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TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. 



JACOB GRIMM. 



TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY 



BY 



JACOB GRIMM. 



TE AN SLATED FROM THE FOUETH EDITION. 



NOTES AND APPENDIX 



JAMES STEVEN STALLYBRASS, 



VOL. II. 




LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, 

COVENT GARDEN. 

1883. 



Butler & Tanner. 

The Seltvood Printing Works, 

Frome, and Loudon. 






CHAPTER XVII. 
WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

Apart from deified and semi-divine natures there stands a 
whole order of other beings distinguished mainly by the fact 
Jthat, while those have issued from men or seek human fellowship, 
these form a separate community, one might say a kingdom of 
their own, and are only induced by accident or stress of circum- 
stances to have dealings with men. They have in them some 
admixture of the superhuman, which appi'oximates them to gods ; 
they have power to hurt man and to help him, at the same time 
they stand in awe of him, being no match for him in bodily 
strength. Their figure is much below the stature of man, or else 
mis-shapen. They almost all have the faculty of makiug them- 
selves invisible. 1 And here again the females are of a broader 
and nobler cast, with attributes resembling those of goddesses 
and wise-women ; the male spirits are more distinctly marked off, 
both from gods and from heroes. 3 

The two most general designations for them form the title of 
this chapter ; they are what we should call spirits nowadays. 
But the word spirit (geist, ghost), 3 like the Greek hal^wv, is 
too comprehensive; it would include, for instance, the half- 
goddesses discussed in the preceding chapter. The Lat. genius 
would more nearly hit the mark (see Suppl.). 

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

1 But so have the gods (p. 325), goddesses (p. 2G8) and wise-women (p. 419). 

2 Celtic tradition, which runs particularly rich on this subject, I draw from 
the following works: Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, 
by Crofton Croker, Lond. 1825 ; 2nd ed., parts 1, 2, 3, Lond. 1828. The Fairy 
Mythology, by Th. Keightley, vols. 1, 2, Lond. 1828. Barzas-Breiz, chants popu- 
lates de la Bretagne, par Th. de la Villemarque, 2< j ed., 2 vol., Paris 1840. 

3 OHG. keist, AS. g&st, OS. gist (see root in Gramm. 2, 46); Goth, ahma, 
OHG. atum for ahadum, conn, with Goth, aha (mens), ahjan (meminisse, cogitare), 
as maji (homo), manniska, and manni, miuni belong to munan, minnen (pp. 5 ( J. 
314.433). 

VOL. II. * 89 B 



440 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

it. The Gothic vaihts, gen. vaiht&is, is feminine, and Ulphilas 
hardly ever uses it in a concrete sense ; in Luke 1, 1 he translates 
by it 7rpay/j,a, and much oftener, when combined with a negative, 
ovSev (Gramm. 3, 8. 734). This, however, does not exclude the 
possibility of vaihts having at other times denoted to the Goths 
a spirit regarded as female; and in 1 Thess. 5, 22 the sentence 
diro TravTos e'lSovs irovripov tnrkyeaQe is rendered : af allamma 
vaihte ubilaizo afhabaih izvis, where the Vulg. has : ab omni 
specie mala abstinete vos ; the use of the pi. ' vaihteis ubilos ' of 
itself suggests the notion of spirits. The other Teutonic tongues 
equally use the word to intensify and make a substantive of the * 
negative, and even let it swallow up at last the proper particle 
of negation ; x but in all of them it retains its personal meaning 
too. The OHG. writers waver between the neut. and masc. ; the 
Gothic fem. is unknown to them. Otfried has a neut. wiht, with 
the collective pi. wihtir,- and likewise a neut. pi. wihti, which 
implies a sing, wihti; thus, armu wihtir, iv. C, 23; armu wihti, 
ii. 16, 117; krumbu wihti, iii. 9, 5; meaning ' poor, crooked 
creatures/ so that loiht (derivable from wihan facere, creare) 
seems altogether synonymous with being, creature, person, and 
can be used of men or spirits : ' in demo mere sint wunderlichiu 
ivihtir, diu heizent sirenae/ Hoffm. Fundgr. 19, 17. In MHG. 
sometimes neut.: unreinez wiht, Diut. 1, 13; Athis H. 28; 
triigehaftez wiht, Barl. 367, 11 ; vil tumbez wiht, 11, 21; some- 
times masc. : boeser iviht, Barl. 220, 15 ; unrehter bossewiht, MS. 
2, 147% Geo. 3508; kleiner wiht, Altd. bl. 1, 254; der wiht, 
Geo. 3513-36; der tumbe wiht, Fragm. 42* ; and often of in- 
determinable gender: boese wild, Trist. 8417; helle wiht, Geo. 
3531 ; but either way as much applicable to men as to spirits. 
Ghostly wights are the ' minuti dii ' of the Eomans (Plaut. 
Casina, ii. 5, 24). In Mod. Germ, we make wield masc, 
and use it slightingly of a pitiful hapless being, fellow, often 
with a qualifying epithet: ' elender wicht, bosewicht (villain)/ 
If the diminutive form be added, which intensifies the notion of 
littleness, it can only be used of spirits : wichtlein, wichtelmann ; 3 

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

- So : thiu diufilir, iii. 14, 53, hy the side of ther diufal, iii. 14, 108. 

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



WIGHTS. 411 

MUG. diu wihtel, 1 MS. 1, 157 a ; bcesez wihtel, Elfenm. cxviii. ; 
kleinez wihtelin, Ls. 1, 378, 380, Wolfdietr. 783, 799; OHG. 
wihtelin penates ; wihtelen vel helbe {I.e. elbe), lernures, dsemones, 
Gl. Florian. The dernea ivihti, occulti genii, in Hel. 31, 20. 92, 2 
are deceitful demonic beings, as ' tliie demo' 104, 19 means 
the devil himself; letha ivihti, 70, 15; wreda iviidi 70, 1. In 
Lower Saxony wield is said, quite in a good sense, of little 
children : in the Miinster country ' dat wicht ' liolds especially 
of girls, about Osnabriick the sing, wicht only of girls, the pi. 
wichter of girls and boys; 'innocent wichte' are spoken of in 
Sastrow, 1, 351. The Mid. Nethl. has a neut. wicht like the 
H. German: quade ivicltt, clene wicht (child). Huyd. op St. 3, 6. 
370; arern wild, Reink. 1027; so the Mod. Dutch wicht, pi. 
wichteren : arm wicht, aardig wicht, in a kindly sense. The AS. 
language agrees with the Gothic as to the fern, gender : wild, 
gen. wihte, nom. pi. wihta; later ivuld, wuhte, wuhta; seo wiht, 
Cod. Exon. 418, 8. 419, 3. 5. 420, 4. 10. The meaning can be 
either concrete: yfel wild (phantasma), leas wiht (diabolus), 
Casdra. 310, 10; scewild (animal marinum), Beda, 1, 1; or 
entirely abstract = thing, affair. The Engl, wight has the sense 
of our wicht. The ON. vcett and vcettr, which are likewise fern., 
have preserved in. its integrity the notion of a demonic spiritual 
being (Saam. I45 a ) : allar vcettir, genii quicunque, Sa3tn. 93 b ; 
hollar vcettir, genii benigni, Ssem. 240 b ; ragveettir or meinvcettir, 
genii noxii, 2 landvcettir, genii tutelares, Fornm. sog. 3, 105. 
Isl. sog. 1, 198, etc. In the Faroes they say: 'fear tu tear 
til mainvittis (go to the devil) ! ' Lyngbye, p. 548. The Danish 
vette is a female spirit, a wood-nymph, meinvette an evil spirit, 



1 Swer weiz und clocli niht wizzen wil, Whoso knows, yet will not kuow, 
der slaet sich rnit sin selbes hant ; Smites himself with his own hand ; 

des wlsheit aht ich zeime spil, His wisdom lvalue no more than a play 

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

er hit una sehouwen wunders vil, He lets us witness much of wonder, 

der ir ha waltet. "Who governs them. 

The passage shows that in the 13th cent, there was a kind of puppet-show in which 
ghostly beings were set before the eyes of spectators. 'Der ir waltet,' he thai 
wields them, means the showman who puts the figures in motion. A full confir- 
mation in the Wachtelmare, line 40: ' rihtet zu mit den sniieren (strinj 
tatermanne ! ' Another passage on the wihtel-spil in Haupt's Zeitschr. 2, GO : 
' spilt mit dem wihtelin hi' dem tisch umb guoten win.' 

2 Bib'rn supposes a masc. (fern. ?) meinvattr and a neut. meinvcetti ; no doubt 
Biein is noxa, malum ; nevertheless I call attention to the Zendic mainyus, daemon, 
and agramainyus, daemon malus. 



4-4-2 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

This transition of the meaning of wight into that of thing on 
the one hand, and of devil on the other, agrees with some other 
phenomena of language. We also address little children as 
' thing,' and the child in the marchen (No. 105) cries to the 
lizard : ' ding, eat the crumbs too ! ' Wicht, ding, wint, teufel, 
valant (Gramm. 3, 731. 736) all help to clinch a denial. 0. French 
males choses, mali genii, Ren. 30085. Mid. Latin bonce 7*es = boni 
genii, Vine. Bellov. hi. 3, 27 (see Suppl.). 

We at once perceive a more decided colouring in the OHG. 
and MHG. alp (genius), AS. celf, ON. dlfr ; a Goth, albs may 
safely be conjectured. Together with this masc, the OHG. 
may also 'have had a neut. alp, pi. elpir, as we know the MHG. 
had a pi. elber; and from the MHG. dat. fern, elbe (MS. 1, 50 b ) 
we must certainly infer a nom. diu elbe, OHG. alpia, elpia, Goth. 
albi, gen. albjos, for otherwise such a derivative could not occur. 
Formed by a still commoner suffix, there was no doubt an OHG. 
elpmna, MHG. elbinne, the form selected by Albrecht of Halber- 
stadt, and still appearing in his poem as remodelled by Wikram; 1 
AS. el fen, gen. elfenne. Of the nom. pi. masc. I can only feel 
sure in the ON., where it is cllfar, and would imply a Goth, 
albus, OHG. alpa, MHG. albe, AS. selfas; on the other hand an 
OHG. elpi (Goth, albeis) is suggested by the MHG. pi. elbe 
(Amgb. 2 b , unless this comes from the fern, elbe above) and by 
the AS. pi. ylfe, gen. pi. ylfa (Beow. 223). 2 The Engl, forms 

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

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



ELVES. 443 

elf, elves, the Swed. elf, pi. masc. elfvar (fem. elfvor), the Dan. 
elv, pi. elve, are quite in rule ; the Dan. compounds ellefulli, ellc- 
honer, elleskudt, ellevild have undergone assimilation. With us 
the word alp still survives in the sense of night-hag, night-mare, 
in addition to which our writers of the last century introduced 
the Engl, elf, a form untrue to our dialect ; before that, we find 
everywhere the correct pi. elbe or elben. 1 H. Sachs uses dip : 
' du olp ! du dolp ! ; (i. 5, 525 b ), and olperisch (iv. 3, 95°) ; conf. 
ijlpern and olpetriitsch, alberdriitsch, drelpetriitsch (Schm. 1,48) ; 
elpentrotsch and tolpentrotsch, trilpentrisch (Schmidts Swab. diet. 
162) ; and in Hersfeld, hilpentrisch. The words mean an awkward 
silly fellow, one whom the elves have been at, and the same thing 
is expressed by the simple elbisch, Fundgr. 365. In Gloss. Jan. 
340 we read elvesce weltte, elvish wights. 

On the nature of Elves I resort for advice to the ON. authori- 
ties, before all others. It has been remarked already (p. 25), 
that the Elder Edda several times couples cesir and alfar together, 
as though they were a compendium of all higher beings, and 
that the AS. es and ylfe stand together in exactly the same way. 
This apparently concedes more of divinity to elves than to men. 
Sometimes there come in, as a third member, the vanir (Seeni. 
83 b ), a race distinct from the sesir, but admitted to certain 
relations with them by marriage and by covenants. The Hrafna- 
galdr opens with the words : AlfoSr orkar (works), alfar skilja, 
vanir vita," Seem. 88 a ; Allfather, i.e. the as, has power, alfar 
have skill (understanding), and vanir knowledge. The Alvismal 
enumerates the dissimilar names given to heavenly bodies, 
elements and plants by various languages (supra, p. 332) ; in 
doing so, it mentions aisir, alfar, vanir, and in addition also 
gotf, menu, ginregin, iutnar, dvergar and denizens of hel (hades). 
Here the most remarkable point for us is, that alfar and dvergar 
(dwarfs) are two different things. The same distinction is made 
between alfar and dvergar, Sasm. 8 b ; between dvergar and 
dockalfar, Sasm. 92 b ; between three kinds of norns, the as-kungar, 
alf-kungar and dcetr Dvalins, Sasm. 188% namely, those descended 
from ases, from elves and from dwarfs; and our MHGr. poets, 
as we see by Wikram's Albrecht, 6, 9, continued to separate elbe 

1 Besold. sub v. elbe ; Ettner's Hebamme, p. 910, alpen or elben. 



444 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

from gctwerc} Some kinship however seems to exist between 
them, if only because among proper names of dwarfs we find an 
Alfr and a Vinddlfr, Seem. 2. 3. Loki, elsewhere called an as, 
and reckoned among ases, but really of iotun origin, is neverthe- 
less addressed as alfr, Saem. 110 b ; nay, Vulundr, a godlike hero, 
is called ' alfa lio'Si/ alforum socius, and ' visi dlfa/ alforum 
princeps, Stem. 135 a ' b - I explain this not historically (by a 
Finnish descent), but mythically : German legend likewise makes 
Wielant king Elberick's companion and fellow smith in Mount 
Gloggensachsen (otherwise Gougelsahs, Caucasus?). Thus we 
see the word alfr shrink and stretch by turns. 

Now what is the true meaning of the word albs, alp = genius ? 
One is tempted indeed to compare the Lat. albas, which according 
to Festus the Sabines called alpus ; «\.</>o? (vitiligo, leprosy) 
agrees still better with the law of consonant-change. Probably 
then albs meant first of all a light-coloured, white, good spirit, 3 
so that, when dlfar and dvergar are contrasted, the one signifies 
the white spirits, the other the black. This exactly agrees with 
the great beauty and brightness of alfar. But the two classes 
of creatures getting, as we shall see, a good deal mixed up 
and confounded, recourse was had to composition, and the elves 
proper were named liosdlfar. 3 

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

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

2 The word appears in the name of the snowclad mountains (alpes, see Snppl.), 
and that of the clear river (Albis, Elbe), while the ON. elf elfa, Swed. elf, Dan. 
elv = fiuvius, is still merely appellative ; the ghostly elvish swan (OHG. alpiz, 
MHG. elbez, AS. aelfet, ON. alpt, p. 429) can be explained both by its colour and its 
watery abode ; likewise the Slav, labud, lebed, from Labe. 

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



ELVES. 445 

elves) ; 1 and these Snorri evidently takes to be the same as 
dvergar, for his dvergar dwell in Svartulfaheiin, (Sn. 34. 130. 
13G). This is, for one thing, at variance with the separation 
of dlfar and dvergar in the lays, and more particularly with 
the difference implied between doclcdlfar and dvergar in Saem. 
92 b 1 88 a . That language of poetry, which everywhere else im- 
parts such precise information about the old faith, I am not 
inclined to set aside here as vague and general. Nor, in con- 
nexion with this, ought we to overlook the ndir, the deadly pale 
or dead ghosts named by the side of the dvergar, Saem. 92 b , 
though again among the dvergar themselves occur the proper 
names Nar and Nainn. 

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

Such a Trilogy still wants decisive proof ; but some facts can 
be brought in support of it. Pomeranian legend, to begin with, 
seems positively to divide subterraneans into white, brown, and 
blade ; 3 elsewhere popular belief contents itself with picturing 
dwarfs in gray clothing, in gray or brown cap-of-darkness ; 
Scotch tradition in particular has its brownies, spirits of brown 
hue, i.e. dockalfar rather than svartalfar (see Suppl.). But here 
I have yet another name to bring in, which, as applied to such 
spirits, is not in extensive use. I have not mot with it outside 

1 Thorlac. spec. 7, p. 1G", gives the liosalfar another name Jivit&lfar (white 
elves) ; I have not found the word in the old writings. 

s Conf. OHG. tunchal, MHG. tunkel (our dunkel), Nethl. donker. 

3 E. M. Arndt's Marchen und Jugenderinnerungen, Berl. 1818, p. 150. In Phil. 
von Steinau'8 Volkssagen, Zeitz 1838, pp. 291-3, the same traditions are given, 
but only white and black (not brown) dwarfs are distinguished. 



446 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

of the Vogtland and a part of East Thuringia. There the small 
elvish beings that travel especially in the train of Berchta, are 
called the heimclten (supra, p. 276) ; and the name is considered 
finer and nobler than querx or erdmannchen (Borner p. 52). It 
is hardly to be explained by any resemblance to chirping crickets, 
which are also called heinichen, OHG. heimili (Graff 4, 953) ; 
still less by heim (domus), for these wights are not home-sprites 
(domestici) ; besides, the correct spelling seems to be heinchen 
(Variscia 2, 101), so that one may connect it with ' Friend 
Hein/ the name for death, and the Low Sax. heinenMeed 
(winding-sheet, Strodtmann p. 84) - 1 This notion of departed 
spirits, who appear in the ' furious host ' in the retinue of former 
gods, and continue to lead a life of their own, may go to support 
those nair of the Edda; the pale hue may belong to them, 
and the gray, brown, black to the coarser but otherwise similar 
dwarfs. Such is my conjecture. In a hero-lay founded on 
thoroughly German legend, that of Morolt, there appear precisely 
three troops of spirits, who take charge of the fallen in battle 
and of their souls : a white, a pale, and a black troop (p. 28 b ), 
which is explained to mean l angels, kinsmen of the combatants 
coming up from hades, and devils.-' No such warlike part is ever 
played by the Norse alfar, not they, but the valkyrs have to do 
with battles ; but the traditions may long have become tangled 
together, and the offices confounded. 3 The liosdlfar and svartdlfar 
are in themselves sufficiently like the christian angels and devils ; 
the pale troop ' uz tier helle ' are the dochdlfar that dwell ' ni&ri 
i iorcFu,' nay, the very same that in the Alvismal are not expressly 
named, but designated by the words e i heljo.' Or I can put it in 
this way : liosalfar live in heaven, dockalfar (and nair ?) in hel, 
the heathen hades, svartalfar in Svartdlfaheim, which is never 
used in the same sense as hel (see Suppl.). The dusky elves 
are souls of dead men, as the younger poet supposed, or are we 
to separate dockalfar and nair ? Both have their abode in the 
realms of hades, as the light ones have in those of heaven. Of 
no other elves has the Edda so much to tell as of the black, 



l *' Heinenkleei is not conn, with Friend Hein, but means a hiinen'kleed 
(ch. XVIII.) ; couf. also the hiinuerskes, and perhaps the haunken, or aunken in 
the Westph. sgonaunken.' — Extr. from Suppl. 

- The different races of elves contending for a corpse (Ir. Elfenm. 68). 



ELVES, DWARFS. 447 

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

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

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

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

1 In Lausitz and E. Thuringia querx, in Thiiringerwald querlich. Jac. von 
Konigshofeii, p. 89, has qucrch. In Lower Saxony sometimes tuarm, for twarg. 

2 In Bretagne the korr, pi. korred answers to our elf, the kurrigan to our elfin ; 
and she too is described like a fay : she sits by the fountain, combing her hair, and 
whoever catches her doing so, must marry her at once, or die in three days (Yille- 
marque 1, 17). The 'Welsh cater means a giant. 



448 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

teaze men ; but they are not therefore devils, not even the black 
ones, but often good-natured beings. It appears even that to these 
black elves in particular, i.e. mountain spirits, who in various 
ways came into contact with man, a distinct reverence was paid, 
a species of worship, traces of which lasted down to recent 
times. The clearest evidence of this is found in the Kormaks- 
saga pp. 216-8. The hill of the elves, like the altar of a god, 
is to be reddened with the blood of a slaughtered bull, and of 
the animal's flesh a feast prepared for the elves : ( H611 eiun er 
he San skamt i brott, er dlfar biia i (cave that elves dwell in) ; 
graSung ]?ann, er Kormakr drap (bull that K. slew), skaltu fa, ok 
rioSa bl6S grabamgsins a hulinn titan, en gera dlfum veizlu (make 
the elves a feast) af slatrinu, ok man ]?er batna/ An actual 
dlfablot. With this I connect the superstitious custom of cooking 
food for angels, and setting it for them (Superst. no. 896). So 
there is a table covered and a pot of food placed for home-smiths 
and kobolds (Dent, sagen, no. 37. 38. 71) ; meat and drink for 
domina Abundia (supra, p. 286) ; money or bread deposited in 
the caves of subterraneans, in going past (Neocorus 1, 262. 560). ' 
There are plants named after elves as well as after gods : alpranlie, 
alpfranke, alfsranke, alpkraut (lonicera periclymen., solanum dul- 
cam.), otherwise called geissblatt, in Denmark troldbiir, in Sweden 
trullbar; dweorges dwosle, pulegium (Lye), Mone's authorities 
spell dwostle, 322 a ; dvergeriis, ace. to Molbech's Dial. Lex. p. 86, 
the spartium scoparium. A latrina was called alfreh, lit. genios 
fugans, Eyrb. saga, cap. 4 (see Suppl.). 

Whereas man grows but slowly, not attaining his full stature 
till after his fifteenth year, and then living seventy years, and a 
giant can be as old as the hills ; the dwarf is already grown up 
in the third year of his life, and a greybeard in the seventh ; 2 
the Elf-king is commonly described as old and white-bearded. 

1 The Old Pruss. and Litli. parstuk (thumbkin) also has food placed for him, 
conf. Lasicz 54. The Lett, behrstuhki is said to mean a child's doll, Bergm. 145. 

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



ELVES, DWARFS. 449 

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

The leading features of elvish nature seem to be the follow- 
ing : — 

Man's body holds a medium between those of the giant and. 
the elf; an elf comes as much short of human size as a giant 
towers above it. All elves are imagined, as small and. tiny, but 
the light ones as well-formed, and. symmetrical, the black as ugly 
and misshapen. The former are radiant with exquisite beauty, 
and wear shining garments: the AS. celfsciene, Ca3dm. 109, 23. 
165, 11, sheen as an elf, bright as angels, the ON. ' MS sem 
alfkona/ fair as elfin, express the height of female loveliness. 
In Rudlieb xvii. 27 a dwarf, on being caught, calls his wife out 
of the cave, she immediately appears, ' parva, nimis pulchra, 
sed et auro vesteque compta/ Fornald. sog. 1, 387 has : ' bat er 
kunnigt i ollum fornum frasognum um )>at fulk, er alfar hetu, 
at bat var miklu friSara enn onnur mankind/ The Engl, elves 
are slender and. puny : Falstaff (1 Henry IV. i. 4) calls Prince 
Henry ' you starveling, you elfskin ! ' 1 The dwarf adds to his 
repulsive hue an ill-shaped, body, a humped, back, and. coarse 
clothing ; when elves and. dwarfs came to be mixed up together, 
the graceful figure of the one was transferred to the other, 
yet sometimes the dwarfs expressly retain the blade or grey 
complexion: ' svart i synen/ p. 457; 'a little black mannikin/ 
Kinderm. no. 92; 'grey mannikin/ Biisching's Woch. nachr. 1, 
98. Their very height is occasionally specified : now they attain 
the stature of a four years' child/ now they appear a great deal 
smaller, to be measured by the span or thumb: 'kiime drier 
spannen lane, gar eislich getan? Elfenm. cxvi. ; two spans high, 
Deut. sag. no. 42; a little wight, c relit als em dumelle lane/ a 
thumb long, Altd. bl. 2, 151; ' ein kleinez weglin (1. wihtttn) 

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

2 Whether the OHO. pusilin is said of a dwarf as Graff supposes (3, 352 ; conf. 
Swed. pyssling), or merely of a child, like the Lat. pusus, pusio, is a question. The 
Mid. Age gave to its angels these small dimensions of elves and dwarfs : ' Ein 
iegelich enr/el schinet also gestalter als ein kint in jaren vieren (years t) in der 
jugende,' Tit. 5895 (Hahn) ; 'juncliche gemalet als ein kint daz d.-i vtinf jdr (5 
year) alt ist,' Berth. 184. Laurin is taken for the angel Michael; Elberich (Otnit, 
Ettm. 21) and Antilois (Ulr. Alex.) are compared to a child of four. 



450 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

dumeln lane,' Ls. 1, 378. In one Danish lay, the smallest trold 
is no bigger than an ant, D.V. 1, 176. Hence in fairy tales 
daumling (thumbling, petit poucet) indicates a dwarfish figure; 
the 8cifCTv\o<; TSato? is to be derived from Sa/cn/A-o? (finger) ; 
TrvyfMaio'i pigmajus from Trvyfirj (fist) ; the 0. Pruss. parstuck, 
perstuch, a dwarf, from Lith. pirsztas, Slav, perst, prst (finger) ; 
and a Bohem. name for a dwarf, pjdimuzjk= sjiaji-maxunkin, from 
pjd' (span). 1 In Sansk. bdl akhily a = geniorum genus, pollicis 
inagnitudinem aequans, sixty thousand of them sprang out of 
Brahma's hair, Bopp's Gloss. Skr. p. 122 a (ed. 2, p. 238 b ) ; bala, 
balaka = puer, parvulus, the ' ilya ' I do not understand. There 
are curious stories told about the deformity of dwarfs' feet, which 
are said to be like those of geese or clacks ; 2 conf. queen Berhta, 



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

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

kurze man,' 1 Wigal. 6593. 6685. 6710; 'der loenige man,' 1 Er. 7442. Ulr. Alex, (in 
Wackern.'s Bas. Ms., p. 29 ,J ), in contrast with the 'michel man' or giant. One 
old name for a dwarf was churzibolt, Pertz 2, 104, which otherwise means a short 
coat, Hoff. Gl. 36, 13. lloth. 4576. Conf. urkinde (nanus), Gramm. 2, 789. 

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

indebted to Hr. Hieron. Hagebuch of Aarau. Vo de hardmandlene uf der Kains- 

flue. Hinder der Arlisbacher egg, zwiischenem dorfle Hard und dem alte Lorenze- 
kapallele, stoht im ene thale so ganz eleigge e griisle vertriiite flue, se sagere 
dRamsflue. uf der hindere site isch se hohl, und dhole het numme e chline igang. 
Do sind denn emol, me weiss nid axact i wele johrgange, so rarige mtindle gsi, die 
sind i die hohle us und i gauge, hand ganz e so es eiges labe gefiiehrt, und en 
apartige hushaltig, und sind ganz bsunderig derhar cho, so warklick gestaltet, und 
mit eim wort, es isch halt kei monsch usene cho, wer se denn au seige, wohar se 
cho seige, und was se tribe, arnel gekochet hand se mit, und wiirzle und beeri 
ggasse. unde a der flue lauft es biichle, und i dem bachle hand die mandle im sum- 
mer badet, wie tilble, aber eis vonene het immer wacht gha, und het pfiffe, wenn 
bpper derhar cho isch, uf dem fuesswag : denn sind se ame gsprunge, was gisch 
was hesch, der barg uf, class ene kei haas noh cho wer, und wie der schwick in 
ehre h'ohle gschloffe. dernabe hand se kem monsch niit zleid tho, im giigetheil, 
gfiilligkaite, wenn se hand chonne. Einisch het der Hardpur es fuederle riswiille 
glade, und wil er elei gsi isch, het ers au fast nid moge. E sones mandle gsehts vo 
der flue obenabe, und chunt der durab zhb'pperle fiber driese, und hilft dem pur, 
was es het moge. wo se do der bindbaum wand ufe thue, so isch das mandle ufem 
wage gsi, und het grichtet, und der pur het Uberunde azoge a de bindchneble. do 
het das mandle sseil nid riicht ume gliret.und wo der pur azieht, schnellt der baurn 
los und trift smandle ane finger und hets wfirst blessiert ; do foht der pur a jom- 
mere und seit ' o heie, o heie, wenns numenau mer begegnet wer ! ' do seit das 
mandle ' abba, das macht niit, salben tho, salben gha.'* mit dene worte springts 
vom wage nabe, het es chriitle abbroche, hets verschaflet und uf das bluetig fin- 



* Swab. ' sell thaun, sell haun,' Schrnid p. 628. More neatly in MHG., ' selbe 
toete, selbe habe,' MS. 1, 10 b . 89 a . 



ELVES, DWARFS. 451 

p. 2S0, and the swan-maidens, p. 429. One is also reminded 
of the blateviieze, Rother 1871. Ernst 3828; conf. Haupt's 
Zeitschr. 7, 289. 

The Mid. Nethl. poem of Brandaen, but no other version of the 
same legend, contains a very remarkable feature. 1 Brandan met 
a man ou the sea, who was a thumb long, and floated on a leaf, 
holding a little bowl in his right hand and a pointer in his left : 
the pointer he kept dipping into the sea and letting water drip 
from it into the bowl ; when the bowl was full, he emptied it out, 
and began filling again : it was his doom to be measuring the 
sea until the Judgment-day (see Suppl.). This liliputian floating 
on the leaf reminds us of ancient, especially Indian myths. 2 

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

gerle gleit, und das het alles ewiig puzt. do springts wider nfe wage, und bet zurn 
pur gseit, er soil sseil nume wider urne ge. Mangisch, wenn riichtschafne Hit durn 
tag gbeuet oder bunde hand und se sind nit fertig worde bis zobe, und shet oppe 
welle cho riigne, so sind die hardmandle cho, und hand geschaffet und gewiirnet 
druf ine, bis alles irn scharme gsi isch. oder wenns durt dnacht isch cho wattere, 
hand se sheu und schorn, wo dusse glage isch, de lute zuru tenn zue trait, und am 
morge het halt alles gross auge grnacht, und se hand nid gwiisst, wers tho het. den 
hand erst no die mandle kei dank begehrt, nuruenau dass me se gern hat. Amenim 
winter, wenn alles stei und bei gfrore gsi isch, sind die mandle is oberst hus cho 
zArlispach : se hand shalt gar guet chonnen mit dene lute, wo dert gwohnt hand, 
und sind ame durt dnacht ufem ofe glage, und am morge vortag hand se se wieder 
drus grnacht. was aber gar gspiissig gsi isch, si hand ehre fiiessle nie viire glo, hand 
es charlachroths mantele trait, vom hals bis life bode nabe. jetzt hets im dorf so 
gwunderige meitle und buebe gha, die sind einisch znacht vor das hus go gen iische 
streue, dass se gsache, was die hardmandle fiir fiiessle hebe. und was h&ndse 
gfunde ? sisch frile wunderle : ante und geissfiless sind in der asche abdriickt gsi. 
Aber vo salber stund a isch keis mandle meh cho, und se sind au niimme uf der 
Eamsflue bliebe, i dkrachehand se se verscJdoffe, tief id geissflue hindere, und hand 
keis zeiche me von ene ge, und chomme niimme, so lang dliit eso boshaft sind 

(see Suppl.). [Substance of the above. Earth-mannikins on the Eamsflue: 

lived in a cave with a narrow entrance ; cooked nothing, ate roots and berries ; 
bathed in a brook like doves, set one to watch, and if he whistled, were up the hills 
faster than hares, and slipt into their cave. Never hurt men, often helped : the 
farmer at Hard was alone loading, a dwarf came down, helped to finish, got on the 
waggon, did not properly run the rope over the bind-pole, it slipped off, the pole 
flew up and hurt him badly. Farmer: 'I wish it had happened tome.' Dwarf: 
'Not so; self do, self have.' Got down, picked a herb, and cured the wound in- 
stantly. Often, when honest folk cut hay or tied corn, dwarfs helped them to 
finish and get it under shelter; or in the night, if rain came on, they brought in 
what was lying cut, and didn't the people stare in the morning ! One severe winter 
they came every night to a house at Arlisbach, slept on the oven, departed before 
dawn; wore scarlet cloaks reaching to the ground, so that their feet were never seen ; 
but some prying people sprinkled ashes before the house, on which were seen the 
next morning marks of duck's and goose's feet. They never showed themselves 
again, and never will, while men are so spiteful.] 

1 Blommaert's Oudvlaemsche gedichten 1, 118' 1 . 2, 2G*. 

2 Brahma, sitting on a lotus, floats musing across the abysses of the sea. Vishnu, 
when after Brahma's death the waters have covered all the worlds, sits in the shape 
of a tiny infant on a leaf of the pipala (fig-tree), and floats on the sea of milk, 
sucking the toe of his right foot. (Asiat. lies. 1, 315.) 



452 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

Dem fehten allez nach erhal, To the fighting everything 

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

(Ecke, ed. Hagen, 161.) 

Daz da beide berg und tal 

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

The hills not only rang again with the sword-strokes of the 
heroes, but uttered voice and answer, i.e. the dwarfs residing in 
them did. 1 

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

1 The Irish for echo is similar, though less beautiful : viuc alia, swine of the rock. 



ELVES, DWARFS. 453 

Berchta is of the heinclien (p. 276), and English tradition tells 
of an elf-queen, Chaucer's C. T. 6442 (the fairy queen, Percy 
3, 207 seq.) ; I suppose, because Gallic tradition likewise made 
female fairies (fees) the more prominent. The OFr. fable of 
Huon of Bordeaux knows of a roi Oberon, i.e. Auberon for 
Alberon, an alb by his very name : the kingdom of the fays 
(royaume de la feerie) is his. Our poem of Orendel cites a dwarf 
Alban by name. In Otnit a leading part is played by kilnec 
Alberich, Mberich, to whom are subject " inane c berg und talj" 
the Nib. lied makes him not a king, but a vassal of the kings 
Schilbung and Nibelung ; a nameless king of dwarfs appears in 
the poem of Ecke 80 ; and elsewhere king Goldemdr (Ueut. held- 
ensage p. 174. Haupt's Zeitschr. 6, 522-3), king Sinnels and 
Laurin (MS. 2, 15 a ) ; ' der getwerge hilnec Bilei, 3 Er. 2086. 
The German folk-tales also give the dwarf nation a king (no. 
152); king of erdmiinnchen (Kinderm. 3, 167). Giibich (Gibika, 
p. 137) is in the Harz legends a dwarf -king. Heiling is prince of 
the dwarfs (no. 151). l These are all kings of black elves, except 
Oberon, whom I take to be a light alb. It appears that human 
heroes, by subduing the sovereign of the elves, at once obtain 
dominion over the spirits ; it may be in this sense that Volundr 
is called visi dlfa (p. 444), and Siegfried after conquering Elbe- 
rich would have the like pretensions (see Suppl.). 

The ON. writings have preserved plenty of dwarfs' names 
which are of importance to the study of mythology (loc. princ. 
Saam. 2 b 3 a ). I pick out the rhyming forms Vitr and Litr, Fill 
and Kill, Fialarr and Galarr, Skirvir and Virvir, Anar and Onar, 
Finnr and Ginnr, as well as the absonant Bicor and Bavor. 
Ndr and Ndinn are manifestly synonymous (mortuus), and so 
are Thrdr and Thrdinn (contumax, or rancidus?). With Ndinn 
agrees 'Dtli an (mortuus again); with Oinn (timidus) Moinn ; 
Dvalinn, Durinn, Thorinn, Fundhvn, shew at least the same 

1 A curious cry of grief keeps recurring in several dwarf-stories: ' the king is 
dead! Urban is dead! old mother Pumpe is dead!' (Buscking's Woch. nadir. 1. 
99. 101); tke old schumpe is dead ! (Legend of Bonikau), MHG. sckumpIV, Pragm. 
36 c ; conf. Bange's Tkiir. ckron. 49*, where again tkey say ' king Knoblauch 
(Kfirlic) is dead ! ' Taking into account the saying in Saxony, ' de gauefru ist mi 
al dot! ' with evident allusion to the motherly goddess (p. 253), and the simil ar 
phrase in Scandinavia, ' nu eru dauo'ar allar disir !' (p. 40'2); all these exclama- 
tions seem to give vent to a grief, dating from the oldest times, for the death of 
some superior being (see Suppl.). 



454 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

participial ending. Alfr, Ganddlfr, and Vinddlfr place the con- 
nexion of elves and dwarfs beyond doubt. Ai occurs twice, 
and seems to mean avus, as in Ssem. 100 a ; Finnr and Billingr 
are like the heroes' names discussed on pp. 373, 380. Nyr, and 
Niffi, Nyr and Nyrdcfr have reference to phases of the moon's 
lie-lit; a few other names will be touched upon later. In Sasm. 
45 b and Sn. 48. 130 all dwarfs are said to be ' I valla synir,' 
sons of Ivaldi, and he seems identical with the elvish Ivaldr, 
father of I/Sunn, Saem. 89% just as Folkvaldr and Folkvaldi (AS. 
Folcwealda), Domvaldr and Domvaldi = Domaldi, are used in- 
differently. Ivaldr answers to the Dan. Evald and our Ewald, 
a rare name in the older documents : we know the two St. 
Ewalds (niger et albus) who were martyred in the elder Pipings 
time (695) and buried at Cologne, but were of English origin. 
Beda 5, 10 spells it Hew aid, and the AS. transl. Hedwold (see 
Suppl.). 

Of the dwellings of light elves in heaven the folk-tales have 
no longer anything to tell ; the more frequently do they de- 
scribe those of dwarfs in the rifts and caves of the mountains. 
Hence the AS. names bergcelfen, duncelfen, muntcelfen. ON. 'by 
ec for iorcf neftan, a ec iindr steini staft/ I dwell underneath 
the earth, I have under stone my stead, Saem. 48 a . 'dvergr sat 
undir steininum,' Yngl. saga, cap. 15. 'dvergar bua i ior&a oc 
i steinum,' Sn. 15. Mbenstein, Blphinstone, are names of noble 
families, see Elivenstein, Weisth. 1, 4. In the Netherlands 
the hills containing sepulchral urns are vulgarly denominated 
alfenbcrgen (Belg. mus. 5, 64). Treasures lie hidden in graves 
as they do in the abodes of elves, and the dead are subterraneans 
as these are. And that is why dwarfs are called erdmdnnlein, 
erdmanneken, in Switzerland hdrdmdndle, sometimes even unter- 
irdische, Dan. under jordishe. 1 They scamper over moss and fell, 
and are not exhausted by climbing steep precipices : ' den wilden 

1 I cannot yet make out the name arweqgers, by which the earth-men are called 
up in Kinderm. 2, 163-4. [erd-wihte? v. ar- for erd-, p. 467, 1. 3 ; and wegiin, p. 449] . 
The ON. arvakr is hardly the same (see Suppl.)- In Pruss. Samogitia ' de uncler- 
MrdscTikes'' ; the tales about them carefully collected by Eeusch, no. 48-59. The 
Wends of Luneburg called subterranean spirits g'orzoni (hill-mannikius, fr. gora, 
hill), and the hills they baunted are still shown. When they wished to borrow 
baking utensils of men, they gave a sign without being seen, and people placed 
them outside the door for them. In the evening they brought them back, knocking 
at the window and adding a loaf by way of thanks (Jugler's Worterb.). The Es-y 
thonian mythology also has its subterraneans (ma allused, under ground). 



ELVES, DWARFS. 455 

getivergen waere ze stigen da genuoc/ enough climbing for wild 
dwarfs, says Wh. 57, 25, speaking of a rocky region. 1 The popu- 
lar beliefs in Denmark about the biergmand, biergfolk, biergtrold, 
are collected in Molbech's Dial. lex. p. 35-6. The biergmand's 
wife is a biergehone. These traditions about earth-men and 
mountain-sprites all agree together. Slipping 3 into cracks and 
crevices of the hills, they seem to vanish suddenly, 'like the 
schwick/ as the Swiss tale has it, and as suddenly they come up 
from the ground ; in all the places they haunt, there are shown 
such dwarfs holes, querlich's holes. So the ludhi in Lausitz make 
their appearance out of underground passages like mouseholes ; 
a Breton folk-song speaks of the horred's grotto (Villemarque 
1, 36). In such caves they pursue their occupations, collecting 
treasures, forging weapons curiously wrought ; their kings fashion 
for themselves magnificent chambers underground, Elberich, 
Laurin dwell in these wonderful mountains, men and heroes at 
times are tempted down, loaded with gifts, and let go, or held 
fast (see Suppl.). Dietrich von Bern at the close of his life is 
fetched away by a dwarf, Deut. heldens. p. 300 ; of Etzel, says 
the Nibelungs' Lament 2167, one knows not ' ob er sich ver- 
sliiffe in locher der stein wende,' whether he have slipped away 
into holes of the rocks 3 : meaning probably, that, like Tann- 
hauser and faithful Eckart, he has got into the mount wherein 
Lame Venus dwells. Of this Dame Venus's mount we have no 
accounts before the 15-16th centuries; one would like to know 
what earlier notions lie at the bottom of it : has Dame Venus 
been put in the place of a subterranean elf-queen, or of a goddess, 
such as Dame Holda or Frikka ? Heinrich von Morunge sings 
of his beloved, MS. 1, 55 a : 

Und dunket mich, wie si ge zuo mil* dur ganze muren, 

ir trust und ir helfe lazent mich niht triiren ; 

swenne si wil, so viieret sie mich hinnen 

mit ir wizen hant ho he iiber die zinnen. 

ich weene sie ist ein Venus here. 

1 Other instances are collected in Ir. Elfenm. lxxvi. ■ den here bfiten wildiu 
getiverc,' wild dwarfs inhabited the hill, Sigenot 118. 

2 Sliefen is said of them as of the fox in lleinh. xxxi. ; our suhst. schlucht 
stands for sluft (beschwichtigen, lucht, kracht.for swiften, lnft, kraft), hence a hole 
to slip into. 

3 Conf. Deutsche sagen, no. 38J, on Theodeiic's soul, how it is conveyed into 
Vulcan's alj\ss. 

VOL. II. C 



456 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

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

i One winter Hadding was eating bis supper, when suddenly an earth-wife 
pushed her head vp through the floor by the fireside, and offered him green vege- 
tables. Saxo,p. 16, calls her cicutarum gerula, and makes her take Hadding into 
the subterranean land, where are meadows covered with grass, as in our nursery- 
tales which describe Dame Holla's underground realm. This grass- wife resembles 
a little earth-wife. 



ELVES, DWARFS. 457 

to be reckoned three cases in particular. In the first place, they 
fetch goodwives, midwives, to assist she-dwarfs in labour ; l next, 
men of understanding to divide a treasure, to settle a dispute ; 2 
thirdly, they borrow a hall to hold their weddings in ; s but they 
requite every favour by bestowing jewels which bring luck to the 
man's house and to his descendants. They themselves, however, 
have much knowledge of occult healing virtues in plants and 
stones. 4 In Rudlieb xvii. 18, the captured dwarf retorts the 
taunt of treachery in the following speech : 



1 Ranzan, Alvensleben, Hahn. (Deut. sag. no. 41, 68-9) ; Miillenh. Schlesw. 
hoist, sag. no. 443-4. Asbibrn Norw. s. 1, 18. Irish legends and fairy tales 1, 
245-250. Mone's Anz. 7, 475 ; conf. Thiele 1, 36. — Hulpher's Samlingen oin 

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

jag tillika nied ruin hustru var gangen til faboderne, som ligga 'i mil ifran llagunda 
prastegard, och der sent oin qvallen suttit och talt en stund, kom en liteu man 
ingaende genoni dbren, och bad min hustru, det ville bon hjelpa bans hustru, som 
da lag och qvaldes med barn, karlen var eljest liten til viixten, svart i syneu, och 
med gamla gra klader forsedd. Jag och min hustru sutto en stund och undrade 
pa deune mannen, emedan vi understodo, at han var et troll, och libit beriittas, det 
sadane, af bondfolk vettar kallade, sig altid i fabodarne ujipehalla, sedan folket om 
hosten sig derifran begifvit. Men som han 4 a 5 ganger sin begjiran payrkade, och 
man derhos betankte, hvad skada bondfolket beratta sig ibland af vettarne lidit, 
da de antingen svurit pa dem, eller eljest vist dem med vranga ord til helvetet ; 
ty fattade jag da til det radet, at jag laste ofver min hustru nagre boner, valsignade 
henne, och bad henne i Cuds namn foljamed honom. Hon tog sa i hastighet nagre 
gamla linklader med sig, och fiilgde honom at, men jag blef qvar sittande. Sedan 
nar hon mig vid aterkomsten berattat, at da hon gatt med mannen utom porten, 
tykte hon sig liksom foras udi vadret en stund, och kom sa uti en stuga, hvarest 
bredevid var en liten mork kammare, das bans hustru lag och vandades med barn 
i en siing, min hustru liar sa stigit til henne, och efter en liten stund bjelpt henne, 
da hon fodde barnet, och det med lika atbbrder, som andra menniskor plaga hafva. 
Karlen har sedan tilbudit henne mat, men som hon dertil nekade, ty tackade han 
henne och fblgde henne at, hvarefter hon ater likasom farit i vadret, och kom efter 
en stund til porten igen vid passklockan 10. Emedlertid voro en hoper gamla 
silfverskedar lagde pa en hylla i stugan, och fann min hustru dem, da hon andra 
dagen stbkade i vraarne : kunnandes forsta, at de af vettret voro dit lagde. At sa 
i sanning iir skedt, vitnar jag med mitt nanins undersattande. Ragunda, d. 12 

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

my wife were accosted by a little man with black fac< and old gray clothes, who 
begged my wife to come and aid his wife then in labour. Seeing he was a troll, 
such as the peasantry call vettar (wights), I prayed over my wife, blessed her, and 
bade her go. She seemed for a time to be borne along by the wind, found his wife 
in a little dark room, and helped, etc. Refused food, was carried home in the 
same way ; found next day a heap of old silver vessels brought by the vettr.1 

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

2 Pref. p. xxx. Neocorus 1, 542. Kindcrm. 2, 43. 3, 172. 225. Nib. 92, 3. 
Bit. 7819. Conf. Deutsche heldensagen, p. 78. 

3 Hoia (Deut. sagen, no. 35). Bonikau (Elisabeth von Orleans, Strassb. 1789, 
p. 133 ; Leipzig 1820, p. 450-1). Busching'a Wbchentl. nachr. 1, 98 ; conf. 101. 

4 The wounded hardmandle, p. 450-1. Here are two Swedish Btories (riven in 
Udmau's Bahusliin pp. 191, 224 : Bibru Martensson, accompanied by an archer, 



458 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

Absit ut inter nos unquam regnaverit haec fraus ! 
non tarn longaevi tunc essemus neque sani. 
Inter vos nemo loquitur nisi corde doloso, 
hinc neque ad aetatem maturam pervenietis : 
pro cuj usque fide sunt ejus tempora vitae. 
Non aliter loquimur nisi sicat corde tenemus, 
neque cibos varios edinms morbos generantes, 
long ias incolumes hinc nos durabimus ac vos. 

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

went hunting in the high woods of Ornekulla ; there they found a bergsmed 
(mountain-smith) asleep, and the huntsman ordered the archer to seize him, but 
he declined : 'Pray God shield you ! the bergsmith will fling you down the hill.' 
But the huntsman was so daring, he went up and laid hands on the sleeper ; the 
bergsmith cried out, and begged they would let him go, he had a wife and seven 
little ones, and he would forge them anything they liked, they had only to put the 
iron and steel on the cliff, and they'd presently find the work lying finished in the 
same place. Biorn asked him, whom he worked for ? ' For my fellows,' he 
replied. As Biorn would not release him, he said: 'Had I my cap-of-darkness 
(uddehat, p. 463), you should not carry me away ; but if you don't let me go, none 
of your posterity will attain the greatness you enjoy, but will go from bad to worse.' 
Which afterwards came true. Biorn secured the bergsmith, and had him put in 
prison at Bohus, but on the third day he had disappeared. 

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

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

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



ELVES, DWARFS. 459 

Whilst in this and other ways the dwarfs do at times have 
dealings with mankind, yet on the whole they seem to shrink 
from man; they give the impression of a downtrodden afflicted 
race, which is on the point of abandoning its ancient home 
to new and more powerful invaders. There is stamped on 
their character something shy and something heathenish, which 
estranges them from intercourse with christians. They chafe 
at human faithlessness, which no doubt would primarily mean 
the apostacy from heathenism. In the poems of the Mid. Ages, 
Laurin is expressly set before us as a heathen. It goes sorely 
against the dwarfs to see churches built, hell-ringing (supra, 
p. 5) disturbs their ancient privacy ; they also hate the clearing 
of forests, agriculture, new fangled pounding-machinery for ore. 1 



1 More fully treated of iu Ir. Elfenm. xciv. xcv. ; conf. Thiele 1, 42. 2, 2. Fare 
p. 17, 18. Heinchen driven away by grazing herds and tinkling sheepbells, Variscia 
2, 101. Hessian tales of wichtelmannerchen, Kinderm. no. 39, to which I add the 

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

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

Then, lastly, a Low Saxon story of the Aller country : Tau Offeusen bin 

Kloster Wienhusen was en groten buern, Hovennann neune he sick, die bane ok en 
schip up der Aller. Eins dages komt 2 Hie tau jum un segget, he scholle se over dat 
water schippen. Tweimal fauert hei over de Aller, jodesmal na den groten rume, 
den se Allero heiten dauet, dat is ne grote unminscldiche wische lan^' an breit, dat 
man se kums afkiken kann. Ans de buer taun tweitenmalo over efauert is, 
ein von den twarmen to ome : ' Wut du nu ne summe geldes hebben, oder wut du 
na koptal betalt sin? ' ' Ick will leiver ne summe geld nemen ' Bsi de bner. Do 
nimt de eine von den liitjen Wen sinen haut af, un settet den dem Bohipper up : 
' Du herrst dik doch beter estan, wenn du na koptal efodert herrst ' segt de twarm ; 



460 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

Breton legend informs us : A man had dug a treasure out of a 
dwarf's hole, and then cautiously covered his floor with ashes and 
glowing embers ; so when the dwarfs came at midnight to get 
their property back, they burnt their feet so badly, that they set 
up a loud wail (supra, p. 41 3) and fled in haste, but they smashed 
all his crockery. Villemarque 1, 42 (see Suppl.). 

From this dependence of the elves on man in some things, 
and their mental superiority in others, there naturally follows 
a hostile relation between the two. Men disregard elves, elves 
do mischief to men and teaze them. It was a very old belief, 
that dangerous arrows were shot down from the air by elves ; 
this evidently means light elves, it is never mentioned in stories 
of dwarfs, and the AS. formula couples together ' esagescot and 
ylfagescot,' these elves being apparently armed with weapons 
like those of the gods themselves; 1 the divine thunderbot is even 
called an albsclioss (pp. 179, 187), and in Scotland the elf-arrow, 
elf-flint, elf-bolt is a hard pointed wedge believed to have been 
dischai'ged by spirits ; the turf cut out of the ground by light- 
ning is supposed to be thrown up by them. 2 On p. 187 I have 
already inferred, that there must have been some closer con- 
nexion, now lost to us, between elves and the Thundergod : if it 
be that his bolts were forged for him by elves, that points rather 
to the black elves. 

