In the story which narrates how King Mongan recovered his
wife from the King of Leinster his feats were originally those
of a divine namesake. Taking the form of a cleric, he gave
that of another cleric to his attendant and won entrance to the
King’s fort and to his wife. He kissed her, but when the at-
tendant hag cried out, he sent a magic breath at her, and what
s,he had seen was no longer clear in her mind, after which he
shaped a sharp spike on which she fell and was killed. His at-
tempt to recover his wife failed, however, and at a later time
he took the guise of Aed, son of the King of Connaught, trans-
forming a hag into the shape of Aed’s beautiful wife, Ibhell.
The King of Leinster fell in love with her.and exchanged Mon-
gan’s wife to the pretended Aed for her; but the pair escaped,
and great was the King’s disgust to find Ibhell in the form of a
hag. Mongan also made a river with a bridge over it, where
none had ever been before, and in it he set the two clerics whose
shapes he had borrowed . 12

The gods could likewise transform each other. Etain was
changed by Fuamnach into an insect, as a preliminary to her
rebirth, and we have seen how the children of Ler were trans-
formed into swans by their jealous step-mother. Ler heard
them singing, yet god though he was, he could not disenchant
them, just as Manannan was unable to change Aoife from the
shape of a crane into which the jealous Iuchra had turned her . 13
The gods remained for three hundred years listening to the


6o


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


music of the swans, which caused happiness to all who heard
it; and after many sufferings the birds met the sons of Bodb,
who spoke to them of the divinities, while Fionnghula sang of
her former happiness when she enjoyed the guileless teaching
of Manannan, the convocations of Bodb, the voice of Oengus,
and the sweetness of his kisses. We have seen how the chil-
dren, after their disenchantment, died in the Christian faith.
This old and touching myth has received a Christian ending:
how it originally told the further fate of Ler’s children is
unknown.

The gods also transformed mortals. Morrigan brought a
bull to a cow over which Odrus watched, and which followed
the bull when Morrigan went into the cave of Cruachan. Odrus
pursued through the cave to the sid within, but there she fell
asleep, and the goddess awoke her, sang spells over her, and
made of her a pool of water . 14 This is partly paralleled by
another story in which elves, or siabhra, transformed Aige into
a fawn and sent her round Ireland. Later she was killed, and
nothing remained of her but a bag of water which was thrown
into a river, thenceforward named after her . 15 A more curious
transformation is that by which the god Oengus changed his
four kisses into as many birds, in order that they might satirize
the nobles of Erin, until a Druid by a stratagem stopped
them . 16 As has been seen, the kisses of Oengus were dear to
Fionnghula. The souls of the righteous appear sometimes as
white birds, and those of the wicked as ravens, in Christian
documents — a conception which is probably of pagan origin . 17

Finally, to show how the memory of the Tuatha De Danann
and their powers survived into later centuries the story of
O'DonnelVs Kern may be cited. In this, Manannan appears
as a kern, or serving-man, at the houses of historic personages
of sixteenth century Ireland. He plays such music as never
was heard, bewitching men to slumber; he is a marvellous
conjuror, producing out of his bag hound, hare, dog-boy, and
lady, who all climb a silken thread which he tosses upward to a


MYTHIC POWERS OF THE GODS


61


cloud; he performs miracles of healing; he takes off a man’s
head and puts it on again; and from each place where he goes
he suddenly disappears from human sight, none knowing
whither he has vanished . 18 Folk-memory thus preserved much
of the old conception of the gods.


CHAPTER V


GODS HELPING MORTALS

I N Greek mythology the gods were represented as coming to
man’s help, and in Christian legend saints were seen hover-
ing above an army in battle and giving it substantial aid. So
in Celtic myth deities were often kindly disposed toward men
or assisted them, sometimes for ends of their own.

Such a myth is associated with the historic King Mongan
of Ulster in the sixth and seventh centuries. He is shown to
be son of the god Manannan by a mortal mother, and as has
been seen, he had powers of shape-shifting, and besides being
brought up in the divine land, had free access to it. He was
also regarded as a rebirth of the hero Fionn; hence the stories
told of this king of the Christian historic period must already
have been narrated of some far earlier mythic king or god,
perhaps possessed of the same name. Two of these legends nar-
rate how the god assisted Mongan’s putative father out of
desire for his wife. In the shorter story Fiachna, King of Ul-
ster, had gone to help Aedan in Scotland against Saxon hosts
who had with them a terrible warrior, and during the fight a
noble stranger appeared to Fiachna’s wife and asked her love.
She refused him with scorn, but later relented in order to save
her husband’s life, which, said the visitant, was in danger from
the terrible warrior. “Our son will be famous, and his name
will be Mongan. I shall tell thy husband our adventures, and
that thou didst send me to his help.” This the stranger did,
afterward slaying the warrior and giving victory to Fiachna;
and when Mongan was born, he was known as Manannan’s
son, for Manannan had announced his name when leaving the
Queen at dawn . 1


GODS HELPING MORTALS 63

In the longer version Fiachna had become security for the
exchange of four kine offered by the King of Lochlann to a
Black Hag for her cow, the flesh of which alone could cure his
disease. Later the hag compelled Fiachna to fight with the
King, who had broken his promise to her; but all went well
until the King of Lochlann let loose venomous sheep, before
which Fiachna’s men fell in hundreds. A warrior in a green
cloak fastened by a silver brooch, with a circlet of gold on his
head and golden sandals on his feet, appeared and asked what
reward Fiachna would give him who would drive off the sheep.
Fiachna replied that he would give anything he had, whereupon
the warrior begged his ring “as a token for me when I go to
Ireland to thy wife to sleep with her,” to which the com-
placent Fiachna assented. The stranger — Manannan — an-
nounced that he would beget a glorious child, called Mongan
Finn, or the “Fair”; “and I shall go there in thy shape, so
that thy wife shall not be defiled by it.” Fiachna would also
become King of Lochlann. Taking a venomous hound from
his cloak, Manannan launched it successfully at the sheep and
then appeared to the Queen as Fiachna. On the night of Mon-
gan’s birth the Queen’s attendant had a son, Mac an Daimh,
while the wife of Fiachna’s opponent, Fiachna the Black, bore
a daughter, Dubh Lacha, these possibly also being children of
the amorous god. When Mongan was three days old, Manan-
nan took him to the Land of Promise and brought him back
when he was sixteen. Meanwhile Fiachna Dub having killed
the other Fiachna, the Ulstermen bargained that Mongan
should retain half the province, with Dubh Lacha as his wife.
One day when he and his Queen were playing together, “a
dark, black-tufted little cleric” reproached Mongan for his
inactivity and offered to help him to regain his land. Mongan
went with him; they slew Fiachna; and ail Ulster became
Mongan’s. The cleric was Manannan, though his transforma-
tion, in this as in the other version, is the result of the revision
of the story by a Christian scribe. At a later time Mongan


64


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


exchanged Dubh Lacha for the kine of the King of Leinster,
but she, while living in the King’s house, persuaded him to
wait a year ere she was his . 2 How Mongan regained her through
his magic powers learned in the divine land has already been
described. A prophecy about Mongan is put into Manannan’s
mouth in The V oyage of Bran , where he tells Bran how he will
go to Fiachna’s Queen, that by her he will have a son who will
delight the folk of the sid, will make known secrets and take
all forms — dragon, wolf, stag, salmon, seal — and how the
god will place the valiant hero with princes and will be his
tutor.

Apart from the Christian colouring in these tales, they are
of pagan origin and reflect pagan ideas about semi-divine sons
of gods and the help given by gods to men. The late Mr. Nutt
maintained that the story of Mongan was one form of a Celtic
myth which might be fitted to any real or imaginary hero —
that of a wonder-child, born of a mortal mother and a super-
natural father, gifted magically by him, associated with him
in the divine land, and passing thence at death. He assumed
that Mongan had finally gone there, basing this assumption on
verses which mention Mongan’s wandering with Manannan
in “the land with living heart,” and his coming thence to see
St. Columba. Mongan was the hero of such a myth in Ulster;
Fionn of another local myth, later popular all over Ireland;
Arthur of a similar Brythonic myth . 3

The myth of the help given by gods to mortals is seen again
in the story of Cuchulainn, son of the god Lug, who assists him
in time of need. Cuchulainn stood alone against Medb’s hosts,
because she invaded Ulster when its men were in their periodic
sickness . 4 He had slain hundreds of them and was now distorted
with fury and in sore distress, when Loeg, his charioteer, an-
nounced that he saw a warrior approaching, fair, tall, with
yellow hair, clad in a green mantle with a silver brooch. Shield,
five-pointed spear, and javelin were in his hands. He plied
these as he came, but “no one attacks him and he attacks no


GODS HELPING MORTALS 65

one,” for he was invisible to Medb’s warriors. Cuchulainn
cried that this must be one of his friends of the side coming to
his aid, and so it turned out, for the warrior was his father
Lug from the sid. “My wounds are heavy,” said Cuchulainn,
“it is time they were healed.” Lug bade him sleep for three
days while he himself fought the hosts; and as he sang a charm,
the hero slept. Lug not only battled for him, but as he had
claimed the power of healing in the story of the battle of Mag-
Tured, so now he cured his son’s wounds with medicinal herbs;
and when Cuchulainn awoke, he was refreshed and strong. The
god, however, would not stay to help him further, lest the
fame of the deeds wrought by both should accrue to Cuchulainn;
and the hero now donned a dress of invisibility given him by
Manannan, a precious garment of the Land of Promise.
Manannan is also called his foster-father in Druidism or wiz-
ardry, 5 and Cuchulainn’s “friends of the side” may be com-
pared with the leannan sighe, fairies who befriend mortals when
human powers fail them. 6 His opponent, Ferdia, reproached
him for not telling him how his friends of the side came to his
aid when he thought of them, but Cuchulainn replied that
since the Feth fiada was shown to all by the sons of Mile, the
Tuatha De Danann could not use invisibility or work magic. 7
This passage, however, from the Stowe manuscript of the
Tain Bo Cualnge is, in its final statement, inconsistent with the
incidents of the other manuscripts.

Other heroes were helped by Manannan. In The Tragic
Death of the Sons of Usnech ( Longes mac nlJsnig) Naisi has a
sword given to him by the god, its virtue being that it leaves
no trace of stroke or blow behind it; 8 and some of his weapons
were possessed by the Feinn. Diarmaid had his crann huidhe
— a yellow-shafted spear — but its properties were less power-
ful than another magic spear with a red shaft, the gai dearg.
It could do nothing against the boar which slew Diarmaid, and
he lamented that he had not taken with him the gai dearg , as
Grainne advised. With the shafts of these spears he twice


66


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


leaped beyond the ring of his surrounding enemies and escaped
them, and he also used “Manannan’s magic staves” on an-
other occasion to leap up a precipice. Besides these he pos-
sessed the moralltach, the sword of Manannan or of Oengus . 9

Of Diarmaid it is said that “with most potent Manannan
mac Ler thou studiedst and wast brought up in the Land of
Promise and in the bay-indented coasts; with Oengus too, the
Dagda’s son, thou wast most accurately taught .” 10 Oengus
freely helped Diarmaid when he and Grainne were pursued by
Fionn. Oengus learned that they were surrounded in a wood,
and passing through the foe, unknown to the Feinn, he bade
the eloping pair come under his mantle, when he would remove
them without their pursuer’s knowledge. Diarmaid refused to
go, but asked the god to take Grainne, which Oengus did,
reaching a distant wood unseen. There Diarmaid came to
them and found a fire and a meal prepared by Oengus, who ere
he left them warned Diarmaid of the places into which he must
not go. When Diarmaid and Grainne took refuge in the
quicken-tree of Dubhros, Oengus came invisibly as before, but
now as each warrior in succession climbed the tree to take
Diarmaid’s head, he gave them the hero’s form as he threw
them down. When the Feinn cut the heads off, however, their
true form was restored, and the ruse was discovered. Oengus
would fain have carried both away, but again had to be satis-
fied with taking Grainne, bearing her invisibly in his magic
cloak to the Brug na Boinne, where Diarmaid joined them,
carrying the head of the witch whom Fionn had sent against
him. Oengus now made peace between Diarmaid and Fionn,
arranging the conditions which his foster-son demanded.
Finally, when Diarmaid’s death was caused by Fionn’s craft,
the latter advised that he and the others should escape lest
Oengus and the Tuatha De Danann should capture them.
Oengus, aware of the tragedy, arrived with the swiftness of the
wind, and seeing the body, cried: “There has never been one
night, since I took thee with me to the Brug na Boinne, at the


GODS HELPING MORTALS


67


age of nine months, that I did not watch thee and carefully
keep thee against thy foes, until last night, O Diarmaid; and
alas for the treachery that Fionn hath done thee, for all that
thou wast at peace with him.” Then he sang a lament, and
bearing the body to his Brug, he said, “Since I cannot restore
him to life, I will send a soul into him, so that he may talk to
me each day.” 11 Oengus has less power than savage medicine-
men or gods in myth, who bring the dead back to life, or than
Demeter, who gave life to Dionysos after he was dismembered
by the Titans. But the story is an almost unparalleled example
of a god’s love for a mortal. Fionn himself bears witness to the
love which Oengus had for Diarmaid as a child in his Brug,
and how when spells were put upon a boar that it should have
the same length of life as he, the god conjured him never to
hunt a boar . 12

Another interesting instance is found in the story of Fraoch,
whose mother was a goddess. When he killed a dragon, women
of the sid came and carried him there, curing him of his wounds;
and so, too, when he was slain at a ford by Cuchulainn, those
divine women, clad in green, came and lamented over him and
carried his body into the sid. Fraoch should not have gone
near water, for this was dangerous for him, and his mother’s
sister, the goddess Boann, had said, “Let him not swim Black
Water, for in it he will shed his blood.” 13 In another story the
goddess Morrigan helped Tulchainde, Conaire’s Druid, who
wished Dil, daughter of Lugmannair, to elope with him from
the Isle of Falga — the Isle of Man regarded as the divine land.
Dil loved an ox born at the same time as herself and insisted
that Tulchainde should take it with her; and the Morrigan
was friendly to him and at his wish brought it to Mag mBreg . 14
The Morrigan was both hostile and friendly to Cuchulainn,
thus resembling that supernatural but ambiguous personage,
the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian tradition, now helping, now
opposing.


