sage coimsellors and helpful, but also apt to fire up and take offence. Such is the character of Elberich and Oberon ; in a Swiss nursery- tale (no. 165), ' e chlis isigs mandle' (a little ice-grey mannikin), 'e chlis mutzigs mandle' (stumpy m.), appears in an 'isige chliiidle' (grey coat), and guides the course of events ; elves forewarn men of impending calamity' or death (Ir. Elfenm. Ixxxvi.). And in this point of view it is not without significance, that elves and dwarfs ply the spinning and weaving so much patronized by Dame Holda and Frikka. The flying gossamer in autumn is in vulgar opinion the thread spun by elves and dwarfs; the Christians named it Marienfaden (-thread), Mariensommer, because Mary too was imagined spinning and weaving. The Swed. dverg signifies araneus as well as nanus, and dvergs-nat a cobweb.^ The ON. saga of Samson hinn fagri mentions in cap. 17a marvellous ' skickja, sem alfhonurnar hofSu ofit,' mantle that elfins had woven. On a hill inhabited by spirits you hear at night the elfin (which 'troldkone' here must mean) spinninq, and her wheel humming, says Thiele 3, 25. Melusina the fay is called alvinne in a Mid. Nethl. poem (Moneys Niederl. Volkslit.

p. 75). On the other hand, the male dwarfs /orc/e jewels and

arms (supra, p.444-7, and in fuller detail in Ir. Elfenm. Ixxxviii.).^

' So the Breton horr is both dwarf and spider.

• Here is one more legend from CJdmau's Bahusliin, p. 79 : Thessutan liar

man atskillige beriittelser ok sagor om smedar, sd i htigar som biirg, sasom hiir i Fossumstorp hiigar, hvarest man hordt, at the sraidt //Asom ;' en aniian smidja om aftoneu efter solciics vederijung, ok eljest mitt pfi hoga middagen. For 80 Srsedan gik Olas fadar i Surtung, bcuiimd Ola Simnnssou, hiir i fOrsamlingen friin Slaugcvald hafvandes nied sig en hund, hvilkeu i-X han blef varse mitt pd dagen biirg^mannen, som ta smidde pa en stor sten, skiiilde han pa honom, hvar pa biirdsmcdcn, som hade en liusgrd rdk ok hldvulen halt, begynte at snarka at hunden, soin tillika med husbonden funno radeligast, at lemna honom i fred. Thet gifvas ok iinnu ibland gemene man smS crucilixcr af metall, som gemenligen halles fiire vara i fordua

VOL. II. n

To bring pig-iron to dwarfs, and find it the next morning outside the cave, ready worked for a slight remuneration, is a feature of very ancient date; the scholiast on Apollon. Rhod. (Argon. 4, 761) illustrates the a/c/^ove? 'H^aiaroio (anvils of H.) by a story of the volcanic isles about Sicily taken from Pytheas's Travels : TO oe TrdXatov iXeyero tov /SovXa/jbevov cip/yov ai8r/pov cnro^epeiv Kai eVt rrjv avpiov e\66vra \afi/3dvecv rj ^tcf)0<; r) el tl aWo 7]9e\e KaraaKevdaac, KarajSakovTa jXiaOov (see Suppl.).

What I have thus put together on the nature and attributes of elves in general, will be confirmed by an examination of particular elvish beings, who come forward under names of their own.

Among these I will allot the first place to a genius, who is nowhere to be found in the ISTorse myths, and yet seems to be of ancient date. He is mentioned in several MHGr. poems :

Sie wolten daz kein pilwiz

si da schlizze durch diu knie. Wh. 324, 8.

Er soldo sin ein guoter

und ein jpileiois geheizen,

davon ist daz in reizen

die iibeln ungehiure. Riiediger von zwein gesellen (Cod.

regiment.) \b^. Da kom icli an hulwechsperg gangen, da schoz mich der hulwechs, da schuz mich die hulwechsin,

da schoz mich als ir insresind. Cod. vindob. 2817. 7P. Von schvahaz jnlwiJiten. Titur. 27, 299 (Hahn 4116). Seiu part het manchen pt76/szoten. Casp. von der Ron.

heldenb. 156^

Out of all these it is hard to pick out the true name. Wolfram

tider smidde i bcirg, hvilka the oforstdndkre bruka at hanga p5. boskap, som hastigt fadt ondt ute pa marken, eller som sages blifvit tliderslagne, hvarigenom tro them bli helbregda. Af sadaiia bargsmiden bar jag ok nyligen kommit ofver ett, som annu iir i forvar, ok pa ofvanniimde satt gik i Ian at bota siukdommar. [Epitome :

Many stones of smiths in the mountains, who worked as at avy other smithy,

after sunset or else at high noon. Eighty years ago Ola Simunsson was coming, etc. ; had with him a dog, which, on seeing a hill-man forging on a great stone, barked at him ; but the hill-smith, who wore a light-grey coat and blue woollen cap, snarled at the dog, etc. There are small metal crucifixes held to have been forged in the hills in former times, which simple folk still hang on cattle hurt in the field or weather-stricken, whereby they trow them to get healed. Of such hill-wro^ight things I have lately mtt with one, that used to be lent out to cure sicknesses.]

PILWIZ, BILWIT. 473

makes pilwiz (var. pilbiz, bilwiz, bilwitz) rhyme with biz (morsus),

where the short vowel in the last syllable seems to point to

pilwiht; the same with bilbis in another poem, which would have

spelt it bilbeis if it had been long ; so that we cannot connect it

with the OS. balowis, nor immediately with the bilwis and balwis

contrasted on p. 374. The varying form is a sign that in the

13-14th century the word was no longer understood; and later

on, it gets further distorted, till bulwechs makes us think of a

totally unconnected word balwahs (hebes).^ A confession-book

of the first half of the 15th century (HofFmann^s Monatschr. 753)

has pelewijsen synonymous with witches, and Colerus's Hausbuch

(Mainz 1656), p. 403, uses hihlweisen in the same sense; several

authorities for the form pilbis are given in Schm. 4, 188. We

welcome the present Westph. Nethl. helewitten in the Teutonista,

where Schuiren considers it equivalent to guede holden and witte

vrouiven (penates). Kilian has belewitte (lamia) ; and here comes

in fitly a passage from Gisb. Voetius de miraculis (Disput., tom.

2, 1018): 'De illis quos nostrates appellant beeldwlt et hlhuh

belien, a quibus nocturna visa videri atque ex iis arcana revelari

putant.' Belwit then is penas, a kindly disposed home-sprite,

a guote Iwlde (supra, p. 266), what Riiediger calls ' ein guoter

und ein pilewiz.' Peculiar to AS. is an adj. bilwit, bilewit,

Caedm. 53, 4. 279, 23, which is rendered mansuetus, simplex, but

might more exactly mean aequus, Justus. God is called ' bilewit

isedev' (Andr. 1996), Boeth. metr. 20,510. 538; and is also

addressed as such in Cod. exon. 259, 6 ; again, ' bilwitra breoste '

(bonorum, aequorum pectus). Cod. exon. 343, 23. The spelling

bilehwit (Beda 5, 2, 13, where it translates simplex) would lead

to hwit (albus), but then what can bil mean ? I prefer the better

authorized bilewit, taking ' wit ' to mean scius, and bilwit, OHG.

jpilawiz, pilwiz ? to mean aequum - sciens, aequus, bonus, although

' Fundgi-. 1, 343, where palwasse rhymes with vahse, as MHG. often has ' wahs for acutus, when it should bo ' was,' OHGr. huas, AS. hw^s, ON. hvass ; thus the OHG. pal()huas = badly sharp, i.e. blunt, ON. bolhvass? just as palotat = baleful deed^ A later form biilwiichs in Selim. 4, 15.

• The simple Ml seems of itself to be aequitas, jus, and mythic enough (p. .^70). MHG. i*j7/t(;/i (aequus), Diut. 3, 38. Fundgr. ii. 5G, 27. 61, '"23. ()6, 19. Eeinh.

354. Iw. 1630. 5-244. 5730. 6842. Ls. 2, 329. hillichen (jure). Nib. 450, 2. dtr hillich (aequitas), Trist. 6429. 9374. 10062. 13772. 18027. An OHG. hillih I only know from W. Ixv. 27, where the Leyden MS. has hilithUch. As the notions ' aequus, aequalis, similis ' lie next door to each other, piladi, bilidi (our bild) is really aequalitas, similitudo, the ON. likneski (imago). The Celtic hil also means good, mild ; and Leo (Malb. Gl. 38) tries to explain bilwiz from bilbheith, bilbhith.

an adj. ' vit, wiz ' occurs nowhere else that I know of^ the ON. vitr (gen. vitrs) being provided with a suffix -r. If this etymology is tenable, bilwiz is a good genius, but of elvish nature ; he haunts mountains, his sJiot is dreaded like that of the elf (p. 460), hair is tangled and matted by him as by the alp (p. 464). One passage cited by Schm. 4, 1 88, deserves particular notice : ' so man ain kind oder ain gewand opfert zu aim pi'Zfcispaivm,' if one sacrifice a child or garment to a pilbis-tree, i.e. a tree supposed to be inhabited by the pilwiz, as trees do contain wood-sprites and elves. Borner's Legends of the Orlagau, p. 59. 62, name a witch Bilhze. The change of bilwiz, hilwis into hilwiht was a step easily taken, as in other words also s and li, or 6* and ht interchange (lies, lioht, Gramm. 1, 138), also st and lit (forest, foreht, Gramm. 4, 416) ; and the more, as the compound hilwiht gave a not unsuitable meaning, 'good wight.' The Gl. bias. 87* offer a wihsil stein (penas), nay, the varying form of our present names for the plica (p. 464), weichselzopf, wichselzopf, wichtelzopf [hiclitelzopf) makes the similar shading off of bilweichs, hilwechs, hilwicht probable : I have no doubt there is even a hilweichszopf, hilwizzopf to be found.^

Popular belief in the last few centuries, having lost the old and higher meaning of this spiritual being, has retained, as in the case of the alb, of Holla and Berhta, only the hateful side of its nature : a tormenting terrifying spectre, tangling your hair and beard, cutting up your corn, it appears mostly in a female form, as a sorceress and witch. Martin von Amberg's Mirror of Confession already interprets pilhis by devil, as Kilian does helewitte by lamia, strix. The tradition lingers chiefly in Eastern Germany,

1 Another Polish name for plica, beside koltun, is wieszczyce (Liude 6, 227), and vulgar opinion ascribes it to the magic of a ivieszczka wise woman, witch. This wieszczyce agrees with our tceichael-zoTpi, and also with the -iviz, -iveis in bilwiz. If we could point to a compound bialowieszczka (white witch, white fay ; but I nowhere find it, not even among other Slavs), there would arise a strong suspicion of the Slavic origin of our bilwiz ; for the present its German character seems to me assured both by the absence of such Slavic compound, and by the AS. bilwit and Nethl. belwitte : besi.ies, our wiz comes from wizan, and the Pol. loieszcz from wiedzie6 [O.Sl. vedeti, to wit] , and the kinshii? of the two words can be explained without any thought of borrowing. Of different origin seem to me the Sloven, paglawitz, dwarf, and the Lith. Pilvitus (Lasicz 54) or Pilwite (Narbutt 1, 52), god or goddess of wealth. [The Euss. veshch (shch pron. as in parish-church) has the same sound as wieszcz, but means thing, Goth, vaiht-s ; for kt, ht becomes shch, as in noshch, night. I am not sure therefore that even ivieszczka may not be " little wiht."— Tbans.J

PILWIZ, BILWIT. 475

in Bavaria, Franconia, Vogtland and Silesia. H. Sachs uses hllhitzen of matting tlie liair ia knots, pihnitz of tangled locks : 'ir har verbilbitzt, zapfet und stroblet, als ob sie hab der rab gezoblet,' i. 5, SOO*". ii. 2, 100'^ ; ' pilmitzen, zoten und fasen,' iii. 3, 12*. In the Ackermann von Bohmen, cap. 6, pilwis means the same as witch; ' pielweiser, magician, soothsayer,' Bcihme's Beitr. zum schles. recht 6, 69. 'an. 1529 (at Schweidnitz), a pielweiss buried alive,' Hoffmann's Monatschr. p. 247. ' 1582 (at Sagan), two women of honest carriage rated for pilweissen

and ,' ibid. 702. ' dn pilewelssin ! ' A. Gryphius, p. 828.

' Las de deine hilbezzodn auskampln ' says the angry mother to her child, ' i den hilmezschedl get nix nei,' get your b. clots combed out, you don't come in in that shaggy scalp, Schm. 1, 168. pilineskmcl, a curse like devil's child, Delling's Bair. idiot. 1, 78. On, the Saale in Thuringia, bulmuz is said of unwashed or uncombed children ; while bilbezschnitt, bilwezschnitt, bilfezschnitt, pilmasschnid (Jos. Rank. Bohmerwald, p. 274) denotes a cutting through a field of corn, which is regarded as the work of a spirit, a witch, or the devil.

This last-mentioned belief is also one of long standing. Thus the Lex Bajuvar. 12 (13), 8: * si quis messes alterius initiaverit maleficis artibus, et inventus fuerit, cum duodecim solidis componat, quod aranscarti^ dicunt.' I dare say such a delinquent was then called a piliwiz, pilawiz ? On this passage Mederer remarks, p. 202-3 : An honest countryman told me about the so-called bilmerschnitt, bUberschnitt, as follows : ' The spiteful creature, that wants to do his neighbour a rascally mischief, goes at midnight, stark naked, with a sickle tied to his foot, and repeating magic spells, through the middle of a field of corn just ripe. From that part of the field that he has passed his sickle through, all the grains fly into his barn, into his bin.' Here everything is attributed to a charm practised by man.^

' Goth, asam (messis), OPIG. aran, am.

" Cau this magic bo alluded to so early as in the Kaiserchronik (2130-37) ?

din muoter heizit Rachel, diu hat in geleret : sweune sie in hiez sniden gan, sin hunt incom nie ddr an,

sin sichil sneit schiere

mC'T dan andere viere ;

wil er durch einin berc varu,

der stet imnier mer iugegen im flf getftn.

(His mother R. taught him : when she bade him go cut, he never put his luind to it, his sickle soon cut more than any other four ; if he will drive tlu'ough a hill, it opens before him.)

Julius Schmidt too (Reichenfels, p. 119) reports from tlae Vogtland : The belief in hilsen- or hilver-schnitter (-reapers) ^ is tolerably extensive, nay, there seem to be certain persons who believe themselves to he such : in that case they go into the field before sunrise on St. John's day, sometimes on Walpurgis-day (May 1), and cut the stalks with small sickles tied to their great toes, stepping slantwise across the field. Such persons must have small three-cornered hats on (bilsenschnitter-hutchen) ; if during their walk they are saluted by any one, they must die that year. These hilsenschnitter believe they get half the produce of the field where they have reaped, and small sickle-shaped instruments have been found in some people's houses, after their death. If the owner of the field can pick up any stubble of the stalks so cut, and hangs it in the smoke, the hilsenschnitter will gradually waste away (see Suppl.).

According to a communication from Thuringia, there are two ■ways of bafiling the hilms- or hinsen-schneider (-cutter)/ whichever he is called. One is, on Trinity Sunday or St. John's day, when the sun is highest in the sky, to go and sit on an elderbush with a looking-glass on your breast, and look round in every quarter, then no doubt you can detect the hinsenschneider, but not without great risk, for if he spies you before you see him, you must die and the binsenschneider remain alive, unless he happen to catch sight of himself in the mirror on your breast, in which case he also loses his life that year. Another way is, to carry some ears that the hinsenschneider has cut to a newly opened grave in silence, and not grasping the ears in your bare hand ; if the least word be spoken, or a drop of sweat from your hand get into the grave with the ears, then, as soon as the ears rot, he that threw them in is sure to die.

What is here imputed to human sorcerers, is elsewhere laid to the devil (Superst. no. 523), or to elvish goblins, who may at once be known by their small hats. Sometimes they are known as hilgenscJineider, as pilver- or hUperts-schnitter, sometimes by altogether different names. Alberus puts sickles in the hands of women travelling in Hulda's host (supra, p. 269 note). In some places, ace. to Schm. 1, 151, they say hockschnitt, because the

' BiJse is henbane, and hinse a rush, which plants have no business here. They are merely an adaptation of bilwiz, when this had become unintelligible. — Trans.

EOGGEN-MUHME, CORN-MAMMY. 477

goblin is supposed to ride through the cornfield on a he-goat, which may well remind us of Dietrich with the boar (p. 214). The people about Osnabriick believe the tremsemutter walks about in the corn : she is dreaded by the children. In Brunswick she is called hornwif : when children are looking for cornflowers, they will not venture too far into the green field, they tell each other of the cornwife that kidnaps little ones. In the Altmark and Mark Brandenburg they call her roggenmohme (aunt in the rye), and hush crying children with the words : ' hold your tongue, or roggenmohme with the long black teats will come and drag you away ! ' ^ Others say ' with her long iron teats,' which recals iron Berhta : others again name her rockenvior , because like Holla and Berhta, she plays all manner of tricks on idle maids who have not spun their distaffs clear during the Twelves. Babes whom she puts to her black breast are likely to die. Is not the Bavarian preinscheulie the same kind of corn-spectre ? In the Schrackengast, Ingolst. 1598, there are coupled together on p. 73, ' preinscheuhen und meerwunder,' and p. 89 'wilde larvenschopper und 'preinscheuhen.' This prein, brein, properly pap (puis), means also grain-bearing plants like oats, millet, panicum, plantago (Schm. 1, 25G-7) ; and hreinscheuhe (-scare) may be the spirit that is the bugbear of oat and millet fields ?

In all this array of facts, there is no mistaking the affinity of these hilwisses with divine and elvish beings of our heathenism. They mat the hair like dame Holla, dame Berhta, and the alb, they wear the small hat and wield the shot of the elves, they have at last, like Holla and Berhta, sunk into a children's bugbear. Originally ' gute holden,' sociable and kindly beings, they have twisted round by degrees into uncanny fiendish goblins, wizards and witches. And more, at the back of these elvish beings there may lurk still higher divine beings. The Romans worshipped a Rohigo, who could hinder blight in corn, and perhaps, if displeased, bring it on. The walking of the hilwiss, of the Roggenrnulnne in the grain had at first a benevolent motive : as the names mutter, nmlime, mdr teach us, she is a motherly

1 Conf. Dent, sngen, no. 89. Kulan, p. 373. Temme's Sagen, p. 80. 82, of the Altmark. The Batleu legend makes of it a rockerl-treilh'le aud au enchanted countess of Ebersteiu, who walks about in a wood named llockert (Moue's Anzeiger, 3, 145).

guardian goddess of spindle and seedfield. Fro upon his hoar must have ridden thi-ough the plains, and made them productive, nay, even the picture of Siegfried riding through the corn I incline to refer to the circuit made by a god ; and now for the first time I think I understand why the Wetterau peasant to this day, when the corn-ears wave in the wind, says the boar walks in the corn. It is said of the god who causes the crops to thrive. Thus, by our study of elves, with whom the people have kept up acquaintance longer, we are led up to gods that once were. The connexion of elves with Holla and Berhta is further remarkable, because all these beings, unknown to the religion of the Edda, reveal an independent development or application of the heathen faith in continental Germany (see Suppl.).^

What comes nearest the hairy shaggy elves, or bilwisses, is a spirit named scrat or scrato in OHG. documents, and pilosus in contemporary Latin ones. The Gl. raons. 333 have scratun (pilosi) ; the Gl. herrad. 200^ waits chr ate (satyrus) ; the Sumerlat. 10, Qid srate (lares mali) ; so in MHG. scrdz ; Reinh. 597 (of the old fragment), ^ein wilder waltschrat ;' Barl. 251, 11. Aw. 3, 226. Ulr. Lanz. 437 has *von dem sc/iraze ' = dwarf ; 'sie ist villihte ein sclirat, ein geist von helle ; ^ Albr. Titur. 1, 190 (Hahn 180). That a small elvish spirit was meant, is plain from the dimin. schretel, used synonymously with wihtel in that pretty fable, from which our Irish elf-tales gave an extract, but which has since been printed entire in Mone's treatise on heroic legend, and is now capped by the original Norwegian story in Asbiornsen and Moe, No. 20 (one of the most striking examples

1 The Slavs too have a_field-spint who paces through the corn. Boxhorn's Eesp. Moscov., pars 1, p. ... : " Daemonem quoque meridianum Moscovitae metuunt et colunt. lUe enim, dum jam maturae resecantur fruges, habitu viduae lugentis ruri obamlmlat, operariisque uui vel pluribus, nisi protinus viso sjjectro in terram proni concidant, brachia frangit et crura. Neque tamen contra hanc plagam remedio destituuntur. Habent enim in vicina silva arbores religione patrum cultas : harum cortice vulneri superimposito, iUum nou tantum sanant, sed et dolorem loripedi eximunt." Among the Wends tbis corn-wife is named pshipolnitza [prop, prepoln., from polno, full, i.e. full noon] , at the hour of noon she creeps about as a veiled tcovian. If a Wend, conversing with her by the hour on flax and ilax-dressing, can manage to contradict everything she says, or keep saying the Lord's prayer backwards without stumbling, he is safe (Lausitz. monatsschr. 1797, p. 744). The Bohemians call her haha (old woman), or polednice, poludnice (meridiana), the Poles dzieicanna, dzieicice (maiden), of whom we shall have to speak more than once, conf. chap. XXXVI. Here also there are plainly gods mixed up with the spirits and goblins.

SCEAT. 479

of tlie tough persistence of such materials in popular tradition) ; both the schretel and the word wazzerbern answer perfectly to the trolcl and the hvidbiorn. Vintler thinks of the sclvrattlln as a spirit light as wind, and of the size of a child. The Vocab. of 1482 has schretUn (penates) ; Dasypodius nacldscltrettele (ephialtes) ; later ones spell it schrilttele, schrdttel, sclirettele, scltrdtle, conf. Staid. 2, 350. Schmidts Schwab, worth. 478, In the Sette comm. schrata or schretele is a butterfly, Schm. 3, 519. A Thidericus Scratman is named in a voucher of 1244 ; Spilcker 2, 84. A district in Lower Hesse is called the Schratweg, Wochenbl. 1833, 952. 984. 1023. And other Teutonic dialects seem to know the word : AS. scritta, Eng. scrat (hermaphroditus)/ ON. shratti (mains genius, gigas) ; a rock on the sea is called shrattaskev (geniorum scopulus), Fornm. sog. 2, 142. Comparing these forms with the OHG. ones above, we miss the usual consonant-change : the truth is, other OHG. forms do shew a z in place of the t : scraz, Gl. fuld. 14 ; screza (larvae, lares mali), Gl. lindenbr. 996*^; ' srezze vel strate ^ (not: screzzol scraito), Sumerlat. 10, 6G ; 'unreiner schrdz,' Altd. w. 3, 170 (rhymes vraz).^ And Upper Germ, dictionaries of the 16th cent, couple schretzel with alp; Hofer 3, 114, has ' der schretz/ and Schm. 3, 552, ' der schretzel, das schrefzlein.' According to Mich. Beham 8. 9 (Moneys Anz. 4, 450-1), every house has its schrezleiii ; if fostered, he brings you goods and honour, he rides or drives the cattle, prepares his table on Brecht-night, etc.^

The agreement of Slavic words is of weight. 0. Boh. scret (daemon), Hanka's Zbirka 6^; screti, scretti (penates intimi et secretales), ibid. 16*^; Boh. shfet, shfjteh (penas, idolumj ; Pol. shrzot, skrzitelc ; Sloven. zlihr(U,zkln-dfAz,zhhniteJj i^\-va^vimkm). To the Serv. and Russ. dialects the word seems unknown.

I can find no satisfactory root for the German form."^ In Slavic

1 Already in Sachsensp. 1, 4 altvilc and dverge side by side ; conf. EA. 410.

2 A contraction of schraicaz ? Gudr. 448, schrawaz und merwunder ; Albr. Titur. 27, 299 has schrahaz together with pilwiht; xchrawatzeii uud merwunder, Casp. von der Eon's Wolfdieterich 195. Wolfd. uud Sabeu 496. [' Probably of diUerent origin,' says Suppl.]

3 Muchar, Eomisches Noricum 2, 37, and Gastein 147, mentions a capricious mountain-spirit, schranel.

• The ON. skratti is said to mean terror also. The Swed. ski-atta, Dan. skratte, is to laugh loud. Does the AS. form scritta allow us to compare the Gr. (XKipros, a hopping, leaping gobhn or satyr (from ffKiprdu, 1 bound) ? Lobcck's Aglauph.,

skryti (celare, occulere) is wortli considering. [A compound of krj'ti, to cover, root kry, krov^ KpinrTO). If Slav, skr^, why not AS. scrud, shroud ?].

Going by the sense, schrat appears to be a wild, rough, shaggy wood-sprite, very like the Lat. faun and the Gr. satyr, also the E-oman silvanus (Livy 2, 7) ; its dimin. schrdtlein, synonymous with wichtel and alp, a home-sprite, a hill-mannikin. But the male sex alone is mentioned, never the female; like the fauns, therefore, they lack the beauty of contrast which is presented by the elfins and bilwissins. We may indeed, on the strength of some similarity, take as a set-off to these schrats those wild women and wood-minnes treated of at the end of chapter XVI. The Greek fiction included mountain-nymphs {vv[x<^ai opeaKmoi) and dryads {8pvd8e<;, Englished wuducelfenne in AS. glosses), whose life was closely bound up with that of a tree (loc. princ. Hymn to Aphrodite 257-272 ; and see Suppl.).

Another thing in which the schrats differ from elves is, that they appear one at a time, and do not form a people.

The Fichtelberg is haunted by a wood-sprite named the Katzenveit, with whom they frighten children : ' Hush, the Katzenveit will come ! ' Similar beings, full of dwarf and goblin-like humours, we may recognise in the Gilhich of the Harz, in the Hiibezal of Riesengebirge. This last, however, seems to be of Slav origin, Boh. Ryhecal, Byhrcol} In Moravia runs the story of the seeJdrt, sea-herd, a mischief-loving sprite, who, in the shape of a herdsman, whip in hand, entices travellers into a bog (see Suppl.)."

The gloss in Hanka 7^^. 11'^ h&s ' vilcodlac faunus, vilcodlaci faunificarii, incubi, dusii ' ; in New Boh. it would be wlkodlak, wolf-haired; the Serv. vuJcodlac is vampire (Vuk sub v.). It is not surprising, and it offers a new point of contact between elves, bilwisses, and schrats, that in Poland the same matting of hair is ascribed to the skrzot, and is called by his name, as the shrjteJc is in Bohemia ; ^ in some parts of Germany schrotleinzopf .

1 In Slav, ryba is fish, Lut cal, or col (I think) has no meaning. The oldest Germ. docs, have Eube-zagil, -zagel, -zagl (-tail) ; Kobe may be short for the ghostly 'knecht Kuprecht,' or Robert. Is Eubezagel o , bobtail, of which I have seen no decent etymology? — Trans.

2 Sagen aus der vorzeit Mahrens (Briinn, 1817), pp. 136-171.

^ The plica is also called koltun, and again koltki are Polish and Eussian homesprites.

SCRAT (PILOSUS). 481

People in Europe began very early to think of daemonic beings as pilosi. The Vulgate has ' et pilosi saltabunt ibi/ Isaiah 13, 21, where the LXX. had Satfiovta iicel op;!^r/o-o»'Tat, conf. 34, 14.^ Isidore^s Etym. 8, cap. ult. (and from it Gl. Jun. 399) : 'j^nVosi qui graece panitae, latine incuhi nominantur, — hos daemones Galli dusios nuncupant.^ Quem autem vulgo incuhonem vocant, hunc Romaui faunum dicunt/ Burcard of Worms (App. Superst. C) is speaking of the superstitious custom of putting playthings, shoes, bows and arrows, in cellar or barn for the home-sprites,^ and these genii again are called

• safyri vel pilosi.' The monk of St. Gall, in the Life of Charles the Great (Pertz 2,741), tells of a pilosits who visited the house of a smith, amused himself at night with hammer and anvil, and filled the empty bottle out of a rich man^s cellar (conf. Ir. elfenm. cxi. cxii.). Evidently a frolicking, dancing, whimsical homesprite, rough and hairy to look at, ' eislich getfin,^ as the Heidelberg fable says, and rigged out in the red little cap of a dwarf, loving to follow his bent in kitchens and cellars. A figure quite in the foreground in Cod. palat. 324 seems to be his very portrait.

Only I conceive that in earlier times a statelier, larger figure was allowed to the schrat, or wood-schrat, then afterwards the merrier, smaller one to the schrettel. This seems to follow from the ON. meaning of shratti gigas, giant. These woodsprites must have been, as late as the 6-7th cent., objects of a special worship : there were trees and temples dedicated to them. Quotations in proof have already been given, pp. 58. 68: 'arbores daemoni dedicatae,^ and among the Warasken, a race akin to the Bavarian, ' agrefitiu7n fana., quos vulgus faimos vocat.^

Some remarkable statements are found in Eckehart's Waltharius. Eckevrid of Saxony accosts him with the bitter taunt (701):

1 Luther translates feldtetifel ; the Heb. sagnir denotes a shar^gy, goat-like being. Kadcvicus frising. 2, 13, imitates the whole passage in the proi)het : ' ululae, upupae, bubones toto anno in ectis fuuebria porsouantes lugubri voce aures omnium repleverunt. Pilosi quos satyros vocant in doinibus pleruuquo auditi.' Again 2, 24: 'in a ililiuF lis lugubri voce respondeant ululae, salti'iit piln^i.'

2 ' Daemones quos duscios Galli nuncupant.' Augustine, Civ. Dei, c. 23. The name duz still lives in Bretagne, dimiu. diizik (Villemarque 1, 42).

3 In the same way the jiidel (I suppose [liietfl, the same as guote holde) has toys placed for him, Superst. I, no. 02 ; conf. infra, the homesprites.

Die, ait, an corpus vegetet tractabile temet, sive per aerias fallas, maledlde, figuras ? saltibus assuetus faunus mihi quippe videris.

Walthari replies in mockery (765) :

Celtica lingua probat te ex ilia gente creatum, cui natura dedit reliquas ludendo praeire ; at si te propius venientem dextera nostra attingat, post Saxonibus memorare valebis, te nunc in Vosago faiini fantasma videre.

If you come within reach of my arm, I give you leave then to tell your Saxon countrymen of the ' schrat ' you now see in the Wasgau (Vosges). When Eckevrid has hurled his spear at him in vaia, Walthari cries :

Haec tibi silvanus transponit munera faunus.

Herewith the ' wood-schrat ' returns you the favour.^

Here the faun is called faiitasma, phantom ; OHG. gisctn, T. 81 (Matt. xiv. 26), otherwise scinleih (monstrum), Gl. hrab. 969^. Jun. 214; AS. scinldc (portentum) ; or gitroc, p. 464. Phantasma vagabundiim (Vita Lebuini, Pertz 2, 361) ; 'fantasma vult nos pessundare ' (Hroswitha in Dulcicius) ; 'fantasia quod in libris gentiiinm fa^onus solet appellari,' Mabillon, Analect. 3, 352. A ' municipium,^ or ' oppidum 7)ions fauni,' in Ivonis Carnot. epist. 172, and conf. the doc. quoted in the note thereon, in which it is monsfaunum. Similarly in OFr. poems : 'fantosme nous va faunoiant' Meon 4, 138; fantosme qui me desvoie, demaine,' ibid. 4, 140. 4. 402. A passage from Girart de Rossillon given in Mone's Archiv 1835. 210 says of a mountain : ' en ce mont ha moult de grans secrez, trop y a de fantomes.' Such are the fauni ficarii and silvestres homines, with whom Jornandes makes his Gothic aliorunes keep company (p. 404). Yet they also dip into the province of demigod heroes. Miming silvarum satyrus, and Witugouwo (silvicola) seem to be at once cunning smith-schrats and heroes (pp. 376-379). A valkyr unites herself with satyr-like Volundr, as the aliorunes did with fauns. The wild women, loood-minne (pp. 432-4), and the wilde man

1 The dialogue is obscure, and in the printed edition, p. 86, I have endeavoured to justify the above interpretation.

SCRAT (FAUNUS). WOOD-FOLK. 483

(Wigamur 203) come together. Wigal. 6286 h&s wildez wip, and 6602 it is said of the dwarf Karrioz :

Sin muoter was ein wildez wip His mother was a wild woman,

da von was sin kurzer lip therefrom was his short body

aller ruch unde starh, all over hairy and strong,

sin gebein was ane mark his bones without marrow

(solid)

nach dem geslehte der muoter sin, after his mother's stock,

deste sterker muoser sin. the stronger must he be.

In the Wolfdietrich a wild man like this is called lualtlunder, and in Laurin 173. 183 ivaltmann. The ON. mythology knows of wild wood- wives by the names ivi&jur, Sgem. 88^. 119^ o^ndiiarrivi&jur, Sn. 13. About the ivicfja we find at the beginning of the Hrafnagaldr the obscure statement ' elr iviSja,' alit, auget, pai-it, gignit dryas ; iviSja is derived from a wood or grove iviSr, of which the Voluspa 1* makes mention : ' nio man ek heima, nio ivid"i' ; so iarnvidja from iarnvicFr, iron wood (see Suppl.).^

I cannot properly explain these ON. ivi^jur and iarnviSjur. The popular belief of to-day in South-eastern Germany presents in a more intelligible shape the legend of the ivild-folk, forest-folk, wood-folk, moss-folk, who are regarded as a people of the dwar kind residing together, though they come up singly too, and in that case the females especially approximate those higher beings spoken of on p. 432. They are small of stature, but somewhat larger than elves, grey and oldish-looking, hairy and clothed in moss : ' ouch waren ime diu oren als eime walttoren vermieset,' his ears like a forest-fool's bemossed (?), Iw. 440. Often hohweibel alone are mentioned, seldomer the males, who are supposed to be not so good-natured and to live deeper in the woods, wearing green garments faced with red, and black three-cornered hats. H. Sachs 1, 407'* brings up hohmdnner and hohfrauen, and gives 1, 348*= the lament of the wild woodfolk over the faithless world. Schmidt's Reichenfels, pp. 140-8 tells us the Voigtland tradition, and Burner, pp. 188-242 that of the Orlagau ; from them I borrow what is characteristic. The little wood-wives come up to woodcutters, and beg for something to eat, or take it themselves out

1 Afzelius 2, 145-7, mentions Swed. lofjerskor, leaf-maids, forest-maids, and compares them with Laufey (p. 2i<j), but the people have Utile to say about them.

of their pots ; but whatever they have taken or borrowed they make good in some other way, not seldom by good advice. At times they help people in their kitchen work and at washing, but always express a great fear of the wild huntsman that pursues them. On the Saale they tell you of a husJi-grandmother and her 'moss-maidens ; this sounds like a queen of elves, if not like the 'weird lady of the woods ^ (p. 407). The little wood-wives are glad to come when people are baking, and ask them, while they are about it, to bake them a loaf too, as big as half a millstone, and it must be left for them at a specified place ; they pay it back afterwards, or perhaps binng some of their own baking, and lay it in the furrow for the ploughmen, or on the plough, being mightily offended if you refuse it. At other times the wood-wife makes her appearance with a broken little wheelbarrow, and begs you to mend the wheel ; then, like Berhta she pays you with the fallen chips, which turn into gold ; or if you are knitting, she gives you a ball of thi'oad which you will never have done unwinding. Every time a man twists (driebt, throws) the stem of a young tree till the bark flies off, a wood- wife has to die. When a peasant woman, out of pity, gave the breast to a crying woodchild, the mother came up and made her a present of the bark in which the child was cradled ; the woman broke a splinter oS" and threw it in to her load of wood, but when she got home she found it was of gold (see Suppl.).

Wood-wives, like dwarfs, are by no means satisfied with the ways of the modern world ; but to the reasons given on p. 459 they add special ones of their own. There's never been a good time since people took to counting the dumplings they put in the pot, the loaves they put in the oven, to ' pipping ' their bread and putting caraway-seeds in it. Hence their maxim :

Schal keinen baum. No tree ever shell,

erziihl keinen traum, no dream ever tell,

back keinen klimmel ins brot, bake in thy bread no cummin -

seed, so hilft dir Gott aus aller noth. and God will help in all thy

need.

The third line may be 'pip kein brod,' don't pip a loaf. A

WOOD-FOLK. 485

wood-wife, after tasting some newly-baked bread, ran off to the forest, screaming loud :

Sie haben mir gebacken kiimmelbrot, das bringt diesem liause grosse noth !

(They've baked me carawny-bread, it will bring that house great trouble). And the farmer's prosperity soon declined, till he was utterly impoverished. To ' pip ' a' loaf is to push the tip of your finger into it, a common practice in most places. Probably the wood-wives could not carry off a pricked loaf, and therefore disliked the mark ; for a like reason they objected to counting. Whether the seasoning with cummin disgusted them as an innovation merely, or in some other connection, I do not know. The rhyme runs thus : ' kiimmelbrot, unser tod ! ' the death of us ;

or — 'kiimmelbrot macht angst und noth.' Some wood-mauni-

kins, who had long done good service at a mill, were scared away by the miller's men leaving out clothes and shoes for them, Jul. Schmidt, p. U6 (see Suppl.).^ It is as though, by accepting

1 This agrees -wonderfully witli what Eeusch, pp. 53-5, reports from Trussian

Samlaud : A householder at Lapohnen, to whom the subterraneans had done

many services, was grieved at their having such poor clothes, and asked his wife to put some new little coats where they would lind them. Well, they took their new outfit, but their leave at the same time, crying, ' paid up, paid up ! ' Another time they had been helping a poor smith, had come every night and turned out a set of Httle pots, pans, plates and kettles as bright as could be ; the mistress would set a dish of milk for them, which they fell upon like wolves, and cleared to the last drop, washed up the plates and then set to work. The smith having soon become a rich man, his wife sewed them each a pretty little red coat and cap, and left them lying. ' Paid up, paid up ! ' cried the undergrounders, then quickly slipt into their new finery, and were off, without touching the iron left for them to work at, or over

coming back. Another story of the Seeweu-weiher (-i^ond), near Ilippoldsau, in

the Black Forest (Mone's Auz. 6, 175) : — A lake-mauuikin liked coming to the folks at Seewen farm, would do jobs there all day, and not return into his lake till evening ; they used to serve him up breakfast and dinner by himself. If in giving out taslis they omitted the phrase ' none too much and none too little,' he turned cross, and threw all into confusion. Though his clothes were old and shabby, he never would let the Seewen farmer get him new ones ; but when this after all was done, and the new coat handed to the lake-mannikin, one evening, he said, ' When one is paid off one must go ; beginning from to-morrow, I come to you no more ;'

and in spite of all the farmer's apologies he was never seen again. Jos. Rank's

Bijhmerwald, p. 217, tells a pretty story of a ivaachweiberl (wee washerwife). for wliom the people of the house wanted to have shoes made, but she would not liold out her little foot to be measured. They sprinkled the floor with flour, and took the measure by her footprints. When the shoes were made and placed on the bench for her, she fell a-sobbing, turned her little smock-sleeves down again, unlooped the skirt of her frock, then burst away, lamenting loudly, and was seen no more.' That is to say, the wee wife, on coming into the house, liad turned up the sleeves of her smock, and looped up her frock, that she mi^ht the more easily do any kind of work. Similar tales are told of the brownie, R. Chambers, p. 33. And the same idea lies at the bottom of the first story about \Yichtelmannercheu in Kiuderm. 39.

clothes_, the spirits were afraid of suddenly breaking oflF tlie relation that subsisted between themselves and mankind. We shall see presently that the home-sprites proper acted on different principles, and even bargained for clothes.

The more these wood-folk live a good many together, the more do they resemble elves, wichtels, and dwarfs ; the more they appear singly, the nearer do the females stand to wise women and even goddesses, the males to gigantic fauns and wood-monsters, as we saw in Katzenveit, Giibich and Eiibezahl (p. 480). The salvage man with uprooted fir-tree in his hand, such as supports the arms of several princes in Lower Germany, represents this kind of faun ; it would be worth finding out at what date he is first mentioned. Grinkenschmied in the mountain (Deut. sag. 1, 232) is also called ' der wilde Tnan.'

In the Romance fairy-tales an old Roman god has assumed altogether the nature of a wood-sprite ; out of Orcus ^ has been made an Ital, orco, Neapol. huorco, Fr. ogre (supra, p. 314) : he is pictured black, hairy, hristly, but of great stature rather than small, almost gigantic ; children losing their way in the wood come upon his dwelling, and he sometimes shews himself goodnatured and bestows gifts, oftener his wife (orca, ogresse) protects and saves.- German fairy-tales hand over his part to the devil, who springs even more directly from the ancient god of the lower world. Of the invisible-making helmet the orco has nothing left him, on the other hand a deemonic acuteness of scent is made a characteristic feature, he can tell like a seamonster the approach of human flesh : ' je sens la chair fraiche/ ich rieche, rieche menschenfleisch, Mch wittere, wittere menschenfleisch,' ' i schmoke ne Crist,^ ' I smell the blood,^ 'jeg lugter det paa min hoire haand (right hand),' ^her lugter saa kristen mands been,' ^ exactly as the meerminne already in

It is a common characteristic, that holds good of wichtels, of subterraneans, of lakesprites and of wood-folk, but chiefly of male ones who do service to mankind. [Might the objection to shewing their feet arise from their being web-footed, like the Swiss hardmiindle, especially in the case of water-sprites ?]

• See App., Superst. A, ' Or cum invocare' together with Neptune and Diana ; Superst. G, extr. fromVintler, 1. 83 : ' er hab den orken gesechen.' Beow. 224 has orcneas, pi. of orcne.

2 Pentamerone, for the orco 1, 1. 1,5. 2,3. 3,10. 4,8. For the orca 2,1. 2, 7. 4, 6. 5, 4.

3 Perrault's Petit poucet ; Kinderm. 1, 152. 179. 2, 350. 3, 410; Musjbus 1, 21 ; Danske viser 1, 220 ; Norske folkeeventyr, p. 35.

SCUOHISAL. 487

Morolt 3924 says : ' icli smacke diutsclie iserngewant/ coats of mail (see Suppl.). The ItaL however has also an uom foresto, Pulci's Morgante 5, 38.

The Gothic neut. slwhsl, by which Ulphilas renders Bai/xovtov, Matth. 8, 31. Lu. 8, 27 (only in margin; text reads unhul]>o). 1 Cor. 10, 20. 21, I am disposed to explain by supposing a sMJts, gen. skohis, or rather shogs (the h being merely the g softened before si). It would answer to the ON. shogr (silva) ; in all our Gothic fragments the word for forest never occurs, so that in addition to a vidus (p, 376) we may very well conjecture a skogs. In Sweden the provincialisms sJwgsnerte, slxogsnufva^ are still used ; snerte appears to contain snert gracilis, and snuf va to mean anhelans." Now if shohsl is wood-sprite,^ there may have been associated with it, as with Sac/jiovtov, the idea of a higher being, semi-divine or even divine. When we call to mind the sacred, inviolable trees inhabited by spirits (chap. XXI, and Superst. Swed. no. 110, Dan. no. 162), and the forest- worship of the Germani in general (pp. 54-58. 97-8) ; we can understand why wood-sprites in particular should be invested with a human or divine rather than elvish nature.

Water-sprites exhibit the same double aspect. Wise-women, valkyrs, appear on the wave as swans, they merge into prophetic merwomen and menninnes (p. 434). Even Nerthus and dame Holla bathe in lake or pool, and the way to Holla's abode is through the well, Kinderm. 24. 79.

Hence to the general term holde or guoter holde (genius, bonus genius) is added a wazzerholde (p. 266), a hrunnenholde (p. 268) ; to the more general minni a meriniinni and marmennill (p. 433). Other names, which explain themselves, are : MHG. wildiu

Linnnpus's Gothlandske resa, p. 312. Faye, p. 42.

2 In 12'JS Torkel Knutson founded on the Neva a stronghold against the Russians, called Landskroua. An old folk-tale says, there was heard in the forest near the river a continual knocking, as of a stone-cutter. At last a peasant took courage and penetrated into the forest ; there he found a wood-sprite hewing at a stone, who, on being asked what that should mean, answered : ' this stone shall be the boundary between the lands of the Swedes and Moskovites.' Forsell's Statistik von Schwcden, p. 1.

3 To make up an OHG. skuoh and skuohisal is doubtless yet more of a venture. Our srlunisdl (nionstrum), if it comes from schcuen (sciuhanf, to shy at, has quite another fundamental vowel; it may however be a corruption. The only very old form I know is the schusel given in'the foot-note on p. 269. But the Vocab. of 1482 has scheuhe (larva).

VOL. II. E

merkint, wildiu merwunder, Gudrua 109, 4. 112, 3. wildez merwip, Ossv. .-653^ 673; Mod. HG. meerwunder, wassermann (Slav. vodnik), seejungfer, meerweib ; ON. haf-fru, ces-kona, hafgygr, margygr.;Dazi..havviand, brondmand (man of the burn or spring), Molb. DiaL p. 58; Swed. hafsman, hafsfru, and more particularly stromkarl (river sprite or man). Wendish vodny muz, water man. The notion of a water-king shews itself in waterconink, Melis Stoke 2, 96. Certain elves or dwarfs are represented as watersprites : Andvari, son of Oln, in the shape of a pike inhabited a fors. Seem. 180-1 ; and Alfrikr, ace. to Vilk. saga, cap. 34, haunted a river (see Suppl.).

The peculiar name of such a watersprite in OHG. was nihhus, nichus, gen. nichuses, and by this term the glossists render crocodilus, Gl. mens. 332, 412. Jun. 270. Wirceb. 978^; the Physiologus makes it neuter : daz nikhus, Diut. 3, 25. Hoffm. Fundgr. 23. Later it becomes niches, Gl. Jun. 270. In AS. I find, with change of s into r, a masc. nicor, pi. niceras, Beow. 838. 1144. 2854, by which are meant monstrous spirits living in the sea, conf. nicorhus, Beow. 2822. This AS. form agrees with the M. '^eihA. nicker, pi. nickers, (Horae Belg. p. 119); Reinaert prose MIIIIP has ' mcWs ende wichteren ^; necker (Neptunus), Diut. 2, 224*". 'heft mi die ?iecZ;er bracht hier ? •" (has the devil brought me here ?), Mone's Ndrl. volkslit. p. 140. The Mod. Nethl. 711 fc/cer means evil spirit, devil, ' alle nikkers uit de hel;' so the Engl. ' old Nick.' We have retained the form with s, and the original sense of a watersprite, a male nix and a female niece, i.e., niks and nikse, though we also hear of a 7iickel and nickehnann. In MHG. Conrad uses wassernixe in the sense of siren : ' heiz uns leiten uz dem bade der vertanen (accursed) wassernixen, daz uns ir gedoene (din) iht schade ' (MS. 2, 200'').^

The ON. nikr (gen. niks ?) is now thought to mean hippopotamus only ; the Swed. ndk, nek, and the Dan. nok, nok, nocke, aanycke (Molb. Dial. p. 4) express exactly our watersprite, but always a male one. The Danish form comes nearest to a Mid. Lat. nocca, spectrum marinum in stagnis et fluviis ; the Finn.

1 Gryphius (milii 743) has a rhyme: 'die icasserUiss auf erden mag richt so schone werdeu,' apparently meaning a water-wife or nixe. In Ziska's Ostr. volksm. 54 a kind wassernix, like dame Holla, bestows wishing-gifts ou the children.

NICHUS, NIX. 489

nalcH, Esth. nek (watersprite) seem borrowed from the Swedish. Some have brought into this connexion the much older nelia nelialennia (pp. 257, 419), I think without good reason: the Latin organ had no occasion to put h for c, and where it does have an h in German words (as Vahalis, Naharvali), we have no business to suppose a tenuis j besides, the images of Nehalennia hardly indicate a river-goddess.

I think we have better reason for recognising the water-sprite in a name of OSinn, who was occasionally conceived of as Ne-ptune (p. 148), and often appears as a sailor and ferryman in his bark. The AS. Andreas describes in detail, how God Himself, in the shape of a divine shipman escorts one over the sea ; in the Legenda Aurea it is only an angel. O^inn, occording to Sn. 3, is cskWe^ Nikarr or Hnilcarr, and Nikiiz or Rniku&r. In S^m. 46^> ^ we read Hnikarr, Hnikud'r, and in 91*^ 184**' ^ Hnikarr again. Nikarr would correspond to AS. Nicor, and Nikuz to OHG. Nichus. Snorri's optional forms are remarkable, he must have drawn them from sources which knew of both ; the prefixing of an aspirate may have been merely to humour the metre. Finn Magnusen, p. 438, acutely remarks, that wherever OSinn is called Hnikarr, he does appear as a sea-sprite and calms the waves. For the rest, no nickar (like alfar and dvergar) are spoken of in either Edda. Of the metamorphoses of the nickur (hippop.) the ON. uses the expression " nijkrat e"5a finugalkat,'^ Sn. 317 (see SuppL).

Plants and stones are named after the nix, as well as after gods. The nymphgea [vv^^aia from vviJb<^rf) we still call niV- llume as well as seeblume, seelilie, Swed. nackhlad, Dan. nuk- Icehlomster, nokkerose ; the conferva rupestris, Dan. nokkeskdg (nix-beard) ; the haliotis, a shellfish, Swed. ndckora (nix-ear) ; the crumby tufa-stone, tophus, Swed. ndckehrod, the watersprite's bread. Finn, ndkinkenka (mya margaritifera) ndkin waltikka (typha angustifolia) ; the Lausitz Wends call the blossoms or seedpods of certain reeds ' vodneho vivzha porsty, potaczky [piorsty, perczatky ?] , lohszy,' watex'-man's fingers or gloves. We ourselves call the water-lily xvassermdnnlein, but also viuTiimel, mmumelckeii = miiemel, aunty, water-aunt, as the merminne in the old lay is expressly addressed as Morolt's Miebo muome,' and in Westphalia to this day luatermome is a

ghostly being; in Nib. 1479, 3 Siglint the one merwoman says of Hadburc the other :

Dui'ch der waete liebe hat min muome dir gelogen,

'tis through love of raiment (weeds) mine aunt hath lied to thee; these merwomen belong, as swan-maidens, to one sisterhood and kindred (p. 428), and in Oswald 673-9 ^ein ander merwip ' is coupled with the first. Several lakes inhabited by nixes are called mumynelsee (Deut. sag. nos. 59. 331. Mone's Anz. 3, 92), otherwise meumke-loch, e.g., in the Paschenburg of Schaumburg. This explains the name of a little river Mmnling in the Odenwald, though old docs, spell it Mimling. Mersprites are made to favour particular pools and streams, e.g., the Saale, the Danube, the Elbe,^ as the Romans believed in the bearded river-gods of individual rivers; it may be that the name of the Neckar (Nicarus) is immediately connected with our nicor, nechar (see Suppl.).

Biorn gives nennir as another ON. name for hippopotamus, it seems related to the name of the goddess Nanna (p. 310).^ This nennir or nikur presents himself on the sea-shore as a handsome dajp]3le-grey horse, and is to be recognised by his hoofs looking the wrong way ; if any one mounts him, he plunges with his prey into the deep. There is a way however to catch and bridle him, and break him in for a time to work.^ A clever man at Morland in Bahus fastened an artfully contrived bridle on him, so that he could not get away, and ploughed all his land with him ; but the bridle somehow coming loose, the ' neck ' darted like fire into the lake, and drew the harrow in after him.* In the same way German legends tell of a great hulking black Jiorse, that had risen out of the sea, being put to the plough, and going ahead at a mighty pace, till he dragged both plough and ploughman over the cliff.^ Out of a marsh called the ' taufe,' near

^ The Elbjungfer and Saalweiblein, Deut. sag. no. 60 ; the river-sprite in the Oder, ibid. no. 62.

2 Muchar, in Norikum 2, 37, and in Gastein p. 14,5, mentions an Alpine sprite Donanadel ; does nadel here stand for nandel ? A misprint for madel (girl) is scarcely conceivable.

^ Landnamabok, 2, 10 (Islend. sog. 1, 74). Olafsen's Eeise igiennem Island, 1, 55. Sv. vis. 3, 128.

• P. Kalm's Westgota och Bahuslandska resa, 1742, p. 200.

6 Letzner's Dasselsche chronik 5, 13.

NICHUS, NIX. 491

Sclieuen in Lower Saxony, a ivlld hull comes up at certain times, and goes with the cows of the herd (Harry's Sagen, p. 79). When a thunderstorm is brewing, a great horse with enormous hoofs will appear on the water (Faye, p. 55). It is the vulgar belief in Norway, that whenever people at sea go down, a soedrouen (sea sprite) shews himself in the shape of a headless old man (Sommerfelt, Saltdalens priistegjeld, Trondhjem 1827, p. 119). In the Highlands of Scotland a water-sprite in the shape of a horse is known by the name of water-kelpie (see Suppl.).

Water-sprites have many things in common with mountainsprites, but also some peculiar to themselves. The males, like those of the schrat kind, come up singly rather than in companies. The water man is commonly represented as oldish and with a long beard, like the Roman demigod out of whose urn the river spouts; often he is many-lieaded (conf. p. 387), Faye p. 51. In a Danish folk-song the nokke lifts his beard aloft (conf. Svenska visor 3, 127. 133), he wears a green hat, and when he grins you see his green teeth (Deut. sag. no. 52). He has at times the figure of a ivild hoy with shaggy hair, or else with yellow curls and a red cap on his liead.^ The nilkki of the Finns is said to have iron teeth.^ The nixe (fem.), like the Romance fay and our own wise-women, is to be seen sitting in the sun, combing her long hair (Svenska vis. 3, 148), or emerging from the waves with the upper half of her body, which is exceedingly beautiful. The lower part, as with sirens, is said to consist of a fish-like tail ; but this feature is not essential, and most likely not truly Teutonic, for we never hear of a tailed nix,^ and even the nixe, when she comes on shore among men, is shaped and attired like the daughters of men, being recognised only by the wet skirt of

' The small size is implied ia the popular rhyme : ' Nix in der grube (pit), da bist eiu baser bube (bad boy) ; wasch dir deine beinchen (little legs) mit rotheu ziegelsteiiicheu (red brick).'

2 On the glass by the shore a girl is seized by a pretty boy wearing a handsome peasant's belt, and is forced to scratch his head for him. While she is doing so, he slips a girdle round her unperceived, and cliains her to himself ; the continued friction, however, sends him to sleep. In the meantime a woman comes up, and asks the girl what she is about. She tells her, and, while talking, releases herself from the girdle. The boy was more sound asleep than ever, and his lips stood pretty wide apart ; then the woman, coming up closer, cried out : ' wby, that's a neck, look at his fish's teeth ! ' In a moment the neck was gone (Etwas iiber die Ehsten, p. 51).

^ But we do of nixes shaped like men above and like horses belo .v ; one watersprite takes his name from his >lit ears, Deut. sag. no. 63.

her dress, the ivet tips of her apron.^ Here is another point of contact with swan-maidens, whose swan-foot betrays them : and as they have their veils and clothes taken from them, the nixe too is embarrassed by the removal and detention of her gloves in dancing (Deut. sag. nos. 58. 60). Among the Wends the water-man appears in a linen smockfrock with the bottom of its shirt wet ; if in buying up grain he pays more than the market price, a dearth follows, and if he buys cheaper than others, prices fall (Lausitz. monatschr. 1797, p. 750). The Russians name their water-nymphs rusdiki : fair maidens with green or garlanded hair, combing themselves on the meadow by the waterside, and bathing in lake or river. They are seen chiefly on Whitsunday and in Whitsun-week, when the people with dance and song plait garlands in their honour and throw them into the water. The custom is connected with the German river-worship on St. John^s day. Whitsun-week itself was called by the Russians rusaldnaya, in Boh. nisadla, and even in Wallachian rusalie?

Dancing, song and music are the delight of all water-sprites, as they are of elves (p. 470). Like the sirens, the nixe by her song draws listening youth to herself, and then into the deep. So Hylas was drawn into the water by the nymphs (Apollod. i. 9, 19. Apollon. rhod. 1, 131). At evening up come the da^nsels from the lake, to take part in the human dance, and to visit their lovers.^ In Sweden they tell of the stromharV s alluring enchanting strain : the stromkarls-lag (-lay) is said to have eleven variations, but to only ten of them may you dance, the eleventh belongs to the night-spirit and his band; begin

1 In Olaf the Saint's saga (Fornm. sog. 4, 56. 5, 162) amargygr is pictured as a beautiful woman, from the girdle downward ending in a fish, lulling men to sleep with her sweet song ; evidently modelled on the Roman siren. Pretty stories of nixes are told in Jul. Schmidt's Eeichenfels, p. 150 (where the word docken = dolls, puppets) and 151. Water-wives when in labour send for human assistance, like she-dwarfs (p. 457). ' They spake at Dr. M. L. 'stable of spectra and of changelings, then did Mistress Luther, his goodwife, tell an history, how a midwife at a place was fetched away by the devil to one in childbed, with whom the devil had to do, and that lived in a hole in the neater in the Mulda, and the water hurt her not at all, but in the hole she sat as in a fair chamber.' Table-talk 1571. 440b.

2 Schafarik in the Casopis Cesk. mus. 7, 259 his furnished a full dissertation on the rusalky [from rasy, blond ; but there is also ruslo, river's bed, deepest part] .

3 Hebel doubtless founds on popular tradition when (p. 281) he makes the ' jungfere usem see ' roam throxigh the fields at midnight, probably like the roggenmuhme to make them fruitful. Other stories of the meerweiblein in Mone's Anz. 8, 178, and Bechstein's Thiir. sagen 3, 236.

NICHUS, NIX. 493^-

to play tliat, and tables and benclies, cup and can, gray-beards' ~ and grandmothers, blind and lame, even babes in the cradle' would begin to dance. ^ This melodious stromkarl loves to linger by mills and waterfalls (conf. Andvari, p. 488). Hence bis- Norwegian name fossegrim (fos, Swed. and ON. fors, waterfall). On p. 52 it was cited as a remnant of heathen sacrifices, that to this daemonic being people offered a black lamh, and were taught music by him in return. The fossegrim too on calm dark evenings entices men by his music, and instructs in the fiddle or other stringed instrument any one who will on a Thursday evening, with his head turned away, offer him a little w/ii^e lie-goat and throw it into a 'forse' that falls northwards (supra, p. 34). If the victim is lean, the pupil gets no farther than the tuning of the fiddle ; if fat, the fossegrim clutches hold of the player's right hand, and guides it up and down till the blood starts out of all his finger-tips, then the pupil is perfect in his art, and can play so that the trees shall dance and torrents in their fall stand still (see Suppl.).^

Although Christianity forbids such offerings, and pronounces

the old water-sprites diabolic beings, yet the common people

retain a certain awe and reverence, and have not quite given up

all faith in their power and influence : accursed beings they

are, but they may some day become partakers of salvation. This

is the drift of the touching account, how the stromkarl or neck

wants you not only to sacrifice to him in return for musical

instruction, but to promise him resurrection and redemj)tion.'^

Two boys were playing by the riverside, the neck sat there

touching his harp, and the children cried to him : ' What do you

sit and play here for, neck ? you know you will never be saved.^

The neck began to weep bitterly, threw his harp away, and sank

to the bottom. When the boys got home, they told their father

1 Arndt's Reise nach Schweden 4, 241 ; similar dances spoken of in Herraudssaga, cap. 11. pp. 49—52.

2 Faye p. 57. Conf. Thiele 1, 135 on the Hrkegrim.

' Odman's Babusliin, p. 80 : Om spelcmiiu i hogar ok forsar bar man ok Mskilliga sagor ; for 15 &r tilbacka liar man luir uti hogen under Giireu i Tanums gall beliigit bort spela som the biiste musicanter. Then som bar viol ok vill liira spela, blir i ugnableket liird, alleuast ban loj'var tipstdndehe \ en som oj lofte tbet, iick bora burn the i hogen slogo sondcr sina violer ok greto hitterliga. (He that has a fiddle and will learn to play, becomes in a moment learned, only be promises resurrection ; one who promised not that, did bear how they in the bill beat asunder their fiddles and wept bitterly.)

what had happened. The father, who was a priest, said 'you have sinned against the neck, go back, comfort him and tell him lie may he saved.' When they returned to the river, the neck sat on the bank weeping and wailing. The children said : ' Do not cry so, poor neck, father says that your Eedeemer liveth too.^ Then the neck joyfully took his harp, and played charmingly till long after sunset.^ I do not know that anywhere in our legends it is so pointedly expressed, how badly the heathen stand in need of the Christian religion, and how mildly it ought to meet them. But the harsh and the compassionate epithets bestowed on the nixes seem to turn chiefly upon their unblessedness, their damnation.^

But beside the freeivill offering for instruction in his art, the nix also exacted cruel and compulsory sacrifices, of which the memory is preserved in nearly all popular tradition. To this day, when people are drowned in a river, it is common to say : ' the river-sprite demands his yearly victim,,' which is usually 'an innocent child.' ^ This points to actual human sacrifices offered to the nichus in far-off heathen times. To the nix of the Diemel they throw bread and fruit once a year (see SuppL).

On the whole there runs through the stories of water-sprites a vein of cruelty and hloodthirstiness, which is not easily found among daemons of mountains, woods and homes. The nix not only kills human beings who fall into his clutches, but wreaks a bloody vengeance on his own folk who have come on shore, mingled with men, and then gone back. A girl had passed fifteen years in the sea- wife's house (i haf-fruns gard), and never seen the sun all that time. At last her brother ventures down, and brings his beloved sister safely back to the upper world. The hafsfru waited her return seven years, then seized her staff, and lashing the water till it splashed up high, she cried :

1 Sv, visor 3, 128. Ir. Elfenm. p. 24 ; similar Ii-ish, Scotch, and Danish traditions, pp. 200-2. Conf. Thiele 4, 14. Holberg's Julestue so. 12 : ' Nisser og . unJerjorske folk, di'ive store fester bort med klagen og hylen, eftersom de ingen del

• har derudi' (because they have no part therein).

" ' Vertdne wassernixe,' fordone, done for (p. 488) ; ' den fula stygga necken,' Sv. vis. 3, 147 ; ' den usle havfrue, usle maremind,' ' den urme mareviv,' ' du fule og lede spaaqvinde ! ' Danske visor 1, 110. 119. 125. Holberg's Melampus 3, 7 cites a Danish superstition : ' naar en tisker ligger hos sin fiskerinde paa soen, saa foder huu en havfrue.'

^ Deut. sag., nos. 61. 62. Faye, p. 51. The Kiver Saale yearly demands her victim on Walburgis or St. John's day, and on those days people avoid the river.

NICHUS, NIX. 495

Hade jag trott att du varit sa falsk,

Sa skulle jag knackt dig diu tiufvebals !

(had I trowed thou wert so false, I'd have nicked thy thievish neck), Arvidsson 2, 320-3. If the sea-maidens have stayed too long at the dance, if the captive Christian have born a child to the nix, if the water-man's child is slow in obeying his call, one sees a jet of blood shoot up from the water's bed in sign of the vengeful deed.^ As a rule, there was likewise a favourable sign

1 Deut. sag., nos. 49. 58-9. 60. 304-6. 318, 1. Here I give another Westphalian

legend, written down for me by Hr Seitz, of Osnabriick : Donken von den smett

uppii Darmssen. Dicbte bei Braumske liggt en liitken see, de Darmssen ; do stond viirr aulen tiiin (olden tide) en klauster ane. de niionke aber in den klauster liabedeu nig na Goddes wiLlen ; drumme gonk et unuer. Nig lange nS liiar borden de buren in der nauberskup, in Epe, olle nacbte en kloppen un liarmeu bi den Darmssen, osse wenn me upn ambold slot, uud wecke liie seigen wott (some folk saw somewhat) midden up den Darmssen. Se sgeppeden drup to ; da was et ?i sviett, de bet ant Uj (bis an's leib) i7in ivater seit, mitu hamer in de fust, dSmit weis he jiimmer up den ambold, un bedudde (bedeutete) de buren, dat se em wot to smien bringen sollen. Sit der tit brochten em de liie ut der burskup jiimmer isen to smien (iron to forge), un niuminske hadde so goe plogisen (good ploughshares) osse de Eper. Ens wol Koatman to Epe ret (reed) ut den Darmssen haleu, do feind he n iiltk kind annen ower, d&t -was riiiu ^ipn ganssen liioe* Do sgreggede de smett : ' nimm mi mcinen siiennen nig loeg ! ' aber Koatman neim dat kind inn back full, un lop dermit uSl huse. Sit der tit was de smett nig mehr to sehn or to boreu. Koatman fSrde (futterte) den rtmncen up, un de word sin beste un flitigste kuecht. Osse he aber twintig jar ault wor, sia he to sinen buren : ' biir, ik mot von jii gauu, min var het mi rcpen.' ' Dat spit mi je,' sia de bur, ' gift et denu gar uiu middel, dat du bi mi bliwen kanust ? ' 'Ik vvill es (mal) sehn,' sia dat u-utcrk'nul, ' gat erst es (mal) no Braumske un halt mi en niggen djangen (degn) ; mer ji mjot do lorr giebn wot de kaupmaun hebben will, un jau niks afhanneln.' De bur gonk no Braumske uu kofde en djangn, hannelde aber doch wot af. Nu gongen se to haupe no'n Darmssen, do sia de ruicive : ' Nu passt upp, wenn ik int water slae un et kiiiuiiU blut, dauu mot ik weg, kiimmt vijalkc, dann darf ik bi ju bliwwen.' He sliig int water, da kwamni kene mjalke un auk ken blod. gaus iargerlik sprak de ruwicc : ' ji hebt mi wot wis maket, un wot afhannelt, doriimme kommt ken blod un kene mjalke. spot ju, un kaupet in Braumske en annern djangn.' De bCir g5ng weg un kweim wir ; aber erst dat driidde mal brachte he en djangen, wa he niks an awwehauuelt hadde. Osse de ruicwe da mit int water slog, do xvas et so raut osse btud, de rituwe stortedo

sik in den Darmssen, un ninmiuske hef en wier sehn. [Epitome : — The smith in

Varinssen lalce. Once a monastery there ; bad monks, put down. Peasants at Epe heard a hammering every night, rowed to middle of lake, found a smith sitting up to his waist in ivater ; he made them signs to bring him work, they did so constantly, and the Epe ploughshares were the best in the country. Once farmer Koatman found a child on the bank, all over hairg. Smith cried, ' don't take viy son ' ; but K. did, and reared him. Smith never seen again. The Shaggy one, when aged 20, said, 'I must go, father has called ;)U'.'—' Can't you slay anyhow?'—

• Well, I'll see ; go buy me a new sword, give the price asked, dun't beat down.' K. bought one, but cheapened. They go to the Darmssen ; says Shag, ' Watch, when I strike the water ; //' blood comes, I must go, if milk, I may stay.' But neither came : ' You've cheajiened ! go buy another sword.' K. cheapened again, but the tliird time he did not. Shag struck the water, it was red as blood, and he plunged iuto the Darmssen.] The same sign, of vdlk or blood coming up, occurs in another folktale, which makes the water-nymphs into white-veiled nuns, Blone's Auz. 3, 93.

• So in Casp. von der Ron, pp. 224-5 the meerwuuder is called ' der rauhe, der rauchc.' Couf. supra, pp. 481. 491.

agreed upon (a jet of milk, a plate with an apple) , but withlield in such a case as this.

And here is the place to take up Grendel again, whom we likened (p. 243) to the malicious god Loki, though Loki, even apart from that, seemed related to Oegir. Grendel is cruel and bloodthirsty : when he climbs out of his marsh at night, and reaches the hall of the sleeping heroes, he clutches one and drinks the blood out of another (Beow. 1478). His mother is called a mcrewif (3037), hrimwyJf (she-wolf of the breakers, 3197), and grundwyrgen (3036) which means the same thing (from wearg, lupus, comes wyrgen, lupa). This pair, Grendel and mother, have a tvater-house, which is described (3027 seq.) almost exactly as we should imagine the Norse Oegir's dwelling, whei'e the gods were feasted : indoors the water is excluded by walls, and there burns a pale light (3033),^ Thus more than one feature leads on to higher beings, transcending mere watersprites (see Suppl.).

The notion of the nix drawing to him those who are drowning has its milder aspect too, and that still a heathen one. We saw on p. 311 that drowned men go to the goddess Ban ; the popular belief of later times is that they are received into the abode of the nix or nixe. It is not the river-sprite kills those who sink in the element of water ; kindly and compassionately he bears them to his dwelling, and harbours their souls.^ The word ran seems to have had a liiore comprehensive meaning at first : * m^la mu ok o'egin ' was to invoke all that is bad, all evil spirits, upon one. It has occurred to me, whether the unexplained Swed. ra in the compounds ^jora (nix), skogsrd (schrat), tomtra (homesprite), which some believe to be ra angulus, or a contraction of radande, may not have sprung from this ran, as the Scandinavian tongue is so fond of dropping a final n. Dame Wachilt too (p. 434) is a succouring harbouring water-wife. The water man, like Hel and Ran, kee-ps with him the souls of them that have perished in the water, ' in pots turned upside down,' to use the naive language of one story (no. 52) ; but a peasant visiting him tilts them up, and in a moment the souls all mount up through the water. Of the

^ Conf. the dolphin's house in Musans's marchen of the Three Sisters.

" Probably there were stories also of helpful succouring river-gods, such as the Greeks and Romans tol<i of Thetis, «-f Ino-Leucothea (Od. 5^ 333-353^, Albuuea, Matuta.

NIX. WATEE-SPEITE. 497

drowned tliey say Hhe nix has drawn them to him/ or 'has sucked them/ because bodies found in the water have the nose red.^ ' Juxta pontem Mosellae quidam puerulus naviculam excidens submersus est. quod videns quidam juvenis vestibus abjectis aquae insilivit, et iuventum extrahere volens, maligno spiritii retrahente, quem Neptumim vocant, semel et secundo perdidit; tertio cum nomen apostoli invocasset, raortuum recepit.' Miracula S. Matthiae, cap. 43. Fez, Thes. anecd. 2, 3, pag. 26. Eollenhagen in the Froschmeuseler (Nn 11^) :

' das er elend im wasser wer gestorben, da die seel mit dem leib verdorben, oder beim geist bheb, der immer frech den ersofnen die hels abbrech.'

(that he had died miserably in the water, and his soul had perished with the body, or abode with the spirit that ever without ado breaketh the necks of the drowned). The Swedish superstition supposes that droiuned men whose bodies are not found have been drawn into the dwelling of the Jiafsfru (Sv. vis. 3, 148). In some German fairy-tales (no. 79) children who fall into the well come under the power of the waier-nixe ; like dame Holla, she gives them tangled flax to spin.

Faye. p. 51, quotes a Norwegian charm, to be repeated on the water against the nix ;

nyh, nyk, naal i vatn !

jomfru Maria kastet sfcaal i vatn ;

du sak, ilk flyt.^

(nick, nick, needle in water ! Virgin casteth steel in water. Thou sink, and I flee). A similar one iov bathers is given in Superst. Swed. no. 71 [with the addition : ' thy father was a steel-thief, thy mother was a needle-thief/ etc.]. Steel stops a spirit's power to act upon you (supra, p. 466-7 n.).

A sepulchral cry of the nix, similar to death groans, is said to portend drowning (Faye, p. 51). Some very old writings ascribe

229^

1 Dan. ' nokken har taget ham,' ' nukken har suet dem,' Tullin's Skrifter 2, 13. So Brynhildr calls out at last to the giantess : 'scykstu, gygjar kyn ! ' Sffim.

to watersprites in general wailing voices and doleful speeches, that resound from lakes and pools : they tell each other of their baffled schemes, or how they have to vacate the land before the christians. Gregory of Tours, in De glor. confess, cap. 31, remembers an incident of his young days ^apud Arvernos gestum.' A man setting out early to the forest has his morning meal blessed before he takes it : Cumque ad amnera adhuc antelucanum venisset, imposito plaustro cum bobus in ponte qui super navem locatus erat, alterum transmeare coepit in littus. Verum ubi in viedium amnis devenit, audivit vocem dicentis ' merge, merge, ne moreris !' Cui respondens vox alia ait : ' sine tua etiam admonitione quae proclamas fecissem, si res sacra meis conatibus non obstaret; nam scias eum eulogiis sacerdotis esse muuitum, ideo ei nocere non possum' (see Suppl.) — In the Vita Godehardi Hildesiensis (first quarter of 11th cent.), cap. 4 (Leibn. 1, 492), we read : Erat etiam in oriental! parte civitatis nostrae (Hildenes-hem) palus horrifica et circummanentibus omnino plurali formidine invisa, eo quod ibi, ut opinabantur, tarn meridiano quam et nocturno tempore illusiones quasdam horrihiles vel audirent vel viderent, quae (sc. palus) a fonte salsuginis quae ibidem in medio bulliebat Suiza dicitur. Qua ille (Godehardus) spectata, et illusione etiam phantastica, qua bruta plebs terrebatur, audita, eandem paludem secundo sui adventus anno cum cruce et reliquiis sanctorum invasit, et habitationem suam ibidem aptavit, et in medio periculo oratorium in honoi'em S. Bartholomaei apostoli fundavit, quo sequenti anno consummato et dedicato, omne daemonnm pliantasma (conf. p. 482) exinde funditus extirpavit, et eundem locum omnibus commorantibus vel advenientibus gratum et sine qualibet tentatione habitabilem reddidit. — My third quotation is a continuation of that given on p. 108 from the Vita S. Galli (Pertz 2, 7) : Volvente deinceps cursu temporis electus Dei Gallus retia lymphae laxabat in silentio noctis, sed inter ea audivit demonem de cuhnine moniis pari sue clamantem, qui erat in abditis maris. Quo respondente ' adsum,' monta7ius econtra : ' Surge ' inquit ' in adjutorium mihi. Ecce peregrini venerunt, qui me de templo ejecerunt (nam deos conterebant quos incolae isti colebant, insuper et eos ad se convertebant) ; veni, veni, adjuva nos expellere eos de terris.'' Marinus demon respondit :

WATEE-SPRITE. HOME-SPRITE. 499

' En unus eorum est in pel a go, cui nunquam nocere potero, volui enim retia sua ledere, sed me victum proba lugere : signo orationis est semper clausus, nee umquam somno oppressus.'

Elecfcus vero Gallus haec audiens muuivit se undiqne signaculo Christi, dixitque ad eos :

' In nomine Jesu Cbristi praecipio vobis, ut de locis istis recedatis, nee aliquem hie ledere presumatis ! '

et cum festinatione ad littus rediit, atque abbati suo quae audierat recitavit.^ Quod vir Dei Columbanus audiens, convocavit fratres in ecclesiam, soUtum signum tangens. O mira dementia diaboli ! voces servorum Dei praeripuit vox fantasmatica, cum hejulatns atque ululatus dirce vocis audiebatur pe?' culmina. — Read further on (2, 9) the story of two lake-women who stand naked on the shore and throw stones. Everywhere we see the preachers confront the pagan daemons with cross and holy spell, as something real; the mournful howl of the spirits yields to the ringing of bells. Gods and spirits are not distinguished : the god cast out of the temple, whose image has been broken, is the elf or nix meditating revenge. It is remarkable, too, that monntaln and water sprites are set before us as fellows (pares) ; in folk-tales of a later time their affinity to each other seems abundantly established.

We have now considered genii of mountains, of woods and of rivers; it remains to review the large and variously named group of the friendly familiar Hotne-sprites.

They of all sprites stand nearest to man, because they come and seek his fellowship, they take up their abode under his very roof or on his premises.

Again, it is a feature to be marked in home-sprites, that they are pwreli/ male, never female ; there appears a certain absence of sex in their very idea, and if any female beings approach this

1 Conf. the conversations of trolls overheard by two of St. Olaf's men, Fornm. sog. 1, 185-188.

goblin kind, it is former goddesses who have come down in the world. ^

What the Eomans called lar,^ lar familiaris (see the prologue to Plautus's Aulularia) and jptnas, is named in our older speech Jiusing or stetigot (genius loci) ; conf. ' husinga (penates) ' in Notker^s Capella 51. In Cap. 142 JST. renders lares by ' ingoumeu (hiusero aide burgo)'; the literal meaning of ingoumo would be guard of the interior. In Cap. 50 he uses ingeside for penates, i.e. our ingesinde, inmates, domestics; the form continued to be used in MHG. : daz liebeheilige ingeside, Rol. 115, 1. 226, 18. Similarly the Span, duende, duendecillo (goblin) seems derivable from domus, dueno is house-owner (dominus, distinct from don, p. 299 note), and duendo domestic, retired. The ON. toft, Swed. tomt, means area, domus vacua, and the home-sprite^s name is in Swed. tomtekarl, tomteguhhe (old fellow on the premises), tomtrd, tomtehiss, som styr i kiillrars rike (Hallman, p. 73) : Norw. tomtevdtte, toftvdtte. Another ON. name is skurgod', p. 112. We can trace in them a peculiar connexion with the hearth of the house ; they often come out from under it (p. 456 n.), it seems to be the door, as it were, to their subterranean dwelling : they are strictly hearthgods. Here and there in Germany we also meet with the name gesell, fellow (supra, p. 464, selle, selke), gutgesell, nachhar, lieher jiacJihar, in the Netherlands goede hind (Horae Belg. 119), in England goodfellow, in Denmark god dreng, good boy, Mare granne, dear neighbour, (conf. hona socia, p. 288-8, and guote holde, p. 266). The Eng. 'puck we may indeed connect with the Ir. pJiuka, Wei. pwcca,'^ but with more justice perhaps with the Dan. peg (lad), which is simply the Swed. pojke, ON. puki (puer), and comes from Finn, poica (filius) ; in Lower Germany too they say p)ook for a puny stunted man (Brem. wb. 3, 349). Heimreich's Nordfries. chron. 2, 348 has h.\xs,puke (see Suppl.).

From the 13th century (and possibly earlier, if only we had authorities) ^ down to the present time the name kohold has been

1 Holla, Berhta, Werra, Stempe. Female are the Gr. Mopixdj and Aa/j-ia, the Eom. Lamia, Mania, Maniola. The Poles too have a fern. Omacnica : ' Aniculae vetant pueros edere in tenebris. ne spectrum hoc devorent, quod eos insatiabiles reddat,' Linde sub v. ' omacac,' to burden. OHG. dgenygun lamiae,iGrafl: 1, 132.

" Larva (spectre, daemon) is conn, with lar, as arvum, arvus with arare. The Monachus Sangall. calls the pilosus (p. 481) larva.

3 Croker's Fairy legends 3. 230-2. 262.

■* ' Ace. to Falke, a Koholtcsdorp (aun. 94G), Trad. corv. ; Adalpertus chobolt, kobolt (ann. 1185), MB. 27, 30, 42.' Extr. from Suppl.

HOME-SPEITE. KOBOLD. 501

in use. A doc. of 1250 in Bobmer's Cod. francof. 1, 83 has a ' Heinricus dictus Goholdus.' Even before tliat date coboldus occurs (Zeitschr. des Hess, vereins 3, 64). Conrad of Wiirzbnrg-, MS. 2, 206% has: * mir ist ein loser hoveschalk als ein kobolt von buhse/ no better than a k. of boxwood ; and the Misnaere (Amgb. 48'"') : ' we den hoholden, die alsus erstummen (are so struck dumb) ! mir ist ein holzin (wooden) bischof vil lieber dan ein stummer herre.^ The notions of hohold^ dwarf, thumbhin, -puppet, idol largely run into one another (conf. supra, malik, p. 104 note). It seems, they used to carve little home-sprites of boxwood and set them up in the room for fun, as even now wooden nutcrackers and other mere playthings are cut in the shape of a dwarf or idol ; yet the practice may have had to do with an old heathen worship of small lares, to whom a place was assigned in the innermost part of the dwelling ; in time the earnest would turn into sport, and even christian sentiment tolerate the retention of an old custom.^ They must also have tied rags and shreds into dolls, and set them up. The dumb wooden kobold is kept in countenance by the 'wooden bishop^ mentioned immediately after by the Misnaere.^ In the oft-quoted poem of Riiediger we find (1 7'^ of the Kouigsb.MS.) 'in koboldes sprache,' [i.e., speaking low] . In Altd. w. 2, 55 ' einen kobold von wahse machen,' one of wax. Hoffmann's Fundgruben give us in the Glossary 386, from a Vocab. of the 14th century, opold for kopold. Hugo von Trimberg has several allusions to kobolds : line 5064, ' und lern einander goukelspil, unter des mantel er kobolte mache, der (whereat) manic man tougen (secretly) mit im lache ' ; 5576, ' der male ein andern kobolt dar, der ungessen bi im sitze ' ; 10277, ' einer siht den andern an, als kobolt hern taterman' ; 10843, ' ir abgot (the heathens' gods), als ich gelesen han, daz waren kobolt und tatervian' ; 11527, 'Got mohte wol lachen, solte ez sin, wan sine tatennennelin (same in Roth's Fragment, p. 65) so wunderlich uf erden leben,' God might laugh to see his little mannikins behave so strangely. Jugglers

• One ought to search out the age and design of the various gear that is set out (as mere ornament this long while) on shelves and tables ; from this and from long-established moulds for pasti-y, we may arrive at some conclusions about the heathen custom of carving or ' doughiiig ' idols (conf. p}). 15. 1U5. 11:2. 114) : teig (dough) including any soft substance, clay, wax or Hour-paste.

'^ On ' papa salignus ' conf. lleiuh. p. xciv.

bring kobolds out from under their cloak, kobolds are painted on the wall, the heathen gods were nothing but kobolds and

tatermen, to stare at each other like kobold and taterman,

all through, the kobold appears as the tiny tricky home-sprite. In v/riters of the 1 7th century I find the remarkable phrase ' to laugh lihe a Icohold/ Ettner's Unwiird. doct. p. 340, and App. p. 53 j 'you laugh as though you'd empty yourself, lihe a kohoU,' Eeimdich p. 149. This must either mean, to laugh with mouth agape, like a carved kobold, who may have been so represented, or simply to laugh loud and heartily.^ Again, ' to laugh like a hampelmann,' Deutschfranzos p. 274; 'ho, ho, ho! the loud laugh of Robin Goodfellow,' Anecd. and Trad., ed. by W. J. Thoms, Lond. 1839, p. 115. In the poem of Zeno 867. 1027 this demonic laughter is expressed by sJcrahen (Breni. wb. 4, 686 schrachtern). Schweinichen 1, 260 tells of an unquiet spirit laughing loud and shrill; it may be a laugh of mirth or mockery.

In the Netherlands too we find at an early time the form houhout (pi. coubouten, Horae Belg. 1, 119) ; now Jcabout, and in Belgium kahot, kahotermanneken.^ The Scandinavian languages have not the word.

It is a foreign word, sprung no doubt from the Gr. K6^a\o<; (rogue), Lat. cohalus,^ with a t added, as our language is partial to forms in -olt for monstrous and ghostly beings. From cobalus, in Mid. Lat. already gohelinus, the Fr. has formed its gohelin, whence the Engl, gohlin, strengthened into hohgohlin. Hanka's 0. Boh. glosses render 79*^ gitulius (getulius, gaetulius) by koholt, and directly after, aplinus (1. alpinus, i.e. alphinus, the ' fool ' or queen in chess) by tatrman : here are kobolt and tatrman together, just as we saw them staring at each other in the Renner; hence also the Cod. pal. 341, 126° speaks of 'einen taterman malen,' painting a t., and the Wahtelmsere 140 of guiding him with strings, ' rihtet zuo mit den sniieren die tater-

1 ♦ Hlabtar kisciititaz,' laughed till he shook, K. 24\ Notk. Cap. .SB has : ' taz lahter scutta sia ; Petronms, cap. 21, ' risu dissolvebat ilia sua ' ; Eeinardus 3, 1929, ' cacbinnus viscera tissurus'; or, as we say, to s^jlit with laughing, laugh yourself double, short and small, to pieces, to a holzlin (Gryphius p. m. 877), brown, out of your senses ; ' einen schiibel voll lachen ' ; perish, die with laughing, MHGr. ' man swindet under lachen,' Ben. 330. A Breton song in Villemarque 1, 39 speaks of the loud laugh of the korred (see SupiDl.).

^ Schaves sur les usages et traditions des Beiges. Louvain 1834, p. 230.

s Lobe'ck's Aglaoph. 1308-1328.

GOBLIN. TATERMAN. 503

manne' (supra, p. 410 g.). To explain this taterman by the Engl, tatter has some plausibility, but then our HG. ought to have had zaterman (conf. OHG. zata, zatar, Graff 5, 632-3, with AS. taettera, panniculus). The glossist above may have meant by gaetulius an African savage, by alpinus a Tartar (MHG. tater, tateler), or still better, a fool;^ the word taterman occurs in other 0. Boh. documents besides, and signifies doll and idol (Jungmann 3, 554'') ; foreign to all other Slavic dialects, it seems borrowed from German.- Its proper meaning can only be revealed by a fuller insight into the history of puppet-shows. Perhaps the Hung, tatos (juggler) has a claim to consideration.'^

Several MSS. however and the first printed edition of the Renner have not taterman at all, but katerman (Cod. francof. 164'^ reads verse 10843 kobiilde unde katirrnan), which is not altogether to be rejected, and at lowest offers a correct secondary sense. Katerman, derived from kater (tom-cat), may be compared with heinzelman, hinzelman, hinzemdnnchen, the name of a home-sprite,* with Hinze the cat in Reineke, and the woodsprite Katzenveit (p. 480) . The puss-in-hoots of the fairy-tale plays exactly the part of a good-natured helpful kobold ; another one is called stiefel (boot, Deut. sag. no. 77), because he wears a large boot : by the boot, I suppose, are indicated the gefeite scliulie (fairy shoes) of older legend, with which one could travel faster on the ground, and perhaps through the air ; such are the league-hoots of fairy-tales and the luinged shoes of Hermes. The name of Heinze is borne by a mountain-sprite in the Froschmeuseler. Heinze is a dimin. of Heinrich, just as in Lower Germany another noisy ghost is called Chimke, dimin. of Joachim (conf. 'dat gimken/ Brem. wb. 5, 379) : the story of Chimmeken

' There is in the kobolcl's character an unmistakable similarity to the witty court-fool ; hence I feel it significant, that one described in Schweiuichen 1, 260-2 expressly carries a baivble. The Engl, hobgoblin means the same as clowngoblin (Nares sub v. hob).

' Hauusch (Slav. myth. 299) takes the taterman (he says, hasterman also occurs) for a water-si)rite.

3 ' In Tyrol (utterman==eca,recToyf, coward, kobold, from tattern, zittern, to quake, skedaddle; Frommann 2, 327. Leoprechting p. 177 says, tattern to frighten; at Gratz in Stj-ria, the night before solstice, tattcrmann, a bugbear, is carried round and set on tire in memory of extirpated heathenism.' — Extr. from SorvL.

•* Deut. sag. no. 75 ; the story is 100 years later than the comi)i')sition of the Eeineke. Hinzelmanu leaves a dint in the bed, as if a cat had lain in it. Lutlier's Table-talk (cd. 1571, p. 411*) had previously related the like concerning a spirit Ueinzlin,

VOL. II. P

(of about 1327) is to be found in Kantzow's Pomerania 1, 333. The similar and equally Low-German name WoUerhen seems to have a wider circulation. Samuel Meiger in his Panurgia lamiarum (Hamb. 1587. 4), bok 3 cap. 2, treats 'van den laribus domesticis edder husknechtkens, de men ok WoUerhen unde CJiimken an etliken orden nomet.' These Wolterkens are also mentioned by Arnkiel (Cimbr. heidenth. 1, 49) ; in the Netherlands they are called Wonders, Wouterhen, and Tuinman 2, 201 has a proverb ' 't is een wilde Woufer,' though incorrectly he refers it to wout (silva). Wouter^ Wolter is nothing but the human proper name Walter bestowed on a home-sprite. It is quite of a piece with the familiar intercourse between these spirits and mankind, that, beside the usual appellatives, certain proper names should be given them, the diminutives of Henry, Joachim, Walter. Not otherwise do I understand the Robin and Nissen in the wonted names for the English and Danish goblins Robin goodfeUorv and Nissen god dreng. Robin is a French-English form of the name Robert, OHG. Hruodperaht, MHG. Ruotperht, our Ruprecht, Rupert, Ruppert; and Robin fellow is the same home-sprite whom we in Germany call hnecht Ruprecht, and exhibit to children at Christmas, but who in the comedies of the 16-1 7th centuries becomes a mere Rilpel or Rilppel, i.e. a merry fool in general.^ In England, Robin Goodfellow seems to get mixed up with Robin Hood the archer, as Hood himself reminds us of Hodeken (p. 463) ; and I think this derivation from a being of the goblin kind, and universally known to the people, is preferable to the attempted historical ones from Rubertus a Saxon mass-priest, or the English Robertus knight, one of the slayers of Thomas Becket. Nisse, Nissen, current in Denmark and Norway, must be explained from Niels, Nielsen,

^ Ayrer's Fastnaclitspiele 7d^ confirms the fact of Rvpel being a dimin. of Euprecht. Some dialects use Rilpel, Rieptl as a name for tlie tom-cat again ; in ■witch-trials a little young devil is named Ruhel. Ace. to the Leipzig Avanturier 1,

22-3, knecht Ruprecht appears in shaggy clothes, sack on back and rod in hand.

[If Hoh in hobgoblin stands for Robert, it is another instance of the friendly or at least conciliatory feeling that prompted the giving of such names. In Mids. N. Dream ii. 1, the same spirit that has just been called Robin Goodfellow, is thus addressed :

Those that Hoh-g6h\m call you, and sweet Puck, You do their work, and they shall have good luck.

Of course Hob as a man's name is Eobert, as Hodge is Eoger. — Teans.]

HOME-SPEITE. 505

i.e. Nicolaus, Niclas/ not from our HG. common noun ' nix ' the watersprite, which is in Danish nok, nok (p. 488), and has no connexion with Nisse ; and the Swed. form is also Nilson. I find a confirmation of this in our habit of assigning to Niclaus, Glaus or Globes the selfsame part that in some districts is played by Ruprecht. To this latter I am inclined to refer even the words of so early a writer as Ofterdingen, MS. 2, 2'' : ' Ruprelit mill knecht muoz iuwer har gelich den toren schern,^ R. my man must shear your hair like that of fools. A home-sprite Riidy (for Rudolf) in Mone's Anz. 3, 365.

Another set of names is taken from the noises which these spirits keep up in houses : you hear them jumping softly, knocking at walls, racketing and tumbling on stairs and in lofts. Span, trasgo (goblin), and trasguear (to racket) ; Fr. soterai, sotret (jumper), Mem. de I'acad. celt. 4, 91; ekerhen (eichhornchen, squirrel), Deut. sag. no. 78 ; poltergeist, rumpelgeist, riimpelstih in the Kindermiirchen no. 55, rumpelstilt in Fischart ; - one particular goblin is called klopfer, knocker (Deut. sag. no. 76), and it may be in this connexion that hammerlein, hemerlehi (supra, p. 182) has come to be applied to home-sprites of diabolic nature. Nethl. hullman, hullerman, hullerkater, from bullen, bullern, to be boisterous. Flem. holdergeest, and hence 'bi holder te bolder,^ our ' holter die polter,' helter-skelter. A pophart, identical with rumpelstilt in Fischart, is to be derived from popeln, popern, to keep bobbing or thumping softly and rapidly ; ^ a house-goblin in Swabia was called the poppele ; in other Y>Sivts popel, popel, popelmann, popanz, usually with the sidemeaning of a muffled ghost that frightens children, and seldom used of playful good-humoured goblins. At the same time popel is that which muffles (puppt) itself: about Henneberg, says Reinwald 2, 78, a dark cloud is so called ; it contains the notion

• Not only Nielsen, but Nissen is a family name in Denmark, and can only mean the same, by no means nix or goblin. [I suppose Niels is ratlier Nigellus, Nigel, which breaks down the connexion with Nicolas or Claus ; still the two can stand independently. — Trans.]

• Is stilt, stilz the old .stalt in compounds? Gramm. 2, 527. What the fairytale says of Rumpeiitilt, and how his name has to be guessed, other stories tell of Eisenhiitel or IlopfcnldUel (who wear an iron hat or one wreathed with hop-leaves), Kletke's Alman. v. volksm. 67 ; or of the dwarf Holzriihrlehi, lionnefiUuiein, Harrys 1, 18 [of Knirfiker, Gehhart, Tepcntircn, Miillenh. 30(j-8, of Titteli Ture, Sv. folkv. 1, 171. — SuppL.j ; and we shall meet with the like in giant-stories.

3 Staid. 1, iOi. Schm. 1, 293. 323.

5C6 WIGHTS AND ELVES.

of mask and tarnkappe (p. 333). lu connexion with Holda, a Hollepupel, Hollepeter is spoken of.

The same shifting of form appears in the words tnumhart (already in Ceesarius heisterb. 1, 46 : 'mummart momordit me^), mv.mmel, mummelmann, mummanz,^ which express the very same notion, ' mummen, mummeln ' signifying to mumble, to utter a muffled sound. Or can we connect it with mumel, muomel, the name of the watersprite (p. 490) ? In that case, vermummen (to disguise), mummerei (mumming, larva) would seem to mean actiug like the spectre, instead of the spectre having taken his name from mumming (see Suppl.).

The word hiitze as far back as the 12th-13th century had the same meaning as mum mart and poppart : a place called Piiziprunmin, Pucijintnnen, MB. 6, 60. 62. 9, 420 (12th century), unless puzi = puteus be meant, might take its name from a well, haunted by such a home-sprite. ' Ein ungehiarer (uncanny) hutze,' Martina 116'^ 224^; ' si sehent mich nicht mer an in hutzen wis,' they look at me no more in butze wise, Walth. 28, 37 ; 'in butzenwise gehn,' Oberlin sub v. ; ' den hutzen vorht er kleine, als man do seit von kinden,' he little fears the b., as we say of children, Albr. Tit. x. 144 (Hahn 1275) ; butzengriul, -horror, Walth. 140, 2. MsH. 3, 45P; 'geloub ich daz, so biz mich hutze,' b. bite me if I believe it, Hiitzlerin 287% which agrees with 'mummart momordit me' above; 'ein Mnderhutze,' Ls. 1, 617; ' forht ich solchen hiltzel/ Ls. 1, 380, where a wihtel is spoken of. So, to frighten with the hutze, to tear off the hutze (mask) ; hutzen antliit (face) and hutzen kleider (clothes) =larva in Kaisersperg (Oberlin 209) ; ivinterhutz in Brant's Narrenschiff 129 (winterbutte in the Plattdeutsch translation 140''). I do not understand the hutzenhiinsel in Weisth. 1, 691. All over Germany almost, we hear to this day : 'der hutz kommt,' ^ or 'der hutzemann, hutzelmann,' and in Elsass hutzmummel, the same as butz or mummel alone, huz, Jager's Ulm, p. 522. hutzenmann, Fischart's Bieukorb 194^. hutz, Garg. 231. hutzemann, Simpl. 2, 248. In Bavaria, fasnachthutz, Shrovetide b., huzmann, huzihercht, b. coupled with the Bercht or Berchta of our pp. 272-9 ;

1 For mum bans (muffle-jack), as popanz is for pop-hans (bob-jack), and as tbere were likewise blindbans, grobhans, karstbans, scharrbans, etc.

• In Normandy : ' busb, the gobelin will eat you up.'

HOME-SPEITE. 507

'hutzwinkel, lurking-place, hutzJjiiister, pitch-dark, v^^ien the apparition is most to be dreaded ; ' the ^Hi^2 would take us over hill and dale/ Schm. 1, 229. 230; the biitz who leads travellers astray (Muchar's Gastein, p. 14.5). In Swabia hutzemnaiikler (from maucheln, to be sly), hutzenhrecJit , hiitzenraule, hutzenrolle, rollpidz, butzenhell (because his rattle rolls and his bell tinkles), Schmid 111. About Hanau I have heard the interjection, katzabutza-rola ! the ' katze-butze ' bringing up the connexion between cat and goblin (p. 503) in a new form. In Switzerland bootzi, bozl, St. 1, 204. Here several meanings branch out of one another : first we have a monstrous butz that drags children away, then a tiny biitzel, and thence both biitzel and butz-igel (-urchin) used contemptuously of little deformed creatures. In like manner but in Low Germ, stands for a squat podgy child ; butten, verbutten is to get stunted or deformed, while the bugbear is called batte, butke, budde, bitddeke : ^dat di de butke nig bit,' (that thee the bogie bite not !) is said satirically to children who are afraid of the dark, Brem. wb. 1, 173-5; and here certainly is the place for the watersprite butt or butfje in the Kindermtirchen no. 19, the name having merely been transferred to a blunt-headed fish, the rhombus or passer marinus.^ There is also probably a bnttemann, buttmann, but more commonly in the contracted form bu-man (Br. wb. 1, 153). Nethl. bijtebauw, for buttebauw, which I identify with Low Germ, bu-ba (Br. wb. 1, 152). The Dan. bussemand, biissegroll, bussetrold (Molbech, p. 60) seems to be formed on the German (see Suppl.). — The origin of this butze, butte is hard to ascertain : I would assume a lost Goth, biuta (tundo, pulso), baut, butum, OIIG. piuzu, poz, puzum, whence OHG. anapoz, our amboss, anvil, MHG. bozen (pulsare), and gebiuze, thumping, clatter [Eugl. to butt?], conf. Lachmann on Nib. 1823, 2. Fragm. 40, 18G; butze would be a thumping rapping sprite, perfectly agreeing with mumhart and pophart,^ and we may yet hear of a bozhart or buzhart. ]3ut, like

1 Homeaprite and water-siirite meet iu this soothsaying wish-granting fish. The story of the butt has a parallel in the OFr. tale of an elvish spirit and enchanter Merlin, who keeps fultilling the growing desires of the charcoal burner, till they pass all bounds, then plunges him back into his original poverty (Muou, nouv. reo. 2, 242-252. Jubiual 1, 128-135.

2 As the monstrous includes the repulsive and unclean, it is not surprising that both butze and popel signify mucus, filth (Oberlin 210. Schm. 1, 291). The same with Swiss boo(j, St. 1, 203.

butzenhanse], there is also a hanselmann used for spiritus familiaris (Phil. v. Sittew. 5, 328, ed. Lugd.), and the similar hampelmann for goblin, puppet and mannequin ( = maaneke, mannikin). Bavar. himipel, haimpel, both devil and simpleton (Schm. 2, 197), Austr. henparl (Hofer 2, 46).

The Y\ Juliet, It. foletto, is a diminuitive of /oZ, fou; which, like follis (bellows), seems to be derived from an obsolete foUere (to move hither and thither), and brings us to a fresh contact of the home- sprite with the fool.^ Then lutin, also luton, perhaps from the Lat. luctus : a sprite who wails and forebodes sorrow ? Lithuan. hildukkas, bildunas, hildzmJcs (noisy sprite), from bildenti (to racket, rattle) ; grozdunas from grddzia (there is a racket made). Sloven, ztrazhnih, Serv. strashilo, Boh. strasidlo, Pol. straszijdlo, from strasiti (terrere) ; Boh. hubdk (noisy sprite). Somewhat stronger is the Pol. dzieciojad, child-eater, like the Lat. manducus. Irish home-sprites are called Oluricauns (Elfenm. p. 85-114), LejjrecJiaun, Logheriman (Keightley 2, 179 ; and see Suppl.).

But enough of these names : no doubt many more could be added. It is time to consider the nature and functions of these Home-sprites.

In stature, appearance and apparel they come very near to elves and dwarfs ; legend loves to give them red hair or a red beard, and the pointed red hat is rarely missing. Hutchen (Hodeke, Hoidike), the Hildesheim goblin, and Hopfenhuteh Eisenhiltel take their names from it. A broad- topped mushroom is in Dan. called nissehat. The Norwegian Nissen is imagined small like a child, but strong, clothed in grey, with a red peaky cap, and carrying a blue light at night. ^ So they can make themselves visible or invisible to men, as they please. Their /air?/ shoes or boots have been noticed, p. 503 ; with these they can get over the most difficult roads with the greatest speed : it was just over mountains and forests that Hiitchen's rennpfad extended (Deut. sag. 1, 100), and the sclirativeg (p. 479) means much the

' Eatherius, ed. Ballerini, p. 314 : 'merito ergo follis latiali rusticitate vocaris, qnoniam veiitate vacuus.' Wilhelm. metens. ep. 3: '■ fuUefii me rustico verbo appellasti.'

• J. N. Wilse's Beskrivelse over Spydeberg, Christiana 1779, p. 418. Conf. the blue light of the black niaunikiu, Kinderm. uo. 116.

HOME-SPRITE. 509

same.-^ With this walking apparatus and this swiftness there is associated now and then some animal's form and name : Heinze, Heinzelmann, polterkater, katermann, boot-cat, squirrel; their shuffling and bustling about the house is paralleled by the nightlyturbulence of obstreperous cats.^ They like to live in the stable, barn or cellar of the person whose society they have chosen, sometimes even in a tree that stands near the house (Swed. bo-trd, dwelling- tree). You must not break a bough off such a tree, or the offended goblin will make his escape, and all the luck of the house go with him ; moreover, he cannot abide any chopping in the yard or spinning on a Thursday evening (Superst. Swed. no. 110).^ In household occupations they shew themselves friendly and furthersome, particularly in the kitchen and stable. The dwarf-king Goldeynar (pp. 453. 466) is said to have lived on intimate terms with Neveling of Hardenberg at the Hardenstein, and often shared his bed. He played charmingly on the harp, and got rid of much money at dice ; he called Neveling brotherin-law, and often admonished him, he spoke to everybody, and made the clergy blush by discovering their secret sins. His hands were lean like those of a frog, cold and soft to the grasp ; he would allow himself to be felt, but 7iever to be seen. After a stay of three years he made off without injuring any one. Other accounts call him king Vollmar, and they say the room he lived in is called Vollmar' s kammer to this day : a place at table had to be kept for him, and one in the stable for his horse ; meats, oats and hay were consumed, but of horse or man you saiv nothing but the shadow. Once an inquisitive man having sprinkled ashes and peas to make him fall and to get sight of his footprints, he sprang upon him as he was lighting the fire, and chopped him up into pieces, which he stuck on a spit and roasted, but the head and legs he thought proper to boil. The dishes, when ready, were carried to VoUmar's chamber, and one could hear them being consumed with cries of joy. After this, no more was heard

1 So a chcmin de fees is spoken of in Mem. celt. 4, 210, and a trollaskeid (curriculum gigantum) in Laxd, saga 60.

• Witches and fays often assume the shai)e of a cat, and the cat is a creature peculiarly open to suspicions of witchcraft.

^ Wilse, ubi supra, entirely agrees : ' tomtogubbcu skal have sin til hold unde gnmle triier ved stuehuset (boetriier), og derfor bar man ej tordet fiilde disse gandske.' To this connexion of home-sprites with tree-worship we shall have to return further on.

of king Yollmar ; but over liis chamber-door it was found written, that from that time the house would be as unlucky as it had been prosperous till then, and the scattered estates would never come together again till there were three Hardenbergs of Hardenstein living at once. Both spit and gridiron were long preserved, till in 1651 they disappeared during the Lorrain war, but the pot is still there, let into the kitchen wall.^ The home-sprite's parting prophecy sounds particularly ancient, and the grim savagery of his wrath is heathen all over. Sam. Meiger says of the wolterhens : ' Se vinden sik gemeinichlich in den hiiseren, dar ein god vorrad (store) van alien dingen is. Dar scholen se sik bedensthaftigen (obsequious) anstellen, waschen in der koken up, boten viir (beet the fire), schiiren de vate, schrapen de perde im stalle, voderen dat quik, dat it vet und glat herin geit, theen (draw) water und dragent dem vehe (cattle) vor. Men kan se des nachtes horen de ledderen edder treppen (or stairs) up und dal stigen, lachen, wen se den megeden efte knechte de decken aftheen (pull off), se richten to, houwen in, jegen (against) dat geste kamen scholen,^ smiten de ware in dem huse umme, de den morgen gemeinliken darna verkoft wert.' The goblin then is an obliging hardworking sprite, who takes a pleasure in waiting on the men and maids at their housework, and secretly dispatching some of it himself. He curries the horses, combs out their manes,^ lays fodder before the cattle,'* draws water from the well and brings it them, and cleans out the stable. For the maids he makes up fire, rinses out the dishes, cleaves and carries wood, sweeps and scrubs. His presence brings prosperity to the house, his departure removes it. He is like the helpful earth-mannikins who lend a hand in field labour (p. 451 n.). At the same time he oversees the management of the house, that everything be done orderly ; lazy and careless workers get into trouble with him (as with Holla and Berhta, pp. 269. 273), he pulls the coverlets off

1 Von Steinen's Westph. gesch. pp. 777-9.

• When the cat trims her whiskers, they say it is a sign of guests.

^ Like the white lady (Berhta), whose nightly visits are indicated the next morning by the wax that hasdropt from her taper orf the manes (Deut. sag. no. 122). In Wales the people believe that goats have their beards combed out every Friday night by the elves (Croker 3, 204).

■• Hence the name futtermdnnchen, (confounded at times with Petermdnnchen) ; but often he has one favourite horse that he pays special attention to, taking hay out of the others' cribs to bring to him. Faye p. 44.

HOME-SPRITE. " 511

the beds of sluggards, blows their light out, turns the best cow's neck awry, kicks the dawdling milkmaid's pail over, and mocks her with insulting laughter ; his good-nature turns into worrying and love of mischief, he becomes a * tormenting spirit.' Agemund in the Eeinardus 4, 859-920 seems to me no other than a housedaemon, distorted and exaggerated by the poet, disturbing the maid in her sleep, her milking and churning (see Suppl.).^

Servants, to keep on good terms with him, save a little potful of their food on purpose for him, which is surely a vestige «f little sacrifices that were offered him of old (p. 448). That is probably why one Swiss goblin bears the name Na^Jhans, Potjack. But in many cases it is only done on holidays, or once a week. The sprite is easily satisfied, he puts up with a saucerful of porridge, a piece of cake and a glass of beer, which are left out for him accordingly ; on those evenings he does not like any noisy work to be going on, either in or out of doors. This they call in Norway 'at holde qvelvart (qvellsvart),' to hold evening rest. Those who desire his goodwill, give him good words : ' hidre granne, gior det ! ' dear neighbour, do this ; and he replies conformably. He is said at times to carry his preference for the goodman so far as to pilfer hay and straw from other farmers' barns or stables, and bring it to him (see Suppl.).

The Nissen loves the moonlight, and in wintertime you see him merrily skipping across the farmyard, or skating. He is a good hand at dancing and music, and much the same is told of him as of the Swedish stromkarl (p. 493), that /or a grey sheep he teaches people to play the fiddle.^

The home-sprite is contented with a trifling wage : a new hat, a red cap, a parti-coloured coat with tinkling bells he will make shift with. The hat and cap he has in common with dwarfs (p. 463), and therefore also the power to make himself invisible. Petronius (Satir. cap. 38) shows it was already a Roman superstition : 'sed quomodo dicunt, ego nihil scivi, sed audivi, quomodo incuhoni pileam rapuisset, ot thesaurum invenit.' Home-

' The description of his figure (a horse's mane, hawk's hill, cat's tail, goat's beard, ox's horns and cock's feet) can hardly have been all invented there and then.

• Unless Wilse (Beskriv. over Spyd. 419) has confounded Nissen with uiicken ; yet the German goblin Goldemar was likewise musical (Ir. Elfenm. Ixxxiii.)- Wilse, and Faye, pp. 43-45, give the best account of the Norwegian Nissen, and Thiele 1. 134-5 of the Danish.

sprites guard treasures, and in Nib. 399 Siegfried becomes master of the hoard as soon as he has taken Alberich's tarnkappe from him. In Calderon^s Dama duende the little goblin wears a large hat : 'era unfrayle tamanito, j tenia un cucurucho tamano.' The Swedish ' tomte i garden ' looks like a year-old child, but has an old knowing face under his red cap. He shews himself at midday (see chap, XXXVI., daemon meridianus) in summer and autumn, slow and panting he drags a single straw or an ear (p. 451>) ; when the farmer laughed and asked, ' What's the odds whether you bring me that or nothing ? ■* he quitted the farm in dudgeon, and went to the next. From that time prosperity forsook the man who had despised him, and went over to his neighbour. The farmer who respected the busy tomte and cared for the tiniest straw, became rich, and cleanliness and order reigned in his household. Many Christians still believe in such home-sprites, and present them an oifering every year, ' pay them their wage ' as they call it. This is done on the morn of Yule, and consists of grey cloth, tobacco and a shovelful of earth, Afzelius 2, 169. A piick served the monks of a Mecklenburg monastery for thirty years, in kitchen, stall and elsewhere ; he was thoroughly good-natured, and only bargained for ' tunicam de diversis coloribus, et tintinnahulis 'plenam.'^ In Scotland there lived a goblin Shellycoat, and we saw (p. 465) that the dwarfs of the Mid. Ages also loved hells [schellen ; and schellenkappe is Germ, for cap and bells] . The bells on the dress of a fool still attest his affinity to the shrewd and merry goblin (fol, follet) ; see Suppl.

He loves to play merry pranks, and when he has accomplished one, he is fain to laugh himself double for delight : hence that goblin laughter (p. 502) and chucMing. But also when he sulks, and means mischief to those who have brought him into trouble and difficulty, he utters a scornful laugh at the top of his voice.^

As henchman true, he abides by the master he once takes up with, come weal come woe. But his attachment is often found irksome, and one cannot be rid of him again. A farmer set fire

1 The story (as written down in 1559) is given in Ern. Joach. Westplial's Specimen documentorum ineditorum, Kostock 1726, pp. 156-166.

2 Scott's Minstrelsy I. civ. mentions a Nortli English Brag or Barguest : ' he usually ended his mischievous frohcs with a horselaugh.' Conf . Hone's Tablebook 2, 656.

HOME-SPRITE. 513

to his barHj to burn the goblin that haunted it ; when it is all ablaze, there sits the sprite at the back of the cart in which they were removing the contents (Deut. sag. no. 72).^ In Moneys Anzeiger 1835, 312 we read of a little black man that was bought with a chest, and when this was opened, he hopped out and slipped behind the oven, whence all efforts to rout hitn out were fruitless ; but he lived on excellent terms with the household, and occasionally shewed himself to them, though never to strangers. This black figure reminds one both of the Scandinavian dwarfs, and of the devil. Some thoroughly good goblinstories are in Adalb. Kuhn's collection, pp. 42. 55. 84. 107. 159. 191-3. 372.2

There are also goblins who, like nix and watersprite, are engaged in no man's service, but live independently ; when such a one is caught, he will offer you gifts or tell your fortune, to be set at liberty again. Of this sort is the hutt in the nursery-tale

1 Very similar stories in Kuhn, no. 103, Thiele 1, 136, and the Irish tale of the cluricaun (pp. 92. 213 of the trausl.). Also a capital Polish story about Iskrzycki, in Woycicki's Klechdy 1, 198 : An unknown person, who called liimself Iskrzycki [flinty, from iskra = spark, says Grimm ; there is also a Slav. iskri = near, iskreuny = neighbour, friendly] came and offered his services to a man of noble family. The agreement was drawn u]), and even signed, when the master observed that Iskrzycki had horse's feet, and gave him notice of withdrawal. But the servant stood on his rights, and declared his intention of serving his master whether he would or no. He lived invisible by the fireplace, did all the tasks assigned him, and by degrees they got used to him ; but at last the lady i^ressed her husband to move, and he arranged to take another estate. The family all set out from the mansion, and had got through the better part of the way, when, the log-road being out of repair, the carriage threatens to upset, and the lady cries out in alarm. Suddenly a voice from the back of the carriage calls out : Never fear, my masters ! Iskrzycki is with you (nie boj si§, paui ; Iskrzycki z wami). The ' masters ' then perceiving that they could not shake him off, turned back to their old house, and lived at peace with the servant until his term expired. [English readers will remember

Tennyson's ' Yes, we're flitting, says the ghost.'] The alruun or (jallows-man-

nikin in Deutsche sagen uos. «3. 84 is not properly a kobold, but a semi-diabolic being carved oulfof a root, and so diminutive that he can be kept in a glass; like an idol, he has to be bathed and nursed. In one thing however he resembles the home-sprite, that he will not leave his owner, and even when thrown away he always comes back again, unless indeed ho be sold [orig. 'bought'] for less than he cost. The last purchaser has to keep him. Simpliciss. 2, 184. 203. Conf. Schm. 3, 90-7. [Home-sprites can be bought and sold, but the third buyer must keep him, Miillenhoff p. 322. With ref. to the ' idol (gotze) ' : As the figure of the child Jesus has its shirt washed (Sommcr, pp. 38. 173), so the hickmilniulwu must be dressed up anew at a certain time every year, 10 Ehcu, p. 235. — Extr. from

SUPPL.]

• To escape the futtermiinncheu, a farmer built a new house, but the day before he moved, he spied the f. dipping his grey coat in the brook : ' My little coat here I swill and souse, To-morrow we move to a tine new house.' Burner's Orlagau, p. 246. Whoever has the kobold must not %cutih or comb himself (Summer p. 171. Miillenh. 209) ; so in the case of the devil, ch. XXXIII. — Extr. from Suppl.

r

(p. 507), likewise the folet in Marie de Fr. 2, 140, who grants ■three wishes (oremens). And the captive marmennill (p. 434), or the sea-wife, does the same.

The unfriendly, racketimj and tormenting spirits who take pos- . session of a house, are distinguished from the friendly and goodnatured by their commonly forming a whole gang, who disturb the householder's rest with their riot and clatter, and throw stones from the roof at passers by. A French comedy of the 16th century, ' Les Esprits,' ^ represents goblins racketing in a house, singing and playing at night, and aiming tiles at passers by in the daytime ; they are fond of fire, but make a violent uproar every time the master spits. ^ In Gervase of Tilbury, cap. 18, the folleti also i:>elt with stones, and this of stone-throwing is what we shall meet with in qaite early stories of devils ; altogether the racketing sprites have in this respect more of the devil or spectre in them than of the elf : it is a darkening and distortion of their original nature in accordance with Christian sentiment.

So it becomes clear, at last, how the once familiar and faithful friend of the family under heathenism has gradually sunk into a bugbear or a taunt to children : a lot which he shares with pddesses and gods of old. As with Holle and Berhte, so people are threatened with the Lamia, the Omacmica, the manducus and goblin (pp. 500. 507) : ' le gobelin vous mangei'a, le gobelin vous attrapera ! ' Little biitzel no more, but a frightful butzemann or katzenveit, in mask (strawbeard) or with sooty visage he scares (like the roggenmuhme, p. 477). And it is worth remarking how, in some districts at least, hnecld Buprecht, knecht Nicolas, appear at Christmas-time not by themselves, but in

^ Comedies facecieuses de Pierre de I'Arivey, champenois, Lyon 1597. Eouen, 1611, p. 242 seq.

2 Legenda aurea, cap. 177 : Hujus Ludovici tempore, anno Domini 856, ut in quadam chronica habetur, in parochia Maguntina malignus spiritus parietes domorum quasi malleis pulsa/ido et manifeste loquendo et discordias seminando adeo hominis infestabat, ut quocumque intrasset, statim ilia domus exurereter. Presbyteris autem letanias agentibus et aquam benedictam spargentibus inimicus lapides jactabat et multos cruentabat. Taudem aliquando conquiescens confessus est se, quando aqua spargebatur, sub capa talis sacerdotis quasi familiaris sui latuisse, accusans evun quod cum filia i^rocuratoris in peccatum lapsus fuerit. [This incident, said to have occurred at Capmunti (Kembden) near Bingen, is derived from Kudolfi Fuldensis Annal. ann. 858, in Pertz 1, 372, where further details are given. — Estr. from SuppL.

HOME-SPRITE. 515

attendance on the real gift-giver, the infant Christ or dame Berhta : while these dole out their favours, those come on with rod and sack, threatening to thrash disobedient children, to throw them into the water, to puff their eyes out (Rockenphilos. 6, 353). Their pranks, their roughness, act as foil to the gracious higher being from whom the gifts proceed ; they are almost as essential to the festival as Jackpudding to our old comedy. I can well imagine that even in heathen times the divinity, whose appearing heralded a happy time, had at his side some merry elf or dwarf as his attendant embodying to the vulgar eye the blessings that he brought.^ Strongly in favour of this view are the North Franconian names Hullepupel (Popowitsch 522), HoUepeter (Schm. 2, 174), the Bavarian Seinper, of whom they say he cuts naughty children's bodies open and stuffs them with pebbles (Schm. 3, 12. 250), exactly after the manner of Holla and Berhta (p. 273)"; and consider faithful Eckart, who escorts Holla. In Christian times they would at first choose some saint to accompany the infant Christ or the mother of God in their distribution of boons, but the saint would imperceptibly degenerate into the old goblin again, but now a coarser one. The Christmas plays sometimes present the Saviour with His usual attendant Peter, or else with Niclas, at other times however Mary with Gabriel, or with her aged Joseph, who, disguised as a peasant, acts the part of knecht Ruprecht. Nicolaus again has converted himself into a ' man Globes ' or Rupert ; as a rule, it is true, there is still a Nidas, a saintly bishop and benevolent being, distinct from the ' man ' who scares children ; but the characters get mixed, and Globes by himself acts the 'man' (Tobler 105'', 106*); the Austrian Grampus (Hofer 1, 313. Schm. 2, 110), Krdmpus, Kramhas, is possibly for Hieronymus, but how to explain the Swiss Schmutzli (Staid. 2, 337) I do not riglitly know, perhaps simply from his smutty sooty aspect ? Instead of Grampus there is also in Styria a Bdrthel (pointing to Berhta, or Bartholomew ?) Schmutzbartel ^ and Klaubauf, who rattles, rackets, and

• Heinrich and Ruprecht were once common names for serving-men, as Hans and Claus are now.

" Zember about Eger in German Bohemia (Popowitsch 523) ; at the same time the Lausitz idol Sompar (supra, p. 71 note) is wortla considering.

2 The phrase ' lie knows where Barthel gets his must,' notwithstanding other explanations, may refer to a home-sprite well-known in the cellar.

throws nuts (Denis, Lesefr. 1, 131 ; see Suppl.). Further, on this point I attach weight to the Swedish jullekar, Dan. juleleger, yule-lays, undoubtedly of heathen origin, which at Christmastime present Christ and certain saints, but replace our man Euprecht by a julhock, julehuk, i.e. a manservant disguised as a goat.i This interweaving of jackpudding, fool, Klobes and Riipel, of the yule-buck and at last of the devil himself, into the rude popular drama of our Mid. Ages, shows what an essential part of it the wihtels and tatermans formerly were, how ineradicable the elvish figures and characters of heathenism. The Greeks enlivened the seriousness of their tragedy by satyric plays, in which e.g. Proteus, similar to our sea-sprite (p. 434), played a leading part.^

There is yet another way in which a former connexion between gods, wise-women and these genii now and then comes to light. The elf who showers his darts is servant or assistant to the high god of thunder, the cunning dwarf has forged his thunderbolts for him ; like gods, they wear divine helmets of invisibility, and the home-sprite has his feet miraculously shod as well; watersprites can assume the shape of fishes and sea-horses, and homesprites those of cats. The weeping nix, the laughing goblin are alike initiated in the mystery of magic tones, and will even unveil it to men that sacrifice. An ancient worship of genii and daemons is proved by sacrifices offered to spirits of the mountain, the wood, the lake, the house. Goblins, we may presume, accompanied the manifestation of certain deities among men, as Wuotan and Holda, and both of these deities are also connected with watersprites and swan-maids. Foreknowledge of the future, the gift of prophecy, was proper to most genii ; their inexhaustible cheerfulness stands between the sublime serenity of gods

' Eead Holberg's Julestue, and look up julvdtten in Finn Magn. lexicon, p. 326 note.

• They frightened children with sooty Cyclops, and ace. to Callimachus (Hymn to Diana 66-71), Hermes, like our Euprecht blackened with soot, struck terror into disobedient daughters even of gods :

aXX' ore Kovpduv rts aireiOea fnjTepi revxoi, IJii)TT}p pL-ljv KVKXiOTras efj eiri 7rai5i KoXiarpel "Apyrjv ?) '^TepoTTTjv • 6 5^ odi/xaros e/c /.nixdroio ^pXeraL 'Epfieiris, ffwoOiy k€xPV/^^''os aldy, avTiKa TrjV Kovprjv fxapfivcraeTai ' ij 5^ reKovarjs dvvei 'ia<j} koXttovs dep-kv-q iwl (paeat x^^P'^^-

SPEITES. GENII. 517

and the solemn fates of mortals. They feel themselves drawn to men^ and repelled by them. The downfall of heathenism must have wrought great changes in the old-established relationship : the spirits acquired a new and terrible aspect as ministers and messengers of Satan. ^ Some put on a more savage look that savours of the giant, especially the woodsprites. GrendePs nature borders on those of giants and gods. Not so with the females however : the wild women and female nixes drop into the class of fortune-telling swan-maids who are of human kind, while the elfins that present the drinking-horn melt into the circle of valkyrs ; and here again we recognise a general beauty pervading all the female spirits, and raising them above the males, whose characteristics come out more individually. In wichtels, dwarfs and goblins, especially in that children's bugbear the man Ruprecht, there shews itself a comic faculty derived from the oldest times.

Through the whole existence of elves, nixes, and goblins there'X runs a low under-current of the unsatisfied, disconsolate : they ( do not rightly know how to turn their glorious gifts to account, J they always require to lean upon men. Not only do they seekr^ to re^o vat ejheixjagejbjjnter marriage with mankind, they also need the^eounsel and assistance of men in their affairs. ThougBx acquainted in a higher degree than men with the hidden virtues
of stones and herbs, they yet invoke human aid for their sick] ^d their women in^daboar (f>p^57. 492), they borrow men's/ vessels forTiaking and brewing (p. 454 n.), they even celebrate^ their weddings and hightides in the halls of men. Hence too their doubting whether they can be partakers of salvation, an( their unconcealed grief when a negative answer is given.

\ Brttder Bam^c.h (friar Ensh) a veritable goblin, is without hesitation [described as being] despatched from hell among the monks ; his name is to be derived from rus8 = fuligo (as kohkausch was formerly spelt kolruss).

CHAPTER XVIII.

The relation in wliich giants stand to dwarfs and men has been touched upon in p. 449. By so much of bodily size and strength as man surpasses the elf or dwarf, he falls short of the giant ; on the other hand, the race of elves and dwarfs has a livelier intellect and subtler sense than that of men, and in these points again the giants fall far below mankind. The rude coarsegrained giant nature is defiant in its sense of material power and might, the sly shy dwarf is conscious of his mental superiority. To man has been allotted a happy mean, which raises him above the giant's intractableness and the dwarf's cunning, and betwixt the two he stands victorious. The giant both does and suffers wrong, because in his stupidity he undervalues everybody, and even falls foul of the gods ; ^ the outcast dwarf, who does discern good and evil, lacks the right courage for free and independent action. In order of creation, the giant as the sensuous element came first, next followed the spiritual element of elvish nature, and lastly the human race restored the equilibrium. The abruptness of these gradations is a good deal softened down by the giants or dwarfs forming frequent alliances with men, affording clear evidence that ancient fiction does not favour steep contrasts : the very earliest giants have sense and judgment ascribed to them (see Suppl.).

On one side we see giants forming a close tie of brotherhood or servile dependence with human heroes, on the other side shading off into the type of schrats and woodsprites.

There is a number of ancient terms corresponding in sense to our present word riese (giant) .-

1 Not a trace of the finer features of gods is to be seen in the Titans. 0. Miiller's Proleg. 373.

2 Some are mere circumlocutions (a counterpart to those quoted on p. 450) : der groze man, Er. 5380. der michel man, Er. 5475. der viichel knahe, Iw. 5056.

EZAN, EOTEN. 519

The oldest and most comprehensive term in Norse is iotunn, pi. iotnar (not jotnnu, jotnar) ; it is backed up by an AS. eoten, pi. eotenas, Beow. 223 (eotena cyn, 836. eotonisc, 5953), or eten, Lye sub v. ; OE. etin, ettin, Nares sub v. ; Scot, ettijn, eyttijn, Jamieson sub v. ; an OS. etan, eten can be inferred with certainty from the name of a place in old docs., Ebanasfeld, Etenesfeld (campus gigantis), Wigand's Archiv i. 4, 85. Moser nos. 2. 13. 18. 19. And what is more, the word must have lived on in later times, down to the latest, for I find the fem. eteninne (giantess) preserved at least in nursery-tales. Laurenberg (ed. Lappenberg, p. 26) ^ has ' de olde eteninne,' and another Rostock book of the beginning of the 18th century ^ ' die alte eteninne' ; I should like to know whence Adelung sub v. mummel gets the fact, that in Westphalia a certain terrible female with whom they frighten children is called etheninne ? I have no doubt it is correct. The Saxon etan warrants us in conjecturing an OHG. ezan, ezzan, a Goth. Itans, having for root the ON. eta, AS. etan, OHG. ezzan, Goth, itan (edere), and for meaning edo (gen. edonis), manducus, 7ro'.v<pdyo<;, devourer. An AS. poem in Cod. exon. 425, 26 says : 'ic mesan mseg meahtelicor and efn etan ealdum J?yrre,^ I can chew and eat more mightily than an old giant. Now the question arises, whether another word, which wants the suffix -n, has any business here, namely the ON. iotr,^ AS. eot, now only to be found in the compound Forniotr, Forneot (p. 240) and the national name lotar, the Jutes ? One thing that makes for it is the same omission of -n in the ^wed. jatte (gigas), Dan. jette, pi. jetter; then, taking iotnar as = iotar (Goth. itan6s = it6s), we should be justified in explaining the names Jotar, Jotland by an earlier (gigantic ?) race whom the advancing Teutons crowded out of the peninsula.''^ In that case we might expect an OS. et, etes, an OHG. ez, ezes, with the

1 Johann Laiircnberg, a Eostock man, b. 1590, d. 1G58. The first ed. of his poem appeared 1652.

• Em. Joach. Westphal, De consuetiulinc ex saceo et libro, Eost. 172G. 8. pp. 224-5 ; the catalof;ue there pivcn of old stories of women is copied in Joh. Pet. Schmidt's Fastelabendssamhinfjen, Eostock (1712) -i. resp. 1752, p. 22, but here incorrectly ' von der Ardcn Inn ' instead of Wcstphal's 'von der alten Eten Line.'

' For iotr, as miolk for miolk, see Gramm. 1, 451. 482.

"• Bcda 1, 15 has Juti, which the AS. version mistakenly renders Gedtas fthe ON. Gautar), though at 4, 16 it more correctly gives Eotaland for .Jutorum terra, ana the Sax. Chron. (Ingr. p. 14) hais lotum for lutis, lutnacynn for lutorum gens.

VOL. 11. O

meaning of giant. ^ Possibly there was beside iotunn, also an ON. iotull, OHG. ezal (edax) ; - that would explain the present Norwegian term for giant: jotid, jutul, Hallager 52. Faye 7 (see Suppl.).^

Our second term is likewise one that suggests the name of a nation. The ON. purs seems not essentially different from iotunn ; in Sn. 6 Ymir is called ancestor of all the hrim]?urses^ in Seem. US'* all the iotnar are traced up to him. In particular songs or connexions the preference is given to one or the other appellative : thus in the enumeration of dialects in the Alvismal the giants are always iotnar^ never |?ursar^ and there is no Thursaheimr in use for lotunheimr^ lotnaheimr; but Thrymr, though dwelling in lotnaheimr, is nevertheless called J>ursa drottinn (Seem. 70. 71) and not iotna drottinn, but he summons the iotnar (73^), and is a iotunn himself (74''). In Ssem. 85^ both iotnar and hrimjjursar are summoned one after the other, so there must be some nice distinction between the two, which here I would look for in the prefix hrim : only hrim|?ursar, no hrimiotnai', are ever met with ; of this hrim]?urs an explanation will be attempted further on. Instead of ]?urs there often occurs, especially at a later stage of the language, the assimilated form puss, particularly in the pi. jmssar, hrimj^ussar ; a dgemonic being in the later sagas is called Thus»elln (Mtiller's Sagab. 1, 8G7-8), nay, the Danish tongue has retained the assimilation in its tosse, clumsy giant, dolt (a folk-song has tossegrefve) * and a Norwegian daemon bears the name tusscl. The ON. ]?urs, like several names of gods, is likewise the title of a rune-letter, the same that the Anglo-Saxons called ]?oru (conf. ']?urs rista,^ Stem. 86'''): a notable deviation, as the AS. tongue by no means lacks the word; in Beow. 846 we find pyrs, and also in the menology in

^ Can the witch Jettha of the Palatinate (p. 96 note) be a corruption of Eta, Eza ? Anyhow the Jettenbiiliel (Jetthas colUs) reminds us of the Bavarian >letteiiherg (Mon. Loica 2, 219, ann. 1317), and Mount Jettcn in Eeinbote's Georg 1717, where it is misprinted Setten. Near Willingshauseu in Hesse is another Jettenherg, see W. Grimm On the runes, p. 271.

' The ruined Weissenstein, by Werda near Marburg, was ace. to popular legend the abode of a giant named Esse! (ezzal?), and the meadow where at the fall of his castle he sank its golden door in the R. Lahn, is still called F.sscJswerd.

3 Isidore's glosses render the Gallic name of a people amhro by devorator, which agrees with the OHG. transl. vianezo, man-eater (Graff 1, 528), the well-known MHG. vianezze.

• So the Dan. fos, fossen, for the ON. fors.

DUES, THURS. 521

Hickes (Gramm. AS. p. 207) : ' J^ijrs sceal on fenne gewunian/ and elsewhere pijrs, pi. ]>yrsas, renders the Lat. cy clops, orcus. The passage already given from the Cod. exon. 425, 28 has J^yrre with the s assimilated, as in irre for irse. And we find an Engl, thurst surviving in lioldkiirst (woodsprite), conf. hobgoblin p. 502 [hob o^ t' hm-st?] The OHG. form ought to be durs, pi. dursa, or durls, gen. durises, which last does occur in a gloss for the Lat. Dis, Ditis (Schm. 1, 458), and another gloss more Low Germ, gives tUuris for orcus (Fr. ogre); yet Notker ps. 17, 32 spells it turs (daemonium), pi. tursa, and MHG. has turse, gen. tursen (Aw. 3, 179), perhaps turse, tiirsen (as in Massm. deukm. 109 tursen rhymes kiirsen), and even tiirste, gen. tlirsten (MS. 2, 205*) ; on the other hand, Albr. Tit. 24, 47 has ' spil von einem diirseii' (Halin 3254 tursen) =play of a d., from which passage we gather that tiirse-shows as well as wihtel-shows (p. 441n.) were exhibited for pastime : Ls. 3, 5G4 says, alluding to a well-known fable, 'des kunt der dilrsch, und sprichet schuo ! ' the d. knows that, etc., where the notion of satyr and wild man (p. 482) predominates. The Latin poem of Wilten monastery in Tyrol, which relates the story of the giant Haimo, names another giant Thyrsls, making a proper name of the word :

Forte habitabat in his alius truculentior oris

Cyclops, qui dictus nomine Thyrsis erat, Thyrsis erat dictus, Seveldia rura colebat.^

The name of a place Tarsinriut, Tursenriut (Doc. of 1218-9 in Lang's Reg. 2, 88. 94) ^ contains our word unmistakably, and so to my thinking does the earlier Tuzzinwanc near Neugart, standing for Tussinwanc, Tursinwanc (campus gigantis), the present Dussnang. Nor does it seem much more hazardous to explain Strabo's QovaveXOa (7, 1. Tzsch. 2, 328) by Thurshilda, Thusshilda, Thursinhilda,^ though I cannot produce an ON. Thurshildr. In Switzerland to this day dilrst is the Wild Hunter (St. 1, 329), on the Salzburg Alp dasel is a night-spirit (Mtichar's Gastein, p. 145), and in Lower Germany drus or drost is devil, dolt, giant.'^

' Mone's UntersuchunR, pp. 288-9.

• Now Tirschenreit, Tirschent^ereith. Sclmieller's birthpLace in the Up. Palatinate, Schm. 1, 4r)8. So Tiirscheuwuld, Thyrseutritt, Tiiratwhikel, et. .— Suppl. "* Conf. rharailchs, Verelde, p. '28-1-5 ; Griniilil for Grinihiltl.

