The heroic poems of the Edda show that heroic women of
mortal birth were regarded by the poets as Valkyries and
dowered with supernatural power. Brynhild, daughter of
Budli, is either confused with a Valkyrie of that name, or herself
regarded as one. Oddrun bids her wear the helmet and say
that she will be a Wish-maid, but she is described in human
terms. She is the c victory-bringer ’ ( sigrdrifa ), a word re-
garded as a proper name, that of a Valkyrie different from Bryn-
hild. She rides her horse Vingskornir and wears helmet and
coat-of-mail . 18 Svava, daughter of king Eylimi, is called a
Valkyrie, one of nine whom Helgi sees riding. She gives him
his name and tells him where to find a superb sword . 19 Sigrun,
daughter of king Hogni, is a third human Valkyrie. Helgi saw
the Valkyries coming and addressed Sigrun, here called £ the
southern Dis,’ and in the sequel married her . 20 According to the
poet, Sigrun was reborn as the Valkyrie Kara . 21 The epithets
applied to these heroines are those which would be applied to
supernatural Valkyries — c white,’ ‘fair, with helmed head,’
1 bright in corslet,’ ‘ sun-bright,’ ‘ with clear, brilliant hue,’


252


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


4 gold-decked / 4 richly decked with gold.’ Sometimes Valkyries
are characterized as coming from or belonging to the South —
suthronn , droser suthronar , 4 southern women,’ Diser suthronar ,
and this is true of Sigrun . 22

These heroine Valkyries shield their favourites in battle, pro-
tect their ships, and bring ill to their foes. Brynhild also taught
magic runes to Sigurd.

Were beings like Valkyries known in other parts of the Teu-
tonic area? The Idisi of the Merseburg charm (South Ger-
many) correspond to the Disir among whom Valkyries were in-
cluded. The charm says that the Idisi sat down. Some fastened
bonds, presumably on enemy prisoners. Some held back the
host, perhaps by magic or by taking part in the fight. Some
tugged at the fetters, i.e., of prisoners whom they favoured. By
repeating this charm, which must refer to some myth about the
Idisi and their actions, and by adding: 4 Leap forth from the
bonds, escape the enemy,’ fetters were supposed to be unloosed.
The actions of the Idisi correspond to some degree to what un-
derlies the names of certain Valkyries, viz., Hlok, if this means
4 Fetter,’ and Herfjotur , 4 Fetter of the host,’ or perhaps 4 panic
terror,’ such as is indicated by the ON word herjjoturr , thus
holding back the enemy by terror. In the Hardar-saga it is
said that 4 over Hord the her] jot is come,’ but he got rid of this
4 magic band ’ ( galdraband ) on two occasions. On the third he
was overcome by it and slain. The Sturlunga-saga gives several
examples of this palsying terror, followed by death. Herjj qturr
or panic terror befell men in battle or seeking security in flight.
Thus Gudmund and Svarthofdi were fleeing from Illugi, when
the former fell back. His companion asked him if herfjQturr
had come over him. Illugi now gained upon him and slew
him . 23 The Idisi who loose fetters recall the magic runes for
loosing chains in Havamal and Sv'rpdagsmal. 2i

In the Idisi as a group of female spirits of war we may thus
see an old Germanic source of the later, more specialized Norse
group of Valkyries, of whom Herfjotur would be the spirit or


VALKYRIES


253


goddess who causes paralysing terror, thus making the enemy as
if bound with fetters. In the field of battle which, as Tacitus
says, was called Idistaviso by the Cheruscans, or according to the
suggested reading which has won general acceptance, Idisiaviso,
some have seen a place called after the Idisi — £ field of the
Idisi,’ as if they had aided in a victory there. Idisi means
£ women ’ or, more definitely, £ supernatural women,’ like the
Greek vvfjLcfrrj. 20

The Anglo-Saxon word Waslcyrge (equivalent of Valkyrie)
is glossed Bellona, Erinys, Tisiphone, Parca, venefica. Another
gloss speaks of eyes as £ Waslcyrigean eagan ’ or £ gorgoneus,’ as
if their eyes were terrible as a Gorgon’s. 26 The Wselcyrge was
thus a sinister being, and other references rather suggest a super-
natural witch than a Valkyrie. The older War-maidens may
have degenerated into witch-like beings. An Anglo-Saxon
charm against pain supposed to be inflicted by a little spear
thrown by supernatural beings from the air calls it esa gescot ,
ylfa gescot , hcegtessan gescot ( £ shot of iLsir, of elves, of
witches’). Though the charm refers more immediately to
witches, these are described rather as Valkyries riding through
the air. £ Loud were they, yea, loud as they rode over hills ;
haughty were they as they rode over lands.’ Then it speaks of
these £ mighty women ’ mustering their hosts and sending forth
their whizzing spears. 2 ' Wulfstan, archbishop of York (1022—
23 a.d.), refering to Danish invaders and Anglo-Saxon traitors,
says of them that £ here in England there are witches and
Wselcyrgean.’ 28 Thus the name had become one of ill omen.
The word SigewTf, £ Victorious women,’ mentioned in a charm,
may point to the older functions of the Anglo-Saxon Waslcyrge,
though here referring merely to bees, the charm forming a
blessing of bees. Kemble renders it: £ Sit ye, victorious women,
descend to earth ; never fly ye wildly to the wood; be
ye as mindful to me of good, as every man is of food and
landed possessions.’ Bees were supposed to have prophetic
powers. 29


254


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


Saxo’s virgines silvestres in the Hotherus story resemble
Valkyries in their functions — taking part invisibly in battle,
giving victory to their favourites, governing the fortunes of war ;
but they have traits of the Waldfrauen of German lore and also
of fees and elfins. Very often a hero, misled by a mist as Hoth-
erus was, meets supernatural beings in a wonderful dwelling,
which afterwards vanishes with them. 30 This glamour incident
runs through all folk-belief and occurs in Snorri’s Edda. The
woodland traits of Saxo’s Valkyries recall the Valkyrie-
Swan-maidens of V olundarkvitha, as we shall see in the next
Chapter.

Thus supernatural women resembling Valkyries were known
elsewhere than in Norway.

In their power over the fate of men in battle and their pro-
phetic gifts as displayed, e.g., by Brynhild 31 and by the virgines
silvestres in Saxo’s story, who, by auspiciis ductibus , decide the
fortunes of war, the Valkyries have affinity with the Norns, the
youngest of whom, Skuld, is said to be a Valkyrie. The Val-
kyries in V olundarkvit ha are spinners, like the Norns, and one is
called Alvitr, c All-wise.’ An episode in the N jals-saga is also
significant. Before the battle of Clontarf in 1014 a.d. between
Irishmen and Norsemen, Daurrud in Caithness had a vision in
which he saw twelve women riding through the air to a bower,
while blood dropped from the sky. Looking in, he saw them
engaged in a horrible kind of weaving. The reels and shuttles
were arrows and a sword, the spindles spears, the weights men’s
heads, the web was of human entrails. They sang a song — the
Daurrudar-ljod — given in the Saga, as they wove the web
for the coming battle and prophesied the course of the future.
This weaving-song shows that the women were Valkyries, about
to ride to the fight, guiding its destinies, and, as 1 corpse-choosing
spirits,’ taking charge of the slain. Their gruesome weaving
forebodes the course of the fight, and the woof is £ war-winning.’
The weaving ended, they tore the web in two: six rode to the
North with one piece 5 six to the South with the other. Their


















PLATE XXXIII


Ritual Vessel on Wheels

This vessel, perhaps used in sacrifice or in rain-
magic, or possibly for burning incense, was found at
Peckatel, Schwerin. It stands sixteen inches high, and
the diameter of the vessel’s mouth is fourteen inches.
Similar vessels have been found in Seeland and Scho-
nen. Bronze Age.




VALKYRIES


255


prophecy will now come to pass. A similar conception of weav-
ing fates of warriors occurs in Beowulf in the phrase wigsfieda
gewiofu } ‘ the weavings of victory,’ as if a battle’s fate were
woven by higher powers . 32

The Norns wove the fate of men in general: Valkyries could
be represented as weaving the fate of battle and the fateful death
of warriors. Norns and Valkyries are both included among the
Disir, the Valkyries being £ Herjan’s Disir ’ and Sigrun £ the
southern Dis.’ Snorri speaks of the kennings for ‘ women ’ as
1 the names of goddesses, Valkyries, Norns, and Disir.’ In the
Asmundar-saga Asmund saw in a dream women with weapons
standing over him, telling him he was singled out for supremacy,
and that they, his Spadisir, would aid him against his enemies . 33
These women are like Valkyries, but also resemble the weapon-
bearing guardian spirits or Hamingjur. The Valkyries have
also, like the Norns, a prophetic aspect. Their appearance fore-
tells battle, as already indicated, usually through a dream of
women pouring blood out of a trough, as examples in the Sagas
show . 34

Besides having affinity with the Norns the Valkyries have
some traits of Swan-maidens, as we shall see in the next
Chapter.

To what earlier conception may the later aspect of the
Valkyries be traced? They resemble the War-goddesses or
War-spirits of Irish mythology, whose symbols or incarnations
were scald-crows, just as ravens were connected with Valkyries
— 1 choughs of the Valkyries .’ 35 Such Germanic War-spirits
would not at first be strictly personalized: rather would they be
a group, like the Idisi. Some then became more definitely
personal, like the German War-goddesses of inscriptions —
Vihansa, Hariasa, Harimella, or the goddess Baduhenna men-
tioned by Tacitus. The derivations of these names show that
the goddesses were connected with war and the host, and the
name Baduhenna is cognate to that of the Irish War-goddess
Badb . 36 With the growing dominance of Odin and the warrior


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


2 56

Galhall conception, the Valkyries took more definite shape as
Odin’s servants. The passage already cited from Helgakvitha
H jorvardssonar seems to connect them with the fruitfulness of
the earth, but unless they and their steeds are poetically re-
garded as clouds dropping dew and moisture, they do not seem
to have been regarded as nature spirits.

As War-spirits the Valkyries may be reflexions of actual fe-
male warriors such as were known in Germanic custom and re-
ferred to by Flavius Vopiscus, Dio Cassius, and Paulus Dia-
conus . 87 These are the ‘ shield-maids,’ skjald-meyjar^ of the
Huns, spoken of in Atlakvitha , and apparently known also in
Scandinavia. They took part in the famous Bravalla battle, ac-
cording to the Sogubrot and Saxo, who says that they had
women’s bodies, but souls of men. Saxo also speaks of Alfhild,
daughter of Siward, king of the Goths, who was a sea-rover with
other like-minded maidens, and of Danish women who dressed
as men and devoted themselves to war. 1 They offered war
rather than kisses, and preferred fighting to love ’! 38 Such
shield-maids may have given a hint for the existence of War-
spirits, and it is possible that the ghosts of such women may
have been regarded as spirits carrying on warfare in the unseen,
as the spirits of warriors did, and so becoming spirits of battle,
Idisi and Valkyries . 39 A curious belief, perhaps based on mem-
ories of shield-maids and their ghosts, is found in the Penitential
of the German 1 Corrector,’ in a question asked of an alleged
witch: 1 Dost thou believe, as certain women are accustomed to
believe, that in the silence of the night, when the doors are
closed, thou, with other members of the devil, are raised in the
air even to the clouds, and there dost fight with others, giving
and receiving wounds? ’ 40

The derivation of the Valkyries from nightmare demons,
favoured by some scholars, rests mainly on the idea of the her-
fjqturr as indicating ‘ panic terror,’ a paralysis of the limbs
equivalent to the effects supposed to be caused by the nightmare
demon. But as only one Valkyrie bears a name, Herfjotur, re-


VALKYRIES


257

sembling herjjoturr> such a derivation is hardly likely. The
German Walriderske, ‘ Rider of the dead,’ is thought to be a
folk-survival of the Valkyries in this earlier aspect . 41 There is
no reason, however, to go beyond their origin in actual War-
spirits.


CHAPTER XXV


SWAN-MAIDENS

T HE world-wide myth of the Swan-maidens has its place in
Scandinavian mythology. The main features of the
myth are that the hero of the tale sees birds — swans, geese,
or ducks — flying to a lake, where, doffing their feather dresses
or wings, they become beautiful maidens, usually of a super-
natural kind. Stealing up to their dresses, he takes one of
them, and its owner is now in his power and becomes his wife.
But long after, because she regains her dress or because her
husband breaks a tabu concerning her, she flies away.

The story is sometimes told of a dog, seal, or wolf, or the
captured woman has scarce a trace of the animal. There are
also stories in which merely part of a woman’s clothing is cap-
tured and there is no shape-shifting, and in these there seems
to lie the key to the whole group — the idea that for one person
to gain possession of an article of clothing, ornament, hair or nail
clippings, or even to learn the secret name of another person,
brings that person within his power. Any such thing contains
the power of its owner, or is so much a part of him that whatever
is done to it is done to him. To gain possession of it is to have its
owner at one’s mercy. With the weakening of such beliefs, the
story would be told of supernatural women only, and it was now
influenced by stories of the totemistic Beast Marriage group, in
which a wife is both animal and human, and can take human
form at will. When the incidents of this last group of tales
were attracted into the group which told of a woman captured
because a man gained possession of her garment or the like, the
totemistic origin of the Beast Marriage stories had been long
forgotten. But the animal skin now took the place of the gar-


SWAN-MAIDENS


259

ment. Two story groups thus coalesced as neatly as do the ani-
mal and human natures in the Swan-maiden . 1

The widespread occurrence of the swan in these stories may
be due to its grace and beauty, but its popularity in Scandinavian
story may also be traced to the fact that the wild swan is so well
known there.

The deities of the Eddas could assume bird form through
donning a feather-dress, fjapr-hamr , cognates of which word are
found in other Teutonic languages.

The Swan-maiden story forms part of V olundarkvitha, the
tale of Volund (Weyland the Smith), which reached Scandi-
navia from Saxon regions. It is told first in a prose Introduc-
tion, and then in the poem itself. Volund, Slagfid, and .Egil
were sons of a king of the Finns. They hunted wild beasts and
went on snow-shoes. At Ulfdalir, where was a lake Ulfsjar,
they built themselves a house. One morning they found on the
shore of the lake three women spinning flax. Near them were
their swan-dresses, aptar-hamir , for they were Valkyries. Two
of them were daughters of king Hlodver — Hladgud the
Swan- white and Hervor the All-wise: the third was Olrun,
Kjar’s daughter from Valland. The brothers took them to their
dwelling: Egil had Olrun, Slagfid took Swan-white, and Volund
took All-wise. For seven winters they dwelt there, and then
the women flew off to find battles, and came back no more. Two
of the brothers set out to seek them, but Volund remained be-
hind. Nothing is said of the heroes’ gaining possession of the
maidens through their swan-dresses, but this must have been
part of the original story. Nor do we hear that the maidens re-
captured them, but as they flew away, they must have done so.

The poem which now goes on to tell this part of the story is
fragmentary and confused. The three sisters are said to fly from
the south through Myrkwood, following their fate. They rest
by the shore, these southern maids, and spin flax. Then follow
their names, and it is said of Swan-white that she wore swan-
feathers, svan-fjaprar. The account of their capture is lost, but


26 o


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY

the next lines tell how they threw their arms round the necks of
the heroes. In the eighth winter they yearned for Myrkwood.
The heroes returned from hunting to find them gone and sought
them everywhere.

A German version of this story, whether derived from the
original Saxon tale is unknown, occurs in a fourteenth century
poem. Wieland (Volund) was searching for Angelburga when
he saw three maidens bathing in a fountain, their doves’ feather-
dresses lying near. They had flown thither and, on touching the
ground, had become maidens. By means of a magic root which
made him invisible Wieland was able to gain the dresses. The
maidens wept, but he insisted that one should marry him ere he
gave them back. This was agreed to and Wieland chose that
one of the three who proved to be Angelburga, long loved by
him, but never seen till then . 2

The theft of swan-dresses forms an incident in Helreid Bryn-
hildar. Brynhild, who moves on her seat 1 like a swan on the
wave,’ and her seven companions had hid their swan-dresses
beneath an oak. There the king (Agnar? ) found them and they
were forced to do him service . 3

Brynhild and her companions and the Swan-maidens of the
Volund story are Valkyries. So also is Kara who appears in the
form of a swan. The Swan-maidens of V olundarkvitha long
to return to the wood — Myrkwood. Their names Hladgud
and Hervor are explained philologically as indicating connexion
with armies and war. They fly away to find battles. They thus
resemble the Valkyrie Wood-maidens in Saxo’s story, and have
obvious Valkyrie traits. The Valkyrie Kara hovered as a swan
over her beloved hero Helgi in battle. By magic charms she
blunted the weapons of his opponents. In his fight with
Hromund, Helgi swung his sword so high in air that it cut off
one of her feet. She fell to the ground and was no longer able
to protect him, so he was slain by Hromund . 4

This curious mingling of Valkyries and Swan-maidens may
have arisen from traits which they possessed in common —


SWAN-MAIDENS


261

flying through the air (though by different methods), knowl-
edge of the future, links with an earthly hero; but in other re-
spects they are quite distinct. While imagination dowered
Valkyries with properties of Swan-maidens, the true Swan-
maiden was never a Valkyrie.