Their touch, their breath may bring sickness or death on man 
and beast; 3 one whom their stroke has falleu on, is lost or in- 
capable (Danske viser 1, 328) : lamed cattle, bewitched by them, 

un de buer, de vorher nichts nich seien harre, un den et so licbte in schipp vorko- 
rnen was, ans of he nichts inne herre, siit de ganze Allero von luter lutjen minschen 
krimmeln un wimmeln. Dat sind de twarme west, dei wier trokken sind. Von der 
tit heft Hovermanns noch immer vull geld ehat, dat senich kennen deen, averst mi 
sind se sau ein nan annern ut estorven, un de hof is verkoft. ' Wann ist denn das 
gewesen ? ' Vor olen tien, ans de twarme noch sau in der welt wesen sind, nu 
gift et er wol kerne mehr, vor driittig, virzig jaren. [Substance of the foregoing : 

Hbvermann, a large farmer at Offensen, had also a ship on the R. Aller. Two 

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

1 Arrows of the Servian vila, p. 436. The Norw. ali-skudt, elf-shotten, is said 
of sick cattle, Sommerfelt Saltdalens prastegield, p. 119, Scot, el/shot. 

2 Irish Elf-stories xlv. xlvi. cii. 

3 Ibid. ciii. 



ELVES, DWARFS. 461 

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

iillkuon, iillkuon, est du her inn, 

saa ska du herud paa 15 iegepinu ! 

(elf-woman, art thou in here, so shalt thou come out through 1 5 

1 Norweg. ah-gust, an illness caused by having been breathed upon by elves, 
Hallager 4 b . 

2 Old French legend has an elf called Zephyr ; there is a German home-sprite 
Blaserle, Mone's Anzeiger 1834, p. 200. 



462 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

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

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

1 ' Hujus tempore principis (Heinrici ducis Karinthiae) in montanis suae 
ditionis gens gnava in cavernis montiurn habitavit, cum bominibus vescebantur, 
ludebant, bibebant, choreas ducebant, sed invisibiliter. Literas scribebant, rem- 
publicam inter se gerebant, legem habentes et principem, fidem catholicam pro- 
ritentes, domicilia hominum latenter intrantes, bominibus consedentes et arridentes. 
. . . Principe subducto, nihil de eis amplius est auditum. Dicitur quod 
gemmas g est ant, quae eos reddunt invisibiles, quia deformitatem et parvitatem cor- 
porum erubescunt.' Anon. Leobiens. ad ann. 1335 (Pez 1, 940 a ). 

2 01. Wormius's pref. to Clausson's Dan. transl. of Snorre, Copenh. 1633 : ' der- 
for sigis de (dverger) at halve hcitte paa, huormid kunde giore sig usynlig.' Other 
proofs are collected in Ir. Elfenm. lxxiv. Ixxv. A schretel wears a rotez keppel on 
him (not on his head), ibid. cxvi. Bollenhagen's ' bergmiinnlein ' wear little white 
shirts and pointed caps, Froschmeuseler xx. v 1 '. Maugis, the Carolingian sorcerer, 
is called ' lerres (latro) o le noir chaperon.' 1 



ELVES, DWARFS. 463 

schretePs r r6tez heppel' becomes in H. Sachs 1, 280* a ' mantel 

scharlacb rot des zwergleins.' Beside invisibility, this cloak 
imparts superior strength, and likewise control over the dwarf 
nation and their hoard. In other instances the cap alone is 
meant: a Norwegian folk-tale in Faye p. 30 calls it uddehat 
(pointed hat ?), and a home-sprite at Hildesheim bears the name 
of Eodeken from the felt hat he wore. Probably the OHG-. helot- 
helm (latibulum), Gl. Hrab. 969% the OS. helith-helm, Hel. 164, 
29, AS. heolShelm, Cod. Exon. 362, 31, haeWhelm, Casdm. 29, 2, 
ON. hiahnr hnliz (an Eddie word for cloud), Seem. 50V and tne 
AS. grimhelm, Ca3dm. 188, 27. 198, 20. Beow. 666, all have a 
similar meaning, though the simple helm and grime (p. 238) 
already contain the notion of a covering and a mask ; for helm 
is from helan (celare) as huot, hood, or hat, from huotan (tegere) . 
No doubt other superior beings, beside elves and dwarfs, wore 
the invisible-making garment ; I need only mention Oftin's hat 
with turned-up brim (p. 146), Mercury's petasvs, Wish's hat, 
which our fairy-tales still call ivishing-hat, 2 and Pluto's or Orcus's 
helmet (fti'Sos Kvvi v , II. 5, 845. Hesiod, Scut. 227). The dwarfs 
may have stood in some peculiar, though now obscured, relation 
to OSinn, as the hat-wearing pataeci, cabiri and Dioscuri did to 
Jupiter (see Suppl.). 

From such ability to conceal their form, and from their teazing 
character in general, there will arise all manner of deception and 
disappointment (conf. Suppl. to p. 331), to which man is exposed 
in dealing with elves and dwarfs. We read : der alp trivget 
(cheats), Fundgr. 327, 18; den triuget, weiz Got, nicht der alp, 
not even the elf can trick him, Diut. 2, 34; Silvester 5199; dio 
mag triegen wol der alp, Suchenwirt xxxi. 12; ein getroc daz 
mich in dem slafe triuget, Ben. 429 ; dich triegen die elbln (1. elln>, 
rhyme selbe), Altd. bl. 1, 261 ; elbe tricgent, Amgb. 2 b ; din elber 
triegent, Herbort 5 b ; in beduhte daz in triige ein alp, Ir. elfenm. 
lvii. ; alfs ghedroch, Elegast 51, 775. Reinh. 5367, conf. Horae 
Belg. 6, 218-9; alfsche droeh, Eeinaert (prose lxxii. a ). In our 



1 Fornm. sog. 2, 141 says of Eyvindr the sorcerer : ' gun-Si p-eim hulitkhialm,' 
made for them a mist, darkness, hul in hiahnr, Fornald. sog. 3, 219 ; hujUhSttr 1, 
9. 2, 20. See Rafn's Index sub v. dulgerfi. 

2 A weighty addition to the arguments for the identity of Wuotan and Mercury ; 
conf. p. 419 on the vrishing-rod. 



464 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

elder speech gitroc, getroc, dgetroc, abegetroc, denotes trickery 
especially diabolic, proceeding from evil spirits (Gramm. 2, 709. 
740-1). 1 To the same effect are some other disparaging epithets 
applied to elves : elbischez getwas, elbischez as, elbischez ungehiure, 
as the devil himself is called a getwas (fantasma) and a monster. 
So, of the morbid oppression felt in sleep and dreaming, it is 
said quite indifferently, either : ' the devil has shaken thee, ridden 
thee/ ' hinaht ritert dich satanas (Satan shakes thee to-night)/ 
Fundgr. 1, 170; or else the elf, the nightmare 2 : 'dich hat geriten 
der mar/ 'ein alp zonmet dich (bridles thee)/ And as Dame 
Holle entangles one's spinning or hair (p. 2G9), as she herself has 
tangled hair, 3 and as stubbly hair is called Hollenzopf ; 4 so the 
nightelf, the nightmare, rolls up the hair of men or the manes and 
tails of horses, in knots, or chews them through: alpzopf, druten- 
zopf, wichtelzopf, weichselzopf (of which more hereafter), in Lower 
Saxony mahrenlocke, elfklatte (Brem. wortb. 1, 302), Dan. mare- 
lok, Engl, elfloclcs (Nares sub v.), elvish knots, and in Shakspeare 
to elf means to mat: 'elf all my hair in knots/ K. Lear ii. 3. 
Here will come in those ' comae equorum diligenter tricatae,' 
when the white women make their midnight rounds (supra, p. 
287). The Lithuanian elf named aihvaras likewise mats the 
hair : aitwars yo plaukus suzindo, suwele (has drawn his hair to- 
gether). Lasicz 51 has : aitwaros, incubus qui post sepes habitat 
(from twora sepes, and ais pone). Some parts of Lower Saxony 
give to the wichtelzopf (plica polonica) the name of selkensteert, 
selkin's tail (Brem. wortb. 4, 749), sellentost (Hufeland's Journal 
11. 43), which I take to mean tuft of the goodfellow, homesprite 



1 Daz analutte des sih pergenten tmgetievcles, N. Bth. 44; gidrog pbantasma, 
0. iii. 8, 24; gedroq, Hel. 89, 22 ; tievels qetroc, Karl 62 a ; ' ne dragu ic enic drugi 
thing,' Hel. 8, 10. ' The dwarf Elberich (Ortn. 3, 27. 5, 105) is called ' ein trilge- 
■wiz ' ; conf. infra, bilwiz. 

2 Our nachtmar I cannot produce either in OHG. or MHG. Lye gives AS. 
' mcere fascce ' incubus, epbialtes, but I do not understand fascce. Nearly akin is 
the Pol. mora, Boh. mura, elf and evening butterfly, sphinx. In the Mark they say 
both alb and mahre, Adalb. Kuhn, p. 374. French cauchevwre, cochemar, also 
chaucheville, chauchi vieilli (Mem. des Antiq. 4. 399; J. J. Champollion Figeac 
patois, p. 125) ; Ital. pesaruole, Span, pesadilla, O. Fr. appesart; these from caucher 
(calcare), and pesar (to weigh down). 

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

■* Hess. Hollezaul (for -zagel, tail), Hollezopp, Schmidt's Westerw. idiot. 341. 
Adelung has : ' Iwllenzopf, plica polonica, Pol. koltun, Boh. koltaun.' 



ELVES, DWARFS. 465 

(gesellchen). 1 In Thuringia saelloclce, Prtetorius's Weltbesclir. 1, 
40. 293 (see Suppl.). 

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

All dwarfs and elves are thievish. Among Eddie names of 
dwarfs is an Aljriofr, Seem. 2 b ; Alpris, more correctly Alfrikr 
dvergr, in Vilk. saga cap. 16, 40. is called ' hinn mikli stelari' ; 
and in the Titurel 27, 288 (Halm 4105), a notorious thief, who 
can steal the eggs from under birds, is Elbegast (corrupted into 
Elegast, Algast). In our Low German legends they lay their 
plans especially against the pea-fields? Other thefts of dwarfs 

i Ogonczyk Zakrzewski, in his Hist, of plica polonica (Vienna, 1830), observes, 
that its cure also is accomplished with superstitious ceremonies. In Podlachia the 
elftult is solemnly cut off at Easter time and buried. In the Skawina district about 
Cracow, it is partially cropped with redbot shears, a piece of copper money tied 
up in it, and thrown into tbe ruins of an old castle in which evil spirits lodge ; 
but whoever does this must not look round, but hasten home as fast as he can. 
Superstitious formulas for the cure of plica are given by Zakrzewski, p. 20, out of 
an Old Boh. MS. of 1325. 

2 Wackeruagel's Basel MSS. p. 28. 

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

Schambach. The first is from Jiibnde, near Gottingen : Yor nioh langer tid gai 

et to Jiine noch twarge. Diise plegten up et feld to gan, un den liien do arftea 
(leuten die crbsen) weg to stelen, wat se iim sau lichter konnen, da se nnsichtbar 
woren dor (durch) eue kappe, dei se uppeu koppe barren (hatten). Sau woren nu 
ok de twarge enen manne iimmer up sin grat arftenstiicke egan, un richteden one 
velen schaen darup an. Diit duerde sau lange, bet hei up den infal kam, de twarge 
to fengen. Hei tog alsau an hellen middage en sel (seil) rings iim dat feld. As nu 
de twarge unner den sel dorkrupen wollen, fellen onen de kappen af, se seiten nu 
alle in blaten koppen, un woren eichtbar. De twarge, dei sau efongen woren, 
geiwen one vele gaue wore, dat he dat sel wcgnomen mogde, un versproken ene 
mette (miethe) geld davor to gewen, hei solle mant vm- twmu nupgange weer (wieder) 
an diise Btee komen. En ander man segde one awer, hei mogde nioh gegen sun- 
nenupgang, sundern scbon iim tw5lwe hengan, denn da wore de dag ok schon 
anegan, Diit de" he, und richtig woren de twarge da met ener mette geld. Davon 
heiten de liie, dei dei mette geld ekregen barren, Mettens. Epitome :— Dwarfs ai 
Jiihnde preyed on the pea-fields ; wore caps ■which made them invisible. One man 
at high noon stretched a cord round his field. Dwarfs, creeping under it, brushed 



466 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

are collected in Elfenm. xcii. xciii., and their longing for children 
and blooming maids is treated of, p. civ. cv. Dwarf-kings run 
away with maidens to their mountains : Laurin with the fair 
Similt (Sindhilt ?), Goldemar or Volmar with a king's daughter 
(Deut. heldensag. 174, Haupt's Zeitschr. 6, 522-3); the Swed. 
folk-lay 'Den bergtagna' (-taken) tells of a virgin, who spends 
eight years with a mountain-king, and brings him seven sons and 
a daughter, before she sees her home again. 1 The following 

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

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

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

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

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

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

1 But she-dwarfs also marry men ; Odman (Bahuslan, p. 78-9, conf. Afzelius 2, 

157) relates quite seriously, and specifying the people's names: Beors foraldrar i 

Hogen i Lurssockn, some bodde i Fuglekarr i Svarteborgssockn ; hvars farfar var 
en skott, ok bodde vid et berg, ther fick nan se mitt pa dagen sitjande en vacker 
piga pa en sten, ther med at ianga henne, kastade han stal emellan berget ok henne, 
hvarpa hennes far gasmade eller log in i berget, ok opnade bergets dorr, tilfragandes 
honom, om han vill ha bans dotter? Hvilket han med ja besvarade, ok efter lion 
var helt naken, tog han sina klader ok holgde ofver henne, ok lat cbristna henne. 
Vid aftradet sade hennes far til honom : ' nar tu skalt ha brollup, skalt tu laga til 
12 tunnor 61 ok baka en hop brod ok kiott efter 4 stutar, ok kiora til jordlwgen eller 
berget, ther jag haller til, ok nar brudskiinken skall utdelas, skall jag val ge min ' ; 



ELVES, DWARFS. 467 

legend from Dorste near Osterode, it will be seen, transfers to 
dwarfs what the Kinderrmirchen No. 46 relates of a sorcerer : — 
Et was enmal en maken int holt nan arberen egan, da keirnen de 
twarge un neiment mee. Da se na orerhiilen keimen, da verleifde 
sek de eine twarg in se, un da solle se one ok frien, awer iest 
(erst) wollen de twarge de andern twarge taur hochtit bidden, 
underdes solle dat rnaken in huse alles reine maken un taur hochtit 
anreien. Awer dat niaken, dat wolle den twarg nich frien, da 
wollet weglopen, awer dat se't nich glik merken, tug et sin teug 
ut un tug dat ne strawisch an, un da sach et ne tunne vul hunig, 
da krup et rinder (hinein), un da sach et ok ne tunne vul feddern, 
un da krup et ok rinder, un da et wedder ruter karu, was et gans 
vul feddern, un da leip et weg un steig upn hoagen boam. Da 
keirnen de twarge derbunder (darunter) vorbi, un da se't seichen, 
meinen se, et wore en vugel, da reipen se't an un seen : 

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

Und da se hen keirnen, seen se taur brut ( guen niorgen/ an 
seen noch mehr dertau ; awer da se nich antwure, sleuchten se'r 
hinder de aren, un da fell se hen 1 (see Suppl.). 

hvilket ok skedde. Ty nar de andre gafvo, lyfte han up tacket ok kastade ensa star 
penningeposse ther igenom, at biinken sa nar gidt af, ok sade thervid : ' ther ar min 
ekiiuk ! ' ok sade ytterligare : ' nar tu skal ha tin hemmagifta, skaltu kiora med I 
hiistar hit til berget ok fa tin andel.' Ta han sedermera efter bans begiiran kom 
tit, fik han kopparkattlar, then ene storre an then andre, tils then yttersta storate 
kattelen blef upfyld med andra mindre ; item brandcreatur, som voro hielmeta, af 
hvilkeu f;irg ok creaturslag, som tiro stora ok frodiga, the an ha qvar pa rik, i 
Tanums gall beliiget. Thenne mannen Reors far i Foglekarsten beniimd, atiade en 
hop barn med thenna sin saledes fi-an berget afhiimtade hnstru, bland hvilka var 
namnemannen Reor pa Hogen ; so bar Ola Stenson i stora Rijk varit Reors syster- 
pou, hvilken i forledit ar med doden afgik. [Epitome : — Reor's fatbers dwelt, etc. 
One, an archer, lived near a hill, saw one day at noon v. fine <jirl sitting on u stone : 
to get her, he threic steel between her and the hill. Her father opened the door of 
the hill, asked him if he wanted his daughter. He answered yes, and as she was 
naked, threw some of his clothes over her ; had her christened. Father: 'At thy 
wedding bring ale, bread and horseflesh to my hill, and I will give thee a wedding 
gift.' This being done, he lifted their roof and threw in a great sum of money. 
' Now for house-furniture, come here with four horses.' The man did so, and re- 
ceived copper kettles of all sizes, one inside the other, etc., etc. By this wife, tlm< 
fetched from the hill, he had many children ; one was Reor, whose nephew 0. S. 
died only last year.] 

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



468 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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



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

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

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

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

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

Assuredly the dwarfs in this story are genuine and of old date. Besides, it can 
be supplemented from Kinderm. 3, 75, where the returning dwarfs are preceded by 
foxes and bears, who also go past and question the ' Fitcher's fowl.' There the 
tub of honey in the dwarf's house is a cask of blood, but both together agree wonder- 
fully with the vessels which the dwarfs Fialar and Galar keep filled with Kvasi's 
precious blood and with honey. Sn. 83. 84. 

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

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

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



ELVES, DWARFS. 4G9 

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

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

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

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

1 The Finns call a changeling luoti : monstrnm necnon infans matre dormiente 
a magis suppositus, quales putant esse infantern rachitide laborantem (Renvall). A 
Breton story of the korrigan changing a child is in Villein arque 1, 2a. 



470 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

and at dawn perceive their track in the dew : Dan. cdledands, 
Swed. alfdands, Engl, fairy rings, fairy green. The sight of 
mountain-spirits dancing on the meadows betokens to men a 
fruitful year (Deut. sag. no. 298). An Austrian folk-song in 
Schottky, p. 102, has : ' und duiirt drobn afm beargl, da danzn 
zwoa zweargl, de danzn so rar/ In Laurin's mountain, in 
Venus's mountain, there murmurs a gay seductive music, dances 
are trod in them (Laurin, 24) ; in the Ortnit (Ettm. 2, 17) there 
is 'ein smalez pfat getreten mit Jcleinen fiiezen/ a small path 
trod by little feet. Songs of elfins allure young men up the 
mountain, and all is over with them (Svenska fornsanger 2, 305. 
Danske viser 1, 235-240). 1 This performance is called eljfrus leh, 
elfvelek. The ordinary fornyrbalag 2 bears among Icelandic poets 
the name liiiflingslag (carmen genii), Olafsen p. 56 ; in Norway 
that kind of sweet music is called huldresldt (supra, p. 271). 
One unprinted poem in MHG. (Cod. pal. 341. 357 a ) contains 
the remarkable passage : ' there sat fiddlers, and all fiddled the 
albleich (elf-lay) ' ; and another (Altd. bl. 2, 93) speaks of 
' seiten spil und des wihtels schal' : it must have been a sweet 
enchanting strain, whose invention was ascribed to the elves. 3 
Finn Magnusen derives the name of the dwarf Haugspori (Sasni. 
2 b ) from the footmarks printed on grass by an elf roaming over 
the hills at night. And a song in Villemarque 1, 39 makes the 
dwarfs dance themselves out of breath (see Suppl.) . 

This fondness of elves for melody and dance links them with 
higher beings, notably with half-goddesses and goddesses. In 
the ship (of Isis) songs of joy resound in the night, and a dancing 
multitude circles round it (p. 258). In Dame Holda's dwelling, 
in Dame Venus's mountain, are the song and the dance. Celtic 
traditions picture the fays as dancing (Mem. de l'acad. celt. 5, 
108) ; these fays stand midway between elfins and wise women. 4 
The Hymn to Aphrodite 260 says of the mountain-nymphs : 

Bnpbv fxev ^coovgl fcai afxfiporov el8ap eSovai, 
Kal re jxer aOavdroicri ko\ov x°P ov ^ppaxravro. 

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

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

3 Conf. Ir. Elfenm. lxxxi.-lxxxiii., and the wihtel-show above, p. 441 note ; Eire 
sub v. alfiians ; Arndt's Journey to Sweden 3, 16. 

4 Like the Servian v'dy, who lioid their dance on mountain and mead, p. 4oC. 



ELVES, DWARFS. 471 

(On deathless food they feed, and live full long, And whirl with 
gods through graceful dance and song.) No wonder our sage 
elves and dwarfs are equally credited with having the gift of 
divination. As such the dwarf Andvari appears in the Edda 
(Saem. 181 a ), and still more Alvts (all-wise) ; dwarf Eugel (L. 
Germ. Ogel) prophesies to Siegfried (Hiirn. Sifr. 46, 4. 162, 1), 
so does Grripir in the Edda, whose father's name is Eylimi; in 
the OFr. Tristran, the nains (nanus) Frocin is a devins (diviuator), 
he interprets the stars at the birth of children (11. 318-326. 632). 
When, in legends and fairy tales, dwarfs appear singly among 
men, they are sage counsellors and helpful, but also apt to fire up 
and take offence. Such is the character of Elberich and Oberon ; 
in a Swiss nursery- tale (no. 165), 'e chlis isigs mandle' (a little 
ice-grey mannikin), c e chlis mutzigs mandle' (stumpy m.), ap- 
pears in an Msige chliiidle ' (grey coat), and guides the course 
of events ; elves forewarn men of impending calamity or death 
(Ir. Elfenm. lxxxvi.). And in this point of view it is not without 
significance, that elves and dwarfs ply the spinning and weaving 
so much patronized by Dame Holda and Frikka. The flying gos- 
samer in autumn is in vulgar opinion the thread spun by elves and 
dwarfs; the Christians named it Marienfaden (-thread), Marien- 
sommer, because Mary too was imagined spinning and weaving. 
The Swed. dverg signifies araneus as well as nanus, and dvergs-ndt 
a cobweb. 1 The ON. saga of Samson hinn fagri mentions in cap. 
17 a marvellous f skickja, sem dlfkonurnar hofSu ofit' mantle that 
elfins had woven. On a hill inhabited by spirits you hear at 
night the elfin (which ' troldkone ' here must mean) spinning, 
and her wheel humming, says Thiele 3, 25. Melusina the fay is 
called alvinne in a Mid. Nethl. poem (Moneys Niederl. Volkslit. 

p. 75). On the other hand, the male dwarfs forge jewels and 

arms (supra, p.444-7, and in fuller detail in Ir. Elfenm. lxxxviii.). 3 

1 So the Breton horr is both dwarf and spider. 

2 Here is one more legend from Odmau's Bahuslan, p. 79 : Thessutan har 

man atskillige beriittelser ok sagor om smedar, sa i hiigar som biirg, sasom har i 
Fossumstorp hogar, hvarest man hordt, at the siuidt liksom i en annan smidja oro 
aftonen efter solenes nedergdng, ok eljest mitt pa hoga middagen. For 80 in- sedan 
p;ik Olas fadar i Surtuug, beniimd Ola Simunsson, har i forsamlingen Mn Slangevald 
bafvandes med sig en hund, hvilken ta ban blef varse mitt pa dagen bdrgsmannen, 
som ta smidde pd en star sten, skialde ban pa bonom, hvar pa bargsmeden, som hade 
on liusgrd rdk ok bldvulen hatt, begynte at snarka at bunden, som tillika med 1ms 
bonden funno rMeligast, at lemna bonom i fred. Tbet gifvas ok iinnu ibland 
gemene man sma crucifixer af metall, som gemenbgen balles fore vara i fordna 

VOL. II. D 



472 



WIGHTS AND ELVES. 



To bring pig-iron to dwarfs, and find it the next morning outside 
the cave, ready worked for a slight remuneration, is a feature of 
very ancient date; the scholiast on Apollon. Rhod. (Argon. 4, 
761) illustrates the a/cftoves 'Hfyalaroio (anvils of H.) by a story 
of the volcanic isles about Sicily taken from Pytheas's Travels : 
to be iraXatov iXeyero tov j3ov\6ixevov apybv atBr/pov dirocpepetv 
/cat, £7Ti T7)v avpiov eXOovra \ap,{3dveiv rj £t</>o<? rj et rt aWo i]6eke 
KaraaKevdaai, KcnafiakovTa paadov (see Suppl.). 

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

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

Sie wolten daz kein pilwiz 

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

Er solde sin ein guoter 

und ein ip Hew is geheizen, 

davon ist daz in reizen 

die iibeln ungehiure. Riiediger von zwein gesellen (Cod. 

regimont.) 15 b . 
Da kom ich an bulweclisperg gangen, 
da schoz mich der bulweclis, 
da schoz mich die bulwechsin, 

da schoz mich als ir ingesind. Cod. vindob. 2817. 71 a . 
Von schrabaz pilwihten. Titur. 27, 299 (Halm 4116). 
Sein part het manchen pnlbiszoteu. Casp. von der Ron. 

heldenb. 156 b . 

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

tider smidde i btirg, hvilka the oforstandkre bruka at hanga pa boskap, som hastigt 
fadt oudt ute pi marken, eller som sages blifvit vaderslagne, hvarigeuom tro them 
bli helbregda. Af sadana bargsmiden bar jag ok nyligen kommit ofver ett, som 
aunu ar i forvar, ok pa. ofvanuamde satt gik i Ian at bota siukdommar. [Epitome : 

Many stories of smiths in the mountains, who worked as at any other smithy, 

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



PILWIZ, BILWIT. 473 

makes pilwiz (var. pilbiz, bilwiz, bilwitz) rhyme with biz (inorsus), 
where the short vowel in the last syllable seems to point to 
pilwiht; the same with bilbis in another poem, which would have 
spelt it bilbeis if it had been long ; so that we cannot connect it 
with the OS. balowis, nor immediately with the bilwis and balwis 
contrasted on p. 374. The varying form is a sign that in the 
13-14th century the word was no longer understood; and later 
on, it gets further distorted, till bulwechs makes us think of a 
totally unconnected word balwahs (hebes). 1 A confession-book 
of the first half of the 15th century (Hoffmann's Monatschr. 753) 
has pelewysen synonymous with witches, and Colerus's Hausbuch 
(Mainz 1056), p. 403, uses bihlweisen in the same sense; several 
authorities for the form pUbis are given in Schm. 4, 188. We 
welcome the present Westph. Nethl. belewitten in the Teutonista, 
where Schuiren considers it equivalent to guecle holden and witte 
vrouwen (penates). Kilian has belewitte (lamia); and here come3 
in fitly a passage from Gisb. Vcetius de miraculis (Disput., torn. 
2, 1018): ' De illis quos nostrates appellant becldwit et blinde 
belien, a quibus nocturna visa videri atque ex iis arcana revelari 
putant.' Belwit then is penas, a kindly disposed home-sprite, 
a guote liable (supra, p. 206), what Riiediger calls ' ein guoter 
und ein pilewiz.' Peculiar to AS. is an adj. bilwit, b Hew it, 
Casdm. 53, 4. 279, 23, which is rendered mansuetus, simplex, but 
might more exactly mean aequus, Justus. God is called 'btlewit 
iseder ' (Andr. 1996), Boeth. metr. 20, 510. 538 ; and is also 
addressed as such in Cod. exon. 259, 6; again, ' bilwitra breoste ' 
(bonorum, aequorum pectus), Cod. exon. 343, 23. The spelling 
bilehwit (Beda 5, 2, 13, where it translates simplex) would lead 
to hwit (albus), but then what can bil mean ? I prefer the better 
authorized bilewit, taking 'wit' to mean scius, and bilwit, OHG. 
pilawiz, pilwiz ? to mean aequutn 2 sciens, aequus, bonus, although 

1 Fundgr. 1, 3-43, where palwasse rhymes with vahse, as MHG. often has 'wans 
for acutus, when it should be ' was,' OHG. huas, AS. hwass, ON. hvass ; thus the 
OHG. palohuas = badly sharp, i.e. blunt, ON. bolhvass? just as palotat = baleful 
deed. A later form biilwachs in Schm. 4, 15. 

2 The simple bil seems of itself to be aequitas, jus, and mythic enough (p. 37C). 
MHG. billieh (aequus), Diut. 3, 38. Fundgr. ii. 56, 27. 01, 23. 00, 19. Reinh. 
354. Iw. 1030. 5244. 5730. 0842. Ls. 2, 329. billichcn (jure), Nib. 150, 2. dtr 
biUich (aequitas), Trist. 0429. 9374. 10002. 13772. 18027. An OHG. billih I only 
know from W. lxv. 27, where the Leyden MS. has bilithlich. As the notions 
' aequus, aequalis, similis' lie next door to each other, piladi, bilidi (our bild) is 
really aequalitas, similitudo, the ON. likneski (imago). The Celtic bil also mi ana 
good, mild ; and Leo (Malb. Gl. 38) tries to explain bilwiz from bilbheith, bilbhitb. 



474 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

an adj. ' vit, wiz ' occurs nowhere else that I know of, the ON. 
vitr (gen. vitrs) being provided with a suffix -r. If this etymology 
is tenable, hilwiz is a good genius, but of elvish nature ; he haunts 
mountains, his shot is dreaded like that of the elf (p. 460), hair 
is tangled and matted by him as by the alp (p. 464). One 
passage cited by Schm. 4, ] 88, deserves particular notice : ' so 
man ain kind oder ain gewand opfert zu aim pilbispawm/ if one 
sacrifice a child or garment to a pilbis-tree, i.e. a tree supposed 
to be inhabited by the pilwiz, as trees do contain wood-sprites 
and elves. Bonier' s Legends of the Orlagau, p. 59. 62, name a 
witch Bilbze. The change of hilwiz, bilwis into bilwiht was a step 
easily taken, as in other words also s and h, or s and lit inter- 
change (lios, lioht, Gramm. 1, 138), also st and lit (forest, foreht, 
Gramm. 4, 416) ; and the more, as the compound bihuilit gave 
a not unsuitable meaning, 'good wight.-' The Grl. bias. 87 a offer 
a wihsilstein (penas), nay, the varying form of our present names 
for the plica (p. 464), weicliselzopf, wichselzopf, wichtelzopf (bieh- 
telzopf) makes the similar shading off of bilweichs, bilweclis, bil- 
wicht probable : I have no doubt there is even a bilweicliszopf, 
bilwizzopf to be found. 1 

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



1 Another Polish name for plica, beside koltun, is wieszczyce (Linde 6, 227), and 
vulgar ojiinion ascribes it to the magic of a wieszczka wise woman, witch. This 
wieszczyce agrees with our weichsel-zo-pf, and also with the -tviz, -weis in bilwiz. 
If we conld point to a compound bialowieszczka (white witch, white fay ; but I 
nowhere find it, not even among other Slavs), there would arise a strong suspicion 
of the Slavic origin of our biliriz ; for the present its German character seems to 
me assured both by the absence of siich Slavic compound, and by the AS. bilwit 
and Nethl. belwitte : besides, our wiz comes from wizan, and the Pol. wieszcz from 
wiedzie6 [O.S1. vedeti, to wit] , and the kinship of the two words can be explained 
without any thought of borrowing. Of different origin seem to me the Sloven, 
paglawitz, dwarf, and the Lith. Pilvitus (Lasicz 54) or Pilwite (Narbutt 1, 52), god 
or goddess of wealth. [The Buss, veshch (shch pron. as in parish-church) has the 
same sound as wieszcz, but means thing, Goth, vaiht-s ; for kt, ht becomes shch, 
as in noshch, night. I am not sure therefore that even wieszczka may not be 
" little wiht." — Trans.] 



PILWIZ, BILWIT. 475 

in Bavaria, Franconia, Vogtland and Silesia. H. Sachs uses 
bilbitzen of matting the hair in knots, pilmitz of tangled locks : 
' ir liar verbilbltzt, zapfet und stroblet, als ob sie hab der rab 
gezoblet/ i. 5, 309 b . ii. 2, 100 d ; ' pilmitzen, zoten und fasen/ iii. 
3, 12 a . In the Ackermann von Bohmen, cap. 6, pilwis means 
the same as witch; ' pielweiser, magician, soothsayer,' Bohme's 
Beitr. zum schles. recht 6, 69. 'an. 1529 (at Schweidnitz), a 
2>ielweiss buried alive/ Hoffmann's Monatschr. p. 247. ' 1582 
(at Sagan), two women of honest carriage rated for pilweissen 

and ,' ibid. 702. ' du pileweissin ! ' A. Gryphius, p. 828. 

' Las de deine bilbezzodn auskampln' says the angry mother to 
her child, f i den MlmezscJiedl get nix nei/ get your b. clots 
combed out, you don't come in in that shaggy scalp, Schm. 1, 
168. pilmesland, a curse like devil's child, Delling's Bair. idiot. 
1, 78. On the Saale in Thuriugia, bulmuz is said of unwashed 
or uncombed children ; while b lib ezscl mitt, bllwezschnltt, bilfez- 
schnitt, pilmasschnid (Jos. Rank. Bohmerwald, p. 274) denotes a 
cutting through a field of corn, which is regarded as the work 
of a spirit, a witch, or the devil. 

This last-mentioned belief is also one of long standing. 
Thus the Lex Bajuvar. 12 (13), 8: ' si quis messes alterius 
initiaverit maleficis artibus, et inventus fuerit, cum duodecim 
solidis componat, quod aranscarti 1 dicunt/ I dare say such a 
delinquent was then called a piliwiz, pilawiz ? On this passage 
Mederer remarks, p. 202-3 : An honest countryman told me 
about the so-called bilmerschnitt, bilberschnitt, as follows : ' The 
spiteful creature, that wants to do his neighbour a rascally mis- 
chief, goes at midnight, stark naked, with a sickle tied to his foot, 
and repeating magic spells, through the middle of a field of corn 
just ripe. From that part of the field that he has passed his 
sickle through, all the grains fly into his barn, into his bin.' 
Here everything is attributed to a charm practised by man. 2 

1 Goth, asans (messis), OHG. aran, am. 

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



din muoter heizit Eachel, 
diu hat in geleret : 
swenne sie in hiez sniden gtin, 
sin limit incom nle ddr an, 



sin sichil sneit schiere 

lin'i" dan andere viere ; 

wil er durch einin berc vara, 

der stot immer iner ingegen ira uf getan. 



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



47C WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

According to a communication from Thuringia, there are two 
ways of baffling the bilms- or binsenschneider (-cutter), 1 which- 
ever he is called. One is, ou Trinity Sunday or St. John's day, 
when the sun is highest in the sky, to go and sit on an elderbush 
with a looking-glass on your breast, and look round in every 
quarter, then no doubt you can detect the binsenschneider, but 
not without great risk, for if he spies you before you see him, 
you must die and the binsenschneider remain alive, unless he 
happen to catch sight of himself in the mirror on your breast, 
in which case he also loses his life that year. Another way is, 
to carry some ears that the binsenschneider has cut to a newly 
opened grave in silence, and not grasping the ears in your bare 
hand ; if the least word be spoken, or a drop of sweat from your 
hand get into the grave with the ears, then, as soon as the ears 
rot, he that threw them in is sure to die. 

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

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



ROGGEN-MUHME, CORN-MAMMY. 477 

goblin is supposed to ride through the cornfield on a he-goat, 
which may well remind us of Dietrich with the boar (p. 214). The 
people about Osnabriick believe the tremsemutter walks about in 
the corn : she is dreaded by the children. In Brunswick she is 
called kornwif : when children are looking for cornflowers, they 
will not venture too far into the green field, they tell each other 
of the cornwife that kidnaps little ones. In the Altmark and 
Mark Brandenburg they call her roggenmblime (aunt in the rye), 
and hush crying children with the words : ' hold your tongue, 
or roggenmbJtme with the long black teats will come and drag 
you away ! ' l Others say ' with her long iron teats/ which 
recals iron Berhta : others again name her rochenmor, because 
like Holla and Berhta, she plays all manner of tricks on idle 
maids who have not spun their distaffs clear during the Twelves. 
Babes whom she puts to her black breast are likely to die. Is 
not the Bavarian preinscheuhe the same kind of corn-spectre ? 
In the Schrackengast, Ingolst. 1598, there are coupled together 
on p. 73, 'preinscheuhen- und meerwunder/ and p. 89 'wilde 
larvenschopper und preinscheuhen.' This prein, brein, properly 
pap (puis), means also grain-bearing plants like oats, millet, 
panicum, plantago (Schm. 1, 256-7) ; and breinscheuhe (-scare) 
may be the spirit that is the bugbear of oat and millet fields ? 

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



1 Conf. Dent, sagen, no. 89. Kuhn, p. 373. Temmc's Sagen, p. 80. 82, of the 
Altmark. The Baden legend makes of it a rockert-weibeU and an enoh 
countess of Eberstein, who walks about iu a wood named liockert (Mono's Anzeiger, 
3, H5). 



478 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

guardian goddess of spindle and seedfield. Fro upon his boar 
must have ridden through the plaius, and made them productive, 
nay, even the picture of Siegfried riding through the corn I 
incline to refer to the circuit made by a god ; and now for the 
first time I think I understand why the Wetterau peasant to this 
day, when the corn-ears wave in the wind, says the boar walks in 
the corn. It is said of the god who causes the crops to thrive. 
Thus, by our study of elves, with whom the people have kept up 
acquaintance longer, we are led up to gods that once were. The 
connexion of elves with Holla and Berhta is further remarkable, 
because all these beings, unknown to the religion of the Edda, 
reveal an independent development or application of the heathen 
faith in continental Germany (see Suppl.). 1 

What comes nearest the hairy shaggy elves, or bilwisses, is a 
spirit named scrat or scrato in OHG. documents, and pilosus in 
contemporary Latin ones. The Gl. mons. 333 have scratun 
(pilosi) ; the Gl. herrad. 200 b waltschrate (satyrus) ; the Sumerlat. 
10, 66 srate (lares mali) ; so in MHG. scraz • Reinh. 597 (of the 
old fragment), 'em wilder waltschrat;' Barl. 251, 11. Aw. 3, 
226. Ulr. Lanz. 437 has 'von dem schraze ' = dwarf ; 'sie ist 
villihte ein schrat, ein geist von helle ; ' Albr. Titur. 1, 190 
(Hahn 180). That a small elvish spirit was meant, is plain 
from the dimin. schretel, used synonymously with wihtel in that 
pretty fable, from which our Irish elf-tales gave an extract, but 
which has since been printed entire in Mone's treatise on heroic 
legend, and is now capped by the original Norwegian story in 
Asbiornsen and Moe, No. 26 (one of the most striking examples 

1 The Slavs too have a field-spirit who paces through the corn. Boxhorn's Resp. 
Moscov., pars 1, p. ... : " Daemonem quoque meridianum Moscovitae metuunt et 
colunt. Ille enim, dum jam maturae resecantur fruges, habitu viduae lugentis ruri 
obambulat, operariisque uni vel pluribus, nisi protinus viso spectro in terram proni 
concidant, brachia frangit et crura. Neque tamen contra banc plagarn remedio 
destituuntur. Habent enim in vicina silva arbores religione patrum cultas : harum 
cortice vulneri superimposito, ilium non tantum sanant, sed et dolorem loripedi 
eximunt." Among the Wends tbis corn-wife is named lyshipolnitza [prop, prepoln., 
from polno, full, i.e. full noon] , at the hour of noon she creeps about as a veiled 
rooman. If a Wend, conversing with her by the hour on flax and flax-dressing, can 
manage to contradict everything she says, or keep saying tbe Lord's prayer back- 
wards without stumbling, he is safe (Lausitz. monatsschr. 1797, p. 7-44). The Bohe- 
mians call her baba (old woman), or polednice, poludnice (meridiana), the Poles 
dziewatma, dziewice (maiden), of whom we shall have to speak more than once, conf. 
chap. XXXVI. Here also there are plainly gods mixed up with the spirits and 
goblins. 



SCKAT. 479 

of the tough persistence of such materials in popular tradition) ; 
both the schretel and the word wazzerbern answer perfectly to 
the trold and the hvidbiorn. Vintler thiuks of the schrdttlin as a 
spirit light as wind, and of the size of a child. The Vocab. of 
1482 has schretlin (penates) ; Dasypodius nachtschrettele (ephi- 
altes) ; later ones spell it sckrdttele, schrattel, schrettele, sckrotle, 
conf. Staid. 2, 350. Schmid's Schwab, wortb. 478. In the Sette 
comm. schrata or schretele is a butterfly, Schm. 3, 519. A 
Thidericus Scratman is named in a voucher of 1244 ; Spilcker 2, 
84. A district in Lower Hesse is called the Scltratwe<j, Wochenbl. 
1833,952. 984. 1023. And other Teutonic dialects seem to 
know the word : AS. scritta, Eng. scrat (hermaphroditus), 1 ON. 
skratti (malus genius, gigas) ; a rock on the sea is called 
skrattasker (geniorum scopulus), Fornm. sog. 2, 142. Compar- 
ing these forms with the OHG. ones above, we miss the usual 
consonant-change : the truth is, other OHG. forms do shew a 
z in place of the t: scraz, Gl. fuld. 14; screza (larvae, lares nutli), 
Gl. lindenbr. 996 b ; ' srezze vel strate ' (not: screzzol scraito), 
Sumerlat. 10, 66; f unreiner sclirdz,' Altd. w. 3, 170 (rhymes 
vraz). 2 And Upper Germ, dictionaries of the lGth cent, couple 
schretzel with alp; HOfer 3, 114, has ' der schretz,' and Schm. 
3, 552, 'der schretzel, das schrefzlein.' According to Mich. 
Beham 8. 9 (Mone's Anz. 4, 450-1), every house has its scltrez- 
lebi ; if fostered, he brings you goods and honour, he rides or 
drives the cattle, prepares his table on Brecht-night, etc. 3 

The agreement of Slavic words is of weight. O. Boh. scret 
(daemon), Hanka's Zbirka 6 b ; screti, screttl (penates intimi et 
secretales), ibid. 16 b ; Boh. skret, skrjteJc (penas, idolumj ; Pol. 
shrzot, skrzitek ; Sloven, zhltrdt, zhkrdtiz, zhkrdlclj (hill-mannikin). 
To the Serv. and Russ. dialects the word seems unknown. 

I can find no satisfactory root for the German form. 1 In Slavic 

1 Already in Sachsensp. 1, 4 altvile and dverge side by side ; conf. KA. 410. 

2 A contraction of schrawaz ? Gudr. 448, schrawaz und merwunder ; Albr. Titur. 
27, 299 has schrabaz together with pilwiht; schrawatzen und merwunder, Gasp, von 
der lion's Wolfdietericn 195. Wolfd. und Sauen 496. [' Probably of different 
origin,' says Suppl.] 

3 Mucbar, Komisches Noricum 2, 37, and Gastcin 147, mentions a capricious 
mountain-spirit, sehranel. 

4 Tbe ON. skratti is said to mean terror also. The Swed. skratta, Dan. skratte, 
is to laugh loud. Does the AS. form scritta allow us to compare the Gr. a-Kipros, 
a hopping, leaping goblin or satyr (from ffKiprdco, I bound) ? Lobeck's Aglaoph., 



480 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

skryti (celare, occulere) is worth considering. [A compound of 
kryti, to cover, root kry, krov, Kpv-mw. If Slav, skry, why not 
AS. scriid, shroud ?] . 

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

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

The Fichtelberg is haunted by a wood-sprite named the Katzen- 
veit, with whom they frighten children : ' Hush, the Katzenveit 
will come ! ' Similar beings, full of dwarf and goblin-like 
humours, we may recognise in the Gilbich of the Harz, in the 
Biibezal of Eiesengebirge. This last, however, seems to be of 
Slav origin, Boh. Rybecal, Bybrcol. 1 In Moravia runs the story 
of the seehirt, sea-herd, a mischief-loving sprite, who, in the shape 
of a herdsman, whip in hand, entices travellers into a bog (see 
Suppl.). 3 

The gloss in Hanka 7 b . ll a has ' vilcodlac faunus, vilcodlaci 
faunificarii, incubi, dusii ' ; in New Boh. it would be wlkodlak, 
wolf-haired; the Serv. vuTiodlac is vampire (Vuk sub v.). It is 
not surprising, and it offers a new point of contact between elves, 
bilwisses, and schrats, that in Poland the. same matting of hair is 
ascribed to the shrzot, and is called by his name, as the shfjteh is 
in Bohemia ; 3 in some parts of Germany schrotleinzopf . 

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

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

3 The plica is also called koltun, and again koltki are Polish and Russian home- 
sprites. 



SCRAT (PILOSUS). 481 

People iu Europe began very early to think of daemonic beings 
as pilosi. The Vulgate has ' et pilosi saltabunt ibi/ Isaiah 13, 
21, where the LXX. had Saifxovia e/cet opyj]<jovTai, couf. 
34, 14. l Isidore's Etym. 8, cap. ult. (and from it Gl. Jun. 
399) : 'pilosi qui graece panitae, latine incubi nominantur, — 
hos daemones Galli dusios nuncupant. 2 Quem autem vulgo 
incubonem vocant, hunc Rornani faunum dicunt.' Burcard of 
Worms (App. Superst. C) is speaking of the superstitious custom 
of putting playthings, shoes, bows and arrows, in cellar or 
barn for the home-sprites, 3 and these genii again are called 
' satyri vel pilosi.' The monk of St. Gall, in the Life of Charles 
the Great (Pertz 2,741), tells of a pilosus who visited the house 
of a smith, amused himself at night with hammer and anvil, 
and filled the empty bottle out of a rich man's cellar (conf. Ir. 
elfenm. cxi. cxii.). Evidently a frolicking, dancing, whimsical 
homesprite, rough and hairy to look at, ' eislich getan/ as the 
Heidelberg fable says, and rigged out in the red little cap of a 
dwarf, loving to follow his bent in kitchens and cellars. A figure 
quite in the foreground in Cod. palat. 324 seems to be his very 
portrait. 

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

Some remarkable statements are found in Eckehart's W alt- 
harius. Eckevrid of Saxony accosts him with the bitter taunt 
(761): 

1 Lntlier translates feldteufel ; the Heb. sagnir denotes a shaggy, goat-like 
being. Radevicus frising. 2, 1:5, imitates the whole passage in the prophel : ' alulae, 
upupae, bubones toto anno in ectis funebria personautes lugubri voce aures om- 
nium repleverunt. Pilosi quos satijros vocant in domibus plerunque auditi.' Again 
2, 24 : ' in aedibus tuis lugubri voce respondeaut alulae, saltent pilosis 

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

J In the same way the jiidel (I suppose giii /. /. the same as guote holde) has 
toys placed for him, Superst. I, no. G2 ; conf. infra, the homesprites. 



482 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

Die, ait, an corpus vegetet ti'actabile teinet, 
sive per aerias fallas, maledide, figuras ? 
saltibus assuetus f annus mihi quippe videris. 

Walthari replies in mockery (765) : 

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

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

Haec tibi silvanus transponit munera faunus. 

Herewith the ' wood-schrat ' returns you the favour. 1 

Here the faun is called fantasma, phantom ; OHG. giscin, T. 
81 (Matt. xiv. 26), otherwise scinleih (monstrum), Gl. hrab. 9G9 b . 
Jun. 214; AS. scinlac (portentuin) ; or gltroc, p. 464. Phan- 
tasma vagabundum (Vita Lebuini, Pertz 2, 361) ; 'fantasma vult 
nos pessundare ' (Hroswitha in Dulcicius) ; 'fantasia quod in 
libris geniiMxxm. faiuius solet appellari/ Mabillon, Analect. 3, 352. 
A ' municipium/ or ' oppidum mons fauni,' in Ivonis Carnot. 
epist. 172, and conf. the doc. quoted in the note thereon, in 
which it is monsfaunum. Similarly in OFr. poems : ' fantosme 
nous va faunoiant' Meon 4, 138; fantosme qui me desvoie, 
demaine/ ibid. 4, 140. 4. 402. A passage from Girart de 
Rossillon given in Mone's Archiv 1835. 210 says of a moun- 
tain : ' en ce mont ha moult de grans secrez, trop y a de fantomes.' 
Such are the fauni ficarii and silvestres homines, with whom 
Jornandes makes his Gothic aliorunes keep company (p. 404). 
Yet they also dip into the province of demigod heroes. Miming 
silvarum satyrus, and Witugouwo (silvicola) seem to be at once 
cunning smith-schrats and heroes (pp. 376-379). A valkyr unites 
herself with satyr-like Volundr, as the aliorunes did with fauns. 
The wild women, wood-minne (pp. 432-4), and the wilde man 

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



SCRAT (FAUNUS). WOOD-FOLK. 483 

(Wigamur 203) come together. \Vigal. 6286 has wlldez wip, and 
6602 it is said of the dwarf Karri 6 z : 

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

da von was sin knrzer lip therefrom was his short body 

aller ruck unde stark, all over hairy and strong, 

sin gebein was ane mark his bones without marrow 

(solid) 

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

deste sterker muoser sin. the stronger must he be. 

In the Wolfdietrich a wild man like this is called waltluoder, and 
in Laurin 173. 183 waltmann. The ON. mythology knows of 
wild wood-wives by the names ivicfjur, Sasm. 88 a . 119 b , &a&iarn- 
vidjnr, Sn. 13. About the ividja we find at the beginning of the 
Hrafnagaldr the obscure statement ' elr ivroja/ alit, auget, parit, 
gignit dryas ; ividja is derived from a wood or grove ivi&r, of 
which the Voluspa l a makes mention: f nio man ek heima, nio 
iviffi' ; so iarnvicfja from iarnvi&r, iron wood (see Suppl.). 1 

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

1 Afzelius 2, 145-7, mentions Swed. VHfjershar, leaf-maids, forest-maids, and 

compares them with Laufey (p. 246), but the people have httle to say about them. 



484 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

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

Schiil keinen baum, No tree ever shell, 

erzahl keinen traum, no dream ever tell, 

back keinen kiimmel ins brot, bake in thy bread no cummin- 
seed, 
so hilft dir Gott aus aller noth. and God will help in all thy 

need. 

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



WOOD-FOLK. 485 

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

Sie liaben mir gebacken kiimmelbrot, 
das bringt diesem hause grosse noth ! 