• Breiu. wb. 1, 2J7. lUchty sub v. th-uus, Suhiitze sub v. drost, Strodtmann sub

"VVhefher TItorsholt, ThosJioU, the name of a place in Oldenburg-, is connected with ]7urs, I cannot tell. — In Gothic the word would have to be paurs, pi. ]7aurs6s (or j^aursis, pi. ]?ailrsj6s ? J^aiirsus, J^aursjus ? ]>aiirsja, ]>aiirsjans ?) ; and of these forms the derivation is not far to seek. The Goth. J^aiirsus means dry, ]?aiirsjan to thirst, J:'aiirstei thirst ; j^aiirsus, ]?aursis becomes in OHG. durri for dursi (as airzis becomes irri for irsi), while the noun durst (thirst) retains the s, and so does our dxu:s-_ (gio^^iiX and the ON. |?urs by the side of the adjective ]?urr (dry). So that Jjaurs, purs, durs signify either fond of wine, thirsty, or drunken, a meaning which makes a perfect pair with that we fished out of i'tanSj Jotunn. The two words for giant express an inordinate desire for eating and drinking, precisely what exhibits itself in the Homeric cyclop. Herakles too is described as edax and bibax, e.g. in Euripides's Alcestis ; and the ON. giant Suttungr (Stem. 23. Sn. 84) apparently stands for Suptungr (Finn Magn. p. 738), where we must presuppose a noun supt = sopi, a sup or draught.

Now, as the Jutes, a Teutonic race, retained the name of the former inhabitants whom they had expelled,^ these latter being the real lotnar or Itanos ; so may the ]?ursar, dursa, in their mythic aspect [as giants] be connected with a distant race which at a very early date had migrated into Italy. I have already hinted (p. 25) at a possible connexion of the J'aursos with the Tvpaijvoi, TvppTjvoi, Tusci, Etrusci : the consonant-changes are the very thing to be expected, and even the assimilations and the transposition of the r are all found reproduced. Niebuhr makes Tyrrhenians distinct from Etruscans, but in my opinion wrongly ; as for the 6vpao<; carried in the Bacchic procession, it has no claim to be brought in at all (see Suppl.).

There is even a third mode of designating giants in which we likewise detect a national name. Lower Germany, Westphalia above all, uses hiine in the sense of giant ; the word prevails in all the popular traditions of the Weser region, and extends as far as the Groningen country and R. Drenthe ; giants' hills, giants'

V. droost : ' dat di de droost sla ! ' may the d. smite thee ; in the Altmark : ' det di de druse hal (fetch) ! ' and elsewhere ' de dros in de helle.' At the same time the HG. druos, truos (plague, blain) is worth considering.

' A case that often occurs ; thus the Bavarians, a Teutonic people, take their name from the Celtic Boii. [And the present Bulgarians, a Slav race, etc.]

HUN. 523

tombs are called liilnehedde, liunehedden, bed being commonly used for grave, the resting-place of the dead. ' Grot as en liiine ' expresses gigantic stature. Schiiren's Teutonista couples ' rese ' with hiiijne. Even H. Germ, writers of the 16th-l 7th centuries, though seldomer, use heune; Mathesius : 'Goliath der grosse Ueune;' the Vocab. of 1482 spells hewne. Hans Sachs 1,453* uses heunisch (like entisch) for fierce, malignant. But the word goes back to MHG. too; Herbert 1381 : 'groz alsam ein Mine,' rhym. ' mit starkem geliine ; ' Trist. 4034 : ' an geliden und an geliune gewahsen als ein hiune.'^ In OHG. writings I do not find the word in this sense at all. But MHG. has also a Einne (gen. Hiunen) signifying, without any reference to bodily size, a Hungarian, in the Nibelunge a subject of Etzel or Attila (1110, 4. 1123,4. 1271,3. 1824,3. 1829,1. 1831,1. 1832, 1), which in Lat. writings of the Mid. Ages is called Himmis, more exactly Hanus, Ckmiiis. To this Hiune would correspond an OHG. Hunio; I have only met with the strong form Hun, pi. HCmi, gen. Hunio, Huneo,^ with which many names of places are compounded, e.g. Himiofeld, a little town in Fulda bishopric, now Hiinfeldj also names of men, Himolt, Himperht (Humprecht), Hiinrat, Althun, Folchun, etc. The AS. Uuna cyning (Beda 1, 13) requires a sing, Hun; but to the ON, nom. pi. Hunar there is said to belong a weak sing. Hiini (Gl. Edd. havn. 2, 881). It is plain those Huni have a sense that shifts about pretty much with time and place, now standing for Pannonians, then for Avars, then again for Vandals and Slavs, always for a nation brought into fi-equent contact with Germany by proximity and wars. The Hianenlant of the 13th century (Nib. HOG, 3. 1122, 3) cannot possibly be the Hilnaland which the Eddie lays regard as SigurS^s home (Deutsche heldens. 6. 9). At the time when proper names like Huurat, Hiinperht first arose, there could hardly as yet be any thought of an actual neighbouring nation like Pannonians or Wends ; but even in the earliest times there might circulate talk and tale of a primitive mythic race supposed to inhabit some uncertain region, much the same as lotnar and Thursar. I incline

1 Wolfdietr. G61 has, for giaut, ha'ue rhym. schoene, but ouly in the place of the ancient coisura, so that the older reading was most likely hiune.

• In Hildeb. lied ' Hiiueo trubtin (lord of Huns), and ' altCr Hfiu ; ' Diut. 2, 182 Huni (Pauuonii) ; 2, 353'' Huni for Huu (Hunus) ; 2, 370 Huni (Vandali).

therefore to guess, that the sense of ' giant/ which we cannot detect in Hun till the 13th century, must nevertheless have lain in it long before : it is by such double meaning that Hadubrant's exclamation ^ alter Him!' first acquires significance. When Gotfried used hiune for giant, he must have known that Hiune at that time also meant a Hungarian ; and as little does the distinctness of the nationality rendered Huni in OHG. glosses exclude the simultaneous existence of a mythic meaning of the word. It may have been vivider or fainter in this place or that : thus, the ON. hunar is never convertible with iotnar and J^ursar. I will not touch upon the root here (conf. p. 529 note), but only remark that one Eddie name for the bear is hunn, Sn. 179. 222% and ace. to Biorn Jmn and hunhiorn = catulns ursinus (see Suppl.). One AS. terra for giant is ent, pi. entas : yElfred in his Orosius p. 48 renders Hercules gigas by 'Ercol se ent.' The poets like to use the word, where ancient buildings and works are spoken of: ' enfa geweorc, enta sergeweorc (early work of giants), eald enta geweorc,' Beow. 3356. 5431. 5554. Cod. exon. 291, 24. 476, 2. So the adj. : 'e??h',sc helm,' Beow. 5955; Lipsius's glosses also give eintisc avitus, what dates from the giants' days of yore. Our OHG. eniisc antiquus does not agree with this in consonantgradation \t should be z] ; it may have been suggested by the Latin word, perhaps also by the notion of enti (end) ; another form is antrisc antiquus (Graff 1, 387), and I would rather associate it with the Eddie ' inn aldni iotunn' (grandgevus gigas), Sgem, 23=^ 46^ 84'' 1 89''. The Bavarian patois has an intensive prefix enz, enzio (Schmeller , 188), but this may have grown out of the gen. of end, ent (Schm. 1, 77) j or may we take this ent- itself in the sense of monstrous, gigantic, and as an exception to the law of consonant-change? They say both enterisch (Schm. 1, 77) and enzerisch for monstrous, extraordinary. And was the Enzenherc, MS. 2, 10'' a giant's hill ? ^ and is the same root contained in the proper names Anzo, Enzo, Enzinchmt (Fez, thes. iii. 3, 689*^), Enzaicip (Meichelb. 1233. 1305), Evzeman (Ben. 325)? If Huni alluded to Wends and Slavs, we may be allowed to identify entas with the ancient Antes ; as for the Indians, whom Mone

1 The present Imelherg near Schmalkaklen ; old docs., however, spell it Emisehere, named apparently from the brook Emise, Emse, which rises on it. Later forms are Enzelberg, Einzelberg, Einselberg.

ENT. GIGANT. RISO. 525

(Ai3z. 1836, 1. 2) would bring in, they may stay outside, for in OHG. itself antisc, entisc (antiquus) is distinct from indisc (Indicus), Graff 1, 385-6 ; and see Suppl.

The AS. poets use also the Greek, Latin,^ and Romance appellative gigant, pi. gigantas, Beow. 225. glganta cyn 3379. glgantmsecg, Cfedm. 76, 36 ; conf. Ital. Span, gigante, Prov. jayan (Ferab. 4232), O.Fr. gaiant (Ogier 8092. 8101), Fr. geant, Eng. giant; also OHG. gigant (0. iv. 12, 61), MHG. gigante die mdren (Diut. 3, 60),^ M. Nethl. gigant. The ON. word which is usuaHy compared with this^ but which wants the nt, and is only used of giantesses, seems to me unconnected : fem. gygr, gen. gygjar, Ssem. 39, Sn. 66. 68; a Swed. folk-song still has 'den leda gijger/ Arvidsson, 2, 302. It is wanting in the other Teut. dialects, but if translated into Gothic it would be gingi or giiigja; I trace it to the root giugan, and connect it with the words quoted in my Gramm. 2, 50 no. 536 (see Suppl.).

Our riese is the OHG. risi (0. iv. 12, 61) or riso (N. ps. 32, 16), MHG. rise, MLG. rese (En. 7096), ON. risi (the elder Edda has it only in Grottas. 12), Swed. rese, Dan. rise, M. Nethl. rese, rose (Huyd. op St. 3, 33. 306), now reus. To these would correspond a Gothic vrisa, as may be gathered from the OS. form ivriso which I confidently infer from the adj. wrisilic giganteus, Hel. 42, 5. The Anglo-Saxons seem to have had no analogous ^orisa, as they confine themselves to ]^yrs, gigant [and cut] . The root of vrisa is unknown to me ; it cannot belong to reisan surgere, therefore the OHG. riso does not mean elatus, superbus, excelsus.^

Again, luhhe, h'ihle seems in parts of Lower Saxony to mean

1 Strange that the Latin language has no word of its own for giant, but must horrow the Greek gigas, titan, cyclops ; yet Italy has indigenous folk-tales of Gampanian giants.

• The Biblical view adopted in the Mid. Ages traced the giants to Cain, or at least to mixture with his family : ' gigantes, quales propter iracundiam Dei per tilios Scth defliahus Cain narrat sci'iptura procreatos,' Pertz 2, 755. For in Genesis 6, 4 it is said : ' gigantes autem erant super terram in diebus illis ; postquam enim ingi-essi sunt filii Dei ad filias hominum, iUaque genuerunt, isti sunt potentes a seculo viri famosi.' The same view appears in Cffidm. 76. 77 ; in Beow. 213 Grendel's descent is derived from Caines cyniie, on whom God avenged the murder of Abel : theuco sprang all the vntijdras (neg. of tudor proles, therefore misbii'ths, evil brood), catenas, ylfe, orcncds and gigantnst that war against God. This partly fits in with, some heathen notions of cosmogony.

2 Mone in Anz. 8, 133, takes wriae for /rise, and makes Frisians and Persians out of it. [^^aat of ' writhe, wris-t, wrest, ^\Testle,' (as wit, wis-t becomes wise) ? Or Slav, vred-iti, to hurt, AS. wrc'Se ? A Euss. word for giant is verzllo, supposed to be from verg-ati, to throw.]

unwieldy giant, liihhen-stones are shown on the Corneliusberg near Helmstadt, and luhbe ace. to the Brem. wb. 3, 92 means a slow clumsy fellow; it is the Engl, lubber, lobber, and Michel Beham's /m^^Z (Mone's Anz. 1835, 450"), conf. ON. lubhi (hirsutus). To this add a remarkable document by Bp. Gebhard of Halberstadt, bewailing as late as 1462 the heathenish worship of a being whom men named den guden lubben, to whom they offered bones of animals on a hill by Schochwitz in the county of Mansfeld. Not only have such ancient bone-heaps been discovered on the Lvpberg there (conf. the Augsburg perleich, p. 294), but in the church of the neighbouring JMiillersdorf an idol image let into the wall, which tradition says was brought there from the Lupberg (see Suppl.).^

The ON. has several words for giantess, beside the gygt' mentioned above: shass, neut., Ssem. 144'^ 154'^, and skessa, fern. ; gricfi' f., 7nella f . ; gift f., Saem. 143", Norweg. jyvri (Hallag. 53) or gijvrl, gurri, djarre (Faye 7. 9. 10. 12). This gifr seems to mean saucy, defiant, greedy.

Troll neut., gen. trolls (Saem. 6^), Swed. troll, Dan. trold, though often used of giants, is yet a more comprehensive term, including other spirits and beings possessed of magic power, and equivalent to our monster, spectre, unearthly being. By trold the Danish folk-tales habitually understand beings of the elf kind. The form suggests a Gothic trcdlu ; does our getralle in Eenner 1365, 'der gebiire ein getralle,' rhym. ' alle,^ mean the same thing ? (see Suppl.).

Giant is in Lith. mUzinas, milzlnis, Lett. milsis,milsenls ; but it would be overbold to connect with it German names of places, Milize (Trad. fuld. 2, 40), Milsenburg, Melsungen. The Slovak ohor, Boh. obr, 0. Pol. obrzym," Pol. olbrzym, is unknown to the South Slavs, and seems to be simply Avarus, Abarus. Nestor calls the Avars Obri (ed. Schlozer 2, 112-7). The ' Greecus Avar ' again in the legend of Zisa (p. 292-5) is a giant. Now,

1 Neue mitth. des thiir. sacks, vereins 3, 130-6. 5, 2. 110-132. 6, 37-8, The picture, however, contains nothing giant-like, but rather a goddess standing on a v\oh. Yet I remark, that a giant's tomb on Mt. Blanc is called ' la tombe du bon homme, de la bonne femme,' an exi^iession associated with the idea of a sacred venerated man (supra, p. 8'J). Conf. also ijocUjuhbe used of Thorr, p. 167, and (judmur, p. 430.

2 Psalter of queen Margareta, Vienna 1834, p. 17^ : ohrzim, the -im as in oyczim,

pie'grzym.

as the Avari in the Mid. Asres are = Chuni, the words huii and obor alike spring out of the national names Hun and Avar.^ To the SlavSj Tchud signifies both Finn and giant, and the Russ. ispolin (giant) might originally refer to the ^gens Spalorum' of Jornandes ; conf. Schafarik 1, 286. 310. So closely do the names for giant agree with those of ancient nations : popular belief magnified hostile warlike neighbours into giants, as it diminished the weak and oppressed into dwarfs. The Sanskrit rakshasas can have nothing to do with our riese, uor with the OHG. recchio, MHG. recke, a designation of human heroes (see Suppl.).

We find plenty of proper names both of giants and giantesses preserved in ON., some apparently significant; thus Hrungnir suggests the Gothic hrugga (virga, rod, pole) and our ruuge (Brem. wb. 3, 558) ; Herbert 1385 : 'groz alsam ein runge.'' Our MHG. poems like giant's names to end in -ult, as Witolt, Fasolf, Memerolf, etc.

A great stature, towering far above any human size, is ascribed to all giants : stiff, unwieldy, they stand like hills, like tall trees. According to the Mod. Greeks, they were as tall as poplars, and if once they fell, they could not get up again [like Humpty Dumpty]. The one eye of the Greek cyclops I nowhere find imputed to our giants; but like them ^ and the ancient gods, Ji^^-^ (p. 322), they are often provided with nuiny hamls^BXi*^ heads. A}-^oJi When this attribute is given to heroes, gigantic ones are meant, as Heimo, Starka'Sr, Asperiau (p. 387). But Seem. 85'^ expressly calls a l^urs jji'ihijj'&u&r, exactly as the MHG. Wahtelmasre names a driJiowptigen turseu (Massm. denkm. 109) : a remarkable instance of agreement. In Seem. 35^ appears a giant's sou with six heads, in 56^ the many -headed band of giants is spoken of, and in 53 a giantess with 900 heads. Braua's father has three (invisible) heads, Fornald. sog. 3, 574, where also it is said: ' ]'a

1 Schafarik explains ohor by the Celtic ambro above (p. 520n.) ; but in that case the Polish would have been f^br.

2 Briareus or iEgteou has a hundred amis (eKaro-yxeVo^ H- 1. 402) and fifty heads, Geryon tliree heads and six hands ; in Hesiod's Theog. 150, Kottus, Gyges and Briareus have one hundred arms and fifty heads. The giant in the Hebrew story has only an additional finger or toe given to each hand and foot : vir fuit excelsus, qui senos in manibus pedibusque habebat digitos, i.e. vigiuti quatuor (instead of the human twenty), 2 Bam. 21, 20. Btrtheau's Israel, p. Ii3. 0. i'r. poems give the Saracen giaut>«;- arms, tico noses, two chins, Ogier 1)817.

fell margr (many a) tvihof^ad'r iotunn.' Trolds witli 12 heads, then with 5, 10, 15 occur in Norske event, nos. 3 and 24. In Scotland too the story ' of the reyde eyttyn with the thre heydls ' was known (Complaynt, p. 98), and Lindsay's Dreme (ed. 1592, p. 225) mentions the ^history of reid etin.' The fairy-tale of Red etin wi' three heads may now be read complete in Chambers/ pp. 56-58; but it does not explain whether the red colour in his name refers to skin, hair or dress. A black complexion is not attributed to giants, as it is to dwarfs (p. 444) and the devil, tliough the half-black Hel (p. 312) was of giant kin. Hriingnir, a giant in the Edda, has a liead of stone (Seem. 76% Sn. 109), another in the Fornald. sog. 3, 573 is called larnhaus, iron skull. But giants as a rule appear well-shaped and symmetrical ; their daughters are capable of the highest beauty, e.g. GerSr, whose gleaming arms, as she shuts the house-door, make air and water shine again, S^m. 82% Sn. 39 (see Suppl.).

In the giants as a whole, an untamed natural force has full swing, entailing their excessive bodily size, their overbearing insolence, that is to say, abuse of corporal and mental power, and finally sinking under its own weight. Hence the iotunn in the Edda is called skrautgiarn (fastosus), Seem. 117^'; sa inn amdtthi (preepotens) 4P 82*^; storuffgi (magnanimus) 76^; Jyrungmo&gi (superbus) 77^; liardrdd'r (sEevus) 54*; our derivation of the words iotunn and ]7urs finds itself confirmed in poetic epithet and graphic touch : hostmo&r \bt\xun (cibo gravatus), Ssem. 56'^; ' olr (ebrius) ertu Geirro^r, hefir ]m ofdruccit (overdrunk)' 47^* (see

Suppl-)-

f From this it is an easy step, to impute to the giants a stupidity

^-ontrasting with man's common sense and the shrewdness of the

(dwarf. The ON. has ' ginna alia sem J?ussa ' (decipere omnes

sicut thursos), Nialssaga p. 263. JDiimm in our old speech was

niutus as well as hebes, and dumbr in ON. actually stands for

gigas; to which dtimhi (dat.) the adj. Jjumhi (hebes, inconcinnus)

seems nearly related. A remarkable spell of the 11th cent, runs

thus : ' tumbo saz in berke mit tumbemo kinde in arme, tumb hiez

der berc, tuvib hiez daz kint, der hellego tumbo versegene tisa

wunda ! ' i.e. dummy sat on hill with d. child in arm, d. was

1 Popular rhymes, fireside stories, and amusements of Scotland, Edinb. 1842.

called the hill and d. the child, the holy d. bless this wound away [the posture is that of Humpty Durapty] . This seems pointed at a sluggish mountain-giant, and we shall see how folk-tales of a l_ater_peiaod_name_lh^giaiits(?wwiOTe f^^ the term luhhe,

luhhe likewise indicates their clumsy lubberly nature, and when we nowadays call the devil durum (stupid), a quondam giant is really meant (see Suppl.).^

Yet the Norse lays contain one feature favourable to the giants. They stand as specimens of a fallen or falling race, which with the streno-th combines also the innocence and wisdom of

O

the old world, an intelligence more objective and imparted at creation than self-acquired. This half- regretful view of giants prevails particularly in one of the finest poems of the Edda, the HymisqviSa. Hymir ~ is called forn iotunn (the old) 54% as no\v(f)afjLo<i in Theocr. 11,9 is apxalog, and another giant, from whom gods are descended, has actually the proper name Forniotr, Forneot (p. 240), agreeing with the ' aldinn iotunn ' quoted on p. 524; then we have the epithet hundviss (multiscius) applied 52% as elsewhere to LoSinn (Stem. 145''), to GeirroSr (Sn. 113), and to Starka^r (Fornald. sog. 3, 15. 32).^ Oegir is called fiolhunnigr (much-knowing), Ssem. 79, and harnteitr (happy as a child) 52^; while Tbrymr sits fastening golden collars on his hounds, and stroking his horses' manes. Stem. 70''. And also the faithfulness of giants is renowned, like that of the men of old .: trdlHrijggr (fidus instar gigantis), Egilss. p. 610, and in the Faroe dialect ' trur sum trddllr/ true as giants (Lyngbye, p. 496).'*^ Another lay is founded on the conversation that OSinn himself is anxious to hold with a giant of great sense on matters of antiquity (a fornom stofum) : Vaf])ruSnir again is called ' inn alsvinni iotunn,' 30^35''; Orgelmir and Bergelmir 'sa inn fruS'i

1 The familiar falile of the devil heing taken in by a peasant in halving the crop between them, is in the Danish myth related of a trold (Thiele 4, 122), see Chap. XXXIII.

• ON. hCim is crepusculum, huma vesperascere, liA'ma dormiturire ; is Htinir the sluggish, sleepy? OHG. Hiumi? How if the MHCt. hiiine came from an OHG. hiumi? An m is often attenuated into ??, as OHG. sliumi, sniumi (celer), MHG. sliune, sliunic, our schleunig. That would explain why there is no trace of the word hiune in ON. ; it would also be fatal to any real connexion with the national name Hun.

2 Hund (centum) intensifies the meaning : hundmargr (permultus), hundgamall (old as the hills).

■* We find the same faithfulness in the giant of Christian legend, St. Christopher, and in that of Carolingian legend, Ferabras,

iotunn/ Sa6m. 35"'''''; Fenja and Menja are framvisar (Grottas. 1, 13). When the verb Jn-eya, usually meaning exspectare^ desiderare, is employed as characteristic of giants (Saem. SS'*), it seems to imply a dreamy brooding, a half-drunken complacency and immobility (see Suppl.).

Such a being, when at rest, is good-humoured and unhandy,^ bat when pi'ovoked, gets wild, spiteful and violent. Norse legend names this rage of giants iotunmod'r, which pits itself in defiance against asmoSr, the rage of the gods : ' vera i iotunmoSi,' Sn. 150'\ When their wrath is kindled, the giants hurl rocks, rub stones till they catch fire (Roth. 1048), squeeze water out of stones (Kinderm. no. 20. Asbiornsen's Moe, no. 6), root up trees (Kinderm. no. 90), twist fir-trees together like willows (no. 166), and stamp on the ground till their leg is buried up to the knee (Roth. 913. Vilk. saga, cap. 60) : in this plight they are chained up by the heroes in whose service they are to be, and only let loose against the enemy in war, e.g. Witolt or Witolf (Roth. 760. Vilk. saga, cap. 50). One Norse giant, whose story we know but imperfectly, was named Bell (the bellower) ; hiui Freyr struck dead with his fist for want of his sword, and thence bore the name of ' bani Belja,' Sn. 41. 71.

Their relation to gods and men is by turns friendly and hostile. lotunlieimr lies far from Asaheimr, yet visits are paid on both sides. It is in this connexion that they sometimes leave on us the impression of older nature-gods, who had to give way to a younger and superior race ; it is only natural therefore, that in certain giants, like Ecke and Fasolt, we should recognise a precipitate of deity. At other times a rebellious spirit breaks forth, they make war upon the gods, like the heaven-scaling Titans, and the gods hurl them down like devils into hell. Yet there are some gods married to giantesses : NiorSr to SkaSi the daughter of Thiassi, Thorr to larnsaxa, Freyr to the beautiful GerSr, daughter of Gymir. Gunnlo-S a giantess is OSin's beloved. The asin Gefiun bears sons to a giant; Borr weds the giant BolJ^orn's daughter Bestla. Loki, who lives among the ases, is son to a giant Farbauti, and a giantess Angrbo^a is his

' Unformed, inconcinuus ; MHG. ungevilege, applied to giants, Nib. 45(5, 1. Iw. 441. £051. 6717. der ungevliege knabe, Er. 5552 ; ' kuabe,' as in ' der michei knabe,' p. 518n.

■wife. The gods associate with Oegir the iotunn^ and by hira are bidden to a banquet. Giants again sue for asins, as Thrymr for Freyja, while Thiassi carries off TSunn. Hrungnir asks for Freyja or Sif, Sn. 107. StarkaSr is henchman to Norse kings; in Rother's army fight the giants Asperian (Asbiorn, Osbern) and Witolt. Among the ases the great foe of giants is TJiorr, who like Jupiter inflicts on them his thunder-wounds ; ^ his hammer has crushed the heads of many : were it not for Thorr, says a Scandinavian proverb, the giants would get the upper hand;- he vanquished Hiningnir, Hymir, Thrymr, Geirro'Sr, and it is not all the legends by any means that are set down in the Edda (see SuppL). St. Olaf too keeps up a hot pursuit of the giant race ; in this business heathen and Christian heroes are at one. In our heroic legend Sigenot, Ecke, Fasolt succumb to Dietrich's human strength, yet other giants are companions of Dietrich, notably Wittich and Heime, as Asperian was Rother's. The kings Niblunc and Schilbunc had twelve strong giants for friends (Nib. 95), i.e. for vassals, as the Norse kings often had twelve berserks. But, like the primal woods and monstrous beasts of the olden time, the giants do get gradually extirpated off the face of the earth, and "yviih all heroes giant-fighting alternates with draofon-fio-htinof.^

o c o

King FroSi had two captive giant-maidens Fenja and Meiija, as mill-maids ; the grist they had to grind him out of the quern Grotti was gold and peace, and he allowed them no longer time for sleep or rest than while the gowk (cuckoo) held his peace or they sang a song. We have a startling proof of the former prevalence of this myth in Germany also, and I find it in the bare proper names. Managold, Manigold frequently occurs as a man's name, and is to be explained from mani, ON. men = monile ; more rarely we find Fanigold, Fenegold, from fani, ON. fen = palus, meaning the gold that lies hidden in the fen. One Trad, patav. of the first half of the twelfth cent. (MB. 28'', pp. 90-1)

1 The skeleton of a giantess struck by lightning, hung up in a sacristy, see WiJegren's Ostergotland 4, 527.

2 Swed. 'vore ej thordon (Thor-din, thunder) till, lade troll verldcn ode.'

• In British legend too (seldomor in Caroliugiun) the heroes are indefatigable giant-quellers. If the nursery-tale of Jack the giantkiller did not appear to be of Welsh origin, that hero's deeds might remind us of Thur's; he is equip]icd with a cap of darkness, shoes of swiftness, and a sword that cuts through anything, as the god is with the resistless hammer.

furnislies both names Manegolt and Fenegolt ouc of the same iieighbourhood. We may conclude that once the Bavarians well knew how it stood with the fanigold and manig-old ground out by Fania and Almiia (see Suppl.).

Ymir,. or in gianf^s language Oi'gelmir^ was the first-created, and out of his body's enormous bulk were afterwards engendered earth, water, mountain and wood. Ymir himself originated in melted hoarfrost or rime (hrim), hence all the giants are called hnmjfmsar, rime-giants, Su. 6. Stem. 85^'^; hriinhxldr, rimecold, is an epithet of ]>urs and iotunn. Seem. 33'' 90', they still drip with thawing rime, their beards (kinnskogr, chin-forest) are frozen, Seem. 53^; Hrininir, Hmngrimr, Hrimger&r are proper names of giants, Seem. SS^'SG^'IM. 145, As hrim also means grime, fuligo, Ymir may perhaps be connected with the obscure MHG. om, ome (rubigo), see Gramm. 3, 733. At the same time the derivation from ymja, umSi (stridere) lies invitingly near, so that Ymir would be the blustering, noisy, and one explanation of Orgelmir would agree with this; conf. chap. XIX. (see Suppl.).

Hei'bs and heavenly bodies are named after giants as well as after gods : pitrsaslcegg , i.e. giant's beard (fucus filiformis) ; Norw. tussegras (paris quadrifolia) ; BroUugras (satyrium, the same as Friggjargras, p. 302), because a giantess Brana gave it as a charm to her client Halfdan (Fornald. sog. 3, 576) ; Forneotes fulme, p. 240 ; OSinn threw Thiassi's eyes, and Thorr Orvandil's toe, into the sky, to be shining constellations, Sn. 82-3. 111.

Giants, like dwarfs, shew themselves thievish. Two lays of the Edda turn upon the recovery of a hammer and a cauldron which they had stolen.

The giants form a separate people, which no doubt split into branches again, conf. Bask's Afhand. 1, 88. Thrymr is called Jjursa drottinn, Seem. 70-74, a, pursa Jyiod' [wdiiiovi) is spoken of, 107*, but iotunJieimr is described as their usual residence. Even our poem of Bother 767 speaks of a riesenlant. Ou the borders of the giant province were situate the grluttuna gard'ar, Sn. 108-9. We have already noticed how most of the words for giaut coincide with the names of ancient nations.

Giants were imagined dwelling on rocks and mountains, and their nature is all of a piece with the mineral kingdom : they are either animated masses of stone, or creatures once alive petrified.

Hi'ilngnir had a three-cornered stone heart, his head and shield were of stone, Su. 109. Another giant was named Vagnlwfd'l (waggon-head), Sn. 211% in Saxo Gram. 9. 10. Dame HiiU is a petrified queen of giants, Deut. sag. no. 233.

Out of this connexion with mountains arises another set of names: hergrisi, Sn. 18. 26: 30. 45-7. m. Grottas. 10. 24. Egilss. 22 ; 1 berr/hui, Fornald. sog. 1, 412'; hraamhui (saxicola), S^em. 57^ 145''' ; hraunhvalr (-whale) 57'^; piissin af biargi, Fornald. sog. 2, 29 ; bergdanir (gigantes), Sasm. 54*^; bergrisa bru&r (bride), moey bergrisa, Grottas. 10. 24, conf. the Gr. 6pecd<; : on this side the notion of giantess can easily pass into that of elfin. Thrymheimr lies up in the mountains, Su. 27. It is not to be overlooked, that in our own Heldenbuch Dietrich reviles the giants as mountain-cattle and forest-boors, conf. bercrinder, Laurin 2625, and VKiHgeburen 534. 2624. Sigenot 97. walthunde, Sigenot 13. 114. waldes diebe (thieves), 120. waldes tore (fool), waldes affe (ape), Wolfd. 467. 991 (see p. 481-2 and Suppl.).

Proper names of giants point to stones and metals, as larnsaxa (ironstony), larnhaus (ironskull) ; possibly our still surviving compound steinalt, old as stoue (Gramm. 2, 555), is to be explained by the great age of giants, approaching that of rocks and hills ; gifur rata (gigantes pedes illidunt saxis) is what they say in the North.

Stones and rocks are iveapons of the giant race ; they use only stone clubs and stone shields, no swords. Hrungni^s weapon is called hei)i (hone) ; when it was flung in mid air and came in collision with Thorns hammer, it broke, and a part fell on the ground ; hence come all the ' heinberg,' whinstone rocks, Sn. 108-9. Later legends add to their armament stalkelstangeii (steel bars) 24 yards long, Roth. 687. 1602. Hurn. Sifr. 62, 2. QS, 2. Sigenot (Lassb.) 14, (Hag.) 69. 75. Iwein 5022 {-mote, rod 5058. -fcoZ6e, club 6682. 6726). Trist. 15980. 16146 ; isenstange. Nib. 460, 1. Veldek invests his Pandurus and Bitias (taken from Aen. 9, 672) with giant's nature and tserne holven. En. 7089 ; king Gorhand's giant host carry holben stdhelin, Wh. 35, 21. 395, 24. 396, 13; and giant Langben a staahtang (Danske viser 1, 29). We are expressly told in Er. 5384, 'wufens waren

1 In the case of mixed descent : hcilfhenjvisi, hdlfrui, /<nZ/(ro/i, Egilss. p. 22. Nialss. p. IGi ; see Gramm. 2, C33.

534 GIANT?.

si bloz/ i.e. bare of knisrlitly weapon, for they carried ' holhen swaere, groze unde lange.^ ^ Yet tlie ' eald siveord eotonisc ' probably meant one of stone, tbougli the same expression is used in Beow. 5953 of a metal sword mounted with gold ; even the ' entisc helm/ Beow. 5955 may well be a stone helmet. It may be a part of the same thing, that no iron sword will cut into giants ; only with the pommel of the sivord can they be killed (Ecke 178), or with the fist, p. 530 (see Suppl.).

Ancient buildings of singular structure, which have outlasted many centuries, and such as the men of to-day no longer take in hand, are vulgarly ascribed to giants or to the devil (conf. p. 85, note on devil's dikes) : ' burg an berge, ho holmklibu, wrisiHc giwerc' is said in Hel. 42, 5 of a castle on a rock (risonburg, N. Bth. 173) ; a Wrisherg, from which a Low Saxon family takes its name, stood near the village of Petze. These are the euta geweorc of AS. poetry (p. 524): 'efne sw^ wide swa wegas to lagon enta cergeweorc innan burgum, strcete stdnfdge,' Andr. 2466. ' stapidas storme bedrifene, eald enta geweorc,' 2986. Our Annolied 151 of Semiramis : 'die alten Babilonie stiphti si van cigelin den alten, die die gigandi branten/ of bricks that giants burnt. And Karlmeinet 35 : 'we dise hurg stichte? ein rise in den alten ziden' In 0. French poems it is either gaiant or paian (pagans) that build walls and towers, e.g. in Gerars de Viane 1745 :

Les/ors tors, ke sont dantiquitey, ke p)aian firent par lor grant poestey.

Conf. Mone's Unters. 242-4-7. 250. Whatever was put together of enormous blocks the Hellenes named cyclopean ivalls, while the modern Greeks regard the Hellenes themselves as giants of the old world, and give them the credit of those massive structures.^ Then, as ancient military roads were constructed of great blocks of stone (strata felison gifuogid, Hel. 164, 27), they also were laid to the account of giants : idt?ia vegar (viae gigantum). Stem. 23^; 'usque ad giganteam viam : entisken ivec,' MB. 4, 22 (about 1130). The common people in Bavaria and Salzburg call such a road, which to them is world-old and uncanny, enterisch (Schm.

1 Goliath too, 1 Sam. 17, 7, and 2 Sam. 21, 19 is credited with a hastile (spearstaff) quasi liciatorium texentium (like a weaver's beam).

' Conf. Niebulir's Kom. Hist. i. 192-3. An ancient wall is in Mod. Greek to fWrjuiKo, Ulrich's Eeise 1, 182.

4, 44) ; the trdllasTieid was mentioned p. 508-9, and trollahlad^ is septum gigantum. Some passages in Fergiit are worthy of notice ; at 1576 :

Die roke was swert ende eiselike,

want wilen er en gig ant,

hie hieu hare ane en en cant

en padelkin tote in den top,

daer en mach ghen paert op^ :. en man mochter opgaen te voet.

And at 1628 seq. is described the brazen statue of a dorper,^ standing outside the porch of a door :

het dede maken en gigant,

die daer wilen woende int lant (see SuppL).

Giant' s-mountalns , giant's-hills, liilnen-heds may be so named because popular legend places a giant's grave there, or sees in the rock a resemblance to the giant's shape, or supposes the giant to have brought the mountain or hill to where it stands.

We have just had an instance of the last kind : the Edda accounts for all the liein-rocks by portions of a giant's club having dropt to the ground, which club was made of smooth whinstone. There is a pleasing variety about these folk-tales, which to my thinking is worth closer study, for it brings the living conception of giant existence clearly before us. One story current in the I. of Hven makes Grimild and Hvenild two giant sisters living in Zealand. Hvenild wants to carry some slices of Zealand to Schonen on the Swedish side ; she gets over safely with a few that she has taken in her apron, but the next time she carries off too large a piece, her apron-string breaks in the middle of the sea, she drops the whole of her load,. and that is how the Isle of Hven came to be (Sjoborg's Nomenkl. p. 84). Almost the same story is told in Jutland of the origin of the little isle of Worsoekalv (Thiele 3, 06). Pomeranian traditions present differences in detail : a giant in the Isle of Riigen grudges having to wade through the sea every time to Pomerania; he will build a causeway across to the mainland, so, tying an apron round him, he fills it with earth. When he has got past Rodenkirchen with

' This dorper grot again we are tempted to take for the old thundergod, for it says : ' hi hilt van stale (of steel) enen hamer in sine hant.'

VOL. II. H

his load, his apron springs a leak, and the earth that drops out becomes the nine hills near Rambin. He darns the hole, and goes further. Arrived at Gustow, he bursts another hole, and spills thirteen little hills ; he reaches the sea with the earth that is left, and shoots it in, making Prosnitz Hook and the peninsula of Drigge. But there still remains a narrow space between Riigen and Pomerania, which so exasperates the giant that he is struck with apoplexy and dies, and his dam has never been completed (E. M. Arndt's Marchen 1, 156). Just the other way, a giant girl of Pomerania wants to make a bridge to Riigen, ' so that I can step across the bit of water without wetting my bits of slippers/ She hurries down to the shore with an apronful of sand ; but the apron had a hole in it, a part of her freight ran )ut 'tother side of Sagard, forming a little hill named Dubberworth. ' Dear me ! mother will scold,^ said the hiine maiden, but kept her hand under, and ran all she could. Her mother looked over the wood : ' Naughty child, what are you after ? come, and you shall have the stick.'' The daughter was so frightened she let the apron slip out of her hands, the sand was all spilt about, and formed the barren hills by Litzow.^ Near Yi in Kallasocken lies a huge stone named Zechiel's stone after a giantess or merwoman. She lived at Edha castle in Hogbysocken, and her sister near the Skiiggenas (shag-ness) in Smaland. They both wished to build a bridge over the Sound; the Smaland giantess had brought Skaggenas above a mile into the sea, and Zechiel had gathered stones in her apron, when a man shot at her with his shafts, so that she had to sit down exhausted on a rock, which still bears the impress of her form. But she got up again, and went as far as Pesnassocken, when Thor began to thunder (da hafver goguhhen begynt at aka) ; she was in such a fright that she fell dead, scattering the load of stones out of her apron higgledy-piggledy on the ground ; hence come the big masses of rock there of two or three men's height. Her kindred had her buried by the side of these rocks (Ahlqvist's Oland, 2, 98-9). These giants' dread of Thor is so great, that when they hear it thunder, they hide iu clefts of rocks and under trees : a hoghergsguhhe in Gothland,

1 Lothar's VoLkssagen, Leipz. 1825, p. 65. Temme's Pomm. sagen, nos. 190-1 ; see Barthold's Pommern 1, 580, who spells Dobberwort, aud explams it by the Pol. wor (sack).

whom a peasant, to keep him friendly, had invited to a christening, refused, much as he would have liked to share in the feast, because he learnt from the messenger that not only Christ, Peter and Mary, but Thor also would be there ; he would not face him (Nyerup's Morskabslasning, p. 243). A giant in Fladsoe was on bad terms with one that lived at Nestved. He took his wallet to the beach and filled it with sand, intending to bury all Nestved. On the way the sand ran out through a hole in the sack, giving rise to the string of sandbanks between Fladsoe and Nestved. Not till he came to the spot where Husvald then stood, did the giant notice that the greater part was spilt ; in a rage he flung the remainder toward Nestved, where you may still see one sandbank by itself (Thiele 1, 79). At Sonnerup lived another giant, Lars Krands by name, whom a farmer o£ that place had offended. He went to the shore, filled his glove with sand, took it to the farmer's and emptied it, so that the fai^mhouse and yard were completely covered ; what had run through tJie five finger holes of the glove made five hills (Thiele 1, 33). In the Netherlands the hill of Hillegersberg is produced by the sand which a giantess lets fall through eeii schortekleed (Westendorp's Mythol. p. 187). — And these tales are not only spread through the Teutonic race, but are in vogue with Finns and Celts and Greeks. Near Pajiinde in Hattulasocken of Tawastoland there stand some rocks which are said to have been carried by giant's daughters in their aprons and then tossed up (Ganander's Finn. myth. pp. 29. 30). French traditions put the holy Virgin or fays (p. 413) in the place of giantesses. Notre dame de Clery, being ill at ease in the church of Mezieres, determined to change the seat of her adoration, took eartli in her apron and carried it to a neighbouring height, pursued by Judas : then, to elude the enemy, she took a part of the eartli up again, which she deposited at another place not far off: oratoines were reared on both sites (Mem. de I'acad. celt. 2, 218). In the Charente country, arrond. Cognac, comm. Saintfront, a huge stone lies by the Ney rivulet ; this the holy Virgin is said to have carried on her head, beside four other pillars in her apron ; but as she was crossing the Ney, she let one pjillar fall into Saintfront marsh (Mem. des antiquaires 7, 31). According to a Greek legend, Atheua was fetching a mountain from Pallene to fortify the Acropolis, but, startled at the ill news

brouglit bj a crow, slie clro'pt it on the way, and there it remains as Mount Lykabettos.^ As the Lord God passed over the earth scattering stones, his bags burst over Montenegro, and the whole stock came down (Vuk. 5).

Like the goddess, like the giants, the devil takes such burdens upon him. In Upper Hesse I was told as follows : between Gossfelden and Wetter there was once a village that has now disappeared, Elbringhausen ; the farmers in it lived so luxuriously that the devil got power over them, and resolved to shift them from their good soil to a sandy flat which is flooded every year by the overflowing Lahn. So he took the village up in his basket, and carried it through the air to where Sarenau stands : he began picking out the houses one by one, and setting them up side by side ; by some accident the basket tipped over, and the whole lot tumbled pellmell on the ground ; so it came about, that the first six houses at Sarenau stand in a straight row, and all the others anyhow. Near Saalfeld in Thuringia lies a village, Langenschade, numbering but 54 houses, and yet a couple of miles long, because they stand scattered and in single file. The devil flew through the air, carrying houses in an apron, but a hole in it let the houses drop out one by one. On looking back, he noticed it and cried ' there's a pity (schade) ! ' (see Suppl.) .

The pretty fable of the giant's daughter picking up the ploughing husbandman and taking him home to her father in her apron is widely known, but is best told in the Alsace legend of Nideck castle :

Im waldschloss clort am wasserfall In forest-castle by waterfall

sinn d'ritter rise gsinn (gewesen) ; the barons there were giants ;

ii mol (einmal) kummt's friiule hrab ins once the maiden comes down into the

thai, dale,

unn geht spaziere drinn. and goes a-walking therein,

sie thut bis schier noch Haslach gehn, She doth as far as Haslach go ;

vorm wald im ackerfeld outside the wood, in the cornfield

do blibt sie voll verwundrung stehn she stands still, full of wonder,

unn sieht, wie's feld wurd bestellt. and sees how the field gets tilled,

sie luegt dem ding a wil so zu ; She looks at the thing a while,

der fflxii, die ros, die lUtt the plough, the horses, the vien

ischer ebs (ist ihr etwas) neus ; sie geht are new to her ; she goes thereto

derzu »

1 Antigoni Carystii hist, mirab. cap. 12, Lips. 1791 p. 22 : tt; 5<^ 'M-qva, (pepovcry T) 6/DOS, 6 vvv KoKeiTai. AvKajSrjTTbs, KOpiivyji' ipTjcrlv dTravrfjaaL Kal elwe'tv, otl 'EpLxdifios ev (pavepu) ' Trjv 5^ aKoiJcraaav pi\paL to opos, ottov vvf eari,' t^ 5^ KopuvQ Std ttiv KUKay- 7eXfa;' elire'iv, ws els aKpoiroKiv ov 6^/j.ts avry earai dcpiKiadai.

unn denkt ' die nimm i rnit.'

D'rno huurt sie an de bode bin

unn spreit ihr furti u$$,

fangt alles mit der hand, thut's 'niin,

unn lauft gar froh nocli bus.

sie springt de felswei 'nuf ganz frisch,

dort wo der berg jetzt isch so gab

unn me (man) so krattle mus in d'bob,

macbt sie nur eine schritt.

Der ritter sitzt just noch am tisch :

' min kind, was bringste mit ?

d' freud liiegt der zu de auge 'nuss ;

se krom nur gescbwind din fiirti uss ;

was best so zawelichs drin ? '

' o vatter, spieldings gar ze nett,

i ha noch nie ebs schons so g'hett,'

unn stelltem (ihm) alles bin.

TJmi uf de tisch stellt sie den pjiui,

d' bare unn ibri ros,

lauft drum berum unn lacht derzu,

ihr freud isch gar ze gross.

' Ja, kind, diss isch ken spieldings nitt,

do best ebs schons gemacbt '

saht der herr ritter glich und lacht,

' geh nimm's nur widder mit !

die bure sorje uns fiir brot,

sunscb sterbe mir de bungertod ;

trah alles widder f urt ! '

's fraule krint, der vatter schilt :

' a bur mir nitt als spieldings gilt,

i liid (ich leide) net dass me murrt.

pack alles sachte widder iin

unn trah's ans namli j^liitzel bin,

wo des (du's) genumme best.

baut nit der bur sin ackerfeld,

se fehlt's bi uns an brot unn geld

in unserm felsennest.'

and thinks ' I'll take them with me.'

Then plumps down on the ground

and spreads her apron out,

grasps all in her hand, pops it in,

and runs right joyful home ;

leaps up the rock-path brisk,

where the hill is now so steep

and men must scramble up,

she makes but one stride.

The baron sits just then at table :

' my child, what bringst with thee ?

joy looks out at tliine eyes ;

undo thine apron, quick,

what hast so wonderfuf therein ? '

' 0 father, playthings quite too neat,

I ne'er had aught so pretty,'

and sets it all before him.

On the table she sets the plough,

the farmers and their horses,

runs round them and laughs,

her joy is all too great.

' Ah child, this is no plaything,

a pretty thing thou hast done ! '

saith the baron quick, and laughs,

' go take it back !

the farmers provide us with bread,

else we die the hunger-death ;

carry it all away again.'

The maiden cries, the father scolds :

' a farmer shall be no toy to me.

I will have no grumbling ;

pack it all up softly again

and carry it to the same place

where thou tookst it from.

Tills not the farmer his field,

we are short of bread and money

in our nest on the rock.'

Similar anecdotes from the Harz and the Odenwald are given in Deut. sag. nos. 319. 324. In Hesse the giant's daughter is placed on the Hippersberg (betw. Kolbe, Wehrda and Gossfelden) : her father rates her soundly, and sets the ploughman at liberty again with commendations. The same story is told at Dittersdorf near Blankeuburg (betw. Rudolstadt and Saalfeld). Again, a hiinin with her daughter dwelt on Hiinenkoppe at the entrance of the Black Forest. The daughter found a ijeasant ploughing on the common, and put him in her apron, oxen, 'plough and all, then went and showed her mother 'the little fellow

and his pussy-cats.* The mother angrily bade lier carry luan, beast and plough directly back to where she found them : ' they belong to a people that may do the hiines much mischief/ And they both left the neighbourhood soon after .^ Yet again : when the Griingrund and the country round about were still inhabited by giants, two of them fell in with an ordinary man : ' what sort of groundworm is this ? ' asked one, and the other answered, ' these groiindworms will make a finish of us yet ! ' (Mone's Anz. 8, 64). Now sentiments like these savour more of antiquity than the fair reasons of the Alsatian giant, and they harmonize with a Finnish folk-tale. Giants dwelt in Kemisocken, and twenty years ago^ there lived at E.ouwwanjerai an old woman named Caisa, who told this tale : A giant maiden (kalewan tyttiiren) took up horse and 'ploughman and plough (bewosen ja kyntajan ja auran) on her lap, carried them to her mother and asked, ' what kind of beetle (sontiainen) can this be, mother, that I found rooting up the ground there ? ' The mother said, ' put them away, child ; we have to leave this country, and they are to live here instead.-* The old giant race have to give way to agricultural man, agriculture is an eye- sore to them, as it is to dwarfs (p. 459). The honest coarse grain of gianthood, which looks upon man as a tiny little beast, a beetle burrowing in the mud, but yet is secretly afraid of him, could not be hit off more happily than in these few touches. I believe this tradition is domiciled in many other parts as well (see Suppl.).

Not less popular or naive is the story of the giant on a journey being troubled with a little stone in his shoe : when at last he shakes it out, there is a rock or hill left on the ground. The Brunswick Anzeigen for 1759 inform us on p. 1636 : ^ A peasant said to me once, as I travelled in his company past a hill on the R. Elm : Sir, the folk say that here a hiine cleared out his shoe, and that's how this hill arose.' The book ' Die kluge trodelfrau ' by B. J. C. P. N. 1682, p. 14, mentions a large stone in the forest, and says : ' Once a great giant came this way with a pebble in his shoe that hurt him, and when he untied the shoe, this stone fell out.' The story is still told of a smooth rock near Goslar, how the great Christopher carried it in his shoe, till he

' L. A. "Walther's Einl. in die thiir. schwarzb. gescb., Rudolst. 1788, p. 52. 2 In Ganander's time (Finn. myth. p. 30).

felt something gall his foot ; he 'pulled off the shoe and turned it down, when the stone fell where it now lies. Such stones are also called crumh-stones. On the Soiling near Uslar lie some large boundary-stones, 16 to 20 feet long, and 6 to 8 thick : time out of mind two giants were jaunting across country; says the one to the other, ' this shoe hurts me, some bits of gravel I think it must be,^ with that he pulled off the shoe and shook these stones out. In the valley above Ilfeld, close to the Biihr, stands a huge mass of rock, which a giant once shooh out of his shoe, because the grain of sand galled him. I am confident this myth also has a wide circulation, it has even come to be related of a mere set of men : ' The men of Sauerland in Westphalia are fiine sturdy fellows ; they say one of them walked to Cologne once, and on arriving at the gate, asked his fellow-traveller to wait a moment, while he looked in his shoe to see what had been teazing him so all the while. " Nay " said the other, " hold out now till we get to the inn.'' The Sauerlander said very well, and they trudged up and down the long streets. But at the market-place he could stand it no longer, he took the shoe off and threw out a great lump of stone, and there it has lain this long while to prove my words.* A Norwegian folk-tale is given by Hammerich (om Ragnaroksmythen, p. 93) : a jutel had got something into his eye, that pricked him ; he tried to ferret it out with his finger, but that was too bulky, so he took a sheaf of corn, and with that he managed the business. It was a fir-cone, which the giant felt between his fingers, and said : ' who'd have thought a little thing like that would hurt you so ? ' (see Suppl.).

The Edda tells wonderful things of giant Skr;^mir/ in the thumb of whose glove the god Thorr found a night's lodging. Skr;^mir goes to sleep under an oak, and snores ; when Thorr with his hammer strikes him on the head, he wakes up and asks if a leaf has fallen on him. The giant lies down under another oak, and snores so that the forest roars ; Thorr hits him a harder blow than before, and the giant awaking cries, ' did an acorn fall on my face ? ' He falls asleep a third time, and Thorr repeats his blow, making a yet deeper dint, but the giant merely strokes his cheek, and remarks, ' there must be birds roosting in those

^ In the Faroe dialect Sknijmsli (Lyngbye, p. 480). ON. skraumr blatero, babbler.

boughs; I fancied, when I woke, they droj^t something on my head/ Sn. 51-53. These are touches of genuine gianthood, and are to be met with in quite different regions as well. A Bohemian story makes the giant Scharmak sleep under a tower, which his enemies undermine, so that it tumbles about his ears ; he shakes himself up and cries : ' this is a bad place to rest in, the birds drop things on your head.'' After that, three men drag a large bell up the oaktree under which Scharmak is asleep, snoring so hard that the leaves shake ; the bell is cut down, and comes crashing on the giant, but he does not even wake. A German nursery-tale (1, 307) has something very similar; in another one, millstones are dropt on a giant in the well, and he calls out, ' drive those hens away, they scratch the sand up there, and make the grains come in my eyes ' (2, 29).^

A giantess (g;^gr) named JlyrroJcin (igne fumata) is mentioned in the Edda, Sn. 66 on occasion of Baldr's funeral : nothing could set the ship Hringhorn, in which the body lay, in motion ; they sent to the giants, and Hyrrokin came riding on a wolf, with a snake for bridle and rein ; she no sooner stept up to the vessel and touched it with her foot, than fire darted out of the beams, and the firm land quaked. I also find in a Norwegian folk-tale (Faye, p. 14), that a giantess (djurre) by merely kicking the shore with her foot threw a ship into the most violent agitation.

Eabelais ~ and Fischart have glorified the fable of Gargantua. It was, to begin with, an old, perhaps even a Celtic, giant-story, whose genuine simple form may even yet be recoverable from unexpired popular traditions.^ Gargantua, an enormous eater and drinker, who as a babe had, like St. Christopher, taxed the resources of ten wetnurses, stands with each foot on a high mountain, and stoojmig down drinhs up the river that runs between

1 Conf. the story of the giant Audsch in Hammer's Eosenol 1, 114.

2 Eabelais took his subject-matter from an older book, jM-inted already in the 15th century, and published more than once in the 16th : Les chroniques admirables du puissant roi Gargantua s. 1. et a. (gothique) 8 ; Lyon 1532. 4 ; La plaisante et joyeuse histoire du grand Gargantua. Valence 1547. 8 ; at last as a chap-book : La \ie du fameux Gargantua, le plus terrible geant qui ait amais paru sur la terre. Conf. Notice sur les chroniques de Garg., par I'auteur des nouv. rech. bibl. Paris 1834.

^ A beginning has been made in Traditions de I'ancien duchS de Betz, sur Garg. (Mem. de I'acad. celt. 5, 892-5), and in Volkssagen aus dem Greyersland (Alpenrosen 1824, pp. 57-8). From the latter I borrow what stands in the text.

(see SuppL). A Westplialian legend of the Weser has much the same tale to tell : On the B. Soilings near Mt. Eberstein, stands the Hunenbrink, a detached conical hill [brink = grassy knoll]. When the hiine who dwelt there of old wanted to wash his face of a morning, he would plant one foot on his own hill, and with the other stride over to the Eichholz a mile and a half away, and draw from the hrook thai flows through the valley. If his neck ached with stooping and was like to break, he stretched one arm over the Burgberg and laid hold of Lobach, Negenborn and Holenberg to support himself.

We are often told of two giant comrades or neighbours, living on adjacent heights, or on two sides of a river, and holding converse. In Ostergotland, near Tumbo in Ydre-hiirad, there was a jiitte named Tumme ; when he wished to speak to his chum Oden at Hersmala two or three miles off, he went up a neighbouring hill Hogatoft, from which you can see all over Ydre (Widegren's Ostergotland 2, 397). The first of the two names is apparently the ON. ]7umbi (stultus, inconcinnus, conf. p. 528), but the other is that of the highest god^ and was, I suppose, introduced in later legend by way of disparagement. German folktales make such giants throw stone hammers and axes to each other (Deut. sag. no. 20), which reminds one of the thundergod's hammer. Two hiines living, one on the Eberstein, the other on Homburg, had but one axe between them to split their wood with. When the Eberstein hijne was going to work, he shouted across to Homburg four miles off, and his friend immediately threw the axe over ; and the contrary, when the axe happened to be on the Eberstein. The same thing is told in a tradition, likewise Westphalian, of the hiines on the Hnnenkeller and the Porta throwing their one hatchet.^ The hiines of the Brunsberg and Wiltberg, between Godelheim and Amelunxen, played at howls together across the Weser (Deut. sag. no. 16). Good neighbours too were the giants on Weissenstein and Romberg in Upper Hesse ; they had a baking -ove a in common, that stood midway in the field, and when one was kneadinof his dono^h he threw a stone over as a sign that wood was to be fetched from his neighbour's fort to heat the oven. Once they both happened to be throwing at the

^ Eedeker's Westfalische sagen, no. 36.

same time, tlie stones met in the air^ and fell where they now lie in the middle of the field above Michelbach, each with the marks of a big giant hand stamped on it. Another way of signalling was for the giant to scratch his body, which was done so loud that the other heard it distinctly. The three very ancient chapels by Sachsenheim, Oberwittighausen and Griinfeldhausen were built by giants, who fetched the great heavy stones in their ajprons. When the first little church was finished, the giant flung his hammer through the air : wherever it alighted, the next building was to begin. It came to the ground five miles off, and there was erected the second church, on completing which the giant flung the hammer once more, and where it fell, at the same distance of five miles, he built the third chapel. In the one at Sachsenheim a huge rib of the builder is preserved (Mone's Anz. 8, 63) . The following legends come from Westphalia : Above Nettelstiidt-on-the-hill stands the Hiinenbrink, where hiines lived of old, and kept on friendly terms with their fellows on the Stell (2^ miles farther). When the one set were baking, and the other wanted a loaf done at the same time, they just pitched it over (see Suppl.). A hiine living at Hilverdingsen on the south side of the Schwarze lake, and another living at Hille on the north side, used to halie their bread together. One morning the one at Hilverdingsen thought he heard his neighbour emptying his kneading-trough, all ready for baking ; he sprang from his lair, snatched up his dough, and leapt over the lake. But it was no such thing, the noise he had heard was only his neighbour scratching his leg. At Altehliffen there lived hiinen, who had but one knife at their service ; this they kept stuck in the trunk of a tree that stood in the middle of the village, and whoever wanted it fetched it thence, and then put it back in its place. The spot is still shown where the tree stood. These hiines, who were also called duties, were a people exceedingly scant of wit, and to them is due the proverb ' Altehlifi'en dumme dutten.' As the surrounding country came more and more under cultivation, the hiinen felt no longer at ease among the new settlers, and they retired. It was then that the duties of Altehiifi'en also made up their minds to emigrate; but what they wanted was to go and find the

^ Like Hriingni's heiu and Thur's hammer, p. 533.

entrance into heaven. How they fared on the way was never known, but the joke is made upon them, that after a long march they came to a great calm, clear sheet of water, in which the bright sky was reflected ; here they thought they could plunge into heaven, so they jumped in and were drowned.^ From so remarkable a consensus ^ we cannot but draw the conclusion, that the giants held together as a people, and were settled in the mountains of a country, but that they gradually gave way to the human race, which may be regarded as a nation of invaders. Legend converts their stone weapons into the woodman^s axe or the knife, their martial profession into the peaceable pursuit of baking bread. It was an ancient custom to stick swords or knives into a tree standing in the middle of the yard (Fornald. sog. 1, 120-1) ; a man's strength was proved by the depth to which he drove the hatchet into a stem, RA. 97. The jumping into the blue lake savours of the fairy-tale, and comes before us in some other narratives (Kinderm. 1, 343. 3, 112).

But, what deserves some attention, Swedish folktales make the divine foe of giants, him that hurls thunderbolts and throws hammers, himself play with stones as with balls. Once, as Thor was going past Linneryd in Smaland with his henchman (the Thialfi of the Edda), he came upon a giant to whom he was not known, and opened a conversation : ' Whither goes thy way ? ' ^ I go to heaven to fight Thor, who has set my stable on fire.' ' Thou presumest too much ; why, thou hast not even the strength to lift this little stone and set it on the great one.' The giant clutched the stone with all his might, but could not lift it oS" the ground, so much weight had Thor imparted to it. Thor's servant tried it next, and lifted it lightly as he would a glove. Then the giant knew it was the god, and fell upon him so lustily that he sank on his knees, but Thor swung his hammer and laid the enemy prostrate.

All over Germany there are so many of these stories about stones and hammers being hurled, and giant's fingers imprinted

1 The last foui- tales from Eedeker, nos. 37 to 40. Dutten means stulti, and ia further iiiteusified by the adj. In the Teutonist dod = gav^k, conf. Eiclithofeu sub V. dud, and supra, p. 528 on tumbo. Similar tales on the Bhon mts., only with everything giant-like eiJaced, about the tollen dittisser (Bechsteiu pp. 81-91).

2 I do not know that any tract in Germany is richer in giant-stories than Westphalia and Hesse. Conf. also Kuhn's Markische sagen, nos. 22. -17. 107. 132. 1-41. 149. 158. 202. Temme's Pommersche sagen, nos. 175-184. 187.

on hard rock_, that I can only select one here and there as samples of the style and spirit of the rest. Ruins of a castle near Homberg in Lower Hesse mark the abode of a giantess ; five miles to one side of it; by the village of Gombet, lies a stone which she hurled all the way from Homberg at one throw, and you see the fingers of her hand imprinted on it. The Scharfenstein by Gudensberg was thrown there by a giant in his rage. On the Tyrifjordensstrand near Buru in Norway is a large stone, which one jutul fighting with another is said to have flung ohliguely across the bay, and plain marks of his fingers remain on the stone (Faye, p. 15). Two or three miles from Dieren in the Meissen country there lie a hloch of quartz and one of granite ; the former was thrown by the giant of Wantewitz at the giant of Zadel, the latter by the Zadeler at the Wautewitzer ; but they both missed, the stones having fallen wide of the mark.-'- So two combatants at Refnas and Asnas threw enormous stones at each other, one called sortensteen, the other hlaJc, and the latter still shews the fingers of the thrower (Thiele 1, 47). A kind of slaty stone in Norway, says Hallager 53% is called jyvrikling, because the jyvri (giantess) is said to have smeared it over with butter, and you may see the dint of her fingers on it. Two giants at Nestved tried their hands at hurling stones ; the one aimed his at Riislov church, but did not reach it, the other threw with such force that the stone flew right over the Steinwald, and may still be seen on the high road from Nestved to Ringsted (Thiele 1, 80 ; conf. 176). In the wood near Palsgaard lies a huge stone, which a jette filing there because the lady of the manor at Palsgaard, whom he was courting, declined his proposals ; others maintain that a jette maiden slung it over from Fiinen with her garter (Thiele 3, 65-6; conf. 42).

When giants fight, and one pursues another, they will in their haste leap over a village, and slit their great toe against the church-spire, so that the blood spirts out in jets and forms a pool (Deut. sag. no. 325) ; which strikingly resembles Wainamoinen, rune 3. In leaping off a steep cliff, their foot or their horse's hoof leaves tracks in the stone (ibid. nos. 3] 8-9). Also, ■when a giant sits down to rest on a stone, or leans against a rock,

^ Preusker in Kruse's Deutsch. alterth. iii. 3, 37..

his figure prints itself on the hard surface,^ e.g. Starcather's in Saxo Gram. 111.

It is not as smiths, like the cyclops, that giants are described in German legend, and the forging of arms is reserved for dwarfs. Once in our hero-legend the giant Asprian forges shoes (Roth. 2029) ; also the giant Vade makes his son Velint learn smithworh, first with Mimir, then with dwarfs.

As for smicfr in the ON. language, it does not mean faber, but artificer in general, and particularly huilder ; and to be accomplished builders is a main characteristic of giants, the authors of those colossal structures of antiquity (p. 534). On the nine giantpillars near Miltenberg the common folk still see the handmarks of the giants who intended therewith to huild a bridge over the Main (Deut. sag. no. 19).

The most notable instance occurs in the Edda itself. A iotunn had come to the ases, professing to be a smi^r, and had pledged himself to build them a strong castle within a year and a half, if they would let him have Freyja with the sun and moon into the bargain. The gods took counsel, and decided to accept his offer, if he would undertake to finish the building by himself without the aid of man, in one winter; if on the first day of summer anything in the castle was left undone, he should forfeit all his claims. How the ' smith,'' with no help but that of his strong horse Sva&iJfari, had nearly accomplished the task, but was hindered by Loki and slain by Thorr, is related in Sn. 46-7.

Well, this myth, obeying that wondrous law of fluctuation so often observed in genuine popular traditions, lives on, under new forms, in other times and places. A German fairy tale puts the devil in the place of the giant (as, in a vast number of tales, it is the devil now that executes buildings, hurls rocks, and so on, precisely as the giant did before him) : the devil is to build a house for a peasant, and get his soul in exchange ; but he must have done before the cock crows, else the peasant is free, and the devil has lost his pains. The work is very near completion, one tile alone is wanting to the roof, when the peasant imitates the

' Herod. 4, 82 : J'xi'os 'H/^a^-^^os (palvovffi iv ir^rpri evebv, to otKe fih (Brj/jLari dvSpii, i<rTi 5^ rb^ /xiyaOos Siirijxv, Trapa rhv Tvptiv Trora/xi^, in Scytbia. (Footpriut of Herakles in stone, like a man's, but two cubits long.)

crowing of a cock^ and immediately all tlie cocks in the neighbourhood begin to crow, and the enemy of man loses his wager. There is more of the antique in a Norrland saga : ^ King Olaf of Norway walked 'twixt hill and dale, buried in thought j he had it in his heart to build a church, the like of which was nowhere to be seen, but the cost of it would grievously impoverish his kingdom. In this perplexity he met a man of strange appearance, who asked him why he was so pensive. Olaf declared to him his purpose, and the giant (troll) offered to complete the building by his single self within a certain time ; for wages he demanded the sun and moon, or St. Olaf Jiimself. To this the king agreed, but projected such a plan for the church, as he thought impossible of execution : it was to be so large, that seven priests could preach in it at once without disturbing each other ; pillar and ornament, within and without, must be wrought of hard flint, and so on. Erelong such a structure stood completed, all but the roof and spire. Perplexed anew at the stipulated terms, Olaf wandered over hill and dale ; suddenly inside a mountain he heard a child cry, and a giant-woman (jatteqvinna) hush it with these words : ' tyst, tyst (hush) ! - to-morrow comes thy father Wind- and- Weather home, bringing both sun and moon, or saintly Olafs self.' Overjoyed at this discovery,^ for to name an evil spirit brings his power to nought, Olaf turned home : all was finished, the spire was just fixed on, when Olaf cried: ' Vind och Veder ! du har satt spiran sneder (hast set the spire askew) .' Instantly the giant, with a fearful crash, fell off the ridge of the church's roof, and burst into a thousand pieces, which were nothing but flintstones. According to different accounts, the jatte was named Blaster, and Olaf cried : ' Blaster, satt spiran vaster (set the spire west-er) ! ' or he was called SUM, and the rhyme ran : ' Slatt, satt spiran riitt (straight) ! ' They have the same story in Norway itself, but the giant's name is Shalle, and he reared the magnificent church at Nidaros. In Schonen the giant is Finn, who built the church at Lund, and was turned into

^ Extracted, from Zetterstrom's collection, in the third no. of the Iduna, 2 ed. Stockh. 1816, pp. 60-1. Now included, with others like it, in Afzehus's Sagohafder 3, 83-86.

^ Couf. the interj. ' ziss, ziss ! ' in H. Sachs iv. 3, 3''.

3 Almost in the same way, and with similar result, the name of Kumi^elstilz is discovered in Kiuderm. 55; conf. 3, 98, and supra p. 505 n.

stone by St. Lawrence (Finn Magnusen^s Lex. myth. 351-2; and see Suppl.).

It is on another side that the following tale from Courland touches the story in the Edda. In Kintegesinde of the Dzervens are some old wall-stones extending a considerable length and breadth, and the people say : Before the plague (i.e. time out of mind) there lived in the district of Hasenpot a strong man (giant) of the name of Kinte. He could hew out and polish huge masses of stone, and carted even the largest blocks together with his one white mare. His dwelling-house he built on rocks, his fields he fenced with stone ramparts. Once he had a quarrel with a merchant of Libau; to punish him, he 'out his ivkite mare to draw a stone equal to twelve .r -■' all the way to Libau, intending to drop it at the merchant's t. jor. When he reached the town, they would not let ' i cross the bridge, fearing it would break under the load, . ted on his removing the

stone outside the liberties. The ", -ong man, deeply mortified, did so, and dropt the stone on the ro, ^ that goes to Grobin by Battenhof. There it lies to this day, and the Lettons, as they pass, point to it in astonishment.^ Kinte's white mare may stand for the Scandinavian smith's Sva'Silfari; the defeat of the giant's building designs is eS'ected in a different way.

King Olaf brooked many other adventures with giants and giantesses. As he sailed past the high hills on the Horns-herred coast, in which a giantess lived, she called out to him :

S. Olaf med dit rode skiiig,

du seilar for niir ved miu kjeldervag !

(St. Olaf with thy red beard, thou sailest too near my cellar wall). Olaf was angry, and instead of steering his vessel between the cliffs, he turned her head on to the hill, and answered :

hor du kjerling med rok og med teen, her skal du sidde og blive en steen !

(hear, thou carlin with distaff and spool, here shalt thou sit aud become a stone). He had scarce finished speaking, when the hill split open, the giantess was changed into a stone, and you still see; her sitting with sjnndle and distaff on the eastern cliff ; a

» Commumc. by Watson iu Jahresverliandl. der karl. gesellsch. 2, 311-2.

sacred spring issued from the opposite clifF.^ According to a Swedish account^ Olaf wished to sail through Varmeland and by L. Vaner to Nerike, when the troll shouted to him :

kong Olaf med dit pipuga skagg (peaky beard),

du seglar for niir min badstuguvagg (bathroom wall) !

Olaf replied :

du troll med din rak och ten

skal bli i sten

och aldrig mer gora skeppare men !

(shalt turn to stone, and never more make skipper moan) . The giantess turned info stove, and the king erected a cross at Dalky church in Elfdals herred.^ The Danish rhyme is also quoted as follows :

hor du Oluf rodeskjag,

hvi seller du igjennem vor stuevag (through our chamber wall) ?

And :

stat du der og bliv til steen,

og (gjor) ingen dannemand (no Dane) mere til meen ! ^

In Norway itself the legend runs thus : The Hornelen Mountains in Bremanger were once connected with Maroe, but are now divided from it by a sound. St. Olaf sailed up to them, and commanded the cliffs to part and let him pass through. They did so, but instantly a giantess leapt out of the mountain and cried :

sig (see), du mand med det hvide skag (white beard), hvi splitter du saa min klippevilg ?

Olaf:

stat (stand) trold nu evig der i steen,

saa gjor du ei nogen mand (not any man) meer meen.

His word came to pass, and the stone figure stands yet on the cliff (Faye 124). Olaf s red heard (like those of our hero-kings Otto and Friedrich) reminds us of Thorr the foe of giants (p. 177) ; ' 'pipuga skiigg' is apparently the same as the pipskcigg, wedge-

1 Danske viser 2, 12-3. Thiele 1, 32 ; conf. Faye, 118-9. !)

• Fernow's Varmeland, p. 223. j

3 Nyerup's Karakteristik af Christian 4, p. 17.

like or peaked beard, quoted by Ihre ; but tlie Norwegian rhyme has ivldte heard (the barbe fieurie of Charlemagne). Such divergences, and the changes rung on ' cellar wall, bathroom wall, cliff wall/ vouch for the popular character of the tradition (see SuppL). It will surprise no one, if I produce a still older type of the whole story from the Edda itself. When Brynhildr in her decorated car was faring the ' hel-veg,^ she went past the dwelling of a gygr ; the giantess accosts her with the words (S^m. 228^) :

skaltu i gognom ganga eigi

grioti studda gar^Sa mina !

(shalt not go through my stone-built house). This brings on a dialogue, which is closed by Brynhildr with the exclamation : ' seykstu gy gjarkyn ! ' (conf. p. 497u.). The giantess's house is of stones skilfully put together, and the later rhymes speak of cellar and bathroom : she herself is quite the housewife with distaff and spindle. The sacred rights of domesticity are infringed, when strangers burst their way through. There are other instances in which the giantess, like the elfin, is described with spindle and distaff : ' tolv troldqvinder (12 trold- women) de stode for hannem med roTi og ten' (Danske viser 1, 94).^

Close to the Romsdalshorn in Norway is a mountain called Troldtinder, whose jutting crags are due to giants whom Olaf converted into stones, because they tried to prevent his preaching Christianity in Eomsdal.-

It would appear, from Ssem. 145'', that giants, like dwarfs, have reason to dread the daylight, and if surprised by the break of day, they turn into stone : ' dagr er nu,^ cries Atli to HrimgerSr, ' hafnar mark ];yckir hloegeligt vera, Jjars pu i steins lihi stendr.'

Grotesque humanlike shapes assumed by stalactite, flint and flakestone on the small scale, and by basalt and granite rocks ou the great, have largely engendered and fed these fancies about

^ The Celtic fay carries huge stones on her spindle, and spins on as she walks, Keightley 2, 286. Conf. supra, p. 413.

• Faye 124, who follows Schoning's Eeise 2, 128. Sanct Olafs saga pS svenske rim, ed. Hadoi-ph. p. 37 : 'ell troll, som draap X miin, hau giordit i stena, och stander iin ; flere troll han och bortdref, sidan folckit i frijd blef.' Certain round pot-shaped holes found in the mountains, the Norwegian people believe to be the work of giants. They call them jcittegryter, troldgryter, yet also S. Olcs grijter (Hallager 53'').

VOL. II. I

petrified giants. Then the myth about stone-circles accounts for their form by dances of giants ; ^ many rocks have stories attached to them of wedding-folk and dancing guests being turned into stone (see Suppl.). The old and truly popular terminology of mountains everywhere uses the names of different parts of the body ; to mountains are given a head^ brow, neck, back, shoulder, knee, foot, etc. (RA. 541).

And here we come across numerous approximations and overlappings between the giant-legend and those of dwarfs, schrats and watersprites, as the comprehensive name troll in Scandinavian tradition would of itself indicate. Dwarfs o£ the mountains are, like giants, liable to transformation into stone, as indeed they have sprung out of stone (p. 532-3). Rosmer havmand (merman) sjjrings or flies, as the graphic phrase is, into stone.^

Then on the other side, the notion of the giant gets a good deal mixed up with that of the hero, usually his opposite. Strong Jack in our nursery-tales assumes quite the character of a giant ; and even Siegfried, pure hero as he is in the Mid. Age poems, yet partakes of giant nature when acting as a smith, like Wielant, who is of giant extraction. Moreover, both Siegfi'ied slightly, and Strong Jack more distinctly, acquire a tinge of that Eulenspiegel or Riibezahl humour (p. 486) which is so amusing in the Finnish stories of Kalewa, Hisi, and especially Soini (conf. Kalewala, rune 19). This Soini or Kullervo bears the nickname of Kalki (schalk, rogue) ; when an infant three days old, he tore up his baby-linen ; sold to a Carelian smith, and set to mind the baby, he dug its eyes out, killed it, and burnt the cradle. Then, when his master ordered him to fence the fields in, he took whole fir-trees and pines, and wattled them with snakes ; after that, he

1 Stonehenge, AS. Stanhenge (-hanging), near Salisbury, in Welsh Choirgaur, Lat. chorea gi<iantum ; ace. to Giraldus Cambr. cap. 18, a cairn brought by giants from Africa to Spain (Palgrave's Hist, of AS., p. 50) ; conf. Diefenbach's Celtica ii. 101. In Trist. 5887, Gurmun is said to be 'born of Africa.'

2 Danske viser 1, 223 : ' han sjorang saa vildt i bjerget om, eg blev tUflintesten sorte.' 1, 228: 'han blev til en kampesteen graa.' 1, 233: ' saa /Zoy han bort i roden flint, og blev saa borte med alle.' 1, 185 of a cruel stepmother : ' hun sprang hort i flintesteen.' But H. Sachs too has, iii. 3, 31*. 426, ' vor zorn zu einem stein springen ; ' ib. 53^, ' vor sorg zii elm stein sjwingen ; ' iv. 3, 97*^, ' vor leid wol zw eim stein mocht springen.'' Overpowering emotions make the life stand still, and curdle it into cold stone. Conf. Chap. XXXII. on the heroes entrapped in mountains, and Suppl.

had to pasture the flock, but the goodwife haviug baked a stone in his bread, Soini was in such a rage that he called bears and wolves to aid hiin, who tore the woman's legs and worried the flock. The Esthonians also tell of a giant's son (Kallewepoeg), who furrowed up grassy lands with a wooden plough, and not a blade has grown on them since (see Suppl.). This trickiness of the Finnish giants is a contrast to the rough but honest ways of the German and Scandinavian.

Above all, there is no clear line to be drawn between giants and the wild hairy woodsprites dealt with in pp. 478-486. In the woods of the Binorenheim Mark are seen the stone seats of the wild folk (conf. p. 432) who once lived there, and the print of their hands on the stones (Deut. sag. no. 166). In the vale of Gastein, says Muchar, p. 137, wild men have lived within the memory of man, but the breed has died out since ; one of them declared he had seen the forest of Sallesen near Mt. Stubnerkogel get ' mair ' (die out and revive again) nine times : he could mind when the Bocksteinkogl was no bigger than a kranawetvogl (crossbill ?), or the mighty Schareck than a twopenny roll. Their strength was gigantic : to hurl a ploughshare the ivhole hreadth of the valley was an easy throw for them. One of these ' men •" leant his staff against the head farmer's house, and the whole house shook. Their dwelling was an inaccessible cavern on the left bank of the Ache, at the entrance to the Klamm ; outside the cave stood some appletrees, and with the ap)ples they would pelt the passers-by in fun ; remains of their household stufi' are still to be seen. To the inhabitants of the valley they were rather friendly than otherwise, and often put a quantity of butter and milk before their house-doors. This last feature is more of a piece with the habits of dwarfs and elves than of giants.

Just as the elves found the spread of agriculture and the clearing of their forests an abomination, which compelled them to move out ; so the giants regard the woods as their own property, in which they are by no means disposed to let men do as they please. A peasant's son had no sooner begun to cut down a bushy pinetree, than a great stout trold made his appearance with the threat : ' dare to cut in my wood, and I'll strike thee dead ' (Asbiornsen's Moe, no. 6) ; the Danish folk-song of Eline af Villenskov is founded on this, D.V. 1, 175. And no less do

giants (like dwarfs^ p. 459) hate the ringing of bells, as in the Swedish tale of the old giant in the mountain (Afzelius 3, 88) ; therefore they sling rocks at the belfries. Gargantua also carries off bells from churches.

In many of the tales that have come before us, giant and devil are convertible terms, especially where the former has laid aside his clumsiness. The same with a number of other resemblances between the two. The devil is described as many-headed like the giant, also, it is true, like the dragon and the hellhound. Wherever the deviFs hand clutches or his foot treads, indelible traces imprint themselves even on the hardest stone. The titans chased from Olympus resemble the angels thrust out of heaven and changed into devils. The abode of the giants, like that of heathens and devils in general (p. 34), is supposed to be m the north : when Freyr looks from heaven toward lotunheim (Sasm. 81) and spies the fair giantess, this is expressed in Snorri 39 by 'Freyr leit t nor&rcett.' In the Danish folk-song of the stolen hammer, Thorr appears as Tovd (thunder) af Hafsgaard (seaburgh), while the giant from whom Loke is to get the hammer back dwells in Nordenfjeld ; the Swedish folk-song says more vaguely ' trolltrams gard.^ ^

But what runs into gianthood altogether is the nature of the man-eating huorco or ogre (p. 486). Like him the stone-hurling Cyclops in the Odyssey hanker after human flesh ; and again a Tartar giant Depeghoz (eye on top of head) ^ stands midway between Folyi^henms, who combs with a harrow and shaves with a scythe (Ov. Metam. 13, 764), and Gargantua. As an infant he sucks all the nurses dry, that offer him the breast ; when grown up, the Oghuzes have to supply him daily with 2 men and 500 sheep. Bissat, the hero, burns out his eye with a red-hot knife ; the blinded giant sits outside the door, and feels with his hands each goat as it passes out. An arrow aimed at his breast would not penetrate, he cried ' what's this fly here teazing me ? ' The Laplanders tell of a giant Stalo, who was one-eyed, and went about in a garment of iron. He was feared as a man-eater, and

' To wish a man ' nordan till f jails' (Arvidsson 2, 163) is to -wisli him in a disagreeable quarter (Germ. ' in pepperland,' at Jericho).

2 Diez : The newly discovered Oghuzian cyclop compared with the Homeric. Halle & Berlin 1815.

received the by-name of yityatya (Nilsson 4, 32). The Indian Mahabharata also represents HicUmhas the rakshasa (giant) ^ as a man-eater, misshapen and red-bearded : man^s flesh he smells from afar,^ and orders Hidimba his sister to fetch it him ; but she, like the monster's wife or daughter in the nursery-tales, pities and befriends the slumbering hero (see Suppl.)-

Our own giant-stories know nothing of this grim thirst for blood, even the Norse iotunn is nowhere depicted as a cannibal, like the Greek and Oriental giants ; our giants are a great deal more genial, and come nearer to man's constitution in their shape and their way of thinking : their savagery spends itself mainly in hurling huge stones, removing mountains and rearing colossal buildings.

Saxo Gram. pp. 10. 11 invests the giantess Harthgrepa with the power to mahe herself small or large at pleasure. This is a gift which fairy-tales bestow on the ogre or the devil, and folktales on the haulemutter (Harrys 2, 10 ; and Suppl.).

It is in living legend (folktale) that the peculiar properties of our native giants have been most faithfully preserved ; the poets make their giants far less interesting, they paint them, especially in subjects borrowed from Romance poetry, with only the features common to all giants. Harpin, a giant in the Iwein, demands a knight's daughter, hangs his sons, and lays waste the land (4464. 4500) :^ when slain, he falls to the ground like a tree (5074).* Still more vapid are the two giants introduced at 6588 seq. Even in the Tristan, the description of giant Urgan (15923) is not much more vivid: he levies blackmail on oxen and sheep, and when his hand is hewn off, he wants to heal

^ Tevetat's second birth (Keinhart cclxxxi.) is a rakshast, giantess, not a beast.

2 ' Mightily works man's smell, and amazingly quickens my nostrils,' Arjnna's Journey, by Bopp, p. 18. The same in our fairy- tales (supra, p. 486). Epithets of these Indian daemons indicate that they icalk about by night (Bopp's gloss. 91. 97).

^ One giant is ' hagcl al der laude,' hail-storm to all lands, Bit. 6482.

• N.B., his bones are treasured Vi) outside the castle-gate (5881), asiuFischart's Garg. 41": 'they tell of riesen and haunen, shew their bones in churches, under tpwu halls.' So there hangs in a church the skeleton of the giantess struck by lightning (p. 531 n.), the heathen maiden's dripping rib (Deut. sag. 140), and her yellow locks (ibid. 317) ; in the castle is kept the giant's bone (ibid. 324). At Alpirsbach in the Black Forest a giant's skeleton hangs outside the gate, and in Our Lady's church at Ai-nstadt the ' riesenribbe,' Bechst. 3, 129; conf. Jerichow and Werben in Ad. Kuhn, no. 56. The horns of a giant ox nailed up in the porch of a temple (l^iebuhr's Eom. Hist. 1, 407).

it on again (16114).^ The giants shew more colour as we come to poems in the cycle of our hero-legend. Kuperan in the Hilrn. Sifrit (Ciiprian of the Heldens. 171) rules over 1000 giants, and holds in durance the captive daughter of a king. The Eother brings before us, all alive, the giants Asprian, Grimme, Widolt, the last straining like a lion at his leash, till he is let loose for the fight (744, 2744. 4079) ; in the steel bar that two men could not lift he buries his teeth till fire starts out of it (650. 4653-74), and he smites with it like a thunderbolt (2734) ; the noise of his moving makes the earth to quake (5051), his hauberk rings when he leaps over bushes (4201) ; he pitches one man over the heads of four, so that his feet do not touch the ground (1718), smashes a lion against the wall (1144-53), rubs fire out of millstones (1040), wades in mould (646. 678) up to the knee (935), a feature preserved in Vilk. saga, cap. 60, and also Oriental (Hammer's Rosenol 1, 36). Asprian sets his foot on the mouth of the wounded (4275). And some good giant traits come out in Sigenot : when he breathes in his sleep, the boughs bend (60),^ he plucks up trees in the fir-wood (73-4), prepares lint-plugs (schiibel) of a pound weight to stuff into his wounds (113), takes the hero under his armpit and carries him off (110. 158. Hag. 9, Lassb.). A giantess in the Wolfdiet. picks iip horse and hero, and, bounding like a squirrel, takes them 350 miles over the mountains to her giant cell; another in the folk-song (Aw. 1, 161) carries man and horse up a mountain five miles high, where are two ready boiled and one on the spit (a vestige of androphagi after all) ; she offers her daughter to the hero, and when he escapes, she beats her with a club, so that all the flowers and leaves in the wood quiver. Giant Welle^s sister Riitze in the Heldenbuch takes for her staff a whole tree, root and branch, that two waggons could not have carried ; another woman ' of wild kin ' walks over all the trees, and requires two bullocks' hides for a pair of shoes, Wolfd. 1513. Giant Langbein (Danske viser 1, 26) is asleep in the wood, when the heroes wake him up (see SuppL).

A good many giant-stories not yet discovered and collected

' The Eomance giants are often porters and bridge-keepers, conf . the dorper in Pergvit (supra, p. 535) ; yet also in Nib. 457, 4. 458, 1 : ' rise portencere/

2 The same token of gianthood is in Vilk. saga, cap. 176, and in a Servian lay.

must still be living in the popular traditions of Norway and Sweden/ and even we in Germany may gather something from oral narration^ though not much from books. The monk of St. Gall (Pertz 2, 756) has an Eishere {i.e. Egisheri, tei'ribilis) of Thurgau, but he is a giant-like hero, not a giant.^

Of sacrifices offered to giants (as well as to friendly elves and home-sprites), of a worship of giants, there is hardly a trace. Yet in Kormakssaga 242 I find hlotrisi, giant to whom one sacrifices; and the buttered stone (p. 546) may have been smeared for the giantess, not by her, for it was the custom of antiquity to anoint sacred stones and images with oil or fat, conf. p. 63. As to the * gude lubbe ' whose worship is recorded by Bp. Gebhard (p. 526), his gianthood is not yet satisfactorily made out. Fasolt, the giant of storm, was invoked in exorcisms ; but here we may regard him as a demigod, like Thorger^r and Irpa, who were adored in Scandinavia (see Suppl.).

The connexion pointed out between several of the words for giant and the names of ancient nations is similar to the agreement of certain heroic names with historic characters. Mythic traits get mysteriously intergrown with historic, and as Dietrich and Charles do duty for a former god or hero, Hungarians and Avars are made to stand for the old notion of giants. Only we must not carry this too far, but give its due weight to the fact that iotunn and ]mrs^ have in themselves an intelligible meaning.

' Hiilphers 3, 47 speaks of ' lojlige berattelse om fordna jattar,^ without going into them.

" It is quite another thing, when in the debased folktale Siegfried the hero degenerates into a giant (Whs. heldensage, pp. 301-16), as divine Oden himself (p. 155) and Thorr are degraded into diivels and dolts. A still later view (Altd. bl. 1, 122) regards riese and recke (hero) as all one.

3 Schafarik (Slov. star. 1, 258) sees nothing in them but Geta and Thyrsus; at that rate the national name Thussaget£e must include both.

CHAPTER XIX. CREATION.

Now that we have treated of gods, heroes, elves, and giants, we are at length prepared to go into the views of ancient times on cosmogony. And here I am the more entitled to take the Norse ideas for a groundwork, as indications are not wanting of their having equally prevailed among the other Teutonic races.

Before the creation of heaven and earth, there was an immense chasm called gap (hiatus, gaping), or by way of emphasis gap ginnunga (chasm of chasms), corresponding in sense to the Greek ;!^ao9.i For, as %ao9 means both abyss and darkness, so ginnunga-gap seems also to denote the world of mist, out of whose bosom all things rose. How the coveinng and concealing ' hel ' was likewise conceived of as 'nifl-her with yawning gaping jaws, has been shewn above, pp. 312-314.

Yet this void of space had two extremities opposed to one another, miispell (fire) the southern, and niji (fog) the northern ; from Muspellsheim proceed light and warmth, from Niflheim dai-kness and deadly cold. In the middle was a fountain Hvergelmir, out of which flowed twelve rivers named elivagar. When they got so far from their source, that the drop of fire contained

^ Xdos, from xaiVw = OHG. ginan, ON. gIna=Lat. hiare; conf. OHG. ginunga, hiatus. But we ueed not therefore read ' gap ginHnga,' for the ON. ginna, which has now only the sense of allicere, must formerly have had that of findere, secare, whicli is still found in OHG. inginnan, MHG. enginnen (see above, p. 403, Ganna) : Otfried iii. 7, 27 says of the barleycorn, ' thoh findu ih melo thar inne, inthiu ih es higimie (if I split it open); inkinnan (aperire), Graff 4, 209; ingunnen (sectus), N. Ar. 95. So in MHG., ' siu lierze wart ime engunnen ' (fissum), Fuudgr. 2, 268; enginnen (secare), En. 2792. 5722; engunnen (secuerunt), En. li78. Nearly related is ingeinan (fissiculare), N. Cap. 136. From a literal ' sj^litting open ' must have arisen the more abstract sense of ' beginning,' Goth, duginnan, AS. ouginnan, OHG. inkinnan, pikinnan. Then gina hiare, gin hiatus, further suggest gin (amplus), and ginregin (p. 320). Singularly Festus, in discussing inclware, comes upon chaos, just as ' begin ' has led us to ginan. C'ohus, from which some derive incohare=inchoare, is no other than chaos. Fest. sub v. cohum. [Nearly all the above meanings appear in derivatives of the Mongol, root khng, khog to crack, etc., including khoghuson empty, chaos]. 'Beside ginan, the OHG. has a ehhuin hiscere (Graff 4, 450), Goth, keinan, AS. erne (rima, chine, chink). The AS. has also a separate word dwolma for hiatus, chaos. — Extr. from Suppl.

5-53 *■

CREATION. 559

iu them hardened, like the sparks that fly out of flame, they turned into rigid ice. Touched by the mild air (of the south) , the ice began to thaw and trickle : by the power of him who sent the heat, the drops quickened into life, and a man grew out of them, Ymir, called Orgilmir by tlie Hrim]7urses, a giant and evil of nature.

Ymir went to sleep, and fell into a sweat, then under his left hand grew man and wife, and one of his feet engendered with the other a six-headed son ; hence are sprung the families of giants.

But the ice dripped on, and a cow arose, Au&iimhla, from whose udder flowed four streams of milk, conveying nourishment to Ymir. Then the cow licked the salty ice-rocks, and on the evening of the first day a man's hand came forth, the second day the man's head, the third day the whole man ; he was beautiful, large, strong, his name was Buri, and his son's name Borr (p. 349) .1 Borr took to him Bestla, i\xQ giant Bolporn's daughter, and begat three sons, O&inn, Vili, Ve (p. 162), and by them was the giant Ymir slain. As he sank to the ground, such a quantity of blood ran out of his wounds, that all the giants were drowned in it, save, one, Bergelmir," who with his wife escaped in a lu"Sr (Stem. 35'', Sn. 8), and from them is descended the (younger) race of giants (see Suppl.).-^

The sons of Borr dragged the dead Ymir's body into the middle of ginnimga-gap, and created out of his hlood the sea and water, of his Jiesli the earth, of his hones the mountains, of his teeth and broken bones the rocks and crags. Then they took his skull and made of it the sky, and the sparks from Muspellsheim that floated about free they fixed in the sky, so as to give light to all. The earth was round, and encircled by deep sea,* on

' In the Zend system, the firs man proceeds from the haunch of the primeval bull Kayomer.

• Ymir, i.e., Orgelmir, begot ThrMgelmir, and he Bergelmir.

^ The meaning of lu<!fr has not been ascertained ; elsewhere it stands for culeus, tuba, here it is supposed to be a mill-chest. The OHG. Indara f. means a cradle (Graff 2, 201) as well as pannus, involucrum (swaddling-band), and this would fit remarkably well, as some accounts of the Deluge do make the rescued child float in its cradle. True, Snorri speaks not of a child, but of a grown-up giant, who sits in the lu5r with his wife ; this may be a later version. [Slav, lot is shallow basket, trough, tray.]

■* Snorri at all events conceived the earth to be round, he says p. 9 : ' lion er kriuglott utao, ok >ar utan urn hggr hinn diupi siar.' So iu the Lucidarius : ' dibe

560 CEEATION.

whose shore the giants were to dwell ; but to guard the inland parts of the earth against them, there was built of Ymir's brows a castle, Mld'gard'. The giant^s brain was thrown into the air. and formed the clouds, Sn. 8, 9.

Ssemund's account 45^' (cdhf . 33'') differs in some points :

or Ymirs holdi var ioi"S um scoput,

enn or sveita seer,

biorg or beinom; ba'Smr or liari,

enn or hausi himinn,

enn or hans brdm ger'So bliS regin

mi'Sgar^ manna sonom,

enn or hans heila voro jmu in har^mo^go

skf oil um scoput.

"Here the teeth are not made use of, but we have instead the formation of trees out of the giant^s hair.

When all this was done, the sons of Borr went to the seashore, and found two trees, out of which they created two human beings, AsJcr and Emhla. To these OSinn gave soul and life, Vili wit and feeling (sense of touch), Ve countenance (colour?), speech, hearing and sight, Sn. 10. More exactly in Seem. 3'':

unz ]?rir komo or ]?vi liSi

oflgir ok astgir sesir at susi (uproar) .

f undo a landi litt megandi

Ask ok Emblo orloglausa :

ond (spirit) J^au ne atto, 6^ (mind) |?au ne hof^o,

la (blood) ne Iseti, ne lito (colours) goSa.

ond gaf OSinn, 6S gaf Hoenir,

la gaf Lo^r ok litu go^a.

In this account the three ases are named OSinn, Hoenir, LoSr (p. 241) instead of OSinn, Vili, Ve (p. 162) ; they come to the roaring (of the sea, ad aestum, irapa 6lva 7ro\v(p',oia^oi,o 6a- XdaGrjs:), and find Askr and Embla powerless and inei't. Then

welt ist sinwel (spherical), und umbeflozzen mit clem wendelmer, darin swebt die eixle als daz tutter in dem ivizen des dies ist,' conf. Bertliold p. 287, and Wackem. Basel MSS. p. 20. The creation of heaven and earth out of the parts of an egg is poetically painted in Kalewala, rune 1 (see Suppl.). — ' Indian legend has likewise a creation out of the egg, heaven and earth being eggshells, Somadeva 1, 10. Conf. the birth of Helen and the Dioscuri out of an egg.' — Extr. from Suppl.

CREATION. 561

OSinn endowed tliera with spirit, Hoeair witli reason, Lo'Sr with blood and complexion (see Suppl.).

The creation of dwarfs is related in two passages which do not altogether agree. Sn. 15 tells us, when the gods sat in their chairs judging, they remembered that in the dust and the earth dwarfs had come alive, as maggots do in meat (see Suppl.). Thev were created and received life first of all in Ymir's flesh. By the decree of the gods these maggots now obtained understanding and human shape, but continued to live in the earth and in stones. Stem. 2 says on the contrary, that the holy gods in their chairs consulted, who should make the nation of dwarfs out of Brtmir's flesh and his black ho7ies ; then sprang up Motsognir, prince of all dwarfs, and after him Durinn, and they two formed a multitude of manlike dwarfs out of the earth.

Taking all these accounts together, it is obvious in the first place, that only the men and dwarfs are regarded as being really created, while the giants and gods come, as it were, of themselves out of chaos. To the pi'oduction of men and dwarfs there went a formative agency on the part of gods ; giants and gods, without any such agency, made their appearance under the mere action of natural heat and the licking of a cow. Giants and gods spring out of a combination of fire with water, yet so that the element converted into ice must recover its fluidity before it becomes capable of production. The giant and the cow drip out of the frost, Buri slowly extricates himself in three days from the thawing mass of ice. This dripping origin reminds us of some other features in antiquity ; thus, OSinn had a gold ring Draupnir (the dripper), from which every ninth night thei'e dripped eight other rings of equal weight (Seem. Sl'^. Sn. 6C). S^m. 195'' speaks, not very lucidly, of a hausi Hei^draupnis (cranio stillantis) ; Styrian legend commemorates a giant's rib from which a drop falls once a year (D.S. no. 140) .^ And Eve may be said to drip out of Adam's rib. With the giant's birth out of ice and rime we may connect the story of the snow-child (in the Modus Liebinc), and the influence, so common in our fairy-tales, of snow and blood on the birth of a long wished for child. All this seems allied to heathen notions of creation, conf.

' No doubt the familiar name Kibbentrop is founded on some such tradition.

562 CBEATION.

Chap. XXX. Also I must call attention to the terms eitrdropi Sgem. 35% eitrqvikja Sn. 5, qvikudropi Sn. 6 : it is the vivifying fiery drop, and we do bestow on fire the epithet ' living.^ Eitr is our eiter, OHG. eitar, AS. ator, coming from OHG. eit, AS. ad ignis ; and its derivative sense of venenum (poison, ^dpfiaKov) seems inapplicable to the above compounds.

It tallies with the views expressed at p. 316 on the gods having a beginning and an end, that in this system of creation too they are not described as existing from the first : the god appears in ginnimgagap after a giant has preceded him. It is true, Snorri 6 makes use of a remarkable phrase : ^ sva at qvikna^i me'S krapti |?ess er til sendi hitann,' the quickening is referred to the might of him that sent the heat, as if that were an older eternal God who already ruled in the chaos. The statement would have more weight, were it forthcoming in the Voluspa or any of the Eddie songs themselves ; as it is, it looks to me a mere shift of Suorri's own, to account for the presence and action of the heat, and so on a par with the formulas quoted in pp. 22-3-4.^ Buri, who is thawed into existence out of ice, to set limits to the rude evil nature of the giant that was there before him, shews himself altogether an ancestor and prototype of the heroes, whose mission it was to exterminate the brood of giants. From him are descended all the ases, O^inn himself being only a grandson.

Again, there is no mistaking the distinct methods by which giants, gods and men propagate their kind. Only one giant had sprung out of ice, he has to beget children of himself, an office performed by his hands and feet together, as in other ways also the hand and foot are regarded as akin and allied to one another.- Ymir's being asleep during the time is like Adam^s sleep while Eve was fashioned out of his rib ; Eve therefore takes her rise in Adam himself, after which they continue their race jointly. How Buri begat Borr we are not informed, but Borr united himself to a giant's daughter, who bore him three sons, and from them sprang the rest of the ases. It was otherwise with men.

' We might indeed imagine that regin and ginregin ruled before the arrival of the ases, and that this force of heat proceeded from them. But the Edda must first have distinctly said so.

2 Conf. Haupt's Zeitsclu:. 3, 156-7. Brahma too makes a man out of his own arm, Poher 1, 168.

CEEATION. 563

wlio were not created singly, like the giant or the god, but two at once, man and wife, and tlien jointly propagate their species.

While the huge mass of the giant^s body supplied the gods with materials, so that they could frame the whole world out of his different parts, and the dwarfs swarmed in the same giant^s flesh as worms ; mankind are descended from two trees on the seashore, which the gods endowed with breath and perfect life. They have therefore no immediate connexion with giants.

In the dses we see a superior and successful second product, in contrast with the first half-bungled giant affair. On the giants an undue proportion of inert matter had been expended ; in the ases body and soul attained a perfect equilibrium, and together with infinite strength and beauty was evolved an informing and creative mind. To men belongs a less full, yet a fair, measure of both qualities, while dwarfs, as the end of creation, form the antithesis to giants, for mind in them outweighs the puny body. Our Heldenbuch on the contrary makes the dwarfs come into being first, the giants next, and men last of all.

As the giants originated in the ice of streams that poured out of the fountain Hvergelmir, we may fairly assume some connexion between it and the names Orgelmir, Thrud'gelniir, Bergelmir. I derive gelmir from gialla (stridere), and connect it with the OHG. galm (stridor, sonitus). Hvergelmir will therefore mean a roaring cauldron ; and the same notion of uproar and din is likely to be present in the giants^ names, which would support the derivation of Ymir from ymja, p. 532. The reading Orgemlir would indeed accord with the notion of great age associated with the giant nature (p. 524), but would sever the link between giants and the cauldron of chaos.

Thus far the Scandinavian theory : now to prove its general difi"asion.

Though the word ginnungagap has no exact parallel in OHG. or AS., it may for all that be the thing described in the following verses of the Wessobrunn Prayer :

Dat gafregin ill mit firahim firiwizzo meista (wisest men), dat ero ni was noh lifhimil (earth was not, nor sky), noh paum (tree) nohheinig noli pereg (mountain) ni was, noli sunna ni scein [noh sterno ni cleiz (glistened)].

564 CEEATION,

uo mauo (moon) ni liuhta noh der mareoseo (sea).

do dar niwiht ni was enteo ni weuteo,

enti du was der eino almalitico Cot (Almighty God alone). The last line may sound completely christian, and the preceding ones may have nothing directly opposed to christian doctrine ; yet the juxtaposition of earth and heaven, tree and mountain, sun [and star], moon and sea, also the archaic forms ero (terra), ufhimil (coelum), mareoseo (mare, Goth, marisaivs), which must be thrown into the scale, — all have a ring of the Edda :

Vara sandr ne s^er, ne svalar unnir, ior'S fanz seva ne upphiminn, gap var ginnunga, enn gras hvergi. sol J»at ne vissi hvar hon sali atti, stiornor ]7at ne visso hvar ]7ger sta^i atto, mani ]^at ne vissi hvat hann megins atti.

The words ' niwiht ni was enteo ni wenteo ' give in roundabout phrase exactly the notion of ginnimgagap.^

These hints of heathenism have gained additional force, now that OHG. and OS. songs are found to retain the technical term viusjpilli = ON. onuspell ; the close connexion between niji, Nifl- Jieim, and the Nlhelungen so intergrown with our epos (p. 372) does not in any case admit of doubt. Now if these two poles of the Scandinavian chaos entered into the belief of all Teutonic nations, the notion of creation as a whole must have been as widely spread. It has been shewn that the Old-German opinion about giants, gods, men and dwarfs closely agreed with the Norse ; I am now able further to produce, though in inverted order, the same strange connexion described in the Edda between a giant's body and the world's creation.

Four documents, lying far apart in respect of time and place (and these may some day be reinforced by others) transmit to us a notable account of the creation of the first man. But, while the Edda uses up the giant's gutted and dismembered frame to make a heaven and earth, here on the contrary the whole world is made use of to create man's body.

1 Conf. also Otfr. ii. 1, 3: ' er se ioh himil wurti, ioh erda ouh so herti,' and the description of cliaos in Ca^dmon 7. S, particularly the term heoUtersceado 7, 11 ; though there is little or nothing opposed to Bible doctrine. Conf. Aristoph. Aves 693-i.

CEEATION.

The oldest version is to be found in the Rituale ecclesiae Dunelmensis (Lond. 1839), in which a scribe of the 10th century has interpolated the following passage, an AS. translation being interlined with the Latin :

Odo pondera, de quibus factus est Adam, pondus limi, inde factus (sic) est ca7'o ; pondus ignis, inde rubens est sanguis et calidus ; pondus salis, inde sunt salsae lacriniae; pondus roris, unde factus est sudor; pondus floris, inde est varietas ocidorum ; pondus nubis, inde est instabilitas mentium ; pondus venti, inde est anJiela frigida ; pondus ^ gratiae, inde est sensus hominis.

JEhte pundo, of j^^em dworden is Adam, pund lames, of p>on aworden is flcesc, pund fires, of ]^on read is hlod and hat ; pund saltes, of ]?on sindon salto teliero ; pund ]?eawes, of J^on aworden is swat; pund blostmes, of j7on is fagung egena; pund wolcnes, of ]>on is onstydfullnisse J^oltta ; pund windes, of ]?onis orod'cidd; pund^ gefe, of ]>on is J?oht monnes.

A similar addition is made to a MS. of the Code of Emsig (Richthofen, p. 211): — 'God scop thene eresta meneska, thet was Adam, fon achta wendem. thet beiiete fon tha stene, thet flash fon there erthe, thet hlod fon tha wetere, tha herta fon tha winde, thene thochta fon tha wolken, thene suet fon tha dawe, tha lokkar fon tha gerse, tha dgene fon there sunna, and tha blerem on (blew into him) thene helga 6m (bi'eath), and tha scop he Eva fon sine ribbe, Adames liana.' The handwriting of this document is only of the 15th cent., but it may have been copied from an older MS. of the Emsig Code, the Code itself being of the 14th cent.

• Thif? ' pound of grace' comes in so oddly, that I venture to guess an omission between the words, of jjerhaps a line, which described the 8th material. The two accounts that follow next, after naming eight material ingredients, bring in the holy breath or spirit as something additional, to which this gift of ' grace ' would fairly correspond. Another AS. version, given in Suppl. , from the Saturn and Solomon (Thorpe's Anal. p. 95, ed. Kemble p. 180), is worth comparing: here ' foklan pund ' becomes ^flcesc, fyres pund hlod, windes p. cecfung, wolcnes p. vwcfex nnsta'Selfffistnes, gyfe p. fat and ge.pang, blostmena p. edgena missenllcnist, dcawes p. swat, sealtes p. tearas.' — Here ' gyfe' is right in the middle of the sentence: can it be, tliat both ' gefe ' and ' gyfe ' are a corruption of Geofon the sea god, gifeu the sea (supra, p. 239), wliich in christian times had become inadmissible, perhaps unintelligible ? It would be strange if water, except as dew, were made no use of ; and the 'sea supplying thought' would agree with the French account, which ascribes wisdom to liim that has an extra stock of sea in him. — Te.\xs.

566 CREATION.

The third passage is contained in a poem of the 12th cent, on the four Gospels (Diemer 320^ 6-20 ; conf. the notes to 95, 18. 27, and 320, 6) :

Got mit siner gewalt

der wrchet zeichen vil manecvalt,

der worhte den mennischen einen

uzzen von aht teilen :

von dem leime gab er ime daz fleisch,

der tow becechenit den sweihc (sweat),

von dem steine gab er im daz pein (bone),

des nist zwivil nehein (is no doubt),

von den wrcen (worts) gab er ime di adren (veins),

von dem grase gab er ime daz har,

von dem mere gab er ime daz p/tli (blood),

von den wolchen (clouds) daz mut (mood, mind),

du habet er ime begunnen

der ougen (eyes) von der sunnen.

Er verleh ime sinen atem (his own breath) ,

daz wir ime den behilten (keep it for him)

nnte sinen gesin (and be his)

daz wir ime imer wuocherente sin (ever bear fruit).

Lastly, I take a passage from Godfrey of Viterbo's Pantheon, which was finished in 1187 (Pistorii Scriptor. 2, 53) : — 'Cum legimus Adam de limo terrae formatum, intelligendum est ex quatuor elementis. mundus enim iste major ex quatuor dementis constat, igne,aei'e, aqua et terra, humanum quoque corpus dicitur microcosmus, id est minor mundus. habet namque ex terra carnem, ex aqua humores, ex aere flatum, ex igne calorem. caput autem ejus est rotundum sicut coelum, in quo duo sunt oculi, tanquam duo luniinaria in coelo micant. venter ejus tanquam mare continet omnes liquores. pectus et pulmo emittit voces, et quasi coeiestes resonat harmonias. pedes tanquam terra sustinent corpus universum. ex igni coelesti habet visum, e superiore aere habet auditum, ex inferiori habet olfactum, ex aqua gustum, ex terra habet tactum. in duritie participat cum lapidibus, in ossihus vigorem habet cum arboribus, in capillis et unguihas decorem habet cum graminibus et floribus. sensus habet cum brutis animalibus. ecce talis est hominis substantia corporea.^ —

CREATION. 567

Godfrey^ educated at Bamberg', and cliaplain to German kings, must have heard in Germany the doctrine of the eight parts ; he brings forward only a portion of it, such as he could reconcile with his other system of the four elements ; he rather compares particular parts of the body with natural objects^ than affirms that those were created out of these.

Not one of the four compositions has any direct connexion with another, as their peculiarities prove ; but that they all rest on a common foundation follows at once from the ' octo poudera, achta wendem, alit teilen/ among which the alleged correspondences are distributed. They shew important discrepancies in the details, and a different order is followed in each. Only three items go right through the first three accounts, namely, that lime (loam, earth) was taken for the flesh, dew for the sweat, clouds for the mind. But then the MHG. and Frisian texts travel much further together ; both of them make bone spring out of stone, hair (locks) from grass, eyes from the sun, blood from the sea (water), none of which appear in the AS. Peculiar to the MHG. poem is the derivation of the veins from herbs (wiirzen), and to the AS. writer that of the blood from fire, of tears from salt, of the various colours in the eye from flowers,^ of cold breath from wind, and of sense from grace; which last, though placed beyond doubt by the annexed translation, seems an error notwithstanding, for it was purely out of material objects that creation took place ; or can the meaning be, that man's will is first conditioned by the grace of God ? Fitly enough, tears are likened to salt (salsae lacrimae) ; somewhat oddly the colours of the eye to flowers, though it is not uncommon to speak of an opening flower as an eye. The creation of hearts out of wind is found in the Frisian account alone, which is also the only one that adds, that into this mixture of eight materials God blew his holy breath, and out of Adam's rib created his companion Eve [the MHG. has : ' imparted his breath '] .^

^ Variegated eyes are the oculi varii, Prov. rain huclhs (Rayn. sub v. var), O.Fr. vairs iex (Roquef. sub v.). 'We find iu OHG. bluom/e/t, au'd ' gecehet ntih tien bluomon,' Graff 3, 426 ; the AS. fagung above.

2 Well, here is already ovlv fifth version, from a Paris MS. of the 15th century (Pauhn Paris, MSS. fran(,-ais de la bibl. du roi 4, 207) : ' Adam fu forme ou champ damacien, et fu fait si comme nous trouvons de huit parties de cho.ics : du limm de la terre, de la mer, du soldi, des mtes, du vent, des pierres, du saint esprit, et de la clarte du monde. De la terre fu la char, de la mer fu le sang, du soleil furent las

VOL. II. K

568 CREATION.

If now we compare all the statements with those taken from the Edda, their similarity or sameness is beyond all question : blood with sea or water^ flesh with earth, bone with stone, hair with trees or grass, are coupled together in the same way here. What weighs more than anything with me is the accordance of ' brain and clouds ' with ' thoughts and clouds.' The brain is the seat of thought, and as clouds pass over the sky, so we tc this day have them flit across the mind ; ' clouded brow ' we say of a reflective pensive brooding one, and the Grimnismal 45*^ applies to the clouds the epithet har'Smo&gr, hard of mood. It was quite in the spirit of the Edda to make the skull do for the sky, and the eyebrows for a castle ; but how could sky or castle have furnished materials for the human frame ? That the striking correspondence of the sun to the eye should be wanting in the Edda, is the more surprising, as the sun, moon and stars are so commonly spoken of as eyes (Superst. 614), and antiquity appears even to have seen tongues in them, both of which points fall to be discussed in Chap. XXII. ; meanwhile, if these enumerations are found incomplete, it may be that there were plenty more of such correspondences passing current. If Thorr flung a toe into the sky as a constellation, there may also have been tongues that represented stars.

The main difference between the Scandinavian view and all the others is, as I said before, that the one uses the microcosm as material for the macrocosm, and the other inversely makes the universe contribute to the formation of man. There the whole of nature is but the first man gone to pieces, here man is put together out of the elements of nature. The first way of thinking seems more congenial to the childhood of the world, it is all

yeulx, des nues furent les pensees, du vent furent les allaines, des pierres furent les oz, du saint esprit fu la vie, la clarte du monde signifie Crist et sa creauce. Saichez que se il y a eu Tomme plus de limon de la terre, il sera paresceux en toutes manieres ; et se il y a plus de la mer, il sera sage ; et se il y a plus de soleil, il sera beau ; et se il y a plus de nues, il sera pensis ; et se il y a plus du vent, il sera ireux ; et se il y a plus de pierre, il sera dur, avar et larron ; et se il y a plus de saint esprit, il sera gracieux ; et se il y a plus de la clarte du monde, il sera beaux

et amez.' These eight items are again somewhat different from the preceding,

though six are the same : earth, sea, cloud, wind, stone and sun ; the Holy Ghost and the light of the world are peculiar, while veins, hair, tears, and motley eyes are wanting. The ' champ damacien ' is ' ager plasmationis Adae, qui dicitur ager damascenus ,' conf. Fel. Fabri Evagator, 2, 341. [Is ' du monde ' the mistranslation of a Germ. ' des mondes,' the moon's ? Like the sun, it bestows ' beauty,' and that has nothing to do with Christ, who is however 'the light of the world.' — Tk.J

CREATION. 569

in keeping to explain the sun as a giant's eye^ tlie mountains as his boneSj the bushes as his hair ; there are plenty of legends still that account for particular lakes and marshes by the gushing blood of a giant, for oddly-shaped rocks by his ribs and marrow-bones ; and in a similar strain the waving corn was likened to the hair of Sif or Ceres. It is at once felt to be more artificial for sun and mountain and tree to be put into requisition to produce the human eye and bones and hair. Yet we do speak of eyes being sunny, and of our flesh as akin to dust, and why may not even the heathens have felt prompted to turn that cosmogonic view upside down ? Still more would this commend itself to Christians, as the Bible expressly states that man was made of earth or loam,^ without enlarging on the formation of the several constituent parts of the body. None of the Fathers seem to be acquainted with the theory of the eight constituents of the first man; I will not venture to decide whether it was already familiar to heathen times, and maintained itself by the side of the Eddie doctrine, or first arose out of the collision of this with christian teaching, and is to be regarded as a fuller development of the Adamic dogma. If Adam was interpreted to mean clay, it was but taking a step farther to explain, more precisely, that the flesh only was borrowed from earth, but the bones from stones, and the hair from grass. It is almost unscriptural, the way in which the MHGr. poetizer of Genesis (Fundgr. 2, 15) launches out into such minuti^ : — 'Duo Got zeinitzen stucchen den man zesamene wolte rucchen, duo nam er, sosich wane, einen leim ziihe (glutinous lime), da er wolte daz daz lit zesamene solte (wished the limbs to come together), streich des unterzuisken (smeared it between), daz si zesamene mohten haf ten (stick) . denselben letten (clay) tet er ze adaren (made into veins), uber ieglich lit er zoch denselben leim zach, daz si vasto chlebeten, zesamene sich habeten. uz hertem leime (hard lime) tet er daz gebeine, uz proder erde (crumbly earth) hiez er daz fleisk werden^ uz letten deme zdheii machet er die adare. duo er in alien zesamene gevuocte, duo bestreich er in mit einer slote (bedaubed him with a slime), diu selbe slate wart ze dere hute (became the skin) . duo er daz pilede (figure) urlich

1 ' Die leiminen,' the loamen folk, Geo. 3409, is said of men, as we say ' e luto, ex meliori lutu licti.'

570 CKEATION.

gelegete fare sich, duo stuont er ime werde obe der selben erde. sinen geist er in in blies, michelen sin er ime firliez, die adare alle wurden pluotes folle, ze fleiske wart diu erde, ze peine der leiTYi herte, die adare pugen sich swa zesamene gie daz lit (blew his spirit in, imparted mickle sense, the veins filled with blood,

the earth became flesh, the hard lime bone, etc.).' These

distinctions between lime, clay, earth and slime have a tang of heathenism ; the poet durst not entirely depart from the creation as set forth by the church, but that compounding of man out of several materials appears to be still known to him. And traces of it are met with in the folk-poetry. ^

It is significant how Greek and, above all, Asiatic myths of the creation coincide with the Norse (and what I believe to have been once the universal Teutonic) view of the world's origin out of component parts of the human body : it must therefore be of remote antiquity. The story lasts in India to this day, that Brahma was slain by the other gods, and the sky made out of his skull : there is some analogy to this in the Greek notion of Atlas supporting on his head the vault of heaven. According to one of the Orphic poets, the body of Zeus is understood to be the earth, his bones the mountains, and his eyes the sun and moon.^ Cochin-Chinese traditions tell, how Buddha made the world out of the giant Banio's body, of his skull the sky, of his eyes the sun and moon, of his flesh the earth, of his bones rocks and hills, and of his hair trees and plants. Similar macrocosms are met with in Japan and Ceylon ; Kalmuk poems describe how the earth arose from the metamorphosis of a mountain-giantess, the sea from her blood (Finn Magn. Lex., 877-8, and Suppl.).

But Indian doctrine itself inverts this macrocosm, making the sun enter into the eye, plants into the hair, stones into the bones, and water into the blood of created man, so that in him the

^ The giants mould a man out of clay (leir), Sn. 109. The Finnish god H- marinen hammers himself a wife out of gold, Rune 20. Pintosmauto is baked of sugar, spice and scented water, his hair is made of gold thread, his teeth of pearls, his eyes of sapphires, and his lips of rubies, Pentam. 5, 3. In a Servian song (Vuk no. 110), two sisters spin themselves a brother of red and white silk, they make him a body of boxwood, eyes of precious stones, eyebrows of sea-urchins, and teeth of pearls, then stuff sugar and honey into his mouth : ' Now eat that, and talk to us (to nam yedi, pa nam probesedi) ! ' And the myth of Pygmalion is founded on bringing a stone figure ^o life (see Suppl.).

2 "Oyu/xttTtt 5' Tj^Xios re Kai dvTiSosaa cre\7]vt]. Euseb. UpoTrapaaK. evayy. 3, 9. Lobeck, De microc. et macroc. p. 4.

CREATION. 571

whole world is mirrored back. According to a Chaldean cosmogony, when Belus had cut the darkness in twain, and divided heaven from earth, he commanded his own head to be struck off, and the blood to be let run into the ground; out of this arose man gifted with reason. Hesiod's representation is, that Pandora was formed by Hephgestua out of earth mingled with water, and then Hermes endowed her with speech, "Fip<ya 61-79. The number of ingredients is first reduced to earth and blood (or water), then in the 0. T. to earth alone.

And there are yet other points of agreement claiming our attention. As Ymir engendered man and wife out of his hand, and a giant son out of his foot, we are told by the Indian Manus, that Brahma produced four families of men, namely from his mouth the first brahman (priest), from his arm the first kshatriya (warrior), from his thigh the first vizh (trader and husbandman),^ from his foot the first sudra (servant and artizan). And so, no doubt, would the Eddie tradition, were it more fully preserved, make a diff'erence of rank exist between the offspring of Ymir's hand and those of his foot ; a birth from the foot must mean a lower one. There is even a Caribbean myth in which Luguo, the sky, descends to the earth, and the first parents of mankind come forth from his navel and thigh, in which he had made an incision." Heading of these miraculous births, who can help thinking of Athena coming out of Zeus^s head {TpcToyeveta), and Dionysus out of his thigh {fjL7]poppa(})')]<;) ? As the latter was called hifjbrjrwp (two-mothered), so the unexplained fable of the nine mothers of Heimdyir (p. 234) seems to rest on some similar ground (see Suppl.).

From these earlier creations of gods and giants the Edda and, as the sequel will shew, the Indian religion distinguish the creation of thej^rs^ human pair. As with Adam and Eve in Scripture, so in the Edda there is presupposed some material to be quickened by God, but a simple, not a composite one. Tre means both tree and wood, askr the ash-tree (fraxinus) ; the relation of Ashr to the Isco of heroic legend has already been discussed, p. 350. If by the side of Ashr, the man, there stood

1 E femoribus natus = firavya, firuja, Bopp's Gloss, oi".

2 Majer's Mythol. taschenbuch 2, 4.

572 CREATION.

an EsTija, the woman, the balance would be held more evenly ; they would be related as Meshia and Meshiane in the Persian myth, man and woman, who likewise grew out of plants. Bub the Edda calls them Aslir and Emhla : embla, emla, signifies a busy woman, OHG. emila, as in fiur-emila (focaina), a Cinderella (Graff 1, 252), from amr, ambr, ami, ambl (labor assiduus), whence also the heroes name Amala (p. 370). As regards Ashr however, it seems worthy of notice, that legend makes the first king of the Saxons, Aschanes (Askanius), grow up out of the Harz rocks, by a fountain-head in the midst of the forest. Seeing that the Saxons themselves take their name from sahs (saxum, stone), that a divine hero bears the name of Sahsnot (p. 203), that other traditions derive the word Germani from germinare, because the Germans are said to have grown on trees ; ^ we have here the possibility of a complex chain of relationships. The Geogr. of Ravenna says, the Saxons removed from their ancient seats to Britain ' cum principe suo, nomine Anchis.' This may be Hengist, or still better his son Oesc, whom I have identified with Askr.^

Plainly there existed primitive legends, which made the first men, or the founders of certain branches of the Teutonic nation, grow out of trees and rocks, that is to say, which endeavoured to trace the lineage of living beings to the half-alive kingdom of plants and stones. Even our lent (populus), OHG. liut, has for its root liotan (crescere, pullulare), OS. liud, liodan ; ^ and the sacredness of woods and mountains in our olden time is heightened by this connexion. And similar liotions of the Greeks fit in with this. One who can reckon up his ancestors is appealed to with the argument (Od. 19, 163) :

ov <yap airb Bpv6<i iaai TraXai^drov ovS airo irerprj'i •

for not of fabled oa/i; art thou, nor rock;^ and there must have

^ D. S. no. 408. ATentin IS** ; conf. the popular joke, prob. ancient, on the origin of Swabians, Franks and Bavarians, Schm. 3, 524.

2 In the Jewish language, both learned and vulgar, Ashkenaz denotes Germany or a German. The name occurs in Gen. 10, 8 and Jer. 51, 27 ; how earlyits mistaken use began, is unknown even to J. D. Michaelis (Spicil. geogr. Hebr. 1, 59) ; it must have been by the 15th century, if not sooner, and the rabbis may very likely have been led to it by hearing talk of a derivation of the Germans from an ancestor Askanius, or else the Trojan one.

2 Populus however is unconn. with populus a poplar.

■* Such an ' e quercu aut saxo natus,' who cannot name his own father, is vul-

CEEATION. 573

been fairy tales about it, which children told each other in confidential chat {oapi^efJLevai airb Spvo^ ^S' airo Trerpr]^, II. 22, 126.^ aXka TIT} /uLOC ravra irepl hpvv rj irepl ireTprjv • Hes. Theog. 35). In marked unison with the myth of Askr is the statement of Hesiod, that Zeus formed the third or brazen race out of ashtrees (e'/c fieXiav, Op. 147) ; and if the allusion be to the stout ashen shafts of the heroes, why, Isco or Askr may have brandished them too. One remembers too those wood-wives and fays, who, like the Greek meliads and dryads, had their sole power of living bound up with some particular oak or ash, and, unlike the tree-born man, had never got wholly detached from the material of their origin. Then, a creation out of stones is recorded in the story of Deucalion, whom after the deluge Hermes bade throw stones behind his back : those that he threw, all turned into men, and those that his wife Pyi-rha threw, into women. As in the Edda, after the great flood comes a new creation ; only in this case the rescued people are themselves the actors.^ Even the Jews appear to have known of a mythical creation out of stones, for we read in Matth. 3, 9 : ort Siivarat 6 ©eo? e/c tmv XiOoov TovTwv ijetpai TeKva tco 'A^pad/j, (see Suppl.).

The creation of dwarfs is described ambiguously in the Edda : according to one story they bred as worms in the proto-giant's flesh, and were then endowed by the gods with understanding and human shape ; but by the older account they were created out of the flesh and bones of another giant Brimir. All this has to do with the black elves alone, and must not be extended to the light ones, about whose origin we are left in the dark. And other mythologies are equally silent.

It is important and interesting to get a clear view of the gradation and sequence of the several creations. That in the Edda giants come first, gods next, and then, after an intervening deluge.

garly spoken of as one ' whose father got drowned on the apple (or nut) tree.' Also, ' not to have sprung from an oak-stem,' Etner's Unw. doct. 585. ' Mia gof ist au niid abbem nossbom aba choh,' ' and my dad didn't come off the nut-tree,' Tobler 337^ who wrongly refers it to the Christmas-tree.

^ Homer's i^hrase is : ' chat from oak or rock, as youth and maiden do.' — Tbans.

• As Deucalion and Pyrrha create the race of men, so (ace. to a myth in the Eeinhartssage, whose source I never could discover) do Adam and Eve create that of beasts by smiting the sea with rods. Only, Adam makes the good beasts, Eve the bad ; so inParsee legend Ormuzd and Ahriman hold a creating match.

674 CEEATION.

men and dwarfs are created, appears in surprising harmony with a theological opinion largely adopted throughout the Mid. Ages, according to which, though the O, T. begins with the work of the six days, yet the existence and consequently the creation of angels and the apostasy of devils had gone before, and then were produced heaven and earth, man and all other creatures.^ Afterwards, it is true, there comes also a destructive flood, but does not need to be followed by a new creation, for a pious remnant of mankind is saved, which peoples the earth anew. The Muhammedan eblis (by aphgeresis from dieblis, diabolus) is an apostate spirit indeed, but created after Adam, and expelled from Paradise. Our Teutonic giants resemble at once the rebel angels (devils) and the sinful men swept away by the flood ; here deliverance was in store for a patriarch, there for a g-iant, who after it continues his race by the side of men. A narrative preserved in the appendix to our Heldenbuch offers some fragments of cosmogony : three creations follow one another, that of dwarfs leading the way, after whom come giants, and lastly men ; God has called into being the skilful dwarfs to cultivate waste lands and mountain regions, the giants to fight wild beasts, and the heroes to assist the dwarfs against disloyal giants; this connexion and mutual dependence of the races is worthy of note, though on the manner of creating there is not a word. Lastly, the threefold arrangement of classes instituted by Heimdallr - may, I think, be regarded as a later act in the drama of creation, of which perhaps a trace is yet to be seen even in modern traditions (p. 234).^

Another thing I lay stress on is, that in the Edda man and woman (Askr and Embla) come into existence together, but the

1 Conf. the poetical representations in Cffidmon and Fundgr. 2, 11. 12; of course they rest on opinions approved or tolerated by the church. Scripture, in its account of the creation, looks only to the human race, leaving angels and giants out of sight altogether, though, as the narrative goes on, they are found existing.

2 The Mid. Ages trace the origin of freemen to Shem, that of knights and serfs to Japhet and Ham; Wackern. Bas. MSS. 2, 20.

3 I have since lighted on a Muhammedan legend in TVolfg. Menzel's Mythol. forschungen 1, 40 : Eve had so many children, that she was ashamed, and once, when surprised by God, she hid some of them away. God then called the children to him, and divided all the goods and honours of the earth among them. Those that were hidden got none, and from them are descended beggars and fakirs. Unfortunately no authority is given, but the agreement with the German drama of the 16th cent, is undeniable, and makes me doubt the sujiposed connexion of the latter with the ON. fable. That the concealed children are not called up, is at variance with aU German accounts.

CEEATION. 675

Bible makes two separate actions, Adam^s creation coming first, and Eve's being performed afterwards and in a different manner.^ So, by Hesiod's account, there already existed men descended from the gods themselves, when the first woman Pandora, the allgifted, fair and false, was formed out of earth and flood (p. 571). It is difficult to arrive at the exact point of view in the Hesiodic poems. In the Theogouy, there ascend out of chaos first Gaia (earth) the giantess, then Erebus (corresp. to Niflheim) and Night ; but Gaia by herself brought forth Uranus (sky) and seas and mountains, then other children by Uranus, the last of them Kronus the father of Zeus and ancestor of all the gods. As the Edda has a Buri and Borr before OSinn, so do Uranus and Kronus here come before Zeus ; with Zeus and OSinn begins the race of gods proper, and Poseidon and Hades complete the fraternal trio, like Vili and Ve. The enmity of gods and titans is therefore that of ases and giants ; at the same time, there is just as much resemblance in the expulsion of the titans from heaven (Theog. 813) to the fall of the rebel angels into the bottomless pit ; so that to the giant element in the titans we may add a deemonic. When the ' Works and Days ' makes the well-known five races fill five successive ages, the act of creation must needs have been repeated several times ; on which point neither the poem itself nor Plato (Cratyl. 397-8, Steph.) gives sufficient information. First came the golden race of blissful daimones, next the silver one of weaker divine beings, thirdly, the brazen one of warriors sprung from ash-trees, fourthly, the race of heroes, fifthly, the iron one of men now living. The omission of a metal designation for the fourth race is of itself enough to make the statement look imperfect. Dimmest of all is the second race, which also Plato passes over, discussing only daemons, heroes and men : will the diminutive stature of these shorter-lived genii warrant a comparison with the wights and elves of our own mythology ? In the third race giants seem to be portrayed, or fighters of the giant sort, confronting as they do the rightful

1 The rabbinic myth supposes a first woman, Lilith, made out of the gi'Oimd like Adam. [The Bible, we know, has two different accounts of man's creation : the first (Elohistic) in Gen. 1, 27, ' nude and female created he them ; ' the second (Jehovistic) in Gen. 2, 7, ' formed vian of the dust,' and in vv. 21. 22, ' took one of his ribs, . . . and the rib . . . made he a icuman.' The first account seems to imply simultaneous creations. — Tkans.]

676 CREATION.

heroes of the fourth. The latter we might in Mosaic language call sons of Elohim, and the former sons of men ; at the same time, their origin from the ash would admit of their being placed beside the first- created men of the Edda. The agreement of the myths would be more striking if we might bestow the name of stone race on the third, and shift that of brazen, together with the creation from the ash, to the fourth ; stones being the natural arms of giants. Apollodorus however informs us it was the brazen race that Zeus intended to destroy in the great flood from which Deucalion and Pyrrha were saved, and this fits in with the Scandinavian overthrow of giants. The creation of Askr and Embla has its parallel in the stone-throwing of the Greek myth, and the race of hex'oes might also be called stone-created (see Suppl,).

It will be proper, before concluding, to cast a glance at the Story of the Deluge : its diffusion among the most diverse nations of the earth gives a valuable insight into the nature of these myths.^

From the sons of God having mingled with the daughters of men sprang robbers and wrongdoers ; and it repented Jehovah that he had made man, and he said he would destroy everything on earth. But Noah found favour in his eyes, and he bade him build a great ark, and enter therein with his household. Then it began to rain, until the waters rose fifteen cubits above the highest mountains, and all that had flesh and breath pei'ished, but the ark floated on the flood. Then Jehovah stayed the rain, the waters returned from ofl the earth, and the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. But Noah let out first a raven, then a dove, which found no rest for her foot and returned into the ark ; and after seven days he again sent forth a dove, which came back with an olive leaf in her mouth ; and after yet other seven days he sent forth a dove, which returned not any more.^ Then Noah came out on the dry earth, and offered a clean burntoffering, and

^ Ulph. renders KaraKKvaixb^ by midjasveipdins, sveipan meaning no doubt the same as KM^eiv, to flush, rinse, conf. AS. swapan verrere. Diluvium is in OHG. ztnmezjluot or sinfluot (like sinwaki gurges, MHG. sinwsege) ; not so good is the OHG-. and MHG. sintvluot, and our siindfluth (si?i-flood) is a blunder.

' Sailors let birds fly, Pliny 6, 22. Three ravens fly as guides, LandnamabOk 1, 2.

DELUGE, SINFLUT. 577

Jehovali made a covenant with man, and set his bow in the cloud for a token of the covenant.

After this beautiful compact picture in the 0. T., the Eddie narrative looks crude and unpolished. Not from heaven does the flood rain down, it swells up from the blood of the slain giant, whose carcase furnishes material for creatine all thino^s, and the human race itself. The insolence and violence of the annihilated giants resemble those of the sons of Blohim who had mingled with the children of men ; and Noah's box (/ciyS&jro?) is like Bergelmi's lu^r. But the epic touches, such as the landing on the mountain, the outflying dove, the sacrifice and rainbow, would surely not have been left out, had there been any borrowing here.

In the Assyrian tradition,^ Kronos warns Sisuthros of the coming downpour, who thereupon builds a ship, and embarks with men and beasts. Three days after the rain has ceased, birds are sent out, twice they come flying back, the second time with slime on their feet, and the third time they staid away. Sisuthros got out first with his wife and daughter and pilot, they prayed, sacrificed, and suddenly disappeared. When the rest came to land, a voice sounded in the aii-, saying the devout Sisuthros had been taken up to the gods ; but they were left to propagate the human race. Their vessel down to recent times lay on the mountains of Armenia.'^ Coins of Apamea, a city in Phrygia, show an ark floating on the water, with a man and woman in it ; on it sits a bird, another comes flying with a twig in its claws. Close by stand the same human pair on firm land, holding up their right hands. Beside the ark appear the letters Nfl (Noah), and this Apamea is distinguished by the by-name of Ki^coTO'i.'^

According to Greek legend, Zeus had determined to destroy mankind; at the prompting of Prometheus, Deucalion built an ark, which received him and Fyrrha his wife. Zeus then sent a mighty rain, so that Hellas was flooded, and the people perished. Nine days and nights Deucalion floated on the waters, then landed on Parnassus, and ofiered sacrifice to Zeus ; we have seen how this couple created a new generation by casting stones. Plutarch adds, that when Deucalion let a dove out of the ark, he could tell

^ Buttmann On the myth of the Dehige, p. 21.

• Conf. the Annolied 308 seq., which brings the Bavarians from Armenia.