CHAPTER VI

DIVINE ENMITY AND PUNISHMENT


HE gods were sometimes hostile to men, not always for


obvious reasons, as is curiously illustrated in the Echtra
Nerai , or Adventures of Nera, an introductory tale to the Tain
Bo Cualnge. Here the gods are regarded as demons appearing
with great power on Samhain Eve (Hallowe’en). King Ailill
offered a reward to anyone who on that night would tie a withe
round the foot of a captive hanged the previous day; and sev-
eral tried, but were afraid. Nera was bolder, but his withe kept
springing off the corpse until it told him to put a peg in it, after
which the dead body asked him to carry it on his back to the
nearest house for a drink, because “I was thirsty when I was
hanged.” The house was surrounded by a fiery lake, and into
it and a second, surrounded by a lake of water, they could not
enter. In a third house the corpse found water and squirted it
on the faces of the sleepers so that they died, after which Nera
carried the dead body to the gallows. This part of the story
is connected with the vampire belief. Nera returned to Ailill’s
fort, but found it burnt, and a heap of human heads lay near
it. He followed a company leaving it and thus came to the sid
of Cruachan, where its king sent him to a woman in one of its
dwellings, bidding him bring firewood daily to the royal house.
At this task he noticed a lame man carrying a blind man to a
well, and daily the blind man asked, “Is it there?” to which
the lame man answered, “It is indeed; let us go away.” The
woman told Nera that they were guardians of the king’s crown
in the well, and when he described his adventures and the de-
struction of Ailill’s fort, she explained that this was merely the

D’Arbois translates Tuatha De Danann as “people of the
god whose mother is called Danu ”; 36 Stokes renders it “folk
or folks of the goddess Danu ” ; 37 Stern prefers to regard Danann
as a later addition and to take the earlier name as Tuatha De or
Fir Dea — “the divine tribe,” or “the men of the god.” 38
Three insignificant members of the group, Brian, Iuchar, and
Iucharba, are sometimes called “three gods of Danu”; and
hence also, perhaps, the whole group is designated “men of
the three gods.” Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba are also termed
tri dee dana , or “three gods of dan” i. e. “knowledge,” or
“fate.” Danand (Danu) is mentioned with Bechuille as a
separate goddess, and both are called foster-mothers of the
gods. Cormac’s Glossary knows nothing of Danu, but speaks
of a goddess Anu, mater deorum hibernensium — “ It was well she
nursed the gods” — while he refers to two hills in Kerry as “the
paps of Anu,” which a later glossary calls “the paps of Danu.”
Ireland is called lath n’Anann, and Anu is mentioned with
Macha, Morrigan, and Badb, the war-goddesses, though other
passages give Danu along with these. Possibly Danu is a mis-
take for Anu, through confusion with dan, “knowledge,”
knowledge as a function of Brian, Iuchar, and Iucharba being
personified as Danu, so that they would then be called gods or
sons of Danu, though they were actually sons of Brigit. As
Stern points out, Danu can scarcely be mother of the whole
group, since she herself is daughter of Delbaeth, who was
brother of Dagda, Ogma, Bres, etc. If Anu was mother of the
group, the likeness of her name to Danu would also lead to the
mistake; and Anu as goddess is perhaps a personification of
Ireland, a kind of earth mother. On the whole, the general
relationship of the euhemerized gods evolved by the annalists
is as mythical as the pagan stories themselves.

hi— 4


40


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


In the story of The Children of Tuirenn Brian, Iuchar, and
Iucharba are sons of Tuirenn, son of Ogma. One day Cian, at
enmity with them, saw them approaching. Striking himself
with a Druidic wand, he became a pig, but Brian noticed this
and changed himself and his brothers into hounds which chased
and killed Cian with stones, because he said that weapons
would tell the deed to his son. They buried his body seven
times ere the earth ceased to reject it. Lug, Cian’s son, was
told of this deed by the earth, and he forced the children of
Tuirenn to bring many magical treasures, in getting which
danger was incurred. By their father’s advice they crossed the
sea in Manannan’s canoe and succeeded in obtaining the treas-
ures, but now had to give “three shouts on Cnoc Miodh-
chaoin,” a hill on which Miodhchaoin and his sons prohibited
all shouting. Here, then, they were wounded by these men,
and their father asked Lug for the magic pig’s skin which
healed all wounds. He refused it, even when Brian was carried
before him, and thus the murderers perished miserably . 39

Most of the names of the chief gods have already been men-
tioned — Dagda or Eochaid Ollathair, who in one place is called
an “earth god” to the Tuatha De Danann, and also their
“god of wizardry” — probably a deity of fruitfulness and fer-
tility; Oengus; Nuada; Ogma, god of poetry; Goibniu, god of
smiths; Creidne, of braziers; Diancecht, of medicine; Manan-
nan, son of Ler; Midir; Bodb Dearg; Lug, perhaps a sun-god;
and other lesser divinities. Of goddesses there are Anu or Danu ;
Brigit, goddess of poetry and primitive culture; Etain; and the
war-goddesses — Morrigan, Macha, and Neman, while Badb
constitutes a fourth or sometimes takes the place of one of the
triple group. The Tuatha De Danann had power over agri-
culture and cattle, but they had other functions, while all of
them had great magic potency. Unfortunately few myths
about these functions exist, and their precise nature must be
matter of conjecture. The mythico-magical nature of the
gods’ possessions survives even in records which regard them






• - - • . -








?








r’ '/? i • I.. ,J. • ? •-.!

? ' ; ? i-ii- • ' ;/ [ ?

' - . / '• -.'I Jjpl.n ..

.


'






’


.


























PLATE V

Smertullos


This deity is perhaps a god of the underworld,
particularly as the serpent is a chthonian creature.
See p. 158. From an altar found at Notre Dame,
Paris. For other Celtic deities of Elysium see
Plates VII-IX, XII-XIV, XVI, XXV-XXVI.




THE STRIFE OF THE GODS


41


as mortals. The preface to the story of the battle of Mag-Tured
tells how from Falias was brought the stone of Fal, which
roared under every king who would assume the sovereignty.
From Gorias was brought Lug’s spear; no battle was ever won
against it or against him who bore it. From Findias came
Nuada’s sword, which none could escape when it was drawn.
From Murias came Dagda’s cauldron, from which no com-
pany ever went away unthankful . 40 Their magic food and
other possessions will be mentioned later. Some things of
which no myths remain are said to have been in the Brug na
Boinne — the bed of Dagda, the two paps of Morrigan, the
comb and casket of Dagda’s wife (i. e. two hills), the stone wall
of Oengus, the shot of Midir’s eye, and the like.


CHAPTER II

TUATHA DE DANANN AND MILESIANS


T HE annalistic account of the conquest of the Tuatha De
Danann by the Milesians cannot conceal the divinity of
the former nor the persistence of the belief in Druidic magic
and supernatural power. M. d’Arbois has shown that the
scheme which makes the Tuatha De Danann masters of Ire-
land for one hundred and sixty-nine years until the Milesians
came is the invention of Gilla Coemain, who died in 1072.
The Book of Invasions adopted it, and it assumes that the gods
reigned in succession as kings until 1700 b. c. Even in Gilla
Coemain’s time, however, this scheme was not always ac-
cepted, for Tigernach in his Annals knows no historic Irish date
before 305 b. c., while current tales showed that the gods were
still alive at a much later date, e. g. in the time of Conchobar
and Cuchulainn, alleged Irish contemporaries of Christ. 1

When the Milesians arrived, three Kings of the Tuatha De
Danann ruled — MacCuill (“Son of the Hazel”), MacCecht
(“Son of the Plough”), and MacGreine (“Son of the Sun”),
married respectively to Banba, Fotla, and Eriu, whose names
are ancient names of Ireland, the last still surviving as “Erin.”
Were these old eponymous goddesses, from whom parts of
Ireland were supposed to have taken their names, or were they
inventions of the annalists, derived from titles given to the
country? The former is suggested by an incident in the story.
The three Kings may have been gods of nature and agriculture,
and in fighting the Milesians they were respectively slain by
Eber, Airem (“Ploughman”), and Amairgen, singer of spells
and giver of judgements. The Milesians were descendants of a


TUATHA DE DANANN AND MILESIANS 43

Scythian noble expelled from Egypt, who came to Spain, where
his descendant Bregon built a tower and was father or grand-
father of Mile, whose father is sometimes called Bile. Another
son, Ith, gazing one evening from the tower, saw the coast of
Ireland. With ninety followers he sailed thither and was wel-
comed by the Kings, who begged him to settle a dispute. Very
different was his fate from that of folk-tale heroes called in to
adjust quarrels. While bidding the Kings act according to jus-
tice, he so praised the fertility of the land that they suspected
him of designs upon it and slew him. His followers carried
his body to Spain, and the chiefs of the Milesians, resolving
to avenge him, sailed to Ireland, but the Tuatha De Danann
made a magic mist, so that the island appeared like a hog’s
back — hence its name Muic-Inis, or “Pig Island.” At last
they landed, and the poet Amairgen, son of Mile, sang: —

“I am a wind at sea,

I am a wave of the sea,

I am a roaring of the sea,

I am an ox in strength,

I am a bird of prey on a cliff,

I am a ray of the sun,

I am an intelligent navigator,

I am a boar of fierceness,

I am a lake on a plain,

I am an effective artist,

I am a giant with a sharp sword hewing down an army,” etc . 2

Some see in this a species of Celtic pantheism, but if so it is
pantheism of a curious kind, for it is, rather, the vain-glorious
bombast of the Celt, to which there are parallels in Welsh
poems, where Taliesin speaks of the successive forms which
he has assumed. The comparison should not be made with the
pantheism of the Irishman Erigena, but with the bragging
utterances of savage medicine-men.

The Milesians met in succession Banba, Fotla, and Eriu,
each of whom asked that they would call the isle after her
name. The Kings then begged an armistice, ostensibly to dis-


44


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


cuss the question of battle or capitulation, but really in order
to give their Druids time to prepare incantations; while they
agreed to accept the judgement of Amairgen, save that, if it
were false, he must die. Amairgen then told the Milesians that
they must embark for the magic distance of nine waves; and
if they succeeded in returning, the land would be theirs. This
was the first judgement ever given in Ireland. The Milesians
now returned to their ships, but no sooner had they gained the
desired distance than the Druids and poets of the gods raised a
storm. Eber recognized it as a Druidic storm, which did not
rage beyond the top of the masts; and Amairgen now invoked
the aid of the natural features of Erin — an archaic animistic
rune, embedded in the later story, and one which preserves a
primitive stage of thought:

“I invoke thee, Erin,

Brilliant, brilliant sea,

Fertile, fertile hill,

Wood with valleys,

Flowing, flowing stream,” etc.

Now the storm ceased, and Eber joyfully boasted that he
would strike the people of Erin with spear and sword; but that
moment the tempest burst forth again, scattering and wreck-
ing the ships, and drowning many. The survivors landed at the
Boyne and gave battle to the Tuatha De Danann. The three
queens are said to have created a magic army which was a
delusion to the Milesians , 3 as Lug’s witches had done to the
Fomorians; but in spite of this the Tuatha De Danann were
defeated.

“We boldly gave battle
To the sprites ( siabhra ) of the isle of Banba,

Of which ten hundred fell together
By us, of the Tuatha De Danann.”

At another conflict a further rout took place, in which the
three Kings and Queens were slain; and it was now that the
survivors of the Tuatha De Danann took refuge in the under-
ground sid, the Milesians remaining masters of Ireland . 4


TUATHA DE DANANN AND MILESIANS 45

On whatever this account is based, it is not itself an ancient
pagan myth, for gods worshipped by men are not defeated by
them or by their supposititious ancestors. By the annalists,
real races, imaginary races, and divine groups were regarded
more or less from one standpoint; all were human and might
be made to fight each other. Next came the question — How
were the old gods abandoned, and why had they been, or were
even now, supposed popularly to live in the sid? It was known
that the Christianized tribes had forsaken the gods, though
these had come to be regarded by them as a kind of fairy race
living out of sight, to whom in time of need and sub rosa they
might appeal. Obviously, then, Christianity must have caused
their defeat. To this idea we may trace one source of the ac-
count just summarized. It is, in effect, what is said in the
Colloquy with the Ancients ( Acallamh na Senorach ), in which,
regardless of the annalistic scheme, the gods are powerful long
after their supposed defeat. Caoilte, survivor of the Feinn into
the days of St. Patrick, says that soon the Tuatha De Danann
will be reduced in power, for the saint “will relegate them to
the foreheads of hills and rocks, unless that now and again
thou see some poor one of them appear as transiently he re-
visits the earth,” i. e. the haunts of men. 5 Hence, perhaps, the
Colloquy elsewhere represents them as possessing not so much
land as will support themselves. 6 In St. Patrick’s Life this
victory is dramatically represented. He went to Mag Slecht,
where stood an image of Cenn Cruaich (“Head of the Mound”),
covered with gold and silver, and twelve others covered with
bronze. The chief image bowed downward when he raised his
crozier, and the earth swallowed the others, while their in-
dwelling demons, cursed by the saint, fled to the hill.