In spite of this the Vaettir are remembered in one form or
another. In Norway they are still looked upon as tutelary
spirits, dwelling in Vsette-hougar, mounds at which offerings
used to be laid, in trees too sacred to be touched, or in waterfalls,
though they are also called Trolds or Nisser. In some districts
they differ but little from the Huldre-folk . 15 The Danish
Vetter have traits similar to those of Elle-folk and Trolds, but
are on the whole regarded as evil . 16 The Swedish Vatter are
elfin in character, guardians of houses, beneath which they live,
playing with the children, the females even suckling a weakly
child. When the household sleeps, they feast, but they are
unknown in a house tenanted by a Nisse or Brownie. They ask


232


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


help of women for their females in childbirth, rewarding them
well. 1. The Faroe Islanders also believe in Vasttrar which
dwell in houses, where milk is placed for them. They are small
and handsome, and give prosperity to a house, but leave it if a
new-comer is unkind . 18


CHAPTER XXII


THE FYLGJA

I N the Fylgja we meet with an interesting Norse conception,
though one not peculiar to that region. The belief may be
traced to the idea that the soul or one of the souls which, in
primitive belief, a man is supposed to possess, could leave the
body and become visible to its owner or another person, either
as a double of the man or as an animal. It was seen in dreams
and in waking life. Such a soul tended to become a separate
entity, connected, however, with its owner and mainly appearing
before his death. So it was with the Norse Fylgja or £ Fol-
lower.’

The Fylgja was a kind of guardian spirit most usually in the
form of an animal. But in one of two examples of a Fylgja in
the Poetic Edda , that of Helgi appeared to his brother Hethin
as a Troll-wife riding a wolf bridled by snakes. He refused
her advances, and she threatened vengeance upon him at the
‘king’s toast’ that night during the Yule feast. At this toast
Hethin vowed that he would have Svava, the beloved of Helgi.
Then grief seized him and he fled until he found Helgi and
told him of his vow. Helgi bade him not to grieve, for he was
about to fight a duel and feared he would not return. Hethin
now knew that he had seen Helgi’s Fylgja or, as the poem puts
it, his Fylgjur (plural), as if he had more than one . 1 The other
reference is in Atlamal. An eagle was seen flying through the
hall by Kostbera, who interpreted it as the hamr of Atli, be-
tokening an evil fate, for with blood it sprinkled those present.
Hamr is literally £ skin,’ £ covering,’ but here perhaps signifies
Fylgja, Atli’s soul in an animal covering . 2


234


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


The animal Fylgja often had some corresponding aspect to
that of the character of its owner — bulls and bears attended
great chiefs, foxes people of crafty nature. In the Njals-saga
Hauskuld saw in a dream a huge bear going out of the house
with two cubs, and entering another house. He knew that its
match was not to be found and so regarded it as the Fylgja of
the peerless Gunnar. 3 Einar dreamed that he saw a huge ox
going to the farm of his powerful brother Gudmund. At the
high seat it fell dead. From this he was able to foretell his
brother’s death. 4 The boy Thorsten Ox-foot rushed into a
room where an old man called Geite was sitting and fell on the
floor. Geite laughed because, as he explained to the boy: 1 1
saw what thou couldst not see,’ — a white bear-cub over which
Thorsten had fallen, his Fylgja in that form. 5 A bear which
fought by the side of Hrolf Kraki was regarded as the Fylgja of
Bjarki, one of his heroes, who was meanwhile asleep. When
Bjarki himself appeared on the battle-field, the bear vanished. 6
Eyj olf slew his enemy, but was himself lamed by a fall from his
horse. He was told by a seer that the Fylgjur of his enemy’s
kinsfolk had caused this, whereupon he indignantly asked if they
were stronger than those of himself and his friends. 7 An Ice-
lander dreamed that a pack of wolves fell on him and his fol-
lowers. Two of them were killed by him. A seer, who
explained the dream, said that the wolves were Manna-
hugir, £ men’s spirits,’ hostile to him. At the fight which fol-
lowed close upon this dream, the Icelander slew two of his
foes. 8 Manna-hugir is thus an alternative name for Fylgjur.
Thord saw a goat wallowing in its gore and told Njal
of this. Njal could not see the goat, and said that Thord
must be fey, as he had seen his Fylgja. Next day he was
slain. 9

A man who was near death or who was fey was apt to see his
own Fylgja. Dreaming of attacking animals also foreshadowed
a fight with the men whose Fylgjur they were. A man’s Fylgja
protected him, but its death was followed by that of its owner,


THE FYLGJA 235

though whether this means that the Fylgja never survived its
owner’s death is doubtful.

The Fylgjukona, £ Following woman,’ always had woman’s
form and was even more definitely a guardian spirit than the
animal Fylgja. She might be guardian of an individual or of
a family, and there might be more than one of them, three, nine,
or a multitude. The name Hamingjur was also applied to
them. Hamingja (singular) is from hamr , which meant c a
caul ’ as well as £ skin ’ or £ covering,’ and as the caul was sup-
posed to bring good luck to the child born with it, so the word
Hamingja, as applied to fortune-bringing guardian spirits
showing themselves in a certain form, came to be used in the
abstract sense of £ happiness,’ £ good luck.’ 10

These guardian spirits accompanied men, shielded, warned,
consoled, and cheered them. They appeared to their -proteges
urging them to action. When one member of a family died, his
Fylgjukona would pass from him to another kinsman. In Viga-
Glums-saga Glum dreamed that a huge helmeted woman, whose
shoulders touched the mountains, came up from the sea. He
asked her to come into his house. On awaking he explained the
dream as meaning that his mother’s father, Vigfuss, must be
dead. This woman was his Hamingja, for he had been held
high in honour. She must be seeking to take up her abode with
Glum. Soon after came news of the death of Vigfuss. This
helmeted woman resembles a Valkyrie. 11 Other examples of
family guardian spirits, called CEttar-fylgj a or Kyn-fylgja,
occur in the Sagas. As the skald Hallfred lay dying on board
ship, he saw a huge woman wearing a birnie going over the
waves, his guardian spirit, whom he now knew would pass from
him. She asked his brother to accept her, but he refused, where-
upon the skald’s son Hallfred said that he would take her, and
now she vanished. 12 The Troll-woman, Helgi’s Fylgja, who
desired Hethin’s company, may have wished to be his guardian
after Helgi’s death.

With the coming of Christianity the belief in these female


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


236

guardian spirits was apparently altered. They were divided
into white and black groups, the former those of the new Faith,
the latter those of heathenism. This is illustrated in the Saga of
Olaf Tryggvason. Thidrandi, son of Hall, heard a knocking
at the door. Opening it, he saw no one 3 but going by the wood-
pile he heard the noise of people riding into the horse-garth
from the North. These were nine women in black with
drawn swords. Others were heard coming from the South, nine
women in white. Before he could return to the house, the
women in black wounded him. In this condition his friends
found him, and before his death he told what he had heard and
seen. The seer Thorhall said that the black women were the
Fylgjur of Hall and his kinsmen (more properly Hamingjur),
who followed the old faith, and they had attacked Thidrandi
because it was about to be overthrown. These Disir had fore-
seen this and they were angry because the usual respect would
not be paid to them. The brighter spirits, now about to connect
themselves with the family, must have wished to help him, but
had not been in time. 13 Here, as in other examples, these Kyn-
fylgjur resemble Valkyries, and the name Disir, c goddesses,’ is
applied to them as it was to Valkyries and Norns.

In the Gisla-saga Gisli was visited by two dream-women
(draum-konur ) , one of whom, described by him as a Valkyrie
and sent by Odin to speak his will, was evil and foretold evil.
She seems to represent the dying paganism. The other was
milder, and appeared almost as a Christian guardian angel.
Gisli was standing midway between the two faiths, pagan and
Christian. Once he saw a hall with his kinsfolk. In it were
seven fires, some burning brightly, others were low. The
milder dream-woman told him to leave the old beliefs and
witchcraft and to be good to the poor and weak. The fires were
symbols of his life: those burning brightly indicated the number
of years that he had to live. On one occasion she rode a grey
horse, and bade him follow her to her house, where he saw
benches with pillows of down. Here, she told him, he would


THE FYLGJA 237

come when he died. The evil dream- woman often came to
Gisli, wishing to sprinkle blood over him and to bathe him in it,
and looking spitefully at him. She appeared more often as his
death drew near, saying that she would prevent what the other
had foretold from coming to pass. In this story the belief in
Fylgjukonur has been influenced by the Christian conception of
good and evil angels, associated with a man’s soul, for which
they strive. 14 In Njals-saga Hall, a pagan, would only con-
sent to become a Christian if S. Michael became his ( Fylgju-
engill ’ or guardian angel. 15

The resemblance of the Fylgjukona to other kinds of spirits,
e.g., Valkyries, is interesting. Valkyries also guarded chosen
heroes and came to their aid when called upon. 16 The Fylgju-
konur are sometimes called Spa-disir, ‘ Prophetic women.’

Such beings as the Fylgja are still known in Iceland, Norway,
and Sweden. Their names are as follows: in Iceland, Fylgja;
in Norway, Folgie (usually an animal) and Vardogr; in Sweden,
Valnad or Vard. They are generally good, protective spirits,
and care is taken, e.g., when a man leaves the house, to allow his
protector to leave with him, lest danger meet him, especially
from his evil spirits. Sometimes they are warning spirits, telling
by knocking or rattling the latch that their owners are coming,
or that death or misfortune is at hand. Such a spirit will appear
as a double of its owner, even to the person himself, as his double
was seen by the hero of Stevenson’s T iconderoga , giving thus a
warning of his death. 1 ' This Highland superstition of the
double, used in T iconderoga with such effect, or, as the Rev-
erend Robert Kirk, Episcopal minister of Aberfoyle in the
seventeenth century, called it in his Secret Commonwealth of
the Elves , the ‘ co-walker,’ seen by persons with second-sight,
resembles that of the Vardogr. Kirk, however, thought that
the co-walker was a fairy. 18


CHAPTER XXIII


THE NORNS

T HE Teutonic peoples seem to have been much impressed
by the idea of overruling fate or, at first, of powers con-
trolling the destinies of men and even gods, and it enters largely
into their literature. ‘ Fate none can escape,’ is the terse saying
of Gudrun in Atlamal / Different words expressed this con-
ception. The OHG wurt, Norse urpr } AS wyrd (English
‘weird’), had the meaning of ‘fate’ and are glossed fatum y
eventus. Wurt may be connected with the Indo-Germanic uert y
‘ to turn,’ with which are linked OHG wirt, wirtel , ‘ spindle.’
Hence wurt would have the meaning of a fate spun, just as the
Norns spun the threads of human fate.

In literary sources, e.g., the poem Heliand , wurd means the
spirit of death or death in the abstract as the fate of man.
‘ Wurd took him away ’ means ‘ Death took him away.’ In
Beowulf we find ‘ Wyrd ravished him away ’j ‘ it shall befall us
as Wyrd decideth.’ Wyrd ordains, or weaves, or deceives, or
harms. The weaving of fate, zvyrd gewcef , occurs in an AS
manuscript and also in Beowulf . 2 The word metody ‘ measure ’
or ‘ fate,’ the power that metes out or dispenses, is used in He -
liandy as in the phrase metodo giscapu , ‘ determined by fate ’
(AS meotody ON mjotupr). The OHG scephanten is glossed
as parcce.

Besides the general use of urpr in the sense of ‘ fate ’ (the
word occurring in the plural urper y ‘ fates ’), 3 the Norse people
believed in embodiments of fate in one or more supernatural
beings, the Norns (ON Norn, plural Nornir), the chief of whom
was herself called Urd (Urpr). The name, which still occurs
in Faroese lore as Norna, is of uncertain derivation, but some







PLATE XXXI


Runic Stone and Gundestrupp Silver Bowl

Above. Runic stone, c. 800 a.d., from Seeland.
Erected for Gunwald the Thul or £ Reciter.’ On the
stone are the Thor’s hammer symbol (part of a
svastika), and the sign of Odin, three horns inter-
laced, with allusion to poetry as ‘ the mead of Odin ’
(see p. 55). After Wimmer, Danske Runemindes-
mcErker.

Below. Silver bowl from Gundestrupp, Jutland, in
the region of the Cimbri. It was used in the sacred
ritual. On the outside are heads of deities. Inside are
figures, human and animal, and scenes of cult. The
subjects are partly drawn from classical art, partly
from Celtic sources, e.g., the horned god is copied from
representations of the Celtic Cernunnos (see next
plate). Strabo records that the Cimbri sent their holiest
bowl to Augustus.




THE NORNS


239

students connect it with Swedish dialect forms, noma , nyrna , £ to
tell secretly ,’ 1 to warn,’ and with Middle English nyrnen , £ to
recite,’ £ to utter.’ It has also been connected with * nornhi ,
£ twisting,’ £ combining .’ 4

There may first have been a number of spirits of fate, with a
later more personalized Fate-goddess, the Norn Urd. But in
Eddie literature there are three Norns, and 1 many Norns ’ are
also spoken of.

Snorri says: £ There is a fair hall by the ash under Urd’s well,
and out of it come three maids — Urd, Verdandi, Skuld. They
determine the course of men’s lives and are called Norns. Yet
there are many Norns — those who come to each child that is
born and shape its fate, these are of the race of the gods; the
second are of the Alfar; the third are of the dwarf kin.’ For
this statement Snorri cites Fafnismal:

1 Of different origin are the Norns,

Not all of one race;

Some are of the people of the Afsir,

Some of the people of the Alfar,

And some are Dvalinn’s daughters.’

At this point Gangleri interposes. £ If the Norns determine the
fates of men, then they give unequal portions. Some have a
pleasant, luxurious life, others have few possessions or little
fame; some have long life, others short.’ To this the reply is:
£ Good Norns, of honourable race, appoint good life; those who
suffer evil fortunes are ruled by evil Norns.’ Snorri also says
that the Norns who dwell by Urd’s well take water of it every
day and sprinkle it over the ash, so that its limbs may not rot or
decay . 5

We turn now to the Poetic Edda. The decision of the Norns,
viz., death, is spoken of in Fafnismal y as if it were lying in wait
at the beginning of life’s voyage, in youth. The same poem de-
scribes the Norns as helpful in need, bringing the babe from the
mother. It also says that the Norns have decided that Sigrdrifa


240


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


(Brynhild) shall not wake from her magic sleep. At the birth
of Helgi, according to Helgi Hundingsbana , it was night in the
house when Norns came and shaped his life. He would be
most famous of warriors and best of princes. Mightily they
wove the threads of fate, the golden threads, and made them
fast in the moon’s hall (the sky). The ends were hid in the East
and West, between which his lands would be, and one of the
Norns, here called 1 Neri’s kinswoman,’ cast a chain to the North
and bade it ever be firm. This betokened the widespread fame
of the hero, especially in the North . 6 In Sigrdrifumal Mim’s
head bade runes to be written on the nails of the Norns, and the
same poem describes birth-runes as those which give help in
childbirth, when the Norns (here called Disir) are asked to
aid . 7

Yet the Norns were apt to be regarded as evil, or certain
Norns were evilly disposed, as Snorri says. Thus the dwarf
Andvari, transformed to a pike, told Loki that an evil Norn in
old days doomed him to dwell in the waters . 8 Brynhild said
that grim Norns had shaped for her the longing she had for
Sigurd. Hostile fates ( urper ) had caused the complex situation
arising from Sigurd’s having Gudrun as wife, while she herself
is Gunnar’s . 9 Gudrun says that Norns awakened her with ter-
rible dreams, which she then relates . 10 In another poem she
speaks of the Norns whose wrath she seeks to escape in death,
but in vain . 11 Helgi blames the Norns for his slaying Bragi and
Hogni . 12 Hamther also speaks of the Norns (Disir) driving
him to slay Erp, and, as he is dying, says that no one outlives the
night when the Norns have spoken . 13 Angantyr found his
brother dead on the field of battle, and said that he had brought
him to death, for evil is the doom of the Norns. In the Saga of
Harald Fair-hair when Einarr slew Halfdan, he sang: £ The
Norns have ruled it rightly,’ and in Egils-saga Kveldulf ac-
cused the Norns for snatching away his son Thorolf . 14 Odin, as
Hnikar, warned Sigurd that Talar-disir, evil goddesses, pre-
sumably Norns, would be at both his sides, willing that he


THE NORNS


241

should receive wounds. 15 Thus death and disaster were due to
the decree of the Norns. ‘ The Norns have done both good and
evil/ says a runic inscription on the timber church at Borgrund,
and their evil aspect may be seen in the name for wolves —
£ hounds of the Norns/ 16 and in the myth that the peace and
golden age of the gods were first broken when three giant-
maidens, of great might, came out of Jotunheim. This is told
in V olusp a , and these giant-maidens are generally regarded as
embodiments of fate, or Norns, mightier than the gods. The
same phrase, c three maidens ’ ( prior meyjar ), is applied to the
maidens in this passage and to the Norns themselves in a later
passage. 17 Similarly three hosts of maidens, who come of the
giants’ kin, according to V ajthrudnismal , are thought to be
Norns, though here kindly of nature. 18

There is no escaping the fate fixed for men by the Norns, as
Gudrun found when she sought but could not obtain death as
a relief from her ills. So Svipdag says that no one can tear the
decrees of Urd, however undeservedly these are laid upon
him. 19

EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


when offered to her, and sometimes valueless articles given
to her turn to gold .' 7 Young children were stolen by them,
and a Wasserkopf — a Nix’s child with a large head, or a
Wechselbalg or changeling was left in place of the stolen
child . 78

The female Water-spirits have many different names in the
older literature ,' 9 and the Norse Sea-goddess Ran corresponds
to these in so far as they are hostile to man and are unpleasing of
aspect. But not all are of this kind, though there might be
danger to mortals in too close an acquaintance with them. These
have more of an elfin character. They are beautiful, and sit
combing their long locks in the sun, but they may also have a
homely appearance, as when they come ashore to market, when
they may be recognized by the wet edge of skirt or apron. Ac-
cording as they pay much or little for what they purchase, a dear
or a cheap season will follow. Sometimes they are naked, but
hung round with moss or sedge. The Nixe’s exquisite song
beguiles unwary youths, who, like Hylas, are drawn into the
waters. The drowned are also her victims, and children falling
into wells come into her power . 80 In earlier Teutonic belief the
Nixen are hardly distinguishable from the Swan-maidens, and
like most of these water beings possess prophetic gifts. Hence
they are also called wisiu wip. The Nibelungenlied tells how
Hagen heard water splashing on the Danube, where certain
wisiu wip or merewij were bathing. They would have fled, but
he seized their garments, and they floated before him like water-
hens. On his restoring their garments, they foretold what
would befall the Nibelungs . 81

These female water beings sometimes marry men, but their
husbands must not see them naked or enquire into their origin
— common forms of tabu in such supernatural marriages. As
the Swan-maiden was powerless without her wings, so the Nixe
who comes ashore to dance is grieved if her partner retains her
gloves, and in one story several of them returned sorrowfully to
the water, which was seen to be reddened with blood, because


NATURE


213

their father had slain them . 82 Youths in love with Nixen have
followed them to their home, like one who descended with an
Elbjungfer into the water at Magdeburg, but was slain by her
relations. In a variant, she herself was the victim, and her
lover, standing by the water, saw it reddened with her blood . 83
The Nixen have flocks and herds which come ashore, and min-
gling with ordinary animals, render them prolific.