3 All this in Buttmann, pp. 24-27.

578 CREATION.

the approacli of storm by her flying back^ and of fair weather by her keeping away. Lucian (De dea Syria, cap. 12. 13) calls him AevKoXiwva tov ^Kvdea (the Scythian) ; if that sprang out of ^tavdea} it may have long had this altered form in the legend itself. Some branches of the Greek race had their own stories of an ancient flood, of which they called the heroes Ogyges and Ogygos ^^ but all these accounts are wanting in epic details.^

A rich store of these opens for us in the Indian Mahabharata.* King Manus stood on a river^s bank, doing penance, when he heard the voice of a little fish imploring him to save it. He caught it in his hand and laid it in a vessel, but the fish began to grow, and demanded wider quarters. Manus threw it into a large lake, but the fish grew on, and wished to be taken to Ganga the bride of the sea. Before long he had not room to stir even there, and Manus was obliged to carry him to the sea ; but when launched in the sea, he foretold the coming of a fearful flood, Manus was to build a ship and go on board it with the seven sages, and preserve the seeds of all things, then he would shew himself to them horned. Manus did as he was commanded, and sailed in the ship ; the monster fish appeared, had the ship fastened to his horn by a rope, and towed it through the sea for many years, till they reached the summit of the Himavdn, there he bade them moor the ship, and the spot to which it was tied still bears the name of Nauhandhanam (ship-binding). Then spake the fish : I am Brahma, lord of created things, a higher than I there is not, in the shape of a fish have I delivered you ;

1 CKTeEA from CICTGEA is Buttmann's acute suggestion ; but lie goes farther, taking this Sisythes 'or Sisuthros to be Sesothris, Sothis, Seth ; and Noah to be Dionysos, and a symbol of water.

2 BiTttm. p. 45 seq., who connects it with Okeanos and Ogenos.

^ It is remarkable, that in a beautiful simile, therefore without names or places, Homer depicts a kind of Deluge, II. 16, 384 :

ois 5' iiirb XaiXaTTL wdcra KeXaifyj ^i^pi.de x^'^v fjlx.a.T OTTUpLvQ, ore Xa^poraTov xe'et vOcop Zei;s, ore drj p dvopeacri KorecrcrdfJ-evos x'^^f""'?^??! ot jSiT] elv dyoprj (XKoXias Kpivuiai ^^yCttcrras, e/c 6^ SiKrjv eXacrcocrt, deuip ottlv ovk aX^yovres. jxivvdeL di re kpy dvOpuTTuv.

Even as crouches the darkening land, overcrowed by the tempest, All on a summer's day, when Jove doth the down-rushing water Suddenly pour, and wreak his wrath on the proud men. Men of might, who sit dealing a crooked doom in the folkmote, Forcing justice aside, unheeding of gods and their vengeance ; (rivers swell, etc.) and the works of man are all wasted.

• Bopp's Die siindflut, Berl. 1829.

DELUGE. 579

now shall Manus make all creatures, gods, asuris and men, and all the worlds, things movable and immovable. And as he had spoken, so it was done.

In the Bhagavatam, Satydvratas (supra, p. 249) takes the place of Manus, Vishnus that of Brahma, and the facts are embellished with philosophy. t

The Indian myth then, like the Teutonic, makes the Deluge precede the real creation, whereas in the Mosaic account Adam lives long before Noah, and the flood is not followed by a new creation. The seven rishis in the ship, as Bopp remarks, ai'e of divine rather than human nature, sons of Brahma, and of an older birth than the inferior gods created by Manus or their enemies the asuris (elsewhere daityas and danavas = titans, giants) . But it is a great point gained for us, that Manus (after whom manushyas, homo, is named) comes in as a creator; so that in our German Mannus (whence manna and manniskja, homo) we recognise precisely Borr and his creator sons (p. 349). Askr and Embla are simply a reproduction of the same idea of creation, and on a par with Deucalion and Pyrrha, or Adam and Eve.

I must not pass over the fact, that the first part of the Indian poem, where Brahma as a fish is caught by Manus, and then reveals to him the future, lingers to this day in our nursery tale of the small all-powerful turbot or pike, who gradually elevates a fisherman from the meanest condition to the highest rank'; and only plunges him back into his pristine poverty, when, urged by the counsels of a too ambitious wife, he desires at last to be equal with God. The bestowal of the successive dignities is in a measure a creation of the different orders.-^

One more story of the Deluge, which relates the origin of the Lithuanians, deserves to be introduced.- When Pramzimas the most high god looked out of a window of his heavenly house (like Wuotan, p. 135) over the world, and perceived nothing but war and wrong among men, he sent two giants Waudu and Weyas (water and wind) upon the sinful earth, who laid all things waste for twenty nights and days. Looking down once

^ Conf. the capture of the soothsaying marmennil, p. 434. 2 Dzieje starozytne narodu Litewskiego, przez Th. Narbutta. Wilno 1835. 1,2.

580 CREATION.

more, when he happened to be eating celestial nuts, Pramzimas dropt a nutshell, and it lighted on the top of the highest movntain, to which beasts and several human pairs had fled for refuge. They all climbed into the shell, and it drifted on the flood which now covered all things. But God bent his countenance yet a third tim^ upon the earth, and he laid the storm, and made the waters to abate. The men that were saved dispersed themselves, only one pair remained in that country, and from them the Lithuanians are descended. But they were now old, and they grieved, whereupon Grod sent them for a comforter (linxmine) the rainbow, who counselled them to leap over the earth's bones : nine times they leapt, and nine couples sprang up, founders of the nine tribes of Lithuania. This incident reminds us of the origin of men from the stones cast by Deucalion and Pyrrha ; and the rainbow, of the Bible account, except that here it is introduced as a person, instructing the couple what to do, as Hermes (the divine messenger) did Deucalion. It were overbold perhaps to connect the nutshell with that nut-tree (p. 572-3), by which one vaguely expresses an unknown extraction.

Not all, even of the stories quoted, describe a universal deluge desolating the whole earth : that in which Deucalion was rescued affected Greece alone, and of such accounts of partial floods there are plenty. Philemon and Baucis in Phrygia (where Noah's ark rested, p. 577), had given shelter to the wayfaring gods, and being warned by them, fled up the mountain, aud saw themselves saved when the flood rose over the land (Ovid. Met. 8, 620) ; they were changed into trees, as Askr and Embla were trees. A Welsh folktale says, that in Brecknockshire, where a large lake now lies, there once stood a great city. The king sent his messenger to the sinful inhabitants, to prove them ; they heeded not his words, and refused him a lodging. He stept into a miserable hut, in which there only lay a child crying in its cradle (conf. ludai-a, p. 559 n.) ; there he passed the night, and in going away, dropt one of his gloves in the cradle. He had not left the city long, when he heard a noise and lamentation ; he thought of turning back to look for his glove, but the town was no longer to be seen, the waters covered the whole plain, but lo, in the midst of the waves a cradle came floating, in which there lay both child and glove. This child he took to the king, who had it reared as

DELUGE. 681

the sole survivor of the sunken city.^ Conf. the story of Dold at the end of Ch. XXXII. Another and older narrative, found even in the British Triads, comes much nearer to those given above : When the lake of Llion overflowed and submerged all Britain, the people were all drowned save F'wijvan and Dwyvach, who escaped in a naked (sailless) ship, and afterwards repeopled the land. This ship is also named that of Nevydd nav neivion, and had on board a male and female of every creature ; again it is told, that the oxen of Hu Gadarn dragged the a vane (beaver) ashore out of the Llion lake, and it has never broken out since.^

Of still narrower limits are our German tales, as that of the dwarf seekiug a lodging at Ralligen on L. Thun (no. 45), which is very like the Philemon-myth; of Arendsee (no. Ill), where again only a husband and wife are saved; of Seeburg (no. 131) ; and Fraueusee (no. 239). A Danish folktale is given by Thiele 1, 227. Fresh and graceful touches abound in the Servian lay of the three angels sent by God to the sinful world, and the origin of the Plattensee or Balatino yezero, Vuk 4, 8-13 (2nd ed. 1, no. 207).3

There is above all a dash of German heathenism about the lakes and pools said to have been formed by the streaming blood of giants (Deut. sag. no. 325), as the destructive Deluge arose from Ymir's blood.

It appears to me impossible to refer the whole mass of these tales about the great Flood and the Creation of the human species to the Mosaic record, as if they were mere perversions and distortions of it ; the additions, omissions and discrepancies peculiar to almost every one of them are sufficient to forbid that. And I have not by a long way exhausted this cycle of legends (see Suppl.) : in islands of the Eastern Archipelago, in Tonga and New Zealand, among Mexicans and Caribs there start up accounts, astonishingly similar and yet different, of creation and the first human pair, of a flood and deliverance, and the murder of a brother.^

1 Edw. Davies's Brit. Mythol. 146-7.

2 Ibid. 95. 129. Villemarque, Contes bretons 2, 294. Mabinogion 2, 3-11. 381. ^ Sole example of a Deluge- story among Slavs, by whom cosmogouic ideas in

general seem not to have been handed down at all.

■* \V. von Humboldt's Kawisprache 1, 240. 3, 449. Majer's Mythol. taschenb. 2, 5. 131.

CHAPTER XX.

From gods, half-gods and heroes, from the whole array of friendly or hostile beings that, superior to man in mind or body, fill up a middle space betwixt him and deity, we turn our glance to simple phenomena of nature, which at all times in their silent greatness wield an immediate power over the human mind. These all-penetrating, all-absorbing primitive substances, which precede the creation of all other things and meet us again everywhere, must be sacred in themselves, even without being brought into closer relation to divine beings. Such relation is not absent in any mythology, but it need not stand in the way of the elements receiving a homage to some extent independent of it and peculiar to themselves.

On the other hand, it is not the religion, properly speaking, of a nation, that ever springs from the soil of this elemental worship ; the faith itself originates in a mysterious store of supersensual ideas, that has nothing in common with those substances, but subjugates them to itself. Yet faith will tolerate in its train a veneration of elements, and mix it up with itself; and it may even chance, that when faith has perished or is corrupted, this veneration shall keep its hold of the people longer. The multitude will give up its great divinities, yet persist for a time in the more private worship of household gods; even these it will renounce, and retain its reverence for elements. The history of the heathen and christian religions shews, that long after the one was fallen and the other established, there lived on, nay there live still, a number of superstitious customs connected with the worship of elements. It is the last, the all but indestructible remnant of heathenism ; when gods collapse, these naked substances come to the front again, with which the being of those had mysteriously linked itself (see Suppl,).

To this effect I have already expressed myself (pp. 82-84) in

WATEE. 583

speaking of a worship of nature by our ancestors, which is indeed supported by early testimonies, but these are often perverted into an argument against the heathen having had any gods. The gods stood and fell from other causes.

Water the limpid, flowing, welling up or running dry; Fire the illuminating, kindled or quenched ; Air unseen by the eye, but sensible to ear and touch ; Earth the nourishing, out of which everything grows, and into which all that has grown dissolves;— these, to mankind from the earliest time, have appeared sacred and venerable ; ceremonies, transactions and events in life first receive their solemn consecration from them. Working as they do with never-resting activity and force on the whole of nature, the childlike man bestows on them his veneration, without any particular god necessarily intervening, though he too will commonly appear in combination with it. Even to-day the majesty and might of these eldest born of things awakes our admiration ; how could antiquity have forborne its astonishment and adoration ? Such a worship is simpler, freer and more dignified than a senseless crouching before pictures and idols.

All the elements are cleansing, healing, atoning, and the proof by ordeal rests mainly upon them ; but man had to secure them in their purest form and at the most seasonable times.

We will consider them one by one.

1. Water.'

Passages proving that the Alamanns and Franks worshipped rivers and fountains are cited at pp. 100-1 and in the Appendix.^

1 Goth, vato, ON. vain, OHG. wazar, OS. icatar, AS. wester, Dan. vand, Slav. vodd, Lith. wcmdu, Lett, uhdens, Gr. v5wp ; then, corresp. inform to Lat. aqua, but meaning fluvius, Goth, ahva, OHG. aha, AS. ed, ON. a ; the Goth, vet/a, OHG. wdc wages = fluctus, flow.

2 When here and elsewhere I use Bp. Burchard's Coll. of Decrees as authority for German superstitions, I do not forget that in most cases (not all) it is drawn from councils not held in Germany, but in Gaul, Italy or Spain. Yet, if we consider that German nations had been spreading themselves all over those countries down to the 8-9th cent., that the AS. and Lombard Laws, to say nothing of Capitularies, declaim equally with those Decrees of Council against water, tree and stone worship, that Agathias and Gregory of Tours expressly charge the Alamanns and Franks with such worship ; these superstitions are seen to be something common to the Italian, Gallic and German nationalities, of which none of them can be acquitted. Some have tried to make out from Agathias, that our forefathers had a mere nature-worship, and no gods. It would be about as uncritical to do what is to some extent the reverse, and suspect Agathias and Gregory of having adopted their assertions out of church-prohibitions that were never meant for Germany at

VOL. II. i

The people prayed on the river's bank ; at the fountain's brink they lighted candles and laid down sacrificial gifts. It is called 'fontibus venerationem exhibere, ad fontanas adorare (conf. Legg. Liutpr. 6, 30), ad fontes votum facere, reddere, exsolvere, orare ad fontes, offerre ad fontes, munus deferre, ad fontes Inminaria facere, candelam deferred This last no doubt was done only or chiefly at night, when the flame reflected from the wave would excite a religious awe.^ The Saxons also were fonticolae : wyllas and flutwoeter are named in the AS. laws as objects of reverence. Beside the passage from Cnut (p. 102), the Poenitentiale Ecgberti says 2, 22 : ' gif hwilc man his aelmessan gehate o'S'Se bringe to hwilcon ivylle'; 4, 19 : 'gif hwa his wseccan set senigum ivylle haebbe (vigilias suas ad aliquem fontem habeat) ' ; the Canones Edgari § 16 forbid ivilweord'anga (well- worship). I am not sure that a formal worship of water in Scandinavia is implied in the saga quoted above (p. 102), where votn is mentioned; but that water was held sacred is a thing not to be doubted. A lay in the Edda has near the beginning the remarkable words : ' hnigo heilog votn af himinfiollom,' fell holy waters from heaven's hills. The Sclaveni as early as Procopius (B. Goth. 3, 14) ae/Sovac Trorafj.ov'i (worship rivers) ; and as late as Helmold (1, 47) it is said of the Slavs at Faldera : lucorum et fontium ceterarumque superstitionum multiplex error apud eos habetur (see Suppl.).

Above all was the place honoured, where the wondrous element leaps up fx'om the lap of earth ; a spring is in our older speech urspriiic (-ges), and also^nmno.^

Often enough the first appearing of a spring is ascribed to divine agency or a miracle : Wuotan, Balder, Charles the Great, each made the reviving fountain flow out of earth for his fainting host (p. 226). Other springs are charmed out of the rock when struck by a staff or a horse's hoof ; '^ a saint plants a bough in

all. Into secular codes such prohibitions seem to have found their way first through the Capitularies ; the older codes had no penalties for idolatry, only the AS. domas of Wihtrasd cap. 13 impose them on deofolgild in general.

' At Christmas people look into their wells with candles.

^ From prinnan (ardere), as sot, another word for well, comes from siodan (fervere), welle (lluctus) from wallan (fervere), sual (subfrigidus) from suelan (ardere), conf. Gramm. 2, 29. 34 ; sprudeln to bubble up is from spriihen to fly off as sparks do. In such words fire and water get wedded together.

^ The Heliconian horse-fount (itttto/cp^j'tj) was struck open by Pegasus : ' novi

WATEB. HEILAWAC. 585

the ground, and water bubbles up. But there are two theories even more generally received : that the water of sacred brooks and rivers is in the first instance poured by gods and superior beings out of bowls or urns; and that springs and wells ai-e guarded by snakes or dragons lying near them (see Suppl.).

Water drawn at a holy season, at midnight, before sunrise, and in solemn silence, bore till a recent time the name of heilawde, lieilwdc, heilwcege. The first form, retaining the connecting vowel after a long syllable, proves the antiquity of the word, whose sacred meaning secured it against change. MS. 2, 149'^ : ' man seit (saith) von heilawdge uns vil, wie heil, wie guot ez si, wie gar vollekomen der eren spil, wie gar sin kraft verheilet swaz wundes an dem man verseret ist/ how good for healing wounds, etc. Martina 116: 'Got, du froude fliizzic heilaivdc,' and in a like sense 248. 283. Applied to Christ and his cross. Mar. 224 : 'der bourn ist gemeizzen, da daz heilwcege von bechumet, daz aller werlte gefrumet,^ the tree whence cometh h. And more generally, ' ein heilwdge,' Diut. 1, 352 ; much later, in Anshelm's Chron. of Bern 1, 308, ' heilwag ' among other charms and magic appliances. Lastly, in Phil, von Sittewald (Strasb. 1677) 1, 483 : ' running spriug-water, gathered on holy Christmas night, while the clock strikes twelve, and named heilwag, is good for pain of the navel,' Superst. 804. In this heilawac we discover a very early mingling of heathen customs with christian. The common people believe to this very day, that at 12, or between 11 and 12, on Christmas or Easter night, spring -water changes into wine (Superst. 54. 792),^ Wieselgren p. 412; and this belief rests on the supposition that the first manifestation of the Saviour's divinity took place at the marriage in Cana, where he turned water into wine. Now at Christmas they celebrated both his birth (epiphany, theophany, p. 281) and his baptism, and combined with these the memory of that miracle, to which was

fontis Dura medusffii quem praopetis nngiila rupit,' Ov. Met. 6, 257 seq. So the vein of gold in a liill is laid open by a blow from a hoof. Ehea opens a spring in Arcadia with her staff :

avTaviicracra 6ea /xiyav vipbOt trrjxw

TrXrj^ev 6pos aK-qirTpi^' t6 di oi olxo. ttovXv ZUarri,

(K 5' ^xeei* fjieya x^C/xa. Calliinach. hy. Jov. 28.

1 Zehn ehen eines weibes (lier ten marriages), Leipz. 1735, p. 235.

given a special narae^ betliptania.^ As far back as 387, Cbrvsostom preaching an Epiphany sermon at Antioch says that people at that festival drew running water at rtiithiight, and Tcept it a loliole yea.r, and often two or three (no doubt for thaumaturgic uses), and it remained fresh and uncorrupted.^ Superstitious Christians then believed two things, a hallowing of the water at midnight of the day of baptism, and a turning of it into wine at the time of the bethphania : such water the Germans called heilawac,^ and ascribed to it a wonderful power of healing diseases and wounds, and of never spoiling (see Suppl.).

Possibly even in Syria an old pagan drawing of water became veiled under new christian meanings. In Germany other circumstances point undisguisedly to a heathen consecration of water: it was not to be drawn at midnight, but in the morning hefore sunrise, down stream and silently (Superst. 89. 775), usually on Easter Sunday (775-6) to which the above explanations do not so well apply ; this water does not spoil, it restores youth, heals eruptions, and makes the young cattle strong.* Magic water, serving for unchristian divination, is to be collected hefore sunrise on a Sunday in one glass from three flowing springs ; and a taper is lighted before the glass, as before a divine being (Superst. H. c. 55-57).^ Here I bring in once again the Hessian

1 The first manifestation of Christ was his birth, the second his baptism (Candlemas), the third the marriage in Cana : 'Tertia apparitio fuit postea simihter eodem die anno revohxto, cum esset 30 annorum et 13 dierum, sive quando manifestavit se esse Deum per viutationem aquae in vinum, quod fuit primum miracukim apertum, quod Dominus fecit in Cana Galilaeae, vel simpUciter primum quod fecit. Et haec aj^paritio dicitur bethphania a ^rjTw, quod est domus, et cpdveiy, quod est apparitio, quia ista apparitio facta fuit in domo in nuptiis. De his tribus apparitionibus fit solemnitas in hac die.' Durantis Eation. div. offic. 6, 16. The church consoHdated the three manifestations into one festival.

• Tom. 2 (ed. Montfauc, Paris 1718), p. 369 : otd tol tovto /cai /jLecrovvKriq) Kara TT}V ioprrjv TavTrjv dTravTes udpevaafxevoi of/caSe to. vajj-ora dirorldevTaL, Kal eb iviavrbv o\6kXt]P0v (pvXdTTOvcri, are dr] cfqixepov ay Laa 6 ivTtiiv tQiv iddTwif Kal to crij/j.eioi' yiverai ifapyh, ov diacpdeLpofjLivijs ttjs tQv vdaTCjv eKeivwv (pvaews rip /MrjKei rov xpocou, dXX eis eviaVTov 6\6K\r]pov Kal 5uu) Kal rpia Irrj rod cry)ixepov dvTXrjdivTos dKepaiov Kal veapov p.€vovTos, Kal yuerd roaovTov xpo'"^" '''O'S ApTi. twv Trrjyu>v e^apiraadelai.v vdacnv afiiXXojfievov.

2 And also heilawin ? Frauenlob MS. 2, 213b on the ' garden that bears heilwin: Altd. bl. 2, 294.

■* Jul. Schmidt's Eeichenf. p. 121. At Cassel I have heard bathing in the ' drusel ' water commended as wholesome, but you must draw with the current, not against. Probably the right time for it is Walburgis or Midsummer.

• The rite, like others cited by Hartlieb (who wrote in 1455), may be of classic origin. In yaarpoiMavrela, i.e. divining by a bellied jar^ {ydaTpij) filled with water, there also occurs the torch and the innocent boy (Hartl.'s'' ain rain kind'). Potter's Antiq., 1, 764. Fabricii Bibliogr. antiq., ed. 3, p. 600.

WATER. HEILAWAC. 587

custom mentioned at p. 58 : on Easter Monday youths and maidens walk to the Hollow Rock in the mountains, draw water from the cool spring in jugs to carry home, and throw flowers in as an offering. Apparently this water- worship was Celtic likewise; the water of the rock-spring Karnant makes a broken sword whole agaiyi, but

du muost des urspringes han

underm velse, e in heschin der tac (ere day beshine it) .

Parz. 254, 6. Tit. 5456. 5732.^ Curious customs shew us in what manner young girls in the Pyrenees country tell their own fortunes in spring water on May-day morning.

We need not suppose that the peculiar properties of medicinal springs are the point here; no, it is the normal efficacy of the refreshing, strengthening, re-animating element.^ Many places in Germany are called Heilbrunn, Heilborn, Heiligenbrunn, from the renewing effect of their springs, or the wonderful cures that have taken place at them. Heilbronn on the Neckar is called Heilacprunno in the oldest documents.^ But certain springs and wells may have stood in especial repute. Of high renown are the ON. Mimishrunnr and TJrd'arhrunnr (p. 407), which Sn. 17 calls ' brunnr mioc heilagr' A Danish folksong (1, 318) tells of a Maribohilde, by whose clear waters a body hewn in pieces is put together again. Swedish lays celebrate Ingemos halla (Vis. 1, 244-5). We remember that old Frisian fount of Forseti, 'whence none drew water save in silence,' pp. 229, 230 (see Suppl.). Sacrifices were oflfered at such springs. Of the salutary effect of hot and chali/heate springs people must have been aware from immemorial time, witness the Aquae Mattiacae in the Roman time and those

1 The hardeninrj and repairing of swords in vater (sver^ lier'Sa, Sfem. 136^) was certainly believed in by the Germans too. The Vilkinasaga, cap. 40 p. 100, says : when dwarf Alberich had fashioned Nailring, he searched nine kingdoms before he found the water in which the sword could be tempered ; at last he arrived at the water Trnja, and there it was tempered. Our Eckenlied, str. 81, agrees with this, but is still more precise : ' dannoch was ez niht vollebruht, do fuorten'z zwei wildiu getwerc wol durch niun kiiuecriche, biz daz si kameu zuo der Drdl, diu da ze Troige rinnet, daz swert daz was so liehtgcmal: si harten'z in der Drale, des wart ez also fin ' (dwarfs bring it to the Dral, that runs by Troige, etc.). Who can doubt any longer of real German lays forming the groundwork of the Vilk. saga ?

" A man bitten by an adder will not die, if he can leap over the nearest water before the adder does so. Lenz's Schlangenkunde, p. 208.

» Bohmer's Reg. Karolor. nr. 740 (an. 841) ; Ecc. Fr. orient. 2, 893 ; ' der Necker vUuzet fiir HeiUcbrunuen (flows past Holy-well),' MS. 2, 68''.

'aquae calidae' near Luxeuil (p. 83). When the Wetterau people begin a new jug of chalybeate, they always spill the first drop or two on the ground, they say ' to clear the dust away/ for the jugs stand open, but it may have been once a libation to the fountain-sprite.^ Not only medicinal, but salt springs were esteemed holy : ancient accounts of these will be presented in a later chapter. The Mid. Ages cherished the notion of a jungbrunnen : ^ whoever bathes in it is both cured of diseases and guarded from them ; in it Rauchels shed her shaggy skin, and became the beauteous Sigeminne (p. 433-4) ; such a spring has sometimes the power even to change the bather^s sex (see Suppl.).^

In a spring near Nogent men and women bathed on St. John^s eve (Superst. L. 33); Holberg's comedy of Kilde-reisen is founded on the Copenhagen people's practice of pilgriming to a neighbouring spring on S. Hans aften, to heal and invigorate themselves in its waters. On Midsummer eve the people of Ostergotland journeyed according to ancient custom to Lagman's bergekiilla near Skeninge, and drank of the well (Broocman 1, 187. 2, 676). In many parts of Germany some clear fountain is

1 Where the Heathens ascribed the miraculous power of a spring to their wood or water sprites, the Christians afterwards transferred it to their saints. I take au instance from the Miracula S. Agih, written in the 12th century: Marvellous cures were wrought at the hrooh of St. Agilus. Sed interim quorundam vesaniae occurrere hbet, qui in digito Dei nequaquam haec fieri aestimantes, daemoniacae, pro nefas, attribuunt potestati. Cumque miracula diffiteri nequeunt, id solum iu causam calumniae adsumunt, quod in agresti hunt loco, ubi nullus Dei cultus, ubi nullae sanctorum memoriae. 0 prudentiam ! verentur homines sublimi ingeuio, ne ad ludibrium mortalium afaunis, mjiiiphis vel satyris, ceterisve ruris numinihus, res geratur ejusmodi. Nam ut de fabulis taceam, apud quos historiographorum veterum seu modernorum legitur daemones visum coecis, mentem amentibus, manus debilibus, gressum claudicantibus restaurasse? (Acta Bened. sec. 2, p. 333.) The Swedish people ascribe the healing power of some s^Drings to white snakes. Iu 1809 there flocked thousands from Halland and Vestergotland to the wonder-working Helsjo, a small lake near Eampegarde ; they said, some children tending cattle on the shore had often during the year seen a beautiful maiden sit on the bank, holding a snake in her hand and shewing it to them. It is only every hundredth year that this water-7iiaide?i vfith the snake appears (Bexell's Halland 2, 320 ; 3, 303). Multitudes from Norway and HaUaud visited a spring named S. Olaftikialla, dropt money-offerings in, and carried on other superstition (Odman's Bahusliin p. 169). In christian times healing fountains are believed to spring up near the tombs of holy men, Bex. Hall. 3, 09 ; or from under a saint's body, Flodoard. remens. 2, 3. I think it is with the hot baths at Aix that we must connect the watervxaiden with whose myth Charles the Great is mixed up,- p. 435.

2 Synonymously the OHG. quecprunno, MHG. quecprunne, Parz. 613, 9. Fragm. 18, 267.

3 Conf. the passages quoted in Mus. fiir altd. lit. 1, 260-3 from MonteviUa, from the Titurel and from H. Sachs.

WATEE. HEILAWAC. 589

visited at Whitsuntide, and the water drunk in jugs of a peculiar shape. Still more important is Petrarch's description of the annual bathing of the women of Cologne in the Rhine : it deserves to be quoted in full/ because it plainly proves that the cult prevailed not merely at here and there a spring, but in Germany's greatest river. From the Italian's unacquaintance with the rite, one might infer that.it was foreign to the country whence all church ceremonies proceeded, and therefore altogether unchristian and heathenish. But Petrarch may not have had a minute knowledge of all the customs of his country ; after his time at all events we find even there a lustration on St. John's day [described as an ancient custom then dying out] . Benedict de Falco's Descrizione de luoghi antiqui di Napoli (Nap. 1580) has the statement: 'in una parte populosa della citta giace la chiesa consegrata a S. Giovan battista, chiamata S. Giovan a mare. Era una antica usanza, hoggi non al tutto lasciata, che la vigilia di 8. Giovane, verso la sera e '1 secux'o del di, tutti huomini e donne andare al mare, e nudi lavarsi ; persuasi purgarsi de loro peccati, alia focchia degli antichi, che peccando andavano al Tevere lavarsi.' And long before Petrarch, in Augustine's time, the rite was practised in Libya, and is de~

^ Franc. Petrarcliae De rebus familiar, epistolae, lib. i. ep. 4 : Aqnis digressum, sed prius, iinde ortum oppicli nomen jiutaut, aquis bajauo more tepentibus ablutum, excei^it Agrippina Colonia, quae ad sinistrum Rheni latus sita est, locus et situ et flumine clarus et populo. Mirum in terra barbarica quanta civilitas, quae urbis species, quae virorum gravitas, quae munditiae matronarum. Forte Johannis haptistae vigilia erat dum illuc applicui, et jam ad occideutem sol vergebat: confestim amicorum monitu (nam et ibi amicos prius mihi fama pepererat quam meritum) ab hospitio traducor ad fiuvium insigne spectaculum visurus. Nee fallebar; omnis enim ripa praeclaro et ingenti mulierum agmine tegebatur. Obstupui, dii boni, quae forma, quae facies, quis habitus ! amare potuisset quisquis eo uon praeoccupatum auimum attulisset. In loco paullum altiore constiteram, unde in ea quae gerebantur inteuderem. Incredibilis sine oiJeusione concursus erat, vicissimque alacres, pars h/^rbis odoriferis incinctae, reductisque post cubitum vianicis, Candidas in giirgite mauvs ac brachia lavahant, nescio quid blandum pcregrino murmure coUoquentes. [A few lines omitted.] Unum igitur ex eo [amicorum] numero admiraus et ignarus rerum percunctatus vergiliano illo versiculo : ' Quid vult concursus ad amnem, quidve petunt auimae?' responsura accejji : pcrci'tustinn gentis ritum esse, vulgo persuasum, praesertim femineo, omnem totius aiuii calamitatem imminentem fluviali illius did ablutione purgari, et deincei^s laetiora succedere; itaque lustratumem esse a?un/am,inexhau3toque semper studio cultam colendamque. Ad haec ego subridens : ' 0 nimium felices ' inquam 'Rheni accolae, quouiam ille miserias jrargat, nostras quidem nee Fadus unquam jjurgare valuit nee Tiberis. Vos vestra mala Eritanuis Eheno vectore transmittitis ; nos nostra libcuter Afris atque lUyriis mitteremus, sed nobis (ut iutelligi datur) pigriora sunt fiumina.' Commote risu, sero tandem inde discessimus. [A few lines omitted.] The letter is of liiSO, and addressed to Card. Colonna. We find it quoted so early as by Kaisersberg (Omeiss 35*=).

nounced by tliat Father as a relic of paganism : ' natali Joliannis, de solemnitate superstitiosa pagana, Cliristiani ad mare veniebant, et SB baptizabant ' (OpPv Paris 1683, torn. 5, p. 903); and again: ' ne ullus in festivitate S. Johannis in fontibus aut lyaludihus aut in jiuminihus, nocturnis aut matutinis horis se lavare praesumat, quia haec infelix consuetude adhuc de Paganorum observatione remansit' (Append, to torn. 5 p. 462). Generally sanctioned by the church it certainly was not, yet it might be allowed here and there, as a not unapt reminder of the Baptizer in the Jordan, and now interpreted of him, though once it had been heathen. It might easily come into extensive favour, and that not as a christian feast alone : to our heathen forefathers St. John's day would mean the festive middle of the year, when the sun turns, and there might be many customs connected with it. I confess, if Petrarch had witnessed the bathing in the river at some small town, I would the sooner take it for a native rite of the ancient Germani ; at Cologne, the holy city so renowned for its relics, I rather suspect it to be a custom first introduced by christian tradition (see Suppl.).^

There are lakes and springs whose waters periodically riss and fall : from either phenomenon mischief is prognosticated, a death, war, approaching dearth. When the reigning prince is about to die, the river is supposed to stop in its course, as if to indicate its grief (Deut. sag. no. 110) ; if the well runs dry, the head of the family will die sooii after (no. 103). A spring that either runs over or dries up, foreboding dearth, is called liiiwjer quelle, hungei'- hrunnen (Staid. 2, 63). Wossingen near Durlach has a hungerhrunnen, which is said to flow abundantly when the year is going to be unfruitful, and then also the fish it produces ai'e small.^

' In Poland and Silesia, and perhaps in a i^art of Eussia, girls who have overslept matiu-time on Easter Monday are soused with ivater by the lads, and flogged with birch twigs ; they are often i^ulled out of bed at night, and di-agged to a river or cistern, or a trough filled with water, and are ducked. The Silesians call this scUmagostern (even Ester's Oberhess. idiot, has sciimakustcrn — ^smg the rod at Easter) ; perh. from Pol. smie, Boh. smyti, so that smigust would be rinsing [Sdppl. says, ' better from smagac to flog'] . The Poles say both smic and dyngowac, dyngus, of the splashing each other with water (conf. Hanusch, p. 197), and the time of year seems to be St. John's day as well as Easter. In the Eussian gov. of Archangel, the people hathe in the riuer on June 23, and sprinkle kupahiitsa (ranunculus aeris), Kai'amzin 1, 73-4 [the same is also a surname of St. Agrippina, on whose day, June 24, river-bathing (kupaluia) commences]. Everywhei-e a belief in the sacredness of the Easter-bath and St. John's-bath.

" Mone's Anz. 3, 221. 340, who gives a forced and misleading explanation of the

HUNGEE-SPEING. WATER-GAUGING. 591

Such a hunger-spring there was by Halle on the Saale ; when the peasants came up to town, they looked at it, and if it ran over, they said : ' this year, things ^11 be dear.' The like is told of fountains near Kosia in the Siennese, and near Chateaudun in the Orleanese. As Hunger was personified, it was easy to make him meddle with springs. A similar Nornborn was noticed, p. 405. I insert Dietmar of Mei'seburg^s report (1, 3) of lake Glomazi in the Slav parts of the Elbe valley : ' Glomazi ^ est fons non plus ab Albi quam duo milliaria positus, qui unam, de se paludem generans, mira, ut incolae pro vero asserunt oculisque approbatum est a multis, saepe operatur. ' Cum bona pax indigenis profutura suumque haec terra non mentitur fructum, tritico et avena ac glandine refertus, laetos vicinorum ad se crebro confluentiuTYi efficit animos. Quando autem saeva belli tempestas ingruerit, sanguine et cinere certum futuri exitus indicium praemonstrat. Hunc omnis incola plus quam ecclesias, spe quamvis dubia, veneratiir et timet.' " But apart from particular fountains, by a mere gauging of water a season of dearth or plenty, an increase or decrease of wealth may be divined, according as the water poured into a vessel rises or falls (Superst. F, 43 ; and no. 953 in Praetor's Saturnalien p. 407). This looks to me like a custom of high antiquity. Saxo Gram. p. 320 says, the image of the god Svantovit in Riigen held in its right hand a horn : ' quod sacerdos sacrorum ejus peritus annuatim mero perfundere consueverat, e^ijjso liqnoris hahitu seqiientis anni copias jprospecturus. Postero die, populo prae foribus excubante, detractum simulacro poculum cui'iosius speculatus, si quid ex inditi liqnoris mensnra suhstractum fuisset, ad sequentis anni inopiam pertinere putabat. Si nihil ex consuetae foecunditatis habitu diminutuni vidisset, ventura agrorum ubertatis tempora praedicabat.'' The wine was emptied out, and water poured into the horn (see Suppl.) .

word. Another name is schandlebach (beck that brmgs shame, confusion) : such a one was pointed out to me on the plain near Cassel, and Simpliciss. 5, 14 mentions the schnndlibnch by Oberneheim, which only runs when misfortune befalls the land. [SrrPL. adds the MHG. schaiitJiach, Weisth. 1, 760, and ' der schanden bechelin,' Frauenlob p. 186] . So, when the Liitterborn by Herbershausen (Helperhusen) near Cnittingen runs, it is a dear season ; but when the spider builds in lielpcrhouse mill, and the swallow in the millwheel, the times are good.

' Al. ' Glomuzi, Zlumici ' ; now the Lommatsch district.

• Capitul. an. 794 (Pertz 3, 74) : • experimento didicimus, in anno quo ilia valida famis irrepsit, ebulUrc vacuas annouas (empty ears), a daemouibus devoratas.'

Whirlpools and waterfalls were doubtless lield in special veneration; they were thought to be put in motion by a superior being, a river-sprite. The Danube whirlpool and others still have separate legends of their own. Plutarch (in his Ceesar, cap. 19) and Clement of Alex. (Stromat. 1, 305) assure us that the German prophetesses watched the eddies of rivers, and by their whirl and noise explored the future. The Norse name for such a vortex is fors, Dsm.fos, and the Isl. sog. 1, 226 expressly say, 'blota'Si fors'in (worshipped the f.).'' The legend of the river-sprite fossegrim was touched upon, p. 493 ; and in such a fors dwelt the dwarf Andvari (Stem. 180. Fornald. sog. 1, 152). But animal sacrifices seem to have been specially due to the whirlpool {Bivo<;), as the black lamb (or goat) to the fossegrim ; and the passages quoted from Agathias on pp. 47, 100, about the Alamanns offering horses to the rivers and ravines, are to the same purpose. The Iliad 21, 131 says of the Skamander :

fS Br) Zrjda Tro/Vei? lepevere ravpoiJ<;, ^u)oij<i S' eV Scvrjac KaOiere n,u)vv)(a^ lttttov^'

(Lo, to the river this long time many a bull have ye hallowed. Many a whole-hoofed horse have ye dropped alive in his eddies) ; and Pausan. viii. 7, 2 : to Se ap')(alov KaOleaav e? ri-jv Aeivyjv (a water in Argolis, conn, with 8lvo<i) rca UoaethwvL I'ttttou^ oc yipyeloi, /ce/cocr/ievou? ■^aXtvot';. Horace, Od. 3, 13 : 0 fons Bandusiae, non sine floribus eras donaberis haedo (see Suppl.).

It is pretty well known, that even before the introduction of Christianity or christian baptism, the heathen Norsemen had a hallowing of new-born infants by means of water ; they called this vatni ausa, sprinkling with water. Very likely the same ceremony was practised by all other Teutons, and they may have ascribed a peculiar virtue to the water used in it, as Christians do to baptismal -water (Superst. Swed. 116). After a christening, the Esthonians will bribe the clerk to let them have the water, and then splash it up against the walls, to secure honours and dignities for the child (Superst. M, 47).

It was a practice widely prevalent to turn to strange superstitious uses the water of the millwheel caught as it glanced off the paddles. Old Hartlieb mentions it (Superst. H, c. 60), and vulgar opinion approves it still (Sap. I, 471. 766). The Servians call

MILL-WHEEL WATER. RAIN-MAKING. 593

such water omaya, rebound, from omanutij omakhnuti, to rebound. Vuk, under tlie word^ observes that women go early on St. George's day (Apr. 23), to catch it, especially off a small brookmill (kashitchara), and bathe in it. Some carry it home the evening before, and sprinkle it with all manner of broken greens : they think all evil and harm will then glance off their bodies like the ivater off the millwheel (Vuk sub v. Jurjev dan). Similar, though exactly the reverse, is the warning not to flirt the water off your hands after washing in the morning, else you flirt away your luck for the day (Sup. I, 21).

Not only brooks and rivers (p. 585), but rain also was in the childlike faith of antiquity supposed to be let fall out of bowls by gods of the sky; and riding witches are still believed to carry 'pitchers, out of which they pour storm and hail upon the plains, instead of the rain or dew that trickled down before. ^

When the heavens were shut, and the fields languished in drought, the granting of rain depended in the first instance on a deity, on Donar, or Mary and Elias, who were supplicated accordingly (pp. 173-6). ^ But in addition to that, a special charm was resorted to, which infallibly procured ' rainwater,' and in a measure compelled the gods to grant it. A. little girl, completely undressed and led outside the town, had to dig up henbane (bilsenkraut, OHG. pilisa, hyoscyamus) with the little finger of her right hand, and tie it to the little toe of her right foot; she was then solemnly conducted by the other maidens to the nearest river, and splashed v:ith water. This ceremony, reported by Burchard of Worms (Sup. C, 20P) and therefore perhaps still in use on the Ehine or in Hesse in the 11th cent., comes to us with the more weight, as, with characteristic difierences which put all direct borrowing out of the question, it is still in force among Servians and Mod. Greeks. Vuk, under the word ' dodole,' describes the Servian custom. A girl, called the dodola, is stript naked, but so ivrapt np in grass, herbs and flowers, that nothing of

' The Peruvians believe iu a rain-goddess, who sits in the clouds witli a pitcher of water, ready to pour it out at the right time ; if she delays, her brother ■with thunder and lightning smites the pitcher in pieces. Garcilaso de la Vega's Histt. Incarum perx;auorum 11, 27 ; couf. Talvj's Characteristik der volkslieder, p. 12G.

• I will here add, from Anton's Coll. on the Slavs, the substance of a Wallachian song, which the children sing when the corn is endangered by drought : ' Papaluga (father Luga), climb into heaven, open its doors, and send down rain from above, that well the rye may grow ! '

her person is to be seen, not even the face.^ Escorted by other maidens, dodola passes from house to house, before each house they form a ring, she standing in the middle and dancing alone. The goodwife comes out and empties a hucJcet of water over the girl, who keeps dancing and whirling all the while ; her companions sing songs, repeating after every line the burden * oy dodo, oy dodo le !' The second of these rain-hymns (piesme dodolske) in Vuk's Coll. nos. 86-88 (184-8 of ed. 2) runs thus :

To God doth our doda call, oy dodo oy dodo le !

That dewy rain may fall, oy dodo oy dodo le !

And drench the diggers all, oy dodo oy dodo le !

The workers great and small, oy dodo oy dodo le !

Even those in house and stall, oy dodo oy dodo le !

And they are sure that rain will come at once. In Greece, when it has not rained for a fortnight or three weeks, the inhabitants of villages and small towns do as follows. The children choose one of themselves who is from eight to ten years old, usually a poor orphan, whom they strip naked and deck from head to foot xvith field herbs and flowers : this child is called Trvpirrjpovva. The others lead her round the village, singing a hymn, and every housewife has to throw a pailful of water over the pyrperuna's head, and hand the children a para {\ of a farthing). The Mod. Greek hymn is in Theod. Kind's rpajM^La tt}? vea<i ' EXX.d8o^, Leipz. 1833, p. 13. Passow, nos. 311-3, p. 627. Neither Greek nor Slavic will explain why the rain-girl should be called dodola (caressingly doda) and TrvpTrrjpovva' " Burchard very likely could have given us a German designation equally inscrutable. But the meaning of the performance is clear : as the water from the bucket on the dodola, so is rain out of heaven to stream down on the earth ; it is the mystic and genuinely symbolic association of means with end. Just so the rebound oflF the mill wheel was to send evil flying, and the lustration in the stream to wash away all

1 Is this covering merely to protect the maiden's modesty, or has it some further reason ? We shall see that personations of spring and summer were in like manner enveloped in foliage.

2 Kind, pp. 86-7, gives some variant forms, but all the explanations appear to me farfetched. Both the Greek and the Servian names have the reduplication so characteristic of folk-words. [Slav, dozhd is rain, and zhd represents either gd or dd; if this he the root, dodo-la may be a diuiin.]

EAIN-MAKING. DUCKING. 595

future illnesses. Celtic tradition, without bringing in girl or child, makes the 2?oiiring out of water in seasons of great drought evoke the wished-for rain. The huntsmen go to the fountain of Barenton in the forest of Breziliande, scoop up the water in their horns, and sjiill it on the stones ; immediately the rain-clouds rise and refresh the land. ^ The custom, with an addition of church ceremonial, is kept up to this day. Led by the clergy, amid chanting and pealing of bells, with five great banners borne in front, the parish walks in procession to the spring, and the head of the commune dips Ins foot crosswise in the fountain of Barenton ; they are then sure of its raining before the procession arrives home again.^ The mayor's foot alone is wetted instead of the child, or a little water only is poured out as a beginning of that which is to fall in masses from the sky. The scanty offering brings the great bounty to our door. In Spain, when hot weather lasts long, an image of the Virgin arrayed in mourning (imagen cubierta de luto) is solemnly escorted through the villages, to obtain the blessing of rain,^ as in the Liege procession (pp. 174-5), with which again that described by Petronius agrees (p. 175) ; only hei-e the symbolic libation is left out. But of those herbs that were tied round the child, some most likely were of magic power; such a use of henbane is otherwise unknown to me. Lastly, the Bavarian waterhird seems -identical with dodola and pyrperuna. The man who is the last to drive out on Whitmonday •* is led by the other workmen into the nearest wood, and tied round and round with leaves and twigs or rushes; then they ride in triumph through the village, and everybody that has young legs follows the procession to the pond or brook, where the ivaterhird is solemnly tumbled off his horse into the water (Schm. 1, 320). In Austria too the village lads elect a Whitsun king, dress him up in green houghs, hlaclcen his face and pitch him into the brook (Denis, Lesefr. 1,130). In these two cases the ' votis vocare

» Roman de Eon, v. 11514 (the passage extracted in the notes to Iwein, pp. 262-3).

2 Revue de Paris, tome 41, pp. 47-58. Villemar adds, that children tlirow pins into the fountain, while they call out : ' ris done, fontaiue do Bcreudon, et je te donnerai uue I'piuglc 1 ' and 'the fay of the fountain is supposed to be made friendly by the f^ift. Conf. 'libamina lacui exhibere', p. 596.

3 boii Quixote 1, 52 (Ideler 2, 435). And in other places it was the custom m time of drought, to carry the bodies of saints about, Flodoard. rem. 4, 41.^

• As the girl who oversleeps herself on Easter morning is ducked (p. 590).

imbrera' has dropt out altogether, and been replaced by a mere Whitsun drollery at the cost of the laziest man ; ^ but I have little doubt that the same purpose lies at the bottom of the custom (see Suppl.).

Of goddesses^ no doubt the bath-loving Nerthus and Holda are the most nearly connected with water- worship (Holda lives in wells^ pp. 268, 487) ; and to them must be added swan-maidens, merminnes (p. 433), water-holdes, spring-holdes (p. 268), watermuhmes and nixies. To all of them particular rivers, brooks, pools and springs can be consecrated and assigned as their abode; Oegir (p. 237) and Ban (pp. 311, 497) ruled in the sea, and the waves are called their daughters : all this gives a new stamp to the veneration of the element. Of this very natural, but not essential, combination of simple rude water-worship with a faith in higher beings, I will give a few more specimens.

As those who cross a river by ferry or by bridge have to dread the power of the dtemon that dwells in it (p. 497), so vulgar opinion in Sweden (Sup. K, 40) holds it advisable, in crossing any water in the dark, to spit three times, as a safeguard against evil influences.^ Precautions are also taken in drawing water from a well : before drawing any, the Greeks at Mykono salute three times in honour of Teloni (fountain-sprite).^ For a thief to throw in the water a little of what he has stolen (Sup. I, 836), means sacrificing to the water-sprite. The Vita S. Sulpicii Biturig. (died 644) relates (Acta Bened. sec. 2, p. 172): 'gurges quidam erat in Virisionensium situs agello (Vierzon, in Biturigibus) aquarum mole copiosus, utpote daemoyiibus consecratus ; et si aliquis causa qualibet ingrederetur eundem, repente funihus daemoniacis circumplexus amittebat crudeliter vitam.^ A more decisive testimony to the worship of water itself is what Gregory of Tours tells of a lake on Mt. Helanus (De gloria confess., cap. 2) : ' Mons ei'at in Gabalitano territorio (Gevaudan) cognomento Helanus, lacum habens magnum. Ad quem certo tempore multitude rusticorum, quasi libamina lacui illi exhibens,

' Sup. I, 342 : the lazy maid, on carrying home her first grass, is ducked or splashed, to prevent her going to sleep over grass-cutting.

2 The spirits cannot abide spitting (p. 51-1).

' Villoison in Maltebrun, Annales de voy. 2, 180, Artemidorus's Oneirocrit. 2 27 (Reiii 1, 189) admits well-nymphs : vvij.<pcii. re yap elaiv ei> ry (pp^ari.. Fauriel: TO ffTOLX^wv ToO iroTafioO.

HOLT WATEKS. LAKES. 597

Hnteamina projiciebat ac pannos qui ad usum vestimenti virilis praebentur : nonnulli lanae vellera, plurimi etiam formas casei ^ ac cerae vel panis^ diversasque species unusquisque juxta vires suas, quae dinumerare perlongum puto. Veniebant autem cum plaustvis potum cibumque deferentes, mactantes animalia et per triduum epulantes. Quarta autem die cum discedere deberent, anticipabat eos tempestas cum tonitruo et coruscatione valida ; et in tantum imber ingens cum lapidum violentia descendebat, ut vix se quisquam eorum putai-et evadere. Sic fiebat per singulos annos, et iuvolvebatur insipiens populus in errore/ — No god or spirit stews bis face here, the yearly sacrifice is offered to the lake itself, and the feast winds up with the coming tempest. Gervase of Tilbury (in Leibuitz 1, 982) tells of a lake on Mt. Cavagum in Catalonia : ' in cujus summitate lacus est aquam continens subnigram et in fundo imperscrutabilem, Illic mans'io fertur esse daemonum ad modum palatii dilatata et janua clausa ; facies tamen ipsius mansionis sicut ipsorum daemonum vulgaribus est incognita ac invisibilis. In lacum si quis aliquam lapideam aut aliam solidam projecerit materiam, statim tanquavi offe.nsis daemonibus tempestas erumpitJ^ Then comes the story of a girl who is carried off by the watersprites, and kept in the lake seven years.

Lakes cannot endure to have their depth gauged. On the Miimmelsee, when the sounders had let down all the cord out of nine nets with a plummet without finding a bottom, suddenly the raft they were on began to sink, and they had to seek safety in a rapid flight to land (Simplic. 5, 10). A man went in a boat to the middle of the Titlsee, and payed out no end of line after the plummet, when there came out of the waves a terrible cry: ' Measure me, and I'll eat you up ! ' In a great fright the man desisted from his enterprise, and since then no one has dared

' Formages, whence fromages.

2 This raisiug of a storm by throioing stones into a lake or wellhead is a Teutonic, a Celtic and a Finnish superstition, as the examples quoted shew. The watersprite avenges the desecration of his holy stream. Under this head come the stories of the Mummelsee (Djeut. sag. no. 59. Simplic. 5, 9), of the Pilatussee (Lothar's Volkssag. 232. Dobenek 2, 118. Gutslaff p. 288. Mone's Anz. 4, 423), of L. Camarina in Sicily (Camarinam movere), and above all, of Berenton well in Breziliande forest, Iwein 553-072, where however it is the well-water poured on the well-rock that stirs up the storm : conf. supra, p. 594, and the place in Pontus mentioned by Beneke, p. 269. The lapis manalis also conjured up rain, 0. Miiller's Etr. 2,97.

to sound the deptli of the lake (Moneys Anz. 8, 536). There is a similar story iu Thiele 3, 73, about Huntsoe, that some people tried to fathom its depth with a ploughshare tied to the line, and from below came the sound of a spirit-voice : ' i maale vore vagge, vi skal maale jeres lagge ! ' Full of terror they hauled up the line, but instead of the shai'e found an old horse's skull fastened to it.^

It is the custom in Esthonia for a newly married wife to drop a present into the well of the house ; it is a nationality that seems particularly given to worshipping water. There is a detailed account of the holy WoJihanda, a rivulet of Livonia. It rises near Ilmegerve, a village of Odenpii district in Esthonia, and after its junction with the Medda, falls into L. Peipus. The source is in a sacred grove, within whose bounds no one dares to cut a tree or break a twig : whoever does it is sure to die that year. Both brook and fountain are kept clean, and are put to rights once a year; if anything is thrown into the spring or the little lake through which it flows, the weather turns to storm (see Suppl.).

Now in 1641 Hans Ohm of Sommerpahl, a large landowner who had come into the country in the wake of the Swedes, built a mill on the brook, and when bad harvests followed for several years, the Ehsts laid it all to the desecration of the Jioly stream, who allowed no obstructions in his path ; they fell upon the mill, burnt it down, and destroyed the piles in the water. Ohm went to law, and obtained a verdict against the peasants ; but to rid himself of new and grievous persecutions, he induced pastor Gutslaff, another German, to write a treatise ^ specially combating this superstition. Doubtless we learn from it only the odious features of the heathenish cult. To the question, how good or bad weather could depend on springs, brooks and lakes, the Ehsts replied : ' it is our ancient faith, the men of old have so taught us (p. 25, 258); mills have been burnt down on this

• The people about L. Baikal believe it has no bottom. A priest, who conld dive to any depth, tried it, but was so frightened by the lus (dragons, sea-monsters), that, if I remember rightly, he died raving mad. — Teans.

2 A short account of the holy brook (falsely so called) Wohhanda in Liefland, whereby the ungodly burning of Sommerpahl mill came to pass. Given from Christian zeal against unchristian and heathenish superstition, by Joh. Gutslaff, Pomer. pastor at Urbs in Liefland. Dorpt 1644 (8vo, 407 pp. without the Dedic. and Pref.). An extract in Kellgren (Suomi 9, 72-92).

HOLY LAKES AND STREAMS. 599

brook before now (p. 278), lie will stand no crowding." The Estli. name is ' poba yogge/ the Lettic ' shveti ubbe/ i.e. holy brook. By means of it they could regulate the weather, and when they wanted rain, they had only to throw something in (p. 25). Once, when three oxen were drowned in the lake, there followed snow and frost (p. 26). At times there came up out of the brook a carl with blue and yellow stockings : evidently the spirit of the brook. Another Esthonian story is about L. Elm changing his bed. On his banks lived wild and wicked men, who never mowed the meadows that he watered, nor sowed the fields he fertilized, but robbed and murdered, so that his bright wave was befouled with the blood of the slain. And the lake mourned ; and one evening he called his fish together, and mounted with them into the air. The brigands hearing a din cried : ' the Eim has left his bed, let us collect his fish and hidden treasure." But the fish were gone, and nothing was found at the bottom but snakes, toads and salamanders, which came creeping out and lodged with the ruffian brood. But the Eim rose higher and higher, and swept like a white cloud through the air ; said the hunters in the woods: 'what is this murky weather passing over us ? " and the herdsmen: '^ what white swan is flying in the sky?" All night he hung among the stars, at morn the reapers spied him, how that he was sinking, and the white swan became as a white ship, and the ship as a dark drifting cloud. And out of the waters came a voice: 'get thee hence with thy harvest, I come to dwell with thee." Then they bade him welcome, if he would bedew their fields and meadows, and he sank down and stretched himself in his new couch. They set his bed in order, built dikes, and planted young trees around to cool his face. Their fields he made fertile, their meadows green ; and they danced around him, so that old men grew young for joy.^

' Fr. Thiersch in Taschenbuch fiir Hebe uud freunclschaft 1809, p. 179. Must not Eim be the same as Emhach (mother-beck, fr. emma mother, conf. (iim motherin-law) near Dorpat, whose origin is reported as follows ? When God had created heaven and earth, he wislied to bestow on the beasts a king, to keep them in order, and commanded tliem to dig for his reception a deep broad beck, ou whose banks he might walk ; the earth dug ont of it was to make a hill for the king to live on. All the beasts set to Avork, the hare measured the land, the fox's brush trailing after him marked the course of the stream ; when they had finished hollowing out the bed, God poured water into it out of his golden bowl (Verhandl. der esthn. gesellschaft, Dorpat 1810. 1, iO-12). The two stories differ as to Ihe manner of in'eparing the new bed.

VOL. II. jr

The Greeks and Romans personified their rivers into male beings; a bearded old man pours the flowing spring out of his urn (pp. 585. 593). Homer finely pictures the elemental strife between water and fire in the battle of the Shamander with Hephasstus : the river is a god, and is called dva^, Od. 5, 445. 451. The Indian Oanges too is an august deity. Smaller streams and fountains had nymphs set over them.' In our language, most of the rivers' names are feminine (Gramm. 3, 384-6), there must therefore have been female watersprites. Twelve or eighteen streams are specified by name in Ssem. 43''. Sn. 4. I single out Leiptr, by whose clear water, as by Styx or Acheron, oaths were sworn. S^em. 165'': 'at eno liosa Leiptrar vatni.'' A dasmon of the Rhine is nowhere named in our native traditions, but the Edda calls the Rfn (fern.) svinn, askunna (prudens, a diis oriunda, Sasm. 248^). And in the bosom of the Rhine lie treasure and gold. The Goths buried their beloved king Alaric in the bed of a river near Consentia (Cosenza), which they first dug out of its course, and then led back over the corpse (Jornandes, cap. 30) ; the Franks, when crossing a river, offered sacrifice to it (p. 45).

But where the sacred water of a river sweeps round a piece of meadow land, and forms an ea (aue), such a spot is specially marked out for the residence of gods ; witness Wunsches ouwe (p. 140), Pholes ouwa (p. 225).^ Equally venerable were islands washed byT;he pure sea wave, Fosetesland (p. 230), and the island of Nerthus (p. 251).

In the sea itself dwelt Oegir (p. 237) and Ran (p. 311), and the waves are their daughters : the Edda speaks of nine waves, and gives their names (Sn. 124, conf. the riddles in the Hervararsaga, pp. 478-9) ; this reminds me of the nona unda in the Waltharius 1343, and the ' fluctus decumanus^ [every tenth wave being the biggest, Festus, and Ov. Trist. i. 2, 50]. There must also have been another god of the sea, Geban (p. 239, conf. p. 311). Then,

1 The Komans appear to have much elaborated their cultus of rivers and brooks, as may be seen by the great number of monuments erected to river-gods. I will here add the testimony of Tacitus, Ann. 1, 79 : ' sacra et lucos at a,va.s patr Us amiiibus dicnre.'

" Gallus Ohem's Chronik von Reichenau (end of 15th cent.) quoted in Schonhuth's Eeichenau, Freib. 1836, p. v. : 'the isle is to this day esteemed honourable and hohj ; unchristened babes are not buried iu it, but carried out and laid beside a small house with a saint's image in it, called the chindli-bild.

EA, ISLAND. SEA. FIRE. 601

according to tlie .Edda, there lies in the deep [sea an enormous 'worm/ mi%ar^s-ormr, biting his own tail and begirding the whole earth. The immensity of ocean (Goth, marisdivs) is expressed in the OHG. names endilmerl and weiidihneri (Graff 2, 829) ; conf. enteo and wenteo (p. 5G4), entil and wentil (p. 375). An AS. term gdrsecg I have tried to explain in Zeitschr. fiir d. a. 1, 578. As the running stream will suffer no evil-doer in it, so is ' daz mer so reine, daz ez keine bosheit mac geliden/ so clean that it no wickedness can bear, Wiener merfart 892 (see Suppl.) .

2. Fire.
   

Fire/ like water, is regarded as a living being : corresponding to quecprunno (p. 588 n.) we have a quecjiur, daz quecke fiwer, Parz. 71, 13 ; Serv. vatra zhiva, ogan zhivi (vivus, Yuk 1, xlvi. and 3, 8. 20) ; to irvp drjplov efxylrvxov of the Egyptians, Herod. 3, 16; ignis animal, Cic. de N. D. 3, 14, i.e. a devouring hungry insatiable beast, vorax flamma; frekr (avidus). Seem. 50^'; bitar fiur, Hel. 78, 22 ; bitar logna 79, 20 ; gradag logna (greedy lowe), 130, 23; grim endi gradag 133, 11; eld unfuodi (insatiabilis) 78, 23 ; it licks with its tongue, eats all round it, pastures, veixeiah, 11. 23, 177; the land gets eaten clean by it, Trvpt x^^^ ve/xerat, 2, 780; 'leztu eld eta iofra bygdir, Saem. 142''; it is restless, aKufiaTov irvp, 11. 23, 52. To be spoken to is a mark of living things: ' heitr ertu hripuSr ! ' (hot art thou. Fire), Seem. 40^ The ancient Persians made a god of it, and the Indian Agni (ignis) is looked upon as a god. The Edda makes fire a brotlier of the wind and sea, therefore himself alive and a god, Sn. 126. Our people compare the element to a cock flying from house to house : ' I'll set the red cock on your roof is a threat of the incendiary ; ' ein roten han aufs stadel setzen,' H. Sachs iv. 3, Q'o'-^ ; voter schin, Gudr. 786, 2.

An antique heathen designation of the great World-fire, ON. muspell, OHG. OS. muspilU, mudspelli, mutspeUl, has already been noticed, p. 558. The mythic allusions here involved can only be unfolded in the sequel ; the meaning of the word seems to be ligni perditor, as fire in general is also called haul vidar,

1 Names for it, Gramm. 3, 352 ; Eddie names, Sffim. 50'', Su. 187-8.

grand vicfar (bane, crusher, of wood), Sn. 126, her alls vi&ar, Ssem. 228*^. Another difficult expression is eikin fur, Sasm. 83''. Of vafrlogi (quivering flame), suggesting the MHG. 'daz hibende fiwer ^ (Tund. 54, 58), I likewise forbear to speak; conf. Chap. XXXI., Will o' the wisp (see SuppL).

A regular worship of fire seems to have had a more limited range than the veneration of water ; it is only in that passage of the AS. prohibitions quoted p. 102, and in no other, that I find mention of fire. A part of the reverence accorded to it is no doubt included in that of the light-giving and warming sun, as Julius Caesar (p. 103 above) names Sol and Vidcanus together, and the Edda Jire and sun, praising them both as supreme : ' eldr er beztr med yta sonum, ok solar syn/ fire is best for men, Saem. 18^^ (as Pindar says water is). In Superst. B, 17, I understand ' observatio pagana in foco' of the flame on the hearth or in the oven: where a liearth-fire burns, no lightning strikes (Sup. I, 126) ; when it crackles, there will be strife (322. 534). Compare with this the Norwegian exposition (p. 242) ; so long as a child is unbaptized, you must not let the fire out (Sup. Swed. 22), conf. liasta eld, tagi i elden (24-5. 54. 68. 107). — The Esthonians throw gifts into fire, as well as into water (Sup. M, 11) ; to pacify the flame, they sacrifice a fowl to it (82).

A distinction seems to have been made between friendly and malignant fires; among the former the Greeks reckoned brimstone ._fire, as they call sulphur Oeiov, divine smoke (II. 8, 135. Od. 22, 481. 493). In 0. Fr. poems I often find such forms of cursing as : mal feu arde ! Tristr. 3791 ; maus feus et male fiambe m'arde ! Meon 3, 227. 297. Een. 19998. This evil fire is what the Norse Loki represents ; and as Loki or the devil breaks loose, we say, when a fire begins, that it breahs loose, breaks oid, gets out, as if from chains and prison : ' worde viir los,' Doc. in Sartorius's Hanse p. 27 ; in Lower Germany an alarm of fire was given in the words ' fiir los ! ' ON. ' einn neisti (spark) war^S laus.''

Forms of exorcism treat fire as a hostile higher being, whom one must encounter with might and main. Tacitus (Ann. 13, 57) tells us how the Ubii suppressed a fire that broke out of the ground : Residentibus flammis propius suggressi, ictu fustium aliisque verberibus ut feras (see p. 601) absterrebant, postremo tegmina corpore direpta injiciunt, quanto magis jprofana et usu pollut'a,

FIRE-WOESHIP. 603

tanto magis oppressura ignes. So, on valuables that have caught fire, people throw some article of clothing that has been worn next the skm, or else earth which has first been stamped on ivith the foot. Rupertus Tuitiensis, De incendio oppidi Tuitii {i.e. Deutz, in 1128), relates that a white altar-cloth (corporale) was thrust into the middle of the fire, to stifle it, but the flame hurled hack the cloth. The cloth remained uninjured, but had a red streak running through it. Similar to this was the casting of clothes into the lake (p. 596-7). Fire breaking out of the earth (iarS- eldr) is mentioned several times in Icelandic sagas : in the evening you see a great horrible man rowing to land in an iron boat, and digging under the stable door; in the night earth-fire breaks out there, and consumes every dwelling, Landn. 2, 5; 'iar^eldr rann ofan,' 4, 12 (see Suppl.).

Needfire. — Flame which had been kept some time among men and been propagated from one fire to another, was thought unserviceable for sacred uses ; as holy water had to be drawn fresh from the spring, so it made all the difference, if instead of the profaned and as it were worn out flame, a new one were used. This was called wild fire, as opposed to the tame and domesticated. So heroes when they fought, ' des fiurs uz den ringen (harness) hiuwen si genuoc,* Nib. 2215, 1 ; uz ir helmen daz wilde fiwer von den slegen vuor entwer,' Alt. bl. 1, 339 ; ' daz fiur loilde loadlende druze vluoc,' Lanz. 5306 ; ' si sluogen uf einander, daz wilde fiur erschien,^ Etzels hofh. 168 (see Suppl.). Fire struck or scraped out of stone might indeed have every claim to be called a fresh one, but either that method seemed too common (flainmam concussis ex more lapidibus elicere. Vita Severini cap. 14), or its generation out of wood was regarded as more primitive and hallowed. If by accident such wild fire have arisen under the carpenter's hand in driving a nail into the mortised timbers of a new house, it is ominous of danger (Superst. I, 411. 500. 707). But for the most part there was a formal kindling of flame by the rubbing of wood, for which the name known from the oldest times was notfeuer (need fire), and its ritual can with scarce a doubt be traced back to heathen sacrifices.

So far back as in the Indiculus superstit. 15, we have mention 'de i(jne fiicato de ligno, id e^i nodfijr' ; the Capitulare Carlomani

of 742 § 5 (Pertz 3, 17) forbids Mllos sacrilegos ignes quos niedfijr vocant.^

The preparation of needfire is variously described : I think it worth the while to bring all such accounts together in this place. Lindenbrog in the Glossary to the Capitularies says :

• Eusticani homines in multis Germaniae locis, et festo quidem S. Johannis Baptistae die, palum sepi extrahunt, extracto funem circumligant, illiimque hue illuc ducunt, donee ignem eoneipiat : quern stipula lignisque aridioribus aggestis curate fovent, ac cineres collectos supra olera spargunt, hoc medio erucas abigi posse inani superstitione credentes. Eum ergo ignem nodfeur et nodfyr, quasi necessarium ignem, vocant.^ — Joh. Reiskius/ in Uutersuchung des notfeuers, Frankf. and Leipz. 1696, 8. p. 51 : 'If at any time a grievous murrain have broke out among cattle great or small, and they have suffered much harm thereby ; the husbandmen with one consent make a nothfiir or nothfeuer. On a day appointed there must in no house he any jiame left on the hearth. From every house shall be some straw and water and bushwood brought; then is a stout oaken stake driven fast into the ground., and a hole bored through the same, to the which a wooden roller well smeared with pitch and tar is let in, and so winded about, until by reason of the great heat and stress (nothzwang) it give out fire. This is straightway catched on shavings, and by straw, heath and bushwood enlarged, till it grow to a full nothfe.iier, yet must it stretch a little way along betwixt two walls or hedges, and the cattle and thereto the horses be with sticks and whips driven through it three times or two. Others in other parts set up two such stakes, and stuff into the holes a windle or roller and therewith old rags smeared with grease. Others use a hairen or common light- spun rope, collect wood of nine kinds, and keep up a violent motion till such time as fire do drop therefrom. There may be in use yet other ways for the generating or kindling of this fire, nevertheless they all have respect unto the healing of cattle alone. After thrice or twice passing through, the cattle are driven to stall or field, and the

^ Ignorant scribes made it metfratres, the Capitularia spuria Beuedicti 1, 2 (Peitz iv. 2, 46) have nedfratres.

2 Eector of Wolfenbiittel school, v. Gericke's Schottelius illustratus, Leipz. 1718, p. 66. Eccard's Fr. or. 1, 425.

NEED-FIEE. 605

collected pile of wood is again pulled asunder, yet in such wise in sundry places, that every householder shall take a brand with him, quench it in the wash or swill tub, and put the same by for a time in the crib wherein the cattle are fed. The stakes driven in for the extorting of this fire, and the wood used for a roller, are sometimes carried away for fuel, sometimes laid by in safety, when the threefold chasing of the cattle through the flame hath been accomplished/ — In the Marburg Records of Inquiry, for 1605, it is ordered, that a new cartwheel with an unused axle be taken and worked round until it give fire, and with this a fire be lighted between the gates, and all the oxen driven through it ; but before the fire bo kindled, every citizen shall put his own fire clean out, and afterward fetch him fire again from the other/ Kuhn's Miirkische sagen p. 369 informs us, that in many parts of the Mark the custom prevails of making a nothfeuer on certain occasions, and particulai'ly when there is disease among swine. Before sunrise two stakes of dry wood are dug into the ground amid solemn silence, and hempen ropes that go round them are pulled back and forwards till the wood catches fire ; the fire is fed with leaves and twigs, and the sick animals are di-iven through. In some places the fire is produced by the friction of an old cartwheel. — The following description, the latest of all, is communicated from Hohenhameln, bailiw. Baldenberg, Hildesheim : In many villages of Lower Saxony, especially in the mountains, it is common, as a precaution against cattle plague, to get up the so-called xvild fire, through which first the pigs, then the cows, lastly the geese are driven.2 The established procedure in the matter is this. The farmers and all the parish assemble, each inhabitant receives notice to extinguvih every hit of fire in his house, so that not a spark is left alight in the whole village. Then old and young walk to a hollow way, usually towards evening, the women carrying linen, the rjen wood and tow. Two oaken stakes are driven into the ground a foot and a half apart, each having a hole on the inner side, into which fits a cross-bar as thick as an arm. The holes are stuffed with linen, then the cross-bar is forced in as tight as possible, the heads of the stakes being held together with

1 Zeitschr. des hess. vereins 2, 281.

^ Ny* a word about sheep : supposing cocks and hens wore likewise hunted over the cosi'is, it would explain a hitherto unexplained proverb (Keiuhart xciv.).

cords. About tlie smooth round cross-bar is coiled a rope, whose long ends, left hanging on both sides, are seized by a number of men ; these make the cross-bar revolve rapidly this way and that, till the friction sets the linen in the holes on fire. The sparks are caught on tow or oakum, and luliirled round in the air till they burst into a clear blaze, which is then communicated to straw, and from the straw to a bed of brushwood arranged in cross layers in the hollow way. When this wood has well burnt and nearly done blazing, the people hurry off to the herds waiting behind, and drive them perforce, one after the other, through the glowing embers. As soon as all the cattle are through, the young folks throw themselves pellmell upon the ashes and coals, sprinkling and blackening one another ; those who are most blackened and besmudged march into the village behind the cattle as conquerors, and will not wash for a long time after.^ If after long rubbing the linen will not catch, they feel sure there is still fire somewhere in the village, and that the element refuses to reveal itself through friction : then follows a strict searching of houses, any fire they may light upon is extinguished, and the master of the house rebuked or chastised. But that the wildfire should be evoked by friction is indispensable, it cannot b^ struck out of flint and steel. Some localities perform the ceremony . not yearly as a preventive of murrain, but only upon its actually breaking out.

Accurate as these accounts are, a few minor details have escaped them, whose observance is seen to in some districts at least. Thus, in the Halberstadt country tho ropes of the wooden roller are pulled hy two chaste hoys.^ Need fires have remained in use longer and more commonly in North Germany,^ yet are not quite unknown in the South, Schmeller and Stalder are silent, but in Appenzell the country children still havt^ a game of o-uhbing a rope against a stick till it catches fire : tiiis they call ' de tilfel hale/ unmanning the devil, despoiling him of his strength.^

' Is there not also a brand or some light carried home for a redistribution of fire in the village ?

" Biisching's Wochentliche nachr. 4, 64 ; so a chaste youth ihas to strike the light for curing St. Anthony's fire, Superst. I, 710.

^ Conf. Conring's Epist. ad Baluz. xiii. Gericke's Schottel. p. 70. Diihnert sub V. noodfiir.

•* Zellweger's Gesch. von Appenzell, Trogeu 1830. 1, 63 ; who oibserves, that with the ashes of the fire so engendered they strew the fields, as a pj'otectiou against vermin.

NEED-FIRE. 607

Bat Tobler 252^ says, what boys call de tilfel Jidla is spinning a pointed stick, with a string coiled round it, rapidly in a wooden socket, till it takes fire. The name may be one of those innumerable allusions to Loki, the devil and fire-god (p. 242). Nic. Gryse, in a passage to be quoted later, speaks of sawing fire out of wood, as we read elsewhere of symbolically sawing the old woman in two. The Practica of Berthol. Carrichter, phys. in ord. to Maximilian II., gives a description (which I borrow from Wolfg. Hildebrand on Sorcery, Leipz. 1631. p. 226) of a magic bath, which is not to be heated with common flint-and-steel fire : ' Go to an appletree ivhich the lightning hath stridden, let a saw be made thee of his wood, therewith shalt thou saw wpon a wooden threshold that much people passeth over, till it be kindled. Then make firewood of birch-fungus, and kindle it at this fire, with which thou shalt heat the bath, and on thy life see it go not out ' (see Suppl.).

Notfiur can be derived fi'om not (need, necessitas), whether because the fire is forced to shew itself or the cattle to tread the hot coal, or because the operation takes place in a time of need, of pestilence. Nevertheless I will attempt another explanation : notfiur, nodfiur may stand for an older hnoffiur, hnodfiur, from the root hniudan, OHG. hniotan, ON. hnioSa (quassare, terere, tundere) ; ^ and would mean a fire elicited by thumping, rubbing, shaking.

And in Sweden it is actually called both vrideld and gnideld : the one from vrida (torquere, circumagere), AS. wri^an, OHG. ridan, MHG. riden; the other from gnida (fricare), OHG. knitan, AS. cnidan (conterere, fricare, depsere).

It was produced in Sweden as with us, by violently rubbing two pieces of wood together, in some districts even near the end of last century ; sometimes they used boughs of nine sorts of wood? The smoke rising from gnideld was deemed salutary,

' OHG. pihniutit (excutit) , Gl. ker. 251. hnotot (quassat) 229. hnutten (vibrare) 282 ; N. has fnotun (quassare), Ps. 100, 6. Bth. 230 ; conf. nieton, to bump. ON. still has bnio'5a in hno'S (tudes, malleus), bno'Sa (depsere), hnu'Sla (subigere). It might be spelt hiiotfiur or huotfiur (bnutfiur), ace. as the sing, or pi. vowel-form was used. Perhaps we need not even insist on a lost h, but turn to the OHG. niuwan, ON. nua (terere, fricare), from which a subst. not might be derived by suffix. Nay, we might go the length of supposing that nut, ndut'S, nau'Sr, need, contained from the first the notion of stress and pressure (conf. Graff 2, 1032. 4, 1125).

" Ihre's De superstit. p. 98, and Glossary sub. v. wredeld. Finn. Magn.,

fruit-trees or nets fumigated with it became tlie more productive of fruit or fish. On this fumigation with widen eld, and on driving the cattle out over such smoke, conf. Superst. Swed. 89. 108. We can see that the purposes to which needfire was applied must have been far more numerous in heathen times : in Germany we find but a fragment of it in use for diseased cattle, but the superstitious practice of girls kindling nine sorts of wood on Christmas eve (Sup. I, 955) may assure us of a wider meaning having once belonged to needfire (see SuppL).

In the North of England it is believed that an angel strikes a tree, and then needfire can be got from it ; did they rub it only out of windfall wood ? or does striking here not mean felling ?

Of more significance are the Scotch and Irish procedures, which I am glad to give in the words of the original communications. The following I owe to the kindness of Miss Austin ; it refers to the I. of Mull (off the W. coast of Scotland), and to the year 1767. 'In consequence of a disease among the black cattle the people agreed to perform an incantation, though they esteemed it a wicked thing. They carried to the top of Carnmoor a ivheel and nine spindles of oak wood. They extinguished every fire in every house within sight of the hill ; the wheel was then turned from east to west over the nine spindles long enough to produce fire by friction. If the fire were not produced before noon, the incantation lost its effect. They failed for several days running. They attributed this failure to the obstinacy of one householder, who would not let his fires be put out for what he considered so wrong a purpose. However by bribing his servants they contrived to have them extinguished, and on that morning raised their fire. They then sacrificed a heifer, cutting in pieces and burning, while yet alive, the diseased part. Then they lighted their own hearths from the pile, and ended by feasting on the remains. Words of incantation were repeated by an old man from Morven, who came over as master of the ceremonies, and who continued speaking all the time the fire was being raised. This man was living a beggar at Bellochroy. Asked to repeat the spell, he said the sin of repeating it once had

Tidskr. for nord. oldk. 2, 294, following Westerdahl. Conf. bjaraan, a magic utensil, Chap. XXXIV.

NEED-FIEE. 609

brought liim to beggary, and that he dared not say those words again. The whole country beheved him accursed' (see Suppl.).

In the Highlands, and especially in Caithness, they now use needfire chiefly as a remedy for preternatural diseases of cattle brought on by witchcraft.^ ' To defeat the sorceries, certain persons who have the power to do so are sent for to raise the needfire. Upon any small river, lake, or island, a circular booth of stone or turf is erected, on which a couple or rafter of a hirchtree is placed, and the roof covered over. In the centre is set a perpendicular post, fixed by a wooden pin to the couple, the lower end being placed in an oblong groove on the floor ; and another pole is placed liorizontally between the upright post and the legs of the couple, into both of which the ends, being tapered, are inserted. This horizontal timber is called the auger, being provided with four short arms or spokes by which it can be turned round. As many men as can be collected are then set to work, having first divested themselves of all kinds of metal, and two at a time continue to turn the pole by means of the levers, while others keep driving wedges under the upi-ight post so as to press it against the auger, which by the friction soon becomes ignited. From this the needfire is instantly procured, and all other fires being immediately quenched, those that are rekindled both in dwelling house and offices are accounted sacred, and the cattle are successively made to smell them.'' Let me also make room for Martin's description,^ which has features of its own : ' The inhabitants here did also make use of a fire called tinegin, i.e. a forced fire, or fire of necessity,^ which they used as an antidote against the plague or murrain in cattle ; and it was performed thus : all the fires in the parish were extinguished, and then cightij-one (9 x 9) married men, being thought the necessary number for effecting this design, took two great planks of wood, and nine of 'em were employed by turns, who by their repeated efforts rubbed one of the planks against the other until the heat

1 I borrow the descriiJtion of the process from James Logan's ' The Scottish Gael, or Celtic manners as preserved among the Iligblanders,' Loud. 183L 2, Gi; though here ho copies almost verbally from Jamieson's Supplem. to the Scot. Diet, sub V. neidfyre.

2 Descr. of the Western Islands, p. 113.

3 From tin, Jr. teiue (fire), and egin, Ir. eigin, eigean (vis, violeutia) ; which seems to favour the old etymology of nothfeuer, unless it be simply a translation of the Engl, nccdiiio [which itself may stand for i/icutMreJ .

thereof produced fire ; and from this forced fire each famiJij is su-pplied with new fire, which is no sooner kindled than a -pot full of water is quickly set on it, and afterwards sprinkled upon the people infected with the plague, or upon the cattle that have the murrain. And this they all say they find successful by experience : it was practised on the mainland opposite to the south of Skye, within these thirty years/ As in this case there is water boiled on the frictile fire, and sprinkled with the same effect, so Eccard (Fr. or. , 425) tells us, that one Whitsun morning he saw some stablemen ruh fire out of wood, and hoil their cabbage over it, under the behef that by eating it they would be proof against fever all that year. A remarkable story from Northamptonshire, and of the present century, confirms that sacrifice of the young cow in Mull, and shows that even in England superstitious people would kill a calf to protect the herd from pestilence : Miss

C and her cousin walking saw a fi^re in a field, and a crowd

round it. They said, ' what is the matter ? ' ' Killing a calf 'What for?' 'To stop the murrain.' They went away as quickly as possible. On speaking to the clei'gyman, he made inquiries. The people did not like to talk of the aSair, but it appeared that when there is a disease among the cows, or the calves are born sickly, they sacrifice {i.e. kill and burn) one for good luck.' [A similar story from Cornwall in Hone's Daybook 1, 153.]

Unquestionably needfire was a sacred thing to other nations beside the Teutonic and Celtic. The Creeks in N. America hold an annual harvest festival, commencing with a strict fast of three days, during which the^res are put out in all houses. On the fourth morning the chief priest by rubbing two dry sticks together lights a new clean fire, which is distributed among all the dwellings ; not till then do the women carry home the new corn and fruits from the harvest field.^ The Arabs have for firefriction two pieces of wood called March and Aphar, the one male, the other female. The Chinese say the emperor Sui was the first who rubbed wood against wood ; the inconvenient method is retained as a holy one. Indians and Persians turn a piece of cane round in dry wood, Kanne's Urk. 454-5 (see Suppl.).

1 Fr. Majer's Mytliol. taschenb. 1811, p. 110.

NEED-FIRE. 611

It is still more interesting to observe how nearly tlie old Roman and Greek customs correspond. Excerpts from Festus (0. Miiller 106, 2) say: 'ignis Vestae si quando interstinctus esset, virgiues verberibus afficiebantur a pontifice, quibus mos erat, tahulam felicis materiae tarn diu ferehrare, quousque exceptum ignem cribro aeneo virgo in aedem ferret.^ The sacred fire of the goddess, once extinguished, was not to be rekindled, save by generating the pure element anew. A plank of the choice timber of sacred trees was bored, i.e. a pin turned round in it, till it gave out sparks. The act of catching the fire in a sieve, and so conveying it into the temple, is suggestive of a similar carrvinar of water in a sieve, of which there is some account to be given further on. Plutarch (in Numa 9) makes out that new fire was obtained not by friction, but by intercepting the sun's rays in clay vessels destined for the purpose. The Greeks worshipped Hestia as the pure hearth-flame itself.^ But Lemnos, the island on which Zeus had flung down the celestial fire-god Hephsestus,^ harboured a fire-worship of its own. Once a year every fire was extinguished for nine days, till a ship brought some fresh from Delos off the sacred hearth of Apollo : for some days it drifts on the sea without being able to land, but as soon as it runs in, there is fire served out to every one for domestic use, and a new life begins. The old fire was no longer holy enough ; by doing without it altogether for a time, men would learn to set the true value on the element (see Suppl.).3 Like Vesta, St. Bridget of Ireland (d. 518 or 521) had a perpetual fire maintained in honour of her near Kildare ; a wattled fence went round it, which none but women durst approach ; it was only permissible to blow it with bellows, not with the mouth.* The mode of generating it is not recorded.

The wonderful amount of harmony in these accounts, and the usages of needfire themselves, point back to a high antiquity. The ivJbeel seems to be an emblem of the sun, whence light and fire proceed ; I think it likely that it was provided with nine

1 Nee tu aliud Vestam qnam riram intcWige flnmmam, Ov. Fast. 6, 29u.

• Ace. to the Finnish myth, the tire created by the gods falls on the sea iu balls, it is swallowed by a salmon, and men afterwards find it inside the fish when caught. Kimcs pp. 6-22.

3 Philostr. Heroic, pp. 7W. Weleker's Trilogie, pp. 247-8.

• Acta sanctor., calend. Febr. p. 112".

spokes: Hliet niugenspetze fial' survives in the Fi-isian laws, those nine oaken spindles whose friction against the nave produced fire signify the nine spokes standing out of the nave, and the same sacred number turns up again in the nine kinds of wood, in the nine and eighty-one men that rub. We can hardly doubt that the wheel when set on fire formed the nucleus and centre of a holy and purifying sacrificial flame. Oar weisthiimer (2, 615-6. 693-7) have another remarkable custom to tell of. At the great yearly assize a cartwheel, that had lain six weeks and three days soaking in water (or a cesspool)^ was placed in a fire kindled before the judges^ and the banquet lasts till the nave, which must on no account be turned or poked, be consumed to ashes. This I take to be a last relic of the pagan sacrificial feast, and the wheel to have been the means of generating the fire, of which it is true there is nothing said. In any case we have here the use of a cartwheel to feed a festal flame.

If the majority of the accounts quoted limit the use of needfire to an outbreak of murrain, yet some of them expressly inform us that it was resorted to at stated times of the year, especially Midsummer, and that the cattle were driven through the flames to guard them bei^rehand against future sicknesses. Nicolaus Gryse (Rostock 1593, liii*) mentions as a regular practice on St. John^s day : ' Toward nightfall they warmed them by St. John's blaze and needfire (nodfiir) that they sawed out of wood, kindling the same not in God's name but St. John's; leapt and ran and drave the cattle therethro', and were fulfilled of thousand joys whenas they had passed the night in great sins, shames and harms.'

Of this yearly recurrence we are assured both by the Lemnian worship, and more especially by the Celtic.^ It was in the great gatherings at annual feasts that needfire was lighted. These the Celtic nations kept at the beginning of May and of November. The grand hightide was the Mayday ; I find it falling mostly on the 1st of May, yet sometimes on the 2nd or 3rd. This day is called in Irish and Gaelic la healtine or beiltine, otherwise spelt heltein, and corrupted into helton, heltim, heltam. La means day,

1 Hyde remarks of the Guebers also, that they lighted a fire every year.

NEED-FIRE. BEALTINE. 613

teine or tine fire^ and beal, beil, is understood to be the name of a god, not directly connected with the Asiatic Belus/ but a deity of light peculiar to the Celts. This Irish Beal, Beil, Gaelic Beal, appears in the Welsh dialect as Beli, and his 0. Celtic name of Belenus, Belinus is preserved in Ausonius, TertuUian and numerous inscriptions (Forcellini sub v.) . The present custom is thus described by Armstrong sub v. bealtainn : ' In some parts of the Highlands the young folks of a hamlet meet in the moors on the first of May. They cut a table in the green sod, of a round figure, by cutting a trench in the ground of such circumference as to hold the whole company. They then kindle a fire, and dress a repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide the cake in so many portions, as similar as possible to one another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub one of these portions with charcoal until it is perfectly black. They then put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet, and every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. The bonnet-holder is entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person who is to he sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore in rendering the year 'productive. The devoted person is compelled to leap three times over the flames.' Here the reference to the worship of a deity is too plain to be mistaken : we see by the leaping over the flame, that the main point was, to select a human being to propitiate the god and make him merciful, that afterwards an animal sacrifice was substituted for him, and finally, nothiug remained of the bodily immolation but a leap through the fire for man and beast. The holy rite of friction is not mentioned here, but as it was necessary for the needfire that purged pestilence, it must originally have been much more in requisition at the great yearly festival.

The earliest mention of the beiltine is found in Cormac, archbishop of Cashel (d. 908) . Two fires were lighted side by side, and to pass unhurt between them was wholesome for men and cattle. Hence the phrase, to express a great danger : 'itir dha iheiune boil,' i.e. between two fires. ^ That the sacrifice was

1 7^<'/, n<il, Isidor. Etym. 8, 23.

• O'l'lahcrty iu Transact, of Irish Acad., vol. II, pp. 100. 122-3.

strictly superintended by priests, we are expressely assured by Usher (Trias thaumat. p. 125), who founds on Evinus : Lege etiam severissima cavebatur, ut omnes ignes per universas regiones ista nocte exstinguerentur, et nuUi liceat ignem reaccendere nisi prius Temoriae (Tighmora, whom we know from Ossian) a magis rogus sacrificiorum exstrueretur , et quicunque hanc legem in aliquo transgrederetur non alia mulcta quam capitis supplicio commissi delicti poenam luebat.^

Leo (Malb. gl. i, 35) has ingeniously put forward an antithesis between a god of war Beat or Bael, and a god of peace Siglie or Sithich ; nay, by this distinction he explains the brothers Bellovesus and Sigovesus in Livy 5, 34- as servants (vesus = Gaelic uis, uais, minister) of Beal and Sighe, connecting Sighe with that silent peaceful folk the elves, who are called sighe (supra, p. 444 n.) : to Beal were offered the May fires, healtine, to Sighe the November fires, samhtheine (peace-fire). In Wales too they lighted fires on May 1 and Nov. 1, both being called coelcerth (see Suppl.).

I still hesitate to accept all the inferences, but undoubtedly Beal must be taken for a divine being, whose worship is likely to have extended beyond the Celtic nations. At p. 228 I identified him with the German PJloI ; and it is of extraordinary value to our research, that in the Rhine districts we come upon a Pfultag, Pulletag (P.^s day), which fell precisely on the 2nd of May (Weisth. 2, 8. 3, 748). We know that our forefathers very generally kept the beginning of May as a great festival, and it is still regarded as the trysting-time of witches, i.e. once of wisewomen and fays ; who can doubt that heathen sacrifices blazed that day ? Pholtag then answers to Bealteine,^ and moreover Baldag is the Saxon form for Paltar (p. 229).

Were the German May -fires, after the conversion, shifted to Easter and Midsummer, to adapt them to Christian worship ? Or, as the summer solstice was itself deeply rooted in heathenism, is it Eastertide alone that represents the ancient May-fires ? For, as to the Celtic November, the German Yule or Midwinter might easily stand for that, even in heathen times.

1 Conf. the accounts in Mone's GescMchte des heidenth. 2, 485.

• All over England on the 1st of May they set up a May pole, which may be from pole, palus, AS. pol ; yet Pol, Phol may deserve to be taken into account too.

BEALTINE. PHOL'S DAY. 615

Whicliever way we settle that, our very next investigations will shew, that beside both needfire and bealtine, other fires are to be found almost all over Europe.

It is not unimportant to observe, that in the north of Germany they take place at Easter, in the south at Midsummer. There they betoken the entrance of spring, here the longest day ; as before, it all turns upon whether the people are Saxon or Frank, All Lower Saxony, Westphalia, and Lower Hesse, Gelders, Holland, Friesland, Jutland, and Zealand have Easter fires ; up the Ehine, in Franconia, Thuringia, Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, and Silesia, Midsummer fires carry the day. Some countries, however, seem to do homage to both, as Denmark and Carinthia.

Easter Fires. — At all the cities, towns and villages of a country, towards evening on the first (or third) day of Easter, there is lighted every year on mountain and hill a great fire of straw, turf, and wood, amidst a concourse and jubilation, not only of the young, but of many grown-up people. On the Weser, especially in Schaumburg, they tie up a tar-barrel on a fir-tree wrapt round with straw, and set it on fire at night. Men and maids, and all who come, dance exulting and singing, hats are waved, handkerchiefs thrown into the fire. The 'm,nuntains all round are lighted up, and it is an elevating spectacle, scarcely paralleled by anything else, to survey the country for many miles round from one of the higher points, and in every direction at once to see a vast number of these bonfires, brighter or fainter, blazing up to heaven. In some places they marched up the hill in stately procession, carrying white rods ; by turns they sang Easter hymns, grasping each other's hands, and at the Hallelujah clashed their rods together. They liked to carry some of the fire home with them.^

No doubt we still lack many details as to the manner of keeping Easter fires in various localities. It is worth noting, that at Briiunrode in the Harz the fires are lighted at evening twilight

^ Job. Timeus On the Easter fire, Hamb. 1590 ; a reprint of it follows Reiske's Notfeuer. Letzner's Historia S. Bonif., Hildesb. 1602. 4, cap. 12. Leiikf<ld's Autiq. gandersb. pp. 4-5. Eberb. Baring's Bescbr. der (Lauensteincr) Saala, 1744. 2, 96. Hamb. mag. 26, 302 (1762). Hannov. mag. 1766, p. 216. Batblef's Diepbolz, Brem. 1767. 3, 36-42. (Pratje's) Bremen und Verdon 1, 165. Bragur vi. 1, 35. Geldersche volksalmauak voor 1835, p. 19. Easter tire is in Danish prj^-sA-e-^Zi/s or -bhtat ; whether Sweden has the custom I do not know, but Olaus Magnus 15, 5 affirms that Scandinavia has Midsummer tires. Still more surprising that England has no trace of an Easter fire ; we have a report of such from Carinthia in Sartori'a Keise 2, 350.

VOL. ir, N

of the first Easter day, but before that, old and young sally out of that village and Griefenhagen into the nearest woodlands to liunt up the squirrels. These they chase by throwing stones and cudgels, till at last the animals drop exhausted into their hands, dead or alive. This is said to be an old-established custom.^

For these ignes paschales there is no authority reaching beyond the i6th century; but they must be a great deal older, if only for the contrast with Midsummer fires, which never could penetrate into North Germany, because the people there held fast by their Easter fires. Now, seeing that the fires of St. John, as we shall presently shew, are more immediately connected with the Christian church than those of Easter, it is not unreasonable to trace these all the way back to the worship of the goddess Ostard or Edstre (p. 291), who seems to have been more a Saxon and Anglian divinity than one revered all over Germany. Her name and her fires, which are likely to have come at the beginning of May, would after the conversion of the Saxons be shifted back to the Christian feast.^ Those mountain fires of the people are scarcely derivable from the taper lighted in the church the same day : it is true that Boniface, ep. 87 (Wiirdtw.), calls it ignis paschalis,^ and such Easter lights are still mentioned in the 16th century.'* Even now in the Hildesheim country they light the lamp on Maundy Thursday, and that on Easterday, at an Easter fire which has been struck ivith a steel. The people flock to this fire, carrying oaken crosses or simply crossed sticks, which they set on fire and then preserve for a whole year. But the common folk distinguish between this fire and the wild fire elicited by rubbing wood. Jiiger (Ulm, p. 521} speaks of a consecration of fire and of logs.

1 Rosenkranz, Neue zeitschr. f. gesch. der germ. volk. i. 2, 7.

2 Letzner says (ubi supra), that betwixt Brunstein and WibbreclitshaiTsen, where Boniface had overthrown the heathen idol Eeto (who may remind us of Beda's Rheda), on the same Eetberg the people ' did after sunset on Easter day, even within the memory of man, hold the Easter fire, which the men of old named bocks-thorn.' On the margin stands his old authority again, the lost Conradus Fontanus (supra p. 190). How the fire itself should come by the name of buck's or goat's thorn, is hard to see ; it is the name of a shrub, the tragacanth. Was bocksthorn thrown into the Easter flames, as certain herbs were into the Midsummer fire?

3 N.B., some maintain that the Easter candle was ignited by burning-glasses or crystals (Serrarius ad Epist. Bonif. p. 343).

^ Franz Wessel's Beschreibung des pabstlichen gottesdienstes, Stralsund ed. by Zober, 1837, p. 10.

EASTER' FIRES. 617

Almost everyvvliere during the last liuudred yeare tlie feebleness of governments has deprived the people of their Easter fires (see Suppl.).!

Midsummer Fires. ^ — In our older speech^ the most festive season of the year, when the sun has reached his greatest height and must thence decline again, is named sunewende = sunnewende (sun^s wending, solstice), commonly in the plural, because this high position of the sun lasts several days: ' ze einen sunewenden,' Nib. 32, 4; 'zen naehsten suneweuden,' Nib. 1424, 4. Wigal. 1717; 'vor disen sunewenden,' Nib. 678, 3. 694, 3 ; ' ze sunewenden,' Trist. 5987 (the true reading comes out in Groot's variants) ; ^an sunewenden abent,' Nib. 1754, 1 ; ^nach sunewenden,^ Iw. 2941.'^ Now, as Midsummer or St. John's day (June 24), ' sant Johans sunewenden tac,' Ls. 2, 708, coincides with this, the fires in question are called in Up. German documents of the 14- 15th century sunwentfeuer, sunbentfewry and even now among the Austrian and Bavarian peasantry sunciwetsfoir, sunwentsfeuer . H. Sachs 1,423*^: 'auch schiirn die bubn (lads poke) sunwentfeuer.' At this season were held great gatherings of the people : 'die nativitatis S. Johannis baptistae in conventu populi maximo' (Pertz 2, 386) ; this was in 860. In 801 Charles the Great kept this festival at Eporedia, now Ivrea (Pertz 1, 190. 223) ; and Lewis the Pious held assemblies of the Empire on the same day in 824 and 831. Descriptions of Midsummer fires agree with those of Easter fires, with of course some divergences. At Gernsheim in the Mentz country, the fire when lighted is blessed by the priest, and there is singing and prayer so long as it burns; when the flame goes out, the children jiwip over the glimmering coals; formerly grown-up people did the same. In Superst. I,

^ ' Judic. inquiiy resp. the Easter fire burned, contr. to prohib., on the Kogelnberg near Volkmarsen, Apr. 9, 18.33,' see Niederhess. wochenbl. 1834, p. 2229''. The older proliibitions allege the unchristian character, later ones the waste of timber. Even bonfires for a victory were very near being sujipressed.

• The best treatise is : Franc. Const, de Khautz de ritu ignis in natali S. Johannis bapt. accensi, Vindob. 1759, 8vo.

• All the good MSS. have, not sunnewende, but sunewende, which can only stand for sunwende, formed like suntac. We also find ' zu xinniiltten,^ Scheflcr's Haltaus, pp. 109, 110 ; gilit here corresp. to Goth, gahts (gressus), and allows us to guess an OHG. sunnagaht.

■• Hahn's Monum. 2, 693. Sutner's Berichtigungen, Miinch. 1797, p. 107 (an. 1401).

848 we are told how a garland is plaited of nine sorts of flowers. Reiske (ut supra, p. 77) says : ' the fire is made under the open ■sky, the youth and the meaner folk leap over it, and all manner of herbs are cast into it : like these, may all their troubles go off in fii-e and smoke ! In some places they light lanterns outside their chambers at night, and dress them with red poppies or anemones, so as to make a bright glitter/ At Nui*nberg the lads go about begging^ billets of wood, cart them to the Bleacher's pond by the Spital-gate, make a fire of them, and jump over it ; this keeps them in health the whole year (conf. Sup. I, 918). They invite passers by to have a leap, who pay a few kreuzers for the privilege. In the Fulda country also the boys beg for wood to burn at night, and other presents, while they sing a rhyme : ' Da kommen wir her gegangen Mit spiessen und mit stangen, Und wollen die eier (eggs) langen. Feuerrothe bliimelein. An der erde springt der wein, Gebt ihr uns der eier ein Zum Johaiinisfeiier, Der haber is gar theuer (oats are so dear). Haberje, haberju! fri fre frid ! Gebt uns doch ein schiet (scheit, billet)!' (J. V. u. f. Deutschl. 1790. 1, 313.) Similar rhymes from Franconia and Bavaria, in Schm. 3, 262. In the Austrian Donaulandchen on St. John's eve they light fires on the hill, lads and lasses jump over the flames amid the joyful cries and songs of the spectators (Reil, p. 41). 'Everywhere on St. John's eve there was merry leaping over the sonnenwendefeuer, and mead was drunk over it,' is Denis's recollection of his youthful days (Lesefr. 1, 130). At Ebingen in Swabia they boiled pease over the fire, which were laid by and esteemed wholesome for bruises and wounds (Schmid's Schwab, id. 167); conf. the boiling over ueedfires (p. 610). Greg. Strigenitius (b. 1548, d. 1603), in a sermon preached on St. John's day and quoted in Ecc. Fr. or. i. 425, observes, that the people (in Meissen or Thuringia) dance and sing round the Midsummer fires ; that one man threw a horse's head into the flame, meaning thereby to force the witches to fetch some of the fire for themselves. Seb. Frank in his Weltbuch 5P : ' On St. John's day they make a simet flre [corrupt, of sunwent], and moreover wear upon them, I know not from what superstition, quaint ivreaths of mug wort and monlis-liood ; nigh every one hath a blue plant named larkspur in hand, and whosu loohetli into the fire thro' the same, hath never a sore eye all that

MIDSUMMEE FIRES. 619'

year ; he that would depart home unto his house, castefh this his plant into the fire, saying', So depart all mine ill-fortune and be burnt up with this herb ! ' ^ So, on the same day, were the waves of water to wash away with them all misfortune (p. 589). But in earlier times the polite world, even princes and kings, took pai't in these bonfires. Peter Herp's Ann. francof. tell us, ad an. 1489 (Senkenb. Sel. 2, 22) : 'In vigilia S. Joh. bapt. rogus ingens fuit f actus ante domum consuliim inforo (francofurtensi), fueruntque multa vexilla depicta posita in struem lignorum, et vexillum regis in supremo positum, et circa ligna rami virentes positi. fuitque magna chorea dominoriim, rege inspiciente/ At Augsburg in 1497, in the Emp. Maximilian's presence, the fair Susanna Neithard kindled the Midsummer fire with a torch, and with Philip the Handsome led the first ring-dance round the fire.* A Munich voucher of 1401 renders account : ' umb gi'as und knechten, die dy piink ab dem haws auf den margt trugen (carried benches to the market-place) an der sunbentnacht, da herzog Stephan und sein gemachel (consort) und das frawel auf dem margt tanzten mit deu purgerinen hei dem sunhentfwr,' (Sutner's Berichtig. p. 107|. On St. John's eve 1578, the Duke of Liegnitz had a bonfire made on the Gredisherg, as herr Gotsch did on the Kynast, at which the Duke himself was present with his court (Schweinichen 2, 347).

We have a fuller description of a Midsummer fire made in 1823 at Konz, a Loi-rainian but still German village on the Moselle, near Sierk and Thionville. Every house delivers a truss of straw on the top of the Stromberg, where men and youths assemble towards evening; women and girls are stationed by the Burbach spring. Then a huge wheel is wrapt round with straw,

• On June 20, 1G53, the Niirnberg town-council issued the following order : Wliereas experience heretofore hath shewn, that after the old heathenish use, on John's day in every year, in the country, as well in towns as villages, money and wood hath been gathered by young folk, and thereupon the so-called sonncnwendt or zimmet fire kindled, and thereat winebibbing, dancing about the said fire, leaping over the same, with burning of sundry herbs and flowers, and setting of brands from the said fire in the fields, and in many other ways all manner of superstitious work carried on — Therefore the Hon. Council of Niirnberg town neither can nor ought to forbear to do away with all such unbecoming superstition, paganism, and peril of fire on this coming day of St. John (Neuer lit. anz. 1807, p. 318). [Sunwend fires forbidden in Austria in 1850, in spite of Goethe's ' Fires of John we'll cherish, Why should gladness perish ? ' — Suppl.]

• Gasseri Ann. august., ad an. 1497, Schm. 3, 2G1 ; couf. Eanke's Roman, u. German, volk. 1, 102.

SO that none of the wood is left in sights a strong pole is passed through the middle^ which sticks out a yard on each side, and is grasped by the guiders of the wheel ; the remainder of the straw is tied up into a number of small torches. At a signal given by the Maire of Sierk (who^ according to ancient custom, earns a basket of cherries by the service), the wheel is lighted with a torch, and set rapidly in motion, a shout of joy is raised, all wave their torches on high, part of the men stay on the hill, part follow the rolling globe of fire as it is guided dovmhill to the Moselle. It often goes out first ; but if alight when it touches the river, it prognosticates an abundant viiita,ge, and the Konz people have a right to levy a tun of white wine from the adjacent vineyards. Whilst the wheel is rushing past the women and gii'ls, they break out into cries of joy, answered by the men orr the hill ; and inhabitants of neighbouring villages, who have flocked to the river side, mingle their voices in the universal rejoicing.^

In the same way the butchers of Treves are said to have yearly sent down a wheel of fire into the Moselle from the top of the Paulsberg (see Suppl.).^

The custom of Midsummer fires and wheels in France is attested even by writers of the 12th and 13th centuries, John Beleth, a Parisian divine, who wrote about 1162 a Summa de divinis officiis, and William Durantis, b. near Beziers in Languedoc, about 1237, d. 1296, the well-known author of the Rationale divinor. offic. (written 1286; conf, viii. 2, 3 de epacta). In the Summa (printed at Dillingen, 1572) cap. 137, fol. 256, and thence extracted in the Rationale vii. 14, we find: 'Feruntur quoque (in festo Joh. bapt.) brandae seu faces ardentes et fiunt ignes, qui significant S. Johannem, qui fuit lumen et lucerna ardens, praecedens et praecursor verae lucis . . . ; rota in quibusdam locis volvititr, ad significandum, quod sicut sol ad altiora sui circuli pervenit, nee altius potest progredi, sed tunc sol descendit in circulo, sic et fama Johannis, qui putabatur Christus, descendit

1 Mem. des antiquaires de Fr. 5, 383-6.

2 ' In memory of the hermit Paulus, who in the mid. of the 7th cent, hurled the idol Apollo from Mt. Gehenna, near Treves, into the Moselle,' thinks the writer of the article on Konz, pp. 387-8. If Trithem's De viris illustr. ord. S. Bened. 4, 201, is to vouch for this, I at least can only find at p. 142 of 0pp. pia et spirit. Mogunt. 1605, that Paulus lived opposite Treves, on Cevenna, named Mons Pauli after him ; but of ApoUo and the hrewheel not a word [and other authorities are equally silent] .

MIDSUMMER FIRES. 621

secundum quod ipse testimonium perhibet, dicens : me oportet minui, ilium autem crescere/ Much older, but somewhat vague, is the testimony of Eligius : ' Nullus in festivitate S. Johannis vel quibuslibet sanctorum solemnitatibus solstitia (?) aut vallationes vel saltationes aut casaulas aut cantica diabolica exerceat/^

In great cities, Paris, Metz, and many more, as late as the 15-16-1 7th centuries, the pile of wood was reared in the public square before the town hall, decorated with flowers and foliage, and set on fire by the Maire himself." Many districts in the south have retained the custom to this day. At Aix, at Marseille, all the streets and squares are cleaned up on St. John's Day, early in the morning the country folk bring flowers into the town, and everybody buys some, every house is decked with greenery, to which a healing virtue is ascribed if plucked before sunrise : ' aco soun dherbas de san Jean.' Some of the plants are thrown into the flame, the young people _/ttm^ over it, jokes are played on passers-by with powder trains and hidden fireworks, or they are squirted at and soused with water from the windows. In the villages they ride on mules and donkeys, carrying lighted branches of fir in their hands.'^

In many places they drag some of the charred brands and charcoal to their homes : salutary and even magical efi'ects are supposed to flow from these (Superst. French 27. 30. 34).

In Poitou, they jump three times round the fire with a branch of walnut in their Jiands (Mem. des autiq. 8, 451). Fathers of families whisk a biin.ch of white midlein (bouillon blanc) and a leafy spray of walnut through the flame, and both are afterwards nailed up over the cowhouse door ; while the youth dance and sing, old men put some of the coal in their wooden shoes as a safeguard against innumerable woes (ibid. 4, 110).

In the department of Hautes Pyrenees, on the 1st of May,

^ The Kaiserchronik (Cod. pal. 361, l^) ou the celebration of the Sunday :

Swenne in kom der sunnintac,

so vlizete sich Rome al diu stat (all R. bestirred itself),

wie si den got mohten geeren (to honour the god),

die allirwisisteu herren (wisest lords)

vuorteu einiz al umbe die stat (carried a thing round the citj')

daz wan geschaffen same ein rat (sliapeu like a wheel)

viit hrinnenden liehien (with burning lights) ;

0 wie groze sie den got zierten (greatly glorified the god) !

• Mem. de I'acad. celt. 2, 77-8. 3, 447.

3 Millin's Voyage dans le midi 3, 28. 341-5.

every commune looks out the tallest and slenderest tree, a pine or fir on the bills^ a poplar in the plains ; when they have lopped all the boughs off, they drive into it a number of wedges a foot long, and keep it till the 23rd of June. Meanwhile it splits diamond-shape where the wedges were inserted, and is now rolled and dragged up a mountain or hill. There the priest gives it his blessing, they plant it upright in the ground, and set it on fire (ibid. 5, 387).

Strutt ^ speaks of Midsummer fires in England : they were lighted on Midsummer Eve, and kept up till midnight, often till cock-crow ; the youth danced round the flame, in garlands of motherwort and vervain, with violets in their hands. In Denmark they are called Sanct Hans afteiis hlits, but also gadeild (streetfire), because they are lighted in public streets or squares, and on hills. [Is not gade conn, with sunna-gaht, p. 617 ?] Imagining that all poisonous plants came up out of the ground that night, people avoided lingering on the grass ; but wholesome plants (chamaemelum and bardanum) they hung up in their houses. Some however shift these street-fires to May-day eve." Norway also knows the custom: 'S. Hans aften brandes der baal ved alle griner (hedged country-lane's), hvilket skal fordrive ondt (harm) fra creaturerne,^ Sommerfeldt's Saltdalen, p. 121. But some words quoted by Hallager p. 13 are worth noting, viz. brandshat for the wood burnt in the fields, and brising for the kindled fire ; the latter reminds us of the gleaming necklace of Freyja (p. 306-7), and may have been transferred from the flame to the jewel, as well as from the jewel to the flame.

There is no doubt that some parts of Italy had Midsummer fires : at Orvieto they were exempted from the restrictions laid on other fires.^ Italian sailors lighted them on board ship out at sea, Eel. Eabri Evagat. 1, 170. And Spain is perhaps to be included on the strength of a passage in the Romance de Guarinos (Silva, p. 113) :

1 Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, by Jos. Strutt. New ed. by "WHone. Lond. 1830, p. 359.

2 ilolbech's Dialect. Lex. 150. Lyngbye's Nord. tidskr. for oldk. 2, 352-9. Finn Magn. Lex. myth. 1091-4. Arndt's Reise durch Schweden 3, 72-3.

3 Statuta urbevetana, an. 1491. 3, 51 : Quicunque sine licentia officialis fecerit ignem in ahqua festivitate de nocte in civitate, in xl sol. denarior. pimiatur, excepta festivitate S. Johannis bapt. de nieuse Junii, et qui in ilia uocte furatus iuerit vel abstulerit ligua vel tabulas alterius in lib. x den. puniatur.

MIDSUMMER FIRES. 623

Yanse dias, vienen dias, venido era el de Sunt Juan, donde Christianos y Moros hazen gran solenidad : los Christianos echan juncia, j los Moros arraijhan, los Judios echan eneas, per la fiesta mas honrar.

Here nothing is said of fire/ but we are told that the Christians strew rushes, the Moors myrtle, the Jews reeds ; and the throwing of flowers and herbs into the flame seems an essential pai-t of the celebration, e.g. mugwort, monks-hood, larkspur (p. 618), mullein and walnut leaves (p. 621). Hence the collecting of all such John' s-herhs in Germany (Superst. I, 157. 189. 190), and of S. Hans urter (worts) in Denmark (K, 126), and the like in France (L, 4). According to Casp. Zeumer's De igne in festo S. Joh. accendi solito, Jenae 1699, the herb aXi,8fxa (?) was diligently sought on that day and hung up over doors.

In Greece the women make a fire on Midsummer Eve, and jii7np over it, crying, ' I leave my sins.' In Servia they think the feast is so venerable, that the sun halts three times in reverence.^ On the day before it, the herdsmen tie birchbark into torches, and having lighted them, they first march round the sheepfolds and cattle-pens, then go up the hills and let them hum out (Vuk sub V.Ivan dan). Other Slav countries have similar observances. In Sartori's Journey through Carinthia 3, 349-50, we find the rolling of St. John^s fiery wheel fully described. Midsummerday or the solstice itself is called by the Slovens kres, by the Ci'oats hresz, i.e. striking of light, from kresati (ignem elicere), Pol. krzesac j and as May is in Irish mi-na-bealtine (fire-month), so June in Slovenic is kresnik. At the kres there were leafs of joy performed at night ; of lighting by friction I find no mention. Poles and Bohemians called the Midsummer fire sobotha^ i.e. little Saturday, as compared with the great sobota (Easter Eve) ; the

1 It is spoken of more definitely by Martinus de Aries, canonicus of Pami^eluna (cir. 1510), in his treatise De superstitionibus (Tract, tractatuum, ed. Lugd. 1544. 9, 133) : Cum in die S. Johaunis propter jucunditatem multa pie aguutur a fidelibus, puta pulsatio campauarum et if/iu^s jucunditatis, similiter summo mane exeunt ad colligendas hcrbus odoriferas et optimas et mediciuales ex sua natura et ex plenitudinevirtutum propter tempus. . . quidam i(/nes (iccendunt in compitis viarum, in agris, ne inde sortilegae et maleficae ilia nocte trausitum faciant, ut ego propriis oculis vidi. Alii herOax collectas in die S. Johaunis iiicendeittes contra fulgura, tonitrua et tempestates credunt suis fumigatiouibus arcere daemones et tempestates.

' As he is supposed to leap three times at Easter (p. 291).

Bohemians used to lead their cows over it to protect them from witchcraft. The Russian name was kupdlo, which some explain by a god of harvest, Kupalo : youths and maidens, garlanded with flowers and girt with holy herbs, assembled on the 24th June, ligJded a fire, leapt and led their flocks over it, singino- hymns the while in praise of the god. They thought thereby to shield their cattle from the leshis or woodsprites. At times a white cock is said to have been burnt in the fire amid dance and song. Even now the female saint, whose feast the Greek ritual keeps on this day [Agrippina], has the by-name kupdlnitsa ; a burning pile of wood is called the same, and so, according to Karamzin, is the flower that is strewn on St. John's Day [ranunculus, crowfoot] .^ This fire seems to have extended to the Lithuanians too : I find that with them kwpoles is the name of a St. John's herb. Tettau and Temme p. 277 report, that in Prussia and Lithuania, on Midsummer Eve fires blaze on all the heights, as far as the eye can reach. The next morning they drive their cattle to pasture over the remains of these fires, as a specific against murrain, magic and milk-drought, yet also against hailstroke and lightning. The lads who lighted the fires go from house to house collecting milk. On the same Midsummer Eve they fasten large burs and mugwort (that is to say, kupoles) over the gate or gap through which the cattle always pass.

Now at a bird's-eye view we perceive that these fires cover nearly all Europe, and have done from time immemorial. About them it might seem a great deal more doubtful than about waterlustration (pp. 585. 590), whether they are of heathen or of Christian origin. The church had appropriated them so very early to herself, and as Beleth and Durantis shew, had made them point to John ; the clergy took some part in their celebration, though it never passed entirely into their hands, but was mainly conducted by the secular authorities and the people itself (see SuppL).

Paciaudi" labours to prove that the fires of St. John have nothing to do with the far older heathenish fires, but have sprung out of the spirit of Christian worship.

1 Karamzin 1. 73. 81. 284. Gotze's Russ. volksl. p. 2,30-2. Dobrovsky denies a god Kupalo, and derives the feast from kdpa (haycock) ; Hanusch p. 201 from kupel, kaupel, kupadlo (bath, poud), because ace. to Slav notions the sun rises out of his bath, or Viecanse pouring of water may have been practised at the festival.

2 De cultu S. Johannis baptistae, Eomae 1755, dissert. 8, cap. 1. 2.

(palilia). 625

In Deut. 18, 10 and 2 Chron. 28, 3 is mentioned the heathen custom of making sons and daughters pass through afire. In reference to this, Theodoret bp. of Cyrus (d. 458), makes a note on 2 Kings 16, 3 : elhov yap ev ricn iroXeaiv aira^ tov eVoi;? eV Ta2<i irXaTelai'i dTTTO/jieva'i irvpa^ ical Tavra<i Ttm? vTrepaWofievov'i Kal TTT^SwvTO.? ov fjiovov TTalSa'i aWa Kal dv8pa<;, ra 8e ye ^pe(f)'r] irapa tu>v fxrjrepcov irapa(^ep6iJieva hta Tri<i (f)\o'y6^. eSoKec 8e rovTO diroTpoTTLaa/xoii elvat Kal KcidapaL^;. (In some towns I saw pyres hghted once a year in the streets, and not only children but men leaping over them, and the infants passed through the fiame by their mothers. This was deemed a protective expiation).^ He says *' once a year,' but does not specify the day, which would have shewn us whether the custom was imported into Syria fx'om Rome. On April 21, the day of her founding, Rome kept the palilia, an ancient feast of herdsmen, in honour of Pales, a motherly divinity reminding us of Ceres and Vesta. ^ This date does not coincide with the solstice, but it does with the time of the Easter fire ; the ritual itself, the leaping over the flame, the driving of cattle through the glowing embers, is quite the same as at the Midsummer fire and needfire. A few lines from Ovid's description in the 4th book of the Fasti shall sufiice :

727. certe  ego  transilui  positas  ter  in  ordine  flammas.
     

728. moxque  per  ardentes  stipulae  crepitantis  acervos
     

trajicias celeri streuua membra pede. 795. pars quoque, quum saxis pastores saxa feribant,

scintillam subito prosiluisse ferunt ; prima quidem periit ; stipulis excepta secunda est,

hoc argumentvixn. fiamma palilis habet. 805. per flammas saluisse pecus, saluisse colonos ;

quod fit natali nunc quoque, Roma, tuo (see Suppl.).

The shepherds had struck the fire out of stone, and caught it on straw ; the leaping through it was to atone and cleanse, and to secure their flock against all harm. That children were placed in tJie fire by their mothers, we are not told here ; we know how the infant Demophoon or Triptolemus was put in the fire by

' 0pp., ed. Sirmond, Paris, 1642. 1, 352.

• Tlie masc. Fa Us-, which also occurs, may remind us of the Slav god of shepherds, Euss. I'olos, Boh. U'eles,

Ceres, as Achilles was by Thetis, to insure his immortality.^ This fire-worship seems equally at home in Canaan, Syria, Greece and Rome, so that we are not justified in pronouncing it a borrowed and imported thing- in any one of them. It is therefore hard to determine from what source the Christians afterwards drew, when they came to use it in their Easter and Midsummer festivals, or on other occasions. Canon 65 of the Council of a.d. 680 already contains a prohibition of these superstitious fires at neiv moon : ra? e'v ral^ vov/xrivlaL'i vtto TLVOiv Trpo rcov olk€L(j)v ipyao-rrjpicov rj oXkwv ava7rTo/jbeva<i 7rvpKaLa<;, a? Kal virepaXkeaOai rtve'?, Kara TO eOo<; ap')(cuov, eiri'^eLpovaLv, (itto irapovro'i KaTap<yr)6r]vai •jTpoardrTo/xev (The Jlres kindled before workshops and houses at new moon, which some also leap over after the ancient custom, we command henceforth to be abolished). The same thing was then forbidden, which afterwards, on St. John's day at least, was tolerated, and to some extent connected with church ordinances.

Now, even supposing that the Midsummer fire almost universal throughout Europe had, like the Midsummer bath, proceeded more immediately from the church, and that she had picked it up in Italy directly from the Roman palilia ; it does not follow yet, that our Easter fires in northern Germany are a mere modification of those at Midsummer. We are at liberty to derive them straight from fires of our native heathenism : in favour of this view is the difference of day, perhaps also their ruder form ; to the last there was more earnestness about them, and more general participation ; Midsummer fires were more elegant and tasteful, but latterly confined to children and common people alone, though princes and nobles had attended them before. Mountain and hill are essential to Easter fires, the Solstitial fire was frequently made in streets and marketplaces. Of jumping through the fire, of flowers and wreaths, I find scarcely a word in connexion with the former ; friction of fire is only mentioned a few times at the Midsummer fire, never at the Easter, and yet this friction is the surest mark of heathenism, and — as with needfire in North Germany, so with Easter fires there — may safely be assumed. Only of these last we have no accounts whatever. The Celtic bel-fires, and if my conjecture be right, our Phol-days, stand nearly midway betwixt

1 Conf. the superstitious ' filium in fornncem -ponerfi pro sanitate febrium,' and 'ponere infantem j«(xto ignem,' Superst. B, 10. 14, and p. 200*.

OTHER FIRES. 627

Easter and Midsummer^ but nearer to Easter when that falls late. A feature common to all three, and perhaps to all public fires of antiquity, is the wheel, as fnction is to all the ancient Easter fires.

I must not omit to mention, that fires were also lighted at the season opposite to summer, at Christmas, and in Lent. To the Yule-fire answers the Gaelic samhtheine (p. 614) of the 1st November. In France they have still in vogue the souche de Noel (from dies natalis, Prov. natal) or the trefue (log that burns three days, Superst.K, 1. 28), couf.the trefoir in Brand's Pop.antiq. 1, 468. At Marseille they burnt the calendemi or caligneau, a large oaken log, sprinkling it with wine and oil ; it devolved on the master of the house to set light to it (Millin 3, 336). In Dauphine they called it chalendal, it was lighted on Christmas eve and sprinkled with wine, they considered it holy, and had to let it burn out in peace (Champol.-Figeac, p. 124). Christmastide was called chalendes, Prov. calendas ( Raynouard 1, 292), because New-year commenced on Dec. 25. In Germany I find the same custom as far back as the 12th cent. A document of 1184 (Kindl.'s Miinst. beitr. ii. urk. 34) says of the parish priest of Ahlen in Miinsterland : ' et arborem in nativitate Domini ad festivum ignem suum adducendam esse dicebat.' The hewing of the Christmas block is mentioned in the Weisthiimer 2, 264. 302. On the Engl, yule-clog see Sup. I, 1109, and the Scandinav. julblok is well known ; the Lettons call Christmas eve hlukhii wahkars, block evening, from the carrying about and burning of the log (blukkis).i Seb. Frank (Weltbuch 5P) reports the following Shrovetide customs from Franconia: 'In other places they draw a fierij i^lough kindled by a fire cunningly made thereon, till it fall in pieces (supra, p. 264). Item, they wrap a waggon-wheel all round in straw, drag it up an high steep mountain, and hold thereon a merrymaking all the day, so they may for the cold, with many sorts of pastime, as singing, leaping, dancing, odd or even, and other pranks. About the time of vespers they set the wheel afire, and let it rtm into the vale at full speed, which to look upon is like as the sun were running from the sky.' Such a

1 ' So the Lith. A:a//tYZos = Chiistmas, from kalada, a log.' — Sltpl.

' hoop-triindUng ' on Shrove Tuesday is mentioned by Schm. 1^ 544; the day is called funlcentag (spunk.), in the Rheingau hallfeuer, in France ' la fete des hrandoiis.' ^ It is likely that similar fires take place here and there in connexion with the vintage. In the Voigtland on Mayday eve, which would exactly agree with the bealteine, you may see fires on most of the hills, and children with blazing brooms (Jul. Schmidt's Reichenf. 118). Lastly, the Servians at Christmas time light a log of oak newly cut, hadniah, and pour wine upon it. The cake they bake at such a fire and hand round (Vuk's Montenegro, 105) recalls the Gaelic practice (p. 613). The Slavs called the winter solstice Tcoleda, Pol. koleda, Russ. koliada, answering to the Lat. calendae and the chalendes above ; ^ they had games and dances, but the burning of fires is not mentioned. In Lower Germany too haland had become an expression for feast and revelry (we hear of kalandgilden, kalandbriider), without limitation to Christmas time, or any question of fires accompanying it (see Suppl.).

If in the Mid. Ages a confusion was made of the two Johns, the Baptist and the Evangelist, I should incline to connect with St. John's fire the custom of St. John's minne (p. 61), which by rights only concerns the beloved disciple. It is true, no fire is spoken of in connexion with it, but fires were an essential part of the old Norse minne-drinking, and I should think the Sueves with their barrel of ale (p. 56) burnt fires too. In the Saga Hakouar go'Sa, cap. 16, we are told: ' eldar scyldo vera a midjo golfi 1 hofino, oc ]?ar katlar yfir, oc scyldi full of eld bera/ should bear the cups round the fire. Very striking to my mind is the ' dricka eldborgs skaV still practised in a part of Sweden and Norway (Sup. K, 122-3). At Candlemas two tall candles are set, each member of the household in turn sits down between them, takes a drink out of a wooden beaker, then throws the vessel backwards over his head. If it fall bottom upwards, the thi'ower will die ; if upright, he remains alive.^ Early in the morning the goodwife has been up making her fire and baking ; she now assembles her servants in a half-circle before the oven

1 Sup. K, 16. Mem. des antiquaires 1, 236. 4, 371.

2 Other derivations have been attempted, Hanusch 192-3. [See note, p. 627, on Lith. kalledos.'i

3 A similar throwing backwards of an emptied glass on other occasions, Sup. I, 514. 707.

OVEN. BONFIRE. 629

door, they all hend the knee, take one bite of cake, and drinJc eldhorgssMl (the fire^s health) ; what is left of cake or drink is cast into the jiame. An unmistakeable vestige of heathen fireworship, shifted to the christian feast of candle-consecration as the one that furnished the nearest parallel to it.

Our ofen, MHG. oven, OHG. ovan, ON. ow. represents the Goth. auhns, 0. Swed. omn, ofn, ogn, Swed. iign, Dan. on ; they all mean fornax, i.e. the receptacle in which fire is inclosed (conf. focus, fuoco, feu), but originally it was the name of the fire itself, Slav, ogan, ogen, ogn. Boh. ohen, Lith. ugnis, Lett, tiggnns, Lat. ignis, Sanskr. Agjii the god of fire. Just as the Swedish servants hneel doivn before the ugns-hol, our German marchen and sagen have retained the feature of kneeling before the oven and praying to it; the unfortunate, the persecuted, resort to the oven, and hewail their woe, they reveal to it some secret which they dare not confide to the world. ^ What would otherwise appear childish is explained : they are forms and formulas left from the primitive fire-worship, and no longer understood. In the same way people complain and confess to mother earth, to a stone, a plant, an oak, or to the reed (Morolt 1438). This personification of the oven hangs together with Mid. Ago notions about orcus and hell as places of fire. Conf. Erebi fornax (Walthar. 867), and what was said above, p. 256, on Fornax.

The luminous element permitted a feast to be prolonged into the night, and fires have always been a vehicle for testifying joy. When the worship had passed over into mere joy -fires, ignis jocunditatis, feux de joie, Engl, bon-fires, these could, without any reference to the service of a deity, be employed on other occasions, especially the entry of a king or conqueror. Thus they made a torch-waggon follow the king, which was afterwards set on fire, like the plough and wheels at the feast of St. John

' Haus und kindenn. 2, 20. 3, 221. Deutsche sagen no. 513. A children's game has the rhyme : ' Dear good oven, I pray to thee, As thou hast a wife, send a husband to me ! ' In the comedy ' Life and death of honest Madam Shit (Schlampampe),' Leipz. 1696 and 1750, act 3, sc. 8: ' Come, let us go and kneel to the oven, maybe the gods will hear our prayer.' In 1558 one who had been robbed, but had sworn secrecy, told his story to the Dutch-tile oven at the inn. Rommeirs Hess, gesch. 4, note p. 420. Joh. Miiller's Hist. Switz. 2, 92 (a.d. 1333). ' Nota est in eligiis TibuUi Januae porsonificatio, cui amantes dolores suos uarrant, quam orant, quam increpant ; erat enim daemoniaca quaedam vis januarum ex opiuioue veterum,' Disseu's Tib. 1, clxxix. Conf. Hartuug's Eel. der Rom. 2, 218 seq.

(RA. 265). ' Faculis et faustis acclamationibus, ut priorlbus regibus assueverant, obviam ei (non) procedebant/ Lamb, scbafn. ad an. 1077. Of what we now call illumination, the lighting up of streets and avenues, there are probably older instances than those I am able to quote : ' von kleinen kerzen manec schoup geleit uf olboume loup/ of little tapers many a cluster ranged in olive bower, Parz. 82, 25. Detmar (ed. Grautoff 1, 301) on the Emp. Charles IV.'s entry into Lubeck : ' des nachtes weren die luchten bernde ut alien husen, unde was so licht in der nacht als in dem dage.'' The church also escorted with torchlight processions : ' cui (abbati) intranti per noctis tenebras adhibent faces et lampadas,' Chapeaville 2, 532 (12th cent.). ' Hirimannus dux susceptus est ab archiepiscopo manuque deducitur ad ecclesiam accensis luminaribus, cunctisque souantibus campanis/ Dietm. merseb. 2, 18. ' Taceo coronas tarn luminoso fulgore a luminaribus pendentes,' Vita Joh. gorziens. (bef. 984) in Mabillon's Acta Ben., sec. 5, p. 395 (see Suppl.).

3. Air. The notions ' air, wind, weather,' touch one another, and their names often do the same.^ Like water, like fire, they are all regarded as a being that moves and lives : we saw how the words animus, spiritus, gelst (pp. 439. 461) come to be used of genii, and the Slav, dukh is alike breath, breathing, and spirit. Wuotan himself we found to be the all-pervading (p. 133) ; like Vishnu, he is the fine gether that fills the universe. But lesser spirits belong to this element too: Oxistr, Zephyr, Blaser (p. 461), Blaster, Wind-and-weafher (p. 548), proper names of dwarfs, elves, giants. In the Lithuanian legend the two giants Wandu (water) and Way as (wind) act together (p. 579). To the^ OHG. wetar, OS. wedar, AS. weder (tempestas) corresponds the Slav. veter, vietar (ventus, aer) : and to Goth, vinds, OHG. wint, the Lat. ventus. The various names given to wind in the Alvismal (Ssem. 50*) are easily explained by its properties of blowing, blustering and so forth : oepir (weeper) ejulans, the wailing, conf. OS. wop (whoop), OHG. wuof ejulatus ; gneggio&r (neigher) strepens, quasi hinniens ; dynfari cum sonitu iens.

^ Our hift I include under the root Kuban, no. 530, whose primary meaning is still obscure ; couf . kliubau kluft, skiuban skuft.

AIR. THE WINDS. 631

Thus personification already peeps out in mere appellatives; iu the mythic embodiments themselves it is displayed in the most various ways.

Woodcuts and plates (in the Sachsenspiegel) usually represent the winds, half symbolically, as Mowing faces, or heads, probably a fancy of very early date, and reminding us of the blowing John'shead that whirls Herodias about in the void expanse of heaven (p. 285). The winds of the four cardinal points are imagined as four dwarfs : ' undir hvert horn (each corner) settu ]?eir dverg% Sn. 9 (p. 461) ^ ; but by the Greeks as giants and brethren : Zephyrus, Hesperus, Boreas, Notus (Hes. Theog. 371), and Boreas's sons Zetes and Kalais are also winged winds (Apollon. Argon. 1, 219). Aeolus {al6\o<i nimble, changeful, many-hued), at first a hero and king, was promoted to be governor and guider of winds {Tafj,t7]ii dviixcov, p. 93). In Russia popular tradition makes the four winds sons of one mother,'^ the 0. Russ. lay of Igor addresses the wind as ' lord,^ and the winds are called Stribogh's grandsons,^ his divine nature being indicated by the ' bogh' in his name. So in fairy-tales, and by Eastern poets, the wind is introduced talking and acting : ' the wind, the heavenly child !' *

In the ON. genealogy, Forniotr, the divine progenitor of giants (p. 240), is made father of Kdri (stridens) 'who rules over the winds;' Kari begets lokul (glacies), and lokul Snoir (nix), the king whose children are a son Thorri and three daughters Fonn, Drifa, Mioll, all personified names for particular phenomena of snow and ice (Sn. 358. Fornald. sog. 2, 3. 17). Kari however is brother to Hler (p. 241) and Logi (p. 240), to water and fire, by which is expressed the close affinity between air and the other two elements. The old Scandinavian crv ' bias Imri ! ' is echoed in that of the Swedish sailors ' bias hajsa ! ' a goddess instead of the god (Afzelius 1, 30). Both wind and fire ' blow ' and ' emit spray,'' nay, fire is called the red wind : ' von ir zweier swerte gie dev Jiur-rote wint,' Nib. 2212, 4. In the same line of thought a higher divinity, Nior"Sr, has the sovereignty given him alike over

^_ And therefore ostroni, tvestroni, sundroni, nordioni are masc. nouns ; the Gothij forms would be duatroncis, etc.

• Iluss. volksmiirchen, Leipz. 1831. p. 119.

• ' Vetre vetrilo gospodine,' Hanka's ed.'^Tp. 12. 36.

■» E.g. in Nahis, p. 180 (Bopp's 2 ed.). Kiuderm. uos. 15. 88.

VOL. II. O

water, wind and fire (p. 217) ; and Lop f?* (aereus) is anotlier name for Loki (p. 246). A plirase in Csedm. 181, 13 seems worthy of notice : ' lyft-Jielms hepeaht,' galea aerea tectus (see Suppl.).

When in our language we still call one kind of tempest (0H&. wiwint, Graff 1, 624), the windsbraut (wind^s bride), and it was called the same in our older speech, OHG. ivintes brut, 0. v. 19, 27. windis prtit, Gl. Hrab. 975^ Jun. 230. Diut. 2,182. Gl. florent. 982^-3M^; MHG.iomc^es briU (Gramm. 2, 606), Tit. 3783. swinder (swifter) danne windes brut, Ms. 2, 13 P. lief spilnde als ein w.b. durch daz gras, Fragm. 19*. alsam in rore diu w. b., Eeinfried 159'\ varn mit hurt als ein w. prut, Frauend. 92, 13 ; — it is only the proper names that seem to be lost.^ The corrupt forms wintsprout, -praut (Suchenw. 41, 804), windbrauss (in later writers, as Matthesius), windsprauch (Schm. 4, 110), have arisen out of the endeavour to substitute some new meanino- for the no longer intelligible mythic notion. They say it is a woman snatching up a napkin from the bleaching ground and fallingdown with it, Mone's Anz. 8, 278. So in the Netherlands the whirlwind is called barende frauw, Wolf nos. 518-520 (see Suppl,).