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

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

kins, who had long done good service at a mill, were scared away 
by the miller's men leaving out clothes and shoes for them, Jul. 
Schmidt, p. 146 (see Suppl.). 1 It is as though, by accepting 

i This agrees wonderfully with what Reusch, pp. 53-5, reports from Prussian 

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

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

coming back. Another story of the Seewen-weiher (-pond), near Eippoldsau, in 

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

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

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



486 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

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

In the Romance fairy-tales an old Roman god has assumed 
altogether the nature of a wood-sprite ; out of Orcus l has been 
made an Ital. orco, Neapol. hnorco, Fr. ogre (supra, p. 314) : he 
is pictured black, hairy, bristly, but of great stature rather than 
small, almost gigantic; children losing their way in the wood 
come upon his dwelling, and he sometimes shews himself good- 
natured and bestows gifts, oftener his wife (orca, ogresse) pro- 
tects and saves. 3 German fairy-tales hand over his part to the 
devil, who springs even more directly from the ancient god of 
the lower world. Of the invisible-making helmet the orco has 
nothing left him, on the other hand a dsemonic acuteness of 
scent is made a characteristic feature, he can tell like a sea- 
monster the approach of human flesh : ' je sens la chair fraiche/ 
'ich rieche, rieche menschenfieisch/ 'ich wittere, wittere 
menschenfieisch/ f i schmoke ne Crist/ 'I smell the blood/ 
' jeg lugter det paa min hoire haand (right hand)/ 'her lugter 
saa kristen mands been/ 3 exactly as the meerminne already in 

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

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

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

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



SCUOHISAL. 487 

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

The Gothic neut. slwhsl, by which Ulphilas renders SaifMovtov, 
Matth. 8, 31. Lu. 8, 27 (only in margin; text reads unhul]>6). 
1 Cor. 10, 20. 21, I am disposed to explain by supposing a sMhs, 
gen. skohis, or rather skogs (the h being merely the g softened 
before si). It would answer to the ON. skogr (silva) ; in all our 
Gothic fragments the word for forest never occurs, so that in 
addition to a vidus (p. 376) we may very well conjecture a skogs. 
In Sweden the provincialisms skogsnerte, sJwgsnufva l are still 
used ; suerte appears to contain snert gracilis, and snufva to 
mean anh elans. 2 Now if skohsl is wood-sprite, 3 there may have 
been associated with it, as with Satfxovcov, the idea of a higher 
being:, semi-divine or even divine. When we call to mind the 
sacred, inviolable trees inhabited by spirits (chap. XXI, and 
Snperst. Swed. no. 110, Dan. no. 162), and the forest- worsliip of 
the Germani in general (pp. 54-58. 97-8) ; we can understand 
why wood-sprites in particular should be invested with a human 
or divine rather than elvish nature. 

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

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

1 Linnaeus' s Gothlandske resa, p. 312. Faye, p. 42. 

2 In 1298 TorkelKnutson founded on the Neva a stronghold against the Russians, 
called Landskrona. An old folk-tale says, there was heard in the forest near the 
rivi i a continual knocking, as of a stone-cutter. At last a peasant took courage and 
penetrated into the forest ; there he found a wood-sprite hewing at a stone, who, on 
being asked what that should mean, answered : ' this stone shall be the boundary 
between the lands of the Swedes and Moskovites.' Forsell's Statistik von Schwe- 
den, p. 1. 

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

VOL. II. E 



£88 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

merkint, wildiu merwunder, Gudrun 1 09, 4. 112,3. wildez merwij), 
Osw. 653. 673 ; Mod. HG. meerwunder, wassermann (Slav. 
vodnik), seejungfer, nieerweib ; ON. Iiaf-fru, ces-kona, hafgygr, mar- 
gijgr ; Dan. havmand, brondmand (man of the burn or spring), 
Molb. Dial. p. 58 ; Swed. liafsman, hafsfru, and more particularly 
stromkarl (river sprite or man). Wendish vodny muz, water man. 
The notion of a water-king shews itself in water conink, Melis 
Stoke 2, 96. Certain elves or dwarfs are represented as water- 
sprites : Andvari, son of Oin, in the shape of a pike inhabited 
a fors, Ssem. 180-1 ; and Alfrikr, ace. to Vilk. saga, cap. 34, 
haunted a river (see Suppl.). 

The peculiar name of such a watersprite in OHG. was nihhus, 
nichus, gen. nichuses, and by this term the glossists render croco- 
dilus, Gl. mons. 332, 412. Jun. 270. Wirceb. 978 b ; the Physio- 
logus makes it neuter : daz nihhus, Diut. 3, 25. Hoffm. Fundgr. 
23. Later it becomes niches, Gl. Jun. 270. In AS. I find, with 
change of s into r, a masc. nicor, pi. niceras, Beow. 838. 1144. 
2854, by which are meant monstrous spirits living in the sea, 
conf. nicorhus, Beow. 2822. This AS. form agrees with the M. 
Nethl. nicker, pi. nickers, (Horae Belg. p. 119); Reinaert prose 
MIIIIP has ' nickers ende wichteren'; necker (Neptunus), Diut. 
2, 224 b . 'heft mi die necker bracht hier ? ' (has the devil brought 
me here ?), Mone's Ndrl. volkslit. p. 140. The Mod. Nethl. 
nikker means evil spirit, devil, f alle nikkers uit de hel ; ' so the 
Engl. ' old Nick.' We have retained the form with s, and the 
original sense of a watersprite, a male nix and a female nixe, i.e., 
niks and nikse, though we also hear of a nickel and nickelmann. 
In MHG. Conrad uses wassernixe in the sense of siren : ' heiz uns 
leiten uz dem bade der vertanen (accursed) wasseruixen, daz uns 
ir gedcene (din) iht schade ' (MS. 2, 200 1 '). 1 

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

1 Grypliius (mihi 743) has a rhyme : ' die wasserliiss auf erden mag nicht 
so schone werdeu,' apparently meaning a water-wife or nixe. In Ziska's Ostr. 
volksm. 54 a kind ivassemix, like dame Holla, bestows wishing-gifts on the 
children. 



NICHUS, NIX. 



489 



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

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

Plants and stones are named after the nix, as well as after 
gods. The nyinphasa {vv^aia from vvfxjin) we still call ni,f- 
blume as well as seeblume, seelilie, Swed. nackblad, Dan. nbk- 
kibhnnster, nokkerose ; the conferva rupestris, Dan. nokkeskag 
(nix-beard) ; the haliotis, a shellfish, Swed. ndckora (nix-ear) ; 
the crumby tufa-stone, tophus, Swed. ndckebrod, the water- 
sprite's bread. Finn, ndkinkenka (mya margaritifera) ndkin 
waltikka (typha angustifolia) ; the Lausitz Wends call the blos- 
soms or seedpods of certain reeds c vodneho mvzha porsty, 
potaczky [piorsty, perczatky ?], lohszy/ water-man's fingers or 
gloves. We ourselves call the water-lily ivassenndnnlein, but 
also mummel, milmmeh-hen, = miiemel, aunty, water-aunt, as the 
merminne in the old lay is expressly addressed as Morolt's 
'liebe muome/ and in Westphalia to this day ivatermome is a 



490 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

Durch der waste liebe hat min muome dir gelogen, 

'tis through love of raiment (weeds) mine aunt hath lied to thee; 
these merwomen belong, as swan-maidens, to one sisterhood and 
kindred (p. 428), and in Oswald 673-9 f ein ander merwip ' is 
coupled with the first. Several lakes inhabited by nixes are 
called mummelsee (Deut. sag. nos. 59. 331. Mone's Anz. 3, 92), 
otherwise meumke-loch, e.g., in the Paschenburg of Schaumburg. 
This explains the name of a little river Milmling in the Oden- 
wald, though old docs, spell it Mimling. Mersprites are made to 
favour particular pools and streams, e.g., the Saale, the Danube, 
the Elbe, 1 as the Romans believed in the bearded river-gods 
of individual rivers; it may be that the name of the Neckar 
(Nicarus) is immediately connected with our nicor, nechar (see 
Snppl.). 

Biorn gives nennir as another ON. name for hippopotamus, 
it seems related to the name of the goddess Nanna (p. 310). 2 
This nennir or nikur presents himself on the sea-shore as a hand- 
some dapple-grey horse, and is to be recognised by his hoofs 
looking the wrong way ; if any one mounts him, he plunges with 
his prey into the deep. There is a way however to catch and 
bridle him, and break him in for a time to work. 3 A clever man 
at Morland in Balms fastened an artfully contrived bridle on him, 
so that he could not get away, and ploughed all his land with 
him; but the bridle somehow coming loose, the 'neck' darted 
like fire into the lake, and drew the harrow in after him. 4 In 
the same way German legends tell of a great hulking black horse, 
that had risen out of the sea, being put to the plough, and going 
ahead at a mighty pace, till he dragged both plough and plough- 
man over the cliff. 5 Out of a marsh called the ' taufe/ near 

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

2 Muchar, in Norikum 2, 37, and in Gastein p. 145, mentions an Alpine 
sprite Donanadel ; does nadel here stand for nandel ? A misprint for madel (girl) 
is scarcely conceivable. 

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

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

5 Letzner's Dasselsche chronik 5, 13. 



NICHTJS, NIX. 491 

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

Water-sprites have many things in common with mountain- 
sprites, but also some peculiar to themselves. The males, like 
those of the schrat kind, come up singly rather than in companies. 
The water man is commonly represented as oldish and with a 
long beard, like the Roman demigod out of whose urn the river 
spouts; often he is many-headed (conf. p. 387), Faye p. 51. In 
a Danish folk-song the nokke lifts his beard aloft (conf. Svenska 
visor 3, 127. 133), he wears a green hat, and when he grins you 
see his green teeth (Deut. sag. no. 52). He has at times the 
figure of a wild bog with shaggy hair, or else with yellow curls 
and a red cap on his head. 1 The niikki of the Finns is said to 
have iron teeth. 2 The nixe (fem.), like the Romance fay and our 
own wise-women, is to be seen sitting in the sun, combing her 
long hair (Svenska vis. 3, 148), or emerging from the waves with 
the upper half of her body, which is exceedingly beautiful. The 
lower part, as with sirens, is said to consist of a fish-like tail ; 
but this feature is not essential, aud most likely not truly 
Teutonic, for we never hear of a tailed nix, 3 and even the nixe, 
when she comes on shore among men, is shaped and attired like 
the daughters of men, being recognised only by the wet skirt of 

1 The small size is implied in the popular rhyme : ' Nix in der grube (pit), du 
bist eiu boser bube (bad boy) ; wasch dir deine beinchen (little legs) mit rothen 
ziegelsteinchen (red brick).' 

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

3 But we do of nixes shaped like men above and like horses below ; one water- 
sprite takes his name from his slit ears, Deut. sag. no. 63. 



492 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

her dress, the wet tips of her apron. 1 Here is another point of 
contact with swan -maidens, whose swan-foot betrays them : and 
as they have their veils and clothes taken from them, the nixe 
too is embarrassed by the removal and detention of her gloves 
in dancing (Deut. sag. nos. 58. 60). Among the Wends the 
water-man appears in a linen smockfrock with the bottom of its 
shirt wet ; if in buying up grain he pays more than the market 
price, a dearth follows, and if he buys cheaper than others, prices 
fall (Lausitz. monatschr. 1797, p. 750). The Russians name 
their water-nymphs rusdlki: fair maidens with green or gar- 
landed hair, combing themselves on the meadow by the waterside, 
and bathing in lake or river. They are seen chiefly on Whit- 
sunday and in Whitsun-week, when the people with dance and 
song plait garlands in their honour and throw them into the 
water. The custom is connected with the German river-worship 
on St. John's day. Whitsun-week itself was called by the 
Russians rusaldnaya, in Boh. rusadla, and even in Wallachian 
rusalie. 2 

Dancing, song and music are the delight of all water-sprites, as 
they are of elves (p. 470). Like the sirens, the nixe by her 
song draws listening youth to herself, and then into the deep. 
So Hylas was drawn into the water by the nymphs (Apollod. 
i. 9, 19. Apollon. rhod. 1, 131). At evening up come the dam- 
sels from the lake, to take part in the human dance, and to visit 
their lovers. 3 In Sweden they tell of the stromkarVs alluring 
enchanting strain : the strornkarls-lag (-lay) is said to have 
eleven variations, but to only ten of them may you dance, 
the eleventh belongs to the night-spirit and his band; begin 

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

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

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



NICHUS, NIX. 493> 

to play that, and tables and benches, cup and can, gray-beards- 
and grandmothers, blind and lame, even babes in the cradle 
would be«-in to dance. 1 This melodious stromkarl loves to linger 
by mills and waterfalls (conf. Andvari, p. 488). Hence his 
Norwegian name fossegrim (fos, Swed. and ON. fors, waterfall). 
On p. 52 it was cited as a remnant of heathen sacrifices, that to 
this demonic being people offered a black lamb, and were taught 
music by him in return. The fossegrim too on calm dark 
evenings entices men by his music, and instructs in the fiddle 
or other stringed instrument any one who will on a Thursday 
evening, with his head turned away, offer him a little white he-goat 
and throw it into a ' forse ' that falls northwards (supra, p. 34) . 
If the victim is lean, the pupil gets no farther than the tuning of 
the fiddle ; if fat, the fossegrim clutches hold of the player's right 
hand, and guides it up and down till the blood starts out of all 
his finger-tips, then the pupil is perfect in his art, and can play 
so that the trees shall dance and torrents in their fall stand still 
(see Suppl.). 2 

Although Christianity forbids such offerings, and pronounces 
the old water-sprites diabolic beings, yet the common people 
retain a certain awe and reverence, and have not quite given up 
all faith in their power and influence : accursed beings they 
are, but they may some day become partakers of salvation. This 
is the drift of the touching account, how the stromkarl or neck 
wants you not only to sacrifice to him in return for musical 
instruction, but to promise him resurrection and redemption. 3. 
Two boys were playing by the riverside, the neck sat there 
touching his harp, and the children cried to him : f What do you 
sit and play here for, neck ? you know you will never be saved/ 
The neck began to weep bitterly, threw his harp away, and sank 
to the bottom. When the boys got home, they told their father 

1 Arndt's Eeise nach Schweden 4, 241 ; similar dances spoken of in Herrauds- 
saga, cap. 11. pp. 49 — 52. 

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

3 Odman's Babusliin, p. 80 : Om spelemiin i hogar ok forsar liar man ok 
atskilliga sagor ; for 15 ar tilbacka bar man bar uti hdgen under Giiren i Tanums 
gall belagit hort spela som the baste musicanter. Then som har viol ok vill Era 
spela, blir i ognableket lard, allenast ban lofvar vpstdndelse ; en som ej lofte thet, 
tick bora bum the i hogen slogo sonder sina violcr ok greto bitterliga. (He that has 
a fiddle and will learn to play, becomes in a moment learned, only he promises 
resurrection ; one who promised not that, did hear how they in the hill beat 
asunder their fiddles and wept bitterly.) 



494 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

what had happened. The father, who was a priest, said f you 
have sinned against the neck, go back, comfort him and tell him 
he may be saved/ When they returned to the river, the neck 
sat on the bank weeping and wailing. The children said : ' Do 
not cry so, poor neck, father says that your Redeemer liveth too/ 
Then the neck joyfully took his harp, and played charmingly till 
long after sunset. 1 I do not know that anywhere in our legends 
it is so pointedly expressed, how badly the heathen stand in need 
of the Christian religion, and how mildly it ought to meet 
them. But the harsh and the compassionate epithets bestowed 
on the nixes seem to turn chiefly upon their unblessedness, their 
damnation. 2 

But beside the freewill offering for instruction in his art, the 
nix also exacted cruel and compulsory sacrifices, of which the 
memory is preserved in nearly all popular tradition. To this day, 
when people are drowned in a river, it is common to say : ' the 
river-sprite demands his yearly victim/ which is usually 'an 
innocent child.' 3 This points to actual human sacrifices offered 
to the nichus in far-off heathen times. To the nix of the Diemel 
they throw bread and fruit once a year (see Suppl.). 

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

1 Sv. visor 3, 128. Ir. Elfenm. p. 24; similar Irish, Scotch, and Danish tra- 
ditions, pp. 200-2. Conf. Thiele 4, 14. Holberg's Julestue sc. 12 : ' Nisser og 
underjorske folk, drive store fester bort med klagen og hylen, eftersom de ingen del 
har derudi ' (because they have no part therein). 

2 ' Vertane wassernixe,' fordone, done for (p. 488) ; ' den fula stygga necken,' 
Sv. vis. 3, 147 ; ' den usle havfrue, usle marernind,' ' den arme niareviv,' ' du fide 
og lede spaaqvinde ! ' Danske visor 1, 110. 119. 125. Holberg's Melampus 3, 7 
cites a Danish superstition : ' naar en tisker ligger hos sin fiskerinde paa soen, 
saa foder hun en havfrue.' 

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



NICHUS, NIX. 495 

Hade jag trott att du varit sa falsk, 

Sa skulle jag kuackt dig din tiufvekals ! 

(bad I trowed thou wert so false, I'd have nicked thy thievish 
neck), Arvidsson 2, 320-3. If the sea-maidens have stayed too 
long at the dance, if the captive Christian have born a child to 
the nix, if the water-man's child is slow in obeying his call, one 
sees a, jet of blood shoot up from the water's bed in sign of the 
vengeful deed. 1 As a rule, there was likewise a favourable sign 

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

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

upjm Darmssen. Dicbte bei Brauruske liggt en liitken see, de Darmssen ; do stond 
vorr aulen tien (olden tide) en klauster ane. de nhonke aber in den klauster liabeden 
nig na Goddes willen ; drumrne gonk et unner. Nig lange na hiar horden de buren 
in der nauberskup, in Epe, olle nacbte en kloppen un liarmen bi den Darmssen, osse 
wenn me upn ambold slet, und wecke Kie seigen wott (some folk saw somewhat) 
midden up den Darmssen. Se sgeppeden drup to ; da was et n smett, de bet ant lif 
(bis an's leib) inn ivater seit, mitn hamer in de fust, d&mit weis he jiimmer up den 
ambold, un bedudde (bedeutete) de buren, dat se em wot to smien bringen sollen. 
Sit der tit brochten em de liie ut der burskup jiimmer isen to smien (iron to forge), 
un ninminske badde so goe plogisen (good ploughshares) osse de Eper. Ens wol 
Koatman to Epe ret (reed) ut den Darmssen halen, do feind he n liitk kind annen 
bwer, dat was ruw upn ganssen liwe* Do sgreggede de smett: 'nimmmi meinen 
suennen nig weg ! ' aber Koatman neim dat kind inn back full, un lop dermit na 
huse. Sit der tit was de smett nig mehr to sehn or to boren. Koatman farde 
(futterte) den ruwwen up, un de word sin beste un flitigste knecht. Osse he aber 
twintig jar ault wor, sia he to sinen buren : ' bur, ik mot von ju gaun, min vdr het 
mi ropen.' ' Dat spit mi je,' sia de bur, ' gift et derm gar nin middel, dat du bi mi 
bliwen kannst ? ' 'Ik will es (mal) sehn,' sia dat waterkind, ' gat erst es (mal) no 
Braumske un halt mi en niggen djangen (degn) ; mer ji injot do forr giebn wot de 
kaujjmann hebben will, un jau niks afhanneln.' De bur gonk no Braumske un 
kofde en djangn, hannelde aber doch wot af. Nu gongen se to haupe no'n Darmssen, 
do sia de ruwwe : 'Nu passt upp, wenn ik int water slae un et kiimmt blot, dann 
mot ik weg, kiimmt wjalke, dann darf ik bi ju bliwwen.' He slog int water, da 
kwanmi kene mjalke un auk ken blod. gans iargerlik sprak de ruwwe : ' jihebt mi 
wot wis maket, un wot afhannelt, doriimme kommt ken blod un kene mjalke. spot 
ju, un kaupet in Braumske en annern djangn.' De bur gong weg un kweiin wir ; 
aber erst dat driidde mal brachte he en djangen, wa he niks an awwehannelt hadde. 
Osse de ruwwe da mit int water slog, do was et so raut osse blod, de ruwwe stortede 

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

Darmssen lake. Once a monastery there; bad monks, put down. Peasants at Epe 
heard a hammering every night, rowed to middle of lake, found a smith sitting 
up to Ids waist in water; he made them signs to bring him work, they did so 
constantly, and the Epe ploughshares were the best in the country. Once farmer 
Koatman found a child on the bank, all over hairy. Smith cried, 'don't take my 
son ' ; but K. did, and reared him. Smith never seen again. The Shaggy one, when 
aged 20, said, 'I must go, father has called me.'— ' Can't you stay anyhow?'— 
' Well, I'll see ; go buy me a new sword, give the price asked, don't beat down.' K. 
bought one, but cheapened. They go to the Darmssen ; says Shag, ' Watch, when 
I strike the water ; if blood comes, I mustgo, if milk, I may stay.' But neither came: 
' You've cheapened ! go buy another sword.' K. cheapened again, but the third time 
he did not. Shag struck the water, it was red as blood, and be plunged into the 
Darmssen.] The same sign, of milk or blood coming up, occurs in another folk- 
tale, which makes the water-nymphs into white-veiled nuns, Mone'a Anz. 3, 93. 

* So in Casp. von der Bon, pp. 224-5 the meerwunder is called 'der rauhe, der 
rauc/tt'.' Conf. supra, pp. 481. 491. 



496 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

And here is the place to take up Grendel again, whom we 
likened (p. 243) to the malicious god Loki, though Loki, even 
apai't from that, seemed related to Oegir. Grendel is cruel and 
bloodthirsty : when he climbs out of his marsh at night, and 
reaches the hall of the sleeping heroes, he clutches one and drinks 
the blood out of another (Beow. 1478). His mother is called a 
merewif (8037), brimwylf (she-wolf of the breakers, 3197), and 
grundwyrgen (3036) which means the same thing (from wearg, 
lupus, comes wyrgen, lupa). This pair, Grendel and mother, have 
a water-house, which is described (3027 seq.) almost exactly as 
we should imagine the Norse Oegir's dwelling, where the gods 
were feasted : indoors the water is excluded by walls, and there 
burns a pale light (3033). 1 Thus more than one feature leads on 
to higher beings, transcending mere watersprites (see Suppl.). 

The notion of the nix drawing to him those who are drowning 
has its milder aspect too, and that still a heathen one. We saw 
on p. 311 that drowned men go to the goddess Ban; the popular 
belief of later times is that they are received into the abode of the 
nix or nixe. It is not the river-sprite kills those who sink in the 
element of water ; kindly and compassionately he bears them to 
his dwelling, and harbours their souls. 2 The word ran seems to 
have had a more comprehensive meaning at first : ' mgela rein ok 
regin ' was to invoke all that is bad, all evil spirits, upon one. It 
has occurred to me, whether the unexplained Swed. rd in the 
compounds sjora (nix), skogsrd (schrat), tomtva (homesprite), which 
some believe to be ra, angulus, or a contraction of radande, may 
not have sprung from this ran, as the Scandinavian tongue is so 
fond of dropping a final n. Dame Wdcldlt too (p. 434) is a 
succouring harbouring water-wife. The water man, like Hel and 
Ran, keeps with him the souls of them that have perished in the 
water, ' in pots turned upside down/ to use the naive language of 
one story (no. 52) ; but a peasant visiting him tilts them up, and 
in a moment the souls all mount up through the water. Of the 

i Conf. the dolphin's house in Musiius's marchen of the Three Sisters. 

2 Probably there were stories also of helpful succouring river-gods, such as the 
Greeks and Romans told of Thetis, of Ino-Leucothea (Od. 5, 333-353), Albunea, 
Matuta. 



NIX. WATER- SPRITE. 497 

drowned they say f the nix has drawn them to him/ or 'has sucked 
them/ because bodies found in the water have the nose red. 1 
' Juxta pontem Mosellae quidam puerulus naviculam excidens 
submersus est. quod videns quidam juvenis vestibus abjectis aquae 
insilivit, et inventum extrahere volens, maligno spiritu retrahente, 
quern Neptunum vocant, semel et secundo perdidit; tertio cum 
nomen apostoli invocasset, mortuum recepit.' Miracula S. Mat- 
thiae, cap. 43. Pez, Thes. anecd. 2, 3, pag. 26. Rollenhagen in 
the Froschmeuseler (Nn IP) : 

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

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

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

vyh, nyTc, naal i vatn ! 

jomfru Maria kastet staal i vatn : 

du siik, iik flyt. 3 

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

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

1 Dan. ' nokken bar taget ham,' ' nokken har suet dem,' Tullin's Skrifter 2, 13. 
- So Brynhildr calls out at last to the giantess : 'seykstu, gvgjar kyu ! ' Sam. 
229*. 



498 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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



WATER-SPRITE. HOME-SPRITE. 499 

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

Electus vero Gallus haec audiens munivit se undiqne signaculo 
Christi, dixitque ad eos : 

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

et cum festinatione ad littus rediit, atque abbati suo quae audierat 
recitavit. 1 Quod vir Dei Columbanus audiens, convocavit fratres 
in ecclesiam, solitum signum tangens. O mira dementia diaboli ! 
voces servorum Dei praeripuit vox fantasmatica, cum hejulatus 
atque ululatus dirce vocis audiebatur per cuhnina. — Read further 
on (2, 9) the story of two lake-women who stand naked on the 
shore and throw stones. Everywhere we see the preachers con- 
front the pagan daemons with cross and holy spell, as something 
real ; the mournful howl of the spirits yields to the ringing of 
bells. Gods and spirits are not distinguished : the god cast out 
of the temple, whose image has been broken, is the elf or nix 
meditating revenge. It is remarkable, too, that mountain and 
water sprites are set before us as fellows (pares) ; in folk-tales of 
a later time their affinity to each other seems abundantly estab- 
lished. 

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

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

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

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



500 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

goblin kind, it is former goddesses who have come down in the 
world. 1 

What the Romans called lar,* 2 lar familiar is (see the prologue 
to Plautus's Aulularia) and penas, is named in our older speech 
husing or stetigot (genius loci) ; conf. ' husinga (penates) ' in Not- 
ker's Capella 51. In Cap. 142 N. renders lares by ' ingoumen 
(hiusero aide burgo)'; the literal meaning of ingoumo would be 
guard of the interior. In Cap. 50 he uses ingeside for penates, i.e. 
our ingesinde, inmates, domestics; the form continued to be used 
inMHG. : daz liebeheilige ingeside, Rol. 115, 1. 226, 18. Simi- 
larly the Span, duende, duendecillo (goblin) seems derivable from 
domus, dueiio is house-owner (dominus, distinct from don, p. 299 
note), and duendo domestic, retired. The ON. toft, Swed. tomt, 
means area, domus vacua, and the home-sprite's name is in Swed. 
tomtekarl, tomtegubbe (old fellow on the premises), tomtra, tomte- 
biss, som styr i kiillrars rike (Hallman, p. 73) : Norw. tomtevatte, 
toftvatte. Another ON. name is skurgocf, p. 112. We can trace 
in them a peculiar connexion with the hearth of the house ; they 
often come out from under it (p. 456 n.), it seems to be the door, as 
it were, to their subterranean dwelling : they are strictly hearth- 
gods. Here and there in Germany we also meet with the name 
gesell, fellow (supra, p. 464, selle, selke), gutgesell, nachbar, lieber 
nachbar, in the Netherlands goede hind (Horae Belg. 119), in 
England goodfellow, in Denmark god dreng, good boy, Mare 
qranne, dear neighbour, (conf. bona socia, p. 283-8, and guote 
holde, p. 266). The Eng. puck we may indeed connect with the 
Ir. phuka, Wei. pwcca, 9, but with more justice perhaps with the 
Dan. pog (lad), which is simply the Swed. pojke, ON. puki (puer), 
and comes from Finn, poica (filius) ; in Lower Germany too they 
say pook for a puny stunted man (Brem. wb. 3, 349). Heim- 
reich's Nordfries. chron. 2, 348 has huspuke (see Suppl.). 

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

1 Holla, Berhta, Werra, Stemjic. Female are the Gr. Mop/j.u> and Aa/xla, the 
Bom. Lamia, Mania, Maniola. The Poles too have a fern. Omacnica : ' Aniculae 
vetant pueros edere in tenebris, ne spectrum hoc devorent, quod eos insatiabiles 
reddat,' Linde sub v. ' omacac,' to burden. OHG. agenggun lamiae,iGraff 1, 132. 

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

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

4 ' Ace. to Falke, a Koboltesdorp (ann. 9-46), Trad. corv. ; Adalpertus chobolU 
kobolt (ann. 1185), MB. 27, 36. 42.' Extr. from Suppl. 



HOME-SPRITE. KOBOLD. 501 

in use. A doc. of 1250 in Bohmer's Cod. francof. 1, 83 lias a 
' Heinricus dictus Coboldus.' Even before that date coboldus 
occurs (Zeitschr. des Hess, vereins 3, 64). Conrad of Wurzbnrg, 
MS. 2, 206% has: 'inir ist ein loser hoveschalk als ein kobolt 
von buhse/ no better than a k. of boxwood ; and the Misnaere 
(Amgb. 48 a ) : c we den kobolden, die alsus erstummen (are so 
struck dumb) ! mir ist ein holzin (wooden) bischof vil lieber 
dan ein stummer herre.' The notions of kobold, dwarf, thumb- 
kin, piqipet, idol largely run into one another (conf. supra, malik, 
p. 104 note). It seems, they used to carve little home-sprites 
of boxwood and set them up in the room for fun, as even now 
wooden nutcrackers and other mere playthings are cut in the 
shape of a dwarf or idol ; yet the practice may have had to do 
with an old heathen worship of small lares, to whom a place was 
assigned in the innermost part of the dwelling ; in time the 
earnest would turn into sport, and even christian sentiment tole- 
rate the retention of an old custom. 1 They must also have tied 
rags and shreds into dolls, and set them up. The dumb wooden 
kobold is kept in countenance by the ' wooden bishop 7 mentioned 
immediately after by the Misnsere. 2 In the oft-quoted poem of 
Eiiediger we find (17 d of the Konigsb.MS.) 'in koboldes sprache/ 
[i.e., speaking low] . In Altd. w. 2, 55 ' einen kobold von wahse 
machen,' one of wax. Hoffmann's Fundgruben give us in the 
Glossary 386, from a Vocab. of the 14th century, opold for 
kopold. Hugo von Trimberg has several allusions to kobolds : 
line 5064, f und lern einander goukelspil, unter des mantel er 
kobolte mache, der (whereat) manic man tougen (secretly) mit im 
lache ' ; 5576, ' der male ein andern kobolt dar, der ungessen bi 
im sitze ' ; 10277, ' einer siht den andern an, als kobolt hern tater- 
man' ; 10843, ' ir abgot (the heathens' gods), als ich gelesen 
han, daz waren kobolt und taterman' ; 11527, 'Got mohte wol 
lachen, solte ez sin, wan sine tatermennelin (same in Roth's 
Fragment, p. 65) so wunderlich uf erden leben,' God might 
laugh to see his little mannikins behave so strangely. Jugglers 

1 One ought to search out the age and design of the various gear that is set out 
(as mere ornament this long while) on shelves and tables ; from this and from 
long-established moulds for pastry, we may arrive at some conclusions about the 
heathen custom of carving or ' doughing ' idols (conf. pp. 15. 105. 112. 114) : teig 
(dough) including any soft substance, clay, wax or tlour-paste. 

2 On • papa salignus ' conf. Reinh. p. xciv. 



502 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

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

all through, the kobold appears as the tiny tricky home-sprite. 
In writers of the 17th century I find the remarkable phrase ' to 
laugh like a kobold,' Ettner's Unwiird. doct. p. 340, and App. p. 
53 ; ' you laugh as though you'd empty yourself, like a kobolt' 
Eeimdich p. 149. This must either mean, to laugh with mouth 
agape, like a carved kobold, who may have been so represented, 
or simply to laugh loud and heartily. 1 Again, c to laugh like a 
hampelmann,' Deutschfranzos p. 274; f ho, ho, ho! the loud 
laugh of Robin Goodfellow/ Anecd. and Trad., ed. by W. J. 
Thorns, Lond. 1839, p. 115. In the poem of Zeno 867. 1027 
this daemonic laughter is expressed by skraken (Brem. wb. 4, 
686 schrachtern). Schweinichen 1, 260 tells of an unquiet spirit 
laughing loud and shrill ; it may be a laugh of mirth or mockery. 

In the Netherlands too we find at an early time the form 
konbout (pi. coubouten, Horae Belg. 1, 119) ; now kabout, and in 
Belgium kabot, kabotermanneken? The Scandinavian languages 
have not the word. 

It is a foreign word, sprung no doubt from the Gr. rcoftaXos 
(rogue), Lat. cobalus, 3 with a t added, as our language is partial 
to forms in -olt for monstrous and ghostly beings. From cobalus, 
in Mid. Lat. already gobelinus, the Fr. has formed its gobelin, 
whence the Engl, goblin, strengthened into hobgoblin. Hanka's 
O. Boh. glosses render 79 b gitulius (getulius, gaetulius) by kobolt, 
and directly after, aplinus (1. alpinus, i.e. alphinus, the 'fool* 
or queen in chess) by tatrman : here are kobolt and tatrman 
together, just as we saw them staring at each other in the 
Renner; hence also the Cod. pal. 311, 126 c speaks of l einen 
taterman malen/ painting a t., and the Wahtelmaere 140 of 
guiding him with strings, ' rihtet zuo mit den sniieren die tater- 

1 ' Hlabtar Uscutitaz,' 1 laughed till he shook, K. 24\ Notk. Cap. 33 has : ' taz 
lahter scutta sia ; Petronius, cap. 24, ' risu dissolvebat ilia sua'; Reinardus 3, 
1929, ' cachimius viscera fissurus'; or, as we say, to split with laughing, laugh 
yourself double, short and small, to pieces, to a holzlin (Gryphius p. m. 877), brown, 
out of your senses ; ' einen schiibel voll lachen ' ; perish, die with laughing, MHG. 
' man swindet under lachen,' Ben. 330. A Breton song in Villemarque 1, 39 speaks 
of the loud laugh of the korred (see Suppl.). 

2 Schayes sur les usages et traditions des Beiges. Louvain 1834, p. 230. 

» Lobeck's Aglaoph. 1308-1328. 



GOBLIN. TATEEMAN. 503 

marine 3 (supra, p. 410 g.). To explain this taterman by the 
Engl, tatter has some plausibility, but then our HG. ought 
to have had zaterman (conf. OHG. zata, zatar, Graff 5, 632-3, 
with AS. tasttera, panniculus). The glossist above may have 
meant by gaetulius an African savage, by alpinus a Tartar (MHG. 
tater, tateler), or still better, a fool; 1 the word taterman occurs 
in other 0. Boh. documents besides, and signifies doll and idol 
(Jungmann 3, 554 b ) ; foreign to all other Slavic dialects, it seems 
borrowed from German. 2 Its proper meauing can only be re- 
vealed by a fuller insight into the history of puppet-shows. Per- 
haps the Hung, tatos (juggler) has a claim to consideration. 3 

Several MSS. however and the first printed edition of the 
Renner have not taterman at all, but katerman (Cod. francof. 
164 b reads verse 10843 kobiilde unde katirman), which is not 
altogether to be rejected, and at lowest offers a correct secondary 
sense. Katerman, derived from kater (tom-cat), may be com- 
pared with heinzelman, hinzelman, hinzemdnnchen, the name of 
a home-sprite, 4 with Winze the cat in Reineke, and the wood- 
sprite Katzenveit (p. 480) . The puss-in-boots of the fairy-tale plays 
exactly the part of a good-natured helpful kobold ; another one 
is called stiefel (boot, Deut. sag. no. 77), because he wears a 
large boot : by the boot, I suppose, are indicated the gefeite 
schuhe (fairy shoes) of older legend, with which one could travel 
faster on the ground, and perhaps through the air ; such are the 
league-boots of fairy-tales and the winged shoes of Hermes. The 
name of Ileinze is borne by a mountain-sprite in the Frosch- 
meuseler. Heinze is a dimin. of Heinrich, just as in Lower 
Germany another noisy ghost is called Chimke, dimin. of Joachim 
(conf. 'dat gimken,' Brem. wb. 5, 379) : the story of Chimmeken 

1 There is in the kobold's character an unmistakable similarity to the witty 
court-fool ; hence I feel it significant, that one described in Schweinichen 1, 2(50-2 
expressly carries a bawble. The Engl, hobgoblin means the same as cloumgoblin 
(Nares sub v. hob). 

2 Hanusch (Slav. myth. 299) takes the taterman (he says, hasterman also occurs) 
for a water-sprite. 

3 ' In Tyrol tatterman— scarecrow, coward, kobold, from tattern, zittern, to quake, 
skedaddle ; Frommann 2, 327. Leoprechting p. 177 says, tattern to frighten ; at 
Gratz in Styria, the night before solstice, tattermann, a bugbear, is carried round 
and set on fire in memory of extirpated heatbenism.' — Extr. from Suppl. 

4 Deut. sag. no. 75 ; the story is 100 years later than the composition of the 
Eeineke. Hinzelmann leaves a dint in the bed, as if a cat had lain in it. Luther's 
Table-talk (ed. 1571, p. l-H") had previously related the like concerning a spirit 
Heinzlin. 

VOL. II. F 



504 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

1 Ayrer's Fastnachtspiele 73 d confirms the fact of Riipel being a dimin. of 
Kuprecht. Some dialects use Riipel, Riepel as a name for the tom-cat again ; in 
witch-trials a little young devil is named Rub el. Ace. to the Leipzig Avanturier 1, 

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

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

Those that .Hofc-goblin call you, and sweet Puck, 
You do their work, and they shall have good luck. 

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



HOME-SPRITE. 505 

i.e. Nicolaus, Niclas, 1 not from our HGr. common noun ( nix ' 
the watersprite, which is in Danish nok, nok (p. 488), and has 
no connexion with Nisse ; and the Swed. form is also Nilson. I 
find a confirmation of this in our habit of assigning to Niclaus, 
Glaus or Clobes the selfsame part that in some districts is played 
by Ruprecht. To this latter I am inclined to refer even the 
words of so early a writer as Ofterdingen, MS. 2, 2 b : ' Rupreht 
mhi hneclit muoz iuwer har gelich den toren schern/ R. my man 
must shear your hair like that of fools. A home-sprite Rudy (for 
Rudolf) in Mone's Anz. 3, 365. 

Another set of names is taken from the noises which these 
spirits keep up in houses : you hear them jumping softly, knock- 
ing at walls, racketing and tumbling on stairs and in lofts. 
Span, trasgo (goblin), and trasguear (to racket) ; Fr. soterai, 
sotret (jumper), Mem. de l'acad. celt. 4, 91 ; ekerken (eichhorn- 
chen, squirrel), Deut. sag. no. 78; poltergeist, rumpelgeist, rum- 
pelstih in the Kindermarchen no. 55, rumpelstilt in Fischart ; 2 
one particular goblin is called klopfer, knocker (Deut. sag. no. 
76), and it may be in this connexion that hdmmerlein, hemerlein 
(supra, p. 182) has come to be applied to home-sprites of diabolic 
nature. Nethl. bullman, bullerman, bullerkater, from bullen, 
bullern, to be boisterous. Flem. boldergeest, and hence 'bi 
holder te bolder/ our 'holter die polter/ helter-skelter. A pop- 
hart, identical with rumpelstilt in Fischart, is to be derived 
from popeln, popern, to keep bobbing or thumping softly and 
rapidly; 3 a house-goblin in Swabia was called the poppele ; in 
other parts popel, popel, popelmann, popanz, usually with the side- 
meaning of a muffled ghost that frightens children, and seldom 
used of playful good-humoured goblins. At the same time popel 
is that which muffles (puppt) itself: about Henneberg, says 
Reinwald 2, 78, a dark cloud is so called ; it contains the notion 

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

2 Is stilt, stilz the old stalt in compounds? Gramm. 2, 527. What the fairy- 
tale says of Rumpelstilt, and how his name has to be guessed, other stories tell of 
EisenhUtel or Hopfenhiltel (who wear an iron hat or one wreathed with hop-leaves), 
Kletke's Alman. v. volksm. 67 ; or of the dwarf Holzruhrlein, Bonnefiihrlein, Harrys 
1, 18 [piKnirfiker, Gebhart, Tepentiren, Mullenh. 306-8, of Titteli Ture, Sv. folkv. 
1, 171. — Suppl.] ; and we shall meet with the like in giant-stories. 

3 Staid. 1, 204. Schm. 1, 2<J3. 323. 



506 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

The same shifting of form appears in the words mumhart 
(already in Caesarius heisterb. 7, 46: 'uiummart momordit me'), 
mummel, mummelmann, mummanz, 1 which express the very same 
notion, c mummen, mummeln ' signifying to mumble, to utter a 
muffled sound. Or can we connect it with mumel, muomel, the 
name of the watersprite (p. 490) ? In that case, vermuramen 
(to disguise), mummerei (mumming, larva) would seem to mean 
acting like the spectre, instead of the spectre having taken his 
name from mumming (see Suppl.). 

The word butze as far back as the 12th-13th century had the 
same meaning as mummart and poppart : a place called Puzi- 
prunnun, Puciprunnen, MB. 6, 60. 62. 9, 420 (12th century), 
unless puzi = puteus be meant, might take its name from a well, 
haunted by such a home-sprite. ' Ein ungehiurer (uncanny) 
butze,' Martina 116° 224 a ; ' si sehent mich nicht mer an in butzen 
wis/ they look at me no more in butze wise, Walth. 28, 37 ; ' in 
butzenwise gehn,' Oberlin sub v. ; ' den butzen vorht er kleine, 
als man do seit von kinden/ he little fears the b., as we say of 
children, Albr. Tit. x. 144 (Hahn 1275) ; butzengriul, -horror, 
Walth. 140, 2. MsH. 3, 45 l a ; 'geloub ich daz, so biz mich 
butze,' b. bite me if I believe it, Hatzlerin 287 a , which agrees with 
'mummart momordit me' above; 'ein Jcinderbutze,' Ls. 1, 617; 
' forht ich solchen biitzel,' Ls. 1, 380, where a wihtel is spoken 
of. So, to frighten with the butze, to tear off the butze (mask) ; 
butzen antliit (face) and butzen kleider (clothes) =darva in 
Kaisersperg (Oberlin 209) ; winterbutz in Brant's Narrenschiff 
129 (winterbutte in the Plattdeutsch translation 140 b ). I do 
not understand the butzenhansel in Weisth. 1, 691. All over 
Germany almost, we hear to this day : 'der butz kommt,' 2 or 'der 
butmemann, butzelmann,' and in Elsass butzmummel, the same as 
butz or mummel alone, buz, Jager's Ulm, p. 522. butzenmann, 
Fischart's Bienkorb 194 a . butz, Garg. 231 a . butzemann, Simpl. 
2, 248. In Bavaria, fasnachtbutz, Shrovetide b., buzmann, buzi- 
bercht, b. coupled with the Bercht or Berchta of our pp. 272-9 ; 

1 For mum bans (muffle-jack), as popanz is for pop-hans (bob-jack), and as 
there were likewise blindhans, grobhaus, karsthaus, scharrbans, etc. 
- In Normandy : 'bush, the gobelin will eat you up.' 



HOME-SPRITE. 507 

butzwinkel, lurking-place, butzlfinster, pitch-dark, w ncn the ap- 
parition is most to be dreaded ; ( the putz would take ns over 
hill and dale/ Schra. 1, 229. 230; the butz who leads travellers 
astray (Muchar's Gastein, p. 145). In Swabia butzemnaukler 
(from maucheln, to be sly), butzenbrecht, butzenravle, butzenrolle, 
rollputz, butzenbell (because his rattle rolls and his bell tinkles), 
Schmid 111. About Hanau I have heard the interjection, katza- 
butza-rola ! the 'katze-butze' bringing up the connexion between 
cat and goblin (p. 503) in a new form. In Switzerland bootzi, bozl, 
St. 1, 204. Here several meanings branch out of one another : 
first we have a monstrous butz that drags children away, then a 
tiny biitzel, and thence both biltzel and butz-igel (-urchin) used 
contemptuously of little deformed creatures. In like manner but 
in Low Germ, stands for a squat podgy child ; butten, verbutten 
is to get stunted or deformed, while the bugbear is called butte, 
butke, budcle, buddeke : f dat di de butke nig bit/ (that thee the 
bogie bite not !) is said satirically to children who are afraid of 
the dark, Brem. wb. 1, 173-5; and here certainly is the place 
for the watersprite butt or buttje in the Kindermarchen no. 19, 
the name having merely been transferred to a blunt-headed fish, 
the rhombus or passer marinus. 1 There is also probably a butte- 
maim, buttmann, but more commonly in the contracted form 
bit-man (Br. wb. 1, 153). Nethl. bytebauw, for buttebauw, which 
I identify with Low Germ, bu-ba (Br. wb. 1, 152). The Dan. 
bussemand, bussegroll, bussetrold (Molbech, p. 60) seems to be 
formed on the German (see Suppl.). — The origin of this butze, 
butte is hard to ascertain : I would assume a lost Goth, biuta 
(tundo, pulso), baut, butum, OHG. piuzu, poz, puzum, whence 
OHG. anapoz, our amboss, anvil, MHG. bozen (pulsare), and 
gebiuze, thumping, clatter [Engl, to butt?], conf. Lachmann 
on Nib. 1823, 2. Fragm. 40, 186; butze would be a thumping 
rapping sprite, perfectly agreeing with mumhart and pophart,- 
and we may yet hear of a bozhart or buzhart. But, like 

1 Homesprite and water-sprite meet in this soothsaying wish-granting fish. 
The story of the butt has a parallel in the OFr. tale of an elvish spirit and en- 
chanter Merlin, who keeps fulfilling the growing desires of the charcoal burner, till 
they pass all bounds, then plunges him back into his original poverty (Meon, nouv. 
rec. 2, 242-252. Jubinal 1, 128-135. 

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



508 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

The Fr. fullet, It. foletto, is a diminuitive of fol, fou; which, 
like follis (bellows), seems to be derived from an obsolete follere 
(to move hither and thither), and brings us to a fresh contact 
of the home-sprite with the fool. 1 Then lutin, also luton, perhaps 
from the Lat. luctus : a sprite who wails and forebodes sorrow ? 
Lithuan. bildukkas, bildunas, bildziuks (noisy sprite), from 
bildenti (to racket, rattle) ; grozdunas from grodzia (there is a 
racket made). Sloven, ztrazhnih, Serv. strashilo, Boh. strasidlo, 
Pol. straszydlo, from strasiti (terrere) ; Boh. bubdJc (noisy sprite) . 
Somewhat stronger is the Pol. dzieciojad, child-eater, like the 
Lat. manducus. Irish home-sprites are called Cluricauns (Elfenm. 
p. 85-114), Leprechaun, Logheriman (Keightley 2, 179; and see 
Suppl.). 

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

In stature, appearance and apparel they come very near to 
elves and dwarfs ; legend loves to give them red hair or a 
red beard, and the pointed red hat is rarely missing. Hutchen 
(Hodeke, Hoidike), the Hildesheim goblin, and Hopfeuhuteh 
Eisenhiltel take their names from it. A broad-topped mushroom 
is in Dan. called nissehat. The Norwegian Nissen is imagined 
small like a child, but strong, clothed in grey, with a red peaky 
cap, and carrying a blue light at night. 2 So they can make 
themselves visible or invisible to men, as they please. Their fairy 
shoes or boots have been noticed, p. 503 ; with these they can get 
over the most difficult roads with the greatest speed : it was just 
over mountains and forests that Hiitchen's rennpfad extended 
(Deut. sag. 1, 100), and the schratweg (p. 479) means much the 

i Katherius, ed. Ballerini, p. 314 : 'merito ergo follis latiali rusticitate vocaris, 
quoniam veritate vacuus.' Wilhelni. nietens. ep. 3 : 'follem me rustico verbo 
appellasti.' 

2 J. N. Wilse's Beskrivelse over Spydeberg, Christiana 1779, p. 418. Conf. the 
blue light of the black rnannikin, Kinderm. no. 116. 



HOME-SPRITE. 509 

same. 1 With this walking apparatus and this swiftness there is 
associated now and then some animal's form and name : Heinze, 
Hemzelruann, polterkater, katermann, boot-cat, squirrel ; their 
shuffling and bustling about the house is paralleled by the nightly 
turbulence of obstreperous cats. 2 They like to live in the stable, 
bam or cellar of the person whose society they have chosen, 
sometimes even in a tree that stands near the house (Swed. bo-trii, 
dwelling-tree). You must not break a bough off such a tree, or 
the offended goblin will make his escape, and all the luck of the 
house go with him ; moreover, he cannot abide any chopping in 
the yard or spinning on a Thursday evening (Superst. Swed. no. 
HO). 3 In household occupations they shew themselves friendly 
and furthersome, particularly in the kitchen and stable. The 
dwarf-king Goldemar (pp. 453. 466) is said to have lived on in- 
timate terms with Neveling of Hardenberg at the Hardenstein, 
and often shared his bed. He played charmingly on the harp, 
and got rid of much money at dice ; he called Neveling brother- 
in-law, and often admonished him, he spoke to everybody, and 
made the clergy blush by discovering their secret sins. His 
hands were lean like those of a frog, cold and soft to the grasp ; 
he would allow himself to be felt, but never to be seen. After a 
stay of three years he made off without injuring any one. Other 
accounts call him king Vollmar, and they say the room he lived 
in is called Volhiiar's hammer to this day : a place at table had 
to be kept for him, and one in the stable for his horse ; meats, 
oats and hay were consumed, but of horse or man you saiv nothing 
but the shadow. Once an inquisitive man having sprinkled ashes 
and peas to make him fall and to get sight of his footprints, he 
sprang upon him as he was lighting the fire, and chopped him up 
into pieces, which he stuck on a spit and roasted, but the head 
and legs he thought proper to boil. The dishes, when ready, 
were carried to Vollmar's chamber, and one could hear them 
being consumed with cries of joy. After this, no more was heard 

1 So a chemin de fees is spoken of in Mom. celt. 4, 240, and a trollaskeid 
(curriculum gigantum) 'in Laxd. saga 66. 

- Witches and fays often assume the shape of a cat, and the cat is a creature 
peculiarly open to suspicions of witchcraft. 

3 Wilse, ubi supra, entirely agrees : ' tomtegubben skal have sin til hold unde 
gamle triier ved stuehuset (boetriier), og derfor har man ej tordet falde disse gaud- 
ske.' To this connexion of home-sprites with tree-worship we shall have to return 
further on. 



510 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

of king Vollmar ; but over his chamber-door it was found written, 
that from that time the house would be as unlucky as it had been 
prosperous till then, and the scattered estates would never come 
together again till there were three Hardenbergs of Hardenstein 
living at once. Both spit and gridiron were long preserved, till 
in 1651 they disappeared during the Lorrain war, but the pot is 
still there, let into the kitchen wall. 1 The home-sprite's parting 
prophecy sounds particularly ancient, and the grim savagery of 
his wrath is heathen all over. Sam. Meiger says of the wolter- 
Jcens : ' Se vinden sik gemeinichlich in den hiiseren, dar ein god 
vorrad (store) van alien dingen is. Dar scholen se sik bedenst- 
haftigen (obsequious) anstellen, waschen in der koken up, boten 
voir (beet the fire), schiiren de vate, schrapen de perde im stalle, 
voderen dat quik, dat it vet und glat herin geit, theen (draw) 
water und dragent dem vehe (cattle) vor. Men kan se des 
nachtes horen de ledderen edder treppen (or stairs) up und dal 
stigen, lachen, wen se den megeden efte knechte de decken 
aftheen (pull off), se richten to, houwen in, jegen (against) dat 
geste kamen scholen, 2 smiten de ware in dem huse umme, de den 
morgen gemeinliken darna verkoft wert/ The goblin then is an 
obliging hardworking sprite, who takes a pleasure in waiting on 
the men and maids at their housework, and secretly dispatching 
some of it himself. He curries the horse?; combs out their 
manes, 3 lays fodder before the cattle, 4 draws water from the well 
and brings it them, and cleans out the stable. For the maids he 
makes up fire, rinses out the dishes, cleaves and carries wood, 
sweeps and scrubs. His presence brings prosperity to the house, 
his departure removes it. He is like the helpful earth-mannikins 
who lend a hand in field labour (p. 451 n.). At the same time he 
oversees the management of the house, that everything be done 
orderly; lazy and careless workers get into trouble with him (as 
with Holla and Berhta, pp. 269. 273), he pulls the coverlets off 

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

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

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

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



HOME-SPRITE. 511 

the beds of sluggards, blows their light out, turns the best cow's 
neck awry, kicks the dawdling milkmaid's pail over, and mocks 
her with insulting laughter j his good-nature turns into worrying 
and love of mischief, he becomes a ' tormenting spirit/ Agenvund 
in the Eeinardus 4, 859-920 seems to me no other than a house- 
doemon, distorted and exaggerated by the poet, disturbing the 
maid in her sleep, her milking and churning (see Suppl.). 1 

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

The Nissen loves the moonlight, and in wintertime you see 
him merrily skipping across the farmyard, or skating. He is a 
good hand at dancing and music, and much the same is told of 
him as of the Swedish stromkarl (p. 493), that for a grey sheep 
he teaches people to play the fiddle. 2 

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

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

2 Unless Wilse (Beskriv. over Spyd. 419) has confounded Nissen with nocken ; 
yet the German goblin Goldemar was likewise musical (Ir. Elfenm. lxxxiii.). W Use, 
and Faye, pp. 43-45, give the best account of the Norwegian Nissen, and Tliiele i. 
134-5 of the Danish. 