Why, then, was the defeat ascribed to the Milesians? Of
the different hostile Celtic groups dwelling in different parts of
Ireland, two at last became pre-eminent shortly before St. Pat-
rick’s time, governed by great dynastic families and reigning
respectively at Cashel and Tara. It was for their aggran-


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


46

dizement that the legend of descent from Mile and his ances-
tors was invented; but as the gods had come to be regarded as
a powerful race who had conquered earlier races in Ireland,
so it became necessary to show that the Milesians had over-
come them. This pushed the Milesians back to remote anti-
quity and showed that they had been masters of Ireland since
1700 b.c., while the Tuatha De Danann, whose power had
passed at the coming of Christianity, were now alleged to have
been conquered by them. Thus the central theory of those
mediaeval reconstructors of Irish history was “that Ireland
had been subjected to the Milesian race for ages before the
Christian era.” Later, the Ulster heroes were brought into
relationship with Mile, as at last were all the Irish aristocracy. 7

Mile (Latin miles , “soldier”) and Bile are men of straw
with no place in the older mythology, and hence the attempts
of Rhys and d’Arbois to equate Bile with Balor and with a
Celtic Dispater, as god of death and ancestor of the Celts, are
nothing but modern mythologizing. The account of the con-
quest doubtless made use of earlier conceptions of supernatural
power and magic, while still apt to consider the Tuatha De
Danann as somehow different from men ( siabhra , “sprites”),
this being the popular view and also current in literary tales
embodying older myths. The gods were a superhuman race,
the side , helping men on occasion; and this influenced the
official view, for euhemeristic documents tell how, after their
defeat, the Tuatha De Danann retired to subterranean pal-
aces, emerging now and then to help or to harm mortals. Even
the Milesians were not yet free of their power, especially that
of Dagda. Their corn and milk were being destroyed by the
Tuatha De Danann, and to prevent this in future they made
friends with Dagda, so that now these things were spared to
them. 8 This story seems to be the late form of the earlier
mythic idea that corn and milk depend on the gods, who, when
offended by men, withhold these gifts. They were also obtained
by sacrifice, e. g. by offerings of children and animal firstlings


TUATHA DE DANANN AND MILESIANS 47

to Cenn Cruaich; 9 and elsewhere we find that the Fomorians
exacted two-thirds of their corn and milk annually from the
Nemedians. 10 Perhaps there is here a mingling of the idea of
destruction by gods of blight with that of the withholding of
such gifts and with that of the offering of these things. A sur-
vival of such sacrifices occurs in the food and milk left out for
the fairies in Ireland and in the West Highlands.

The functions of some of the divinities as controllers of fer-
tility are suggested by references of this character, as well as
by the symbols on Gaulish monuments; and some folk-lore
collected by Mr. D. Fitzgerald in Limerick shows how the mem-
ory of these functions vaguely persisted under a romantic dress.
Cnoc Aine ( Knockainy , or “ Aine’s Hill”) has always been con-
sidered the dwelling of Aine, queen of the fairies of South Mun-
ster and daughter of Eogabal, of the Tuatha De Danann. Aine,
“the best-hearted woman that ever lived,” is still seen in Loch
Guirr or on Cnoc Aine. She married Lord Desmond after he
had captured her — the usual fairy bride incident — and bore
him a son. Both she and the son left him, but appeared from
time to time afterward, the son becoming Earl of Desmond in
due course. Once he spoke to his mother about the barrenness
of the hill, and next morning it was planted with pease set by
her at night — a significant hint of her functions. Remnants
of the agricultural ritual survived into last century in the form
of a procession round the hill on St. John’s Eve with clears —
bunches of straw tied on poles and lit, these being afterward
carried through fields and cattle to bring luck to both. One
year this was neglected, but a mysterious procession, with clears,
headed by Aine, was seen on the hill. On another occasion girls
who had remained after the usual procession had gone met
Aine, who thanked them for the honour done to her but begged
them to depart as “ they wanted the hill to themselves,” “ they ”
being Aine’s retinue, seen by the girls through a ring which
she produced. 11 Aine was thus obviously associated with
fertility-rites.


4 8


CELTIC MYTHOLOGY


It now remains to be seen how, according to the annalistic
account, after their defeat and retirement to the hollow hills
or sid, the gods divided these among themselves, while at the
same time one of their number acted as king.


CHAPTER III

THE DIVISION OF THE SID

C ELTIC deities may have been associated in pagan times
with hills and pre-historic tumuli, especially those near
the Boyne; and within these was the subterranean land of the
gods, who also dwelt on distant islands. If this were the case,
it would help to explain why mounds were regarded as the re-
treats of the Tuatha De Danann, and why they are still sup-
posed to emerge thence as a kind of fairies. If the folk believed
that the old gods had always been associated with mounds,
it was easy for the euhemeristic writers to evolve a legend of
their having retired there after being defeated by the Milesians.

Within these hills and mounds were their gorgeous palaces,
replete with all Elysian joys. These hollow hills were known as
si d, a word possibly cognate with Latin sedes, and hence per-
haps meaning “seats of the gods”; and their divine inhabit-
ants were the aes side, fir side, mna side, “the people [or “men”
or “women”] of the sid,” or simply “the side.” These are
everywhere regarded as the Tuatha De Danann or their de-
scendants. Men used to worship the side, says St. Fiacc’s
hymn, while the daughters of King Loegaire regarded St.
Patrick and his white-robed bishops as aes side, appearing on
earth . 1 In later times the side were held to be fairies and were
called by various names, but these fairies closely resemble
the earlier side, the Tuatha De Danann, while they are not
necessarily of small stature. In this they are very like the fees
of mediaeval French belief — romantic survivals of earlier
goddesses.

In some stories the side are associated both with the sid and

There is every likelihood that the destruction of the world by
fire was a native conception, as in other mythologies, though
Christian influences may have worked upon it. The Poetic
Edda personifies the agents of destruction as £ Muspell’s sons,’
i.e., spirits of fire or Fire-giants. Fire may have been person-
ified as a giant called ‘ Muspellr.’ ,0 Snorri then gives the con-
ception of a southern region of fire, Muspell or Muspellneim,
whether this originated with him or not. The destruction of the
world by fire was a Celtic conception, as has been seen, and this
may have passed from Celts to Teutons or have been a belief
common to both.

Why a myth of the destruction of the gods should have origi-
nated in Scandinavia is uncertain. It does not appear to signify
the defeat of Norse gods by the Christian religion, for there is
no trace of such a conception in the sources. We cannot even
say that it arose out of a weakening of the old religion among
the people. They were still firmly attached to it when Chris-
tianity appeared in the North. The best parallel to it is found
in Scandinavian mythology itself (as in Greek) — the destruc-
tion of the older race of giants by the gods.

THE RENEWAL OF THE WORLD

The gods are gone, men destroyed, the earth sunk in the sea
or burned, but now appears a new world. This is the theme of
the final stanzas of Voluspa:


COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 345

‘ Now I see for a second time
Earth in fresh green rise from the sea;

The cataracts fall, the eagle flies,

He catches fish from the rocks.

The ALsir assemble on Ithavoll,

They speak of the mighty earth-engirdler,

They recall the mighty events of the past,

And the ancient-runes of Fimbul-tyr.

Then once more will the wonderful
Golden tables be found in the grass,

Which once in old time the gods possessed.

On fields unsown will fruits spring forth,

All evils vanish; Balder comes back.

Hod and Balder dwell in Hropt’s battle-hall,

The hall of the mighty Battle-gods.

Then can Hoenir choose the prophetic wand.

The sons of the brothers of Tveggi abide
In spacious Vindheim. Would ye know yet more?

A hall I see, brighter than the sun,

O’erlaid with gold, on Gimle stand;

There dwell for ever the righteous hosts,

Enjoying delights eternally.

From on high comes a Mighty One
To the great judgment, ruling all.

From below the dark dragon flies,

The glistening snake from Nithaf j oil ;

On his wings bears Nidhogg, flying o’er the plain,

The corpses of men. Now must I sink .’ 80

There is thus a new earth without ills, where fruits unsown
ripen — a typical Elysian or Golden Age world. Some of the
gods return — those who were not destroyed, Balder, Hod,
Hoenir, the sons of Tveggi’s (‘ the Twofold,’ Odin) brothers,
of whom nothing is known. They speak of the things of the
past, of the Midgard-serpent, of Odin’s runes (Fimbul-tyr,
£ the mighty god ’). They find the golden tables on which the


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


346

gods had once played a kind of draughts in the Golden Age
(cf. v. 8 : £ In their home at peace they played at tables ’). The
mysterious £ Mighty One ’ is almost certainly a borrowing from
Christianity, just as the hall on Gimle is a reflexion of the Chris-
tian Heaven. The final stanza about Nidhogg is apparently
not in its right place. Its last words, however, belong to the
end of the poem, and refer to the Volva, who, having delivered
her prophecy, sinks back whence she came. Some have taken
the verse as meaning that the dragon tries to rise, but is de-
feated and sinks for ever. This is unlikely, and £ she must sink ’
= £ I must sink ’) refers to the seeress.

Hyndluljod also speaks of the High God to come:

‘ There comes another, a Mightier,

Yet dare I never his name forthtell;

Few are they who can further see
Than when Odin shall meet the Wolf.’ 81

The new world, as well as other details, is known to the poet of
V df thrudnismal. During the mighty winter Lif and Lifthrasir
survive. The sun (Alfrodull) will bear a daughter ere the
Wolf swallows her, and this daughter will follow her mother’s
ways when the Powers fall. Odin then enquires about the
maidens who shall fare over the sea. Vafthrudnir’s reply shows
that three throngs of maidens descend over Mogthrasir’s
dwelling-place. They will be guardian spirits to men, though
they come of giant stock. These are perhaps kindly Norns.
The giant then tells Odin that, after Surt’s fires have sunk,
Vidarr and Vali shall dwell in the realm of the gods, and Modi
and Magni, sons of Thor, shall have his hammer Mj ollnir. 82 In
this forecast of the new world, there is a further conception. Lif
and Lifthrasir ( £ Life ’ and £ Vitality ’), progenitors of a new
race of men, are hidden in Mimir’s grove, possibly Yggdrasil if
Mimameid, £ Mimir’s tree,’ mentioned in Svifidagsmal, is the
World-tree. This corresponds to the Iranian myth of the vara
or £ enclosure ’ of Yima, the first mortal, whose reign is a Golden
Age. He was commanded to make this vara and fill it with

































PLATE XL VI I
Anglo-Saxon Draughtsmen

Draughtsmen, of horses’ teeth, beginning of seventh
century. From a set of sixty-three pieces found at
King’s Field, Faversham, Kent, now in the British
Museum.

Another set, of the same date but of more elaborate
technique, found in a tumulus at Taplow, Bucking-
hamshire, and now in the British Museum. These
illustrate the passages in V olusfa regarding the game
of tables played by the Gods. See pp. 345—46.

From photographs, by permission of the British
Museum authorities.


Hi






COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 347

happy mortals, who will repeople the earth after the devastating
winter has passed. 83 There will be a new sun, and certain gods
will reappear, their names differing from those in Volusia. The
giant maidens who act as guardian spirits, presumably to the
dwellers on the new earth, descend over Mogthrasir’s 1 thorp 1
or dwelling-place; and, as Boer suggests, Mogthrasir , 1 he who
desires sons,’ may be the same as Lif, progenitor of the new
race. 84

Snorri combines the V oluspa and V af thru dnismal passages in
his account of the new world. But he adds a description of
places of bliss and punishment, and here, as we have seen, he
seems to have misunderstood his sources. 85

Apart from the reference to Gimle, which appears to be for
the righteous dead, the poems say nothing about the lot of the
dead in the renewed world.

Detailed Carving on the Bewcastle Cross

The illustration shows one of the fantastic animals
and a bird. From Prof. Baldwin Brown, The Arts
in Early England , vol. v.






COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 327

have been created out of different materials. One of these says
that Adam’s bones were made from stone, his flesh from earth,
his blood from water, his heart from wind, his thought from
clouds, his sweat from dew, his hair from grass, his eyes from
the sun. The four documents differ in details, but there is a
curious inverse parallel with the Eddie account, which 1 uses the
microcosm as material for the macrocosm, and the other in-
versely makes the universe contribute to the formation of man.’ 10

Volusia goes on to tell that the gods met at Ithavoll in the
midst of Asgard and built temples and altars, made forges to
work gold, wrought tongs and fashioned tools. This was during
their golden age. Then the creation of dwarfs is described. 11
Snorri amplifies this. All-father gave counsel about the town in
the midst of Ithavall. A temple was made with twelve seats
and a thirteenth for All-father. It is all of gold and is called
Gladsheim. A second house was built for the goddesses, called
Vingolf. Houses were made for workshops} and tools, anvils,
hammers, and tongs were fashioned. The Aisir worked in
metals, stone, and wood, and fashioned their household wares
of gold. Hence that time is called the Age of Gold. Then fol-
lows the creation of the dwarfs. 12

Voluspa next gives the myth of human origins. Odin,
Hcenir, and Lodur came forth to the land and found Ask and
Embla (Ash and Elm) unprovided with fate and without
strength, soul, breath, movement, heat, or colour. Odin gave
them soul, Hoenir sense, Lodur heat and goodly colour. 13
Snorri says that Odin, Vili, and Ve, walking on the shore, found
two trees, which they shaped into human beings. Odin gave
them soul, Vili life, Ve hearing and sight. They named the
male Ask and the female Embla, and of them mankind was
begotten. 14 In an earlier passage, where biblical influence may
be seen, Snorri says that All-father made man, giving him spirit
which shall never die, though the flesh-frame rot or burn to
ashes. 15 The shaping of human beings out of trees may have
been suggested by wooden images, such as those which the


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


328

speaker in Havamal says that he found and on which he put
clothes. Now they regarded themselves as champions. Such
images, called tremadr , are mentioned in other documents. 16 In
Rigsthula the different classes of men were begotten by Rig.
The account given by Tacitus of the founders of the Germanic
race is interesting by way of comparison. The Germans cele-
brate in ancient hymns a god Tuisto, issued from the earth, and
his son Mannus, as the originators of their race. Mannus had
three sons, progenitors of the Ingvseones, Herminones, and
Istasvones. Some, however, think that the god had other sons,
progenitors of other tribes. 17 Mannus is thus the first man,
born of a god who comes out of the earth, perhaps regarded as
spouse of a Heaven-god. His sons were eponymous ancestors
of three chief German groups. If Tuisto was thought to be
produced by earth alone, and himself alone produced sons, he
would resemble Ymir, who begat giants without a female
(p. 275).