This wind^s-bride is a whirlwind, at which our mythology brings the highest gods into play. Even Wuotan's ' furious host/ what is it but an explanation of the stormwind howling through the air ? The OHG. ziii, turbines, we have traced to Zio, pp. 203. 285; and the stoi-m-cloud was called maganwetar (p. 332 last 1.). But the whirlwind appears to be associated with Phol also (pp. 229. 285), and with an opprobrious name for the devU (schweinezagel, siiuzagel, sustert, sow^s tail), to whom the raising of the whirl was ascribed (Superst. I, 522) ^ as well as to witches (ibid. 554). It was quite natural therefore to look upon some female personages also as prime movers of the whirlwind, the gyrating dancing Herodias, and frau Hilde,frau Eolde (p. 285). In Kilian 693 it is a fahrendes weib ; in Celtic legend it is stirred up hj fays,

1 Oritliyia carried off by Boreas (Ov. Met. 6, 710) 'could with perfect justice be named icindeshrut by Albrecht.

2 Two Pol. tales in "Woycicki 1, 81 and 89 : When the whirlwind (vikher) sweeps up the loose sand, it is the evil spirit dancing ; throw a sharp neiv knife into the middle of it, and you wound him. A magician plunged such a knife into his threshold, and condemned his man, with whom he was angry, for seven years to ride round the world on the swift stormwind. Then the whirlwind lifted the man, who was making haycocks in a meadow, and bore him away into the air. This knijethruwing is also known to Germ, superstition evei-y where (I, 554).

wind's beide. 633

and tlie Irish name for it is sigh gaoite (O'Brien) ^ sigJtgaoithe (Croker III, xxi) ; in a whirlwind elvish sprites can steal (Stewart p. 122). It is a popular belief in Sweden^ that the skogsra (wood-wife) makes her pi-esence known by a violent tvhirlwind which shakes the trees even to breaking. The Slav, i^olednice (supra, p. 478u.) is a female daemon, who flies up in the dust of the whirlwind (Jungmann sub v.) . According to a legend of the Mark (Kuhn no. 167) the whirlwind was a noble damsel who loved the chase above everything, and made havock of the husbandman^'s crops, for which she is doomed to ride along with the storm to all eternity ; this again reminds us of Diana and the huntress Holda (see Suppl.).

In addition to these widely spread fancies, there is a peculiar one about the origin of wind, which appears to extend through nearly all Europe. According to the Edda, Hrcesvelgr is the name of a giant, who in the shape of an eagle ^ sits at the end of heaven : from his ivings cometh all wind upon men, Saem. 35^. Snorri defines it more minutely : He sits at the north side of heaven, and lulien he flaps his wings, the winds rise from under them (Sn. 22.) And in the formula of the trygdamal (Gragas 2, 170), it is said : ' sva vi'Sa sem valr flygi" varlangan dag, oc standi hyrr undir bdda vcengi,' far as falcon flies a summerlong day, when stands fair wind under both his wings. Light clouds threatening storm are called in Iceland hlo-sigi (Biorn spells klosegi), clawsinking ; ace. to Gunnar Pauli, because the eagle causes storm by letting down one of his claws (Finn Magn. p. 452). ^ It is also an Indian belief that tempest comes from Garnda's loings, Somadeva 2, 102 : the motion of his flight stirs up the wind.

Then again people in the Shetland isles are said to conjure the storm-wind in the shape of a great eagle? Further we are told that Charles the Great had a brazen eagle fixed on the top of his palace at Achen (Aix), and there was some connexion between it and the wind; Ilicherus 3, 71 (Pertz 5, 622) relates the inroad of the Welsh (Gauls) in 978 : ' Aeneam aquilam, quae in vertice palatii a Karolo magno acsi volans fixa erat,^ in vul-

^ The giants often put on the arnar ham (erne's coat) : Thiazi in Sn. 80. 82, Suttixngr in Sn. 86.

• Day also was imaged as a bird, who dug his claws into the clouds.

' Scott's Pirate, Ediub., 18'22.

•• It ought not to be overlooked here, that at the west door of OSin's hall there

tiirnum converterunt. Nam Germaui earn in favonium (Up. Germ, folin) converterant^ subtiliter significantes Gallos suo equitatu quandoque posse devinci.'' The meaning seems to be, that the French turned the eagle's head to the south-east, the Germans to the west, to signify that like the storm they could make a raid (ride, that is what equitatus comes to) upon the country toward which the bird's head was directed. Dietmar of Merseburg's account 3, 6 (Pertz 5, 761) is as follows : ' Post haec autem imperator ordinavit expeditionem suam adversus Lotharium regem Karelingorum, qui in Aquisgrani palatium et sedem regiam nostrum semper respicientem dominium valido exercitu praesumpsit invadere, sibique versa aquila designare. Haec stat in orientali parte domus, morisque f uit omnium hunc locum possidentium ad sua earn vertere regna.' This statement appears less accurate than that of Richerus, for each would turn the eagle's head not toward his own kingdom, but the foreign or dependent one ; conf. Jahrb. d. Rheinlande v. vi. 73. But even in the 12th cent, the wind's connexion with the eagle was still known in Germany, for Veldek sings, MS. 1, 2P: 'jarlanc ist reht daz der ar winke dem vil siiezen winde,' all this year the eagle must beckon to (i.e. bring) a mild wind. How many fancies familiar to the Mid. Ages must be lost to us now, when of all the poets that mention air and wind and storm no end of times, only one happens to allude to this myth ! But not only do aquila and aquilo,^ vultur and vuUurnus point to each other; dv6fio<} (wind) and deT6<i (eagle) are likewise from one root doo, dri^L? According to Horapollo 2, 15 a s])arrowhawk with outspread wings represents the wind. Eagle, falcon, vulture, sparrowhawk, are here convertible birds of prey. The Indian garuda, king of birds, is at the same time the wind. The O.T, also thinks of the winds as winged creatures, without specifying the bird, 2 Sam. 22, 11: 'rode on the wings of the winds'; Ps. 18, 11. 104,3: Wolavit super pennas ventorum/ which

also hung a wolf, and over it an eagle (drujjir orn yfir, Saem. 41''), and that the victorious Saxons fixed an eagle over the city's gate, sujjra, p. 111.

1 Festus : ' aquilo ventus a vehementissimo volatu ad iustar aquilae appellatur ' ; conf. Hesychius, d/ctp6s 6 poppas.

2 Wackernagel on Ablaut (vowel-change) p. 30. Eustathius on the II. 87. 15 Eom.

WIND. STOEM. 635

Notker translates 'iiberfloug die vettacha dero windo ' ; and Martina 7'^ has^ in allusion to the biblical phrase, ' der lif der winde vedern saz/ The expression used by Herbort 17091, ^der wint liez ouch dare gan/ shews that the poet imagined it either flying or riding (see Suppl.).

The Finns call the eagle liohho (kocka) ; but a poem descriptive of the northstorm, begins : ' Came the eagle on from Turja, down from Lappmark sints a bird/ and ends : ' Neath his wing a hundred men, thousands on his tail's tip, ten in every quill there he.' ^ And in a Mod. Greek folk-song the sparrowhawk (as in Horapollo) calls upon the winds to hush : diro to, rpUopcjja ^ovva lepaKi eavpe Xakid ' irdylreT,^ dip€<;, ■wd-'^ere diro-^e k dWrjv fiiav /BpaBid." The winds are under the bird's command, and obey him. In another song the mother sets three to watch her son while he sleeps, in the mountains the sun, in the plain the eagle {derof;), on the sea the brisk lord Boreas : the sun sets, the eagle goes to sleep, and Boreas goes home to his mother ; ^ from the whole context here we must understand by the eagle the sweet soft wind, and by Boreas the cool northwind.

Hrcesvelgr (OHG. Hreosuolah ?) means swallower of corpses, flesh-eater, Sansk. kraviyada, and is used of birds of prey that feed on carrion, but may also be applied to winds and storms which purify the air : they destroy the eflluvia from bodies that lie unburied.

Is that the foundation of the fancy, that when a man hangs himself, a tempest springs up, and the roar of the wind proclaims the suicide ? ^ Is it the greedy carrion-fowl that comes on in haste to seize the dead, his lawful prey, who swings unburied on the tree ? Or does the air resent the self-murderer's polluting presence in it ? A New-year's storm is thought to announce pestilence (Sup. I, 330. 910), spreading an odour of death in anticipation.

Tempest (like fire) the common people picture to themselves as a voracious hungry being (of course a giant, according to the root

' Finnish runes, Ups. 1819, pp. 58-60.

• Fam-iel 2, 236. Wh. Miiller 2, 100. 3 Fauriel 2, 432. Wli. Miiller 2, 120.

• Sup. I, 343. 1013. Kircbhofer's Schwei?:. spr. 327. CI. Brentano's Libussa p. 432. Sartori's Eeise in Karnten 2, 164. Leoprecbting 102.

idea of iotunn, p. 519), aud they try to pacify him by pouring out flour in the air.^ I take this to be an ancient superstition, and light is thrown upon it now by a Norwegian tale in Asbjornsen no. 7, of the northiuind carrying off a poor fellow^s meal three times, but compensating him afterwai'ds by costly presents. This northwind behaves exactly as a rough good-natured giant. (See Suppl.).

The raising of the whirlwind was, as we have seen (p. 632), ascribed to divine, semi-divine and diabolic beings. In Norway they say of whirlwinds and foul weather, ' the giant stirs his pots,^ Faye p. 7.

In two weather- spells (Append., Exorcism v.) Mermeut and Fasolt are called upon as evil spirits and authors of storms. FasoU is the well-known giant of our hero-legend, brother of Ecke, who was himself god of tides and waves (p. 239). The two brothers have kindred occupations, being rulers of the dread sea and of the weather. What we gather from the second spell about Fasolt seems to me of importance, and another conclusive proof of the identity of Ecke with Oegir : as Hler and Kai'i are brothers and giants, so are also Ecke and Fasolt ; as Hler commands the sea and Kari the winds, so does Ecke rule the waters and Fasolt the storm. To the Norse poets the luiiid is ' Forniots sonr ' and ■' Oegis broSir.''^ Now, as Hler was called by another nation Oegir, i.e. XJogi, Ecke, so Kari may have been called Fasolt. Fasolt must be an old word, if only because it is hard to explain ; does it come under the OHG. fasa, fason (Graff 3, 705) ? In ON., ' fas ^ is superbia, arrogantia ; the name seems to express the overbearing nature of a giant. Mermeut, which occm^s nowhere else, perhaps means the sea-mutterer ? Sclim. 2, 552. 653 has maudern, mutern, murmurare. — These demi-gods and giants stand related to Donar the supreme director of clouds and weather, as ^olus or Boreas to Zeus.

And from Zens it was that the favourable wished-for wind proceeded: /lto9 ovpo<i, Od. 5, 176. Wuotan (the all-pervading,

1 Sup. I, 282. Praetorius's Weltbeschr. 1, 429 : At Bamberg, when a violent wind teas rafjing, an old -woman snatched up her mealsack, and emptied it out of window into the air, with the words : ' Dear wind, don't be so wild ; take that home to your child ! ' She meant to appease the hunger of the wind, as of a greedy lion or fierce wolf.

• ' Forniots sef ar ' = sea and wind, Ssem. 90^

WIND. STOEM. 637

p. 630) makes the wish-wind, oska-byrr^ p. 144. What notion lies at the bottom of Wolfram's making Juno give the ' segels luft/ sail- wind (Parz. 753, 7) ? Again in Parz. 750, 7 and 766, 4 : '' Juno fuocte (fitted) daz iveter,' and ' segelweter' The fruitful breeze that whispers in the corn was due to Fro and his boar, pp. 213-4. An ON. name of O^inn was Vi&rir, the weatherer: ' at ]?eir sogSu han ve'Srum nrSa,^ he governs weathers (Fornm. sog. 10, 171). Such a god was Pogodato the Slavs, and the Pol. pogoda, Boh. pohoda, still signifies good growing or ripening weather [Russ. god = time, year; pogoda = weather, good or bad]. Tijphon in Egyptian legend meant the south wind, Hes. Theog. 301. 862.

The Lettons believed in a god of winds and storms Ohhipeernis, and thought that from his forehead they came down the sky to the earth. 1

In an ON. saga (Fornald. sog. 3, 122) appears giant Grimnir, whose father and brother are named Grimolfr and Gi'imarr, a sort of Polyphemus, who can excite storm or good wind : here again it is OSinn we must think of (p. 144). Two semi-divine beings, honoured with temples of their own and bloody sacrifices, were the giant's daughters Tliorgercfr and Irpa (p. 98). In the Skaldskaparrafd 154 ThorgerSr is called Hijlgahru&r or king Holgi's daughter, elsewhere Jiorgahrud'r and Jidrgatrdll (Fornald. sog. 2, 131), sponsa divum, immanissima gigas, which reminds us of our ■imnd's-hride. Both the sisters sent foul tveather, storm and hail, when implored to do so, Fornm. sog. 11, 134-7. And ON. legend mentions other dames besides, who make foul weather and fog, as Hei-Si and Hamglom, Fornald. sog. 2, 72, Ingibiorg, ibid. 3,' 442 (see Suppl.).^

What was at first imputed to gods, demigods and giants, the sending of wind, storm and hail (vis daemonum concitans procellas, Beda's Hist. eccl. 1, 17), was in later times attributed to human sorcerers.

First we find the Lex Visigoth, vi. 2, 3 provides against the ' malefici et immlssores tempestatum, qui quibusdam incantatiouibus grandinem in vineas messesque mittere perhibentur.' Then Charles the Great in his Capit. of 789 cap. 64 (Pertz 3, 6i) :

' Okka, or auka, storm ; peore forehead. Stender's Gramm. 2G6. 2 Conf. p. '6'6'5, -163 liuli/Jiiulmr.

' ut nec cauculatores et incantatores^ nee tempestarii vel oblio^atores non fiant, et ubicunque sunt^ emendentur vel damnentur.' Soon after that king's death, about the beginning of Lewis the Pious's reign, bp. Agobard (d. 840) wrote ' Contra insulsam vulgi opinionem de grandine et tonitruis/ From this treatise, following Baluz's edit, of the works of Agobard, I take a few passages.

1, 145 : In his regionibus pene omnes homines, nobiles et ignobiles, urbani et rustici, senes et juvenes, putant grandines et tonitrna hominum libitu posse fieri. Dicunt enim, mox ut audierint tonitrua et videriut fulgura : ' aura levatitia est.-' Interrogati vero, quid sit aura levatitia ? alii cum verecundia, parum remordente conscientia, alii autem confidenter, ut imperitorum moris esse solet, confirmant incantationibus hominum qui dicuntur tempestarii, esse levatam, et ideo dici levatitiam aitram.

1, 146 : Plerosque autem vidimus et audivimus tanta dementia obrutos, tanta stultitia alienates, ut credant et dicaut, quandam esse regionem quae dicatur Magonia, ex qua naves veniant in nuhibiis, in quibus fniges quae grandinibus decidunt et tempestatibus pereunt, vehantur in eandem regionem, ipsis videlicet nautis aereis dantibus pretia tempestarUs, et accipientibus frumenta vel ceteras fruges. Ex his item tam profunda stultitia excoecatis, ut hoc posse fieri credant, vidimus plures in quodam conventu hominum exhibere vinctos quatuor homines, tres viros et unam feminam, quasi qui de ipsis navibus ceciderint : quos scilicet, per aliquot dies in vinculis detentos, tandem collecto conventu hominum exhibuerunt,ut dixi, in nostra praesentia, tanquam lapidandos. Sed tamen vincente veritate post multam ratiocinationem, ipsi qui eos exhibuerant secundum propheticum illud confusi sunt, sicut confunditur fur quando deprehenditur.

1, 153 : Nam et hoc quidam dicunt, nosse se tales temp)estarios, qui dispersam grandinem et late p>er regionem decidentem faciant unum in locum fluminis aut siivae infructuosae, aut super unam, ut ajunt, cupam, sub qua ipse lateat, defluere. Frequenter certe audivimus a multis dici quod talia nossent in certis locis facta, sed necdum audivimus, ut aliquis se haec vidisse testaretur.

1, 158 : Qui, mox ut audiunt tonitrua vel cum levi flatu venti,

dicunt ' levatitia aura est,' et maledicunt dicentes : ' maledicta

lingua ilia et arefiat et jam praecisa esse debebat, quae hos facit ! '

1, 159 : Nostris quoque temporibus videmus aliquando, collectis

WIND. STOEM. 639

messibus et vindemiis, propter siccitatem agricolas seminare uon posse. Quare non obtinetis apud tempestarios vestros, ut mittant auras levatitias, quibus terra inrigetur, et postea seminare possitis?

], 161 : Isti autem, contra quos sermo est, ostendunt nobis homunculos, a sanctitate, justitia et sapientia alienos, a fide et veritate nudos, odibiles etiam proximis, a quibus dicunt vehementissimos imhres, sonantia aquae tonitrua et levatitias auras posse fieri.

1, 162 : In tantum malum istud jam adolevit, ut in plerisque locis sint homines miserrimi, qui dicant, se non equidem nosse imraittere tempestates, sed nosse tamen defenders a tempestafe liahitatores loci. His habent statutum, quantum de frugibus suis donent, et appellant hoc canonicum. Many are backward in tithes and alms, canonicum autera, quem dicunt, suis defensoribus (a quibus se defendi credunt a tempestate) nullo praedicante, nullo admonente vel exhortante, sponte persolvunt, diabolo inliciente. Denique in talibus ex parte magnam spem habent vitae suae, quasi per illos vivant (see Suppl.).

It was natural for driving hail-clouds to be likened to a ship sailing across the sky ; we know our gods were provided with cars and ships, and we saw at p. 382 that the very Edda bestows on a cloud the name of vindflot. But when the tempest-men by their spells call the air-ship to them or draw it on, they are servants and assistants rather than originators of the storm. The real lord of the weather takes the corn lodged by the hail into the ship with him, and remunerates the conjurors, who might be called his priests. The Christian people said : ' these conjurors sell the grain to the aeronaut, and he carries it away.' But what mythic countiy can Magonia mean ? It is not known whether Agobard was born in Germany or Gaul, though his name is enough to shew his Frankish or Burgundian extraction ; JQst as little can we tell whether ho composed the treatise at Lyons, or previously at some other place. The name Magonia itself seems to take us to some region where Latin was spoken, if we may rely on its referring to magus and a magic land.

In later times I find no mention of this cloud-ship, except in H. Sachs, who in his schwank of the Lappenhiluscr ii. 4, 89*^ relates how they made a ship of feathers and straw, and carried it up the hill, with the view of launching out in it when the mist

should fall. Fischer in Garg. 96''' introduces quite unconnectedlj the nehelscliiffs segel of Philoxenus (the guestfriend or Zeus ?) in a passage that has nothing in Rabelais answering to it.

In the latter part of the Mid. Ages there went a story of the wind-selling inhabitants of Vinland, which I give from a work composed towards 1360 by Glanvil or Bartholomaeus Anglicus, ' De proprietatibus rei^uni' lb, 172 : 'Gens (Vinlandiae) estbarbara, agrestis et saeva, magicis artibus occupata. Unde et navigantibus per eorum litora^ vel apud eos propter venti defectum moram contrahentibus, ventum venalem oflferunt atque vendunt. Globum enim de filo faciunt, et diversos nodus in so connecteiites , usque ad ires nodos vel plures de globo extraJd praecipiunt, secundum quod voluerint ventum habere fortiorem.^ Quibus propter eorum incredulitatem illudentes, daemones a'erem concitant et ventum majorem vel minorem excitant, secundum quod plures nodos de filo extrahunt vel pauciores^ et quandoque in tantum commovent ventum, quod miseri talibus fidem adhibentes justo judicio submerguntur.' — This selling of wind in Wilandia (as he calls it) is likewise mentioned in Seb. Frank's Weltbuch GO'', without any description of the method. By Vinland is to be understood a part of the Greenland coast which had been early visited by Norwegians and Icelanders, and in ON. tales is by turns called Vinland and Vindland;^ the latter form might have suggested the whole story of raising the wind, on which the ON. writings as well as Adam of Bremen are silent. Others however tell the same story of the Finns (01. Magnus 3, 15) : it seems to me a tradition spread all over the North ^ (see Suppl.).

The Norse legends name wind produced by magic gorntnga-ve&r. Ogautan (like Aeolus) had a ve&r-helgr (-bellows, or leathern bag) ; when he shook it, storm and wind broke out (Fornald. sog. 2, 412); the same with Mondull (3, 338). The Swedish

1 This globus resembles theLat. Uirho, a top or teetotum used in magic : 'citum retro solve, solve turbinem,' Hor. Epod. 17, 7.

2 Fornm. sog. 2, 2i6. Isl. sog. 1, 9. 100. 151. Conf. Torfaeus's Hist. Vinlandiae antiquae, Hafn. 1705.

3 The Esthonians believed that wind could be generated and altered. In the direction whence you wish it to blow, hang up a snake or set an axe upright, and whistle to make it come. A clergyman ha^jpened to see some peasants makiug a great fuss round three stones, eating, drinking and dancing to the sound of rustic instruments. Questioned as to the object of the feast, they replied that by means of those stones they could produce wet ireather or dry ; dry, if they set them upright, wet if they laid them along (Ueber die Ehsten, p. 48) ; supra pp. 593-7.

STOEM. 641

king Eirikr, son of Eagnar Lodbrok^ bore the surname of ved'fhattr (ventosi pilei) : wliichever way he turned his hat, from there the loished for ivind would blow (Saxo Gram. 175. 01. Magnus '3, 13. Gejer^s Hiifder 582). One of our nursery-tales even, no. 71, tells of a man who can direct the weather by setting Jiis hat straight or askew. There is an expression in the Edda, vindhidlmr (Stem. 168^), which reminds me of the OHG. name Windhelm, Trad. fuld. 2, 167 (see SuppL).

That is a beautiful fancy in the Edda, of seven-and-twenty valkyrs riding through the air, and when their horses shake themselves, the dew dropping out of their manes on the deep valleys, and hail on the lofty trees : a sign of a fruitful year, Saem. 145. So morning-deiv falls on the earth each day from the foaming bit of the steed Hrimfaxi (dew-mane), Sn. 11. The ON. meldropi, AS. meledeaw, OHG. militou (Gl. Jun. 224), MHG. miltou (Ms. 2, 124"), all take us back to mel (lupatum equi) ; conf. note on Elene p. 164, where mel is dex'ived from midl, mittul, and supra p. 421. Antiquity referred all the phenomena of nature to higher powers. The people in Bavaria call a dark rain-cloud ' anel mit der laugen,^ granny with her ley (Schm. 1, 63) ; in Bohemia light clouds are hahhy, grannies. When mountain mist is rising, the Esthonians say ' the Old one is putting his fire out ' ; our people ascribe it to animals at least : ' the hare is boiling [his supper], the fox is bathing, brewing,^ Reinh. ccxcvi. When shapes keep rising in the mists on the seashore, the Italians call it fata morgana, p. 412 (see SuppL).

The Scythians explained drifting snowsiS flying feathers (Herod. 4, 31), and our people see in the flakes the feathers out of the goddess's bed, or goose (p. 268). Those snow-women Fonn, Drifa, Mioll (p. 631) appear also to touch one side of Holda. The Lettish riddles, ' putns skreen, spahrni pill,' and ' putns skreen, spalwas putt'^ mean a rain-cloud and a snotv-cloud. In Switzerland vulgar opinion looks upon avalanches as ravening beasts, on whom (as on fire) you can put a check (see Suppl.).

4. Earth.
   

Of the goddess, and her various names, we have spoken already : Nerthus p. 251, Erda p. 250, Fairguni p. 172. 256, Erce p. 253,

' Bird flies, wings drip. Bird flies, feathers drop. Stender's Gramm. 2G0.

Hludana p. 256, and others ; in wliich the ideas of the ancients about Terra, Gaia, Ops, Ehea, Oybele, Ceres repeat themselves. On p. 303 the Indian Prithivi was compared with Freyja, and the closest kinship exists between Freyr and NiorSr (the male Nerthus) . But also the bare element itself, the molte (mould, pulvis) p. 251, was accounted holy : it is the ')(^6ot)v 7ro\vl36retpa, out of its teeming lap rise fruits and trees, into it the dead are laid, and decay or fire restores them to dust and ashes. ^ To die was * to sink to the earth,'' ' til iarSar (til moldar) hniga/ ' to kiss the earth,' still more prettily in ON. ' i moffurcett falla ' (Nialss. cap. 45), in maternum genus cadere, to fall back into the womb of terra mater} They also said ' iar&ar tnegin kiosa' (vim telluris eligere, r.e. invocare), Ssem. 27^; and as the Greeks made the falling giant acquire new strength the moment he touched the ground, the Edda has ^ aukinn iar&ar megni' (auctus vi telluris), 118'', 119^.^ One who had been long away from home kissed the earth on treading it once more; in O.Fr. poems ' baiser la terre ' is a sign of humility, Berte pp. 35. 43. 58. Renart 14835. As the pure stream rejects the malefactor, so neither will the earth endure him: "^uns solt diu erde nicht tragen,' Troj. 491 [conf. "^art cursed from the earth,' Gen. 4. 10-12]. Secrets were entrusted to the earth, as well as to tire and oven, p. 629 (see Suppl.).

It is more especially earth grown over with grass, the greensward, that has a sacred power ; such grass the Sanskrit calls hhusa, and in particular durva, to which correspond the AS. turf, ON. torf, OHG. zurha : ' holy earth and haulms of durva,' Sakuntala (Hirzelpp. 51. 127). I have also accounted for the famous chrene crud of the Salic law by our ' reines kraut,' clean herb ; and explained ' chreneschruda (dat.) jactare ' by the Roman

^ Irstantent (they rise again) fon themo fulen legare, uz fon tlieru axgu, fon i^iex-a falaunsgu, fon themo irdisgen herde, 0. v. 20, 25-8.

^ Ancient tombs have been discovered, in which the bodies neither he nor sit, but crouch with the head, arms and legs pressed together, in receptacles nearlysquare. M. Fred. Troyon of French Switz., who has carefully explored and observed many old graves, expressed to me his opinion, that by this singular treatment of dead bodies it was prob. intended to replace man in the same jjosture that he maintained in the womb before birth. Thus the return into mother earth would be at the same time an intimation of the coming new birth and resurrection of the embryo.

3 The Servians, by way of protesting, say ' tako mit zemlie!' so (help) me earth. A Gaelic saw (Armstrong sub v. coibhi, priest, supra p. 92 note) declares : ' ged is fagus clach do 'n lar, is faigse na sin cobhair choibhi,' near as a stone is to the ground, the coibhi's hel}) is nearer still, which seems to imply the earth's prompt assistance as well as the priest's.

EAETH. 643

' pur am herbam tollere/ as the Hel. 73^ 7 has hrencurni, an OHG. gloss reincurnes = frum.eiiti, MHG. 'daz reine gras,' Iw. 6446, and grass and 'dei* melm/ dust, are coupled together, Wh. 24, 28. The purport of the law is, that earth or dust must be taken up from the four corners of the field, and thrown with the hand over the nearest hinsman. It was a solem.n legal ceremony of heathen times, which the christian Capitulars abolished. Against my interpretation, however, Leo has now set up a Celtic one (cruinneach coUectus, criadh terra) ,^ and I cannot deny the weight of his arguments, though the German etymology evidently has a stronger claim to a term incorporated in the text itself than in the case of glosses [because the Latin text must be based on a Frankish original]. The mythic use made of the earth remains the same, whichever way we take the words.

The ON. language of law ofifers another and no less significant name ; the piece of turf [under which an oath was taken] is called iar&men, iar&ar men ; now ' men ' is literally monile, OHG. mani, meni, AS. mene, as we saw in the case of Freyja^s necklace ^Brisinga men.'' But ^ iarSar men' must once have been lar&ar men, Erda's necklace, the greensward being very poetically taken for the goddess's jewelry. The solemn ' ganga undir lar&ar men' (RA. 118-9) acquires its true meaning by this. In other nations too, as Hungarians (RA. 120), and Slavs (Bohme's Beitr. 5, 141), the administration of oaths took place by the person who swore placing earth or turf on his head (see Suppl.).

The custom of conquered nations presenting earth and water in token of submission reaches back to remote antiquity : when the Persians declared war, they sent heralds to demand the two elements of those whose country they meant to invade,^ which again reminds us of the Roman 'pura.' Our landsknechts as late as the 16th century, on going into battle, threw a clod of earth (like him that threw chrenechruda) in token of utter renunciation of life.^ Among the Greeks too, grasping the sod

1 Zeitschr. f. d. alterth. 2, 163 seq. Malb. gl. 2, 119. 150.

• Brissonius De regno Pers. 3, 66—71. Ilerod. 4, 127. 5, 18. Curtiusiii. 10,

108. Aristotle llhet. ii. 22, 37. Also Judith 2,7: hoiijA^ei.v -yrju kuI voup (Cod. alex. ed. August!) .

^ Barthold's Frundsberg p. 58-9. In the Mid. Ages, when a nun was consecrated, her kinsmen, as a sign that she renounced all earthly possessions, threw eartli over the maiden's arm; conf. Svenska visor 1, 176 : det voro sS manga grefvar bald,

signified taking possession of land, especially in tlie case of emigrants. As Eapliamos sits on the prow of the Argo, Triton appears in human form and presents him with a clod of eortJi as a gift of hospitality. Euphamos takes the symbolic eai'th {jBcoKaKa SaLfioviav), and gives it to his men to keep, but they drop it in the sea, and it melts away. Had it been preserved and deposited at Tainaros, the descendants of Euphamos would have won the promised land (Cyrene) in the fourth generation. As it was_, they only got it in the 17th (see Suppl.).^

In an AS. spell which is elsewhere given, four pieces of turf are cut out, oil, honey, yeast and the milk of all cattle are dropt on them, and thereto is added some of every kind of tree that grows on the land, except hard trees,^ and of every herb except burs ; and then at length the charm is repeated over it. With their seedcorn people mix earth from th-ee sorts of fields (Superst. I, 477) ; on the coffin, when lowered, three clods are dropt (699) ; by cutting out the sod on which footprints [of a thief or enemy] are left, you can work magic (524. 556; and see SuppL).

Of holy mountains and hills there were plenty ; yet there seems to have been no elemental worship of them : they were honoured for the sake of the deity enthroned upon them, witness the Wodan's and Thunar's hills. When Agathias, without any such connexion, speaks of X6(f)ot and (f3dpayye<i (hills and gullies) as objects of worship (p. 100) ; possibly his knowledge of the facts was imperfect, and there was a fire or water worship connected with the hill. It is among the Goths, to whova. fairguni meant mountain (p. 172), that one would first look for a pure mountainworship, if the kinship I have supposed between that word and the god's name be a matter of fact. Dietmar of Merseburg (Pertz 5, 855) gives an instance of mountain-worship among the Slavs: 'Posita autem est haec (civitas, viz. Nemtsi, Nimptch) in pago silensi, vocabulo hoc a quodani monte, nimis excelso et grandi, olim sibi indito : et hie ob qualitatem suam et quantitatem, cum execrauda gentilitas ibi veneraretur, ah incolis omnibus nimis

som hade deraf stor harm (great sorrow),

der de nu kastadf den »narta mull (black mould)

allt ofver skrin Valborg's arm.

1 Pindar's Pyth. 4, 21-44. 0. MiiUer's Orchom. 352, and proleg. 142 seq. ; his Dorier 1, 85. 2, 535.

2 ' Only of soft wood, not hard,' EA. 506.

MOUNTAINS. STONES. 645

honorahatur.' The commentators say it is tlie Zobtenberg in Silesia (see Suppl.).

Here and there single stones and rocJis, or several in a group, sometimes arranged in circles, were held in veneration (Append. ' vota ad lapides,' especially ' lapides in ruinosis et silvestribus locis venerari;' AS. stanweor&ang , ' bringan to s^awe/ Thorpe pp. 380. 396) . This worship of stones is a distinguishing characteristic of Celtic religion/ less of Teutonic, though amongst ourselves also we meet with the superstition of slipping through hollow stones as well as hollow trees. Chap. XXXVI. Cavities not made artificially by human hand were held sacred. In England they hang such holy-stones or holed-stones at the horses' heads in a stable, or on the bed-tester and the house-door against witchcraft. Some are believed to have been hollowed by the sting of an adder (adderstones) . In Glermany, holy stones were either mahlsteine of tribunals or sacrificial stones : oaths were taken 'at ursvolum unnar steini,' ' at enom Jivita lielga steini/ Stem. 165'\ 237^ lieilog fioll 189'\ Helgafell, Landn. 2, 12 ; conf. espec. Eyrbygg. saga c. 4. Four holy stones are sunk to cleanse a profaned sea (supra p. 87 note). A great number of stones which the giant or devil has dropt, on which he has left the print of his hand or foot, are pointed out by popular legend, without any holy meaning being thereby imparted to them (see Suppl.).

As giants and men get petrified (p. 551), and still retain, so to speak, an after-sense of their former state, so to rocks and stones compassion is attributed, and interest in men^s condition. Snorri 68 remarks, that stones begin to sweat when brought out of the frost into warmth, and so he explains how rocks and stones wept for Baldr. It is still common to say of bitter anguish : ' a stone by the wayside would feel pity,^ ' it would move a heart of stone.' - Notice the MHG. phrase : ' to squeeze a stone with

^ Conf. Armstrong sub v. earn and clachbrath ; O'Brien sub v. earn ; H. Scbreiber's Feen, p. 17 on tbe menbir and pierres fites, p. 21 on tbe ijierres branlantes. Of spindle-stones I bave spoken, p. 41U.

• Tbis mode of expression is doubtless veiy old ; bere are specimens from MHG. : ez erbarmet einem steine, Hart. erst, biicbl. 175"2. wjur sin hi'rz<; steinen, swer (wlioso) si weinen sasbe, ze weinen im gescba^lie, Herb. 68<i ; ir klage mobte erbarmen einen stein 89''. erbarmen ein steinhertez herze, Flore I-IDS. ir jamer daz mobt einen t^els erbarmen, Lobengr. p. IG. ez mobt ein stein beweinet ban disc barnuinge, Dietr. 48*. Mark, tbe stones did not weep of tbemselves, but were moved to sympathy by the weeping and wailing of tbe hapless men, which as it

64G ELEMENTS.

straps, till its veins drop blood/ MsH. 2, 235'^, suggested no doubt by the veins which run through some stones (see Sup pi.).

In closing this chapter, I will group together the higher gods who more immediately govern the four elements. Water, springs, rain and sea are under Wuotan (Nichus), Douar, Uogi, Holda. Fire, lightning under Donar, Loki. Air, wind under Wuotan, rr6. Earth under Nerthus and many others, mentioned on p. 641-2.

were penetrated their ears. So in Holberg (Ellefte juni 4, 2) : horte jeg eu sukken og hylen, som eu steeyi maatte grade ved. And Ovid (Met. 9, 303) : moturaque duras Verba qiieror silices. Luke 19, 40 : oi Xidoi KeKpd^ovrai [Habak. 2, 11 : the stones shall cry out of the wall] .

CHAPTER XXI.

As all nature was thought of by the heathen mind as living ; ^ as language and the understanding of human speech was allowed to beasts, and sensation to plants (see Suppl.) ; and as every kind of transition and exchange of forms was supposed to take place amongst all creatures : it follows at once, that to some a higher worth may have been assigned, and this heightened even up to divine veneration. Gods and men transformed themselves into trees, plants or beasts, spirits and elements assumed animal forms ; why should the worship they had hitherto enjoyed be withheld from the altered type of their manifestation ? Brought under this point of view, there is nothing to startle us in the veneration of trees or animals. It has become a gross thing only when to the consciousness of men the higher being has vanished from behind the form he assumed, and the form alone has then to stand for him.

We must however distinguish from divinely honoured plants and animals those that were esteemed high and holy because they stood in close relationship to gods or spirits. Of this kind are beasts and vegetables used for sacrifice, trees under which

• The way it is expressed in the Eddie myth of Baldr is more to the point than anything else : To ward off every danger that might threaten that beloved god, Frigg exacted oaths from water, fire, earth, stones, plants, beasts, birds and worms, nay from plagues personified, that they would not harm him ; one single shrub she let off from the oath, because he was too young, Sn. 64. Afterwards all creatures weep the dead Baldr, men, animals, plants and stones, Sn. 68. The OS. poet of the Heliand calls dumb nature the unquethandi, and says 168, 32 : ' that thar Waldandes dod (the Lord's death) uiiqucthandes so filo antkeunian scolda, that is endagon ertha bivoda, hrisidun thia hohuu hcrgos, harda sienos clubuu, feliso^ after them felde.' It is true these phenomena are from the Bible (Matth. 27, 51-2), yet possibly a heathen picture hovered in the author's mind (as we saw on pp. 148. 307), in this case the mourning for Baldr, so like that for the Saviour. Herbert makes all things bewail Hector : if (says he, 68'') stones, metals, chalk and sand had wit and sense, they would have sorrowed too. As deeply rooted in man's nature is the impulse, when unfortunate, to bewail his woes to the rocks and trees and woods ; this is beautifully expressed in the song Ms. 1, 3'', and all the objects there appealed to, offer their help.

VOL. II. ^■^^ P

higher beings dwells animals that wait upon them. The two classes can hardly be separated, for incori-ect or incomplete accounts will not allow us to determine which is meant.

1. Trees.

The high estimation in which Woods and Trees were held by the heathen Germans has already been shown in Chap. IV. To certain deities, perhaps to all, there were groves dedicated, and probably particular trees in the grove as well. Such a grove was not to be trodden by profane feet, such a tree was not to be stript of its boughs or foliage, and on no account to be hewn down.i Trees are also consecrated to individual dsemons, elves, wood and home sprites, p. 509.

Minute descriptions, had any such come down to us, would tell us many things worth knowing about the enclosure and maintenance of holy woods, about the feasts and sacrifices held in them. In the Indiculus paganiarum we read ' de sacris sil varum, quae nimidas vocant.' This German word seems to me uncorrupted, but none the easier to understand : it is a plur. masc. from the sing, nimid," but to hit the exact sense of the word, we should have to know all the meanings that the simple verb neman was once susceptible of. If the German nimu be, as it has every appearance of being, the same as vi/xco, then nimid also may answer to Gr. i/e/io?, Lat. nemus, a woodland pasture, a grove, a sacrum silvae (p. 69).^ Documents of 1086 and 1150

• Sacrum nemus, nemus castum in Tacitus. Ovid, Amor. iii. 1, 1 :

Stat vetus et multos incaedua silva per annos,

credibile est illi numen inesse loco : fons sacer in medio, speluncaque pumice pendens,

et latere ex omni dulce queruntur aves.

Lucan, Phars. 3, 399 : Lucus trat longo nunquam violatus ab aevo. So the Semnouian wood, the nemus of Neithus, the Slav lucus Zutibure, the Prussian grove Eomowe. Among the Esthonians it is held infamous to pluck even a single leaf m the sacred grove : far as its shade extends (ut umbra pertingit, RA. 57. 105), they will not take so much as a strawberry ; some people secretly bury their dead there (Petri Ehstland 2, 120). They call such woods hio, and the I. of Dag5 is in Esth. Hioviah, because there is a consecrated wood near the farmhouse of HioJwt (Thorn. Hiiirn.). "^

• Like helid (heros), gimeinid (communio), frumid, pi. frumidas (AS. frym'Sas, pnmitiae), band (clamor, inferred from Tacitus's baritus).

3 Can nimid have been a heathen term for sacrifice ? Ahnemen in the 13th cent, mennt mactare, to slaughter (used of cattle), Berthold p. 46, as we still say ahthun, abschneiden, Ulph. ufsneijmn ; Schmid's Schwab, wtb. 105 ahnehmen to kill poultry. This meaning can hardly lie in the prefix, it must be a part of the word itself :

TREES. 649

name a place Nlmodon, Nlmeden (Moser's Osnabr. gescli., urk. 31. 56. 8, 57. 84) ; the resemblance may lead to something further (see Suppl.).

There can be no doubt that for some time after the conversion the people continued to light candles and offer small sacrifices under particular holy trees, as even to this day they hang wreaths upon them, and lead the ring-dance under them (p. 58). In the church-prohibitions it is variously called : ' vota ad arhores facere aut ibi candelam seu quodlibet munus deferre ; arborem colore ; votum ad arborem persolvere ; arbores daemonibus consecratas colore, et in tanta veneratione habere, ut vulgus nee ramum nee suradiini audeat umpidare.' It is the AS. treow-weorffiing (cultus arborum), the ON. biota lundinn (grove), Laudn. 3, 17. The Acta Bened. sec. 2 p. 841 informs us: ^ Adest quoque ibi (at Lutosas, now Leuze) non ignoti miraculi fag us (beech), sicbter quam lumiiiaria saepe cum accensa absque hominum accessu videmus, divini aliquid fore suspicamur.' So the church turned the superstition to account for her own miracles : a convent was founded on the site of the tree. About Esthonians of the present day we are told in Rosenplanter's Beitr. 9, 12, that only a few years ago, in the parish of Hai-jel, on St. George's, St. John's and St. Michael's night, they used to sacrifice under certain trees, i.e. to kill, a black fowl} Of the Thunder-god's holy oak an account has been given, pp. 72-3-4. 171. 184; and in Gramm. 2, 997 the OHG. scaldeih (ilex) is compared with the AS. names of plants scaldhyfel, scaldjjyfel and the scaldo quoted above, p. 94. All this is as yet uncertain, and needs further elucidation.

Among the Langobards we find a worship of the so-called blood-tree or holy tree (p. 109). The Vita S. Barbati in the Acta sanctor. under Febr. 19, p. 139. The saint (b. cir. 602, d. cir. 683) lived at Benevento, under kings Grimoald and Romuald ;

niman, neman would therefore be to cut, kill, divide, and nimidas the victims slain iu the holy grove, uuder trees ? Couf. wliat is said in the text of the Langobardic tree of sacrifice. Celtic etymologies seem rather out of place for this plainly Saxou Indiculus. Adelung already in Mithrid. 2, 65. 77 had brought into the field Nemetes and nemet (temjilum) ; Ir. naomh is sanctus, neamh (gen. nimhe) coelum, niemheadh land consecrated, belonging to the church.

' The superstition of the Lausitz Wends holds that there are woods which yearly dcinaiul a human victim (like the rivers, p. 491); some person must lose his life in them : 'hohla dyrbi kojzde Ijeto jeaeho czloweka mjecz,' Lausitz men. schr. 1797, p. 748.

the Lombard nation was baptized, but still clung to superstitious practices : ' Quin etiam non longe a Beneventi moenibus devotissime sacrilegam colebant arhorem, in qua suspense corio cuncti qui aderant terga vertentes arbori celerius equitabant, calcaribus cruentantes equos, ut unus alterum posset praeire, atque in eodem cursu retroversis manihus in corium jaculabantur. Sicque particulam modicam ex eo comedendam superstitiose accipiebant. Et quia stulta illic persolvehant vota, ab actione ilia nomen loco illi, sicut hactenus dicitur, votum imposuerunt.' In vain Barbatus preaches against it : ' illi ferina coecati dementia nil aliud nisi sessorum meditantes usus, optimum esse fatebantur cultiim legis majorum suorum, quos nominatim bellicosissimos asserebaut.' When Eomuald was gone to Naples, 'repente beatissimus Barbatus securim accipiens et ad votum pergens, suis manibus iiefandam arborem, in qua per tot teniporis spatia Langobardi exitiale sacrilegium perficiebant, defossa hamo a radicibus incidit, ac desuper terrae congeriem fecit, ut nee indicium ex ea quis postea valuerit reperire.'' ^ This part about felling the tree has an air of swagger and improbability ; but the description of the heathen ceremonymay be true to the life. I have pointed out, p. 174, that the Ossetes and Circassians hung up the hides of animals on pioles in honour of divine beings, that the Goths of Jornandes truncis suspendehant exuvias to Mars (p. 77 note), that as a general thing animals were hung on sacrificial trees (pp. 75-9) ; most likely this tree also was sacred to some god through sacrifices, i.e. votive offerings of individuals," hence the whole place was named ' ad votum.'' What was the meaning of hurling javelins through the suspended skin, is by no means clear ; in the North it was the custom to shoot through a hanging raio oxhide (Fornm. sog. 3, 18, 4, 61), as a proof of strength and skill. Doing it backwards

^ Another Vita Barbati (ibid. p. 112) relates as follows : ' Nam quid despicabilius credendum est, quam ex mortuis auimalibus non carnem sed corium accipere ad usum comestionis, ut i^ravo errori subjecti Langobardi fecerunt ? qui suarum festa solennitatum equis praecurrentibus unus altero praecedente, sicut mos erat geiitilium, arhori ludificae procul uon satis Benevento vota sua solvehant. Suspensa itaque putredo corii in banc arhorem divam, equorum sessores versis post tergum brachiis ignominiam corii certabant lanceolis vibrare. Cumque lanceolis esse vibrata pellis mortua cerneretur, veluti pro remedio animae ex hac illusione corii partis mediae factam recisionem gustabant. Ecce quali ridiculo vanae mentis homines errori subjacebant pestifero ! '

• Supra p. 360 note ; votum is not only vow, but the oblatio rei votivae : ' votare puerum ' in Pertz 2, 93 is equiv. to offerre.

TREES. 651

increased the difficulty, and savours of antiquity.'^ Why the particle of skin that was knocked 6ut should be eaten, it is hard to say ; was it to indicate that they were allowed to participate in the sacrifice? (p. 4G ; see Suppl.).

And not only were those trees held sacred, under which men sacrificed, and on which they hung the head or hide of the slaughtered beast, but saplings that greiv up on the top of sacrificed animals. A willow slip set over a dead foal or calf is not to be damaged (Sup. I, 838) ; are not these exactly Adam of Bremen's ' arbor es ex morte vel tabo immolatorum divinae' ? (p. 76).2

Of hallowed trees (which are commonly addressed as frau, dame, in the later Mid. Ages) the oak stands at the head (pp. 72-77) : an oak or beech is the arbor frugifera in casting lots (Tac. Germ. 10). Next to the oak, the ash was holy, as we may see by the myth of the creation of man ; the ashtree Yggdrasill falls to be treated in Chap. XXV. The wolf, whose meeting of you promises victory, stands under ashen boughs. ' The common people believe that 'tis very dangerous to break a bough from the asJc, to this veiy day,' Rob. Plot's Staffordshire p. 207. One variety, the mountain-ash or rountree, rowan-tree, is held to have magical power (Brockett p. 177),'^ (conf. Chap. XXVII., Ronn). With dame Hazel too our folk-songs carry on conversations, and hazels served of old to hedge in a court of justice, as they still do cornfields, RA. 810. According to the Ostgota-lag (bygdab. 30), any one may in a common wood hew with impunity, all but oaks and hazels, these have peace, i.e. immunity. In Superst. 1, 972 we are told that oak and hazel dislike one another, and cannot agree, any more than haw and sloe (white and black thorn ; see Suppl.). Then the elder (sambucus), OHG. holantar, enjoyed a marked degree of veneration ; holan of itself denotes a tree or shrub (AS. cneowholen^ruscus). In Lower Saxony the sambucus nigra is

^ So the best he.ad had to be touched backwards, RA. 396 ; so men sacrificed with the liead turned away (p. 493), and threw backwards over their heads (p. 028).

• A scholium on Ad. of Bremen's Hist. eccl. (Pertz, scr. 7, 379) is worth quoting: ' Propo ilhid templum (upsaheuse) est arbor maxima, late ramos extendeus, aestate et hiemc semper vircns : cujus ilia generis sit, nemo scit. Ibi etiam est fons, ubi sacriticia Paganorum solent exerceri, et homo vivus immergi, qui dum immergitur (al. inveuitur), ratnm erit votum populi.' To sink in water was a good sign, as in the ordeal (KA. 924; conf. Chap. XXXIV., Witch's bath).

^ Esculus Jovi sacra, Pliny Ki, i (5).

called ellorn, ell-horn.'^ Arnkiel's testimony 1, 179 is beyond suspicion : ' Thus did our forefathers also hold the ellhorn holy, and if they must needs clip the same, they were wont first to say this prayer : " Dame Ellhorn, give me somewhat of thy wood, then will I also give thee of mine, if so be it grow in the forest/' And this they were wont to do sometimes with bended knees, bare head and folded hands, as I have ofttimes in my young days both heard and seen/ Compare with this the very similar accounts of elder rods (Sup. I, 866), of planting the elder before stables (169), of pouring water under the elder (864), and of the elder's mother (Sup. K, Dan. 162).- The juniper, wacholder, plays an important part in the marchen of machcmdelhoom ; in the poem of the Mirror's adventure, fol. 38, occurs the mysterious statement :

Fraw Wecholfer, ich sich Dame Juniper, I see

daz du ir swester bist, that thou her ^ sister art,

du kund ouch falsche list thou knewest false cunning too

do du daz kind verstalt. when thou stolest the child.

A man in Sudermania was on the point of cutting down a fine shady juniper, when a voice cried out, 'hew not the juniper!' He disregai-ded the warning, and was about to begin again, when it cried once more ' I tell thee, hew not down the tree ! ' and he ran away in a fright.'^ A similar notion lies at the bottom of kindermarchen no. 128, only it has a ludicrous turn given it; a voice out of the tree cries to the hewer, 'he that hews haspelholz (windlass-wood), shall die.' Under such a tree, the Klinta tall (deal-tree, pine) in Westmanland, dwelt a hafs-fru, in fact the pine tree's ra (p. 496) ; to this tree you might see snow-white cattle driven up from the lake across the meadows, and no one dared to touch its boughs. Trees of this kind are sacred to individual elves, woodsprites, liomesprites ; they are called in Swed.

' AS. elle7i. The Cauones editi sub Eadgaro rege, cap. 16 (Thorpe, p. 396), speak of the sorcery practised ' on ellenum and eac on o'Srum mislicum treowum ' (in sambucis et in aliis variis arboribus).

• The god Pushkait lives under the elder, and the Lettons used to set bread and beer for him beside the tree, Thorn. Hiarn, p. 43. [In Somersetshire they will not burn elder wood, for fear of ill luck. — Trans.]

^ My faithless lover's.

■• I find this quoted from Loccenius's Antiq. Sueog. 1,3; it is not in the ed. of 1647, it may be in a later. Afzelius 2, 147 has the story with this addition, that at the second stroke blood flowed from the root, the hewer then went home, and soon fell sick.

TSEES. 653

ho-trdd, in Dan. hoe-tm (p. 509). Under the lime-tree in the Hero-book dwarfs love to haunt, and heroes fall into enchanted sleep : the sweet breath of its blossoms causes stupefaction, D. Heldeub. 1871, 3, 14-5. 135 (see Suppl.). But elves in particular have not only single trees but whole orchards and groves assigned them, which they take pleasure in cultivating, witness Laurin's B.osegarden enclosed by a silken thread. In Sweden? they call these gardens elftrdd-gardar.

The Greek dryads ^ and hamadryads have their life Ihiked to a tree, and as this withers and dies, they tliemselves fall away and cease to be ; any injury to bough or twig is felt as a wound, and a wholesale hewing down puts an end to them at once.^ A cry of anguish escapes them when the cruel axe comes near. Ovid in Met. 8, 742 seq., tells a beautiful story of Erisichthon's impious attack on the grove of Ceres :

Hie etiam Cereale nemus violasse securi dicitur, et lucos ferro temerasse vetustos. Stabat in his ingens annoso rohore quercus, saepe sub hac dryades festas duxere choreas . . . Contremuitj gemitumque dedit Deoia quercus,. et pariter frondes^ pariter pallescere glandes coepere, ac longi pallorem ducere rami.

When the alder (erle) is hewn, it bleeds, weeps, and begins to speak (Meinert's Kuhlilndch. 122). An Austrian marchen (Ziska 38-42) tells of the stately ^r, in which there sits a fay waited on by dwarfs, rewarding the innocent and plaguing the guilty ; and a Servian song of the maiden in the pi7ie (fichte) whoso bark the boy splits with a gold and silver horn. Magic spells banish the ague into f ran Fichte (see Suppl.).

This belief in spirit-haunted trees was no less indigenous among Celts. Sulpicius Severus (beg. of 5th cent.) reports in his life of St. Mai'tin, ed. Amst. 1G65, p. 457 : ' Dum in vico quodam templum antiquissimura diruisset, et arhorem pinum, quae fano crat proxima, esset aggressus excidere, tum vero antistes illius luci ceteraque gentilium turba coepit obsistere ; et cum iidem illi, dum templum evertitur, imperaute domino quievissent, succidi arhorem

• AS. gloss, u-iidu-elfcnne, wood-elfins, fem. pi.

^ ' Nou sine bamadryadis fate cadit arborea trabs.' Ausonius.

654 TEEES AND ANIMALS.

11011 patiehantur. lUe eos sedulo commonere, nihil esse religionis in stipite ; Deum potius^ cui serviret ipse, sequerentui* ; arborem illam exscindi oportere, quia asset daemoni dedicata' (see Suppl.). A great deal might be written on the sacred ness of particular plants and flowers. They are either dedicated to certain gods and named after them (as Donners bart, p. 183. Baldrs bra, p. 222. Forneotes folme, p. 240. Lokkes havre, p. 242. Freyju heir, Friggjar gras, p. 302-3) ; or they come of the transformation of some afflicted or dying man. Nearly all such plants have power to heal or hurt, it is true they have to be plucked and gathered first : the Chap, on magic will furnish examples. Like sacred tutelary beasts, they are blazoned on the coats-of-arms of countries, towns, and hei'oes. Thus to the Northwest Germans, especially Frisians and Zeelanders, the seeblatt (nymphaea, nenuphar) was from the earliest times an object of veneration. The Hollanders call it plo7npe, the Frisians pompe : strictly speaking, the broad leaves floating on the sea are poinpebledden, and the fragrant white flowers, golden yellow inside, swannehlommen (flores cygnei) ; which recals the names given at p. 489, nixblume, ndckhlad, muhme and mummel [i.e. swan-maiden). The Frisians put seven ' sea-blades ' (zeven plompenbladen) in their escutcheon, and under that emblem looked for victory;^ our Gudrunlied (1373) knows all about it, and furnishes Herwic of Sewen or Selanden with a sky-blue flag : ' sehleter swebent (float) dar inne.-' This sea-flower is the sacred lotus of old Egypt, and is also honoured in India ; the Tibetans and Nepalese bow down to it, it is set up in temples, Bralima and Vishnu float on its leaf; and it is no other than a M. Nethl. poem that still remembers Thumbkin floating on the leaf (p. 451).

1 J. H. Halbertsma's Het Buddhisme en zijn stichter, Deventer 1843, pp. 3.10; and he adds, that the people are to this day very careful in picking and carrying the plomisen: if you fall with the flower in your hand, you get the falling sickness. Plomben, our plumpfen, ON. pompa, means plumping or plunging down. Ace. to W. Barnes, ' butterpumps = ovary of the yellow waterlily ;' conf. Lith. pumpa, Slav, pupa, wen, pimple? Mart. Hamconii Frisia, Franekarae 1620, p. 7, says Friso introduced the cognisance of the seven sea-blades : ' insigne Frisonis, ut Cappidus refert, septem fuerunt rubra nympheae herbae folia, in tribus argenteis constitutae trabibus ■per scutum caeruleum oblique ductis.' Cappidus is said to have been a priest at Stavorn at the beg. of the 10th century, but nothing more is known of him. Conf. Van d. Bergh's Volksoverlev. p. 33. 41. 110. Others connect the division of Friesland into 7 sea-lands with the 7 leaves of the scutcheon ; it is not known for certain when that division first began ; see De vrije Yries 4, 137.

ANIMALS. 655

2. Animals.

We shall have still more to say about sacred animals, which enter into more intimate relations with man than dumb nature can ; but their cultus will admit of being referred to two or three principal causes. Either they stood connected with particular gods, and to some extent in their service, as the boar belongs to Fro, the wolf and raven to Wuotan; or there lies at the basis the metarnorjoJiosis of a higher being into some animal shape, on the strength of which the whole species comes to be invested with a halo of honour. That is how we may in some instances have to take a bear, bull, cow or snake, presupposing an incarnation, though our mythology may have long ceased to reach so far back as to give a full account of it. Then, bordering close upon such a lowering of the god into the animal, comes the penal degradation of man into a beast, the old doctrine of transmigration, in which we discover a. third reason for the consecration of animals, though it does not warrant an actual worship of them. Those myths, e.g. of the cuckoo, woodpecker, nightingale, and so on, furnish a fund of beautiful tales, which enter largely into the hero-worship (see SuppL).

Quadrupeds. — Foremost of animals I name the horse, the noblest, wisest, trustiest of domestic animals, with whom the hero holds friendly talk (p. 392), who sympathizes in his griefs and rejoices in his victories. As some heroes are named after the horse (Hengest, Hors), the horse too has proper names given him ; Norse mythology assigns to nearly every god his separate horse, endowed with miraculous powers. OSin's steed is named Sleipnir (p. 154), and is, like some giants and heroes, an octopod.^ The other horses of the ases are enumerated by Ssem. 44* and Sn. 18, without specifying to which they belonged. Several names are formed with ' faxi ' (jubatus, comatus, OHG. vahso), as Skinfaxi (Saem. 32. Sn.ll), Gullfaxi (Sn. 107-10), Hrtmfaxi {Ssem. 32. 91. Sn.ll), Freyftxi (Vatnsd. 140-1). Of these, Gullfaxi the gold-maned belonged to giant Hrungnir, Skinfaxi the shiny-

• Old riddle on O^inn and Sleipnir in the Hervararsaga : ' Who are the two that

go to Thing (council) together, and have three eyes, ten legs and one tail between them? ' A mode of expression quite of a i)iece with our old habits of speech ; tluis in the Weisthiimer it is said the olhcers uf the court shall come to the assize with 0 J mouths, meaning three men on horseback and a dog.

(joQ TREES AND ANIMALS.

maned was tlie steed of Day, and Hrimfaxi the rimy-raaued (p. 641) of Night. But even Faxi by itself is a name for horses, e.g-, Fornald. sog. 2, 168. 508. Arvahr (early-waker) , AUvi&r (all-wise) are horses of the sun-chariot, Saem. 45. Sn. 12 ; on Arvakr's ear, on Alsvinn's ^ hoof, there were runes written ; also runes 'a Sleipnis tonnom (teeth) ,^ Sa3m. 196% as well as on the beards paw and the wolPs claws. ^ Sva&Ufari was the horse that helped the giant in building, Sn. 46. And our hero-legend has handed down the names of many famous horses (p. 392). Bajart is described as intelligent, like AlsviSr; he is said to be still alive in Ardennes forest, where you may hear him neigh every year on Midsummer day (Quatre fils Aimon ISC'"). The track of Schimming's shoe stands printed on the rock, Vilk. saga cap. 37 (see Suppl.).

The Freyfaxi in Vatnsdselasaga was owned by a man named Brandr, who is said to have worshipped it (at hann hef'Si atrunaS a Faxa), and was therefore called Faxabrandr. The unpublished saga of Hrafnkell is known to me only from Milller^s Bibl. 1, 103, but he too had a horse Freyfaxi (mispr. Freirfara), which he had half given to Freyr, vowing at the same time to slay the man who should mount it without his leave. I can give the passage from Joh. Erici de philippia apud priscos boreales. Lips. 1755, p. 122: 'Hrafnkell atti ];aun grip i eigo sinni, er hanom l^otti betri enn annar, J^at var hestr bleikalottr at lit, er hann kallaSi Freyfaxa, hann gaf Frey vin sinom (supra, pp. 93. 211) Jjenna hest hdlfami. a ]?essom hesti hafSi hann sva mikla elsko (love), at hann strengdi J^ess heit (vow), at hann skyldi ]>eixn manui at bana ver^a, er ]?eim hesti ri"Si an hans vilja.' Brand's ' atrunaS ' refers, no doubt, to the same circumstance of his horse being hallowed and devoted to the god. A striking testimony to this is found in Olafs Tryggvasonar saga : ^ Tidings came to the king, that the TrjBudir (men of Drontheim) had turned back to the worship of Freyr, whose statue still stood among them. When the king commanded them to break the image, they I'eplied: 'ei munum ver briota likuesTci Freys, jmat ver hofum leingi

1 S'i5r, gen. svinns, like ma'Sr, manns.

2 Reminding of the Germ. Beast-apologue (Eeinh. cclxiii.). In Fornald. sog. 1, 169 Rafn prefers, wrongly I think, the reading ' hof Si,' head.

» Ed. Skalh. 1698. 1690. 2, 190 cap. 49 ; this cap. is left out in Fornm. sog. 2, 189, but inserted at 10, 312.

HORSES. 657

honutn })ionat ok hefr oss vel diigat/ Olafr summoned them to an assembly, resolving to destroy the idol himself, and sailed to the coast where the temple (hof) stood. When he landed, he found the horses of the god grazing there (jnl sau hans menn stoS- hross nokr viS vegin, er J^eir sog'Su at hann Freyr a3tti). The king mounted the stallion, and his courtiers the mares, and so they rode to the temple ; Olafr dismounted, walked in and threw down the idols (go'Sin),^ but took Frey^s image away with him. When the Traendir found their gods dishonoured, and Frey's image carried off, they were ware that the king had done it, and they came to the place of meeting. The king had the image set up in the Thing, and asked the people : ' know ye this man ? ' 'It is Freyr our god' they answered. 'How has he shewn his power to you ? ' ' He has often spoken to us, foretold the future, granted plenty and peace (veitti oss ar oc f riS) .' ' The devil spake to you ' said the king ; then taking an axe, he cried to the image : ' Now help thyself, and defend thee if thou canst.' Freyr continuing silent, Olafr hewed off both his hands, and then preached to the people how this idolatry had arisen. The whole narrative bears the impress of a later age, yet it had sprung out of Norse tradition, and assures us that horsQs were consecrated to Freyr, and maintained in the hallowed precincts of Ids temples. Had not the temples of other gods such horses too ? The animals that Wilibrord found grazing in Fosete's sanctuary (p. 230) can hardly have been horses, or he would not have had them slaughtered for food ; but the practice of rearing cattle consecrated to the gods is established by it none the less. And apart from this, it seems that single beasts were maintained by private worshippers of the god.

Such breed of pure and dedicated horses was destined for holy uses, especially sacrifice, divination, and the periodical tours of deities in their cars. Their manes were carefully cultivated, groomed and decorated, as the name Faxi indicates ; probably gold, silver and ribbons were twined or plaited into the locks {GidJfaxi, STiinfaxi) ; mon gloar (juba splendet), So3m. 92''^, Ij^sir mon af mari (kicet juba ex equo) 32'', as indeed the Lat. jubar suggests juba, because a mane does radiate, and light sends out

^ So that there were other statues standing beside Fi"ey"s.

658 TEEES AND ANIMALS.

beams in the mannei' of hair.^ Qulltoppr, Silfrintoppr are names of horses whose tails were tied round with gold or silver^ Sn. 44. The names Oyllir and Gler (golden, glitteringj ibid.) may be given them for the same reason, or because their hoofs were shod with gold, or from the gilding of the bridle and saddle. Of colours, white was esteemed the noblest ; a king would make his entry, or bestow a fief, seated on a milk-white steed. The Weisthiimer often mention the white horse (e.g. 3, 342. 857) ; if an inheritance lie vacant, the governor is to mount a white foal, and taking one man before him and the other behind, to set one of them down on the property (8, 831; conf. 2, 541). A foal was esteemed even purer and nobler than a horse (see Snppl.).^

Tacitus (Germ. 9, 10), after saying ' lucos ac nemora consecrant,^ adds : ' Proprium gentis, eqiiorum quoque praesagia ac monitus experiri. Puhlice aluntur, iisdem nemo7'ibus ac lucis, candidi et nullo tnortali opere contadi, quos presses sacro curru sacerdos ac rex vel princeps civitatis comitantur, himiitusque ac fremitus observant. '^ec ulli auspicio major fides, non solum apud plebem, sed apud proceres, apud sacerdotes : se enim ministros deorum, illos conscios putant ; ' these sacred beasts are in the secrets of the gods, and can reveal their counsels. And in christian times the Indiculus pagan, cap. xiii. speaks ' de auguriis equorum,' without describing them further. A horse's neigh is an omen of good (Sup. I, 239).'^ To warriors victory was foretokened by their chargers' neighing (OHG. hueion, MHG. weien, M. Neth. neien, ON. hneggja, Swed. gnagga), and defeat by their withholding the cheerful spirit-stirring strain : see an instance in the Flem. rhyming chron., ed. Kausler 7152. We

1 Single hairs oi;t of the mane or tail of a saereJ horse were treasured up. Franz Wessel relates, p. 14, that when the Johannites preached in a town or village, they had a fine stallion ridden round, to which the people offered ' afgehowen woppen (bunch of oat ears) ' ; any one who could get a hair out of the horse's tail, thought himself lucky, and sewed it into the middle of his milk-strainer, and the milk was proof against witchcraft.

• A foal's tooth, it seems, was hung about the person, and worn as a safeguard. A MHGr. poet says: ' gevater unde fuU-zant an gruzen uceten sint ze swach,' godfathers and foal's teeth are too weak in great emergencies, MS. 2, 160^. To let children ride on a black foal makes them cut their teeth easily, Superst. I, 428. From Eracl. 1320. 1485 fill-zene appear to be the milk-teeth shed by a foal (see Suppl.).

^ What the breath of a swine has polluted, is set right again by that of the horse (Sup. I, 820. K, 92) ; the hoi'se is a clean animal. It helps a woman in labour, for a horse to feed out of her apron (Sup. I, 337).

HORSES. 659

know how the Persians chose a king by the neighing of his horse, Herod. 3, 84. In the Norwegian tale Grimsborken (Asb. and Moe, no. 38) a foal is suckled by twelve mares, and gets to talk sensibly (see Suppl.).

And as Mimics head retained its wisdom after it was cut off ^ (379), heathendom seems to have practised all sorts of magic by cutting off horse's heads and sticking them up. In a nursery-tale (no. 89) the trusty Falada's head is nailed up over the gate, and carries on converse with the king's daughter. This cutting off and setting up of horse's heads has been mentioned at p. 47-8 as an ancient German custom. Pliny 19, 10 (58) notices, as a remedy lor caterpillarg : "'^^palo imponantur in hortis ossa capitis ex eljuino genere.' In Scandinavia they stuck a horse's head on a pole, and turned the gaping jaws, propped open with a stick, in the direction whence the man they had a spite against, and wished to harm, was sure to come.^ This was called a neidstange (spite-stake). Saxo Gram. p. 75 : Immolati diis equi ahscissum caput conto excipieyis, subjectis stipitihus distentos faucium rictus aperuit, sperans se primes Erici conatus atrocis spectaculi formidine frustraturum. Arbitrabatur enim ineptas barbarorum mentes oblatae cervicis terriculamento cessuras; et jam Ericus obvium illis iter agebat. Qui prospecto eminus capite, obscoeuitatis apparatum intelligens, silere socios cautiusque se gerere jubet, nee quemquam temere prsecipitare sermonem, ne incauto effamine ullum maleficiis instruerent locum, adjiciens, si sermone opus incideret, verba se pro omnibus habiturum. Jamque medius illos amnis secreverat, cum magi, ut Ericum pontis aditu deturbarent, contum quo equi caput rejixeraiit fluvio citimum locant. Ille nihilominus pontem intrepide aggressus, * in latorem ' inquit ' gestaminis sui fortuna recidat, nos melior consequatur eventus. Male maleficis cedat, infaustae molis gerulum onus obruat, nobis potiora tribuant omina sospitatem ! ' Nee secus quam optabatur evenit : continue namque excussa cervice mens ferentem stipes oppressit. — Egilssaga p. 389 : Egill tok i hond ser heslis staling (hazel rod), ok geek a bergsnaus nockura, pa er vissi til lands inn. yX tokhann liross-lii'ifad' ok seiti up d staungina. silSan veitti

• Wolves' heads wore in like manuer held opeu with hazel rods and hung up Isengr. 6i5-7-8. Eeiuardus 3, 2'j3. 312. Heiuhart, introd. p. Ixix.

hann formala ok maelti sva : ' hei- set ek upp ni&staung, ok snj^ ek bessu ni'Si a liond Eiriki koniiagi ok Guunhilda drottningu.' liann sneri hross-lwf&inu inn d land. — At otlier times they carved a man's head out of wood, and fastened it to a stake which was inserted in the breast of a slaughtered horse} Vatnsd. saga, p. 142 : lokull skar karls hofut a siilu endann, ok risti a runar med ollum |;eim formala sem fyrr var sagdr, si-San drap lokull mer eina (killed a mare), ok opnu^u hana hia briostinu, foirffu a suluna, ok letu horfa ];eim a Borg (see Suppl.). It is well worth noticing, that to this very day the peasants' houses in a part of Lower Saxony (Liineburg, Holstein, Mecklenburg) have horses' heads carved on the gables : they look upon it merely as an ornament to the woodwork of the roof, but the custom may reach far back, and have to do with the heathen belief in outwardpointing heads keeping mischief away from houses.^ The Jahrb. of the Meckl. verein 2, 118 says, these horses' heads are nailed transversely on each gable-end (kiihlende) of the roof, a reminiscence of the sacred horses of the ancients. Heinr. Schreiber (Taschenb. f. 1840, p. 240 seq.) has likewise noticed these horses rushing at each other on gables of the older houses in Romanic Rheetia (not Germ. Switz., but Tyrol ; see Zingerle's Sitten p. 55) ; he is decidedly over hasty in pronouncing them a Celtic symbol, for if we were to say that the custom in L. Saxony was a legacy from the earher Celtic inhabitants, criticism would lose all firm footing. To me this custom, as well as horse-worship altogether, seems to belong equally to Celts, Teutons and Slavs ; what particular branches of these races were most addicted to it, will by degrees unfold itself to future research (see Suppl.). Preetorius (Weltbeschr. 2, 162-3) relates, that the Non-German people (Wends) used to keep off or extirpate cattle-plagues by fixing round their stables the heads of mad horses and cows on

1 Conf. Sup. I, 838, planting the willow in the dead foal's mouth.

2 Pretty much as they turned the eagle's head on the house, and thought thereby to shift the wind (p. C33-4:). The heathen practice of fastening up animals' heads explains many very old names of places in Germ, and France, as Berhaupten, Tlerhaupten, Roshaupten, Schm. 2, 223. Ad locum qui nuncupatur caput caballinum, Pertz 2, 278. Ad locum qui vocatur caput equi (Vita S. Magni, in Canisius's Lect. ant. 1, 6G7), with the addition in Goldast (Scr. rer. Alem. i. 2, 198j : ' et idcurco Tocatus est ille locus caput equi, quia omnes venatores reliquerant ibi sues caballos, et pedestres ibaut ad venaudum.' Obviously a false later interpretation ; in fact this life of St. Magnus (Magnoald, Mangold) has a good many interpolations, conf. Mabillon's Acta Bened. sec. 2, p. 505.

HOESES. 661

hedsre-stakes ; also that if at niojlit their horses were ridden to exhaustion by the night-hag or leeton, they put a horse's head among the fodder in the crib, and this would curb the spirit's power over the beast. Very likely the superstitious burying of a dead head in the stable (I, 815) means that of a horse/ conf. Chap. XXXVIII., Nightmare. In Holland they hang a horse's head over pigstyes (Westendorp p. 518), in Mecklenburg it is placed under a sick man's pillow (Jahrb. 2, 128). We saw the horse's head throwh into the Midsummer fire with a view to magical effects (p. 618).^

Preetorius's account is enough to shew that Slavs agreed with Germans in the matter of horse- worship. But older and weightier witnesses are not wanting. Dietmar of Merseburg (6, 17. p. 812) reports of the Luitizers, i.e. Wilzes : ' Terram cum tremore infodiunt, quo sortibus eraissis [imm. ?] rerum certitudinem dubiarum perquirant. Quibus finitis, cespite viridi eas operientes, eqiium, qui maximus inter alios habetur et ut sacer ah his veneratur, super Jixas in terram duorum cuspides hastiliwm inter se transmissorum supplici obsequio diicunt, et praemissis sortibus quibus id explicavere prius, per hunc quasi divinuTn denuo aurjurantur ; et si in duabus his rebus par omen apparet, factis completur j sin autem, a tristibus populis hoc prorsus omittitur.' — The Vita beati Ottonis episcopi bambergensis, composed by an unknown contemporary (Canisius iii. 2, 70), relates more fully of the Pomeranians, whom Otto converted a.d. 1124: ' Habebant cahallum mirae magnitudinis, et pingueni, nigrl coloris, et acrem valde. Iste toto anni tempore vacabat, tantaeque fuit sanctitatis ut nullum dignaretur sessorem ; habuitque unum de quatuor sacerdotibus templorum custodem diligentissimum. Quando ergo itinera terrestri contra hostes aut praedatum ire cogitabant, eventum rei hoc modo solebaut praediscere. Hastae novem disponebantur humo, spatio unius cubiti ab invicem separatae. Strato ergo caballo atque frenato, sacerdos, ad quem pertinebat custodia illius, tentum freno jjer jacentes hastas transversum dueehat tor, atque roducehat. Quod si pedibus inoffensis hastisque

' Conf. Fornald. sijg. 2, 1G8. 300, what is said of Faxi's hross-hauit .

2 Wliy should the monks in tlie abbey have a caput caballinum ? Keinhar.^us 3, 2032. 2153. Does the expression spun out of a dead horse's head ' in Burc.ad, WalJis i, 2, mean euchautud ?

indisturbatis equus transibat, signum habuere prosperitatis, et securi pergebant; sin autem^ quiescebant/ — Here tbe lioly steed is led across nine spears lying a cubit apart from one another, in Dietmar's older narrative over the points of ttoo crossed spears ; of course the Luitizers may have had a different method from the Pomeranians. Saxo Gram. p. 321 gives yet a third account of the matter respecting the Slavs of Riigen : ' Praeterea peculiarem albi coloris equumiitxxlo possidebat (numen), c\i]\x& j iibae ant caudae pilos convellere nefarium ducebatur. Hunc soli sacerdoti pascendi insidendique jus erat, ne divlni animalis usus quo frequentior hoc vilior haberetur. In hoc equo, opinione Rugiae, Svantovitits (id simulacro vocabulum erat) adversus sacrorum suorum hostes bella gerere credebatur. Cujus rei praecipuum argumentum exstabat, quod is nocturno tempore stabulo insistens adeo plerumque mane sudore ac luto respersus videbatur,^ tanquam ab exercitatione veniendo magnorum itinerum spacia percurrisset. Auspicia quoque per eundem equum hujusmodi sumebantur. Cum bellum adversum aliquam provinciam suscipi placuisset, ante fanum triplex hastarum ordo miuistrorum opera disponi solebat, in quorum quolibet hinae e traverso jundae conversis in terram cuspidibus figebantur, aequali spaciorum magnitudine ordines disparante. Ad quos equus ductandae expeditionis tempore, solenni jorecatione praemissa, a sacerdote e vestibulo cum loramentis productus, si propositos ordines ante dextro quam laevo pede transcenderet, faustum gerendi belli omen accipiebatur. Sin laevum vel semel dextro praetulisset, petendae provinciae propositum mutabatnr.' — This description is still more exact : the sacred horse, here attributed to the deity himself who bestrides him by night, is led three times over two spears planted crosswise, that is, over six spears, and must, for the omen to be favourable, pass each row with his right foot foremost ; if at even one row he has lifted the left before the right, misfortune is threatened. The colour ascribed to the steed is ivhite as in Tacitus, not hlack as in the biographer of Otto.

The Chronica Augustensis ad. an. 1068 (in Freher 1, 349) says, that Bp. Burcard of Halberstadt (the Buko still known in

1 As the horse ridden by the night-spirit is covered with dust and sweat the next morning (see p. 287 and Supi)!.).

HOESES. 663'

our children's game) took away their sacred horse from the Lutizers, and rode home to Saxony on it himself: 'Barcardus Halberstatensis episcopus Luiticiorum provinciam ingressus incendit, vastavit^ avectoque equo quern pro deo in Rheda^ colebant, super eum sedens in Saxoniam rediit/

May we then adopt the hypothesis, that Dietmar and the Augsburg chronicler mean the sacred horse of Radigast at Ehetra, and Saxo and the author of the Vita Ottonis that of Sviatovit at Arkona ? Each of these gods ^ had horses hallowed to him, and others may have had the same. And so in Germany too, horses may have been dedicated to several deities, and divination performed with them under similar forms ; especially to the gods Frouwo (p. 656) and Wuotan (p. 154-5-6).

Some accounts of the reverence paid to sacred horses in Ditmarsen have a doubtful look. The Rieswold or E-iesumwold on the confines of N. and S. Ditmarsen is said to have been a holy wood, in which human sacrifices were offered, and ivhite horses consecrated to gods were maintained.^ This is simply an unauthorized appropriation of the statement in Tacitus to a particular locality. There is more of local colour in what Bolten 1, 262 repeats after the suspicious Carsten, that at Windbergen there stood a grove set apart to Hesus (!), which is still called Hese or Heseholt.^ In the grove tiuo ivhite horses, a young and an old, were fed for the god, no one was allowed to mount them, and good or bad auguries were gathered from their neighing and leaping. Some talk of ten or even twenty horses. A priest of the god stuck staves in the ground, led the bridled steed along, and by certain processes made it leap slowly over the staves. Joh. Aldolfi, i.e. Neocorus, who is cited in support, says nothing at all about it. The immunity from mounting is another point of agreement with those Slav horses.

' Not ' in rheda ' (WedekincT's Notes 1, 173). Ehetra, a chief place of Slav heathenism, placed by Adaiu of Bremen in the land of the Rethaiii, where stands the temple of lledigost ; Dietmar gives the Lutiz to\Ti in the ' grau Eiedera ' itseK the name of Eiedegost.

• Sviatovit or Svantevit has been confounded with St. Vitus, sanctus Vitus (couf. Acta sanctor. 15 Jun. p. 1018) ; but we cannot possibly make the god Svantevit originate in Vitus.

3 Falk's Collection of treatises, 5, 103. Tondern, 1828.

■• This Hese-ivnod may however remind us of the ' silva Heisi, Hese ' on the Ruhr in Westph. (Lacombl. no. 6. 17. G4. 2G0) and the ' silva caesia' of Tacitus.

VOL. II. Q

But in the case of the heathen Livonians the Slav custom admits of proof. The Chronicon livonicum vetus relates ad an. 1192 (in Gruber p. 7): ' Colligitur populus, voluntas deorum Ae immolatione (fratris Theoderici cisterciensis) sorte inquiritur. Ponihir lancea, calcat equus ; pedevi vitae deputatum (the right foot) nutu dei praeponit. Orat frater ore^ manu benedicit. Ariolus deum Christianorum equi dorso insidere et pedem equi ad praeponendum movere asserit, et ob hoc equi dorsum tergendum, quo deus elabatur. Quo facto, dum equus vitae pedem praeponit ut prius, frater Theodoricus vitae reservatur.^ Here a heathen and a christian miracle met.

This worship was also an Old Prussian one : ' Prussorum aliqui 'equos nigros, quidam albi coloris, propter deos sues non audebant aliqualiter equitare.' Dusburg 3, 5 (see Suppl.).^

The sacrificing of horses, and the eating of liorseflesh inseparable from it, have been noticed (pp. 47-49). Strabo reports, that the Veneti offered a ■white horse to Diomed (v. 1, 9. Siebenk. 2, 111. Casaub. 215. Kramer 1, 339). The Indians get up grand horsesacrifices with imposing ceremonies. What is told of the Kalmuks appears worthy of notice. Among them you see numbers of scaffolds erected, bearing horses^ hides and heads, the remains of former sacrifices. By the direction of the horse's head to east or west, you can tell if the sacrifice was offered to a good or evil spirit.^ On the one hand it suggests that sacrificial fixing of horses' heads in a particular direction in Germany, which under Christianity was treated as wicked sorcery; and on the other hand the ' pira equinis sellis coustructa ' in Jornandes, and the arj^ia of the Scythian kings in Herodotus (see RA. 676, and Suppl.).s

Of honours paid to oxen I have not so much to tell, though they are not at all a matter of doubt, if only because hullocks were sacrificed, and hidls drew the car of the Prankish kings, RA. 262. War-chariots continued to have oxen till late in the Mid. Ages : ' capto ducis (Lovaniensis) vexillo, dicto gallice standart,

1 Sup. M, 35 shews that Esthonians ascribe j)rophetic powers to the horse.

^ Ledebour's Eeise nach dem Altai, Berl. 1830. 2, 54-5.

3 A Sansk. name for the horse is Snbhrdtri, brother of Sri (Lakshmi), because, like her (and Aphrodite) it rose out of the sea-waves, Pott 2, 407. Still more natural is the identification of horse and ship.

OXEN. 665

opere plumario a regina Angliae ei misso, quod fastu superbiae quadriga bourn ferebat/ Chapeaville 2, 69 (an. 1129). A chariot drawn hj four white oxen in Lorraine occurs in ScbefFer's Haltaus, p. 251. In Plutai'ch^s Marius cap. 23 is the well-known story of the Cimbrians swearing over a brazen bull, by which the Mecklenburgers account for the bulFs head in their arms (Mascov 1, lo). At Hvitabaer the people worshipped an ox (Fornald. sog. 1, 253), at Upsal a coiu {I, 254. 260-6. 270-2 ; see Suppl.).

Whilst among horses the stallion is more honoured than the mare, among neat the coiu seems to take the lead. Kine were yoked to the car of Nerthus [and two milch- kine to the ark of Jehovah] . The Bdda speaks of a cow named Aud'ambla, which plays a great part in the origin of men and gods (p. 559), and was no doubt regarded as a sacred beast. By the side of that faith in horses (p. 656) we find an ' atriina^r a ku.^ King Eysteinn of Sweden put faith in a cow called Sthiija : ^hun var sva, miok blotin (so much worshipped), at menn mattu eigi standast lat hennar' ; they used to lead her into battle, Fornald. sog. 1, 25i. 260. King Ogvaldr carried a sacred cow with him everywhere, by sea and by land, and constantly di'ank of her milk (Fornm. sog. 2, 138. 10,302).!

The horns of cows, like the manes of horses, were adorned with gold: ' gullhyrndar kfr,' Saem. 73^*. 14P; and the herdsman of the Alps still decks the horns of his cattle with ribbons and flowers. Oxen for sacrifice are sure not to have lacked this decoration.

The Sanskrit gaus (bos and vacca), root go, ace. gam, Pers. ghau, gho, corresponds to Lett, gohw, OHG. chuo, AS. cil, ON. hyr. What is more important, ' go ' likewise means terra and plaga (Bopp's Gram. § 123. Gloss, p. 108"^), so that it touches the Gr. <yd, 777. Taking with this the presence of Ait&ambla in the Norse history of creation, we can perhaps connect rmta (the earth) and R'uulr (p. 251) with our rind armentum ; it is ti'ue this 'rind' originally began with hr (Grafi'4, 1171), and is the

' What can the black coxa mean in the following phrases? ' the h. c. crushes him ' (Hiipers Livliind. idiot. 131) ; ' the b. c. has trodden him ' (Etner's Apoth. 514). The Hor. Belg. 6, 97. 101 (conf. 223) speaks ' van ouser goedeu blaren coe, van miere blaren coe ' ; and Jr. elfeum. cxx. of the blue cow. It is dangerous to Ivill the black cow, Sup. I, 887. A Slovc'nic name for the rainbow is w«i'ra=black cow. [Eug. ' the b. c. has trodden ou his foot,' of sorrow, esp. bereavement.]

AS. hrj'Serj hro'Ser, but Avho can tell whether ' rinde ' cortex was not once aspirated too ? EvpcairT], the name of one quarter of the earthj must surely also mean earth {evpeia the broad), and on p. 338 I made a guess that Europa, whom Zeus courted in the shape of a bull, must herself have been thought of as a cow, like lo ; it was not the earth took name from her, but she from the earth. On the worship of cows and oxen by the Indians, Egyptians and Romans, I refer to A. W. SchlegeFs learned treatise.^ The Israelites also made a burnt- offering of 'a red heifer (Goth, kalbo) upon which never came yoke,^ Numb. 19, 2 (see Suppl.).

The hoar and the /le-^oai were holy sacrificial beasts (p. 50-1-2), the boar^ dedicated to Freyr (p. 213), he and she goats to Thorr (p. 185), as goats are even yet considered devil's creatures. ^ To that divine hoar's account I think we are also entitled to set down the old song out of which Notker has preserved a passage (he whose foreign learning so seldom suffers him to put down anything he knew of his own country) :

Imo sint fuoze fuodermaze, imo sint burste ebenho forste, unde zene sine zuelif-elnige ;

his bristles are even-high with the forest, and his tusks twelve ells long. A reason for the veneration of the boar has been found in the fact that he roots up the ground, and men learnt from him to plough. The Slavs also seem to have worshipped boars : 'Testatur idem antiquitas, errore delusa vario, si quando his saeva longae rebellionis asperitas immineat, ut e mari praedicto (near Riedergost) aper magnus et candido dente e spumis liicescente exeat, seque in volutabro delectatum terribili quassatione multis ostendat,' Ditm. merseb. p. 812 (see Suppl.).

None but domestic animals were fit for sacrifice, and not all of them, in particular not the dog, though he stands on much the same footing with his master as the horse ; he is faithful and intelligent, yet there is something mean and unclean about him,

1 Ind. bibl. 2, 288—295.

2 He enjoys a double appellation : OHG. epur, AS. eofor ; and OHG. ])er, AS. bfir (Goth. bais?).

3 While God (Wuotan) made the wolf (p. 147), the devil (Donar?) produced the goat. In some places they will not eat goats' feet (Tobler p. 214).

BOAR. DOG. BEAR. 667

•which makes his name a handle to the tongue of the scorner. It seems worthy of notice, that dogs can see spirits (Sup. I, 1111), and recognise an approaching god while he is yet hidden from the human eye. When Grimnir entered the house of GeirroSr, there was ^eingi hundr sva olmr, at a hann mundi hlaupa/ the king bade seize the dark-cloaked giant, ' er eigi vildo hundar ara^a,^ Ssem. 39. 40. So when Hel prowls about, the dogs perceive her. The Greeks had exactly the same notion : at Athena's approach, no one espies her, not even Telemachos, only Odysseus and the dogs, Od. 16, 160 :

ovS' dpa T7]\e/jba')(0'i cSev avriov, ovB' ivorjcrev, ov <ydp TTcb Travreacn, deol ^alvovrat €vapj€2<i, dW' ^08vaev<i re Kvve<i re iSov, Kal p' ou)^ vXdovro, ^ Kvv^7]6/xa} eTepoicre Std aTaOfxolo cfio/Srjdev,

(the)- did not bark, but fled whining through the tent). — The howling of dogs is ominous (Sup. 1, 493), and gives notice of fire. 0 Sinn is provided with dogs, 'ViSris grey/ Seem. ISl'^ ; so are the norns (p. 410), 'noma grey/ 273'\ But whence arose the story in the early Mid. Ages, of St. Peter and his dog? In the AS. Saturn and Solomon (Kemble p. 186), one asks: 'saga me, hwilc man erost weere ivid" hund sprecende ? ' and the other answers : ' ic ]?e secge, sanctus Petrus.' The Nialss. cap. 158 p. 275 contains a spell to save from the power of the watersprite : ' runnit hefr hundr pinn, Petr 'postoli, till Rums tysvar (twice), ok mundi (would) renna it J^ri^ja sinn, e£ ]7ii leyfdir' (see Suppl.).

Among wild beasts of the wood were some that men regarded with awe, and treated with respect : above all, the bear, wolf and fox. I have shewn that it was an ancient and widespread custom in Europe to bestow names of honour on these three (Reinh. p. Iv. ccvii. 446),^ and that with our ancestors the bear passed for the king of beasts (p. xlviii. seq. ccxcv.). A doc. of 1290 (Lang's Reg. 4, 467) presents the surname 'Chuonrat der lieiligbdr' ; with this connect the name Halecbern (Trad, corb. Wig. § 268), the ON. Ilallblorn, and the still older names, male and female, ON.

1 In a Dan. folksong 1, 207-9 they bark at a spectre. Barking and not barking are the same thing here.

2 A striking confirmation appears in V, Hugo's Notre Dame cle Paris 2, 272 : he states, from a book or from oral tradition, that tlie Gipsies call the fox picdbleu, coureur des bois, the violi piedyriti, picddure, and the bear vieux or grandplre.

Asbiorn, AS. Osheorn, OHG. Anspero, and ON. Ashirna, OHG. Anspirin (in Walth. Ospirn), Ospirinberg, MB. 28. 2, 123; apparently the legend of the animal's sacredness was still in full swing among the people. Biorn was a side-name of Thorr, and Welsh legend presents king Arthur as a bear and a god^ which is not to be accounted for by the mere resemblance of his name to apKTo<; : the bear in the sky plays a most dignified part. In the Edda a by-name of the bear is Vetrli&i, hiemem sustinens (Sn. 179. 222), because he sleeps through winter, and winter was called biarnar-nott ; the name was passed on to men, as ' Vetrli&i skald' in Fornm. sog. 2, 202, and a Vetrli&i 3, 107 whose name reproduces his father's name Asbiorn.^ The myth of the wliite bear and the wee wight was alluded to, p. 479. It is not to be overlooked, that certain beast-fables get converted into human myths, and vice versa : e.g., the parts of bear and fox are handed over to a g{a7it or the devil. Thus, the Esthonian tale of the man who goes partners with the bear in raising turnips and oats (Reinhart cclxxxviii.) is elsewhere told of a man and the devil. Such overlapping of the beast-fable with other traditions is an additional guarantee of the epic nature of the former. — Two wolves, Ge7-i and Frehi, were sacred to O^inn : whatever food was set before him, he gave to them to eat, Sn. 4 ; they were, so to speak, the hounds of the god ( ViSris grey) . I should like to know where Hans Sachs picked np that striking notion of the Lord God having chosen wolves to be His hunting dogs.^ A son of Loki, Fenrisidfr, makes his appearance in wolf's shape among the gods ; no metamorphosis occurs more frequently in our antiquities than that of men into were-wolves. — Both wolf and bear are a favourite cognisance in coats of arms, and a great many names of men are compounded with them : neither fact is true of the fox. Hence the dearth of mythical conceptions linked with the fox ; a few traces have been pointed out in Reinh. ccxcvi.,^

^ The name Weturlit is also found in the Necrolog. augiense (Mone QS*").

" Ed. 1658. i, 499*1 : 'die wolf er im erwelengund ('gan choose), und het sie bei ihm fill- jagdhund.'

2 Klaproth finds in Japanese books, that the people in Japan worship the inari (fox) as a tutelar god : httle temples are dedicated to him in many houses, espec. of the commoner folk. They ask his advice in difficulties, and set rice or beans for him at night. If any of it is gone in the morniug, they believe the fox has consumed it, and draw good omens from it; the contrary is an unlucky sign (Nouv. anuales des voyages, Dec. 1833, p. 298). They take him to be a kami i.e. the soul of a good man deceased (ibid.)

WOLF. FOX. CAT. BIRDS. 669

and the kindermarchen no. 38 has furnished him with nine tails, as Sleipnir had eight legs, and some heroes and gods four arms.

Freyja's car was drawn by two cats (tveim kottum), p. 305. Now, as fres in ON. means both he-cat and bear, it has lately been contended, not without reason, that kottum may have been substituted for fressimi, and a brace of bears have been really meant for the goddess, as Cybele's car was drawn by lions, p. 254. For Puss-in-boots see pp. 503-9, and the Norweg. tale in Folkeeventyr no. 29. Gats and weasels pass for knowing beasts with magical powers, whom one has good reason to indulge. Sup. I, 292 (see Suppl.).

Birds. — With birds the men of old lived on still more intimate terms, and their greater nimbleness seemed to bespeak more of the spiritual than was in quadrupeds. I will here quote some instances of wild fowl being fed by man. Dietmar of Merseb. relates of Mahtildis, Otto I.'s mother (Pertz 5, 740) : ' non solum pauperibus, verum etiam avibus victum subministrabat ; ' and we find the same in the Vita Mahtild. (Pertz. 6, 294) : ' nee etiam oblita est volucrum aestivo tempore in arboribus resonantium, praecipiens ministris sub arbores proicere micas panis.'' In Norway they used to put out bunches of corn for the sparrows on Yule-eve : ' Jule-aften at sette trende kornbaand paa stoer under aaben himmel ved laden og foe-huset till spurrens fode, at de naste aar ikke skul giore skade (do no harm next year) paa ageren,' Hiorthoi Gulbrands dalen, Kb. 1785. 1, 130; it was a sacrifice ofi'ered to the birds, to keep them from ravaging the crops. It reminds one of the legacy to birds on Walther von der Vogelweide^?! tombstone, whose very name denotes ' pascua avium.' j

Gods and god'desses often change themselves into birds, but giants possess thjs same power too. The Esthonian god Tarapila fiies from one j4ace to another, p. '77; the Greek imagination pictured icinge/t gods, the Hebrew winged angels, the Old German a maiden with swan's wings. The Norse gods and giants put on an eagle's coatj, arnar-ham, p. 633n., the goddesses a falcon's coat, vals-ham, p. ;^02. Wind is described as a giant and eagle, p. 633, and sacrod eagles scream on the mountains : ' orn gol aria,

arar gullo/' Seem. 142^ 149^. Wolfram thinks of the earth as a bird, when he says, Wh. 308, 27 :

so diu erde ir gevidere rert

unde si der meie lert

ir muze alsus volrecken (see SuppL).

Domestic fowl available for sacrifice, notably the cock and the goose, have but few mythic aspects that I know of. Fire is decribed as a red cock (p. 601) : H. Sachs has the phrase *to make the red cock ride on one's rooftree,' 'and the Danes ' den rode hane galer over taget,' the red cock crows on the thack (the fire crackles). Red cocks in preference had to be brought in payment of ground rent (formerly perhaps in sacrifice), RA. 376. The Voluspa 54 sets before us ^Fialarr, fagur-rauffr hani ' singing in the forest ; a golden-crested cock awakes the heroes, a dark one crows in the nether world. In the Danish song 1, 212 there is meaning in the crowing of a red and a black cock one after the other; and another song 1, 208 adds a white cock as well. Another cock in the Edda, ViSofnir, perches on Mimamei^Sr, Ssem. 109^; with him Finn Magnusen (Lex. myth. 824. 1090) would connect the cock they stick on the Maijpoi^. The Wends erected cross-trees, but, secretly still heathen at hoart, they contrived to fix at the very top of the pole a weathercoci"} In one fairy-tale, no. 108, HansmeinigeFs cock sits on a tree in the wood. I do not know when the gilded cock on the church-steep le was introduced ; it can hardly have been a mere weather-vane at first. Guibertus in Vita sua, lib. 1 cap. 22, mentions a gallus svper turri, so that the custom prevailed in France at the beginning of the 12th century; in S. Germany we know it existed two centuries earlier. Eckehard tells of the great irruption of Hungarians : ' duo ex illis accendunt campanarium, cujus cacuminis gallum aureum putantes, deumque loci sic vocatum, non esse nisi carioris metalli materia fusum, lancea dum unus, ut eum revellat, se validus protendit, in atrium de alto cecidit et periit ' (Pertz 2, 105). The Hungarians took this gilded cock (gallus) for the divinity of the place, and perhaps were confirmed in their error by the birdf s name being the same as that of St. Gallus ; they even left the minster stand-

^ Annalen der Churbr. Hannov. lande, 8 jalirg. p. 284. Souk 3 thiuk the cock referred to Peter's denial.

\

COCK. KAVEN. 671

ing foi' fear of him : ' monasterio, eo quod Gcdlus, deus ejus, ignipotens sit, tandem omisso ^ (ibid. 106).^ Tit. 407: ' tiz golde ein ar geroetet, gefiuret unde gefunkelt ufjeglich Tcriuze geloetet.' True, the cock is an emblem of vigilance, and the watchman, to command a wide view, must be highly placed ; - but it is quite possible that the christian teachers, to humour a heathen custom of tying cocks to the tops of holy trees, made room for them on church-towers also, and merely put a more general meaning on the symbol afterwards (see Suppl.).

At the head of wildfowl the eagle stands as hing, and is the messenger of Jove. In our beast-fables the raven seems to take upon him the parts both of wolf and of fox, uniting the greed of the one with the cther^s cunning. Two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, are, like the two wolves, constant companions of OSinn (p. 147) ; their names express power of thought and remembrance : they bring him tidings of all that happens.^ Compare the sage sparrow (sporr) of the Norse king Dag (Yngl. saga 21), who gathers news for him out of all countries, and whose death he avenges by an invasion. Those scouts of OSinn seem to be alluded to in several stories, e.g., Olaf Tryggv. cap. 28, where screaming ravens testify that OSinn accepts the offering presented ; and in Nialss. 119 two ravens attend a traveller all day. In like manner St. Gregory is escorted by three flying ravens, Paul. Diac. 1, 26. In the beautiful myth of king Oswald, the raven who gets his plumage bound with gold (conf. the falcon, Ms. 1, SB'') acts an essential part : he has nothing of the fiendish nature afterwards imputed to this bird. It shews the same tendency, that where the Bible says of the raven sent out of the ark by Noah, simply that he i^eXdoov ovk aveaTpe-y\re (Gen. 8, 7),

All very legendary ; for the Hungarian attack on the monastery of Herzfeld (Hirutfeld) on the Lippe is related much in the same way in the Vita S. Idae, viz. that having scaled the nolarius, but not succeeded in wrenching oiif the bells, they suddenly tied, ahquid ibi esse divalis numinis suspicati sunt (Pertz 2, 573). Here the cock does not come into play, the bells do it all.

" Miinster's Sinnbilder der alten Christen, p. 55. As Gregory the Great explains gallus by ' praedicator ' (0pp., Paris 1705. i, 959. 9G1), and again speculator by the same ' praedicator,' he may in the following passage have had the cock in view, without naming him: 'speculator semper in altitudine stat, ut quidquid veuturum sit louge prospiciat,' ibid, i, 1283.

•' in a Slovunic fairy-tale somebody had a raven (vrdna) who was all-knowing (vedezh), and used to tell him everything when he came home. Murko's Sloven, deutsches wtb. Gratz lb33. p. 096.

672 TEEES AND ANIMALS.

our Teutonic poetizers must make Mm alight on carrion, Caedm. 87, 11. Diut. 3, 60. King Arthur, whom we lately met as a bear, is said to have been converted into a raven : ' que anda hasta ahora convertido en cuervo, y le esperan en su reyno por momentos,^ Don Quixote 1, 49. In folksongs it is commonly a bird that goes on errands, brings intelligence of what has passed, and is sent out with messages : the Bohemians say ' to learn it of the bird' (dowedeti se po ptacku, see SuppL).

In our legends, birds converse together on the destinies of men, and foretell the future. Ravens reveal to the blind the means of recovering their sight, KM. no. 107. Bom.estic fowls discuss the impending ruin o£ the castle, Deut. sag. 1, 202. In the Helgaqvi^a, Seem. 140-1, a wise bird (fugl fro^huga^r) is introduced talking and prophesying to men, but insists on a temple and sacrifices before he will tell them more. In one German story, men get to understand the language of birds by eating of a white snahe, KM. no. 1 7. Sigur^r understands it too, the moment the heart's blood of the dragon Fafnir has got from his finger-tips to his tongue : and then swallows (ig'Sor) give him sound advice, S^em. 190-1. To kill sivallows brings misfortune : ace. to Sup. I, 378 it occasions four weeks' rain ; and their nests on the houses no one dares knock down. From Saxo's account (p. 327) of the oaken statue of Rugivit, we may conclude that the Slavs had let swallows build on it in peace (see Suppl.).

The mythical character of the swan is certified by the legend of swan-wives (p. 426) and by the bird's own death-song (see Suppl.). The storh too was held inviolable, he is like swallows a herald of spring ; his poetic name certainly reaches back to heathen times, but hitherto has baffied all explanation. OHG. glosses give odebero, Grafi" 3, 155, udebero, Sumerl. 12, 16, otivaro, odebore, Fundgr. 1, 386, odeboro, Gl. Tross; MHG. adebar only in Diut. 3, 453 ; MLG. edebere, Brun's Beitr. 47, adebar, Reinke, 1777. 2207; M. Neth. odevare, hodevare. Rein. 2316. Clignett 191; New Neth. oijevdr ; New LG. eber, aber, atjebar ; AS. and Norse have nothing similar. The ' bero, boro ' is bearer, but the first word, so long as the quantity of its vowel remains doubtful, is hard to determine ; the choice would lie between luck-bringer (fr. ot opes) and child-bringer, which last fits in with the faith, still very prevalent, that the stork brings

SWALLOW. STOEK. WOODPECKER. 673

babies. If^ beside the OS. partic. odan, AS. eaden, ON. au^inn (genitus), we could produce a subst. ud^ ead (proles), all would be straight. The prose word, OHG. storah, AS. sto7'c, ON. storkr, may be just as old. In Frisian superstition there occur metamorphoses of storks into men, and of men into storks. A lay of Wolfram 5^ 21 declares that storks never hurt the crops (see Suppl.).

The looodpecher was held sacred by ancient peoples of Italy, and ranked as the bird of Mars, "Apeo^ 6pvL<; : perched on a wooden pillar {eirl ki,6vo<; ^vXlvov) he prophesied to the Sabines in the grove by Matiena (or Matiera, Dion. hal. 1, 14. Reiske p. 40) ; he had once guided them on their way, Mp/xrjvrai, ol TlLKevrlvoi hpvoKoXdiTTov rrjv 68ov rjyecrafiivov, Strabo v, p. 240. And he purveyed for Komulus and Remus when the wolf^s milk did not suffice them, Ov. Fasti 3, 37. 54 ; conf. Niebuhr 1, 245. Ace. to Virg. Aen. 7, 189 and Ov. Met. 14, 321 Picus was the son of Saturn and father of Faunus,^ and was changed into the bird. The apparent relationship of this Picus to our poem of Beowulf (bee-hunter, i.e. woodpecker), was pointed out p. 369. In Norway the red-hooded blackpecker is called Gertrude's fowl, and a story in Asbiornsen and Moe (no. 2) explains its origin : When our Lord walked upon earth with Peter, they came to a woman that sat baking, her name was Gertrude, and she wore a red cap on her head. Faint and hungry from his long journey, our Lord asked her for a little cake. She took a little dough and set it on, but it rose so high that it filled the pan. She thought it too large for an alms, took less dough and began to bake it, but this grew just as big, and again she refused to give it. The third time she took still less dough, and when the cake still swelled to the same size, ' Ye must go without ' said Gertrude, ' all that I bake becomes too big for you.^ Then was the Lord angry, and said : * Since thou hast grudged to give me aught, thy doom is that thou be a little bird, seek thy scanty sustenance twixt wood and bark, and only drink as oft as it shall rain.^ No sooner were these words spoken, than the woman was changed into Gertrude's fowl, and flew up the kitchen

1 When the Swiss call the black-pecker merzajiilli (March-foal, Staid. 2, 199. Tobler 310'-), the simplest explan. is from picus martins ; yet fiiilimay be for vcigeli, and so March-fowl or Martin's fowl ; see more in Chap. XXXV., Path-crossing.

chimney. And to tliis day we see her in her red cap, and the rest of her body black, for the soot of the chimney blackened her ; continually she hacks into the bark of trees for food, and pipes before rain, because, being always thirsty, she then hopes to drink. ^ The green-pecker has the alias giessvogel, Austr. glssvogel (Stelzhamer's Lieder pp. 19. 177), goissvogel (Hofer 1, 306), Low G. giltvogel, gietvogel, gnffugd (Ehrentr. 1. 345), Engl. rainhird, rainfowl, because his cry of ' geuss, giess, giet^ (pour !) is said to augur a downpour of rain. About him there goes a notable storv : When the Lord God at the creation of the world ordered the beasts to dig a great well (or pond), this bird abstained from all work, for fear of soiling his handsome plumage (or yellow legs). Then God ordained that to all eternity he should drink out of no well (pond) ; therefore we always see him sip laboriously out of hollow stones or cart-ruts where rainwater has collected. But when no rain has fallen and there is drought, he is sore athirst, and we hear unceasingly his pain-stricken *" giet ! ' And the good Lord takes pity, and pours down rain (Reusch in Preuss. provinz. bl. 26, 536; from Samland). Fahlmann in the Dorpater verhandl. 1, 42 gives an Esthonian myth : God was having the Em-bach (-beck, -brook, p. 599n.) dug, and set all the beasts to work ; but the Whitsun-fowl idly flew from bough to bough, piping his song. Then the Lord asked him : ^ hast thou nought to do but to spruce thyself?^ The bird replied, ' the work is dirty, I can^t afford to spoil my goldenyellow coat and silvery hose.' ' Thou foolish fop,^ the Lord exclaimed, ' from henceforth thou shalt wear black hose, and never slake thy thirst at the brook, but pick the raindrops ofi" the leaves, and only then strike up thy song when other creatures

creep away from the coming storm.' Now that Norwegian

Gertrude's fowl, whose thirsty piping brings on rain, is evidently identical, and very likely another story explains the rainbird as the metamorphosis of a vain idle person. Sometimes it is not the woodpecker at all that is meant by giessvogel, giesser, wasservogel, 'pjingstvogel, regenpfeifer, but a snipe (Hofer 1, 306. 341), whose cry likewise forebodes a storm (p. 184), or the curlew (numenius arquata), Fr. jpluvier (pluviarius). Boh. Jcoliha, Pol.

^ Eytchkov's Journ. thro' the Euss. Emp., trsl. by Hase, Eiga 177^. p. 124,

WOODPECKER. MAGPIE. SPARROWHAWK. CUCKOO. 675

Jculig, hullik, LG. regenivolp, ivaterwolp (Brem. wtb. 6, 286). In our own beast-fables the woodpecker is left without any part to play^ only in an altogether isolated episode he is introduced conversing with the wolf (Reinh. 419). The Votiaks pay divine honours to the tree-tapping woodpecker, to induce him to spare their woods. ^ The cry of this woodpecker (zhunia) the Servians call klikchi, kliknuti, kliktati, as they do that of the vila [p. 436, but there wrongly ascribed to the tapping noise]. Woodpeckers by their tapping shew the way to the river (Lay of Igor 79) ; the old legend of the woodpecker and springwurzel will be

examined in Chap. XXXII (see Suppl.) . A near neighbour of

the pecker (picus) is the vie, magpie (pica) . In ON. her name is shacfi (masc, says Biorn), Swed. shata, Dan. shade, which may be referred to the abstract notion of damnum, OHG. scado ; at the beginning of the Volsunga saga there occurs a man's name Shad'i, which Finn Magn. (Lex. 699) declares to be the goddess Skacfi. In Flemish beast-legend the magpie was ' ver Ave,' frau Ave. In Poitou there still lingers a trace of pie-worship ; viz. a bunch of heath and laurel is tied to the top of a high tree in honour of the inagpie, because her chatter warns the people of the wolfs approach : ' porter la crepe (pancake) a la pie,' Mem. des antiq. 8, 451.

In Old Bohemian songs the sparrowhawk (krahui, krahug) is a sacred bird, and is harboured in a grove of the gods (Koniginh. MS. 72. 80. 160). On the boughs of an oak that springs out of a murdered man's grave, holy sparrowhawks perch, and publish the foul deed (see Suppl.).

There is no bird to which the gift of prophecy is more universally conceded than the cuckoo," whose clear and measured voice rings in the young foliage of the grove. The Old German law designates spring by the set phrase ' wann der gauch guket ' (RA. 36), as in Hesiod's rules of husbandry the cuckoo's song marks the growing rains of spring. Two old poems describe the quarrel of Spring and Winter about the cuckoo, and the shepherds' lamentation for him : Spring praises the bird, ' tarda hiems '

^ Carniol. ^una, Pol. Boh. zluwa, Boh. also wlha, wolga.

2 Goth, giiuks ? OHG. gouh (Hoffm. 5, 6), AS. gedc, ON. gaukr ; MHG. gouch, MS. 2, i;-52i>, also reduplicated (like cuculus) gucgouch, MS. 1, 132*, guggouch, MS. 1, 1GG-' ; our gukuk, kukuk, Up.G. guggauch, gutzgouch.

chides him, shepherds declare that he is drowned or kidnapped. There is a remarkable line :

Tempus adest veris ; cuculus, modo rumpe soporem.^

His notes usher in the sweetest season of the year, but his telling men their fortunes is not alluded to. The Cod. Exon. 146, 27 also makes him publish or 'bid^ the year: ' gedcas gear budon/ cuculi annum nuntiavere. But the superstition is not yet extinct, that the first time you hear the cuckoo in the spring, you can learn of him how many years you have yet to live (Sup. I, 197. K, Swed. 119. Dan. 128. 146). In Switzerland the children call out : ' gugger, wie lang leb i no ? ' and in Lower Saxony :

hiihuJc vam. haven,

wo lange sail ik leven ?

then you must listen, and count how many times the bird repeats his own name after your question, and that is the number of years left you to live (Schiitze^s Hoist, idiot. 2, 363). In some districts ^ the rhyme runs :

hukuh beckenknecht,

sag mir recht,

wie viel jar ich leben soil ? ^

The story is, that the bird was a baker's (or miller^ s) man, and that is why he wears a dingy meal-sprinkled coat. In a dear season he robbed the poor of their flour, and when God was blessing the dough in the oven, he would take it out, and pull lumps out of it, crying every time ' guk-guk,^ look-look ; therefore the Lord punished him by changing him into a bird of prey.

1 Both eclogues in Domavii Ampbith. 456-7, where they are attrib. to Beda ; ditto in Leyser p. 207, who says they were first printed in the Frankf. ed. (1610) of Ovid's Amatoria, p. 190. Meanwhile Oudiu (De script, eccles. 2, 327-8, ed. Lips. 1722) gives the Conflictus veris et hiemis under the name of ' Mllo, sancti Amandi elnonensis monachus ' (first half of 9th century) ; and the second poem De morte cuculi stands in Mabillon's Anal. 1, 369 as '■Alcuini versus de cuculo.' Anyhow they fall into the 8th or 9th century ; in shortening the penultima of ' cuculus ' they agree with Eeinardus 3, 528. Hoffm, Horae belg. 6, 236 has also revived the Conflictus.

2 Aegid. Albertini narrenhatz, Augsb. 1617. p. 95 : ' Even as befel that old wife, which asked a guguck how many year she had yet to live, and the guguck beginning five times to sing, she supposed that she had five year more to live, etc' From ' Schimpf uud ernst ' c. 391.

' So in Mod. Greek : kovico /xov, kovkuki. /xov, ki dpyvpoKovKixKi /xov, ir6aovs xpj^/oi/j di va ^TjiTw ;

CUCKOO. 677

whicli incessantly repeats that cry (conf. Praetorius^s Weltbeschr. 1, 656. 2, 491). No doubt the story, which seems very ancient, and resembles that of the woodpecker (p. 673), was once told very differently; conf. Chap. XXII., Pleiades. That 'dear season ' may have to do with the belief that when the cuckoo's call continues to be heard after Midsummer, it betokens dearth (Sup. I, 228).

In Sweden he tells maidens how many years they will remain unmarried :

goh, goh, sitt pa quist (on bough),

sag mig vist (tell me true],

hur manga ar (how many years)

jag o-gifc gar (I shall un-given go) ?

If he calls more than ten times, they declare he has got ' pa galen quist ' (on the silly bough, i.e. bewitched) , and give no heed to his prophecies. And then a good deal depends on the quarter whence you hear your cuckoo first. You must pay strict attention in spring; if you hear him from the north (the unlucky quarter), you will see sorrow that year, from east or west his call betokens luck, and from the south he is the proclaimer of butter : * ostergok ar trostegok, vestergok ar bastagok, norrgok or sorggok, sdrgijh ar smorgok.^

In Goethe's Oracle of Spring the prophetic bird informs a loving pair of their approaching marriage and the number of their children.

It is rather surprising that our song-writers of the 13th century never bring in the cuckoo as a soothsayer; no doubt the fact or fancy was familiar to all, for even in the Renner 11340 we

read :

daz weiz der gouch, der im fiir war

hat gegutzet hundert jar.

Caesarius heisterbac. 5, 1 7 : ' Narravit nobis anno praeterito (? 1221) Theobaldus abbas eberbacensis, quod quidam conversus, cum nescio quo tenderet, et avem, quae cuculiis dicitur a voce nomen habens, crehrius cantantem audii'et, vices iuterruptionis numeravit, et vigiuti duas inveniens, easque quasi pro omine

^ Arndt's Rcii-o (lurch Schw. 4, 5 — 7. The snipe is in Sweil. korspjok, ON. hrossayaukr (horse- iuckoo), and she too has the gift of divination, p. 184.

678 TEEES AND ANIMALS.

accipiens, -pro annis totidem vices easdem. sihi coniputavit : ' eia ' inquitj ' certe viginti duobus annis adhuc vivam, ut quid tanto tempore mortificem me in ordine ? redibo ad seculum, et seculo deditus viginti annis f ruar deliciis ejus ; duobus annis qui supersunt poenitebo/ — In the Couronnemens Renart, the fox hears the bird's voice^ and propounds to him the query :

A cest mot Renart le cucu

entent, si jeta un fans ris,

' jou te conjur ' fait il^ ' de oris, 215 cucus, que me dies le voir (truth),

quans ans jai a vivre ? savoir

le veil.' Cucu, en preu cucu/

et deus cucu, et trois cucu,

quatre cucu, et cine cucu, 220 et sis cucu, et set cucu,

et uit cucu, et nuef cucu,

et dis cucu, onze cucu,

duze cucu, treize cucu.

Atant se taist, que plus ne fu 225 li oisiaus illuec, ains s'envolle.

Renart carries the joyful news to his wife, that the bird has promised him yet ''treize ans d'ae ' (see Suppl.).

Is it the cuckoo that is meant by ' timehird ' in Ms. 1, 88* : ' diu vroide vlogzet (joy flies) gelich dem zUvogel in dem neste ' ? What makes me think so is a passage in Pliny, which anyhow is pertinent here, exhorting the husbandman at the aequinoctium vernum to fetch up all arrears of work : ' dum sciat inde natam exprobrationem foedam putantium vites per imitationem cantus alitis temporarii, quern cuculum vocaut. Dedecus enim habetur opprobriumque meritum, falcem ab ilia volucre deprehendi, ut ob id petulantiae sales etiam cum primo vere ludantur.'

Delight at the first song of the cuckoo is thus expressed in a Swiss couplet (Tobler 245'^ :

wenn der gugger chond gegugga end ^s merzafoli lacht, denn wott i gad goh lo, 'swit i koh mocht ;

1 A line seems wanting here, to tell us that Cuckoo, like a. sensible cuckoo (en preu cucu, fugl fro'Shuga'Sr), ' began to sing, One cucu.'

CUCKOO. 679

they imagine that lie never sings before the 3rd of April, and never after Midsummer :

am dretta Abarella

moss der gugger griiena haber schnella ;

but he cannot sing till he has eaten a bird's egg. If you have money in your pouch when you hear him sing the first time, you will be well off all that year, if not, you will be short the whole year (Sup. I, 374); and if you were fasting, you will be hungry all the year. When the cuckoo has eaten his fill of cherries three times, he leaves off singing. As the cuckoo's song falls silent at Midsummer, vulgar opinion holds that from that time he turns into a haiuJc. Reusch, N. pr. prov. bl. 5, 338-9.

The Poles call the bird zezula, the Bohemians 'ezhule (both fern.). The 0. Pol. chronicle of Prokosz,^ p. 113 of the Lat. ed., has a remarkable account of the worship of a Slavic god Zyvie : ' divinitati Zywie fanum exstructum erat in monte ab ejusdem nomine Zywiec dicto, ubi primis diebus mensis Maji innumerus populus pie conveniens precabatur ab ea, quae vitae " auctor habebatur, longam et prosperam valetudinem. Praecipue tamen ei litabatur ab iis qui primnm cantum cuculi audivissent, ominantes superstitiose tot annas se victiiros quoties vocem repetiisset. Opinabantur enim supremum hunc universi moderatorem transfigurari in ciiculum ut ipsis annuntiaret vitae tempora : unde crimini ducebatur, capitalique poena a magistratibus afficiebatur, qui cuculum occidisset.' Here the oracular bird is a god in metamorpliosis, just as that Saxon rhyme called him 'kukuk vani haven.'

To the Servian haiduks it betokens evil when the kuJcavitsa comes too soon, and cries out of the black (leafless) forest ; and good luck when it sings from the green wood, Vuk sub v.

In the Eddie Grotta-song the quern-maids are only allowed to rest and sleep wlule the cuckoo is silent (enn gaukriun ]?ag(Si).

The cuckoo can prophesy both good and ill ; in dealing with him (as with other birds of enchantment, owls, magpies) you

Kronika polska przez Prodosza, Warsz. 1825, and in Latin ' Chronicon Slavosarmaticum Procosii,' Varsav. 18"27 ; professedly of the 10th cent. It is not so old as that, yet Dobrowsky (Wien. jahrb. 32, 77 — 80) goes too far in pronouncing it a pure fabrication ; it is at any rate founded on old traditions.

• zywy, alive ; zywie, to sustain life, nourish.

II. K

680 TEEES AND ANIMALS.

have to weigh your words and questionSj so as not to get ensnared (Arndt's Sweden 3, 18). To kill him without cause is dangerous, his followers might avenge it. He has power to teaze men, to delude them, what Swedish superstition calls dara, and Danish (/awfe. A MHGr. poem (Fragm. 38^) has: ^peterlin und louch hat hegucket mit der gouch.' Often his appearing is of evil omen. Paulus Diac. 6, 55 says of Hildeprand king of the Lombards : ' cui dum contum, sicut moris est, traderent, in ejus conti summitate cuculus avis volitando veniens insedit. Tunc aliquibus prudentibus hoc portento visum est significari, ejus principatum inutilem fore' (see Suppl.).

As that all-nourishing life-divinity of the Slavs took the shape of the cuckoo, so does the Grecian Zeus transform himself into the bird, when he first approaches Hera. A seated figure of the goddess shews a cuchoo on her staff, and a bas-relief repi'esenting the wedding procession of Zeus and Hera has a cuckoo 'perched on Zeus's sceptre (as on that of the Lombard king) ;i so that this bird has got mixed up with the most sacred of all weddings, and we understand why he promises marriage and the fruit of wedlock. Then, the mountain on which Zeus and Hera came together, previously called Gpova^ (from 0p6vo<;, seat of the Thunderer? supra p. 183) or Qopva^, received after that the name of 6po<i kokkv'^lov (Pausanias ii. 36, 2). Well, and we have gowk's-hills in Germany : a Gauchsherg near Kreuznach (Widder's Pfalz 4, 36), others near Durlach and Weinsberg (Moneys Anz. 6, 350), a Guggisherg in Switzerland (Joh. Miiller, 1, 347. 2, 82. Tschachtlan p. 2), Gockerliherg (KM. no. 95) ; the name might be accounted for veiy naturally by the song of the bird being heard from the hill, but that other traditions also are mixed up with it. In Freidank 82, 8 (and almost the same in Bonerius 65, 55):

wisiu wort unt tumbiu were diu habent die von Gouchesherc.

Here the men of Gauchsberg are shown up as talking wisely and acting foolishly ; Gauchsberg is equivalent to Narrenberg (fooFs

1 Welckeron Schwenk 269. 270; usually an eagle sits there. The figures of eagle and cuckoo are not always easy to distinguish ; but to this day the Bavarians by way of jest call the Prussian eagle ' gukezer,' Schm. 2, 27.

CUCKOO. 681

mount). ^ As far back as the 10th cent, gouh has the side-meaning of fool (N. ps. 48, 11. 93, 8. urheizkouh, war-fool, N. Bth. 175); the same everywhere in the ]3th (Walth. 22,31. Trist. 8631. 18215), though commonly with a qualifying adj. or gen. pi. : ich tumber gouch, MS. 1, 65^. tumber denn ein gouch, Troj. 8126. tumber gouch, Barl. 319, 25. gouch unwise 228, 32. sinneloser gouch, 319, 38. der treit gouches houbet (wears a gowk^s head), MsH. 3, 468». rehter witze ein gouch, MS. 2, 124^ der niffire ein goichelin (dim.), and gouchgouolt (augm.), Ben. 209. The ON. gaukr is likewise arrogans morio. Hans Sachs occasionally uses GcmcJiherg^ in the same sense, ii. 4, llO'^ (Kempten ii. 4, 220^), extr. from Goz 1, 52. Yet originally in Gauchsberg the bird himself may very well have been meant in a mystic sense which has fallen dark to us now (see Suppl.).^

In other ways too the cuckoo stands in ill repute, he passes for an adulterer, who lays his eggs in other people's nests ; hence the Romans used cuculus in the sense of moechus (Plauti Asinaria, twice in last scene), and our gouch, gduchelin formerly meant bastard (Nib. 810, 1. Aw. 1, 46), as the Swiss giigsch still means an unbidden rival suitor. He even comes out as a fiendish being, or the fiend himself, in phrases everywhere known from of old : ' cuckoo knows, cuckoo take him, cuckoo sent him here ' and the like, in all of which the deviPs name might be substituted without change of meaning. This seems to me to point to old heathen traditions, to which the diabolic tinge was added only by degrees ; and among these I reckon the Low Saxon formula ' the cuckoo and his clerh (or sexton) ' ! by which clerk is meant the Jioopoo (Brem. wtb. 2, 858), a bird that is likewise thought to have received his form by metamorphosis. I cannot trace the story of the cuckoo and Iwoiooo any further ; does the

' Hence we find, as substitutes for it, Affenherc (Docen's Misc. 2, 187) ; Affenberc and NancnUil, MsH. 3, 200^'; AJ'enta'l, ibid. 213;^. Winsbeke 45,7. Eeuner 16469 ; Apenbery and Narrenberg in the Plattd. ' Narragonia ' 77'^ 137'' ; Esclsberc, Diut. 2, 77. Animals whose stupidity was proverbial of old, are the ox, ass, ape, goat, goose, gowk and jay : vi'5 osvinna wpa, Sicm. 25'^. atrunur apa 55-'. Notk. ps. 57, 11 has ruoh (stultus), i.e. hruoh, AS. hroc (graculus, Gramm. 3, 361).

2 Much oftener Scluilksbern (rogxie's hill) in the phrase ' in dtu schalksperg hawen (hew) ' i. 5, o24''. iii. 3, 28''. 54^. iv. 3, 20^. Sl^. 40* ; the reason of which I do not know. ' Sc]i(ilkxber(/ wine grows in Frauconia.' ' Heuricus dictus de Scalkesbergh,' Spilker 2, 148 (an. 1268).

^ Those who crave other explanations, will find plenty in Mone's Anz. 6, 350 seq. ' Gouchsberg is Caucasus, as Elberich is the sjjirit of Elburj, diabulus the Persic div,' and so forth.

G82 TEEES AND ANIMALS.

one sing to tlie other ? [his note ' ooboo ' is like an echo of ^ cuckoo^]. Dobel i. 1, 68 calls the hoopoo the cuckoo's lackey, because he comes with him in spring and goes with him in autumn (see Suppl.) . The ijeewit has the same things said of him.

The froth on willows, caused by the cicada spumaria, we call JcuJcuJcs-speichel, Swiss guggersjjeu, Engl. cucTcoo-spit, -spittle, Dan. giogespyt, but in some places witch's spittle, Norweg. troldkiaringspye :^ another proof of the bird's connexion with preternatural things, and reminding us of the bird-spittle (fugls hraki) which in Sn. 34 goes to make up the band Gleipnir. Several names of plants assure us of his mythic nature. Sorrel : OHG. gouchesampfera, Swiss gxiggersauer, AS. gedcessure, Dan. giogemad, giogesyre, it being supposed that he loved to eat it ; our hukulisbrot, gauclilauch, Fr. pain de coucou, panis cuculi. Cuckooflower : kuhukshlume, gauchhlume, flos cuculi. Pimpernel : gaucliheil, etc., guckganchdorn, Fischart's Geschichtskl. 269^.

The Slavs all make this bird feminine, and see nothing bad, nothing fiendish iii it : zezhulice sits on the oak, and bewails the passing away of spring, Koniginh. MS. 174. The Servian kiiJcavitsa was once a maiden, who wept her brother's death till she was changed into the bird ; ' sinia (gray) kukavitsa,' Vuk 3, 66 ; three women turned into kukavitsas, Vuk 1, no. 321. In songs of Lit. Russia still a moping melancholy bird ; and in Russian folktales we have again a young girl changed into a cuckoo by an enchantress (Gotze's Serb, lieder, p. 212).

Of small birds, the swallow has been mentioned, p. 672. 'Frau nacldigall' is often named by our minnesingers; but the myth, that her children are born dead and she sings them alive, seems not of German origin. The lark and galander (crested lark) must have been actors in the animal legend oftener than we are now aware of; there are still beautiful stories of the zaunkonig (hedgeking, wren), AS. wrenna. But I have yet to speak of two little birds, which appear to have been peculiarly sacred in olden times : redbreast and titmouse.

Bobin redbreast is on no account to have his nest disturbed, or ihe house will be struck with lightning : it is the redstart's nest

^ Summer-freckles in Bavar. gugker-schegJ;en, cuckoo-spots, Schm. 2, 27 ; conf. Hofer 1, 337.

REDBEEAST. TITMOUSE. 683

that draws down the flash. The latter the Swiss call husr'otlieli (house-redliug) ; if you tease him or take him out, your cows will give red milk (Tobler 281). Were these birds sacred to Donar the red-bearded ? And has that to do with the colour of their throat and tail ? They say the redbreast drops leaves and flowers on the face of a murdered man [or ' babe ^] whom he finds in the wood; did he do this in the service of a god^ who therefore would not suS'er him to be molested ?

The tiny titmouse^ whom he called gossip, was able to outwit even Reynard himself. The weisthiimer tell us in what estimation this little forest bird was held, by setting the severest penalties on his capture : ' item, si quis sibilando vel alio modo volucrem ilium ceperit, qui vulgo meise nuncupatur, banni reus erit,^ Jura archiep. trever., in Lacombl. arch. 326. ' si quis auceps hanc silvam intraverit, pro nullo genere volucrum componet, nisi capiat meisam que dicitur banmeisa, et pro ilia componat 60 sol. tanquam pro cervo,^ ibid. 367. ' wer da fehet ein hermeisen, der sal geben ein koppechte hennen und zwelf hunkeln, und sechzig schilling pfenning und einen helbeling,' Dreieicher wildbann (Weisth. 1, 499). 'wer eine kolmeise fienge mit limen ader mit slagegarn, der sal unserme herrn geben eine falbe henne mit sieben hiinkeln,^ Rheingauer w. 1, 535. ' wer ein sterzmeise fahet, der ist umb leib u. guet, und in unsers herrn ungnad,^ Creuznacher w. 2, 153. — The reason of these laws is hidden from us ; plainly the bird was held sacred and inviolable. And it is perfectly in tune with this, that at the present moment the Lettons, who call the bird sihle,^ regard it as prophetic and auspicious, and even call a soothsayer sihlneeks.^ Also the Spanish name for the titmouse, cid (lord), or cid paxaro (lord sparrow), is worth considering. Titmouse, wren and woodpecker (bee-wolf) are confounded in popular belief; what is meant is the tiniest prettiest bird (see Suppl.).

• Meise, OHG. meisfi, AS. mAse, Nethl. meze, Fr. mesange, O.Fr. mesengo.

2 Lith. zyle, zylcle ; Pol. silvora, Boh. sykora, Buss, zi'nika, siuitsa, Slov. senitsa, Serv. sienitsa. The Lettic name maybe derivable from sinuaht, the Lith. from zynoti (scire), so that the full form would be sinnele, zynle, the sage knowing bird? The jay also is in Lettic sihls. To the Swed. Lapps <((if;«; signifies not only wood-pecker, but superstitious divination ; tayetet is to understand. In view of that, oiir spccht (woodpecker) seems to belong to a lost root spiban, spah, sptihun, whence also spehOn (explorare), and spdhi (sapiens, prudens).

3 Mag. der lett. lit. gesellsch., Mitau 1838. G, 151.

684 TEEES AND ANIMALS.

Eeptiles. — Snahes, by the beauty of their shape and the terror of their bite, seem above all animals to command awe and reverence. A great many stories tell of an exchange of form between men and snakes : an almost infallible sign of their having been worshipped. Beings that had passed out of human into animal shapeSj and were able to return into the former at need, these heathenism was inclined to regard as sacred ; it worshipped kind beneficent snakes, whilst in christian opinion the notion of snakes being malignant and diabolic predominates.

The same Vita Barbati, which we had to thank for information on the tree-cultus of the Lombards (p. 649), tells us likewise of a worship of snakes : ' His vero diebus, quamvis sacra baptismatis unda Langobardi abluerentur, tamen priscum gentilitatis ritum tenentes, sive bestiali mente degebant, hestiae siinulacliro , quae vulgo vipera novamdituv , jiectehant colla, quae debite suo debebant flectere Creatori. . . . Praeterea Romuald ej usque sodales, prisco coecati errore, palam se solum Deum colore fatebantur, et in abditis viperae shnulachi'um, ad suam perniciem adorabant.' During the king's absence, Barbatus beseeches his consort Theodorada to procure for him that image of the snake. ' Illaque respondit : Si hoc perpetravero, pater, veraciter scio me morituram.' He perseveres and at last persuades her ; as soon as the image is in his hands, he melts it down, and delivers the metal to goldsmiths to make out of it a plate and a chalice.^ Out of these golden vessels the christian sacrament is administered to the king on his return, and then Barbatus confesses that the holy utensils were made by melting down the idol. ' Repente unus ex circumstantibus ait : Si mea uxor talia perpetrasset, nullo interposito memento abscinderem caput ejus.' A passage in the other Yita also is pertinent here : ' Quinetiam viperam auri vietallo forinatam summi pro magnitudine dei supplici devotione venerari videbantur. Unde usque hodie, sicut pro voto arboris Votum, ita et locus ille Census, devotiones - ubi viperae reddebantur dignoscitur appellari.' About ' votum ' I expressed my mind, p. 650n. ; ' census ' signifies the Goth, gild, gilstr, OHG. helt, h'elstar (p. 38-9 and E.A. 358). The two words votum and

^ As the gold of the swan-rings was made into pots, and what remained over was the goldsmith's profit.

' Printed text : locus ille census devotionis, ubi viperae reddebantur.

SNAKE. 685

census are no slight testimony to the genuineness and oldness of

the biography. Here then we have a striking instance of an

idol made of gold, and moreover of the christian teacher^s endeavour to preserve the sacred material, only converting it into a christian form. What higher being the snake represented to the Lombards, we can scarcely say for certain ; not the all- encircling world-snake, the mi'Sgar"Ss-ormr, iormungandr of Norse mythology, for there is not a hint that even in the North, let alone elsewhere, he was visibly represented and worshipped. Ofnir and Svdfnir are ON. names of snakes, and side-names of OSinn (conf. p. 144) ; is it Wuotan that we are to understand by the ' summus deus ' of the Lombards ? ^ But the special characteristics of their snake-worship are entirely lost to us. If the term vipera was deliberately chosen, as I have no doubt it was, it can only mean one of the smaller kinds of snake (coluber berus), OHG. natara, AS. ncedre, ON. na&ra (also masc. na"Sr, like Groth. nadrs), though the simulacrum, of whose gold a plate and chalice could be made, bespeaks a considerable size.

Lombard legend has more to tell us of snakes, and those expressly small ones. The Heldenbuch describes the combat of a small jfire-spitting beast on the Gartensee (L. di Garda) with Wolfdietrich and a lion, to both of whom it gives enough to do :

Nun liorent durch ein wunder, wie das tierlein ist genant : es heisst zu welsch ein zunder, zu teutsch ein saribant, in Sittenland nach eren ist es ein vipper genant ;

and it is added, that there are but two such vipers alive at once, for the young ones soon after birth eat up their parents. This agi'ees closely with the statements in the Physiologus (Diut. 3, 29, 30. Hoffm. fundgr. 28). I cannot explain zunder from any Italian dialect ; saribant is the MHG, servant, Trist. 8994. Sittenland I take to be the canton Valais, from its capital Sitten (Sion) ; there the Romance vipera might easily remain in use (Grisons vipra, vivra). In the Jura a never-dying winged snake with a diamond eye is called vouivre, Mem. des antiq. G, 217. In Switzerland this snake in called stoJlenwurm (Wyss's Reise ins Berner Oberland, p. 422), and in Salzburg hirgstutze, Schm. 1, 196 (see Suppl.).