512 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

sprites guard treasures, and in Nib. 399 Siegfried becomes 
master of the hoard as soon as he has taken Alberich's tarakappe 
from him. In Calderon's Dama duende the little goblin wears a 
large hat : 'era unfraijle tamanito, y tenia un cucurucho tamano.' 
The Swedish ' tomte i garden ' looks like a year-old child, but 
has an old knowing face under his red cap. He shews himself at 
midday (see chap. XXXVI., daemon meridianus) in summer and 
autumn, slow and panting he drags a single straw or an ear 
(p. 459) ; when the farmer laughed and asked, ' What's the 
odds whether you bring me that or nothing ? ' he quitted the 
farm in dudgeon, and went to the next. From that time pros- 
perity forsook the man who had despised him, and went over to 
his neighbour. The farmer who respected the busy tomte and 
cared for the tiniest straw, became rich, and cleanliness and 
order reigned in his household. Many Christians still believe in 
such home-sprites, and present them an offering every year, ' pay 
them their wage ' as they call it. This is done on the morn of 
Yule, and consists of grey cloth, tobacco and a shovelful of earth, 
Afzelius 2, 169. A puck served the monks of a Mecklenburg 
monastery for thirty years, in kitchen, stall and elsewhere ; he 
was thoroughly good-natured, and only bargained for e tunicam 
de diversis coloribus, et ti/ntinnabulis pleriam.' 1 In Scotland there 
lived a goblin Shellycoat, and we saw (p. 465) that the dwarfs 
of the Mid. Ages also loved bells [schellen ; and schellenkappe is 
Germ, for cap and bells] . The bells on the dress of a fool still 
attest his affinity to the shrewd and merry goblin (fol, follet) ; 
see Suppl. 

He loves to play merry pranks, and when he has accomplished 
one, he is fain to laugh himself double for delight : hence that 
goblin laughter (p. 502) and chuckling. But also when he sulks, 
and means mischief to those who have brought him into trouble 
and difficulty, he utters a scornful laugh at the top of his voice. 2 

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

1 The story (as written down in 1559) is given in Em. Joach. Westphal's Speci- 
men docuinentorurn ineditorum, Rostock 1726, pp. 156-166. 

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



HOME-SPRITE. 513 

to his barn, to burn the goblin that haunted it ; when it is all 
ablaze, there sits the sprite at the back of the cart in which they 
were removing the contents (Deut. sag. no. 72). ] In Moneys 
Anzeiger 1835, 312 we read of a little black man that was 
bought with a chest, and when this was opened, he hopped out 
and slipped behind the oven, whence all efforts to rout him out 
were fruitless ; but he lived on excellent terms with the house- 
hold, and occasionally shewed himself to them, though never to 
strangers. This black figure reminds one both of the Scandi- 
navian dwarfs, and of the devil. Some thoroughly good goblin - 
stories are in Adalb. Kuhn's collection, pp. 42. 55. 84. 107. 159. 
191-3. 372. 2 

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



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

Tennyson's ' Yes, we're flitting, says the ghost.'] The alraun or gallows-maiy 

nikin in Deutsche sagen nos. 83. 8-1 is not properly a kobold, but a semi-diabolic 
being carved out of a root, and so diminutive that he can be kept in a glass ; like 
an idol, he has to be bathed and nursed. In one thing however he resembles the 
home-sprite, that he will not leave his owner, and even when thrown away he 
always comes back again, unless indeed he be sold [orig. 'bought'] for" less than 
he cost. The last purchaser has to keep him. Simpliciss. 2, 181. 203. Conf. 
Schm. 3, 9(3-7. [Home-sprites can be bought and sold, but the third buyer must 
keep him, Mullenhoff p. 322. With ref. to the ' idol (gotze) ' : As the figure of the 
child Jesus has its shirt washed (Sommer, pp. 38. 173), so the heckmdnnchen must 
be dressed up anew at a certain time every year, 10 Ehen, p. 235. — Extr. from 
Suppl.] 

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



514 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

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

The unfriendly, racketing and tormenting spirits who take pos- 
session of a house, are distinguished from the friendly and good- 
natured by their commonly forming a whole gang, who disturb 
the householder's rest with their riot and clatter, and throw stones 
from the roof at passers by. A French comedy of the 16th 
century, ( Les Esprits/ 1 represents goblins racketing in a house, 
singing and playing at night, and aiming tiles at passers by in 
the daytime ; they are fond of fire, but make a violent uproar 
every time the master spits. 3 In Gervase of Tilbury, cap. 18, 
the folleti also pelt with stones, and this of stone-throwing is 
what we shall meet with in quite early stories of devils ; al- 
together the racketing sprites have in this respect more of the 
devil or spectre in them than of the elf : it is a darkening and 
distortion of their original nature in accordance with Christian 
sentiment. 

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



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

2 Legenda aurea, cap. 177 : Hujus Ludovici tempore, anno Domini 856, ut in 
quadam chronica habetur, in parochia Maguntina malignus spiritus parietes domo- 
rum quasi malleis pulsando et manifeste loquendo et discordias seminando adeo honi- 
inis infestabat, ut quocumque intrasset, statim ilia domus exurereter. Presbyteris 
autem letanias agentibus et aquam benedictain spargentibus inimicus lapides jact- 
abat et multos cruentabat. Tandem aliquando conquiescens confessus est se, quando 
aqua spargebatur, sub capa talis sacerdotis quasi familiaris sui latuisse, accusans 
eum quod cum filia procuratoris in peccatum lapsus fuerit. [This incident, said to 
have occurred at Capmunti (Kembden) near Bingen, is derived from Rudolf! Ful- 
densis Annal. ann. 858, in Pertz 1, 372, where further details are given. — Extr. 
from Suppl. 



HOME -SPRITE. 515 

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

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

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

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



516 WIGHTS AND ELVES. 

throws nuts (Denis, Lesef'r. 1, 131 ; see Suppl.). Further, on this 
point I attach weight to the Swedish jullekar, Dan. juleleger, 
yule-lays, undoubtedly of heathen origin, which at Christmas- 
time present Christ and certain saints, but replace our man 
Ruprecht by a julbock, julebuk, i.e. a manservant disguised as 
a goat. 1 This interweaving of jackpudding, fool, Klobes and 
Riipel, of the yule-buck and at last of the devil himself, into the 
rude popular drama of our Mid. Ages, shows what an essential 
part of it the wihtels and tatermans formerly were, how ineradi- 
cable the elvish figures and characters of heathenism. The 
Greeks enlivened the seriousness of their tragedy by satyric 
plays, in which e.g. Proteus, similar to our sea-sprite (p. 434), 
played a leading part. 2 

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



1 Read Holberg's Julestue, and look up julvalten in Finn Magn. lexicon, p. 326 
note. 

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

a\\ ore Kovpduv tls aireidea pLTjrepi revxoi, 
p-y)T-r)p /xrjv KUK\w7ras ey eVi iraidl KaXtaTpei 
"Apyrjv r) "Zrepdv-qv ' 6 5e 8wp.aros £k [ivxcltoio 
2pXCTa.t. 'EppLelrjs, cnroSii] K€xpv^ vo ^ <*'#?7i 
avTiKa. tvjv Kovp-qv p.opp.v(Tff€Tai * 17 5e reKovar/s 
bvvei Zcrti) koXttovs defievt] iirl (paeai x e 'P a S- 



SPRITES. GENII. 517 

and the solemn fates of mortals. They feel themselves drawn to 
men, and repelled by them. The downfall of heathenism must 
have wrought great changes in the old-established relationship : 
the spirits acquired a new and terrible aspect as ministers and 
messengers of Satan. 1 Some put on a more savage look that 
savours of the giant, especially the woodsprites. Grendel's 
nature borders on those of giants and gods. Not so with the 
females however : the wild women and female nixes drop into 
the class of fortune-telling swan-maids who are of human kind, 
while the elfins that present the drinking-horn melt into the 
circle of valkyrs ; and here again we recognise a general beauty 
pervading all the female spirits, and raising them above the 
males, whose characteristics come out more individually. In 
wichtels, dwarfs and goblins, especially in that children's bugbear 
the man Ruprecht, there shews itself a comic faculty derived 
from the oldest times. 

Through the whole existence of elves, nixes, and goblins there 
runs a low under-current of the unsatisfied, disconsolate : they 
do not rightly know how to turn their glorious gifts to account, 
they always require to lean upon men. Not only do they seek 
to renovate their race by intermarriage with mankind, they also 
need the counsel and assistance of men in their affairs. Though 
acquainted in a higher degree than men with the hidden virtues 
of stones and herbs, they yet invoke human aid for their sick 
and their women in labour (pp. 457. 492), they borrow men's 
vessels for baking and brewing (p. 454 n.), they even celebrate 
their weddings and hightides in the halls of men. Hence too 
their doubting whether they can be partakers of salvation, and 
their unconcealed grief when a negative answer is given. 

1 Brttder Bansch (friar Rush) a veritable goblin, is without hesitation [described 
as being] despatched from hell among the monks ; his name is to be derived from 
russ = fuligo (as kohlrausch was formerly spelt kolruss). 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

GIANTS. 

The relation in which giants stand to dwarfs and men has 
been touched upon in p. 449. By so much of bodily size and 
strength as man surpasses the elf or dwarf, he falls short of the 
giant ; on the other hand, the race of elves and dwarfs has a 
livelier intellect and subtler sense than that of men, and in these 
points again the giants fall far below mankind. The rude coarse- 
grained giant nature is defiant in its sense of material power and 
might, the sly shy dwarf is conscious of his mental superiority. 
To man has been allotted a happy mean, which raises him above 
the giant's intractableness and the dwarf's cunning, and betwixt 
the two he stands victorious. The giant both does and suffers 
wrong, because in his stupidity he undervalues everybody, and 
even falls foul of the gods ; 1 the outcast dwarf, who does discern 
good and evil, lacks the right courage for free and independent 
action. In order of creation, the giant as the sensuous element 
came first, next followed the spiritual element of elvish nature, 
and lastly the human race restored the equilibrium. The abrupt- 
ness of these gradations is a good deal softened down by the 
giants or dwarfs forming frequent alliances with men, affording 
clear evidence that ancient fiction does not favour steep contrasts : 
the very earliest giants have sense and judgment ascribed to 
them (see Suppl.). 

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

There is a number of ancient terms corresponding in sense to 
our present word riese (giant) . 2 

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

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

518 



EZAN, EOTEN. 519 

The oldest and most comprehensive term in Norse is iotunn, 
pi. iotuar (not jotunn, jotnar) ; it is backed up by an AS. eoten, 
pi. eotenas, Beow. 223 (eotena cyn, 836. eotonisc, 5953), or 
eten, Lye sub v.; OE. etin, ettin, Nares sub v.; Scot, ettyn, 
eyttyn, Jamieson sub v. ; an OS. etan, eten can be inferred with 
certainty from the name of a place in old docs., Etanasfeld, 
Etenesfeld (campus gigantis), Wigand's Archiv i. 4, 85. Moser 
nos. 2. 13. 18. 19. And what is more, the word must have lived 
on in later times, down to the latest, for I find the fern, eteninne 
(giantess) preserved at least in nursery-tales. Laurenberg (ed. 
Lappenberg, p. 26) l has ' de olde eteninne,' and another Rostock 
book of the beginning of the 18th century 2 ' die alte eteninne' ; 
I should like to know whence Adelung sub v. mummel gets the 
fact, that in Westphalia a certain terrible female with whom they 
frighten children is called etheninne ? I have no doubt it is 
correct. The Saxon etan warrants us in conjecturing an OHG. 
ezan, ezzan, a Goth, itans, having for root the ON. eta, AS. etan, 
OHG. ezzan, Goth, itan (edere), and for meaning edo (gen. 
edonis), manducus, iroXvfa'vyos, devourer. An AS. poem in Cod. 
exon. 425, 26 says : 'ic mesan mteg meahtelicor and efn etan 
ealdum hyrre/ I can chew and eat more mightily than an old 
giant. Now the question arises, whether another word, which 
wants the suffix -n, has any business here, namely the ON. iotr* 
AS. eot, now only to be found in the compound Forniotr, Forneot 
(p. 240) and the national name Iotar, the Jutes ? One thing 
that makes for it is the same omission of -n in the Swed. jatte 
(gigas), Dan. jette, pi. jetter; then, taking iotnar as = iotar 
(Goth. itan6s = i'tos), we should be justified in explaining the 
names Jotar, Jotland by an earlier (gigantic ?) race whom the 
advancing Teutons crowded out of the peninsula. 1 In that 
case we might expect an OS. et, etes, an OHG. ez, ezes, with the 



1 Johann Laurenberg, a Rostock man,b. 1590, d. 1658. The first ed. of his poem 
appeared 1652. 

2 Ern. Joach. Westphal, De consuetudine ex sacco et libro, Rost. 1726. 8. pp. 
221-5; the catalogue there given of old stories of women is copied in Joh. Pet. 
Schmidt's Fastelabendssamlungen, Rostock (1742) 4. resp. 1752, p. 22, but here 
incorrectly ' von der Ardcn Inn ' instead of WestphaTs 'von der alten Eten Inne.' 

5 For iotr, as miolk for miolk, see Gramni. 1, 451. 482. 

4 Beda 1, 15 has Juti, which the AS. version mistakenly renders Ge/itas (the ON. 
Gautar), though at 4, 16 it more correctly gives Eotaland for Jutorum terra, am- 
ine Sax. Chron. (Ingr. p. 14) has Ioturn for Iutis, Iutnacynn for Iutorum gens. 

VOL. II. G 



520 GIANTS. 

meaning of giant. 1 Possibly there was beside iotunn, also an 
ON. iotull, OHG. ezal (edax) ; 3 that would explain the present 
Norwegian term for giant : jotul, jut id, Hallager 52. Faye 7 
(see Suppl.). 3 

Our second term is likewise one that suggests the name of 
a nation. The ON. purs seems not essentially different from 
iotunn ; in Sn. 6 Ymir is called ancestor of all the hrimjmrses, in 
Sasm. 118 a all the iotnar are traced up to him. In particular 
songs or connexions the preference is given to one or the other 
appellative : thus in the enumeration of dialects in the Alvismal 
the giants are always iotnar, never bursar, and there is no 
Thursaheimr in use for Iotunheimr, Iotnaheimr; but Thrymr, 
though dwelling in Iotnaheimr, is nevertheless called bursa 
drottinn (Sasm. 70. 71) and not iotna drottinn, but he summons 
the iotnar (73 a ), and is a iotunn himself (74 a ). In Seem. 85 b 
both iotnar and hrirnbursar are summoned one after the other, 
so there must be some nice distinction between the two, which 
here I would look for in the prefix hrim : only hrirnbursar, no 
hrimiotnar, are ever met with ; of this hriinburs an explanation 
will be attempted further on. Instead of Jmrs there often occurs, 
especially at a later stage of the language, the assimilated form 
puss, particularly in the pi. Jmssar, hriinjmssar; a daemonic being 
in the later sagas is called Thusselin (Miiller's Sagab. 1, 3G7-8), 
nay, the Danish tongue has retained the assimilation in its tosse, 
clumsy giant, dolt (a folk-song has tossegrefve) * and a Norwegian 
dasmon bears the name tussel. The ON. ]mrs, like several names 
of gods, is likewise the title of a rune-letter, the same that the 
Anglo-Saxons called born (conf. ' hurs rista/ Sasm. 86 a ) : a 
notable deviation, as the AS. tongue by no means lacks the 
word; in Beow. 846 we find fiyrs, and also in the menology in 



1 Can the witch Jettha of the Palatinate (p. 96 note) be a corruption of Eta, Eza ? 
Anyhow the Jettenbiihel (Jettha; collis) reminds us of the Bavarian Jettcnberg 
(Mon. boica 2, 219, ann. 1317), and Mount Jetten in Eeinbote's Georg 1717, where 
it is misprinted Setten. Near WiUingshausen in Hesse is another Jettenberg, see 
W. Grimm On the runes, p. 271. 

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

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

* Rr. ihp, Dan. fos, fossen, for the ON. fnrs. 



DUES, THURS. 521 

Hickes (Gramin. AS. p. 207) : ' fiyrs sceal on fenne gewunian/ 
and elsewhere pyrs, pi. hyrsas, renders the Lat. cyclops, orcus. 
The passage already given from the Cod. exon. 425, 28 has fiyrre 
with the s assimilated, as in irre for irse. And we find an 
Engl, thurst surviving in holthurst (woodsprite), conf. hobgoblin 
p. 502 [hob o' t' hurst ?] The OHG. form ought to be durs, pi. 
dursa, or dun's, gen. durises, which last does occur in a gloss for 
the Lat. Dis, Ditis (Schra. 1, 458), and another gloss more Low 
Germ, gives thuris for orcus (Fr. ogre) ; yet Notker ps. 17, 32 
spells it turs (daemonium), pi. tursa, and MHG. has turse, gen. 
tursen (Aw. 3, 179), perhaps turse, tiirsen (as in Massm. deukm. 
109 tiirsen rhymes kiirsen), and even tiirste, gen. tiirsten (MS. 2, 
205 a ) ; on the other hand, Albr. Tit. 24, 47 has f spil von einem 
diirsen' (Hahn 3254 tursen) =play of a d., from which passage we 
gather that tiirse-shows as well as wihtel-shows (p. 441n.) were 
exhibited for pastime : Ls. 3, 564 says, alluding to a well-known 
fable, ' des kunt der diirsch, und sprichet schuo ! ' the d. knows 
that, etc., where the notion of satyr and wild man (p. 482) 
predominates. The Latin poem of Wilten monastery in Tyrol, 
which relates the story of the giant Haimo, names another giant 
Thyrsis, making a proper name of the word : 

Forte habitabat in his alius truculentior oris 

Cyclops, qui dictus nomine Thyrsis erat, 
Thyrsis erat dictus, Seveldia rura colebat. 1 

The name of a place Tarsinriut, Tursenriut (Doc. of 1218-9 in 
Lang's Reg. 2, 88. 94) 2 contains our word unmistakably, and so 
to my thinking does the earlier Tuzzinwanc near Neugart, stand- 
ing for Tussiuwanc, Tursinwanc (campus gigantis), the present 
Dussnang. Nor does it seem much more hazardous to explain 
Strabo's Govave\6a (7, 1. Tzsch. 2, 328) by Thurshilda, Thuss- 
hilda, Thursinhilda, 3 though I cannot produce an ON. Thurshildr. 
In Switzerland to this day durst is the Wild Hunter (St. 1, 329), 
on the Salzburg Alp dusel is a night-spirit (Muchar's Gasteiu, 
p. 145), and in Lower Germany dros or drost is devil, dolt, giant. 1 

1 Mone's Untersuchung, pp. 288-9. 

2 Now Tirsehenreit, Tirschengereith. Schmeller's birthplace in the Up. Pala- 
tinate, Schm. 1, 458. So Tiirschenwald, Thyrsentritt, Tiirstwiukel, et .— Suppl. 

s Conf. Pharaildis, Verelde, p. 284-5; Grimild for Griniliil d. 

4 Brem. \vb. 1, 257. Richey sub v. diaus, Schiitze sub v. drost, Strodtmann sub 



522 GIANTS. 

Whether Thorsholt, TJwshoJt, the name of a place in Oldenburg 1 , 
is connected with ]?urs, I cannot tell. — In Gothic the word 
would have to be J?aurs, pi. haiirsos (or ]>aiirsis, pi. ]?aiirsj6s ? 
haiirsus, J?aiirsjus ? J?aursja, haursjans ?) ; and of these forms the 
derivation is not far to seek. The Goth. haursus means dry, 
baiirsjan to thirst, Jmiirstei thirst ; Jmirsus, haiirsis becomes in 
OHG. durri for dursi (as airzis becomes irri for irsi), while the 
noun durst (thirst) retains the s, and so does our durs (giant) 
and the ON. Jmrs by the side of the adjective ]mrr (dry). So that 
paurs, purs, durs signify either fond of wine, thirsty, or drunken, 
a meaning which makes a perfect pair with that we fished out of 
itans, iotunn. The two words for giant express an inordinate 
desire for eating and drinking, precisely what exhibits itself in 
the Homeric cyclop. Herakles too is described as edax and 
bibax, e.g. in Euripides' s Alcestis ; and the ON. giant Suttungr 
(Ssem. 23. Sn. 84) apparently stands for Suptungr (Finn Magn. 
p. 738), where we must presuppose a noun supt = sopi, a sup 
or draught. 

Now, as the Jutes, a Teutonic race, retained the name of the 
former inhabitants whom they had expelled, 1 these latter being 
the real Iotnar or Itanos ; so may the Jmrsar, dursa, in their mythic 
aspect [as giants] be connected with a distant race which at a 
very early date had migrated into Italy. I have already hinted 
(p. 25) at a possible connexion of the haiirsos with the Tvparjvoi, 
Tvpfjrjvoi, Tusci, Etrusci : the consonant-changes are the very 
thing to ' be expected, and even the assimilations and the 
transposition of the r are all found reproduced. Niebuhr makes 
Tyrrhenians distinct from Etruscans, but in my opinion wrongly ; 
as for the Ovpaos carried in the Bacchic procession, it has no claim 
to be brought in at all (see Suppl.). 

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

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

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



HUN. 



523 



tombs are called hunebedde, hunebedden, bed being commonly 
used for grave, the resting-place of the dead. ' Grot as en hune' 
expresses gigantic stature. Schiiren's Teutonista couples ' rese ' 
with Jmyne. Even H. Germ, writers of the lGth-1 7th centuries, 
though seldomer, use heune; Mathesius : 'Goliath der grosse 
hcunc;' the Vocab. of 1482 spells hewne. Hans Sachs 1, 453 a 
uses heunisch (like entisch) for fierce, malignant. But the word 
goes back to MHG. too; Herbort 1381 : ' groz alsam ein hune,' 
rhym. ' mit starkem gelune ; ' Trist. 4034 : ' an geliden und an 
geliune gewahsen als ein hiune.' 1 In OHG. writings I do not find 
the word in this sense at all. But MHG. has also a Hiune (gen. 
Hiunen) signifying, without any reference to bodily size, a Hun- 
garian, in the Nibelunge a subject of Efczel or Attila (1110, 4. 
1123,4. 1271,3. 1824,3. 1829,1. 1831,1. 1832, 1), which 
in Lat. writings of the Mid. Ages is called Hunnas, more exactly 
Hunus, Chunus. To this Hiune would correspond an OHG. 
Hunio ; I have only met with the strong form Hun, pi. Huni, 
gen. Hunio, Hiineo, 2 with which many names of places are com- 
pounded, e.g. Huniofeld, a little town in Fulda bishopric, now 
Hiinfeld; also names of men, Hiinolt, Hunperht (Humprecht), Hun- 
rat, Altlmn, Folchuu, etc. The AS. Hthia cyning (Beda 1, 13) 
requires a siug. Him; but to the ON. nom. pi. Hiinar there is said 
to belong a weak sing. Huni (Gl. Edd. havn. 2, 881). It is plain 
those Huni have a sense that shifts about pretty much with time 
and place, now standing for Pannonians, then for Avars, then 
again for Vandals and Slavs, always for a nation brought into 
frequent contact with Germany by proximity and wars. The 
lliunenlant of the loth century (Nib. 1106, 3. 1122, 3) cannot 
possibly be the Eunaland which the Eddie lays regard as SigurS's 
home (Deutsche heldens. 6. 9). At the time when proper names 
like Hunrat, Hunperht first arose, there could hardly as yet be 
any thought of an actual neighbouring nation like Pannonians 
or Wends j but even in the earliest times there might circulate 
talk and tale of a primitive mythic race supposed to inhabit some 
uncertain region, much the same aslotnar and Thursar. I incline 

1 Wolfdietr. 661 has, for giaut, heme rhym. sehoene, but only in the place of the 
ancient casura, so that the older reading was most likely hiune. 

- In Hildeb. lied ' Hiineo truhtin (lord of Huns), and ' alter Hun ; ' Diut. 2, 182 
Huni (Pannonii) ; 2, 353'' Huni for Him (Hunus) ; 2, 370 Huni (Vaudali). 



524 GIANTS. 

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

i The present Inselberg near Schmalkalden ; old docs., however, spell it Emise- 
herc, named apparently from the brook Emise, Emse, which rises on it. Later 
forms are Enzelberg, Einzelberg, Einselberg. 



ENT. GIGANT. RISO. 525 

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

The AS. poets use also the Greek, Latin, 1 and Romance appel- 
lative gigant, pi. gigantas, Beow. 225. giganta cyn 3379. gigant- 
msecg, Ca^dm. 76, 36 ; conf. Ital. Span, gigante, Prov. jayan 
(Ferab. 4232), O.Fr. gaiant (Ogier 8092. 8101), Fr. giant, Eng. 
giant; also OHG. gigant (0. iv. 12, 61), MHG. gigante die 
mdren (Diut. 3, 60), 2 M. Nethl. gigant The ON. word which is 
usually compared with this, but which wants the nt, and is only 
used of giantesses, seems to me unconnected : fem. gijgr, gen. 
gygjar, Seem. 39, Sn. 66. 68; a Swed. folk-song still has 'den 
leda gijger,' Arvidsson, 2, 302. It is wanting in the other Teut. 
dialects, but if translated into Gothic it would be giugi or giugja; 
I trace it to the root giugan, and connect it with the words quoted 
in my Gramm. 2, 50 no. 536 (see Suppl.). 

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

Again, lubbe, liibbe seems in parts of Lower Saxony to mean 

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

- The Biblical view adopted in the Mid. Ages traced the giants to Cam, or at least 
to mixture with his family : ' gig antes, quales propter iracundiam Dei per tilios Beth 
de filialus Cain narrat scriptura procreatos,' Pertz 2, 755. For in Genesis 6, 4 it 
is said : ' gigantes autem erant super tcrram in diebus illis ; postquam enim ingressi 
sunt filii Dei ad filias hominum, illreque genuerunt, isti sunt potentes a seculo viri 
famosi.' The same view appears in Caedni. 76. 77 ; in Beow. 213Grendel's descent 
is derived from Caines cynne, on whom God avenged the murder of Abel : thence 
sprang all the umtydrai (neg. of tudor proles, therefore misbirths, evil brood |. eotenat, 
ylfe, orcneaa and gigantas that war against God. This partly tits in with some 
heathen notions of cosmogony. 

a Mone in Anz. 8, 183, takes wrise toxfrise, and makes Frisians and Persians out 
of it. [What of ' writhe, wris-t, wrest, wrestle,' (as wit, wis-t becomes wise) ? Or 
Slav, vred-iti, to hurt, AS. wretfe? A Euss. word for giant is verzilo, supposed to 
be from verg-;iti, to throw.] 



526 GIANTS. 

unwieldy giant, lubben-stones are shown on the Corneliusbei'g 
near Helmstadt, and lubbe ace. to the Brem. wb. 3, 92 means a 
slow clumsy fellow; it is the Engl, lubber, lobber, and Michel 
Beham's liipel (Mone's Anz. 1835, 450 b ), conf. ON. lubbi (hir- 
sutus). To this add a remarkable document by Bp. Gebhard of 
Halberstadt, bewailing as late as 1462 the heathenish worship of 
a being whom men named den guden lubben, to whom they offered 
bones of animals on a hill by Schochwitz in the county of Mans- 
feld. Not only have such ancient bone-heaps been discovered on 
the Lujpberg there (conf. the Augsburg perleich, p. 294), but in 
the church of the neighbouring Miillersdorf an idol image let into 
the wall, which tradition says was brought there from the Lup- 
berg (see Suppl.). 1 

The ON. has several words for giantess, beside the gygr men- 
tioned above: skass, neut., Seem. 144 b 154 b , and skessa, fern. ; 
grid')- f., mella f . ; gifr f., Seem. 143 b , Norweg. jyvri (Hallag. 53) 
or gijvri, gurri, djurre (Faye 7. 9. 10. 12). This gifr seems to 
mean saucy, defiant, greedy. 

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

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

1 Neue mitth. des thiir. sacks, vereins 3, 130-6. 5, 2. 110-132. 6, 37-8. The 
picture, however, contains nothing giant-like, but rather a goddess standing on a 
wolf. Yet I remark, that a giant's tomb on Mt. Blanc is called ' la tombe du bon 
homme, de la bonne femme,' an expression associated with the idea of a sacred vene- 
rated man (supra, p. 89). Conf. also godgubbe used of Thorr, p. 167, and godmor, 
p. 430. 

2 Psalter of queen Margareta, Vienna 1834, p.l7 b : obrzim, the -im as in oyczim, 
pielgrzyin. 



GIANTS. 527 

as the Avari in the Mid. Ages are = Chuni, the words hun and 
obor alike spring out of the national names Hun aud Avar. 1 To 
the Slavs, Tchud signifies both Finn and giant, and the Russ. 
ispolin (giant) might originally refer to the 'gens Spalorum' of 
Jornandes; conf. Schafarik 1, 286. 310. So closely do the 
names for giant agree with those of ancient nations : popular 
belief magnified hostile warlike neighbours into giants, as it 
diminished the weak and oppressed into dwarfs. The Sanskrit 
rdhshasas can have nothing to do with our riese, nor with the 
OHG. recchio, MHG. recke, a designation of human heroes (see 
Suppl.). 

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

A great stature, towering far above any human size, is ascribed 
to all giants : stiff, unwieldy, they stand like hills, like tall trees. 
According to the Mod. Greeks, they were as tall as poplars, and 
if once they fell, they could not get up again [like Humpty 
Dumpty]. The one eye of the Greek cyclops I nowhere find 
imputed to our giants ; but like them 2 and the ancient gods, 
(p. 322), they are often provided with many hands and heads. 
When this attribute is given to heroes, gigantic ones are meant, 
as Heimo, StarkaSr, Asperian (p. 387). But Saem. 85 b expressly 
calls a ]mrs prihofdudr, exactly as the MHG. Wahtelmasre names 
a drihouptigen tursen (Massm. denkm. 109) : a remarkable in- 
stance of agreement. In Seem. 35 a appears a giant's son with 
six heads, in 56 a the many-headed band of giants is spoken of, 
and in 53 a giantess with 900 heads. Brana's father has three 
(invisible) heads, Fornald. sog. 3, 574, where also it is said : ' J?a 

1 Schafarik explains obor by the Celtic ambro above (p. 520n.) ; but in that case 
the Polish would have been abr. 

2 Briareus or ^Egaion has a hundred arms (<fKaTu7x«P 0S > II. 1, 402) and fifty 
heads, Geryon three heads and six hands; in Hesiod's Theog. 150, Kottus, Gygea 
and Briareus have one hundred arms and fifty heads. The giant in the Hebrew 
story has only an additional finger or toe given to each hand aud foot : vir nut 
excelsus, qui senos in manibus pedibusque habebat digitos, i.e. viginti (juatuor 
(instead of the human twenty), 2 Sam. 21, 20. Bertheau's Israel, p. 113. O. Fr. 
poems give the Saracen giant four anus, two uoses, two chins, Ogier 'JH17. 



528 GIANTS. 

fell margr (many a) twhof&a&r iotunn.' Trolds with 12 heads, 
then with 5, 10, 15 occur in Norske event, nos. 3 and 24. In 
Scotland too the story ' of the reyde eyttyn with the thre heydis ' 
was known (Complaynt, p. 98), and Lindsay's Dreme (ed. 1592, 
p. 225) mentions the ' history of reid etin.' The fairy-tale of 
Red etin wi' three heads may now be read complete in Chambers, 1 
pp. 56-58; but it does not explain whether the red colour in his 
name refers to skin, hair or dress. A black complexion is not 
attributed to giants, as it is to dwarfs (p. 444) and the devil, 
though the half-black Hel (p. 312) was of giant kin. Hrungnir, 
a giant in the Edda, has a head of stone (Seem. 76 b , Sn. 109), 
another in the Fornald. sog. 3, 573 is called larnhaus, iron skull. 
But giants as a rule appear well-shaped and symmetrical ; their 
daughters are capable of the highest beauty, e.g. GeroV, whose 
gleaming arms, as she shuts the house-door, make air and water 
shine again, Seem. 82 a , Sn. 39 (see Suppl.). 

In the giants as a whole, an untamed natm^al force has full 
swing, entailing their excessive bodily size, their overbearing in- 
solence, that is to say, abuse of corporal and mental power, and 
finally sinking under its own weight. Hence the iotunn in the 
Edda is called slcrautgiarn (fastosus), Sasm. 1 1 7 b ; sa inn amattki 
(praspotens) 41 b 82 h ; storMgi (magnanimus) 76 b ; firungmo&gi 
(superbus) 77 a ; hardracTr (saavus) 54 a ; our derivation of the 
words iotunn and ]?urs finds itself confirmed in poetic epithet and 
graphic touch : Tcostmodr iotunn (cibo gravatus), Seem. 56 b ; ' blr 
(ebrius) ertu GeirroSr, hefir ]ni ofdruccit (overdrunk)' 47 a (see 
Suppl.). 

From this it is an easy step, to impute to the giants a stupidity 
contrasting with man's common sense and the shrewdness of the 
dwarf. The ON. has ' ginna alia sem pussa ' (decipere omnes 
sicut thursos), Nialssaga p. 263. Du?nm in our old speech was 
mutus as well as hebes, and dumbr in ON. actually stands for 
gigas; to which dumbi (dat.) the adj. fiumbi (hebes, inconcinnus) 
seems nearly related. A remarkable spell of the 11th cent, runs 
thus : ' tumbo saz in berke mit tumbemo kinde in arme, tumb hiez 
der berc, tumb hiez daz kint, der heilego tumbo versegene tisa 
wunda ! ' i.e. dummy sat on hill with d. child in arm, d. was 

i Popular rhymes, fireside stories, and amusements of Scotland, Edinb. 1S42. 



GIANTS. 529 

called the hill and d. the child, the holy d. bless this wound away 
[the posture is that of Humpty Dumpty] . This seems pointed 
at a sluo-o-ish mountain-giant, and we shall sec how folk-tales of 

DO O * 

a later period name the giants dnmme dutten ; the term lubbe, 
lilbbe likewise indicates their clumsy lubberly nature, and when 
we nowadays call the devil durum (stupid), a quondam giant is 
really meant (see Suppl.). 1 

Yet the Norse lays contain one feature favourable to the giants. 
They stand as specimens of a fallen or falling race, which 
with the strength combines also the innocence and wisdom of 
the old world, an intelligence more objective and imparted at 
creation than self-acquired. This half- regretful view of giants 
prevails particularly in one of the finest poems of the Edda, 
the HymisqvrSa. Hymir 2 is called fom iotunn (the old) 54% as 
YloXvcpafios in Theocr. 11,9 is apxaios, and another giant, from 
whom gods are descended, has actually the proper name Forniotr, 
Forneot (p. 240), agreeing with the ' aid inn iotunn ' quoted on 
p. 524; then we have the epithet hundviss (multiscius) applied 
52 b , as elsewhere to Lo-Sinn (Stem. 145 a ), to GeirroSr (Sn. 113), 
and to StarkaSr (Fornald. sog. 3, 15. 32). 3 Oegir is called 
fiolkunnigr (much-knowing), Saem. 79, and bamteitr (happy as a 
child) 52 a ; while Thrymr sits fastening golden collars on his 
hounds, and stroking his horses' manes, Sasm. 70 b . And also the 
faithfulness of giants is renowned, like that of the men of old : 
trolltryggr (fidus instar gigantis), Egilss. p. 610, and in the Faroe 
dialect ' trilr sum trddlir,' true as giants (Lyngbye, p. 496). 4 
Another lay is founded on the conversation that OSinn himself 
is anxious to hold with a giant of great sense on matters of 
antiquity (a fornom stcifum) : Vaf]>ru8nir again is called ' inn 
alsvinni iotunn/ 30 a 35 b ; Orgelmir and Bergelmir 'sa inn fr 6 (K 

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

■ ON. hum is crepusculum, hfima vesperascere, hyma dormiturire ; is Hymir the 
sluggish, sleepy? OHG. Hiumi? Mow if tin- MUG. hiune came from an OHG. 
hiumi? An m is often attenuated into n, as OHG. sliumi, sniumi (celer), MHG. 
sliune, sliunic, our schleunig. That would explain why there is no trace of the 
word hiune in ON. ; it would also be fatal to any real connexion with the national 
name Hun. 

3 Hund (centum) intensi6es the meaning : hundmargr (pcrmultus), hundgamall 
(old as the hills). 

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



530 GIANTS. 

iotunn/ Seem. 35 a,b ; Fenja and Menja are framvisar (Grottas. 1, 
13). When the verb }>reya, usually meaning exspectare, desi- 
derare, is employed as characteristic of giants (Seem. 88 a ), it 
seems to imply a dreamy brooding, a half-drunken complacency 
and immobility (see Suppl.). 

Such a being, when at rest, is good-humoured and unhandy, 1 
but when provoked, gets wild, spiteful and violent. Norse legend 
names this rage of giants i'dtunmodr, which pits itself in defiance 
against asmoSr, the rage of the gods : f vera i iotunmoSi/ Sn. 
150 b . When their wrath is kindled, the giants hurl rocks, rub 
stones till they catch fire (Roth. 1048), squeeze water out of 
stones (Kinderm. no. 20. Asbiornsen's Moe, no. 6), root up 
trees (Kinderm. no. 90), twist fir-trees together like willows (no. 
1G6), and stamp on the ground till their leg is buried up to the 
knee (Roth. 913. Yilk. saga, cap. 60) : in this plight they are 
chained up by the heroes in whose service they are to be, and 
only let loose against the enemy in war, e.g. Witolt or Witolf 
(Roth. 760. Vilk. saga, cap. 50). One Norse giant, whose story 
we know but imperfectly, was named Beli (the bellower) ; him 
Freyr struck dead with his fist for want of his sword, and thence 
bore the name of ' bani Belja/ Sn. 41. 71. 

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

1 Unformed, irtconcirmus ; MHG. ungeviiege, applied to giants, Nib. 450, 1. 
Iw. 444. £051. 6717. der ungeviiege knabe, Er. 5552; ' knabe,' as in ' der michel 
kuabe,' p. 518n. 



GIANTS. 531 

..ife. The gods associate with Oegir the iotunn, and by him 
are bidden to a banquet. Giants again sue for asins, as Thryrar 
for Freyja, while Thiassi carries off ISunn. Hrilngnir asks for 
Freyja or Sif, Sn. 107. Starkaftr is henchman to Norse kings; 
in Rother's army fight the giants Asperian (Asbiorn, Osbern) and 
Witolt. Among the ases the great foe of giants is Tliorr, who 
like Jupiter inflicts on them his thunder- wounds ; 1 his hammer 
has crushed the heads of many : were it not for Thorr, says a 
Scandinavian proverb, the giants would get the upper hand ; 2 he 
vanquished Hriingnir, Hymir, Thrymr, GeirroSr, and it is not all 
the legends by any means that are set down in the Edda (see 
Suppl.). St. Olaf too keeps up a hot pursuit of the giant race ; 
in this business heathen and Christian heroes are at one. In our 
heroic legend Sigenot, Ecke, Fasolt succumb to Dietrich's human 
strength, yet other giants are companions of Dietrich, notably 
Wittich and Heime, as Asperian was Rother's. The kings 
Niblunc and Schilbunc had twelve strong giants for friends 
(Nib. 95), i.e. for vassals, as the Norse kings often had twelve 
berserks. But, like the primal woods and monstrous beasts of 
the olden time, the giants do get gradually extirpated off the 
face of the earth, and with all heroes giant-fighting alternates 
with dragon-fighting. 3 

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

i The skeleton of a giantess struck by lightning, hung up in a sacristy, see Wide- 
gren's Ostergdtland 4, 527. 

2 Swed. ' vore ej thorddn (Thor-din, thunder) till, lade troll verlden ode.' 
s In British legend too (seldomer in Caroliugian) the heroes are indefatigable 
giant-quellers. If the nursery-tale of Jack the giantkiller did not appear to be of 
Welsh origin, that hero's deeds might remind us of Tliur's; he is equipped with 
a cap of darkness, shoes of swiftness, and a sword that cuts through anything, as 
the god is with the resistless hammer. 



532 GIANTS. 

furnishes both names Manegolt and Fenegolt ouc of the same 
neighbourhood. We may conclude that once the Bavarians well 
knew how it stood with the fanigold and nianigold ground out by 
Fania and Mania (see Suppl.). 

Yrnir, or in giant's language Orgelmir, was the first-created, 
and out of his body's enormous bulk were afterwards engendered 
earth, water, mountain and wood. Ymir himself originated in 
melted hoarfrost or rime (hrim), hence all the giants are called 
hrimpursar, rime-giants, Sn. 6. Sasin. 85 a ' b ; hrimkaldr, rime- 
cold, is an epithet of p»urs and iotunn, Saem. 33 b 90 a , they still 
drip with thawing rime, their beards (kinnskogr, chin-forest) are 
frozen, Seem. 53 b ; Hrimnir, Hiimgrimr, Hrimgercfr are proper 
names of giants, Seem. 85 a 86 a 114. 145. As hrim also means 
grime, fuligo, Ymir may perhaps be connected with the obscure 
MHG. om, ome (rubigo), see Gramm. 3, 733. At the same time 
the derivation from ymja, umSi (stridere) lies invitingly near, so 
that Ymir would be the blustering, noisy, and one explanation of 
Orgelmir would agree with this ; conf. chap. XIX. (see Suppl.). 

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

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

The giants form a separate people, which no doubt split into 
branches again, conf. Rask's Afhand. 1, 88. Thrymr is called 
Jjursa drottinn, Saem. 70-74, a Jrwrsa JjiocF (nation) is spoken of, 
107 a , but iotunheimr is described as their usual residence. Even 
our poem of Bother 767 speaks of a riesenlant. On the borders 
of the giant province were situate the griottuna gar&ar, Sn. 108-9. 
We have already noticed how most of the words for giant coin- 
cide with the names of ancient nations. 

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



GIANTS. 533 

Hrungnir had a three-cornered stone heart, his head and shield 
were of stone, Sn. 109. Another giant was named Vagnhoffri 
(waggon-head), Sn. 211 a , in Saxo Gram. 9. 10. Dame Hiltt is a 
petrified queen of giants, Deut. sag. no. 233. 

Out of this connexion with mountains arises another set of 
names: bergrisi, Sn. 18. 26. 30. 45-7. 66. Grdttas. 10. 21. 
Egilss. 22 j 1 bergbui, Fornald. sog. 1, 412; hraunbiii (saxicola), 
Sasm. 57 b 145 a ; hraunhvalr (-whale) 57 b ; Jjwssin af biargi, Fornald. 
sog. 2, 29 ; bergdanir (gigantes), Sasm. 54 b ; bergrisa brudr (bride), 
mcer bergrisa, Grottas. 10. 24, conf. the Gr. bpeuis : on this side 
the notion of giantess can easily pass into that of elfin. Thryni- 
heimr lies up in the mountains, Sn. 27. It is not to be over- 
looked, that in our own Heldenbuch Dietrich reviles the giants 
as mountain-cattle and forest-boors, conf. bercrinder, Laurin 2625, 
and waltgeburen 534. 2624. Sigenot 97. walthunde, Sigenot 13. 
114. waldes diebe (thieves), 120. waldes tore (fool), waldes 
affe (ape), Wolfd. 467. 991 (see p. 481-2 and Suppl.). 

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

Stones and rocks are weapons of the giant race j they use only 
stone clubs and stone shields, no swords. Hriingni's weapon is 
called hem (hone) ; when it was flung in mid air and came in 
collision with Thor's hammer, it broke, and a part fell on the 
ground; hence come all the ' heinberg/ whinstone rocks, Sn. 
108-9. Later legends add to their armament stahelstangen (steel 
bars) 24 yards long, Roth. 687. 1662. Hurn. Sifr. 62, 2. 68, 2. 
Sigenot (Lassb.) 14, (Hag.) 69. 75. Iwein 5022 {-mote, rod 
5058. -Me, club 6682. 6726). Trist. 15980. 16146; isenstange, 
Nib. 460, 1. Veldek invests his Pandurus and Bitias (taken from 
Aen. 9, 672) with giant's nature and iserne kolven, En. 7089 ; 
king Gorhand's giant host carry holben stahelin, Wh. 35, 21. 
395, 24. 396, 13; and giant Langben a staahtang (Danske 
viser 1, 29). We are expressly told in Er. 5384, ' wafens waren 

1 In the case of mixed descent: Mlf bergrisi, h&lfrwi, h&lftroll, Egilss. p. 22. 

Nialss. ]). 164 ; see Grauiui. 2, G33. 



534 GIANTS. 

si bloz/ i.e. bare of knightly weapon, for they carried f kolben 
swsere, groze uncle lange.' l Yet the f eald siveord eotonisc' pro- 
bably meant one of stone, though the same expression is used 
in Beow. 5953 of a metal sword mounted with gold ; even the 
f entisc helm/ Beow. 5955 may well be a stone helmet. It may 
be a part of the same thing, that no iron sword will cut into 
giants ; only with the pommel of the sword can they be killed 
(Ecke 178), or with the fist, p. 530 (see Suppl.). 

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

Les fors tors, ke sont dantiquitey, 
ke paian firent par lor grant poestey. 

Conf. Mone's Unters. 242-4-7. 250. Whatever was put together 
of enormous blocks the Hellenes named cyclopean walls, while the 
modern Greeks regard the Hellenes themselves as giants of the 
old world, and give them the credit of those massive structures. 2 
Then, as ancient military roads were constructed of great blocks 
of stone (strata felison gifuogid, Hel. 164, 27), they also were 
laid to the account of giants : iotna vegar (vise gigantum), Sasm. 
23 b ; ' usque ad giganteam viam : entisken wee/ MB. 4, 22 (about 
1130). The common people in Bavaria and Salzburg call such 
a road, which to them is world-old and uncanny, enterisch (Schm. 

i Goliath too, 1 Sam. 17, 7, and 2 3am. 21, 19 is credited with a hastile (spear- 
staff) quasi liciatorium texentiurn (like a weaver's beam). 

2 Conf. Niebuhr's Rom. Hist. i. 192-3. An ancient wall is in Mod. Greek rb 
£\\t)vik6, Ulrich's Eeise 1, 182. 



GIANTS. 535; 

1, 1 1) j the trbllaskeid was mentioned p. 508-9, and trollahlad' is 
septum gigantum. Some passages in Fergiit are worthy of 
notice ; at ]576 : 

Die roke was swert ende eiselike, 

want wilen er en gig ant, 

hie hieu hare ane enen cant 

en padelkin tote in den top, 

daer en mach ghen paert op, 

en man mochter opgaen te voet. 
And at 1C28 seq. is described the brazen statue of a dorper, 1 
standing outside the porch of a door : 

het dede maken en gig ant, 

die daer wilen woende int lant (see Suppl.). 

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

We have just had an instance of the last kind : the Edda 
accounts for all the hein-rocks by portions of a giant's club having 
dropt to the ground, which club was made of smooth whinstone. 
There is a pleasing variety about these folk-tales, which to my 
thinking is worth closer study, for it brings the living conception 
of giant existence clearly before us. One story current in the 
I. of Hven makes Grimild and Hvenild two giant sisters living 
in Zealand. Hvenild wants to carry some slices of Zealand to 
Schonen on the Swedish side ; she gets over safely with a few 
that she has taken in her apron, but the next time she carries off 
too large a piece, her apron-string breaks in the middle of the 
sea, she drops the whole of her load, and that is how the Isle of 
Hven came to be (Sjoborg's Nomenkl. p. 84). Almost the same 
story is told in Jutland of the origin of the little isle of 
Worsoekalv (Thiele 3, G6). Pomeranian traditions present dif- 
ferences in detail : a giant in the Isle of Eiigen grudges having 
to wade through the sea every time to Pomerania; he will build 
a causeway across to the mainland, so, tying an apron round him, 
he fills it with earth. When he has got past Rodenkirchen wit! 

1 This dorper gr6t again we are tempted to take for the old thundergod, for it 
says : ' hi hilt van stale (of steel) enen hamer in sine hant.' 

VOL. II. n 



536 GIANTS. 

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

i Lothar's Volhssagen, Leipz. 1825, p. 65. Temme's Pomm. sagen, nos. 190-1 ; 
see Barthold's Poinniern 1, 580, who spells Dobbtrwort, and explains it by the Pol. 
wor (sack). 



GIANTS. 537 

whom a peasant, to keep hini friendly, had invited to a christen- 
ing, refused, much as he would have liked to share in the feast, 
because he leaimt from the messenger that not only Christ, Peter 
and Mary, but Thor also would be there ; he would not face him 
(Xyerup's Morskabsliisning, p. 243). A giant in Fladsoe was on 
bad terms with one that lived at Nestved. He took his wallet to 
the beach and filled it with sand, intending to bury all Nestved. 
On the way the sand ran out through a hole in the sack, giving 
rise to the string of sandbanks between Fladsoe and Nestved. 
Not till he came to the spot where Husvald then stood, did the 
giant notice that the greater part was spilt; in a rage he flung 
the remainder toward Nestved, where you may still see one sand- 
bank by itself (Thiele 1, 79). At Sonnerup lived another giant, 
Lars Krands by name, whom a farmer of that place had offended. 
He went to the shore, filled his glove with sand, took it to the 
farmer's and emptied it, so that the farmhouse and yard were 
completely covered ; what had run through the jive finger holes of 
the glove made five hills (Thiele 1, 33). In the Netherlands the 
hill of Hillegersberg is produced by the sand which a giantess 
lets fall through een schortehleed (Westendorp's Mythol. p. 187). 
— And these tales are not only spread through the Teutonic 
race, but are in vogue with Finns and Celts and Greeks. Near 
Pajiindo in Hattulasocken of Tawastoland there stand some rocks 
which are said to have been carried by giant's daughters in their 
aprons and then tossed up (Ganander's Finn. myth. pp. 29. 30). 
French traditions put the holy Virgin or fays (p. 4 13) in the place 
of giantesses. Notre dame de Clery, being ill at ease in the 
church of Mezieres, determined to change the seat of her adora- 
tion, took earth in her apron and carried it to a neighbouring 
height, pursued by Judas : then, to elude the enemy, she took 
a part of tlce earth up again, which she deposited at another place 
not far off: oratories were reared on both sites (Mem. de l'acad. 
celt. 2, 218). In the Charente country, arrond. Cognac, comm. 
Saintfront, a huge stone lies by the Ney rivulet ; this the holy 
Virgin is said to have carried on her head, beside four other 
pillars in her apron ; but as she was crossing the Ney, she 1 1 one 
pillar fait into Saintfront marsh (Mem. des antiquaires 7, 31). 
According to a Greek legend, Athena was fetching a mountaiu 
from Pallene to fortify the Acropolis,, but, startled at the ill news 



538 GIANTS. 

brought by a crow, she dropt it on the way, and there it remains 
as Mount Lykabettos. 1 As the Lord God passed over the 
earth scattering stones, his bags burst over Montenegro, and the 
whole stock came down (Vuk. 5). 