Separate cosmogonic myths occur here and there. A river,
Van, is formed from the slaver out of the mouth of the Fenris-
wolf. Stars were made of the eyes of Thjazi or Aurvandill’s
toej a well from the footprint of Balder’s horse, etc. 18

For the Eddie conception of the universe we begin with the
earth, the middle of things, a general Teutonic conception —
Gothic midjungards , OS middelgard , AS middangeard, OHG
mittigarty ON midgard , literally £ boundary-wall,’ i.e., the
mountains by which the giants were shut out from the habitable
earth, then the earth as the dwelling-place of man, or, as Snorri
conceived it, a citadel. Thor is £ Midgard’s warder ’ ( veorr )
against the giants. 19 Earth is a vast disc, surrounded by the
ocean or floating upon it, and in this ocean is the Midgard-
serpent, lying about the land and surrounding it, his tail in his
mouth, £ the girdle of all lands.’ Around the shores of earth
are mountains, rocks, wastes, and caves, and these are the dwell-
ing of giants, Jotunheim or Utgard, though Utgard was also
regarded as being beyond the ocean. 20


COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 329

According to one passage of Snorri, Asgard, the abode of the
gods, is a city which men call Troy, in the midst of Midgard.
It is the new Asgard, in place of the elder Asgard in Asia. 21
This conception of Asgard is due to Snorri’s euhemerism and
the desire to connect the Scandinavian people and deities with
ancient Greece. The earlier pagan view of Asgard made it a
heavenly abode, or possibly it was on the top of a lofty central
mountain, which would give a link with Snorri’s view of Asgard
on earth.

Above all was Heaven, overarching and resting on earth.
Between Heaven and earth was the bridge Bifrost or Bilrost,
which the gods had made, the Asbru or £ bridge of the yEsir.’
It is the rainbow, of three colours. It is very strong and made
with greater craft than any other structure. The red colour is
fire, which keeps the Hill-giants off. Over this best of bridges
the gods ride daily to their tribunal at Urd’s well. Another
name of the bridge is Vindhjalmsbru, ‘Wind-helmet’s (the
sky) bridge.’ At the Doom of the gods the sons of Muspell will
cross it and break it down. Meanwhile Heimdall is its
guardian. 22

Valhall is Odin’s hall in Asgard, where are also Gladsheim
and Vingolf, but Grimnismal places Valhall in Gladsheim , 1 the
Place of joy.’

Separate dwellings of gods and others are enumerated in
Grimnismal and by Snorri, and these appear mainly to be in
Heaven. The chief of them are Alfheim, abode of the Alfar
and Frey; Breidablik, Balder’s abode; Valaskjalf , 1 Seat of the
fallen,’ possessed by Odin and thatched with silver, in it is
Hlidskjalf, 1 Gate-seat,’ whence Odin surveys all worlds.
Valaskjalf may be Valhall. Thrudvangir, with its hall Bil-
skirnir, is Thor’s abode.

Much speculation has been indulged in regarding the c nine
worlds,’ spoken of in Volusfa and V afthrudnismal, as well as in
an interpolated stanza in Alvissmal where the dwarf says: ‘ Oft
have I fared in the nine worlds all, and wide is my wisdom in


330


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


each.’ In Voluspa the Volva says that she knows 4 nine worlds,
nine rooms of the mighty World-tree.’ The giant in Vajthrud-
riismal says that he has been in every world, the nine worlds,
even to Niflheim. 23 In all three passages the idea is that of
comprehensive knowledge on the part of the speaker — dwarf,
seeress, giant. This knowledge is possessed by different kinds
of beings dwelling in different regions. Alviss knows the
names given to various things by several orders of beings
dwelling in earth, Heaven, Alfheim, etc. 4 Nine worlds ’
would thus be more a figurative phrase than one expressing
local geography or cosmology. In Voluspa these worlds
are connected with the World-tree, itself a comprehensive
symbol.

Regarded as different regions, the nine worlds may be — i.
Asgard, 2. Vanaheim, 3. Alfheim (though this is one of the
dwellings in Heaven), 4. Midgard, 5. Jotunheim, 6. Mus-
pellheim, 7. Svartalfheim, 8. Hel or Niflhel. The ninth is un-
certain. It may be obtained by dividing Hel from Niflhel or,
preferably, by including a Water-world. 24 Undoubtedly the
numbering of nine worlds is connected with the sacredness and
importance of the number nine in religion, myth, folk-belief,
and poetry. 25

Below Midgard is Svartalfheim, the region of the dwarfs.
Hel or Niflhel is also a subterranean abode. While Snorri
speaks of Niflhel in this sense, he also speaks in error of
Niflheim, apparently another form of the name, as a region in
the North, the cold region of mist, whence streams flowed into
Ginnunga-gap. In Niflheim Snorri places the well Hvergelmir,
whence spring certain rivers, among them Gjoll, which is near
Hel-gates. It is under the root of Yggdrasil which stands over
Niflheim. In Grimnismal , the site of Hvergelmir is not given,
but it is said that from the horns of the hart which eats the
branches of Lserad, a stream drips into Hvergelmir and thence
all the rivers run. 26


COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 331


THE ASH YGGDRASIL

To the seeress of Volusia the World-tree with its nine divi-
sions or worlds, is c the mighty Fate-tree (or 1 well-planned
tree,’ mjQtvithr ), deep in the earth.’ The nine worlds are con-
tained in the tree or symbolized by its divisions. In later pas-
sages the Volva speaks of an ash called Yggdrasil, reaching high
aloft, wet with white water, thence come the dews that fall in
the dales. It stands by Urd’s well, and the three Norns dwell
in a hall under it. 27 This reference to the three Norns may be
interpolated, enlarging on Urd’s connexion with the tree.
Heimdall’s horn is hidden under the tree, and a mighty stream
pours from Odin’s pledge (which is in Mimir’s well) on the
tree. At the Doom of the gods the tree shakes and its leaves
rustle. 28

The picture of the tree in Svlfdagsmal is similar. Mima-
meith ( £ Mimir’s tree’?) stretches its branches over all lands.
No one knows what roots are beneath it. Few can guess what
shall fell it, not fire and not iron. Then follows a piece of folk-
lore. The fruit of the tree placed in fire is good for women in
childbirth. What was within then comes out, such might has the
tree for men. Gering points out that in Icelandic belief a hard
legumen borne to Iceland by the Gulf Stream is used for the
same purpose. On the highest bough stands the cock Vithofnir,
glittering like gold, shining like lightning, ever-watchful, the
terror of Surt and Sinmora. 29 If this bird is the same as Gollin-
kambi, who wakes the heroes in Valhall, the top of the tree must
be in Asgard. The bird’s watchfulness is a terror to the enemies
of the gods.

These two passages give a picture of a wonderful world-tree,
its roots on or under the earth, beside it Mimir’s well — prob-
ably the older conception — or Urd’s well. As we shall see,
Snorri puts these two wells beside two separate roots of the tree.

A more elaborate picture is given in Grimnismal. The ash
Yggdrasil is ‘ best of trees.’ Beneath one of its three roots is


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


332

Helj the Frost-giants beneath the second ; mankind are beneath
the third. A lost stanza may have spoken of the wise eagle that
sits on the top of the tree, for the next stanza speaks of the
squirrel Ratatosk which carries the eagle’s words to the dragon
Nidhogg below. Four harts nibble the uppermost twigs, per-
haps a later amplification of the single hart of a succeeding
stanza. Numerous serpents lie beneath the tree and gnaw its
branches. Thus the tree suffers, for the hart bites its top 5 its
trunk is rotting; and Nidhogg gnaws its roots. Meanwhile the
gods ride daily to give judgments at the tree. Thor walks
there. 30

Snorri combines this information, but gives varying details.
Of the three roots, one is among the iEsir, one among the Frost-
giants, and one over Niflheim. Beneath each is a well or stream.
As the TSsir are in Heaven, a root cannot be there, unless we
assume that Snorri still regards Asgard as on earth. But later
he says that the root is in Heaven, and underneath it is Urd’s
well. Mimir’s well is underneath the root among the Frost-
giants. The third root, over Niflheim, is gnawed by Nidhogg.
The eagle in the tree knows many things. Between his eyes sits
the hawk Vedrfolnir. Ratatosk bears envious words between
the eagle and Nidhogg. 31

Snorri thus upsets the whole conception of Yggdrasil by plac-
ing one of its roots in Heaven, with Urd’s well there, and by
setting Mimir’s well among the Frost-giants.

Most of the details in Grimnismal may be no more than
decorative motifs , perhaps derived from the presence of birds
or other animals in sacred trees or groves, or, as R. M. Meyer
supposes, from sculptured representations of trees with con-
ventional animals. 32 Bugge thought that the poet had seen
monuments in the north of England with ornamentation like
that on the Bewcastle cross in Cumberland, if not that cross itself.
On such crosses was carved a tree, in the foliage of which sat an
eagle or hawk, squirrels and serpents, and ate of its fruits. 33 If
the tree or the animals had any mythic significance, the key to it



PLATE XLIV


The Ruthwell Cross

The left and right sides of the Ruthwell Cross are
decorated in a similar manner to the design on the
Bewcastle Cross. The illustration shows the left side.
The long lower panel shows the tree and begins below
with a bird having a fantastic tail, an otter, two birds,
two fantastic animals. The upper panel has a bird
and possibly a squirrel. This Cross is also Anglo-
Saxon, of the seventh century, and illustrates Bugge’s
theory of Ash Yggdrasil, see p. 332. The illustration
is from Prof. Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early
England , vol. v.





COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 333

is lost, in spite of the ingenious conjectures of modern my-
thologizers.

The ash Yggdrasil has many prototypes. It recalls sacred
trees beside sacred wells from which oracles were obtained. It
is linked to the Vartrad or £ Ward-tree ’ growing beside Swedish
houses, which, if cut down, brings the prosperity of the house to
an end — a significant fact when we remember that the gradual
destruction of Yggdrasil denotes the approach of the Doom of
the gods. It may thus have once been a mythic heavenly
Vartrad, growing beside the hall of the gods. Such a tree is
spoken of in a stanza quoted by Snorri — Glasir growing by
the doors of Valhall, its leafage of red gold, the fairest tree
known among gods and men. 34 Grimnismal also speaks of a
tree, Lserad, growing beside Odin’s hall. From the horns of
the hart which bites its branches a stream falls into Hvergelmir,
whence all the rivers flow. This also resembles a Vartrad, and
both trees may be forms of Yggdrasil. 35 When Grimnismal
speaks of the gods riding to judgment beneath Yggdrasil, this
may be reminiscent of actual processions to judgment beneath a
Vartrad or a temple tree. 36

Yggdrasil also resembles the sacred tree growing beside a
temple, like that one described by the scholiast to Adam of
Bremen. Beside the temple at Upsala was a great tree with
spreading branches, always green, even in winter. Its origin
was known to none. Near it was a spring used for sacrifices. 37
The branches of Yggdrasil were also far-spreading} it was
always green } beside it was a spring} no one knew its fate or its
roots. The Old Prussian holy oak at the sanctuary called Ro-
move also offers an analogy to t Yggdrasil. It had three divi-
sions, each sacred to a god, and an image of each stood in each
section. Before the god Perkuna of one division burned per-
petual fire} before Potrimpo was the snake fed by the priests and
priestesses} before Patollo the heads of a man, horse, and cow.
This tree was also evergreen. 38

The full name of the Eddie tree was Askr Yggdrasils, ‘ the


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


334

Ash which is Ygg’s (Odin’s) Steed,’ or c the Ash of Odin’s
Horse.’ Yggdrasil was a kenning for Odin’s horse Sleipnir.
The name may be due to the fact that victims sacrificed to Odin
were hung on sacred trees, riding the tree, gallows, or horse
sacred to him. Other explanations are given. It is the tree in
which is Odin’s steed, the wind. Or Odin tethered his horse to
the tree, or, less likely, it is the tree on which Odin hung, hence
his gallows or steed . 39 In the same way the gallows was called
‘ the ice-cold steed of Signy’s husband ’ in a skaldic poem . 40
But, as Chadwick points out, there is £ not a single reference to
the World-tree having served as Odin’s gallows,’ while ‘ the
name Yggdrasil may have been applied to the earthly Vartrad,
and transferred together with the conception of the tree to its
heavenly copy .’ 41

The mythic Yggdrasil was almost certainly a tree growing on
earth before it was transferred to the Other World and the re-
gion of myth.