^ ' Summi pro magn. Dei ' may possibly mean ' instead of (worshipping) the majesty of the Most High.' — Tkans.

Plenty of old tales are still told of home-snakes and unkes} On meadows and pastures, and even in houses, snakes come to children when alone, sip milk with them out of their bowl, wear golden crowns, which in drinking they take off from their heads and set on the ground, and often forget and leave them ; they watch infants in the cradle, and to bigger children they shew treasures : to Mil them is nnluchy. Every village has its own snakes to tell of. So goes the story in Swabia. Some Hessian stories are collected under Kinderm. no. 105, and one from Austria in Ziska's Volksmarchen (Vienna 1822, p. 51) ; nearly all bring in the milk-drmking ^ and the golden croivn. If the parents surprise the snake with the child, and kill it, the child begins to fall away, and dies before long (Temme^s Pomm. sagen no. 257). Once, when a woman lay asleep, a snake crept into her open mouth, and when she gave birth to a child, the snake lay tightly coiled round its neck, and could only be got away by a milkbath ; but it never left the baby's side, it lay in bed with it, and ate out of its bowl, without doing it any harm (Mone's Anz. 8, 530). Then other accounts speak of a multitude of snakes filling house and yard, whose king was distinguished by a glittering crown on his head. When he left the yard, all the rest would accompany him ; in the stable where he lived, they swarmed so plentifully, that the maids feeding the cattle would take them out of the crib by armfuls. They were friendly to the cattle and the people ; but a new farmer shot their king, and they all departed, and with them vanished wealth and prosperity from the estate (ibid. 6, 174).^ Here also comes in the queen of snakes (Deut. sagen no. 220), and a remarkable story in the Gesta Eomanorum (Keller p. 152). To a dairymaid at Immeneich there came a great snake into the cowshed every morning and evening at milking-time, and wore a great crown on its head. The girl

1 MHG. unk, gen. unkes, MS. 2, 209^. 206*: ' from copper one divideth gold with an unke's ashes' ; hence an alchymist was called unken-hrenner (Felix Malleolus de nobilitate et rusticitate, cap. 30). By unke is properly meant the rana portentosa (bull-frog?), but often snake or reptUe in general. Like the weasel, it is called caressingly ' miimelein, viiiemal,^ aunty. Schm. 2, 576.

• Down to the recurring formula : ' ding, iss auch brocken ! ' (thing, eat crumbs too) ; ' friss auch mocken, nicht lauter schlappes ! ' (not only slops) Mone's Anz. 8, 530 ; ' friss auch brocken, nicht lauter briihe ! ' ibid. 6, 175.

3 A similar story of the king of snakes from Litbbenau in the Spreewald of Laiisitz (Biisching's Woch. nachr. 3, 342) in Eeusch no. 74.

I

SNAKE. 687

every time gave it warm cow's milk to siqj. She suddenly left the place in a tiff, and when the new maid went for the first time to milk, there lay the golden crown on the milking-stool, with the inscription: 'a token of gratitude/ She brought the crown to her master, who gave it to the girl it was intended for ; but from, that time the snake was never seen again (Moneys Anz. 8, 537). The adder's crown (atternkronlein) makes any one that wears it invisible (Schm. 2, 388) and immensely rich as well. In some districts they say every house has two snakes, a male and a female, but they never shew themselves till the master or mistress of the house dies, and then they undergo the same fate. This feature, and some others, such as the oflFering of milk, bring the home-snakes near to the notion of good helpful home-sprites (see Suppl.).

The snake then comes before us as a beneficent inviolable creature, perfectly adapted for heathen worship. A serpent twined round the staff of Asklepios, and serpents lay beside healing fountains (p. 588n.). The ancient Prussians maintained a large snake for their Potrimpos, and the priests guarded it with care ; it lay under ears of corn, and was nourished with milk} The Lettons call snakes milk-mothers (peena mahtes) ; they were under the protection of one of the higher goddesses named Brehkina (crier), who cried out to all that entered to leave her 'peena mahtes^ unmolested in the house (Mag. der lett. gesellsch. 6,144). There is m?7fc set for them in pots. The Lithuanians also revered snakes, harboured them in their houses, and offered them sacrifices.^ Egyptian snake-worship was witnessed by Herodotus 2, 74. 'Nullus locus sine genio, qui per anguerii plerumque ostenditur,^ Serv. ad Aen. 5, 95,

Snakes were devised as a charm in swords and on helmets (Seem. 142'') :

liggr me'S eggjo ormr dreyfaSr, enn a valbosto verpr nad'r hala.

The ormr or yrmlingr was supposed to run from the sword's hilt

• Voigt's Geschichte Preussens 1, 584.

2 Seb. Frauk's Weltbuch 55''. Mone's Heidenth. 1, 98. Adam. brem. de situ Daniae, cap. 21, of tbe Lithuauians : ' draconcs adorant cum rolucribus, quibus etiam vivos litaut liomiues, quos a mercatoribus emunt, diligenter omuino probatos ne maciilam in corpore liabeant.'

(lielz^ hialt) to the point and back again (Kormakss. p. 82-4. Vilk. s. p. 101). Vitege liad the epithet ' mit dem slangen' because of his helmet's crest (Heldensage p. 148). They imparted strength to a helmet, and force to the blade of a sword. It seems much the same thing, when waggoners plait adder'stongues into their whips, Sup. I, 174 (see Suppl.).

The snake crawls or wriggles along the ground; when provided with wings, it is called dracfie, a non-German word coming from the Lat. draco, Gr. hpciKwv, and introduced very early, OHG. traccJio, AS. draca, ON. dreki. The Elder (or Seemund's) Edda has dreki only once, in the latish Solarl. 127^; elsewhere it is ormr, AS. wijrin, OHG. wurm, Goth, vaurms, which in a wider sense includes the snake also. The one encountered by Beowulf comes before us emphatically as a winged snake (serpens alatus) ; ^ nihtes fleoge'S ' 4541, by night he flies, and hence is called uhtscead'a 4536 (nocturnus hostis, aggressor), and Jijftscea&a (aereus hostis), Cod. exon. 329, 24. Also the dragon that keeps Krimhild prisoner on the Drachenstein comes riding through the air, or flying. But the one that young Siegfried had previously killed, when sent out by the smith, lay beside a linde (lime-tree), and did not fly : this is the Fdfnir of the Edda, a man who had assumed the form of a snake; of him the Edda uses skrrSa (repere, to stride), Saem. 186. Sn. 138; and he is the wyrm or di-aca slain by Sigemund and Fitela in Beow. 1765. 1779. In the Nib. 101, 2 and 842, 2 he is called lintrache, lintdrache, in the Siegfriedslied 8, 2 Untwurm : an expression found also in Mar. 148, 28. En. 2947. Troj. 25199, and to be explained, not from linde (tilia) as misunderstood by later legend, but from the OHG. lint. With this lint (Goth, linj^s, AS. liiS, ON. linn?) many women's names are formed (Gramm. 2, 505), e.g., Sigilint, ON. Sigrlinn (supra p. 428), and it may have contained the notion of brightness or beauty,^ suitable alike to snake and woman ; the derivative weak form linni (masc.) in ON. signifies again coluber, serpens. And Jj{m.hnrg= Lintbiirg, the name of several towns, is more correctly derived from snake than from lime-tree.

About dragons it is a favourite fancy of antiquity, that they

1 Does not the Engl, litlie, pliable, give the most suitable meaning, Germ. gelind soft, lindern to mitigate ? — Trans.

DEAGON. 689

lie upon gold, and are illumined by it ; gold itself was poetically named worm-hed, ON, ormbe'Sr or ormbe'Ss-eldr (wormbed's fire). And with this was linked a further notion, that they guard treasures, and carry them through the air by night. That wyrm slain by Sigemund is called ' hordes hyrde/ Beow. 1767 ; the one that Beowulf fought with receives the epithet ' se hord beweotode ' 4420. Fafnir, formerly a giant, lay ' in (the shape of) a worm,^ wearing the Oegis-hialm, over inherited gold (Ssem. 188^ 189'^) ; the expression is 'i lyngvi ' (from lyng, heath), and the spot is named Guita-heiSi ; hence in other cases also the word lyngvi, lyngormr (heath-worm) stands for dragon. The Vols. saga c. 17 distinguishes lyngormr a. small snake from drehi a large one; so that our OHG. heimo, OS. heina, AS. hdma, spoken of on p. 387, may be identical with lyngvi ; Vilk. saga c. 17, p, 31 expressly calls heima ' allra orma skcmatr ' (omnium vermium minimus), but as he is venomous, he cannot be the harmless cicada (OHG-. muhheimo). Popular belief still dreams of glittering treasures lying on lonesome heaths and guarded by dragons ; and hced'en gold' in Beow. may mean either aurum tesquorum or ethnicorum, for dragons, like giants, were thought of as old and full of years, e.g., eald uhtsceaSa, Beow. 4536 ; wintrum froS (wise with years) 4548 ; j^reo hund (300) wintra heold on hrusan (earth) 4550; at the same time they are covetous, envious, venomous, spitting flame : niff'draca, Beow. 4540 ; dttorscea&a 5673, fyre befongen 4541, ongan gledum spiwan 4619, deorcum nihtum ricsian 4417. It is said of Fafnir, Seem. 186: ' screi'S af guUi, bles eitri, hristi sik ok bar'Si hof'Si ok sporSi,^ stept off the gold, blew poison, shook himself, and struck with head and tail ; it was noticed on p. 562 that the two notions of eit (fire) and eiter (poison) run into one. Connect with this the descriptions of MHG. poets : the ' trache ' has his haunt in a valley, out of his throat he darts flame, smoke and wind, Trist. 8944-74; he has plumage, wings, he spits fire and venom, Troj. 9764. 9817 (see Suppl.).

Now it was the heroes^ pi-ovince to extirpate not only the giants, but (what was in a measure the same thing) the dragons ^ in the world : Tborr himself tackles the enormous miSgariSs-orm, Sigemund, Siegfried, Beowulf stand forth as the bravest of

1 The analogy is kept up in the circumstance of the conquered dragon (like the giant's skeleton p. 555n.) being fastened over the town-gate, e.g. Pulci 4, 76.

dragon-quellers^ backed by a crowd of others, who spring out of the exhaustless fount of living legend, wherever time and place requires them. Frotho, a second Siegfried, overpowers a venomous dragon that lay reposing on his treasure, Saxo Gram. p. 20. The beautiful Thora Borgarhiortr had a small l^ngorm given her, whom she placed in a casket, with gold under him : as hegrew, the gold grew also, till the box became too narrow, and the worm laid himself in a ring all round it ; soon the chamber was too small, and he lay round that, with his tail in his mouth, admitting none into the room unless they brought him food, and he required an ox at every meal. Then it was proclaimed, that whoever slew him should get the maiden for his bride, and as much gold as lay under the dragon, for her dowry. It was Ragnar Lodbrok that subdued this dragon, Fornald. sog. 1, 237-8. The rapid growth of the worm has a startling similarity to that of the fish, p. 578. But, beside the hoarded gold which the heroes carry off as prize, the adventure brings them other advantages : eating the dragon^s heart gives one a knowledge of beasts' language, and painting oneself with his blood hardens the skin against all injury. Both features enter deeply into the legend of Siegfried (see Suppl.) }

Nearly all of this has its counterpart in the beliefs of other nations. As the Romans borrowed gigas from the Greeks, so they did draco, for neither serpens nor vermis was adequate (like our slango and wurm) to express the idea. Now BpuKcov comes from SepKeiv to look, illumine, flash out, <f)do<i BiSopKe expresses illuminating light, and this confirms me in my proposed explanation of our lint and linni. A fox after long burrowing struck upon the cave of a dragon watching hidden treasure, ' ad draconis speluncam ultimam, custodiebat qui thesauros abditos,' Phaedr. 4, 19. Then the story of the gold-guarding griffins must be included, as they are winged monsters like the dragons.

In 0. Slavic zmiy m., and zmiya f., signify snake, the one more a dragon, the other an adder. The Boh. zmeh is the fiery dragon guarding money, zniii/e the adder; Serv. zmay dragon, zmiya adder. Mica, which the zmay shakes off him, is named otresine zmayeve (dragon's offshake), Vuk p. 534. Once more, everything

1 Which reminds Albrecht in Titui-el 3313 — 17 of a similar tale of Eodolz, conf. Parz. 518, 18 and Diut. 3, 59.

DEAGON. BEETLE. 691

leads to glitter, gold and fire. The Lith. smakas seems borrowed from Slavic; whether connected with AS. snaca,\9, a question. Jungmann says, zmek is not only a dragon, but a spirit who appears in the shape of a wet bird/ usually a chicken, and brings people money; Sup. I, 143 says you must not hurt earth-chicks or house-adders ; Schm. 1, 104 explains erdhiinlein (earth -chicken) as a bright round lustre, in the middle of which lies something dark; conf. geuhuon, Helbl. 8, 858.

Renvall thus describes the Finn, mammelainen : * femina maligna, matrix serpentis, divitiarum subterranearum custos.^ Here at last the hoard is assigned to a female snake ; in Teutonic and also Slavic tales on the contrary it is characteristic of the fierce fiendish dragon (m.) to guard treasure, and the adder or unke (f.) plays more the part of a friendly homesprite : as the one is a man transformed, so the other appears as a crowned maiden with a serpent's tail (Deut. sag. no. 13), or as a fay. But she can rjp more dispense with her golden crown than the dragon with his guardianship of gold ; and the Boh. zmek is at once dragon and adder. A story of the adder-king is in Bechstein's Franken p. 290 (see Suppl.).

Amidst all these points of connexion, the being worshipped by the Lombards must remain a matter of doubt ; we have only a right to assume that they ascribed to it a benign and gracious character.

Insects. — Some traces of heetle-worship I am able to disclose.

We have two old and pretty general terms : OHG. chevor, cheviro, MHGr. kever, kevere, NHG. kdfer, N. Neth. kever, AS. ceafor, Engl, chafer. We have no business to bring in the Lat. caper (which is AS. heefer, ON. hafr) ; the root seems to be the AS. ceaf, caf=alacer, for the chafer is a brisk lively creature, and in Swabia they still say kiifermassig for agilis, vivax (Gramm. 2, 571. 1013). The AS. has oeafortun, cafertun, for atrium, vestibulum ; ' scarabaeorum oppidum ' as it were, because chafers chirp in it ? ^ The second term, OHG. wibil, wehil, MHG. wihel,

1 Zmoldy is drenched, zmoknuti to wet ; ' mokry gako zmok,' dripping like an earth-sprite.

' Here again the female being has the advantage over the male.

' Hclbliug, speaking of an ill-shaped garment, starts the query (1, 177), where

B92 TEEES AND ANIMALS.

NHG. wehel, wiehel, AS. wifel, wefel, Engl, weevil, agrees with Litli. wcibalas, wahalis, Lett, luahbols, and I ti-ace it to webea (weave^ wave) in the sense of our ' leben und weben/ vigere, moveri ; we say^ ' kriebeln und wiebeln ' of the swarming of beetles.-^

To the Egyptians the beetle (scarabaeus, Ko.vdapo';, Kdpa(3o<;) was a sacred beings an emblem of inmost life and mysterious selfgeneration. They believed that he proceeded out of matter which he rolled into globules and buried in manure (see Suppl.).

ON. literature deals in no prose terms, but at once comes out with the poetic name iotunox, iotunoxi (giant-ox) ; as that giant maiden took the ploughman with his oxen and plough for crawling beetles (p. 540, Finn, sontiainen, sondiainen, dung-beetle from sonda, fimus), so conversely the real beetle might awaken the notion of a iotunox. To liken the small animal to the large was natural.

Our biggest beetle, the stately antlered stag-beetle, the Romans called lucaniis, Nigid. in Pliny 11, 28 (34), with which I suppose is connected the well-known luca hos, lucanus or lucana bos, a name which got shifted from the horned beast to a tusked one, the elephant (Varro 7, 39. 40. 0. Miill. p. 135). But we call the beetle hirsch (stag, Fr. cerf volant), and even ox and goat, all of them horned beasts, Pol. ielonek, 0. Slav, elenetz (both stagling), Boh. rohac (corniger), Austr. hornier, Swed. Jiorntroll. Again, a Lat. name for scarabaeus terrester was taurus, Plin. 30, 5 (12), which keeps my lucanus bos or cerviis, in countenance. To the female the Bohemians give the further name of babka (granny).

On p. 183 we came 'across a more significant name, donnerguegi, don7ierpuppe, in obvious allusion to Donar, whose holy tree the beetle loves to dwell in ; and with this, apparently, agrees a general term for beetles which extends through Scandinavia, viz. Westergotl. torhagge, Swed. tortyfvel, Norweg. tordivcl, Jutl. torr, torre. True, there is no Icelandic form, let alone ON., in which Thorr can be detected ; yet this ' tor ' may have the same

miglit be the back and belly of one that was hidden away in such a cJieverpeunt ? He calls the ample cloak a chafer-pound or yard, in whose recesses you catch beetles. This keverpiunt answers to the AS. ceafnrtun.

' Slavic names are, Boh. chraust, Pol. chrf},szcz ; Boh. brauk, bruk, prob. from bruchus, jipovKos. [Kuss. zhuk ; the ' gueg ' of S. Germany ?]

BEETLE. CHAFER. 693

force it has in torsdag (p. 126) and tordon (p. 166); ' bagge/ says Ihre p. 122, denotes juvenis, puer, hence servant of the god, which was afterwards exchanged for dyfvel=diefvul, devil. Afzehns (Sagohafder 1, 12. 13) assures us, that the torbagge was sacred to Thor, that in Norrlandhis larva is called mulloxe (earthox, our Swiss donnerpuppe ? conf. iotunoxi), and that he who finds a dung-beetle lying on Jtis hack (ofvaltes) unable to help himself, and sets him on his legs again, is believed by the Norrlanders to have atoned for seven sins thereby.

This sounds antique enough, and I do not hastily reject the proposed interpretation of tordyfvel, false as it looks. For the AS. tordwifel is plainly made up of ' tord,^ stercus (Engl, turd) and the 'wifel' above, and answers to the Dan. skarnbasse, skarntorre (dungbeetle) ; consequently tordyfvel, torbasse crave the same solution, even though a simple ' tord ' and ' vivel ^ be now wanting in all the Scandinavian dialects. The Icelandic has turned tordivel about into torfdijill, as if turf- devil, from torf, gleba. There is also the N. Neth. tor, torre beetle, and drehtorre dungbeetle [or devil's coach-horse ; also Engl, dumhledorr cockchafer], to be taken into account (see Suppl.).

But who ever saw even a beetle lie struggling on his back, without compassionately turning him over ? The German people, which places the stagbeetle in close connexion with thunder and fire, may very likely have paid him peculiar honours once.

Like other sacred harbingers of spring (swallows, storks), the

first cockchafer (Maikafer) ^ used to be escorted in from the woods

with much ceremony; we have it on good authority, that this

• Maiknfer (like maiblume) sounds too general, and not a people's word. And there is no Lat. name preserved either. The Greek fi-qXoXovOrj designates our maikafer or our goldkiifer ; boys tied a string to it and phiyed with it (Aristoph. Nub. 763), as our boys do. The It. scarafagfjio is formed from scarafone (scarabaeus) ; the Fr. hanueton a dim. of the obsolete hanne horse, which may have been the term for the stagbeetle (still potzf/a?*?, Bruin's horse, in the Wetterau), Fr. cerf volant, Dan. eciiJiiort, Swetl. ckhjort, i.e. oak-hart. The Mecklenb. ekbiucer, oak-chafer, as well as the simple siirer, sever, sehher (Schiitze's Hoist, idiot. 4,91) is applied to the maikafer; in other parts of L. Saxony they say maittiircl, inaiscibel. This silver, zdver (Brem. wtb. 4, 592. 5, 310) is surely no other than kafer with change of k into z, s ; Chytrajus's Nomencl. saxon. has ' zever, and !]oldzever=^ goldkuier.' Or does the HG. ziefer belong here, contrary to the etymol. proposed on p. 40? In the Westerwald p'dwitz, k'owitz is maikafer, and in llavensberg povommel dungbeetle (Kuhn's Westfal. sagen 2, 188), almost agreeing with Esthon. pona chafer, beetle. Like the various names for the stagbeetle, niaybeetlo, dungbeetle, goldbeetle, the traces of ancient beetle-worship seem also to meet, tirst in one, then in another of them. A scarafone who brings succour occurs in Pentamer. 3, 5 (see Suppl.).

694 TEEES AND ANIMALS.

continued to be done by the spinning girls in parts of Sclileswig as late as the 1 7th century.^

Folk- tales of Up. Germany inform us : Some girls, not grown up, went one Sunday to a deserted tower on a hill, found the stairs strewn with sand, and came to a beautiful room they had never seen before, in which there stood a bed with curtains. When they drew these aside, the bed was swarming with goldheetles, and jumping up and down of itself. Filled with amazement, the girls looked on for a while, till suddenly a terror seized them, and they fled out of the room and down the stairs, with an unearthly howl and racket at their heels (Moneys Anz. 7, 477). On the castle-hill by Wolfartsweiler a little girl saw a copper pot standing on three legs, quite new and swarming full of horseheetles (roskafer). She told her parents, who saw at once that the beetles were a treasure, and hastened with her to the hill, but found neither pot nor beetles any more (ibid. 8, 305). Here beetles appear as holy animals guarding gold, and themselves golden.

In Sweden they call the small goldbeetle (skalkrak) Virgin Mary's key-maid (jungfru Marie nyckelpiga), Dybeck's Runa 1844/ p. 10; in spring the girls let her creep about on their hands, and say, ' hon marker mig brudhandskar,' she marks (foreshews) me bride's gloves ; if she flies away, they notice in which direction, for thence will come the bridegroom. Thus the beetle seems a messenger of the goddess of love ; but the number of the black spots on his wings has to be considered too : if more than seven, corn will be scarce that year, if less, you may look for an abundant harvest, Afzel. 3, 112-3.

The little coccinella septempunctata has mythical names in nearly all our dialects : NHG. gotteskUhlein (God's little cow),^ gotteskalb, herrgotteskalb, herrgotts-thierchen (-beastie), Jierrgots-voglein (-birdie), Marienvoglein, ilfarie?iA;a/er, Marienkalblein ; Engl, ladijcoiv, ladybird, ladyfly; Dan. Marihone (-hen); Boh. hrawha, hrawicka (little cow). In Up. Germany they call the small goldbeetle (chrysomela vulg.) fraua-chiieli, ladycow (Tobler

^ An old description of the maygrave feast by Ulr. Petersen (in Falck's New staatsb. mag., vol. 1, Schlesw. 1832, p. 655) speaks of it thus : ' A quaint procession of the erewhile amazons of the spinning-wheel at Schleswig, for fetching in of a cantharis or viaykdfer with green boughs, whereat the town-hall of this place was decked out with greenery.' The feast was still held in 1(330 — 40.

2 The Euss. 'Buzhia korovka, has exactly the same meaning. — Trans.

CHAFEE. BEE. 695

204'') and ' der Hebe froue henje/ our lady's hen (Alb. Scliott's Deutsche in Piemonfc 297), in contrast to herra-chiiell the coccinella (Tobler 265^), though the name probably wavers between the two. By the same process which we observed in the names of plants and stars, Mary seems to have stept into the place of Freyja, and Marihone was formerly Freijjuhoena, which we still have word for word in Froue henje, and the like in Frauachiieli. And of Romance tongues, it is only that of France (where the community of views with Grermany was strongest) that has a bete a dieu, vacJie a dieu ; Span, and Ital. have nothing like it. At all events our children's song :

Marienlcdferchen, flieg aus ! (fly away)

dein hauschen brennt, (burns)

dein miitterchen flennt, (weeps)

dein vaterchen sitzt auf der schwelle; (sits on the threshold)

flieg in 'n Jdmmel aus der holle ! (into heaven out of hell)

must be old, for in England also they sing : 'Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home, your house is on fire, and your children will burn [all but little Bessie that sits in the sim].' With us too the children put the Marienkafer or sonnenkafer on their finger, and ask it, like the cuckoo: ' sunnenkielien (sun's chicken), ik frage di, wo lange schal ik leven ? ' ' Een jaar, twee jaar,' etc., till the chafer flies away, its home being in the sun or in heaven. In Switzerland they hold the goldbeetle on their hand, and say:

• cheferli, cheferli, fliig us! i getter milech ond brocka ond e silberigs loffeh dezue.' Here the chafer, like the snake, is oS'ered 'milk and crumbs and a silver spoon thereto.' In olden times he must have been regarded as the god's messenger and confidant (see Suppl.).

Lastly the bee, the one insect that is tamable and will live among men, and whose wise ways are such a lesson to them, may be expected to have old mythic associations. The bee is believed to have survived from the golden age, from the lost pai'adisc (Chap. XXX.) ; nowhere is her worth and purity more prettily expressed than in the Servian lay of the rich Gavan, where God selects three holy angels to prove mankind, and bids them descend from heaven to earth, ' as the bee upon the flower,' kako pchela po tsvetu (Vuk I, 128 ed. 2). The clear sweet honey,

VOL. II. s

which bees suck out of every blossom, is a chief ingredient of the ■ drink divine (p. 319), it is the r/Sela iBcoSy] of the gods, Hymn, in ' Merc. 660 ; and holy honey the first food that touches the lips of a new-born child, RA. 457. Then, as the gift of poesy is closely connected with O^hroeris dreckr, it is bees that bring it to sleeping Pindar : fMeX-icrcrai avru> KadevSovri irpocreTrkrovro re Kol eirXacraov irpo^ ra ^eiA.?; tov Krjpov' a/3%^ /i€V Tlivhdpw TTOtetv acr/jLara iyevero roLavrrj, Pausan. ix. 23, 2. And therefore they are called Musarum volucres (Varro de re rust. 3, 16). A kindermarchen (no. 62) speaks of the queen-bee settling on her favourite's mouth ; ^ if she flies to any one in his sleep, he is accounted a child of fortune.

It seems natural, in connexion with these bustling winged creatures, to think of the silent race of elves and dwarfs, which like them obeys a queen. It was in the decaying flesh of the first giant that dwarfs bred as maggots ; in exactly the same way bees are said to have sprung from the putrefaction of a bullock's body : ' apes nascuntur ex bubulo corpore putrefacto,' Yarro, 2, 5 ; ^ amissas reparari ventribus bubulis recentibus cum fimo obrutis/ Plin. 11, 20 (23); conf. Virg. Georg. 4, 284-558. Ov. Met. 15, 364. To this circumstance some have ascribed the resemblance between apis bee and Apis bull, though the first has a short a, and the last a long. What seems more important for us is the celebrated discovery of a golden bullock^s-head amongst many hundred golden bees in the tomb of the Prankish king Childeric at Doornik (repres. in Eccard's Fr. or. 1, 39. 40).

Natural history informs us that clouds of bees fall upon the sweet juice of the ash-tree ; and from the life-tree Yggdrasil the Edda makes a dew trickle, which is called a ^fall of honey,' and nourishes bees (Sn. 20).^

The Yngl. saga cap. 14 says of Yngvifrey^s son, king Fiolnir (Siolm in the 0. Swed. chron.), that he fell into a barrel of mead and was drowned; so in Saxo, king Hunding falls into sweet mead, and the Greek myth lets Glaucus drown in a honey-jar, the bright in the sweet. According to a legend of the Swiss Alps,

1 Sederunt in ore infantis turn etiam Platonis, suavitatem illam praedulcis eloquii i^ortendenteg. Plin. 11, 17 (18).

^ Ceram ex floribus, melliginem e lacrimis arborum quae glufluum pariuut, salicis, ulmi, arundinis succo.

BEE. 697

in the ffolden asre when the brooks and lakes were filled with milk, a shepherd was upset in his boat and drowned ; his body, long sought for^ turned up at last in the foaming cream, when they were churning, and was buried in a cavity which bees had constructed of honeycombs as large as town-gates (Mem. de Tacad. celt. 5, 202). Bees weave a temple of wax and feathers (Schwenk's Gr. myth. p. 129. Herm. Mtiller's Griechenth. 455), and in our Kinderm. no. 107, p. 130-1 a palace of wax and honey. This reminds us of the beautiful picture in Lohengrin p. 191 of Henry 2.'s tomb in Bamberg cathedral :

Sus lit er da in siner stift

di^er het erbouwen, als diu 5m ir wift

■uz maneger bliiete wiirket, daz man honc-seim nennet.

(he lies in the minster he built, as the bee her web from many a blossom works, that we name honey -juice). In the various languages the working bee is represented as female, OHG. pia, Lat. apis, Gr. fieXtaaa, Lith. bitte, in contrast with the masc. fucus the drone, OHG. treno, Lith. tranas ; but then the head of the bees is made a king, our weiser (pointer), MHG. wisel, OHG. wiso, dux, Pliny^s ' rex apium,^ Lith. bittinis, M. Lat. chosdrus (Ducange sub v.), yet AS. beomodor. Boh. matka. The Gr. iaaijv is said to have meant originally the king-bee, and to have acquired afterwards the sense of king or priest, as /jbiXia-aa also signified priestess, especially of Demeter and Artemis. Even gods and goddesses themselves are represented by the sacred animal, Zeus (Aristaeus) as a bee, Vishnu as a blue bee. A Roman Meilona (Arnob. 4, 131), or Mellonia (Aug. de civ. Dei 4, 24), was goddess of bees ; the Lith. Austheia was the same, jointly with a bee-god Bybylus. Masculine too was the Lett. Uhsinsh, i.e., the hosed one, in reference to bees' legs being covered with wax {' waxen thighs,' Mids. Dream 3, 1). From all these fancies, mostly foreign, we might fairly make guesses about our own lost antiquities ; but we should have to get more exact information as to the legend of the Bee-wolf (pp. 369, 673) and the mythic relationship of the woodpecker (Lith. melleta) to the bee (see SuppL).

CHAPTER XXII. SKY AND STARS.

The visible heavens have in many ways left their mark on the heathen faith. Not only do gods, and the spirits who stand next them, have their dwelling in the sky, and get mixt up with the stars, but earthly beings too, after their dissolution, are transported thither, and distinguished heroes and giants shine as constellations. From the sky the gods descend to earth, along the sky they make their journeys, and through the sky they survey unseen the doings of men. And as all plants turn to the light of heaven, as all souls look up to heaven, so do the smoke of sacrifice and the prayers of mankind mount upwards.

Heaven covers earth, and our word '^himmel' comes from the root hima (tego, involvo, vestio, Gramm. 2, 55; conf. Lith. dangus coelum, from dengiu tego; OHG. himilezi laquear). The Goths and Old Norsemen agree in preferring the foi^m Jiimins, himinn, and most other Teutons hi mil ; even Swed. Norw. Dan. have himmel. The Saxon race has moreover two terms peculiar to itself: one is OS. liehhan, hevan, AS. heofon, Engl, heaven, and still in Lower Saxony and Westphalia, hehen, heven, haven, hawen. I have endeavoured to make out the area over which this name extends (Gramm. I, xiv.). The Frisians did not use it, for the N. and W. Fris. patois of to-day owns to nothing but 'himmel.'^ Nor does the Netherl. dialect know it; but it is found in Westphalia, in L. Saxony as far as Holstein, and beyond the Elbe in Mecklenburg and Pomerania. The AS. and Engl, are wholly destitute of the word himel ; OS., like the present LS. and Westph., employs both terms alike, yet apparently so as to designate by hevan more the visible heaven, and by hlmil the supersensual. Alb. of Halberstadt (ed. 1545, 145^) uses

^ Himel, Lapekoer fen Gabe scroar, Dimter 1834, p. 101. 103, hemmel, Hansens Geizhalz, Sonderbg. 1833. p. 148. himel, Friesche wetten 348. himul, As. 274.

SKY. HEAVEN. 699

heben (rhym. neben) of tbe place. Reinolt von der Lippe couples the two words : ' himel und heben von vreuden muz irkrachen/ burst witli joy. People say : ' de heven steit niinimer to ' ; ' wenn de heven fallt, ligg wi der all unner ; ' ' de sterren an dem haven ; ' in Westphalia hebenscheer means a sky overcast without rain, and even heben alone can sig^nify cloud. ^ In hdvenhune (p. 156), in kukuk vam haven (p. 676), the physical sense preponderates, whereas one would hardly speak otherwise than o£ ' going to himel/ or himelrik. Yet this distinction seems to be comparatively recent : as the AS. heofon can be used in a purely spiritual sense, so the poet of our Heliand alternates between himilriki 149, 8 and hebannki 143, 24, himiJfader 145, 12 and hebancuning 143, 20. And of course himil had originally, and has everywhere in HG., the physical meaning too ; hence uplilmil in Hel. 88, 15, just like upheofon in Csedm. 270, 24. The root of hebhan, hevan, heofon, is probably a lost Gothic, ' hiba, haf,^ cognate with Lat. capio, so that it is the all-capacious, ON. vifffeffinir, wide-fathoming or encompassing sky.^

The other Saxon term may be placed on a level with the Gr. aW/jp (thin upper air), whilst himil and hevan answer to oupav6<; ; it is OS. radur, AS. rodor. In Csedmon we find rodor 183, 19. 207, 8. uprodor 179, 10. 182, 15. 205. 2. rodortimgol (star), 100, 21. rodorbeorht 239, 10. Its root ead lies buried as yet in obscurity ; it has disappeared from all modern dialects [except as Rother in proper names?]. I am inclined to connect with it the ON. ru&all (sol), which has nothing to do with rau^r (ruber). From the AS. poets using indifferently ' wuldres gim' and ' heofones gim ' (Beow. 4142. Andr, 1269) ; heofonbeorht, rodorbeorht, tvuldorheorht ; heofontorht, siuegltorht, widdortorht ; we might almost infer that wuldor (glory) originally meant coelum, which would throw light on the OHG. name Woldarhilt. And the same with sivegel (aether, coelum) : conf. swegles begoug,

1 Sanskr. nabas, Slav, nobo (coelum), pi. nebesa, Gr. ^^(pos, Lat. nubes, uobula ; Ir. neamh, Wei. nev, Armor, uef, Lett, debbes (coelum), debbess (nubes) ; conf. Lith. dangus above [and sky, welkin, witb ON. scv, Germ, wolke, cloud] .

• ' Hills of heaven' ai-e high ones, reaching into the clouds, often used as proper names : himinfioll, Svcra. 148". Yngl. saga cap. 39 ; Himinhiorp, Swm. il, 92'' is an abode of gods; spirits haunt the IlimiUnhero (mons coelius, Pertz 2, 10); Himilesherri in Hesse (Kuchenbecker's Anal. 11, l.'i?. Arnsb. urk. 118); a Ilimmelisberp in Vestgiitland, and one in Halland (said to be HeimSall's) ; Himelierc, Fraueudienst 199, 10.

700 SKY AND STAES.

Beow. 1713; under swegle (sub coelo), Beow. 2]49; sweglrsid (coeli currus), Cod. exon. 355, 47 ; OS. suicjli.

I call attention to tlie AS. sceldhyrig, Csedm. 283, 23, which has no business to be translated refugium or sheltering city ; it is distinctly our schildburg (aula clypeis tecta), a bit of heathenism the poet let fall inadvertently ; so the Edda speaks of Valholl as ' skioldum J^okt, lagt gyltiim slddldum, sva sem span]>ak,^ Sn. 2, thatched with golden shields as with shingle-roof (p. 702 and Suppl.).

Eddie names in Sasm. 49''. Sn. 177; all masculine, some obviously founded on personification. Heaven is pictured as a husband, embracing the female earth ; he is not however admitted into the circle of the gods, like Oupav6<i, whereas Earth does stand among the goddesses. To us heaven signifies simply a certain space, the residence of gods. Two poetic names for it have reference to . that enigmatical being Mimir (p. 379) : hreggmtmir, rain-shedder, from hregg imber ; and vetmimir , moistener ? conf. vseta humor.

To express star, constellation (sidus), our older speech, in addition to stairno, sterno, steorra, stiarna (Gramm. 3, 392) and • OHG. himilzeichan (Hymn. 4, 2), has a symbolical term, OHG. Mmilzvngd, Diut. 1, 526^ and Gl. Doc. 249 ; OS. himiltungal, Hel. 18, 2; AS. heofontungol, rodortmigol ; ON. Idmintungl. Even the simple tungol has the same sense in AS., and a Gothic gloss on Gal. 4, 3, gives ' tuggl astrum,' whilst in ON. tungl means the moon. This neuter noun tungal, tungol, tungl, is no doubt from tunga (lingua), which word itself appears in OHG. himilzunga (Graff 5, 682) : the moon and some of the planets, when partially illuminated, do present the appearance of a tongue or a sickle, and very likely some cosmogonic belief was engrafted on that; I know of nothing like it in other languages.

All the heavenly bodies have particular spots, seats, chairs assigned them, which they make their abode and resting-place ; they have their lodges and stages (sterrono girusti, 0. i. 17, 10). This holds especially of the sun, who daily sinks into his seat

1 A translation of the tongue to heaven. Or was the twinkling of the stars likened to a tingling [ziingeln, a quivering flickering motion like that of the tongue]? The moon's steady light does not bear that out, nor the OHG. form without the I.

SUN. MOON. 701

or settle (see Chap. XXIII) ; but similar chairs (KM. 25), and a seat-going (sedelgang) are attributed to all the stars. N. Bth. 210. 223 says, Bootes ' trago ze sedele gauge/ and ' tiu zeichen ne gant nicht in sedel.' As chair and table are things closely connected, the stars may have had tables of their own, or, what comes to the same thing, may have been regarded as tables of the sky ; in saying which, I am not thinking of the Egyptian sun-table, but more immediately of the ' hlod'um yppa,' sidera extollere, of the Voluspa (Sifim. P), the three creative ' Bcirs syuir ' having set up as it were the tables of the firmament : bioSr is the Goth, biuds, OHG. piot (pp. 38. 68). As the stationary stars had chairs and tables, the planetary ones, like other gods, had steeds and cars ascribed to them (see Suppl.).^

The two principal stars are the sun and moon, whose gender and appellations I have discussed in Gramm. 3, 349. 350 : a MHG. poet calls the sun ' daz merere lieht,' the greater light, Fundgr. 2, 12. It is worth mentioning that some of the Eddie names for the moon are still preserved in patois dialects of Up. Germany. As the dwarfs named the moon sMn (jubar), the East Franks call her schein (Reinwald's Henneb. id. 2, 159).^ In the underworld the moon bore the name of hverfandi Jivel, whirling wheel, and in Styria (esp. the Brack distr.) she is gmoa-rat (Sartori's Styria, p. 82), if I may translate that by rota communis, though it may perhaps mean gemeiner rath (vorrath), a common provision at the service of all men. That the sun was likened to a ivheel of fire, and the element blazing out of him was represented ill the shape of a wheel, has been fully shewn, p. 620. Tit. 2983 speaks of the sun's wheel. The Edda expressly calls the sun fagrahvel, fair wheel. Seem. bO'' Sn. 177. 223. The Norse rune for S is named sal sun, the AS. and OHG. sigil, sugil, for which I have proposed (Andr. p. 90) the readings segil, sagil, sahll, and may now bring in support the Goth, sduil and Gr. rjXioq. But the Gothic letter (?) (= HV) is the very symbol of the sun, and plainly shews the shape of a wheel ; we must

• ^ Wagen waggon belongs to weg way, as carpentum does to carpere (viam) ; the

car of heaven is also that of the highest god. Otfr. i. 5, 5. says of the herald angel :

' floug er sunnum pad, steirouo straza, wega wulkono.' The Indians also call the

sky path of clouds, Somadeva 1, 17. 2, 157.

• So in Mod. Gr. ^eyydpi brilliance, a name whose surprising identity whh the

Oli, feitt/ari (Sn. 177) 1 have akeady noticed elsewhere.

702 SKY AND STAES.

therefore suppose it to have been the initial of a Goth. Jivil = AS. hweoJ, ON. hvel. From 'hvel^ was developed the Icel. liiol, Swed. Dan. hjul, 0. Swed. hiugJil; and from 'hweol hweohP the Engl, wheel, Nethl. wiel, andFris. ^EaZ (Richth. 737). In view of all these variations, some have even ventured to bring in the ON. jol, Swed. Dan. jul (yule), the name of the winter solstice, and fasten upon it also the meaning of the wheel; on that hypothesis the two forms must have parted company very early, supposing the Gothic name of November jiuleis to be cognate.^ The word wheel seems to be of the same root as while, Goth. Itveila, OHG. huila, i.e. revolving time; conf. Goth, hveila-hvairbs, OHG. huil-huerbic, volubilis.

Another symbolic epithet of the sun seems to be of great age : the warlike sentiment of olden times saw in him a gleaming circular sldeld, and we noticed above (p. 700) that the sky itself formed a sceldbyrig. Notker cap. 71, finding in his text the words 'sinistra clypeum coruscantem praeferebat (Apollo),' translates : ' an dero winsterun truog er einen roten skill/ then adds a remark of his own : ' wanda selbiu diu sunna einemo shilte gelih ist.' In German law and German poetry we catch the glimmer of these 'red shields.' Even Opitz 2, 286 calls the sun 'the beauteous shield of heaven.'

The very oldest and most universal image connected with the sun and other luminaries seems after all to be that of the eye. Ancient cosmogonies represent them as created out of eyes. To Persians the sun was the eye of Ahuromazdao (Ormuzd), to Egyptians the right eye of the Demiurge, to the Greeks the eye of Zeus, to our forefathers that of Wuotan ; and a fable in the Edda says O^inn had to leave one of his eyes in pledge with Mimir, or hide it in his fountain, and therefore he is pictured as one-eyed. In the one-eyed Cyclop's mouth Ovid puts the words (Met. 13, 851) :

Unum est in media lumen mihi fronte, sed instar inrjentis chjpei ; quid, non haec omnia magno « sol videt e coelo ? soli tamen unicus orhis.

1 The Norse initial H is occasionally dropt : in Icel. both hiiila and jula

stand for the babbling of infants. The dialect of the Saterland Frisians has an

actual jule, jole (rota). It is worthy of notice, that in some parts of Schleswig they

used at Christmas-time to roll a wheel into the village, and this was called ' at trille

juul i by,'' trundling yule into town ; Outzeu sub. v. jol, p. 145.

SUN. MOON. 703

Like the giant^ tlie god (Wuotan, tlie sky) has but one eye, which is a wheel and a shield. In Beow. 1135 ' bedcen Godes ' is the sun, the great celestial sign.^ With this eye the divinity surveys the world, and nothing can escape its peering all-piercing glance^; all the stars look down upon men.^ But the ON. poets, not content with treating sun, moon and stars as eyes of heaven, invert the macrocosm, and call the human eye the sun, moon, or star of the skull, forehead, brows and eyelashes ; they even call the eye the shield of the forehead : a confirmation of the similar name for the sun. Another title they bestow on the sun is ' gimstemn himius ' (gemma coeli) ; so in AS. ' heofones gim/ Beow. 4142 and ' wuldres giin,' Andr. 1289 (see Suppl.).

And not only is the sun represented as the god^s eye looking down, but as his full fac& and countenance; and that is how we draw his picture still. Otfried says of the sun being darkened at the Saviour's death, iv. 38, 5 :

In ni liaz si nuzzi thaz sconaz annuzzi,

ni liaz in scinan thuruh thaz ira gisiuni blidaz.

The Edda speaks of the sun and moon as brother and sister, children of a mythic Mundilfdri. Several nations beside the Lithuanians and Arabs (Gramm. 3, 351) agree with us in imagining the moon masculine and the sun feminine. The Mexican Meztli (luna) is a man ; the Greenlanders think of Anningat, the moon, as pursuing his sister Mallina, the sun. An Ital. story (Pentam. 5, 5) makes Sole and Luna children of Talia (in Perrault they are named Jour and Aurore). The Slavs make the moon masc, a star fem., the sun neut. ; thus in a Servian lay (Vuk 1, 134), God calls the sun (suntse, Euss. solntse, -tse dim. suff.) his child (chedo), the moon (mesets) being its bi'other, and the star (zvezda) its sister. To think of the stars as children or young suns is nothing out of the way. Wolfram says in Wh. 251, 5 : ' jungiu silnnelin mohten wahsen.'

' The Servians call the deepest part of a lake oho (eye), Vuk's Montenegro 62. 2 When the Iliad 14, 314 says:

oi)5 div vCjC diadpcLKOi 'HAi6j Trep, ovTF Kal o^vraTov TreXerai (pdos eiaopdaadai, it resembles the lay of Wolfram 8, 28 :

Obe der suunen dri mit blicke wseren (if there were 3 suns looking), sin m(')hteu zwischeu si geliuhten (they could not shine in between].

' lipia^iaTov &<TTpuv pvktos 6(pOaKp.6^, Aesch. Sept. c. Th. 300.

704 SKY AND STAES.

Down to recent times, our people were fond of calling the sun and moon frau sonne and herr mo7id} Aventin 19*" : ' frauw Sonne geht zu rast und gnaden/ In tlie country between the Inn and Salzach thej say * der her Man' meaning no more than simply moon, Schm. 2, 230. 582. Gesner in Mithrid., Tur. 1555, p. 28 : 'audio veteres Germanos Lunum quoque deum coluisse et appellasse hermon, id est dominum Lunum, quod forte parum animadvertentes aliqui ad Hermann, i.e. Mercurium transtulerunt; '' this last guess has missed the mark. Hulderic. Eyben de titulo nobilis, Helmst. 1677. 4, p. 13.6: 'qua etiam ratione in veteri idololatrico luna non domina, dominus appellator :

bis gottwillkommen, neuer mon, holder herr, mach mir meines geldes mehr !. "

Also in Nicolaus Magni de Gawe (Superst. E, 10): ' vetulam novi, quae credidit solem esse deam, vocans eam sanctatn dominam ; ' and earlier still in Eligius (Sup. A) : ' nullus dominos solem aut lunam vocet.' ^'

In these invocations lingers the last vestige of a heathen worship;, perhaps also in the sonnenJehn, sun-fief (RA. 278) ? I have spoken on bowing to the sun, p. 81, and cursing by him, ' der sunnen haz varn,^ p. 19, where he is made equal to a deity.* In the same way the knees were bent and the head bared to the oiew moon (Sup. E, 11). In taking an oath the fingers were extended towwrd tJie sun (Weisth. 3, 349) ; and even Tacitus in Ann. 13, 55 relates of Bojocalus : 'solem resjpiciens et cetera sidera vocans, quasi coram interrogabat, vellentne intueri inane solum ' (see Suppl.),

That to our remote ancestry the heavenly bodies^ especially the sun and moon, were divine beings, will not admit of any doubt. Not only do such symbolic expressions as ' face, eye, tongue, wheel, shield, table, car ' bring us face to face with a vivid personification ; we have also seen how significantly Caesar

1 Frau Sunne (Gorrss Meisterl. 184). Hence ia O.Fr. Solaiis, •without the article,. Bekker on Ferabras p. 163.

2 His authority is Dynkelspuhl tract. 1, praec. 1, p. 59. Is this the Nicolaus Dinkelspuel in Jocher ?

3 Conf. the wind addressed as lord, p. 631 ; and dobropan, p. 130 note.

• Some would trace the name of Salzwedel, Soltwedel in the Altmark to heathen Bun-worship, (Ledebur's Allg. arch. 14, 370. Temme's Altmark p. 29), though the first syll. ijlaiuly means salt ; ' wedel ' will be explained when we come to the moon.

SUN. MOON. 705

couples together Sol, Vulcanus and Luna, p. 103. conf. p. 602. As Sol is reckoned among asins in the Edda (Sn. 39), and is sister to Mcini (Sn. 12), this last has claims to an equal rank. Yet Seem. 1'^ calls Sol ' sinni Mana/ companion of the moon, sinni being the Goth. gasin]'ja, OHG. kasindeo, sindo ; and it is remarkable that the Merseburg Lay gives the divine Siinnd not a companion brother, but a sister Sindgund (supra p. 308), whose name however still expresses attendance, escort ; ^ may she have been a morning or evening star ? We should have to know first, what distinction a dim remote antiquity made between sduil and sunno in respect of gender and mythical use ; if ' sauil, sagil,' like sol and rj\io<i, was masc, then Sunna and Sindgund might be imagined as female moons like Luna and SeXijvr], yet sol is always fem. in ON., and our sunne so late as in MHG. strangely wavers between the two sexes, Gramm. 3, 350 (see Suppl.).

Be that as it may, we have a right to add in support of the sun's divinity, that 'she' is described like other gods (pp. 17. 26. 324), as blithe, siveet and gracious^ 0. iv. 33, 6 speaks of her ' gisiuni hlidaz, thes sih ioh worolt frewita,' whereof the world had aye rejoiced; and a 13th cent, poem (Zeitschr. f. d. alt. 1, 493-4) thus describes the greetings addressed to her :

Wol dir frouwe Snnoie ! ' Hail to thee. Lady Sun !

du bist al der werlt wunne ! Art all the world's delight.'

so ir die Sunnen vm sehet. When ye see the sun glad,

schoenes tages ir ir jehet. The fair day to her ye ascribe,

der eren ir der Sunnen jehet, To her ye give the honour,

swenn ir si in liehtem schine sehet. Whenever ye see, etc.

Other passages in point are reserved for next chapter.

The personality of the sun and moon shews itself moreover in a fiction that has wellnigh gone the round of the world. These two, in their unceasing unflagging career through the void of heaven, appear to be in flight, avoiding some pursuer. A pair of wolves are on their track, Slioll dogging the steps of the sun, 'B.aii of the moon ; they come of a giant race, the mightiest of whom, Managarmr (moon-dog), apparently but another name for Hati, is sure some day to overtake and swallow the moon. How

' Conf. simnagahts, sungiht (solis iter), p. C17 n., and sunnan s'lfffcct (iter), Casdm. 182, 25.

706 SKY AND STAES.

extensively tliis tradition prevailed, has already been shewn (pp. 244-5).^ A parhelion or mock-sun (vadersol) is in Swed, called solvarg, solulf, sun-wolf_, Ihre's Dial. lex. 165.

One of the most terrific phenomena to heathens was an eclipse of the sun or moon, which they associated with a destruction of ail things and the end of the world ; they fancied the monster had already got a part of the shining orb between his jaws, and they tried to scare him away by loud cries. This is what Eligius denounces (Superst. A): ^ nullus^ si quando luna ohscuratur, vociferare praesumat ; ' it is the cry of ' vince luna ! ' " that the Indicul. paganiar. means in cap. 21 de defectione lunae, and Burchard (Sup. C, IDS'") by his ' clamoribus a,nt auxilio splendorem lunae deficientis restmirare.' The Norse writings, while minutely describing the threatened deglutition, make no allusion to the shouting : it may have been more customary with Celts and Romans than with Teutons. A 5th cent, father, St, Maximus of Turin, in a Homilia de defectu lunae, preaches thus : ' Cum ante dies plerosque de vestrae avaritiae cupiditate pulsaverim, ipsa die circa vesperam tanta vociferatio populi exstitit, ut irreligiositas ejus penetraret ad coelum. Quod quum requirerem, quid sibi clamor hie velit, dixerunt mihi, quod lahoranti lunae vestra vociferatio suhveniret, et defectum ejus suis clamoribus adjuvaret.' ^ The same ' laborans ' (in distress) is used by Juvenal 6, 442 :

Jam nemo tubas, nemo aera fatiget ; una lahoranti poterit succurrere lunae.^

I may safely assume that the same superstitious notions and practices attend eclipses among nations ancient and modern.^ The Indian belief is, that a serpent eats up the sun and moon when they are eclipsed (Bopp's Gloss. 148^*), or a demon (rahus) devours them (Bopp's Nalas, pp. 153. 272. Somadeva 2, 1 5. 187).

1 I add from Fischart's Garg. 130'': 'sah den u'o(/ des mons.' Eabelais 1, 11 has : la lune des lovps. In old calendars, eclipses are rejrireseuted by two dragons holding the sun and moon in their mouths, Mone's Untersuch. p. 183.

2 This would be in OHG. ' Karih mano ! ' in Goth. ' jiukai mena ! ' but we find nothing of the kind even later.

3 Ducange 6, 1618 quotes the passage sub v. vinceluna ; but the reprint of the Horn. Maximi taurin. ' De defectu lunae' (in MabiUon's Mus. Ital., torn. i. pars 2, pp. 19. 20) has it not.

< Conr. Tac. Annal. 1, 28 and Boeth. de consol. 4 metr. 5 : ' lassant crebris pulsibus aera.'

^ It is only among Greeks and Slavs that I have not come across them.

ECLIPSES. 707

To this day tlie Hindus consider that a giant lays hold of the luminaries^ and tries to swallow them (Broughton^s Pop. poetry of Hind. p. 131). The Chinese call the solar eclipse zhishi (solis devoratio), the lunar yueshi (lunae devoratio), and ascribe them both to the machinations of a dragon. Nearly all the populations of Northern Asia hold the same opinion : the Tchuvashes use the phrase ' vubur siat/ daemon comedit (Guil. Schott de lingua Tschuw, p. 5) ; the Finns of Europe have a similar belief, the Esthonians say the sun or moon ' is being eaten/ and formerly they sought to hinder it by conjuring spells (Thorn. Hiarn, Mitau 1794 p. 39). The Lithuanians think a demon (Tiknis or Tiklis) attacks the chariot of the sun, then darkness arises, and all creatures are in fear lest the dear sun be worsted ; it has been staved off for a long time, but it must come to that at the end of the world (Narbutt 1, 127. 142). In eclipses of the moon, the Greenlanders carry boxes and kettles to the roofs of their houses, and beat on them as hard as they can (Cranz's Gi'onland 3, 294). An English traveller says of the Moors in Africa : When the sun's eclipse was at its height, we saw the people running about as if mad, and firing their rifles at the sun, to frighten the monster who they supposed was wishing to devour the orh of day. The plains and heights of Tripoli resounded with the death-dirge (the cry ' wulliali wu ! '), and the same all along the coast. The women hanged copper vessels together, making such a din that it was heard leagues away (see Suppl.). ^

A Mongolian myth makes out that the gods determined to punish Arakho for his misdeeds, but he hid so eiJectually, that no one could find out his lurkingplace. They therefore asked the sun, who gave an unsatisfactory answer; but when they asked the ynoon, she disclosed his whereabouts. So Arakho was dragged forth and chastised ; in revenge of which, he pursues both sun and moon, and whenever he comes to hand-grips with one of them, an eclipse occurs. To help the lights of heaven in their sad plight, a tremendous uproar is made with musical and other instruments, till Arakho is scared away.^ Here a noticeable

' Morgenblatt 1817 p. 159"; conf. Niebnhr's Beschr. Arab. 119. 120.

2 Be'nj. BerHinann's Nomad, streifereien 3, 41. Ace. to Georgii Alphab. tibetan. p. 189, it is monsters called Tracehn, with their upper parts shaped like men, and the lower like snakes, that lie in wait for the sim and moon. [South of L. Baikal it is the king of hell that tries to swallow the moon. — Trans.]

708 SKY AND STARS.

feature is the inquiry made of the sun and moon, wlio overlook the world and know all secrets (Castren^s Myth. 62). So in our fairytales the seeker asks of the s\m, moon and stars (Kinderm. no. 25. 88 ; conf. 3, 218-9)^ some of whom are found helpful and sympathizing^ others cruel and cannibal (Vuk no. 10). In Servian songs the moon and the momingstar (danitsa) hold a colloquy on the affairs of men (Vuk 3, 3). During an eclipse of the sun (I don^t know whether of the moon also) our people cover the wells upj else their water would turn impure^ Superst. I^ 589.

Is there a trace of moon- worship to be found in the fact that people had an image of the moon carved on rocks and stones that marked a boundary? In RA. 542 an Alamannic doc. of 1155 is given, which traces the custom all the way up to king Dagobert. In Westphalian docs, as late as the 17th cent. I find halfmondsschnad-stones/ unless the word halfmoon here means something else.

In Bavaria there is a Mondsee, OHG. Mdninseo (lunae lacus), in Austria a Mdnhart (lunae silva, rj Aovva vXt] in Ptolemy);- we may safely credit both with mythic associations.

As time is more easily reckoned by the changes of the moon, which visibly mark off the week (p. 126-7), than by the sun, our ancestors seem to have had, beside the solar year, a lunar one for common use, whose thirteen months answered to the twelve of the solar year. The recurring period of from 29 to 30 days was therefore called men6J?s, mdnod, from mena, mano. Hence also it was natural to count by nights, not days : ' nee dierum numerum sed noctium computant, sic constituunt, sic condicunt, nox ducere diem videtur,' Tac. Germ. c. 11. And much in the same way, the year was named by its winter, which holds the same relation to summer as night to day. A section of time was measured by the number of se'ennights, fortnights, months or winters it contained.

And that is also the reason why the phases of the moon had such a commanding influence on important undertakings. They are what Jornandes cap. 11 calls lunae commoda incommodaque. It is true, the performance of any kind of work was governed by

1 Defence of Wulften castle, Vienna 176G. suppl. p. 71-2. 162.

2 Can Manliart liave come from Maginhart ? Helbl. 13, 190 has Meinhartshere.

PHASES OF THE MOON. 709

the day and solar time, wlietlier of warriors (RA. 297), or of servants (353), or of tribunals especially (814-6). If, on tlie other hand, some new and weighty matter was to be taken in hand, they consulted the moon; which does not mean that the consultation was held or the action begun in the night, but on those days whose nights had an auspicious phase of the moon : ' coeunt, nisi quid fortuitum et subitum inciderit, certis dlehus, quum ant inchoatur lima ant impletur ; nam agendis rebus hoc auspicatissimum initium credunt,' Tac. Germ. 11. So in Tac. Ann. 1, 50 a nox illunis is chosen for a festival.

Now the moon presents two distinct appearances, one each fortnight, which are indicated in the passage just quoted : either she is beginning her course, or she has attained her full orb of light. From the one point she steadily increases, from the other she declines. The shapes she assumes between are not so sharply defined to the sense.

Her invisibility lasts only the one night between the disappearance of her last quarter and the appearance of her first, at newmoon (conjunction of sun and moon) ; in like manner, full-moon lasts from the moment she attains perfect sphericity till she loses it ao"ain. But in common parlance that ' nox illunis ' is included in the new-moon, and similarly the decline is made to begin simultaneously with the full.

The Grothic for TravaeXTjvov vrsisfuUiJjs m., or fidlip n. (gen. pi. fulli]7e), from which we may also infer a niujij)s for vov/xrjvla. Curiously, this last is rendered fulli]? in Col. 2, 16, which to my mind is a mere oversight, and not to be explained by the supposition that the Goths looked upon full-moon as the grander festival. The AS. too must have called full-moon fijUed', to judge by the name of the month ' winterfyllrS,' which, says Beda (de temp, rat. 13), was so named 'ab hieme et plenilunio'; but the later writers have only niwe mona and full mona. So there may have been an OHG. niuwid and fullid, though we can only lay our finger on the neuters niumctni and folmani,^ to which Graff 2, 222 adds a niwilune; MHG. daz niumoene and volmoene, the last in Trist. 9461. 11086. 11513 (see Suppl.).

» Also niu-wer mano, N. ps. 80, 4. foUer muno, ps. 88, 38. In Cap. 107-8 he uses vol and wan (empty), and in Cap. 147 hornaht, halbsca/tig and J'ol; couf. Hel. Ill, 8 wa7iod olitho wahsid.

710 SKY AND STAES.

In ON. the two periods are named by the neuters ' ny ok nicf/ habitually alliterating ; ny answers to novilunium, it signifies the new light, and ■aid' the declining, dwindling, from the lost root ni'Sa naS, from which also come the adv. niSr (deorsum) and the noun naS (quies, OHG. ginada) . So that n^ lasts from the beginning of the first quarter to the full, and ni'S from the decrease of the full to the extinction of light in the last quarter. The two touch one another at the border-line between the faintest streaks of waxing and of waning brightness. But nrS meant especially the absence of moonlight (interlunium), and niSamyrkr total darkness (luna silens). Kind gods created these for men of old to tell the year by : ' vy ok nid' skopo nyt regin oldum at ar-tali/^ S«m. 34^. ' Miini styrirgongu tungls, oc r^'Sr nyjiim oc niffum,' Sn. 12, Mani steers the going of the moon, and rules new moons and full. Probably even here personification comes into play, for in Voluspa 11 (Soem. 2^) Nyji and Nid'i are dwarfs, i.e. spirits of the sky, who are connected, we do not exactly know how, with those lunar phases ny ok niS." Of changeful things it is said ' J>at gengr eptir nyum ok niSum,' res alternatur et subit lunae vices. 0. Swed. laws have the formula ' ny oc nicfar,' for ^ at all times, under any phase,' Gutalagh p. 108. So ' i ny ok ni&a' Sudh. bygn. 32. Upl. vidh. 28, 1. Vestg. thiuv. 22, 1; but here the second word seems to have given up its neut. form, and passed into a personal and masc. Mod. Swed. has ' ny och nedan' ; Dan. ' ny og nee/ *det gaaer eher nye og ncee/ ' hverken i n^/e eller o^ce,' i.e. never, '^naar nyet tandes,' quando nova luna incenditur ; this nfe was in 0. Dan. ned, need. To the ni'Samyrkr above answers a Swed. nedmork, pitchdark. The Norse terminology differs in so far from the H. Germ., that it expresses the total obscuration by ni'S, while we designate it by neumond {i.e. ny) ; with us new-moon is opposed to full-moon, with the Scandinavians nv5 to ny-, each of them standing for one half of the moon's course. Since a mention of the first and last quarters has come into use, full-moon and new-moon signify simply the points of fullness and vacancy that lie between ; and now the Swedes and Danes have equally adopted a fullmane, fuldmaane, as counter-

1 Ace. to Alvismal, the ^Ifar call the moon drtali (OHG. jdrzalo ?), Ssem. 49^

2 Comp. with ' ni^ ok nf ' the Gr. eyrj Kal via.

PHASES OF THE MOON. 711

part to nymane, nymaane, whereby the old ' ned, nse ' has become superfluous, and the meaning of 'ny' somewhat modified.^

Though the OHG. remains do not offer us a neuter niuwi,^ such a form may have existed, to match the Norse ny, seeing that the Miilhausen statute of the 13th cent. (Grasshof p. 252),in granting the stranger that wouki settle in the town a month's time for the attempt, says ' ein nuwe und ein wedil, daz sint vier wochin : ' that Martin von Amberg's Beichtspiegel has ' das vol und das neii,' Dasypodius still later ' das newe, interlunium/ and Tobler 33P ' das neu, der wachsende mpnd.' For the waning moon, Tobler 404'' gives ' nid si gehender (going down),' which reminds one of «i(5'; otherwise 'der schwined mo/ OHGr. 'diu sutnenta mauin,' N. ps. 88, 38, its opposite being ' diu folia ' (see SuppL).

I have yet to bring forward another expression of wide range and presumably old, which is used by turns for one and another phase of the moon's light, oftenest for plenilunium, but sometimes also for interlunium : MHG. ivedel : ' im was unkunt des manen wedel,' Martina 18P; NHG. ivadel, ivddel,h\it more among the common folk and in the chase than in written speech. Pictorius 480, Staid. 2, 456, Tobler 441^^ have wedel, ivddel full-moon, wddeln to become full-moon, when her horns meet, i.e., when she completes her circle. Keisersperg's Postille 138** : ' ietz so ist er niiw, ietz fol, ietz alt, ietz die erst qvart, ietz die auder qvart, ietz ist es ivedel ' ; here full-moon and wedel are not so clearly defined as in another passage of Keisersperg (Oberliu 1957) on March : ' wan es ist sein loedel, sein volmon.' In Dasypodius : * plenilunium, der volmon, loddel.' ""^ The Germans in Bohemia commonly use ivddel for full-moon, and Schm. 4, 22 produces other notable authorities. But the word is known in Lower Germany too ; Bohmer's Kantzow p. 266 spells it ivadel,^

• Modern Icel. names are : bluny (black new, interlunium) ; pi'im (nova hina), also nyqveikt tungl ; halfvaxid tungl (first (juarter) ; fullt tuwjl (plei;ilunium) ; Mlfprotid tungl (last quarter). Here too the old names have gone out of use, ' biilnv^ ' replaces ni^, and ' prim ' n^.

• Notker's Capella 100 bas ' manen niwi ' fem.

3 Yet under luna be has ' plenihiiiinm voUmon oder 7;7V(c7?,'and the same under 7»'i(c7t ( =abbruch) a breaking off, falling off, defectus ; which confirms my view, that we reckon the wane from full-moon itself (Wtb. 2, 408). Ace. to ^lucbar's Noricum 2, 36 the waxing and waning moon are called the gesunde and the kranhe man (well and ill).

•* Following Tacitus, he says, the Germani alwayschoseeither new or full-moon, for after thf wadcl they thought it unlucky. \Yadel then comprehends the two phases of new and full moon, but seems to exclude those of the first and last quarter.

VOL. II. T

712 SKY AND STAES.

the Brem. wtb. 5, 166 ' ivaal, vollmond ' (like aal for adel, a swamp), and Kilian ' ivaedel, senium lunae/ From the phraseology of Superst. I, 973 one would take wddel to be a general name for the moon, whether waxing or waning, for ' the bad wadel ' [new-moon] surely implies a good wadel favourable to the operation. Now luadel, luedel means that which wags to and fro, and is used of an animal's tail, flabrum, flabellatn, cauda; it must either, like zunga and tiingl, refer to the tip or streak of light in the crescent moon, or imply that the moon cruises about in the sky.^ The latter explanation fits a passage in the AS. poem on Finnesburg fight, line 14 : ' nu seine's ]>es mona iva&ol under wolcnum/ i.e., the moon walking [wading] among the clouds, wa'Sol being taken for the adj. vagus, vagabundus. Probably even the OHG. ivadal was applied to the moon, as an adj. vagus (Graff 1, 776), or as a subst. flabellum (1, 662). But, as this subst. not only signifies flabellum [whisk], but fasciculus [wisp], the name may ultimately be connected with the bundle of brushwood that a myth (to be presently noticed) puts in the spots of the full-moon (see Suppl.).

Lith. jdunas menu novilunium, pilnatis plenilunium, pusjyilis first quarter, jmsdyUs last qu., delczia luna decrescens, lit. trunca, worn away, tarpijos interlunium (from tai'p, inter) ; puspilis means half-full, pusdylis half-worn, from the same root as delczia truncation, decrease. There is also a ' menu tusczias/ vacant moon ; and the sickle- shaped half-moon is called dalgakynos. Lettic : jauns mehnes novilun., pilna melines plenilun., melmes

punte luna accrescens, wezza melines ^ luna senescens. Finnic :

uusihuu novil., tmjsikuu plenil., yliJcuu luna accr., alaJcuu deer., formed with uusi novus, taysi plenus, yli superus, ala inferus,

which supports our explanation of the ON. ni^. The Servians

divide thus : miyenci novil., ouladina luna accr., lit. young, pu7ia plenil., tishtap luna deer. Sloven mlay, mlad novil., pjolna plenil., ship plenil., but no doubt also luna deer., from shipati to nip, impair. Pol. now and Boh. nowy novil., Pol. pelnia and Boh.

1 The Engl, waddle, which is the same ■word, would graphically express the oscillation of the (visible) moon from side to side of her path ; and if loedel meant that oscillation, it would apply equally to new and to full moon. — Trans.

2 Wezza mehnes, the old moon, la a Scotch ballad : ' I saw the new moon late yestreen wi' he ai(M ?HOo?i iu her aim.' Jamiesou 1, 159. Percy 1, 78. Halliwell pp. 167-8.

PHASES OF THE MOON. 713

auplneh plenil. Here we see another instance of the ruder races having more various and picturesque names for natural phenomena, which among the more cultivated are replaced by abstract and uniform ones. No doubt Teutonic speech in its various branches once possessed other names beside nid' and ivadel.

Tacitus merely tells us that the Germani held their assemblies at new moon or full moon, not that the two periods were thought equally favourable to all enterprises without distinction. We may guess that some matters were more suitable to new moon, others to full ; the one would inspire by its freshness, the other by its fulness.^

Caesar 1, 50 reports to us the declai^ation of wise women in the camp of Ariovistus : 'non esse fas Glermanos superare, si ante novam lunam proelio contendissent.'' A happy issue to the battle was expected, at all events in this particular instance, only if it were fought at new moon.

As far as I can make out from later remnants of German superstition, with which that of Scotland should be compared (Chambers 35''. S6^), neiv-moon, addressed by way of distinction as ' gracious lord ' p. 704, is an auspicious time for commencements properly speaking. Marriages are to be concluded in it, houses to be built : ' novam lunam observasti pro domo facienda aut conjugiis sociandis ' (Sup. C, 193''), the latter just the same in Esth. Sup. no. 1. Into a new house you must move at new moon (Sup. I, 429), not at the wane (498) ; count money by the new moon (223), she will increase your store (conf. p. 704) ; on the other hand, she loves not to look into an empty purse (107). All through, the notion is that money, married bliss and house stores will thrive and grow with the growing light. So the hair and nails are cut at new-moon (French Sup. 5. Schiitze's Hoist. id. 3, 68), to give them a good chance of growing; cattle are weaned in the waxing light (I, 757), in the waning they would get lean; Lith. Sup. 11 says, let girls be weaned at the wane,

' New-moon was peculiarly holy to ancient people^;, thus to the Greelcs the evrj Kal via, which was also expressed by ivrj alone = Sauskr. anui (new moon). The return of Odysseus was expected at that season, Od. 14, 162 :

Tov /j-iv (pdivovTos fJ.riv6i, tov 5' iaraixivoLO.

Rama's birth is fixed for the new-moon after vernal eiiuinox (Schlegol on Eamfiy. i. 19, 2). Probably bealteiue were lighted at this new-moon of spring.

714 SKY AND STARS.

boys at the full^ probably to give tbe one a slim elegant figure, and the other a stout and strong. Healing herbs and pure dew are to be gathered at new- moon (tou an cles mdnen niwi gelesen, N. Cap. 100, conf. 25), for then they are fresh and unalloyed. When it says in I, 764 that weddings should take place at fullmoon, and in 238 that a new dwelling should be entered with the waxing or full moon, this full-moon seems to ' denote simply tho utmost of the growing light, without the accessory notion oi incipient decline. If our ancestors as a rule fought their battles at new-moon, they must have had in their eye the springing up of victory to themselves, not the defeat and downfall of the enemy. ^

Kt full-moon (as opposed to new), i.e. by a waning light, you were to perform operations involving severance or dissolution, cutting down or levelling. Thus, if I understand it rightly, a marriage would have to be annulled, a house pulled down, a pestilence stamped out, when the moon is on the wane. Under this head comes in the rule to cut wood in the forest when it is wadel, apparently that the timber felled may dry. In a Calendar printed by Hupfuff, Strasb. 1511 : 'with the moon^s wedel ^tis good to begin the hewing of wood.'' The same precept is still given in many modern forest-books, and full-moon is therefore called Iwlz-waclel : ' in the bad wiidel (crescent moon) fell no timber,' Sup. I, 973. In Keisersperg's Menschl. baum, Strasb. 1521, 19 : ' Alway in wedel are trees to be hewn, and game to be shot.' ^ Grass is not to be mown at new, but at full moon (Lith. Sup. 7); that the hay may dry quickly? and treasures must be lifted at full-moon. If a bed be stuffed when the moon is gi^owing, the feathers will not lie (I, 372. 914) ; this operation too requires a waning light, as if to kill the new-plucked feathers completely, and bring them to rest. If you open trenches by a waxing moon, they will soon grow together again; if by a waning, they keep on getting deeper and wider. To open a vein with the moon declining, makes the blood press downwards and

1 The Esthonians say to the new-moon : ' Hail, moon ! may you grow old, and I keep young ! ' Thom. Hiarne p. 40.

• In Demerara grows a tree like the mahogany, called walala ; if cut down at new-moon, the wood is tough and hard to si^lit, if at full, it is soft and splits easily. Bamboo planks cut at new-moon last ten years, those cut at full-moon rot within the year.

PHASES OF THE MOON. 715

load the legs (Tobler 404^') ; set about it therefore by the mounting moonlight. Vuk sub v. miyena says, the Servian women will wash never a shirt at new-moon, they declare all the linen would get mooned (omiyeniti) in the water, i.e. bulge and pucker, and soon tear; one might find another reason too for washing by the waning moon, that stains and dirt should disappear with the dwindling light (see Suppl.).

Behind superstitious practices I have tried to discover a meaning, which may possibly come near their original signification. Such symbolical coupling of means and end was at all events not foreign to antiquity anywhere : the holy water floats all misfortune away with it (p. 589), the spray from the mill wheel scatters all sickness (p. 593). So the sufferer stands with his face to the waning moon, and prays : ' as thou decreasest, let my pains diminish ' (I, 245) ; he can also go on the other tack, and cry to the new moon : ' may what I see increase, and what I suffer cease' (492). Turning the face toward the luminary I take to be a relic of heathen moon-worship.^

Superstitions of this kind have long been banished to the narrower limits of agriculture and cattle-breeding; we should arrive at a clearer knowledge of them, had their bearing on public life been described for us in early times. Observation of the lunar changes must in many ways have influenced sacrifices, the casting of lots and the conduct of war. Some things now appear bewildering, because we cannot review all the circumstances, and some no doubt were different in different nations. German superstition (I, 856) thinks it a calamity for the master of the house to die during the moon's decline, for then the whole family will fall away ; the Esthonian view (41) is, that a death at new-moon is unlucky, perhaps because more will follow ? Fruits that grow above ground are to be sown at the waxing, those under ground at the waning (Jul. Schmidt p. 122) ; not so Westendorp p. 129: ' dat hoven den grand wast, by o/hemende maan, dat onder den grand wast, by ^oenemende maan te zaaien.' Gutslaf (Wohhanda p. 49, conf. errata) remarks, that winter-crops are not to be sown while the moon stands at the idle quarter (third,

' "^Tincvor at play turns his back to the moon, has bad luck (I, 801). But the seaman in bis hammock takes care not to face the full-moon, lest he be struck with blindness.

716 SKY AND STAES.

kus se kuh maal). lu the sermon of Eligius (Sup. A), the sentence ' nee luna nova quisquam timeat aliquid operis arripere ' is unintelligible so long as we do not know what sort of operation is meant.

The spots or shady depressions on the full-moon's disc have given rise to grotesque but similar myths in several nations. To the common people in India they look like a hare, i.e. Chandras the god of the moon carries a hare (sasa)^ hence the moon is called sasin or sasanka, hare mark or spot.^ The Mongolian doctrine also sees in these shadows the fig-ure of a hare." Bocrdo Jagjamuni or Shigemuni [the Buddha Sakya-rauni], supreme ruler of the sky, once changed himself into a hare, simply to serve as food to a starving traveller ; in honour of which meritorious deed Khormusta, whom the Mongols revere as chief of the tenggri [genii], placed the figure of a hare in the moon. The people of Ceylon relate as follows : While Buddha the great god sojourned upon earth as a hermit, he one day lost his way in a wood. He had wandered long, when a hare accosted him : ' Cannot I help thee ? strike into the path on thy right, I will guide thee out of the wilderness.'' Buddha replied : ' Thank thee, but I am poor and hungry, and unable to repay thy kindness.^ ' If thou art hungry,^ said the hare, ' light a fire, and kill, roast and eat me.^ Buddha made a fire, and the hare immediately jumped in. Then did Buddha manifest his divine power, he snatched the beast out of the flames, and set him in the moon, where he may be seen to this day.^ To the Greenlander's fancy these spots are the marks of Malina's fingers, with which she touched the fine reindeer pelisse of Anninga (Major's Myth, taschenb. 1811. p. 15).

An ON. fable tells us, that Mani (the moon) took two children, Bil and Hiuki, away from the earth, just as they were drawing water from the well Byi-gir, and carrying the pail Ssegr on the pole Simul between their shoulders. These children walk behind

1 Schlegel's Ind. bibl. 1, 217. Ace. to Bopp's Gloss. 346*, a Sanskrit name for the moon means lepore praeditus, leporem gerens.

2 Bergmanu's Streifer. 3, 40. 204. Majer's Myth. wtb. 1, 540.

3 Donee's Illustr. of Shaksp. 1, IG from the lips of a French traveller, whose telescope the Cingalese had often borrowed, to have a good look at the hare in the moon.

MAN IN THE MOON. 717

Mani, as one may see from the earth (sva sem sia ma af iorSii), Sn. 12. That not the moon's phases but her spots are here meant^ is phiin enough from the figure itself. No change of the moon could suggest the image of two children with a pail slung on their sJioulders. Moreover, to this day the Swedish people see in the spots of the moon two persons carrying a big huchet on a pole.^ Bil was probably a girl, and Hiuki a boy, the former apparently the same as the asynja named together with Sol in Sn. 39 ; there it is spelt Bil, but without sufficient reason ; the neuter 'bil' signifies momentum, interstitium, a meaning that would suit any appearance of the moon (conf. p. 374 on OHG. pil). What is most important for us, out of this heathen fancy of a kidnapping man of the moon, which, apart from Scandinavia, was doubtless in vogue all over Teutondom, if not farther, there has evolved itself since a christian adaptation. They say the man in the moon is a wood-stealer, who during church time on the holy sabbath committed a trespass in the wood, and was then transported to the moon as a punishment; there he may be seen with the axe on his hack and the bundle of hrushtvood (dornwelle) in his hand. Plainly enough the water-pole of the heathen story has been transformed into the axe's shaft, and the carried pail into the thornbush; the general idea of theft was retained, but special sti*ess laid on the keeping of the christian holiday ; the man suJBfers punishment not so much for cutting firewood, as because he did it on a Sunday.^ The interpolation is founded on Numb. 15, 32-G, where we are told of a man that gathered sticks on tho sabbath, and was stoned to death by the congregation of Israel, but no mention is made of the moon and her spots. As to when this story first appeared in Germany I have no means of telling, it is almost universally prevalent now ; ^ in case the full-moon's name of wadel. wedel in the sense of a bunch of twigs ^

1 Dalin 1, 1,58 : men iinuu fins den meningen bland vfir almoge. Ling's Eddornas sinnebildsliii-a 1, 78 : iinnu stiger alluiiinheten i Sodraswerge, att m3,uens flackar aro tvenne varelser, som biira en bryggsS. (bridge-bucket, slnug pail).

• A Westphalian story says, tbe man dressed the church with thorns on Sunday, and was therefore put, bundle and all, into the moon.

3 Hebel has made a pretty song about it, pp. 8G-9 : ' me het em gsait der Dieterle,' on which Schm. 2, 583 asks : is this Dietrich of Bern, translated in classic fashion to the sky? We must first make sure that the poet found the name already in the tradition.

■• In the Henneberg distr. icadel means brushwood, twigs tied up in a bundle, esp. fir-twigs, wadthi to tie up brushwood (lleinwald 2, 137) ; this may however come from the practice of cutting wood at full-moon.

718 SKY AND STAES.

lias itself arisen out of the story (p. 712), it must be of pretty high antiquity. In Tobler^s Appenzell sprachsch. 20^' we are told : An arma ma (a poor man) het alawil am sonnti holz ufg'lesa (picked up wood). Do hed em der liebe Gott d'wahl g'loh (let him choose), ob er lieber wott i' der sonn verbrenna, oder im mo' verfriira (burn in sun, or freeze in moon. Yar. : in'n kalta mo' ihi, oder i' d' holl abi). Do will' er lieber in'n mo' ihi. Dromm sied ma' no' ietz an' ma' im mo' inna, wenn's wedel ist. Er hed a'^Msc/i^Zi uff 'em rogga (bush on his back). Kuhn's Mark, sagen nos. 27. 104. 130 give us three different accounts : in one a broom-maker has bound twigs (or a woman has spun) on a Sunday, in another a man has spread manure, in the third he has stolen cabbage-stumps ; and the figure with the bunch of twigs (or the spindle), with the dungfork, with the cabbage-stalk, is supposed to form the spots in the moon. The earliest authority I know of is Fischart's Garg. ] SO'' : ' sah im mon ein mdnnlin, das holz cjestolden hett;' Praetorius says more definitely, Weltbeschr. 1, 447 : the superstitious folk declared the dark spots on the moon to be the man that gathered sticks on the sabbath and was stoned therefor. The Dutch account makes the man steal vegetables, so he appears in the moon with the ' bundel moes ' on his shoulders (Westendorp p. 129). The English tradition seems pretty old. Chaucer in his Testament of Creseide 260-4 describes the moon as lady Cynthia :

Her gite (gown) was gray and ful of spottis blake,

and on her brest a chorl paintid ful even

iering a hush of tlwrnis on his hake,

which for his theft might clime no ner the heven.

In Eitson's Anc. songs (Lond. 1790), p. 35 is a 'song upon the man in the moon,' beginning thus :

Mon in the mone stond and strit (standeth and strideth),

071 his hot forhe is burthen he hereth ;

hit is muche wonder that he na doun slyt (slideth),

for dontelesse he valle, he shoddreth and shereth,

when the forst freseth much chele he byd (chill he bideth) ;

the themes beth kene, is hattren to-tereth.

Shivering with cold, he lugs on his fork a load of thorns, which tear his coat, he had cut them down and been impounded by the forester; the difficult and often unintelligible song represents

MAN IN THE MOON. 719

him as a lazy old man, who walks a bit and stands a bit, and is drunk as well ; not a word about desecration of the sabbath. Shakspeare alludes more than once to the man in the moon; Tempest ii. 2 : ' I was the man i^ th' moon, when time was^ . . . ' I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee : my mistress shewed me thee and thy dog and thy hush.' Mids. N. Dr. iii. 1 : ' One must come in with a hush of thorns and a lanthorn, and say he comes to present the person of Moonshine.' In Gryphius too the player who acts the moon ties a bush round his body (conf. Ir. elfenm. no. 20).

Two more, and those conflicting, interpretations of the moon's spots are likewise drawn from the Bible. Either it is Isaac hearing a hurthen of wood for the sacrifice of himself on Mount Moriah (Praetor. Weltbeschr. 1, 447) ; or it is Cain carrying a bundle of thorns on his shoulders, and offering to the Lord the cheapest gift from his field. ^ This we find as far back as Dante, Parad. 2, 50.

che sono i segjii hid di questo corpo, che laggiuso in terra fan di Cam favoleggiare altrui ?

And Inferno 20, 126 : Gaino e le spine. On this passage Landino remarks : ' cioe la luna, nella quale i volgare vedendo una certa ombra, credono che sia Caino, c' habbia in spalla una forcata di pruni.' And another commentator : ' accommodandosi alia favola del volgo, che sieno quelle macchie Caino, che inahi una forcata di spine.'

Nearly all these explanations agree in one thing : they suppose the spots to be a human figure carrying something on its shoulder, whether a hare, a pole and bucket, an axe and thorns, or the load of thorns alone. ^ A wood-stealer or fratricide accounts for the spots of the moon, as a chaff-stealer (p. 357) does for the streaks in the milky way.

There must have been yet more traditions. A Netherl. poet of the 14th century speaks of the dark stripes that stand

^ The story of the first fratricide seems to have made a peculiarly deep impression on the new converts from heathenism ; they fancy hiin a wicked giant, conf. Beow. 213 scq., and supra p. 525.

2 "Water, an essential part of the Norse myth, is wanting in the story of the man with the thornbush, but it ro-appears in the Carniolan story (for kramcrisch read krainerisch) cited in Brentano's Libussa p. 421 : the man in the moon is called Kotar, he makes her grow by pouring water.

720 SKY AND STARS.

recht int midden van der mane, dat men in duitsche heet ludergheer ;

in another passage it is lendegher^ (for leudeglier?); and Willems in Messager de Gand, 1, 195, following a MS. of 1351, reads, ' dat men in dietsch lieet loclegeer ; ' but none of these forms is intelligible to me. Perhaps the proper name Ludger, Leodegarius, OHGr. Liutker, has to do with it, and some forgotten legend of the Mid. Ages. A touching religious interpretation is handed down by Berthold 145, surely not invented by himself, that the moon is Mary Magdalene, and the spots her tears of repentance (see Suppl.).

The Sun has had a slighter influence than the moon on superstitious notions and observances. Magical herbs must be gathered, if not by moonlight, at least before sunrise (p. 621), and healing waters be drawn before sunrise (p. 586). The mounting sun dispels all magic, and bids the spirits back to their subterranean abode.

Twice in the year the sun changes his course, in summer to sink, in winter to rise. These turning-points of the sun were celebrated with great pomp in ancient times, and our St. John^s or Midsummer fires are a relic of the summer festival (p. 617 seq.). The higher North, the stronger must have been the impression produced by either solstice, for at the time of the summer one there reigns almost perpetual day, and at the winter one perpetual night. Even Procopius (ed. Bonn. 2, 206) describes how the men of Thule, after their 35 days' night, climb the mountain-tops to catch sight of the nearing sun. Then they celebrate their holiest feast (see Suppl.).

Tacitus tells us (cap. 45), that the sun after setting shoots up such a radiance over the Suiones, that it pales the stars till morning. ' Sonum insuper audiri, formas deorum et radios capitis aspici, pei'suasio adjicit.-* I would have turned this passage to account in Chap. VI., as proving the existence of Germanic gods,

1 Van Wyn's Avondstonden 1, 306. Bilderdijk's Verklarende gestachtlijst der naamworden 2, 198 has ludegeer, ludegaar, and explains it, no doubt wrongly, as luikenaar (leodiensis). However, he tells the old story : ' 't mannetjen in de maau, dat gezegd werd een doornbosch op ziju rug te heben, en om dat by 't gestolen had, niet hooger ten hemel te mogen opklimmeu, maar daar ingebannen te ziju.' Exactly as in Chaucer.

SOLSTICE. SUNSET. 721

had it not seemed credible that such accounts may not have reached the Romans from Germany itself, but been spread among them by miscellaneous travellers' tales. Strabo 3, 1 (Tsch. 1, 368) quotes from Posidonius a very similar story of the noise made by the setting sun in the sea between Spain and Africa : fM€L^ai Svvecv rov 7]\iov iv rfj TTapcoKeavLTiSt jxera ■\lr6(f)ov irapairXrio't(ii<i, toaavel ai^ovTO^ rod TreXdyov'i Kara cr^ecrcv avrov hua rb ifMiriirreiv et? rov /3v66v. But the belief may even then have prevailed among Germans too ; the radiant heads, like a saint's glory, were discussed at p. 323, and I will speak of this marvellous music of the rising and setting sun in the next chapter. Meanwhile the explanation given of the red of morning and evening, in the old AS. dialogue between Saturn and Solomon (Thorpe's Anal. p. 100), is curious : ' Saga me, forhwan byS seo sunne redd on oifen ? ' ^ Ic ]?e secge, for]?on heo locaS on helle.' ' Saga me, hwi scineS heo swa redde on morgene ?' ' Ic \e secge, forj^on hyre twyna^ hwte'Ser heo m^g oSe [orig. |7e] ne mteg )?isne middaneard eondiscinan swa hyre beboden is.' The sun is red at even, for that she looketh on hell ; and at morn, for that she doubteth whether she may complete her course as she is bidden.

Not only about the sun and moon, but about the other stars, our heathen antiquity had plenty of lore and legend. It is a very remarkable statement of Jornandes cap. 11, that in Sulla's time the Goths under Dicenaeus, exclusive of planets and signs of the zodiac, were acquainted with 344 stars that ran from east to west. How many could we quote now by their Teutonic names ?

The vulgar opinion imagines the stars related to each individual man tx^ friend ov foe} The constellation that shone upon his birth takes him under its protection all his life through ; this is called being born under a good or lucky star. From this guidance, this secret sympathy of dominant constellations, fate can be foi-etold. Conversely, though hardly from native sources, it is said in the Renner 10984 that every star has an angol who directs it to the place whither it should go.

• Swem die sternen werdent gram, deui wirt der mdue lihte alaam. Frid. 108, 3.

722 SKY AND STAES.

There is a pious custom of saluting the celestial luminaries before going to bed at night (Sup. I, 112), and among the Mod. Greeks, of offering a prayer when the evening star is on the rise.

According to the Edda, all the stars were sparks of fire from Muspells-heim, that flew about the air at random, till the gods assigned them seats and orbits, Sn. 9. S^m. 1.

Ignited vapours, which under a starry sky fall swiftly through the air like fiery threads — Lat. trajectio stellae, stella transvolans, Ital. stella cadente, Fr. etoile filante, Span, estrella vaga, Swed. stjernfall, Dan. stiernskud (star-shoot), what the Greeks call Btdyeiv trajicere — are by our people ascribed to a trimming of the stars' light ; they are like the sparks we let fall in snufiing a candle. We find this notion already in Wolfram's Wh. 322, 18 :

Dehein sterne ist so lieht, No star so bright

em filrbe sich etswenne.^ but trims itself somewhen.

Hence our phrase of ' the stars snufiing themselves,' and our subst. sternputze, sternschnuppe. These falling stars are ominous,^ and whoever sees them should say a prayer (Sup. I, 595) : to the generous girl who has given away her all, they bring down with them [or turn into] gold-pieces (Kinderm. 153) ; nay, whatever wish you form while the snuff is falling, is fulfilled (Tobler 408^) . The Lithuanians beautifully weave shooting stars into the fatemythus : the verpeya (spinneress) begins to spin the thread of the new-born on the sky, and each thread ends in a star ; when a man is dying, his thread snaps, and the star turns pale and drops (Narbutt, 1, 71).

A comet is called tail-star, hair-star in Aventin 74^. 119^, peacock-tail (Sclim. 1, 327) ; and its tail in Detmar 1, 242 schinschove, from schof a bundle of straw. Its appearing betokens events fraught with peril, especially the death of a king (Greg. tur. 4, 9) : ' man siht an der zit einen sterren, sam einen pfawen zagel wit (wide as a peacock's tail), so miiezen siben sachen in der werlt ergan,' MsH. 3, 468^^ (see Suppl.).

Our old heathen fancies about the fixed stars have for the most part faded away, their very names are almost all supplanted by

^ MS. n. reads ' subere sich.' Even OHG. has furban (mundare, expiare). " So with the Greeks (Reinh. fuchs p. Ixxii.). In a poem of Beranger: ' men enfant, un mortel expire, son etoile tombe a I'instant.'

SHOOTINa STAR. COMET. PLANET. 723

learned astronomic appellations ; only a few have managed to save themselves in ON. legend or among the common people.

"Whether the planets were named after the great gods, we cannot tell : there is no trace of it to be found even in the North. Planet-names for days of the week seem to have been imported, though very early, from abroad (p. 126 seq.) Other reasons apart, it is hardly conceivable that the heathen, who honoured certain fixed stars with names of their own, should not have distinguished and named the travelling stars, whose appearances and changes are so much more striking. The evening and morning Venus is called evening star, mornhigstar, OHG. cipantsterno, tagasterno, like the Lat. vesper and lucifer.^ The tunkelsterne in Ms. 1, 38^ seems to be vesperugo, the eveningstar beginning to blaze in the twilight, conf. Gramm. 2, 526. An OHG. uhtosterno morningstar, N. Bth. 223, is from uhta, Goth, uhtvo crepusculum. Gl. Trev. 22^ have stelbom hesperus; can this be stellbaum, the bird-catcher's pole? But in Eol. 240,27 'die urmaren stalhoume ' stands for stars in general, and as every star was provided with stool or stand (p. 700-1), we may connect stelboum, stalboum with this general meaning. There is perhaps more of a mythic meaning in the name nahffare for eveningstar (Heumauni opusc. 453. 460), as the same word is used of the witch or wise-woman out on her midnight jaunt. The Anglo-Saxons called the eveningstar swdna steorra (bubulcorum stella), because the swains drove their herd home when it appeared. Again, in 0. iv. 9, 24 Christ is compared to the sun, and the apostles to the eleven daystars, ' dagasterron ' here meaning not so much luciferi as the signs of the zodiac. There are no native names for the polar star (see Suppl.).

Twice the Edda relates the origin of particular stars, but no one knows now what constellations are meant. The legend of Orvandils-td and the AS. Earendel, OHG. Orentil, has been cited, p. 374 ; this bright luminary may have meant the morningstar. Then the ases, having slain the giant Thiassi, had to atone for it to his daughter Ska^i. Obinn took Thiassi's eyes and threw them against the sky, where they formed two stars, Sn. 82-3. These augu Thiassa are most likely two stars that stand near

1 In an old church-hymn Lucifer is provided with a chariot : currus jam poscit phosphorus (reita giu fergot tagastern), Hymn. 2, 3.

724 SET AND STARS.

each other, of equal size and binghtness, perhaps the Twins ? This is another instance of the connexion we found between stars and eyes ; and the toe translated to heaven is quite of a piece with the ' tongues ^ and the correspondence of the parts of the body to the macrocosm, p, 568 (see SuppL).

The milky-way and its relation to Irmin I have dealt with, pp. 356-8.

Amongst all the constellations in our sky, three stand prominent to the popular eye : Ursa major, Orion and the Pleiades. And all of them are still known by native names ; to which I shall add those in use among the Slavs, Lithuanians and Finns, who give them the same place of honour as we do.

The Great Bear was doubtless known to our ancestors, even before their conversion, as ivaggon, wain ; which name, unborrowed, they had in common with kindred [Aryan] nations, and therefore it is the common people^s name for it to this day : they say, at dead of night the heavenly wain turns round with a great noise, conf. p. 745. So the Swiss (Tobler 264^) : when the herra-ivaga stands low, bread is cheap, when high, it is dear. 0. v. 17, 29 uses the pi. ' wag and gistelli,' meaning at once the greater waggon and the less ; which last (Ursa minor) Berthold calls the wegeUn} So ' des wagenes gerihte,'' Wackern. lb. 772, 26. It comes of a lively way of looking at the group, which circling round the polar star always presents the appearance of four wheels and a long slanting pole, deichsel (temo), on the strength of which the AS. sometimes has Jyid alone : wcenes pisla (thill), Boeth. Rawlins. 192'\ References are given at p. 151, also the reasons for my conjecture that the waggon meant is that of Wuotan the highest god. True, an 0. Swed. chronicle connects the Swed. name harlwagen with Tliorr, who stepping into his chariot holds the seven stars in his hand (Thor statt naken som ett barn, sin stjernor i handen och Karlewagn), which I will not absolutely deny ; but it is Woden stories in particular that are transferred to the Frankish Charles (p. 153). When in Gl. Jun. 188 ' Arturus ' is rendered wagan (though Gl. Hrab.

' Ich han den glanzen liiviehoagen und daz gestirne beselien, Troj. 19062. There may for that matter be several himelwagens, as there were many gods with cars. Cervantes too, in a song of the gitanilla (p. m. 11), says : Si en el cielo hay estrellas, que lucientes carros forman.

CHAELES'S WAIN. 725

95P has ^arctus' tlie he&v z=ivagan in himile), that is explained by the proximity of the star to the Great Bear's tail, as the very name apKrovpo<; shews. ^ I have to add, that Netherland cities (Antwerp, Groningen) have the stains of the Great or the Lesser Bear on their seals (Messager de Gand 3, 339), and in England the Charles-wain is painted on the siguboai-ds of taverns.

The Greeks have both names in use, apKTo<; bear, and afxa^a waggon, the Romans both itrsa and ijlaustrum, as well as a septentrio or septentriones from trio, plough-ox. Fr. char, cliarriot, Ital. Span, carro. Pol. woz (plaustrum), woz niebieski (heavenly wain). Boh. wos, and at the same time ogha (thill, sometimes og, wog) for Bootes ; the Blyrian Slavs hola, pi. of kolo wheel, therefore wheels, i.e. wain, but in their hola rodina and rodoJcola ^ I cannot explain the adjuncts rodo, rodina. Lith. gryhdio rats, gryzdo rats, from ratas (rota), while the first woi'd, unexplained by Mielcke, must contain the notion of waggon or heaven ; ^ Lett. ratti (rotae). Esth. wanhri tdhhed, waggon-stars, from wanker (currus) ; Hung, gontzol szeJcere, from szeker (currus), the first word being explained in ' Hungaria in parabolis ' p. 48 by a mythic Gontzol, their first waggoner. Pi-ominent in the Finnish epos are pdiwd the sun, 'kuu the moon, and otawa, which Castren translates karla-vagnen, they are imagined as persons and divine, and often named together ; the Pleiades are named seidainen.

Never, either in our OHG. remains, or among Slavs, Lithuanians and Finns,* do we find the name borrowed from the animal (ursa), though these nations make so much of the bear both in legend and perhaps in worship (p. 668).

The carro menor is called by Spanish shepherds hocina, bugle ;^ by Icelanders fiosakonur a lopti, milkmaids of the sky, Biorn sub v. F. Maguusen's Dag. tid. 104-5 (see Suppl.).

^ [From oSpos keeper, not ovpa. tail] . ' kpKToc^v^a^ [bear-ward, or as we might say] Waggoner, is Bootes, of whom Greek fable has much to tell. Ai'ctunis stands in Bootes, and sometimes for Bootes. An OHG. gloss, Diut. 1. 167', seems curiously to render Bootes by stuffala, Graff 6, 662. Is this stuphila, stipula, stubble •?

• Bosnian Bible, Ofen 1831. 3, 154. 223. In Vuk roda is stork, whence the adj. rodin, but what of that ? This roda seems to be rota, rad, wheel over a<:ain.

^ Lith. Bible, Konigsb. 1816, has in Job 9, 9 grtjzo 7oezinimas ; gryzdas, grizulas is thill, and wezimmas waggon.

■* Can this be reconciled with the statement, p. 729, that Finn. otawa = bear? The Mongol, for bear is utege. — Tuans.

5 Don Quixote 1, 20 (ed. Ideler 1, 232 ; conf. 5, 261).

726 SKY AND STARS.

The small, almost invisible star just above tlie middle one in the waggon's thill has a story to itself. It is called waggoner, hind, in Lower ■ Germany dilmeke, thumbkin, . dwarf, Osnabr. dilmke, Meckl. duming, in Holstein ' Kcins Bilniken, Hans Diimhl sitt opm wagn.'' They say that once a waggoner, having given our Saviour a lift, was ofi'ered the kingdom of heaven for his reward ; but he said he would sooner be driving from east to west to all eternity (as the wild hunter wished for evermore to hunt) . His desire was granted, there stands his waggon in the sky, and the highest of the three thill-stars, the ' rider ' so-called, is that waggoner. Another version in Miillenhoff's Schles. Hoist, sagen no. 484. I daresay the heathen had a similar fiction about Wodan's charioteer. Joh. Praetorius De suspecta poli declinatione, Lips. 1675, p. 35: 'qui hanc stellam noa praeteriissent, etiamsi minor quam Alcor, das JcnecJitgen, der dilmeJie, das reuterlein, hneclitfinh fuisset; ' and again on the thief's thumb, p. 140 : ' fabula de polUcari auriga, dilmeke, fuhrman.' That the same fancy of the waggoner to this constellation prevails in the East, appears from Niebuhr's Arabia, and the Hungarian Gontzol seems closely related to him ; in Greek legend likewise Zeus places the waggon's driver [rjvio-x^o'i) or inventor Ericlitlionms among the stars, though not in the Great Bear, but between Perseus and the Twins in the galaxy. The Bohemian formdneJc, wozatag (auriga) or howoznij signify Arcturus, Bootes and Erichthonius (Jungm. 1, 550. 3, 401), and palecJcy u wozu thumblings on waggon. But in Slovenic, it seems, hervor (Murko 85. Jarnik 229^) and hurovzh mean the waggoner and the Polar Star.

The cluster of brilliant stars in which the Greeks recognised the figure of Orion ^ had various Teutonic names, the reasons of which are not always clear to us now. First, the three stars in a line that form Orion's belt are called in Scandinavia Friggjarrockr, Friggerok (pp. 270. 302-3), and also by transfer to Mary Mariarok, Marirok (Peter Syv in the Danske digtek. middelald. 1, 102), Mariteen ; here is plain connecting of a star-group with the system of heathen gods. The same three stars are to this day called by the common folk in Up. Gei'many the three mowers, because they stand in a row like mowers in a meadow : a homely

1 Our MHG. poets adopt Orion -without translating it, MS. 1, 37*. The Eomans, ace. tg Yarro and Festus, called it Jugula, it is not known why.

WAGGONER. ORION. 727

designation, like tliafc of waggon, wliicTi arose in the childlike fancy of a pastoral people. OHG. glosses name Orion pfiaoc (aratrum), and in districts on the Rhine he is called the rake (rastrum) : he is a tool of the husbandman or the mower. The Scotch pleucli, Engl, •plough, is said of Charles's wain. Some AS. (perhaps more OS.) glosses ti-anslate Orion by ehurd'ring, ehurffning, ehirdring, ehirthiring (Gl. Jun. 369. 371), ^ which in pure AS. would have been eoforSryng, eforSring ; it can mean nothing but boar-throng, since |?ryng, as well as ]?rang. Mid. Lat. di'ungus, is turba. How any one came to see a herd of wild boars in the group, or which stars of Orion it included, I do not know : the wild huntsman of the Greek legend may have nothing to do with it, as neither that legend nor the group as seen by Greek eyes includes any hunted animal ; the boars of the Teutonic constellation have seemingly quite a different connexion, and perhaps are founded on mere comparison. OHG. glosses give us no epurdrunc, but its relation to luwaring and Iring was pointed out, p. 359 note. In the latter part of the Mid. Ages our ' three mowers ' or the Scandinavian ' Mary's distaff' is called Jacohs-stah, Boh. Jahuhalml ; the heathenish spindle, like the heathenish Irmin-street (p. 357 note), is handed over to the holy apostle, who now staff in hand, paces the same old heavenly path ; in some parts Peter's staff is preferred. The Esthonians call Orion warda tdlihed, spear stars, from ' wardas ' spear, and perhaps staff, like St. James's staff. The Lithuanians szenpjuwis, hay-star? from 'szen ' foenum (Nesselmann 515), as August is called szenpjutis; because the constellation rises at hay-harvest ? perhaps also with reference to the ' three-mowers ' ? for in the same way several Slav nations have the name kosi scythes. Boh. Jcosy (Jungm. 2, 136), Pol. Icosij (Linde 1092''), Sloven, koszi (Murko 142) mowers. Other Slavic names of Orion are shtupka (Bosn. Bible, 3, 154), for which we ought to read shtapka, in Vuk shtaka crutch, crosier, from our stilbchen, Caruiol. pdlize staves, in Stulli hahini sdapi old wives' staves ; and h'uzUice/ wheelers, rovers? from 'kruziti' vagari (see Suppl,).

1 Tlio second passage has ' eburdnung,' an error, but an evidence of the MS.'s age, for in the 8-9th cent, the second stroke of r was made as long as that of n.

" Dobrowsky's Slavin p. 425 ; the Pol. l;ruzlic is crocklet, mug. Hanka's Altbohm. glossen have 6G, 857 kruzlyk circuloa, )d, 161 krusslyk lix, which I do not understand. Can it be crutch ?

VOL. II. U

728 SKY AND STARS.

Between the shoulders of the Bull is a space thickly sown with stars, but in which seven (really six) larger ones are recognisable ; hence it is called siehen-gestirn, OHG. thaz sihimstirri, 0. V. 17, 29. Diut. i. 520\ Gl. Jun. 188 (where it is confounded with the Hyades not far off, in the Ball's head). Beside this purely arithmetical denomination, there are others more living : Gr. JlXemSe?, Ion. IlXrj'iu.Se'i , seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, whom Zeus raised to the sky, II. 18, 486. Od. 5, 272, and who, like the Norse Thiassi and Orvandill, are of giant kin ; but some explain these Pleiads from TreXeta? wild dove, which is usually ireXeia} Lat. Vergiliae, of which Festus gives a lame explanation. A German poet writes virilie, Amgb. 42^.

The picture of the Pleiades that finds most favour among the people in Germany and almost all over Europe is that of a hen and seven chickens, which at once reminds us of the Greek seven doves? Mod. Gr. irovXia (Fauriel 2, 277). Our klucJce, klucherin, kluckhenne, hrut-henne mit den hunlein ; Dan. aften-hone, evening-hen (-/iou?ie, Dansk. digtek. middelald. 1, 102); Engl, hen with her chickens ; Fr. la poussiniere, in Lorraine poucherosse, covrosse (couveuse, brood-hen, qui conduit des poussins)^ ; Gris. cluotschas or cluschas the cluck-hens ; Ital. gaUineUe ; Boh. slepice s kurdtky hen with chickens; Hung. Jiastih, Jiastyuk from tik, tyuk gallina, and fiazom pario. The sign of the cluck-hen seems to me intergrown with our antiquity. Nursery tales bring in a peculiar feature, viz. that three nuts or eggs having been given as a present, out of them come a golden dress, a silver dress, and a cluckie with seven (or twelve) chickies, the thi'ee gifts representing siin, moon and seven-stars. Kinderm. no. 88 (2, 13). So in the Introd. to the Pentamerone, out of the miraculous nut comes a voccola CO dudece jpolecine. Now the Hungarian tale in Gaal p. 381 has ' golden hen and six chickens ' meaning the Pleiades ; and the maiden, seeking her lost lover, has to obtain access to him by the valuables contained in three nuts ; these were three dresses, on which severally were worked the sun, the moon, and the sevenstars (conf. Wigal. 812), being gifts of Sun, Moon, and Seven-

^ The Suppl. adds : ' the Pleiades, Uke doves, carry ambrosia to Zeus, but otic ohvays gets lost in passing the Planctae rocks, and Zeus fills up their number again, Atheri. 4, 325-6.' — Homer tells the story simply of doves, TreXatat, Od. 12, 61. — Tbans.

2 Conf. Pentam. 4, 8 'li sette palommielle,' seven children transformed.

8 Mem. des antiq. 4, 376. 6, 121-9.

PLEIADES. 729

stars, bestowed upon her in her wanderings. The third dress tradition at last converted into the cluckie herself. Treasarehunters dig for the costly cluckie with her chicks ; conf. the sunken hoard, Chap. XXXII. A Mien and twelve hiinkeln^ was also an earthly fine, Weisth. 1, 465. 499. I am not sare that we are entitled to connect the nut with ' Iduns huot ' ; but what is 'sun, moon and cluckie^ with us, is with the Finns far more plainly ' piiiwa, kuu, otawa,^ i.e. sun, moon, bear. The Span, name is Mas siete cahrillas' seven kids.^ Pol. bahy old wives, Russ. haha old wife [and nasedka sitting hen], Linde 1, 38*; Serv. vlasJdtsi (Vuk 78), vlashnitsi, (Bosn. Bible 3, 154, 223), Sloven. vlastovtse swallows? but Jarnik 229*' explains it ' rarastiibe,^ which I do not understand. The O. Boh. name too is obscure, sczyetnycze pleiades (Hanka's Glossen 58"^)= stetnice, bristly ones, from stetina seta? Sloven, gostoseotsi, gostozhirtsi the thick-sown? The last name agrees with the Lith. and Finn, view, viz. the constellation is a sieve having a great many holes, or sifting out a heap of flour : Lith. setas Lett. setinsU, Esth. sool or soggel, Finn. seula, seulainen. Why does Suchenwirt 4, 326 say, ' daz her daz tailt sich in daz lant gleich recht als ain sihenstlm ' ? because the army is so thickly spread over the land ? (see Suppl.).

The origin of the Pleiades is thus related : Christ was passing a baker's shop, when He smelt the new bread, and sent his disciples to ask for a loaf. The baker refused, but the baker's wife and her six daughters were standing apart, and secretly gave it. For this they were set in the sky as the Seven-stars, while the baker became the cuckoo (p. 676 baker's man), and so long as he sings in spring, from St. Tiburtius's day to St. John's, the Seven-stars are visible in heaven. Compare with this the Norwegian tale of Gertrude's bird (p. 673).

There may be a few more stars for which popular names still exist. ^ In Lith. the Kids are artojis su jdaczeis plougher with oxen, and Capella neszeja tvalgio food-bearer (f.). Hanka's 0. Boh. gl. 58*^ gives Itrusa for Aldebaran, przyczek for Arcturus. We might also expect to find names for the Hyades and Cas-

1 Don Quixote 2, 41 (Tdel. 4, 8.3 ; conf. 0, 242).

2 Cymric and Gaelic Bibles (.Job 9, 0), retain the Latin names from the Vulgate; from which it does not follow that these languages lack native names for st irs. Armstrong cites Gael, crannarain, baker's peel, for the Pleiades, and draghlod, liretail, for the Lesser Bear.

730 SKY AIJD STARS.

siopeia. But many stars are habitually confounded, as tlie Pleiades with the Hyades or Orion, and even with the Wain and A returns ; ^ what is vouched for by glosses alone, is not to be relied on. Thus I do not consider it proved as yet that the names 'plough and ehurdrung really belong to Orion. By 'plough' the Irish Fairy-tales 2, 123 mean the Wain rather than Oi'ion, and who knows but the ' throng of boars ' may really stand for the 'Tdhe<i (from v^Y and the Lat. Suculae ? (see Suppl.).

Still more unsafe and slippery is the attempt to identify the constellations of the East, founded as they are on such a different way of looking at the heavens. Three are named in Job 9, 9 : t:^ ash, nD^3 kimeh, ^^D3 ksil;^ which the Septuagint renders TiXemSe?, eairepo'i, dpKTovpo<i, the Vulgate 'Arcturus, Orion, Hyades,' and Luther Hhe Wain, Orion, the Glucke (hen).' In Job 38, 31 kimeh and ksil are given in the LXX as TrXetriSe?, ^flpLcov, in Vulg. as ' Pleiades, Arcturus,' in Diut. 1, 520 as ' Siebeustirni, Wagan,' and in Luther as ' Siebenstern, Orion.' For ksil in Isaiah 13, 10 the LXX has flpicov, Vulg. merely

• splendor,' Luther 'Orion.' In Amos 5, 8 kimeh and ksil are avoided in LXX, but rendered in Vulg. ' Arcturus, Orion,' and by Luther 'the Glucke, Orion.' Michaelis drew up his 86 questions on the meaning of these stars, and Niebuhr received the most conflicting answers from Arabian Jews ; "* on the whole it seemed likeliest, that (1) ash was the Arabian constellation om en ndsh, (2) kimeh or chima the Arab, toriije, (3) ksil the Arab, she'd (sihhel) ; the three corresponding to Ursa majoi'.

' Eeisersperg's Postil 206 : ' the sea-star or the Wain, or die henn mit den hiinlin as ye call it.' Grobianus 1572 fol. 93'' : ' wo der wageii steht, und wo die gluck mit kiinkeln geht.' Several writers incorrectly describe the ' diimke, diiming ' as ' siebengestirn ' ; even Tobler, when he says 370'' ' three stars of the siebeng. are called the hoises, near which stands a tiny star, the waggoner,' is evidently thinking of the Wain's thill [Germans often take the ' seven-stars' for Ursa instead of Pleiades] .

^ It has long been thought a settled point, that Suculae (little sows) was a blundering imitation of 'TaSes, as if that came from 6s a sow, whereas it means ' the rainers ' from iJeLv to rain (' ab iinbribus,' Cicero; 'phivio nomine,' Pliny). Does the author mean to reopen the question ? Did the later Greeks and Eomans, ashamed of having these ' little sows ' in the sky, invent the ' rainers ' theory ? May not Suculae at all events be a genuine old Pioman name, taken from some meritorious mythical pigs? — Trans.

• In Hebr. the three words stand in the order ' ash, k'sil, kimah ; and their transposition here does some injustice to the Vulg. and Luther. As a fact, two out of the four times that k'sil occurs, it is '^piwv in LXX, and the other two times it is Orion in Vulgate. Luther and the Engl, version are consistent throughout. — Trans.

• Beschr. von Arabieu p. 114 ; some more Arabian names of stars, pp. 112—6.

CONSTELLATIONS. 731

Pleiades and Sirius. If we look to the verbal meaniugSj ndsh, which some Arabs do change into ash, is feretrum, bier or barrow/ a thing not very different from a ' wain ' ; kimeh, Icima seems to signify a thick cluster of stars, much the same sense as in that name of ' sieve ' : Isil, means foolish^ ungodly^ a lawless giant, hence Orion.

Constellations can be divided into two kinds_, according to their origin. One kind requires several stars, to make up the shape of some object, a man, beast, etc. ; the stars then serve as ground or skeleton, round which is drawn the full figure as imagination sees it. Thus, three stars in a row form St. James's staff, distaff, a belt ; seven group themselves into the outline of a bear, others into that of a giant Orion. The other kind is, to my thinking, simpler, bolder, and older : a whole man is seen in a single star, without regard to his particular shape, which would disappear from sheer distance ; if the tiny speck drew nearer to us, it might develop itself again. So the same three stars as before are three men mowing ; the seven Pleiads are a hen and her chickens ; two stars, standing at the same distance on each side of a faintly visible cluster, were to the ancient Greeks two asses feeding at a crib. Here fancy is left comparatively free and unfettered, while those outline-figures call for some effort of abstraction ; yet let them also have the benefit of Buttmann's apt remark," that people did not begin with tracing the complete figure in the sky, it was quite enough to have made out a portion of it; the rest remained undefined, or was filled up afterwards according to fancy. On this plan perhaps the Bear was first found in the three stars of the tail, and then the other four supplied the body. Our "Wain shews a combination of both methods : the thill arose, like the Bear's tail, by outline, but the four wheels consist each of a single star. One point of agi-eement is important, that the Greek gods put men among the stars, the same as Thorr and OSinn do (pp. 375. 723 ; see Suppl.).

The appearance of the rahihow in the sky has given rise to a number of mythic notions. Of its rounded arch the Edda makes a heavenly hriclge over which the deities walk ; hence it is called

' Bocharti hierorz. , ed. Kosenmiiller 2, 680.

" Origin of the Grk constell. (in Abb. der Berl. acad. 1826, p. 19-63).

732 SKT AND STAES.

Ashril (Saem. 44*), more commonly Bif-rost (OHG. would be piparasta) the quivering tract, for rost, Goth, and OHG. rasta, means a definite distance, like mile or league. It is the best of all bridges (Ssem. 46'-), strongly built out of three colours; yet the day cometh when it shall break down, at the end of the world, when the sons of Muspell shall pass over it, Sn. 14. 72. The tail of this bridge ^ extends to Himinbiorg, HeimdalFs dwelling (Sn. 21), and Heimdallr is the appointed keeper of the bridge; he guards it against hrimthurses and mountain-giants,^ lest they make their way over the bridge into heaven, Sn. 18. 30, The whole conception is in keeping with the cars in which the gods journey through heaven, and the roads that stretch across it (conf. p. 361). It was Christianity that first introduced the 0. Test, notion of the celestial bow being a sign of the covenant which God made with men after the rain of the Deluge : OHG. reganpogo, AS. scurhoga, shower-bow, C^dra. 93, 5. Meanwhile some ancient superstitions linger still. The simple folk imagine, that on the spot where the rainbow springs out of the ground, there is a golden dish, or a treasure lies buried ; that gold coins or pennies drop ovd, of the rainbow. When gold-pieces are picked up, they are called regenbogen-schusselein (-dishes), patellae Iridis, which the sun squanders in the rainbow. In Bavaria they call the rainbow hvmmelring, sonnenring, and those coins hiniTnelringschiissehi (Schm. 2, 196. 3, 109 : conf. supra p. 359 note). The Romans thought the bow in rising drank water out of the ground : ^bibit arcus, pluet hodie,' Plant. Curcul. 1, 2 ; 'purpureus pluvias cur bibit arcus aquas ? ' Propert. iii. 5, 32. TibuU. i. 4, 41. Virg. Georg. 1, 380. Ov. Met. 1, 271. One must noi point with fingers at the rainbow, any more than at stars, Braunschw. anz. 1754, p. 1063. Building on the rainbow means a bootless enterprise (note on Freidank p. 319. 320, and Nib. Lament 1095. Spiegel, 161, 6) ; and setting on the rainbow (Bit. 2016) apparently

1 Briinr-spordr (we still sj^eak of a bridge's head, tete de pont), as if an animal iad laid itself across the river, with head and tail resting on either bank. But we must not omit to notice the word sjwrdr (prop, cauda piscis) ; as rost, rasta denote a certain stadium, so do the Goth, spattrds OHG. spitrt a recurring interval, iu the sense of our ' (so many) times ' : thus, in Fragm. theot. 15, 19, dhrim spurtim (tribus vicibus), where rastom would do as well. Do the ' runar a bruarspordi,' Sam. 196* mean the rainbow?

5 Giants are often made bridge-keepers (p. 556 n.): the maiden Mo^gu'Sr guards giallarbrfl, Sn. 67.

RAINBOW. 733

exposing to great danger? Is 'beliusen unebene uf regenbogen' (Tit. Halm 4061) to be unequally seated? In H. Saclis ii. 287 a man gets pushed off the rainbow. The Finns have a soug in which a maiden sits on the rainbow, weaving a golden garment. Might not our heathen ancestors think and say the like of their piparasta ? There is a remarkable point of agreement on the part of the Chinese : ' tunc et etiamnum viget superstitio, qua iridem orientalem digito 77ionstrare nefas esse credunt; qui hanc monstraverit, huic subito ulcus in manu faturum. Iridem habent Sinae pro signo libidinis effrenatae quae regnat/ ^

The Slavic name for the rainbow is 0. SI. diiga, Serv. and Russ. duga, duga nebeshia, Boh. diiha, prop, a stave (tabula, of a cask), hence bow ; the Servians say, any male ci'cature that passes under the rainbow turns into a female, and a female into a male (Vuk sub v.).^ Two Slovenic names we find in Murko : mdvra, mdvritsa, which, usually means a blackish-brindled cow; and bozhyi stolets, god's stool, just as the rainbow is a chair of the Welsh goddess Geridwen (Dav. Brit. myth. 204) ; conf. 'God's chair,' supra p. 136. Lett, warrawihksne, liter, the mighty beech ? Lith. Laumes yosta, Lauma's or Laima's girdle (sup. p. 416) ; also dangans yosta heaven's girdle, ]dlpi)inis dangaus heaven's bow, uroryJiszte weather-rod ; more significant is the legend from Polish Lithuania, noticed p. 580, which introduces the rainbow as messenger after the flood, and as counsellor. Finn, taiwancaari, arcus coelestis. In some parts of Lorraine courroie de S. Lienard, couronne de S. Bernard. In Superst. Esth. no. 65 it is the thunder-god's sickle, an uncommonly striking conception.

To the Greeks the lpi<; was, as in the O. Test., a token of the gods, II. 11, 27; but at the same time a half-goddess 'I/^t?, who is sent out as a messenger from heaven. The Indians assigned the painted bow of heaven to their god Indras. In our own popular belief the souls of the just are led by their guardianangels into heaven over the rainbow, Ziska's Oestr. volksm. 49. 110.

As for that doctrine of the Edda, that before the end of the

1 Chi-king ex lat. P. Lacharme, interpr. Jul. l^rolil, p. 242.

• Like the coutrury ellccts of tlio planet Veuus ou the two sexes ia Superst. 1, 167.

734 SKY AND STAES.

world Bifrost will break, I find it again in the German belief during the Mid. Ages that for a number of years before the Judgment-day the rainbow will no longer be seen : ' ouch hort ich sagen, daz man sin (the regenpogen) nieht ensehe drizich jar (30 years) vor deme suontage/ Diut. 3, 61. Hugo von Trimberg makes it 40 years (Renner 19837) :

So man den regenbogen siht, so enzaget diu werlt niht dan darnach iiber vierzecjdr ;

so the rainbow appear, the world hath no fear, until thereafter 40 year. Among the signs the Church enumerates of the approach of the Last Day, this is not to be found (see Suppl.).

CHAPTER XXIII. DAY AND NIGHT.

All the liveliest fancies of antiquity respecting day and night are intertwined with those about the sun, moon and stars : day and night are holy godlike beings, near akin to the gods. The Edda makes Day the child of Night.

Norvi, a iotuun, had a daughter named NStt, black and dingy like the stock she came of (svort oc dock sem hon atti gett til) ;^ several husbands fell to her share, first Naglfari, then Anar (Onar)^ a dwarf, by whom she had a daughter lor^, who afterwards became OSin^s wife and Thor's mother. Her last husband was of the fair race of the ases, he was called Dellingr, and to him she bore a son Dagr, light and beautiful as his paternal ancestry. Then All-father took Night and her son Dai/, set them in the sky, and gave to each of them a horse and a car, wherewith to journey round the earth in measured time. The steeds were named the rimy-maned and the shiny-maned (p. 6'55-6).

The name Dellingr, the assimilated form of Degltngr, includes that of the son Dagr, and as -ling if it mean anything means descent, we must either suppose a progenitor Dagr before him, or that the order of succession has been reversed, as it often is in old genealogies.

For the word ' dags, dagr, dsBg, tac^ I have tried to find a root (Gramm. 2, 44), and must adhere to my rejection of Lat. ' dies' as a congener, because there is no consonant-change, and the Teutonic word develops a g, and resolves its a into o (uo); yet conf. my Kleinere schriften 3, 117.^ On the other hand, in ' dies' and all that is like it in other languages, there plainly appeared

' This passage was not taken into account, p. 528 ; that Nifj;ht and Hclle should be black, stands to reason, but no conclusion can be drawn from that about giants as a body. Notice too the combination ' sviirt ok dock,' conf. ji. 445. Here giant and dwarf genealogies have evidently overlapped.

2 Conf. Hanpt's Zeitsclir. 3, 144.

3 [Sanskr. dali urere, ardere (Bopp's Gl. 1()5) does seems the root both of dies and Goth, dags, which has exceptionally kejDt prim, d unchanged. MHG. tac still retained the sense of heat : ' fiir der heizcn suuuen tac,' MB. 2, 8i\ — Suppl.]

736 DAY AND NIGHT.

an interlacing of the notions ' day, sky, god/ p. 193. As Day and Donar are both descended from Night, so Dies and Deus (Zeus) fall under one root ; one is even tempted to identify Donar, Thunor with the Etruscan Tina (dies), for the notion day, as we shall see, carries along with it that of din : in that case Tina need not stand for Dina, but would go with Lat. tonus and tonitrus. Deus is our Tiw, Ziu, for the same name sometimes gets attached to different gods ; and it is an additional proof how little '' dies ' has to do with our ' dgeg, tag ' ; likewise for coelum itself we have none but unrelated words, p. 698-9. From the root div the Ind. and Lat. tongues have obtained a number of words expressing all three notions, gods, day and sky ; the Greek only for gods and sky, not for day, the Lith. for god and day, not sky, the Slav, for day alone, neither god nor sky, and lastly our own tongue for one god only, and neither sky nor day. Here also we perceive a special affinity between Sanskrit and Latin, whose wealth the remaining languages divided amongst them in as many different ways. The Greek rjn-ap, rjfj,ipa I do regard as near of kin to the Teut. himins, himil ; there is also 'Hfiepa a goddess of day.

The languages compared are equally unanimous in their name for night : Goth, nalits, OHG. naht, AS. niht, ON. nott (for natt), Lat. nox nuctis, Gr. vv^ vvkto^, Lith. naJctis, Lett, nahts, O. SI. noshti, Pol. and Boh. noc (pron. nots). Sloven. 7iozh, Serv. notj, Sanskr. nakta chiefly in compounds, the usual word being nis, nisd (both fem.). Various etymologies have been proposed, but none satisfactory.^ As day was named the shining, should not the opposite meaning of ' dark ' lurk in the word night ? Yet it is only night unillumined by the moon that is lightless. There is a very old anomalous verb ' nahan ' proper to our language, from whose pret. nahta^ the noun nahts seems to come, just as from magan mahta, lisan lista come the nouns mahts, lists. Now

' [Bopp 198^ and Pott 1, 160 explain nisd as ' lying down ' from si to lie ; and naktam as ' while lying.' Benfey assumes two roots, nakta ' not-waking,' 2, 369 and nis conn, with Lat. niger 2, 57. — Suppl.]

2 The plurals of Goth, ganah, biuah are lost to us ; I first assumed ganahum, binabum, but afterwards ganadhum, because binafiht = 'i^ean in 1 Cor. lU, 23, and ganatiha avrapKeia occurs several times. The u (a(i before an h] is the same as in skal skulum, man munum, OHG. mac mugum, in spite of which the noun is maht. But the Goth, mag magum proves the superior claim of a, so that nahts (nox) would presuppose an older nah nahum, nahta, even though Ulphilas had written nah naUhum, nadhta.

DAY. NIGHT. 737

Gotli. ganahan^ OHG. kinahan, means sufficere, so tliat nahts would be the sufficing", pacifying, restful, quiet, at the same time e/ficient, strong, apKia, which seems to hit the sense exactly. Add to this, that the OHG. duruh-naht is not only pernox, totara uoctem durans, but more commonly perfectus, consummatus, ^fullsummed in power,^ MHG. durnehte, durnehtec, where there is no thought of night at all. Where did Stieler 1322 find his ' d urchnacht, nox illunis ^? = the Scand. ni'S (p. 710), and meaniug the height of night (see SuppL).

Both day and night are exalted beings. Day is called the holy, like the Greek lepov rjfxap: ' sani mir der heilic tac ! ' Ls. 2, 311. 'sa mir daz heilige Ueht ! ' Roth. 11^. 'die liehen tage,' Ms. 1, 165^^. Mer liebe tag/ Simplic. 1, 5. Hence both are addressed with greetings : ' heill Dagr, heilir Bags synir, heil Nott ok nipt ! orei^om augom litit ockr ]?innig, ok gefit sitjondora sigur ! ' they are asked to look with gracious eyes on men, and give victory, Saem. 194^; and the adoration of day occurs as late as in Mart, von Amberg's Beichtspiegel. ' diu edele naht, Ms. 2, 196''. 'diu heilige naht,' Gerh. 35^1. 'sam rair din heilic naht hint ! ' so (help) me Holy Night to-night, Helbl. 2, 1384. 8, 606. 'frau Naht,Ms H. 3,428=* (see SuppL).

Norse poetry, as we saw, provided both Night and Day with cars, like other gods ; but then the sun also has his chariot, while the moon, as far as I know, has none ascribed to her. Night and Day are di^awu by one horse each, the Sun has two ; consequently day was thought of as a thing independent of the sun, as the moon also has to light up the dark night. Probably the car of Day was supposed to run before that of the Sun,^ and the Moon to follow Night. The alternation of sexes seems not without significance, the masculine Day being accompanied by the feminine Sun, the fem. Night by the masc. Moon. The Greek myth gives chariots to Helios and Selene, none to the deities of day and night ; yet Aeschylus in Persae 386 speaks of day as Xef/coTrcoXo? rj/xepa, the ivkite-horsed. The riddle in Reinmar von Zweter, Ms. 2, 136, lets the chariot of the year be drawn by seven white and seven black steeds (the days and nights of the week). Here also the old heathen notion of riding

^ i.e. day or moruiug is there before the sun, who backs them up, so to speak : unz daz diu suuue ir liehtcz schiueu lot dem morgeu iibcr berge, Nib. 15G4, 2.

738 DAY AND NIGHT.

or driving deities peeps out. Again, a spell quoted in Mone's Anz. 6, 459 begins witli ' God greet thee, holy Sunday ! I see thee there come riding.' This is no doubt the heathen god Tag riding along on Scinfahso with his shiny mane (ON. Skinfaxi, Sn. 11) ; but if we took it for the white god Palfar on his foal (p. 222-4), we should not be altogether wrong. We shall have more to say presently on the personification of Day; but that spell is well worthy of consideration (see Suppl.) ,

Nevertheless our poets express the break of day by the sun's uprising, and more especially the fall of night by his setting ; but neither the beginning nor end of night by the moon, whose rising^ and settino- are seldom simultaneous with them. I will now give the oldest set phrases that express these phenomena.

The sun rises, climbs : Goth, sunna ur-rinni}j, Mk. 4, 6. 16, 2. OHG. ar-rinnit; daran ah rV- rail diu sunna, N. ps. 103, 22 ; MHG. si was uf er-runnen, Mar. 189. ON. ]>a rann dagr upp, 01. helg. cap. 220. Rinnan is properly to run, to flow, and here we see a strict analogy to the O. Rom. idiom, which in like manner uses manare of the rising day : ' diei principium mane, quod tum mdnat dies ab oriente,' Varro 6, 4 (0. Miiller p. 74) ; ' manar solern dicebant antiqui, cum solis oinentis radii splendorem jacere coepissent ' (Festus sub v.). Ulphilas never applies ur-reisan (sufgere) to the sun. The Span, language attributes to the rising sun a pricking (apuntar) : ' yxie el sol, dios, que fermoso apuntaha,' Cid 461 ; ' quando viniere la manana, que apuntare el sol,' Cid 2190. After rising the sun is awahe, 'with the sun awake' means in broad daylight (Weisth. 2, 169. 173. 183), ' when sunshine is up ' (2, 250) . AS. ' hador heofonleoma com hlican,' Andr. 838 (see Suppl.).

The sun sinks, falls : Goth, sagq sunno (pron. sank), Lu. 4, 40. gasagq sauil, Mk. 1, 32. dissigqdi (occidat), Eph. 4, 26. OHG. sunna, pifeal [vnit) , pisliiac (occidit),-^ Gl. Ker. 254. Diut. 1, 274*. MHG. siget : diu sunne siget hin, Trist. 2402. diu sunne was ze tal gesigen, Wh. 447, 8. nu begund diu sunne sigen. Aw. 1, 41. ON. both solsLrfall and mhetr, Engl, suns*?^ ; so OHG. *■ denne sunna kisaz/ cum sol occumberet, Diut. 1, 492% implying that he sits down, and that there is a seat or chair for him to drop into

' Intrans., as we still say uiederscblagen, zu boden sclilagen.

SUNRISE. SUNSET. 739

at the end of liis journey. His setting is called OHG. sedalkanc, Hym. 18, 1 ; sedal ira kat (goeth) 14, 2. AS. selehjong^ setlrdd, Casdm. 18i, 19. oSSoet sunne gewdt to sete gJidan, Andr. 1305. cSSget beoriit geicdt sunne swegeltorht to sete glidan 1248. OS. seg sunne to sedh, Hel. 86, 12. sunne ward an sedle 89, 10. geng tliar aband tuo, sunna ti sedU 105, 6. scred wester dag, sunne te sedle 137, 20. so tliuo gisegid wartli sedle ualior hedra sunna mid hebantunglon 170, 1. Dan. for vesten gaaer solen til sclde, DV. 1, 90, in contrast to ' sol er i ausfri (east),' Vilk. saga p. 58-9. The West (occasus) stands opposed to the East (oriens), and as OHG. kibil means pole, and Nordkibel, Suntkibel the north and south poles (N. Bth. 208), a set phrase in our Weisthiimer may claim a high antiquity : ■ bis (until) die Sonne nnter den Westergihel geht ' (1, 836) ; 'bis die sonue an den Wg. schint' (2, 195); 'so lange dat die sonne in den Westergevel schint ' (2, 159). The first of these three passages has the curious explanation added: 'till 12 o'clock.' ^ Ovid's ' axe sub Jiesperio ' Met. 4, 214 is thus given by Albrecht : in den liehten ivesternangen. The similar expression in ON", seems to me important, Gragas 1, 26 : 'fara til logbergs, at sol se a gidhamri eniim vestra,' giahamarr being chasmatis rupes occidentalis. I shall have more to say about that in another connexion; conf. however Landnama bok 215: sol i anstrl ok vestri. MHG. diu sunne gie ze sedele, Dint. 3, 57. als diu sunne in ir gesedel soldo gan, Morolt 38; but what place on earth can that be, whose very name is told us in 14'', ' ze Geildt, da diu sunne ir gesedel hat ' ? the capital of India ? (see p. 743 note.) I suppose kadam, MHG. gaden (cubiculum), Mor. 15=^ is equivalent to sedal, unless the true reading be ' ze gnaden.' The sun gets way-worn, and longs for rest : do hete diu miiede sunne

' ON. and AS. distinguish between two periods of the evening, an eavVier apt an tcfen = vespera, and a later (/rt'W, c-ir(7(/ = contioinium : ' at qveldi,' S;em. 20\ 73*', nieans at full evening, when night has fallen and its stillness has set in. I derive cwild, qveld from cwellan, qvelja to quell or kill, as in many passages it means liter, interitus, occisio, nex ; so we may explain it by the falling or felling of the day (cadere, whence caedere), or still better by the deathlike hush of night ; conf. Engl. ' dead of night, deadtime of n.', the conticiuium, AS. cwildtid. If ' chuiltiwerch ' in a doc. of 817 means cwildweorc, work in tlic late evening, which is not to be put upon maidservants, then OHG. too had a cliuilt corresp. to cwild and qveld, qvold. In Cffidm. 188, 11 I propose to read : ' cwildrof a codon on Ia'6'ra last,' i.e. (belluae) vesperi famosae ibant in vestigia malorum.