The attraction of the woods has been well expressed by Emer-
son and Meredith, and men still delight in their mystery, their
silence and their voices. They were more dreadful when
peopled with supernatural beings, akin to the evil Forest-spirits
of savages, ‘ in their obscured haunts of inmost bowers.’ In
bygone ages vast forests stretched across large parts of Europe,
and wide morasses occupied land now under cultivation. From
these strange sounds were heard, or by night the Will o’ the
Wisp flitted eerily over them. On wide moorlands moss-
covered boulders protruded from the heath, or grey stones, with
a suggestion of shadowy forms lurking among them, stood
singly or in circles, or grass-grown tumuli dotted its surface.
Such was the region encircling small reclaimed areas, and we
do not wonder that men peopled it with the objects of their
imagination or their fear — demons, spirits, divinities of wood,
stream, immemorial rocks, and fells, and with ghosts of those
who lay under the c howes of the silent vanished races.’ Some
were monstrous, some beautiful, but all were more or less dan-
gerous. In the forest men worshipped the gods, for the earlier
temples were often groves, not to be approached lightly. The
men of the township would go in procession to a sacred well, to
a hoary tree in which an image was set, to rocks or boulders in
which dwelt a spirit, or to the circle or tumulus to invoke the
dead. They lit fires or placed candles by tree, stone, or well, or
by the cross-ways, and offered sacrifices there. Even after the
Germanic peoples became Christian, these beliefs in the lesser
supernatural beings and these customs continued. Through


214


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


long centuries the Church continued to condemn them, but they
were too deeply rooted to be easily displaced.

Thus the Council of Tours, 567 a.d., denounced the pagan
observances at sacred trees or springs or stones, called ( places
of the pagans,’ and some years later the Council of Auxerre
speaks of vows offered at these instead of in churches. These
and similar decrees concerned the Frankish population. 84 Eli-
gius, bishop of Noyon (ob. 658 a.d.), who laboured among the
Frisians, denounced the veneration of stones, wells, trees called
sacred, bringing lights to these or offering vows at them or in
sacred enclosures ( cancelli ) or at cross-roads. 85 The eighth cen-
tury Homilia de Sacrilegiis shows that Frankish Christians were
still resorting to the old altars, groves, trees, and rocks, to offer
animal or other sacrifices and to celebrate feasts, or to pray at
springs or rivulets. There was an observance of N eptunalia in
mare> perhaps some feast of a Water-god or Water-spirit. 86
S. Boniface counted as capital sins among the Germans to whom
he taught Christianity, offerings at stones or to springs and
trees. 87 In Charlemagne’s time, as his Admonitio Generalis
shows, the cult at trees, fountains, and stones still continued,
with the placing of lights at these, and other customs. Such
practices were forbidden, and these sacred things were to be
destroyed. 88 Among the Saxons, who were still pagan, the use
of votive offerings at fountains, trees, and groves was punish-
able by fines varying according to a man’s quality. 89 Sacrifices
at fountains are mentioned in the Indiculus Superstitionum . 90
How difficult it was to root out these customs and beliefs is seen
in the fact that the Penitential of the tenth century 1 Corrector ’
in Burchard’s collection of decrees still enquires: 1 Hast thou
gone to any place other than the church to pray — to fountains,
stones, trees, or cross-roads, and there burned a candle or torch
in reverence to such a place, or offered or eaten there bread or
any such oblation, or sought there the welfare of body or
soul?’ 91

Such superstitions remained popular in spite of all prohibi-


NATURE


215


tions and continued long after the time here spoken of, not only
among the common people but among those of higher rank.
Few, indeed, of the superstitious customs and beliefs of the
Middle Ages cannot be traced to the earlier centuries when
pagans began to flock into the Church in large numbers without
clearly understanding the new religion and without having
abandoned either their pagan ways of looking at things or many
of their customs. But the rites and beliefs to which they ad-
hered were rooted in a far distant past, and had been dear to
the folk for long generations. The springs and wells and rocks
had been sacred from prehistoric times, and, in the thought of
the different religions, were inhabited by divinities or spirits.
Hence the old sacred wells were still visited, as well as sacred
stones and trees, in the hope of gaining a boon — healing, fruit-
fulness, prosperity — from them or from the spirits, mainly
now of an elfin kind, supposed to dwell in them. A small offer-
ing was made or a candle lit to propitiate the genius loci. The
old sacred place, familiar for generations, and visited in a hope-
ful mood, seemed friendly and easily propitiated. Men
thought, wrongly no doubt, that it was nearer to their lives than
the Church’s sacred Persons, though the Virgin and the saints
were beginning to assume a familiar form and to be invoked
about the minor ills and blessings of life as well as about things
which loomed more largely and terribly on the human horizon.

Those who persisted in such practices were excommunicated
or subjected to penance, lighter or heavier, or to a fine. They
had been deceived by the demons inhabiting these sacred spots,
and the rites were execrable in the sight of God.


CHAPTER XIX


ANIMALS

C ERTAIN monstrous or giant animals play a part in Eddie
mythology — the Fenris-wolf, the Midgard-serpent, the
eagle of the winds. Some animals seem to have received a cult,
according to statements in the Sagas, but this was rendered by
individuals, like Brand to Freyfaxi. The Saga of Olaf Trygg-
vason tells of Ogvald, who was a great sacrificer to a certain
cow. He took her with him wherever he went and thought that
his health benefited by her milk, and, when she died, she was
buried in a tumulus near his own . 1 The Landnama-bok re-
counts how the viking Floci set out to seek the Snowland. He
made ready a great sacrifice, and hallowed three ravens to tell
him the way . 2

Animal forms entered into the art of the Norsemen, and, of
these, the dragon or snake is prominent. It appeared on the
bows of Norse galleys and was borne into battle as a standard by
different Germanic tribes. On swords the snake was engraved,
like that one of which the Valkyrie told Helgi — - c on the edge
lies a blood-stained serpent, on the back a serpent’s tail is
twisted.’ The snake was supposed to run from the hilt to the
point and back again. Snakes or dragons also ornamented hel-
mets, adding strength to them as to the sword . 3 Whether this
implies a cult is uncertain, but the Life of S. Barbatus shows
that the Lombards worshipped the golden image of a viper.
Having come into possession of the saint, it was melted down
and made into a chalice and paten . 4

The dragon or serpent occurs often in Norse stories, e.g., that
of Fafnir, whether as a guardian of treasure or in other aspects.
Serpents often appear in tales of the Other World and in the


ANIMALS


217

Eddie description of Nastrand (p. 319). Nidhogg and many
serpents dwell in Hvergelmir and gnaw the roots of Yggdrasil.
Two of these, Ofnir and Svafnir, bear names by which Odin
calls himself in Grimnismal , and we know that Odin took snake
form occasionally. 5 A design on a helmet from a Swedish grave
in which Odin figures, shows an upreared serpent before him. 6
The snakes of the Other World have been regarded as forms of
the souls of the dead, and Odin as god of the dead might some-
times have been regarded as a serpent. 7 Some foundation for
this may be seen in many stories, though these are not peculiar
to the Teutons, of snakes in meadows and houses feeding out of
the children’s milk-bowl, coming beside them, watching over
them, and revealing treasure to them. It is unlucky to kill
such snakes. Folk-belief also tells of two snakes attached to a
house, revealing themselves when the master and mistress die,
and then themselves dying. Such snakes are soul-animals,
forms taken by dead ancestors. 8 The soul as a snake is illus-
trated by a story recorded of king Gunthram of Burgundy by
Paulus Diaconus. The king was sleeping in a forest after hunt-
ing, when a snake crept out of his mouth and crossed a rivulet
by means of the sword of one of his nobles. It now passed into
a mountain, soon afterwards returning and entering the king’s
mouth. When he woke, the king told how he dreamed that he
had crossed a river and entered a mountain full of gold. This
gold was now sought and found. 9 The soul takes the form of
other animals as will be seen in considering the Fylgja.

The stories of Balder and Hotherus, of Fafnir’s heart, eaten
by Sigurd, and others, show that the serpent was regarded as an
animal which gave health, strength, and wisdom.

The beliefs concerning serpents point to two aspects of these
reptiles, beneficent and malignant, though this is far from being
peculiar to the Teutons. 10

Animals are also associated with the gods — ravens and
wolves with Odin, the boar and the cat with Freyja, the horse
and the boar with Frey, goats with Thor. Whether this de-


218


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


noted an earlier cult of these animals, as in other religions where
an animal is connected with a deity, cannot be verified now. The
boar may have been regarded as the embodiment of a Fertility-
spirit, and so associated with Frey, a god of fertility.

It is possibly significant that, in the Eddie poems and tales,
animals are frequently found (apart from the special animals
of the gods), e.g., in the account of Balder’s funeral, in Skirnis-
mal, in Hyndluljod , in the Volsung poems (pike, otter, talking
birds, a dragon). Equally significant is the prominence given
to metamorphosis or animal disguise — Fafnir as a dragon,
Andvari as a pike, Ottarr as a boar, Odin as a snake, Loki in dif-
ferent animal forms. These indicate primitive traits in the
poems, and point to their origin among the folk themselves,
rather than among the more cultured classes.



PLATE XXIX


Wolf-headed Monster

Above. God or demon with Wolf’s head on a
bronze plate found in Bavaria.

Below. A similar wolf-being and a horned warrior,
on a bronze plate found in the Island of Oland,
Sweden.






CHAPTER XX


THE ALFAR OR ELVES

A LONG with the Tisir and Vanir the Eddas speak of the
Alfar or £ elves.’ These are represented in later Teutonic
folk-belief, and equivalents of the name are OHG and MHG
alf, alb , AS celf, Old Danish elv, Old Swedish alf. In Germany
the older use of al-p or alb (plural elbe , elber ) in the sense of
£ spirit,’ £ genius,’ £ fairy,’ £ ghostly being,’ shows that beings
like the Norse Alfar were known there also, as does the word
elbisch in the sense of mental unsoundness caused by such
beings. The word alf does not occur by itself before the thir-
teenth century, but it is found in proper and compound names.
The plural forms, probably denoting friendly spirits, are found
in MHG poetry. Gradually, however, alf was used rather in
the sense of £ nightmare,’ and the words tverc , zwerg , £ dwarf,’
voiht, wicht , £ wight,’ and their synonyms took its place. The
modern German Elfe was derived from English literary
sources in the eighteenth century. Whether the word Alfar is
connected etymologically with Sanskrit rbhus is uncertain. The
enigmatic rbhus , whose name is variously explained as £ dexter-
ous ’ and 1 shining,’ were seasonal divinities and skilful artificers
with magical power, three in number. They have been re-
garded as in origin £ no more than elves who gradually won
higher rank .’ 1

The Eddie Alfar are the earliest known elves, akin to the
Anglo-Saxon ylje (singular calf). The scanty notices of them
show that they had a loftier nature than the elves of later beliefs.
They are not said to be dangerous or mischievous, nor are they
yet confused with evil trolls through Christian enmity to the old
paganism. They are joined with the Tisir, as in the recurrent


220


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


phrase £ AEsir ok Alfar,’ used partly but not wholly for the sake
of alliteration, and also with both EEsir and Vanir. In the prose
Introduction to bokasenna ‘ many EEsir and Alfar ’ are said to
have been present at EEgir’s banquet, and Eldir said to Loki:

‘ None of the EEsir and Alfar here present has a good word for
thee.’ Loki says that Bragi is the most cowardly of all the .Eisir
and Alfar present, and he accuses Freyja of misconduct with
everyone of these. In V olus-p a and T hrymskvitha the question
is asked: £ How is it with the EEsir, how is it with the Alfar? ’
and the latter poem gives the reply: £ 111 is it with the EEsir, ill
is it with the Alfar.’ In Havamal Odin says: £ I know all the
EEsir, I know all the Alfar,’ and in the next verse we learn that
Thjodrorir sang £ strength to the EEsir and prosperity to the
Alfar.’ The same poem speaks of Odin carving runes for the
Eisir, and Daenn carving them for the Alfar. In Skirnismal
Frey complains that none of the EEsir or Alfar is willing that he
and Gerd should come together. Odin, in Grimnismal , speaks
of the land lying near the ASsir and Alfar as holy. Elsir, Alfar,
and Dvalinn’s people (dwarfs) are conjoined in Fajnismal as
progenitors of the Norns. 2

In Skirnismal Gerd asks Skirnir : £ Art thou of the Alfar, or
of the EEsir, or of the wise Vanir? ’ The sacred mead with
which the magic runes was sent forth is with the Eisir, the Alfar,
the wise Vanir, and with men, says Sigrdrifumal . 3

These phrases show that the Alfar are akin to divine beings.
They dwell in Heaven, in Alfheim, which is ruled by Frey, 4
and they act with gods and share their feasts. A similar com-
bination was known to the Anglo-Saxons, one of their spells
coupling esa and ylfa. 5 Though their creation is not mentioned,
the Alfar are a distinct group, supernatural, and with special
qualities. Unlike the dwarfs no individual Alf is spoken of,
save Daenn in Havamal , the name also of a dwarf in other
poems. Volund (Weyland the smith), however, is called
£ prince ’ and £ lord ’ of Alfar. 6

Only one kind of Alfar is spoken of in the poems, but Snorri


THE ALFAR OR ELVES


221


gives three groups — Ljosalfar, ‘Light elves,’ Dokkalfar,
‘ Dark elves,’ and the inhabitants of Svartalfaheim, the Svartal-
far, ‘ Black elves,’ whom, however, the context shows to be
dwarfs. Snorri says that Alfheim is the place where the Light
elves live, but the Dark elves dwell down in the earth, unlike
the others in appearance but more so in nature. The Light elves
are fairer than the sun, but the Dark elves are blacker ( svartari )
than pitch . 7 These Dark elves are not again mentioned, but
Snorri relates how Loki swore to get the Black elves to make
for Sif hair of gold, and then he went to those dwarfs called
Ivaldi’s sons, who made it . 8 Odin sent Loki into Svartalfaheim
to the dwarf Andvari in order to get his treasure . 9 He also sent
Skirnir into Svartalfaheim to certain dwarfs who made the
fetter Gleipnir . 10 The Black elves were thus dwarfs, and as
Dark elves dwell in the earth, they are presumably identical
with these. In spite of Snorri’s distinction, there was perhaps
but one class of Alfar, since no others are named in the Eddie
poems, in old writers, or in folk-tales, even if the elves of later
belief are ‘ a sort of middle being between Light and Dark
elves .’ 11

Snorri further states that at the southern end of Heaven there
are two other Heavens superimposed, and in the uppermost is
believed to be the hall Gimle, reserved for the righteous, but at
present inhabited by the Light elves . 12 There may be here a
reflexion of Christian ideas of successive Heavens, and possibly
an identification of Light elves with angels. Alfheim, the re-
gion of the Light elves, is a heavenly abode, and in Alvissmal
Heaven is called ‘ Fair roof ’ by the Alfar, as if it stretched over
their aerial home, and the sun is its 1 Fair wheel .’ 13 Unfortu-
nately the Eddas say nothing regarding the functions of the
Alfar. ‘ Light,’ as applied to them, has no moral significance,
and merely refers to their appearance.