This tree is also connected with wide-spread myths of a
World-tree growing on a mountain or in the centre of the earth,
and reaching to Heaven. Such a tree also resembles the mythic
World-pillars supporting Heaven. Both trees and pillars are
many-storied. The roots of the tree go down into the Under-
world, its topmost branches pierce the sky, and it stands by a
spring, lake, or sea, or in the sea itself. As in a Yakut tale, a
goddess dwells at the root of the tree and foretells the future,
like Urd or Mimir. Tree or pillar is often the tethering-post
of deities, especially of the Over-god, as in the Yakut tale, and
this throws light on Yggdrasil as connected with Odin. Such
mythical pillars and trees are known all over Northern Asia, and
can be traced in India, Iran, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The
eagle Garuda or Garide is believed to dwell in the tree. At its
roots is a dragon or snake at which the eagle pecks . 42 In some
of these myths a spring flows from the tree or from its sap, and,
as in Iranian belief, all the rivers of earth have their source in
it . 43 So out of Yggdrasil flows dew, called by men honey-dew,


COSMOGONY AND DOOM OF THE GODS 335

on which bees are nourished, and the source of rivers is connected
with the tree Lserad. 44

Such mythic trees would be suggested by lofty forest-trees on
which the sky seemed to rest, and, as in some Polynesian myths,
which separated earth and Heaven. Then, as the sky seemed
to recede into a remoter distance, arose the fable of one lofty
tree reaching from earth to Heaven. 45 Myths of a Heaven-
supporting tree are numerous, and they survive in tales of c Jack
and the Beanstalk.’ 46 The resemblances of the Scandinavian
tree to such mythic trees are numerous, and its origin need not
therefore be sought in medieval Christian legends of the Cross
as a World-tree, which, in fact, carry on the tradition of these
mythical trees.

The myth of the sky as a tent-roof supported on a pillar or
post occurs among the Lapps, Finns, and North Asiatic tribes,
Japanese, and ancient Egyptians. 47 The Asiatic pillar is seven-
storied, representing the seven Heavens, and it is the tethering-
post of the stars or of the horses of the gods. 48 Posts with seven
branches, on which sacrificial victims are hung, symbolize the
mythical post. The Lapps also had such sacrificial pillars, repre-
senting the heavenly pillar supporting the world, with an iron
nail at the top, a symbol of the World-nail which fixed the sky
in place. The nail of the sky is the Pole Star, round which the
Heavens are thought to revolve. This belief of the Lapps may
have been borrowed from the Scandinavians. 49 Similar beliefs
were entertained by the Celts and in ancient India. 50 The
symbolism of the seven Heavens in tree or pillar, like the three
divisions of the Romove tree, recalls the nine worlds or divisions
of the Eddie tree.

In other stories such substantial ghosts do immense harm, and
even after their bodies have been burned, their vitality continues
through the ashes. Thus a cow licked a stone on which the ashes
of the vicious ghost of Thorolf had lain, and its calf continued
the harm done by the ghost. Sometimes holy water and the
saying of Mass, as well as a doom pronounced against the tor-
menting dead, were necessary before their hauntings ceased.
While the 1 ghost ’ haunted, its body was undecayed. These
animated corpses, for they can hardly be called ghosts, resemble
vampires, for the quelling of which similar rites of riddance
were observed — cutting off the head, impaling, burning, and
scattering the ashes . 30 Many stories describe fights with the
barrow-wight by a hero bold enough to invade the barrow and
try to remove the treasure contained in it. Saxo gives such a
story. Asmund and Asvitus had promised to die with each
other. Asvitus died first and Asmund was buried alive with
him. Soon after, the barrow was broken open, and Asmund
came forth, ghastly and bleeding, for Asvitus had eaten his
horse and dog and then attacked his friend, who, however, had
been able to cut off his head and impale his body with a stake . 31

All the dead did not act in these ways. They were helpful
and interested in their descendants, and would appear to give
information on different matters. Hence some cult was paid to
the dead at their barrows or at the natural hillocks into which
they were supposed to have died. The greater or more beloved
they were, so much the more reverence was shown them. Jor-
danes says of the Goths that they regarded dead chiefs as ansis
or semi-deos. Adam of Bremen speaks of the cult of dead men
who had performed mighty deeds, and cites the Vita S. Anskarii


3io


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


which shows how the Swedes had neglected the gods through the
coming of Christianity. Through a certain man they com-
plained of this and said that if the Swedes desired more gods,
they might worship their former king Eirik, who would now
become one of the gods. A temple was therefore erected in his
honour, and sacrifices offered to him. The Indiculus Sufersti-
tionum shows that the dead were regarded as holy and wor-
shipful . 32 The Sagas give several examples of the worship of
popular or great persons when dead, and of the sacrifices paid
to them . 33 The euhemerized accounts of the gods also show
how they, as supposed mortals, were deified and worshipped
after their deaths.

In Iceland, hillocks or hills were believed to be abodes of the
dead, especially one near the family dwelling, on which we may
suppose the barrows to have been made . 34 The family barrow
or barrows were usually beside the dwelling. The living be-
lieved that they would £ die into the hill.’ One of the early
settlers in Iceland, Thorolf, in reverence for the hill on the
ness to which his high-seat pillars had floated, and which was
near his homestead, called it Helga-fell , 1 Holy fell.’ He would
allow no one to pray to it unwashed ; it must not be defiled ; and
no living thing could be destroyed on it or brought from it to
die. Things and Dooms were held on it, and Thorolf believed
that he would die into it. On one occasion, as we have seen, it
was found open and the dead were present in it. Another ex-
ample is that of the place where the lady Aud was buried, one
of several hillocks on which she had raised crosses. Her kins-
men, falling into heathenism, made it a place of worship and
sacrifice, and believed that they died into these hills. Ari, the
earliest chronicler, says that Selthorir and his kinsmen died into
Thori’s hill . 35

The 1 memory-toast ’ was one drunk to kinsmen in their bar-
rows . 36 The erf or erfiol was a feast in honour of the dead, e.g.,
the head of a house, at which many guests were present and
much ale drunk in memory and honour of the departed. The



PLATE XXXIX


Bronze Age Barrow or Tumulus

Tumulus of the later Bronze Age at Refsnaes, See-
land, made of stones covered with earth. It contains
urns with stone cists.




THE OTHER WORLD


3i i

heir then occupied the high-seat for the first time . 37 These
funeral feasts for the dead are also described by Saxo . 38 The
sacrifices at Aud’s hill were for her benefit, and the dead were
said to be present even visibly at their own funeral feasts . 39

Evidence of this cult of the dead is seen in the denunciations
of the Church through canons of Synods and Councils in the
Teutonic area, as elsewhere . 40

The dead were also enquired of at their mounds regarding
the future, as Odin did regarding Balder, and Svipdag of his
mother Groa . 41 In Harbardsljod Harbard says that he had
learned the words spoken to Thor from the old men who dwell
in 1 the grave-hills of home,’ i.e., ancestral grave-hills. Thor
replies that he is giving a fine name to cairns when he describes
them thus. Cairns, as distinct from barrows, were piled over
criminals. What Harbard had learned had been communicated
by wicked spirits . 42 A shepherd slept on a mound in hope of
composing a dirge in honour of its occupant Thorleif, but could
get no further than £ Here lies a skald.’ One night the mound
opened, and a stately man emerged, who told the shepherd that
if he could remember a poem of eight lines which he would
recite to him, he would become a poet. On awaking, he recalled
the lines and became a famous skald . 43 Saxo tells how the
giantess Hardgrep, desiring to know the future, made Hadding
place a wooden slip engraved with runes beneath a dead man’s
tongue. He then uttered a prophecy . 44 Odin knew a spell
which would make a hanged man talk, perhaps the valgaldr by
which he awakened the dead seeress in Baldrs Draumard 5

There is no example in the Eddas of the dead appearing in
dreams to the living to warn them or to foretell the future. In
Atlamal dead women were seen in a dream by Glaumvor seeking
and calling her husband Gunnar to come quickly to their
benches. They were apparently his kinsfolk, desiring his pres-
ence in the Other World . 48 The belief that the dead communi-
cated with the living through dreams was a common one, and
Saxo gives an example of it. Hadding’s dead wife appeared to


312


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


him foretelling his death by his daughter’s instigation, and, now
forewarned, he was able to prevent this . 47

The dead ancestor was sometimes thought to dwell in a par-
ticular stone. In the Cristne-saga Codran and his kin are said
to have worshipped at a stone in which their ancestor dwelt.
He told Codran the future and of what he should beware. A
bishop sprinkled the stone with holy water, and the ancestor
complained to Codran that he and his children were being driven
from their home by hot water. After a second sprinkling he
appeared, dark and evil of face, beseeching Codran to drive away
the bishop. After a third sprinkling, his appearance was la-
mentable. Codran told him that he had worshipped him as a
strong god, but, as he had proved false and weak, he would now
become a Christian . 48 A stone at which Thorstan worshipped
and from which a voice was heard foretelling his death, was
probably also a spirit stone . 49

In spite of the power of the barrow-wight, men still sought
in burial-mounds for treasure, and curses against such persons
are known on grave-stones. With the coming of Chris-
tianity the barrow-wight became more or less demoniac, and
later stories of encounters of living and dead are of a darker
kind.

All this belief of the dead living in their graves, barrows, or
hills, or in stones, may seem to conflict with the belief in Hel,
still more with that in the heavenly Valhall. But all religions
and mythologies show how apparently contradictory beliefs can
be held concurrently.


VALHALL

The belief in Hel is as prominent as the Valhall belief in the
Poetic Edda. Snorri and the skalds give it more emphasis, and
it was a profound future hope to warriors in the Viking age,
giving them courage in conflict and confidence that, if slain, Odin
would receive them.


THE OTHER WORLD


3i3


Valhall, £ Hall of the slain,’ £ Hropt’s (Odin’s) battle-hall,’
stands gold-bright and wide in Gladsheim, ‘Abode of joy,’ a
heavenly place. It is Odin’s favourite abode. Spears are its
rafters, shields its roof, its benches are strewn with corslets. A
wolf hangs by its western door, over it hovers an eagle (perhaps
carved figures above the door). The cook Andhrimnir cooks
the boar Ssehrimnir in the cauldron Eldhrimnir, as food for
dead warriors, though few know on what they feast. Odin’s
wolves sit beside him. The river Thund surrounds Valhall and
in it joyously swims £ Thjodvitnir’s fish,’ the sun. The fallen
find it hard to wade through this stream. Valgrind is the outer
gate of Valhall, and behind it are five hundred and forty doors
in the wall. Through each door eight hundred warriors will go
to fight the Fenris-wolf at the Doom of the gods. There is
unfailing mead for the heroes, to whom the Valkyries bring it.
Each day the warriors or Einherjar go forth to fight, felling
each other, but they are magically healed by nightfall, when
they feast. They are waked each morning by the cock Gollin-
kambi, £ Gold-comb.’ 50

Some of these details from Grimnismal and V aft hrudnismal
require explanation. The river Thund may be the sky in which
the sun, the fish to be swallowed by the mighty wolf (Thjod-
vitnir), runs its course, or perhaps it is the ocean surrounding
Midgard, in which is the Midgard-serpent. The three names,
Andhrimnir, £ Sooty-face,’ Eldhrimnir, £ Sooty-with-fire,’ and
Saehrimnir, £ the Blackened,’ are believed by R. M. Meyer to
be formula; of a riddle: — £ Sooty-face seethes the Blackened in
Sooty-with-fire 5 ’ the answer being £ the cook in Valhall seethes
the boar in a cauldron.’ 51

Snorri repeats this description of Valhall, with additions. The
host of Einherjar in Valhall will not be too great in the day of
the gods’ need. The boar’s flesh suffices for all, and though
killed and eaten, he is alive again each evening. Something
better than water is given to the warriors who have bought their
place in Valhall so dearly. From the udders of the goat Heid-


3H


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


run flows mead enough to fill a tun daily, and all the Einherjar
could become drunk from it. When Gylfi (Gangleri) arrived
in Asgard, he saw a hall with many people, gaming, drinking,
or fighting. This was evidently Valhall. Snorri also says that
in Valhall swords were used instead of fire, just as gold gave
light in /Egir’s hall . 52 Odin appoints dead warriors to Valhall
and Vingolf (not mentioned in the poems). Elsewhere in
Snorri Vingolf is the abode of goddesses, close by Gladsheim.
Warriors may have shared in this abode of goddesses, for
Freyja is said to decree who shall have seats in her hall Sessrum-
nir in Folkvang. She chooses half of the dead, Odin the other.
Sessrumnir may be the equivalent of Vingolf, the meaning
of which is variously given as £ Friend-hall,’ £ Wine-hall,’
and £ Hall of the beloved,’ where Valkyries serve the war-
riors . 53 In the Lexicon Mythologicum the dying Hadding’s
words are given. He speaks of the Valkyries coming to him
and says that he will go to Vingolf and drink beer with the
Einherjar . 54

The Einherjar were outstanding warriors, fallen in fight, and
chosen for Valhall by the Valkyries. They were Odin’s osk-
synir , £ wish-sons ’ or £ adopted sons,’ and Odin himself was Val-
father, £ Father of the slain.’ They are assembled in Valhall
partly to aid the gods in their day of need, when they will ride
forth with them to battle, though it is not known when the grey
Wolf (the Fenris-wolf) will come, and many as they are, their
number will seem small enough in that time . 55 While it is true
that all warriors did not go to Valhall and some went there who
were not warriors, the view of the skalds was that it was exclu-
sively for brave and noble fighters, men of high birth, heroes,
freemen. This is reflected in one of the Bjarka songs in Saxo.
The poet says: £ No humble and obscure race, no low-born ones,
no base souls are Pluto’s prey, but he weaves the fate of the
mighty and fills Phlegethon with noble shapes.’ Pluto stands
for Odin, Phlegethon for Valhall. So in Harbardsljod the
noble who fall in battle are said to go to Odin, while Thor has


THE OTHER WORLD


3i5

the thralls. Yet Thor himself is called £ Einhere ’ in Loka -

56

senna .