2 In fixing boundary-Hues Westergihel is eveu used topographically, Weisth. 1, 464-5. 485. 498. 550-0.

740 DAY AND NIGHT.

ir lieliten Llic liinz ir gelesen, Parz. 32^ 24. He goes to his bed, his bedchamber : Dan. 'solen ganger til senge,' DV. 1, 107. ' solen gik til livile/ 1, 170. MHG. diu sunne gerte lazen sich zuo reste, Ernst 1326. diu sunne do ze reste g'le, Ecke (Hag.) 110. nu wolte diu sunne ze reste und ouch ze gemache nider gan, Dietr. 14*^; so M. Opitz 2, 286 : ' muss docli zu rude gehen, so oft es abend wird, der schone himmels-schild.^ OE. the sun was gon to red, Iwan 3612. Our gnade (favour), MHG. genade, OHG. kinada, properly means inclining, drooping, repose (p. 710), which accounts for the phrase 'diu sunne gienc ze gndden' (dat. pi.), Mor. 37*. Wolfdietr. 1402. Even Agricola no longer understood it quite, for he says in Sprichw. 737: 'it lasted till the sun was about to go to gnaden, i.e. to set, and deny(!) the world his gnade and light by going to rest.'' Aventin (ed. 1580 p. 19^) would trace it back to our earliest heathenism and a worship of the sun as queen of heaven : ' never might ye say she set, but alway that she went to rost and gnaden, as the silly simple folk doth even yet believe.^ The last words alone are worth noticing; the superstition may be of very old standing, that it is more pious, in this as in other cases, to avoid straightforward speech, and use an old half-intelligible euphemism. On this point Vuk 775 has something worthy of note : you must say ' smirilo se suntse ^ (the sun is gone to rest, conquievit), and not zadije {is gone) nor sijede (sits) ; if you say zadye, he answers ' zashao pa ne izishao ' (gone, not come out) ; ^ if you say syede, he tells you ' syeo pa ne ustao ' (sat down, not risen) ; but to ' smiri se ' the answer is ' smiryo se i ti ' (rest thee also thou) ? And with this I connect the Eddie saw on the peculiar sacreduess of the setting sun: 'engi skal gumna i gogn vega sid'sMyiandi systor Mana,^ Seem. 184^, none shall fight in the face of the late-shining sister of the Moon (see Suppl.)

Lye quotes an AS. phrase ' ?Qr sun go to glade,' which he translates ' priusquam sol vergat ad occasum, lapsum.'' The noun formed from glidan (labi) would be glad, and glidan is

^ Kopitar tells me, ' zashao etc' is rather an imprecation : mayst thou go in (perhaps, lose tliy way) and never get out ! So ' syeo etc.', mayst thou sit down and never get up !

2 Mod. Greek songs say, 6 ^Xtos e^acriXeve, i^acxiXe^e (Fauriel 1, 56. 2, 300. 432), i.e. has reigued, reigns no more in the sky, is set ; and the same of the setting moon (2, 17G).

SUNSET. 741

actually used of tlie sun's motion : beofones gim glad ofer grundas, Beow. 4140 [and * to sete glidan^ twice in Andreas]. But 'gongan to glade ^ seems nonsense; perhaps we ought to suppose a noun glaede with the double meaning of splendor and gaudium. Both the ON. gla^Sr and OHG. klat signify first splendidus, then hilaris, two notions that run into one another (as in our heiter = serenus and hilaris) ; Mat is said of stars, eyes, rays (Graff 4, 288), and the sun, 0. ii. 1, 13 : er wurti sunna so glat (ere he grew so bright). The MHG. poet quoted on p. 705 says (Warnung 2037) :

so ir die sunnen vro sehet, When ye see the sun glad,

schoenes tages ir ir jehet, Ye own the fine day is hers,

des dankt ir ir, und Gote niht. Ye thank her, not God.

In Switzerland I find the remarkable proper name Sunnenfroh (Anshelm 3, 89. 286). But now further, the notions of bliss, repose, chamber, lie next door to each other, and of course brightness and bliss. The setting sun beams forth in heightened splendour, he is entering into his bliss : this is what 'gongan to glsede ' may have meant. In ON. I have only once fallen in with solargla&an (occasus), Fornald. sog. 1, 518. We learn from Hire's Dialectlex. p. 57^" 165% that in Vestgotland 'gladas' is said of the sun when setting : solen gladas or glaas (occidit), soleglanding, solglddjen (occasus), which may mean that the setting sun is glad or glitters. That is how I explain the idiom quoted by Staid. 1, 463. 2, 520: the sun goes gilded = sets, i.e. glitters for joy. So in Kinderm. no. 165 : sunne z'gold gauge; in a song (Eschenburg's Denkm. 240) : de sunne ging to golde ; and often in the Weisthumer : so die sun /wr gold gat (1, 197), als die Sonne in gait get (1, 501). Again, as the rising sun presents a like appearance of splendour, we can now understand better why the vulgar say he leaps for joy or dances on great festivals (p. 291); he is called Hhe paschal piper,' Haupt's Zeitschr. 1, 547. Nor would I stop even there, I would also account for that noise, that dang once ascribed to the rising and setting sun (p. 720-1) by a deep affinity between the notions of light and sound, of colours and tones, Gramm. 2, 86-7. A strophe in Albrecht's Titurel describes more minutely the music of sunrise :

742 DAY AND NIGHT.

Darnaeli kund sich diu sunne

wol an ir zirkel riden (writhe) :

der siieze ein iiberwunne,

ich wsBii die siieze nieman molit erliden.

mit done do diu zirkel ruorte ;

seitenklanc und vogelsanc

ist alsam glicli der golt gen kupfer fuorte.

(Then in his oi'b the sun to whirling took, I ween such glut of sweetness none might brook ; with dulcet din his orb he rolled, that clang of strings or bird that sings were like as copper beside gold.) Who can help thinking of the time-honoured tradition of Memnon's statue, which at sunrise sent forth a sound like the clang of a harpstring, some say a joyful tone at the rising and a sad at the setting of the sun.^ Further on we shall be able to trace some other fancies about the break of day and the fall of night, to light and sound (see Suppl.) ,

But whither does the evening sun betake himself to rest, and where is his chamber situated ? The oldest way of putting it is, that he dives into the sea, to quench his glow in the cool wave. The AS. Bth. (Rawl. 193^) : ' and ];eah monnum ]?ynce'S |?aet hio on mere gauge, tinder see swife, ]?onne hio on setl glideS.' So the ancients said hvvai, and mergere of the sun and stars, ' occasus, interitus, vel solis i)i oceanum mersio ' (Festus).^ Boeth. 4 (metr. 5) says of Bootes : cur mergat seras aequore flammas ; and metr. 6 : nee, cetera cernens sidera mergi, cupit oceano tingere flammas; which N. 223 translates : alliu zeichen sehende in sedel gan, niomer sih ne gerot kebadon (bathe) in demo mereivazere. So, ' sol petit oceanum,' Rudlieb 4, 9. But the expression comes so naturally to all who dwell on the seacoast, that it need not be a borrowed one ; we find it in ON. ' sol gengr i cegi,' Fornm. sog. 2, 302, and in MHG. ' der se, da diu sunne iif get ze reste,' MS. 2, 66''. And, as other goddesses after making the round of the country are bathed in the lake, it is an additional proof of the Sun's divinity that ' she ' takes a bath, a notion universally preva-

1 Pansan. 1, 42. Philostr. Yita Apoll. 6, 4. Heroic. 4. Pliny 36, 11. Tac. Ann. 2, 61. Juven. 1.5, 5.

' Setting in the lake is at the same time depositing the divine eye as a pledge in the fountain. I will add a neat phrase from Wolfram, Parz. 32, 24 : d6 het( diu miiede sunne ir liehten blic hinz ir gelesen.

DAYBREAK. 743

lent among tlie Slavs also : at eve she sinks into lier batli to cleanse herself, at morn she emerges clean with renewed grandeur. The sea was thought to be the Sun's mother, into whose arms she sank at night.^

To inhabitants of the inland, the horizon was blocked by a wood, hence the phrases : sol gengr til vi&ar (Biorn sub v. vidr) ; solen gar tinder vide (Ihre sub v.) .^ But the AS. word in : ' hador sgegl wuldortorht gewat under wd&n scriSan/ Andr. 1456, seems to be a different thing, the OHG. weidi (p. 132 n.). We say the sun goes behind the hills, to which corresponds the AS. ' sunne gewat under nijian nces,' sub terrae crepidinem, Andr. 1306 (couf. under neolum naesse, El. 831); a Dan. folksong: solen gik til iorde, down to earth, DV. 1, 170 ; Ecke (Hagen) 129 : diu sunne uz dem himel gie. Or, the sun is down, MHG. ' der sunne (here masc.) hinder gegat,' MS. 2, 192'' (see Suppl.).-'

We will now examine other formulas, which express dayhrealc and nightfall without any reference to the sun.

What is most remarkable is, that day was imagined in the shape of an animal, which towards morning advances in the sky. Wolfram begins a beautiful watchman's song with the words : 'sine kldwen diirch die wolhen sint geslagen (his claws through the clouds are struck), er stigetuf mit grozer kx'aft, ih sih ihn grawen, den tac ; ' and in part third of Wh. (Cass. 317^) we read: 'daz diu wolken waren gra, und der tac sine da hete geslagen dureh die naht.^ Is it a bird or a beast that is meant ? for our language gives claws to both. In AS. there is a proper name Dceg-hrefn, Beow. 4998, which in OHG. would be Taka-hraban ; and Beow. 3599 describes daybreak in the words : ' hrgefn blaca heof ones Wynne bliS-heort bodode,' niger corvus coeli gaudium laeto corde nuntiavit.^ That piercing with the claw to raise a storm (p. 633) makes one think of an eagle, while an Oriental picture, surprisingly

^ Hanusch, Slav. myth. p. 231, who connects with it the si^lashing with water at the Kupalo feast, and derives that name from knpel, kf^piel.

• Esth. piiiiw katsub metsa ladwa, the sun walks on the tips of the wood.

^ Gudr. 116, 2 : ' der sunne schln gelac vcrborgen hinter den wolken ze Gustrdtc. verre ' I understand no better than Geilatc (p. 73'J) ; but both seem to mean the same thing.

• So in a Weisthum (3, 90) : ' de sunne uppo dcm hogesten gewest clawendich.'

» Conf. volucris dies, Hor. Od. iii. 28, 6. iv. 13, 1(3.

VOL. II. X

744 DAY AND NIGHT.

similar, suggests rather the king of beasts, who to us is thebear.^ AH Jelebi in his Humayun-nameh (Diez p. 153) describes the beginning of day in language bombastic it may be, yet doubtless a faithful reflex of ancient imagery: *^When the falcon of the nest of the firmament had scattered the nightbirds of the flickering stars from the meadow of heaven, and at sight of the claws of the lion of day the roe of musk- scented night had fled from the field of being into the desert of non-existence/ The night, a timid roe, retires before the mighty beast of day : a beautiful image, and full of life. Wolfram again in another song makes day press forward with resistless force (see Suppl.).

But the dawn is also pictured in human guise, that of a beautiful youth, sent like Wuotan's raven as harbinger of day : ' dseg byS Dryhtnes sond' says the Lay of Runes. And in this connexion we ought to consider the formation of such names as BgeWce^, Swipc?oe^, etc., for gods and heroes. This messenger of the gods stations himself on the mountain's top, and that on tiptoe, like the beast on his claws, that he may the sooner get a glimpse of the land : ' jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops,' Rom. and J. 3, 5 ; a popular image, I have little doubt, and one that Hebel also uses about Sunday morning : ' und Lisli uf de zeche goht und heiter uf de berge stoht de sunntig.' He climbs and pushes on swiftly, irrepressibly : der tac stigende wart, Trist. 8942. der tac begund herdringen, Wolfd. 124. In AS. ']>a, waes morgen leoht scofen and scynded' (praecipitatus et festinatus, shoved and shindied), Beow. 1828. Hence our poets call him der riche, the mighty, as they do Grod (p. 20) : riche also der tac, MS. 1, IGS**. riche muotes alsam der tac, Wigal. 5222. der tac wil gerwhen (prevail, prosper), MS. 1, 27^^. 2, 23^; he is not to be checked, he chases night away. Put impersonally : tho iz zi dage want (turned), Otfr. iii. 8, 21 ; but also : der tac wil niht erwinden (turn aside, give it up), MS. 1, 147^^. merge fruo, als der tac erstarket (gathers strength), Eracl. 587. do die naht der tac vertreip, Frauend. 47. 58. He hurls her from her throne, and occupies it himself : ez taget, diu naht muoz ah ir trone, den sie ze Kriechen hielt mit ganzer vi'one, der tac ivil in besitzen, MS. 1, 2^; conf. ^daiXeveiv said of the sun (see Suppl.).

1 The Arabs call the first glimmer of dawn the wolfs tail, Eiickert's Hariri 1, 215.

DAYBREAK. 74")

Sometimes ifc appears as if tlae day, whether pictured as man or as beast, were tet J lered, and delayed in dawning: h'gata,fune ligata dies, Reinh. Ixiv j he approaches slowly, hindered by the bands : eiu naclit doch nicht gejpunden ist an einen stehchen, hoor ich sagen, Suchenw. 22, 30. Has that in Fergiit 1534, 'quam die dach ghestrid in die sale,^ anything to do with this ? In a Hungarian fairy-tale (Mailath 1, 137), midnight and dawn are so tied up, that they cannot get forward, and do not arrive among men. Stier^s Volksm. pp. 3. 5. One MHG. poem represents day as on sale and to he had for money, Zeitschr. f. d. a. 1, 27 ; like a slave bound by a cord ?

The Romance tongues (not the Tent.) often signify the break of day by a word meaning to prick: Fr. poindre, ^p. puntar, apuntar (said of the sun also, p. 738), It. spuntare ; thus, a la pointe du jour, at daybreak. This may indeed be understood of the day's first advance, as though it presented a sharp point, but also it may refer to day as a rider who spurs his steed, or to the tramping and trotting of a beast, which is also poindre, Reinh. p. xxxix (see Suppl.).

But more significant and impressive are the phrases that connect with daybreak (as well as with sunrise) the idea of a flutter and rustle, which might be referred to the pinions of the harbinger of day, but which carries us right up to the highest god, whose sovereign sway it is that shakes the air. Wuotan, when spoken of as Wuomo, Woma, is a thrill of nature (p. 144), such as we actually experience at dawn, when a cool breeze sweeps through the clouds. Expressions in point are the AS. dceg-v)uma Ceedm. 199, 2G. Cod. exon. 175, 4. dceg red-worn a., Andr. 125, 8. Cod. exon. 179, 24, morgen-sweg, Beow. 257. diine on daegred, Casdm. 289, 27. £er deegrede j^get se dyne becom, Ctedm. 294, 4 ; conf. Introd. to Andr. and El. xxx. xxxi, and the allusion to Donar, p. 736. To this I would trace the 'clang' sent forth by the light of sunrise and. sunset. And I venture to put the same sense on an 0. Fr. formula, which occurs only in Carolingian poems: Gerard De Viane 1241, Mou vaaiiw par son I'aube esclarcie.' Cod. reg. 7183, 3% ' un matin par son I'auhe, quant el fu aparue ' ; ibid. 5% ' un matin par son I'auhe, quant li jor esclaira' ; ibid. 16P, /"an matin ^ar sow Vauhe, si con chante li gaus (gallus).' Cod. 7535, 69'', ' a matin par son I'auhe. 1

746 DAY AND NIGHT.

add a few instances from the Charlemagne, ed. Michel 239, 'al matin sun la (?) lalhe' ; 248. 468. 727, ' al matin par sun lalhe' ; 564, ' le matin par sim lalhe.' Was it not oi-iginally per sonum (sonitum) albae ? Later they seem to have taken it in a different sense, viz. son = summum, summitas, Fr. sommet ; Michel in Gloss, to Charlem. 133 gives a passage which spells ' par som laube,^ and elsewhere we find ' par son leve,' on the top of the water, 'en sun eel pin,' up on this pine, Charlem. 594. 760, ' en son,' on the top, Renart 2617. In Pi-ovengal, Ferabras 182, 'lo mati sHs en lalba ' ; 3484, ' lo matinet sus lalba.' In It., Buovo p. m. 84. 99. 155, una mattina su V alba, i.e. sur I'aube, which gives only a forced meaning, as though it meant to say ' when the alba stood over the mountain top.'

The English use the expression 'peep of day' : ^the sun began to peep ' says a Scotch song, Minstr. 2, 430 ; so the Danes have j)ipefrem : ' hist piper solen /rem, g'lv Grud en lyksom dag ! ' says Thom. Kingo, a 17th cent, poet (Nyerup's Danske digtek. middelalder 1, 235). Both languages now make it a separate word from 'to pipe,' Dan. 'pibe.' Bat, just as in the Fr. 'par son' the sound became a coming in sight, so the old meaning of ' piping ' seems to have got obliterated, and a new distinction to have arisen between peep and pipe, Dan. pipe and pibe. Our Gryphius therefore is right in saying (p.m. 740), 'the moon pipes up her light.' It is the simultaneous breaking forth of light and noise in the natural phenomenon. We have the same thing in ' shreik of day' (Hunter's Hallamsh. gloss, p. 81), which can mean nothing but ' shriek ' ; and in the Nethl. ' krieh, krieJcen van den dag,' Plattd. ' de krik vam dage ' for the morning twilight, the chirking (so to speak) of day, as the chirping insect is called cricket, kriek, krikel, krekel (cicada). A remarkable instance of the two meanings meeting in one word is found in the Goth, svigla {av\6<i), OHG. svekala (fistula), by the side of the AS. swegel (lux, eether), OS. suigli (lux).

Oar own word anhrechen (on-break) implies a crash and a shaking, MHG. sa do der ander tac ilf brack (Frauend. 53. 109) ; ^

1 Conf. Bon. 48, 68 ; and I must quote Ls. 3, 259 : ' do brack der tac da herfiir, diu nabt von dem tac wart kinent (became yawning, was split ? conf. supra p. 558), diu sunne wart wol scliinent.' The Gute Frau 'has twice (1539. 2451) : ' do der tac durch daz tach (thatch) lilhte unde brack.' We might perh. derive ' ixi brach ' from brehen, but we now say anhrechen, anbruch.

DAYBREAK. TWILIGHT. 747

Eugl. break (as well as rush, hlusli) of day. Span. ' el alva rompe.' 0. Sp. ' apriessa cantan los gallos^ e quieren quebrar albores/ Cid 235. ' ya (juiebt-an los albores, e vinie la manana' 460. ' trocida es la noche, ya quiebran los albores ' 3558. 0. Fr. Taube cneve/ Ren. 1186. 'ja estoit Va,uhe crevee' 1175. Hantost con I'aube se creva' 16057. Prov. ^can lalba fo crevada,' Ferabr. 3977. This romper, quebrar, crevar (Lat. crepare) is the quivering and quaking of the air that precedes sunrise, accompanied by a perceptible chill ; and crepiisculurti contains the same idea. The Spaniard says also ' el alva se He,' laughs ; and the Ai'ab Hhe morning sneezes' (see Suppl.).^

But here the notion of Twilight, and the oldest words by which it is expressed, have to be examined more minutely.

The very first glimmer of dawn, or strictly that which precedes it, the latter end of night, is expressed by the Goth, uhtvo {evvv^ov), Mk. 1, 35, OHG. iihtci, or as N. spells it uolita, OS. uhta, AS. iihte (most freq. 'on uhtan/ Ctedm. 20, 26. 289, 31. 294, 2. Cod. exon. 443, 24. 459, 17. 460, 14. 'on uhtan mid gerdsege,' Beow. 251), ON. otta (Biorn says, from 3 to 6 a.m.). The root has never been explained j probably the Swiss Uchtland and Westphalian Uchte may be named from uhta. Closely bordering on it is the AS. cerdceg (primum tempus), Beow. 251. 2623. 5880; ON. ardagi (conf. ardegis, mane) ; an OHG. crtac or ertago is unknown to me. Next comes the notion of diluculum, ON. dagsbrun, dagsbiarmi, dagsbirta, fi'om brun = ora, margo, as if supercilium, and biarmi, birta = lux: but OHG. tagarod, tagarot (Graff 2, 486-7); AS. dmgred, Ccedm. 289, 27. 294,4; MLG. dagerdt, En. 1408 ; M. Nethl. dagheraet (Huyd. op. St. 2, 496) : a compound whose last syllable is not distinctly traceable to rut (ruber), but is perhaps allied to the i-odur, roSuU (coelum) on p. 699. The gender also wavers between masc. and fem.~ We catch glimpses of a mythic personality behind, for N. in Cap. 102 translates Leucothea (the white bright goddess, a Perahta) by ' der tagerod,' and carries out the personification: 'ube der

1 Kiickert's Hariri 1, 375. In the Novelas of Maria de Zayas 1, 3 is a song oeginning : ' si se rie el alva,' elsewhere she has ' quaudo el alva muestra su ale'ire risa ; ' conf. j). 502 on laughter that shakes one. The Ital. ' fare ridere una botta ' is an expressive phrase for shaking a cask so that it runs over.

2 Yet conf. OHG. morgau-rot, -ruto, and -rota (Grali 2, -iSG) ; MHG. iifgender morgenrCt (is it niorgeu rot?), Walth. 4, G ; but daz morgenrot, Trist. 8285. 9402.

7-iS DAY AND NIGHT.

tagerod sina facchelun inzundet habe/ liave kindled his torches. And in urkunden we meet with a man's name DagJiarot (Falke's Trad. corb. p. 5), also a place named Wivin-tagaroth (Hofer's Zeitschr. 2, 170). When OHG. glosses put tagarod for crepusculum^ it comes of unacquaintance with the Latin idiom ; it can be nothing but diluculum, aurora. In O.Fr. there is a woman's name Brunmatin = da,wn, Ren. 15666. 15712. 16441 [conn, with dagsbrim, Suppl.]. The ON. has no dagsrod^ but it has sSlarrod aurora, Fornm. sog. 8, 346. [Suppl. adds ^me'S dagroed'om,' Seem. 24'"']. The M. Nethl. has a second term dachgrake, daglierake (fem.), graken for the night's blackness brightening into gray ; so MHG. der grdive tac, daz grdive licht, MS. 2, 49*, der tac wil grdwen, Wolfr. 4, 11; 'si kos den alten jungen grdwen grtsen (tac)' ; 'junc unde grd der morgen iif gat/ MsH. 3, 427'' (see Suppl.).

After aurora follows the full morning, Goth, maurgins, OHG. morkan, OS. morgan, ON. morgun, strictly avpuov. I suspect it has a sense allied to the day's * breaking or bursting/ for the Goth, gamaiirgjan means to cut and shorten, like ginnen, secai-e (see Suppl.).

To names for the rising day stand opposed those for the sinking. For Qy^e, o-^la Ulphilas puts andanahti, the times towards night, but also seijyii (serum), as the Mod. Greeks call evening the slow, late, to l3pdSv, and morning the swift, early, to Ta^v, therefore also the short (conf. gamaiirgjan). The OHG. dpant, OS. dhand, AS. cefen, ON. aptan is of one root with aba, aftar, aptr, which expresses a falling off, a retrograde movement. The OHG. demar, our ddmmerung, stands especially for crepusculum, and is connected with AS. dim, Lith. tamsus, Slav, temni [dark, from tma, tenebrse] . AS. cefenrim, cefenglom crepusculum. What has peculiar interest for us, the Tagarod above is supported by an undoubtedly personal Apantrod, a giant of our heroic legend : AbentrSt is the brother of Ecke and Fasolt, in both of whom we recognised phenomena of the sea and air (pp. 239. 636). If day was a godlike youth, morning and evening twilight may have been conceived as the giants Tagarod and Ap>antr6d (see Suppl.).!

» MHG. der dhentrnt, Walth. 30, 15 ; but ' do diu ahentrot (f.) witeu ir lieht der erden but,' Uoliich 1488.

DATBEEAK. TWILIGHT. 749

To the Greeks and Romans 'Hcaq, Aurora, was a goddess, and slie is painted in the liveHest colours. She rises from the couch {e/c \e^i(ov, as our sun goes to bed, p. 740) of her husband Tithonos^ Od. 5, 1 ; she is the earlj-born {TjpL<yeveLa), the rosyfingered (poSoSaKTvXo';, II. 1, 477) ; she digs her ruddy fingers into the clouds as day does his claws, p. 743 ; she is also called Xpv(r66povo'i golden-throned, like Hera and Artemis. The Slavs, instead of a goddess of dawn, appear to have had a god, Yutrihogli (see Suppl,).

There is another belief of the Slavs and Hungarians, which, having strayed over to us, must not be passed over in silence. In Hungary dawn is called hajnal (Esth. haggo), and the watchmen there cry to one another : ' hajnal vagyon szep piros, hajnal, hajnal vagyon ! ' aurora est (erumpit) pulcra purpurea, aurora, aurora est. The same word heynal, eijnal is in use among the Poles, who cry: 'heynal swita ! ' aurora lucet (Linde 1, 623). Now Dietmar of Merseburg tells us under the year 1017 (7, 50 p. 858) : ' Audivi de quodam baculo, in cujus summitate manus erat, unum in se ferreum tenens circulum, quod cum pastore illius villae Silivellun (Selben near Merseb.), in quo (1. qua) is fuerat, per omnes domes has singulariter ductus, in primo introitu a portitore suo sic salutaretur : vigila Hennil, vigila ! sic enim rustica vocabatur lingua, et epulantes ibi delicate de ejusdem se tueri custodia stulti autumabant.' And, coming to our own times, I quote from Ad. Kuhn's Mark, sagen p. 330 : 'An old forester of Seeben by Salzwedel used to say, it was once the custom in these parts, on a certain day of the year, to fetch a tree out of the common-wood, and having set it up in the village, to dance round it, crying : Hennil, Hennil wache ! ' Can this have come out of Dietmar ? and can this ' Hennil, wake ! ' and 'Hennil vigila!^ so far back as the 11th cent, have arisen through misunderstanding the Hung, vagyon (which means * est,' not * vigilat ') ? Anyhow, the village watchman or shepherd, who went round to all the houses, probably on a certain day of the year, carrying the staff on which was a hand holding an iron ring, and who called out those words, seems to have meant by them some divine being. A Slovak song iu Kollar (Zpievauky p. 247, conf. 447) runs thus :

750 DAY AND NIGHT.

Hainal svita, giz den biely, H. sliines, now day is white,

stavayte velky i maly ! arise ye great and small !

dosti sme giz dluho spali. long enough have we now slept.

Bohemian writers try to identify this Hajnal, Eeynal, Hennil with a Servian or Bohemian god of herdsmen Honidlo ; ^ I know not how it may be about this god, but honidlo is neuter in form, and the name of a tool, it must have been gonidlo in Polish, and totally unconnected with eynal, heynal (see Suppl.) .

We saw that the rising snn uttered a joyful sound, p. 741-2 that the rustling dawn laughed, p. 747 ; this agrees with the oft-repeated sentiment, that the day brings bliss, the night sorrow. We say, ' happy as the day,' and Shaksp. 'jocund day '' ; Reinolt von der Lippe 'er verhltde als der dag'; MS. 2, 192 of departing day, ' der tac sin wunne verlat/ Especially do birds express their joy at the approach of day : ' gsest inne swsef o]?]?set hraefn blaca heofenes wynne hUd'-heort bodode,' Beow. 3598 ; the heaven's bliss that the raven blithe-hearted announces is the breaking day. ' I am as glad as the hawks that dewy-faced behold the dawn (dogglitir dagshrun sid)/ Sasm. 167"^; ' nu ver'Sr hann sva feginn, s em fug I degi,' Yilk. saga, cap. 39, p. 94; ^Horn was as fain o' fight as is the foule of the light when it ginneth dawe,' Horn and Rimen. 64, p. 307 ; 'ich warte der frouwen min, reht als des tages diu kleinen vogellin/ MS. 1, bl^ ; ' froit sich min gemiiete, sam diu kleinen vogelliu, su si selient den morgenschin,' MS. 2, 102^. Hence the multitude of poetic set-phrases that typify the break of day by the song of cocks (han-krat) or nightingales. Biarkamal near the beginning : ' dagr er upp kominn, dynja hana fiaSrar,' cocks' feathers make a din. ' a la maiiana, quando los gallos cantaran/ Cid 317. ^i coc cantoient, pres fu del esclairier.' ' I'aube est percie, sesclere la jornee, cil oisellon chantent en la ramee.' 'biz des morgens vruo, daz diu nahtigal rief,' En. 12545 (see Suppl.).

Night is represented as swift, overtaking, taking unawares, 007) vv^, II. 10, 394, for does not she drive a chariot? She falls or sinks from heaven, 'la nuit tomhe,n\x\t tomhante, a la tomhee de la nuit; ' she hricht ein (breaks or bursts in, down), whereas day hricht an (on, forth) ; she gathers all at once, she surprises. In

1 Jungmann 1, 670. 72i. Hanusch pp. 369-70.

NIGHTFALL. iOl

Matth. 14^ 15, where the Vulg. has 'hora jam praeteriit/ Luther Germanizes it into ' die nacht fdllt daher ' (on, apace) ; and 0. Germ. aheady used the verbs aiia gdn,fallan in this sense : aband unsih ana geit, ther dag ist sines sindes, 0. v. 10, 8. in ane gdencla naht, N. Bth. 31. der abent begunde ane gdn, Mar. 171. schiere viel do diu naht an, Roth. 2653. do diu naht ane gie, Er. 3108. unz daz der abent ane gie, Flore 3468. Ls. 1, 314. Wigal. 1927. 6693. als der abent ane get, Wigal. 4763. biz daz der abent ane lac, Ls. 1, 243. diu naht diu gat mich an, Wolfd. 1174. diu naht get uns vaste zuo, Livl. chron. 5078. In the same way sigen (sink) : do der abent 7Aio seic, Diut. 3, 68. also iz zuo deme abande seic 3, 70. nu seig ouch der abent zuo, Frauend. 95, 20. diu naht begunde zuo sigen, Rab. 102. begunde sigen an, 367. do diu naht zuo seic, Dietr. 62'\ diu naht siget an, Ecke 106. der abent seic ie naher, Gudr. 878, 1. ze tal diu sunne was genigen, und der abent zuo gesigen, Diut. 351, diu naht begunde sigen an, Mor. 1620. 3963.^ diu tageweide diu wil hin (the day^s delight it will away), der abent siget vaste zuo, Amgb. 2^^. der tach is ouch an uns gewant, uns siget der avent in die hant, Ssp. pref. 193. in der sinkenden naht. Cornel, releg., Magd. 1605, F. 5"'. in sinMichter nacht, Schoch stud. D. 4. And we still say ' till sinking night. ^ " Much the same are : nu der abent, diu naht zuo gefloz (came flowing up), Troj. 13676. 10499. AS. '£efen com sigeltorht swungen,' Andr. 1246. — But this setting in, gathering, falling can also come softly, secretly, like a thief: diu naht begunde sUchen an (creep on), Dietr. 68^. nu was diu naht geslichen gar iiber daz gevilde (fields), Christoph. 413. do nu diu naht her sleich, und diu vinster in hegreif (darkness caught him) 376: so thiu naht hijmg, Heh 129, 16. do hegreif in die nacht, Florsheim chron. in Miiuch 3, 188. wie mich die nacht hegrif, Simplic. 1, 18. hett mich die nacht schon hegriffen, Gotz v. Berl. p. m. 164. In MHG. we find predicated of night ' ez benemen,' to carry off (the light ? the victory ?) : unz iuz diu naht henam, Gudr. 879, 1. ne hete iz in diu naht henomen, Diut. 3, 81 (conf. Gramm. 4, 334). Ilroswitha says, in Fides et spes : ' dies abiit, nox incumhit.'

^ Both times ' segen' in text ; if sigen an (vincere) were meaut, we should expect the word day in the dative.

2 Goethe says sweetly : For Evening now the earth was rocking, And on the mountains hung the Night.

752 DAY AND NIGHT.

Clearly in many of these expressions Night is regarded as a hostile, evil power, in contrast to the kindly character of Day, who in tranquil ease climbs slowly up above the mountains ; hence night is as leisurely about ending, as she is quick in setting in : 'diu naht gemechlich ende nam,' slowly the night took ending, Frauend. 206, 21. 'Night is no man's friend' says the proverb, as though she were a demon (see Suppl.).

Between Day and Night there is perennial strife. Night does not rule till day has given up the contest : ' unz der tac liez sinen strit,' Parz. 423, 15. 'der tac nam ein ende, diu naht den sige gewan,' the victory won, Wolfd. 2025. ' do der tac verquam, und diu naht daz lieht nam,' En. 7866. ' Nu begunde ouch strucJien der tac, daz sin schin vil nach gelac, unt daz man durch diu wolken sach, des man der naht ze boten jach, manegen stern der balde gienc, wand er der naht herberge vienc. Nach der naht baniere kom sie selbe schiere.' ^ In this pleasing description the stars of evening precede the Night herself, as pioneers and standard-bearing heralds, just as the morning star was messenger of Day .2

On p. 742 we had a sunrise taken from the Titurel ; a description of failing day, which immediately precedes, deserves to stand here too :

Do diu naht zuo sUchen

durch nieman wolte lazen,

und ir der tac entwichen

muoste, er fuor sa wester hin die strdzen,

also daz man die erd in sach verslinden,

unz er ir moht empfliehen,

do kund' er sich von orient u£ winden.^

Earth devours the departing day (see Suppl.).

I find the older poets dwelling more on the sense of gloominess :

1 The Day 'gan founder then and fall, and much was shent his wonted sheen, till thro' the clouds might they be seen, whom couriers of the Night we call, full many a star that fleetly fares, and harboui'age for her prepares. Next her banners, soon Night herself came on.

' Lucifer interea praeco scandebat Olympo, Walthar. 1188. Lucifer ducebat diem, Aen. 2, 801. Evening is called in Sunskr.rajanhnukha, night's mouth, which reminds one of ' Hella's mouth : ' so is morning ahaniukha, day's mouth. Bopp's gloss. 27''. 281".

^ Then Night came creeping on, for no man would she stay, and Day must needs be gone, retreating down the western way; the earth devouring him thou see'st, until that he might from her flee, then could he hoist him up from east.

NIGHTFALL. NIGHT. 753

vv^ 6pj>vaLri the dusky, in Homer. ' tlio warth aband cuman, naht mid neflu,' Hel. 170, 25. 'diiQJindere ragende nacht/ gloomy lowring (jutting), Sclireckensgast, Ingolst. 1590, p. 114. 'die eitele nndfinstere nacht,' Kornmann's Mons Ven. 329. 'oiipende niht,^ Beow. 1088. 1291, conf. genip (caligo). ' scaduhelm/ Beow. 1293. ' nilithelm geswearc deorc ofer dryhtguman ' 3576. 'nihthehn to glad,^ Andr. 123. El. 78 : to her, as a goddess, is ascribed, quite in the spirit of our olden time, a terrible and fearful helmet, like a cloak-of-darkness, ' niht helmade ' (put on her helmet) we are told in Andr. 1306. Still finer perhaps is that ' eye of hlach night/ Ke\at,vri<i vuacto? o/xfia in Aeschylus (Pars. 428) for thick darkness as opposed to the bright eye of night, the moon, p. 702 (see Suppl.).^

The poetic images I have here collected remove all doubt as to Day and Night having been in the remotest antiquity both alive and divine. But the sentiment must very early have lost some of its hold over the Teutons, from the time they laid aside that name for day, which of itself bespoke his kinship with the gods.

Eeckoning by nights instead of days does indeed rest on the observance of lunar time (p. 708), but may have another reason too, the same that prompted men to count winters and not summers. The heathens used to fix their holy festivals for, or prolong them into, the night, especially those of the summer and winter solstices, as we see by the Midsummer and Christmas fires ; the fires of Easter and May also bear witness to festal nights. The Anglo-Saxons kept a hcerfestniht (ON. haustnott, haustgrima), the Scandinavians a hokunott (F. Magn. Lex. 1021). Beda in his De temp. rat. cap. 13 has preserved a notable piece of information, though its full meaning is beyond our ken : ' Incipiebant annum (antiqui Anglorum populi) ab octavo cal. Jan. die, ubi nunc natale Domini celebramus ; et ipsam noctem, nunc nobis sacrosanctam, tunc gentili vocabulo rnodranecht (modra niht)," i.e. matrum noctem appellabant ob causam, ut suspicamur, ceremoniarum quas in ea pervigiles agebant.^ Who were these mothers ?

' Images now familiar to us, about quenching the lamps of daj', I have not met with in the old poets ; but the night burns her tapers too. bhaksp. describes the end of night by ' night's caudles are burnt,' Horn. & J. 3, 5.

2 Afzclius 1, 4. 13 has no right to speak of a modernatt, which is not founded on Norse docs., but simply borrowed from Beda. [Can 'modre niht ' have meant ' muutere nacht,' wakeful night ? conf. ' pervigiles.']

CHAPTER XXIV. SUMMER AND WINTER.

The Seasons^ which, like day and night, depended on the nearness or distance of the sun, have maintained their personahty a great deal more vigorously and distinctly. Their slow revolution goes on with a measured stateliness, while the frequent change of day and night soon eflfaced the recollection of their having once been gods.

Day and night resemble summer and winter in another point, viz. that the break of day and the arrival of summer are greeted with joyful songs by the birds, who mourn in silence during night and winter. Hence the Eddie kenningar of glecPifugla (laetitia volucrum) for summer, and sut oh strid' fugla (dolor et angor avium) for winter. This sympathy of nature finds utterance no end of times in the lays of our minnesingers (see Suppl.).

The olden time seems at first to have recognised only two seasons in the year, afterwards three, and lastly four. To this the very names bear witness. Our jahr, Goth, jer, OHG. jar, M. Nethl. jaer, OS. ger, AS. gear, Engl, year, ON. dr, is plainly the Pol. iar, iaro, Boh. gar, garo, which signify spring.^ In the same way the Slavic Veto, lieto, liato, strictly summer, and seemingly akin to our lenz, OHG. lenzo, lengiz, MHG. lenze, lengez, AS. lenden, lengten (lent, spring) has come by degrees to cover the whole year. Thus both jar and leto mean the warmer season (spring or summer) ; and southern nations reckoned by them, as the northern did by winters.

Ulphilas renders 6ro<i by jer, and ivtavTo^ either by aj?n. Gal. 4, 10, or atapni, John 18, 13, a word that has died out of our language everywhere else, but still lingers in the Gothic names Athanagildus, Athanaricus (A]?nagilds, A];nareiks) ; it seems

1 The Pol. iar looks like '4ap, but this is understood to be for Piap, fiaap, Lat. ver for verer, veser, closely coun. with Lith. wasara (aestas) and Sanskr. vasanta, Benfey 1, 309. Of the same root seems the Slav, vesua, wiosna (spring), but hardly the ON. vasa^r, which means sharp winter.

SEASONS. 755

akin to €To<i, perhaps to the Slavic god, godina, which in Russ. and Serv. mean a year, while in O.Sl. they stood, as the Pol. god. Boh. hod, hodine still stand, for time in general. The relation between 6x09 and ivt,auT6<i remains uncertain, for in Od. 1,16 (eVo? ^X66 7repc7r\o/j,evcov iviavroiv, a year went past with circling seasons) ivtavroi are sections of a year, while other accounts make an iviavrof contain three errj. This comp. ivtavTo^; holds in it the simple eVo?, Lat. annus ^ (see Suppl.).

The year was supposed to make a circle, a ring (orbis, circulus) : jares umhi-hring, jdr-hring, umhi-huurft ; MHG. jares umbe-ganc, -ring, -vart, -trit; and the completion and recommencement of this ring was from a very early period the occasion of solemn festivities. Eligius preaches : ' nullus in kal. Jan. nefanda aut ridiculosa, vetulos aut cervulos aut joticos faciat, neque mensas super noctem componat, neque strenas aut bibitiones superfluas exerceat.' This was apparently a Celtic and Roman custom, ' strenae ineunte anno' are mentioned by Suetonius (Cal. 42. Aug. 57), and the holy mistletoe was plucked amid joyful cries of ^ a-gui-lan-neuf ! ^ [Michelet 2, 17: guy-na-ne, maguillanneu, gui-gne-leu. Suppl.]. Nothing of the kind seems to have been known in Germany ; but it is worth while to notice the Newyear's hymns and wishes in Clara Hatzlerln's book as late as the 14th cent. (57'^. 77% espec. 196—201 in Haltaus's ed.) where the year is pictured as a newhorn habe, a neiuhorn god, who will grant the wishes of mortals. Immediately, no doubt, this referred to Christmas and the Saviour's birth, in places where the new year began with that day ; yet some heathen practices seem to have got mixed up with it too, and I cannot overlook the use in these hymns of the bare adj. netu, without the addition of ^year' or 'child' (just as in naming the new-moon, p. 710, n;y-, niuwi) : [' des glinn dir alles der ncwgehorn ! ' this the Newborn grant thee all, Hiitzl. 196,,. So in other new-year's wishes: ' wunsch ich dir ain vil gut jar zu disem new,' Wolkenst. p. 167. 'gen disem saeligen guoten newen/ Ad. Kellei''s Altd. ged. p. 10. — Suppl.] .

Otherwise I hardly find the year as a whole (conf. the riddle, p. 737) exalted into a person, except in adjurations, spells and

1 For amnus, says Bopp's Gloss. Skr. 16'' ; Bcnfey 1, 310 explains iviavrvi by Skr. amiivat, &7j being am&, new-moon.

756 SUMMER AND WINTER.

curses : ' sani mir daz heilecjdr ! ' so (help) me holy year, Ls. 1, 287. Haupt's Zeitschr. 7, 104. The two following refer to the year's commencement only : ' ein scelec jCtr gang dich an ! ' a blessed year betide thee, Ls. 3, 111 ; and ' daz dich ein veiges jar miiez ana komen ! ' a doomed (fey) year be thy dole, Ls. 1, 317. In AS. 'o'S l^aet o^er com gear in geardas/ Beow. 2260 (see Suppl.).

But even in the earliest times the year had fallen into halves, to which AS. and ON. give the curious name of missere, misseri, and the AS. poems seem to reckon chiefly by these. We find ' missera worn/ store of m., Caadm. 71, 10; ' fela missera ' 180, 23. Beow. 306 ; ' hund missera,' Beow. 2996. 3536 = the 50 winters in 4413; ' misserum frud, missarum frod,' Ccedm. 104, 30. 141, 16 (wise with age, like 'gearum, deegrime, fyrndagum frod,' Gramm. 1, 750). In the Edda I find only 212^•^ ^ein misseri' (per unum annum), and ^sams misseris' (eodem anno) ; but the Gragas has also misseri (semestrium). The etymology of the word is not easy : one would expect to find in it the words half (medius, dimidius) and year, but the short vowel of the penult conflicts with the ON. ar and AS. gear, and it appears to be masc. besides (einn misseri, not eitt m.) ; the ON. mis^ri (bad year, annonae caritas, neut.) is quite another thing. Again, why should the d of the AS. midde (Goth, midja, OHG. mitti) have passed into ss ? It must be admitted however, that in the relation of Lat. medius to Goth, midja we already observe a disturbance in the law of change ; misseri may have come down and continued from so remote an antiquity that, while in appearance denying its kindred, it will have to own them after all, and the ' miss ' is in the same predicament as the Gr. /J>eao<i, /j,eaao<; compared with Sanskr. madhyas, or ^vaaoq =^/3v66<;. No ^misseri, missiri ' meets us in the OEG. remains, but the lost herolays may have known it, as even later usages retain the reckoning by half-years ; when the Hildebr.-lied says ' ih wallota suma.ro enti ivintro sehstic ur lante,' it means only 60 misseri (30 summers and 30 winters), which agrees with the * 30 years' of the more modern folk-song; and we might even guess that the 'thirteen years' and 'seven years' in Nib. 1082 and 1327, 2, which make Chriemhild somewhat old for a beauteous bride, were at an older stage of the epos understood of half-years. In the

SEASONS. 757

North, where winter preponderates, so many winters stood for so many years, and ' toU vetr a gam all ^ means a twelve-year-old. That in OHG. and even MHG. summer and winter represent the essential division of the year, I infer even from the commonly used adverbs sumerlanc, winterlanc, while we never hear of a lengezlanc or herbestlanc; the ON. sumarlaugr, vetrlangr, are supplemented by a haustlangr (the whole autumn) .

The Greek year has only tJtree seasons, eap, 6epo<i, ^etyLtcui/, autumn is left out. Our two great anniversaries, the summer and winter solstices, marked off two seasons; the harvest-feast at the end of Sept. and the fetching-in of summer are perhaps suflBcient proof of a third or fourth. The twofold division is further supported by the AS. terms midsumor and midwinter, ON. mi&sumar, mi&vetr, which marked the same crises of solstice, and had no midhearfest to compete with them ; an AS. midlenden (Engl, midlent) does occur, and is about equivalent to our miffasten. Now in what relation did the missere stand to midsumor and midwinter ? The day (of 24 hours) likewise fell into two halves of 12 hours each, the AS. dogor, ON. dcegr ; and dogor bears the same relation to daeg as missere to gear. Our ancient remains have no tuogar attending upon tac, but a Gothic dogr by the side of dags may be inferred from fidurdogs and ahtaudogs in Ulphilas (see Suppl.).

Tacitus, after saying that the Germans cultivate grain only, and neither enclose meadows nor plant orchards, adds : ' undo annum quoque ipsum non in totidem digerunt species : Idems et ver et aestas intellectum ac vocabula habent; auct mnni perinde nomen ac bona ignorantur.' Here auctumnus evidently refers to garden-fruit and aftermath, while the reaping of corn is placed in summer, and the sowing in spring. But when we consider, that North Germany even now, with a milder climate, does not get the grain in till August and September, when the sun is lower down in the sky ; and that while August is strictly the ernte-month ' and Sept. the herbst-month, yet sometimes Sept. is called the augstin and October the herbst-month; theTacitean view cannot have been universally true even in the earliest times. Neither does the OHG. herpist, herhist, AS. liearfcst, seem at

1 OHG. aranmilnot, from aran (mossis), Goth, asans ; the 0. Saxons said l)ew6d or Leo, Hel. 78, 14. 79, 1-i ; Nctlil. bouw, homed.

758 SUMMER AND WINTER.

all younger than other very old words. More correct surely is the statement we made before^ that as we go further north in Europe, there appear but two seasons in all, summer and winter ; and as we go south, we can distinguish three, four, or even five.^ Then also for mythical purposes the two seasons are alone available, though sometimes they are called spring and winter, or spring and autumn ^ (see Suppl.) .

With the Goth, vintrus (hiems) we have a right to assume a masc. sumrus exactly like it, though Ulph. in Mk 13, 28 (and prob. in Matth. 24, 32 and Lu. 21, 30) rendered Oepo^ by asans (harvest-time). The declension follows from OHG. siimar = sumaru (for a Goth, sumrs of 1 decl. would bring in its train an OHG. somar) ; also from AS. sumor with dat. sumera, not sumere. The ON. sumar being neut. in the face of a masc. vetr, OHG. wintar, AS. winter, seems inorganic; it must have been masc. once. The root assumed in my Gramm. 2, 55 runs upon sowing and reaping of crops.

The Edda takes us at once into the genealogy of these two worthies. Sumar is the son of Svdsu&r (Ssem. 34'^. Sn. 23. 127), a name derived from svas (earns, proprius, domesticus), Goth. sves, OHG. suas, for he is one that blesses and is blest, and after him is named all that is sweet and blithe (svaslegt, blitt). But the father of Vetr is named Vindloni or Vindsvalr (windbringer, windcool), whose father again was Vdsaff'r (ibid.) the dank and moist : a grim coldhearted kindred. But both sets, as we should anticipate, come before us as giants, Svasu'Sr and Sumar of a good friendly sort, Vasa^r, Yindsvalr and Yetr of a malignant ;

1 Spaniards divide spring into primavera and verano (great spring), see Don Quix. 2, 53 and Ideler 6, 305. After verano comes estio, Fr. ete, both masc, while Ital. esta, estate remains fem, like aestas.

• The Slavs too, as a race, hold with two principal seasons : summer and year are both leto, i.e. the old year ends with winter, and with summer the new begins ; leto, like our jahr, is neut., and of course impersonal. Winter they call zima (fem.). When intermediate seasons have to be named, they say podleti (subaestas) for spring, podzim (subhiems) for autumn. But other names have also come into vogue, beside the garo, iaro above : Euss. and Boh. vesna, Pol. wiosna ; Sloven. vy-gred (e-grediens, in Germ. Carinthia misiviirt), mlado leto (young summer), mladletie, po-vdand, s-pnmlad, s-prot-letie (fr. s-prot, against), all denoting spring; the South Slavs espec. felt the need of parting spring from summer. Autumn is in Serv. yesen, Sloven, yezen or predzima (prae-hiems), Euss. osen. Zima must be very old, Lith. ziema, Gr. x^'-fJ-'^v, Lat. hiems, Skr. hemanta. Onv fiilhling, friihjahr (early year) is neither 0. nor MHG., but formed during the last few cents, on the model of printemps or primavera ; apatling, spatjahr (late year) is also used for autumn. On auswarts and eiinccirts conf. Schm. 1, 117. 4, 161.

SUMMER. 759

SO that here again the twofold nature of giants (p. 528-9) is set in a clear light. The Skaldskaparmal puts them down among the ancient iotnar : 209^ Somr (al. Somir) ok Svdsiid'r, 210^ Vindsvalr ok Vicfarr (1. Yetr). Even now Summer and Winter are much used as proper names, and we may suppose them to have been such from the beginning, if only because [as names of seasons] they do not agree with any in the Non-Teutonic tongues. An urkunde in Neugart no. 373 (as early as a.d. 958) introduces us to two brothers named Wintar and Sumar. Graff 1, 631 has the proper name Wintarolf in the augmentative form (see p. 762 n.)

Now I will produce plain marks of their personality, which have long maintained themselves in popular phrases and poetic turns of speech. We say every day : Summer, Winter is at the door, comes in, sets in. H. Sachs iv. 3, 2P : ' till Summer step this way.^ ^ In MHGr. the one is commonly called lieb (lief, dear), the other leid (loathly, sad) : ' der liehe Sumer urloup genam,' took leave, Ben. 344. 'urloup nam der Winder/ 362. Both are provided with a retinue : ' Sumer, dine holden (retainers) von den huoben sint gevarn,' 304. ' Sumer, din gesinde,' 406. ' min sane stile des Winters wapen tragen,' my song should W.'s livery wear, MS. 1, 178^. ' Winder ist mit sinen vriunden komen,^ Ben. 414. Evidently they have marched up with their men, each with intent to war upon and chase away his foe : ' der leide Winder hat den Sumer hin verjaget,^ 381. ' er (der Winter) ist dir gehaz, er en-weiz niht umbe waz, selten er des ie vergaz, swenne er dinen stuol hesaz, er en-ructe in viir baz, sin gewalt wol tusend ellen viir den dinen gat,^ he hateth thee, he wot not why ; he seldom forgat, when thy chair he besat, but he pushed it further ; his power passeth thine, etc. MsH. 3, 258. Ben. 303. ' Winter^ hat ez hie gerumet ' cleared out, Ben. 437. — Again, as summer begins with May, we have that month acting as its repi'esentative, and just as full of life and personality. (All three receive the title ©f lord : ' min herre Winter ! ' MsH. 3, 267^ ' her Meie ! ' d, 443*^. ' her Meige ! ' Walth. 46, 30). May makes his entry : ' so der Meige in gat,' Meist. Alex. 144*^. ' so der vil siieze Meige in gat,' Trist. 537. ' Meige ist komen in diu lant,' Ms. 1,

^ Alse die Somer quam int lant, Reinaert 2451. alse de Sonuner queme int lant, Reineke 2311. do here de SiDiuiu'r trat, Wiggert 2, 48.

• Without article, therefore not com. noun; couf. p. 704 note, Solaus.

VOL. II. Y

760 SUMMER AND WINTER.

13^. Ben. 364. ' der Meie sin ingesinde li^fc/ lias his retinue 1, 14^. ' des Meien tur ist {if getan, MsH. 3, 296^ ' der Mei ist in den landen hie ' 3^ 230^. ' so der Meie sinen Ttrame schouwen lat (his store displays), unde %n gat mit vil manigem liehten male ' 30, 30^. ' vil manager hande varwe (full many a hue) hat in sinem hrdme der Meige/ MS. 1, 59^^. der Meie hat brieve fiir gesant, daz sie kiinden in diu lant sine kunft den vruoten/ Ben. 433 ; like a king who after a long absence returns victorious, he sends letters on before, to announce his coming. ' da ist der Meie und al sin kraft, er und sin geselleschaft diu (sic 1.) ringent manige swaei-e (lighten many a burden) ; Meie hat im angesiget ' overcome him (winter), Ben. 449. * ich lobe dich, Meie, diner kraft, du tuost Sumer sigehaft,' thou makest S. victorious (both prop, n.), MS. 2, 57^. ' ob der Meige ze velde lac,' Ls. 1, 199. 'so der Meige alrerst w ^a^.' Frauend. 14. ' der Mei hat sin gezelt bestelt,' set up his tents, camp, MsH. 3, 303^. ' des Meien scMlt,' 3, 307^ ' Sumer der hat sin gezelt nu gerihtet liberal,' Ms, 2, 57^. 'des Meien waldencBve kiindet an die sumerzit,' May's forester announces summertide, MsH. 3, 230''. ' die (waldes ougeuweide, forest's eye-feast) hat der Meie fiir gesant, daz si kiinden in diu lant sin kunft ' 3, 227^. ' der Meie viieret den wait an siner hende/ leads the wood by the hand, MS. 2, 8P; he is provided with hands (like Wish, p. 142). Men worship him with thanks and bowing, like a king or god making his progress (p. 213, Freyr) ; like them he has his strete (highway) : ' des Meigen strdze/ Ben. 42. ' uf des Meien strdzen/ MS. 23^. ' Meie, ich wil dir nig en,' bow to, Ben. 398. 'event den Meien,' Ben. 184. MsH. 1, 147'^'^. ' der Meie habe des danc ! ' thanks thereof,-^ Ben. 434. May and Summer put on their verdant attire : 'der Meie ist iif sin griienez zwi gesezzen,' MS. 2, 75*. May hears complaints, he commands his flowers, 1, 3^. 'des Meigen vriunt (attendant), der grliene wase (sward), der het uz bluomen angeleit (laid on) so wiinecliche sumerkleit,' Trist. 562. ' der vSumer sneit sin kleit,' Ben. 159. ' der Meie sendet dem walde kleider ' 436. ' der Sumer gab diu

1 In Gramm. 4, 725 is a coll. of the oft-recurring phrases ' des Meigen ere (honour), d. M. giiete, des Burners giiete (goodness),' which seem to imply an ancient worship (p. 29, era). I add a few more references : MsH. 1, 52^. 60'. 61''. 194a. 305^ 348^ 3, 222''. Notice: ' Got gebe daz der herbest sin ere volhringe ! ' that autumn his worship fulfil, MS. 2, 180\

WINTER. 761

selben kleit, Ahrelle maz, der Meie sneit/ April measured, May cut out, MS. 2, 94^. ' diu (kleider) liet gegeben in (to them) der Meie z'einer niuwen wat (weeds, clothing),' MsH. 3, 286''. ' Mei hat enprozzen berg und tal' 3, 188''. ' Sumer hat gesendet uz sin wunne, der Meie spreit uf diu lant sin wat ' (2, 291). ^ ' der bliienden heide voget (heath's controller) ist mit gewalt uf uns gezoget (has rushed), hcGvt wi er mit winde broget (blusters) uf wait und im gevilde,' MsH. 1, 193^ (see Suppl.).

But more especially does the antithesis demand attention. In Winter's train come Rime and Snoiv, still personifications, and giants from of old (p. 532). They declare war against Summer : ' dir hat widerseit beidiu Rtf and 8ne,' Ben. 398. ' der Meie loste bluomen uz Rifen bande' 437. 'manegen tac stark in sinen handen lac diu heide (the heath lay fast in Winter's bonds) ; uns was verirt der wunne hirt von des argen Winter's nit,' long did we miss our shepherd of bliss by wicked W.'s envy, MsH. 1, 192*. 'der W. und sine hneclite (his men), daz ist der Rife und der Wind; Hartm. erst, biichl. 834. MsH. 3, 232^ What Summer clothed. Winter strips bare : ' ilher diu oven ^ er dem wald sin kleider brack,' tore the wood's clothes over his ears (ibid.), 'da daz niuwe loup (leafage) e was entsprungen, des hastu nu gevilllet dinen sac' 2, 386^^; like an enemy or robber, he fills his sack with booty (saccage). 'bluomen unde loup was des Rifen erster roup (first plunder), den er in die secJce schoiip (shoved into his sacks), er enspielt in noch enkloup,' Ben. 304. Yet, ' sunder Rtf en danc, allez griienez in froiden lit,' no thanks to Jack Frost, all green things are in glee, MS. 1, 34''. ' unbesungen ist der wait, daz ist allez von des Rifen ungenaden (illwill) komen,' Ben. 275. Wizlau in one song exclaims : ' Winder, dich vorhote (take heed) ! der Sumer komt zo mote,' to meet thee, Amgb. 29=^; and Walther 39, 9 : ' weizgot, er lat ouch dem Meien den strit,' Winter gives up the battle ; conversely, ' der Sumer sinen strit dem Winder Ifit,' Warnung 2386. And, what is more than all, one poem ^ has preserved even the mythic name

' So that ' des Meigen wat, kleit ' MS. 2, 105-6-7 is a metaphor for foliage, and ' hoten (messengers) des Sumcres ' 1, 97*^ for flowers.

2 ' Walt hat oren, velt hat gesiht,' wood has ears, field has sight, MS. 2, 131» ; ' velt hat oren, wait hat ougen,' eyes, 185''.

=* Nithart's, Ben. 38i. To this poet we owe the hveUest images of Summer and Winter.

762 SUMMEE AND WINTER.

of the Rime-giant : it is Aucholf, formed just with the suffix -olf, which like -olt is characteristic of monstrous ghostly beings ; ^ the root auka^ OHG. ouhhu, means augeo, so that Oucholf may contain the notion of enormous, gigantic " (see Suppl.).

Summer and Winter are at war with one another, exactly like Day and Night (p. 752) ; Day and Summer gladden, as Night and Winter vex the world.^

Now the arrival of Summer, of May, or as we now say, of Spring, was kept as a holiday from of old. In the Mid. Ages this was called die zit empfdhen, welcoming the season, MS. 1, 200'^. 2, 78^. Ben. 453; die zit mit sange hegen (keep), Misc. 2, 198; den Sumer emiofdhen, MsH. 3, 207^ 2li^ 232^ ' Sumer, wis (be) empfangen von mir hundert tusent stunt (times) ! ' Ben. 328. Wrouwen und man empfiengen den Meien,' MsH. 3, 185^. 'dawartder Mei empfangen wo' 3, 218^. 219*. 'den Meigen enpfdhen und tanzen^ 1, 47^. ' nu woluf griiezen (greet) wir den siiezen ! ' 1, 60^. 'ich wil den Sumer griiezen' 3, 446'\ * helfent griiezen mir den Meien,^ MS. 1, 202**. 'si (diu vogellin, small fowl) wellent alle griiezen nu den Meien ' 2, 8 1**. ' willekome her Meige ! ' 1, 57**. ' sit willeJcome her Meie ! ' 1, 59*. 'so wol dir, lieber Sumer, daz du komen bist ! ' MsH. 2, 316**. A song in Eschenburg's Denkm. 458 has the burden ' willkommen Male ! ' (see Suppl.).

But the coming in of Summer did not happen on any fixed day of the year, it was determined by accidental signs, the opening of flowers, the arrival of birds. This was called finding Summer : ' ich han de7i Sumer viinden/ MsH. 3, 202''.

Whoever had spied ' den ersten viol ' * made it known ; the whole village ran to the spot, the peasants stuck the flower on a pole, and danced around it. On this subject also Nithart has some spirited songs, MsH. 3, 298-9; conf. 202^ (den ersten viol

1 Gramm. 2, 334—40; conf. Nahtolf, Biterolf, Egisgrimolt (p. 238), Fasolt (p. 529), Mimerolt (p. 379), Kobolt (p. 414).

2 A MHG. poet paints the battle between May and Autumn, in a pretty story (Fragm. 29), but it does not come within the mythic province, conf. MS. 2, 105. More to the point is H. Sachs's poem 1, 420-1. A M. Nethl. ' spel van den winter ende sommer ' is printed in Hoffm. hor. belg. 6, 125 — 146. Notlier in Cap. 27 calls ' herhest unde lemo, zwene genoza,' fellows twain.

3 The Fris. Laws too couple night with winter : ' si ilia tenebrosa nebula et frigidissima hiems in hortos et sepes descendit,' Eichth. 46 (huersa thiu thiustera naclit and thi nedkalda icinter ur tha tuner hleth).

'' Florum prima ver nuntiantium viola alba, Pliny 21, 11 (38).

HEEALDS OF SUMMEE. 763

scliouwen). H. Sachs iv. 3, 49 seq. describes the same festival; round ihefa'st summer flower they dance and sing. ' den ersten hluomen vlehten/ MS. 1, 41'^ (see Suppl.).

That thej^7's^ cockchafer also was fetched in with ceremonies, we saw on p. 693-4 ; to this day the passion for hunting these chafers and playing with them is indestructibly rooted among boys.

In like manner the first swallow, the first stork was hailed as messenger of spring {dyy€\o<i eapo<i). The swallow^s return was celebrated even by the Greeks and Romans: Athenaeus 8, 15 p. 360 gives a ^eXtSoVicr/xa/ chanted by children at Rhodes, who carried a swallow about and collected eatables. The custom still survives in Greece; the young people assemble on March , and traverse all the streets, singing a sweet spring-song; the singers carry a sivallow carved out of wood, which stands on a cylinder, and keeps turning round. ^ * Hirundine prima,' says Horace Epist. i. 7, 13. That in Germany also the first swallow was taken notice of in the Mid. Ages, is shewn by the superstitious observance (Sup. G, and I, 217) of digging a coal out of the ground on her appearance. In Sweden the country folk welcome her with a thrice repeated shout of joy (Westerdahl p. 55). Both swallow and stork are accounted sacred inviolable creatures. He that first announced the return of the stork to the Greeks, received messenger's pay. As late as last century the warders of many German towns were required to blow-in the approaching herald of spring,^ and a drink of honour was served out to them from the town-cellar. An epigram by Joach. Olearius begins :

Ver laetum rediit, i-ediitque ciconia grata, aspera dum pulso frigore cessat hiems.*

The cuckoo may also be regarded as the announcer of spring, and an O.Engl, song appeals to him : ' sumer is icumen in, llinde sing ciicu ! ' Hone's Daybook 1, 739 (see Suppl,).

The proclaiming of summer by songs of the younger folk still

1 Ilgen. opusc. pbilol. 1, IGo. Zell's Ferienschr. 1, 53. 88. Scbueidewin's Delectus 2, 465-6.

• Faiiriel 2, 256. Disc, prolim. xxviii. More fully in Tlieod. Kiud p. 12.

^ Alpeurosen (Bern 1817J ji. 4'J ; coiif. Rebel's song Der storoh.

•• llostock IGIU ; couf . Job. Praetorius's ' Storcbs und scbwalben-winterquartier,' Francf. 1676, p. 185.

764 SUMMER AND WINTER.

prevails, or did prevail in recent centuries, almost everywhere in German and Slav countries, and bespeaks a very ancient origin. What the minnesingers, with their elegant phrases about the old 'chair, entry, highway, grace and glory of Summer^ as a king or god, may have led us to guess, is supplemented and illustrated by abiding customs of the people, which in rude artless fashion drive at the main point. The modes of celebration and the songs vaiy greatly.^ Often there is only a wreath, a doll, an animal carried about in a basket, and gifts demanded from house to house.^ Here it is a coch, there a crow or a fox,^ that the children take round, as in Poland at the time of coleda (newyear) they go about with a stuffed wolf, collecting gifts (Linde sub V. koleda). These animals do not migrate, and I leave it undetermined, what right they can have to represent the stork or swallow, or whether they mean something altogether different. The approach of Summer is only mentioned in a few words and phrases, or not at all.

In many places however the collecting of gifts is only the sequel to a previous performance fall of meaning, in which youths and maidens take part. Two disguised as Summer and Winter make their appearance, the one clothed with ivy or singriin, the other with straw or moss, and they fight one another till Summer ivins. Winter is thrown on the ground, his wrappages stripped off and scattered, and a summer's wreath or branch is carried about. Here we have once more the ancient idea of a quarrel or war between the two powers of the year, in which Summer comes off victorious, and Winter is defeated ; the people supply, as it were, the chorus of spectators, and break out into praises of the conqueror.

' The most diligent collector of them, though in a scattered disorderly way, is Chr. Heinr. Schmid of Giessen, both iu the ' Journal von uud fiir D.' for 1787. 1, 186-98. 480-5; for 1788. 1, 566-71. 2, 409-11 ; for 1790. 1, 310-4 ; for 1791. 1002 ; and in the ' Deutsche monatschrift ' for 1798. 2, 58-67 ; he gives references to a great many authors old and new. A still earlier article in ' Journal v. u. f. D.' for 1784. 1, 282 is worth consulting. Isolated facts in Kriinitz's Encyclop. 58, 681 seq.. Grater's Idunna 1812 j). 41, Biisehing's Woch. nachr. 1, 183-6. 3, 166 and other places to be cited as they are wanted. The two earliest treatises are by Paul Chr. Hilscher ' de ritu Dominieae Laetare, quern vulgo appellant den tod austreiben,' Lips. 1690 (in Germ. 1710), and Joh. Casp. Zeumer 'de Dominica Laetare,' Jena 1706.

• Let the summor-cMldren sell you a summer, and your cows will give plenty of milk, Sup. I, 1097.

3 Eeinhart, Introd. p. ccxix. Athen. also, ubi supra, speaks of a crow being carried about, instead of the swallow.

EXPULSION OF WINTEE. 765

The custom just described belongs chiefly to districts on the middle Rhine, beyond it in the Palatinate, this side of it in the Odenwald betwixt Main and Neckar. Of the songs that are sung I give merely the passages in point :

Trarira ! der Sommer der ist da ; wir wollen hinans in garten und wollen des Sommers ivarten (attend), wir wollen hinter die hecken (behind the hedges) und wollen den Sommer wecken (wake), der Winter hats verloren (has lost), der Whiter liegt gefangen (lies a prisoner) ; und wer nicht dazu kommt (who won't agree), den schlagen wir mit stangen (we'll beat with staves). Elsewhere : Jajaja ! der Sommertag ^ ist da,

er Jcratzt dem Winter die augen aus (scratch W.'s

eyes out), und jagt die bauern zur stube hinaus (drive the boors out of doors). Or : Stab aus ! - dem Winter gehn die augen aus (W.'s

eyes come out) ; veilchen, rosenhlumen (violets and roses), holen wir den Sommer (we fetch), schicken den Winter iiber 'n Bhein (send W. over

Rhine), bringt uns guten kiihlen wein. Also : Violen und die hlumen

bringen uns den Sommer, der Sommer ist so keck (cheeky, bold), und wirft den Winter in den dreck (flings W. in the dirt). Or : Stab aus, stab aus,

hlas dem Winter die augen aus (blow W.'s eyes out) !

Songs like this must have come down through many centuries ; and what I have quoted above from poets of the 13th cent, pre-

' For Sommer ? conf. Bajldajg for Boaldor, p. 222-9, and Day, p. 738.

2 Also ' stam aus ' or ' sta 7/uih.v,' and ' heib aus, treib aus, dem W. ist ein aug' aus.' Stabaus may be for staubaus = up aud away, Schm. 3, 002 ; couf. Zingerle 2, 147,

766 SUMMEE AND WINTEE.

supposes their existence, or that of songs substantially the same. The conception and setting of the whole are quite heathenish : valiant Summer found, fetched, wakened from his sleep ; vanquished Winter rolled in the dust, thrown into chains, beaten with staves, blinded, banished ; these are demigods or giants of antiquity. Violets are mentioned with evident reference to the welcoming of Summer. In some parts the children march out with ivhite peeled rods, either for the purpose of helping Summer to belabour the foe, or perhaps to represent the retinue of Winter, for it was the old custom for the conquered and captive to be let go, carrying white staves (RA. 134). One of the band of boys, marching at their head ivrapi in straiv, stands for Winter, another deched with ivy for Summer. First the two fence with their poles, presently they close and wrestle, till Winter is thrown and his straiu garment strict off him. During the duel, the rest keep singing :

stab aus, stab aus,

stecht dem Whiter die augen aus !

This is completely the 'rauba birahanen, hrusti giwinnan, caesos spoliare armis ' of the heroic age ; the barbarous punching out of eyes goes back to a still remoter antiquity.^ The wakening of Summer is like the wakening of Saelde.

In some places, when the fight is over, and Winter put to flight, they sing :

So treihen wir den Winter aus

durch unsre stadt zum thor hinaus (out at the gate) ;

here and there the whole action is compressed into the shout : ' Sommer 'rein (come in), Winter 'naus (go out) ! '

As we come back through the Odenwald toward inner Franconia, the Spessart and the Rhon Mts, the words begin to change, and run as follows :

Stab aus, stab aus,

stecht dem Tod (death) die augen aus !

1 The MHG. songs keep pace : ' der Meie hat sinen schaft uf den "Winter verstochen,' dug his shaft into, MsH. 3, 195''. 'Mai hat den W. erslagen', slain, Hiitzl. 131, 58. ' vehten wil der W. kalt gegen dem lieben Sumer,' MsH. 3, 423".

EXPULSION OF DEATH. 767

Then: Wir liaben den Tod liinausgetrieben (driven out), den lieben Sommer bringen wir wieder (again), den Sommer und den Meien mit bliimlein mancherleien (of many a sort).

So Death has stept into Wititer's place ; we might say, because in winter nature slumbers and seems dead; but it may also be, that at an early time some heathenish name for Winter had to give place to the christian conception of Death.

When we get to the heart of Franconia, e.g. Niirnberg, the songs drop ail mention of Summer, and dwell the more emphatically on the expulsion of Death} There country lasses of seventeen or eighteen, arrayed in all their finery, parade the streets of the whole town and suburbs; on or under their left arm they carry a little open coffin, with a shroud hanging over the sides, and a puppet lying under that. Poor children carry nothing but an open box, in which lies a green bough of beech with a stalk sticking up, on which an apple is fixed instead of the head. Their monotone song begins : * To-day is Midlent, we bear Death into the water, and that is well.'' Amongst other things :

Wir tragen den Tod in's wasser,

tragen ihn ^nein, und wieder 'raus ~ (in, and out again).

^ Seb. Frank's Weltbuch SI'' thus describes the Shrovetide custom in Fran- ^-onia : ' Four of them hold a sheet by his 4 corners, whereon is laid a straw ■rippet in hose, jerkin and mask, like a dead man, the which they toss up by the corners, and catch him again in the sheet. This they do the whole town through, t Midlent they make in some places a straiv man or imp, arrayed as a death, him 16 assembled youth bear into the nigh lying villages. And by some they be well ■ceived, eased and fed \vith dried jjears, milk and peas ; by others, which hold it presage of coming death, evil entreated and driven from their homesteads with id words and oftentimes with buffets.'

• This seems to indicate, that the deity of Death is not to be annihilated by s ducldng, but only made sensible of the people's dissatisfaction. Cruel Death s during the year snatched many a victim, and men wish, as it were, to be !enged on him. This is of a piece with the idea brought out on jj. '20 : when god has not answered your expectations, you bully him, you isluugc his image h water. So by the Franconiaus, on a failure of the wine-crop, St. Urban's ^'ge, who had neglected to procure them wine (Fischart's Garg. 11) wasjlung into ^•brook, or themiul (Seb. Frank SI*"), or the luater-trough, even in the mere antici- P'jn of a poor vintage (Agricola's Sprichw. 498. Grater's Idunna 1812, p. 87). '^^he Bavarians, during St. Leonhard's solemn procession, would occasionally '^'him in the river (Schm. 2, 473). We know how the Naples people to this day 8*^ work with their San Gennaro, how seamen in a storm ill-use St. James's ^™', not to speak of other instances.

768 SUMMER AND WINTEE.

tragen ihn vor des biedermanns haus (up to the goodman's house) .

Wollt ihr uns kein schnialz nicht geben (won't give us no lard),

lassen wir euch den Tod nicht sehen (won't let you see D.).

Der Tod der hat e in panzer an (wears a coat of mail). Similar customs and songs prevailed all over Franconia, and in Thuringia, Meissen, Vogtland, Lausitz and Silesia. The beginning of the song varies :

Nun treiben wir den Tod aus^ (drive D. out),

den alien iveibern in das haus (into the old women's house). Or : hinter's alte hirteuhaus" (behind the old shepherd's house). Further on :

hatten wir den Tod nicht ausgetrieben (not driven D. out),

war er das jahr noch inne geblieben^ (he'd have staid all the year).

Usually a puippet, a figure of straw or wood, was carried about, and thrown into water, into a hog, or else burnt ; if the figure was female, it was carried by a boy, if male, by a girl. They disputed as to where it should be made and tied together ; whatever house it was brought out of, there nobody died that year. Those who had thrown Death away, fled in haste, lest he should start up and give them chase; if they met cattle on their way home, they beat them with staves, believing that that would make them fruitful. In Silesia they often dragged about a bare fir-tree with chains of straw, as though it were a prisoner. Here and there a strong man, in the midst of children, carried a maij'

1 Luther parodied this song in his Driving of the Pope out, Journ. von u. fiij D. 1787. 2, 192-3.

2 ' Dem alten Jiiden in seinen bauch, etc.', into the old Jew's belly, on to tb young Jew's back, the worse for him ; over hill and dale, so he may never com back ; over the heath, to spit^ the shepherds ; we went through the greenwooc there saug birds young and old. Finn Magnusen (Edda 2, 135) would have us tak the old ' Juden ' for a ibtunn.

3 J. F. Herri, on certain antiquities found in the Erfurt country 1787, p. 2' has the line : ' wir tragen den Krodo in's wasser,' but confesses afterwards (Jour V. u. f. D. 1787. 483-4) that he dragged the dubious name into the text on pure co - jecture. The more suspicious becomes the following strophe in Hellbach's Sup - to the Archiv v. u. f. Schwarzburg, Hildburgh. 1789. p. 52 : ' wir tragen den al'-n thor (fool) hiuaus, hinter's alte hirtenhaus, wir haben nun den sommer gewonnn. iiud Erodes macht ist weggekommeu,' K'.s power is at an end. The expressjns in the last line smack of recent invention.

SUMMER FESTIVAL. 7G9

^ole} In the Alfcmark, the Wendisli villages about Salzwedel, especially Seeben (where we saw Hennil still in use, p. 749), have preserved the following custom : at Whitsuntide uaeuservants and maids tie fir-hrancJies, straiv and hay into a large figure, giving it as much as possible a human shape. Profusely garlanded with field-flowers, the image is fastened, sitting upright, on the brindled cow (of which more hereafter), and lastly a pipe cut out of alder wood stuck in its mouth. So they conduct it into the village, where all the houses are barred and bolted, and every one chases the cow out of his yard, till the figure falls off, or goes to pieces (Ad. Kuhn's Mark, sagen, p. 316-7).

From Switzerland, Tobler 425-6 gives us a popular play in rhymes, which betray a Swabian origin, and contain a song of battle between Summer and Winter. Summer is acted by a man in his bare shirt, holding in one hand a tree decorated with ribbons and fruit, in the other a cudgel with the end much split. Winter- is warmly clad, but has a similar cudgel ; they lay on to one another's shoulders with loud thwacks, each renowning himself and running down his neighbour. At length Winter falls back, and owns himself beaten. Schm. 3, 248 tells of the like combat in Bavaria : Winter is wrapt in fur. Summer carries a green bough in his hand, and the strife ends with Summer thrusting Winter out of doors. I do not find the custom reported of Austria proper ; it seems to be known in Styria and the adjoining mountains of Carinthia : the young fellows divide into two bands, one equipt with vv^inter clothes and snowballs, the other with green summer hats, forks and scythes. After fighting a while in front of the houses, they end with singing jointly the praises of victorious Summer.- It takes place in March or at St. Mary's Candlemas (see Suppl.).

Some of the districts named have within the last hundred years discontinued this old festival of announcing Summer by the defeat of Winter, others retain it to this day. Bygone centuries may well have seen it in other German regions, where it has not left even a historical trace ; there may however be some

^ At Leipzig in the 17th cent, the festival had become so discredited, that they had the straw jnippet carried about and immersed by women of ill fame.

• Sartori's Neueste Eeise d. Oestr., Vienna IKII. 2, a-18. The Styrian battlesong is printed in Biisching's Wcich. nachr. 1, 22G-8.

770 SUMMER AND WINTER.

accounts that have escaped my notice. In S. Germany, Swabia, Switzerland, Bavaria, Austria, Styria, the ditties are longer and more formal, but the ceremony itself not so artless and racy. In Lower Hesse, Lower Saxony, Westphalia, Friesland, and the Netherlands, that is to say, where Easter-fires remained in vogue, I can hardly anywhere detect this annunciation of Summer ; in lieu of it we shall find in N. Germany a far more imposing development of May-riding and the Maigraf feast. Whether the announcing of Summer extended beyond the Palatinate into Treves, Lorraine, and so into France, I cannot say for certain.^ Clearly it was not Protestant or Catholic religion that determined the longer duration or speedier extinction of the custom. It is rather striking that it should be rifest just in Middle Germany, and lean on Slav countries behind, which likewise do it homage ; but that is no reason for concluding that it is of Slav origin, or that Slavs could have imported it up to and beyond the Rhine. We must first consider more closely these Slav customs. In Bohemia, children march, with a straw man representing Death, to the end of the village, and there burn him while they sing :

Giz nesem 8mrt ze wsy. Now bear we I), from the village,

nowe Leto do wsy ; new Summer to the village ;

witey LHo libezne, welcome Summer sweet,

obiljcko zelene ! little grain so green.

1 C. H. Schmid has indeed drawn up (Journ. v. u. f. D. 1790, 314-5) a list of the lands and spots where Winter or Death is carried out, and it includes parts of L. Saxony, Mecklenburg, even Friesland. But no authorities are given ; and other customs, similar, but without any of the distinctive features of the subject in hand, are mixed up with it. Aug. Pfeiffer (b. Laueustein 1640, d. Liiheck '98) in Evang. Erquickungstunden, Leipz. 1698 mentions a ' battle of Sum. and Win.', but names no places, and he had lived long in Silesia and Leipzig. H. Lubbert (preacher at Bohlendorf by Liibeck, b. 16-40, d. 1703) in his Fastnachtsteufel p. 6 describes a March (not May) procession, but does not sufficiently bring out the essential features. I extract the passage (from J. P. Schmidt's Fastelab. p. 1B2), because it illustrates the far from ineffectual zeal of the clergy against popular amusements, almost as strikingly as the diatribe, 560 years older, quoted on i^p. 259 seq. : ' The last year, on Dominica Quinquag. (4 weeks bef. Laetare), I again pubhcly prayed every man to jDut away, once for all, these pagan doings. Alas, I was doomed to see the wicked worldlings do it worse than before. Not alone did children carrying long sticks wrapt in green leaves go about within doors, and sing aU manner of lewd jests, but specially the men-servants, one of them having a green petticoat tied about him, went in two parties through the vhlage from house to house with a bag-pipe, singing, swilling, rioting like madmen in the houses ; afterward they joined together, drank, danced, and kept such pother several nights through, that one scarce could sleep for it. At the said ungodly night-dances were even some hghtmiuded maids, that took part in the accursed business.'

\

EXPULSION OF DEATH. 771

Elsewhere :

Sm7't plyne po wode^ D. jSoats down tlie water,

nowe Leto k nam gede,^ new Summer to us rides.

Or:

Stni't gsme wam zanesly, D. we've from you taken,

nowe Leto prinesly. new Summer to you brought.

In Moravia :

Nesem, nesem Marenu. We bear, we bear Marena.

Other Slavs :

Wyneserae, wyneseme Ma-

inuriendu. Remove we Mamurienda.

Or:

wynesli sme Murienu se wsi, we've taken Muriena out, and

pi'inesli sme May nowy do wsi.^ brought new May to the town.

At Bielsk in Podlachia, on Dead Sunday they carry an idol of plaited hemp or straio through the town, then drown it in a marsh or pond outside, singing to a mournful strain :

SmierS wieie sie po plotu, D. blows through the wattle, szukaiac klopotu. seeking the whirlpool.

They run home as fast as they can : if any one falls down, he dies within the year.^ The Sorbs in Upper Lausitz make the figure of straw and rags ; she who had the last corpse must supply the shirt, and the latest bride the veil and all the rags ; ^ the scarecrow is stuck on a long pole, and carried away by the biggest strongest lass at the top of her speed, while the rest sing :

Lec7 hore, lecz hore ! Fly high, fly high,

jatabate woko, twist thyself round,

pan dele, pan dele ! fall down, fall down.

• Celakowsky's Slowansie narodni pisue, Prague 1822. p. 209. He quotes other rhymes as well.

2 J. Kolliir's Zpiewanky 1, 4. 400.

3 Hanusch Slav. myth. 413. .Tungmann sub v. Marana, who puts the Polish rhyme into Bohem. thus : Smrt wege po plotu, sukagjc klopotu. Couf. a Morav. song (Kukla in d'Elv 107-8-9).

• ludicul. superst. 27-8 : ' de simulacris de iianniA factis, qtiae per campos pnrtant.' The Esthonians ou New year's day make an idol of straw in the shape of a man, to which they concede the name of metzikn and the power of protecting their cattle from wild beasts and defending their frontier. All the people of the village accompany, and set him ou the nearest tree, Thorn. Hiiiru, p. 40.

772 . SUMMEE AND WINTEE.

They all throw sticks and stones at it : whoever hits Death will not die that year. So the figure is borne out of the village to a piece of water, and drowned in it. But they often carry Death to the boundary of the next village, and pitch him over it ; each picks for himself a green twig, and carries it homeward in high glee, but on arriving at his village throws it away again. Sometimes the youth of the village within whose bounds they have brought Death will run after them, and throw him hack, for no one likes to keep him; and they easily come to words and blows about it.^ At other places in Lausitz women alone take part in this Driving- out of Death, and suffer no men to meddle. They all go in black veils that day, and having tied up a puppet of straw, put a white shirt on it, and give it a broom in one hand, and a scythe in the other. This puppet they carry singing, and pursued by boys throwing stones, to the border of the next town, where they tear it up. Then they hew down a handsome tree in the wood, hang the shirt upon it, and carry it home with songs. ^ This tree is undoubtedly a symbol of Summer introduced in the place of Death driven out. Such decorated trees are also carried about the village by boys collecting gifts, after they have rid themselves of Death. In other cases they demand the contributions while taking the puppet round. Here and there they make the straw man p)6^p 'into people's ivindoivs (as Berhta looks in at the window, p. 274) : in that case Death will carry off some one in the house that year, but by paying a money ransom in time, you can avert the omen. At Konigshain by Gorlitz the whole village, young and old, wended their way with torches of straw to a neighbouring height called the Todtenstein, where formerly a god's image is said to have stood ; they lit their torches on the top, and tui'ned home singing, with constant repetition of the words : ' we have driven out Death, we bring back Summer.' ^

So it is not everywhere that the banished idol represented Winter or Death in the abstract ; in some cases it is still the heathen divinity giving way to Christianity, whom the people thrust out half in sorrow, and uttering songs of sadness.

• Lausitz. Mag. for 1770, p. 84-5, from a MS. of Abraham Frencel.

2 Chr. Arnold's Append, to Alex. Eossen's Uuterschiedn. gottesdienst, Heidelb. 1674. p. 135.

3 Anton's first Versuch iiber die alten Slaven, p. 73-4.

EXPULSION OF GODS. 773

DlugosZj^ and otliers after him, report that by order of king Miecislaus all the idols in the land were broken up and burnt ; in remembrance of which the people in some parts of Poland, once a year, singing mournful songs, conduct in solemn procession images of Marzana and Ziewonia, fixed on poles or drawn on drags, to a marsh or river, and there drown them ; ^ paying them so to speak, their last homage. Dlugosz's explanation of Marzana as 'harvest-goddess^ seems erroneous; FrenceFs and Schaffarik^s ' death-goddess ' is more acceptable : I derive the name from the Pol. marznac. Boh. mrznauti, Russ. merznut', to freeze, and in opposition to her as winter-goddess I set the summer-goddess Wiosna, Boh. Wesna. The Konigenhof MS. p. 72 has a remarkable declaration : 'i iedinu druzu nam imiet' po puti z Wesnij po Moranu' one wife (only) may we have on our way from Wesna to Morana, from spring to winter, i.e. ever. Yet the throwing or dipping of the divine image in a stream need not have been done by the Christians in mere contempt, it may have formed a part of the pagan rite itself ; for an antithesis between summer and winter, and an exalting of the former, necessarily implied a lowering of the latter.^

The day for carrying Death out was the quarta dominica quadragesimae, i.e. Laetare Sunday or Midlent, on which very day it also falls in Poland (w nieziele srodopostna), Bohemia, Silesia and Lausitz. The Bohemians call it smrtedhia, samrtna nedele, the Sorbs smerdnitsa, death Sunday ; coming three weeks before Easter, it will almost always occur in March. Some have it a week earlier, on Oculi Sunday, others (espec. in Bohemia) a week later, on Judica Sunday ; one Boh. song even brings in ' Mag nowy,' new May. But in the Rhine and Main country, as

1 Hist. Polon. lib. 2, ad a. 965. Matth. de Mechovia cliron. Polon. ii. 1, 22. Mart. Cromer lib. 3, ad a. 065. Mart. Hanke de Silesior. uomiuibus, p. 122-3.

2 So the Kussian Vladimir, after his conversion, orders the image of Perun to be tied to a horse's tail, beaten, and tliroun into the Dnieper. Afterwards, when the Novgorod Perun was in like manner thrown into the Volkhov, he set ui), while in the river, a loud lament over the peojile's ingratitude.

2 The Indian Kali, on the 7th day after the March new-moon, was solemnly carried about, and then thrown into the Ganges ; on May 13 the Eoman vestals hoxe pufj)ets plaited of rushes to the Pons Sublicius, and di'opt them in the Tiber, Ov. Fast. 5, 620 :

Turn quoque priscorum virgo simulacra vjrorum mittere roboreo scirpea ponte solet. ,

774 SUMMER AND WINTER.

in most places, Laetare is tlie festive day, and is there called Sumvierday. ,

There is no getting over this unanimity as to the timti of the festival. To the ancient Slavs, whose new year began in March, it marked the commencement of the year, and likewise of the summer half-yeai', i.e. of their leto; to Germans the ari'ival of summer or spring, for in Mai'ch their stork and swallow come home, and the first violet blows. But then the impersonal ' leto ' of the Slavs fights no battle with their Srnrt : this departing driven-out god has the play nearly all to himself. To our ancestors the contest between the two giants was the essential thing in the festival ; vanquished Winter has indeed his parallel in 8mrt, but with victorious Summer there is no living personality to compare. And, beside this considerable difference between the Slav ceremony and our own, as performed on the Rhine or Neckar, it is also difficult to conceive how a native Slav custom should have pushed itself all the way to the Odenwald and the Palatinate beyond Rhine, accountable as it might be on the upper Main, in the Fulda countiy, Meissen or Thuriugia. What is still more decisive, we observe that the custom is known, not to all the Slavs, but just to those in Silesia, Lausitz, Bohemia and, with a marked difference, in Poland ; not to the South Slavs at all, nor apparently to those settled in Pomerania, Mecklenburg and Liineburg. Like our Bavarians and Tyrolese, the Carniolans, Styrians and Slovaks have it not ; neither have the Pomeranians and Low Saxons.^ Only a central belt of territory has preserved it, alike among Slavs and Germans, and doubtless from a like cause. I do not deny that in very early times it may have been common to all Slav and all Teutonic races, indeed for Germany I consider it scarcely doubtful, because for one thing the old songs of Nithart and others are sufficient proof for Austria, and secondly because in Scandinavia, England, and here and there in N. Germany, appears the custom of May -riding, which is quite the same thing as the Rhenish ' summer-day ' in March.

Olaus Magnus 15, 4 says: 'The Swedes and Goths have a custom, that on the first day of May the magistrates in every

1 The Holstein custom of going round (omgaan) with the fox, p. 764, took place in summer (says Schutze 3, 165), therefore not on Laetare; and the words they sing have no explicit reference to summer and winter.

MAY-ELDING. 775

city make two troops of horse, of tall youths and men, to assemble, as tho' they would go forth to a mighty battle. One troop hath a captain, that under the name of Winter is arrayed in much fur and wadded garments, and is armed with a winterspear : he rideth arrogantly to and fro, showering snowballs and iceflakes, as he would fain prolong the cold, and much he vaunteth him in speech. The other troop hath contrariwise a captain, that is named the Blumengrave, he is clad in green houghs, leaves and flowers, and other summer raiment, and not right fencible ; he rides into town the same time with the winter- captain, yet each in his several place and order, then hold a public tilting and tourney, wherein Summer hath the mastery, bearing Winter to the ground. Winter and his company scatter ashes and sparks about them, the other fend them with birchen boughs and young lime-twigs ; finally, by the multitude around, the victory is awarded to Summer.''

Here Death is not once alluded to ; in true Teutonic fashion, the whole business is made to lie between Suynmer and Winter ; only, the simple procession of our peasant-folk has turned more into a chivalry pageant of opulent town-life. At the same time this induction of May into the city (' hisset kommer Sivard Snarensvend [p. 372n.], han /orer os sommer,' or ^ och hdr oss sommer i hy,' DV. 1, 14. Sv. forns. 1, 44. ' hdra maj i by,' Dybeck runa 2, 67; in Schonen 'fore somma i hy ') cuts a neater statelier figure than the miserable array of mendicant children, and is in truth a highly poetic and impressive spectacle. These Mayday sports are mentioned more than once in old Swedish and Danish chronicles, town regulations and records. Lords and kings not seldom took a part in them, they were a great and general national entertainment. Crowned with flowers, the majgrefve fared with a powerful escort over highway and thorp ; banquet and round-dance followed. In Denmark the jaunting began on Walburgis day (May 1), and was called 'at ride Sommer i hye' riding S. into the land : the young men ride in front, then the May-grave (floriger) with two garlands, one on each shoulder, the rest with only one; songs are sung in the town, all the maidens make a ring round the may -grave, who picks out one of them to be his mnjtnde, by dropping a wreath on her head. Winter and his conflict with May are no longer mentioned

VOL. 11. z

776 SUMMEE AND WINTEE.

in the Sclionisli and .Danish festival. Many towns had regularly organized majgreve gilde} But as the May-fire in Denmark was called ' gadeild/ gate (street) fire^ so was the leader of the May-feast a gadebasse (gate bear), and his maiden partner gadelam (gate lamb) or gadinde; gadebasse and gadinde therefore mean the same as maigreve and maigrevinde." There is a remarkable description in Mundelstrup's Spec, gentilismi etiamnum superstitis, Hafn. 1684 : 'Qui ex junioribus rusticis contum stipulis accensis flammatum efScacius versus sidera tollere potuerit, praeses (gadebasse) incondito omnium clamore declaratur, nee non eodem tempore sua cuiqiie ex rusticis puellis, quae tunc temporis vernacula appellantur gadelam, distribuitur, et quae praesidi adjicitur titulum hunc gadinde merebitur.^ Hinc excipiunt convivia per universum illud temporis, quod inter arationem et foenisecium intercedit, quavis die dominica celebrari sueta, gadelams-gilder dicta, in quibus proceriorem circum arborem in antecessum humo immissam variisque corollis ac signis ornatam, corybantum more ad tympanorum stridentes sonitus bene poti saliunt/

Now this May-riding, these May-graves, were an old tradition

of Lower Germany also ; and that apparently is the very reason

why the Mid-German custom of welcoming summer at Laetare

was not in vogue there. How could spring, which does not

reappear in the North till the beginning of May, have been

celebrated there in March ? Besides, this May-festival may in

early times have been more general in Germany ; or does the

distinction reach back to the rivalry between March and May as

the month of the folkmote ? * The maigreve at Greifswald, May

1, 1528, is incidentally mentioned by Sastrow inhisLebensbeschr.

1, 65-6; a license to the scholars at Pasewalk to hold a maigraf

1 Ihre sub v. majgrefve. Skraordning for Knutsgillet i Lund an. 1586, § 123-7 in Bring's Monum. scaneusia, p. 207-10 ; the same for Malmo, p. 211. Er. Tegel's Hist. Gustavi i. 1, 119. Nyerup's Danske cligtek. 1, 246. 2, 136. 143. Thiele 1, 145-58 ; conf . 200. For the Zealand custom see Molbech's Hist, tidskrift 1840. 1, 203. Tlie maigreves in Eibe are mentioned by Terpager in Eipae cimbricae, p. 723 ; the Aalburg maigreve in Wilda's Gildewesen p. 285, from a statute of the 15th century ; conf. Molb. dial. lex. p. 533.

2 Molb. dial. lex. pp. 150-1-2, where doubt is thrown on the derivation ol gade from ON. gata (gate, road). He has also a viidsoinmers-lam, y). 359.

^ The italics here are mine. Each man has a gadelam, but only the leadex a gadinde. — Teans.

^ Conf. EA. 821-6 on the time of assizes.

MAY-EIEING. 777

jaunt, in a Churcli- visitation ordinauce of 1563 (Baltisclie studieu 6, 137) ; and more precise information lias lately been collected on the survival of May-riding at Hildesheim, where the beautiful custom only died out in the 18th century. ^ Towards Whitsuntide the maigreve was elected, and the forest commoners in the Use had to hew timber from seven villages to build the Maywaggon ; all loppings must be loaded thereon, and only four horses allowed to draw it in the forest. A grand expedition from the town fetches away the waggon, the burgomaster and council receive a May-wreath from the commoners, and hand it over to the maigreve. The waggon holds 60 or 70 bundles of may (birch), which are delivered to the maigreve to be further distributed. Monasteries and churches get large bundles, every steeple is adorned with it, and the floor of the church strown with clippings of boxwood and field-flowers. The maigreve entertains the commoners, and is strictly bound to serve up a dish of crabs. But in all this we have only a fetching-in of the May-waggon from the wood under formal escort of the Maygrave ; not a word now about the battle he had to fight with winter. Is it conceivable that earlier ages should have done without this battle ? Assuredly they had it, and it was only by degrees that custom left it out. By and by it became content with even less. In some parishes of Holstein they keep the commencement of May by crowning a young fellow and a girl with leaves and flowers, conducting them with music to a tavern, and there drinking and dancing ; the pair are called niaigrev and maigron, i.e. maigriifin (Schiitze 3, 72). The Schleswig maygrave-feast (festum fi'ondicomans) is described in Ulr. Petersen's treatise already quoted (p. 694 n.).- In Swabia the children at sunrise go into the wood, the boys carrying silk handkerchiefs on staves, the girls ribbons on boughs ; their leader, the May-king, has a right to choose his queen. In Gelders they used on Mayday-eve to set up trees decorated and hung with tapers like a Christmas-tree ; then came a song and ring-dance.'^ All over German}'-, to this day,

1 Koken and Liintzel's Mittlieilmigen 2, 45-61.

2 He says : ' the memory of this ancient but useless May-feast finally passed hy inheritance to the town-cattle, which, even since 1G70, had every Mayday a garland of beech-leaves thrown about the neck, and so bedizened were di-ivun home ; for which service the cowherd could count upon his fee. '

3 Geldersche Volksalmanak voor 18:35, pp. lU-28. The song is given in Hoffm.

778 SUMMER AND WINTER.

we have may-hushes brought into our houses at Whitsuntide : we do not fetch them in ourselves, nor go out to meet them.^

England too had May -games or Mayings down to the 16-1 7th century. On Mayday morning the lads and lasses set out soon after midnight, with horns and other music, to a neighbouring wood, broke boughs off the trees, and decked them out with wreaths and posies ; then turned homeward, and at sunrise set these May-bushes in the doors and windows of their houses. Above all, they brought with them a tall birch tree which had been cut down ; it was named m^aiepole, maipollj and was drawn hy 20 io 40 yohe of oxen, each with a nosegay betwixt his horns ; this tree was set up in the village, and the people danced round it. The whole festival was presided over by a lord of the May elected for the purpose, and with him was associated a lady of the May." In England also a fight between Summer and Winter was exhibited (Hone's Daybook 1, 359) ; the Maypole exactly answers to the May-waggon of L. Saxony, and the lord of the May to the May-grave.^ And here and there a district in France too has undoubtedly similar May-sports. Champollion (Rech. sur les patois, p. 183) reports of the Isere Dept. : ' male, fete que les enfans celebrent aux premiers jours du mois de mai, en parant un d'entre eux et lui donnant le titre de roi.' A lawsuit on the 'jus eundi prima die mensis maji ad mojum colligendum in nemora' is preserved in a record of 1262, Guerard cart, de N.D. 2, 117 (see Suppl.). In narrative poems of the Mid. Ages, both French and German, the grand occasions on which kings hold their court are Whitsuntide and the blooming Maytime, Rein. 41 seq. Iw. 33 seq., and Wolfram calls King Arthur ''der meienhcere man,' Parz. 281, 16 j conf. ' pfingestlicher (pentecostal) kiiniges name,' MS. 2, 128^

On the whole then, there are four different ways of welcoming

Horae belg. 2, 178-180. Couf. ' ic wil den mei gaen houwen voor mijus liefs veinsterkyn,' go hew before my love's window, Uhland's Volksl. 178.

1 Has the May-drink still made in the Lower Rhine and Westphalia, of wine and certain (sacred?) herbs, any connexion with an old sacriiicial rite? On no account must woodroof (asperula) be omitted in prejiaring it.

" Fuller descript. in J. Strutt, ed. Lend. 1830, p. 351-6. Haupt's Zeitscln:. 5, 477.

2 The AS. poems have no passage turning on the battle of S. and W. In Beow. 2266 ' H waes winter scacen ' only means winter was past, ' el ibierno es exido,' Cid 1627.

RECEPTION OF SUMMER. 779

Summer^ that we have learnt to know. In Sweden and Gothland a battle of Winter and Summer, a triumphal entry of the latter. In Schonen, Denmark, L. Saxony and England simply Mayriding, or fetching of the May-waggon. On the Rhine merely a battle of Winter and Summer, without immersion,^ without the pomp of an entry. In Franconia, Thuringia, Meissen, Silesia and Bohemia only the carrying-out of wintxy Death ; no battle, no formal introduction of Summer.- Of these festivals the first and second fall in May, the third and fourth in March. In the first two, the whole population takes part with unabated enthusiasm ; in the last two, only the lower poorer class. It is however the first and third modes that have retained the full idea of the performance, the struggle between the two powers of the year, whilst in the second and fourth the antithesis is wanting. The May- riding has no Winter in it, the farewell to Death no Summer ; one is all joy, the other all sadness. But in all the first three modes, the higher being to whom honour is done is represented by living persons, in the fourth by a puppet, yet both the one and the other are fantastically dressed up.

Now we can take a look in one or two other directions.

On the battle between Vetr and Sumar ON. tradition is silent,^ as on much else, that nevertheless lived on among the people. The oldest vestige known to me of a duel between the seasons amongst us is that ' Conflictus hiemis et veris^ over the cuckoo (p. 675-6). The idea of a Summer-god marcliiiig in, bringing blessings, putting new life into everything, is quite in the spirit of our earliest ages : it is just how Nerthus comes into the land (p. 251) ; also Freyr (p. 213), Isis (p. 258), Hulda (p. 268), Berhta

' It was a different thing therefore when in olden times the Frankfort boys and girls, every year at Candlemas (Febr. 2), threw a stiijf'ed garment into the Main, and sang : ' Reuker Uder schlug sein mutter, schlug ihr arm uud bein entzwei, dass sie mordio schrei,' Lersner's Chrou. p. 492. I leave the song unexplained.

• Yet Summer as a contrast does occasionally come out plainly in songs or customs of Bohemia and Lausitz.

^ Finn Magnusen, always prone to see some natural phenomenon underlying a myth, finds the contrast of summer and winter lurking in more than one place in the Edda: in Fiullsvinnsmal and Harbardsliod (th. 2, 135. 3, 4-1 of his Edda), in Saxo's Oiler and Othiu saga (th. 1, lUG. Lex. 765), in that of Thiassi (Lex. 887), because OSinn sets the eye of the slain giant in the sky (p. ), and Winter is also to

have his eyes punched out (p. 7(>5) ; to me Uhland (Ueber Tlior p. 117. 120) seems more jirofouud, in regarding Thiassi as the storm-eagle, and kidnapped liiunn as the green of summer (ingriin, so to speak) ; but the nature of this goddess remains a secret to us.

780 SUMMER AND WINTEE.

(p. 273), Fricg (p. 304), and other deities besides, whose car or ship an exulting people goes forth to meet, as they do the waggon of May, who, over and above mere personification, has from of old his eve and strdze (p. 670 n.): in heathen times he must have had an actual worship of his own. All these gods and goddesses appeared at their appointed times in the year, bestowing their several boons ; deified Summer or May can fairly claim identity with one of the highest divinities to whom the gift of fertility belonged, withi^ro, Wuotan, Nerthus. But if we admit goddesses, then, in addition to Nerthus, Ostara has the strongest claim to consideration. To what was said on p. 290 I can add some significant facts. The heathen Easter had much in common with the May-feast and the reception of spring, particularly in the matter of bonfires. Then, through long ages there seem to have lingered among the people Easter-games so-called, which the church itself had to tolerate : I allude especially to the custom of Easter eggs, and to the Easter tale which preachers told from the pulpit for the people's amusement, connecting it with Christian reminiscences. In the MHG. poets, ' mines herzen osterspil, ostertac,' my heart's Easter play or day, is a complimentary phrase for lady love, expressing the height of bliss (MS. 2, 52^ 37^ Iw. 8120. Frib. Trist. 804) ; Conr. Troj. 19802 makes the ' osterlichen tac mit lebender wunne spiln ' out of the fair one's eye. Later still, there were dramatic shows named osterspile, Wackern. lb. 1014, 30. One of the strongest proofs is the summer and dance song of lord Goeli, MS. 2, 57* (Haupt's Neidh. xxv) : at the season when ea and eyot are grown green, Fridebolt and his companions enter with long swords, and offer to play the osterspil, which seems to have been a sword-dance for twelve performers, one of whom apparently was leader, and represented Summer beating Winter out of the land :

Fridebolt setze uf den huot F., put on thy hat,

wolgefriunt, und gang ez vor, well backed, and go before,

biut daz ostersaUs zer linken siten bind o. to thy left side,

bis dur Kiinzen huchgemuot, be for K.'s sake merry,

leite uns viir daz Tinkiiftor, lead us outside the T. gate,

Ifi den tanz al uf den wasen riten ! let dance, on turf be rid.

This binding on of the ' Easter seax,' or sword-hnife, leads us to

SAWING THE OLD WIFE. 781

infer that a sword of peculiar antique shape was retained; as the Easter scones, osterstuopha (RA. 298) and moonshaped ostermdne (Brem. wtb.) indicate pastry of heathenish form. The sword may have been brandished in honour of Ostara, as it was for Fricka (p. 304). Or is Ostersahs to be understood like Beiersahs (Haupt's Neidh. xxv. 17, note) ?

May we then identify Ostara with the Slav goddess of spring Vesna, the Lith. vasara (aestas), Lett, vassara, and with ver and eap in the forms ascribed to them on p. 754 ? True, there is no counterpart, no goddess answering to Marzana; but with our ancestors the notion of a conflict between two male antagonists, the giants Summer and Whiter, must have carried the day at a very early time [to the exclusion of the goddesses] .

The subject was no stranger to the Greeks and Romans : in one of Aesop's fables (Cor. 422. Fur. 380) %et/Aa)v and eap have a quarrel.-^ The Roman ver began on Feb. 7, the first swallow came in about Feb. 26, though she does not reach us till near the end of March, nor Sweden till the beginning of May (Tiedemann's Zool. 3, 624). The Florealia were kept from Apr. 28 till May 1 : there were songs, dances and games, they wore flowers and garlands on their heads, but the contrast. Winter, seems not to have been represented. I am not informed what spring customs have lasted to this day in Italy. Polydore Vergil, of Urbino in Umbria, tells us (de invent, rer. 5, 2) : ' Est consuetudinis, ut juventus promiscui sexus laetabunda Cal. Maji exeat in agros, et cantitans inde virides reportet arhorum ramos, eosque ante domorum fores ponat, et denique unusquisque eo die aliquid viridis ramuscuU vel herbae ferat; quod non fecisse poena est, praesertim apud Italos, ut madefiat.' Here then is a ducking too ; this May-feast cannot have meant there a fetching-in of spring, for that comes earlier, in March (see Suppl.).

Much more remarkable is the Italian and Spanish custom of tying together at Mid Lent, on that very Dominica La3tare, a puppet to represent the oldest woman in the village, which is carried out by the people, especially children, and sawn through the middle. This is called segare la vecchia. At Barcelona the boys on that day, in thirties and forties, run through all the

' Creuzer's Symb. 2, 429. 494, following Hermann's interpret, of names, makes of the giant Briareus ?i fighting icintcr-demon.

782 SUMMER AND WINTER.

streets, some with saws, some with billets of wood, and some with napkins in which people deposit their gifts. They declare in a song, that they are looking for the very oldest woman in the town, to saw her through the body ; at last they pretend they have found her, and begin sawing something, and afterwards burn it.^ But the same custom is also found among the South Slavs. In Lent time the Croats tell their children, that at the hour of noon an old woman is sawn in 'pieces outside the gates ; " in Carniola it is at Mid Lent again that the old wife is led out of the village and saion through the middle.^ The North Slavs call it hdhu rezati, sawing old granny, i.e. keeping Mid Lent (Jungm. 1, 56). Now this sawing up and burning of the old wife (as of the devil, p. 606) seems identical with the carrying out and drowning of Death, and if this represented Winter, a giant, may not the Romance and South Slav nations have pictured their hiems, their zima, as a goddess or old woman (SI, baba) ? * Add to this, that in villages even of Meissen and Silesia the straw figure that is borne out is sometimes in the shape of an old woman (p. 768), which may perhaps have meant Marzana (p. 773) ? I should not be surprised if some districts of Bavaria, Tyrol and Switzerland were yet to reveal a similar sawing of the old wife.^ The Scotch Highlanders throw the auld wife into the fire at Christmas (Stewart^s Pop. superst. p. 236 seq.).

But Lower Germany itself presents an approximation no less worthy of attention. On p. 190 we mentioned that it was the custom at Hildesheim, on the Saturday after Laetare, to set forth the triumph of chi-istianity over the heathen gods by knocking doivn logs of ivood. The agreement in point of time would of itself invite a comparison of this solemnity with that Old-Polish one, and further with the carrying-out of Death ; one need not even connect the expulsion of the old gods with the banishment

' Alex. Laborde's Itineraire de I'Espagne 1, 57-8 ; conf. Doblados briep. Hone's Dayb. 1, 369.

• Anton's Versuch iiber die Slaven 2, 66.

^ Linhart's Geschichte von Krain 2, 274.

^ The Ital. inverno, SjJan. invierno, is however masc.

» In Swabia and Switz., fronfasten (Lord's fast = Ember days, Scheffer's Haltaus p. 53) has been corrupted into a frau Paste, as if it were the fast-time personified (Staid. 1, 394. Hebel sub v.). Can cutting Mid Lent in two have signified a break in the fast ? I think not. What means the phrase and the act of ' breaking the neck of the fast,'' in an essay on Cath. superst. in the 16th cent. ? see Forstemann's Records of Augsburg Diet, Halle 1838, d. 101 (see Suppl.).

LOG-FELLING. GOSSAMER. 783

of Winter at all. In Geo. Torquatus's (unpublished) Annal. Magdeb. et Halberst. part 3 lib. 1 cap. 9 we are told that at Halberstadt (as at Hildesheim above) tliey used once a year to set up a log in the marketplace^ and throiv at it till its Jiead came off. The log has not a name of its own, like Jupiter at Hildesheim ; it is not unlikely that the same practice prevailed at other places in the direction of these two cities. At Halberstadt it lasted till markgraf Johan Albrecht's time ; the oldest account of it is by the so-called ' monk of Pirna/ Joh. Lindner (Tilianus, d. ab. 1530) in his Onomasticon : 'In the stead of the idol's temple pulled in pieces at Halberstadt, there was a dome-church (cathedral) edified in honour of God and St. Stephen ; in memory thereof the dome-lords (dean and chapter) young and old shall on Letare Monday every year set up a wooden skittle in the idol's stead, and throw thereat, every one ; moreover the dome-provost shall in public procession and lordly state let lead a hear (barz, 1. baren) beside him, else shall his [customary dues be denied him ; likewise a boy beareth after him a sheathed sword under his arm.' Leading a beat' about and delivering a bear's loaf was a custom prevalent in the Mid. Ages, e.g. at Mainz (Weisth. 1, 533) and Strassburg (Schilter's Gloss. 102).

This Low Saxon rejection, and that Polish dismissal, of the ancient gods has therefore no necessary connexion with a bringing in of summer, however apt the comparison of the new religion to summer's genial warmth. In the Polish custom at all events I find no such connexion hinted at. At the same time, the notion of bringing summer in was not unknown to the Poles. A Cracow legend speaks of Lei and Po-lel (after-lel), two divine beings of heathen times, chasing each other round the field, and bringing Summer-, they are the cause of 'flying summer,' i.e. gossamer. ^ Until we know the whole tradition more exactly, we cannot assign it its right place. Lei and Polel ax'e usually likened to Castor and Pollux (Linde i. 2, 1250''), to whom they bear at least this resemblance, that their names, even in old folksongs, make a simple interjection, ^ as the Romans used the twin

» Hall. allg. Iz. 1807. no. 256, p. 807.

^ Pol. lelum, poldum ; Serv. lele, leljo.lclja (Vuksub v.) ; \Valacb. lerurn (couf. lirumlarum, verba ellutitia). It seems to me hazardous to suppose them sous of Lada as C. and 1*. were of Leda. Couf. sujjra p. iJGO.

784 SUMMEK AND WINTER.

demigods to swear by. Fliegender sovimer, Jlugsommer, sommcr^ fliig, graswehe, are our names for the white threads that cover the fields at the beginning of springs and still more of autumn ; the Spring tissue is also called maidensummer, Mary's yarn, Mary's thread (p. 471), that of autumn aftersuramer, autumn yarn, oldrvives' summer ; but generally both kinds are covered by the one name or the other. Nethl. slammefje (draggletail ? Brem. wtb. 4, 799) ; Engl, gossamer (God's train, trailing garment), also samar, simar (train) ; Swed. dvdrgsndt (dwarf's net), p. 471. Boh. ivlacka (harrow, because the threads rake the ground ?) ; Pol. lato sivieto inarcinsMe, Mary's holy summer. Here again the Virgin's name seems to have been chosen as a substitute or antidote for heathen notions : the ancient Slavs might easily believe the gauzy web to have been spread over the earth by one of their gods. But the autumn gossamer has another Slavic name : Pol. bahie lato, old wives' summer. Boh. bahslce Veto, or simply habj, which puts us in mind once more of that antithesis between summer and the old wife (p. 782). She rules in winter, and the god in summer (see Suppl.). Can the words of the Wendish ditty, quoted p. 771, be possibly interpreted of the film as it floats in the air ?

I hope I have proved the antiquity and significance of the conceptions of Summer and Winter ; but there is one point I wish to dwell upon more minutely. The dressing-up of the two champions in foliage and flowers, in straw and moss, the dialogue that probably passed between them, the accompanying chorus of spectators, all exhibit the first rude shifts of dramatic art, and a history of the German stage ought to begin with such performances. The lorappage of leaves represents the stage-dress and masks of a later time. Once before (p. 594), in the solemn procession for rain, we saw such leafy garb. Popular custom exhibits a number of variations, having preserved one fragment here, and another there, of the original whole. Near Willingshausen, county Ziegenhain, Lower Hesse, a boy is covered over and over with leaves, green branches are fastened to his body : other boys lead him by a rope, and make him dance as a bear, for doing which a present is bestowed ; the girls carry a hoop decked out with flowers and ribbons. Take note, that at the knocking down of logs at Halberstadt (p. 783), there was also

DRESSING UP IN GREEN. 785

a hear and a boy with a sword (conf. supra p. 304 n.) in the procession ; that Vildifer, a hero disguised in a hearsldn, is led about by a musician, and dances to the harp. ^ Doubtless a dramatic performance of ancient date, which we could have judged better, had the M. Nethl. poem of here Wislau^ been preserved; but tlie name Yildifer seems to be founded on an OS. Wild-efor, which originated in a misapprehension of the OHG. Wildpero ('pero^ ursus being confounded with 'per' aper), as only a dancing bear can be meant here, not a boar. Now this bear fits well with the gadehasse of the Danish May feast (p. 776). Schmidts Schwab, wtb. SIS'" mentions the Augsburg ivaterhird : at Whitsuntide a lad wraj)t from head to foot in reeds is led through the town by two others holding hirch-houghs in their hands : once more a festival in May, not March. The name of this ' waterfowl ' shews he is meant to be ducked in the brook or river ; but whether Summer here is a mistake for Winter, whether the boy in reeds represents Winter, while perhaps another boy in leaves played Summer, or the mummery was a device to bring on rain, I leave undetermined. Thuringian customs also point to Whitsuntide : the villagers there on Whit-Tuesday choose their green man or lettuce-king ; a young peasant is escorted into the woods, is there enveloj)ed in green hushes and houghs, set on a horse, and conducted home in triumph. In the village the community stands assembled : the bailiff is allowed three guesses to find who is hidden in the green disguise ; if he fails, he must pay ransom in beer. ^ In other places it is on Whit-Sunday itself that the man who was the last to drive his cattle to pasture, is ivr-apt in fir and hirch houghs, and whipt through the village amidst loud cries of ' Whitsun-sleeper ! ' At night comes beerdrinking and dancing. In the Erzgebirge the shepherd who drives out earliest on Whit-Sunday may crack his whip, the last comer is laughed at and saluted Whitsun-loohy : so with the latest riser in every house. The sleeping away of sacred festive

• Vilk. safja, cap. 120-1 ; mark, that the minstrel gives him the name of Vitrleo (wise liou), which should of course have been Vitrbiorn ; for a bear has the sense of 1*2 men (Reinh. p. 445). The people's ' king of beasts ' has been confounded with that of scholars.

" Horae belg. 1, 51. Mone's Niederl. volkslit. p. 35-6. Conf. Wenezlan, Altd bl. 1, 333. Wislau is the Slav. Weslav, Waslav (Wenceslaus).

3 Eeichsauz. 1796. no. 90, p. 947. The herdsman that drives earliest to the Alpine pastures on May 1, earns a privilege for the whole year.

786 SUMMER AND WINTER.

hours (conf. p. 590 n.)^ and the penalty attached to it^ of acting the butze and being ducked, I look upon as mere accessories, kept alive long after the substance of the festival had perished (see Suppl.).

Kuhn (pp. 314-29) has lately furnished us with accurate accounts of Whitsun customs in the Marks. In the Mittelmark the houses are decorated with ' mai/ in the Altmark the farmservants, horse-keepers and ox-boys go round the farms, and carry May-crowns made of flowers and birch twigs to the farmers, who used to hang them up on their houses, and leave them hanging till the next year. On Whitsun morning the cows and horses are driven for the first time to the fallow pasture, and it is a great thing to be the first there. The animal that arrives first has a bunch of ' mai ' tied to its tail, which bunch is called dau-sleipe (dew-sweep),^ while the last comer is dressed up in fir-twigs, all sorts of green stuff and field flowers, and called the motley cow or motley horse, and the boy belonging to it the pingst-kddm ov pingst-hdclrel. At Havelberg the cow that came home first at night used to be adorned with the crown of flowers, and the last got the thau-schleife ; now this latter practice is alone kept up.^ In some of the Altmark villages, the lad whose horse gets to the pasture first is named thau-schlepper, and he who drives the hindmost is made motley hoy, viz. they clothe him from head to foot in ivild flowers, and at noon lead him from farm to farm, the deiv-sweeper pronouncing the rhymes. In other places a pole decked with flowers and ribbons is carried round, and called the bammel (dangle) or ping s-kddm, though, as a rule, this last name is reserved for the boy shrouded in leaves and flowers, who accompanies. He is sometimes led by two others called hundehrosel. In some parts of the Mittelmark the muffled boy is called the kaudernest. On the Droraling the boys go round with the pnngst-kddm, and the girls with the may-hride, collecting gifts. Some villages south of the Dromling have a more elaborate

^ So named, because it has to touch the dewy grass : which confirms my interpretation of the Alamannic tau-dmnil (E.A. 94, 630), supra p. 387 note.

^ In some places a winning horse lias a stick cleft in three fixed on his head and richly encircled with the finest fiowers ; the boy who rides him, beside many garlands, receives a cap woven of rushes, and must preserve a serious countenance while the procession slowly advances : if he can be provoked to laughter, he loses, Kuhn, p. o28.

DRESSING UP IN GREEN. 787

ceremonial. On * White Sunday/ a fortniglit before Easter, the herdboys march to the pasture with white sticks (supra p. 766) , and with these they mark off a spot, to which no one may drive his cattle till Whitsuntide.^ This being done, the smaller boys name their brides " to the bigger ones, and no one must reveal the name till Whitsunday, when the railed-off pasture is thrown open, and any one may tell the brides' names. On Whitmonday one of the boys is disguised by having two petticoats put on him, and one of them pulled over his head and tied up ; then they swathe him in may, hang flower-wreaths about his neck, and set a flower-crown on his head. They call him the fiistge mai (well-appointed, armed), and lead him round to all the houses; at the same time the girls go round with their may-bride, who is completely covered with ribbons, her bridal band hanging to the ground behind ; she wears a large nosegay on her head, and keeps on singing her ditties till some gift is handed to her.

Other villages have horse-races on Whitmonday for a wreath which is hung out. Whoever snatches it down both times is crowned, and led in triumph to the village as May-hing.

A work composed in the loth cent, by Aegidius aureae vallis religiosus reports the Netherland custom of electing a Whitsun queen in the time of bp. Albero of Liittich (d. 1155): ^ Sacerdotes ceteraeque ecclesiasticae personae cum universo populo, in solemnitatibus paschae et pentecostes, aliquam ex sacerdotum concubinis, purpuratam ac diademate renitentem in eminentiori solio constitutam et cortinis velatam, reginam creabant, et coram ea assistentes in choreis tympanis et aliis musicalibus instrumentis tota die psallebant, et quasi idolatrae effecti ipsam tanquam idolum colebant,' Chapeaville 2, 98. To this day poor women in Holland at Whitsuntide carry about a girl sitting in a little

1 While this fallow parjture is beinj; railed off, the new lads (those who are tending for the first time) have to procure bones to covei- the branches of a fir-tree which is erected. The tree is called the r/ibbet of bones, and its top adorned with a horse's shtll (Kuhn 323-4) : plainly a relic of some heathen sacrificial rite, conf. the elevation of animals on trees, pp. 53, 75, esp. of horses' heads, p. -17; the good Lubbe's hill of bones is also in point, p. 5*26.

^ This namiiirj of brides resembles the cri/ing of fiefs on Walbnrgis eve in Hesse, on the L. Rhine, the Ahr and the Eifcl, Zeitschr. f. Hess, gesch. 2, 272-7. Diefl'enbach's Wetterau p. 234. Ernst Weyden's Ahrthal, Bonn 1839, p. 216. And who can help remembering the ON. heit strengja at Yule-tide ? when the heroes likewise chose their loved ones, e.g. iu Su;m. IIG' : ' HeMnu strougdi heit til Svavo.'

78S SUMMER AND WINTER.

carriage, and beg for money. This girl^ decked with flowers and ribbons, and named pinxterbloem, reminds us of the ancient goddess on her travels. The same pinxterbloein is a name for the iris pseudacorus, which blossoms at that very season ; and the sword-lily is named after other deities beside Iris (perunika, p. 183-4). On the Zaterdag before Pentecost, the boys go out early in the morning, and with great shouting and din awake the lazy sleepers, and tie a bundle of nettles at their door. Both the day and the late sleeper are called lidlap or luilah (sluggard). Summer also had to be wakened, p. 765.

Everything goes to prove, that the approach of summer was to our forefathers a holy tide, welcomed by sacrifice, feast and dance, and largely governing and brightening the people's life. Of Easter fires, so closely connected with May fires, an account has been given; the festive gatherings of May-day night will be described more minutely in the Chap, on Witches. At this season brides were chosen and proclaimed, servants changed, and houses taken possession of by new tenants.

With this I conclude my treatment of Summer and Winter ; i.e. of the mythic meanings mixed up with the two halves of the year. An examination of the twelve solar and thirteen lunar months ^ is more than I can undertake here, for want of space ; I promise to make good the deficiency elsewhere. This much I will say, that a fair proportion of our names of months also is referable to heathen gods, as we now see by the identification of May with summer, and have already seen in the case of Ilrede (March) and Eastre (April), p. 289. Phol, who had his Phol-day (p. 614), seems also to have ruled over a Phol-mdnot (May and Sept.), conf. Diut. i. 409, 432, and Schefi'er's Haltaus 36. The days of our week may have been arranged and named on the model of the Roman (p. 127) ; the names of the three months aforesaid are independent of any Latin influence.^ A remarkable feature among Slavs and Germans is the using of onu name for two successive months, as when the Anglo-Saxons

1 That there were lunar years is indicated by the moon's being given ' at artali,' for year's tale, p. 710.

^ Martius rests on Mars, Aprilis must contain a spring-goddess answering to Ostara, Majus belongs to Maja, a mother of gods. The same three consecutive months are linked in the Latin calendar, as in ours, with divinities.

MONTHS. 789

speak of an gerra and ajftera Geola, aerra and eeftera LiSa, ami we of a great and little Horn (Jan. and Feb.), nay, Ougest is followed up by an Ougstin, the god by a goddess ; I even see a mythical substratum in popular saws on certain months, thus of February they say : ' the Sporkelsin has seven smocks on, of different lengths every one, and them she shakes,' i.e. raises wind with them. ' Sporkel,' we know, is traced to the Roman spnrcalia.

CHAPTER XXV. TIME AND WORLD.

Ill the last chapter we examined myths having reference to the alternation of seasons, to phenomena of the year. Oar language affords several instances of transition from the notion of time to that of space.

Ulphilas translates '^(^povoq, Kacpof;, lopa alternately by mel, hveila, peiJis, yet so that ^meP usually stands for ')(^p6vo<i or KaLp6<i, rarely for wpa, and 'hveila^ mostly for wpa, seldomer for ■)(^p6vo<; and Kaipo^ ; the former expressing rather the longer section of time, and the latter the shorter. Mel, OHG. miil, AS. moel, ON. mdl, lit. mark or measure, is applied to measured speech or writing as well as to a portion of time ; on the contrary, hveila, OHG. htitla, MHG. wile, AS. hwil (p. 702), denotes rest, and is purely a notion of time, whereas mel was transferred from space to time. We come across peihs (neut. gen. ]?eihsis) only twice, viz. Rom. 13, 11: ' vitandans |?ata |?oihs, j^atei mel ist,^ etSore? rov Kaipov, on wpa, and 1 Thess. 5, 1 : ' bi }>6 j^eihsa jah mela,' irepX royv ')(^p6vQ)v koI tcov KUipcov. Each passage contains both ]7eihs and mel, but the choice of the former for 'x^povo^ and the latter for Katp6<i shews that jjeihs is even better adapted than mel for the larger fuller notion, and the most complete arrangement would be : ]?eihs ')(^p6vo'i, mel Kaipo'i, hveila twpa. I derive Jjeihs from ]?eihan (crescere, proficere, succedere), as veihs gen. veihsis (propugnaculum) from veihan (pugnare) ; so that it expresses profectus, successus, the forward movement of time, and is near of kin to OHG. dihsmo, dehsmo (profectus), probably also to dihsila (temo), our deichsel, AS. jnsl, thill, for which we may assume a Goth. ]?eihslo, ]'eihsla, the apparatus by which the waggon is moved on. Schmeller 4, 294 cleverly connects temo itself with tempus : the celestial waggon -thill (p. 724) marks the movement of nocturnal time (Varro 7, 72-5), and j^eihsla becomes a measure like the more general ]:»eihs. Even if the connexion of the two Latin words be as yet doubtful, that of the two Gothic

TIME. 791

ones can hardly be so. But now, as the Goth. }?eihs has no representative in the other Teutonic tongues, and in return the OHG. zit, AS. tid, ON. ^id'' seems foreign to Gothic, it is natural, considering the identity of meaning, to suppose that the latter form arose from mixing up j^eihan (crescere) with teihan (nuntiare), and therefore that the AS. tid stands for |;id, and OHG. zit for dit; besides, the OHG. zit is mostly neut., like ]?eihs, whereas the fem. zit, tid would have demanded a Goth. ]7eiha]7s. Of course a Goth. )?eihs ought to have produced an OHG. dihs or dih (as veihs did wih) ; but, that derivation here branched in two or three directions is plain from the ON", timi, AS. time (tempus, hora), which I refer to the OHG. dihsmo^ above, and a Goth. |>eihsma, with both of which the Lat. tempus (and temo?) would perfectly agree (see Suppl.).

Like hveila, the OHG. stidla, and stunt, stunta, AS. ON. stund (moment, hour), contain the notion of rest, and are conn, with stilli (quietus), standan (stare), while conversely the Lat. momentum (movi-mentum) is borrowed from motion.^ We express the briefest interval of time by augenhlick, eye-glance; Ulph. renders Luke 4, 5 iv arLyfif) ')^p6vov ' in stiJca melis,^ in a prick of time, in ictu temporis ; 1 Cor. 15, 52 iv ptirf} 6(j)0a\fxou, ' in brahva augins/ brahv being glance, flash, micatus, AS. twincel, and traceable to braihvan (micare, lucere), OHG. prehan, MHG. brehen ; ^ AS. ' on heorhtm-hwile ' from bearhtm ictus oculi, ' on eagan heorhtm,' Beda 2, 13 ; ON. 'i augahrag&i,' conf. Sa3m. 1V
14^ 19**. OHG. 'in slago dero hrdwo/ N. ps. 2, 12, in a movement of the eyelid (conf. slegiprdwa palpebra, Graff 8, 316); 'ante-

^ In dihan, dihsmo the d remained, in zit it degenerated. Just so the Goth. Jjvahan first became regularly OHG. duahan, then irregularly tuahan, now zwagen ; the OS. thuingan first OHG. duingan, then tuingan, now zwingen. Less anomalous by one degree are OHG. zi for Goth, du (to), and our zwerg for ON. dvergr (dwarf), MHG. t were.

2 Numeral adverbs of repetition our language forms with atunt as well as vial, but also by some words borrowed from space, Gramm. 3, 230.

3 Beside the inf. bnjlwn (MS. 1, 47"'. 185*. Gudr. 1356, 2) we are only sure of the pres. part.: o\iiy.e-brehnider kle, MS. 1, 8^. brehender schin 2, 231^; for the pret. brack, MS. 2, 52*. Bon. 48. (58, could be referred to brechen, conf. ' break of day,' p. 7-47, yet the two verbs themselves may be congeners. In OHG. the perf. part, appears in 2)re7ta?i-ougi (Uppus), a compound formed like zoran-ougi, Gramm. 2,693. The Goth, brahv assures us of the princ. parts in full, braihra, hrahv, brehvum (like saihva, sahv, sehvum). But instead of an adj. braihts (bright), even the Gothic has only a transposed form bairhts, OHG. peraht, AS. beorht, ON. biartr ; yet our Perahta is afterwards also called Prohta, Brehte (pj). 277-9), and other proper names waver between the two forms, as Albrecht Albert, Eupreeht Robert.

VOL. II. A A

792 TIME AND "WORLD.

quatn supercilium superius inferiori jungi possit/ Caesar, heisterb. 12, 5. ' minre wilen (in less time) dan ein oucbra zuo der andern rauge geslaben/ Griesbaber p. 274. ' als ein oucbra mac M und zuo gegen/ can open and shut, Berth . 239. ' e ick die bant umbkerte, oder zuo gesliiege die (or better, diu) bra/ Er. 5172. ^also schier so (as fast as) ein brawe den andern slahen mac/ Fundgr. 1, 199 (see Suppl.).^

A great length of time is also expressed by several different words: Goth, divs (m.), OHG. ewa (f.), Gr. alcov, Lat. aevuvi shading off into the sense of seculum, 0. Fr. ae (p. 678) ; the OS. eo (m.) means only statutum, lex, as the Goth, mel was scriptura as well as tempus. Then Goth, alps (f.), by turns al(ov (Eph. 2, 2. 1 Tim. 1, 17. 2 Tim. 4, 10), and /Sio? or yeved; ON. old; OHG. with suffix altar (aevum, aetas), though the simple word also survives in the compound weralt (assimil. worolt), MHG. werlt, our welt, AS. werold, Engl, world, Fris. wrald, ON. verald, verold, Swed. werld, Dan. verd : constant use accounts for the numerous distortions of the word.^ Its Gothic form, wanting in Ulph., would have been vair-alj?s or ' vaire al|>s,^ virorum (hominum) aetas, aetas (Ufetime) passing into the local sense of mundus (world), just as seculum, siecle, has come to mean mundus, monde. We saw on p. 575 that Greek mythology supposes four ages of the world, golden, silver, brazen and iron : a fancy that has travelled far,^ and was apparently no stranger in Scandinavia itself. Snorri 15 gives the name of

1 Can brawe, OHG. prawa, ON. bra, be derived from breben ? Perbaps tbe set pbrases in the text reveal the reason for it. In that case the OHG. prawa must be for praba, and we might expect a Goth, brehva ? Then the Sanskr. bhru, Gr. 6(ppvs, would be left without the vivid meaning of the Teut. word.

• Its true meaning was so obscured, that other explanations were tried. Maerlant at the beginn. of his Sp. Hist. : ' die de werelt erst iverrelt hiet, bine was al in dole niet. Adam die icerelt al verwerrede.'' This deriv. from werren (impedire, intricare) was, if I mistake not, also hit ujjon by MHG. poets, e.g. Eenner 2293. Equally wrong are those from wern to last, and werlen to whirl. It is quite possible, that wero alt (virorum aetas) was intended as an antithesis to a risono alt (gigantum aetas) which preceded it.

3 In our Mid. Ages the World was personified, like Death, and the various ages were combined in a statue with a head of gold, arms of silver, a breast of brass and iron, and feet of earth, MS. 2, ITo^ ; another representation gave the figure a golden head, silver breast and arms, brazen belly, steel thighs, iron legs, earthen feet, MS. 2, 225''; a third, a golden head, silver arms, brazen breast, copper belly, steel thighs, earthen feet, Amgb. 27*'. This medley, though borrowed from Daniel 2, 31-43, reminds us of ancient idols formed out of various metals, and also of Hrungnir with the stone heart, and Mockrkalfi who was made of loam, and had a mare's heart put into him, Sn. 109. Hugo in his Eenner 13754 speaks of a steel, diamond, copper, wood, and straw world.

WORLD. 793

(jull-aldr to the period when the gods had all their utensils made of gold, which was only cut short by the coming of giantesses out of lotunheim. Had he merely borrowed this golden age from the classics, he would have taken the trouble to discover the other metals too in Norse legend. ^ But in the Voluspa (Stem. 8^) we see that other ages are spoken of, shegg-old (see p. 421), skdlm-dld, vind-old and varg-old, which are to precede the destruction of the world.

To translate K6a/xo<;, Ulph. takes by turns, and often one immediately after the other, the two words fairhvus and manasefis; both must have been in common use among the Goths. Manaseps 2 means virorum satus (seed of men), and is used at once for Xao'i and for Koa/xo^, thus fully conciding with the above developed sense of weralt. Fairhvm I take to be near of kin to OHG. ferah, AS. feorh, MHG. verch, so that it expressed lifetime again,, like aevum; it is also connected with OHG. firahi (homines), and would mean first ^coetus hominum viventium,^ then the space in which they live. It has nothing to do with fairguni, earth, mountain (see Suppl.).

As /coo-yu-o? properly means the ordered, symmetrical (world), mundus the clean, Avell-triramed, bright, and as the Frisian laws 126, 26 speak of Hhi sJiSne wrald ' ; so the Slavic sviet, svet,siviat is, first of all, light and brightness, then world, the open, public,'^ all that the sun illumines, whatsoever is 'under the sun.^ * So the Wallach. lume, the Hung, vildg, signify both light and world. The Lith. sioietas, 0. Pruss. switai, world, is borowed from Slavic. Like mundus, the Slav, sviet passes into the time-sense of seculum, viek (Dobrowsky's Inst. 149). The older Slavs called the world mir and ves'mir, Dobr. 24. 149; mir is also the word for peace, quietness, and seems akin to mira or mera, measure (order?). The Finnic for world is maa' ilma,,t\ie Esth. 7na ilm (from ilma, the expanse of air, and maa, earth), the Lapp, ilbme.