Certain elfin groups of later Scandinavian belief, associated
with the air and with trees, and not specifically an underground
race, may represent the older Light elves, though neither they

Anglo-Saxon formulae of the tenth century for restoring fer-
tility to fields which had suffered from hostile magic are inter-
esting, as showing how memories of an older Earth cult sur-
vived into Christian times. The ritual was partly sacrificial,
with spoken spells. One of these runs: ‘ erce , erce, erce , eorthan
modord The mother of Earth, rather than Earth herself was
invoked. A similar Lettish phrase forms a parallel — Semmes-
mate, ‘ mother of Earth.’ The meaning of erce is uncertain.
Grimm connected it with the traditional German Frau Harke
or Herke. Some connexion with ero , ‘ earth,’ is also possible.
The other charm runs: ‘ Hale be thou, Earth ( folde), mother
of men} be faithful in God’s embrace, filled with food for use
of men.’ This was said before beginning to plough . 7 Folde,
‘ Earth,’ occurs also in ON as ‘ fold,’ and a similar appeal is
found in Sigrdrifumal where Brynhild cries : ‘ Hail to the gods,
hail to the goddesses, hail to the generous Earth ’ ( fjolnyta
fold ). 8 The Earth, as a productive source of what is good for
men, and as spouse of the Heaven-god, lies behind these for-
mulae. Ritual survivals of an old Earth cult are collected in Sir
James Frazer’s Golden Bough.

Obscure references to the magic or strengthening power of
Earth occur in the Eddie poems, as in the formula from Guth-
runarkvitha and Hyndluljod already mentioned. In Havamal
Earth is said to cure drink: hence before drinking ale one should
exorcise it through the magic strength of Earth. Because of the
magic strength of Earth, a newly born child was laid upon it.
The vitality or soul of the child issued from Mother-Earth.
When the child had again been lifted up by the midwife and


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


196

acknowledged by the father, it could only be exposed in excep-
tional cases. Scandinavian terms for ‘ midwife ’ are jord-
gumma , jordemoder, ‘ earth-mother.’ 9

Children or their souls were believed to come from Mother-
Earth, as this rite shows, and as is found in many folk-beliefs
regarding their coming out of hollow trees, i.e., from the earth,
out of ponds, lakes, wells, or caves. 10 Connected with this was
the rite by which men swore brotherhood. They let their blood
flow together into a footprint. Another rite was called £ going
under the earth.’ A long sod was cut so that its ends were fast
to the earth. It was propped up with a spear, and the parties
to the pact crept through it. All then let their blood from a
cut vein flow on the earth under the sod, afterwards touching it,
swearing to avenge each other, and calling the gods to witness.
The mixing of blood with the earth signified that all had come
from a common mother. 11

SUN AND MOON

The myth of Sun and Moon as children of Mundilfari has
already been referred to. Sun is £ Moon’s bright sister,’ and
she drives the horses Arvak, c Early-wake,’ and Alsvid, £ All-
strong,’ harnessed to the chariot of the sun which the gods had
fashioned for lighting the world out of the glowing matter from
Muspellheim. Under the horses’ shoulders the gods set wind-
bags to cool them, though in some records this is called 1 iron-
coolness.’ Moon steers the course of the moon. 12 The poems
on which this account of Snorri’s is based say that the horses
wearily drag the weight of the sun, but the gods have set under
their yokes a cool iron. 13

In giving the kennings for ‘ sun,’ Snorri cites verses of Skuli
Thorsteinsson ( c . 980 a.d.) which refer to the sun as c goddess.’
The Eddie poems also call the sun ‘ shining goddess,’ and in
front of her stands Svalin, £ Cooling,’ as shield, otherwise moun-
tains and sea would be set on fire. The sun is ‘ Glitnir’s god-











































PLATE XXIV


Sun Symbols

These symbols cut on rocks and stones in Scandi-
navia during the Stone and Bronze Ages represent the
sun as a disc or wheel rolling through the sky. See
p. 198.





NATURE


197

dess,’ Glitnir being the sky, the heavenly palace of Forseti . 14
Snorri also says that Sol, £ Sun,’ is reckoned among the Asynjur . 15
When the giant artificer asked for sun and moon as well as
Freyja for his reward, this shows that they may be regarded as
deities . 16 Some of the names given to the sun in Alvissmai are
interesting. Dwarfs call it £ deceiver of D valin elves name it
£ fair wheel . 1 The sun deceives D valin, a dwarf, because dwarfs
turn to stone if caught by its light. The name £ elf-beam 1 for
the sun refers to the danger which elves encounter from it . 17

In Voluspa the poet says that the sun cast her hand over the
rim of Heaven and had no knowledge of where her home
should be. The moon knew not what might was his, nor the
stars where their stations were, till the gods held council. Then
they gave names to night and new moon, full moon, morning,
evening, midday, and vesper. This account of the sun is best
explained as a description of the Northern midsummer night,
when the sun is at the edge of the horizon, but does not sink
beneath it, and remains near the moon. This suggested to the
poet a disordered state of things : hence he added a stanza telling
how the gods set order among the heavenly bodies . 18

The analogy of other religions would suggest that with all
these myths a cult of sun and moon existed in Scandinavia.
C^sar, on insufficient evidence, says that the Germans wor-
shipped no other deities than those which were objects of sight
and benefited men by their power — the sun, the moon, and
fire (Vulcan ). 19 This points to some cult or magical rites, and
is partly corroborated by what Tacitus says. Beyond the Suiones
(Swedes) is a sluggish sea, supposed to engirdle the earth. The
setting sun is so vivid there as to obscure the stars. People
believe that the sun can be heard emerging from the sea, and
horses and rays streaming from his head are seen. These horses
correspond to the Eddie horses of the sun. Tacitus also tells
how Boiocalus, king of the Ansivari, invoked the sun and stars.
Cassar’s opinion about a cult of the moon is not corroborated
from other sources, yet superstitious beliefs about new and full


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


198

moon found in later times may have existed in his day and have
given occasion to his assertion. The Suevic prophetesses, e.g.,
warned the tribesmen not to fight before new moon. 20 Sunna is
mentioned in the Merseburg charm as one of the Idisi. Proco-
pius says that in Thule, by which he means Scandinavia, the sun
does not appear at the winter solstice for forty days. Watchers
on the mountains look for its rising and inform the people that
this will happen in five days. A great feast is then held. 21 In
later centuries the Church forbade the cult of sun and moon or
observances in connexion with them. They were not to be
called lords, said S. Eligius. The Saxon Indiculus Supersti-
tionum mentions the custom of the pagans who say: Vince , luna y
at an eclipse. The Anglo-Saxons were told in the laws of
Canute that heathenism honoured heathen gods, sun and moon.
The worship of sun, moon, and stars, new moon, and the shout-
ing and noise at an eclipse, by which the moon was supposed to
be aided, are denounced in Burchard’s collection of ecclesiastical
decrees. 22

In folk-custom there are many survivals of rites by which the
power of the sun was supposed to be increased and fertility
aided. Further reference need not be made to these, but the
mention of the chariot of the sun in the Eddas is interesting be-
cause of certain archaeological finds.

In the Stone Age symbols of the sun were carved on stones in
Scandinavia — circles with or without inner rays in the form
of a cross, or with several rays from centre to circumference, or
concentric circles, sometimes with an inner cross or with lines
joining the two circles. These circles show that the sun was
regarded as a disc or wheel rolling through the sky. This
symbolism was continued in the Bronze Age, 23 but now more
interesting finds show the reverence for the sun in that period.
In 1902 a bronze disc decorated with spirals and overlaid with
gold was found at Trundholm in Seeland. It stood on a bronze
wagon with six wheels, set upright on the axle of the hindermost
pair. Resting on the axles of the two foremost pairs of wheels





PLATE XXV


Sun Carriage

Sun carriage, with horse and wheels, of bronze
covered with gold. Found at Trundholm, Seeland.
Described on p. 198.




NATURE


199

is the figure of a bronze horse. The wagon on which is the disc
of the sun does not appear to have been drawn by the horse;
both horse and disc are on the wagon. 24. Other representations
of the sun, whether ornamental or used in cult or magic, have
been found. A bronze disc, with concentric ring ornamentation,
and with triangular pendants attached to the upper part of the
disc, was found at Eskelheim in Gotland. It was probably part
of the ornamentation of a horse’s trappings . 20 More elaborate
is a decorated bronze disc, fifteen inches in diameter, mounted
on a ring of metal, six inches deep, with ten wheels, each with
four spokes from a central ring. This was found at Ystad in
Schonen . 26 All these different kinds of discs represented the
sun.

Snorri tells how Gangleri spoke of the sun’s swift course, as if
hasting to destruction. To this Har replied that he who seeks
her comes close and she cannot but run away. Two wolves
cause this trouble. Skoll pursues her, and Hati Hrodvitnisson
leaps before her, and he is eager to seize the moon. They are
progeny of a giantess in Ironwood who bears many giants for
sons. Hrodvitnir, £ Mighty wolf,’ is the Fenris-wolf, father of
the brood . 27

This account is based on verses of Grimnismal and V oluspa.
The former says :

‘ The wolf is called Skoll, who in Ironwood
Follows the glittering goddess;

Hati the other, Hrodvitnir’s son,

Runs before the bright bride of Heaven.’

The latter tells how the giantess in Ironwood bore Fenrir’s
brood. Among these was one in troll’s form, the robber of the
sun. Nothing is said of the moon, as in Snorri’s account . 28 In
Vafthrudnismal Fenrir himself swallows the sun at the Doom
of the gods, but the sun bears a daughter before that, and she
will follow her mother’s path . 29 This deed of Fenrir’s belongs
to the end of the world: the pursuit of the sun by his wolf-sons


200


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


goes on always. Both incidents refer to the myths of an eclipse
as caused by a monster devouring sun or moon, which was driven
off by people making noises. Snorri gives another myth. One
of Fenrir’s brood, mightiest of all, is Managarm, ‘ Moon-
hound,’ who will be filled with flesh of all who die and shall
swallow the moon, sprinkling Heaven and the air with blood.
This precedes the great storms and darkening of the sun at the
Doom of the gods. Snorri is paraphrasing and quoting a pas-
sage in Voluspa which, however, speaks of the swallower of the
sun ( tungl , ‘sun,’ not ‘ moon ’) and not of Managarm, whom
he must have introduced from some other source . 30

V ajthrudnismal says that Delling, ‘ Day-spring,’ is father of
Day. Nor is father of Night. The steed which draws the
shining Day to benefit mankind is Skinfaxi, ‘ Shining mane,’ the
best of horses in the eyes of heroes ; his mane burns brightly.
The horse which brings Night for the noble gods is Hrimfaxi,
‘ Frosty mane.’ Foam falls from his bit each morning, and
thence come the dews in the dales — a statement made also of
the Valkyries’ steeds. Night as daughter of Nor is named also
in Alvissmal . 3 1

Snorri elaborates this. Night’s father, Narfi, is a giant in
Jotunheim. Night is swarthy and dark, as befits her race. She
was given first to the man Naglfari (who bears the same name
as the corpse-ship in Volusia ), and by him had a son Aud.
Then she was married to Anar, and from them Jord was born.
Next Delling, of the race of the Aisir, had her, and their son
was Day, radiant and fair like his father. All-father took Night
and Day and gave them two horses and two chariots, and sent
them up into the Heavens to ride round about the earth every
two half-days. Night’s horse, Hrimfaxi, bedews the earth with
foam every morning. Day’s steed, Skinfaxi, illumines earth
and air with his mane . 32

This elaborate genealogy may be due to knowledge of such
theogonic genealogies as that given by Hesiod. The skalds
worked this up, and Snorri has put it into prose. Thus it is not



PLATE XXVI
Sun Symbol

Bronze sun disc mounted on a metal ring with ten
wheels. From Ystad in Schonen. See p. 199.





NATURE


201


genuine Scandinavian mythology. The parallels are Night,
Nox; Nor, Erebus; Day, Dies; Jord, Terra; while Aud
(Authr) perhaps is .Ether, and Anar is Amor . 33 The origin of
Day from Night is genuine mythology, as with the Celts and
others, who held that night precedes or gives rise to day, dark-
ness to light. The light of day comes gradually out of the
darkness of night, whereas darkness falls over the light of day,
extinguishing it. Man also, asleep and inert during darkness,
rises to fresh activity with the light. A pre-existing state of
darkness, out of which light and life have proceeded, is thus
very widely presupposed. Tacitus says of the Teutons that
they count the number of nights, not of days, for night seems to
precede day . 34

£ Delling’s door ’ is mentioned in Havamal. Before it the
dwarf Thj odrorir c sang might for the gods, glory for elves, and
wisdom for Hroptatyr ’ (Odin). This door would be that
through which day or the sun came forth. In the Hervarar-
saga one of Gestumblindi’s riddles is : 1 What is the marvel out-
side Delling’s door, which shines on men in every land, and yet
wolves are always struggling for it? 5 The answer is, the sun,
the wolves being Skoll and Hati . 35

FIRE

Caesar’s reference to a cult of Vulcan means a cult of the
visible fire. Superstitious reverence for fire, e.g., on the hearth,
or fire as a sun-charm, as a medium of sacrifice, or the like,
may lie behind his words. In Scandinavia a fire-ritual was used
in establishing a claim to property in land. Fire was carried
round it, or a fiery arrow shot over it . 36 Consecrated fires
burned in temples, for such a fire in a temple in Iceland belong-
ing to Thorgrim was never allowed to go out. There were also
fires in the midst of temples over which kettles hung and across
which toasts were carried . 37 The Anglo-Saxon laws of Canute
speak of the honouring of fire as a heathen rite . 38


202


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


Needfire, fire kindled by means of friction, was used in many
rites, especially where new fire was required. This is mentioned
in the Indiculus Superstitionum — de igne fricato de ligno , id
est nodfyr , and also in one of Charlemagne’s Capitularies —
illos sacrilegos ignes quos niedfyr vocant . 39 It was used to
kindle fire in time of cattle-plague, and through such a fire
cattle were driven, all fires in houses having first been extin-
guished. Bonfires at midsummer festivals were also kindled
from needfire . 4 * 0

Fire plays its part in Eddie cosmogony — in the Muspell-
heim conception, and in the final conflagration. The giant
Surt with the flaming sword is guardian of this final fire and he
will burn up the world. It may be that Surt was a Volcano-god
or a Volcano-demon, originating in Iceland . 41 A story in the
Landnama-bok may be cited in this connexion. Thorir was an
old man, his sight dim. One evening he saw a huge, ill-looking
man rowing in an iron boat. He came to a house and dug be-
side it. During the night fire and lava burst from this place and
did great destruction. The huge man was obviously a Fire-
demon or Fire-giant . 42

Fire was used in Scandinavia as elsewhere to cure diseases.
Hence the sayings in Havamal that 1 fire is the best gift for
men ’ and that 1 fire cures diseases .’ 43

MOUNTAINS, HILLS, AND ROCKS

Many hills were called after Odin, either as places of his cult
or as indicating that the dead, whom he ruled, were within them.
Others were called after Thor. Folk-belief peopled certain
hills with the dead, especially in Iceland, and these were held
to be sacred . 44 Hill-giants are demoniac beings inhabiting hills,
or personifications of the hills. A cult of mountains as such in
Scandinavia is not easily proved. Agathias in the sixth century
says that the Alemanni worshipped mountains . 45 The eccle-
siastical prohibitions include sacrifices super petras et saxa y


NATURE


203


whether these are to be regarded as hills or great stones or out-
crops of rock or megalithic monuments. Some stones seem to
have been ruins of older temples and shrines — ‘ stones
( lapides ) which in ruinous places or woods are venerated,’ is a
phrase in one of the canons of the Synod of Nantes . 48 Examples
of the cult of spirits dwelling in stones are found in Iceland, and
the Landnama-bok tells how Eywind settled Flatey-dale up to
the Gund stones, and these he hallowed or worshipped . 47

TREES

Trees and groves were sacred among the Teutons, the grove
being a temple, a centre of religious and political life, the scene
of cult and sacrifice. Tacitus mentions several such groves in
connexion with the cult of Germanic deities — the silva Herculi
sacra near the Weser; the lucus Baduhennae in North-west Ger-
many; the grove where the Semnones sacrificed to the regnator
omnium Deus; the island castum nemus of Nerthus; the grove
where the brothers called Alcis were worshipped . 48 Lives of
Christian missionaries and other documents show the reverence
for such groves at a later time among the Frisians, Lombards,
Saxons, and others. On the branches of the trees sacrificial vic-
tims were hung. Adam of Bremen describes a grove near Up-
sala where animals were sacrificed, and other groves were sacred
in Scandinavia. We read in the handnama-bok of the Icelander
Thore who hallowed and worshipped a grove and offered sac-
rifice to it. 4S Where Christianity prevailed, such groves were
cut down and destroyed.

Single trees were also held sacred, such as those worshipped
by the Alemanni, mentioned by Agathias, or others spoken of
in contemporary documents over a period of several centuries . 50
They were sacred in themselves or dedicated to a god, e.g., the
robur Jovis dedicated to Donar at Geismar or the huge tree with
spreading branches ever green in winter at Upsala, with a spring
beside it at which sacrifices were offered. A living man was


204 EDDIC MYTHOLOGY

sometimes thrown into this spring, and the whole place was
tabu . 51

17 6

went into exile, and Mit-othin took his place. Odin returned
only after Frigg was dead. Probably we are to assume that
Mit-othin, like Vili and Ve, took Frigga as wife . 13 The possible
meanings of these myths have already been given . 14 Frigg,
who gives herself for the sake of personal adornments resembles
Freyja, who does the same — another suggestion of their ulti-
mate identity or that myths told of one were also told of the
other.