In the Eiriksmal and Hakonarmal (tenth century), already
cited, we have seen how the Valkyries were sent forth to bring
the heroes to Valhall. In the former Sigmund and Sinfjotli are
bidden by Odin to go out and welcome Eirik and those who fol-
low him; in the latter Hermod and Bragi are sent to greet
Hakon. Sigmund asked why Odin looked so much for Eirik’s
coming, and was told that he was such a mighty warrior. He
died in fight because the gods need such as he against the day of
the Wolf’s coming. Hakon said that he mistrusted Odin
because he had been slain; but Bragi told him that now
the Einherjar will toast him and he will drink ale with the
gods . 57

The Valhall belief had entered deeply into the Viking mind,
as is seen in the phrase used of a hero fallen in combat with
another — 1 to show him the way to Valhall.’ Such heroes
would wish each other a journey to Valhall before fighting.
When a warrior was buried he was dedicated to Valhall in the
funeral oration . 58

How did the conception of the heavenly Valhall arise in
Scandinavia? As Odin was father of the slain, lord of the
Einherjar, and lord of ghosts ( drauga drqttinn ), 59 so he had
once been god of the dead in general. When he came to be re-
garded as dwelling in the sky, the abode of the dead or, at least,
of those more directly associated with him, was also transferred
there. Valhall in Heaven was thus an extension of the Under-
world or of an abode of warriors within a hill. Valhall with its
surrounding stream, wall, gate and doors, and its hall, is a
replica of Hel. We have seen that the dead were supposed to
go into hills regarded as sacred. Now certain hills in Scandi-
navia are called £ hills of the dead ’ (D^deberg, D^demands-
bjoerge), and some Icelandic and Swedish hills bear the name
Valhall . 60 Odin was connected with hills which bear his name
in Germany and Scandinavia, like £ Sigtyr’s mountain ’ in Atla-


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


3i6

kvitha. He was ‘ the Man of the mountain,’ and 1 the god of the
fells ’ (Fjallgautr ). 61 Were these hollow hills into which the
dead entered? With some such hills the Wild Hunt was linked,
emerging from them and returning to them, and the dead took
part in the Hunt . G2 The numerous legends of kings or heroes
sleeping in hills with their followers are also in point here. The
king or hero is an earlier deity, Wodan or some other . 63 Charle-
magne’s army fought a battle at the foot of the Odenberg in
Hesse. At night the hill opened, king and soldiers entered, and
then it closed upon them. Every seven or every hundred years
they come forth in battle-array and after a time re-enter the hill.
Other legends of armed men coming out of hills, fighting, and
re-entering them, are known from medieval times . 6,1 The con-
tinual fighting of dead warriors, not in Valhall, is an early belief
enshrined in folk-tradition. It is exemplified in the story of the
Hjadnings’ strife in its various forms. Snorri gives one ver-
sion of this and connects it with Hoy in Orkney. The kings
Hogni and Hedin fought because Hedin had carried off Hild,
Hogni’s daughter. They and their men fought all day, and at
night Hild resuscitated the dead. They renewed the fight next
day, and all who fell turned to stone. But they rose up armed in
the morning and fought again. ‘ In songs it is said that the
Hjadnings will fight thus till the Doom of the gods.’ This con-
tinual fight is also mentioned in Bragi’s poem, Ragnarsdrapa
(ninth century). The story is also attached to the Brisinga-men
myth, Freyja receiving back the necklace on condition that she
should cause two kings and their armies to fight until a Christian
ended the strife. The resuscitation theme occurs here also, and
the fight continues for one hundred and forty-three years until
one of Olaf Tryggvason’s men agrees to kill all the warriors
and so release them from their doom. Another version of the
story is given briefly by Saxo. Hilda is said to have longed so
ardently for Hedin, that after he and Hogni had slain each other,
she resuscitated them by her spells in order to renew the fight . 66
Other legends deal with a similar theme, and Saxo in one of his













' ’ ' '

' 1

'








-

‘ ‘ . J











PLATE XL


H ELGA-FELL AND SaCRED BlRCH-TREE AND MOUND

The upper picture shows Helga-fell, ‘ Holy Fell ’ or
1 Holy Mountain,’ in Western Iceland, with the farm
of the same name beneath it to the right. The hill was
that into which the dead died, and was held to be most
sacred. The idea that it was the abode of the dead may
have arisen from the form of the hill, like a house with
a great gate. From W. G. Collingwood, Sagasteads
of Iceland. See p. 310.

The lower picture is that of a sacred birch-tree and
mound near the farm of Slinde at Sogn, West Norway.
No one might cut its branches and at the Christmas
festival ale was poured over its roots by every member
of the family. The tree fell in 1874. From a paint-
ing by Thomas Fearnley, 1840. See p. 203.





THE OTHER WORLD


3i7

stories of a visit to the Underworld shows us dead warriors
fighting there . 66

Valhall might thus be regarded as an Underworld abode of
warriors transferred to Heaven as a result of Odin’s growing im-
portance in the Viking age. The warriors there awaited the final
assault of demoniac powers. Meanwhile they fought, feasted,
and caroused, as the dead feasted in Helga-fell. It is also sig-
nificant that valhall is the name applied to the hall where Atli
and his warriors drank wine . 67 Apparently fighting as an occu-
pation after death was not a primitive belief, for the earliest
tombs do not contain armour and weapons . 68

Whatever the origin of the Valhall belief may be, it was not
the only conception of Other World life entertained by the
Northmen. It is quite possible that in earlier times the state of
the dead was not definitely formulated in Teutonic belief. In
later times different beliefs arose and some of these were held
simultaneously. The dead active in their barrows are also
linked with Valhall, as the Helgi poem and the reference to
Gunnar in the Njals-saga show. So also, according to Thjodolf
the skald, Halfdan, who died in his bed, was bidden to the Thing
of Odin (Valhall) by c Hvedrung’s maiden,’ i.e., Hel, for
Hvedrung is Loki . 69 In the Helgi poem, as Niedner puts it, the
Valhall belief has been superimposed on an older tradition of
Hel or of the dead living in their barrows . 70

THE NIGHTMARE SPIRIT 289

sometimes supposed to enter a room by the key-hole or a knot-
hole, and, resuming larger proportions, to attack the sleeper.
If, knowing the Mahr to have entered or having taken precau-
tions to prevent its attack, he closed such means of egress, the
Mahr was found next morning as a beautiful nude woman. She
could be forced to promise never to return, or might beg to be
set free. 4 Often, however, the Mahr was in the form of an
animal. It was usually the soul of a person which had left its
body in order to torment a sleeper. A witch might cause her
soul to act as a Mahr, or it might be the soul of a woman secretly
in love with the victim. 5 Stories show that the sleeper, finding
the Mahr desirable, offered her love or married her. When a
Norse husband asked his nightmare wife how she had entered,
and she replied that she did not know, he showed her a knot-
hole through which, now becoming small, she vanished. This
corresponds to the broken conditions by which a man loses his
fairy or Swan-maiden wife, of whom the nightmare is the
equivalent. Or she might beg the husband to remove the plug
from the hole. This done, she vanished, but might return to
tend her children, like the fairy wife or dead mother in other
tales. A Swedish story tells how a girl, as a nightmare, tor-
mented a man who refused her love. When he placed a scythe
by his bed as a means of riddance, she cried that she would die,
and next morning she was found dead in bed. 6 The Mahr
might be a spectre from the region of the dead, and when ques-
tioned regarding herself or whence she came, she vanished.
When such a spectre was drawn back to earth by a former prom-
ise of marriage, there is a resemblance to the dead lover in the
henore ballad and its parallels ; and where the Mahr is a living
woman or her spirit sent forth by her, she resembles the witch
or fairy who uses a man as a steed and makes him hag-ridden.

Night is the usual time for the Mahr’s attack, but it might
occur to sleepers at noon, and then the Mahr is a form of the
Midday demon. 7

From old Icelandic literature the best example of an oppres-


290


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


sive nightmare spirit is recorded in the Heimskringla. Van-
land, Svegdir’s son, was king of Sweden, and abode one winter
with Snasr (Snow) the old, and married his daughter Drift. He
left her, but promised to return. She sent for Huld the witch
in order that she might draw Vanland by spells or slay him.
Vanland was sleeping, and cried that a Mara was treading him.
His men tried to help him. She went to his head and legs in
turn, breaking his legs and smothering him, so that he died . 8

That the belief in the Mara was seriously regarded is shown
by the ecclesiastical law which ordained that a woman, proved
guilty of acting as one and riding a man or his servants, must pay
a money fine. If she could not pay, she was outlawed . 9


CHAPTER XXX


WERWOLVES

W HILE transformation of themselves or others was a
property common to gods, spirits, giants, and human
magic-wielders, there was one form of it which, found all over
the world, developed into a belief which for centuries caused
terror and is not now extinct among savages and in backward re-
gions of Europe. This is the belief in lycanthropy, the power
which certain persons have of becoming wolves or, in some re-
gions, the fiercest animal there existing — bear, tiger, leopard,
hyena, etc. The basis of this superstition is the belief in trans-
formation, but its special form is due to mental aberration, per-
sons of diseased mind imagining that they were wolves and the
like, acting as such, and preying upon other human beings.
Without the belief in transformation this form of mental aberra-
tion could not have arisen. The belief in lycanthropy was ex-
ploited by interested persons — magicians and sorcerers. It
is one of the most deeply rooted of all superstitions and the
most wide-spread. We are concerned with it only as far as it
existed among the Norsemen and other members of the Teu-
tonic race . 1

People who could change their form by the soul’s entering
another body or by putting on, e.g., a feather-dress and so be-
coming a bird, were said in Norway to be eigi einhamir , £ not of
one form they were hamramr or hamhleyfa , £ changing form.’
The word for Werwolf (literally £ Man-wolf ’) in Norse was
Vargulf, a wolf worse than any other kind of wolf ( varg ,

£ wolf ’; ulfr , £ wolf ’). Save for one reference, the Eddas do
not speak of the Werwolf, but there are examples of it in the
Volsunga-saga.


292


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


A she-wolf came night after night and ate one of Volsung’s
sons, set in the stocks by their brother-in-law Siggeir. Their
sister Signy saved the last of the brothers, Sigmund. This wolf
was held to be Siggeir’s mother, who had thus changed her
form . 2

Signy’s son, Sinfjotli, and his uncle Sigmund, came to a house
in the forest where two men were asleep, spell-bound skin-
changers. Wolf-skins hung above them, and every tenth day
they came out of those skins. Sigmund and Sinfjotli put on the
skins, each now howling as wolves, but thinking as men. Each
went his way, agreeing that they should risk the attack of seven
men, but no more. If more attacked one of them, he must howl
for the other’s aid. On one occasion Sinfjotli slew eleven men
without seeking help. For this Sigmund bit him in the throat,
and then carried him home and healed his wound. They now
cast away the wolf-skins, devoting them to the trolls, and later
burned them . 3

The belief was mingled with and perhaps influenced by the
custom of wild warriors and outlaws, e.g., the berserks, wearing
wolf-skins or bear-skins over their armour or clothing them-
selves in these, while they were often victims of frenzy and acted
as if they were animals. As the person who had the power of
changing his form became preternaturally strong, so the berserks
in their fury were very powerful, and, as was said of two brothers
in the train of Earl Hakon of Norway, they £ were not of the
fashion of men when wroth, but mad like dogs and feared
neither fire nor steel .’ 4

The story from the V disun ga- saga is referred to in the Edda
when Godmund says to Sinfjotli: £ Thou hast eaten wolves’
meat . . . and often sucked wounds with cold mouth, and,
loathsome to all men, slunk into the dens of wild beasts .’ 5

Other examples are found in the Sagas. The Story of
Howard the Halt says of the dead Thormod that in life he was
thought to have more shapes than one, and men held him ill to
deal with . 6 The Egils-saga tells of Ulf, grandfather of Egil,


WERWOLVES


293

that at times he would be subject to attacks at night, during
which he changed his form. Hence he was called Kveldulf,
£ Evening Wolf.’ 7 In the Eyrbyggja-saga Thrand was ham-
ramr in his heathen days, but this fell off him at his baptism. 8
Other persons are said to have had this power of changing their
form, and a Norse gloss to the Bisclaverit of Marie de France
says that in earlier times many men took wolf-form and dwelt
in the forests. 9

The word hamramr does not always refer to wolf-form.
Thus Dubhthach and Storwolf were mighty skin-changers.
They quarrelled and were seen by a second-sighted man fight-
ing, one as a bull, the other as a bear. The bear was the stronger
of the two. Next day the valley where they had fought looked
as if an earthquake had occurred in it. Both men were worn
out and lay in bed. 10 In a wild tale from Hrolfs-saga kraka
Bjorn was transformed into a bear by his step-mother, who
shook a wolf-skin glove at him. He lived as a bear and killed
many of his father’s sheep, but by night he was a man. 11

Among the Anglo-Saxons the existence of the belief is proved
by the use of the word c Were-wulf ’ in the laws of Cnut, e.g.,
at the council of Winchester, 1018 a.d., where preachers were
told to guard their flocks from the fierce devouring Were-wulf,
i.e., Satan. Gervase of Tilbury speaks of the English name
‘ Were-wolf ’ and explains its meaning. He also says that at
changes of the moon in England men became wolves. 12

In Germany the belief is witnessed to by the OHG woljhetan ,
the equivalent of ON uljhedinn , and meaning one who puts on
a wolf-girdle or skin ( uljhamr ) in order to become a wolf. 13
The oldest literary testimony to the superstition is found in a
sermon of S. Boniface (eighth century), who speaks of the belief
of the Saxons in fctos lufos , obviously Werwolves. 14 Later evi-
dence is supplied in the Penitential of the 1 Corrector ’ which
speaks of the gift conferred by the Parcae of power to change
into wolf-form or any other shape at will. c Vulgar folly calls
this creature werewuljf ’ — the German name. The connexion


294


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


of this power with the German Parcae, equivalents of the Norns,
is curious, but points to popular tradition or to the belief that the
power was innate in certain men . 16

Modern collections of Scandinavian and German folk-tales
contain many Werwolf stories. In later medieval times the
superstition was closely connected with witchcraft, and theolo-
gians turned their attention to lycanthropy as a branch of sorcery.
The power of changing the form, or of deluding the eyes of
others so as to make them believe that such a change had taken
place, was ascribed to diabolic agency.