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

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

Im waldschloss dort am wasserfall In forest-castle by waterfall 

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

;i mol (einmal) kurnrnt's friiule hrab ins once the maiden comes down into the 

thai, dale, 

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

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

vorm wald im ackerfeld outside the wood, in the cornfield 

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

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

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

der pflid, die ros, die liitt the plough, the horses, the men 

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

derzu 

1 Antigoni Carystii hist, mirab. cap. 12, Lips. 1791 p. 22 : ttj 8e 'Adrjva, cpepovay 
rb 6pos, 6 vvv KaKelrai. AvKa^rrbs, Kopwv-qv <py\a\v i.iravrr\aai koX elTreiv, oti 'Fipcxdivioi 
ev (pavepip ' Tr\v Se aKovaaaav ptij/ai to 8pos, bnov vvf icrrf rr\ Zl Kopuvrj oia ttjv Kanay- 
7e\:'ai' direlv, ws eh d.KpoiroXu' ov 6ep.is avry eurai dcpifciadai. 



GIANTS. 



539 



unn denkt ' die nirnni i mit.' 

D'rno huurt sie an de bode Lin 

unn spreit ihrfiirti uss, 

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

unn lauft gar frok nock has. 

sie springt de felswei 'nuf ganz frisch, 

dort wo der berg jetzt isck so gab. 

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

macht sie nur eine schritt. 

Der ritter sitzt just noch am tisch : 

1 min kind, was bringste mit ? 

d' freud liiegt der zu de auge 'nuss ; 

se kroni nur geschwind din fiirti uss ; 

was hest so zawelichs drin ? ' 

' o vatter, spieldings gar ze nett, 

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

unn stelltem (ikm) alles kin. 

Unn uf de tisck stellt sie den pflui, 

(V bare unn ikri ros, 

lauft drum kerum unn lackt derzu, 

ikr freud isck gar ze gross. 

' Ja, kind, diss isck ken spieldings nitt, 

do kest ebs sckons gemackt ' 

sakt der kerr ritter glick und lackt, 

' gek nimm's nur widder mit ! 

die bure sorje uns fur brot, 

sunsck sterbe mir de kungertod ; 

trak alles widder f urt ! ' 

's fxaule krint, der vatter sckilt : 

' a bur mir nitt als spieldings gilt, 

i kid (ick leide) net dass me rnurrt. 

pack alles sackte widder iin 

unn trail's ans nainli pliitzel kin, 

wo des (du's) gennmme kest. 

baut nit der bur sin ackerfeld, 

se feklt's bi uns an brot unn geld 

in unserin felsennest.' 



and tkinks ' I'll take tkein witk me.' 

Tken plumps down on tke ground 

and spreads her apron out, 

grasps all in ker kand, pops it in, 

and runs rigkt joyful kome; 

leaps up tke rock-patk brisk, 

wkere tbe kill is now so steep 

and men must scramble up, 

ske makes but one stride. 

Tke baron sits just tken at table : 

' my ckild, wkat bringst witk thee ? 

joy looks out at tkine eyes ; 

undo tkine apron, quick, 

wkat kast so wonderful tkerein ? ' 

' fatker, playthings quite too neat, 

I ne'er kad augkt so pretty,' 

and sets it all before kim. 

On tke table ske sets tke plough, 

tke farmers and tkeir horses, 

runs round tkem and laugks, 

ker joy is all too great. 

' Ak ckild, tkis is no playtking, 

a pretty tking tkou kast done ! ' 

saitk tke baron quick, and laugks, 

' go take it back ! 

tbe farmers provide us witk bread, 

else we die tke kunger-deatk ; 

carry it all away again.' 

Tke maiden cries, tke fatker scolds : 

' a farmer skall be no toy to me. 

I will kave no grumbling ; 

pack it all up softly again 

and carry it to tke same place 

wkere tkou tookst it from. 

Tills not tke farmer kis field, 

we are skort of bread and money 

in our nest on tke rock.' 



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



540 GIANTS. 

and his pussy-cats.' The mother angrily bade her cany man, 
beast and plough directly back to where she found them : ' they 
belong to a people that may do the hiines much mischief.' And 
they both left the neighbourhood soon after. 1 Yet again : when 
the Griingrund and the country round about were still inhabited 
by giants, two of them fell in with an ordinary man : ' what sort 
of groundworm is this ? ' asked one, and the other answered, 
' these groimdworms will make a finish of us yet ! ' (Mone's Anz. 
8, 64). Now sentiments like these savour more of antiquity than 
the fair reasons of the Alsatian giant, and they harmonize with 
a Finnish folk-tale. Giants dwelt in Kernisocken, and twenty 
years ago 2 there lived at E-ouwwanjemi an old woman named 
Caisa, who told this tale : A giant maiden (kalewan tyttiiren) 
took up horse and 'ploughman and plough (bewosen ja kyntajan 
ja auran) on her lap, carried them to her mother and asked, 
1 what kind of beetle (sontiainen) can this be, mother, that I found 
rooting up the ground there ? ' The mother said, ' put them 
away, child ; we have to leave this country, and they are to live 
here instead.' The old giant race have to give way to agri- 
cultural man, agriculture is an eye-sore to them, as it is to dwarfs 
(p. 459). The honest coarse grain of gianthood, which looks 
upon man as a tiny little beast, a beetle burrowing in the mud, 
but yet is secretly afraid of him, could not be hit off more 
happily than in these few touches. I believe this tradition is 
domiciled in many other parts as well (see Suppl.). 

Not less popular or naive is the story of the giant on a journey 
being troubled with a little stone in his shoe : when at last he 
shakes it out, there is a rock or hill left on the ground. The 
Brunswick Anzeigen for 1759 inform us on p. 1636 : ( A peasant 
said to me once, as I travelled in his company past a hill on the 
R. Elm: Sir, the folk say that here a hiine cleared out his shoe, 
and that's how this hill arose.' The book ' Die kluge trodelfrau ' 
by E. J. 0. P. N. 1682, p. 14, mentions a large stone in the 
forest, and says : ' Once a great giant came this way with a 
pebble in his shoe that hurt him, and when he untied the shoe, 
this stone fell out.' The story is still told of a smooth rock near 
Goslar, how the great Christopher carried it in his shoe, till he 

1 L. A. Walther's Einl. in die thiir. schwarzb. gesch., Budolst. 1788, p. 52. 

2 In Ganauder's time (Finn. myth. p. 30). 



• GIANTS. 541 

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

The Edda tells wonderful things of giant Skrymir, 1 in the 
thumb of whose glove the god Thorr found a night's lodging. 
Skrymir goes to sleep under an oak, and snores ; when Thorr 
with his hammer strikes him on the head, he wakes up and asks 
if a leaf has fallen on him. The giant lies down under another 
oak, and snores so that the forest roars; Thorr hits him a harder 
blow than before, and the giant awaking cries, ' did an acorn fill- 
on my face ? ' He falls asleep a third time, and Thorr repeats 
his blow, making a yet deeper dint, but the giant merely strokes 
his cheek, and remarks, ' there must be birds roosting in those 

1 Iu the Favuc dialect Skrujmsli (Lyngbye, p. -ISO). ON. skraumr blatero, 
babbler. 



542 GIANTS. 

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

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

Eabelais 3 and Fischart have glorified the fable of Gargantua. 
It was, to begin with, an old, perhaps even a Celtic, giant-story, 
whose genuine simple form may even yet be recoverable from 
unexpired popular traditions. 3 Gargantua, an enormous eater 
and drinker, who as a babe had, like St. Christopher, taxed 
the resources of ten wetnurses, stands with each foot on a high 
mountain, and stooping down drinks up the river that runs between 

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

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

3 A beginning has been made in Traditions de l'ancien duchS de Eetz, sur Garg. 
(Mem de l'acad. celt. 5, 392-5), and in Volkssagen aus dem Greyersland (Alpen- 
rosen 1824, pp. 57-8). From the latter I borrow what stands in the test. 



GIANTS. 543 

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

We are often told of two giant comrades or neighbours, living 
on adjacent heights, or on two sides of a river, and holding con- 
verse. In Ostergotland, near Tumbo in Ydre-harad, there was a 
jiitte named Tumme ; when he wished to speak to his chum Oden 
at Hersmala two or three miles off, he went up a neighbouring 
hill Hogatoft, from which you can see all over Ydre (Widegren's 
Ostergotland 2, 397). The first of the two names is apparently 
the ON. Jminbi (stultus, inconcinnus, conf. p. 528), but the other 
is that of the highest god, and was, I suppose, introduced in 
later legend by way of disparagement. German folktales make 
such giants throw stone hammers and axes to each other (Deut. 
sag. no. 20), which reminds one of the thundergod's hammer. 
Two hiines living, one on the Eberstein, the other on Homburg, 
had but one axe between them to split their wood with. When 
the Eberstein hiine was going to work, he shouted across to 
Homburg four miles off, and his friend immediately threw the axe 
over ; and the contrary, when the axe happened to be on the 
Eberstein. The same thing is told in a tradition, likewise West- 
phalian, of the hiines on the Hiinenkeller and the Porta throwing 
their one hatchet. 1 The hiines of the Brunsberg and Wiltberg, 
between Godelheim and Amelunxen, played at bowls together 
across the Weser (Deut. sag. no. 16). Good neighbours too were 
the giants on Weissenstein and Remberg in Upper Hesse ; they 
had a baking-oven in common, that stood midway in the field, and 
when one was kneading his dough, he threw a stone over as a 
sign that wood was to be fetched from his neighbour's fort to 
heat the oven. Once they both happened to be throwing at the 

1 Ecdeker's Westfiilische sagen, no. 3G. 



544 GIANTS. 

same time, the stones met in the air, 1 and fell where tliey now 
lie in the middle of the field above Michelbach, each with the 
marks of a big giant hand stamped on it. Another way of 
signalling was for the giant to scratch Ids body, which was done 
so loud that the other heard it distinctly. The three very ancient 
chapels by Sachsenheim, Oberwittighausen and Grriinfeldhausen 
were built by giants, who fetched the great heavy stones in their 
aprons. When the first little church was finished, the giant 
flung his hammer through the air : wherever it alighted, the next 
building was to begin. It came to the ground five miles off, and 
there was erected the second church, on completing which the 
giant flung the hammer once more, and where it fell, at the same 
distance of five miles, he built the third chapel. In the one at 
Sachsenheim a huge rib of the builder is preserved (Mone's Anz. 
8,63). The following legends come from Westphalia: Above 
Nettelstadt-on-the-hill stands the Hiinenbrink, where hiines lived 
of old, and kept on friendly terms with their fellows on the Stell 
(2\ miles farther). When the one set were baking, and the 
other wanted a loaf done at the same time, they just pitched, it 
over (see Suppl.). A hiine living at Hilverdingsen on the south 
side of the Schwarze lake, and another living at Hille on the 
north side, used to bahe their bread together. One morning the 
one at Hilverdingsen thought he heard his neighbour emptying 
his kneading-trough, all ready for baking ; he sprang from his 
lair, snatched up his dough, and leapt over the lake. But it was 
no such thing, the noise he had heard was only his neighbour 
scratcliing liis leg. At Altehiiffen there lived hiinen, who had but 
one knife at their service; this they kept stuck in the trunk of a 
tree that stood in the middle of the village, and whoever wanted 
it fetched it thence, and then put it back in its place. The spot 
is still shown where the tree stood. These hiines, who were also 
called duties, were a people exceedingly scant of wit, and to them 
is due the proverb 'Altehiiffen dumme dutten.' As the surround- 
ing country came more and more under cultivation, the hiinen 
felt no longer at ease among the new settlers, and they retired. 
It was then that the duttes of Altehiiffen also made up their minds 
to emigrate; but what they wanted was to go and find the 

1 Like Hrfmgni's hein and Thur's hammer, p. 533. 



GIANTS. 545 

entrance into Leaven. How they fared on the way was never 
known, but the joke is made upon them, that after a long march 
they came to a great calm, clear sheet of water, in which the 
bright sky was reflected ; here they thought they could plunge 
into heaven, so they jumped in and were drowned. 1 From so 
remarkable a consensus 2 we cannot but draw the conclusion, that 
the giants held together as a people, and were settled in the 
mountains of a country, but that they gradually gave way to 
the human race, which may be regarded as a nation of invaders. 
Legend converts their stone weapons into the woodman's axe or 
the knife, their martial profession into the peaceable pursuit of 
baking bread. It was an ancient custom to stick swords or 
knives into a tree standing in the middle of the yard (Fornald. 
sog. 1, 120-1) ; a man's strength was proved by the depth to 
which he drove the hatchet into a stem, RA. 97. The jumping 
into the blue lake savours of the fairy-tale, and comes before us 
in some other narratives (Kinderm. 1, 343. 3, 112). 

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

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

1 The last four tales from Redeker, nos. 37 to 40. Dutten means stulti, and is 
further intensified by the adj. In the Teutonist (/"</ = gawk, conf. Riohthofen sub 
v. dud, ami supra, p. 528 on tumbo. Similar tales on the Kkon mts., only with 
everything giant-like effaced, about the tollen dittisser (Bechstein pp. 81-91). 

' I do not know that any tract in Germany is richer in giant-stories than West- 
phalia and Hesse. Conf. also Kuhn's Markische sagen, nos. 22. 47. 107. 132. 141. 
14'J. 158. 202. Temme's Pommersche sagen, nos. 175-184. 187. 



546 GIANTS. 

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

When giants fight, and one pursues another, they will in their 
haste leap over a village, and slit their great toe against the 
church- spire, so that the blood spirts out in jets and forms a 
pool (Deut. sag. no. 325) ; which strikingly resembles Waina- 
moinen, rune 3. In leaping off a steep cliff, their foot or their 
horse's hoof leaves tracks in the stone (ibid. nos. 318-9). Also, 
when a giant sits down to rest on a stone, or leans against a rock, 

1 Freusker in Kruse's Deutsch. alteith. iii. 3, 37. 



GIANTS. 547 

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

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

As for smi&r in the ON. language, it does not mean faber, but 
artificer in genei'al, and particularly builder; and to be accom- 
plished builders is a main characteristic of giants, the authors of 
those colossal structures of antiquity (p. 534). On the nine giant- 
pillars near Miltenberg the common folk still see the handmarks 
of the giants who intended therewith to build a bridge over the 
Main (Deut. sag. no. 19). 

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

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

1 Herod. 4, 82 : txvoz "QpaxMos (paivoven iv irtrpT) eveov, rb ot/ce fih j3ri/j.a.Ti dySpbt, 
tan Si rb fieyaOos Slir-qxv, irapa rbv TOpr/v wora/x^f, in Scytbia. (Footprint of 
Herakles in stone, like a man's, but two cubits loug.) 



548 GIANTS. 

crowing of a cock, and immediately all the cocks in the neigh- 
bourhood begin to crow, and the enemy of man loses his wager. 
There is more of the antique in a Norrland saga : l King Olaf of 
Norway walked 'twixt hill and dale, buried in thought ; he had 
it in his heart to build a church, the like of which was nowhere 
to be seen, but the cost of it would grievously impoverish his 
kingdom. In this perplexity he met a man of strange appearance, 
who asked him why he was so pensive. Olaf declared to him 
his purpose, and the giant (troll) offered to complete the building 
by his single self within a certain time ; for wages he demanded 
the sun and moon, or St. Olaf himself. To this the king agreed, 
but projected such a plan for the church, as he thought impossible 
of execution : it was to be so large, that seven priests could 
preach in it at once without disturbing each other ; pillar and 
ornament, within and without, must be wrought of hard flint, 
and so on. Erelong such a structure stood completed, all but 
the roof and spire. Perplexed anew at the stipulated terms, 
Olaf wandered over hill and dale; suddenly inside a mountain he 
heard a child cry, and a giant-woman (jatteqvinna) hush it with 
these words : ' tyst, tyst (hush) ! 2 to-morrow comes thy father 
Wind- and- Weather home, bringing both sun and moon, or saintly 
Olaf s self.'' Overjoyed at this discovery, 3 for to name an evil 
spirit brings his power to nought, Olaf turned home : all was 
finished, the spire was just fixed on, when Olaf cried : ' Vind och 
Veder ! du har satt spiran sneder (hast set the spire askew). 5 
Instantly the giant, with a fearful crash, fell off the ridge of 
the church's roof, and burst into a thousand pieces, which were 
nothing but flintstones. According to different accounts, the 
jatte was named Blaster, and Olaf cried: 'Blaster, satt spiran 
vaster (set the spire west-er) ! ' or he was called Slatt, and the 
rhyme ran : ' Slatt, satt spiran ratt (straight) ! ' They have the 
same story in Norway itself, but the giant's name is Skalle, and 
he reared the magnificent church at Nidaros. In Schonen the 
giant is Finn, who built the church at Lund, and was turned into 

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

2 Conf. the interj. ' ziss, ziss ! ' in H. Sachs iv. 3, 3 b . 

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



GIANTS. 549 

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

It is on another side that the following tale from Courland 
touches the stoiy in the Edda. In Kintegesinde of the Dzervens 
are some old wall-stones extending a considerable lcno-th and 
breadth j and the people say : Before the plague (i.e. time out of 
mind) there lived in the district of Hasenpot a strong man (giant) 
of the name of Kinte. He could hew out and polish huge masses 
of stone, and carted even the largest blocks together with his 
one white mare. His dwelling-house he built on rocks, his fields 
he fenced with stone ramparts. Once he had a quarrel with a 
merchant of Libau- to punish him, he put his white mure to 
draw a stone equal to twelve cartloads all the way to Libau, 
intending to drop it at the merchant's door. When he reached 
the town, they would not let him cross the bridge, fearing it 
would break under the load, and insisted on his removing the 
stone outside the liberties. The strong man, deeply mortified, 
did so, and dropt the stone on the road that goes to Grobin by 
Battenhof. There it lies to this day, and the Lettons, as they 
pass, point to it in astonishment. 1 Kinte's white mare may stand 
for the Scandinavian smith's SvaSilfari ; the defeat of the giant's 
building designs is effected in a different way. 

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

S. Olaf med dit rode skiiig, 

du seilar for nar ved min kjeldervag ! 

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

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

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

1 Cumuiuuic. by "Watson iu Jahresverhandl. der kurl. gGicllscb. 2, 311-2. 



550 GIANTS. 

sacred spring issued from the opposite cliff. 1 According to a 
Swedish account, Olaf wished to sail through Viirmeland and by 
L. Vaner to Nerike, when the troll shouted to him : 

kong Olaf med dit pipuga ski'tgg (peaky beard), 
du seglar for nar min badstuguvagg (bathroom wall) ! 
Olaf replied : 

du troll med din rak och ten 

skal bli i sten 

och aldrig mer gora skeppare men ! 

(shalt turn to stone, and never more make skipper moan). The 
giantess turned into stone, and the king erected a cross at Dalky 
church in Elfdals herred. 2 The Danish rhyme is also quoted as 
follows : 

hor du Oluf rodeskjag, 

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

And: 

stat du der og bliv til steen, 

og (gjor) ingen dannemand (no Dane) mere til meen ! 3 

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

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

Olaf: 

stat (stand) trold nu evig der i steen, 

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

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

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

2 Ferncw's Varmeland, p. 223. 

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



GIANTS. 551 

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

skaltu i gognom ganga eigi 

grioti studda garSa mina ! 

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

Close to the Romsdalshorn in Norway is a mountain called 
Troldtinder, whose jutting crags are due to giants whom Olaf 
converted into stones, because they tried to prevent his preaching 
Christianity in Romsdal. 2 

It would appear, from Sasm. 145 b , that giants, like dwarfs, 
have reason to dread the daylight, and if surprised by the break 
of day, they turn into stone : ' dagr er nil/ cries Atli to HrimgerSr, 
'hafnar mark ]>yckir hlcegeligt vera, pars pu i stria* liki stendr. 3 

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



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

2 Faye 121, who follows Schoning's Eeise 2, 128. Sanct Olafs saga pa svenske 
rim, ed. Hadorph. p. 37: 'ell troll, som draap X man, has giordit i stena, och 
Btander an ; Mere troll han och bortdref, sidan folckit i frijd blef.' Certain round 
pot-shaped holes found in the mountains, the Norwegian people believe to be the 
work of giants. They call them jattegryter, troldgryter, yet also S. Oles gryter 
(IhMager 53 u ). 

VOL. II. I 



552 GIANTS. 

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

And here we come across numerous approximations and over- 
lappings between the giant-legend and those of dwarfs, schrats 
and watersprites, as the comprehensive name troll in Scandinavian 
tradition would of itself indicate. Dwarfs of the mountains are, 
like giants, liable to transformation into stone, as indeed they 
have sprung out of stone (p. 532-8). Rosmer havmand (merman) 
springs or flies, as the graphic phrase is, into stone? 

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



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

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



GIANTS. 553 

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

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

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



554 GIANTS. 

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

In many of the tales that have come before us, giant and devil 
are convertible terms, especially where the former has laid aside 
his clumsiness. The same with a number of other resemblances 
between the two. The devil is described as many-headed like 
the giant, also, it is true, like the dragon and the hellhound. 
Wherever the deviPs hand clutches or his foot treads, indelible 
traces imprint themselves even on the hardest stone. The titans 
chased from Olympus resemble the angels thrust out of heaven 
and changed into devils. The abode of the giants, like that of 
heathens and devils in general (p. 34), is supposed to be in the 
north : when Freyr looks from heaven toward Iotunheim (Seem. 
81) and spies the fair giantess, this is expressed in Suorri 39 by 
' Freyr leit i norffrostt.' In the Danish folk-song of the stolen 
hammer, Thorr appears as Tord (thunder) af Hafsgaard (sea- 
burgh), while the giant from whom Loke is to get the hammer 
back dwells in Nordenfjeld ; the Swedish folk-song says more 
vaguely ' trolltrams gard.' 1 

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



1 To wish a man ' nordan till fjdlls ' (Arvidsson 2, 1G3) is to wish him in a 
disagreeable quarter (Germ, 'in pepperland,' at Jericho). 

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



GIANTS. 555 

received the by-name of yityatya (Ni'lsson 4, 32). The Indian 
Mahabharata also represents Hkllmbas the rakshasa (giant) l as 
a man-eater, misshapen and red-bearded : man's flesh he smells 
from afar, 2 and orders Hidimba his sister to fetch it him ; but 
she, like the monster's wife or daughter in the nursery-tales, 
pities and befriends the slumbering hero (see Suppl.). 

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

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

It is in living legend (folktale) that the peculiar properties of 
our native giants have been most faithfully preserved ; the poets 
make their giants far less interesting, they paint them, espe- 
cially in subjects borrowed from Romance poetry, with only 
the features common to all giants. Harpin, a giant in the 
Iwein, demands a knight's daughter, hangs his sons, and lays 
waste the land (4464. 4500) : 3 when slain, he falls to the ground 
like a tree (5074) . 4 Still more vapid are the two giants intro- 
duced at 6588 seq. Even in the Tristan, the description of giant 
Urgan (15923) is not much more vivid : he levies blackmail on 
oxen and sheep, and when his hand is hewn off, he wants to heal 

1 Tevetat's second birth (Reinhart cclxxxi.) is a rakshasi, giantess, not a 
beast. 

3 ' Mightily works man's smell, and amazingly quickens my nostrils,' Arjuna's 
Journey, by Bopp, p. 18. The same in our fairy-tales (supra, p. 48(3). Epithets 
of these Indian daemons indicate that they walk about by night (Bopp's gloss. 
91. 97). 

3 One giant is ' hagel al der lande,' hail-storm to all lands, Bit. 6482. 

4 N.B., his bones are treasured up outside the castle-gate (5881), as in Fischart's 
Garg. 41 a : 'they tell of riesen and haunen, shew their bones in churches, under 
town balls.' So there hangs in a church the skeleton of the giantess struck by 
lightning (p. 53] n.), the heathen maiden's dripping rift (Deut. sag. 140), and her yellow 
locks (ibid. 317); in the castle is kept the giant's bone (ibid. 324). At Alpirsbach 
in the Black Forest a giant's skeleton hangs outside the gate, and in Our Lady's 
church at Arnstadt the ' riesenribbe,' Bechst. 3, 129 ; conf. Jerichow and Werben 
in Ail. Kuhn, no. 56. The horns of a giant ox nailed up in the porch of a temple 
(Xiebuhr's Horn. Hist. 1, 407). 



556 GIANTS. 

it on again (16114) , a The giants shew more colour as we come 
to poems in the cycle of our hero-legend. Kuperan in the Hiirn. 
Sifrit (Ciiprian of the Heldens. 171) rules over 1000 giants, and 
holds in durance the captive daughter of a king. The Rother 
brings before us, all alive, the giants Asprian, Grimme, Widolt, 
the last straining like a lion at his leash, till he is let loose for 
the fight (744. 2744. 4079) ; in the steel bar that two men could 
not lift he buries his teeth till fire starts out of it (G50. 4653-74), 
and he smites with it like a thunderbolt (2734) ; the noise of his 
moving makes the earth to quake (5051), his hauberk rings 
when he leaps over bushes (4201) ; he pitches one man over the 
heads of four, so that his feet do not touch the ground (1718), 
smashes a lion against the wall (1144-53), rubs fire out of mill- 
stones (1040), wades in mould (646. 678) up to the knee (935), 
a feature preserved in Vilk. saga, cap. 60, and also Oriental 
(Hammer's Rosenol 1, 36). Asprian sets his foot on the mouth 
of the wounded (4275). And some good giant traits come out in 
Sigenot: when he breathes in his sleep, the boughs bend (60), 2 
he plucks up trees in the fir-wood (73-4), prepares lint-plugs 
(schiibel) of a pound weight to stuff into his wounds (113), takes 
the hero under his armpit and carries him off (110. 158. Hag. 9, 
Lassb.). A giantess in the Wolfdiet. picks up horse and hero, 
and, bounding like a squirrel, takes them 350 miles over the 
mountains to her giant cell; another in the folk-song (Aw. 1, 
161) carries man and horse up a mountain five miles high, where 
are two ready boiled and one on the spit (a vestige of androphagi 
after all) ; she offers her daughter to the hero, and when he 
escapes, she beats her with a club, so that all the flowers and 
leaves in the wood quiver. Giant Welle's sister Riitze in the 
Heldenbuch takes for her' staff a whole tree, root and branch, 
that two waggons could not have earned ; another woman ' of 
wild kin ' walks over all the trees, and requires two bullocks' 
hides for a pair of shoes, Wolfd. 1513. Giant Langbein (Danske 
viser 1, 26) is asleep in the wood, when the heroes wake him up 
(see Suppl.). 

A good many giant-stories not yet discovered and collected 

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

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



GIANTS. 557 

must still be living in the popular traditions of Norway and 
Sweden, 1 and even we in Germany may gather something from 
oral narration, though not much from books. The monk of St. 
Gall (Pertz 2, 75C) has an Eishere (i.e. Egisheri, terribilis) of 
Thurgau, but he is a giant-like hero, not a giant. 2 

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

The connexion pointed out between several of the words for 
giant and the names of ancient nations is similar to the agree- 
ment of certain heroic names with historic characters. Mythic 
traits get mysteriously intergrown with historic, and as Dietrich 
and Charles do duty for a former god or hero, Hungarians and 
Avars are made to stand for the old notion of giants. Only we 
must not carry this too far, but give its due weight to the 
fact that iotunn and burs 3 have in themselves an intelligible 
meaning. 

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

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

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



CHAPTER XIX. 
CREATION. 

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

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

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

1 Xdos, from xatVw = OHG. ginan, ON. gina = Lat. hiare; conf. OHG. ginunga, 
hiatus. But we need not therefore read ' gap ginunga,' for the ON. giuna, which 
has now only the sense of allicere, must formerly have had that of findere, secare, 
which is still found in OHG. inginnan, MHG. enginuen (see above, p. 403, Ganna) : 
Otfried iii. 7, 27 says of the barleycorn, ' thoh iindu ih melo thar bine, inthiu ih 
es biginne (if I split it open); inkinnan (aperire), Graff 4, 209; ingunnen (sectus), 
N. Ar. 95. So in MHG., 'sin herze wart ime engunnen ' (fissum), Fundgr. 2, 
268; enginnen (secare), En. 2792. 5722; engunnen (secuerunt), En. 1178. Nearly 
related is ingeinan (fissiculare), N. Cap. 136. From a literal ' splitting open' must 
have arisen the more abstract sense of ' beginning,' Goth, duginnan, AS. onginnan, 
OHG. inkinnan, pikinnan. Then gina hiare, gin hiatus, further suggest gin 
(amplus), and ginregin (p. 320). Singularly Festus, in discussing inchoare, comes 
upon chaos, just as ' begin ' has led us to ginan. Cohus, from which some derive 
incohare= inchoare, is no other than chaos. Fest. sub v. cohum. [Nearly all 
the above meanings appear in derivatives of the Mongol, root khag, khog to crack, 
etc., including khoghoson empty, chaos]. ' Beside ginan, the OHG. has a Chilian 
hiscere (Graff 4, 450), Goth, keinan, AS. cine (rirna, chine, chink). The AS. has 
also a separate word dwolma for hiatus, chaos. — Extr. from Suppl. 

553 



CREATION. 559 

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

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

But the ice dripped on, and a cow arose, Au&umbla, from 
whose udder flowed four streams of milk, conveying nourishment 
to Ymir. Then the cow licked the salty ice-rocks, and on the 
evening of the first day a man's hand came forth, the second 
day the man's head, the third day the whole man ; he was beau- 
tiful, large, strong, his name was Burl, and his son's name Borr 
(p. 349) - 1 Borr took to him Bestla, the giant Bolfiom's daughter, 
and begat three sons, Offinn, V'dl, Ve (p. 162), and by them was 
the giant Ymir slain. As he sank to the ground, such a quantity 
of blood ran out of his wounds, that all the giants were drowned 
in it, save one, Bergelmir* who with his wife escaped in a Ki5r 
(Seem. 35 b , Sn. 8), and from them is descended the (younger) 
race of giants (see Supp].). s 

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



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

• Ymir, i.e., Orgelmir, begot Thrti&gelmir, and ho Bergelmir. 

3 The meaning of liiffr has not been ascertained ; elsewhere it stands for 
culens, tuba, here it is supposed to be a mill-chest. The OHG. h'nhini f. menus 
a cradle (Graff 2, 201) as well as pannus, involucrum (swaddling-band), and this 
would fit remarkably well, as some accounts of the Deluge do make the rescued 
child float iii its cradle. True, Snorri speaks nut of a child, hut id' a grown-up 
giant, who sits in the luo'r witli his wife; this may he a later version. [Slav, I6t 
is shallow basket, trough, tray.] 

1 Snorri at all events conceived the earth to be round, he says p. !l ': 'honei 
kringlutt utan, ok J>ar utau um liggr hinn diupi shir.' So in the Lucidarius : ' diou 



560 CREATION. 

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

Ssemund's account 45 b (conf . 33 b ) differs in some points : 

or Ymirs holdi var iorS um scoput, 

enn or sveita sser, 

biorg or beinom, baSmr or ltdri, 

enn or hausi hiniinn, 

enn or hans brdm gerSo bliS regin 

rurSp-arS manna sonom, 

enn or hans heila voro ]mu in harSinoSgo 

sky oil um scoput. 

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

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

unz ]n-ir komo or bvi liSi 

oflgir ok astgir sesir at siisi (uproar) . 

fundo a landi litt megandi 

Ash ok Emblo orloglausa : 

ond (spirit) ]?au ne atto, o'S (mind) hau ne hofSo, 

la (blood) ne lseti, ne lito (colours) gtVSa. 

ond gaf OSinn, 65 gaf Hoenir, 

la gaf LobV ok litu gofta. 

In this account the three ases are named OSinn, Hoenir, LoSr 
(p. 241) instead of OSinn, Vili, Ve (p. 162) ; they come to the 
roaring (of the sea, ad aestum, irapa 6lva Tro\v(j)\ola/3oio 6a- 
\daar)<i), and find Askr and Embla powerless and inert. Then 

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



CEEATION. 561 

OSinn endowed them with spirit, Hcenir with reason, Lo5r with 
blood and complexion (see Suppl.). 

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

Taking all these accounts together, it is obvious in the first 
place, that only the men and dwarfs are regarded as being 
really created, while the giants and gods come, as it were, of 
themselves out of chaos. To the production of men and dwarfs 
there went a formative agency on the part of gods ; giants and 
gods, without any such agency, made their appearance under the 
mere action of natural heat and the licking of a cow. Giants 
and gods spring out of a combination of fire with water, yet 
so that the element converted into ice must recover its fluidity 
before it becomes capable of production. The giant and the cow 
drip out of the frost, Buri slowly extricates himself in three days 
from the thawing mass of ice. This dripping origin reminds us 
of some other features in antiquity ; thus, OSinn had a gold ring 
Draupnir (the dripper), from which every ninth night there 
dripped eight other rings of equal weight (Sa3m. 84 a . Sn. GO). 
Sa3m. 195 b speaks, not very lucidly, of a hausi HeiSdraupnis 
(cranio stillantis) ; Styrian legend commemorates a giant's rib 
from which a drop falls once a year (D.S. no. 140). 1 And Eve 
may be said to drip out of Adam's rib. With the giant's birth 
out of ice and rime we may connect the story of the snow-child 
(in the Modus Liebinc), and the influence, so common in our 
fairy-tales, of snow and blood on the birth of a long wished for 
child. All this seems allied to heathen notions of creation, conf. 

1 No doubt the familiar name Ribbentrop is founded on some such tradition. 



562 CREATION. 

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

It tallies with the views expressed at p. 316 on the gods having 
a beginning and an end, that in this system of creation too they 
are not described as existing from the first : the god appears in 
ginniingagap after a giant has preceded him. It is true, Snorri 
6 makes use of a remarkable phrase : ' sva at qviknaSi me$ 
krapti ]?ess er til sendi hitann/ the quickening is referred to the 
might of him that sent the heat, as if that were an older eternal 
God who already ruled in the chaos. The statement would have 
more weight, were it forthcoming in the Voluspa or any of the 
Eddie songs themselves ; as it is, it looks to me a mere shift of 
Snorri's own, to account for the presence and action of the heat, 
and so on a par with the formulas quoted in pp. 22-3-4. 1 Buri, 
who is thawed into existence out of ice, to set limits to the rude 
evil nature of the giant that was there before him, shews himself 
altogether an ancestor and prototype of the heroes, whose mission 
it was to exterminate the brood of giants. From him are de- 
scended all the ases, OSinu himself being only a grandson. 

Again, there is no mistaking the distinct methods by which 
giants, gods and men propagate their kind. Only one giant had 
sprung out of ice, he has to beget children of himself, an office 
performed by his hands and feet together, as in other ways also 
the hand and foot are regarded as akin and allied to one another. 2 
Ymir's being asleep during the time is like Adam's sleep while 
Eve was fashioned out of his rib ; Eve therefore takes her rise 
in Adam himself, after which they continue their race jointly. 
How Buri begat Borr we are not informed, but Borr united him- 
self to a giant's daughter, who bore him three sons, and from 
them sprang the rest of the ases. It was otherwise with men, 



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

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



CREATION. 5G3 

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

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

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

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

Thus far the Scandinavian theory : now to prove its general 
diffusion. 

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

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



564 CREATION. 

do mano (moon) ni liuhta 110I1 der mareoseo (sea). 

do dar niwiht ni was enteo ni wenteo, 

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

Vara sandr ne S93r, ne svalar unnir, 
idi^S fanz seva ne upphiminn, 
gap var ginnimga, enn gras hvergi. 
sol ]>at ne vissi hvar hon sali atti, 
stiornor ]?at ne visso hvar ]?Eer stafti atto, 
mani ]?at ne vissi hvat hann megins atti. 

The words ' niwiht ni was enteo ni wenteo ' give in roundabout 
phrase exactly the notion of ginnungagap. 1 

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

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

1 Conf. also Otfr. ii. 1,3: ' er se ioh himil wurti, ioh erda ouli so herti,' and 
the description of chaos in Casdmon 7. 8, particularly the term heolxterseeadn 7, 
11 ; though there is little or nothing opposed to Bible doctrine. Conf. Aristoph. 
Aves 693-J:. 



CREATION. 565 

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

Octo pondera, de quibus factus JElde pundo, of ]nem aworden 

est Adam, pondus lirni, inde is Adam, pund lames, of bon 

factus (sic) est caro ; pondus aworden is flcesc; pund fires, 

ignis, inde rubens est sanguis of bon read is blod and hat; 

et calidus ; pondus salis, inde pund saltes, of bon sindon salto 

sunt salsae lacrimae ; pondus teltero ; pund beawes, of bon 

roris, unde factus est sudor; aworden is swat; pund blost- 

pondus fioris, inde est varietas mes, of bon is fagung egena; 

ocnlorum ; pondus nubis, inde pund wolcnes, of bon is onstyd- 

est instabilitas merit i um ; pon- fullnisse fiohta ; pund windes, 

dus venti, inde est anliela fri- of bonis orocFcald; pund 1 gefe, 

gida; pondus 1 gratiae, inde est of bon is fioht monnes. 
sensus hominis. 

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

1 This ' pound of grace' comes in so oddly, that I venture to guess an omission 
between the words, of perhaps a line, which described the 8th material. The two 
accounts that follow next, after naming eight material ingredients, bring in the holy 
breath or spirit as something additional, to which this gift of ' grace ' would fairly 
correspond. Another AS. version, given in Scppl., from the Saturn and Solomon 
(Thorpe's Anal. p. 95, ed. Kemble p. 180), is worth comparing: here 'foldaii 
pund' becomes 'flasc, fyres pund bifid, windes p. ceSung, wolcnes p. m 6 
staSelftestnes, gyfe p. fat and gefiang, bldstmena p. edgena missenlicnist, deawes 
p. swdt, sealtes p. teams.' — Here 'gyfe' is right in the middle of tbe sentence: can 
it be, that both 'gefe ' and 'gyfe' are a corruption of Geofon the sea god, gifen the 
sea (supra, p. 239), which in christian times had become inadmissible, perhaps 
unintelligible ? It would be strange if water, except as dew, were made no a 
and the 'sea supplying thought' would agree with the French account, which 
ascribes wisdom to him that has an extra stock of sea in him. — Trans. 



566 CKEATION. 

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

Got mit siner gewalt 

der wrchet zeichen vil manecvalt, 

der worhte den inennischen einen 

iizzen von aht teilen : 

von dein leime gab er ime daz fleisch, 

der tow becechenit den sweihc (sweat), 

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

des nist zwivil nehein (is no doubt), 

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

von dem grase gab er ime daz liar, 

von dem mere gab er ime d^xz plid (blood), 

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

du habet er ime begunnen 

der ougen (eyes) von der sunnen. 

Er verleh ime sinen atem (his own breath), 

daz wir ime den behilten (keep it for him) 

unte sinen gesin (and be his) 

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

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



CREATION. 567 

Godfrey, educated at Bamberg 1 , and chaplain to German kings, 
must have heard in Germany the doctrine of the eight parts ; he 
brings forward only a portion of it, such as he could reconcile 
with his other system of the four elements ; he rather compares 
particular parts of the body with natui'al objects, than affirms 
that those were created out of these. 

Not one of the four compositions has any direct connexion 
with another, as their peculiarities prove ; but that they all rest 
on a common foundation follows at once from the ' octo pondera, 
achta wendem, aht teilen/ amoug which the alleged correspond- 
ences are distributed. They shew important discrepancies in 
the details, and a different order is followed in each. Only three 
items go right through the first three accounts, namely, that lime 
(loam, earth) was taken for the flesh, dew for the sweat, clouds 
for the mind. But then the MHG. and Frisian texts travel much 
further together ; both of them make bone spring out of stone, 
hair (locks) from grass, eyes from the sun, blood from the sea 
(water), none of which appear in the AS. Peculiar to the MHG. 
poem is the derivation of the veins from herbs (wiirzen), and to 
the AS. writer that of the blood from fire, of tears from salt, of 
the various colours in the eye from flowers, 1 of cold breath from 
wind, and of sense from grace; which last, though placed 
beyond doubt by the annexed translation, seems an error not- 
withstanding, for it was purely out of material objects that 
creation took place ; or can the meaning be, that man's will is 
first conditioned by the grace of God ? Fitly enough, tears are 
likened to salt (salsae lacrimae) ; somewhat oddly the colours of 
the eye to flowers, though it is not uncommon to speak of an 
opening flower as an eye. The creation of hearts out of wind 
is found in the Frisian account alone, which is also the only one 
that adds, that into this mixture of eiffht materials God blew his 
holy breath, and out of Adam's rib created his companion Eve 
[the MHG. has : ' imparted his breath '] . 3 

1 Variegated eyes are the oculi varii, Prov. vain hnelha (Rayn. sub v. var), 
O.Fr. vain iex (Roquef. sub v.). We find in OHG. bluom/e/j, and ' gevehet nuh 
tien bluomon,' Graff 3, 426 ; the AS. f&gung above. 

- Well, here is already our fifth version, from a Paris MS. of the loth century 
(Paulin Paris, MSS. francais de la bibl. du roi 4, 207) : ' Adam fu forme ou champ 
damacien, et fu fait si comme nous trouvons de huit parties de chases : du Urn m de 
la terre, de la mer, du soleil, des nues, du vent, des pierrea, du saint esprit, et de la 
clarte du monde. De la terre fu la char, de la mer fu le sang, du sok.il furent les 
VOL. II. K 



568 CREATION. 

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

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

yeulx, des nues fureut les pensees, du vent fureut les allaines, des pierres furent les 
oz, du saiut esprit fu la vie, la, clarte du monde signifie Crist et sa creance. Saichez 
que se il y a en l'omme plus de limon de la terre, il sera paresceux en toutes man- 
ieres ; et se il y a plus de la mer, il sera sage ; et se il y a plus de soleil, il sera 
beau ; et se il y a plus de nues, il sera pensis ; et se il y a plus du vent, il sera 
ireux ; et se il y a plus de pierre, il sera dur, avar et larron ; et se il y a plus de 
saint esprit, il sera gracieux ; et se il y a plus de la clarte du monde, il sera beaux 

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

though six are the same : earth, sea, cloud, wind, stone and sun ; the Holy Ghost 
and the light of the world are peculiar, while veins, hair, tears, and motley eyes 
arc wanting. The ' champ damacien ' is ' ager plasmationis Ada?, qui dicitur ager 
damascenus,' 1 conf. Fel. Fabri Evagator, 2, 341. [Is ' du monde' the mistranslation 
of a Germ. ' des mondes,' the moon's ? Like the sun, it bestows ' beauty,' and 
that has nothing to do with Christ, who is however ' the light of the world.' — Tk.J 



CREATION. 569 

in keeping to explain the sun as a giant's eye, the mountains as 
his bones, the bushes as his hair ; there are plenty of legends 
still that account for particular lakes and marshes by the 
gushing blood of a giant, for oddly-shaped rocks by his ribs 
and marrow-bones ; and in a similar strain the waving corn was 
likened to the hair of Sif or Ceres. It is at once felt to be more 
artificial for sun and mountain and tree to be put into requisition 
to produce the human eye and bones and hair. Yet we do speak 
of eyes being sunny, and of our flesh as akin to dust, and why 
may not even the heathens have felt prompted to turn that cos- 
mogonic view upside down ? Still more would this commend 
itself to Christians, as the Bible expressly states that man was 
made of earth or loam, 1 without enlarging on the formation of 
the several constituent parts of the body. None of the Fathers 
seem to be acquainted with the theory of the eight constituents 
of the first man; I will not venture to decide whether it was 
already familiar to heathen times, and maintained itself by the 
side of the Eddie doctrine, or first arose out of the collision of 
this with christian teaching, and is to be regarded as a fuller 
development of the Adamic dogma. If Adam was interpreted 
to mean clay, it was but taking a step farther to explain, more 
precisely, that the flesh only was borrowed from earth, but 
the bones from stones, and the hair from grass. It is almost 
unscriptural, the way in which the MHG. poetizer of Genesis 
(Fundgr. 2, 15) launches out into such minutia; : — f Duo Got 
zeinitzen stucchen den man zesamene wolte rucchen, duo nam er, 
sosich wane, einen leim zahe (glutinous lime), da er wolte daz 
daz lit zesamene solte (wished the limbs to come together), 
streich des unterznisken (smeared it between), daz si zesamene 
mohten haf ten (stick), denselben letten (clay) tot er ze adaren 
(made into veins), uber ieglich lit er zoch denselben leim zach, 
daz si vasto chlebeten, zesamene sich habeten. liz hertem leime 
(hard lime) tet er daz gebeine, uz pruder erde (crumbly earth) 
hiez er daz fleisk werden, liz letten deme zdlien machet er die 
adare. duo er in alien zesamene gevuocte, duo bestreich er in 
mit einer slute (bedaubed him with a slime), diu selbe slote wart 
ze dere hute (became the skin) . duo er daz pilede (figure) erlich 

1 ' Dio leim\nen, i the loamen folk, Geo. 3-409, is said of men, as we say ' e luto, 
ex meliori luto licti.' 



570 CEEATION. 

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

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

distinctions between lime, clay, earth and slime have a tang of 
heathenism ; the poet durst not entirely depart from the creation 
as set forth by the church, but that compoundiug of man out of 
several materials appears to be still known to him. And traces 
of it are met with in the folk-poetry. 1 

It is significant how Greek and, above all, Asiatic myths of 
the creation coincide with the Norse (and what I believe to have 
been once the universal Teutonic) view of the world's origin out 
of component parts of the human body : it must therefore be 
of remote antiquity. The story lasts in India to this day, that 
Brahma was slain by the other gods, and the sky made out of his 
skull : there is some analogy to this in the Greek notion of Atlas 
supporting on his head the vault of heaven. According to one 
of the Orphic poets, the body of Zeus is understood to be the 
earth, his bones the mountains^ and his eyes the sun and moon. 2 
Cochin-Chinese traditions tell, how Buddha made the world out 
of the giant Banio's body, of his skull the sky, of his eyes the 
sun and moon, of his flesh the earth, of his bones rocks and hills, 
and of his hair trees and plants. Similar macrocosms are met 
with in Japan and Ceylon ; Kalmuk poems describe how the 
earth arose from the metamorphosis of a mountain-giantess, the 
sea from her blood (Finn Magn. Lex., 877-8, and Suppl.). 

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

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

2 "O/xfiaTa 5' tj^Xlos re ical dcnowcra creX^vr]. Euseb. II/Doira/)acrK. evayy. 3, 9. 
Lobeck, De microc. et macroc. p. 4. 



CREATION. 571 

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

And there are yet other points of agreement claiming our 
attention. As Ymir engendered man and wife out of his hand, 
and a giant son out of his foot, we are told by the Indian Manus, 
that Brahma produced four families of men, namely from his 
mouth the first brahman (priest), from his arm the first kshatriya 
(warrior), from his thigh the first vizh (trader and husbandman), 1 
from his foot the first sudra (servant and artizan). And so, no 
doubt, would the Eddie tradition, were it more fully preserved, 
make a difference of rank exist between the offspring of Ymir's 
hand and those of his foot ; a birth from the foot must mean a 
lower one. There is even a Caribbean myth in which Luguo, 
the sky, descends to the earth, and the first parents of mankind 
come forth from his navel and thigh, in which he had made an 
incision. 2 Reading of these miraculous births, who can help 
thinking of Athena coming out of Zeus's head (rpLToyeveia), and 
Dionysus out of his thigh (^ripoppa^s) ? As the latter was 
called SifujTwp (two-mothered), so the unexplained fable of the 
nine mothers of Heimdallr (p. 234) seems to rest on some 
similar ground (see Suppl.). 

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



1 E femoribus natus = uravya, urnja, Bopp's Gloss. 54*. 

2 Major's Mythol. tascbenbucb '2, -i. 



572 CREATION. 

an Eskja, the woman, the balance would be held more evenly ; 
they would be related as Meshia and Meshiane in the Persian 
myth, man and woman, who likewise grew out of plants. But 
the Edda calls them Askr and Embla : embla, emla, signifies a 
busy woman, OHG. emila, as in fiur-emila (focaria), a Cinderella 
(Graff 1, 252), from amr, ambr, ami, ambl (labor assiduus), 
whence also the hero's name Amala (p. 370). As regards Askr 
however, it seems worthy of notice, that legend makes the first 
king of the Saxons, Aschanes (Askanius), grow up out of the 
Harz rocks, by a fountain-head in the midst of the forest. See- 
ing that the Saxons themselves take their name from sahs (saxum, 
stone), that a divine hero bears the name of Sahsnot (p. 203), 
that other traditions derive the word Gerinani from gerniinare, 
because the Germans are said to have grown on trees ; 1 we have 
here the possibility of a complex chain of relationships. The 
Geogr. of Ravenna says, the Saxous removed from their ancient 
seats to Britain c cum principe suo, nomine Anahis.' This may 
be Hengist, or still better his son Oesc, whom I have identified 
with Askr. 3 

Plainly there existed primitive legends, which made the first 
men, or the founders of certain branches of the Teutonic nation, 
grow out of trees and rocks, that is to say, which endeavoured 
to trace the lineage of living beings to the half-alive kingdom of 
plants and stones. Even our leut (populus), OHG. Hut, has for 
its root liotan (crescere, pullulare), OS. liud, liodan ; 3 and the 
sacredness of woods and mountains in our olden time is height- 
ened by this connexion. And similar notions of the Greeks fit 
in with this. One who can reckon up his ancestors is appealed 
to with the argument (Od. 19, 163) : 

ov <yap cnrb Spvos eacn 7ra\aicf)dTov ouS tiTro 7rerp?;9 ■ 

for not of fabled oak art thou, nor rock; 4 and there must have 

1 D. S. no. 408. Aventin 18 b ; conf. the popular joke, prob. ancient, on the 
origin of Swabians. Franks and Bavarians, Scbrn. 3, 524. 

2 In the Jewish language, both learned and vulgar, Ashlienaz denotes Ger- 
many or a German. The name occurs in Gen. 10, 3 and Jer. 51, 27 ; how early 
its mistaken use began, is unknown even to J. D. Michaelis (Spicil. geogr. Hebr. 
1, 59) ; it must have been by the 15th century, if not sooner, and the rabbis may 
very likely have been led to it by hearing talk of a derivation of the Germans from 
an ancestor Askanius, or else the Trojan one. 