The opening part of the prose Introduction to Grimnismal
shows Frigg, with Odin, in a more pleasing light. They ap-
pear as an old peasant and his wife dwelling by the sea. King
Hraudung had two sons, Agnar and Geirrod, who went fishing
in a boat. They were driven out to sea and wrecked on the coast
where Odin and Frigg dwelt. With them they spent the
winter, not knowing who the peasant and his wife were. Odin
nourished Geirrod and taught him out of the treasures of his
wisdom. Frigg took Agnar in charge. In spring Odin gave
them a ship, and as he and Frigg accompanied the lads to it,
Odin took Geirrod apart and spoke privately to him. The
youths had a fair wind and reached their father’s place, but as
Geirrod sprang ashore, he pushed out the boat with Agnar,
saying: c Go where evil spirits may have thee.’ The vessel was
driven out to sea, but Geirrod was well received by the people
and made king, for his father was dead. This explains why
Odin and Frigg are respectively foster-parents of Geirrod and
Agnar. The goddess Hlin was defender of Frigg’s favourites
or fosterlings.

Nothing is known in detail of the cult of Frigg, nor can it be
proved that she was originally an Earth-goddess, consort of a
Heaven-god, but later assigned to Odin. Her name occurs in
that of the sixth day of the week as the equivalent of Dies
Veneris , OHG Friadag, Frijetag; AS Frigedaegj Old Frisian
Frigendei; ON Frjadagr. The occurrence of these names
shows that Frigg was known both to Scandinavians and West
Germans, and that she was equated with Venus . 15 The English






























PLATE XXII


Images and Grave-plate

To left. Image of a god wearing a helmet, found
in Scania. Ninth or tenth century.

To right. Bronze image of a goddess, possibly of
fertility, from Scania, c. 700 B.c. Similar figures are
common in the Baltic area, and the type goes back to
images of the Babylonian Istar, goddess of fruitfulness.

Centre. Grave plate from Kivike, early Bronze
Age. From M annus, vol. vii.









FRIGG


177

yElfric speaks of her as £ that foul goddess Venus whom men
call Frigg.’ The Lombards knew her as Freaj the Thuringians,
as Frija, whose sister was Volla, the Norse Fulla, according to
the Merseburg charm. Geoffrey of Monmouth says that, after
Woden, the Anglo-Saxons worshipped among others the most
powerful goddess after whose name the sixth day was called
Fredai.

Reminiscences of Frigg appear in tradition. In Sweden, at
the religious observance of Thursday, when the house was pre-
pared for the visit of deities, the expression was used £ Hallow
the god Thor and Frigg.’ On the same day no spindle or distaff
could be used, for Frigg herself then span. In the evening an
old man and woman might be seen sitting at the distaff, viz.,
Thor and Frigg. Why she was thus associated with Thor is
unknown. In Sweden the stars forming the belt in the constel-
lation Orion are called £ Frigg’s spindle and distaff.’ Thus she
was associated with women’s work. In Iceland an orchis from
which love-philtres are made is called Friggjargras, and a cer-
tain fern is called Freyjuhar . 16


CHAPTER XVI


LESSER GODDESSES

IDUNN

I N his formal list of the Asynjur, Snorri does not mention
Idunn, but elsewhere he includes her among them . 1 She
was wife of Bragi and dwelt at Brunnakr’s brook. As goddess
of immortality she is described by Kauffmann as keeping £ the
venerable father of singers young even in old age — a beautiful
symbol of the undying freshness of poetry,’ and by Gering as
indicating the immortality of song . 2 She guarded in her coffer
the apples which the gods tasted when they began to grow old.
Thus they grew young, and so it continued to the Doom of the
gods. Gangleri, to whom this was told, said that the gods
have entrusted much to Idunn’s care. Then he was told how
once the gods’ ruin was nearly wrought, and this is the subject
of the myth of Thjazi and Idunn. Idunn was called £ keeper of
the apples,’ and they are £ the elixir of the Aisir .’ 3 Hence also
her name, from the prefix id , £ again,’ and the termination unn ,
common in female names. This gives the meaning £ renewal,’
£ restoration of youth.’ Idunn is a common woman’s name in
Iceland . 4

In hokasenna Idunn besought Bragi at Tagir’s banquet not to
speak ill of Loki. Loki accused her of hunting after men and
of winding her white arms round the neck of her brother’s mur-
derer. She replied that she would not speak opprobrious words
of Loki, but would soothe Bragi, excited by beer, so that he and
Loki would not fight in anger . 5 Nothing else is known of the
subjects of Loki’s accusation.

The myth of Thjazi is told by Snorri and by the poet Thjo-
dolf of Hvin (tenth century) in the Haustlong. Odin, Loki,


LESSER GODDESSES


179

and Hoenir had wandered over wastes and mountains, and found
a herd of oxen, one of which they slew and roasted. Twice they
scattered the fire and found that the meat was not cooked. Per-
plexed at this, they heard a voice from a tree saying that he
who sat there had caused the fire to give no heat. A great eagle
was the speaker, and he said that the ox would be cooked if they
gave him a share. To this they agreed, but the eagle, the giant
Thjazi in disguise, took a thigh and two forequarters of the
ox. Loki snatched up a pole and struck him, but, as the eagle
flew off with the pole sticking in his back, Loki, hanging on to
the other end, was carried off and his feet dashed against rocks
and trees, while his arms were nearly torn from their sockets.
He cried out, but Thjazi would not free him until he promised
to induce Idunn to come out of Asgard with her apples. He
accepted these terms, and in due time lured Idunn from Asgard
by telling her of apples more wonderful than her own, growing
in a wood. When she went there, Thjazi as an eagle carried her
off to his abode, Thrvmheim. The EEsir soon began to grow
old, and consulting together, recalled that Idunn had been seen
leaving Asgard with Loki. He was now threatened with tor-
ture or death and promised to seek Idunn in Jotunheim.
Borrowing Freyja’s bird-plumage, he flew off there and
found that Thjazi had gone to sea, leaving Idunn alone.
Loki changed her to a nut, and flew off with her, grasped in
his claws.

Thjazi returned and gave chase, but when the AEsir saw the
pursuit they collected bundles of wood-chips and made a fire
with them. Thjazi was flying too swiftly to stop} his wings
caught fire and the gods slew him. Of this death of Thjazi,
Thor boasts in Harbardsljod , as if he were the sole slayer. Loki
also maintained that he was first and last at the deadly fight
when Thjazi was slain . 6

This myth has been explained in terms of nature phenomena.
Idunn is the luxuriant green of vegetation which falls as booty
to the giant, the demon of autumn storms, but is brought back


i8o


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


by Loki, the warm air, in spring. 7 But if the gods were believed
to owe immortal youth to magical apples, then inevitably the
Jotuns, their enemies, would seek to gain possession of these.
As apples were unknown in Iceland and only known in Norway
at a later time when grown in monastic gardens, the Idunn myth
has been regarded as one formed by skalds out of biblical con-
ceptions of the fruit of the Tree of Life, the myth of the Garden
of the Hesperides, and Irish stories of magic apples. 8 None of
these sources, however, quite accounts for the myth, and it is
quite likely that there is here a primitive conception, possibly
worked upon by outside sources, of the immortal youth or
strength of gods being dependent on certain magic foods, like
Soma, nectar and ambrosia, or, in Irish myths, Manannan’s
swine, Goibniu’s ale, or the apples of the Land of Youth. 9

GEFJUN

Snorri includes Gefjun among the Asynjur. She is a virgin
and on her attend all who die maidens. 10 At dEgir’s banquet she
tried to stay the strife by saying that Loki is well known as a
slanderer and hater of all persons. Loki bids her be silent: he
cannot forget him who allured her to lust — the fair youth to
whom she surrendered herself for the sake of a necklace. Odin
then cried: £ Mad thou art and raving, Loki, in rousing Gefjun’s
wrath, for she knows the destinies of all as well as Id Gefjun
was called upon in the taking of oaths. 11

Certain statements in these notices of Gefjun may show that
she is like, if not identical with, Frigg and Freyja. She is mis-
tress of dead maidens, and maidens, e.g., Thorgerd, go to
Freyja after death. Her surrender of herself for the sake of
a necklace recalls the Brisinga-men myth. Her prophetic
knowledge, equal to Odin’s, makes her like Frigg who knows
all fates of men. While these common factors may not estab-
lish identity, they show that goddesses worshipped in different
localities tended to have the same traits or that similar myths
were apt to be told of them. Gefjun’s name also resembles one


LESSER GODDESSES 181

of the names of Freyja, viz., Gefn (cf. AS geo f on, ‘ sea,’ but
more probably the name means £ giver ’).

The same, or, as some think, a different Gefjun, is the sub-
ject of a story told by Snorri in the Edda and in his Heims-
kringla. In the Eddie account Gylfi, king of Sweden, gave a
wandering woman named Gefjun, of the kin of the Aisir, as
much land as four oxen could plough in a day and a night. This
was in return for the pleasure which her skill had given him.
She took four oxen out of Jotunheim (her sons by a giant), and
yoked them to the plough. The land was now cut so deep that
it was torn out and drawn by the oxen out to sea, where it re-
mained in a sound. Gefjun gave it the name Selund (Seeland).
The place once occupied by it in Sweden became water, which
was now named Log (Lake Malar). The bays in that lake cor-
respond to headlands in Seeland. Snorri then quotes a verse
from the poet Bragi’s Shield-lay describing this act. 12

In the H eimskringla this story is connected with the wander-
ing of the Aisir over Denmark to South Sweden. Odin sent
Gefjun over the sound to seek land, and there Gylfi gave her
the gift. Now she went to Jotunheim, where she bore four sons
to a giant, and turned them into oxen. Then follows the account
of the formation of Seeland. Odin’s son Skjold married Gef-
jun, and they dwelt at Hleidra (Leire). Here also the Bragi
stanza is quoted. 13

This story is cosmogonic: it tells how an island was formed.
In the original myth Seeland could hardly have been regarded
as torn out of a part of Sweden at such a distance from it. This
geographical inconsistency arose from the fact that Gylfi was
regarded as king of Sweden. This piece of euhemerism dates
from the thirteenth century. Gylfi may originally have been
a god. Olrik, comparing the myth with traditional plough-rites
at New Year surviving in Scandinavia and England, in which
the plough is paraded, drawn by men masked as oxen under the
lead of a woman (or a man masquerading as a w r oman), sug-
gests that it was derived from such ritual. The rite was a fer-


182


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


tility charm, and Gefjun was a Danish goddess of fertility and
agriculture . 14 That Gefjun was a Danish goddess is shown by
her connexion with Skjold, the eponymous ancestor of the
Skjoldings or Danish kings. Skjold is £ the god of the Ska-
nians , 1 Skanunga god , and the Skanians were the people of Den-
mark or of part of it, the island Skaane. Possibly Gefjun is
Nerthus or a form of Nerthus. Her name, if connected with
gefa , ‘ to give , 1 or with Gothic gabei y £ riches , 1 would be in keep-
ing with her attributes both as a giver of fertility or as a giver of
land to Denmark. The name would then be found again in
the Gab'ue or Alagabice of Romano-German inscriptions, £ the
Givers 1 or £ All-givers . 1 15 If the myth is derived from the
ritual, it is also linked to stories regarding the origin of islands
or of land obtained by various stratagems with a plough or the
hide of an ox . 16

The association of an eponymous king, Skjold, with a god-
dess, has a parallel in Hyndluljod where Freyja is associated
with Ottarr, connected with a royal house. Gefjun must once
have been worshipped in Seeland.

SIF

Sif was Thor’s wife, and he is often known merely as c Sif’s
husband . 1 17 She was famous for her golden hair, and was
called £ the fair-haired goddess . 1 18 The myth told about her
hair will be given in Chapter XXVI. Sif poured mead for Loki
at ^Egir’s feast, wishing him £ Hail ! 1 and saying that he knew
her to be blameless among the deities. To this Loki replied
that he knew one who had possessed her, viz., himself . 19 In
Harbardsljod Harbard taunts Thor by saying that Sif has a
lover at home, and that he should put forth his strength on him
rather than on Harbard . 20 Perhaps this lover was Loki. When
Hrungnir came to Asgard in giant-fury, he threatened to carry
off Sif and Freyja . 21 Sif was mother of Thrud by Thor, and of
Ull by some other father . 22


LESSER GODDESSES


183


SAGA

Saga is named by Snorri as the second goddess after Frigg.
She dwells at £ a great abode,’ Sokkvabekk, £ Sinking stream,’ a
waterfall, and here where cool waves wash her abode, Odin and
she drink joyfully each day out of golden vessels . 23 Some
scholars regard Saga as a mere reflexion of Frigg. Her name
has no connexion with the Icelandic Sagas, but means £ she who
sees and knows all things,’ as Odin does, and her dwelling —
a water-world — resembles Frigg’s Fensalir, also near the
waters. As the liquor drunk is presumably a draught of wis-
dom, and as Saga dwells in or beside a waterfall, she may be a
Water-spirit, a female counterpart of Mimir. With such elfins,
no less than in wells and streams, secret knowledge was sup-
posed to reside. Unfortunately the myth which told of Odin’s
connexion with her is not now extant . 24 In Helgakvitha Hun-
dingsbana a cape called after her is mentioned, Sagunes . 25

SOL AND BIL

Snorri says that Sol and Bil are reckoned among the Asynjur.
Sol is the sun, regarded as female, and, in another passage,
Snorri tells how she and her brother the moon are children of
Mundilfari, both of them so fair and comely that he called them
Sol and Mane. Sol was married to the man Glen. The gods
were so angry at Mundilfari’s insolence in giving them these
names, that they set Sol and Mane in the sky, making Sol
drive the horses that draw the chariot of the Sun, while Mane
steers the course of the moon, and determines its waxing and
waning . 26

Snorri thus distinguishes between the actual sun and moon
and those worshipful beings who direct their courses. In Vaf-.
thrudnismal Mundilfari is spoken of, and his children Sol and
Mane are said to journey daily round the Heaven to measure
time for men . 27 Here they are rather the actual sun and moon.


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


184

In the Merseburg charm Sunna, the sun, is named as sister of
Sinthgunt. The sex of the sun agrees with popular German
folk-lore regarding it . 28

Snorri also says that Mane raised the two children of Vidfinn,
1 Wood-dweller,’ from the earth as they came from the well
Byrgir. Their names were Bil and Hjuki. On their shoulders
they were carrying the basket Saegr on the pole Simul. These
two follow the moon, as one can see from the earth. As Swedish
folk-lore still speaks of the spots on the moon as two people
carrying a basket on a pole, this may be taken as the meaning of
the myth. There may be some reference to the £ Man in the
Moon ’ myth, and even the nursery rhyme of Jack and Jill has
been supposed to have a link with Bil and Hjuki . 29 Why Bil
is called a goddess is unknown, but in O ddrunar gratr the phrase
linnvenges bil , in the sense of £ goddess of gold,’ is used as a
kenning for ‘ woman .’ 30

FULLA

Fulla is said to be a maid who has loose tresses and a band of
gold about her head. She bears Frigg’s coffer, and has charge
over her foot-gear, and is acquainted with her secret plans.
Hence Frigg is 1 Mistress of Fulla ’; a kenning for gold is £ the
snood of Fulla,’ with reference to her golden fillet. After his
death, Balder’s wife Nanna sent Fulla a golden ring from Hel . 31

As has been seen, the Introduction to Grimnismal tells how
Frigg sent Fulla with a message to Geirrod about Odin. The
Merseburg charm tells how Vol, sister of Frija (Frigg) tried
to charm the horse’s foot. Vol is Fulla, and she was thus known
in Germany and regarded as Frigg’s sister. In the Balder story
she takes rank with Frigg, since they are the only goddesses to
whom Nanna sends gifts from Hel.

The name Fulla means 1 fulness,’ £ abundance,’ and the Dame
Habonde or Abundia of medieval folk-belief may be a reminis-
cence of Fulla, who perhaps distributed Frigg’s gifts out of her
coffer. If Frigg was an Earth-goddess, Fulla or ‘ fulness ’



















PLATE XXIII


Icelandic Temple

The lower part of the plate shows the remains of
an Icelandic temple, with walls of turf, eight feet thick.
Near them are two rows of foundations for wooden
pillars. The building is oblong, but divided by a low
stone cross-wall, separating the gods’ abode, in which
was an altar, from the hall. Images stood on this wall.
Along the floor of the hall hearths existed, with pits in
which meat was cooked in hot ashes. Those who
partook of the feast sat on long benches along the hall,
between the pillars.

The upper part of the plate shows the remains of a
hearth and pit.

INTRODUCTION


midday, lest the god should appear — “the destruction that
wasteth at noonday.” 14 In Galatia Artemis was thought to
wander with demons in the forest at midday, tormenting to
death those whom she met; while Diana in Autun was re-
garded as a midday demon who haunted cross-roads and for-
ests. Whether these divinities represent a Celtic goddess is
uncertain, and their fateful midday aspect may have been
suggested by the “midday demon” of the Septuagint version
of Psalm xc. 6. Both accounts occur in lives of saints.