In Scandinavian and German belief the change was effected
by donning a wolf-skin or a girdle of human skin, or by throwing
these over another person. The girdle had sometimes magic
signs upon it, and was held in place by a buckle with seven
catches. When the buckle was broken off, the transformation
ceased. The man was a wolf or bear by night, or he assumed the
animal form for nine days, or even for three, seven, or nine
years, the eyes alone retaining a human appearance. He howled
and devoured like the actual animal.


CHAPTER XXXI


MAGIC


HE practices of divination, prophecy, and magic were com-


mon in the pagan North, but a distinction was drawn be-
tween lawful and unlawful magic. The deities wrought magic,
but this was reflected upon them from human practice.

Magic songs, spells, incantations — s-pjall, galdr , Ijodh —
were used to effect the magic act. These were also called runes
{run, OHG runa , AS run), though this word betokened magic
signs engraved on something and producing magic power. After
being engraved, they were coloured. Hence the verse in
Havamal:

‘ Runes thou shalt find, and fateful signs,

Most powerful signs, most mighty signs,

By the mighty poet (Odin) coloured, by the high gods made,

By the chief of the gods carved.’ 1

The colouring was made with blood, and this increased the
power of the runes.

The Norse word run was used in two senses. The primary
meaning was £ a mystery ’ or 1 mysterious knowledge.’ It also
signified a letter of the alphabet, such as was used before the
Roman letters came into use. The unlearned, who were the
majority, would regard letters as a mystery ; hence the word
run was applied to them. These runes had a magical signifi-
cance besides an alphabetic value, and apparently some magical
runes were not letters in the ordinary sense. In using them,
besides engraving them on some object, there was a necessary
ritual which gave power to them. This seems to be referred to
in Havamal , where, besides cutting, interpreting, and colouring



EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


296

them, there are mentioned invocation, offerings, and the right
method of slaughtering the victim . 2 The runes could not be
used unless one knew their meaning, and there was danger in an
ignorant use of them . 3

Runes were ascribed to the gods, and Havamal also tells how
Odin came into possession of them. He wrote them for the
gods, as Dainn for elves, Dvalin for dwarfs, and Alsvith for
giants. Another verse of Havamal shows that not only was
advice given to Loddfafnir in the hall of Odin, but that there
runes had been spoken and their meaning declared . 4

Each rune had a name which represented a particular object,
and, through this, good or evil magic was wrought. Hence to
produce the magical result, the magic power of each rune must
be known. Examples of imparting this knowledge are given
in the Edda. Thus Sigrdrifa taught runes to Sigurd — victory,
ale, birth, wave, branch, speech, and thought runes. Victory-
runes are to be written on the sword-hilt and other parts of the
sword, the name of Tyr (the name of the rune for the letter T)
being uttered twice. Ale-runes, by which the wife of another
will not betray a man’s trust, are to be written on the drinking-
horn and the back of the hand, the sign Naudr (the runic N)
being written on the nail. Birth-runes, to relieve a woman in
child-birth, are to be written on the palm of the hand and on the
joints, while the Disir are called on to help. Similar explana-
tions are given regarding the other runes. The poem then tells
how Odin stood on a hill with Brimir’s sword, his helmet on his
head: then Mimir’s head first spoke words of truth and wis-
dom. There follows a curious list of mythical and actual things
on which runes were commanded to be written — the shield of
the sun, the ear of Arvak, the hoof of Alsvith (steeds of the sun),
the wheel of the car of Hrungnir’s slayer, Sleipnir’s teeth, the
straps of a sledge, the paw of a bear, Bragi’s tongue, a wolf’s
claws, an eagle’s beak, bloody wings, the end of a bridge, the
reliever’s hand and the healer’s foot, glass, gold, amulets, in
wine and beer, on favourite seats, on Gungnir’s point, or Grani’s






























] IV ;




- * ' ' ; ' SH JU .. 3

.

'

. £- - . ... •„**


















PLATE XXXVII


Spear-head, Sword, and Bear’s Tooth

The spear-head is from Kowel in Volhynia, Russia,
and has runic markings.

The sword, of the La Tene period, has snakes en-
graved on its surface. See p. 216.

The bear’s tooth with a hole for a cord was used as
an amulet. From West Gotland. See pp. 296-97.






MAGIC


297

breast, on the nails of the Norns, and on the beak of the night-
owl . 5

Some of the actual objects on which runes in this list were to
be written resemble the miscellaneous things found in Scandi-
navian graves — bones of a weasel, teeth of a horse, claws,
vertebrae of a snake, etc . 6

The poem continues by saying that runes thus engraved were
scraped off and steeped in mead and cast far and wide. Some
are with the gods, some with the elves, some with the wise
Vanir, and some with men. There are beech-, birth-, and ale-
runes, and the excellent magic runes for him who knows them
rightly and reads them truly: they will benefit until the gods
perish . 7

Whether all the verses describing these runes are in a true
series or drawn together from various sources is not clear. The
account of the objects, mythical and actual, on which they are
written seems to belong to an old myth of the value of runes,
telling how they had been used. The scraping of the runes into
mead and casting them abroad, so that they are now with gods,
etc., is mythical, but it may be based on actual practice — drink-
ing mead into which runes had been scraped from wood or bone.
Havamal also speaks of runes being with gods, elves, dwarfs,
etc . 8

The enumeration of runes is preceded by a verse telling how
Sigrdrifa gave Sigurd a magic drink:

‘ I bring you beer, O tree of battle,

Mixed with strength and powerful fame;

In it are magic songs and healing strength,

Beneficent charms and love-runes.’ 9

As Sigrdrifa taught runes to Sigurd, so in Rigsthula Rig
taught them to the first jarl, and his son in turn learned to use
them — life-runes, everlasting runes; now he could shield war-
riors, dull the sword-blade, and calm the seas . 10

Odin carved and coloured runes before speaking with a dead


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


298

man on the gallows, and he touched Gerd with a piece of bark
on which spells (runes) were written, inducing frenzy in her.
Grimshild carved runes on the cup from which Gudrun drank
and by which he forgot Brynhild . 11 Runes were carved on a
cup to destroy a poisoned drink within it, as Egil cut them on the
cup which queen Gunnhild gave him. At once it broke. They
were also carved on the insulting-pole which he set up . 12 Saxo
tells how the giantess Hardgrep cut magic runes ( carmlna ) on
wood and placed them under a dead man’s tongue, making him
speak . 13

The list of magic songs ( Ijod ) in Havamal already cited in
Chapter IV shows the different purposes for which they were
used . 14 In Svipdagsmal the dead Groa chants charms at her
son’s request, while she stands at the opening of her barrow on a
stone. These charms will help him in his dangerous quest of
Menglod. The first is that which Ran taught to Rind. The
second will guard him by means of the bolts of Urd. The third
will make dangerous rivers fall away before him. The fourth
will deliver his foes into his hands. The fifth will burst all
fetters. The sixth will prevent wind and wave from harming
his boat. The seventh will protect him against deadly frost and
cold. The eighth will protect him from the curse of a dead
Christian woman — perhaps a pagan view of the potency of a
Christian’s curse. The ninth will give him words and wit in a
word contest with a giant . 15

These different lists in Sigrdrijumal y Havamal , and Svip-
dagsmal show several points of contact. All three have charms
which give power of speech and wit, such as Odin gave to his
favourites . 16 All three have charms to still tempests and to give
victory. Two have charms to break fetters and charms for heal-
ing. It is interesting to compare the fetter-breaking charm with
the similar magic of the Idisi in the Merseburg charm. The
power-giving spells of Odin in Havamal correspond to the
magic ascribed to him in the Ynglinga-saga y and the passage in
the Saga may be a paraphrase of the stanzas in the poem . 17


MAGIC


299

Cursing spells were used, and an example of these is found
in Atlamal where Vingi pronounces a conditional one on him-
self. He devotes himself to giants or to the gallows if he breaks
his oath . 18

Various names were used for magic. One of these, seidr,
which, according to the Ynglinga-saga , owed its origin to
Freyja, usually refers to harmful magic, though sometimes also
protective magic. Gullveig practised it and so also did Odin
according to Loki . 19 In using seidr a special seat was necessary,
and the magician held a staff. Magic songs were sung to effect
the result. The male magician was called seidhmadhr , the fe-
male seidhkona. Deadly results were ascribed to seidr — kill-
ing others, causing tempests, creating delusions. The seidh -
kona, while sitting on the seat, could send her soul out of her
body in another form, while her body remained on the seat. If
the soul was wounded or killed, the body of the witch showed
similar wounds or fell dead . 20 This, as well as other kinds of
magic, is regarded in the Sagas as a natural accomplishment of
the Finns or Lapps, and often a magician was one of these. But
it is improbable that all Norse magic came from Finland.

Nothing is said in the Eddas of the dwarfs’ hat or cloak of
invisibility, the Tarnkappe, Tarnhut, Nebelkappe, or Helkappe
of German dwarf traditions, though it must have been known in
Scandinavia as the OS Helidhelm and ON Hulidshjalm show.
This garment also gave its owner great strength, and if it fell
into a mortal’s possession, he could compel a dwarf to do his will
or relinquish his treasure.

The more evil aspects of dwarfs in their relations with men
as shown in later belief is suggested by some of their names in


\


270


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


the Edda — Althjolf, £ Mighty thief,’ Hlethjolf, £ Hill thief,’
while in T hidriks-saga Alfrek (Alberich) is called £ the great
thief.’ 26 Their love for beautiful girls or women is illustrated
by the desire of Alviss for Thor’s daughter and the amour of the
four dwarfs with Freyja, just as in later German heroic poems
dwarfs carry off maidens into their hills . 27

In all Teutonic lands, especially in their mountainous dis-
tricts, dwarfs have been a subject of popular superstition, and
their traits as seen in the Eddas reappear along with many
others. They are called Bjergfolk, Unterjordiske, Unterir-
dische, Erdleute, Bergsmiedlein, Erdmannlein, Stillevolk,
Kleinevolk, and by other names. They seem now to be un-
known in Iceland, though their name survives in place-names —
Dvergastein, Dverghol, etc. D verge are still known in Norway
and the Danish Bjergfolk or Troldfolk closely resemble dwarfs,
and dwell in mounds containing rich treasure. The Swedish
Dvarg lives in the mountains with wife and daughters of rare
beauty. Dwarfs are also known in the Faroe Islands} and in
Orkney and Shetland the Trolls or Drows are akin both to
dwarfs and fairies, but the older belief in Dvergar is shown by
such a name as £ the Dwarfie stone,’ a huge boulder on Hoy . 28

The dwarfs of Germany have, on the whole, a wider field of
operation than the Norse dwarfs of the Eddas , perhaps because
the older elben are blended with them. They have skill in
smith-work and teach it to men, yet the hammering and ma-
chinery of men drove them away. They spin; they help men in
harvesting and hay-making. They give freely to those whom
they favour, but not to those who seek them out or annoy them.
Tales of dwarfs abound in the mining regions: on the plains the
Unterirdische are a kind of elfin equivalent of the mountain
dwarfs. The dwarfs have great treasures in their underground
dwellings, and music sounds from these places, whence they
come forth at night to avoid the sun. In them they have control
over metals and work at their smithies. An older description of
the dwarfs’ hollow hills is found in the Heldenbuch , where the


DWARFS


271

dwarf king Laurin leads Dietrich and his friends into hills
brighter than the sun because of their encrusted gems. They
echo with the song of birds, and are full of dwarfs, singing,
playing, and feasting . 29

The dwarfs are like little men, sometimes no bigger than a
thumb, deformed, with large heads, long beards, feet occasion-
ally like those of a goose or goat. They are clad in grey, but
their kings are more splendidly attired. These kings have large
territories, and they and their subjects are often described in
German medieval poetry and romance, which reflect on them
the feudalism of the time . 30 Old tradition depicts them as lead-
ing simple lives, and a dwarf in Ruodlieb complains of human
faithlessness which, with unwholesome food, is the cause of
men’s brief life. Dwarfs themselves are often of great age.
Something of the old heathenism clings to them. They are even
called ‘ heathen,’ and dislike the building of churches and bell-
ringing, no less than they do agriculture and the clearing of
forests . 31

The smith or other work of dwarfs was made available to
men who laid metal to be forged or wool to be spun, with a piece
of money, before their holes. Next morning the work was
found done. This custom, referred to in several tales, is con-
nected with Weyland (Volund) the Smith in England. At an
ancient sepulchral monument at Ashbury in Berkshire, supposed
to be the dwelling of Weyland, a horse requiring a shoe was left
with a piece of money. When its owner returned, the horse was
shod and the money was gone. This monument was already
styled £ Welandes Smiththan ’ in a charter dating from before
the Norman Conquest, the tradition thus belonging to Saxon
times. A similar legend was told in Greece of Hephaistos, and
we may regard the story as based on early custom and enshrining
the mystery and fear attaching from long past ages to metal-
workers. It is also connected with the wide-spread custom of
c the silent trade .’ 32

The dwarfs sought human help when they required it, e.g.,


272


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


in dividing a treasure, as in an incident in the Nibelungenlied.
The dwarf king Nibelung left his hoard to his sons who asked
Siegfried to divide it, giving him the sword Balmung as reward.
But as he was long at his task, they attacked him and he slew
them. The folk-tale incident of a hero called in to divide
magical things among disputants often describes these as dwarfs.
The hero is able to make himself possessor of the things in ques-
tion . 33 Or again dwarfs seek human aid in their fighting, like
the dwarf king who gave William of Scherfenberg a girdle with
the strength of twenty men, on condition of his aiding him and
keeping silence about their pact . 34 Other services done to Ger-
man dwarfs were sometimes rewarded with gifts which brought
prosperity to a family as long as its representatives lived . 36 The
most usual service was that sought for from human midwives,
who were well rewarded for their trouble.