3 Populus however is unconn. with populus a poplar. 

4 Such an ' e quercu aut saxo natus,' who cannot name his own father, is vul- 



CEEATION. 573 

been fairy tales about it, which children told each other in con- 
fidential chat (oapi^e/jievac curb Spvbs ?}5' airb irerp-q^, II. 22, 120. 1 
aXKa Ti7) fMOi ravra 7repl Spvv r) irepl -ireTprjv; Hes. Theog. 35). 
In marked unison with the myth of Askr is the statement of 
Hesiod, that Zeus formed the third or brazen race out of ash- 
trees (e'/c fieXiav, Op. 147) ; and if the allusion be to the stout 
ashen shafts of the heroes, why, Isco or Askr may have bran- 
dished them too. One remembers too those wood-wives and fays, 
who, like the Greek meliads and dryads, had their sole power of 
living bound up with some particular oak or ash, and, unlike the 
tree-born man, had never got wholly detached from the material 
of their origin. Then, a creation out of stones is recorded in 
the story of Deucalion, whom after the deluge Hermes bade 
throw stones behind his back : those that he threw, all turned 
into men, and those that his wife Pyrrha threw, into women. As 
in the Edda, after the great flood comes a new creation ; only in 
this case the rescued people are themselves the actors. 2 Even 
the Jews appear to have known of a mythical creation out of 
stones, for we read in Matth. 3, 9 : ore Svvarac 6 @eo? e'/c rwv 
XiOcov tovt(ov eyelpai riicva ru> Jiftpadfi (see Suppl.). 

The creation of dwarfs is described ambiguously in the Edda : 
according to one story they bred as worms in the proto-giant's 
flesh, and were then endowed by the gods with understanding 
and human shape ; but by the older account they were created 
out of the flesh and bones of another giant Brimir. All this has 
to do with the black elves alone, and must not be extended to 
the ligfht ones, about whose origin we are left in the dark. And 
other mythologies are equally silent. 

It is important and interesting to get a clear view of the grada- 
tion and sequence of the several creations. That in the Edda 
giants come first, gods next, and then, after an intervening deluge, 



garly spoken of as oue ' whose father got drowned on the apple (or nut) tree.'_ Also, 
' not to have sprung from an oak-stem,' Etner's Unw. doct. 585. ' Min gof ist au 
nud abbero nossbom aba choh,' ' and my dad didn't come off the nut-tree,' Tobler 
337 b , who wrongly refers it to the Christmas-tree. 

1 Homer's phrase is : ' chat from oak or rock, as youth and maiden do.'— 
Trans. 

- As Deucalion and Pyrrha create the race of men, so (ace. to a myth in th< 
Reinhartssage, whose source I never could discover) do Adam and Eve create that 
of beasts by smiting the sea with rods. Only, Adam makes the good beasts, Eve 
the bad : so inParsee legend Ormuzd and Ahriman hold a creating match. 



574 CEEATION. 

men and dwarfs are created, appears in surprising harmony with 
a theological opinion largely adopted throughout the Mid. Ages, 
according to which, though the 0. T. begins with the work of 
the six days, yet the existence and consequently the creation of 
angels and the apostasy of devils had gone before, and then were 
produced heaven and earth, man and all other creatures. 1 After- 
wards, it is true, there comes also a destructive flood, but does 
not need to be followed by a new creation, for a pious remnant 
of mankind is saved, which peoples the earth anew. The Muham- 
medan eblis (by aphseresis from dieblis, diabolus) is an apostate 
spirit indeed, but created after Adam, and expelled from Para- 
dise. Our Teutonic giants resemble at once the rebel angels 
(devils) and the sinful men swept away by the flood ; here deli- 
verance was in store for a patriarch, there for a giant, who after 
it continues his race by the side of men. A narrative preserved 
in the appendix to our Heldenbuch offers some fragments of 
cosmogony : three creations follow one another, that of dwarfs 
leading the way, after whom come giants, and lastly men ; God 
has called into being the skilful dwarfs to cultivate waste lands 
and mountain regions, the giants to fight wild beasts, and the 
heroes to assist the dwarfs against disloyal giants ; this connexion 
and mutual dependence of the races is worthy of note, though on 
the manner of creating there is not a word. Lastly, the threefold 
arrangement of classes instituted by Heimdallr 3 may, I think, be 
regarded as a later act in the drama of creation, of which perhaps 
a trace is yet to be seen even in modern traditions (p. 234) . 3 

Another thing I lay stress on is, that in the Edda man and 
woman (Askr and Embla) come into existence together, but the 



1 Conf. the poetical representations in Cadmon and Fundgr. 2, 11. 12; of 
course they rest on opinions approved or tolerated by the church. Scripture, in its 
account of the creation, looks only to the human race, leaving angels and giants 
out of sight altogether, though, as the narrative goes on, they are found existing. 

2 The Mid. Ages trace the origin of freemen to Shem, that of knights and serfs 
to Japhet and Ham; Wackern. Bas. MSS. 2, 20. 

3 I have since lighted on a Muhammedan legend in Wolfg. Menzel's Mythol. 
forschungen 1, 40 : Eve had so many children, that she was ashamed, and once, 
when surprised by God, she hid some of them away. God then called the children 
to him, and divided all the goods and honours of the earth among them. Those 
that were hidden got none, and from them are descended beggars and fakirs. 
Unfortunately no authority is given, but the agreement with the German drama of 
the 16th cent, is undeniable, and makes me doubt the supposed connexion of the 
latter with the ON. fable. That the concealed children are nbt called up, is at 
variance with all German accounts. 



CREATION. 575 

Bible makes two separate actions, Adam's creation coming first, 
and Eve's being performed afterwards and in a different manner. 1 
So, by Hesiod's account, there already existed men descended 
from the gods themselves, when the first woman Pandora, the all- 
gifted, fair and false, was formed out of earth and flood (p. 571). 
It is difficult to arrive at the exact point of view in the Hesiodic 
poems. In the Theogony, there ascend out of chaos first Gaia 
(earth) the giantess, then Erebus (corresp. to Niflheim) and 
Night ; but Gaia by herself brought forth Urauus (sky) and seas 
and mountains, then other children by Uranus, the last of them 
Kronus the father of Zeus and ancestor of all the gods. As 
the Edda has a Buri and Borr before Oftinn, so do Uranus and 
Kronus here come before Zeus ; with Zeus and OSinn begins the 
race of gods proper, and Poseidon and Hades complete the fra- 
ternal trio, like Vili and Ve. The enmity of gods and titan3 is 
therefore that of ases and giants ; at the same time, there is just 
as much resemblance in the expulsion of the titans from heaven 
(Theog. 813) to the fall of the rebel angels into the bottomless 
pit ; so that to the giant element in the titans we may add a 
deemonic. When the ' Works and Days' makes the well-known 
five races fill five successive ages, the act of creation must needs 
have been repeated several times ; on which point neither the 
poem itself nor Plato (Cratyl. 397-8, Steph.) gives sufficient 
information. First came the golden race of blissful daimones, 
next the silver one of weaker divine beings, thirdly, the brazen 
one of warriors sprung from ash-trees, fourthly, the race of 
heroes, fifthly, the iron one of men now living. The omission 
of a metal designation for the fourth race is of itself enough to 
make the statement look imperfect. Dimmest of all is the second 
race, which also Plato passes over, discussing only da3mons, heroes 
and men : will the diminutive stature of these shorter-lived genii 
warrant a comparison with the wights and elves of our own 
mythology ? In the third race giants seem to be portrayed, or 
fighters of the giant sort, confronting as they do the rightful 

1 The rabbinic myth supposes a first woman, Lilith, made out of the ground 
like Adam. [The Bible, wo know, has two different accounts of man's creation : 
the first (Elohistic) in Gen. 1, 27, ' male and female created he them ; ' the second 
(Jehovistic) in Gen. 2, 7, ' formed man of the dust,' and in w. 21. 22, ' took one of 
his ribs, . . . and the rib . . . made he a woman' The first account seems to 
imply simultaneous creations.— Teams.] 



576 CREATION. . 

heroes of the fourth. The latter we might in Mosaic language 
call sons of Elohim, and the former sons of men ; at the same 
time, their origin from the ash would admit of their being placed 
beside the first- created men of the Edda. The agreement of the 
myths would be more striking if we might bestow the name of 
stone race on the third, and shift that of brazen, together with 
the creation from the ash, to the fourth ; stones being the natural 
arms of giants. Apollodorus however informs us it was the 
brazen race that Zeus intended to destroy in the great flood from 
which Deucalion and Pyrrha were saved, and this fits in with the 
Scandinavian overthrow of giants. The creation of Askr and 
Etnbla has its parallel in the stone-throwing of the Greek myth, 
and the race of heroes might also be called stone-created (see 
Suppl.). 

It will be proper, before concluding, to cast a glance at the 
Story of the Deluge : its diffusion among the most diverse nations 
of the earth gives a valuable insight into the nature of these 
myths. 1 

From the sons of God having mingled with the daughters of 
men sprang robbers and wrongdoers ; and it repented Jehovah 
that he had made man, and he said he would destroy everything 
on earth. But Noah found favour in his eyes, and he bade him 
build a great ark, and enter therein with his household. Then 
it began to rain, until the waters rose fifteen cubits above the 
highest mountains, and all that had flesh and breath perished, 
but the ark floated on the flood. Then Jehovah stayed the rain, 
the waters returned from off the earth, and the ark rested on the 
mountains of Ararat. But Noah let out first a raven, then a 
dove, which found no rest for her foot and returned into the ark ; 
and after seven days he again sent forth a dove, which came back 
with an olive leaf in her mouth ; and after yet other seven days 
he sent forth a dove, which returned not any more. 2 Then Noah 
came out on the dry earth, and offered a clean burntoffering, and 



1 Ulph. renders Kara/cW/^s by midjasveipdins, sveipan meaning no doubt the 
same as kXij^iv, to flush, rinse, conf. AS. swapan verrere. Diluvium is in OHG. 
unmezfluot or sinfluot (like sinwaki gurges, MHG. sinwsege) ; not so good is the 
OHCt.' and MHG. sintvluot, and our siindfluth (sin-flood) is a blunder. 

2 Sailors let birds fly, Pliny 6, 22. Three ravens fly as guides, Landnamabok 1, 2. 



DELUGE, SINFLUT. 577 

Jehovah made a covenant with man, and set his bow in the cloud 
for a token of the covenant. 

After this beautiful compact picture in the O. T., the Eddie 
narrative looks crude and unpolished. Not from heaven does the 
flood rain down, it swells up from the blood of the slain giant, 
whose carcase furnishes material for creating all things, and the 
human race itself. The insolence and violence of the annihilated 
giants resemble those of the sons of Elohim who had mingled 
with the children of men ; and Noah's box (kl(3<ot6s) is like 
Bergebm's HtfSr. But the epic touches, such as the landing on 
the mountain, the outflying dove, the sacrifice and rainbow, would 
surely not have been left out, had there been any borrowing here. 

In the Assyrian tradition, 1 Kronos warns Sisuthros of the 
coming downpour, who thereupon builds a ship, and embarks 
with men and beasts. Three days after the rain has ceased, birds 
are sent out, twice they come flying back, the second time with 
slime on their feet, and the third time they staid away. Sisuthros 
got out first with his wife and daughter and pilot, they prayed, 
sacrificed, and suddenly disappeared. When the rest came to 
land, a voice sounded in the air, saying the devout Sisuthros had 
been taken up to the gods ; but they were left to propagate the 
human race. Their vessel down to recent times lay on the 
mountains of Armenia? Coins of Apamea, a city in Phrygia, 
show an ark floating on the water, with a man and woman in it ; 
on it sits a bird, another comes flying with a twig iu its claws. 
Close by stand the same human pair on firm land, holding up 
their right hands. Beside the ark appear the letters Nil (Noah), 
and this Apamea is distinguished by the by-name of /a/Scoro?. 3 

According to Greek legend, Zeus had determined to destroy 
mankind; at the prompting of Prometheus, Deucalion built an 
ark, which received him and Pyrrha his wife. Zeus then sent a 
mighty rain, so that Hellas was flooded, and the people perished. 
Nine days and nights Deucalion floated on the waters, then landed 
on Parnassus, and offered sacrifice to Zeus; we have seen how 
this couple created a new generation by casting stones. Plutarch 
adds, that when Deucalion let a dove out of the ark, he could tell 

1 Buttmann On the myth of the Deluge, p. 21. 

Oonf. the Annolied 308 seq., which brings the Bavarians from Armenia. 
3 All this in Buttmann, pp. 21-27. 



578 CEEATION. 

the approach, of storm by her flying back, and of fair weather by 
her keeping away. Lucian (De dea Syria, cap. 12. 13) calls him 
AevKaktoiva rov 2fcv0ea (the Scythian) ; if that sprang out of 
'XiavOea, 1 it may have long had this altered form in the legend 
itself. Some branches of the Greek race had their own stories 
of an ancient flood, of which they called the heroes Ogyges and 
Ogygos ; 3 but all these accounts are wanting in epic details. 3 

A rich store of these opens for us in the Indian Mahabharata. 4 
King Manus stood on a river's bank, doing penance, when he 
heard the voice of a little fish imploring him to save it. He 
caught it in his hand and laid it in a vessel, but the fish began to 
grow, and demanded wider quarters. Manus threw it into a large 
lake, but the fish grew on, and wished to be taken to Ganga the 
bride of the sea. Before long he had not room to stir even there, 
and Manus was obliged to carry him to the sea ; but when 
launched in the sea, he foretold the coming of a fearful flood, 
Manus was to build a ship and go on board it with the seven 
sages, and preserve the seeds of all things, then he would shew 
himself to them horned. Manus did as he was commanded, and 
sailed in the ship ; the monster fish appeared, had the ship 
fastened to his horn by a rope, and towed it through the sea for 
many years, till they reached the summit of the Himavdn, there 
he bade them moor the ship, and the spot to which it was tied 
still bears the name of Naubandhanam (ship-binding). Then 
spake the fish : I am Brahma, lord of created things, a higher 
than I there is not, in the shape of a fish have I delivered you ; 

i CKT9EA from CICT9EA is Buttmann's acute suggestion ; but he goes 
farther, taking this Sisythes or Sisuthros to be Sesothris, Sothis, Seth ; and Noah 
to be Dionysos, and a symbol of water. 

2 Buttm. p. 45 seq., who connects it with Okeanos and Ogenos. 

3 It is remarkable, that in a beautiful simile, therefore without names or places, 
Homer depicts a kind of Deluge, II. 16, 384 : 

ws 5' iiirb \ai\airi wacra KeXcuvq fteflpide x®uv 
■fjfxa.T owuipivQ), ore XaftpoTarov %^a iiSwp 
Tievs, ore 5r} p &i>8peacri Korea (T&fievos ^aXe^i^r;, 
ot fiiri elv dyopy <r/co\tas Kpivuicn deputTras, 
eK Se Siktjv eXacrwcrt, 6eu>v 6tuv ovk oKiyovres. 
fiLVvdei 5i re epy dvdpum(i)i>. 

Even as crouches the darkening land, overcrowed by tbe tempest, All on a summer's 
day, when Jove doth the down-rushing water Suddenly pour, and wreak his wrath 
on the proud men, Men of might, who sit dealing a crooked doom in the folkmote, 
Forcing justice aside, unheeding of gods and their vengeance ; (rivers swell, etc.) 
and the works of man are all wasted. 

4 Bopp's Die siindflut, Berl. 1S29. 



DELUGE. 579 

now shall Manns make all creatures, gods, asuris and men, and 
all the worlds, things movable and immovable. And as he had 
spoken, so it was done. 

In the Bhagavatam, Satydvratas (supra, p. 249) takes the place 
of Manus, Vishnus that of Brahma, and the facts are embellished 
with philosophy. 

The Indian myth then, like the Teutonic, makes the Deluge 
precede the real creation, whereas in the Mosaic account Adam 
lives long before Noah, and the flood is not followed by a new 
creation. The seven rishis in the ship, as Bopp remarks, are 
of divine rather than human nature, sons of Brahma, and of an 
older birth than the inferior gods created by Manus or their 
enemies the asuris (elsewhere daityas and danavas = titans, 
giants). But it is a great point gained for us, that Manus (after 
whom manushyas, homo, is named) comes in as a creator; so 
that in our German Mannus (whence manna and manniskja, 
homo) we recognise precisely Borr and his creator sons (p. 349). 
Askr and Embla are simply a reproduction of the same idea of 
creation, and on a par with Deucalion and Pyrrha, or Adam and 
Eve. 

I must not pass over the fact, that the first part of the Indian 
poem, where Brahma as a fish is caught by Manus, and then 
reveals to him the future, lingers to this day in our nursery tale 
of the small all-powerful turbot or pike, who gradually elevates 
a fisherman from the meanest condition to the highest rank'; and 
only plunges him back into his pristine poverty, when, urged by 
the counsels of a too ambitious wife, he desires at last to be 
equal with God. The bestowal of the successive dignities is in 
a measure a creation of the different orders. 1 

One more story of the Deluge, which relates the origin of the 
Lithuanians, deserves to be introduced. 2 When Pramzimas the 
most high god looked out of a window of his heavenly house 
(like Wuotan, p. 135) over the world, and perceived nothing but 
war and wrong among men, he sent two giants Wandu and 
Weyas (water and wind) upon the sinful earth, who laid all 
things waste for twenty nights and days. Looking down once 

1 Conf. the capture of the soothsaying marmennil, p. 434. 

2 Dzieje starozytue narodu Litewskiego, przez Th. Narbutta. Wilno 1835. 
1, 2. 



580 CREATION. 

more, when he happened to be eating celestial nuts, Prarnzirnas 
dropt a nutshell, and it lighted on the top of the highest moun- 
tain, to which beasts and several human pairs had fled for refuge. 
They all climbed into the shell, and it drifted on the flood which 
now covered all things. But God bent his countenance yet a 
third time upon the earth, and he laid the storm, and made the 
waters to abate. The men that were saved dispersed themselves, 
only one pair remained in that country, and from them the 
Lithuanians are descended. But they were now old, and they 
grieved, whereupon God sent them for a comforter (linxmine) 
the rainbow, who counselled them to leap over the earth's bones : 
nine times they leapt, and nine couples sprang up, founders of 
the nine tribes of Lithuania. This incident reminds us of the 
origin of men from the stones cast by Deucalion and Pyrrha ; and 
the rainbow, of the Bible account, except that here it is intro- 
duced as a person, instructing the couple what to do, as Hermes 
(the divine messenger) did Deucalion. It were overbold perhaps 
to connect the nutshell with that nut-tree (p. 572-3), by which 
one vao-uely expresses an unknown extraction. 

Not all, even of the stories quoted, describe a universal deluge 
desolating the whole earth : that in which Deucalion was rescued 
affected Greece alone, and of such accounts of partial floods 
there are plenty. Philemon and Baucis in Phrygia (where Noah's 
ark rested, p. 577), had given shelter to the wayfaring gods, and 
beino- warned by them, fled up the mountain, and saw themselves 
saved when the flood rose over the land (Ovid. Met. 8, 620) ; 
they were changed into trees, as Askr and Embla were trees. 
A Welsh folktale says, that in Brecknockshire, where a large 
lake now lies, there once stood a great city. The king sent his 
messeno-er to the sinful inhabitants, to prove them; they heeded 
not his words, and refused him a lodging. He stept into a 
miserable hut, in which there only lay a child crying in its cradle 
(conf. ludara, p. 559 n.) ; there he passed the night, and in going 
away, dropt one of his gloves in the cradle. He had not left the 
city long, when he heard a noise and lamentation ; he thought of 
turning back to look for his glove, but the town was no longer to 
be seen, the waters covered the whole plain, but lo, in the midst 
of the waves a cradle came floating, in which there lay both child 
and glove. This child he took to the king, who had it reared as 



DELUGE. 581 

the sole survivor of the sunken city. 1 Conf. the story of Bold at 
the end of Ch. XXXII. Another and older narrative, found even 
in the British Triads, comes much nearer to those given above : 
AVhen the lake of Llion overflowed and submerged all Britain, 
the people were all drowned save Bivyvan and Dwyvach, who 
escaped in a naked (sailless) ship, and afterwards repeopled the 
land. This ship is also named that of Nevydd nav neivion, and 
had on board a male and female of every creature ; again it is 
told, that the oxen of Hu Gadarn dragged the avanc (beaver) 
ashore out of the Llion lake, and it has never broken out since. 3 

Of still narrower limits are our German tales, as that of the 
dwarf seeking a lodging at Kalligen on L. Thun (no. 45), which 
is very like the Philemon-myth; of Arendsee (no. Ill), where 
again only a husband and wife are saved; of Seeburg (no. 131) ; 
and Frauensee (no. 239). A Danish folktale is given by Thiele 
1, 227. Fresh and graceful touches abound in the Servian lay of 
the three angels sent by God to the sinful world, and the origin 
of the Plattensee or Balatino yezero, Vuk 4, 8-13 (2nd ed. 1, 
no. 207). 3 

There is above all a dash of German heathenism about the 
lakes and pools said to have been formed by the streaming blood 
of giants (Deut. sag. no. 325), as the destructive Deluge arose 
from Ymir's blood. 

It appears to me impossible to refer the whole mass of these 
tales about the great Flood and the Creation of the human species 
to the Mosaic record, as if they were mere perversions and dis- 
tortions of it ; the additions, omissions and discrepancies peculiar 
to almost every one of them are sufficient to forbid that. And 
I have not by a long way exhausted this cycle of legends (see 
Suppl.) : in islands of the Eastern Archipelago, in Tonga and 
New Zealand, among Mexicans and Caribs there start up ac- 
counts, astonishingly similar and yet different, of creation and 
the first human pair, of a flood and deliverance, and the murder 
of a brother. 4 

1 Edw. Davies's Brit. Mythol. 146-7. 

2 Ibid. 95. 129. Villemarque, Contes bretons 2, 291. Mabinogion 2, 311. 381. 

3 Solo example of a Deluge- story among Slavs, by whom cosmogonic ideas in 
general seem not to have been handed down at all. 

' W. von Humboldt's Kawisprache 1, 210. 3, 419. Major's Mythol. taschenb. 
2, 5. 131. 



CHAPTER XX. 
ELEMENTS. 

From gods, half-gods and heroes, from the whole array of 
friendly or hostile beings that, superior to man in mind or 
body, fill up a middle space betwixt him and deity, we turn our 
glance to simple phenomena of nature, which at all times in their 
silent greatness wield an immediate power over the human 
mind. These all-penetrating, all-absorbing primitive substances, 
which precede the creation of all other things and meet us again 
everywhere, must be sacred in themselves, even without being 
brought into closer relation to divine beings. Such relation is 
not absent in any mythology, but it need not stand in the way 
of the elements receiving a homage to some extent independent 
of it and peculiar to themselves. 

On the other hand, it is not the religion, properly speaking, of 
a nation, that ever springs from the soil of this elemental worship ; 
the faith itself originates in a mysterious store of supersensual 
ideas, that has nothing in common with those substances, but 
subjugates them to itself. Yet faith will tolerate in its train 
a veneration of elements, and mix it up with itself ; and it may 
even chance, that when faith has perished or is corrupted, this 
veneration shall keep its hold of the people longer. The multi- 
tude will give up its great divinities, yet persist for a time in the 
more private worship of household gods; even these it will 
renounce, and retain its reverence for elements. The history of 
the heathen and christian religions shews, that long after the one 
was fallen and the other established, there lived on, nay there 
live still, a number of superstitious customs connected with the 
worship of elements. It is the last, the all but indestructible 
remnant of heathenism ; when gods collapse, these naked sub- 
stances come to the front again, with which the being of those 
had mysteriously linked itself (see Suppl.). 

To this effect I have already expressed myself (pp. 82-84) in 

582 



WATEE. 5S3 

speaking of a worship of nature by our ancestors, which is indeed 
supported by early testimonies, but these are often perverted 
into an argument against the heathen having had any gods. 
The gods stood and fell from other causes. 

Water the limpid, flowing, welling up or running dry; Fire 
the illuminating, kindled or quenched ; Air uuseen by the eye, 
but sensible to ear and touch ; Earth the nourishing, out of 
which everything grows, and into which all that has grown dis- 
solves; — these, to mankind from the earliest time, have appeared 
sacred and venerable ; ceremonies, transactions and events in 
life first receive their solemn consecration from them. Working 
as they do with never-resting activity and force on the whole of 
nature, the childlike man bestows on them his veneration, without 
any particular god necessarily intervening, though he too will 
commonly appear in combination with it. Even to-day the 
majesty and might of these eldest born of things awakes our 
admiration ; how could antiquity have forborne its astonishment 
and adoration ? Such a worship is simpler, freer and more dig- 
nified than a senseless crouching before pictures and idols. 

All the elements are cleansing, healing, atoning, and the proof 
by ordeal rests mainly upon them ; but man had to secure them 
in their purest form and at the most seasonable times. 

We will consider them one by one. 

1. Water. 1 

Passages proving that the Alamanns and Franks worshipped 
rivers and fountains are cited at pp. 100-1 and in the Appendix. 2 

1 Goth, vato, ON. vatn, OHG. icazar, OS. icatar, AS. wceter, Dan. vand, Slav. 
vodd, Lith. wandu, Lett, uhdens, Gr. i)Swp; then, corresp. inform to Lat. aqua, but 
meaning fluvius, Goth, ahva, OHG. aha, AS. ed, ON. a ; the Goth, vegs, OHG. 
wdc waK r es = fluctus, flow. 

2 When here and elsewhere I use Bp. Burchard's Coll. of Decrees as authority 
for German superstitions, I do not forget that in most cases (not all) it is drawn 
from councils not held in Germany, but in Gaul, Italy or Spain. Yet, if we con- 
sider that German nations had been spreading themselves all over those countries 
down to the 8-9th cent., that the AS. and Lombard Laws, to say nothing of 
Capitularies, declaim equally with those Decrees of Council against water, tree and 
stone worship, that Agathias and Gregory of Tours expressly charge the Alamanns 
and Franks with such worship ; these superstitions are seen to be something com- 
mon to the Italian, Gallic and German nationalities, of which none of them can be 
acquitted. Some have tried to make out from Agathias, that our forefathers had 
a mere nature-worship, and no gods. It would be about as uncritical to do what 
is to some extent the reverse, and suspect Agathias and Gregory of having adopted 
their assertions out of church-prohibitions that were never meant for Germany at 

VOL. II. L 



584 ELEMENTS. 

The people prayed on the river's bank ; at the fountain's brink 
they lighted candles and laid down sacrificial gifts. It is called 
'fontibus venerationem exhibere, ad fontanas adorare (conf. Legg. 
Liutpr. 6, 30), ad fontes votum facere, reddere, exsolvere, ox-are 
ad fontes, offerre ad fontes, munus deferre, ad fontes lumiuaria 
facere, candelam deferre.' This last no doubt was done only or 
chiefly at night, when the flame reflected from the wave would 
excite a religious awe. 1 The Saxons also were fonticolae : wyllas 
and flotwceter are named in the AS. laws as objects of rever- 
ence. Beside the passage from Cnut (p. 102), the Poenitentiale 
Ecgberti says 2, 22 : ' gif hwilc man his eelinessan gehate oSSe 
bringe to hwilcon wylle'; 4, 19 : ' gif hwa his wseccan set senigum 
wylle hsebbe (vigilias suas ad aliquem fontem habeat) ' ; the 
Canones Edgari § 16 forbid wilweor&wnga (well-worship). I am 
not sure that a formal worship of water in Scandinavia is implied 
in the saga quoted above (p. 102), where votn is mentioned; 
but that water was held sacred is a thing not to be doubted. 
A lay in the Edda has near the beginning the remarkable words : 
' hnigo heilog votn af himinfiollom/ fell holy waters from heaven's 
hills. The Sclaveni as early as Procopius (B. Goth. 3, 14) 
(reftov<TL 7roTajjLOv<; (worship rivers) ; and as late as Helmold 
(1, 47) it is said of the Slavs at Faldera : lucorum et fontium 
ceterarumque superstitionum multiplex error apud eos habetur 
(see Suppl.). 

Above all was the place honoured, where the wondrous element 
leaps up from the lap of earth ; a spring is in our older speech 
urspriuc (-ges), and also prunno? 

Often enough the first appearing of a spring is ascribed to 
divine agency or a miracle : Wuotan, Balder, Charles the Great, 
each made the reviving fountain flow out of earth for his fainting 
host (p. 226). Other springs are charmed out of the rock when 
struck by a staff or a horse's hoof ; 3 a saint plants a bough in 

all. Into secular codes such prohibitions seem to have found their way first 
through the Capitularies ; the older codes had no penalties for idolatry, only the 
AS. domas of Wihtroed cap. 13 impose them on deofolgild in general. 

1 At Christmas people look into their wells with candles. 

2 From prinnan (ardere), as sot, another word for well, comes from siodan 
(fervere), welle (liuctus) from wallan (fervere), sual (subfrigidus) from suelan (ardere), 
conf. Gramm. 2, 29. 34 ; sprudeln to bubble up is from spruhen to fly off as sparks 
do. In such words fire and water get wedded together. 

3 The Heliconian horse-fount {i-mroKpTjvr]) was struck open by Pegasus : ' novi 



WATER. HEILAWAC. 585 

the ground, and water bubbles up. But there are two theories 
even more generally received : that the water of sacred brooks 
and rivers is in the first instance poured by gods and superior 
beings out of bowls or urns; and that springs and wells are 
guarded by snakes or dragons lying near them (see Suppl.). 

Water drawn at a holy season, at midnight, before sunrise, 
and in solemn silence, bore till a recent time the name of heilawdc, 
lieilwdc, heilwcege. The first form, retaining the connecting 
vowel after a long syllable, proves the antiquity of the word, 
whose sacred meaning secured it against change. MS. 2, 149 b : 
' man seit (saith) von heilawdge uns vil, wie heil, wie guot ez si, 
wie gar vollekomen der eren spil, wie gar sin kraft verheilet swaz 
wundes an dem man verseret ist/ how good for healing wounds, 
etc. Martina 116: 'Got, du froude fliizzic heilawdc,' and in a 
like sense 248. 283. Applied to Christ and his cross, Mar. 224 : 
'der boum ist gemeizzen, da daz heilwcege von bechumet, daz aller 
werlte gefrumet/ the tree whence cometh h. And more gener- 
ally, ' ein heilwdge,' Diut. 1, 352 ; much later, in Anshelm's 
Chron. of Bern 1, 308, ' heilwag ' among other charms and magic 
appliances. Lastly, in Phil, von Sittewald (Strasb. 1677) 1, 
483 : ' running spring-water, gathered on holy Christmas night, 
while the clock strikes twelve, and named heilwag, is good for 
pain of the navel/ Superst. 804. In this heilawac we discover 
a very early mingling of heathen customs with christian. The 
common people believe to this very day, that at 12, or between 
11 and 12, on Christmas or Easter night, spring-water changes 
into wine (Superst. 54. 792), 1 Wieselgren p. 412 ; and this belief 
rests on the supposition that the first manifestation of the 
Saviour's divinity took place at the marriage in Cana, where he 
turned water into wine. Now at Christmas they celebrated both 
his birth (epiphany, theophany, p. 281) and his baptism, and 
combined with these the memory of that miracle, to which was 



fontit Dura medusrci quem pnepetis ungula rupit,' Ov. Met. 5, 257 seq. So the 
vein of gold in a hill is laid open by a blow from a hoof. Ithea opens a spring in 
Arcadia with her staff : 

dvravvaaaa 6ea fiiyav vipbOi 7T?5x 1 "' 
ck 5' ^x eev V-tya- Xtuf* - Callimach. hy. Jov. 28. 
1 /dm ehen eines weibes (her ten marriages), Leipz. 1735, p. 235. 



586 ELEMENTS. 

given a special name, bethphania. 1 As far back as 387, Chry- 
sostom preaching an Epiphany sermon at Antioch says that 
people at that festival drew running water at midnight, and kept 
it a whole year, and often two or three (no doubt for thaumaturgic 
uses), and it remained fresh and uncorrupted. 2 Superstitious 
Christians then believed two things, a hallowing of the water at 
midnight of the day of baptism, and a turning of it into wine 
at the time of the bethphania : such water the Germans called 
heilawdc, 3, and ascribed to it a wonderful power of healing diseases 
and wounds, and of never spoiling (see Suppl.). 

Possibly even in Syria an old pagan drawing of water became 
veiled under new christian meanings. In Germany other cir- 
cumstances point undisguisedly to a heathen consecration of 
water : it was not to be drawn at midnight, but in the morn- 
ing before sunrise, down stream and silently (Superst. 89. 775), 
usually on Easter Sunday (775-6) to which the above explana- 
tions do not so well apply ; this water does not spoil, it restores 
youth, heals eruptions, and makes the young cattle strong. 4 
Magic water, serving for unchristian divination, is to be collected 
before sunrise on a Sunday in one glass from three flowing springs ; 
and a taper is lighted before the glass, as before a divine being 
(Superst. H. c. 55-57) . 5 Here I bring in once again the Hessian 

i The first manifestation of Christ was his birth, the second his baptism 
(Candlemas), the third the marriage in Cana : 'Tertia apparitio fuit postea similiter 
eodem die anno revoluto, cum esset 30 annorum et 13 dierum, sive quando 
manifestavit se esse Deum per mutationem aquae in vinum, quod fuit primum 
miraculum apertum, quod Dominus fecit in Cana Galilaeae, vel simpliciter primum 
quod fecit. Et haec apparitio dicitur bethphania a jBtitw, quod est domus, et (pdveiv, 
quod est apparitio, quia ista apparitio facta fuit in dorno in nuptiis. De his tribus 
apparitionibus fit solemnitas in hac die.' Durantis Eation. div. offic. 6, 16. The 
church consolidated the three manifestations into one festival. 

2 Tom. 2 (ed. Montfauc, Paris 1718), p. 369 : Bid tol tovto /cat fieaovvKTiix) Kara. 
tt\v eopTr/v rai/TTju aVarres vdpeuadfJ.ei'oi ot/ca5e rd ra/xara aTroridevTai, /cat els iviavTOV 
6\oK\r]pov (pv\d.TTOVffi, are 5tj crip.epov dyiaade'i'Twv t&v vbdroiv /cat to arjp.eiov -yt'eerat 
ivapyes, ov bt.atpdeipop.i'vTis ttjs twi> vo&twv ineivuiv <pvcreus rw ,1177/cet rod xpopoi', <*A\ 
eis iviavrbv 6\6i<\r)pov /cat 8vu) /cat rpia fry) rod a-qp.epov avrXTjde'vTos aKepalov ko.1 
veapov p.e'vovTOS, /cat /xerd touovtov XP° V0V to ' s &pTi tu>v irTjywv e^apTraadelcnv vdaaiv 
d/xtXAa/jU^ou. 

3 And abo heilaivm ? Frauenlob MS. 2, 213 b on the ' garden that bear8 
heilwin: Altd. bl. 2, 294. 

4 Jul. Schmidt's Eeichenf. p. 121. At Cassel I have heard bathing in the 
' drusel ' water commended as wholesome, but you must draw with the current, not 
against. Probably the right time for it is Walburgis or Midsummer. 

5 The rite, like others cited by Hartlieb (who wrote in 1455), may be of classic 
origin. In yaarpop-avTeia, i.e. divining by a bellied jar (yda-rp-r]) filled with water, 
there also occurs the torch and the innocent boy (Hartl.'s ' ain rain kind '). Potter*s 
Antiq., 1, 764. Fabricii Bibliogr. antiq., ed. 3, p. 600. 



WATER. HEILAWAC. 587 

custom mentioned at p. 58 : on Easter Monday youths and 
maidens walk to the Hollow Rock in the mountains, draw water 
from the cool spring in jugs to carry home, and throw flowers in 
as an offering. Apparently this water- worship was Celtic like- 
wise; the water of the rock-spring Karnant makes a broken 
sword whole again, but 

du muost des urspringes han 

underm velse, e in beschin der tac (ere day beshine it) . 

Parz. 254, 6. Tit. 5456. 5732. 1 Curious customs shew us in 
what manner young girls in the Pyrenees country tell their own 
fortunes in spring ivater on May-day morning. 

We need not suppose that the peculiar properties of medicinal 
springs are the point here ; no, it is the normal efficacy of the 
refreshing, strengthening, re-animating element. 3 Many places 
in Germany are called Heilbrunn, Heilborn, Heiligenbrunn, from 
the renewing effect of their springs, or the wonderful cures that 
have taken place at them. Heilbronn on the Neckar is called 
Heilacprunno in the oldest documents. 3 But certain springs and 
wells may have stood in especial repute. Of high renown are 
the ON. Mimisbmnnr and Urffarbrnnnr (p. 407), which Sn. 17 
calls ' brunnr mioc heilagr.' A Danish folksong (1,318) tells of a 
Maribohilde, by whose clear waters a body hewn in pieces is put to- 
gether again. Swedish lays celebrate Ingemos kiilla (Vis. 1, 244-5). 
We remember that old Frisian fount of Forseti, 'whence none 
drew water save in silence,' pp. 229, 230 (see Suppl.). Sacrifices 
were offered at such springs. Of the salutary effect of hot and 
dud i/beate springs people must have been aware from immemorial 
time, witness the Aquae Mattiacae in the Roman time and those 



i The hardening and repair in ft of swords in vater (sverS hei"5a, Srem. 136*) 
was certainly believed in by the Germans too. The Vilkinasaga, cap. 40 p. 100, 
savs: when dwarf Alberich had fashioned Nailring, he searched nine kingdoms 
before he found the water in which the sword could be tempered ; at last he arrived 
at the water Treya, and there it was tempered. Our Eckenlied, str. 81, agrees with 
this, but is still more precise: ' dannoch was ez niht vollebraht, do fuorten'z zwei 
wildiu getwerc wol durch niun kiinecrlche, biz daz si kamen zuo der Drdl, din dS 
7.v Troige rinnet, daz swert daz was so liehtgemal: si harten'z in der Drdle, des 
wart ez als6 fin ' (dwarfs bring it to the Dral, that runs by Troige, etc.). Who can 
doubt any Longer of real German lays forming the groundwork of the Vilk. saga? 

2 A man bitten by an adder will not die, if he can leap over the nearest water 
before the adder does so. Lcnz's Schlangenkuntle, p. 208. 

3 B5hmer'B Reg. Karolor. nr. 740 (an. 841); Ecc. Fr. orient. 2, 893; 'der 
Keeker vliuzet fiir Heilicbrunnen (flows past Holy-wellj,' MS. 2, 68 b . 



588 ELEMENTS. 

1 aquae calidae' near Luxeuil (p. 83). When the Wetterau 
people begin a new jug of chalybeate, they always spill the first 
drop or two on the ground, they say ' to clear the dust away/ 
for the jugs stand open, but it may have been once a libation to 
the fountain-sprite. 1 Not only medicinal, but salt springs were 
esteemed holy : ancient accounts of these will be presented in a 
later chapter. The Mid. Ages cherished the notion of a jung- 
brunnen : 2 whoever bathes in it is both cured of diseases and 
guarded from them ; in it Rauchels shed her shaggy skin, and 
became the beauteous Sigeminne (p. 433-4) ; such a spring has 
sometimes the power even to change the bather's sex (see 
Suppl.). 3 

In a spring near Nogent men and women bathed on St. 
John's eve (Superst. L. 33); Holberg's comedy of Kilde-reisen 
is founded on the Copenhagen people's practice of pilgriming to 
a neighbouring spring on 8. Hans often, to heal and invigorate 
themselves in its waters. On Midsummer eve the people of 
Ostergotland journeyed according to ancient custom to Lagman's 
bergekiilla near Skeninge, and drank of the well (Broocman 1, 
187. 2, 676). In many parts of Germany some clear fountain is 



1 Where the Heathens ascribed the miraculous power of a spring to their wood 
or water sprites, the Christians afterwards transferred it to their saints. I take an 
instance from the Miracula S. Agili, written in the 12th century: Marvellous cures 
were wrought at the brook of St. Aailus. Sed interim quorundarn vesaniae occur- 
rere libet, qui in digito Dei nequaquam haec fieri aestimantes, daemoniacae, pro 
nefas, attribuunt potestati. Cumque miracula diffiteri nequeunt, id solum in 
causam calumniae adsumunt, quod in agresti fiunt loco, ubi nullus Dei cultus, ubi 
nullae sanctorum memoriae. prudentiam ! verentur homines sublimi ingenio, 
ne ad ludibrium mortalium afaunis, nymphis vel satyris, ceterisve rim's numinibus, 
res geratur ejusmodi. Nam ut de fabulis taceam, apud quos historiographorum 
veterum seu modernorum legitur daemones visum coecis, mentem amentibus, 
manus debilibus, gressum claudicantibus restaurasse? (Acta Bened. sec. 2, p. 333.) 
Tbe Swedish people ascribe the healing power of some springs to white snakes. In 
1809 there flocked thousands from Halland and Vestergotland to the wonder-work- 
ing Helsjo, a small lake near Eampegarde ; they said, some children tending cattle 
on the shore had often during the year seen a beautiful maiden sit on the bank, 
holding a snake in her hand and shewing it to them. It is only every hundredth 
year that tbis water-maiden with the snake appears (Bexell's Halland 2, 320 ; 3, 
303). Multitudes from Norway and Halland visited a spring named S. Olafskialla, 
dropt money-offerings in, and carried on other superstition (Odman's Bahuslan p. 
169). In christian times healing fountains are believed to spring up near the 
tombs of holy men, Bex. Hall. 3, 69 ; or from under a saint's body, Flodoard. re- 
mens. 2, 3. I think it is with the hot baths at Aix that we must connect the ivater- 
maiden with whose myth Charles the Great is mixed up, p. 435. 

2 Synonymously the OHG. quecprunno, MHG. quecprunne, Parz. 613, 9. 
Fragm. 18, 267. 

3 Conf. the passages quoted in Mus. fur altd. lit. 1, 260-3 from Montevilla,, 
from the Titurel and from H. Sachs. 



WATER. HEILAWAC. 589 

visited at Whitsuntide, and the water drunk in jugs of a peculiar 
shape. Still more important is Petrarch's description of the 
annual bathing of the women of Cologne in the Rhine : it de- 
serves to be quoted in full, 1 because it plainly proves that the 
cult prevailed not merely at here and there a spring, but in 
Germany's greatest river. From the Italian's unacquaintance 
with the rite, one might infer that it was foreign to the country 
whence all church ceremonies proceeded, and therefore altogether 
unchristian and heathenish. But Petrarch may not have had 
a minute knowledge of all the customs of his country; after his 
time at all events we find even there a lustration on St. John's 
day [described as an ancient custom then dying out] . Benedict 
de Falco's Descrizione de luoghi antiqui di Napoli (Nap. 1580) 
has the statement: c in una parte populosa della citta giace la 
chiesa consegrata a S. Giovan battista, chiamata S. Giovan a 
mare. Era una antica usanza, hoggi non al tutto lasciata, che 
la vigilia di 8. Giovane, verso la sera e '1 securo del di, tutti 
huomlni e donne andare al mare, e nudi lavarsi ; persuasi pur- 
garsi de loro peccati, alia focchia degli antichi, che peccando 
andavano al Tevere lavarsi.' And long before Petrarch, in 
Augustine's time, the rite was practised in Libya, and is de- 

1 Franc. Petrarchae De relras familiar, epistolae, lib. i. ep. 4: Aquis digressum, 
seel prius, uncle ortum oppidi nomen putant, aquis bajano more tepentibus ablutum, 
excepit Agrippina Colonia, quae ad sinistrnm Rheni latus sita est, locus et situ et 
flumine clams et populo. Mirum in terra barbarica quanta civilitas, quae urbis 
species, quae virorum gravitas, quae munditiae matronarum. Forte Johannis 
baptistae vigilia erat duru illuc applicui, et jam ad occidentem sol vergebat : con- 
festim amicorum monitu (nam et ibi amicos prius mibi fama pepererat quam 
meritum) ab hospitio traducor ad rluvium insigne spectaculum visurus. Nee 
fallebar; omnia enim ripa praeclaro et ingenti mulierum agmine tegebatur. Ob- 
stupui, dii boni, quae forma, quae facies, quis habitus ! amare potuisset quisquis 
eo non praeoccupatum animum attulisset. In loco paullum altiore constiteram, 
unde in ea quae gerebantur intenderem. Incredibilis sine offeusione ooncursiia 
exat, vicissimque alacres, pars herbis odoriferis incmctae, reductisque post cubitum 
manicis, Candidas in gurgite manus ox brachia lavabant, nescio quid blandum pere- 
grine murmure colloquentes. [A few lines omitted.] Unum igitur ex eo [amicorum] 
numero admirane et ignarus rerum percunctatus vergiliano illo versiculo : ' Quid 
vult concursus ad amnem, quidve petunt animae?' responsum accepi : pervetustum 
gentis ritum esse, vulgo persuasum, praesertim femineo, omnem totius anni calamita- 
tem imminentem fluviali illius diei ablutione purgari, et deinceps laetiora succedere; 
itaque lustrationem esse annua m, iinxbaustoque semper studio cultam colendanique. 
Ad haec ego subridens : ' nimium felices ' inquam ' Rheni accolae, quoniani illn 
miserias purgat, nostras quidem nee Padus unquam purgare valuit neo Tiberis. Vos 
vi Btra mala Britannia llbeno vectore transmittitis ; nos nostra libenter Afris atipie 
Dlyriis mitteremus, sed nobis (ut iutelligi datur) pigriora sunt ilumina.' Commoto 
risu, sero tandem inde discessimus. [A few lines omitted.] The letter is of 1830, 
and addressed to Card. Colonna. We rind it quoted so early as by Kaisersberg 
(Omeiss 3o c ). 



590 ELEMENTS. 

nounced by that Father as a relic of paganism : ' natali Johannis, 
de solemnitate superstitiosa pagana, Cliristiani ad mare veniebant, 
et se baptizabant' (Opp., Paris 1683, torn. 5, p. 903); and again: 
' ne ullus in festivitate S. Johannis in fontibas aut paludibus aut 
in fluminibus, nocturnis aut matutinis horis se lavare praesurnat, 
quia haec infelix consuetudo adhuc de Pagan orum observation e 
remansit' (Append, to torn. 5 p. 462). Generally sanctioned by 
the church it certainly was not, yet it might be allowed here and 
there, as a not unapt reminder of the Baptizer in the Jordan, 
and now interpreted of him, though once it had been heathen. 
It might easily come into extensive favour, and that not as a 
christian feast alone : to our heathen forefathers St. John's day 
would mean the festive middle of the } 7 ear, when the sun turns, 
and there might be many customs connected with it. I confess, 
if Petrarch had witnessed the bathing in the river at some small 
town, I would the sooner take it for a native rite of the ancient 
Germani ; at Cologne, the holy city so renowned for its relics, I 
rather suspect it to be a custom first introduced by christian 
tradition (see Suppl.). 1 

There are lakes and springs whose waters periodically rise and 
fall : from either phenomenon mischief is prognosticated, a death, 
war, approaching dearth. When the reigning prince is about to 
die, the river is supposed to stop in its course, as if to indicate its 
grief (Deut. sag. no. 110) ; if the well runs dry, the head of the 
family will die soon after (no. 103). A spring that either runs 
over or dries up, foreboding dearth, is called hunger quelle, hunger- 
brunnen (Staid. 2, 63). Wossingen near Durlach has a hunger- 
brunnen, which is said to flow abundantly when the year is going 
to be unfruitful, and then also the fish it produces are small. 2 

1 In Poland and Silesia, and perhaps in a part of Russia, girls who have over- 
slept matin-time on Easter Monday are soused with water by the lads, and flogged 
with birch twigs ; they are often pulled out of bed at night, and dragged to a river 
or cistern, or a trough filled icith ivater, and are ducked. The Silesians call this 
schmngostern (even Estor's Oberhess. idiot, has schmakustern = giving the rod at 
Easter) ; perh. from Pol. smic, Boh. smyti, so that shiigust would be rinsing 
[Suppl. says, ' better from smagac" to flog'] . The Poles say both smi6 and dyngo- 
wac, dyngus, of the splashing each other with water (conf. Hanusch, p. 197), and 
the time of year seems to be St. John's day as well as Easter. In the Russian gov. 
of Archangel, the people bathe in the river on June 23, and sprinkle kupalnitsa 
(ranunculus acris), Karamzin 1, 73-4 [the same is also - a surname of St. Agrippina, 
on whose day, June 24, river-bathing (kupaluia) commences]. Everywhere a 
belief in the sacredness of the Easter-bath and St. John's-bath. 

2 Mone's Anz. 3, 221. 340, who gives a forced and misleading explanation of the. 



HUNGER-SPRING. WATER-GAUGING. 591 

Such a hunger-spring there was by Halle on the Saale ; when 
the peasants came up to town, they looked at it, and if it ran 
over, they said : ' this year, things '11 be dear.' The like is told 
of fountains near Rosia in the Siennese, and near Chateaudun 
in the Orleanese. As Hunger was personified, it was easy to 
make him meddle with springs. A similar Nornborn was noticed, 
p. 405. I insert Dietmar of Merseburg's report (1, 3) of lake 
Glomazi in the Slav parts of the Elbe valley : ' Glomazi 1 est fons 
non plus ab Albi quam duo milliaria positus, qui unam de se 
paludem generans, mira, ut incolae pro vero asserunt oculisque 
approbatum est a multis, saepe operatur. Cum bona pax indigenis 
profutura suumque haec terra non mentitur fructum, tritico et 
avena ac glandine refertus, laetos vicinorum ad se crebro con- 
fluentium efficit animos. Qimndo autem saeva belli tempestas 
ingruerit, sanguine et cinere certum futuri exitus indicium prae- 
monstrat. Huuc omnis incola plus quam ecclesias, spe quamvis 
dubia, veneratur et timet.' " But apart from particular fountains, 
by a mere gauging of water a season of dearth or plenty, an 
increase or decrease of wealth may be divined, according as the 
water poured into a vessel rises or falls (Superst. F, 43 ; and no. 
953 in Praetor's Saturnalien p. 407). This looks to me like a 
custom of high antiquity. Saxo Gram. p. 320 says, the image of 
the god Svantovit in Riigen held in its right hand a horn : ' quod 
sacerdos sacrorum ejus peritus annuatim mero perfundere con- 
sueverat, exiqjso liquoris habitu sequentis anni copias prosjoedurus. 
Postero die, populo prae foribus excubante, detractum 
simulacro poculum curiosius speculatus, si quid ex inditi liquoris 
mensura substractum fuisset, ad sequentis anni inopiam pertinere 
putabat. Si nihil ex consuetae foecunditatis habitu diminutum 
vidisset, ventura agrorum ubertatis tempora praedicabat.' The 
wine was emptied out, and water poured into the horn (see Suppl.). 



word. Another name is schandlebach (beck that brings shame, confusion) : such a 
one was pointed out to me on the plain near Cassel, and Simpliciss. 5, 14 mentions 
the schdndlibach by Oberneheim, which only runs when misfortune befalls the land. 
[Suppl. adds the MHG-. sehantbach, Weisth. 1, 760, and ' der schanden bechelin,' 
Frauenlob p. 186] . So, when the Lutterborn by Herbershausen (Helperhusen) 
neat Gottingen runs, it is a dear season ; but when the spider builds in Helperhouse 
mill, and the swallow in the millwheel, the times are good. 