^ We may connect the golden age with FnVSi, whose mill ground gold and peace. The Finns say, in Ukko's time gold was ground in the mills, honey trickled from^the oaks, and milk flowed in the rivers (conf. p. G97), Ganander 98.

• Always with single n, as in mana-ma(ir)5rja, mana-riggvs, manags (many), manauli, and as in OHG. mana-houpit, mana-luomi, manac, conf. MHG. sunewende, p. 617 n. The reason of this peculiarity grammar must determine.

" To bring to light, impart to the world, is in Serv. ' na sviet izdAti.'

■• The Lett, word pasntile seems to have been modelled on this ' sub sole ' in Eccles. 1, 3. 2, 22. So ' unter disem wolken,' llol. 9, 31.

794 TIME AND WOKLD.

The ON. heimr is mundus, domus, and akin to himinn^ himil (p. 698)^ as mundus also is applied both to world and sky ; liehnshringla, orbis terrarum. Ulphilas renders olKovfxevri, Luke 2, 1. 4, 5. Rom. 10^ 18, by viidjungards ; to this correspond the AS. middangeard, Csedm. 9, 3. 177, 29. Beow. 150. 1496; the OHG. mitUngart, Is. 340. 385-6. 408. Fragm. theot. 17, 6. mittigart, Fragm. th. 17, 3. 20, 20. 25, 9. mittiligart, Gl. Jun. 216. T. 16, 1. miUilgart, T. 155, 1. 178, 2. 179, 1; the OS. middilgard; the ON. mi&gar&r, Seem. 1". 45^ 77^ 90^ 114^ 115^ Sn. 9. 10. 13. 45. 61 ; and even a Swed. folksong 1, 140 has retained medjegard. O. Engl, middilerd, mediloarth, like the Gr. liecTO'yata. Fischart^s Garg. Q&^ has mittelkreiss, mid-circle. We saw (p 560) that mi&gar&r was, to the Norse way of thinking, created out of Ymir's eyebrows, and appointed to men for their habitation. The whole compound, doubtless very ancient, is of prime importance, because it is native to our oldest memorials, and at the same time strictly Eddie. Nor is that all : in similar harmony, the world is called in ON. Oegislieimr, Saem. 124''. 125% and in MHG. viergarte, Annolied 444. Rol. 106, 14. Kaiserchr. 501. 6633. Karl. 38''; i.e. the sea-girt world, conf. Goth, marisaivs (ocean), and OHG. onerikerti (aetherium),^ Diut. 1, 250. Lastly, OHG. woroltring, 0. ii. 2, 13. iii. 26, 37. iv. 7, 11. v. 1, 33. 19, 1. erdring, 0. i. 11, 47. MHG. erdrinc, Mar. 198-9, orbis terrarum, Graff 4, 1163.

According to the Edda, a huge serjJent, the mi&gar&s ormi', lies coiled round the earth's circumference, ' umgior'S allra landa ' ; evidently the ocean. When Alexander in the legend was carried up in the air by griffins, the sea appeared to him to twine like a snake round the earth. But that ^ world-serpent,' hateful to all the gods (su er goS fia, Saem. 55*) was the child of Loki, and brother to the Fenris-ulfr and Hel ; he was called lormungandr (Sn. 32), the great, the godlike (conf. p. 351), and like Hel he opens wide his jaws, Sn. 63 (see Suppl.).

Everything shews that the notions of time, age, world, globe, earth, light, air and water ran very much into one another ; in ' earth-ring,' ring indicates the globular shape of the earth and

1 The Finnic ilma ? Festus says mundtis meant coelum as well as terra, mare, aer.

WORLD. 795

its planetary revolution. Manaseps, fairhvus, and we rait Tpoint, to spaces and periods filled by men.^

So far as ' world ' contains the notion of seculum and life, it is significantly called, even by the OS. poet, a dream : liudio drom, Hel. 17,17. 104,7. 109,20. manno drom 23, 7. 103,4. AS. gumdredm, Beow. 4933 ; ' la vida es sueno.' Its perishableness and painfulness have suggested yet other designations: 'diz ellende wuoftal (weep-dale),^ Tod. gehugde 983, as we say ' this vale of tears, house of sorrow^ (see Suppl.).

From its enormous superficial extent is borrowed the phrase nhius hrede werold,' Hel. 50, 1. 131,21; MHG. ' diu hreite werlt,' Mar. 161; ouv weite hreite ivelt. Also: Hhiz \ant hreitd,' 0. ii. 2, 18. daz hreite gevilde, Mar. 34. Wigal. 2269. diu hreite erde, Roth. 4857. Wh. 60, 29. Geo. 4770, evpela x^^^- This reminds one of the name of Balder's dwelling spoken of on p. 222-3, hrei&a hlih, which seems to include the two notions of breadth and brightness. An expression used by miners is remarkable in this connexion : ' blickgold, blicksilber ' is said of the clear molten metal gleaming on the fining-hearth, and ' der hreite hlich ' when there is a plentiful yield of it.^ The beautiful brigbt world is, as it were, a wide glance.

When ' world ' or ^ heimr ' is merely used in the general sense of dwelling place, we can think of several worlds. The Voluspa, Saem. 1% supposes nine worlds and nine firmaments (iviSir), conf. Saem. 36^. 49% just as Sn. 222^* speaks of nine heavens (see Suppl.) .3

Of these worlds, not abodes of the living human race, those that demand a close investigation are : the Flame-world, the Dead- world, and Paradise; but all are connected more or less

1 As we often use ' world ' and ' earth ' indifferently, so did the MHG. poets. The beginning of time is expressed at option either thus : ' von anegenges zit, daz sich diu werlt erhuop (up-hove), und muoter ir kint getruoc (bore),' Rol. 285, 12. ' sit (since) diu werlt erste wart,' Ulr. Trist. 3699 ; or thus : ' sit difiiii erde geleget wart,' Eol. 187, 7. ' sit diu erde akerst begunde bern (to bear),' Karl 70''.

2 In Matthesius's Sermons S-l": 'Now this Cyrus hath a silver kingdom, wherein the word of God, as silver refined in the lire, is i^reached zu hreitem plick.' 91'' : ' He hath sent his apostles into all the world, that they may preach the gospel zu hreitem plick, as ye mining folk say.' 101'' : ' Elsewhere lead apl^eareth in blocks, as at Goslar, where the Eamelsberg is zu hreitem plick almost all lead.'

3 Nine choirs of angels, Fundgr. 1, 101. Pass. 339. 341. ' niu fylkingar engla,' Fornald. sog. 3, 063 ; conf. the nine punishments of hell, Wackernagel's BastI MSS. 2-1'' [Buddliist books describe 18 hells, some hot, some coidj.

796 TIME AND WORLD.

with the upper world, that inhabited by man, and passages exist from the one to the other.

The ON. system supposes a world-tree, asJcr Yggdrasils, which links heaven, earth and hell together, of all trees the greatest and holiest. It is an ash (askr), whose branches shoot through all the world, and reach beyond heaven. Three roots spread out in three directions, one striking toward the ases into heaven, another to the hrim]?urses, the third to the under world. From under each root gushes a miraculous spring, namely, by the heaven root TJrd'arhrunnr (p. 407), by the giants^ root Mimishrunnr, by the hell root Hvergelmir, i.e. the roaring (or the old) cauldron, olla stridens (p. 563). All these wellsprings are holy : at the UrSar-well the ases and norns hold their council, the giants' well is watched by a wise man Mimir (p. 379), I know not whether a sage old giant himself or a hero, anyhow a semidivine being, or nearly so. Every day the norns draw water from their well, to water the boughs of the ash : so holy is this water, that it imparts to anything that gets into the well the colour of the white of an egg; from the tree there trickles a bee-nourishing dew, named hundngsfall (fall of honey). On its boughs, at its roots, animals sit or dart about : an eagle, a squirrel, four stags, and some snakes; and all have proper names. Those of the stags are elsewhere names of dwarfs, notably Ddinn and Dvalinn. The snake Ni&hoggr (male pungens, caedens) lies below, by Hvergelmir, gnawing at the root. The squirrel Ratatoskr ^ runs up and down, trying to sow discord between the snake and the eagle who is perched aloft. The eagle's name is not given, he is a bird of great knowledge and sagacity; betwixt his eyes sits a hawk Ved'rfdlnir.'^

The whole conception bears a primitive stamp, but seems very imperfectly unfolded to us. We get some inkling of a teud between snake and eagle, which is kept alive by Ratatoskr ; not a word as to the purpose and functions of hawk or stags. Attempts at explaining Yggdrasil I have nothing to do with; at

^ The word contains rata (elabi, permeare), Goth, vraton, and perh. taska, pi. toskur, pera : peram permeans ? Wolfram in Parz. 651, 13 has 'wenken als ein eichorn,^ dodging like a squirrel. The squirrel, is still an essential feature in the popular notion of a forest, couf. EA. 4^7 and the catching of squirrels at Easter (supra p. 616), perhaps for old heathen uses.

• The eagle's friend, for haukr i horni (hawk in the corner) means a hidden counsellor.

WOELD-TREE. 797

present, before giving my own opinion, I must point out two coincidences very unlike each other. This tree of the Edda has suggested to others before me the tree of the Cross, which in the Mid. Ages gave birth to many speculations and legends. Well, a song in the ^ Wartburg War,' MsH. 3, 181 sets the following riddle :

Ein edel boum gewalisen ist

in eime garten, der ist gemacht mit holier list;

sin wurzel kan der helle grunt erlangen,

sin tolde (for ' zol der ') riioret mi den tron

da der siieze Got besclieidet vriunde Ion,

sin este hreit hdnt al die werlt bevangen :

der boum an ganzer zierde stat und ist geloubet schoene,

dar ufe sitzent vogelin

siiezes sanges wise nacb ir stimme fin,

nach maniger kunst so haltents ir gedoene.

(A noble tree in a garden grows, and high the skill its making shews j its roots the floor of hell are grasping, its summit to the throne extends where bounteous God requiteth friends, its branches broad the wide world clasping : thereon sit birds that know sweet song, etc.) This is very aptly interpreted of the Cross and the descent into hell. Before this, 0. v. 1, 19 had already written :

Thes kruzes horn thar obana zeigot vf in himila, tbie arma joh. tbio henti tbie zeigont toorolt-enti, tber selbo mittilo boum tber scowot tbesau loorolt-Jloum,

tbeiz innan erdu stentit,

mit tbiu ist tbar bizeinit, tbeiz imo ist al gimeinit in erdu job im liirnile inti in abgrunte oub biar nidare.

(The cross's top points to heaven, the arms and hands to the world's ends, the stem looks to this earthly plain, . . . stands in the ground, thereby is signified, that for it is designed all in earth and heaven and the abyss beneath.) It matters little if the parallel passage quoted by Schilter from cap. 18 de divinis officiis comes not from Alcuin, but some later author : Otfried may have picked up his notion from it all the same.^ It says : ' Nam ipsa crux magnum in se mysterium continet, cujus positio

^ I do not know if Lafontuine bad Virgil's verses in his mind, or followed his own promptiug, when he says of an oak :

Celui, de qui la tete au ciel 6tait voisine,

et dout les pieds touchaieut a Tempiie des morts.

798 TIME AND WORLD.

talis est, ut superior pars coelos jpetat, inferior terrae inhaereat, fixa mfernorum ima contingat, latitudo autem ejus partes mimdi appetat/ I can never believe that the myth of Yggdrasil in its complete and richer form sprang out of this christian conception of the Cross ; it were a far likelier theory, that floating heathen traditions of the world-tree, soon after the conversion in Germany, France or England, attached themselves to an object of christian faith, just as heathen temples and holy places were converted into christian ones. The theory would break down, if the same exposition of the several pieces of the cross could be found in any eai'ly Father, African or Oriental; but this I doubt. As for the birds with which the 13th cent, poem provides the tree, and which correspond to the Norse eagle and squirrel, I will lay no stress on them. But one thing is rather surprising : it is precisely to the ash that Virgil ascribes as high an elevation in the air as its depth of root in the ground, Georg. 2, 291 :

Aesculus in primis, quae quantum vortice ad auras aetherias, tantum radice in tartara tendit ;

upon which Pliny 16, 31 (56) remarks: 'si Virgilio credimus, esculus quantum corpore eminet tantum radice descendit.^ ^ So that the Norse fable is deeply grounded in nature; conf. what was said, p. 696, of the bees on this ash-tree.

Another and still more singular coincidence carries us to Oriental traditions. In the Arabian ' Calila and Dimna ' the human race is compared to a man who, chased by an elephant, takes refuge in a deep well : with his hand he holds on to the branch of a shrub over his head, and his feet he plants on a narrow piece of turf below. In this uneasy posture he sees two mice, a black and a white one, gnawing the root of the shrub ; far beneath his feet a horrible dragon with its jaws wide open ; the elephant still waiting on the brink above, and four worms' heads projecting from the side of the well, undermining the turf he stands on; at the same time there trickles liquid honey from a branch of the bush, and this he eagerly catches in his mouth,-

^ Perhaps Hrabanus Maurus's Carmen in laudem sanctae crucis, which I have not at baud now, contains tlie same kind of thing.

• CaUla et Dimna, ed. Silvestre' de Sacy. Mem. hist. p. 28-9, ed. Knatchbull, p. 80-1 ; conf. the somewhat different version in the Exempeln der alien weisen, i).m. 22.

WOELD-TREE. 799

Hereupon is founded a rebuke of man's levity^ wlio in the utmost stress of danger cannot withstand the temptation of a small enjoyment. Well^ this fable not only was early and extensively circulated by Hebrew, Latin and Greek translations of the entire book/ but also found its way into other channels. John Damascenus (cii'C. 740) inserted it in his BapXaa/M kul ^Icodcracf),^ which soon became universally known through a Latin reproduction.^ On the model of it our Rudolf composed his Barlaam and Josaphat, where the illustration is to be found, p. 116-7; in a detached form, Strieker (Ls. 1, 253). No doubt a parable so popular might also reach Scandinavia very early in the Mid. Ages, if only the similarity itself were stronger, so as to justify the inference of an immediate connexion between the two myths. To me the faint resemblance of the two seems just the main point ; a close one has never existed. The ON. fable is far more significant and profound; that from the East is a fragment, probably distorted, of a whole now lost to us. Even the main idea of the world-tree is all but wanting to it ; the only startling thing is the agreement in sundry accessories, the trickling honey (conf. p. 793 n.), the gnawed root, the four species of animals.

But if there be any truth in these concords of the Eddie myth with old Eastern tenets, as well as with the way the Christians tried to add portions of their heathen faith to the doctrine of the Cross; then I take a further step. It seems to me that the notion, so deeply rooted in Teutonic antiquity, of the Irminsul, that ' altissima, universalis columna, quasi sustinens omnia ' (p. 115-7), is likewise nearly allied to the world-tree Yggdrasil. As this extended its roots and boughs in three directions (standa a ]7ria vega), so did three or four great highways branch out from the Irminsiil (pp. 356. 361) ; and the farther we explore, the richer in results will the connexion of these heathen ideas prove. The pillars of Hercules (p. 364), of Bavo in Hainault, and the Thor and Roland pillars (p. 394) may have had no other purpose than to mai'k out from them as centre the celestial and terrestrial direction of the regions of the world ; and the sacred Yggdrasil

1 Also in the East, conf. JeLalcddin's Divan in Hammer's Pers. redek. p. 183.

2 First publ. in Boissonade's Anecd. Graeca, torn. 4, Paris 1832, pp. 1 — 365.

3 Hist, duorum Christi militum (Opera, Basil. 1575. pp. 815 — W2) ; also printed separately, Antv. s.a. (the illustration at p. 107) ; another version in buriua 7, 858 beq., the parable at p. 889.

800 TIME AND WORLD.

subserved a very similar parfcition of tlie world. The thing might even have to do with ancient land-surveying, and answer to the Roman cardo, intersected at right angles by the decumanus. To the ashtree we must also concede some connexion with Asciburg (p. 350) and the tribal progenitor Askr (p. 571-2). Another legend of an ashtree is reserved for chap. XXXII (see SuppL).

Niflheimr, where Nt&hdggr and other serpents (named in Ssem. 44''. Sn. 22) have their haunt round the spring Hvergelmir, is the dread dwelling-place of the death- goddess SeZ (p. 312), Goth. Halja {' ov heljo/ Saem. 94% 'i heljo' 49. 50. 51, is clearly spoken of a place, not a person), it is gloomy and black, like herj hence a NehelJieim, cold land of shadows, abode of the departed,^ but not a place of torment or punishment as in the christian view, and even that was only developed gradually (p. 313). When Ulphilas uses halja, it is always for aS?;? (Matt. 11, 23. Luke 10, 15. 16, 23. 1 Cor. 15, 55), the infernus of the Vulg. ; whenever the text has yeevva, Vulg. gehenna, it remains gaiainna in Gothic (Matt. 5, 29. 30. 10, 28),it was an idea for which the Gothic had no word. The OHG. translator T. renders ' infernus ' by hella (Matt. 11, 23), 'gehenna '2 by hellafiur (5, 29. 30) or hellawizi (-torment 10, 28), and only ' filium gehennae' by hella sun (23, 15), where the older version recently discovered is more exact: qualu sunu, son of torment. When the Creed says that Christ 'ni^ar steig zi helliu' (descendit ad inferna), it never meant the abode of souls in torment. In the Heliand 72, 4 a sick man is said to be 'fiisid an helsid', near dying, equipped for his journey to Hades, without any by-thought of pain or punishment. That AS. poetry still remembered the original (personal) conception of Hel, was proved on p. 314, but I will add one more passage from Beow. 357: ' Helle gemundon, Meto^ ne cu^on,^ Helam venerabantur, Deum verum ignorabant (pagani). So then, from the 4th cent, to the 10th, halja, hella was simply Hades or the deathkingdom, the notion of torment being expressed by another word or at any rate a compound ; and with this agrees the probability

^ A dead man is called nifl-farinn, Saem. 249*. The progenitor of the Nibelungs -was prob. Nehel (Fornald. sog. 2, 9. 11, Nfefill for Nefill) : a race of heroes doomed to Hades and early death. ' Nibelunge : spirits of the death-kingdom,' Lachmami on Nib. 342.

• From gehenna comes, we know, the Fr. gehene, gene, i.e. supplice, though in a very mitigated sense now.

HELL. NIFL-HEIM. 801

that as late as Widekind of Corvei (1, 23) Saxon poets, chanting a victory of Saxons over Franks, used this very word hella for the dwelling-place of the dead : ' ut a mimis declamaretur, ubi tantus ille infernus esset, qui tantara muUitudinem caesorum capere posset ? ' 1 A Latin poem on Bp. Heriger of Mentz, of perhaps the 10th cent. ,2 describes how one that had been spirited away to the underworld declared 'totum esse infernum, accinctum densis

ndique silvis,' meaning evidently the abode of the dead, not the place of punishment. Even in a poem of the 12th cent. (Diut. 3, 104) Jacob says : ' so muoz ich iemer cholen, unze ich s6 vare ze der helle/ until I fare to hell, i.e. die. The 13th cent, saw the present meaning of helle already established, the abode of the damned; e.g. in Iw. 1472: 'God bar thee out of helle!' take thee to heaven, not guard thee fi-om death, for the words are addressed to a dead man (see Suppl.).

Hell is represented as a lodging, an irin, as ValhoU, where those who die put up the same evening (p. 145) : ' ver skulum d ValhoU gista i qveld,' Fornald, sog. 1, 106 ; ' vi^ munum i aptan O&lti gista' 1, 423; singularly Abbo 1,555 (Pertz 2, 789), 'plebs inimica Deo pransura Plutonis in urna.' No doubt, people used to say : ' we shall put up at Nobis-haus to-night ! ' The Saviour's words, crrjfxepov jxer ifxaO ecrj] iv tm irapahelafp, Luke 23, 43 have Hhis day/ but not 'to-night' (see Suppl.).

Here and there in country districts, among the common people, helle has retained its old meaning. In Westphalia there are still plenty of common carriage-roads that go by the name of hellweg, now meaning highway, but originally death-way, the broad road travelled by the corpse. My oldest example I draw from a Record of 890, Ritz 1, 19: ' helvius sive strata publica.' Later instances occur in Weisth. 3, 87. 106, in Tross's Rec. of the feme p. 61, and in John of Soest (Fichard's Arch. 1, 89).''

»

' Trad. Corbeiens. pp. 465. 604 makes a regular hexameter of it : 'tantus ubi infernus, caesos qui devoret omnes ? ' Tliis overcrowding of Hades with the dead reminds one of Galderon's fanatic fear, lest heaven stand empty, with all the world running to the other house after Luther :

Que vive Dios, que ha de tener en cielo pocos que aposentar, si considero que estan ya aposentado con Lutero.

(Sitio de Breda, jorn. primera).

2 Lat. gedichte dcs X. XI. jh. p. 335, conf. 344.

' Also in Lower Hesse : Ju'Uwpf/ by Wettesingen and Oberlistingen (Wochenbl. for 1833, 952. 984. 1023. 1138), hdllcxceg by Calden (951. 982. 1022), Iwllepfad by Nothfelden (923).

802 TIME AND WORLD.

In the plains of Up. Germany we sometimes iind it called todtenweg (Mone's Anz. 1838. pp. 225. 316). The ON. poetry makes the dead ride or drive to the underworld, *fara til heljar ' or ' til Heljar/ to the death-goddess : Brynhildr, after she is burnt, travels to Hel in an ornamental car, ' ok me'S reiSinni a helveg,' and the poem bears the title Eeheid', Saem. 227. In our Freidank 105, 9. 151, 12 it is the christian notion that is expressed by ' zer helle varn ' and ' dri straze zer helle gant.'' For the rest, a hellweg would necessarily bring with it a hellwagen (p. 314), just as we meet with a Wodan's way and waggon both (p. 151). Nay, the Great Bear is not only called himelwagen and herrenwagen, but in the Netherlands hellewagen (WolPs Wodana i. iii. iv.) ; see a ' Wolframus dictus hellewagen,' MB. 25, 123 a.d. 1314 (see SuppL).

The 0. Saxons at first, while their own hellia still sounded too heathenish, preferred to take from the Latin Bible ivfern, gen. infernes, e.g. Hel. 44, 21, and even shortened it down to fern, Hel. 27, 7. 103, 16. 104, 15. 164, 12 ; so that the poet cited by Widekind may actually have said infern instead of hellia.^

The heathen hellia lay low down toward the North; when Hermo^r was sent after Baldr, he rode for nine nights through valleys dark and deep (dokva dala ok diupa), the regions peopled by the dark elves (p. 445) ; he arrived at the river Gioll (strepens), over which goes a bridge covered with shining gold ; a maiden named MoSguSr guards the bridge, and she told him that five fylki of dead men ~ had come over it the day before, and that from this bridge the ' heliway ' ran ever lower and northwarder : ' ni'Sr ok nor^r liggr helvegr.' This I understand of the proper hall and residence of the goddess, where she is to be met with, for all the country he had been crossing was part of her kingdom. This palace is surrounded by lofty railings (hel-grindr), Sn. 33. 67. The hall is named EUu&nir (al. ElviSnir), the threshold fallanda forad (al. the palisade is fallanda forad, the threshold l^olmoSnir), the curtain hlikjandi bol, Sn. 33. It is probably a door of this underworld (not of Valholl, which has 540 huge

1 A place Infernisi (Erhard p. 140, a.d. 1113) ; Gael, ifrinn, Ir. ifearn, Wei. yfern, vffern.

• A fylki contains 50 (RA. 207), so tliat Baldr rode down with an escort of 250, though one MS. doubles the number : ' reiS Baldr her meS 500 manua.'

NIFL-HEL. 803

gates) that is meant in Seem, 226^ and Fornald. sog. 1, 204, where Brynhildr wishes to follow SigurS in death, lest the door fall upon his heel : a formula often used on entering a closed cavern.^ But HeFs kingdom bears the name of Nifiheimr or Nijlliel, mist- world, mist-hell,^ it is the ninth ivorld (as to position), and was created many ages before the earth (p. 558) ; in the middle of it is that fountain Rvergelmir, out of which twelve rivers flow, GioU being the one that comes nearest the dwelling of the goddess, Sn. 4. From this follows plainly what I have said : if Hvergelmir forms the centre of Niflheimr, if Gioll and the other streams pertain exclusively to hell, the goddess Hel's dominion cannot begin at the ' hel-grindr,' but must extend to those ' dank dales and deep,^ the ' dense forests ' of the Latin poem. Yet I have nothing to say against putting it in this way : that the dark valleys, like the murky Erebos of the Greeks, are an intermediate tract, which one must cross to reach the abode of Aides, of Halja. Out of our Halja the goddess, as out of the personal Hades, the Roman Orcus (orig. uragus, urgus, and in the Mid. Ages still regarded as a monster and alive, pp. 314, 486) there was gradually evolved the local notion of a dwellingplace of the dead. The departed wei*e first imagined living with her, and afterwards in her (it). In the approaches dwelt or hovered the dark elves (see Sup pi.).

Niflheimr then, the mist-world, was a cold underground region covered with eternal night, traversed by twelve roaring waters, and feebly lighted here and there by shining gold, i.e. fire. The rivers, especially Gioll, remind us of Lethe, and of Styx, whose holy water gods and men swore by. With Hvergelmir we may

1 The 0, Fr. poem on the ' quatre filsAimon' (Cod. 7183 fol. 126 b) makes Richart, -when about to be hung, offer a prayer, in which we are told that the Saviour brought back all the souls out of hell except one woman, who would stop at the door to give hell a piece of her mind, and is therefore doomed to stay there till the Judgment-day : all were released,

Ne mes que une dame, qui dist une raison : ' hai enfer ' dist ele, ' con vos remanez solz, noirs, hisdoz et obscurs, et laiz et tenebrox I ' a Ventrer de la parte, si con hsaut trovon. jusquau terme i sera, que jugerois le mont. The source of this strange legend is unknown to me.

2 ' Diu inre helle, wo 7iebel und finster.' The Lucidarius gives ten names of hell: stagnum ignis, terra tenebrosa, terra oblivionis, swarzia ffiimnne, etc. Clone's Anz. for 1834, 313 ; conf. expressions in the OS. poet : hot endi thiustri, suart si7uiahti, Hel. Go, 12 ; an dnloji thiiistron, an themo alloro ferrosten feme 65, 9 ; under ferndalu 33, 16 ; dia}) dodes dalu 157, 22.

804 TIME AND WORLD.

connect Helleborne in Brabant^ the source of Ilellehelce ; several places are named Helleput (Wolf's Wodana 1^ v. and 35). Helvoetsluis was cited, p. 315 note; the name Helle-voet (-foot) is, we are told, still to be seen on signboards (uithangborden) in the Netherlands (see Suppl.).

Gloomy and joyless as we must imagine Niflheimr/ there is no mention anywhere of its denizens being punished and tormented ; neither is it the wicked especially that are transported thither at the end of their life, but all and sundry, even the noblest and worthiest, as the examples of Brynhildr and Baldr may shew." The only exceptions seem to be the heroes that fall in battle, whom 0(Sinn takes to himself into Valholl.

In contradiction with this view stands another and, I think, a later one, that presented in Sn. 4 : Allfather the highest god has given to all men an immortal soul, though their body rot in the ground or burn to ashes ; all good men (rett si^a'Sir) go to him in Gimill or Vingolf, all the wicked (vaudir) to Niflheimr or hell (conf. Sn. 21 and 75, of which more hereafter). This is already the christian idea, or one extremely like it.

For the old heathen hell, pale and dim, the Christian substituted a pool filled with flames and pitch, in which the souls of the damned burn for ever, at once pitch-black and illumined with a glow. Gehenna is interpreted hellafiuri, MHG. hellefiwer Parz. 116. 18; the poet of the Holland, when he wants to picture vividly this black and burning hell, turns the old fem. form into a masc. : ^an thene hetan hel' 76, 22. 'an thene suartanhel' 103, 9. Erebi fornax, Walther 867. Nay, 0. and other OHG. writers make the simple heh (pix) stand for hell^: 'in dembeche/

' Cfedmon still pictures the witehus (house of torment) as ' deep, dreama leas, sinnihte beseald.' Striking images occur in a doc. of the 11th cent. (Zeitschr. f. d. a. 3 445) : swevilstank, genibele, todes scategruobe, waliente stredema, etc.

^ So all the Greek heroes sink into Hades' hotise under the earth. But it is hard to distinguish from it Tartarus, which lies lower down the abyss, and where the subjugated giants sit imprisoned. This denoted therefore, at least in the later times, a part of the underworld where the wicked dwelt /o?- their inmishment, which answers to the christian hell. But that the ' roots of earth and sea from above grow down ' into Tartarus (Hes. Theog. 728) suggests our Norse ashtree, whose root reaches down to Niflheim. Conf. also Ovid's descrii^tion of the underworld (Met. 4, 432 seq.), where ' Styx nebulas exhalat iners' fits in with the conception of Niflheim.

3 Quotations in my ed. of the Hymns p. 51. Add Muspilli 5, on which Schm. quotes a line from Walafrid : 'At secum iufelix jjieeo spatiatur averno,' Eugenius in Dracout. p. m. 30 : ' Ut possim ;picei poenam vitare baratliri/

HELL. 805

Warnung 547 and Wernlier v. Niederrh. 40, 10; 'die pecliwelle,' Anegenge 28, 19. It is a fancy widely scattered over Europe; the Mod. Greeks still say irlacra for hell, as in a proverb of Alex. Negri : e;^et iriaaav koI TrapdBeicTov, putting hell and heaven side by side. This pitchy hell the Greeks seem to have borrowed from the Slavs, the 0. SI. peklo meant both pitch and hell (Dobr. instit. 294), so the Boh. peklo, hell, Pol. pleMo, Serv. pahao, Sloven, pehel, some masc, some neuter; Lith, peMlv (fem.), 0. Vvw^s,. picJiullis (pickullien in the Catechism p. 10 is Ace), the devil himself is in Lith. piyculas, 0. Pruss. pickuls, conf. Rausch p. 484. The Hungarians took their p)ohol, hell, from the Slavic, as our ancestors did ' gaiainna ' and ' infern ' from Greek and Latin. And the smela, hell, of the Liineburg Wends seems allied to the Boh. smola, smula, resin or pitch. With the heat of boiling pitch was also combined an intolerable stench ; Reineke 5918: 'it stank dar also dat lielsclte p)ek.' Conf. generally Eu. 2845. 3130 (see Suppl.).

Since the conversion to Christianity therefore, there has clung to the notion of hell the additional one of punishment and pain : kvoUheimr, mundus supplicii, in Solarl. 53 (Ssem. 127^^) is unmistakably the christian idea. The OHG. hellawizi, OS. helliwiti, Hel. 44, 17, AS. hellewite, expresses supplicium iuferui, conf. Graff 1, 1117 on wizi, MHG. ivize, MsH. 2, 105'^; upon it are modelled the Icel. helviti, Swed. helvete, Dan. helvede, which mean simply our hell; from the Swedes the converted Finns received their helwetti (orcus), the Lapps their helvete, and from the Bavarians the Slovens in Caruiola and Styria got their vlze (purgatorium), for the Chui'ch had distinguished between two fires, the one punitive, the other purgative, and hanging midway betwixt hell and heaven.^

But the christians did not alter the position of hell, it still was down in the depths of the earth, with the human world spread out above it. It is therefore called abi/ssus (Ducange sub v.), and forms the counterpart to heaven: 'a coelo usque in abyssum."" From abyssus, Span, abismo, Fr. abime, is to be explained the MHG. dbis (Altd. bl. 1, 295; in abisses grunde, MsH. 3, 167), later obis, nobis (en abis, en obis, in abyssum). OS. helligrund,

1 Of one ill piu-gatory the Esthonians say: ta ou kakha ilma waliliel, he is hetueen two woiidt:.

806 TIME AND WOELD.

Hel. 44, 22; in afgrunde ghn, Eoth. 2334; ir verdienet daz afgrunde, 1970 ; ' varen ter Belle in den donhren helre,' dark cellar^ Floris 1257.^ AS. se neowla grund (imus abyssus), Csedm. 267^ ] . 270, 16; ])set neowle genial (profunda caligo) 271, 7. 275, 31. This neowel, niwel (profundus) may explain an expression in tlio Frisian Asega-bok (Richth. 130, 10), 'thiu niuent hille,* where a M. Nethl. text has ' de grundlose helle,' bottomless hell. Hell sinking downwards is contrasted with heaven mounting upwards: ' der himel allez uf get, diu helle siget allez ze tal/ Warnung 3375-81 (see Suppl.).

It appears that men imagined, as lying at the bottom of our earth, like a ceiling or grating of the underworld, a stone, called in MHG. poems dille-stein (fr. dille, diele, deal = tabula, plu'teus, OHG. dil, dili, ON. jjil, J?ili): 'griiebe ich uf den dille-stein,' if I dug down to the d., Schmiede (smithy, forge) 33 ; ' des hoehe viir der himele dach und durch der lielle hodem vert,* its height passes over heaven's roof and through hell's floor, ibid. 1252 ; ' viir der himele dach du blickest, u. durch der Jielle dillestein [is not this y^oor rather than ceiling?],' MS. 2, 199''; 'wan ez kumt des tiuvels schrei, da von wir sin erschrecket : der dillestein der ist enzwei (in-two, burst), die toten sint uf gewecket,' Dietr. drachenk. cod. pal. 226^. This makes me think of the 6fi(f)a\6'i at Delphi, a conical stone wrapt in net (Gerhard's Metroon p. 29) , still more of the lapis manalis (Festus sub v.) which closed the mouth of the Etruscan mundus, and was lifted off on three holy days every year, so that the souls could mount into the upper world (Festus sub v. mundus) Not only this pit in the earth, but heaven also was called mundus,^ just as Niflheimr is still a heimr, i.e. a world. And that hell-door (p. 802) is paralleled by the ' descensus Averni,' the 'fauces grave olentis Averni,' the 'atri janua Ditis' in Virgil's description, Aen. 6, 126. 201 (conf. helle mfart,' Veldeck's En. 2878. 2907); fairytales of the Slavs too speak of an entrance to the lower world by a deep pit, Hanusch p. 412 (see Suppl.).

The mouth or jaws of hell were spoken of, p. 314; Hel yawns

1 Does ' eggrunt ' stand for eck-grunt ? ' Das iuwer sele komen fizer eggrunde,' Cod. pal. 349, ld'\

• Conf. 0. Miiller's Etrusker 2, 96-7. The Finn, manala is 'locus subterraneus, uM versantur mortui,' sei^ulcrum, oicus, but derived from maa (terra, mundus), and only accidentally resembling ' manalis.'

DILLE-STEIN. MUSPILLI. 807

like her brother Fenrir^ and every abyss gapes :^ os geliennae in Beda 363, 17 is the name of a' fire-spouting well (puteus);^ in an AS. gloss (Mone 887) mud' (os) means orcus. The same Coll. of glosses 742 puts down sedff (puteus, barathrum) for hell, and 2180 cwis for tartarus, 1284 cwis-husle, where undoubtedly we must read cwis-susle. To civis I can find no clue but the ON. qvis calumnia [quiz, tease ? queror, questus ?] ; susl is apparently tormentum, supplicium, the dictionaries having no ground for giving it the sense of sulphur (AS. swefel) ; ' susle ge-innod,' Csedm. 3, 28, I take to be supplicio clausum. The notion of the well agrees remarkably with the fable in the Reinhart, where the hero having fallen into a well wheedles the wolf into the bucket; he pretends he is sitting in jparadis down there, only there is no getting to it but by taking ' einen tuk (plunge) in die helle.* The well easily leads to the notion of bathing: ' ze helle haden' MsH. 2, 254^; for you can bathe in fire and brimstone too (see Suppl.).

Christian and heathen notions on the punishments of the lost are found mixed in the SolarlioS of the Edda, Seem. 128-9. Snakes, adders, dragons dwell in the christian hell (CaGdm. 270-1), as at the Hvergelmir root (p. 796). It is striking how the poem of Oswald (Haupt^s Zeitschr. 2, 125) repi'esents a dead heathen woman as a she-ivolf, with the devils pouring pitch and brimstone down her throat. Dante in his Purgatorio and Inferno mixes up what he finds handed down by the Mid. Ages and classical literature. Read also the conclusion of Cgedmon (Fundgr, 202) ; and in the Barlaam 310, Rudolf's brief but poetic picture of hell ^ (see Suppl.).

That the heathen Mist-world lying far to the north was not filled with fire, comes out most clearly from its opposite, a Flameworld in the south (p. 558), which the Edda calls Maspell or Muspells-heimr. This is bright and hot, glowing and burning,*

1 Wallach. iad (hiatus), iadul hell.

• As evening is the ' mouth of night.'

•* Here we may'feum up what living men have reached Hades and come back: of the Greeks, Orpheus in search of Eurydice; Odysseus; Aeneas. Of Norsemen, HermoSr when dispatched after Baldr, and Hadding (Saxo Gram. p. 16). Medieval legends of Brandanas and Tuudalus ; that of Tanhiiuser and others like it shall come in the next cha,p. Monkish dreams, visions of princes who see their ancestors in hell, are coll. in D.S. nos. 4(51. 527. 530. 554 ; of the same kind is the vision of the vacant chair in the Annolied T2i, conf. Tundalus Go, 7.

• Muspellsheimr is not heaven, nor are the sons of Muspell the same as the light elves that live in heaven (p. 415) ; when Surtr has burnt up heaven and earth, VOL. lie B B

808 TIME AND WORLD.

natives alone can exist in it^.lience human beings from our world never pass into it, as into the cold one of the north. It is guarded by a god (?) named Snrtr, bearer of the blazing sword.

In the word Mu spell we find another striking proof of the prevalence of ON. conceptions all over Teutondom. Not only has the Saxon Heliand a omidspelU 79, 24, inutspelli 133, 4, but a High German poem, probably composed in Bavaria, has at line 62 muspilli (dat. muspille). Besides, what a welcome support to the age and real basis of the Edda, coming from Saxon and Bavarian manuscripts of the 9th cent, and the 8th ! Everywhere else the term is extinct : neither Icelanders nor other Scandinavians understand it, in Anglo-Saxon writings it has never shewn itself yet, and later specimens of German, High and Low, have lost all knowledge of it. Assuredly a primitive, a heathenish word.^

On its general meaning I have already pronounced, p. 601 : it can scarcely be other than fire, flame. The Heliand passages tell us : ' mudspelles megin obar man ferid/ the force of fire fareth over men ; ' inutspelli cutnit an thiustrea naht, al so thiof ferid darno mid is dadiun,' fire cometh in dark night, as thief fareth secret and sudden with his deeds (Matth. 24, 43. 2 Pet. 3, 10) ; and the OHG. poet says: ' dar ni mac denne mak andremo helfau vora demo muspille, denna daz preita wasal (Grafi" 1, 1063) allaz varprennit,^ enti viur enti luft allaz arfurpit,' then no friend can help another for the fire, when the broad shower of glowing embers (?) burns up all, and fire and air purge (furbish) everything.

It must be a compound, whose latter half spilli, spelli, spell we might connect with the ON. spioU (corruptio), spilla (corrumpere), AS. spillan (perdere), Engl, spill, OHG. spildan, OS. spildian (perdere) ; ^ ON. mannspioll is clades hominum, Itespioll (Nialss. c. 158) perhaps bellum. But we are left to guess what

there lies above this heaven a second, named Andlcingr, and above that a third named Viffbldinn, and there it is that lU/ht elves alone live now, says Snorri 22.

^ In Nemnich, among the many names given for the bittern (OHG. horotumbil, onocrotalus, ardea stellaris), there is also inuspel, which probably has to do with moss and moor, not with our word.

• So I read (trans.) for ' varprinnit ' (intrans.), as ' wasal ' cannot otherwise be explained.

3 OHG. M = ON. n ; conf. < wildi, kold' with ' villr, gull.' But then why is it not mus]3ildi in the OHG. and OS. poems ?

MUSPILLI.

mud, mu (mu ?) can be, whetlier earth, land, or else wood, tree. In the latter case, mudspelli is a descriptive epithet of fire, an element aptly named the wood-destroying, tree- consuming-, as elsewhere in the Edda it is hani vid'ar (percussor, inimicus ligni), grand vid'ar (perditio ligni), Sn. 126; the Lex Alam. 96, 1 has medela, medida in the sense of lancv/itu, lancwit (Gramm. 3, 455), the Lex Rothar. 305 modida, apparently for quei'cus, robur (Graff 2, 707), and the ON. mei&r. (perh. for meySr, as sei'Sr for seySr) is arbor, Lith. medis [Mongol, modo] arbor, lignum. The other supposition would make it land-destroying, world-wasting ; but still less do I know of any Teutonic word for land or earth that is anything like mud or mu. We may fairly regard it as a much obscured and distorted form; Finn, maa is terra, solum (see Suppl.).^

Surtr (gen. Surtar, dat. Surti, Ssem. 9^^) is the swart, swarthy, browned by heat, conn, with svartr (niger), yet distinct from it ; " it occurs elsewhere too as a proper name, Fornald. sog. 2, 114. Islend. sog. 1, QQ. 88. 106. 151. 206; and curiously 'Surtr enn liviti,' ibid. 1, 212. But there must have been another form Surti, gen. Surta, for in both Eddas we meet with the compound Surtalogi, Seem. 37*^. Sn. 22. 76. 90. A certain resinous charred earth is in the North still called Surtarhrandr (Surti titio, Biorn sub v., F. Magn. lex. 730), a mode of naming indicative of a superior being, as when plants are named after gods. Volcanic rock-caves in Iceland are called StirtarheUir (F. Magn. lex. 729); the Landnamabok 3, 10 (Isl. sog. 1, 151) tells how one Thorvaldr brouorht to the cave of the iotunn Surtr a songr composed about him: ''po, for hann upp til liellisins Surts, oc foer^i ]7ar drapu ]>a, er hann haf Si ort um iotuninn i hellimim ' ; and Sn. 209*^ 210^ includes Surtr and Svartr among the names of giants. Nowhere in the two Eddas does Surtr appear as a

^ Should any one reject these explanations, and take e.(/. OS. mudspelU for ' muth-spelli,' oris eloquiuni, or ' mut-sp.,' mutationis nuntius (as I proposed in Gramm. 2, 525), he is at once met by the objection, that the Bav. poet writes neither ' inund-sp.' nor ' muz-sp.,' any more than the ON. has munu-spiall ' or ' mut-sp.' ; and then how are these meanings to be reconciled with that of ' hcimr ' ? let alone the fact that there is no later (christian) term for tho world's end or the judgment-day pointing at all that way.

• Surtr might stand related to svartr, as the Goth, name Svartus to the adj. svarts. Procopius de bello Goth. 2, 15. 4, 25 has a Heruliuu name Souo/jrouas, Svartva ? The AS. geueal, of Deira has Swearta and Swerting, conf. Beow. 2406, and ' sweart racu ' below.

810 TIME AND WORLD.

god, but always, like other giants^ as an enemy and assailant of the gods. In Voluspa 48 (S?em. 8°-) fire is called ' Surta sefi,^ Surti amicus ; and in 52 (Ssem. 8'') we read :

Surtr fer sunnan meS sviga leifi, skin af sver^i sol valtiva^

i.e. Surtus tendit ab austro cum vimine gigas, splendet e gladio (ejus) sol deorum : ' leifi ' is plainly another word for giant, Sn. 209=^; 'valtiva' can only be a gen. pi. (conf. Seem. 10=^ 52^) and dependent on sol, not gen. sing, of valtivi (which never occurs, p. 194) dep. on sver^i; what can be the meaning here of ' svigi^ (usually twisted band, wisp ?) I cannot say, one would think it also referred to the brandished sword. Surtr then is expressly called a giant, not a god. Sn. 5 says : * sa er 8urtr nefndr, er }>ar sitr a landzenda til landvarnar, hann hefir loganda sverff', Surtus vocatur, qui sedet in fine regionis [i.e. Muspellsheims) ad eam tuendam, ensemque gestat ardentem (see Suppl.).

The authors of the Holland and the OHG. poem, both christian, but still somewhat versed in heathen poetry, alike introduce miispilli at the end of the world, at the approach of the Judgmentday, when the earth and all it contains will be consumed by fire. And that is exactly how the Edda describes the same event : Surtr arises with the sons of muspell, makes war upon all the gods and overcomes them, the whole world perishes by his fire, Sn. 5. 73. When he with his blazing brand comes on from the South, the rocks in the mountains reel, the giantesses flee, men go the way of the dead, heaven cracks asunder. Seem. 8'' ; the Ases do battle with Surtr and his host on a holm called Oskopnir (supra p. 144), they are all slain, and the world comes to an end (see Suppl.).

It is only the Edda that brings in the name of Surtr; but our OHG. poetry seems to have interwoven features of him into the church doctrine about Antichrist, OHG. Antichristo (p. 173-4), which, originally founded on the 11th chap, of Revelation, was afterwards worked out further on Jewish-christian lines of thought. The name occurs in two epistles (1 John 2, 18. 4, 3. 2 John 7), not in the Apocalypse, where he is meant by the many-headed heast. In his time two prophetic witnesses are to be sent from heaven to earth, but to be conquered and slain by him.

MUSPILLI.

Their names are not given either ; that they are Etioch and Elias follows from the power given them to shut heaven that it rain not, and is expressly acknowledged by the Fathers.^ Their bodies lie unburied in the street : after this victory the power o£ Antichrist attains its greatest height, until he gets upon the Mount of Olives, to ascend into heaven ; then the angel Michael appears, and cleaves his skull. ^

With this narrative our 0. Bavarian poet had become acquainted through learned men (weroltrehtwise), but still the old heathen pictures of the world's destruction come floating before him as ' muspilli^ draws nigh: he makes much of the j^ames, he sees the mountains set o)i fire by the blood of the mortally wounded Elias dropping on the earth ; no such circumstance is found in any christian tradition. The shij swelters in a blaze (suilizot lougiu), the earth hums (prinnit mittilagart), and his already quoted ' dar ni mac denne mak andremo helfan vora demo muspille', supported as it may be by Mark 13, 12. Luke 21, 16, sounds very like the Eddie

broeSr muno berjaz ok at bonom verSa,

muno systrungar sifjum spilla,

man ecki maSr oSrum ]?yrma (Saem. 7^ 8^).

He has ' mdno fallit,^ as Ssemund has ' sol tekr sortna, hverfa af himni heiSar stiornur.' Again Sn. 71 : ' ]>a drepaz brceSr fyrir agirni sakar, oc engi J^yrmir fobr eSa syn i manndrapum oc sifjasliti.' ^ So even a MHG. poet of the 12th cent. (Fundgr. 194) : ' so ist danneniht triuwe diu frowe der diuwe (maid), noch der man dem wibe; si lebent alle mit nide ; so hazzet der vater den sun,' etc. One would like to know what heathen figure

1 Justin Martyr's Dial, cum Tryph. ed. Sylb. p. 208 ; Tertull. de anima cap. 50, de resurr. carnis cap. 58 ; Hippolytus in A670S -n-epl ttjs avvreKeias rod Kdcr/xov kuI -rrepl Tov a.vTLXpiarov ; Dorotheus Tyr. de vita prophet, cap. 18 ; Ambrose on Apocal. cap. 11 ; Aug. de civ. Dei 20, 2*9 ; Greg. Magu. in moral. 15, 18. And see authors quoted in Hoffm. Fundgr. 2, 102 seq. and Kausler's Aul. denkiu. 1, 48G. For later times, conf. N. ps. 58, 7. 73, 10 ; Burcard. Wormat. 20, 93-7 ; Otto Frising. 8, 1-8; Discip. de tempore, serm. 10.

2 12-13th cent, accounts of Antichrist in the Hortus delici. of Herrat of Landsberg (Engelhard p. 48) ; in Cod. viud. 653, 121-2 ; Fundgr. 1, 195-0. 2, 100—134 ; Martina 191 seq. ; Wackernag. Basle M!SS. 22-' ; and conf. Introd. to Freidank Ixxi. Ixxii.

8 No stronger argument do I know for the theory that Voluspfi, is an echo of our Scriptures, than the agreement of the Edda and tlie Bible in this particular ; if only the rest would correspond !

812 TIME AND WOELD.

Antichristo took the place of to Bavarians and Alamanns, it must have been one similar to the Norse Surtr. Antichristo plays the fiendish hypocrite, Surtr is painted as the adversary of the Ases, as a giantj and his fire consumes the world. The muspells-synir are all drawn up in squadrons of light, they and Surtr by their fighting bring about a higher order of things, while Antichrist is but transiently victorious, and is finally overthrown by a mightier power (see Suppl.).

What adds new weight to the whole comparison is the affinity between Donar and Ellas, which was made out on p. 173-4 and is clear on other grounds. To the 8th cent. Elias might well seem something more than the Hebrew prophet, viz. a divine hero, a divinity. The Edda makes all the Ases, O&inn, Thorr, Freyr, and Tyr, unite their powers to do battle with the sons of fire and their confederates, yet they are beaten like Enoch and Elias : Elias bears a marked resemblance to Thorr (or Donar), Michael to the queller of Garrur or Fenris-ulfr ; I do not say that Enoch is equally to be identified with any particular god, but he might, Surtr with the flaming sword may remind us of the angel that guards Pai'adise, but he also finds his counterpart in the story of Enoch and Elias, for these two, at least in the legend of Brandan (in Bruns p. 187), have an angel with a fiery sword standing by

their side.^ An AS. homily De temporibus Antichristi quoted

by Wheloc on Beda p. 495 (supra p. 161n.) contains remarkable statem.ents. Arrogant Aritecrist, it says, not only strives against Grod and his servants, but sets himself up above all heathen gods : ' He ahef'S hine silfne ofer ealle ]m ]}e h»J?ene men cweedon j^set godas beon sceoldon, on hgej^ene wisan. Swylc swa waes Erculus se ent, aud AjJolUnis, ]?e hi mgerne god leton, IJhSr eac and Eoiuffen, ]>e hsej^ene men heria'S swiSe. Ofer ealle ]>sds he hine genne up ahef'S, forSam he laet J?cet he ana si strengra Jyonne hi ealle.' Why does the preacher say all this ? Had Saxon songs also identified the advent of Antichrist with heathen traditions, and recognised his victory, like that of Surtr, over Woden and Thunor ? The un-Saxon forms EowSen and Dlior indicate Norse or Danish

influence. But a decisive connexion is established by the

AS. Salomon and Saturn (Kemble p. 148) : in the great battle

^ M. Netlil. poems in Blommaert 1, 105a. 2, 12* have simiily an 'out man' in Enoch's place, but they mention the cherubiu vied enen sicenle vierin.

MUSPILLI. RAGNA-ROK. 813

between God and Antichrist, we are told, Thunder was threshing with hiB fiery axe, ' se Tlmnor hit |?rjsceSmid \ddve fyrenan cecxe,' by which is unmistakably meant Thor's Miolnir, the torrida chalybs (p. 180), and the confluence of heathen beliefs with those about Antichrist is placed beyond the reach of doubt. The devil too is called malleus, hammer, chap. XXXIII.

Whoever is inclined to refer the characteristics of our antiquity as a whole to Roman and christian tradition, could easily take advantage of this harmony between the two pictures of the world's destruction, to maintain that the Eddie doctrine itself sprang out of those traditions of Antichrist. This I should consider a gross perversion. The Norse narrative is simple, and of one piece with all the rest of the Edda ; the myth of Antichrist is a jumble, nay artificially pieced together. The two leading personages, Surtr and Antichrist, have totally different characters. How should the Scandinavians have foisted-in a number of significant accessories, notably this of muspell, and again a H. German poet unconnected in time and place have tacked on the very same ?

What the Edda tells of Surtr and his combat with the Ases is the winding-up of a fuller representation of the end of the world,^ whose advent is named aldar roh (S^m. 36"*), aldar lag, aldar rof (37^ 167'''),2 but more commonly ragna roh (7^ 38^ 96\ 166") or ragna rokr (65^ Sn. 30. 36. 70. 88. 165), i.e. twilight, darkening, of time and the sovran gods (supra p. 26). Rok and rokr both mean darkness, rok rokra in Seem. 113'' is an intensified expression for utter darkness ; Biorn renders rockur (neut.) crepusculum, rockva vesperascere. It is akin to the Goth, riqis cr/coro?, riqizeins (rK0Teiv6<i, riqizjan (TKorl^eaOat, only that is increased by a suffix -is, and has its radical vowel alien from the Norse '6, which must be a modified a, so that rok stands for rahu. This is confirmed by the Jutish rag nebula, still more by the AS, racu : '\oxin.e sweart racu stigan onginneS/ Cfedm. 81, 34 must be rendered ' cum atra caligo surgere incipit.' Rokstolar (Sjsm. 1'', conf. supra p. 136) are the chairs- of mist whereon the gods sit up in the clouds. To this rok, racu I refer the expression quoted

^ It is worth noting, that it is proclaimed by ^jrojr^/jt'fesses, Vala, Ilyndla ; and later, Thlota (p. 9G) announced consummationis scculi dicni.

" i/o/ruptura; as they said ' regin riafaz,' dii rumpuntur, the world is going to iiieces.

814 TIME AND WOELD.

on p. 753, ' die finstre ragende naclit/ whicTi can hardly be explained from our ragen (rigere) stick out.i Ragnarok then is the night of the gods, which comes over all beings, even the highest, p. 316 (see Suppl,).

Then the evil beings, long held in check and under spell, break loose and war against the gods : a wolf swallows the sun, a,nother the moon (p. 705-6), the stars fall from heaven, the earth quakes, the monstrous world-snake lormungandr, seized with giant fury (iotunmoSr, p. 530), rises out of the waters on to the land, Fenrisulfr is set free (p. 244), and Naglfar afloat, a ship constructed out of dead men^s nails." Loki brings up the hrimthurses and the retinue of Hel (Heljar sinnar), all the hellish, wolfish kindred have mustered together. But it is from the flame-world that the gods have most danger to dread : Surtr and his glittering host come riding over Bifrost the rainbow (p. 732) in such strength that they break it down. The single combatants are disposed thus : OSinn fights with Fenrisulfr, Thorr with lormungandr, Freyr with Surti*, Tyr with Garmi',^ Heimdall with Loki; in every case the old gods go down, though Garmr and Loki fall too, and Fenrisulfr is slain by ViSar.^ That Loki and all his kin should come out as allies to the sons of flame, follows from his

1 Pers. rache is said to mean vapour ; may the Sanskr. rajani (nox) be also brought in? The Slav, rok tempus, annus, terminus, fatum, Lith. rakus, is worth considering ; its abstract meaning may have sprung out of a material one, and fits in perfectly with the notions of time and world developed on p. 790 [rok, fate, is from reku, I speak] . Neither rok, rokr, nor riqis has anything to do with our ranch, reek, ON. reykr. It is not correct for Danish writers to use the form ragnarok; ON. rok must in their dialect be rag (as sok is sag) ; the OHG. form of ragnarok would be regiuo-rahha, or -rah, -rahhu, according as it were fem. or neuter. In Swed. and Dan. the term is extinct, but they both have a word for crepusculum, Swed. thysmnrker, Dan. tusmorke, which may be from >uss, J^urs, implying an ON. pursmyrkr, giant's murk, and that would tally witli the giant nature of Surtr.

^ This is intended to express the enormous thstance and tardy arrival of the world's end: before such a vessel can be built of the tiny nail-parings of dead bodies a longish time must elapse, which is still further i^rotracted by the wholesome precept, always to pare the nails of the dead before burying or burning them ; conf. F. Magnuseu's Lex. 520. 820. Not unlike is the image of the mountain of eternity, to which a bird adds one grain of sand every hundred years.

^ Garmr, the hugest of all hounds (Ssem. 46*), no doubt, like Kip^epos, only a metamorjjhosed giant, seems like him also to be a native of the under-world ; when O'Sinn journeys to Niflhel, ' moetti hann hvelpi J^eim er or heljo kom,' met he the whelp that came out of hell {di") ; he barks long, he lies chained and barks 'for GmjpaheUir ' (7^ 8''). The hell-hound of christian legend comes nearer the Norse wolf (see next note).

■* Vi'Sar's victory over the wolf, in whose jaws he jjlauts a foot mythically shod (Sn. 73), i-Bsembles the description in christian traditions of how the hell-hound was assaUed ; conf. Fundgr. 1, 178-9.

END OF THE WORLD. 815

very nature, lie being a god of fire (p. 241). After tie tuorldconflagration or Surtalogi, a new and happier earth, rises out of the sea, with gods made young again, but still called Aesir, Seem. 10 : a finale bearing an indisputable likeness to the Last Judgment ^ and New Jerusalem of the christians. Strophe 65 of the Vciluspa, which expressly mentions the reglndomr, has been pi'onounced an interpolation, because it is wanting in some MSS.; but interpolation is not a thing to be gauged by the contents alone, it must be incontrovertibly established by explicit proofs. Even if it did take place, neither the heathen character of the myth nor the age of the poem as a whole is thereby brought under suspicion. For, as the heathen faith among early converted races was not demolished at a blow,^ so here and there a christian dogma may also have penetrated even to nations that were still heathen; conversely some heathea ways of thinking lingered on among christians. Consider how the author of the Holland (131-2-3), while following the Gospels in describing the approach of the Last Day, yet admits such rank heathenisms as ' Gebanes Strom ' and ' Mudspelli.^ In the very personifying of the Judgment day {' verit stuatago in lant,' like 'muspelli humit ') there is a flavour of heathenism.

There seem to have existed some other traditions about the world's destruction, which have not come down to us in their fulness. Among these I reckon the folk-tale mentioned on p. 429, of the ring which the swan will drop from his mouth : it sounds altogether antique, and possibly harks back to the notion of the world-ring, p. 794.

To the destruction of the world hy fire, which heathens and christians^ look forward to as future, stands opposed that hy water, which the histories of both represent as past. The Burning, like the Deluge (pp. 576 — 81), is not to destroy for ever, but to purify, and bring in its wake a new and better order of things (see Suppl.).

' OHG. uiititago, suotiotac, suoiiotago, tuomistac, tuomtac, stuatago (Goth, stauadags?) ; MHG. endetac, siienetac, tuomtac; OS. 'the lazto dag,'' domdag, domesdag, AS. domdceg, Engl, ditomx-day , ON. di'unsdagr.

• In Leyden's Coinplaynt p. 98 is actually mentioned a story, 'the tayl of the wolfe and the warldis end,' which was ciu-rent in Scotland and elsewhere (supra p. 245) as late as the 15th cent. Worth reading is an Icel. free adaptation of the Vaticinium Merlini, said to have been composed towards the end of the 12th cent., in which are mixed ON. ideas of the world's end, V. Magn. lex. 658-9.

a 2 Pet. 3, 12 ; couf. Freidank 179, 4.

816 TIME AND WORLD.

The churcli tradition of the Mid. Ages (based on Matth. 24, Mark 18, Luke 21) accepts fifteen signs as premonitions of the Judgment-day ; ^ these do not include the unearthly winter, jimbulvetr, that wind-age (vindold, p. 793, Haupt's Zeitschr. 7, 309), which according to both Eddas (Seem. 36'', Sn. 71) precedes the ragnarokr, and is doubtless a truly Teutonic fancy ; '^ but we have a darheiiing of the sun and moon described (p. 244), and an earthquake, which equally precedes the twilight of the gods : ' griotbiorg gnata, himinn klofnar, gt^yr allr lotunheimr,' Saem. 8''; the ordinary term in ON. is land-skidlfti, Sn. 50, or 'iord shUf ; ' ' landit skalf, sem a J^ree^i leki,' Fornald. sog. 1, 424. 503.^ For o-et,(T/j,6<i Ulphilas gives the fem. reirS, he says ' aiv]>a, reirdida ; ' OS. ' ertha hicoda/ Hel. 168, 23; OHG. ' erda hibinota,' 0. iv. 34, 1, and the subst. erdpipa, erdbibunga, erdgiruornessi. Reinardus 1, 780 puts in juxtaposition: 'nee tremor est terrae, judiciive dies ;' and Servian songs : ' ili gr7ni, il se zemlia trese ? ' does it thunder, or does the earth shake ? (Vuk 2,

1. 105). But the earth's quaking, like the Deluge, is oftener

represented as a past event, and is ascribed to various causes. The Greek fable accounts for it by imprisoned cyclops or titans (Ov. Met. 12, 521) ; the Norse by the struggles of chained Loki when drops of poison fall upon his face (Seem. 69. Sn. 70), or by Fafnir's journey to the water (Foruald. sog. 1, 159. 160). The earth also quakes at the death of certain heroes, as Heimir (Fornald. sog. 1, 232), and of the giant (Yilk. saga cap. 176). At Roland's death there is lightning, thunder and earthquake, Rol. 240, 22. To the Indians the earth quakes every time one of the eight elephants supporting the globe is tired of his burden, and gives his head a shake.^ The Japanese say of an earthquake : ' there is another whale crept away from under our country ;' the

1 Thorn. Aquiuas (d. 1274) in Librum 4 sententiar. Petri Lomb. dist. 48. qu. 1. art. 4 (Thomae opp. Venet. 13, 442). Asegabok (Richth. 130-1). Haupt's Zeitschr. 1, 117. 3, 523. Hoffm. Fundgr. 1, 196-7- 2, 127. Amgb. 39. Wackernagel's Basle MSS. 22ij. Massm. denkm. 6. Berceo (d. 1268) de log signos que aparceran ante del Juicio, in Sanchez coleccion 2, 273. Thomas, Asegabok and Berceo all refer to Jerome, bi;t no such enumeration of the 15 signs is to be found in his works. Eol. 289-90 and Karl 89* have similar signs at Roland's death (see Suppl.).

• Notice Sffim. 119*: ' J'a'San koma siiiofar ok snarir vindnr,^ and the poetic descriptions of ivintcr in AS. writers: Andr. 1256-63. Beow. 2258.

;» ' Lond 611 skitlfu; Sn. 66 ; ' fold for skUVfandi,' 148.

■* Schlegel's Ind. bibl. no. 2.

EARTHQUAKES. WALAHALLA. 817

Tahitians: 'God shakes the earth;^^ the Lettons: 'Drebkuls beats the earth, and makes her tremble/ just as the Greeks call their Poseidon (Neptune) 'Evvoaiyaio^, ^Evvo(7iha<i (see Suppl.).

Our forefathers thought of the sky not only as a roof to the eai'th (p. 698), but as a heavenly kingdom, the dwelling-place of gods and of blessed men whom they had taken up. The bridge of the heavenly bow leads into it (p. 732), so does the milky way (p. 356).

We must first suppose all that to have happened which was told in chap. XIX about the creation of the world according to ON. views. After the gods had set in order heaven and earth, created Ask and Embla, and appointed Mi'Sgar^ to be the habitation of man, they fitted up for themselves in the centre of the world a dwelling-place named Asgard'r, in whose vast extent however a number of particular spots are specified.

None of these separate mansions is more celebrated than the Odinic Valholl (OHG. Walahalla?), whose name has an obvious reference to the god's own appellation of Valfo&r and to the valki/rs (p. 417).^ Into this abode, sometimes known as Od'ins salir (Ssem. 148^), the war-maidens have conducted to him all the heroes that from the beginning of the world have fallen in valr, on the battle-field (the vapn-bitnir, weapon-bitten, Yngl. saga c. 10) ; these he adopts as children, they are oshasynir, sons by wishing, ad-option,^ and likewise sons of the god Wish (p. 143). Their usual name is einherjar, egregii, divi, as OSinn himself is called Rerjan and HerjafocPr, and Jieri means the fighting hero (p. 342-3). It must not be overlooked, that Thorr himself is called an einheri, S^m. 68% as if a partaker of Valholl, From the existence of a proper name Einheri in OHG. (e.g. Meichelbeck no. 241. 476. Schannat 137), I argue the former prevalence of the mythical term amongst us also ; yet not with certainty, as it may be a contracted form of Eginheri, Agauheri, likeEinhart for Eginhart, Reinhart for Reginhart. Valholl is covered with shields

1 Zimmerm. Taschenb. f. reiseu, jabrg. 9 abtb. 2. Adelung's Mitbrid. 1, 631.

2 Prob. also to Valaakialf, the hall covered with silver, Sicm. 41*. Sn. 21 ; conf. Hlid'skidlf, p. 135. Skid!/ expresses the quivering motion of the airy mansion, like bif in Bifrost. Our OHG. ' loalaeht des ewigen libes,' Is. 73, 4 seems not merely posscssio vitfe (Eternns, but an emphatic term purposely chosen.

" ' Got setzet si in sine schuz,' in his bosom, Ls. 3, 92.

818 TIME AND WOELD.

(Sn. 2) and numbers 540 doorSj each affording passage to 800 einheries at once, or 432,000 in all, Stem. 43'^. In the midst of it stands a mighty tree Ljera&r, Lcerd&r, whose foliage is cropt by the she-goat Ilei&nm ; the goat's udder yields (as Amalthea^s horn did nectar) a barrelful of mead a day, enough to nourish all the einheries. The stag Elhpijrnir gnaws the branches of the tree, and out of his horns water trickles down into Hvergelmir continually, to feed the rivers of the underworld (pp. 558. 561).

This mansion of bliss all valiant men aspired to, and attained after death ; to the evildoer, the coward, it was closed ^ : ' mun sa maSr braut rekinn ur Valhollii, ok j^ar aldrei koma,' Nialss. cap. 89. To wage a life-and- death conflict with a hero was called shewing him to Walhalla (visa til Valhallar), Fornald. sog. 1, 424. Sagas and panegyric poems paint the reception of departed heroes in Walhalla : when Helgi arrives, OSinn offers to let him reign with him, Ssem. 166^; the moment Helgi has acquired the joint sovereignty, he exercises it by imposing menial service on Hundingr, whom he had slain. Thus the distinctions of rank were supposed to be perpetuated in the future life. On the approach of Eyrikr, OSinn has the benches arranged, the goblets prepared, and wine brought up (Fragm. of song, Sn. 97) ; Sigmund and Sinfiotli are sent to meet him (Miiller's Sagabibl. 2, 375). The Hakonarmal is a celebrated poem on Hakon's welcome in ValhoU. But even the hall of a king on earth, where heroes carouse as in the heavenly one, bears the same name Vallwll (Seem. 244''. 246''' anent Atli). The abodes and pleasures of the gods and those of men are necessarily mirrored in each other; conf. pp. 336. 393 (see Suppl.).

Indian mythology has a heaven for heroes, and that of Greece assigns them an elysium in the far West, on the happy isles of Okeanos ; we may with perfect confidence assert, that a belief in Walhalla was not confined to our North, but was common to all Teutonic nations. A ' vita Idae ' in Pertz 2, 571 uses the expression 'coelorum ijalatinae secies,' implying that a court is maintained like the king's palatium, where the departed dwell. Still more to the point is the AS. poet's calling heaven a shield-

1 A 13th cent, poem, to be presently quoted, has already an unmistakable reference to our tale of the ifpielmann or spielhansel (Jack player), who is turned out of heaven, because he has led a bad life, and performed no deeds.

WALAHALLA. 819

hw-g, vf^hich,\ke Yalholl, was covered with golden shields (p. 700). In the 'vita Wulframi^ there is shewn to the Frisian king Radbot a Jioiise glittering with gold, prepared for him when he dies (D.S. no. 447. V. d. BergVs Overlev. 93) ; like that described in MS. 2, 229b :

In himelrich ein hiis stat,

ein guldin wee darin gat,

die siule die sint mermelin,

die zieret unser trehtin

mit edelem gesteine.

A poem of the 13th cent. (Warnuug 2706 — 98) declares that the kingdom of heaven is to be won by heroes only, who have fought and bear upon chem scars fi'om stress of war (nach urliuges not), not by a useless fiddler :

Die herren vermezzen

ze gemache sint gesezzen,

unt ruowent immer mere

nach verendetem sere.

Versperret ist ir burctor, ^

beliben miiezen da vor

die den strit niht en-vahten

unt der fliihte gedahten. —

Swa so helde suln beliben

ir herren ir miiezet vehten,

welt ir mit guoten knehten

den selben gmach niezen (see Suppl.).

(There men high-mettled to repose are settled, they rest evermore from ended sore. Barred is their borough-gate ; and they without must wait who the fight ne'er fought, but of flight took thought, etc.)

But another thing must have been inseparable from the heathen conception, viz. that in Walhalla the goblet goes round, and the joyous carouse of heroes lasts for ever.^ Several expressions may

1 The same thought is strongly expressed in a well-known epitaph :

Wiek, diivel, wiek ! wiek wit van mi (get away from me) !

ik scher mi nig (I care not) en har um di,

ik ben en meklenburgsch edclman :

wat geit di diivel min supen an (to do with my quafiSng) ?

820 TIME AND WOELD.

be accepted as proofs of this. Glad's-heimr is tlie name of tlie spot on which Valholl is reared, Saem. 4P; in Gla&sheim stands the high seat of Allfather, Su. 14. A house by the side of it, built for goddesses, bears the name of Vin-golf, but it seems also to be used synonymously with Valholl, as one poet sings : ' vildac gla^r i Vingolf fylgja ok me'S einherjum ol drecka.' Vingolf is literally amica aula, and it is by the almost identical words winhurg, winsele, as well as goldburg, goldsele, that AS. poets name the place where a king and his heroes drink (Pref. to Andr. and El. xxxvii.-viii.). Gla'Ssheimr or glaSheimr may mean either glad, or bright, home; even now it is common to call heaven a hall of joy, vale of joy, in contrast to this vale of tears (p. 795). I do not know if the ancient term onons gaudii, mendelberc (p. 170 n.) had any reference to heaven ; but much later on, a joyful blissful abode was entitled sEeldenberc (Diut. 2, 35), wonnenberg, freudenberg : ' to ride to the freiidenberg at night ' says a Eec. of 1445 (Arnoldi's Misc. 102); *thou my heart's freiidensal ' is addressed to one's lady love (Fundgr. 1, 335), like the more usual * thou my heaven ' ; and in thieves' slang freudenberg and wonnenberg = doxy. Freuden-thal, -berg, -garten often occur as names of places (see SuppL).i/

Let us see how much of these heathen fancies has survived among christian ones, or found its counterpart in them. The name Valholl, Walahalla, seems to have been avoided; winsele may indeed have been said of heaven, but I can only find it used of earthly dwellings, Csedm. 270, 21. Beow. 1383. 1536. 1907. On the other hand our later and even religious poets continue without scruple to use the term freudensal for heaven, for heavenly

ik sup mit min herr Jesu Christ, wenn du, diivel, ewig dorsten miist, un drink mit en fort kolle schal, wenn du sittst in de hollequal.

This is not mere railing, but the sober earnest of heroes who mean to drink and hunt with Wuotau ; couf. Lisch's Mekl. jahrb. 9, 447.

1 Such a land of bhss is part of Celtic legend too, the fay Morgan (p. 412 n.) conducts to it ; I read in Parz. 56, 18 : den fuort ein feie, hiez Murgan, in Ter de la achoye (joie; see SuppL). Eemember also the Norse glerhiminn (coelum vitreum), a paradise to which old heroes ride (larlmagus saga p.m. 320-2) ; legends and lays have ylass-bergs and glass-hnrgs as abodes of heroes and wise women, e.g. Brynild's smooth unscalable glarhjerg (Dan. V. 1, 132), and the four glassbergs in Wolfdiet. (Cod. Dresd. 289), conf. the Lith. and Pol. glass-mountain of the underworld, p. 836 n. A glass-house in the air (chateau en rair) occurs as early as Tristan, ed. Michel 2, 1U3, conf. 1, 222

PARADISE, 821

joy is cliristian too. Also : ' stigen ze himel iif der scelden here/ climb tlie mount of bliss, Wackern. Basle MSS. p. 5. The christian faith tells of two places of bliss, a past and a future. One is whei'e the departed dwell with God ; the other, forfeited by our first parents' sin, is represented as a garden, Eden. Both are translated irapdheiao'; in the LXX, whence 'paradisus in the Vulg. ; this is said to be a Persian word, originally denoting garden or park, which is confirmed by the Armenian bardez (hortus). The only passage we have the advantage of consulting in Ulph., 2 Cor. 12, 4, has vaggs, the OHG. tvanc (campus amoenus, hortus). Oar OHG. translators either retsbin paradisi, Fragm. theot. 41, 21, or use wunnigarto, Gl. Jun. 189. 217. Hymn 21, 6. wunnogarto, N. ps. 37, 5; conf. * thaz wimnisama fold,' 0. ii. 6, n. 'after pai'adises ivunnen./ Diut. 3, 51. MHG. 'der wunne garte' Fuozesbr. 126, 27. 'der wolliiste garte,' MsH. 3, 463*. OHG. zartgarto, N. ps. 95, 10. The name ivunnlgarto may be substantially the same as vingoJf, winsele, as wuuna for wunia, Goth, viuja, lies close to wini (amicus). A strange expression is the AS. neorxena-wong, neorxnawong, Ctedm. 11, 6. 13, 26. 14, 12. 115, 23, of which I have treated in Gramm. 1, 268. 2, 267.

3, 726 ; it is apparently field of rest,^ and therefore of bliss, and may be compared to Goth, vaggs, OS. Jieben-wang, Hel. 28, 21. 176, 1 ; the 'norns' are out of the question, especially as heaven is never called norna-vangr in ON. poems. Beside hebenwang, the OS. poet uses odas-hem 96, 20 and tlp-odas-hem 28, 20. 85, 21, domus beatitudinis, the 'hem' reminding us of heimr in gla^sheimr, as the ' garto ' in wunnigarto does of asgarSr. Upodashem is formed like uphimil, and equally heathen. All the Slavs call paradise rai, Serv. raj, Pol. ray. Boh. rag, to which add Lith. rojiis, sometimes called rojaus sodas (garden of par.), or simply darzas (garden). Rai as a contraction of paradise (Span, parayso) is almost too violent ; Anton (Essay on Slavs 1, 35) says the Arabic arai means paradise."

Like Valholl, the Greek Elysium too, r/Xvaiov ireSLov (Plutarch

4, 1156. Lucian de luctu 7) was not a general abode of all the

1 The p-ntaTT] ^lor/j, Od. 4, 565.

2 To me the connexion of rai (and porh, of rdd glad, wiUing) with pal's, fxf., p^Sios ipaidioi) easy, and peia easily, seems obvious. Homer's gods are pda f jjotres living in ease. — Tiuns.

822 TIME AND WORLD.

dead, but of picked heroes : the Greeks too made the highest blessedness wait upon the warrior's valour. Neither were all heroes even admitted there, Menelaos was as son-in-law of Zeus, Od. 4, 569 ; others even more renowned wei'e housed with Aides, in Hades, Achilles paces ihe flowery mead, the acr^ohe\6<; Xeifxcov of the underwoi4d, whither Hermes conducts the souls of the slain suitors, Od. 11, 539. 24, 13. Lucian de luctu 5. philops. 24.

This 'ea' of the blest is no less known to our native song and story. Children falling into wells pass through green meadows to the house of friendly Holla. Flore 24, 22 : ' swer im selber den tot tuot, den geriuwet diu vart, und ist im ouchverspart diuwise, dar dii komen wilt, an der Blancheflur spilt (plays) mit andern genuogen (enow), die sich niht ersluogen ; ' who slays himself will rue such journey, to him is eke denied that mead, etc. Floris 1107 : ^iut ghehloide velt (flowery field), ten paradise.' 1248 : ' waenstu dan comen int ghehloide velt, daer int paradis ? ' 1205 : ' io sal varen int ghehloide velt, daer Blancefloeren siele jeghen die mine gadert, ende leset bloemekine.' The French Flores in the corresponding passages has camjo flori (Altd. bl. 1, 373),^ iu Bekker's ed. of Flore 786. 931. 1026. But our older poets, probably even those of heathen times, imagined heaven, like the earth, as a green j)lain : ' teglidid groni wang ' (the earth), Hel. 131, 1 ; 'himilriki, groni Godes wang ' 94, 24. 'groni wang paradise gelic ' 96, 15. ' the groneo wang ' 23, 4 is said of Egypt, Ceedm, 32, 29 : * brade sind on worulde grene geardas.' Hakonarmal 13 : ' ri'Sa ver nu sculom groena heinia gcSa,' i.e. to heaven. In many parts of Germany jparadis and goldne aue are names of places to this day. So viretum in Virgil has the sense of paradise, Aen. 6, 638 :

Devenere locos laetos et amoena vireta fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas.

Paradise then is twofold, a lost one, and a future one of the earth emerging newly green out of the wave : to I&avdllr, in whose grass the gods pick up plates of gold (for play), Ssem. 9*^ 10% corresponds that older Id'avollr where the ases founded As-

1 The M. Nethl. poem Beatiis 1037 places the Last Judgment ' int soete dal, daer God die werelt doemen sal.'

ELYSIUM. 823

garS, to the renovated realm of the future a vanished golden age that flowed with milk and honey (see Suppl.).^

The younger heaven has in the Edda another name, one peculiar to itself, and occurring only in the dative ' a giniU,' S^m. 10.'' Sn. 4, 75 [but 21 gimli as nom.?], for which I propose a nom. gimill (not gimlir) standing for himill, a form otherwise wanting in ON., and = OHG. OS. himil by the same consonantchange as Gymir for Hymir ; and this is confirmed by the juxtaposition ' a gimli, a himni,' Su. 75. Now this Gimill is clearly distinct from the Odinic Yalholl : it does not make its appearance till ragnarokr has set in and the ases have fallen in fight with the sons of muspell. Then it is that a portion of the ases appear to revive or become young again. Baldr and Hod'r, who had gone their way to the underworld long before the twilight of the gods, Hoenir who had been given as a hostage to the Vanir, are named in Voluspa (Sasm. 10^), as gods emerging anew; they three were not involved in the struggle with Surtr. Then again Sn. 76 gives us Vid'ar and Vali, who unhurt by Surtalogi revive the old Asgar'S on I'Savollr, and with them are associated Mo&l and Magni, beside Baldr and Ho^r from the underworld ; Hoenir is here passed over in silence. ViSar and Vali are the two avengers, one having avenged OSin's death on Fenrisulf, the other Baldr^s death on HoSr (hefniass Baldrs dolgr Ha'Sar, Sn. 106). They two, and Baldr the pure blameless god of light, are sons of OSinn, while Mo-Si and Magni appear as sons of Thorr by a gygr, and from that time they bear the emblem of his might, the all-crushing Miolnir. Unquestionably this means, that OSinn and Thorr, the arch-gods of old Asgar^, come into sight no more, but are only renewed in their sons. Baldr signifies the beginning of a mild spring time, p. 614 (see Suppl.).

1 It is natural that this paradise, past or to come, should have given birth to various tales of an earthly paradise, lying in regions far away, which has been reached by here and there a traveller : thus Alexander in his Indian campaign is said to have arrived at pai-adise. Not the Eddas themselves, but later Icol. sagas tell of Oddins-akr (immortalitatis ager) ; a land where no one sickens or dies, conf. dainn mortuus, morti obnoxius (p. 453) ; the Hervararsaga (Fornald. sog. 1, 411. 513) places it in the kingdom of a deified king Goffmundr (conf. Go'Sormr p. 161) ; ace. to the Saga Ereks viiSforla (Fornald. sog. 3, 519. G61-G. 670) it lay in the east, not far from India. Can this ' Erekr hinu vi^forli ' be the hero of the lost MHG. poem Erek der walla}re (pilgrim)? The name Odainsakr may however be an adaptation of an older and heathen 0'5iusakr = Vallholl, conf. the Oden s&ker in Sweden, p. 158, last line.

VOL. II. C C

824 TIME AND WOELD.

Again, as Valholl had only received men wlio died by weapons (vapn-dau'Sa vera), whilst other dead men were gathered in Folkvangr with Freyja (p. 304), and virgins with Gefjon (Sn. 36) ; from this time forward Gimill takes in without distinction all the just, the good, and Hel all the bad, the criminal ; whereas the former Hel, as a contrast to Valholl, used to harbour all the residue of men who had not fallen in fight, without its being implied that they were sinners deserving punishment.

The most difficult point to determine is, how matters exactly stand with regard to Siirtr, to whom I must now return. That he is represented, not as a god, but as a giant of the fire-world, has been shown, p. 809 ; nor is he named among the renovated gods ' a gimli ' in Saem. 10* or Sn. 76, which would have been the place for it. In one MS. alone (Sn. 75, var. 3) is apparently interpolated ' a Gimli mecPr Surti ; ' and it is mainly on this that Finn Magnusen rests his hypothesis, that Surtr is an exalted god of light, under whose rule, as opposed to that of O'Sinn, the new and universal empire stands. He takes him to be that migldier one from whose power in the first creation days the warmth proceeded (p. 562), the strong (oflugr) or rich one revealed by the vala, who shall direct all things (sa er ollu rae'Sr, Ssem. 10^), likewise the mighty one foreseen by Hyndla, whose name she dare not pronounce (|?a kemr annar enn mattkari, ]'6 |?ori ec eigi J>ann at nefna. Seem. 119*) ; conf. the strengra of the AS. homily (p. 812). But why should she have shrunk from naming Surtr, of whom no secret is made in Seem. 8*-^. 9*. 33", the last passage positively contrasting him with the mild merciful gods (in svaso go^S) ? The invasion of Surtr in company with the liberated Loki must anyhow be understood as a hostile one (of giant's or devil's kin) ; his very name of the swart one points that way.

The unuttered god may be likened to the a>yva3aTo^ 6e6<; (Acts 17, 23), still more to the word that O'Sinn whispered in the ear of his son Baldr's corpse, as it ascended the funeral pile : a secret which is twice alluded to, in Saem. 38* and Hervarars. p. 487; so an Etruscan nymph speaks the name of the highest god in the ear. of a bull.^ It has already been suggested (p. 815) that presentiments of a mightier god to come may have floated before

' O. Miiller's Etr. 2, 83, with which must be conn, the medieval legend of Silvester (Conrad's poem, pref. p. xx).

SURTE. 825

the heathen imagination, like the promise of the Messiah to the Jews.^

The world's destruction and its renewal succeed each other in rotation ; and the interpenetration of the notions of time and space, world and creation, with which I started, has been proved. Further, as the time-phenomena of the day and the year were conceived of as persons, so were the space-phenomena of the world and its end (Halja, Hades, Surtr).

1 Martin Hammerich om Eagnaroks-mythen, Copenh. 1836, argues plausibly that the twilight of the gods and the new kingdom of heaven are the expression of a spu-itual monotheism opposed, though as yet imperfectly, to the prevailing Odinic paganism. But then there are renovated gods brought on the scene ' a gimli ' too, though fewer than in Asgar'5, and there is nothing to shew their subordination to the mighty One. Still less do I think the author entitled to name this new god fimhultyr, a term that in the whole of the Edda occurs but once (Sfem. 9''), and then seems to refer to OSinn. Others have ventured to identify the word fimbul- (which like the prefix irman-, heightens the meaning of a word, as in fimbulfambi, fimbul- Jjulr, fimbulvetr, flmbullio'5, as well as fimbultyr) with the AS. fifel (p. 239) ; to tuis also I cannot assent, as fifill itself occurs in ON., and is cited by Biorn as the name of a plant.

CHAPTER XXVI. SOULS.

Languages treat the living life-giving soul as a delicate feminine essence : Goth, sdivala, akin to saivs the sea, an undulating fluid force, OHG. seola, sela, MHG. sele, NHG. seele, AS. sdwl, ON. sal, Swed. Dan. sjdl, and hence Finn, sielii; Gr. 'v^i'%»7; Lat. Ital. anima, Fr. a,me, 0. Fr. sometimes arms, Span, alma ; Russ. Serv. dusha, Slov. duzha. Boh. duse, Pol. dusza, Lith. duszia, Lett. divehsele. They all distinguish it from the naasc. breath and spirit, av€/xo<i, which goes in and out more palpably ; often the two names are next door to each other, as Lat. animus and anima, Slav, dulih and dusha}

And this intimate connexion may be recognised in the myths too. The soul freed from the fetters of the body is made to resemble those airy spirit forms of chap. XVII (conf. pp. 439. 630). It hovers with the same buoyancy, appears and vanishes, often it assumes some definite shape in which it is condemned to linger for a time (see SuppL).

It is a graceful fancy which makes the departing soul either break into blossom as a flower, or fly up as a bird. Both these notions are connected with metamorphosis into plants and animals in general, and are founded on the doctrine of metempsychosis so prevalent in early antiquity. Immortality was admitted in this sense, that the soul still existed, but had to put up with a new body.

Its passing into a flower I can only infer. A child carries home a bud, which the angel had given him in the wood ; when the rose blooms, the child is dead (Kinder-leg. no. 3). In Rhesas dainos p. 307, a rosebud is the soul of the dead youth. The Lay of Runzifal makes a hlacMhorn shoot up out of the bodies of slain heathens, a white flower by the heads of fallen christians, Karl

1 Where soul stands for life, vitality, a neuter -word is used, OHG. ferah, MHG. verch, AS. feorli, ON. fior ; but we saw (p. 793), bow from vita and /3ios there arose the sum total of all that lives, the world, Goth, falrhvus.

THE SOUL A FLOWEE. 827

118''. When the innocent are put to death, wliife lilies grow out of their graves, three lilies on that of a maiden (Uhland's Volksl. 241), which no one but her lover may pluck; from the mounds of buried lovers flowering shrubs spring up, whose branches intertwine. In Swedish songs lilies and limes grow out of graves, Sv. vis. 1, 101. 118. In the ballad of ' fair Margaret and sweet William ' :

Out of her brest there sprang a rose,

And out of his a hriar ;

They grew till they grew unto the church-top,

And there they tyed in a true lovers knot.^

In Tristan and Isote I believe it to be a later alteration, that the rose and vine, which twine together over their graves, have first to be planted. In a Servian folksong there grows out of the youth's body a green fir (zelen bor, m.), out of the maiden's a 7-ed rose (rumena ruzhitsa, f.), Vuk 1, no. 137, so that the sex is kept up even in the plants : ^ the rose twines round the fir, as the silk round the nosegay. All these examples ti'eat the flower as a mere symbol, or as an after-product of the dead man's intrinsic character : the rose coming up resembles the ascending spirit of the child ; the body must first lie buried, before the earth sends up a new growth as out of a seed, conf. chap. XXXVII. But originally there might lie at the bottom of this the idea of an immediate instantaneous passage of the soul into the shape of a flower, for out of mere drops of blood, containing but a small part of the life, a flower is made to spring : the soul has her seat in the blood, and as that ebbs away, she escapes with it. Greek fables tell us how the bodies of the persecuted and slain, especially women, assumed forthwith the figure of a flower, a bush, a tree (p. 653), without leaving any matter behind to decay or be burnt ; nay, life and even speech may last while the transformation is taking place. Thus Daphne and Syrin:t, when they cannot elude the pursuit of Apollo or Pan, change themselves into a laurel and a reed; the nymph undergoing transformation speaks on so long as the encrusting bark has not crept up to

1 Percy 3, 123 ; variant in Rob. Jamicson 1, 33-4.

' Therefore der rehe (vine) l)elonp;s to Tristan's grave, din rose to Isote's, as iu Eilliart and the cbap-booli ; Ulricli and Heinricli made tlie plants change places.

828 SOULS.

her mouth. Viutler tells us^ the ivege-ivarte (OHG. wegawartd, wegapreita)j plantago, was once a woman, who by the wayside waited (wartete) for her lover ; he suggests no reason for the transformation, conf. Kinderm. no. 160 (see Suppl.).

In the same way popular imagination, childlike, pictures the soul as a bird, which comes flying out of the dying person's mouth. That is why old tombstones often have doves carved on them, and these the christian faith brings into still closer proximity to spirit.^ A ship founders : the people on shore observe the souls of those who have sunk ascending from the wave toward heaven in the shape of white doves." The Romance legend of the tortured Eulalia says: 'in figure de colomh volat a ciel.'' As a hinl the little brother, Avhen killed, flies out of the juniper-tree (machandelbom, Kinderm. 47). To the enigma of the green tree and the dry, each with a little bird sitting on it, the interpretation is added : ' ir sele zen vogelen si gezalt ! ^ their (the christians^) soul be numbered among birds, MS. 2, 248^. In the underworld there fly scorched birds who were souls (svrSnir fuglar er salir voro), like swarms of flies, Sgem. 127*. The heathen Bohemians thought the soul came out of the dying lips as a bird, and hovered among the trees, not knowing where to go till the body was buried ; then it found rest. Finns and Lithuanians call the Milkyway the j9tt^/t of birds (p. 357n.), i.e. of souls.

The Arabs till the time of Mahomet believed that the blood of a murdered man turns into an accusing bird, that flits about the grave till vengeance be taken for the dead.

According to a Polish folk-tale every member of the Herburt family turns into an eagle as soon as he dies. The first-boru daughters of the house of Pileck were changed into doves if they died unmarried, but the married ones into owls, and to each member of the family they foretold his death by their bite (Woycicki^s Klechdy 1, 16). When the robber Madej was confessing under an appletree, and getting quit of his sins, apple after apple flew up into the air, converted into a white dove : they were the souls of those he had murdered. One apple still remained, the

' Servati Lupi vita S. Wigberhti, cap. 11 : Verum hora exitus ejus . . . circumstantibus fratribus, visa est avis quaedam specie pulcherrima supra ejus corpusculum ter ailvolasse, nusquamque jiostea comparuisse. Not so much the soul itself, as a sj^irit who escorts it.

" Maerlant 2, 217, from a Latin source.

THE SOUL A BIRD. MEADOW. 829~

soul of his father, whose murder he had suppressed ; when at length he owned that heinous crime, the last apple changed into a gray dove, and flew after the rest (ibid. 1, 180). This agrees with the unresting birds of the Boh. legend. In a Podolian folksong, on the grave-mound there shoots up a little oak, and on it sits a snow-white dove (ibid. 1, 209). ^

Instances of transformation inDO hirds were given above, (pp. 673-6. 680), under woodpecker and cuckoo. Greek mythology has plenty of others (see Suppl.).

The popular opinion of Greece also regarded the soul as a winged being ("v/^f^^ irvevijua ical ^Q}U(f)iov ttttjvov " says Hesychius), not bird, but butterfiy, which is even more apt, for the insect is developed out of the chrysalis, as the soul is out of the body; hence "^vxij is also the word for butterfly. A Roman epitaph found in Spain has the words : M. Porcius M. haeredibus mando etiam cinere ut meo volitet ebrius papilio? In Basque, '^arima' is soul (couf. arme, alma, p. 826), and ' astoaren arima' (ass's soul) butterfly. We shall come across these butterflies again as will o' the wisps (ziebold, vezha), and in the Chap, on Witches as elvish beings (see Suppl.).

When men are in a trance, or asleep, the soul runs out of them in the shape of a snake,weasel or mouse (chap. XXXIV and Suppl.) ,

Of will o' the luisps a subsequent chapter will treat ; synonymous with them I find wiesenhilpfer , iciesenhupferin, meadowhopper, e.g. in the Magdelob (printed 1683) p. 46; its explanation, from their dancing on marshy meadows, is right enough, but perhaps too limited. Hans Sachs is not thinkiug of igues fatui, when he more than once employs the set phrase : ' mit im schirmen, dass die seel in dein gras umhlmpfen,' fence with him till their souls hop about in the grass iii. 3, 13*. iv. 3, 28''*. 'und schmitz ihn in ein fiderling, dass sein seel muss im gras umhliupfen' iv. 3, 6P; he simply means that the soul flies out of him, he dies. Therefore the same superstition again, that the soul of the dying flutters (as bird or butterfly) in the meadow, i.e. the

• Na tej mogile wyrost ci dqbeczek, ua uiej bieluchny siada gotqbeczek.

• ipvxr] 5' iK crd}/xaTos Itttt}, Jlew out of the body, Batrach. 207. \f^vxT] 5^ /jkX^wv

i^^TTTT} 211. (K fJ.f\eWV Ov/XOS TTTCLTO, II. 23, 880.

^ First in Ambr. de Morales's Antiguidades de las ciudades de Espaua, Alcala 1575, fol. 31^; tlience iu Gruter, aud in Spou's Miscell. erud. antiq. p. 8.

830 SOULS.

meadow of the underworld spoken of in p. 822.^ Just so the Bohemians make the soul fly about in trees, Koniginh. hs. p. 88. 106 ; hence both souls and elves dance to and fro in the meadows at night. Strange^ that a minnesanger already makes the soul of a drunken (as if entranced) man jump : ' min sele uf eime rippe stat, wafen ! diu von dem wine daruf gehuppet hat ' (MS. 2, 105^).- So the souls of the drowned keep jumping up out of the jars, p. 49C (see Suppl.). Shooting stars are supposed to be the souls of dying men (p. 722) ; not only heroes and other men, but separate limbs of their bodies were fixed in the sky as stars, chap. XXII.

These are the simplest (if you will, rudest) notions as to the nature of the soul, and to them I ascribe a high antiquity.

More polished, more deeply rooted in ancient myths, is the opinion of the souFs passage into the domain of the underworld across a water which divides the realm of living men from that of the dead.

The Norse narrative of the death of Baldr has the remarkable incident, that the ases placed his body on hoard a vessel, in which they erected the funeral pile, set it on fire, and so committed it to the sea at high water (Sn. 6Q).^ In the same way the corpse of the deified hero Scild (p. 369) is adorned and carried into a ship, which drifts away on the sea, nobody knows whither, Beow. 55 — 105. Sigmundr bears the body of his beloved son Sinfiotli to the seashore, where a stranger waits with a skifi", and offers

^ Those who are neither saved nor damned come into the green meadow, Heinse's Ardinghello 1, 96.

^ Conf. Helbl. 1, 354 : ' vrou Sele, tretet uf ein rippe.'' Eenart in his bucket at the bottom of the well (p. 807), to humbug Ysengriu, pretends he is living in paradise there, and that every soul, on parting from the body, has to sit on the bucket-pole till it is penitent, then it may climb down, and leave all its ills behind, Eenart 6804-13.

3 What deep root this custom had taken in the North, may be gathered from the fact that bodies were also hurled in a boat [on land] , doubtless so that on their journey to the underworld, when they came to a water, they might have their ferrf' at hand. ' Hakon konungr tok i>av skip oil et att hof'So Eiriks synir, ok let draga a land upp ; J'ar let Hakon legr/ja Egil Ullserk i skip, oc me'S hanom alia J^a menn er af J)eirra li^'i hofSo fallit, let bent par at iorS oc griot. Hakon konungr let oc fleiri skip uppsetja, oc bera a valinn,' Saga H. go'Sa, cap. 27. ' Unnr var logff i skip i haiiginuin,' Laxd. p. 16. ' Asmundr var heygcfr ok i skip lagcfr, J^rsell hans lag'Sr i annan stafn skipsim,' Islend. sog. 1, 66. ' Geirmuudr heyg&r ok lagcfr i skip ]>a,v uti skoginn fra gart5i,' ibid. 1, 97. Probably the bodies of the great were first laid in a coffin, and this put in the boat, which was then buried in the hill. Gudrun says: ' knor mun ek kaupa ok kisto stein^a,' Ssem. 264''. No boats have been found, that I know of, in ancient barrows of Continental Germany.

CEOSSING THE WATEE. 831

a passage ; Sigmundr lays the dead in the hoat, whicli has then its full freight^ the unknown pushes off and sails away with the corpse, Seem. 170-1. Fornald. sog. 1, 142. Frotho's Law p. 87 lays down distinctions of rank : ' Centurionis vel satrapae corpus rogo propria nave constructo funerandum constituit ; dena auteru gubernatorum corpora unius pui^iois igne consumi praecepit ; ducem quempiam aut regem interfectum proprio injectum. navigio concremari.'' The dead larlmagus is conveyed in a ship by his widow to a holy land, larlm. saga cap. 45. A Swedish folk-tale (Afzelius 1, 4) speaks of a ijolden ship lying sunk near the schliisselberg at Runemad ; in that ship Odin is said to have carried the slain from Bravalla to Valliall. In the 0. Fr. romance of Lancelot du lac, ed. 1591, p. 147 the demoiselle d'Escalot arranges what is to be done with her body : ' le pria, que son corps fid mis en ime nef richemeut equippee, que I' on laisseroit alter au gre du vent sans conduite.' ^ And in the romance of Gawan a swan tows a boat in which lies a dead knight (Keller's Romvart 670). Was it believed that the corpse, abandoned to the sacred sea and the winds, would of itself arrive at the land of death that was not to be reached under human guidance ?

Here it is the corpse that is transported, in other legends merely the soul when released from the body : it is over again the distinction we noticed above, p. 827. In the Nialss. cap. 1 60, old Flosi, weary of life, is even said to have taken a battered boat, and thrown himself on the mercy of the sea- waves : ' bar a skip ok let i haf, ok hefir til ]?ess skips aldri spurt siSan,' never heard of since.

The Greeks believed that Charon ferried the souls in a narrow two- oared boat over the Styx, Acheron or Cocytus to the kino-dom of Hades. For this he charged a fare, ra TropOfila, therefore they placed an obolos (the danaka) in the mouth of the dead.^ This custom of putting a small coin in tlie mouth of a corpse occurs among Germans too, Superst. I, 207 where a modern and

1 Cento novelle antiche 81 : La clamigella di Scalot ; the ' navicella sanza vela, sanza rerni e sanza neuao sopra saglieute ' is carried down to Camalot, to the court of Ke Artu.

•- Diodor. 1, 90. Eurip. Ale. 253. 441. Aen. 6, 298. At Hcrmione in Argolis, supposed to be no great distance from the underworld, no money was given to the dead, Strabo 8, 373. These cuius are often found iu audeut tombs, K. Fr. Hermann's Autiq. 198.

832 SOULS.

mistaken reason is alleged for it [lest they come back to visit buried hoards] : originally the money could be no other than that samenaulum.

One stormy night a monkish figure wakes a boatman who lies buried in sleep, puts passage-money in his hand, and demands to be taken across the river. At first six monks step into the boat, buL no sooner is it fairly launched, than suddenly it is filled by a throng of friars black and white, and the ferryman has scarcely room left for himself. With difficulty he rows across, the passengers alight, and a hurricane hurls the ferryboat back to the place of stai'ting, where another set of travellers wait and take possession of the boat, the foremost of whom with fingers cold as ice presses the fare-penny into the boatman^s hand. The return voyage is made in the same violent way as before.^ The like is told, but less completely, of monks crossing the Rhine at Spire.^ In neither story can we detect the purpose of the voyage; they seem to be early heathen reminiscences, which, not to perish entirely, had changed their form (see Suppl.).

Procopius de bello Goth. 4, 20 (ed. Bonn. 2, 567), speaking of the island of Brittia, imparts a legend which he had often heard from the lips of the inhabitants. They imagine that the souls of the dead are transported to that island. On the coast of the continent there dwell under Frankish sovereignty, but hitherto exempt from all taxation, fishers and farmers, whose duty it is to ferry the souls over.^ This duty they take in turn. Those to

1 Neue volksmjirchen der Deutschen, Leipz. 1792. 3, 45-7.

' D.S. no. 275 ; earliest auth. an account by Geo. Sabinus (b. 1608 cT. 1560). Melander's Joe. no. 664.

•^ To. fiev aXXa ^pdyyoiv KarrjKooi 6vTes, (p6pov fxivTOL dirayuyriv ovSeTruwoTe Trapaaxo/^fOi, ixpei/mepov avTols ck iraXaiou TovSe toD ax6ovs, inrovpyias tlvos, ojs (paaiy, eveKa. \iyov<n ot Tavrrj avOpiairoi. e/c TrepiTpOTTTJs eTriKe'tadai ras twv xpvX'^v irapairoixirai acplffL. On this passage and one in Tzetzes, consult Welcker in Eliein. mus. 1, 238 seq. Conf. Plutarch de defectu oracul. cap. 18 (ed. Eeiske 7, 652) : '0 5e A-qfx-qrpLos ^(pV tQv trepl T7]v BpeTavi/lav viiaoiv eivai TroXXds eprj/xovs (T7ropd5a$, &iv ivias daLjuovuv Kai Tjpdjwv 6vop,d'gecrdai, ifKevaai 5e avrbs iaropias Kal deas ^V€Ka, noixirrj rod ^aaiXewi, eU TTjv ^yyiara Kei/xevTjv tlcv ep7]/j.wv, e'xouo'ai' ov ttoWovs iiroLKOvvTas, lepovs di Kal dcrvXovs iravTas inrb tuv Bperavvwi' ovras. d(piKOfi€Vov 5' avrov vewarl, avyxv<T'.v /u,eyd\7jv Trepl Tov dipa Kal 5ioarjp.€ias TroXXas yeveadai, Kal Trvevfiara Karap'payrjvai Kal ireaelv TTpijcTTTJpas. iirel d' iXdxfiriae, Xeyeiv tovs vricriwras, on tQv Kpeiaffovwv tlvos ^KXeitj/is yeyovev. Cos yap Xijxvos dvarcTOfxevos (pavai deivbv ovdh ex^'i ff^ivvifxevos 6e iroWoh XvTTTjpos iaTLV, oiirws at fj^eydXai. \j/vxal rots pi.ev dz'aXci/x^J'ets ev/j-evels Kal dXvTrovs ^X"^"'"') al 6e ffjSeaeis aiirOiv Kal <p6opal TToXXaKis fi^v, ws vvvL, Trvev/nara Kal fctXas Tpiirovai, TToXXaKLS oe Xoip-iKols irddecTLV depa (pappidTTovcriv. eKel fxevroi /niav elvaL vrjaov, ev ri tov Kpovov KaTeipx^aL cppovpovfxevov virb tov Bptdpeu) KadevSovra. decrp-bv yap avTqi tov iiirvov p.€iJ,7ixav7]<xdai, ttoXXous de Trepl avTov elvai dalpiovas orraSoC'S /cat depdirovTas. This

CEOSSING THE WATEE. 833

whom it falls on any night, go to bed at dusk ; at midnight they hear a knocking at their door, and muffled voices calling. Immediately they rise, go to the shore, and there see empty boats, not their own but strange ones, they go on board and seize the oars. When the boat is under way, they perceive that she is laden choke-full, with her gunwales hardly a finger's breadth above water. Yet they see no one, and in an hour's time they touch land, which one of their own craft would take a day and a night to do. Arrived at Brittia, the boat speedily unloads, and becomes so light that she only dips her keel in the wave. Neither on the voyage nor at landing do they see any one, but they hear a voice loudly asking each one his name and country. Women that have crossed give their husbands' names.

Procopius's Brittia lies no farther than 200 stadia (25 miles) from the mainland, between Britannia and Thule, opposite the Rhine mouth, and three nations live in it. Angles, Frisians and Britons. By Britannia he means the NW. coast of Gaul, one end of which is still called Bretagne, but in the 6th century the name included the subsequent Norman and Flemish-Frisian country up to the mouths of Scheldt and Rhine ; his Brittia is Great Britain, his Thule Scandinavia.

Whereabouts the passage was made, whether along the whole of the Gallic coast, I leave undetermined. Villemarque (Barzas breiz 1, 136) places it near Raz, at the farthest point of Armorica, where we find a bay of souls (bale des ames, boe ann anavo). On the R. Treguier in Bretagne, commune Plouguel, it is said to be the custom to this day, to convey the dead to the churchyard in a boat, over a small arm of the sea called passage tie Z'e;i/«?r, instead of taking the shorter way by land; besides, the people all over Armorica believe that souls at the moment of parting repair to the parson of Braspar, whose dog escorts them to Britain : up in the air you hear the creaking loheels of a waggon overloaded with souls, it is covered with a white pall, and is called carr an ancou, carrikel an ancoic, soul's car (Mem. de I'acad. celt. 3, 141). Purely adaptations to suit the views of the people. As christians, they could no longer ferry their dead

Kronos asleep on the holy island fur away, with his retinue of servants, is like a Wuotan enchanted in a mountain, conf. Humboldt in Herm. Miillev p. 4-iU-l. Welcker's Kl. schr. 2, 177.

834 SOULS.

to the island : well^ they will take them to the churchyard by water anyhow ; and in their tradition they make the voyage be performed no longer by ship, but through the air (as in the case of the Furious Host), and by waggon. Closer investigation must determine whether similar legends do not live in Normandy, Flanders and Friesland. Here I am reminded once more of old Helium and Hel-voet, pp. 315 n. 804.

Procopius's account is re-affirmed by Tzetzes (to Lycoph. 1204) in the 12th century; but long before that, Claudian at the beginning of the 5th (in Eufinum 1, 123 — 133) had heard of those Gallic shores as a trysting-place of flitting ghosts :

Est locus, extremum qua pandit Gallia littus, oceani praetentus aquis, ubi fertur Ulixes sanguine libato populum movisse silentem. Illic wnhrarwni tenui stridore volantum flehilis auditur questus : simulacra coloni pallida, defunctasque vident migrare Jiguras ;

and not far from that region are Britain, the land of the Senones, and the Rhine. This faint murmur of the fleeting shades is much the same thing as the airy waggon of the Bretons. The British bards make out that souls, to reach the underworld, must sail over the pool of dread and of dead hones, across the vale of death, into the sea on whose shore stands open the mouth of hell's abyss^ (see SuppL). A North English song, that used to be sung at lyke wakes, names ' the bridge of dread, no brader than a thread,' over which the soul has to pass in the underworld (J. Thoms^ Anecd. and trad. pp. 89. 90). The same bridge is mentioned in the legend of Tundalus (Hahn's ed. pp. 49. 50) : the soul must drive a stolen cow over it.^

The same meaning as in the voyage of souls over the gulf or

1 Owen's Diet. 2, 214. Villemarqu« 1, 135.

2 The narrow bridge is between purgatory and paradise, even Owain the hero had to cross it (Scott's Minstr. 2, 360-1). In striking harmony with it (as supra p. 574) is a Mahom. tradition given in Sale's Koran (ed. 1801, introd. 120) : in the middle of hell all souls must walk over a bridge thinner than a hair, sharper than the edge of a sword, and bordered on both sides by thorns and prickly shrubs. The Jews also speak of the hell-bridge narrow as a thread, but only unbelievers have to cross it (Eiseumenger 2, 258) ; conf. Thorns p. 91. Ace. to Herbelot, the Mahometans believe that before the judgment-day they shall pass over a redhot iron rod, that spans a bottomless deep ; then the good works of each believer will put themselves under his feet.

BKTDGE. HELL-SHOE. 835

river of the underworld appears to lie ia their walking tlie bridge that spans the river. The bridge-keeper's words to (the living) HermoSr are remarkable : ' my bridge groans more beneath thy single tread, than under the five troops of dead men who yesterday rode over it/ Sn. 67. I see in this a very strong resemblance to the soft patter of the dwarfs' feet on the bridge when quitting the country, as also their ferrying over by night (pp. 275. 459) ; and the affinity of souls with elvish beings comes out very plainly. When the dwarfs moved out of Voigtland, they were a ivhole night crossing the Elster (Jul. Schmidt p. 143-8). At their departure from the Harz, it was agreed that they should pass over a narrow bridge at Neuhof, each dropping his toll-money in a vessel fixed upon it, but none of the country folk were to be present. Prying people hid under the bridge, and heard for hours their pit-a-pat, as though a flock of sheep were going over (Dent, sagen no. 152-3). The bridge-toll brings to mind Vae ferrymoney of souls. With all this compare the story of the elf making his passage in a boat by night (D.S. no. 80). Then again ^the bridge of dread no brader than a thread' is a kindred notion, which moreover connects itself with the iron sword- bridsre crossed by the soul that has crept out of a sleeping man (see Suppl.) .

A minute examination of the various funeral ceremonies of European nations, which is no part of my purpose here, would throw some more light on the old heathen views as to the nature of the soul and its destiny after death. Thus the dead, beside the passage-money and the boat, had a particular shoe called todtenschuh, ON. hel-sho, given them for setting out on their journey, and tied on their feet. The Gisla Surssonarsaga says : ' J>at er ti^ska at binda monnum helsko, sem menn skulo a ganga til Valhallar, ok mun ek Vesteini ]'at giora' (conf. Miiller's Sagabibl. 1, 171). Sir W. Scott in Minstr. 2, 357 quotes a Yorkshire superstition : ' They are of beliefe, that once in their lives it is good to give a pair of new shoes to a poor man, forasmuch as after this life they are to pass barefoote through a great launde fall of thornes and furzen, except by the mei'yte of the almes aforesaid they have redeemed the forfeyte ; for at the edge of the launde an oulde man shall meet them with the same shoes that were given by the partie when he was lyving, and after he

836 SOULS.

liatli slioclde them, dismissetli them to go through thick and thin, without scratch or scalle.' The land to be traversed by the soul is also called ivJiinny moor, i.e. furzy bog (Thorns 89). In Henneberg, and perhaps other places, the last honours paid to the dead are still named todtenschuh (Reinwald 1, 165), though the practice itself is discontinued; even the funeral feast is so denominated. Utterly pagan in character, and suited to the warlike temper of old times, is what Burkard of Worms reports p. 195*^ : Quod quidam faciunt homini occiso, cum sepelitur : dant ei in manum imguentum quoddam, quasi illo unguento post mortem vulnus sanari possit, et sic cum unguento sepeliunt.^ For a similar purpose, slaves, Jwrses, dogs were burnt with a dead man, that he might use them in the next world. King Ring had king Harald buried in a great barrow, his horse killed that he had ridden in Bravalla fight, and his saddle bui'ied with him, so that he could ride to Walhalla. It was thought that to convey the corpse by any road but the traditional one (the hellweg, p. 801) was bad for the soul of the deceased, Ledebur's Archiv 5, 369 (see Suppl.).

The poems of the Mid. Ages occasionally describe a conflict of angels and devils round the parting soul, each trying to take possession of it. At the head of the angels is an archangel, usually Michael, who, as we shall see in chap. XXVIII, has also the task of weighing souls ; sometimes he is called Gheruhim : ' vor dem tievel nam der sele war der erzengel Keruhin' he saw the soul first, Wh. 49, 10.

Laza laza tengeln !

da wart von den engeln

^ The Lithuanians bury or burn with the dead the claws of a lynx or hear, in the behef that the soul has to climb up a steep mountain, on which the divine judge (Kriwe Kriweito) sits : the rich will find it harder to scale than the poor, who are imburdened with property, unless their sius weigh them down. A wind wafts the poor sinners up as lightly as a feather, the rich have their limbs mangled by a dragon Wizunas, who dwells beneath the mountain, and are then carried up by tempests (Woycicki's Klechdy 2, 134-5. Narbutt 1, 284). The steep hill is called Anafielas by the Lithuanians, and szklanna cjora (glass mountain) by the Poles, who tliink the lost souls must climb it as a punishment, and when they have set foot on the summit, they sHde off and tumble down. This r/lass moxintain is still known to our German songs and fairytales, but no longer distinctly as an abode of the deceased, though the little maid who carries a huckle-bone to insert (like the bear's claw) into the glass mountain, and ends with cutting her little finger off that she may scale or iinlock it at last, may be looked upon as seeking her lost brothers in the underworld (Kinderm. no. 25).

SCEAMBLE FOR SOULS. 837

manec sele empfangen

e der strit was zegangen.

Daz weinete manec amie :

von wolken wart nie snie

also dicke sunder zal

beidiu uf bergen und ze tal,

als engel unde tievel flugen,

die do ze widerstrite zugen

die sele lier und widere,

d^ einen uf, die ander nidere. Geo. 1234.

Der engelfiirste Michahel

empfienc des marcgraven sel,

und manec engel lielitgevar

die kamen mit gesange dar

und fuorten in vroeliche

inz sclioene himelriche.

Geo. 6082, conf. Diut. 1, 470. In the Brandan (Bruns p. 192-3) we read: ' de duvele streden umme de sele mit sunte MicJiaele' ; conf. Fundgr. 1, 92.

Gebt mir eine gabe, daz des kiiniges sele von sante Michahele hiute gecondwieret si. Gute frau 2674 ;

Michael having taken upon him the office of Mercury or the Walchure. A record of the 13th cent. (MB. 7, 371) calls him ' praepositus paradisi et princeps animarum.' A still more important passage, already noticed at p. 446, occurs in Morolt 28*-^, where three troops are introduced, the black, ivliite and pale : ' den strit mahtu gerne schouwen, dens ttmb die sele suln han.'' For similar descriptions in the elder French poets, conf. Meon 1, 239. 4, 114-5. 3, 284.

And even so early as the 8-9th cent, we find quite at the beginning of the Muspilli fragment :

Wanta sar so sih diu sela in den sind arhevit (rises) enti si den lihhamun likkan lazit (leaves the body lying), s6 quirait ein heri (comes one host) fona himilzungalon, daz andar fona pehhe (pitch, hell) ; dar pdgant siu umpi. I have questioned (p. 420) whether this ' pac umpi dia sela '

838 SOULS.

(tussle for the soul) between the hosts of heaven and hell be traceable to christian tradition. The Ep. of Jude v. 9 does tell of archangel Michael and the devils striving for the body of Moses/ and the champion Michael at all events seems borrowed thence. But jealousy and strife over the partition of souls may be supposed an idea already present to the heathen mind, as the Norse OSinn, Thorr and Freyja appropriated their several portions of the slain. At pp. 60 and 305 we identified Freyja with Gertrude : ' some say the soul, on quitting the body, is the first night with St. Gerdraut, the next with St. Michael, the third in such place as it has earned/ Superst. F, 24. Now as Antichrist in the great world-fight is slain by Michael (p. 811), while Surtr has for adversaries OSinn and Thorr: ' Gerdrut and MichaeP may fairly be translated back into ' Frowa and Wuotan (or Donar)'. So at p. 198 a 'mons sancti Michaelis ^ was found applicable to Wuotan or Zio (see Suppl.).

An Irish fairytale makes the spirits of the Silent Folk maintain a violent contest for three nights at the cross-roads, as to which churchyard a human corpse shall be buried in, Ir. elfenm. p. 68. So that elves and dwarfs, as they steal live children and maidens, (p. 386-8), would seem also to have a hankering for our bodies and souls. The souls of the drowned the water-nix keeps in his house (p. 496).

All this leads up to a more exact study of the notions about Death.

1 The passage is supposed to be founded on a lost book named ' 'Avd^aais Moyses', couf. Grotius ad S. Judae ep. 9, and Fabricii Cod. pseudepigr. V. T. p. 839.

CHAPTER XXVII. DEATH.

To tlae olden time Death was not a being that killed, but simply one that fetched away and escorted to the underworld. Sword or sickness killed; Death came in as messenger of a deity, to whom he conducted the parting soul. Dying is announced, not caused, by his arrival. So to that child in the fairytale the angel of death had given a flower-bud : when it blossomed, he would come again.

And the Jewish notion, which Christianity retained, is in harmony with this. The soul of the beggar is fetched away by angels of God, and carried into Abraham's bosom, Luke 16, 22 ; or, as the Heliand 103, 5 expresses it : ' Godes engilos andfengon is ferh, endi leddoji ine an Abrahames barm^ ; ^ and it completes the picture of the rich man's fate by adding the counterpart (103, 9) : Mefcha wihti bisenkidun is seola an thene suartou hel/ loathly wights (devils) sank his soul into swart hell. A sermon in Leyser 126 has: 'wane ir ne wizzit niht, zu welicher zit der bote (messenger) unsers herren Gotis zu ture clopfe (may knock at the door). Welich ist der bote ? daz ist der Tot (death)' ; and 161: 'nu quam ouch der gemeine bote (general messenger), der nieman ledic lat (lets alone), wie lange im maniger vorgat, daz ist der gewisse tot.' 'Do der Tot im sin zuokunft enbot (announced), so daz er in geleite,' he might escort him, Greg. 20.

There is no substantial difference between this and the older heathen view. Haija, Hel, the death-goddess, does not destroy, she receives the dead man in her house, and will on no account give him up. To kill a man is called sending him to her. Hel

1 It is a beautiful image, that the dying return to God's howm, children to that of their father, whence they had issued at birth. But the same thing was known to our heathenism, which called newborn and adopted children ' bosom-children, wishchildren,' RA. 455. 464, and interpreted di/ing as departing to Wuotan. to Wish (p. 145). To heathens then, as well as christians, to die was to fare to God, to enter into God's rest and peace, ' Metod seon,' Beow. 2360, ' feran on Frean wrere,' the Lord's peace 52. So, to bo buried is to fall into the mother's bosom (p. 642) ; mother and father take their children into their keeping again.

TOL. II. «39 jj jj

840 DEATH.

neither comes to fetch the souls fallen due to her/ nor sends messengers after them. The dead are left alone to commence the long and gloomy journey ; shoes, ship and ferry-money, servants, horses, clothes, they take with them from home for the hell-way. Some ride, others sail, whole companies of souls troop together : no conductor comes to meet them.

There were other gods besides, who took possession of souls. The sea-goddess Ran draws to herself with a net all the bodies drowned within her province (p. 311). Water-sprites in general seem fond of detaining souls : dame Holle herself, at whose dwelling arrive those who fall into the well (pp. 268. 822), has a certain resemblance to Hel (see Suppl.).

It is another matter with the souls destined for Valholl. OSinn sends out the valkyrs to take up all heroes that have fallen in fight, and conduct them to his heaven (p. 418) : wish-maidens fetch his wish-sons, ' j^aar hlosa feig^ a menn,' Sn. 39. Their attendance and the heroes^ reception are splendidly set forth in the Hakonarmal. But these messengers also take charge of heroes while alive, and protect them until death : they are guardianangels and death-angels. How beautiful, that the gracious god, before he summons them, has provided his elect with an attendant spirit to glorify their earthly path !

I can see a connexion between valkyrs and Hermes, who is wielder of the wishing-rod (p. 419) and conductor of souls to the underworld, •|ri;^a7&>709, -v^u^^oTro/iTro?, ve/cpoTro/^TTo?. These maids are Odin's messengers, as Hermes is herald of the gods, nay Hermes is O&inn himself, to whom the souls belong. Thus ^the god's relation to the dead is an additional proof of the identity between Wuotan and Mercury. A distinction appears in the fact that Hermes, like the Etruscan Charun (0. Miiller 2, 100), conducts to Hades, but not, as far as I know, to Elysium ; valkyrs, on the contrary, to Valholl, and not to Hel. Further, the function of guardian-spirit is wanting to Hermes.

This idea of a protecting spirit finds expression more in the personified Thanatos (death) of the Greek people's faith. He is pictured as a genius, with hand on cheek in deep thought, or

1 It is only in a dream-vision that she appears : ' postera nocte eidem Proserpina per quietem adstare aspecta postridie ejus complexu u^uram denuuciat. nee inane somnii praesagium fuit.' Saxo Gram. p. 43.

THANATOS. MORS. DAUDUS. 841

setting his foot on the psyche (soul) as if taking possession of her ; often his hands are crossed over the extinguished torch. At times he appears hlach (hke Hel, p. 313) or hlacJc-ivinged (atris ahs) : Tov Se ireaovra el\e fxiXa<i 6dvaro<i, '>^v)(ri S' e/c a(a/xaTO<i eTTTTj (Batrach. 207)^, and dXevaro Kripa fxeXaivav (ibid. 85). But usually the departing dead is represented riding a liorse, which a genius leads : an open door betokens the departure, as we still throw open a door or window when any one dies (Superst. I, 664). As a symbol, the door alone, the horse's head alone, may express the removal of the soul.^ The Eoman genius of death seems to announce his approach or the hour of parting by hnocking at the door ; ^ a knocking and poking at night is ghostly and ominous of death (see Suppl.).

Roman works of art never give Death the shape of a female like Halja, though we should have expected it fi-om the gender of mors, and originally the people can scarcely have conceived it otherwise ; the Slavic snirt, smert (the same word) is invariably fem., the Lith. smertis is of either gender, the Lett, nahive fem. alone. And the Slav. Morena, Marana (Morena, Marzana), described p. 771, seems to border closely on smrt and mors.

These words find an echo in Teutonic ones. Schmerz, smart, we now have only in the sense of pain, originally it must have been the pains of death, as our qual (torment) has to do with quellan, AS. cwellan, Eng. kill:^ the OHG. MHG. and AS. have alone retained the strong verb smerzan, smerzen, smeortan (dolere). OHG. smerza is fem., MHG. smerze masc, but never personified. Nahive answers to the Goth. masc. ncius, pi. naveis, funus (couf. ON. ndr, ndinn p. 453), as Odvaro^ too can mean a corpse.^ But this Grk. word has the same root as the Goth, ddufius, OHG. tod

' One woukl suj^pose from this passage, that Death took only the corpse of the fallen to himself, that the soul flew away to Hades, for it is said of her in v. 235

'-* 0. Miiller's Archaol., ed. 2, pp. CO-i. 696. For the horse's head, conf. Boeckh's Corp. inscr. no. 800. Marm. Oxon. p. 2, no. 63-7. R. Rochette's Monum. incd. 1, 126. Pausan. vii. 25, 7. Gerhard's Antike bildw. p. 407.

•^ Hor. Od. i. 4, 13 : pallida iiwrs aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas regumque turres.

■• Constant use will soften down the meaning of the harshest terms ; we had an instance in the Fr. gene, p. 800n.

• Goth, leik (corpus, caro), our leiche, leichnaTn,'EnQ. lich (cadaver) ; the OHG. hreo, AS. hrccw, MHG. re (cadaver, funusj, and Goth, hrdiu (whence hraiva-dubo, mourner-dove) are the Lat. corpus.

842 DEATH.

(orig. todu) masc, OS. clod, dod', AS, dea&, ON. dauffl, all masc, the M. Nethl. dot having alone preserved the fem. gender, which is however compatible with the Gothic form. The verb in Gothic is diva, dau (morior), standing in the same relation to Ov-qaKO), eOavov, Odvarof as the Gothic Tiv to the Slavic dan (day, p. 195). The ON. dau'Si I find used only of the condition, not of the person, while the Goth, ddupus does express the latter in 1 Cor. 15, 55 (see Suppl.).

To this affinity of words corresponds a similarity of sentiments. The most prominent of these in our old poets seem to be the following.

As all spirits appear suddenly} so does Death; no sooner named or called, than he comes: ^hie ndliet der Tot manigem manne/ Roth. 277^ ' daz in ndhet der Tot,' Nib. 2106, 4. ^do ndhte im der Tot ' 2002, 3. ' Mors praesens,' Walthar. 191. ' der Tot get dir vaste zuo,' Karl 69^^. He lurks in the background as it were, waiting for call or beck (Freidank 177, 17. '^ dem Tode winken,' beckon to D., Renn. 9540). Like fate, like Wurt, he is nigh and at hand (p. 406). Like the haunting homesprite or will o' wisp, he rides on people's necks : ' der Tot mir sitzet uf dem hragen,' Kolocz. 174. ' stet vor der tilr,' Diut. 2, 153. A story in Reusch (no. 36) makes Death sit outside the door, waiting for it to open ; he therefore catches the soul as it goes out.

Luckless life-weary men call him to their side, complain of his delay : ' Tot, nu nim din teil an mir ! ' now take thy share of me, Wh. 61, 2. ' Tot, daz du mich nu kanst spam ! ' 61, 12. ' wd nu Tot, du nim mich hin ! ' Ecke 145.^ ' Mort, qar me pren, si me delivre ! ' Ren. 9995. ' Mors, cur tam sera venis ? ' Rudl. 7, 58. ' 6 we Tot, dazt' ie so lange min verbaere ! ' shouldst forbear, shun me, MsH. 1, 89'^. ' por ce requier a Dieu la mort,' Meon nouv. rec. 2, 241. We know the Aesopic fable of the old man and Thanatos. To wish for death is also called seehing Death,^ sending for Death, having him fetched : ' ja weenet des der degen,

^ Supra p. 325. Eeinhart p. liii. cxxx. ; like Night, Winter, and the Judgmentday, Death ' breaks in.'

^ So beasts of prey are invited, Er. 5832 : ' loa ml hungerigiu tier, bede wolf und ber, iwer einez (one of you) knme her und ezze uns beide !'

3 Straparola 4, 5 tells of a young man who from curiosity started off to hunt up Death.

FETCHES THE SOUL. 843

ich hahe gesant ndch Tode (he fancies I have sent for D.) : ich wil's noch lenger pflegen/ Nib. 486, 5. Of a slothful servant it is said lie is a good one to send after Death, i.e. he goes so slow, you may expect to live a good while longer. This saying must have been widely diffused : ' en lui avon bon mesagier por querre la Mort et cerchier, que il revendroit moult a tart/ Ren. 5885. ' du werst ein bot gar guot zuo schicken nach dem Todt, du kommst nit bald/ H. Sachs 1, 478". ' werst gut nach dem Tod zu schicken' iv. 3, 43*^. Fischart geschichtkl. 84*. ' du ar god att skicka efter Doden/ Hallman p. 94. ' bon a aller chercher la mort/ Pluquet contes p. 2. In Boh. : Ho dobre gest pro Smrt posjlati/ Jungmann 4, 193^. Can this lazy servant be connected with Gdnglati and Gdnglot, the man and maid servant of the ancient Hel? Sn. 33.

Death takes the soul and carries it away : ' hlna fuartanan Tod/ O. i. 21, 1. 'do quam der Tot und nam in hin,' Lohengr. 186. ' er begrifet/ Gregor. 413. Diut. 3,53. ergreif, gript, Greg. 19, an expression used also of Sleep, the brother of Death, when he falls upon and overpowers : ' der Slaf in begreif/ Pf. Chuonr. 7076. He presses men into his house, the door of which stands open : ' gegen im het der Tot sines hiises tilr entlochen (unlocked)/ Bit. 12053. 'der Tot weiz manige saze (trick), swa er wil dem menschen schaden und in lieim ze kits laden (entice),' Tiirh. Wh. 2281. 'do in der Tot heun nam in sin gezimmer (building),' ' braht lieim in sin gemiiire (walls),' Lohengr. 143. 150. These are deviations from the original idea, which did not provide him with a dwelling of his own ; or is he here an equivalent for Hel ?

Probably, like all messengers (RA.. 135), like Hermes the conductor of souls, he carries a staff, the symbol of a journey, or of delegated authority. With this wand, this rod (of wish), he touches whatever has fallen due to him : ' la Mort de sa verge le toucha,' Meon 4, 107.^

To Death is ascribed a Idghway, levelled smooth and kept in repair, on which the dead travel with him : ' des Todes jyfat wart g'ebenet,' Turl. Wh. 22\ 23'\ ' da moht erbouiven der T6t sin straze,' Bit. 10651. ' nu seht, wie der Tot umbe sich mit kreften

1 In Danse Macabre p. m. 55, trois verges are wielded by Death.

844 DEATH.

hat gehouwen/ Kl. 829. Like a shifty active servant, lie greases the hoots of the man he comes to fetch, in preparation for the great journey; in Burgundy his arrival is expressed in the phrase : ' quan la Mor venre graisse no bote,' quand la Mort viendra graisser nos bottes; Noei Borguignon p. 249 (see Siippl.).

A thoroughly heathen feature it is, to my thinking, that he appears mounted, like the valkyrs ; on horseback he fetches away, he sets the dead on his own horse. In a folksong of wide circulation the lover, dead and buried far away, comes at midnight and rides off with his bride. ^ Possibly that horse's head at p. 841 stands more for Death's horse than for the dead man's. Both Hel and her messenger, like other gods, had doubtless a horse at their service ; this is confirmed by certain phrases and fancies that linger here and there among the people. One who has gob over a serious illness will say : ' jeg gav JDoden en shiaiJpe havre ' (Thiele 1, 138), he has appeased Death by sacrificing to him a bushel of oats for his horse. So the heathen fed the horse of Wuotan (p. 154), of dame Gaue (p. 252) ; the Slavs did the same for their Svantevit and Kadegast (p. 661). Of one who blunders in noisily they say, in Denmark as above : ' han gaaer som en helhest/ he goes like a hel-horse, Dansk ordb. 2, 545^. There are more things told of this hel-hest : he goes round the churchyard on his three legs, he fetches Death. One folktale has it, that in every churchyard, before it receives human bodies, a live horse is buried, and this is what becomes the walking dead-horse (Thiele 1, 137); originally it was no other than the Deathgoddess riding round. Arnkiel quotes 1, 55 the Schleswig superstition, that in time of plague 'die Hell^ rides about on a three-legged horse, destroying men'; if at such a time the dogs bark and howl in the night (for dogs are spirit- seers), they say ' Hell is at the dogs ' ; when the plague ceases, ' Hell is driven away ' ; if a man on the brink of death recovers, ' he has come

' ' The moon shines bright, the dead ride fast,' Biirger's life p. 37. Wh. 2, 20. ' t maantje schijnt zo bel, mijn paardtjes lope zo snel,' Kinderm. 3, 77. ' nianan skiner, dodman rider,' Sv. vis. 1, liii. and even in the Edda : ' rida menu dajid'ir,' Sfem. 166''. 167". Norw. 'manen skjine, d/iman grine.varte du ikkje riid'?' Conf. the Mod. Grk. song in Wh. Miiller 2, 64, and Vuk 1, no. 404.

' He writes ' der Hell,' masc. ; but the Plattdeutsch, when they attempt H. Germ., often misuse the article, e.g. ' der Pest ' for ' die Pest.'

RIDES A HORSE. 845

to terms with Hell.' Here, as in other cases^ tlie notion of Death has run into one with the personified plague. In our own medieval poems we never read of Death riding about, but we do of his loading his horse with souls. Thus, in describing a battle : 'seht, ob der Tot da iht sin soumer lilecle (loaded his sumpter at all) ? ja er was unmiiezec gar (high busy)/ Lohengr. 71. ' daz ich des Todes vuoder mit in liled und vazzei ! ' Ottocar 448". The Mod. Greeks have converted old ferryman Xdpwv into a death^s-messenger Xapa ; you see him crossing the mountains with his dusky throng, himself riding, the young men walking before him, the old following behind, and the tender babes ranged on his saddle.^ The Liibeck Dance of Death makes him ride on a lion, and he is so represented in a picture also, Douce p. 160. 'Mortis ha.benae,' Abbo de bellis Paris. 1, 187. 322 (see Suppl.).

The dead march like captives in Death's bonds ; to the Indian imagination likewise he leads them away hound} ' ei, waz nu dem Tode geschicket wart an sin seil (to his rope) ! ' Lohengr. 115. 'maneger quam an des Todes seil' 123. 'in Todes sil stigen,' Ls. 3, 440. ' zuo dem Tode wart geseilet,' Geo. 2585. ' we dir Tot ! din sloz und din gebende bindet und besliuzet,^ Wigal. 7793. ' der Tot hat mich gevangen,' Karl 81'*. Greg. 50.

As the old divinity of the lower world fell into the background, and Death came forward acting for himself, there could not but ensue a harsher reading of his character, or a confounding of him with other gods. From the silent messenger who did no more than punctually discharge his duty, he becomes a grasping greedy foe, who will have his bond, who sets traps for mortals. Ah'eady 0. v. 23, 260 imputes to him cVafty besuichan (decipere), and Conrad strik (meshes) and netzegarn, Troj. 12178, which reminds of the goddess Ran with her net (pp. 311. 840). We think of him still under the familiar fisfure of a fowler or fisher, spreading his toils or baiting his hook for man : * do kam der Tot als ein diep (thief), und stal dem reinen wibe daz leben Az ir libe (the life out of her body),' Wigal. 8033.^ But he uses

^ Td TpiKpepa TraiSbwovXa 's Tr]u <re\X' d.^paOiaa/j.^va, Fauriel 2, 228. Wh. Miiller 2, 8 ; conf. Kind 18i9, p. 14.

" Bopp's Siindflut, pp. 37. 50. In Buhez santez Nonn p. 205, Death says ' j'attire tout dans mes liens k mon gite.'

• Life-stealer, man-slayer, names for Death.