They also gave help to mortals, e.g., by means of their magic
power, as in the well-known story of £ Rumpelstiltschen,’
though here an equivalent was sought in return. As wise coun-
sellors they advise men or warn them of danger, and those
coveted magic articles which produce unfailing abundance are
sometimes given by them to men. Frequently dwarfs or little
red men come out of a magic snuff-box, or appear at the blow-
ing of a flute, or when the ground is knocked on, and perform
otherwise impossible tasks for him who summons them . 36

Yet they were often hostile to men, and many stories relate
how dwarfs, like other elfins, carry off women or girls to be their
wives. They also, like fairies, substitute for mortal children
stolen by them their own deformed offspring. The changeling
is called Umskiptungar (Iceland), Skiftingar (Denmark,
Norway, from skipta , c to exchange’), OHG wihselinga,
German Wechselbalg, Kielkropf. Dwarfs also steal from
men — corn and pease from the field, loaves from a baker, and
the like . 37

Less animistic than elves, the dwarfs seem to be more akin to
men. Does this mean that they are a folk-memory of an actual




































PLATE XXXV


Scene from the Franks’ Casket, Illustrating

THE VoLUND STORY

After Volund had by craft seduced Bothvild, he ap-
parently made himself wings, or, as in the Thidriks-
saga, his brother Egil shot birds, out of whose plumage
a feather-dress was made. Then he revealed to
Nithud all he had done to his sons and to Bothvild, and
now rose aloft in the air, escaping his vengeance. In
the Thidriks-saga Egil is made to shoot at him by
Nithud. A bladder full of blood was concealed under
Volund’s arm. When the bladder, as arranged before-
hand, was pierced by the arrow, Nithud thought that
the blood was Volund’s, and believed that he was dead.
The incident is shown in this design from the Casket.
These designs form the earliest record of the Volund
story.

From a photograph, by permission of the British
Museum authorities.







DWARFS


273

race of small people? This theory has been seriously held or
has been regarded as a possibility by different scholars. Dwarfs
were an aboriginal, small race, driven to the hills by new-comers,
but regarded by them with awe as being in league with the gods
of the land and possessed of powerful magic. They and their
deeds became more and more unreal as time passed on, until
tradition made of them a supernatural folk, with greater
powers and knowledge than men. We must remember, how-
ever, that dwarfs and pygmies belong to universal folk-lore, not
only to that of the Teutonic or even of the Indo-European
people. Even if an actual pygmy people, as in Africa, may be
regarded by their neighbours as more or less supernatural , 38 the
theory does not account for all the facts, and it is equally pos-
sible that a race of spirit-beings might have been invested with
traits of an actual race.

The existence of pygmy races at the present time, Negrillos
and Negritos, as well as their probably wide-spread existence in
Neolithic times, has given support to this theory, especially when
it is proved that certain characteristics of dwarfs are also those of
these races. If traditional dwarfs are a folk-memory of actual
people, then the tradition must be an early one, coming down
through the generations from prehistoric times. But while
some traits of dwarfs and of elfins generally may be traced to
those of actual races of men, others are purely animistic in origin.
Even where, as in Polynesia, Melanesia, or Africa, certain groups
of fairy-like beings seem to be an actual race thus transmuted,
many things ascribed to them are non-human — their tiny size,
the supernatural powers of glamour and invisibility, their spirit
nature. With every allowance for the facts, the existence of an
early pygmy race cannot be the sole cause of the belief in dwarfs
and elfins. The belief in the soul as a manikin, no less than
general animism, has had great influence in its formation. What
is said of dwarfs and fairies is also said of groups of beings with
no human ancestry — Greek Nereids, Slavic Vily, foxes in
Japan, vampires, ghosts, etc., and many fairy-like beings —


274 EDDIC MYTHOLOGY

Nixies, mermaids, swan-maidens — have no link with an older
human race . 39

Primitive animistic or pre-animistic ideas are the basis of
dwarf and fairy beliefs, attached now to groups of purely im-
aginary beings, now to all kinds of supernaturals, now linked
with traditions of actual people. Much also must be assigned
to the free-working fancy of imaginative men in the past, its
results quickly assimilated by their fellows. And there is much
in the saying that 1 the wish is father to the thought.’ Men
wished to be invisible, to transform themselves, to fly, to possess
magic weapons and other articles, abundant treasures, knowl-
edge of the future. What more easy than to believe that certain
beings had such powers and gifts, and that favoured mortals
could obtain them on certain terms, and had actually done so
from time to time!


CHAPTER XXVII


GIANTS

T here are different names applied to giants in the Eddas
and Sagas, as well as in German tradition. ON jo tun, AS
eoten, OD jaetten, from eta, £ to eat,’ perhaps express their glut-
tony, and these names are continued in the £ Etin ’ of Scots folk-
lore. ON thurs , AS thyrs, OS duns, OHG thur'is , perhaps
mean £ powerful ’ (cf. Sanskrit turds, £ strong ’), though the
corresponding Danish tosse means £ simpleton.’ The OHG risi
(sanskrit ursanj , £ strong,’ appears in ON in Berg-risi, £ Moun-
tain-giant.’ The MHG hiune, German Hune , signified in its
root-meaning strength and daring, or perhaps great size, but
was confused with the name of the dreaded Huns. The word
£ troll,’ formerly a more or less demoniac being, is now used in
Scandinavian speech for £ giant ’ or £ ogre.’ Female giants were
called thursa-meyjar, £ giant-maids,’ gygr, and occasionally
gifr or grithr.

Giants appear in the Eddie cosmogony. The first giant,
Ymir or Aurgelmir, existed before earth and sea were formed,
and he was made from venom dropping from Elivagar,
£ Stormy Waves,’ into Ginnunga-gap. According to Snorri, this
venom congealed into ice, and the ice melted in contact with
warm air from Muspellheim. Life quickened in it and Ymir
was the result. He and all his descendants, the Frost-giants,
were evil . 1 To Odin’s question : £ How did Y mir beget children
without a giantess? ’ Vafthrudnir replied that beneath his arms
a male and female grew, and foot with foot formed a six-headed
son. This son was probably Thrudgelmir, mentioned in an
earlier stanza of Vajthrudnismal. His son was Bergelmir, and
Vafthrudnir remembered how he was born in a boat long ago . 2


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


276

Snorri gives the same account and says that Ymir was nourished
with the milk of the cow Audhumla . 3 When Ymir was slain so
much blood flowed from him that all the Frost-giants were
drowned save Bergelmir who, with his wife, escaped in a boat
(or mill-stone ). 4 Saxo also makes the giants an ancient people,
the first of three races in far off time . 5

The giants dwelt in Jotunheim, or in Utgard outside the
limits of earth and sea, assigned to them by the gods. It is on
the edge of Heaven, beyond Elivagar. The river Ifing, which
never freezes, separates the realms of giants and gods. This
region lies in the North or North-east, or East, according to
various accounts in the poems and in Snorri . 6 It has fields
with cattle, regions where hunting and fishing are carried
on, and halls where the giants dwell. Saxo’s giants have
also herds or goats . 7 On its frontier, on a hill, sits
Eggther, warder of the giants, and the cock Fjalar, whose
crowing wakes them at the Doom of the gods. 8 ' At the
end of Heaven, hence probably near Jotunheim, the giant
Hrassvelg, £ Corpse-eater,’ sits in eagle’s form and makes the
winds with his wings. His hill overlooks Hel . 9 Jotunheim was
a mountainous region, and this, coupled with the fact that in
later tradition mountains are the home of giants, explains the
names Bergbui, Bergrisi, £ Mountain-giant.’ But any distant
region was apt to be called the home of giants and monsters.
Saxo says that a wild region north of Norway and separated from
it by the sea, was peopled with monsters, and perhaps Greenland
is intended. Snorri speaks of giants, dwarfs, and £ blue men,’
dragons and wild beasts, as existing in Sweden. Saxo also
thought that Denmark had once been cultivated by giants, and
found proof of it in megalithic remains and boulders on hill-
tops. The statement in Grimnismal that the Frost-giants dwell
under one of the roots of Yggdrasil, and beside Mimir’s well,
according to Snorri, is due to the systematizing of Norse
mythology . 10

The giants had separate dwellings in Jotunheim, e.g., Gymir,


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before whose house fierce dogs were bound. Thrym is called
£ lord of the giants,’ and has many giants under him, and
Utgard-Loki is lord of Utgard. Svlpdagsmal also speaks of
£ the seat of the giant raced Hence giants lived in some kind of
community. 11

Giants are of great size and are sometimes monstrous. This
is shown by Skirnir’s vast glove and by other indications. They
have many heads, varying from three to the nine hundred pos-
sessed by Tyr’s grandmother. According to Saxo, they are
shaggy, monstrous beings, who can alter their shape or size. 12
The hero Starkad, sprung from giants, had many hands. Thor
tore four of these off and now his giant’s body was contracted
and made human. Saxo records this, but discredits it. In
another account, Starkad had eight arms, but perhaps the hero
is confused with a giant of the same name overcome by Thor. 13
Giant women were sometimes beautiful, and beloved by gods or
heroes. The giants were of great might. Vidblindi drew
whales out of the sea like little fish. Others tossed huge rocks
as if they were small stones. The giantess Hyrokkin could alone
move Balder’s funeral ship. 14 To giants as to dwarfs the sun
was fatal, turning them to stone. The monstrous Hrimgerd was
thus transformed, and 5 men will mock at her as a harbour-
mark.’ In one of many stories of S. Olaf’s encounters with
giants, he cursed a giantess so that she became stone. 15

Adjectives applied to giants indicate aspects of their char-
acter — £ haughty,’ £ insolent,’ £ dangerous,’ £ joyous,’ £ morose,’

£ fierce,’ £ hard,’ £ energetic,’ £ warlike.’ In later tradition they
are stupid, but in the Eddie poems they have a wisdom of their
own, due to their great antiquity and early origin. Hence they
are £ wise,’ £ sagacious,’ £ full of wisdom,’ as Vafthrudnir was.
Suttung owned the poetic mead, and runes were given to giants
by the giant Alsvith, £ All-wise.’ 16

Giants were often violent, especially when thwarted, and their
rage was called jotunmodr , £ giant frenzy.’ Saxo tells how a
giant fell into such a frenzy, biting his shield, gulping down


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fiery coals, and rushing through fires . 17 They were nevertheless
often good-natured, ‘ merry as a child,’ like Hymir in Hymis-
kvitha. Mostly they were hostile to gods and men, and Thor
was their great opponent, his hammer the great defence of the
gods against the Frost-giants. The gods feared that the Hill-
giants might cross Bifrost bridge (the rainbow) into their abode.
Hence what was red in it was burning fire, and Heimdall was
its guardian. ,Yet a giant rebuilt their citadel for the gods that
it might be strong against the giants. The breaking of the gods’
pledges to this giant, however, leads to their attack upon them
at the Doom of the gods, when the Frost-giants come out with
Loki and Hrym against the vLsir . 18 The giants sometimes out-
witted the gods, as in the story of Skrymnir, but more usually
gods, especially Odin, were cleverer than giants and cheated
them, just as Thor overcame them by force . 19

Yet Odin’s descent was traced from giants, and at Balder’s
funeral Frost- and Hill-giants were present. Gods also married
giantesses or had amours with them — Frey, Njord, Odin, and
Thor (with Grid and Jarnsaxa ). 20 Giants also sought to unite
with goddesses, Thjazi with Idunn, Thrym with Freyja. Gef-
jun had four sons by a giant . 21 Saxo tells several stories of
giants who carried off princesses; and the giantess Hardgrep,
who had nurtured Hadding, sought and obtained his love when
he was grown up. The Eddie giants also stole mortal women,
as Hrimgerd says her father Hati did. Hrimgerd herself de-
sired Atli as a lover . 22

Besides the giants who figure in the myths of Thor and Odin,
others are named and described. Brimir had his beer-hall in
Okolnir ( £ the not-cold,’ presumably a volcano in the frost re-
gions). From his blood came the dwarfs, and Odin has his
sword, unless Brimir is here the name of the sword itself . 23
Hrimnir, a Frost-giant, has children called Heith, ‘ Witch,’ and
Hross-thjof, ‘Horse-thief.’ Skirnir told Gerd that Hrimnir
would stand and stare at her fate if she refused Frey . 24 Hrim-
grimnir, ‘ the Frost-shrouded,’ dwells by the door of Hel, and


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