1 Al. ' Glomuzi, Zlumici ' ; now the Lommatsch district. 

2 Capitol, an. 794 (Pertz 3, 74) : ' experimento didicimus, in anno quo ilia 
valida famis irrepsit, ebulUrc vacuas annonas (empty ears), adaemonibus devoratas.' 



592 ELEMENTS. 

Whirlpools and waterfalls were doubtless held in special vene- 
ration; they were thought to be put in motion by a superior 
being, a river-sprite. The Danube whirlpool and others still 
have separate legends of their own. Plutarch (in his Cassar, 
cap. 19) and Clement of Alex. (Stromat. 1, 305) assure us that 
the German prophetesses watched the eddies of rivers, and by 
their whirl and noise explored the future. The Norse name for 
such a vortex is fors, Dan./os, and the Isl. sog. 1, 226 expressly 
say, 'blota3i fors'm (worshipped the f.).' The legend of the 
river-sprite fossegrim was touched upon, p. 493 ; and in such a 
fors dwelt the dwarf Andvari (Seem. 180. Fornald. sog. 1, 152). 
But animal sacrifices seem to have been specially due to the 
whirlpool (Slvos), as the black lamb (or goat) to the fossegrim; 
and the passages quoted from Agathias on pp. 47, 100, about the 
Alamanns offering horses to the rivers and ravines, are to the 
same purpose. The Iliad 21, 131 says of the Skamander : 

a> St) $7)6a 7ro\et9 lepevere ravpov<;, 
^eooi"? 8' ev hlvycn /caOiere [Mow^a? Iitttovs' 

(Lo, to the river this long time many a bull have ye hallowed, 
Many a whole-hoofed horse have ye dropped alive in his eddies) ; 
and Pausan. viii. 7, 2 : to Be apyalov KaOieaav e? tijv Aeivqv 
(a water in Argolis, conn, with Stvos) rw JJoaethoivi Ittttov^ oi 
jlpjeioi K€KO<rpevov<; %a\Lvois. Horace, Od. 3, 13: fons 
Bandusiae, non sine fioribus eras donaberis haedo (see Sup pi.). 

It is pretty well known, that even before the introduction of 
Christianity or christian baptism, the heathen Norsemen had a 
hallowing of new-born infants by means of water ; they called 
this vatni ansa, sprinkling with water. Very likely the same 
ceremony was practised by all other Teutons, and they may have 
ascribed a peculiar virtue to the water used in it, as Christians do 
to baptismal water (Superst. Swed. 116). After a christening, 
the Esthonians will bribe the clerk to let them have the water, 
and then splash it up against the walls, to secure honours and 
dignities for the child (Superst. M, 47). 

It was a practice widely prevalent to turn to strange supersti- 
tious uses the water of the millwheel caught as it glanced off the 
paddles. Old Hartlieb mentions it (Superst. H, c. 60), and vulgar 
opinion approves it still (Sap. I, 471. 766). The Servians call 



MILL-WHEEL WATER. RAIN-MAKING. 593 

such water omaya, rebound, from oruanuti, ornakhnuti, to rebound. 
Vuk, under the word, observes that -women go early on St. 
George's day (Apr. 23), to catch it, especially off a small brook- 
mill (kashitchara), and bathe in it. Some carry it home the 
evening before, and sprinkle it with all manner of broken greens : 
they think all evil and harm will then glance off their bodies like 
the water off the mill wheel (Vuk sub v. Jurjev dan). Similar, 
though exactly the reverse, is the warning not to flirt the water 
off your hands after washing in the morning, else you flirt away 
your luck for the day (Sup. I, 21). 

Not only brooks and rivers (p. 585), but rain also was in the 
childlike faith of antiquity supposed to be let fall out of bowls by 
gods of the sky; and riding witches are still believed to carry 
pitchers, out of which they pour storm and hail upon the plains, 
instead of the rain or dew that trickled down before. l 

When the heavens were shut, and the fields languished in 
drought, the granting of rain depended in the first instance on a 
deity, on Donar, or Mary and Elias, who were supplicated accord- 
ingly (pp. 173-G). 3 But in addition to that, a special charm 
was resorted to, which infallibly procured 'rainwater/ and in a 
measure compelled the gods to grant it. A little girl, completely 
undressed and led outside the town, had to dig up henbane (bilsen- 
kraut, OHG. pilisa, hyoscyamus) with the little finger of her 
right hand, and tie it to the little toe of her right foot; she was 
then solemnly conducted by the other maidens to the nearest 
river, and splashed with water. This ceremony, reported by 
Burchard of Worms (Sup. C, 201 b ) and therefore perhaps still in 
use on the Ehine or in Hesse in the 11th cent., comes to us with 
the more weight, as, with characteristic differences which put all 
direct borrowing out of the question, it is still in force among 
Servians and Mod. Greeks. Vuk, under the word ' dodole/ 
describes the Servian custom. A girl, called the dodola, is stript 
naked, but so wrapt up in grass, herbs and flowers, that nothing of 

1 The Peruvians believe in a rain-goddess, who sits in the clouds with & pitcher 
of water, ready to pour it out at the right time ; if she delays, her brother with 
thunder and iightning smites the pitcher in pieces. Garcilaso de la Vega's Histt. 
Incarum peruanorum 11, 27 ; conf. Talvj's Cliaracteristik der volkslieder, p. L26. 

1 I will here add, from Anton's Coll. on the Slavs, the substance of a Walla- 
chian song, which the children sing when the corn is endangered by drought : 
' Papalnga (father Luga), climb into heaven, open its doors, and scud down rain 
from above, that well the rye may grow ! ' 



594 ELEMENTS. 

her person is to be seen, not even the face. 1 Escorted by other 
maidens, dodola passes from house to house, before each house 
they form a ring, she standing in the middle and dancing alone. 
The goodwife comes out and empties a bucket of water over the 
girl, who keeps dancing and whirling all the while ; her com- 
panions sing songs, repeating after every line the burden ' oy 
dodo, oy dodo le V The second of these rain-hymns (piesme 
dodolske) in Vuk's Coll. nos. 86-88 (184-8 of ed. 2) runs 
thus : 

To God doth our doda call, oy dodo oy dodo le ! 

That dewy rain may fall, oy dodo oy dodo le ! 

And drench the diggers all, oy dodo oy dodo le ! 

The workers great and small, oy dodo oy dodo le ! 

Even those in house and stall, oy dodo oy dodo le ! 

And they are sure that rain will come at once. In Greece, when 
it has not rained for a fortnight or three weeks, the inhabitants 
of villages and small towns do as follows. The children choose 
one of themselves who is from eight to ten years old, usually a 
poor orphan, whom they strip naked and deck from' head to foot 
with field herbs and flowers : this child is called irvp-nvpovva. The 
others lead her round the village, singing a hymn, and every 
housewife has to throw a pailful of water over the pyrperuna's 
head, and hand the children a para (i of a farthing). The Mod. 
Greek hymn is in Theod. Kind's rpayajSta t?}? veas 'EWdSos, 
Leipz. 1833, p. 13. Passow, nos. 311-3, p. 627. Neither Greek 
nor Slavic will explain why the rain-girl should be called dodola 
(caressingly doda) and irvpirrjpovva- 2 Burchard very likely could 
have given us a German designation equally inscrutable. But the 
meaning of the performance is clear : as the water from the 
bucket on the dodola, so is rain out of heaven to stream down on 
the earth ; it is the mystic and genuinely symbolic association of 
means with end. Just so the rebound off the mill wheel was to 
send evil flying, and the lustration in the stream to wash away all 

1 Is this covering merely to protect the maiden's modesty, or has it some 
further reason ? We shall see that personations of spring and summer were in like 
manner enveloped in foliage. 

2 Kind, pp. 86-7, gives some variant forms, but all the explanations appear to 
me farfetched. Both the Greek and the Servian names have the reduplication so 
characteristic of folk-words. [Slav, dozhd is rain, and zhd represents either gd or 
dd ; if this be the root, dodo-la may be a dimin.] 



RAIN-MAKING. DUCKING. 595 

future illnesses. Celtic tradition, without bringing in girl or 
child, makes the pouring out of water in seasons of great drought 
evoke the wished-for rain. The huntsmen go to the fountain of 
Barenton in the forest of Breziliande, scoop up the water in their 
horns, and spill it on the stones ; immediately the rain-clouds rise 
and refresh the land. l The custom, with an addition of church 
ceremonial, is kept up to this day. Led by the clergy, amid 
chanting and pealing of bells, with five great banners borne in 
front, the parish walks in procession to the spring, and the head 
of the commune dips his foot crosswise in the fountain of Bar- 
enton ; they are then sure of its raining before the procession 
arrives home again. 3 The mayor's foot alone is wetted instead of 
the child, or a little water only is poured out as a beginning of 
that which is to fall in masses from the sky. The scanty offering 
brings the great bounty to our door. In Spain, when hot weather 
lasts long, an image of the Virgin arrayed in mourning (imagen 
cubierta de luto) is solemnly escorted through the villages, to 
obtain the blessing of rain, 3 as in the Liege procession (pp.1 74-5), 
with which again that described by Petronius agrees (p. 175) ; 
only here the symbolic libation is left out. But of those herbs 
that were tied round the child, some most likely were of magic 
power; such a use of henbane is otherwise unknown to me. 
Lastly, the Bavarian waterbird seems identical with dodola and 
pyrperuna. The man who is the last to drive out on Whitmonday 4 
is led by the other workmen into the nearest wood, and tied 
round and round with leaves and twigs or rushes; then they ride in 
triumph through the village, and everybody that has young legs 
follows the procession to the pond or brook, where the waterbird 
is solemnly tumbled off his horse into the water (Schm. 1, 320). 
In Austria too the village lads elect a Whitsun king, dress him 
up in green boughs, blacken his face and pitch him into the brook 
(Denis, Lesefr. 1,130). In these two cases the ' votis vocare 

1 Roman de Ron, v. 11514 (the passage extracted in the notes to Iwein, pp. 
262-3). 

s Revue de Paris, tome 41, pp. 47-58. Villemar adds, that children throw 
pins into the fountain, while they call out : ' ris done, fontaino de Berendon, et jo 
te donnerai une epingle 1 ' and the fay of the fountain is supposed to be mado 
friendly by the gift. Conf. ' libamina lacui exhibere', p. 596. 

3 Don Quixote 1, 52 (Ideler 2, 435). And in other places it was the custom in 
time of drougbt, to carry tbe bodies of saints about, Flodoard. rem. 4, 41. 

* As the girl who oversleeps herself on Easter morning is ducked (p. 590). 



596 ELEMENTS. 

irnbrem' has dropt out altogether, and been replaced by a mere 
Whitsun drollery at the cost of the laziest man ; l but I have 
little doubt that the same purpose lies at the bottom of the 
custom (see Suppl.). 

Of goddesses, no doubt the bath-loving Nerthus and Holda 
are the most nearly connected with water-worship (Holda lives in 
wells, pp. 268, 487) ; and to them must be added swan-maidens, 
mermiunes (p. 433), water-holdes, spring-holdes (p. 268), water- 
muhmes and nixies. To all of them particular rivers, brooks, 
pools and springs can be consecrated and assigned as their 
abode; Oegir (p. 237) and Ban (pp. 311, 497) ruled in the sea, 
and the waves are called their daughters : all this gives a new 
stamp to the veneration of the element. Of this very natural, 
but not essential, combination of simple rude water-worship with 
a faith in higher beings, I will give a few more specimens. 

As those who cross a river by ferry or by bridge have to dread 
the power of the daemon that dwells in it (p. 497), so vulgar 
opinion in Sweden (Sup. K, 40) holds it advisable, in crossing 
any water in the dark, to spit three times, as a safeguard against 
evil influences. 2 Precautions ai*e also taken in drawing water from 
a well : before drawing any, the Greeks at Mykono salute three 
times in honour of Teloni (fountain-sprite). 3 For a thief to throw 
in the water a little of what he has stolen (Sup. I, 836), means 
sacrificing to the water-sprite. The Vita S. Sulpicii Biturig. 
(died 644) relates (Acta Bened. sec. 2, p. 172): 'gurges quidam 
erat in Yirisionensium situs agello (Vierzon, in Biturigibus) 
aquarum mole copiosus, utpote daemonibus consecratus ; et si 
aliquis causa qualibet ingrederetur eundem, repente funibus 
daemoniacis circumplexus amittebat crudeliter vitam.' A more 
decisive testimony to the worship of water itself is what Gregory 
of Tours tells of a lake on Mt. Helanus (De gloria confess., 
cap. 2) : ( Mons erat in Gabalitano territorio (Gevaudan) cogno- 
mento Helanus, lacum habens magnum. Ad quern certo tem- 
pore multitudo rusticorum, quasi libamina lacui Mi exhibens, 

1 Sup. I, 342 : the lazy maid, on carrying home her first grass, is ducked or 
splashed, to prevent her going to sleep over grass-cutting. 

2 The spirits cannot abide spitting (p. 514). 

3 Yilloison in Maltebrun, Annales de voy. 2, 180. Artemidorus's Oneirocrit. 
2 27 (Reiff 1, 189) admits well-nymphs : vvfupat. re yap daiv ev r^ (p^arc. Fauriel: 
rb <ttqixzu>v rod Trora/jLov. 



HOLY WATERS. LAKES. 597 

linteaniina projiciebat ac pannos qui ad usum vestimenti virilis 
praebentur : nonnulli lanae vellera, plurimi etiam forrnas casei 1 
ac cerae vel panis, diversasque species uuusquisque juxta vires 
suas, quae dinumerare perlonguin puto. Veuiebant auteni cum 
plaustris potuin cibumque deferentes, madantes animalia et per 
triduum epidantes. Quarta autein die cum discedere deberent, 
anticipabat eos tempestas cum tonitruo et coruscatione valida ; et 
in tantum imber ingens cum lapidum violentia descendebat, ut 
vix se quisquam eorum putaret evadere. Sic fiebat per singulos 
annos, et iuvolvebatur iusipieus populus in errore.' — No god or 
spirit shews his face here, the yearly sacrifice is offered to the 
lake itself, and the feast winds up with the coming tempest. 
Gervase of Tilbury (in Leibnitz 1, 982) tells of a lake on Mt. 
Cavagum in Catalonia : ' in cujus summitate lacus est aquam 
continens subnigram et in fundo imperscrutabilem. Illic mansio 
fertur esse daemonum ad modum palatii dilatata et janua clausa ; 
facies tamen ipsius inansionis sicut ipsorum daemonum vul- 
garibus est incognita ac invisibilis. In lacum si quis aliquam 
lapideam aut aliam solidam projecerit materiarn, statim tanquam 
offtnsis daemonibus tempestas erumpit.' 2 Then comes the story 
of a girl who is carried off by the watersprites, and kept in the 
lake seven years. 

Lakes cannot endure to have their depth gauged. On the 
Mummelsee, when the sounders had let down all the cord out of 
nine nets with a plummet without finding a bottom, suddenly the 
raft they were on began to sink, and they had to seek safety in a 
rapid flight to land (Simplic. 5, 10). A man went in a boat to 
the middle of the Tltlsee, and payed out no end of line after the 
plummet, when there came out of the waves a terrible cry: 
' Measure me, and I'll eat you up ! ' In a great fright the man 
desisted from his enterprise, and since then no one has dared 

1 Formages, whence fromages. 

2 This raising of a storm by throwing stones into a lake or wellhead is a Teu- 
tonic, a Celtic and a Finnish superstition, as the examples quoted shew. The 
watersprite avenges the desecration of his holy stream. Under this head come the 
stories of the Mummelsee (Deut. sag. no. 59. Simplic. 5, 9), of the Pilatussee 
(Lothar's Volkssag. 232. Dobenek 2, 118. Gutslaff p. 288. Hone's Anz. 4, 423), 
of L. Camarina in Sicily (Camarinam movere), and above all, of Berenton well in 
Breziliande forest, Iwein 553-672, where however it is the well-water poured on the 
well-rock that stirs up the storm: conf. supra, p. 5 ( J4, and the place in Pontus men- 
tioned by Beneke, p. 2G ( J. Tho lapis manalis also conjured up rain, 0. Muller'.s Btr. 
2,97. 



598 ELEMENTS. 

to sound the depth of the lake (Mone's Ariz. 8, 530). There is 
a similar story in Thiele 3, 73, about Huntsoe, that some people 
tried to fathom its depth with a ploughshare tied to the line, 
and from below came the sound of a spirit-voice : ' i maale vore 
vagge, vi skal maale jeres lagge ! ' Full of terror they hauled 
up the line, but instead of the share found an old horse's skull 
fastened to it. 1 

It is the custom in Bsthonia for a newly married wife to drop a 
present into the well of the house ; it is a nationality that seems 
particularly given to worshipping water. There is a detailed 
account of the holy Wohhanda, a rivulet of Livonia. It rises 
near Ilmegerve, a village of Odenpa district in Esthonia, and 
after its junction with the Medda, falls into L. Peipus. The 
source is in a sacred grove, within whose bounds no one dares to 
cut a tree or break a twig : whoever does it is sure to die that 
year. Both brook and fountain are kept clean, and are put to 
rights once a year; if anything is thrown into the spring or 
the little lake through which it flows, the weather turns to storm 
(see Suppl.). 

Now in 1641 Hans Ohm of Sommerpahl, a large landowner 
who had come into the country in the wake of the Swedes, built 
a mill on the brook, and when bad harvests followed for several 
years, the Ehsts laid it all to the desecration of the holy stream, 
who allowed no obstructions in his path ; they fell upon the mill, 
burnt it down, and destroyed the piles in the water. Ohm went 
to law, and obtained a verdict against the peasants ; but to 
rid himself of new and grievous persecutions, he induced pastor 
Gutslaff, another German, to write a treatise 2 specially com- 
bating this superstition. Doubtless we learn from it only the 
odious features of the heathenish cult. To the question, how 
good or bad weather could depend on springs, brooks and lakes, 
the Ehsts replied : c it is our ancient faith, the men of old have 
so taught us (p. 25, 258); mills have been burnt down on this 

1 The people about L. Baikal believe it has no bottom. A priest, who could 
dive to any depth, tried it, but was so frightened by the 16s (dragons, sea-monsters), 
that, if I remember rightly, he died raving mad.— Tkans. 

2 A short account of the holy brook (falsely so called) Wohhanda in Liefland, 
whereby the ungodly burning of Sommerpabl mill came to pass. Given from 
Cbristian zeal against uncbristian and heathenish superstition, by Job. Gutslaff, 
Pomer. pastor at Urbs in Liefland. Porpt 1644 (8vo, 407 pp. without the Pedic. 
and Pref.). An extract in Kellgren (Suomi 9, 72-92). 



HOLY LAKES AND STREAMS. 599 

brook before now (p. 278), he will stand no crowding.'' The Esth. 
name is ' poha yogge/ the Lettic c shveti ubbe/ i.e. holy brook. 
By means of it they could regulate the weather, and when they 
wanted rain, they had only to throw something in (p. 25). Once, 
when three oxen were drowned in the lake, there followed snow 
and frost (p. 26). At times there came up out of the brook a carl 
ivith blue and yellow stockings : evidently the spirit of the brook. 
Another Esthonian story is about L. Elm changing his bed. 
On his banks lived wild and wicked men, who never mowed the 
meadows that he watered, nor sowed the fields he fertilized, but 
robbed and murdered, so that his bright wave was befouled with 
the blood of the slain. And the lake mourned ; and one evening 
he called his fish together, and mounted with them into the 
air. The brigands hearing a din cried : ' the Eim has left his 
bed, let us collect his fish and hidden treasure/ But the fish 
were gone, and nothing was found at the bottom but snakes, 
toads and salamanders, which came creeping out and lodged with 
the ruffian brood. But the Eim rose higher and higher, and 
swept like a white cloud through the air ; said the hunters in the 
woods : ' what is this murky weather passing over us ? ' and the 
herdsmen : ' what white swan is flying in the sky ? ' AH night 
he hung among the stars, at morn the reapers spied him, how 
that he was sinking, and the white swan became as a white ship, 
and the ship as a dark drifting cloud. And out of the waters 
came a voice: f get thee hence with thy harvest, I come to dwell 
with thee.' Then they bade him welcome, if he would bedew their 
fields and meadows, and he sank down and stretched himself in 
hi3 new couch. They set his bed in order, built dikes, and planted 
young trees around to cool his face. Their fields he made fertile, 
their meadows green ; and they danced around him, so that old 
men grew young for joy. 1 

1 Fr. Thiersch in Taschenbuch fi'ir liebe unci freundschaft 1809, p. 179. Must 
not Eim be the same as Embach (mother-beck, fr. emma mother, conf. oim mother- 
in-law) uear Dorpat, whose origin is reported as follows ? When God had created 
heaven and earth, he wished to bestow on the beasts a king, to keep them in 
order, and commanded them to dig for his reception a deep broad beck, on 
whose banks he might walk ; the earth dug out of it was to make a hill for the 
king to live on. All the beasts set to work, the hare measured the land, the fox's 
brush trailing after him marked the course of the stream ; when they had finished 
hollowing out the bed, God poured water into it out of his golden bowl (Verhandl. 
der esthn. gesellschaft, Dorpat 1840. 1, 10-12). The two stories differ as to the 
manner of preparing the new bed. 

VOL. II. M 



600 ELEMENTS. 

The Greeks and Romans personified their rivers into male 
beings ; a bearded old man pours the flowing spring out of his 
urn (pp. 585. 593). Homer finely pictures the elemental strife 
between water and fire in the battle of the Skamander with 
Hephaestus : the river is a god, and is called ava%, Od. 5, 445. 
451. The Indian Ganges too is an august deity. Smaller 
streams and fountains had nymphs set over them. 1 In our 
language, most of the rivers' names are feminine (Gramm. 3, 
384-6), there must therefore have been female watersprites. 
Twelve or eighteen streams are specified by name in Ssem. 43 b . 
Sn. 4. I single out Leiptr, by whose clear water, as by Styx or 
Acheron, oaths were sworn. Saein. 165 a : 'at eno liosa Leiptrar 
vatni.' A dasrnon of the Rhine is nowhere named in our native 
traditions, but the Edda calls the Rin (fern.) svinn, askunna 
(prudens, a diis oriunda, Sa3m. 248 a ). And in the bosom of the 
Rhine lie treasure and gold. The Goths buried their beloved 
king Alaric in the bed of a river near Consentia (Cosenza), which 
they first dug out of its course, and then led back over the 
corpse (Jornandes, cap. 30) ; the Franks, when crossing a river, 
offered sacrifice to it (p. 45). 

But where the sacred water of a river sweeps round a piece 
of meadow land, and forms an ea (aue), such a spot is specially 
marked out for the residence of gods ; witness Wunsches ouwe 
(p. 140), Pholes ouwa (p. 22 5). 2 Equally venerable were islands 
washed by the pure sea wave, Fosetesland (p. 230), and the island 
of Nerthus (p. 251). 

In the sea itself dwelt Oegir (p. 237) and Ran (p. 311), and the 
waves are their daughters : the Edda speaks of nine waves, and 
gives their names (Sn. 124, conf. the riddles in the Hervararsaga, 
pp. 478-9) ; this reminds me of the nona unda in the Waltbai'ius 
1343, and the ( fluctus decunianus' [every tenth wave being the 
biggest, Festus, and Ov. Trist. i. 2, 50] . There must also have 
been another god of the sea, Geban (p. 239, conf. p. 311). Then, 

1 The Kornans appear to have much elaborated their cultus of rivers and 
brooks, as may be seen by the great number of monuments erected to river-gods. I 
will here add the testimony of Tacitus, Ann. 1, 79 : ' sacra et lucos et aras patriis 
omnibus dicare.' 

2 Gallus Ohem's Chronik von Reichaiau (end of loth cent.) quoted in Schon- 
liuth's Ileicheuau, Freib. 1836, p. v. : ' the isle is to this day esteemed honourable 
and hohj ; uuchristened babes are not buried in it, but carried out and laid beside a 
small house with a saint's image in it, called the chindli-bihi 



EA, ISLAND. SEA. FIRE. 601 

according to the Edda, there lies in the deep sea an enormous 
' worm/ miSgarSs-orinr, biting his own tail and begirding the 
whole earth. The immensity of ocean (Goth, mcmsdws) is ex- 
pressed in the OHG. names endilmeri and wendilmeri (Graff 2, 
829) ; conf. enteo and wenteo (p. 564), entil and wentil (p. 375). 
An AS. term gdrsecg I have tried to explain in Zeitschr. fur d. a. 
1, 578. As the running stream will suffer no evil-doer in it, so 
is ' daz met so reine, daz ez keine busheit mac geliden/ so clean 
that it no wickedness can bear, Wiener merfart 392 (see Suppl.). 



2. Fire. 

Fire, 1 like water, is regarded as a living being : corresponding 
to quecprimno (p. 588 n.) we have a quecfiur, daz quecke fiwer, 
Parz. 71, 13 ; Serv. vatra zhiva, ogan zhivi (vivus, Vuk 1, xlvi. 
and 3, 8. 20) ; rb rrvp diqpiov epi-^v^ov of the Egyptians, Herod. 3, 
16; ignis animal, Cic. de N. D. 3, 14, i.e. a devouring hungry 
insatiable beast, vorax flamrna; frekr (avidus), Saetn. 50 b ; bitar 
iBur, Hel. 78, 22 ; bitar logna 79, 20 ; gradag logna (greedy lowe), 
130, 23; grim endi gradag 133, 11; eld unfuodi (insatiabilis) 78, 
23 ; it licks with its tongue, eats all round it, pastures, vipuerat,, 
II. 23, 177; the land gets eaten clean by it, irvpl %6a)v vipuerac, 
2, 780; 'lcztu eld eta iofra bygdir, Sa3m. I42 a ; it is restless, 
ciKafxarov irvp, II. 23, 52. To be spoken to is a mark of living- 
things : ' heitr ertu hripuSr ! ' (hot art thou, Fire), Sasm. 40 a . 
The ancient Persians made a god of it, and the Indian Agni 
(ignis) is looked upon as a god. The Edda makes fire a brother 
of the wind and sea, therefore himself alive and a god, Sn. 126. 
Our people compare the element to a cock flying from house to 
house : ' I'll set the red code on your roof ' is a threat of the incen- 
diary ; ' ein roten han aufs stadel setzen/ H. Sachs iv. 3, SG d ; 
voter schin, Gudr. 786, 2. 

An antique heathen designation of the great World-fire, OX. 
muspell, OHG. OS. muspilli, miuhpdli, iiuttsju'lli, has already 
'nvii noticed, p. 558. The mythic allusions here involved can 
3nly be unfolded in the sequel ; the meaning of the word seems 
to be ligni perditor, as fire in general is also called bani vicfar, 

* ' Names for it, Grarnm. 3, 352 ; Eddie names, Sam. 50'\ Su. 187-8. 



602 ELEMENTS. 

grand vi&ar (bane, crusher, of wood), Sn. 126, her alls vicTar, 
Stem. 228 b . Another difficult expression is eiJcin fur, Seem. 83 b . 
Of vafrlogi (quivering flame), suggesting the MHG. ' daz bibende 
fiwer' (Tund. 54, 58), I likewise forbear to speak; conf. Chap. 
XXXI., Will o' the wisp (see Suppl.). 

A regular worship of fire seems to have had a more limited 
range than the veneration of water ; it is only in that passage of 
the AS. prohibitions quoted p. 102, and in no other, that I find 
mention of fire. A part of the reverence accorded to it is no 
doubt included in that of the light-giving and warming sun, as 
Julius Caesar (p. 103 above) names Sol and Vulcanus together, 
and the Edda fire and sun, praising them both as supreme : 
' eldr er beztr med yta sonum, ok solar syn/ fire is best for men, 
Saern. 18 b (as Pindar says water is). In Superst. B, 17, I under- 
stand ' observatio pagana in foco' of the flame on the hearth or in 
the oven: where a hearth-fire burns, no lightning strikes (Sup. I, 
126) ; when it crackles, there will be strife (322. 534). Compare 
with this the Norwegian exposition (p. 242) ; so long as a child 
is unbaptized, you must not let the fire out (Sup. Swed. 22), conf. 
hasta eld, tagi i elden (24-5. 54. 68. 107).— The Esthonians 
throw gifts into fire, as well as into water (Sup. M, 11) ; to 
pacify the flame, they sacrifice a fowl to it (82). 

A distinction seems to have been made between friendly and 
malignant fires ; among the former the Greeks reckoned brimstone 
fire, as they call sulphur Oelov, divine smoke (II. 8, 135. Od. 22, 
481. 493). In 0. Fr. poems I often find such forms of cursing 
as : mat feu arde ! Tristr. 3791 ; maus feus et male fiambe 
m'arde ! Meon 3, 227. 297. Ren. 19998. This evil fire is what 
the Norse Loki represents ; and as Loki or the devil breaks loose, 
we say, when a fire begins, that it breaks loose, breaks out, gets out, 
as if from chains and prison : '" worde vtir los/ Doc. in Sartorius's 
Hanse p. 27 ; in Lower Germany an alarm of fire was given in the 
words ' fur los ! ' ON. ' einn neisti (spark) warS laus.' 

Forms of exorcism treat fire as a hostile higher being, whom 
one must encounter with might and main. Tacitus (Ann. 13, 57) 
tells us how the Ubii suppressed a fire that broke out of the ground : 
Residentibus flam mis propius suggressi, ictu fustium aliisque 
verberibus ut feras (see p. 601) absterrebant, postremo tegmina 
corpore direpta injiciunt, quanto magis profana et usu polluta, 



FIEE-WORSHIP. 603 

tanto magis oppressura ignes. So, on valuables that have caught 
fire, people throw some article of clothing that has beeu worn 
next the skin, or else earth which has first been stamped on with 
the foot. Rupertus Tuitiensis, De incendio oppidi Tuitii (i.e. Deutz, 
in 1128), relates that a white altar-cloth (corporale) was thrust 
into the middle of the fire, to stifle it, but the flame hurled back 
the cloth. The cloth remained uninjured, but had a red streak 
running: through it. Similar to this was the casting of clothes 
into the lake (p. 596-7). Fire breaking out of the earth (iarS- 
eldr) is mentioned several times in Icelandic sagas : in the even- 
ing you see a great horrible man rowing to land in an iron boat, 
and digging under the stable door : in the night earth-fire breaks 
out there, and consumes every dwelling, Landn. 2, 5 ; ' iarSeldr 
rann ofan/ 4, 12 (see Suppl.). 

Needfirb. — Flame which had been kept some time among 
men and been propagated from one fire to another, was thought 
unserviceable for sacred uses ; as holy water had to be drawn 
fresh from the spring, so it made all the difference, if instead of 
the profaned and as it were worn out flame, a new one were used. 
This was called wild fire, as opposed to the tame and domesti- 
cated. So heroes when they fought, ' des fiurs uz den riugen 
(harness) hiuwen si genuoc/ Nib. 2215, 1 ; uz ir helmen daz 
wilde fiwer von den slegen vuor entwer/ Alt. bl. 1, 339 ; c daz 
fiur wilde wadlende druze vluoc/ Lanz. 5306 ; ' si sluog'en uf ein- 
ander, daz wilde fiur erschien/ Etzels hofh. 168 (see Suppl.). 
Fire struck or scraped out of stone might indeed have every 
claim to be called a fresh one, but either that method seemed 
too common (fiammam concussis ex more lapidibus elicere, Vita 
Severini cap. 14), or its generation out of wood was regarded as 
moi;e primitive and hallowed. If by accident such' wild fire have 
arisen uuder the carpenter's hand in driving a nail into the mor- 
tised timbers of a new house, it is ominous of danger (Superst. I, 
411. 500. 707). But for the most part there was a formal kindling 
of flame by the rubbing of wood, for which the name known from 
the oldest times was notfeuer (need fire), and its ritual can with 
scarce a doubt be traced back to heathen sacrifices. 

So far back as in the Indiculus superstit. 15, we have mention 
f de ignefricato de ligno, id est nodfyr'; the Capitulare Carlomani 



604 ELEMENTS. 

of 742 § 5 (Pertz 3, 17) forbids ' illos saerilegos ignes quos nied- 
fijr vocant. 1 

The preparation of needfire is variously described : I think 
it worth the while to bring all such accounts together in this 
place. Lindenbrog in the Glossary to the Capitularies says : 
' Eusticani homines in multis Germaniae locis, et festo quidem 
S.'Johannis Baptistae die, p alum sepi extrahunt, extracto funem 
circumligant, illumque hue illuc ducunt, donee ignem concipiat : 
quern stipula lignisque aridioribus aggestis curate fovent, ac 
cineres collectos supra olera spargunt, hoc medio erucas abigi 
posse inani superstitione credentes. Eum ergo ignem nodfeur et 
nodfyr, quasi necessarium ignem, vocant/ — Joh. Keiskius, 2 in Un- 
tersuchung des notfeuers, Frankf. and Leipz. 1696, 8. p. 51 ■ 
' If at any time a grievous murrain have broke out among 
cattle great or small, and they have suffered much harm 
thereby ; the husbandmen with one consent make a nothfur 
or nothfeuer. On a day appointed there must in no house he 
any flame left on the hearth. From every house shall be some 
straw and water and bushwood brought ; then is a stout oaken 
stake driven fast into the ground, and a hole bored through the 
same, to the which a wooden roller well smeared with pitch and 
tar is let in, and so winded about, until by reason of the great 
heat and stress (nothzwang) it give out fire. This is straightway 
catched on shavings, and by straw, heath and bushwood enlarged, 
till it grow to a full nothfeuer, yet must it stretch a little way 
along betwixt two walls or hedges, and the cattle and thereto the 
horses be with sticks and whips driven through it three times or 
two. Others in other parts set up two such stakes, and stuff into 
the holes a windle or roller and therewith old rags smeared with 
grease. Others use a hairen or common light- spun rope, collect 
wood of nine kinds, and keep up a violent motion till such time as 
fire do drop therefrom. There may be in use yet other ways for 
the generating or kindling of this fire, nevertheless they all have 
respect unto the healing of cattle alone. After thrice or twice 
passing through, the cattle are driven to stall or field, and the 

1 Tgnorant scribes made it metfratres, the Capitularia spuria Beueclicti 1, 2 
(reitz iv. 2, 46) have nedfratres. 

2 Eector of Wolfenbtittel school, v. Gericke's Schottelms illustratus, Leipz. 
171P, p. 66. Eccard's Fr. or. 1, 425. 



NEED-FIIIE. 



605 



collected pile of wood is again pulled asunder, yet in sucli wise in 
sundry places, that every householder shall take a brand with him, 
quench it in the wash or swill tub, and put the same by for a 
time in the crib wherein the cattle are fed. The stakes driven in 
for the extorting of this fire, and the wood used for a roller, are 
sometimes carried away for fuel, sometimes laid by in safety, when 
the threefold chasing of the cattle through the flame hath been 
accomplished/ — In the Marburg Records of Inquiry, for 1605, it 
is ordered, that a new cartwheel with an unused axle be taken 
and worked round until it give fire, and with this a fire be 
lighted between the gates, and all the oxen driven through it ; but 
before the fire be kindled, every citizen shall put his own fire clean 
out, and afterward fetch him fire again from the other. 1 Kuhn's 
Markisehe sagen p. 369 informs us, that in many parts of the 
Mark the custom prevails of making a nothfeuer on certain occa- 
sions, and particularly when there is disease among swine. Before 
sunrise two stakes of dry wood are dug into the ground amid solemn 
silence, and hempen ropes that go round them are pulled back 
and forwards till the wood catches fire ; the fire is fed with leaves 
and twigs, and the sick animals are driven through. In some 
places the fire is produced by the friction of an old cartwheel. — 
The following description, the latest of all, is communicated from 
Hohenhameln, bailiw. Baldenberg, Hildesheim : In many villages 
of Lower Saxony, especially in the mountains, it is common, as a 
precaution against cattle plague, to get up the so-called wild fire, 
through which first the pigs, then the cows, lastly the geese are 
driven. 2 The established procedure in the matter is this. The 
farmers and all the parish assemble, each inhabitant receives 
notice to extinguish every bit of fire in his house, so that not a 
spark is left alight in the whole village. Then old and young 
walk to a hollow way, usually towards evening, the women carry- 
ing linen, the men wood and tow. Two oaken stakes are driven 
into the ground a foot and a half apart, each having a hole on the 
inner side, into which fits a cross-bar as thick as an arm. The 
holes are stuffed with linen, then the cross-bar is forced in as 
tight as possible, the heads of the stakes being held together with 

1 Zeitsclir. des Less, vereins 2, 281. 

2 Not a word about sheep : supposing cocks and hens were likewise bunted over 
tbe coals, it would explain a hitherto unexplained proverb (lieinbart xciv.). 



606 ELEMENTS. 

corcls. About the smooth round cross-bar is coiled a rope, whose 
long ends, left hanging on both sides, are seized by a number of 
men ; these make the cross-bar revolve rapidly this way and that, 
till the friction sets the linen in the holes on fire. The sparks are 
caught on tow or oakum, and whirled round in the air till they 
burst into a clear blaze, which is then communicated to straw, and 
from the straw to a bed of brushwood arranged in cross layers in 
the hollow way. When this wood has well burnt and nearly done 
blazing, the people hurry off to the herds waiting behind, and 
drive them perforce, one after the other, through the glowing 
embers. As soon as all the cattle are through, the young folks 
throw themselves pellmell upon the ashes and coals, sprinkling 
and blackening one another ;, those who are most blackened and 
besmudged march into the village behind the cattle as conquerors, 
and will not wash for a long time after. 1 If after long rubbing 
the linen will not catch, they feel sure there is still fire somewhere 
in the village, and that the element refuses to reveal itself through 
friction : then follows a strict searching of houses, any fire they 
may light upon is extinguished, and the master of the house 
rebuked or chastised. But that the wild fire should be evoked by 
friction is indispensable, it cannot be struck out of flint and steel. 
Some localities perform the ceremony, not yearly as a preventive 
of murrain, but only upon its actually breaking out. 

Accurate as these accounts are, a few minor details have 
escaped them, whose observance is seen to in some districts at 
least. Thus, in the Halberstadt country the ropes of the wooden 
roller are pulled by two chaste boys. 2 Need fires have remained in 
use longer and more commonly in North Germany, 3 yet are not 
quite unknown in the South. Schmeller and Stalder are silent, 
but in Appenzell the country children still have a game of rub- 
bing a rope against a stick till it catches fire : this they call ' de 
tufel hale,' unmanning the devil, despoiling him of his strength. 4 

1 Is there not also a brand or some light earned home for a redistribution of 
fire in tbe village ? 

- Biisching's Wochentliche nachr. 4, 64 ; so a chaste youth has to strike the 
light for curing St. Anthony's fire, Superst. I, 710. 

3 Conf. Conring's Epist. ad Baluz. xiii. Gericke's Schottel. p. 70. Diihnert 
sub v. noodfiir. 

4 Zellweger's Gesch. von Appenzell, Trogen 1830. 1, 63 ; who observes, that 
with the ashes of the fire so engendered they strew the fields, as a protection 
against vermin. 



NEED-FIRE. 



607 



But Tobler 252'' says, what boys call de tiifel hilla is spinning a 
pointed stick, with a string coiled round it, rapidly in a wooden 
socket, till it takes fire. The name may be one of those innu- 
merable allusions to Loki, the devil and fire-god (p. 242). Nic. 
Gryse, in a passage to be quoted later, speaks of sawing fire out 
of wood, as we read elsewhere of symbolically sawing the old 
woman in two. The Practica of Berthol. Carrichter, phys. in 
ord. to Maximilian II., gives a description (which I borrow from 
Wolfg. Hildebrand on Sorcery, Leipz. 1631. p. 226) of a magic 
bath, which is not to be heated with common flint-and-steel fire : 
( Go to an appletree which the lightning hath stricken, let a saw 
be made thee of his wood, therewith shalt thou saw upon a 
wooden threshold that much people passeth over, till it be kindled. 
Then make firewood of birch-fungus, and kindle it at this fire, 
with which thou shalt heat the bath, and on thy life see it go not 
out ' (see Suppl.). 

Notfiur can be derived from not (need, necessitas), whether 
because the fire is forced to shew itself or the cattle to tread the 
hot coal, or because the operation takes place in a time of need, 
of pestilence. Nevertheless I will attempt another explanation : 
notfiur, nodfiur may stand for an older hnoffiur, hnodfiur, from 
the root hniudan, OHG. hniotan, ON. hniofta (quassare, terere, 
tundere) ; l and would mean a fire elicited by thumping, rubbing, 
shaking. 

And in Sweden it is actually called both vrideld and gnideld : 
the one from vrida (torquere, circumagere), AS. wriSan, OHG. 
ridan, MHG. riden ; the other from gnida (fricare), OHG. knitan, 
AS. cnidan (conterere, fricare, depsere). 

It was produced in Sweden as with us, by violently rubbing 
two pieces of wood together, in some districts even near the 
end of last century; sometimes they used boughs of nine sorts 
of wood? The smoke rising from gnideld was deemed salutary, 

1 OHG. pihniutit (excutit).Gl. ker. 251. hnotot (quassat) 229. hnutten (vibrare) 
282 ; N. has fnoton (quassare), Ps. 109, 6. Bth. 230 ; conf. nieten, to bump. ON. 
still has knicro'a in hnoiS (tudes, malleus), hno'JSa (depsere), hnu'Sla (subigere). It 
might be spelt hnotfiur or huotfiur (hnutfiur), ace. as the sing, or pi. vowel-form 
was used. Perhaps we need not even insist on a lost h, but turn to the OHG. 
niuwan, ON. niia (terere, fricare), from which a subst. not might be derived by 
suffix. Nay, we might go the length of supposing that not, nauj>s, nauftr, need, 
contained from the first the notion of stress and pressure (conf. Graff 2, 1032. 4, 
1125). 

- Hire's De superstit. p. 98, and Glossary sub. v. wredeld. Finn. Magn., 



608 ELEMENTS. 

fruit-trees or nets fumigated with it became the more productive 
of fruit or fish. On this fumigation with vriden eld, and on 
driving the cattle out over such smoke, conf. Superst. Swed. 89. 
108. We can see that the purposes to which needfire was 
applied must have been far more numerous in heathen times : in 
Germany we find but a fragment of it in use for diseased cattle, 
but the superstitious practice of girls kindling nine sorts of wood 
on Christmas eve (Sup. I, 955) may assure us of a wider meaning 
having once belonged to needfire (see Suppl.). 

In the North of England it is believed that an angel strikes a 
tree, and then needfire can be got from it ; did they rub it only 
out of windfall wood ? or does striking here not mean felling ? 

Of more significance are the Scotch and Irish procedures, 
which I am glad to give in the words of the original communica- 
tions. The following I owe to the kindness of Miss Austin ; it 
refers to the I. of Mull (off the W. coast of Scotland), and to 
the year 1767. ' In consequence of a disease among the black 
cattle the people agreed to perform an incantation, though they 
esteemed it a wicked thing. They carried to the top of Carn- 
uioor a wheel and nine spindles of oak wood. They extinguished 
every fire in every house within sight of the hill ; the wheel was 
then turned from east to west over the nine spindles long enough 
to produce fire by friction. If the fire were not produced before 
noon, the incantation lost its effect. They failed for several days 
running. They attributed this failure to the obstinacy of one 
householder, who would not let his fires be put out for what he 
considered so wrong a purpose. However by bribing his ser- 
vants they contrived to have them extinguished, and on that 
morning raised their fire. They then sacrificed a heifer, cutting 
in pieces and burning, while yet alive, the diseased part. Then 
they lighted their own hearths from the pile, and ended by feast- 
ing on the remains. Words of incantation were repeated by an 
old man from Morven, who came over as master of the cere- 
monies, and who continued speaking all the time the fire was 
being raised. This man was living a beggar at Bellochroy. 
Asked to repeat the spell, he said the sin of repeating it once had 



Tidskr. for nord. oldk. 2, 294, following Westerdahl. Conf. bjaraau, a magic 
utensil, Chap. XXXIV. 



NEED-FIRE. 



609 



brought him to beggary, and that he dared not say those words 
again. The whole country believed him accursed ' (see Suppl.). 

In the Highlands, and especially in Caithness, they now use 
needfire chiefly as a remedy for preternatural diseases of cattle 
brought on by witchcraft. 1 ' To defeat the sorceries, certain 
persons who have the power to do so are sent for to raise the 
needfire. Upon any small river, lake, or island, a circular booth 
of stone or turf is erected, on which a couple or rafter of a birch- 
tree is placed, and the roof covered over. In the centre is set a 
perpendicular post, fixed by a wooden pin to the couple, the lower 
end being placed in an obloug groove on the floor ; and another 
pole is placed horizontally between the upright post and the legs 
of the couple, into both of which the ends, being tapered, are 
inserted. This horizontal timber is called the auger, being pro- 
vided with four short arms or spokes by which it can be turned 
round. As many men as can be collected are then set to work, 
having first divested themselves of cdl kinds of metal, and two at 
a time continue to turn the pole by means of the levers, while 
others keep driving wedges under the upright post so as to press 
it against the auger, which by the friction soon becomes ignited. 
From this the needfire is instantly procured, and all other fires 
being immediately quenched, those that are rekindled both in 
dwelling house and offices are accounted sacred, and the cattle 
are successively made to smell them/ Let me also make room 
for Martin's description, 3 which has features of its own : ' The 
inhabitants here did also make use of a fire called tinegin, i.e. a 
forced fire, or fire of necessity, 3 which they used as an antidote 
against the plague or murrain in cattle ; and it was performed 
thus : all the fires in the parish were extinguished, and then 
eighty-one (9 x 9) married men, being thought the necessary 
number for effecting this design, took two great plunks of wood, 
and nine of 'em were employed by turns, who by their repeated 
efforts rubbed one of the planks against the other until the heat 

1 I borrow the description of the process from James Logan's 'The Scottish 
Gael, or Celtic manners as preserved among the Highlanders,' Lond. ls;U. 2, til; 
though here he copies almost verbally from Jarnieson'a Supplem. to the Scot. Diet. 
sub v. neidfyre. 

2 Descr. of the Western Islands, p. 113. 

3 From tin, Ir. teine (fire), and egin, Ir. eigin, eigean (vis, violentia) ; which 
seems to favour the old etymology of nothfeuer, unless it be simply a translation of 
the Engl, needfire [which itself may stand for kneadiiie] . 



610 ELEMENTS 

thereof produced fire; and from this forced fire each family is 
supplied with new fire, which is no sooner kindled than a pot full 
of water is quickly set on it, and afterwards sprinkled upon the 
people infected with the plague, or upon the cattle that have the 
murrain. And this they all say they find successful by ex- 
perience : it was practised on the mainland opposite to the south 
of Skye, within these thirty years/ As in this case there is water 
boiled on the frictile fire, and sprinkled with the same effect, so 
Eccard (Fr. or. 1, 425) tells us, that one Whitsun morning he saw 
some stablemen rub fire out of wood, and boil their cabbage over 
it, under the belief that by eating it they would be proof against 
fever all that year. A remarkable story from Northamptonshire, 
and of the present century, confirms that sacrifice of the young 
cow in Mull, and shows that even in England superstitious 
people would kill a calf to protect the herd from pestilence : Miss 

C and her cousin walking saw a fire in a field, and a crowd 

round it. They said, ' what is the matter ? ' ' Killing a calf.' 
'What for?' 'To stop the murrain.'' They went away as 
quickly as possible. On speaking to the clergyman, he made 
inquiries. The people did not like to talk of the affair, but it 
appeared that when there is a disease among the cows, or the 
calves are born sickly, they sacrifice (i.e. kill and burn) one for 
good luck/ [A similar story from Cornwall in Hone's Daybook 
1, 153.] 

Unquestionably needfire was a sacred thing to other nations 
beside the Teutonic and Celtic. The Creeks in N. America hold 
an annual harvest festival, commencing with a strict fast of 
three days, during which the^res are put out in all houses. On 
the fourth morning the chief priest by rubbing two dry sticks 
together lights a new clean fire, which is distributed among all 
the dwellings ; not till then do the women carry home the new 
corn and fruits from the harvest field. 1 The Arabs have for fire- 
friction two pieces of wood called March and Aphar, the one 
male, the other female. The Chinese say the emperor Sui was 
the first who rubbed wood against wood ; the inconvenient 
method is retained as a holy one. Indians and Persians turn 
a piece of cane round in dry wood, Kanne's Urk. 454-5 (see 
Suppl.). 

i Fr. Majer's Mythol. taschenb. 1811, p. 110. 



NEED-FIRE. 611 

• 

It is still more interesting to observe how nearly the old 
Roman and Greek customs correspond. Excerpts from Festus 
(0. Muller 106, 2) say: 'ignis Vestae si quando interstinctus 
esset, virgiues verberibus afficiebantur a pontifice, quibus mos 
erat, tabulam felicis materiae tarn diu terebrare, quousque exceptum 
ignem cribro aeneo virgo in aedem ferret/ The sacred fire of 
the goddess, once extinguished, was not to be rekindled, save by 
generating the pure element anew. A plank of the choice 
timber of sacred trees was bored, i.e. a pin turned round in it, 
till it gave out sparks. The act of catching the fire in a 
sieve, and so conveying it into the temple, is suggestive of a 
similar carrying of water in a sieve, of which there is some 
account to be given further on. Plutarch (in Numa 9) makes 
out that neiv fire was obtained not by friction, but by in- 
tercepting the sun's rays in clay vessels destined for the pur- 
pose. The Greeks worshipped Hestia as the pure hearth-flame 
itself. 1 But Lemnos, the island on which Zeus had flung down 
the celestial fire-god Hepheestus, 2 harboured a fire-worship of 
its own. Once a year every fire was extinguished for nine days, 
till a ship brought some fresh from Delos off the sacred hearth of 
Apollo : for some days it drifts on the sea without being able to 
land, but as soon as it runs in, there is fire served out to every 
one for domestic use, and a new life begins. The old fire was no 
longer holy enough; by doing without it altogether for a time, 
men would learn to set the true value on the element (see 
Suppl.). 3 Like Vesta, St. Bridget of Ireland (d. 518 or 521) 
had a 'perpetual fire maintained in honour of her near Kildare ; a 
wattled fence went round it, which none but women durst ap- 
proach ; it was only permissible to blow it with bellows, not with 
the mouth. 4 The mode of generating it is not recorded. 

The wonderful amount of harmony in these accounts, and the 
usages of needfire themselves, point back to a high antiquity. 
The wheel seems to be an emblem of the sun, whence light and 
fire proceed; I think it likely that it was provided with nine 

1 Nee tu aliud Vestam quam rivam intelligc flammam, Ov. Fast. 6, 295. 

2 Ace. to the Finnish myth, the fire created hy the gods falls on the sea in 
balls, it is swallowed by a salmon, and men afterwards find it inside the fish when 
caught. Runes pp. 6-22. 