Several references suggest that the gods punished the taking
of things dedicated to themselves, and therefore tabu to men.
Caesar says that this was a criminal action punished by torture
and death, 15 and Irish myth also discloses the disastrous results
of breach of tabu. The awe of the priest of the grove is par-
alleled by incidents of Celtic history. After the battle of Allia
in 390 b. c., where the Celts saw divine aid in the flight of the
Romans and stood awestruck before it, they were afraid of the
night. 16 After the battle of Delphi (279 b. c.) “madness from
a god” fell on them at night, and they attacked each other, no
longer recognizing each other’s speech. 17 Another fear based
on a myth is referred to in Classical sources, that of the future
cataclysm. The Celts did not dread earthquakes or high tides,
which, indeed, they attacked with weapons; but they feared
the fall of the sky and the day when fire and water must pre-
vail. An Irish vow perhaps refers to this: something would be
done if the sky with its showers of stars did not fall or the earth
burst or the sea submerge the world. Any untoward event
might be construed as the coming of this catastrophe or analo-
gous to it. How, then, was the sky meanwhile supported?
Perhaps on mountain-peaks like that near the source of the
Rhone, which the native population called “the column of the
sun,” and which was so lofty that it hid the northern sun from
the southern folk. 18 Gaidoz says that “the belief that the earth
rests on columns is the sole debris of ancient cosmogony of
which we know in Irish legends, but we have only the reflexion


INTRODUCTION


13


of it in a hymn and gloss of the Liber Hymnorum. In vaunting
the pre-eminence of two saints who were like great gods of old
Christian Ireland, Ultan says of Brigit that she was ‘half of
the colonnade of the kingdom (of the world) with Patrick the
eminent.’ The gloss is more explicit — ‘as there are two pillars
in the world, so are Brigit and Patrick in Ireland.’” 19 In some
of the romantic Irish voyages islands are seen resting on pillars,
and an echo of these myths is found in the Breton tradition that
the church at Kernitou stands on four columns, resting on a
congealed sea which will submerge the structure when it be-
comes liquid . 20

Divine help is often referred to in Irish myths, and a parallel
instance occurs in Justin’s allusion to the guidance of the
Segovesi by birds to the Danubian regions which they con-
quered . 21 Such myths are depicted on coins, on which a horse
appears led by a bird, which sometimes whispers in its ear.
Heroes were also inspired by birds to found towns. Birds were
objects of worship and divination with the Celts, and divinities
transformed themselves into the shape of birds, or birds formed
their symbols.

The birth of heroes from a god and a human mother occurs in
Irish myth. One Classical parallel to this is found in the ac-
count of the origin of the northern Gauls given by Diodorus.
They were descended from Hercules and the beautiful giant
daughter of the King of Celtica, and hence they were taller and
handsomer than other peoples . 22 This is perhaps the Greek
version of a native myth, which is echoed in the Irish tale of
the gigantic daughter of the king of Maidens’ Land and her
love for Fionn . 23 Again, when Diodorus speaks of Hercules as-
sembling his followers, advancing into Celtica, improving the
laws, and founding a city called Alesia, honoured ever since by
the Celts as the centre of their kingdom, he is probably giving
a native myth in terms of Greek mythology . 24 Some native
god or hero was concerned, and his story fitted that of Her-
cules, who became popular with the Celts.


14


INTRODUCTION


The Celts had beliefs resembling those of the Greeks and
Romans about incubi. Demons called dusii sought the couches
of women out of lust, a belief reported by sub-Classical authors.
The Classical evidence for Celtic belief in divine descent is also
furnished by the form of several proper names which have
been recorded, while lineage from a river or river-god is as-
sociated with the Belgic Viridomar . 25

A legend reported by Pliny concerns some natural product,
perhaps a fossil echinus , in explanation of the origin of which
this myth was current, or to it an existing serpent-myth had
been attached. Numerous serpents collected on a day in sum-
mer and, intertwining, formed a ball with the foam from their
bodies, after which their united hissings threw it into the air.
According to the Druids, he who would obtain it must catch it
on a mantle before it touched the ground and must escape
hastily, putting running water between himself and the pur-
suing serpents. The ball was used magically . 26

Classical observers cite vaguely some myths about the other-
world and they admired profoundly the Celtic belief in im-
mortality, which, if Lucan’s words are correct, was that of the
soul animating a new body there. Diodorus also affirms this,
though he compares it with the Pythagorean doctrine of trans-
migration ; 27 yet in the same passage he shows that the dead
passed to another world and were not reborn on earth. Irish
mythology tells us nothing about the world of the dead, though
it has much to say of a gods’ land or Elysium, to which the
living were sometimes invited by immortals. This Elysium
was in distant islands, in the hollow hills, or under the waters.
Plutarch, on the authority of Demetrius, who may have been a
Roman functionary in Britain, reports that round Britain are
many desert islands, named after gods and heroes. Demetrius
himself visited one island lying nearest these, inhabited by a
people whom the Britons regarded as sacred, and while he was
there, a storm arose with fiery bolts falling. This the people
explained as the passing away of one of the mighty, for when a



PLATE III


Gaulish Coins

1. Coin of the Senones, showing on one side two
animals opposed, and on the reverse a boar and a
wolf (?) opposed (cf. Plates II, n, XXIV).

2. Gaulish coin, with man-headed horse and bird,
and, below, a bull ensign (cf. Plates II, 3-5, 9, IX,
B, XIX, 1, 6, XX, B, XXI).

3. Coin of the Remi, showing squatting divinity
with a torque in the right hand (cf. Plates VIII, IX,
XXV), and on the reverse a boar and S-symbol or
snake.

4. Armorican coin, with horse and bird.

5. Coin of the Carnutes, with bull and bird.

6. Gaulish coin from Greek model, with boar.

7. Gaulish coin of the Senones, with animals
opposed.







INTRODUCTION


15


great soul died, the atmosphere was affected and pestilences
were caused. Demetrius does not say whither the soul went,
either to the islands or elsewhere, but islands named after gods
and heroes suggest the Irish divine Elysium, and this is con-
firmed by what Demetrius adds, and by what Plutarch reports
in another work. On one of the islands Kronos is imprisoned,
and Briareos keeps guard over him , 28 along with many deities
(Sadovas) who are his attendants and servants. What Celtic
divinities or heroes lurk under these names is unknown,
but the myth resembles traditions of Arthur in Avalon (Ely-
sium), or of Fionn or Arthur sleeping in a hollow hill, waiting
to start up at the hour of their country’s need. Elsewhere
Plutarch speaks of an island in which the barbarians say that
Kronos is imprisoned by Jupiter in a cavern. There Kronos
sleeps, fed by birds with ambrosia, while his son lies beside him
as if guarding him. The surrounding sea, clogged with earth, ap-
pears to be solid, and people go to the island, where they spend
thirteen years waiting on the god. Many remain, because there
is no toil or trouble there, and devote their time to sacrificing,
singing hymns, or studying legends and philosophy. The cli-
mate is exquisite, and the island is steeped in fragrance. Some-
times the god opposes their departure by appearing to them
along with those who minister to him, and these divine min-
istrants themselves prophesy or tell things which have been
revealed to them as dreams of Saturn when they visit his
cave. Plutarch’s alleged informant had waited on the god and
studied astrology and geometry, and before going to another
island he carried with him golden cups . 29 In this latter story
the supposed studies and ritual of the Druids are mingled with
some distorted tradition of Elysium, and the reference to cups
of gold carried from the island perhaps points to the myth of
things useful to man brought from the land of the gods . 30

The sixth century Byzantine historian Procopius has a
curious story about the island of “ Brittia,” which was divided
by a wall from north to south. West of the wall none could


i6


INTRODUCTION


live, so foul was the air, so many the vipers and evil beasts;
but in its inhabited part dwelt Angles, Frisians, and Britons.
The island lay between Britannia and Thule. Thule is prob-
ably Scandinavia; Britannia, which is, strictly speaking,
Britain, is confused with the region lying between Brittany
and the mouths of the Scheldt and Rhine. Brittia is Britain;
the wall is the Roman Wall, shown on Ptolemy’s map running
north and south at the present Scottish border, because Scot-
land was represented as lying at right angles to England. The
region beyond the wall, mountainous, forest-clad, and inac-
cessible, was easily conceived as a sinister place by those who
heard of it only vaguely. Procopius then says that on the coast
of the Continent fishermen and farmers are exempt from taxa-
tion because it is their duty to ferry souls over to Brittia, doing
this in turn. At midnight they hear a knocking at their door
and muffled voices calling; but when they reach the shore, they
see only empty boats, not their own. In these they set out and
presently perceive that the boats have become laden, the gun-
wale being close to the water; and within an hour Brittia is
reached, though ordinarily it would take a day and a night to
cross the sea. There the boats are invisibly unladen, and al-
though no one has been seen, a loud voice is heard asking
each soul his name and country . 31 The Roman poet Claudian,
writing toward the close of the fourth and the beginning of the
fifth century of our era, had perhaps heard such a story, though
he confuses it with that of Odysseus and the shades . 32 At the
extremity of the Gaulish coast is a place protected from the
tides, where Odysseus by sacrifice called up the shades. There
is heard the murmur of their complaint, and the inhabitants
see pale phantoms and dead forms flitting about . 33 This
strictly concerns the Homeric shades, for Classical testimony
to the Celtic other-world, as well as Irish stories of the return
of the dead, never suggests “pale phantoms.” Claudian may
have heard some story like that of Procopius, though it is by
no means certain that the latter is reporting a Celtic belief


INTRODUCTION


17


for other peoples than the Celts dwelt in his time opposite
Britain. Possibly, however, the Celts believed that the dead
went to distant islands. Even now the Bretons speak of the
“Bay of Souls” at Raz, at the extreme point of Armorica, while
folk-lore tells how the drowned are nightly conveyed by boat
from Cape Raz to the isle of Tevennec . 34 If the Celtic dead
went to an island, this may explain the title said by Pliny,
quoting Philemon (second century b. c.), to have been given
by the Cimbri to the northern sea, Morimarusam = Mortuum
Mare or possibly Mortuorum Mare (“ Sea of the Dead”) — the
sea which the dead crossed. The title may refer, however, to an
unchangeably calm sea, and such a sea has always been feared,
or to the ice-covered sea, which Strabo 35 regarded as an im-
passable spongy mixture of earth, water, and air. The sup-
posed Celtic belief in an island of the dead might also explain
why, according to Pliny, no animal or man beside the Gallic
ocean dies with a rising tide 36 — a belief still current in Brit-
tany; the dead could be carried away only by an outflowing
tide. But whether or not the Celts believed in such an island,
it is certain that no Irish story of the island Elysium connects
that with them, but associates it only with divine beings and
favoured mortals who were lured thither in their lifetime.

In Wales and Ireland, where Roman civilization was un-
known, mythology had a better chance of survival. Yet here,
as in Gaul, it was forced to contend with triumphant Chris-
tianity, which was generally hostile to paganism. Still, curi-
ously enough, Christian verity was less destructive of Celtic
myths than was Roman civilization, unless the Insular Celts
were more tenacious of myth than their Continental cousins.
Sooner or later the surviving myths, more often fragments than
finished entities, were written down; the bards and the filid
(learned poets) took pride in preserving the glories of their
race; and even learned Christian monks must have assisted in
keeping the old stories alive. Three factors, however, played
their part in corrupting and disintegrating the myths. The


i8


INTRODUCTION


first of these was the dislike of Christianity to transmit what-
ever directly preserved the memory of the old divinities. In
the surviving stories their divinity is not too closely descried;
they are made as human as possible, though they are still super-
human in power and deed; they are tolerated as a kind of
fairy-folk rather than as gods. Yet they are more than fairies
and they have none of the wretchedness of the decrepit, skin-
clad Zeus of Heine’s Gods in Exile. Side by side with this there
was another tendency, natural to a people who no longer wor-
shipped gods whose names were still more or less familiar.
They were regarded as kings and chiefs and were brought into
a genealogical scheme, while some myths were reduced to
annals of supposititious events. Myth was transmuted into
pseudo-history. This euhemerizing 37 process is found in all
decaying mythologies, but it is outstanding in that of the
ancient Irish. The third factor is the attempt of Christian
scribes to connect the mythical past and its characters with
persons and events of early Scriptural history.

These factors have obscured Irish divine legends, though
enough remains to show how rich and beautiful the mythology
had been. In the two heroic cycles — those of Cuchulainn
and Fionn respectively — the disturbance has been less, and
in these the Celtic magic and glamour are found. Some stories
of the gods escaped these destructive factors, and in them these
delectable traits are also apparent. They are romantic tales
rather than myths, though their mythical quality is obvious.

Two mythical strata exist, one older and purely pagan, in
which gods are immortal, though myth may occasionally have
spoken of their death; the other influenced by the annalistic
scheme and also by Christianity, in which, though the unlike-
ness of the gods to humankind is emphasized, yet they may be
overcome and killed by men. The literary class who rewrote
the myths had less simple ideals than even the Greek mythog-
raphers. They imagined some moving situations and majestic
episodes or borrowed these from the old myths, but they had


INTRODUCTION


19


little sense of proportion and were infected by a vicious rhetori-
cal verbosity and exaggeration. Many tales revel monoto-
nously in war and bloodshed, and the characters are spoiled by
excessive boastfulness. Yet in this later stratum the mytho-
poeic faculty is still at work, inasmuch as tales were written in
which heroes were brought into relation with the old divinities.

The main sources for the study of Irish mythology are the
documents contained in such great manuscripts as the Book
of Leinster and the Book of the Dun Cow ( Leabhar na hUidhre ), 38
written in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, but based on
materials of older date. Later manuscripts also contain im-
portant stories. Floating tales and traditions, fairy- and folk-
lore, are also valuable, and much of this material has now been
published . 39

Among the British Celts, or those of them who escaped the
influence of Roman civilization, the mythological remains are
far less copious. Here, too, the euhemerizing process has been at
work, but much more has the element of romance affected the
old myths. They have become romantic tales arranged, as in
the Mabinogion, in definite groups, and the dramatis personae
are the ancient gods, though it is difficult to say whether the
incidents are myths transformed or are fresh romantic inven-
tions of a mythic kind. Still, the Welsh Mabinogion is of great
importance, as well as some parts of Arthurian romance, the
poems about Taliesin, and other fragments of Welsh literature.
The euhemerizing process is still more evident in those portions
of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History which tell of the names and
deeds of kings who were once gods.

Thus if materials for Irish and British mythology are copious,
they must be used with caution, for we cannot be certain that
any one story, however old, ever existed as such in the form of
a pagan myth. As the mountain-peaks of Ireland or Wales or
the Western Isles are often seen dimly through an enshrouding
mist, which now is dispersed in torn wisps, and now gathers
again, lending a more fantastic appearance to the shattered


20


INTRODUCTION


crags, so the gods and their doings are half-recorded and half-
hidden behind the mists of time and false history and romance.
Clear glimpses through this Celtic mist are rare. This is not to
be wondered at when we consider how much of the mythology
has been long forgotten, and how many hands have worked
upon the remainder. The stories are relics of a dead past, as
defaced and inexplicable as the battered monuments of the old
religion. Romancers, would-be historians, Christian opponents
of paganism, biographers of saints, ignorant yet half-believing
folk, have worked their will with them. Folk-tale incidents
have been wrought into the fabric, perhaps were originally
part of it. Gods figure as kings, heroes, saints, or fairies, and a
new mythical past has been created out of the debris of an older
mythology. There is little of the limpid clearness of the myths
of Hellas, and yet enough to delight those who, in our turbulent
modern life, turn a wistful eye upon the past.

LESSER GODS


165

Detter and Neckel explain Vali’s name as derived from
Wanilo, £ the little Van,’ as if he were one of the Vanir, while
Neckel assumes that Vali was the avenger, not of Balder, but
of his father Frey. Such attempts at explaining away the state-
ments of the Edda are futile. Sievers’ derivation of Vali from
* vanula y £ shining,’ does not agree with anything told of this

god.". ” "

Vali takes no part in the strife at the Doom of the gods, but
in the renewed world he shares with Vidarr the seats of the
gods. While Vidarr and Vali are sons of Odin by giantesses}
avengers, one of Odin, the other of Balder} and sharers of the
blissful future, they are not necessarily identical, as has been
maintained. That both are later creations of poetic fancy, i.e.,
to fit into the Doom drama, is possible.

In Svipdagsmal the dead Groa recites protective charms to
her son, among others one that Rind sang to Ran. Ran is here
not the Sea-goddess, but, as the parallel demands, a hero and
even a son of Rind. Hence Ran is assumed to be another name
for Vali. The Eddas say little of Rind, but from the Swedish
place-name Vrindravi, £ Rind’s sanctuary,’ it is believed that she
must have been the object of a cult . 55

HOD

Hod (ON HQjpr), whose name nears £ war,’ £ battle,’ is son
of Odin, and is of great strength. He is the blind god among
the yEsir. Gods and men would desire him not to be named,
for the work of his hands will be long remembered . 56 This
work was Balder’s death: hence he is £ Balder’s opponent,’

£ Balder’s murderer .’ 57 Snorri tells how Loki caused Hod to
slay Balder. Of Vali’s vengeance upon Hod, no myth has
survived, and it is possible that in the earlier form of the
Balder story, Loki was not the cause of Hod’s slaying Balder.
Loki does not appear in Saxo’s version of the story, as we
have seen.