846 DEATH.

open violence too, he routs out, pursues and 2^lunde)-s, Nib. 2161, 8. 2163, 1; he ' hifalta sie/ felled them, 0. iii. 18, 34; ^ mich hat der Tot gevangen/ clutched, Greg. 50 ; he jaget, hunts, E,oth. 2750, helirellet (claws?), Fundgr. 196, 20; and the Bible has the same thins: : in Ps. 91, 3 — 6 he comes out as a hunter with snares and arrows. His messenger-staff has turned into a spear which he hurls, an arrow which he discharges from the bow. Worth noting are the Eenn. 24508 : ''wirtdem des Todes sper gesandt;' and Freid. 177, 24 : ' der Tot gat her, der widerseit uns an dem sper,' defies us at point of lance ; a reading which I prefer to the accepted one ' ane sper,' without spear. OSinn has a spear Gungnir (p. 147) whose thrust or throw was fatal. The Lith. Smertis comes as a warrior with sword and pike, riding in a chariot, i.e. in the form of a god. All this carries with it the idea of Death having a regular _^^/i and ivrestle with man, whom he overpowers and brings to the ground : ' mit dem Tode veliten,' fence with D., MS. 2, 82'\ * der Tot wil mit mir ringen (wrestle), Stoufenb. 1126. ^ do ranc er mit dem Tode,' Nib. 939, 2. 'also der Tot hie mit ime rani:,' Ecke 184 ; and we still speak of the death agony, though without any thought of a personality. In a Mod. Grk song a daring youth tvrestles with Charos on smooth marble from morn till midday ; at the hour of eve Death flings him down. In another case Charos takes the shape of a black swalloiv, and shoots his arrow into a maiden's heart.^ A doubtful passage in Beow. 3484 we ought perhaps to refer to Death, who is there called a destroyer that shoots with arrow-bow of fire: 'bona, se ]>e o? jidnboganfyremim sceoteS;' conf. the Serv. Icrvnik, bloodshedder p. 21. Brun von Schonebeke makes Death wield a scourge of four strings ; and our MHG. poets lend him an arrow and battle-axe : ' des Todes strdle bet si gar versniten,' cut them up, Tit. 3770. ' wa snidet des Todes barte,' Wh. 3, 220 (Cod. cass.). The 'isernporte' in a Meister-song of the 14th cent. (Hagen's Mus. 2, 188) means surely isernbarte? Here Death promises a thousand years' grace, should his adversary gain the victory (see Suppl.).-

1 Wh. iluller 2, 4. 6 ; conf. Tommaseo's Canti poiDolari 3, 301 seq.

• Our poets too are no strangers to the idea of Death prosecuting at law his claim upon a man : ' do begunde der Tot einen graven beclagen und mit gewalte twiiigen ze notigen dingen,' accuse a count and drive him to straits, Iw. 5625 seq.

HIS WEAPONS. HIS AEMY. 847

In sucli a conflict^ however. Death must appear as the leader of a large and ever increasing army. There is a following-, a retinue assigned him : ' der Tot suochte sere da sin gesinde was/ Nib. 2161, 3. The Greeks set us the fashion of calling the dead oi 7r\eov€<i the majority, and e? irXeovcov iKeaOai meant the same as €9 "AiSou Ik., to reach the abode of the great multitude, join the great host, as we still say. In the ' Bohemian Ploughman,' Death is styled captain of the mountain ; because, as in the Greek song (p. 845), the march of his army covers the mountains ? ' In des Todes schar varn,' fare to D.'s host, Wh. v. Orl. 2113. 'ist an die vart,' gone his way (obiit), Walth. 108, G. Though taking no part in the fight, the dead seem to hear a badge (flag or lance), which, so to speak, he fastens on the dying, with which he touches them, enrolls them in his band,^ That is how I understand 'des Todes zeichen tragen' Nib. 928, 3. 2006, 1, though it may include the collateral sense of having received a death-wound, which now serves as his badge and cognisance. Hence in Nib. 939, 3 : ' des Todes zeichen ie ze sere sneit,' D.'s token aye too sore he cut; where one MS. reads wafen (arms), and elsewhere we find ' eines ivdfen tragen/ carry some one's arms, Parz. 130, 4. Freidank 74, 18. Wigal. 7797, and even ' des todes wdpen (coat of arms) tragen,' Wh. 17, 16. ' Tristandes zeichen vileren,' Heinr. Trist. 2972, is to be wounded like him. So far back as Alfred's Boeth. p. 16 (Rawl.) we have ' DeaSes tdcnung' ; even Zio's or Tiwes tctcen p. 200, and OSin's spear p. 147 are worth considering (see Suppl.).-

With the idea of messengership and that of the great company were associated some others, which probably reach a long way

the count is called ' der verlorne, wand' er muose im ze suone (satisfaction) geben beide sin gesunt und sin lebeu.' So Iw. 7161 speaks of having to ' f/elten (pay) vur des Todes schelten ' ; and the same perhaps is meant by ' der Tot hat uf si pesworn,' Nib. 2017, 5. In the ' Ackermann aus Bohmen ' on the contrary, Death is the defendant, and a man whose wife he has carried off is prosecutor. Similar lawsuits are brought by the Devil. ' Nu kume vil grimmeclicher Tot, und rihte Gote von uns beidon ! ' MS. 1, 17. Observe too ' mit des Todes haiitve>:h- iihersigelet; sealed witJi D.'s sign manual, Wh. 391, 27. The Indian god of death, Yama, is a lord of law.

• Conf. ' eiuem des Todes muoder (mieder) sniden,' Titur. ; to cut D's. coat on (or for) a man.

• It is worthy of note, that in the Meister-song already quoted (Mus. 2, 187) Death says : ' be ready, when I send thee my messengers (the infirmities) to (jive thee the signs,' to mark thee for my own. Death, orig. a messenger himself, sends out under-messengers. Conf. Kinderm. no. 177. Even the 0. Fr. Chanson des .gaxons 2, 134 has : ' la Morz le semoiU sovent et menu,' viz. by fainting-fits.

848 DEATH.

back. Messengers in ancient times were often fiddlers and pipers : it was nothing out of the way, to make Death and his meny perform a reilten (rig, round dance) ; with fife and fiddle he seeks to win recruits. Really a pleasant fancy, tending to mitigate the harshness of dying : the souls of the dead enter at once upon dancing and revelry. To the ancient Romans there were songs and dances in the Elysian fields ; ^ and it accords with the resemblance of departed spirits to elves, who also love music and dancing (p. 470). Yet our poets of the 13th cent, never once allude to the Dance of Death, which from the 15-16tli became such a favourite subject. The oft-recurring phrase ' er hat den Tot an der hant/ by the hand (Nib. 1480, 4. 1920, 4. 1958, 4. Wigal. 2453. 4700. Alph. 286. 345. 359) seems to mean, not catching hold for the purpose of dancing, but of leading away (like ' dod is at hendi/ p. 406).

Holy Scripture having already likened our fleeting life to grass, it was not difficult to see in Death a mower or reaper, who cuts men down like flowers and corn-stalks. Knife, sicJcle, or scythe is found him in this connexion : ' There's a reaper they call Death, Power from God most high he hath. He whets his knife to-day. Keener it cuts the hay ; Look to thyself, 0 flowret fair ! ' Pop. Hymn. The older poets never give him these implements, but the figure of ' Death carried out ' is sometimes furnished with a scythe (p. 772). In later times the harpe (sickle) of the Greek Kronos (0. Miiller's Archaol. p. 599) may have had an influence too, conf. falcitenens in Radevicus 2,11. To ' match men with flowers, make them bite the grass,' Lohengr. 138, is said equally of other conquerors beside Death. But he weeds out the plants : 'in lebens garten der Tot nu jat,' Turl. Wh. 23**. Conversely Death, like the devil, is called a sower, who disseminates weeds among men ; ' do der Tot sinen samen under si geseete,' Wh. 361, 16. 'er ier durch in des Todes fiirch/ he eared through him D.'s furrow, Ulr. Trist. 3270, simply means: he planted in him a mortal wound (see Suppl.).

Before explaining certain other conceptions, I have to enumerate the names and epithets of Death in our old poetry.

Virg. Aen. 6, C44 : pars pedibus plaudunt choreas et carmina dicunt. TibuU. . 3, 59 : hie choreae cantusque vigeut.

HIS DANCE. A SKELETON. 849

Very commonly be is called ' der grimme,' furious, Roth. 2750. Nib. 1360, 4. 1553, 3. Mar. 218. Flore 1931. Troj. 2317-25. 10885. Ls. 3, 124 ; i— ' der ferchgrimme,' Morolt 4059, a febcitous compound, as Death has designs upon the life or soul (ferch) ; —der ^nmm>,' Eoth. 517. Reinh. 3G0. 1248. Berthold 303 ; — ^der hittere' {irLKpo^ 6dvaro<i) and ' amara Mors,"* ^ Rudl. 1, 110. Unibos 117, 4. Diut. 3, 89. Mar. 206. Alex. (Lampr.) 820. 1097. 3999. 4782. Gr. Ruod. C 15. Wh. 253, 28. Wigal. 1113; — der hitterliche, Troj. 3521. 22637; — Mer silre/ sour, Parz. 643, 24; — der scharfe' : ein scharpher bote, Freid. 21, 6; — ' der irre,' Amgb. 29* in Wizlau neighbhd. therefore prob. for erre, ireful; — 'der gemeine' common (qui omnes manet), En. 2081. All, so far, epithets taken from his unavoidableness, cruelty, bitterness ; not a hint about his personal presence. Nowhere is he the black, the pale, after the Latin ' mors a,tra, pallida.' Otto II was called ' iMllida mors Saracenorum,^ Cod. lauresh. 1, 132 ; and in Renner 23978. 80 I find ' der gelwe tot,' yellow d. ; in both cases the aspect of the dead, not of Death, is meant. So when Walth. 124, 38 says of the world, that it is ' innan swarzer varwe, vinster sam der tot,' inwardly black of hue, dark as death, he means the abode of the dead, hell, not the figure of Death. In one song he is addressed as ' lieher Tot ! ' dear D. (Hagen's Mus. 2, 187), and H. Sachs i. 5, 528*^ speaks oE him as ' der heilig Tod,' holy D. ; ' her Tot ! ' Sir D., again in voc. case only, Apollonius 295 and often in the Ackermann aus Bohmen (see Suppl.).

It is more important to our inquiry, that in the Reinardus 3, 2162 a bone fiddle is said to be ' o^se^ nt dominiis Blicero,' by which nothing but Death can have been meant, whether the word signify the pale (bleich), or the grinning (bleckend), or be, as I rather think, the proper name Blidger, Blicker with a mere suggestion of those meanings. A homj horse's head is here handed in mockery to the Avolf as a skilful player (joculandi guarus) by way of fiddle, ' bony as a skeleton.' And now that unexplained caput cahallinnm at p. 661n. may be interpreted as in fact a sym-

' Der grimme tot, the name of a knifo (Wolfd. 1313), is remarkable, as HeTs knife was called sidtr (p. 313) from svelta esurire, which in the Goth, sviltait takes the meaning of mori.

• Isidore even says, ' mors dicta quod sit amara.'

850 DEATH.

bol of Death (p. 844) and tlie dead-man's steed (p. 841). As the convent clergy set up human death's-heads in their cells for a memento mori_, may not they also have nailed up horse's skulls inside their walls ? did an older heathen custom, here as in so many instances, have a christian thought breathed into it ? If this holds good, we can see why the horse's head should have set the Flemish poet thinking of Death ; it may even be, that fanatic sculptors used to fashion Death as playing on it instead of a fiddle or fife.^

In any case dominus BUcero proves that in the middle of the 12 th cent, it was the practice to represent Death as a sheleton. I do not know of any earlier evidence, but think it very possible that such may be hunted up. We know that to the ancient Romans fleshless shrivelled-up masks or skeletons served to indicate Death.- On tombs of the Mid. Ages, no doubt from an early time, corpses were sculptured as whole or half skeletons (see Suppl.). Poets of the 13th cent, paint the World (p. 792n.) as a beautifully formed woman in front, whose back is covered with snakes and adders : ^ the notion itself may be of much higher antiquity ; it is closely related to the story of three live and three dead kings.*

This mode of representing Death, which soon became universal, stands in sharp contrast with the ancient portraitures and the old heathen conceptions of him. The engaging form of the genius, akin to Sleep, the childlike Angel of death, is now supplanted by a ghastly figure copied from the grim reality of corruption in the grave. Yet even here poetry steps in with her all-embracing, all-mellowing influence. The older conceptions of Death as leading away, as attacking, as dancing, applied to this new and hideous figure, have called forth a host of truly popular, naive and humorous art-productions; nay, their wealth is not nearly exhausted by the artists yet. Without this hag of bones

1 Todenpfeife is a place in Lower Hesse, Eommel 5, 375. Eemigius demonol. 145 says, at witches' gatlierings tliey played on a dead horse's head instead of a cithern : a coincidence almost decisive. Philand. von Sittew. (p. m. 174) has also a Death with his lyre.

2 0. Miiller's Ai-chaol. 696-7. Lessing 8, 251-2.

3 The poem was printed before the Wigalois.

•* Staphorst i. 4, 263. Bragur 1, 369. 0. Fr. ' les trois mors et les trois vis,' Eoquefort 2, 780. Catal. de la Valliere p. 285-6 ; couf. Douce p. 31 seq. and Catal. of MSS. in Brit. Mus. (1834) 1, 22 (Cod. Arund. no. 83 sec. xiv), also plate 7.

SIR BLICERO. FRIEND HEIN. 851

aping the garb and gestures of the living/ and his startling incongruity with the warm life around, all the charm and quaintness of those compositions would be gone. Less enjoyable must have been the processions and plays in which these spectacles were exhibited in France during the 15th cent, and perhaps earlier; there and then originated that peculiar name for the Dance of Death : chorea Machahaeoi-um, Fr. la danse Macahre?

Another name of Death, much later seemingly than Blicker, but now universally known, is Freuncl Hein or Hain ; I cannot even trace it up to the middle of last century.^ In itself it looks old and fitting enough, and is susceptible of more than one explanation. Considering that Death has so many points of contact with giants and other spirits, the name Heine (p. 503) might be borrowed from the homesprite for one, and the addition of Friend would answer to the ' fellow, neighbour, goodfellow ' of those elvish beings whom we meet with under the name of Heimchen, Eeinchen (pp. 275. 459n.), and who border closely on the idea of departed spirits. Add the L. Germ, term for a winding-sheet, heinenkleed (p. 446). But it is also spelt hiinen- Jcleed, which brings us to ' heun, hilne,' giant (p. 523) ; and Hein itself might be explained as Heimo (p. 387), or Hagano (p. 371). A Voigtland story of the god Hai7i (Jul. Schmidt, p. 150), or the Thuringian one about an ancient haingott, grovegod (Rosencranz's Neue zeitschr. i. 3, 27), being themselves very doubtful, I am not inclined to fasten on our still doubtful Friend Hein. Still less attention is due to a name for mortuarium, ' hainrecht,' * coming as it probably does from heimrecht, i.e. heimfall, lapse of property.

1 As the beasts in a fable ape those of men.

^ Latest writings on the Dance of Death : Peignot, ' Recherches sur les danses des morta' (1826). F. Douce, ' The Dance of Death' (1833). The latter derives Macabre from St. Macarius, to whom three skeletons appeared in a vision. I do not see how ' chorea Machabaeorum,' as the oldest authorities have it, could have come from tliat ; conf. Carpentier sub v. (a. 1424-53). It ought to appear by the old paintings, that the 7 heroes of the O.T. martyred in one day [2 Maccabees 7] ■were incorporated as leading characters in the dance. Perhaps it is more correct to explain ' macabre ' from the Arabic magabir, magabaragh (dead-yard, cimeterium). On the French performances conf. Michelet's Hist, de France 4, 409 — 412 (Paris 1840).

' It is used by Musaus (Volksm. 1, 16), Claudius and Gotten J. R. Schellenberg in Pref. to Freund Heins erscheinungcn (Wintortlnir 1785) thinks Claudius in his Asmus (after 1775) invented the name, which I very much doubt ; he has given it currency.

• Mittermaier's Privatrecht § 77, no. 27.

852 DEATH.

Kaisersberg calls Death liolz-meier, wood-mower. He wrote a book, De arbore liumana (Strasb. 1521 fob), 'wherein easily and to the glory of God ye may learn to await blithely the woodcutter Death.' Then, p. US'*: 'So is death called a village-mower ov ivood-mower, and justly hath he the name, for he hath in him the properties of a wood-cutter, as, please God, ye shall hear. The first property of the village-mower is communitas, he being possessed in common by all such as be in the village, and being to serve them all alike. So is the wood-cutter likewise common to all the trees, he overlooketh no tree, but heweth them down all.'^ Here Death is regarded as a forester, a ranger, who has a right to fell any of the forest-trees. It is said that in some places the gravedigger is called holzmeier.

In the Deutsche Schlemmer, a drama of the 16th cent., Death is called the pale Strechefuss or Strechehein (leg-stretcher), as Gryphius too (Kirchhofsged. 36) names him StrecTifuss, because he stretches out the limbs of the dying, loosens them {\v(TLixekr]<i) ; and before that, the twice quoted Meister-song of the 14th cent, has : ' er hat kein ru, er hab gestrecket mir das fell (my skin),' Hag. mus. 2, 188. In Chr. Weise's Drei erzn. 314 I find Strechehein and Bleckezahn, bleak {i.e. bared) teeth ; and elsewhere JDiirrhein, Klapperbein, names for a skeleton. The allusion in hupferhichel (Ackerm. aus B. p. 34) remains obscure (see Suppl.).

It remains for me to mention certain more fully developed myths respecting Death, which have survived from assuredly a remote antiquity.

H. Sachs (1, 102*^), speaking of Death's arrival, says he twitches ov jerks the stool from under man, tips it over, so that he tumbles to the ground. He takes from him his seat and standing among the living : I suspect there was a fuller story at the back of this. More commonly the same thing is expressed by ' Death has Mown the man's candle out ' (as Berhta blew out the lights of the eyes, p. 277), for the notions of light, life and sojourn among the living, run into one another.^ The living principle was linked

1 The earlier editions in Latin (151-1, 115*<=, and 1519, 105'^'=) have in parentheses ' der dorfmeyger ' and ' der holzmeyger.'

2 Wh. 416, 14 : ' bi liehter sunnen da verlasch (went out) manegem Sarrazin sin lieht.' Lohengr. 133 : ' er sluoc in, daz im muose daz lieht erlischen.'

QUENCHES LIGHT. A GODFATHER. 853

to a light, a taper, a brand : when these were wasted, death ensued (pp. 409. 415). Here then the idea of Death is intimatelyconnected with that of fate. The genius loivers his torch, reverses it, and the light of life is quenched. For the child as soon as born, the norn has kindled a light, to which his thread of life is fastened; possibly even our lighting of tapers in connexion with birthday gifts has reference to this.^ We have a capitally contrived story of Gossip Death (gevatter Tod, Kinderm. no. 44), the conclusion of which represents a subterranean cavern, with thousands of lights burning in endless rows. These are the lives of men, some still blazing as long tapers, others burnt down to tiny candle-ends ; but even a tall taper may topple or be tipt over. The preceding part relates, how Death has stood gossip - to a poor man, and has endowed his godson with the gift of beholding him bodily when he approaches the sick, and of judging by his position whether the patient will recover or not.^ The godson becomes a physician, and attains to wealth and honours : if Death stands at the sick man^s head, it is all over with him ; if at his feet, he will escape. Occasionally the doctor turns the patient round, and circumvents Death ; but in the end Death has his revenge, he catches his godson napping, and knocks his candle over.* Throughout this fable Death shews himself friendly, good-natured and indulgent, only in case of absolute need does he fulfil his function ; hence too his gossiphood ^ with man, which evidently corresponds to that ancient visit of the norns to the newborn child, and their bestowing gifts on him (pp. 408 — 12), as in some nursery-tales the fays are invited to stand godmothers.^ The extinguished light resembles the taper and the brand, to which are linked the lives of Nornagestr and Meleager (pp. 409. 415). It is then a primitive myth

' In the child's game ' If the fox dies I get the skin ' (Kinderm. 2, xviii.), a piece of burning wood is passed round, and its extinction decides.

' God-sib expresses the kinship of god-parents to each other or to the parents. — Trans.

•* So the bird charadrius, by looking at or away from you, decides your life or death, Freid. introd. Ixxxvi., where a couplet in Titurel 515i-5 and the O.Fr. Bestiaire (Koquef. sub v. caladrio) are left unnoticed.

■• May not that ' stool ' also, when upset, have knocked the candle over ?

• Is Death likewise called the brother of man, as he is of Sleep? The 'bruoder tut' in Ben. 202 means /ratris mors.

• The semi-divine norns and fays protect and bestow gifts like christian sponsors.

854 DEATH.

of heathen Germany; in telling which^ Death was pictured, even till recent times, not as a skeleton, but in the shape of a living man or god. We cannot wonder that the story is found with a great many variations, which are collected, though still incompletely, in Kinderm. 3, 72 : in some of them Death presents his godson with a ring, by which he can judge of diseases.-^ Old Hugo von Trimberg at the close of his work had told a tale ' von dem Tode, wie er ein hint huop (took up),' but there is not much in it (Bamb. ed. 23665 — 722) : Death promises to send his gossip some messengers before he comes to fetch him (as in the Meister-song p. 847n.) ; these are, ringing in the ears, running at the eyes, toothache, wrinkled skin, and grizzled beard. The gossiphood is the only guarantee of any connexion with the later

marchen. The resemblance of the OHG. toto, godfather,

MHG. tote (Parz. 461, 10. Wh. 7, 21) to tot, death, is striking, though strictly the quantity of the vowel keeps the two words apart, and to harmonize them some derivative process must be presupposed. The story never grew out of a play on the words (see Suppl.).^

Equally celebrated, but gayer in tone, is the tale of Death and Player Jack (Spielhansel, no. 82 ; conf. 3, 135—148), who by a spell binds Death to a tree, so that nobody dies in the world for seven years. Welcker (Append, to Schwenk p. 323-4) has pointed out a parallel story in Pherekydes, how Death is set on by Zeus to attack Sisyphos, who binds him in strong chains, and then no one can die; Hades himself comes and sets Death free, and delivers Sisyphos into his hands. Our German fable interweaves the Devil into the plot. Ouce the Devil was put in possession of hell, he had to take his place beside Death, as the alliteration ' death and devil ! ' couples them together. So Welnas, Wels, originally the death-god of the Lithuanians and Lettons, got converted into the Devil. According to the christian view, angels received the souls of the just, devils those of the wicked (p. 836) ; therefore Death in coming for souls was divided into a double power, according as he resembled the angel or the devil. As angelic messenger, he comes nearest the christian Michael, whose oflace it was to receive souls (Morolt

1 Ettner's Unwiird. doctor p. 290.

^ Conf. p. 14 on the affinity between god and gode.

A GOD. 855

2660. 2715), canf. p. 836. Of very aged people, who still live on, we say ' Death has forgotten to fetch them.' The Nib. Lament 122 has: ' der Tot het ir minne, die da sterben solden,' D. bore those in mind that there should die, or, as Lachmann interprets it, desired them for his band (conf. p. 84-8).

These investigations will hardly have left it doubtful, that the heathen ' Death ' is one of a secondary order of gods ; hence too he coincides more especially with the semi-divine valkyrs and norns, he is dependent on OSinn and Hel ; of the Grecian gods, it is Hermes and Hades, Persephone and the ferryman Charon that come nearest to him. But his nature is also not unrelated to that of elves, homesprites and genii.

Chap. XXIV. has explained how he got mixed up with one of the time-gods, Winter; no wonder therefore that he now and then reminds us of Kronos.

In our Heldenbuch, Death figures as a false god, whom the heathen Belligan serves above all other gods, and whose image is demolished by Wolfdietrich. I do not know exactly how to account for this : it must be a diabolic being that is meant.

In the Finnish lays, Manala and Tuonela are often named together, but as separate beings. One is the underworld, from ' maa,' earth ; the other the kingdom of the dead,, as Tiion [ddvaTo<;) is Death, Halja. In Kalewala, runes 6 — 9, Tuonela seems to be a river of the underworld, with sacred swans swimming on it (see Suppl.) .

VOL. ir. K E

CHAPTER XXVIII. DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

This is the place to insert a more exact survey of ancient opinions on fortune and destiny, than it was possible to take in chap. XVI, where the semi-divine directresses of human fate were spoken of. Fate in the proper sense has so much to do with men's notions about birth, and more especially those about death, and these have only just been expounded. Thus, a man over whom there impends a speedy and inevitable death is said to be fey}

Our ancestors, like other heathens, appear to have made a distinction between destiny and fortune. Their gods bestow prosperity and bliss : above all, Wuotan is the giver of all good, the maker and author of life and victory (pp. 133-7). But neither he nor any other god was at the beginning of creation, he has himself sprung out of it (p. 659), and can do nothing against a higher constitution of the world, which exempts neither him nor victory-lending Zeus ^ from a general destruction (pp. 316-8). Some things turn out contrary to his will : OSiun and all the ases cannot prevent the misfortune of Balder ; another instance of overruling destiny at p. 425. Ragnarok, the world's destruction, far overtops the power of the gods.

This predetermined and necessary character of all that comes into being and exists and perishes, was expressed by a plural

» 0HG./ei.7i, MHG. veige ; OS./e//i, Hel. 72,4; AS. fcege, Beow. 5946; ON. felgr. Tlie old meaniug of the word has been preserved longest in Lower Saxony [and Scotland] : ' dar is en veege in'u Luse ' ; 'en rtfe(7minsclie, dat balde sterveu werd (will die soon) ' ; per contra, ' be is nau nig veegc (not fey yet) ' of a man who comes in when you are talking of him. Also Nethl. ' een vceg man (with one foot in the grave), een veege teken (sign of death)', hence also veeg = debilis, periculis expositus. Our own feig has acquired the sense of fainthearted, cowardly, pitiable, as the Lat. fatalis has, in the Fr. fatal, that of unlucky, disagreeable. So the Lith. paikas, bad (see SuppL).

2 Tpdieaai jSovXeraL vU-qv (II. 7, 21. 16, 121), as /3ouX?7 will, counsel, is usually attributed to Zeus (i]pj.v ^ovXerai 17, 331) ; and sometimes voos (17, 176) or vo-rj/xa, purpose (17, 409). His great power is illustrated by the gold chain (aeipi, II. H, 19—28), but passages presently to be cited shew that he had to leave destiny to be decided by the balance.

8^0

DESTINY. 857

noun, ON. scop, OS. giscapu, AS. gesceapu ; I have uofc fouud an OHG. scaf, kiscaf in the same sense^ though the sing, is forthcoming, and, like the sing, skap in ON., signifies indoles, consilium, Graff 6, 450. The later Icelandic uses a masc. skajmad'r, and the Dan. sJciehne (ON. skepna = forma, indoles). The OS. intensifies its giscapu by prefixes : ivurdigiscapu, Hel. 103, 7. reganogiscapu (supra p. 2C), decreta fati, superorum, where the old heathen notions of wurd and regiti plainly assert themselves. In ON. the neut. pi. log (statuta) is never used of destiny, except when joined to the particle or (tor or), drluij, which in all the other dialects becomes a sing., OHG. udac (neut. ? Graff's quotations 2, 96-7 leave it doubtful, Notker uses urlag as masc, pi. urlaga), OS. orlag, AS. orlceg, all denoting a 'fixing from the first ; ' but as the most momentous issue of fate was to the heathen that of war, it early deviated into the sense of bellum, and in Hel. 132, 3 urlagi bellum seems distinct from orlag, orleg fatum, but in reality both are one. So the OHG. urteil, ^irleili, AS. ovdcel, from being the award of a judge, came to mean that of battle. The OS. compound aJdarlagu (vitae decretum), Hel. 125, 15 retains the old plural form. Now aldr, aldar is strictly aevum (p. 792), and hveila, OHG. India tempus, but also vitae tempus; hence these words also run into the sense of fatum, conf. AS. gesceap-hwU, orleg-hwil, Beow. 52. 4849. 5817, OS. odag-hilUa, Hel. 103, 8, and OHG. Jndlsdlida} Then there is an ON. aud'na, Swed. ode, destiny, and ' auSinn ' fato concessus : ' au&iia rffiSr hvors manns lifi,' rules every man's life, Fornald. sog. 1, 95. Our modern words, not introduced till late, schiclcsal (fr. schicken aptare, conf. geschickt aptus), verhdngnis, fugiing, do not come up to the old ones in simplicity or strength.

To the nouns 'scapu, lagu,' correspond the verbs to shape, to lay, which are used in a special sense of the decrees of fate (pp. 407. 410): 'ist tha kindee shpen (is it shaped for the child)' says the 0. Fris. Law 49, 10. But we also meet with an ON. oitla (destinare, to intend for some one), OHG. ahtoii and perhaps ahtilou, MHG. ahten, and beslahten, as ahte and slahte are akin to one another (see Suppl.).

WUscilda ffortuna), N. Cap. 20-3-5. 53. 77. MHG. tcihalde, Kaiserclir. 1757. Massmaim 3, GG'J. Geo. Ol''. ' tUu ivilc iniu und icli miiez Got bevollien sin,' must be coaimitted to God, Bit. '6^,

858 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

Destiny has principally to do with the beginning and the end of human life. The Wurd visits the newborn and the dying, and it is for one or the other of these events that the abovementioned names of destiny are mostly used by the poets ; thus Beow. 51 speaks of dying ' to gesceaphwile/ at the appointed time: Hel. 103, 7: ' tho quamun wurdegiscapu themu odagan man, orlaghuile, that he thit licht farlet.' The hour of birth too settles much as to the course and outcome of one's life : ' qualem Nascentia attulit, talis erit,' and ' Parcae, dam aliquis nascitur, valent eum designare ad hoc quod volunt/ Superst. A, and C 198°. The infant's whole course of life shall be conformable to what the norns or fays in their visitation have bestoived, have shaped. ^

It is a deviation from this oldest way of thinking, to put the settlement of destiny into the hands of the gods ; yet it is a very old one. Undoubtedly the faith of many men began early to place the Highest God at the very head of the world's management, leaving those weird-women mei'ely to make known his mandates. The future lies on the lap of the gods, 6ewv iv ^ovvaai Kelrat, and with this agrees that ' laying on the lap,' that ' taking to the bosom,' which is performed by the paternal or maternal deity (pp. 642. 839). If above the gods themselves there could be conceived a still higher power, of the beginning and end of all things, yet their authority and influence was regarded by men as boundless and immeasurable, all human concerns were undoubtedly under their control (see Suppl.).

The Grautrekssaga tells us (Fornald. sog. 3, 32), that at midnight Hrosshdysgraid" awoke his foster-son Starka'Sr, and carried him in his boat to an island. There, in a wood, eleven men sat in council ; the twelfth chair stood vacant, but Hrossharsgrani took it, and all saluted hitn as OSinn. And OSinu said, the demsters should deem the doom of Starkat^r (domendr skyldi doema orlug St.). Then spake Thorr, who was wroth with the mother of the lad : I shape for him, that he have neither son nor

^ We still say : ' born in hnppij hour.' OHG. ' mit lieilu er giboran ward,' 0. Sal. 44. Freq. in theO. Span. Cid : ' el que en buen ora uascio, el que en biien pimto nascio.' From this notion of a good hour of beginning (a la bonne heure) has sprung the Fr. word bouheur (masc.) for good hap in general. Similarly, about receiving knighthood, the 0. Span, has ' el que en buen ora einxo espada.'

• That is, Graui, SiSgrani, the bearded, a by-name of OSinn (p. 147).

DESTINY. 859

daughter, but be the last of his race. OSinn said : I sliape him, that he live three men^s lifetimes (conf. Saxo Gram. p. 103). Thorr : in each lifetime he shall do a ' niSings-verk.^ OSimi : I shape him, that he have the best of weapons and raiment. Thorr : he shall have neither land nor soil. OSinn : I give him, that he have store of money and chattels. Thorr : I lay unto him, that he take in every battle grievous wounds. OSinn : I give him the gift of poetry. Thorr : what he composes he shall not be able to remember. OSinn : this I shape him, that he be prized by the best and noblest men. Thorr : by the people he shall be hated. Then the demsters awarded to Starka'Sr all the doom that was deemed, the council broke up, and Hrossharsgrani and his pupil went to their boat.

Thorr plays here exactly the part of the ungracious fay (pp. 411-2), he tries to lessen each gift by a noxious ingredient. And it is not for an infant, but a well-grown boy, and in his presence, that the destiny is shaped.

According to Grreek legend, Zeus did not always decide, directly, but made use of two scales, in which he weighed thefates of men, e.g. of the Trojans and AchaBans, of Achilles and Hector :

Kal Tore 8r] ')(^pv(Teia 7raT7]p ciriTaLve rdXavra'

ev S' irtdei Suo KTjpe ravrfk.e'yeo'i Oavdroio,

TpMcov O' iTnroSdficov Kal 'A'^aiayv 'y^aXKO^^cTcovcov.

eXKe Se /xeaaa Xa/Scov peTre S' aiaifiov rj/xap !A')(^accov.

II. 8, 69. 22, 209; conf. 16, b58. 19, 223. The same of Aeneas and Turnus, Aen. 12, 723 :

Jupiter ipse, duas aequato examine lances

sustinet, et fata imponit diversa duorum,

quera damnet labor, et quo vergat pondere letum.

I am the more particular in quoting these, as the christian legend also provides the archangel Michael, the conductor of souls, with scales, in which the good and evil deeds of them that die are weighed against one another, and the destinies of souls determined by the outcome^ (see Suppl.). Tiie application of a balance to actions, to sins, is very natural; the (apocryphal) 2 Esdras 3, 31-

1 Conf. Deut. S. no. 479; a coll. of authorities iu Zapp2rt's Vita Acotauti (Vienna 1839), pp. 79, 88. ,

860 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

has: 'nunc ergo pondera in statera nostras iniquitates/ and 4, 86 : ' qnoniam in statera ponderavit seculum/^ The Jomsvikingasaga cap. 42 (Fornm. sog. 11, 128-9) describes the magical luckscales or wishing-scales of Hakon iarl : ' SiSan tekr iarl skdlir go&ar ]7ser er hann atti, ]>ddv voro gervar af brendu silfri ok gylldar allar, en J7ar fylg^o 2 ^Jie^, annat af gulli en annab af silfri; a hvarotveggja metino var gert sem vaeri iikneskja, ok heto ];at hlotai', en ]?at voro reyndar hlutir, sem raonnum var titt at hafa, ok fylgSi ]?esso nattura mikil, ok til j^ess alls, er iarli j^otti skipta, Jja liaf'Si hann j^essa hluti. Iarl var jjvi vanr at leggja hluti |>essa i skalirnar, ok kva'S a hvat hvar skyldi merkja fyrir honum, ok avalt er vel gengo hlutir, ok sa kom upp, er hann vildi, ];a var sa okyrr hlutrinn i skalinni, er ]>at merkSi at hann vildi at yr'Si, ok breysti sa hlutrinn nokkot sva i skalinni, at glam vai'S af .■*

I do not find that in our earlier heathen time the fates of men were calculated from the stars at their birth. This kind of soothsaying (p. 721) seems not to have become known till the latter part of the Mid. Ages. Radulphus Ardens (an Aquitanian priest of the 11th cent.) says in his Homilies (Antverp. 1576, p. 4P) : Cavete, fratres, ab eis qui mentiuntur, quod quando quisque nascitur, stella sua secimi nascitvr, qua fatum ejus consfituitur, sumentes in erroris sui argumentum, quod hie in scriptura sacra (on the star of the Magi) dicitur ' stella ejus.^ One instance we find in Klinsor^s star-gazing on the Wartburg; another in the wishing-wife who looks into the stars, Altd. bl. 1, 129 (see SuppL).

For individuals then, as well as for whole families and nations, length of days and happiness were ordained beforehand.^ But the decrees of norns and gods lay shrouded in an obscurity that disclosed its secrets only to the glances of wise men and women (p. 400).^ The people believed in a predetermining of fates, as they did in the certainty of death.

' We need not go to 2 Esdras to find plenty of similar passages in the 0. T., e.g. 1 Sam. 2, 3. Job 31, 6. Prov. 16, 2. Isa. 26, 7. Dan. 5, 27.— Tkans.

2 Not unfrequently depending on their possession of certain things : a hoard drags the whole kindred of the Nibelungs to ruin ; the gift, the jewel, of the dwarfs (p. 457) insures the prosperity of particular families.

^ It is worthy of remark, that, ace. to the ON. view, not all the gods, but only tlie highest ones possessed a knojvledge of destiny; so to the Greeks, none but Zeus and those whom he made his conlidants knew of it. Of Frigg it is said, Saem. 65'': 'at oil orlog viti, j^ptt bun sialfgi segi,' all fates she knows, but tells not. And

FATALISM. 861

The Old Norse fatalism is proved by the following passages: ' Jagt er alt for/ predestined is all ; and ' era me^ lostom logcf £efi ]?er/ Seem. 175''. ' sia mun gipt lagiff a, grams asfi/ and

• munat skopom vinna/ 179^. ^ eino doegri mer var aldr um sJcapaffr oc allt lif um lagit,' 83'*. ' var ]?er ]7ar sicapat,' 164". ' J>at verSr hverr at vinna, er cetlat ev' -, ' ]?at man verSa fram atkoma, sem cetlat er'; ^ecki man mer |)at sto'Sa, ef mer er dauff'inn (etladr' ; ' koma man til min feig&'ui, hvar sem ek em staddr, ef mer ver'Sr ]7ess aiiffit', Nialss. pp. 10. 23. 62. 103. So in Swed. and Dan. folksongs: * detta var mig spadt uti min barndom/ Arvidss. 2, 271. 'liver skal nyde skiebnen sin/ Danske V. ,

The same with our MHG. poets: 'swaz sich 9,o\ filegen, wer mac daz understen (what is to happen, who can hinder) ?' Nib. 1618, 1. 'swaz gescliehen sol, daz fiieget sich/ what shall be, will be, Frauend. ' da sterbent wan die veigen' there die (none) but the fey, Nib. 149, 2. ' ez sterbent niuwan die veigen, die IfBgen doch da heime tot,' would lie dead though at home, VVigal. 10201. 'di veigen fielen dar nider/ Lampr. 2031. 'hinnerstirbet niman wan di veigen' Pf. Chuonr. 8403. 'then veigen mac nieman behuoteu, thiu erthe ne mag in niht uf gehaven (hold up), scol er tha wei'then gestagen, er sturve (would die) thoh thaheime,' Fr. belli 42''. ' swie ringe er ist, der veige man, in mac ros noch enkan niht viirbaz getragen/ the fey man, however light, no horse can carry farther, Karl 72''. Rol. 207, 24. ' die veigen muosen ligen tot,' Livl. chron. 59''. * der veigen mac keiner genesen,' none recover, ib. 78". 'ich ensterbe niht yor minem tac (day),' Herb. 53'^ 'nieman sterben sol wan zu sinem gesatten zil (goal),' Ulr. Trist. 2308. 'daz aver (whatever) scol werden, daz nemac nieman erwenden (avert),' Diut. 3, 71. 'gemach erwenden niht enkan swaz dem man gescliehen sol,' Troj. 58''. ' daz muose wesen (what had to be), daz geschach,' Orl. 11167. 'swaz gescliehen sol, daz geschiht.' Freid. 132''. MS. 1, (W. 71". 'daz salt eht sin, nu ist ez geschehen,' MS. 74*. 80*. ' ez geschiht in'lit wan daz sol geschehen,' Lanz. 6934. * ez

O'Sinn says ffi'2''), tliat Gefjon knows tlie world's destiny (aUlar cirlog) equally with himself. Ainou^ men, jmrticuliir henx'S and priests spy out the secrets of the future, preeminently Gripir (p. 94) ; to women, to priestesses, belonged the gift of divination.

862 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

ergat doch nilit, wan ah ez sol/ Trist. 6776. ' tot aveura qanque doit avenir/ Ogier 7805. ' bin ich genislich, so genise ich/ if I was made to live thro^ it, I shall, A. Heinr. 190. 'swaz ich getuon (do), bin ich genislich, ich genise wol ; bin ich dem valle ergeben (doomed to fall), so n^ hilfet mich min woltuon nicht eiu har,^ MS. 2, 129''. ' ez muose sin, und ez was mir heschaffen,' it was to be, was shaped for me (13J^''). ' diu maget was iu heschaffen,' that girl was cut out for you, Wigal. 1002. ' ez was im beslaht (destined),' Eracl. 2394. 'swaz ist geschaffen [shapen), daz muoz geschehen,' MsH. 3, 434*^. 'nu mir daz was in teile,' well, that was in my lot (portion), En. 11231. ' ez was enteile uns getdv,' Herb. 18418. 'ez ist mich OAigehorn,' I was born to it. Herb. 6*^. — The words geschaffen, heschaffen and heslaht are identical with the ON. skapat and cetlat, and this sameness of the words testifies to their original connexion with the heathen doctrine. Even at the present day the fatalist view prevails largely among the common people (Jul. Schmidt pp. 91. 163). 'ez miiste mir sein gemacht gewesen,' must have been made for me, Sieben ehen eines weibes, p. 211. 'fatum in vulgari dicitur "'tis allotted lanto me {hescheert, my shai-e)"; ego autem addo ''allotting and deserving run alway side by side.'" Sermones disc, de tempore, sermo 21. 'was hescheert ist, entlauft nicht,' Schweinichen 3, 249 (see Suppl.) .^

Now, in themselves, the gifts of destiny would include eveiy earthly blessing. But gradually men began ascribing whatever in human life seemed bane or blessing (excepting birth and death) to a separate being : thus the Greeks and Romans, in addition to fxolpa and fatum, held by an independent Tv)(7] and Fortitna.

Mixllenhoff in the Nordalbingia p. 11 (conf. Schlesw. hoist, sagen xliv) infers from the name of a place Welanao, occurring in Ansgar (Pertz 2, 687-99), an OS. god Welo, AS. Wela, the very thing I had had in my mind (p. 163) : an older god of weal in the place of the later goddess Salida, Sa^lde. But instead of his interpretation Welauaha, I should prefer Welan-owa, which is supported by the more modern Welnau, a place that stood on

' The same belief is held by the Lithuanians and Lettons, fate they ca.lllikkimas liJiteni, from lik-t to lay down, arrange : ' tai buwo jo likkims,' ' tas jau bija wiunam liktz ,' that was destined for him.

WEAL. S^LDE. 863

tlie right bank of the Elbe near Itzehoej the river Stor having apparently formed the 'aue, ea'; Welan-owa Avould then be uniform with Wunschesouwa and Pholesouwa (p. GOO). The great thing is, first to establish from other sources the personality of Welo, which the quotations from the Heliand fail to do, for welanowa taken simply as isle of luck (Atterbom^s lycksalighetens 5) is quite compatible with the old ways. of thinking : Reichenau (augia dives) has much the same meaning, and in the vicinity of Welnau has arisen Gliickstadt. In the AS. ' welan bewunden ' (Gramm. 4, 752), wela is used, though mythically, yet not of a person but a thing : God himself sits ' welan bewunden,^ Adam and Eve stand ' mid welan bewunden/ wrapt in splendour, in bliss, Csedm. 42, 2. 27, 19. But the 'gold ivelan bewunden' forms a contrast to the ' gold galdre bewunden,' a holy divine power is imagined confronting that of sorcery; and this ivela does seem to lead up to Wela, as the kindred notion of ivunsch to Wunsch.

The ON. distinguishes its fem. heill (felicitas) from a neut. heil (omen), so does the AS. its htelu f, (salus) from hsel n. (omen), and the OHG. its heili f. (salus) from heil n. (omen). Both meanings are combined in MHG. heil n. Personifications of this I scarcely know, unless such be intended by a passage obscure to me, Ottoc. 683^ which gives out as a common proverb : ' chum hail hauenstain ! ' In MS. 2, 130'* : ' waz ob iuwer lieil eime andern kumet an sin seil,' what if your hap prove another's hanging? And so early as 0. ii. 18, 7 : 'thaz heil ni gifahit iuwih,' luck comes not your way (see Suppl.).

On the other hand, it is the commonest thing with our 13th cent, poets to treat scelde (fortuna) as a female person, and that apparently not in imitation of the Romance writings : even the OHG. sdlida occurs with the like import, and the compound huiUdlida (supra p. 857) was a stronger expression of the same thing. 0. i. 26, 4 speaking of the baptism of Christ in the water, uses a remarkable phrase, to which no church writer could have prompted him : ' sid wacJieta alien maunon thiu Sdlida in then undon.' Waking presupposes life. The personification comes out still more clearly in poets four centuries after him : ' unser Scelde ivacJiet,' Parz. 550, 10. ' min sorge slufet, so din Scelde wachet; Tit. 31, 3. 'z'aller zit des S. wachet/ MS. 1, 1&\

864 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

^nnser S. diu wil wachen' Trisfc. 9430. ' des noch sm 5^. wachet/ Ernst. 5114. 'ir S. wacliet,' Amgb. 35*. 'daz mir 8. ivache,' ib. 43*. ' ich waen sin 8. sldfe/ ib. 44*'. ' so ist im al diu 8. ertaget (dawned)/ Trist. 9792. ' diu S. ist dir betaget,' Wartb. kr. jen. 21. 'diu S. was mit im betaget/ Dietr. 5*. 27*. 'iuwer 8. wirt erwecket,' Lohengr, 19. Observe in these MHG. quotations the frequent poss. pron.^ or gen. case : the Saslde dedicates herself to certain men, protects and prospers them, ivahes for them while they sleep, as we say •' luck came to me in my sleep.^ A mode of speech so common need not always be felt to personify : ' daz im sin heil niht slief/ Troj. 9473. 'da wachet schande, und slaeft daz heil/ Zauberbecher (magic bowl) 1113. 'Tristans geliicke da niht slief,^ Heinr. Tr. 2396. It was even extended to other notions of the same kind : ' wachet sin ere und ouch sin lop/ honour, praise, Amgb. 47*. ' ir milte wachet,' ib. 12^. ' ir genade (kindness) mir muoz wachen,' MS. 1, 33*. 'ich waene an ir ist genade entslafen (asleep), daz ich ir leider niht erwecken kan,' MS. 1, 48*. ' du (minne) bist gegen mir hart entslafen,' MS. 1, 60*. 'min schade wachet,' Ben. 121. 'din kraft mifc ellen do niht slief,' Parz. 85, 24. We still say, ' treason sleeps not'; and some phrases of this sort can have a personal sense. The heathen colouring of Saelde's waking and being ivaked I infer chiefly from the analogous ' vekja Hildi ' noticed on p. 422, who not only was awaked, but herself awoke the heroes (Sn. 164). And ' vilbiorg seal vaka,' S^m. 46*, may bear the same meaning : we can translate it ' jucunda salus,' or suppose it a proper noun. FroSi makes Fenja and Menja (p. 531) grind, gold, peace and happiness (gull, fri'S oc seelu), allowing them but scanty rest at night : they luake to grind prosperity for him, and afterwards misfortune (salt) for My^singr, Sn. 146-7 (see Suppl.).

And this is far from being the only way personification is applied to her. Sselde is called /rart, she appears, meets, bends her fiice toward her favourites, hearkens to them (as a god hears prayer), smiles on them, greets them, is kind and obliging, but can be cross ; those whom she dislikes, she forgets, shuns, flees, runs away from,- turns her back upon ; she has a door and a

' So : ' cTes si viin S. gein in bote,' Parz. 416, 4. ' des sol min S. pfant siu,' be pledge thereof, Frauend. 23. ' lat dir'z din S. wol gezemen,' MS. 2, 252'.

• This escaping is the same thing as the ON. hverfa (evauescere) : heillir

S^LDE. 865

road. Here again old Otfrid leads the way (ii. 7, 20) : ' thin Salida in thar gaganta' (eis occurrit). Walther sings 55, 35 : 'fro Scelde teilet umbe sich (scatters gifts around), uud heret mir den rilgge ziio (turns her back), sie stet ungerne gegen mir, si n^ ruochet (recks) mich nilit an gesehen' ; and 43, 5: 'xmnfrou S., wie si min vergaz ! ' ' vrS S. ha,t iu an sich genomen, wil din pflegen (cherish),^ Ecke 10, 160. ' ob vrmivje S. mines heiles welle ruochen,' Ben. 425. ' die wile es min S. ruochte,' Parz. 689, 20. 'haete mir din S. ir ore haz geneiget/ inclined her ear, MS. 2, 220^ ' d6 was mir 8. entrimnen,' Parz. 689, 8. ' 8. was sin geleite,' conductress, Wigal. 8389. 'froii 8. ir was hereit,' ready to help, Er. 3459; and perhaps we ought to add what follows : ' din Gotes hovescheit ob miner frowen sivehfe,' God^s kindness over ray lady hovered; for so hover the valkyrs over the heroes they befinend. 'Got wise mich der 8celden ivege,' guide me on Fortune's way, Parz. 8, 1 6. ' den vuoz (foot) setzen in der 8. 'pfat,' Ben. 306. 'frowe 8. muoz in uf ir strdze wisen/ Tit. 5218. 'der 8celden sUc,' path, Karl 19^ 'iiber fr6 8. stec gan,' Fragm. 46"'. ' tuo mir uf (open) der 8. tiir ! ' MS. 1, 36
'der 8. porte,' A. Heinr. 243, 33. 'der 8. tiir besliezen,' shut, MsH. 3, 336\ 'setzen zuo der 8. tiir,' Zauberb. 1150. 'den begiuzet 8. vluot/ flood, MsH. 3, 205^. ' 8(elde und ir gesinde (household) wait ir,' MS. 1, 88^'. ' diu 8dlde folget sinen vanen,' follows his banners, Lampr. 2089. ' mir enwil diu 8. ninder folgen einen fuoz/ Ben. 367. ' mir ist diu 8. gram,' unfriendly, Gregor 2390. 'diu 8. was ime gram; Dint. 1,10. Athis D. 84. ' diu 8. vUiihet (flees) von mir,' Greg. 1526. ' diu 8. hat mich verJdn,' Karl 95^*. ' diu 8. hat si hesezzen,' possessed her, Wigal. 884. ' diu 8. het ir gesivorn' 941. ' diu 8. het zuo im gcsivorn zeira staeten ingesinde,' to be his steadfast follower, Lanz. 1561. ' der 8celden spil,' game, Wigal. 8761. 9271. 9386. ' diu gespil der 8.,' playmate 10532. ' swes diu 8. ze gesellen gert,' desires as companion 945. 'ira gab diu 8. ir hantgift,' Silv. 534. ' diu 8. vloz im in den munt' 1024. ' ez rise (drop) uf dich der 8. tuft' 1389. 'so griienet diner 8. ris,' spray, MsH. 2, 258
' frouwe 8. lachet mir,' laughs, Ernst 4334. ' daz dir/;v> 8. lache, und al din heil hewache,' Silv. 2565. ' Fortune wolt im do niht

horfnar (felicitates evanitae), Ssem. 93*. ' swi ime di Sjilden volgen, werdent si irae verbolgen, si ne kcren zuinliche icidcr,' once offended, they come not back, Al. C189.

866 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

me gensedeclichen (graciously) lacJien,' Troj. 5754. * so decket uns der 8. huot,' hood, hat, Winsbekin 45, 7 : a wishing-cap. ^ daz iuch frouwe S. miieze heliilllen' (fovere), Lohengr. 101: behullen prob. in its literal sense, to wrap, to clothe, as Walther 43, 1 and 7 makes fro Sselde hleiden (clothe) people, and schroten (cut out) for them ; she cuts out sorrow and high courage. And so, no doubt, under many more aspects, which we can guess from our present figures of speech: ^fortune favours, visits, pursues him,' etc. etc. And here again we find, even in old poets, the more vague neuter : ' geliicke hat den nuwen gegen mir gekert/ turned its back toward me, LS. 1,238; Miat den nuwen noch gegen mir endecket ; enblecket gen mir sinen zan (bared its teeth, gnashed) ; het zer rechten hende griffen ' 3, 539. ' do kerte von im undo vloch geliicke,' Troj. 5750. We say *my fortune blooms, grows,' as though it were attached to a tree or herb: '^ mein gUicke das bliihete mir,' Schweinichen 1, 170. 'geliicke wahset mit genuht,' Troj. 5686. 'uns ist niht wol erschozen geliicke' 12438. 'Got wil uns sselde lazen wahsen,' Lohengr. Q6. The proverb ' das gliick kommt von ungefiihr wol iiber neunzig stauden her,' Simplic. 2, 158, well expresses the suddenness and surprise, the windfall nature of luck, to which are owing the very names of TV'x^rj (from Tv-)(^elv, rv^-x^dveiv) and fortuna (from fors). Very likely some of the phrases quoted above have come to us from the ancients, or they had them in common with us (see Suppl.).

The tale of the Wunderer (wonder-workei', Etzels hofh. 208), makes /7'a?t Scelde a king's daughter with three miraculous gifts, (1) that of knowing a man's thoughts, (2) of blessing warriors against wounds in battle, (3) of transporting herself whither she will (24 — 26). Who can fail to detect in this the echo of an old heathen valkyr ?

The now universally familiar image of Fortune riding on a rolling lulieel (/cuXtz^Spo?),^ which was attributed to Fors, Tyche and Nemesis (0. Miiller's Archiiol. 607), is, I consider, an importation. ' Versatur celeri Fors levis orbe rotae/ Tibull. i. 5, 70. ' stems in orbe dea,' Ov. ep. ex Ponto ii. 3, 56. ' Fortunae rotam pertimescebat,' Cic. in Pison, 10. 'rota Fortunae,' Tac. de orat.

' A different thing therefore from the wheel that Krodo and Yishnu carry in the hand (p. 248-9).

foetune's wheel. 867

23. ' assumptus in amplissimum Fortunae fastigium, versahiles ejus motus expertus ost^ qui ludunt mortalitatem^ nuac eveUentes quosdam in sidera, nunc ad Cocyti profunda mergentes/ Amm. Marc. 14, 11 : 'Fortunae volucris rota adversa prosperis semper alternans ' 31, 1. 'Fortunae te regendum dedisti, dominae moribus oportet obtemperes, tu vero voloentis rotae impetum refcinere conaris ? Si manere incipit, Fors esse desistit/ Boeth. de consol. ii. pr. 1. Notker cap. 25. ' rotam voluhili orhe versamus (says Fortuna of herself), infima summis, surama infimis mutare gaudemus. ascende si placet, sed ea lege uti ne, cum ludicri raei ratio poscet, descendere injuriam putes,^ ib. ii. pr. 2. — There seem to be two separate images here : one, that of the goddess herself standing or sitting ^ on the revolving wheel,- and so whirling by in breathless haste ; the other, that she makes the favoured ones ascend the wheel, and the unlucky ones descend, those soar aloft, these hang below. Our poems of the Mid. Ages often speak in general terms of the rat (wheel) or scJdbe (disc, orb) of Fortune, of luck, of S aside : ' orhita Fortunae ducit utroque rotam (a better reading: utramque viam),' Reinh. 1,
24. ' volubilis Fortunae rota,' Rodulfus chron. Trudonis, p.
25. '' ro^tt i^orhtnae,^ Radevicus 1,40. ' swaz ie geschiht, daz stat an glilckes rade,' whatever happens rests on fortune^s wheel, Freid. 110, 17. 'daz im der ncelekeit rat mit willen urabe lief,^ Troj. 9471 ; 'ja walzet ir geliiches rat vil stasteclich ilf uud nider, her und hin, dan und wider loufet ez,' her (i.e. Saelde^s) wheel of luck rolls right steadfastly,^ etc. 2349. ' im dienet daz geliickes rat, daz im nach eren umbe lief 7229. ' geluckes rat louft uns die sumer und die winder,' Lohengr. 119. ' min scMhe gat ze wunsche,' Ben. 353 ; ' dem get sin schthe enzelt,' 360. ' wol gie (or, gie fiir sich) ir scldhe,' Lohengr. 146. 189. 'si vuoren (they rode) uf geluckes rade,' Flore 844. ' Scelde diu ist sinewel (sphe-

• Pentam. 5, 9 lias also a ' vecchia seduta ncoppa na rota ' as Fortuua.

" The mere turaiug of a wheel (daz sueibonta rad, N. Boeth. 47) may, quite apart from the goddess, suggest the mutability of fate. "When Cyrus saw a captive king attentively watch the rising and falling spokes of wheels, and inquired the reason, the latter replied, that they put him in mind of the instability of life, ttwj ret KOLTU} dvia yivovTaL, koL to, dvcj Kano (Cedreuus, ed. Paris, 142).

3 This is contrary to James I. of Scotl.'s idea : ' the sinhlen sweltering of that ilk wheel .... so toiler whilom did she it to-wry (twist about).' But it seems the l^revailing one here, unless ' sin schibe get cn-ze.lt ' (3 lines lower) mean ' goes tolter,' tolutans, ambling, as zelter is an ambler. Further on, ' mich hin verdi'ucke,' push me off, need not imply a waddling movement. — Tbans.

868 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

rical), und walzet umb als ein rat,^ Uebel wip 241. ' der Scehlen scUben trihen/ Amis 20bS. ' entscMben,' Ulr. Trist. 708. Yet that ascending and descending is often mentioned too : ' so stige ich uf, und ninder abe/ never down, Parz. 9, 22. ' gelilcke ist rehte als ein hal, swer stiget der sol vilrhten val/ who climbs must fear a fall^ Freid. 115, 27. 'so hangen ich an dem radcs teile (limb), da maueger hanget ane trost (without hope),^ Ben. 88 ; ' e daz der Scelden schibe mich hin verdrucke gar zuo der verzalten schar^91. 'si waren hohe gar gestigen (mounted high) uf des . . . geliickes rat, nu railezens leider von der stat aber nider riicken (move down again)/ Flore 6148. ' swer hiute sitzet uf dem rade, der siget morgen drunder (sinks under it to-morrow),' Troj. 18395. ' er ist komen iif geliickes rat, daz muoz im immer stille Stan,' Geo. 193. ' geliicJies rat, wenne sol ich mine stat \i dir vinden ? ' Ben. 306. 'svvebe oben an der Scelichkeit rade,' Zauberb. 1860. ' Got werfe in von (hurl him from) geliickes rat !' Kolocz. 74. ' geliickes rait geit up ind neder, ein velt (one falls), der ander stiget weder/ Hagen's Coin. chr. 1770. 'geliickes rat uu ride in lif die hoehe/ turn (writhe) him up aloft, Tit. 5218; ' gelilcke, din rat nu ride ! ' 5275. ' FortHna diu ist so getan, ir schibe lazet si umbe gau, umbe loufet ir rat, dicke vellet der da vaste saz/ oft falleth he that sat there fast, Lampr. Alex. 3066.^ This notion candied into detail shews us four (or twelve) men at once standing on fortune's wheel in ceaseless revolution : ' geliickes rat treit vier man, der eine stiget uf, der ander stiget abe, der dritte ist obe, der vierde der ist under,' MS. 2, 22 P; and "Wigal. p. 41 tells us of one who had in his house such a lolteel cast of gold, and who was always happy (like Frode with his mill of luck, which also went round) : * ein rat enmitten uf dem sal, daz gie uf und ze tal (down) ; da waren bilde gegozzen au (molten images thereon), iegelichez geschatfen als ein man. hie sigen diu (sank these) mit dem rade nider, so stigen (mounted) diu ander uf wider, daz was des geliickes rat.' ~ In Renart le nouvel 7941 — 8011, Fortune lifts the fox on to her wheel, and promises not to turn it. Hence too the story of the twelve landsknechts or

^ Conf. the passage on la roe de la Fortune in the Jeu d'Adan (Theatre fran- (.-ais au moyen age p. 82).

• From this wheel, which Wigalois wore on his helmet (1862—6), came the iianie of Eitter mit dem rad (ah-eady in Gildas of Banchor ' miles quadrigae '), not irom the adventure he had to brook with a brazen wheel (i^p. 252 — 4 of the jDoem).

CHILD OF LUCK. 869

Johanneses on fortune's wJieel, Daub. sao:. nos. 209. 337. Our Sselde is never painted blind or blindfolded ^ (see Suppl.).

What seems to me to be far more sio-nificant than this wheel, which probably the Salida of our heathen forefathers never had (a whole carriage to herself would be more in their way), is the circumstance of her adopting cldldren, owning her favourites for her sous : 'ich bin ouch in fro SaMen sclioz geleit,' laid in her lap. Fragm. 45'\ To be a darling of fortune, a child of luck, to sit in fortune's lap, implies previous adoption (Goth, frasti-sibja, Rom. 9, 4), conf. RA. 160. 463-4. A select being like this is called ' der Scelden ham,' Barl. 37, 36. 191, 38. Engelh. 5070.

• Artus der 8. hint,' Zauberb. 1433. ' S. Hid hat S. stift ' 1038. ' Maria der S. hint,' Wartb. kr. jen. 56. ' \v sit gezelt geliicke ze ingesinde (as inmate), dem heile ze liehem hinde,' AVarnung 2596.

• Si ist S. sundertriutel (fondling), in der wiirzegarten kan si brechen ir rosen,^ MS. 1, SS'^. Now, as Wuotan can take the place of the gifting norn (p. 858), so he can that of Saelde; he is himself the bestower of all bliss, he takes up children to his bosom. Altogether identical therefore with Saslden barn must be Mes Wunsches ham, an dem der Wtmscli was voile varn,' on whom Wish had perfectly succeeded, Orl. 3767. A child of luck has ' des Wiinsclies segen,' Lanz. 5504. For more references, see pp. 138 — 144." Accordingly Salida can be regarded as a mere emanation of Wuotan (see Suppl.).

Such a child of luck was Fortunatus, to whom Fortuna (conf. Felicia, MsH. 2, 10'' and infra ch. XXXII.) appears in a forest of Bretagne, and gives a fairy purse : and who also wins iheivishingcap (souhaitant chapeau), the tarn-cap, which one has only to put on, to be in a twinkling at some distant place. Evidently a hat of Wish or Wuotan (p. 463), a ireTaaa or winged cap of Hermes the giver of all good, of all sselde. And ' Sa3lde's hat' is expressly mentioned : ' so dechet uns der Scelden huot, daz uns dehein weter selvven mac,' no weather can befoul us, MsH. 3, 466'^. The never empty purse I connect with the goddess's horn of plenty : ' raundanam cornucopiam Fortuna gestans,' Amm.

1 Nor is shfi called glesin, like tlio Lat. Fortuua vitrea ; Gotfrid of Strassburg alone (MS. 2, 4r>l> ) has ' daz (jle6iii glilcke,' aud we have now the proverb ' luck and crock are easy broke.'

• I find also a proper name Seldeabot = Saelde's messenger, Weisth. 3, "277-8.

870 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

Marc. 22, 9. 'formatum Fortunae habitum cum divite cornu,' Prudent, lib. 1 contra Symm. ; also with Amaltliea's horn or Svantovit^s (p. 591), nay with the /cepa? crcoT7]pLa<;, Luke 1, 69. Of the wishing-rod we are reminded by the synonymous expressions : ' alles heiles ein wilnschel-ris ,' -twig, -wand^ Troj. 2216, and 'des Wunsches bluome,' Barl. 274, 25.

The belief in fairi/ things [wiinscheldinge, lit. wishing-gear] is deeply rooted in our mythology : let us examine it minutely. There are things, belonging to gods, but also lent to men, which can bestow a plenitude of bliss, the best that heart can ivish ; so that our old vernacular word seems quite appropriate. The Sanskrit for wish is significant : mano-ratha, wheel of the mind ; does this open to us a new aspect of the divine wish ? Wish turns the wheel of our thoughts. In the Edda the wishing-gear is the cunning workmanship of dwarfs, and is distributed among the gods. OSinn possessed the spear Gungnir, the hurling of which brings victory, Thorr the hammer Miolnir, which comes crashing down as thunderbolt, which also consecrates, and of itself comes hack into his hand. Freyr had a sword of similar nature, that swung itself {er sialft vegiz), Saem. 82*. Sn. 40; its name is unrecorded. The ' cudgel jump out o' your sack ! ' in our fairy-tale is the same story vulgarized; in CEgi's hall the pitchers or beakers of ale hronght themselves (sialft barsc ]?ar ol), Saem. 48 ; Wolfdieterich (Cod. dresd. 296-7) fell in with goddesses, to whose table the wheaten loaf came loalking, and the wine poured itself out : such gear the Greeks called auro/xarov (self-taught), II. 18, 376. CEgis-hialinr must originally have been (Eo-i's own (and QEs^ir is at times undistino^uishable from OSinn), as Aegis is wielded by the two highest deities Zeus and Athena : afterwards the helmet came into the hand of heroes. Out of the magic helm sprang helot-helm, grim-helm, tarn-hapjpe, wunsch-mantel (Kinderm. no. 122), ivunsch-hut, which bestow on dwarfs, heroes and fortune's favourites the power to walk unseen, to sail swiftly through the sky. To the goddesses Freyja and Frigg belonged Brisinga men, which, like the tyaa? of Venus and Juno, awakened longing (i/iepo?), and matches the sword, spear and hammer of the gods (p. 885). On the veil or hood of the goddess Sif grew golden hair, as corn does on the earth : its proper name is not given. Shi&hla&nir is described,

WISHING-GEAR. 871

now as a ship, now as a hat, both of which coukl either be folded up or expanded, for sailing in or for raising a storm ; wishingships occur in Norske eventyr 1, 18. 142 and Sv. folk v. 1, 142-3. Not unlike this are our ivinged sandals and league hoots. Gullinbursti, too, Frey^s boar, carries him through air and water. From OSin's ring Draupnir dropped other rings as heavy ; the miraculous power of Fulla's ring (Fullo fingrgull, Sn. 68) is not specified, perhaps it made one invisible, like that of Aventiure (p. 911). Draupnir suggests the broodpenny (Deut. sag. no. 86) or hatching dollar of later times : whoever ate the bird's heart, would find a gold-piece under his pillow every morning. With this are connected the wishing -purse, and the wishing-rod, which unlocks the hoard, but apparently feeds it as well (ch. XXXI) ; also the wnnderblume and the springwurzel [root which springs open the dOor of a treasure] ; a bird's nest makes invisible (Deut. s. no. 85. Haupt's Zeitschr. 3, 361. Mone's Anz. 8, 539). Fro'Si's ivishing-mill Grotti would grind anything the grinder wished for aloud (Sn. 146), gold, salt, etc. ; this we can match with the wheel of fortune, an image that may be an importation to us (p. 866), yet not have been strange to our remote ancestry ; of manoratha I have spoken before. British legend too had its own version of fortune's wheel (p. 869). Such a mill, such a wheel ought above all to grind food for gods. The gods possess the drink of immortality, which inspires man with song, and keeps a god young. Kun's apples restore youth, as apples in Volsiingasaga make pregnant, in Sneewitchen send sleep, and in Fortunatus give horns and take them away. But the wishingcloak becomes a wishing -cloth, which when spread brings up any dish one may desire : in Danish and Swedish songs such a cloth is woven of field wool [ageridd, D. vis. 1, 265. 300. dkerull, Sv. vis. 2, 199), a sort of grass with a woolly flower (eriophorum polystachium) ; the same wishing-cloth occurs in Norske ev. 1, 44. 274, it is pulled out of a mare's ear, p. 112. Other wishingcloths have to be spun in silence, or the hemp for them must be picked, baked, braked, hatchelled, spun and woven all in one day. The Servians tell of a miraculous coiu, out of whose ear yarn is spun, she is then killed and buried, and miracles are wrought on her grave. A wishing-cow Kdniadiih or Kdmadhenu is mentioned in Indian myth (Pott 2, 121. Somadeva 1, 198) ;

. VOL. II. F F

872 DESTINY' AND WELL-BEING.

a wit<hing-goat, who procures money, in the Norw. tales 1,45; an ass in Pentam. 1, 1. The machandelbom (juniper) in our fairy-tale is a wishing -tree, so is that from which Cinderella shakes down all her splendid dresses ; the Indians call it Jcalpa vriksha (tree of wishes) or Manoratha-dayaJca (wish-giving), Somadeva 2, 84. Beside the dresses of sun and moon, the gold-hen and seven chickens (p. 728) are contained in the nut. Fortuna carries a Jiorn of plenty (p. 870). The goat Amaltheia's Jiorn supplied the nymphs who had nursed Zeus with all they wished for ; another legend makes the nymph Amaltheia possess a bulFs horn, which gave in abundance all manner of meat and drink that one could wish. A Scottish tradition has it, that if any one can approach a banquet of the fairies, take away their drinking -howl or horn, and carry it across a running stream without spilling, it will be to him a cornucopia of good fortune ; if he break it, his good days are done (R. Chambers pp. 32-3). We know that wise-women and elfins offer drinking-horns to men (p. 420) ; that jewels of the elves (like those of the smith dwarfs) ensure luck to human families, viz. their sword, ring and yohlet (p. 457) ; that the swan left in Loherangi-in's family a sword, horn and Jingerling (ring, Parz. 826. 19). Oberon^s horn, and he is of elf kind, was a wishing-liorn, and excited magic dancing. Other wonders are wrought by the harps of gods and heroes (p. 907). The elves, beside the horn, have in their gift a hread of grace that blesses. By the side of this may stand the beautiful myths of the cruse of oil that never runs dry, the savoury pottage that brims over, the yarn that has never done winding. Jemshid's goblet too was a miraculous one, so was the far-famed Grail (greal, Ducange sub v. gradalus, graletus, grasala, grassale, grassellus), that nourished and healed, which Romance legend took up and interwined with christian, as indeed the spear of Longinus and the bleeding lance are very like a heathen wishing-spear ; nails of the true cross are worked up into bridles that bring victory (El. sxii), wood of the cross and a thousand relics are applied to thaumaturgic uses (ch. XXXVI), rings and precious stones were held against a relic, that its virtue might pass into them ; precious stones themselves are in a sense wishing -stones, such to the Indians was Bivyaratna (Pott 2, 421), which fulfilled all the wishes of its owner. And the Grail cannot be more

WISHING-GEAR. 873

celebrated in the poems of the Eound Table than Sanipo is in the epic of the Finns. It was fashioned by the god Ilmarinen in Pohjola, and a joy it was to live in the land that possessed it, the fields were covered with standing corn and hanging fruits. But the gods tried to win it back (just like OShroerir, p. 902), and Wainamoinen and Ilmarinen succeeded in the theft ; yet Louhi the princess of Pohjola pursued them in eagle's shape (as Suttung did O^inn), and overtook the fugitives on the open sea. While Louhi makes a clutch at Sampo, and Wainamoinen strikes at her fingers with the rudder, Sampo falls into the sea and breaks ; the lid alone (Kirjokannen 23, 393, conf. 11, 3G1) is left in Louhi's hand, and with it she flies back to Pohjola : wretchedness and famine have reigned there ever since, Wainamoinen finds pieces of Sampo on the shore, and has them sown, out of which grow up trees, one of them a lofty oak that darkens the sun. The points of likeness between this Sampo and the Norse drink of immortality are startling, and the pieces picked up on the strand by the highest god, and giving birth to trees, may be compared to Askr and Embla, whom the three ases found on the sea-shore (p. 560. Saem. S^). The name Sampo, doubtless one of high antiquity and sacredness, calls to mind a Mongolian legend of a tree Asambu-bararkha, whose fruit dropping in the water uttered the sound sanihu (Majer's Myth. wtb. 1, 565) ; sangpa in Tibetian means purified, holy. We gather from all these examples, still far from complete, how under the veil of sensuous images — epear, hammer, hat, helmet, cloak, horn, goblet, necklace, ring, ship, wheel, tree, rod, flower, cloth, meat and drink — lay hidden the spiritual ones of victory, happiness, peace, healing, fertility, riches, virtue and poetic art. But when several single attributes met in one object, as in Sampo and the Grail, they still further enhanced its meaning and sacredness (see SuppL).

From the prologue to the Grimnismal, Sasm. 39, we learn that OSinn and Frigg, beside being the chief paternal and maternal deities of antiquity, bestow their protection on special favourites : under the form of an old man and woman, they bring up the boys GeirroSr and Agnar respectively, the act being expressed by the verb fostra. Fi-igg had even, according to Sn. 38, a

874 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

special handmaid^ herself a divine being, whom she appointed for the defence (til gaetslu) of such foster-sons against all dangers ; this personified Tutela was named HUn (p. 884) , as if the couch, k\lvi], OHG. hlina (recubitus, Gl. Ker. 273) on which one leans (root hleina hlain, Gr. kXIvoo, Lat. clino) . We find ' harmr Hlinar,' Sasm. 9^, and there went a proverb ' sa er for'Saz hleinir/ he that is struggling leans for help. Hlin (Goth. Hleins?) shelters and shields, the Goth, hlains is a hill [Germ, berg, a hill, is from bergen, to hide], the OHG. hlinaperga, linaperga = fulcrum, reciinatorium.

Those who are born with a caul about their head are popularly believed to be luchj children. Such a membrane is called gliicksloauhe, iveJinrntter-hduhlein, and is carefully treasured up, or sewed into a band and put round the babe.^ Fischart in Garg. 229"^ calls it Jcinderpelglin (balg, bag), while the Icelanders give it the name of fylgj a L, and imagine that m ii resides the child's guardianspirit or a part of its soul : midwives are careful not to injure it, but bury it under the threshold over which the mother has to pass. Whoever carelessly throws it away or burns it, deprives the child of its guardian, Edd. Ssem. Hafniens. 2, 653. This guardian-spirit is variously named Jylgjct' (who follows man), sometimes forynja (who goes before him, F. Magn. lex. 379), oftener hamtngja (felicitas) from hamr induviae, nay, this hamr of itself seems to stand for the same thing : ' hamr Atla,' genius

1 Kinderm. no. 29, conf. 3, 39. Ettner's Hebamme p. 534. Journal v. u. f. D. 1788. 1, 574. Ital. ' uascer vestito ' =a,went\xra,to ; Fr. ne coiffe; Pol. w czepku urodzil, Haupt's Zeitschr. 1, 137. The Servians name the caul koshiilitsa, little shirt, and a child born with it vidovit : he will go to the Vilas and know more than other men. In Holland they say ' met den helm geboren zin ' (conf. p. 389) : such children have the power of seeing spectres ; a hatn (ovum) in which a foal came into the world is hung up on a high tree, Westendorp p. 518. Of the gliicks-helm we are told : ' ab eo tegmine obstetrices et delirae aniculae infantibus bona ex colore rubicundo, vel mala ex nigricante praesagire solent. maguo vendunt hujusmodi pileos infantiles credulis advocatis, qui se hinc adjuvari putant. ' This in Anton. Diadum. cap. 4 is borrowed from an older passage in Aelius Lampridius: 'solent pueri ptZeo insignari natnrali, quod obstetrices rapiunt et advocatis credulis vendunt, siquideni cairsidici hoc juvari dicuntur.' [AS. heafela, hafela. MHG. hiletelin, batwdt, kindbalgel, westerliufe, iv eater liuot ; conf. the ivesienvdt preserved in churches, and the names Gliickshelm, Barnhelm. ' Membranulae ad modum retis dispositae, in quibus quandoque nascuntur pueri et vocantur in vulgari (Bohemico) wodiejiic. de his membranis famant vetulae: si recipiantur IX vel ad minus V et habeantur cumfilo aiireo et sericeo in ecclesia per novem dies illo tempore quo horae cauonicae dicuntur per nonam, et ferantur per aliquem ad judicem vel ad judicium, ille obtinet causam suam.' Jungmann sub v. odenj. Lith. namai kndikio, child's

house. ON. Hlo'Sr born with lielmet and sword. Exlr. from Suppl., vol. iii.

Ijlot a word about it as a charm against drowning."]

child's caul, guardian angel. 875

Atlii, Sffim. 253^. According to Hire (de Superst. p. 24-5), the Swed. hamn denotes a genius that follows each man.

What is essential to the notion of a guardian-angel is his being native to us : this distinguishes him from the home-sprite (genius familiaris), who devotes himself to an individual man, but not from birth. Regula Benedicti cap. 7 : 'ab angelis nobis depntatis cotidie die noctuque Domino Factori nostro opera nostra nuntiantur/ Berthold preaches (p. 209) : ' als daz kint lebende wirt an siner muoter Itbe, so giuzet im der engel die sele in, der almehtige Got giuzet dem kinde die sele mit dem engel in ; ' and St. Bernard (sermo 12 in ps. Qui habitat) : ' quoties gravissima cernitur urgere tentatio et tribulatio vehemens imminere, invoca custodeni tiium, doctorem tuum, adjutorera tuum. in opportunitatibus, in tribulatione, in quovis diversorio, in quovis angulo, angelo tuo reverentiam habe. tu ne audeas illo jpraesente, quod vidente me non auderes/ One more passage I will transcribe, from Notker's Capella 137 : ' alien menniskon wirdet sunderig unde gemeine huotdre gesezzet. ten heizent si ouh Jiihtdre (pflichter, care-taker), wanda er alles werches fliget. ten gemeinen betont (adore) tie liute sament, unde ane daz iogelih ten sinen (beside that, each his own), fone diu heizet er genius, wanda er genifis sar gegeben wirt ze flihte. tiser huotare unde diser getriwo bruoder behuotet iro sela unde iro sinna allero. wanda er ouch tougene gedancha Gote chundet, pediu mag er ioh angehis heizen.' ^ This doctrine, partially retained as we see by the church, seems to have got mixed up with that grosser native superstition of guardian and attendant spirits. Caesar heisterb, 8, 44 supposes every man to have a good and a had angel, who seeks to bring him weal or woe. The valkyrs too were to a certain extent guardian-spirits of the heroes (pp. 400. 419), and remained bound to them for a time. It is said of slain heroes (Lament 922) : ' ir engel vil wol wisten, war ir sele solten komen,^ full well their angels wist whither their souls should go. Other

I The Lat. text runs: 'et goneralis omnium praesul, et speeialis singulis mortalibus genius admovetur, quem etiam 2'raestitem, quod prao.sit geruuilis omnibus, vocaverunt. nam et populi genio, quum generalis poscitur, supplicant, et unusquisque gubernatori proprio dependit obsequium. idooque genius dicitur, (juouiam quum quis liomiiium neiiitus fucrit, vinx cidcm copulatur. hie tutelator tidissimusque germauus animos omnium mentesque custodit. et quoniam cogitationum arcana Superae anuuntiat Potestati, etiain augelus poterit nuucupari.' Conf. Porphyry's Vita Plotini p. 14. Plutarch's Vita Antouini p. 430.

876 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

passages speak of these angels : ' sie redeten, daz ir engel muose lachen/ they said her angel must laugh for joy, Wartb. kr. jen. 38 ; ' ein luiser (wizer, white ?) engel hi dlr gat, der dinen tiuvel so von dir gescheiden hat ' 47 : ' telle din pater noster mite dinem engel' 23 ; ^ ein engel, der din hat gepflegen (tended) ' 62. ^ ich wil gelouben, daz den list dm engel jinde,' will find out a way, Lohengr. p. 3. 'in was ir engel bi/ Geo. 343. 'daz der engel din diner eren hiiete ! ' guard thy honour, MsH. 3, 230
' zuo im ivas geweten ein engel, daz im niht geschach,' Geo. 3205. ' als im sin engel gab die lere,' Kolocz. 148 ; ' daz inch min engel griieze ! ^ greet you 102; and elsewhere 'daz iuwer min engel walte ! ^ Graceful equivalents for ' I from my inmost soul.^ ^ (see Suppl,).

In Nialssaga cap. 101 a heathen submits to baptism, but only on the assurance that St. Michael (receiver of souls, p. 854-5) shall thereby become his fylgju engill. And cap. 23 speaks of the fylgja Gunuars.

One who is near death sees his angel first : ' ]>u. mant vera feigr maSr, oc munt |?u se^ hafa fylgju J^ina,' sure thou art fey, and hast seen thy f., Nialss. cap. 41. Quite logically, as the man's death severs the bond between him and his fylgja. Then the fylgja presents herself to another person, and offers him her services : .Helgi forecast his own death, because a witch riding her wolf appeared to his brother at night, and offered her attendance, ' bauS fylgS sina; fylgjo beiddi,' Saem. 14*. 147*. When a man sees his fylgja, she is giving him up, quitting him. In Norway the vulgar opinion is, that the folgie likes to shew herself in the shape of some aiiimal that typifies the character of the man she belongs to (Faye p. 77). Can this have indicated a future transmigration ? conf. p. 823. There were fylgjor that, like the dwarfs, stuck to certain families : Tnjnfijlgjor, mttarfylgjor ; and this is important, as teaching the affinity of

Conf. H. Sachs's poem ' die engels hut,' and ' der lockige knabe,' in Hebel's Earhinkel. [Not only men, but even some animals, have an angel of their own, Keisersp. brosaml. 19'=. The Pass. .337, 46 agrees with Caes. heist. : ' zwene engel, eiuen guoten, einen leiden ' ; yet ' sin engel ' 41 means only the good one, and so it is generally. Conf. Menander's protest (abridged) : ' a fiood.daemon is given at birth ; never dream that there are evil daemons, for God is good.' Angels are always imagined as male ; thus, when two ladies appear : ' ob ez von himele wseren zivene engele (masc), des enweiz ich niht,' Frib. Trist. The guardian-angels of two friends are also friends, Reun. 18902. — Estr. from Suppl.]

GUARDIAN ANGEL. 877

such spirits to elves and dwarfs, who (like the white lady, the ancestress Berhta, p. 280) shew themselves when a death in the family is imminent.

Hamingjor, occurring as early as Saem. 37''. 93'', are very like our personified scelde : hamingja too at first denoted fortuna, felicitas, and afterwards a being that bestowed these blessings, holding a middle place between a fate, a guardian-spirit and a goodnatured homesprite j conf. Laxd. saga p. 441. 'Hamingjor horfnar, heillir horfnar ' in Ssem. 93 are those that have abandoned their man.

The ON. landvcett (p. 441) is, like the fylgja and hamingja, a female being, not however the guardian-spirit of an individual or a family, but of the whole country. In the code of Ulfliot it is ordered that every ship shall have its figure-head taken down before it come in sight of land (i landss^n), lest the gaping jaws affright the landvcettir : ' sigla eigi at landi me"S gapandi hofSum ne ginandi trionu, sva at landvcettir fgeldist vi^ ' ^ (see Suppl.).

With the Slavs the notions of luck, chance and destiny touch one another, yet their mythology is destitute of beings equivalent to the norns and parcae (p. 436). For luck the Servians have sretia [from s-retiti to meet], the Slovens srezlia, and they personify them too : dohra Sretia (bona Fortuna, Vuk 3, 444) is their a^aOr] Tuxn, their fro Sselde.- The Lettish Laima (p. 416) comes nearer the parca or moira : she is called mahmina, i.e. mother, goddess. Then again the fostermother Dehkla (ibid.) by the boon of her milk bestows luck and aptitude : ' ka Dehkla noleek, ta noteek,^ as D. disposes, so it happens. ^ In Lith. also Laima = AaL/iiQ), Lat. Lamia (see Suppl.).

' Fornm. sog. 3, 105. Isl. sog. 1, 198-9. This gaping yawning ship reminds me of the Gepanta (navis tardius vecta) in Jornandes cap. 17. [Biarki's fylgja appears as a bear, and fights while B. slumbers ; Gunuar's fylgja too is a biarndyr. GlQmr, having dreamt of a woman higher than the hills coming towards him, concludes that Vigfiis is dead, and this is /u's hamingja coming to look for a new place. ' It follows, that fyhjja and haminfija are one. Similar is the Engl, fetch (Scot. /ye) or double, N. Hiding ivajf,iciff, Scot, wraith, Cnmhl. sioarth (all in Hone's Daybk). Ir. taise, etc. — Extr. from Suppl.]

• The name has given rise to a sad blunder. Anton in Versuch 1, 50 having paraded a Dalmatian goddess Dobra Frichia, he was followed by Karamzin 1, 85, by Jungmann 1, 342, and who knows how many more. It all rests on a clerical error in translating Forti's Viaggio in Dalmaz.ia (Venice 1771) ; the Ital. text, 1, 74 has qiiite correctly Dobra-srichia. I would have any one beware of likening this false Frichia to our fru Frecke (p. 304).

3 Magaz. der lett. gesellsch., Mitau 1838. 6, 144.

878 DESTINY AND WELL-BEING.

As the goddess of destiny has both good and evil in her hand, there needs no separate representation of misfortune. Our elder poets however do treat her more or less as a person, and apply to her much the same phrases as to Seelde. ' Unscelde hat uf mich gesworn/ Gregor 2394 (so of Tot, p. 847n.). ' Unscelde hat mich bedaht,' Troj. 17105. 'der JJnscelden kiut,' Iw. 4449. ' din heil sin ungeliicke begonde erwecken harte,^ Gold. schm. 1306. ' iiber in het gesworn sines libes unheil' Klage 1240. ' Unscelde si mir uf getan ! ' Rab. 896. ' wie in diu Unscelde verriete,' Dietr. 38'\ ' der Unscelden vart varn,^ go the way of, Doc. misc. 2, 163. 'so wirt unheil von mir gejaget,' chased away, Herm. Dam. 42. 't0igeliicke,vfa,z ir mir leides tuot!^ what hurt you do me, Lampr. Alex. 3065. Other images are peculiar to misfortune : she is a dog bestriding one^s path, and barking at one : ' unheil mir iiber den wee schreit gelich eiuem hunde,^ Hartm. erstes biichl. 1671. 'wen nach geliicke groz unlieil an bellet (barks, billet ? or vellet, velt ? )' Ls. 1, 239. A M.Nethl. poet ascribes to her a net : ' al heft dat ongheval nu mi aldus

onder tnet ghevaen ? ' Rein, 6180. Two separate stories

deserve quoting at greater length : A poor knight sits in the forest, consuming a scanty meal; he looks up and ^pies in the tree overhead a monstrous being, who cries to him ' I am thy ungeliicke.' He invites ' his ill-luck ' to share his meal, but no sooner is it down, than he seizes it firmly and shuts it up in an ' eicher ' (hollow oak ? ) . From that moment all goes well with him, and he makes no secret of what has happened. One who envies him, wishing to plunge him into misery again, goes to the wood and releases ill-luck; but, instead of burdening the knight any longer, it jumps on the traitor''s back, just as a kobold would (Ls. 2, 575). This fable was known to H. Sachs iii. 2, 72*^: Misfortune shall be made fast with chains and ropes to an oaken stake, so it may visit no houses more, unless some man be so

fond to let it loose again. The other story may as well be given

in Reinmar's own words, MS. 2, 134*^ :

Ez was ein gar unsEelic man (a most unlucky man)

in einer stat gesezzen, dar inne er nie dehein heil gewan,

der dahte, ich wil versuochen, wie min geliike in fremden

landen si. do im der reise ze muote wart (resolved to travel).

UNSiELDE. 879

TJnscelde wart sin geverte, diu huob sich mit im uf die vart ; er lief gegen einem walde, er wande er wsere Uns^lden woi'-

den vri (he weened he was free of U.). er sprach : ' TJnscelde, nu bin ich dir entrunnen (escaped)/ ' nein ' sprach TJnscelde, ' ich han den sig (victory) gewunnen ; sioaz clu geliefe, daz selbe ich rande (I ran as fast as thou), uf dinem halse (neck) was mhi gemach (I took my ease.)^^ der man da zuo im selbe sprach (to himself spake) : 'sd 'st niht so guot, ich enliSre wider ze lande ! ' (best to turn

back) .

Exactly the story of the homesprite, who flits with you, and you cannot shake him oif (p. 513) : Misfortune personified is here substituted for the more living kobold. Unseelde occurs in the plural too : ' ganc z'allen onselden hin ! Mn a Lower Rhine poem by Wilhelm (F, A. Reuss p. 13). It i-eminds me of 'zuo zallen marsen varn' (p, 362; see Suppl.).

1 Post equitem sedet atra Cura. Hor. Od. 3, 1

CHAPTER XXIX. PERSONIFICATIONS.

This is a convenient place to treat more fully of Mythical Personification.

All objects are either perceptible to our senses, or merely exist in our thoughts. Of sensible objects a very general characteristic is^ that they strike upon the eye (ei? oiira, 7rpo<? oyrra), for which we once possessed the pretty word augen, OHG. ougan, Goth, augjan, to come in sight, appear (hence sich er-eignen, Gramm.

1, 226). The form and shape of this appearance was called in Goth, sums, ON, syii, OHG. gisiuni, which come from sailiva (I see), as species from specio, visus from video, etSo? from the lost etSto, and signify the seen, the present ; ^ while vaihts, which Ulphilas uses also for etSo9 (p. 440), is derived from veiha (facio, p. 68). More commonly still we find combinations : Goth, anddugi, anduairpi, OHG. antwerti, Goth, andavleizn, AS. andwlite, OHG. anasiuni, anasiht, gislht ; all of which, formed like the Gr. irpocroiirov, have alike the sense of aspectus, obtutus, and the narrower one of facies, vultus, frons (Goth, vlits fr. vleita), because vision is directed mainly to the visage. The Lat. persona, obscure as its origin ^ may seem, agrees with the above in its use, except that siuns and 7rp6(T(07rov may refer to any sight, vlits and persona more especially to the human form.

The freest personality is proper to gods and spirits, who can suddenly reveal or conceal their shape, appear and disappear (chap. XXX). To man this faculty is wanting, he can but slowly

^ MHG. scMn used in the same way : disen ritter oder sinen schln, Parz. 18, 13. sante Martins gewer oder sin sehiu, Fragm. 28''. wip, man oder tieres schin, Diut.

2, 94. sin wesen und sin schin (schein), Er. 10047-9. der menschUch schin, Ls.

3, 263.

• Hardly from irpia-wirov, like Proserpina from Ilep(T£(p6i'7], where the change of sound is exactly the other way. What if the old etymology from personare should prove defensible, and sonus be conn, with siuns ? There are plenty of analogies between sound and sight (e.g. that Romance ' par son', p. 745), and also changes of short vowels into long (persona) ; Trpotrwrrov itself happens to be an example of both (6t^ voice and eye, 6-^ls visio, dji// eye, face, liirri look) ; the formation of persona would be as in Perenna, Pertunda, Pervinca.

8bO

PERSONIFICATION. 881

come and gOj and in his body he must bide, unless magic intervene ; hence he is [not] in the strictest sense a person, his veriest self being emphasized in our older speech by the term lip (life), body (Gramm. 4, 296). But language and an open brow distinguish him from beasts, who have only voice and irpoToixrj, not a real irpoawirov or countenance. Still less of personality have plants, silent as they are, and rooted to the soil. Nevertheless both animals and plants have in common with man a difference of sex and the power of propagation ; to both of them language assigns natural gender and, only where that is nonapparent, a purely grammatical. It goes yet further, and concedes it to lifeless tools and to things beyond the reach of sight or sense.

Then poetry and fables set themselves to 'personify , i.e. to extend personality, the prerogative of gods, spirits and men, to animals, plants, things or states to which language has lent gender. All these appear in ^sop endowed with human speech, and acting by the side of gods and men ; and this not only in the case of trees and shrubs (like the bean or corn stalk in the fairy-tale), but of utensils like pot and file {^vrprj, plvrj), of days and seasons [kopTrj, vcnepr], '^(^eifjicop, eap), even of mere emotions, as love, shame (epo)?, ala')(yvri). Our own simple-hearted eld loves to emphasize this livingness by the formalities of address and relationship : horse, ship and sword are gravely apostrophized by the hero (Gramm. 3, 331. 434. 441) ; such entities receive the title of ' herr ' or ' frau ' (3, 346) ; as animals are invested with gossiphood and brotherhood (Reiuh. p. xxvii), the Edda makes air (the awl) brother to knifr, Su. 133. Under this head too I bring the pi-actice of coupling 'father* and 'mother' with lifeless things (Gramm. 4, 723).

Things deeply intergrown with speech and story can at no time have remained foreign to mythology, nay, they must have sucked up peculiar nourishment from her soil, and that universal life conceded in grammar and poetry may even have its source in a mythical prosopopoeia. As all the individual gods and godlike attributes really rest on the idea of an element, a luminary, a phenomenon of nature, a force and virtue, an art and skill, a blessing or calamity, which have obtained currency as objects of worship ; so do notions related to these, though in themselves

882 PERSONIFICATIONS.

impersonal and abstract, acquire a claim to deification. A distinct personality will attach to animals, plants, stars, wliich stand connected with particular gods, or have sprung out of metamorphosis. One might say, the heathen gods as a whole have arisen out of the various personifications that were most natural to each nation's way of thinking and state of culture ; but that individual figures among them, by combining several attributes and by long continued tradition, were sure to attain a higher rank and reputation.

In this process however we notice an important distinction with regard to sex : strong, vehement forces and operations are by preference made into gods, mild and gracious ones into goddesses, which of itself determines the superior power, as a rule, of the male divinities. Yet this inferiority of the goddesses, added to their grace, tended, as I have more than once remarked, to secure their status longer, while the stern sway of the gods was being rooted out.

Everywhere the two sexes appear hand in hand, so that out of their union, according to human notions, may issue new births and new relationships. Wherever personification is not directly intended, it is the habit of our language to use the crude undeveloped neuter.

Amongst elements, we find air and fire handed over more to gods, earth and water more to goddesses. Wuotan appears as an all-pervading atmosphere, as a murmur that sweeps through heaven and earth ; this we made out under the words ivuot (p. 131) and ivoma (p. 144; conf. p. 745), and perhaps we have a right to connect even wehen (to blow) with waten (to wade), beben (to quake) with Biflindi (p. 149). The hm^ricane of the 'furious host' will then have real point and significance. Favourable wind (p. 636-7) was in the hands of Wuotan and Zeus, O^inn 'weathered,' stormed or thundered, and was called Vicfrir (ibid.). The shaking of the air by thunder is everywhere traced to the highest god, whom our antiquity represents separately as Donar, Thunar, the son of Wuotan, but in Zeus and Jupiter it is the father again; Thrymr seems identical with Thorr (p. 181). Loptr (pp. 246. 632) is another emanation of O^inn. Zio, and perhaps Fhol, as whirlwinds (turbines), must be regarded in the same

AIR. FIRE. WATER. EARTB:. 883

light (p. 632). Of goddesses, we have to reckon whoever may

staud for the ' wind's bride ' and whirlwind, Holda who accompanies the ^furious host/ and Herodias (p. 632); and bear in mind that to the same Holda and to Mary is given power over snow and rain (pp. 267. 641. 174-5). It is in Wikram 25 P that a ' frau luft ' first occurs, as H. Sachs makes aer, ignis, aqua all ' friiulein.'' Whenever dwarfs, giants and giantesses raise wind, weather and storm (pp. 631-6-7), they act as servants of the highest god. Kctri also represented air.

Loki and Logi (p. 241) are gods of fire, and so was probably aiihns, ovan, which to us denotes the mere element itself (p. 629). The 'dea Kludana' (p. 257) might stand beside him. Donar, like the Slavic Perun, hurls the lightning flash, yet the Slavs make Grom, thunder, a youth, and Munija, lightning, a maiden (p. 178 n.). Fire, the godlike, is spoken to, and called ' bani viSar,' wood-killer. Balder, Phol, is perhaps to be understood as a divinity of light (pp. 227. 612-4), and from another point of view 0 star a (p. 291). Mist was taken for a valkyr (p. 421).

EUr (p. 240) and Oegir (pp. 137. 311) are gods of the wave, and Ban a goddess (p. 311); Qehan, Gefjon (pp. 239. 311) is divided between both sexes. The fern, ahva (p. 583 n.) and the female names of our rivers (p. 600) lead us to expect watergoddesses, with which agrees the preponderance of nixies and mermaids (p. 487), also the softness of the element, though OSinn too is found under the name of Hnikar (ibid.) Snow and Hoarfrost are thought of as male (p. 761), but the Norse Drifa (loose drifting snow) is a daughter of Snior (Yugl. saga 16).

The Earth, like Terra and Tellus, could not be imagined other than female, so that the masc. Heaven might embrace her as bride; lUnda is a goddess too, and Nerthus (p. 251), though she and the masc. Nior^r play into one another. Out of the Goth, fairguni's neutrality unfolded themselves both a male Fiorgynn (p. 172) and a female Fiorgyii (p. 256) ; the former answers to Perhunas (Fairguneis) and to other cases of gods being named after mountains, conf. ans, as (p. 25) and Etzel (p. 169). And Hamar the rock-stone (p. 181) is another instance of the same thing. The forest-worship dwelt upon in ch. IV could not fail to introduce directly a deification of sacred trees, and most trees

884 PERSONIFICATIONS.

are regarded as female; we saw (pp. 651-2-3) how tlie popular mind even in recent times treated ' frau Hasel, frau ElJiorn, f ran Wacholder, frau Fichte ' as living creatures. Hlin and Gnci, handmaids of Frigg, are named in Sn. 38 among asynjor, and Hloch in Sn. 39 among valkyrjor : all three, according to Biorn, are likewise names of trees, Hlin apparently of our leinbaum, leinahorn, lenne (acer, maple), in the teeth of our derivation (p. 874) ; conf. AS. hlin. Again Sn. 128 tells us more generally, why all fern, names of trees are applicable to women, e.g. selja is both salix and procui*atrix.

Zio, like Zeus, appears to mean, in the first instance, sky and day (pp. 193. 736) ; yet our mythology takes no notice of his relation to the earth (p. 700). But still it personifies Day m. (p. 735), and makes him the son of Night f. At the same time evening and morning, Apantrod and Tagarod (p. 748) are masculine.^ Ic is therefore the more surprising that the sun, the great light of day (p. 701), should be pictured as female and the moon as male, especially as the sun shines fiercely and the moon softly. Though this view is of high antiquity (p. 704), yet the identity of the Goth, sduil, AS. segil, with sol and 7]\to<;, makes it appear likely that with us too the relation between sun and moon was once the same as in the classical languages (p. 701), and was only departed from by slow degrees. Even in MHG. the gender of ' sunne ' continued to vacillate, as the Latin conversely shews a Lumis by the side of Luna. In the same way the Goth, stairno, ON. stiarna, is fem. like stella, but the OHG. sterno, OS. sterro, AS. steorra, masc. like aarrip ; and each has its justification in the particular stars personified.

Our Summer and Winter are masculine (p. 758), the Lat. aestas and hiems feminine, to which add the Gr. p^et/xciv m., and the Slav, zima f. Excepting Hrede and Edstre, all our names of months were masc, and Mai in particular often stands for summer. On the contrary, the vagueness of the neuter *year' shews the absence of mythical prosopopoeia, (see Suppl.).

On mere tools and utensils its operation seems more stinted : an exception must at once be made in favour of the sword. As this weapon received proper names and a living accusative

1 Lith. ' Berlea dea vespertina, Breksta dea tenebrarum,' Lasicz 47. In our Tristan, Isot is beautifully compared to the Sun, and her mother to the Dawn, f.

HRATA. 885

(Gramm. 3, 441), as it was often apostrophized (Klage 847. Wi^al. 6514), and like Norse heroes, or like fire, was called bani (occisor, e.g. Hialmars bani, Fornald. sog. 1, 522), as its hilt and point were the haunt of snake and adder (p. 687-8) ; agreeable to all this is a deification of the sword of war (p. 203-4), and for this would be found available not the lifeless neuter ' swert/ but the masc. ' hairus, heru, cheru,' p. 203, to which correspond the divine names Eor, 'Api]<; and Sahsnot : from this divine progenitor's name proceeded the national names of Cheruscans, Saxons, conf, Suar-

dones, with Sweordweras, in Cod. exon. 322, 13. In contrast

with the sword, which ennobles men, stands female decoration, from which our language drew similar designations ; and it is a significant thing that, as one of the highest gods borrowed lustre from the sword, so did the fairest of goddesses from her necklace, she after whom all ladies are called freyja (pp. 299. 306). In our oldest laws the sword ^ was an essential part of the 'hergewate,' war-equipment, and the necklace of the 'frauen-gerade,' woman's outfit (RA. 567 seq.) ; now, as we find in the Lex Angl. et Werin. 7, 3 the expression ' ornamenta muliebria quod rliedo dicunt,' it becomes a question, whether a totally difi'erent explanation of the AS. goddess Rheda from that attempted on p. 289 be not the right one. Ostara, Eastre, was goddess of the growing light of spring, and Hrede might be goddess of female beauty, another name for Frouwa, Freyja, or a personification of the necklace ; ^ the root might be the same as in the OHG. hi'at, A.S. hrged, ON. hra'Sr (velox, celer), as the notions of swiftness and sweetness often meet. We must not overlook another word used for the above ' gerade : ' radeleve (RA. 567), OHG. rado-

' And with it a Jwrse and ship, the most precious of movable goods in antiquity. ' Mearas ami ma'Smas ' are coupled together iu AS. poems ; out of maSm was developed the notion of the Goth, mai^ms, a costly gift, while the MH(j. meiden retained the literal meaning of horse ; the formula ' schiff und geschirr,' ship and harness, which afterwards meant the land-ship (waggon) and its rigging, may originally have signified the sea-ship, which ON. and AS. poets in varying phrase denominate * sea-horse,' Andr. and El. xxxiv.-v. ; even in the French Simplic. 3, 4(5 I find ' to put the wooden water-horse to his paces' = to sail. This borders closely on the notion of demonic sea-horses (p. 490).

• The personifications Hamur and Ileru as weapons of the highest gods, and their counterpart the feminine spindle and necklace, support each other (couf. p. 204). The hammer was left to grow diabolic (ch. XXXUI) and superstitious (XXX VII), but the men would not allow their sword to be dishonoured. The Indians personified and apostrophized the sacrificial knife (Giittiug. anz. 1831, p. 1762).

886 PERSONIFICATIONS.

leiba (Graff 3, 855) , more exactly hrataleipa, on comparing which with the AS. sweorda lafe, homera lafe (Beow. 5868. 5654), i.e. lafe preceded by a genitive, we see that Hredan or Hredean lafe would originally mean jewellery the legacy (leavings) of the goddess, which afterwards all women divided among them. And this explanation is supported by several other things. Not only do the Norse skalds designate woman in general by the name of any ornament that she wears ; but Freyja herself, whose bosom is adorned with that costly Brisinga men (Goth. Breisigge mani ? p. 306), as mother earth too wears her * iarSar men' the greensward (p. 643), gave birth to a divine daughter identical with herself, whose name also gets to mean ornament and jewelry. Sn. 37 says, she was called Hnoss, and was so beautiful that everything elegant and precious was named hnossir ; ' hnossir velja,' Saem. 233'', means to select jewelry for a present. Hnoss may either be derived from hno^a, glomus, nodus Cas hlass from hla'Sa, sess from sitja), or be connected with an OHG. form hnust, nust, nusc (Graff 2, 1006-7) ; either way it so obviously agrees withbris (compages, nodus), or with nusta (ansula), nuskil (fibula), that it is wonderfully like the Brisinga (or Brisinga) men of the mother. But elsewhere we find Freyja provided with another daughter Gersimi (Sn. 212. Yngl. saga c. 13), whose name exhibits the same notion over again, nay it has found its way, like rhedo, into ancient legal phraseology. Gersemi (fern.) means costly ornament, cimelium (Gloss, to Gragas p. 26), also arrha, and mulcta pactitia; the Ostgota-lag giptab. 18 has garsimi, the Vestgota-lag p. 140 gorsimar, the Dan. laws giorsum, giorsum ; even A.S. records repeatedly use the phrase ' gaersuman, gersuman niman,' gersumam capere in the sense of thesaurum, cimelium (Spelm. p. 263^*. Ducange 3, 513), bat I have not come across it in the poets. As the AS. -sum answers to OHG. -sam (Gramm. 2, 574), I conjecture an OHG. karosemi (from karo, gar, yare, paratus) meaning the same as wip-garawi, mundus muliebris (Graff 4, 241) ; we should then have learnt three new equivalents for the gerade of our German law : rhedo, hnoss, gersemi, all of them personified and deified as Hreda, Hnoss, Gersemi. Again, it occurs to me that in the story of Oswald, one that teems with mythical allusions (think of Tragemund, and the raven all but Odinic), there appears a maiden Spange (Z. f. d. a. 2, 96-7. 105, ver Spange 103, vor

HNOSS. GERSIMI. SPANGE. HASHART. 887

Spange 115, like ver Hilde, ver Gaue)/ plainly a personified spange (armilla), a meaning highly appropriate to the beautiful princess. Such goddesses of female adornment and of household implements may also be supposed among the Lithuanian deities named in Lasicz p. 48-9. Nddala the snuggling, insinuating (p. 246) occurs at least as an OHG. proper name in Irmino 187*; compare the personal relation attributed to air and knifr (p. 881). Hlock we have explained (p. 401, conf. 421-2) as hlancha, catena (see SuppL).

Latin, Romance and German poems of the Mid. Ages, as early as the 12th cent, it seems to me, introduce the player's die as a personal demonic being; the Cod. Monac. ol. benedictobur. 160* fol. 94 contains the following passage : ' cum sero esset una gens lusorum, venit Deems in medio eorum, et dixit, Fraus vobis ! nolite cessare ludere, pro dolore enim vestro missus sum ad vos ;' and fol. 97'' speaks of the ' secta Decii,' i.e. of dicers. Other auths. are given by Ducange sub v. Decius = talus, taxillus, with a correct explanation of the word by the Fr. de, O. Fr. dez, Prov. dat, datz. It. Sp. dado ^ Lat. datus,-^ because in playing ' dare ' was used for edere, jacere. The same Munich codex fol. 95'' furnishes another remarkable phrase : ' nil hie expavescimus preter Hashardi minas,' the threatenings of the die ; yet ' hasehart,' which is known to MHG. poets also,^ can only be traced to the Fr, hasart, hasard, whose own origin is obscure, whose wider meaning brings it sooner to the verge of personification. Add to all this, that the Indian myth makes Dvcipara, a demon, squeeze himself into the dice, and that these come in the shape of birds, Bopp's Nalus pp. 38-9. 50 (see Suppl.).

Scarcely will a deification grow out of notions of place ; on the other hand, the idea and name of a deity can be transferred to space. Thus from the heathen Hali, Hel, arose the christian hell ; the ON. Laufey (p. 246) is perhaps another instance, and the idea of a god often mingles with that of wood and grove.

Ettmiiller's text has an erroneous unmeaning Pange.

• Conf. 16, lez, It. lato, Sp. lado, Lat. latus ; n6, nez, It. nato, Sp. nado, Lat. natns ; pre, prez, Prov. pratz, It. j^rato, Sp. prado, Lat. pratum.

■^ Examples coll. in Z. f. d. a. 1, 577 ; to which may be added : ' spil geteilet M bret aid an hasehart,' Gute frau 1093. ' den hasehart werfen,' Tauler's Sermons in Cod. Argent. A, 89.

VOL. II. « a

888 PERSONIFICATIONS.

Abstract immaterial objects open a far wider field for personifications ; and here we see female ones decidedly predominate over male.

Of the latter the most striking instances are, I think, the following. Donar is pictured at once as father and grandfather (p. 167) J Aija to the Lapps, Ukko to the Finns, are grandfather as well as thunder. Wimsch, Oski, a name of Wuotan (p. 143) signifies much the same as the female figures Salida, Fruma,Xa/3t9 ; and the Gr. tto^o? (wish, longing) occasionally occurs as ZIo^o?. If I am right in my interpretations of Gibika (p. 137), Gduts (pp. 23. 867 — 72), Sigi (pp. 27.371), we can easily find female beings to match them also. All these names belonged to the highest god, whose creative bounty blesses ; others to his near kinsman the majestic god of war : Wig (pugna, p. 203, conf. Graff 1, 740) and Hadu (pp. 207. 223), to which many female names correspond, Hilta, etc.^ With Yggr (p. 208) I have identified the Pallor and Pavor of the Eomans ; Omi, Woma is better explained as elemental. What comes nearer to Wig and Hadu is Death, DaiiJ^us (p. 842), which likewise from a male becomes a female person ; that death is immediately related to hunger is shewn in our language, Goth, svults being mors, and ON. sultr fames [Germ, sterben, Eng. starve], like Xt/io? hunger, \oL^6<i pestilence ; and personifications start up on every side : hungr is HeFs dish, sultr her knife (Sn. 33), Herbout (Renart 23362. Roman de la rose 18097) is a visitation of famine, a name I derive from the OHG. Heribalt, for Hunger stalks like a mighty warrior through the woi^ld : ' ferid unmet grot Himgar hetigrim obar helido barn,^ Hel. 132, 8. ' der Hunger gie liberal, breite sich in die werlt wite,' Dint. 3, 101. The Roman Fames is fem., her personality comes out in Ov. Met. 8, 800. Doubt still hangs over the comparison attempted on p. 374 between a MHG. BilUch and the Eddie Bil or Bil, whose own being is as yet unexplained ; but that the sexes do interchange is most satisfactorily proved by the frequent appearance, side by side, of an identical god and goddess, who are parent and child, or brother and sister, as Nior'Sr and Nerthus, Freyr and Freyja, Liber and Libera. So Berhta became Berchtolt, p. 279 (see Suppl.).

1 Bruoder Zornli, Ergerli (p. 274). H. Sachs i. 5, 538<* exhibits Hederlein iu a bear's hide as brother of Zenklein.

SNOTRA. WARA. SUNIA. FRUMA. 889

Of goddesses and godlike women that have sprung out of moral ideas, the number is far greater (p. 397). Under various forms a divine inother stands beside the father or grandfather : frau Uote, ancestress of all the heroic families (Zeitschr. f. d. a. 1, 21), Holda the gracious, BerJtta the bright, Frouiva, Freyja the fair or happy, Sippia, Sif the kindly (p. 309). Folia, Fidla, Ahundia means fulness of blessing rather than full-moon ; the Romans hallowed Copia with her horn of plenty; 'aurea fruges Italiae pleno defundit Gopia cornu,' Hor. Ep. i. 12, 28. 'divesque meo bona Gopia cornu est,' Ov. Met. 9, 85. Snotra the wise, well-behaved, Sn. 38 ; the word lived on as an adj., Goth, snutrs, AS. snotor, ON. snotr, prudens, callidus, liter, emunctae naris, OHG. snozar by rights, but suotar appears to be used also (Graff 6, 845) ; any discreet sensible woman can be called snotra. Three asynjor, who are protectresses in the sense of the Roman Tutela, are cited by Sn. 38 : Vor, OHG. prob. Wara, she who is aware and wary, from whom nothing can be hidden ; Syn, who guards the doorway, with which I connect the Goth, sunja Veritas, suujons defensio (sunjo p. 310 was an error), and the suunis excusatio found in our oldest laws, so that the meaning seems to be defence ; Hltn, whom Frigg has set for the protection of all men that are in peril, from hlina tueri, f overe.^ Even Hali, Halja is a sheltering goddess, who hides us in the bosom of the underworld, and originally a kind one.

From the oft-recurring phrases : ' was im thiu fruma gibidig,* Hel. 110, 2. 130, 13 ; ' thiu fruma ist hiar irougit,' 0. i. 15, 32 ; ^thaz in thiu fruma queman was' 16, 17 ; 'so quimit thir fruma in henti' 18, 42; 'nu uns thiu fruma irreimti,' 0. ii. 14, 120; one would think this fruma (lucrum, utilitas) had once had a personal Fruma underlying it, especially as the OS. gibidig gibidi, AS. gife^e (datus, concessus) is habitually used of superior gifts of fortune: tir gife^e (gloria concessa), Jud. 136, 5; ead

1 Snorri, in proof of the three goddesses, quotes as many proverbs : ' kona ver'Sr vor jjess er hon verSr vis,' a woman is wary of what she is aware of ; ' syn er fyrir sett,' a defence is set up (when one denies his guilt, couf. Forum, sog. 9, 5 : hann setti liar syn fyri, ok bau'5 skirshir) ; ' sa er fort?az hleinir,' he that is struggling leans (on the tutelary goddess). From lillua to slant, kXIv^lv, inclinare, Goth, hleinan, comes the causative hleina to lean, Goth, hlainjan. Hlains in Gothic is collis, [slanting or] sheltering hill ? I do not see how to reconcile with this the sense attributed to hlin of a (sheltering?) tree (p. 884).

890 PEESONIFICATIONS.

gife^e (opes concessae) .^ Like the above ' ttiu fruma uns irreimta ^ we have 'then thiu sahda gireim/ 0. i. 3, 17; giriman again is a higher ' falling to one^s lot/ and in 0. iii. 9, 11. 12 is the combination : ' fruma thana fuarta, salida inti heili/ And salida, like fruma, comes ' in henti/ to hand. The unquestionable personifications of Salida have been treated p. 864, etc.

The OHG. name Siguhepa would suit a victory-giving valkyr, as the Norse Victoria or NUrj is in like manner named Slgrdrifa (p. 435) ; drifa is one that drives, and the name Drifa was also fitly given to a goddess of the snowstorm, for i^ the heat of battle darts and arrows fly like snowflakes,^ Holda sends out the flakes, Wuotan the arrows. Our Bellona was both Hiltia and Kundia (p. 422).

Beside these divine or at least superhuman beings, from whom proceeded splendour, light, shelter, deliverance and a heap of blessings, especially victory, there were also others who were imagined as personifications of single virtues : as deity branched out bodily into separate powers, its spiritual attributes appeared likewise as though distributed into rays, so as to shine before mankind. But here again, honour, love, truth, gentleness, shame, self-control and pity all assume the guise of goddesses, because the people were accustomed from of old to hand over all that was fair and gracious to the female sex (see Suppl.).

It was the accepted belief that, like the wise- women of heathenism (pp. 400. 424), the virtues selected favourites with whom to lodge and consort. Offended or wronged by evil-doing, they took their leave, and returned to the heavenly dwelling, the place of their birth. In this too they are like the swan-wives, who after long sojourn among men suddenly take wing and seek their better home (p. 427).

Such notions must reach a long way back, and be widely spread. Hesiod {n"Epya 198 — 200 tells how AlSax; and Nifieaa, Shame and Remorse, having wrapt them in white raiment (put the swan*

1 Eadgifu, OHG. Otikepa, a woman's name = opes largiens, might translate the Lat. goddess Ops.

^ Ac veluti Boreae sub tempore nix glomerata

spargitur, haud aliter saevas jecere sagittas. Walth. 188.

Von beidenthalben flouch daz scoz (flew the shots)

also dicke so der sne (as thick as snow). Alex. 2886 (3235).

Daz geschoz als diu snie gie (went),

und die wurfe under daz her (and the darts among them). "Wigal. 10978.

ERE. FROMUOT. 891

shift on), depart from men to the immortal gods. We still say, Truth and Honour are gone out of the land ; a chronicler of the 14th cent. (Bohmer^s Fontes 1, 2) writes : ' tunc enim pax in exillmn migravit.' Kl. 1575: 'ja enwil mtn vroive Ere belihen in dem rtche, sid also jeemerliche die ere tragende sint gelegen. wer solt si denne widerwegen, swenn ir geswichet diu kraft ? des het gar die meisterschaf t min lieber vater Riiedeger. vroive Ere diu wirt nimmer mer mit solchem wunsche getragen, als er sie truoc bi sinen tagen.^ (Honour will not stay, now her bearers are in such pitiful case. Who is to steady her, when strength fails her ? R. had the secret ; she'll never again be borne as he bore her.) The hero to whom dame Honour had attached herself, knew how to maintain her equilibrium, to carry her upright. Nithart 135 speaks of a female being Vromuot (merry-mind) in a way that excludes a human person ; something mythical must lie at the back of it. Hiltrat and some other maidens are to meet for dancing, and with them shall fare Fromuot, 'diu ist ir aller wisel,' queen-bee of them all. They brought their attendants, she at springtime had entered the land, but afterwards she is missing, she has jied out of Austria, probably because she was not held in honour there. The poet closes this (first) song with the exclamation : 'could we but win her back, we should bear her on our hands,' as the hero of the hour (a king, a bride) is raised on high and carried about ; the passage on Eiidiger suggests the same kind of ' chairing.' In the second song we are told that Fromuot fareth sorrowful from land to land in seai^ch of cheerful men ; now who so certain of his happiness and luck, that he dare send an embassy to her ? Why, none but prince Friderich, his court by all means let her visit. It is mirth and gaiety that have left the kingdom : fromiiete, OHG. frawamuati, OS. fromod (Hel. 35, 1) means jovial, but Fromuot likewise occurs as a woman's name (Graff 2, 699), it is that of Sigeminne's handmaid in Wolfd. 673-5-6-7. 719, and the pei'souification may have its reason in ancient ways of thinking.^ In a poem of the early part of the 15th cent. (Z. f. d. a. 1, 421), /raw Gerechtigkeit (righteousness) and her companions say : ' now am I clean

1 The emendation proposed in Altd. bl. 1, 371, ' vrou Muot,' is actually found in MsH. 3, 218", in case the var. loctt. TOS** have had full justice done them. But I have never met with the simple Muot as a woman's name.

892 PEKSONIFICATIONS.

rejected and driven to another land ... we all have taken flight and are chased out of the land.' So Helbl. 7, 61 makes Wdrheit (veritas) and Triuwe (fides) quit the country, but what he further tells of Warheit is peculiar, how she slipt into a parson, and nestled in his cheek, but left him at last when he opened his lips, 7, 65 — 102. In 7, 751 vices are summoned to creep (sliefen) into a judge. So that both virtues and vices, like the daemon, take up their abode in men, and retire from them again. But such fancies were not far to seek, and even the elder poets make Minne especially visit the heart of man, possess it, e.g. MS. 1, 26*^ : ' ach siieze Minne, fiiege dich in ihr herze, und gib ir minnen muot ! ' Notice too the naive question the daughter puts to her mother, MS. 2, 260* : ' nu sage mir ob diu Minne lebe und hie bi uns uf erde si, aid oh uns in den lilften sioehe (or hovers in the air above us) ? ' She has heard of higher beings, whom she imagines living in the air, as the heathen valkyrs glided through it. The mother answers, speaking of Venus : ' si vert unsihtic (travels viewless) als ein geist, si en hat niht ruowe (no rest) naht noch tac ;' conf. p. 456.

In the Gute frau 576 : * do kam vrou Smlde und Ere, die wurden sine geverten (companions), die in bit dicke ernerten von aller slahte swEei'e (oft saved him from harm) ;' 611: 'im enschatte ouch niht sere, daz vrou Scelde und vrou Ere sich sin unterwunden (took charge), do si'n uf der straze vunden (found him on march). vrou 8. luste im diu pfant (difficulties), dar nach versatzte si ze hant vrou E. aber viirbaz.' Dietr. 49 : ' des hete diu Ere zuo im fluht (resorted), durch daz (because) er ir so schone pflac (treated);' 105 : ' daz er die Ere het ze hus.' MS. 2, 174" : ' vro Ere kumt mit im gerant.' Wartb. kr. cod. jen. 112: ' ver Triuwe nam (took) an sich die Scham, sam tete diu Zuht, diu Kiiische (so did courtesy, chastity), Milte und Ere alsam, si jahen daz ir aller vriedel wsere (they all declared their darling was) der viirste da xiz Diiringe lant; ' the preceding stanzas make it clear that dame Faith commands and leads the other five (see Suppl.).

It was clumsy of Otfried, after making Karitas (iv. 29) spin and weave the Saviour's tunic ^ in the manner of a heathen norn,

1 The tunica inconsutilis (giscafota sia mit filu kleinen fadumon joh ungindteii red'non kleinero garno), and ace. to the OrendelUed spun by Mary and wrought by Helena. Whence arose this myth? Greg. Tru. mirac. 1, 8 has already ' tunica

MILDE. MINNE. MAZE. 893

to give her for sisters two unfeminine ideas, ' fridu ' and ' reht ' (v. 23, 125); the Latin Garitas, Pax, Justitia would more fitly have discharged the office of fates, and a German Sippa and Rehti would have answered to them: Notker in Cap. 133 manages better, when he translates Concordia, Fides, Pudicitia by Gemeinmuoti, Triwa, Chiuski. I bring these examples to shew how familiar such personifications were even in the 9- 10th cent. ; they need not have been invented or introduced first by the MHG. poets.

Minna, even in OHG. (p. 59), could signify not only caritas, but amor and cupido ; and there is nothing offensive in Veldek's Lavinia and Eneas addressing Venus as Minne (En. 10083. 10948) ; in Hartmann, Wolfram and Walther, /7-oit Minne appears bodily (Iw. 1537. 1638. Parz. 288, 4. 30. 291—5. Walth. 14, 10. 40, 26. 55, 16), and Hartmann, who is fond of interweaving dialogue, has a talk with her, Iw. 2971 seq., a thing imitated in Gute frau 328-46-80. Kfrowe Maze (modus, meetness) occurs in Walth. 46, 33; a frou Witze in Parz. 288, 14. 295, 8; examples of /row i/re were given a page or two back, and o^ fron Scelde p. 865-6. These personifications are brought in more sparingly by Gotfried and Conrad, yet in the Trist. 10929 diu Maze cuts out a garment, and just before that comes the fine passage (10900) on Isot^s figure : ' als si diu Minne drj^te ir selber z'eime vederspil, dera Wunsche z'einem endezil, da fiir er niemer komen kan,^ as if Venus had made her for a toy to herself, and for utmost bound to Wish, that he can never get beyond, Tristan 4807 has ' diu gotinne Minne,' and Parz. 291, 17 once/ro?t Liebe as well as frou Minne. Frou Ere is freq. in Frauenlob : ' da hat vrou Ere ir wiinschelruot ^ 41, 18; ' vroun Even diener' 134, 18; ' vronn Eren bote ' 194, 8 ; she excludes ' unwip ' from her castle (vesten) 274, 18; ' vroun Eren straze ' 384-5 (see Suppl.).

In the 14- 15th cent, these fancies are carried to excess, and degenerate into mere allegories : my ladies, the Virtues, instead of coming in, one at a time, where they are wanted to deepen the impressiveness of the story, intrude themselves into the plot of the whole story, or at least of long formal introductions and proems. And yet there is no denying, that in these preludes,

Christi non consuta.' [The author forgets the ' coat without seam,' x'T'^"' &ppa<pos, John 19, 23.]

894 PERSONIFICATIONS.

nearly all of one traditional pattern, whicli even Hans Sachs is excessively fond of, there occur now and then shrewd and happy thoughts, which must be allowed to possess a mythical significance. By degrees all the devices of poetry were so used up, the art was so denuded of her native resources, that no other expedient was left her; our Mythology will have to remember this, and in stray features here and there recognise [mangled but] still palpitating figures even of the heathen time. When the poet has missed his way in a wooded wild, and beside the murmuring spring comes upon a wailing wife, who imparts advice and information, what is this but the apparition of a wish-wife or valkyr, who meets the hero at the forest fount, and makes a covenant with him ? And that dwarfs or giants often come between, as servants of these wild women, and conduct to their dwelling by a narrow path, this also seems no invention, but founded on old tradition.

Out of many examples I will select a few, MS. 2, 136'' : Ich kam geriten uf ein velt viir einen griienen wait, da vant ich ein vil schoen gezelt (tent), dar under saz diu Triuive, si wand ir hende, si hot ir leit, si schre vil lute../ miu schar ist worden al ze kleine (my followers are grown far too few).' Cod. Berol. 284 fol. 57-8 : By a steep cliff in the greenwood lives Virtue, and on a high rock beside it her sister dame Honour, with whom are Loyalty, Bounty, Meekness, Manhood, Truth and Gonstavcy, bewailing the death of a count of Holland. Ls. 1, 375 (a charming tale) : On a May morning the poet is roused from sleep by a passionate cry, he starts up, goes into the forest, and climbs over steep rocks, till high up he reaches a delectable flowery vale, and in the dense thicket spies a little wight, who rates him soundly and wishes (like Laurin) to impound him for trampling his lady's roses. When pacified at last, he tells him that here in a stronghold not to be scaled lives dame Honour with five maidens of her household, named Adeltrid, Schamigunt, Zuhtliehe, Tugenthilt and Mazeburc (the ancient Hiltia, Gandia, Drut, p. 422). Ls. 3 83 ; A woman on a pilgrimage, having lost her way in the wooded mountains, comes to a little blue house, in which there sits an ancient dame clothed in blue, who receives her kindly. This good dame calls herself the Old Minne, she still wears the colour of truth, but now she is banished from the world. The pilgrim

PEESONIFICATION, 895

journeys on to the tent of Yovng Minne, "who like lier playmate Wanhelmut (fickle-mind, a fem. formed like Frumuot) wears checkered garments, and is busy entering men and women's names in a book (like the parca and wurd, p. 406 n.), and proclaims the new ways of the world. In the end Old Minne declares that she hopes some day to appear again among men, and drag the false Minne openly to justice. A song in MsH. 3, 437* describes how dame Honour sits in judgment, with Loyalty^ Charity and Manhood on her right. Shame, Chastity and Moderation on her left. P. Suchenwirt xxiv. : The poet follows a narrow path into a great forest, where a high mountain rises to the clouds : a dwarf meets him at the mouth of a cave, and informs him of a court to be held in that neighbourhood by dame Constancy and Justice. He goes on his way, till he comes to the judgment-seat, before which he sees Minne appear as plaintiff, followed by Moderation, Chastity, Shame, and Modesty, he hears her cause pleaded and decided, but frau Minne spies him in his lurking-place. H. Sachs i, 273'': In May time, in the depth of the forest, on a lofty moss-grown rock, the poet is met by a hairy wood- wife, who guides him to the tower of dame Charity, shows him through her chambers, and at last brings him before the high dame herself, who sends him away not empty-handed. The rock-dwelling in the wooded mountain seems an essential part of nearly all these narratives : it is the ruined castle in which the ' white lady ' appears, it is the tower of Veleda, Menglo'S, Brunhild (p. 96n.). Are the companions, 'playmates,' by whom dame. Honour is attended, as the highest virtue by the lower ones, to be traced back to a retinue of priestesses and ministering virgins of the heathen time ? to valkyrs and messengers of a goddess ? Dame Era, Aiza (p. 414 n.) may go a long way back by that very name : in the story from P. Suchenw. xxiv. 68 is uttered the notable precept ' ere all frouwen fin ! ' honour all gentle dames (p. 398 ; and see Suppl.)

As a counterpart, there are personifications of Vices too, but far fewer and feebler, as our antiquity in general does not go upon dualism, and in higher beings the idea of the good preponderates. Besides, when malignant daemons do appear, they are by preference made masculine: zoi'n (anger), hass (hate), neid (envy) ; though the Lat. ira and iuvidia are fem., and odium

896 PERSONIFICATIONS.

remains neuter, like our general word for vice (laster) against the fern, virtue (tugend). It surprises me that no personification of ' siinde ' f., sin in the christian sense, is to be found in MHG. poets, for the word itself may lie very near the old heathen Sunja (p. 310), inasmuch as defence and denial includes fault and sin; the notion of ' crying sins, deadly sins ' is Biblical. Neither does ' schuld ' f. (causa, debitum, crimen) put in a personal appearance, the part she played of old (p. 407) seems totally forgotten ; what lends itself more readily to personification is Scliande f. (dedecus) . It would be hard to find the negatives ' unere, unmilde, unsteete ' treated as persons, and we only meet with JJntriuwe in Frauenlob 253, 5. 14; /row Unfuoge (unfitness) was quoted p. 311 n., but if, as is likely, the positive Gefuoge contains fundamentally a physical sense, it hardly falls under the category of vices, but like Unseelde (p. 878) marks the negation of a state. In the Bible Guiot (Meon 2, 344) the three fair maids GharitG, Verite, Droiture, are confronted by three old and ugly ones, Traison, Ypocrisie, Simonie ; virtue is always painted fair and godlike, vice foul and fiendish (see Suppl.).

The personification of Rumour is of high antiquity. It was very natural to think of it as a divine messenger sent out through the air, to listen to all that goeson, and bring tidings of it to the highest gods, who have to know everything. To the Greeks ^'Oaaa (voice, sound) was At6<i ajjeXo';, II. 2, 93 ; oaaa eK Ai6<i, Od. 1. 282:

"Oaaa S' ap' ayye\o<i S)ica Kara tttoXiv (p')(^ero TvavTr],

Od. 24, 413.

Another name is ^t]fxr}, Dor. ^d/j,a, to whom, says Pausanias i. 17, 1, as well as to "JSA,eo9, AlSoo-i and 'Op/j.7], there was an altar erected at Athens ; the word is conn, with (jirjfjii, ^ii/xa, as the Lat. Fama is with fari and fameu (in efi'amen) ; I incline to x-efer the AS. beme, tuba, to the same, preferring that spelling to the commoner byme. As there would otherwise be nothing in the Edda parallel to this Fama, it is perhaps allowable to find her in the goddess Gnd, Sn. 38, whom Frigg sends out on her errands (at eirindum sinum) to all parts of the world ; through air and sea she rides on a steed named Hofvarpnir (who flings out the hoof), she will neither fly nor drive, but ride through the air, and

MiERE (fama). 897

all liigliflown things are said to ' gntefa : ' our Gotfiied in a song puts ' gnaben ' by the side of ' flying, flowing, trotting, creeping/ Hofvarpnir may have been a winged horse,^ but to the Greeks and Romans Fama herself was winged, and this appears to me to have arisen out of the notion of a bird that bore tidings as a divine messenger : ' ex ipsa caede volucr&in nuntium mittere ' in Cic. pro Roscio 36 simply means the speediest intimation, couf. Pertz 2, 578 : ' subito venit nuntius pennigero volatu.' In our folksongs birds do eri'ands (p. 672), and OSinn has two ravens for his chosen messengers, but their office could also be handed over to divine beings of secondary rank, as Zeus employs Iris and Ossa, and the notion of angel has arisen directly out of that of messenger. Virgil's famous description of Fama, small at first, but quickly growing to enormous size (Aen, 4, 173) with innumerable feathers, eyes, ears, and mouths, seems almost borrowed from the image of a bird getting fledged; at all events the St. Gall monk (Pertz 2, 742) delivers himself thus : ' cum fama de 'minima meisa (sup. p. 683) super aquilarum maguitudinem excresceret.' Other writers : ' daz moive (news) do vedere gewan, witen fuor ez ze gazzen,' Mar. 144. ^alsus flouk Morganes tot, als ob er fliicke wsere/ so flew M.'s death as if it were fledged, Trist. 5483. ' ein bcese mcere wirt gar schiere vliicke,' ill news is soon fledged, Renn. 18210. Yet Veldeck, just where we might have expected an imitation of Virgil, has merely: ' du daz mcere {if brack — uz quam — uz spranc,' En. 1903-16-97, not giving it wings, though he does make it grow : ' daz mcei'e loahsen began,' 9185. 12575; conf. Geo. 521: 'diu moive in der stunde (ilHco) wuohsen/ Most of the other poets confine themselves to the image of flight : ' leidiu niumdre (ill news) diu nu fliegent in diu lant,' Pf. Chuonr. 7544. ' daz moire jiuoc do witen,' Mar. 45 ;

• do daz woire chom. geflugen ' 214. ' do Jiugen disiu. mcere von lande ze lande,' Nib. 1362, 2 ; ' do jiugen diu mmre von schare baz ze schare' 1530, 1. 'ob diz mcere iht verre (far) fliige?' Wh. 170, 20. ' diu mmre jiugen iiber daz velt,' Wigal. 2930. *s6 daz ynmre ie verrer vliuget, so man ie mer geliuget,' the farther it flies, they tell more lies, Freid. 136, 3. 'mcere vliegent in diu

1 Like Pegasus; couf. the 0. Boh. gloss of Mater verb. 215 : kridlatec (alatus) Pegasus equus Neptuni, qui ' lamu ' iuterpretatui'.

898 PERSONIFICATIONS.

lant/ Karl 116"^.^ M. Neth. poets also make their fern, niemare fly: 'niemare ghevloghen,' Floris 358; but often, like Veldeck above, they make her rwn or leap like started game : ' die niemare liep' 173; 'die niem,are sal lopen' 1295 ; and with this agree the Dan. ' det springer nu saa vide,' DV. 1, 63, and perhaps the AS. ' bleed wide sprang,' Beow. 36, if blaed (flatus, OHG. plat) may here be taken for fama. In a passage quoted above, p. 78, fama is imagined walking, and ' gressus suos retorquens.' Now, vivid as these representations are, it is not personification that lies at the bottom of them, as we may see by the vague neuter ')ncere, OHG. mdri ; the OHG. marida, Goth. merij?a (us-iddja meri|7a is, e^rfkdev 77 aKorj avrov, Mark 1, 28) would have lent itself more readily to that, but MHG. had no mserde in use, though Latin writers undoubtedly retained /ama-, e.g. in Helmold 1 , 65 : ' interim volat haec fama per universam Saxoniam.' Hartmann in Er. 2515 personifies frowe Melde, while Tybo, a Dan. poet of the 17th cent., more floridly names her Fijg-om-hy (aestuans per terram, from fyge, ON. fiuka), and gives her a Jiedreham, Nyerup's Digtek. 2, 185. Ovid in Met. 12, 30 seq. attributes to Fama a house with innumerable approaches, and this is elaborately imitated by Conrad in Troj. 179^ 180% only for fame he puts a masc. Liumet, OHG. hliumunt, our leumund (Gramm. 2, 343. Grafl" 4, 1100), who together with his followers is winged, and flies forth, but signifies more the listening fama ; conf. Goth, hliuma^auris, and Liumending ^=Fa.vor in N. Cap. 51. To such male beings would correspond the Lat. rumor, of which we read in Isengr. 13 : 'Rumor per saltus et arva tonans'; or the ON. qvittr : ' sa kvittr flo i byg^um,' Fornm. sog. 9, 237 (see Suppl.).

1 ' Die aechtesal vlouc uber al ; ' ' ir echte vlouc in die lant,' Kaiserchr. 6406-79.