3 Philostr. Heroic, pp. 710. Welcker'a Trilogie, pp. 2-47-8. 

4 Acta sanctor., calend. Febr. p. 112". 



612 ELEMENTS. 

spokes : 'thet niugenspetze fial' survives in the Frisian laws, those 
nine oaken spindles whose friction against the nave produced fire 
signify the nine spokes standing out of the nave, and the same 
sacred number turns up again in the nine kinds of wood, in the 
nine and eighty-one men that rub. We can hardly doubt that 
the wheel when set on fire formed the nucleus and centre of a 
holy and purifying sacrificial flame. Our weisthiiiner (2, 615-6. 
693-7) have another remarkable custom to tell of. At the great 
yearly assize a cartwheel, that had lain six weeks and three days 
soaking in water (or a cesspool), was placed in a fire kindled 
before the judges, and the banquet lasts till the nave, which must 
on no account be turned or poked, be consumed to ashes. This 
I take to be a last relic of the pagan sacrificial feast, and the 
wheel to have been the means of generating the fire, of which it 
is true there is nothing said. In any case we have here the use 
of a cartwheel to feed a festal flame. 

If the majority of the accounts quoted limit the use of need- 
fire to an outbreak of murrain, yet some of them expressly inform 
us that it was resorted to at stated times of the year, especially 
Midsummer, and that the cattle were driven through the flames to 
guard them beforehand against future sicknesses. Nicolaus Gryse 
(Rostock 1593, liii a ) mentions as a regular practice on St. John's 
day : ' Toward nightfall they warmed them by St. John's blaze 
and needfire (nodfiir) that they sawed out of wood, kindling 
tbe same not in God's name but St. John's; leapt and ran 
and drave the cattle therethro', and were fulfilled of thousand 
joys whenas they had passed the night in great sins, shames 
and harms.' 

Of this yearly recurrence we are assured both by the Lemnian 
worship, and more especially by the Celtic. 1 It was in the great 
gatherings at annual feasts that needfire was lighted. These the 
Celtic nations kept at the beginning of May and of November. 
The grand hightide was the Mayday ; I find it falling mostly on 
the 1st of May, yet sometimes on the 2nd or 3rd. This day is 
called in Irish and Gaelic la bealtine or beiltine, otherwise spelt 
beltein, and corrupted into belton, beltlm, beltam. La means day, 

1 Hyde remarks of the Guebers also, that they lighted a fire every year. 



NEED-FIRE. BEALTINE. G13 

teine or tine fire, and beal, beil, is understood to be the name of 
a god, not directly connected with the Asiatic Belus, 1 but a deity 
of light peculiar to the Celts. This Irish Beal, Beil, Gaelic 
Beal, appears in the Welsh dialect as Beli, and his 0. Celtic 
name of Belenus, Belinus is preserved in Ausonius, Tertullian and 
numerous inscriptions (Forcellini sub v.). The present custom 
is thus described by Armstrong sub v. bealtainn : ' In some parts 
of the Highlands the young folks of a hamlet meet in the moors 
on the first of May. They cut a table in the green sod, of a 
round figure, by cutting a trench in the ground of such circum- 
ference as to hold the whole company. They then kindle a fire, 
and dress a .repast of eggs and milk in the consistence of a 
custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the 
embers against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they 
divide the cake in so many portions, as similar as possible to one 
another in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. 
They daub one of these portions with charcoal until it is perfectly 
black. They then put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet, and 
every one, blindfold, draws out a portion. The bonnet-holder is 
entitled to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the 
devoted person who is to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they 
meam to implore in rendering the year productive. The devoted 
person is compelled to leap three times over the flames.' Here the 
reference to the worship of a deity is too plain to be mistaken : 
we see by the leaping over the flame, that the main point was, to 
select a human being to propitiate the god and make him merci- 
ful, that afterwards an animal sacrifice was substituted for him, 
and finally, nothing remained of the bodily immolation but a leap 
through the fire for man and beast. The holy rite of friction is 
not mentioned here, but as it was necessary for the need fire that 
purged pestilence, it must originally have been much more in 
requisition at the great yearly festival. 

The earliest mention of the beiltine is found in Cormac, arch- 
bishop of Cashel (d. 908). Two fires were lighted side by side, 
and to pass unhurt between them was wholesome for men and 
cattle. Hence the phrase, to express a great danger : 'itir dha 
theiune beil/ i.e. between two fires. 2 That the sacrifice was 

1 Bel, Bal, Isidor. Etym. 8, 23. 

- OTlaherty in Transact, of Irish Acad., vol. 11, rF- 100. 122-3. 



614 ELEMENTS. 

strictly superintended by priests, we are expressely assured by 
Usher (Trias thaumat. p. 125), who founds on Evinus : Lege 
etiam severissima cavebatur, ut omnes ignes per universas re- 
giones ista nocte exstinguerentui', et nulli liceat ignem reaccen- 
dere nisi prius Temoriae (Tighmora, whom we know from Ossian) 
a magis rogus sacrificiorum exstrueretur, et quicunque hanc legem 
in aliquo transgrederetur non alia mulcta quam capitis supplicio 
commissi delicti poenam luebat. 1 

Leo (Malb. gl. i, 35) has ingeniously put forward an antithesis 
between a god of war Beal or Bael, and a god of peace Sighe or 
Sithich; nay, by this distinction he explains the brothers Bel- 
lovesus and Sigovesus in Livy 5, 34 as servants (vesus = Gaelic 
uis, uais, minister) of Beal and Sighe, connecting Sighe with 
that silent peaceful folk the elves, who are called sighe (supra, 
p. 444n.) : to Beal were offered the May fires, bealtine, to Sighe 
the November fires, samlitheine (peace-fire). In Wales too they 
lighted fires on May 1 and Nov. 1, both being called coelcerth 
(see Suppl.). 

I still hesitate to accept all the inferences, but undoubtedly 
Beal must be taken for a divine being, whose worship is likely to 
have extended beyond the Celtic nations. At p. 228 I identified 
him with the German Phol ; and it is of extraordinary value to 
our research, that in the Rhine districts we come upon a Pfultag, 
Pulletag (P.'s day), which fell precisely on the 2nd of May 
(Weisth. 2, 8. 3, 748). We know that our forefathers very 
generally kept the beginning of May as a great festival, and it is 
still regarded as the trysting-time of witches, i.e. once of wise- 
women and fays; who can doubt that heathen sacrifices blazed 
that day? Pkoltag then answers to Bealteine,- and moreover 
Baldag is the Saxon form for Paltar (p. 229). 

Were the German May-fires, after the conversion, shifted to 
Easter and Midsummer, to adapt them to Christian worship ? Or, 
as the summer solstice was itself deeply rooted in heathenism, is 
it Eastertide alone that represents the ancient May-fires ? For, 
as to the Celtic November, the German Yule or Midwinter might 
easily stand for that, even in heathen times. 

i Conf the accounts in Mone's Geschichte des heidenth. 2, 485. 
2 All over England on the 1st of May they set up a May pole, which may be 
from pole, palus, AS. pol ; yet Pol, Phol may deserve to be taken into account too. 



BEALTINE. PHOL'S DAY. 615 

AVhichever way we settle that, our very next investigations 
will shew, that beside both needfire and bealtine, other fires are 
to be found almost all over Europe. 

It is not unimportant to observe, that in the north of Germany 
they take place at Easter, in the south at Midsummer. There 
they betoken the entrance of spring, here the longest day; as 
before, it all turns upon whether the people are Saxon or Frank. 
All Lower Saxony, Westphalia, and Lower Hesse, Gelders, 
Holland, Friesland, Jutland, and Zealand have Easter fires ; up 
the Rhine, in Franconia, Thuringia, Swabia, Bavaria, Austria, 
and Silesia, Midsummer fires carry the day. Some countries, 
however, seem to do homage to both, as Denmark and Carinthia. 

Easter Fires. — At all the cities, towns and villages of a country, 
towards evening on the first (or third) day of Easter, there is 
lighted every year on mountain and hill a great fire of straw, turf, 
and wood, amidst a concourse and jubilation, not only of the 
young, but of many grown-up people. On the Weser, especially 
in Schaumburg, they tie up a tar-barrel on a fir-tree wrapt round 
with straw, and set it on fire at night. Men and maids, and all 
who come, dance exulting and singing, hats are waved, handker- 
chiefs thrown into the fire. The mountains all round are lighted 
up, and it is an elevating spectacle, scarcely paralleled by any- 
thing else, to survey the country for many miles round from one 
of the higher points, and in every direction at once to see a vast 
number of these bonfires, brighter or fainter, blazing up to heaven. 
In some places they marched up the hill in stately procession, 
carrying white rods ; by turns they sang Easter hymns, grasping 
each other's hands, and at the Hallelujah clashed their rods to- 
gether. They liked to carry some of the fire home with them. 1 

No doubt we still lack many details as to the manner of keep- 
ing Easter fires in various localities. It is worth noting, that at 
Braunrode in the Harz the fires are lighted at evening twilight 

1 Job. Timeus On the Easter fire, Hamb. 1590; a reprint of it follows Reiske'a 
Notfeuer. Letzner's Historia S. Bonif., Hildesh. 1G02. 4, cap. 12. LeukMd's 
Antiq.. gandersh. pp. 4-5. Eberh. Baring's Beschr. der (Lauensteiner) Saala, 
174 1. '2, 96. Hamb. mag. 2G, 302 (1702). Hannov. mag. 176G, p. 216. Rath- 
lef's Diepholz, Brern. 17(57. 3, 36-42. (Pratjo's) Bremen und Verden 1, 165. 
Bragur vi. 1, 35. Geldersche volksalmanak voor 1835, p. 19. Easter fire is in 
]>:mish paatke-blus or -Must; whether Sweden has the custom I do not know, but 
Olaus Magnus 15, 5 affirms that Scandinavia has Midsummer fires. Still more 
surprising that England has no trace of an Easter fire ; we have, a report of such 
from Carinthia in Sartori's Heisu 2, 350. 

VOL. II. N 



616 ELEMENTS. 

of the first Easter day, but before that, old and young sally out 
of that village and Griefenhagen into the nearest woodlands to 
hunt up the squirrels. These they chase by throwing stones and 
cudgels, till at last the animals drop exhausted into their hands, 
dead or alive. This is said to be an old-established custom. 1 

For these ignes paschales there is no authority reaching beyond 
the 1 6th century; but they must be a great deal older, if only for 
the contrast with Midsummer fires, which never could peneti'ate 
into North Germany, because the people there held fast by their 
Easter fires. Now, seeing that the fires of St. John, as we shall 
presently shew, are more immediately connected with the Christian 
church than those of Easter, it is not unreasonable to trace these 
all the way back to the worship of the goddess star a or Edstre 
(p. 291), who seems to have been more a Saxon and Anglian 
divinity than one revered all over Germany. Her name and her 
fires, which are likely to have come at the beginning of May, 
would after the conversion of the Saxons be shifted back to the 
Christian feast. 2 Those mountain fires of the people are scarcely 
derivable from the taper lighted in the church the same day : it 
is true that Boniface, ep. 87 (Wiirdtw.), calls it ignis paschalis, 3 
and such Easter lights are still mentioned in the 16th century. 4 
Even now in the Hildesheim country they light the lamp on 
Maundy Thursday, and that on Easterday, at an Easter fire which 
has been struck with a steel. The people flock to this fire, cai-ry- 
ing oaken crosses or simply crossed sticks, which they set on fire 
and then preserve for a whole year. But the common folk dis- 
tinguish between this fire and the wild fire elicited by rubbing 
wood. Jager (Ulm, p. 521) speaks of a consecration of fire and 
of logs. 

1 Bosenkranz, Neue zeitschr. f. gesch. der germ. volk. i. 2, 7. 

2 Letzner says (ubi supra), that betwixt Brunstein and Wibbrechtshausen, 
where Boniface had overthrown the heathen idol Beto (who may remind us of Beda's 
Bheda), on the same Betberg the people ' did after sunset on Easter day, even 
within the memory of man, hold the Easter fire, which the men of old named 
botfts-thorn.' 1 On the margin stands his old authority again, the lost Conradus 
Fontanus (supra p. 190). How the fire itself should come by the name of buck's or 
goat's thorn, is hard to see ; it is the name of a shrub, the tragacanth. Was bocks- 
thorn thrown into the Easter flames, as certain herbs were into the Midsummer 
fire? 

3 N.B., some maintain that the Easter candle was ignited by burning-glasses 
or crystals (Serrarius ad Epist. Bonif. p. 343). 

4 Franz Weasel's Beschreibung des piibstlichen gottesdienstes, Stralsund ed. by 
Zober, 1837, p. 10. 



EASTER FIRES.. 



017 



Almost everywhere during the last hundred', years the feeble- 
ness of governments has deprived the people of their Easter fi res 
(see Suppl.). 1 

Midsummer Fires. 2 — In our older speech, the most festive 
season of the year, when the sun has reached his greatest height 
and must thence decline again, is named sunewende =$unnewende 
(sun's wending, solstice), commonly in the plural, because this 
high position of the sun lasts several days: ' ze einen sunewenden/ 
Nib. 32, 4; 'zen nsehsten sunewenden/ Nib. 1424,4. Wigal. 1717; 
' vor disen sunewenden/ Nib. 678, 3. 694, 3 ; ' ze sunewenden/ 
Trist. 5987 (the true reading comes out in Groot's variants) ; ' an 
sunewenden abent/ Nib. 1754, 1 ; ' nach sunewenden/ Iw. 2941. s 
Now, as Midsummer or St. John's day (June 24), ' sant Johans 
sunewenden tac/ Ls. 2, 708, coincides with this, the fires in 
question are called in Up. German documents of the 14- 15th 
century sunwentfeuer, sunbentfewr, 4, and even now among the 
Austrian and Bavarian peasantry sunawetsfoir, sunwentsfeuer. 
H. Sachs 1,423 d : 'auch schiirn die bubn (lads poke) sunwent- 
feuer.' At this season were held great gatherings of the people : 
1 die nativitatis S. Johannis baptistae in conventu populi maxima ' 
(Pertz 2, 3S6) ; this was in 860. In 801 Charles the Great kept 
this festival at Eporedia, now Ivrea (Pertz 1, 190. 223) ; and 
Lewis the Pious held assemblies of the Empire on the same day 
in 824 and 831. Descriptions of Midsummer fires agree with 
those of Easter fires, with of course some divergences. At 
Gernsheim in the Mentz country, the fire when lighted is blessed 
by the priest, and there is singing and prayer so long as it burns ; 
when the flame goes out, the children jump over the glimmering 
coals; formerly grown-up people did the same. In Superst. I, 

1 ' Judic. inquiry resp. the Easter fire burned, contr.to prohib., on the Kogeln- 
berg near Volkmarsen, Apr. 9, 1833,' see Niederhess. wochenbl. 1834, p. 2229*. 
The older prohibitions allege the unchristian character, later ones the waste ot 
timber. Even bonfires for a victory were very near being suppressed. 

- The best treatise is : Franc. Const, de Khautz de ritu ignis in natali B. 
Johannis bapt. accensi, Vindob. 1759, 8vo. 

3 All the good MSS. have, not sunnewende, but sunewende, which can onlj 
stand for sunwende, formed like suntac. We also find ' zu sungihtenj Scheffer s 
Haltaus, pp. 109, 110 ; giht here corresp. to Goth, gahts (gressus), and allows us to 
guess an OHG. sunnagaht. 

4 Halm's Monum. 2, 693. Sutner's Berichtigungen, Munch. 1797, p. 107 (an. 
1401). 



618 ELEMENTS. 

848 we are told how a garland is plaited of nine sorts of flowers. 
Reiske (ut supra, p. 77) says : ' the fire is made under the open 
sky, the youth and the meaner folk leap over it, and all manner 
of herbs are cast into it : like these, may all their troubles go off 
in fii*e and smoke ! In some places they light lanterns outside 
their chambers at night, and dress them with red poppies or 
anemones, so as to make a bright glitter/ At Niirnberg the 
lads go about begging billets of wood, cart them to the Bleacher's 
pond by the Spital-gate, make a fire of them, and jump over it ; 
this keeps them in health the whole year (conf. Sup. I, 918). 
They invite passers by to have a leap, who pay a few kreuzers 
for the privilege. In the Fulda country also the boys beg for 
wood to burn at night, and other presents, while they sing a 
rhyme : ' Da kommen wir her gegangen Mit spiessen und mit 
stangen, Und wollen die eier (eggs) langen. Feuerrothe bliime- 
lein, An der erde springt der wein, Gebt ihr uns der eier ein 
Zum Johannisfeuer , Der haber is gar theuer (oats are so dear). 
Haberje, haberju! frifrefrid ! Gebt uns doch ein schiet (scheit, 
billet)!' (J. v. u. f. Deutschl. 1790. 1, 313.) Similar rhymes 
from Franconia and Bavaria, in Schm. 3, 262. In the Austrian 
Donaulandchen on St. John's eve they light fires on the hill, lads 
and lasses jump over the flames amid the joyful cries and songs 
of the spectators (Reil, p. 41). ' Everywhere on St. John's eve 
there was merry leaping over the sonnenwendefeuer, and mead was 
drunk over it/ is Denis's recollection of his youthful days (Lesefr. 
1, 130). At Ebingen in Swabia they boiled pease over the fire, 
which were laid by and esteemed wholesome- for bruises and 
wounds (Schmid's Schwab, id. 167); conf. the boiling over need- 
fires (p. 610). Greg. Strigenitius (b. 1548, d. 1603), in a sermon 
preached on St. John's day and quoted in Ecc. Fr. or. i. 425, 
observes, that the people (in Meissen or Thuringia) dance and 
sing round the Midsummer fires ; that one man threw a horse's 
head into the flame, meaning thereby to force the witches to fetch 
some of the fire for themselves. Seb. Frank in his Weltbuch 
51 b : ' On St. John's day they make a simet fire [corrupt, of sun- 
went], and moreover wear upon them, I know not from what 
superstition, quaint wreaths of mugwort and monks-hood ; nigh 
every one hath a blue plant named larkspur in hand, and whoso 
looketh into the fire thro' the same, hath never a sore eye all that 



MIDSUMMER FIRES. 619' 

year ; he that would depart home unto his house, casteth this his 
plant into the fire, saying, So depart all mine ill-fortune and be 
burnt up with this herb ! ' l So, on the same day, were the wav< is 
of water to wash away with them all misfortune (p. 589). But 
in earlier times the polite world, even princes and kings, took 
part in these bonfires. Peter Herp's Ann. francof. tell us, ad an. 
1489 (Senkenb. Sel. 2, 22) : 'In vigilia S. Joh. bapt. rogus ingens 
fuit factus ante domum consilium in for o (francofurtensi), fuerunt- 
que multa vexilla depicta posita in struem lignorum, et vexillum 
regis in supremo positum, et circa ligna rami virentes positi. 
fuitque magna chorea dominorum, rege inspiciente.' At Augsburg 
in 1497, in the Emp. Maximilian's presence, the fair Susanna 
Neithard kindled the Midsummer fire toitli a torch, and with 
Philip the Handsome led the first ring-dance round the fire} 
A Munich voucher of 1401 renders account : ' umb gras und 
knechten, die dy pank ab dem haws auf den margt trugen 
(carried benches to the market-place) an der sunbentnacht, da 
herzog Stephan und sein gemachel (consort) und das frawel auf 
dem margt tanzten mit den purgerinen bei dem suribentfwr/ (Sut- 
ner's Berichtig. p. 107). On St. John's eve 1578, the Duke of 
Liegnitz had a bonfire made on the Gredisberg, as herr Gotsch 
did on the Kynast, at which the Duke himself was present with 
his court (Schweinichen 2, 347). 

We have a fuller description of a Midsummer fire made in 
1823 at Konz, a Lorrainian but still German village on the 
Moselle, near Sierk and Thionville. Every house delivers a truss 
of straw on the top of the Stromberg, where men and youths 
assemble towards evening; women and girls are stationed by the 
Burbach spring. Then a huge wheel is wrapt round ivith straw, 

4 

1 On June 20, 1653, the Nurnberg town-council issued the following order : 
■Whereas experience heretofore hath shewn, that alter the old heathenish use, on 
John's day in every year, in the country, as well in towns as villages, money and 
wood hath been gathered by young folk, and thereupon the so-called sonnenwendt or 
timmet fire kindled, and thereat winebibbiiif,', dancing about the said fur, leaping 
over the same, with burning of sundry herbs am! flowers, and setting of brands from 
the said fire in the fields, and in many other ways all manner of superstitious work 
carried on — Therefore the Hon. Council of Nurnberg town neither can nor ought 
to forbear to do away with all such unbecoming superstition, pagani am, and peril 
(if fire on this coming day of St. John (Neuer lit. anz. 1HU7, p. 318). [Sunwend 
tires forbidden in Austria in 1850, in spite of Goethe's ' Fires of John we'll cherish, 
"Why should jdadness perish? ' — Suppl.] 

- Gasseri Ann. august., ad an. 1197, Schm. 3, 261 ; conf. Ranke's Roman, u. 
German, volk. 1, 102. 



620 ELEMENTS. 

so that none of the wood is left in sight, a strong pole is passed 
through the middle, which sticks out a yard on each side, and is 
grasped by the guiders of the wheel ; the remainder of the straw 
is tied up into a number of small torches. At a signal given 
by the Maire of Sierk (who, according to ancient custom, earns 
a basket of cherries by the service), the wheel is lighted with a 
torch, and set rapidly in motion, a shout of joy is raised, all wave 
their torches on high, part of the men stay on the hill, part follow 
the rolling globe of fire as it is guided downhill to the Moselle. It 
often goes out first ; but if alight when it touches the river, 
it prognosticates an abundant vintage, and the Konz people have 
a right to levy a tun of white wine from the adjacent vineyards. 
Whilst the wheel is rushing past the women and girls, they 
break out into cries of joy, answered by the men on the hill ; and 
inhabitants of neighbouring villages, who have flocked to the 
river side, mingle their voices in the universal rejoicing. 1 

In the same way the butchers of Treves are said to have yearly 
sent down a wheel of fire into the Moselle from the top of the 
Paulsberg (see Suppl.). 2 

The custom of Midsummer fires and wheels in France is 
attested even by writers of the 12th and 13th centuries, John 
Beleth, a Parisian divine, who wrote about 1162 a Summa de 
divinis officiis, and William Durantis, b. near Beziers in Langue- 
doc, about 1237, d. 1296, the well-known author of the Rationale 
divinor. offic. (written 1286; conf. viii. 2, 3 de epacta). In the 
Summa (printed at Dillingen, 1572) cap. 137, fol. 256, and thence 
extracted in the Rationale vii. 14, we find : ' Feruntur quoque 
(in festo Joh. bapt.) brandae seu faces ardentes et Sunt ignes, 
qui significant S. Johaunem, qui fuit lumen et lucerna ardens, 
praecedens et praecursor verae lucis . . . ; rota in quibusdam 
locis volvitur, ad significandum, quod sicut sol ad altiora sui 
circuli pervenit, nee altius potest progredi, sed tunc sol descendit 
in circulo, sic et faina Johannis, qui putabatur Christus, descendit 

1 Mem. des antiquaires de Fr. 5, 383-6. 

2 ' In memory of the hermit Paulus, who in the mid. of the 7th cent, hurled 
the idol Apollo from Mt. Gebenna, near Treves, into the Moselle,' thinks the writer 
of the article on Konz, pp. 387-8. If Trithem's De viris illustr. ord. S. Bened. 4, 
201, is to vouch for this, I at least can only find at p. 142 of Opp. pia et spirit. 
Mogunt. 1605, that Paulus lived opposite Treves, on Cevenna, named Mons Pauli 
after him ; hut of Apollo and the firewheel not a word [and other authorities are 
equally silent] . 



MIDSUMMER FIRES. 621 

secundum quod ipse testimonium perhibet, dicens : me oportet 
minui, ilium autem crescere.' Much older, but somewhat vague, 
is the testimony of Eligius : ' Nullus in festivitate S. Johannis 
vel quibuslibet sanctorum solemuitatibus solstitia (?) aut valla- 
tiones vel saltationes aut casaulas aut cantica diabolica exerceat. n 
In great cities, Paris, Metz, and many more, as late as the 
15-16-1 7th centuries, the pile of wood was reared in the public 
square before the town hall, decorated with flowers and foliage, 
and set on fire by the Maire himself. 2 Many districts in the 
south have retained the custom to this day. At Aix, at 
Marseille, all the streets and squares are cleaned up on St. John's 
Day, early in the morning the country folk bring flowers into the 
town, and everybody buys some, every house is decked with 
greenery, to which a healing virtue is ascribed if plucked before 
sunrise : ' aco soun dherbas de san Jean.' Some of the plants 
are thrown into the flame, the youug people jump over it, jokes are 
played on passers-by with powder trains and hidden fireworks, 
or they are squirted at and soused with water from the windows. 
In the villages they ride on mules and donkeys, carrying lighted 
branches of fir in their hands. 3 

In many places they drag some of the charred brands and 
charcoal to their homes : salutary and even magical effects are 
supposed to flow from these (Superst. French 27. 30. 34). 

In Poitou, they jump three times round the fire with a branch of 
walnut in their hands (Mem. des antiq. 8, 451). Fathers of 
families whisk a bunch of white mullein (bouillon blanc) and a 
leafy spray of walnut through the flame, aud both are afterwards 
nailed up over the cowhouse door; while the youth dance and 
sing, old men put some of the coal in their wooden shoes as 
a safeguard against innumerable woes (ibid. 4, 110). 

In the department of Hautes Pyrenees, on the 1st of May, 

1 The Kaiserchronik (Cod. pal. 361, l b ) on the celebration of the Sunday : 

Swenne injioni der sunnintac, 

so vllzete sichRome al diu stat (all R. bestirred itself), 

wie si den got inouten geeren (to honour the god), 

die allirwisisten herren (wisest lords) 

vuorten einiz al umbe die stat (carried a thing round the city) 

daz was getchaffen name ein rat (shapen like a wheel) 

mit brinnenden liehien (with buruiug lights) ; 

6 wie groze sie den got zierten (greatly glorified the god) ! 

- Mem. de l'acad. celt. 2, 77-8. 3, 447. 

3 Milliu's Voyage dans le midi 3, 28. 341-j. 



622 ELEMENTS. 

every commune looks out the tallest and slenderest tree, a pine or 
fir on the hills, a poplar in the plains ; when they have lopped 
all the boughs off, they drive into it a number of wedges a foot 
long, and keep it till the 23rd of June. Meanwhile it splits 
diamond-shape where the wedges were inserted, and is now rolled 
and dragged up a mountain or hill. There the priest gives it his 
blessing, they plant it upright in the ground, and set it on fire 
(ibid. 5, 387). 

Strutt 1 speaks of Midsummer fires in England: they were 
lighted on Midsummer Eve, and kept up till midnight, often till 
cock-crow ; the youth danced round the flame, in garlands of 
motherwort and vervain, with violets in their hands. In Denmark 
they are called Sanct Hans aftens bins, but also gadeild (street- 
fire), because they are lighted in public streets or squares, and on 
hills. [Is not gade conn, with sunna-gaht, p. 617 ?] Imagining 
that all poisonous plants came up out of the ground that night, 
people avoided lingering on the grass ; but wholesome plants 
(chamaemelum and bardanum) they hung up in their houses. 
Some however shift these street-fires to May-day eve. 2 Nor- 
way also knows the custom: 'S. Hans aften brandes der baal 
ved alle griner (hedged country-lanes), hvilket skal fordrive ondt 
(harm) fra creaturerne/ Sommerfeldt's Saltdalen, p. 121. But 
some words quoted by Hallager p. 13 are worth noting, viz. 
brandshat for the wood burnt in the fields, and brising for the 
kindled fire ; the latter reminds us of the gleaming necklace of 
Freyja (p. 306-7), and may have been transferred from the flame 
to the jewel, as well as from the jewel to the flame. 

There is no doubt that some parts of Italy had Midsummer 
fires : at Orvieto they were exempted from the restrictions laid 
on other fires. 3 Italian sailors lighted them on board ship out 
at sea, Fel. Fabri Evagat. 1, 170. And Spain is perhaps to 
be included on the strength of a passage in the Romance de 
Guarinos (Silva, p. 113) : 

1 Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, by Jos. Strutt. New ed. by 
WHone. Lond. 1830, p. 359. 

2 Molbech's Dialect. Lex. 150. Lyngbye's Nord. tidskr. for oldk. 2, 352-9. Finn 
Magn. Lex. myth. 1091-4. Arndt's Keise durch Schweden 3, 72-3. 

3 Statuta urbevetana, an. 1491. 3, 51 : Quicunque sine licentia officialis fecerit 
ignem in aliqua festivitate de nocte in civitate, in xl sol. denarior. pnniatnr, 
excepta festivitate S. Johannis bapt. de mense Junii, et qui in ilia nocte furatus 
fuerit vel abstulerit ligna Tel tabulas alterius in lib. x den. puuiatur. 



MIDSUMMER FIEES. 623 

Yanse dias, vionen dias, venido era el de Sent Juan, 
donde Christianos y Moros hazen gran solenidad : 
los Christianos echan juncia, y los Moros arrayhan, 
los Judios echan eneas, por la fiesta mas honrar. 

Here nothing is said of fire, 1 but we are told that the Christians 
strew rushes, the Moors myrtle, the Jews reeds ; and the throw- 
ing- of flowers and herbs into the flame seems an essential part 
of the celebration, e.g. mugwort, monks-hood, larkspur (p. G18), 
mullein and walnut leaves (p. G21). Hence the collecting of 
all such John's-herbs in Germany (Superst. I, 157. 189. 190), and 
of S. Hems urter (worts) in Denmark (K, 126), and the like in 
France (L, 4). According to Casp. Zeumer's De igne in festo 
S. Joh. accendi solito, Jenae 1699, the herb akihfia (?) was 
diligently sought on that day and hung up over doors. 

In Greece the women make a fire on Midsummer Eve, and 
jump over it, crying, ' I leave my sins/ In Servia they think the 
feast is so venerable, that the sun halts three times in reverence. 2 
On the day before it, the herdsmen tie birchbark into torches, 
and having lighted them, they first march round the sheepfolds 
and cattle-pens, then go up the hills and let them burn out (Vuk 
sub v. Ivan dan). Other Slav countries have similar observances. 
In Sartori's Journey through Carinthia 3, 349-50, we find the 
rolling of St. John's fiery wheel fully described. Midsummer- 
day or the solstice itself is called by the Slovens kres, by the 
Croats hresz, i.e. striking of light, from kresati (ignem elicere), 
Pol. krzesac ; and as May is in Irish mi-na-bealtine (fire-month), 
so June in Slovenic is kresnik. At the kres there were leaps of 
joy performed at night ; of lighting by friction I find no mention. 
Poles and Bohemians called the Midsummer fire sobotka, i.e. little 
Saturday, as compared with the great sobota (Easter Eve) ; the 

1 It is spoken of more definitely by Martinus de Aries, canonicus of Pampeluna 
(cir. 1510), in his treatise De superstitionibus (Tract, tractattram, ed. Lugd. 1544. 
9, 133) : Cum in die S. Johannis propter jucunditatem multa pie aguntur a 
fidelibus. puta pulsatio campanarum et ignes jucunditatis, similiter summo mane 
i ' uiit ad colligendas herbas odoriferas et optimas et medicinales ex sua natura et 

oitudine virtutum propter tempus. . . quidam ignes accendunt in compitis 
viarum, in agris, ne inde sortilegae et maleficae ilia nocte trausitum faciant, ut 
ego propriis oculis vidi. Alii herbas collectas in die S. Johannis incendentes contra 
fulgura, tonitrua et tempestates credunt suis fumigatiouibus arcere daeinones et 
tempestates. 

2 As he is supposed to leap tbree times at Easter (p. 291). 



624 ELEMENTS. 

Bohemians used to lead their coivs over it to protect them from 
witchcraft. The Russian name was kupdlo, which some explain 
by a god of harvest, Kiipalo : youths and maidens, garlanded with 
flowers and girt with holy herbs, assembled on the 24th June, 
lighted a fire, leapt and led their flocks over it, singing hymns the 
while in praise of the god. They thought thereby to shield 
their cattle from the leshis or woodsprites. At times a white cock 
is said to have been burnt in the fire amid dance and soug. Even 
now the female saint, whose feast the Greek ritual keeps on this 
day [Agrippina] , has the by-name kupdlnitsa ; a burning pile of 
wood is called the same, and so, according to Karamzin, is the 
flower that is strewn on St. John's Day [ranunculus, crowfoot] .* 
This fire seems to have extended to the Lithuanians too : I find 
that with them kupoles is the name of a St. John's herb. Tettau 
and Temme p. 277 report, that in Prussia and Lithuania, on 
Midsummer Eve fires blaze on all the heights, as far as the eye 
can .reach. The next morning they drive their cattle to pasture 
over the remains of these fires, as a specific against murrain, 
magic and milk-drought, yet also against hailstroke and lightning. 
The lads who lighted the fires go from house to house collecting- 
milk. On the same Midsummer Eve they fasten large burs and 
inugwort (that is to say, kupoles) over the gate or gap through 
which the cattle always pass. 

Now at a bird's-eye view we perceive that these fires cover 
nearly all Europe, and have done from time immemorial. About 
them it might seem a great deal more doubtful than about water- 
lustration (pp. 585. 590), whether they are of heathen or of Chris- 
tian origin. The church had appropriated them so very early to 
herself, and as Beleth and Durantis shew, had made them point 
to John ; the clergy took some part in their celebration, though 
it never passed entirely into their hands, but was mainly con- 
ducted by the secular authorities and the people itself (see Suppl.) . 

Paciaudi 3 labours to prove that the fires of St. John have 
nothing to do with the far older heathenish fires, but have sprung 
out of the spirit of Christian worship. 

1 Karamzin 1. 73. 81. 284. Gotze's Russ. volksl. p. 230-2. Dobrovsky denies 
a god Kupalo, and derives the feast from kupa (haycock) ; Hanusch p. 201 from 
kupel, kaupel, kupadlo (bath, pond), because ace. to Slav notions the sun rises out 
of bis bath, or because pouring of water may have been practised at the festival. 

2 De cultu S. Johannis baptistae, Romae 1755, dissert. 8, cap. 1. 2. 



(palilia). 625 

Iu Deut. 18, 10 and 2 Chron. 28, 3 is mentioned the heathen 
custom of making so?is and daughters pass through afire. In 
reference to this, Theodoret bp. of Cyrus (d. 458), makes a note 
on 2 Kings 16, 3 : elSov yap ev tlctl nroXecnv aira% rov erovs iv 
Ta?9 7rAaTeuu? innojAevas Trvpds KauTavra^ rivas virepaWo/xevov^ 
/cal 7rr}8(ovTa<; ov p,6vov TralSas dWd icai avhpas, tcl 84 <ye /3p£(p7] 
irapa twv pLwrepoiv 7rapa(p€p6p,eva Sod tt}? ^A-0769. eSo/cei 8k 
tovto d7roTpo7TLaa-p,6<i elvat ical /cddapais. (In some towns I saw 
•pyres lighted once a year in the streets, and not only children 
but men leaping over them, and the infants passed through the 
flame by their mothers. This was deemed a protective expiation). 1 
He says ' once a year/ but does not specify the day, which would 
have shewn us whether the custom was imported into Syria 
from Rome. On April 21, the day of her founding, Borne kept 
the palilia, an ancient feast of herdsmen, in honour of Pales, a 
motherly divinity reminding us of Ceres and Vesta. 2 This date 
does not coincide with the solstice, but it does with the time of 
the Easter fire ; the ritual itself, the leaping over the flame, the 
driving of cattle through the glowing embers, is quite the same 
as at the Midsummer fire and needfire. A few lines from Ovid's 
description in the 4th book of the Fasti shall suffice : 

727. certe ego transilui positas ter in ordine flammas. 
781. moxque per ardentes stipidae crepitantis acervos 

trajicias celeri strenua membra pede. 
795. pars quoque, quum saxis pastores saxa feribant, 

scintillam subito prosiluisse ferunt ; 
prima quidem periit ; stipulis excepta secunda est, 

hoc argumeutum flamma palilis habet. 
805. per flammas saluisse pecus, saluisse colonos ; 

quod fib natali nunc quoque, Roma, tuo (see Suppl.). 

The shepherds had struck the fire out of stone, and caught it on 
straw ; the leaping through it was to atone and cleanse, and to 
secure their flock against all harm. That children were placed in 
the fire by their mothers, we are not told here ; we know how 
the infant Demophoou or Triptolemus was put in the fire by 

I Opp., ed. Sirmond, Paris, 1CA2. 1, 352. 

8 The masc. Pales, which also occurs, may remind us of the Slav god of 
shepherds, Buss. Vulus, Boh. Weles. 



626 ELEMENTS. 

Ceres, as Achilles was by Thetis, to insure his immortality. 1 This 
fire-worship seems equally at home in Canaan, Syria, Greece and 
Rome, so that we are not justified in pronouncing it a borrowed 
and imported thing in any one of them. It is therefore hard to 
determine from what source the Christians afterwards drew, when 
they came to use it in their Easter and Midsummer festivals, or on 
other occasions. Canon 65 of the Council of a.d. 680 already 
contains a prohibition of these superstitious fires at new moon : 
Ta<? ev ral<i vou/jur/vlais inrb rivwv irpb tcov olrceiaiv ipyacrrvpicov i) 
oIkwv avaTTTOfxeva^ irvpicaias, a<? /cal vTrepdWeaOai rtves, Kara 
to e0os apyalov, kirtyeipovcrtv, curb TrapovTos KarapywOrjvai 
irpoaraTTOfxev (The fires kindled before workshops and houses at 
new moon, which some also leap over after the ancient custom, 
we command henceforth to be abolished). The same thing was 
then forbidden, which afterwards, on St. John's day at least, was 
tolerated, and to some extent connected with church ordinances. 

Now, even supposing that the Midsummer fire almost universal 
throughout Europe had, like the Midsummer bath, proceeded more 
immediately from the church, and that she had picked it up in 
Italy directly from the Roman palilia ; it does not follow yet, that 
our Easter fires in northern Germany are a mere modification of 
those at Midsummer. We are at liberty to derive them straight 
from fires of our native heathenism : in favour of this view is the 
difference of day, perhaps also their ruder form ; to the last there 
was more earnestness about them, and more general participation ; 
Midsummer fires were more elegant and tasteful, but latterly con- 
fined to children and common people alone, though princes and 
nobles had attended them before. Mountain and hill are essential 
to Easter fires, the Solstitial fire was frequently made in streets 
and marketplaces. Of jumping through the fire, of flowers and 
wreaths, I find scarcely a word in connexion with the former ; 
friction of fire is only mentioned a few times at the Midsummer 
fire, never at the Easter, and yet this friction is the surest mark 
of heathenism, and — as with needfire in North Germany, so with 
Easter fires there — may safely be assumed. Only of these last 
we have no accounts whatever. The Celtic bel-fires, and if my 
conjecture be right, our Phol-days, stand nearly midway betwixt 

1 Conf. the superstitious ' filium in fornacnn pnvere pro sanitate febrium,' 
and 'ponere infanteni juxta ignem, Superst. B, 10. 14, and p. 200\ 



OTHER FIRES. 627 

Easter and Midsummer, but Dearer to Easter when that falls late. 
A feature common to all three, and perhaps to all public fires 
of antiquity, is the wheel, as friction is to all the ancient Easter 
fires. 

I must not omit to mention, that fires were also lighted at 
the season opposite to summer, at Christmas, and in Lent. To 
the Yule-fire answers the Gaelic samhtheine (p. 614) of the 1st 
November. In France they have still in vogue the souche de 
Noel (from dies natalis, Prov. natal) or the trefue (log that burns 
three days, Superst.K, 1. 28), conf.the trefoir in Brand's Pop.antiq. 
1, 468. At Marseille they burnt the calendeau or caligneau, a 
large oaken log, sprinkling it with wine and oil ; it devolved on 
the master of the house to set light to it (Millin 3, 336). In 
Dauphine they called it chalendal, it was lighted on Christmas 
eve and sprinkled with wine, they considered it holy, and had 
to let it burn out in peace (Champol.-Figeac, p. 124). Christmas- 
tide was called chalendes, Prov. calendas ( Kaynouard 1, 292), 
because New-year commenced on Dec. 25. In Germany I find 
the same custom as far back as the 12th cent. A document of 
1184 (Kindl.'s Miinst. beitr. ii. urk. 34) says of the parish priest 
of Ahlen in Miinsterland : ' et arborem in nativitate Domini ad 
festivum ignem swum adducendam esse dicebat.'' The hewing of 
the Christmas block is mentioned in the Weisthumer 2, 264. 302. 
On the Engl, yule-clog see Sup. I, 1109, and the Scandinav. 
julblolc is well known; the Lettons call Christmas eve bluhku 
walxkars, block evening, from the carrying about and burning of 
the log (blukkis). 1 Seb. Frank (Weltbuch 51 a ) reports the fol- 
lowing Shrovetide customs from Franconia : ' In other places they 
draw a fiery plough kindled by a fire cunningly made thereon, till 
it fall in pieces (supra, p. 264). Item, they wrap a waggon-wheel 
all round in straw, drag it up an high steep mountain, and hold 
thereon a merrymaking all the day, so they may for the cold, 
with many sorts of pastime, as singing, leaping, dancing, odd or 
even, and other pranks. About the time of vespers they set the 
wheel afire, and let it run into the vale at full speed, which to look 
upon is like as the sun were running from the sky/ iSuch a 

1 ' So the Lith. fcant'dus = Christmas, frciu kalada, a log.' — Suppl. 



628 ELEMENTS. 

'hoop-trundling ' on Shrove Tuesday is mentioned by Schrn. 1, 
544; the day is called funkentag (spunk.), in the Rheingau hall- 
feuer, in France ' la fete des brandons.' l It is likely that similar 
fires take place here and there in connexion with the vintage. 
In the Voigtland on Mayday eve, which would exactly agree with 
the bealteine, you may see fires on most of the hills, and children 
with blazing brooms (Jul. Schmidt's Reichenf. 118). Lastly, the 
Servians at Christmas time light a log of oak newly cut, badniah, 
and pour wine upon it. The cake they bake at such a fire and 
hand round (Vuk's Montenegro, 105) recalls the Gaelic practice 
(p. 613). The Slavs called the winter solstice koleda, Pol. 
koleda, Russ. koliada, answering to the Lat. calendae and the 
chalendes above ; 2 they had games and dances, but the burning 
of fires is not mentioned. In Lower Germany too kaland had 
become an expression for feast and revelry (we hear of kaland- 
gilden, kalandbriider), without limitation to Christmas time, or 
any question of fires accompanying it (see Suppl.). 

If in the Mid. Ages a confusion was made of the two Johns, 
the Baptist and the Evangelist, I should incline to connect with 
St. John's fire the custom of St. John's minne (p. 61), which by 
rights only concerns the beloved disciple. It is true, no fire 
is spoken of in connexion with it, but fires were an essential 
part of the old Norse minne-drinking, and I should think the 
Sueves with their barrel of ale (p. 56) burnt fires too. In the 
Saga Hakonar g6Sa, cap. 16, we are told: ' eldar scyldo vera a 
midjo golfi i hofino, oc ]?ar katlar yfir, oc scyldi full of eld bera,' 
should bear the cups round the fire. Very striking to my mind 
is the ' dricka eldborgs skill ' still practised in a part of Sweden 
and Norway (Sup. K, 122-3). At Candlemas two tall caudles 
are set, each member of the household in turn sits down between 
them, takes a drink out of a wooden beaker, then throws the 
vessel backwards over his head. If it fall bottom upwards, the 
thrower will die; if upright, he remains alive. 3 Early in the 
morning the goodwife has been up making her fire and baking ; 
she now assembles her servants in a half-circle before the oven 

1 Sup. K, 16. Mem. des antiquaires 1, 236. 4, 371. 

2 Other derivations have been attempted, Hanusch 192-3. [See note, p. 627, 
on Lith. kalledos.'] 

3 A similar throwing backwards of an emptied glass on other occasions, Sup. I, 

514. 707. 



OYEN. BONFIRE. 629 

door, they all bend the knee, take one bite of cake, and drink 
eldborgssk&l (the fire's health) ; what is left of cake or drink is 
cast into the flame. An unmistakeable vestige of heathen fire- 
worship, shifted to the christian feast of candle-consecration as 
the one that furnished the nearest parallel to it. 

Our of en, MHG. oven, OHG. ovan, ON. on represents the Goth. 
auhns, 0. Swed. omn, ofn, ogn, Svved. ugn, Dan. on ; they all 
mean fornax, i.e. the receptacle in which, fire is inclosed (conf. 
focus, fuoco, feu), but originally it was the name of the fire itself, 
Slav, or/an, ogen, ogn, Boh. ohen, Lith. ugnis, Lett, ugguns, Lat. 
ignis, Sanskr. Agni the god of fire. Just as the Swedish servants 
kneel down before the ugns-hol, our German marchen and sagen 
have retained the feature of kneeling before the oven and praying 
to it; the unfortunate, the persecuted, resort to the oven, and 
hewail their woe, they reveal to it some secret which they dare not 
confide to the world. 1 What would otherwise appear childish is 
explained : they are forms and formulas left from the primitive 
fire-worship, and no longer understood. In the same way people 
complain and confess to mother earth, to a stone, a plant, an oak, 
or to the reed (Morolt 1438). This personification of the oven 
hangs together with Mid. Age notions about orcus and hell as 
places of fire. Conf. Erebi fornax (Walthar. 867), and what was 
said above, p. 256, on Fornax. 

The luminous element permitted a feast to be prolonged into 
the night, and fires have always been a vehicle for testifying 
joy. When the worship had passed over into mere joy-fires, ignis 
jocnnditatis, feux de joie, Engl, bon-fires, these could, without 
any reference to the service of a deity, be employed on other 
occasions, especially the entry of a king or conqueror. Thus 
they made a torch-waggon follow the king, which was afterwards 
set on fire, like the plough and wheels at the feast of St. John 



1 Haus und kinderm. 2, 20. 3, 221. Deutsche sagen no. 513. A children's 
game has the rhyme : ' Dear good oven, I pray to thee. As thou hast a wife, send a 
husband to me !' In the comedy 'Life and death of honest Madam Slut (Schlam- 
pampe),' Leipz. 1696 and 1750, act 3, sc. 8: ' Come, let us go and kneel to the out u. 
maybe the gods -will hear our prayer.' In 1558 one who had been robbed, but had 
sworn Becrecy, told his story to the Dutch-tile oven at the inn. Eommell's Hess, 
gesch. 4, note p. 420. Joh.' MuhYr's Hist. Suit/.. 2, 92 (a.d. 1333). ' Nota est in 
eligiis Tibulli Januae personificatio, cui amantes dolores suos narrant, quaru orant, 
quam increpant ; erat enim daemoniaca quaedam vis januarum ex opinione veterum,' 
Dissen's Tib. 1, clxxix. Conf. Hartung's Eel. der Eom. 2, 218 seq. 



630 ELEMENTS. 

(RA. 265). ' Faculis et faustis acclaniationibus, ut prioribus 
regibus assueverant, obviam ei (non) procedebant/ Lamb, schafn. 
ad an. 1077. Of what we now call illumination, the lighting up 
of streets and avenues, there are probably older instances than 
those I am able to quote : l von kleinen kerzen nianec schoup 
geleit uf olboume loup/ of little tapers many a cluster ranged in 
olive bower, Parz. 82, 25. Detmar (ed. Grautoff 1, 301) on the 
Emp. Charles I Ws entry into Lubeck : ' des nachtes weren die 
luchten bernde ut alien husen, unde was so licht in der nacht als 
in dem dage/ The church also escorted with torchlight pro- 
cessions : ' cui (abbati) intranti per noctis tenebras adhibent faces 
et lampadas/ Chapeaville 2, 532 (12th cent.). ' Hirimannus dux 
susceptus est ab archiepiscopo manuque deducitur ad ecclesiam 
accensis luminaribus, cunctisque souantibus campanis/ Dietm. 
merseb. 2, 18. f Taceo coronas tarn luminoso fulgore a lumiuaribus 
pendentes/ Vita Joh. gorziens. (bef. 984) in Mabillon's Acta 
Ben., sec. 5, p. 395 (see Suppl.). 

3. Air. 
The notions ' air, wind, weather/ touch one another, and their 
names often do the same. 1 Like water, like fire, they are all 
regarded as a being that moves and lives : we saw how the words 
animus, spiritus, geld (pp. 439. 461) come to be used of genii, 
and the Slav, clukh is alike breath, breathing, and spirit. 
Wuotan himself we found to be the all-pervading (p. 133) ; like 
Vishnu, he is the fine gether that fills the universe. But lesser 
spirits belong to this element too: Gustr, Zephyr, B laser (p. 461), 
Blaster, Wind-and-weather (p. 548), proper names of dwarfs, 
elves, giants. In the Lithuanian legend the two giants Wandu 
(water) and Weyas (wind) act together (p. 579). To the OHG. 
wetar, OS. wedar, AS. iveder (tempestas) corresponds the Slav. 
veter, vietar (ventus, aer) : and to Goth, vinds, OHG. ivint, the 
Lat. ventus. The various names given to wind in the Alvismal 
(Seem. 50 a ) are easily explained by its properties of blowing, 
blustering and so forth : oepir (weeper) ejulans, the wailing, 
conf. OS. wop (whoop), OHG. wuof ejulatus ; gneggio&r (neigher) 
strepens, quasi hinniens ; dynfari cum sonitu iens. 

1 Our luft I include under the root liuban, no. 530, whose primary meaning 
is still obscure ; conf. kliuban kluft, skiuban skuft. 



AIR. THE WINDS. 631 

Thus personification already peeps out in mere appellatives; 
in the mythic embodiments themselves it is displayed in the most 
various ways. 

Woodcuts and plates (in the Sachsenspiegel) usually represent 
the wiuds, half symbolically, as blowing faces, or heath, probably 
a fancy of very early date, and reminding us of the blowing John's- 
head that whirls Herodias about in the void expanse of heaven 
(p. 285). The winds of the four cardinal points are imagined as 
four dwarf 8 : 'undir hvert horn (each corner) settu ]>eir dverg', 
Sn. (p. 461) l ; but by the Greeks as giants and brethren : 
Zephyrus, Hesperus, Boreas, Not us (Hes. Theog. 371), aud 
Boreas's sons Zetes and Kala'is are also ivinged winds (Apollon. 
Argon. 1, 219). Aeolus (atoA,o? nimble, changeful, many-hued), 
at first a hero and king, was promoted to be governor and guider 
of wiuds (rafjiiv'i ave^iwv, p. 93). In Russia popular ti-adition 
makes the four winds sons of one mother? the O. Russ. lay of Igor 
addresses the wind as ' lord/ and the winds are called Stribogh's 
grandsons? his divine nature being indicated by the ' bogh' in 
his name. So in fairy-tales, and by Eastern poets, the wind is 
introduced talking and acting: 'the wind, the heavenly child!'* 

In the ON. genealogy, Forniotr, the divine progenitor of giants 
(p. 240), is made father of Kdri (stridens) ' who rules over the 
winds;* Kari begets Iokul (glacies), and Iokul /Sneer (nix), the 
king whose children are a son Thorri and three daughters Fonn, 
Drifa, Mioll, all personified nam