1 66


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


The Volus-pa poet and Snorri tell how Hod will sit down
with Balder in peace in the renewed world . 58

One of the periphrases for Balder is £ Hod’s adversary ,’ 59
and this agrees with Saxo’s story, in which Balder was adversary
of Hotherus (Hod), who is here a hero and king of Sweden,
not a god. The kennings for Hod were £ the blind god,’
£ thrower of the mistletoe,’ £ companion of Hel,’ £ foe of Valid 60
A curious theory of Detter’s as explaining the Balder myth
is that Hod was really Odin. Balder and Vali were brothers,
connected with Frey, Vali being £ the little Van,’ one of the
Vanir. Odin, the one-eyed or blind god of war, sought to
cause strife between the brothers. He placed his spear in the
form of a mistletoe-twig in Vali’s hand. Vali threw it at
Balder, who was slain . 81


CHAPTER XIII


MIMIR


MONG Water-spirits Mimir is supreme and has a promi-


nent position in the Eddie poems. If not a god, he is
brought into close contact with gods, especially Odin, whose
uncle he may have been. 1

In the V oluspa Odin pledged his eye with Mimir, presum-
ably to obtain secret knowledge from him. The eye is hidden
in Mimir’s well, and Mimir daily drinks mead out of Odin’s
pledge. But in another stanza a stream is said to issue from this
pledge and it waters the tree Mjotvid, which Snorri, in his
reference to this verse, takes to be Yggdrasil. Mimir’s well is
thus under the tree, the well which in verse 19 is called c Urd’s
well.’ The redactor of the poem which spoke of Odin’s eye
given as a pledge and hidden in a well beneath the tree which
was watered by it, has added a new and contradictory verse.
The well is that of the Water-spirit Mimir, and he daily drinks
from this eye. As Boer says : the redactor c replaces the clear
nature picture (of Odin giving a pledge in return for something
else 5 i.e., water, which falls on the tree) with a meaningless one,
that of Mimir drinking from the pledge.’ 2 The pledge, Odin’s
eye, is generally regarded as the sun, the eye of the Heaven-
god, seen reflected in the water or sinking into the sea — phe-
nomena which may have given rise to the myth. Where the
redactor speaks of Mimir’s drinking from this pledge, it is
thought of as a cup or shell — a quite different myth from that
of the eye.

From Snorri’s account of this myth, Mimir’s well is under
that root of the ash Yggdrasil which turns towards the Frost-



1 68


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


giants. In it wisdom and understanding are stored. Mimir
keeps the well and is full of ancient lore, because he drinks of
the well from the Gjallar-horn. Odin came and craved one
draught of the well, but did not obtain it till he had given his
eye in pledge. Then Snorri quotes the Voluspa stanza which
tells how Mimir drinks from Odin’s pledge . 3 This contradicts
what has just been said about the Gjallar-horn. There must
have been different versions of the myth of Odin’s eye and of
Mimir’s relation to it.

In Svi'pdagsmal Mimameid, £ the tree of Mimir,’ is given as
a name of the world-tree . 4

At the Doom of the gods Mimir’s sons, i.e., the rivers and
brooks, are in violent motion . 5

Another aspect of Mimir is given in Vafthrudnismai. Mimir,
called Hoddmimer, £ Hill-Mimir ’ or £ Mimir of the treasure,’
is owner of a wood ( £ Hoddmimer’s holt ’), and in it are hidden
a human pair, Lif and Lifthrasir ( £ Life ’ and £ He who holds
fast to life ’). They survive the terrible Fimbul-winter at the
end of the world. Meanwhile they feed on morning-dew, and
from them come the folk who will people the renewed earth.
According to Snorri, who quotes this verse, this human pair lie
hidden in the holt during the fire of Surt . 6 Whether this holt
or grove is identical with the world-tree is not clear. It may
have been regarded as existing underground at its roots where
Mimir’s fountain was.

Another series of Mimir myths is connected with his head,
cut off by the Vanir, as already told . 7 Odin smeared it with
worts that it should not rot, and sang words of magic ( galdra )
over it, and gave it such might that it told him of hidden
matters. In Sigrdrijumal the Valkyrie Sigrdrifa instructs
Sigurd in the wisdom of runes, and she says that he must learn
£ thought-runes ’ which Hropt (Odin) devised from the fluid
which £ dropped from Heiddraupnir’s head and from Hoddrof-
nir’s horn.’ These are evidently names of Mimir. Then she
continues:





PLATE XXI

VlDARR

This scene, from a sculptured Cross at Gosforth,
Cumberland, is believed to represent Vidarr attacking
the Fenris-Wolf (p. 159). His foot is on its lower
jaw. The serpentine form of the monster’s body is an
ornamental design.




MIMIR


169


‘ On the hill he stood with Brimir’s edge, [a sword]

His helmet was on his head;

Then spake for the first time wise Mimir’s head;

Giving utterance to true words.’

These were now carved on various objects. The occasion of this
incident is unknown . 8 Voluspa tells how, at the approach of
the Doom of the gods, Odin spoke with Mimir’s head, obvi-
ously seeking its advice. The poet must thus have known the
myth of the cutting off of the head, but forgot what he had
already told of Mimir himself. Snorri, who quotes this stanza
of Voluspa , gives a different turn to it in his prose narrative.
Odin rides to Mimir’s well and takes counsel of Mimir himself,
not of his head . 9

Mimir’s head may at first have been nothing more than the
source of the stream of which he was the guardian spirit or in
which he dwelt, the source being the stream’s ‘ head,’ or 1 Mi-
mir’s head,’ and the name afterwards taken literally. An ex-
planatory myth was then supplied, as well as stories of the
wisdom-giving head which are not without parallels in Scan-
dinavian custom and belief. In the Eyrbyggja-saga Freysten
found a skull lying loose and uncovered on a scree called
Geirvor. It sang a stave foretelling bloodshed at this spot and
that men’s skulls would lie there . 10 This was deemed a great
portent.

Mimir’s connexion with Odin is shown by the title given to
the latter by the skald Egill Skallagrimsson — 1 Mimir’s
friend .’ 11

Mimir’s name in its different Eddie forms — Mimir, Mim,
Mimi — is connected with words meaning c mindful ,’ 1 to brood
over,’ and it seems to have meant 1 the thinking one.’ Inspira-
tion, knowledge, prophecy were often associated with springs
and streams, or with the spirits inhabiting them, and of these
Mimir is an example, raised to a high place in Scandinavian
myth. The name occurs in place-names of rivers, etc., in Ger-
many (Mimling) and Sweden (Mimesa near the Mimessjo),


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


170

as well as in personal names, and bears witness to the widespread
belief in a Water-spirit bearing this name . 12

In the T hidriks-saga Mimir the smith is Siegfried’s master in
smith-craft, as he is of Velint (Volund) in the Vilkina-saga,
and in both he has supernatural attributes and possesses a won-
derful sword. The Miming of Saxo’s Balder story, called
satyrus silvarum , has also a magic sword and a magic bracelet
which increases its owner’s wealth, like the ring Draupnir. The
German hero-saga Biterolj speaks of Mime the old, a clever
master-smith, who made the best swords that the world has
ever seen . 13

Saxo’s Miming, satyrus silvarum , might be a dwarf or a
Wood-spirit, and the smiths who bear the name Mimir have
elfin traits. Whether they are identical with the Eddie Mimir
is uncertain. An elfin or dwarfish Wood-spirit, clever at smith-
work, and full of wisdom, might also be connected with wells
or springs, found often in forests. If they are all identical, we
see how, all over the Teutonic area, one out of the host of spirits
of the woods and waters rose to pre-eminence. Mimir as a
Water-spirit was known in late Swedish folk-lore, haunting the
Mimesa . 14

In Snorri’s list of giants, Mimir is given as a giant’s name,
though the notices of him do not suggest a giant personality.
But if the son of Bolthorn, who gave Odin nine mighty songs,
was Mimir, then he was at least a giant’s son. Mimir would
then be the brother of Bestla, Odin’s mother . 15


CHAPTER XIV


JEGIR

/ff^GIR is god of the sea (eegir , £ sea ’) or rather a Sea-giant.
/ Tv In primitive thought the sea was regarded as a mighty
being, which was personified or regarded as more or less dis-
tinct from the sea. The kennings for yEgir show that, even in
late times, there was not a clear distinction between sea (cegir)
and Sea-god (yEgir). Snorri says that see , £ sea,’ is called £ hus-
band of Ran, £ visitor of the gods,’ father of yEgir’s daughters,’
£ land of Ran .’ 1 The skald Ref speaks of £ yEgir’s wide jaws,’
as if the sea itself was a vast being. Into these jaws Ran wiles
the ships . 2 yEgir, the personal name, or eegir y £ sea,’ is con-
nected with Gothic ahva , Latin aqua , ON a , £ water,’ 1 river.’
The ON name of the river Eider (Egidora), yEgisdyr, is liter-
ally £ door of the sea .’ 3

yEgir is also called Gymir in the Introduction to Lokasenna
and in skaldic verse. Ran, his wife, is £ Gymir’s Volva ’; the
breakers or the murmur of the sea are £ Gymir’s song ’j the sea
is £ Gymir’s dwelling .’ 4 yEgir’s father is Fornjot, a giant, who
is also father of wind and fire . 5

Though on the whole depicted as a friend of the gods in the
EddaSy yEgir is of the giant folk. His name is given in Snorri’s
list of giants , 6 and Hymiskvitha calls him bergbui and jotun ,
and describes him sitting £ merry as a child ’ ( barnteitr ) like
other giants. Why the sea should be a Mountain-giant ( berg-
bui ) is not clear. Kindly and good-humoured, yEgir represents
the peaceful rather than the stormy sea.

The gods feasted in yEgir’s halls. Hymiskvitha opens by
describing a feast at which the gods found the ale scanty. They
consulted the divining-twigs and the blood and found that


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


172

there was abundance in Aiigir’s dwelling. Thor bade Aigir
furnish a banquet for them, but Aigir, in order to cause trouble,
said that Thor must procure a vessel large enough to brew ale
for all the gods. This is introductory to the story of Thor’s
adventure with the giant Hymir to whom he goes to procure
this vessel.

Lokasenna continues the story. Aigir prepared the banquet
in his halls, and to it came many gods and elves. The ale served
itself and the banquet was proceeding gaily, but the gods praised
^Egir’s servants, Fimafeng and Eldir, for their cleverness, and
this annoyed Loki, who slew Fimafeng. The bulk of the poem
is taken up with Loki and his slanders of the gods and god-
desses. Aigir takes no part in this: only at the end, ere Loki
goes away, does he address .Eligir:

‘ Ale hast thou brewed, O ACgir,

But nevermore wilt thou prepare a banquet.

All thy possessions flames shall play over,

Fire shall burn thy back,’

i.e., the fire which is to consume the world.

In explaining why gold is called ‘ Aigir’s fire,’ Snorri speaks
of this banquet. TEgir had gone to Asgard to a feast and, on
leaving, invited Odin and the Aisir to visit him three months
hence. When the guests (all but Thor) had assembled, Loki
bandied sharp words with the gods and slew Fimafeng . 7 Noth-
ing further is told by Snorri of the banquet, and neither here nor
in the story of Thor and Hymir does he speak of the mighty
vessel.

Lokasenna tells how, in place of fire, bright gold served to
give light in Aigir’s hall. Snorri enlarges upon this. Aigir
caused bright gold to be brought in and set on the floor. It
illumined the hall and served as lights at the banquet. Hence
gold is called 1 fire,’ £ light,’ or i brightness ’ of ^Egir, of Ran, or
of yEigir’s daughters. Gold is also ‘ fire of the sea .’ 8 As Aigir
seems to personify the calm sea, the brilliant gleam of the sun


JEGIR


173

on its surface may have given rise to these kennings and to the
myth of the light-giving gold in his hall.

As brewer of ale for his banquet to the gods, TEglr is called
by Egill ‘ ale-brewer of all the gods,’ and as one present at their
banquets he is i the visitor of the gods .’ 9

TEgir also bears the name Hler, and the island Hlesey
(Hler’s island, Lasso in the Kattegat) was his dwelling.
Snorri begins his Bragarcedur with this statement, making ^Egir
a man versed in magic. He visits the gods in Asgard and par-
takes of their banquet, and as he sits next to Bragi, he learns
many things from him of the doings of the ^Esir and the
methods of skaldic art. Hler may have been a local name of
the Sea-giant in Denmark and in the west of Norway. In dif-
ferent accounts Hler alternates with dEgir as Fornjot’s son, who
rules the sea . 10 Hler may also be the giant Las who dwells in
Lasso according to the Annales Lundenses y or, as in another ac-
count, Olaus’ Chronica regum Danorum , a Hill-giant or troll,
with many heads, dwelling within the rocks . 11


CHAPTER XV


FRIGG

T HE name of Frigg, Odin’s consort, OHG Frija, Lombard
Frea, AS Frig (cf. Sanskrit preya , * wife ’), means ‘ the
beloved,’ ‘ the wife.’ Odin is ‘ the dweller in Frigg’s bosom ’
and ‘ Frigg’s beloved .’ 1 Snorri makes her daughter of Fjor-
gyn, but in Lokasenna Fjorgyn is her husband, i.e., Odin.
From them are descended the races of the ASsir . 2 She is called
‘mother of Balder,’ ‘co-wife of Jord, Rind, Gunnlod, and.
Grid,’ and she is ‘ lady of the ASsir and Asynjur .’ 3 As foremost
of the goddesses and always heading the lists of these, she has
the hall Fensalir, ‘ Sea-hall,’ which is most glorious, but she
shares Hlidskjalf with Odin . 4 She speaks no prophecy, yet she
knows the fates of men . 6 Like Freyja she has hawk’s plumage,
and is called ‘ mistress of the hawk’s plumage .’ 6

Others of the goddesses are associated with Frigg — Fulla,
Gna, Hlin, Lofn, either as her servants or hypostases of herself,
creations of the skalds. From what is said of her and of these
other goddesses, Frigg may be regarded as a genial, kindly
divinity, promoter of marriage and fruitfulness, helper of man-
kind and dispenser of gifts. She stands beside Freyja as one to
whom prayers were made . 7 She was invoked by the childless,
e.g., king Rerir and his queen prayed for offspring to the gods,
and Frigg heard them as well as Odin . 8

In her hall Fensalir, Frigg wept bitterly for Valhall’s need
as a result of Balder’s death — her first grief. She comes
prominently into the Balder myth, and she is grieved because
Odin must fall before the Fenris-wolf — her second grief . 9
R. M. Meyer finds in this reference to Fensalir an explanation
of its meaning. As Sigyn weeps for Loki in the forest where


FRIGG


i75


he is punished, so Frigg weeps for Balder on the sea-shore by
his pyre. Fensalir would thus be the shore, and Frigg’s abode
was really with Odin in Hlidskjalf . 10

In V afthrudnismal when Odin consulted Frigg regarding his
journey to the giant Vafthrudnir, she desired him to stay at
home rather than go to this strongest of giants. Like others
who seek advice, Odin did not follow Frigg’s guidance. She
then bade him go, j ourney, and return in safety. 1 May wisdom
not fail thee, Aldafadir, when thou comest to speech with the
giant! ’

Yet Frigg could at times act cunningly to Odin. In Grimnis-
mal we see both of them sitting on Hlidskjalf, Frigg thus shar-
ing Odin’s oversight of the world. He drew her attention to
her fosterling Agnar, who begat children with a giantess in a
cave, while his brother Geirrod, Odin’s fosterling, is a king and
rules his land. We have already seen how Frigg announced
Odin’s coming as a supposed magician to Geirrod’s hall, and
how he was tortured between two fires . 11 This act of Frigg’s
corresponds to her craft in winning Odin’s help for her favour-
ites in the Lombard story. Some myths told worse things of
Frigg. When she begged Loki and Odin at .TEgir’s feast not
to make known what things they did in old days, Loki accused
her of misconduct with Odin’s brothers, Vili and Ve . 12 This, as
we have seen, is amplified in the Y nglinga-saga. Correspond-
ing to it is Saxo’s story of Mit-othin, the earlier part of which
introduces Frigg. Speaking of Odin and his worship, Saxo says
that the kings of the North, anxious to worship him more zeal-
ously, made a golden image of him and sent it to Byzantium
(Asgard). Its arms were covered with bracelets, and Odin was
delighted. But his queen Frigga, desiring to be more adorned,
called smiths and had the gold stripped from the image. Odin
hanged them and set the image on a pedestal, and by his art
caused it to speak when a mortal touched it. In her desire of
adornment Frigga yielded herself to one of her servants, who
broke the image and gave her its treasures. In disgust Odin


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY

LOKI


147


At the Doom of the gods Loki breaks forth. To this the dead
seeress, consulted by Odin about Balder ’s dreams, refers. No
one shall now consult her until Loki frees himself, shakes off
his fetters, and the destroyers come to the Doom of the gods . 22
How he breaks loose is not told, but V oluspa describes how he
stands at the helm of a ship with the people of Hel. Snorri
gives further details. Loki, Hrym, and the Frost-giants come
forth. The champions of Hel follow Loki, who fights with
Heimdall, each slaying the other . 23 Thus Loki acts as opponent
of the gods.

The myth of Loki’s bonds resembles one in Iranian my-
thology. The hero Thraetana conquered the dragon Azhi
Dahaka and bound him to the rock Damavand. There he lies
till the Last Day, meanwhile causing earthquakes by his
struggles. In the end he breaks loose and takes part with hosts
of evil against the gods . 24

We have seen that Thor and Loki visited Utgard, the giants’
region, where its lord, Utgard-Loki, practised deception on
them. While it is possible that Loki’s name has been used in
the name of the lord of Utgard, it can hardly be that he, Loki,
and Logi ( £ Fire ’) which devours all, are one and the same
being. Loki is as prominent in the story as the others.

Snorri gives several kennings for Loki, based on his relation-
ships and his deeds. He is 1 Foe of the gods,’ 1 the sly god,’
£ Slanderer and cheat of the gods,’ £ the bound god,’ £ Thief of
the giants, of Brisinga-men, of Idunn’s apples.’ Other by-
names are £ Wolf’s father,’ £ the cunning Loki .’ 25 He calls
himself Lopt, and this name is also given to him by others . 26
Its meaning is £ the airy one,’ or it is connected with lopteldr ,
£ lightning.’ The name Lodur, which occurs only in V oluspa,
as that of the associate of Odin and Hoenir, is generally sup-
posed to be an earlier name of Loki, who was £ companion ’ and
£ friend ’ of Hoenir according to Thjodolf of Hvin. This name
is regarded as equivalent to Luhfiurar, £ the Fire-bringer .’ 27

Loki’s original nature has been sought in the meaning of his


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


148

name, which may be connected with Logi, German Lohi, £ fire.’
Hence he is a Fire-demon, fire having the same destructive
power as he delighted in. The name has also been derived
from Lucifer, a name of the devil, and his personality regarded
as a reflexion of the devil’s . 28 Others connect it with luka,
ljuka, £ to close,’ £ to bring to an end,’ lok t £ the end.’ Hence
Loki would be £ the one who closes or brings to an end,’ because
his deeds lead up to the end of all, the Doom of the gods . 29
None of these meanings is quite satisfactory, though the sug-
gestion that Loki was originally a Fire-demon has some evi-
dence in its favour. His father is Farbauti, £ the dangerous
striker,’ i.e., the storm ; his mother is Laufey, £ the leafy isle,’
or Nal, £ needle,’ the needle-tree or fir-tree. Loki is a creation
of the storm which, in lightning, brings down fire on the wooded
isle . 30 Or, again, referring to the primitive production of fire
by friction, by means of the fire-drill, Farbauti is the piece of
stick, the drill, which by rubbing on a soft piece of wood, Laufey,
produces fire . 31 Here, again, these meanings are problematical.

Loki’s twofold nature is undoubted — he is tricky and de-
structive, yet he has the power to set things right. He is a friend
of the gods, yet he brings trouble upon them. In addition to
this, he appears in darker colours. He is father of monsters, a
base slanderer, the cause of Balder’s death, a monster chained
under the earth, the leader of hosts of evil against the gods.
Thus, for some reason not known to us, Loki becomes mon-
strous and sinister, whereas he was merely mischievous at first.
If he was originally a Fire-demon, fire is both beneficent and
dangerous, and in this may be seen both the twofold aspect of
Loki’s character, and also his later emphatically destructive
aspect. If he represents fire, then his giving vital heat to Ask
and Embla would be appropriate. Whether or not we are to
regard him as a spirit of fire, his twofold aspect, no less than
other traits, suggests the characteristics of elfin beings. These
other traits are shape-shifting, skill in theft, craft, and trickiness.
He is beautiful in form, but of evil nature. He travels swiftly


LOKI


149


through the air either by means of bird’s plumage or shoes by
which he ran through air and over water . 32 He is chosen to go
to the dwarfs’ land in order to get them to forge Sif’s hair. His
conduct to these dwarfs is of an elfish kind. He is also associated
with dwarfs in the making of Menglod’s hall, and, like a dwarf,
he forged the sword Lasvateinn in the Underworld . 33

We may thus conclude that Loki, whether originally an em-
bodiment of fire or not, was a spirit of an elfin kind, raised to
divinity and included among the Aisir, just as Aisir and elves
are constantly named together. He was also an embodiment
of the mischief-maker, so common in all states of society, whose
mischief has often dire results for himself or others. He is like
the Greek Thersites or the Conan of the Celtic Fionn saga . 34
Such persons were common in actual life: why should there not
be one of them associated with the gods? If Loki was an elfin
Fire-spirit, then he might have been regarded as personifying
the volcanic fires known in Iceland. This has been already
hinted at in the interesting interpretation of the milkmaid myth.
Some later folk-lore is also thought to point to Loki’s connex-
ion with fire or heat. A Norse saying when the fire crackles
is: £ Loki is beating his children,’ and the skin of the milk is
thrown into the fire as a dole. On hot days when the air shim-
mers, or in spring when the mists rise from the ground in the
sunshine, a Danish saying is: ‘Loki is driving out his goats.’
The sun appearing through clouds and drawing up moisture
seems to be referred to in the sayings : £ Loki drinks water,’ or
£ Loki is passing over the fields.’ In Sweden when a little
child’s tooth falls out, it is thrown into the fire with the words:
£ Lokke, Lokke, give me a bone tooth ; here is a gold tooth.’
In Iceland chips and refuse for firing are called £ Loki’s chips,’
and subterranean sulphur fumes £ Loki’s vapour .’ 35

The elfish Loki rose in character and became the companion
of gods. Olrik tried to trace different conceptions of Loki in
myth and folk-lore. Thus he regarded him as in part a once
beneficent being. As stealer of Brisinga-men he is the Prome-


150


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


thean stealer of fire for the benefit of mankind, this famous
jewel being supposed to represent fire ( brisingr, 1 fire ’; * bu-
sing , ‘ bonfire ’), though it is never stated that this necklace did
good to men. Loki also invented the fishing-net — a myth
inserted in Snorri’s account of his capture . 30

The myth of Loki’s binding and breaking loose before the
Doom of the gods has been by some traced to the account in
Revelation of Satan’s binding and breaking out of the abyss.
But there may already have been in the North myths of a mon-
strous being bound under the earth, whose movements caused
earthquakes — a not uncommon myth . 37 If such a being bore
a name resembling Loki’s , 38 then the two would tend to be con-
fused, and the elfish Loki would become more demoniacal and
monstrous, parent of monsters, foe of the gods, and cause of
Balder’s death. We have seen the close resemblance of the
Iranian myth of Azhi Dahaka, found also in Armenia , 39 to that
of Loki. Olrik maintained that the Eddie myth of Loki chained
and breaking loose had its 'provenance in a series of myths of
giants or animals bound and causing earthquakes, found in the
Caucasus region and radiating forth in all directions . 40 The
Iranian myth is one of the series, but such a myth may have
been native to Scandinavia.

If Loki owes some of his more monstrous traits to the early
medieval devil, he is, on the whole, an original figure of Norse
mythology, one of those beings who, possibly kindly in origin,
is dowered with a more complex character as time goes on, and
ends by being wholly sinister and monstrous.

Loki’s wife Sigyn is counted among the goddesses: her func-
tion of guarding him from the venom of the snake may point to
her being a guardian-goddess against poison. To the more
monstrous Loki the giantess Angrboda was joined and was the
mother of monsters.


CHAPTER XII


LESSER GODS

HCENIR

N OTHING is known of a cult paid to this god, but what is
said of him in the Eddas points to his being one of the
older AEsir. Snorri gives no separate account of him, but men-
tions him mainly in connexion with other gods . 1 In Voluspa he
is associated with Odin and Lodur in the creation of Ask and
Embla, giving them soul or reason, and the three gods are
called ‘mighty and benevolent.’ He is also joined with the
same gods (if Lodur is Loki) in the stories of Idunn and of
Andvari . 2 A ballad of the Faroe Islands introduces the same
gods, calling them Ouvin, Honir, and Lokkji. A peasant had
lost his son to a giant at a game of draughts, and prayed the
three gods to help him. Ouvin made a field of barley spring
up in a night, and hid the boy in an ear of the barley. When
the giant cut this down, the ear fell from his hand and Ouvin
brought back the boy to his father. Next Honir hid him in a
feather on the neck of one of seven swans. The giant caught
them, but the feather fell out and the boy escaped. Finally
Lokkji changed him into an egg in a flounder’s roe. This also
escaped from the giant, who was slain by Lokkji. All this
has been interpreted mythologically, but it is nothing more
than the invention of a poet to whom the association of the
three gods was known, making use also of a common folk-tale
motif . 3

This association of the gods is remembered by the skalds.
Hoenir is c bench-mate,’ £ friend,’ 1 companion ’ of Odin, and
Loki is Hoenir’s 6 companion ’ and c staunch friend.’ Snorri


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


152

calls Hoenir £ the swift god,’ £ the long-footed god,’ and £ king
of clay ’ or £ moisture,’ or, as some interpret the Norse words,
‘king of eld’ ( aur-konung ). 4 What lies behind these titles
is unknown, and the myths which may have given rise to them
have not survived. In a Saga fragment Hoenir is called £ the
most timorous ’ of the E£sir .’ 6 This may refer to the account
of his being sent as a hostage to the Vanir, when his apparent
goodliness proved illusory, as already narrated.® In this story
he is a big, handsome being, but stupid, unlike the Hoenir who
gave reason to Ask and Embla.

After the Doom of the gods, Hoenir survives and appears in
the renewed world. There he chooses the hlaut-vipr , i.e., a
slip of wood with runes engraved on it . 7 This perhaps signifies
his knowledge of the future.


HEIMDALL

Heimdall (ON Heimdallr) is an enigmatic being, and he has
been regarded as a mere creation of the skalds, a poetic form of
the old Heaven-god. But this is to over-emphasize the poverty
of Teutonic polytheism, as well as the argument from silence.
Though enigmatic, Heimdall stands out as an actual mythic
being.

Heimdall, called also Vindler, is included among the Eisir
by Snorri and in Grtmmsmal: he is £ of the race of the gods,’
according to Hyndluljod , and a son of Odin . 8 In the Eddie
poems he is £ whitest of the gods,’ and, like the Vanir, he knows
the future. His abode is in Himinbjorg, where in a pleasant
house, he, the watchman of the gods, drinks mead. The name
Himinbjorg, £ Heaven mountain,’ is still used in Norway for a
steep mountain sloping down into the sea. Heimdall is £ the
man mighty in arms,’ and, as watchman of the gods, he has a
horn, the Gjallar-horn, which meanwhile rests under the ash
Yggdrasil, if the V olusfa poet is not here making it take the
place of Odin’s eye. It is curious that the divine watchman’s





PLATE XIX


Heimdall

From a Runic Cross at Jurby, Isle of Man. The
figure blowing a horn is believed to be Heimdall (see
p. 152). From The Saga-Book of the Viking Club ,
vol. i.





LESSER GODS


i53

horn should not be beside him. Before the Doom of the gods,
this horn will be blown as a warning . 9

The human race, high and low, are Heimdall’s children, or,
as in Rigsthula, where he is called Rig, he is ancestor of the
jarls, yeomen, and thralls. He went along the shore and came
to a dwelling, where he called himself Rig. There he begat a
son Thrasll on his hostess Edda, and he was the first of the
thralls. Then he went to another house, where Amma bore to
him Karl, the first of the yeomen or karls. In a third dwelling
he was received by Fathir and Mothir, and the latter became
by him mother of Jarl, the first of the jarls. As Rig, Heimdall
is called the brave, old, wise god, the bold, robust walker, and
he knows well to speak wise words. Heimdall is £ the kinsman
of men,’ endowed with unusual strength, and is celebrated in
weapons. He is son of nine giantesses, Gjolp, Greip, Eistla,
Eyrgjafa, Ulfrun, Angeyja, Imd, Atla, and Jarnsaxa. This
account of his parentage is given in Hyndluljod , and by the
skald Ulf Uggason, as well as in a fragment of the lost
H eimdalar-galdr, cited by Snorri : —

c I am the offspring of nine mothers,

Of nine sisters am I the son.’ 10

In Lokasenna Heimdall opposes Loki, and is told by him to
be silent, for in the old time an evil fate was fixed for him. Now
he must stand with stiff neck and keep guard as watcher of the
gods . 11 We have already seen how he advised Thor to disguise
himself as Freyja and thus go to the giant Thrym.

Snorri combines much of this and gives further details about
Heimdall. He is £ the white god,’ great and holy, born of
nine sisters. He is also called Hallinskidi, £ ram ’ (?), and
Gullintani, £ Golden teeth.’ His horse is Gulltopp, £ Gold top,’
on which he rode at Balder’s funeral. He dwells in Himin-
bjorg, close by Bifrost, at the end of Heaven by the bridge head,
where Bifrost joins Heaven. He is warder of the gods, and
sits there to guard the bridge from the Hill-giants. Less sleep


154


EDDIC MYTHOLOGY


does he need than a bird; by night or day he sees equally well
a hundred leagues; he hears grass growing on earth and wool
on sheep, as well as everything that has a louder sound. He
has the Gjallar-horn, the blast of which is heard through all
worlds . 12

The statements regarding Heimdall as watchman of the gods
point to the reality of his personality. The dualistic form of
Eddie mythology — gods opposed by giants — may early have
suggested this need of watchfulness, therefore of a watchman
ever guarding the frontier of the gods’ realm from the approach
of their enemies, just as a watchman was needed against enemies
among men. For this reason it is said of him that he needs little
sleep, though this, as well as his miraculous sight and hearing,
belongs to universal folk-tale formulae. Such powers are dis-
tributed among various beings who help a hero in his adven-
tures . 13 This £ white god ’ or £ whitest of the gods ’ may be a
god of light, light being essential to such functions as his.

As son of nine giantesses, perhaps the nine daughters of yEgir
and Ran, who are the waves, though their names differ, he was
born at the edge of the world. If we regard these giantesses as
personifications of the waves, or, possibly, of mountains, Heim-
dall might be regarded as a personification of the day dawning
out of the sea or over the mountains that look down upon it.
Another suggestion regarding his birth is that the myth alludes
to nine reincarnations of the god . 14

The skalds called a sword £ Heimdall’s head,’ £ for it is said
that he was pierced by a man’s head.’ This was told in the lost
H eimdalar-galdr , and since then a head was called £ Heimdall’s
fate,’ and a sword £ man’s fate.’ Heimdall’s sword was also
called £ head .’ 15 Does this mean that there was some myth of
Heimdall’s having been slain by a head, or is it merely an ob-
scure way of referring to his death at the future Doom when he
and Loki slay each other? If the former, then Heimdall must
have been reborn, for he is still to die at the last battle, and this
would lend support to the theory of his nine reincarnations.


LESSER GODS


1 55


In Hyndluljod it is said of his ninefold birth that he was
nourished £ with the strength of earth, with the ice-cold sea, and
with the blood of swine.’ As Heimdall was born at the world’s
edge, i.e., where sea and land meet, this may account for the
reference to earth and sea, while £ the blood of swine ’ would
mean sacrificial blood. The lines are believed by some editors
to have been transferred to Hyndluljod from Guthrunarkvitha
where earth, sea, and swine’s blood are components of the magic
drink given by Grimhild to Gudrun . 16

Heimdall is called £ the foe of Loki,’ £ the seeker of Freyja’s
necklace,’ £ the frequenter of Vagasker and Singasteinn, where
he fought with Loki for the necklace Brisinga-men.’ Accord-
ing to Ulf Uggason’s Husdrapa , Heimdall and Loki were then
in the form of seals, and Snorri quotes some lines of the poem
which refer to this without throwing much light upon it . 17 Loki
must have stolen and hid the necklace, perhaps in some
cliff by the sea, and he and Heimdall, transformed to seals,
fought for it, and Heimdall apparently recovered it. Ex-
amples of such transformation combats occur in Celtic and
other mythologies. The enmity between Loki and Heim-
dall culminates at the Doom of the gods when each slays the
other.

As men are £ Heimdall’s sons,’ as he is £ kinsman of men and
of all rulers,’ and £ holds sway over men,’ Heimdall is in some
sense regarded as creator or progenitor as well as ruler of men
and orderer of their classes . 18 In the prose Introduction to
Rigsthula , probably later than the poem itself, Rig (from Old
Irish rig, £ king ’) is identified with Heimdall, and it is said
that £ old stories ’ tell the narrative which is the subject of the
poem. Some critics think that Odin, not Heimdall, is Rig.
While this is possible, the references in the other Eddie poems
to Heimdall in relation to men, support the identification of the
Introduction. In the third son, Jarl, Rig took peculiar interest,
calling him by his name, Rig-Jarl, teaching him runes, and
bidding him possess his wide heritage. The poem serves as a


156 EDDIC MYTHOLOGY

eulogy of kingship, and to trace the descent of a royal house
to a god.

Grimm compared Heimdall at Heaven’s bridge to the angel
guarding Paradise with a sword, and his horn blown before the
Doom to the trumpet blown by the angel at the Last Day.
Heimdall’s strife with Loki is a parallel to that of Michael and
Satan. Such Christian conceptions might have influenced the
myth of Heimdall, but granting a bridge from Heaven to earth
and an expected attack on the gods’ abode, nothing is more
likely than that it should have a divine watchman with a horn. 19

Of a cult of Heimdall nothing is known, though his name
occurs in certain place-names.